GWBblows Blog

From Media Matters

Bush administration flip flops, releases terror report

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Under pressure from Congress, the Bush administration reversed gears Wednesday and released a report showing an upsurge in terrorist attacks worldwide in 2004 after first withholding the statistics from the public.

The number of "significant attacks" grew to about 651 last year, from 208 in 2003, according to statistics released by the National Counterterrorism Center. The 2004 total includes 201 attacks in Iraq.

Typical Republican "do as we say, not as we do". Bush puts pollitics above national security, gets criticized, and changes his position. The right wing blogs are all over this spineless politician changing positions whitchever way the wind blows right? right?

I'm starting to really like this comic:

I decided instead of doing another entire post on Mallard Fillmore, I'd just update my old post.

The Bush Administration punishes some Democrat backers

The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meets three times a year in various cities across the Americas to discuss such dry but important issues as telecommunications standards and spectrum regulations. But for this week's meeting in Guatemala City, politics has barged onto the agenda. At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry's 2004 campaign.

The State Department has traditionally put together a list of industry representatives for these meetings, and anyone in the U.S. telecom industry who had the requisite expertise and wanted to go was generally given a slot, say past participants. Only after the start of Bush's second term did a political litmus test emerge, industry sources say.

T he White House admits as much: "We wanted people who would represent the Administration positively, and--call us nutty--it seemed like those who wanted to kick this Administration out of town last November would have some difficulty doing that," says White House spokesman Trent Duffy. Those barred from the trip include employees of Qualcomm and Nokia, two of the largest telecom firms operating in the U.S., as well as Ibiquity, a digital-radio-technology company in Columbia, Md. One nixed participant, who has been to many of these telecom meetings and who wants to remain anonymous, gave just $250 to the Democratic Party. Says Nokia vice president Bill Plummer: "We do not view sending experts to international meetings on telecom issues to be a partisan matter. We would welcome clarification from the White House."

Holy crap, they've totally lost it. They're totally drunk with power, and very possibly, just out of their mind paranoid. It's one thing to help out supporters, but punishing anyone who contributed the least bit to your political opponents? What is this? North Korea? Their excuse is total bull too. What do they think is going to happen? One of those two dozen representatives chosen by Condi's state department is going to attempt to sabotage meeting to try to somehow destroy the industry they work in?

It's so rare that a political cartoon actually makes me laugh that I had to post this:

I hate to see cartoons like this because Chuck Asay is one of the better editorial cartoonists. Though he's obviously a Republican, he's a good artist, and rarely resorts to the obvious garbage other cartoonists pull (example: Look! It's Clinton's Lie-brary! HAHAHAHA!).

That's why I hate to see him whore himself out in favor of every invented crisis the Republicans pull out of their ass. The cartoon above is a perfect example of him drawing an asinine piece of garbage to support the Republicans invented crisis. In this case, it's getting every insane activist judge on to the bench, instead of just 95 percent of them. First off, I'd give Johnny an F for such a stupid response. Next, if most American voters actually took a civics class, then they would know about the filibuster. Then when they voted for their senator, they were assuming they'd send that senator into a legislative body with a filibuster. The only way the Democrats wouldn't have the consent of the governed to filibuster 1 out of every 20 judges nominated is if the American people are so stupid (as Chuck Asay thinks they are) that they had no idea senators could filibuster a judicial nominee, and were some how tricked when they went to the polls.

I been busy recently and I may be updating this Blog less. For about 40 days I felt obligated to basically update this site every day, the updates may come less frequently now, just whenever I fell like it. It'll probably be closer to updates 3 or 4 updates a week as opposed to 3 or 4 times a month. Also, expect more cartoons, because I like cartoons, and this is my blog, so I'll post cartoons.

I'm rarely shocked by the Republicans and their willingness to act against the intrests of their constituents.But I truly am a little shocked that the day after I post about the Bush administration putting politics above the security of the American people. The Bush administration is, again, putting politics above the security of the American people.

HSD Omits Right-Wing Threats

A recent internal Homeland Security document lists the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front with a few Islamic groups that could potentially support al-Qaida as domestic terror threats.

The document does not address threats posed by white supremacists, violent militiamen, anti-abortion bombers and other extremists

So the Bush Administration is concerned about terrorists who spray paint SUVs and free chickens. But not terrorists who kill doctors and minorities.

Call me anti-religious, please, because I am. I hate organized religion and am no fan of the Catholic church. Though that's not the reason I don't like the new pope. Here are the reasons:

1. His name is Benedict XVI. Who's named Benedict? How many Benedict's do you know? Other then Benedict Arnold, and he doesn't exactly have a very good reputation.

2. I just plain don't like Nazis.

3. He's a political hack who intervenes on the side of the pro-war, pro-death penalty candidate.

Well that's it, being a Nazi and such may be trivial reasons to not like a pope, but it's not like he's going to be pope for very long, considering he's near 80, I don't think it really matters all that much.

Oh, one more thing, he strongly opposes homosexuality, birth control, abortion, female ordination and marriage for priests. He has described other faiths as "deficient".

Like I said, I don't like him, not that it really matters. I don't care the least bit what the Catholic Church says.

Well I been busy, reports, family parties and such. There was a lot I wanted to put up here, but never found the time. So here's a whole lota stuff I been meaning to post for the last several days.

This Doonesbury cartoon gives a pretty good summary of the Iraq war:


Next there's:

Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report

WASHINGTON - The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.

So the Bush administration is putting politics and their image above the national security of the American people. It's really sad how many idiots got duped into thinking these hacks would put anything anything above partisan politics.

It's amazing they get conned into voting for these Republicans who are on the wrong issue of virtually every political issue.

Republicans are threatening to end the 200 year old filibuster so they can get every extremist extremist activist judge instead of just 95% of them. The American people disagree:



Bush is attempting to dismantle Social Security. The American people don't trust him:



Republicans want to eliminate taxes on the ultra ultra rich dead people. You know the American people don't agree with that:



And Bush said Iraq had WMDs. A majority of Americans believe he lied:



That's why this shouldn't be surprising:

CBS News Poll. April 13-16, 2005. N=1,149 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3 4/13-16/05
"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?"
Approve - 44%
Disapprove - 51%

Oh, and one more thing...

Frist whores himself out to religious zealots

Sen. Frist has agreed to contribute a videotaped speech to a conservative Christian simulcast that portrays Democrats as opposing "people of faith"

I bet he thinks making outrageous claims like this and diagnosing Terri Schiavo based on a video tape is suring up his church cred with the religiously insane, but it's really just giving us ample material to use against him when he runs for president.

That's Republicans for ya. Screw the poor kids. Protect the dead rich.

I think the DCCC may have come out a little too early with this one. Then again they might as well strike while the scandals are piling on. Hopefully we can get as many Republicans as possible on record defending Delay before he's dragged out of Washington in disgrace. The Democrats need to make Delay and corruption their central platform for the 2006 elections.

GOP seeks to give tax break to the top 1 percent of dead people.

WASHINGTON - House Republicans[..] effort to repeal the estate tax has itself succumbed three different times upon reaching the Senate. This year, though, four additional GOP votes give supporters hope of eliminating it. [...]

In 2004, the government collected $24.8 billion from the estate tax, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The number of estates that owed tax in 2003 amounted to 1.25 percent of deaths the previous year.

For Christ's sake, what the fuck is wrong with the Republicans??? Bush is running a 400 billion dollar deficit and he's looking to give a tax cut specifically to the top 1 percent of dead guys??? Apparently it's more moral to the Republicans to strap a newborn baby with a birth tax to pay off rather then taxing some old rich dead tycoon.

Wow, just wow.

ALBANY - Teen hookers are victims, not criminals, according to a Queens lawmaker who is pushing a controversial measure that would keep pubescent prostitutes out of prison.

"Why are we charging children with prostitution when in fact it's a criminal activity they can't consent to?" asked Assemblyman William Scarborough (D-St. Albans).

Scarborough, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Children and Families, said that with prostitutes as young as 11 and 12 working the streets, the law should be offering a hand, not handcuffs.

"These kids are not only victims of sexual exploitation, but also are victimized by a justice system that insists on treating them as criminals."[...]

The proposal was quickly bashed by an ally of Gov. Pataki, state Conservative Party boss Mike Long.

"This shows the Assembly majority has its moral compass pointed in the wrong direction," he said.

So New York Republican (god, families, and morals) party wants 11 year olds arrested for being raped. I wonder how many "moral values" Republicans want girls arrested for being raped?

And then there were 2.

Poland's government decided on Tuesday to withdraw its troops from Iraq at the end of 2005, making official an earlier proposal, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said.[...]

Szmajdzinski said Prime Minister Marek Belka's government, which opinion polls show losing power in elections due by October, would not commit Polish troops to any other missions.

This comic is in our campus newspaper and has been pissing me off for a while. My problem isn't that it's conservative, I have no problem with a comic balancing out Boondocks. But Boondocks has multiple well drawn characters with different personalities in different scenery. Mallard Fillmore is just a poorly drawn duck head giving the author's political opinions.

The above comic is typical of Mallard Fillmore. No real jokes, just partisan hackery. I don't know where to begin with what's wrong with the above comic. Citing some advocacy group as the central theme of your comic. The term "typical American family". The sheer ignorance of stating that the purpose of the Democratic party is to raise all American's taxes. The fact that Republicans are the ones strapping every child with a "birth tax" as a result of the massive debt they're racking up now.

For comparisons sake, here's today's Boondocks:


This is a pretty typical Boondocks cartoon. Two characters with two different personalities. There's actually a joke in it. As for the artistic aspect, there's grass, trees, pants, coats, sweatshirts, and two full characters walking all in color. Mallard Fillmore on the other hand, as I said, is just a black and white very simply drawn duck head. Today's comic also happens to have about 3 1/4 human heads.
Bruce Tinsly is a hack.
4/25/05 Update: Here's today's Mallard Fillmore:
Malard Filmore is a hack.

Malard Fillmore is a hack.
Like usual, it's just a poorly drawn duck head giving the authors political opinions. So what's the political point Bruce Tinsley is trying to make with this comic? That the media won't report on what "these data say" that women earn as much as men. That seems like a pretty amazing story, for decades women have earned less. So what data is he citing? A conservative writers op-ed from over a month ago. So basically he's angry because Brian Williams isn't planning on opening the show tonight discussing what names Ann Coulter called liberals a month ago. It's bad enough that he couldn't cite any study to promote his world view, but the op-ed piece he cited didn't even discuss men vrs. women's income.
Mallard Filmore is a hack.
Tinsley must have a real contempt for his readers if he thinks they'll believe whatever BS he can pull out of his ass. He proves the media is liberal because they don't report his view that women make the same amount as men. His proof is a month old conservative op-ed piece that doesn't discuss men and women's income.
Mallerd Fillmore is a hack.
I can't believe anyone would actually put this hack in their newspaper.
Malerd Fillmore is a hack.

Guard Units May Be Short in Fire Season

SEATTLE Apr 11, 2005 — The Northwest faces what could be one of its worst wildfire seasons in years, but military duty in Iraq means forestry officials might not be able to call on their states' National Guard units as much as they'd like.

Wildland fires burned more than 155,000 acres in 2004
across Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, and this year a preliminary outlook shows above-normal fire potential in the region because of a run of unusually dry weather.

"The Pacific Northwest, including northern Idaho and western Montana, has pretty serious water and fuel issues, so the folks in those states are being wise to look at preplanning," said Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer has already asked the Pentagon to free up some of his state's 1,500 National Guard soldiers still on active duty because of the war. Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said he couldn't do that, but he promised help from other states if Schweitzer asks for it.

U.S. operations in Iraq have stripped Montana of its 12 UH-60
Blackhawks, which played critical roles in 2003 when wildfires in Montana burned more than 736,800 acres.

Protecting Americans? That's not the job of the National Guard under the Bush administration. Why protect Americans when they can die attempting to justify Bush's last and least emphisized rational for war.

via Crooks and Liars via Jesus Was Not a Republican

The government spent more than $40 million for the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky investigations but only $15 million for the 9/11 Commission to examine the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001.

Outrageous isn't exactly the word I would use to describe this, though since I was stealing the post anyways, I decided I might as well steal the title too. A better word to describe this in my opinion would be typical. What do you expect from the party of Tom Delay? What do you expect from a party who sells doctor of the year awards? They opposed this commission because they were more worried about something embarrassing coming out about the Bush administration's incompetence then the security of our country. Though when it comes to embarrassing a president for getting a BJ, they're all for wasting money on frivolous investigation to find out every detail of a personal relationship between two consenting adults.

"I was boogie-ing down to the Marshall Tucker Band, when someone saw you on the TV and said, 'hey look, there's the President.' And I said, 'hey guys how's it going.' And they were like 'no you turd-head, the real President on TV.' And I said 'but I am the real President.' And everybody laughed, which really steamed me. So, here I am." .. "Hello everybody. I'm your new President, and keep in mind. That's for a whole year." - Will Ferrell as George W. Bush

That quote was the first thing I thought of when I read about this:

While Romans were unlikely to catch a glimpse of President Bush - he moved only in motorcades and appeared only at a few official events - Mr. Clinton was clearly reveling in the fact that shoppers, tourists having lunch at outdoor cafes and Italian business people walking to meetings all stopped to greet him.

"Isn't this a great city?" he said. Along the streets, people starting yelling "Bill, Bill, Bill," and a few shouted "U.S.A.!" One shopkeeper raced out with a photograph of Mr. Clinton on a past visit.

Between handshakes and waves, the former president, looking thin, said that he was feeling good after two operations on his heart, but that he tired easily and planned to go back to his hotel for a rest - a change from the way he used to tour cities. He reminisced about his long walking tours of the backstreets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, during the last long foreign trip of his presidency. "You go around the world and you see a lot of affection for Americans," he said.[...]

On Thursday, by the time Mr. Clinton made it out of the back streets and into the open square, a mob of hundreds developed. Mr. Clinton's nervous Italian bodyguards put him in a Mercedes and sped him away.

But Thursday night he was back in his old form. After the dinner with the Italian leader, he went out to a second dinner with President Viktor A. Yuschenko of Ukraine and stayed at an Italian restaurant with him until after midnight.

Bush has to hide from the American people, and the world. Bush is just an arrogant boy kept in a bubble to shield him from anyone who disagrees with his world view. Clinton showed respect to the world community and is treated like a rock star wherever he goes. He walks into a open square in Rome and is mobbed by hundreds of people wanting to see him. It's sad how much good will and love towards the U.S. Bush has spit on and turned his back on. There's and old saying that goes "you get more bees with honey than with vinegar". Clinton some great tasting brought honey to the world hive. Bush threw a rock at it.

Jeff Gannon.

"Well you can hardly call Fox News conservative".
-Jeff Gannon

Hahahahaha, what a idiot. The crowd's reaction was great, they couldn't stop laughing.

I don't got much to say on this. It would piss me off if it wasn't so ridiculous, and typical of the Republicans.

To receive his award as "Physician of the Year," Dr. Rudolph Mueller learned he would have to make a $1,250 contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee. He also learned he wasn't the only "Physician of the Year."

Carter bumbped from visit to pope in favor of Condi

Bush and the first lady were accompanied by his two predecessors, Bush's father and former President Clinton, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.[...]

Former President Carter had hoped to go as well, but backed off when told the Vatican had limited the official delegation to five "and there were also others who were eager to attend," said Jon Moore, a spokesman for the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Moore said the Carters "always relish memories" of the pope's 1979 visit to Washington, the only time a pope has been to the White House.

I hope Condi gets a good photo op softening her image at the expense of Carter and his faith.

1000 or so people got together downtown East Lansing after MSU's loss in the Final Four. They were chanting "Go Green, Go White" and "F--k UNC". Very peaceful, nothing the least bit violent, then out of nowhere the cops toss multiple canisters of tear gas in and around the crowd. So here's my question: If getting tear gassed for assembling isn't a violation of the first amendment, why are a couple reasonable gun control laws a violation of the 2nd amendment? Does anyone really need a gun in less then a couple days? Does anyone really need an AK-47?



I guess when neocons say they support our troops it means they support sending them to die for no reason in a ill-planned occupation.

Yahoo! Opening Day! Dmitri Young hits 3 homers! Tigers win 11-2!!!

Sign the pledge.

Buy the DVD.

I don't understand why FOX is so willing to waste money on garbage shows like Quintuplets, Life on a Stick, Stacked, The Sketch Show, and a season of That 70s Show without it's stars. Though they can't wait to cancel a genius show like Arrested Development.

This is the second time I visited a right wing blog in the last month, this is my second post on right wing blogs. So I visit this site called Little Green Footballs . And the 4th post down I see the most obvious lie I've ever seen in my life. Here's the post:

The inmates of Democratic Underground mark the pope’s passing in their inimitable fashion, by hoping the President will be next: Democratic Underground Forums - The psychics were right about the Pope & hopefully will b right about Bush. (Hat tip: NC.)

These people really are sick.

UPDATE at 4/2/05 4:24:08 pm:

Democratic Underground, of course, isa Google News source. Apparently, wishing for the death of the President (and this is far from the first thread at DU where this has happened) doesn’t qualify as “hate speech” to Google News.

There's a post at DU wishing the president was dead? And people are agreeing with it? That's a pretty serious charge, and outrageous if true. So I go look at the post the hack who runs Little Green Footballs was talking about and it says the following:

I read on a thread somewhere that the psychics predicted that the Pope wouldn't live through the month of April and sadly they were right. The Pope will be missed.

The thread also discussed that Bush WOULD NOT BE pResident in the fall and I'M PRAYING that it comes to fruition. (I always pray for Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards that they have a successful impeachment of Hitler) What other thoughts do all of you have?

Waiting for the IMPEACHMENT WHILE THE SCANDALS KEEP UNFOLDING

If you want to be offended that the writer called Bush Hitler, or the pResident, that's one thing. Though where did the writer say he wanted Bush dead? LGF logic = DU said they want Bush out of office, that means they want him DEAD!!!! (Ignore the word "impeach" twice posted). The owner of LGF most have a real contempt for his visitors if he's willing to blatently and obviously to his readers.

BTW, I read the comments, same as the original post, plenty of people want Bush impeached, not one person says they want Bush dead.

This is sad.

WASHINGTON - A group of 40 to 60 insurgents attacked the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq late Saturday in a well-coordinated assault that inflicted 18 American casualties, U.S. military officials told NBC News.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, could not immediately provide a breakdown on the number of dead or wounded.

The officials said the insurgents attacked with two car or truck bombs, 40 mortars and an intense ground assault.

U.S. forces in Iraq house many suspected insurgents at the prison outside Baghdad, which is at the center of a prison abuse scandal.

RIP. Mitch Hedberg was by far my favorite stand up comedian who hadn't made it big in movies or tv, and probably tied with Robin Williams and Chris Rock for my overall favorite comic. I first heard his comedy on Comedy Central's "Shorties Watching Shorties". That piece always cracked me up, and I had been dying to know that comic's name. Jan. 1 2005 I found out his name from some of my cousins, and started listening to his stuff. I would still be cracking up the 5th or 6th time I listened to his routines. As recently as last Saturday we were listening to Mitch Hedberg and talking about him at my cousins party. He was 37.