Bush’s bungles have dragged his
poll numbers to the basement,
but no Democrats fill the vacuum.
Iraq is the big problem, but liberal
candidates offer no solutions –
many won’t admit it was wrong.
Republicans send opportunities
knocking, Democrats must answer
with a more convincing greeting.

the 45 day review of the port
decision is as phony as WMDs.
The deal will close Thursday.
The review will be just another
piece of paper unless Congress
acts before then to stop Bush.

Whether it’s Cheney or Pentagon officials
looking forward to retirement and new careers,
Halliburton is blessed with friends in high places.
They can steal, get caught and then walk away
with virtually all their loot, leaving nothing
behind but a bunch of frustrated auditors.
Democrats running for Congress should forget
about the war and Abramoff. They could win by
promising to investigate the […]

The Bush administration can’t see any real
difference between a foreign company and
a company owned by a foreign government.
The first has a profit motive, the second has
a political agenda. The first has lawyers,
the second has an army, navy and air force.
We have lots of experts in dealing with foreign
companies. Right now we don’t have anyone who
can […]

Bigger airlines are lobbying the
Transportation Department to let
them exclude “surcharges� from
their advertised fares, thus making
price comparisons difficult.
This seems like a bad idea to almost
everyone else, but the high-cost
carriers probably will get their way.
After all, the Bush administration
seems dedicated to deception.

If Congress lets Bush decide
there is no significant risk in
foreign governments owning
critical port operations, then
they should let the rest of us
decide for ourselves when
we need to wear seat belts.
Don’t parse this UAE deal,
make it illegal for government
owned companies to participate
in our security related industries.
And make it retroactive. At the
rate Bush makes enemies we
can’t afford to […]

It is doubtful Rummy has a plan for
safely extracting our troops from Iraq,
so we may be forced to pick a side.
With no unified government to defend,
and not enough troops to maintain order,
we’re left with Shiites, Sunnis, or Kurds.
Shiites are the only choice ‘cause they’re
a big majority, so odds are Bush’s war
will create a powerful ally […]

President Bush may
think port security means
locking up the wine.

Turning control of any port operations over
to any foreign government would be foolish.
The details don’t matter – there’s no upside.
The only reason Bush offers for this fiasco
is he doesn’t want to send the wrong message
to Arab countries he hasn’t invaded yet.
To paraphrase Cheney, “It’s been pretty well
established that Bush has family ties to the UAE.�
That […]

Bush’s final study of Katrina
says the response was poor,
but no one was at fault
He took five months to define
125 recommendations –
do things not done last time.
He’s allowed four months for the
same disaster duds to implement them.
Isn’t that comforting?

Is it easier
to fight Congress than friends
at the Carlyle Group?

Turning port management functions over to a firm
owned by an Arab country with ties to 9/11 seems
dangerous, but Bush says there’s no need to worry.
“If there was any chance that this transaction would
jeopardize the security of the United States, it would
not go forward.” In other words, “A slam dunk.â€?
The President’s apparent confidence in the competence
of […]

In his State of the Union address the President said
he’d develop new energy sources, like clean burning
coal, to cut imports of Middle Eastern oil by 75%.
OPEC complained so reducing Mid-East imports was
redefined as a “for-instance.� The budget revealed
clean coal research was all but zeroed-out – whoops!
Before Bush got to the National Renewable Energy Lab
in Colorado, […]

Chertoff learned about ports in New Orleans, and
thinks it’s fine to sell of some of our major facilities
to a company owned by an Arab government that
supplied people and money for the 9/11 attacks.
After explaining that we have secret safeguards, the
Homeland Security Secretary said, “We have to balance
the paramount urgency of security against the fact
that […]

Police charged a teacher in Pensacola
with bribery because he let students pay
a dollar a day to skip his gym class.
Had he called the money campaign
contributions, he might still have a job.
In any case, he should run for office.
He’s a natural politician.

Warmonger
At last,
finally,
it took long enough.
you
shot a man
now,
can we leave
Iraq?
by Tim Tuthill

The same Bush team that planned to
get rid of Iraq’s imaginary WMD with
a quick, easy, cheap war, now thinks
they can stop Iran’s real nuclear program
with radio and television broadcasts.
Condoleezza Rice asks for $75 million
for the effort and Senator Sam Brownback
says it is “absolutely right move at this
point in time.” He adds, “The first step was
Afghanistan, […]

Congressional investigation of NSA’a
warrantless wiretaps is now in doubt.
Last week it looked like a sure thing,
but after the weekend the Congress
appears to be backing off. Some think
it was the briefings, others credit pressure
from the Vice President. I wonder why.

The Vice President turned
an accident into real news
by keeping it secret until after
Sunday morning talk shows.
I called the shooting his first
honest mistake, that must
have been wrong – otherwise
why is he hiding something?

Senator DeWine had problems in Ohio,
but Democrats solved them. They made
Iraq war veteran, Paul Hackett, who
almost won a seat in congress, so angry
he quit the senate race, and politics.
Senators Schumer and Reid claim
they were avoiding a costly primary.
More likely, they wanted to get rid of
an audacious straight talker who says
unkind things about Republicans.