yeah im watching it right now.

i cant wait till the daily show tonight....

Or maybe the Daily Show next Monday when they'll actually cover this.

I was impressed that he actually said that he didn't feel his judicial nominees were not held up b/c of their faith.

That was also the only thing I was impressed by through the entire 4.5 years of his presidency.

Stuck In The Spin Cycle
Robert L. Borosage
April 29, 2005


Robert L. Borosage, a veteran strategist and institution builder, is co-director of the Campaign for America's Future.

With the economy slowing, wages stagnant, the Republican Congress stained by scandal and his poll numbers plummeting, George W. Bush called only the fourth press conference of his presidency to stanch the hemorrhaging. "I have a duty as the president," he said, "to define the problems facing the nation and to call upon people to act." What are those problems? Social Security benefits are too high and must be cut? Oil and gas subsidies are too low and must be raised? No wonder more and more Americans are beginning to think this president is part of the problem and not the solution.

The staggering failure of leadership was most apparent in what the president chose not to talk about—the economy. This economy is in trouble. Wages are not keeping up. Four years into the supposed recovery and Mr. Bush's plan has produced a net loss of private sector jobs. The dollar is falling but our trade deficits and foreign debt keep growing. We're borrowing over $2 billion a day, largely from China and Japan, to buy the goods they make with the jobs our corporations are taking there. This cannot be sustained.

Mr. Bush's answer for the economy? A stirring call for "legal reform" starting with passage of the asbestos bill, "an important reform in order to make sure that our economy continues to grow." He also called for keeping the tax cuts in place and continuing his feckless trade strategy by ratifying the Central American Free Trade Accord. This is a bad joke. CAFTA and asbestos reform do not address the perils facing our economy. The president is literally blind to this fundamental threat to this nation's security and prosperity. If his "duty as president" is to identify problems facing the nation and call people to act, his failure here is complete.

The president wasn't much better on the two subjects he did choose to address. On Social Security, the president offered a warmed-over stew of distortions and dodges. With the retirement of the baby boomers, America faces a serious, long-term fiscal challenge. But Social Security isn't the problem. Even if nothing is done, Social Security will meet the president's standard of paying out higher benefits in the future than are received today. Soaring Medicare and Medicaid costs are the major problem, an expression of our broken health care system. The president's only significant initiative in regard to this 'right now' crisis has been to make it worse— passing a prescription drug bill that prohibited Medicare from negotiating a lower price for drugs, a multi-billion dollar payoff to drug companies and HMOs.

While Social Security isn't in crisis, the president's plan would create one. He disparages the Treasury bonds held by the Social Security Trust Fund as simply "file cabinets full of IOUs." Then he proposes issuing another $15 trillion of those IOUs over 40 years—effectively tripling the national debt—to pay for private accounts. The president describes this as a boon to younger workers. But they will end up paying the interest on that debt, while suffering deep cuts in their guaranteed benefits. The only certain results of the president's plan are more seniors in poverty and more debt for the nation.

On energy, the divide between the president's rhetoric and his program grows ever wider. He calls for a comprehensive energy strategy, but offers a program laden with subsidies to oil, gas and nuclear producers, largely cobbled together in secret meetings with oil and gas industry lobbyists run by Dick Cheney. The president calls for energy independence, but offers a program that leaves us more dependent on foreign oil.

Here the crisis is real. We desperately need a president who will summon the country to launch a crash program on energy independence. Invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Mobilize American science and technology to make certain that we capture the green markets of the future. The Apollo initiative for new energy and good jobs for America—named after the John F. Kennedy-era Apollo program that put a man on the moon in 10 years after Kennedy issued the challenge to the country—outlines a $30 billion a year, 10-year program that will produce three million new jobs here at home while freeing America from its dependence on Persian Gulf oil. It stands in stark contrast with the president's failure of vision and leadership.

Most Americans like George Bush. His party controls both houses of Congress. His right-wing allies have built the most effective propaganda machine in the history of American politics. His administration is more disciplined about message than any in memory. But now the wheels are falling off. Americans are sensibly alarmed about the direction of the country. And in last night's press conference, Mr. Bush demonstrated clearly that they have every reason to be so.

Light, Sweet-Talking And Crude
Frank O'Donnell
April 29, 2005


Frank O'Donnell is president of Clean Air Watch, a 501 (c) 3 non-partisan, non-profit organization aimed at educating the public about clean air and the need for an effective Clean Air Act

You almost have to admire the bumbling bravado, even if the timing was bizarre.

With his ratings in a tailspin, the president disrupted the first night of the important networks "sweeps" to talk to the nation about gas prices—on the same day that ExxonMobil reported first-quarter profits had jumped 44 percent (roughly the amount gas prices have gone up).

After viewers suffered through cynical commercials extolling ExxonMobil's paramount interest in the environment and the nuclear industry's undying devotion to clean air, the president, adorned with martial red tie, launched into his spiel.

"I don't think you can make good, sound decisions based upon polls. And I don't think the American people want a president who relies upon polls and focus groups to make decisions for the American people."

And yet, for the energy portion of his news conference, the president did exactly that.

Business Week writer John Carey pointed out this week that recent presidential rhetoric on energy has closely mirrored recommendations of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who warned late last winter that Republicans needed to "retake" the energy issue or risk becoming the equivalent of an abandoned oil well. Last night was no exception.

Luntz identified several key "positive" themes for Republicans, including energy independence, the power of innovation and new technology and the importance of balancing new supplies with conservation.

The president has obviously been well-coached on the Luntz language, as evidenced by last night's performance.

A few examples:

Luntz recommendation: "Americans loathe the idea of being dependent." So stress "reducing our dependence" on foreign oil.
Bush: "To reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy..."

Luntz: Emphasize that the nation's energy problem "has been years in the making, and it will take years to solve."
Bush: "This is a problem that's been a long time in coming. We haven't had an energy policy in this country. And it's going to take us awhile to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy."

Luntz: Stress the concept of using "technology" and balance it with talk of "conservation."
Bush: "We must better use technology to become better conservers of energy…we need to be better conservers of energy."

Luntz: In hawking the idea of drilling in Alaska, say that "using modern techniques, only a very small area will actually be impacted by the development." And use the word "exploration" rather than "drill."
Bush: "ANWR is 19 million acres of land. Technology now enables us to use just 2,000 of that 19 million to be able to explore for oil and gas, so we can have oil and gas produced here domestically."

Despite regurgitating all the focus-group mumbo-jumbo, the president offered no real plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Though praising the House-passed energy bill (loaded with tax breaks for big energy companies like ExxonMobil), he conceded it "is certainly no quick fix" for higher gas prices. (The Energy Information Administration reported that an earlier, similar version of the legislation would actually increase gas prices.)

Interestingly, the president neglected to mention one concrete suggestion he had floated in a speech the previous day: the slick idea of turning military bases into refineries.

Perhaps, as CNN reported, the Pentagon itself was blindsided by the trial balloon. Or maybe because White House advisers just concluded the idea was just too off the wall.

After all, building a refinery isn't like putting up the big top in Carnivale . It's hard—and expensive. A group in Arizona is moving forward with a plan to build a new refinery at a projected cost of $2.5 billion (and that's before the cost overruns).

The real reason oil companies haven't built any refineries since the 1970s is that they've historically made small margins on refining, and they've found it profitable to make sure that there isn't a glut of fuel on the market.

Recent profit statements suggest the industry strategy is working pretty well for them, though not for hapless consumers.

ExxonMobil, for example, is reportedly sitting on $30 billion in cash. And analysts say the cash total will continue to climb. Rather than planning new refineries, the company said Thursday that it would start buying back some of its stock—a way to bolster the stock price.

Like other big oil companies, ExxonMobil opposes the one sure-fire, unmistakable way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil: requiring better gas mileage. (One big reason we are having today's pinch at the pumps is that cars and light trucks actually get worse gas mileage on average than in 1987.)

Unfortunately, the president is not about to break ranks with the oil industry on this issue. And it is a pity. Once again last night, he demonstrated he can be bold. Just not bold enough to require even a few more miles per gallon.

How effective was last night's news conference? A sign of potential trouble for the president is that three of the four networks cut him off and resumed normal programming before he had finished. Even Bush-friendly Fox abruptly cut into Bush's answer of the final question to shift away to Paris Hilton and The Simple Life: Interns.

Perhaps the Rude Pundit'stake on the press conference is a bit more fair and even-handed.

4/29/2005
George Bush and the Squirrel Monkey Press Conference:
Let us say, and why not, that at last night's press "conference," President George W. Bush finished his more obviously prepared remarks by pulling a cute little squirrel monkey out of his jacket and said, "Now, ya'll see this female squirrel monkey, finest squirrel monkey ass in the rainforest. Now ya'll watch me as I fuck the shit out of this squirrel monkey while ya'll ask me questions." And then the Leader of the Free World began to, as he said, fuck the shit of the squirrel monkey, fucking it in its little squirrel monkey vagina, the horrible screams of the squirrel monkey echoing throughout the East Room of the White House.

So then let us say, and, indeed, why not, that reporter after reporter got up and asked questions, like "I wonder what you think, generally, about the role that faith is playing, how it's being used in our political debates right now," and instead of answering, Bush said, "Now, watch, I'm gonna turn this lil' monkey over and fuck her in her cute ol' asshole," followed of course by more fucking and more monkey screams, a little weaker now.

Oh, sure, the reporters would keep trying to ask questions to get real answers because, you know, they have to pretend that way. But the President of the United States had an agenda: to fuck that squirrel monkey in front of the media and the nation. When a reporter asked, say, "Can you explain for us how, if it were passed soon after it were introduced, the energy bill would have an effect on the current record price of oil that we're seeing out there," that reporter would not receive a direct answer. Instead, Bush would respond, "Can't you see I'm fuckin' a squirrel monkey here, and now that it's stopped screamin' so loud, I think it's startin' to like it."

Yes, yes, the saddest part of the press conference would be when everyone realized the poor, cute squirrel monkey was dead, but there was no way that George Bush was going to stop fucking the monkey's limp corpse, yelling, "You know you like that you, lil' monkey bitch, you know you like my Presidential seal." The squirrel monkey, of course, wouldn't respond, except with the cracking of a bone or two. A reporter could ask a truly important question, one that gets to the very nature of the national identity, like "Mr. President, under the law, how would you justify the practice of renditioning, where U.S. agents who bust terror suspects abroad, taking them to a third country for interrogation? And would you stand for it if foreign agents did that to an American here?" but George Bush would brush that aside, constantly thrusting his cock into the distressingly broken corpse of the monkey. Although, truth be told, there's only so long one can watch a man fuck a dead monkey before it gets tiresomely repetitive.

Finally, George Bush would come, wipe his half-erect dick with the ragdoll monkey, and toss it in the garbage. He'd thank the gathered reporters for watching him fuck a squirrel monkey to death and then exit with that old cowpoke with the DTs walk he's got.

Everyone there would know that they just participated in an absolutely useless ritual, an exhibitionistic game, and they'll all be back next time to play their parts.

Well the people spoke, and at the end of the day, four more years of being George W. Bush's squirrel monkey is what the majority wanted. At least some of us have the satisfaction of knowing we were right 4-1/2 years ago and 6 months ago when we voted against him. Enjoy your ass-fucking America! It's only just begun!!

yeah... kerry would've been so much better

until there is serious change, ass-fucking will take place from the left and/or the right

The ultimate irony is that people like you guys are the reason he won re-election.

The ultimate irony is that people like you guys are the reason he won re-election.