Tap, tap, tap. Is this thing on?

^5!!

Another great graphic, Wraith! When I grow up, I'd like to be at least half as good as you are!

I am always surprised how quickly time goes by and how relaxing it is when I am playing with artsy-fartsy stuff.

Was it good for you, too? ;-)

Evening Darkest of Wraiths,

A goodie indeed!

Good afternoon, good readers. Thank you for leaving some comments; it was so quiet around here I could almost hear myself think.

Over at BlondeSense, contributing writer 2Truthy accused me of using my own hair, beard, and mustache as the props for the President's facial alterations, but that's just nonsense. The truth of the matter is that Mr. Bush looks darned good with some facial hair.

He might want to consider this when he's looking for a good disguise so he can slip unnoticed out of Washington next January.

Then again, considering how the Congress that convened in 1993 let Mr. Bush's father and Ronald Reagan get away with what they had done, I don't think our current President has anything to worry about.

Of course, considering what happened to some of the whistleblowers who were screaming bloody murder for that previous cabal of sniveling Democrats to listen to what they had to say, it seems to me that it will be our generation's whistleblowers who have a lot to worry about.

Speaking truth to power is rather exhilarating, but speaking truth about power is downright dangerous.

The Dark Wraith is going to enjoy hearing all the Democrats talking about just moving on after the election.

Well, okay, since I am a big fan of nicely groomed face fur, I can agree that it might make W look good, but it's about all I can think of that ever would.

Oh, the irony:

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — President Bush, ignoring faculty members who stood in silent protest of his commencement speech, admitted Saturday that when he left college, thinking about how to be a "model citizen" was the furthest thing from his mind.

Yet that was the goal the president set for the 2008 graduating class of Furman University.

"As you leave this campus today, my call to you is this: Strengthen this rising culture of responsibility in America by serving others, contributing to our civic life and being accountable to yourself and your families," he said. [...]

"As you move ahead in life, you will find temptations and distractions that can take you off course," Bush said. "You might also find that years may pass before you learn some important truths: That who you are is more important than what you have. And that you have responsibilities to your fellow citizens, your country, your family, and yourself."

"...speaking truth about power..."

What a pompous, egomaniacal, power-tripping hypocrite W is.

[ Furman U?? ] ;->

Good afternoon, Moody Blue.

I read about the President's speech to that graduating class. I must admit that, even with everything that man has done, I was still flabbergasted by the stunning openness of his hypocrisy.

"The noble lie," indeed.

The Dark Wraith is having a hard time deciding when venality ends and madness begins.

Venality and madness could be two sides of the same coin?

"See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

~bushism
May 24, 2005 - Rochester, NY
___

"“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie."
~Joseph Goebbels

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."
~Joseph Goebbels

A very fine, if icky, graphic. It encapsulates the whole sorry mess very nicely, but am I the only one whose skin is crawling, and not from Morgellons?

This is why I am such a fan of the editorial cartoon--in one panel, an entire story.

Good morning, sporksfans!

Lisa, you've pointed out exactly why this 'shop job is so good. The really great pol. cartoonists can present an argument so well, that disagreeing with them can only be done grudgingly. Bensen, of the Arizona Republic, has his head up his ass some days, imo, but I can see how someone could reasonably come to his conclusions. ('Specially 'round Sun City, or Apache Junction, for those familiar with Phoenix suburbs from hell.) Agreeing completely, as with DW's beautiful rendition of the Renditioner in Chief shivved by Mr. Willfully Ignorant makes it so much more delicious.

Here's some figures I just pulled outta my derriere: The % of people who believe Scotty when he says he was shocked, shocked i tell ya, to discover that Libby and others had not been honest with him, is equal to the ones who knew for sure that O.J. was innocent. If anyone finds stats that prove me in error, keep 'em to yourself; I'll color my reality any way I want.

trog,

Bensen can be quite good. They all have their days. Our own Doug Marlette, who was killed in an auto wreck earlier this year, was one of the few I agreed with consistently. There are a few others too, like Steve Breen, who escape my mind at the moment. I am in awe of their art.

I don't like agenda-toting liars, and willful ignorance. Ditto McClellan, ditto O.J. fans.

Hi Lisa. Um, we gotta split up the O.J. fans into on/off the field. He was definitely one of my favorite Running Backs; College or Pro. I even loved those Avis commercials just 'cause they starred my man, OJ! Don't even get me started on his cameos on the Police Squad(?) movies! The acting roles are to be included with the on field fans, though watching him in them today is too surreal for words. Okay? To recap:

1) On the field, The Juice!!

2) Off the field, Oh Stabby Jay.

DW, I dunno what you did, but this site went from molasses slow to one the fastest loaders in my sphere. Kujos to you.

Good evening, Mr Wraith.
Pardon me, please, but I have a Dumbass Question that belongs on the thread below, but that one is closed. It took me a while to make it all the way through that post.

Anyway, as elsewhere, you state, regarding net outflow of currency, that:
Those foreign reserves of dollars must be spent in the nation of their origin; in this case, that would be the United States.

I have no idea why this would be the case, as every other nation in the world is holding some reserve of the same currency.
Why could those reserves not be used for international trade with other nations where the US was not a party?

Whereas you so succinctly state:
The United States is the banker to the world... a global financial intermediary.
Perhaps it is that "mediary" might be a more appropriate term than "intermediary," or maybe just as apt.

Surely the aggregation of debt instruments as reinvestment represents a sort of coagulation or flocculation of the dispersal of debt. This with the attendant interest (the price of money) to accomodate a solid holding.
Yet I see nothing that would prevent exchange in dollars between entities in which the US was not a party.

Elaborate.

Good morning, PT. I certainly won't pretend to know anything about international currency exchange policies, but I do wonder how many transactions would involve US dollars used by another entity? It just sounds unwieldy to me. While individual transactions may involve any type of liquid assets, I would think that nations with their own currency would avoid headaches by trading with their own standards, rather than juggling with such a volatile currency as the US dollar interspersed with their own.

I'm kinda hoping that I'm really way out wrong, 'cause then DW's teaching strengths come out to play!