But I never apologized to the Arab world

An interview Bush gave to Christian Republican newspaper editors includes this remark about Abu Ghraib: “I said I am sorry for those people who were humiliated. That's all I said. I also said, "The great thing about our country is that people will now see that we'll deal with this in a transparent way based upon rule of law. And it will serve as a great contrast." But I never apologized to the Arab world.”

Adnan Pachachi blames a “shabby conspiracy” led by Chalabi for wrecking his presidential candidacy. And insists that he was never the US’s fave. Which he was.

Saturday is the 15th anniversary of Tiananmen Square. The LA Times has a story on the confrontation between the guy and the line of tanks. We still don’t know who he is, and no one in China, the LAT exaggerates, has ever seen the film or photos.

Speaking of anniversaries, next week is the 10th anniversary of OJ Simpson killing his wife and that guy. He says the media convinced people he is guilty because he is black, but that he has given up the search for the real killers because he is too busy raising his sons. He says he has never discussed the murders with them, because they never asked. Probably afraid to.

In a travesty of parliamentary democracy, Sharon is trying to stack his government, firing members of the cabinet who oppose his Gaza plan, which is being watered down still further even as I speak. This might get it through cabinet (might: one of them has literally gone into hiding so that he won’t receive the notification), but it would be a cabinet without backing of a majority of the Knesset. The people being fired, by the way, are racist pigs who don’t belong in public life.

Bush met the pope today (and showed up 15 minutes late). Hard to make out what was said because of the barely recognizable, mumbled, badly pronounced English....and the pope’s wasn’t that good either.

Hey, just because a joke is obvious doesn’t mean it’s not worth making.

Kerry says he would expand the military by 40,000, but, the NYT notes, won’t specify how he would attract 40,000 new troops. Or to put it another way, how do you ask the last 40,000 men to die for a mistake? I’m guessing a radio in the shape of a football.

And Rumsfeld is in Bangladesh trying to get them to send troops (for money, of course).

A federal judge rules unconstitutional a federal law banning ads on the sides of buses, train stations etc advocating legalizing marijuana.

The first former head of government tried in an American court since Noriega has just been convicted. Did you even know that Pavlo Lazarenko, former PM of Ukraine, was being tried? Money laundering, wire fraud & extortion.

The story of the Al Qaida hijacker who turned himself in to the FBI has reached NPR NBC, and the Wall Street Journal. His name is Niaz Kahn. The story I sent out was published by the Sunday Times on May 9th. Nice of the big boys to catch up.

2 cartoons:
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sFile=bo040604

http://www.ucomics.com/tomtoles/2004/06/03/

Reuters: “Tesfaye Gebre Kidan, who ruled Ethiopia for a week in 1991 and then spent 13 years in hiding in Addis Ababa's Italian embassy, has died. He died after a fight with an ex-minister who also took refuge, a hospital source said.”