Operation Yellow Elephant
Search Site
Our Sponsor
Reviews of This Blog
"It's ridiculous to compare you to a douche bag; douche bags serve a purpose."
"Pollutes most of what it touches"
"A blog you should be reading for up-to-the-minute news on wingnuts"
"Very funny"
"Shrill"
Online Store
Click here to enter store.
Media Links
Blogroll
100 Monkeys Typing
A Chicken Is Not A Pillage
A Lie A Day
The American Street
Bark Bark Woof Woof
Cloyce's Coffee Klatsch
Correntewire
Dependable Renegade
Elementropy
Jon Swift
Princess Sparkle Pony
The Republic of Dogs
Sadly, No!
Why Now?
World O'Crap
Wingnut Wide Web
Internment Spa Lady
Fat Andy in P-Town
Clown Hall
America's Worst Law Student™
Gipper's Nippers
Freepers Creepers
Feeds
Credits
Site Statistics
Archive for July 2004
More Baloney from Bush
Posted by on 07/31/04 at 12:17 pm
Category: Politics
urious George is getting more email from BC04 begging for money. The latest letter is from our Great Misleader. You can see it by clicking here.
Letters from BC04 are full of surprises, and this one does not disappoint. Here’s something surprising that I learned from the letter:
Four years ago, our economy was headed into recession, and the stock market was in decline. So we passed historic tax relief for families and small businesses. Because we acted, our economy since last summer has been growing at the fastest rate in nearly 20 years.
That’s funny, since recent news reports say that economic growth dropped to an annual rate of 3% last quarter, the lowest rate since the beginning of 2003 and significantly below the 3.7% predicted by most analysts. The rate of annual economic growth for 2004 has been only 3.75%, a growth rate that was exceed by 9 out of the 16 quarters of Clinton’s second term.
The phoney economic growth assertion in the Bush letter is based on the third quarter of 2003. That quarter last summer had an annual growth rate of 7.4%, which is 0.1% above the annual growth rate in the third quarter of 1999, and 1% lower than the previous high of 8.4% in the fourth quarter of 1983. (These figures come from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and can be found here).
So to say that since last summer our economy has been growing at the fastest rate in nearly 20 years is a flat-out lie. One could say that for one quarter last summer we had the highest growth rate since 1983. But why tell the truth when the lie sounds better?
Everybody Loves Wolf and Judy (the Not So Much Remix)
Posted by on 07/30/04 at 8:50 am Category: Politics
ust when you thought it was safe to watch CNN again, they sucker-punch you.
We start with Anderson Cooper chiding Peter Jennings on Thursday night because ABC ran a rerun instead of Barack Obama’s convention speech. “Does it embarrass you?” (Anderson actually asked that.) Fair point, were it not for the fact that less than ten minutes later CNN ran the Wolf, Judy and Jeff show over Senator Biden’s speech to the convention. Not one single word from Joe Biden but plenty from Wolf, Judy and Jeff. I can perhaps understand why the networks would run, and people might watch, “Everybody Loves Raymond” instead of the Democratic Convention. But “Everybody Loves Wolf and Judy?” Who on earth wants to watch that? Who elected them?
More particularly, is there anyone who cares what Judy, perhaps the worst journalist on CNN, has to say? I mean on Wednesday night this is the absurd question she asked General Shalikashvili:
General, another argument the Republicans make, the Bush Bush/Cheney campaign [is that] John Kerry has voted to cut defense. They have produced reams of documents to back up votes that he made in the United States Senate that they say show compare to practically not only the Republicans, but compared to many other Democrats. He has not voted to support the kind of military spending that would create a strong America.
Why didn’t she just ask the General this: “Tell me General isn’t it true that anyone who votes for Kerry is a terrorist sympathizer who should be packed up and sent to Gitmo right now if not sooner?” And “reams of documents”? Where does that come from? Judy has obviously been reading “My Pet Goat” instead of any real news sources. These votes cited by the Repuglicans, Judy, were votes against appropriations bills and are not necessarily based on objections to the particular weapons systems that the Republicans are alleging that Kerry wanted to cut. (Why does this keep having to be pointed out?)
Not surprisingly, CNN’s coverage gets worse. The next speaker was General Wesley Clark. CNN viewers did not hear a word of what the General had to say, but heard even more of Jeff, Judy and Wolf. At one point, General Clark asks for a moment of silence for soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq. Did this shut the loquacious trio up? Not for a minute. They even cut to John King on the floor who was yammering away interviewing a delegate on the floor while everyone around them was trying to observe the moment of silence.
Thank God for CSPAN.
Whiny Republicans - Thursday Edition
Posted by on 07/29/04 at 9:17 am Category: Politics
lthough I doubt it is directly related to the Democratic Party convention, there’s an awful lot of whining going on today by various Republicanites.
Let’s start with James Broadwater, Southern Baptist Minister and unsuccesful GOP primary candidate for a House seat from Mississippi. Broadwater got “interviewed” by Ali G on an HBO program that aired this weekend, and when asked by Ali G whether Jews would go to heaven, replied, without dropping a beat, that only Christians would go to heaven; Jews, he declared, will go to hell. Now Rev. Broadwater is whining that he was made to look bad:
What has happened instead is that my interview has been used to make Christians look bad and to make me look like a person who hates Jews. But then, what else can you expect from people who are so anti-Christian and anti-God? . . . I have received several e-mails today - a couple supportive, and five or six bashing me, using profanity, obscenity, and a threatening tone. . . . I believe that people can disagree without being mean-spirited and hateful, much less insulting and threatening. . . . Several people have expressed concern over my statement that Jews will go to Hell. That was direct response to a direct set of questions about who God will let into Heaven. John 3:16-18 clearly states . . . .
In other words, although Broadwater said that Jews would go to hell, he did it nicely and not in a hateful way. It was those hateful people at HBO that were just trying to make him look bad by having him actually say on TV, although nicely, where the Jews were going as far as he was concerned.
Whiner No. 2: one of my personal favorites, Tom Delay. Tom doesn’t have time to worry about implementing the 9/11 report recommendations or protecting the Homeland from terrorists. But he does have time to get all upset by an ad campaign by Subway in Germany. The ad campaign is a paper liner in food trays promoting the award-winning documentary “Super Size Me.” It shows an overweight Statute of Liberty and asks “Why Are Americans So Fat?” According to DeLay’s press release:
For Subway to thumb its nose at its American customers and promote Michael Moore’s blame-America-first conspiracy in a foreign country is very concerning
Perhaps the real reason that the portly Congressman is complaining is that the Houston area that he comes from was rated by Men’s Fitness magazine as the fattest city in the U.S. three years running (so to speak).
Whiner No. 3: VPOTUS. Dick was kind enough to send me an email this morning. (To see it click here). Dick’s whine:
Our opponents have a different vision for the economy. They talk a lot about jobs, yet they never explain how they would put a single American back to work. Their big idea for the economy: raise our taxes. In fact, they would repeal many of the Bush tax cuts within their first hundred days in office.
Yes, Dick, we want to raise your and Lynne’s taxes. You got an $88,000 tax cut last year from the GOP tax cuts. Your whiny letter admits that the average American only got a $1,600 tax cut. Cry me a river, Dick.
Maybe We Just Should Have Said Castro Supports Gay Marriage
Posted by on 07/28/04 at 2:49 pm Category: Politics
resident Bush has been justifying increased sanctions on Cuba by claiming that Castro promotes sex tourism. Here’s what Bush said on July 16:
“The regime in Havana, already one of the worst violators of human rights in the world, is adding to its crimes. The dictator welcomes sex tourism. Here’s how he bragged about the industry. This is his quote, “Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world.” He said that because sex tourism is a vital source of hard currency to keep his corrupt government afloat.”
I hate to surprise you but that, um, quotation is of dubious provenance. According to an article from the LA Times News Service, the quotation cames from an undergraduate paper by William Trumbull, a Dartmouth student. The White House found the paper on the Internet. Trumbull disputes the way the quotation was used, saying that the quotation was a paraphrase that was taken out of context by the White House. Prostitution is illegal in Cuba, Trumbull noted.
Castro was merely trying to emphasize some of the successes of the revolution by saying, “Even our prostitutes are educated.” . . . He was in no way bragging about the opportunities for sex tourism on the island.'’
I guess the White House figured that if stuff from a student thesis was good enough for justifying War on Iraq, it was good enough for justifying sanctions on Cuba as well.
W and Jeb: Dumb and Dumberer
Posted by on 07/28/04 at 11:44 am Category: Politics
everal days ago a friend of mine, “Curious George,” became a Bush volunteer in order to get access to the First Twins chat on the BC04 website. Since then his email box has been inundated with emails from BC04 begging for money. The best appeal came today from Dumberer, W’s brother and Governor of the Sunshine State. (Click here to see the email.)
I’ve learned many things from that letter, and you will too. Such as:
The extreme makeover of John Kerry continued last night in Boston. Centrist Democrats paraded across your television screen to praise the most liberal Senator in Washington.
Centrist Democrats? Wow, I bet that’s the first time any Republican ever called Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean “Centrist Democrats.” Ted is going to be really pissed. Actually, Jeb was reading “My Pet Goat” instead of watching the Convention which is why he got a little confused.
My brother is the President, and I am very proud of him. But the truth is, I would be working just as hard for his re-election if he wasn’t.
That would be a good trick, Jeb, to work for W’s re-election if he wasn’t President. You can do that starting in January 2005.
My brother . . . believes you can have a strong, growing economy, and still safeguard the economy.
When anybody figures out what that means, let me know.
Kerry has consistently voted against strengthening America’s families, including . . . his opposition to the Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors.
This just get’s better and better, doesn’t it? I thought you strengthened families by making sure that the gays don’t get married and inserting the federal government in between a woman and her doctor. But now senior meds are a family issue. Goodness. (I won’t even comment on the bogus claim that Kerry is opposed to Medicare prescription benefits).
Barack Obama
Posted by on 07/27/04 at 10:09 pm Category: Politics
am not going to spend any time bashing Republicans tonight because the speech by Barack Obama at the convention tonight was one of the best convention speeches I’ve ever heard. Even Bob Dole on CNN gave it an A. So what else could I possibly say? I’m waiting to see if the Republicanites have the guts to attack this speech.
Republican Extreme Makeup
Posted by on 07/27/04 at 2:11 am Category: Politics
t seems increasingly clear that the GOP campaign strategy is, pardon my French, just to make shit up. The most blatant example of this is DemsExtremeMakeover.com, the Republicanist Party attack site devoted to covering the Democratic Party Convention. The site has a list of 10 things we “won’t hear at the Cosmetic [sic] Convention.” And the first two things on that list are things we won’t hear at the Convention because they are just plain, flat out, “we-lie-because-we-think-you’re-too-stupid-to-check-it-out” lies.
First item on the list: we won’t hear at the Democratic Party Convention “that the unemployment rate today (5.5%) is lower than it was in 1996 (6.2%).” The Fed conveniently publishes unemployment rates and according to those figures the unemployment rate in 1996 was not 6.2%. Rather it varied from 5.6% to 5.1%. The current unemployment rate is not 5.5% but 5.6%. Oh, and by the way, when Clinton left office Bush inherited, and destroyed, a 3.9% unemployment rate (which, of course, is why the Bushies want to talk about 1996 and not 2000).
Second item on the list: we won’t hear “that the inflation rate today (1.9%) is lower than it was in 1996 (2.6%). Uh, maybe that’s because the figures published by the White House put the current inflation rate at 3.5%, not 1.9%.
You know its one thing for Karl and Ken to sit over at BC04 HQ in Arlington and make up pretend quotes from the Bush Twins. It’s quite another to make up stuff like this.
Donkeys and Elephants Join Dogs and Box Turtles
Posted by on 07/26/04 at 3:24 pm Category: Politics
ore from Bush’s speech to the Urban League:
Do you remember a guy named Charlie Gaines? Somebody gave me a quote he said, which I think kind of describes the environment we’re in today. I think he’s a friend of Jesse’s. He said, “Blacks are gagging on the donkey but not yet ready to swallow the elephant.”
I assume that Bush is referring to a former House Member from Illinois who died in 2000 (but whom Bush thinks is still alive and a “friend of Jesse’s”).
I tried to hunt down this quotation and have yet to be able to authenticate it. A google search on the key terms “gagging donkey swallow elephant” served up this NOT SAFE FOR WORK result page which suggested a disturbing subtext to these terms. What is it about the GOP and animals? Rick Santorum goes for dogs; Cornyn has a thing for box turtles, and now we’ve added donkeys and elephants to the party.
Republicanatic Rhetoric
Posted by Clif on 07/24/04 at 2:47 pm Category: Politics
Yesterday W peppered his speech to the Urban League with references to the “Democrat Party,” as in
Does the Democrat party take African American voters for granted? . . . Have the traditional solutions of the Democrat party truly served the African American community?
If you search the BC04 website, you will find 347 more references to the “Democrat party.” Of course, the party in question calls itself the Democratic Party not the Democrat Party, so clearly Republicans are taught from their earliest indoctrinations at Young Republican camp right up to their latest talking points to never, ever, ever say “Democratic Party” and instead always say “Democrat party.” Nevermind that Democrat is a noun and that “Democrat party” is ungrammatical.
So where did this Democrat party business get started and why do Democrats sit idly by while the GOP throws this particular mudball at them? The apparent answer is in this article from The Atlantic:
Democrats . . . do every now and then try to make an issue of this [usage]. For instance, earlier this year the syndicated columnist Molly Ivins wrote, “‘Death tax’ is what Republicans call the estate tax. It’s one of their ‘cute’ things, like saying ‘the Democrat Party.’” Republicans, too, have been known to object to this usage, which was popularized by Senator Joseph McCarthy. For one, William F. Buckley Jr.�a man as solidly Republican as he is astute about language�protested against the term late last year, declaring in National Review, “I have an aversion to ‘Democrat’ as an adjective. Dear Joe McCarthy used to do that, and received a rebuke from this at-the-time 24-year-old. It has the effect of injecting politics into language, and that should be avoided. Granted there are difficulties, as when one desires to describe a ‘democratic’ politician, and is jolted by possible ambiguity. But English does that to us all the time, and it’s our job to get the correct meaning transmitted without contorting the language.”
That’s right, boys and girls, this cute little useage is a McCarthyism. I’ll bet you didn’t know that. One more hommage by the GOP to its sordid past. And, for God’s sake, even William (Once a Segregationist But Now Just a Pompous Prig) Buckley objects to this useage.
But I can’t ever agree with Buckley. Ever. It’s a matter of principal. So I think we should fight back and rename the Republican Party. We should call it the Republicanatic party. Or the Republicanist party. How about the Repub party? Any other ideas?
What Would Jenna Say?
Posted by on 07/24/04 at 10:44 am Category: Politics
f you want a good laugh, go read the Jenna and Barbara Bush chat transcript on the Bush-Cheney campaign web site. You can find it here courtesy of the Wonkette or you can find it here at the Bush-Cheney campaign site. You have to be a volunteer to read the transcript at the BC04 site, so you can either become a “volunteer” or you can use the login information for a mysterious volunteer curiously named Curious George (username: newsreg-bushcrap@yahoo.com; password: 3E2CB661).
“Jenna and Barbara, the first twins in a live chat? How cool is that? Totally AWESOME!”
Actually, according to this article in the New York Times the questions were submitted in advance, selected in advance, and answered in advance. But they posted the questions and answers in slow succession so as to give the impression it was a live chat.
“You mean it wasn’t really live? Bummer. But Jenna and Barbara really wrote the answers right?”
Uh-huh, right. Like either one would write/say:
While we may be a little biased because he is our dad, we think - well, we KNOW — that our Dad is a man of strong and principled character. If he says he is going to do something, he will do it. When we were kids, if dad said he was going to come to one of our soccer games, he would be there! And now even his critics can’t argue that he is a steadfast leader who means what he says and acts with resolve.
“Well, if it wasn’t the twins, who was it then?”
Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman.
“No way. Prove it.”
Well, for starters you have each of the answers starting with “Barbara and Jenna Bush answered.” What are they? Siamese twins or something? “Hey, Jenna, you type one word and I’ll type the next.” Of course, right near the end of the “chat” Karl and Ken realize this looks stupid so Karl says to Ken, “Hey, Ken, you be Jenna and I’ll be Barbara,” so they start saying in their “live” answers things like “Hi Kari, this is Barbara.”
“That’s lame.”
So were the answers. Like saying their dad “treats everyone he meets with dignity and respect.” You think that applies to Adam “Major League Asshole” Clymer?
“Hey, are you calling the twins liars? ‘Cause I think they’re totally hot.”
No, I’m saying Karl and Ken are liars. Would Jenna have ever said “We have led normal college lives without constant supervision by chaperones and Secret Service–although they do follow us from a distance.” From a distance? FROM A DISTANCE??? Would Jenna have totally forgotten the time that the Secret Service agents kept her from buying yet another drink on a fake id?
“Probably not.”
And do you think the twins really like Paul Simon? Ken Mehlman put in Paul Simon because that’s the only musician he could think of.
“But they said they liked Modest Mouse too. Karl and Ken would never have picked Modest Mouse. Their lead singer called Bush a “prick” and said he wished “that his career would go down the toilet and he’d have to find, like, a real job.”
Karl and Ken didn’t know that. They couldn’t find a group with “abstinence” in its name, so they settled for one with “modest.” If Jenna were really in the “chat,” what do you think Jenna would say?
“Dunno. What?”
“Is it Happy Hour yet?”
A Bad (Hair) Day for Delay
Posted by on 07/23/04 at 3:56 pm Category: Politics
oor Tom Delay. The House Ethics Committee investigation against him was extended today. That investigation is based on a complaint accusing DeLay of, among other things, misusing federal resources to track down Texas legislators who fled Austin to prevent a vote on a Republican redistricting plan.
Maybe this one will stick. Delay previously slithered out of charges that he had perjured himself in a 1994 deposition in a law suit filed by his partner in Albo Pest Control, a bug-killing business Delay had before he moved to Washington. In order to avoid liability, Delay testifed, under oath, that he wasn’t an officer of the business. Problem is, Delay, in his congressional financial disclosure documents – including one filed just three months after his deposition – listed himself as president and chairman of the board of Albo from 1985 through 1994. Lying on the forms is subject to criminal or civil sanctions, up to a $10,000 fine and/or five years in prison. Of course, lying in the deposition would be equally problematic.
Other nuggets you may have forgotten about the despicable Tom Delay:
He once explained that he wanted to serve in Vietnam but was unable to because minorities in Texas took all the spaces.
And, when told that federal law would prevent him from smoking in a restaurant in a D.C. federal building, Delay claimed that he could, nonetheless, smoke in the restaurant because “I am the Federal Government.” God willing, not for long.
Other liars and hypocrites in today’s news are Tucker Carlson who lied about Sandy Berger and Bill O’Reilly who chided a gay activist for outing pro-FMA congressional staffers on the same show that O’Reilly claimed that a Massachusetts judge despite her denials was a lesbian. Shut up, Bill, just shut up!