Bosom Buddies
Eight years ago today, President Bush delivered his acceptance speech at the 2000 Republican National Convention. We had this pledge from Bush:
“So when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God.”
In the speech, Bush also said, “A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam: When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming.”
(The picture on the right is of Bush shaking hands with McCain at the conclusion of the 2000 RNC Convention.)
Not long ago we wrote about an ongoing effort in San Francisco to name a sewer-water treatment facility after Mr. Bush. It now appears that the folks living in the City on the Bay, have changed their minds and no longer want to do this.
The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco had just recently submitted enough signatures to city election officials “hoping to place on the ballot an initiative that would rechristen the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant as the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.”
But on CBC radio last Friday, one of the commission’s founders, Brian McConnell, said the group ran in to some unexpected opposition to changing the name:
McCONNELL: What we didn’t expect was that most of the opposition was coming from people who didn’t want to name anything. They just wanted to forget about the past eight years and move on or they felt that this is a facility that does something really quite useful and it would be inappropriate to put his name on it.
Kind of sad state of affairs.
When you get to the point where people are defending the sewage plant, that’s a sign that things have not gone so well.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) is opposing a decision by the Bush administration to allow a New England Little League team to visit Cuba this week, arguing such trips run counter to the U.S. policy of isolating the Cuban government. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) fired back at Diaz-Balart: “He should pick on someone his own size.”
Planned layoffs at U.S. companies jumped 26 percent from June to July, which is an indication of “further deterioration in the labor market.” In July, planned layoffs totaled 103,312, compared to 81,755 in June. “From January to July, planned layoffs totaled 579,260, up 33 percent from the same period a year ago.”
Neither President Bush nor Congress “has acted to appoint members to a commission intended to boost U.S. energy independence in the three years since Congress enacted a law establishing the panel.” During that time, “oil prices have more than doubled to $125 per barrel from $60, and the price of a gallon of gasoline has increased from about $2.25 to nearly $4.”
White House shuts off Blackberry access following reports of Chinese spying.
Last week, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) expressed outrage that the Chinese government could “listen to anybody and everybody and their communications” during the Olympics. The White House is apparently also fearful of being spied on, as CBS News reports that Bush’s staff “have been told to leave their BlackBerries at home“
Now this is somewhat amusing, “an administration that hides behind the Patriot Act to spy on it’s own citizens” is now complaining because someone else is doing the very same thing to them?
What a bunch of bozos.
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