Archive for the ‘George W. Bush’ tag
Oakland protesters shut down port, clash with police, OWS marches to Goldman Sachs
Listen to the new episode of Citizen Radio and subscribe to the free podcast.
Oakland protesters shut down port, clash with police, while Occupy Wall Street demonstrators march to Goldman Sachs in order to confront former President George W. Bush. Also, Jamie discusses a story about two black men who were asked at a bar to give up their seats for white women.
This episode brought to you by WALBERRY sandwhiches: some cranberries mashed between two walnuts, invented by Jamie Kilstein.
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Murdoch has a sad, Reagan’s adviser admits Bush tax cuts didn’t work, Mannequin Bible
Listen to the new episode of Citizen Radio and subscribe to the free podcast.
Rupert Murdoch’s stunning death spiral continues (New allegations! Calls for investigations! Billions in tax refunds exposed!) Ronald Reagan’s former adviser admits the Bush tax cuts for millionaires didn’t work, Jamie tells a tale of the Mannequin Bible, dispatches from Australia, some mail, and an actually good post from the message board.
Jamie will be at the Steve Allen theatre July 18! Get tix here. Also, his episode of The Green Room airs on Showtime the first week of August. Check your local listings!
Citizen Radio is a member-supported show. Visit http://wearecitizenradio.com to sign up and support media that won’t lead you to war!
When MMA practitioner meets heckler, housing crisis now worse than Great Depression, Greece riots
Listen to the new Citizen Radio and subscribe to the free podcast.
Jamie recounts his show at the UCB, complete with an encounter with an extremely high heckler. Also, the US housing crisis is now worse than the Great Depression, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann both enjoy some awkward moments this week, respectively, and a CIA veteran comes forth to report the Bush administration targeted blogging critic Juan Cole.
The Chicago chapter of US Uncut asked for a special shout-out about their protest this Saturday.
Support US Uncut’s fundraising drive so they, along with The Yes Men, can go expose the evil deeds of tax-dodging corporations in the Cayman Islands!
Jamie will be in Pittsburgh at 222 Ornsby July 1st! Come out and say hello!
Citizen Radio is a member-supported show. Visit http://wearecitizenradio.com to sign up and support media that won’t lead you to war!
John Ashcroft working for Blackwater, dress your dog like a bloodthirsty douche
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Former Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft is working for Blackwater. Other Bush-era officials making the media rounds this week in a meager attempt to convince the world Dubya was right include Condi Rice, who calls Bush’s bullhorn moment at Ground Zero “probably the most important maybe in American history.”
Violence continues in Syria AKA The Place We Don’t Care About. Assad’s goons have arrested hundreds of dissidents and an Al Jazeera journalist has disappeared.
Also, now you can dress your dog like an asshole, too, with exciting “Osama’s dead” puppy t-shirts.
Bradley Manning’s living conditions have vastly improved now that he’s been transferred to Fort Leavenworth. You can write Bradley at the following address (send him words of support!)
Bradley Manning
89289JRCF830
Sabalu RoadFort
Leavenworth, KS 66027-2315
Allison continues to blog at The Nation. Share her articles on Facebook and Twitter! Latest post: Obama Administration Plans Corporate Tax Cut In Year Of Record Profits.
Identity correction: War criminal edition
Since The Crown Publishing Group has decided to make a profit from peddling the dictated soft serve half-thoughts of a war criminal, the least average Americans can do is relocate Dubya’s memoir to the correct genre.
Deficit hypocrites need not fear the media
The establishment media has, thus far, allowed the deficit hypocrites to screech about fiscal responsibility one moment, and then frantically work behind closed doors in the next to ensure the deficit continues to inflate. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and 31 House Democrats have all voiced their opposition to allowing the expiration of the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy. These representatives all claim to be fiscally conservative, yet they’re actually fighting to increase the deficit.
The Times continues the Iraq revision fun
Image via Wikipedia
I recently wrote about Thomas Friedman’s cute interpretation of the Iraq war. Basically, Dubya was right, and even though Saddam didn’t have any weapons, Iraqis got to vote in an election, so everything evens out. And even if one argues it doesn’t really “even out,” per se, that’s a matter for historians to settle, and anyone who says otherwise is a shrill, extremist liberal hippie.
Now, Ross Douthat is joining the revisionist action. Specifically, the new Matt Damon film, “Green Zone,” has given him a case of the vapors because the film casts the administrative actions of misusing and disregarding intelligence, which led the US into war, in a negative light.
Things are just more complex than all that. “The narrative of the Iraq invasion, properly told, resembles a story out of Shakespeare,” writes Douthat. But here, he appears to be conflating the complexity of the war’s players with the initial Grand Lie itself.
The revisionist history of the Iraq War (or how Dubya was right all along)
Image by geoftheref via Flickr
Former President George W. Bush’s gut instinct that this region craved and needed democracy was always right. It should have and could have been pursued with much better planning and execution. This war has been extraordinarily painful and costly. But democracy was never going to have a virgin birth in a place like Iraq, which has never known any such thing.
Some argue that nothing that happens in Iraq will ever justify the costs. Historians will sort that out. Personally, at this stage, I only care about one thing: that the outcome in Iraq be positive enough and forward-looking enough that those who have actually paid the price — in lost loved ones or injured bodies, in broken homes or broken lives, be they Iraqis or Americans or Brits — see Iraq evolve into something that will enable them to say that whatever the cost, it has given freedom and decent government to people who had none.
That’s Friedo explaining how the facts don’t matter (let’s let historians sort out that boring stuff,) and Dubya was right all along.
I mean, sure, the original justification for invading Iraq was that Saddam had WMDs (even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, all The Smart People knew those brown baddies are similar enough to warrant destruction,) and it was only when it became clear that Iraq didn’t have WMDs that the mission shifted to Importing Democracy, but that’s besides the point.
Abstinence study stimulates anti-sex ed activists
Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife
A new study published by the Archives Of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine concludes that an abstinence-only approach to sex education works.
Actually, the study proves an abstinence-only approach to sex may have worked for a very small sample — 662 Philadelphia students, to be exact. …And, of course, the kids had to self-report if they were having sex…to adults…which is super embarrassing and scary.
…Aaannd 33 percent of the kids still ended up being sexually active (hopefully they used condoms).
Oh! And the program also avoided the crazy extremes of other abstinence-only classes by not advocating abstinence until marriage, but instead until students were “more mature.”
John Yoo: No regrets
Image via Wikipedia
This week, John Yoo, Bush’s chief legal torture architect, got to plug his book in NY Times Magazine.
Side-note: Interviewer Deborah Solomon drilled Yoo with exactly as much “no guff” gusto as she offered Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane in a legendarily uncomfortable interview. (Solomon may hate torture, but she hates Family Guy more.)
But back to Yoo. If you can make it through the page-long interview without vomiting from fury-rage, here are some of the gems you shall encounter:
Q: Which president would you say most violated laws enacted by Congress?
A: I would say Lincoln
You know, I was just thinking that. For a second, I thought it was the president, who along with his evil henchman lawyer, allowed torture, the warrantless wiretapping of US civilians, and argued the President has inherent authority to subordinate independent government agencies, plenary power to use force abroad, and the sole authority to interpret international treaties such as the Geneva Conventions. But then I remembered it was Lincoln. That bearded son of a bitch!
