Bush had a largely uneventful press conference this morning, and will deliver a prime-time farewell on Thursday night.

Any truth to the rumor that all attendees will be required to be barefoot?

These tidbits remind us all that life is a shit sandwich and every day is a bigger bite.

How about W snubbing Helen Thomas today at his last presser? He's got to be the MOST classless person that has ever occupied the Oval Office. Good Riddance!

Now Chimpy is once again back to claiming that he "inherited a recession".

These RightWingers LIE like normal people breathe.

And The Beast always does a nice job pulling together its list of the top 50 most "loathsome people in America."

I had to wash my hands after scrolling down though this vituperative tripe. So in the spirit of Yin/Yang, my nomination for best new political blogger is Elana Schor at TPM election central.

Far-right warbloggers made similar mistakes during Israel's invasion of Lebanon, but I guess being a rightie means never having to say you're sorry, because nobody ever apologized for the errors; some of my rightie friends continued to defend them as if they had never been refuted. They trotted out the favoured warblogger chestnuts, such as that some of the bodies had obviously been dead a long time and Hezbollah/Hamas/Iran were - again, obviously - emptying cemeteries in order to pump up the casualty count. Remember when they said that all the bodies in Iran Air flight 655, which got waxed by USS VINCENNES in 1988, were naked and that they had been dead a long time? It's amazing how that rumor circulated, and how many people believed it, although it was utter nonsense.

Such agents of disinformation are often starry-eyed supporters of Israel, who see what they want to see in order to justify Israeli military action. But I often wonder how many of them are actual Israelis. Israel is an old hand at media manipulation.

"The estate tax is scheduled to disappear in 2010. Obama and congressional Dems are going to make sure that doesn't happen."

Thank God.

What's the inheritance exemption up to now? 3 million dollars or something like that?

I never understood why those who work for a living have to pay taxes for those who have money given to them. I don't care where your money comes from--work, inheritance, gift, winnings, dividends, capital gains, finding it on the beach--with few exceptions, tax rates should be the same regardless of the income source. But if anybody gets to pay lower tax rates, it should be those who work, not the other way around.

Israel continued to pound Gazan civilians with US made weapons today.

“The Homeland” an expression talked about on Chris Mathews that unanimously was considered undesirable, actually said they hated the expression.

Wow, was some thing I always found distasteful from the President Bush. The notion of and saying “The Homeland” strikes a cord with me in terms of the old European German term; with all the psyche developed superiority complex that created the rise of Hitler.

The Neo-Con right always believed they can do whatever they want to anyone who isn’t part of their exclusive club. And, to an extent they’re wrong, after all, with many examples of wide open corruption in disappearing tax dollars, to name a clear example, Iraq, mercenaries, violations in the constitution, and bank bailouts, with close friends of the Bin Laden family then Bush shows disdain for the ordinary people whose money they live on.

Bush’s legacy is numbing, foul, bull-horned haughtiness, with total corruption deception and fraud in its “THIRD CYCLE” of Reign.

From Prescott Bush of the world war a long time ago, with banking scandals back then symbolized and forge a tradition that lasted decades in America politics missed by the mainstream media.

The second time, Reagan and Poppy Bush again with war in Afghanistan and the Iran Contra scandal mixed with the Savings and Loan scandal happed again to America. Billions of dollars lost and Americans wasted.

The third time, now again George Bush in a war in Iraq and Bank Scandals again now in the trillions but this time with all the nerve Bush says if he does not act America will be in a depression worse then that of the first depression.

The Bush Legacy is “fear it self…”

Chris Mathews will some day look back and might say “Journalist should have acted and addressed Bush for what he is, a criminal.” For modern Journalism looks like they are part of that legacy for not serving America in the oversight, which is part of the mission of the media.”

These tidbits remind me that life goes on and there is also good news that doesn't get reported--as in hardly ever.

Yes, this is shitty news and the economy is tanking and we will be in a depression. And it's important to note that. Duly noted.

Now what?

It will also be important for all of us to find new creative ways to help one another and make a difference and retain our perspective and sanity. And I'm not just talking 2009--I'm talking the next three, four, five years.

"They had to work on a Sunday, but the Senate defeated a Tom Coburn filibuster on a key public lands bill."

And when it was over Tommy-Boy sobbed bitterly about Democratic "bullying". Seriously.
I am so enjoying this.

* Israel continued to pound Hamas today,[...] -- Steve Benen

Hamas? Or Gaza, militants and civilians alike, because, who gives a damn? They're using cluster bombs, they're using white phosphorus... those are not sniper-precision tools; those are weapons of mass destruction.

"Israel continued to pound Hamas today"

Israel continued to LIE today.

Now they are trying to claim their attack of a UN school last week was due to a "stray mortar".

Uh, last week one of their military explained that the UN school was attacked by rockets from a chopper, and that goofy women IDF sock puppet stated they intentionally attacked the UN school because they assumed Hamas leadership was hiding out there.

Soooooo, last week the Israelis ADMITTED they INTENTIONALLY attacked the UN school with ROCKETS from a chopper, yet today our American media dutifully reported that the UN school was struck accidentally by a stray mortar.

Oy.

On 1/20/2009 Obama should declare Madoff an enemy combatant.

Re. your Madoff item, it's still wrong... you meant to say "government had NOT offered enough evidence..."

Obama could declare all the Bush Administration as enema combatants and have them flushed to Gitmo for the time being, until Abu Grahib is renovated.

Just saying...

Few readers may know, fairly credible reports came out that Coulter had a fan (or even boyfriend, other than quasibeau Matt Drudge of course) in the Justice Dept. (IIRC) than squelched her whole voting fraud thing. Same sort of issue may have helped Rush out with the oxycontin thing.

The Iron Fist of American tax dollars...

'Iron Fist'... WTF? Was that Hitler or Stalin?

Miss the part where Israel outlawed 'Arab' political parties today?

Look at this article, about Israel's conduct being more like war crime and less like proper self-defense. It may have a "slant" but they can't be all wrong:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article5488380.ece

What's going to happen here is there will eventually be a large UN commission established to investigate all these allegations. There will be remarkable amounts of advertising and noise made about at last getting the goods on Israel and it will get all kinds of press and then the commission will come out with a report that concludes that Israel acted entirely correctly. They will just sort of slide that under the door and go home. It will get exactly zero press.

This happens every single time the IDF does anything.

How many times does it have to happen every single time before it starts making a pattern?

Bush had a largely uneventful press conference this morning

The most bizarre thing about this press conference is how much Bush judges himself according to what he said, or what photo op he participated in. The problem with Katrina - It would have been a mistake to land rather than fly over two days after the hurricane. Biggest mistake - "Mission Accomplished" banner. Iraq - he wishes his words about WMD turned out to be true.

Normally I don't give a tin shit about a gasbag like Coulter but I am thoroughly amused she was raised in New Canaan Connecticut.

[...] my nomination for best new political blogger is Elana Schor at TPM election central. -- Danp, @18:00

Seconded, wholeheartedly. Both as to content and style, she's a delight. Zachary Roth, over on the Muckraker side is a good addition too, though not quite as nimble with words as she is.

NB, @20:14,

UN's Human Rights commission has passed a resolution condemning Israel. Not that it will make a blind bit of diff to Israel's behaviour but, still...

Bush is so pathetic and it's of the same vein as Couter being from New Canaan. His regrets all involve appearances and how propaganda was delivered. He has no problem with his worldview or the execution of Republican ideology. He has a problem in the way his handlers chose to present him in certain situations. His comments about Katrina were sickening. No mention of the peole of New Orleans just hemming and hawing over how he was portrayed.

Alan, you may be getting UN reports confused with US reports, but the UN already condemned what Israel did as reported by exlibra. Then who else is it who always says, they acted correctly?

They've condemned it based on its' bad press, not on any kind of investigation.

"At Obama's behest, Bush asked Congress today to release the second half of the $700 billion bailout."

The idea that any of this money should be released before Hank Paulson is in jail is just wrong. At least wait until he is out of Treasury.

T-minus 8 days and counting baby!

nuf said...

T-minus eight baby!

Watch this...
Double dare ya:

http://marbury.typepad.com/marbury/2009/01/time-for-frost-to-get-his-chequebook-out.html

* They had to work on a Sunday, but the Senate defeated a Tom Coburn filibuster on a key public lands bill: “I have no doubt that there are key, significant things that need to get done that are in this bill,” he said. “But I will tell you, I am always going to be opposed to wasting money.”

"But I will tell you, I am always going to be opposed to anything that makes the Democrats look good."

There. Fixed it for you, Tom.

I think the Obama team needs to make a cost-benefit analysis of letting the estate tax lapse for one year but then kick back in at $1 million rather than putting $3.5 million into stone.

BTW, as a former estate-planning attorney, the "Bush Tax Cut" on estates with its one-year lapse followed by returning to the former $1 million floor was a BOON to estate planning attorneys. We were able to inform our clients that their estate plans needed to take BOTH contingencies into account and that therefore they needed to rewrite them.

Yum yum.

Obama actually needs to return to the CARTER income tax rates to soak the super-rich so they don't have all this extra cash even THEY cannot spend. Which they therefore floated into risky, high-return Ponzi schemes like CDOs and other "structured risk" hedge fund crapola dreamed up in cloud cuckoo land. If their "extra" money came into government, the working couple could pay less and have more to spend. That would "jump start" the economy right there.

But that's unlikely until 2010 when the Dems get their 60 vote Senate.

Steve: "... the latest on Ann Coulter's voting 'issues.'"

And then it came upon me like a thunderbolt, the sudden realization that if Skeletor -- erstwhile scheming nemesis of the oh-so-blond He-Man, Master of the Universe -- was a drag queen, he'd look just like Anne Coulter.

"Israel continued to pound Gazan civilians with US made weapons today."
__________________

Jeez, those Israelis must be awfully poor shots. Imagine, pounding, pounding away at all those civilians and not being able to kill but a few score of them. //sarcasm//

Nuts. If the Israeli intent was to kill civilians, they could easily do so in the tens of thousands.

In fact, the Israelis don't have to kill anyone but Hamas gunmen and leaders, in much the same way that they do not have to do it in a massive military ground operation that requires the call-up of reserves. Not only do the Israelis have the best intelligence services in the world, they are in the unique position of having a captive enemy next door - most of whom are known to them by address and telephone number. All the major services in Gaza are supplied by Israel, and nobody goes in or out without Israeli knowledge and permission.

You're right that the Jews can be poor shots when it suits them, though; they bombed a UN bunker during the invasion of Lebanon, killing the UN peacekeepers inside, when they "accidentally" hit it with a JDAM; a weapon of remarkable precision that is only deployed against hardened targets. That's after they shot at it all day with 155 mm artillery, although the UN protested to various levels of IDF command and to the government. In 1967 they attacked USS LIBERTY over a period of several hours, with both air and naval forces, only breaking off the attack when a nearby US Carrier Group reported over a clear channel that they were sending help. Then, as many times before, they said it was an "accident", and offered assistance. On every occasion, lo and behold, the excuse that it was an accident was accepted, and no further investigation followed. Thirty-four Americans died aboard LIBERTY, and another 174 were wounded.

So, nuts yourself. Israel could easily kill off Hamas one by one, without harming anyone else. They choose a crushing, devastating ground campaign that kills hundreds of civilians because it suits their purposes to do so, for a variety of reasons. It appeases Israeli voters who want a sharp response to Gazan rocket attacks - many of them can be seen watching the bombardment through binoculars from the hilltops near Sderot, some with bag lunches and portable radios tuned to the news station. It may be their last chance for a really brutal reprisal while Bush is still in office and they can rely on American cheerleading, although Obama gives every sign so far of being an uncritical adorer of Israel as well. But most of all, the indiscriminate killing is to punish the Palestinians for their vote, and to force them to make a "wiser" choice next time - Israel could always deal with Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party, because Abbas made protesting noises, but ultimately did what he was told. Nobody seems to have noticed that Abbas was in power for a good bit of those 8 years in which rockets fell on Israel, but he was no more successful in stopping them.

There's a word for initiating an act of extreme violence against a population to force a change in government. It's "terrorism".

According the website www.freegaza.org
920 killed, 4200 wounded - but that's what they can get to so far.

Israelis unleased dogs upon Palestinian women and children, and forced the men to disrobe.

Another boat with doctors, journalists, nurses (from California & Europe) called Mark Regrev to verify if the boat will be let into Gaza. Mark Regrev was alleged to have said, "Israel doesn't commit war crimes," adding that the Free Gaza organizers were "Hamas sympathizers."

Jeez, those Israelis must be awfully poor shots. -- trashhauler, @23:46

Nah. It's just that they're using our weapons -- ill-designed, poorly tested and altogether undependable. But, they're sold to them at next-to-nothing, so, still a bargain.

I thought that was obvious, but, I guess, trashhaulers have the same level of understanding as not-plumbers. Is your name Sam/Joe, too?
***********************

They've condemned it based on its' bad press, not on any kind of investigation. -- alan, @20:59

They did investigate. As much as they were allowed to. And, just the fact that they're not allowed to enter and have to rely on second-hand info, is enough to condemn those who're stopping their entry into Gaza. The crime *might* be less dire than the cover-up suggests but we'll never know, will we? It's like their best buddy, the evergreen Shrub...
****************

The idea that any of this money should be released before Hank Paulson is in jail is just wrong. At least wait until he is out of Treasury. -- Lance, @ 21:00

My reaction, too. They've pissed away 350B without any idea as to where it went except "trusted friends" (but then, so was Madoff a trusted friend...). And we're to dole out another 350B, on the same terms?

They did investigate. As much as they were allowed to.

In the middle of a war, in the middle of one of the most densely crowded places on Earth? A war which is all of a month old?

What if they did let in every reporter or commission or observer or peace activist who comes along and inevitably one of them gets shot, what will get all over the news and who will be called irresponsible, the little old lady from Dubuque who tries to act as a human shield in front of a Hamas missile launcher, or the IDF who let her into Gaza?

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=100386

2 websites maintained by NATO & US Army defaced by the Turkish group Agd_scorp/Peace Crew as a protest to the Israel-Palestine war.

Steve:

I would like to agree with exlibra. Please do watch your terminology.

Israel claims they are only attacking Hamas. But that is completely unverified.

Israel is bombing Gaza. That is a fact. Whether they are bombing Hamas is unclear.

Let's not make the exact mistake our MSM makes by simply accepting the terminology of the IDF at face value.

You are better than that. Accuracy matters.

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideast dispatches/archives/2009_01.html

Here is lots of information:
1) an American University professor stepping on a U.S. Flag

2) List of Prominent Jews on a hit list in Europe in protest of Gaza

3) Across Europe - Jews attacked in protest of Gaza

video clips:
1) video from Iran "Death to Israel & Palestine"

2) Hamas grab kid & using as a shield

3) Hamas using ambulances as personal carrier

4) rockets fired from yard of UNRWA school

good stuff here - I must add, this is all we need is information from both sides.

Again, I stress, I am not Pro-Israel, nor am I Pro-Israel, I am Pro-Humanity!!!

Oops,

meant to say not Pro-Israel, nor Pro-Palestinian, but Pro-Humanity.

It's morning - but past my bedtime!

cj: I never understood why those who work for a living have to pay taxes for those who have money given to them.

money is taxed whenever its transfered...

its really not that hard to understand...

"And The Beast always does a nice job pulling together its list of the top 50 most "loathsome people in America.""

Seriously, you linked me to this? I'm not sure how wishing an African American man gets sickle cell anemia is funny. Or even not racist.

In the interests of accuracy, the video that purportedly shows Hamas members firing rockets from a schoolyard is over a year old, and depicts a different school in a different town - this all came out in the Israeli "investigation" following the incident. I know you won't believe lying Arabs, but two UN representatives said uneqivocally that there were no Hamas members in the school, which was the original Israeli position. It's gone through several revisions since, all angrily discredited by UN personnel.

Many of the accusations leveled against Hamas are the same as those leveled against Iraqi "insurgents" when that invasion first began to go south. They hide among the people, they use them as human shields, they invent incidents to make the "liberators" get bad press. Gaza is only about 6 km wide, and from the hilltops you can see all the way across it - there's no place to hide. There is no "Headquarters of the Gazan Army", or "Gaza FireBase Kilo" - there is no Gazan Army, because they're not allowed to raise military forces of any kind. If they were, anyplace military would be bombed into the center of the earth in the first 5 minutes. Only a militia could last longer than that in the same situation, and militias live, work and move among the people. At the same time, Hamas is an elected representative of the people, chiefly for their social activities on their behalf, and would certainly not be re-elected if they used their constituents for "human shields". This has become IDFspeak for "won't come out into open areas in brigade formation with all their arms and equipment so the air force can kill them all in the first half-hour".

Sadly, info produced by the Israelis to support the Israeli position is not always reliable. There was an incident a few years ago in which they lit up an ambulance because they said imagery showed it positively had a surface-to-air missile inside. After it had been destroyed (presumably killing the driver and any other occupants, I don't remember), the object inside was revealed to be a stretcher.

Israel is almost never held to account for these misakes, and when it is, the preliminary investigation is always done by the IDF and always finds them blameless. Subsequent investigations almost always agree, at least at the government level, although angry testimony from actual observers contradicts it - as it did in the USS LIBERTY incident.

Look, Israel's defenders are welcome to interpret things their own way. But a real unbiased look at actual events reveals that Israel is nearly always believed without being held to the same standards of verification as are other nations. Remember the Pat Tillman incident? In spite of the official line that he was shot by Taliban insurgents in a glorious firefight, media sources kept digging until they forced an admission that he had been ignominiously shot by his own troops.

If that had taken place in Gaza, and an IDF investigation found he had been shot by Hamas, that'd be it - nothing to see here, folks, move along.

Once more - the IDF knows who Hamas is, and where they live in Gaza. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense to issue press releases that say, "The Air Force bombed 45 targets in Gaza, including the homes of Hamas leaders and fighters", would it? You can't have it both ways.

In the interests of accuracy, the video that purportedly shows Hamas members firing rockets from a schoolyard is over a year old, and depicts a different school in a different town - this all came out in the Israeli "investigation" following the incident. I know you won't believe lying Arabs, but two UN representatives said uneqivocally that there were no Hamas members in the school, which was the original Israeli position. It's gone through several revisions since, all angrily discredited by UN personnel.

Many of the accusations leveled against Hamas are the same as those leveled against Iraqi "insurgents" when that invasion first began to go south. They hide among the people, they use them as human shields, they invent incidents to make the "liberators" get bad press. Gaza is only about 6 km wide, and from the hilltops you can see all the way across it - there's no place to hide. There is no "Headquarters of the Gazan Army", or "Gaza FireBase Kilo" - there is no Gazan Army, because they're not allowed to raise military forces of any kind. If they were, anyplace military would be bombed into the center of the earth in the first 5 minutes. Only a militia could last longer than that in the same situation, and militias live, work and move among the people. At the same time, Hamas is an elected representative of the people, chiefly for their social activities on their behalf, and would certainly not be re-elected if they used their constituents for "human shields". This has become IDFspeak for "won't come out into open areas in brigade formation with all their arms and equipment so the air force can kill them all in the first half-hour".

Sadly, info produced by the Israelis to support the Israeli position is not always reliable. There was an incident a few years ago in which they lit up an ambulance because they said imagery showed it positively had a surface-to-air missile inside. After it had been destroyed (presumably killing the driver and any other occupants, I don't remember), the object inside was revealed to be a stretcher.

Israel is almost never held to account for these misakes, and when it is, the preliminary investigation is always done by the IDF and always finds them blameless. Subsequent investigations almost always agree, at least at the government level, although angry testimony from actual observers contradicts it - as it did in the USS LIBERTY incident.

Look, Israel's defenders are welcome to interpret things their own way. But a real unbiased look at actual events reveals that Israel is nearly always believed without being held to the same standards of verification as are other nations. Remember the Pat Tillman incident? In spite of the official line that he was shot by Taliban insurgents in a glorious firefight, media sources kept digging until they forced an admission that he had been ignominiously shot by his own troops.

If that had taken place in Gaza, and an IDF investigation found he had been shot by Hamas, that'd be it - nothing to see here, folks, move along.

Once more - the IDF knows who Hamas is, and where they live in Gaza. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense to issue press releases that say, "The Air Force bombed 45 targets in Gaza, including the homes of Hamas leaders and fighters", would it? You can't have it both ways.

Okay, I'll admit there were a few chuckles in "The Beast's list." But at the risk of sounding humorless, I also have to say there were some duds. Anyone who still claims that Obama ran as a "blank slate" is essentially admitting to the possession of a blank mind. Obama has been telling us his policy positions and plans since day one, and anyone who doesn't know what they are has either a) been on a desert island or b) has spent the last two years sitting glassy-eyed in front of a tube while watching Chris Matthews et al debate the cosmic significance of a candidate's choice of breakfast drink. He told us from the word go that he opposed the Iraq war, but would not precipitously yank the troops out because we had to be "as careful getting out as we were careless getting in." His convention acceptance speech was full of specific policy details, in striking contrast to John McCain's "Vote for me, I'm a POW, red meat, red meat, did I mention I was a POW? Red meat, red meat, POW POW POW." Americans may have done it by accident, but we've managed to elect a President who respects our intelligence. Let's hope he hasn't overestimated it.

It WAS early here, but still I don't know how I posted that twice - sorry.