Bent Corner

From the Wall Street Journal:

“What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?” he said during an interview Tuesday, offering his most extensive comments since leaving government.

During a lunch meeting two blocks from the White House, where he served under his longtime friend, President George W. Bush, Mr. Gonzales said that “for some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with. I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror.”

I wonder, did he wish he hadn’t said that the second after he said it? What a dork. It was only yesterday that I read that a record 151 service members were killed in the line of duty in 2008 in Afghanistan. Those people were truly casualties of the war on terror.

If he can’t find a job, its because he was an awful Attorney General. The man is lucky not to be in prison right now.

Rick Warren, evangelical Baptist minister of the southern California megachurch Saddleback Church has been invited by Barack Obama to pray at his inauguration. Evidently this fact has raised the ire of some of my fellow liberals. They are ticked off that Obama would ask Warren to participate in his inauguration considering the fact that he supported the recent California Proposition 8 ballot measure banning same-sex marriage. Reverend Warren, like most evangelical Christians, is also against a woman’s right to choose.

So?  Big deal.  What part of Change did people not understand?

Like it or not, Barack Obama will not just be the president of the liberal wing of the Democratic party, he will be president of the entire country.  Not just the Blue States, but the Red States too.  Whoever is pretending to be upset by this needs to go and watch Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

Instead on focusing on the things that devide us, it’s time to start concentrating on the things that unite us.

President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq and he got not one, but two shoes checked at his head for his trouble. He was on stage with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki when an Iraqi reporter, Muntadar al-Zeidi, working for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Egypt took off his shoes and threw them at Bush.

I’m guessing this is not just another way of being greeted as liberators.

The $14 billion government bailout for the Detroit auto makers died in the Senate because all but ten Republican Senators refused to vote for it unless the union representing the autoworkers agree to massive pay cuts.

Congressional Republicans have been in open revolt against Bush over the auto bailout. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined other GOP lawmakers Thursday in announcing his opposition to the White House-backed bill, which passed the House on Wednesday. He and other Republicans insisted that the carmakers restructure their debt and bring wages and benefits in line with those paid by Toyota, Honda and Nissan in the United States.

I think I actually agree with the Republicans on this one. I think it would be great to get the pay and benefits that the average UEW worker gets. The problem is, the money just isn’t there. Because of the high cost of labor, Detroit automakers have to resort to not making cars, but expensive trucks, vans, and SUVs to absorb the high cost of UAW labor. When you are paying someone $69 in wages and benefits to turn bolts on an assembly line, it makes more sense economically for the big three automakers to make autos they can charge more for. Paying someone to turn bolts on a $9,000 car costs the same as paying someone to turn bolts on a $45,000 truck or SUV.

The automakers then have to spend millions on advertising to convince Americans that they need a truck or a sports utility vehicle to drive to work or to run errands. Unless you regularly haul around a full sheet of plywood, you don’t need a truck. You definitely don’t need a Ford F-150 truck, Ford’s best selling vehicle. It’s a vehicle that gets only 15 miles to the gallon in the city, 20 miles to the gallon on the highway. The fuel efficiency is even worse if the vehicle is hauling something heavy in the bed.

Not that this would ever happen.

If the big three automakers file for bankruptcy protection, UAW wages and benefits will be almost certainly be cut, but instead of the UAW leadership having any kind of say in the matter, it will be decided by a federal bankruptcy judge.

From the New York Times:

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested by federal authorities on Tuesday morning on corruption charges, including an allegation that he conspired to effectively sell President-elect Barack Obama’s seat in the United States Senate to the highest bidder.

Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, called his sole authority to name Mr. Obama’s successor “golden,” and he sought to parlay it into a job as an ambassador or secretary of health and human services, or a high-paying position at a nonprofit or an organization connected to labor unions, prosecutors said in a 76-page affidavit by the United States Attorney’s office in the Northern District of Illinois.

What a scumball.  I’m not a big believer in the death penalty, but if they can sentence a drug dealer to lethal injection, why can’t they do it to someone that abuses the democratic process in such a flagrant and perverse way?

I’m not a lawyer, but I did watch a lot of L.A. Law back in the late 80’s. I looked into it and it seems the only way someone can get the death penalty without actually killing someone or causing someone to die is to commit Treason (18 U.S.C. 2381) or Espionage (18 U.S.C. 794).

Maybe we should add Abusing the Power of One’s Elected Office to the list of death penalty offenses. Of course that wont ever happen. What politician would help create a law that might one day put them on Death Row?

Ever since the elections in November, I just can’t muster up much interest in politics. I’m not watching any of the Sunday morning talking head shows. I haven’t been reading any of the political blogs. I haven’t listened to any of the political radio shows that I normally listen to. I haven’t even watched CNN or MSNBC lately.

I guess I’m just burned out on the whole political process.

When I heard that Barack Obama chose Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State, I thought that I should write a few words about what I thought of the pick. I then realized I didn’t have any thoughts on the pick.

I just did not care.

Looking back at the stuff I have blogged about, I’ve blogged more about politics then any other topic. The way I feel now, I don’t see that trend continuing.

Vote for U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss in the Georgia runoff election or he will force his granddaughter to sit on his lap while he gives her a never ending titty-twister. This video is disturbing on so many levels. When I first started watching it, I was thinking the girl on his lap looked a little old to be sitting on an adult male’s lap. And that was before he started going all Saturday night drive-in movie on her.

Yuck. What a creepy old coot.

Chambliss is that pathetic loser that ran negative ads six years against incumbent Senator Max Cleland calling Cleland’s patriotism into question. Max Cleland won a Silver Star and Bronze Star for fighting in Vietnam. Max Cleland also lost two legs and an arm in Vietnam. Saxby Chambliss never served in the military because he had a bad knee.

I don’t know if that is the same knee his pre-teen granddaughter is perched on.

President Elect Barack Obama announced yesterday that Peter Orszag will be placed in charge of the White House Office of Management and Budget.  For the past two years he has been in charge of the Congressional Budget Office.  I take it from reading his bio that he is a scary smart economist. He even has a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics.

With that said, if he is so smart, why does he thinks that godawful hair piece on top of his skull is fooling anyone? That’s not a toupee, that’s a hair hat.

I say to you Peter Orszag, one bald man to another, take that dead racoon off your head and let your scalp breath.

Gay people in Florida can now adopt children.

From the Associated Press:

A judge on Tuesday ruled that a strict Florida law that blocks gay people from adopting children is unconstitutional, declaring there was no legal or scientific reason for sexual orientation alone to prohibit anyone from adopting.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman said the 31-year-old law violates equal protection rights for the children and their prospective gay parents, rejecting the state’s arguments that there is “a supposed dark cloud hovering over homes of homosexuals and their children.”

This a huge civil rights victory.  I think it’s great that people who want to be parents through adoption are allowed to do so. Adoption is a wonderful thing that should be encouraged, not discouraged or banned.

The sexual orientation of the parents shouldn’t matter. What kid wants to think about their parents — straight or gay — having sex? It’s equally creepy either way.

Now if only all parents of adopted children were allowed to marry in all 50 states.