Blog Box

February 10, 2006
Compiled and written by Delilah Boyd

The Untouchables

Laura Bush displays her basic instincts in public, a Republican staffer blogs her thong, move over Brokeback Mountain... here comes Snakes on a Plane, and BushCo's "Doogie" Deutsch joins "Heckuvajob" Brown and "Most Qualified" Miers in the They Were Expendable category. But as usual, the major BushCo players remain mysteriously untouchable.

When 1960's Protest Signs Come True

It finally happened. AmericaBlog held a virtual bakesale to help the Pentagon pay for military body armor. Actually, the money was raised to help a soldier pay the bill, sent by the Pentagon, to replace his military-issued, blown-to-smithereens body armor.

Wow, you guys were amazing. In just two hours, we raised over $5,000, with over 180 donations ranging from $1 to $400 (average donation was around $20, so this really was a community effort). If you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, see the post below. I've just spoken to the reporter who covered this story - he reassured me that the guy is for real - they've actually been covering his deployment to Iraq for a while now. I'm calling the service member yet. Here's to hoping that some day we won't need virtual body armor bake sales to help provide for our service members in Iraq.

Yet Donald Quacking Rumsfeld still has a job, and our corporate-owned media refuses to pursue the story of the missing Pentagon money, Bush's broken promises to military families, and the mysterious body armor shortage.

BushCo and the Body Armor Scandal: Untouchable.

Gone With The Wind

From Dan at myspace.com:

Just a quick update on the State of the Union speech, in which Bush called for more alternative energy research and dedication to math and science education: The Bush budget was revealed this weekend, and called for a $500 million cut in the Dept. of Education's budget, as well as the firing of many wind-energy and biomass researchers at the Dept. of Energy. Nuff said.

BushCo Oil Men and their Energy Independence Scam: Untouchable.

Bush Budget Buggery

The Democratic Daily points out the obvious:

The $2.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2007 would cut billions of dollars from domestic programs that help the poor, including "Medicare and food stamps to local law enforcement and disease control." The plan also calls for "extending most of his tax cuts beyond their 2010 expiration date."

BushCo and the War on the Lower 99% of the Tax Brackets: Untouchable.

Family Values, Republican Style

Have you heard the one about the Republican staffer with the sexy blog? No, not Mike DeWine's aide Jessica Cutler - Jeff Sessions' aide, Stormie Janzen, who posed on her blog with her pants down. Domepunks grabbed the pic before Ms. Stormie had to clam up delist her blog from public viewing. Ahem.

Though Stormie apparently does not talk about juicy encounters with other hill staffers, she does did appear with her pants opened and showing her thong tha thong thong thong. That was apparently a little much for Sessions' Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn, who has apparently made poor Stormie shut up remove the blog.

Why is Stormie's blog worth mentioning? It's an election year. MyDD explains:

A mere three days after (Democrat Brad) Ellsworth officially entered the (Indiana's 8th congressional) race, right-wing blogger Joshua Claybourn approached The Courier-Journal with photos of Ellsworth's 19-year-old daughter drinking alcohol that he pulled from her Facebook site. At his site, he pouted about having to engage in "politics of personal destruction," but argues that, since Ellsworth is a law enforcement official, it's relevant. My guess is that he'd hoped the photos would run with no mention of his name, but when his name came up, he recognized the need for some serious backpedaling. Rather than dismissing the photos as cheap politics unworthy of Hostettler, the Congressman's sister and spokeswoman Karen Hammonds ran with it, attacking Ellsworth's daughter for posting the photos. To me, that's enough to suggest that it was Hostettler's campaign who sent Claybourn to do their dirty work. After all, Claybourn counts Hostettler as one of his 'famous friends'. And even though Claybourn's taken down his blog's archives and immunized it from automatic archiving and cacheing with a robots.txt file (gee, why ever would he have done that?), a Google search reveals his ties to the Congressman, even in one post bragging about his "sources close to Congressman John Hostettler."

Democrats and their Kids: Infinitely Smearable.

BushCo Republicans and their Own Warped Sense of Family Values: Untouchable.

What Will They Censor Next?

First, it was the Rolling Stones at the Superbowl (Davenetics has the story). But will they howl when Samuel L. Jackson's Snakes On A Plane comes to a theater near them? Screenwriter Josh Friedman at I Find Your Lack Of Faith Disturbing posts:

Now out of both loyalty to the sacred bond between studio and screenwriter and also a serious desire to keep getting hired in this town, I will not give away any of the plot details of SNAKES ON A PLANE. But know this. As the great Sam Jackson would say: There are motherfucking snakes on the motherfucking plane. What else do you need to know? How the snakes get on the plane, what the snakes do once they're on the plane, who puts the snakes on the plane, who is trying to get the snakes off the plane...This is not for you to ponder. There are snakes on the plane. End of fucking story.

Brokeback Bush wouldn't dare admit to seeing (and possibly appreciating) the number one film in the country, but I'll bet the ranch that Snakes On A Plane, with Sammy L.'s distinctive, um, epithets adorning the finished script, will definitely make the Air Force One film list.

BushCo Hypocrisy v Hollywood: Untouchable.

Republican Funeral Behavior 101

Intelligence Squad, as usual, posts the shortest and sweetest response to the Republican-owned media mayhem machine's assault on Mrs. Coretta Scott King's mourners. While Intelligence Squad focuses on MSNBC's Don Imus, you can substitute any reichwinger's name for Imus and get the same result: "So I'll be damned if I'm gonna let a dusty racist cracker alcoholic like Imus tell me how to mourn the loss of a leader in my community."

Speaking of behavior, did you catch George and Laura at Mrs. King's funeral?

The media, of course, targeted everyone else's "behavior" and ignored George and Laura.

The BushCo First Family's Behavior: Untouchable.

Doogie BushCo-NASA Crony Resigns

Thanks to Nick Anthis, blogging at Scientific Activist, 24-year-old George Deutsch (Bush appointee as NASA's publications censor) is currently unemployed. As it happens, Anthis (a Rhodes scholar and Biochem grad student at Oxford) actually graduated from Texas A&M, where Bushco found Doogie Deutsch, boy Republican campaign worker, during the 2004 election.

At this point, while I am unaware of whether Deutsch graduated from college at all, it is clear that he did not graduate from A&M, and he may have intentionally misled people to believe that he did. The idea that NASA let a 24-year-old journalism major, with no experience in science or technology, other than writing a few articles about video games, determine what scientists were able to communicate to the public was pretty bad. The fact that he was censoring scientific information on global warming and the big bang made things more interesting, especially since he was a political appointee doing this to prevent challenges to the Bush administration's policies. But now, finding out that he did not even graduate from Texas A&M, and may not have graduated from college at all, is absolutely outrageous.

Anthis has since posted this update:

Instead of the story being about a 24-year-old lying, it should be about this: how did this guy, who already had dubious qualifications, make it into NASA with such an obvious lie on his resume? To work for a federal agency, including NASA, extensive background checks are usually required. If I was able to uncover the truth about Deutsch in one phone call, then he must have been placed in his current position without any investigation, due to his loyal service on the Bush presidential campaign. For a president that paints himself as a champion of national security, the NASA incident is a major blow to Bush's credibility. This isn't the first time either, with George Deutsch now joining the ranks of Michael Brown, the embattled former director of FEMA, and Harriet Myers, Bush's Supreme Court nominee who was subsequently withdrawn. Congratulations, Deutsch, this is a pretty elite circle!

Doogie Deutsch: Touchable.

BushCo Using Deutsch to Insert the Word "Theory" Next to "Big Bang" in NASA Publications and Dumping Him for Not Graduating From College: Untouchable.

Liberal Blogging Basics

In their new book, Take It Back, Carville and Begala encourage liberal bloggers to follow the standard set by Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, and Buzzflash, - and report the news - "with attitude."

How's this for setting the standard? While searching for "blogging standards" this week, I found The Olive Ream's Blog Disclaimer & FAQS, posted on May 14, 2005. Here's the disclaimer (which I am so grabbing for my own blog - and citing the source, of course):

This blog is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence action and some language. Parents are strongly cautioned. Some material will not be suitable for children under 13 and Bush supporters. Blog Side effects: Some readers may experience Fatigue, Drowsiness, Nausea, Blurred Vision, Slurred Speech, Tremors, Euphoria, Impairment of Memory, Confusion, Depression, Constipation, Skin Rash, Generalized Exfoliative Dermatitis, Changes in Libido and Loss of Appetite. The mentioned side effects remain for a short duration of time. However if you feel that they persist for a long period, please view the Fox channel immediately.

Here are a few of The Olive Ream's FAQS:

# I am aware that my posts might be grammatically incorrect but I think it would be more appropriate to ask me if I give a sh*t. And here's a ; to prove my point. # No, I am not an American, but I might play one on TV for large amounts of cash. # No, I do not support Bush or Blair as they don't play well with others. My mother warned me about people like them. She said, "Son, beware the minions of the antichrist, for they are quite thick and gittish." I believe she was talking about them. # Yes, there was a specific aim for starting this blog. It was to use the word 'lugubrious' in a sentence, and I think I just achieved my aim. Hurray! # Finally, for the genius that has emailed me asking for my email address, please seek professional help.

Thick and gittish. What a perfect description! Bush and his fellow gits and git-ettes are only untouchable if we, the people, let the media continue to ignore their despicable behavior. They're only untouchable if we refrain from ridiculing their pig ignorance of society and its Constitutional rights. And they're only untouchable if we don't stand up and shout, "We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take this any more!"

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