Who Is That Man Behind The Curtain?

George Bush Bulges

Who is speaking into the transmitter, and what is he telling Georgie Porgie?

Look at these pictures of George's transmitter, then tell me, who you gonna believe, me, or your lying eyes?

Dick & Lynn Cheney: Hypocrites

The Cheneys = Hypocrisy personified

Posted by beaconess on Democratic Underground:

Pat Robertson: Blames Mary Cheney, by extension, of responsibility for 9/11 terrorist attacks. "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen."(September 2001)

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: Silence

Rick Santorum: Accuses Mary Cheney, by definition, of immorality comparable to polygamy, adultery and incest. "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything." (April 2003)

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: Silence

Alan Keyes: Specifically accuses Mary Cheney, by name, of being a "selfish hedonist." (August 2004)

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: Silence

John Kerry: Sympathetically and eloquently explains that the Cheney's gay daughter is "she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as."

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: THIS IS NOT A GOOD MAN!!!! WHAT A CHEAP AND TAWDRY POLITICAL TRICK!!! YOU SAW A MAN WHO WILL DO AND SAY ANYTHING TO GET ELECTED!!!

See also this post from blogactive, reminding us that before Mary Cheney signed on as campaign director for her father, she was an out lesbian activist for Coors. TAKE ACTION: There's Something About Mary. She was the paid lesbian diplomat for Coors Beer!

GWB: Another Debate Lie

Wednesday night George W. Bush alleged that lawyers and the potential for lawsuits hurt the production of vaccines. However, as a trade off over the polio vaccine, in 1986 Congress gave vaccine manufacturers partial immunity from lawsuits. The program has been in effect since 1988.

Any action against a vaccine manufacturer is pre-empted by the claims procedure set forth in the National Vaccine Compensation Act. Claimants have only three years to submit a claim for vaccination injury, and only two years to file a claim if death results.

The Department of Justice defends the claims for the government, & here's what they say about the program:

Another positive result of the program is that costly litigation against drug manufacturers and health care professionals who administer vaccines has virtually ceased. Although an individual who is dissatisfied with the Court’s final judgment can reject it and file a lawsuit in state or federal court, very few lawsuits have been filed since the program began. The supply of vaccines in the U.S. has been stabilized, and the development of new vaccines has markedly increased.

About the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

Here's how Kerry should have responded to this one of Bush's many lies:

1. The health of the American people is too precious to be left to the resources of only two suppliers. Common business practice is always to have a back-up plan. It was rank negligence, therefore, for there not to have been at least two companies contracted to produce the vaccine.

A top flu researcher, W. Paul Glezen of Baylor Medical Center, said the administration should be faulted for allowing just two companies to supply the nation's flu vaccine.

Candidates inject politics into flu vaccine debate

2. With all of the fine companies in the United States, the American public must ask why we had to go to an American company that outsourced jobs overseas to get a vaccine so crucial to the health and wellbeing of American people.

3. Moreover, outsourcing of this service is a matter of national security. Why is a decision so important to the health of the American people being made by Britain?

4. Finally, there are scientists and other highly skilled professionals who are unemployed and under-employed in this country. The revenues to this economy from production of such a vital product here on this soil could have stimulated our economy, certainly in the places where the vaccine might have been produced.

The administration's negligence and poor judgment cost the American people economically and now will hurt the country's health as well.

More Reasons Kerry Will Be President

94 REASONS NOT TO VOTE FOR GEORGE W. BUSH

Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside U.S. is my Number One reason to vote for John Kerry. He wouldn't have stayed on vacation for 4 weeks after he read that memo.

Maybe that's the key. Kerry would read the memo. Bush has a flunky summarize the paperwork for him while he's rolling his ball bearings in his fingers & whistling.

Kerry in a landslide.

Bush Sucks

OK, I like this article just for the title:

59 Reasons Why Bush Sucks
Why you’d have to be a freaking idiot to vote for this guy

GWB: Accidental Poet

If Bush Wrote Poetry

A poem created using actual statements of Prances in Flightsuit.

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?

How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.

I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!

By Washington Post writer, Richard Thompson.

Cheney's Top Ten Lies

Here's the short version, click on the link above for the list with proper citations:

LIE # 1: I Have Never Met Edwards Before

FACT: Cheney Had Met Edwards on At Least Three Prior Occasions

LIE # 2: Cheney Claimed He Had Never Linked Iraq and 9/11

FACT: Cheney Has Repeatedly Made This Claim

LIE # 3: The Khan Smuggling Network has been Shutdown

FACT: Recent Arrests Show the Network May Be Still Active

LIE # 4: Bush's War in Iraq Convinced Libya to Disarm

FACT: Libya Was Already Moving to Disarm Before Iraq War

LIE # 5: Cheney Claimed They've Never Let Up on Osama Bin Ladin

FACT: Bush quote: "I don't know where he is. Nor — you know, I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you. I…I truly am not that concerned about him." [Bush Remarks, 3/13/02]

LIE # 6: 10 Million Voters are Registered in Afghanistan

FACT: Human Rights Watch Found Registration Numbers Exaggerated

LIE # 7: Kerry Voted for Higher Taxes 98 Times

FACT: 98 Times Figure Has Been Repeatedly Debunked

LIE # 8: Kerry Wants to Raise Taxes on Small Businesses

FACT: That Claim Has Been Roundly Debunked By the Press

LIE # 9: Kerry-Edwards Flip-Flopped on No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

FACT: Kerry-Edwards Want to Properly Fund, Not Abandon, NCLB

LIE # 10: Minority Achievement Gap Is Shrinking

FACT: No Evidence to Support That, Bush Policies Will Expand the Gap

Elizabeth Edwards: Smackdown!

Edwards' Wife Delivers Tough Security Talk

Quoting a phrase that President Bush used frequently in the first presidential debate, she said, "'The world has changed since 9/11.'"

"Well, duh. The world has changed, and you need to do something about it," she said.

**********

She said too little money - or none - is being spent to secure the border with Canada, to inspect shipping containers at ports and to improve security on trains, subways and at chemical and nuclear plants.

"This is not fear-mongering," she said. "It's being honest with you. ... Look at your government and see if they're protecting you."

Bush/Cheney put kids in danger

I just watched a Bush/Cheney04 ad on CNBC. A woman (security mom?) is driving her minivan, listening to a male voice on talk radio (980 is shown on her minivan's radio dial) talk about higher taxes under Kerry. The woman begins to squirm in her seat, looking over her shoulder to the back seat (I'm thinking, LOOK AT THE ROAD!), worrying about these Kerry taxes. Then the shot cuts to her car, where her kid in the front seat is throwing a basketball to another kid in the back seat. Then Prances in Flightsuit is shown standing in the Oval Office where he says "I'm George W. Bush & I approved this message."

Uh, President Dumba**, no one in their right mind would drive around with a kid that young in the front seat of a minivan. In an accident that kid would be killed by the airbag.

In most states it is illegal for a child of a certain age or height to ride in the front seat of a car. And never mind the legality, in a modern SUV with airbags, there is a giant warning on the dash that says, no one under 5'0" should ride in the front seat, & especially children should not ride in the front seat because they could be injured when the airbag deploys.

I guess when the Secret Service drives you around in bulletproof limos you don't need to know the rules about how to protect real kids lives. Nice example, W.

It's A Wonderful Life

I spent much of the morning surfing the blogs, & can't remember which blogger inspired me to go to the script of It's a Wonderful Life for the following:

Last night's debate, short form:

EDWARDS: Just remember this, Mr. Cheney: that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?

CHENEY: Look at you. You used to be so cocky! You were going to go out and conquer the world! You once called me a warped, frustrated old man. What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk, crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help.

EDWARDS: You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Cheney. In the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider.

CHENEY: Isn't it wonderful? I'm going to jail!

EDWARDS: Happy New Year to you... in jail!

Is Dick Cheney's Secret & Undisclosed Location in Wyoming?

I hope John Edwards asks Dick Cheney why Wyoming gets so much more in anti-terrorism funds than New York -- where the terrorist attacks actually happened. Here's a question suggested by Morton Mintz of PBS:

The administration's latest distribution of funds to localities for anti-terrorism preparations gives New York State $5.47 per person, or $2.30 below the national average Wyoming, gets $38.31 per person, or $30.54 above the national average. In fact, New York gets less than any state other than California, which is also far below the national average.

Why are seven times more security dollars, on a per capita basis, going to Wyoming, a remote prairie state with a population of a half-million that happens to be home to Vice President Cheney, than to New York, where thousands died in a terrorist attack on its — and the nation's — largest city, population 8 million?

Bremer Agrees With John Kerry -- BushCo F**ked up

Bremer Criticizes Troop Levels

Now he tells us:

The former U.S. official who governed Iraq after the invasion said yesterday that the United States made two major mistakes: not deploying enough troops in Iraq and then not containing the violence and looting immediately after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, administrator for the U.S.-led occupation government until the handover of political power on June 28, said he still supports the decision to intervene in Iraq but said a lack of adequate forces hampered the occupation and efforts to end the looting early on.

"We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," he said yesterday in a speech at an insurance conference in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. "We never had enough troops on the ground."

Bremer's comments were striking because they echoed contentions of many administration critics, including Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, who argue that the U.S. government failed to plan adequately to maintain security in Iraq after the invasion. Bremer has generally defended the U.S. approach in Iraq but in recent weeks has begun to criticize the administration for tactical and policy shortfalls.

Lick Dick in 04

10 Questions for Dick Cheney

Here's my favorite.

7.) No corporation has been more closely associated with the invasion of Iraq than Halliburton. The company, which you served as CEO before joining the administration, moved from No.19 on the U.S. Army's list of top contractors before the Iraq war began to No. 1 in 2003. Last year, alone, the company pocketed $4.2 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars. You said when asked about Halliburton during a September 2003 appearance on "Meet the Press" that you had "severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest." Yet, you continue to hold unexercised options for 233,000 shares of Halliburton stock, and since becoming vice president you have on an annual basis collected deferred compensation payments ranging from $162,392 to $205,298 from Halliburton. A recent review by the Congressional Research Service describes deferred salary and stock options of the sort that you hold as "among those benefits described by the Office of Government Ethics as 'retained ties' or 'linkages' to one's former employer." In the interest of ending the debate about whether Halliburton has received special treatment from the administration, would you be willing to immediately surrender any claims to those stock options and to future deferred compensation in order to make real your claim that you have "severed all my ties with the company."

I wish I had no financial interest in a company that paid me $175,000 a year!

If Bush/Cheney are Re-Elected, Only Halliburton Will Have Lawyers

The insurance industry & the business community spent millions to convince the public that personal injury lawsuits are killing American business. It's a crock -- they just want to be able to operate without checks on their power. If tort reform (which should be known as tort deform) is passed, only businesses will have lawyers. But the court system won't be any faster. The people will be shut out, but folks with money will always find a way in.

U.S. Businesses File Four Times More Lawsuits Than Private Citizens And Are Sanctioned Much More Often for Frivolous Suits

But Corporate America and Their Political Allies Bush and Cheney Campaign to Limit Citizens' Rights to Sue

WASHINGTON - October 4 - American businesses file four times as many lawsuits as do individuals represented by trial attorneys, and they are penalized by judges much more often for pursuing frivolous litigation, according to a report issued today by Public Citizen.

The survey of case filings in two states (Arkansas and Mississippi) and two local jurisdictions (Cook County, Ill., and Philadelphia, Pa.) in 2001 found that businesses were 3.3 to 5.8 times more likely to file lawsuits than were individuals. This comes as businesses and politicians are campaigning to limit citizens' rights to sue over everything from medical malpractice damages to defective products. By way of comparison, the number of American consumers (281 million) outnumbers the number of businesses in America (7 million) by 40 times.

The report also found that businesses and their attorneys were 69 percent more likely than individual tort plaintiffs and their attorneys to be sanctioned by federal judges for filing frivolous claims or defenses. The report, Frequent Filers: Corporate Hypocrisy in Accessing the Courts, is available at http://www.citizen.org/congress/civjus/tort/myths/articles.cfm?ID=12369 .

I Love Jimmy Breslin Part II

Jimmy Breslin: 'Bush ignores value of a straight face'

When I grow up, I wanna write like this:

The other night, George Bush hunched so low that he seemed to be using the lectern as a bunker. His eyes crinkled, his mouth opened like a trout's.

**********

....George Bush revealed for all to see what a calamity the news reporting business has been for at least the last four years. Here we had a president who was aware of only one thing: that you have the gall to ask questions about himself. A member of the Bush royalty. He got in the White House with minimal votes and thought and a maximum of thievery.

From that day on, neither television nor newspapers nailed him for what he is. I remember Tom Brokaw going through a day in the White House with Bush, and it all seemed so pleasant and wonderful, we two guys enjoying all of this. Then I remember Tim Russert had a big interview with Bush, and all these Washington Pekinese of the Press said it was such a marvelous interview. He might as well have stayed home. If you can't get Bush to show himself as a dangerous dolt, you've done nothing. These are only two of an industry full of abject failures.

And this Bush, this shaky dimwit, as seen on Thursday night, got this country into a war where we lose the lives of young people, and many thousands lose their arms and legs and private parts, and we bomb children in Iraq. Not one person in this American news industry stood up and screamed that this man putting us in war is probably the one dumbest man we ever had as president.

"We're makin' progress. It's hard work. We're makin' progress. It's hard work."

We Get E-Mails. It's Hard Work.

I got this one today from Ken Mehlman of Bush/Cheney04; the stuff in italics is mine:

Dear truth1,

Over the next few days, at the office (It's hard work), at your children's football or soccer games, (that's hard work) and in your homes, people will be talking about last night's debate. Here are some important facts to keep in mind as you're talking with friends and neighbors about the exchange. (Other than the butt-whupping Kerry put on The Smirking Chimp.)

President Bush spoke clearly and from the heart last night (OK, I admit I am beginning to laugh) about the path forward - toward victory and security - in the War on Terror. The President spoke candidly about the difficulties facing our troops in Iraq (It's hard work) and Afghanistan (It's hard work) as these countries prepare for their first free elections. The terrorists will continue to fight these steps toward freedom because they fear the optimism and hope of democracy. They fear the prospects for their ideology of hate in a free and democratic Middle East.

President Bush detailed a path forward in the War on Terror - a plan that will ensure that America fights the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan - not in America's cities.

John Kerry failed the one test he had to pass last night: he failed to close the credibility gap he has with the American people as his record of troubling contradiction and vacillation spiraled down to incoherence.

People have a clear choice between President Bush's clarity (He Knows Who Osama Bin Laden Is, Even Though He Prefers He Not Be Named!!!!) and strength to fight and win the War on Terror and John Kerry's attacks and reversals - born out of political calculation, not a vision for winning the War on Terror. People saw for themselves last night where John Kerry would lead our military, our allies and the world in the War on Terror - down a bumpy road paved with indecision, vacillation and cynicism. (Funny thing, Ken, you're the only one who saw this vision. Do you need your meds adjusted?) John Kerry has a record of wavering in the face of real challenges.

Truth and optimism are not competing ideals. The War on Terror is difficult - there will be good days and bad days, but the war is essential to our safety at home and victory is the only option.

Sincerely,

Ken Mehlman


Hey, Kenny-boy, that's why I'm voting for Kerry!

George W. Bush: Dumb Liar

Tony Karon: 'Reality check: George Bush'

The Claim:
"The A.Q. Khan network has been brought to justice." (Khan is the Pakistani nuclear scientist who shipped nuclear weapons technology to North Korea, Iran, Libya and possibly other states.)

Reality Check:
Observers generally concur that there's no way Khan could have acted without the authorization and support of Pakistan's military leadership, yet the U.S. accepted an outcome in which Khan received a slap on the wrist and wasn't even made available for questioning by U.S. officials, nor was any obvious attempt made to hold his superiors accountable — perhaps because of Pakistan's crucial role in hunting al-Qaeda.

In point of fact, Khan received a pardon. Bush says he was brought to justice. So when Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, he brought him to justice?

The Claim:
Bilateral talks with North Korea would be a fatal mistake that would precipitate the collapse of the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Reality Check:
Some of the key parties to those talks, including China, Russia and South Korea, are in favor of the U.S. talking directly to North Korea in order to provide Pyongyang with security guarantees that would improve the prospects for success in the six-party process.

Plus, why do we need China at the table? Are they going to pelt North Korea with cheap plastic consumer goods? Is South Korea going to march across the DMZ? I don't think so.

The Claim:
We have 100,000 Iraqi troops trained now.

Reality Check:
There are around 100,000 people currently recruited to various Iraqi security forces, although the number who've been fully trained is closer to 20,000. And the number on whom U.S. commanders believe they can currently rely in frontline combat situations against the insurgencies is thought to currently number no more than 5,000.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

The Claim:
We have 30 nations in our coalition; our coalition is strong.

Reality Check:
There isn't a single Arab country in the coalition, in contrast to the wide Arab participation in the Gulf War. And the U.S. and Britain between them provided more than 90 percent of the troops. Moreover, eight of the countries that initially joined the U.S. have since pulled out their soldiers, and more are expected to follow. Efforts to persuade Muslim countries to send troops have foundered.

Instead, we are joined by those powerhouse countries Afghanistan (If we have 11,000 troops in Afghanistan, what help are they sending us? our own guys???), the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia.

I Love Jimmy Breslin

Jimmy Breslin: 'A leader showed up; his name was Kerry'

George Bush reiterated time and again last night that it was hard work to run this government. It was hard work to lead a country out of tyranny and into democracy. It was hard work to read casualty reports. The war was hard work. And he made it plain that talking with somebody about his record as president was the grueling, hardest work you could want.

**********

And don't tell me he's not dumb. Yes, he was matched against an absolutely first-rate mind last night. But he could have done a little bit better at covering his helplessness than flusters of college boy anger.

He whined and brayed about consistency. He used that word so he could underline his famous "flip-flop" attacks on John Kerry. He said that by opposing the way the war in Iraq is going, Kerry was sending "mixed messages" and they are harmful to our troops. I, Bush, never change.

There were problems to this. One, Kerry cheated on him and turned a fine line: "Don't confuse the war with the warriors." Then in the middle of Bush's reiteration of dusty phrase after dusty phrase, we should remain as we are, was Ralph Waldo Emerson's, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen ..."

It was better than anything you are going to read from anybody from now to the end of the election, and you will see that Emerson quote come alive whenever Bush opens his mouth and starts the same old lines. George Bush writes in crayon.

**********

[T]hey opened the night with John Kerry talking. He was strong, passionate, sending a fine intellect out into the night. And when he got tough, he looked like a guy who could kill somebody if he had to for the country. Again. And that wimp next to him looked like he would, again, flee to the dentist.

Kerry wins

Pre-debate: Bush has never lost a debate.

Tonight, 12:41 a.m. EST: Howard Fineman on Scarborough: 'Bush has never been a good debater. He proved that tonight.'

Why Isn't there a DNC Commercial that Asks, "Why Did Bush Threaten to VETO the $87 Billion for Our Troops?

Why didn't I know this? Read this article.

Joe Conason: 'Here's what Kerry needs to tell us'

Question: What about your vote on the $87 billion appropriation for the war? You said you voted for it before you voted against it. Weren't you having it both ways?

Kerry: You're asking all my favorite questions tonight. But I hope you will ask the President why he repeatedly threatened to veto that same $87 billion bill. I suspect most Americans still don't know about his veto threat.

He told us he would veto the $87 billion if we tried to share the burden with the Iraqis by making a loan instead of a grant. He said he would veto that bill if we allocated money to provide medical care for our veterans, and for our National Guard and Reserve families. He threatened a veto unless we agreed to add that $87 billion to the deficit, rather than reduce his most profligate tax cuts.

In the Senate, we knew that the needs of our troops would be met one way or another, but we sharply disagreed over the best way to do that. I wanted a fiscally responsible bill that provided medical care for military families. The President cared more about preserving tax cuts for those who need them least. And now we know that he has failed to spend nearly all of the $20 billion in reconstruction funding that Congress appropriated--while the costs of the war balloon toward $200 billion. The administration's incompetence is costing American and Iraqi lives.

Terry MacAuliffe, wake up & make this commercial (right after the Kristen Breitweiser commercial.)