Photo of the Day

Black presidential seal socks. That's what the war president wears. He got the Crocs shoes from the Chairman of Crocs, Inc., who presided over a fundraiser in May that raised $630,000 for the Virginia Republican party.

I won't feel guilty when I buy a pair of mock Crocs. No money for Rethugs.

Photo via Manolo's Shoe Blog: Impeach Him!

We Are Ruled By An Idiot Child

No, wait, that's an insult to idiots and children everywhere.

U.S. President George W. Bush drives Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, after he arrived for a meeting at Camp David, Md, the presidential retreat north of Washington in Maryland�s Catoctin Mountains, Saturday, March 31, 2007. First lady Laura Bush follows. The U.S. and Brazil are the world's biggest producers of ethanol and the two leaders are working on an agreement to boost production of the biofuel and reduce international dependence on fossil fuels. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
I wish this was an April Fool's joke. See what it says on the front of the golf cart? "Golf Cart One". To go with all his Member's Only jackets with the Presidential seal. Sheesh. I saw this on Dependable Renegade.

Tell Your Momma The Corporate Media Is Sliming Obama

The Times printed this picture of Obama squinting into the sun, as though he were being grilled about his blind trust. He wasn't.

Robert Sullivan/AFP-Getty Images
Times caption: Barack Obama answering questions last weekend outside a church in Selma, Ala.
Page One news in the New York Times yesterday: In ’05 Investing, Obama Took Same Path as Donors

In which we learn that a blind trust to which Obama had entrusted his money invested $50,000 of it in companies owned by friends of his. It was a blind trust, so Obama didn't know about it; when he found out, he sold the shares and terminated the blind trust. (P.S., he lost money.)

Oooh, what double dealing. Oooh, I smell a hint of scandal. Oooh, you know that this really means. The Clinton Rules (as Digby named them) are back. Democrats are scrutinized within an inch of their lives by the rich corporate media; Republicans are given a pass. I mean, really, Rudy Giuliani was giving speeches at $100,000 a pop (and skipping his son's high school graduation, family values party, my ass) and this is a story about $50,000 in a blind trust? Where is the story about how Rudy Giuliani has invested his money? Who was Rudy giving all those speeches too? You don't think those folks are expecting a little homina homina for their Benjamins? You won't find the Giuliani story out there, or the McCain story, or the Romney Bain Capital story either. The corporate media exists to perpetuate the government that gives it the best tax breaks, and that means all Democrats under the microscope, all the time.

And today the Boston Globe (owned by the Times ownership cabal) weighs in with a story about how Obama paid $375 in ancient parking tickets. I kid you not.

Trey Ellis, HuffPo: Obama, the Times and Central Casting

What a curious and misleading headline on the front page of The New York Times:
"Obama, in Brief Investing Foray In '05, Took Same Path as Donors."

The only reason to put on the front page of the paper of record a story about a politician's stock holdings is if there were even a hint of impropriety.
The coy headline slings mud in bold letters and then, only in the fine print of the article, explains that not only was nothing improper done, in fact as soon as there was even the hint of a possible conflict the junior Senator from Illinois divested himself of the holdings.

This is a far different story than that of Senator Bill Frist whose blind trust ended up not being blind at all.

Did the Times editors really feel that this story belonged on page one while, say, "At Least 109 Shiite Pilgrims Killed Across Iraq as Holiday Nears," was banished to page A10?

Boston Globe: Obama paid late parking tickets
Racked up penalties while at Harvard

Total $375; $140 in fines, $235 in late fees. George Bush spends that much on Members Only jackets with the Presidential seal every day.

Operation Photo Op, George W. Bush Posturing on Immigration Edition

Commander Codpiece has a new war, the war on his falling poll numbers. The next front in that war, another war of choice, is the Mexican border. (Why not Canada? It has its own game already. Dead or Canadian? (Examples: Pierre Trudeau? Both! Steve Nash? Canadian.)

The next powerfully staged photo op of the Bush Administration's continuing series of powerfully staged photo ops takes place in the Oval Office tonight, on prime time television. It will lead to the next powerfully staged photo op, the sight of National Guard troops riding little ATVs on the Mexican border, brandishing M-16s and looking tough. Maybe Commander Codpiece will go to the border for his own powerfully staged photo op, wearing one of those weird semi-military jackets with the Presidential seal embroidered on the breast pocket.

But it's all a ruse. The real Border Patrol have been cut by the Bushies, so they can give tax cuts to millionaires.

Bush campaigned in 2004 on a pledge to hire 2,000 new Border Patrol agents each year for five years. But his '06 budget scrapped those plans and asked for only 210.