Seven years ago today, The Supreme Court put the screws to the American people

Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), is the United States Supreme Court case heard on December 11, 2000. Do you remember we had to wait over a month to find out who "won" the election? It only took the court one day to render a decision.

In a per curiam opinion (ed's note: A "per curiam" decision is delivered in an opinion issued in the name of the Court rather than specific justices. In short, I think it means no one personally wants the stink upon themselves of their almost criminally partisan decision) by a vote of 7-2, the Court (to at least one of their rumored later regrets) held that the Florida Supreme Court's scheme for recounting ballots was unconstitutional, and by a vote of 5-4, the Court held that no alternative scheme could be established within the time limits established by Florida Legislature.

The decision ended the whole circus—thousands of lawyers and observers, fixers, and spin-meisters, bagmen, horse-traders, and talking heads flown in to the swampy scene of massive voter fraud and election board malfeasance—and allowed Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris's previous certification of George W. Bush as the winner of Florida's electoral votes to stand. Florida's 25 electoral votes gave Bush, the Republican candidate, 271 Electoral College votes, defeating Democrat Al Gore, who had won the majority of the popular vote. Al Gore went on to become a crusader for the environment, and win the Nobel Peace Prize. George Bush presided over an unpopular war, episodes of criminality in the White House, and numerous domestic disasters, economic setbacks, and an enemy attack on U.S. soil, and will probably be remembered best for the war he fomented, and his cure for all that ails the country, and world—widespread retrenchment of civil liberties.

Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 11, 2000
Decided December 12, 2000

Full case name: George W. Bush and Richard Cheney, Petitioners v. Albert Gore, Jr., et al.
Docket #: 00-949

Citations: 531 U.S. 98; 121 S. Ct. 525; 148 L. Ed. 2d 388; 2000 U.S. LEXIS 8430; 69 U.S.L.W. 4029; 2000 Cal. Daily Op. Service 9879; 2000 Colo. J. C.A.R. 6606; 14 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 26

Prior history: On writ of certiorari to the Florida Supreme Court

Argument: Link to Oral Argument

Holding: "In the circumstances of this case, any manual recount of votes seeking to meet the December 12 “safe harbor” deadline would be unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. "

Court membership: Chief Justice: William Rehnquist; Associate Justices: John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer

Concurrence by: Rehnquist
Joined by: Scalia, Thomas
Dissent by: Stevens
Joined by: Ginsburg, Breyer
Dissent by: Souter
Joined by: Breyer; Stevens, Ginsburg (all but part C)
Dissent by: Ginsburg
Joined by: Stevens; Souter, Breyer (part I)
Dissent by: Breyer
Joined by: Stevens, Ginsburg (except part I-A-1); Souter (part I)

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Painting: "even the President of the United States must sometimes have to stand naked."

Click Prez to enlarge
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Onward and upward! George Bush's hunger for real estate moves into new territories

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President Bush finally beats Nixon & becomes the most unpopular President of All Time

click to enlarge - copyright (c) 2007 by All This Is That

The most recent USA TODAY/Gallup survey tells us something many of us already knew. That President George W. Bush is even less popular than President Nixon was at his very nadir.


President Bush sits today with a 31% approval rating . But even more signficantly, and for the first time polling history, 50% of those polled said they "strongly disapprove" of the president.

Yes, The President has even whupped Dick Nixon, who at his low (in 1974 in the throes of Watergate), shortly before his resignation, hit a 48% disapproval rating.

You can use the search box in the left hand corner of the blog to search for one of the hundreds of articles on Presidents Nixon and Bush that have appeared in All This Is That....

Mission accomplished: I beat Dick!

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Painting: The President in a pensive mood

Click to enlarge The _President

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445 Days To Go: The George W. Bush Presidency Sputters To A Halt

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all this is that reheated: The President Wets His Bed

President Bush is suffering a relapse of enuresis after having been cured almost forty years ago.

The bed wetting began intermittently around the time of the Scooter Libby troubles. By early November, and the firing of Secretary Rumsfeld, the devasting mid-term elections, and reports the situation in Iraq has become untenable, the enuresis became chronic and acute.

A mistress of Governor Jeb Bush, Heather Hunt, revealed the news in a phone call to Phil Ronson at the All This Is That National Affairs Desk in Washington, D.C. The closely held secret has been tightly under wraps since the President's relapse. According to Ms. Hunt, Laura Bush has assumed the task of laundering the first family linens. Ms. Hunt could not state whether or not the President was undergoing medical treatment for the disorder.


Photograph of The President at the time ofhis "cure"

Ms. Hunt further stated that the President was a late-adolescent bed wetter until age 19, when his parents flew him to Switzerland for extensive psychiatric and medical treatment, prior to his matriculation into Yale.
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Bush numbers plunge again: President hits an all-time low

The mood of Americans has turned increasingly ugly and sent Bush's approval rating plunging deeper and deeper into the toilet bowl to another record low this month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll that came out today.

The number of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track jumped four points to 66 percent.

Bush's job approval rating fell to 24 percent from last month's record low for a Zogby poll of 29 percent. Dick Nixon, with the Vietnam war raging and Watergate hearings underway...well, he only sank to 31%.

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The picture Dean Ericksen and Almost There In No Time did not want you to see

The puppetmaster of all puppetmasters plays Dean Ericksen like his own private Mortimer Snerd, or Jerry Mahoney.

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Bin Laden escapes the hangman's noose once again

According to NBC news, Bin Laden may have just escaped U.S. forces. An August mission in Afghanistan just missed snagging Public Enemy Number One.

"A little more than a month ago, with the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching and fears of a new al Qaeda attack rising, some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago." Read the NBC news story here.
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President says Hillary will win the nomination/White House calls Obama "lazy"

On Drudge, more quotes from Bill Sammon in the bombshell book, EVANGELICAL PRESIDENT

President Bush has declared that Senator Clinton will win the presidential nomination. In other news, the White House called Barack Obama "lazy."

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Alan Greenspan: "The Iraq War is largely about oil"

Alan Greenspan with his wife, the very talented journalist
and commentator Andrea Mitchell

This book is going to be great! The Republican Alan Greenspan, in his memoir, praises Bill Clinton for his financial restraint and for elminating deficit spending. He roasts President Bush for his profligate spending.

In my favorite part of the book so far, Greenspan writes:

“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan goes on sale tomorrow.
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President Bush's Foot In Mouth Disease Rages Unchecked

According to Reuters, The President we know and love has returned. No more of this weeper stuff:

"Even for someone as gaffe-prone as U.S. President George W. Bush, he was in rare form on Friday, confusing APEC with OPEC and transforming Australian troops into Austrians.

Bush's tongue started slipping almost as soon as he started talking at a business forum on the eve of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney.

"Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction," he told Prime Minister John Howard. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit."

Several hundred people at the conference laughed. Bush corrected himself and joked, "He invited me to the OPEC summit next year." Australia has never been a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Later, Bush mentioned that Howard had gone to visit "Austrian troops" last year in Iraq. There are, in fact, no Austrian troops there. But Australia has about 1,500 Australian military personnel in and around the country.

After his remarks, Bush took the wrong way off-stage and, looking baffled, and had to be re-directed to a center-stage exit. A veteran White House correspondent seized the opportunity to ask Bush whether there had been any new message in his speech. POTUS bristled: "Haven't you been listening to my past speeches?" he asked before turning away.

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The Weeper:

POTUS at a Medal of Honor Ceremony for Marine

Corporal Jason Dunham in January, 2007

In Robert Draper's forthcoming book, "Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush," taken from several extended interviews in late 2006 and early 2007, President Bush is quoted as saying, "I've got God's shoulder to cry on. And I cry a lot. I do a lot of crying in this job. I'll bet I've shed more tears than you can count, as president. I'll shed some tomorrow."

"I try not to wear my worries on my sleeve" or show anything less than steadfastness in public, especially in a time of war.

"I fully understand that the enemy watches me, the Iraqis are watching me, the troops watch me, and the people watch me," he said, "I do tears."

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The 2,000th post on All This Is That/It's down to Rice, Cheney, and POTUS now

In the "old days," meaning, say, the 50's and early 60's, when you were the millionth customer of a store, bells wound ring, lights would flash, and a B-list celebrity would come out and hand you a boodle of gifts, cash, and, if you were lucky, a car. Well, this isn't really like that. As I was about to post this digital painting of Condy Rice and Dubyah, the Blogger editor showed it would be the 2,000th posting here. Now, I'm not equating persistence with quality, or doggedness with enterainment, but on the other hand, I didn't want to let this small milestone go unmarked. . .

Even the relief team is leaving. . .just this week Tony Snow said he would be leaving the White House, close on the heels of Karl Rove. You can't blame Snow--he gave up a lot to catch flak for the Administration. It's down to Cheney-Rice-Bush and they've become the living dead. . .zombies shuffling mindlessly through their old jobs, sustained by the vicarious blood they are letting in Iraq and Afghanistan...

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All This Is That callback: President Bush's new Press Secretary Tony Snow lambasts Bush "off the record"

From All This Is That, April 2006: President Bush's new Press Secretary Tony Snow lambasts Bush "off the record"
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WASHINGTON, DC—With an administration in shambles, hounded by criminal allegations, a plunge in approval ratings that shows no signs of ending, and bi-partisan calls for the resignations of various cabinet members and advisors, the President this week named Tony Snow of Fox TV and radio, as his Press Secretary/Spokesman. The choice is considered both odd and bold by many Beltway insiders.

An anonymous White House source disclosed to us that the night before Snow's appointment was announced, he lambasted Bush and his henchmen at a private party celebrating his ascension to the White House.

"Look around the White House, " Snow told his friends, "Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove and Cheney are crippled! They've been shunted off into the shadows. The President is showing signs of battle fatigue. And worse. And you guys ask why I'd want this job! With this gang of f***-ups, I'll practically BE President! How could I miss that? On the Q.T., and I mean don't even tell your wives, Bush is a basket case. They just shuffle him in and he reads the TelePrompTer as best he can. It doesn't matter if he agrees or understands it or not. That's no longer an issue. He is no longer a functioning member of the government. And let's face it, he wasn't all that swift to begin with. You still ask why I'd do this? OK. Yeah, I'm losing a million or so a year. It's not like I won't make that up the first month after I leave office. But most importantly, I can basically run this f***ing country. And the rest of these sycophants, ass-kissers, and thugs can't say jack s**t. They're so petrified they'll be the next on the chopping block that I can do whatever the f*** I want! Whatever I say becomes White House policy and none of these fools, cowering in their offices with their lawyers and shrinks will dare make a peep."

Snow also told his assembled friends "I can't tell you everything, but some of the stuff I've been hearing about Bush would shred your minds. He makes Captain Queeg look rational. As Huxley said 'In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.' Well, pals, I have two fine f***ing peepers. This is gonna be a sweet f***ing ride."
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The Binster is back--> Osama bin Laden makes a new video appearance & is reportedly tired-looking (have you looked at Dubyah lately?)

President Bush and Sheikh Osama bin Laden in happier times

A new al-Qaeda videotape posted Sunday on a militant Web site featured a short, undated clip of Osama bin Laden praising martyrdom. An A.P. report said bin Laden looked weary.

Bin Laden glorified those who die in the name of jihad, or holy war, saying even the Prophet Muhammad "had been wishing to be a martyr." "The happy (man) is the one that God has chosen him to be a martyr," added bin Laden, who was filmed outdoors wearing army fatigues.

You may remember Donald Rumsfeld's spontaneous poem on finding Osama:

Where is Osama bin Laden?

We do know of certain knowledge
That he is either in Afghanistan
Or in some other country
Or dead.
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I can't find the video yet, but did locate Osama bin Laden's appearance on The Family Guy.






Recent posts on All This Is That about Osama bin Laden:

Ding Dong, Osama's Dead?
Happy 50th Birthday Osama bin Laden!
The C.I.A. and the creation of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden guest appearances on niece's reality show spark outrage
President Bush achieves an all-time low in approval ratings
bin Laden's offer of a truce smells worse than his camel's a**
The Poetry Of Secretary Donald Rumsfeld X:::::::::Where Is Osama bin Laden?

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Remember, 27% of the people still approve of President Bush's performance in office. . .

click the Prez. to enlarge

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The 51st President: A Found Magazine Find Of The Day

. . .click the fan letter to enlarge. . .


As the President's ratings continue their freefall, and talk of impeachment begins, GWB still has some friends out there in the hustings.

This fan letter was found by Kevin Habberstad in Portland, Oregon, who wrote to Found Magazine (I am a subscriber) "I found this while cleaning an office building. It chills me to the bone." It sure does.
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Retired General George Washington Lashes Out At President Bush

Retired Gen. George Washington Criticizes Bush's Handling Of Iraq War