Change of Plans

We criticized this idea, so it's only fair to let you know that the plans have changed. Darn smart move, I'd say.

School cancels controversial field trip to Bush speech.

Last week, the Arlington Independent School District in Texas decided not to show President Obama’s address to students because it reportedly didn’t want to interrupt its regularly scheduled lesson plans. However, the district did determine that it would be worthwhile to bus 600 fifth-graders off-campus on Sept. 21 to hear President Bush speak. After [...]

Technorati Tags: Obama Education Speech, Bush Speech

Surprise!

Sit down and get rid of all liquids in your mouth before reading on. Will wonders never cease?

Gonzo Backs Torture Probe

Eric Holder is getting support for his decision to announce a criminal probe of torture from an unlikely source: Alberto Gonzales. The former Attorney General told a radio interviewer for the Washington Times: We worked very hard to establish ground [...]

Technorati Tags: torture, Gonzales

Tales of Torture

Call it what you will, but I'm thinking that all of this is getting set to really explode into a continuing story of boundaries being broken by the Bush Administration. Chime in, please. Is this truly trouble or something blown out of proportion?

Interrogator Revved Power Drill In Front of Hooded Detainee -- Report Details More Abuses

CIA interrogators racked an unloaded handgun close to the head of a high-value detainee, and revved a power drill while the detainee stood naked and hooded, according to the just-released CIA IG report. They also threatened to bring in the mother and family of the detainee, al Nashiri, as well as using a stiff brush to induce pain, and standing on Nashiri's shackles, causing cuts and bruises. And interrogators threatened another detainee, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, that they would kill his children if [...]

Putting Karl Rove on the Defensive

I didn't bounce around the Sunday talk shows as much as I usually do, so I missed this little exchange on ABC. It's one of the better highlights that I've seen, so far! And, yes, there IS a video clip on the link below.

Vanden Huevel rips Rove: ‘It’s laughable for you to talk about fiscal responsibility.’

Today on ABC’s This Week, Karl Rove slammed the cost of President Obama’s new budget. The Nation’s Katrina Vanden Heuvel quickly fired back at Rove’s newly-discovered sense of fiscal responsibility, observing that Rove and President Bush “helped plunge this nation into trillion dollars of debt”: VANDEN HEUEVEL: But, Mr. Rove – ROVE: Call me Karl. VANDEN HEUVEL: [...]

Karl Rove, Katrina Vanden Huevel

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Bush Making Big Bucks For Speeches

Part of me would love to criticize this, but I just can't find too much fault with it. The other living ex-presidents get top-dollar fees for speeches, too. The big question (in my mind) is whether at least some of the money goes to a foundation to do good for someone, other that George Bush.

Bush charging $150,000 and private jet travel for speeches.

Now that Bush has officially joined the lecture circuit, it seems he’s seeking to make good on his hope to earn “ridiculous” money. The Dallas Morning News reports that he’s charging $150,000 per speech and demanding a private jet to take him to the speech venue: President George W. Bush may have left office with a [...]

George Bush, Speech Fee

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Making Things Worse

We're into another week and I've let Monday pretty much slip away from me. Been busy putting together an interesting new project that you'll hear about in the next few days. The best thing about it, beyond being fun and interesting, it might generate some cash! In the meantime, trying to keep our collective heads above the water of the markets, there's not much optimism out there. This isn't about the economy, but it is about plans gone wrong.

Is Guantanamo a suicide bomber factory?

Yet another reason why President Obama’s vow to shut down the illegal Guantanamo Bay internment camp is so important: the Washington Post this morning reports of a case where a formerly mild Taliban detainee who fired his gun only once had been transformed into a vicious killer by the time of his release from the [...]

UPDATE: Let's go into the economy in more detail, while we're at it.

Stocks plunge, end day at decade-plus lows

Thanks for reading!

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Time For The Tiny Violins

Even the mighty are falling victim to a slumping economy. It is, as I've reminded you many times, rough all over.

Former Bush administration officials are having trouble finding work.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that “for many of the roughly 3,000 political appointees who served President George W. Bush, [f]inding work has proved a far tougher task than those appointees expected”: Only 25% to 30% of ex-Bush officials seeking full-time jobs have succeeded, estimated Eric Vautour, a Washington recruiter at Russell Reynolds Associates [...]

Back To Bush

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The push is on to delve back into the inner workings of the Bush administration, looking for illegal activities, things that could end up in court. Is it worth it? I'm trying a new comment system, Disqus. Let's see if it works!

Two Thirds Want Investigations

The USAT runs with two stories today on the subject of the public's willingness to investigate Bush administration illegalities. Our friends at Gallup asked over a thousand respondents at the end of January about their support for [...]

Your Friday Oversite

The amazing stories continue. There was some coverage of this report on the early morning newscasts, but not everybody seemed to pick up on it. At least not early in the day. Another sad testament to Washington's lack of ability to do things right! Can the new administration do better? They're not having much luck with the new stimulus bill.

Bush paid too much for bailout

The Bush administration overpaid tens of billions of dollars for stocks and other assets in its massive bailout last year of Wall Street banks and financial institutions, a new study by a government watchdog says.The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report released Friday, said [...]

Secondary Impact

Oh, those Obama folks can be sneaky little devils.  Smart. But sneaky!

Clinton Lawyer: Obama's Order Designed To Pry Loose Key Bush Docs

Already, a consensus of experts has formed to tell TPMmuckraker and others that President Obama's executive order on presidential records, issued Wednesday, could impact efforts to pry loose key documents from the Bush White House. And the man who served [...]

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The Final Days

 Little-heard story coming out of the final days of the Bush Administration.

BushCo Drops All Charges against Andy Card’s Cousin

BushCo just dropped all charges against Andy Card's cousin, whom they accused of being a spy for Saddam and/or crazy. And with the dropped charges, they may have succeeded in suppressing very embarrassing information from [...]

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History Lesson

Gather the kids around the 'puter screen or forward this to them all.  Olbermann put together a quite tasty summary of the Bush Administration. Tilted a bit, as you would expect from Countdown, but worth eight minutes of your time. It was, after all, eight years long. H/T Crooks and Liars:



Not to be outdone, here's David Letterman's Bush Speech Summary -

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The Final Newser

 President Bush held his final confab with reporters today. I caught part of it on the TV machine.  It was, as this blogger suggests, quite interesting.

What a Tool

Bush held his final news conference this morning. I sadly missed it but will watch it online. Various websites are reporting the "highlights." Bush On Katrina: ‘Don’t Tell Me The Federal Response Was Slow’ Bush: It ‘may be fair’ to say that ‘Republicans don’t like immigrants.’ Asked about WMDs, Bush grins: 'Things didn't go according to plan.' Other notable comments: "Clearly putting a[...]

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Just The Facts

The numbers you need for the discussion and debate you're sure to face.

The Bush Years

NBC News compiles a devastating list of statistics to show what the United States looked like when George W. Bush entered office in January 2001 and [...]

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Holiday Week

 I'll be primarily tied up with holiday doings this week, so blogging may be sporadic.  Not that it's been impressively regular lately, anyway! Still, some things catch my eye and this one certainly did.  It is simply wrong. Does the administration  not know the meaning of the word "oversight"?

Report: $1.6 billion went to executives at bailed out Wall Street banks last year.

An Associated Press analysis finds that the executives of Wall Street firms that have been bailed out by taxpayer dollars received “$1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses and other benefits” last year. “Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management.” Meanwhile, the [...]

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Goodbye To The Ice

That's one good thing about living in the South - winter precipitation usually doesn't last very long. Such was the case with our recent bout of ice...it's vanished already. I'm headed out to hit the grocery store, since I avoided it earlier this week, knowing the rest of the world would be stocking up for a month-long hibernation. It happens every time there's a mention of winter weather. So, as I work through my to-do list, here's a gossipy bit of news for you!

Drunk George Tenet lashed out at Bush’s neocons: ‘The Jews’ who tried to ‘pin the Iraq WMD fiasco on him.’

Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg recently picked up a copy of Patrick Tyler’s forthcoming book, A World of Trouble, which focuses on “America’s tortured relations with the Middle East.” Goldberg says that the book’s prologue contains a “whopper of a scene” featuring former CIA director George Tenet “drunk on scotch, flailing about Prince Bandar’s Riyadh pool, [...]

Remembering Bush

His legacy will be what?

Voinovich warns President that he may be remembered as ‘George Herbert Hoover Bush.’

In his closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans on Wednesday, Vice President Dick Cheney urged them to get behind the auto rescue package. “If we don’t do this, we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever,” Cheney said. Ignoring the White House’s plea, Senate Republicans have declared their interest in union-busting rather than [...]

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It's Midday Already!

Monday midday and I just got a text message saying there's a bit of snow in our forecast Tuesday, as a cold front moves through.  That might be a nice Christmas touch for those of use here in the South!  Trying to skim through Bloglines and it's been a quiet Monday morning - but the Bush Administration has been busy!

Burrowing watch: Bush appointed 18 administation officials last Tuesday alone.

With only 44 days left in office, President Bush continues to “burrow” people into government positions that will continue long after President-elect Obama is sworn in. “All told, Mr. Bush has made roughly 30 personnel moves since the November election, some in nominations that will require Senate approval, and others in direct appointments that will [...]

The White House "Delete" Key

Ah, those fun folks in Washington are at it again, working the "delete key" on the White House computers.

White House documents found to be altered

Scott Althaus, professor of political science and communication, and Kalev Leetaru, coordinator of research in the Cline Center for Democracy, recently found that the U.S. White House Web site has modified, and in some cases, deleted key[...]

Setting The Story Straight

They still can't deliver a consistent answer to the question.  In a sense, that may say more than the confused answers themselves.

Rove: We Wouldn't Have Invaded Iraq if We Knew the Truth About WMDs

A remarkable admission that contradicts the past statements of his onetime boss [...]