George W. Bush and the Suppression of Truth

Graphic images that reveal the devastating impact of global warming in the Arctic have been released by the US military. The photographs, taken by spy satellites over the past decade, confirm that in recent years vast areas in high latitudes have lost their ice cover in summer months.
The pictures, kept secret by Washington during the presidency of George W Bush, were declassified by the White House last week. President Barack Obama is currently trying to galvanise Congress and the American public to take action to halt catastrophic climate change caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
more HERE

Related:
Cheney Pressured Bush to Authorize Use of Military on US Soil

...and Dubya was a self-proclaimed man of faith...wait, isn't 'do not lie' like, a mantra? ...aaah...ten commandments...bill of rights...it's all in the interpretation...

Aussies Do What Americans Won't...

Australian comedy show "The Chaser's War on Everything," shows a man dressed as an Abu Ghraib prisoner disrupting one of John Yoo's classes (he currently lectures at UC Berkeley and Chapman University). Yoo, formerly of the Department of Justice, played a key role in the Bush administration's justification of torture.
...some applauded like vacuous zombies
...who were they applauding? ...if it was John Yoo for ending class then yes they are vacuous zombies!

...we're willing to wager that the majority of students in Yoo's classes have no idea who he is...hence, no outrage...

Ups & Downs

As she packs up the Alaska governor's mansion and pushes back against the latest ethics brouhaha, Sarah Palin's got other problems: A more negative public image than she held during the 2008 campaign – and broader questions about her grasp of complex issues.
ABC News report HERE
Direct from Alaska:
Palin trotting out her 'poor little me' campaign strategy yet one more time
Palin legacy of quitting will leave a sour taste

U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Thursday, as more upbeat earnings and housing data helped the broad market reach new highs for the year and led the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a close above 9,000 for the first time since January. more HERE
and...
World markets rise on improving data, earnings

The image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world, reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama. In many countries opinions of the United States are now about as positive as they were at the beginning of the decade before George W. Bush took office.
Pew research data HERE

Evil Spirits

Sioux Falls, South Dakota - SINCE taking office, President Obama has overturned several of George W. Bush’s executive orders. I would like to recommend he also overturn one of Theodore Roosevelt’s.
New York Times OP-ED by James Abourezk HERE
James Abourezk, a former Democratic senator from South Dakota, was the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs from 1977 to 1979.

"Extraordinary and Inappropriate"

The Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 surveillance efforts went beyond the widely publicized warrantless wiretapping program, a government report disclosed Friday, encompassing additional secretive activities that created "unprecedented" spying powers.
The report also raised new questions about how the Bush White House kept key Justice Department officials in the dark as it launched the surveillance program.
In a move that it described as "extraordinary and inappropriate," the report said the White House relied on a single, lower-level attorney in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel for assessments about the programs' legality.
The questionable attorney, John Yoo, a young George W. Bush appointee/crony with close ties to the president's inner circle, wrote a series of memos usurping truth and legally blessing the program even though his superiors and most top officials were uninformed about it; in essence, practically proclaiming the executive branch of government above the law.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy is calling for a nonpartisan inquiry into the government's information-gathering programs.
Los Angeles Times report HERE

Dallas Dumps Dubya

The Dallas Police Department has cut back on some of the additional protection that the department provided around the Preston Hollow home of former President George W. Bush.
In addition to the usual Secret Service protection, Dallas until last week had stationed one on-duty tactical officer per eight-hour shift on the street outside the president’s home. The estimated cost of that service was $300,000 for about a year, according to police officials who asked that they not be named.
“We just had to cut it,” said one police official, who agreed to speak on the condition on anonymity. “We’re about to layoff people.”
The Dallas Morning News report HERE

...Dubya reaps the rewards of what he's sown...HA-HA!

Related:
Jeb Bush Proves Irony Is Not Dead

Brace Yourselves

Jeb Bush (above left) may be testing the waters for a 2012 presidential bid.
Recent robocalls to Iowa asked potential voters which of the following they'd most likely vote for: Huckabee, Palin, Gingrich, Jindal, or Jeb Bush. As if two previous Bushes weren't enough already.

Irony Is Alive And Well

Dumb and Dumber

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is the latest member of the ever-growing club of politicians who have strayed from their wives, as well as the latest in the ever-growing list of politicians who were indignant over President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky and demanded he either resign or be impeached.
In 1998, Sanford was a Republican congressman from South Carolina when he demanded "moral clarity" from Clinton and called on him to resign. "Very damaging stuff. This one's pretty cut and dried," Sanford said in September 1998. "I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally [to resign]." So far, Sanford has not indicated that he has any plans to resign as governor.
more HERE

Related:
Who is Mark Sanford's mistress?
MARIA BELEN CHAPUR: Mark Sanford's Mistress

White House Blocks Visitors List

The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn't have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions. Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
more HERE

Emboldened Bush Bashes Barack

Former President George W. Bush has been remarkably reticent since Barack Obama took office, saying that the new commander in chief "deserves my silence." Apparently, that's no longer the case. At a speech in Erie, Pennsylvania Wednesday night, Bush broke his vow in all but word.
"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said, then broke his promise immediately (echos of his tenure as president). "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."
ABC News has pointed out that it was the Bush administration that sent terrorists to therapy.
And the critique didn't stop there...
Washington Post report HERE

The 150 Day Slide

Friday will mark President Obama's 150th day in office...and backlash is encroaching...
The anger from gay rights advocates toward President Obama is starting to boil over.
On Monday, the president of the establishment gay rights group The Human Rights Campaign, sent an angry letter to the president objecting to the decision by the Obama Justice Department to file a brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act.
more HERE

A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, which also found that support for his plans to overhaul health care, rescue the auto industry and close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, falls well below his job approval ratings.
A distinct gulf exists between Mr. Obama’s overall standing and how some of his key initiatives are viewed. A majority of people said his policies have had either no effect yet on improving the economy or had made it worse, underscoring how his political strength still rests on faith in his leadership rather than concrete results.
New York Times report HERE

Note: Obama has made more progress on his foreign policy initiatives in his first 150 days than George W. Bush made in his last 2000 days.

Related:
President Obama fails to quell gay uproar
Harper's: Barack Hoover Obama

In 3 Words

Dick & Dubya Differ

Former President George W. Bush is sticking by his promise to leave President Barack Obama alone — prompting some second-guessing by allies of Vice President Dick Cheney, who is determined to confront the new president.
Bush has stuck to his memorable declaration that he owes Obama his silence, while Cheney continues to grant colorful interviews in which he warns that the Democrat’s policies are making the country less safe.
One Cheney supporter referred to “confusion” and “bewilderment” among conservatives that Bush has not taken the same tack.
more HERE

Related:
Memos don't show what Cheney says they do

Crusader Rumsfeld

on the morning of Thursday, April 10, 2003, Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon prepared a top-secret briefing for George W. Bush. This document, known as the Worldwide Intelligence Update, was a daily digest of critical military intelligence so classified that it circulated among only a handful of Pentagon leaders and the president; Rumsfeld himself often delivered it, by hand, to the White House. The briefing’s cover sheet generally featured triumphant, color images from the previous days’ war efforts: On this particular morning, it showed the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down in Firdos Square, a grateful Iraqi child kissing an American soldier, and jubilant crowds thronging the streets of newly liberated Baghdad. And above these images, and just below the headline secretary of defense, was a quote that may have raised some eyebrows. It came from the Bible, from the book of Psalms: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him…To deliver their soul from death.” ...there were more to come...
GQ broke the story...see HERE
the documents are HERE

WOW! ...evil begets evil

More War Stories

Truth vs. Fear

A day after the president defended the decision to close the jail, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said alarm over shuttering the prison at Guantanamo Bay and relocating prisoners at the facility is "fear-mongering."
"There' a lot of fear-mongering about this," Gates said on the "Today" show. "We've never had an escape from a super max prison. And that's where these guys are going to go."
Gates, who served in the Bush administration and now works under Obama, called Gitmo "one of the finest prisons in the world" during an interview with Matt Lauer that aired Friday. "But it has a taint," he said.
The defense secretary said Obama had no choice but the shut down the prison and his plan does not jeopardize the safety of Americans.
more HERE

Waterboard the Fearmongers

WESTERLY, R.I. — A Rhode Island Democratic lawmaker says he'll donate $100 to charity for every second former President George W. Bush withstands waterboarding.
State Rep. Rod Driver also included former Vice President Dick Cheney and ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in his offer. He sent letters to all three.
more HERE

It's Not Easy Being Pragmatic

pragmatism (politics) The theory that political problems should be met with practical solutions rather than ideological ones.

President Obama's willingness to consider new perspectives and change his position, even when it angers his supporters, is a stark contrast to predecessor George W. Bush's inflexibility.
more HERE and HERE
The attention to protests from conservatives who don’t support Obama – and almost certainly never would – could obscure the far more significant political threat he now faces.
Barely four months into his presidency, Obama is confronting growing dissatisfaction among members of his liberal base, who feel spurned by a series of his early decisions on issues ranging from guns to torture to immigration to gay rights.
more HERE

...hopefully the far left AND the far right will implode on themselves...and intellect and pragmatism will progress and enlighten...

Related:
Obama getting criticism from friends
As President, Obama Is Unafraid to Disappoint His Allies
Poll: America's Best Days Are Ahead; Obama Approval Remains Steady

Polar Bear Policy Persists

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that he will retain the Bush administration's controversial rule on polar bear protections, rejecting special authority given to him by Congress and the pleas of Democratic lawmakers, environmentalists and scientists to overturn the regulation.
Interior will now be forced to defend the rule in court. Environmental groups that sued to overturn the rule said today that they plan to press their lawsuit.
Some environmental groups see the polar bear listing as their best opportunity to force the government to consider harm from greenhouse gases and regulate emissions. Even though the Obama administration has pledged to address climate change, Salazar said today that such action should not come through the Endangered Species Act -- the same position taken by the Bush administration.
New York Times report HERE
want to join efforts to help polar bears? go HERE

Inquisitive 4th Grader Questions Condi

Days after telling students at Stanford University that waterboarding was legal "by definition if it was authorized by the president," former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was pressed again on the subject yesterday by a fourth-grader at a Washington school.
What did Rice think about the things President Obama's administration was saying about the methods the Bush administration had used to get information from detainees?
The students mother said the question her son had initially come up with was even tougher: "If you would work for Obama's administration, would you push for torture?"
Washington Post report HERE
pics HERE
video HERE

Condi should probably lay low, like the rest of the Bush II Administration...or plead the 5th whenever she's questioned about her illegal activities...