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Crafty. I can say that my president is crafty. The first truly elected president in over 8 years has a plan to show the world what the conservatives and republicans truly are.

HATERS! Now, being a liberal and all I love putting people to work. I love my haters. If I have 15 haters I need 30 by the end of June. I can't think of anything more vicious than a rightwing hater. I also have proof.

The radical right wing has launched a vicious campaign of racist and sexist attacks against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's selection to replace the retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor's "compelling life story" involves a brilliant legal career after being raised in a South Bronx public housing project by parents who moved from Puerto Rico. That's right folks. She is LATINA! So here is where the problem truly lies. Sotomayor graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude, edited the Yale Law Journal, then served as a "fearless and effective" New York City prosecutor and corporate lawyer before being appointed to the bench by President George H. W. Bush in 1992. You read that right. She was appointed by Chimpy's daddy. The Villiage voice goes on to read, "Since joining the Second Circuit in 1998, Sotomayor has authored over 150 opinions," only three of which have been overturned by the Supreme Court's conservative majority. During her time as an appeals judge, "her influence has grown significantly."

Public reaction to the nomination of the first Latina and third woman to the nation's highest court is "decidedly more positive than negative." Former Bush adviser Mark McKinnon remarked, "If Republicans make a big deal of opposing Sotomayor, we will be hurling ourselves off a cliff." Hurl away! However, "the same right-wing extremists who drove the country into the ground," Salon's Glenn Greenwald writes, "continue to attack Sonia Sotomayor with blatant and ugly stereotypes." Right-wing pundit Pat Buchanan called Sotomayor an "affirmative action candidate," and Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes claimed she "has benefited from affirmative action over the years tremendously." As hate-radio extremist Glenn Beck described the nomination: "Hey, Hispanic chick lady! You're empathetic ... you're in!"

Glen Beck is truly unhinged.

"[L]ess than 24 hours after President Obama's nomination of Sotomayor," right-wing hate merchants seized on a 2001 speech about her Latina heritage and the courts, calling her "a racist" and a "bigot." In a 2001 speech before the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal's annual symposium, Sotomayor argued that judges' gender and race can influence their decisions on gender and race discrimination cases, saying she "would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." However, she cautioned she owes the parties who appear before her "constant and complete vigilance in checking [her] assumptions, presumptions and perspectives."  In other words this sister is DOING HER JOB.

Pulling out the "wise Latina woman" phrase, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich attacked Sotomayor on his Twitter feed as a "Latina woman racist." "Obama is the greatest living example of a reverse racist," hate-radio host Rush Limbaugh complained, "and now he's appointed one...to the U.S. Supreme Court." Former Republican House member and anti-immigration extremist Tom Tancredo agreed that Sotomayor "appears to be a racist" and called La Raza the "Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses." Curt Levey, executive director of Committee for Justice, "a conservative legal group active in judicial nominations," said that "I wonder whether she knows the difference" between being a Puerto Rican advocate -- Sotomayor served on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in the 1980s -- and being a judge. Some of the racist attacks on Sotomayor are simply absurd. Mark Krikorian of the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies blogged on the National Review's Corner about his outrage over people "[d]eferring" to Sotomayor over the "unnatural pronunciation" of her own name. In other words, her name isn't easy for english speaking racists.

So, how do you attack a FEMALE who is also Hispanic? Go after her temperment and demenaor. Bring in Karl Rove to show you how it is done.  Karl Rove has led the sexist slurs, claiming that Sotomayor is "not necessarily" smart and has acted "like sort of a schoolmarm" on the Second Circuit. "I'm not really certain how intellectually strong she would be," he opined on Fox News. OK, take a break here for a sec. THIS asshole wants to talk intelligence? He masterminded the dummest asshole we have ever had for a president! Seriously, Chimpy was more stpid than Ronnie! You know I'm telling the truth. In the Wall Street Journal, Rove argued she is one of those judges selected "for their readiness to discard the rule of law whenever emotion moves them." Citing anonymous attacks promoted by the New Republic, Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes said that Sotomayor was "not the smartest." The New York Times writes that "to detractors, Judge Sotomayor's sharp-tongued and occasionally combative manner -- some lawyers have described her as 'difficult' and 'nasty' -- raises questions about her judicial temperament and willingness to listen." However a fellow Second Circuit judge, Guido Calabresi, "kept track of the questions posed by Judge Sotomayor and other members of the 12-member court" and found that her "behavior was identical." "Some lawyers just don't like to be questioned by a woman," Judge Calabresi added. "It was sexist, plain and simple."
TADAA!

Although Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said that Sotomayor may be subject to the "undue influence" of her race and gender, Republican senators have attempted to distance themselves from the hatred. Even Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), who announced he would vote against Sotomayor's nomination, said, "I think that we should be judging people not on race and gender, or background or ethnicity or a very compelling story." Some members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will conduct hearings on Sotomayor's nomination this summer, have directly denounced the worst invective. Responding to the attacks on Sotomayor calling her "racist," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told NPR's "All Things Considered," "I think it's terrible. This is not the kind of tone that any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advice and consent." "I don't agree with" the "racist" smear, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said recently. "If there are no otherwise disqualifying matters here it appears to me she will probably be confirmed," Hatch told CNN Radio last week.

Far from over. The right can't stand the face of America changing. We have a black president and now we will have the first latina sitting on the supreme court. I LOVE IT!

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I can write a fact that will make Texans want to leave the union, calls from teh right for failure of the future of Americas, drive people who are already mentally deranged into further derangement and delusion.
 President Barack Obama took the oath of office on Jan. 21, 2009.
The first truly elected President in 8 years came in with two broad mandates bestowed upon him by the American people: 1.) Repair the mess that President Bush and his administration left behind after eight disastrous years in office, and 2.) Enact a bold, progressive agenda that includes fixing our nation's health care system and seriously addressing global climate change.


Obama went to work right away, pushing the "biggest, boldest countercyclical fiscal stimulus in American history" through Congress -- a $787 billion dollar measure that not only creates jobs but also provides investments in energy, transportation, education and health care. Obama also announced his intention to shift focus and resources away from Bush's misbegotten adventure in Iraq and refocus on Afghanistan, where the security situation is worse than it has been since the start of the U.S.-led war there in October 2001. Now, a series of recent public opinion polls shows that the American public not only overwhelmingly approves of the job Obama is doing as president, but they also believe the nation is heading in the right direction -- "the first time in years the nation has held such an optimistic view of its future." For example, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 50 percent of Americans now say the country is on the right track (48 percent say the wrong track), compared with just 13 percent who had the same feeling last October (85 percent said the U.S. was heading in the wrong direction at that time). Indeed, in his first 100 days in office, Obama has received the support of the American public to implement the progressive agenda he campaigned on.   


 Shortly after taking office, Obama worked quickly to repair the damage done under The Bush Crime Family and has, in total, issued 29 executive decisions reversing Bush administration policy. On his first day as president, Obama signed an executive order mandating the closure of the Guantanamo Bay terror detainee prison camp within one year. The next day, he ordered military leaders to establish a plan for a responsible withdrawal from Iraq,and he signed executive orders ending CIA secret prisons and ending torture by requiring that all interrogations abide by the Army Field Manual. Obama put these first actions as president in simple terms. "We intend to win this fight" against terrorists, he said. But "we are going to win it on our own terms." On the domestic front, Obama reversed Bush's restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research in March, asserting that his administration would "make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology." In London at the G20 Summit and in other European capitals earlier this month, Obama reassured America's friends and allies that the United States would reengage the world as an equal partner. "We're starting to see some restoration of America's standing in the world," Obama said in London. " It is "very important for us to be able to forge partnerships as opposed to dictating solutions." As far as "dictating solutions," Obama also ditched Bush's "with us or against us" foreign policy mindset in dealing with America's allies and adversaries. Indicating his sincerity in reaching out to the Muslim world, Obama granted his first television interview as president to Dubai-based Al-Arabiya. "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy," Obama said, adding, "We are offering a hand of friendship." Most significantly, Obama also opened the door to direct dialogue with Iran last month, sending the government and its people a "groundbreaking" "special message" on Nowruz, the start of the Persian New Year, in which he said the U.S. is seeking "engagement" with Iran "that is honest and grounded in mutual respect."

On Jan. 29, Obama signed his first major piece of legislation, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, an equal pay law making it easier for workers -- most of whom are women -- to initiate pay discrimination lawsuits. "We are upholding one of this nation's first principles: that we are all created equal and each deserve a chance to pursue our own version of happiness," Obama said at the bill's signing ceremony. Six days later, Obama signed a bill expanding publicly funded health insurance for children, known as SCHIP, legislation Bush had vetoed twice despite strong bipartisan support in Congress. The bill reduces the number of uninsured children by about half over the next four years and will "boost the number covered by the program to 11 million." "In a decent society, there are certain obligations that are not subject to trade offs or negotiation -- health care for our children is one of those obligations," Obama said. And just last week, the President signed a $5.7 billion national service bill championed by Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) that "triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to earn money for college."


Obama and Congress have yet to finalize legislation that would fully accomplish health care reform and solve our climate crisis, but these two major issues remain on the front-burner and have received significant attention in the administration's first 100 days. The economic recovery bill passed earlier this year contained key health care provisions that lead the way toward reform, including $19 billion for health care information technology to implement electronic health records and an agency to "conduct and support research that would assess the benefits of competing treatments," both of which aim to reduce future overall costs. Moreover, Obama's budget creates a "reserve fund" as a down payment to reform the health care system. The stimulus bill also provided a boost to a green economy. In what The New York Times called "the biggest energy bill in history," the Recovery Act provides $91 billion for clean energy investments. In a further indication that addressing climate change is a top priority for the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed this month that greenhouse gas pollution endangers the health and welfare of the American public. The move finally complies with the Supreme Court's 2007 ruling -- ignored by Bush -- that such emissions should be regulated by the federal government under the Clean Air Act. Obama's budget contains key energy provisions that also aim to limit greenhouse gases and build a clean-energy economy, such as a mandatory cap on carbon emissions which is expected to raise hundreds of billions of dollars over the next ten years that will go toward clean energy development and tax credits for working Americans.

Can you see why Republicans/Conservatives hate this? All this PROGRESS and shit?

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Just last week the first truly elected President in 8 years, of course I am talking about President Obama released four Bush-era Office of Legal Counsel memos that had authorized torture. "In dozens of pages of dispassionate legal prose, the methods approved by the Bush administration for extracting information from senior operatives of Al Qaeda are spelled out in careful detail -- like keeping detainees awake for up to 11 straight days, placing them in a dark, cramped box or putting insects into the box to exploit their fears," The New York Times writes. The earliest memo, from 2002, was signed by Jay Bybee, then an Assistant Attorney General and now a federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Bybee's memo provided "a legal authorization for a laundry list of proposed C.I.A. interrogation techniques," including waterboarding. The techniques Bybee approved are illegal by U.S. statute and an international treaty to which the U.S. is a signatory. Don't let the reichwingnuts fool you. This is all illegal. Bybee attempted to give legal cover to illegal acts, and thus broke the ethical, professional, and legal standards that govern lawyers. For this, Judge Jay Bybee should be impeached.

I urge you to check out the campaign launched by the Progress Report to persuade the House Judiciary Committee to initiate impeachment hearings against Bybee. Already, more than 10,000 people have taken action. Click THIS to convince the committee to launch hearings.


 "[I]n the finest legalese" and with "grotesque, lawyerly logic," Bybee wrote 40 pages of justification for treatment that clearly constituted "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." He approved a method called "walling," which entailed slamming a detainee against a wall. Bybee claimed that "any pain experienced is not of the intensity associated with serious physical injury." He also gave a thumbs up to slapping a detainee's face as long as the interrogator took off any rings. "The facial slap does not produce pain that is difficult to endure," he insisted. Maybe someone should slap this dickhead and then ask if it doesn't produce adequate pain? Then again, maybe pain is not the point, humiliation is the point. Bybee also gave the thumbs up to place detainees in stress positions, Bybee said: these "simply involve forcing the subject to remain in uncomfortable positions." Most notoriously, Bybee declared that waterboarding -- a technique perfected during the Spanish Inquisition that the United States later prosecuted Japanese officers for conducting against U.S. POWs -- was both legal and safe. "The waterboard…inflicts no pain or actual harm whatsoever," Bybee claimed. He said that U.S. law bans only techniques that cause "pain and suffering," a phrase "best understood as a single concept, not distinct concepts of 'pain' as distinguished from 'suffering.'" Since waterboarding causes no "pain," Bybee declares it legal. In fact, he wrote, even one separates "pain" from "suffering," waterboarding would still be acceptable: "The waterboard is simply a controlled acute episode, lacking the connotation of a protracted period of time generally given to suffering."
Twisted punk ass republicans just can't help themselves.

The Progress Report is asking readers to sign a petition to be sent to the House Judiciary Committee, urging it to hold hearings on Bybee.

Here is how this all works, be patient because this is giovernmental horseshit and that means it will not make much sense.

After the hearings, the Committee would draw up articles of impeachment, and pass them with a simple majority vote.
From there, the articles move to the full House, which can also approve them with a simple majority.
Then the House sends two "managers" to serve as prosecutors in the impeachment trial, conducted in the Senate if a majority agrees to move forward.

It takes 67 Senators to convict -- and a conviction would remove Bybee from the bench. Calling for his impeachment in January, Yale Law professor Bruce Ackerman wrote, "[Bybee's] impeachment is not a prelude to a sweeping political vendetta. It focuses on a very particular problem: Jay Bybee may serve for decades on one of the highest courts in the land. Is his continued service consistent with his role in the systematic perpetration of war crimes?" The New York Times called for Bybee's impeachment this weekend, writing that the "memos make it clear that Mr. Bybee is unfit for a job that requires legal judgment and a respect for the Constitution." "His flagrant contempt for the rule of law is utterly inconsistent with his judicial position and speaks directly to his competency to function in that office," stated the Center for Constitutional Rights. "He ought to be impeached," House Judiciary Committee member Jerry Nadler (D-NY) told the Huffington Post yesterday. "It was not an honest legal memo. It was an instruction manual on how to break the law. "Senate Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) agreed that impeachment is "certainly possible." "The idea of the author of one of these memos sitting on the federal bench makes a farce of the whole legal system," wrote the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Matthew Yglesias.

Dude is a sick puppy!


 In 2003, Bybee was nominated by President Bush and approved by the Senate to sit on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. During his confirmation hearing, Bybee refused to answer questions, citing executive privilege at least 20 separate times. "If the Senate had known the truth, it would have rejected him," Ackerman wrote. Launching the impeachment process would force Bybee to finally answer questions. And with the Obama administration bullshitting and being hesitant to launch prosecutions of any kind, an impeachment hearing might be the closest thing Americans get to a full accounting of Chimpy's torture program. Indeed, when pressed yesterday on why Obama was refusing to hold Bush administration lawyers who authored the torture memos "accountable," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs stated simply, "The president is focused on looking forward. That's why." Which is HORSESHIT!Looking forward, however, "it is simply obvious that, if there is no accountability when wrongdoing is exposed, future violations will not be deterred," House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said yesterday

every once in a while I aggree with Conyers..................not often but once in a while.

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Did anyone read that report last week that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released? Check out the released a report. In it is a warning that the economic recession and the election of the first African-American president could mobilize right-wing extremist groups inside the United States to gain new recruits. To bolster their ranks, the groups may target veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the analysis. The report concluded that while the DHS "has no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence," right-wing extremists -- or movements that it defined as "primarily hate-oriented...and those that are mainly antigovernment" -- "are focusing their efforts to recruit new members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and appeal through propaganda." This document, along with an earlier report on radicalized left-wing groups, was requested by the Bush administration after FBI Director Robert Mueller and other Bush appointees acknowledged the threat of right-wing extremism. One DHS official described the report as "nothing unusual." "This is the job of DHS, to assess what is happening in this country, with regard to homegrown terrorism, and determine whether it's an actual threat or not, and that's what these assessments do. ... These assessments are done all the time," the official said.
So, those of us on the left understand that governemnt, regardless of who is in power, write reports and do an "analysis" of us all the time. It used to be called COINTELPRO but that is another blog all together.
Now, despite the nature of the report, conservative commentators are outraged, insisting that the document's characterization of "right-wing extremism" represents a direct attack on Republican loyalists, conservative ideology, and veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. The best part is that Christian Coalition founder Uncle Pat Robertson went so far as to suggest that the report "shows somebody down in the bowels of that organization is either a convinced left winger or somebody whose sexual orientation is somewhat in question." of course. I swear, I love that guy. When you need a tottally ridicilous inept comment this asshole is your man! EVERYTHING moves back to sexual orientation. Dude is obsessed with The GHEYS.
The report states, "the consequences of a prolonged economic downturn -- including real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability to obtain credit -- could create a fertile recruiting environment for rightwing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities." Specifically, the report finds that "rightwing extremist groups' frustration over a perceived lack of government action on illegal immigration" and the government's "heightened interest in legislation for tighter firearms, may be invigorating rightwing extremist activity." The report also found that extremist groups may "attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat."  In February, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that the "number of hate groups operating in the United States continued to rise in 2008 and has grown by 54 percent since 2000 -- an increase fueled last year by immigration fears, a failing economy and the successful campaign of Barack Obama." 
Of course I have said over and over that some whites can't stand having a negro president. It's actually making them crazy. Well, craziER than normal.
Most conservative commentators passionately argued that the report's description of right-wing extremists represented a politically-motivated attempt to "smear" conservatives. In a column published on FoxNews.com, Oliver North declared that his Christian faith and respect for the second amendment "makes me a 'right-wing extremist.'" Fox News host Neil Cavuto asserted that the report "more or less states the government considers you a terrorist threat if you oppose abortion, speak out against illegal immigration, or you are a returning war veteran." Sean Hannity announced that "if you disagree with that liberal path that President Obama's taken the country down, you may soon catch the attention of the Department of Homeland Security." Appearing on Hannity's Fox News show to rant about the report, RNC Chairman Michael Steele similarly declared that "to segment out Americans who dissent from this administration, to segment out conservatives in this country who have a different philosophy or view from this administration and labeling them as terrorists...to me is the height of insult." Rush Limbaugh claimed that the report portrayed "standard, ordinary, everyday conservatives as posing a bigger threat to this country than al Qaeda terrorists or genuine enemies of this country like Kim Jong Il," and Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, even "asked for a hearing into the matter," suggesting that the DHS should focus on the threat emanating from Muslims instead. The DHS report did not target "conservatives" or "Republican loyalists." Indeed,  it's odd that conservatives would willingly group themselves and Republicans in with "rightwing extremist activity, specifically the white supremacist and militia movements" -- the actual focus of the DHS report. Now why would they do that?
Several conservatives also misrepresented the intelligence assessment as an attack on American veterans. The Obama administration is "specifically warning that veterans returning home from war, are to be feared -- that they could be right-wing extremists that want to launch terror attacks on America," Joe "My Secretary was found dead in my office" Scarborough argued on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Then House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) claimed that "to characterize men and women returning home after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable. The Department of Homeland Security owes our veterans an apology." But the report actually argued that the danger isn't from veterans themselves, but from the efforts of right-wing extremists to "recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat." "The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today," the report concluded. I need to add this about John Boner. Sunday on ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Boehner (R-OH) to describe the GOP "plan" for dealing with global warming. Boehner downplayed the risk of carbon dioxide and global warming, claiming carbon dioxide is simply a natural compound that is present even in cow flatulence. "George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you've got more carbon dioxide," he said. While humans and animals exhale carbon dioxide naturally, no one is arguing that CO2 itself is harmful. But excessive carbon dioxide in the air is harming the planet and human health. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency recently ruled in a landmark decision that carbon dioxide emissions are "a danger to human health and welfare." Furthermore, it is methane, not carbon dioxide, that is the primary chemical in cow flatulence that contributes to global warming. Boehner also expressed skepticism about the degree that global warming is caused by man. "The question is how much does man have to do with it, and what is the proper way to deal with this?" he asked. Boehner isn't the only Republican to downplay the risk of greenhouse emissions recently. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) said last month that capping carbon dioxide would take away "plant food" from the atmosphere.
back to the lesson at hand, while Napolitano apologized to those who found the report offensive, she explained that "the report is not saying that veterans are extremists. Far from it. What it is saying is returning veterans are targets of right-wing extremist groups that are trying to recruit those to commit violent acts within the country. We want to do all we can to prevent that." In fact, as Media Matters pointed out, the report even "cited a 2008 FBI report -- authored during the Bush administration -- as evidence that 'some returning military veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have joined extremist groups.'"  of course none of the demon repigs mention THAT.
The 2.2 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars also issued a statement clarifying that "the report should have been worded differently, but it made no blanket accusation that every soldier was capable of being a traitor like Benedict Arnold, or every veteran could be a lone wolf, homegrown terrorist like Timothy McVeigh. It was just an assessment about possibilities that could take place."

"McCain for the longest time said torture doesn't work, then he admitted...last summer that he was broken by the North Vietnamese."
-- Rush Limbaugh, 4/17/09, advocating the use of torture

VERSUS

"I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. When asked to identify future targets, I simply recited the names of a number of North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed."
-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), from his memoir, Faith of My Fathers

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He's gone but never forgotten. The worst president in the entire history of this nation and here is his real legacy. Fuck what the lying pig reupblicans tell you:
 
Debt When Dubya Took Office: $5.7 trillion
National Debt as of Jan. 15, 2009: $10.6 trillion
National Debt Increase: $4.9 trillion
(Source: U.S. Treasury Dept.)

Number of Political Fund-Raisers Attended: 338
Amount of Money Raised at These Fund-Raisers: $802,586,070
(Some campaigns refused to disclose the amounts)

Number of U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq: 4,228
(Source: Dept of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)

Number of U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan: 634
(Source: Dept. of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)

Number of Medals of Honor Bestowed: 12
(Nine were awarded posthumously. Four were for service in Iraq, 1 for Afghanistan.)

Number of Vacations Spent at Camp David: 149, totaling all or part of 487 days.

Number of Vacations Spent at His Crawford, Texas Ranch: 77, totaling all or part of 490 days.

Number of Vacations Spent at the Bush Compound in Kennebunkport, Maine: 11, totaling all or part of 43 days.

Total Number of Days Spent on Vacation: 1,020




Number of Rounds of Golf Played: 24
(The last one on Oct. 13, 2003. President Bush has since explained that he stopped playing golf out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq.)

Number of Formal, Solo, White House News Conferences: 44

Total Number of News Conferences: 212
(Including many joint sessions with foreign leaders at home and abroad)

Number of News Conferences at Which Shoes Were Thrown at Him: 1

Number of Recess Appointments: 165
(Source: Senate Historian)

Number of Addresses to the Nation: 23
(The last was his Farewell Address on Jan. 15, 2009)

Number of Addresses to Joint Sessions of Congress: 9
(Of which 7 were State of the Union speeches)

Number of States Not Visited As President: 1 (Vermont)

Number of Vetoes: 12, including 1 pocket veto.
(Dubya did not cast his first veto until his sixth year in office, against a measure to extend federal funding of stem cell research.)

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I love watching Republicans implode. I love watching how they attempt to seem relevant during this economic crisis that they created. Ever since President Obama signed the economic recovery package into law last month, a handful of Republican governors have come out and "rejected" some of the funds, which are aimed at alleviating budget cuts plaguing state and local governments. Rejected is really just them trying to attempt to be conservative. For instance:
 Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) turned down $98 million in extended unemployment benefits.
Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) initially planned to reject half of Alaska's funding, including $160 million for education. During the press conference announcing her decision, Palin asked, "Will we chart our own course, or will Washington engineer it for us?"
By rejecting this funding, the governors are turning away one of the most effective forms of stimulus available, despite the budget crunches that they are all facing. At the minimum 47 states are facing budget shortfalls for this year and next, and 34 states have made budget cuts that will harm vulnerable residents. As it stands now, the stimulus package is "sufficient only to fill about 40 percent of the $350 billion to $370 billion shortfall that states face in the next two-and-a-half years," and unemployment rates keep rising. 
Here are some of the Grandstanding Govenors who never gave a shit about the people who wrongly elected them:

ALASKA'S SARAH PALIN:  In rejecting the stimulus funds, Palin complained about "the strings attached" and said, "I can't attest to every fund that's being offered the state in the stimulus package will be used to create jobs and stimulate the economy, so I'm requesting only those things that I know will." The Anchorage Daily News criticized Palin for her decision, saying, "It makes you wonder if her national political ambitions are leading her one way, when what's best for Alaska leads another," and residents organized a protest last Saturday to urge the governor to accept the money. Top Alaskan legislators have said "they're likely to accept at least most of the federal economic stimulus money that Gov. Sarah Palin did not," prompting Palin to NOW claim that "she didn't say she would actively block the money, and would be willing to participate in a discussion with the Legislature about what they would accept." I told you back when the race was on that this crazy bitch is a liar.

SOUTH CAROLINA'S MARK SANFORD: Despite South Carolina having the second highest unemployment rate in the nation, Sanford rejected $700 million in stimulus, saying, "[W]hat you're doing is buying into the notion that if we just print some more money that we don't have and send it to different states, we'll create jobs. ... If that's the case, why isn't Zimbabwe a rich place?" According to calculations made by the White House, Sanford's refusal of the funds eliminates 50,000 potential jobs, and the South Carolina Department of Education estimated that, without the money, 7,500 teachers would be negatively impacted. House Speaker Bobby Harrell said that absent federal funding, South Carolina would have to close three to four prisons, release an unknown number of  prisoners, and lay off 4,000 to 5,000 teachers. "I am very frustrated," Harrell said. "We're talking about affecting lives of people in this state in a very bad way." Sanford twice requested permission to redirect the funds to paying down his state's debt, and was twice rebuffed by the Obama administration. So get this right. If they refuse funding because this republican jagoff is playing games, prisoners will run the streets and kids won't be educated...............nice.

LOUISIANA'S BOBBY JINDAL: Claiming that it could lead to a tax increase on small businesses, Jindal rejected $98 million federal unemployment assistance. "That would've actually raised taxes on Louisiana businesses. We as a state would've been responsible for paying for those benefits after the federal money disappeared," he said. Clarence Hawkins, the mayor of Bastrop, LA, replied to Jindal, saying, "[G]ive me something now. ... Help me right now. I need to survive today." The Center for American Progress Action Fund concluded that Louisiana added 430 new unemployed people every day in December. Many Louisiana companies -- including River West Medical Center, Dow Chemical Co., Louisiana Pacific and Shreveport-Bossier City casinos -- have laid off workers. Furthermore, if cuts announced by Jindal occur next year, officials from the Louisiana State University system estimate that 2,000 employees might be laid off. According to a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Labor, "Louisiana would not be required to make a permanent change in state law by accepting the federal dollars expanding unemployment benefits." State Sen. Eric LaFleur (D) said that the letter "dispels the governor's argument." Why can't you just say that Lindal is full of shit?

MISSISSIPPI'S HALEY BARBOUR: Barbour advanced the same false argument about unemployment benefits as Jindal, claiming that accepting the money would mean raising unemployment taxes on businesses by 20 percent each year. "Some people have suggested that we change our law and then change it back once the stimulus money is spent, but that isn't honest," he said. State House Majority Leader Tyrone Ellis (D) replied, "I just think it's a sad commentary that we're even discussing such a thing. ... It's puzzling to me why any governor or government would suggest that we are only going to take part of the money and not all of it." Mississippi has an 8.7 percent unemployment rate, though the rate tops 19 percent for some counties. The state House voted to accept the stimulus’ funding over Barbour's objections, certifying "the state's intent to request and use all of the money, even if Barbour rejects some of it." However, efforts to bypass Barbour have stalled in the state Senate.

TEXAS'S RICK PERRY: Perry rejected $555 million in unemployment benefits, saying, "[T]his was pretty simple for us. ... We can take care of ourselves. And we do not need any more strings from Washington attached to programs." But according to the Dallas Morning News, "Texas covers the smallest percentage of unemployed workers of any state," and "four out of five laid-off workers are not eligible for unemployment benefits." Texas's unemployment rate is at a 19-year high, and the state's unemployment fund is running low, "making a tax hike for employers almost a certainty next year." The Texas Comptroller "estimates Texas will lose 111,000 jobs in 2009, hiking unemployment to 8.2 percent." The Texas House appropriations committee has "endorsed enacting the necessary changes to state law so that Texas would be eligible for the money."
I have said it a million times before. Republicans are bad for America and bad Americans.
"So I mean, it really bothers me, this teleprompter. ... It bothers me that this man [President Obama] doesn't -- this man is always on prompter."
-- Fox News's Glenn Beck, 3/25/09

VERSUS
"I’m totally fine with him having a teleprompter. I really am." 
-- Beck, 3/25/09

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So I have been out of comission for a bit. No big deal, I got ill and am getting better. I have a big heart. It's big like a fuckin pot roast but it is still big!

Remember a few days back when our new President Barack Obama was supposed to stay at the Blair House in Washington D.C. for the innaurgation and could not because it was booked up? Well, it was recently discovered that Chimpy is still playing his shit. What a hater! You may have forgotten since it was last month and all.

In December, Obama asked the White House if he and his family could move into Blair House — the White House's guest house — a week early, so that his daughters Malia and Sasha could start school. The White House rebuffed them, saying the house was already booked for another guest. A White House source added that "Blair House was appalled" by the request. Appalled? Really? Why?

After weeks of speculation, the mystery guest that trumps the President-elect and his family has finally been revealed. The White House offered the house to John Howard, the former Prime Minister of Australia who is set to receive a Medal of Freedom. Instead of arranging other accommodations for Howard's one-night stay, the Bush administration told the Obama family to stay in a hotel for two weeks. (Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who are also receiving the Medal of Freedom, opted to find other accommodations.)

Last night on MSNBC's "Countdown," Bloomberg journalist Margaret Carlson revealed that when the White House turned down Obama's request in early December, it had not yet even invited Howard to stay at the Blair House:

I reported…on December 11 and 12 that there were no foreign dignitaries booked into Blair House during that period of time. … I have the feeling they asked him [Howard] to come and stay so that there might be some plausible reason for not letting the Obamas stay there.

She also pointed out that Blair House has "119 rooms with 35 bathrooms. Howard wouldn't even have to share a sink with the Obamas."

I'll say it right now. G.W. is just a bitch ass hater. He's also a fuckin liar.

See foir the last couple fo weeks Bush has been on tour trying to defend his legacy. He has been stating  again and again and again -- that "history will judge" whether he was an effective president. Despite this oft-repeated claim, the pResident seems disinclined to leave any of his legacy to chance. In recent weeks, he and his advisers have offered assessments of the Bush era that are increasingly at odds with reality. How'd ya like that? "at odds with reality" is a nice way of saying that they are LIARS. Cunnilingus Rice, for example, argued that Bush engaged the United Nations more than any other president. And just on Tuesday, Bush told a crowd that Donald Rumsfeld did an "outstanding job" as Secretary of Defense. In a similar vein, the White House recently released a report entitled, "Highlights of Accomplishments and Results of the Administration of George W. Bush" that featured a list of "100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration Record." As Frank Rich wrote for the New York Times, "This document is the literary correlative to 'Mission Accomplished.'" As Rich notes, much of the legacy report's claims about the Bush administration's economic, social, and international accomplishments are only true under very narrow conditions, suggesting that the President hopes that Americans would blind themselves to the broader failures of his presidency.

I'm not going to and obviously neither are the majority of Americans. The Bush legacy document declares that Bush "instituted pro-growth policies" that produced "six years of uninterrupted economic growth and an unprecedented 52 consecutive months of job creation" and asks, "Did you know the President's tax relief helped fuel growth that led to the largest three year increase in revenues in 26 years?" Over here in reality, the Bitch Ass Liars "pro-growth policies" served to weaken the economy by nearly doubling the federal debt, championing deregulation on Wall Street, and increasing the income gap. While Bush claims that his tax cuts provided needed economic stimulus and pulled the economy out of recession in 2001, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman explained simply, "None of this is true." A recent Los Angeles Times poll found that 75 percent of Americans feel that Bush economic policies were responsible for the current weakened state of the U.S. economy. The only reeason that they feel that way is because it is true. Anyways..........., Americans see the error of Bush's reckless economic deregulation, with 62 percent calling for more aggressive regulation on Wall Street. Bush, however, has not learned his lesson. Yesterday, he told the conservative publication Human Events, "I will continue to argue for low taxes, less regulation." Doesn't matter, no one want to pay attention to him at all. That dude is like death to a politician.

In his legacy document, Bush claims credit for promoting a "culture of life" by banning the use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research and instituting regulations allowing health care professionals to refuse to participate in medical procedures that violate their personal beliefs. His ban on federal funding for stem cell research "set research back five to six to seven years in this country," delaying potential treatments for a number of degenerative and life threatening diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Similarly, the President's regulatory change allowing health care providers to abstain from procedures they deem unethical allows virtually anyone in the health care sector -- including janitors, receptionists, and volunteers -- to refuse to assist patients with obtaining birth control, abortion, fertility treatments, sterilization, or even referrals to those who would provide such services. Nice huh? As family health insurance premiums nearly doubled, employers became less likely to offer coverage, and the total number of Americans without health insurance grew by 7 million individuals, Chimpy failed to meaningfully address the nation's health care crisis. In fact, he vetoed expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, denying 10 million low-income children access to health care. Thankfully, in failing to pass his unpopular Social Security privatization plan, the Bush presidency was not as damaging as it could have been. Had he been successful in the drive, retirees would have suffered massive losses as a result of the current financial crisis that he had a hand in creating.

The legacy document also tells a story of how Bush "kept America safe and promoted liberty abroad." But this ignores the obvious fact that the attacks of 9/11 happened on his watch, not to mention the roughly 4,000 troops who have died in his wars. Further, while the President claims credit for expanding and strengthening the nation's counterterrorism tools, the U.S. military is weaker now than it was five years ago, the State Department is suffering from staffing shortages and low morale, and Bush's approval of illegal interrogation techniques harmed the CIA's intelligence-gathering initiatives and threatened troops abroad. The President's cowboy diplomacy and his disastrous invasion of Iraq led to unprecedented levels of U.S. unpopularity around the world. But Bush remains untroubled, saying recently, "I think I'll be remembered as a guy who was dealt some pretty tough issues and I dealt with them head-on and I didn't try to shy away." No you insipid asshole, you will be remembered as the guy who damn near destroyed America.

"On domestic policy, Bush was asked if he made progress in some areas for which he hasn't and probably won't get credit. Topping his list was his unsuccessful drive in 2005 to reform Social Security."
-- The Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes, 1/5/09

VERSUS

"I probably, in retrospect, should have pushed immigration reform right after the '04 election and not Social Security reform."
-- Bush, 1/6/09

 

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Let's all cut the shit right now. Tuesdays victory of Barack Obama was a clear cut indication that this nation rejects conservative ideals.
President-elect Obama resoundingly defeated Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), delivering a mandate for Obama's progressive policy agenda. Obama ran on the most progressive platform of any presidential candidate in at least 15 years, "including a promise of universal health care coverage, a dramatic transformation to a low-carbon economy, and a historic investment in education." Nevertheless, Ignorant devil and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), whose party got thier collective ases handed to them Tuesday, insisted, "Democrats should not make the mistake of viewing Tuesday's results as a repudiation of conservatism," adding, "America remains a center-right country."
Similarly, Newsweek's Jon Meacham wrote an Oct.19 cover story titled "America The Conservative."  In fact, some pundits are illogically arguing that both pResident Bush's 2004 election and Obama's 2008 election are proof that the country leans conservative.
But the progressive direction of the country, symbolized in Tuesday's victory, is clear. At least it is to me. Just prior to the election,a whopping 85 percent of Americans said they thought country was seriously off track. As Media Matters observed, "It is difficult to find an issue on which the public is more conservative now than it was 20 years ago." That can be explained simply.

Americans reject conservative ideals.

A whole squadron of conservative and mainstream demons are claiming that the country is "center-right." Meacham wrote in his cover story that America "is more instinctively conservative than it is liberal" (he admitted that his argument was "probably going to look dumb, or at least out of step, for many months to come"). MSNBC's Joe "Why is there a dead secretary in my office" Scarborough said on Oct. 29, "It is a center right country," particularly "on economic issues." Bill O'Reilly yesterday said, "America is still a center right country, even though the folks voted left last night." After the 2006 elections, pundits used the same argument. "These Democrats that were elected last night are conservative Democrats," said CBS' Bob Schieffer. "In Key House Races, Democrats Run to the Right," wrote the New York Times. In fact, the class of 2006, which came to power in part due to public disapproval of the Iraq war, was remarkably progressive, favoring raising the minimum wage, opposing Social Security privatization, and promoting "fair trade."

Conservatives have it wrong once more. I can't wait until they put Pat Buchanan out to pasture.

On Tuesday, the country both rejected conservative ideology as well as embraced new, progressive priorities. The latest Pew Research poll showed that only 25 percent of the public agrees with the centerpiece of the conservative tax program: making Bush's tax cuts permanent. The public also agrees by 58 percent to 35 percent that the government should guarantee "health insurance for all citizens even if it means raising taxes." Exit poll data showed that 60 percent of voters were worried about rising health care costs and that 66 percent of those people backed Obama. A majority of Americans also want to expand environmental protections, increase the minimum wage, recognize same-sex marriage, and end the Iraq war, to name a few. Yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) explained that the center of the country is progressive. It sure doesnt sound or look conservative at all.

Pundits also are claiming that Obama's margin of victory does not give him a mandate for progressive change. Columnist Robert Novak wrote yesterday that Obama "neither received a broad mandate from the public nor the needed large congressional majorities."
Remember back  in 2004, when chimpy crowed about his "political capital," Novak argued that Bush's narrow victory was "of course" proof of a conservative mandate. Winning 52.4 percent to McCain's 46.3 percent, Obama's popular vote margin stands at 7,401,289 -- more than twice Bush's 2004 vote margin -- and he netted 63 more electoral votes than Bush. Novak also dismissed the 57-seat Democratic Senate majority (with two more seats potentially up for grabs). But conservativism's so-called 2004 "mandate" netted only four new seats, for a total of 55.

We lean to the left. Truth leans left and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Barack Obama defeated Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) decisively, winning the most votes in history and the largest share of the popular vote of any presidential candidate in two decades. Candidates running on progressive platforms helped Democrats expand their majorities in both houses of Congress. Democrats now have the most elected members of Congress any party has held since 1995.

Now comes the hard part. Our country faces enormous challenges, many the direct result of eight years of hapless conservative governance. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is only the latest blow delivered to the American people after years of stagnant wages and the worst job-creation record since Herbert Hoover. Our increasingly costly health care system leaves out more and more Americans every year.

Years of war in Iraq have left Americans less safe at home and abroad despite the incredible sacrifice of our brave fighting men and women there and in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and the Al Qaeda terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 are mounting a comeback. And our planet is now eight years closer to catastrophic climate change.

Sen. McCain and other conservatives supported these policies, and they ran this election year on ambitious conservative plans that would have gone even further. The American people rejected these bullshit ideas yesterday, understanding the dismal consequences of conservatism these past eight years. The urgency of our problems was central to the decisions of American voters, who were significantly more likely to say that the economy, taxes, heath care, and energy were very importantî compared to four years ago, according to the Pew Research Center.

HAHAHAH! Them devils lost they asses!

FUCK 'EM!!!!!