Cheap trollopes and Christian spanking

The US proposal for Iraqi inspections is indeed intended to be rejected. They snuck in a provision for sending armed guards with the inspectors. Combined with the demand for access to presidential palaces and Bush’s cowboy rhetoric, that sounds rather like hit squads, or will sound like that to Iraq. Not only inspectors and guards, but also anybody else the states which are permanent members of the Security Council feel like sending along, and those nations could also pick their own sites. In other words, spying in advance of war (choosing targets for bombing) would actually be institutionalized. And Iraqi scientists and others could be removed, presumably by force, from the country--so that they could be safely interrogated, of course.

According to Dubya, "You can't distinguish between al-Qaida and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror." He can’t distinguish a hawk from a handsaw either.

Actually, the Wash Post says Bush hasn’t mentioned the name Osama bin Laden unprompted since March 8, at all since July 8. Although to be fair we don’t know if Osama has been talking about Bush. OK, this is in part embarrassment at having muffed the ostensible purpose of the last military action before launching the next, but Bush doesn’t get the kick out of his enemy’s names that his father did. Junior likes nicknames, but not real ones. When was the last time he mentioned Al Gore’s name? It actually came up last week, and Fleischer said not to read anything into the fact; Bush sentences referring to Gore lately have had so many pronouns I defy him to say which “he” refers to whom. Remember the contemptuous tone in which Bush the Elder used to say “Saddam”, or “Pierre” for Pete du Pont, dragging out the vowels to the length of whole sentences?

Ari Fleischer insisted at a press conference today that the homeland security bill is bipartisan, though no more than 1 D supports it.

Isn’t it awfully cheap of the New Jersey Republicans to try to keep a replacement for Toricelli off the ballot?

David Mellors, who was fired by John Major for a sex scandal in 1992, says that Edwina “Hot” Currie is a cheap trollope, a phrase you surely do not hear every day.

40 years ago today JFK, just like Shrub, stood up to a rogue state which was resisting the will of the world, and threatened to send in the military. Fortunately, Mississippi surrendered.

Jeb Bush’s daughter gets away with it. OK, I don’t believe in criminalizing drug use, but bringing drugs into a rehab clinic might be something else again. You might also wonder about a rehab clinic where the same client gets caught twice, and just whose reputation they were protecting by refusing to testify. Maybe Jeb should take the advice of his new child welfare services, and give her a jolly good, but Christian, spanking.

Speaking of Christian spanking, click here for the Domestic Discipline & Spanking Web Site, which asks the magic question, “is domestic discipline commanded of God?” To save you some time, the answer is evidently yes. [Update: that link is no longer working.]

A University of Glasgow study proves that housework makes you depressed. Then I should be the happiest man in the world.