derivative work

an upsetting day. so, reading the news. Farewell to the crown, farewell, the velvet gown, won’t you all come tumbling down? Goodbye to the crown! (Chumbawamba, “Farewell to the Crown”) Nepal votes out their monarchy and institutes a republic. Gyanendra has to vacate the palace within two weeks or face eviction. Also, he had to [...]

an article about another bushwreck: how bush wrecked conservatism and the ongoing bushwreck of the US government’s trustworthiness as a source of information, and its government policy on the environment, all in one: Washington Post on the bowdlerization of a speech about global climate change, transforming it, basically, into “yaay for the public health benefits [...]

I know other folks have observed this, but, really, isn’t it completely clear that Bush has implemented a religious test for office? Isn’t his pattern of practice completely obvious? Not just in his three Supreme Court nominees, but lower court nominees and executive appointments have all been filled with conservative Christians. Seriously, I challenge anyone [...]

DS: You also suggest that our current system of locally financed schools be abolished, claiming that it perpetuates inequality by allowing suburbs like Scarsdale or Manhasset to spend twice as much on each student as less affluent cities do. JK: Schooling should not be left to the whim or wealth of village elders. I believe [...]

some links, some quotes, some comments, all in one … I pulled various of these articles up several hours ago from various blogs, which I would like to link back to, but windows got closed, systems got rebooted, and to make a long story short I no longer know which link came from where. Molly [...]

In The New Yorker, The Talk of the Town, posted 2005/8/15, Hendrik Hertzberg had this to say about Bush & his recent comments on intelligent design: If the President’s musings on [intelligent design] were an isolated crotchet, they would hardly be worth noting, let alone getting exercised about. But they’re not. They reflect an attitude [...]

in the recent governmental panic attack about the cessna, White House Spokesperson Scott McClellan says that there was no need to notify Bush because “the protocols were followed”. so … we get a glimpse into the fact that we don’t actually have a Glorious Leader. and it turns out that we don’t actually need a [...]

Army Pfc. Lynndie England cnn 5/2: “I had a choice, but I chose to do what my friends wanted me to,” she said. … “They did it for their own amusement.” Abu Ghraib was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of US human rights abuses. Investigations of numerous deaths while in US custody [...]

quick reference: Judy Bachrach takes out Bush / Prayer Services [Fair And Balanced | Oliver Willis]

No, it’s not fanfic about Bigfoot & Yeti, together at last. Bobby “Boris” Pickett remakes “Monster Mash” to point out Bush’s slash & burn environmental policies. See monsterslash.org Lyrics: We were hiking in the forest late one night When our eyes beheld an eerie sight Our president appeared and began to frown Then he and [...]

Well, I’m starting to look around, groundhog-like. It looks like four more years of winter. Small mercies: Thank the dark lords that Shrillblog keens on. After scraping the residue of election obsession from my life, I found all I had left were Jon Stewart & Shrillblog. And my Buffy DVDs.

good postings on the bush loyalty oaths: Whiskey Bar: The Future Belongs to Me

the bush campaign dropped the song “Still the One” after the songwriter protested & said the campaign hadn’t asked his permission. [y!] ha. this follows the olympics brouhaha. [athens olympics blog 8/26] [ZNet Blogs 8/26]

[T]those of us who argued that there was really no difference between Bush and Gore look pretty stupid now. None of that reflects especially well on Al Gore, by the way; it simply wasn’t evident at that early date that the then-Texas governor was the real-world version of Greg Stillson, the born-again, world-destroying future president [...]

georgewbush.com: one website’s story 1999-may-21, the bush campaign thinks “[t]here ought to be limits to freedom” (at least for website satirists gwbush.com) [but see georgewbush.org which bravely soldiers on] in 2004, the bush website looks like it was designed of, by & for microsoft products in 2004, the bush website put up the popular but [...]

bradblog chronicles the disappearance of info from the Bush administration websites chomsky reminds us of the reagan administration destruction of documents democratic underground.com covered the replacement of the National Archivist with a partisan hack [2004-05-05] — just in time to cover the release of the Bush I records! How con-veeeenient.

another one for the scrapbook: Thomas F. Schaller, The Gadflyer: Believe

“Bush’s Big Joke” — A Video of Atrocities – A BuzzFlash Reader Contribution

do people ever quote hannah arendt when they are not making profound & deep observations? salon.com’s war room blog has these additional comments regarding the ron suskind nyt magazine piece on bush & the faith-based administration:

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn’t like about Bush’s former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House’s displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn’t fully [...]