exact same thing

Looks Like Bipartisanship Is Over

Faced with an unprecedented level of obstruction in the Senate, the President announced his intention to recess appoint fifteen nominees to fill critical administration posts. While the President respects the critical role the Senate plays in the appointment process, he was no longer willing to let another month go by with key economic positions unfilled, especially at a time when our country is recovering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Many of these fifteen individuals have enjoyed broad bipartisan support, but have found their confirmation votes delayed for reasons that have nothing to do with their qualifications. It has more to do with an obstruction-at-all-costs mentality that we’ve been faced with since the President came into office. Because of political posturing, these fifteen appointees have waited an average of 214 days for Senate confirmation.

And I guarantee there will be wingnuts this week calling this unconstitutional, despite Bush doing the exact same thing and the Constitution allowing it.

Politics

Crazy Bachmann At It Again

Michele Bachmann is telling people to break the law and calling for civil disobedience:

At a rally at the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday, Bachmann declared illegitimate the potential route that House Democrats could take to pass the health care bill. She was specifically railing against a parliamentary tactic by which the House could skip voting on the Senate bill by declaring it passed as part of the reconciliation bill. Bachmann pronounced this to be taxation without representation. "They have just started a revolution -- and they did it," said Bachmann.

"But mark my words, the American people aren't gonna take this lying down," Bachmann later said. "We aren't gonna play their game, we're not gonna pay their taxes. They want us to pay for this? Because we don't have to. We don't have to. We don't have to follow a bill that isn't law. That's not the American way, and that's not what we're going to do."

Not the American way? Where were her complaints when the Republicans did the exact same thing?

– The 2001 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 1836, 3/26/01]
– The 2003 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 2, 3/23/03]
– Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 [HR 4297,5/11/06]
– The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 [H. Con Res. 95, 12/21/05]

(By tlw3 via Alan.com)

Bachmann never once called those pieces of legislation illegal or un-American, despite the very same rule being used to pass them. As matter of fact those are the very issues that Republicans, like Bachmann, love campaigning on. They consider it huge victories for their party.

Jeb Bush: GOP Is “Old White Guy Party”

Wow what an interesting statement. I wonder if the right will treat him the same as they did Howard Dean when he said the exact same thing in 2005?

Cheney Accuses Obama Of ‘Dithering’

OK this is beyond priceless:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday night accused the White House of dithering over the strategy for the war in Afghanistan and urged President Barack Obama to "do what it takes to win."

"Make no mistake. Signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries," Cheney said while accepting an award from a conservative national security group, the Center for Security Policy.

And how long did Bush “dither” when it came to Iraq? Which administration pulled Afghanistan from the brink of victory and plunged us back to a situation worse than when the war first started?

Those are serious questions that have very serious, yet obvious answers. There is even a more important question though – why is Cheney out there saying this? Doesn’t he know that this destroys the morale of our troops and becomes propaganda for our enemies? I mean if this was pre-Obama that’s exactly what Cheney would be saying if someone on the left said this exact same thing. As matter of fact that’s exactly what they did numerous times.

So the final question – why does Dick Cheney hate America and our troops?

What if….

Our nation received the following letter:

Dear America;

Your nations highways are a disgrace. Your bridges collapse anytime a car drives over them, and your roads are the equivalent to driving down railroad tracks.

It’s truly amazing that you still have a population at all, let alone an auto industry. Perhaps you should look into a horse and buggy industry, since that is the only thing your highways are worthy of carrying.

We hear the horror stories of how cars have to cross your bridges one at a time, creating such long waits in the commute. We can only prey that those vehicles waiting are not fire engines or ambulances.

We blame this all on your socialized approach to highways, through your socialistic Department of Transportation. Haven’t you learned better that government can’t handle such things?

Signed,
Canada, the U.K. and all the other countries with universal health care programs.

Sounds pretty insulting, yet its the exact same thing Repubicans and their talking heads are doing to countries like Canada and the U.K. when they sit there and lie and insult their healthcare programs. I just wonder what this could end up doing to our foreign relations with these countries?

Why Republicans Can’t Lead #100,291

From The Nation:

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse -- with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.

And where are we now? 103 dead in Mexico, and 20 cases popping up almost instantly in the U.S. The entire world is on edge worrying about a global pandemic, and if that comes to fruition, then it will become a massive hit on the already teetering economy.

But stories like this should come as no shock. We saw the exact same thing when Katrina hit. The Republicans believe that the public should be prepared, but the government doesn’t have to do anything. Just like when they said “it was the people’s fault for staying in Louisiana”, and wouldn’t cast any blame on a government that couldn’t be bothered to leave their vacation.

"Not The John McCain Of 2000"

John McCain has received a damming indictment from a predominant Evangelical leader:

Richard Cizik is one of the country’s most powerful and outspoken Christian evangelical leaders. He happens to be a Republican, and he has known the GOP’s presidential nominee for many years. “I thought John McCain was a principled person,” Cizik says. “But John McCain has backed off, not just on climate change but on torture and a sensible tax policy — in other words, he’s not the John McCain of 2000. … He seems to be waffling on issue after issue.

It’s not illogical for someone to conclude that John McCain is going to be more like George Bush than John McCain is going to be like John McCain in 2000.”

I have a sneaking suspicion that other religious leaders are feeling the exact same thing. Hopefully they will speak up about it in the coming weeks and that will sedate the Republican base.

Of course I don't like religious leaders sticking their noses into our political debate - the United States was created to avoid such invasions, but since the GOP loves using them so much to their advantage, it's nice to see some come out and speak what they truly feel in order to thwart disaster. I just wonder how long before the wingnuts start crying about separation of church and state if this become a larger pattern.

Liberal Bloggers More Reliable Than The Washington Times?

It appears that way. On Tuesday I blogged about the Pelosi plane controversy started by the Washington Times. Josh Marshal was all over this story and said that it was not Pelosi wanting this plane, but rather the military. You can read that full posting here.

Well Pelosi just held a press conference and said the exact same thing that Josh was reporting. I know - people will say "sounds like some Liberal excuse". Well if it is then explain why Tony Snow also just defended Pelosi by saying the same thing?

This is nothing but another debunked right-wing conspiracy theory. Hopefully larger news outlets like CNN will learn to check sources before quoting such an unreliable source. It sure seems like the Liberal blogs are much better at reliable information.

No Immunity For Ashcroft

Untitled document

While the Republicans worked hard yesterday to protect Bush and his administration from political prosecution for war crimes, a judge ruled that former administration officials don't have immunity.

A federal judge in Idaho has ruled that former attorney general John D. Ashcroft can be held personally responsible for the wrongful detention of a U.S. citizen arrested as a "material witness" in a terrorism case.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge, in a ruling issued late Wednesday, dismissed claims by the Justice Department that Ashcroft and other officials should be granted immunity from claims by a former star college football player arrested at Dulles International Airport in 2003.

Attorneys for the plaintiff in the civil suit, Abdullah al-Kidd, said the decision raises the possibility that Ashcroft could be forced to testify or turn over records about the government's use of the material witness law, a cornerstone of its controversial legal strategy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

This should be a warning for all current administration officials. You may feel protected right now, but as soon as your gone then there are no-holds barred. This is the exact same thing that legal scholars warned about with the NSA wiretapping program. Immunity is not a right and you can very well find yourself in the hot seat at the end of the day.

Something I Noticed Today

I was flipping through the channels, when I came across FOX news. They were talking about Chavez' comments to the U.N. today, but that wasn't the biggie. The highlight was when they said he was heading to Harlem tomorrow to talk about poverty. The reporters on FOX of course blasted him because "he doesn't address poverty in his own country". Yeah - and we do? Poverty under Bush has gone up constantly.

After the talk about Chavez, then moved to Iran. They just had a reporter come back and she was talking about the "serious" people, who are students there. These people question the legality of the last presidential election in Iraq and question their president's decisions. FOX was holding these people up as patriotic heros. Why is it that the people who do the exact same thing in this country are terrorist lovers then?

It was one of those things I wish I would have recorded to post, but I didn't. Besides - it is pretty redundant. We all know FOX likes to twist whatever they can in order to make Bush look like a saint.

Bush Failing On Intelligence

Whenever someone brings up the intelligence failures that lead to 9/11, they always point the finger at "intelligence sharing". The administration has done the exact same thing. Now Bush has had the tools to correct those problems, yet he has failed to implement them:

A House subcommittee has concluded that the Bush administration has been slow to implement major changes in information sharing and other key provisions of the 2004 law that overhauled the U.S. intelligence community.

The Intelligence panel’s report, which is scheduled to be officially released Thursday, found that the administration has failed to revamp its approach to information analysis, neglecting large swaths of potentially useful data. The report also found that the new Office of the Director of National Intelligence has done a poor job of prioritizing key tasks.

Sources familiar with the contents of the report provided details of its findings late Wednesday, but requested anonymity because it had not yet been publicly released.

The report was produced by the House Intelligence Oversight Subcommittee, a panel that Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., formed after he became chairman of the overall Intelligence Committee in 2004. As its first job, the subcommittee reviewed how the 2004 intelligence overhaul (PL 108-458) was being implemented.

So when will Pat Roberts get around to releasing that report on the intelligence failures on the lead up to Iraq? It is only two years past due.

Hey Stupid - The Constitution Is Not An Addendum

Well imagine this, Bush says he is not "obligated" to follow the oversight provisions in the new Patriot Act:

When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.

The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates.

This is the exact same thing he did on the torture bill - he added an addendum saying he is not obligated to follow it. Amazing. How about an addendum stating you don't have to follow the constitution? That is basically what this is. Bush's actions are ones that any fourth grade social studies student would know is wrong. He is nothing short of being a dictator now.