was 9/12.

people talk alot about 9/11, but for me that day was just full-on shock and disbelief.

on 9/12 E! let us have the day off. after three four hours of tv i didnt know what to do. i wasnt really going to go in the subway. and i sure as hell wasnt gonna cruise around LA.

times were very odd because there werent any planes in the sky and the only helicopters were military ones that were SUPER loud.

occassionally youd hear a F-15 or F-16 fly by. it was quite eerie.

so i did what i always do when ive got nothing better to do: i smoked out and cruised the web.

what i noticed was around the world lots of people had started doing cool little demonstrations for America.

kids were dropping off flowers at our embassies, people were putting candles and american flags on gates, it was super touching, it was super cool.

part of the anger that i have for our president is back then all of us would have signed up for the Army, all of us would have accepted a tax to fund the military, all of us donated to the causes, and all of us were united.

and what did he do? he fucked all of that up.

so i like this particular photo essay so much because this was right before the fuckup. this was the world showing us that politics aside we’re all people and we all have feelings and deep down we all love each other.

i know, sappy, but four years ago thats what it was like.

hi, world

and im such an idiot because i always stay up late on school nights and i always go to bed early on friday nights if i dont have a date or a show to go to or something stupid.

so lets do a twenty minutes with tony and hit the hay.

today was 9/11 and for some reason its like the second most holy day in my life. like i keep it so special that next year im worried what my new bosses will think when i ask for it off.

i dont know why it hit me so hard when it happened four years ago, but it did.

maybe it was the jumpers.

maybe it was the full on coverage.

but probably it was that it shattered my total suburban-raised misconception that this was a completely safe country and the worst thing that could ever happen to you is that youd occassionally be called a nigger or youd occassionally get pulled over for speeding or occassionally you wouldnt be able to find something good on tv.

and so every 9/11 theres always something that comes up that i have to pass on because for some reason i feel like i have to mourn. like seriously mourn. i dont mourn on the anniversary of my breakups with my xgirlfriends. i dont mourn at the anniversary of the deaths of my relatives. i dont even mourn the last day steve bartman went to a cubs game,

but 9/11 always depresses the hell out of me and out of respect to that day i always lay extremely low and go over that day over and over in my mind and pray and wonder and try to figure it out because theres so much that totally makes sense and so much that totally doesnt make sense and the xbi says that its the superhero in me who finally realized that its impossible to always save the world.

theyre wrong, of course, because you can always save the world.

so today i listened to the howard stern broadcast on 9/11 and every time i listen to that i hear something new. robin for instance said the f word. and howard sorta asked his boss like three times if he could leave, but tom kept saying no people need to hear you on the air.

its fascinating to listen to that show because in those few hours you hear howard stern go from dumb old howard talking about not making a move on pam anderson when he had a chance, to having someone turn on the tv so they could see what all the comotion was.

they saw the smoke from the first plane and within seconds they were saying its terrorists and bin laden. they knew. in that dark studio they knew, and its probably because of the first wtc bombing. then they saw the replay and they gasped just like probably how all of you gasped. then they didnt see the second plane but swore they saw smoke and kc said thats the other tower and robin said youre crazy but even though kc is crazy sure enough it was the other tower.

then later you could hear them talk about the pentagon,

THE PENTAGON!

how many of us forget that they hit the pentagon. i do.

and it made me realize, wtf are these people in the whitehouse doing going after iraq of all people. those motherfuckers took out the two biggest iconic buildings and thousands of people and then nailed the pentagon and you clowns are waist deep in a quagmire in iraq?

i cant believe the people who support this administration. republicans are supposed to be smarter than this. theyre supposed to be no nonsense. they even call themselves conservative, but theyve not only allowed hundreds of Billions to be dumped down that hole but theyve supported it, and they still support it even though they know that iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

nothing.

trust me, even i cant believe that there arent any connections to 9/11 and there werent any wmds but there werent and there arent. which means we have to move our troops to where they should be: afghanistan and the pakistan border saying little pig little pig let me come in.

that motherfucker castrated us that day, and you know how a black man feels about his dick. maybe bush doesnt care because he doesnt have a dick. maybe thats why he never seems pissed off, because he has to sit to piss. i dont know what that dudes problem is but for a guy who likes to play cowboy and for a guy who likes to act all tough with his “we’re gwanna smoke em out!” “i pity the fool!” he sure doesnt seem too concerned that osamas not been smoked out.

and people say oh but thats cuz he needs a boogie man out there so he can keep us under his thumb, but i dont buy it. theres plenty of boogiemen. chinas got nukes. the iranians are scary. hell even the korean threat is there.

not finding osama after four years is just pitiful and not only does it make america look like a bunch of keystone cops but it should embarrass the entire republican party. strangely, it doesnt.

so i put on fahrenheit 9/11. i dont own many dvds because once i see something, very rarely do i want to see it again. but that movies great. people talk about michael moore this michael moore that, but shut the fuck up. michael moores barely in that thing. and people talk about the natural gas pipeline being not exactly true or the richard clarke thing… but you tell me, after four years why havent we gone to saudi arabia and interviewed the bin ladins there. we fucking let them fly out on 9/13/01 why dont they do us a favor and just talk to us if theyre so innocent.

i’ll tell you why, because the republicans dont make it happen. theyre for some reason so fucking pussyassed scared about a democrat leader that they’ll let this saudi-loving oil family just do whatever they want. was the prosperity that they enjoyed during clinton gore That horrible?

i dont get it.

were they afraid that clinton was gonna woo all their wives away? steal their daughters too? w is the most sexless man alive, is that why they like him, cuz compared to him they seem hot?

none of this makes any sense to me. theyre supposed to be intelligent. they went to the best schools. theyre mostly white collar. they understand bottom lines. clinton’s bottom line was a positive. bush’s almost immediately was red and it only gets redder. shooting your wad in iraq and cutting budgets everywhere including new orleans has cost us billions and billions. all their little angels who they want school vouchers for so badly are going to pay for all of this. the grandchildren that they dream of are going to pay for all of this.

was it that important to them not to have gore, a man who spent 100 grand out of his own pocket to fly to new orleans twice to save people? is he seriously that scary that the right cheered on the supremes as they stopped the vote count and let the loser win?

hes a loser. he keeps losing. prop him up all you want but he isnt even trying to find bin laden any more. isnt that a loser to you? a fuckup who doesnt even try? bin laden could be on a roof in new orleans but bush wouldnta ever found him cuz he never looks.

why arent we in pakistan? do the repubs ever ask that question? do they ever ask any questions? only questions i ever hear them asking is why is michael moore so fat? why did bill clinton always choose fugly girls? whens pierce gonna talk about fucking again?

was it that important to them not to have kerry who actually knew a thing or two about war, who knew a thing or two about leadership and valor and courage, that scary that they came out in record numbers for four more years of not finding osama, of not spending wisely, of not winning this war in iraq, of not holding press conferences, of not speaking like a college grad, of not of not of not?

my buddy dan sent me the ap poll that said that bush’s approval rating is only 38% right now which means that most of america isnt like some of the people who comment on my blog or write those other blogs, but i dont trust that shit man because i see hella blogs out there where the righties havent flinched a bit.

but i did see obama on This Week today (read the comments too) and i gotta say, i dont trust his lets-take-the-high-road approach but the brotha sure is one smooth dude.

fucker better be packin is all i kept thinking.

the forever war + science blog + stereogum + jessica + steph

hi, my name is george w. bush.

i’m the president of the united states of america.

i have a message to osama bin laden.

osama, im calling you out.

i want to meet with you at an agreed-upon location and i want to beat your ass.

man to man.

face to face.

i’m sick, quite frankly, of this cat and mouse kiddie game of hide and seek and i am giving you one week to stand up to me as a man and take the licking you so deserve.

if you’re so badass, why don’t you meet me, the american white devil, anywhere you want so i can slap that stupid look off your face.

i know you’re probably thinking that this is a trap, that the armed forces of the united states, or the u.n., or the northern alliance will jump out from the bushes and capture your sorry ass, and imprison you.

but i’m hereby giving you temporary immunity. you have no excuse to decline this offer.

i swear upon my word as president, on my word as a Christian, on my word as an American citizen that your safety will be guaranteed up to your meeting with me. and if you survive the single handed texas asskicking that i will deliver on your person, i will assure your safety back into whatever dusty hole you’re currently hiding in.

but the only way you’ll get home is through me, osama, and only you would call that gopher hole home.

simply put, if you think you’re man enough to take me, i want a piece of you and i will do whatever it takes to make this happen.

im going to grab you with my own hands and prove to you, and to the world, that even though we are both sons of millionaire oil men, there’s a difference between you and i.

you are a slimy, lying, gutless, cheap-shot artist who hides behind religion and ignorance in your sick quest to have others murder innocent people under your twisted leadership.

you give cowards a bad name.

i am the embodiment of american vengence, and you’ve awaken an innocent giant who’s going to kick your clueless ass into tomorrow.

your mother’s womb weeps at its place in history

and your father’s nuts have shrivelled in shame.

we can do this in switzerland, or antarctica, or right in front of mecca for all i care you big nosed freak.

you can have as many of your measly bodyguards around me, if it’s me who you distrust, but i assure you that no one other than me will attack you.

somehow, i don’t expect the same sportsmanship from you.

but i don’t care, osama bin laden. this is what a leader should do.

before you have one of your goons take a sneaky sniper shot at me from 300 yards, allow me the pleasure to serve you a slice of texas justice, of american payback, if you are indeed a man.

which i doubt.

ive seen you walk on your hind legs, so you must at least be a mammal.

you have a beard, but so do many of your wives.

people refer to you as “he” so i assume you’re male, but i am curious as to if you are truly a man.

you’ve yet to act like one.

meet me at the coliseum in rome.

noon.

next monday.

let me see who you are.

lets settle this beef you have with my country

and with freedom.

be there on time, you pathetic eyesore.

don’t pretend that you didn’t get this.

get off the little boy and come meet a man.

i’m going to be there and i’m going to be waiting for you with just my bare fists.

osama

bin laden.

scum of the desert.

creator of lies.

with a face that neither your mother or allah could love.

prove to the world that you’re a man, and meet me.

noon, you dirty fake.

noon.

cindy sheehan + jim gilliam + john wayne anti + will campbell

community message boards/blogs/websites is Metafilter

it tends to lean heavilly Left, but they’re concious about it and try to be as fair as possible, and what i like most about it is people fact-check each other like crazy because the purpose of the discussion(s) is to get to some truth based on fact – not political agenda.

for example the other day when the Washington Post ran a story accusing BushCo of blackmailing the LA Governor into handing New Orleans over to the Feds, a thread was created to discuss the story and within six hours it was deleted and marked “This post was deleted for the following reason: crazy speculation with a source, but no support for crackpot theory”.

its that sort of logical self-policing that keeps the discussions on-target (for the most part) and keeps me reading, and sometimes contributing.

their influence is all over the busblog and today is no different.

i registered for Metafilter four years and a week ago. their 9/11 thread four years ago was and is a great record of that tragic day.

today someone posted a “highlight” of the hundreds of comments which i respectfully paste here. but as the good professor says, read the whole thing.

btw, for the purposes of transparency, a cornerstone of good blogging, yes i am tsarfan

Wait a second, TWO? Two?

Was it on purpose?
posted by jragon at 6:16 AM PST on September 11

looks like the top 20 or so stories of both buildings. the base of the buildings should be ok, asboth buildings are designed for massive disruptions simliar to this….
posted by mich9139 at 6:36 AM PST on September 11

Some sort of bombing at the pentagon just occured.
posted by donkeymon at 6:45 AM PST on September 11

This is going to be a big turning point in the history and character of this country, I think.
posted by Doug at 6:51 AM PST on September 11

Oh, man… I am so sick. This is the day everything changed. I was just there the day before yesterday, the World Trade Center.

There are so many people there….
posted by anildash at 6:52 AM PST on September 11

radio is reporting the second tower has collapsed
posted by NortonDC at 7:04 AM PST on September 11 The 2nd tower is gone. F*ck, the WORLD TRADE CENTER IS GONE.
posted by Spirit_VW at 7:37 AM PST on September 11

c-span is training their live cam on the capitol, waiting for the next hijacked plane to hit it.
posted by mich9139 at 7:38 AM PST on September 11

It is my hope that everyone will now carefully watch our politicians. Those who invest in the war machine and military of this nation, which many people have in their invest portfolios, now stand to make millions to billions on the fear and anger caused by this event. So, don’t think that everyone is unhappy about this.
posted by memorydream at 10:44 AM PST on September 11

Numb. I’m just completely numb.
posted by mathowie at 10:51 AM PST on September 11

People in the streets are screaming at Arabs near me. Its absurd, and horrible. One woman, “Are you happy with what you’ve done?” Another man, “It’s going down soon, man.”
I have a friend who claims the ash I’m breathing is asbestos. Internal memo at ABC News.
posted by Doug at 12:29 PM PST on September 11

todays date: 9 1 1
posted by tsarfan at 1:20 PM PST on September 11

I just saw #7 collapse on MSNBC… it is so scary. Is it actually over, or is there more to come?
posted by owillis at 2:27 PM PST on September 11

The US must not stoop to the level of the terrorists, it must identify the culprits and then work with it’s allies to bring these people to justice.
posted by johnny novak at 3:30 PM PST on September 11

“I hope I live. I hope I live.” That amateur video on CNN was horrifying.
posted by gleuschk at 3:45 PM PST on September 11

apparently 200 firefighters dead, 78 police officers in NY (from FARK)
posted by Mossy at 5:03 PM PST on September 11

It will be hard to sleep tonight. After the roller coaster I had with where the hell my dad was, with my in-laws, and everything else, and practically crying on the way home to get my son from day care, this is just too much. I would wish that this would all go away when I wake up. Shit is going to change. My dad already is saying that the markets are going to be fucked. This is definitely a changing point in our history to a degree that we can not even imagine yet.
posted by adampsyche at 5:49 PM PST on September 11

First time post, long time reader. I just want to say that the people of NYC really came together for this tragedy. I was out and about walking around with my camera and the way people were treating each other was like a brother or sister. It was amazing watching the number of cars pulled over with their radios on news stations that people gathered around or the water stations set up around the city. I feel as though today proved why New York is the greatest city.
posted by spudworks at 6:07 PM PST on September 11

Wild eyes, box knives, retractable razor blades, sky terror, toy planes crashing into toy buildings, but they aren’t toys, and the explosions are real and surreal, and it’s an unholy peek into a nighmare damnation, and the rain is shards of glass and bone, all to dust…

Beyond comprehension. I wanna go home. I wanna go splash in the inflatable pool painted with the starfish and the seahorsies that my father blew up one purple-faced breath at a time, that he set up in our unfenced backyard where all the neighbor kids came to play.

I’m tired, and sick, and I just wanna go home.
posted by Opus Dark at 9:28 PM PST on September 11

osama is being forgotten, just as i predicted four years ago + three years ago on the busblog

To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I’m just curious, how does it feel?

How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?

That’s right. Horse shows.

I really want to know — and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect — how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C’mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don’t start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?

When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?

When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?

Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?

With the nation’s debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn’t he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.

That’s not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the widow at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read “My Pet Goat” to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying “Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you’re doing a heck of a job!”

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can’t string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can’t pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you’ve sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn’t up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren’t up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

I have an idea, and it isn’t a horse show.

Yours,
Michael Moore

michaelmoore.com + and they said new orleans was corrupt + shaq is a leader + gitmo hunger strike

that im sure a lot of you are watching too. all these artists are singing their songs and theres no commercials, and they have a crawl on the bottom but its not obnoxious. finally mtv is doing the right thing.

four hours theyre going to show all the big stars playing music to raise money for the victims of the hurricane. so lets do a twenty minutes with tony for them and in the memory of everyone who died in the gulf coast due to this hurricane. k, go.

first let me remind you that im still selling “brownie, youre doing a hell of a job” tshirts and mugs here and the profits (about $5 an item) will go to the Red Cross.

its so hard not to hear this music or watch the newscasts and listen to the people and not think about politics. and before anyone gets the wrong idea i want everyone gone. even the black mayor and you know i loves my people. yeah he had busses and they sat there in the water. they had the new orleans emergency disaster chief on bill maher last night and he said those busses were actually used for as long as they could use them and they went back to that lot and then the levees broke and they couldnt get to them any more.

the mayor was getting interviewed in the local paper yesterday and he said there were more busses on higher ground but there wasnt anyone who could drive them and it wasnt like all the roads were usable to get to the superdome, but the Right want to blame anyone but Bush and FEMA so fine, fire the mayor. fire the governor too.

even the instapundit is doing his best to be a company man and try to give as many links as he can that say that FEMA has always had a history of taking a few days to get to emergencies – as if thats kosher – but i hear what hes saying: the ball is in the court of the locals for the first three days.

but after that, the superheroes are supposed to arrive. and they didnt arrive, glenn. people sat in their attics, people faught on the streets, people waded in that shit waiting for the guys in the white hats to swoop down and get them.

but it didnt happen.

fire the mayor and the governor. burn them at the stake for all i care. but how can the Feds be blameless if canadians can make their way from canadia and the calvary cant get there from america?

the critics have asked me whats my point, where am i going with this, why cant i talk about fingering coeds, why do i have to keep kicking the dead horse

because the horse aint dead fuckers.

the mayor has been on the radio, hes been on tv, hes been everywhere. he answers the tough questions and sure he blames others, hes got a right to blame some others. he might not have prepared perfectly for the biggest disaster of all time, but his people did get to where they were supposed to get to and the feds didnt come, and when FEMA arrived, they made things worse!

do you really want me to list their fuckups?

people go on and on about oh the mayor is a dem and the governor is a dem, did you know that the mayor was a republican up until right before he ran for mayor? did you know that he didnt endorse the governor in 2003 and instead backed the republican congressman Bobby Jindal? did you know that he, like me, only reluctantly endorsed john kerry in 2004? not really much of a dem.

but people need to affix labels on people and stick people in boxes, so there you are, fine, hes a dem. one that doesnt really like kerry and who didnt like the governor even before she also dropped the ball on this emergency.

things arent always black and white, but sometimes theyre closer than we want them to be. for example, i dont want to have to continually acknowledge to the world that my president is a fucking retard. and i really hate to admit that hes a pansy-assed coward.

why is it that ive seen kanye west on tv four times more than ive seen my president?

someone said, bush was too scared to meet with cindy sheehan of course he was too chickenshit to go to new orleans.

and what would he say there anyway? he doesnt say anything inspiring, ever. he doesnt know what to do when the shits fucked. he doesnt care about black people and he doesnt care about white people either. i hate to say it, but what do you want me to say, he hasnt disproven it.

sometimes people say fucked up shit about me thats totally wrong but feedback is feedback and after kanye said that i woulda gotten on tv and said kanye congratulations on your grammy and on your new cd thats about to drop but how about leaving the governing to me. and bam people would have said, damn. and then i would have told all the white people in my staff to stay away from me for about two three days and i would have only hung out with blacks.

image is everything when youre a leader and how fucked up is it that a blogger in his pajamas has to continually coach the president of the united states on how to do his fucking job.

in my new job im a quasi leader and on week one i was called in and told that i have to get my shit together because in business just like in politics image is everything and if the kids see me blogging or talking to hotties on the phone, even if my shits together, it wont look good, so i need to get organized and not just that but Look organized, look like i know what the fuck im doing, communicate with people so they GET IT, dont say oh but i emailed mary she never emailed me back. email her a second time and cc: everyone.

in life perception is just as important as reality.

but no bushie went to mississippi and hugged two three blacks and then hung out with tons of white people. and im not saying that whites werent affected by katrina, of course they are. but anyone who saw the news over the days, anyone who saw the AFP fuck up, anyone who saw the lootings and the accusation by kanye on national tv knows that there was a racial element to this and when youre the leader of the parade youve gotta wave to the left side of the street and the right side which means on one day of your life mr president you fucking hang out with black people.

and no you dont get a ghetto pass for hiring condi and colin. anyone would have hired colin, plus hes jamacian, so it doesnt really count. and condi is the biggest sellout to the black race since larry elder so get it right.

you prove that you care about black people when you actually do things for black people as a whole. otherwise its tokenism. how much has unemployment for african-americans gone down since you took office. how many more blacks are in college since you got into office, how many more own homes, how many more have started businesses. how many more are now voting republican. thats how you know what youre doing is good for blacks. we’re as loyal as can be.

but last week you were not loyal to us.

and my time is up but i have to say a few more things. the purpose of this blog today is the same it was on day one. i write to get laid. if you ever hear me say something different you know someone has kidnapped me and tortured me into giving up my password.

unlike some i dont do this for the money. i dont do this for some weirdo fucked up nerdy blogger fame. i dont do this as a resume builder to get a job writing. i do this so that the ladies of the world will continue to send me nudes of themselves and let me examine their finer parts.

i know i dont always write things that will turn them on, and quite frankly i dont really know what would turn them on, but i know that somewhere i will meet someone who will say i read your shit and i love it and therefore i love you, and even though that might not mean happilly ever after, its a good start.

consider it the call of the wild.

poot-tweet. poot-tweet.

or in this case fuck-bush fuck-bush.

i write this thing on here because if blogger hadnt existed i would have written it on a website like i did in the olden days. and if i hadnt been born in the perfect time i would have written this shit on the walls of the cave or on the ass of a dinosaur or on the eye of a needle. i am a writer and its just as normal for me to write as it is for the president to fuck up.

i feel extremely lucky that i have a small group of people who read my shit but you have to trust me when i say i never Ever think about that group when i write. you can ask “why dont you write something inspirational” or “why dont you say something constructive” or “why dont you write something sexy” or “why dont you give us a football pre-write” and you may as well talk to a wall because what comes out is whats inside and theres no way i can even think about football when it keeps dawning on me that the president of the united states turned his back on drowning people of all ages

and he still gets to keep his job

and worse, he still gets some of your respect.

all bush had to do was show up earlier and do the right thing and all of this would have been about the weather.

but he made it about politics.

i have the worse thoughts about him when i think about him. the worst. and that rips me up inside because im not like that.

usually.

will it help to impeach bush? its a good start. but it would send the message to the next leaders that they actually have to lead.

tomdog is in LA and im gonna drink with him and all you buzznetters who are gonna be there it will be my pleasure to meet you.

caitlin + brooks + jaime + sutter

it wasnt of much interest to me. it was because it was set up differently with four people and maher all yelling at each other.

the format is slightly different now, and it still could be improved (i’d like to see more right-wingers, but apparently they’d rather get stroked on fox news than get torn apart by maher – in fact the best scenario i could imagine would be two repubs and only one dem which would make it an even two-on-two counting the host).

but the opening monologue is usually short and sweet, the guests are usually pretty decent (this week he had, among others, george carlin and kurt vonnegut – who both looked and sounded tired – aka old – but they had some good insights)

and maher is a master of the knockout punch, which is generally in his closing minutes during the new rules/summary.

last night this was his summary, which you can download here.

[Maher, Speaking to President Bush]
Now I kid, but seriously Mr. President, this job can’t be fun for you anymore. There’s no more money to spend, you used up all of that. You can’t start another war because you also used up the army, and now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare – helping poor people.

Yeah, listen to your mom. The cupboard’s bare, the credit card’s maxed out, and no one is speaking to you.

Mission accomplished!

Now it’s time for you to do what you’ve always done best, lose interest and walk away, like you did with your military service…and the oil company…and the baeball team.

It’s time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job.

How about cowboy? Or spaceman?

Now I know what you’re saying. You’re saying that there are so many other things that you as the president could involve yourself in. PLEASE DON’T.

I know there’s a lot left to do. There’s a war with Venezuela and eliminating the sales tax on yachts, turning the space program over to the church and social security to Fannie Mae, giving embryos the vote, but sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why?

Because you govern like Billy Joel drives.

You perform so poorly I am surprised you haven’t given yourself a medal.

You’re a catastrophe that walks like a man.

Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire metropolis to rising water and snakes.

On your watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon, and the city of New Orleans.

Maybe you’re just not… lucky?

I’m not saying you don’t love this country, I’m just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

So yes, God does speak to you and what He is saying is “Take a hint”.

transcription via Red Goatee + dont blink: instapundit (slightly)critical of a Bush decision – yay! + but no love for the Daily Show – wtf?!

cause they know they will lose.

they know that its not game, it’s a way of acknowledging responsibility and accountability.

this is an administration who dragged their feet to rescue americans in america because, some say, they didn’t want to overstep their bounds

they didn’t want to appear tyrannical

they didn’t want to show up where they weren’t invited.

or was it because they didn’t want to cut their vacation short?

because when they’re not on vacation this is an administration who has no problem sticking their noses

into women’s wombs

into gay couple’s wedding plans

into sick people’s medicine cabinets

into working people’s social security plans

into the television and radio airwaves of programs listened to by adults

even into the library records of the books that americans check out.

and yet they refused to allow helicopters and boats and food and water or even sanitation workers into new orleans because they didn’t want to deal with the red tape.

they swear that they wanted to allow the state to handle its own business, but here in california we voted to let the terminally sick smoke marijuana

and somehow what the state wanted for itself didn’t matter to this administration and they fought against us, and got that vote overturned.

this administration fought to stop the votes from being counted in florida in 2000

this administration fought to stop the 9/11 commission from being bi-partisan

this administration even fought to keep a feeding tube in a brain-dead woman’s mouth

but they didn’t fight to get supplies and professionals into new orleans.

infact they cockblocked the help.

pick your battles, they tell you, and for some reason this administration chose not to use their might and influence to get aid to those people in the south and their reasoning is as dark and murky as those toxic waters.

and their excuses are as flimsy as the roof of the superdome.

the good book warns that the bad people might not get punished on earth, but their judgment day will come.

and that wont be a blame game either.

it will be a day of acknowledging responsibility and accountability.

and the most ironic thing about these people who run around who call themselves Christians, is the good book is chock full of incompetent “leaders” who ascend to the throne through nefarious means

and the misery that these fools imposed through their bungling and evil.

when the old man said repent he meant you old man

and even the mule raised up his ears.

happy belated bday amylangfield.com + gaping void + tomdog has arrived + brett lamb

scott: And we’d have a super-raging, red-hot volcanic debate over posse comitatus. Ten times worse than this petty BS finger-pointing right now. THAT would be an impeachable offense, even if BushCo manned a human chain and held the levees and saved every lost life in NOLA. Congress would be FORCED to impeach him.

+ + +

let me tell you a few things about being a leader.

a leader saves peoples lives and worries about his job later.

a leader cuts his vacation short when he sees that people of his nation are drowning and help is not in the way.

a leader is that help on the way.

the busblog definition of a leader is someone who brings the group to where they need to be.

george bush has never cared about being impeached, and the democrats dont have enough chutzpah to even try to impeach him.

he and his bros stole the election in 2000 and the dems didnt go after him. he and his bros lied about not knowing that terrorists would fly planes into buildings and the dems didnt go after him. he and his bros lied about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in iraq and iraqs threat to america and the dems didnt go after him.

bush and his bros challenged the ideas of torture in relation to the geneva conventions and the bro who questioned it the most might be our next supreme court justice. and yes, death and torture did happen in the prisons of iraq and gitmo and the president isnt in danger of being impeached.

so this limp defense of the president’s inactions in new orleans last week that omg if he brought help or overstepped his bounds by saving lives might get him impeached is laughable to the point of being sad.

where BushCo is ruthless and selfish and hopeless and inept, the dems are pussy and silent and weak and timid and worthless.

and the losers of this slamdance of fucktards are americans and iraqis.

a real leader, a real president of the united states, whose number one concern was not his ass or his politics but his people would have flown to new orleans the day that he saw people floating in the water and brought the calvary.

period.

everyone knows that where the president goes, the heat comes with.

new orleans needed that heat.

yes sometimes shit stops when the president is around but thats because the president is a idiot and a pussy and inept. and those who vote for him repeatedly and support him are part of the problem, if not THE problem, but this isnt about them. today is about him.

a leader doesnt eat cake while people are screaming for help. a leader doesnt play guitar as people are drowning.

especially after 9/11. especially after what’s happened to the economy and the deficit and the gas prices and the war and the budget cuts to the levees and the flood plain.

a leader says, just like he said at gitmo, what law, im going to fucking save the world, i dare you to impeach me for saving 10,000 people you fucking fucks, impeach me for saving lives and watch your party disappear.

a leader does what the group is either too afraid to do or too stuck in excuses to do. its why they say leaders rise to the top. its why they say leaders are born not made. its why they say follow the leader. its why i say mr bush is not a leader.

paris hilton is more of a leader than george bush.

i talk about the Daily Nexus a lot, my college paper. i ran for Editor-in-Chief my senior year and lost, but during the final portion we had to have an interview with the Press Council which were 5 members of various student organizations and the administration.

at one point they asked “what would you do if your staff wanted to do one thing, but you wanted to do the opposite?”

i said, “i would ask them to explain to me why they wanted to do it, and i would tell them that i would consider their idea, but if i felt that mine was better, i would lead us that way.”

they said, “but dont you respect your team, what if they wanted to quit, what if they were offended?”

and i said, “there is a reason why we only have one Editor-in-Chief. it’s not to go along with consensus, it’s not to sit at the head of the figurehead table, it’s to make the tough decisions, and sometimes the tough decisions means going against the group.”

i lost by one vote, 2-3, but i would say exactly the same thing again, because i still believe it.

the president’s job security is not more important than the lives and well being of those sufferring and dying in new orleans.

the lack of preparedness, the absense of government funding, the slow-as-molasses “resuce” effort, and the bungling of FEMA and the department of homeland security, and the horrendous lies by the president that brownie did a heck of a job and that the newspapers on tuesday said that new orleans dodged a bullet caused as many deaths as five 9/11s.

it caused as many deaths as five iraq wars.

this president has sat at the grownup table and ignored the august 2001 cia briefing that said that bin ladin was determined to strike inside the US and we had one 9/11

he attacked iraq and we lost as many US soldiers as another 9/11 and over 100,000 iraqis died.

in order to get re-elected he continued to cut taxes during wartime and part of the monies that werent collected were supposed to go to the levees and the flood plains and the result was five 9/11s.

at some point the leader takes responsibility for what happened on his watch, be it something he did directly like lead us into a false war, cut taxes for programs that would have saved lives, or played it safe and not immediately aid the devistation of one of his cities.

at some point the followers call bullshit on the leader.

this is that point.

im sick of 9/11s.

im sick of not having a leader.

im sick of this figurehead never taking responsibility for anything.

im sick of this administration only being punk rock when it has to do with denying things to gays and women and our military and political prisoners and those in disaster areas screaming out for help.

the democratic party isnt the one that impeaches presidents over bullshit. thats the other party. the democratic party doesnt impeach anyone but themselves.

the american people are the ones who need to stop acting like the democratic party and sit on thier hands and watch this government splooge on themselves as they fuck up time after time.

new orleans was a fuck up from the ground up. and at some point the president needed to say ok im taking over for a minute because i am seeing that this red tape is strangling people. impeach my ass later but now im gonna show you how its done.

but we dont have a leader in america

although we have plenty of sheep

and now we have 10,000 more dead people.

people are dead and others worry about finger pointing?

this country doesnt have enough leaders or sense and i dont have enough middle fingers.

pdf of the dallas morning news on 8/30/05 + mark + alecia + sploid redesign + impeach bush

“oh tony it’s soooo big, i dont think it will fit!”

“no tony your house isnt that messy, ive seen way worse”

“no really, i’m 19.”

in fact one could say that the older you get the more you get used to lies and the lying liars.

“lease this car for just $199 a month.”

“i’ll call you right back.”

“i’m a libertarian.”

but the other day, in the midst of the worst national disaster in the history of our country a bunch of high ranking officials lied right through their teeth and the president didnt call bullshit, the press didnt call bullshit, not even the worlds most popular blogger the instapundit called bullshit

and their lack of bullshit calling sorta makes you think that maybe they were all in on it or dont want to talk about it, but since i dont believe in conspiracy theories i’ll pretend that they were all too busy donating to the red cross or something.

anyway here was the lie: on Sunday morning when everyone was at church the chief of Homeland Security told Tim Russert on Meet The Press that the reason that the feds were so slow to rush to New Orleans was because of what he had read in the papers “I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, ‘New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.'”

First of all, does Homeland Security decide how it’s going to handle its affairs not by what it sees on CNN, the Weather Channel, or a variety of newschannels – but waits for the paper to come out? And doesnt it have, oh I dont know, PEOPLE that it could talk to who are, you know, in the effected areas?

But more importantly, what fucking paper did Chertoff read? as Wonkette pointed out the other day, here are the headlines that morning from the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Washington Times, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

no headlines saying new orleans dodged a bullet.

in fact thanks to the wonders of the interweb theres even a website that archives a huge number of newspaper covers every day.

for example, here is page of todays headlines

here is the page of the headlines on 9/12/01

and here is the one from the morning that Homeland Security chief Chertoff was talking about

no headline that screams New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.

in fact there are 477 newspapers archived on that day. none that say what he says they said.

ok that wouldnt be such a big deal if General Richard Myers hadn’t said almost exactly the same thing two days ago, Tuesday, in a press conference with Donald Rumsfield

The headline, of course, in most of the country’s papers on Tuesday were ‘New Orleans dodged a bullet,’ or words to that effect. At that time, when those words were in our minds, we started working issues before we were asked.

wait, what? so you read these mysterious papers that said all was well and with those words in your feeble little minds you started working on issues?

what fucking issues? either you read a paper that said everything was chill and you chilled or you really read the papers and knew that shit was fucked. but dont lie to us and say that most of the nation’s papers said things were chilled, General, because any dipwad with even basic cable knew it wasnt and anyone who was reading anything other than the Weekly World News knew that the Gulf Coast was toast.

my buddy Dan called me up last night and we were talking about this storm and he said that the interesting thing about it is that with it’s 150+ MPH winds it lifted the rock that the Republicans hide under

and when that rock was pulled up we have seen all the slime and much and dreck that wiggles in there.

we have seen the President mosey his way to the affected area, we have seen his mother say that since the evacuees are poor theyre better off homeless in the astrodome, we have seen the bush cronies at FEMA bungle and turn away help, we have seen the Navy reprimand heroic pilots who actually fucking saved 100+ people,

and now he says, we are seeing the right wing bloggers and red state supporters defend this adminstration as they drop the ball and lie and lie and lie.

the rock has indeed been lifted my friends, and not even the investigation that the president yesterday proposed that he will launch on himself (which now, thankfully will be bi-partisan) will help him dodge this bullet.

new orleans was devistated with a one-two punch indeed. first nature nailed it, and then this administration sat on its hands for five days and watched people drown and starve and suffer and kill each other.

ive lived through many miserable times in my life, but the more this tragedy sinks in and the more rock gets pulled away the sicker i get inside, and i dont even care that people think this is a political blog, which we all know it isnt.

this is a pissed off blog thats only getting pissier and if youre not mad as hell youre not paying attention.

zulieka + political mania + buzzmachine + aint no bad dude