Is it on YouTube?

From a Times article on Bush's flight home to Crawford:

The passengers were shown a 22-minute film produced by Scott Sforza and edited by Laura Crawford celebrating the Bush presidency.

Because i really, really, really want to see how they managed to pull that off.

Continue reading Is it on YouTube?

Best photo ever

Give the credit to Saul Loeb of Reuters for this unbridled moment of joy.

Continue reading Best photo ever

Music video

Rumor has it this was recorded in Durham.

Rock on!

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Job creation program

Their deployment as a makeshift missile robbed President George Bush of his dignity and landed their owner in jail. But the world's most notorious pair of shoes have yielded an unexpected bonanza for a Turkish shoemaker.

Ramazan Baydan, owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company, has been swamped with orders from across the world, after insisting that his company produced the black leather shoes which the Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last Sunday.

Baydan has recruited an extra 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271 - more than four times the shoe's normal annual sale - following an outpouring of support for Zaidi's act, which was intended as a protest, but led to his arrest by Iraqi security forces.

Orders have come mainly from the US and Britain, and from neighbouring Muslim countries, he said.

Around 120,000 pairs have been ordered from Iraq, while a US company has placed a request for 18,000

I may order me a pair as a gift for Rick Warren. Special hand delivery.

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Of the people, by the people, and for the people

Bush can pass the rules because of a loophole in US law allowing him to put last-minute regulations into the Code of Federal Regulations, rules that have the same force as law. He can carry out many of his political aims without needing to force new laws through Congress. Outgoing presidents often use the loophole in their last weeks in office, but Bush has done this far more than Bill Clinton or his father, George Bush sr. He is on track to issue more 'midnight regulations' than any other previous president.

Many of these are radical and appear to pay off big business allies of the Republican party. One rule will make it easier for coal companies to dump debris from strip mining into valleys and streams. The process is part of an environmentally damaging technique known as 'mountain-top removal mining'. It involves literally removing the top of a mountain to excavate a coal seam and pouring the debris into a valley, which is then filled up with rock. The new rule will make that dumping easier.

Another midnight regulation will allow power companies to build coal-fired power stations nearer to national parks. Yet another regulation will allow coal-fired stations to increase their emissions without installing new anti-pollution equipment.

The Environmental Defence Fund has called the moves a 'fire sale of epic size for coal'. Other environmental groups agree. 'The only motivation for some of these rules is to benefit the business interests that the Bush administration has served,' said Ed Hopkins, a director of environmental quality at the Sierra Club. A case in point would seem to be a rule that opens up millions of acres of land to oil shale extraction, which environmental groups say is highly pollutant.

There is a long list of other new regulations that have gone onto the books. One lengthens the number of hours that truck drivers can drive without rest. Another surrenders government control of rerouting the rail transport of hazardous materials around densely populated areas and gives it to the rail companies.

He deserves a lot more than having a pair of shoes thrown at him. but maybe it would be an interesting piece of political theater if we all mailed a pair of shoes to him at the White House before he leaves office. Preferably ones that have stepped in a pile of dog shit.

Continue reading Of the people, by the people, and for the people

Sorry?

You're sorry?

"I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's "World News," which was airing Monday. "Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."

Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, no. You don't "need to be in more." You need to far the fuck away from anyplace where you can do any more damage.

Continue reading Sorry?

Bush signs law extending unemployment insurance

I guess that since he's going to be unemployed himself pretty soon, he's got some vested self-interest in this one.

Continue reading Bush signs law extending unemployment insurance

Elections have consequences

And it's not just the reaction of the other world leaders. Do you think that CNN would have made a big deal of an incident like this even 6 months ago?

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Continue reading Elections have consequences

Bushed

Here's video of George Bush, explaining the current economic situation, to an audience of what one assumes are pretty smart people.

What do you think? Does he have a clue what he's talking about? Does he seem to be thinking "Mission Accomplished" when he says "These developments have placed a heavy burden on hard working people around the world" at the 2:24 mark?

The scary thing for me is that, once upon a time, over 90% of the American people thought he was the shit.

His entire pre-political career was littered with the types of failures he's now leaving for the rest of us to pick up over the next couple of decades. Nothing's changed as far as i can tell. He's the same failure now that he was in October, 2000.

Fool me once, shame on you, and all that.

90%.

Continue reading Bushed

The Hoov

And not just because he sucks like a vacuum around Uranus:

Asserting the global financial crisis is "not a failure of the free market," President George W. Bush on Thursday called on the world leaders meeting this weekend to agree on a modest set of reforms aimed at preventing future collapses.

Bush's main message to the leaders about to converge on Washington: Reforms won't help if they overreach by abandoning the free market and restricting trade.

"Government intervention is not a cure-all," Bush was to say in a speech here, according to prepared remarks released in advance by the White House.

Have we ever had an executive s disconnected from reality as Bush? All that's missing here is a plea to lower the capital gains tax, and i wouldn't be surprised if he says that, too.

Continue reading The Hoov

Is this the funniest thing ever?

I mean, i don't care who you are, that's pretty funny.

Continue reading Is this the funniest thing ever?

Bushed

It's no coincidence President Bush has been out of the public's eye in recent days — that's the way the Republican Party wants it. White House press secretary Dana Perino said Monday the incumbent's invisibility is by design — because "the Republican Party wanted to make this election about John McCain."

The president knows there are people in this country who want change and are looking for something new, Perino said.

"We're realistic about the political environment that we are in," she said. "What keeps him going is knowing that he's done the right thing."

With a 26 percent approval rating, Bush has only appeared in Democratic television ads that regularly tie him to Republican candidates. And that won't change until after Election Day.

Since Bush endorsed McCain in the Rose Garden on March 5, the two have appeared in public only three times for a total of 12 minutes. That's in stark contrast to the scores of fundraisers and rallies Bush did before congressional midterm elections in 2002 and 2006. Perino said the last time Bush and McCain communicated was before the president's Cabinet meeting October 15.

Dana Perino is so hot. I'm going to miss her.

Continue reading Bushed

That's what we're afraid of

Oy.

Bush went to the Rose Garden of the White House Friday morning to reassure Americans that the government is doing all it can to cope with the problem.

Continue reading That's what we're afraid of

Caption this!

Actually, you don't need to, as the copy editors at the BBC have already taken care of that.

UPDATE: I see they've already replaced both the photo and the caption. Now who's the mushy one?

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Urgency

NYTimes:

Underscoring the urgency, Mr. Bush, who had remained at the Olympics in Beijing while the conflict erupted, postponed a planned trip to his ranch in Crawford, Tex., which was to have begun on Thursday.

(Photo: Thomas Coex/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)Used without permission

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21%

George W. Bush's overall job approval has dropped to 21% as 76% of American say the national economy is getting worse according to the latest survey from the American Research Group.

Among all Americans, 21% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 72% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 17% approve and 77% disapprove.

Among Americans registered to vote, 22% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 71% disapprove. When it comes to the way Bush is handling the economy, 18% of registered voters approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 77% disapprove.

A total of 76% say the national economy is getting worse, 61% say their household financial situations are getting worse, and 68% say the national economy is in a recession. Of those disapproving of the way Bush is handling his job, 84% say the national economy is getting worse, 73% say their household financial situations are getting worse, and 79% say the national economy is in a recession.

Wow.

UPDATE: Some perspective.

Continue reading 21%

Civics 101

Seems some of the good folks of San Francisco have decided to start honoring the legacy of President George W. Bush as soon as he leaves office:

As we near the end of George W Bush’s presidency, we think it is important to select a fitting monument to this president’s work. On matters ranging from foreign relations to fiscal and environmental stewardship, no other president in American history has accomplished so much in such a short time.

To honor George W Bush for his eight years of honorable public service, the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is sponsoring a ballot initiative this November.

It reads…

Should The City And County of San Francisco Rename The Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W Bush Sewage Plant?

We believe this is an appropriate honor for a truly unique president. If you think so too, join this grassroots movement to rename this important and iconic landmark in his honor.

What Durham landmarks or public works projects do you think would be appropriately renamed in George Bush's honor?

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George Bush sees the light

Or not.

"I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric," Bush told the Times as he flew across the Atlantic on Air Force One.

The phrases he used to win support for the war such as "bring 'em on" and "dead or alive" he said, "indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace."

But that impression, he insisted, was far from the truth.

"One of the untold stories of Iraq is that we explored the diplomacy a lot," he said. "We all wanted to solve this 'disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences' in a diplomatic fashion. After all, I went to the United Nations security council."

Uh, chimpy? Maybe if you had, you know, listened when you went to the Security Council, that might have meant something. But coming from the man who gives an interview "(w)earing an Air Force One flying jacket embroidered with George W Bush over his left breast, and with a china mug bearing the acronym Potus - President of the United States - at his side," what else would you expect but stunning narcissism.

Continue reading George Bush sees the light

Just a coincidence

Competing headlines:
Bush in Saudi Arabia to press king on oil and Iran

Saudis see no reason to raise oil production now

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En fuego!

Olbermann:

Continue reading En fuego!