Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war.
posted on Mar 3, 2008 - View this thread

'He's God's gift to today's political cartoonist': Misunderestimating the President through Cartoons, an exhibition of the work of leading political cartoonists from both the UK and the United States focusing on their depictions of George Bush, opens today in London at the Political Cartoon Gallery. Watch the video report from Channel 4 and read essays on the history of political cartoons.
posted on Jan 26, 2006 - View this thread

Bush and Blair slated by Pinter George W Bush and Tony Blair must be held to account for feeding the public "a vast tapestry of lies" about the Iraq war, writer Harold Pinter said. [Postroad: but then, what do artists know about politics?]
posted on Dec 7, 2005 - View this thread

A surprise from Al Gore: I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave danger. It is no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse . I know that I am not the only one who feels that something has gone basically and badly wrong in the way America's fabled "marketplace of ideas" now functions. How many of you, I wonder, have heard a friend or a family member in the last few years remark that it's almost as if America has entered "an alternate universe"? I thought maybe it was an aberration when three-quarters of Americans said they believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on September 11, 2001. But more than four years later, between a third and a half still believe Saddam was personally responsible for planning and supporting the attack.
posted on Oct 6, 2005 - View this thread

At this challenging time for President Bush, let us reminisce about the system that elected him. Will the next election be different? Do you want it to be? What are you going to do about it?
posted on Sep 12, 2005 - View this thread

Guess what? Another poll (since MeFites enjoy them sooooo much)! This one is a take on how much the world trusts and loves Bush.
posted on Jan 20, 2005 - View this thread

LAWs instructions for starting criminal procedures against Bush Today in Vancouver, Lawyers Against the War filed torture charges against George W. Bush under the Canadian Criminal Code. The charges were laid by Gail Davidson, co-chair of Lawyers against the War--LAW, under provisions enacted pursuant to the U.N. Torture Convention, ratified by both Canada and the United States. The charges concern the well known abuses of prisoners held by US Armed Forces in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. The charges were accepted by the Justice of the Peace and referred for a hearing to decide whether Bush should be required to appear for trial. The Attorney General of Canada's consent is required within eight days for proceedings to continue, and the question of Bush's diplomatic immunity will have to be resolved by the court.
posted on Dec 1, 2004 - View this thread

Bohemian election. Just a little something to lighten the day. Bound to be a double post but can't find any signs, so apologies in advance if it is. Altogether now, My brother jeb has votes put aside for meeee...
posted on Nov 2, 2004 - View this thread

Christian-right views are swaying politicians and threatening the environment. Maybe that's why the Bush administration is trying to stifle scientific evidence of global warming. Meanwhile, some experts think global warming may cause stronger hurricanes. [Via Disinformation and the Intersection.]
posted on Oct 27, 2004 - View this thread

George W. Bush and John Kerry pumpkin stencils. Celebrate the last weekend before the election by carving your endorsement into... well, I guess into anything, although pumpkins are recommended. (minor popup warning)
posted on Oct 27, 2004 - View this thread

Think that Bush has the Catholic vote sewn up? Think again. Despite the efforts of some to make Catholics one-issue voters, many Catholics are more concerned with the views on social justice [pdf] of the Church in this hotly contested [Real] race. It’s a weird year to be a Catholic voter.
posted on Oct 22, 2004 - View this thread

American Savagery. "Our role was to try to keep people motivated about [the] election and then to undermine the other side's support by casting them as liars, cheaters, stealers, immoral—all of that." The brutal chicanery of Karl Rove.
posted on Oct 18, 2004 - View this thread

Campaign Contributions and U.S. Ambassadors
In 1972 President Nixon appointed thirteen noncareer ambassadors to Western European countries; eight of them had contributed at least $50,000 to his reelection campaign...(-Source, scroll to item 2.)
In 1980 a federal law was created to combat this, stating that ambassadors must "possess clearly demonstrated competence, including, to the maximum extent practicable, a useful knowledge of the principal language or dialect of the country in which the individual is to serve, and knowledge and understanding of the history, the culture, the economic and political institutions and the interest of that country and its people. … Contributions to political campaigns should not be a factor in the appointment."
Currently 1/4 to 1/3 of U.S. Ambassadors are noncareer appointees, not experienced diplomats, causing criticism since the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Critics point out that neither the Pentagon, the CIA nor any other U.S. government agency must shoulder the burden of a significant cadre of "nonprofessionals" encumbering senior field positions. (-Source.)

HERE is the current tally of Embassy Row and their campaign contributions, including Clark Randt, Jr, former Geo W Yale fraternity brother who defended Bush against drug allegations during Bush's last campaign. "Rangers" and "Pioneers" abound. Mauritius is sunny, tropical, and expensive. (Inspired by this AskMe question.)
posted on Oct 14, 2004 - View this thread

Terror warnings boost Bush's approval ratings. Cornell sociologist Robb Willard has used a time-series regression analysis to show that a terror alert by the US government predicts an increase in Bush's approval ratings, even on topics unrelated to security. It's often been claimed that the Bush administration manipulates terror alerts for political gain — does this finding make those claims more plausible?
posted on Oct 7, 2004 - View this thread

An excellent WashPost primer on the lies each candidate is currently telling about the other, and how they hold up to reality. Also, enjoy the many euphemisms employed to avoid the "L" word: (Misleading. Inaccurate. Oversimplified. Exaggerated. Carefully selected. Unfair. etc etc) Who will be the first mainstream media outlet to state plainly that a politician has told a lie? Login: shutyomouf@hotmail.com - pw:shaftbaby)
posted on Sep 30, 2004 - View this thread

Nature presents Bush and Kerry talking science. I never thought I'd see an incumbent president flip-flopping on Mars!
posted on Sep 15, 2004 - View this thread

What If Bush Wins? Sixteen writers ,right and left, predict the likely consequences of a second term for President Bush.
posted on Sep 13, 2004 - View this thread

Mail Room Veterans for Bush
Not exactly your Swift Boat Veterans, but staunch defenders of all things holy and honorable and patriotic just the same. Submitted for your Friday fun.
posted on Aug 6, 2004 - View this thread

The truth, hard as it is to accept, is that Bush is an Iranian agent.
Time to ask where our president's loyalties lie? (taking a page from our Republican friends, of course) And The Logan Act--who does it apply to?
posted on Jun 2, 2004 - View this thread

The Most Important Press Conference of This (US) Election Cycle! (It's not quite Friday, but it's Flash. Really flash)
posted on May 6, 2004 - View this thread

"You've admitted what you are Fat Tony, now you're just haggling over the price." Thanks for the Churchill whore meme to RogerAiles, who flagged this comment by Justice Scalia: "If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can be bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined." So, what is the going rate?
posted on Mar 20, 2004 - View this thread

Bush's campaign commercials feature footage from 9/11, but anger firefighters and families of victims. Is it disingenuous to defend the ads when you claimed just nineteen weeks after the tragedy that you would not use the disaster for politcal gain? If anyone should be able to use the event for political purposes, it would be Giuliani, who defends Bush's actions.
posted on Mar 5, 2004 - View this thread

Our top story tonight: John Edwards and John Kerry both beat Bush in polls and in "totally unrelated news" the search for Osama Bin Laden intensifies and in "other totally unrelated news" the new Election Assistance Commission assured the states that they would expedite the distribution of $2.3 billion dollars in federal funds for new voting booth equipment
posted on Feb 19, 2004 - View this thread

The BBC is asking visitors of its news site to vote from a shortlist of the ten most embarrassing political moments. Visitors can watch a short film [real media] which shows all ten nominated moments (forgive the home-video moments style background muzak). There's some variety here: Tony Blair and Neil Kinnock in moments exhibiting a baffling degree of misguidedness, George W Bush and Kenneth Clarke in tight spots (figuratively and literally), while Charles Kennedy and John Prescott probably coming out of their situations looking better than they did beforehand. For me the most cringe-inducing clip is that of John Redwood, the then newly appointed Secretary of State for Wales, attempting to mime the Welsh national anthem. Genuinely difficult to watch.
posted on Dec 5, 2003 - View this thread

Bush: "a bottomless void"? Jon Carroll's Boston Globe op-ed asks whether it's ever possible to rid the world of evil, as W. claims is his ultimate goal, and answers in the negative. Is presidential rhetoric on good and evil helpful? Elaine Pagels doesn't think so.
posted on Jul 8, 2003 - View this thread

Joshka Fischer Said What? That The U.S. Needs Another Boston Tea Party? Hidden in the depths of this very interesting article by Timothy Garton-Ash, on Europe's misplaced anti-Americanism, is a very interesting revelation from Germany's Green Party-carrying Foreign Minister. To what extent are relations between the pro-American and the anti-American Europe and the United States - the so-called "Old and New Europe" - based on misperceptions? Is Europe, like the Middle East and, well, the whole wide world, too complex for the current U.S. administration to understand? Is it really possible for American foreign to swerve round France and Germany? [Fwiw, my two centimes is that it is.]
posted on Jun 14, 2003 - View this thread

The bait and switch. A last-minute revision by House and Senate leaders in the tax bill that President Bush signed today will prevent millions of minimum-wage families from receiving the increased child credit that is in the measure.
posted on May 29, 2003 - View this thread

Did Bush know? An article in today's New York Times (link to mirrored site with no reg. req.) pieces together data that the author claims proves that Bush and his inner circle were well-aware that they were using false "evidence" of Iraqi WMD. Sy Hersh from the New Yorker is also chiming in, as is Salon's Joe Connason and Katha Pollitt of The Nation. A pretty decent subsection of media is finally descending on this story. If Bush or Powell or Rumsfeld are proven to have been knowingly deceitful, will the American public be even half as angry as the rest of the world?
posted on May 6, 2003 - View this thread

Michael Moore is making a deal with Mel Gibson's Icon Prods. to finance "Fahrenheit 911," a documentary that will trace why the U.S. has become a target for hatred and terrorism. It will also depict alleged dealings between two generations of the Bush and bin Laden clans that led to George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden becoming mortal enemies.
posted on Mar 31, 2003 - View this thread

Richard Perle resigns the Defense Policy Board chairmanship. Richard Perle, after being accused of profiteering and conflict of interest, has resigned as chairman of the Defense Policy Board. Was this the real reason he resigned, or is the administration distancing itself from Perle due to his claims the Iraqis would be "dancing in the streets" after a US invasion, his links to an advocate for invading Saudi Arabia, or perhaps his call in the British press to get rid of the UN?
Don't start missing him yet, however. Perle will still remain on the Defense Policy board at Donald Rumsfeld's request.
posted on Mar 28, 2003 - View this thread

WSJ says war in Iraq really first step in grand scheme to remake the Middle East. Rumsfeld and Fleischer can still be seen on TV news implying "we just want them to disarm". More on What Makes W. Tick from The Atlantic.
posted on Mar 21, 2003 - View this thread

Protest Is Not Tolerated

I wasn't sure how much good I could do or how much power one person has but I wanted to do it. When I took my place on the sidewalk across the street from my church, I was struck with this Norman Rockwell picture of America. Families with their balloons, flags and signs made it feel like the Fourth of July. I was thrilled by all the patriotism and was proud to be part of this community that cares enough to turn out to greet the most powerful politician in our land. But when I unrolled my sign, all that changed, and I may never be able to look at my community the same way again.

Ain't that America? Proud to be Born in the USA? Constitutional rights? Not with the "Defenders Of All Things Duhbya!"
posted on Feb 27, 2003 - View this thread

Smokehammer Video Update Wonderful video clip and mp3 put together by some Warp Records video artists. George Dubya's "warped" rendition of the State of the Union is excellent. "Our first goal is to show utter contempt for the environment... For the first time we must offer every child in America 3 nuclear missles."
posted on Feb 15, 2003 - View this thread

Powell's address to the UN. In a direct, long and rich presentation, Colin Powell has laid the cards on the table, and presented what's likely to be our most explicit case for war. While it's difficult to separate the larger issue of War on Iraq from just this presentation, I'm interested in other takes on Powell's speech. Anything substantially new? Truly irrefutable? Strong enough to justify immediate action? Does this have more heft coming from Powell (considering he's more trusted than Bush on this issue), or is he acting as a mouthpiece? Or, to be succinct, did Colin change anyone's mind? At the very least, he satisfied my need to know more about why our administration is acting so urgently.
posted on Feb 5, 2003 - View this thread

The tide is turning. A new poll from the Pew Research Center indicates that the Bush Administration is losing support for a war against Iraq, with only 29% favoring war if U.N. inspectors fail to find weapons of mass destruction. Polls are looking considerably worse in Great Britain, where 47% of the public disapprove of an attack on Iraq, compared to just 30% in favor of such an attack. Blair is certain that he can get the British public to support war, however, even if Britain goes to war without U.N. support. "When and if that time came, people would find the reasons acceptable and satisfactory because there is no other route available to us."
posted on Jan 21, 2003 - View this thread

It's thoughtful, not angry or insulting. It appears to make sense and it doesn't upset me. Is this really how they think of themselves? Required reading for the liberal opposition: A Republican's View of George Bush, Compassionate Conservative. (NYTimes, free registration required)
posted on Jan 5, 2003 - View this thread

Bush is soft on tobacco Just say No! Unless you are in cahoots with Big Tobacco. On issues such as this, I do not hold Bush or his party solely guilty but instead view it as The American Way--lobby groups, gifts, elections handouts--all of which blur party lines.
posted on Nov 27, 2002 - View this thread

Bush skeptical of ballistic fingerprinting. This article talks about Bush's (and the NRA's) reluctance to set up a national ballistic fingerprinting system to trace bullets back to the guns which fired them. Some feel this technology could be helpful in finding the DC sniper. Apparently, legislation to set up this system has been in the works for about 2 years, but this is the first I've heard of it. Any MeFi people know more about this?
posted on Oct 16, 2002 - View this thread

Buzzcocks singer Pete Shelley shouted down for yelling "Fuck George Bush!" by an angry crowd at the Inland Punk Rock Festival in California (about halfway into the article.) At least according to a friend of some guy who writes for the Weekly Standard who took his teenage daughter to the concert and had no idea who the Buzzcocks were. Was anyone there? Did this really happen?
posted on Oct 8, 2002 - View this thread

'The guy who tried to kill my dad.' Setting aside partisan bickering, this description of Saddam Hussein by George W. Bush today sent my mind reeling. Is this in reference to something published in the past that is just escaping my mind? The Reuters version of the story adds that it is reference to "an Iraqi plot to kill former President George Bush after the 1991 Gulf War." Anyone have a link to that older story?
posted on Sep 27, 2002 - View this thread

An Open Letter to Congress from the editors of The Nation. All the makings of a final plea.
posted on Sep 26, 2002 - View this thread

Is Germany next on the list? Well, no, but the way the Bush administration approaches diplomacy needs some work. Is a war in Iraq worth "poisoning" America's relationship with the international community?
posted on Sep 23, 2002 - View this thread

Jeb Bush delivers Florida ... to Janet Reno's opponent in the primary. Not a repost of the trouble-at-the-polls brouhaha. Carl Hiaasen looks at the Bush team's "stupendous" backfire in targeting a second-tier candidate, eventual winner Bill McBride, in an apparently incessant string of TV ads that moved McBride from anonymity to a fearsome candidate. "Why else would the GOP buy so much TV time to slam him?" asks Hiaasen, and indeed, McBride's follow-up ads capitalized on this notoriety. By carrying the primary, the race against Bush gets more interesting: "Reno is a known quantity about whom most voters already feel strongly one way or the other," notes Hiaasen. "McBride is a fresh face with no Clinton baggage and a Bronze Star from the Vietnam War."
posted on Sep 12, 2002 - View this thread

Does invading Iraq require more than declaring Saddam Hussein "evil"? The New York Times reports public opposition from people not easily labeled Brie-sucking scared-of-war libyerals -- people like Henry "Bombs Away" Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft. Meanwhile, hawks argue that not attacking after all Bush's rhetoric would "produce such a collapse of confidence in the president that it would set back the war on terrorism." [registration required]
posted on Aug 15, 2002 - View this thread

Bush / Giuliani in 2004? Is this the team the Democrats will have to beat in 2004?Rudy Giuliani is still riding on the wave of popularity from his post 9/11 actions. Apparently he's got his eye on the White House, even if it breaks Dick Cheney's heart.
posted on Jun 9, 2002 - View this thread

Obligatory link to the state of the union address. I'm surprised that there isn't a play by play thread yet. Comments?
posted on Jan 29, 2002 - View this thread

"It just hit me... they won't be contributing any more money, will they?" Abruptly changing his tone about a company that heavily contributed to his political campaigns, President George W. Bush now says that he was "outraged" that Enron Corp. misled its employees and investors, including his mother-in-law, who he said lost more than $8,000 when the energy firm's stock collapsed.
posted on Jan 23, 2002 - View this thread

President Bush seems to think that abortion is unconstitutional. Does anyone smell hypocrisy here? I would suggest that he examine the constitutionality of his own actions before throwing stones.
posted on Jan 20, 2002 - View this thread

He does return favors, but how does it affect the workers? Eugene Scalia is President Bush's nominee for Labor Department solicitor. Scalia is one of nine children of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was a driving force behind the court ruling that stopped the counting of disputed presidential votes in Florida last year.
posted on Dec 17, 2001 - View this thread

From many voices, onevapproach via NY Times (reg req'd). Facts now coming out indcate that there are many cells, worldwide, that have been set in place over the years and are (or were) to be activated in a continupous terror assault. What our leaders are saying, then, about the length of time requried may in fact be in recognition of the huge job ahead in rooting these cells out.
posted on Sep 23, 2001 - View this thread

"How Bush should spend his windfall of political capital." Many links have been posted in the past 10 days to cheap political opportunism in the wake of 0.81- but this takes the cake: an op-ed calling for Bush to explicitly exploit this tragedy to pass bigger tax cuts, ANWR drilling, etc. Yep, another sickening WSJ effort; I'm sure the families of the victims will take heart in knowing their loved ones are, in fact, a "windfall of political capital" for Bush. (sorry for the two-front-page-posts-in-a-row, btw)
posted on Sep 21, 2001 - View this thread

Just a Reminder That The White House is Occupied by a Clueless, Dangerous Man I'm not sure what to add, except I wish he would just resign. And that I wish the median national IQ would rise into the low 90's.
posted on Aug 24, 2001 - View this thread

Press sez "good", public sez "bad" I'm not posting this story to discuss Bush's EU tour (lord knows we've done that one to death), but rather to examine this line: "Mr. Bush's European tour, though it drew largely upbeat news coverage, did not appear to help him in the eyes of the public." I'm a pretty big believer that the media (oh, let's just go ahead and capitalize it: "The Media") plays a huge role is shaping public perceptions of politicians, and I too thought the coverage of Bush's EU trip was pretty positive -- certainly in comparison to the "he's gonna go over there and get suckerpunched" predictions they were running before his departure. And, still, his numbers go down. What do you think? How large an influence does The Media really have? Does the public just believe what Peter Jennings tells 'em, or is it possible that, *gasp*, they can think for themselves?
posted on Jun 21, 2001 - View this thread

Bush warned of G-8 terrorist threat Bin Laden's recruitment video shows them taking shots at a video image of Clinton, and possibly a link with the bombing of the Cole. Also, speculation on moving the summit.
posted on Jun 21, 2001 - View this thread

Fla. OKs Election System Overhaul "Florida's governor was eager to change the state's maligned election system after recounts delayed his brother's election for 36 days and left many Democrats believing Al Gore had won".
posted on May 5, 2001 - View this thread

News about Florida from England Information from BBC that the US media never picked up.
posted on Mar 8, 2001 - View this thread

'Debategate' Indictment Dirty tricks from Dubya...?
posted on Mar 6, 2001 - View this thread

The Secret of W's Success. ....Could it really be this simple to stymie the Dems?
posted on Mar 3, 2001 - View this thread

Undervote Count Supports Bush Win I'd like to believe that this will put an end to the endless whining, but I'm not that much of an optimist...
posted on Feb 26, 2001 - View this thread

Way to go, Mr. President. Hmm, odd. If you visit the White House's website and click on the president, the text is right, but the picture seems to be a little off... If it's been corrected, I grabbed a screenshot and put it on my server. I'm sure it's just a sign of the attention to detail to come over the next four years...
posted on Feb 5, 2001 - View this thread

Dubya wishes to end "discrimination" against churches. In regards to his recent faith-based services funding thing, Dubya speaks to the religous folks he's targeting. Apparently, he feels the separation of church and state is "discrimination." Is there any vacancy left in Canada for about four years?
posted on Feb 1, 2001 - View this thread

Andrew Sullivan on the blessed relief of presidential silence:
"The promise of Bush is to make politics boring again, to return it to the prose of government rather than the drama of private life or the poetry of the broader culture."
posted on Jan 14, 2001 - View this thread

Warning signs on the horizon... WARNING Political: Democrats and Repubs point fingers over who's to blame about current and future economic problems. Ok, who forgot that 5 weeks of political indecision has had a big, bad toll on the economy? Also, another in a long series of funny dubya pictures. Check the large hands. How'd they get so big?
posted on Dec 21, 2000 - View this thread

FLASH: Gore Concedes. Ok, I guess *now* it's over. Bye, Alec...
posted on Dec 13, 2000 - View this thread

Bush, by a technicality. They've run out the clock. Oh dear. This could be messy.
posted on Dec 12, 2000 - View this thread

Curious George W.
posted on Dec 6, 2000 - View this thread

Liar, Liar
If you can explane away the DUI (DWI, OUI) arrest, then you will have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that Bush used his family's power and influence to first restore his Maine license on 7/25/78, in the middle of his Congressional campaign. Then, 15 years later had his Maine driving record updated with "violation free credits" on 12/31/93 at right around the time Bush was gearing up to run for Governor of Texas. Read more here.
posted on Nov 3, 2000 - View this thread

Chernomyrdin to sue George W. Bush to clear his name and business reputation. While we're on this, Monica Lewinsky, too, plans to sue Bill Clinton, because she too, wants 'to clear her name and business reputation.'
posted on Oct 27, 2000 - View this thread

Too stupid to be president. The Ethical Spectacle writes a condemnation of George Bush which is really a condemnation of the Republican Party which is really a condemnation of the American politcal system. What I wonder is, would the Democrats fare any better under the same magnifying glass?
posted on Sep 3, 2000 - View this thread

"When we carry Iowa in November, it'll mean the end of four years of Clinton-Gore."
~gWb
posted on Aug 22, 2000 - View this thread