WTF Is It Now?!?

The BF found a set of woodchuck legs in the driveway yesterday morning. He said from the paw prints it looked as though it was a fox kill. I would've gone for the legs first, myself.




Napoleon Bonehead Uniting World Against the US...

Senior officials in the British Prime Minister's office have delivered an astonishing attack on America's handling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda fugitives.

They say that troops conducting house-to-house searches in tribal areas of Pakistan along the Afghan border were "blundering", with a " march-in-shooting" approach. The US action was "backfiring", increasing support for terrorism and making it harder to catch bin Laden and his henchmen.

"The Americans think they and the Pakistanis can just march in shooting," an official closely involved in the war said. "They don't understand the sensitivities. We have years of experience in the tribal areas and we know using force will just backfire and increase sympathy for al-Qaeda." The comments will further strain Anglo-US relations after a week of tensions over Middle East policy and Washington's introduction of steel tariffs.

The scale of the divide was shown by scathing comments by one British minister involved in steel negotiations. "You have to remember that this is a rather unpleasant administration," the minister said. "... A full-blooded attempt to forge a relationship with it hasn't changed its fundamental nature - protectionist and self-interested."

- - Snipped from The Sydney Morning Herald.


...Even the Austalians!

The world outside the US is now getting used to the fact Americans have a fraudulently elected nitwit as their president, but George W. Bush excelled himself this week with a "long-awaited" definitive speech on Middle East policies that stretched even the weirdest imaginations.

US embassies around the world moved to "explain" the batty future Bush saw for Israel and Palestine, but nothing could disguise that the bedbug was running the White House and anything could happen next.

On this side of the Atlantic he is seen as a kind of strange joke. Britons try to understand him, but in Europe they simply think of him as a sort of circus act. The Middle East pronouncement was so absurd they didn't know whether to laugh or simply ask the US senior political attache over for a commiserating drink.
These concerns are based on the belief - that seems to be proven - that Washington itself is a divided city. Colin Powell, in State, is trying to plead reason over the clamouring voices in Defence, led by Donald Rumsfeld, clearly a man not always entirely in control of his senses.

Bush is listening to Rumsfeld, and other strange voices - not least the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon. And, as he does, the US looks more and more to be a long way away from the rest of the world. - - Snipped from The Australia Daily Telegraph.

Jak at SmirkingChimp.com writes "I would like to strongly disagree with the sentence "Britons try to understand him". Here in the UK I would say that most people gave up trying to understand George Bush long ago. Even right-wing Tories don't take him too seriously here, realising that if they tried to forge an ideological political alliance between conservatism in Britain and conservatism in the USA they would,quite simply,be laughed at!"



'A time for dissent in America'

The presidency seems to be going to George Bush's head. With each morning's paper or evening's news, depending on your preference, our leader is jumping up and saying truly extraordinary things, some of them preposterous, some stupid, some terrifying.

Ariel Sharon, he says, is "a man of peace." I must have missed something. If Yasser Arafat, that other sometimes man of peace, wins an election, the election doesn't count. Nothing counts unless we like it. We are now in the first-strike business, ready to launch pre-emptive or preventive strikes against countries or groups judged hostile to our interests by someone at Central Intelligence or the Republican National Committee.

We are, since Sept. 11, a nation without dissent -- and a little weak on common sense, too. If the president says it, it must be true. Whether you agree with his pronouncements or not, you are supposed to keep your mouth shut in the name of patriotism and solidarity. Among other things, you have to pretend we actually have the capability to do what we say we're going to do to the axis of evil or anyone else, including corporate America, who gets bad numbers in Republicans' polls.

Snipped from Richard Reeves' column here.



Presidential Colon Procedure Offered Welcome Break From Grueling Vice-Presidential Schedule

Vice-President Dick Cheney, having briefly assumed President Bush's duties while the President underwent a routine colon procedure on Saturday, told reporters today that he "enjoyed the downtime immensely."

Invoking the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution Saturday morning, Mr. Bush transferred to Mr. Cheney all of his presidential responsibilities, which meant that Mr. Cheney spent Saturday jogging, going to the gym, and hitting a ball for Mr. Bush's dog to retrieve.

In addition, Mr. Cheney called the nations of East Timor and Luxembourg "evil," stumbling briefly over the pronunciation of Luxembourg.

Finally, as Mr. Bush's colon procedure was winding down, Mr. Cheney made some remarks about the Japanese economy, mistakenly using the word "devaluation" instead of "deflation," sending the NIKKEI stock market into a tailspin.

As for the President, Mr. Bush's doctors pronounced his procedure a success, but said that they were having difficulty determining whether or not the President's anesthesia had fully worn off.

Mr. Bush's doctors indicated that when they asked the President the standard post-operative questions - such as, "What is the capital of the United States?" - Mr. Bush got only two out of five correct.

"Before the operation, he got three out of five right," one doctor said.

- - Snipped from The Borowitz Report.



Too Stupid to be President

Bush's news conferences have certain imperial qualities. These events are held on his terms. He will often say in advance: "I'll take two questions." Then he will designate the reporters permitted to ask those questions. The foreign potentates are also limited to answering two questioners, which leaves a roomful of other reporters frustrated.

Bush simply ignores follow-up questions, and reporters are quickly shooed out of the room. Just so there are no hard feelings, Bush shows his down-home friendly side by calling out his pet nicknames for the regular correspondents on the White House beat.

Pinning down this chief executive on difficult issues is becoming a lost cause in the security-driven White House, where officials focus on diminishing, not facilitating, access to him. Bush, obsessing over news leaks and keeping his aides mum, offers little explanation of his vision for the nation and the world. Undoubtedly, he has created the most secretive administration in modern times.

But he should realize that the full-fledged news conference is a two-way street. Not only can reporters learn what he thinks about big-picture issues, but he can often learn from their questions what people in various parts of the nation are worried about -- what issues they care most about.

The American people have the right to know where the president is taking the country. Bush can make all the speeches in the world, but his policies have to be probed, and only the press is positioned to do that.

- - Read more of Helen Thomas here.


Our chickensh!t clueless incompetant idiot-in-chief and his lapdog bushsmootching kneepadded propaganda spewers? That's a laugh -

Q: "'Scuse me, Mr 'President', what are your thoughts on the latest shenanigans concerning Wall Street?"

W: "Hey there, Stretch! How's the ol' bald spot comin' along, pardner?"

Shit.




Quotes of the Day: "Muzzling reporters and blacklisting anyone who asks a tough question isn't enough for this dipsh*t... he just doesn't answer questions, period" - BlazingDragon, at SmirkingChimp.com.

"Typically, though, 'democracy' means the people get to pick their leaders. George W. Bush doesn't seem to get it . But we guess that's what happens when you're elected by the Supreme Court instead of the people." - TAPPED.