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Must-read: Billmon analysis of the Israel-Palestine-Lebanon situation.
Condi says of Israel, “I think they understand the need to exercise restraint.” She does not present any evidence of this. (The Israeli ambassador to the US immediately responded that Israel has “tried restraint” with Lebanon.) Asked about the possibility of all-out war in the Middle East, she replies, “I think it doesn’t help to speculate about kind of apocalyptic scenarios.” Smoking gun, mushroom cloud, ring a bell, Condi?
A great step forward in Iraq! Foreign occupying forces will hand Muthanna province (which is mostly desert) over to the Iraqi security forces! Prime Minister Maliki was there to celebrate, but “Most of his speech at the ceremony to mark this historic event went unheard because the sound system failed due to a power cut.” The Indy continues:
There were no members of the public present at the ‘Olympic Stadium’ of the sleepy and dusty provincial capital, Samawa, to witness the Prime Minister’s tussles with broadcasting. All those present were invited, and the date of the handover had not been publicised to prevent an attack by insurgents.
Angela Merkel took Bush to the village of Trinwillershagen yesterday. I hope, for the sake of all our sanity in a week like this, that someone has, and posts to YouTube, footage of Bush trying to pronounce Trinwillershagen.
It wasn’t just invisible herring. Here George, according to the Reuters caption, is preparing to kiss the invisible wife of the American ambassador to Germany.
And if it’s Friday, it must be whatever they’re calling Leningrad this week. Goosestepping soldiers with flowers accompanied the Bushes to the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad.
The US vetoes a UN resolution against the Israeli attack on Gaza, John Bolton calling it “untimely and already outmoded.” See, that’s what happens when you don’t turn in your homework on time.
Speaking of outmoded, Rummy Rumsfeld went to Afghanistan this week (it was a “surprise” visit, except that the State Department announced it Saturday, then said that was a mistake and he wasn’t really going to Afghanistan, then he went to Afghanistan. The State Department also throws the lamest surprise birthday parties). Reporters kept asking him about the rise in violence there. He denied that it was in fact rising, attributing it to better “accounting” of such incidents. That double-entry bookkeeping’ll get you every time. He also offered this insight: “I think that we have seen changes in the level of violence with the number of incidents that occur in Afghanistan.” Later, he took this analysis even deeper: “I also think that the levels of incidents are up because of the level of activity.” That’s why he’s the secretary of defense and you’re not.
Also, he doesn’t know the meaning of the word “losing”:
Q: But looking to that violence and insurgency, some observers from inside and outside the country are thinking that the U.S. troops are losing slowly, losing the game day by day. What do you think of that?
SEC. RUMSFELD: I’m sorry, I didn’t understand the word. “Losing” is what you said?
Q: Losing the game.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Losing the game.
Q: Losing the fight.
PRESIDENT KARZAI: Against terrorism. That’s what he means.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh.
He then explained, “Well I think if you look at the number of terrorists and Taliban and al Qaeda that are being killed every month, it would be hard for them to say that the Coalition forces and the Afghan security forces were losing.” Ah, body counts, for any of you experiencing nostalgia (or flashbacks) for Vietnam and Robert McNamara.
And then he made a “surprise” visit to Iraq. Some day no doubt the Pentagon website will even put up some transcripts for me to make fun of. AFP headline: “Shiites Massacred as Rumsfeld, Maliki Discuss Security.”
One is a roasted wild pig...
One is a screaming infant...
Bush is in Germany, which gives me the opportunity to use Google’s fine translation program on a Der Spiegel article.
The result is an odd approximation of what the inside of George Bush’s head must look like: “Afterwards it over-accumulated it up with praise.” “The president vibrated the hands of humans and spoke with them.” “...approximately 1000 citizens, who were invited to the greetings of Bush by Merkel on the old person market.”
Bush said he wanted to see what East Germany was like, so they banned cars in Stralsund, locked people in their homes, and imported 15,000 cops. Actually, the guys who used to guard the Berlin Wall were nothing like as scary looking as this:
The Wall guys were very polite and didn’t laugh at me when I asked them to point out the Reichstag (crappy map in the AAA guide book).
Bush held a press conference with Angela Merkel. He wants Putin “to join us in saying to the Iranians loud and clear: ‘We’re not kidding. It’s a serious issue.’” You know, I think that should be the exact text of the UN Security Council resolution.
He explains the situation in Gaza: “And we were headed toward the road map, things looked positive, and the terrorists stepped up and kidnapped a soldier, fired rockets into Israel.” Things looked... positive? And of course, “Israel has a right to defend herself.”
Says Putin’s crack about Cheney’s shooting a guy in the face “was pretty clever — actually quite humorous.” And, “My own view of dealing with President Putin, though, is that nobody really likes to be lectured a lot”. Which explains your grades at Yale.
But what really interested him was the pig they were roasting in his honor (I think they were planning to eat it too).
Q Does it concern you that the Beirut airport has been bombed? And do you see a risk of triggering a wider war? And on Iran, they’ve, so far, refused to respond. Is it now past the deadline, or do they still have more time to respond?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I thought you were going to ask me about the pig.
If I declare a caption contest, you must all promise not to apply that line inappropriately.
Here, George samples the invisible herring for which the town of Stralsund is justly famous.
Israel has been broadcasting this message into Gaza: “Israel is interested in your well-being. Is this the welfare that Hamas promised you?” They really do seem to be operating under the delusion that Palestinians will be turned against their elected government by Israeli bombing.
American ambassador to the UN John “Creepy Mustache” Bolton on a proposed resolution against the Israeli attack on Gaza: “We don’t see anything productive coming from it.”
Admittedly, it does seem just soooo last invasion. Israeli PM Olmert says that the Hezbollah capture of 2 Israeli soldiers was “an act of war” by the Lebanese government and that the Israeli response, which follows the Gaza model – bombing, destroying bridges, refusal to negotiate (which in general I would agree is the correct policy, although in both cases most of the prisoners that Hamas/Hezbollah want released are people Israel has no particular right to hold) – “will be restrained, but very, very, very painful.” Just ask Mrs. Olmert... no, I won’t go there.
Speaking of war crimes, Digby has an excerpt from Rick Perlstein’s forthcoming book Nixonland on Lt. Calley, well worth reading.
Robert Novak says his exchange with Karl Rove over Valerie Plame lasted just 20 seconds. Just ask Mrs. Novak... no, I won’t go there.
Putin is pissed at foreigners daring to criticize him for his anti-democratic attitude, telling NBC that he considers such criticism “completely unacceptable.” Uh, yeah, that pretty much sums up the problem right there. He also compared Cheney’s criticism on this subject to “an unsuccessful hunting shot.” Dude, leave the Dick-Cheney-shot-a-guy-in-the-face jokes to the professionals.
Custody battle for the loincloth Johnny Weissmuller wore as Tarzan (just the one, for twelve movies?).
Israel just fired rockets at Beirut International Airport. I’m sure that will resolve the situation. How could it not?
Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, head of the Fraph death squad in Haiti in the early 1990s, responsible for many, many murders and rapes, has finally been arrested in New York City, which he fled to in 1994. In 1996 the Haitian government demanded his extradition and the US refused, a decision possibly related to the fact that Constant was threatening to reveal all the details of his close working relationship with the CIA. The Clinton Admin explained its decision was out of concern that a trial would overstretch the Haitian legal and penal system, And turned him loose. So he stayed in the US for ten years until he finally committed a crime the US cares about: defrauding banks in a mortgage scheme.
This sort of thing happens all the time. The Salvadoran Air Force captain whose driver got Archbishop Oscar Romero’s assassin to the church on time lived for many years in Modesto, California selling used cars until he went on the run two years ago for fear of being prosecuted for rolling back odometers. Oh, and the South Vietnamese police chief who shot the prisoner in 1968 – you know the picture – owned a pizza parlor in Virginia and died of natural causes.
In a press conference with foreign newspapers, Bush made perhaps his least appropriate use of his favorite adjective: “It’s an interesting thing about terrorists, by the way, they’ll kill children like that. They don’t care.”
He also talked about his good friend Pooty-Poot, whose thugs are currently disrupting a pro-democracy conference and ordering dissidents to leave Moscow during the G-8 summit. “We’ve [Laura and he] got a good friendship with the Putins. We’re comfortable around them.” Must not have seen that video of Vlad kissing that kid’s stomach. Or maybe he has seen it and is looking forward to having his own stomach kissed.
Oh, I am not gonna be able to get that image out of my head.
About the Mahmudiya rape/mass murder, Editor & Publisher asks something I asked 6 days ago, why the media keep referring to the rape victim (D.O.B. 8/19/91), Abeer al-Janabi, as a “woman.”
Riverbend thinks there have been many more rapes, that the only reason this one came out was that her whole family, which would normally have felt dishonor and kept quiet, was killed along with her.
She also says that Maliki’s family is abroad. I haven’t seen this elsewhere. Can anyone confirm?
Bush called again for a line-item veto (the unconstitutional version passed by the House) in order to allow him to “target unnecessary spending” and stop legislators “stuffing stuff into these bills that never gets a hearing or the light of day”. Thing is, he’s implying that he would use the power to shame greedy congresscritters, but I don’t think he’s ever named a single spending item he would have vetoed if he had the power, never brought any of this “stuff” into the light of day.
Later, at a fundraiser for Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Mark Green, he said, “You’ve got to make sure you’ve got a good fiscal hog in your governor’s seat. You’ve got to have somebody who’s willing to take on the sacred cow.” Fiscal hog?
The Somali Islamists have captured the last of the American-backed warlords, and Coca-Cola has been declared un-Islamic.
Bush was happy today. Look how excited he is about going for a ride in his helicopter.
And look how excited he is to be given these, um, colorful shoes. The entire cast of Sex and the City put together was never so excited by and proud of a pair of shoes.
In fact he is so excited that he has forgotten how to walk.
The text of the “Compact with the People of Cuba” is here. It lists the many things the US will do to support a “Cuban transition government,” whatever that might be, including providing emergency food, water, fuel and medical equipment (none of which except perhaps fuel are in short supply in Cuba), helping “rebuild your shattered economy,” and my favorite, “Discourage third parties from intervening to obstruct the will of the Cuban people.” Presumably the third party they have in mind is Venezuela, but.... third party? The unthinking use of that phrase neatly demonstrates the assumption that intervention by the US (the second party) in the affairs of the Cuban people (the first party) is completely natural and legitimate.
(Later): at the roll-out of the report yesterday, Caleb McCarry, the “Cuba Transition Coordinator,” undeftly dodged a question about whether the US would send troops:
MR. MCCARRY: Well, the report, in terms of perspective recommendations, does include a recommendation regarding providing support during a transition, as authorized by U.S. law, to assist the Cuban security forces in making the transition to working under a democratic government. That --
QUESTION: Does that involve the deployment of U.S. forces?
MR. MCCARRY: That’s -- I just gave you the -- recited the part of the report that does refer to, prospectively, in the future with a transition government, the kinds of assistance that might be provided.
In the Report to the President, Venezuela is indeed a big concern. It goes on and on about Venezuela and the Cuba-Venezuela “axis.”
The Report is about what you’d expect, how we’re going to destroy Cuba’s economy until Castro dies, and then how we’re going to rebuild it and bring in a prosperous, democratic future. Or to put it another way, they think they’ve learnt something from the example of how not to do such things, Iraq (which they never mention), but they really haven’t. What they have concluded is that “freedom” is not enough: “Offering to help Cubans meet their basic and unmet social desires and humanitarian needs will be a powerful force for change and the best guarantor that the transition to freedom will succeed”. In other words the “powerful force for change” will be tens of billions of dollars of American money.
Which will be channeled through this “Cuban transition government.” And quickly too: the report calls for the US to be ready “to provide technical assistance in the first two weeks after a determination that a Cuban transition is underway”. The CTG is the black box of the report, a CIA-coup-sized hole in its middle. The report talks endlessly about all the things the CTG should do and all the things we’ll do to help it but says nothing about how it would be formed, how it would push aside the Communists (though we are planning to “undermine the regime’s succession strategy”), from whence its legitimacy would be derived (we’re giving it 18 months to organize elections). McCarry at that press conference kept deflecting questions about this. I’m guessing that’s all covered in the classified parts of the report, because without this mysterious entity, there is literally no plan. The CTG will evidently just magically appear, possibly defrosted from cryogenic freezers in Langley and be embraced by the Cuban people and possibly welcomed with flowers and dancing in the streets.
Every other blogger is making fun of Joe Lieberman for the name of his new party. Well, this blog is better than that (go along with me on this one), and just wants to help out. I just know the readers of this blog can come up with a better name than “Connecticut for Lieberman,” one with more pizzazz, more Joementum, if you will. Slogans are also welcome.
Still haven’t seen the “Compact with the Cuban People” report. I guess it’s easier to hide when it’s compact.
Sorry.
We are, however, assured that “This plan is not an imposition [Your in-laws dropping over uninvited is an imposition, a telemarketer calling during dinner is an imposition; this is imperialism or, if you prefer, regime change] but rather is a promise we will keep with the Cuban people [note the odd preposition in “promise with,” no doubt changed from “promise to” when they realized it showed a little too clearly the unilateral nature of the “Compact”] to marshal our resources and expertise [“expertise” developed during 47 years trying to overthrow Castro], and encourage our democratic allies [don’t forget Poland!] to be ready to support Cuba when the inevitable opportunity [he’s gotta die sometime] for genuine change [accept no substitutes] arises. The work of the Commission will ensure that the U.S. Government is fully prepared, if asked [what’s the Spanish for Chalabi?], to assist a genuine Cuban transition government [accept no substitutes] committed to democracy [you know, eventually, when the people are “ready” for it] and which will lead to Cuba’s reintegration into the inter-American system [taking orders from Washington again, like God intended].”
You will be delighted to hear that the United States has a “Compact with the Cuban People.” I’m sure the Cuban People will also be delighted to hear it. For the moment, though, we’ll all have to be satisfied with a summary, the actual report of the State Department’s Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba is not yet online (indeed, that link is currently dead) (and some of the report is classified, which some people might consider ironic).
We are told the Compact will “reassure Cubans that the U.S. stands with them in their desire for freedom.” I’m sure they will be very reassured indeed to hear it, and even more to hear that “The message to Cubans is that they will be secure in their homes,” because nothing is more reassuring than a message from a foreign country telling you that you will be secure in your home. We will “undermine regime finances and survival strategies.” And we will give all sorts of aid to a “Cuban Transition Government,” although it is unclear from whence this august body will spring. And there will be “market-based economic opportunities,” although again, opportunities for whom is left a little bit vague.
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, asked by Wolf Blitzer (who doesn’t know the meaning of the term “follow-up question”) what the US 
is doing about the siege of Gaza, responded that Condi “has been involved, every day of this crisis, to try to call on the Hamas authorities to release the Israeli soldier”, which is funny because the Hamas authorities are not the ones holding the soldier. Then he used possibly the least helpful words there are in international relations: “Let’s remember who started this.” And we know who that always is. “It was the outrageous actions of Hamas, in violating Israel’s sovereignty, in taking the soldier hostage, in killing the Israeli settler, that unleashed this.” First, I don’t think the Palestinians will be much impressed by the sacred status suddenly assigned to “sovereignty.” Second, that verb “unleashed,” as if Israeli actions are never a deliberate choice, but rather the air strikes, etc were “unleashed,” like a rambunctious puppy.
This may come as a surprise to no one, but the LAT reports that the Iraqi police is corrupt, brutal, corrupt, infiltrated by the militias, corrupt, infiltrated by insurgents, and corrupt. It says the unit that ran the secret prison where 173 prisoners were found last November, starving, beaten and tortured, still operates. No people under the authority of the sort of police described in this article can be described as free.
(Update: the fake police pretty much suck too.)
Follow-up: we still haven’t been told the name of the little girl who died in the bombing that killed Zarqawi, nearly one month ago.
Gene Weingarten writes on the glory that is concrete.
When Bush visited Cabot Microelectronics yesterday, the staff insisted on keeping their lab coats on, to protect them from being infected by his – in their words – “stupid juice.”
Rev. O’Neal Dozier, an ally of Jeb Bush (and of Attorney General Charlie Crist, a candidate to succeed Bush), who I can’t remember hearing of before today but already loathe, has stirred up some controversy by calling Islam a cult religion. Evidently no one’s been much bothered up until now by this guy, appointed (twice) by Jeb to the Broward County Judicial Nominating Commission, asking potential judges if they are god-fearing, how active they are in their church, and what sort of parents they are (a little googling clarifies that he asked that of a single mother). He is on a committee attempting to block the opening of an Islamic center (they’re all terrorists, you know). He’s been to the White House several times. He supports Crist because Jesus came to him in a dream and said Crist would win. Did I mention that this guy screens judicial nominees in Broward County? He has said, “We cannot have a judge who feels sodomy is OK” and that homosexuality is “something so nasty and disgusting that it makes God want to vomit.”
There’s probably a gross theological discussion to be had about whether God could in fact create something so nasty that He couldn’t help but vomit.
Bush went to raise funds for Judy Baar Topinka’s campaign for governor of Illinois, where he spoke incoherently about education: “We’ve got too much stateism, in public education, too much excuse-making, too much process.” Too much process? “And the reason we want people to measure is because we want to know.” And there’s something in the transcript which is not Chimpy’s fault but which I still adore: “You know what’s happening here in the city of Chicago? You’re reading scores are up.”
“It’s a decision-making experience. Governor, you’ll find it to be decision-making experience,” he advised Ms. Topinka, who is not the governor. “I love ethanol,” he confided. “I can’t think of a more noble profession than being an OB/GYN,” he said, mysteriously. “I wish WIIIAI would stop taking my comments out of context,” he protested.
Continuing the education theme, Bush next went on a tour of the Cabot Microelectronics Corporation and he was amazed, simple unabashedly amazed, to find that the people who worked there had studied science:
And what’s amazing as you walk through the labs and meet the people working here, you say, what’s your degree in? Let me just say, there wasn’t a lot of history majors -- physicists, chemists, PhDs., people with advanced degrees. It is clear that in order for this country of ours to be competitive in the future, we’ve got to understand the nature of the jobs of the future, and these jobs are going to require people who have got math and science skills.
So future good, past bad, history majors will be heard to mutter, “Worst president since James Buchanan (1857-1861),” as they mop the floors at Cabot Microelectronics.
The Igor-gone-to-seed is Denny Hastert
They just don’t make a lab coat big enough, do they?
Bush had a press conference today, and the gimmick is that it wasn’t in Washington but in Chicago. Which explains the windiness.
On immigration: “And when you make something illegal that people want, it’s amazing what happens -- got a whole industry of smugglers and innkeepers and document forgers that sprung up.” Innkeepers?
On democracy: “You win elections by believing something.” That your brother and Katherine Harris will make sure the votes against you aren’t counted? That you have a lock on the US Supreme Court?
On diplomacy: “It’s kind of painful in a way for some to watch because it takes a while to get people on the same page. Everybody -- not everybody thinks the exact same way we think. There are different -- words mean different things to different people, and the diplomatic process can be slow and cumbersome. This is why this is probably the fourth day in a row I’ve been asked about North Korea -- it’s slow and cumbersome.” Also, of course, other countries aren’t as selfless and altruistic as we are, and clearly when they disagree with American foreign policy it must be because they’re greedy self-interested bastards: “Some nations are more comfortable with sanctions than other nations, and part of the issue we face in some of these countries is that they’ve got economic interests. And part of our objective is to make sure that national security interests, security of the world interests trump economic interests. And sometimes that takes a while to get people focused in the right direction.”
On defining success in a war: “This is a compassionate nation that cares about people, and when they see people die on their TV screens, it sends a signal, well, maybe we’re not winning.”
On defining democracy in Asia: “the region is relatively peaceful except for one outpost; one system that’s not open and transparent; one system that doesn’t respond to the will of the people; one system that’s dark, and that’s North Korea.” It’s official: China is open, transparent and responds to the will of the people. Who knew?
Bush and the LauraBot were interviewed on his birthday by Larry King, and gosh would you believe that not much of substance got said in an entire hour. Larry must have been hard pressed to restrain himself from singing Happy Birthday, and probably then only because CNN would have had to pay the song’s copyright holders.
But there was time for:
George’s in-depth psychoanalysis of the goals of Kim Jong Il (or as Bush called him, “the person in North Korea”): “You know, I don’t know. I really don’t know. I think he wants us to either fear him or pay attention to him.”
George’s profound understanding of the ramifications of history: “And the reason why I was now able to work with Koizumi to keep the peace and to go to Graceland to honor Elvis, was because Japan adopted a different style of government.”
George’s deep sense of his place in history: “When history looks back, I’d rather be judged as solving problems and being correct, rather than being popular.” Yeah, good luck with that.
George’s erudite and compassionate... oh fuck it, roll the tape: “I mean, when you find -- if in fact the charges are true that somebody was raped and murdered, then there ought be concern by the Iraqis. What they’ve got to be comforted in knowing is that we will deal with this in a way that is going to be transparent, above board and open.”
First thought: anyone who uses the “There you go again” line, as Lieberman did a couple of times, should automatically be declared to have lost the debate.
I’m beginning to despise the whole election debate format: “I’m not Bush,”; “I’m one of the senators able to reach across the partisan divide,” but you voted with Republicans on whatever exciting issues the Greenwich board of selectmen voted on; how many times can I, Ned Lamont, say my own name, which is Ned Lamont, in an hour?; you are a one-issue candidate, you have six different positions on that issue (Lieberman didn’t quite use the phrase “flip-flopper,” but you just knew he wanted to), etc. Lamont had a few of those pre-programmed things too, unless you believe that “Sir, this is not Fox News” line was conjured up on the spur of the moment.
At one point, about 35 minutes in (I didn’t write it down and can’t find a transcript), Joementum went over the small-d democratic line, calling into question the legitimacy of anyone running against him in the primary. And in his prepared opening, Holy Joe again said, “Ned Lamont seems just to be running against me based on my stand on one issue, Iraq... applying a litmus test to me,” glibly suggesting that the war isn’t so important an issue that people who disagree with him on it should vote against him because of it. That dismissive treatment of a big, bloody, lengthy, expensive, you know... war, is what disqualifies him from further public service, almost regardless of his actual position on that oh so minor subject.
AP headline: “Bush: Hard to Read North Korea’s Motives.” Or words of more than two syllables. You were all way ahead of me on that one, weren’t you? (Update: Wonkette was also ahead of me.) (It’s being guest-blogged this week by Princess Sparkle Pony, so it’s actually entertaining for a change).
(And Needlenose is also ahead of me, with a caption contest I was going to have. I must start getting up earlier.)
That comment and that image were in a press “availability” with Stephen Harper of Canada, who gave him a belt buckle and silver cuff links a Mountie hat for his birthday. Since my first contest idea was scuttled, perhaps you’d care to guess what Harper was trying to tell Bush with those gifts? Bush says Harper “tells me what’s on his mind and he does so in a real clear fashion.” As opposed to King Jong Il:
It’s hard for me to tell you what’s on his mind. He lives in a very closed society. It’s unlike our societies where we have press conferences and people are entitled to ask questions, and there’s all kinds of discussions out of administrations and people saying this, saying that, and the other.
Especially, in his case, the other. Although he does have a point – we do know exactly what’s on Chimpy’s mind: gibberish.
Bush said over and over that everyone needs to speak (gibberish) to North Korea with one voice. But there can’t be bilateral talks, it has to be 6-party talks. But 5 of the parties are supposed to speak with one voice. Whatever.
Bush also had a meeting with Ambassador Khalilzad. Bush questioned the motives of the insurgents: “And you have to ask yourself, who’s afraid of democracy?” Well....
The real problem in Iraq: “Zal is concerned about foreign influences in the country, as am I.” It’s those damned furriners!
Various members of the Italian intelligence services have been arrested, and warrants issued for 26 American CIA agents and suchlike, for the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric, who was flown from Italy to Egypt for torture. This is the Italian legal system we’re talking about, so I wouldn’t expect too much, but it should be fun while it lasts.
Another lovely quote from Gen. William Caldwell IV about Mahmudiya: “We will hold ourselves accountable for our actions.” But if there’d been a rape and multiple murder and cover-up by Saddam Hussein’s military, he actually did have the gall to go on and say, “there was absolutely no accountability”.
Military Moron
I will now end, like all blog posts should, with a picture of a bear in a convertible.
Bush climbed down on immigration, saying he no longer insisted on a comprehensive plan but would let Congress pass a bill solely to tighten enforcement, and get to the citizenship and guest-worker proposals, you know, later. He made this announcement at a Dunkin’ Donuts, for, um... symbolic reasons? The hole in the middle represents the place his integrity should be? Mexicans will have to swim the Rio Grande like donuts dunked in coffee? Something about dropping g’s at the end of -ing words? He says it’s because “I love being with entrepreneurs and dreamers and doers and people who are running things, and managers”. Dude, it’s a donut store. You know who you meet in those? Some years ago I got to Venice, California a little early for a double feature at the Fox Venice Theater, and decided to kill some time at a donut store. Some big guy with a beard came up to me and started talking about Jesus Christ. Not in a theoretical way: he claimed to actually hang out with Jesus, ride motorcycles together... there was a little hint that they might have had sex, but I didn’t wish to pry. After he’d gone on for a while, I thanked him for sharing, backed out of the store quickly, and went to my Fellini double bill. I imagine the people at the Alexandria Dunkin’ Donuts feel much the same way I felt that night. All except for April Ryan, the White House correspondent for the American Urban Radio Networks, who Bush offered to buy a cup of coffee:
THE PRESIDENT: April, would you like me to buy you a cup of coffee?
MS. RYAN: I would love you to.
THE PRESIDENT: What would you want in it?
MS. RYAN: Anything you want to give me.
Ewwww.
In a photo op later in the day with President of Georgia Saakashvili, Bush was asked about North Korea. He offered that country this helpful advice:
The North Korean government can join the community of nations and improve its lot by acting in concert with those who -- with those of us who believe that she shouldn’t possess nuclear weapons, and by those of us who believe that there’s a positive way forward for the North Korean government and her people. In other words, this is a choice they made.
Diagram that first sentence, I dare you. Clearly that Dunkin’ Donuts coffee kept him awake when he should have been taking his late-morning nap. “What these firing of the rockets have done is they’ve isolated themselves further.”
North Korea launches 7 missiles, Bush calls for 6-party talks. I’m sensing a 12-days-of-Christmas thing here.
Incidentally, how do we know the test was a failure, just because the missile fell into the Sea of Japan? The North Koreans are so weird they may just have initiated a war with Atlantis.
Condi agrees with me, saying, “I can’t really judge the motivations of the North Korea regime. I wouldn’t begin to try.” Of course the difference between her and me is that it’s her fucking job to try to understand the motivations of the North Korean regime.
The website of North Korea’s Central News Agency doesn’t mention the missile testing. Its top story today: “Kim Jong Il Gives On-Site Guidance to New Pyongyang Taesong Tire Factory.” That guidance? Make a lot of tires. See, that sort of guidance is why he’s the dictator, and you’re not.
The Pentagon’s spokesmodel in Iraq, Gen. William Caldwell IV, says we shouldn’t “rush to judgment” about the soldier who killed an entire family in Mahmudiya so he could rape the daughter (who the NYT, LAT and others call a “woman,” although consensus now is that she was 15). Says Caldwell, “we must remember the acts of a few should not outweigh the deeds of the many.”
Great minds think alike. Bob of Bob’s Links and Rants has done something I actually thought about myself but was too lazy to do: highlight the currently relevant bits of the Declaration of Independence.
Bush, speaking at Fort Bragg to the 18th Airborne, or, as he likes to call them, the 8th Airborne, has discovered the rhetorical device known as repetition:
Setting an artificial timetable would be a terrible mistake. At a moment when the terrorists have suffered a series of significant blows, setting an artificial timetable would breathe new life into their cause. Setting an artificial timetable would undermine the new Iraqi government and send a signal to Iraq’s enemies that if they wait just a little bit longer, America will just give up. Setting an artificial timetable would undermine the morale of our troops by sending the message that the mission for which you’ve risked your lives is not worth completing.
Then he adds, in case you were wondering:
We’re not going to set an artificial timetable to withdraw from Iraq.
Speaking of not completing one’s mission, the unit searching for Osama bin Laden was dissolved in December, and no one bothered to inform us. Says the first head of the unit (1996-9), “This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda.” Is it elitist of me to wonder if there’s a hint to the reason he never caught Osama in the fact that he doesn’t know the difference between degrade and denigrate?
Bush ended his little pep talk with this comment, worthy of a Victorian empire-builder: “You’ve kept America what our founders meant her to be: a light to the nations, spreading the good news of human freedom to the darkest corners of earth.” And then killing everyone they see.
Soldiers, with a penis-substitute. And I don’t mean the cannon.
It’s the 4th of July, or, as it is known here in the States, the 30th anniversary of the Bicentennial. Remember? The pomp! The pageantry! The Tall Ships! The Bicentennial minutes! Those quarters with the drummer on them! Gerald Ford (who I’ve just suddenly realized was the best Republican president of my lifetime)! Happy 30th, Bicentennial, you will always be vaguely remembered!
Joe Lieberman will continue to run in the Democratic primary, while announcing that he doesn’t plan to abide by its results, running as an “independent Democrat” (that is, independent of the Democratic electors of his state) if he loses (which he says is possible because it might be hot that day). He says, “While I believe that I will win the Aug. 8 primary, I know that there are no guarantees in elections.” He says that – “there are no guarantees in elections” – like it’s a bad thing.
Israel is calling its collective punishment of Gaza “Operation Summer Rains.” Dude, that ain’t rain!
Oh dear, I just can’t think of a single sarcastic thing to say about this NYT headline: “Cheney’s Heart Condition Is Called Stable.”
Olmert has ordered the military to “intensify” its activities in Gaza. What’s left? Poisoning wells? Kicking dogs? Popping children’s balloons?
Bush and Koizumi didn’t just go to Graceland on Friday, but also to the National Civil Rights Museum, where he decided to try out a “replacement” for Condi, if you know what I mean. Dude, that is so, so wrong.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Senile Dementia) explains how the internet works (evidently it’s a series of tubes) and why he won’t vote for Net Neutrality (because someone sent him an internet and it took several days to reach him).
Time magazine has an article about prisoners and hunger-strikes in Guantanamo, which explains why I’ve been getting all those hits from people googling “padded cell on wheels” today (this February post, which has pictures of the contraption). Readers of this blog will find nothing new in the article, and a certain amount of laziness (it says that in the “1980s,” “several” IRA prisoners hunger struck and a “handful” died). So why am I mentioning it? Er, good question. Moving on...
I’ve been thinking about the word “arrest.” A couple of days ago, Eli at LeftI made a point that I’ve made before, in relation to the actions of both Israelis in Palestine and Americans in Iraq, that they aren’t “arresting” people but capturing or seizing or kidnapping them, because arrests are done under some system of law. Suskind’s book mentioned parenthetically that when thousands of Arabs & Muslims were rounded up in the US after 9/11, “it was clear that the ratio of arrest to prosecution would be more out of sync than at any time in [FBI] history.” It occurred to me that the purpose of arrest had changed to such an extent that it did violence to the English language and to the concept of a rule of law to continue to use the word. If an arrest is no longer a preliminary to prosecution, it becomes an end in itself. The end is not the law, and the “law enforcement” agencies are no longer about enforcing laws. Police without law is the definition of a police state. Maybe the FBI needs breaking up if it is to be both a law-enforcement agency and a secret police.
Also, someone should revive “Arrested Development.” That was a good show.
A good WaPo Style Invitational, suggestions for the one millionth word in the English language. Some of the entries:
Percycution: Giving your child a name he will hate for the rest of his life.
Martyration: A request for only 36 virgins in paradise.
Achoodication: Trying to determine whether you have to say "bless you" after someone’s second sneeze.
Banglion: The primitive neural structure constituting 90 percent of the male brain.
Codgertation: A man’s realization that with a certain saying, thought or action, he has turned into his father.
Immigaytion: The GOP’s two-pronged fear strategy: "It’s two, two, two horrors in one!"
Racquisition: Implant surgery.
Regattacotillion: A vocabulary word designed solely to discriminate against minorities on standardized tests.
Regeorgitation: When the vending machine spits back your dollar bill.
I’m not sure what Israel’s exit strategy is. Israel is entirely capable of kidnapping people explicitly for the purpose of exchanging them for captured Israeli military personnel (as in the case of Ron Arad), but it claims that the seizing of 8 Palestinian cabinet officials and however many MPs is not to swap them for Shalit, but because they’re terrorists. They were all taken in for questioning. Israel is evidently willing to... well, you don’t need me to list all the things they’ve done to Gazans... but not willing to admit to having responded to hostage-taking by taking hostages. Or something; trying to work out their logic makes me queasy. But if Israel won’t admit to seizing them in order to exchange them for Shalit, how can it manage the logistics of actually making that exchange?
The kidnappers, who keep making demands they can’t expect to be met, don’t seem to have a viable exit strategy either. So this should all turn out well.
A little detail from the WaPo: the Gaza power plant was ensured by the United States government, for $48 million.
Cecilia Fire Thunder, the Sioux council president who offered to host an abortion clinic on her reservation in response to the SD abortion ban, has been impeached by the council for going beyond her authority.
The military tribunals at Guantanamo are supposed to contact witnesses who prisoners wish to call. They don’t. They make minimal or no effort to find them, and have never flown a witness in to testify. In one case, the Guardian found all 4 witnesses an Afghan prisoner wanted in 3 days (one was dead, one worked for Karzai, one is teaching in Washington DC). It’s called Google, baby.
Of course the Pentagon may be a little behind the curve on such things. It just launched a three-year, $450,000 study to figure out just what these “blog” things are, anyway. Says one guy associated with the project, “Our research goal is to provide the warfighter with a kind of information radar to better understand the information battlespace.” Hey, don’t laugh, he figured out how to make money off of blogs.
Russia is holding up the paper work of 40 foreign NGOs forced to “register” under new laws. Also, the Duma has passed (in its first reading) a bill banning “extremism,” which is defined as “interfering with the legal duties of organs of state authorities,” whatever that means (whatever Putin wants it to mean, of course), or “public slander directed toward figures fulfilling the state duties of the Russian Federation.” Journalists could be imprisoned for 3 years for that and their papers closed down. Political parties could be dissolved for it. Further along is a bill to scrap the “none of the above” option on Russian ballots that made them so much fun (candidates had to win 50% of the total vote).
I’ve finished Ron Suskind’s The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11, and I’m not overwhelmed, more average-to-middling-whelmed (but if you still want to buy it after reading my review, do click here for my Powell’s link or here for my Amazon.com link. I get like 80¢ if you do. Or try your public library; I had this copy 3 days after I put a hold on it).
It’s a 350-page book that would have been better, if less lucrative, as a long New Yorker article. Like other books by reporters, it’s hard to judge how seriously to take its revelations without knowing who his sources are, and indeed who his sources aren’t – his insights into the thinking of Acting President Cheney may be the most important part of the book, but I’ll bet he wasn’t able to interview the man.
(I wrote that part last night. Today the Columbia Journalism Review website has an interview with him, and dear God what a self-important, pompous man he is. I couldn’t have brought myself to read the book if I’d read that interview first. He admits that the reader must take on faith that he has talked with enough of the right anonymous people and that he is able to take account of their biases and agendas and get the story right. But, dammit, people love and trust him, he says: “I think over time readers are saying, okay, this is a Suskind offering, this is what he does. It’s more vivid, it moves.” Now how you can trust that his quotes from Bush and Cheney are accurate when he thinks that that’s what his readers are saying? I don’t think he realizes that the trust he’s asking us to place in his judgment and his character exactly mirrors the trust Bush demands as his due.)
The book’s title refers to the belief among the Bushies that the stakes are so high in The War Against Terror (TWAT) that it is permissible to act to prevent events that there is very little proof will actually happen, such as Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan network passing nuclear technology to Al Qaida. Can’t have the smoking gun be a mushroom cloud, and all that. “Suspicion... became the threshold for action.” Suskind seems to have spoken mostly with CIA sources, who are interested in reasserting the importance of factual analysis and, let’s face it, in covering their asses.
By the way, the book’s famous Bush quote, after Tenet sent a briefer to Crawford in August 2001 to make sure Bush got the point that bin Laden was determined to attack inside the United States, “All right, you’ve covered your ass, now”: the real significance isn’t just that Bush dismissed it, but that for him, the point of intelligence briefings wasn’t to provide a basis for action; rather, that he considered them a form of bureaucratic ass-covering.
The most interesting thing about the book is the way in which 1) Cheney’s plans, dating back to the Ford administration, to strengthen the executive branch, 2) Bush’s intellectual laziness, and 3) the “new type of war” against shadowy terrorists, all came together to reinforce each other and create the new model of government we have today. Suskind writes,
The Cheney Doctrine released George W. Bush from his area of greatest weakness – the analytical abilities so prized in America’s professional class – and freed his decision-making to rely on impulse and improvisation to a degree that was without precedent for a modern president. Cheney essentially crafted a platform, an architecture, for Bush to be Bush, while still being President.
The Cheney Doctrine – “It’s not about our analysis, or finding a preponderance of evidence. It’s about our response.” (that’s another maybe-quote) – is a perfect fit with a president who’s all about response and not at all about analysis, but it was The War Against Terror (TWAT) that raised the stakes and the uncertainty and paranoia and fear so that that recklessness could seem like a reasonable response.
On the one hand, crucial facts were routinely, Suskind says, kept away from Bush by Cheney, so that Bush could stick to the agreed narrative in public with plausible deniability and without being confused by the facts. Suskind, in another significant-if-true revelation, says that when Bush met with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in April 2002 to try to get Saudi Arabia to cooperate against Al Qaida, he hadn’t seen, and evidently didn’t know about the existence of, the prince’s set of demands, mostly relating to Israel, because Cheney had diverted them to his office. The prince went away rather confused.
There many interesting things in the book, and fragments of interesting things, including a discussion of how to get authoritarian rulers (like Gadhafi) to do what the US wants, when their power depends on not losing face. We have a terrorist policy, Suskind says, but not a dictator policy. And there are many of those significant-if-true quotes and facts which I simply don’t know how to use because I’m not inclined to put blind trust in Suskind. Like a George Bush speech, it’s likely to be believed by the sorts of people who are inclined to believe it, but not to convince anyone else.
“D’ya think Elvis had to stuff his costume with as many socks as I did?”
The Supreme Court rules (pdf) in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that “The Court’s conclusion ultimately rests upon a single ground: Congress has not issued the Executive a ‘blank check.’” Could have fooled me. Note that what made Bush’s military tribunals illegal under both US military law and the Geneva Conventions was that the defendant had no right to see the evidence against him.
There’s an interesting nugget in Thomas’s dissent: according to Bush, the current state of war began (and this matters legally because Hamdan is charged with acts occurring before 9/11) with a declaration of war by Al Qaida in August 1996.
Clarence Thomas, who used not to like high-tech lynchings, believes Hamdan can be tried by military tribunal because Al Qaida is analogous to “banditti, jayhawkers, guerillas, or any other unauthorized marauders.” It’s always nice to see the term jayhawker bandied about. Very Ken Burns-y. What it comes down to is Thomas’s belief that Hamdan can be tried by a military tribunal because he is presumed guilty of “conspiracy to massacre innocent civilians,” and we know this because the Bush administration has accused him of it. Quod erat demonstrandum. He adds that this decision will “sorely hamper the president’s ability to confront and defeat a new and deadly enemy.” Jayhawkers.
An Israeli government spokesman says of those who killed an 18-year old settler, “Their days as free people are numbered.” Dude, they’re Palestinians. They’re not exactly free people now. Kind of the point.
In response to the UN conference on illegal arms sales, the US demands there be no restriction on the international sale of ammunition or a ban on selling weapons to rebels fighting governments we don’t like – says the US’s under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs, Robert Joseph, “we recognize the rights of the oppressed to defend themselves against tyrannical and genocidal regimes.” I’d be interested in a list of governments the US believes it is okay to overthrow. Probably different from my list. Also, isn’t arming such groups illegal in the US? Neutrality Acts, that sort of thing?
So Israel bombed several bridges in Gaza, which sort of has an arguable operational purpose, preventing their captured soldier being moved, although bantustanization is so clearly part of the Israeli strategy for keeping the Palestinian state weak that one assumes it was something they always planned to do given an even slightly plausible excuse. But destroying water and power supplies for the entire Gaza Strip? Seizing the labor minister, deputy prime minister, etc? Buzzing the Syrian presidents’ palace (actually, causing sonic booms overhead)? And after all this time, do the Israelis really think that collective punishment, taking 1.3 million hostages to exchange for 1, will make the Palestinian people blame Hamas rather than Israel and turn against it?
And a word to Hamas, or whoever seized Corporal Shalit: release him, kill him, but do it quickly.
For the second time this month, Bush, who was supposed to restore civility to Washington, has accused “a group in the opposition party” of being “willing to wave the white flag of surrender.” (Politicians are really showing their flag fetishes this week.) Bush was at a “Talent for Senate” fundraising dinner. “Talent for Senate”... nope, can’t think of anything funny or ironic about that. Actually of course that’s Missouri’s Sen. Jim Talent, who looks exactly like the sort of person Bush and his frat buddies liked to beat up.
It occurred to me as I read his words “it’s essential we do not forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001,” that for someone who invokes it so much, he rarely if ever uses the informal abbreviation 9/11. Maybe he’s waiting for a formal introduction.
Condi Rice was in Afghanistan today. Sometimes a crappy transcript inadvertently contains more truth than a good one. Here she addressed Karzai during a photo op: “you have (inaudible) the Afghan people and indeed to the region and to the world.” She went on, “(Inaudible) reconstruction (inaudible) bring further security to the Afghan people”.
Karzai twice claimed to be able to travel freely in Afghanistan outside of the several square blocks of Kabul he more or less controls. Why he even went to Zabul a while back. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
Condi says that “we made the mistake once before of leaving Afghanistan and of not sustaining our commitment to our relationship here.” In an interview, she adds that “America suffered on 9/11 because we had not stayed committed to Afghanistan”. When were we “in” Afghanistan and what was the nature of our “relationship”? She is referring of course to the CIA’s covert program in support of the Mujahadeen. So was the failure in the 1980s that we didn’t bolster religious zealots long enough, or that we didn’t fill the role of imperial overlord vacated by the Russians?
Bush made a speech today in favor of the latest (obviously unconstitutional) line-item veto proposal. I know he even talks to us like we’re the idiots, but still: “According to the Congressional Research Service, the number of earmarks has increased from about 3,000 to 13,000 over the last decade. In other words, this process is taking place more and more often.”
Then he went jogging with an Iraq War double amputee, Staff Sgt Christian Bagge, who backed Bush into promising to jog with him in January when Bush visited the amputee ward of an army hospital. You’ll remember he then said, “I can’t think of a better way to start 2006 then here at this fantastic hospital.” Bush said that, not Bagge.
If I declare this a caption contest, I’ll really regret it, won’t I? “Then Bush used him to open a giant bottle of Budweiser” – that sort of thing, right? You people disgust me.
In Kansas v. Marsh, the Supreme Court decided that in a death-penalty case, when aggravating and mitigating factors are even, it’s okay to just go ahead and kill the guy. There were long dueling arguments in the opinions about something actually irrelevant to this case, the likelihood of innocent people being executed, which Fat Tony Scalia wrote (pdf, Scalia’s concurring opinion starts on p.22)
“has been reduced to an insignificant minimum” (insignificant!), although “it is easy as pie to identify plainly guilty murderers who have been set free.” For the hell of it, Fat Tony even refers to Sacco and Vanzetti as “supposed innocents.” Scalia also complained that the dissent would give aid and comfort to “sanctimonious criticism [by foreigners] of America’s death penalty, as somehow unworthy of a civilized society” and would be “trumpeted abroad as vindication of these criticisms.”
Speaking of civilized societies, Somalia’s new Islamic rulers have announced their first executions-by-stoning.
After a very important meeting with Gary Sinese (for whom it must have been very reminiscent of Forrest Gump),
a reporter asked Bush about the leak that Gen. Casey has been talking about a timetable to withdraw a few troops from Iraq. His answer suggests that when he turns 60 this week, his age and his IQ will be identical:
First of all, I did meet with General Casey, and I met with him because it’s very important for me, as well as Secretary Rumsfeld, to meet with our commander on the ground. I’ve told the American people our commanders will be making the decisions as to how to achieve victory, and General Casey, of course, is the lead person. So we had a good visit with him. ... And one of the things that General Casey assured me of is that, whatever recommendation he makes, it will be aimed toward achieving victory. And that’s what we want. ... And so I did visit with General Casey, and I came away once again with my trust in that man. I’ve told the people here around the table that the decisions that I will make will be based upon the recommendations of people like General George Casey.
And I actually edited some of the rambling out of that answer.
On the North Korean missile test: “we need to send a focused message to the North Koreans in that this launch is provocative.”
And he said the NYT’s story about the warrantless inspection of banking records was “disgraceful.” Isn’t it fun when Bush tries to scold and shame someone?
Woody Allen discovers Friedrich Nietzsche’s Diet Book. “As we know, for centuries Rome regarded the Open Hot Turkey Sandwich as the height of licentiousness; many sandwiches were forced to stay closed and only reopened after the Reformation.” “The great question of philosophy remains: If life is meaningless, what can be done about alphabet soup?” “‘Order like you are ordering for every human being on earth,’ Kant advises, but what if the man next to you doesn’t eat guacamole? In the end, of course, there are no moral foods—unless we count soft-boiled eggs.”
A few hours after the announcement of Maliki’s “reconciliation plan,” video of the murder of 4 abducted Russian embassy workers was posted on the internet. A simple “no” would have sufficed.
The London Times, which saw a draft of it last week, says it’s been vagued up, including the removal of a real timetable, details of un-de-Baathification, and “a call for the Government to recognise the difference between resistance and terrorist groups and a written invitation for resistance groups to join a national dialogue.”
The Chinese legislature decides not to criminalize sex-selection abortions. Which is one of those practices I find morally abhorrent and wouldn’t consider banning for a second. The sort of people whose values would lead them to that act should not be inflicted with a baby girl, or vice versa.
I’ll bet when Bush goes to church, the Secret Service doesn’t let anyone else have an umbrella.
Maliki issues his 24-point plan, marked down from 28. Hurrah! It calls for a timetable for American withdrawal, without actually suggesting one. An amnesty, except for people who committed “criminal and terrorist acts and war crimes.” But jay-walkers need no longer live in fear of a midnight knock on the door. For those others, “we present a fist with the power of law to protect our country and people”; “No and a thousand times no. There can be no deal with them until they have been justly punished.” My impression that Maliki is a bit of a blowhard is not diminishing over time. It’s unclear whether or not the amnesty applies to people who just killed Americans, since the “terrorist acts” thing might or might not include that (depending on whether you ask an American or an Iraqi, really). Also, he didn’t say how they’d determine who had committed those acts which are ineligible for the amnesty. In other words, on this key provision, as on the timetable, he decided to fudge. He says that foreign troops should respect human rights. Rummy says, “Yeah, we’ll get right on that.”
What else? Ensuring the army is run on “professional and patriotic lines,” presumably by professional patriots. Compensation, from who knows what source, for victims of terrorism, ethno-sectarian cleansing, de-Baathification and military operations. Adoption of a rational discourse. National dialogue. A united stand against terrorists. Pretending that Iraq’s elected bodies are solely responsible for decisions regarding Iraq’s sovereignty and the presence of foreign troops. Yet more national dialogue. And then, for dessert, some national dialogue.
Letter to the NYT, one of several deploring its publishing of the details of the warrantless surveillance of banking records: “Isn’t the point that the public’s right to know must be balanced against protecting the public at a time of war? I’d rather know that the bad guys were being caught than having my ‘interest’ in this story satisfied over this morning’s cup of coffee.”
And in North Korea, whose citizens haven’t been told of its threat to test a ballistic missile, a waitress tells the Sunday Telegraph: “Our Dear Leader knows what he does, and if it’s necessary to keep something secret, we will.”
Saddam Hussein, unclear on the concept of a hunger strike, skipped exactly one meal to protest the killing of another of his lawyers.
Treasury Sec John Snow says the program of spying on private banking records is “government at its best.” In your face, Social Security!
Incidentally, that program may have been conceived to fight terrorism, but like every other expansion of executive power was immediately put to other uses, against more mundane crimes like money laundering and drugs. Other than that, their examination of millions of money transfers ($6 trillion a day) seems to have netted them one terrorist. Presumably if they ever put anyone on trial with evidence derived from this program, if it were actually effective, it would have all come out anyway, so really everyone can lay off the New York Times (Cheney says the Times’s decision “offends me”).
Meanwhile (is it too suspicious of me to wonder if this was timed to coincide with the NYT story, which they knew about for at least a month?), the FBI arrests a group of Floridian would-be terrorists whose plans were “more aspirational than operational.” Isn’t that the Republican Party motto?
Finally, farewell Harriet, we hardly knew ye.
It’s been a little while since Bush gave one of those speeches that were supposed to rally the American people behind him, but in them he always assured us that he had a plan, indeed a “plan for victory” in Iraq. Actually, I’m not sure which is less reassuring to me, Bush without a plan or Bush with a plan. This week the D’s have been talking endlessly about the plan, suggesting darkly that it is a mythical beast, holding up blank placards which are said to show that plan – hilarious! side-splitting! don’t quit your day jobs! It’s a way for the D’s to criticize – mildly – the conduct of the war without having to come to a common position on the war itself. The “plan” they’re calling for is as nebulous as Bush’s. Do they want a “plan for victory” – the same war only, you know, “better” – or a plan for phased withdrawal? In short, they’re focusing on plans so they don’t have to talk about the actual war – what is it for, how do we know when we’ve won, is it worth it – you know, the little stuff.
“Say, who here wants to go the Sunni Triangle?” (And yes, that is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace)
David Corn points out an 11-day old story I missed: the Pentagon has stopped releasing the number of how many Iraqi units are capable of fighting on their own. The number of Iraqis standing up so that we may stand down is now “classified.”
“Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?”
Eli points out in comments that the Olmert quote in my previous post has been slightly altered in the linked Ha’aretz article, softening it without changing the message that Israeli lives are more important than those of Palestinians. The quote is completely missing from reports of his meeting with Abbas in the WaPo, Guardian, and NYT, so you’d think his only remark was an apology for the various civilian deaths, plus a claim that the Israeli Army is “the most decent and restrained army in the world.” The Swedish Army was too decent and restrained to comment. Those articles also all omitted Olmert’s insistence that the assassinations would continue.
Gore Vidal: “He [Bush] says we are at war on terror, but that is a metaphor, though I doubt if he knows what that means. It’s like having a war on dandruff, it’s endless and pointless.”
Pluto’s newly discovered moons are named Hydra and Nix. Should have been Nyx, but the name was already taken. Still, pretty cool names.
Another excellent name from the military. Asked yesterday about post traumatic stress in returning troops, Rumsfeld referred the question to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. William Winkenwerder, Jr.
Israeli PM Olmert says he will continue the policy of assassinations, no matter how many civilian casualties there are (like the three children and the pregnant woman yesterday), because “the lives and the welfare of the residents of the Sderot are more important than those of the residents of Gaza.”
I don’t know why it’s so shocking to hear him say aloud what we knew he thought.
