Countdown!

[Jon Abbey]

71 days, 9 hours

[Tom Storer]

January 21, 2009. A man walks up to the White House gates and says to the guard, "Excuse me, is George W. Bush there?"

"Of course not," replies the guard. "George W. Bush isn't the President any more."

"Thank you," says the man, and leaves.

He returns the next day. "Excuse me," he says, "Is George W. Bush there?"

"You again? No, I told you--George W. Bush isn't the President any more!"

"Thank you," says the man with a smile.

The next day he's back. "Excuse me," he says, "Is George W. Bush there?"

"Oh, for Pete's sake. How many times do I have tell you? GEORGE W. BUSH ISN'T THE PRESIDENT ANY MORE! What are you, deaf?"

"No," says the man with a satisfied sigh. "I know he isn't the President any more. But I just love hearing it said!"

[Paul B]

That's just a variation of the classic story about Buddy Rich:

A few days after Buddy Rich died, his wife gets a call -- "Hi, is Buddy there?" "No, I'm sorry, Buddy died." "Oh. Okay. Bye."
The next day, she gets another call; it's the same guy -- "Hi, is Buddy there?" No, I'm sorry, Buddy died." "Oh. right. Bye."
The following day, a phone call; the same guy -- "Hi, is Buddy there?" Look, I told you, Buddy's dead! He died! He's not here!"
"Right. Sorry. I just like to hear you say it."

[Dr Dave]

I'm waiting for Bill Kristol to declare "the failed Obama Presidency" before Obama actually takes office...

[Jon Abbey]

71 days, 3 hours

[Brian Olewnick]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

I'm waiting for Bill Kristol to declare "the failed Obama Presidency" before Obama actually takes office...

His column today expresses fear, via the dog story, that Obama is managing to connect on an emotional level with too many voters....

[tippy]

71 days 2 hours 21 minutes - this seems like a long time.

Only 13 work days until Thanksgiving 4-day weekend. Woo hoo. I mean 12 days 7 hours and 20 minutes.

[tippy]

2 hours and 49 minutes until lunch!!!!!!!

[tippy]

1 hour 49 minutes until the noon hour which is only 1 hour away from lunch!

[Jon Abbey]

easy, Tippy, let's stay focused on our sole goal here, even if it is a bit farther off than we'd like.

[tippy]

I do countdowns all the time. I think the Thanksgiving one is better than the new president one because it's only 12 days 7 hours and 3 minutes away!

[LennyH]

I've had a Bush countdown calendar in my cubicle for months. It ends on Jan 20th. It's a riot, actually. It includes many of Bush's sad but hilarious lines. People stop by at the start of a new month to get a laugh.

Sayonara, dickwad.

[Gentle Giant]

I wonder if there'll be any movement of the Doomsday Clock.

[shrugs]

until the EIB golden microphone begins his "America Held Hostage" countdown?

[Jon Abbey]

70 days, 19 hours

[Surfer]

My wife bought one of those Countdown keychains like two years ago. I thought it was a complete waste of money at the time. I still do.

Maybe its time I actually attach it to my keys.

[Surfer]

[Ron Thorne]

As many of you already know, our youngest son has had a website dedicated to Bushism's since 2001, and he's had a countdown for that entire period of time. Now there's actually light at the end of the tunnel, though.

Speaking of Thanksgiving ...



http://www.dubyaspeak.com/

[Jon Abbey]

yeah, no way I would have started counting down until I knew that there wasn't another Republican coming.

70 days, 17 hours

[walto]

Georgia congressman warns of Obama dictatorship

By Ben Evans
Associated Press Writer / November 10, 2008


WASHINGTON—A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship.


"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may -- may not, I hope not -- but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."
Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.
"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."
Obama's comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado about building a new civil service corps. Among other things, he called for expanding the nation's foreign service and doubling the size of the Peace Corps "to renew our diplomacy."
"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," Obama said in July. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
Broun said he also believes Obama likely will move to ban gun ownership if he does build a national police force.
Obama has said he respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms and favors "common sense" gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he'll at least enact curbs on ownership of assault weapons and concealed weapons. As an Illinois state lawmaker, Obama supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on firearms generally.
"We can't be lulled into complacency," Broun said. "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential."
Obama's transition office did not respond immediately to Broun's remarks.
© Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by LennyH

I've had a Bush countdown calendar in my cubicle for months. It ends on Jan 20th. It's a riot, actually. It includes many of Bush's sad but hilarious lines. People stop by at the start of a new month to get a laugh.

Sayonara, dickwad.

Ah yes. I have "The Out of Office Countdown" calender in my office right now, a gift last Christmas from my youngest daughter.
I'll bet that there are people who are putting an "X" on each square now, since this particular calender runs to Jan. 20.
The last square reads, "I hope you leave here and walk out and say, 'what did he say?'" at Beaverton Oregon, 2004

Ron's son must have been busy for the last eight years with his website, "Bushisms"
Every time Bush opens his mouth he says something incomprehensible, or just plain dumb.
It will be a refreshing change to have a President with a functioning brain and an ability to express himself in an intelligent manner.

[tippy]

You know you are a really sucky president when members of foreign nations are counting days until you are out of office. Ouch! GWB’s most embarrassing moment: 2001-2009.

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

yeah, no way I would have started counting down until I knew that there wasn't another Republican coming.

Jon, my son's countdown was only related to how many days until Bush was gone ... period. Besides, his countdown was on autopilot so it was effortless.

[Uli]

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by patricia

Ron's son must have been busy for the last eight years with his website, "Bushisms"

Busy, indeed.

Patricia, "Bushisms" were the fodder for my son, but his website is:

http://www.dubyaspeak.com/

If you haven't visited yet, it's really quite enjoyable and user-friendly.

[Ron Thorne]

70 days, 14 hours, 11 minutes

[patricia]

Originally Posted by Ron Thorne

Busy, indeed.

Patricia, "Bushisms" were the fodder for my son, but his website is:

http://www.dubyaspeak.com/

If you haven't visited yet, it's really quite enjoyable and user-friendly.

My apologies, Ron. I've thought it was his site, all these years.
www.dubyaspeak.com. Check.

[hornplayer]

Originally Posted by tippy

You know you are a really sucky president when members of foreign nations are counting days until you are out of office. Ouch! GWB’s most embarrassing moment: 2001-2009.

When I was in France, I heard the BBC World Newscaster say "The world is DESPERATE for Obama!"

And some friends who just returned from Italy said they also were asked about him everywhere they went. People wanted to buy their campaign buttons! and one man said "Your President is Our President. He belongs to the world."

[Gentle Giant]

Leave it to the Catholic Church to be a party pooper.


O'Malley heartened, worried by election
Fears a loosening on abortion access

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | November 11, 2008

BALTIMORE - Forty years ago, in the weeks just after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, a young friar named Sean O'Malley joined thousands of other civil rights activists in a rainy vigil on the National Mall in Washington.

Today, as much of the nation celebrates the first election of an African-American as president, O'Malley is visibly moved by the moment, but also horrified by what he sees as Barack Obama's "deplorable" record on abortion rights.

"When I was in high school, I joined the NAACP and did voter registration in black neighborhoods when I wasn't old enough to vote myself, and I was there at Resurrection City after Martin Luther King was murdered, and living in the mud with thousands of people on the lawn of the Lincoln Memorial and having off-duty redneck policemen throwing canisters of tear gas at us and shouting obscenities," O'Malley, now the cardinal-archbishop of Boston, said in an interview yesterday, his eyes welling with tears.

"So, to me, the election of an Afro-American is like the Berlin Wall falling. I mean, for my generation, I suppose young people today can't appreciate that, but to me it is something very big."

But O'Malley, an ardent opponent of abortion, made it clear that he is aghast at the specter that Obama might ease access to the procedure. The cardinal made his comments on the opening day of the semiannual meeting of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore.

"My joy, however, is tempered by the knowledge that this man has a deplorable record when it comes to prolife issues, and is possibly in the pocket of Planned Parenthood, which, in its origins, was a very racist organization to eliminate the blacks, and it's sort of ironic that he's been co-opted by them," he said.

"He is the president, and everyone wishes him well, and we will try to work with him. However, I hope he realizes that his election was not a mandate to rush ahead with a proabortion platform."

His allegations about the organization's racist history are a subject of dispute in the debate over abortion.

In several local newsletters, Planned Parenthood has denied the suggestion by abortion rights activists that it is racist. A New York State affiliate, for example, wrote this spring that "such race-baiting tactics are the most cynical form of politicking. Planned Parenthood has a proud history of social justice."

The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, has been the subject of controversy because of her interest in eugenics, or selective breeding. Sanger died in 1966, and her attitudes on race have been debated by historians.

Planned Parenthood spokespeople in Washington, D.C., and Boston and the Obama office in Chicago did not return calls seeking comment on O'Malley's remarks yesterday.

The bishops are meeting one week after voters chose Obama, a Democrat who supports abortion rights, over Senator John McCain, a Republican abortion foe.

Dozens of bishops spoke out in recent weeks, urging Catholic voters to make opposition to abortion their top priority, but exit polls suggested that a majority of Catholics voted for Obama.

As a senator, Obama voted 100 percent of the time with abortion-rights organizations, according to evaluations by abortion rights groups.

The bishops are planning to discuss lessons learned from last week's election today, as commentators and bloggers are routinely declaring the bishops among the election's losers.

But yesterday, in speeches, interviews, and at a news press conference, the bishops made clear that most of them see the election as a reflection of the economic downturn, and not a referendum on abortion.

"In working for the common good of our society, racial justice is one pillar of our social doctrine," Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, who is the president of the bishops' conference, said in an opening address. However, he said, "The common good can never be adequately incarnated in a society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice. . . . Today, as was the case 150 years ago, common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good."

Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, who before the election wrote, "I could never vote for a candidate - of any party for any office - who supports laws that promote or allow the death of thousands of children in the hideous crime of abortion," yesterday offered the rosiest analysis of the election, saying, "There's a possibility it could have been worse if the bishops weren't speaking out."

Although a handful of bishops have suggested that Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should be denied Communion, most of the big-city bishops have not taken that step, and there is no indication of a major shift on that front.

Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, whose archdiocese in January will become home to the first Catholic vice president, Joseph Biden, said he would not seek to deny Communion to Biden, who supports abortion rights. "I have never thought that that was the way to proceed," he said.

And O'Malley, whose archdiocese is home to two prominent abortion-rights supporting Catholics, Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry, said, "We do not want to make a battleground out of the Eucharist."

Both Wuerl and O'Malley said Catholics should be grappling with their own consciences to determine whether they are worthy to receive Communion.

The bishops are under pressure from all sides. Antiabortion organizations, led by the American Life League, are planning a prayer vigil outside the bishops' hotel tonight to push for a "crackdown" on Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.

"It's time the bishops set the record straight - you can't be Catholic and proabortion, no matter how many politicians masquerade otherwise," said Kathleen Walker, a spokeswoman for the American Life League.

But liberal groups are urging a different approach. Patrick Whelan, of Catholic Democrats, said the bishops should "recognize that there's no place at the table for groups that peddle hateful labels like 'proabortion politician' or advocate using the Holy Eucharist as a political weapon on behalf of the Republicans."

Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, said the bishops "now must figure out how to rebuild bridges they have burned with the incoming administration and the Democratic Party, and how to recover lost good will with the millions of Catholics who clearly do not recognize bishops' moral authority in political matters."

[shrugs]

The bishops are burning bridges here in New Orleans by closing down churches that are in historical buildings.
Parishioners see this as a land grab and many are people who give lots of their time to the church. The bishops are turning these people into the once a week variety of church goer and lose important lay leaders. At least that is what I have garnered from the articles I have read.
It's a hot topic down here. The archbishop down here is from the Boston area, another city familiar with church closings.