The Fugees producer, John Forte, Gets Prison Pardon From President Bush

Rapper Nabs One of Bush's Prison Passes

A Grammy Award-winning rapper and music producer originally sentenced to 14 years in prison for smuggling cocaine is one of 16 people receiving pardons or reduced sentences from President Bush.

John Edward Forte of North Brunswick, N.J., a graduate of the elite Phillips Exeter Academy prep school who later became a producer for the rap group The Fugees and released two albums on his own, was caught in 2000 at Newark International Airport with two briefcases filled with $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine, according to court documents.

Forte, 33, a first-time offender, was convicted of possessing the 31 pounds of cocaine with intent to distribute and was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years at Fort Dix, N.J. (Forte's Web site)

With the commutation, Forte will be released Dec. 22, after serving just over seven years. He still faces five years of supervised probation.

Among vocal advocates on Forte's behalf have been singer Carly Simon, along with her son James, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

A song off of Forte's 1998 album:

"Now is the perfect opportunity for John to be given the chance to provide positive benefits to society through his considerable musical talents," Hatch wrote to Bush in a January 2007 letter.

Forte was one of two inmates who received reduced sentences. He pardoned 14 others.

[Washington Post]

How Did I Miss These Hilarious Bush Shots ...

I just found these pictures of George W Bush and some US Air Force Academy cadets at a graduation ceremony in Colorado ... getting a little "friendly".

We seriously need some good Photoshop and some good captions here folks.







[DailyMail]

The Jefferson Mint presents: The Bush Plates

Commemorate the scandals and screw-ups of the Bush administration with this lovely set of Jefferson Mint collector plates!

Watch Real Time with Bill Maher Fridays on HBO. Catch all new live episodes beginning January 11, 2008. WOOOHOOO !!!! Can't wait !! Bill Rules !!

For more Bill Maher, check out his personal website: www.billmaher.com

PROOF: Hundreds of Scandals Proving Bush is Worst President Ever

Hugh's List Of Bush Scandals is an incredible weblog chronicling the endless scandals during the Bush Administration.


INTRODUCTION: George Bush, the Connecticut cowboy, the good old boy from Yale is a man of mediocre intelligence, little imagination, and great stubbornness and vindictiveness. He may be the Decider but his handlers have long known how to manipulate him. The key is to hook him with short, simple sells. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice know that once he has consulted his gut and perhaps his higher father his decision is forever. So whoever gets to him first is likely to carry the day because he doesn't like to be challenged and is, quite simply, too lazy to change his mind. The Bubble is a natural consequence of this decision making process where logic, reason, and facts have little or no role.

....Bush's Presidency began in the shadow of a contested and likely stolen election and promised to be unsuccessful in a largely forgettable and unremarkable way. 911 changed all that and transformed a plodding, and essentially AWOL one termer into an accidental hero. Enormous power flowed to his office but Bush had no idea how to use it. He liked to campaign, not govern. In those around him, he prized loyalty over competence and honesty. A believer in the notion of "to the victor go the spoils," he was the perfect mark for every conniver, bumbler, bungler, hack, hanger on, and would be crony that Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and their friends could find. In the normal course of things, this would have spelled failure. Post-911, it was catastrophic.

....At this critical juncture in our history we needed an adult but got an adolescent. Instead of responsibility, we got a truant. In place of flexibility we got obduracy. In the face of great and complex challenges, we got strawmen, a black and white universe, my way or the highway, regurgitated stump speeches, and a steadfast refusal to compromise not just with opponents but with reality.

....What all this comes down to is that George Bush should never have become our President. He is not just a bad President but the worst one we could have had, the worst our country has ever seen. This is a judgment that many Americans have come to but which our political establishment and media, even after 6 years, have yet to acknowledge, accept, and act on. This is the tragedy and crime of our times.

As of Dec. 20, 2007, this list contains 291 Bush scandals. See the full and current list HERE.

OK Mr. President, we know about the Booze and Pot, just fess up on the Cocaine

Yesterday, following a press briefing on the subject of teen drug abuse, President Bush reminisced about his love/hate relationship with alcohol back in the 70's and 80's. Moved by the plight of a young, drug-addicted girl, the president offered words born of his personal battle with booze:

"Your president made the same kind of choice," he told her. "I had to quit
drinking. ... Addiction competes for your affection ... You fall in love with
alcohol."

Following the event, Bush granted ABC News an interview, and continued to muse about the nature of his entanglement as well as his decision to go cold turkey.

"I wasn't a knee walking drunk," Bush said. "It's a difficult thing to do, which
is to kick an addiction."

... Bush said in his case, he made the
decision to quit when he realized drinking was interfering with his family.
"Alcohol can compete with your affections. It sure did in my case," Bush said,
"affections with your family, or affections for exercise. It was the competition
that I decided just wasn't worth it."

Framing his drinking in terms of addiction is something new for the president. In the run-up to the 2000 election, faced with unearthed stories of a 1976 DUI arrest, Bush described his past behavior this way:

"Well, I don't think I had an addiction. You know it's hard for me to say. I've
had friends who were, you know, very addicted... and they required hitting
bottom [to start] going to A.A. I don't think that was my case."

Perhaps he's just older and wiser now, and can distinguish one too many hangovers from a larger, more worrisome pattern. What rings true, however--for anyone who has ever personally gone through addiction, or watched a loved one suffer its throes--is the couching of alcohol dependency in terms usually reserved for a romantic affair. Type the words "alcohol" and "love affair" into any search engine and see what pops up: a few hundred thousand testimonials written by recovering alcoholics.

Not all substance abuse metaphors are the same, of course. Whereas Mr. Bush's troubles might be likened to ongoing infidelity that threatened his personal relationships (or jogging routine), Barack Obama has known the headlong rush of escapism. His admissions of drug and alcohol use describe not an addiction, per se, as much as a high school brush with a potentially destructive femme fatale. In his book, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Obama reflects on where his behavior could have led him:

"Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the
young would-be black man. ...I got high [to] push questions of who I was out of
my mind."

His admissions of trying pot (and he did inhale) and cocaine (Mr. Bush never would say one way or the other if he had) have caused some to wonder if there's such a thing as being too honest about the past. But therein lies a media double-standard. Tell the nation everything and the press will criticize you for it. Don't and they'll dig it up anyway and call you evasive. Personally, I find both Bush and Obama's disclosures to be refreshing. We all make mistakes, and can be made better for them. In many ways, coming clean about drug and alcohol abuse mirror the admission of a secret love affair. In both matters, honesty is the way to go.

UPDATE: Clinton official says the Republican candidates will go after Obama's drug use.



Source [AOL]