Bush Leadership in Meltdown Troubles Investors
Yeah, heck of a job, Paulie.
Category: George W. Bush
Bush Less Popular than Cancer
American Research Group‘s latest poll has only 19% of respondents approving of his job performance.
That’s worse than cancer. Hell, that’s worse than Dick Cheney.
Impeach him now, it’s a political plus.
| Bush job approval | Approve | Disapprove | Undecided |
| Feb 2008 | 19% | 77% | 4% |
| Jan 2008 | 34% | 59% | 7% |
| Dec 2007 | 32% | 66% | 2% |
| Nov 2007 | 31% | 64% | 5% |
| Oct 2007 | 25% | 67% | 8% |
| Sep 2007 | 34% | 60% | 6% |
| Aug 2007 | 28% | 65% | 7% |
| Jul 2007 | 25% | 71% | 4% |
| Jun 2007 | 27% | 67% | 6% |
| May 2007 | 31% | 64% | 5% |
| Apr 2007 | 33% | 62% | 5% |
| Mar 2007 | 32% | 63% | 5% |
| Feb 2007 | 39% | 56% | 5% |
And Now Bush is Maintaining that He Can Ignore Congress on Spending
In the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008, Congress prohibited the use of federal funds to “to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq” or “to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq.” it also,
….requires intelligence agencies to turn over “any existing intelligence assessment, report, estimate or legal opinion” requested by the leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees within 45 days. If the president wants to assert executive privilege to deny the request, the law says, White House counsel must do so in writing.
Finally, Bush’s signing statement raised constitutional questions about a section of the bill that established an independent, bipartisan “Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan” to investigate allegations of waste, mismanagement, and excessive force by contractors.
Bush’s response, “Nyah, nyah, nayh, I’m president“, in a signing statement.
A prohibition on spending by the congress is legally binding on a president, even it makes his job “hard work”.
This is why having impeachment on the table is a necessary thing:
NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!
Bush’s Phoney War on Earmarks
When Republicans were in power, he never batted an eyelash at earmarks, which are something like ¾% of the budget, but now he’s decided it’s a good time to go to war against them.
Oh…me bad…He’s thinking that NEXT fiscal year is a good time to start this “war on earmarks”, so he’s just “announcing” them at this SOTU speach.
Even the Republicans are calling weak:
But if he was seeking to placate the fiercest foes of earmarking, he failed. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) called Bush’s plan “weak.” Thomas A. Schatz, president of the conservative Citizens Against Government Waste, labeled it “fiscal snake oil.”
Well, I guess it meats steroids.
Bush: “Osama Who???”
In an interview with (who else) Fox News, Bush is saying that it’s no big deal that Osama bin Laden is still breathing free air.
Interesting comment from George W. “Dead or Alive” Bush, don’t you think?
One Year to Go
An then, hopefully, a few dozen trials at The Hague.
Yeah, Right, “Recycled Tapes”, and the Dog Ate My Homework
Yes, all those emails from the time of the Valeria Plame outing, reused and overwritten in a “consistent with industry best practices”.
Remember yesterday’s post on the lies of our times, this one needs to be added.
Not only are these clearly government records which require retention, but these tapes have been used in investigations going back to Iran-Contra.
They knew that this could be used as evidence, and they knew that it had been used as evidence, and they deliberately decided to destroy this evidence.
DOJ Report: U.S. Civil Rights Commission Appointments Illegal
Bush and His Evil Minions™ wanted to stack the Civil Rights commission. The problem? The law forbade any more than 4 of the 8members being of one party.
Bush’s solution was to have two of the Republicansregister as independent, and then appoint two more Republicans.
Well, now the non-partisan Congressional Research Service has reviewed the 1957 Civil Rights Act that established the commission, along with the 1983 changes designed to forstall Ronald “What me, Racist” Reagan doing what Bush just did.
In sum, the situation that precipitated Congress’ 1983 revision of the Civil Rights Commission – the presidential firing of five of the then six sitting commissioners – is arguably indistinguishable from the changes in party registrations that has effectively allowed the President to establish a majority of his political in control of the Commission. The intent of the 1983 restructuring, as confirmed by the Wilson decision, was to preclude similar juggling of the of the Commission’s statutory appointments process. In light of that history, together with the recognition of the Wilson court of the central importance of independence of the central importance of independence to the accomplishment of the Commission’s mission, it is likely that a reviewing court would find the OLC opinion unpersuasive and the recent appointments violative of the political balance requirements of the statute.
In English, it’s pretty clear that they just ignored the law because they felt like it.
Bush Is Delusional (Economics Edition)
So, Captain Oblivious is saying that the markets are ‘Strong and Solid’, and that it’s time to look at cut taxes some more.
Cutting taxes? With the dollar tanking because of out deficit?
I swear, if this man had hemorrhoids, he would think them a reason to cut taxes.
Bringing Honor and Integrity to the White House: Bush and His Evil Minions™ Edition
TPM has the list.
If I count correctly, there are 44 officials, indicted, convicted, or having resigned under a cloud.
If I fell upward this way, I’d be ruler of the bloody universe.
Federal Judge Directs White House to Preserve Email Backups
If the White House obeys this order, and that’s a big if, we can expect to see the email records from this point forward preserved.
It’s good news for historians, and any future war crimes tribunal.
Worse than Nixon
In an otherwise completely conventional story from USA Today, I found this little gem at the end:
Meanwhile, Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they “strongly disapprove” of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.
I must resist urge to rub hands together and say, “Excellent”, like Monty Burns.”
Too late….
Bush and His Evil Minions™ Are Stonewalling on Abramoff Contacts
The Whitehouse is refusing to turn over Abramoff documents. They are claiming that they “contain internal deliberations among White House employees, or that otherwise implicate Executive Branch prerogatives.”
How on earth could this “implicate Executive Branch prerogatives.” We are talking about contacts with a corrupt lobbyist.
Bush’s Austrailian Laptog, John Howard May Lose His Seat
The polls are showing that it is a virtual certainty that John Howard will no longer be prime minister after the elections, and now it appears that he may not even hold onto his own seat.
One rather hopes that he is completely tossed out.
Bush Doesn’t Care About Children or Black People
Bush vetoes S-CHIP, and I’m paraphrasing Kanye West.
Bush opposes S-Chip because it works. Because it delivers affordable healthcare, and Bush cannot countenance this. It might adversely affect the revenues of insurance companies, a parasitic industry that did not even exist 70 years ago.
Court Decides that Old Presidential Records Must Be Released
Bush did this because Reagan’s records were to be released, and his dad’s prints would have been all over Iran-Contra.
It might also show evidence of Poppy Bush negotiating with the Iranians in 1980 to keep the hostages locked up to win the election, but I don’t think that Bush pere would be stupid enough to let George, Jr. know about that.
Historians should be seeing some interesting stuff.
Sy Hersh Details Bush/Cheney’s Plans for Attack on Iraq
It appears that the Bush administration is changing their justification for an attack on Iran. No one is believing their nuclear weapons claims (gee, I wonder why?), so now they are claiming that Iran is actively arming and supporting unsavory and violent elements in Iraq (like the Malaki government, I guess).
The explosively formed projectile claims are bogus. The IRA was making these in Irish basements 30 years ago, and they have found workshops where they are being made.
Explosives are from the unsecured ammunition dumps in Iraq.
And then, there is the issue that any US attack will secure the position of the Iranian government for the next 20 years, as Saddam’s attack did 25 years ago.
I don’t see Congress doing anything to stop him, and absent that, the only possibility of stopping this is a mutiny of the general officer corps, which is potentially far worse than an attack on Iran.
As I have stated before, I believe that the US intends to use nuclear weapons in this attack, and the long term consequences of this are catastrophic (the short term consequences are $200/bbl oil).
NPR Tells White House That He Doesn’t Get His Choice of Toady to Interview Him
The White House offered NPR an interview with George W. Bush, with the stipulation that Juan Williams (Softball Interviewer, Toady to Right Wingers, and Incompetent) interview him. NPR said no interview unless they chose the interviewer, so the White House had him interview Bush on….wait for it….Fox News.
I never how Juan Williams has managed to keep a job. I have never heard him do a story, or an interview, competently, and he brushed off Clarence Thomas’s sexual harassment without revealing that he himself was a sexual harasser.
My conclusion is that he has been coasting on his book Eyes on the Prize* for about 25 years.
*I bet you were expecting me to accuse him of an being an affirmative action hire, but I don’t think that he is. I think that he has gotten his job because on the fact that he was prominently competent once (never to be repeated).
White House Releases English as a Second Language Guides
Funny.
Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Oops — White House Releases Bush’s Pronunciation Guides: “A guide was given not only for an admittedly tough one like Kyrgyzstan (‘KEYR-geez-stan’), but also for Nicolas Sarkozy (‘sar-KO-zee’), which seems pretty simple to pronounce as it is.”
The Press in Canuckistan Gets It
It’s a clickable image, and the article is a good read.