Thursday News Bucket

10 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on March 15, 2007 at 6:23 am

   Bush’s idea of “He-who-must-not-be-named”? NYT

   Try as they might to make President Bush utter the name of his chief Latin American nemesis, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, reporters who covered Mr. Bush’s five-nation trip through South and Central America could not succeed.

   Mr. Bush faced at least 11 questions about Mr. Chávez either in interviews immediately preceding his trip or in the mini-briefings he held in each country he visited, including a couple in which Mr. Bush was directly asked about the avoidance.

   Yet not once did he take the bait to say Mr. Chávez’s name or to acknowledge him as a person. At one point reporters considered asking him directly, “Who is the president of Venezuela?” They concluded that it would not only be too ridiculous, but that it probably would not bring the desired result anyway.

   The maturity level of the pReznit is just stunning.  Maybe he thinks that of he ignores the man who calls him “a political cadaver” he’lll just go away?  That seems to be his plan for Iraq: just pretend really hard that everything there is fine…

2. 

   CabinGirl on March 15, 2007 at 6:27 am

   and not just cuz he’s a deadhead: CNN

   Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said Wednesday that he will subpoena Karl Rove to appear before his panel regarding the Bush administration’s firing of eight U.S. attorneys, if the White House deputy chief of staff does not do so voluntarily.

   “He can appear voluntarily if he wants,” Leahy said of Rove in an interview with CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer. “If he doesn’t, I will subpoena him.”

   Leahy added, “The attorney general said, ‘Well, there are some staff people or lower level people — I am not sure whether I want to allow them to testify or not.’ I said, ‘Frankly, Mr. attorney general, it’s not your decision, it’s mine and the committee’s.’ We will have some subpoenas.”

   Take that, Alberto.  You are NOT in charge…and I’m betting that – unlike when Snarlin’ Arlen was head of the judiciary committee – your staff WILL be sworn in when they testify.  

3. 

   CabinGirl on March 15, 2007 at 6:33 am

   You can make the international billionaire’s list too- just pick the right parents!  Why bother with a career…

4. 

   Alice on March 15, 2007 at 7:01 am

   Fine start for the News Bucket today, Cabin.

   Paris is the perfect counterpoint to the arrogant fools who are running our country.

5. 

   Man Eegee on March 15, 2007 at 2:15 pm

   Why am I not surprised?

   And the bus? It’s still called Straight Talk Express. But it is by all appearances new and gleaming. Fox TV is playing on the monitors. And Mr. McCain is as playful as ever. “Let me help you out of your chair, old man,” he said to a decidedly younger reporter as his entourage headed out for a news conference at the Iowa State capital. – linkage

   bold is mine.

6. 

   Man Eegee on March 15, 2007 at 3:04 pm

   Uh oh, BooMan.  Your man Brownback has some asplainin- to do

   Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record) is backing the
   Pentagon’s top general over his remarks that homosexuality is immoral.

   The Kansas senator planned to send a letter on Thursday to President Bush supporting Marine Gen. Peter Pace, who earlier this week likened homosexuality to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gay personnel to serve openly. – linkage

   • 

     CabinGirl on March 15, 2007 at 3:17 pm

     I can’t believe it!  Not Sam!  How could he do such a thing?  And after all BooMan has done for him…

     • 

       Man Eegee on March 15, 2007 at 3:23 pm

       it’s retaliation for the official Brownback for America uniform he made everyone wear under threat of waterboarding?

       

       • 

         CabinGirl on March 15, 2007 at 3:27 pm

         Better an orange pom-pom hat than an orange jumpsuit, though.

7. 

   Man Eegee on March 15, 2007 at 5:31 pm

   Portland Indymedia:

   Last night, Monday the 12th, over 100 people gathered at the corner of Lincoln and Milawakee. Once we got there, we realized we in a really shady spot. The cops were poised to cut us off and there were snipers on the rooftop of a nearby building… When we got back to the intersection, a lot of us started gravitating towards the barricades. Slowly, most of us trickled up to it, with everyone else hanging out in the rear. And then the warning came, telling us to leave or we would be arrested… the pigs did NOT give us a time limit or a place to fall back to, things they HAVE to do by law. The pigs started putting on their gas masks in front of us and then we saw a bus pull up and unload the riot cops to our right. The same thing happened on our left and we were surrounded on three sides by lines of riot cops.

   The cops directly in front of us moved their line out and surrounded the people by the barricade. After taking those five in, the line kept moving. We kept it tight at the intersection, but when the gas and the bullets came we began to slowly move back…

   YouTube videos the clashes here and here.