Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Not all heroes wear capes.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

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

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

You are here: Home / The Politburo Diktat

The Politburo Diktat

by | 16 Comments

This post is in: 

There was a time when that blog title amused me for comically exaggerating my and other lefties’ worst fears about our present Republican leadership.

A surgeon general’s report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration’s policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.

[…] Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services.

[…] Carmona told lawmakers that, as he fought to release the document, he was “called in and again admonished . . . via a senior official who said, ‘You don’t get it.’ ” He said a senior official told him that “this will be a political document, or it will not be released.”

After a long struggle that pitted top scientific and medical experts inside and outside the government against Steiger and his political bosses, Carmona refused to make the requested changes, according to the officials. Carmona engaged in similar fights over other public health reports, including an unpublished report on prison health. A few days before the end of his term as the nation’s senior medical officer, he was abruptly told he would not be reappointed.

Ha ha. Sigh.

***Update***

More here.

Reader Interactions

16Comments

  1. 1.

    Redhand

    Hell, Politburo Diktat 2.0’s blog subtitle is: “another conservative who’s been mugged by reality.” I never visited the place when Commie made fun of “lefties,” as you say, just like I didn’t know John Cole’s blog before his anti-Bush conversion. It has to be months and months if not years since both saw things differently. So your segway’s wrong, Tim, even if your criticism of the Bush Administration’s latest hackery is right on target.

  2. 2.

    Rome Again

    Politics is trump. If the political message isn’t included, no document will see the light of day. George Bush’s ego at work.

  5. 5.

    RSA

    So your segway’s wrong, Tim

    Redhand, the segue was a personal anecdote. Obviously your mileage may vary.

    :-) I have to applaud such subtlety.

  6. 6.

    Otto Man

    Steiger’s the same douchebag who refused to have the US support a WHO report that linked junk food and soda with childhood obesity. That’s right — if you believe that candy bars can make children fat, then you’re a wild-eyed Al Gore lefty lunatic!

    Apparently, the only scientific advancement the Bushies care about is having their sense of shame surgically removed.

  9. 9.

    myiq2xu

    Remember Suskind’s article talking about the complete lack of policy apparatus and everything being run by the political arm of the White House (i.e. Karl Rove?)

    The Soviets set themselves back many years when a government minister name Lysenko ordered that scientific research conform to communist doctrine and party needs.

    Is it January 2009 yet?

  11. 11.

    ConservativelyLiberal

    I guess he refused to start the document with

    Our Glorious, Divine and Fearless Leader of the Free World who hath been appointed by God Himself, King George the Second, doth hereby declareth…

    Maybe that would have helped?

  13. 13.

    ConservativelyLiberal

    Our Glorious, Divine and Fearless Leader of the World, King George the Second, who hath appointed God Himself, with the permission of Beelzebub itself, Richard the Cheney, doth hereby decidereth…

    Fixed by self.

    Better? ;)

  15. 15.

    TenguPhule

    Does anyone still think this nation will actually *survive* to 2009 at the rate things are going?

    There is not one aspect of government that has not been ruined by this administration…and there are still 16 months of releases about the damage to go….

  16. 16.

    Lupin

    I don’t know if anyone here has read Philip K Dick but his psychotic delusion in VALIS about the Empire which never ended and tries to control reality becomes more tragic every day. Who would have thought that Dick would be a better prophet than, say, Asimov?

Comments are closed.