And Bush Wants to Give Women One More Kick in the C**t on His Way Out the Door

Protests Over a Rule to Protect Health Providers – NYTimes.com
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: November 17, 2008

WASHINGTON — A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job discrimination laws.

The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their “religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to “assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity” financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

…

But the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, 28 senators, more than 110 representatives and the attorneys general of 13 states have urged the Bush administration to withdraw the proposed rule.

Pharmacies said the rule would allow their employees to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives and could “lead to Medicaid patients being turned away.” State officials said the rule could void state laws that require insurance plans to cover contraceptives and require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims.

The Ohio Health Department said the rule “could force family planning providers to hire employees who may refuse to do their jobs” — a concern echoed by Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

But your honor, I strenuously object!

Bush administration disagrees with ruling on detainees – Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration disagrees strongly with a Supreme Court decision that gives suspected terrorists the right to go to federal court to seek their release from indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday the deeply divided high court ruling would not affect the Guantanamo trials against enemy combatants and President Bush said he might seek a new law to keep the alleged terrorists in a U.S. prison.

Thursday’s much-anticipated 5-to-4 ruling was the third time the justices have repudiated Bush on his ambitious and hugely controversial schemes to hold the suspects outside the protections of U.S. law.

Speaking at a Group of Eight meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Tokyo, Mukasey said, “I’m disappointed with the decision, in so far as I understand that it will result in hundreds of actions challenging the detention of enemy combatants to be moved to federal district court.”

He added: “I think it bears emphasis that the court’s decision does not concern military commission trials, which will continue to proceed. Instead it addresses the procedures that the Congress and the president put in place to permit enemy combatants to challenge their detention.”

He said the Justice Department would comply with the ruling while studying the decision and “whether any legislation or any other action may be appropriate.”

In writing for the court majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy acknowledged the terrorism threat the country faces — the administration’s justification for the detentions — but he declared, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”

War is Good for the Economy

Today’s Total Reality Disconnect – In a Big Way

Bush says if younger, he would work in Afghanistan | Politics | Reuters

“I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.”"It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” Bush said.

Can this guy BECOME any more divorced from reality as we know it? Romantic? Exciting? Fantastic? Yeah, I bet it’s all those things with a side dish of getting your legs blown off.

More on Bush’s Unwarranted Wiretapping Fiasco

AT&T: Your world. Delivered. To the NSA.

Originally uploaded by lawgeek

Bush says would veto House eavesdropping bill – Yahoo! News

Bush said the litigation against the phone companies was “unfair” because they had been assured by the U.S. government that their cooperation was “legal and necessary” to fighting terrorism after the September 11 attacks.”Companies that may have helped us save lives should be thanked for their patriotic service, not subjected to billion dollar lawsuits that will make them less willing to help in the future,” Bush said.

Oh, I disagree. As does the EFF and anyone with any sense. Read this analysis by Salon.com blogger Glen Greenwald about the Democrats in Congress finally finding the sack with their brains and balls in it. (bolding his)

It’s critical to emphasize …that the telecoms already have immunity under existing statutes, even if they broke the law, as long as they obtained from the Attorney General certifications that the warrantless surveillance requests were legal. If the telecoms really did obtain those certifications — and it’s extremely unlikely that they did — then all they ever had to do was just show them to the court and they would be immune. Their excuse up until now — “we can’t use the documents we have to defend ourselves because we aren’t allowed to show them to the judge” — is now completely eliminated by the House bill.

Edit: They actually DID it! They rejected telecom immunity. Now let’s see Bush put America in danger himself by his refusal to pass it.

Scare Yourself

ABC News: Spending Flat, Dollar Weak, Gas, Food Spike

ABC News: Spending Flat, Dollar Weak, Gas, Food Spike

Even President Bush expressed surprise at a news conference Thursday when a reporter told him that some analysts were predicting $4-per-gallon gasoline. “That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that,” Bush responded.The White House Friday clarified that statement, saying the President was expressing his view that he did not think gas prices were going to go that high.

His then handlers clarified further. “We try not to let him out very often, but when he does manage to escape his special room, can you guys just do us a favor and not ask him questions like this? You know that the more he talks the more asinine his remarks are likely to become. Let’s work together and just let him grin in silence like the idiot he is.”

Today’s TRD

Today’s Total Reality Disconnect brought to you by the letter “R”

R – Retarded!

R – Ridiculous!

R – Revisionist History!

R- Recession!

Bush: US is not headed into recession – Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON – President Bush said Thursday the country is not recession-bound and, despite expressing concern about slowing economic growth, rejected for now any additional stimulus efforts. “We acted robustly,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT”We’ll see the effects of this pro-growth package,” Bush told reporters at a White House news conference, acknowledging that some lawmakers already are talking about a second stimulus package. “Why don’t we let stimulus package 1, which seemed like a good idea at the time, have a chance to kick in?”

Totally Spent – New York Times Op-Ed

Fascinating analysis on why we’re so fucking broke even though we work like dogs (mentally and emotionally bankrupting ourselves as well). And of course, saying what everyone knows, which is that this rebate stimulus is not going to work even a little bit. *eyeroll*

Totally Spent – New York Times

…The problem has been masked for years as middle- and lower-income Americans found ways to live beyond their paychecks. But now they have run out of ways.The first way was to send more women into paid work. Most women streamed into the work force in the 1970s less because new professional opportunities opened up to them than because they had to prop up family incomes. The percentage of American working mothers with school-age children has almost doubled since 1970 — to more than 70 percent. But there’s a limit to how many mothers can maintain paying jobs.

So Americans turned to a second way of spending beyond their hourly wages. They worked more hours. The typical American now works more each year than he or she did three decades ago. Americans became veritable workaholics, putting in 350 more hours a year than the average European, more even than the notoriously industrious Japanese.

But there’s also a limit to how many hours Americans can put into work, so Americans turned to a third way of spending beyond their wages. They began to borrow. With housing prices rising briskly through the 1990s and even faster from 2002 to 2006, they turned their homes into piggy banks by refinancing home mortgages and taking out home-equity loans. But this third strategy also had a built-in limit. With the bursting of the housing bubble, the piggy banks are closing.

The binge seems to be over. We’re finally reaping the whirlwind of widening inequality and ever more concentrated wealth.

Damn. I picked the worst time evar to buy a house, it seems.

Bush Administration Hides More Data

This is about as typical as it gets for the Bushies.  Don’t like the evidence? Make new evidence you will like better! Can’t do that? Then get rid of the evidence! Problem solved!

Think Progress » Bush Administration Hides More Data, Shuts Down Website Tracking U.S. Economic Indicators

The U.S. economy is faltering. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has worsened. Conservatives have attempted to deflect attention from the crisis, by blaming the media’s negative coverage and insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what economists are predicting.The Bush administration’s latest move is to simply hide the data. Forbes has awarded EconomicIndicators.gov one of its “Best of the Web” awards. As Forbes explains, the government site provides an invaluable service to the public for accessing U.S. economic data.

Yet the Bush administration has decided to shut down this site because of “budgetary constraints,” effective March 1:

Today’s TRD brought to you by…

Wow, he’s sponsoring these total reality disconnects left and right these days. Thowing them around like he’s made of money!

Made of big fat stacks of Exxon money, or something.

Think Progress » Bush Declares That Cheney Is ‘The Best Vice President In History’

During his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this morning, President Bush told the crowd of raucous right-wing activists that he “appreciates the fact that” they “invited Vice President Cheney” to speak. Between intermittent cheers of “four more years,” Bush told the crowd, Cheney “is the best vice president in history.”

Today’s Total Reality Disconnect

Brought to you by the Bush White House, here’s today’s total disconnect from reality. How is your Peace and Prosperity treating you , BTW?

Bush: “Peace And Prosperity” At Stake In Election – Politics on The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — President Bush, rallying conservatives for a battle against Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, says “prosperity and peace” are at stake in the upcoming election for his successor.”We have had good debates and soon we will have a nominee who will carry the conservative banner into this election and beyond,” Bush said in prepared remarks of a speech he was to give Friday to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“Prosperity and peace are in the balance,” the president said in speech excerpts the White House released on Thursday night. “So with confidence in our vision and faith in our values, let us go forward … fight for victory … and keep the White House in 2008.”

I want this guy for my grandpa

War Sentiments | Tongue Tied

Bush Wars Cost Avg Family $20K

The Raw Story | Iraq, Afghanistan wars twice as expensive as expected, report says

President Bush’s six-year invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq will end up costing Americans about $1.5 trillion, or nearly twice as much as the White House has actually spent to fight its wars, because of unseen costs like inflation, rising oil prices and expensive care for wounded veterans.The estimate was revealed in a Democratic staff report from Congress’s Joint Economic Committee. The staff report, titled “The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War,” estimates that the Iraq and Afghan wars have cost the average family more than $20,000.

Doctors Fight No-Abortion Policy

The Associated Press: Doctors Fight No-Abortion Policy

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Two weeks after Olga Reyes danced at her wedding, her bloated and disfigured body was laid to rest in an open coffin — the victim, her husband and some experts say, of Nicaragua’s new no-exceptions ban on abortion.

Reyes, a 22-year-old law student, suffered an ectopic pregnancy. The fetus develops outside the uterus, cannot survive and causes bleeding that endangers the mother. But doctors seemed afraid to treat her because of the anti-abortion law, said husband Agustin Perez. By the time they took action, it was too late.