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.