"If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us." -George W. Bush, Presidential Debate at Wake Forest University Oct 11, 2000

500,000 Europeans would like to welcome you to Rome, Mr. President...

(Click here for a related BRAD BLOG entry.)

Matt Drudge is highlighting the headline "CBS Poll: Vets Favor Bush". True enough. But take a closer look at how Vets feel things are going in Bush's war by perusing the actual article that Drudge is pointing to.

For example, you'll find that a vast majority of Vets believe that the war is going badly, that it wasn't worth the cost, it was a mistake, the administration has no play for the June 30 handover, and that higher level military personnel (instead of just the soldiers directly involved) should be held responsible for Abu Ghraib.

Drudge, no doubt, as confirmed today by Rush, is assuming that few will actually bother to look at more than just the headline.

In the meantime, the latest head-to-head matchup of all registered voters, from the same CBS Poll --- not reported by Drudge --- shows Kerry widening the gap and beginning to trounce Bush 49% to 41%. The more reliable Zogby Poll has it as Kerry 47% to Bush's 42% with undecideds (who usually end up favoring the challenger) growing and Bush sinking. The same 47%-42% numbers occur when Nader is added to the match-up as well.

Zogby also shows the Bush approval rating now at an astounding 58% disapprove to 42% approve.

The Bush "Presidency" is, as of this moment, 84.19% over. Hang in there, America.

In 2000, many of us Californians who weren't willing to lie and say anything in order to get George W. Bush elected and Gray Davis removed from office tried unsuccessfully to explain to the Power Hungry Partisans on the Right how the "Power Crisis" in California was a hoax run by Enron and others.

Of course, the Ditto Heads would have none of it and Rush Limbaugh instructed them that it was all due to the short-sighted tree-huggers in the Land of Fruits and Nuts who had only themselves to blame for not building enough power plants or something.

And of course, the Ditto Heads believed it as usual.

And as usual, they were all entirely wrong to do so. Not that it mattered. Not that they cared.

Smoking gun audio tapes obtained by CBS (you can listen to a few tapes here) show precisely how Enron and the other crooked market manipulators manufactured the fake "Power Crisis".

Here are just a few outtakes as reported by CBS (taken from stories here and here):

In the bargain, Enron and the other manipulators bilked the state out of some $9.8 Billion in one of the biggest gang rapes ever perpetrated on a state government.

So far, Bush's Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC), the commission responsible for keeping this sort of thing from happening, or at least holding the rapists accountable after they do, has done --- predicatably --- nothing.

Meanwhile, Bush got into office, Davis was recalled, California is nearly bankrupt, and Enron CEO Ken Lay, who Bush barely knew, still lives large. The deal is done.

Matt Drudge, who ran "siren" alerts all summer in 2000 during the fake "crisis", and from whom Rush and Sean and the Ditto Heads and most News Outlets receive their assignments each day, has had almost nothing to say since the release of the tapes.

Anyone surprised? Any Ditto Head readers of the BRAD BLOG courageous enough to admit what sycophantic, disingenous, partisan suckers they were? (Paul?)

We're still holding our breath waiting for the new Governator to beat up the bad guys over this. Perhaps later in the movie. Sometime after November 2nd perhaps.

George W. Bush met today with Pope John Paul, who had shared these thoughts with him:

Pretending not to hear him, as usual, Bush moments later awarded the Pontiff the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In completely unrelated news, John Kerry is leading Bush by 9% amongst Catholic voters, and recently Catholic Bishops have suggested that Pro-Choice political candidates should not be given communion.

There has yet to be any condemnation by the Bishops of political candidates who favor the Death Penalty. Like, for example, George W. Bush who oversaw, as Governor of Texas, more state sanctioned murder than any other Governor in US history, putting an end to the lives of almost 150 people. Not all that many, really, in comparison to those he sent to their deaths in Iraq.

For his part, Bush told the Pope that the US would work for "human liberty and human dignity."

No word on when that program will begin.

The Mad Hatter was late for an appointment, so had no time to make comment.

June 1, 2004:

January 10, 2002:

Character counts.