George Bush wants you to drink poisoned water

Not content to have reduced the United States to third world nation status, Dubyah has decided to salt the earth behind him. There is no end to the evil this man will do.

According to an article in the New York Times (Nov. 29 by Robert Pear), the Shrub is "racing to complete a new rule" designed to make it "much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job." The proposed 20 new rules will deal with abortion, auto safety and the environment. The plan is to make it more difficult for the Obama administration to protect workers. Another rule would allow coal companies to dump dirt from mountaintop mining operations into streams and valley. And for those of us struggling to keep our heathcare coverage, states will be authorized to charger higher co-payments for physician office visits, hospital care, and prescription drugs provided to low income families under Medicaid. And the topper: Protection for healthcare workers who refuse to perform abortions because of religious or moral grounds.

How is this a good thing for the country?

And what does the administration say to its critics? We/they misunderstand the proposal. This is the same man who dared people to attack us--"bring  it on." I don't believe Obama walks on water; I don't believe he can accomplish half of what he has promised. But he's not George W. Bush and that's good enough for me. 

It must suck to be the Shrub

Last week there was some online video showing George Bush at the end of the G8 meeting being dissed by everyone. Well, that's how it looked. You know, there was that end-of-game handshaking line and everybody shook everybody else's hand except W's. Not one person shook his hand and it seemed to me that no one would even make eye contact. I thought it must be wishful thinking on my part, until I saw this picture of the Shrub at the end of some heavy duty PR tour of Peru, standing alone in his poncho looking forlorn and forgotten. For a moment I felt some sympathy for the little guy, until I remembered just how little sympathy he had/has for me and my kind, the vanishing and vanquished middle class.

Barak Obama talks economic recovery as Dubya pardons a turkey. I suppose it's always the same for a lame duck president, and Georgie boy is the lamest duck ever, but couldn't he have found the time to utter one more of his platitudes about how he's working for our economic relief? We wouldn't have believed him, but it would have sounded as if he knew what was happening and was concerned.

I'm sure that in time the picture of George in a flight suit strutting before a Mission Accomplished banner will be replaced by something more dignified. I mean, he did get some things right, just not during Katrina or in Iraq or during our rapid decline to third world status. He could, I suppose, save his legacy by funding transit projects already approved by Congress. He could release those fund for the green-jobs program to insulate public buildings. But he won't do either I suppose because strutting around in a flight suit is the best George could do as president. I guess we can't expect more of him now.

So while Barak Obama holds press conferences and creates a recovery program for the nation, George, who could stimulate the economy now by providing jobs--and green jobs at that--stands around looking uncomfortably out of place on the world stage and pardons turkeys.

Tossed Salad

You'll be pleased to know that unemployed, unlicensed Joe-the-plumber Sam Wurzelbacher has a job. He's taken time out from writing his political biography to shill for VelocityStore.com, one of those stores that sells whatever it is you will need to convert your TV to digital. He will be doing a series of "educational" videos to explain why the conversion is taking place, how to connect the converter to the TV, and where you can get your government handout to help pay for the transition.

When the government started throwing money at failing banks and mortgage companies nobody, but nobody, made an issue of how much money AIG pays in salaries. But auto workers are another matter. For some reason, the New York Times reported, and everyone else is repeating, that auto workers make upwards of $70 an hour. I realize this is the favored mantra of auto industry executives and their conservative friends, but it is as bald faced a lie as a lie can be. These are the same jerks who insisted that the reason the built big trucks and SUVs is because that's what the public wanted and now they are crying poor because nobody bought the crap they were selling. I find this whole thing so personally offensive.

Auto industry executives had the unmitigated gall to fly by private jet to Washington, DC, so that they can beg for a hand-out without having to sit three across in coach--and now they are placing the blame for their failures on the UAW. Give me a break.

For the record, auto industry workers earn about $28 an hours, which is slightly less than workers earn at Toyota. In short, auto worker salaries are average. Now, the Big Three Fat Cat Honchos will tell you that when they say $70 an hour, they include benefits such as vacation, health care insurance, and retirement. But what these miserable liars do not tell you is that when they average out the per hour cost of making a car, they include the pensions of retired workers as well as other costs, you know, like electricity and real estate taxes. So, no, auto workers really do not earn anything near $70 an hour, although it does cost $70 an hour to make a car.

Surely, the Big Three Fat Cat Honchos would love to stop paying retirement benefits, want to reduce health care premium contributions, and would like to roll back salaries to 1927 rates--but what they are not willing to do is to reduce their own multi-million dollar annual salaries or travel by public conveyance to Washington, DC, or make a car that people will want. Oh, wait, I forgot the Chevy Volt is due out in 2010 or maybe 2011.

Meanwhile, like pigs to the trough, AIG is back for a third helping. Do you get the feeling that the entire $700 billion will be spent by the end of the year and where to get the rest of the cash will become the other guy's problem come January 20?

Citicorp CEO Vikram Pandit said that management did a bad thing when it dove willy-nilly into real estate. He even allowed as how he understood why people are so angry. He did not fly to Washington, DC, in a private jet, but he did accept the government's plan to rescue him from the management mess with a timely injection of $20 billion. Pandit also said the error was caused by prior management so apparently he feels no need to resign or reduce his salary or stock options or Christmas bonus. The Saudis are expressing their support by increasing their stake in the bank. If this continues it'll be called Riyadhicorp.

In other news, Ann Coulter's jaw has been wired shut. No word on who or what broke her jaw in the first place or how long we will enjoy the silence. Her book, Guilty: Liberal Victims and their Assault on America, is available for pre-order on Amazon. So, I guess she will be doing the talk show circuit some time in January. Enjoy the peace and quiet while you can.

Sarah Palin is back on the campaign trail. She's in Georgia lending a helping hand to the shuttering campaign of Sen. Saxby Chambliss. You have been warned.

Europe at the end of the war

I know how they feel, those jubilant hoards dancing in the streets in 1945 at the end of the war. The foreign occupier was vanquished and life would get back to normal. That's how I feel as we count down the final days of the Bush regime. So much of what has happened  in the past four years is foreign, and should be foreign, to us. If you thought this was a Republic, Dick Cheney set you straight in a TV interview when he said that the American people get their say every four years, after which they can be ignored. And that's just what the Bush Administration did. We, that is, the United States, established the United Nations so that there would be someone to stop military aggression and imperialism--which did nothing to stop Bush in Iraq. Although everyone with a brain knows that torture is not a realizable way to elicit useful information, the Bush Administration reinstituted the practice. While spending our money on their imperial agenda, bridges, roads, and environmental standards have fallen into disrepair and decay. As the infrastructure languished, and education and healthcare headed for  the dumpster, the Bush Administration has dumped billions of dollars into their aggressive and destructive foreign adventure in Iraq.

Bush, who is not known to hand out reprieves or pardons either as governor or president, just pardoned Leslie Collier of Missouri, who was convicted of unauthorized use of pesticides and violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. In his "Shermanesque" march to Crawford, it seems Mr. Bush will leave a scorched American behind him, passing as many acts and laws as he can to further weaken environmental protection laws. 

We have pursued an aggressive and expensive foreign policy and, like Germany in 1919, we are vanquished and broke. Today Bush said he was pleased with our efforts in Iraq. What's worse is that the press, our press, those people who are suppose to be on our side, has become an organ of propaganda, endlessly churning out misinformation and crude scare tactics so that like a totalitarian government, Bush could do what he wanted when he wanted and no one had the guts to ask a question or offer a contrary opinion.

So on Jan. 20, I will be one of those dancing in the streets. No, I don't think Obama can resolve all of our problems--I'm not even sure he can resolve some of them within his first term. But it's a start. The alien will have returned to the mother ship, the occupation is over and perhaps this government will remember that they represent the people. Indeed, it will be a day for dancing in the streets.