Karl Rovian Math 101
Donald Rumsfeld has stepped down. Democrats have won a sweeping majority in the house of representatives and as Webb declares victory in Virginia and Tester pulls out a victory in Montana, it seems that the Senate is falling into Democratic hands as well.
Republicans are famous for pointing fingers at their foes, while circling their wagons around their friends. They yell at Clinton for his extra-marital exploits, but try to burry Foley’s predatory advances on congressional pages. They refuse to talk in detail about military opperations, but leak the names of clandestine CIA agents as soon as they become a political threat.
Then there is the Republican outrage over “New Math” and “Fuzzy Math” back in the earlier days of their regime. It seems that they have always claimed to have a copyright on the one and only true math, but they’ve never come right out and said it quite so much as Karl Rove did on October 24. Rove, in an interview with NPR’s Robert Siegel, insisted that he had access to a far greater number of polls than the average person, and that any suggestion that Democrats would take over either house of congress was laughable because he was using “the math”.
Well, MR. Rove, I think you need to go back to the fourth grade because you either forgot to carry a one, or you rounded WAY the hell up when you should have rounded down. I sincerely hope that you are not the one creating the curriculum for the “no child left behind” act.
Below is the transcript of that interview:
MR. SIEGEL OF NPR: We’re in the home stretch, though. And many might consider you on the optimistic end of realism about –
MR. ROVE: Not that you would be exhibiting a bias or anything like that. You’re just making a comment.
MR. SIEGEL: I’m looking at all the same polls that you’re looking at every day.
MR. ROVE: No you’re not. No you’re not!
MR. SIEGEL: No, I’m not –
MR. ROVE: I’m looking at 68 polls a week. You may be looking at four or five public polls a week that talk about attitudes nationally, but that do not impact the outcome –
[Rove is claiming access to secret polls that he never cites any data from, indicates the origin of, or otherwise documents the existence of. When asked for examples of races Republicans are winning, Rove turns to races we all know they're winning based on "public" polls. Needless to say, thousands of public polls report on individual races, not just "attitudes nationally".]
MR. SIEGEL: — name races between — certainly Senate race
MR. ROVE: Well, like the polls today showing that Corker’s ahead in Tennessee; or the race — polls showing that Allen is pulling away in the Virginia Senate race.
[Yes, we knew about those, Karl. But those still leave the Republicans losing the House and possibly even the Senate.]
MR. SIEGEL: Leading Webb in Virginia. Yes.
MR. ROVE: Yeah, exactly.
MR. SIEGEL: Have you seen the DeWine race and the Santorum race and — I don’t want to –
MR. ROVE: Yeah. Look, I’m looking at all these Robert and adding them up. And I add up to a Republican Senate and a Republican House. You may end up with a different math, but you’re entitled to your math. I’m entitled to “the” math.
Political Parties With Awesome Names!
In order to overthrow the tyranical Republican leadership, I’ve been towing the Democratic line pretty hard since the 2000 elections, in which, along with many others, I voted for Ralph Nader and unwittingly helped Bush and his cronies to power.
Despite my year 2000 voting embarrassment however, I remain a proponent of a political landscape that features a broad array of political parties. In practice, we have to unite behind the Democratic party to neutralize Republicans, but in theory I strongly support minor parties, and I remain saddened that they are relegated to obscurity by our two-party system.
Never the less, if America had a state where the effectiveness of a multi-party system could be demonstrated, Vermont would be that state. We have more independents holding elected office than any other state in the union, and the major parties have proven that they can, and do unite behind minor party candidates that have sufficient public support and similar political platform.
My political slant is no secret, so it was with great joy that I opened my ballot this year and discovered two candidates running under very provocative party names: Dennis Morrisseau, running for US House under the “Impeach Bush Now” party, and Peter Moss, running for the Sennate as the “Anti-Bushist” candidate.
My vote went to Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders respectively, but I love that I live in a state where an “Impeach Bush Now” party can exist.
Republicans Love to Rewrite History
Sure you say… We all know how much Republicans love to rewrite history. The Bush administration has been little but a series of lies and coverups since 2000, but I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with Erich’s assessment over at pigeffer.com.
The long and short of Erich’s article is that Bush and Dick Cheney are angry about their approval ratings going down the toilet. They are so fed up by all the recent congressional critisisim over their pet war in Iraq that they are lashing out against Democrats and accusing them of “rewriting history”.
Erich, of course, asks the obvious question: What about the volumes of history the Bush administration has rewritten? The few members of his administration who can write, that is. This administration has been not only incredibly secretive, they have changed their reasoning for taking America to war three times, and attempted to bring the time-honored tradition of torture back to international affairs…
Hey, torture! Great family values people!
Here are some of the highlights from Erich’s article:
The latest Newsweek poll is showing that Bush’s approval ratings are below 36%, so in an effort to appear to be presidential, Bush is swinging back at his critics by accusing them of “rewriting history”. This is perhaps the most laughable and ironic accusation the president could have offered, considering that he has altered his reasons for going to war with Iraq three times.
At the time, he justified this action by claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and was trying to acquire more. Unsurprisingly, Bush came this conclusion only a month after the attacks in New York City on 9/11. Desperately wanting to pin the attacks on Hussein to use a driver for invasion, he was unsuccessful as all evidence pointed clearly at bin Laden.
Keeping in mind that WMD’s were not found in Iraq, and the people of the United States felt they were lied to, Bush changed his message. Instead of focusing on the weapons of mass destruction, Bush was able to successfully redirect the peoples’ attention to the fact that “Saddam is a bad guy”.
Not long after the Iraqi congress was formed, our reasons for the war changed once again. Now, we were “promoting democracy”, and apparently we still are.
Erich wraps it all up by suggesting what we should be doing with our military presence in Iraq:
The best thing we can do for our troops is to pull them out of all cities, towns, and villages in Iraq and move them to the borders. From there, we can completely secure Iraq and protect the Iraqi people from foreign terrorists, such as the hundreds that are streaming in from Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.
I can’t say that I completely agree with this approach, but I do agree that the long-term hopes for a settled Middle East are bleak at best.
Of course, the second we leave, no matter how far into the future, Iraq is going to revert back to what it’s always been: a nation of tribes warring with each other over religious differences. Maybe we shouldn’t delay the inevitable…
Well said Erich. I hope you’re wrong, but you certainly do have history on your side.
Corporate Lobbyists Sell Meetings With Bush
Apparently the Bush administration loves corporate lobbyists so much that they’ve started letting them sell meetings with the president.
From the New York Times:
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 - The lobbyist Jack Abramoff asked for $9 million in 2003 from the president of a West African nation to arrange a meeting with President Bush and directed his fees to a Maryland company now under federal scrutiny, according to newly disclosed documents.
We’ve always known that Bush values the interest of multinational corporations above all else, but come on Mr. President, isn’t this a bit much? Allowing your corporate buddies to sell meetings with you for a whopping 9 million dollars! Hopefully you are at least living up to your record of corruption and demanding a cut.
I’ll ignore the bitter shiver of disenfranchised Americanism I just got, and move on to laugh (or is it cry) at the thought of what happens when someone calls the White House to try to get a meeting with W…
White House: Hello, White House.
Caller: Hi, I would like to meet with the President.
White House: Oh… We’ll have to direct you to his Enron office for that.
Caller: Enron office?
White House: That’s right, Enron is handling the President’s schedule now. In collaboration with members of the carlyl group of course.
White House: Bye now.
I know I should stop being amazed at how demonic and corrupt this administration is, but every time they sink to a new low it still makes me sick.
Libby Takes The Fall
Is I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby the new Fall Guy? Given last Friday’s indictment, he seems to be taking the fall for the corrupt Bush administration, but will it work? Rove and Cheney are still under investigation, and if you ask me, Bush and his cronies have a lot of explaining to do about why they leaked National security secrets to for partisan purposes.
The sad thing is that if Bush himself does not burn for this, everyone involved will simply be given a Presidential pardon… Talk about corruption!
Thanks to Erich for the Photoshop work on the image above!
South Park Katrina Media Spoof
For good reason, the media has taken a beating for over sensationalizing their Hurricane Katrina coverage. Since then, a number of internet clips have come out poking fun at them for it.
This is a little South Park cartoon that makes fun of the media’s coverage of a flood in the town of Beverton Colorado, and I especially like the way it ends with a group of suits blaming the flood on George Bush, and a group of redneck hillbillies blaming it on Terrorists… Very funny.
I’m really sorry the clip is a WMV. I try really hard never to link to them, but I found it at a site run by Neo Conservatives, and we can’t really count on them to have the common sense to encode things in Quick Time.
Bush Attempts Damage Control
I’d like to remind everyone who believes that Bush is finally taking responsibility for responding poorly to Katrina that both he, and the republicans running congress have repeatedly thwarted attempts to form a bipartisian committe to investigate the National government’s failures surrounding the disaster. They favor instead, a republican-led committie that will undoubtedly stage another massive coverup for this corrupt government.
This is not taking responsibility; it is damage control. It’s like asking Enron to investigate its own accounting practices and deliver an unbiased report. It is simply foolish to believe that the republican-led congress will hold the president accountable, and it is important to acknowledge that his half-hearted acceptance of responsibility is a smokescreen to divert our attention away.
Don’t let him get away with it! Criminal negligence and negligent homicide are impeachable offenses.
Technorati Indicates Public Demand for Bush Impeachment
I’m really interested to notice that for the last few days the search term “Impeach Bush” has been among the top searches on technorati.com.
Somehow I doubt it’s a coincidence that “katrina” and “hurricane” are also among the top searches. It looks like the world is finally holding this administration accountable for its failures. Some sites are even posting alphabetical listings of the President’s screw ups. One thing is for sure, however, the President’s approval ratings are falling.
Bush Takes a Vacation
Apparently all the touring of disaster areas and blaming of local governments has made poor Bush tired. It seems he and his father had to take a mini vacation and do some fishing in the Gulf Coast flood waters.
Seriously though… I love it when people get creative with Photoshop, but the reality is, George W. Bush takes an amazing number of vacation days… All told, nearly 20% of his presidency has been spent on vacation.
According to the Washington Post:
The August getaway is Bush’s 49th trip to his cherished ranch since taking office and the 319th day that Bush has spent, entirely or partially, in Crawford — nearly 20 percent of his presidency to date, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio reporter known for keeping better records of the president’s travel than the White House itself. Weekends and holidays at Camp David or at his parents’ compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, bump up the proportion of Bush’s time away from Washington even further.
Bloggers Run Condoleeza Rice out of NYC
All over the net, people are talking about how the Bush Administration’s failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina might prove to be the downfall of his administration. Based on his failures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and the Gulf Coast, it is certainly clear Bush and his Neo-Conservative followers have become damaged goods, and some are even calling for him to “resign in shame“.
While reading Zach’s story “Is Katrina Bush’s Waterloo?” I found a link to a New York Times story that reports how bloggers, demanding answers about the Bush administration’s failure to act, chased Condoleeza Rice out of the city where she had been shopping for shoes and enjoying plays rather than responding to the death and devastation in New Orleans.
It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at Ferragamo’s on Fifth Avenue and attended “Spamalot” before bloggers chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode.
Everywhere we look, this government has failed us. During his time in office, Bush has staged a war built on lies against an imagined enemy, perpetuated a fear of terrorism in order to exert social control, and eroded our civil rights, while padding the pockets of his executive campaign contributers. There can be no doubt that this administration is corrupt and incompetent, and I, for one, do feel he should resign.
