Via Cheesedip and the Daily Show, President Dubya debates Governor Dubya on Iraq. Hmm…never thought I’d agree with Dubya on this issue, but there you have it. A must-watch.
Category: GOP
Francophobia.
Utilizing a technique he learned in his fratboy hazing days, Dubya decides to freeze France out for her opposition to the war in Iraq. Along the same lines, Bushies are now trying to deride Kerry by saying he looks French. (Why not tell the American people he’s got cooties, while you’re at it?) Yes, folks, these people run the country.
War on the Floor.
As the Republican rift over the Dubya tax cut widens, conservatives prepare to oust anti-cut GOP moderates like Olympia Snowe, John McCain, and Arlen Specter. As a result, Specter tries to shore up his freak-show-right creds by joining Majority Leader Bill Frist in defending Rick Santorum’s outbreak of gaybashing (calling Santorum a “voice for inclusion and compassion” is a bit much, isn’t it?). Snowe and Chafee, for their part, have condemned Santorum’s remarks (Via Medley.) While I’m all for the GOP imploding, isnt it about time for the Dems to pile on the heat? To paraphrase Carville, when your opponent is drowning, throw him an anvil.
Incommunicado.
Still enjoying their post-Iraq high, the Dubya White House decides they no longer have to answer questions from the press or anyone else. I’m reminded of the zinger posted here: “Ari Fleischer is the first press secretary in American History whose conferences result in a net loss of information.”
Patriot Games.
Among its many, many, MANY faults, apparently Patriot Act II also guts the Clean Air Act. Bizarre. In related news, Attorney-General Ashcroft finds an unlikely ally in NY Senator Chuck Schumer.
A New Enemy.
Toning down on the Syria talk, the Bushies instead decide to invoke their post-Iraq mojo to launch a sneak attack on the economy, vis a vis the now phased-in Dubya Dividend Debacle. It’s not conservative to give out tax handouts to the rich during a time of exploding deficits, y’all. It’s radical.
Cluster Bombs and Cakewalks.
Also via LinkMachineGo, Get your War On reports in on the fall of Baghdad. “So, what do you suppose Dick Cheney is thinking right now? ‘Thank God, my decades-long dream of liberating the Iraqi children has been realized! Now, to cure AIDS!’“
Mmmm, bacon.
Yum. Both the Dubya administration and the Senate bloat up the war bill with pork barrel spending. As John McCain put it, “I didn’t realize that Al Qaeda had reached all the way to the South Pole.” Speaking of wartime handouts, Dems Henry Waxman and John Dingell want further scrutiny into contracts given to Halliburton subsidiaries by the GAO. All I know is, if the Clinton administration were involved in this type of quid pro quo, Dan Burton would have had an investigation up and running weeks ago.
Now for ruin, and a red dawn.
It looks like the worst-case scenario outlined by Alternet yesterday is coming about sooner than expected. Senator Orrin Hatch leads a GOP charge to eliminate the sunset provisions in the Patriot Act, thus making permanent the sweeping antiterrorism provisions of the first bill and setting the stage for PATRIOT II. Let’s hope Hatch doesn’t have the votes.
Don’t suspect a friend – report him.
Wiretaps, deportations, DNA databases, secret arrests, you name it. Alternet summarizes the many dangerous implications of PATRIOT II, Attorney General Ashcroft’s upcoming salvo against American civil liberties. The Bushies are going to need another war to pass this one off on us. (Via Genehack, whom I’ve got my eye on…)