VIDEO: The State of Presidential Credibility
VIDEO: The State of Presidential Credibility
On January 31, President Bush will deliver his fifth State of the Union Address since becoming President. A review of his previous State of the Union addresses demonstrates that Bush often includes lofty, promising rhetoric but falls short on his pledges.
For example, this year, according to news reports, President Bush will “will attempt to shift focus from the polarizing war in Iraq to a more popular domestic priority: taming health care costs.” But President Bush has pledged to tame health care costs in all his previous SOTUs. Meanwhile, the cost of health care continues to skyrocket.
We’ve documented this pattern in a video. Watch it:
We’ve also created a comprehensive document that catalogues the distortions, misrepresentations and broken promises in Bush’s four previous SOTUs. Download it here.
UPDATE: Our video got a mention in the Associated Press write-up of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s speech today:
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called on President Bush Tuesday to “come clean” in next week’s State of the Union speech and acknowledge “the costs of Republican corruption.”
“In his 2000 campaign, George Bush promised to bring ‘dignity’ to the White House but we’ve since found that he brought Jack Abramoff instead,” Reid, D-Nev., said at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, in remarks previewing Democratic criticism of the presidential speech. …
The 15-minute speech was prefaced by a video reel showing Bush clips from past speeches followed by quotes meant to show his failure to deliver. Reid said the video showed the president “has been giving us doublespeak for years.”
Topic Cloud
Does this count?
a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so.
-Bush
January 24th, 2006 at 2:23 pmThat is a great document. I can’t wait to read it all. Keep up the good work Judd and gang.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:27 pmPresidential Credibility?
January 24th, 2006 at 2:28 pmNot something that we’ll be experiencing during junior’s installation.
Also, Reid has done a similar thing. Check out the story.
http://www.sfgate.com/ cgi-bin/ article.cgi?f=/ n/ a/ 2006/ 01/ 24/ national/ w110250S40.DTL
January 24th, 2006 at 2:33 pmPresident George W. Bush has ZERO credibility, so nobody in Congress should believe anything he says! His State of the Union address will be filled with lies, falsehoods and bullcrap! Every Democrat must walk-out during his speech!
January 24th, 2006 at 2:35 pm#1 - How dare you use the President’s own words against him?!?!?
I guess he’ll have to label you an “enemy combatant” and you’ll get a first-class ticket to one of those ‘torture camps’ that we are not running in other nations.
When you compare the flip-flops of this administration and this President to all previous administrations and presidents, you quickly see how much the definition ‘flip-flopper in chief’ is applicable to Pres. Bush.
The elected Republicans, and especially Pres. Bush, don’t even have a clue as to what the word ‘credible’ means.
Pres. Bush: “Isn’t that the second part of the word ‘incredible’??? He, he! You’re doing a heckofaspinjob Turdblossom!”
January 24th, 2006 at 2:38 pmThank you Judd, Downloaded the PDF. To me the scarey thing is the fact that all the “accomplishments” these anal retentives have listed are not being thrown back at them in huge, bloody gibbots of their rhetoric. There are innumerable lies, wrongs, falshoods, thievery, ethical violations to point to and make comments about to heep them out of office for the next five decades, if we would only use them and keep using them until they are forced to abandon this lemming migration into oblivion..
January 24th, 2006 at 2:40 pmWALK OUT on Bu$h State of the Union Speech
Image You Can Copy to PASS IT ON at
http://www.RogerART.com
LET”S ALL WALK OUT…
In Our Neighborhoods…
AND MAKE A SPLASH/
A BIG 2 Do…
U Know, 4 the Kids of Tomorrow
Thank U, See U There, Roger
January 24th, 2006 at 2:42 pm.
Heckof a job TP.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:44 pmExcellent piece folks. I don’t tip my hat often enough to your great work, so please accept my thanks.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:45 pmWhich reminds me… how’s that mission to Mars going?
January 24th, 2006 at 2:50 pmI had to let 4 people go today because of gas prices. And my company makes it’s money off federal contracts. Our salary people will be working more hours to compensate. Including me.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:50 pmDo you think Bush will address this paradox in the State of the Union?
On the “double speak” issue. I can’t emphasize this enough. Libs and progs have to STOP being sound boards for this duplicity on Fox programs. If the Neocons don’t have anyone to bounce these ridiculous phrases off of they would have less impact. Far less impact.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:55 pmIf I see any Dems standing up and cheering GWB during the speech, I’m going to shoot my TV.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:56 pmExcellent job TP! Now if Soros would just get you guys your own network. Hell, if 60 million people voted against Bush, then just half - 30 million in viewership would still out perform FAUX ‘news’ even on an Ann Coulter PMSing, O’Reilly spinning, “near hijacking” kind of day.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:56 pmSympathies Gus… I’m sure it was a tough day for you. And unfortunately, Peeping Georgie does not care.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:57 pmIf I see any Dems standing up and cheering GWB during the speech, I’m going to shoot my TV.
Comment by Zookeeper — January 24, 2006 @ 2:56 pm
Funny… But I hope you don’t live in California. A guy was jailed for life a couple years ago when he shot his television. As it was the third time he shot it, it was his third strike. Seriously…
January 24th, 2006 at 3:00 pm[…] Think Progress has video of the speech, as well as a video that was played before the speech highlighting that the president ‘has been giving us doublespeak for years.’ […]
January 24th, 2006 at 3:07 pmIf any Democrat even applauds during the speech, I will go to my window and scream, “I’m mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!”
January 24th, 2006 at 3:08 pmJudd et al, great job with the video. We need to see more of these, especially since the AP seems to like them.
The site is getting alot better and the forums are getting more or less civilized. Congrats to you all and I look forward to the coverage of SOTU.
BTW, will you have the video of Reid’s speach today?
January 24th, 2006 at 3:14 pm“Now if Soros would just get you guys your own network.”
More expensive than the blog world - and blogs have a lovely viral quality.
I think Soros has identified (he used a bunch of consultants on how to spend his money) that those of us who are more partisan/engaged find the interactiveness and such of blogs more interesting than TV - I watch none at all actually.
However, I would like some sort of ‘reality meets news’ type network. As in, actually showing clips from Iraq and covering the stories for more than one day (e.g. the missle that took down the cobra today). You can see it on ogrish.com
Anyway, good all around.
January 24th, 2006 at 3:18 pmHmmmm,
Too bad the admin counts on most folks being uninformed and uninterested. Which seems to be the case. Maybe gas will have to be 5 bucks a gallon before people get involved.
January 24th, 2006 at 3:20 pmwow, TP goes bigtime!
January 24th, 2006 at 3:24 pmWhat an important story.
I think everyone forgets everytime Bush gets up to speak that he promised the same crap last time, and then went back to pulling weeds on his ranch.
Good story TP.
January 24th, 2006 at 3:33 pmhttp://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012206A.shtml
January 24th, 2006 at 3:46 pm“In his 2000 campaign, George Bush promised to bring ‘dignity’ to the White House but we’ve since found that he brought Jack Abramoff instead,â€
Too long for a bumper sticker, but damn that is a great quote.
Anyone have a link for the rules to this years SOTU drinking game?
January 24th, 2006 at 3:54 pmIf I see any Dems standing up and cheering GWB during the speech, I’m going to shoot my TV.
Does Joementum count?
January 24th, 2006 at 3:54 pm“A review of his previous State of the Union addresses demonstrates that Bush often includes lofty, promising rhetoric but falls short on his pledges.”
A review also demonstrates that the man is an intellectual zero and can’t even put a sentence together - even when it’s written for him.
January 24th, 2006 at 4:08 pmMight he grace us with more Bushisms such as this classic?
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
5 August 2004
January 24th, 2006 at 4:48 pmHowever, I would like some sort of ‘reality meets news’ type network. As in, actually showing clips from Iraq and covering the stories for more than one day (e.g. the missle that took down the cobra today). You can see it on ogrish.com
Comment by James — January 24, 2006 @ 3:18 pm
This was more my intention - to have something accessable to those who are not as politically active as we are, spend 3 to 6 hours a day watching television - including cable news. The intent would be to capture those who are willing to think, but just don’t yet know where to find the fuel to start the engine.
Other than The Daily Show reruns, House and the occasional Discovery Channel or Animal Planet educational broadcast, I too avoid the boob tube. Too much television can be self-destructive.
January 24th, 2006 at 4:55 pmMy response to the empty rhetoric in Bush’s SOTU is STFU.
January 24th, 2006 at 5:02 pmOrwellia Here we come..
Unfathomed Dangers in Patriot Act Reauthorization
Patriot Police
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
A provision in the “Patriot Act” creates a new federal police force with power to violate the Bill of Rights. You might think that this cannot be true as you have not read about it in newspapers or heard it discussed by talking heads on TV.
Go to House Report 109-333 -USA PATRIOT IMPROVEMENT AND REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005 and check it out for yourself. Sec. 605 reads:
“There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the ‘United States Secret Service Uniformed Division’.”
This new federal police force is “subject to the supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security.”
The new police are empowered to “make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony.”
January 24th, 2006 at 5:33 pmSo — is this going to air on national TV? And if not, why not?
January 24th, 2006 at 5:42 pmThe new police are empowered to “make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony.â€
Comment by mr ho — January 24, 2006 @ 5:33 pm
Not only do we need a Think Progress Network, but we need journalists like mr ho…
I think deep down we all knew the police state would be around the corner… seems it is no longer possible to deny. This is sickening. How a power hungry few can fatalistically slay a great democracy in the matter of five years.
At the hands of these self-righteous gluttons we already have more people in prison that the rest of the world combined. And it’s not that we are significantly more corrupt as a culture… It’s just another fear-mongering tactic to keep Big Brother Bush and Dick-tator Cheney in their illusionary cocoon of domination and grandeur.
January 24th, 2006 at 6:12 pmDoes this mean that Bushiva may lie AGAIN!
Then why the hell do we even bother to watch that sh*t?
January 24th, 2006 at 6:22 pm#17 - Still working on my first strike. Used to live in the lovely Bay Area, but now am in Idaho.
$27 - I’ll make an exception for Joe, he’s just playing dress-up anyway.
January 24th, 2006 at 6:24 pmGood work guys & gals.
January 24th, 2006 at 6:50 pmGreat posts everyone. Thank you Mr. Ho for that new info. I may not watch S*** Bird Bush. My blood pressures up again and my neighbors are tired of hearing me yell at the tube every time a radical right winger starts spewing their usual crap….Blessings
January 24th, 2006 at 7:02 pmHomeland Security memo sent to Brokeback Bushiva hours before Katrina hit, warning the WH (BBBushiva) of the serious damage Katrina would cause…
After Katrina BBBushiva LIES, “No one could have predicted how much damage this storm was going to cause”…
Why is this amoral, pathologically mendacious, incompetent mofo STILL IN OFFICE?
Because stubborn, mindless, inbred Al Cracker and Al Cracker wannabes can’t admit they made a mistake voting for this Brokeback basta*d TWICE…
Fertilize ‘em…
January 24th, 2006 at 7:05 pm“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.â€
5 August 2004
Comment by unbelievable #29
LMAOROF….hahahahahahahahhahhhaaa!!!!!
Funny sh*t
January 24th, 2006 at 7:10 pmThe Secret Service Uniformed Division is not new. This seems to expand their jurisdiction or at least codify it in the Patriot Act. These people ran on a limited government platform? Minimal statists? Ha!
January 24th, 2006 at 7:10 pm#17 - Still working on my first strike. Used to live in the lovely Bay Area, but now am in Idaho.
Comment by Zookeeper — January 24, 2006 @ 6:24 pm
Hey, me too - used to live in San Francisco. And before that, interestingly enough, Boise. How’d you wind up in Idaho? Aside from the naivitee’ and gun-obesssion (two things that scare me when in the same sentance together) of most of the ‘natives’, I liked Idaho. Most of my friends there were from California, Canada or New Jersey, however. I thought it was beautiful, and laid back. I still have friends out there.
January 24th, 2006 at 7:17 pmThe new police are empowered to “make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony.â€
Actually, any LE officer can make an arrest without a warrant for any offense committed in his presence. Some, most, state laws require him to do so, so much for discretion, which is one thing many officers exercise since they can, whether we like it or not. Yanno, like… “I don’t want to fill out paperwork all night. I’m letting you off with a warning and smoking this dope myself. Beat it!” When you study Criminal Justice, you learn all about “discretion”.
January 24th, 2006 at 7:18 pmTwo things about the summary which overall is quite well done. First, you understate the budget deficits. There’s a difference between on-budget and off-budget. Principally this has to do with trust fund receipts such as Soc.Sec. and Medicare. On budget revenue is recognized only to the extent of expenditures.It doesn’t matter for Medicare since the payroll collections are less than the expenditures but it does matter for Soc.Sec. Tax collections far exceed the expenditures. For FY05,the CBO shows the on-budget deficits to be $504 billion and in FY04,$514 billion. Your figures are net of the trust fund offsets.
January 24th, 2006 at 7:18 pmSecond, the most recent Defense Authorization did contain the reimburesment provision although it was $1100 per family. I didn’t check the final version but the cost estimate was in the CBO analysis of the spending under the latest authorization.
Thanks.
my neighbors are tired of hearing me yell at the tube every time a radical right winger starts spewing their usual crap…
Comment by Sharon Cox — January 24, 2006 @ 7:02 pm
You too, eh? Glad it’s not just me… :)
January 24th, 2006 at 7:19 pmLMAOROF….hahahahahahahahhahhhaaa!!!!!
Funny sh*t
Comment by big papa — January 24, 2006 @ 7:10 pm
Yeah, I figure it’s either laugh, or cry… might as well laugh.
I was watching that particular speech (because he’s always giving amazing speeches for why he is dangerous, ‘evil’, and all the stuff he claims to be against), and when he said that I thought - don’t really smart people write this stuff for him? Guess a Harvard education just ain’t what it used to be…
January 24th, 2006 at 7:24 pmDiscretion with cops is pretty obvious. DAs have discretion and exercise it when they choose to prosecute or not. Judicial discretion has been whittled away and most judges don’t like it with sentencing guide lines. Most judges had lots of leeway, “discretion” with regards to sentencing that has been taken away. This is one reason why we have more people incarcerated than any other nation on the planet. The whole issue of the judge in Vermont that O’Reilly is flapping his ignorant gums about is a matter of judicial discretion. Conservatards hate it, until they come up for sentencing themselves, but they usually turn state’s evidence and cop a plea.
January 24th, 2006 at 7:24 pmMe three! I used to live in S.F.
January 24th, 2006 at 7:27 pmwhen he said that I thought - don’t really smart people write this stuff for him? Guess a Harvard education just ain’t what it used to be…
Comment by unbelievable #46
…must’ve been a teleprompter glitch…
…but he really is a dumb sombitch…
It was so refreshing watching a real academic and leader (Al gore) deliver a flawless, unaided, inspiring oration for a change…
…instead of that tobacco chewing, NASCAR, hayseed horsesh*t Brokeback Bushiva spits out…
January 24th, 2006 at 7:41 pmI’ll be skipping the SOTU - my doctor says I need to avoid stress. I last watched the 2003 SOTU and distinctly remember my radar going off when the Chimp threw out his ‘16 words’ - yellowcake etc.. The words were so carefully crafted, designed to say something and blame it on British intelligence (or Italian, I forget now). Although with the 2006 elections entirely dependent on whether Chimpy can put an ‘Iranian mullah under everyone’s bed’, I might have to risk bursting a blood vessel.
January 24th, 2006 at 7:46 pm#19 - Hardy,
January 24th, 2006 at 8:18 pmDo you have any roots in Heiligenloh, Ehrenburg, Hanover? I have an ancestor from there in the 13th century, last name, Habermann.
TTT,
January 24th, 2006 at 8:21 pmTake two aspirin and see me on Wednesday.
I meant 2/1/2006.
January 24th, 2006 at 8:24 pmBush is a proven pathological liar, so who cares what he says for his State of the Union address! Everything he plans to spew will be LIES! Anyone who believes a single thing he says is gullible, naive or stupid! Every intelligent Democrat must walk-out before he starts his speech! Lieberman will stay because he is really a brain dead Republican > lol.
January 24th, 2006 at 8:46 pmAbout time.
KUDOS!!
Reid fires back at Bush: ‘The president has been giving us doublespeak for years’
RAW STORY
Published: January 24, 2006
Print This | Email This
RAW STORY has learned that Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid is set to slash the Republican Party in a renewed assault — just a day after President Bush launched a national effort to defend his wiretap program as “terrorist surveillance.”
The speech, to be delivered shortly to the Center for American Progress, a liberal thinktank, follows.
#
I went to college in the 1960s and studied government. One of the things I remember discussing was a quote by Lord Acton:
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“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.â€
It’s been many years since I graduated college, but I finally understand what Lord Acton meant.
Republicans today control the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House. They have absolute power, and it has corrupted their Party and led to the culture of corruption that we see now in Washington.
We have the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, admonished three times for ethics violations and under indictment now for money laundering.
We have the White House, where an employee has been indicted for the first time in 135 years.
There’s Karl Rove, who is under investigation… and David Safavian, the man appointed by President Bush to be charge in charge of hundreds of billions of dollars in government contracts who was led away in handcuffs because of his dealings with Jack Abramoff and others.
And then, we have the Republican “K-Street Project, which has invited lobbyists inside our nation’s Capitol….as long as they are willing to pay the right price.
The Republican abuse of power comes at great cost to our country, and we can see it in the present state of our union. Special interests and the well-connected have grown stronger, while our national security… our economy… our health care… and our government have grown weaker.
What is the state of our union in 2006?
We have a national security policy that protects Halliburton’s bottom-line with no-bid contracts | but sends our troops to Iraq without body armor.
January 24th, 2006 at 8:55 pmAny Democrat who kisses Bush at the State of the Union event, better look for new employment because we the voters will punish them next November! Bush is not a rock star, so no reason for any Dem Senator or Rep to shake his hand either!
January 24th, 2006 at 9:18 pmMe three! I used to live in S.F.
Comment by G.Gordon Giddy — January 24, 2006 @ 7:27 pm
How funny how the majority of liberal people I know have lived there at some point…
Was weird one afternoon after work, I went with some co-workers to have a drink at a bar where motorcycles and crystal chandeliers are hanging from the same ceiling. And despite the law, they let people smoke there. After a couple of beers we started talking about religion. It turned out that it was the first time as an Atheist that I was in the religious majority in a group of people. Everyone was an Atheist expect for one on-the-fence Christian who was losing her religion. Was very surreal. Where I am now, I am back to being a minority…
January 24th, 2006 at 9:33 pmIt was so refreshing watching a real academic and leader (Al gore) deliver a flawless, unaided, inspiring oration for a change…
…instead of that tobacco chewing, NASCAR, hayseed horsesh*t Brokeback Bushiva spits out…
Comment by big papa — January 24, 2006 @ 7:41 pm
I’d love to see him run again in 2008 with Obama as V.P. I think time and reflection on his previous experiences have probably helped make him a better leader now anyway. With Obama, I don’t think even Diebold could steal it from them.
January 24th, 2006 at 9:36 pmAlthough with the 2006 elections entirely dependent on whether Chimpy can put an ‘Iranian mullah under everyone’s bed’, I might have to risk bursting a blood vessel.
Comment by TerrytheTurtle — January 24, 2006 @ 7:46 pm
Too funny… I still say, at least we have Comedy Central. What perspective does it offer on our culture when the most honest news program we have is a comedy show? You should email them your joke Terry… I bet they’d use it.
January 24th, 2006 at 9:40 pmmr ho- glad to see/read you back. What a complete sickening feeling I have. There are still 36% of the US population that support the boy king. I try to feel optimistic that the 2006 elections will bring back sanity but, deep down I know that they will still prevail. I know so many people that love that guy–of course they are all”born again christins”. What is worse(if you can imagine that) they love O’liely. I think I am on a downer tonight. Didn’t the same thing happen in Germany?. What was that great book that explained this–Eric Hoffer’s -The trus believers? I am not sure we can stop them running off the cliff. Of course we go with them. Do you think there is a way to stop it or does history have to take its cruel course?
January 24th, 2006 at 9:49 pmWhy not yours truely as the next pres? I can clear brush (that wetland in the back could surely use some thinning) and as I am retired, I can take a 52 week vacation every year. That certainly makes me much more qualified then our current dictator - er commander-in-chief. I even live in an (off) white house.
January 24th, 2006 at 9:51 pmAnd I have political conections - my mother used to baby sit the Kennedys in Brookline.
January 24th, 2006 at 9:58 pmThat’s connections folks.
January 24th, 2006 at 10:01 pmAnd I have political conections - my mother used to baby sit the Kennedys in Brookline.
Comment by WaltTheMan — January 24, 2006 @ 9:58 pm
That’s connections folks.
Comment by WaltTheMan — January 24, 2006 @ 10:01 pm
Mr. Walt where are you coming from?, or are you just a Glad Fly? Put some beef on it ,I would like to see if you have a good point. No insult implied, I just don’t get where your coming from., What the heck really pi**e*s you off? I mean this country is going to *hit and the MSM is talking about white blond girls that have disappeared.
January 24th, 2006 at 10:09 pmLast Zogby Poll Was 59% Majprity PARTY for Impeach
52% Democrat to Impeach
and 23% republican to Impeach.
Let us Help Mr Bushs’ Credibility along a bit more;
WASHINGTON - Stretched by frequent troop rotations to
Iraq and
Afghanistan, the Army has become a “thin green line” that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the
Pentagon.
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Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who wrote the report under a Pentagon contract, concluded that the Army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to break the back of the insurgency. He also suggested that the Pentagon’s decision, announced in December, to begin reducing the force in Iraq this year was driven in part by a realization that the Army was overextended.
As evidence, Krepinevich points to the Army’s 2005 recruiting slump — missing its recruiting goal for the first time since 1999 — and its decision to offer much bigger enlistment bonuses and other incentives.
“You really begin to wonder just how much stress and strain there is on the Army, how much longer it can continue,” he said in an interview. He added that the Army is still a highly effective fighting force and is implementing a plan that will expand the number of combat brigades available for rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 136-page report represents a more sobering picture of the Army’s condition than military officials offer in public. While not released publicly, a copy of the report was provided in response to an Associated Press inquiry.
Illustrating his level of concern about strain on the Army, Krepinevich titled one of his report’s chapters, “The Thin Green Line.”
He wrote that the Army is “in a race against time” to adjust to the demands of war “or risk `breaking’ the force in the form of a catastrophic decline” in recruitment and re-enlistment.
Get your KEVLAR VESTS ready Bushco. UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU!
January 24th, 2006 at 10:19 pmmr ho says Kudos!
January 24th, 2006 at 10:21 pmI think Soros has identified (he used a bunch of consultants on how to spend his money) that those of us who are more partisan/engaged find the interactiveness and such of blogs more interesting than TV - I watch none at all actually.
However, I would like some sort of ‘reality meets news’ type network. As in, actually showing clips from Iraq and covering the stories for more than one day (e.g. the missle that took down the cobra today). You can see it on ogrish.com
Anyway, good all around.
Comment by James — January 24, 2006 @ 3:18 pm
January 24th, 2006 at 10:27 pmAgreed, TV has become unwatchable here as well, so much for Corporate media…
#59, you might have the answer there UB - let John Stewart watch it for me and get the summary afterwards. I did consider trying for a drinking game version, but I have to work the next day…
January 24th, 2006 at 11:18 pmHow funny how the majority of liberal people I know have lived there at some point…
I was there in ‘69 straight out of Manhattan, NY, not KS. Berkeley actually. It was the weather I ended up staying for, although at the time it was the other stuff.
I’ve told you before, atheism, which I have an affinity for, is not to be confused with the certainty that there isn’t something more, which is why I call myself an agnostic, or a gnostic, depending on my mood. Atheism just means you no longer accept belief before knowledge. Belief being a very low level of consciousness. Ignorance, or the ability to say “I don’t know” being a higher level of awareness or consciousness. All of that shit is so many years ago, but suffice it to say that losing your religion isn’t necessarily a bad thing, people in a state of complete belief are less than ignorant, and totally asleep, unaware, unconsciousness. Maybe you need to look into some of the Christian mystics, like Thomas Merton. Many years ago, before I gave up thinking about it, I was a practicing Sufi. I just read Dervish tales from time to time now. Those of the idiot Mullah Nasrudin being my favorite, and some Zen. No point in being certain about anything but death and taxes… and Karma. Or as we call it here on the street, payback.
January 24th, 2006 at 11:22 pmThat last post was in response to Unbelievable @ #57.
Idiot is perhaps not the correct term for Nasrudin. He is a fool to the enlightened, and an idiot to the unenlightened.
FOOL, n. A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscience, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught the nations war — founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting — such as creation’s dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man’s evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization.
IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.
Ambrose Bierce
The Devil’s Dictionary
January 24th, 2006 at 11:35 pmPonder this:
Bell’s theorem seem to prove, or postulate, that physical locality is non-local.
Talk about unbelieveable…
Basically, there is a non-local, sub-quantal, instantaneous and supra-luminal connection or communication between two particals at a distance. If some want to call that God, or whatever, it’s fine with me. It certainly is mysterious, don’t you think? Nitey-nite.
January 24th, 2006 at 11:47 pmparticles
sheesh!
January 24th, 2006 at 11:48 pmVery interesting and funny posts this evening, Thank’s one and all.I missed that Bush quote, Unbelievable. Thank’s for adding here, one of those priceless moments. Bull S*** Bushes saddle slipped long before he was inducted to our white house and all his stupid statements proove it.Funny odd, not ha ha. I was born in Pasadena, California, moved to Wash. State and in my 30’s lived in Northern Idaho and most recently Montana before moving back to Washington.Infact lived one city block away from the Arian Nations compound on Hayden Lake, Idaho. Scary people dressed in Camo and sporting assault rifles inside their compound. Served a lunch to Richard Nixon in the late 50’s while I worked for Knott’s Berry Farm. Walter and Mrs Knott were two of the greatest people I ever met even tho they were Republicans. Was raised a Catholic, now a pagan witch by choice. See so many simaraties on thought process and locations with many posters. Will mention again I met Al Gore in Missoula Montana and he is a brilliant, strong man and would make a great leader. Think Obama whould be a good V.P also. Nuf said,,,Thank’s again all and sure nice to see Mr. Ho back…..Blessings
January 25th, 2006 at 12:09 amGore/Obama is the dream ticket for 2008, if America still exists by then, because 3 more years of Bush wars we might not survive!
January 25th, 2006 at 1:11 am[…] […]
January 25th, 2006 at 1:59 amI’ll tell you the worst part of the Bush-era’s. You see, it took lots of generations to build America the way it is now. It took tremendous efforts from Hispanics, Frenchmen, Germans and black slaves to finally build a nation so free, so rich, so prosperous, so secure. However(!), it takes only one really bad (probably the worst) president to destroy everything everybody up untill then has worked very hard for. When you’re building a sandcastle, you can enjoy yourself for hours, days, some even weeks. When you’re trying to tear it down, your work is finnished in one blow. Bush Junior will get this to be his legacy. The nitwit, responsible for the collapse of the new Rome. I bet you he’s hoping there isn’t an afterlife.
January 25th, 2006 at 5:31 amLet me help you Mr Busch;
Washington, Jan. 25 (AP): US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales offered additional defences of President George W Bush’s domestic spying programme, as the administration tried to redefine the warrantless surveillance in a way that undermines critics.
Speaking to students at Georgetown University law school yesterday, Gonzales said a 15-day grace period allowing warrantless eavesdropping under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act demonstrates that Congress knew such surveillance “would be essential in wartime.”
Gonzales was supplying legal arguments to the president’s comments Monday that the effort should be called a “terrorist surveillance programme.”
Confronting Gonzales during his nearly half-hour speech were more than a dozen young people in the audience who turned their backs to him and held up a banner for television cameras. The banner, loosely based on a Benjamin Franklin quote read, “Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”
If Gonzales is using past presidents as an avenue of spinning this politico spying of buschs as Terrorist related, then WHY hasnt Gonzales used NIXON as a Precedent?
Huh Mr Gonzales?
WHAT ABOUT NIXON MR GONZALES?
We do not live in CHINA mr gonzales. we do not censor or media, we do not spy on American Citizens.
I suppose next you will say the Terrorists were in AMERICA and we couldnt tap them. This is false and you know it.
The Terrorist cells were here on STUDENT VISAS, they were not american citizens and therefore they could be spied on.
Once again the SIGINT programs have been around since the 70’s and busch, thru his unitary executives, such as Gonzales, Advised him it was OK. Yet EVEN Ashcroft had Reservations about it. And that was your PRECEDENT Mr Gonzales.
Mr ho ask mr gonzales if ashcroft didnt sign it, why did you?
Is that the problem here Mr Gonzales, did you give Bush the OK? Did you MR gonzales advise George he could do this?
Here is our talking point since you wish to use past Presidents for an Example bushco;
“Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”
January 25th, 2006 at 10:35 am#Thank you Judd, Downloaded the PDF. To me the scarey thing is the fact that all the “accomplishments†these anal retentives have listed are not being thrown back at them in huge, bloody gibbots of their rhetoric. There are innumerable lies, wrongs, falshoods, thievery, ethical violations to point to and make comments about to heep them out of office for the next five decades, if we would only use them and keep using them until they are forced to abandon this lemming migration into oblivion..
Comment by Ken Jackson — January 24, 2006 @ 2:40 pm
Aye, the word is getting out, and I have been using this method for a few years. After leaving my last Job, there was not one Single Busch supporter left in the Office.
Sure they would watch the nightly news come back morrow full of talking ‘points’ which were only ’spin’ easily refuted with facts.
The Conservatives, Neo-kooks, and Diemocrates would do well to remember that the peope have had forty years of media colluding with Politicos and Ideologues.
Game Over
January 25th, 2006 at 10:48 am“Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.â€
[…] Before you listen, if you can listen, to the “State of the Union” address at the end of the month, take a look at Think Progress’ “State of Presidential Credibility” report, which documents the “distortions and misrepresentations” (that’s what we say now in case someone is too traumatized by the word “lies”) of Bush’s previous addresses. […]
January 25th, 2006 at 11:10 amWhere is a good source for Bush’s approval ratings? Thanks
January 25th, 2006 at 11:50 amThank you for this excellent work. This is what the Democratic Party should be spending thier time and money on, simple, to the point outreach which takes folks directly to the heart of the issues we care about and shows how Bush and his cronies have failed. There is no credibility left for him and now, increasingly, none for his Congress. Democrats in Congress must address this SOTU not with speeches, but with a line drawn in the sand.
January 25th, 2006 at 12:16 pmFirst Tiffany Cooper. Now Georgetown law students. I guess there is hope for the country after all. Maybe we won’t see real reforms in our immediate future, but if more students follow their lead, at least they and future generations will see it in theirs.
January 25th, 2006 at 12:32 pmWonderful job, students. We salute you.
With Obama, I don’t think even Diebold could steal it from them.
Comment by unbelievable #58
Whoa ‘dere unbelievable,
You’d get a lot of “Progressives” on THIS board to regale the advent of a Black VP…on this board…
…But my instincts tell me that when it came time to fill in the arrow…
January 25th, 2006 at 1:09 pm39- “No one could have predicted”
Now where have I heard that qualifier/excuse before? Hmmm… Seems like every time something embarassing happens, the Bush administration has that one ready.
January 25th, 2006 at 2:01 pmPresidential Credibility…
Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid, delivered a tough speech yesterday, urging President Bush to “come clean” in his State of the Union speech next week. The speech was prefaced by a video showing clips from past Presidential speeches compared to mo…
January 25th, 2006 at 3:06 pmMajor props to you for that video! I wish it could be shown on prime time TV.
There’s no more effective way to puncture the fake bubble of manufactured “mission accomplishments” than to show the hollowness of Bush’s own words. He looks like nothing more than a con-artist TV psychic forced to eat his own last year’s predictions. Outstanding job.
January 25th, 2006 at 3:33 pmWhere is a good source for Bush’s approval ratings?
How about the commode?
Oh, maybe you mean where can you find a current poll. Try here.
January 25th, 2006 at 3:37 pmThanks for the vid. I’m linking up.
January 25th, 2006 at 4:46 pm#59, you might have the answer there UB - let John Stewart watch it for me and get the summary afterwards. I did consider trying for a drinking game version, but I have to work the next day…
Comment by TerrytheTurtle — January 24, 2006 @ 11:18 pm
Uh, yeah… bit of a nuisance that getting up for work can be :) I actually have to watch the reruns the next day at 8:00 p.m. because I can’t stay up that late… But I’m glad they play them during prime time on a channel everyone likes (well, everyone cool :).
January 25th, 2006 at 5:53 pmI was there in ‘69 straight out of Manhattan, NY, not KS. Berkeley actually. It was the weather I ended up staying for, although at the time it was the other stuff.
I won’t tell you how old I was then, but let’s just say… I don’t remember it… :) But those were the good old days. It’s changed. Corporate America has eroded the hippiness over the city, and I left because I was going into debt living there on $65K…
I’ve told you before, atheism, which I have an affinity for, is not to be confused with the certainty that there isn’t something more, which is why I call myself an agnostic, or a gnostic, depending on my mood.
I still believe that the ’something more’ people tend to apply to supernatural or higher sources is actual human based (love, kindness, intuition, etc.) I think everything we need can be found here in our world. Perhaps it’s the science geek in me that just does not think there is one iota of evidence that there is “anything more” in a traditional sense. I just think we have been cultural indoctrinated to assume it comes from exterior sources… There’s a wonderful book - Natural Atheism by David Eller that you might wanna check out if you come across it. One of the most logical and yet human explanations of Atheism I’ve ever read.
…or the ability to say “I don’t know 
In that reagrd, everyone is Agnoctic. No one knows how we got here. I just see zero proof for anything beyond plasmic forces and evolution… hence a-theism… no belief in god(s).
Maybe you need to look into some of the Christian mystics, like Thomas Merton. Many years ago, before I gave up thinking about it, I was a practicing Sufi. I just read Dervish tales from time to time now. Those of the idiot Mullah Nasrudin being my favorite, and some Zen.
Prior to Christianity, I studied and practiced Zen Buddhism for a while. But it became for philospohical for me in the sense of harmony with nature and self-worth. I find most religions unappealing, and really don’t feel I need them any longer. I find my own sense of happiness from within myself. I don’t need or want a mystic source for it.
No point in being certain about anything but death and taxes… and Karma. Or as we call it here on the street, payback.
Comment by G. Gordon Giddy — January 24, 2006 @ 11:22 pm
I’m okay with my certainty that this life is it. Makes me respect it more. I’ve traveled more in my life than populations of some small towns combined… I try just about anything once (as long as it has a positive intention), and as a result have had a very full life even though I’m less than half way through it (barring any calamities). I know that it’s not comfortable for everyone, but it does work for me. I like knowing that this is it. I don’t want eternity or next. I just don’t. But thanks for sharing your thoughts with me. It’s always interesting to hear about other people’s perspectives and experiences.
January 25th, 2006 at 6:10 pmPonder this:
Basically, there is a non-local, sub-quantal, instantaneous and supra-luminal connection or communication between two particals at a distance. If some want to call that God, or whatever, it’s fine with me. It certainly is mysterious, don’t you think? Nitey-nite.
Comment by G. Gordon Giddy — January 24, 2006 @ 11:47 pm
I have heard of this… Did you see ‘What the Bleep Do we Know’? They spoke of it in that movie as well… Which you might enjoy.
Mystery is an interesting thing. And I think it’s nice that we don’t know everything. But, I do believe that there is a logical, scientific explanation for everything - even if we haven’t defined it yet. There is considerable proof of science. And that is what I believe in (why I teach it :). Perhaps you could call Science my religion…. :)
There is another study you might like ( i have a friend like you who considers the energy in the universe ‘God’). It’s on the energy of water and its reactions to human emotion. I forget the author - but he is Japanese… Will try to find it for you.
January 25th, 2006 at 6:18 pmWas raised a Catholic, now a pagan witch by choice. See so many simaraties on thought process and locations with many posters.
Comment by Sharon Cox — January 25, 2006 @ 12:09 am
Another coincidence. Was raised Catholic - and though now completely non-spiritual, share more of a respect for earth energy with you than any of the organized religions on the planet. Prefer most animals to most people. Am vegan and do what I can to ‘leave no foot prints’. Would love to hear more about your beliefs.
I always imagine I’ll wind up in Washington State eventually… :)
January 25th, 2006 at 6:23 pmGore/Obama is the dream ticket for 2008, if America still exists by then, because 3 more years of Bush wars we might not survive!
Comment by Jay Randal — January 25, 2006 @ 1:11 am
As word of mouth is the best form of advertizing there is - we should talk this up. A lot. This is the kind of spirit we need for 2008. And if we start now, we can build some momentum. Perhaps we should even suggest this to the Dems not interested in the job. Just get the mantra going now…
Gore/Obama 2008
January 25th, 2006 at 6:25 pmGore/Obama 2008
Gore/Obama 2008
Gore/Obama 2008
Gore/Obama 2008
You’d get a lot of “Progressives†on THIS board to regale the advent of a Black VP…on this board…
…But my instincts tell me that when it came time to fill in the arrow…
Comment by big papa — January 25, 2006 @ 1:09 pm
Yes, I keep forgetting his skin color…. And that others still notice.
January 25th, 2006 at 6:29 pmIf you have a weblog, please consider live blogging the SOTU next Monday.
January 25th, 2006 at 8:01 pmBush has outperformed Stalin and is now in second place after Adolf Hitler.
January 26th, 2006 at 1:49 amAmericans: Why do you like the genocidal acts of your troops in Iraq and Afghanistan! Is it, because if your nation does it?
We have no clues about this anymoore. The true Nazi state is United States. USA -SA-SS. That is what we shouted in 70 during the Vietnam war.
This blows my mind… Then again George Orwell, the profit, was dead right…
The official reports by NIST, FEMA and the 9-11 Commission strikingly omit mention of large quantities of molten metal observed in the basement areas of WTC 7 and the Towers. The fact that the official reports do not adequately address the issue of molten metal found at the sites provides compelling motivation for continued research on the WTC collapses. Thermite!!!!
Controlled demolition:
http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html
1. Filibuster Alito
2. Stage a walk out during the State of the Union
3. Impeach and inprison baby Bush
Controlled demolition of our country brought to by King George, playing the role of religious cult leader, defender of millionairs.
January 26th, 2006 at 7:40 amThis is true.
The proofs contain numbers like phi, pi, i and e, and seem to prove the universe is vibrating harmonics of self-similarity, strange attractors, light, and consciousness…
Science, especially Physics, has given us a rational, logical explanation: It’s an irrational, illogical universe. ^_^
…and we’re all of us part of the isness.
Science isn’t even a thing: it’s a method of inquiry, and not only has it postulated that we can never really know everything, but has found the proof.
It’s almost enough to drive one outsane.
(idea - if we could get large groups of people to go to these liars’ speeches and SOTU addresses and just laugh hysterically at all of the bu-sh- coming out of their faces, we would win. I mean - we can’t out nasty the lizard-men in DC, but they really do fear the mocking laughter of their irrelevance…)
I’m in San Francisco right now.
January 26th, 2006 at 12:56 pmMasaru Emoto
sorry to reply off topic… twice - it’s just so much more fun than the ‘Elephants in the Livingroom’
January 26th, 2006 at 1:06 pmisness,
No problem to being off-topic when they get this far back. I mean, we are social animals, after all… As much as most want to regulate, deny, punish and tax that… I personally think we would be better off if we could accept human behavior to begin with.
Awesome - thanks for the link! I’ll remind Gordo to come back here and check it out. He should really like it, I think.
I agree with you about the infinity of knowledge… and the ability to drive yourself insane in pursuit of it. I think most of us occasionally near that brink. It’s what motivates us (intelligent progressives)… “to understand”. Something evolution gave us (awareness) out of context (establishing further proof to me that there is no intelligent design). As someone here said recently - evolution will try anything once. At some point though, we all have to make certain assumptions based on the information available and live with it. Otherwise, you probably wind up like Nietzsche…
Just something about San Francisco… besides the beauty and the weather… Personally, I had and have a love-hate relationship with it. Hard to explain.
Haven’t seen you before - so welcome (if you’re new)!
January 26th, 2006 at 2:49 pmThx for the welcome, unbé.
I’m new-old.
I’ve likely lurked here a bit, but I can’t be certain, having finally gotten my short-term memory to malfunction to the point of losing some of the long-term… (^_^)`
If I’ve made comment, though, it was likely with a different handle - this one’s a one-off.
I’m just spreadin’ some of “teh (idiot) f00l, Naz-rude’n’s wisdumb®.” (aka: sh’t.disturbin’ ‘(-_^))
–btw: sry for the “sales pitches” on the Emoto site I linked. (I googled, chose and posted, and didn’t actually read it ’til post post.
re: home:
Yeah. If you drink from the tap, SF’s water will get’cha. It calls you back, even if you’re sick of the folks AND the Price-of-Living…
& yes, even in SF I’m considered a freak.
I’m just a stupid genuis; I’m unique, just like everyone else.
(my answer: No. The glass isn’t half-full or half-empty. It’s half-full and half-empty.)
(OT) 101st post in thread!!1!
January 27th, 2006 at 2:59 amBush: “I, Claudius”…
January 27th, 2006 at 1:43 pmOrdinarily, I would boycott any Bush SOTU as I boycott all his speeches, for fear of raising my blood pressure to apoplectic levels. This year, I’ll be watching (and commiserating, I suppose) with others.
People who are as angry and fed up with the Republican culture of corruption-and-denial can do something: attend a Watch Party in your area, take notes, and hold the administration’s feet to the fire — let everyone know when their deeds don’t match their pretty, lying words. Go to and click on the “Watch Party” link on the right.
January 29th, 2006 at 8:27 pmwow, hes kidding :|
February 1st, 2006 at 2:07 amwhile 32% think that george bush will be able to accomplish what he said he would, while 68% said hes would BLOW IT!! good america, turns out your not idiots :)
What i do not get is that 52% said that they supported the war in the middle east and thought it would do us good, haha. not funny america. How on earth can any war be good? Whats wrong with you?!? Thousands of innocent lives are taken because George Bush feels like he has to control the Middle East. Why doesn’t he butt out ?? I feel like other countries have the right not to be influenced by america. Now you have to understand that the media is not right and the government does not tell us much, and so i dont really trust what the television, radio, or newpaper tells me. Many of the suicide bombings in the middle east were not suicidal, but cause by the americans. You may say i’m a liar and i don’t have a clue what i am talking about. You may say the People in the middle east are pyschotic, and that might be true. But who wouldn’t be after having the most powerful nation in the world controling your country and making false accuses?