Bush's bimbo press secretary

Bush's bimbo White House Press secretary Dana Perino describes herself as "once a Bushie always a Bushie" ... of course we already knew that.

On the NPR game show, Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, Dana Perino admitted she knew nothing about recent American history. She didn't know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was, thought it might have something to do with the Bay of Pigs invasion. She had to ask her British husband what it was all about. He responded incredulously, "Oh Dana!"

Sheeesh.... can you imagine? This is the spokesperson for the President of the United States.

She lost the game.

Former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough: Either the President "is lying to the American people" or "is stupid" ... take your pick

Yesterday, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters that President Bush was first briefed on the National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusions on Wednesday, Nov. 28.

However, and intelligence official was quoted as saying:

The NIE has been in substantially the form in which it was finally submitted for more than six months. The White House, and particularly Vice President Cheney, used every trick in the book to stop it from being finalized and issued.

So, either Bush is lying or is not doing his job. We pay him to be privy to the most current intelligence.

Former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough said it best:

"We are left with only two options here. Either the President of the United States is lying to the American people about what happened during that meeting, or the President of the United States is stupid."

Bad news for Huckabee

Consider these two stories, then consider Huckabee's recent rise in the polls. Pretty pathetic if this is the GOP's man:

TP

Huckabee Clueless On Iran NIE: ‘No,’ Never Heard Of It

The Politico’s David Paul Kuhn asked former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) what he thought of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Huckabee’s response? Hasn’t heard of it:

and....

TP

“Confidential Arkansas state government records, including letters from these women, obtained by the Huffington Post,” reveal that, as governor, Mike Huckabee pushed for the release of convicted rapist Wayne Dumond despite being warned that the convict would strike again. After being released, Dumond raped and murdered Carol Sue Shields.

Check this out. Huckabee tries to blame Bill Clinton and the Dems for his actions!!

Remember the GOP mantra: "Admit nothing. Deny everything. Blame someone else."

Bush lies about Iran's nuclear program, Cheney tried to block intelligence

"So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously."
-- GW Bush, 10/17/07

A declassified summary of the latest National Intelligence Estimate found with "high confidence" that the Islamic republic stopped an effort to develop nuclear weapons in the fall of 2003.

The problem, this report was completed in 2006 and Bush and Cheney continued to lie about Iran being an imminent nuclear threat.

Think Progress has documented six instances of Bush, Cheney, and administration officials touting the Iran nuclear threat with in the past 60 days - when they knew of this intelligence report.

How do we know they knew about it? Cheney didn't like what it said and delayed the release of the NIE. The report has exposed Bush and Cheney as deliberate liars. Nothing new.

UPDATE: TP notes -

Yesterday, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters that President Bush was first briefed on the National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusions on Wednesday, Nov. 28.

But today in an interview with CNN, Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker’s Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist, revealed that Bush actually knew about the NIE at least two days earlier and had a “private discussion” about it with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before the Middle East peace summit in Annapolis, MD, last week.

and...

White House knew of NIE’s judgments for months.

Harper’s Scott Horton interviewed an intelligence community official who casts doubt on the White House’s claim that they only recent learned of the NIE’s judgments:

But one highly reliable intelligence community source I consulted immediately after Hadley spoke answered my question this way: “This is absolutely absurd. The NIE has been in substantially the form in which it was finally submitted for more than six months. The White House, and particularly Vice President Cheney, used every trick in the book to stop it from being finalized and issued. There was no last minute breakthrough that caused the issuance of the assessment.” So what, I asked, if not an intelligence breakthrough, what caused the last-minute change and the sudden issuance of the summary of the NIE? My source had no idea.

Horton’s source adds that though it appears Vice President Cheney “and his team” had “to fold their cards” on “plans for an air war in Iran,” Cheney’s “a tenacious son-of-a-bitch. He may very well be back at it tomorrow.”

More proof of the lie.

Religious conservatives deleting blog comments again: Webutante and Pistol Pete

Just wanted to document the ever increasing number of conservative religious authoritarians that have deleted my comments, not because of any vulgarity or insults, but just because my posts contained legitimate information that challenged their beliefs. These are people who say they stand 'for the truth.' Instead, what they really stand for is a narrow view of the world that they guard from debate and discussion with abject denial.

They pulled a "Mark Rose" on me. Check out their blogs and tell them hello from William:

Webutante

Necessary Therapy

Also note, most college newspapers have unmoderated blogs and discussion. You won't find much of that at religious colleges like Liberty or Bob Jones. They wouldn't want their students to have too many inconvenient truths, now would they? Forget about critical thinking, submission to dogma is far more important!

UPDATE: Webutante responds on Pistols site:

"Thank heavens for the First Amendment. I proudly stand guilty as charged! Best wishes…"

Apparently, Webutante’s 'proud' interpretation of the First Amendment includes the right to censor and control information… an authoritarian characteristic and an aid to those who wish to practice abject denial. This philosophy is common in dictatorships like China, N. Korea and in theocracies like Iran. We did an psychological profile on Webutante a while back. She is a classic religious right wing authoritarian denialist who has a practice of deleting posts that present information that threatens her beliefs.

Bush obstructs Congressional investigation on Plame leak

Do you believe it? Some authoritarian wingnuts, like this guy for example, still believe Bush's former Press Secretary Scotty McClellan is lying when he said that Bush and Cheney were among those "involved" in his passing along "false information" regarding the Plame scandal. Doc says, Scotty turned on former boss just "to sell books." This is a great case study in authoritarianism and abject denial

OK, so if Bush has nothing to hide, why is he blocking the investigation? Bush has denied the House Oversight Chair's July request for Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's FBI files. These files contain Bush and Cheney testimony that was not before the Grand Jury and therefore not subject to secrecy laws.

The Waxman Committee request:

Transcripts, reports, notes, and other documents relating to any interviews outside the presence of the grand jury of any of the following individuals:

• President George W. Bush
• Vice President Dick Cheney
• Andrew Card
• Stephen Hadley
• Karl Rove
• Dan Bartlett
• Scott McClellan

The chairman notes that Janet Reno, who was attorney general in the Clinton administration, made an independent judgement to provide several FBI interview reports to the committee, including those of Bill Clinton and then-Vice President Al Gore.

More here and here

Huckabee - the US is in a religious war

Vote Huckabee for an American theocracy.

Can you imagine America being led by a man who claims his most distinguishing qualification is a Theology Degree from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Only in Republican land ... and right now Huckabee is leading the GOP in the latest Iowa poll.

CBN:

In fact I think I'm stronger than most people because I truly understand the nature of the war that we are in with Islamo fascism. These are people that want to kill us. It's a theocratic war. And I don't know if anybody fully understands that. I'm the only guy on that stage with a theology degree. I think I understand it really well.
--Mike Huckabee

About how much do you suppose the Huckster learned at Ouachita Baptist University in the 1970s about 21st-century fundamentalist Islam? Here's a wild guess: not much. Sounds like 'Bush lite' - if such a level of ignorance is even possible. But yes, it is possible - as Huckabee demonstrates. By the above quote he's just acknowledged we are in a 'religious' or theocratic war. Nice!

He's a a typical part of the Republican Culture of Corruption, he's had five admonitions and $1,000 in fines from Arkansas' Ethics Commission as governor. These incidents involve things such as failure to report that he paid himself at various times from campaign funds, nondisclosure of income, receiving various gifts like $3700 cowboy boots that had the appearance that he was "rewarded" for his performance as governor, for trying to take $70,000 in furniture from the governor's mansion, as well as using a governor's expense fund for a dog house and panty hose. More christian moral values hypocrisy.