The cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization

Francoist Spain--fascist Spain, if you will--was treated by the US as an ally, invited into NATO etc etc, without a word of criticism about the, you know, fascism. So maybe we should just shut up about appeasement already.

Also: do we have to call it “Freedom fly” now?

Kerry’s new slogan: “I have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization.”

What’s actually going on is that Spain is a stand-in for John Kerry. The message is that anyone who disagrees with Bush out loud is encouraging or “appeasing” the terrorists. Here’s a quote from Bush from today: “By speaking clearly, consistently and meaning what we say, the more likely the world will be more peaceful.” Was that line directed at Spain or Kerry? Kerry, but could be either, couldn’t it?

Evidently there really is a Karen Ryan, that was not an actress. But neither is she a reporter; she’s a PR flack. In fact, she often voices PR pieces disguised as news segments, just as she did this time for Medicare, for corporate clients. Which I think is actually worse.

Scalia, refusing to recuse himself from a case against Dick Cheney, writes in a 21-page explanation: “I never hunted in the same blind with the vice president.” I believe that’s what Bill once said about Monica.

Atrios reminds me that while Kerry won’t say which furriners would prefer him to Shrub as president, a year ago the Bushies were talking about some countries being secret COW countries.

The US upgrades Pakistan’s status to “major non-NATO ally” so we can sell it more weapons, like depleted-uranium shells, ignoring Pakistan’s nuclear testing, threats of war with India, it being run by a coup leader, protecting Al Qaida, selling nuclear technology to everyone with a MasterCard...

By the way, the one fact I never see in US media: not only was A. Q. Khan pardoned, but he was allowed to keep all the money he made selling nuclear technology illegally.

In the Russian presidential elections, 94.99% voted for Putin in Chechnya.

Man, you stop paying attention to Kosovo for a second, and...