You would think he would get it after 7 years...

But no.
The Huffington Post points out that Bush can't always figure out how the American flag works.
I mean, it's pretty complicated. Almost like rocket science. Only without the rockets. Or the science. Mostly just with the observation skills...

What Happened to Bush?

I'm still at work, but I just wanted to ask a question to all of you: While we're paying attention to McCain, what are our President-for-another-seven-months and his cronies up to?

And why the hell hasn't he been impeached already?

Don't forget Afghanistan

This morning, I saw this sobering article on the New York Times website, about the ever rising death count in the war in Afghanistan (a lot of you probably did too because it was on the front page of the print version).
After this post last week, I ended with a dooms-day-esque downward spiral of possibilities in which Bush is able to resurrect his legacy and simultaneously change public opinion regarding McCain's thousand year war.

But, the liberal press is swooping in to save us from that fate.

The CNN article which inspired the original post only states that the tours of duty of men deployed to Iraq will be shortened. Bush makes no mention of those in Afghanistan whatsoever.
The NYTimes article, however, brings to the forefront the rising death toll in a war that is described as "forgotten" three separate times in the article (and a fourth in the accompanying video).
Even as Bush tries to make good press that things are "making progress" in Iraq, things are deteriorating in Afghanistan. And it looks like the NYTimes has written something of a call to arms, for the media to step up their coverage (" '...you never hear about Afghanistan.' "; "the public’s neglect of the war in Afghanistan"). Hopefully they will be able to meet this challenge.

Maybe if they do so, there will be fewer families ripped apart like those in the article. We can only hope.

YES YES YES

Under the strong leadership of God's President we've been safe for 7 years. But if we abandon God now, we could be hit again. Yes, we can vote for George W. Bush in 2008...

The important thing to understand about so-called "term limits" is that they are man's law, not God's Law. The God who parted the Red Sea is surely not worried about so-called "term limits"... Presidential term limits are not in the Bible...

Millions of partriotic (sic) Americans need to know that we can write in George Bush for president in 2008. Never underestimate the power of a bumper sticker to get the word out.

I love this country.

(Via.)

And the White House chef gives out juice boxes at snack time

El Presidente is heading down to Texas today in preparation for Jenna's wedding this Saturday. His spokesman says:

"He's looking forward to it," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters aboard the plane as it flew from rainy Washington to sunny Texas. "He's excited like any proud father is to see one of his daughters get married."

"I think he's also going to make sure he gets a good night's sleep tonight so he can stay up late the rest of the weekend and enjoy all the activities."

Which is especially important because the President has been pooped all week from running around with his little military friends trying to make Iraq collapse onto itself! The American people will definitely have to talk to the White House Press Secretary Chief Babysitter and make sure little Georgie is getting a good nap every day from now on.

Bush Flipping off America...

I have always wanted to give Bush the finger. But I never thought he would flip off America...

Not surprising given that supernatural intervention is about the only thing that could resurrect this administration

Courtesy of Dana Milbank: 34% of Americans believe in ghosts; 29% think George Bush is conducting the war in Iraq well.

I don't think even I can think of anything snarky to add to that.

Anarchy in the USA

Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols is 51, which is sort of depressing for those of us who still kind of like to pretend punk's not dead. But anyway, he did an interview with Spinner magazine and takes on American politics. He's actually super-optimistic, has given half his life savings to the Obama campaign and believes that America is at a crossroads and that the youth will rise up in protest again and lead us to peace and prosperity. haha, just kidding. We're right back to "no future".

My favorites: "There's a woman [Hillary] with a vendetta. She's got to get one back on manhood. Be very, very aware: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

"Dennis Kucinich...he ain't no sex god"

More excerpts:

Your opinion of British politics is literally on the record, but what's your take on the current American political scene?

Well, you're very aware that no matter what the entire country says, [George Bush is] the president and he will carry on business as usual, and nothing and no one can stop him. Are you not worried that this is setting a clear-cut example for the next f---er to get in to be 10 times worse than this? What is wrong with this system? I live here. I view myself as an American and it worries the f--- out of me. You're welcoming dictatorship with this ongoing process -- hello, there's the monarchy. We're right back to "no future."

I guess I was holding out hope ...

... that Hillary's going to save the day? No. There's a woman with a vendetta. She's got to get one back on manhood. Be very, very aware: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Obama's dense as a doorbell, not much going on up there, it's a wooden top. You need someone really, really on the money.

Who would that person be?

Unfortunately, the woman scorned [laughs]. These are tough choices, but it can't be a Republican. They destroyed any values that party ever had, and my way of looking at politics is this: Left, right, I want the best of all of it. And no one's going to affiliate me completely to one way or the other. I want what works.

Whoever comes next can't be worse than Bush.

You want to bet? World War I Germany thought that and it ended up in World War II with Hitler.

For me that points to Rudy Giuliani -- I'm not a fan of his at all.

No, that's a very bad piece of work. Very dangerous. Scary to high hell. You've got to stop them. You've got to. You look at Mitt Romney and you know that's corrupt from head to toe, that is everything wrong in a man, the vanity onwards. Who do I like? Who's the crazy one [laughs]? There are a couple of Democrats there that just speak it. [Dennis Kucinich] is hilarious, but he ain't no sex god. It's packaging, but I want to hear values, I want to hear true principles and I don't want to hear nonsense like, "When I get in, we'll be pulling out [of Iraq] straightaway." That's guaranteeing a bullet in the back of the head real quick. Don't do that. Sort it out or admit that was a failure, but don't ignore it, 'cause we've all got to carry on living in this world and this problem is only going to escalate. I want answers now. I want some serious thought in it.

Bush: Congress Has Right to End War

Check out this quote:

Asked at a recent news conference about congressional war powers, Bush seemed to suggest that while he disagrees with efforts to set a timetable for withdrawal, lawmakers are within their constitutional rights to do so. "The Congress is exercising its legitimate authority as it sees fit right now," Bush said. "I just disagree with their decision."

Note to conservative pundits: even Bush recognizes that Congress has the legitimate authority to end the war. Bush just disagrees about which Iraq policy is best. So, stop hiding your untenable war behind fantasy constitutional voodoo, and start discussing the actual issues facing our country and Iraq.

It occurs to me that we should thank George W. Bush--

--for conveniently laying out a road map of the way a Democratic government should operate. Think about it. Every single thing President Bush has done or tried to do, without exception, has failed. With every stroke of his pen he fucks our country up a tiny bit more. His brand of conservatism, be it neo- or theo- or "compassionate", has the same success rate as Charlie Brown's kite.

Hence, the solution for a Democratic government is fairly simple. With a big tip of the hat to George Constanza: whatever Bush would do, do the opposite! He cut taxes on the rich? Raise 'em. He tried to privatize Social Security? Increase entitlement funding. He started a stupid war? Stop a stupid war, preferably several. Keep that up for a few years and we're golden!

...I mention this, half-seriously, after seeing the immense reaction to the latest report from "Third Way," a bunch of phlegmatic 1992-vintage centrists who believe that Democrats will be forever doomed by the Demon Pessimism or something. It's a silly report from a silly think-tank, and it's really not worth our time -- which every blogger ever, of course, pointed out at length and in excruciating detail. (I love the Internet.) But the response that struck me most, aside from a gripping Kos diary on the middle-class squeeze, came from Whiskey Fire:

The wingnuts have had their fun, and they've dug us into a huge fucking hole. Our way is "up." The "Third Way" is what, sideways? We'd still be buried in shit.

Amen. Writer Thers links to Greg Anrig at TPMCafe, who makes the same argument more politely and intellectually. And it's quite true; the way our political climate stands right now, the kind of reflexive sunny moderation that brought Bill Clinton to power is not only anachronistic, it may well be counterproductive.

The utter and unmitigated failure of Bush Conservatism has left us with a great opportunity: to cast liberalism in stark relief as America's natural and functional governing philosophy. (Which, incidentally, it is.) And these "Third Way" types, for reasons that I do not fully understand or even slightly care about, seem content to waste the moment blithering about "optimism" and advocating watered-down swing-voter-chasing half-assed politics -- which in practice amounts to a grand kowtow to insane Republican ideologues. From our perspective it seems fairly obvious that this is not where we should be going.

What I fear is that our leaders and our presidential candidates, still inhaling Beltway exhaust fumes, do not understand this. It is all too easy to picture them falling back into that comfortable lobotomized triangulation that Grandmaster David Broder taught them. Certainly, Senator Clinton has the half-ass thing down, and my God, Senator Obama can blither with the best of them ("Hope!" "Children!" Always fucking Morning in America with this guy). Even John Edwards, suddenly the self-styled revolutionary leftist, shows hints of right-wing-talking-point infection. Gah.

There's time yet. But it's incumbent on the grassroots supporters -- by which I mean, you -- to remind this party and these candidates that we have our beliefs; that we do not take kindly to appeasers; and that when it comes down to it, we expect them to firmly say No Way to the Third Way.

I know how dumb that sounds. It is, in fact, an egregiously dumb phrase. But, these are people who take Joe Klein seriously. When in Rome...

This is John McCain's War Now

When 2008 rolls around, if John McCain is the Republican nominee for President and we are still in Iraq, remember that he was the one who first advocated we send more troops to Iraq as President Bush has unilaterally decided to do. Given that our troops are causing more unrest than they are quelling and that we do not have the capabilities to stop a civil war, more troops will only lead to more deaths.

Bush's escalation, and that is what it is because this will not be a temporary increase in troop levels, is only prolonging this disastrous adventure in Iraq. If John McCain wants to become President, make sure he does not forget that the blood of these 20,000 brave soldiers is on his hands.

But my legacy!

Southern Methodist University to George W. Bush: "Hellllllllll no, girl!"