Bent Corner

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To help stimulate the economy, Congress and the White House have struck a deal to begin “rushing” tax rebates of $600 to $1,200 to tax payers hoping we will quickly spend this free money on something stupid and in the process shock this ailing economy to life. If I remember correctly, Bush did this shortly after he took office. It seems so long ago that I can’t really remember.

I’m glad that the federal government has so much extra money that they can just dispense it in such a haphazard way.

Even if the Senate quickly approves this free money scheme, the checks will not start going out till May. It could then take months before everyone gets their free money.

The fear is that people will not take this money and spend it. They might just do something responsible with it and put it away for a rainy day. That wont stimulate the economy. If they really want to make sure people use the money for it’s intended purpose, they ought to issue Visa or Mastercard debit cards. Make them so they can’t be used for anything other then something that would stimulate the economy. That means you couldn’t squirrel it away for the proverbial rainy day. You would have to use it.

I wont believe we are getting this money until we actually get the check and the check clears. Until that happens, I’m not counting on getting it.

Tags: Congress, George Bush, Mastercard, Tax Rebate, White House

It seems Egypt is pursuing a nuclear power program and that’s ok with the Bush Administration. So says White House spokesman Dana Perino. She pointed out that the United States is supportive of countries pursuing civil nuclear energy because it’s clean burning and because it provides electricity in a clean-burning and affordable way.

Except if it’s the Iranians.

President Bush has made references to World War III if and when Iran develops a nuclear power program. The idea is that Iran having nuclear power will be a threat to Israel. Iranian President Ahmadinejad has questioned the historical accuracy of the holocaust and has said that Israel should be wiped off the map. At least that is what he supposedly said. I don’t speak Farsi.

Some may talk about wiping Israel off the map, but Egypt has actually tried. More then once. In fact, the United States pays Egypt over $2 billion a year for the assurance that they won’t try to wipe Israel off the map anymore.

And it’s ok with the Bush Administration if Egypt goes nuclear?

Tags: Dana Perino, Egypt, Farsi, George Bush, Israel, Nuclear, World War III

It’s been reported that tonight’s 60 Minutes will have an interview with former CIA covert agent Valerie Plame Wilson. She will explain that when Bush administration officials leaked her name to members of the press, she was working on keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran. Something I thought Bush felt strongly about.

This certainly is not good. It doesn’t surprise me though. And to think that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi still cannot stop repeating her promise that impeachment is off the table. I would think this is just the type of thing that would get a president impeached. Granted, it’s not as serious as a sexual act between two consenting adults, but outing a CIA covert agent is a serious offense.

Not only did members of the Bush administration out a CIA covert agent, they stonewalled the subsequent investigation. Bush then commuted the sentence of the only defendant to be prosecuted in connection to this crime.

KATIE COURIC: This Sunday on 60 Minutes, Valerie Plame Wilson gives her first interview since top Bush administration officials exposed her role as an undercover CIA agent four years ago. CBS News has learned she was involved in operations to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. In the interview, we talked about what it meant to have her identity revealed.

[BEGIN 60 MINUTES CLIP]

COURIC: What went through your mind when you saw your name in print?

PLAME: Oh, it was horrifying, absolutely horrifying.

COURIC: She served 20 years in the CIA, many undercover in the agency’s counterproliferation division, rising to top positions and confronting one of the most ominous threats of our time.

PLAME: Our mission was to make sure that the bad guys, basically, did not get nuclear weapons.

COURIC: When senior administration officials leaked her name to reporters, they may have exposed other spies and damaged operations targeting Iran. CBS News has learned that she was involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran. It was called Operation Merlin, and it was first revealed in a book by investigative reporter James Risen.

COURIC: Are you familiar with that?

PLAME: I don’t think I can tell you.

COURIC: He said the idea was to give the Iranians blueprints for the bomb that were seriously flawed to set them back. Does that sound like something the counter-proliferation division would do?

PLAME: I think I can say it sounds like a good idea.

COURIC: Were you surprised to read about Operation Merlin in the press?

PLAME: Indeed.

COURIC: Is that problematic for the CIA?

PLAME: Leaks are always bad news.

COURIC: She should know, revealing for the first time that the leak of her name had serious repercussions.

PLAME: I can tell you all the intelligence services in the world were running my name through their databases to see did anyone by this name come in the country? When? Do we know anything about it? Where did she stay? Who did she see?

COURIC: And what would be the ramifications of that?

PLAME: Well, it was very serious. It puts in danger, if not shuts down, the operations that I had worked on.

COURIC: Valerie Plame Wilson also has some harsh things to say about President Bush. That and much more in our interview this Sunday on 60 Minutes.

Not only was Valerie Plame Wilson’s career with the CIA ruined, but the lives of the people she dealt with were put into extreme peril.  Maybe may have died over her being outed.  This is why it’s a crime to out the identity of a covert agent.

Tags: CIA, Covert Agent, George Bush, Iran, Katie Couric, Nancy Pelosi, Nuclear Weapons, Valerie Plame Wilson

A lot has been made of late about something stupid conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said about members of the military that favor leaving Iraq. He referred to them as “phony soldiers”. This comment has got a lot of people upset. So much so that Limbaugh has even gone back and edited the transcript of his show to change the context of what he said.

This is something Limbaugh doesn’t normally do when he says something stupid.

I’m having a hard time understanding all the outrage over this specific comment. Granted, it sounds as though Limbaugh is dishonoring those who serve their country, both past and present, but how is that newsworthy? Why is it so hard to understand that Limbaugh doesn’t have respect for members of the military? What would make anyone think that Limbaugh cares about the troops?

I would think that if Limbaugh really cared about the troops, he would be outraged that so many of them have been killed in a war waged over false pretenses. The last time I checked, George W. Bush went to war in Iraq because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD’s) and he had ties to al-Qaeda. Things that turned out to be not true. If Limbaugh cared about the troops, he would want them to come home, especially now that it’s clear they were sent to wage a war under false pretenses. If Limbaugh really cared about the troops, he would speak out against the idea of a never ending war. Instead of speaking out against it, he advocates it.

It seems to me that Limbaugh is being criticized for simply being Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh said something stupid. That’s just what he does.

Tags: George Bush, Phony Soldiers, Rush Limbaugh

“I don’t believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own.”

George W. Bush explaining why he signed death warrants
for 152 inmates while governor of Texas.

Tags: George Bush, Pardon, Politics, Scooter Libby

President Bush commuted the sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby on Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term that Bush said was excessive.Bush’s move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case.

That meant Libby was likely to have to report to prison soon and put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby’s allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

“I respect the jury’s verdict,” Bush said in a statement. “But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.”

Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby, and Bush said his action still “leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby.”

I’m almost speechless. Does this mean Bush will now be reviewing every convicted felon’s sentence to ascertain if it’s too excessive or is this something he will reserve only for his buddies? A pardon would have looked better. By commuting the sentence, he’s admitting there was a crime committed, but that Libby should for some reason be exempt from actually really being punished for it.

If he did this because he truly thought the 2 1/2-year prison sentence was excessive, why didn’t he just shorten it down to something smaller? Because it wasn’t that he felt 30 months in prison was excessive, but that he was to go to prison at all is what Bush thought was excessive.

Link

Tags: George Bush, Scooter Libby

George Bush criticized Congress as being “irresponsible” for going on spring break without first approving money for Iraq with no strings attached. They gave him all the money he asked for. The problem is that they tied the $120 billion dollars in military spending to a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq.

“They need to come off their vacation, get a bill to my desk, and if it’s got strings and mandates and withdrawals and pork I’ll veto it,” the president said. “And then we can get down to the business of getting this thing done.”

I never thought I would hear George Bush criticize anyone else for taking a vacation. He’s spent so much time on vacation that he actually set a presidential record. Hearing him criticize anyone about taking a vacation is just hypocritically weird.

What’s he going to do next, criticize someone for using a family connection to get out of going to Vietnam?

Update (5 April) : Unbeknown to me at the time when I first wrote this post, Bush left Washington shortly after criticizing Congress. He himself went on vacation to his ranch in Texas. Go figure.

Tags: Congress, George Bush, Iraq, Vacations

Well, they did it. The Democrats in the House agreed to give Bush $124 BILLION, but they put restrictions on it:

The $124 billion House legislation would pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year but would require that combat troops come home from Iraq before September 2008 — or earlier if the Iraqi government did not meet certain requirements. Democrats said it was time to heed the mandate of their election sweep last November, which gave them control of Congress.

Bush and the other neo-cons need to learn that the American people will not sit still for a never ending occupation of Iraq. The neo-cons first tried to base American troops permanently in Saudi Arabia. We all saw how that worked out. They now want to make Iraq a permanent base of occupation to facilitate control over the Middle East.

To the neo-cons, it’s not about not leaving Iraq until “the job is done”. Whatever that means. It’s about staying in Iraq forever. It’s about having a permanent presence in the Middle East.

I doubt Bush would have invaded Iraq if it meant American forces would one day have to actually leave.

Tags: George Bush, Iraq, Saudi Arabia

• The chief muckety muck at computer security company Kaspersky claimed that Microsoft Vista’s User Account Control (UAC), is so annoying that most users will simply turn it off. He said that without UAC, Vista will be less secure than Windows XP SP2. I don’t know. I think most Windows users are used to dealing with annoying things so they might just leave it on.
• This is probably the best anti-war sign I’ve seen. Not that I have seen all that many of them.
• I’ve discovered the blog of another person here in Hagerstown. I’ve added a link to her blog to my blogroll. Check out Trapper Jen MD.
• Who would have thought Carol Burnett wouldn’t understand the concept of parody? This is just kind of sad.
• Speaking of sad, yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion. Though I refuse to put one of those stupid magnetic yellow ribbons on my car, I support the troops. I support them so much that I want them to come home. Now.
• Last week, Procter & Gamble Co. won a jury award of $19.25 million in a civil lawsuit filed against four former Amway distributors that started a rumor that P&C were run by Satanists. Amway is the company that make a line of overpriced household cleaning products. People sell Amway products in their homes to friends, family, and coworkers. I remember as a kid being told in church that P&G was run by devil worshipers. This is funny.
• Here is a link to a website that always seems to have a direct link to the current Borders store coupon. If there is one. It’s easier to go to this site then the actual Borders website.
• President Bush says nobody in his administration did anything wrong in firing federal prosecutors. To prove it, he will allow Congress to question Karl Rove and Harriet Miers. As long as it’s in private and off the record. Also, neither Rove or Miers will be sworn under oath to ensure that they aren’t lying.
• Dick Cheney’s feeble body broke down again today forcing him to return to the hospital. Did he go to Walter Reed? No, he went to George Washington University Hospital.

Tags: Carol Burnett, George Bush, Kaspersky, Microsoft Vista, Procter & Gamble, Walter Reed

U.S. Rep. John Murtha has come up with a creative way of putting a stop to Bush’s war in Iraq. It involves placing conditions on how Bush can spend the $93.4 billion in new combat funds.

1. The Pentagon would have to certify that troops being sent to Iraq are “fully combat ready” with training and equipment.
2. Troops must have at least one year at home between combat deployments.
3. Combat assignments could not be extended beyond one year.
4. A “stop-loss” program (back door draft) forcing soldiers to extend their enlistment periods would be prohibited.

It’s a good idea. Instead of cutting off the funds, it places common sense conditions on how those funds are to be spent. The conditions are things that really cannot be argued against.

Unless of course Republicans want to argue that troops should be sent to Iraq that are not combat ready. That troops should be sent to Iraq that have not been home for at least one year. That troops should be forced to continue serving in the military even after their enlistments are over. That combat tours should last longer then a year.

How are the chickenhawks going to argue for any of that?

So far, they don’t seem to be arguing against the actual details of the plan. No, they are instead criticizing the end results of such a plan. It will be impossible to continue Bush’s war in Iraq with such conditions placed on the war’s financing. This plan may actually work. It may actually do some good. Where a non-binding resolution does nothing, this can actually bring an end to Bush’s perpetual war in Iraq.

Tags: chickenhawks, George Bush, Iraq, John Murtha