Tag Archives: Bush

Abrogation of the Soul

Somewhat tortuously, the State Department has congratulated the victory of Hugo Chavez’s referendum to revoke term limits on his rule as a victory for participatory democracy, while faintly recommending a new respect for multiparty pluralism. Consider for a moment if … Continue reading

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Athens into Persepolis

Rasmussen has polled the public on whether they agreed with President Bush’s characterization of capitalism as the “highway to the American Dream.” Only 44% voiced support for capitalism, 33% were undecided and 22% expressed opposition. A grim finding. Only Republicans … Continue reading

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Cocktail Politics, Rio Rancho Office Space and Truman Republicans

It occurs to me that the sequence of cocktails is the best political indicator I know of on election night. In 2004 I was attending a Democratic election party and early on everyone was drinking wine and martinis in stemware, … Continue reading

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Obama’s Plan: Does This Work?

According to the Associated Press, a sequence of interviews with Democratic leaders has revealed this to be the political plan being recommended to the Obama campaign: 1. Tie the Republican to an unpopular President Bush. 2. Let no charge go … Continue reading

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A Rosy Future for Anti-Americanism?

Longtime Clinton ally Leon Panetta pronounces Barack Obama “intimidated” by Sarah Palin, and lost in a deepening cycle of reactive defense. With McCain now winning a majority of independents and erasing the gender gap, the blood is most definitely in … Continue reading

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Ludicrous Expectations

Some of Bob Woodward’s criticism in his upcoming fourth volume on the Bush presidency: “He had not rooted out terror wherever it existed. He had not achieved world peace.”

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Bush Mentions at the Convention

According to ThinkProgress’ count President Bush went completely unmentioned last night at the convention. Rather sad and rather weak. There are plenty of defensible polices of the administration (if there seem to be an equal number of indefensible ones). Avoiding … Continue reading

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Making McCain’s Platform

A bit of a departure from the Bush/Cheney experience in 2000 and 2004.

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A Loss of Democratic Self-Awareness

It’s rather amusing to see the ticket lacking in any executive experience, with a presidential nominee of extremely limited elected experience, attempting to attack McCain’s vice presidential nominee on grounds of inexperience. Reeling a bit perhaps. A more mature Democratic … Continue reading

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Four for Five

Jonathan Stein at MotherJones says he has managed to find five things that the Bush administration has done right. In the end though, he only manages four.

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Biden/Cheney 200X

Michael Goodwin concludes that the Biden pick is identical in cause and format to Bush’s selection of Dick Cheney in 2000. I tend to agree, but then I’ve been convinced for a long time that Obama’s entire campaign is all … Continue reading

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A Regulated Conjecture?

There’s a certain problem in that the folks who protest most vociferously about the Bush administration’s violations of free speech rights, also tend to support the direct government regulation of political speech. A disturbing poll suggests they may have the … Continue reading

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Testy Times in the Bird’s Nest

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd witnessed a heated discussion between Bush and Putin over Georgia.

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US Begins to Align with Georgia

Slowly the gears turn, but Washington and Tbilisi’s positions inch further into concord by the minute. The infamous “unnamed senior US official,” behind all important news events of the last century has spoken: A senior U.S. official says Russia has … Continue reading

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Where’s Bush?

According to rumor, President Bush is somewhere in this photo. I’ve looked several times. Haven’t yet seen him.

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End of Presidency Job Approvals

Approval ratings for recent presidents at the end of their final terms. Bush will presumably end somewhere in Carter’s 1980 territory. (About.com) Lest that depress McCain supporters, such measures can of course be highly misleading in predicting general election outcomes … Continue reading

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Targeting the “Original Maverick”

(photo: WBEZ Chicago Public Radio | site) Obama’s newish McSame style attack ad mocking McCain’s “original maverick” slogan is fairly good. As Ken Wheaton notes, all the time McCain had to spend trying to convince the GOP he was a … Continue reading

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Alternative Revenge

Nancy Pelosi might have finally found a fig leaf for the Left — dying as it is for some form of tangible revenge against the Bush administration for allegedly ruining their lives.  Unwilling (and frankly unable) to impeach Bush and … Continue reading

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Shorter Deployment Duration Announced

Among other great news from Iraq. Victory is a good exit strategy.

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Impeach Bush in 2009

Meet Shirley Golub, a feisty San Franciscan who is challenging Nancy Pelosi for the Democratic nomination in the 8th Congressional District of California, on the grounds that she’s just not anti-Bush enough. Shirley fears above all that if Bush isn’t … Continue reading

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Cheap Sunglasses: ZZ Top and the Price of Fame

Previously posted on last.fm, now with political addendum at the end. The concept of the price of fame is usually applied in the sense of the personal cost to the famous, from the relatively mild annoyance of not being able … Continue reading

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Path to a Depression

Some interesting parallels with our current situation and the period before the Great Depression. Interestingly, it seems the Democrats are intent on not learning from history, at least not about what led us to the Depression. Or maybe they want … Continue reading

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What Else Fascism?

There’s editorial sensationalism, and then there’s Keith Olbermann. Consider Mr. Olbermann on Bush recently: “If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business, come out and say it! There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes … Continue reading

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Enchanted Elections

source image: heartcores I’m posting the news rather late because…well, because I’m writing from New Mexico. It should come as no surprise to the election observer, that the Land of Enchantment is once again rather late in declaring a winner … Continue reading

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McCain Speaks to Europe

photo: Chris Dunn Spiegel has a typically aggressive (and aggressively European) interview with John McCain today. In many ways it’s an interesting yet disappointing exercise, due to its focus on the perceived past sins of the Bush administration. While much … Continue reading

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McCain as Sarkozy?

Grover Norquist suggests that public disatisfaction with the Republican party is driven solely by hostility to President Bush. McCain’s differences with the Bush administration and its supporters thus strengthen his appeal with the county. As Grover puts it: “This is … Continue reading

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Does it matter who said this?

Karl Rove and George Bush and Dick Cheney will have many disastrous legacies, but one of the most despicable and enduring will be how they used fear to deeply and deliberately divide our country I don’t think that it really … Continue reading

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The Surrender Movement Surrenders

Antiwar groups are dropping their effort to cut off funding for the Iraq war. They’ve decided to concentrate instead on preventing the president from negotiating a long term defense treaty with the Iraqi government. I suppose the thinking is that … Continue reading

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