Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Prez Bush to Don Young - "Bite Me!"

I suppose W is flipping off St. Ted Stevens too, but isn't the Dom supposed to take this stuff seriously? I only listened to about 35 minutes of the Shrub's final State of the Union speech, and haven't watched it, so I have no idea how Young reacted to Bush's statement, "the people's trust in their government is undermined by congressional earmarks, special-interest projects that are often snuck in at the last minute, without discussion or debate."

If that statement doesn't fit Young's unconstitutional Coconut Road earmark change from 2005, during Young's and the GOP's heyday of earmark mania, I don't know how Bush might have put it better.

Last time somebody attempted to tread on Young's - and his 2008 campaign's - sole current campaign plank, Young threatened to kill him. Maybe Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is relieved that the heat is off the Senator. Coburn had this to say about Bush's earmark statements last night:

"The American people want to see the Washington earmark favor factory shut down, not downsized or placed under new management. How many more earmark-related investigations, search warrants and indictments have to be issued before Congress gets the message that it's time to end this practice?"


I have to agree with Sen. Coburn, seen here at the opening of the Ten Commandments monument in Coalgate, OK, where - according to Sen. Coburn,
"Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom."

But with earmarks being shut down, what does that leave Rep. Young and Sen. Stevens to run with in their campaigns? Their incorruptibility?

Bush also flipped off America's poor, a sentiment, unlike his gesture to Stevens and Young, I can't identify with. His Pell Grant for Kids proposal, funded miserably at the $300,000,000 level, would give each poor child in the USA $20. But by making his tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, he would give every American millionaire $287,000. So, while America's poor don't even get enough to buy, as muckraker Greg Palast put it so well this morning, the newest Harry Potter book, America's millionaires get enough to send eight kids to the Andover Academy, W's alma mater, for a year.

Palast was interviewed yesterday morning by KUDO's Shannyn Moore. Some very good radio, touching upon the upcoming Supreme Court review of the Exxon Valdez oil spill class action suit, which, Palast predicts, will be Bong Hits 4 Exxon...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great picture of George. That would be a good one for Webster's presidential roundup! Your "BLOG" needs to get out to the people, as it seems to be a good focal point for other blogs and to the people that really know or care to what is going on in this state. Maybe we can get Begich to commit to having an Alaskan Blog Conference as the oponing ceremony for the new castl being built downtown!

Philip Munger said...

pam,

Thanks! I hope to slowly get more people to write here on things they know a lot about, 'cause there's a lot I don't know about Alaskan events outside of where I live, and outside my experience.

I'm sure Ray Metcalfe would like to invite Mark, but Mark's probably not very likely to answer the door if Ray shows up - might be serving him papers.

Anonymous said...

It was great having Greg Palast on the show! He is brilliant, and will come on again. If you want to podcast that hour, it is the first hour for January 28th.
Thanks for listening!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Munger: It is surprising that you have admitted the very obvious, to wit: "...there's a lot I don't know..." Indeed.

You demonstrated your ignorance, and trivialized your opinions, when you chracterized Jake Metcalfe as "...a coddled white male attorney(s)..."

Anonymous said...

Phil,
Greg put my interview with him on his website in case you'd like to hear it. www.gregpalast.com and it's down the left side (go figure) of the page. It is under "Oily lies". He will come on the show when the verdict comes down...or is it a "ruling"....anyway, check it out and leave a comment if you would. His web folks have yet to fix the "kodu" to "kudo"...hey, it's Palast! It's OK.