The New Yorker: "September 11, 2001, brought with it one positive gift: a surge of solidarity, global and national [which] provided Bush with a second opportunity.... Again, he brushed the opportunity aside, choosing to use the political capital handed to him by Osama bin Laden to push through more elements of his unmandated domestic program [and by] portraying selected Democrats as friends of terrorism. Is it any wonder that the anger felt by many Democrats is even greater than can be explained by the profound differences in outlook...? The Bush Administration has had success in carrying out its policies and implementing its intentions [but] its record has been one of failure, arrogance, and - strikingly for a team that prided itself on crisp professionalism - incompetence [and] Bush's immediate reaction to the events of September 11, 2001, was an almost palpable bewilderment and anxiety."

Harold Meyerson writes,"'I have no outside advice' in the war on terrorism, Bush told Bob Woodward in December of 2001. In an interview that Woodward revealed to Nicholas Lemann in last week's issue of the New Yorker, Bush insisted that, 'Anybody who says they're an outside adviser of this Administration on this particular matter is not telling the truth. First of all, in the initial phase of the war, I never left the compound. Nor did anybody come in the compound. I was, you talk about one guy in a bubble.' Indeed. By every available indication, George W. Bush's is the most inside-the-bubble presidency in modern American history... Bush has fused anti-empiricism and cultural resentment -- and that, should he ride it to victory, will truly be a catastrophic success. "

"This video is heart-wrenching, but it is a glaring example of everything that is wrong with George W. Bush's presidency and the Bush administration's policies. The original video is from an event in March 2004. During Bush's speech, he thought it would be funny to show pictures of himself (e.g., looking under a desk) while he joked about not finding WMDs in Iraq. If Bush had an ounce of compassion or the tiniest bit of empathy, he would understand that his lies are killing people. The victims of his war won't find his jokes very funny. Bush lied to the America people and the American people deserve better."

Reading through this check list of symptoms of abusive personality, it seemed as if we were reading a description of Bush and his most dedicated supporters - right down to the cruelty to animals (Bush admitted he used to blow up frogs for fun). Just shift the focus of the abuse from home to global situation ("past battering" could refer to invasions of poor countries) and there you have it - a president who is a perpetrator and a blindly devoted army of followers who exhibit all the signs of abuse victims (codependence, making excuses for the perp, endangering self or others to please the perp, low self-esteem, etc.).

Cox News: "Democratic nominee John Kerry... said Saturday it is 'stunning' that the president could not admit any mistakes. At a rally in this stronghold of union voters near Cleveland, Kerry recalled how 'the president couldn't even name one mistake' in response to the last question in Friday night's debate in St. Louis. Kerry said the president's response was 'the most stunning moment of the whole evening,' one in which the presidential challenger had repeatedly accused the Bush administration of misjudgments in foreign and domestic affairs... 'The choice for America could really not have been more clear than it was last night,' Kerry said. 'Four more years of the wrong choices, or four years of beginning to move America in a direction that creates jobs, creates health care, puts America's respect back where it ought to be.' " With Bush it will be four more years of the wrong choices. Bush can't even admit to his mistakes -- so he's bound to keep repeating them.

Wilson Ray says the man "who likes to make people think he is the biggest Christian to ever inhabit the White House is a liar and a cheat. His information comes to him in his ear from a radio transmitter device he wears on his back under his suit jacket. This is against the rules of using props set forth by the debate commission. The irony is, the photos that prove it were taken in violation of the rules by a Fox news pool camera operator... Is there a member of the debate commission or the national media with the guts to raise this question before the next debate? Would somebody in the White House press corps at least ask the question? The problem with the debate rules is that there are no explicit punitive measures for cheating. In a real debating society, cheating would constitute disqualification. In this case, only the people who vote can disqualify one of the contenders. Bush should be disqualified and sent back to the ranch."

What do you call a wimp who, when confronted with a stronger man, crumbles and pouts and snivels, then, safely away from the "danger" of a man-to-man encounter, hides in a circle of hand-pick "gang members" (Better known as Bush fans) and taunts the absent opponent from miles away? There's only one word for it, folks: COWARD. America is awakening to the awful truth: we have a sniveling mamma's boy wimp in the White House who preens and struts as long as he's surrounded by yes-toadies, and, from the safety of his office sends better men off to suffer and die in a war we never had to fight.

EJ Dionne for the Washington Post: "It is hard to overestimate how important Kerry's strong debate performance was for his campaign.... He took the fight to Bush hard. But Kerry's more-in-sorrow-than-anger tone kept him from looking obnoxious or arrogant [and after] hundreds of attacks about flip-flopping, Kerry finally managed to make the counterargument against Bush.... 'It's one thing to be certain, but you can be certain and be wrong.' [Once Bush] decides something, he never, ever rethinks or challenges himself.... Bush clearly hopes that the flip-flop argument and his increasingly unreal claims that all is well in Iraq will be enough to allow him to hang on through Election Day. He's assuming that no one will ask hard questions [b]ut Kerry did.... It makes you worry about [Bush's] strength in circumstances he does not completely control.... [C]onfronted for 90 minutes by an opponent willing to go straight at him, [Bush] fumbled, he hesitated and he scowled."

"I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 Gen. Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity... the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear. But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man. He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. "

Christians for Kerry/Edwards takes a hard-hitting look at Bush's "compassion gap." A Christian writer has unearthed a quote from President George Washington, which sounds like our country's first president would have taken Bush to the woodshed for failing to prevent the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. In 1775, General Washington penned a letter to Colonel Benedict Arnold, putting this officer on notice that he would be held accountable for the conduct of his soldiers as they marched through a foreign country (Canada). General Washington charged Arnold to ensure that his soldiers "look with compassion" on the local residents and respect their religion. "Bush ignored the example of President George Washington and utterly failed to 'look with compassion' upon people of another country. The Iraqi occupation has disintegrated into a festering quagmire that breeds terrorists. As a result, America is more hated and less safe."

AP: " Bush is honoring the sacrifice of National Guardsmen in Iraq and Afghanistan, noting their special role in the war on terror, and saying he also is proud of his own Vietnam-era stint as a citizen soldier. {LOL!!!}. Bush was to express his pride in commanding the tens of thousands of guardsmen mobilized for the war on terror and other missions at home and abroad. In all, the Washington-based association says more than 225,000 guardsmen -- roughly half the force -- have been called to active duty since the terrorists attacks on Sept. 11, 2001."

UK Mirror: "Author Kitty Kelley says [Bush] first used coke at university in the mid-1960s. She quotes his former sister-in-law Sharon Bush who claims: "Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was President, and not just once either." Other acquaintances allege that [while in the] National Guard, Bush "liked to sneak out back for a joint or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine". Bush has admitted being an alcoholic but, asked during the 1999 election if he did drugs, he said: "I've told the American people that years ago I made some mistakes." [No kidding!] "Kelley says the Bush family covered up scandals because of their wealth and influence. Former student Torbery George says in the book: "Poor Georgie. He couldn't relate to women unless he was loaded."Another says: "He went out of his way to act crude. It's amazing someone you held in such low esteem later became president.""

Cary W. Blankenship writes: "But [Lieutenant Colonel Albert C.] Lloyd Jr said that singling out Bush for criticism is unfair. 'There were hundreds of guys like him who did the same thing,' he said. My response to Lloyd is the following: I was released from active duty in September of 1972 after both my parents died. I did what was asked of me and signed up with an appropriate reserve unit and served my remaining commitment. I am just your average citizen. So what makes George W. Bush special that he does not have to complete his military service? STOP making excuses for Bush. STOP enabling this man. It is clear to me what is needed. We need to convene a military court of inquiry. Determine if Lt. Bush did qualify for an honorable discharge or not. If not, then he should be striped of his honorable discharge."

"(CBS) Wed., Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT Correspondent Dan Rather talks exclusively to former Texas House Speaker and Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes about the role Barnes says he played in getting President George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard -- and why he now regrets it." Hey George, he did you a favor and how did you thank him? By going AWOL.

A Wyoming right winger claims, "What's relevant now is that George Bush did not receive his party's nomination for what he did over three decades ago, but John Kerry did. That's why we need to get to the bottom of what the Swift Boat vets are saying. ... Bush has been a breath of fresh air with his upfront honesty and what's best for the country ethics." MikeHersh.com debunks these lies and cow pies from Cheney Country - with ease. "'What's relevant now.' Bush is a complete failure as 'president' just like he was a complete failure as governor, business man, student, son, and brother. You're a very funny man saying, 'Bush has been a breath of fresh air with his upfront honesty and what's best for the country ethics.' We haven't read anything funnier than that in ten hound dogs' lives!"

AP George Bush Sr. predicted that "Incalculable human and political costs" would have resulted if his administration had pushed all the way to Baghdad and sought to overthrow Saddam Hussein after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Iraqi army from Kuwait during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. "We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect rule Iraq," Bush wrote. "The coalition would have instantly collapsed. ... Going in and thus unilaterally exceeding the UN mandate would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. "Had we gone the invasion route, the US could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different - and perhaps barren - outcome."

Josh Marshall writes, "The stubborn refusal ever to change course, which [Bush] tries to pass off as a sign of leadership or devotion to principle, is actually an example of his cowardice. For the same reasons, he runs from soldiers' funerals like they were burying victims of the plague -- because it's the easy way out. If there's a problem, he denies it or finds someone else to take the fall for him. Everyone has these tendencies in their measure. No one is perfect. But they define Bush. The same sort of moral cowardice that led him to support the Vietnam war but decide it wasn't for him, run companies into the ground and let others pay the bill, play gutter politics but run for the hills when someone asks him to say it to their face, those are the same qualities that led [Bush] to lie the country into war, fail to prepare for the aftermath and then refuse to take responsibility for any of it when the bill started to come due. That's the argument John Kerry needs to be making."

The evidence of over three years' observations say that the answer to that question is YES. When a killer F-4 tornado destroyed the community of La Plata in Maryland in 2002 - a town barely an hour from the White House, Bush couldn't be bothered to make any personal show at all. Same during Isabel, also much closer to home, with damage in the billions. He has failed to appear more than briefly for any national disaster - even after 9/11, it was a week before he could be induced to go to NYC. The biggest difference this time: he's behind in the polls. But let's hope for the people of FLA that Bush makes good on his promise of speedy aid to the victims of Charley. He certainly didn't make good on the same promise made to 9/11 victims.

In a stunning display of Bush logic and character (or should we say lack of both), Dubya this week said that if his efforts to dupe America into believing that he was right all long about Iraq don't work and he loses the election, he'll fess up. We are not making this up: News24: "George Bush said on Thursday [in an interview with Larry King] he was ready to take 'the rap' for the Iraq war if the United States people decide to vote against him in the November election." Then, ever eager to be compared to a real president, when King observed that after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, President John F Kennedy took the rap, Bush interrupted to state: "I'm taking the rap, too, of course." Or did Bush say "nap"?

John Gage of the American Federation of Government Employees thinks Bush needs a lesson in what fundamental American "ownership" is all about. "I'd like to remind the president that a government that stands with its people requires a leader who understands that it's the people who OWN the government. George W. Bush treats the resources of the U.S. Government as if they were his to sell off to corporations and consultants. When [Dubya] says people should be encouraged to 'own their own health plan, or a piece of their retirement'....What he's really saying is, 'trust us as we turn Soc Security into a Wall St crap shoot." "In his ad, Bush asserts that those who 'own something,' have 'a vital stake in the future of America.' In truth, all Americans own something; through our taxes, we're all shareholders in the government of the US. We're well aware of the vital stake we hold in America's future."

AP: "Retired Gen. Tommy Franks tried to take the blame Monday for Bush's much-criticized comments declaring an end to major combat in Iraq more than a year ago. 'That's my fault, that George W. Bush said what he said on the first of May of last year, just because I asked him to,' said Franks, former commander of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan." But no one believes this latest trick - all the Franks obviously phony "confession" does is painfully highlight what a spineless wonder Dubya really is. It's bad enough not to own up to your mistakes, but to make someone take the fall...now that's Bush "character" and "integrity" for ya!

David Corn blogs about a book signing on Cape Cod, where "there was one fellow unhappy to see me and a stack of paperbacks. He was dressed in a blazing orange Izod shirt and sporting a neatly trimmed beard. He approached the owner, got very close to her, and told her he was offended by my presence and couldn't remain in the gallery because of my book. 'Really, Berta!' he exclaimed and left in a slightly-controlled huff. The punchline? He is George W. Bush's interior decorator. Or so I was informed by others at the opening. For years, I was told, this fellow has helped bring a sense of style to Bush's homes in Texas and the White House... Can it be that Bush has his own personal 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy'? In any event, before he left, Bush's I.D. said to one of the artists present that he has been retained for further work in the White House -- for after the election. Is Bush getting a little cocky? Only his interior decorator knows for sure."

Dan Froomkin blogs, "Bush tries to come off as a regular guy in his campaign appearances. But maybe he pushed it a little too far yesterday. During that Cedar Rapids talk, he said this: 'You see, if you can't raise enough by taxing the rich, guess who gets to pay next? Yes, the not-rich. (Laughter.) That's all of us.' Bush and first lady Laura Bush had income totaling $822,126 last year, and according to the Wall Street Journal, their net worth is somewhere between $7.7 and $18.9 million." Can you imagine the media uproar if Kerry said he wasn't rich? Where is the outrage?

AP reports, "Garry Trudeau ... tells Rolling Stone magazine he remembers Yale classmate George W. Bush as 'just another sarcastic preppy....' Trudeau attended Yale University with Bush in the late 1960s and [says] 'He could also make you feel extremely uncomfortable ... He was extremely skilled at controlling people ... Little bits of perfectly placed humiliation.' Trudeau said he penned his very first cartoon to illustrate an article in the Yale Daily News on Bush and allegations that his fraternity ... hazed incoming pledges by branding them with an iron.... Trudeau recalled that Bush told the [New York] Times 'it was just a coat hanger, and ... it didn't hurt any more than a cigarette burn.' 'It does put one in mind of what his views on torture might be today....'" Trudeau added, "'Bush has created more harm to this country's standing and security than any president in history.... What a shame the world has to suffer the consequences of Dubya not getting enough approval from Dad.'"

We're supposed to get all choked up that Bush is giving back $27,000 in donations received in the past year from Assad Kalasho, a businessman from West Bloomfield, Mich. because it was discovered that Kalasho did business with Saddam in 2000, while Saddam was under sanctions. But Kalasho was hardly alone - Halliburton did more business with Saddam between 1998 and 2000 than any other corporation. And, if Bush was having real pangs of conscience he'd give back the total of $1 million received from Enron, directly from Ken Lay, and from Ken Lay fundraising. Don't hold your breath, though! http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/08/bush.lay.ap/

We'd like to suggest a new slogan for the Bush-Cheney campaign: Go F**k Yourselves (GFY). On 7-9-04, as Bush's campaign bus cruised through East Lampeter PA, two teenagers greeted him with a sign reading "More Trees Less Bush." GFY Bush responded by giving them the finger. The teens are getting famous and will be guests on Al Franken's show.

"Bob Glancy, chairman of the Allegheny County Republican Committee, said Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, has enjoyed a reduced property tax bill because her 88-acre estate in Fox Chapel, valued at about $3.1 million, is assessed as farmland... But Marla Romash, senior adviser for Teresa Heinz Kerry, said Glancy is playing politics without the facts... 'Mrs. Heinz Kerry does not receive the so-called 'Clean and Green' write-off because she has chosen not to apply for it.' Romash said Heinz Kerry in 2002 actually asked to pay higher taxes because she believed that the reassessment made that year valued her property too low... Romash also turned the tables on Glancy and criticized President Bush, saying he saved $23,679 last year because of an agricultural exemption on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. In 2002, she said, Bush accepted an exemption that reduced the property from $2.1 million to $950,000."

Dan Froomkin blogs, "At the Ask the President event on Friday, one of the questions was about whether Bush has any thoughts about his memoirs. This is one example of what happens when Bush gets a question that he hasn't anticipated. [After babbling utterly incoherently, Bush eventually said] 'The book -- I guess one way, one thing to think about it is -- one of the themes would be, I was given a charge to keep. And I gave it all my heart, all my energy, based upon principles that did not change once I got into the Oval Office. (Applause.)' Now that's a rambling response. And I have to wonder: Did he forget that he already has a memoir called 'A Charge to Keep'? That was the name of his 'autobiography' -- ghost-written by adviser Karen Hughes in 1999." Scroll to bottom of page.

Republicans are screaming about Whoopi Goldberg's jokes at the Kerry-Edwards fundraiser. But before they start screaming, they should investigate who Bush has been hanging out with. "Guess who was the star at the 2002 White House Correspondents Dinner? The self-proclaimed, Prince of Darkness, himself. Oz was the surprise guest of Fox's Greta Van Susteren. Despite the sea of celebrities, congressman, and even Bush's presence - clearly, the main attraction was the Oz. resident Bush amazingly gave the 'Bush Seal of Approval' to Oz and his music. Bush said in his speech at the gala event, 'The thing about Ozzy is, he's made a lot of big hit recordings 'Party With the Animals.' 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.' 'Facing Hell.' 'Black Skies' and 'Bloodbath in Paradise." And then Bush added, 'Ozzy, Mom loves your stuff.'" It's little surprise Babs is a fan of Ozzy - after all, in 1984 she said her feeling towards Gerry Ferraro "rhymes with witch."

US News reports, "Dick Cheney doesn't own the market on swearwords like the F-bomb he dropped on Patrick Leahy. Turns out Bush has quite the mouth, following in a rich tradition of cussing presidents. 'He uses the 'F' word as an adjective, a verb, and a noun,' says one adviser. Ditto for the 'S' word. But not often in anger. 'It's more conversational,' adds the insider, 'like how guys talk.' In a White House that prides itself on self-control, Bush doesn't swear much in the Oval Office and never in front of his wife or new acquaintances. 'It's less in the Oval than other places. The more relaxed he gets, the more he uses it,' another associate says... Bush is unapologetic about his cussing. In fact, when Democrats called on Cheney to apologize to Leahy, whom he crudely put down last month, it was Bush who blocked him. 'Bush said, 'You said it, so don't back away from it,'' an associate says." Who will tell Bush's loyal evangelical voters about Bush's profanity?

The recent f-bomb Dick Cheney threw at Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor shocked many people. But to those who know what Cheney is really about, it was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the sheer evil and hypocrisy of the Humanoid Without a Heart. For one thing, Bush and Cheney are known to be regular cussers, including in public, something you would think their right-wing Christian supporters would not like. Jackson Thoreau details a few more f-bombs and other profanity Bush and other administration officials have uttered through the years, exposing their hypocrisy as they pretend to be holier-than-thou Christians to cynically grab the Religious Right vote.

Bev Conover writes, "If we believe the psychiatrists, a sign of a future serial killer is a child who delights in torturing and killing animals. George W., as a child, did exactly that. In a May 21, 2000, New York Times' puff piece about the values Bush gained growing up in Midland, Texas, Nicholas D. Kristof quoted Bush's childhood friend Terry Throckmorton: ''We were terrible to animals,' recalled Mr. Throckmorton, laughing. A dip behind the Bush home turned into a small lake after a good rain, and thousands of frogs would come out. 'Everybody would get BB guns and shoot them,' Mr. Throckmorton said. 'Or we'd put firecrackers in the frogs and throw them and blow them up.'' On Sept. 12, 2000, Baltimore Sun reporter Miriam Miedzian wrote, 'So when he was a kid, George W. enjoyed putting firecrackers into frogs, throwing them in the air, and then watching them blow up. Should this be cause for alarm?'"

John Aravosis blogs, "You can always count on George W. Bush to say a stupid thing at the wrong time. The man who spent the weekend showing up late for the Pope and late for his D-Day ceremony, took time off today to diss Reagan in an interview with Tom Brokaw: 'Bush refused Brokaw's invitation to label himself a 'Ronald Reagan Republican.' Bush said he thinks of himself as 'a George W. Republican.' It's a small slight that you could easily have overlooked (I did, until my friend Joe pointed it out), but it's an important and telling one. What could Bush have possibly been thinking? His response is arrogant (is he somehow better than Reagan, or at the very least ashamed or angered by being compared to Reagan?), and downright rude (considering the man just died 12 hours before)."

Las Vegas Sun: "President Bush arrived 15 minutes late for his meeting with Pope John Paul II - unusual for a president who makes no secret of his impatience when others keep him waiting. It was a rare breach of protocol in Vatican City, too, and raised eyebrows in the papal delegation. White House aides blamed Bush's tardiness Friday on a longer-than-expected preceding meeting with the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi." Yeah, right. Nearly all of us have had the old, keep ya waiting trick pulled on us - its a control thing worked mostly by middle management wonks (which is about Bush's level). Meanwhile, "Protesters in the city were yelling "George Bush, terrorist," yet the president was insulated from the anti-war demonstrations, tucked safely away in plush digs behind high stone walls and razor wire." Man, it sucks to have to cringe in embarrassment over the cowardice of the nation's "representative."

In his neverending efforts to play corporate rhetoric gains to promote his own agenda, Bush managed over the Memorial Day weekend to insult both World War II veterans and Iraq soldiers in the field. At the WWII memorial dedication, he pontificated on the sacrifice of the "greatest generation" (as if he'd know anything about sacrifice!), saying that they alone were the truly courageous soldiers - thereby denigrating soldiers from all subsequent wars, including the present one. Then later, he turned around and minimized the apocalyptic conflict that was WWII by comparing it to his dirty little oil war in Iraq. Throughout all of his corporate-speak maneuverings, Bush failed to mention the one war that is relevant to the current conflict: VIETNAM. (see paragraph seven of this article)

For born-again Bush, "it is not 'works' that matter (what the U.S. is making of the facts on the ground in Iraq), but 'faith.' Reality for him is belief itself, not the fruits of that belief or the actions it counsels. His world may have the appearance to us of 'la-la land,' but for our president it is the only land that matters... For the believer (as well as for the recovering alcoholic), the daily struggle to stay the course, keep the faith, exercise the will, and finally discipline a recalcitrant reality (one's own body and embodied desires above all) is, first and foremost, the task of the faithful. 'Reality' (those pesky facts on the ground), which is for us the ultimate test of propositions and actions, is for Bush the Kingdom of the Fallen whose very existence is proof of its ontological inferiority. Reality is not a touchstone; reality is a morally compromised domain which is to be transformed by will acting at the behest of faith." So writes Robert Manoff.

The White House claims that the pistol supposedly with Saddam when he was captured was given to Bush as a "gift" by the military. "The military had the pistol mounted, and it was presented to the president privately by some of the troops who ferreted out Saddam, Time said, citing unnamed sources [yeah -right! As ever with a cheap Bush stunt we have an 'unnamed source' at the bottom of it]. "He really liked showing it off," Time quotes an unnamed recent visitor [more unnamed "sources!"] to the White House as saying. "He was really proud of it." HE is really proud of it? As if HE had risked his life in Iraq! In any case, even if the story weren't a concocted PR stunt, the idea of keeping "war trophies," like scalps in the oval office and showing them off, is just one step short of obscene. And, if a pistol does exist, it belongs not to Bush but to the Iraqi people.

Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, a.k.a. "Baghdad Bob," became a global laughingstock because of his amazing truth-defying statements during the US invasion of Iraq: "The Republican Guard is in full control" ... "They are surrounded, and we are pounding them" ... "We have defeated them, in fact we have crushed them." Unfortunately for America - and the world - George W. Bush is sounding increasingly like Baghdad Bob. Read our collection of Bush's most ludicrous statements about Iraq!

"Bush fell off his bicycle Saturday while riding on his ranch, according to White House spokesman Trent Duffy. Bush, who was accompanied on his bike ride by his doctor, Richard Tubb, a military agent and a member of the Secret Service, fell about 16 miles into a 17-mile ride. Bush suffered minor abrasions to his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees, but was able to ride back home... Last June in Kennebunkport, the president fell while riding a 'Segway Human Transporter.' First lady Laura Bush witnessed the spill; a picture of Bush falling forward was published on numerous Web sites. He was not injured. In January 2002, Bush fainted for a brief time in the residence of the White House while eating a pretzel and watching a professional football game on television."

Independent: "The United States looked away and deferred judgement rather than delivering a forthright condemnation of Israel for the attack on Palestinian demonstrators that left so many children dead. Behind the tortured syntax of diplomacy, George Bush said he was continuing to 'urge restraint' on Israel while saying it was 'essential that people respect innocent life in order for us to achieve peace'. 'We'll get clarification from the government,' Bush continued [what clarification? Proof that some five-year-old was a 'terrorist'?]. "But I will continue to speak out about the need for all parties to respect innocent life in the Middle East." [yeah, we all see how much you respect innocent life, Bush - about as much as you respect the Constitution].

Jacob Weisberg writes, "[Bush's] Oedipally induced ignorance expresses itself most dangerously in Bush's handling of the war in Iraq. Dubya polished off his old man's greatest enemy, Saddam, but only by lampooning 41's accomplishment of coalition-building in the first Gulf War. Bush led the country to war on false pretenses and neglected to plan the occupation that would inevitably follow. A more knowledgeable and engaged president might have questioned the quality of the evidence about Iraq's supposed weapons programs. One who preferred to be intelligent might have asked about the possibility of an unfriendly reception. Instead, Bush rolled the dice. His budget-busting tax cuts exemplify a similar phenomenon, driven by an alternate set of ideologues. As the president says, we misunderestimate him. He was not born stupid. He chose stupidity. Bush may look like a well-meaning dolt. On consideration, he's something far more dangerous: a dedicated fool."

Excerpts from Bushlover Bill 'Moonie Times Star Reporter' Sammon's new book: "'I don't watch the nightly newscasts on TV, nor do I watch the endless hours of people giving their opinion about things,' Bush said. 'I don't read the editorial pages; I don't read the columnists.' ... Yet Mr. Bush regularly monitors the news pages of a select few daily publications. 'He does not dwell on the newspaper, but he reads the sports page every day,' Mr. Card said with a chuckle... Mr. Bush thinks that immersing himself in voluminous, mostly liberal-leaning news coverage might cloud his thinking and even hinder his efforts to remain an optimistic leader. 'I like to have a clear outlook,' he said. 'It can be a frustrating experience to pay attention to somebody's false opinion or somebody's characterization, which simply isn't true.'" This is Bush's "Steady Leadership" - leading the world straight to hell.

Rob Kall writes: "Bush's inadequate grasp of the English language, his inability to communicate screams in the face of the travesty of Iraqi prisoner tortures. Now, more than ever, the US faces the hatred, scorn and wrath of the Arab world. It takes a smart, articulate leader to respond to such horrors. Bush fails in so many ways. Bush said, 'I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated,' President Bush said. 'Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. And so I didn't like it one bit'... Shortly before the beginning of the WWII, Sinclair Lewis wrote a book titled, It Can't Happen Here. It described a US that was taken over by a corrupt president-- a dumb but folksy yokel-- with smart, duplicitous advisors. Gradually, they erased recognizable signs of democracy, justice, education and freedom. It is happening here. But it hasn't gone as far as Lewis described in his book...yet."

During campaign 2000, candidate Bush went on the Letterman Show with a pair of eyeglasses in need of cleaning. So where did he find the cloth? Character is what you do when no one is watching...

In their family portrait "The Bushes," Peter and Rochelle Schweizer "quote one unnamed relative as saying that George W. Bush sees the war on terrorism 'as a religious war': 'His view of this is that they are trying to kill the Christians. And we the Christians will strike back with more force and more ferocity than they will ever know... They describe what they call George W.'s 'addictive personality,' which 'required him to fix in on something and maintain a hold on it'... Because of his addictive personality, [post-911] was the sort of presidency that suited him well. Unencumbered by domestic issues, with their detail and ambiguity, he was now free to speak naturally in a way that reflected the way he viewed the world: black and white, good and evil. Life had been for him a struggle to conquer those things that had a bad hold on him; the struggle between good and evil was something that he had experienced in his own life."

Here's stunning proof from a NY Times piece of just how "evolutionarily primitive" Bush and his advisors are: "It was no accident that Bush passed up five chances Tuesday night to offer regrets, contrition or an acknowledgment that he might have made mistakes in handling the Sept. 11 attacks or the war in Iraq. In fact, his advisers said yesterday that there was near unanimity in the White House, starting with Bush himself, that the last thing he should do in his first prime-time news conference since the Iraq war was to show any sign of remorse." Yep, "real men" don't apologize, show remorse or admit mistakes. Real Cro-Magnon men, that is! Now we know what those parallel grooves along the White House halls are: knuckle marks!

Calvin Woodward writes: "Despite failures highlighted in the government's pre-Sept. 11, 2001, intelligence operations, the futile search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and all the recent violence there, Bush could not think of a single mistake he'd made in his presidency when asked at his press conference April 13. ''I'm sure something will pop into my head here.' It didn't. 'I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes,' he said Tuesday night. 'I'm confident I have. Maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.' " As Arianna Huffington pointed out the next day - it's no wonder Bush never looks tired or careworn - he's a two-dimensional fanatic who never loses a second's sleep to introspection, conscience and soul wrestling. Must make it easier for him to send others to suffer and die for him.

"Daddy, you ain't gonna use me anymore. You and Dick and Rummy and Condy and Colin and Karl all the rest of that pack of money-grubbin' dinosaurs you pushed off on me can go jump in the Potomac. From now on, I call the shots. I've been doin' some readin' about what you and your pals have been up to the past 30 years and what amazes me is that you had me fooled so long. But I know who you are now ...You're a power-grubbin' old son of a bitch who has hurt too many people, messed up too many decent countries, told too many lies. I stopped sleepin' nights when I realized that the real evildoers were right here under my own nose. Now I'm gonna have a real investigation now into what happened on Sept. 11. And if the trail leads to the CIA's door, -- or even to your door, well, like you always said, I can't afford to be sentimental. I'm workin' for the American people from here on out -- nobody else." - G. W. Bush (as imagined by Cheryl Seal)

On Tuesday, as US soldiers were dying hourly in the worst crisis faced by troops in Iraq since the war, Bush turned tail and ran back to his phony ranch in Crawford (see http://www.utne.com/webwatch/2003_98/news/10756-1.html) He claims, of course that he's just going there for Easter - but Easter is still four days away. This is the Bush pattern - when the heat goes up and/or the polls go down, he abandons the White House for Crawford. It's his version of the Cheney bunker.

Maureen Dowd writes, "By holding back documents, officials, information, images and the sight of returning military coffins, by twisting and exaggerating facts to fit story lines, by demonizing anyone who disagrees with its version of reality, this administration strives to create an optical delusion. There was always something of the boy in the bubble about George W. Bush, cosseted from the vicissitudes of life, from Vietnam to business failure, by his famous name. In the front yard of the Kennebunkport estate, he blithely announced his run for president knowing virtually nothing about foreign affairs, confident that Poppy would surround him with the protective flank of his own Desert Storm war council. But now Mr. Bush is trying to pull America and Iraq into his bubble. In briefings delivered in the bubble of their own security bunkers, Paul Bremer and military officials continue to insist that democracy and stability are taking root in Iraq."

Bob Fertik writes, "When Karl Rove marked 90 days on his calendar to 'define' Kerry, he should have circled March 24 - because that will go down in history as the day that 'defined' Bush - as a traitor, a coward, and a creep."

"As vividly described 2,500 years ago in Homer's epic poems of the battle of Troy and the struggle of one warrior to return home The Iliad and The Odyssey, war is the product of powerful, ambitious, often insecure men who have difficulty separating their personal motivations from those of the state. In Homer's works, these conflicts are fomented, aided and abetted by powerful immortal gods who use mortals to satisfy their needs, and who work behind the scenes to fix events and outcomes. As war occurs, the 'honor' of battle is always at great cost in lives and suffering. The blood lust that overtakes the minds and bodies of men on a periodic basis continues unabated in our modern age. In The Bushiad, and The Idyossey the Greek gods of old are supplanted by contemporary corporate gods, also immortal and with insatiable needs for increased wealth and power. Like Homer's Greek gods they do all they can to make sure the outcome is fixed."

"At Harvard Business School, thirty years ago, George Bush was a student of mine. I still vividly remember him. In my class, he declared that 'people are poor because they are lazy.' He was opposed to labor unions, social security, environmental protection, Medicare, and public schools. To him, the antitrust watch dog, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities Exchange Commission were unnecessary hindrances to 'free market competition.' To him, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was 'socialism'... President Bush and his brain, Karl Rove, are leading a radical revolution of destroying all the democratic political, social, judiciary, and economic institutions that both Democrats and moderate Republicans had built together since Roosevelt's New Deal."

Time reports, "Bush has long had a habit of giving people nicknames - and perhaps that's because he picked up a few along the way himself. Like the one he earned in 1972, when he left his home in Houston to work on the long-shot Senate campaign of Winton M. (Red) Blount in Alabama. Bush, then 26, would often turn up at campaign headquarters in Montgomery around lunchtime, recount his late-night exploits and brag about his political connections. All that made him slow to win over the Alabama crowd, who began to complain that Bush was letting things slide. C. Murphy Archibald, a nephew of Blount's who worked on the campaign that fall, told TIME that Bush 'was good at schmoozing the county chairs, but there wasn't a lot of follow-up.' Archibald remembers that a group of older Alabama socialites, who were volunteering their time, gave Bush a nickname because they thought he 'looked good on the outside but was full of hot air.' They called him the Texas Souffle."

"Politicians bluster about 'decency,' but continue to find nothing indecent about a thief who first stole the presidency, then exploited military resources and personnel to satiate his megalomania and enrich his cronies," writes David R. Hoffman, "And while Americans demand tougher laws and penalties to combat 'indecency,' they remain disturbingly unconcerned about how often the people entrusted to interpret the law arrogantly place themselves above it. So whenever a member of the Bush dictatorship talks about truth, decency, ethics, or integrity, those listening would be wise to remember the words Ralph Waldo Emerson said about an after-dinner speaker: 'The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our silverware.'"

Bush on Meet the Press: "I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind. Again, I wish it wasn't true, but it is true." Finally, something we can agree on - we wish it weren't true too!

George Bush bears a powerful resemblance to the character "Chicken Boo," observes Reynard N Blake, Jr. "Chicken Boo was this 6-foot chicken that played a variety of heroic or popular roles: a politician, a rock star, an actor, and so on. In each cartoon skit, throngs of people mindlessly fawn over each incarnation of Chicken Boo and marvel and cheer at him when, all the while, Chicken Boo says absolutely nothing. However, the most comical and provocative aspects of this cartoon always involve one person that tries to point out to the adoring Chicken Boo crowd that he's a chicken! Again and again, this one person in the crowd screams, 'But, he's a chicken!' The crowd only realizes that Chicken Boo is a chicken when he loses the garb of the rock star or other character and runs away, only to come back as a new character in another episode."

"Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill likened Bush at Cabinet meetings to 'a blind man in a room full of deaf people,' according to excerpts on Friday from a CBS interview. O'Neill, who was fired by Bush in December 2002, also said the resident did not ask him a single question during their first one-on-one meeting, which lasted an hour. 'As I recall it was just a monologue,' he told CBS' '60 Minutes,' which will broadcast the entire interview on Sunday. In making the blind man analogy, O'Neill told CBS his ex-boss did not encourage a free flow of ideas or open debate. 'There is no discernible connection,' CBS quoted O'Neill as saying. The resident's lack of engagement left his advisers with 'little more than hunches about what the resident might think,' O'Neill said, according to the program. CBS said much of O'Neill's criticisms of Bush are included in 'The Price of Loyalty,' an upcoming book by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind. "

"As a matter of fact, I ate beef today, and will continue to eat beef," Bush said. Well, we can't help but wonder whether Bush has mad cow disease? The media is willing to tell us all about his knee ailments - "wear and tear and old injuries in the right knee, arthritis in the left" - but what is the condition of his brain? (Of course, it would be a wonder if any brain cells remain after drinking heavily until he was 40.) We haven't forgotten the second biggest scandal (after Iran-Contra) of the Reagan administration - the coverup of Reagan's early Alzheimer's. Nor have we forgotten his polyps. We also remember the feverish lies from the right-wing media about President Clinton's alleged venereal diseases. On TV, President Josiah Bartlet was nearly impeached for covering up his MS - demonstrating that the American people have the right to know the full medical condition of the White House occupant.

Martha Brant writes, "I asked some families about the sympathy letters they had received. I assumed that they were in the Bush family style... But those are not the letters Bush is 'writing.' They are form letters. With the exception of the salutation and a reference to the fallen soldier in the text, the letters the families shared with me are all the same. Now some one has gone to the trouble of finding out if the given name of the solider and the name he or she used were different. And Bush does sign them all personally. But it would be more accurate to say he is 'sending' all the families letters, a practice that goes back many presidents. Maggie Caldwell of Massachusetts was still a newlywed when a mine exploded under the Humvee of her husband, Todd, in Iraq. A few weeks later, she received Bush's letter. 'Something a little more personal would have been nice,' she says." And they dare to claim Bush has "character"?

AWOL Bush's Chief of Staff Andy Card is demanding that decorated Vietnam Vet John Kerry apologize for saying "Did I expect George Bush to f--- it [the Iraq War] up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did." But why should Kerry apologize for using the "f" word, when AWOL Bush himself told visiting Senators in March 2002, "F**k Saddam, we're taking him out." (http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/from_covers/0,10987,1101030331-435968,00.html) This was 6 months before Bush went before the UN and Congress promising to exhaust every diplomatic remedy for eliminating Saddam's [non-existent] WMD's. And when will Bush apologize for LYING to the American people about those WMD's, and the resulting loss of thousands of lives? Impeach Bush Now!

Sam Parry writes: "Though Bush has proved a master of appealing to Christian evangelicals through subtle messages, [a GQ article] raises doubt about the younger Bush's sincerity in using religion for political ends... Doug Wead, a political adviser to the senior Bush in 1987, had written a series of memos on how to communicate with evangelical Christians. Wead's motto was 'signal early and signal often,' meaning that references to God in speeches and contacts with celebrity evangelicals sent a message to this important political group that would pass over the heads of non-evangelicals. 'George would read my memos, and he would be licking his lips saying, 'I can use this to win in Texas,' Wead said. Since then, George W. Bush also has demonstrated that he can use Wead's strategies to win by attracting evangelicals throughout the South and across the country." Check out the rest of this article that asks, "Do Democrats Need the South?"

David Corn writes: "He displayed a similar disingenuousness during his surprise, 150-minute-long Thanksgiving Day visit to the American troops at the Bob Hope mess hall at the Baghdad airport. 'You are,' he told the GIs, 'defeating the terrorists here in Iraq, so that we don't have to face them in our own country.' That comment -- which Bush had said previously -- sure seemed designed to create the impression that the war in Iraq is about beating back al Qaeda, the only terrorists Americans have had to face in their 'own country.'"

Doug Basham writes: "When it's the lives of our soldiers that are at risk, Bush says 'Bring 'em on' or, 'The United States will not be intimidated by a bunch of thugs.' When it's HIS sorry ass that might be in peril, he says, 'if anyone finds out I'm coming -- I'M turning this plane around and going home.' And for this act of seemingly unnoticed cowardice, he's called... bold?!"

"Nevada memo to George Bush: When making a first presidential visit to a state, use the right pronounciation of its name. Bush, in Las Vegas on Tuesday, repeatedly said Ne-vah-da. To properly pronounce Nevada, the middle syllable should rhyme with gamble. Mispronouncing the state's name 'sets people's teeth on edge,' said state Archivist Guy Rocha. 'He's the president, and he ought to get it right. Nothing personal.' State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said the mispronunciation shows Bush, who won the state in the 2000 election, doesn't care much about the state. 'They take such pains to orchestrate these trips and to make sure everything is politically correct,' she said. 'You would think the name of the state would be a simple piece of that.' Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said the president ought to pronounce Nevada correctly, but Bush's message was more important."

"As with Bush's trip to England, a few hundred 'cheering well-wishers' were hastily mustered to greet him at the airstrip. In addition, a few cloying, obviously scripted 'statements' supposedly from soldiers were released to the press. Statements like (I am not making this up): 'Bush's coming to Iraq proves that he has faith in our ability to keep him safe.' As if that's why the troops are there, risking bloody sudden death! Just in case there's the off-chance Bush might visit and need to be kept safe. Another statement: 'Bush's visit boosted my morale so much I can now get through the next two months.' If any soldier actually said this and could be identified, I suspect his chances of being fragged would go up about 500%. The only reason Bush really had for absolute secrecy was to get in and out before the troops in Iraq had a chance to get wind of his presence. Bush is about as popular among Iraq troops as a bad case of hemorrhoids. Less, I bet."

We are supposed to believe that Bush planned ALL ALONG to spend Thanksgiving with the troops in Iraq. Yeah, right. And pigs all grew wings last night. A reliable source tells us that Bush had no plans to visit the troops until an "informant" [as in spy] leaked the news that Hillary was bound for Afghanistan and Iraq to see the troops. Hence, not even Bush's secret service people in Texas or Laura Bush knew he was leaving until last night. NO ONE KNEW, not even Bush. What a creep - finally doing the right thing for the wrong, completely selfish reason. And, this is only the second instance of info stealing by GOP operatives in less than a week. Will campaign 2004 become "Watergate 2"?

For the second time in three days, the NY Times has LIED about Bush's dreadful 9/11 performance. "The Democrats need to find ways to attack Mr. Bush's stewardship without attacking his character; most Americans remember the resident's firm resolve after 9/11 with admiration and do not want those memories challenged." FIRM RESOLVE??? Our memories of Bush's RESOLUTE FAILURE are crystal clear: How Bush just sat in the classroom for 1/2 hour after the SECOND plane hit the WTC... How he fled in Air Force One AWAY from DC, and lied about secret coded threats... How he promised to capture Osama Bin Laden dead or alive... How he exploited the first responders at Ground Zero for photo ops, then denied them aid for their health problems... How he has failed to secure the nation's infrastructure... And how his unnecessary war has turned Iraq into a terrorist magnet, and allowed dirty bomb material to be looted for sale to Al Qaeda. Write letters@nytimes.com

Maureen Dowd writes, "Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, captured the spirit of the moment when he told NPR that the Republican National Committee should foot the bill for Mr. Bush's extraordinary security, the largest police operation ever in Great Britain. All this, he harrumphed, 'just so George Bush can use a few clips of him and the queen in his campaign advertisements for re-election next year.' There was a dispiriting contrast between G.W.B. shutting out the world and avoiding the British public, and the black-and-white clips this week of J.F.K. reaching out to the world and being adored by Berliners. There was also a dispiriting contrast between the Bush administration, hiding the returning coffins of U.S. soldiers and avoiding their funerals, and the moving pictures of the Italian politicians and people, honoring their dead with public ceremonies and a week of mourning. The bubble in London is just an extension of the bubble the Bush team lives in at home."

"As I write this, Air Force One is descending on London's Heathrow Airport and the resident readying himself to step out and be greeted by Prince Charles, but that description hardly catches the moment. 'He' will arrive with his imperial court and a veritable army of protectors, advisers, jesters, and spinners. Bush no longer moves anywhere in anything less than an imperial processional. Like some juggernaut, it literally transforms the landscape in his path, turning his surroundings either into a series of Potemkin villages or into a completely sterile environment. His passages through the world are little less than those of a planetary ruler - though in Roman imperial terms, his reign seems closer to Nero's (without the patronage of the arts) than to Augustus's. If his advisers had had their way they undoubtedly would have landed a stream of C-130 transports at Heathrow carrying the Army Corps of Engineers and done everything but divert the Thames to 'protect' our man in London."

Moveon.org is running a contest! "Sick of the propaganda being beamed at you from the current administration's media mavens? Here's a new way to fight back: Enter MoveOn.org Voter Fund's political ad contest. You don't have to be formally trained in the art of filmmaking, just ready, willing and able to create an ad that tells the truth about George Bush. All eligible submissions will be posted on this web site and rated by visitors. The top rated ads will then be voted on by our panel of esteemed judges, including Michael Moore, Donna Brazile, Jack Black, Janeane Garofalo, Margaret Cho and Gus Van Sant. The winning ad idea will be broadcast on television during the week of Bush's 2004 State of the Union address, and the winner will receive a recording of the ad as broadcast."

No one talks tougher than Bush, but his is the bravado of a cowardly bully. "Bush was last night branded chicken for scrapping his speech to Parliament because he feared being heckled by anti-war MPs. The US president planned to give a joint address to the Commons and Lords during his state visit to Britain. But senior White House adviser Dr Harlan Ullman said: 'They would have loved to do it because it would have been a great photo-opportunity. 'But they were fearful it would to turn into a spectacle with Labour backbenchers walking out.'... Labour MP John McDonnell said: 'Bush might be able to run from the protesters, he might be able not to see the banners. 'But he must not be able to hide from the anger felt across the country at this unjustified war.' Previous world leaders, including Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Francois Mitterand, have all given speeches to the Lords and the Commons while visiting Britain."

Billmon blogs, "Bush's electoral strength is a function of his overall image, or gestalt, as the 'good father' - a perception formed during the 9/11 nightmare and its aftermath, and clung to by a majority of the voters despite everything that has happened since. But to maintain that desired image, believers have to suppress a rising tide of evidence that points the other way - towards a new gestalt (new to them, anyway) of Bush as a deceitful, arrogant and supremely ignorant man, completely inadequate to the burdens of the presidency. Bush's eroding 'honesty' ratings at least suggest the 'good father' gestalt is gradually weakening - hammered by the constant pounding of the Iraq fiasco and the administration's increasingly feeble attempts to insist that two plus two equals five. It also suggests a line of attack for the opposition: Not only is Bush a miserable failure, he's a miserable lying failure."

"The ball for fall is fund-raising. Bush has been going full throttle since summer, spending several days a week flying around the country, hitting up rich Republicans for $2,000 checks. He has raised $90 million so far out of the $175 million [for] a primary campaign in which he has no opponent... Raising $1.8 million at lunch, he stuck to the line that 'we are aggressively striking the terrorists in Iraq, defeating them there so we will not have to face them in our own country.' He didn't want to depress the donors by mentioning the big news story, the loss of 15 American soldiers, or sour the mood by conceding the obvious, that the swelling horde of terrorists fighting us there will not prevent terrorists from coming after us here. Maybe we should all be like Bush and not read the papers so we don't get worn down either. Perhaps the solution to Mr. Bush's quandary is to coordinate his schedule so he can go to cities where he can attend both fund-raisers and funerals."

"While en route, the coffins will be deliberately shielded from view, lest the media capture on film the dark image of this ultimate sacrifice. It is almost certain, as well, that like all of the hundreds of U.S. troops killed in this war to date, these dead soldiers will be interred or memorialized without the solemn presence of the Resident of the United States. Increasingly, this proclivity on the part of Resident Bush to avoid the normal duty of a commander-in-chief to honor dead soldiers is causing rising irritation among some veterans and their families who have noticed what appears to be a historically anomalous slight... 'From the cuts in the VA budget, reductions in various pays for soldiers deployed . . . to the most recent things like those we've seen at Fort Stewart, where soldiers who are wounded are not being treated well, the Administration has shown a blatant disregard for the needs of the soldiers.'" What'd'ya expect from AWOL Boy? (See AwolBush.com)

Paul Krugman writes, "Bush was genuinely surprised to learn from moderate Islamic leaders that they had become deeply distrustful of American intentions. The report on the 'perception gap' suggests that the leader of the war on terror has no idea how badly that war - which must, ultimately, be a war for hearts and minds - is going. Mr. Bush's ignorance may reflect his lack of curiosity... But there's something broader going on: a sort of willful ignorance, supposedly driven by moral concerns but actually reflecting domestic politics. Surely it's important to understand how others see us, but a new, post 9/11 version of political correctness has made it difficult even to discuss their points of view. Any American who tries to go beyond 'America good, terrorists evil,' who tries to understand - not condone - the growing world backlash against the United States, faces furious attacks delivered in a tone of high moral indignation."

"George W. Bush has been trapped in a clay pot and tossed into a river in northern Thailand - or at least his spirit has after being cursed by hundreds of farmers protesting US agriculture policy. A photograph of the US leader was sealed inside a pot amid black magic mantra chants, then tossed into the Ping River Friday by demonstrators after they rallied at the US consulate in Chiang Mai. 'This is a traditional northern Thai ceremony aimed at keeping his spirit down on the riverbed so he could not come and exploit our natural resources or suppress our (farming) brothers with his superior influence,' Weerasak Wan-ubol of the Northern Farmers Alliance told AFP. The 300 protesters, claiming to represent 20,000 members from seven northern provinces, railed against imminent plans for a free-trade agreement between Thailand and the US... A respected elder performed the voodoo rites, inscribing ancient Khmer scripts on the pot." Whatever works!

Does Maureen "Life Imitates Art" Dowd just pull stuff out of her butt? "Let's see -- what cute story can I write this week about Washington -- I always start with a movie or myth I like." This week MoDo tells us all about the Good Daddy and the Bad Daddy. "It's a classic story line in myth, literature and movies: a man coming into his own is torn between two older authority figures with competing world views; a good daddy and a bad daddy; one light and benevolent, one dark and vengeful. When Bush the Elder put Bush the Younger in the care of Dick Cheney, he assumed that Mr. Cheney, who had been his defense secretary in Desert Storm, would play the wise, selfless counselor... Instead, Good Daddy has had to watch in alarm as Bad Daddy usurped his son's presidency." Okay, so Sr. isn't a NeoCon global dominator like Cheney -- but c'mon -- Neil's Dad is the "Good Father"? Sr. is a CIA Gangster, a Carlyle Group War Profiteer. He backed Noriega and Hussein, then sent our troops after them.

Neal Gabler writes, "The difference between the current administration and its conservative forebears is that facts don't seem to matter at all. They don't even matter enough to reinterpret. Bush doesn't read the papers or watch the news... White House medievalists aren't just shading the facts. In actively denying or changing them, they are changing the basis on which government has traditionally been conducted: rationality. There is no respect for facts because there is no respect for empiricism. Instead, the Bush ideologues came to power smug in the security of their own worldview, part of which, frankly, seems to be the belief that it would be soft and unmanly to let facts alter their preconceptions. Like the church confronting Galileo, they aren't about to let reality destroy their cosmology, whether it is a bankrupt plan for pacifying an Iraq that was supposed to welcome us as liberators or a bankrupt fiscal plan that was supposed to jolt the economy to health."

Playwright Bill C. Davis writes, "On some subterranean level is George the son making this country pay for what it did to his father? It wasn't the Democrats or Ross Perot or Clinton himself, it was 'ungrateful' America that humiliated his father in the election of '92 and the reflex response could be that America has to pay a price. 87 billion dollars maybe? Maybe more - some deaths - a few limbs - a pound of flesh - a trillion dollar deficit - a price has to be paid... Deficit, quagmire, bankruptcy, joblessness, decreasing numbers of people with health insurance, increased poverty, environmental rollbacks -- is America paying a price for what it did to his father? Can Bush Jr. even know the answer to that question?"

"Bush said he insulates himself from the 'opinions' that seep into news coverage by getting his news from his own aides. He said he scans headlines, but rarely reads news stories. 'I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news,' the resident said. 'And the best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world.'"

Bush has once again showed just how wide his streak of yellow is. As Isabel bore down on Maryland and D.C., the mayors across the state and even Bush pal Governor Bob Ehrlich, were out in the streets, helping to reassure residents with regular on-the-scene news updates and offering support to emergency workers. So where was the "Commander in Chief" - who is a resident of D.C., one of the region's hardest hit cities? He made a phony show of asking to be "briefed" on developments, then deserted the city and state for Camp David, situated in an area not expected to be as hard hit. Bush says "bring it on" when it's someplace 5,000 miles away and OTHER PEOPLE's lives at stake. But Isabel shows us what the Chicken in Chief will do in a crisis back home!

Letter to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Pioneer Press: "When Charles Keiser, of Garretson, S.D., got his license, he signed up to be an organ donor. He died a few days ago, and the organ harvest team's flight was grounded because Resident Bush's Air Force One was scheduled to land. How in God's name can a fund-raiser be put ahead of a person's life? Bush could have placed that heart on Air Force One, and gotten it to its recipient faster than anyone on earth. Isn't that what America is all about?" Gee, remember the huge media storm over the bogus Clinton "Haircutgate" story? How come this one is only covered in a local paper?

Counterspin Central writes: "I bet you thought Resident Bush was going to remember 9/11, in part, by privately visiting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital. That's what the White House claimed all week. Well...that was almost true. All of it, except for the 'privately' part. For some unknown reason, a news photographer slipped past the Secret Service, and surreptitiously snapped a whole slew of perfectly-framed, well-lit photos of Bush pinning Purple Heart medals on wounded soldiers. Can you imagine if that photographer were a terrorist assassin? You'd think heads would roll over this major security breach. It's almost as if there were someone on the inside, who actually HELPED this photographer snap those photos?" Hey, it's ALL for show. Bush has no conscience -- he went AWOL from the National Guard. He recently blew off the funeral of a Guardsman. Meanwhile, he and the GOP have been trying to gut veterans' and soldiers' compensation.

From an NY Times editorial: "George Bush's long-term plans for 2003 probably did not call for his August vacation to be followed by a national television address trying to justify a floundering policy in Iraq. Just about nothing, in fact, looks like what he must have hoped for in the run-up to an election. To many Americans, the economic recovery is anything but -- 2.7 million private-sector jobs have been lost in the last three years. The number of people living below the poverty line is rising, the trade imbalance has reached unnerving proportions, and the federal budget deficits have grown so huge that even the International Monetary Fund has begun expressing concern. Most of the Bush domestic agenda is a sad deflated version of its earlier incarnation... Other wrong turns, however, were chosen because of a fundamental flaw in the character of this White House."

WashPost: "Resident Bush paused in his Labor Day remarks and told his audience of union members, 'I want you to think back to that fateful day, September the 11th, and what happened afterwards.' Usually his reminder is more subtle, but Bush is invoking the terrorist hijackings frequently as he ramps up his reelection campaign and tries to defuse the political risk posed by persistent joblessness, setbacks in Iraq and accusations that he exaggerated evidence on the road to war. In the past six weeks, Bush has cited '9/11' in arguing for his energy policy and in response to questions about campaign fundraising, tax cuts, unemployment, the deficit, airport security, Afghanistan and the length, cost and death toll of the Iraq occupation."

Courtland Milloy writes, "In the District of Columbia, Bush serves as commander in chief of the D.C. National Guard, the way governors do in their states. So you might have expected him to show up yesterday at the funeral for Spec. Darryl T. Dent, 21, the D.C. guardsman who was killed recently in Iraq. Canaan Baptist Church, where Dent's funeral was held, is at 16th and Newton streets NW, not five miles from the White House. Bush could have jogged to the wake, had a courier drop off flowers and a card or, at the very least, telephoned the slain soldier's family. Call Bush AWOL, missing in action -- or just too busy fundraising. But he blew it. 'We haven't heard from him or the White House, not a word,' said Marion Bruce, Dent's aunt and family spokeswoman. 'I don't want to speak for the whole family, but I am not pleased.' "

"Not since the days of Marie Antoinette, or at least Nancy Reagan, has there been such a disconnect between the ruling elite and what Marie and Nancy might call the unwashed masses. A potent symbol of this cynical detachment is provided by George W. Bush's month-long vacation, during which his only forays among the unwashed masses have been to whack his little white balls around a golf course -- and to host a 'down-home' barbecue to shake down rich donors for another run at the White House. The cover charge for barbecue with the Bushes? Each of the 350 'very special guests' paid $50,000 to nibble on those Republican pig and cow carcasses."

Mark Morford writes: "And sure you can try to say 'George W. Bush action figure' without choking on your vodka/Valium martini, but it is worth noting that it is, apparently, and tragically, not common knowledge that Shrub avoided almost all military service through his daddy's connections, skipped right by the Vietnam draft by enlisting in the National Guard and then went AWOL from that service for well over a year, and that military service is to a Bush WASP-mafia member what oral sex is to a Hilton sister: that is, degrading dirty scum work full of icky germs and heavy lifting and scary phallic exploding thingies best left to the middle classes and the plebes. Oh my God but we love fake heroism. Oh my God but we are so easily duped by the macho and the puffed up and the synthetic and the heavily shellacked... What the hell is the world coming to? What the hell is wrong with us? Who, pray who, is buying this ridiculous thing? And who, pray who, actually believes Bush is a hero?"

"To KB Toys: We, the undersigned, vow to boycott KB Toys until and unless the toy marketed as 'Elite Force Aviator: George W. Bush - U.S. President and Naval Aviator - 12' Action Figure' is removed from their inventory. With REAL military personnel dying almost daily in Iraq, we find it disgraceful that KB Toys would seek to capitalize on the very real human toll caused by Bush's war, while promoting the very false notion that George W. Bush is or ever was a fighter pilot. We find this toy as disgraceful as Bush's performance on the aircraft carrier on May 1, 2003, when he wore a uniform he hadn't earned, claimed a victory he hadn't won, and delayed the return home of troops whose respect he doesn't deserve. We are, in short, thoroughly disgusted." Sign the petition!

AFP reports, "A former US diplomat who resigned over the Iraq war described George W. Bush as a 'very weak' man led by the hand into battle by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Brady Kiesling, who was political counselor at the US embassy in Athens at the time of his resignation in February, said in an open letter published by Greek daily To Vima that Rumsfeld exploited the war to increase his own power. Kiesling -- whose warning that US aims in Iraq were 'incompatible with American values' struck a chord with the predominantly anti-war Greeks -- described Bush as 'a politician who badly wants to appear strong but in reality is very weak.' He said Rumsfeld led Bush by the hand into war, marginalized the secret services who had doubts about the war, and emerged as the top politician in Washington. 'Easy to convince, (Bush) blindly believed in Rumsfeld's assurances that the occupation of Iraq would pay for itself,' Kiesling said."

Matt Little writes, "With great disappointment, I am returning the George W. Bush 'action figure,' which you will find enclosed in this package. I am seeking a full refund for this defective toy: Despite its billing as an action figure to pair up with my GI Joes, it was obviously not made to be a soldier. Never mind the lack of any scar on its face. The bigger problem is that I cannot find any weapons of mass destruction anywhere in the box. Heck, I can't find any weapons at all! When I pull the string to make it talk, the results are muffled and unintelligible or make no sense at all. Is this supposed to be some kind of rotten joke on your customers? Every time I turn the doll upside down and shake it, white powder comes out. What's with that?... Even worse, my GI Joe dolls don't seem to like this one at all... Frankly, I don't know why you even produced this doll in the first place. If you value your reputation at all, you will recall it immediately."

"Republicans are demanding to know why the psychologists behind the report, Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, received $1.2m in public funds for their research. The authors also peer into the psyche of George Bush, who turns out to be a textbook case. The telltale signs are his preference for moral certainty and frequently expressed dislike of nuance. 'This intolerance of ambiguity can lead people to cling to the familiar, to arrive at premature conclusions, and to impose simplistic cliches and stereotypes,' the authors argue in the Psychological Bulletin. One of the psychologists... said the aversion to shades of grey and the need for 'closure' could explain the fact that the Bush administration ignored intelligence that contradicted its beliefs about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The authors... added a disclaimer that their study 'does not mean that conservatism is pathological or that conservative beliefs are necessarily false'." LoL - oh yes they are!

Wayne Madsen writes: "George W. Bush proclaims himself a born-again Christian. However, Bush and fellow self-anointed neo-Christians like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, and sports arena Book of Revelations carnival hawker Franklin Graham appear to wallow in a 'Christian' blood lust cult when it comes to practicing the teachings of the founder of Christianity. This cultist form of Christianity, with its emphasis on death rather than life, is also worrying the leaders of mainstream Christian religions, particularly the Pope... Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs, and his constant references to 'evil doers,' in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations - the anti-Christ. People close to the Pope claim that amid these concerns, the Pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in Revelations."

Dick Meyer writes, "Fall guys, intimidation and leaked personal attacks on enemies are back in at the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. How Nixonian. How disappointing. Political enemy number one is former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV [who exposed Yellowcake-gate]... Political enemy number two is ABC News correspondent Jeffrey Kofman. Kofman filed a story that reported on morale problems of troops with the Third Infantry long stationed in Iraq... I think George Bush is much more like Ronald Reagan: supremely self-confident, simplistic, sincere, comfortable in his skin and thus comforting, un-neurotic, lacking all traces of self-doubt, incurious, nice manners. Nixon had none of those qualities. But the Bush White House is becoming Nixon-like, with a smile and, of course, good manners. It's re-election time and it's CREEP-Y."

Mark Morford writes that Bill Clinton loved women and sex, and the nation prospered. "Then there's Bush. Oh dear god. George W. Bush does not have sex. You just know this. Dubya is not one to even remotely appreciate or even care about much less understand anything at all regarding the messy glorious divinity of women or women's pleasure and the true sticky all-American pastime. It shows in his demeanor, in his squinty eyes, in his smirk, in his vicious laws. George W. Bush is quite possibly the least sexually appealing or attuned president since, well, his father. This, too, is a given. Bush gives zero spark. Simply does not register. You do not wish to think of Dubya in any sexual way whatsoever... And then there's his Cabinet. Bush is surrounded by what is quite possibly the least sexually tempting, most ogre-like cadre of bitter sagging hawks and scowling civil rights stompers in the history of humankind."

"Bush's speech aboard the aircraft carrier, Abraham Lincoln, was pure theatre, designed to exult in maximum power. The tactics included arriving by jet fighter, which he proudly claimed to have piloted when he could have more safely arrived by helicopter (the carrier was not at sea, but close in to San Diego)... And in wearing the official flight suit of the ship's squadron (when he shunned the trappings of his National Guard squadron), it was transparently clear that Bush was on a high like no other. Doubtless, it surpassed any alcohol binge... Bush is now demonstrating what Alcoholics Anonymous refers to as the 'dry drunk syndrome'--a sense of false self-aggrandizement, a belligerency against those who disagree with him, a logic that brooks no shades of gray or complexity, a glorification of having 'conquered alcohol'... and an unsatisfied feeling at the core of his being that must constantly be fed by new and exhilarating experiences or adventures to satisfy his new addiction."

While the press was having a feeding frenzy over Bush's day of playing pilot and "commander-in-chief" aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln to a captive audience, the presstitutes somehow "overlooked" the fact that the latest stats on America's job situation were released. It turns out April layoffs had skyrocketed - up a whopping 71%, and that the jobless rate had hit the highest point in 20 years - 6.0%. That aircraft carrier stunt was nicely timed, eh?

David Hare writes, "How can we consider and speak to the possibility that America is deliberately declaring that the only criterion of power shall now be power itself? The introduction of the doctrine of the right to the pre-emptive strike is an event in international history of infinitely more consequence and importance than anything that happened on September 11. Even the transgression of a territorial border and the murder of innocent citizens cannot compare to what is being claimed here: the right to go in and destroy a regime... not because of what anyone has done, but because of what you cannot prove they might do. George Bush is a born-again Christian and a recovering alcoholic. I see in him the uncontrollable anger of the alcoholic, once directed at himself, sluiced away every night into his bloodstream and out into the gutter, now, tragically, directed, via his amazingly aggressive, amazingly triumphant body language, on to whatever poor soul comes into his sights."

Salon reports "A Terminator cannot make sacrifices and cannot comprehend them. A Terminator has no tragic sense because it isn't subject to the human condition. It exists above that condition. A Terminator is all hubris and nothing but hubris insofar as that term is even applicable. It sees taunting as a psychological weapon. It cannot be reasoned with or reckoned with. It cannot be stopped once it is set in motion. It inspires shock and awe. In short, it is the ideal metaphor for Wolfowitz's, and now Bush's, concept of American power... The cowboy recognized his vulnerability. He operated with the knowledge of the vagaries of the world and of his place within it - [The] Terminator, able to intimidate but not conciliate, plows ahead, inducing fear and wreaking destruction but unable to understand anyone or anything beyond its own certitude and its own brute force. Meanwhile, the cowboy rides into the sunset."

Bush is on a religious crusade - of which there is no doubt - that became fully mobilized after 9/11: "He became convinced that God was calling him to engage the forces of evil in battle," reports the BBC, "and this one time baseball-team owner from Texas did not shrink from the task. In this battle, he placed his country firmly on the side of the angels... In fact, nearly all the mainland churches in America oppose this war, including Mr Bush's own church, the United Methodists... During America's Civil War, Abraham Lincoln did not claim that God was on his side. In fact, in his famous second inaugural address, he said the war was a curse on both armies: 'He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offence came.'... If America prevails, millions will say it was divinely ordained. But many others will suspect that it had more to do with the power of American weaponry than the active intervention of the Almighty."

USA Today's Judy Keen is the frontrunner for Media Whore of 2003, thanks to this amazing kneepad performance masquerading as a profile of "Bush at War." Here's a choice snippet: "People who know Bush well say the strain of war is palpable. He rarely jokes with staffers these days and occasionally startles them with sarcastic putdowns. He's being hard on himself; he gave up sweets just before the war began." Now THAT'S an inspiration to wartime America!!! Keen's article is so un-keen that it's utterly impossible to reconcile the contradictions. Is Bush paying attention to the War or not? Is he making key decisions or not? There's no way to tell from this article. But the most important word in this article is the one you simply cannot find. It's the one word that reveals who is really making the decisions about who will live and who will die, and what kind of Evil Empire America will become. That word is: C-H-E-N-E-Y.

BuzzFlash writes, "When you watch the videos, think about the fact that Bush is about to tell the world that he's sending our soldiers to possibly die, but definitely to kill innocent people in Iraq as our military bombs and shoots its way to Saddam. Think about that and contrast that with Bush's jovial, playful attitude, seen unfiltered in the Dutch broadcast. Hey, Bush, it sure is funny thinking about all those innocent Iraqi women and children who are going to die painful and horrible deaths because of your bombs, isn't it? Just downright slap-happy funny. We bet you haven't had this much fun since you mocked Karla Faye Tucker's plea for clemency and executed at least 135 people while Governor of Texas. And then the show really begins and Bush puts on his face of concern and tempered anxiety. What a farce. What a shameful, despicable farce. Every moment fabricated."

The Smoking Gun reports, "The British Broadcasting Corporation has apologized to the White House for its broadcast Wednesday night of a live Oval Office feed showing George W. Bush preparing for his speech announcing the start of the Iraqi war. Administration officials are apparently steamed because Bush was seen having his hair primped and readied by a female stylist armed with a comb and hairspray. Below you'll find a screen grab from the BBC feed as well as a 10-second snippet from the unauthorized TV transmission."

David Cogswell writes, "Every once in a while we experience one of those little moments when a small tear breaks through the social fabric and allows us a glimpse of its underlying workings. A Knight Ridder reporter was treated to such a rare glimpse and apparently couldn't resist including it in his story... And no editor cut it out, so we are left with a gem, a glimpse into the strange personality of George W. The article was a description of Bush's speech announcing that he had ordered strikes to begin on Iraq. Here's the quote: 'Minutes before the speech, an internal television monitor showed Bush pumping his fist. 'Feels good,' he said.'... We are talking now about a guy who as a kid put firecrackers in frogs and threw them into the air to watch them explode. He cracked himself up in an interview with Talk magazine by mocking a woman on death row whose cries for mercy he scorned, screwing up his face and saying, 'Please don't kill me!' in an impersonation of the deceased."

Rev. Andrew Greeley writes, "The disasters that have afflicted American foreign policy in the last weeks should raise once again the question raised during the campaign three years ago: Is George W. Bush intelligent enough to be president of the United States? By a margin of a half million votes, the American people decided he was not. By a margin of one vote, the United States Supreme Court decided that he was... The father built up coalitions. The son destroys them. It takes a lot of effort to destroy in less than a year coalitions that previous presidents spent a half century and more putting together. This is not a very smart man, but one who is surrounded by very smart people who have managed by their arrogance in a couple of years to drive off almost all of your friends and allies and lead us into a foolish and frivolous war."

Paul Krugman writes, "Aboard the U.S.S. Caine, it was the business with the strawberries that finally convinced the doubters that something was amiss with the captain. Is foreign policy Bush's quart of strawberries?... More people than you would think... don't just question the competence of Mr. Bush and his inner circle; they believe that America's leadership has lost touch with reality... The administration's eagerness to believe that an Iraqi nuclear program does exist has led to a series of embarrassing debacles, capped by the case of the forged Niger papers, which supposedly supported that claim. At this point it is clear that deposing Saddam has become an obsession, detached from any real rationale. What really has the insiders panicked, however, is the irresponsibility of Mr. Bush and his team, their almost childish unwillingness to face up to problems that they don't feel like dealing with right now."

Buzzflash writes, "Of all the Bush Cartel lies and betrayals, of all the breaches of faith, Bush's usurpation of God to advance his political agenda is perhaps the most heinous of his sins. By asserting that he can better discern God's will than the leaders of his own faith (Methodist), his father's faith (Episcopalian), his brother's faith (Catholic), and the leaders of virtually every denomination in the United States, short of the Southern Baptists and Evangelicals, Bush is committing the ultimate arrogance. They all oppose the war that Bush claims is being committed in the name of God and Jesus. Bush stands virtually alone in claiming that God is on the side of his little war... The issue of Bush's alleged God and faith are so intertwined with every aspect of his horrifying presidency that BuzzFlash.Com will be running a multi-part series over the next week entitled, 'Bombing His Way Into the Jaws of Armageddon.'"

Carla Binion writes: "Thomas Paine said belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man. Paine biographer John Keane points out that Paine criticized organized religion and the cruel-God concept, while at the same time defending 'the idea of a benevolent Creator of the universe.' George W. Bush's God is so cruel that he wants Bush to massacre Iraqi children in order to 'get' Saddam Hussein and install a puppet government, which he mislabels 'democracy.' The 'God' whispering in George W. Bush's ear is cruel enough to sanction lying as a way to gain support for slaughtering innocents. This 'God' also approved the widely reported U.S. bugging of United Nations members as a means to his murderous ends. Evidently, this isn't the same God bending the Pope's ear, or speaking to the Dalai Lama."

DC press corps dean David Broder writes that Bush "chose to hold a news conference, a rarity in his tenure, in order to show the American people and the world the logic that has led him to the brink of war. Whatever he was asked, Bush reiterated the almost formulaic set of propositions that leave him convinced, as he put it, that if Saddam Hussein 'should be disarmed, and he's not going to disarm, there's only one way to disarm him' - war... The logic has been there in all of Bush's speeches on the subject, going back to his UN address last fall. What the news conference revealed was his extraordinary capacity to reject any efforts to put this matter in any broader context - his ability to simplify what otherwise would be a wrenching decision. In the course of 20 questions, he was asked about a wide variety of considerations that might be thought relevant or important... Each of those problems was dismissed in a word, a phrase or a paragraph." Hey folks - the emperor has no brain!

Elisabeth Bushlover writes, "George W. Bush is turning out to be one of the most openly religious presidents in American history. He prays daily. He delivers speeches and national radio broadcasts that sound like sermons. He oversees a White House full of Bible study groups. Most important, he favors lowering the barriers between church and state by giving government money to religious charities. But in recent weeks, the leaders of the many mainline American churches opposed to a war with Iraq - including the president's own church, the United Methodist - have grown frustrated that they have not been able to see Mr. Bush to express their anxieties. The group represents nearly every faith and denomination, including Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists and mainstream evangelicals. The Southern Baptist Convention, conservative evangelicals and some Pentecostal leaders are supporting the president, while Jewish leaders are divided."

Michael O'McCarthy writes, "In some of the more 'willful' cases, the dry drunk internalizes a concept of 'God's Will' to justify willful behavior. This mental obsession that the alcoholic now is possessed with the knowledge of God's Will allows the unrecovered alcoholic to justify ego driven, highly aggressive attitudes and behaviors... The alcoholic who does not enter a collective program of recovery, where their attitudes and behaviors are contrasted with, confronted by, or helped by those of other recovering, become more and more convinced of the righteousness of their behavior and only surround their lives with those who support, or enable them... Bush shows every sign of a mental obsession that is rendering him dysfunctional. This obsession that he alone is right in his view of the world is driven by the complex ingredients of egomania and inferiority symptomatic to that found in the medical diagnostic description of the illness of alcoholism."

George W. Bush has occupied the White House for 2 years and 45 days. He has allegedly been tutored by Condi Rice. He has allegedly met with top officials in the US and around the world. Yet when asked a handful of serious policy questions, Bush could not answer with anything but campaign-style platitudes, typically hinged on the word "disarm," which he used 48 times. ("Our demands are that Saddam Hussein disarm. We hope he does. We have worked with the international community to convince him to disarm. If he doesn't disarm, we'll disarm him.") Bush may be the most brain dead Resident in history. Can anyone find a single intelligent answer in this fog of mindless rhetoric?

PentaPost reports on Bush's 8th solo press conference after 2+ years, compared to Clinton (30), Poppy (58), Raygun (16), Carter (45), Ford (37), Nixon (16), and LBJ (52). "Communications director Dan Bartlett said this White House uses news conferences more sparingly than other types of presidential events, because 'if you have a message you're trying to deliver, a news conference can go in a different direction.' 'In this case, we know what the questions are going to be, and those are the ones we want to answer,' Bartlett said. 'We think the public will see the thought and care and attention he's given to a lot of the different questions that are being asked about the diplomatic side and the military side and the potential post-Iraq issue. These are all legitimate questions that he has answers for and wants to talk about.'" So how come Bush didn't have an answer for ANY of the questions he was asked, and how come he couldn't WAIT to stop talking???

Tom Shales writes, "George W. Bush kept seeming to lose interest in his own remarks last night as the resident did that rarest of rare things -- for him -- and held a prime-time news conference... He spoke with little urgency and no perceptible passion... There were times when it appeared his train of thought had jumped the tracks. Occasionally he would stare blankly into space during lengthy pauses between statements -- pauses that once or twice threatened to be endless... Watching him was like counting sheep... The contrast between the foggy Bush of last night and the gung-ho Bush who delivered a persuasive State of the Union message to Congress not so long ago was considerable... Bush may have been ever so slightly medicated. He would hardly be the first president [sic] ever to take a pill."

While holy roller George prays and prepares to kill thousands of civilians in Iraq let's take a walk down memory lane... In 1988 Bush said that he did "some irresponsible things when I was young and irresponsible," but that's been about as specific as he's gotten lately. He wasn't always so circumspect about his reputation for womanizing. Ten years ago, at the 1988 Republican Convention, Hartford Courant associate editor David Fink struck up a conversation with George W. "When you're not talking politics," Fink asked the vice president's son, "what do you and [your father] talk about?" Click here to read Bush's reply. Warning: Vulgar, Adult Language.

The Baptist Standard writes, "Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, argued Bush's sense of divine oversight is part of why he has become such a good wartime leader--he brings a moral clarity and self-confidence that inspires Americans and scares enemies. 'We don't inhabit that relativist universe' of European leaders, Land said. 'We really believe some things are good and some things bad.' It's even possible that Bush's belief in America's moral rightness makes the country's military threats seem more genuine because the world thinks Bush is 'on a mission'... Radwan Masmoudi, executive director of the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, [said] 'Muslims all over the world are very concerned that the war on terrorism is being hijacked by right-wing fundamentalists and transformed into a war, or at least a conflict, with Islam.'" Check out the blasphemous image of Bush as Christ.

Rev. Fritz Ritsch writes, "Bush's religious supporters are his greatest cheerleaders... He is the leader of the America they think God has ordained. Contrary to popular opinion, the religion that this group espouses is Triumphalism, not Christianity. Theirs is a zealous form of nationalism, baptized with Christian language. The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by the Nazis, foresaw the rise of a similar view in his country, which he labeled 'joyous secularism.' Joyous secularists, said Bonhoeffer, are Christians who view the role of government as helping God to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. He viewed this as human arrogance and a denial of God's sovereignty; but joyous secularism has an appeal that crosses religious boundaries, and now has added force in the US because it has found its political messiah... In a nuclear age, American triumphalism is not only spiritually bereft, it is, quite possibly, apocalyptic in its implications."

With George Bush's non-existent credibility under increasing assault (finally) by Democrats and even conservative Republicans worried that he's overstepped the boundaries of sanity, it's time, according to author Jeffrey J. Mariotte, to take a closer look at the psychological underpinnings of the resident. Is he merely a puppet for hard liners, or is he in fact a textbook sociopath? Mariotte writes: "It is rapidly becoming more and more clear that George Bush is either a tool being wielded by ham-fisted ideologues, or a sociopath with no conscience and only his own selfish interests at heart. Strong accusations, but both points of view can be supported by the facts at hand. What can't be known for sure is which scenario is correct (although the likeliest case is that it's some combination of the two)."

MWO writes that "David Gergen is the about last person Washington looks to for outlandish, strident judgments about the political scene. Especially about the dim son of his old boss and great pal, George H. W. Bush. But now, appearing on CNBC, Mr. Conventional Wisdom Gergen had described Dubya, with obvious shock and dismay, as a 'radical' right-winger who may well be operating under fanatic religious delusions of grandeur... Gergen confirms the frightening possibility that Bush may truly believe that he is God's anointed, fulfilling some crackpot fundamentalist religious mission... David Gergen has announced what political insiders call a line modification of the conventional wisdom. Dubya, according to the new C.W. line, isn't a bold, decisive leader. He's right-winger who may also be certifiably nuts."

Russell Mokhiber had the guts to ask Ari: "Bush has said that Jesus Christ is his favorite political philosopher. He said that during the campaign. Jesus Christ said - turn the other cheek. He said - the meek will inherit the earth. And he said - do violence to no man. How does Bush square his militarism with Jesus Christ's pacifism? Fleischer: One, I think your choice of words is inappropriate when you refer to Bush's militarism. Bush is seeking a way to provide peace and to protect the American people from a growing gathering threat in the hands of Saddam Hussein and the weapons that he has collected... His Constitutional duties as the commander in chief - he is sworn to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people from threats to our lives. And that's the manner in which he approaches it. He does view this also as a matter of great morality in terms of the serious judgment that any Resident has to make about risking lives to save life." We want a follow-up!

Ask Peter and Ted and Dan and Jim and Tom: What does it mean to have a President who is a Religious Fundamentalist? "He's the most recklessly religious President we've seen. He's on a religious mission, and you can't divorce religion from militarism. He believes in fighting righteous war," says Annie Laurie Gaylor, editor of "Freethought Today". E-mail: netaudr@abc.com, niteline@abc.com, newshour@pbs.org, evening@cbsnews.com, nightly@nbc.com, President@nytimes.com, publisher@nytimes.com

"I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka 'Christians,' and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or 'PPs.'...And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick."

W. David Jenkins III writes: "During one of the Republican primary debates back in 2000, the moderator asked the candidates to name their favorite philosopher. When it was governor George W. Bush's turn, he blurted out 'Christ!' Between the look on his face and the tone in his voice, I was almost sure he had just taken the Lord's name in vain on national TV because he couldn't think of an actual philosopher. Five seconds after he blurted that exclamation, the easy going smirk returned to his face and he added, 'Because he changed my life.' Well, the thought was fun while it lasted. It was a lie then as much as it's a lie now."

Bob Borosage writes, "For George Bush, State of the Union addresses are presidential performance art. Bush's pollsters pre-test key words and phrases. His handlers preview each practiced gesture, dramatic whisper, narrowed eye. The public is presented with pleasing tableaux of presidential postures, not of his actual policies. But this posturing exacts a price in credibility that can become particularly costly in times of 'large consequence.' In last night's performance by Mr. Bush, that price was particularly high because the gap between word and reality was immense -- and because Bush relies on faith rather than evidence to convince Americans of the need to launch a pre-emptive war abroad and audacious tax breaks at home. Seldom has a nation been more shabbily treated by a president. At the very moment when Bush had to level with the American people, he appeared ever more the clever poseur than the prudent leader."

NY Times reports, "To European ears, Bush's language is far too blunt, and he has been far too quick to cast the debate about how to separate Saddam Hussein from his weapons of mass destruction in black-and-white certainties, officials in Paris and Berlin say. They add that his confrontational approach, his impatience with the inspections and even his habit of finger pointing as he speaks undermine the possibility of common strategy against Saddam Hussein. 'Much of it is the way he talks, this provocative manner, the jabbing of his finger at you,' said Hans-Ulrich Klose, a German legislator. 'It's Texas, a culture that is unfamiliar to Germans. And it's the religious tenor of his arguments.'... 'Much of it is the way he talks, the rhetoric, the religiosity,' an American diplomat said of Mr. Bush. 'It reminds them of what drove them crazy about Reagan. It reminds them of what they miss about Clinton.'"

Buzzflash writes, "In the end the Bush Cartel is banking on making the kind of impression on the world that a thug makes with a baseball bat on a car. It's all about image and firepower. It's how the playground bully establishes himself. Pick the weakest guy in the school... and beat the living daylights out of him. Keep all the kids nervous and on edge. Let them think that you are a little bit mad and might just beat up on them for the fun of it. Tell them that you will protect them from the gang that lives in the next neighborhood in return for their loyalty. Make an example of anyone who challenges your leadership by denouncing them and bloodying them up. Establish a system of stool pigeons. Rummage through lockers, at your will, for any signs of betrayal. Issue warnings from time-to-time about how you have information that the other gang has plans to rape your mothers and sisters, and lay waste to your homes -- and that is why you need to trust in the playground bully."

"As she signed my program, I joked, 'You sound worried.' 'This is the worst president ever,' she said. 'He is the worst president in all of American history.' The woman who has known eight of them wasn't joking."

Eric Wemple reports for the Washington City Paper: "The distinction of being Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2002 fell to three persons who were unknowns in 2001: whistle-blowers Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom, Coleen Rowley of the FBI, and Sherron Watkins of Enron. 'Who are these women?' the introduction to their profiles asked. 'For starters, they aren't people looking to hog the limelight.' The same apparently can't be said of a more familiar figure who'd been a leading contender for a spot on the front of that issue: President George W. Bush. According to four Time sources, the magazine had prepared a Person of the Year cover commemorating the partnership between Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. But it fell through after the White House balked at giving the magazine access for such a presentation. Bush aides reportedly preferred that their boss appear alone on the cover." Say, isn't pride/vanity one of the seven deadly sins?

Michiko Kakutani writes, "What is surprising about 'The Right Man' is how tired, disingenuous and knee-jerk so many of its arguments are... [The book] is less an insider's view of the Bush White House than a shrill polemic about the administration's response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and its campaign against Saddam Hussein... Frum displays none of the originality or insight that distinguished 'Dead Right,' his 1994 book on the American conservative movement... The book is filled with a spinmeister's cliches ('Bush's record has been dauntless, far-seeing, and consistent' on the war) and is riddled with contradictions and evasions... In one chapter he writes that Mr. Bush is 'more conventional in his thinking than a leader probably should be.' In another he argues that Bush is a visionary, possessing an artist's prescience and wisdom: 'More important than the ability to remember what has happened in the past is the ability to imagine what could happen in the future.'"

David Cogswell writes, "The 12-30-02 issue of US News ran a Q&A with Bush, which is a great opportunity to explore the mind of the world's most powerful man. The Q&A form, with its relatively candid sampling of the spontaneously produced language of the man, provides one of the best opportunities for those of us out in the real world to get a glimpse into his mind. Reading Bush's words is eerily similar to reading Nixon's biography, or the letters of Ted Bundy in Ann Rule's The Killer Beside Me. It's fascinating to see the self image of a megalomaniac who sees himself so differently from the way he appears to others. The interviewer kicks off by asking Bush about what he referred to when he said he had 'big ideas.' Bush's answer, again, sounds like he might be not George Bush at all, but Mahatma Ghandi. 'I think the biggest idea in the international arena is to achieve the peace,' he says, 'and that the United States of America will work with friends and allies to achieve the peace.'"

Joe Conason writes: "Mr. Bush must be heartsick, then, to realize how little progress he has made toward transforming either his party or his country. Current evidence suggests that whatever [Bush's] fine intentions, his policies are moving America's poor and working families backward. The benefits of his administration's policies have flowed almost exclusively to the wealthiest citizens, as if he were the heartless plutocrat of Democratic caricature. The same week he and his wife visited that food bank, he neglected again to take an aggressive position on extending unemployment benefits to nearly a million families victimized by the stubbornness of the Republican Congressional leadership. The result will be more Americans who must seek charitable assistance to feed themselves and their children."

Molly Ivins notes that after six years of governing Texas without discovering that some of the people in that state are hungry, George W. Bush has discovered the national problem after only two years in the White House. She also notes that his response to the problem leaves something to be desired: "Number of families who will be cut off of heating assistance because of the Bush budget: 532,000. Number of homeless kids who will be cut off of education programs because of the Bush budget: 8,000. Number of kids who will be cut off of after-school programs because of the Bush budget: 50,000. Number of kids who will be cut off of child care because of the Bush budget: 33,000."

George W. Bush's speechwriter gave him suitable things to say about Trent Lott's regrets that the segregationists didn't take over the Presidency in 1948. Anonymous "White House spokesmen", however, reveal Bush's real position on the subject: "they were giving Lott a chance to weather the storm without hurting the party or the president." It's obviously okay for the Senate Majority Leader to be a racist as long as it doesn't cost Bush any votes in Congress or in the next election. Trent Lott isn't the only Republican whose immoral views should disqualify him for leadership.

"Current human rights and environment concerns in Kenya involve the deforestation of the Karura Forest, north of Nairobi; the human rights violations against individuals protesting government plans to parcel out the land to developer; the ongoing Sondu-Miriu dam construction project in western Kenya; and the general climate of repression in the country. Private development of public land has been extremely controversial, not only because it will result in the wanton deforestation of public land, but also because the land is being allocated to senior government officials at a fraction of its market value. This has led to allegations of cronyism and nepotism in public governance. Deforestation of Kenyan public forests will deprive wildlife of their natural habitats, hurt tourism (Kenya's main source of income) and increase the incidence of drought in the region." No wonder Bush has pledged to help keep Moi in power!

G.W. is following in his conscienceless daddy's footsteps, that's for sure. This week (Dec. 5), Bush told Kenyan dictator (DBA "President") Daniel arap Moi that he will look the other way as Moi does what is needed "behind the scenes" - to keep his grasp on power in Kenya, thus derailing any effort at a fair election. Moi has a history of human rights abuses, corruption, and environmental pillage. But Bush doesn't care about ethics or body counts as long as Moi agrees to let him use Kenya as yet another "anti-terrorism" base. It seems BushDaddy taught his boy well. In 1989, Bush Sr. oversaw the slaughter of at least 500 Panamanians to insure "his boy" would get put into power there, whilst his former buddy, Noriega, was removed. When a reporter asked him "Is it really worth it to send people to their death for this?" Bush anwered, "Yes." See 1989 entry at http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html

In a NY Times interview, Robert Redford says: "From the moment Bush stepped into office, he's been leading a sly and extremely disciplined campaign to destroy, dismantle, unravel, undo 30 years of environmental-regulations development. I know because for the last 30 years I've been a part of the organizations and activists fighting tooth and nail for those regulations... They are very, very shrewd in couching it in patriotism. Nearly every statement that comes from this administration includes the phrase 'the American people.' Every time I hear that phrase I just substitute 'industrial interests.' Look at the people who are calling the shots - you've got Cheney, you've got Rove, you just look at the murderer's row there, and the handwriting is on the wall... The group of 'em, a pack of coyotes - tricky, cunning, making sure they take care of themselves but doing it in a wily way, making sure they never get caught." You can vote for Redford for President at http://democrats.com/primary

After nixing pay raises for federal employees who are already paid way below private sector scale for many jobs, Bush plans to dump big bonuses in the laps of his favorite schmooze buddies. Not only is this move a slap in the face to all federal employees (except Bush's select lap dogs), it is unethical - and in violation of an established White House Policy put in place by Clinton to discourage political favoritism. "These kinds of cash bonuses to political appointees were banned because they were abused in the past," said Tom Daschle said. "The fact that the Bush administration has decided, in secret, to bring them back is just the latest demonstration of how misplaced this administration's priorities are." We think several million federal employees would agree.

In the aftermath of the Canadian prime minister's communications aid, Francoise Ducros having lost her job for calling George W. Bush a moron, the Toronto Star reports on Mark Crispin Miller's book THE BUSH DYSLEXICON. In the book, Miller details his researched conclusion that Bush's verbal gaffes reveal not lack of intelligence, but lack of humanity. "He has no trouble speaking off the cuff when he's speaking punitively, when he's talking about violence, when he's talking about revenge. When he struts and thumps his chest, his syntax and grammar are fine. It's only when he leaps into the wild blue yonder of compassion, or idealism, or altruism, that he makes these hilarious mistakes....I call him the feel bad president, because he's all about punishment and death. It would be a grave mistake to just play him for laughs."

Anyone who's every worked for - and been fired, laid off, pay-cut, or raise-trimmed by - a corporation knows that the fat cats just love to dole out the bad news right before the holidays. Bush takes the corporate Scrooge model a step further and announces the bad news smack in the MIDDLE of a holiday weekend. The average federal employee in the D.C area makes $68,900 per year in an area where houses within a reasonable commute start at about $150,000 and decent apartments about $1,200 per month. It's worse for federal employees elsewhere - like NYC or CA. Add to that the downer of working for Bush, and we'll bet the federal employees considered that pay raise one of the key carrots that keeps them going.

Bob Woodward writes in "Bush at War": "'One of my jobs is to be provocative,' he [Bush] said. 'Seriously, to provoke people into -- to force decisions, and to make sure it's clear in everybody's mind where we're headed. There was a certain rhythm and flow to this, and I was beginning to get a little frustrated....It was just not coming together as quickly as we had hoped. And I was trying to force the issue without compromising safety.' Did he ever explain what he was doing? 'Of course not,' he said. 'I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation.'" Least of all, the American people.

Anya Kamenetz writes for Village Voice: "Does Yale really rule the world, and does anyone care? With only half the endowment of Harvard, it makes up the difference in Gothic architectural mystique and pure president's-alma-mater hauteur. But this fall, Old Blue's dirty underwear is hanging out to dry: There's a probing investigation of the two-century-old brotherhood of Skull and Bones, G.W. Bush's ticket to success."

"'My senior year (at Yale University) I joined Skull and Bones, a secret society,'...Bush wrote in his autobiography, 'so secret, I can't say anything more.' He doesn't have to. He's practically turning the government into a secret society - an old-boy, throwback establishment that even holds its secret spy-court proceedings in an elaborately locked, windowless room that sounds similar to the Bones' elaborately locked, practically windowless 'tomb,' or campus clubhouse... Bonesmen have long helped Bush; he received a fair chunk of his early business financing from them and turned to them for help when he needed a job, investors and campaign assistance. Even his baseball-team purchase involved at least one Bonesman...Bush has appointed fellow Bonesmen to high-level positions, such as Edward McNally, the general counsel of the Office on Homeland Security and senior associate counsel on national security." Memo to author: Bonesman may not all collaborate with Nazis, but Prescott Bush did!

Jimmy Breslin writes: "As national defense begins at home, the sniper in the Washington suburbs was a threat from within. What, then, was George Bush doing in Atlanta, Daytona Beach, FL., Rochester, MN, Downingtown, PA., Bangor, ME, and other such places where he makes these cheap campaign tours?...Bush should have been taking a walk through Silver Spring or Rockville. That was his job. He pledged to defend the nation. He could have started by helping to repel the attack on Washington. A walk in Maryland. Make some tumult, with security everywhere, people milling, and the president of the country walking, walking, walking to show that fear must lose and the one causing the fear would be caught soon...When John Kennedy was shot in 1963, Lyndon Johnson, succeeding him, was in the driveway outside the White House, falling in behind the hearse...'I'd rather be shot than let anybody think I'm afraid to go out on that street,' Johnson said. Somebody should have shown George Bush the words."

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen writes, "Appearing on the old Dick Cavett Show back in 1980, the writer Mary McCarthy said of her fellow writer Lillian Hellman: 'Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'.' The same cannot yet be said about George W. Bush and his administration -- but it has not been around as long as Hellman was and is not nearly as creative." Where have Richard Cohen and his colleagues been for the last three years (at least)? George W. Bush makes the legendary liar Baron Munchausen look as truthful as George Washington. But maybe we can hope that, if the media acknowledge that Bush's reasons for going to war are total fabrications, they'll begin to suspect that he's just as dishonest on other subjects, too.

Dana Milbank writes: "All three assertions were powerful arguments for the actions Bush sought. And all three statements were dubious, if not wrong....As Bush leads the nation toward a confrontation with Iraq and his party into battle in midterm elections, his rhetoric has taken some flights of fancy in recent weeks. Statements on subjects ranging from the economy to Iraq suggest that a president who won election underscoring Al Gore's knack for distortions and exaggerations has been guilty of a few himself...."Everybody makes mistakes when they open their mouths and we forgive them," Brookings Institution scholar Stephen Hess said. Some of Bush's overstatements appear to be off-the-cuff mistakes. But, Hess said, "what worries me about some of these is they appear to be with foresight. This is about public policy in its grandest sense, about potential wars and who is our enemy, and (there's) a special obligation to getting [sic] it right."

Judy Fitzgerald, a freelance writer and researcher from Virginia, explains some of the many reasons people don't trust George W. Bush, and concludes, "If people had been criticizing his policies sooner, the stock market might not be tanking, we would still have a surplus instead of a deficit, unemployment would not be up, we would not be in a recession, Medicare would not have been cut, our traditional allies would still respect and trust us...."

Katherine van Wormer, co-author of a book on treating addictions and a professor of social work, lists the defining characteristics of people who "tough out" giving up drinking without ever admitting they are alcoholics: obsessiveness, impatience, exaggerated self-importance, rigid and judgmental outlook, projection of their behavior onto other people, rationalization, and childish behavior. Sound familiar? George W. Bush displays all the signs of an untreated medical disorder. And he has his finger on the nuclear trigger!

Judy Fitzgerald writes: "Could it perhaps be that a lot of people do not trust Bush because he has told one cynical lie after another? From his claims of having been the environmental and education governor of Texas (even though his record indicates the opposite) to not touching Social Security to being a 'compassionate conservative'...In short, his walk simply does not match his talk....Could it be that people don't trust Bush or his vice president because they both have been up to their necks in Enron and Enron-style scandals? Could this administration's insistence on absolute secrecy for all its activities - including the domestic energy agenda - be a part of the lack of trust that so many feel? Could it perhaps be the close ties Bush and...Dick Cheney and others in the administration have with the oil industry? Daddy Bush's Carlyle Group profits handsomely from war and from controlling energy supplies."

Both Gore and Bush were in Massachusetts on 10/4, but oh, what a difference in style! While Gore mingled with everyday people, visiting local grocery stores, Bush slinked in and out of a posh hotel fundraiser, "protected" from the hundreds of protestors who assembled to express their anger at his policies. The protestors were hustled off to a point where Bush wouldn't have to see their signs - gotta preserve his fantasies of popularity! Talk about a contrast: Mr. Ivory War Tower and Mr. Man of the People. Who would you REALLY have in the White House?

What goes around, comes around. And Nancy Skinner's article in Democrats.com, "Bush's Top 10 Lies, Exaggerations And 'Obsfucations' About His Military Service", has gone all the way around to the Philippines. From there, columnist Dan Mariano writes, "Here is a US President who would send thousands of American men and women in harm's way -- a duty he ducked while he was under oath to fight for his country."

Alan Bisbort of American Politics Journal writes: "Based on Bush's recent behavior, he could very well be a 'dry drunk.' Of course, he may just be an immature bully who will gladly sacrifice thousands of lives to get his way even against the advice of the most respected and mature members of his own party. For drunks to function for any length of time in the world, they need enablers. Congress is filling that bill splendidly right now for Bush. Not only the Congress but the nation seems to be watching this happen. No. They are encouraging it to happen. Who knows, maybe we are all in shock, just as we are when a member of our family does something appalling or outrageous under alcohol's bidding." Would someone please convene a Codependents Anonymous Meeting on Capitol Hill?

Mike Hersh writes that Karl Rove "wants Bush to attack Iraq before the November elections. [To Rove, putting American troops in harms way is a small price to pay for winning Congressional races.] George W Bush sincerely believes God sent him to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Bush's monomania about Saddam and his sense of divine purpose scare some of his closest advisors. His resentment of dissent [alarms] many from the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations. Even top officials from his father's administration fear the worst, and former President Bush is among them... So why war? Why now? Because Bush sees himself as the divine sword of retribution. Because Karl Rove and other shortsighted partisan-minded White House insiders are trying to exploit war for political advantage... Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas is about 25 miles away from the burned out site of the Koresh Branch Davidian compound outside Waco. Now people wonder: Is Bush's state of mind that far from Koresh's?"

Jeffrey J. Mariotte writes, "Before the election of 2000, many debates revolved around the burning issue of which Peter Sellers character George W. Bush most resembled. Inspector Clouseau, introduced in 'The Pink Panther,' was a bumbling, dimwitted policeman who had difficulty negotiating his native tongue. Chance the Gardener, from 'Being There,' was equally dimwitted, but many of those around him interpreted his dull silence as brilliance, and he rose uncomprehendingly through the ranks of society and power. But now that he's been in office for a while and seems to be focusing most of his attention on a war with Iraq that he can't explain or justify, we're learning that the Peter Sellers movie we should have been looking toward all along was 'Dr. Strangelove.' Like the mad doctor Sellers played in that classic, Bush seems determined to wage war. And as in Strangelove's case, that war could have nuclear consequences for all of us."

Practicing psychoanalyst Dr. Justin Frank writes: "Word on the street says Tony Soprano and his gang are back - 'finally,' announces TV Guide. So is Tony's psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi who thinks Tony talks openly to her about who he is. In fact, Tony keeps an entire part of his life off limits. His boyish charm and emotional vulnerability help him preserve his mafia secrets. There is no honest discourse. And Dr. Melfi, an ordinarily sophisticated person, doesn't get it. Or does she get it and then disavow her perceptions? While waiting for the Sopranos we have had the Bush Administration to entertain us. It is led by an affable, earnest and boyish looking man whose struggles with language and whose mania for exercise help us forgive and even ignore his darker behavior – just as we do with Tony Soprano. And a few protesters aside, we have become a nation of Dr. Melfis – ignoring or evading what we see...."

Don Harrison writes, "Bush still favors partially privatizing Social Security. Would you believe it? Can you imagine the hysteria that would sweep through the land if people's Social Security savings had been invested in Wall Street stock, while it's been plummeting? Yet our chief executive ... is standing by the cockamamie idea. Another example of government by obsession, this administration's modus operandi... our fearless leaders continue to plan an invasion of Iraq. Why? Because they're obsessed with Saddam Hussein.... It's pretty scary. In a world growing increasingly hostile to us, with our economy frighteningly shaky and our vulnerability shockingly evident, we have a clueless resident, surrounded by ideologues. Our checks-and-balances are barely functioning because dissent is equated with treason in this 'time of war' (against whom?) .... Was that an election in 2000 (in which, if you recall, the loser won)? Or was it a coup d'etat?"

Martin Woollacott writes: "A generation ago, the best-seller The Ugly American tried to explain why the US had, through mistaken policies in part, but largely through arrogance and insensitivity to the feelings of others, alienated those who might have been its friends in south-east Asia... The US, and to a lesser extent the west as a whole, once again found themselves in this situation after September 11... Now, unsatisfied with the results of the effort to remake America's image, [Bush] has ordered that the campaign be run from the White House rather than the State Department. The announcement was made on the same day as... a report saying that America is widely seen as self-absorbed and contemptuous of others, and, of course, in the same week that military action against Iraq was being intensely discussed."

Once again, Karl Rove made the fatal mistake of allowing Bush to pretend to express his own "thoughts" on the Middle East. So here it is - 1.3 minutes worth of 200 proof Bushit. Bush was able to memorize his little script, but study the voice, the gestures, and the body language - it's all as phony as a $3 bill. And don't miss the infamous smirk when he says "false religion." Bush is no more concerned about death in the Middle East than he was about his murder of Carla Faye Tucker and all of the other Texas death row prisoners who got a perfunctory 15-minute review from Bush. If Bush wants the Middle East violence to end, the time for talk is long over - it's time for ACTION. Impeach Bush Now!

Here's a mission that's even too impossible for "Mission Impossible" - to convince the world that George W. Bush is NOT "arrogant, hypocritical, and self-absorbed." Apparently Madison Avenue executive Charlotte Beers couldn't do the job from the special office created for her in the State Department, so Karen Hughes created a new office in the White House. But how exactly will this new office accomplish its impossible goal? We're afraid the standard tools of propaganda - lies and disinformation - simply will not do. No, there is only one way to stop Bush from sounding like an arrogant, hypocritical, self-absorbed idiot - and to get that damned SMIRK off his face at the same time. The solution is ... duct tape!!!

Robert Scheer writes: "The public's love affair with the Bush administration is souring. Polls show that voters are deeply worried about its handling of the economy, although they still claim to like George W Bush as a person. [The Bushes lack] the seriousness of purpose required to manage daily life in the real world. And should we really expect more from men who never had to take out the garbage, let alone worry about paying the mortgage? Men for whom the making of money was a game without real risk or purpose? Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing? Heck, what's the big deal?... If a Bush loses liquidity, friends will come running, checkbooks open, as they did for George W. to pay for his string of failed Texas investments. Besides, the family trust fund is where the 'real' money is kept. The Bushes are, as a matter of breeding, terminally irresponsible. And while being a loose cannon can sometimes be useful in making war, it is stability and pragmatism that breed prosperity."

Todd Gitlin, Professor of Journalism and Sociology at Columbia writes: "At the heart there is a pattern. The big, unacknowledged picture is this: The people in power represent an economic clique whose interests are only superficially tied to the well-being of the country as a whole. In collusion with their delighted big-money supporters, Bush, Cheney and their Cabinet-level entourage spent years lining their pockets with sweetheart loans, option deals and golden parachutes from oil companies and other related industries. They built political careers thundering against regulation, fueled by a cozy camaraderie with Enron and like companies that grew fat on--surprise!--deregulation. In office, these men make energy policy in cahoots with their ultra-wealthy sponsors, a club of very special Americans whose membership list they still keep secret. They consistently fight to secure America's energy dependency on oil and related fuels."

Real Texan Sandy Tubb writes, "I about choked the first time I heard the President select talk about having learned his values here in Texas. If that were true G.W. Bush would be a Democrat, because when he was supposedly growing up here in Texas, the state voted Democrat and had ever since the end of the Civil War. I don't know what happened but ever since the Bush family and other eastern rich kids came here to play in the oil fields the voting demographics of the state slowly changed. In fact I hardly recognize Texas anymore. Let me tell you what Texas was when I was growing up here in the 50's, as I want to set the record straight about what Texas values are, or at least were at one time before special eastern oil interests bought Austin."

7/9/02: "Mark returns to the show to announce his paperback version of 'The Bush Dyslexicon, Observations on a National DisOrder.' The paperback has an entire new chapter focusing on new material on the Post Sept 11th Presidency. A MUST read. Mark and I discuss Bush's speech yesterday, his involvement in Harken Energy, how he conveniently left off that the final report to his attorneys from the SEC was that 'he (Bush) was in no way exonerated' (throw in your father being President and voila); How Bush never mangles his speech when he's coming from his anger or speaking about war (something he believes in) but all the mistakes he makes when he truly is disinterested. We discuss his claim that the SEC report on Harken showed no 'mal-fee-ance'; his lies which are constantly exposed; his lack of compassion; his total disregard for the regular citizen (Connecticut Cowboy); his alienating the rest of the world from America; and how dangerous a war with Iraq would be for all of us."

Maureen Dowd writes, "The junior Bush now finds himself combating the same accusations of elitism that cost his father re-election... 'Bush's idea of solving a domestic problem is to fire the maid and yell at the butler,' chortled the Democratic senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. The Democrats are going to town again on Bush obliviousness. America is repulsed by corporate gluttony and accounting racketeering... How can Mr. Bush crack the whip on Big Business when he's a wholly owned subsidiary of it? His dynastic ties to business gave him his career in oil and baseball, provided the record-breaking $100 million that made him president [sic], and spawned his C.E.O. administration. How can Mr. Bush lecture companies on setting a moral tone, getting tough on accounting practices and ending 'malfee-ance,' as he calls it, when there are pesky questions about his own windfall at Harken Energy? (His $848,560 stock cash-in made Hillary... look like a piker for only taking home $100,000.)"

In 1992 Stephen Pizzo wrote, "When President Bush [I] speaks of the lack of family values he, of course, is referring to broken marriages, single mothers, and inner-city kids who join gangs and sell dope. But are these the only villains -- or the most important ones -- responsible for the shredded social fabric? What about well-to-do white boys who trade on family connections, welsh on loans, run with con men, and leave financial ruin in their wake as they line their own pockets? What about grown men, with access to the most powerful public office in the land, who participate in scandal but show no remorse for any of it -- and who take no responsibility for the consequences of their own actions?" Including tens of thousands of lost jobs, hundreds of billions of lost savings, and the families that are destroyed in the process?

As Bush jawbones like Mr. Accountability and his Harken Energy insider trading comes under scrutiny, making him look the hypocrite -- he is of course, blaming the lawyers. He knew nothing about it. But darn, he sure knew about the huge profit he got when he unloaded stock right before it plummeted as a Harken board member. A crime he is now damning others for. Bush says, Those darn lawyers made me do it. It's all their fault. Wahhhhh!

I think it really all goes back to those Polo ads from the 80's, I really, really do. Remember those ads? All those lean people; like race horses, with faces that looked the camera directly in the eye with a smarmy smile that said, 'I just screwed your sister. And you're next. 'After a almost a decade of deficit paying in the 90s, we are back to the 80s again but with nothing to back up the wealth, no sense of caring for those on the lower rungs and nothing but foxes in the hen houses. The whole economy of the country has been trashed and replaced with companies that do little more than blow smoke rings that disappear into thin air. And the present resident of the White House has that little smirk he's known by...compare it to that one in the Polo ads. Yeah, same one isn't it? Saying the same thing, isn't he? Yup, pretty much.

"As business scandals seem to fill the headlines every day and while the media may keep trying to sweep the attention span-impaired public onto a bright new recovery predicated on deeper middle-class debt, perhaps it behooves the rest of us to examine closer this peculiar moment of American triumphalism in crisis. For it really is all of a piece; this era of Wall Street hubris, this era of smug conservatism, and, not coincidentally, this era of George W. Bush's 'nukular' strutting. A corollary principle was that unlike the decadent Europeans and their soft socialism, the moral righteousness of our business titans displayed itself in diligent hard work as well as sexual probity; (thus was Bill Clinton an unnatural blight to be cast out.) This, of course, was mere hypocrisy on all counts." So writes Kent Southard.

Paul Krugman writes, "Most commentators missed the point of the story about Mr. Bush's commencement speech at Ohio State, the one his aide said drew on the thinking of Emily Dickinson, Pope John Paul II, Aristotle and Cicero, among others. Of course the aide's remarks were silly - but they gave us an indication of the level of sycophancy that Mr. Bush apparently believes to be his due. Next thing you know we'll be told that Mr. Bush is also a master calligrapher, and routinely swims across the Yangtze River. And nobody will dare laugh: just before Mr. Bush gave his actual, Aristotle-free speech, students at Ohio State were threatened with expulsion and arrest if they heckled him... As I've noted before, the Bush administration has an infallibility complex: it never, ever, admits making a mistake. And that kind of arrogance tends, eventually, to bring disaster. You can read all about it in Aristotle."

"For most of the three decades since Watergate, Americans have retained a healthy, democratic skepticism about their Presidents. [Now, however, we are] supposed to admire the occupant of the Oval Office, mostly because he is there, and to believe things about him that are very unlikely to be true... Testing credulity to the utmost, his aides boldly mentioned Aristotle’s The Nicomachean Ethics... as dull as any book by William Bennett, though somewhat more challenging than The Very Hungry Caterpillar, that perennial Bush favorite. Somehow, Jesus didn’t make the list this time... Trying to portray Mr. Bush as a serious scholar is about as believable as earlier efforts to paint him as selfless... Citizens who wish to preserve such illusions should avoid reading the PowerPoint presentation [by Karl Rove]. Maybe they should add Nixon, Machiavelli and Jon Lovitz ('Yeah, that’s the ticket!') to the White House roster of inspirational philosophers."

"Oh, well I feel a heck of a lot more secure now, don't you? Okay, so not only is the world community laughing at us, but now we have our prisoners having a bit of fun at our expense. They've obviously caught on to the level of stupidity and gullibility that seems to permeate in the current American regime and they are utilizing it to the maximum. Geez, whatever you do, don't let 'em see any of the 'Die Hard' flicks. And, in case the gang in charge hasn't thought about it, all James Bond movies are definitely off limits! In fact, maybe you guys should just sit and watch videos for a few months. We know how much you all hate to read books, (especially Tom Clancy novels) so just plug in the VCR and kick back so you all can keep us safe and free from embarrassment. Scuba diver terrorists indeed! You know it won't stop people from asking questions about 9/11. All you people are doing is prolonging the inevitable. The questions are still going to keep coming, George."

Mark Morford writes, "Bush's image is now being so carefully controlled you feel a little ashamed and slightly guilty [criticizing him], like that feeling you'd get if you teased a quadriplegic... Bush is spun so he appears rather plain and simpleminded and not really mentally agile enough to be openly complicit in the coverup-related decisions he's being accused of... he's still just a good ol' daddy's boy from the oilier parts of Texas who don't know no better and how dare you accuse this Very Nice Man of leveraging the horror of 9/11 for political gain... Yet you can't believe Bush is truly a man of nuanced intelligence because that implies that he probably did know something about the possibility of a terrorist attack and how it could fortify his political career, but you can't call him flagrantly stupid because that's unpatriotic and un-American and embarrassing, and hence you're just left with this feeling of unease and vague despondency about the nation's overall direction."

Gene Lyons writes: "Everybody knows that President [sic] Junior doesn't write his own speeches. Given his embarrassing performances of late, however, it's an open question whether Bush even comprehends the speeches he reads. Consider his recent European foray, for example, where the president's ignorance was matched only by his petulance. At a diplomatic reception Bush astonished the president of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, by asking, 'Do you have blacks too?' Cardoso diplomatically told Der Spiegel that Bush is 'still in training' on Latin America. Oh well, what's Brazil got to do with anything? In keeping with what I call the 'Tinkerbell Effect,' the American press ignored the incident. See, if we all just close our eyes and make believe, we can be confident that when Bush makes sweeping historical pronouncements like those in his bellicose West Point speech last weekend, he has the first bleeping idea what he's talking about."

Mike Hersh writes "In some ways, I am awestruck by their audacity and aplomb. Bush ran promising to 'trust the people,' but when the people elected Al Gore, Bush's people sued the people... At a stroke, the highest court in the land [blew up the Equal Protection doctrine] like a party balloon -- a Republican Party balloon. These 'conservatives' legislated from the bench, threw out the well-established law, and wove new, unfounded 'doctrine' from whole cloth. Everything conservatives ever complained about regarding 'liberal' judges -- and worse... Bush stole the election in a crooked lawsuit, defiling the US Supreme Court to do so. He unleashed his pal 'Kenny Boy' and Enron who looted California and their own investors and employees. Bush got away with all this. If Bush's magicians get away with blaming 9/11 on the FBI -- which did its job and warned them about the terrorists -- I can't imagine anything they can't get away with. Can you?"

In response to Bush's Miami tirade against Castro, Fidel fired back - big time. "For Mr. W, democracy only exists where money solves everything and where those who can afford a $25,000-a-plate dinner - an insult to the billions of people living in the poor, hungry and underdeveloped world - are the ones called to solve the problems of society and the world. Don't be a fool, Mr. W. Show some respect for the minds of people who are capable of thinking... Show some respect for others and for yourself..." Castro contrasted Bush with FDR: "It was a long time ago when a man spoke from his wheelchair with a soft voice and a persuasive accent. He spoke as a president of the United States of America and he inspired respect ... He did not speak like a showoff or a thug," Castro said. Hey Mr. W - why don't you challenge Fidel to a debate on the topic "US vs. Cuba: Whose Elections are More Democratic?"

Writes Kent Southard: "When George W. Bush so publicly displays his religiosity, as he often does I am suspicious that his character runs in a direction opposite to that which he is trying to convince the American public. There's just something completely unconvincing about Bush's character, no matter what the point of reference. Coming from the family he does, with his own personal weaknesses, which are now controlling our country have been formed by a background with generations controlling some of the most powerful political, economic and military privileges in human history. These paradoxical inner forces in Bush, displayed in the past and continuing now, give more than sufficient cause to doubt their sense of democracy and wisdom, much less their essential virtue. For the religious and conservative elites to display their broken dauphin George W. Bush as the chosen of God is the surest sign he is not."

"Was George W. Bush 'transformed' by 9/11? Confronted with that crisis, did he suddenly become 'Churchillian,' 'Lincolnesque,' 'another Roosevelt'- a man of 'gravitas' and 'splendid eloquence,' 'astute,' 'commanding,' 'strong' and 'wise'? Absolutely not, writes Mark Crispin Miller. In substantial new additions to 'The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder', the noted media expert makes the opposite case--that Bush was not changed in the slightest by our national ordeal. With lucidity and care, Miller demonstrates that, after 9/11, Bush made just as little sense as ever. Rather, it was Bush's audience that was temporarily changed by the attacks; Americans needed the sort of leader that they now imagined George W. Bush to be. Remember Chauncey Gardner in 'Being There?'" That's our Bush!

Talk about inappropriate, callous, and a glaring example of political expediency! Here is it, the first Memorial Day following the devastating 9/11 attack...the first Memorial Day after the supposed "War in Afghanistan" has begun to claim American lives. Is the "president" of the U.S. at Arlington? At the WTC? At the D.C. Mall where thousands of Americans have gathered? Nope. He is schmoozing with Jacques Chirac visiting the graves of WWII and WW I veterans buried in France. Why? Because not only is the political heat rising here in the U.S., terrorist warnings have been issued. In short, Bush is hiding out. His own sorry butt concerns him far more than the American people - alive or fallen in action.

My, my, isn't this cozy talk coming from the guy who tried to shaft his "soul mate" less than a year ago through secret intrigues with the Taliban that would have grabbed Russian oil lands. This week Bush gushed, "I want the world to know that my friendship with President Putin is real. I like him, I trust him. We have good conversations." Says the Times of India: "Bush further revealed that he and Putin call each other by their first names. [Not Putie-put? We're crushed!] Bush added that he and his wife Laura were looking forward to spending Friday night with the Putins at their house outside Moscow after inviting the Russian leader to their Texas ranch [sic] last year."As well, we're honoured to be staying at his house. And that's going to be a very good -- you know, when you open up your home to somebody, it's an interesting sign and an important signal." Yeah - it means Putin would be too embarrassed to allow Bush to stay in a more public spot!

Once again, the US media is covering up for our global idiot Bush. Germany's Der Spiegel reported this story (as translated on BuzzFlash): "It is said about the US president that before 9-11 he thought that the Taliban was a Bavarian brass band. Now the president of the world's most powerful nation has put his foot in his mouth yet again. It was Condoleezza Rice, his national security advisor who had to rescue the situation. When talking with Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 71, Bush surprisingly asked: 'Do you have blacks too?' Ms. Rice noticed how stunned and surprised Cardoso looked and quickly told Bush that Brazil likely has more blacks than the US and that outside of Africa it was the place with the highest number of blacks. The Brazilian president remarked later that Bush was 'still in a learning-phase' when it came to South America." Perhaps Stepford Laura can find Bush a children's book on the subject...

"Under President Bill Clinton, the President's Daily Brief (PDB) ran around 12 pages and often included detailed analyses as well as new information that Clinton generally read before the briefing... Under Bush, the PDB has become shorter, a seven-to-10-page document containing 'more targeted hard intelligence' items, with few longer than a page... It is written with the understanding that the president is a 'multi-modality learner' who processes information better through questions and answers while reading along." In other words, Bush's Attention Deficit Disorder makes him incapable of reading and understanding the most important document produced by our intelligence agencies each day. No wonder he spent 911 reading children's stories! Why did the media cover up his ADD during the 2000 campaign - and why does the cover-up continue? Impeach Bush Now!

Dean Baker writes that the recent scandals and miscues mean Dubya "is no longer Winston Churchill or Franklin Roosevelt, he is once again the bungler from Texas who finished second in the presidential race... Domestically, the top of [Bush's wish list is more tax breaks for the wealthy -- and] just as Bush has sought to make taxes voluntary for the rich, he has done the same with repaying debts. The bankruptcy bill has a clause that will allow people to use real estate to shield an unlimited amount of wealth from creditors. This means that a millionaire Bush supporter can own a $10 million home – with no mortgage – declare bankruptcy, and then tell his local grocer to get lost when she tries to collect on his tab... And of course, we can’t forget the president's [sic] efforts to dismantle Social Security. [In Bush’s America], the only genuinely safe investment is a contribution to his re-election campaign."

Here is the latest debate: Our King George vs. King George V and Curious George. Robert Lacey, King George V's personal biographer describes George as such: "...King George V was distinguished 'by no exercise of social gifts, by no personal magnetism, by no intellectual powers. He was neither a wit nor a brilliant raconteur, neither well-read nor well-educated, and he made no great contribution to enlightened social converse. He lacked intellectual curiosity and only late in life acquired some measure of artistic taste.' Curious George on the other hand is a lovable monkey, America's true favorite George! "When George starts getting into trouble, he only digs himself deeper." Curious George seems like the winner to us!

In a remarkable interview with a German television crew, President [sic] Bush admitted finally that he was trying to secure his person in his erratic flights around the country on September 11th. Rather than return to Washington to command American forces, Bush flew from Florida to Louisiana and then to Nebraska before finally returning to Washington on the evening of September 11th. As the Los Angeles Times reports, Bush said he was "trying to get out of harm's way."

"In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a 'threat assessment' by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term. 'There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines,' an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it. A senior official at the CIA said he was unaware of specific threats against any Cabinet member, and Ashcroft himself, in a speech in California, seemed unsure of the nature of the threat…The Justice Department insists that it wasn't Ashcroft who wanted to fly leased aircraft. That idea, they said, came strictly from Ashcroft's FBI security detail. The FBI had no further comment." Note the date of this article, July 26, 2001.

Remember Bush's subliminal "RATS" commercial? Well, that was no accident. In the face of serious questions from Democrats about 911, the Bushies use OUR tax dollars not to present the truth - but to "whack the rats." They are talking about US, folks - the plurality of Americans who voted for Al Gore. HOW DARE THEY??? Remember how Bush PROMISED to "change the tone in Washington", to be a "uniter not a divider," to restore "honor and integrity to the White House"? We DEMAND that George W. Bush immediately fire the Bushies who called 51 million Americans - patriots, taxpayers, current and past members of the Armed Services - "rats"!

Per visiting Senators on 5/16, "A suddenly embattled [Bush] felt the need to talk tough - at length - behind closed doors. 'No question, when he walked into the room he was shaken,' one senator later said. What followed... was a jut-jawed, disjointed discourse with a tinge of diatribe and a crescendo of podium pounding. [Bush] dismissed questions about his administration's counterterrorism actions - or lack of them - before 911 as mere Democratic partisanship. 'I sniff some politics in the air,' he scoffed. Then he wandered off to the Middle East," citing a conversation with Ariel Sharon about killing Yasir Arafat. Then he threatened a veto of a defense bill if it included money for the Crusader. Then he called Kim Jong Il of Korea a pygmy. "Stunned senators didn't know quite what to make of the performance. 'It was like in church, when the sermon goes on too long and you're not sure what the point is,' one told NEWSWEEK. 'Nobody dared look at anybody else.'" Is Bush drinking again???

Talk about an insult to the American people's intelligence and sense of decency! The Bush administration is trying to claim that they did not act on warnings of impending the impending hijackings because the threat was too "unspecific." Condoleeza Rice, incredibly, says Bush administration intelligence analysts "never dreamed" that terrorists might hijack planes and use them as weapons of mass destruction. As to "vague threats" - since when has the vagueness of a threat stopped this administration from issuing all points alerts? And if Rice "never dreamed" hijackers might pull something like this, this proves she, like Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the mob, is unfit for her job. America would have been a safer, better place if Bush had stayed on his phony ranch and Rice had stuck to teaching classes about Cold War Soviet Union. None of these people belonged in the White House!

CNN's Bill Press writes, "September 11 no longer belongs to all Americans. From now on, it only belongs to those Republicans willing to shell out $150 for a souvenir… It's also a huge insult to the victims of 9/11 - who died never knowing they were helping raise big bucks for the Republican party … If Republicans are not trying to exploit September 11, why don't they show a photo of Bush doing his job on September 9? Or August. 15? It's not hard to get a photograph of Bush talking on the phone. He's on the phone for hours every day. The truth is, they used that particular photo of Bush talking to Cheney from Air Force One on September 11 because they wanted to turn a national tragedy into cash… George Bush hasn't restored dignity to the White House. He's debased it even further."

Matthew Engel reports in the Guardian UK, "Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia skewered President [sic] George Bush yesterday as a man so ignorant about the Middle East... that he needed several hours of personal tuition to bring him up to speed. When the prince visited the presidential ranch [sic] in Texas last month, the two men spent five hours together, far longer than expected. This was an indication - according to the White House spin machine - of how well they got on. Prince Abdullah presents a different interpretation: the time was spent coaching the president [sic] in political realities. 'He is the type of person who sleeps at 9.30 pm after watching the domestic news,' the prince told Okaz, a Saudi newspaper."

"Who is Ozzy Osbourne?…former lead singer of a heavy metal rock band called Black Sabbath... In 1983 Osbourne sang in 'Bark at the Moon': 'Howling in shadows. Living in a lunar spell. He finds his heaven. Spewing from the mouth of hell'… Osbourne is renowned for abusing every imaginable illegal substance as well as some legal ones... Osbourne bit off the head of a bat during a concert... Satanic lyrics, evil worldview, disgusting mouth, no musical ability, drug abuse. This is Osbourne. He is a depraved moral terrorist, seducing young kids who don't know any better into deadly lifestyles... Osbourne is a sad, tragic figure – but, worse yet, he's a blithering idiot and a terrible role model for the kids of America and the rest of the world... Bush promised to clean up the White House after… Bill Clinton. He promised to lead by example. He promised to bring dignity back to the office. He ought to apologize to the parents of America for his shameful behavior at the dinner last week."

Maureen Dowd writes, "Let me get this straight. Democrats are supposed to stifle objections and smile adoringly at President [sic] Bush whenever the subject is the war on terrorism. Anything else would be downright unpatriotic. But the G.O.P. can bathe Mr. Bush in a beatific commander-in-chief light, exploiting the war on terrorism" for political purposes. Those are the rules, in Karl Rove's political jungle. "So now the White House gets caught peddling 9/11 commemorative photos. With all the class of a 1:30 a.m. infomercial... See W. take the oath of office! See W. deliver his first State of the Union address! And, if you act now, see W. aboard Air Force One in the hours after the terrorist attack, talking to the vice president [sic]! Fortunately for the Republicans, it's a photo and not a video. Otherwise we might hear the president [sic] nervously inquiring of his adult supervisor, 'Hey, Dick, is it safe to come home yet?'"

Sharon Thiemer from AP writes, "The White House does not object to the Republican Party's making money from a photo of President [sic] Bush placing a call amid the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11... The photo of Bush calling Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney from Air Force One just hours after the terror attacks is part of a three-picture set the National Republican Senatorial Committee and its House counterpart promise to anyone who donates $150 or more to attend their joint fund-raising dinner" Al Gore hit the nail on the head: "While most pictures are worth a thousand words, a photo that seeks to capitalize on one of the most tragic moments in our nation's history is worth only one - - disgraceful. I cannot imagine that the families of those who lost their lives on September 11th condone this - - and neither should the President of the United States."

"I wrote the following article as I reflected on the events of this past Holy Season -- the Easter/Passover Season. As a Christian and as a person who is also possibly a small fraction of Jewish descent, I am suffering from a kind of after Easter/Passover blues, so I am writing about how I was feeling at the time of the siege of the Church of The Nativity nearly a month ago. It is how I still feel." So writes Marilyn Dinger.

Paul Krugman writes, "You've heard the story many times: the denizens of the heartland, we're told, are rugged, self-reliant, committed to family; the inhabitants of the coast are whining yuppies. Indeed, George W. Bush has declared that he visits his stage set -- er, ranch -- in Crawford to 'stay in touch with real Americans'... But neither the praise heaped on the heartland nor the denigration of the coasts has any basis in reality. I've done some statistical comparisons using one popular definition of the heartland: the 'red states' that... voted for Mr. Bush. How do they compare with the 'blue states' that voted for Al Gore? Certainly the heartland has no claim to superiority when it comes to family values. If anything, the red states do a bit worse than the blue states when you look at indicators of individual responsibility and commitment to family."

Ian Williams writes in Salon, "President [sic] Bush has done a lot in very little time to undermine the macho image of Texans worldwide. Foreign leaders now see there is no apparent limit to the defiance he will endure from his friend Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister. Never has the tail wagged the dog quite so energetically or humiliatingly. Foreigners tend to have longer memories than Americans, particularly in the Middle East... But as a result of the way he's handled Sharon, Bush is likely to find greater international opposition to his demonizing of Saddam Hussein. How, after all, can Bush argue that Saddam's refusal to allow U.N.-mandated weapons inspectors merits his overthrow, while Sharon's defiance of multiple U.N. resolutions opposing Israel's military incursion into Palestinian territory, and of a fact-finding mission in Jenin, merits calling him 'a man of peace?'"

Molly Ivins writes, "Sometimes I forget how truly simpleminded the Bushies can be. The front-page of The New York Times reports, 'The Bush administration seems to accept and even relish (Attorney General) Ashcroft's role as lightning rod'... Since the attorney general has so amply demonstrated his clueless incompetence, it may seem difficult to plumb why it should be so. But it is precisely... because liberals consider John Ashcroft a dangerous nincompoop that the administration thinks he's doing a good job. They really are that simple. In the Texas Legislature, the press occasionally gives the If-He-Votes-Yes, I-Vote-No Award for some egregious example of this particular strain of non-thinking... It takes no great detective to see the pattern here. Before Sept. 11, Bush's entire foreign policy consisted of being Not Clinton. If Clinton was for something, Bush was against it, and vice versa. This did not, you may have noticed, lead to an effective foreign policy."

A. F. Nariman writes: "ABC News has just released a breaking news story reporting that the Bush Administration was involved in arranging $300,000 in ransom payments to the Abu Sayyaf rebel group in the Philippines…to secure the release of an American missionary couple… What's wrong with this picture?…Abu Sayyaf group is an arm of bin Laden's Al Qaeda network of terrorists…. in Bush's own words, 'If you are a terrorist, or you harbor a terrorist, you are a terrorist.'… these actions can be construed as treason under Article III, section 3 of our U.S. Constitution, which reads: 'Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort… Let us hope…that 'giving aid to the enemy' is a greater crime, and one more worthy of impeachment than having adulterous sex in the Oval Office, or committing perjury to hide one's shame. Certainly, the Senate and House need to investigate this matter post haste."

AP's Ron Fournier writes, "One day, President [sic] Bush says he understands why Israel cracks down on Palestinians. Then he tells Israel to stop. Later still, he appears to give Israel the green light again. The swings in Bush's Middle East rhetoric reflect the blunt-speaking style that served him well in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. 'Dead or alive' is how he wanted Osama bin Laden. World leaders were 'with us or against us.' Americans liked what they heard; Bush's approval ratings climbed. But the black-and-white language of the war against terrorism has not transferred well to the murky grays of Middle East policy. Once again this week, the administration's message was muddied by the president's own words." Let's be blunt: Shrub is simply too damn stupid to run the US government. Ronald Reagan knew better than to pretend to understand details, and simply mouthed Peggy Noonan's words. But Bush is too stupid to even realize how stupid he is!

Oh, these guys are too damn funny. I first heard about the "trifecta" remark a long while ago. And to be honest, I wasn't sure if it was really true or just a wishful rumor started by some disgruntled Democrat. The story goes, Bush made this remark to someone in the White House days after 9/11. I figured that it sounded like something the Brat-in-Chief would say but because I hadn't heard him say it, well, it just sounded like another justified but malicious rumor. He wouldn't really say that, would he?

David Turnley writes in AlterNet, "Bush's vernacular is consistently simple... That he has nothing of substance to say is beside the point. To his credit, he uses language and tone that most of us can relate to. Unfortunately, it's the language and tone people use when talking to their dogs. Dogs only understand a few, oft repeated words and phrases, such as 'sit', 'fetch' and, for particularly bright canines, 'I meant what I said.' ... The fact that Bush has addressed the [Mideast] issue at all -- delivered in his patented cadence of disdain, which is usually reserved for members of the press who have the nerve to ask questions that require thoughtful answers -- actually indicates how seriously he takes the situation... The problems in Israel demand a president that can articulate, to both sides, sympathy rooted in comprehension of the situation. Instead, the president is acting as if the dogs' incessant barking has awakened him from a nap." We couldn't agree more!

"For me, Bush's higgledy-piggledy sentence structure was never the revealing trait. What matters more are Bush's banalities, which I believe are harming our national dialogue. Recent examples: When asked why Congress wasn't informed of his 'shadow government' of 100 bureaucrats in secret locations, Bush replied that this is 'serious business.' (A trenchant insight.) When asked to comment on signs that the recession may be ending, Bush said, 'I don't care what the numbers-crunchers say, the attack on America affected our economy and it affected a lot of people's lives.' (Could anyone argue?)" So writes Charlie Clark.

Saying she "felt extremely used" by the Bush administration, Oprah told her friend Star Jones, co-host of ABC's "The View," that the Bush administration set her up to make it appear as if Oprah was snubbing the Resident. Oprah was approached by the White House several weeks ago about a trip to Afghanistan, but was told to keep it hush hush. Since she had prior commitments she couldn't cancel, she politely declined. Weeks later, word leaked from the White House that she was just "too busy" to attend and was framed in such a way that seemed intentionally to make her look bad. This sounds similar to the bogus "Hillary Blows Off Gold Star Moms" smear. Is this the "thanks" Oprah gets for having put up with that disgusting kiss Bush gave her during his campaign appearance on her show, so he could pretend (contrary to his death penalty record) that he wasn't a racist? Let's hope Karen Hughes is stupid enough to pick a fight with Winfrey - who is far more popular than Bush.

Surrounded by yes men and bloated poll results, free from all criticism from a muzzled, cowering press corps, it's been easy for Bush to pull off a "nice guy" act. Now that criticism is mounting on all sides, however, the real man beneath the window dressing provided by an army of "handlers" is coming through. Many observers are now describing his manner as "testy," "resentful," and "arrogant," while photos are starting to capture a this face (check out http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020401/168/1c251.html). What a sharp contrast to Bill Clinton, whose strength and grace never wavered, even when assailed by one of the most wicked and relentless assaults ever launched on a President. The difference? Clinton was REAL. Bush, on the other hand, is a two-dimensional PR creation of Karl Rove whose character cannot stand up to scrutiny.

"'...in order for people to give me sound advice, that information not oughta be public.' - GWB in reference to GAO lawsuit, 3/1/02. George, are you out of your mind? Did you hear what you said in Des Moines? Did you really mean that? George, I played that line over and over in context to the question you were asked and no matter what way I hear it, your response was still stupid. Did you hear yourself? '...in order for people to give me sound advice, that information not oughta be public.' Okay, let me make sure I understand. In order for you to get 'sound' advice the American people need to butt out. In other words, no one can give you sound advice if they think we're gonna find out about it. Is that right? Wait, let me go look this up just to be sure." So writes W. David Jenkins III.

Alas, it was too good to be true. "After running the item as true and being challenged upon it by the Ford's Theatre Artistic Director, who was seated by the President that night and didn't at all recall this incident, Washington Post writer Lloyd Grove delved further into the story. Editors working on turning film of that event into a television special (which is scheduled to air April 12) went frame by frame through the video captured by the "presidential isocam" (as the camera trained on Bush is called). At the point where Wonder was getting settled behind his keyboard, Bush briefly raised his palm and smiled. The gesture was not the excited, enthused wave it is now comically portrayed to be; it was a small motion of the sort one routinely makes to an acquaintance across a crowded room. Moreover, the motion appears to have been directed at Kelsey Grammer, the emcee of the evening." We encourage you to bookmark snopes.com, an outstanding debunker of Internet rumors of all kinds.

Bush is out selling his ideas of a shadow government, permanent war, nuking other nations as a way for corporations to control their resources, and doing away with any semblance of our Constitution as it was written. And he is doing it once again by grabbing photo ops with children left and right - even singing "Itsby Bitsy Spider" at one school. Yep, sit with a bunch of smiling kids and read them a story and no one will notice that you are an evil, insane man who does not give a damn about their future or anyone else's but your own and that of a few select cronies. But this devious ploy has been tried before - and with chillingly efficient effect, as seen in the photo below. (Note the linked photo comes from the Hoover Institution - the source of many of Bush's "great ideas).

Citing Bush's absurd wave to Stevie Wonder, The Observer's Lawrence Donegan writes: "Suddenly, it's cool to be rude about Dubya again. At the forefront of the new Zeitgeist is comedienne Sandra Bernhard, who delivered a hitherto unthinkable anti-Bush tirade... 'Bush is amateurish and self-serving and, frankly, it's disgusting,' she told her audience. 'Everybody is covering their asses with the Enron scandal and it was very convenient that September 11 came along to deflect the fact that they should never have been in the White House in the first place. What happened at the [presidential] election was completely corrupt.'... The White House [finds it] difficult to dismiss is the publication of two books and... a documentary which all... present a devastating portrait of a man promoted way beyond his abilities... [Most] damaging is 'Journeys With George,' a documentary about Bush made by film-maker Alexandra Pelosi... "

When America's MOST FAMOUS blind celebrity - Stevie Wonder - sat down at the keyboard at the Ford's Theatre Presidential Gala on 3-3-02, what did front-row guest George W. Bush do? No, this time you'll never guess. He WAVED. We're NOT kidding. Washington Post's Lloyd Grove had to shackle his hands to type this understatement: "Here's a vignette we're dying to see on the ABC broadcast of Sunday's Ford's Theatre Presidential Gala: When Stevie Wonder sat down at the keyboard center stage, President Bush in the front row got very excited. He smiled and started waving at Wonder, who understandably did not respond. After a moment Bush realized his mistake and slowly dropped the errant hand back to his lap. 'I know I shouldn't have,' a witness told us yesterday, 'but I started laughing.'" At least Pretzelgate was an accident (we think), as was Gerald Ford's stumble. But THIS???

"Perhaps more disturbing, [NY Times reporter Frank] Bruni also paints a man who is astonishingly shallow and unreflective. Riffing after the election about his upcoming presidency, Bush can't get beyond his genuine fascination with the White House mess hall: 'The dessert menu is unbelievable ... [y]esterday at the Blair House we had this, I'm not even sure, coffee ice cream surrounded by this unbelievable meringue, beautiful meringue.' And Bruni informs us that well into his first year in office Bush is 'still raving about ... [the] little red button in the private dining room off the Oval Office that he could use to summon the butler.' It's Bush as the Tom Hanks character in 'Big'... Bruni hasn't convinced me that Bush wouldn't rather be making fart noises with his armpit. (Bruni gives Bush special praise for not yukking it up while looking down at the ruins of the Trade Center. But what 8-year-old couldn't do that?)" So writes Noam Scheiber in Salon.

Campaigning in North Carolina, Bush abandoned all pretence of non-partisanship."You know, here we are in war, do you think it's all right for the President to go campaign? I said, yes, I do. I think it'd be a lot easier for me to accomplish what I want to accomplish with Denny Hastert as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and with Trent Lott as Majority Leader of the United States Senate." To make matters worse, Bush even repeated his grotesquely sick joke about 911, which we first reported on 12-5-01. "I was campaigning in Chicago and somebody asked me, is there ever any time where the budget might have to go into deficit? I said only if we were at war or had a national emergency or were in recession. (Laughter.) Little did I realize we'd get the trifecta. (Laughter.)." Bush's attitude towards 911 and America's national trauma is so utterly contemptuous - he should be impeached!

"Bush's gaffes aren't a symptom of stupidity, but of his rich-kid's luxurious detachment, his frat-boy's 'Whatever, dude!' attitude. He may not be dumb, but he's a lightweight. He's used to people cleaning up after him. It was wrong to give him a pass on that trait when he was running for president, and it's wrong now, even in wartime. He veers weirdly between this fortunate-son insouciance and, when seeking gravitas, a born-again absolutism... Yes, Bush did succeed in mopping up the terrorists in Afghanistan - with the glaring exception of their leaders. But his brief success as commander in chief can't erase his increasingly apparent flaws as president [sic]. From his ideology-driven bungling of the economy to his historic assault on civil liberties to his dangerous global overreach, this is a president [sic] whose performance falls far short of his poll numbers. And it's time for the media to start calling it like it is." So writes Joan Walsh in Salon.

"The author of 'The Bush Dyslexicon' returns for a very informative show about the man behind the man, George W. Bush. We discuss all the misuse of the English language when W isn't really interested in what he's talking about (or to) and how he can command the language when it's about war or something that fits the 'image' he has of himself. If he called 9/11 an act of war, why not treat the prisoners at Xray as POW's instead of criminals? (could it be that it was actually an act of CRIME, not war); Mark feels this is an extremely reckless (and dangerous) regime and it all began with the blatant stealing of the election in 2000. …The 'axis of evil' speech created distrust and turmoil in both North and South Korea, yet we have the dictatorial response 'it's not open for discussion, and that's that…This is not a simpleton running the U.S., Mark contends Bush is an ignoramus incapable of higher reasoning, but with sharp political instincts in line with the cabal running this country."

"Bush's wayward way with words sent financial markets wobbling on Monday when he mixed up deflation and devaluation. Traders couldn't believe their ears when Bush relayed to a news conference that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, outlining his plans to revive Japan's economy, had placed equal emphasis in their talks on banks' non-performing loans, 'the devaluation issue' and regulatory reform. The yen's value is an extremely touchy subject for Japan's Asian neighbors and U.S. manufacturers, who suspect that Tokyo is willing to tolerate a cheaper currency as a way of spurring exports and stoking a little bit of inflation...But some dealers decided not to take the risk and briefly pushed the yen down to 132.80 per dollar from 132.55. White House officials quickly clarified that Bush and Koizumi had indeed discussed deflation and the official transcript of the news conference also set the record straight in a footnote." GOP hero Reagan made a similar gaffe. Oh for the days of a smart (Democratic) President!

In 1952, when Nixon got caught taking gifts on the sly from a CA business cartel, he simply went on TV with a syrupy routine about Checkers the dog (one of the gifts). Now we have Bush rambling about "evil" when not leading a prime time prayer, hoping no one will notice Enron. The trick, says Norman Redlich: "Never discuss the actual thing for which you were called to task. Never raise the question of whether it was right to take money from people who have a stake in the way you vote. Create your own ethical standards and point out how rigidly you adhere to them. And if the people are really as dumb as you think, you may be President of the United States." So writes the Guardian's Nick Cohen.

"By the time Bush gave his State of the Union speech, countless reporters and pundits had proclaimed GWB and FDR to be kindred inspirational leaders... But the oft-repeated analogy doesn't only give a monumental boost to Bush's image. It also -- subtly but surely -- chips away at FDR's historic greatness, cutting him down to GWB's size. Roosevelt's economic reforms embodied and strengthened grassroots struggles for such basic goals as the right to form unions, collective bargaining, regulation of business, progressive income tax, federal aid to the needy and programs like Social Security. These are among the New Deal legacies that have long been under attack, frontally or sneakily, from most Republicans. The more that reporters, commentators and media-selected historians join the chorus linking Bush with Roosevelt -- as if FDR's domestic agenda and his underlying values scarcely merit a mention -- the more that the actual FDR fades into the mist." So writes columnist Norman Solomon.

"As the war on terrorism began, President [sic] Bush ordered aides to produce a photo 'scorecard' of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, crossing off faces with an 'X' as members were captured or killed. …'I'm a baseball fan, I want a scorecard,' Bush told the newspaper. 'And I understood that when you're fighting an enemy like al-Qaida, people - including me - didn't have a sense of whom we were fighting.. And I actually got a chart." Hey Bush, why don't you ask your Daddy about these people? He should know, since it was his CIA that armed and financed them in the '80's. Your treatment of war like rotisserie baseball is reminiscent of how Reagan couldn't understand the Contra operations until he saw a map with colored flags on it. When he could see the Contra War as a game of Stratego, Reagan got excited. Of course, your Daddy and Ollie North took advantage of Reagan's simplemindedness to commit all sorts of illegal acts.

The following is a draft of a petition to the Norwegian Nobel Committee opposing the nomination of George W. Bush for the Nobel Peace Prize. Please send your comments and suggestions to public@democrats.com.

A year ago, in an office of the White House, America's first court-appointed president held a little meeting. He had campaigned on a catch phrase about "restoring integrity and honesty" to the White House. One of the remarks he made to his flock was there would be no tolerance of even a hint of scandal or impropriety during his watch. Of course, anybody who had paid attention to or researched this guy's history as governor of Texas or a rich, spoiled party animal could recognize the irony of his remark. But he said it. "No tolerance for even a hint of scandal." So what I want to know is: what happened to that rule?

During his trip to West Virginia last week - while a fallen soldier was being buried - Bush joked with Bob Kiss, Speaker of the House, about feeding Kiss' 5-week-old twins. Bush said, "I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war." While Americans - and Afghans - continue to die in a real war with real violence, horror, and death, Bush thinks death is just a joke. Hey George, why don't you come to Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and Arlington Cemetary and repeat this disgusting joke? Worse yet, Bush's joke includes an appalling lie - Bush NEVER went to war! He DODGED Vietnam by pulling family strings to get into the Texas Air National Guard, so someone else without family connections fought - and possibly died - in his place. Bush spent his TANG years drunk, and simply went AWOL with 2 years left in his service obligation. WHEN will the media demand the truth about Bush's AWOL? It's time for the media to ask serious questions about Bush's outrageous "jokes!"

Let's see if I got this straight. The feds need to get information from the elite Al Qaida and Taliban prisoners held at the U.S. base in Cuba. The FBI and CIA know these "detainees" are fanatic in their devotion to their restricted, fundamentalist religious view. Therefore, they are treated harshly. Now that makes sense. What might happen if the U.S. authorities treated these guys with more civility and brought in loyal American Muslims to talk to them? Let us not forget that the vast majority of these prisoners have never been outside their tiny little corner of Afghanistan or their Arab country of origin, have neither physically visited the West nor come into contact intellectually with outsiders to their narrow band of understanding. Why not wideband them? There are examples worth mentioning.

Pretzelman is making a pathetic effort to get on the "victim" side of the Enron debacle - rather than the "evildoer" side, where he belongs - by citing his mother-in-law's stock loss. But rather than winning him support, Bush's contortionist maneuver is producing guffaws even among Republicans. According to the NY Times, "a longtime Bush adviser said: 'He doesn't necessarily turn on people but he cuts them off. This is cut and run.' He added, 'It was a little gratuitous invoking his mother-in-law.'" "Gratituitous" is way too kind a word - "grotesque" is more like it, given the millions given by Enron to Bush and his Republican allies. There is no way Georgie-boy can distance himself from Kenny-boy, his single biggest donor - they are as inseparable as peanut butter and jelly!

Remember the Republican-created media firestorm during the 2000 campaign when Al Gore made an insignificant error about the price his mother-in-law paid for arthritis medicine? Dick Cheney said Gore was "playing fast and loose with the facts in terms of trying to win an argument. It's unfortunate." Campaign spokesman Dan Bartlett shrieked, "It appears he made up information." But on Tuesday, Pretzelman wrongly declared, "My own mother-in-law bought stock last summer, and it's not worth anything now." Now it turns out that "last summer" (2001) was really September 1999 - Bush was wrong by TWO YEARS, not a few cents. So where is the media outrage? And where is the prescription drug benefit Pretzelman promised?

Online Journal's Sally Slate just can't swallow Ari Fleischer's twisted explanation of Pretzelgate. "Perhaps the clue, in Mr. Bush's case, lies in White House physician Dr. Richard J. Tubb's strange remark, 'There was absolutely, positively, no suggestion on physical examination that any alcohol was involved.' Now, why would Dr. Tubb even mention alcohol unless ... ? As one wit noted, pretzels and beer go together. Did Mrs. Bush deck her spouse when she discovered he had fallen off the wagon? That would explain the bruise. The cut might have resulted from either a ring on her hand or from whamming his eyeglasses into his cheek." Lest we forget, didn't Laura kill her high school boyfriend in a car accident? Just IMAGINE the furor if Bill Clinton had acquired a similar bruise while Hillary was somewhere on the same planet - let alone in the next room...

"Next time you hear some GOP crybaby bleating about the Washington media's left-wing bias, try this one out on them: Amid the accelerating Enron scandal, George W. Bush did his dim-bulb best to deflect attention. Last Thursday, the president told reporters that his single most generous political benefactor, former Enron CEO Ken Lay, was really somebody else's problem: 'He was a supporter of [Texas Democratic Gov.] Ann Richards in my run [against her] in 1994,' Bush said 'and she named him the head of the Governor's Business Council. And I decided to leave him in place, just for the sake of continuity. And that's when I first got to know Ken, and worked with Ken, and he supported my candidacy'...So you'd think Bush's big whopper about a man at the center of a corporate flameout involving roughly $90 BILLION, thousands of defrauded employees and stockholders, and rife with evidence political cronyism would get the left-leaning Washington press all hot and bothered. You'd be absolutely wrong."

10 years ago, Bush Sr. barfed on the Japanese Prime Minister. Gerald Ford couldn't chew gum and climb stairs at the same time. And now this - Shrub nearly died choking on a pretzel! (Or was it the Enron logo?) After examining Bush, his doctor declared: "I do not find any reason that this would happen again." For goodness sakes, how on earth can Bush's doctor assure us that Bush will never swallow a pretzel the wrong way? Can't this White House tell the truth about ANYTHING?

"The president [sic] didn't ask the networks for television time. The attorney general didn't hold a press conference. The media didn't report any dramatic change in governmental policy. As a result, most Americans had no idea that one of their most precious freedoms disappeared on Oct. 12. Yet it happened. In a memo that slipped beneath the political radar... Ashcroft vigorously urged federal agencies to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests made by American citizens. Passed in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Freedom of Information Act has been hailed as one of our greatest democratic reforms. It allows ordinary citizens to hold the government accountable by requesting and scrutinizing public documents and records. Without it, journalists, newspapers, historians and watchdog groups would never be able to keep the government honest." So writes the SF Chronicle. We demand an investigation!

"The federal budget will likely remain in deficit for the rest of President Bush's term, bringing a decisive end to the brief era of surpluses, Bush's budget director Mitch Daniels said Wednesday...The flurry of activity was another reminder of the economic impact from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The suicide hijackings pushed a tottering economy into a full-bore recession, triggering increased unemployment and a decline in federal revenue. Bush promised during the presidential campaign to avoid tapping Social Security except in cases of war, recession or a national emergency. 'Lucky me. I hit the trifecta,' Bush told Daniels shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the budget director."

Bush "recalled the last time he was in Florida, on the morning of Sept. 11, and what went through his mind when the first plane hit New York's World Trade Center: 'I used to fly myself, and I said, 'Well, there's one terrible pilot.'"

The NY Times editorial following Bush's press conference raised obsequiousness to Himalayan heights. The editorial, entitled "Mr. Bush's New Gravitas," proclaims: "The George W. Bush who addressed the nation at a prime-time news conference yesterday appeared to be a different man from the one who was just barely elected president last year, or even the man who led the country a month ago. He seemed more confident, determined and sure of his purpose and was in full command of the complex array of political and military challenges that he faces in the wake of the terrible terrorist attacks of Sept. 11." Give us a break!

Nearly 9 months after taking office, this was Bush's first prime-time press conference. After 9 months, is Bush really "ready for prime time"? Share your thoughts with the members of Democrats.community (registration required).

We are refraining from personal attacks on George W. Bush during our national crisis, but the efforts by White House spin doctors to use this crisis to try yet again to paint Bush as a man of depth and character are truly sad, if not downright dangerous. According to bootlicker-in-chief Frank Bruni, Bush now has a "wholly transformed sense of himself and his presidency. He believes, [friends and advisors] say, that he has come face to face with his life's mission, the task by which he will be defined and judged... One of the president's close acquaintances outside the White House said Mr. Bush clearly feels he has encountered his reason for being, a conviction informed and shaped by the president's own strain of Christianity. 'I think, in his frame, this is what God has asked him to do,' the acquaintance said. 'It offers him enormous clarity.'"

When we saw the following story in the BBC, we were chilled with a thought that had never before stuck us, no matter how frustrated and angry we may have been at Bush: Is he insane? In less than one week, he has gone from threatening to attack any nation harboring the actual guilty parties to now vowing to unleash the "full wrath" (direct quote) of the U.S. on SIXTY nations. Pumped up by the first real wave of support (born of grief and chaos) that he has ever received and urged on by the two most fanatically intolerant people in his administration (Ashcroft and Rumsfeld), has he gone over the edge into some bizarre John Wayne fantasy? More critically - Will Americans be self-destructive enough to follow him over the edge?

As easy as it would be to jump on the Bush bash bandwagon, we cannot in good conscience condemn Bush for the evasive actions taken by Air Force One in the early hours of the crisis. While researching GWEN towers in the last days of the Cold War, one of us ran across a brief summary of the prescribed presidential protocol mapped out by the Secret Service, et al. when the country is believed to be under attack. The president is SUPPOSED to in the air, and following a random, untraceable flight path unti the danger passes. What WE are interested in is what Bush does now: Will he go for the easy solution and find someone, anyone to bomb? Or will he rise above his rattling advisors and break historically new ground in finding world peace? Will he follow through on promises of billions in aid to NY and to victims - even if it means sacrificing his uncertain missile shield dream for a more certain and more urgent good? These are the things that will truly tell what G.W. Bush is made of.

Salon columnist Joan Walsh writes: "Let's give Bush the benefit of the doubt and acknowledge he's extraordinarily busy. What is most disturbing about his first two days of handling the crisis is his failure to hold a single press conference. Question-and-answer sessions help reassure Americans their leader knows what he's doing and is on top of a situation -- which, sadly, may be why he hasn't had one. More subtly and psychologically, though, they're a kind of dialogue: The leader stands and listens to the concerns that surface, from trivial to crucial, and engages with them, holding a kind of conversation with the nation... Of course, at a time like this we can't help but miss President Clinton, who was smart enough to project genuine mastery of virtually any crisis, and empathic enough to reassure us he understood our worry and pain and would deal with that, too."

Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory is rightfully shocked by Bush's inadequate response to our national crisis. "What [Rudy] Giuliani and [Tony] Blair said would well have been said by the leader of the free world. But George W. Bush could not find the beat. He jarringly referred to the terrorists as 'folks' in his first public comments, during which he looked more apprehensive than resolute. He allowed himself to be hauled about the country like a fugitive to bunkers at air bases in Louisiana and Nebraska. Of course, the Secret Service wanted him in protective military custody but he might have reflected that if Washington was not safe for him, it wasn't safe for the rest of us. The White House and Congress were emptied out. The capital of the free world was a ghost town in a desperate hour. Bush said the attack was a 'test' for the country. It was also one for him. He flunked. But he says he believes in education and he has three years to take a makeup exam in leadership."

We listened to Bush's videotaped comments during the height of today's catastrophe and feel he rose to the occasion with remarkable calm and restraint and avoided the kind of inflammatory, retaliatory rhetoric we feared we might hear. Instead, he pledged to hunt down those responsible and focused on the plight of victims and their families and on the courage of those involved in the rescue efforts. Meanwhile, more hawkish rightwingers were calling the event a second Pearl Harbor (implying the start of a world conflict), while rumors of retaliatory strikes already have circulated. We pray that Bush rises above his hawkish advisors and shows he is capable of true leadership. If ever there was a time for him to find his voice, this is it. Impassioned violence answered by impassioned violence is a vicious and self-perpetuating downward spiral. We hope he will remember the words of a terrorism expert, quoted today by Dan Rather, who said that the most effective response to terrorist attacks is to remember that "Vengeance is best served cold."

Shrub keeps tossing out photo op bait like a bored angler in an overstocked pond. Teamsters, ethnic folks, kids, military men who'll be doing pushups for a week if they so much as frown at him during a session - all guaranteed hits, right? At least that's what they told him back in the PR section of his corporate strategies class at Yale! But everyone is wearying of Mr. P.O. (photo opportunist), even gradeschoolers. At a community center in Toledo, Ohio, Shrub's efforts at wowing the lollipop crowd netted reactions that ranged from annoyance to boredom. In one group, he threw out the patronizing (not to mention idiotic) Q: "Would you rather be a mealworm or a beetle?" When greeted only with a few annoyed mutters, Bush turned to reporters: "Anybody need a mealworm?" No, we need a president - but I guess a mealworm might be better than what we have now.

Jaime O'Neill has taught community college for 31 years. He asks: "Shouldn't an 'average' graduate of Yale, for instance, be able to express himself more coherently and more lucidly than below-average freshmen enrolled in remedial English classes at a rural community college? Shouldn't the words of a man with a master's degree from Harvard be easily distinguishable from the words of poor kids nearly a third his age? If you think the answers to those questions are obvious, I challenge you to determine which of 14 examples (see sidebar) were produced by community college freshmen and which were produced by the 'average' Yale graduate, a C student who went on to get a master's degree from Harvard, a man who just happens to be the 43rd president of the United States."

During the campaign, Bush's personal trainers had to practically staple his lips in place to keep him from smirking. But it looks like the staples have come out, and the Smirking Chimp is back. According to Robert Parry of Consortiumnews.com, "A presidential milestone passed almost unnoticed Friday. For the first time in the history of televised news conferences, a president of the United States made fun of a bald person." As Parry notes, this is reminiscent of Smirk's contempt for Karla Faye Tucker. "With pursed lips in mock desperation, [Bush said,] 'Please don't kill me.'" Bush should really change his focus from stem cell research to BRAIN cell research.

Like an inept con artist, Bush fancies himself one clever operator. He'll just toss out a few bucks for fuel cell research one day (no one will notice all the cash is going to just a few megacorporations like Dupont), then the next week announce that he plans to allow power plants to belch out as much asthmatic-killing pollution as they need to. That way, everyone will still be thinking about that great fuel cell bit. But they won't really notice he's scuttling the Clean Air Act for his oil and coal buddies. And, of course, when people's kids are on inhalers for the first time next year, they won't notice - they'll be thinking about next years' three hundred buck tax break.

Instead of contemplating policy, Bush and the GOP work at making his fraudulency look like he really ISN'T just lazy and shirking his duties. Well, they are part right. He IS lazy. But he's never really been needed at the White House in a government run by corporations through Cheney and Rumsfeld. Still, Bush's vacation says more about him than his job performance. His idea of enjoying "nature": fishing in a manmade lake stocked with non-native bass. His idea of work: spending 15 minutes posing with a hammer at a Habitat for Humanity project. His idea of character: a slick "education" program telling OTHER people how to get some. His idea of "listening to the American people": visiting a half-dozen communities, each for one-half hour but not allowing the public to pose questions. In short, everything this man does is a slick, phony commercial selling a very poor product.

According to the Washington Post, Harry Truman averaged 25 vacation days each year; Dwight Eisenhower averaged 28; Ronald Reagan jumped to 42; George Bush I catapulted to 136; while George Bush II is up to 96 vacation days just over half-way through his first year. That makes G. W. Bush the laziest Resident in American history, which would be natural since he is also the most illegitimate, uninformed, and ignorant. "I hope he has a long, enjoyable vacation," DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe said recently. "He's going to need it when he gets back."

Charlie Norwood is a classic low-self-esteem codependent and Shrub is a sociopathic dry drunk (i.e, the classic con artist). Put them together and what do you get? A lot of meaningless flattery and mucho manipulation on one side and a lot of groveling and self-sellout on the other. This is apparently just what happened in the now-infamous West Wing "negotiations" between Shrub and Norwood that led to Norwood's caving in on the Patients' Bill of Rights. We're told Bush appealed to Norwood as "needing his help" (codies can't resist this), that he really needed a face-saving win to "take to the bank," and hinted that maybe once in the Senate the bill would "bounce back" again and MAYBE, he'd sign it. So, see, Charlie, it wouldn't really be selling out, Bush cajoled adding, "This way everybody looks good."

"Ever since the presidential campaign, George W. Bush's adventures in the English language have alternately amused and horrified the nation. But according to media scholar Mark Crispin Miller's scathing new book, The Bush Dyslexicon, to conclude merely that Bush is dimwitted would be a grave mistake. The President's linguistic fumbles, argues Miller, mask a deep and shrewd political vindictiveness; at the same time, the shallowness revealed in Bush's unscripted remarks has been largely ignored or coddled by a national media more interested in soundbites than in political substance. [In an interview with Patricia Chui of The Nation, Miller discussed] Bush's speech patterns, his similarities with Richard Nixon, his alleged dyslexia and the role that our media system played in putting Bush in office."

Folks, we didn't make this one up. "President Bush said on Friday he was eager to start vacation on his Texas ranch, where he would spend time communing with cows. 'I hope a week from tomorrow the Congress takes off and gives all of us a break,' Bush told student leaders of the Future Farmers of America. He said he was 'heading back to the heartland,' his 1,600-acre ranch near Crawford, Texas, where he was expected to spend the entire month of August. 'I love to go walking out there, seeing the cows. Occasionally they talk to me, being the good listener that I am,' Bush said." We'll set aside (for now) Bush's insult to the 280 million Americans who DON'T live on Texas ranches and therefore lack the "heartland values" of "hard work, family, faith." More importantly, what exactly do the cows say to Bush? We know: "Bushit"!

In one of the most colossally hypocritical statements we have ever heard, Bush condemned the 150,000 anti-globalization protestors who converged on Genoa as not being concerned with the fate of poor. This is coming from the man whose EVERY action since being in the White House has been to further the interests of the rich and to undermine the thin security nets of the poor. This is coming from the man who, as governor of Texas, left the poor in his state poorer, especially. children. This is from the man who wants to pawn off the responsibility for caring for the poor on churches, whom he gives carte blanche to discriminate against minorities. This is from the man who has never known what it was like to be hungry, without a place to live - or even what it is like to work an honest job to support himself. The 150,000 protestors care 100 times more about the poor than Bush would ever have the capacity to feel in his so-called heart.

I wish to proclaim how ceaselessly in awe I am of our truly compassionate conservative and duly elected president. It's high time we had a dignified president to rescue us from this recession, fumigate the White House, and transcend this dismal period in our nation's history. As GW articulated so eloquently, regarding the Lewinsky scandal, "that's a chapter, the last chapter of the 20th, 20th, the 21st century that most of us would rather forget. The last chapter of the 20th century. This is the first chapter of the 21st century." Well, whatever century it is. You know what he means.

"The real ideology that drives Mr. Bush remains less that of the hard right than that of his soft character, which is a product of a biography full of easy landings. A man who has never faced adversity — who has finessed Andover, Yale, Vietnam and brief careers in business and politics with well-placed connections and sweetheart deals — is not conversant with reality as most Americans have experienced it. The problem isn't that he's wealthy — so were F.D.R. and Ronald Reagan, whose hard knocks in life gave them an empathy for their fellow citizens — but that he's out of touch. He doesn't know how much he doesn't know and is in no rush to find out." So writes columnist Frank Rich in the New York Times.

Bush thought he was going to be able to play his own game of marbles and that all the good little Republicans would not only shoot the way he told them, but allow him to make up the rules or modify them as he went along. Now, that players are starting to demand a fair game - esp. by supporting the patients' bill of rights - Bush is showing himself for what he is: a spoiled, colossally immature brat whose mamma never taught him the word "No." Now he's whining "I can always go back to Crawford" (his "ranch"). In response, diehard Bush brown-nosers are making ridiculous spin-control efforts, saying that such puerile statements actually "prove" how "principled" Bush is. But to Mr. Unpresidential's proposal that he scoop up all his marbles (though we know he lost them long ago) and go home, we say, "Is that a promise or a threat?"

"On the occasion of George W. Bush's 55th birthday, we send a wish, a BIRTHDAY wish. May you have an hour, one hour in which to reflect upon the difference between what is and what might be. Most people have spent a fair portion of their lives in such contemplation, and out of concern that your lack of imagination has probably brought great angst to so many people, we would choose for you to have such an hour. On July 6, during this hour, WE THE PEOPLE, designated rulers of our own land, suggest that you close your eyes, get your handlers out of the room, and let your mind float. Pretend...." Sign the petition!

"Using rhetoric of compassion, a president who owes his career to unearned breaks is defining his presidency as the regime of no second chances. Not for individuals, nor for the planet, nor for anyone except the wealthy and well-connected… All this comes from a president whose career has consisted of unearned breaks and forgiven mistakes: launching a succession of failed oil companies, losing millions of his father’s friends' dollars, and walking away with more money each time; partying through Andover and Yale, bypassing a hundred thousand others to get into the Texas National Guard, and then ducking out on a year of service once he entered; being bailed out by connections every time." Just a few of the insights from this incredibly eloquent essay by Paul Rogat Loeb. CIRCULATE THIS ONE!

He's being hammered in the polls, an increasing number of Repbulicans are beginning to pull away from him on key issues, and even some key insiders think he should reevaluate some positions. Has this brought the Clueless One to his senses? Well, just take one look at the photo with this link and ask yourself: Could ANYTHING bring this man to his senses...and, for that matter, does he HAVE any senses?

"In 1999, a Guatemalan truth commission, which had received historical records from the Clinton administration, concluded that about 200,000 people were killed in the political violence that dated back to a CIA-sponsored coup in 1954. Some of the worst bloodletting occurred during the 1980s, when the Reagan-Bush administration backed a right-wing military dictator, Rios Montt, who was blamed for massacres in 626 Mayan Indian villages in a butchery judged 'genocide' by the commission." Last December, a spokesman said Bush's travel had included "business" in Guatemala. Robert Parry of 'Consortium News' asks: "What was his 'business' in Guatemala and when was he conducting it? Who were his business associates? ... When he was there, what did George W. Bush know about the atrocities and did they matter to him?... Bush's aides have put these supposed business dealings in Guatemala on the public record... it seems reasonable for reporters to ask what, where, when, why and with whom."

In this NYT article about Shrub and Putin, the photos tell it all. Shrub looks pathetically eager to have actually found a kindly word abroad, while Putin looks tolerant - even painfully self-contained - and watchful. By befriending the clueless one, the Russian leader -- a KGB-trained master of psychology -- has sparked enough gratitude in Shrub to create a wide diplomatic opening (unlike Jeb, Shrub obviously sat at his CIA Daddy's knee with a blank stare). He is wisely using it steer the man the UK calls the Global Village Idiot away from the precipice of a new cold war and an aimless charge toward a globally alienating missile shield. A blackbelt trumps a T-baller every time!

"What President Bush has been telling European leaders this week can be readily summed up: I am not going to do anything about global warming because it needs more scientific study. But I am going to act urgently to develop a missile defense system although none have any proven scientific basis and every test so far has failed. In that odd couple of messages the allies got a fair introduction to the veritable George W. Bush: a man of strong opinions stubbornly held, in defiance of reason as most Europeans would define it. They also saw a man of charm, easy in human relations and adept politically, but with a certitude not earned by experience or accomplishment." So writes NY Times columnist Anthony Lewis.

Angry Swedes hurled cobblestones and bottles at police lines in Gothenberg, Sweden outside the 18th-century castle where the EU summit was held. Inside, as oblivious as ever to everything in the universe but himself, Shrub blathered hollow platitudes with his supposedly charming (if you're not too bright you might think so, anyway) smirks and pleasantries. In addition, he dismissed the Kyoto treaty - which represents YEARS of painstaking research and negotiations - as "unrealistic and not based on science" (i.e., not on oil industry science). This destructive man is so stupid and shallow, he appears not to have noticed or cared about anything going on around him on his trip except maybe what was on the menu for lunch. Meanwhile, Swedish PM Persson assured Swedes that the EU planned to act as the one counterbalance to American world domination.

In the "So it's come to this" department, our nation, homeland to the likes of such statesperson-ambassadors as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Jackie Kennedy (remember how she wowed them in France?) now has as its "representative" a traveling sideshow barker who can't make it through the first hour without an embarrassing "incident." When introduced to the Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Maria Aznar, Shrub called the leader "President Jose Maria Anzar and had to be corrected. Bush and gang's obvious assumption that these durn furriners will be easy to impress is becoming painfully - not to mention comically - obvious. Condy Rice thought she'd wow 'em with just a quick study in the Spanish dictionary (what's the word for arrogant, Condy?). But Aznar zapped her by greeting her with "Buenos dias, Arroz," which literally means "Hello, Rice." Ms. Rice reacted with a clueless smile. We look forward, with a certain morbid fascination, to seeing what the Bush circus's next act will be.

In his first press conference abroad, Bush made a string of incredibly dishonest, hypocritical statements. "There's so much more that unites us than divides. I refuse to let any issue isolate America from Europe." Don't you read your own press releases? "Democracies represent the will of the people." Great - then resign the office you didn't win! "Russia is not the enemy of the United States." Then why are you acting like there's a cold war going on? "I come to the conference believing that every leader is sincere about his desire to clean the world and so are we." Here he not only lies, but dares to try to lump himself in with decent leaders. Spanish leader Aznar was not the easy sell Bush had hoped. Aznar pointed out that Bush's Spanish wasn't all that good, and challenged Shrub on his stances on missile defense, global warming, and the death penalty to the point that Bush's voice began to get louder and more emotional. We predict a major embarrassment before the trip is over.

"The last five months...with a good upstanding Christian family man in the White House, I have been receiving many a valuable lesson Christianity. Lesson of the last week: A wholesome Christian upbringing produces a taste for alcohol, blatant violation of the law, disregard for a stranger's livelihood, endangering other people's lives, and, perhaps, hereditary stupidity." So writes Maine "summer regular" Bruce Ticker. "Bush beat the family values mantra to death and convinced voters that he was a moral, religious man...he chose to set himself up as a model family man an preached to the rest of us to take personal responsibility for our lives. It is Bush's turn to take personal responsibility."

We marvel now at how totally unfit Shrub is to be president of ANYTHING, let alone the most powerful nation on Earth. Yet, the evidence was there, as this 1999 "blast from the past" article shows. In it, Shrub is unable to name more than one of the leaders of the four most volatile nations on the globe at the time (and he could only remember the last name of the one). His response to this pathetic show: he merely smirked and said well, bet the reporter couldn't either. But, if our presidential standards were that low (any reporter or guy off the street will do), we'd just do a casting call instead of holding an election! Ah, well - if nothing else, Bush's advance to power should be a poignant lesson in learning to see the rotten forest hidden by media and political spin doctor "trees." The only question asked in the future should be: Is this man fit for the job?

I’ve heard a lot of lousy graduation speeches in this, the season of graduations, but George W. Bush gets the credit for the worst of them. He went to Yale and his speech celebrates mediocrity, C students, and drunken stupors. Yet if anyone can symbolize mediocrity, it is George W. Bush who not only is the essence of mediocrity but also celebrates it. He not only celebrated mediocrity, but also made a farce of all the recent pontificating about role models, and about returning dignity and morality to the White House. Should graduates take as their role model a man who was so drunk and dazed he can’t remember his undergraduate days and a man who glories in lousy grades? Where is all that dignity, morality, and honor Bush so often tries to associate himself with?

Like Dubya and Bush Sr., Gary Trudeau is a member of Yale's Skull and Bones society. Today's strip is about the video taped surveillance of the Skull and Bones initiation ceremony that made news. Maybe Gary is trying to put the best spin on the embarrassing disclosure by blaming such "youthful indiscretions" on alcohol. Makes it seem like "oh those silly frat boys", rather than the sick and depraved ceremony it really is. (Enter "skull" in our "Compass" search engine to read more about this videotape and to even view a clip from it).

The media may worship at Bush's feet, but Yale undergraduates know an impostor when they see one. "Both before and after Mr. Bush made remarks to graduating students at the school's 300th commencement, he endured boos as loud as the cheers, and he gazed from the stage at hundreds of yellow paper signs with messages of protest against his policies and positions." It is a scandal that Yale awarded Shrub an honorary degree to a man's whose only accomplishment in life is stealing the Presidency! Over 170 professors signed a petition denouncing the degree. Bush joked about his lousy grades, but didn't mention his two arrests while he was at Yale.

While other young men were being shipped off to 'Nam to die in the early 1970s, Bush didn't even have to show up for drills, didn't have to pass his flight tests, got cushy assignments, went AWOL (during wartime) for nearly a year (without any consequences) and insists he spent time at a base where no one ever saw him. Worst of all by far, he's lied about it ever since. A democrats.com reader shares his thoughts.

"In his emergency press conference, Bush sounded more like one of the premier non-statesmen of our age, former Washington mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. Addressing a city where half the inhabitants were agitated at the scoundrel's success, His Honor said, 'Get over it.' Bush and his vice president have assiduously tried to turn the energy shortage into a crisis in the belief, apparently, that it will build support for his tax cut. He certainly isn't going to mess with his countrymen's insatiable demand for oil to cool the passion for the gas-guzzling SUV. The common good is not a consideration here. The corporate good -- and this includes HM0s and the military-industrial complex -- supersedes all." So writes Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory. (You go girl!)

Now that Shrub is gone, Texas has finally passed a strong hate crimes bill. Back in 1999, Gov. Bush personally saw to it that the same bill - the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, named for a black man dragged to his death from the rear of a pickup truck - was killed. When Byrd's pregnant daughter Renee Byrd Mullins was granted a 10-minute "audience" with Bush to plead the bill's case, she reports that he gave her a "very short handshake. In his essence, he was saying 'OK, tell me what you want and get out.'...He's a very hard person." Bush did not attend Byrd's funeral - he didn't even call the family (though he lied to the press and said he had). We cannot allow this wretched man to remain in office. PUSH BUSH OUT!

"Is this real life or is it cruel satire? The scene is the Oval Office. The time is early April, 2001. The United States and China are locked in a stand-off with 24 American aircrew held captive, their spy plane downed. Just as John F. Kennedy interrogated his advisers during the Cuban missile crisis, so it falls to Bush to put the single question that might get to the heart of this superpower showdown. So what does Bush ask? "Do the members of the crew have Bibles? Why don't they have Bibles? Can we get them Bibles? Would they like Bibles?" Then the president [sic] remembers a strategic factor even more crucial: "Are they getting any exercise?"

"Mr Bush... appears overly influenced, if not led by the nose by hawkish old-timers... But more than this, Mr. Bush seems set in a time-warp, to be harking back to an America that he thinks perhaps existed in his 1950's childhood but has long since disappeared back into the corn. But what is terribly troubling is that this president [sic] does not seem to question or delve beneath the superficial images that flicker across his screen, be they of China (atheistic communists), Iraq (evil dictatorship), or environmentalists (anti-business liberals). He is beguiled by fatuous ideas of the make-believe past, by its false certainties and old totem."

Bush doesn't care what the country will think of him in a year. He wants to pay off his campaign debts to his corporate and right-wing backers immediately, and worry about the consequences for the nation later. Why? Because he watched his father's popularity soar after the Gulf War, only to lose the election 18 months later. "In a Washington Post interview last week, Bush said his convictions about the importance of asserting presidential power flow in large measure from watching his father squander the high approval ratings he earned after the allied military success in the Persian Gulf War. 'It doesn't matter whether you won by one point, two points, even 10 points, it's important to move as quickly as you can in order to spend whatever capital you have as quickly as possible,' he said. Hey George - you didn't win at all - you're a thief!

Dubya was an outright racist in administering the death penalty as Governor of Texas. "An aide abruptly appeared with papers he held out to then-Governor Dubya. 'It's the death warrants to sign, Governor. There are two executions scheduled for tonight.' Absent-mindedly, the Governor took the offered pen. But in mid-signature he lifted his hand. He looked hard at his aide. 'They're not white are they?' The aide flashed a nervous smile. 'Governor, would we do that to you?' he asked. 'It's not a woman either, is it? I'm not executing any more damn women. That last one—I was getting telegrams from as far away as Bolivia,' Bush complained. 'What the damn Bolivians or anyone else in Europe know about law and order in Texas I can't imagine.' The aide reassured him, 'Both prisoners are male, Governor. One's black and one's Hispanic. Nothing out of the ordinary.' Pacified, Bush nodded. 'That's okay then,' he said. In an instant the aide retrieved the signed warrants and was gone."

"Stop what you are doing immediately! Click here and (assuming you have Real Player) watch ABC News' April 23 follow-up to Ron Rosenbaum's New York Observer piece on Skull & Bones' initiation rites. World News Tonight aired excerpts from Rosenbaum's secret video of the Bones' carryings-on, and ABCNews.com has lovingly preserved this historic moment for you...True, the footage is dark and blurry, and it doesn't include any of the really stupid or offensive stuff Rosenbaum reported on in his story." Bush seems to be less than honest in expressing uncertainty about the group's current existence, first because his Uncle Jonathan Bush is an S&B trustee. Second, because the New Yorker reported that "[O]ne of the first social gatherings Bush held as President was a reunion of the brothers from his Yale secret society, Skull & Bones, according to talk among the Bonesmen." Also, check out the article about the questionable tax filings of the Skull and Bones shell corporation RTA.

Dubya is a born-again Christian and a member of the Methodist Church. The Methodists officially oppose capital punishment and handgun ownership. Dubya supports both. And the list of disagreements continues with abortion rights, gays in the military, school vouchers, even Social Security policy. Bush has frequently been criticized by Texas Methodist ministers, particularly over the death penalty, but the national media never reports on these important "character" issues.

"It's the primal scene of American power, of Bush family values. For two centuries, the initiation rite of Skull and Bones has shaped the character of the men who have shaped the American character, including two Presidents named Bush. And last Saturday, April 14 - for the first time ever - that long-secret rite was witnessed by a team of outsiders, including this writer. Using high-tech night-vision video equipment, [the New York Observer team was] able to peer through the gloom into the inner courtyard of the Skull and Bones "Tomb" in New Haven... It is an initiation far more secret - and far more significant, in terms of real power in the United States - than that of the Cosa Nostra... It's an initiation ceremony that has bonded diplomats, media moguls, bankers and spies into a lifelong, multi-generational fellowship far more influential than any fraternity. It was - and still remains - the heart of the heart of the American establishment." So reports Ron Rosenbaum in the New York Observer.

You have to give Shrub credit - he isn't doing the hypocrite gig by halves. Now, to preserve his phony Texas cowboy image, he snubbed his real birth state this week: Connecticut. Yep, it's true, Shrub is a Connecticut bluestocking Yankee, born, bred, and schooled. Yet, on a swing through the state, not one word about his ties to the Nutmeg State passed his prissy lips. But then, CT isn't losing any sleep over the incident - they voted hands down for Gore in 2000. So, ya'll - Shrub's neck ain't all that red, after all - it's sorta purple!

Joe Conason tries to find some truth in the outrageous craziness eminating from official sources these days, whether it is Florida election results or the Bush budget. Tired of telling small lies, the Republicans have become emboldened and tempted to tell larger and larger ones...

Right-wing Bush-whackos sink to new depths of paranoia! "Children attending the annual White House Easter Egg Roll -- a custom that dates from the 1870s -- will be frisked for stun guns by the Secret Service...But on the back [of the admission ticket] children are warned not to bring, among other things: 'guns / ammunition, knives with blades over 3in, mace or electric stun guns.' Even balloons are banned, presumably because a balloon popping could be mistaken for gunfire." Bush kept telling us that he "trusts people". But that trust doesn't seem to extend to kids -- not even toddlers! Somehow this ridiculous gesture of bad faith brings to mind the scene in "The Dead Zone", when evil candidate Martin Sheen grabs a baby to shield himself from Chris Walken's gunfire. Won't this pose a problem when Bush and his cabinet coach those Tee-Ball tournees on the White House lawn. After all, those kids will have bats and balls! Gotta love the Bush and Republicans belief in "family values."

Why did Bush suddenly cancel all press conferences? Because after two years of kissing Bush's ass, the press finally began asking some tough questions about Bush's selling out to his corporate paymasters. Read the transcript here: http://whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010329.html or watch it for yourself below - before it gets scrubbed.

As the saying goes, "you are what you eat." Here's what Shrub has for lunch: "a sandwich with creamy peanut butter and seedless red raspberry jelly on bread [Wonder bread, no doubt] with the crusts cut off." Why no crusts? "He doesn't like crunchy." And for his afternoon snack? "fruit, soft drinks, chips and cookies." Now we know the reason for Bush's ADD, and his inability to utter a coherent sentence. As the saying goes, "garbage in, garbage out."

Well, we know about one DUI. Who knows how many more there were. Now Bush's drinking buddy that infamous night in Maine is blabbing all over the country about it. Funny that former tennis star John Newcombe was nowhere to be found when the story broke. Of course, he claims no one told him to keep his mouth shut back then. Sure, Uh-huh.

Bush talks a great deal about compassion, but unlike his predecessor, President Clinton, he doesn't appear to feel other people's pain - including those closest to him.

Dubya has never had to work hard at anything, because he always had Babs and Papa Bush to pull his fat out of the fire. But who's going to save his butt if he becomes President?

No, this isn't a another mangled Bushism. These words came straight from the heart of the old DKE fraternity president. He continued, "Women changed the social dynamic for the worse." Reminds us of what he told a reporter a few years ago when asked what he discussed with his dad, who played baseball at Yale. "Pussy", he replied.

Of all the brazen hypocrisy that the Bush campaign has dished out, this one takes the cake. Given the mile high pile of manure that Dubya is sitting upon, it has to be a big one to stink more than the rest of the heap. George W. Bush, who apparently took cocaine while in the National Guard to the extent that he wouldn't take a medical test at the time and missed two years of service, is now lambasting the Clinton administration for not doing enough to stop drug use. It is hard to understand how half of the voting public can let someone get away with such shameful hypocrisy. The Republicans would be all over a Democrat who tried to get away with such a stunt. What are we waiting for?