Open Thread

9 Comments

1. 

   americanforliberty on April 23, 2007 at 2:31 pm

   How do you think Jeff “tail-gunner” Gannon got into the White House. Talk about a security lapse, he was only a few feet from the President and was a fake journalist.

2. 

   dada on April 23, 2007 at 3:13 pm

   google: scandals OR mismanagement OR crimes bush 43 administration: 1,240,000 hits

   impeachment? over half the country favours it, more than that want these incompetent fools gone…there’s no shortage of reasons, even given the appalling lack of oversight for six years. unfortunately, the system is broken, perhaps beyond repair:

   Incomplete List … Bush Administration SNAFUs, Crimes, Scandals and Assorted Major Gaffes

   1. Walter Reed outpatient treatment
   2. Fired 8 US attorneys for trumped up reasons; political interference
   3. Scooter Libby/Plamegate
   4. Iraq: lack of preparation for occupation, looting, including the National Museum, too few troops, lack of training, lack of equipment, lack of securing loose Iraqi munitions, disbanding the Iraqi army, banning the Baathists, the CPA, Paul Bremer, losing tons of money literally, lack of international inclusion in reconstruction and security, weak Constitution, formation of sectarian parties, weak government
   5. Afghanistan and the resurgent Taliban and opium production
   6. Iran and saber rattling
   7. North Korea, ditching the 1994 agreement because of dubious uranium program, the plutonium program which led to a fizzled first nuclear test, and something like a return to the 1994 agreement
   8. Osama bin Laden, where are you? Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and terrorism
   9. Civilian contractors
   10. The Military Commissions Act: torture, indefinite detention, the end of habeas corpus, and kangaroo courts
   11. Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, the destruction of New Orleans, and the aftermath
   12. NSA wiretapping
   13. SWIFT surveillance of financial transactions
   14. Black prisons and extraordinary rendition
   15. Homeland Security: white elephant (organization), black hole (money)
   16. K Street Lobbyists, Jack Abramoff, North Marianas
   17. Kyle “Dusty” Foggo and the CIA follies
   18. Duke Cunningham
   19. Tom Delay
   20. Mark Foley
   21. Cheney and Energy Policy
   22. Tax cuts for the wealthiest
   23. Global warming: refusal to join Kyoto, denial of manmade origin, continued reliance on fossil and carbon based fuels, little movement on CAFE standards and conservation, political interference in scientific reports (Good guys: Hansen, Peltz; bad guys: Cooney, Deutsch), listening to Michael Crichton
   24. Terri Schiavo
   25. Big budget deficits and vastly increased national debt
   26. The stacking of the federal judiciary
   27. Medicare
   28. Medicare Part D
   29. Healthcare (in general)
   30. Cooked intelligence and the Office of Strategic Plans/ Doug Feith
   31. 2000 Presidential election
   32. 2004 Presidential election
   33. Attempts to torpedo the 911 Commission
   34. Failure to implement 911 recommendations
   35. Marginalization of the UN; Appointment of John Bolton
   36. Preventive war doctrine
   37. Loss of US reputation internationally
   38. No serious attempt to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians
   39. Underfunding of basic research
   40. Alberto Gonzales
   41. FDA: drug testing
   42. EPA: mercury levels for coal plants
   43. Porter Goss and the gutting of the CIA
   44. Militarization of intelligence
   45. Rampant cronyism
   46. Signing statements
   47. Unilateral Executive doctrine
   48. Overuse and abuse of the National Guard and Reserves; posse comitatus
   49. Increasing unpreparedness of US ground forces (Army and Marines)
   50. US balance of trade deficit
   51. 2005 Grassley Bankruptcy bill
   52. Mexican cross border trucking and safety concerns
   53. Karl Rove’s security clearance and no firing of Libby co-conspirators
   54. Detention of families for immigration violations; ICE raids
   55. Dubai Ports deal
   56. The Patriot Act; the Patriot Act extension
   57. Attempts to privatize Social Security
   58. The War on Science
   59. David Safavian, former head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy
   60. Presidential adviser Claude Allen stealing from Target
   61. Bush casually admits about lying about decision to fire Rumsfeld
   62. Armstrong Williams and paid propagandists
   63. Decimation of the Labor Department
   64. Net neutrality and media policies
   65. Backing Israel while it destroyed Lebanon
   66. Presidential Daily Brief 8/01: Bin Laden determined to attack in US
   67. EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman declares Ground Zero safe for cleanup
   68. Sago mining disaster hearings and MHSA’s David Dye who walked out of the hearings
   69. Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court
   70. Vetoing stem cell research
   71. Attack on Plan B contraception, staffing Women’s Health positions with religious conservatives: Dr. Eric Keroack at Health and Human Services who thought birth control demeaning to women and Dr. David Hager at FDA who tried to keep Plan B prescription only. His wife contended in divorce proceedings that he had repeatedly sodomized her without her consent.
   72. Clear Skies Act and Healthy Forest Restoration Act
   73. Missile defense shield that doesn’t work; withdrawal from ABM Treaty
   74. Leandro Aragoncillo naturalized Filipino-American in Cheney’s office (previously Gore’s) accused of spying for the Philippines and possibly France, pled guilty to unlawfully possessing secret US government documents
   75. Defunding overseas AIDS programs that promoted condom use for prevention.
   76. Call for a constitutional amendment declaring marriage to be between one man and one woman.
   77. Opening up Bristol Bay, the last pristine large-scale salmon fishery in the world, to oil drilling
   78. Accusation that Clintons trashed the White House before leaving, including stealing the Ws from keyboards
   79. Gannon/Guckert a working male prostitute in the White House press corps
   80. Native American trust funds and the Trust Responsibility to Indian Country
   81. Selling creationist materials at the Grand Canyon gift shop claiming it was 6000 years old
   82. Banning photographing return of coffins of slain American soldiers
   83. False military reporting: Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch
   84. AIPAC espionage scandal; former DOD employee Lawrence Franklin pled guilty to passing information on Iran to Israel through two AIPAC employees
   85. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Bagram
   86. Asserted right to open US mail

   via wirearchy

   if there were a will, there would most certainly be a way

   ITMF’sA

   

   • 

     boran2 on April 23, 2007 at 3:57 pm

     Truly scary.

   • 

     keepinon on April 23, 2007 at 10:07 pm

     Other than that, they are doing “a heck of a job”!

3. 

   glitterscale on April 23, 2007 at 3:54 pm

   ignore as usual:

   I am just a taxpayer, but I vote and I volunteer for campaigns and I pay attention.  The Bush Administration has worked tirelessly for 2 ½ terms to politicize every corner of the government.  So much so that they won’t even allow the Senate or the House to do due diligence.  They won’t even allow OIG’s to do due diligence.  And considering the number of people who have been indicted and/or pled guilty and/or found guilty and/or sentenced that have been in and around this administration, there probably is very good reason for that.

   I want my country back, characters!  I want the Bill of Rights back, and not just the NRA portion either!  I want civility in government, but I want the disinfectant of sunshine as well.  I want whoever the republican was that put the hold on the sunshine bill for viewing compaign donors, I want him outed and I want the hold dropped!  I want Alberto Gonzales impeached for starters and Cheney and Bush impeached for seconds and thirds.

   But most of all, I want the blinking FDA to lay off of my chocolate!@!!!

   I added this bit for Congressman Cleaver

   It becomes obvious that Bush & Company will not allow investigations to continue, that they will stonewall, that they will prevaricate or enunciate ad nauseum “I don’t recall”.  Just impeach and get it over with before the festering gets worse.

4. 

   Brendan Skwire on April 23, 2007 at 3:57 pm

   Hi, and welcome back to Simple Answers to Simple Questions.  Today’s guest is Booman Tribune, who asks, “I wonder if the Republicans have any sense of self-preservation at all[?]”

   Answer: No.

   Thanks for playing Booman, and join us next time for more Simple Answers to Simple Questions.

5. 

   Sandy on April 23, 2007 at 4:26 pm

   Ah, Dada, a person after my own heart.   Great list!    And, as you said, (incredibly) quite incomplete.

   Off the top of my head:

   –Deliberately lied (plenty of evidence now) us into their War of Choice on Iraq — first (shamefully) pre-emptive “shock and awe” — when not attacked first — in U.S. history

   –Bush and Cheney families war profiteering off their War of Choice, Carlyle, Halliburton, etc.

   –No Child Left Behind (Not!) ….lots have been.  And, brother Neil making big bucks off it to boot   http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/8/125556/7027

   –Abu Gonzales’ and White House cover-up of Texas pedophile scandal, using U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton

   oh and on and on and on……

6. 

   Sandy on April 23, 2007 at 4:31 pm

   I should have said, this hasn’t been simple “incompetence”, these are war crimes, folks.

   http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts03162007.html

7. 

   Sandy on April 23, 2007 at 4:58 pm

   And:

   http://www.counterpunch.com/patrick04232007.html

   Read it, please.