Once again President Bush proves that he is the most arrogant man on the planet earth.
From Bush warns Russians against 'bullying'
President Bush on Friday chided Russia for Cold War-style behavior, saying, "Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century."
Weird talking points from Washington about Georgia and Russia:
Bush administration officials, worried by what they saw as a series of provocative Russian actions, repeatedly warned Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to avoid giving the Kremlin an excuse to intervene in his country militarily, U.S. officials said Monday.
But in the end, the warnings failed to stop the Georgian president — a Bush favorite — from launching an attack last week that on Monday seemed likely to end not only in his country’s military humiliation but complete occupation by Russian forces.
The cost of the fighting in lives has yet to be tallied. But President Bush on Monday made it clear that the outcome was sure to mark a turning point in Russia’s relations with the West. It might also prove costly for the West’s relationship with the budding democracies of Eastern Europe, which now must contemplate a world where the United States could do little to protect a close ally in the face of a determined Russian onslaught.
"Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people," President Bush proclaimed after returning from China. "Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century."
Additionally, the United States had lost access to vital information when Russia dropped out of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty in December to protest U.S. plans to build missile defense sites in Europe.Read the rest here.
Under the treaty, Russia had been required to exchange reports on troop, armor and aircraft deployments with the United States and other members on a monthly basis. But once Russia dropped out, that information was no longer available.
The question we must ask is: Are we willing to risk war, including nuclear holocaust, in order to fulfill the aspirations of Mikhail Saakashvili? While Bush and McCain speak of Saakashvili as if he's a combination of Thomas Jefferson and Nelson Mandela, he's seen by his own people as increasingly authoritarian and unbalanced. Last year, Saakashvili sent in his special forces to violently disperse opposition protesters in the capital city, followed by a declaration of martial law. He sacked the opposition television station (partly owned by Rupert Murdoch), exiled or jailed his political opponents, and stacked the courts with his own judges while removing neutral observers, leaving even onetime neocon cheerleaders like Bruce Jackson and Anne Applebaum feeling queasy. Hardly the image of the "small democratic nation" that everyone today touts.Read more here.
The Russian response has, of course, been disproportionate and heavy-handed--exactly what's to be expected of them ever since Boris Yeltsin first showed the world how post-Soviet Russia fights its wars, starting with Chechnya in 1994. Georgia has been terrorized by indiscriminate aerial bombing and the constant threat of invasion by a vastly superior Russian force--eerily reminiscent of NATO's campaign against Serbia in 1999. Indeed, many observers believe that the current Russian response is a direct blowback of the Kosovo campaign, which is why there are so many similarities.
But what is the best way to respond? The neocons and even CNN reports talk about exploring military options, which is absurd given the consequences of war with nuclear-armed Russia. Woofing loudly like John McCain is likely to prove as effective as Bush's woofing did with North Korea, before he was forced to crawl back to the negotiating table.
In fact, one of the most effective ways America could respond to this crisis is by rethinking its entire geopolitical approach of the past two decades, which has been hegemonic, arrogant, hypocritical and reckless. If we set a better example, then we could at least reclaim the moral authority, or "soft power," that we once had.
From 'Way Of The World' Sees Fabricated Case For War:
In his new book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism, author Ron Suskind alleges that the Bush administration knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and eventually fabricated intelligence assets to support its case for war. Both the White House and the CIA deny his claims.Read the rest here.
Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, tells Steve Inskeep that a secret mission was conducted, in which a British intelligence agent met with the head of Iraqi intelligence in a secret location in Jordan, and that the Iraqi conveyed that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
"What that meant is that we knew everything that became so obvious by the summer after the invasion, and the president made a decision essentially to ignore that intelligence," Suskind says.
He says once the final report went to President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and others, the U.S. cut off communications with the Iraqi intelligence chief and then moved forward. An agreement was made to resettle the Iraqi and pay him $5 million.
Let’s put two oil men in the White House for eight years and see what happens.
From Exxon posts new profit record by Steve Hargreaves:
Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter.
That profit works out to $1,485.55 a second.
The company returned $10.1 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks, 12% more than last year.
The big international oil companies have been criticized for plowing much of their profits back into stock buybacks and other programs to benefit shareholders, as opposed to exploring for more oil which could bring down the price of crude for everyone.
Critics charge the oil companies with deliberately restricting production in an attempt to keep prices high.
Bush is responsible for this. Let’s make him pay.
From Report: U.S. 'wasted' $560 million on Iraq repairs by Joe Sterling and Adam Levine:
The United States has "wasted" more than half a billion dollars in Iraq repairing facilities that were damaged because of poor security, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction says in a report released Wednesday.Read the rest here.
Stuart Bowen's quarterly report arrived at a price tag of $560 million by tallying the results of more than 100 audits his office has conducted.
Further billions had to be diverted from reconstruction to security because the Bush administration did not adequately foresee how volatile Iraq would be when it began rebuilding the country, the report says.
"The U.S. government did not fully anticipate or plan for the unstable working environment that faced U.S. managers when reconstruction began in Iraq," it says.
From US Congressional Panel Hears Testimony on Case for Bush Impeachment by Dan Robinson:
Stephen Presser of Northwestern University School of Law, asserted there has been no proof that President Bush put his own interests over those of the nation. "For a president to be impeached, he must have committed some grave offense that is contrary to his oath to uphold the Constitution and laws of his country. He must put his interests above the Constitution and the laws," he said.Remind me again why Bill Clinton was impeached.
Jeremy Rabkin, Professor of Law at George Mason University, asserts that any impeachment effort would be unwise. "To put everything on to the somebody must pay for mistakes and impeachment is the way is to make the country ungovernable," he said.
Sometimes I receive comments to something I have posted here at No Countries No Religion. Sometimes the comments make no sense to me. More often than not they are interesting. Even if I don’t agree, I appreciate the feedback. Sometimes, a comment may have a way of forcing me to think. These are the most interesting comments, even though they have a way of exhausting me.
Yesterday I asked the question Why All The Hate? This question was prompted by the recent terrorist bombings in India. The first comment I received to this post was:
Apparently, it's not just the US they hate... they hate India, they hate Israel, they hate Denmark, they hate Britain, they hate Australia...There is not a lot to that comment, but for some reason it is one of those ones that made me think. So I am responding to it here. It sparked some thoughts that I would like to share. Since the comment is short and I don’t want to make any assumptions I wish to make it clear that not all of what follows is a direct response to this comment.
What DON'T they hate?! I think THAT list is a lot smaller.
Indian Mujahedeen claimed responsibility in May for near-simultaneous bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the northwest Indian city of Jaipur. In that claim, the group declared "open war" against India in retaliation for what it said were 60 years of Muslim persecution and the country's support of U.S. policies.This is the reason that I asked: “Why do they hate the United States so much?” Also, the reference to “60 years of Muslim persecution” seems to be a direct reference to Israel. After all, they recently celebrated 60 years of their existence. The United States picked sides. The United States strongly supports Israel. The United States strongly supports violence, and has for a very long time.
John McCain should add George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to his list of those who should be brought to “justice through a Nuremberg-like international trial.”
From McCain: bin Laden could face Nuremberg-like justice by Ed Homick:
Sen. John McCain on Friday said as president he would consider bringing Osama bin Laden to justice through a Nuremberg-like international trial.Read the rest here.
He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "We have various options. The Nuremberg Trials are certainly an example of the kind of tribunal that we could move forward with. I don't think we'd have any difficulty in devising an international -- internationally supported mechanism that would mete out justice. There's no problem there."
McCain said it would be a "good thing to reveal to the world the enormity of this guy's crimes, and his intentions, which are still there."
Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith say that there are Nine Reasons to Investigate War Crimes Now:
Retired General Antonio Taguba, the officer who led the Army's investigation into Abu Ghraib, recently wrote in the preface to the new report, Broken laws, Broken Lives:Read the rest here.
"There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
Should those who ordered war crimes be held to account? With the conclusion of the Bush regime approaching, many people are dubious, even those horrified by Administration actions. They fear a long, divisive ordeal that could tear the country apart. They note that such division could make it far harder for the country to address the many other crises it is facing. They see the upcoming elections as a better way to set the country on a new path.
"This is a history of a failure" is how he himself described his efforts in the Congo. He was killed in Bolivia, trying to fire up another failure of a war. Earlier, he even managed to drop his gun and shoot himself in the face.Cue David Bowie.
But more important than his incompetence is the fact that the man was a mass killer. Hundreds were reportedly executed on his watch, and that doesn't include the deaths incurred in the wars he was constantly trying to start. He described his maniacal lust for war in his writings, saying he savored "the acrid smell of gunpowder and blood of the enemy's death." How this guy is a hero to the anti-war crowd is truly perplexing.
How important is the office of the president of the United States to us? How much do we value it?
The United States population is more than 304 million people.
304 million people to choose from, and George W. Bush is our president?
304 million people to choose from, and either Barack Obama or John McCain will be our next president. Can’t we do better than this?
The president of the United States makes $400,000 a year.
The chief executive of a Standard & Poor's 500 company makes, on average, $14.2 million a year.
What does this say about us as a nation? What does it say about how much we value the president?
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that any one person is worth $400,000 a year, let alone $14.2 million.
One of the arguments for high CEO pay is that it is necessary to attract good candidates. Why this is so in this age of corrupt and incompetent CEOs is beyond me, but why isn’t the same argument used for the office of the president of the United States?
No one should be above the law.
From Kucinich Pushes on Impeachment by Jason Leopold:
Congress has plenty of evidence that George W. Bush deserves impeachment for misleading the nation into war in Iraq, authorizing torture and other grave crimes, and violating the Constitution – and it is now time to act, says Rep. Dennis Kucinich.Read the rest here.
“How many more hearings do we need to have to prove this administration has violated the Constitution, taken the law into its own hands, and condoned torture?” asked Kucinich, D-Ohio, author of some three dozen articles of impeachment.
“These articles of impeachment are about accountability,” Kucinich said in an interview. “I think our country is at risk. We’re setting a terrible precedent for future administrations if we choose to turn a blind eye to the crimes committed by this administration.
He is insane.
The man definitely has a screw loose. He definitely has no sense of humor. Humor is about funny things, not serious things. He shouldn’t just be impeached, he should be committed.
From President George Bush: 'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter' by Robert Winnettand Urmee Khan:
The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."Read the rest here.
He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.
Summertime, and the livin's not easy.
George W. Bush will blame anyone and everyone, but himself.
From George Bush blames teenagers for job losses by Jeff Musall:
The Bush Administration continues to put out propaganda aimed at anyone dumb enough to buy it. The problem for them is that more people are waking up to just how badly they have been lied to and mislead. Stop listening, people. Deficit spending, bad fiscal policy, bad trade policy, bad energy policy - those are some of the real reasons for the bad job market. Of all the very bad qualities George Bush demonstrates on a regular basis, his absolute inability to recognize his mistakes is among the worst.While our fear-inspiring “leader” (with the MBA from Harvard) sees teenagers as the root of all economic evil, others see things differently. Instead of pointing the finger at teenagers entering the job market for summer jobs, some say plummeting auto sales, plummeting home prices, tighter lending standards, shrinking paychecks, and higher prices for raw materials are the reasons for all the job losses. Not to mention the vicious cycle that the economy likes to unleash on us every once in a while.
The slide in the labor market has become both symptom and cause of a weak economy, pulling many families into a downward spiral. Back when housing prices were still rising, Americans borrowed exuberantly against the value of their homes to finance renovations, vacations and shopping sprees. But that artery of finance has constricted considerably along with access to credit cards, forcing a reversion to the traditional limits of household finance. Millions of American families must now confine their spending to what they can bring home from work.I tend to think that the huge debt and the huge deficit we have run up may have something to do with our economic woes. I also think that all the money being flushed down the toilet in Iraq and Afghanistan may have something to do with our economic woes. But what do I know? I only know, that if I threw money away and maxed out all my credit cards and started earning less money on purpose, that I would end up in deep doo doo. And if John McCain is elected, we can keep flushing money for at least another hundred years. (If elected, he’ll be in office that long, won’t he?)
With job losses growing and working hours shrinking, many paychecks are eroding, prompting millions of families to cut their spending. Soaring prices for food and gasoline are overwhelming modest wage gains for most workers, leaving households with even less money to spend. All of which deprives struggling businesses of sales, prompting them to shed more workers, sending the cycle down another turn.
As the forces of economic downturn ripple widely across the United States, the job market of 2008 is shaping up as the weakest in more than half a century for teenagers looking for summer work, according to labor economists, government data and companies that hire young people.Yet somehow Bush thinks that teenagers have some kind of great power over the economy.
Do you remember being in the first grade at school? It wasn’t that long ago that you can’t remember, was it? First grade is a very early step in that process of learning how to fit in with the rest of the world. How to be a social animal, if you will. For some, as part of that learning process, it is a time of calling some of your classmates names if you disagreed with them or didn’t like them. I remember classmates calling each other “retard” and other derogatory names. Then we move on and graduate from elementary school, some of us graduate from high school, and some from college. Most of us as adults have moved past the mental and emotional level that we had when we were in the first grade. We stop calling others “retards.” We see it as childish and immature behavior that is uncivilized. Most adults want to at least try to behave as adults.
Most, but not all. If you are John Lillpop and write for The Conservative Voice you still call people names if you disagree with them and don’t like them. If you are John Lillpop you still are at the mental and emotional level of a first grader. So you write childish and silly things because you don’t know about things like facts, substance, and context.
From Obama Finds God: Far Left Fumes! by John Lillpop:
In another monumental departure from the mental disorder known as liberalism, Barack Obama has seen the light and is ready to embrace God, and or Allah, as an integral part of his campaign for the Oval Office.The first thing I must point out is the reference to a source with no linking code in the HTML. Obviously, that far-left commie inventor of the internet, Al Gore, has very wisely chosen not to share very much of his infinite wisdom of all things web-like with all those far-right fascists.
This dilly is sure to send retards at Daily KOs and Moveon.orgy into self-administered (and illegal) drug therapy.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0702/p25s10
-uspo.html
So, if elected, not only will Obama not dismantle President Bush's program for supporting faith-based initiatives, but now the flaky Democrat has pledged to expand the God thing.
With this latest change of heart, Obama has once again abandoned the far left and its kooky communist atheist agenda.
Who is going to take the lead in amending the US Constitution to remove all that verbiage about "separation of church and state" in order to conform to Obama's latest fancy?Obviously Mr. Lillpop thinks that Chuck Norris is a Constitutional scholar and deep thinker.
Say what? No amendment is required since there is nothing in the Constitution about separation of church and state to begin with?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.And maybe consider this:
In 1802, President Jefferson wrote a letter to a group of Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut, in which he declared that it was the purpose of the First Amendment to build ''a wall of separation between Church and State.”And here is the big zing (in bold type, too) Mr. Lillpop chose to use at the end:
It’s not just President Bush upsetting many Americans. Most are not that happy with Congress as well.
Tidbits from Congressional Approval Falls to Single Digits for First Time Ever by rasmussenreports.com:
The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.
Just 12% of voters think Congress has passed any legislation to improve life in this country over the past six months. That number has ranged from 11% to 13% throughout 2008. The majority of voters (62%) say Congress has not passed any legislation to improve life in America.
Most voters (72%) think most members of Congress are more interested in furthering their own political careers. Just 14% believe members are genuinely interested in helping people.
Is there anyone else in the entire world, besides George W. Bush, that uses the word
