Fidel W. Castro
Late night comedian David Letterman cracks a joke about Fidel Castro relinquishing power and President Bush on last night’s Late Show.
(Hat tip: Cliff Schecter)
Does This Mean We Can Come Home Now?
President Bush tells Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to take off his uniform and warns–with a straight face–that “you can’t be President and head of the military at the same time.”
One Year Out
In one year’s time, voters will head to the polls to elect the 44th President of the United States and the 111th Congress with the inauguration ten weeks later, marking the end of the George W. Bush era.
It cannot come any sooner. Let’s hope we make it to January 20, 2009 and we’re not in worse shape than we are today.
Republicans Seeking to Condemn Rep. Stark’s Remark
In remarks on the House floor this week, Congressman Pete Stark (D-Fremont, Calif.) blasted President Bush for his veto of the SCHIP reauthorization, citing the continued war in Iraq, that sparked a chorus of outrage from Republicans and may land the 18-term congressman in hot water come Monday.
Stark said:
First of all, I’m just amazed that the Republicans are worried that we can’t pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don’t care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to get that money? You are going to tell us lies like you’re telling us today? Is that how you’re going to fund the war?
You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.
The remarks set off a firestorm of outrage from Republicans. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-West Chester, Ohio) immediately demanded that Rep. Stark apologize for his comments as other Republicans issued statements of rage to the press. If you happen to be a FOX News viewer, you probably have the inflections of Stark’s voice memorized by now.
Republicans weren’t alone, however. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco, Calif.), stopping short of seeking an apology from Rep. Stark, called his comments “inappropriate.”
But as the conservative cable programs find yet another reason not to cover actual news, sources say Republicans are gearing up for a resolution on Monday condemning Rep. Stark’s comments.
Now, I don’t agree with Rep. Stark’s comment, but wasting the time to draft, debate and vote on resolutions condemning what boils down to free speech is, to me, a much more serious transgression. It was dumb when they did it to MoveOn.org and would have been no better to do it to Rush Limbaugh over his “phony soldiers” nonsense.
Plus, didn’t you hear? We’re in a war. Two, in fact. And we’re not winning either of them. Nearly 50 million Americans are without health coverage. And we’ve got bridges and roads collapsing all over the place. New Orleans is still a mess. But hey, let’s forget the First Amendment exists. Then, all of our problems are solved.
What happened to the Party of Eisenhower? It is fascinating how Republicans enjoy parading around as tough on crime and strong on national defense and rail against “political correctness” but become unglued and turn into a bunch of seven-year olds demanding their political enemies “take it back!”
It is the only card the Republicans have to play. A desperate effort to change the story from the GOP’s relentless smearing of a 12-year old kid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blatantly lying about his office’s involvement in the smear campaign, and outright lies about the SCHIP program from cover to cover.
Viacom Launches TheDailyShow.com
Viacom, currently suing YouTube for unauthorized use of content, launched TheDailyShow.com complete with 13,000 clips from the hilarious, award-winning show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Video archives go as far back as 1999, and includes golden oldies such as those from the Indecision 2000 series.
Check out this clip of Stephen Colbert foreseeing the first four years of the George W. Bush presidency.
Thomas Friedman’s Revisionist History
Featured in Sunday’s New York Times, Thomas Friedman conducts a little bit of revisionist history. For instance, take this paragraph:
Mr. Gore lost the presidency, but in the dignity and grace with which he gave up his legal fight, he united America. Then, faced with what to do with the rest of his life, he took up a personal crusade to combat climate change, even though the odds were stacked against him, his soapbox was small, his audiences were measured in hundreds, and his critics were legion. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore stuck with it and over time has played a central role in building a global consensus for action on this issue. [emphasis added]
In accepting the Supreme Court decision to hand the presidency to George W. Bush, Gore showed great humility and despite his tone of reconciliation, it was hardly a uniting experience. Bush was met with massive protests at his inauguration. “Demonstrators lined the streets,” CNN reported nearly seven years ago.
Police said the protests could be the largest at an inauguration since President Richard Nixon assumed the office in 1973.
The protesters had diverse agendas but seemed united by anger over the contested election and mistrust of the new president.
Elsewhere in the United States, more than 10,000 protesters marched in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Ashley Banfield of MSNBC interviewed inauguration historian Jim Bendat who noted that there were just as many Bush protesters as there were supporters. (There are a number of protest videos on YouTube of the demonstrations.)
That hardly speaks of “united,” and really no fault of Gore’s, either.
Bush Determined to Strike in Iraq
El Pais, the Spanish newspaper, reported on a February 2003 meeting that included then-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and U.S. President George W. Bush.
Think Progress’ Ali Frick reports:
… Bush told Aznar that the U.S. would go to war with Iraq to disarm Saddam Hussein with or without a UN resolution:
“We must take him right now. We have shown an incredible degree of patience until now. There are two weeks left. In two weeks we will be militarily ready.”
Though Aznar asked Bush to “have a little patience” and urged, “It is very important to have a [UN] resolution,” Bush pushed for war throughout the meeting, telling the Spanish Prime Minister, “We will be in Baghdad by the end of March.”
Just a few days later, Bush insisted to the American public that war with Iraq was not a certainty:
BUSH: “I’ve not made up our mind about military action. Hopefully, this can be done peacefully.” [3/6/03]
BUSH: “We are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq. But if Saddam Hussein does not disarm peacefully, he will be disarmed by force.” [3/8/03]
(Headline courtesy of Wonkette)
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