Gerald Ford gave an interview from his home in Colorado in 2004, but the answers he gave to questions were so critical of the Bush administration that he had them sealed until his death, to avoid any controversy with the current president, a fellow Republican.

Ford attacks the Bush administration for their handling of Iraq, making it clear that he believed the current president intentionally mislead Congress and the American people to get the war he wanted in Iraq.

As a former Republican president, Gerald Ford did the right thing for his party to keep this interview secret, but it sure would have been nice for us to know where he stood while he was still alive. He probably would have received plenty of pats on the back.
Ford Disagreed With Bush About Invading Iraq - washingtonpost.com

Senator Hillary Clinton is far behind fellow Democrats Barrack Obama and John Edwards in an Iowa poll taken earlier this week. Because of its early primary, Iowa is often crucial in deciding which candidates will represent each party.

Edwards and Obama both captured 22 percent of the votes cast by Democrats in the poll. Iowa governor Tom Vilsack got 12 percent of the vote, and Hillary came in a disappointing 4th with just 10 percent. Vilsack is not expected to contend as well in other states, which still leaves Hillary in a very distant third to Edwards and current political rock star Obama.

I can't help but think Obama is peaking too early. He's the hottest name in politics right now, but it will be very difficult for him to maintain that peak for the next two years. Nobody has tried slinging much mud on him, because his past doesn't have that much mud to begin with. He admitted using marijuana as a juvenile, saying that he DID inhale and he enjoyed it. That could actually help him with many of the same voters who were turned off by Bill Clinton's "I didn't inhale" cop-out. Frankly, I've never met a person who has tried it and not liked it, so I immediately knew Clinton was lying, and Obama is telling the truth. I think America could really go for a president they can trust.
KCCI Poll Shows Vilsack 3rd Among Democratic Hopefuls - Politics

In 2004, back when George W. Bush still had enough supports to be as stupid as he wanted to be, he attacked John Kerry's plan for Iraq, which included a troop increase of 40,000 troops. He said Kerry's plan would actually make the country "less safe." The lobotomized red states clapped their hands in agreement, somehow waving their Made in China miniature American flags at the same time.

Fast forward to yesterday. President Bush announced that current military forces are stressed, and he would like to increase troop levels by 50,000 to 70,000.

Oops. I'm waiting for Press Secretary Tony Snow to just come out and tell us we should have voted for Kerry in 2004. The people who said Bush and Kerry were the same were both right and wrong. Bush has some of the same ideas as Kerry, it just takes his brain 2 years longer to develop those ideas.
Think Progress » FLASHBACK: Bush Said Kerry Proposal to Increase Size of Military Would Make The Country ‘Less Safe’

The Bush administration came up with a new policy this month, and I have a feeling we will someday point to it as the downfall of the American civilization. The policy forces all scientists working with the U.S. Geological Survey to submit all documents and research to the government for elaborate "internal review."

It's been no secret that the Bush administration does not support global warming theories. They claim humans have no impact on our atmosphere, and therefore big oil companies and other polluting corporations - which happen to be the biggest supporters of the Bush admin - should be allowed to do whatever they want. Few scientists have backed the Bush administration, because the evidence just doesn't support them. Global warming is not only real, but it is approaching a point of no return. Their studies and research prove this, but from now on we won't know that, because that research will be screen and censored by Bush's cronies.
cantonrep.com

Tom Delay may not be a government employee anymore, but he still wants his supporters to have a way to receive his communications and give him glowing feedback. He decided to start a blog at TomDelay.com

Things didn't go so well.

In just 70 minutes, the comments on Delay's blog were so nasty and numerous that the comments had to be turned off. It turns out Tom Delay has very few supporters, and many more people who would like to see him get hit by something heavy, like a truck. One glowing comment, praising Delay for heroism during his time in office and his continued efforts today, turned out to be a prank. When the first letter of each line was read from top to bottom, the hidden message was "Go F**k Yourself."

The blog comments may have been turned off, but nothing ever goes away on the internet. I've linked to a site that has a collection of the comments. Beware, people are still very angry at Tom Delay, and some of the comments get a bit vulgar.
tomdelay.com

The bill introduced by Ted Stevens on behalf of his telecom buddies has died a quiet death - at least for this this Congressional session. The Democrat-led new Congress, which convenes in January, will likely have a much more favorable view towards net neutrality.

The bill would have allowed telecoms to charge higher rates for bandwidth for sites that used more. If you haven't read some of my old rantings on the subject, here's why the idea is bad: the telecoms would be allowed to legally blackmail larger websites, like Google or eBay, who really don't have any choice but pay the bandwidth rates the telecoms charge them. They don't have any chips on the table, because they need the telecoms infrastructure so people can connect to their sites.

Under the current system, these sites can buy bandwidth on the open market just like the rest of us, and telecoms cannot discriminate against them. To make this simpler, try thinking of the same situation happening with a different product, let's say steel. Imagine the steel industry selling most of their product at market rates, but telling Donald Trump he has to pay 10x the market rate. Let's say there are no alternatives for Donald Trump. He either has to pay 10x what everyone else pay, or he can't build his new casino which must have steel supports. Would this be fair, just because Donald Trump has a lot of money? Of course not. We cannot allow industries to pluck select customers out of the open market and force them to pay more.

Ted Stevens, who is so deep in the lobbyists' pockets he's covered in lint, has fought hard for his anti-net neutrality bill. There's even been advertisements promoting it, calling the Silicon Valley companies a variety of nasty names, even though there only crime was buying bandwidth at the market rate. Ted Stevens even lied to Congress when he tried to tell them how the internet works, and why net neutrality "clogs the tubes." It was the most inaccurate description of the internet since the movie "Hackers". Let's hope Mr. Stevens gets so frustrated with his intertubes that he logs off for good.
Save the Internet Blog » Blog Archive » Huge Victory for Real People as Telco Bill Dies

Everyone in politics is starting to realize a serious but not necessarily negative consequence of the Iraq war and the Bush presidency in general: the beast that is the youth vote has been awoken.

Young people in the next 20 years are going to be voting in numbers unseen in the past half century. The apathy has been shattered by the events of the past six years. Politics does matter to them now. Politicians are NOT all the same.

To reach out to young people, you have to go to their turf. No, I'm not talking about the basketball courts down in the park. I'm talking about the internet. They use it for everything, from keeping track of friends to sharing videos.

I've even seen the local news using a YouTube video as a source. Photos are dead, video is king. Ok, photos aren't quite dead. I hear Flickr does quite well.

One thing few news sources are reporting about is the popularity of social news sites. Basically, these sites, including Mis-One.com, have news and "non-news" topics created by the users themselves. If you think something is news, you post it. If others agree, they'll post something else about it. The big news stories that everyone sees are the ones the group has basically decided are most important or most interesting. On community forums like mis-one.com, you can also ask questions about various topics and get answers from other users who may have more experience in that particular field.

Community forums like the ones at Mis-One are going to be huge for quite some time. The younger generation has been stereotyped as being ignorant of current events. While it's true that they read the newspaper in lower numbers than previous generations, they do get the news. The only difference is they get the news they want, not the news some corporation tells them is important. Oh, and unlike a newspaper, they can talk back to their news.

Jim Webb recently won a very close Senate election in Virginia against George Allen, a man many Republicans had hoped would be a strong presidential candidate in 2008. He also has a son serving in Iraq, and he recently had a close brush with death.

President Bush met with many newly-elected Senators recently last week, and he was briefed about Webb and the situation with his son. To most people, that would mean avoid the subject of Webb's son or Iraq when Webb was nearby. To a poorly-mannered beast like our dear president, that means seeking out Webb and asking "how's your boy doing?"

Webb responded with a simple "I think we outta be working on getting our guys back home."

President obviously thought this was some sort of debate where he got to ask the tough questions, and shot back with "that wasn't my question. I wanted to know how your boy was doing."

Webb had to hold back his rage because he was talking to a man backed with dozens of secret service agents, decided to end the conversation with a simple "that's between me and my boy."

Let's sum up the brighter side of this administration with a few chapter titles:
Chapter 1 - Dick Cheney Tells Senator To Go F**k Himself... On The Senate Floor
Chapter 2 - Dick Cheney Shoots A Guy In The Face
Chapter 3 - Bushie Eats a Kitten... On A Dare!
Chapter 4 - Bush Torments Senator About Kid Stuck In Iraq Hellhole
Chapter 5 - Cheney and Bush Get Plastered, Cheney Shoots Bush In The Leg, Bush Falls On The Button... Armageddon

Think Progress » Rep. Jim Moran: Bush Was Warned To Be ‘Extra Sensitive’ About Webb’s Son