Subject: The White House

• Cheeseburgers and Patsies in the White House

  If it wasn't for the cheeseburgers, I might have found this morning's resignation of White House Chief of Staff Andy Card touching. Certainly the reporters– and I use that word loosely– on the various cable news stations did, but then they were just following the White House's lead and ignoring the cheeseburgers. The mood the White House was going for was Hallmark-card maudlin, as the Associated Press' description of event makes clear: Gripping the podium, Card said in his farewell:

  March 28, 2006

• Who Would Jesus Discriminate Against?

  Although it lacks the economic punch of Christmas, Easter is, in theory, the biggest of Christian holidays. "[A]nd if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." according to Paul (1 Corinthians 15:14), whose opinion on the matter commands a certain respect. So how to show respect for the message of Jesus Christ in this Easter season? Eggs? Naturally, but not quite enough. Have children roll the eggs? Better, but there's still room for improvement. Have childr

  April 17, 2006

• State Secret: Arnold's Big Night Out

  How desperate is Governor Schwarzenegger to avoid reminding people that he belongs to same political party as George W. Bush, let alone remind them that he was one of the featured speakers supporting Bush at the 2004 Republican Convention? Desperate enough to sneak across the country and into the White House yesterday, while trying to hide his trip from reporters. Yesterday, a statement from the governor's press office drily explained that there no official business scheduled, because the gover

  July 11, 2006

• A Waste of $106,641

  Yesterday, the good folks at Think Progress were having a little fun with the White House payroll. Drawing on a list of White House salaries published in the National Journal, the TPers determined the four most overpaid White House staffers. Tucked away between ethics advisers and White House's Director of Fact Checking (no doubt a very lonely job in an administration that uses the phrase "reality based" to dismiss critics) was Stuart Baker, Director for Lessons Learned. Leaving aside for the m

  July 12, 2006

• Rummy "Slimy", Not "Slimmy"

  While discussing his new book, Conservatives without Conscience, on Firedoglake's Book Salon, John Dean, who first gained fame as the most honest man in the Nixon White House (which admittedly is a little like being the best ice skater in the Sahara), reminisced about the role of a young Donald Rumsfeld in the administration of Yorba Linda's favorite son (and current leading roadside attraction). Long before he became the guiding light of our adventure in Iraq, Rummy was already showing signs o

  September 5, 2006

• Adapting in Iraq

  The last time I checked, the latest Bush administration slogan for its Iraq adventure is "Adapting to Win". This replaced "Stay the Course", which had fallen out of favor with the White House presumably since it might remind people just what "course" events are taking in Iraq. So, is Adapting to Win any better? Well... Agence France-Presse reports on a unique way that the Bush administration is adapting to the conditions its invasion has created in Iraq: The White House revealed what may be

  September 8, 2006

• Rohrabacher v. Gonzales

  You know a political scandal has sailed past the point of no return when even Dana Rohrabacher (R-Surfin') sounds like a voice of reason. From CBS News: Pressure mounted on the White House Thursday to fire Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for the abrupt dismissal of U.S. attorneys. More Republicans called for his ouster, and one Republican strategist close to the White House told CBS News that Gonzales is "finished." Congressman Dana Rohrbacher became the latest Republican to say Gonzales sho

  March 16, 2007

• Baby, It's Warm Outside

  The Inconvenient Truth is on its way to becoming the box-office champeen of documentaries (pound sand, Michael Moore!). Orders are already brisk for the DVDs that won't be out until November. However, because Truth starred Satan's spawn Al Gore, there's a good chance many holy rollers skipped it and headed into whatever anti-Semitic Mel Gibson "Christian" movie was playing at the time. Well, fear not, Samson and Delilah: there is a new global-warming documentary coming that's especially for lov

  September 12, 2006

• Saturday's Headlines & Surprises: 'Stinky' White House

  777: The Gabrielino-Tongva tribe is coming to Garden Grove with a huge bag of Halloween goodies. What's the treat? $78 million-a-year to city coffers, 10,000 permanent new jobs and college scholarships to every graduating high school student in the city. The trick? Let the tribe--and some guys named Guido, Sal and Vito--build two Las Vegas-style casinos, 7,500 slot machines, two luxury hotels and a 10,000-seat stadium near Disneyland. Reporter Dave McKibben write in today's Times that the plan

  July 28, 2007

• Debatemon!

  March 16, 2000

• Back to the No Future

  August 26, 2004

• Telcom Critics Could Have Issues With Obama Pick

  A telecommunications executive today resigned from his director's seat at Newport Beach-based Mindspeed Technologies to work at the White House as Barack Obama's director of presidential personnel.Obama can thus expect heavy scrutiny from net-neutrality advocates fearful of Donald H. Gips' closeness to power. Neutrality proponents, who include Google, warn that telecom companies are heavily lobbying U.S. politicians to impose a tiered service model at the expense of other companies and the gener

  January 16, 2009

• Nation Cheers Obama Inauguration, OC Reg Readers Whine

  If Barack Obama's move into the White House today is inspiring folks all over the world, here in Orange County the mood, at least as recorded by online comments posted Orange County Register readers, is dour:--"This man has done absolutely nothing, yet is a God. People are so dumb." --"God help us!"--"This is not my President."--"Is it just me or are you also ready to vomit over this love fest the crazy left is having w/ this guy? I believe it's a very sad day for this country."-"The whole thing

  January 20, 2009

• Bang the Drum

  October 16, 2008

• TONIGHT: Tricky at the House of Blues

  Hey, remember the '90s? Sure you do: eight years of peace, Dow at 10,000, icky sex acts in the White House. Also, a British man named Tricky caught the attention of the musical literati with his far-out fusion of hip hop, electronica, trip-hop, rock, coriander, Alice episodes and whatever else he might be feeling on that given day. He's still at it--having released Knowle West Boy, his first new disc in five years, last fall--and is playing the House of Blues in Anaheim tonight. Tickets are $25.

  March 24, 2009

• The Weekly's Head Count of the 48 New Faces Who Want to Be Your Next Sheriff

  May 15, 2008

• Zot Wot?

  March 27, 2008

• Cox Quiet On Cover-Up

  May 22, 2003

• Not Too Late for a War Crimes Tribunal

  February 7, 2002

• Letters

  June 5, 2003

• Rhapsody in White

  Despite its obsession with glitz and style, the Anaheim White House delivers plenty of tasty substance

  August 2, 2007

• Trendzilla

  June 29, 2006

• Pimping the System

  May 11, 2006

• Respeck!

  Aestheticus Maximus in Laguna Beach

  November 24, 2005

• a Clockwork Orange

  September 22, 2005

• The Good Thief

  June 9, 2005

• This Week in Colorful Restaurants

  March 24, 2005

• Its Snot Unusual

  Im George W. Bush, and I Approve This Destruction

  September 2, 2004

• My City Kicks Your Citys Dining Ass

  July 1, 2004

• Poor Pitiful Pearl

  June 17, 2004

• Burning Bush

  March 25, 2004

• Secret War Hero

  March 4, 2004

• Eat the Press 1

  February 26, 2004

• Thats Our Bush!

  September 11, 2003

• Grading the Peace Movement

  May 8, 2003

• Gale Force

  May 1, 2003

• Diary of a Mad County

  April 17, 2003

• Wanna See Something Really Scary?

  November 7, 2002

• Countering Their Attack

  July 25, 2002

• Reform-School Congress

  July 25, 2002

• Conservative American Tragedy

  May 16, 2002

• Burning Bush

  April 11, 2002

• Letters

  February 14, 2002

• Wellbutrin Time!

  January 24, 2002

• Chillin With Uncle Sam

  September 23, 1999

• WTF Alert!?! John Dean Coming to Nixon Library!

  John Dean, shown last year, is coming to the Nixon Library.Over the years, the Richard Nixon Library, Birthplace, Museum, Taqueria & Polo Grounds in Yorba Linda has hosted such speakers as Ann Coulter, Hugh Hewitt, Bill O'Reilly, William J. Bennett, Dick Cheney and probably even more repulsive folks--if that's even possible--that I'm forgetting.After the partisan Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation that had been running the place turned over the keys to the National Archives--w

  June 10, 2009

• Rohrabacher Raises Serious Allegations About Mistreatment of Uighurs

  Photo by Jack GouldRohrabacher: Against at least some torture.The White House is relieved a home was finally found for 17 Muslim Uighurs from China who were held without justification at Guantanamo Bay, but their leading champion in Congress, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), is still raising serious allegations about their mistreatment in the U.S. military prison in Cuba.Members of an ethnic group from central Asia and the Xinjiang province in western China, 22 Uighurs were picked up

  June 16, 2009

• Beers for Whatever Ales You

  Courtesy of Slate.com Now you see Washingtonpost.com's Dana Milbank, now you don't. A couple Washingtonpost.com comedi-hacks caught heck for their video that suggested the proper beverage to serve Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the recent White House beer summit would have been a bottle of Mad Bitch beer. The Post removed the satirical video from its site, although it can still be found all over the web. So it was probably a good idea Clockw

  August 5, 2009

• Richard Nixon, Leonard Bernstein and Frank Gannon

  UC Irvine history professor Jon Wiener has mined books, lectures and a documentary film consulting gig out of the FBI spying on John Lennon at the behest of the Richard Nixon White House. So when TheNewNixon.org featured a post this week on Nixon-era surveillance of Leonard Bernstein, you had to wonder how one of the site's frothing Nixonpologists was going to brand ol' Lenny a threat to mom and apple pie to justify Dick's paranoia.Refreshingly, that did not happen.

  September 3, 2009

• Take Note: Life on Earth Will End in '2012.' Plan Your Christmas Shopping Accordingly

  November 12, 2009