Reading Assignment: The Final Fall of Bush's White House

Former Bush speechwriter Matthew Latimer has a book coming out on the time he spent in the White House—the Administration's final 22 months. GQ has an excerpt in the upcoming issue, and it's now online. It details events last fall—the botched bailout, McCain's "five-spiral crash," and Bush's reaction to the Palin pick. It's a good read...

Nelson Award: Irrelevant Douche

This is awesome.






Can't wait to get back to that fake-ass ranch, eh, asshole?

[h/t Angelos]

SOTU Live (rebroadcast) Blogging

C-SPAN is re-airing the State of the Union Address, so I'm going to turn it on and have it as background while I finish off some freelance. I will add my thoughts as it goes along. The television is behind me, so I will be primarily reacting to the stupid things that come out of his mouth, rather than the stupid expressions on Bush's face...

02:00 Is there anything more contrived than this ridiculous walk down the aisle? Like Bush is Bono walking up to a concert stage? Are members of Congress really that excited to see the President? Is he really a celebrity to them? Now at the rostrum, Bush is really working the wink...

00:07 "...our charge to keep." Ha, ha...just like the painting, right?

00:08 Just realized...no "the state of the union is ————" I guess he doesn't want to go there, as the state of the union is "swirling in the bowl."

00:09 "...wages are up..." Um, they are? Not sure that's accurate.

00:11 Blah, blah, make horrendous tax cuts permanent...BONUS! Veto threat!

00:12 I'm cutting programs and setting a course to have a surplus by 2012. You know, by the end of the next President's term. Thanks, dick.

00:13 More fun with the veto threat... Blames Congress for everything, claims earmarks are out of control. In the first year of Dems in charge, earmarks WERE halved (Bush is lying) and all are "fully described and its sponsor identified" no sponsors can benefit, and any private entity that does must be disclosed. [link]

00:16 Crap about healthcare... tax relief for self-insured (don't we already have that if you itemize?)... small business associations plans (existed for years)... health savings accounts (because Americans have TONS of money to set aside in "use it or lose it" accounts)... "...ensure that decisions about your medical remain in your doctor's office, not in the halls of Congress..." Unless you are talking to your doctor about an abortion or life support. Or stem cells. Or medical marijuana...

00:19 A new name for private school vouchers.

00:22 Calls for an international agreement on greenhouse gases. Um, like Kyoto? Why didn't anyone else think of that?

00:25 My TiVo is giving me shit. I can pause, but not rewind...

Also, I'm not getting ANY work done!

00:27 Talks up the promise of stem cell research, then hampers that by declaring "all life be treated with the dignity it deserves." Which, for stem cells, is none.

Not bothering with human-animal hybrids this year I guess.

00:28 Something about Katrina. Did I just miss my Chertoff clap?

00:30 Immigration...(yawn)

00:31 Foreign policy time. Again with the inked fingers...

00:33 SEPTEMBER 11 REFERENCE!!!

00:37 Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Throw a bone to the troops. Standing O.

"The surge has given results few of us could have imagined" Actually, I imagined "none of significance" and I was pretty much right.

Oh, wait! "al Qaeda is on the run!" My mistake.

00:48 Apparently the only thing holding Israel and Palestine back all these decades is the attention of retarded chimpanzee. Problem solved by the end of the year. With ponies for one and all.

00:50 Terrerists still want to kill you all. All this Homeland Security and no Chertoff shots? I need warrantless wiretapping by Friday

00:52 Genocide is bad. Thanks for pointing that out.

A few minutes left, I gotta get some shit done.

UPDATE: Obama's response:



Hillary didn't do a video (that I saw). Text is here.

Edwards releases an even shorter statement.