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12 Comments

1. 

   Ed J on February 27, 2006 at 8:18 pm

   When Eisenhower visited in 1959 he went to the Tah Mahal, took off his shoes and was a big hit. George, though, will skip it:

   But to the consternation of many Indians, he will not see the country’s most famous monument, the Taj Mahal, a decision Bush blamed last week on an omnipotent scheduler.

   “Look, if I were the scheduler, perhaps I’d be doing things differently,” Bush said when he was asked in an interview with Indian reporters at the White House why he was skipping the Taj.

   If you wrote a novel with a president who was this much of a blockhead, it would be dismissed as ridiculous.

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     Street Kid on February 27, 2006 at 8:24 pm

     Truly a WTF? quote!

2. 

   idredit on February 27, 2006 at 8:58 pm

   I’ll repost a comment I wrote yesterday on ‘Bush, the more dangerous is Cheney.

   A must read Link to “Cheney’s power grab”

   Imho, It’s the begining of the end for both BushCheney & Co. People are now wide wide awake and that they’ve been had.

   Finally, the polls are showing it. New CBS poll has Bush’s approval at 34% and Cheney at 18%

   See CBS article Poll: Bush Ratings At All-Time Low

   Here’s to you Dick.  

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     Street Kid on February 27, 2006 at 9:25 pm

     Put a comment in the wrong spot.  Take a look downthread.

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       idredit on February 27, 2006 at 10:53 pm

       thanks. my bad.

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         Street Kid on February 27, 2006 at 11:11 pm

         Not yours, mine (and my typo too)

3. 

   Kahli on February 27, 2006 at 9:00 pm

   Color me freakin annoyed.  I received a survey/fund-raising request from the DCCC today.

   The survey asked about “important issues” the Dems should tackle.  Not mentioned were: civil liberties, verified voting, campaign finance reform, or reducing corruption (except for Tom Delay.)

   Clueless oafs.

   I declined to send them money.  I told them I would research and support true progressives and ended with a rousing “Go Cegelis!”

4. 

   Arcturus on February 27, 2006 at 9:09 pm

   Hot Reads

   Jeralynn on Libby’s motions:

   The third order indicates to me that Libby is going to lose his request for being provided with the Presidential Daily Briefings, and even the documents he will receive will be for a much shorter time period than he had requested.    {snip}

   Bottom line: Libby is going to get a fraction of what he wanted, if that.

   This judge is going to keep the trial to the issue of whether Libby lied, and not let him go off on a fishing expedition into who else may have leaked the information on Valerie Plame.

   Arundhati Roy on:

   Bush in India: Just Not Welcome

   Ironic, isn’t it, that the only safe public space for a man who has recently been so enthusiastic about India’s modernity should be a crumbling medieval fort?     {snip}

   Oh, and on March 2, Bush will be taken to visit Gandhi’s memorial in Rajghat. He’s by no means the only war criminal who has been invited by the Indian government to lay flowers at Rajghat. (Only recently we had the Burmese dictator General Than Shwe, no shrinking violet himself.) But when Bush places flowers on that famous slab of highly polished stone, millions of Indians will wince. It will be as though he has poured a pint of blood on the memory of Gandhi. We really would prefer that he didn’t.

   Defeat is Victory, Death is Life, by Robert Fisk

   Take Donald Rumsfeld, the reprehensible man who helped to kick off the “shock and awe” mess that has now trapped more than 100,000 Americans in the wastes of Iraq. He’s been taking a leisurely trip around North Africa to consult some of America’s nastiest dictators, among them President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, the man with the largest secret service in the Arab world and whose policemen have perfected the best method of gleaning information from suspected “terrorists”: to hold them down and stuff bleach-soaked rags into their mouths until they have almost drowned.

   Patriot Act architect Viet Dinh argues in an amicus brief in the Franklin case for a First Amendment right to steal & transmit classified information to Israel.

   You Can Do Anything with a Bayonet Except Sit on It: Interview with Mark Danner

   Playing Politics With Aid: The Unholy Trinity of Defense, Diplomacy and Development in the War on Terrorism, by Anuradha Mittal

   & finally, from my one-time nextdoor neighbor in SF’s mission district, who never once complained about the loud avant garde jazz constantly playing in our apartment, on Lieberman, censorship & free speech in the music industry:

   Howie Klein

5. 

   sbj on February 27, 2006 at 9:21 pm

   Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown” did a brief segment of an interview with prominent neocon Francis Fukuyama, who recently had a piece in the NYT that many seized on as a repudiation of the neocon ideology.(I linked to it but the link has expired and it’s a pay to view now. I saved a copy on my computer and I’ll email a copy of it to anyone who would like to read it; just send me an email request.)

   In this interview Fukuyama expressed what I had previously surmised was his real position, based on my reading of his NYT piece; that position being that, to paraphrase; “The neocon philosophy is as American as apple pie and a long standing part of American principle. It’s not the neoconservative idea that has failed in Iraq, it’s the implementation, the militarization of it that screwed it up.”

   Like all megalomaniacs, Fukuyama cannot disavow the dogma he’s been so infatuated with for so long. Nor can he acknowledge either now or ever that this delusional crackpot doctrine is flawed at it’s very core. No. Despite the seemingly dissonant view he
   expresses about the neoconservative concept, he is in reality attacking the Bushistas for screwing it up. His primary target, (the same target many of the premier gasbag neocons like Kristol shoot at), is Rumsfeld.

   Rumsfeld will be their sacrificial goat, while they themselves slog their way back into their dark and damp caves to await the appearance of another moron they can elevate to the presidency so they can come forth again for another try at destroying the planet.

   I wrote about Fukuyama the other day in a comment thread here.

6. 

   Street Kid on February 27, 2006 at 9:23 pm

   Just found this

   The White House on Monday rejected the call by more than a dozen House Democrats for a special counsel to investigate the Bush administration’s eavesdropping program…
   “I really don’t think there’s any basis for a special counsel,” McClellan also said…
   In their six-page letter, the Democrats said the special counsel should investigate any possible violation of federal criminal law, noting that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act says the monitoring of U.S. citizens and residents _ without a warrant _ is punishable by imprisonment…
   The administration also maintains the president had the power to order the surveillance under a broad 2001 authorization to use military force in the war on terror.

   The 18 lawmakers also want the special counsel to consider any crimes that may be committed to interfere with the investigation, including perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence and witness intimidation.

   The request harkens back to Libby, who was not indicted specifically for leaking Plame’s name, but for an alleged cover-up that included five counts of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements to FBI agents.

7. 

   americanforliberty on February 27, 2006 at 10:53 pm

   Why not Buck??? in the hall of fame??

   http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/sports/7509486/detail.html

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     blueneck on February 27, 2006 at 11:50 pm

     A travesty I say.  It is truly outrageous.  I don’t understand it.  Some white guy who had enough money to start the KC Monarchs, but not Buck O’Neil or Minnie Minosa?????????