|
|
Free press is hard to find, and you sure won't find it in Iran. Here's a recent headline from The Tehran Times: "Opinion poll in Belgium supports Mottaki's views on cartoons"
Respondents in the poll (Moroccans living in Belgium ) were asked:
Was Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki right in criticizing in Brussels the cartoons as showing lack of respect to 1.5 billion Muslims?
The problem with the headline? Only "Forty-five percent of the respondents said they completely agreed" with the Foreign Minister's statement. Another 33.5% said he was exaggerating and pouring oil on the fire, while a whopping 21.5% simply had no opinion.
Yeah, that's "support" for a statement like Bush won a "mandate" in 2004.
Free press. Wishful thinking.
You'd have to read pretty deep into the news stories to find out, but Claude Allen, the ex-Bush aide recently arrested on charges that he effectively stole some $5,000 of merchandise from retailers is the same Claude Allen that Bush had nominated to the 4th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. After it became clear that Bush would be unable to push the nomination through the senate, Allen "requested" that his nomination be withdrawn.
Our illustrious president has stated that he is "shocked" by the charges against Allen. When you finish reading this, you probably won't be. When a man who has been wrong more times than a hunch better at a fixed roulette wheel, our president inexplicably likes to voice his opinions. Think "heck of a job, Brownie," his opinion that no one could have anticipated the breaks in the New Orleans levees, many statements about WMD, and his vociferous assurances that the Dubai ports deal would go through. I think I would very much like to go to a race track with George W. Every time he bet on a race, I could at least eliminate his choice a a potential winner, improving my own odds considerably.
His latest is in the AP headline "Bush Confident Iraq Will Avoid Civil War." Senator Russ Feingold wants the Senate to censure Lord Clusterf**k, eh? Story here... Tom Gilroy makes a pretty sick point over at huffpo, that some jokes aren't funny, or are they? "Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous"
Caesar to Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2.
Nowadays, it's Casio not Cassius causing the alarm, according to an AP report dated today, which reveals that the evidence the U.S. has cited against 8 detainees at Guantanamo include the fact that they were wearing Casio digital watches when picked up. Well, "SLITHY" means "lithe and slimy." "Lithe" is the same as "active." You see it's like a portmanteau -- there are two meanings packed up into one word. Humpty Dumpty, in Alice in Wonderland.
And Alberto Gonzales is all that and more, if you've followed his public appearances and his unreassuring assurances on several subjects over the last several days. The definition of "torture" once again tortured. The ambiguity of prior statements to the Senate clarified so as to increase the ambiguity. Announcement by the Attorney General for what appears to be one of the most corrupt administrations in history that "One of my priorities for the Justice Department in the coming year is to better safeguard public integrity -- not solely in the area of Hurricane related fraud, but also procurement fraud and other instances of public corruption." I couldn't resist posting this small, relatively insignificant example of the lack of ethics in international business. A UK news site reports that a multi-national energy firm, called "E.ON UK," stuffed the electronic ballot box at a UK newspaper trying to take a poll on whether it was a good idea to build seven 355-foot wind turbines on Denshaw Moor in Oldham, Greater Manchester, as the enrgy company was proposing to do.
Rueters is reporting that two women have sued the Marine Corps, the Navy, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee, Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter and two Marine Corps recruiters, alleging that the recruiters forced them to have sex after they expressed interest in joining the Corps. Two stories in today's news pretty well demonstrate the state of Republican allegence to Mr. Bush. In one, it's obvious that Bush, although he's lost the ability to keep the Republicans in Washington in total lock step, still has enough clout to make them whimper "okay, Georgie" as to domestic spying. But in the other, it appears that Bush's hold on unelected Republican conservatives may be tenuous, indeed, from the reported roasting he took at a forum sponsored by the Cato Institute.
|
