From 4,000 Sqaure Feet of Horse Manure to 12,000 Sqaure Feet of Opulence!

From Luxury and Opulence to Texas Cowboy Down-home AND BACK AGAIN!


$3 Million My Ass!

The exclusive Preston Hollow neighborhood is where former President George W. Bush (sorry, but I can't wait!) will supposedly be residing after his disastrous tenure in office (couldn't wait to say that, either!). I say "supposedly" because I have serious doubts about what functions this "estate" will perform. Will it truly be a home for the Bushes or is it really a rouse?

The first "pictures" of the estate, if they were true, showed a one-level suburban home not quite worth the first estimate of $2 million. The estate shown here looks the opposite: huge to the point of being a steal for the last estimate, $3 million. The main house looks to be at least 10-12,000 square feet. There is a forecourt with a reflecting pool, stables, separate pool area with cabana and what looks like an older (but still very large) house, presumably guest or staff quarters. It sits on 4 acres of prime Dallas real estate and its neighbors are T. Boone Pickens and Ross Perot.


Dallas' Preston Hollow is also newsworthy for a bit of racial discrimination

Wikipedia:

In 2006, Preston Hollow Elementary School achieved notoriety after a lawsuit claiming the school's class-assignment policies violated the 1952 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision. Judge Sam Lindsay ruled in November that the school's practices were not legal because they attempted to keep white students together even if minority students had to be placed in inappropriate courses.

A close look at Preston Hollow real estate makes you wonder how the Bushes could have gotten their 4-acre, 8 bedroom, 12,000 sf. estate for less than $10 million. The top price for a home in Preston Hollow? A mere $45 million.

And remember: it's where the Bushes lived BEFORE he tried to channel Will Rogers! And before he got snubbed by the NAACP!

Something's afoot! And it's not just arrogant stupidity!

Just a thought.

Gays and Christofascists In The Battle Of Newsweek!

Lisa Miller Has A Lot Of Courage
And Now, A Lot Of Enemies

The Christofascists came out of the woodwork last week and are not going to let Lisa Miller, Newsweek's religion editor, keep her job, her integrity, nor her sanity.

SBC's Stith also denounced Hollywood's attempt to make biblical arguments. "Anyone who cares to spend thirty minutes of serious study would see the many flaws in Black’s argument," he said.

Unfortunately, 30 minutes is still 29 minutes too many for most American Christians. And Stith doesn't sound as if he's exactly a biblical textual critical or scholar either:

"On several occasions, sometimes with tears in my own eyes, I’ve said to people about actions in which they were involved, 'You know, this isn’t God’s best for you. He has something better if you’re willing to walk in obedience.' Does this make me a 'hater' or does it mean that I care about that person and genuinely believe that God knows what He’s talking about?" Stith posed.

It may not make him a hater, but it does make him an arrogant, insulting idiot. How dare he insinuate that what I am is sinful? Stith has the mind of a bullhorn-toting street preacher. "...with tears in my own eyes."? Gimme a break! Remember: Stith is part of the glorious Southern Baptist Convention, the same organization that believed AIDS was a disease sent to purge our society of demonspawn.

And it has never apologized for kicking people out of their homes while they were sick and dying. If the Convention's view of homosexuality is anything like its view of slavery, we'll get an apology 150 years from now.

If we're lucky.

Just a thought.

And just for fun, here's another clip from Prop 8 - The Musical

How Bush Killed Off The Fish

And The Wildlife And, Well, The Rest Of The Country

We've seen what George W. B**h has been doing to the environment in his "midnight" rulings, but few people know that he's been raping the environment for years. The stories below show that B**h, Republicans, big business all benefited from deregulation of everything concerning flora and fauna in the U.S.

(AP) WASHINGTON –

A high-ranking Interior Department official tainted nearly every decision made on the protection of endangered species over five years, a new inspector general report finds, concluding she exerted improper political interference on many more rulings than previously thought.

Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service, did pervasive harm to the department's morale and integrity and may have risked the well-being of species with her agenda, Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney said in his report out Monday.

Just what did MacDonald have to gain by harming fish and wildlife? Just what every loyal B**hite wanted: to advance the conservative agenda and to make money at it.

From Wikipedia:

MacDonald resigned on 1 May, 2007, one week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on the Inspector General's findings.

In November 2007, a followup report by the Inspector General found that MacDonald could have benefited financially from a decision to remove the Sacramento splittail fish from the federal endangered species list.

Detroit Free Press:

Although rarely front-page news, George Bush's eight years have been an ongoing exercise in gutting environmental protections.

And who benefits from all this gutting?

Raping the environment = B**h + Oil + Big Corporations

Grinch Bush's Lumps Of Coal: 200 Deregulations

And He Won't Stop Giving Out Those Lumps Of Coal Until January 19, 2009!

Think Progress has compiled the latest list of deregulations pushed through by George B**h. Check out Bush's Backward Sprint To The Finish It's a list more appropriate for Halloween because it is guaranteed to scare the pants off anyone. Maybe Bush thinks of himself as more like a Grinch who steals from the stockings of the poor and middle class and gives all the holiday gifts to his cronies and the rich corporations.

It's passed the time to get impeachment gifts. So many people want him out of office that they are rushing to inhale the fresh air of a changed Washington and forgetting that they are not the only ones who have been affected by the B**h Doctrine and its policies: other countries want a crack at him after Barack Obama's inauguration.

Torture and Denial Pt . 2: Why The Stall?

(From Think Progress, Dec. 12)

According to the Blog of Legal Times, the Justice Department is blocking President-elect Obama’s agency review team’s request “to review classified legal opinions related to secret CIA and National Security Agency programs.” Included in these documents are the “legal rationale of the NSA’s warrantless spying program and the CIA’s detention and interrogation policies, among other intelligence initiatives.” According to a senior Justice Department official, they are “reluctant to provide the opinions to Obama’s team without permission from the two intelligence agencies whose activities they address.” (HT: Daily Kos and Talk Left)

WTF? What are they trying to stall for? A matter of a lousy five weeks? Come on! Will it take that long to use the shredders? The extreme secrecy of the B**h administration has now gone too far. Obama WILL be PRESIDENT on January 20, 2009! Whether the transition team gets the documents now or then is pointless, unless...

Bush intends to tamper with the documents in some way and hasn't had the time (nor the intelligence) to do so. In addition, would these documents be related in any way to war crimes? Related to the legality of warrentless wiretapping?

Nixon looked positively angelic next to our present diplomatic dimwit: lying to the public about the cause of a war, allowing torture against the Geneva Conventions regulations, warrentless wiretapping, refusing to divulge documents requested by Congress.

We're counting not the weeks, the days, the hours, but the minutes.

Let's hope he never gets to Dallas.

Let's hope he flees to Paraguay.

And stays there.

Just a thought.

Torture: Once Again The B**h Adminstration Floats Down A River In Egypt!

Don't Worry, He's Still On Top Of It!

(from AP, Dec. 11, 2008)

WASHINGTON – The physical and mental abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was the direct result of Bush administration detention policies and should not be dismissed as the work of bad guards or interrogators, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Thursday.

The Senate Armed Services Committee report concludes that harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA and the U.S. military were directly adapted from the training techniques used to prepare special forces personnel to resist interrogation by enemies that torture and abuse prisoners. The techniques included forced nudity, painful stress positions, sleep deprivation, and until 2003, waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning.

"The message from top officials was clear; it was acceptable to use degrading and abusive techniques against detainees."

Whenever B**h appears in the media, trying to vindicate himself for the past eight years, the kindest thing that can be said, I suppose, is that he created his own fantasy world and is still living in it. That fantasy realm is so ingrained in him that it could be mistaken for sheer lunacy.

But the implication of mental instability is a cop-out. Insanity is always a very risky plea: it depends upon the court or the jurors (in this case, historians and political analysts) and their definition of insanity.

B**h is not insane. He is incredibly stupid, but not insane. He was stupid enough to depend upon the title of "President" and that whatever he told the public, they would automatically believe. He was stupid enough to think that repeating the words Karl Rove told him to say - "Freedom", "Democracy", "God", "Terror," "Evil" - was enough to say to a country and a world about which HE...KNEW... NOTHING.

Eight years of fantasy. Eight years of denial.

And some people joined him in the imaginary world:

Lawrence Di Rita, a senior aide to former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at the time the Abu Ghraib and other abuses took place, disputed the report.: ... "A relatively small number of people abused detainees, and they were brought to justice in criminal or civil proceedings."

Even Condoleeza Rice went along with the fantasy:

“And I still believe that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein is going to turn out to be a great strategic achievement.''

"A terrible disappointment."

Regarding Abu Ghraib, Bush now refers to it as "a terrible disappointment." Perhaps he was disappointed that the atrocities were discovered. There must be a special place in his little black book for 60 Minutes.

“I believe when people objectively analyze this administration, they'll say, `Well, I see now what he was trying to do,''' Bush said.

The "objective" analysis has already been done: what B**h has been trying to do was to be the President of HIS dreams, not the country's. That may not sound "objective," but I believe it to be possible. For why else was he performing duties against advisers, against a plebiscite, against common sense?

Just a thought.

The Last Post? I Apologize

Dear reader:

I apologize for the last post. I let my feelings get in the way of blogging on a very important subject. When I read about a child being murdered - yes, willfully killed - I lost it. I was practically incoherent! My research on the history of religion (esp. American religion) has made me callused about many things, I'll admit, but somehow it never shields me from events like these.

Again, I apologize.

Respectfully,
Dan Vojir