'Wall Street got drunk'

(CNN) — In case you're wondering why our economy is in the toilet, President Bush had the explanation at a closed Republican fund-raiser in Houston last week:

”Wall Street got drunk – it’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off your TV cameras. It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is: how long will it sober up.”

The depth of the intellect at the very top of our nation's government is staggering, isn't it?

Girl runs away from Bush, chipmunk

Maybe it was the president. Or that giant chipmunk mascot.

Something made little Emily from Kentucky run away crying after she was called out onto the field to meet President Bush on the South Lawn yesterday after a tee-ball game. Emily took a few steps toward Bush, then a lot more steps back, hugged the fence looking terrified, got pulled up there by some adults and then ran away.

She was going, going, gone.

Lots of kids get nervous during big moments (meeting Santa and birthday parties for example). So, Emily, it's OK. There are a lot of congressional Republicans running away from Bush during this election year too.

Chicago Tribune

Playing politics with stimulus checks

The announcement from the Internal Revenue Service that, for example, more than 77,000 Wisconsin residents -- most of them elderly -- will not get their economic stimulus check from the federal government if they do not file appropriate paperwork by Oct. 15 is unsettling.

Doesn't the IRS work for us?

Why is it that the federal government can find people who fail to pay their taxes but cannot find people that it owes money?

The answer, of course, is that the stimulus checks are a political gimmick, rather than a sincere effort to stimulate the economy.

The Bush administration and its congressional allies want to make Americans formally request the money so that taxpayers know they are getting a "gift" from an embattled Republican president in a difficult election year.

Bush is shameful.

But the IRS is being even more shameful when it plays along with this charade.

There is general agreement that a simple computer program could identify the Social Security number and address of everyone who is owed a stimulus check, and the checks could be dispatched quickly and with a minimum of hassle.

That's not happening for all the wrong -- read: political -- reasons.

Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl is right to be calling on the IRS and Social Security Administration to increase outreach efforts to let Wisconsinites know what they must do to qualify for the payments.

madison.com

White House: "Mission Accomplished" didn't mean the mission was accomplished

Hilarious.

"President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said 'mission accomplished' for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. "And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year."

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Dana Perino isn't even trying anymore. "Mission accomplished" referred to just the ship, and not the war? This is the excuse they come up with after five years of trying?

If their latest lame excuse was true, how then would they explain this speech by Bush in Qatar, on June 5, 2003 (just a month later)?

I am happy to see you, an so are the long-suffering people of Iraq. America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished.

KOS