Clipmarks | BobbyRutan's 'liberal' clips

Attack Dog Bill Blames Kennedy Over Law Hillary Voted For

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:07:00 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: Bill: "I want you to think about this, and I have to say, this was a train wreck that was not intended. No Child Left Behind was supported by George Bush and Senator Ted Kennedy and everybody in between. Why? Because they didn't talk to enough teachers before they did that," Clinton said yesterday at Arizona State University, according to the Associated Press.

Hillary: "I believe that every child should be taught by a qualified teacher and that schools should be accountable to the parents of the children they serve. That is why I supported the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 and continue to believe in the principles behind the landmark law."

Me: So Bill, does Hillary just have bad judgment voting for NCLB and Iraq? Or are you just going for the juggler of anyone who doesn't support the Clintons? Are these really the people who can bring change to Washington and unite people?

Clip Source: blogs.abcnews.com

While stumping for his wife at an Arkansas high school Friday, former President Bill Clinton seemed to blame Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.,

for the failure of the No Child Left Behind Act to live up to its promises.

The President made a deal with Senator Kennedy

The deal was supposed to be, we will give the schools more money and get rid of two programs that Bill Clinton actually started

And then the law kind of winks at the state of Arkansas and says, 'don't worry about it too much because you get to pick the test and the passing score.' Now think about that you get the worst of all worlds," Clinton said.

Clinton mentioned Kennedy's association with the No Child Left Behind Act

in the same week that the liberal icon passed over his wife to endorse her Democratic rival -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

In 2001, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., voted for the No Child Left Behind Act, but has since said it was mismanaged and should be replaced.

Clip Source: www.playboy.com

What Did He Say?

Tags: it was a train wreck and my wife voted for it

Merle Haggard has left the Republican Party - Sorry n2

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 21:02:46 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: More: The thing that gets under my skin most about George W. is his intention to install fear in people," he said, after walking me down a hallway lined with gold and platinum records

"This is America. We're proud. We're not afraid of a bunch of terrorists. W is all about terror alerts and scaring us at airports. We're changing the Constitution out of fear. We spend all our time looking up each other's dresses.

Haggard sensed reluctance among the Hillarians to embrace his endorsement—in part, I imagine, because he's not shy about saying that one of the biggest things Hillary has going for her is Bill, who ranks up with Reagan in the Haggard pantheon and not only because the former President used to have a pickup truck with Astroturf in the back. "He cared about this country, about our problems," Haggard said, with a twinkle. "And I figure that whatever she doesn't know, he does."

When Al Gore wins the Nobel and Merle Haggard leaves the party, it's a bad day for Republicans.

Clip Source: www.time.com

Merle Haggard has always had his guitar hardwired to the gutbucket pulse of Middle America

Back in the Vietnam era, he seemed the essence of a historic political migration: white males fleeing the feminized, antiwar, politically correct Democratic Party

His brilliant anthem—Okie from Muskogee—became a rallying cry for those who were disgusted by the "hippies out in San Francisco" smoking marijuana and burning draft cards

so when I heard that Haggard had written a song endorsing Hillary Clinton for President

I was more than curious about the motivation for his apparent left turn

I supported George W. I'm not exactly a liberal

But I know how that Texas thing works, who those oil folks are and what they wanted in Iraq

I'm a born-again Christian too, but the longer I live, the more afraid I get of some of these religious groups that have so much influence on the Republicans and want to tell us how to live our lives

Fear's the only issue the Republican Party has

Enlarge Photo

Merle Haggard.

Tags: fear, religious zealotry, iraq, hillary, war, terror, bush, cheney, republican

Blackwater draws guns on U.S. Soldiers

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:18:22 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: More: Testifying before Congress last week, 38-year-old Blackwater chief Erik Prince vigorously defended his company's "dedicated security professionals"

In deflecting questions about a drunken Blackwater operative who allegedly shot and killed a bodyguard for Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi in the Green Zone on Christmas Eve last year, Prince said that the employee, later identified as Andrew Moonen, had been fined and fired. But on Friday House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman released a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recounting evidence that Moonen was able to return to Iraq and worked there for another company.

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers

describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee

The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV

His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company

many American civilian and military officials in Iraq also have little sympathy for the private security company

Unlike nearly everyone else who enters the Green Zone, said an American soldier who guards a gate, Blackwater gunmen refuse to stop and clear their weapons of live ammunition once inside

Blackwater

has a well-earned reputation in Iraq for arrogance and high-handedness

Their attitude was, 'We're f---ing security; we don't have to answer to anybody

Gervasio Sanchez

Tags: lawless mercenaries, war, terror, republican, conservative, bush, cheney, politics, liberal

Iraq: Another Dirty Secret - South African Mercenaries, former White Apartheid era Veterans

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 18:56:46 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: More: The root of that distrust dates to the mid-1990s, when thousands of white officers left South Africa's security agencies during the transition from apartheid to majority black rule. Unemployed soldiers and police joined private security companies that got embroiled in African wars from Angola to Sierra Leone.

A wheelchair-bound man who owns an SUV with vanity plates that proclaim "Baghdad," Brink lost a leg and fingers in 2005 to a mine that exploded under his armored vehicle in Baqouba, a hotbed of the Iraqi insurgency. Since returning to South Africa, he has been encouraging wounded colleagues to apply for U.S. worker's compensation under the U.S. Defense Base Act, which applies to all workers, American or foreign, who are subcontracted in war zones by Washington

Brink was advising them on how to file for U.S. worker's compensation.

I'll buy a farm if I can collect on my claim, said Gouws, 45, But I don't recommend this method of getting a farm to anyone else

Clip Source: www.chicagotribune.com

in that hush lies a clue to this African nation's murky and angst-ridden participation in America's military adventure in the Middle East: Durant is one of thousands of South African police officers and soldiers, most of them white veterans of the old apartheid regime, who have left their jobs to work as private security contractors in Iraq -- a semiclandestine exodus of hired guns that has alternately embarrassed and alarmed the pacifist government here.

Sensitive to its apartheid-era reputation for exporting soldiers of fortune to wars across Africa, the young, black-led government in Pretoria recently drafted the harshest anti-mercenary bill in the world, a measure that would criminalize virtually all of its citizens working in Iraq.

a former South African military officer

conceded that most of the nation's best special forces trainers now are on the U.S. contracting payroll in Iraq

would make South Africans the third-largest contingent of armed foreigners deployed in Iraq

Tags: lies, mercenaries, bribery, war, iraq, bush, cheney, conservatives, politics, liberal

Senator Domenici to Retire: New Mexico trending Democratic

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:23:21 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Sen. Pete Domenici is retiring after a generation as a dominant Republican voice on budget matters in Congress, deferring to health concerns after six terms in office.

The 75-year-old New Mexico senator scheduled a formal announcement in late afternoon Thursday in Albuquerque. In a draft statement, he said he has a progressive disease that can cause dysfunction in the parts of the brain important for organization, decision-making and control of mood and behavior.

Domenici spent Wednesday telling Senate colleagues that he has frontotemporal lobar degeneration, or FTLD, a type of dementia. Its name refers to the slow deterioration of affected sections of the brain, the front and lower sides — areas that control such things as language and behavior.

In political terms, Domenici's decision to retire represents yet another blow to Senate Republicans, who lost their majority in 2006 and face a hostile political environment little more than a year before the 2008 elections.

AP Photo:

Tags: republican, democrat, conservative, liberal, politics, election 2008, bush

729 Days in Iraq: Thanks, See Ya, Wouldn't Want To Be Ya

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:28:17 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: More: "I would assume, and I would hope, that when I get back from a deployment of 22 months, my senior leadership in Washington, the leadership that extended us in the first place, would take care of us once we got home," Hobot said.

Both Hobot and Anderson believe the Pentagon deliberately wrote orders for 729 days instead of 730.

Clip Source: www.wcsh6.com

When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit.

The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge.

"It's pretty much a slap in the face," Anderson said. "I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership... once again failing the soldiers."

1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.

Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.

Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.

"Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month," Anderson said.

would help him pay for his master's degree in public administration

Army did not respond questions Tuesday

Tags: bush, compassionate conservatism, cheney, liars, military, iraq, war, conservative, liberal, politics

Bush Aide: "I Hate All Iranians"

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:29:47 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: Alright, I'll fire the first shot. That looks like a Nazi inspired outfit to me.

Clip Source: www.mailonsunday.co.uk

Britsh MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America's stance on Iran and Iraq were shocked to be told by one of President Bush's senior women officials: "I hate all Iranians."

And she also accused Britain of "dismantling" the Anglo-US-led coalition in Iraq by pulling troops out of Basra too soon

Hard line: Debra Cagan stunned the MPs with her comments

The six MPs were taken aback by the hardline approach of the Pentagon and in particular Ms Cagan, one of Mr Bush's foreign policy advisers.

Tory Stuart Graham, who was on the ten-day trip, would not discuss Ms Cagan but said: "It was very sobering to hear from the horse's mouth how the US sees the situation."

"She seemed more keen on saying she didn't like Iranians than that the US had no plans to attack Iran," said one MP. "She did say there were no plans for an attack but the tone did not fit the words."

Another MP said: "I formed the impression that some in America are looking for an excuse to attack Iran. It was very alarming."

Tags: haters, conservatives, republicans, iran, iraq, war, bush, democrats, liberal, islam

Revealed: W knew Saddam was Willing to Bargain for Exile

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 04:50:30 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: W is suppose to be our first MBA President but he can not even conduct a cost benefit analysis.

Cost: Whatever minuscule amount compared to what we have spent that Saddam would settle for; and any bogus information his generals had convinced him existed.

Benefits: 28,000 soldiers not wounded; 3800 soldiers not killed; 600,000 to 1,000,000 Iraqis not killed; $600 Billion to $1 Trillion dollars not wasted; standing and trust within the world community preserved.

Ultimate cost to Bush: not looking tough; not having Iraqi oil under the control of US oil producers.

Clip Source: news.independent.co.uk

A transcript of an eve-of-war conversation between President George Bush and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has revealed a previously undisclosed initiative to avert war in Iraq by spiriting Saddam Hussein out of the country

Yes, it's possible," Mr Bush told the Spanish leader. "The Egyptians are talking to Saddam Hussein ... He seems to have indicated he would be open to exile if they would let him take one billion dollars and all the information he wants on weapons of mass destruction

The conversation

offers a unique insight into Mr Bush's brusque interaction with one of the few foreign leaders he trusted

Tony Blair and President Bush were officially open to a diplomatic resolution of the Iraq crisis – including a negotiated exile of Saddam - but the Spanish Ambassador's notes reveal peace was never really an option

Mr Bush does admit that averting war would be "the best solution for us" and "would also save us $50bn," greatly underestimating the cost to the US treasury

Tags: bush, lies, war, iraq, republican, democrat, liberal, conservative, saddam, islam

Quiet Baghdad Streets: The Surge is Working

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 08:33:09 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan

Clip Source: www.mcclatchydc.com

About the Cartoonist

Jim Morin / The Miami Herald (September 13, 2007)

Tags: iraq, sunni, shiite, war, terror, bush, al qaeda, conservative, republican, liberal

Trump, "W...You're Fired, You're the Worst Ever".

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 07:55:07 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: donald trump, bush, iraq, war, lies, incompetence, republican, democrat, conservative, liberal

Subsidies still flow as Corn Farmers Prosper

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:01:41 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: Hhhmmm, an African-American or Latino seeking public assistance is denigrated as a taxpayer's burden.

A midwest Anglo republican voting farmer receiving public assistance......pure apple pie americana.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Corn farmer Jim Handsaker has found a slew of ways to ride the heartland boom in biofuels that is reshaping the economy of rural Iowa.

He sold some of his 2006 crop this year for more than $4 a bushel, the highest price in a decade. His stake in two nearby ethanol plants brought in several thousand dollars more in dividends. Meanwhile, soaring farmland prices have pushed the value of the 400 acres he owns to around $2 million

Even so, come October he will get a subsidy check from the government, part of a $1.6 billion installment that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will send to corn farmers

taxpayers are already subsidizing the ethanol industry to the tune of $3 billion a year

the double-barreled support system for those who grow corn and those who turn it into fuel has begun to draw fire

A House-passed farm bill would give corn growers $10.5 billion over the next five years, even if prices stay high

Handsaker

a Republican

keeps a framed picture of President and Mrs. Bush in his office

Tags: hypocrisy, biofuels, subsidies, agriculture, politics, conservative, liberal, republican, democrat, election

"Childrens do learn," Bush tells school kids

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:34:46 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: Moron.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Bush made his latest grammatical slip-up at a made-for-TV event where he urged Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, the centerpiece of his education policy, as he touted a new national report card on improved test scores

During his first presidential campaign, Bush -- who promised to be the "education president" -- once asked: "Is our children learning?"

On Wednesday, Bush seemed to answer his own question with the same kind of grammatical twist.

Offering a grammar lesson guaranteed to make any English teacher cringe, President George W. Bush told a group of New York school kids on Wednesday: "Childrens do learn."

The White House opted to clean up Bush's diction in the official transcript.

Tags: bush, failure, idiot, grammar, conservative, republican, democrat, liberal, election, politics

Couric, CBS Anchorwoman: "Iraq A Mistake"

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:50:37 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: The problem with Couric? - I’d feel totally comfortable saying any of that at some point, IF REQUIRED, on television.

If you aren't going to work to put the brakes on this,......who will?

Newsanchors = Teleprompter readers

Bring back Walter Cronkite!

Clip Source: www.examiner.com

Speaking at the National Press Club Tuesday evening, CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric

Everyone in this room would agree that people in this country were misled in terms of the rationale of this war,” said Couric, adding that it is “pretty much accepted” that the war in Iraq was a mistake

I’ve never understood why [invading Iraq] was so high on the administration’s agenda when terrorism was going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that [Iraq] had no true connection with al Qaeda

The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying ‘we’ when referring to the United States and, even the ‘shock and awe’ of the initial stages, it was just too jubilant and just a little uncomfortable.

I remember feeling

Will anybody put the brakes on this?

at the time, anyone who questioned the administration was considered unpatriotic and it was a very difficult position to be in

She added “I’d feel totally comfortable saying any of that at some point, if required, on television.

Tags: lies, controlling dissent, bush, iraq, war, republicans, democrats, conservative, liberal, election

SCOOP: Bush Promises Iraq Invasion

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:59:18 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: Congress should never subjugate themselves to the ambitions of one individual ever again. The Founding Fathers foresaw this and wrote the Constitution with checks and balances giving Congress the responsibility of making declarations of war.

Anybody, (1) who knew George Bush, (2) witnessed his pathetic address to the UN that showed it was a cursory walk-through before launching the invasion, knew he was lying all the time.

I expect to hear the rightwing lunatic mythology that there was widespread support for this war but in fact the US was for the war only if Bush would secure a UN resolution and obtain a strong coalition mimicking the coalition in Kuwait in 1991.

The Founding Fathers didn't want us to be ruled by Kings and Bush and Cheney are no exception. IMPEACH!

Clip Source: www.editorandpublisher.com

El Pais, the highest-circulation daily in Spain, today published what it said was the transcript of a private talk between President George W. Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on February 22, 2003, concerning the coming U.S. invasion of Iraq. It took place at the ranch in Crawford, Texas

The source for the leak was said to be someone in the Spanish government.

Aznar pleaded for patience and replied that it was vital to get a U.N. resolution, noting that public opinion in Spain was strongly against the war.

Bush purportedly said he planned to invade Iraq inf March "if there was a United Nations Security Council resolution or not....We have to get rid of Saddam. We will be in Baghdad at the end of March."

AZNAR: In fact the greater success would be to gain the game without shooting a single shot and entering Bagdad.

AZNAR: The only thing which it worries to me about you is your optimism.

BUSH

said the U.S. takeover would happen without widespread destruction.

Tags: bush, lying sack of sheet, cheney, evil incarnate, war, iraq, conservative, liberal, democrat, republican

Rightwing A*Hole: Bill O'Reilly - "M-Fer, I want more iced tea."

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 08:18:09 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: As Media Matters for America has documented, O'Reilly has made a number of provocative statements about race.

In a February 27, 2006, conversation with a caller about the disproportionately few jobs and contracts that have gone to locals in the rebuilding of New Orleans, O'Reilly said: "[T]he homies, you know ... I mean, they're just not going to get the job."

Clip Source: mediamatters.org

Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, Bill O'Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." O'Reilly added: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' "

During the September 19 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program

it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun.

Tags: hate filled conservatives, rightwing media, radio, politicis, conservatives, liberal, democrat, republican, peabody award winner (ha!), dunce