While Shrub waits for historians to vindicate him a century from now, let us commemorate his singular achievement:

“No other president’s disapproval rating has gone higher than 70 percent. Bush has managed to do that three times so far this year,” says CNN polling director Keating Holland. “That means that Bush is now more unpopular than Richard Nixon was when he resigned from office during Watergate with a 66 percent disapproval rating.”

Bush leaving office more unpopular than Nixon [CNN]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ45Q2zXxiQ

Fun story: We scoured Google for the actual video, but Fox lawyers were years ahead of us. Fine, we thought, we’ll just set up our own YouTube account, rip the clip from the DVD, and name it something vague so it doesn’t turn up in searches. But the moment it finished uploading, Fox flagged it, the FBI showed up at our door, and now we’re posting from Gitmo.

Awkward meeting is ahead for Obama [IHT]

The First Bush-Obama Meeting [Political Wire]

Well, it’s gonna be a Chicagocentric few months, isn’t it?  Rahm Emanuel’s elevation to Chief of Staff will see to that — for all of the good tidings that the President of the United States, Barack Obama (damn, that sounds soooo good) will bring to D.C., Rahm will bring some Daley-style muscle to the equation. 

But what of the Defense Department? There’s some good news, obviously.  Missile defense contractors?  Thanks for playing, but we have some lovely parting gifts for you.  A handful of obsolete weapons systems (not enough, of course — this is the DoD, after all) will go by the boards too, as would Camp Delta in lovely downtown Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  All to the good. 

But it seems that they are beginning to dial back the whole withdrawal from Iraq thing, bit by bit.  Yes, by God, there will be a timetable — but it will be less than satisfactory to us on the Angry Left, I fear.  And Afghanistan may not go as well as planned. Plus, those favoring a de-Bushification cannot be at all pleased with the whispers about Robert Gates staying on.

All of this commentary comes, of course, from somebody who understands the Defense Department only at the most superficial level. But: it seems that, if the whole national security thing is going to be prioritized, we will have some answers this week — and not all of them good answers. Dream, meet reality.

Looks like I get my wish:

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse the president on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.

I have advocated something like this since Bush was “reelected” in 2004.

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Fun facts about Alaska:

• Alaska pumps less than 800,000 barrels of oil a day, compared to two million barrels twenty years ago.
• Oil taxes account for 85 percent of state government revenue.
• Oil prices were still at $115 per barrel on August 29, when Sarah Palin was plucked from obscurity. Friday’s close was $61.
• Alaska needs an average annual oil price of $74 to balance its budget.

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Have a, um, burning question about industrial porn? Shoot it to iporn [at] stinque.com

Will pubic hair ever make a comeback in the adult film industry?

Your question could not be more well timed and the answer is “yes.” In fact just this week Hustler announced that they are releasing a film called “The Bush Administration” which will feature nothing but girls with full on muffs. Fleshbot also came out with an entire feature this week on girls with lots of forest for fucking.

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If it’s Saturday, it must be Stinque.

Brave New World [Flickr]