Why we haven’t impeached these jackasses is completely beyond me, but failing that, perhaps it’s time to let this administration, and their lackeys in the press, know that we are not amused by their incompetence and corruption. Or, to put it another way:
In this clip, Keith plays us George W. Bush’s latest massive self-embarrassment, singing a fucked up song about all the crap he’s done wrong as President. He basically laughs about the destruction of a major city and the shredding of the constitution. It’s not a howl.
Why did Trent Lott announce his retirement so suddenly after claiming, just a year ago, he was going to serve another term so that he could help the victims of Katrina? A special election is going to cost Mississippi taxpayers — and Republican donors who want to keep their seat — a lot of money. So why is he bailing mid-term? The talking heads on today’s news think it’s so he can cash in as a lobbyist. But the blogosphere suggests another reason: he’s gay. Is this the story Larry Flint has been teasing lately?
UPDATE: LOTS more here, including credibility questions that bring the story into a questionable light… but does that really matter?
But from a gay rights perspective, whether or not Lott actually had a liaison with Nicholas isn’t the most relevant detail of this story. It’s the familiarity of the storyline.
How often have we seen rabidly anti-gay leaders outed for their backroom dealings with gay escorts? It happens in every state and at every level of government. Homophobia is often homosexuality waiting to come out of the deepest, darkest, smelliest regions of the closet.
I hope that anti-gay crusaders will wake up one day and recognize that their leaders are wasting their time and energy on a self-hating wild goose chase. True or not, the Trent Lott story brings us closer to that day.
UPDATE: more from Larry Flint
Two years ago today, we lost a US city, and were reminded of why people who do not believe in government (and aren’t gay! Really! They’re NOT gay!) should not be allowed to run our government.
Also, Presidunce Awol McFlightsuit wants to flush another $50 billion into the hands of Dick (who apparently sometimes calls himself “Philip Atkinson“) and his friends at at Halliburton (these are the people who tell us we have nothing to fear but absolutely everything).
And then there’s this:
[N]ew census figures that show the number of people without health insurance increased by 2.2 million in 2006 to a grand total of 47 million. In terms of the overall population, 15.8 percent of people lacked insurance, which is the highest level since 1998. At a time when President Bush is in a fight with Congress over health insurance for children, the LAT points out the number of uninsured children grew by 600,000.
Folks, we can’t wait. This lame duck is a greater disaster for this country with every passing day. Men, women and children continue to be killed and permanently maimed and the draft-dodging decider refuses to do anything to stop it.
ps. Dear Democrats: I’m still waiting for you to do something. Anything!
Any mention of supposed family values (a.k.a. the right-wing hobby horses of abortion, activist judges and gay marriage) and Katrina (which did make it into the Democratic Response). Will Bush do to social conservatives what he did to the people of New Orleans?
Via OneGoodMove and Fletch:
Click on the picture to play the video
(it’s a Quicktime Video that’s 3.3MB and 1 minute 25 seconds long)
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There’s more, after the jump…
Well, another Bush is cashing in on his nephew’s disaster in Iraq to the tune of $2.7 million:
A report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that William H.T. Bush collected just under $1.9 million in cash plus stock valued at more than $800,000 from the sale of Engineered Support Systems Inc. to DRS Technologies of New Jersey.
Apparently cashing in on incompetence is a family business for these people, but Uncle Buck’s behavior is nothing compared to the ice queen herself, Barbara “blinkered bitch” Bush. This sanctimonious, intolerant former first lady, who once suggested that New Orleans refugees were “underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them”, stuck a crowbar into her pocketbook and made a donation to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. But it was not without strings.
Former first lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions that the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil.
So, the only way she is willing to help out the people her son, George, left to die is a) first and foremost, if her son, Neil, can profit from her donation; b) if her donation doesn’t go to the actual victims, but to the bureaucrats who are cashing in on the tragedy; and c) if her money doesn’t go to the icky, suffering people themselves, but rather to the poor Houstonians who are having to put up with the icky, suffering people.
Barbara “Let them eat cake” Bush does like to outdo herself, doesn’t she?
Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? It’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?
Sure, Babs. Don’t worry about the 2,319 dead bodies (at latest count, and rising daily because of Georgie’s stubborn disregard for our troops) that lay on your son’s soul. There are profits to be made!
UPDATE: Oh, this story is even sleazier than we first thought!
Back on the question of how Barbara Bush donated money for Katrina aid and ‘earmarked’ part of it for the purchase of educational software produced by Ignite!, the company her son, Neil Bush, to bag money from international potentates, tycoons and crooks. Taxprof’s got a post on a subject I’ve been curious about. George and Barbara Bush — like a lot of other folks investment for non-economic reasons — are actually investors in Ignite!
So, she’s making a “charitable” contribution, earmarked to be used on software, the sales of which will bring her a profit, and she’s taking a tax deduction on the whole slimy scam — not to mention the fact that the company in question was funded by Dubai and started up so that the family could cash in on Dubya’s disasterous No Child Left Behind Act (via AmericaBlog).
More: See a video of Barbara winning a prize (she even beat out Castro!)!
It’s from the AP, and Crooks and Liars has the footage.
What’s that? Did Georgie’s pants burst into flames again?!? Awww, shucks (via truthout and americablog, shirt via The League and colorofchange).
In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans’ Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.
Bush didn’t ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: “We are fully prepared.”
[...]
Bush declared four days after the storm, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees” that gushed deadly flood waters into New Orleans. He later clarified, saying officials believed, wrongly, after the storm passed that the levees had survived. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility even before the storm - and Bush was worried too.
No Direction Home. Dylan. Scorsese.
Enjoy!
UPDATE: via c i r c a n o w and whoa katrina (category 5 outrage), a bit of synchronicity: The Ghosts of New Orleans, by Bob Dylan.
