A simple man:

Tom Tomorrow nails it. While watching the Bush press conference last week, he posted these all-too-true and so-sad-they're-almost-amusing words:

April 13, 2004

Oh god
He's so awful. He just flounders around until he can dredge up a marginally appropriate sound bite--and when the question doesn't allow for that, he's just utterly lost.

posted by Tom Tomorrow at 09:28 PM | link

Play this game
what are you reading?...

Kevin Jones says - in his Book game post:

"it's the latest info fad, the newest wrinkle in expanding the acoustic resonance of the echo chamber; join in now!"

The book I am currently reading is The Faiths of Our Fathers by Alf J. Mapp Jr. and here is my sentence (it's a long one):

~~~~~~~~~~~~

'In words that seem an anticipation of space-age science fiction, [Benjamin] Franklin says:

"When I stretch my imagination through and beyond our system of planets, beyond the visible fixed stars themselves, into that space which is every way infinite, and conceive it filled with suns like ours, each with a chorus of worlds forever moving round him, then this little ball on which we move seems, even in my narrow imagination, to be almost nothing, and myself less than nothing, and of no sort of consequence."

~~~~~~~~~~

If you would like to play and dip your prose toes into this memepool - here are the rules:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Headlines


Listen up--this is important:

In his new book, Bob Woodward describes a relationship between Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell that became so strained Cheney and Powell are barely on speaking terms. Cheney engaged in a bitter and eventually winning struggle over Iraq with Powell, an opponent of war who believed Cheney was obsessively trying to establish a connection between Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network and treated ambiguous intelligence as fact.
Powell felt Cheney and his allies -- his chief aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby; Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz; and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and what Powell called Feith's "Gestapo" office -- had established what amounted to a separate government.

A SEPARATE GOVERNMENT. A "Gestapo Office". Strong accusations...made by our Secretary of State.


Clear Channel dumped Howard Stern...and they surely don't want you to hear Howard on Satellite Radio, either. Why? They know you'll flock to Satellite to hear Howard Stern--leaving the boring FCC-suck-ups in the dust.

Dominoes? Spain is withdrawing its troops from Iraq. Portugal may follow suit.

Guerrilla warfare is becoming a major concern for our U.S. Military. If one hair on faithful soldier Matt Maupin's head is touched, I'm afraid the few Americans who still have faith in Bush's handling of Iraq will change their minds quickly.

In Kosovo (of all places), Jordanian U.N. peacekeeper Ahmed Mustafa Ibrahim Ali has reacted violently to an emotional argument among fellow police officers over the war in Iraq. What a nightmare!

The anti-Islamic-slanted information source MEMRI is asserting that most Muslim intellectuals are 'all for terror' even though they 'talk of love and peace in Islam'. They say it's just a cover for violence. Consider the source. In my opinion, information sources like MEMRI do absolutely nothing to further peace or understanding in this world.

World Net Daily is all-a-twitter because folks like Warren Buffett, George Soros, Bill Gates Sr. and some of the Rockefellers might make some dough if Kerry's elected. I say "Who cares as long as all our boats are lifted?" WND hates 'em because they're liberal. Could it BE more obvious?

The pseudo-holy-rollers at World Net Daily are spreading more hatred toward Muslims in this beauty of an "article". Muslim clerics preach wife-beating. Where did they get this tripe, you ask? Once again, from none other than the Islam-haters at MEMRI.

This banner is running at MEMRI now (pardon the capital letters..it's them..not me):

IN A COMMUNIQUÉ IN RESPONSE TO THE ASSASSINATION OF HAMAS LEADER ABD AL-'AZIZ AL-RANTISI, FATAH'S AL-AQSA MARTYRS BRIGADES STATED: 'BUSH AND SHARON ARE THE HITLER OF THE ERA, AND THEY CONSTITUTE A DANGER TO WORLD SECURITY. ALL THE FIGHTING [PALESTINIAN] FACTIONS ARE CALLED UPON TO CAUSE AN EARTHQUAKE TO THE ZIONIST ENEMY. THE OCCUPATION WILL PAY A PRICE FOR ITS CRIMES, AND EVERYONE IN THE ZIONIST ENTITY IS NOW A TARGET, EVEN CHILDREN. THEY WILL PAY, IN BLOOD, THE PRICE FOR THE TEARS SHED BY THE PALESTINIAN MOTHERS.' (AL-HAYAT AL-JADIDA, PA, 4/18/04)

Here is Haaretz' take on the Israeli-Palestinian situation.
Richard Gwyn of the Toronto Star claims it all boils down to Incurious George.

The next time someone asks the President if mistakes were made, a Real Audio clip has been provided for those pesky "blank-out" moments. It's titled "Mistakes Were Made".

Contrary to popular belief, you cannot get anything you want at Mohammed’s restaurant.

Iraq and the Bush Administration


There are new ideas and opinions about the war in Iraq swirling around the world of politics, journalism and blogging this week.

Stratfor.com has an interesting (free) analysis of President Bush's recent press conference (try to read it soon as it may be replaced shortly). It contains a point-blank political warning for the Bush administration:

We are convinced that the Bush administration has a defensible strategy. It is not a simple one and not one that can be made completely public, but it is a defensible strategy. If President Bush decides not to articulate it, it will be interesting to see whether President Kerry does, because we are convinced that if Bush keeps going in the direction he is going, he will lose the election.

The summary says, in part:

If the primary purpose of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was to bring democracy to Iraq, then enduring the pain of the current crisis will make little sense to the American public. Taken in isolation, bringing democracy to Iraq may be a worthy goal, but not one taking moral precedence over bringing democracy to several dozen other countries -- and certainly not a project worth the sacrifices now being made necessary.

If, on the other hand, the invasion was an integral part of the war that began Sept. 11, then Bush will generate public support for it. The problem that Bush has -- and it showed itself vividly in his press conference -- is that he and the rest of his administration are simply unable to embed Iraq in the general strategy of the broader war. Bush asserts that it is part of that war, but then uses the specific justification of bringing democracy to Iraq as his rationale. Unless you want to argue that democratizing Iraq -- assuming that is possible -- has strategic implications more significant than democratizing other countries, the explanation doesn't work. The explanation that does work -- that the invasion of Iraq was a stepping-stone toward changes in behavior in other countries of the region -- is never given.

We therefore wind up with an explanation that is only superficially plausible, and a price that appears to be excessive, given the stated goal. The president and his administration do not seem willing to provide a coherent explanation of the strategy behind the Iraq campaign. What was the United States hoping to achieve when it invaded Iraq, and what is it defending now? There are good answers to these questions, but Bush stays with platitudes.

We must ask ourselves...why the platitudes? Why the unwillingness? It makes no political sense in a re-election year.

David Brooks has written a NYT op-ed with the ever-confusing philosophy I find common lately when I read the words of centrist-right mainstream journalists who write for what some people would term "corporate media". Basically, Brooks is saying 'Yes..I was for the war...but not this particular war... a war something like it..." As if you could ever have separated the PNAC Utopian ideals from the failures proved in the realistic results of a foreseeable lack of Bush administration's strategy and old fashioned gut-intuition. I just don't buy this philosophy. "Things are all wrong...but I was right". How was it that disbanding the Iraqi army was visionary? How could one say that General Shinseki's sage advice about a large number of troops was not shunned at the great expense of the cause? How can one look back at the virtual snubbing of the U.N. and say we didn't lose something of invaluable importance when it came to diplomacy and building strong coalitions? How could one say that the burden of paying for reconstruction (with non-adequate security to protect the interests such as the oil pipelines which are being sabotaged far too often) should be placed solely on American taxpayers? How could we look back and say Bush's mistaken use of the word "crusade" from the get-go wasn't a warning sign? This was a sheltered leader with little-to-no true knowlege of the workings and/or mindset of the world outside the U.S. How was it we could not see that he didn't understand the importance of great tact..that he simply didn't "get it"?

On the blog of gifted writer Matthew Yglesias, he comments on the Brooks op-ed and adds some introspective thoughts of his own. I think he's correct in stating that, during the Iraq war lead-up, neither the blind Bush-supporters nor the chanting anti-war crowds fully understood (respectively from right and left standpoints) how unrelated, wrong-minded and Utopian the Bush administration's war plans really were as the right cheered on-- and how the generalities and lack of sophisticated dialogue from the left did not help to make the general public understand what was about to happen. Frankly, I don't think either side had a chance to stop the Iraq "rock"...the Bush administration was bound and determined (before 9-11) to get into Iraq and change its regime. Nothing was going to stop them. Both Brooks and Yglesias have exercised a bit of vanity here..and that's what journalists do.

Patriotic Gore


go to NPR interview w/Bob Edwards by clicking photo

I enjoyed Justin Raimondo's review of Gore Vidal's new book Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson (The article, Patriotic Gore, linked above).

I have not read the entire book to date, but I've read many parts.
One particular part sticks in my memory. I begin with an excerpt from Sterne's "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy"

My uncle Toby was a man patient of injuries;--not from want of courage,--I have told you in a former chapter, 'that he was a man of courage:'--And will add here, that where just occasions presented, or called it forth,--I know no man under whose arm I would have sooner taken shelter;--nor did this arise from any insensibility or obtuseness of his intellectual parts;- -for he felt this insult of my father's as feelingly as a man could do;-- but he was of a peaceful, placid nature,--no jarring element in it,--all was mixed up so kindly within him; my uncle Toby had scarce a heart to retaliate upon a fly.

--Go--says he, one day at dinner, to an over-grown one which had buzzed about his nose, and tormented him cruelly all dinner-time,--and which after infinite attempts, he had caught at last, as it flew by him;--I'll not hurt thee, says my uncle Toby, rising from his chair, and going across the room, with the fly in his hand,--I'll not hurt a hair of thy head:--Go, says he, lifting up the sash, and opening his hand as he spoke, to let it escape;-- go, poor devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee?--This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.

I was but ten years old when this happened: but whether it was, that the action itself was more in unison to my nerves at that age of pity, which instantly set my whole frame into one vibration of most pleasurable sensation;--or how far the manner and expression of it might go towards it;--or in what degree, or by what secret magick,--a tone of voice and harmony of movement, attuned by mercy, might find a passage to my heart, I know not;--this I know, that the lesson of universal good-will then taught and imprinted by my uncle Toby, has never since been worn out of my mind: And tho' I would not depreciate what the study of the Literae humaniores, at the university, have done for me in that respect, or discredit the other helps of an expensive education bestowed upon me, both at home and abroad since;--yet I often think that I owe one half of my philanthropy to that one accidental impression.


Reading this section of the book where Uncle Toby spares the life of a fly, Aaron Burr (who lived to a ripe old age) is said to have remarked, "Had I read Sterne more and Voltaire less, I should have known the world was wide enough for Hamilton and me."

Coming Soon to a 9-11 Commission Near You...




THE DICK CHENEY AND DUBYA MCBUSHY SHOW!

Leonid's the world's tallest.
Better a veterinarian than a proctologist...
yowzers!

At Critical Viewer, A Busy Person's Guide to the Bush Press Conference


If you don't have time for the original, (so much campaign slogan schlock to wade through), this one's to-the-point.

By the way, this has been tough weeks in that country.

My prize for the weirdest (and most horrifying) answer to a question about the FBI: "We are an instrument of God to deliver freedom to the people of the world."

Oh...please repeat after Cal....It's all Don Gonyea's fault...it's all Don Gonyea's fault...

A particularly 'DUH-ful' moment: "And they were happy — they're not happy they're occupied. I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either..."

Most unconvincingly delivered line: "I feel incredibly grieved when I meet with family members, and I do quite frequently. I grieve for, you know, the incredible loss of life that they feel, the emptiness they feel." Maybe it was just the delivery, but I wasn't swayed in the least.

Second most unconvincing line: "I wanted Tenet in the Oval Office all the time."
*For PDB threat assessments history lessons, perhaps? Is our children our Presidents learning?*

With Glen Este and the Maupin family and friends...




Here at Iddybud, our prayers are with all of you.



Matt, come home safely.

Have you seen....
"The Front-Runner’s Fall"

The Dean implosion up close, from the vantage point of the candidate's pollster

The night of the Iowa caucus:

We tried hard to cheer him up, and we explained the importance of seeming confident in those interviews. He did beautifully in each of them. But nobody had bothered to write up a concession speech or even a few lines to use when he faced the crowd waiting in the Val Air Ballroom, many of them Stormers. It was as if we were all in shock, and didn't even consider the importance of his first election-night appearance in front of a national television audience.

Report From Fallujah -- Destroying A Town In Order To Save It (News) Rahul Mahajan

Blogs in the Heart of the War Zone

by Rahul Mahajan, EmpireNotes.org
April 15, 2004
Rahul Mahajan's sobering, evocative weblog that he updates several times a day from the heart of the war zone completely dispels the Bush administration's stance that only a handful of mujahadeen are behind the uprisings in Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq. If you're looking for a lighthearted account that justifies the presence of American troops in Iraq and foresees a quick solution, look elsewhere. But if you crave a street account of the quagmire that sheds light on why many normal Iraqis are rising up against the invaders even though they hated Saddam Hussein, then check out EmpireNotes.org."

Will Cheney's secret energy meetings see the light?

Will Cheney's secret energy meetings see the light?

In These Times | The Task at Hand"The Bush administration has until June 1 to turn over secret documents involving Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force or provide the legal grounds to withhold them."

Headlines


Seattle Post Intelligencer: Footage shown of slain Westerners in Iraq
Are the slain (alleged Americans) intelligence agents? Mercenaries? We really don't know. The article leads us to think they're probably "contractors". We are having to "pacify" Iraqi cities because of depraved killings of "contractors". Some of these "contractors" may not even be American citizens...they may be soldiers of (pretty decent) fortune. Our troops risk all for meager pay. What's happening, really?

Yahoo News: Iraqi Civilians Flee Falluja as Truce Takes Hold
Consider the contrasting information between the reported facts and the White House spin:

Grabbing their chance, desperate families fled battle zones in the town of 300,000. Sunni Muslim fighters, who have been battling U.S. Marines from street to street, remained inside. In Falluja, overnight clashes gave way to calm by dawn after intense efforts to arrange a cease-fire. International relief groups say 470 Iraqis have been killed there and 1,200 wounded, including 243 women and 200 children, in the past week.

Now information disseminated by the White House:

Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the neo-conservatives maintain that this upsurge of violence was expected, and that the insurgents are a small minority.

Americans want to know why we are expending so much blood and treasure on something so illegitimate. Bush spent the Easter weekend on his Texas ranch and officials insisted there is "no major combat" in Iraq.

Charles Krauthammer says Hubert Humphrey was an over-idealistic schlump...the secret to curing hunger and poverty is capitalism and free trade. To hell with human rights, true democracy, UNICEF, the U.N. We see how the Iraqis love the idea of our bastardized gift of "democracy".

History Repeats


The Philadelphia Inquirer article begins:

It was fitting that Condoleezza Rice testified to the 9/11 commission on the day before the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

In both cases, information was available to the White House that might have prevented disaster - the attacks on the twin towers and Pentagon and the postwar chaos. In both cases, the information wasn't used.

We need to know why.

Could it be a willful rejection of inconvenient facts?

On Meet the Press:
John McCain states he supports re-election of Bush

Blah.
Just blah.

*Why has the DLC been dancing with this fellow? At the end of the ball, he's leaving with the village idiot.*

Here's the August 6, 2001 PDB Text

Do you think this document should have given Bush enough warning to push for more intelligence information about possible domestic hijackings? Read for yourself.

Related Stories:

MSNBC: White House releases intelligence memo

Washington Post: Bush seemed unworried in Aug. 2001

Whip It Good

Whip it good

Actors Whip Easter Bunny at Church Show

GLASSPORT, Pa. (AP)--First, the Passion of the Christ. Now, the torment of the Easter Bunny?

It may not have been as gruesome as Mel Gibson's movie, but many parents and children got upset when a church trying to teach about Jesus' crucifixion performed an Easter show with actors whipping the Easter bunny and breaking eggs.

People who attended Saturday's show at Glassport's memorial stadium quoted performers as saying, ``There is no Easter bunny,'' and described the show as being a demonstration of how Jesus was crucified.

Melissa Salzmann, who brought her 4-year-old son J.T., said the program was inappropriate for young children. ``He was crying and asking me why the bunny was being whipped,'' Salzmann said.

Patty Bickerton, the youth minister at Glassport Assembly of God, said the performance wasn't meant to be offensive. Bickerton portrayed the Easter rabbit and said she tried to act with a tone of irreverence.

``The program was for all ages, not just the kids. We wanted to convey that Easter is not just about the Easter bunny, it is about Jesus Christ,'' Bickerton said.

Performers broke eggs meant for an Easter egg hunt and also portrayed a drunken man and a self-mutilating woman, said Jennifer Norelli-Burke, another parent who saw the show in Glassport, a community about 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

``It was very disturbing,'' Norelli-Burke said. ``I could not believe what I saw. It wasn't anything I was expecting.''

Hearts and Minds: Colonel Pittard's job made tougher by insurgents' rage

Is this a recipe for another never-ending battle (like Israel/Palestine)? Colonel Dana J.H. Pittard sees places like eastern Diyala in Iraq becoming a "future battleground between Arabs and Kurds'' as the Kurds will try to regain land and homes snatched away by the former regime during its campaign of Arabization. The region harbors 53,000 displaced people, and serves as a corridor for illegal movements out of neighboring Iran. What on God's earth has Bush gotten our country into? I feel badly that most of the hard work Col. Pittard has done has been derailed by this Iraqi citizen uprising. I know people like the Colonel cannot or will not say it, but I blame the Pentagon and the Commander-in-Chief for rushing into this unnecessary and cruel war without a decent plan. I am not surprised it has turned out as it has. I pray for the safety of Col. Pittard's Brigade and hope he will truly be supported soon by his own Commander. My heart breaks for all of the people touched by this awful experiment.

What did I just say yesterday?


.....more important, many critics believe, Bush should have listened to former Army chief of staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, who said a postwar occupying force in Iraq would have to number in the hundreds of thousands.....

Praying for the Miners


The dead, the trapped, the injured.



When that sun comes up each morning and I walk down into that cold dark mine
I say a prayer to my dear saviour, please let me see the sunshine one more time.

--Dwight Yoakam