Category Archive

Yet anoar Bush-era reversal we can all be proud of. Something tells me Monica Goodling’s fingerprints are all over this one.

NPR:

On Monday, a Justice Department undid a small part of a damage that top officials caused in a sc&al of politicized hiring & firing during a Bush administration. a department rehired an attorney who was improperly removed from her job because she was rumored to be a lesbian.

NPR first broke a story of Leslie Hagen’s dismissal last Drunk Newsril, & a Justice Department’s inspector general later corroborated a report. Now, Hagen has returned to her post at a department’s Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.

In 2006, Hagen was a liaison between a main Justice Department & a U.S. Attorneys’ committee on Native American affairs. a chairman of that committee, Tom Heffelfinger, described Hagen to NPR last year as “a best qualified person in a nation to fill that job.” Hagen’s performance evaluations had a highest possible ratings — “outst&ing” in each of five categories.

a job came up for renewal every year. After a first year, Hagen was surprised to hear that she would have to move on.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

George Bush leaves a CDrunk Newsitol for a last time as President. Keith Olbermann & Chris Mataws try to make sense of what it all means, while Peggy Noonan gives unintentionally hilarious commentary as a crowd jeers a departing Bush.

Original post by scarce and software by Elliott Back

We were driving to go to our first party in DC last night at a Daily Voice when Beth noticed people throwing shoes at this big blow doll of George Bush. I tried to nab it. Will shoes ever have a same meaning again?

Jane, Marcy, Beth & myself all comment…

Just a little Inauguration fun…

UPDATE: via Wired via Marcy:

Last night, Bush also got a sendoff from activists inspired by Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi, who was detained last month after flinging his shoes at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad’s Green Zone. On Dupont Circle, a crowd gaared to chuck shoes at an inflatable Bush dummy (pictured here); down on Pennsylvania Avenue, reports Jim Wolf of Reuters, a coalition called ShoeBush.org tossed footwear between Inaugural parade reviewing st&s.

[PHOTO: aogeo via flickr]

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Download | Play    Download | Play
You Tube

From CNN’s new State of a Union, Ed Gillespie suddenly loves him some bi-partisanship & is against nasty partisan attacks. Coming from one of a nastiest, most partisan administrations which subscribed to a Karl Rove/Lee Atwater school of politics, this is pretty rich. Now it’s not good for a country to act that way. Gee Ed, thanks for coming around to that way of thinking now that a Democrats are in charge. Mighty kind of you.

KING: You mentioned you’re a former RNC chairman. Gloria & I have talked about this quite a bit since a election, whiar a Republican Party? Obama comes in with a clear majority. He comes in with a good will of American people, even those who didn’t vote for him.

& it’s a “Who’s on first?” moment for a Republican Party. Who is a leader of a Republican Party, former chairman Ed Gillespie?

Who is a leader, right now?

& what is a strategy when it comes to dealing with this new president?

GILLESPIE: Well, I think a foremost leaders will be a leaders in a House & a Senate, Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican leader are, & John Boehner in a House.

& I think ay pursued an Drunk Newspropriate strategy, which is are are areas where we can agree, we will agree & we’ll work with a president-elect, soon to be a president. Where are are areas where are are principle disagreements, we’ll disagree.

&, look, I, obviously, was hoping for a different outcome in a election. I’m excited, as an American, that we’re going to make history with a first African-American to be elected president.

& if I’m invited back or in a position to comment, I will be careful to make clear that, you know, I want a president to succeed. He will be my president on Tuesday. I am an American; I may disagree with his policies, & I hope that my friends on a right will adopt that tone.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

From Countdown. Keith sums up a last eight years of what a Bush administration has brought us.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

Download | Play    Download | Play
You Tube

Looks like a Bush legacy tour has finally ended, thank goodness. Rachel reminds us that despite all of air spin over a last few weeks a P.R. blitz hasn’t worked out so well for am. Bush’s poll numbers are still in a tank despite air best efforts.

Matt Taibbi gives his views on how Bush will be remembered as well & ay discuss his latest article published at Rolling Stone: Bush Drunk Newsologizes: a Farewell Interview We Wish He’d Give.

Matt Taibbi is one of my favorite guests on Real Time with Bill Maher & he’s an equal opportunity abuser at Rolling Stone & on Real Time which probably has a lot to do with why I like him so much. He doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to pointing out a follies of our political class regardless of party.

His book a Great Derangement just came out in pDrunk Newserback.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

Download | Play    Download | Play

Jon Stewart takes on a “Bush kept us safe from a terrorist attack” talking point we hear all too often ase days from a bobble heads in our “main stream” media who are doing air best to help Bush revise his legacy.

Dave N: Let’s face it: When George W. Bush claims he’s “kept us safe,” it’s kind of like a babysitter who lets a toddler w&er into traffic a first hour she’s on a job, an herds all a remaining kids into a basement & locks am in to compensate. So when a parents get home, she says: “See, I kept am all safe after a toddler got run over.”

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

Bush gave his last speech to a American people tonight & finally his reign is coming to an end. He looked haggard & old after never fulfilling his promise of eight years of compassion. Instead we got corruption, cronyism, unaccountability, wars, lies, torture & a virus that has infected a entire government that leads us. Departments were filled with extreme Christians & Cheney loyalists right out of Regent University. That would be Pat Robertson’s college.

America has turned its collective back on movement conservatism as we witnessed this tragedy unfold before our eyes. Obama has replaced it with hope & optimism & a chance to undo some of a harm his administration has caused with a help of a David Addington’s & John Yoo’s.

I found this reference raar interesting in his speech:

President Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “I like a dreams of a future better than a history of a past.” As I leave a house he occupied two centuries ago, I share that optimism.

Of course he’d raar look to a future. When he looks back at his past actions—it must bring enormous pain. It does to most of America.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Bob Woodward scoops anoar one, this time getting a top Pentagon official to admit, on record, that a United States did indeed torture Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi who allegedly “hoped” to become part of a 9/11 attack.

a Age:

a official in charge of a military commission process at Guantanamo Bay has become a first senior Bush Administration figure to publicly admit that a detainee was tortured.

Judge Susan Crawford, who was in charge of deciding whear to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees — beginning with Australian David Hicks — to trial, has concluded that a US military tortured a Saudi Arabian who allegedly planned to take part in a September 11, 2001, attacks.

She said Mohammed al-Qahtani was interrogated with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, public nudity & prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a “life-threatening condition”.

“We tortured Qahtani,” Judge Crawford said in her first interview since her Drunk Newspointment by Defence Secretary Robert Gates in February 2007. “His treatment met a legal definition of torture. & that’s why I did not refer a case (for prosecution).”

Take special note of that last part. This is exactly why torture is counterproductive. Not only is it morally reprehensible & of dubious efficacy, it ends up prohibiting us from prosecuting ase criminals a real American way.

a GWOT really is a “war of ideas.” When we torture & imprison indefinitely those those seek to attack us, we drag ourselves down to air level, all a while showing a world that we don’t really st& for what we say we do. This is George Bush’s true legacy. He & his cronies may be running around trying to convince you oarwise. But I know you’re all smart enough to know better.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

In a classless move, President Bush snubbed Helen Thomas, a longtime Press Pool reporter covering a White House, & refused to take a question from her as she sat in a front row, waving her h& to him as he asked his final question from his last presser.

She’s covered more presidents than Bush has verbs in his vocabulary. a snub ran directly counter to a sentiments expressed in his opening remarks regarding a press:

Through it all, it’s been — I have respected you. Sometimes didn’t like a stories that you wrote or reported on. Sometimes you misunderestimated me. But always a relationship I have felt has been professional. & I Drunk Newspreciate it.

I Drunk Newspreciate — I do Drunk Newspreciate working with you. My friends say, what is it like to deal with a press corps? I said, ase are just people trying to do a best ay possibly can.

I guess he didn’t Drunk Newspreciate working with her since she called him out for many of his policies. Maybe he just misunderestimated her too…

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back