Bushtheidiot.com

You may recall this post about the U.S. Bureau of Land Management putting a hold on new solar projects for the next 22 months in order to assess the projects effects on the environment.

In a rare move, the government has now decided not to be dumbasses (yes, quite rare indeed).

So new solar projects will once again be allowed.  However, there is still a problem.  Apparently, they don’t have enough staff to process all of the new applications for solar plants anyways.  So, I’m assuming this new “non dumbass” announcement may not be worth much after all if they can’t process applications fast enough.

Stupid slow-to-adapt government

We haven’t heard too much from Iraq lately.  The violence continues, but it looks like we are finally making progress:

There is an unexpected air of normalcy prevailing in Baghdad these days, with consumption flourishing and confidence in the government growing. The progress is astonishing, but can it last?

Pork is available in Baghdad once again. Not just in the Green Zone, where US diplomats can enjoy their spare ribs and Parma ham, but also across the Tigris River, in the real Baghdad, at “Al-Warda” on Karada Street. Bassim Dencha, 32, one of the few Christians remaining in Iraq and the co-owner of Baghdad’s finest supermarket, has developed a supply line from Syria. As a result, he now has frozen pork chops and bratwurst arranged in his freezers, next to boxes of frozen French fries and German Black Forest Cakes. And the customers are buying.

[. . .]

Is the situation truly improving in Iraq? Is it possible to rely on these changes in everyday life or are they merely an illusion? According to the quarterly report that the Pentagon issued in mid-June, the number of armed incidents has declined by 70 percent since last summer, bringing it down to 2004 levels — from about 180 daily incidents to 45. More than 320,000 of the 478,000 soldiers in the Iraqi Army, the report claims, are now capable of fighting without American support, and more than €3.8 billion ($5.9 billion) of Iraq’s own reconstruction budget totaling €6.4 billion ($9.9 billion) has already been invested in projects. “The security, political and economic trends in Iraq continue to be positive; however they remain fragile, reversible and uneven,” the report concluded.

Things aren’t great, but they are getting better, it seems.  I truly hope things are going well, the sooner, the faster we can get the hell out of there.  It does not mean Bush will not be held accountable for the first four years of abysmal failure that cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars.  It just means we might be able to finally get the hell out.

So nice of Bush to help out his lovable partner in Crime, article circa 2001:

”If bin Laden takes over and becomes king of Saudi Arabia, he’d turn off the tap,” said Roger Diwan, a managing director of the Petroleum Finance Company, a consulting firm in Washington. ”He said at one point that he wants oil to be $144 a barrel” — about six times what it sells for now.

No way we let Bin Ladin screw us to $144 a barrel!  No way! No how!  Doh!

Who says Bush and Bin Ladin don’t get along?

I’ve been hollering about the importance of the Supreme Court in this next election.  With this latest gun law opinion, people are starting to realize this issue. It was 5-4 pro-gun, that means it was a one seat difference.  Now, I’m not too worked up about the gun issue.  I have my share of them, but I’ve never been able to get as worked up as some of my Republican friends about the Democrats “stealing” and “taking” all our guns away.

In any event, this is a very close Court.  And guess what, it’s due up for some changes.  We have a lot of geriatrics on this Court.  Number 1 on the “don’t die until Bush leaves office” list is Justice Stevens.  He’s almost ninety years old.  Then there’s Ginsberg, who, looks older than Stevens, but is actually quite a few years younger.  She looks ready to retire, and is just waiting for a Democrat like Stevens.

That’s two liberal seats on a fairly solid 5-4 conservative court.  McStupid gets those seats, and it’s game over for individual rights. thats 7-2 right-wing nut job majority.  You can kiss the environment goodbye too, because the particular varient of right-wing douche nozzles on this Court are downright hostile towards the environment.

Even most-of-the-time liberal, Souter, switches over to the right-wing side whenever it comes to fucking over the environment and taking it in the ass from corporations.  Souter, along with the conservatives, love to be on the receiving end for corporations whenever the chance arises.

Anyway, I got distracted.  Here’s the deal with the Court.  Scalia has been a bitter man for many of the years he has been on the Court.  He FINALLY got his crown jewel opinion, the gun right’s case, that he can mark down.  And thus, I think Scalia could go, he could be thinking he did what he could do for the Court, but was such a giant, gaping asshole that nobody wanted to work with him.  So what’s the use in staying?

So we got Stevens (liberal, 88 years old), Ginsberg (liberal, 76 years old), Scalia (right wing douche, 72), and Kennedy (wanna be centrist but really right wing douche, 71).  Those are my picks to leave.

Of the four, Stevens and Ginsberg are sure things.  They will be retiring whoever the next President is.  I would say that Kennedy is the least likely to leave, since he is obsessed with the Court and himself.  He loves himself too much to quit.  Scalia is a wild card in my mind.  He hasn’t been able to do much while on the Court, but now that he’s got his gun rights case, maybe he’s thinking about retiring?  Maybe not.

Thus, you can see how important the next presidential election is.  We are losing two liberals to the next President, on a court that is already solidly dominated by conservatives. Right now, the balance is tedious, 5-4 conservative.  It goes 7-2 conservative (or liberal for that matter), and this country will be in trouble.  We saw what happens when Republicans control the House, Senate and White House: bad news for the country.

Unlike Presidents and other politicians, the Justices have the ultimate power over the constitution.  The President’s actions live and die with their presidency, for the most part, but the rulings of the Court have huge and long-lasting impacts.

Think about it,  Bush would not be President if the Supreme Court had not installed him.  Think about abortion: conservatives have been working night and day for 30 years trying desperately to get Roe v. Wade overturned.  They can’t get it done (they will if McCain is the next president but that will have taken them 40 years to undo!).

Rage:

I totally agree with the General Clark. Grampers is war-torn, still tortured, and has a notorious hair-trigger anger management problem that most shrinks connect directly to the PTSD related to his POW experience of captivity and torture. That old coot has picked more fights on the Senate floor than Ali won in the ring during his boxing prime. Furthermore, this campaign is still awfully young. But, in time, Grampers’ handlers are not going to be able to keep him on his meds and off the front porch naked and ranting madly about the drawers he can’t find, but is wearing as a hat. He’s already averaging six flip-flopping gaffs per appearance as it is. As his campaign chest runs low and his patience with the damned kids playing on his precious lawn runs completely out, office pools will be phoning Vegas with bets on when he’ll finally be getting that fork stuck in his back to publicly demostrate that he is sooo done. Please appreciate why I don’t think the aforestated qualifications are those of the leader of the most powerful nation in the free world.

I am neither challenging nor denying the sacrifice for this country of John McCain. The truth is I am ever eternally grateful for the sacrifices made by McCain, my own dad, my uncle, my cousins, my buddies, myself, and every American Citizen who has proudly worn an Armed Forces uniform bearing the flag of the United States of America. Irregardless of how and why we decided to join up or resist the urge to dodge the draft, dessert, or go AWOL, we offered our bodies, souls, and minds for all that we held dear - namely the United States of America! Still, like General Clark has duly and rightly noted, that sacrifice alone, in and of itself, in NO WISE QUALIFIES ANYONE TO BE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!

At the end of every politcal day it boils down to this: Have you as a candidate for the people aptly and surely connected with the people whose support you so desperately need to be the President? And, with McCain’s abysmal three decade long Senate resume of supporting everything beneficial to the maintenance of the illusive personhood of the wealthy unregulated religio-fascist military industrial corporatocracy, just to screw over the common man every chance the GOP allowed him, even to the point of denying his own fellow vets healthcare, educational, and housing benefits once they return from the fields of battle, Grampers has to know he has fallen short. That he suffered five years in hell has not made him even remotely empathetic to the needs of the American service men who are currently dying or coming home badly broken. It’s as if the old coot is pissed that he wasn’t resuced sooner, and is using all the privileges of his Senate tenure to promote every elitist fart Dumya and Cheney can impose on us to further and more obscenely enrich Halliburton and Blackwater coffers. He advocates torture and more war, even though he’s the last nutcase whose petulent old finger you want within a New York City block of the red button.

Like I said, SCREW THIS HEARTLESS CORRUPT OLD FART! John McCain’s practically a disgrace to the Navy at this point. General Wesley Clark has a distinguished service record that far exceeds that of John Bomb-Iran McCainiac. Furthermore, General Clark actually has the welfare of America’s fighting men and women at heart. I’m willing to bet my next check that the general never got aggitated with enough stress to publicly humiliate his wife by calling her a c*nt, just because she fluffed his hair and comically commented on his thinning graying tresses.

People here know I am no fan of John McCain. I even wrote a recent piece questioning his mental state and whether he is fit to be President because of all the terrible things he went through. I will not vote for the man, I will be voting for Obama.

But what I will not do is sit idly by while some jerk questions John McCain’s military service. That is exactly what John the blogger at americablog.com did yesterday. His despicable and ignorant comments went so far as to claim:

A lot of people don’t know, however, that McCain made a propaganda video for the enemy while he was in captivity.

How dare you question what happened to McCain. As a matter of fact, let’s tie you up and beat you with a stick every day and torture you and see how fast you start making propaganda videos. I bet with one back hand John would be crying and singing like a bird.

There are so many things to attack McCain on, his foreign policy positions, his domestic policy positions, his energy policy positions, his frequent flip-flops and his promise to appoint more fascist extremists to the Supreme Court. Even his mental state, I think, is a legitimate concern.

BUT. When a man (or woman) serves their country, when they take lives for this country, give their lives, their emotional health, or physical health for this country, it is an unassailable, unquestionable sacrifice. You can question the war and question those who made the decision to go to war. But I’ll be goddamned if I say nothing while some arrogant little prick blogger question what a man did after being captured by the enemy in combat! Veterans like John McCain have sacrificed everything, even their lives for this country. McCain is a veteran who saw combat, and that is something every American should honor and respect. If you don’t, then fuck you!

And frankly for liberals to be attacking military service during an election season is one of the most profoundly stupid things I could think of doing. Mark that down as item #1 on the “how Democrats screw up elections.” Obama has so many good things going for him, he doesn’t need idiots saying things that only tarnish his attempts to run a clean campaign.

Recently, I’ve been following alternative energy sources more closely.  I strongly believe that we need to “diversify” our enery sources.  Hell, I would love to have a set of solar panels on my roof that provide at least a portion of my electricity usage.  How freakin awesome would it be for my electric meter to run BACKWARDS!  The problem is that solar panels are just too expensive to make this cost effective.

Well, since oil is so expensive now, there have been many small startup companies that are looking to solve this problem.  Nanosolar comes to mind.  They have created a solar panel that is not as efficient as the expensive silicon based ones, but is much much cheaper.  They claim they can sell solar panels at a dollar per watt (comparable to coal).  There are other companies that are using the traditional silicon method, but use lenses to multiply the suns energy to a smaller piece of silicon (making the panels much cheaper).

Anywho, it seems like a lot of progress has been made lately on the solar and wind front.  All that may be coming to a halt though.

Faced with the burgeoning demand sunny land in the southwest United States, the Bureau of Land Management (the US agency that controls government-owned lands that aren’t forests) has decided to put a two-year moratorium new solar power plants. During this period, they’re going to be doing studies on the impact that solar power plants have on desert habitat and wildlife.

What dumbasses.  I guess drilling of oil has no environmental impact?  Or have we just accepted that fact and have moved on?

This on top of the non-renewal of the renewable energy tax credit?  Without renewal, the tax credits will expire at the end of the year.  They’re going to do this just when solar and wind are finally becoming viable options?  Projects are already being put on hold because of this.  Projects that would reduce our dependence on oil and coal.  What the fuck is wrong with our government?

Some may be surprised to hear this, but I have yet to decide who I am voting for in November.  Energy policy will be one of the biggest issues for me.  So, how do the candidates stand on energy?

Senator McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, wants 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 and an end to the federal moratorium on new offshore drilling. He would use market lures – tax rebates for electric cars, a $300 million prize for a better car battery – to promote alternative sources of energy. He would offer motorists immediate relief in the form of a hiatus in the federal gas tax.

Senator Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, opposes new offshore drilling and is wary of nuclear power. He would double auto fuel-efficiency standards within 18 years, subsidize development of ethanol, and force power companies to generate one- quarter of their energy from wind, solar, and other renewable sources by 2025.

I guess we’ll have to see how this all plays out.

While Barack Obama talks about diplomacy,  Democrats in Congress, behind closed doors, have secretly authorized President Idiot-Loser to escalate covert war activities against Iran.  In other words, while the Democratic fucktards talk about how we are going to stop with this war insanity, they are secretly working with Bush to attack Iran.  Surprised?

Although some legislators were troubled by aspects of the Finding, and “there was a significant amount of high-level discussion” about it, according to the source familiar with it, the funding for the escalation was approved. In other words, some members of the Democratic leadership—Congress has been under Democratic control since the 2006 elections—were willing, in secret, to go along with the Administration in expanding covert activities directed at Iran, while the Party’s presumptive candidate for President, Barack Obama, has said that he favors direct talks and diplomacy.

Even Secretary of Defense Gates realizes how fucking stupid and crazy Bush and Dickhead are:

A Democratic senator told me that, late last year, in an off-the-record lunch meeting, Secretary of Defense Gates met with the Democratic caucus in the Senate. (Such meetings are held regularly.) Gates warned of the consequences if the Bush Administration staged a preëmptive strike on Iran, saying, as the senator recalled, “We’ll create generations of jihadists, and our grandchildren will be battling our enemies here in America.” Gates’s comments stunned the Democrats at the lunch, and another senator asked whether Gates was speaking for Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. Gates’s answer, the senator told me, was “Let’s just say that I’m here speaking for myself.”

The Democratic cowards do nothing but bow to Bush:

The Democratic leadership’s agreement to commit hundreds of millions of dollars for more secret operations in Iran was remarkable, given the general concerns of officials like Gates, Fallon, and many others. “The oversight process has not kept pace—it’s been coöpted” by the Administration, the person familiar with the contents of the Finding said. “The process is broken, and this is dangerous stuff we’re authorizing.”