We polled everyone in the world who was minimally rational. To be fair and balanced, we let the more progressive among us choose the categories, and the more demented conservative name the categories and enter the results.
Bush Trait Ratings
8/25/07
Yes Indeed
Not So Much
Disqualified
Idiockery
99%
1%
0%
Sadistosity
98%
2%
0%
Lunaticaldom
99%
1%
0%
Foolhardience
97%
3%
0%
Illiteracyage
100%
0%
0%
Mental Illnessness
90%
1%
9%
Sobrietyarianism
0%
80%
20%
Compassionness
0%
100%
0%
Judgmentism
3%%
97%
0%
Communicatorey
1%
98%
1%
* (Blogger messed with spacing, but it could have been the conservatives who entered the results. Yeah, okay, it's their fault.)
I learned many things about our soldiers from the front page of my L.A. Times today, other than more about the increase in the number and duration of military tours and the number of suicides. Now there's an increase in disdain for happy talk from Bush and their own commanders.
I also learned that there are two different wars, according to Staff Sgt. Donald Richard Harris: That of the soldiers and that of the commanders in distant bases.
"...front-line soldiers grow to resent troops at the bases and come to believe their commanders are out of touch with the realities in the field." -- Counterinsurgency expert Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations
Why? Because the troops at the bases enjoy basic amenities such as running water, flush toilets, telephones and Internet access, as well as food courts and athletic facilities. Here's what the other guys get:
Sun-scorched grounds of a former potato-processing plant.
They use pit latrines and get showers only when there is enough water.
They jog around a shadeless concrete lot that serves as a helipad and mortar-launching site.
Their downtime consists of "silently clean[ing] dust from their rifles at a battle position south of the capital" while a "fiery wind blast[s] through the small base, an abandoned home surrounded by sandbags and razor wire."
That should be on a recruiting poster, doncha think?
Other troops in this area have far less comfortable surroundings. Army Maj. Rob Griggs believes rough conditions are good for the mission. Without comforting distractions, troops are more driven to complete their jobs, said Griggs...
"Comforting distractions"?? Griggs has been out in the 140-degree heat too long.
...the disparities in living and working conditions among soldiers heighten resentments, chipping away at morale. So does the feeling that the mission is futile, a belief fueled by the Iraqi political stalemate and the unreliability of Iraqi forces.
But didn't Commander Guy say morale was high? Ohhh, he meant he was high. My bad.
Most thought their job was finished after Saddam Hussein was ousted. Instead, they found themselves directing traffic in Baghdad's chaotic streets. Four years later, they still are policing and doing community work they did not anticipate.
We anticipated problems, but most of us couldn't anticipate all of this.
"You couple that with getting blown up and shot at, and it definitely makes it harder to deliver service with a smile," said Staff Sgt. Kevin Littrell, whose plan to leave the Army in May was thwarted when his unit's tour was extended.
What, you're not grinning and thanking the Sociopath in Chief as your leg gets blown off? That's okay. "Service with a smile" went out with full-service gas stations in the 1950s.
So how does Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of U.S. forces in southern Iraq, respond to a young man on his first assignment there?
Lynch told him: "You're making history here while those back home are watching it on TV."
Nearly half the students in four of Ohio’s big city public school districts are attending failing schools that rate a D or F on the state’s latest report card, according to an analysis by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Further, relatively low percentages of both charter and district schools in the state’s eight-largest cities fared well in state and federal accountability systems. Only 38 percent of the district schools met the federal standard for adequate yearly progress, compared with 28 percent of urban charter schools.
The four-city analysis found 46 percent of 183,000 public and charter school students in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton attend schools rated either in academic watch or academic emergency, the two lowest categories in the state’s rating system.
Justin Frank, Author of "Bush on the Couch:" On The Possibility Of A Bush Attack On Iran
He named this piece, Dangers Of A Cornered Bush (get your mind out of the gutter Gottalaff) and this part, indeed, is frightening:
"We are left with a president who cannot actually govern, because he is incapable of reasoned thought in coping with events outside his control, like those in the Middle East."
"This makes it a monumental challenge - as urgent as it is difficult - not only to get him to stop the carnage in the Middle East, but also to prevent him from undertaking a new, perhaps even more disastrous adventure - like going to war with Iran, in order to embellish the image he so proudly created for himself after 9/11 as the commander in chief of 'the first war of the 21st century.'"
President Bush will return to the Gulf Coast next week, where hard times and resentment linger two years after Hurricane Katrina's massive strike.
Bush will fly into New Orleans on Tuesday after giving a speech about the Iraq war...
Neighborhoods are in ruins. Crime, inadequate health care and faulty infrastructure are pervasive.
The Bush administration is still dogged by charges of an inadequate response - first, for the way it handled the crisis, and more recently, for not spending more time on it.
[This is] only his second since he visited during the one-year anniversary last August.
The Gulf Coast's plight did not even get a mention in his State of the Union address this year.
The White House says criticisms of its efforts are wrong.
``The president continues to follow through on his commitment to help local citizens rebuild their lives and communities on the Gulf Coast,'' [Bush spokesman Gordon] Johndroe said.
Bush himself emphasized to Gulf Coast residents that the government has not forgotten them when he last toured the area - a sign of how common that perception is.
"...Congress and Bush should come together and ensure that federal dollars are no longer ensnared in red tape ``that has continually inhibited our recovery.'' --Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu
Meanwhile, Bush is nearing the end of a vacation at his ranch in central Texas, where's he been biking and clearing brush in the searing heat.
The White House is billing his speech Tuesday to the American Legion as part of a new effort to frame the Iraq war in historical context.
I counted 23,670,289 items in that story that made me want to stick a fork into my leg. Did I miss any?
Sniff! McCain's sad, so for his birthday, donate $142 What next? Giving Nicole Richie an Emmy because she had to spend 82 minutes in jail?
PITY PITCH: McCain finance chairman Bob Mosbacher says “people feel badly” for the Arizona senator after campaign meltdown, boosting online fund raising. “It’s doing very well,” he says. Cindy McCain asks supporters to sign an e-card for her husband’s birthday on Wednesday — and donate $142, two dollars a year.
How about offering Sanjaya Malakar a lead in La Traviata? Or nominating Bernie Kerik for Chief Justice? If pity inspires support, then the Republicans win in 2008, because there's never been a sorrier bunch.
During the last Democratic debate, Dennis Kucinich accidentally combined two words, and then corrected himself and went on.
The two words were "judgment" and "wisdom". It came out as "jusdom".
I like this unintentional word. I've created a Webster's entry for it:
Main Entry: jus·dom Pronunciation: 'juz-d&m Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English jUsdOm 1 a: accumulated philosophic or scientific learning combined with authoritative opinion : SCHECTERISM b: ability to discern inner qualities and relationships : UNBUSHOSITY c: good sense : ANTI-CHENYABILITY d: generally accepted belief with capacity to be sensible : PROGRESSIDEMOCRATOLOGY 2: a wise attitude, belief, or course of action created by decree of the courts : NON-GONZOISM 3: the teachings of the ancient wise men : OLBERMANNISTICS synonym see SANITY antonym see ROVE
The Vietnamese are scoffing at Bush's little Iraq/Vietnam analogy.
President Bush touched a nerve among Vietnamese when he invoked the Vietnam War in a speech warning that death and chaos will envelop Iraq if U.S. troops leave too quickly.
People in Vietnam, where opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq is strong, said Thursday that Mr. Bush drew the wrong conclusions from the long, bloody Southeast Asian conflict.
Pshyeah. Bush draws the wrong conclusions from just about everything. Like his brilliant conclusion that spying on American citizens is a good thing. But I digress.
"Doesn't he realize that if the U.S. had stayed in Vietnam longer, they would have killed more people?" said Vu Huy Trieu of Hanoi, a veteran of the communist forces that fought American troops in Vietnam. "Nobody regrets that the Vietnam War wasn't prolonged except Bush."
Bush wants to prolong anything that hurts. Think about it.
He said U.S. troops could never have prevailed here. "Does he think the U.S. could have won if they had stayed longer? No way," Trieu said.
Trieu must be mistaken. Professor Bush is experienced and knowledgeable, and I trust him completely. Ow. That hurt to say, even as a joke.
Many people in Vietnam said Mr. Bush's comparison was ill-considered.
Many people in the world say Mr. Bush is ill. But that's another story.
"The president emphasized the violence in the wake of American withdrawal from Vietnam. But this happened because the United States left too late, not too early," said Steven Simon, a Mideast expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It was the expansion of the war that opened the door to (Khmer Rouge leader) Pol Pot and the genocide of the Khmer Rouge. The longer you stay, the worse it gets."
In that vein, the longer Bush stays in as president, the worse it gets. Whaddya say we have a policy of early withdrawal of Bush and Cheney from office? Hands?
Stop Republicans From Stealing Electoral Votes In 2008!
The GOP, who as we know doesn't know how to win without cheating--see redistricting in Texas and Georgia mid-decade, impeaching Bill Clinton, stealing Florida in 2000, recalling Gray Davis in California in 2003, jamming phones in New Hampshire in 2002 and about one thousand more examples--is now up to their newest dirty trick in California.
This is all about winning with a minority of support, which is something Republicans are good at. Don't let them get away with it again. This is urgent, as if this makes the ballot, and is supported, they will steal 20 electoral votes, or another Ohio, in 2008.
I've got something to say about the following video I found over at Crooks and Liars.
Ted Nugent is a useless, lame, wussy, diarrhea mouth has-been.
Not sure where this whole pseudo patriotic priapic persona of his came from, but it sure as hell isn't from his life. I'm not going to dis the man for doing what he did to get out of going to Viet Nam, to each his own. But it's awful easy to wanker on about war and all the other flag waving slogans when you're a drug booze** addled 58 year old with no career and most of your hearing shot.
Nugent was here in the South Bend area not too long ago, at a very small venue that was not sold out. I'd be hard pressed to say it held 200 people at max. (I was not there, but I've been there for other shows)
He started this crap and people walked out. I heard from a friend who works at the club that there were MAYBE 50 people left after he finished drooling all over himself. And most of those were drinking and trying to pick someone up, not paying any attention to Ted. They walked out even after paying a hefty cover (not ticket) to hear him play.
Oh, and the rant here in South Bend was much more racial, less political.
Rough transcript from C&L
Nugent: I was in Chicago last week I said—Hey Obama, you might want to suck on one of these you punk? Obama, he’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on one of my machine guns…Let’s hear it for them. I was in NY and I said hey Hillary—you might want to ride one of these into the sunset you worthless bitch… Since I’m in California, I’m gonna find– she might wanna suck on my machine gun! Hey, Dianne Feinstein, ride one of these you worthless whore. Any questions? Freeeeedom!
How long do you think it will be before the FBI starts investigating him for threats against the ex-First Lady? Threats against 2 Presidential Candidates and a sitting Congressperson?
Has anyone seen Ted & Ann Coulter in a room together? The similarities.....
Just sayin'.
h/t C&L friend Jamie **Forgot he was a boozer, not a druggie.
The controversial Detroit alternative high schools run by local church and community groups were set up illegally and as a result the Detroit Public Schools has to pay a $6-million fine, according to the Michigan Department of Education.
The programs, called contract schools, operated under contracts between the school district and local groups. Organizations were paid at least $9 million over the past two years to recruit and educate dropouts.
(snip)
A Free Press investigation this year showed that some of the schools were run by groups that had no educational experience and no training from DPS officials on how to comply with local and state educational requirements. Officials also could not confirm attendance numbers to determine whether the schools were being paid for students who didn’t attend. Separate drop-in visits by the Free Press and school officials to sites showed low attendance, and at least two sites had no students present.
Whether on purpose or thru stupidity I guess is yet to be decided.
Chris Shays Freaks Out At Constituent's Question And Attacks Democrats, Blogs, The Far Left...
Had he gone on any longer I am sure he would have gotten to two-car garages, maple syrup, Will & Grace, alarm clocks and butter.
C-o-o-k-o-o
Shays is most likely losing it because he is the only Republican left in in the House from New England, and somewhere buried in his black heart he knows that mistake will soon be rectified. It's what happens when you support an America-weakening war in Iraq with the same fervor as George W. Bush.
Karl Rove's announced departure from the White House came as a surprise. The architect of the Bush presidency and acclaimed Republican strategist will step down at the end of this month "to spend more time with his family". The timing is interesting and there has been speculation as to his real reasons for leaving.
In a recent piece on Alternet by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, he writes that one of his associates at VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity), Phil Geraldi, believes Rove's resignation has to do with a disagreement over the planned upcoming strike against Iran.
In short, it seems possible that Rove, who is no one's dummy and would not want to be required to "spin" an unnecessary war on Iran, may have lost the battle with Cheney over the merits of a military strike on Iran, and only then decided -- or was urged -- to spend more time with his family.
Go read the whole thing. It is laid out for all to see.
The folks over at Flight point to a new animated video of Northrop Grumman's Oblique Flying Wing X-plane. The DARPA-funded project is to design and build a tailless, supersonic aircraft that could eventually be a bomber, a surveillance asset or perform other missions.
A draft intelligence report on Iran suggests a change in the Tehran regime appears unlikely any time soon despite growing public anger over the country's economic woes, U.S. officials said Thursday.
The report also anticipates little progress in getting Iran to halt its nuclear program or stop supporting militant groups in the region, officials familiar with the draft said on condition of anonymity because the report has not been released.
Just the encouragement President Cheney and Vice President Bush need to amp up the ol' war drums.
The latest in a series of reports from the nation's 16 intelligence agencies, the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran is nearly complete...
Here we go, having to pre-empt more terrorism. Just watch. We have to fight them over there...again.
Because what if this time they can find their way here? You know, the Iranians have a much better sense of direction than say, the Iraqis who bombed us on 9/11. Why, I'll bet they even have maps.
The report is supposed to come out as early as next week. And, okay this is just a wild guess, but I'll take a chance and predict that Bush will stutter and "um, um" through a lot of badly-worded speeches and Cheney will be interviewed by a very accommodating Timmeh.
Then the even more accommodating corporate news media will find their drum sets and beat us into some spectacularly well-photographed air strikes. And with any luck, CNN will have a whole new war logo, theme song and catch phrase!
And Congress will wail and protest. But since the Nation of Dick answers to nobody, he'll lumber around and snarl and do whatever the hell he wants.
And what will we do? Hopefully enough to stop him and his ventriloquist's dummy Mortimer Bush from creating a disaster that will be even harder to fix than the present 178,094 one.
Via Juan Cole(Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute):
A rumor is circulating among well-connected and formerly high-level Iraqi bureaucrats in exile in places like Damascus that a military coup is being prepared for Iraq. I received the following from a reliable, knowledgeable contact. There is no certitude that this plan can or will be implemented. That it is being discussed at high levels seems highly likely.
"There is serious talk of a military commission (majlis `askari) to take over the government. The parties would be banned from holding positions, and all the ministers would be technocrats, so to speak. . .
Comments on this post include the following:
--Yes and it would allow carte blanche giveaway of oil resources and war on Iran without Iraqi contraints. These coups always worked so well in South Vietnam too, eh? Nothing like American plans for foreign "democracy"! --this is following a dreadfully familiar script. Basically we are going to end up spending a trillion dollars and kill thousands of people in order to swap one strongman for another... who won't even be able to make the trains run on time like Saddam (more or less) did. --Why would America go along with this? Because the current Iraqi parliament is unlikely to ever pass the oil law as currently written. A dictarship is much easier (and more profitable), as long as we control the dictator. --even if the new leader/strongman we install is ultimately as ineffectual as Maliki, he will at least serve as a prop for the Bush regime to buy themselves another Friedman Unit or two. (note: a F.U. is a 6-month period, Thomas Friedman's ongoing time allowance for the Iraq mess to continue)
"Today's National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq confirms what most Americans already know: Our troops are mired in an Iraqi civil war and the President's escalation strategy has failed to produce the political results he promised to our troops and the American people.
Our troops have done everything asked of them and more. Unfortunately Iraq's leaders have not. And as today's NIE makes clear, a political solution is extremely unlikely in the near term. Further pursuit of the Administration's flawed escalation strategy is not in our nation's best interests.
Every day that we continue to stick to the President's flawed strategy is a day that America is not as secure as it could be. As the intelligence community reported in another NIE just weeks ago, America's attention is distracted from Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, which has regenerated its capacity to its pre-9/11 levels. That is why it is so essential that this September, Republicans join with Democrats to change course in Iraq and work to restore our nation's security."
That is what a new group of Neocon proto-rejects is calling itself. Their main goal: This advertisement and others attacking Republicans who are wavering on Iraq (that means--gasp--they might not even want to attack Iran!).
See, just for fun, how many lies you can spot in this ad. Classics Like "they attacked us." Really, the Iraqis attacked us? Because I don't remember that. Or "we're making progress." Yup, if by progress you mean the bloodiest summer yet in Iraq.
Let me be the first to thanks these guys for attacking vulnerable Republicans to the tune of $15 million. Celebration party for our mutual success, November 2008, my friends?
And as always, it gets even better. This is just too good to be true. I looked through a list of who is behind this front group of elitist, Chickenhawk, Bush-brown-nosers trying to defend the surge and guess what? An old friend of mine, Brad Blakeman, is running the show.
You mean you don't remember my friend Brad? Ok, here is a little video to jog your memory about this slimeball:
WASHINGTON - The Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months and its security forces have not improved enough to operate without outside help, intelligence analysts conclude in a new National Intelligence Estimate.
Despite uneven improvements, the analysts concluded that the level of overall violence is high, Iraq's sectarian groups remain unreconciled, and al-Qaida in Iraq is still able to conduct its highly visible attacks.
"Iraqi political leaders remain unable to govern effectively," the 10-page document concludes. A copy was obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its release Thursday.
NEW YORK Karl Rove, the former White House aide, made the rounds of weekend talk shows last weekend declaring, among other things, that Sen. Hillary Clinton was a “fatally flawed” candidate for president because she had (he repeated several times) the highest unfavorable ratings of any frontrunner in the history of polling going into the party primaries.
It seemed plausible, and none of the many hosts challenged him on it. There was just one problem: It wasn’t exactly true.
(snip)
Gallup concluded: “A review of Gallup poll data suggests that Hillary Clinton's current high unfavorable ratings are not unprecedented. Other candidates have had similarly high unfavorable ratings at various points in presidential election campaigns in previous years.
Two of these candidates -- George W. Bush in 2004 and Bill Clinton in 1992 -- went on to win the election.
"Additionally, Rove's assumptions that Hillary Clinton's candidacy is 'fatally flawed' run counter to the historical finding that candidates' images often change, sometimes dramatically, as the campaign progresses.
Apparently where "the facts" and "the math" collide, Karl is illiterate.
Yup, showing that Billo has no sense of irony, he shared the following on The Spin Zone, exposing his continuing descent into fairy land as he obsesses over Daily Kos:
The human blowhole continues, adding later in this same segment:
Corruption in the US media is harming this country. There's more propaganda than truth floating around.
Why yes again Bill! Wow, it's fun to agree with you.
The only problem is that FoxNews would be the main corrupt purveyor of the very propaganda which seems to distress you so. Perhaps that is why your boss admitted he helped manipulate us into a war in Iraq and you and your trusty loofah are now trying to do the same with Iran.
But thanks for the warning. I'll now be on the lookout for those corrupt press bosses strewn across the media landscape--Oh wait, I found one!
It's like there's an epidemic of penile reports. A rash of theme, going around the Internets. And of course, I have to get them up pass them on. Here goes.
Men, a word of warning: Never sit naked in front of the TV drinking vodka.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said Wednesday.
The couple was divorced. I have a feeling he'll never remarry.
The attack climaxed three years of acrimonious enforced co-habitation. The couple divorced three years ago but continued to share a small flat, something common in Russia where property costs are very high.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has finally surpassed New YorkSenator Hillary Clinton in the polls. Unfortunately for Romney, it's a poll measuring the number of people committing to vote against him.
Numbers! Gimme numbers!
The Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 44% of Likely Voters would definitely vote against Romney if he's on the ballot in 2008. That's a point higher than the 43% who would definitely vote against Clinton. Only one other possible candidate surpassed Clinton in this category all year (former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who is not considered a candidate at this time).
It's only one poll, and only 1%, but I'm in a negative numbers mood.
In terms of partisan reaction, it's interesting to note that 25% of Republicans say they would definitely vote against Romney while 22% of Democrats would vote against Edwards.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said [Roger] Stone was still asked to resign and sever connections with the state Senate Republican Campaign Committee because the allegations could "only serve as a distraction from the real issues."
Stone claims he was set up by Eliot Spitzer. Uh huh. A comment by reader Oxycon on the original post:
OxyCon said...
That's funny how when Stone gets caught pimping his wife on a Internet gang bang website, he says that even though the sex ad was purchased with his credit card, it was obtained improperly by someone else. Then when a crime is committed with his telephone he says someone who has "unfettered access to his telephone" is responsible, not him. Stones your typical Repub. He'll be getting amnesia real soon.
Major corporations, media outlets, and--dun dun dunnnn--Congress are sticking their Wikis where they're not wanted:
Political spats, petty vandalism, cleft chins and Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s (fictional) death by shark attack — Wikipedia users on House computers clearly have a lot of time on their hands.
So that's what they're doing during Bush speeches.
There are thousands of individual edits originating from computer users on the House of Representatives network. While most of the changes are nothing more than regular Wikipedia interactions on non-government topics, a hefty number include edits to lawmakers’ entries — and some House Wikipedians might not be entirely pleased to see their handiwork exposed.
Some House members have already been more exposed than they'd have preferred... "members" being the key word here. Mark Foley much?
An 81-year-old houseguest suffered a fatal heart attack at the summer home of former President George H.W. Bush.
I'm sorry for the Jansing family. I am. Did you notice I've kept my snark to a minimum?
John C. Jansing, the husband of Bush's cousin Shelley Bush Jansing, was taken by paramedics late Tuesday to the emergency room at Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.
Bush 43 was informed later. Pop and Junior have something else in common now, since GW has had, if he's even noticed, 3,772 drop dead under his watch.
Al Franken Talks About The Bush-"Midnight Toker" Coleman Team
Toker Coleman has invited Bush in to raise funds to try and raise his dismal poll numbers. One problem: He has to be seen in public with the biggest idiot to ever sit in the Oval Office.
So the real question is: Will Norm show those shiny teeth for all to see or hide them from the cameras? I would guess the latter.
Here is Al Franken's take on Lieberman-like Bush/Coleman embrace:
It's basically just blather about how 'Murkins need more Jaysus in their lives etc, but here is the nut graph in Ms. Lopez's incisive interviewing...
Lopez: John Edwards?
Klinghoffer: He should review the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet.” The speech he’s best known for, the “Two Americas” oration — “One America that does the work, another America that reaps the rewards,” etc. — is nothing more than a piece of incitement to coveting.
Um, so those gnarly poor folks should just STFU and be happy with their poverty?
(And yes, it's a humor piece, not a report. Oh puh-lease.)
This is so worth reading. Some excerpts:
I got her trained just right. She brings me a steady supply of cold Bud Lights while I chill on the La-Z-Boy watching the Nationals game on the plasma. Here's a funny: After any home run, I'll down whatever's left of my beer and suck in a big mouthful of air and then belch her name really, really slowly and blow it right in her face. "Oh my God that is so gross!" she squeals, and then totally cracks up and makes that funny snorting noise and goes to get us both another beer. Man, I love being married.
And that was just the honeymoon night. No, no, I kid the royal couple.
Grandpa Bush pumps my hand in greeting and keeps winking at me and won't let go for like, two minutes solid. So weird. Grandma Barb always wearing that massive teal muumuu -- looks like a cross between Bea Arthur and Dame Edna and a giant leather ottoman. "You keep an eye on our little Jen, she can be a handful!" Like I don't know.
El. Oh. El!!!!!! (that's adult cool for lol)
...Bush 41 always griping about how badly his kid screwed it up, makes Bush 43 mope and whine until Grandma B smacks him with a rolled up Wall Street Journal and tells him to "shape up." Sorta pathetic. JB just rolls her eyes, sneaks off to swipe more tiny bottles of Tanqueray from the pantry.
Okay, okay, one more. But just one...
...I'm telling Laura about Jen's new Brazilian wax job that spells out "Obama '08." Except she misspelled it as "Osama." Whoops.
It's always a good idea to take a really bad practice and employ it more often.
Under pressure from the White House and Congress to deliver a long-delayed plan last year, officials at the Department of Homeland Security's counter-narcotics office took a shortcut that has become common at federal agencies: They hired help through a no-bid contract.
And the firm they hired showed them how to do it.
The government--surprise!--is relying less on competition for good deals for products and services. Federal spending on contracts without "full and open" competition has tripled.
Think...think real hard...what happens as a result:
Government auditors say the result is often higher prices for taxpayers and an undue reliance on a limited number of contractors.
So open competition is now the exception, not the rule. It almost seems like these guys are, oh I dunno, kinda cliquey. I could be wrong.
Keith Ashdown, chief investigator at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said that in many cases, officials are simply choosing favored contractors as part of a "club mentality."
Well, I wanted to be wrong. Go read the article for the gory details.
That's funny how when Stone gets caught pimping his wife on a Internet gang bang website, he says that even though the sex ad was purchased with his credit card, it was obtained improperly by someone else.
Then when a crime is committed with his telephone he says someone who has "unfettered access to his telephone" is responsible, not him.
Stones your typical Repub.
He'll be getting amnesia real soon.