Saddened

The big news of the day is of course that Sulu is gay.

Some things of note in Bush’s statement on Scooter Libby’s indictment: He called him by the nickname Scooter. While he said that the Scootster is presumed innocent, he added “we’re all saddened by today’s news,” which would not be an appropriate response if the Scootmeister is in fact guilty of what Bush said two years ago was a serious crime. Speaking of serious crimes, Bush then went on to say “I got a job to do, and so do the people who work in the White House. We got a job to protect the American people”. Well, it’s a serious crime against grammar, anyway.

I appreciate the jointness that we’re working on

Bush’s latest speech on The War Against Terror (TWAT) began with his usual appreciation-fest: “I appreciate the foreign officers here. I appreciate you being here. I appreciate the jointness that we’re working on, and the transformation they’re working on together to make sure that we’re able to keep the peace.” And I appreciate the accurate transcriptions. This one even included the heckler:

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. President, war is terror.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

That’s a three-O boo. I believe if it had been just a two-O boo, that would have meant ghosts.

He’s still quoting the discredited Zinoviev Zawahiri-Zarqawi letter.

He tells this story: “An 85-year-old Iraqi woman cast a ballot in favor of the constitution after her son carried her to the polls on his back....” We’ve heard this exact story before, haven’t we, except it was about the January election or the Afghan election. I’m right, aren’t I?

“Some observers also claim that America would be better off by cutting our losses and leaving Iraq now. This is a dangerous illusion, refuted with a simple question: Would the United States and other free nations be more safe, or less safe, with Zarqawi and bin Laden in control of Iraq, its people, and its resources?” So if the American occupation were ended, bin Laden would become president, is that what you’re so saying? How about the Ghost of Hitler, would he be minister of the interior?

90% of the speech is literally word for word stuff he’s said before, most of it duplicating that televised National Endowment for Democracy speech, so there’s no need to re-mock it here. So thank you and may God continue to bless... oh wait, what the hell am I saying, now he’s got me doing it.

It shows how much some of these places need to reform themselves

Israel is seriously trying to get the UN to expel Iran because of its president’s little cartographical comment. Ariel Sharon, he of the “never-ending offensive,” is shocked, shocked, that a Middle Eastern politician would engage in hyperbolic language. The Israeli ambassador, according to Ha’aretz, “said no country that calls for violence and destruction should be allowed membership in the UN.” So the only thing left for the United Nations to do is decide whether to conduct its future proceedings in Swedish, Norwegian or Danish. Tony Blair chimed in, without a hint of condescension, “I feel a real sense of revulsion. It shows how much some of these places need to reform themselves. How can we build a more secure world with that type of attitude? It is a disgrace.” He then sent Iran to its room to think about what it had done. Various Western leaders have been saying that this just shows that Iran cannot be trusted with white-out or other Weapons of Map Destruction, lest they try to literally wipe Israel off the map.

An LAT editorial refers to Harriet Miers as an “aborted nomination.” Uh, yeah.

AP headline for a story that’s nowhere near as titillating as it sounds: “New Charges in Fatal Strip Accident.” A guy crashed a stolen car into some people at a bus stop on the Las Vegas strip or something, dunno, I lost interest when it wasn’t about strippers.

Don’t think I’ve mentioned that FEMA is refusing to help New Orleans get absentee ballots to its diasporic citizens, and R’s are writing a provision into the relief bill refusing to fund non-profits trying to house Katrina victims if they also try to register them to vote.

Candid council -- is that what they’re calling it these days?

Harriet Miers has sacrificed herself to preserve the separation of powers, sez Bush. “It is clear that Senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House - disclosures that would undermine a President’s ability to receive candid counsel.” There won’t be more than six people in America who’ll buy that one.

Harry Reid assigns responsibility for the failed nomination to radical right-wing Republicans, adding “I mean, it must be them, because we just stood around with our thumbs up our ass. Again.”

But I wonder who George Bush really blames for this fiasco? Not himself, of course, and probably not Miers. Reid may now think that the Dems’ quiet about Miers was a brilliant strategy, but who will Bush feel a need to appease with his next nominee? Or will he go the other way, in a snit, and petulantly refuse to appease a faction that failed to give him the loyalty he feels is his birthright?

From the Guardian:

A hospital has removed a staff unicycle from its children’s ward after a mother complained that her six-month-old baby had to wait for treatment while his doctor learned to ride it up and down corridors. ...

The South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust said: “On a children’s ward, we strive to combine professionalism with an air of informality and fun aimed at putting children at ease. On this occasion we did not succeed in achieving this compromise.”

The BBC is closing down its broadcasts in Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian and other Eastern European languages in order to pay for a new Arabic tv service in the Middle East. Could anything say more clearly that the BBC functions as the propaganda arm of British foreign policy?

Michael Brown is not only still on FEMA’s payroll as a “consultant,” a gig just extended for another month, but he’s getting the same salary as when he (supposedly) ran the agency.

Last resort

The Organization of the Islamic Conference opposes the idea of UN sanctions on Syria, because “The Muslim World has always been against imposing sanctions and collective punishments on a nation as they primarily cause unjust sufferings to the people, unless they’re Israelis, in which case fuck ‘em.” I may have tacked a few words onto that.

Meanwhile, Bush said that military action against Syria would be the “last resort,” which should be ever so reassuring, since that’s exactly what he used to say invading Iraq would be. He doesn’t want to fight, but by jingo if he do.

While web-surfing, listening to a BBC radio program (because I’m nothing of not versatile) (or easily bored) which included an interview with the authors of “Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit?: The Encyclopedia of Modern Life.” Looked it up on amazon.co.uk (it’s not available here in the non-civilized world), which lead to some other good book titles: “A Shite History of Nearly Everything,” “Great Lies to Tell Small Kids” (“Strictly speaking, the tomato is not a vegetable. It’s really a kind of dolphin”).

Speken of Shaft bene I

Update: that Afghan editor sentenced to 2 years for “blasphemy,” well, the prosecutor wanted the death penalty.

As various Republican Senators come out to demand access to the White House papers Harriet Miers worked on, a fun way to pass the time is to try to figure out which ones are actually attempting to perform their advise and consent function and which ones have been tasked by the White House to do so in order to give Bush a face-saving way of withdrawing the nomination. I thought this idea was just an amusing theory when I first heard it, but I’ve become convinced, not least by the ham-handed intercession by Bush yesterday, when in response to a question nobody had asked, he insisted that acceding to such demands “would make it impossible for me and other presidents to be able to make sound decisions.” He did not give any examples of sound decisions he has made. Unless he meant which songs to put on his iPod (sound decisions, geddit?)

The Bush quiz.

The NYT, perhaps being sarcastic, noted that Turkmenistan’s “usually compliant Parliament” refused one of President Niyazov’s requests. He wanted them to set elections for 2009, but they said, unanimously, no, we made you president-for-life, and that’s it.

Anbar province (the Fallujah region) voted 96.9% against the Iraqi constitution, while 12 Shiite and/or Kurdish provinces voted over 90% in favor, up to 99.36%. You can’t build a successful national polity on that basis, you just can’t.

---

Wha be tha blake prevy lawe
That bene wantoun too alle tha feres?
SHAFT!
Ya damne righte! ...

Alle clepe tha carl ane badde mooder-
SOFTE!
Speken of Shaft bene I.
THAN KONNE ALLES WE!

Those are the lyrics to “Shaft” translated into Chaucerian English. Can ye dig it?

Blood and irony

In an article on the new far-right, homophobic (Doug Ireland has several posts about this) and generally obnoxious president-elect of Poland, the Indy notes, “Germany has been concerned about the nationalist tone of his rhetoric.” And Germany should know. Would be funny, but I’m on Germany’s side on this one.

Nepal bans news from the radio.

8 year old girl goes hunting, kills a bear. Isn’t that cute?

No, it fucking isn’t.

Caption contest:

Market forces

Patrick Cockburn, in a story in the Indy on Sunday behind a pay barrier, writes about the weakness of the Iraqi government:

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Prime Minister, recently wanted to visit President Jalal Talabani, whose house is five minutes drive from the Green Zone. Mr al-Jaafari was told by his Western security men that he must delay the visit for a day because it would take 24 hours to arrange for him to travel safely even half a mile from the Green Zone.

He also notes that because Iraqi army commanders were given cash to pay their men, the army in reality is half the size of the army on paper, maybe 40,000. Also, of the 115 battalions, only 1 is not segregated along ethnic/sectarian lines.

Given Bill “Kitty Killer” Frist’s profiting, despite a supposed blind trust, by selling HCA stock at its height, just before the bottom fell out, the New Yorker reports on a study by a group of researchers at Georgia State into investments by senators, and guess what, they’re very very good market analysts, beating the market by an average of 12% per year (in 6,000 stock transactions 1993-8). Funny, that.

Born to rule

Barrington Moore has died, at 92. If you’re like me, and I suppose it’s vaguely possible you aren’t, you were assigned his Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy in pretty much every single college course you took.

Brazil, the country with the highest rate of gun deaths in the world (39,000 per year, compared to 30,000 in the US), has voted in a referendum not to ban gun sales. The BBC implies that the American NRA had a direct involvement in the No campaign. Has anyone seen something more substantial about this? The AP merely says that the No campaign translated a lot of NRA material, so that some Brazilians now think they have a Second Amendment which gives them a right to keep and bear arms. Which they don’t. Under statute law, though, anyone over the age, interestingly, of 25 can buy a gun.

The editor of the Afghan magazine Women’s Rights has been sentenced to 2 years for blasphemy for various articles, including ones which argued against lashing adulterers 100 times, and stoning to death Muslims who convert to other religions. Since the Afghan government survives only due to the American military presence, this sentence is our responsibility. Will we see Marines doing crowd control when a convert is stoned to death or an adulteress is lashed? Will they be assigned to throw the stones? The standards of criminal justice were exacting: the judge in the case said, “The Ulama Council sent us a letter saying that he should be punished so I sentenced him to two years’ jail.” So let me repeat: the US invaded Afghanistan in order to put the Ulama Council in charge of its legal system.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the last legitimately elected president of Burma, has been under house arrest for ten years.

In the battle to lead the British Tory party, one of David Davis’s lieutenants has accused David Cameron, who went to Eton, of thinking he was “born to rule.” Imagine that! a Tory who thinks he’s born to rule. Indeed, a Britisher who thinks he’s born to rule. Astonishing. Liam Fox, out of the race after the last round of voting, has accused Davis of spreading rumors that Fox has a secret homosexual past. Honey, your name is “Liam Fox”: we all assumed you were gay.

It’s something that our U.S. government has said a number of times in the past

When Bush announced his nomination of Harriet Miers, he said he’d consulted with many members of the Senate. Are we to believe that there was a single senator who suggested Miers? (“Proportional representation requirement of the Equal Protection clause,” indeed).

Don’t know how I missed this story: a Georgia state senator, David Graves (R), claimed parliamentary immunity from a drunk driving charge (his second in a year) because he was driving home from a (boozy) dinner meeting with other legislators. Hey, it’s right there in the state constitution. He was embarrassed into withdrawing the defense, for which he blamed his lawyer, one William “Bubba” Head. Graves will also resign from a committee that oversees the regulation of the liquor industry, and promises, “You can rest assured that I will not make the same poor choices again.” I look forward to his new poor choices.

I had thought I wasn’t going to pile on to Karen Hughes for her claim that Saddam Hussein “murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people using poison gas.” After all, everyone can misspeak; for example the WaPo itself, reporting this, says, “at least 300,000 Iraqis are reported to have died during Hussein’s 24 years in office” when it meant that that many were killed by the government. But Hughes (in Indonesia) continued to demonstrate the depth of her understanding when asked how she came up with the number: “It’s something that our U.S. government has said a number of times in the past. ... That’s something I said every day in the course of the campaign. That’s information that we talked about a great deal in America.” And “I think it was almost 300,000. It’s my recollection,” adding helpfully, “They were put in mass graves.”

Really, I think Miers, Rice and Hughes show how much progress this country has made. It used to be that for a woman to succeed in “a man’s world,” she had to be twice as good and work twice as hard. But these women, while only half as good... wait, that doesn’t work, cuz they’re still smarter than Bush.

Caption contest: Karen Hughes in Indonesia.

Standard of care

The Guantanamo Bay chief prison doctor denies that forcible feeding is used as a form of punishment and says that the treatment of hunger striking prisoners “equals or exceeds the standard of care available at accredited hospitals in the United States.” With this slight difference: accredited hospitals in the US do not forcibly feed sane patients against their will.

Reflecting American values

David Cameron, running to be the man who leads the British Tory party to defeat in the next election, has said that he hasn’t used any hard drugs... since 2001. That should settle that question....

The head of MI5, the British rough equivalent of the FBI, says that torture does in fact produce very useful intel (“detainee reporting”). Oh, not that they’d do it themselves, but if that intel happened to come from foreign security agencies they wouldn’t ask any awkward questions. The statement was made in a legal case; some people Britain is trying to deport on the basis of “evidence” resulting from torture are appealing.

US embassies around the world have been told to explain that the burning of the bodies of dead Taliban fighters by American troops in Afghanistan does not reflect American values. Loudly taunting the locals as they did it, though, pretty much does.

There’s some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining

Lady boys?

Bush met the Palestinian president today and told him, “The way forward must begin by confronting the threat that armed gangs pose to a genuinely democratic Palestine. And those armed gangs must confront the threat that armed gangs pose to lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.” Uh, right, sure, whatever.


Asked about the distractions of Plamegate, the failed Miers nomination & the scandals of Republican congressional leaders, he said, “there’s some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining.” Someone stop him before he says “opining” again. Also, considering how bad Jon Stewart’s Bush imitation is, why is it impossible to read that sentence without hearing it in that voice?

Shrub said that trust was real important-like in the Middle East, saying

The Gaza withdrawal is a magnificent opportunity to help develop trust. It’s an opportunity to develop trust between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And after all, the world watched strong cooperation between two willing governments to help good disengagement of Gaza, which is a -- right now, I guess, we take it all for granted.

“Good disengagement”? “Two willing governments”? Actually, someone stop him before he says anything at all again; it’s just too painful. “I think prior to the disengagement, there was a lot of consternation, a lot of concern. I suspect some of you might have even reported that, you know, better watch out”.

And on the failed Miers nomination, “I picked Harriet for a lot of reasons. One reason was because she had never been a judge. ... Secondly, the questionnaire that she filled out is an important questionnaire, and obviously they will address the questions that the senators have in the questionnaire -- or as a result of the answers to the questions in the questionnaire.” No one made it out of that sentence alive.

But, after reading a transcript brimming even more than usual with Bushy imbecility, I have made it out with life and limb, if not sanity, intact, and that is a very good disengagement indeed.

Pro-life, with three exceptions

Scottie McClellan, asked today if Bush shared Harriet Miers’ 1989 unwillingness to countenance abortion even for victims of rape, said, “The President is pro-life, with three exceptions, and that’s been his position all along.”

Mostly, Little Scottie stone-walled questions (I was going to say dodged, but that implies a nimbleness that Scottie, to put it mildly, lacks) about the NY Daily News article you’ve all read by now. I’m sure it’s true that Bush did indeed know two years ago that Rove had done what Rove does, but the article as stands is based entirely on anonymous sources, which means it rests entirely on the credibility of... the New York Daily News.

That makes not one but two man-bites-dog stories about Bush: usually, Bush really doesn’t know about things that he claims to know about, but in these cases he actually did know about things (Miers’s position about abortion, who leaked Valerie Plame’s name) he had claimed not to know anything about.

Speaking of wilful ignorance, an AP story entitled “Guantanamo Hunger Strikers Shirk Tubes,” which informs us a) that AP doesn’t know what the word “shirk” means, b) that Gitmo prisoners allege that forcible feeding has been used as a punishment and that, ew gross, the NG tubes are not cleaned between prisoners, quotes the Pentagon spokesmodel for Guantanamo, Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, calling those charges “wholly inaccurate and blatantly misrepresent the excellent work being done here by honorable military and civilian professionals,” BUT adds that Martin “did not know the specific procedures for handling the feeding tubes.” So a pretty categorical statement issued from a position of complete admitted ignorance. And if the Guantanamo spokesman doesn’t know about this, what does he know about?

Saddam’s trial began today, and it was, as predicted, showy. In Iraq, it was televised but on a delay, in case of a wardrobe malfunction. The trial, which may be the only one of Saddam because of the requirement that if convicted he be executed within 30 days, is about the many deadly punishments Saddam inflicted on the Shiite town Dujail after an assassination attempt on him occurred there in 1982. An odd choice, at least to those of us who remember the phrase “He’s the guy who tried to kill my dad.”

The trial was immediately adjourned, not because Saddam’s lawyer asked for it, which he did, but because, according to the lead judge, none of the witnesses showed up because they were all scared. Which may be true, but the fact that the judge said it doesn’t speak well for his impartiality. Of the 5 judges, we only know the name of one, who is a Kurd, which I’m sure will go over real well among the Sunnis. The cameras stayed off the anonymous four, two or more of whom have no more judicial experience than Harriet Miers, which is especially important because the standard of proof that the Americans designated for this tribunal is that the judges must only be “satisfied” by the evidence, as opposed to, say, convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. By the way, the prosecutor is accusing Saddam of having used improper procedures (“nominal and only on paper”) in the conviction of people in Dujail.

Condi Rice told the Senate foreign relations committee that American policy in Iraq is “clear, hold and build,” which sounds like the sort of management jargon the pointy-haired boss in Dilbert would recite. Biden, evidently asking for the very most he thought he could ask, which is why he is such a waste of space, asked her “at what point, assuming the strategy works, do you think we’ll be able to see some sign of bringing some American forces home?” She forthrightly responded, “I don’t want to hazard what I think would be a guess, even if it were an assessment, of when that might be possible.” And thus was Congressional oversight accomplished in our fair republic.

It ain’t over ‘til the whiny lady sings

I watched tonight’s Frontline on Abu Ghraib, which didn’t quite succeed in making torture boring, but had little new (there were some “home movies” I hadn’t seen before that are worth seeing; they are at about 73 minutes in), and could have used some editing. I’d be interested in other people’s opinions, in comments.

After the revelations, didn’t we promise to turn Abu Ghraib over to the Iraqis? What ever happened with that? A bunch of prisoners were released just before the referendum, suggesting either that the US suddenly received information clearing several hundred prisoners all at the same time, or... no, that’s what it must have been. But while prisoners are kept waiting in their dungeons for months while any allegations against them are investigated ever... so... slowly, there are evidently plenty of resources available for the show trial of Saddam Hussein. I still want to know if the Americans would let him go if he were acquitted.

From the NYT arts section:

Anyone searching for an opera built on violent conflict more recent than the Trojan Wars need look no farther than Tufts University, where plans are in progress for a spring production of “Nancy and Tonya: The Opera,” based on the rivalry between the ice skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding that led to an attack on Ms. Kerrigan before the 1994 Winter Olympics. PlaybillArts.com reported that the opera, with a libretto by the novelist Elizabeth Searle and music by Abigail Al-Doory, a Tufts graduate student, features an aria based on Ms. Kerrigan’s lament: “Why? Why? Why?”

The WaPo has a scoop: “Class, Color May Drive New Orleans’s Future.” D’ya think?

According to the WaPo, Secretary of War Rumsfeld “began his first official visit to China on Wednesday by urging an audience of rising Communist Party leaders to play a greater role in global affairs” etc. Yeah, he really, really wants the Chinese to play a greater role in global affairs.

Caption contest:

I’m guessing minus

About that poll showing Bush’s favorable rating among blacks was 2%: its margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

BBC headline: “French Crack Baby-Smuggling Ring.” Who would want to smuggle French crack babies?

George Bush wishes everyone a merry Ramadan

Smoking will be banned in pubs, restaurants and other workplaces in Northern Ireland. Just what we need, more cranky people in Northern Ireland. People in prisons and mental asylums will still be allowed to smoke.

Update: the Supreme Court tells Missouri not to block the abortion of that prisoner. She will get her abortion this week, more than 8 weeks after she first asked for it.

At an Iftaar dinner at the White House (!), Bush announces that the White House library now has a Koran, right next to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and says “I believe the time has come for all responsible Islamic leaders to denounce an ideology that exploits Islam for political ends, and defiles your noble faith.” He doesn’t explain why it is the particular responsibility of Muslim leaders (but note his use of the word “Islamic”) to denounce every single “bad” Muslim of the billion plus Muslims in the world, or indeed why it is any business of a Christian American to point out their supposed duty to them. Maybe he wants them to set up a Muslim Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis Sanctum Officium too.

Oh, what the White House website doesn’t tell you: there was a segregated Iftaar dinner for women, hosted by Laura Bush.

The last Australian World War I veteran (at least the last one posted to a war zone) has died, age 106.

I was going to write something about Saddam Hussein’s impending trial, then decided against. But here are the pictures that would have accompanied it:

The idea of deciding to go into a ballot box is a positive development

Bush today repeated one of the silliest talking points about the Iraqi referendum: “an increase in turnout was an indication that the Iraqi people are strongly in favor of settling disputes in a peaceful way”. How is it an either/or situation? Was there fine print that no one read, like the license agreement for a piece of software which says that using the software means you’ve given up all your legal rights? Or is it more that it would be kinda hypocritical? I mean they might be willing to blow themselves up outside the post office, but surely they wouldn’t do it after having voted, that would just be so tacky.

And yet I suspect there will be many purple fingers on triggers. I’m sorry, but most people don’t look at casting a ballot as a grand statement of principles, like John Hancock signing the Declaration of Independence, but view it a tad more instrumentally. If anyone knows that, it should be Republicans, since no Republican has ever run for any office ever without promising to cut taxes.

Bush went on, “I was pleased to see that the Sunnis participated in the process. The idea of deciding to go into a ballot box is a positive development.” I know we’ve blown up a lot of their houses, but isn’t a ballot box just a little cramped? He added, “It’s an exciting day for a country that only a few short years ago was ruled by a brutal tyrant.” Somehow I don’t think they’ve feel like short years to the Iraqis.

George Packer in the New Yorker describes Bush’s philosophy as “more Harding than Reagan; not anti-government, just anti-good-government”.

Hate, fear, dominatrixes and cocaine

Two adjacent headlines in the London Times:

Hate and Fear Drive Sunnis to the Polling Stations

Iraq Referendum Gives Hope to Those Seeking New Democracy

Schizophrenic much?

But when support for the constitution is 95% in Karbala province and 3 to 5% in Fallujah and Samarra, it’s by definition unworkable, whether it meets the technical grounds for ratification or not.

Speaking of hate and fear, the British Tory party has been trying to pick a new leader, and of course it all comes down to... whether front-runner David Cameron took drugs at college. He won’t say, and his opponents are deploying that air of superiority which makes the Conservatives what they are. Another contender, David Davis, has opined that anyone who has used drugs shouldn’t lead the Tory party, although last go-around he refused to the answer the question himself. In an interview, Jonathan Dimbleby asked Davis if it wasn’t true that he was “skilful at dripping poison into the campaign” and then “pretending to pour balm on the wound.” And we only get Tim Russert and Judith Miller. You have to love a campaign that gives you headlines like “Dominatrix Leaves No Mark in Tory Dirty Tricks Dispute” (The Times). The dominatrix in question appears in a 12-year old photo with Shadow Chancellor George Osborne (who was 22) and a suspicious line of white powder. Osborne’s office says that he never took cocaine... with her. And so it goes.

After all, the purpose of a democracy is to make sure everybody is -- participates in the process

At the Million Man March reunion, there were signs reading “Bush Lied, People Died.” You know, that doesn’t really narrow it down that much, does it?

The Bushies are claiming that even Sunnis who turned out for the sole purpose of voting against the constitution have now accepted the political process, and are welcoming them back like the formerly lost lambs they are. Condi on Mess the Preet today said she was “confident that Sunnis participated in large numbers, which means that the base of politics has expanded in Iraq.” For example, in Samarra, 95% voted No; somehow it’s hard for me to see that as expanding the base of politics. Along the same lines, Shrub says, “After all, the purpose of a democracy is to make sure everybody is -- participates in the process.” Now you know what the purpose of a democracy is, in case you were wondering. The Chimpster adds, “The vote today in Iraq stands in stark contrast to the attitudes and philosophy and strategy of al Qaeda and its terrorist friends and killers.”

On that Meet the Pross, Tim Russert asked Condi “do you have any information that Osama bin Laden may have been killed or injured” in the earthquake in Pakistan.

She doesn’t.

Russert asked her about Bush’s low approval rating among blacks (2%). She just doesn’t understand it, she said more in sorrow than in anger; after all,

I represent the fact that the United States of America is a multicultural and multiethnic society in which we are finally coming to terms with a history in which not all Americans were always represented. And so, I think, as an African-American secretary of state, that’s special.

Yes Condi, it’s all about you, you, you. And you are special, yes you are, yes you are.