New Surgeon General = Doctor Death

George Bush has chosen a potential new Surgeon General.

"Dr. [James W.] Holsinger is an accomplished physician who has led one of our nation's largest health-care systems, the state of Kentucky's health-care system, and the University of Kentucky's medical center," Bush said.

But of course, why wouldn't Bush hand pick a doctor who is perfect for his administration?; a man who is as grossly incompetent as the rest of them.

From Buzzflash:

As Chief Medical Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs under Bush's father, Dr. Holsinger was neglecting our vets long before Walter Reed made it fashionable. A government investigation found "several cases in which incompetence and neglect led to the deaths of patients." Dr. Holsinger was forced to admit blame for the deaths of six patients in less than a year at a single Chicago hospital alone.

... A decade later, Dr. Holsinger was appointed Kentucky's Cabinet Secretary for Health and Family Services. By the end of his tenure, a Kentucky newspaper found that the state was at the bottom of the nation for almost every health measure. Kentuckians die at a rate of 18 percent above the national average, the newspaper reported.

"We don't have to worry about foreign aggressors. We are killing ourselves off," said Dr. Baretta Casey, a Hazard physician and University of Kentucky professor. "I see a lot of illnesses similar to a third-world country," added Dr. Sandra Dionisio, a Kentucky internist trained in the Philippines.

The real kicker on Holsinger's resume is that he is also a homophobe. I'm sure that was high on the prerequisite list.

You can read the full Buzzflash news analysis here.

Boehner's Crying Jag

What the hell is wrong with this guy? House Minority Leader John Boehner (pronounced Bay-ner although Bo-ner is more appropriate) stood on the House floor and cried for war. Literally cried. Was he drunk?! This blubbering idiot must have stunk like Jack Daniels when he stumbled into the House.

"When are we going to stand up to these terrorists?" he asks. What the hell have Bush and the Republicans been saying they've been doing for the last six years? These people make me sick.

But seriously, he's got to be drunk. I was waiting for him to yell out, "I LOVE YOU, MAN!" in the middle of his inebriated diatribe.

If At First Your Surge Doesn't Succeed...

The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.

The little-noticed second surge, designed to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq, is being executed by sending more combat brigades and extending tours of duty for troops already there.

..."It doesn't surprise me that they're not talking about it," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, a former U.S. commander of NATO troops in Bosnia, referring to the Bush administration. "I think they would be very happy not to have any more attention paid to this."

Lawrence Korb, an assistant defense secretary for manpower during the Reagan administration, said... "The administration is giving itself the capability to increase the number of troops in Iraq,"... "It remains to be seen whether they actually choose to do that."

Well let's see, if you weren't planning on increasing troop levels, why would you send them there? If you really are preparing the troops, just in case, isn't that the definition of a surge? Evil bastards...

Huckabee Boycotts Carter

This is a laugh! Republican presidential candidate and southern Baptist minister Mike Huckabee said Tuesday he will skip a Baptist conference organized by Jimmy Carter after the former president called the Bush administration the "worst in history" in international relations.

Does the truth hurt, Mike? Is Carter's opinion not valid? The guy is only a former president, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, builds houses for the poor with his foundation and his own hands, but I guess that's not good enough for you.

Joining the bandwagon, the White House called Carter "increasingly irrelevant."

I guess it's irrelevant to tell the truth. So long, Mike. Wish I could say it's sad to see you go.

Presidential Demeanor

I don't know if it bothers you, but it bothers me when the President of the United States or other offical in high political office partakes in behavior that is unbecoming of such a position. If I'd wanted a foul mouthed trucker or ranting street person to be elected, I would have voted for him.
Joining Darth Cheney in his rant against Senator Patrick Leahy when he told the Senator to go fuck himself on the Seante floor, presidential candidate Senator John McCain said "Fuck you" to Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn. Apparently this was in response to Cornyn accusing McCain of being too busy with his campaign to work on immigration legislation.

McCain's political handlers have plenty of experience in explaining McCain's salty language and strident attacks. His temper has ranged far and wide, directed at other members of the Senate, congressional staffers, government agency chiefs, corporate chieftains, high-ranking military officers and even teenage campaign volunteers.

Good job, Maverick. Presidential material indeed.

Here's the more detailed Washington Post article.

Jerry Falwell Is Dead

Maybe there is a God after all.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the fundamentalist preacher who founded the Moral Majority and brought the language and passions of religious conservatives into the hurly-burly of American politics, died yesterday in Lynchburg, Va. He was 73.

At first I wasn't going to write about this. The adages,"Don't speak ill of the dead" and "If you can't say something nice..." popped into my head. But after thinking about it for a day, I realized that if I go to hell (if there is such a place), it's not going to be for trashing Falwell. I've said much worse as my friends will attest, so here it goes.

Let me start by quoting a news release of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas:
"There is little doubt that Falwell split Hell wide open the instant he died." Oh by the way, the website of this Baptist church, a beacon of light no doubt, is www.godhatesfags.com .

So it isn't just me. Even the freaks hated Falwell. But let's not mistake Westboro Baptist Church hating Falwell because he was an honorable man, which is what you'd think by reading Westboro's full release. You'd think that he was a proponent of inclusion by Westboro's standards. On the contrary.

Not only was Falwell a homophobe, but he was a racist, a misogyist, an anti-Semite. So much so, that he blamed 9/11 on everyone he could think of. Everyone, that is, except the actual perpetrators and enablers. "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians ... the A.C.L.U., People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"

Of course! The American Civil Liberties Union is to blame for 9/11. Why didn’t I think of that?!

What boggles my mind is how this nut actually created a following. But I suppose it’s easier to preach a doctrine of hate than an ideology of tolerance, love for your fellow man, helping the poor and infirmed, and the like. It’s much easier to hate someone. It’s much harder to promote inclusion.

Is it Christian to be bigoted? Is it Christian to be racist? Is it Christian to be misogynistic? Is it Christian to be anti-Semitic?

Falwell’s creation of the Moral Majority, the Christian “family values” based lobbying group has, in my opinion, set the political structure of the country back immeasurably. But that's a for another time and another post.

And let’s not forget Falwell’s attack on Tinky-Winky! Falwell mused how Tinky Winky has the voice of a boy yet carries a purse. "He is purple — the gay-pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle — the gay-pride symbol," Falwell says. Poor Teletubby. As a result, Tinky-Winky, who worked hard all his life and trained endlessly to become a children’s show character, has been unable to find work for some time now due to Falwell’s baseless claim. A libel suit is pending.

Yes, Jerry Falwell is dead. And the air is a little fresher, the grass is a little greener and the sky seems bluer. Can you feel it? Close your eyes. Can you smell it? I know you can if you concentrate.... There it is. Ahhhh....

Can you feel it? Tinky-Winky can.

Giuliani, The Benevolent Dictator

Rudy has taken another hit in his bid for GOP presidential nominee. A New York Times article on May 14th, 2007 focuses on the health problems of thousands of workers and volunteers at Ground Zero due to the toxic and poor air quality that was cleared as "safe" only one week after the attacks.

An examination of Mr. Giuliani’s handling of the extraordinary recovery operation during his last months in office shows that he seized control and largely limited the influence of experienced federal agencies. In doing that, according to some experts and many of those who worked in the trade center’s ruins, Mr. Giuliani might have allowed his sense of purpose to trump caution in the rush to prove that his city was not crippled by the attack.

...in the last four months of Mr. Giuliani’s administration, [documents] show that while the city had a safety plan for workers, it never meaningfully enforced federal requirements that those at the site wear respirators.

At the same time, the administration warned companies working on the pile that they would face penalties or be fired if work slowed. And according to public hearing transcripts and unpublished administration records, officials also on some occasions gave flawed public representations of the nature of the health threat, even as they privately worried about exposure to lawsuits by sickened workers.

“The city ran a generally slipshod, haphazard, uncoordinated, unfocused response to environmental concerns,” said David Newman, an industrial hygienist with the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, a labor group.

Giuliani ruled like a "benevolent dictator" according to one Army Corps official. Although disaster experts from FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers and OSHA were at the scene almost immediately, Rudy kept them on the sidelines while the clean up work was given out to a largely unknown city agency, the Department of Design and Construction. Kenneth Holden, the department’s commissioner until January 2004, said in a deposition in the federal lawsuit against the city that he initially expected FEMA or the Army Corps to try to take over the cleanup operation. Mr. Giuliani never let them.

...Lee Clarke, director of health and safety for District Council 37, the city’s largest public employees’ union, said Mr. Giuliani used “very, very poor judgment” in rushing to reopen the financial district without watching out for the workers who cheered him at ground zero.
Ms. Clarke said that if those workers found themselves in a meeting with Mr. Giuliani today, “a number of them would be standing up, wanting a piece of Rudy.”

The article goes on to state that while Giuliani was attending heroes' funerals, no one ever saw him at a 9/11 hearing on health. In fact, when the city began facing as many as 10,000 liability claims, Giuliani wrote to members of the city’s Congressional delegation urging passage of a bill that capped the city’s liability at $350 million. And two years after Mr. Giuliani left office, FEMA appropriated $1 billion for a special insurance company to defend the city against 9/11 lawsuits.

Couple that with the stories of the remains of 9/11 victims being used for pothole filler, his marital history and his ties to Bernie Kerik, and what you have is another typical GOP candidate.

ALSO READ: Giulani: Hero or Race Baiter?

Gravel: Tell the Truth

Democratic candidate and real maverick Mike Gravel was interviewed by TruthDig.org about his role in the debates, the election process and how he'll win the election: by telling the American people the truth.

GRAVEL: Truth for America is that we think that we’re so much better than anyone else in the world, and we’re not. We’re no better than anybody else in the world. The truth is, we squander our wealth on the military-industrial complex for a defense that is totally inadequate. The truth is that 30 percent of our children do not graduate from high school. The truth is that one-fifth of the nation is functionally illiterate and in Washington, D.C., it’s 36 percent. I could go on. The truth is, there’s only two industrialized nations in the world that do not have healthcare for all their people. One is the United States, and the other is South Africa.

These are the things that have to be told.

Ken Levine: I'm Sorry George, We're Going to Have to Let You Go

Levine's blog post on Huffington Post is a good read. Here's part of it:

So Chris Albrecht, who guided HBO to its current place of prominence, has been fired as a result of his altercation with his girlfriend this weekend in Las Vegas. David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue was removed as president, taking the fall for the February tarmac debacle.

And yet, George Bush remains in office.

Albrecht and Neeleman built stellar empires on solid management, vision, and public trust. Bush has destroyed a nation, plunged the world into a reign of fear and terror, and looked the other way as the eroding environment jeopardizes the planet for future generations. I mean, really, how bad does he have to fuck up?

The Joke Writes Itself

A story to inspire indeed. My friend and blogger, ArmadilloJoe, brought this to my attention. KUTV in Salt Lake City did a human interest story on Brigham Larkin, a 17 year old boy who dresses like Bush, sings the National Anthem every day in front of his bathroom mirror, and collects ties similar to what Bush wears when Larkin sees him on TV. George Bush is his hero. Larkin wants to be president some day.

Oh yeah, Larkin has Down Syndrome.

I don't mean to be cruel here. I am in no way trying to poke fun at Larkin, but it really is a shame that Bush was and is president during Larkin's formative years. I don't hesitate to think that any president would probably have had the same effect on Larkin. It's too bad his hero is such a rat bastard and the kid doesn't even realize it.

But don't just read the article, take a look at the video. The newscasters are gushing over Larkin like he's a Cabbage Patch Kid. He's a human being for Christ's sake, but they all sound as if they're goo-gooing over a baby or a monkey performing parlor tricks.

The good news for Larkin is now that we've seen Curious George in action, it wouldn't be a far stretch for him to actually run for the GOP nomination and have a realistic shot at winning. President Half-Wit has opened the door and now we can truly say anyone can grow up to be president. Although what might hinder Larkin more than his mental challenge is his Mormon religious beliefs.

The Thirty Percenters

Every time I see Curious George walking on the White House lawn waving as he exits his helicopter, I wonder, who is he waving to? What person in their right mind would stop and wait for a glimpse of Chimpy during their trip to DC? You never see these people on camera. My guess is that they are either protesters, although they'd probably be arrested, or that people are sitting there and staring, much like someone at a hideous car accident from which you can't look away. They just stand there and can't believe that this clown is the leader of the free world.

But lately, as a new Newsweek poll shows Bush's approval rating at an all time low of 28%, I think not of the 72% of the people who disagree with President Half Wit, but of the 28% that think he's doing a good job; the 28% who approve of his job performance. Who are these people? Sad to say, I think about this every day. Every... single...day. And it really starts wearing me down. It starts to frighten me when I walk into a room and I can tell just by scanning the room that I'm probably in the top 10% when it comes to intelligence. Me... top 10%. ... Jesus...

Still, where do these people come from? And how do they come to the conclusion that Chimp in Charge is doing so well as to receive their approval. Then (courtesy of Mike Malloy) I came across this letter to the editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I know, I know, it's Arkansas, but Arkansans are people too, some of whom think Bushie is doing a great job. (Perhaps I should call them Arkansites for a religious twist.)

Anyway here's the letter:

Daylight Exacerbates Warning

You may have noticed that March of this year was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century. All of the trees were fully leafed out and legions of bugs and snakes were crawling around during a time in Arkansas when, on a normal year, we might see a snowflake or two. This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person.
As you know, Daylight Saving Time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they ?
Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps next time there should be serious studies performed before Congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects.

CONNIE M. MESKIMEN / Hot Springs

Oh, Connie, Connie... you know what? You're right. You caught us red-handed. We know global warming is a fluke, but can't just sit here with pie on our faces making Al Gore look bad and not have a cause, so we secretly petitioned the Democrats in Congress to extend the day by one hour, making it a 25 hour day. This extra hour is wreaking havoc on our temperatures and causing massive climate change and extreme weather conditions across the US. The rest of the world, however, remains unaffected because they do not choose to use daylight savings time. It's all a liberal political plot.

Mike Malloy's musings on Connie were that she was probably a Republican Election Committee member in her community, went to church every Sunday and perhaps thinks that liberals are spawn of the devil and eat fetuses.

But there they are, the thirty percenters. These are the people at the shallow end of the gene pool that we must deal with, and overcome at every election for their own good, whether they know it or not. The worst part of it all is that George W. Bush is one of them.

UPDATE (5/11/07)

Snopes.com, a website dedicated to urban legends and things of a dubinking nature, has pointed out that although MISTER Meskimen's letter to the editor is authentic, Meskimen is indeed a Little Rock lawyer who has a penchant for writing sarcastic, "tongue-in-cheek" letters, and that it was not intended to be taken seriously. He is now getting barraged with phone calls by helpful people who want to help him understand how Daylight Savings Time works. Good for you, Connie!

A word of advice for Mr. Meskimen: if you plan on writing a letter of this nature, the satire needed to show that you are indeed trying to make a valid point needs to be way over the top for it to be received as satire, sarcasm or tongue-in-cheek. But as a friend pointed out, he supposes you are so smart and were so subtle in your sarcasm that it actually backfired and blew up in your face.
Oh, and maybe you should use a nom de plume so your law firm doesn't get inundated with calls to correct you on your oh so subtle, humorous letter.

By the way, I believe that this new finding does not discredit my previous opinion of the thirty percenters. I'm just guessing that most of them can't write.

The Baghdad Scene

BBC News reporter Anderw North writes about his latest experience in Baghdad and what the actuality is on the ground.

Here are some excerpts:

We were at the airport. Just before we were due to leave, the entrance car park was hit by a car bomb...

...While we waited with scores of other vehicles, mortars were fired at the airport. Fortunately for us they landed on the other side of the runway, plumes of smoke shooting into the air. You won't have heard about any of this because at the same time a series of other far more serious attacks was taking place.

One was at the Sadriya market in the city centre, where a massive car bomb killed more than 140 people.

...On our drive into the city, we encountered several Iraqi army checkpoints. But almost every vehicle - including ours - was being waved through. Many new checkpoints have been set up across Baghdad. But what is their purpose, many Iraqis ask, when they seem to stop so few people?

North reports that last month there were over 100 car bombings, an average of three per day. Yet we are constantly being told that the "liberal media" isn't reporting the good things happening in Iraq, especially in Baghdad, where John McCain took his ridiculous safe stroll a few weeks back, to show that the troop surge is working. The only thing the surge is doing is increasing the American troop causalty rate.

And what happens when the checkpoints do stop the cars and trucks? North writes, "...a couple of times we have been pulled over by Iraqi soldiers who ask us if we have any bullets to give them. "

Wally Schirra (1923-2007)

Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr., who as one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts combined the Right Stuff — textbook-perfect flying ability and steely nerves — with a pronounced rebellious streak, died Thursday at 84.

He was the only astronaut to fly in all three of NASA’s original manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

For anyone who hasn't seen the movie, The Right Stuff, you should check it out.

Rice Plans Talks with Syria

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Syria's foreign minister in the first high-level talks between the countries in years, a U.S. official said Thursday, and the chief American military spokesman in Iraq said Syria had moved to reduce ''the flow of foreign fighters'' across its border.

When Nancy Pelosi does it, it's called "emboldening the enemy" and "negotiating with terrorists". I guess when the Bushies do it, it's called "diplomacy".

Joan Baez Banned from Walter Reed

I suppose the Bush Crime Family is afraid Joan Baez will start patching the holes in the walls and fixing the plumbing, or maybe even sing because she is banned from Walter Reed Medical Center and from performing with John Mellencamp, whose "Our Country" has been the patriotic cry and all the rage last summer. Hell, it was used in Chevy commercials before it was released!

In a letter to The Washington Post published Wednesday, she said rocker John Mellencamp had asked her to perform with him last Friday and that she accepted his invitation.

"I have always been an advocate for nonviolence and I have stood as firmly against the Iraq war as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago," she wrote. "I realize now that I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam. Maybe that's why I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation to sing for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In the end, four days before the concert, I was not 'approved' by the Army to take part. Strange irony."

...in an e-mailed statement published Monday on RollingStone.com, [Walter Reed] spokesman Steve Sanderson said the medical center received the request for participation by Baez just two days before the concert.

Not so, says Baez's manager, Mark Spector, who told the Post that Mellencamp's management invited Baez to perform in March and handled all the arrangements. The Post said Mellencamp's manager, Randy Hoffman, did not return calls requesting comment and that Mellencamp's publicist said the singer was ill Tuesday and unavailable.

But Mellencamp earlier told RollingStone.com: "They didn't give me a reason why she couldn't come. We asked why and they said, 'She can't fit here, period.' "

Maybe they can invite Lee Greenwood instead and have him sing that "God Bless the USA" dirge, because after all aren't we "proud to be an American"? What's the next line? Oh yeah, "Where at least I know I'm free." Hmm... careful Lee, you might have to rewrite your lyrics at the rate we're going.

Chimpy's Veto

On the fourth anniversary on his now infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech and his spectacular photo op aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, Chimp in Charge has vetoed legislation that not only would have given him the funding he requested for his illegal war in Iraq, but also vital funds for crumbling Walter Reed Hospital and other worthwhile expenditures. Curious George vetoed the bill because of the timetable to pull out troops that Democrats would like to bring home, rather than have them die for a misguided, failed policy with no real strategy in place, contrary to GOP claims.

Bush said Democrats had made a political statement by passing anti-war legislation. "They've sent their message, and now it's time to put politics behind us and support our troops with the funds," the president said.
..."Our troops and their families deserve better, and their elected leaders can do better," Bush said.

They certainly can you bastard. Rot in hell, you filthy son-of-a-bitch.

UPDATE: Keith Olbermann with Frank Rich on Countdown, May 1, 2007

Bill Moyers Journal: Jon Stewart

Bill Moyers interviewed Comedy Central's Jon Stewart this past week and it was an incredible interview, looking into the man behind the satirical news show, and getting beyond the comedy and see Stewart's serious side.

Here's a section of the interview:

STEWART: You know, one of the things that I do think government counts on is that people are busy. And it's very difficult to mobilize a busy and relatively affluent country, unless it's over really crucial-- you know, foundational issues. That come sort of sort of a tipping point.

But war that hasn't affected us here, in the way that you would imagine a five-year war would affect a country. I think that's why they're so really — here's the disconnect. It's sort of this odd and I've always had this problem with the rationality of it. That the President says, "We are in the fight for a way of life. This is the greatest battle of our generation, and of the generations to come. "And, so what I'm going to do is you know, Iraq has to be won, or our way of life ends, and our children and our children's children all suffer. So, what I'm gonna do is send 10,000 more troops to Baghdad."

So, there's a disconnect there between — you're telling me this is fight of our generation, and you're going to increase troops by 10 percent. And that's gonna do it. I'm sure what he would like to do is send 400,000 more troops there, but he can't, because he doesn't have them. And the way to get that would be to institute a draft. And the minute you do that,
suddenly the country's not so damn busy anymore. And then they really fight back, and then the whole thing falls apart. So, they have a really delicate balance to walk between keeping us relatively fearful, but not so fearful that we stop what we're doing and really examine how it is that they've been waging this.

You can watch the whole interview here.

Incompetence Knows No Bounds

As many of you know, when the tsunami that hit Indonesia in December of 2004 devastated that country, many in the world contributed with supplies for relief as well as monetarily help for the ravaged communities affected.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the US southern coast, causing devastation to New Orleans as well as parts of Mississippi and Alabama, the world again responded. Unfortunately, the incompetence is so rampant in the current criminal administration, that most of the helping hands were met with a "thanks but no thanks" response, or the assistance that was accepted has been sitting idle for the past 20 months while communities in New Orleans rot away.

As reported in the Washington Post on Sunday, April 29th, the U.S. government was turning down many allies' offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina's victims.

Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.

...In one exchange, State Department officials anguished over whether to tell Italy that its shipments of medicine, gauze and other medical supplies spoiled in the elements for weeks after Katrina's landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, and were destroyed. "Tell them we blew it," one disgusted official wrote. But she hedged: "The flip side is just to dispose of it and not come clean. I could be persuaded."

...Overall, the United States declined 54 of 77 recorded aid offers from three of its staunchest allies: Canada, Britain and Israel, according to a 40-page State Department table of the offers that had been received as of January 2006.

...In another instance, the Department of Homeland Security accepted an offer from Greece on Sept. 3, 2005, to dispatch two cruise ships that could be used free as hotels or hospitals for displaced residents. The deal was rescinded Sept. 15 after it became clear a ship would not arrive before Oct. 10. The U.S. eventually paid $249 million to use Carnival Cruise Lines vessels.

Not coming clean has all too often been the modus operandi of the Bush Administration and its hapless cronies running government departments for which they have absolutely no qualifications. Just another example of the sad state of affairs that we've come to expect from our pathetic leaders in the West Wing.

Gary Hart to Giuliani: Keep Your Mouth Shut

Gary Hart bitchslapped Rudy Giuliani on his "Democrats=Terrorist Attack" rhetoric with a blog entry on Huffington Post. Here it is, short and sweet:

Dear Mayor Giuliani:

Since you have based your presidential campaign almost exclusively on your reaction to terrorist attacks on New York City, and since you have recently accused Democrats of being on the defense against terrorism and therefore guilty of inviting more casualties, I have one question for you: Where were you on terrorism between January 31, 2001, and September 11th?

The first date was when the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century issued its final report warning, as did its previous reports, of the danger of terrorist attacks on America. The George W. Bush administration did nothing about these warnings and we lost 3,000 American lives. What did you do during those critical eight months? Where were you? Were you on the defensive, or were you even paying attention?

Before you qualify to criticize Democrats, Mr. Giuliani, you must account for your preparation of your city for these clearly predicted attacks. Tell us, please, what steps you took to make your city safer.

Until you do, then I strongly suggest you should keep your mouth shut about Democrats and terrorism.

You have not qualified to criticize others, let alone be president of the United States.

Gary Hart
(co-chair, U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century)

P.S. You might ask these same questions of George W. Bush while you are trying to find a better reason to run for president.

"Rudy McRomney is not a conservative."

The hyenas are starting to attack each other. Not that I've devoted my life to politics to consider myself an historian, but I can't remember in recent history the Republicans going at each other like this. I had a feeling that Romney, McCain and Giuliani was a strange group for the GOP to be touting as their front-runners, and now my suspicions seem to be coming to fruition.

At a Republican dinner in Iowa this month, [former Virginia Gov. Jim] Gilmore took on his party's front-runners collectively, saying, "Rudy McRomney is not a conservative."

The top-tier Republican candidates are all suspect to solid conservatives, who fear they are losing their hard-won influence in the Republican Party.

"[We are] very concerned as to whether or not as a conservative movement we will be, in fact, the driving political force in the '08 election cycle," said another GOP presidential hopeful, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

When it comes to Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment -- "Thou shalt not speak ill of thy fellow Republicans" -- GOP presidential candidates seem to be losing their religion.

The Latest Polls

From Bob Geiger's Blog:

For people who spend so much time lately talking about how unpatriotic Harry Reid and Senate Democrats are for their drive to end the Iraq war, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their Republican rubber-stampers in Congress seem blind to the fact that, for a long time, the vast majority of the American people have sided with Democrats and the troops on this and against them.

Latest CBS Presidential Poll on Iraq Showdown

...This poll, like all the others, shows that when Bush vetoes the Congressional mandate to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, the script is already being written for how to run against every Republican in the House and Senate who votes to uphold that veto.

You know the old saying, you lie with dogs, you're gonna get
fleas.

John Kerry: Fight Against Disinformation

From Kerry's Huffington Post Blog:

There's a very strange dynamic at play right now. ... I see an America that is sick and tired of politicians in Washington who refuse to change course in Iraq; an America that doesn't believe the words that comes out of Dick Cheney's mouth about everything from escalation in Iraq to global climate change; an America that wants our troops taken care of and knows that George Bush's policy has not just been a failure, but an unmitigated disaster of arrogance and isolation from day one.

We all need to speak up and protect our leaders when they speak their mind. Minutes after [Cheney] let loose with a steady stream of pejoratives about Harry Reid, I hit back at Dick Cheney. And I will continue to do so. It's important ... because if we don't stand up for our leaders no one will. This isn't about policy intricacies or a Democrat's syntax, it's about character - the character of a good man, Harry Reid, and the character of our Party which needs to stand up when one of our own is unfairly attacked.

And the worst part is, the whole attack is based on a completely out-of-context quote. This is what Harry Reid really said, "And as long as we follow the President's path in Iraq, the war is lost. But there is still a chance to change course - and we must change course." Any questions?...

I ask you to join me in hitting back. ...I set up a page on my site defending Harry Reid, and calling attention to Dick Cheney's long run of, yes, misleading and uninformed comments on Iraq. And, most of all, calling out the failure of this administration to make us safe.

Because that's what they're really trying to hide. ...We can't let them get away with it. We need to take the fight to them, and we can start by letting the media know that when it comes to Harry Reid speaking from his heart or Dick Cheney speaking from both sides of his mouth, we'll take Harry Reid's heart any day. Write letters to your local paper, call in to radio shows, write emails to the national media centers. These things make an enormous difference. I'll continue to speak out at every opportunity, and I ask you to join me.

Tenet "Slam Dunks" Cheney

NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON, April 26 — George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has lashed out against Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials in a new book, saying they pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever conducting a “serious debate” about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States.

“There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat,” Mr. Tenet writes in a devastating judgment that is likely to be debated for many years. Nor, he adds, “was there ever a significant discussion” about the possibility of containing Iraq without an invasion.

... He also makes clear his bitter view that the administration made him a scapegoat for the Iraq war.

... Mr. Tenet described with sarcasm watching an episode of “Meet the Press” last September in which Mr. Cheney twice referred to Mr. Tenet’s “slam dunk” remark as the basis for the decision to go to war.

“I remember watching and thinking, ‘As if you needed me to say ‘slam dunk’ to convince you to go to war with Iraq,’ ” Mr. Tenet writes.

The book entitled "At the Center of the Storm" is to be published by Harper Collins on Monday, April 30th, 2007 and can be purchased at Amazon.com.

McCain On Daily Show

John McCain was a guest on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on April 24th and I must say that in my opinion, he got his ass handed to him by Stewart. McCain was no more than a talking point robot spewing the usual rhetoric, and at one point early on, was apparently channeling Donald Rumsfeld when he started asking and answering his own questions.

Here's the interview. A must see.

The Politics of Fear

The Trouble with Rudy Giuliani

Haven't we had enough of fear tactics used as political tactics? Haven't we suffered though enough of the deception and lies and fear mongering? Apparently not enough for Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.

Here are some of Mr. Giuliani's lastest comments from his appearance at the Lincoln Day Dinner in New Hampshire on April 24th, 2007:

"We're going to win that war whether there's a Republican president or a Democratic president or any other president," he said. "The question is going to be: How long does it take and how many losses will we have along the way? And I truly believe that if we go back on defense for a period of time, we're going to ultimately have more losses and it's going to go on much longer."

"If [a Democrat] gets elected, it sounds to me like we're going on the defense," he said."We've got a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. We're going to wave the white flag there. We're going to try to cut back on the Patriot Act. We're going to cut back on electronic surveillance. We're going to cut back on interrogation. We're going to cut back, cut back, cut back, and we'll be back in our pre-September 11 mentality of being on defense."

Do any of these hacks really believe the puke that comes out of their mouths? Hasn't the Republican Party beaten this dead horse to the bone? The thought that Giuliani would have the audacity to play the fear card after New York City was attacked on his watch the first time in 1993, for which he did next to nothing to improve the communications of emergency personnel, and then insisted on having the NYC's emergency control center moved to that very World Trade Center building after the 1993 attack is beyond me. Of course, after 9/11 the building came down along with our communications.

I'd continue on a rant because I'm so livid about this, but Keith Olbermann did it for me on April 25th's edition of Countdown.
Here is part of the transcript:

OLBERMANN: This is not the mere politicizing of the war in Iraq, nor the vague mumbled epithets about Democratic 'softness' from a delusional vice president. This is casualties on a partisan basis, of the naked assertion that Mr. Giuliani's party knows all and will save those who have voted for it, and to hell with everybody else. And that he, with no foreign policy experience whatsoever, is somehow the messiah-of-the-moment.

Even to grant that that formula, whether posed by Republican or Democrat, is somehow not the most base, the most indefensible, the most un-American electioneering in our history, even if it is somehow acceptable to assign 'casualties' to one party and 'safety' to the other, even if we have become so profane in our thinking that it is part of our political vocabulary to view counter-terror as one party's property and the other's liability, on what imaginary track record does Mr. Giuliani base his boast?

Which party held the presidency on September 11, 2001, Mr. Giuliani? Which party held the mayoralty of New York on that date, Mr. Giuliani? Which party assured New Yorkers that the air was safe and the remains of the dead recovered and not being used to fill potholes, Mr. Giuliani? Which party wanted what the terrorists wanted, the postponement of our elections, and to whose personal advantage would that have redounded, Mr. Giuliani? Which mayor of New York was elected eight months after the first attack on the World Trade Center, yet did not emphasize counter-terror in that same city for the next eight years, Mr. Giuliani? Which party had proposed to turn over the Department of Homeland Security to Bernard Kerik, Mr. Giuliani? Who wanted to ignore and hide Kerik's organized crime allegations, Mr. Giuliani? Who personally argued to the White House that Kerik need not be vetted, Mr. Giuliani? Which party rode roughshod over Americans' rights while braying that it was actually protecting them, Mr. Giuliani? Which party took this country into the most utterly backwards, utterly counterproductive, utterly ruinous war in our history, Mr. Giuliani? Which party has been in office as more Americans were killed in the pointless fields of Iraq than were killed in the consuming nightmare of 9/11, Mr. Giuliani? Drop this argument, sir! You will lose it!

If this is where Giuliani is headed, it is only because he cannot speak on any other issue. As a Republican who is pro choice (unless he flip flops), pro gun control (unless he flip flops) , pro gay rights (unless he flip flops) and on his third marriage (the second of which fell apart while he had his mistress staying in the mayor's residence under the same roof as his wife!), he doesn't have a conservative leg to stand on. And because of this he resorts to fear mongering as a smoke screen.

Shame on you, you filthy, lying, egotistical, son-of-a-bitch.

OBAMA, CLINTON CRITICIZE GIULANI'S 9/11 REMARKS

The Bush Boogie

... There are no words... except perhaps, "Nero fiddled while Rome burned."

Time To Leave Barbara Bush At The Dog Track

Wow! Babs really can't open her mouth without sticking her foot in it. Asked whether voters should be wary or Mitt Romney, the Mormon Republican presidential primary candidate, Crazy Babs responded "not at all," noting there are "wild people" in many religions.

"I mean it was in 1897 that bigamy was outlawed in that church," she said. "You know we have a lot of Christian wild people too, and a lot of Jewish wild people and a lot of Muslim wild people. The Mormon religion takes care of its own, they don't have people on welfare."

She must be thinking of all those wild welfare people at the Superdome again. Oh that Babs! What a nut! Maybe she was auditioning for Don Imus' old job.

At least she's a straight shooter unlike the primate she bore who is currently stinking up the White House. I'm waiting for the day he'll get so mad at an increasingly irritating press corps that he'll start throwing feces during a press conference.

Chimpy's Increased Confidence In Gonzo

Welcome to Backwardsland, where people think the exact opposite of the general consensus of the rest of the world.

Chimpy had a brief press conference in the Oval Office today with General David Petraeus at his side. Of course Petraeus sat there looking like a frightened dog and said nothing, just like all the other military personnel Curious George has used as props for other conferences. He expressed concern about the progress in Iraq but stood in his foxhole against the notion of setting timetables to get out. "I believe strongly that politicians in Washington shouldn't be telling Generals how to do their job." Smug bastard.

He was then asked about Gonzales:

Q: "The Attorney General is still getting a lot of criticism over the US attorney situation. Was his explanation sufficient, or is there more he needs to do in order to turn things around?"

BUSH: "The Attorney General went up and, uh... gave a very candid assessment and answered every question he could possibly answer - honestly answer - in a way that, uh, increased my confidence in his ability to do the job.
One of the things that's very important for the American people to understand is that the Attorney General has a right, uh to recommend to me to replace US attorneys. US attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President... in other words, we have named them, and uh, I have the right to replace them with somebody else. And uh, as the investigations - the hearings went forward, uh it was clear that the Attorney General broke no law, did no wrongdoing. Uh... and, some Senators didn't like his explanation but he answered as honestly as he could. This is an honest, honorable man in whom I have confidence."

Increased confidence after the hearing?! A pretty far cry from everyone else in the world who is demanding Gonzo's resignation in light of his abyssmal performance; a hearing which prompted the clearing of his calendar to begin preparations. Why does someone need weeks of preparation for something if all he has to do is tell the truth?

In other news, Boris Yeltsin is dead.


UPDATE (4/24/07 9am): NY TIMES - At Least the Boss Was Satisfied by Gonzales's Answers

“If the attorney general’s hearing performance increased the president’s confidence in his ability to lead the Justice Department, then he’s setting the bar fairly low,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, in a statement on Monday.

One senior Republican Congressional aide at work in Washington on Monday, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, called Mr. Bush’s statement that his confidence in Mr. Gonzales had grown after his testimony “curious”; another senior Republican aide asked, “Was he watching the same hearing as everyone else?”

Paul Krugman: A Hostage Situation

Paul Krugman's Op Ed in Sunday's New Tork Times:

There are two ways to describe the confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration over funding for the Iraq surge. You can pretend that it’s a normal political dispute. Or you can see it for what it really is: a hostage situation, in which a beleaguered President Bush, barricaded in the White House, is threatening dire consequences for innocent bystanders — the troops — if his demands aren’t met.

If this were a normal political dispute, Democrats in Congress would clearly hold the upper hand: by a huge margin, Americans say they want a timetable for withdrawal, and by a large margin they also say they trust Congress, not Mr. Bush, to do a better job handling the situation in Iraq.

But this isn’t a normal political dispute. Mr. Bush isn’t really trying to win the argument on the merits. He’s just betting that the people outside the barricade care more than he does about the fate of those innocent bystanders.

What’s at stake right now is the latest Iraq “supplemental.” Since the beginning, the administration has refused to put funding for the war in its regular budgets. Instead, it keeps saying, in effect: “Whoops! Whaddya know, we’re running out of money. Give us another $87 billion.”

At one level, this is like the behavior of an irresponsible adolescent who repeatedly runs through his allowance, each time calling his parents to tell them he’s broke and needs extra cash.

What I haven’t seen sufficiently emphasized, however, is the disdain this practice shows for the welfare of the troops, whom the administration puts in harm’s way without first ensuring that they’ll have the necessary resources.

As long as a G.O.P.-controlled Congress could be counted on to rubber-stamp the administration’s requests, you could say that this wasn’t a real problem, that the administration’s refusal to put Iraq funding in the regular budget was just part of its usual reliance on fiscal smoke and mirrors. But this time Mr. Bush decided to surge additional troops into Iraq after an election in which the public overwhelmingly rejected his war — and then dared Congress to deny him the necessary funds. As I said, it’s an act of hostage-taking.

Actually, it’s even worse than that. According to reports, the final version of the funding bill Congress will send won’t even set a hard deadline for withdrawal. It will include only an “advisory,” nonbinding date. Yet Mr. Bush plans to veto the bill all the same — and will then accuse Congress of failing to support the troops.

The whole situation brings to mind what Abraham Lincoln said, in his great Cooper Union speech in 1860, about secessionists who blamed the critics of slavery for the looming civil war: “A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!’ ”

So how should Congress respond to Mr. Bush’s threats?

Everyone talks about the political risks of confrontation, recalling the backlash when Newt Gingrich shut down the federal government in 1995. But there’s a big difference between trying to force a fairly popular president to accept deep cuts in Medicare — which is what the 1995 confrontation was about — and trying to get a deeply unpopular, distrusted president to set some limits on an immensely unpopular war.

Meanwhile, there are big political risks on the other side. If Congress responds to a presidential veto by offering an even weaker bill, voters may well react with disgust, concluding that the whole debate over the war was nothing but political theater.

Anyway, never mind the political calculations. Confronting Mr. Bush on Iraq has become a patriotic duty.

The fact is that Mr. Bush’s refusal to face up to the failure of his Iraq adventure, his apparent determination to spend the rest of his term in denial, has become a clear and present danger to national security. Thanks to the demands of the Iraq war, we’re already a superpower without a strategic reserve, unable to respond to crises that might erupt elsewhere in the world. And more and more military experts warn that repeated deployments in Iraq — now extended to 15 months — are breaking the back of our volunteer military.

If nothing is done to wind down this war during the 21 months — 21 months! — Mr. Bush has left, the damage may be irreparable.

Edwards Against South Korea Trade Deal

This is directly from David Sirota's blog.

On Saturday, April 21st, 2007, Senator John Edwards will deliver the keynote address at the Michigan Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner and will announce his opposition to the South Korea trade deal. The Bush administration is finalizing details of the agreement and is expected to submit it to Congress for approval later this spring...[Edwards said trade deals] "must include strong labor and environmental standards and lift up workers in both countries...Congress should make it clear to the President that it will override any agreement that does not protect American jobs and American interests."

Big question: Will the other Democratic candidates join Edwards' call, or will they stay silent in deference to K Street and Wall Street?

Definitely a wedge issue for Democratic candidates who are receiving campaign contributions from K Street. It'll be interesting to see how Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will react.

Gonzales: "I Don't Recall" 74 Times

"I don't believe that you're involved in a conspiracy to fire somebody because they wouldn't prosecute a particular enemy of a politician or a friend of a politician," said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. "But at the end of the day, you said something that struck me: that sometimes it just came down to these were not the right people at the right time. If I applied that standard to you, what would you say?"

Ouch. Not even Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with perhaps the exception of Orrin Hatch, came to the defense of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. And could you blame them?

Gonzales said he takes full responsibility for the firings that he says were appropriate, but doesn't have a reason for firing the attorneys, except to say that it was recommended to him by his senior staff. He fired seven prosecutors and didn't even look at the paperwork for the reasons why until afterwards. Either he is lying or incompetent. Either way, he should be gone.

Meanwhile, it Backwardsland, Curious George continues to support Gonzo.

Q Dana, does Attorney General Gonzales's testimony on Capitol Hill have any bearing whatsoever on his job status?

MS. PERINO: As I've said many times, the President has full confidence in the Attorney General. The Attorney General looked forward to the hearing that is taking place right now. Of course, the President has not seen any of that testimony. As I told you, he's had a busy morning, and now we're on our way to Tipp City, Ohio. And I haven't seen any of the testimony, either. But clearly, we would hope that there were no preconceived notions, or canned talking points that the senators had in mind before they had this hearing. They said they wanted to get to the facts, and I'm sure that the Attorney General will be fully responsive to their request.

Q So is it fair to say that no matter what the testimony, no matter what the back-and-forth, that the President plans to stick with Attorney General Gonzales?

MS. PERINO: I think -- yes. I think the President has full confidence in the Attorney General and whenever that changes for any public servant, we'll let you know, and I see no indication of that.

Senator Durbin along with others asked whether he had conversations with Karl Rove regarding the attorneys in question. Why in the hell would the Attorney General of the United States be having a conversation with a political advisor, someone who has nothing to do with the Department of Justice? On that basis alone, Gonzo should go.

Senator Leahy questioning Gonzo. Now this is "Must see TV"!

Gonzales Postponed Until Thursday

The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday in which [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales was to appear to defend his actions in the dismissals.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is the committee’s chairman, and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, its senior Republican, delayed the hearing until Thursday because of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech.

Okay, the tragic event that happened at the Viginia Tech campus is definitely something that could be considered worth postponing Gonzo's hearing for a couple of days. But am I being callous, or am I the only one who is already tired of the minute to minute coverage of this story by every cable media news outlet on television? Is it that slow of a news day that Tucker Carlson is actually doing a remote from the V.Tech campus? Do I really need to know about the entire life of yet another disturbed teenager?

At the very least, I would like to hear someone, anyone say that due to the tragedy, the Gonzales hearing was postponed. But I heard nothing. I would like to think that as another media frenzy develops (there seems to be one every week), that someone is keeping their eye on the rest of the world.

Charlie Rangel: Bush Is A Fraud

Speaking today at the National Press Club, Rep. Charles Rangel was asked the following question:

"You have said that the Bush Administration's rationale for invading Iraq was the biggest fraud ever committed on the people of this country. How do you defend this strong statement?"

RANGEL: "Well, we've lost 3,500 Americans, 30,000 seriously wounded, hundreds of thousands of people who have died; and the reason we lost them is because the President made a decision to make an appeal to Congress for the authority to go to war; and the reasons that he gave was that they had weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam Hussein was directly connected to 9/11, and that he was also connected to al-Qaeda. None of those things turned out to be true.

Now we could say that the President wasn't intelligent enough to understand the intelligence reports. Or we could say, 'Give the guy a break, he's never left Texas except to visit Mexico, so how could he know?'. Or we should say that everybody who was around him at the time indicating that he should follow Osama bin Laden, that he insisted he wanted to get Saddam Hussein.

Now maybe in these nice, prestigious halls, I should find a word that's more sophisticated - but in Harlem, it's fraud."

The follow up question was if that is his position, why isn't Congress starting impeachment proceedings for Bush and Cheney? He simply said, "Because we don't have the votes." He also added that in his opinion, he didn't think it was a good idea to impeach a president during a time of war.

Say what you want about the guy, but it's nice to hear honest words for a change. It's nice to hear 'lie' instead of 'misspeak'. It's good to call out someone for what they are, instead of worrying you'll be misquoted or fear backlash from your comments. Good for you, Charlie.

Everyone Wants Timetables Except Chimpy & Darth

Six Iraqi Cabinet members are abandoning their posts at the command of Muqtada al-Sadr, who is blaming the Iraqi leadership's refusal to respond to demands for a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal.

So, the Democratic Congress wants a timetable, the Iraqis want a timetable. EVERYONE WANTS A TIMETABLE!... except Chimpy and Darth Cheney.

The Commander in Thief has the gall to ask Democratic leaders of Congress for a meeting regarding Iraq, only to insist it is not a negotaition, it is not a compromise, nothing will change his position. Then why have the damned meeting?!

To the credit of Congressional leaders, they declined the meeting. "What the president invited us to do was come to his office so that we could accept without any discussion the bill that he wants," Pelosi said at a news conference in San Francisco. "That's not worthy of the concerns of the American people, and I join with Senator Reid in rejecting an invitation of that kind."

Where Have All The Bees Gone?

Months ago, there were reports of bee colonies with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It seems that CCD occurs "when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers... The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives."

Theories of what causes CCD have ranged from global warming to mites and pesticides. Now a new study is causing scientists to claim that radiation from mobile phones may be the problem for bees.

In the U.S., 60 % of the West Coast commercial bee population has been lost and 70% has been lost on the East Coast. But the problem has reached global proportions. CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

It's a little more alarming than trivial because most of the world's crops depend on bee pollination, exposing the delicate balance that we take for granted. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

Imus and Free Speech

I've just heard someone try to make the Imus issue a free speech debate. This is not a free speech issue.

US Constitution - Amendment I
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.

Imus was not fired by the government.To my knowledge, there was no complaint that the FCC responded to that caused Imus' dismissal. If there were complaints, I didn't hear one word mentioned about it during the media feeding frenzy on Imus' comments regarding the Rutgers Women's Basketball team.

Imus was fired by the private corporation he worked for; that corporation has the right to tell him what he can and cannot say. Sponsors have the right to pull their advertising if they feel they may be harmed by what an on air personality says on his program which they support with their advertising dollars.

The free speech that was apparent on this issue were the protests and calls for Imus' firing. The air waves are public and the public responded. Was it sensationalized? Yes. Was it blown out of proportion? Perhaps. Is there a double standard? Definitely, but that doesn't make the comments made by Imus any less hateful, any less racial, any less sexually degrading to the people on the receiving end. Others have been fired for racially motivated comments, and for this there cannot be a double standard. Firing Imus, whose program was in the top 10 in the country as far as revenue was concerned, showed us that CBS had the guts to do the right thing, in my opinion, regardless of how it was going to affect them financially. Imus was bringing in $15 million annually.

If this is truly where we are headed as a community (and I think it's a good thing) then there has to be continued scrutiny on the truly hateful on air personalities that make a living spewing their hate-filled rhetoric. This cannot end with Imus. Let's keep an eye on the Rush Limbaughs, the Mike Savages, the Glenn Becks, and the Melanie Morgans of the airwaves.

Imus Fired

CBS fired Don Imus from his radio show Thursday, the final blow for the broadcaster who called the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”

Imus initially was suspended for two weeks for calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos” on the air last week, but outrage continued to grow and advertisers bolted from his programs.