Bad Deeds for 8-16-2007

President-for-Life George W. Bush – Family Security Matters is a right-wing group that advocates that Bush should be our permanent president. The following is excerpted from one of Family Security Matters’ “must read” articles. It’s not a post from some wacko reader; it was a featured article on their site.

If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results. He could then follow Caesar’s example and use his newfound popularity with the military to wield military power to become the first permanent president of America, and end the civil chaos caused by the continually squabbling Congress and the out-of-control Supreme Court. President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming “ex-president” Bush or he can become “President-for-Life” Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.

Who’s on the Family Security Matters advisory board? (You can read about FSM and their board at Right Web and Sourcewatch)

Barbara Comstock who was instrumental in assisting Republican operatives in the 2000 Florida vote recount, wrote the Republican ‘playbook’ defending Bush nominees such as John Ashcroft for attorney general, conducted investigative efforts against the Clintons, and assisted the defense team work on behalf of “Scooter” Libby and Tom Delay.

Laura Ingraham who encouraged her radio listeners to jam the phone lines of a toll-free Democratic Party number intended for voters to report problems in voting.

James Woolsey who on September 12, 2001, on CNN, stated, “This is a very complex operation and the possibility that there was a state sponsor behind or working with Bin Laden, such as possibly Iraq, I think has to be investigated. There is a book out late last year by Lory Milroy called Sadam’s study of revenge about the possibility that Saddam was behind the 1973 (sic) World Trade Center bombing and that Ramzy Yousef who was the mastermind of that was involved with Iraqi intelligence … there may be a government other than a harbor, such as the Iraqi government that is orchestrating and to some extent funding, working closely on it behind Bin Laden or some other terrorist group … It really needs to look carefully at the possibility that there may be state sponsorship here and I think the most likely, certainly not the only possibility err.. is Iraq.”
and Dick Cheney (enough said).

More Conservatives Hoping for Another Big Terrorist Attack on America –
The Philadelphia Daily News -‘ Stu Bykofsky suggests another 9/11-style attack to “help” America unite. Matt Drudge seemed to think highly of the idea, conservative radio host Mike Gallagher invited Bykofsky on to his show, and Fox News’ John Gibson went so far as to endorse Bykofsky’s thesis on the air, saying: “I think it’s going to take a lot of dead people to wake America up.” To them, it’s OK if thousands die, just as long as we all get united behind conservative ideology and the Republican party.

That Enron Feeling: Bush Backs Business, Not Shareholders in Fraud Lawsuits – In a closely watched Supreme Court case of big business versus shareholders, the Bush administration decided to side with the business side. The administration’s position is largely at odds with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which earlier this year took the side of the shareholder plaintiffs. The case centers on whether shareholders can sue to hold third parties accountable for their company’s fraud.

White House Doesn’t Want General Petraeus To Testify Publicly On Iraq – Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration’s progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense.

Karl Rove Thinks Most Americans are Snobs – In his interview with Rush Limbaugh this afternoon, Karl Rove claimed that the people criticizing Bush are “sort of elite, effete snobs who can’t hold a candle to this guy. What they don’t like about him is that he is common sense, that he is Middle America.” Limbaugh suggested that Bush critics are frustrated that the President “outsmarts ‘em.” Considering Bush’s disapproval ratings, doesn’t that mean that Rove thinks most Americans are snobs?

Mine Safety Czar Richard Stickler: Another Bush Fox Guarding the Henhouse – The man who will oversee the federal government’s investigation into the disaster that has trapped six workers in a Utah coal mine for over a week was twice rejected for his current job by senators concerned about his own safety record when he managed mines in the private sector. President George W. Bush resorted to a recess appointment in October 2006 to anoint Richard Stickler as the nation’s mine safety czar after it became clear he could not receive enough support even in a GOP-controlled Senate. In the wake of the January 2006 Sago mine disaster in West Virginia, senators from both sides of the aisle expressed concern that Stickler was not the right person to combat climbing death rates in the nation’s mines.

Big Business Republicans Don’t Care if You Get Shafted – Republican policies failed to take important steps on mine safety. For too long, the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress allowed mine operators to put off making needed investments to ensure their workers’ safety. And last year when a string of coal-mining disasters — that killed 48 miners — forced Congress to enact new safety legislation, it still gave companies far too much time to install communications systems that might have helped find the Utah miners. Democrats proposed forcing mine operators to adopt, quickly, emergency communications systems that could track and communicate with workers in the event of an accident, but Congressional Republicans and the Bush administration opposed the Democrats’ efforts.

Take Your Choice of Authoritarians in 2008 – Perhaps you’ve heard of the Political Compass website, where you can take a test that places you on a grid based on the degree to which you are “left” or “right” on the economic scale as well as how socially libertarian or authoritarian you are. Now we can see how the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates fit on the grid.

[Please note: This measure of the candidates is not the same as Professor Robert Altemeyer’s test for identifying right-wing authoritarian personalities. Professor Altemeyer’s research shows that those who score high on his test are overwhelmingly Republican. He has yet to find a liberal RWA, “I’m sure one can find left-wing authoritarians here and there, but they hardly exist in sufficient numbers now to threaten democracy in North America.” Andy]

Newt Gingrich Says That the War Here at Home Against Illegal Immigrants is Even More Deadly than the War in Iraq and Afghanistan – Gingrich, who is considering a run for the White House, was referring to a recent crime in Newark, N.J., where three college students were murdered execution style in a school playground. One of the suspects is an illegal immigrant from Peru who was on bail on charges of raping a child when the murders occurred. Gingrich said another suspect is an illegal immigrant from Nicaragua with a long record of arrests who was ordered deported in 1993 but never left. However, The (Newark) Star Ledger reported Tuesday that the man obtained permanent legal residency in 2001. Gingrich has tried this angle before , in 2000 in the Susan Smith case, when he said that baby killing was a campaign issue and declared, “The only way you get change is to vote Republican.”

Misleading Letter Reveals New Republican National Committee Voting Hackery – What 83 year-old William Sidwell of Queen City, Missouri found in his mailbox last week scared him. It was a letter from the Republican National Committee, but it seemed to bear grave news: “Our records show that you registered as a member of our Party in Schuyler County, MO,” the letter said. “But a recent audit of your Party affiliation turned up some irregularities.” Audit? Irregularities? Was he in trouble? Were they threatening him? Sidwell went immediately to his ask his son, Dennis, a licensed public accountant, for advice. Particularly puzzling to the both of them, Dennis told me, is that his father is a life-long Democrat. The letter, it turns out, is just a misleading pitch for a contribution to the RNC — one of the “irregularities” cited in the letter is that “I cannot find a record of you taking a single action in support of the Republican Party — not locally, not nationally!” A contribution, the letter suggests, would help set the record straight. The letter is signed by Bill Steiner, the director of the RNC’s Office of Strategic Information The voter “audit” requests detailed information about the voter’s voting history and current opinions on the 2008 presidential race.

Regards,

Jim