“Bush Insider (Michael Connell) Who Planned to Tell All Killed in Plane Crash” - Press Release

I always take conspiracy theories with a grain of salt until some real evidence is presented in a convincing manner.  That being said, this will be an interesting one to look in to.  I hope it gets the attention that it appears to deserve.

Bush Insider Who Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane Crash: Non-Profit Demands Full Federal Investigation - MarketWatch

WASHINGTON, Dec 20, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush’s 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron airport. Velvet Revolution (”VR”), a non-profit that has been investigating Mr. Connell’s activities for the past two years, can now reveal that a person close to Mr. Connell has recently been discussing with a VR investigator how he can tell all about his work for George Bush. Mr. Connell told a close associate that he was afraid that George Bush and Dick Cheney would “throw [him] under the bus.”
A tipster close to the McCain campaign disclosed to VR in July that Mr. Connell’s life was in jeopardy and that Karl Rove had threatened him and his wife, Heather. VR’s attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, notified the United States Attorney General , Ohio law enforcement and the federal court about these threats and insisted that Mr. Connell be placed in protective custody. VR also told a close associate of Mr. Connell’s not to fly his plane because of another tip that the plane could be sabotaged. Mr. Connell, a very experienced pilot, has had to abandon at least two flights in the past two months because of suspicious problems with his plane. On December 18, 2008, Mr. Connell flew to a small airport outside of Washington DC to meet some people. It was on his return flight the next day that he crashed.

Obama announces that Bush’s attack on knowledge and understanding is coming to an end

Barack Obama continues to dedicate his administration to science and the quest for knowledge and understanding.  I often compare George W. Bush’s administration to the Roman Catholic’s denial of factual evidence of a heliocentric solar system in the time of Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, and Galileo.  It was not until 1993 that the Catholic church finally officially recognized the validity of Galileo’s work.

Obama’s organization of his science team is akin to freeing Galileo from the isolation forced upon him by the Roman Catholic Inquisition.

I think scientist Brian Greene best explained the relationship of science and religion when he said, “There is room for both.  Science explains the how, but can never explain the why.”

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Obama names science and technology team « - Blogs from CNN.com

(CNN) — President-elect Barack Obama named his science and technology team Saturday with a pledge to ensure that “facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.”

“It’s time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology,” he said in his Saturday radio address, in an offhand swipe at President Bush.

“It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient – especially when it’s inconvenient,” Obama said, adding that government support had been essential for the greatest scientific breakthroughs of recent history, like the development of the Internet. “Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us.”

Here is the video of the announcement:

Is the Iraqi Prime Minister fibbing about Iraq Shoe Thrower’s desire for forgiveness?

According to the shoe thrower’s brother, he is lying through his teeth:

“Zaidi said in his letter that his big ugly act cannot be excused,” Majeed said…
…One of Zaidi’s brothers said he had no information about him but found the idea he sent Maliki an apology unbelievable.

“This information is absolutely not true. This is a lie. Muntazer is my brother and I know him very well. He does not apologize,” Udai al-Zaidi said. He added: “But if it happened, I tell you it happened under pressure.”

Zaidi was brought before an investigating judge on Tuesday and admitted “aggression against a president,” a crime that could incur a 15-year sentence, judicial officials said. He could face trial soon. - The Huffington Post

The best George W. Bush quote of 2008 goes to…

“I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.” — W.

I wish I could say I was going to miss you President Bush

Shoe throwing incident at President Bush is not funny - it is embarrassing

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As someone who does not particularly care for  George W. Bush and his policies, I am not exactly excited or elated by the shoe-throwing incident.  As a matter of fact, I am more embarrassed about it than anything.  When I delve deeply in to the reasons why I think Bush is a bad President, it almost always points to the sickening reality that he does not represent me, yet here he is, representing me.

Maybe I should just be a little less nuanced about it and just say flat out, I feel like the shoes thrown at George W. Bush were shoes thrown at me.  Perhaps if it was Tom Brokaw, a mid-western American journalist who threw the shoes, I would be less bothered by it, but a man stood up at a press conference on the other side of the world and threw a shoe at my President.  Because, let’s face it, even with all of his faults and lack of intellectual curiosity, he is still the American President.

I did not vote for him the first time, nor the second time.  (Jesus, how could people vote for that man not once, but twice?)  But I will never forget that day he stood up after the election and pontificated to the American people, “We have a mandate…”  When I heard it, I threw up in my mouth a little bit.  Now here he is, on worldwide - international - all-of-Earth television, getting not one, but two shoes thrown at him.

1.  Can George W. Bush please just stay in his oval office and twiddle his thumbs until January 20th so that he can not bring any further embarrassment to his fellow Americans?

2.  Anyone who thinks they can throw a shoe at my President deserves more than a couple of broken bones.  That journalist is lucky that I am just a humble, mid-western computer guy, or he just might find my sole prints on his face.

Hey, I never claimed to be a pacifist.

Cheney continues to lie his way out of the White House - Tom Diehl (Guest Post)

In an interview with ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney said:

“As I look at the intelligence with respect to Iraq, what they got wrong was that there weren’t any stockpiles. What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction. He had the technology, he had the people, he had the basic feed stock.”

Using Cheney’s rationale, we should have invaded Canada, Brazil, the European Union, Japan, China, Russia, and most other industrialized nations. With the no-fly zones, Saddam Hussein had no means to deliver any weapons that could harm the United States. We’ve spent 900 billion dollars occupying a country that was no threat to us and have emboldened our enemies and inspired thousands of Jihadists to join the movement to destroy civilized society and wreak havoc on the world’s economy.

On the flip side, the Bush Administration ignored the warnings of Osama bin Laden; and then obligingly fell into his trap, straining our military capability; causing a spike in oil prices that bin Laden knew would come from a protracted fight in the Middle East, further enriching people who finance al-Qaeda.

Now, what was so important that we had to elect George W. Bush and Dick Cheney twice?

January 20, 2009 cannot come soon enough.

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Shoe throwing an insult in Iraq, unlike America

I like BoingBoing.net’s take on the George Bush shoe throwing event…

On the heels (gettit?) of the now-notorious incident in which an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at some guy named George Bush, the world press has rushed to tell us that throwing shoes is a really bad thing in the Arab world. Not like here in the west, where it’s a gesture of affection.

“In Arab cultures, throwing shoes is a grave show of disrespect.” —Bloomberg.com

“The act is an Arab symbol of contempt.” —Christian Science Monitor

“Throwing shoes at somebody is a supreme insult in the Middle East.” —Reuters

“In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt.” —Associated Press

Those Mysterious Easterners, So Different From You and Me

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