CBS | Late Show Top Ten Archive: June 29, 2004

10. That actor who played the President was totally unconvincing
9. It oversimplified the way I stole the election
8. Too many of them fancy college-boy words
7. If Michael Moore had waited a few months, he could have included the part where I get him deported
6. Didn’t have one of them hilarious monkeys who smoke cigarettes and gives people the finger
5. Of all Michael Moore’s accusations, only 97% are true
4. Not sure – – I passed out after a piece of popcorn lodged in my windpipe
3. Where the hell was Spider-man?
2. Couldn’t hear most of the movie over Cheney’s foul mouth
1. I thought this was supposed to be about Dodgeball

(via NewMexiKen)

ReDefeat Bush – His Own Right: George W. Bush and the Collapse of the Conservative Consensus

[W]hat is increasingly troubling to many of them is that Bush is undermining the very foundations of conservatism, preparing the structure for its imminent collapse. …

At its best, conservatism has three pillars that anchor it to the bedrock of American politics: that conservatives are realists who see the world as it is rather than through an idealistic prism, that they are fiscally responsible and disciplined, and that they are people who are free of bombast and pretense, who speak clearly and honestly. Happily for the American left, George W. Bush is thoroughly undermining each of those pillars. Not only is Bush increasingly likely to lose to his Democratic opponent in the fall, but he’s fracturing the conservative coalition and causing at least one crucial member – the commercial news media, which loves a winner above all else – to start to defect….

Finally, conservatives say they hate pretense and doublespeak and love clarity and honestly above all else. Despite his calls for humility during his campaign, arrogance and unreason have become the cornerstones of the Bush presidency. …

Bush is going to have to face his failures and answer serious questions by serious people. Few Americans can answer yes to the famous question posed by Ronald Reagan in 1980, are you better off now than you were four years ago? For the rest of us, the evidence in the news, our bank accounts and our daily lives points instead to the obvious conclusion that the nation has tried conservatism and that it is now time, after just a short four year reign, for something completely different.

New Mexico Politics with Joe Monahan

For the first time in three surveys, soon-to-be Dem Prez nominee John Kerry cracks the magic 50% mark in the interactive New Mexico Zogby poll. My insiders are tracking the numbers and report in that Kerry gets 50%, Bush garners 43% and Ralph Nader just 1% in the poll conducted June 14-20 and that sports a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4%.

”The bad news in this poll is how Bush is running with Democrats. He gets only 12%. He must bring that number up, or he is going to lose this state,” predicted one analyst who is studying the numbers.

Bush does get a solid 93% among NM Republican voters but this is a Democratic state and there simply are not enough R’s here for him to carry the day. ”Bush needs to get a quarter or more of the Democrats if he is gong to win in November. Another concern for him is his weakening support in this poll in smaller cities and rural areas. That’s the first time we have seen that,” commented my deep insider.

alibi . june 24 – 30, 2004

At his father’s burial service, Ronald Reagan Jr., said: ”Dad was … a deeply, unabashedly religious man. But he never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage.” The statement clearly rebuked the current Bush administration’s faith-based governmental policies, and days later Salon scored an exclusive interview with the famous dog show host that has since made it difficult for Bush to wrap himself in the Reagan legacy.

”My father was a man — that’s the difference between him and Bush,” Reagan told Salon. ”To paraphrase Jack Palance, my father crapped bigger ones than George Bush.”

”The Bush people have no right to speak for my father, particularly because of the position he’s in now,” Reagan continued. ”Yes, some of the current policies are an extension of the ’80s. But the overall thrust of this administration is not my father’s — these people are overly reaching, overly aggressive, overly secretive and just plain corrupt. I don’t trust these people.”

It wasn’t the first time Ron Jr. skewered Dubya in the press. During the 2000 GOP convention he told the Washington Post: ”The big elephant sitting in the corner is that George W. Bush is simply unqualified for the job. What’s his accomplishment? That he’s no longer an obnoxious drunk?”

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally reveal the campaign slogan for Bush / Cheney (re)election: Go Fuck Yourself! Everyone noted this does not constitute any change in policy or tenor. mjh

mjh’s Blog: Cheney says: Go Fuck Yourself, America!

Toxic pollution rose 5 percent in 2002, reversing trend By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer

Toxic chemical releases into the environment rose 5 percent in 2002, marking only the second such increase reported by the Environmental Protection Agency in nearly two decades, and the first since 1997. …

The increase reversed a recent trend, and was a big turnaround from last year’s report by EPA that chemical releases in 2001 had declined 13 percent from a year earlier. …

Note that the EPA figures showing this huge increase do NOT include ”releases from metal mining … because of a recent court decision in an industry challenge.” So, it is actually worse than it seems. mjh

Even so, a study by two environmental groups said EPA was underreporting the air pollution portion of releases of chemicals and emissions by 330 million pounds a year. They cast the inventory as particularly soft on refineries and chemical plants, keeping as much as 16 percent of the nation’s air pollution ”off the books.” …

”Ironically, if environmentalists intend to push for an even greater regulatory burden on refineries, they may complicate the smooth introduction of newer, cleaner fuels,” [The National Petrochemical and Refiners Association] trade group said [mjh: ‘threatened,’ may be a better word]. …

Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the 2002 increase ”proves that the policies of the Bush administration have moved us backward, not forward, on the environment.”

Howling At A Waning Moon

”Tracking the Bush Administration’s assault on the environment, our health, and our children’s quality of life.”