Sanity Pills

So Tony Snow is now the face that the press sees when they want to ask the White House a question. There’s no doubt that Tony Snow has been able to answer some real hard hitting questions in the past, and there’s no doubt that he’s got a brilliant opinion to spice it up with.

Media Matters is offering some interesting tidbits about Mr. Snow. You guys can check it out for yourselves here.

Tony Snow used to be a member of the world renowned “Free Republic” forums that we can all read when we want to find a cesspool of conservative knee jerk reactionaries and crazy people. Obviously as soon as this was found out, Free Republic deleted Snow’s account and all posts that he had partaken in. That doesn’t stop internet savvy folks from using tools such as archive.org to dig up his past opinions. I hope we find out soon what interesting opinions he provided on those forums. For now, lets all see what other delightfully educated opinions Mr. Snow has had to offer in the past.

Today, evolutionary theorists find themselves at wits’ end because the fossil record provides no evidence of any species ever turning into another. We know species adjust to environmental conditions — ever notice how tall kids are these days? — and that natural selection does occur. But there’s nothing to vindicate the notion of an evolutionary leap.

This is from a recent column of his (some time from August ’05 I believe ). Simply brilliant though isn’t it?. Thanks for that one Tony. What other goodies do you have hiding in your basket?

Consider Vietnam. The conventional wisdom holds that America fought an unjust war there and lost. In fact, we embarked upon a noble war, analogous to the battle in Iraq, but we lost our will – in part because war protesters concocted tales of widespread viciousness and butchery

Hit the nail right on the head there Tony. No lies, deception, or strategic blunders in Vietnam, it was a great war that was lost because of protestors!

I wanted to turn this into a giant journal of more absurd tidbits of his but I’m running short on energy. Mayhap I’ll update it with more soon. For now, here’s some links to munch on.

Kwanzaa bashing

An archive of his column on Jewish World Review

A ‘Think Progress’ overview of Mr. Snow’s opinion on Bush

Palast does it again, by writing a scathing critique of Dubya’s NCLB program.

Students in New York have to pass a test with the questions like the following if they are to pass their grade:

“The year 1999 was a big one for the Williams sisters. In February, Serena won her first pro singles championship. In March, the sisters met for the first time in a tournament final. Venus won. And at doubles tennis, the Williams girls could not seem to lose that year.” And here’s one of the four questions:

“The story says that in 1999, the sisters could not seem to lose at doubles tennis. This probably means when they played

“A two matches in one day
“B against each other
“C with two balls at once
“D as partners”

and

“Most young tennis stars learn the game from coaches at private clubs. In this sentence, a club is probably a

“F baseball bat
“G tennis racquet
“H tennis court
“J country club”

Of course these questions are incredibly easy for any of us (especially since the majority of this site’s readers are pure-bred brahmins), but these questions aren’t for us, they’re for third graders in New York City’s public schools.

Third graders, 8-years-old.

I dunno if this has been adjusted for whatever adjustments all you fancy pants financiers adjust when you’re bored and like fucking with numbers, but here’s something that’s funny nonetheless.

BUSH ADMINISTRATION BREAKS RECORD

Administration Borrows more from Foreign Nations than Previous 42 Presidents Combined

WASHINGTON D.C.- President George W. Bush and the current administration have now borrowed more money from foreign governments and banks than the previous 42 U.S. presidents combined.

Throughout the first 224 years (1776-2000) of our nation’s history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions according to the U.S. Treasury Department. In the past four years alone (2001-2005), the Bush Administration has borrowed a staggering $1.05 trillion.

Hot.

Adding to the indictment blue balls is this juicy nugget from today’s Times.

Umm:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 – I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.

Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.

And:

Mr. Libby’s notes indicate that Mr. Cheney had gotten his information about Ms. Wilson from George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, in response to questions from the vice president about Mr. Wilson. But they contain no suggestion that either Mr. Cheney or Mr. Libby knew at the time of Ms. Wilson’s undercover status or that her identity was classified. Disclosing a covert agent’s identity can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent’s undercover status.

Cheney telling Libby about Plame’s identity isn’t illegal, but Cheney greenlighting Libby to reveal Plame’s name to Judy Miller after some late-night anal-blasting, that’s a different story.

The reactionary Washington Times broke the story that senior White House officials may be planning to withdraw Harriet Miers’s nomination. I imagine we’ll see Priscilla Owen or Janice Rogers Brown standing next to Bush in a two or three weeks—he’ll give the Right what they want—so we should plan for some hilarious dialog in the near future.

The bright side is that I no longer have to find a way to make giant bags under my eyes and paint liver spots all over my face to dress as Miers for Halloween.

Bush:

Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.

Nabil Shaath says: “President Bush said to all of us: ‘I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, “George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.” And I did, and then God would tell me, “George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …” And I did. And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, “Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.” And by God I’m gonna do it.’”

Abu Mazen was at the same meeting and recounts how President Bush told him: “I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state.”

Gore:

I thought maybe it was an aberration when three-quarters of Americans said they believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on September 11, 2001. But more than four years later, between a third and a half still believe Saddam was personally responsible for planning and supporting the attack.

At first I thought the exhaustive, non-stop coverage of the O.J. trial was just an unfortunate excess that marked an unwelcome departure from the normal good sense and judgment of our television news media. But now we know that it was merely an early example of a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time.

Are we still routinely torturing helpless prisoners, and if so, does it feel right that we as American citizens are not outraged by the practice? And does it feel right to have no ongoing discussion of whether or not this abhorrent, medieval behavior is being carried out in the name of the American people? If the gap between rich and poor is widening steadily and economic stress is mounting for low-income families, why do we seem increasingly apathetic and lethargic in our role as citizens?

On the eve of the nation’s decision to invade Iraq, our longest serving senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor asked: “Why is this chamber empty? Why are these halls silent?”

The decision that was then being considered by the Senate with virtually no meaningful debate turned out to be a fateful one. A few days ago, the former head of the National Security Agency, Retired Lt. General William Odom, said, “The invasion of Iraq, I believe, will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history.”

Who would you rather have as president?

How the fuck does this happen?

Bush chose the staggeringly unimpressive Harriet Miers to fill the open seat on the Supreme Court. No one is excited about her at all, except maybe those in the Bush clan (klan). She has no paper trail (usually helps but not this time) and nothing to distinguish her from thousands of other lawyers.

She is:

1.) Woefully unqualified as far as her resume compared to those of the other Justices, but she does have a vagina (I think).
2.) Nothing more than a Bush crony.
3.) Lacking clearly defined positions, which will scare the Repugs much more than the Democrats.
4.) Really hasn’t done anything at all.
5.) A graduate of a not-even-close to “great” law school. SMU is very good, but hardly the place that produces a generation’s greatest legal minds.

Take a look at what Michelle Malkin and other right-wingers are thinking. They are scared and pissed off.

There will be attacks from the Right for not being the right choice, and attacks from the Left for being just another Bush friend given way too much power (I have a feeling Michael Brown’s name will be coming up as an example in the next few weeks).

She’ll be harder to get through, and I don’t think she will. Plus, she is extremely unattractive; looks were a not insignificant dimension that made a clear majority of Americans approve of John Roberts’s nomination.

Michael Brown is at it again. After completely fucking up during Katrina, he’s trying to blame the errors on the Louisiana government. Of course Blanco and Nagin are partly responsible for the fuck-up, but Brown is just crazy trying to deflect blame from himself.

In his first testimony to Congress since stepping down from as head of Fema, Michael Brown launched an attack on Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, and Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, saying his main mistake had been “not recognising . . . that Louisiana was dysfunctional”.

“We can’t deny the point that it worked in the other [affected states of Alabama and Mississippi] and it didn’t work in Louisiana,” he said. “I was unable to get [Governor Kathleen] Blanco and Mayor Ray [Nagin] to work together.”

In an effort to pre-empt the charge of political bias, he added: “I cannot help it if Alabama and Mississippi are Republican.” The authorities in Louisiana and New Orleans are Democrat.

No wonder he was in the Bush Administration, he can’t admit failure and will blame his problems on others.

When I saw this photo of Bush writing a note to Condoleeza Rice during a summit (on Eschaton), I thought it must a doctored photo:

If you can’t make it out, it says: “I think I may need a bathroom break?” and then some undecipherable stuff—maybe “Is this possible” (no punctuation seen).

Not only is the note ridiculous, but he puts a question mark in there? He’s asking Condoleeza Rice if he thinks he may need a bathroom break. Asking someone about what one should think about one’s own body functions—now that’s personal responsibility.

Original source.