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At his show trial, Saddam Hussein copped to having ordered the execution of the several hundred people who conspired to assassinate him, saying that’s how you respond to that sort of thing. For example, he didn’t go on to say but should have, the US invaded an entire country to get “the guy that tried to kill my dad.” (Update: Jeanne D’Arc suggests Hussein has been cribbing from John Yoo.)
Here’s what Bush wrote in the visitors’ book at the Gandhi memorial: “I am grateful to have the opportunity to honour Mahatma Gandhi at this sacred site. His life was an inspiration to people and the world and his contribution to all mankind place him among the great leaders of history.” “People and the world”? You’ll notice there’s nothing that couldn’t have been said about a million other people, nothing specific to Gandhi, some message that he personally might have taken to heart.
And on the same day he went to “honor” Gandhi, his lawyers were making the case that torture is legal, or if it’s illegal, that law isn’t enforceable by a court of law.
Today he went to an agricultural college to do his favorite thing, clearing brush, using primitive peasant tools.
And to have a water buffalo perform the task usually allotted to Condi or Joe Lieberman.
The Reuters caption to this picture: “Indians throw stones during a protest in the northern Indian city of Lucknow March 3, 2006.”
Brig. Gen. Robert Caslen, who evidently has the title Deputy Director for the War on Terrorism, says of terrorists, “We are not killing them faster than they are being created.” No kidding, but you have to love the choice of the word “created.”
Maybe the problem with all those “nobody could have anticipated” things isn’t that the Bushies are ignoring data, or lying, but that they simply don’t understand the nature of the space-time continuum.
Durst gives the “unclear on all the words in their name award” to the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
Bush calls India “a proud civilization. Thousands of years ago the people of this region built great cities, established trading routes with distant lands, and created wonders of art and architecture,” adding, “but in Waco, we got us an Arby’s.”
Good lord, someone followed my advice. Is that even legal? Sen. John Warner asked John Negroponte what the benchmarks for civil war in Iraq would be. Negroponte said: “a complete loss of central government security control, the disintegration or deterioration of the security forces of the country,” and “unauthorized forces . . . getting the upper hand in the situation.” Of course all of those are highly subjective judgments, so it’s really not all that helpful.
A couple of bits of yesterday’s ABC interview with Bush I missed, because of the truly sucky ABC website:
VARGAS: I wanted to ask you very quickly how the vice president’s doing. A lot of people thought he looked a little shaken when he appeared in public after the hunting accident.
BUSH: Yeah.
VARGAS: Is he doing okay, now?
BUSH: He is. Yeah. He was shaken. ... He’s a strong fellow. He’s a steady person, but no question that he was affected by it. He came in the Oval, here, just he and I. I said, "Dick, this got you, didn’t it?" And he said, "It sure did." I said, "Well, you know, if you feel like it, you ought to share it with the American people." And he did, he did a good job of talking about the, the pain he felt.
And:
VARGAS: Your desk is so clean Mr. President.
BUSH: Yeah, well, you know that is what happens when you have desk cleaners everywhere.
And your ass is so clean, Mr. President....
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein and his fellow defendants take a day off from their trial and ride a roller coaster. Wheee!
Indian protesters all seemed to have signs saying “Bush Go Back” instead of the more traditional “Yankee Go Home.” Since he had added a “surprise” visit to Afghanistan to his itinerary, this meant that Indians wanted him to return to Afghanistan.
And here’s a protest sign in Bangalore written in text-message-eze. Tom Friedman would be so proud.
Bush in Afghanistan: “One of the messages I want to say to the people of Afghanistan is it’s our country’s pleasure and honor to be involved with the future of this country.” We invaded and occupied Afghanistan, but it was our pleasure and honor to do so.
As Mr. Karzai is asking how he might honor and pleasure Mr. Bush, Bush is thinking “Where can I get me one of those hats?”
Something about being in Afghanistan for the first time made him use an old favorite word of his, “evildoers.” Sorta takes you back, huh? He used it for Al Qaeda, “people who have hijacked a great religion and kill innocent people in the name of that religion.” Can you actually hijack a religion? Indeed, isn’t it an insult to that religion to suggest that you could? But then, Bush thinks democracy can be imposed on one country by another country through military force, and that an occupied country can be “free.”
When a reporter from Afghan tv asks a question about “if” Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are captured, Bush insists “It’s not a matter of if they’re captured or brought to justice, it’s when they’re brought to justice.” After 4½ years, I think we can all agree that it is actually a matter of if. Also, one presumes that the point of capturing them would be to put them on trial, so that “or” in “captured or brought to justice” is rather revealing, showing that, for him, justice would mean their being killed; their being merely captured and tried would not.
No more questions about why we haven’t caught bin Laden.
Then he went to cut the ribbon on a new American embassy. Which is more dangerous to bystanders, Dick Cheney with a hunting rifle or George Bush with a large pair of scissors?
He says that when he meets Afghans, “they always ask me -- they ask me with their words and they ask me with their stares, as they look in my eyes” [George may not be too good with the English language, but he speaks fluent stare.] “-- is the United States firmly committed to the future of Afghanistan? ... It’s in the interests of the United States of America for there to be examples around the world of what is possible, that it’s possible to replace tyrants with a free society”. Yeah, not actually interested in Afghanistan for its own sake, couldn’t find it on a map, only just now bothering to visit, but it’s an example, it’s like the animatronic presidents in Disneyland. Speaking of symbols: “And so my message to the people of Afghanistan is, take a look at this building. It’s a big, solid, permanent structure, which should represent the commitment of the United States of America to your liberty.” Right, because if we’d constructed the embassy out of old newspapers and egg cartons, it would have been a dead giveaway.
So 1/3 of military personnel returning from Iraq have sought help for mental-health issues. Hard to know what that surprising figure actually means. It could be an artifact of the way the questionnaire was designed (key unanswered question: was the questionnaire anonymous?). It could means that they’re dealing with it early instead of letting it fester, which would be a good thing (assuming the government actually gives them help). The WaPo article, which is not well-researched, talks about debates over whether some of this is mental illness (post-traumatic stress disorder) or just plain vanilla trauma, without saying how that affects whether they are helped. One thing we’ll need to look at in future years is how vets of this war die. The number of suicides among Vietnam veterans surpassed the number of combat deaths sometime in the late 1970s, but they also tended to die in large numbers in single-car crashes, many of which were suicides but not counted as such.
Good Slate article on how Bush made a deal over nuclear plants with India which he has no right to make.
I suggested, in a discussion in the comments section on a previous post, that all those Bushies saying there was no civil war in Iraq should be made to give a working definition of the term. Fat chance, of course. This weeks’s spin was set out by Ambassador Khalilzad, who says that Iraq “came to the brink of civil war,” but the “crisis is over” and “the Iraqis decided to come together”. And over the weekend National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said something to the effect that the Iraqis had looked into the abyss and decided they didn’t want one, thanks anyway, really we were just window shopping, but in the end decided that civil war doesn’t really go with our carpets.
In an ABC interview, Bush, asked about Congress’s report that the US is “woefully unprepared” for another Katrina or a terrorist attack, says, “I think the U.S. is better prepared than woefully unprepared.” That’s our George, always sees the woe as half full.
And this would be, simultaneously, 1) funny if it weren’t so sad, 2) sad if it weren’t so funny:
VARGAS: When you look back on those days immediately following when Katrina struck, what moment do you think was the moment that you realized that the government was failing, especially the people of New Orleans?
BUSH: When I saw TV reporters interviewing people who were screaming for help.
Yesterday, Stephen Colbert answered Fox’s question about whether civil war in Iraq would be a Good Thing: “If Iraq has a real civil war, then the U.S. can’t be involved. It’s called an ‘Exit Strategy’, folks.” Today, Bush kinda said the same thing to ABC:
VARGAS: But what is the plan if the sectarian violence continues? I mean, do the U.S. troops take a larger role? Do they step in more actively to stop the violence?
BUSH: No. The troops are chasing down terrorists.
Well, the same thing except for the exiting part:
VARGAS: So let me make sure I understand you. No matter what happens with the level of sectarian violence, the U.S. troops will stay there?
BUSH: The U.S. troops will stay there so long as -- until the Iraqis can defend themselves. I mean, my policy has not changed.
Heaven forfend.
The latest rumor in Britain’s Muslim community is of a woman who kicked a Koran and was turned into a mermaid. It’s all over the message boards of the Islamic Broadcasting Network, so it must be true.
Bush met with Republican governors yesterday, and wasted their time with a very stale stump speech. And while I haven’t seen video, but I’m guessing they were as obsequious as every other audience they allow him to go before (a proposed address to the Indian parliament was cancelled for just this reason), judging by this: “Thanks for the warm welcome. Be seated -- unless you don’t have a seat. (Laughter.)” Hilarious! And the governor of Georgia received the highest of honors, a brand-new nickname: “I want to thank Sonny. I call him ‘Big Buddy Perdue.’ (Laughter.) He is a big buddy.”
He insists that civil war is quite out of the question in Iraq: “The leaders of Iraq rejected this notion that a suicider and a thug and a terrorist can create civil war.” I can’t tell if those are three different people, or one guy with three jobs. These leaders, whoever they might be, are “interested in a unified government that will allow the people to express their will, a unified government that will give young mothers and fathers the hope that their children can grow up in a peaceful society.” A bitter, desperate, forlorn hope, indeed one might say a hopeless hope, to be sure...
Lately, whenever he talks about education, he talks as if math and science were the only “real” subjects, like so: “when we ground our students in the skills necessary to be good engineers and good physicists and good chemists and good scientists, the United States of America will continue to be the preeminent economy in the world in the 21st century.”
And today, he met with Silvio Berlusconi, who is oily, smarmy, corrupt, arrogant and megalomaniacal. Bush called him optimistic, a strong leader, a man of his word, and a man who “has brought stability to the Italian government. Obviously, it’s important for an American President to be able to work with somebody in a consistent manner”. In other words, George really hates it when he has to memorize new names. (Oh, Christ on a stick: I wrote that before getting to the end of the transcript, where Shrub actually says: “Because if a government is changing every year, it requires a person in my position to constantly have to reacquaint yourself.”)
Asked about the Dubai Ports, Bath & Beyond deal, well, last week it was “This deal wouldn’t go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America.” Today: “If there was any doubt in my mind, or people in my administration’s mind that our ports would be less secure and the American people endangered, this deal wouldn’t go forward.” Then he accused everyone who opposes the deal of getting the basic facts wrong: “And I can understand people’s consternation because the first thing they heard was that a foreign company would be in charge of our port security, when, in fact, the Coast Guard and Customs are in charge of our port security.” Anyone else feel that we’ve just been horribly insulted by George Bush suggesting we’re all just as ignorant as, well, George Bush?
The front page of the Ha’aretz website Saturday provides a perhaps unfortunate summary of an article: “Hamas PM nominee to Washington Post: We don’t want Jews thrown in sea, deal would be in stages.” First, up to their knees...
George W. Bush: a moving/falling object.
Somehow, “object” gives him too much credit.
Shrub’s praise last week for General Masharaf – “I believe he’s committed to free and open elections.” – reminded me of his father’s 1981 toast to Ferdinand Marcos, “We love you, sir, we love your adherence to democratic principles.” When Marcos was ousted 20 years ago, I made my first and last call to a talk radio program to remind the listeners of that quote. After an hour on hold, I was put on the air for 10 seconds before they broke for news.
Saddam Hussein has called off his alleged hunger strike for “health reasons.” Evidently no one told him that not eating was unhealthy.
Robert Fisk quotes Condi Rice denouncing Iran because its policies “contradict the nature of the kind of Middle East sought by the United States”. Why how dare they!
Fisk also quotes Churchill, writing to Lloyd George in 1922 about dealing with Iraqi insurgency: “At present we are paying eight millions a year for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano out of which we are in no circumstances to get anything worth having.”
Antonin Scalia is nostalgic for the days he used to carry ride the subway in New York carrying a rifle.
The irony is not just that the United States is trying so hard to crush a democratically elected Hamas government, it’s that Condi went this week to an emirate, a monarchy, and whatever you want to call Egypt, to enlist their aid in that grand enterprise. (Update: the WaPo has an interesting article on this very subject).
The Bushies, behind a thick film of flop sweat, are responding to the Samarra de-dome-ification with forced cheerfulness. Says Bush, “I’m optimistic,” citing those stupid purple fingers again. And Condi claims to think that the violence in Iraq is just a bump in the road: “This makes it harder today and perhaps tomorrow, but I am confident the Iraqis are committed to, dedicated to the formation of a national unity government.” And she blamed “sectarian tensions” on “outsiders.” In fact, she’s attributing the mosque bombing to Al Qaeda, for which there is, as far I know, no actual evidence. Ambassador Khalilzad is peddling a variant of the familiar “the attacks show how desperate the insurgents are” spin, saying that the Samarra bombing could bring Iraqis together, “given that the Iraqi leaders know and appreciate that civil war is a terrible kind of war.” As opposed to the fun-for-the-whole-family, fluffy bunny kind of war. So the closer they get to civil war the better, or something.
Vice President Dick Cheney presents the Distinguished Service Cross to Lieutenant Bernard W. Bail and... OH MY GOD! That’s not a Distinguished Service Cross! It’s a bull’s-eye! A BULL’S-EYE!! Run, Lt. Bail, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!
You know, that “confident, capable Iraqi government” Gen. Lynch spoke of yesterday? Isn’t it supposed to be gone by now? Weren’t there, like, elections a few months ago that were supposed to replace those people? Does anyone now believe that there will be negotiations leading to a government that can win the support of 2/3 of the national assembly?
I assume it’s a mistake, but the White House website lists Bush’s interview with Indian state tv as taking place from 11:18 to 11:28 this morning, and an interview with Pakistani tv from 11:20 to 11:37, both in the Map Room, like one of those sitcoms where the guy makes dates with two different women for the same time, and hilarity ensues. With India, he continues to play Professor Harold Hill: “And the more nuclear power used by great emerging democracies and economies like India, the better off we’ll all be.” An Indian reporter tries to link the presence in Pakistan of both Al Qaeda and training camps for “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.” Bush replies, “I understand the war on terror is universal,” but says Musharaf, just like India and the US, “cares deeply about innocent life.” So that’s ok then.
The Pakistani interviewer also asked about Kashmir, and what the US can do to help. Bush: “Well, I started to play a role in my speech, and I spoke out on the issue and encouraged the President and the Prime Minister of India to continue down the road of solving the issue with a solution that’s acceptable to all sides.” Now why didn’t anyone think of that before? And on Al Qaeda, he opines, “Nobody should want foreign fighters in their soil wreaking havoc.”
American Moron, indeed.
Caption contest:
The Voice of America is given a tour of interrogation rooms in Guantanamo, designed to indicate that the voice of America’s indefinite detainees is not a shriek of pain. Oh sure, prisoners were beaten up, mistakes were made, but, the VOA says several times, that’s all in the past now.
Among our weapons... the Comfy Chair. No, not this one.
This one:
And it’s a recliner. A Lazy-Unlawful-Combatant-Boy. Note the thing on the floor for the shackles.
Rumsfeld, 9/11/01, according to declassified notes taken by a staffer: “judge whether good enough [to] hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time - not only UBL [Usama Bin Laden]” and “Go massive... Sweep it all up. Things related and not.” Rummy was looking for a quick, violent response, so I assume this wasn’t (yet) about invading and occupying Iraq but about bombing it, a lot.
Simon Tisdall in the Guardian comments that there is less American talk about “victory” in Iraq these days. Yes, but it’s not just because we’re, you know, losing. Look at the events since the Samarra dome bombing: we’re irrelevant. Whether there will or won’t be a civil war is no longer up to us. “Victory” would imply that we’re a major player there and, somehow, we no longer are.
In advance of his trip to India and Pakistan, Bush said Wednesday that he wants a solution to the Kashmir situation “acceptable to both sides.” Later he had to pretend that he meant to say “all sides,” including the, you know, actual Kashmiris. He did this in separate interviews (naturally) with Indian and Pakistani journalists; only the former is on the White House website for some reason. The transcript of the latter is here.
With the Pakistanis, he addressed the Cartoon Wars: “nor do I appreciate the fact that some are... cynically manipulating the anger that some have felt over these cartoons.” I know, cynically manipulating anger, just imagine. Oh, and also: “The nation needs to be closer to the Waltons than the Simpsons.” (George H.W. Bush, 1/27/92)
Finally, someone asked him about Damadola, giving him the opportunity to refuse to say whether he’d ordered a bombing raid inside Pakistan or not, but that if he had....: “We coordinate. We’re allies and we coordinate. Nor do we talk about sensitive anti-terror operations. Of course the United States mourns the loss of innocent life.” There’s no “of course” about it. And what exactly is “sensitive” about it? He’s trying to sound as if he’s protecting legitimate security secrets, but I’m pretty sure the people of Damadola know they’ve been bombed.
Bush has been talking about helping India develop nuclear power plants. The Pakistanis wanted to know why he wasn’t doing the same for them. He said, well maybe later. He did not say, because for 20 years you’ve been selling nuclear technology to everyone and his uncle. An Indian reporter had asked about A.Q. Khan in their interview with Bush, and Bush referred to that “conspiracy,” suddenly realized that he was using a word that implicated his good buddy Musharaf, and altered it to “activities.”
An Indian asked whether he was more comfortable dealing with dictators and monarchs. He pretending they were talking about Queen Elizabeth.
And he was asked (I guess this is the Indian equivalent of boxers or briefs) which he’d rather watch, a cricket match or a Bollywood movie.
Cricket.
George Bush is going to India and Pakistan. He will be pretending that the latter is a democracy, not run by the military at all.
Pakistan has a lively and generally free press. I’m confident I will hear from them on my trip to Pakistan. (Laughter.) Occasionally, there’s interference by security forces, but it’s a strong press.
He will of course be milking American assistance after the Pakistani earthquake for all it’s worth.
The terrorists have said that America is the Great Satan. Today, in the mountains of Pakistan, they call our Chinook helicopters “angels of mercy.”
And today, he imparted the wisdom that “The destruction of a holy site is a political act intending to create strife.” And we know how much he hates politics. He reiterated American “commitment in helping to rebuild that holy site.” Like the Shiites actually want his infidel fingerprints on their golden dome.
Yes, I’m aware that sounded kinda dirty.
Asked about Dubai Ports ‘N Stuff, Bush explained the intricacy of the economics of the situation: “The management of some ports, which, heretofore, has been managed by a foreign company will be managed by another company from a foreign land. And so people don’t need to worry about security. This deal wouldn’t go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America.” By this time, you will already have seen that last sentence 10 or more times. Now you’ve seen it again. It’s almost zen-like, isn’t it, I mean if the Buddha were a complete moron. But it’s the previous sentence that really sums up his message: people shouldn’t worry about it. He also said that people should be “comforted” that our ports will be secure, and that Bushies were “bringing a sense of calm to this issue”. It’s like the period a few weeks after 9/11 when they kept talking about making people “feel secure” flying again, rather than talking about making them actually secure.
Condi Rice has been touring the Middle East this week, possibly trying to find a country to run all those nuclear plants Bush wants to build. But she also tried with no success to convince Egypt, Saudi Arabia etc not to fund the Palestinian government. The Saudi foreign minister gave the perfect response, even if he probably doesn’t mean a word of it: “We do not want to link international aid to the Palestinian people with considerations other than their terrible humanitarian needs.”
In the headlines, “shrine fury” replaces last week’s “cartoon fury.”
Fortunately, General Rick Lynch reassures us that the shrine fury does not rise to the level of a civil war, because only 7 Sunni mosques have been destroyed by those “inflammated” by the Samarra bombing: “So we are not seeing civil war igniting in Iraq. We are not seeing 77, 80, 100 mosques damaged in Iraq. We are not seeing death on the streets.” Possibly the 130 killed (so far) were on sidewalks. (Update: AP headline: “47 Bodies Found in Ditch North of Baghdad.” See, we’re only seeing death in the ditches.) And OK, it’s only been a day since the bombing, but I’m sure it’ll blow over quickly, just like that cartoon thing. (Another update: some reports now have dozens of Sunni mosques being attacked. Lynch may be a little sorry that he actually defined what would constitute a civil war.)
Brokeback mountain, in Lego.
Follow-up: Gen. Bantz Craddock touted the incredible pampering of hunger-striking prisoners in Guatanamo, who are allowed to choose the color of the feeding tube shoved into their noses. I can now reveal that those tubes come in yellow, beige and clear. “They like the yellow,” sez Craddock. I’m thinking like may be too strong a word.
I meant to say in the last post that I don’t consider it a huge security risk that an Emirati multinational corporation rather than a British or an American one will be hiring the illegal immigrants who work in our ports.General Bantz Craddock, head of US Southern Command, which includes Guantanamo, admits the use of restraint chairs on hunger-strikers, and, more or less, to using brutality to try to break the hunger strike. “Pretty soon it wasn’t convenient, and they decided it wasn’t worth it. A lot of the detainees said: ‘I don’t want to put up with this. This is too much of a hassle.’” Imagine what sort of a “hassle” it takes to dissuade people already committed to starving themselves to death. One form of hassle revealed by the NYT: not leaving the NG tube in in between feedings, but removing and re-inserting it each time. That’s where the argument that this is being done on medical grounds falls away, and it becomes torture, pure and simple. Craddock, however, portrays the hunger-strikers as pampered children, “indulged,” the says (I’d have liked the actual quotation), “to the point that they had been allowed to choose the color of their feeding tubes.”The US is still paying Iraqi newspapers to print puff pieces, despite Rumsfeld’s denials last week. Or perhaps not. Rummy said Tuesday that “It was put under review, and I don’t have knowledge as to whether or not it’s been stopped.”Rummy on Iraq: “There has been sectarian violence in that part of the world for decades. ... And so it’s -- to isolate out violence today and say, ‘Oh, my goodness, there’s violence today; isn’t that different’... would be out of context, because in fact there’s been incredible violence in that country for year after year after year.” After year.
There was a Linda Tripp legal defense fund, so I suppose it was inevitable that there be one for Scooter Libby, “one of the unsung heroes in fighting the war on terror.” Unsung? Why, that’s just so unfair. I would suggest a contest to come up with a Song for Scooter, but I’m afraid you people would actually write one.
The ability of the Cartoon Wars to generate entertaining headlines continues unabated. From The Times: “More Killed by Cartoon Mobs.” In Nigeria. Actually it’s no longer about the cartoons, but about a Christian teacher who took a Koran away from a student, then came the inevitable rumors about desecration, then the machetes came out. Honestly, I’d rather picture cartoon mobs, if you don’t mind.
Another good headline: “Psychics Help Hunt for Prize Dog.” The psychics have informed the owners that the dog, which escaped Kennedy Airport, is in a building.
Fun fact to learn and forget: the people of the United Arab Emirates are called Emirati.
And of course Bush is planning to turn over management of six American ports to an Emirati firm, Dubai Ports ‘R Us, bringing extra scrutiny to his complete failure to secure American ports against terrorists. Says Bush, “I really don’t understand why it’s okay for a British company to operate our ports, but not a company from the Middle East... And I want those who are questioning it to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a Great British [sic] company.” Of course he’s been talking all week about ways to reduce our addiction to oil from the Middle East, not British oil from the North Sea.
On Congressional threats to legislate against this move:
Q Why is it so important to you, sir, that you take on this issue as a political fight? Clearly, there’s bipartisan --
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t view it as a political fight. So do you want to start your question over? I view it as a good policy. [snip...]
THE PRESIDENT: It’s not a political issue.
Q But there clearly are members of your own party who will go to the mat against you on this.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s not a political issue.
Q Why are you -- to make this, to have this fight?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t view it as a fight. I view it as me saying to people what I think is right, the right policy. [snip...]
THE PRESIDENT: That’s one of the tools the President has to indicate to the legislative branch his intentions. A veto doesn’t mean fight, or politics, it’s just one of the tools I’ve got. I say veto, by the way, quite frequently in messages to Congress.
I was going to try to figure out how he defines the terms political and politics – what does he mean by saying that a veto doesn’t mean politics and by the twice-iterated “It’s not a political issue”? I thought it might illuminate his growing contempt for any element of government not meeting behind closed doors in the White House. Then I remembered that this is Bush we’re talking about, the man who describes everything as “interesting” and has little more sense of the meaning of words he puts into sentences than my cat does when she walks across my keyboard, and not much more desire to communicate in any meaningful way. After all, what is the value of a medium for the communication of ideas to a man who has no ideas. Politics means something bad, or people bitching about the good things he does, certainly it’s not something he ever does, he just gets on with the business of governing. Or something.
