Bush flexes his 500 word vocabulary at all the right opportunities

Democrats challenge Bush on Iraq bill - Yahoo! News: "Bush, confident of enough votes to sustain his veto, was unambiguous in his response. 'I will strongly reject an artificial timetable (for) withdrawal and/or Washington politicians trying to tell those who wear the uniform how to do their job,' he told reporters in the Oval Office..." -- Yahoo! News

I will say this for President Bush: He knows the difference between a lawmaker (any Republican in the House or Senate) and a politician (any non-Republican, esp. Democrat). Lawmakers make the rules -- the highest lawmaker, being "The Decider" -- and politicians overstep their bounds.

Lawmakers, for instance, can make moral decisions and tell Terri Schiavo's family that they cannot terminate her vegetative existence. Politicians cannot make legislative decisions by expressing the opinions and desires of their constituencies nor can they be good stewards of tax monies.

Welcome to The United States of George Dubya. Did someone say "Ba'ath Party"?

Bush criticizes Democrats over war funds - Yahoo! News

Bush criticizes Democrats over war funds - Yahoo! News: "'Congress' failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines,' Bush said. 'Others could see their loved ones heading back to the war sooner than they need to.'"

Hmm, longer deployments and shorter time at home before redeployment? It's interesting that this is already happening, and frightening that the President doesn't already know this. Unless, of course, it's part of the White House plan to pin more of the war's negative effect on Congress.

For years, Mssrs. Bush and Cheney would berate the opposition for "sending a bad message to the troops". In fact, this whole second term of Bush's presidency has been underscored by the assertion that his detractors "do not support the troops". If there was only one way to show support, then this might be a valid arguement. But clearly that's not the case. We continue to allow Bush to undermine our ability to seek better alternatives by not questioning the logic of his rhetoric.

As Long As It Makes Sense in HIS Mind

Bush Confident Warrantless Wiretaps Legal - Yahoo! News: "President Bush defended anew his program of warrantless surveillance Thursday, saying 'there's no doubt in my mind it is legal.' "

When there's no doubt in the mind of the perpetrator of an offense, then it's reasonable to conclude that that individual is mentally impaired. How long will it be before we come to that conclusion in the case of George W. Bush?

In a White House press conference this morning, President Bush refused to acknowledge that he was "circumventing" the law in authorizing warrantless surveillance. He then went on to explain that, in his discussions with his advisors, it was determined that the FISA law (1978) is "outdated" and not applicable to current circumstances and, therefore, cannot be applied.

Hmm. We can't apply a law from 1978, so we ignore it. (Didn't Saddam Hussein use that argument recently?) Sounds like circumventing to me. Oh, and by the way, that might also explain why Mr. Bush continues to ignore a host of other laws that were enacted to limit Executive Branch power. They must be outdated! Let the lawyers fight that fight, to paraphrase the President. Let the lawyers(!) determine what's unconstitutional or not. (Kill me, now!)

I look for to the day when this President is brought down and ousted -- for no other reason than to bring the Constitution of the United States of America back as our governing doctrine. I so desperately want to start loving my country again.

Wanna Buy Some Wood?

At one point during the Bush-Kerry debate #2, Senator Kerry suggested that even the President can be considered a "small business", as evidenced by nominal payments that Bush has received from a large timber company. President Bush showed his own inability to comprehend basic business principles by donning his trademark "Dopey face" and musing ""I own a timber company? That's news to me."

Then after a pregnant pause in which he slowly walked the stage, mugging to the audience (oh, how adorable you are, Mr. President!) , he asked, "Need some wood?"

That line made me imagine that Bush was considering subdividing the real estate that is his own head and selling it off to the highest bidder.

Many large -- indeed, oftentimes humongous -- businesses create tiny entities which are corporations and LLCs in their own right. The sheer purpose, and a totally legal and ethical one at that, is to allocate and separate funds and resources to a particular function without interfering with any other part of the greater business entity. Each of these individual entities counts as a small business when viewed from the perspective of the state commissions that license them.

The suggestion that President Bush owns one or more of these small businesses and that one of them is receiving dividends or other payments from a timber company should be no surprise to Bush, nor should it be a hard concept for the President of the United States to understand.

...unless his head was made out of wood.