President Bush gave a speech today at Monticello, once the home of Thomas Jefferson. As he began speaking, dissenters in the audience became vocal, as is their Constitutional right. Ironically, as the first of them was being dragged away by the Secret Service, the President had the audacity to claim that that was the great thing about America – that Americans have the right to free speech… …and after about 20 or seconds of it they get dragged away and turned over to local authorities. You ...More »

George Bush or children’s television… President George Walker Bush has a great deal in common with children’s television. As we’re all aware, children’s television commonly focuses on the development of the imagination and the employment of rudimentary language and hyperbole. In doing so, it often presents outlandish scenarios that are constructed on the fantastical – such as large yellow birds that are able to speak to invisible elephants. Interestingly, President Bush also presents outlandish scenarios constructed on the fantastical, though I cannot confirm that he engages ...More »

That, right there, is the most powerful man in the world. A man that the people of the United States elected twice, and one that will go down in the annals of American history as one of the worse Presidents in the nation’s history. The image is of George Bush arriving in Raleigh, North Carolina. As you can see, two locals showed up to witness it. The video footage, from which this screenshot was taken, shows the President waving to them and then waving again in ...More »

If anything should adorn the front of President George W. Bush’s Presidential Library is should be - got away with it… “Claims by U.S. President George W. Bush and other top administration officials before the 2003 invasion of Iraq regarding Baghdad’s ties to al Qaeda and its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes were generally not supported by the evidence that the U.S. intelligence community had at the time, according to a major new report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released Thursday. The long-awaited report, the last ...More »

There are two definitions of - getting out of Iraq. The first is the more obvious, that the United States should withdraw their forces from the country. The second is far less obvious, that by way of an accord currently being pushed by the Bush Administration the United States would establish a permanent presence in the country through which American personnel would remain beyond Iraqi law, have the authority to conduct military operations, and continue to be able to detain Iraqis without domestic interference. How ...More »

It’s eight o’clock in the morning. I have no idea what I am doing up, other than the fact that I went to bed pretty early. I watched The Other Boleyn Girl last night after rehearsal and prior to passing out. Why is it that no one can portray the Tudors with any historical accuracy? Recent Catastrophes Matters in China are looking grimmer by the day, as are conditions in Burma. One searches for words to put such catastrophes into context, but there are few. The ...More »

Keith Olbermann hits one out of the park... ...though I still don't care for him using Murrow's famed closing line, even if as just a tribute. More »

Andrew Cockburn comments on a new US covert initiative that is truly frightening in its scope… “Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, "unprecedented in its scope." Bush’s secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area – from Lebanon to Afghanistan – but is also far more sweeping in the type of actions permitted under its guidelines – up to and including the assassination of targeted officials. ...More »

If you’re labouring under the misconception that the Bush Administration is going to leave office without first confronting the Iranians, it’s time to start paying serious attention. The propaganda machine is in full swing, led by a new report by the State Department that labels Iran the most active sponsor of terrorism. If you can believe it, the Sudanese government actually ranked lower despite the fact that it has been complicit in supporting the Janjiweed who have been responsible for a genocidal campaign in Darfur. ...More »

Over at Tom Dispatch, Tom Engelhardt runs through 12 Answers To Questions No One Is Bothering To Ask About Iraq… “1. Yes, the war has morphed into the U.S. military's worst Iraq nightmare: Few now remember, but before George W. Bush launched the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, top administration and Pentagon officials had a single overriding nightmare -- not chemical, but urban, warfare. Saddam Hussein, they feared, would lure American forces into "Fortress Baghdad," as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld labeled it. There, they would ...More »