Save The Cheerleader, Screw The World!

[BlogBox]

This week's hot blog topics: Laura's blood clot dress debacle; The Bush administration's black redaction ink bill must be astronomical; winners and losers in the revoltin' Bolton resignation rumble; holiday gift ideas for the terminally freeperish on your list (won't you please help a Powerline reader see the light?); Tricky Dick Cheney's new grandchild will have two mommies; the Bush Rescue Team Report is out, and W now stands for Whipped... but good. All this and much more, including one of the best blogger rants ever posted. Enjoy!

Clue: Ms. Homeless, With A Teddy Bear, Over The White House Fence

Move over, Miss Scarlet! There's a new perpetrator in the game. Yes, both the White House and the Old Executive Office Building were completely locked down this week after "suspicious packages" were sighted. Wonkette has the details and this photo of a possible suspect:


This is about as weird as those DC winter business closings, when the local news crews announce that the NSA is closed for the day. Really makes those of us in DC feel secure, doesn't it? What we need is fewer obvious false alarm/diversions and more whistles blown. Case in point, Steve Young's "Heckuva Job, Al-Maliki" slam against BushCo's ham-handed, pre-empted blame-the-Iraqis strike while on his way for a face-to-face with his target. Was it really a whistleblower, or did BushCo think it was a good idea to humiliate its own puppet? It just gets weirder and weirder, doesn't it?

Speaking of weird, Laura Bush looks like she wa's wearing a giant CSI-approved blood clot at the Kennedy Center Honors last week (yes, Virginia, Dolly Parton's projectile boobs are bigger than her head).


Towleroad has the story of Laura and the three not-so-wise women who wore that exact same off-the-rack De La Renta to the same function.

Laura Bush in Red Dress Alert at the White House

Three women experienced their worst holiday nightmare following Sunday's Kennedy Center Honors when they showed up to the White House reception wearing the same $8,500 red Oscar de la Renta dress as First Lady Laura Bush.

Unfortunately they were not promoting Bono's (RED) campaign.

Jackie O. Is smiling. The rest of us are rolling on the floor, laughing our asses off.

Life With & Without Bolton

Steve Clemmons (at TPMCafe) lists his picks for winners and losers, now that revoltin' Bolton is history. The biggest loser: Condoleeza Rice. Click the link for some more surprises from The Washington Note's Clemmons, who's posting at TPM Cafe instead of on his own site, and ask yourself why he chose to do this. Personally, it's a puzzle.

Let's Hear It For FOIA... Not!

Guess what happens when you go through all of the steps to get info that's supposed to be public knowledge in the first place. Actually, it's worse than you think. From the CREW Blog:

CREW has been trying to obtain access visitor records to the White House for months now. Those records had been under the control of the Secret Service, which made them subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The White House is now claiming visitor records are under their control -- and, therefore, not subject to FOIAs because the White House is exempt. We believe that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been in a dispute with the White House about those records. NARA doesn't quite buy the White House argument -- and we want to know what they've said to the White House. So, we sent a FOIA request to NARA requesting the relevant the relevant documents.

Here's an example of BushCo's response to CREW's request:


Question: Who's got the BushCo black ink contract? Lucrative, to say the least.

Gift-Giving Ideas

Still looking for that perfect gift for the fascist fundies (pitiful Powerline pundit wannabes) in your life? TPM Muckraker has updated the "Scandalized Admin Officials: The List."

Our Great List of Scandalized Administration Officials
By Justin Rood

A number of readers have sent in tips to help the folks at Powerline, who recently admitted to having trouble remembering administration officials (beyond Scooter Libby) who had been accused of corruption or resigned in the face of scandal.

How could you forsake us!, cry our old pals Claude Allen, David Safavian, Brian Doyle. Who could forget former FDA commissioner, Lester Crawford? After the jump, you'll find our partial (but fast-growing) list. If we're missing a name, please send it along!

Do some good this holiday season. Help Powerline readers see the light. Send Justin Rood the names of any local, state, or national Republicans under investigation, indicted, or convicted... and don't forget those who've resigned under suspicious circumstances.

Another great gift idea: video links. From News Hounds:

One Story, Two Very Different Slants

If there are any doubts that Fox News sells fear, a look at how Fox News and another network covered the same story should dispell them. With video.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., gave a speech in New Hampshire the other night at which he proposed limiting Americans' constitutional right of free speech in order to fight terrorism. Both Keith Olbermann, anchor of MSNBC's "Countdown," and Martha MacCallum, anchor of Fox News' "Live Desk" did stories on the event, which aired less than 24 hours apart. The two stories were as different as night and day.

Click the link to read how differently MSNBC's Olbermann and FOX's McCallum treated the Gingrich story and to view the videos, then give the links to your first amendment-hating pals and see what happens. By the way, while yu're at News Hounds, check out this post, in which O'Reilly and Goldberg compare "The View" to a Klan meeting. It's a laugh riot.

Tears Of An Assclown

Why did George Sr. cry during Jeb's gubernatorial farewell fete? Thomas de Zengotita (at The Huffington Post) has a theory:

Jeb was always the heir apparent. He was supposed to be The One.

Little George, on the other hand, was a profound embarrassment to the Bush clan, drunk or sober, oozing and leaking uncontrollable emotions, in triumph and defeat, ever since he earned his mother's lasting scorn throwing his tennis racket to the ground after flubbing shots on country club courts back when you had to wear whites to play that urgent (but discretely so) pong-ponging game with those who bore so effortlessly the grace of timeless class.

Need more evidence that we're not the only ones ready to 86 43? Here's a goody from SolarBus:

It occurred during a short promo for a program featuring Bush I. (view the 5-second promo video below). As the screen shows the words "former President Bush," the editors chose to flash to a the video of George W, keeping the words "former President Bush" on the screen for quite a while. Was this a Freudian slip? Intentional? The Universe playing games?

Whatever the reason, that pic is suitable for framing, SolarBus. Thanks!

Thank A DUer!

To elehhhhna for posting this... um, photograpic evidence of masculine... er, pride... or prowess... or something:


To Contrary1 for yet another great take on the reason that Vera Wang weeps this week:

The White House Christmas Drapes Have Arrived!

I know...I'm a bad person.

You're not a bad person, Contrary1! You just know creepiness when you see it.

And finally, to WestHoustonDem for posting this "mysterious sighting in Waco, TX":


Technicians, Start Your Turkey Basters!

Always quick on the trigger, Rising Hegemon had this posted quicker than you can say Dick Cheney's new grandchild will have two mommies:

Recently, at an Undisclosed Location

Note that the right-wing hasn't even considered the possibility that Mary C. might have conceived the old-fashioned way. Now, if some brave person posted that at the site which shall not be named, I wonder how long it would take to be banned.

Impeach The Cheerleader, Save The World!

Thanks to Welcome To Pottersville for inspiring this week's column title. Here's a snippet from one of the best rants I've ever read:

This administration just. Doesn't. Fucking. Get it. They still have yet to grasp that what Iraq, what America needs isn't reshrink-wrapped damaged goods that find their way in the idea market place's bargain bin. We don't need more talking points or agreed-upon catch phrases that everyone dutifully parrots like pitchmen hawking the latest iPod. We don't need a new spin on the same old shit that Stevie Wonder can see in a dark room wearing heavily smoked glasses:

Iraq is going to the dogs of war. They're in the first throes of civil war (or worse. At least in a civil war, you know who your fucking enemy is) and all that remains is for Margaret fucking Mitchell to rise from the grave to write a bloated romance novel about it.

And don't go looking for Estonia and Latvia for much help. The article proudly says that "they are strong allies in the war on terror" without, wisely, venturing a comprehensive definition of the word "strong." Estonia and Latvia, to the rest of Europe, are probably looked upon as equal contenders for the inspiration for The Mouse That Roared.

Read the rest. It's a keeper. Unfortunately, Baker's "Bush Rescue Team Report," released this week, completely ignores any iota of Bush accountability. In fact, this report's title should read: Save The Cheerleader, Screw The World! The best post on the report comes from Jimmy-John Jim-Jam's Jumpin'-Jamboree!, who notes:

What is so galling is that the report was an obvious move by the GOP to define and grab the debate before the Democrats could, though it's doubtful it will have any effect in this direction. It's not a legitimate governmental study, anyway, and the 'bipartisan' nature is just another sham.

Many of these recommendations have been voiced by the public and even in Congress, for over a year. Baker states, 'these are policy recommendations that have a chance'. Fine, let's say the political-class is stupid enough to continue down the same-path--Iraq will still be a disaster, American power will continue to wilt at an alarming-rate worldwide anyway, and we'll have the happy-result of a bipartisan demise. Incumbents of both-parties will be swept-out permanently if there is no solid-path out of Iraq. 'We're the only bipartisan commission,' says the study-group. Rumpelstiltskin-Rumpelstiltskin-Rumpelstiltskin.

Thanks, Jimmy-John Jim-Jam. I always thought James "Slimy Little Troll" Baker looked familiar.

That was the blog week that was. So many George W. Failures, so little time. Off the blogosphere radar this week, though, was the growing number of "suspicious packages" around Washington DC. SWAT teams, and snipers, and robots, Oh My! Anything to divert attention, right? Maybe next week the media hairdos will devote some non-stop coverage to this national crisis of lost lunch bags and terrorist/tourist sightings. Fear: it's just so Republican, isn't it? Be careful out there among the wingnuts, but don't let Republican-induced fear consume your life. I mean it, damn it. Keep sending those great blog links, and don't stop fighting the right!

-- Delilah Boyd

[badgerpup]

1. Kickin' and Wreck...er...Reckin'....

:kick:

[Psychmd]

2. Love the Heroes reference

If only we had some true heroes to take care of the mess this world is in.

[Wheezy]

3. For the artists out there...

I've had this idea for a comic or a t-shirt or whatever, but I don't do art.


It's a Save the cheerleader, save the world idea... like, maybe Pappy Bush is sitting at a desk (or in a game show, being asked to choose between 2 options) and has two thought bubbles with pictures -- one of Dubya the cheerleader ("Save the cheerleader?") and one with a tsunami related picture or a pic of himself and Bill Clinton ("...or save the world?").

Or, maybe it's Al Gore with the thought bubbles: cheerleader Dubya and "An Inconvenient Truth"

Anybody wanna play with this idea? It's yours for the taking.

wheezy

[pepperbear]

4. RE: The upholstery red

Tim Gunn says no.