almost okay

Thank the gods we only have one more year of this moron's bullshit to put up with.

I suppose you've heard all the latest stuff about how the White House was in on the C.I.A.'s decision to destroy those torture video tapes? You know... the ones showing Al Qaeda prisoners being subjected to the controversial method of 'waterboarding' as a part of routine terrorist interrogations?

Without hammering you with the details, 'waterboarding' is a combo torture/interrogation method carefully calculated to simulate the experience of drowning as close as possible, which of course scares the bejeezus out of the prisoner, thereby causing him/her to give up all of the Super Secret Terrorist Plans.

I don't know about you, but if somebody who was trying to find Bin Laden was drowning me, I'd tell 'em I had lunch with the bastard just yesterday if that's what they wanted to hear. And he ordered the pulled pork sandwich... Memphis-style.

Never mind that we have the good old Freedom of Information Act. Bush and his cronies believe that all this bureaucratic red tape is just what is keeping the Office of Homeland Security from doing its job properly, and they cited reasons for destroying the evidence in this case that included protection of the operatives involved in the interrogations. Protection from what? 'Legal and physical jeopardy', according to the C.I.A. Well, if they're worried if the stuff was 'legal' now, shouldn't they have been worried about its legality at the time?

Hmm... Maybe it would have been a good idea not to have turned the camera on. It seems to me that somebody with a pencil and a note pad could have just taken down the Super Secret Terrorist Plans by hand. Why not? Fucking Joe Friday used to do it, and that dude always got his man.

And here's another funny one...

A year ago last May, the President decided that the list of visitors to the White House was no longer going to be made available to the public. Of course he washed that inside a memorandum which instructed that ALL Secret Service records were to be made off-limits, but the visitor list was the only thing he was really worried about.

Why? Well, it seems his influence-peddling buddy Jack Abramoff (who can now add 'Convicted Felon' to his resume) had been in and out of the Oval Office since Bush took over the White House more times than Ron Jeremy's shlong in a hot tub filled with coked up porn chicks, even though Bush stridently denied ever meeting the man.

The details of Abramoff's wrongdoings are lengthy, complicated and dull. Suffice it to say that during Bush's first term Abramoff abused his position as a White House insider to squeeze money out of practically everyone under the sun, from the Native American Kickapoo tribe to foreign leaders who wanted a meeting with President Bush. According to published reports, in 2004 Abramoff got $9,000,000 to arrange a meeting at the White House between Bush and Omar Bongo, the President of Gabon, an oil-rich country on the west coast of Africa. The meeting took place in May of 2004. I wonder what the President's cut was out of $9,000,000? If it were me, I'd want half.

Hey, I told you the details were dull, right?

Listen, long story short... the President would have no way to plausibly deny knowledge of Abramoff's activities if the sign-in sheets at the White House were made public. So he removed them from public access. Of course, the White House claims that the measure was designed to encourage advisors to the President to visit more freely and more often, addressing any range of subjects without worry that the documentation would compromise the contents of their meetings. The White House has also assured us that the timing of the memorandum Bush issued to suppress the visitor list was 'coincidental' to the timing of Abramoff's alleged visits.

Yeah, it 'coincided' with an assload of evidence that George W. and Abramoff had a sweet little deal going!

Sorry Mr. President, but there's that pesky Freedom of Information Act again.

Hey, Einstein! If you recall, you Republicans needed that same visitor log for evidence in order to nail Bill Clinton's testicles to the wall during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. It was pretty fucking convenient to have access to it back then, wasn't it? Huh?!

Ooooh my... Now THAT'S what I call a nice ass! Today's Craig's List Girl Sasha works out of the S.F. Bay area and her rates start at 1,000 roses for the night. All other services are additional and rates are negotiable, but fees are for her companionship only and not an act of prostitution. Any activity that takes place is a private arrangement between consenting adults.