The quote you see above is the president having an ever so brief moment of clarity during a Economic Team meeting where advisors were pushing for a second round of tax cuts for the wealthy.

The President was overruled. This president is a joke/puppet/moron/liar. Pick one, they all apply.

The quote appears in Ron Suskind's new book which has all those O'Neill quotes we've been hearing lately.

I'm sure the dead soldiers and their families are thrilled to hear that.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your pleasure, a smoking gun.

Decide on a goal, make up evidence to justify illegal actions used to achieve that goal. Lie.
Repeat as necessary.



Bush should be impeached for this, if not for the thousands of innocent people he killed in his grab for oil.

O'Neill was also quoted in the book as saying that the administration's decision-making process was so flawed that often top officials had no real sense of what the president wanted them to do, forcing them to act on "little more than hunches about what the president might think."

O'Neill said in his CBS interview that the atmosphere was similar during the one-on-one meetings he held with Bush.

Speaking of his first meeting with the president, O'Neill said, "I went in with a long list of things to talk about and, I thought, to engage (Bush) on. ... I was surprised it turned out me talking and the president just listening. It was mostly a monologue."

[O]nly 1,000 jobs were added to non-farm payrolls in the last month of 2003, when economists were expecting employers to create 148,000 new jobs.

In response to the news the markets fainted away in what a spokesman termed, "a case of the vapors."

Update: Atrios points out that if the numbers from previous months hadn't also been adjusted today the report would have read 50,000 jobs lost last month.

Huh.

The 400 member team that was hunting for Weapons of Mass Destruction has left Iraq.

Bill O'Reilly owes the American people an apology.

Lying, Blotchy Whore

"[I]f weapons of mass destruction aren't found...I will have to apologize because I bought into it."
- Bill O'Reilly, April 22, 2003

No comment from O'Reilly.

Josh Marshall consistently posts stuff that blows my mind, but this one is special. He points out that the word "neoconservative" is being redefined by neoconservatives as a code word for "Jew."

Why would they do that? Well, if you criticize Neocon policies you're not only wrong (in their view) but as a bonus you're also Anti-Semitic. The Hitler comparisons write themselves.

I have to admit, this is something that never even occurred to me. Maybe it's because I'm not particularly religious, therefore conspiracies against my faith aren't the first thing on my mind when I'm reading the news. I don't hate groups of people, I hate everyone equally.

In the end, stating that Neocon=Jew is just plain laughable. There's big differences in there, chief among them the fact that Jews aren't evil and Neocons are.

Drudge has been pushing this story for two days and now the rest of the right-wing media is picking it up- these commercials haven't aired, these were two of over a thousand entries in a contest to pick the best ad. These two didn't win. What's the controversy?

That being said, MoveOn.org is wussing out- if they had any balls they'd say, "We'll stop comparing you to Hitler when you stop acting like Nazis."

Update 1/7/04: Okay, I admit, if they had said that, MoveOn.Org would be over. But I think it was the movie Blade 2 which said it best- "It's better to burn out than to fade away."

Pat Fitzgerald is looking into this leak as well.

Something to think about- the thousands of pills prescribed to Limbaugh that we've heard about so far were from just one pharmacy. The medical records that Rush is fighting to keep sealed contain the full list of prescriptions. So, obviously barring malpractice or more doctors standing in the shadows, there's a strong likelyhood that the drugs that are accounted for are the tip of the iceberg.

Also don't forget, these were only supplementing the thousands of pills he was illegally buying from his housekeeper. That's a whole different case with even bigger consequences.

On to privacy of his medical records- in a perfect world, the records would stay sealed and Rush would be "sent up" for his independently established crimes, which include laundering money, illegally purchasing narcotics, and distribution of a controlled substance. I can see why the prosecution is going the direction it is - once the medical records can be reviewed it's solid, black and white evidence. That's much better than a maid who cashed in her story with a tabloid.

Privacy- it's one of those things where you don't miss it until it's gone, and by that time it's too late. Limbaugh is on the air every day talking about how his constitutional right to privacy has been grievously violated. How he justifies the complete reversal of his statements from just a couple of months ago is unclear.

Limbaugh is a sad, desperate, despicable little man, but he has bags and bags of money. Up until now, those who believed their constitutional rights were violated haven't had the means to fight back and challenge the constitutionality of the laws that are putting them away. Limbaugh, on the other hand, can (and will) fight going to jail with every dollar he has.

Already we've seen laws that he's applauded in the past used against him- he says unfairly. Now that Rush has seen what he deems abuse of the system will it change his mind about the treatment of others who are accused of committing crimes? Not likely... But one possible outcome could be good for the US Constitution. Rush could challenge the constitutionality of the Patriot Act. After all, who better to take on John Ashcroft than Rush Limbaugh?

At this point, prosecutors have seized Limbaugh's medical records from four doctors to try to determine whether he illegally went from doctor to doctor to get enough drugs to satisfy his habit. On his radio show and in court, Limbaugh has complained bitterly that the seizure violates his right to privacy, in particular regarding medical matters. But Limbaugh seeks a protection that he would deny to others.

On April 4, for example, Limbaugh noted that American doctors had performed spinal surgery on Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who had just been rescued. According to a transcript of his broadcast (rushtranscript.blogspot.com), Limbaugh offered conjectures as to why the surgery was necessary:

"One of the things that we do know about, from anecdotal evidence from previous captures of female POWs, is that the Iraqis hang them naked by their feet," Limbaugh said. "Now, you take it from there -- but she did suffer from some lumbar spinal injuries that required surgery."

He also noted that Lynch had suffered two broken ankles. "Yeah, two broken ankles, which might have come from the being hung naked upside down by the ankles."

To Limbaugh's frustration, the military had refused to release further medical information, citing respect for Lynch's privacy. He wanted to know if Lynch had been raped, he said, not out of voyeurism but because it might shut up those feminists who are always griping about letting women serve alongside men in the military.

Medical records should be private. Rush suddenly believes this too. Well, how fucking convenient.

I wonder if Rush is still so vigorously defending the USA Patriot Act now that he realizes the great power that the government has over his life. Well, Rush, this is what we've been saying- Big Brother is here, and it's your fault.

You say the investigators are demmycrats looking to take you down... let's assume for a moment that all the investigators are on the DNC payroll (yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but we're dealing with Rush Limbaugh...) Who gave these "evil" investigators all these powers to invade your privacy to investigate your illegal drug purchases? While it's questionable if this is actual abuse, what's clear is that it's easier to invade privacy of ordinary citizens than it has been since this country was founded.

Thanks for that, Rush.