John Boehner (R-OH) and Harry Reid (D-NV)
Republicans want to focus on small business and Democrats wish to focus on education and new jobs. Both sides need to figure out how to structure it all in a stimulus package that should benefit all parties.
Republican Representatives to Obama "NAY"
Minority and Majority Leaders in the House
John Boehner (R-OH) and Harry Reid (D-NV)
Republicans want to focus on small business and Democrats wish to focus on education and new jobs. Both sides need to figure out how to structure it all in a stimulus package that should benefit all parties.
John Boehner (R-OH) and Harry Reid (D-NV)
Republicans want to focus on small business and Democrats wish to focus on education and new jobs. Both sides need to figure out how to structure it all in a stimulus package that should benefit all parties.
Obama to Republican leadership "I'm Your Boss Now - I Won"
President Obama discovers the fight goes on. Republican leadership continues to disagree with President Obama just as they disagreed with candidate and President-elect Obama. Nothing has change, they continue to spew the republican talking points instead of trying to find common ground and promote a viable stimulus pagckage to assist the country in it's recovery. Today Republican House Minority Leader John A. Boehner stated he thinks they have a plan that is better...you think!?
Israel Declares Unilateral Cease-fire
Hamas threatens to keep fighting until Israeli troops leave all together.
Will Holder Be Pardoned For His Past Mistakes?
Eric Holder is expected to be fiercly questioned by Sen. Specter concerning is advise on the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich. Republicans are concerned about Holder's ability to be an independent voice in Obama's Whitehouse.
(Source)
Golden Globes Night of Graciousness
BEST PICTURE (DRAMA)
Slumdog Millionaire
BEST PICTURE (COMEDY/MUSICAL)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
BEST ACTOR (DRAMA)
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
BEST ACTRESS (DRAMA)
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
BEST ACTOR (COMEDY/MUSICAL)
Colin Farrell, In Bruges
BEST ACTRESS (COMEDY/MUSICAL)
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Kate Winslet, The Reader
DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
EL PRESIDENTE'S MEET & GREET
If you look closely the lights dimmed because the press corp. was being shown the door but Barack started to speak and the lights came back up as he thanked President Bush for hosting an extroidinary opportunity for Barack to fellowiship as Obama stated.
President-Elect Barack Obama Enjoys A Golf Game in Hawaii Before Taking Office
Golf, Ice cream and Semper Fit workouts...President-elect Barack Obama and his family spend 20 days in Hawaii before moving to Capitol Hill.
Will History Record The George W. Bush Presidency Truthfully?
Will we Americans allow G.W. to ride off into the sunset with no protest or action against his crimes of ill intent, ignorance and arrogance? Bob Herbert's Op-Ed in the NY Times strongly suggest we not. As an American Blogger for Princess*King International, I personally will record my thoughts towards this piece of history and this President in particular as one of the top 5 worst periods of time in American history. Not just looking, but reaching forward, i will also consider the end of Mr. Bush's presidency the beginning of hope for the return of American greatness sparked and awakended by the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. America's first African American President - Carolyn J. Essex, PKI Blogger.
December 30, 2008
(Source)
Op-Ed Columnist
Add Up the Damage
By BOB HERBERT
Does anyone know where George W. Bush is?
You don’t hear much from him anymore. The last image most of us remember is of the president ducking a pair of size 10s that were hurled at him in Baghdad.
We’re still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is thrashing the Palestinians in Gaza. And the U.S. economy is about as vibrant as the 0-16 Detroit Lions.
But hardly a peep have we heard from George, the 43rd.
When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content to sigh good riddance. I disagree. I don’t think he should be allowed to slip quietly out of town. There should be a great hue and cry — a loud, collective angry howl, demonstrations with signs and bullhorns and fiery speeches — over the damage he’s done to this country.
This is the man who gave us the war in Iraq and Guantánamo and torture and rendition; who turned the Clinton economy and the budget surplus into fool’s gold; who dithered while New Orleans drowned; who trampled our civil liberties at home and ruined our reputation abroad; who let Dick Cheney run hog wild and thought Brownie was doing a heckuva job.
The Bush administration specialized in deceit. How else could you get the public (and a feckless Congress) to go along with an invasion of Iraq as an absolutely essential response to the Sept. 11 attacks, when Iraq had had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?
Exploiting the public’s understandable fears, Mr. Bush made it sound as if Iraq was about to nuke us: “We cannot wait,” he said, “for the final proof — the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
He then set the blaze that has continued to rage for nearly six years, consuming more than 4,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. (A car bomb over the weekend killed two dozen more Iraqis, many of them religious pilgrims.) The financial cost to the U.S. will eventually reach $3 trillion or more, according to the Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz.
A year into the war Mr. Bush was cracking jokes about it at the annual dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association. He displayed a series of photos that showed him searching the Oval Office, peering behind curtains and looking under the furniture. A mock caption had Mr. Bush saying: “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.”
And then there’s the Bush economy, another disaster, a trapdoor through which middle-class Americans can plunge toward the bracing experiences normally reserved for the poor and the destitute.
Mr. Bush traveled the country in the early days of his presidency, promoting his tax cut plans as hugely beneficial to small-business people and families of modest means. This was more deceit. The tax cuts would go overwhelmingly to the very rich.
The president would give the wealthy and the powerful virtually everything they wanted. He would throw sand into the regulatory apparatus and help foster the most extreme income disparities since the years leading up to the Great Depression. Once again he was lighting a fire. This time the flames would engulf the economy and, as with Iraq, bring catastrophe.
If the U.S. were a product line, it would be seen now as deeply damaged goods, subject to recall.
There seemed to be no end to Mr. Bush’s talent for destruction. He tried to hand the piggy bank known as Social Security over to the marauders of the financial sector, but saner heads prevailed.
In New Orleans, the president failed to intervene swiftly and decisively to aid the tens of thousands of poor people who were very publicly suffering and, in many cases, dying. He then compounded this colossal failure of leadership by traveling to New Orleans and promising, in a dramatic, floodlit appearance, to spare no effort in rebuilding the flood-torn region and the wrecked lives of the victims.
He went further, vowing to confront the issue of poverty in America “with bold action.”
It was all nonsense, of course. He did nothing of the kind.
The catalog of his transgressions against the nation’s interests — sins of commission and omission — would keep Mr. Bush in a confessional for the rest of his life. Don’t hold your breath. He’s hardly the contrite sort.
He told ABC’s Charlie Gibson: “I don’t spend a lot of time really worrying about short-term history. I guess I don’t worry about long-term history, either, since I’m not going to be around to read it.”
The president chuckled, thinking — as he did when he made his jokes about the missing weapons of mass destruction — that there was something funny going on.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 30, 2008, on page A21 of the New York edition.
December 30, 2008
(Source)
Op-Ed Columnist
Add Up the Damage
By BOB HERBERT
Does anyone know where George W. Bush is?
You don’t hear much from him anymore. The last image most of us remember is of the president ducking a pair of size 10s that were hurled at him in Baghdad.
We’re still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is thrashing the Palestinians in Gaza. And the U.S. economy is about as vibrant as the 0-16 Detroit Lions.
But hardly a peep have we heard from George, the 43rd.
When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content to sigh good riddance. I disagree. I don’t think he should be allowed to slip quietly out of town. There should be a great hue and cry — a loud, collective angry howl, demonstrations with signs and bullhorns and fiery speeches — over the damage he’s done to this country.
This is the man who gave us the war in Iraq and Guantánamo and torture and rendition; who turned the Clinton economy and the budget surplus into fool’s gold; who dithered while New Orleans drowned; who trampled our civil liberties at home and ruined our reputation abroad; who let Dick Cheney run hog wild and thought Brownie was doing a heckuva job.
The Bush administration specialized in deceit. How else could you get the public (and a feckless Congress) to go along with an invasion of Iraq as an absolutely essential response to the Sept. 11 attacks, when Iraq had had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?
Exploiting the public’s understandable fears, Mr. Bush made it sound as if Iraq was about to nuke us: “We cannot wait,” he said, “for the final proof — the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
He then set the blaze that has continued to rage for nearly six years, consuming more than 4,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. (A car bomb over the weekend killed two dozen more Iraqis, many of them religious pilgrims.) The financial cost to the U.S. will eventually reach $3 trillion or more, according to the Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz.
A year into the war Mr. Bush was cracking jokes about it at the annual dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association. He displayed a series of photos that showed him searching the Oval Office, peering behind curtains and looking under the furniture. A mock caption had Mr. Bush saying: “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.”
And then there’s the Bush economy, another disaster, a trapdoor through which middle-class Americans can plunge toward the bracing experiences normally reserved for the poor and the destitute.
Mr. Bush traveled the country in the early days of his presidency, promoting his tax cut plans as hugely beneficial to small-business people and families of modest means. This was more deceit. The tax cuts would go overwhelmingly to the very rich.
The president would give the wealthy and the powerful virtually everything they wanted. He would throw sand into the regulatory apparatus and help foster the most extreme income disparities since the years leading up to the Great Depression. Once again he was lighting a fire. This time the flames would engulf the economy and, as with Iraq, bring catastrophe.
If the U.S. were a product line, it would be seen now as deeply damaged goods, subject to recall.
There seemed to be no end to Mr. Bush’s talent for destruction. He tried to hand the piggy bank known as Social Security over to the marauders of the financial sector, but saner heads prevailed.
In New Orleans, the president failed to intervene swiftly and decisively to aid the tens of thousands of poor people who were very publicly suffering and, in many cases, dying. He then compounded this colossal failure of leadership by traveling to New Orleans and promising, in a dramatic, floodlit appearance, to spare no effort in rebuilding the flood-torn region and the wrecked lives of the victims.
He went further, vowing to confront the issue of poverty in America “with bold action.”
It was all nonsense, of course. He did nothing of the kind.
The catalog of his transgressions against the nation’s interests — sins of commission and omission — would keep Mr. Bush in a confessional for the rest of his life. Don’t hold your breath. He’s hardly the contrite sort.
He told ABC’s Charlie Gibson: “I don’t spend a lot of time really worrying about short-term history. I guess I don’t worry about long-term history, either, since I’m not going to be around to read it.”
The president chuckled, thinking — as he did when he made his jokes about the missing weapons of mass destruction — that there was something funny going on.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 30, 2008, on page A21 of the New York edition.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! IT'S YOUR TIME IN 2009....
FIREWORKS AND ROSES
(Camelot: City of Cerritos, Ca float entry)
(Camelot: City of Cerritos, Ca float entry)
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