"F---k Saddam. We're taking him out," the Deserter-in-Thief, George W. Bush, March 2002, after poking his head into the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, TIME.
Journalists Are Victims Of War Story, CBS News.
Attack at U.S. Camp in Kuwait Kills One, Wounds 13, Yahoo News.
American soldiers missing in the fighting, possibly being held prisoner, Yahoo News.
Possible Downed Pilot Sought in Baghdad, Guardian UK.
RAF Tornado downed by US missile, BBC News.
Al-Jazeera: footage of interviews with captured American prisoners, also showed bodies in uniform in an Iraqi morgue that it said were Americans, Yahoo News.
March 23, 2003
March 22, 2003
We had so much rain last night that we now have ponds in the back yard. I was woken up this morning by what sounded like hundreds of geese honking their way in for a landing.
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1918.
A Double Standard On Dissent
"I just hope and pray that the decision that was made was made on the basis of sound judgment and made for the right reasons, and not made because it was necessary to save the president's job." - former senator/asshat Dan Coats, referring to then-President Bill Clinton. Funny, none of the repugs jumped his ass back then.
Read more of E. J. Dionne, here.
Misadministration puts a spin on coalition numbers
'[T]he current operation in Iraq is almost entirely a U.S.-British campaign, with virtually no military contribution from other countries except Australia.
'"It's a baldfaced lie to suggest that" the coalition for this war is greater than that for the 1991 war, said Ivo H. Daalder, a former Clinton administration official now at the Brookings Institution who supports the war against Iraq. "Even our great allies Spain, Italy and Bulgaria are not providing troops."' - link.
March 21, 2003
Shock and Awe
The Bushies have launched the long-awaited massive aerial campaign against Iraq - link.
Jamming that flagpole sideways, part 3
From Randolph Holhut's column, here.
I will not keep quiet as I watch my government manipulate the fears of the citizenry to grab more power for itself.
I will not keep quiet as we wage a war that is - by any objective standard - unjust, immoral, illegal and just plain stupid.
And I will not allow anyone to attempt to silence me, for I and others who are opposed to this unjust, immoral, illegal and stupid war still have the right to dissent and the obligation to speak up when our nation is doing something that is terribly, terribly wrong.
Dissent is the essence of democracy. The suppression of dissent is the essence of tyranny. Those who wish to shut up those who oppose this war do democracy a disservice.
This is a frightening time. Dissent is rarely appreciated in times of peace, but it is equated with treason in a time of war. We are but one terror attack away from martial law and a suspension of the Constitutional guarantees that have been in place for more than two centuries. And that attack became more likely to happen the moment the bombs and cruise missiles started falling on Baghdad.
The spoiled brat has another temper tantrum
News agencies everywhere expected to form conga-line to Kommandant Karl's pasty ass.
The White House is vowing a "strong retaliatory response" after the BBC aired live video of Squinty McDumbass getting his hair coiffed in the Oval Office as he squirmed in his chair and practiced on the teleprompter minutes before Wednesday night's speech.
The British network broadcast 1 minute and 37 seconds of presidential primping to hundreds of millions of viewers in 200 countries around the world.
CBS News Washington bureau chief Janet Leissner, whose news crew was responsible for pool coverage of the speech, also apologized to the White House, explaining that a technician accidentally flipped a switch that fed the images of a not-ready-for-prime-time Bush, his eyes darting to and fro as a female stylist sprayed, combed and patted down his hair. - link.
I'm so disgusted today. With our spineless elected 'representatives' too afraid to take a stand on anything, the shameless whoring media taking dick-tation straight from the WH Office of Propaganda, the toothless braindead spankmonkeys that talk about 'liberating' the Iraqis in the same sentence they vilify those who speak out against the misadministration, the brownshirts vile repugs in DC waving their flags with one hand and peeing on the Constitution with the other.
No wonder Canadian hockey fans are booing.
"The Right never stopped criticizing Clinton while he was using the military." - from Bush Lunacy.
I had a 'pinch me' moment last night: I thought I heard Aaron Brown on CNN say that dissenting does not equate with not supporting our troops or our country. And I hadn't even been drinking!
Oh, the Deserter-in-Chief, Emperor Crackchimp, will be spending the first weekend of the war in a luxury golfcart at Camp David. Now watch this drive!
I'm coming to get you, Maru,
AND your calico cats.
March 20, 2003
Bush/Powell 'diplomacy' was a joke - and a pathetic failure
Next up: the Nooculer Nincompoop deals with North Korea and Iran!
"We can certainly expect the war to be run with more professionalism than the diplomacy that has led up to the war [which] recalled Freedonia going to war in Duck Soup, except that the Marx Brothers meant to be funny... A final UN resolution and vote were abandoned by the allies not only because they lacked the votes for authorizing war, but also because they faced the possibility of a majority vote against them - sending them to war in actual defiance of the Security Council. The problem was not the French veto. America and Britain had already said they would be satisfied with a 'moral victory' - a majority vote the French were forced to veto. The allies were blocked by concern that Angola, Chile, Pakistan, Cameroon, Guinea and Mexico might vote against them. This inability to persuade (or even intimidate or bribe) friendly countries on a matter so vital to the U.S. government is unprecedented in postwar history." - William Pfaff, courtesy of democrats.com.
Welcome to Bushistan. Please get in line to receive your flag, your complimentary Toby Keith CD, and your lobotomy.
The lovely and enchanting Tom 'Isadora' Daschle put on his spangly new tutu and, a true uniter, today tried to smooth over differences from earlier in the week when he truthfully remarked that pReznit Pipeline's diplomatic efforts had "failed miserably."
"Once our president makes the decision to commit troops, the Congress has always come together to speak with one voice, for one purpose" to support troops, Daschle said, trying to ignore the double-barrelled flag pointed at his head.
"We may have had differences of opinion about what brought us to this point, but the president is the Commander in Chief and today, we unite behind him as well," he said, wetting his pants in a creamy yellow rapture.
House Majority Leader/spawn of Beelzebub and some Nazi* Tom DeLay, who had earlier admonished Daschle, said, "We have to give president Bush our full support as he confronts this evil.*"
But Rep. Jim McDermott, a Washington Democrat, derided it as "the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld war" while Rep. Dennis Kucinich said Bush's "case for war is a sham" based on "untrue, unfounded and disproven allegations." - link
*Alleged.
**You need a new script, you stupid bunghole.
Hey, repugs: Jam that flagpole up your ass, part deux
'Impugning the patriotism of anyone who questions or opposes this administration's policies is an ugly habit on the right - one that has grown more intense and politically opportunistic since Sept. 11, 2001. These tactics are made more repugnant by hypocrisy and double standards. Recall that when President Clinton and NATO waged war against the Milosevic dictatorship to protect the Kosovars from genocide, ultra-right Republicans led by Tom DeLay denounced and undermined him nearly every day. His stupid pronouncements embarrassed the Congress and the nation, but no conservative told DeLay to prove his loyalty by shutting up.
'On Tuesday, the strutting House leader urged Sen.Tom Daschle to "fermez la bouche," taking a cheap shot at the Democrat for criticizing the president's diplomatic failure. Having served in the Air Force, Daschle doesn't need to prove his love of flag and country to the likes of DeLay. The only uniform in DeLay's closet is his pest exterminator outfit. (He once explained that he had been unable to fight in Vietnam because too many minorities had joined up and taken all the available Army bunks.)
'Why are Republican flacks and right-wing ideologues permitted to say the same things that provoke boycotts when uttered by movie stars and musicians? The double standard that condemns liberals while condoning libertarians is indefensible. There is nothing patriotic about the partisan abuse of loyal dissenters. It's a disgrace to the flag that these phonies wrap around themselves.' - snipped from Joe Conason's column.
Republicans and ethics??? Ha ha ha ha ha....
Guess who's back in the news!
"Former" White House aide/nursemaid/potty trainer Karen 'mommy' Hughes flew with pathetic, helpless warmonger and deserter pReznit Pinhead to the Azores on Sunday and helped to draft the speech he delivered to the nation Monday night.
She's also been working at the White House this past week, and she's been instrumental in developing the misadministration's plan for a communications strategy during the Iraq war.
Government watchdog groups said the arrangement essentially allows Hughes to serve as White House official without being subject to its ethics rules, such as disclosure of income sources. A decade ago, a similar White House consulting arrangement caused an uproar among congressional republicans, who were infuriated that Democratic National Committee consultants were given access to the 1993 deliberations on President Bill Clinton's first budget and economic plan."George Bush should be focused on winning this war and making sure our troops are safe, not on how his partisan campaign hacks are going to score political points in the aftermath," said David Sirota, spokesman for Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee. - link.
Top White House anti-terror boss resigns
The top National Security Council official in the war on terror resigned this week for what a NSC spokesman said were personal reasons, but intelligence sources say the move reflects concern that the looming war with Iraq is hurting the fight against terrorism.
"Hardly a surprise," said one former intelligence official. "We have sacrificed a war on terror for a war with Iraq. I don't blame Randy at all. This just reflects the widespread thought that the war on terror is being set aside for the war with Iraq at the expense of our military and intel resources and the relationships with our allies."
"This is a very intriguing decision (by Beers)," said author and intelligence expert James Bamford. "There is a predominant belief in the intelligence community that an invasion of Iraq will cause more terrorism than it will prevent. There is also a tremendous amount of embarrassment by intelligence professionals that there have been so many lies out of the administration -- by the president, (Vice President Dick) Cheney and (Secretary of State Colin) Powell -- over Iraq." - link.
Hey, repugs: Jam that flagpole up your ass
'Now that U.S. strikes against Iraq have begun, we should get rid of one canard immediately, and that's the notion that criticism of the Bush administration and opposition to this invasion imply in some sense a lack of support or concern for the men and women who are under arms.
'I think the men and women moving militarily against Saddam are among the few truly brave and even noble individuals left in our society. They have volunteered for the dangerous duty of defending the rest of us. But I also believe they are being put unnecessarily in harm's way.
'As a result of the military buildup, there is hardly a more hobbled leader on earth at the moment than Saddam Hussein. A skillful marshaling of international pressure could have forced him from power. But then the Bush administration would not have had its war and its occupation. It would not have been able to turn Iraq into an American protectorate, which is as good a term as any for a colony.' - Bob Herbert, patriot.
Quote
"...and anyway, if [the repugs] don't like Americans such as Sen. Daschle speaking their mind, why don't they move to someplace where everyone always praises the leader, like Iraq, North Korea, or Iran..." - JP, in the BuzzFlash mailbag.
Familiar, haunting words
I bet Hitler said "let's roll" too...
'It is darkly familiar to what we have been hearing here, when for the first time in American history we became all the things we ever hated and invaded another country: the address by Adolph Hitler to the Reichstag, Sept. 1, 1939.
'On that night, Hitler used this dry, unimaginative language to start a world war that was to kill 60 million, and they stopped counting. Wednesday night, George Bush, after speech after speech of this same dry, flat, banal language, started a war for his country, and we can only beg the skies to keep it from spreading into another world war.' - Jimmy Breslin.
Fait Accompli
'Hawkish TV pundits argued that hostilities needed to commence before the weather, the WEATHER, mind you, made war uncomfortable. Next they rationalized that no matter how misguided a scheme conquering Iraq had been to begin with - this is roughly Gen. Wesley Clark's position - American forces could not withdraw without a terrible loss of credibility. In schoolyard terms, Junior couldn't risk being laughed at. More recently, experts have taken to discounting a pre-emptive strike by Iraq because Saddam has no offensive capacity. Do they even listen to themselves?' - Gene Lyons.
March 19, 2003
Scalia bans broadcast media at 'free speech' talk
C-SPAN is outraged that the City Club of Cleveland has banned the media from covering today's speech by U.S. Supreme Court criminal Justice Antonin Scalia, on his orders.
Especially galling, says C-SPAN, is that Scalia was there to collect its Citadel of Free Speech Award.
The ban on broadcast media, demanded by Scalia, "begs disbelief and seems to be in conflict with the award itself," C-SPAN Vice President and Executive Producer Terry Murphy said. "How free is speech if there are limits to its distribution?"
And if you still aren't at hurl-level-orange and singing 'Springtime for Hitler' - in response to a student's question, Scalia said it was "a wonderful feeling" to have led the Supreme Court's rejection of a recount of the Florida vote, thus handing the election to Bush. - link.
Smirky McWarhead: a fooking spoiled little brat throws a tantrum
Hans Blix expressed disappointment that the inspections were not allowed to continue. 'I don't think it is reasonable to close the door on inspections after three-and-a-half months. I would have welcomed some more time,' said Blix. 'But then some didn't have the patience a little earlier than others have done, and I think that's a pity.' - from here.
Who do you have to f*ck to get an honest story out of the mainstream media?
Nobody - none of them have genitalia.
How can you tell when Bush is lying? When his lips move.
'These lies have been aided and abetted by the press and the woeful ignorance of the public. For a year, they painted squeaky clean boy scout Al Gore as a liar, trumpeting minor transgressions into major perfidy, manufacturing "evidence", while George the Second's blatant hypocrisies, contradictions, and stupidity were whitewashed....Somewhere in a cave or dingy basement, a gaunt yellow tall sickly man is softly chuckling to himself: "I don't have to do anything...they will do it to themselves."' - Michael Hammerschlag .
'Pardon the sardonic giggle: It arises from the thought that George W. Bush, the unelected president, is going to teach democracy to the Iraqis. When it comes to rigging or stealing elections, Mr. Bush and Saddam Hussein are brothers, or at least cousins, under the skin. The difference between the two is that Saddam gets 99.9 percent of the vote and Mr. Bush gets 49 percent, but they both get the job.' - Nicholas von Hoffman.
Inspectors: we were undercut by the warhappy assholes in the Bush misadministration
'As U.N. weapons inspectors flee Iraq, some are angry at the Bush administration for what they contend was a concerted effort to cut short their work, bad-mouth their efforts and make false claims about evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Some inspectors are scandalized at the way they say president Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, among others, have politicized the inspection process, according to a U.N. official close to the inspectors. None of the nuclear-related intelligence trumpeted by the administration has held up under scrutiny, inspectors say.' - a blurb from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, seen on the fretard site, without a working link.
Those degenerate idiots over at the 'moonie site are also patting themselves on the back for being mentioned by the Dixie Chicks as the morons responsible for creating the rabid backlash against them. I guess freedom and liberty are only for goosestepping, braindead twats.
Stuff
Scott from AMCGltd.com sent us this: Parody Pages, foreign- and domestic-policy for dummies like GW Bush!
Cool blog: Dreams and Things, by daintily dirty. The "Freedom Maids" picture may or may not be SFW!
Crap. Now the Blogrolling updates may or may not be working.
Reposted: I'm trying a hover-craft thing with the article links. Keep your mouse pointer over them for a few secs.
Hey, frenchie! USA stands for US, Asshole!
An editorial from an anonymous unamurkan commie Saddam-lover.
'Today, the Bush administration is preparing for war in the wake of its biggest diplomatic setback. Instead of leading a broad global alliance against Saddam, the U.S. is heading into battle with a small group of partners in defiance of an embittered world community.
'This startling failure is not likely to threaten the success of the U.S. military campaign. American troops and weapons are vastly superior to an Iraqi force far weaker than during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Still, the breach has alienated allies, cast doubt on U.S. moral authority to launch a war and complicated the task of rebuilding a post-Saddam Iraq. Each is a serious and largely avoidable result of a heavy-handed style that put an inflexible U.S. war plan ahead of more patient diplomacy to produce a broader coalition.' - link.
Meanwhile, the cowering Dems are still peeing in fear in their designated corners after attacks by a crazed, flag-waving Denny 'oooooh, donuts!' Hastert and the brainless, irony-deficient bushmoonie press.
'The pResident said that some countries lack the "fortitude" to take action against Saddam Hussein. Excuse me...but I don't exactly see George W. Bush's ass on the line either. While our young men and women are fighting, and dying on the sands of Iraq, Bush will have his feet propped up on a barco-lounger in the war room, munching on Pork Rinds.' - Hesiod, at Counterspin Central.
'Let's see, doesn't this make the second time that Bush didn't like how a vote was going to turn out so he canceled the count?' - Barney Gumble, at MWO Watch Watch Watch Watch.
'his complete and crushing failure as a world leader'
Howdy. Ah'm Duh-bya, an' ah'm a complete an' utter tool.
'Bush wasn't strong enough to sustain the resolve necessary to hammer out alternatives to the crude solution of war. He wasn't strong enough to persuade others to his point of view. His diplomatic skills and his political instincts have been so weak that he managed to squander with breathtaking speed the global goodwill toward the United States after the attacks of Sept. 11. He managed even to fracture a patriotic American population.
'Forget Gary Cooper and the cowboy swagger and the tough "you're either with us or against us" proclamations. We are going to war not because George W. Bush is too strong a leader to put up with Hussein's games but because he is too weak to find an alternative.' - Joan Ryan, obviously a damn commie traitor who hates Amurka, at SFGate.com. {/sarcasm}
'The nightmare world of a paranoid president'
'Big leaders can make even small countries look big, as Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair have reminded us often in recent weeks. But it is surely rare that a small leader makes even the greatest power look small. President George Bush accomplished that dubious feat in his televised address to the American people on Monday night.' - Mary Dejevsky, in the Independant.
March 18, 2003
Uniting as a country
Dennis 'whatever you say, Mr Delay' Hastert, Tom 'Bugman' Delay's sweaty buttboy-figurehead, accused former Neutical poster boy Tom 'Isadora' Daschle today of coming "mighty close" to giving comfort to U.S. foes and undermining George of the Bungle's "march toward war" with Iraq. As if that smirking cowpie needed any help in that area.
"Senator Daschle has spent more time criticizing the leadership of president Bush than he has spent criticizing the tyranny of Saddam Hussein," Hastert lied, while conveniently forgetting the repugs' vicious 8-year campaign of trying to impugn and destroy Bill 'Twice-Elected' Clinton. - link.
'Media watchdogs caught napping'
....rolling over, licking their nonexistant genitalia, going back to sleep.
Foreign news websites are seeing large volumes of traffic from America, as U.S. citizens increasingly seek real news coverage about the coming war.
"Given how timid most U.S. news organizations have been in challenging the White House position on Iraq, I'm not surprised if Americans are turning to foreign news services for a perspective on the conflict that goes beyond freedom fries," said Deborah Branscom, a Newsweek contributing editor.
The only debate in the U.S. media is on the web, Jon Dennis, a Guardian Unlimited deputy news editor, said. "Weblogs are doing all the work that the U.S. media did in the past," he said. "That's an interesting development." - link.
Quotes
"Perhaps one way will be, if we use military force, in the post-Saddam Iraq the U.N. will definitely need to have a role. And that way it can begin to get its legs, legs of responsibility back." - the incredible aWol Warring Wonderboob, the Azores, 3/16/03.
'Dick Cheney was on television yesterday morning advancing the fiction that "we're still in the final stages of diplomacy." President Bush was meeting in the Azores with his coalition of the hard-of-hearing, the small but stubborn group of men committed to attacking Iraq no matter how wrong or undesirable that might be, or how much outrage it provokes around the world.
'We're about to watch the tragedy unfold. The president, who's wanted war with Iraq all along, has been unwilling to listen seriously to anyone with an opposing view. He's turned his back on those worried about the consequences of a split in the trans-Atlantic alliance that has served the world well for better than half a century. He's closed his mind to those who have argued that pre-emptive warfare will ultimately make the world more - not less - unstable.' - Bob Herbert, in the NY Times.
Tony Blair "is roving ambassador to the right-wing, born-again, Bible-belting fundamentalist crew which first turned Texas into the toxic execution chamber of the western world." - Labour MP George Galloway.
Unca Karl! I wanna go out an' play with my soldiers NOW!!!!
'Pushed into war by liars and cheats'
'It was a rare moment of truth in the shabby charade which is plunging the world into war. Suddenly President Bush's mask slipped. The pretence that he is a great statesman and the saviour of international freedom was laid bare. He was revealed as a petulant little man, sick of having to wait before sending his massive forces into Iraq, his patience with pretending to listen to other nations totally exhausted.' - The Mirror.
Things to come
'The members of the Bush team don't seem bothered by the enormous ill will they have generated in the rest of the world. They seem to believe that other countries will change their minds once they see cheering Iraqis welcome our troops, or that our bombs will shock and awe the whole world (not just the Iraqis) or that what the world thinks doesn't matter. They're wrong on all counts.' - Paul Krugman.
'on the coat-tails of a US president who had won power in a grubby poll carve-up'
"What has come to trouble me over the past few weeks is the suspicion that if the hanging chads in Florida had gone the other way and Al Gore had been elected, we would not now be about to commit British troops to action in Iraq." - Robin Cook, in his resignation statement, link.
"The only option is the departure of the warmonger No. 1, in the world, the failing President Bush who made his country a joke in the world, who made his administration isolated in the world, who made the United States public enemy No. 1. He should depart from - he should go away from presidency, and let the Americans lead a normal life with other nations, not a life of aggression, a policy of aggression against other nations. This policy has brought disasters to the United States. So as for the United States to live properly with the world, and for the world nations to live in peace, this crazy man should go." - Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri.
I'm depressed. And it didn't help when watching CNN last night I heard Dick 'Fluffy' Gephardt say it's not time to point fingers, but to unite as a country. Excuse me? F*ck that, you impotent bunghole. I am so sick of this bullshit that if you're critical of the deserter-in-chief you're guilty of wanting to see our troops in danger somehow. Snap out of it. It's unbelievable. It's like the poor shlubs at Enron saying that even though our CEO is a lying crook that ran the company into the ground and then ran off to the Caymans with our retirement funds, we should support him because the company is in deep shit now. I mean really, WTF?? Does that make sense to you?? But it gets worse:
Tom 'Isadora' Daschle, who had earlier won brownie points when he said that Napoleon Bonehead had "failed so miserably" at diplomacy that the United States now stands on the brink of war, issued a statement after Emperor Snippy's speech last night assuring him of congressional unity. Blow me. And then there's this fucktard:
"It's time to come together and support our great American men and women in uniform and their commander-in-chief." Joe 'Dino' Lieberman. You f*cking kiss-ass.
You all make me sick.
This morning's top stories
Democrats pass torch to Janeane Garofalo, Dixie Chicks
"Your oil or your life."
Schedules round of last-minute meetings with Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush.
- - IronicTimes.
March 17, 2003
I'm sure it's just a coincidence
"It's hyperbole to argue that the Bush administration wants to invade Iraq only for the benefit of its friends in the corporate world (though some people no doubt believe that). For some businesses - most notably the airlines, which fear billions in losses if there is a war - an invasion will likely be terrible for the balance sheet. But, as in the Gulf War, some companies will make a bundle from an attack, and one doesn't have to be very conspiracy-minded to notice that these are the very same firms that have intimate ties with the Bush administration." - Farhad Manjoo, in Salon.
"France showed their cards. After I said what I said, they said they were going to veto anything that held Saddam to account." - the petulant pretender-president, 3/16/03.
Dictator-tot Smirky McHarken gives Saddam 24 hours - link. He'll address the nation tonight at 8:00. Saddam is evil and must be destroyed. Let's roll! {/puke}
Atrios has today's Daily Mirror front page, here.
March 16, 2003
Dammit. In my continuing effort to get the new site links to show up, I've been farting around with the template. If you don't see your site listed where it normally would be, look in the Blogrolling section! Meanwhile, here's a partial list of the 'invisible sites':
The Hamster
CalPundit
The Agonist
Hegemoney
Jesus' General
Gassing his own people, part 2
Security forces at Vandenberg Air Force Base authorized the use of "deadly force" - shooting to kill - against protesters if they infiltrated the military complex, officials said. - link.
'Why do you consider it unpatriotic to oppose a poorly-justified war, but not unpatriotic for you to have skipped out on your own military responsibilities during a war you did not oppose? ... [Y]ou say you are troubled by the existence of a leader who was not elected by a plurality of voters, who exhibits warlike behavior and advocates the right of preemptive attack, who threatens the energy future of the United States and who operates as an international bully and ignores the desperate needs of his own citizens. Has it ever occurred to you that this characterization may be a self-portrait?' - Russ Baker, here.
'The diplomatic disaster of the century'
The United States is about to go to war saying that diplomacy has failed. They're right about that. Day after day, month after month, president Bush and his men have made things worse for themselves in one of the most ruinous exercises in diplomacy the country has ever seen.
Not to put too fine a point on it - and no matter how the war against Iraq goes - it is hard not to conclude that the president is ignorant, the secretary of defense nuts and the secretary of state incompetent. - from Richard Reeves' column, here.
'The high price of bad diplomacy'
The failure of the Bush Administration to manage its diplomacy is staggering, and the price paid, even if the war ends quickly, could be higher than anyone now anticipates.
The political effect of this foreign policy imbroglio is already obvious. It can be measured in tattered alliances and global tensions, eroding support for president George W. Bush, and big changes throughout the Middle East. What remains unclear are the economic consequences. In the end, they may be far more significant. - by Bruce Nussbaum, here.
March 15, 2003
"the U.S. has been humiliated, diplomatically and strategically"
pResidental lapdancer and joystick Howard 'Oozeboy' Fineman blames everybody but Saint Smirky, God's chosen leader the Dictator-tot, here.
New Alan Jackson Song Contains Even More Ignorant Patriotic Fervor
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (DPI) - Encouraged by the success of his hit single "Where Were You (When the Lights Went Out)," country star Alan Jackson has set to work on a sequel. In "Where Were You," Jackson expressed pride at not knowing the difference between Iraq and Iran. In his new single, "Where Was I (When Geography Class Was Going On)," Jackson spins yet another heart-warming tale of his lack of knowledge of all things non-American. In his new release, Jackson serenades listeners with his confusion between Austria and Australia, Switzerland and Sweden, and Cancun and Canada.
(Reported by Miles Walker).
Ridge Warns of Color-Sensitive Terrorist Threat
WASHINGTON (DPI) - Lowering the "actual" threat level from orange to yellow moves the "real" threat level up to red, Secretary of Homeland Defense Tom Ridge explained today. "Because terrorists are more likely to attack when they believe our citizens are less vigilant, it is important for Americans to become more watchful the very moment we tell them to be less so," said Ridge. He also noted that if the threat became so remote that a blue level, the lowest risk of terrorist threat, was ever introduced, the Administration would be forced to consider instituting martial law.
(Reported by Davejames) - link.
"Once integrity goes, the rest is a piece of cake"
Rich Procter at SmirkingChimp.com writes:
It's the summer of 2002. You're Karl Rove. The economy is tanking. The budget surplus has vanished, replaced by colossal deficits that your insane tax policies are multiplying. Your boss vowed to get Osama bin Laden, "dead or alive," and yet he seems clueless how to do it. One set of investigators is starting to ask pointed questions about who knew what when about 9-11, and why nothing was done. Another set of investigators are asking about Enron, and why it is that Mr. Bush used Mr. Lay's personal plane so often during the campaign, and what role did Mr. Lay and other robber barons play in developing Mr. Cheney's super-secret "energy policy?"
How do you take everyone's mind off these festering negatives, and conjure a positive scenario that will sweep your boss to victory in '04? You ignore the question, "What's best for the country?" After all, your boss was anointed by a higher power than the American people - he's there by the direct edict of God, right? That means whatever you do to keep him there is God's will, right? Ends justify means, right? So you ask, "What's best for the boss?" And the answer is to create an Iraqi war out of thin air.
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