Have you ever wondered why The President of the United States has so much trouble with the English language? Some say it is the work of Karl Rove, some say it is a conscious staged event. Some have intimated all sorts of illnesses, causes and electronic malfunctions. But the question remains: are his verbal flubs on purpose?
Harlen McCraney, "the Presidential Speechalist," provides the answer.
In keeping with the Republican talking point of the day, Robert Novak wasn't happy with President Bush's "Happy Holiday" greeting:
Novak: I was just kind of stunned at the end of his press conference, when President Bush, who is a believing Christian, and a very sincere one, a deeply religious man said, "Happy Holidays." Well...what's the happy holidays...is it the fourth of July? [Novak converted to Catholicism in 1998.]
It sure seems like it's open season on Bush by the Republicans now that the election is over.
Is it me or what? We have a president that wants to destroy Social Security, a Homeland Security nominee who has more question marks than The Riddler, our troops are under siege in Iraq, and these twits are crying about "Happy Holidays."
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Carlson: ...for all you authoritarian liberals out there, and there are many of you...Merry Christmas.
dreaded:To be in terror of.
When did saying "Happy Holidays" cause such terror in the hearts of Republicans? Is the President an authoritarian liberal now for using the term? It seems to only cause dread when there's a studio audience.
Atrios: "Another Ally in the War on Christmas" is Brent Bozell's Parents Television Council
via Americablog
Bush is on a roll, then he suddenly stops, bends his head down, and mumbles something into his tie, then lifts his head and continues. He is in the middle of speaking to the press and he suddenly drops his head and mumbles something and then immediately continues speaking. It is seriously one of the oddest things I've ever seen.
Can anyone tell what he says? What the hell was that?
Does he have Tourette's? Is he talking into his tie? Did his shoe fall off? Seriously, I have never seen anything like this.
While MSNBC is getting a lot of heat for considering adding Tucker Carlson to their stable and rightly so; Pat Buchanan has turned Scarborough Country into a hoot. It's like the 700 Club on steroids. Every night there is usually a debate on how secularists are taking the Christ out of Christmas!
It was inevitable to see different faiths start to attack each other and the other night was a classic.
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WILLIAM DONAHUE, PRESIDENT, CATHOLIC LEAGUE and RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH faced off:
RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH:...Having said that, the problem that I have with people like Bill Donahue, Pat, is that they take trivial issues, like a creche. One creche may have been manhandled by some teenager, when the-and the pope also even said yesterday that the problem with Christmas is, we need more trees. We need more trees? The pope is a tiny island of faith in a completely secular continent. You can land airplanes in churches today, they are so empty. We have the main depiction of women in America as prostitutes. We have kids taking drugs, teenage sexuality. And we are talking about that Macy‘s doesnt Merry Christmas in its department stores? Come on, Bill Donahue. Catholicism doesn‘t have priests these days.Talk about something substantive for God‘s sake.
DONAHUE: No, I will not allow you, the demagogue, to define the debate.
I will define the debate the way I want to. And if I want to talk about creches that have been vandalized, I will treat it seriously, just as I would synagogues that have been vandalized. For you to make light of nativity scenes that have been vandalized, a rash of 40 across the country, is not the voice of sanity. It‘s the voice of insanity.
This vicious, phoney 'debate' is a national embarrassment to believers and secularists alike.
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Coulter: ...instead of gloating after everytime there's an attack, liberals ought to be embarrassed...
Ann Coulter is in the lead for our "Wingnut of 2004" award, here attempts (with her typical smear tactics) to deflect any form of accountability to the administration's handling of the Iraq war. To Allan Colmes's credit, he did get her to back off her latest idiotic statement.
Coulter: ...Okay, your going to obsess over the word gloating...ok, I'll retract it...
I guess honest opinion of a bad situation is considered gloating to Ann.
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Why does Bush hate Christmas? What will the Christian fundamentalists say to the commander now? Is he a secularist?
Chamblis: This is another area where the Secretary is being insensitive.
Hagel: My goodness, that's the least that we could expect from the Secretary of Defense!
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Is it too much to ask Rumsfeld to pick up a pen and sign his name? Now the families are complaining.
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On This Week with George Stephanopoulos:
George: This war has not been won has it?
Card: The war has been (run)...won, but the opportunity for democracy is still being fought.
George: The insurgents seem to be able to attack at will.
Card: Well they are attacking, but they are not attacking all of the people all of the time.
What the hell is he saying? They are attacking most of the people most of the time! Najaf, Karbala Car Bombs Kill at Least 60 today, forty deaths just yesterday and an Iraqi official just the other day is what I would consider a huge death toll, and a multitude of attacks.
It gets worse..
Card: They are running timid campaigns to try and intimidate people from participating in democracy...
How can he call the attacks and deaths of our troops and Iraqi trained police timid campaigns? Our building an Iraqi police force is paramount for the U.S. to leave Iraq.
On Rumsfeld:
Card: He is doing a spectacular job...
Okay, Andrew and Sean Hannity are the only people that might believe that. Can I have some of that Kool Aid too?
Sen. John Warner, (R-Va.), Chairman, Armed Services Committee:
"The problem as I see it right now is that we put our whole case, resting our case, on the ability to bring in the Iraqi people and train them in police, national guard, army duties and security forces. And there we're doing an all-out battle. We visited, Senator--I mean--excuse me. Senator Levin and I, Petraeus, saw his team being put together. But, Tim, the raw material is lacking in the willpower and commitment after they receive this training to really shoulder the heavy responsibilities."
This is one of the fundamental problems with the Iraq occupation. If the Iraq people are too scared to secure their own country, then how is it possible to ever have our troops withdraw? The security needed to protect the election process is tenous at best even if it does go off as planned. The administration has not been able to train Iraqi's adequately enough:
Sen. Joe Biden, (D-Del.), Ranking Member, Foreign Relations Committee:
"The training program--I came back with Lindsey Graham, appeared on your show about eight months ago, and said it was a joke. There was no training program."
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The insurgency, which are primarily Iraqi's themselves, seems to have struck enough fear into the general population to make sure that they will not police their own country. It's just another failing of Rumsfeld. Should he be fired? Of course not. It seems it's better to stick with a losing hand than go in a different direction.
Senator Levin:
"If I thought a change at the top of the Pentagon would change the policy of this administration, I'd be all for it."
Senator Warner:
"We're at war. And you're right, Dick, we should not at this point in time entertain any idea of changing those responsibilities in the Pentagon."
Senator Lugar:
"He should be held accountable, and he should stay in office."
From Bradblog:
Where's the media? ...I urge you to count no chickens in regards to coverage by major media on this story, friends. It's a rather explosive story, and the big boy media folks need to cross all their t's and dot all their i's before letting loose with these charges!
The full Clint Curtis sworn testimony before members of House Judiciary Committee is now available here. (Previously, we only had links to a portion of his testimony, which did not include his naming of Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) as having asked him to write the "vote-rigging software prototype! This clip now includes all of Curtis' testimony!
Bill Moyers looks inside the right-wing media machine that the conservative NEW YORK TIMES columnist David Brooks called a "dazzlingly efficient ideology delivery system."
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Bill Moyers makes his last appearance on NOW an important one; showing how the right-wing media has hijacked the information highway. Moyers tells the story of how "opinion" has been turned into "news" with an expert delivery system that supports the republican party's candidates and agenda. With millions of people watching and listening to this well-oiled machine, it's easy to understand how so many people armed with distorted facts and half-truths would go out and support their views.
Please make sure you watch the full show on your local PBS station.
and:
Please make a donation to PBS here.
Yaron Brook, from the Ayn Rand Institute was on The O'Reilly Factor Friday night and was so over the top that he even scared the bejesus out of Bill O'Reilly!
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Brook: I would like to see the United States turn Fallujah into dust [isn't it already?] ...if you are going to support the insurgents, you will not have schools, you will not have Mosques....
Bill: But then we would be Nazis...
Brook also defended the use of the Atom bomb on Japan:
Brook: We did not create more enemies we created more friends....We brought the Japanese people to their knees and it is the only way you can establish a democracy in a culture which is so opposed to freedom, is bring their culture to its knees.
As lunatic as some of the extremists are, Brook surpassed them all by implying that we should drop the bomb on civilians and level all of Iraq in the name of freedom. He made Ann Coulter's venom seem like raspberry Kool Aid. He reduced a usual Hannity vitriolic tirade into an annoying elevator music serenade. Now that's quite an achievement!
Circumcision Attempt - Father sentenced to three years
Ridgefield father Edwin B. Baxter asked God for mercy and a judge for understanding Wednesday as he faced sentencing for an attempted circumcision on his 8-year-old. Baxter said he was inspired to cut his son after reading Scripture and first consulted his wife.
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Baxter likely will appeal on the grounds that Rulli did not let him use his Christian fundamentalist faith as a defense, but Rulli cast doubt that argument will fly.
"The court has steadfastly held that you can't jeopardize the health and safety of your family because of your religious beliefs," Rulli said.
Can you imagine if this defense was successful?
