Yet Another Republican Says the “T” Word About the Chumph

Whispers are getting louder!

‘There is no other word for it’: Former Bush ethics czar says FBI uncovering evidence of ‘treason’

The former ethics lawyer for George W. Bush believes the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia has uncovered evidence of treason.

Richard Painter, who joined a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s foreign business ties, tweeted a link late Wednesday to a McClatchy report on a federal investigation into whether U.S. right-wing websites coordinated with Russian operatives to attack Hillary Clinton.

“(The) FBI uncovering evidence of treason,” Painter said. “There is no other word for it.”

Painter also agreed with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that an independent commission or select committee was needed to investigate possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

“Senator McCain is right – Congress has no credibility in undertaking the Trump-Russia investigation,” Painter tweeted.

 

Presidential Class Acts

Lets face it, George W. Bush has been a far better ex-President than President. And if you have a heart that is still beating, it is very hard not to fall under Michelle Obama’s spell.

In any event, the two couples have tried to exemplify what Politics should be in this country.

For Some, Bush-Obama Rapport Recalls a Lost Virtue: Political Civility

Maybe it was the unexpected warmth of the gesture, the sheer enveloping display of affection.

Maybe it was his response, the beatific expression on his face, eyes almost closed, head tilted toward her shoulder.

Maybe it was the moment: tenderness at a time when presidential politics has become a festival of cruelty.

But when Michelle Obama hugged former President George W. Bush on Saturday, at a ceremony to open the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the image quickly took flight online.

However one chose to interpret it — and overinterpretation is a hazard in such exercises — it became an instant metaphor. Some saw the lost virtue of civility in politics; others, the unlikely friendships that blossom at the rarefied heights of public life. To critics on the left, it was a shameful case of political amnesia by the wife of a president who spent years cleaning up the mess left by his predecessor.

Mrs. Obama and Mr. Bush have had a few such memorable moments. In July in Dallas at a memorial service for five police officers killed by an Army veteran, the two held hands while singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” When Mr. Bush began swaying to the music, Mrs. Obama gamely let him swing her arm back and forth. At one point, as the choir sang “glory, glory hallelujah,” he turned to her in a burst of enthusiasm, causing the first lady to crack up, despite the solemnity of the occasion.

In June 2012, when Mr. Bush returned to the White House for the unveiling of his official portrait, he aimed a few wisecracks at President Obama. But he saved his best material for Mrs. Obama, reminding her that when British soldiers set fire to the White House in 1814, another first lady, Dolley Madison, rescued the portrait of the first George W. — as in Washington.

“Now, Michelle,” he said, gesturing to his own painting, “if anything happens, there’s your man.”

Some of these encounters are explained by proximity. When the Obamas and the Bushes appear in public together, protocol dictates that Mrs. Obama stand next to Mr. Bush. Some of it is a function of the former president’s playful manner, which by all accounts has become more playful in his retirement.

But some of it also has to do with the relationship between the couples, which current and former officials say has deepened over the past seven and a half years, both because of the shared bond of living in the White House and because of Mr. Bush’s decorum as an ex-president.

 

 

White House Hits Dick Cheney on Iran…Right Betwixt the Beady Eyes

As a conservative, you KNOW you are in bad shape when even the wholly owned press Faux News doesn’t believe your story!

The White House released this beauty to counter the continued lies of the neo-cons.

 

 

Republicans and the Racial Triple-Play

Geez…I there anyone in America the current crop of Republican candidates hasn’t pissed off…Except the Joe Six-Pack brain dead old white guys?

After sequentially pissing off black folks, Hispanic folks…The Reprobates try for a triple play with Asians!

The mini-Clowns on the bus…”We don’t want your kind living here either!”

An ugly new frontier in GOP race-baiting: Attacking the Asian menace

Jeb Bush proved for the millionth time Monday that he’s the worst candidate promoted as a presidential “frontrunner” since Ted Kennedy in 1980. Bush’s latest gaffe, you probably heard, involved his claim that he’s not scapegoating Latinos with his complaints about “anchor babies,” because the real “anchor baby” scammers – people who aren’t Americans but have children here so they become citizens — are “Asian people,” not Latinos.

Bush brushed off a suggestion that he’s alienating Latinos with his “anchor baby” rhetoric by pointing to “my background, my life, I’m immersed in the immigrant experience.” Then he stepped in it: “Frankly it’s more related to Asian people coming into the country…taking advantage of birthright citizenship.”

Suddenly it seems the GOP field has a new political scapegoat: Asians! There aren’t as many of them as there are Latinos, though they’re the fastest growing “minority” group in the country. The same day Bush slurred Asians on the illegal immigration issue, Gov. Scott Walker demanded President Obama cancel his meetings with Chinese president Xi Jinping, because…toughness? He didn’t really say.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s China-bashing has long rivaled his Mexican-bashing when it comes to identifying a top foreign scapegoat for our problems. As the stock market plunged again Monday, Trump had an excuse to lay it on thicker.

“I’ve been telling everybody for a long time,” he said in a video. “China’s taking our jobs; they’re taking our money. Be careful — they’ll bring us down. You have to known what you’re doing — we have nobody that has a clue.”

And from the back of the pack Gov. Chris Christie yelled, “Me, too!” claiming that the federal debt “has been given to us in large measure by the Chinese” and “as the Chinese markets have a correction” the U.S. will suffer.

There’s a weird pause when Bush blasts Asian immigrant parents. You could hear him hesitate mid-sentence, as if he knew he was stepping in it again – and then he carried on with his thought because, why not? He’s in free fall already. Also: these are Republicans we’re talking about; they don’t know discretion or restraint when it comes to sharing their racial theories. It’s like he’s sitting with the fellas at his private club, talking about “those people.”

But bashing Asians, while it might help with the party’s white base, hurts the GOP long term, as Asians are probably the best prospects for conversion if Republicans ever decide they need to make a play for non-white voters. They used to be a fairly reliable if small component of the Republican electorate.

 

A Fair Trial?

Do you really believe that, if you are a Minority you could get a fair trial out of a Rethugly judge?

Sort of like this one…

Richard Cebull, Federal Judge Who Sent Racist Obama Email, Retires

U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, the federal judge in Montana who sent an email last year suggesting that President Barack Obama’s mother had sex with a dog, has retired following an investigation into his conduct.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit announced Tuesday that Cebull had submitted his retirement letter, effective May 3. A special committee had conducted a “thorough and extensive investigation” and submitted their report to the circuit’s Judicial Council, which issued a confidential order and memorandum on March 15, according to the court.

In the email forwarded by Cebull, a young Obama asks his mother why he’s black and she is white. “Don’t even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!” his mother replies. Cebull told recipients of his email that he hoped it “touches your heart like it did mine.”

Cebull, nominated by President George W. Bush, stepped down as chief U.S. district judge in October and took a reduced caseload. He apologized for sending the letter back in the spring.

This is pretty emblematic of what the Bushit filled the courts with.

 

Powell Blasts Cheney for “Cheap Shots”

Fascinating.

President Obama’s first failure was not putting all the Bushit SOBs in jail for their crimes.

 

Who Made the Debt, Again?

At last – a clear answer to “Who made this mess.”

It was Bush, and the Bush Tax cuts for the wealthy. Republicans trashed America’s economy, and conservative policies have been a disaster since Raygun.

 

How the Deficit Got This Big

With President Obama and Republican leaders calling for cutting the budget by trillions over the next 10 years, it is worth asking how we got here — from healthy surpluses at the end of the Clinton era, and the promise of future surpluses, to nine straight years of deficits, including the $1.3 trillion shortfall in 2010. The answer is largely the Bush-era tax cuts, war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, and recessions.

Despite what antigovernment conservatives say, non-defense discretionary spending on areas like foreign aid, education and food safety was not a driving factor in creating the deficits. In fact, such spending, accounting for only 15 percent of the budget, has been basically flat as a share of the economy for decades. Cutting it simply will not fill the deficit hole….

First, the Bush tax cuts have had a huge damaging effect. If all of them expired as scheduled at the end of 2012, future deficits would be cut by about half, to sustainable levels. Second, a healthy budget requires a healthy economy; recessions wreak havoc by reducing tax revenue. Government has to spur demand and create jobs in a deep downturn, even though doing so worsens the deficit in the short run. Third, spending cuts alone will not close the gap. The chronic revenue shortfalls from serial tax cuts are simply too deep to fill with spending cuts alone. Taxes have to go up.

 

Obama and the Internets

This one is kinda fun. Very few non-techies really understand what the Internet is – and how it actually works.

President Obama in his “Twitter Town Hall” yesterday said this –

To which right wingers, searching for ANYTHING with which to criticize President Obama came up with this screed:

Obama Refers To The Internet As “The Internets”

When President Bush made the same mistake during his campaign for President in 2000, he was roundly criticized as unintelligent.

“We do have to make sure that there are computers in a computer age inside classrooms and that they work and that there’s internets that are actually — there are Internet connections that actually function. And I think that those states that are going to do well and those countries that do well are the ones that are going to continue to be committed to making education a priority.”

The problem?

What Bush actually said was this –

“I hear there’s rumors on the Internets that we’re going to have a draft.”

—second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004 (Listen to audio clip)

Which was one of a long, long list of misstatements by Bush.  Of which my favorite is –

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Watch video clip; listen to audio clip)

And he, and his misbegotten Administration did indeed  “harm our country”.

Now – as to the Internet/Internets thing – the Internet is actually made up of hundreds of interconnected networks belonging to and operated by different companies or governments, or “Internets”. And there are a number of Internets with varying, or no level of connectivity to the public Internet for any number of reasons, including security. There have even been proposals to build physically separate Internets for different audiences and purposes due to the damage caused by hackers and electronic terrorists on the public network.

And there is the fact that President Obama is smart enough to have “corrected” his language midstream.

 

Small Business Owners Leave Republican Plantation Over Tax Cuts For the Rich

It is becoming ever more painfully obvious that the Republican Tax Giveaway to the Rich is a major element in the country’s finances being in freefall. The Chamber of Commerce has increasingly become noting but a propaganda arm of the Republican Party, much like Faux News.

Small Business Owners Demand Repeal Of Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich

Michael Teahan, like his father, mother, and uncles before him, is a small business owner. The 52-year-old has spent most of his adult life running his own businesses: a restaurant, a coffee bar and various companies involved in the espresso machine business.

“I was the only person in my family to go to college, because that’s not what we did — we all opened up businesses,” Teahan says. “For some people, that’s a big hurdle … for us, it was like having lunch.”

Teahan currently operates Espresso Resource, a company that imports espresso machine parts from Europe to sell to U.S. restaurants and coffee shops. And he’s doing very well for himself: The two-man operation clears about $1 million a year in total sales, Teahan says — enough to secure himself annual income in excess of $250,000.

That makes Teahan one of the few small business owners to actually benefit from the Bush administration’s tax cuts for the wealthy. He says the cuts save him about $12,000 a year, compared to what he paid before they were enacted. But as debates over the federal budget deficit have intensified, Teahan has found the political discussion increasingly divorced from the reality of his experience as a small business owner.

Tax cuts for the wealthy, according to Teahan, will do nothing to bolster his firm. They won’t affect his hiring decisions, they won’t encourage him to buy new equipment or help him move into a bigger warehouse. He says all of those decisions — the nuts and bolts of actually running a small company — depend on the his customers’ economic conditions, not his personal tax rate.

“What we do in business, how we spend our money, how we allocate our resources — that has very little to do with tax policy,” Teahan says. “I map my business based on my customers, and what my customers want to buy, and what they can afford to buy.”

 

Pink Elephants

One of the unspoken things around Washington is the number of “closet queens” in power positions or influential positions in the right wing hierarchy. What deeply angers the Gay community is that many of these folks gay bash, and support anti-gay positions such as partner rights and the Bushit Marriage Amendment…

The latest to come out of the closet is Ken Mehlman, former RNC Chairman and Bushit advisor.

Mehlman news fuels divisive reaction

Is former top Bush aid Ken Mehlman – who has told friends and family he is gay – a courageous conservative or shameful hypocrite?

That’s the debate raging through political circles and around the blogosphere a day after the former Republican National Committee chairman and 2004 Bush campaign manager told The Atlantic magazine he is gay.

In one corner are those who say Mehlman has arrived at the end of a difficult journey of self acceptance, and should be praised for coming out publicly and pledging to work with groups that advocate for same-sex marriage in the future.

In the other are those whose memory still remains fresh – of the Bush administration’s stance on gay rights in general and particularly Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign, of which Mehlman was a chief architect, that repeatedly used the issue of same-sex marriage to increase conservative turnout at the polls.

R. Clark Cooper, the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans – a group that aims to work within the GOP to advance gay and lesbian rights – says Mehlman should be commended for putting himself on the line and pledging to work toward equal rights in the future.

“I am looking at it from a forward looking view, as in onward and upward,” Cooper told CNN. “Let’s take advantage of this moment. Let’s get the Republican Party back to basics, back to its core values and away from its divisive social issues.”

As for whether Mehlman deserves criticisms for steering the party down a course that embraced a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, Cooper says others should not speculate what Mehlman’s thought process was.

“There’s not an on and off switch [to being gay]. There’s a huge conflict in one’s mind…I don’t know when or where on the calendar Ken started doing the reconciliation process,” Cooper said. “But…when one starts having those conflicts and feelings, there is the immediate reaction to try to fix it.”

Christopher Barron, of the gay conservative group GOPProud also praised Mehlman’s decision to go public.

“Poll after poll shows the most powerful thing we can do to change hearts and minds about gay issues is to come out,” he told CNN, “I applaud Ken for having the courage to take this important step. I think everyone should remember that each of us has our own personal journey as it relates to coming to terms with our own sexuality and coming out.

Meanwhile the Victory Fund, a gay and lesbian political group, issued a more tepid response, saying, “We hope the fact that Ken Mehlman has reached this level of honesty will now encourage other political leaders to reject divisive anti-gay campaign tactics which, as Mr. Mehlman now admits, are purely cynical attempts to manipulate the American public.”

But some more liberal-leaning bloggers aren’t willing to shower the former Bush aide with adulation, no matter how difficult his own self acceptance may have been.

“The three people most responsible for the anti-gay actions of the Bush reelection campaign are Mehlman, Karl Rove and Bush,” wrote Mike Rogers, a liberal blogger who has long sought to out gay Republicans. “Ken Mehlman is horridly homophobic and no matter how orchestrated his coming out is, our community should hold him accountable for his past.”

The Stonewall Democrats, a group of Democratic gay and lesbian activists, expressed a similar sentiment, saying in a statement, “Mehlman presided over the Republican Party at a time when the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans were used to ill ends – marriage amendments in dozens of states, vitriolic attacks on our families, our soldiers, our very lives – all for political expediency, votes at the ballot box, and power.”

Blogger Joe Jervis added, “You don’t have be GAY or OUT to know that discrimination and bigotry is wrong. Don’t let Mehlman’s “personal journey” babble snow you.”

 

Obama Ranks High With Historians

Barack Obama is among best presidents ever – George W. Bush not so much, say scholars in Siena poll

George W. Bush was no FDR, but Barack Obama could be.

That’s the verdict of 238 of the nation’s leading presidential scholars, who – for a fifth time – rated Franklin Delano Roosevelt the best president ever in the latest Siena College Research Institute poll.

In office for barely two years, Obama entered the survey in the 15th position – two spots behind Bill Clinton and three spots ahead of Ronald Reagan.

Obama got high marks for intelligence, ability to communicate and imagination, but his score was dragged down by his relative lack of experience and family background.

“Most of the presidents came from elite backgrounds, and he certainly did not,” said professor Douglas Lonnstrom, who crunched the numbers. “He grew up without a father.”

By contrast, Bush’s dad was our 41st president, George H.W. Bush, who came in 22nd in the poll.

And yet, the scholars rated Dubya a dud as a president, ranking him in the bottom five at 39th place.

 

Et Tu, Babs?

Smarter than Dad!

Looks like at least one of the Bush girls took after the brains in the family… Grandma!

This is looking like a palace revolt!

Bush’s Daughter Glad Health Reform Passed

Barbara Bush, daughter of George W. Bush, told Fox News yesterday that she was glad the Democrats’ health care reform package passed, reports the Raw Story.“Health care should be a right for everyone,” said the 28-year-old co-founder of a nonprofit promoting “health equity” in the US and Africa.

Barbara Bush’s comments come a few weeks after her mother, former First Lady Laura Bush,declared that it was “great” President Obama had nominated Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

“I’m really glad that there will be three [women on the court] if she is confirmed,” the former first lady said. “I like to have women on the Supreme court.”

 

Bush Wipes Hands on Clinton’s Shirt After Shaking Hands With Haitians

Bush is known to have a mania about germs. He’s been known to wipe his hands off on other folks clothing, as well as to have a staffer carry a bottle of hand sanitizer to use after greeting people.

Here, after shaking a Haitian’s hand, he wipes his hand on Clinton’s shirt…

Momma Bush really failed on that boy.

 

Karl Rove Announces He’s Proud Of Torturing

If there were any questions about the type of anti-American scumbags who occupied the White House for 8 years…

Here’s KKKarl Rove announcing he is proud of torture.

Quite possibly the worst mistake made by the Obama Administration was not to let Congress hang a few of these right-wing treasonous bastards…

Maybe it’s not too late for trials?

 

Crimes Against The Soul

This is absolutely the most awesome piece I’ve seen written in a long time. What it discusses is how we, as a nation got to the point where stupidity is a virtue, and boorishness is accepted as the norm. I’ll only publish the first paragraph, so follow the link to read the rest of this powerful piece.

Hat Tip to HuffPo, and hats off to Caroline Myss for this one –

Crimes Against the Soul of America

There is such a thing as a crime against the soul of a nation. A person or a political party can deliberately incite actions that diminish the strength, the integrity, and the overall well-being of a nation’s inner core. America’s soul is in a fragile state. It has suffered severe violations over the course of this past decade and to lesser degrees, in previous decades. Through the years, the essential integrity of America has been eroded for various reasons but never was it so violated as during the Bush administration. The endless lies, the deceitful years of propaganda that flowed from the West Wing that fed the media, the bogus reasons for setting the Middle East on fire, and converting this country into a corporate state for personal gain are crimes that shattered the soul of this nation more deeply than we have even begun to realize — if we ever will. The consequences of puncturing the soul of a nation are witnessed in countless ways. For example, there is a decline in the integrity of leadership and a growing apathy on the part of the public to care about keeping watch over its leaders. The nation ceases to produce statesmen or stateswomen. The best the public can do is to send semi-qualified individuals to Washington whose capacity to hold to their promises collapse within minutes of unpacking in their new offices. As for the old guard, they are worn out good old boys mixed in with a few new and not-so-new women on the block, who continue to fall into their same old patterns of deal making and breaking. But nothing of great significance ever happens unless motivated by a catastrophe. Any truly positive ideas for change baffle the Congress. What could this be, they wonder? But of all the crimes covertly and overtly committed by the Bush administration against the soul of America, none is as vile as the deliberate efforts they poured into turning American against American. We see that in the near hatred between the Republicans and Democrats, between liberals and conservatives, between free-thinkers and evangelicals that continues to fester. This crime was a strategic one, a well thought out plan to fragment the people of this nation in a type of contemporary replay of the Civil War. And sadly, the Republicans succeeded. Thank you, Karl Rove. The result is that the soul of America is exhausted, wounded, mistrusting, suspicious, fearful — and compromised. This is not a soul that can rebuild a country, not if you know anything about the laws of nature and the fundamentals of healing…