Bush Insider Declares Administration was "Foolish" After 9/11

A second insider has come out in criticism of the Bush and his administration. Vijay Padmanabhan the State Department's chief counsel on Guantanamo litigation during the Bush years has stated that it was "foolish" for the Bush administration to declare that detainees were beyond the reach of U.S. and international laws and the Geneva Conventions.

"Guantanamo was one of the worst overreactions of the Bush administration." In his interview, he basically calls George Bush a liar because the former president has stated repeatedly that torture never occurred after 9/11.

Last week, another former official in the Bush State Department publicly criticized the administration for its Guantanamo policies.

When conservatives talk about honor, liberty and everything America stands for, why is sometimes okay to shit all over U.S. and international laws and the Geneva Conventions?

I have no problem with torture, do it if it will save a life, just don't turn around and give me a patriotic speech about honor and the great American way. I've yet to ever read about George Washington water boarding one of the Brits.

Drunks Ruin Chicago South Side Tradition

The last time I was at the St. Patrick's day parade had to be about four years ago. It was pretty much like any other St. Paddy's day parade, folks looking at floats, all my favorite crooked politicians waving at the crowd, fun music, and of course hundreds and hundreds of drunken fools everywhere.

In my college days, I could drunk with the best of them. I have no problem with folks getting plastered, hey have fun. The only problem I have is when your fun comes at the expense of others who would rather not share in your reveling.

An over thirty year tradition is coming to an end thanks to a bunch of dumb asses who like to tear up shit that's not theirs. In the years that I have attended the parade, which runs along Western Avenue from 103rd to 115th Street, I have seen tavern windows busted out, local home owners lawn's pissed on, fist fights and pools of vomit in the streets.

The Beverly neighborhood which the parade runs through is a hardworking upper middle class neighborhood that has had it's fill of the shenanigans that has come with the South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade.

The South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade, a mainstay in the Beverly neighborhood for more than 30 years, will be discontinued "in its present form," parade officials announced Wednesday.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports that it may be the largest neighborhood celebration in America, attracting up to 400,000 each year - honoring faith, family and charities of every sort.

The parade, which runs along Western Avenue from 103rd to 115th Street, will not be staged "in its present form" in March 2010, according to a release from the parade committee.

Committee members say it was a "difficult decision" that was not unanimous, but that all agreed they needed to do "something dramatic" about abuses along the route.

This year's parade attracted hundreds of.......

UPDATE:

Evergreen Park, (a suburb so close to the City you can barely tell you entered it) is looking into adopting the parade in their town next year:

Chicago Sun-Times:

BY MARK J. KONKOL Staff Reporter/mkonkol@suntimes.com

Could Chicago's South Side Irish Parade go suburban?

Evergreen Park Mayor James Sexton wants to find out. He sent village residents an e-mail Thursday asking if they'd be for hosting the parade on 95th Street between Pulaski and Francisco.

"It's a really great tradition. We want to know what our people think," Sexton said. "We haven't made any commitments, but we have a successful July Fourth parade with almost as many people and we've never had a problem. I don't think we've ever had an arrest."

The South Side Irish Parade committee decided Tuesday to cancel the parade after 31 years, saying the event got too big and too wild for the neighborhood.

Sexton said keeping the tradition alive shouldn't be too difficult.

"We just won't allow the drinking and shenanigans. We'd have police on every corner watching, and if someone causes trouble, we'll lock 'em up," he said.

Sexton said he's only received one call concerning his e-mail poll.

"One guy did respond and said he thought it was a good idea and would help businesses along 95th," Sexton said. "I'm sure we'll hear from a lot of people the next few days."

Party of No Answers, Only Criticism

After being chllanged by president Obama for not having an alternative budget to his won, the republicans held a sizable press conference today to prove him wrong.

"President Obama said that republicans did not have a plan, well here it is Mr. President," said rep. John Boehner as he held up a 19 page document that apparently contain the answers to all of Americans plights.

As I looked over the document for myself, I came to the realization that this was nothing more than same talking points they have been using for years, but this time it had no real plan at all.

The "report" contains no hard spending numbers or deficit projections. Per the AP, "One of the few hard bits of information is a promise to simplify the tax code and cut income tax rates to 10 percent for people making $100,000 or less down. They also promise to cut domestic spending below current levels but don't say whether they are exempting Social Security. It's impossible to determine the projected deficit based on their offering."

So basically they decide after criticizing Timothy Geithner when he first came out with a banking plan because it had no real details, they decide it was best for them to do the same. Not only have they made themselves look like morons for holding this press conference that not only pissed off reporters on the right and the left, but they have made themselves look like idiots for downing everything the democrats have been doing, while they themselves had no plan at all.

Of course the DNC smiled as they released this statement on the republican press conference:

"After 27 days, the best House Republicans could come up with is a 19-page pamphlet that does not include a single real budget proposal or estimate," said DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan. "While there had been talk that House Republicans were overriding their Senate counterparts to offer a budget alternative, it's clear after this announcement that neither of them have anything to offer but criticism."

Hey maybe rep. Eric Cantor left all the answers for their budget at the Britney Spears concert.

Again no answers:

DNC's Repsonse:

Obama Administration Changing Their Tune on Assault Weapons?

The NRA has had a bulls eye on Barack Obama (of course not literally, take it easy) since the day he won the democratic nomination. Visiting their site during the campaign, you would think you were on Hannity or Limbaugh's website.

Gun sales across the country have gone up thirty-five percent over the previous year's sales, in some states as high as 87%.

Gun lovers ran to their local gun shops after the election in fear, grabbing whatever semi-automatic rifle and handgun they could get their hands on. The fear was that president Obama would soon be clamping down and banning anything more than six shooter.

This recent Newsweek article suggest that Holder and Obama might be backing down from their assault weapon ban idea after much resistance. My guess is that with all the problems the country is facing, an assault weapons ban would be the very last battle that Obama and team will want to deal with.

Also at this point I really don't think he could even get it passed. Something however needs to be done with these weapons getting in the hands of drug cartels in Mexico and gang-bangers here in the U.S.

I being a moderate democrat do support gun rights fully, and I don't agree with any type of ban. Like the old saying goes "guns don't kill people, people kill people." Now if we could just ban idiots and criminals from owning guns everything would be fine.

Chicago Police Soon to be Equipped With M4 Rifles

A small controversy has been going on in the my hometown Chicago over officers being equipped with military M4 assault rifles. This was originally announced a year ago by new superintendent Jody Weis. Mayor Richard Daley said he backs a measure proposed by Weis back in April.

It was "not a difficult decision" to put the weapons of the Chicago police on par with those of area criminals.

"We are finding out that the weapons of criminals are getting bigger and bigger,'' Daley said. "Many times, (police) are outgunned, to be very frank.''

Police Superintendent Jody Weis said the proposal is part of a wider crime-fighting strategy aimed at boosting the strength of the 13,000 rank-and-file Chicago police officers.

There were 24 Chicago public school children killed by gun-violence in the 2008 school year and a gunmen armed with an AK-47 injured 27 people during a battle with police last year. This year has already surpassed last school year with 27 kids killed by gun violence.

There are opponents to officers carrying these weapons, among them a group of Southwest side youths question the need.

I for one think this is a good idea. With special training and procedure usage, the rifles themselves will only be used in situations like the one last year.

Police have gotten a bad rap, thanks to a few bad apples in the bunch, but when trouble arises or our family is in danger, who you gonna call?

Show me the Budget!

From day one, the republican party has turned the strategy towards the offense at the Obama administration. They have attack his proposed budget from all possible angles saying it spends too much and will not have a positive outcome. Some non-partisan folks feel the same, however they also ask the GOP if his budget won't work, what is your solution?

Eric Cantor one of Obama's biggest critics from the right, has been the spokesperson for the republican party against the president's budget. On several occasions, Cantor has had opportunities to present an alternative budget, but each and every time he and the republicans come up empty.

President Obama himself has come out to chastise the republicans for not having an alternative budget but plenty of criticisms. "We haven’t seen any alternative budget out of them," he said. The critics tend to criticize but they don't have an alternative budget."

The DNC also responded to criticisms from Rep. Eric Cantor and Rep. John Boehner:

"While President Obama has offered a responsible plan to get America's priorities in order and create jobs for American workers, John Boehner and the Party of No are still standing in the way," said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse. "The time has come for Republicans in Congress to put up or shut up. Either support the President's budget or present their own plan to create jobs, fix our schools, reform our health care system, and make America energy independent."

We currently are still waiting guys .........................................

"Independent Conservative" Tammy Bruce Crossing the Line With Michelle Obama

In the war of politics insults are thrown around equally and frequently by both the left and the right. Let's see I have called George Bush an idiot, a fool, dumb ass etc.....which is probably mild compared to what others have said. But when it comes down to it, he did a job that even If I tried my hardest, could not do.

Since the day Barack Obama was thrust into the spotlight two years ago, the floodgates opened up on the right with attack after attack. In the right-wing of the media, the mild and cautious type of attacks, and in the blogoshpere you had the good ol' down and dirty ones thrown around.

There's always a line that some people love to get close too, but rarely ever cross. I've heard criticisms of presidential candidates spouses, and even mild insults, but this one takes the cake.

A regular Fox News contributor and radio talk show host Tammy Bruce filled in for Laura Ingram on her radio program Monday evening. During the show she began to talk about Michelle Obama's recent visit to an inner city school in Washington D.C.

This is the school visit She was referring to:

Okay, for those who may not have grown up in an inner city neighborhood that was predominantly Black or Hispanic, I can explain what talking White is. Children that are raised and brought up solely in those areas speak mainly slang. Basically speaking improper English, not because it's cool, but because that's all you know. Street smarts, and the speaking the language is how you blend in. I was a product of those areas, but was also exposed to the "real world" where everyone else spoke English the way it was intended to be spoken.

If you were lucky to experience both worlds as a child, like coming from a suburban area to the inner city, your dialect was seen as different. A dialect that was only heard on television which of course was dominated by White people. Everyone on television did not use slang and were different also, and we all know how kids treat other kids that are different, hence the phrase "talking like a White person."

Alright back to Ms. Bruce. After playing a part of the clip where Michelle Obama talks to the older kids about being teased for "talking White." She then says this:

"...You know what we've got? We've got trash in the White House. Trash is a thing that is colorblind, it can cross all eco-socionomic...categories. You can work on Wall Street, or you can work at the Wal-Mart. Trash, are people who use other people to get things, who patronize others, who consider you bitter and clingy..."

So to sum things up, I think Ms. Bruce stepped over the line of cheap shots and insults. I have always kept first wives out of the battle ground of insults, always. I would love to see if an apology is made by the radio station Laura Ingram or be a miracle Tammy Bruce. If Ann Coulter won't say it, it's gotta be really bad.

Here it for yourself, then tell me who's the trash:

Palin & Pals "Thanks but Thanks" for That Stimulus Money

I find it humorous that in the beginning when the stimulus bill was first passed how some republican governors went to the media to let everyone within shouting distance that they may reject all or most of the stimulus money. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Sarah Palin of Alaska, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Rick Perry of Texas have from the start been opponents of the stimulus bill.

It certainly got them a lot of air time on Meet the Press, Fox News and CNN, and I'm sure it gain them a lot of points with constituents. It also helps those who are considered front runners for a 2012 run at the White House like Sarah Palin. She held a press conference last week to say she would reject 30% of the stimulus money, I guess the other 70% was conservative enough for her.

But now after some bipartisan backlash on her decision to stand up for what is best for her state, her Lt. Governor, not her comes out to flip-flop from the previous media gathering:

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell showed up to deliver Palin's message - that she's not necessarily "rejecting" the money, but wants a public debate on how it's spent and whether it would cost the state in the long run.

Among the questions: Is the governor's team trying to have it both ways - saying "no" to the money while leaving the door open to spending it?

So after voting no, and saying this is the wrong thing to do, republicans in general have been taking credit for bringing in cash they were opponents of.

Government Screws American Workers, Buying Condoms From China

Does the government get it? Apparently not. This is not a democrat or a republican thing but a bureaucrat thing. All the money the government blows every year and now we decide the best way to save a few bucks is to layoff 300 workers here and give the business to China. Since Bush took office and since Obama took over the government has increased it's deficient an extra 7 trillion. We blow millions finding out how crabs screw each while we intentionally screw over are own people, ridiculous:

Call it a condom conundrum.

At a time when the federal government is spending billions of stimulus dollars to stem the tide of U.S. layoffs, should that same government put even more Americans out of work by buying cheaper foreign products?

In this case, Chinese condoms.

That's the dilemma for the folks at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has distributed an estimated 10 billion U.S.-made AIDS-preventing condoms in poor countries around the world.

But not anymore.

In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China.

The switch comes despite implied assurances over the years that the agency would continue to buy American whenever possible.

"Of course, we considered how many U.S. jobs would be affected by this move,” said a USAID official who spoke on the condition that he would not be named. But he said the reasons for the change included lower prices (2 cents versus more than 5 cents for U.S.-made condoms) and the fact that Congress dropped “buy American language” in a recent appropriations bill.

Besides, he said, the sole.....

Eric Cantor Getting Bailout Cash of His Own

With the AIG bonus backlash still simmering in the fire, we have heard plenty from republican whipping boy congressman Eric Cantor.

"No more bailouts," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said. "The American people have had it. They want this Congress to get back to fiscal discipline and restraint and the belief that the freedom to succeed includes the freedom to fail."

Maybe Cantor should return our bailout cash he received from bailed out companies for his campaign fund.

We'll be waiting for that check Eric.