Last week President George W. Bush held a press conference on the current state of the economy and the high cost of energy.  In it he made several important points.  First, he noted that one reason gas prices are increasing is that global supply has not kept pace with the growing demand worldwide.  Members of Congress, he noted, “have been vocal about foreign governments increasing their oil production; yet Congress has been just as vocal in opposition to efforts to expand our production here at home. They repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration in ANWR. The Department of Energy estimates that ANWR could allow America to produce about a million additional barrels of oil every day, which translates to about 27 millions of gallons of gasoline and diesel every day. That would be about a 20% increase of oil…and it would likely mean lower gas prices.” 

Senator Charles E. Schumer’s (D-NY) response: “Unless the [Bush] Administration gets [the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] OPEC to increase oil supply, American consumers are going to be in for a scorching summer of $4 gasoline with no relief in sight.”  Apparently Senator Schumer expects President Bush to bully other countries into relieving our economic problems.  This is wise foreign policy advice if ever there was some.  And if foreign governments do not want to help us we should not expect Congress to do anything about it.  After all, why alleviate needless financial hardship when some Senators can use it as a political weapon?

Another factor contributing to the high cost of energy is that America’s refining capacity has been stagnant for 30 years, the last time a new refinery was built.  Like ANWR exploration, Congress repeatedly has blocked efforts to build more refineries and expand capacity.  It has done the same with the use of nuclear energy.  Congress also is “considering bills to raise taxes on domestic energy production, impose new and costly mandates on producers, and demand dramatic emissions cuts that would shut down coal plants, and increase reliance on expensive natural gas,” as President Bush stated.

Finally, there is no end in sight for Federal subsidies to multi-millionaire farmers.  These subsidies, as this column has noted before, cost American taxpayers millions of dollars a year, are wasteful, and generally hinder the development of more productive farmland and the planting of market-driven crops.  Yet Congress shows no inclination to cut subsidies from the current Farm Bill.  By paying farms to plant specific crops regardless of the demand for those crops or allowing their fields to lie fallow, these subsidies unintentionally raise the price of other commodities that could be planted instead.  President Bush was correct to note that Congressional support for farm subsidies will do little other than contribute to the rising prices of food.

President Bush should be commended for giving this speech.  He was correct to remind Americans that if we want to lower the cost of energy we must be willing to use our own resources, whether they are natural or those we can build, rather than rely upon others to provide for our needs.  After all, isn’t self-reliance part of the American spirit.  We should not rely on foreign governments, many of which are volatile, to supply our energy needs, nor should our large farmers rely on Federal Government handouts to prop up their financially lucrative businesses.

Throughout this economic downturn it has seemed as if Congress, the Federal Reserve and other government agencies have reacted to the crisis rather than thought of productive ways in which they could lead on the issue.  It is wise for the President to begin to exert some leadership on this issue.  Hopefully he will maintain a spotlight on this issue and pressure Congress to initiate some constructive change, not implement more regulation and taxes.

I had to share this post because...
a.) Merc (author of the forthcoming blog PAMOJA, and friend for life) is a grad student at Yale, and Kinetik and myself had the pleasure of visiting this fine campus during our trip to Rapland to see Mos and Jay Electronica.

2.) Both Bush boys went there, responsible for 12 years of "no new taxes" and fightin the "War on Terra"

III.) "White people also like to call their school 'The Harvard of the (insert region or conference) '. Do not challenge this, it will ruin their confidence." Well, rumors are circulating that my alma mater may become the "Harvard of the Midwest", which will result in me claiming to be an Ivy Leaguer.

Click here: Stuff White People Like: The Ivy League

In 2008, the Country now has had 8 years to see incompetence and plain mean spirited intentions do their thing.  The Country is worse off by a huge measure from the Country Bush inhereted and the US standing in the world is rock bottom.  Can the Republicans afford to disown Mexicans, gays/lesbians, or women again?

The path to the Presidency for Barack Obama is the high road.  He needs to focus American on its good virtures and potential for a bright future.  He needs to remind Americans of what needs to change in order for the next generation to have a reasonable expectation of a better life than their parents.  He needs to shift the balance of where political spoils flow and funnel much more into the common wealth like education, roads, bridges, alternate energy, and math/science.

John McCain said this weak that "sex trafficking" would be a point of emphasis in his administration.  What did he say?  We already have laws around that issue and it is hardly in the top 50 concerns the Country faces.  Each time McCain brings up something silly like that, Obama needs to ask him a relevant question, like what is your strategy to end the war in Iraq, or how do you plan to bring fiscal and monetary sense to the US Goverment finances?

I decided to import my key posts from Shadow Democracy into this blog to archive and for your reading and comment pleasure...

Huge Protests Tonight At Berkeley City Council Meeting Over Military Recruiting…

Iran and the coming of World War III… Huh?

Taser this: Fuck Bush - Yeah I just said that…

Get government out of the marriage business!

WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance

Curt Smith, a Bush 41 speechwriter-turned-columnist/professor/radio commentator has a wonderful column about White House Ghosts, including this line which would have caused me to snort out my coffee were I (a) a coffee drinker and (b) drinking coffee:

In a sense, White House Ghosts is the un-Bush 43: objective, bright, and honest.

Wow. Keep in mind again that Curt wrote speeches for -- and adores -- the first President Bush. Great line though.

Oliver Stone is flinging open French doors inside an enormous brick mansion in Shreveport, La., inspecting locations for his new film about the 43rd President of the United States. ''This one is too small,'' he says. ''This one looks like George Tenet's bedroom. Where did we decide to put Bush's bedroom? It's around here somewhere, isn't it?''

Shooting begins in less than two weeks on W (or dub-ya, as it's spelled out in the initial sketches for the poster), but not everything is exactly where it should be, and not only here in the house where the First Family's residence will be re-created. The 32,000-square-foot soundstage the production is renting across town stands empty, waiting for the Oval Office and Cabinet Room sets to get trucked in from Los Angeles. The screenplay still needs work too. It's gone through two rewrites since an earlier draft leaked to the press last month (some skeptics took it as an April Fools' joke), but Stone would still like one more pass at it (''It's evolving,'' he says). And while most of the cast has been assembled and outfitted with prosthetic noses and hairpieces — Josh Brolin will play President George W. Bush and Elizabeth Banks will star as Laura — there is one major character still in search of an actor: a heavy named Dick Cheney.

When did the party of "little" government develop such a thirst for unlimited presidential powers, and what might we expect from a McCain presidency?

Bush and McCain really are becoming joined at the hip, particularly when it comes to executive power and those dastardly "activist" judges.

Glenn Greenwald addressed this topic yesterday, and some excerpts follow:

According to John McCain, then, executive power in the U.S. now is exactly what it should be, perfectly in line with what the Founders envisioned -- except that it is too constrained by a judiciary which "show[s] little regard for the authority of the president." To McCain, the only real problem with our system of checks and balances is that the judiciary has too much power, and the President not enough.

This was exactly the view of the world articulated by George Bush last November when he spoke to the Federalist Society. In that speech, Bush had the audacity to tout the central importance of "separation of powers" and warned that "tyranny" can be avoided only if all three branches "resist the temptation to encroach on the powers the Constitution accords to others." Bush then went on -- just like McCain yesterday -- to lament that our Constitutional framework was endangered not by a President who has seized the defining powers of an autocrat, but rather, by "activist" judges. Not only is McCain's view of presidential powers identical to Bush's, his speech yesterday -- in terms of structure, arguments and even some wording -- was almost an exact replica of the one Bush delivered to the Federalist Society.

Virtually every abuse of the last eight years has its roots in the Bush/Cheney view of the President as Monarch, and John McCain clearly endorses its fundamentals.

So the courts are the enemy and must be neutralized by appointing strict constructionists. Think Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas -- or John Roberts and Samuel Alito -- and you'll know what kind of hell the Republicans have in mind here.

Not a conservative, holding established Christian values? Think that a woman has the right to decide whether to bring a pregnancy to term or not? Want to know what crime you're accused of if you're thrown in jail?

Then you've come to the wrong country.

Contrast the subservient role the courts are expected to play in a McCain administration with the role of judicial appointments under Obama. The following video is from a town hall meeting in Ohio on March 2. Obama discusses the types of individuals that will serve in his administration and the types of justices he will appoint to the courts:

Dianne Feinstein is the Daily Dumbass™. A winner previously for saddling us with Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Feinstein wins today for her continued support of what's-her-name, who now has stooped to new near-lows (you can't get any lower than threatening to obliterate a nation) by saying that Obama can't win the support of blue-collar white people. Good move, Senator, putting race front and center for the umpteenth time.

Yes, indeed, there's a candidate deserving of Feinstein's support.

We're the deciders. Impeach now.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerning the resignation of EPA Region 5 administrator, Mary Gade, May 7, 2008.

See below for CREW's original report and their FOIA requests to the EPA.

• Report by CREW
• CREW FOIA Request to EPA Headquarters
• CREW FOIA Request to EPA Region 5

EPA official no match for Dow

After years of fighting over dioxin contamination by Dow Chemicals, a top EPA administrator was forced to quit as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Midwest office, based in Chicago.

Mary Gade, regional administrator of U.S. EPA Region 5, center, and Stephen A. Elbert, vice chairman of BP America, right, listen as Sadhu Johnston, chief environmental officer of the City of Chicago, talks to the media following a summit on the BP Whiting refinery. (Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak / August 15, 2007. Text Tribune ) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice.

Gade said two of the EPA chief Stephen Johnson's lieutenants had removed her powers as regional administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1.

"There is no question this is about Dow," Gade said. "I stand behind what I did and what my staff did. I'm proud of what we did." Full report

Related Links:

• EPA official ousted while fighting Dow
• Hermaphrodite Lamb Born With Seven Legs
• THE POISONING OF NEW ZEALAND
• Is EPA protecting the environment or public health?

=

]]> http://journeytocrunchville.wordpress.com/?p=279 Fri, 09 May 2008 04:31:44 +0000 journeytocrunchville http://journeytocrunchville.wordpress.com/?p=279 Here's a little story that illustrates how politics and agenda's are everywhere. I myself am still researching the whole "global warming" thing and frankly thus far, I am completely unconvinced. Now, that isn't to say that I am not "for" the environment and for researching the best possible way to utilize our resources and taking care of our earth but frankly it's always reeked of politics and hidden agenda's to me.

The Tale of Two Houses: Which one Belongs to an Environmentalist?

House #1:

A 20 room mansion ( not including 8 bathrooms ) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool ( and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400, per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South.

==================================================

House #2

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.

The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

~~~~~
HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee; it is the abode of the 'environmentalist ' Al Gore.

HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas; it is the residence the of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

Yes, it really is an 'inconvenient truth.'

You can verify it at : http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp

P.S. Yes, those are the actual pictures of their houses.

End of Disclaimer.

Well it seems that the democratic party is going to do it again. They are going to blow another election. They are going to let the shiftless, run the country into the ground, get us into a war with no exit strategy republicans win again, in a year where if Jesus Christ himself was the republican candidate running for the oval office he would have a hard time winning. 

When the democratic primary started out last year in Iowa I was truly impressed and enthused by all the prospects. We had everyone running from white men, to hispanics, to african americans, to a woman. All the demographics were covered. There was no way we could possibly lose this presidential election cycle.

Then when it came down to the final two candidates I really got excited. Because I knew that for the first time in our history as a country a woman or an african american were going to be president. I was excited all the way up unto last month.

The past month has had to be the most disheartening month I have ever lived through. Hillary dodges sniper fire. Barack bowls a 37 and says people are bitter about economic prospects and finds solace in guns and religion. The side show circus had come to town. And the two democratic candidates were the carneys. For a month I had to sit and listen to gaffes, disparaging characterizations and out and out pandering. But the worst was when the vote came in and they dug into the exit polling.  

The democratic electorate has become so polarized. White women and bitter men are voting for Hillary in droves. Black people and affluent well to doers are voting for the elitist Obama. And it looks like they are doing it just on the basis of the candidate that looks like them. Because their policies are almost identical. There isn't enough of substance to seperate the two politically anyway. So is this what we've come down to? We are voting for the white woman or the black man?

How are we supposed to take the country forward if our moral compass can't navigate past these racial divides? What are we coming to when we select the leader of the free world on the basis of how they look? I thought this country was stupid for giving Bush four more years. Now I just think that we're lost.

There are far too many big issues to parse one's vote on such a trivial issue. What about the war in Iraq that lets face it, if we don't end it we'll have to start a draft to sustain it, let alone win it. What about the foreclosures at an all time high or us being raped at the gas pumps. Is the way that we as voters see to solve these problems by voting for the one with the skin color the same as ours?

If you think I am over exaggerating just go to the Huffington Post or CNN and read one of the political stories and then listen to the comments.  

Today Hillary Clinton said that white people vote for her. She actually said that. She said it in a way that brings attention to the divide, almost like it was a badge of honor. She has the white vote. Ninety two percent of the black vote is going for Barack. So I guess that means he has the black vote...I thought this was a time of change but I guess I was wrong about that. Because in times of change Martin Luther King had a dream. John F Kennedy had a question about what someone could do for their country. Now we just have black voters and white voters. And John Mccain will have the white house in 2009.

And as for me, I'll just keep having nightmares.

``Not long from now, we will see the first Chinese - or Indian - manufactured vehicles arrive on North American shores, ready to be sold to eager consumers. These vehicles will have encountered a border delay only once,'' Prentice told the Council of the Americas in Washington.

In the post 9/11 world, he said, despite the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) businesses in Canada, Mexico and the US were suffering because of ``the burden of new measures to enhance security, as well as more rigorous enforcement of existing rules.

``This means that businesses in all three countries are facing longer delays, higher inspection rates, additional fees, and more layers of security when they can afford it least.''

He said the costs and delays of an automobile part as it travels across national borders on its way to final assembly added several hundred dollars to the price of a North American-built vehicle.

Describing these problems as a `two-headed monster', the minister said, ``We want security and prosperity. Instead, we make it more difficult to have either. Not only do we hamper the legitimate trade and travel that provide the foundation for North America's prosperity, but we are also clearly misallocating resources.

``The dollars, hours and resources spent investigating legitimate travel and trade are dollars, hours and resources that would be better spent targeting the areas of highest risk.''

The unveiling of Nano a few months ago made headlines in Canada, with dealers and buyers expressing interest in the world's cheapest car.

A young white woman from South Africa commented on my recent post Proud to be an American?   Her being from SA was a little eerie for me.  When I was a young girl growing up in Watts one of my aunts often spoke of the political climate in SA.  My aunt followed Congress Woman Maxine Water's work closely, she admired her commitment to freedom for all people of color.  Looking back ,it seems Congress Woman Maxine Waters brought SA to the door step of my imagination and heart. Her work to pressure the American Government to divest from SA and end aparthied impacted me greatly. As a little girl I often dreamed of being in South Africa.  Something in my soul felt connected to the struggle of the natives.  I even asked my grandma to explain why I had not born in SA.  The look in her eyes expressed such compassion, having lived thru segregation herself.  Connecting with Jennifer took me right back to those days in the 80's when SA was all I thought about.

My recent email exchange with Jennifer has also helped me to see there are more things to be proud of as an American.  Having a black man and a woman vying for the Democratic ticket is and good place to start. I will add this to my list.  Our conversation made me realize one thing I rarely consider.  She spoke of the food shortages, the pending civil war in Zimbabwe, and recent political scandals in her own government.  As I read, I realized how deeply connected we are as humans.  It’s easy to get stuck in my world, and be consumed with my woes and perceptions.  When in reality people all over the world are facing huge challenges at this time.  There are so many things that affect black and white people alike.  Challenging times often do more harm in black communities simply because of economics.  Generally we just don’t have the financial access our white counter parts have. But economics can't sooth all the overwhelming changes that are happening world wide.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but I think I’m curious if we understand the impact our actions have on others.  The choices we make truly have a ripple affect reaching out to the world at large.  Jennifer shared how interested she was in our current political race.  She asked if it were possible for a Republican to win.  The thought of that made my stomach turn.  I’m still shocked how much the world has changed since GWB took office eight years ago.  The home foreclosures, rising gas prices, rising food prices, war, etc.

But the flip side- the good side is people are beginning to connect and rely on one another more than in previous times.  It’s as if a grassroots movement is happening, awakening people to our interdepence.  Community has become primary in many of our lives and it’s beautiful and necessary. Also GWB’s politics has proven so harsh for the masses; many of us are starving for a new way of being.  We crave something new, sincere, authentic and peaceful. Our old way of being is becoming obsolete - expiring and many of us are eager to bring in the new. 

This is all bigger than race, a Presidential election or economic hardships.  Though much of this contributes to what is on the horizon.  But what is at hand is deep, profound and transformational in ways we can’t imagine.  What the world is becoming we’ve never seen.  So in many ways we are trailblazing a new existence.

As I said I’m not sure where I’m going and honestly I know not of what I speak, except that every cell in my body is excited in the face of seeming calamity and challenge.  I can only trust my intuition, something greater than myself - greater than us all - is working every where.  This inspires pride in me.  I’m proud my grandmother experienced a life that gave her the gift of insight, which she passed to me.  Her experiences as a little black girl in Louisiana in the 1920’s contributes to who I am today.  And I’m proud to be me, a Free Being and Thinking Black American Woman. 

I almost have to tip my hat to the NeoCons. It's really amazing. They've politicized and distorted an issue that I thought was pretty much un-distortable.

Global Warming is a scientific fact. The overwhelming majority of scientists have confirmed this including the IPCC and every single prominent country within the National Academies of Science. Yet the more evidence we gain over the years, the more people seem to make up reasons to disagree. A recent poll showed fewer people believe in global warming then they did 10 years ago.

And there's key word in there: "believe". That's what this is all about now. The issue has been politicized into red and blue. The Bush admin has adopted the notion of that it's a scientific debate and not an established scientific fact. First of all, yes, there are individual scientists who offer theories of dissent, but their minority cannot be stressed enough. Better yet, almost any one of their theories and examples can be refuted by any student with a couple of oceanography classes under their belt. That's not hyperbole either. Most dissenters use evidence that is self-contained and not reflective of system based changes. How so? This is an extreme example but recently a scientist cited the lack of devastating hurricanes last summer as evidence global warming wasn't true (since global warming raises water temperatures which strengthens hurricanes). What said scientist failed to mention was that el nino/la nina has been wreaking havoc on weather patterns and other parts of the world were suffering from the extreme weather patterns at the time. This example of the "contained example" is completely indicative of the kind of thinking the anti-global warming folks are using.

Look, I understand someone seeing Global Warming and going "Eh, who cares, I think there are more important things." That's fine because it's an personal and ethical decision based on the facts. But to use an agenda to distort the obvious scientific reality is an insult. The republican war on science is a complete travesty.

Source
Controversial filmaker Oliver Stone is tackling probably the worst president in the history of mankind in a biopic called 'W', detailing the presidency of George H.W Bush. Noted actor Josh Brolin pictured above has snagged the role Bush with the role of Dick(head) Cheney still not cast. Though a single frame has not been filmed yet, they are pushng for a October release during the presidential campaign(can't be good for senior citizen McCain). More details below:

''Bush may turn out to be the worst president in history,'' he declares as he peeks into room after room. ''I think history is going to be very tough on him. But that doesn't mean he isn't a great story. It's almost Capra-esque, the story of a guy who had very limited talents in life, except for the ability to sell himself.

The fact that he had to overcome the shadow of his father and the weight of his family name — you have to admire his tenacity. There's almost an Andy Griffith quality to him, from A Face in the Crowd. If Fitzgerald were alive today, he might be writing about him. He's sort of a reverse Gatsby.''

Shooting begins in less than two weeks on W (or dub-ya, as it's spelled out in the initial sketches for the poster.

The screenplay still needs work too. It's gone through two rewrites since an earlier draft leaked to the press last month (some skeptics took it as an April Fools' joke), but Stone would still like one more pass at it (''It's evolving,'' he says).

And while most of the cast has been assembled and outfitted with prosthetic noses and hairpieces — Josh Brolin will play President George W. Bush and Elizabeth Banks will star as Laura — there is one major character still in search of an actor: a heavy named Dick Cheney.

Full story here...

This water-color painting of George Bush may looking nothing special at the first glance but you’ll be surprised to know that it’s not an image.

It is just a combination of alphabets and numeric characters of different sizes and colors arranged using CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) in such a way that they look like a painting.

Verify this yourself by viewing the source from the page given in the link. Link

I've got to admit I was skeptical when it was announced that Josh Brolin would be playing George Bush in Oliver Stone's upcoming movie about the president. He looks nothing like George Bush, but that above picture tells a different story. He looks a lot like our sitting POTUS. The wonders of Hollywood make-up. Click here for information on the movie: First Look: 'W,' Oliver Stone's Bush Biopic

I just sent the House Judiciary Committee my questions to ask Bush's torture team. Please click the link below to send your own questions and help show this administration that we will no longer stand by and let them disgrace our country by torturing prisoners and committing war crimes. Help restore some honor to this nation.

Click HERE and make your voice heard.

Personally, I felt Huckabee was simply a media whore trying to ensure he had a post-election spotlight to bask in once his ridiculous run for leader of the free world (can we even call the president that anymore?) was over. I still think this is the case.

Moving on. We now have another candidate who has cement ear plugs and is shouting inanity about electability to drown out the fat lady's aria, "Reality." Granted, I suspect Hillary is staying in the race until May 20, when Oregon and Kentucky hold their primaries. She'll have won West Virginia (May 13), satiating her political ego enough to leave while declaring victory. It's still fun to see her practice one of her best skills, lying, as she continues to claim her intentions to be the president. Eating crow is certainly not her strong suit and I doubt she'll sidle up to the table and order a serving. It's all very delicious to watch.

As the superdelegates slowly meander over to Obama's side, I'm reminded of the childhood game Kick the Can (was this only played in the South? If you don't know what it is, you can visit the Wiki entry on it). The supers don't want to get too much attention and risk maddening their electorate or alienating their colleagues, so they bide their time, hide in the shadows and - just when it's safe, when no one's watching - BAM! They sprint to the Obama can, giving it a swift punt and saving themselves from the evil nighttime troll of political regret.

The next two weeks will be fun. More fun than if she just packed up after Indiana/North Carolina. I'll relish watching the charade, hearing criticisms of her continued candidacy and punditry ponderings of her campaign loans and losing the primary just as she had begun to truly resonate as a candidate (by mimicking George Bush). It's almost a reward for those of us who feel an almost-desperation to have the Republicans banished, ending their ruinous rule, and yet have to sit powerless in front of the spectacle of Democratic cannibalism.

I will repeat, potentially for the last time, I never took issue with Hillary remaining in the race. I took issue with her praising McCain over Obama and the unwarranted attacks she and her husband lobbed for the sake of ambition. Well, the stakes are too high this year to put up with such divisive tactics. And political karma, for once in a long while, is rearing its necessary head and decapitating the deserving. So now, that's all Hillary is. A chicken with its head cut off. Just like Huckabee was a couple months ago. Ain't life grand?

Rove writes "It's Obama, Warts and All" in his Jeykll and Hyde manner.  He would like to make you think he is objective but there is a sound of desperation on how the Republican candidate can pull out the election.  (Unsaid but implied is that John McCain could pull it out with Karl Rove's help.)  The key to the lack of genuineness is Rove's reference to Reverend Wright and saying that this would be an important issue (like a wart?).  With Hagee and Robertson in your corner, McCain will need to be careful about opening that can of worms. 

Johnny Bolton writes "Bush's North Korea Nuclear Abdication" (surprise, surprise) and once again tells us nothing.  Bolton seems to forget that all military means are off the table because he and other like minded neoconservatives committed all of the US military resources to Iraq for a war that was not needed.  Bolton is a "senior fellow" at the American Enterprise Institute and it would appear that his job is to continually stir the mud around North Korea making improved relations with North Korea or its neighbors more difficult.  Bolton seems to miss the point that for both China and Russia, there is no advantage for a nuclear capable North Korea.  I do not give credit to the Bush Administration for a sane policy towards North Korea since they have seemed incapable of forging any sensible foreign policy for any part of the world.  Rather, Bush has no options and both Condi Rice and Robert Gates know how foolish it would be to escalate adversarial relations with North Korea.  It is a shell game where the world knows that there is no peanut under any of the shells Bush is moving around.

Josh Brolin is going to play George Bush in the new Oliver Stone film.

He's got the grimace down, I'll give him that.

More than a decade ago the US supported Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, but after the Contra-Iran Affair and the Embassy Hostage Taking Crisis and the recent allegations of Iran having weapons of mass destruction the Iran-US relations are far from being on the good side. And because of this, the US declared following the Embassy Hostage Taking an embargo on Iranian goods which, although not proclaimed, but it is understood that ally nations should follow. One of the products embargoed was wheat, which is running low now and rice. During those times Iran was not yet industrialized, and relied mostly on agriculture goods. But because demand on those products were reduced, it also reduced its production. Which I think is a factor of the shortages now. Most of the farmlands are now converted into industrial parks.

For the oil problem, the reason why oil-producing countries are raising prices is, according to them, terrorist attacks on oil refineries. I don't think that's much of a reason to raise prices. Here in the Philippines, gas prices are increasing by one peso each week. Now the oil refinery attacks are in Nigeria and Iraq. Are they the only oil-producing countries? Or just the ones that are aligned to the United States? Venezuela is a major oil producing country today. Why don't we get our oil from them? Is it because Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez calls American President George Bush a fascist? And I end with this line, that is the cause of the cost.

There are the little lies:

• Fox News is "fair and balanced."
• Barack Obama is a Muslim who went to school at a madrassa.
• Ronald Reagan was a terrific president. One of the best.
• John McCain is an authority on national security.

And there are the big lies:

• Iraq is a mortal threat to the United States because it has vast stores of WMD.
• George W. Bush will only go to war as a last resort.
• "Mission Accomplished!"

The problem with lying is that it is almost always immoral and occasionally illegal. Especially the type of lie that causes one country to invade another country and directly cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians -- maybe more. Then you're talking war crimes.

Somewhere in between "fair and balanced" and war crimes are the medium-sized lies. One of the most famous of these Mama Bear-sized lies is that the Republicans are the party of small government.

A likely story.

Libertarian writer James Ostrowski points out the following:

Contrary to popular myth, every Republican president since and including Herbert Hoover has increased the federal government's size, scope, or power--and usually all three. Over the last one hundred years, of the five presidents who presided over the largest domestic spending increases, four were Republicans.

This was written in 2002. Since then the Bush administration has created the largest government bureaucracy in fifty years -- the Department of Homeland Security -- and has shattered any illusion of fiscal responsibility with the Iraq war. The true cost of the war, not including lost opportunity costs, is estimated ultimately to be upwards of three trillion with a "t" dollars.

I doubt you'll ever hear this addressed honestly by the right-wingnut talk radio blowhards -- the Rush Limbaughs, Glenn Becks, and Sean Hannitys. Everyone in their audience knows that the Democrats are the party of socialized medicine and high taxes and welfare queens -- back when there were welfare queens, before Bill Clinton put them on the street. But mostly they know that the Democrats are the party of big, bloated government.

Except they're not. That would be the Republicans.

Today's Daily Dumbass™ is a no-brainer named Rush Limbaugh, for his perverse attempt to adversely influence the Democratic primaries. I heard Chris Matthews attack Limbaugh's Operation Chaos last night, and I agree with him. Talk about a denigration of democracy.

Time to take your pills, Rush. Or are you still on probation?

We're the deciders. Impeach now.