Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the assaults and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, in accordance with authorities records and present and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter. One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told in the course of the briefing was that the few credible studies of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda concerned attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. However, protests towards this and other amendments led President Cortizo to criticize the lawmakers, and a committee was established to analyze the more controversial amendments. His most evident emphasis is on consolidating his personal energy and that of an unrestrained govt – reworking the office of the president into the ability of a ruthless despot.This is, in fact, completely counterproductive to democracy, and there is no paradox in exploiting the facility of the concept of religion as a foundation for the divine proper of kings.Since that is all fairly obvious, it results in a critical query about the degree to which being part of the Washington blitherati erases such knowledge from individuals’s minds and leads them to imagine that the mere claims for a democratic agenda from someone who’s clearly dictatorial represent actuality just because he says so.

Shailagh Murray observes within the WaPo that one refreshing thing about Jack Murtha is that he doesn’t need to be president. Via Steve Soto.I see “Danny” Bubp is now denying that he said something to “disparage” Jack Murtha: “He feels as if the phrases that Congresswoman Schmidt selected did not represent their dialog.”Wayne Uff at Bad Attitudes: But one admirable factor I heard (unconfirmed) from somebody pretty nicely-versed in White House minutiae is that all through his public career, including the White House years, Bush the Elder had a policy of never going off the document with reporters.Jane Smiley says the US is no longer a Superpower: We’re a rustic that may not pay our payments, now not wage an efficient navy motion, and not protect our residents from disaster. In his version of the ritual document originated by the Founding Fathers, Bush asked God “to observe over America.”He appears extra comfy than most of his predecessors in stressing and reconciling in public his personal commitments to religion and democracy, the two grand themes — and transferring forces — of his presidency. Late for breakfastI do not know if it is going to seem in the Guardian as properly however it’s price putting up with the promoting at Salon to learn Sidney Blumenthal’s The long march of Dick Cheney, with all that invaluable content material I wish the information media had presented to the public again when it mattered.

There’s nothing here price reading if you’re on the lookout for one thing clever, no plot, no story, not even some character improvement! That nothing has expanded ownership more than the GI invoice, the scholar loans that gave people the opportunity to get increased paying jobs. Steve Clemons has a view that’s a bit more in step with mine. The Guardian’s view is that actress comes into the same class as authoress, comedienne, manageress, “lady doctor”, “male nurse” and related out of date phrases that date from a time when professions have been largely the preserve of one intercourse (normally men). This is due to variations in human biology where some folks usually are not unambiguously feminine or male, not all cells in a person’s body have the identical genotype or the presence of other atypical genetic condition. You do not argue with these individuals on this subject. Mooney is one of the all-time biggest comedian minds with reference to race, and this sketch showed just that. A supply said: ‘He took her out on a boat on Lake Como and got down on one knee and everything.

This was finished to be able to relieve among the stress The Simpsons’ writing employees endured, as they felt that producing 25 episodes in one season was a lot. There are pictures in there I didn’t know existed, and I discovered a pair I’d completely forgotten, probably because I don’t drink a lot and a little bit wine goes a good distance with me. There are other good time-saving posts there, too, after all.Local fannish news alert: PNN stories that Walker’s is closing and won’t be accessible for the following ‘Ton. Media reviews were disseminated suggesting varied motives of the killers, though all theories have been largely unsubstantiated and turned out to be myths. I want extra coffeeKevin Drum is again at Political Animal with a submit on the story of how Tony Blair had to speak Bush out of bombing Al Jazeera. Man has not freed himself from it by protecting it up and by trampling it; quite the opposite, he has entangled himself in it much more. At first, I used to be bashful popping out as a cross-breed of agnostic and atheist, but the more I learned, the more certain I grew to become, that relying on faith alone would not be smart a method if one, corresponding to I, were to proceed living in cussedness.