SubscribeFormer Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole sent McClellan a biting email in which he said, "There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues." He continued, "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits and, spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."I wonder if Dole is planning on sending a similar email to Dick Cheney.
Former Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole sent McClellan a biting email in which he said, "There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues." He continued, "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits and, spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."To be fair (this is painful) to McClellan and Ridge, these guys are chosen for their positions specifically because they can't get up and resign without being economically ruined. What marketable skills do Ridge and McClellan have? They are employable only within the Republican political machine and only for positions in which employers don't want someone who's going to quit on principle.
"Public service announcement: In case of a terrorist attack, bottled water and duct tape are not going to do a damn thing. So do what Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge does: Get really drunk, and pick up a hooker."Tom Ridge's Department of Homeland Security recommended in February 2003 that we all purchase duct tape and plastic sheeting to seal our houses in the event of a chemical or biological attack. Who benefited? Lowes and Home Depot.
-- David Letterman
"Americans have apparently heeded the U.S. government's advice to prepare for terror attacks, emptying hardware store shelves of duct tape....A Lowe's hardware store in Alexandria, Virginia, said every roll of duct tape has been sold. Another Alexandria Home Depot store reported sales of duct tape tripled overnight.Two years later what happened?
'Everything that was on that newscast, we are selling a lot of it,' said Rich Pierce with a Home Depot in the D.C. area.
...President Bush's Homeland Security Council raised the national threat level from yellow to orange on Friday. Orange indicates a 'high' risk of terrorist attack, and yellow indicates an 'elevated' risk.
The level was raised in part because of a high amount of 'chatter' being intercepted by intelligence agencies.
When the Department of Homeland Security urged Americans on Monday to take steps to prepare for a possible attack, it said the advice was intended not as a 'dire' warning but as cautionary advice."*
"Home Depot, in fact, went so far as to set up special Homeland Security displays nears it entrances to tout sales of duct tape, plastic sheeting, batteries and bottled water, among other safe-room supplies.
At the time, Ridge had just upped the color-coded security threat advisory to orange, the second highest level. That was lowered in November 2004 to yellow, in the middle of the five-level alert range."*
On August 11, John Kerry criticized the Bush Administration for blocking a bipartisan plan to give seniors access to lower-priced prescription drugs from Canada. With almost 80 percent of Medicare recipients supporting Kerry's position, the Bush campaign was faced with the prospect of defending a politically unpopular position.
That same day, in an interview with the Associated Press, FDA Acting Commissioner Lester Crawford said terrorist "cues from chatter" led him to believe Al Qaeda may try to attack Americans by contaminating imported prescription drugs. Crawford refused to provide any details to substantiate his claims.
My Bad: How I helped destroy America's military, economy, constitution, and standing in the world (and got rich doing it!)Sounds like a contemporary re-telling of The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street.
by Tom "one of the few 'good guys' in the Bush Administration" Ridge
"Why does Tom Ridge hate America?"and the ever popular:
"Tom Ridge has Bush Derangement Syndrome!"
"Those who undermine Bush are helping the terrorists win"
"A radical communist seeking to destroy America" and a "f@ggot" to boot
Admittedly, they were (after several weeks) [town hall protesters] dismissed as cranks, but not before they started bringing guns to town halls. But the process of dismissing them as cranks has occupied the Village's time, rather than an exposition of what is really in the existing health care plans.This gets at the essence of what's wrong with how the contemporary press covers politics (and most other issues, as a matter of fact): they never actually get into the specific details of the policy matters they cover, they report only on the power jockeying among the various interested parties, on the various third-party analysts interpretations of those power struggles, and on what opinion polls show the public seems to think about the whole dreary spectacle.
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posted by notsnot at 11:37 AM on August 20