Author: spiderleaf

The Company You Keep

The company you keep speaks volumes about your character. Sure there are friends that you knew in high school who are now only friends because of your history together, but any friends you make in adulthood or the type of people you hire speaks volumes about you as a person.

So why aren’t we calling attention to Bush’s serious character flaws?

It’s easy enough to do, and hell, even a donkey could point out that Bush’s `plain talk’ is really naked aggression & petulance in disguise.

The fact that the administration is standing firm behind Bolton, with Rice saying “management style should not be an issue” speaks volumes about the type of person Bush is.

[more on the flip]

If I made mistake after mistake in hiring employees and continued my terrible judgment by promoting those individuals to positions of power in the company I would be deemed “not management material” and a) demoted or fired or b) sent for coaching/ counseling. Now of course we all know what happened to Bush, he was re-elected… but before the RWCM started reporting on the various character flaws of his entourage.

Let’s take a look at just John Bolton. He’s the most recent case, the WH is standing firm in his nomination and the allegations against him are truly outrageous.

Here is a man who stalks, intimidates and threatens women with whom he has a business disagreement. Who is a corporate shill who will do literally anything to achieve master’s goals (no wonder Cheney loves him… and Rove is so jealous of him…).

A Toronto man has emerged as a key player in a debate roiling the U.S. capital, confirming details of mistreatment of an underling by John Bolton, the man George W. Bush wants as his ambassador to the United Nations.

Uno Ramat, the creative director of a Toronto ad agency, described the embattled Bolton yesterday as a “really creepy guy” who harassed and threatened a female colleague of his when they worked together in Kyrgyzstan in 1994.

The Star.com

Moving away from “abusive ex-husband” John Bolton & back to management style we find the same patterns. I’m not going to get all Lakoff here, but I will point out that nobody likes a bully. I don’t care if he’s on your side or not, in the end he’s too dangerous. Bush appeals to the NASCAR guys because they want to go out and kick peoples asses too, but most of the time that winds them up in jail. He’s supposedly “strong” and “resolute” and “compassionate”.

Well… let’s ask these guys if they would want to work for him in real life. You know, have to report into John Bolton… his being the final say on if you got fired, slept well at night, made a decent living, were able to take vacations or even… follow your morals.

What do you want to guess the answer would be HELL NO? So exploit it.

Bush has ruined the economy, ruined your retirement, sent innocent children to die for his fat cat friends and thinks assholes make great leaders.

Bottom line: he thinks you’re a piece of shit and worthless unless he needs you to fight a war for him or needs your vote.

Bolton has been described as a “kiss-up, kick-down guy” who kicked harder the further down the ladder his underlings were and who pressured intelligence analysts at the state department to come up with findings that he wanted.

How do we spread the meme?

Blogs are always great but we’re not reaching the right people (and there is no way in hell I’m recommending we post on Freeperville)…

We need a slick, well-funded and pervasive TV ad that is comprised of “Bush’s greatest hits”. Search back through the last 5 years and we can find example after example of his assholish and ignorant statements. Compile them. Set the stage: In response to a question about soldiers in Iraq President Bush had this to say “Yeah, a few dead here or there, I don’t care as long as Halliburton is happy and Cheney doesn’t make me stand in the corner with a dunce cap on, it’s all good” (paraphrasing). One after another. Statement and petulant smirk after petulant smirk and statement. On and on for 60 seconds. Buy the time during NASCAR, WWE, NBA Playoffs, afternoon soaps, I don’t give a shit. As long as it’s highly rated and reaches the masses, that’s all I ask.

Paging Mr. Soros & Mr. Turner. New campaign in aisle 3 that needs funding.

Update [2005-4-21 16:34:19 by spiderleaf]: I can’t believe I forgot the second commercial.. the one where we hammer him for the company he keeps… duh!

The Company You Keep Speaks Volumes.

Cross posted at Daily Kos

Rice warns Russia not to follow US course of ‘democracy’

Cross posted at Daily Kos

In a surprise move likely to have far reaching implications, Secretary of State Rice has expressed her concern over trends in Russia that do not bode well for democracy.
What were those trends you may ask? Oh, how about:

“The centralization of state power in the presidency at the expense of countervailing institutions like (parliament) or an independent judiciary is clearly very worrying,” Rice said. “The absence of an independent media on the electronic side is clearly very worrying.”

The Star

Now that you’ve stopped spitting out your cheerios, let’s think about that for a second.

Centralizing power in the Presidency?

Score one for Bush

Reducing the power of an independent judiciary?

Score another for Bush

A sham free-press?

Wow, Bush is three for three here. He must be so proud.

Now what was the problem again Condi? Oh right, do as we say, not as we do.

What a joke to have her prancing around the world making pronouncements on democracy. Do you think Putin gets the joke?

One last part before I go back to bed to get away from this nonsense…

“Moscow should make every effort to convince the world that they understand those responsibilities that attend inclusion in organizations such as the G-8,” Rice said. She said the G-8 was intended to be a “a group of democracies” committed to “free-market principles, free trade, the rule of law.”

….

Rice said the United States was watching carefully whether individual freedom was being eroded in Russia. “I still do think there is a considerable amount of individual freedom in Russia,” she said, adding that U.S. officials have told the Russians “the ability of individuals to coalesce into political groupings is also a test of democracy.”

Shoe on the other foot test:

“The US should make every effort to convince the world that they understand those responsibilities that attend inclusion in organizations such as the G-8,” said Chirac

And about those freedoms Condi – does that mean free speech zones will be a thing of the past?

Culture of Life my ass: 11 mm poor children die each year

[Cross posted at Daily Kos]

A World Bank report released today gives us the horrifying news that 11 million children under 5 die each year in poor & under-developed countries from easily treated diseases.

This is appalling. Where are all the right-wing religious screamers demanding President Bush save the children… the poor, poor children.

Hypocrites. One and all.

….most of them from causes that are easily prevented in wealthier countries…

The causes include diarrhea, measles, malaria and acute respiratory infection, which together account for 48 per cent of child deaths in the developing world, said the World Development Indicators report, released Sunday.

“Rapid improvements before 1990 gave hope that mortality rates for infants and children under five could be cut by two-thirds in the following 25 years,” the report says. ” But progress slowed almost everywhere in the 1990s.”

The annual report warns that only 33 countries are on track to reach the 2015 goal of reducing child mortality by two-thirds from its 1990 level. Only two regions – Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia – seem likely to hit that target, the bank says.

Progress has been particularly slow in Sub-Saharan Africa, where armed conflict, famine and diseases such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic have driven up rates of infant and child mortality, the report says.

11 million children die in poor countries annually: report

Call me a naive liberal but wouldn’t the $200 billion + that has been wasted in Iraq wingnuts have been better spent saving lives? Each year under Bush the USA has reduced the amount of foreign aid paid out to help feed, medicate & educate those less fortunate in the developing world. And yet one brain-dead woman is worth more of your freakin’ attention than 11 million children.

And let’s not forget that ignorance, desperation & hunger are leading breeding grounds for future criminals/ terrorists (stepping back & putting things in the self-interested light for Red State America)… but no, let’s scream about the 10 Commandments in schools while ignoring your fellow human beings in need.

Hypocrites.

Moral Values & Culture of Life my ass. Stop watching Fox, realize their is a bigger world out there and DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS ATROCITY… then come talk to me about What Jesus Would Do.

All your oil belongs to us: legally

Cross-posted at Daily Kos

In a little noticed bill passed last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the US of A has put OPEC and other oil producing nations on notice that Manifest Destiny is alive and well.

Hey, it worked as a key clause of NAFTA so why not OPEC and the gang…

The bearer of desperate tidings was Senator Leahy…

“The bill would allow the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to file antitrust lawsuits against foreign states, such as members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), for price fixing and other anticompetitive activities,” said the Democrat.[Leahy]

….

The bill, just passed, would make it illegal for foreign states and their agents “to act collectively or in combination with any other foreign state …or agent” to limit the production of oil, natural gas, or any other petroleum product, or fix the prices of such products.

Legal action may be taken, the bill said, “when such action, combination, or collective action has a direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on the market, supply, price, or distribution of oil, natural gas, or other petroleum product in the United States”.

[All emphasis mine]

The world is struggling to meet the current demand and with China and India becoming major consumers at a rapid pace, there truly is only so much to go around. It is fair to say that this latest action by the Congress, making it illegal for an oil producing country to reduce it’s sales to the US, is in response to the recent moves by China to shore up suppliers & Venezuela openly courting the Russians, Indonesians, Iranians & Indians  in order to reduce their dependence on the US market… let alone all the talk about moving the standard currency from the dollar to the Euro and well, it’s enough to make American politicians nervous… and a cornered beast is always the most dangerous.

The question is how will OPEC and countries such as China & India react to the new saber-rattling from Washington?

And just how far are they prepared to go to enfore their legal judgment (since there will inevitably be one.. my guess is Venezuela will be the first target)?

Update: Fleet Admiral J has provided links to the Senate & House versions of the bill (NOPEC – have they no shame? Seriously now, that’s just insulting)