Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

I was promised a recession.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The willow is too close to the house.

T R E 4 5 O N

You cannot shame the shameless.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

In my day, never was longer.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You are here: Home / Something Bush Didn’t Bring Up At The NAACP

Something Bush Didn’t Bring Up At The NAACP

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DOJ Civil Rights Office, RIP (via Steve Benen).

At the same time, the kinds of cases the Civil Rights Division is bringing have undergone a shift. The division is bringing fewer voting rights and employment cases involving systematic discrimination against African-Americans, and more alleging reverse discrimination against whites and religious discrimination against Christians.

“There has been a sea change in the types of cases brought by the division, and that is not likely to change in a new administration because they are hiring people who don’t have an expressed interest in traditional civil rights enforcement,” said Richard Ugelow, a 29-year career veteran who left the division in 2002.

If the government has stopped litigating traditional civil rights cases, that means the problem must be over! Ken Mehlman should go tell black America so that they can start voting Republican.

The same logic suggests that we defeated terrorism once and for all in early November, 2004. After all, why would those weekly DHS terror warnings just cease like that? Al Qaeda must have given up.

Also, global warming must no longer be a problem because NASA doesn’t plan on studying it anymore (slight exaggeration, although the cynical would argue that the groundwork is clearly being laid).

***Update***

And, we have finally ended the problem of estate tax evasion. Presumably the guys who used to pursue estate tax cheats will spend their valuable government salary pursuing minimum wage cases.

Reader Interactions

34Comments

  2. 2.

    jg

    and more alleging reverse discrimination against whites

    The repubs have just solidified the white wanna-be cops and firemen vote.

  3. 3.

    SeesThroughIt

    But…

    Christians are being oppressed!

    Nobody–and I mean nobody–has suffered more and been oppressed more in this country than Christians. Especially the white male ones. They are the most persecuted people on the planet.

  4. 4.

    Pb

    And, we have finally ended the problem of estate tax evasion.

    Well, duh, we *knew* they were going to get away with that… because… drumroll please…

    “And so I said, well, how are you going to pay for it? He said, oh, don’t worry, we’ll tax the rich. You’ve heard that rhetoric before, haven’t you? It’s why the rich have got accountants. (Laughter.)” — George W. Bush

    See, you can’t tax the rich–they have accountants! Therefore, the IRS might as well just give up on the enforcement side of things–the rich are just too clever for them!

  5. 5.

    jg

    I wonder if they’ll create a W.E.T. (White Entertainment Television) and a White History Month too.

  6. 6.

    Pooh

    Several years ago I asked the following question, and have never gotten a straight answer:

    Are these guys just more prone to do ‘favors’ for their biggest supporters than previous administrations or are they just more brazen and could care less about appearances?

  7. 7.

    Perry Como

    Are these guys just more prone to do ‘favors’ for their biggest supporters than previous administrations or are they just more brazen and could care less about appearances?

    Yes.

  9. 9.

    RSA

    It has a certain lunatic consistency for the Bush administration, in a treat-the-symptom sort of way. And while we may have defeated terrorism in the U.S. in November, 2004, we cannot say we’ve defeated insurgents in the Middle East until all overseas reporting has been decisively eliminated.

  10. 10.

    jaime

    This is like when Bush cured illiteracy as governor of Texas when he stopped counting the children who couldn’t read.

  14. 14.

    Jamil

    These people (the modern GOP) have normalized the absurd.

    Add this to the reasons I’ll never vote Republican.

  15. 15.

    DougJ

    Come on, Jamil, you’re going to vote for the screamers and windsurfers on the left just because Republicans have bankrupted the country, gotten us into a disastrous war, and destroyed the Constitution? What are you, nuts? Don’t you know the Democrats are out of the mainstream?

  16. 16.

    Jamil

    The American mainstream perhaps.

    As far as the rest of the civilized world, they are wondering what the fuck is wrong with Americans that the 2000 and 2004 elections were even close.

    I can think of several inanimate objects that are better qualified to lead the country than this joker.

    Oh well,

    I guess civilization is overrated anyway.

  17. 17.

    S.W. Anderson

    “Presumably the guys who used to pursue estate tax cheats will spend their valuable government salary pursuing minimum wage cases.”

    As a matter of fact, it came out a couple of years ago that the IRS had shifted the emphasis of its auditing from upper-income taxpayers to go after low-income and lower-middle-class taxpayers.

    I’ve just been waiting for some smarmy neocon, maybe David Drier, to publicly denounce the IRS for spending X-hundred millions of dollars in an effort that has only yielded chump change.

  18. 18.

    DougJ

    I guess civilization is overrated anyway.

    Flip flop, flip flop. First you were for cvilization, now you’re against it. Which is it, Senator Jamil?

  20. 20.

    stickler

    There certainly is something perverse about this particular Administration. There’s just not an ounce of public spirit. I suppose the fish rots from the head, and all.

    But even Nixon had his public-service side; what with the EPA, and affirmative action, and the 55 MPH speed limit. Not that I agree with all of those things.

    These chumps, though, are just so obviously brazen, clueless, and unconcerned at all about the future. Very strange.

  21. 21.

    Sojourner

    Don’t forget… with these guys, black is white and white is black. So is anyone surprised they’re concerned with discrimination against whites?

  22. 22.

    The Other Steve

    As a matter of fact, it came out a couple of years ago that the IRS had shifted the emphasis of its auditing from upper-income taxpayers to go after low-income and lower-middle-class taxpayers.

    This makes perfect sense. You want to catch tax cheats when they’re small, as it’s much cheaper to deal with then when they are big.

    So catch them when they are poor or middle class and in the long run it’ll be good.

    And I still feel oppressed as a christian, right Par?

  24. 24.

    Krista

    These chumps, though, are just so obviously brazen, clueless, and unconcerned at all about the future.

    Why should they be concerned about the future? They probably believe in the Rapture, so couldn’t care less about the long-term consequences of their actions.

    Q: Mr. President, are you not concerned that your foreign policies might further exacerbate the dangerous situation in the Middle East?

    A. Who cares! It’s the Rapture, bitches! Wheeeeeeeee!

  25. 25.

    Pooh

    My favorite bit from the Times/IRS article

    Estate tax lawyers are the most productive tax law enforcement personnel at the I.R.S., according to Mr. Brown. For each hour they work, they find an average of $2,200 of taxes that people owe the government.

  26. 26.

    GOP4Me

    If the government has stopped litigating traditional civil rights cases, that means the problem must be over! Ken Mehlman should go tell black America so that they can start voting Republican.

    The same logic suggests that we defeated terrorism once and for all in early November, 2004. After all, why would those weekly DHS terror warnings just cease like that? Al Qaeda must have given up.

    Don’t expect Bush to get credit for any of it, though. The greatest President in American history, who cured racism and crushed terrorism at some point during or immediately after the 2004 election season, and THIS is the thanks he gets from you ingrate moonbats?

  27. 27.

    Jess

    As a matter of fact, it came out a couple of years ago that the IRS had shifted the emphasis of its auditing from upper-income taxpayers to go after low-income and lower-middle-class taxpayers.

    And then there was the whole thing about earned income tax credits being withheld from the working poor that had earned them–when was that? Last summer or fall? Of course, according to Bush logic, by pointing these sorts of things out we’re the ones guilty of class warfare!

  28. 28.

    Zifnab

    Don’t expect Bush to get credit for any of it, though. The greatest President in American history, who cured racism and crushed terrorism at some point during or immediately after the 2004 election season, and THIS is the thanks he gets from you ingrate moonbats?

    Treat-the-symptom, nothing. I’m with GOP4ME. The real solution to our problems has always been to just stop diagnosing. No diagnosis, no problem.

    Besides, we’re fighting a war on terrorism. Something something. Patriotic. God Bless America. Lower Taxes. Cowboy Hat. 9/11. Look! A puppy!

  29. 29.

    CaseyL

    I particularly liked the rationale behind withholding the EITC: because, as some GOP asshole (I think it might even have been Tom DeLay, in which case the statement is particularly funny) said, “We don’t know what they would have done with the money.”

  30. 30.

    ChristieS

    In the immortal words of e.e. cummings:

    next to of course god america i

    “next to of course god america i
    love you land of the pilgrims’ and so forth oh
    say can you see by the dawn’s early my
    country ’tis of centuries come and go
    and are no more what of it we should worry
    in every language even deafanddumb
    thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
    by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
    why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
    iful than these heroic happy dead
    who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
    they did not stop to think they died instead
    then shall the voice of liberty be mute?”

    He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

  31. 31.

    vetiver

    Bloody hell! I’m reposting a coupla links here, in a lively and related thread, with apologies for my own lameness in reading posts in chronological order.

    Jamil, I have two words for you: Southern Strategy. Reagan’s Philadelphia, MS, stunt was merely that campaign season’s assault in an ongoing campaign. His telegenically befuddled deniability was all his own, and it became a classic (cf., Bitburg memorial, Iran-Contra hearings). Bush is as befuddled as possible in Earth atmosphere, but he lacks Reagan’s ability to deliver the line. Reagan had a skill that kept the cash (if not the Oscar nominations) flowing enough to sustain him comfortably for 20+ (30+?) years before the California GOP discovered him at the GE soda fountain. Bush, on the other hand, has never developed any skill, never demonstrated any talent, never exhibited any ability worth anything on the open market. Every opportunity he ever had was fed to him by his daddy or daddy’s friends. Reagan had a real history, a real (if highly burnished) success story. If George W. Bush had been born George W. Gonzales, he’d be in prison right now.

    And if my 1986 self had any idea that twenty years on, I’d be favorably comparing Reagan to the current president… there are no words.

    Zifnab, rolling back legislation to the FDR era wouldn’t be enough for BushCo. No, they’re looking at 1896 as the ideal. Child labor? We can’t interfere with the sanctity of the family. (No, I’m not making this up.) Workers breathe lead, lose a hand, get themselves killed? They knew the risks; if they didn’t like ’em, they’d go somewhere else. (Not making this up, either.)

    And how is New Orleans doing this hurricane season? And has anyone really given any thought to all of those Katrina victims who were doubly victimized by the death tax?

  32. 32.

    Jamil

    Vetiver,

    I’m quite familiar with the Southern Strategy.

    It’s when I explain it to all of my Republican aquaintances that the denials begin.

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