This man? He is at one with the content (core, meaning, substance) of the Bush years:

(CNN) — Richard Strandlof said he survived the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon. He said he survived again when a roadside bomb went off in Iraq, killing four fellow Marines. He'd point to his head and tell people he had a metal plate, collateral damage from the explosion.

None of it was true. On Friday, the FBI arrested him on the rare charge of "stolen valor."

Strandlof, 32, was held "for false claims about receipt of military decorations or medals," an FBI news release said. Charges had been filed in Denver, Colorado, the week before, the bureau said.

"The penalty for his crime is up to one year incarceration and a $100,000 fine," it said.

Before his deception was revealed, crowds ate up his story. He canvassed Colorado appearing at the sides of politicians. Inspiring and seemingly authentic, he spoke on behalf of veterans at the state Capitol.

He formed a group called the Colorado Veterans Alliance.

The whole thing was a lie...

According to HuffPo, this image is being ciruculated in Tea Party circles as a true representation of the protest on Sept, 12:

There's another big problem with the photograph: it doesn't include the National Museum of the American Indian, a building located at the corner of Fourth St. and Independence Ave. that opened on Sept. 14, 2004. (Looking at the photograph, the building should be in the upper right hand corner of the National Mall, next to the Air and Space Museum.) That means the picture was taken before the museum opened exactly five years ago. So clearly the photo doesn't show the "tea party" crowd from the Sept. 12 protest.

Good news from Iraq!

(HuffPo) — An Iraqi journalist imprisoned for hurling his shoes at former President George W. Bush will be released next month after his sentence was reduced for good behavior, his lawyer said Saturday.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi's act of protest during Bush's last visit to Iraq as president turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world, as his case became a rallying point for critics who resented the 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation.

"Al-Zeidi's shoes were a suitable farewell for Bush's deeds in Iraq," Sunni lawmaker Dhafir al-Ani said in welcoming the early release. "Al-Zeidi's act expressed the real will and feelings of the Iraqi people. His anger against Bush was the result of the suffering of his countrymen."

He is not just a hero in the Arab world, he is a hero to all cosmopolitans across the globe.

The Ramsey County prosecutors assume, correctly, that they "would have been a distraction at trial."

The conspiracy to riot and conspiracy to damage property—those charges remain.

You can see the alleged conspirators, smiling in their courtroom best, at Friends of the RNC 8.

Journalists and protesters who felt unduly smacked around at the Republican National Convention have begun filing their lawsuits, accusing police officers of wrongful imprisonment, excessive force, intimidation, battery, and, in one case, repeatedly tasering a man without cause.

Attorney Ted Dooley filed seven suits representing eight people last week and said the chaos and police violence in St. Paul last September was "unlike anything I'd ever seen."

His clients say they were peaceably protesting/journalizing and complied with all police instructions, but were still tackled, battered, arrested, detained, shot at close range with projectiles, and/or tasered. One client, Michelle Gross, says she was singled out for a strip-search in front of several men simply to humiliate her.

Another, Michael Whalen, was hosting members of Eyewitness Video (a group that documents police behavior during protests) when his home was raided. That warrant listed, among other reasons for the raid, that Whalen had co-owned a bookstore, that he received large boxes in the mail (turned out to be vegan pamphlets), and that he "had supported Irish independence twenty years ago."

Whalen's complaint alleges that police simply wanted to "punish plaintiff for his exercise of freedom of speech and association with journalists known to document police abuses."

The St. Paul police, Dooley says, were taking "heavy suggestions" about the RNC tactics from Homeland Security and the FBI, resulting in an uncharacteristically heavy-handed approach to the protests. "There's a document that's floating around," he says, "a Homeland Security document on how to 'do' protests that was copied almost page-for-page for the RNC '08 in St. Paul." Dooley also says St. Paul had at least 106 law enforcement agencies "on tap" to come help with the protests.

Defendants in the suits include individual officers and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

"I was just talking to a guy from the New York Times," he said. He was at the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004 and said this was much, much worse."

(Relive the RNC, with preemptive raids, pepper spray, Dan goosing beauty queens and/or Anderson Cooper, the wrap-up, and a whole lotta Slog posts. Photo from Flickr.)

Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, the GOP, this is a time of deep trouble:

Sixty-eight percent of speech-watchers questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey had a very positive reaction, with 24 percent indicating that they had a somewhat positive response and 8 percent indicating that they had a negative reaction.

Eighty-five percent of those polled said the president's speech made them more optimistic about the direction of the country over the next few years, with 11 percent indicating the speech made them more pessimistic.

Eighty-two percent of speech-watchers said they support the economic plan Obama outlined in his prime time address, with 17 percent opposing the proposal.

Also, all of those politically powerful people trying to get his autograph—did that happen to Bush during his first address to Congress? I'm not sure.

Sarah Palin is all about Sarah Palin, a fact that her party is slowly learning.

ABC News: When House Republicans planned their annual winter retreat, they extended an invitation to Alaska Gov. Sara Palin, hoping the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee would give a morale-building speech to the more than 130 Republican members of Congress gathered this weekend in Hot Springs, Va.

Retreat organizers tell ABC News that Palin politely declined, giving a perfectly understandable reason. According to the Congressional Institute, which hosted the conference, Palin said she simply could not make it to the retreat because pressing state business made it impossible for her to leave Alaska this weekend.

So where is Palin this weekend? She's in Washington, D.C., attending the super-elite Alfalfa Dinner.

"She lied to us," said a Republican at the retreat

The star of the Alfalfa Dinner?

President Barack Obama shared Washington’s high-society spotlight on Saturday night with an unlikely co-star — Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Wearing a black satin evening gown, Palin was spotted by journalists making her way into the ballroom at the Capitol Hilton for the Alfalfa Dinner, an annual closed-door roast of the city’s political and business elite.

'RESPECTING' THE OFFICE.... Former Bush White House chief of staff Andrew Card complained to right-wing talk-show host Michael Medved that President Obama is insufficiently respectful of the presidency. Apparently, one demonstrates respect for the presidency by their choice of attire:

"...I found that Ronald Reagan and both President Bushes treated the Oval Office with tremendous respect. They treated the Office of the Presidency with tremendous respect. And some of that respect was reflected in how they expected people to behave, how they expected them to dress when they walked into the symbol of freedom for the world, the Oval Office. And yes, I'm disappointed to see the casual, laissez faire, short sleeves, no shirt and tie, no jacket, kind of locker room experience that seems to be taking place in this White House and the Oval Office."

Yet another reason for some grave turning.

Michael Steele has won the election to be chairman of the Republican National Committee, becoming the first African-American to lead the party.

Mr Steele won in the sixth ballot, with 91 votes out of a possible 168. His nearest rival, Katon Dawson, received the remaining 77 votes.

John McCain has discovered Twitter.

HEY JOHN! IT'S OVER! YOU LOST! JOHN? WAKE UP, SENATOR! Oh, nevermind. Somebody put a mirror under his nose.

A fascinating mix of exactly what you'd expect McCain to Twitter ('I am working in my office on Capitol Hill today.", "I'm traveling today with Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Joe Lieberman.", "GET OFF MY LAWN!"), and bizarre use of internet acronyms that no one over 25 uses (ICYMI).

Keep 'em coming, Johnny.

Seriously, less than a week after posting about how I accidentally brushed my teeth with antifungal cream and had to call Poison Center for help (and quickly received that help), I get an email concerning our Governor's plan to cut the Poison Center's budget by 50%!

Writes William Hurley, the Medical Director of Washington Poison Center:

The recent proposed Washington budget calls for a 50% ($1 million) reduction in Poison Center funding. The leadership team at the Poison Center estimates such a cut would leave us unable to continue 24/7 operations & unable to maintain certification as a center. This would lead to our closure. Such a cut would cost lives & multiple millions of dollars.

Is this the same budget that Gregoire deserves so much credit for? A budget with such an idiotic cut? A cut that will endanger lives? Writes William Hurley about my encounter with anitfungal cream: "Glad it wasn’t the hemorrhoidal cream... If it has dibucaine in it, it can be fatal!" People, this is not funny; this is as serious as a heart attack. Poison Control must always run at 100%. It only costs us two million dollars, and every buck is worth it.

Joe Biden's wife Jill, in a surprise appearance on Oprah, just accidentally let slip with the fact that, during the campaign, Joe Biden was offered his choice of either Vice President or Secretary of State in an Obama Administration. Joe Biden immediately shushed his wife and said that that wasn't a fact for public consumption.

Investors are faking their own deaths and vanishing into thin air with money that never existed...

The 75-year-old hedge fund manager raked in high returns for his clients but left the luxury cars and the exorbitant lifestyle to others. So confident were investors in his ability to manage their money that they entrusted hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece to his care.

Now they're wondering where Nadel is and what he's done with their money.

The Sarasota Police Department had received at least seven complaints as of Sunday from investors, some of whom say they have lost upward of $700,000. It wasn't clear how much money was invested or how much might be missing, though one investor said the hedge fund had been worth as much as $350 million and might have been completely drained.

"I'm angry," Brad Lerner, a doctor who invested $500,000 with Nadel three years ago, said Sunday. "I'd like to see the truth come out and (the) money returned."

Nadel's family reported him missing Wednesday, and on Thursday, police found his green Subaru in an airport parking lot. He left a note for his family, in which he appeared to be "very distraught," the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said.

A woman who answered the door Sunday at Nadel's home declined to identify herself.

Investigators continued to search for Nadel through the weekend.

"Sarasota is a good sized place, but it's actually a very small community of people," police Capt. Bill Spitler said. "Obviously we have white collar crime. But very few places have anything of this magnitude."

The layout of the front page of this newspaper is not innocent. It's saying things in a language that the whole world can understand. The pilot saved the passengers because he knew what he was doing. He was an expert, a professional, a hero for no other reason than he was doing exactly what his job required him to do. He was not a horse judge flying the plane because he has friends in the right places in the airline company. He was a pilot because he knew how to fly and handle emergencies. We have not seen heroes with actual substance in a long time.

Bush, history will not rescue you. There are no future people waiting for the moment to pull you out of the cold and restore glory to your name. Those future people will never be born. When you call on the future, your words enter a complete vacuum and vanish. Now is your time, and it is now you must go and be nothing more than a very bad memory, a very bad taste in the mouth of history.

"Although many of the vehicle's security enhancements cannot be discussed, it is safe to say that this car's security and coded communications systems make it the most technologically advanced protection vehicle in the world."

If this fucker won't go away, we'll have to mock him until he can't run for office. The frightening thing is how well these Homer Simpsonisms apply to Joe the Plumber. Good job, MGK.

(And yes, I'm posting this in the 2008 category. He is the Beast From 2008 That Won't Die.)