The New York Times sounded the alarm about the subprime mortgage snafu nine years ago. From September 30, 1999:

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits. . .

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending [subprime mortgages], Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

The midwest is flooding, but they seem to be handling it at the local level with firefighters and other rescuers. Where's FEMA? Where's Bush?

-= In related news =-

Three years after Hurricane Katrina almost hit New Orleans, the state of Louisiana still cannot do anything for themselves.

The Louisiana Recovery Authority announced that it was asking the federal government to return goods "that were intended to help disaster victims in Louisiana but were marked as surplus and remain unused."

"Many of these items are believed to be household goods that could help residents moving out of FEMA trailers re-establish their homes," the agency said.

The CNN investigation found FEMA gave away extensive stocks of items such as cots, cleansers, first-aid kits, coffee makers, camp stoves and other items that had been bought as "starter kits" for people living in trailers after the 2005 hurricane.

"There is a particular and critical need for exactly these materials -- especially household goods --- by organizations dealing with the critical problem and homelessness as a result of hurricanes Katrina and Rita," [Louisiana Democrat Senator Mary] Landrieu wrote. "One such organization is Unity of Greater New Orleans, which works with FEMA to house homeless hurricane victims and was featured prominently in the CNN piece."

NewsBusters reports that Air America is blaming the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy for a mugging in safe, gun-free, New York. (emphasis in original)

Pointing out that Rhodes was wearing a jogging suit and displayed no purse or jewelry, [Air America Radio host] Elliott speculated that "this does not appear to me to be a standard grab the money and run mugging."

"Is this an attempt by the right wing hate machine to silence one of our own," he asked. "Are we threatening them. Are they afraid that we're winning. Are they trying to silence intimidate us."

Some of blog posters also expressed concerns that the attack on Rhodes was hate crime.

New York Daily News refutes the mugging claim and says that Rhodes simply violated the law of gravity. Personally, I blame Global Warming.

In 2001, President Bush makes a state visit to Mexico. During the visit, Mexican President Vicente Fox gave Bush a pair of Ostrich skin boots especially made for Fox, his bodyguards, cabinet members, and friends.

In 2007 the bootmaker was arrested in Mexico for having skins and boots made from endangered species. The CNN headline:

Bush's bootmaker arrested for illegal skins

The richest counties in America are in the suburbs around Washington D.C., which has the liberals at the Washington Post feeling guilty about our success. And of course its all Bush's fault.

That accumulation of suburban wealth, local economists said, is a side effect of the enormous flow of federal money into the region through contracts for defense and homeland security work in the five years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, coming after the local technology boom of the 1990s.

Local or not, any economist who talks about the accumulation of wealth needs to be kicked in the nuts. Wealth doesn't accumulate like fallen snow. It's the created as the fruits of our labor.

And why are defense and homeland security contracts to blame? What about other local agencies such as the IRS, EPA, or Patent Office? I thought all that defense money was being funneled back to Bush and Cheney's Halliburton cronies in Texas.

The Post laments the area's prosperity as if it's a bad thing. Its true that there is a lot of opportunity here because of the federal bureaucracy. But anyone who wants to take advantage of it needs only to move here and find a job. That's what I did and I'm better off for it.

Of course the Post doesn't believe in freedom of choice. They think its the governments job to spread wealth and affluence around to the masses. And of course you can't talk about affluence and liberal guilt without mentioning the millions of people who choose to live without health care.

Republicans were silent about the health insurance figures, which show that the number of Americans without coverage rose to an all-time high of 46.6 million. The proportion of the population that is uninsured increased from 15.6 percent in 2004 to 15.9 percent last year. That erosion stemmed partly from a continuing decline in the number of people who get insurance through their jobs. And for the first time in recent years, government health programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, stopped growing.

Health care is not a right. It's a service offered by doctors. You can either choose to pay the doctor directly, or purchase insurance to cover any unforeseen doctor bills that may be coming your way in the future. Either way, it's still a consumer choice.

Hollyweird just got weirder. B-Movie Horror Director Eli Roth is blaming Bush for an increase in the number of horror films.

Roth claimed that people wanted to scream because of the "things going on in the world" and the government's failure to help after Hurricane Katrina. He explained that horror movies offered a safe environment which allowed people to scream. Roth went on to say the seemingly "never ending war", fighting people that do not care about our money, our "disorganized army" with "scared kids" for soldiers and the generals calling for Rumsfeld's resignation were specific reasons for the need of an emotional release offered by horror movies.

Roth also blamed the Vietnam War for the popularity of movies such as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". He then claimed that because "things were calm" during the Clinton Administration there were fewer horror movies.

NewsBusters goes on to report that while the spatter of guts and blood in movies has gone up, there is no statistical link between Presidents and the number of horror films.

But if Lurch had been elected, there's no telling what would have happened.

Well that didn't take long. Congressional Reps. George Miller (D-CA) and Major Owens (D-NY) are blaming President Bush for not doing enough to prevent West Virginia Mining Accidents:

The Committee should investigate whether the Bush Administration has employed people with proper regulatory experience in leadership positions at MSHA [Mine Safety and Health Administration]. Many senior MSHA officials have come directly from the mining industry, raising concerns about their ability to effectively oversee the industry and protect its workers...

A 2005 report by the AFL-CIO found that "at MSHA, 17 standards to improve safety and health for miners have been withdrawn since President Bush took office, including the Air Quality, Chemical Substances and Respiratory standards...For the most part at MSHA, those standards that have been proposed during the Bush Administration favor industry by moving to roll back existing protections. There are no pending standards to protect miners from hazards on their job...

That's right Bush had the nerve to stock the Mine Safety and Health Administration with people from the MINING INDUSTRY! The horror! What's next, packing NASA with rocket scientists?

The Ass. Press is reporting that pollution is not color blind, and hurts the poor and minorities the hardest.

An Associated Press analysis of a little-known government research project shows that black Americans are 79 percent more likely than whites to live in neighborhoods where industrial pollution is suspected of posing the greatest health danger.

Residents in neighborhoods with the highest pollution scores also tend to be poorer, less educated and more often unemployed than those elsewhere in the country, AP found.

Common sense would say that's because white people tend to live out in the suburban and rural areas, while blacks tend to live downtown. But who am I to inject common sense, when racial politics are on the line?

And of course don't forget to blame Bush. George Bush, who according to Kanye West hates black people, isn't doing anything to help.

The Bush administration, which has tried to ease some Clean Air Act regulations, says its mission isn't to alleviate pollution among specific racial or income groups but rather to protect everyone facing the highest risk.

"We're going to get at those folks to make sure that they are going to be breathing clean air, and that's regardless of their race, creed or color," said Deputy EPA Administrator Marcus Peacock.

Popularity of New Orleans' Mayor and City Council is likely at an all time low. But they won't have to worry about being voted out of office, at least not until late next year. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has agreed to delay the February 4th elections for up to 8 months. Of course the delay doesn't come in the name of incumbency protection. No, it's all the fault of George W. Bush and his cronies at FEMA.

[Secretary of State Al Ater] laid much of the blame for the delay on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which he said has not provided any of the $2 million his office requested to repair voting machines damaged in the Aug. 29 storm and to upgrade New Orleans' absentee voting system.

Ater also said FEMA took until this week to respond to his October request for a list of addresses of Louisiana residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina, so they can be informed of how to vote from out of state.

"Our job would have been a lot easier if FEMA had been more forthright and more forthcoming," Ater said.

What would we do without FEMA? Apparently nothing.

Scientists ominously warn that "We will have to live with the outcome" of Global Warming, reports anti-American propaganda outlet, Reuters. The Arctic summers will be completely devoid of ice by the year 2100, if the global warming trend continues.

Most scientists believe greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide that is released mainly from cars and utility smokestacks, cause global warming by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. Many believe global warming can lead to catastrophic consequences, including raising sea levels and strengthening weather events such as hurricanes.

That's right, the Top 5 carbon dioxide producers in the world are Hummers, Ford Excursions, the city of Newark, and tied for fifth: Mt. Saint Helens and Barbra Streisand.

Inuit hunters threatened by the melting of Arctic ice plan to file a petition in December [just in time for winter] accusing the United States of violating their human rights by fueling global warming. The Bush administration has opted out of the Kyoto Treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Yep, it's all Bush's fault. On June 25, 1997, Bush as Governor of Texas, duped the Senate into voting 95-0 to recommend that President Clinton reject the Kyoto protocol because it would harm the U.S. economy. No doubt, Karl Rove and Halliburton also played a part in duping the Democrat majority.

Nothing is ever good enough for Harry Reid.

"It's nice to have the Bush administration recognize the importance of a federal response to Rita, but why weren't they proactively mobilizing and organizing like this for Katrina?" said Rebecca Kirszner, a spokeswoman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

"These are the questions that need to be asked by an independent commission," Kirszner said.

I don't like Toad in the Hole either, but this is just embarassing.

HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.

US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.

Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.

And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.

One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".

The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.

Granted this is from the Mirror, but such is life under the FDA; where an unelected bureaucracy tells people they're better off starving than eating uninspected food, or better off dying than taking experimental medication.

Geez, now the antis are faulting President Bush for having to tinkle.

A photographer has snapped United States President George W Bush apparently writing a note to ask whether a toilet break is possible during a United Nations meeting.

Mr Bush is said to have written the note to his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.

"I think I may need a bathroom break? Is this possible?" a Reuters news agency photographer caught him writing during a UN summit.

Bush detractors are saying that he makes the U.S. look foolish in front of the U.N.. And wouldn't that be a shame. Lets not lose face with a band of thugs and criminals who mismanaged Saddam Hussein, and participated in one of the largest embezzlement schemes in World History. Meanwhile, Reuters is claiming that the photo wasn't malicious. This is the same Reuters who just two days ago ran this photo of Bush nominee John Roberts.

UPDATE: Apparently the handwriting doesn't match the President's. Will we ever get to the bottom of what is being dubbed Tinklegate? Is Dan Rather forging cocktail napkins? Bill Burkett please call your office.

Louisiana's Senator Mary Landrieu is lashing out at the Bush Administration for failing to go down to New Orleans and stop Hurricane Katrina.

"Let me be the first to take any blame," the Louisiana Democrat [Sen. Mary Landrieu] told a hushed Senate chamber on her first day back from the devastated Gulf Coast.

She then blasted the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its "incompetent and insulting" response and chided President Bush for saying soon after the storm that no one anticipated the levies that protect New Orleans from flood waters would have broken.

"Everybody anticipated the breach, including computer simulations in which this administration participated," she said...

But she said the federal government, by consistently underfunding flood control projects in Louisiana, "gambled that the predictions of countless experts" that the levies would break in a major hurricane wouldn't come true.

The government, she said, "rolled the dice and Louisiana lost."

Wouldn't it be nice if Louisiana had a voice in Congress that could propose legislation to prevent these types of shortcomings?

When a 200 mile wide storm hits the region, you'd think it'd be pretty indiscriminate. But not according to the Washington Post, which notes that the poor black neighborhoods of New Orleans were hardest hit.

This is a place, and a time, when men like [Terry] White, men who have lived in New Orleans all their lives, get mad. There is something cruelly familiar about the deluge. Another storm, another black neighborhood flooded.

"I don't believe that levee broke like that," said Terry White, referring to the biggest of the busted-open levees that flooded the city. "I believe they broke that levee to save where the high-class people stay."

He doesn't say just who "they" is, but I doubt he's referring to New Orleans' Mayor, Ray Nagin, who is black. No, it was undoubtedly George Bush and his minions, who snuck down to Democrat controlled Louisiana, and Democrat controlled New Orleans to personally take a sledge hammer to their levee.

If you need to blame someone for the evacuation snafu in New Orleans, look no further than the City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan:

The safe evacuation of threatened populations when endangered by a major catastrophic event is one of the principle reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The thorough identification of at-risk populations, transportation and sheltering resources, evacuation routes and potential bottlenecks and choke points, and the establishment of the management team that will coordinate not only the evacuation but which will monitor and direct the sheltering and return of affected populations, are the primary tasks of evacuation planning. Due to the geography of New Orleans and the varying scales of potential disasters and their resulting emergency evacuations, different plans are in place for small-scale evacuations and for citywide relocations of whole populations.

Authority to issue evacuations of elements of the population is vested in the Mayor. By Executive Order, the chief elected official, the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, has the authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane...

General evacuations that may result from an approaching hurricane will be ordered by the Mayor of the City, upon the recommendation of the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness. The area affected by the warning may range from blocks and portions of neighborhoods, to the entire city...

The City of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Those evacuated will be directed to temporary sheltering and feeding facilities as needed. When specific routes of progress are required, evacuees will be directed to those routes. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed.

This hasn't been covered by the mainstream media, but New Orleans did have a plan for evacuating prior to a Hurricane. The problem is that the local bureaucracy broke down and the plan was not implemented at all. Now they're blaming Bush, blaming FEMA, blaming the feds for not coming down there and saving them. Let the finger-pointing begin.

Then there's this, from Drudge

Editors at TIMES-PICAYUNE on Monday called for every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be fired. In an open letter to President Bush, the paper said: "Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame."

But the TIMES-PICAYUNE published a story on July 24, 2005 stating: City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give a historically blunt message: "In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own."

Craig Martelle from the PittsburgH Post-Gazette notes that FEMA is not intended to be a first responder. What's more, he notes that New Orlean's emergency management plan explicitly states that the local government coordinates "all city departments and allied state and federal agencies which respond to citywide disasters and emergencies". They also provide this very telling AP photo of flooded out New Orleans school buses that could have been used for evacuating citizens, but weren't.

Martelle opines:

Who could have predicted the anarchy resulting as a consequence? The individuals who devolved into lawless animals embarrass the entirety of America. (I worked in a U.S. Embassy overseas for a couple years and I can imagine what foreign diplomats are thinking.) What societal factors would ever lead people to believe that this behavior was even remotely acceptable?

The folks in New Orleans who are perpetrating the violence and lawlessness are not that way because of low income or of race, but because they personally do not have any honor or commitment to higher ideals. The civil-rights leaders should be ashamed at playing the blame game.

The blame is on the individuals. The blame is on the society that allowed these individuals to develop the ideal that the individual is greater than the national pride he is destroying. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was very clear in her comments that she was offended at those who suggested the suffering in New Orleans was prolonged because of race.

As a retired Marine, I hang my head in shame to see my fellow Americans degenerate so far. I spent so many years in the Corps helping the citizens of other countries rise to a higher level of personal responsibility to ensure that in case of emergency, anarchy did not necessarily follow. When people are held to a higher standard of personal responsibility and they accept that, then they will do the right thing when the time comes.

I have always advocated personal responsibility. I have a "go" bag ready in case just such an emergency develops in my area. Not to mention that it's preferable that local governments handle local problems. The last thing we want is the imperial federal government running in like John Wayne every time the wind blows.

Also via Kevin Baker (from American Digest)

Slick Willie was the most travelled President in American history. Yet I don't recall reading any stories about how much gas he was consuming.

Getting President Bush from here to there consumes an enormous amount of fuel, whether he's aboard Air Force One, riding in a helicopter or on the ground in a heavily armored limousine.

The bill gets steeper every day as the White House is rocked by the same energy prices as regular drivers. Taxpayers still foot the bill.

Almost every vehicle Bush uses is custom-made to add security and communications capabilities, and the heavier weight of these guzzlers further drives up gas and jet fuel costs...

It is not Bush's choice to be ferried around in a less than fuel-efficient manner. Those arrangements are dictated by tradition and the Secret Service, whose mission is to protect him.

But Bush is one of the nation's most-traveled presidents.

He has visited 46 countries, some of them several times. He has been to all states except Vermont and Rhode Island.

So far this year, he has made 73 domestic and foreign trips, including crisscrossing the country on a 60-day, 60-city tour to promote his Social Security plan. He was on the road yesterday, speaking to a military audience in Idaho, before returning to his Texas ranch to resume his vacation.

Whether in Washington, Des Moines or Tbilisi, Bush is driven in a dozen-vehicle motorcade that goes as fast as possible.

It also often idles outside while the president is at an event, burning up fuel but ready to depart at a moment's notice.

The president's limos alone consume lots of gas...

In the air, Bush most often flies on a Boeing 747-200B laden with, among other things, an anti-missile system. Like gas for cars, fuel costs for the largest plane in the Air Force One fleet have gone up dramatically - from $3,974 an hour in fiscal 2004 to $6,029 per hour now, according to the Air Force.

Reducing his appearances outside the White House and making other gestures toward fuel conservation could help cut down on costs.

Some schools are missing their "No Child Left Behind" targets. Still, for all their whining and complaining about how unfair it is to have high expectations for a bunch of dumb kids, on average Virginia's schools are improving dramatically.

Overall, performance across the state improved, as 80 percent of the 1,821 public schools met the benchmark -- an increase over last year's 74 percent pass rate. For the first time since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted, Virginia as a state met federal standards.

The schools that missed the target must allow kids to transfer, or provide tutoring.

Congress voted to extend daylight savings time, which means that TVs, VCRs, Computers, Cell Phones, and other electronic toys may display the wrong time for parts of the year, or need to be updated manually.

An energy bill President Bush is to sign Monday would start daylight time three weeks earlier and end it a week later as an energy-saving measure.

And that has technologists worried about software and gadgets that now compensate for daylight time based on a schedule unchanged since 1987.

"It is unfortunately going to add a little bit of complexity to consumers," said Reid Sullivan, vice president of the entertainment group at Panasonic Consumer Electronics Co. "In some cases, depending on the product, they may have to manually increase or decrease the time."

The upcoming transition evokes memories of Y2K, the Year 2000 rollover that forced programmers to adjust software and other systems that, relying on two digits for the year, never took the 21st century into account...

Businesses and governments around the world threw some $200 billion at the problem, and the transition occurred without any worldwide disaster, even leading some critics to suggest they were victims of a big-money bamboozle.

This problem will likely be much smaller. But it's a good illustration of the law of unintended consequences.

If you've been wondering how absurd the anti-Bushies can get, the Democrat National Committee has an answer. They are blaming President Bush for being too healthy, while our nation's kids are getting fat.

While President Bush has made physical fitness a personal priority, his cuts to education funding have forced schools to roll back physical education classes and his Administration's efforts to undermine Title IX sports programs have threatened thousands of women's college sports programs.

"President Bush's has dropped the ball when it comes to fully funding physical education in public schools and women's athletic programs at the college level," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Josh Earnest. "His personal habits indicate that physical fitness is not just fun and games for him. Don't our kids deserve the same opportunities to be physically fit? President Bush should stop running from his responsibility and make sure that all American children have access to physical fitness programs."

President Clinton set a horrible example, gobbling up cheeseburgers and McDonald's fries, but nobody made a federal case about it. But along comes Bush setting a healthy example, and all of a sudden kids can't slim down without a government exercise program.

An unidentified finger gesture (digit malfunction?) has Comedian Jay Leno wondering if President Bush flipped the press corp the bird.

On "The Tonight Show" Wednesday, the late-night comic showed videotape of the president leaving a meeting with congressional Republicans on Capitol Hill earlier in the day and passing by a clutch of reporters shouting questions on the fate of the Central American trade pact. On the video, Bush striding away from the camera suddenly thrusts his right hand into the air and extends a finger -- precisely which one was unclear. White House officials yesterday said it was his thumb.

But there were other interpretations. "I think President Bush is getting a little fed up with the press," Leno said, and he then showed the video to much laughter from the studio audience, which seemed to see it the same way. "What was that all about, huh?" Leno asked. "You see? That's the great thing about the second term: Who cares?"

And wouldn't that be a turnabout, considering the press corp has been pretty much saying 'f you' to Bush since Texans were calling him Governor.

"Gun-free" Toronto has erupted in gun violence. Of course, it can't be their strict gun laws that are to blame, those are working perfectly as expected. No, it's all America's fault. Apparently Karl Rove, when he's not outting CIA agents, has been running illegal guns up to the great white north.

The city has exploded in gun violence, with seven separate shootings within 24 hours prompting the police chief to maintain the city is safe and the Mayor to insist something must be done. . .

Local news reports compared the city to the "Wild West" and sprayed television screens with bloody images of wounded men undergoing surgery in inner-city hospitals and of the bullet-riddled SUV.

Uh oh. There's Ravenwood's Law again.

The Mayor blamed lax gun laws in the United States for some of Toronto's violence, saying half the firearms in the city originated in America.

So where are the other half coming from? Greenland?

"It really is time to establish an effective strategy, working with the United States, to stop the easy access for guns that people are going to bring to Canada," Mr. Miller said.

"It's a huge problem and it's just not acceptable."

Molon Labe, bitch!

And yet, to Toronto residents, the violence has become strangely familiar.

The city has been rocked in past months by apparently random gunfire, with passersby hit in shootings near the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, across from the Eaton Centre, and a mother of four shot in a north-end club.

Some blamed the violence on the city's inability to provide opportunities for young minorities in a city that's become hyper-sensitive to issues of police racial profiling.

That sounds a lot like other gun control/violence capitals like Chicago, Washington D.C., New Jersey. And isn't interesting that Canada now seeks to crack down on American ownership of firearms, but when we asked for help cracking down on Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction, there was nobody home.

Julian Bond and the NAACP are clamoring about President Bush rolling back civil rights, reports the AP. Of course, they don't cite any specific evidence, other than this:

President Bush has turned down five invitations to attend NAACP gatherings, including this year's, and Bond on Sunday invited Bush to the next one, in Washington.

"Mr. President, we're extending the invitation a year in advance," Bond said. "We want to see you and we want you to see us - we want to know you think you're our president, too."

A week before the 2000 election, the NAACP ran the infamous James Byrd ad to scare blacks into voting against Bush. James Byrd was a black man who was beaten, chained to the bumper of a pickup truck, and dragged to his death by some white racists. The NAACP said that when "Governor George W. Bush refused to support hate-crime legislation, it was like [Byrd] was killed all over again."

Would you want have dinner with these folks?

New York failed in their bid to get the 2012 Olympic Games. You might think that it had to do with transportation and facilities issues, or maybe New York just didn't bribe the IOC enough. But apparently the IOC gave the bid to London because they didn't take unilateral action in Iraq like we did, reports Filip Bondy.

The bid's downfall could be more complicated, involving an international slap at George W. Bush's unilateral attitude toward the world.

If only New Yorkers had voted for Kerry.

Some lawyer serving on some court announced her resignation last week, and the NAGs (National Organization for Women) consider it an assault on reproductive freedom. They warn of going back to a time when women were nothing more than barefoot and pregnant kitchen slaves. "Oh woe is us, please send money."

Then there's this:

[Rosemary J. Dempsey, a Connecticut lawyer who joined NOW in 1970] wants to focus on attracting younger members and opposing President Bush's economic agenda, which she says inflicts disproportionate harm on women.

Younger women indeed. James Taranto would probably point out that NOW suffers from the "Roe effect". That's his theory that supporting abortion has wiped out would be abortion supporters. But abortion aside - are any of their members even young enough to have kids anymore - attracting younger women as members has got to be difficult. After all, women are basically liberated and empowered to do anything they want. I doubt that too many of today's young women even feel persecuted. And just who wants to join a bunch of bitter old bra burners any way?

First Bush was blamed for a death in Chicago. Then he was blamed for a suicide in California. Now a man in Tucson has died, and it's all Bush's fault.

Alas the stolen election of 2000 and living with right-winged Americans finally brought him to his early demise. Stress from living in this unjust country brought about several heart attacks rendering him disabled.

Hat tip to Right Wing News.

A California principal is asking teacher to pass kids along to comply with George Bush's evil No Child Left Behind Act.

A high school principal asked teachers to reconsider the grades of failing seniors to help the school meet federal requirements under the No Child Left Behind law.

Saddleback High School Principal Esther Jones sent teachers a memo on Thursday asking them to reconsider the grades of 98 students, saying "please review your records for these students and determine if they would merit a grade of 'D' instead of a failure."

Jones added that the school needed 95 percent of its seniors to graduate to meet federal requirements. In fact, the school needs a graduation rate of 82.8 percent and will graduate nearly 84 percent of its 500 seniors on Wednesday, school officials said.

The latest bit of class warfare from the New York Times talks about the "hyper-rich" and a disproportionate "concentration of wealth". And of course, it is all Bush's fault.

The Bush administration tax cuts stand to widen the gap between the hyper-rich and the rest of America. The merely rich, making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, will shoulder a disproportionate share of the tax burden...

The Times set out to create a financial portrait of the very richest Americans, how their incomes have changed over the decades and how the tax cuts will affect them. It is no secret that the gap between the rich and the poor has grown, but the extent to which the richest are leaving everyone else behind is not widely known.

Yes, the rich are getting richer, and so are the poor. The Times doesn't dispute that. Instead they talk about the "income gap", as if the government should be setting policy to keep people from making too much money. Indeed, they even make the point that it's the government's money to be divvied out, and the rich are stealing more than their fair share.

...some of the wealthiest Americans, including Warren Buffett, George Soros and Ted Turner, have warned that such a concentration of wealth can turn a meritocracy into an aristocracy and ultimately stifle economic growth by putting too much of the nation's capital in the hands of inheritors rather than strivers and innovators.

Did you catch that? President Bush is putting too much of our money in their pockets. Wealth is not finite. It can be created and it can be destroyed. Rather than encourage people to create their own wealth, the Times would rather destroy that of other people.

"Story that might not be true paints a sadly accurate picture" -- Op-Ed Headline, Seattle Times, May 19, 2005.

First Tom Plate says that it's all the fault of the American Military. If it weren't for Abu Ghraib, Newsweek never would have been suckered into publishing their single source, uncorroborated, hearsay report.

Sure, it was a serious error to go public with a story like this on the basis of a sole source. Newsweek, after all, isn't some bumptious, fly-by-night blog; it's one of the best magazines around, with a famously superb fact-checking staff that ordinarily can distinguish the fly from the ointment with the best of them.

But the print story surfaced in this magazine against the backdrop of those awful pictures of Arab and Muslim prisoners being humiliated, violated and dehumanized by their American captors at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Without those pictures - and other tales of abuse - the Quran-toilet story would never have been published without far more extensive fact-checking, and surely not on the basis of a single source.

And of course it's all Bush's fault for daring to respond to terrorist attacks in the first place.

Newsweek's little sin is thus nothing compared to this administration's much greater sins. By launching a war against terror in a way that is probably working to infuriate a good part of the Muslim world, the administration has pretty much succeeded in spreading anti-Americanism even without Osama bin Laden's help.

Let's see, terrorists are responsible for: World Trade Center bombing I; World Trade Center bombing II; attacking the USS Cole; attacks on Embassies in Moscow, Manilia, Kenya, & Tanzania; attempting to assassinate a U.S. President; and attacking our military bases in Riyadh & Dhahran. Before Bush became President, the United States had a policy of ignoring terrorist attacks (or at best, responding weakly). But infuriating Muslims is all Bush's fault for starting the War on Terror and offending the terrorists. (src)

Freedom is spreading even further in the Middle East. The Ass. Press notes that women's suffrage is coming to Kuwait.

Kuwaiti lawmakers approved political rights for women Monday, clearing the way for females to participate in parliamentary elections for the first time in the Gulf nation's history.

However, fundamentalist Muslims included a requirement that any female politician or voter abide by Islamic law. It was not clear what limits that would put on women's rights.

This is clearly all Bush's fault. Gains in women's rights were likely born out of the liberation of Afghanistan, where in 2001, it was illegal for women to be taught to read without permission. In 2004, more than 40% of registered voters were women. Let's home Kuwait makes similar improvements.

Boing Boing thinks that President Bush is a music pirate. At issue was this line from an International Herald Tribune article, about Bush's iPod.

The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon...

Boing Boing says that is proof that Bush has violated U.S. Copyright laws. I'm no lawyer, but I think prosecutors might need more evidence than that.

We should nominate a special prosecutor. (Where is Ken Starr when you need him?) Bush should release all of his music records to the public. What did he listen to, and when did he listen to it? Remember it's not about the evidence, it's about the seriousness of the charge.

From Best of the Web:

[Rep. Maurice] Hinchey: They've had a very very direct, aggressive attack on the, on the media, and the way it's handled. Probably the most flagrant example of that is the way they set up Dan Rather. Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: It originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House. They set that up with those false papers.

Why did they do it? They knew that Bush was a draft dodger. They knew that he had run away from his responsibilities in the Air National Guard in Texas, gone out of the state intentionally for a long period of time. They knew that he had no defense for that period in his life. And so what they did was, expecting that that was going to come up, they accentuated it; they produced papers that made it look even worse. And they--and they distributed those out to elements of the media. And it was only--what, like was it CBS? Or whatever, whatever which one Rather works for.

They--the people there--they finally bought into it, and they, and they aired it. And when they did, they had 'em. They didn't care who did it! All they had to do is to get some element of the media to advance that issue. Based upon the false papers that they produced.

Audience member: Do you have any evidence for that?

Hinchey: Yes I do. Once they did that--

Audience: [murmuring]

Hinchey: --once they did that, then it undermined everything else about Bush's draft dodging. Once they were able to say, "This is false! These papers are not accurate, they're, they're, they're false, they've been falsified." That had the effect of taking the whole issue away.

Audience member: So you have evidence that the papers came from the Bush administration?

Hinchey: No. I--that's my belief.

Audience member: OK.

Hinchey: And I said that. In the very beginning. I said, "It's my belief that those papers, and that setup, originated with Karl Rove and the White House."

Audience member: Don't you think it's irresponsible to make charges like that?

Hinchey: No I don't. I think it's very important to make charges like that. I think it's very important to combat this kind of activity in every way that you can. And I'm willing--and most people are not--to step forward in situations like this and take risks.

Audience: [clapping and cheering]

Hinchey: I consider that to be part of my job, and I'm gonna continue to do it.

Officials at a New England school district are ticked off at George W. Bush for making them accountable with his 'No Child Left Behind' act. So, they are taking it out on their kids by cancelling the annual spelling bee.

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Newman said the decision to scuttle the event was reached shortly after the January 2004 bee in a unanimous decision by herself and the district's elementary school principals.

The administrators decided to eliminate the spelling bee, because they feel it runs afoul of the mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

"No Child Left Behind says all kids must reach high standards," Newman said. "It's our responsibility to find as many ways as possible to accomplish this."

The administrators agreed, Newman said, that a spelling bee doesn't meet the criteria of all children reaching high standards -- because there can only be one winner, leaving all other students behind.

"It's about one kid winning, several making it to the top and leaving all others behind. That's contrary to No Child Left Behind," Newman said. [...]

"There was no debate at all. It was one of the easiest decisions," the assistant superintendent said because "there was no question among the administrators" that a spelling bee was "contrary to the expectations" of No Child Left Behind.

And this woman is supposedly qualified to look out for the best interests of people's children. If I had kids, I wouldn't let her near them.

(Hat tip to James Taranto.)

UPDATE: After very public pressure, the school system has decided not to cancel the spelling bee.

The idea that America not only knew about the tsunami but deliberately caused it is being floated by President Bush's naysayers. World Net Daily has a run down of the latest conspiracy theories:

The U.S. government knew of the disaster ahead of time and failed to warn Asians in affected countries, as evidenced by the American Navy base situated on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia that was alerted and escaped unscathed from the effects of the tsunamis;

Indian and U.S. military testing of weapons using electromagnetic waves triggered the earthquake;

Aliens caused the disaster as a way to correct the planet's "wobbly" rotation;

The Australian and Thai governments deliberately failed to respond to warning of the impending earthquake.

Although these wacky theories sound as though they could have come from the Democratic Underground message board, they actually come from terrorist mouthpiece Al-Jazeera. It is sometimes hard to tell the two apart.

When it comes to tsunami disaster relief, the oil-rich Muslim nations are at the bottom of the list. Peter Jennings says that it's all Bush's fault.

On Tuesday, CNN's Octavia Nasr reported that "Arab countries are at the bottom of the list" of those pledging relief. She noted how "Saudi Arabia has pledged $30 million" and contrasted it with "the $155 million raised in 2002" in a "telethon on Saudi TV for families of Palestinian suicide bombers." A few hours later, on Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, Kerry Sanders pointed out how "there's a growing debate in the Arab world whether oil-rich nations have done enough to help fellow Muslims. Contributions from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar have been relatively small." But on Wednesday's World News Tonight on ABC, Jennings managed to hold the U.S. accountable for the Muslim stinginess: "In the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf, citizens are being urged to do more. Indonesia is a largely Muslim nation. Ironically, the controls on Muslim charities after 9/11 may be keeping contributions down."

Jennings offered no source or authority for his theory which aired over video of kids scooping rice into bowls. . .

Unfortunately, this high school dropout is a citizen now so we can't deport him back to Canada.

Enviroweenies are already beating their global warming drums in response to the Indian Ocean tsunamis. Reuters cites un-named 'experts' who claim that global warning has left "coastlines even more vulnerable to disasters like tsunamis or storms in future".

"Coasts are under threat in many countries," said Brad Smith at environmental group Greenpeace. "Development of roads, shrimp farms, ribbon development along coasts and tourism are eroding natural defenses in Asia."

Of course George Bush and his evil red-state SUV driving cronies are directly to blame for global warming.

And in case you don't quite make the logical connection between earthquakes, tsunamis, and global warming, CNN gives you a little subliminal help.

Christians are being accused of not letting Christmas die a politically correct death. Some people seem to think that wishing someone "Merry Christmas" might as well be followed by "and the horse you rode in on". Moreso, they think that celebrating Christmas ought to be illegal if you're standing on public property.

But Christians are fighting back, and are refusing to let their holly jolly holiday be banned. Christmas opponents, meanwhile, are crying foul and say that Christians are on a holy roller crusade, led by Reverend Bush himself.

"This mixing of secular and religious symbols ought to be seen as a bad thing, not a good thing, for Christian believers," [Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State] said. "Unfortunately, some of the Christian pressure groups seem to have it backwards."

Added Lynn: "I think it's fair to say it's a mistaken notion that they have a mandate to put more nativity scenes up because George Bush was elected."

Lynn no sooner got the words out of his mouth, when a van pulled up and members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy jumped out and hauled him off for political re-education.

Airline stewardesses are picketing the White House. They blame President Bush for siding with airline managers, who they claim are conspiring to deny them a "decent living." Union officials say that the airlines are claiming financial hardship and using the federal bankruptcy courts to force concessions with union employees.

"Bankruptcy is not a license to steal," said Ed Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department.

Of course the real blame lies with the flying public and their unwillingness to pay outrageous airfares. But that is beside the point. Just look at how much airline stewardesses are suffering:

Donna Hansen, 48, for 18 years a flight attendant with United, said she is flying 15 more hours a month now than when she started and being paid less after inflation: $40.97 per flight hour now compared with $37 in 1986.

"They're using bankruptcy to get leverage with unions and enforce concessions on the employees," she said. "We work more hours to get less pay."

Ms. Hansen earns an hourly wage and works more hours per month, yet she claims she is somehow making less pay. Perhaps it's Donna's poor math skills that are holding her back.

You know, if I was still making the same wage I made even 5 years ago, I'd probably quit and get another job; not ask the President to force my employer to pay me more.

For all you lefties out there that want to come up with new conspiracy theories, but just aren't creative enough, use the George W. Bush Conspiracy Generator. For example:

George W. Bush lowered taxes so that Rush Limbaugh and big corporations could kill welfare recipients.

(Via reader Steve S.)

President Bush is being blamed for yet another death. This time he's responsible for the suicide of an author from California, who obviously was suffering from the later stages of Post Election Selection Trauma (PEST).

In a harrowing 2002 book, Jonathan Aurthur chronicled his son Charley's long struggle with mental illness and his suicidal leap, at 23, from Lincoln Boulevard into the morning rush-hour traffic on the Santa Monica Freeway.

Eleven days after Charley's death on Nov. 1, 1996, Aurthur visited the overpass, peered down at the traffic and walked away feeling oddly liberated. "[Charley's] terrible affliction and suffering had imprisoned him but it had also imprisoned me," he wrote, "and now both of us were free."

Aurthur did not remain free, however. The longtime wetlands advocate, who friends said was despondent over mounting debt, his son's suicide and the reelection of President Bush, leaped to his death from a 500-foot cliff in the Angeles National Forest. A search-and-rescue team found his battered body Nov. 29, after he had been missing since Nov. 22. He was 56.

How will the Democrats ever regain power if their supporters keep dying off (or, as if there was a difference, moving to Canada)?

Here is a leftover from last week. A man dies in Chicago, and you know who gets the blame.

Herbert M. Hazelkorn, DDS, PhD Herbert M. Hazelkorn, of Glencoe, Illinois, left us on December 7, 2004, of a broken heart at the recent passing of his wife of 35 years, Bobby, exacerbated by a broken spirit arising from the results of the Presidential election.

Hopefully Dr. Hazelkorn at least went to his grave knowing that a Bush Presidency at least lessened the death tax that his family will have to pay.

A story about an increasing number of college kids studying abroad started out innocent enough. The increasing demand was being chalked up to cheaper tuition rates, aggressive international recruiting, and the desire to see more of the world. But then there was this gratuitous jab at President Bush.

Gunnar Olson, Schell's guidance counselor at Indian Springs School near Birmingham, said some of his students who initially expressed interest this fall in going abroad -- prompted by disappointment with the results of the U.S. presidential election -- have since reconsidered.

Now if we could only get more "activist" college professors to do that.

Keeping with the theme that everything is Bush's fault, detractors are now blaming President Bush and his war in Iraq for the NBA fight in which Indiana Pacer Ron Artest entered the stands and started punching people.

This is just a reflection of today's violent society, said University of Massachusetts at Boston sociologist Simak Movahedi.

In the hippie '60s, people took their cues from the peace and love that were in the air; now the war in Iraq and other factors make fans and players more prone to violence, Movahedi said.

Ahh, if we could only turn back the clock to the 60s. Bill Russell, Wilt the Stilt, and the Boston Celtics.

They'd have to wear those tight shorts though.

This healing bullshit has to stop. For the past four years I've heard Bush blamed for everything from the hurricanes to the space shuttle disaster. He's been called a Nazi, a war criminal, accused of racism, and called a crusader. He is constantly ridiculed and criticized as a dummy. And according to Paul Begala, it's even Bush's fault that the nation is supposedly so divided.

President Bush is one of the most talented dividers in American political history. He skillfully used anti-gay bigotry, the Bible, even war to divide Americans so as to conquer Kerry. He should be congratulated on his triumph, but I have no faith in his ability to unite us after this bitter season of division.

I could understand the argument that people who have political differences are at odds with each other right now. But the Dems and the media are simply pointing at the numbers and saying there's 50,000,000 Bush haters out there who are angry and dejected and need a pick-me-up.

I'm sorry, but I just don't buy it. Some people win, some people lose. When you lose you suck it up and try again next time. It's not the end of the World, and I think most people realize that. The only ones who really need a shoulder to cry on are the minority of dems on the angry left.

Just a few days ago, I suggested that since Bush was getting blamed for climbing oil prices, he should get credit for them having fallen back down. Today Reuters is assigning credit, but you'll never guess to whom:

Oil prices fell sharply on Monday on speculation that a U.S. election win for Senator John Kerry could ease the geopolitical friction that has helped fuel this year's record-breaking rally.

It only makes sense. Since the high price of oil is all Bush's fault, it only stands to reason that when the price falls, Kerry gets all the credit.

For the record, CNN/Money tells a different story:

Oil prices fell below $50 a barrel early Monday, as concern about a heating-fuel crunch was alleviated over the weekend and traders realized that the market may be overbought.

The CNN article went on to say that the market got a little saturated and that oil output is climbing as refineries that had been closed are coming back online.

Refineries in Florida and along the Gulf Coast that were closed because of the hurricanes, as well as more favorable conditions in oil production in Iraq are starting to incr... BUT HOLD EVERYTHING. Even as I'm writing this, CNN altered their article and took their lead from the Bush-bashers at Reuters.

They have now deleted all of their insightful analysis and chalked it up to 'Investors are giddy for Kerry'. Next time they say something that might help Bush, I'd better get a screen shot.

UPDATE: Their story was similar to Bloomberg's. [screenshot]

Now even the hurricanes are Bush's fault.

This was yesterday:

John F. Kerry derided President Bush's ''incredible incompetence'' in the Iraq war yesterday after revelations that a massive stockpile of explosives went missing under coalition watch and probably ended up in terrorists' hands. [...]

Losing the explosives was ''one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration,'' the Bay State senator said. ''Terrorists could use this material to kill our troops, our people, blow up our airplanes and level buildings.''

This was today:

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 380 tons of powerful explosives from a storage depot in Iraq has taken a new twist, after a network embedded with the U.S. military during the invasion of Iraq reported that the material had already vanished by the time American troops arrived.

Maybe Kerry is implying that Bush should have invaded Iraq sooner and secured the weapons.

Then again, I thought Iraq didn't have any dangerous weapons and thus, wasn't a threat.

The Washington Post is lamenting over the income disparity in Washington DC. Of course, it is all Bush's fault.

A study to be released today by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute said the top 20 percent of the city's households have 31 times the average income of the 20 percent at the bottom. The gap in the District is fed by extremes at both ends: The poor have less average income than in most of the country's 40 biggest cities, and the rich have more.

The persistent gap between rich and poor has been fueling debate over whether the national economic recovery is helping all Americans. The study deepens the picture of an increasingly fractured city, where poverty and wealth both grew in the last decade. The average household income for the top group was $186,830, and the average income for the poorest group was $6,126.

"The rich got richer and the poor didn't get richer," said Stephen Fuller, a regional economist at George Mason University in Fairfax. "The poor can't afford to get out of Washington to the suburbs. . . . Our wealthy class got wealthier in the 1990s, and it didn't trickle down to the bottom."

When are these people going to realize that the government doesn't make people "rich" or "poor"? The "rich" keep doing the things that make them "rich" while the "poor" keep doing the things that make them "poor". Meanwhile the politicians keep giving poor people welfare handouts (in the form of refundable "tax credits") in exchange for votes, all the while socking it to them with regressive and predatory policies. Between increasing Metro fares, the predatory marketing of lottery tickets (which are shamelessly aimed directly at the "working poor"), higher cigarette and alcohol taxes, and now a sudden interest in slot machine gambling, is it any wonder that the "poor" are always broke? And as long as they are always broke, they'll continue to look toward the government and politicians for answers. Which is the whole idea. He who steals from Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

Lets face it, no one has more of a vested interest in keeping the poor, poor, than the liberal Democrats who continue to give them government handouts in exchange for unwavering support at the ballot box.

Spoons points out that minority home ownership is on the rise. Apparently, however, that is bad news and of course, it's all Bush's fault.