ThePoliticalCat

A Blog devoted to progressive politics, environmental issues, LGBT issues, social justice, workers' rights, womens' rights, and, most importantly, Cats.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Miscellaneous Political Roundup

Oh, joy.

imPEACH may be the flavour of the month.

And despite Chris Matthews' sycophantic paeans to the glimmering, sunny nobility that radiates from the chimp of Smirk, it appears a small, and hopefully increasing, majority of Americans would like nothing better than chimPEACH for the flavour of the month!

Molly Saves The Day Indeed. For women who might want to exercise their choice to not be forced to give birth, here is all the advice you'll ever need and definitely more than I ever wanted to know. Warning to the easily squicked. It sure is squicky.

So when Kerry spoke of Mary Cheney's self-identified sexual orientation, Lynne and DICK couldn't stop frothing at the mouth. But when one of their own hatemongers suggests, among other things, murdering people for their sexual orientation, why that's another kettle of fish, entirely.

Bein' as how that whole Iraq thing is going so well, and all, yaknow, according to Donny Rumsfeld and Georgie and BigDick, I wonder how many interesting and creative ways this admin will find to avoid the draft?

These ReThugnicans will never stop trying to hold on to power, will they? Even after they've proved themselves so corrupt and incapable of working for the common weal.

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Those wacky "compassionate" conservatives

So read this and tell me what you think - is Trent Lott just a wunnerful guy with a wacky sense of humour? Or is the "compassion" somewhat lacking in them thar "compassionate" conservatives?

Meanwhile, our very own DoJ assumes that its mission is to exclude voters, not include them. Especially if they happen to be, um, displaced as a result of events, yaknow, beyond their control, and all that. Not to mention, what's the "compassionate conservative" Term of the Art? -- economically impaired? Throw pigment-impaired into the mix, and it's startin' to look like a regular Florida par-tay!

This particular compassionate conservative is apparently guilty of all sorts of crimes and offenses, beginning with the "family values" stance of fucking around on his wife, keeping his mistress and illegitimate son nearby, and, yeah, bouncing checks.

Is there a single HONEST rethug out there? Apparently not Dirk Kempthorne, who can, quite truthfully say "I da ho."

And of course, we all know how compassionate Bar-bar has proven to be - especially to her own offspring.

The Chickenhawk in chief finally gets a well-deserved roasting.

R-E-L-I-E-F



YAY!! Rethugnican senate will hold hearings next Friday on Feingold's move to censure the Chimp.

About bleeding well time.

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Monday, March 20, 2006

Iraq War

Bush battered by US pessimism, leadership doubts

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent Thu Mar 16, 12:32 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deep doubts about the Iraq war and pessimism about America's future have shattered public confidence in President George W. Bush and helped drive his approval ratings to their lowest level ever, pollsters say.

As Bush launched a series of speeches to drum up support for the war, a new round of opinion polls found growing skepticism about Iraq and distrust of Bush. His image declined sharply, with one poll finding "incompetent" to be the most frequent description of his leadership.

At last. The public wakes up to a fact that has been obvious to all but the most cretinous for the past five years.

Bush's approval rating dipped as low as 33 percent in one recent poll
after a string of bad news for the White House, including uproars over a
now-dead Arab port deal, a secret eavesdropping program, a series of ethics scandals involving high-profile Republicans and a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

The political storm has left Bush's second-term legislative agenda in
tatters, threatened Republican control of the U.S. Congress in
November's elections and shredded his personal image as an effective leader.

"His strong points as a president were being seen as personally credible, as a strong leader. That has all but disappeared," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, whose latest independent poll found a dramatic decline in Bush's credibility.

A majority of Americans, 56 percent, believe Bush is "out of touch," the
poll found. When asked for a one-word description of Bush, the most frequent response was "incompetent," followed by "good," "idiot" and "liar." In February 2005, the most frequent reply was "honest."

In one year. Pretty good for The Reigning Idiot.

"The transformation from being seen as honest to being seen as incompetent is an extraordinary indicator of how far he has fallen," Kohut said.

Bush's slump is deep enough to put Republican majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives at risk, pollsters said. Democrats must gain 15 House seats and six Senate seats to regain power in each chamber.

"It's not the environment that we want to be running in," Republican
pollster David Winston said. "Republicans can still hold the House and
the Senate, but it's becoming increasingly more complicated."

In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, 61 percent said the Iraq war would be a very important or the most important issue in deciding their vote for Congress. As the third anniversary of the invasion approaches, they preferred Democrats over Republicans in handling Iraq by 48 to 40 percent.

WAR 'A BIG ISSUE'


"I think it is a big issue," House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said. "When the country is at war there is a certain unsettling that occurs with people around the country, as you might expect."

This bullshit meme of the country being at war really needs to be scuttled. Now. The country is not "at war." Shrubya unilaterally decided, with the rubber stamp of the CongressIdiots, to throw the military at a problem that could have been avoided with very little effort on his part.

Boehner said the anxiety over Iraq was coloring the public's view on other issues like the economy, which he said is performing well.

"People don't look at the president's handling of the economy very well, and frankly I think it is a result of this anxiety over the fact that we are at war," he said.

Ya think? Maybe they're more astute than Boner gives them credit for. Maybe they've noticed that this is a jobless, wageless "economic recovery" that is sending well-paid blue collar jobs out of the country and replacing them with service jobs, Mall-Wart jobs that pay minimum wage and offer no benefits, and cost the taxpayer in healthcare subsidies and welfare funding. Maybe they've noticed that massive layoffs are occurring in all sectors of the industry.

A recent CBS poll found 66 percent of the public believed the country was headed down the wrong track, while a Harris Interactive poll put the number at 60 percent.

Views on Iraq and the war on terrorism were equally pessimistic, with 67 percent of respondents in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll saying Bush did not have a clear plan for handling Iraq.

Independent pollster Dick Bennett of American Research Group said Bush's failure to acknowledge public anxieties added to his troubles.

"The biggest problem the White House faces is reconnecting with people. People simply aren't buying it anymore," Bennett said. "People can see for themselves that things actually are not fine."

Bush's ratings are still above historical lows recorded since Gallup started presidential polling after World War Two.

The approval ratings for Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and the first George Bush, the current president's father, all dropped into the 20s.

Now that we've had half a decade of The Idiot Child, the father is beginning to look good. Gads, there's something I never thought I'd catch myself saying. Mr. "I Vomited On The Japanese PM" Bush senior is actually looking good compared to his incompetent idiot offspring. No doubt Daddykins is, even now, thinking that the offspring didn't spring far off enough.

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Sunday, March 19, 2006

I Have Not Yet Begun To Blog About Cats

For various reasons. One being that they hate my blogging (I don't think they're actually, I dunno, logging in and checking out my blog, although I wouldn't put it past them to Google anything with Cat in it). They just hate that they can't sit on the nice warm thing or the lap it's on. And they've been locked in for weeks now because of the rotten weather.

Nothing like a 20-lb furball on your arm when you're trying to type. And they wonder why I snarl "carpal tunnel" at them.

Pix to come as soon as I sort and scan them.

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Sunday, March 12, 2006

It's been a tough week ...

for me as well as Georgie Porgie. The Academy Awards (I don't watch, but they're clearly important in terms of film careers) committee cravenly rewarded Crash instead of Brokeback Mountain, which I thought was an incredibly beautiful, powerful, and life-changing film.

Time Magazine reveals yet another instance of cronyism, corruption, and comatose-at-the-wheel syndrome in this administration. I know I shouldn't be surprised, or perturbed, but it's almost like a PsyOps conspiracy to keep the people in a constant state of fear, anxiety, and a numbing, dumbing rage that drains all the joy from life as it simultaneously poisons all attempts at learning or doing.

The Chief Twit is willing to risk our lives and liberty so as not to offend the Islamic world - apparently, bombing an Islamic nation does not constitue offense. The Spousal Unit just pointed out that the important issue is not to offend wealthy Islamic nationals.

Iraq continues to disintegrate into chaos, madness, and civil war, apparently, according to Rumsfeld, as a result of the mainstream media's failure to report the good news. Yes. The very same Donny Rumsfeld who just made a, haha, killing on his shares in the company that manufactures Tamiflu.

Corruption in Congress, the WH, and the CIA??? ACK!! Who's minding the fucking store?

Mr. Boots_On_The_Ground for the NYT in Iraq calls the mission a failure. Joy.

Meanwhile, in a bizarre display of this administration's posionous and poisoned crew, the man who orchestrated the WH's response to Katrina abruptly resigned his $160K/yr position a month ago, and is now facing charges of theft and fraud.



Tip o'the hat to Shakespeares sister for this photo, which says it all, but if you need further convincing, see what the Daily Kos has to say. If that doesn't make you toss your cookies, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

Who'd'a thunk? Grover Norquist has ethical problems.

There's just no end to it. As soon as you think you've seen all you can possibly be irked by, this Administration and its incompetent cronies find yet another way to chip away at your remaining sanity and peace of mind.

Liddy Dole displays her unashamed racism. Considering the recent Repugnantcan money scandals, you'd think the bastards would be ashamed to make allegations about anyone else's spending habits. But the real gist of this revolting site seems to be that "That Uppity Person Of Hue is Gettin' It On With WHITE wimmin in body paint". Really, that's about all it seems to be saying.

R-E-L-I-E-F



Fortunately, some people have the decency and courage of their convictions to speak out about this reign of fools and madmen.

John Aravosis premieres as Your Host For All Things Politicall. Checkidout. It's cool.


Senator Russ Feingold gives great speech. Moderate, yet earnest. It's the only thing that made this week bearable, so go watch it.

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Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Well, this has been a fucked week

Gads, I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you. I could almost clutch my pearls and faint, hearing that the Republican-dominated Congress doesn't want to investigate the White House NSA spying on The People.

I mean, it is really important to find out if anyone's, I dunno, like, paying off their credit card bills, or something.

And as if that wasn't enough shit to swallow, how about dealing with the rape and sodomy fantasies of those idiot creeps in South Dakota?

In case we get link rot from Yahoo, here's the whole story:

PIERRE, S.D. - Gov. Mike Rounds on Monday signed legislation banning almost all abortions in South Dakota.
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The Legislature passed the ban late last month, focusing nationwide interest on the state as the governor decided what to do about the measure.

The law, designed to raise a direct challenge to
Roe v. Wade, the 1973
U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, is scheduled to take effect July 1.

Under the law, doctors in South Dakota will face up to five years in prison for performing an abortion except when the procedure is necessary to save the mother's life.

Rounds issued a technical veto of a similar measure two years ago because it would have wiped out all existing restrictions on abortion while the bill was tied up for years in a court challenge.

South Dakota
Planned Parenthood said it planned a quick court challenge.

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