The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency

An excellent new article on Alternet today: The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency by Brad Reed. They are:

10: Bush Gets Re-elected
9: Alberto Gonzales' Congressional Testimony
8: North Korea Conducts a Nuclear Test
7: Colin Powell's Bogus WMD Presentation at the U.N.
6: The Terri Schiavo Affair (why, oh why did I have to be reminded of this sordid affair?)
5: Bush and Condi's Excellent Gaza Adventure
4: "Brownie, You're Doing a Heckuva Job" (of course, that should be on Bush's gravestone)
3: Abu Ghraib
2: 9/11
1: "Mission Accomplished"

And his honourable mentions include: warrantless wiretapping; Valerie Plame; Scooter Libby's sentence commuted; Bush believes Rafael Palmeiro is innocent; soldiers face neglect at Walter Reed; signing statements; the Kyoto treaty ripped up; loyalty oaths; the fake turkey; a staged teleconference with troops, staged FEMA press conference, extraordinary rendition, support for junk science; endorsement of neo-creationist "intelligent design"; inaction against global warming; record oil prices; record budget deficits; record trade deficits; record number of Americans without health insurance; two recessions; no-bid contracts; bin Laden still at large; the Federal Marriage Amendment; stem cell research vetoed; waterboarding ban vetoed; "Last throes"; "Old Europe"; "It's hard work"; "Bring it on"; "Yo, Blair!"; "I'm the decider"; "I'm the commander guy"; "I'm a war president"; "This is the guy who tried to kill my dad"; "So?"; "Let the Eagle Soar"; John Bolton; Kenny Boy; Harriet Miers; John Roberts; Sam Alito; Blair talks Bush out of bombing al-Jazeera; Cheney shoots some guy in the face; the Military Commissions Act; Jose Padilla arrested and held without charge or access to counsel; endless tax cuts for the rich; let's waste a shitload of money by sending people to Mars and let's hire some Heritage Foundation staffers to rebuild Iraq.

I would love to hear a Bush supporter's response to this list, but so far there haven't been any takers in the comments section of the article.

Merry Christmas All! Also, I actually agree with someone at the National Post???

In what (hopefully) promises to be his final aggravating act of the year, Stephen Harper appointed 18 Senators yesterday, including none other than CTV journalist Mike Duffy (who aired the blundering Stephane Dion outtakes during this October's election, a move that most agreed was highly unorthodox by journalistic standards, if not downright dirty).

The National Post actually has a good article by Don Martin, Harper to Senate: IOU reform, that attacks Stephen Harper's appointments, who Martin calls "a trough-full of patronage payoffs for Conservative fundraisers, defeated candidates and party toadies". While I tend not to agree with this characterization of government employees, I do think that Harper should be called out for once again violating his own policies and stated goals (elected Senate?) and pursuing purely political ends. How are we supposed to take him seriously?

On that note, I will sign off. Merry Christmas to all!

Courtney Love's Blog on Myspace

If you haven't already, you really must check out Courtney Love's blog on myspace which is just a huge accumulation of awesomeness, including postings of streams of consciousness (see the November 28, 2008 entry, for example), videos, funny stories, fashion stuff, and most recently, a "visual hot list" that is a list of interesting new bands, web sites, movies, etc. etc. that she recommends.

A Couple of Pictures I Found on the Web

What can Michael Jackson possibly be thinking??? Really.
This picture taken from the Superficial under the heading: Michael Jackson: 'Know who never gets accused of touching kids? Zorro.'

And here's a blast from my past that I found on blogTO in their little tribute to the Roxy Theatre on the Danforth. This theatre was a landmark of my early days in Toronto's "alternative" scene. In grades nine and ten (1986-8-ish, I think) I used to go to the Roxy to see their weekly screenings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The crowd at the Roxy (a true dump of a place, in a good way) was made up of a lot of the goths, punks, freaks, and (sometimes) mods and skinheads who were part of the club scene that I got involved in a few years later. And I still know all the words to the movie!

Hurray For Xmas!

So, 'tis the season, and all that, and last night Tyler and I put up a Christmas tree, decorated, and then had our picture taken. Wouldn't you know, my skirt was so short that my butt is showing in all the pictures, but what can you do? Thanks to Wendy Van Weert for doing a wicked job with my hair, and to Nathan Buress for taking the pictures (also thanks to Tyler for my much needed make up job!)

Canadian Political Turmoil!

So, last week the Canadian Parliament was "prorogued" by the Governor General at the request of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper was facing a non-confidence vote by an ad hoc opposition coalition. He certainly would have lost the confidence of Parliament, which would have left the unpopular Stephane Dion as Prime Minister. (and in case you want to be reminded of why we should fear a Stephen Harper minority, here's a good article on Stephen Harper's connection to the religious right: http://tinyurl.com/4jc4nb)


Because of the suspension of Parliament, the inevitable ousting of Stephen Harper has been delayed until late-January. This has given time for the coalition to dissolve, but has also given the Liberal party the opportunity to choose a (much-needed) new leader. The two leadership contenders until today were Bob Rae, former NDP Premier of Ontario, and Michael Ignatieff, former Harvard academic and long-time friend of Rae. I like Rae (who was my professor at U of T in 1996) but since the rest of the country usually votes opposite to me, it's probably good to get Ignatieff in, in order to get rid of Harper. This morning Rae dropped out of the race, basically handing the leadership to Ignatieff, who the Liberal party elite seem to have been dying to elevate to their leadership for the past few years anyways.


As someone who has always voted NDP, I considered switching sides to the Liberal party if Rae had won the leadership. Ignatieff may be able to win me over, but I still object to his support of the war in Iraq. For now, I will wait until the next generation of Liberals that will hopefully include Gerard Kennedy, Justin Trudeau, and some more interesting women. Until then I will probably stick with the NDP.


Since finishing God is Not Great, a few weeks ago, I have been going Christopher Hitchens crazy, reading everything he has ever published on the web. Fortunately this is pretty easy because he has his own site with a long list of articles as well as an unofficial site called The Hitchens Zone. I don't entirely agree with him (he's very pro Iraq war, and very anti-Bill & Hilary Clinton), but I still enjoy his point of view.


If you haven't watched True Blood, you really must! It's the best white trash/vampire sex show on tv! Which reminds me, I still haven't gone to see Twilight, though I fear the movie will sully my love (luv?) of the books.


And now for some eye-candy, my favourite actress of this year, Anne Hathaway, who I really like right now: