The Clever Shark

10 stories you won’t hear about from the mainstream press. Funny how Bush, Cheney and Ashcroft seem to have their fingers smack in the middle of all those pies, isn’t it.

Did the Governator really listen to a Nixon-Humphrey debate? There were no Nixon-Humphrey debates. Ahnold was lying. At least he’s shown he’s a true Republican at heart.

I had to share this with my readers… this was posted earlier on Fark by a user with the name sonnyboy11 in response to the usual attacks on John Kerry’s record…

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[quote]I can’t keep up with [Kerry].[/quote]

Yeah, me neither!

Bush opposed the McCain-Feingold bill in the 2000 GOP primary, tried to kill it in Congress, and then signed it when it passed. (http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry022102.shtml)

Bush is against a Homeland Security Department; then he’s for it.

Bush is against a 9/11 commission; then he’s for it.

Bush is against an Iraq WMD investigation; then he’s for it.

Bush is against nation building; then he’s for it.

Bush is against deficits; then he’s for them.

Bush is for free trade; then he’s for tariffs on steel; then he’s against them again.

Bush is against the U.S. taking a role in the Israeli Palestinian conflict; then he pushes for a “road map” and a Palestinian State.

Bush is for states right to decide on gay marriage, then he is for changing the constitution. (http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/25/elec04.prez.bush.marriage/)

Bush first says he’ll provide money for first responders (fire, police, emergency), then he doesn’t. (http://www.hillnews.com/news/032603/funds.aspx)

Bush first says that ‘help is on the way’ to the military … then he cuts benefits.} (http://www.democrats.org/specialreports/veterans/health.html)

Bush-“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden.” Bush-“I don’t know where he is. I have no idea and I really don’t care.”

Bush claims to be in favor of the environment and then secretly starts drilling on Padre Island.

Bush talks about helping education and increases mandates while cutting funding.

Bush claims to be for women’s rights and then nominates judges who have tried to overturn Roe v. Wade. (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20000703&s=corn)

Bush first says the U.S. won’t negotiate with North Korea. Now he will.

Bush goes to Bob Jones University. Then say’s he shouldn’t have.

Bush said he would demand a U.N. Security Council vote on whether to sanction military action against Iraq. Later Bush announced he would not call for a vote.

Bush said the “mission accomplished” banner was put up by the sailors. Bush later admits it was his advance team.

Bush was for fingerprinting and photographing Mexicans who enter the US. Bush after meeting with Pres. Fox, he’s against it.

Bush says he’s in favor of adding carbon dioxide as a regulated greenhouse gas. Then Bush said it would not be included after he was elected.

Bush was against Nation Building. ooops Iraq.

Bush-“I’m a uniter, not a divider.” Then divides.

Bush was against amnesty for illegal aliens. Now he’s for it.

Bush was against Presidents doing an end run around Congress to pack the courts. Then he did it.

Bush said the war would cost $3 billion. Then he asked for 87 billion.

Bush- “We need to go to war with Iraq because their WMDs pose a direct threat to the United States.” Bush- “We needed to go to war with Iraq to free the Iraqi people.”

Bush implemented No Child Left Behind, then underfunded it by $9 Billion.

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So, Kerry’s the flip-flopper, right?

Bush by the numbers. Makes you think, really.

Zell Miller’s speech was so far off to the loony right even the GOP is distancing itself from it. It’s going to be tough for ol’Zell. He ain’t getting the love of either the GOP or the Dems… good thing he’s retiring.

The Ebert and McCain show. You gotta feel bad for John McCain. He coulda been a contender, but now he’s made himself into a bagman for someone whose tactics he has decried as “dishonest and dishonorable”…

Interesting accounts of police abuse in New York during the RNC. Looks like Ray Kelly’s thugs are on the prowl. I guess that answers the questions I had about people from New York I haven’t been able to reach recently.

A few weeks ago a friend emailed me expressing some surprise that I hadn’t written about the Democratic National Convention in Boston. And again I haven’t written anything substantial about the Republican National Convention either, nor will I, unless something big and surprising happens. Why indeed?

Well, there are a couple of reasons.

The first, and probably most important, is that I’m in Canada now. As such the effects of US politics on my life are no longer what they used to be. Sure, the links I post are often about connected subjects, but links are small things and only require a (usually) one-sentence snide comment to complete them. It’s something that’s quickly done, and they themselves leave very little doubt as to where I would stand, were I an American. As it were, however, I don’t vote in the US, nor do I pay any taxes to fund whatever the President wants to do anymore, nor am I, or any of my future descendants, going to be drafted to be sent off to a dusty death in one of the Middle East’s choice hell-holes because President whoever decides that it must somehow be done for either bogus or real reasons. I don’t have a stake in this, really.

Another reason is that political conventions, in my era, are largely staged affairs where no surprises can occur. The candidates are known and have been for some time, each delegate has carefully been vetted for loyalty, and all in all it’s a pretty empty show of jingoism featuring mostly small-town people in clownish red, white and blue costumes. Talk about wrapping yourself up in the flag! And of course don’t forget the balloons, the demagoguery of most of the speeches, and the pomp and ceremony. They’re tightly scripted strategic shows of the flag with each side claiming to be more patriotic than the other, and frankly as a Canadian I’m quite bored by it all. Our Canadian conventions are not so spectacular, but at least genuine points of policy are discussed there, which is something I’ve hardly found to be true in the case of the US ones. Those mostly feature handpicked speakers chosen to reflect whatever the party chairman wants the message to be, whether that reflects the true state of the party or not. And more often the party in question spends a considerable amount of time trying to masquerade as very different than what it really is.

So, why bother, really? I’ve been catching some of the RNC coverage here (nice job trying to make a right-wing party appear moderate, but you’re not fooling anyone), but missed the DNC altogether as I was busy moving. So far I really don’t see anything that doesn’t fit within the “staged” paradigm anyway, so tempted as I am to spend some time spewing venom on the spawns of Satan speakers at the RNC I’ve decided instead to sit comfortably in my Canadian home, relieved that I’m not paying for whatever decisions will come out of this largely empty show, now or later.

George W. Bush’s enthusiasm for the military was so great, he posed for official pictures wearing a decoration he was never entitled to wear. He was not, however, so enthusiastic as to sign up for combat duty during the Vietnam war.

At least one of 300 Swift boat vets who So, how many of these “signers” are merely fraud victims? And if a fraud has been committed, who commissioned it?