From Headzup Nov. 28, 2008.

President Bush talks about how he's very pleased with the Iraq war.

Read more about it here--Bush "very pleased" with Iraq war outcome: report.

From The Onion:

The pardon assures that Libby will not face any more repercussions for his role in the Valerie Plame scandal or be eaten on Thanksgiving.

From Headzup President Bush gives his last Thanksgiving Address.

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Robert Redford talks to Rachel Maddow about the Bush administration sneaking through changes to land leases and environmental regulations on election day this year hoping no one would notice. For more you can read Redford's post at the Huffington Post Americans Rejected 'Drill, Baby, Drill'--Bush Should Respect Our Choice.

Maddow: You've got a lot of experience in this field. You've been fighting on behalf of wilderness protection since the early seventies. Do you think these last minute lease plans are really serious? Do you think they'll get away with it?

Redford: Well I don't know, I think they're serious because they've been serious all along. I mean, look, Bush's policies have been a, environmental policies have been a disaster. But that's no surprise when you look at the history of what he's done since he came in. So I think they're totally serious. Whether it's going to work or not I think is going to depend on whether the public wakes up to what's really going on that's going to affect their own personal interests.

Here you have if you look at the Bush administration's cynicism and it's also been devious because when, whenever they couldn't get a bill passed legitimately they would go behind our backs. And when you stop and think about thirty years, thirty years of hard work to get certain protections passed into law like clean water, clean air, the Environmental Policy Act, those were acts to protect the American public and the land that we claim we cherish.

Well he's tried in his eight years to undo just about every one of those laws. And we stop and think it all began with Cheney doing a behind the closed doors energy policy designed with energy companies. You can pretty well see where it was all going to go, so it's pretty cynical and it's, it's in my opinion it's criminal in the sense that what are we going to have to give to our children and theirs if we tear up everything for short term gains that are tied to non-renewable energy sources? I mean do the math you've got non-renewable energy sources which are oil and gas and coal. You've got renewable energy sources which are now totally viable, safer, cleaner, better economically. What are we going to invest in?

[snip]

The thing that really is awful, I mean really, really deeply awful what it's doing behind the American public's back, the cynicism of designing a plan like this, putting out oil leases, gas leases, coal leases in 360,000 acres that surround national parks and monuments and canyons and rivers is pretty devastating in terms of the pollution and the economics of it and so forth.

The fact that they would do that on election day when everybody was distracted by the election and set a date for Dec. 19th, and the sister agency, this came through the BLM, okay, so the sister agency, which is the National Park Service wasn't even told about it. They went behind their backs so they could jam it through, so obviously there's a plan that Bush goes out and as he goes out the door he'd like to give us one good kick in the tail on his way out. This to me is the most cynical, very dangerous and as you said Rachel, that once it's done, it's intractable so I'm mad, the American people are mad and we can stop this. I mean President-elect Obama has a plan to go in a forward direction. Not a backward direction like Bush's planning. So just as the guy is coming into office this guy tries to sneak one past us before the guy can even take office. Pretty cynical and I hope it's stopped. It should be stopped.

Maddow: I know there's a thirty day public protest period which ends the first week in December which is coming up very shortly. Do you think that that public protest, that form of public official protest would help stop this lease sale?

Redford: Well look I'm just this one voice in the wilderness, I mean excuse the pun, but I mean I'm just one voice out there but I'm glad to go on this show simply to say if we pull together the American people get up, now and contact their local official and say we don't want this. This is our land. It's not his land. It's our land. It's our heritage and you're going to trash it for some short term gain that's going to destroy some of the most beautiful places on the face of the earth? I think the American people will stop it and can stop it but they're going to have to act fast because these guys are trying to pull an end around.

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From the Nov. 17, 2008 edition of Countdown, guest host David Shuster, filling in for Keith Olbermann, talks to Jonathan Turley about the possibility of George Bush issuing blanket pardons for the crimes committed by himself and his administration and what it means for the rule of law that remains in the United States.

UPDATE (Nicole): Does anyone actually believe that Bush won't thumb his nose at the rule of law? As Will Bunch notes, it's clear that Presidents and their aides are officially above the law.

However, that's not the thing that took my breath away in this clip. Listen as Shuster and Turley both matter-of-factly admit that one of the problems that Obama has in committing to close Guantanamo is what to do with the detainees there because some of them could not go through our criminal justice system due to lack of evidence to hold them or because they've been tortured. No outrage. No wringing of hands that these people still exist, years later, within Guantanamo, as we count down the days until George Bush is finally out of office.

Yet the media can get up in arms about Hillary Clinton can "subvert her agenda" to serve as Secretary of State and rehash that ad nauseam? We can have an academic discussion on presidential pardons (and not fail to mention Clinton, mind you), but when it come to authentic crimes against humanity that merit a full blown trial in The Hague, the media yawns, as if it's just par for course.

My god, when did we lose our moral compass that this kind of atrocity is an academic discussion instead of a rallying call for justice? Per Robert Jay Lifton, this is our American Apocalypse.

The Week in Cartoons Nov. 15, 2008 from the folks at Headzup.

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From The Colbert Report, Nov. 12, 2008:

I don't believe in adding insult to injury. Once I've injured someone I just like to take a moment to enjoy it. But apparently election officials in Omaha Nebraska are going to add an insult to the Republican injury. They're still counting the votes there and there's a damned good chance when they finish tomorrow they'll be giving one more electoral vote to Barack Obama making him the first Democrat to get a Nebraskan electoral vote since Linden Johnson in 1964. And...and to get that vote Johnson had to promise to nuke Kansas. Now if it happens, one Democratic official said this victory would be "like a cherry on top of an already sweet election." Well the Democrats can have their sweet elections. Republicans perfer things bitter and salty.

Nation, I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that things are not going well for the Republicans. Two years ago they controlled both the White House and the Congress. Soon they'll be controlling both the Coke machine and the fry station. And then they're asking, how did we fall so fast? Which takes us to tonight's Word...Pity Party.

Wow, the right wing bloggers are really cracking up over Obama's victory. You don't believe me? Check this post out by John Hinderaker. I know he adores President Bush and thinks he's a genius and all, but this is a remarkable post.

The Importance of Being Careful

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly.

He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn't raise his standards, he will exceed Bush's total before he is inaugurated.

Hinderaker actually believes this. It's weird because most Conservatives do believe that Obama's communication skills served him quite well during the election process. I guess he also missed this latest polling data that says Bush is leaving office more unpopular than Richard Nixon.

And they wonder why America has turned their backs on Conservatism.

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David Letterman's Top Ten things heard during the Bush/Obama meeting from the Nov. 10, 2008 show.

It may take decades to learn the real damage George Bush has done to the U.S. and other parts of the world, but its nice to know that at least some of his most egregious mistakes can be undone.

The blogosphere has been following the countless abuses of George Bush and his administration for years, and it appears that our voices have been heard and that all of the hard work may finally pay off -- President-elect Barack Obama is sending out signals that he's ready to move quickly to reverse course on some of the worst Bush executive orders and get the country moving in the right direction again.

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush's controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as Parkinson's. Read on...

I'll admit that naming a mountain after President-elect Obama before he's even sworn in might be a tad over the top. But, it does show the overwhelming enthusiasm and support he is receiving from around the globe and the stark contrast between our new president and the outgoing national embarrassment that is George W. Bush.

The prime minister of Antigua wants to rename the island's highest mountain Mount Obama in honour of the US president-elect.

The prime minister, Baldwin Spencer, announced the plans on Wednesday in a congratulatory letter to Barack Obama.

Antigua's attorney general, Justin Simon, said he would find out if parliament needed to approve the name change. The political analyst Avel Grant said it could draw more tourists to the island. Read on...

As for Dubya? Well, the comedy world is going to miss him, but he's finding out that the rest of the world just isn't that into him:

In less than three months, President-elect Barack Obama will take office and the Bush administration will belong to history. With the president reportedly interested in writing about his White House years, publishers have a suggestion:

Take your time.

"If I were advising President Bush, given how the public feels about him right now, I think patience would probably be something that I would encourage," says Paul Bogaards, executive director of publicity for Alfred A. Knopf, which in 2004 released Bill Clinton's million-selling "My Life." Read on...

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Rachel Maddow reports on George Bush's last big wet kiss he's giving to industry lobbyists before he leaves office.

(Rough transcript)

And President Bush is making a last push to deregulate before he leaves office. The Washington Post reporting today that as many as ninety of the most controversial changes to industry regulations of the whole Bush era are in the works right now. Easing limits on polution from coal fired power plants near national parks, allowing increased polution from oil refineries and chemical factories, allowing for dirtier drinking water and more coal slurry waste from mountain top mines in the streams of Appalachia. Whoever the lobbyists are who were trying to get counter-terrorism rules relaxed for the benefit of the shipping companies, rest easy you country-first guys. The Bush administration is apparently planning on taking good care of you too before they leave.

The Republicans are well aware of the need of the need to get these changes done now. On the afternoon when President Bush was first inaugurated his chief of staff issued a government wide memo blocking the new regulations that were drafted in the last days of the Clinton administration. There's a thirty day or sixty day waiting period before regulatory changes become legal and since Clinton's changes were newer than that the Bush administration just blocked them. Learning from their own experience the Bush administration is getting their goodies in early this year so they'll all be actual law without debate and without Congress by the time the next President takes over.

And this apparently is how we make decisions as a country about whether American kids drink dirty or clean water and breathe dirty or clean air and whether or not the shipping containers in our ports are checked for bombs or not. Ta-da.

(Photo courtesy The Improper)

Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin has been a treasure trove of highlights. Charges of Socialism, Communism and terrorism on the campaign trail have transformed her into the walking, talking poster child for failed Republican policies and talking points -- not to mention one of the biggest jokes in American political history.

According to the AP's Beth Fouhy, Sarah Palin's attempt at an energy policy speech in front of workers at a solar energy plant in Toledo, Ohio Wednesday didn't go over too well. Gee...I wonder why?

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Wednesday called for a "clean break" from the Bush administration's energy policies, which she says rely too much on importing foreign oil.

Palin spoke after touring Xunlight Corp., one of a handful of solar technology startup companies in Toledo, a struggling industrial city in this swing state. The city's leaders are hoping that the solar companies will create jobs to replace some of those lost by downsizing in the auto industry.

But Palin made only a passing reference to solar power in her speech and instead renewed her call for more drilling in U.S. coastal waters. She repeated her signature anthem, "drill, baby, drill," which seemed to fall a bit flat on the audience at the plant even as it's become a popular chant at her rallies. Read on...

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From Late Edition Oct. 26, 2008. After discussing whether Jon Kyl was comfortable with McCain trying to separate himself from Bush, the conversation between Evan Bayh and Jon Kyl moves here.

Bayh: Well we can all cite our studies but I think the American people understand Wolf that when, the price that John McCain had to pay, and I like John McCain, but the price he had to pay to win his party's nomination was to embrace the Bush policies, back when he was running for the nomination....

Kly: What policies!

Bayh: Back when he was running for the nomination he said he agreed with President Bush on virtually every major issue. That's a direct quote. He voted with him 90% of the time, so (crosstalk). Excuse me that's just a fact. So if you like the way things are. If you think the economy is going well. If you think the policies of President Bush have succeeded you should vote for John McCain. (crosstalk).. we need a change you should support Barack Obama.

Kyl: What policies of the Bush administration created the problem that we're in today? The problem started with the fact that we didn't have enough regulation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Something Republicans and the Bush administration were pushing for and your Democratic colleagues opposed. That was the beginning of the problem of the housing bubble. George Bush doesn’t run the economy. He didn’t create this problem. His tax rates being lower actually helped for six years to create the second largest economic growth that we’ve had in the history of the country in recent years. So uh...

Bayh: It sounds like you're agreeing that uh, with John McCain when he says that economics and running the economy is not his strong suit. Apparently it wasn't George Bush's strong suit either Jon because according to you the President doesn't have much to do with the economy. So we shouldn't even be talking about taxes and spending and jobs because according to you the chief executive of the country doesn't have much to do with that. We have a different point of view. We think the President should lead on economic policy. You create jobs, foster investment and business expansion. The policies of the last eight years have not done very well.

Kyl: The Bush tax cuts created this growth coming out of a recession. Creating six years of economic growth. Do you want those tax rates which have been responsible for this economic growth and job creation to go back up?

Bayh: Wolf there in lies the fundamental difference. John McCain says he thinks the fundamentals of the economy are sound. That we've made "great progress" these last eight years. My friend Jon Kyl apparently believes that as well. I think we can do better. And I think the American people believe we can do better and that's what Barack Obama stands for.

Blitzer: Alright Sen. Kyl very quickly I'll give you the last word.

Kly: Not by raising taxes. Particularly not in a time of recession. Don't raise taxes on the small businesses because that create 80% of the jobs in the country. Keep taxes where they are.

Legendary SNLer Will Ferrell returns as George W. Bush to officially endorse John McCain and Sarah Palin.

FERRELL AS BUSH: "Good to see you, John. Hey let's get a photo of this; it'll really help your campaign out. Now let me do this: I, George W. Bush, endorse John McCain and Sarah Palin with all my heart..."

(MCCAIN tries to drift out of frame but is pulled back by BUSH)
FERRELL AS BUSH (cont'd): "John was there for me ninety percent of the time over the last eight years. When you think of John McCain, think of me, George W. Bush. Think of this face. When you're in the voting booth, before you vote – picture this face right here. A vote for John McCain is a vote for George W. Bush.(to MCCAIN) You're welcome. So, I want to be there you, John for the next eight years."

FEY AS PALIN –The next sixteen years!

Full transcript below the fold:

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