Our Awful Situation

Archive for the ‘George Bush’ Category

Bush Becoming a Catholic?

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 16th, 2008

Forgive me Father for I have sinned…

President Bush may follow in the footsteps of his brother Jeb and convert to Catholicism, several European papers are reporting.

In the wake of the president’s visit to see Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, Italian newspapers, citing Vatican sources, said Bush was open to the idea of converting to Catholicism.

The Italian newspaper Il Foglio referred to such talk about Bush’s possible conversion and stated that “anything is possible, especially for someone reborn like Bush.”

Supreme Court restores habeas corpus, strikes down key part of Military Commissions Act

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 13th, 2008

Glenn Greenwald’s commentary on yesterday’s Supreme Court victory:

In a major rebuke to the Bush administration’s theories of presidential power — and in an equally stinging rebuke to the bipartisan political class which has supported the Bush detention policies — the U.S. Supreme Court today, in a 5-4 decision (.pdf), declared Section 7 of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 unconstitutional. The Court struck down that section of the MCA because it purported to abolish the writ of habeas corpus — the means by which a detainee challenges his detention in a court — despite the fact that the Constitution permits suspension of that writ only “in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion.”

Bush and German Chancellor Merkel stress diplomacy with Iran

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 11th, 2008

Bush: Should we or shouldn’t we…ask me again tomorrow:

President Bush on Wednesday raised unprompted the possibility of a military strike against Tehran’s presumed nuclear weapons ambitions, speaking bullishly on Iran even as he admitted having been unwise to do so previously about Iraq.

Bush’s host in two days of meetings at a baroque castle, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, made clear her views on the saber-rattling - however subtle - without directly countering her guest. “I very clearly pin my hopes on diplomatic efforts,” Merkel said, reflecting the deeply held European opinion that military action against Iran is nearly unthinkable.

Iran’s leader weighed in, too. Speaking before thousands in the central Iranian city of Shahr-e-Kord, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Bush “won’t be able to harm even one centimeter of the sacred land of Iran” and promised continued defiance over Iran’s nuclear activities. Iran says it is enriching uranium to generate electricity, not build a bomb - a claim the West doubts is true.

“In the past two-three years, they employed all their might, resorted to propaganda … and sanctions,” Ahmadinejad said. “If the enemy thinks they can break the Iranian nation with pressure, they are wrong.”

Bush has alternated lately between slightly more conciliatory and slightly more forceful language on Iran.

President Bush wants a stronger dollar

Posted by patriot on June 9th, 2008

Well, boo hoo, Mister President. I want a new truck. You want a stronger dollar. If only we could cash in on wishes…

President Bush issued a call for a rise in the value of the US dollar on currency markets yesterday in a signal of mounting official alarm in Washington about the effect of the slumping greenback on the world’s largest economy.

In an exclusive interview with The Times on the eve of the United States-European Union summit in Slovenia, Mr Bush expressed concern about the dollar’s continuing weakness and said that he favoured an appreciation in the US exchange rate.

“We want the dollar to strengthen,” he said on Air Force One as it crossed the Atlantic bound for the summit.

The President did not suggest that the United States was preparing to back its rhetoric on the dollar with any formal intervention in the exchange markets. He said that the “relative evaluations of economies will lead to that dollar strengthening”.

Proof that McCain will be Bush III

Posted by patriot on May 27th, 2008

The proof is in the horrible voting record:

CQ’s Presidential Support studies try to determine how often a legislator votes in line with the President’s position:

CQ tries to determine what the president personally, as distinct from other administration officials, does and does not want in the way of legislative action. This is done by analyzing his messages to Congress, news conference remarks and other public statements and documents.

So, these studies only track votes when the President has an explicit, stated opinion on a bill. According to CQ, Senator John McCain has voted with President Bush 100% of the time in 2008 and 95% of the time in 2007

Executive or Imperial Branch?

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 7th, 2008

King George:

More memos recently have surfaced that were written early in the Bush administration by John C. Yoo from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — the man who gave us the administration’s horrifyingly narrow definition of torture. As difficult as it is to believe, the recently released memos are even scarier than the original torture memo.

Yoo boldly asserts that the president’s power during wartime is nearly unlimited. For example, he argues that Congress has no right to pass laws governing the interrogations of enemy combatants and the commander-in-chief can ignore such laws if passed, and can, without constraint, seize oceangoing ships.

The memos also argue that military operations in the United States against terrorists are not subject to the Fourth Amendment requirement for search warrants or the Fifth Amendment requirement for due process.

George Bush a war criminal?

Posted by patriot on April 26th, 2008

Could it really happen?

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has called for Western leaders including Australia’s former prime minister John Howard to be charged with war crimes over the war in Iraq.

In a speech at Imperial College in London, Mahathir called for an international tribunal to try US President George Bush plus former prime minister Tony Blair of Britain and Howard for their part in the conflict, said a spokesman for the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim group that organised the event.

Spokesman Mohammed Shafiq told AFP that Mahathir, who was in office from 1981 to 2003, wanted to see the trio tried “in absence for war crimes committed in Iraq”.

Using clergy during times of martial law

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 19th, 2008

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the government is enlisting the help of clergy members to help control the population in times of martial law. Watch this:

Brown: the world should thank Bush

Posted by patriot on April 17th, 2008

Via CNN:

The president said he appreciates the contributions of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Britain has nearly 8,000 forces around Basra, in southern Iraq.

“We’re making progress,” Bush said. “Failure in Iraq will send a message to Iran that the United States and its allies were not intent on making sure they stay within the borders of their country. … It’s worth it to succeed.”

Brown added, “The world owes George Bush a huge debt of gratitude” for his efforts against terrorists.

That last line made me laugh. Oh, wait, what? It wasn’t a joke? Hmmm..

Source: U.S. Strike on Iran Nearing

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 14th, 2008

Via Newsmax:

A number of signs indicate that, contrary to the belief President Bush is a lame duck who will not act before he leaves office, the U.S. is poised to strike before Iran can acquire nuclear weapons and carry out the threat of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “wipe Israel off the map”:

According to intelligence sources, the administration now rejects the National Intelligence Estimate report issued in December that asserted Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in late 2003.The French daily Le Monde reported in March that newly surfaced documents show that Iran has continued developing nuclear weapons. In late 2006, U.S. intelligence reportedly intercepted a phone conversation in Iran’s Defense Ministry in which the nuclear weapons program was discussed.

The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Admiral William Fallon, resigned in March amid media reports that he broke with President Bush’s strategy on Iran and did not want to be in the chain of command when the order comes down from the President to launch a strike on the Islamic Republic.Democrats suggested he had been forced out because of his candor in opposing Bush’s Iran plans, and Esquire magazine contended that Fallon’s departure signaled that the U.S. is preparing to attack Iran.

According to a Tehran-based Iranian news network, Press TV, Saudi Arabia is taking emergency steps in preparing to counter any “radioactive hazards” that may result from an American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.The Saudi newspaper Okaz disclosed that the Saudi government has approved nuclear fallout preparations, and the Iranian network reported that the approval came a day after Cheney met with the kingdom’s high-ranking officials, further stating that the U.S. “is now informing its Arab allies of a potential war.”

The American commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, has stepped up criticism of Iran, telling Congress last week that Iranian support for Shiite militias posed the most serious threat to Iraq’s stability. He told senators : “Iran has fueled the violence in a particularly damaging way.” Last week, the U.S. said Iran was providing insurgents with missiles that were killing Americans and hitting targets within the U.S. occupied Green Zone in Baghdad.MSNBC Commentator Pat Buchanan said Petraeus’ remarks to Congress lay the groundwork for a U.S. attack on Iran.

President Bush said in a speech at the White House on April 10 that Iran, along with al-Qaida, are “two of the greatest threats to America.”He said Iran “can live in peace with its neighbors,” or “continue to arm and train and fund illegal militant groups which are terrorizing the Iraqi people … If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests and our troops and our Iraqi partners.”
He later told ABC News that if Iran continues to help militants in Iraq, “then we’ll deal with them.”

Members of Congress are said to have been briefed by the administration about the rising Iran threat.

{

}