The New York Times | Kristof: Apocalypse (Almost) Now

"The 'Left Behind' series, the best-selling novels for adults in the U.S., enthusiastically depict Jesus returning to slaughter everyone who is not a born-again Christian. The world's Hindus, Muslims, Jews and agnostics, along with many Catholics and Unitarians, are heaved into everlasting fire: 'Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and . . . they tumbled in, howling and screeching.'"

"No Unitarian Left Behind"? It's sounds like the Bubbas who buy into this series leave behind their credibility -- and their money.

Toronto Sun | World eschews Rice

"Powell, an honourable soldier and gentleman, was humiliated, ignored, and cynically used to sell the Iraq war. He made a fool of himself before the world with his UN presentation about Iraq's supposed arsenal of death.

In my view, Rice, an academic Soviet expert, has been the worst national security adviser since the Reagan administration's bumbling William Clark, whose only foreign affairs experience, wags said, came from eating at the International House of Pancakes."

The rest of the article is very good, very humorous, very scary. This is just a first taste of the no-return presidency.

Times Online - World

"PRESIDENT BUSH faced another potential public relations disaster over Iraq last night after graphic video footage emerged of a US Marine appearing to shoot dead at point-blank range a severely wounded and unarmed Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Fallujah.
First aired by NBC, but quickly broadcast by all the major networks, the soldier appeared to turn his weapon on the wounded militant as he lay on the mosque floor.

The Iraqi was one of five wounded prisoners left in the mosque after Marines had fought their way in on Friday and Saturday. The Pentagon said last night that an investigation was under way."

There is little surprise in the story.

What is surprising is the mutism of the press in the face of a humanitarian disaster in Fallujah -- wholesale destruction of a city and widespread killing of civilians, rebaptized as "insurgents". The US seems to be taking its cues from the Israelis in this respect: keep the press away, describe operations as "military", call everyone an "insurgent", bomb the hospitals, keep the international humanitarian organizations away, keep the journalists away, say "Mission Accomplished" while the bombing continues. And, oh yeah, once you've bombed their city into the dust, claim that you are going to hold "elections". That's bubbalogic.

Aljazeera.Net - Squeezing jello in Iraq

"Falluja is probably the beginning of a very long and bloody phase of the Iraq war, one that pits an American military under orders from a rejuvenated Bush administration to achieve victory at any cost against an Iraqi resistance that is willing to allow Iraq to sink into a quagmire of death and destruction in order to bog down and eventually expel the American occupier.

It is a war the United States cannot win, and which the government of Iyad Allawi cannot survive. Unfortunately, since recent polls show that some 70% of the American people support the war in Iraq, it is a war that will rage until the American domestic political dynamic changes, and the tide of public opinion turns against the war."

The US/Coalition against Iraq has reached its "Vietnam" phase with the only possible conclusions. When will they ever learn?

The New York Times | 'Zappa': Freak Out!

"''Zappa,'' argues that he was a major artist in the line of Courbet and Duchamp."

Agreement.

Yahoo! News - Growth is remedy to big current account deficit: US official

"The whopping US trade and investment deficit is the result of a strong US economy and can be remedied by taking steps to boost growth elsewhere, a US Treasury official said.

The official, speaking to reporters ahead of Treasury Secretary John Snow's visit to Europe next week, said imbalances that have been weighing on the dollar are the result of sub-par growth in the economies of a number of US trading partners."

Sure, it's not the whopping deficit that is the cause of the trade imbalance. It's because the other economies are not strong enough. That's right Bubba, it's not our fault, it's their fault! Easy!

Yahoo! News - US Airways asks to scrap union accords, terminate costly pensions

"US Airways, taking punishing losses, asked a bankruptcy judge to let it scrap deals with three unions, terminate pensions with set payouts, and slash health benefits.

US Airways filed the request with the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

It asked the court to reject existing agreements with the Association of Flight Attendants, the Communications Workers of America and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

The airline said it was still in talks with those three unions to cut pay and costs, and it would prefer to reach a deal with them rather than impose a court-approved resolution."

Yeah, right, Bubba. On the one hand, you ask the Judge to impose pay cuts, benefits cuts, pension cuts, the whole shebang. On the other hand, you say "we're still negotiating with the unions". But it's obvious that there will be no real negotiation -- not when the Judge can impose pay cuts unilateraly.

Did anyone ask the executives how much they were willing to cut their pay? This is often an important part of the salary pool.

New York Post Online Edition | Editorials that Show the State of the American Mind

Anyone familiar with the situation in the Ivory Coast knows that the forces stationed there, mostly French, are under UN mandate on a peacekeeping mission to stop the civil war. Most recently, the central government in the Ivory Coast used its few military jets to fire missiles on the French peacekeeping forces, who then retaliated by destroying the Ivory Coast military aircraft. There were only a few of them, so this was easy to do, but they had to be put out of commission as they were going to be used again. The UN Security Council agreed with France's actions, although they have yet to approve the arms embargo that they requested.

With that background, it is instructive to read the thick layer of lies in the Murdoch-run NY Post:

"What Western power bypassed the U.N. recently, ignored the inter national community and launched a pre-emptive attack against the forces of a sovereign foreign government?

Why . . . France, of course.

That's right: French forces, acting unilaterally, deployed troops to strike the Ivory Coast's air force and took up strategic sites in the country's commercial center of Abidjan last Sunday.

Indeed, in what is being called a complete 'overreaction,' the French virtually wiped out the West African cocoa-producing nation's entire combat air fleet.

(True, that included just a few old Russian jets and some choppers. But what do you expect from the French?)

And, so far, the closest thing to WMDs that's been found is . . . chocolate. (It can lead to deadly obesity, n'est-ce pas?)

Which raises a question: Did that cowboy, Jacques Chirac, fear President Laurent Gbagbo's forces would attack Paris?"

If you wanted to read something journalistic on the subject, you'll have to look outside of the US. The Turkish press seems better placed:


The Security Council on Saturday upheld the right of French and UN forces to prevent "any hostile action," and the head of UN peacekeeping said that the French deployment had been made in coordination with the United Nations.


Destroying military aircraft is a prevention of hostile actions. Pretty restrained response by American standards.

The real story is the major news corporations that feed this sort of nonsense on a steady basis to American voters. Little wonder that they vote for Bush as a consequence.

The New York Times | A Moveable Feast of Terrorism

"The president is putting his own counsel, Alberto Gonzales, who wrote the famous memo defending torture, in charge of our civil liberties. Torture Guy, who blithely threw off 75 years of international law and set the stage for the grotesque abuses at Abu Ghraib and dubious detentions at Guantanamo, seems to have a good grasp of what's just. No doubt we'll soon learn what other protections, besides the Geneva Conventions and the Constitution, Mr. Gonzales finds 'quaint'' and 'obsolete.''

With the F.B.I. investigating Halliburton and the second-term scandal curse looming, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney want a dependable ally - and former Enron attorney - at Justice. But since the country is controlled by one party and the press has tended toward the pusillanimous, cowed by the special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald as he tries to throw reporters in jail, the White House may be able to suppress any second-term problems."

The Bubba Bush administration has decided that Ashcroft was too much of a nice guy. In keeping with their vision of a 1984-style "Justice" Department, they've chosen the most craven of the cronies, but one who undoubtedly manages this doublethink very well.

Christian Science Monitor Blog | The Democrats' guide to Canada

"Some Democrats, it seems, are turning their eyes towards our northern neighbors as they yearn for life, liberty, and the pursuit of a land without Republicans. ...[M]any American Democrats have talked openly of pulling up stakes and heading to [Canada]."

Have heard some talk about this, as well as talk about moving to Europe. Still, hard to imagine leaving the great USA, land of liberty and Jeffersonian ideals, to a bunch of hick Jesus freaks. Stick it out, Americans, and make it hell for Bubba Bush to continue destroying the country.

Slashdot | U.S. Continues Opposition to Kyoto Environmental Treaty

"'President Bush strongly opposes any treaty or policy that would cause the loss of a single American job, let alone the nearly 5 million jobs Kyoto would have cost,' said James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.'"

Slashdot headlines the story: White House puts greed (in the guise of "US jobs") in front of the world environment. And, oh yeah, the entire world is watching the US on this one. Even Tony Blair and the Queen of England are telling Bush that he is wrong.

Boston.com / News / Politics / Presidential candidates / Error increased Bush's tally in Ohio

"An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush with 4,258 votes to John F. Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records indicate that only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Bush's total should have been recorded as 365."

This is monstruous! How could a vote be tallied 10 times larger without being caught? Very suspicious, very unsurprising.

The New York Times | Europe Seeks Unity on New Bush Term

"Speaking on Norwegian television, Mr. Bondevik said that Mr. Bush's unilateral style in international affairs was driving Europe and America apart, a tendency that would strengthen the argument to place Norway more firmly in the Europen camp.

'The distance between American and Europe continues to increase over a long period,' he said, adding that this would lead 'toward a growing consolidation in Europe.'"

We'll have Bubba Bush to thank for bonding in Europe.

The Question that Euros are Asking

(Thanks to Chris J.)

NEWS.com.au | Queen urges US global warming rethink

"QUEEN Elizabeth has made a rare tiptoe into the world of politics by warning Prime Minister Tony Blair of her grave concerns over the policy of the US towards global warming, a British newspaper said yesterday.

The Observer reported that the Queen was understood to have asked Mr Blair's office to lobby the US after observing the alarming impact of Britain's changing weather on her estates at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, and Sandringham House in east England.
...

The US, flying in the face of snowballing world opinion, said earlier this month it would not follow Russia's lead and ratify the Kyoto protocol on global warming. At the same time, the re-elected Australian Government said it also remained firm against signing the international climate-change agreement."

Even the Queen is worried about Bubba Bush's insouciance at the world's going to hell in a handbasket. Can she make a difference?

Four More Years of Bubba

The good news is that the election is over.

The good news for Bubba Bush is that he finally won a presidential election.

The very bad news for the US and the world is that no regime change took place.

I happen to believe that this marks a turning point in world history. The US will no longer be looked upon as the hallmark of democracy and justice. Bin Laden will continue to be revered amongst angry Arabs. Israel will continue its bloodthirsty state-sponsored terrorism and land-grabbing. None of this will change.

Now it appears that the only hope for civility left in the world is Europe. Mon dieu!

AlterNet: Supreme Disenfranchisement

"Raskin persuasively argues that this Supreme Court has subverted the very democratic principles that millions of new voters believe await them: the right to vote, participate, have access to the ballot, and faith their vote will count. Indeed, in Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court wrote, 'the individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote' in presidential elections (Bush, 531 U.S. at 104) Moreover, in Bush v. Gore, the court was emphatic that state legislatures have the power to bypass the popular vote and select presidential electors. 'The State legislature's power to select the manner of appointing electors is plenary; it may, if it so chooses, select the electors itself.' (Bush, 531 U.S. at 104)"

This goes to show just what a Bubba I can be sometimes. Gee, I thought that Americans had the right to vote. More sillyness that we hear about in schools, along with "anyone can become president" and "separation of church and state".

Thanks to cursor.

And, oh yeah, who perpetrates the un-supreme idea that Americans have the right to vote? Get a load of this treat from CNN:


With a quick computer key stroke, space station astronaut Leroy Chiao became the first American to vote for president from space, casting an encrypted ballot via e-mail and urging fellow countrymen to go to the polls Tuesday.

"It was just a small thing for me, but it is important symbolically to show that every vote does count," Chiao said from the international space station a few hours after the polls opened 225 miles below.

The only thing that is important to the Bubba administration is the symbol: the reality of the piteous state of American democracy today must remain hidden from public view.

Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

"News from the Votemaster

All the servers appear to be under attack now, also DNS. I added another large multiprocessor but it doesn't seem to help much. I don't this is going to work. Sorry."

Bad news from an otherwise excellent site.

SPURS: Spurs Sign Tony Parker To Contract Extension

"The San Antonio Spurs today announced that the team has signed guard Tony Parker to a multi-year contract extension."

The French press carried the extra info: Tony Parker is the best paid French sports player, better than the soccer star Zinedine Zidane.

International Herald Tribune : Global monitors find faults

"... [I]nternational monitors at a polling station in southern Florida said Tuesday that voting procedures being used in the extremely close contest fell short in many ways from the best global practices.

The observers said they had less access to polls than in Kazakhstan, that the electronic voting had fewer fail-safes than in Venezuela, that the ballots were not so simple as in the Republic of Georgia and that no other country had such a complex national election system.

'To be honest, monitoring elections in Serbia a few months ago was much simpler,' said Konrad Olszewski, an election observer stationed in Miami by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe."

Looks like the American democratic process falls short of that of fledling democracies like Venezuela. Yet the US dared question the Venezuelan results just a few months back. Will Venezuela question the US results this time around?

Democracy Now! | American Conservative Magazine Endorses Kerry

Scott McConnell is the executive editor of The American Conservative magazine. And the magazine came out supporting John Kerry, not George Bush, although Patrick Buchanan, whose birthday it is today, one of the founders of this magazine, has endorsed George Bush.
...
"[A] second Bush term, I think, is likely to discredit conservatism for a long, long time to come."

Finally a "conservative" who is not just a Bubba.

The New York Times > Washington > Election 2004 > Ohio: G.O.P. in Ohio Can Challenge Voters at Polls

"In Philadelphia, Republicans have said they plan to challenge 10,000 voters in the heavily black West Philadelphia section because of what they say are concerns of registration fraud. Democratic Party lawyers are expected to ask judges to remove the challengers if they are overly aggressive."

This is nothing short of the Rebubbalican Party declaring war on American democracy.

The New York Times | Rebuffing G.O.P., 2 Judges Bar Challengers at Polls in Ohio

"With the rulings, the two district-level judges made clear that they did not want partisan ballot challengers inside polling places, and that they believed that the disruption that such challenges would create outweighed any potential voting fraud, which Republicans have cited as the reason for the challengers.

Republican Party officials say the watchdog effort is necessary to guard against fraud arising from aggressive moves by the Democrats to register tens of thousands of new voters in Ohio, seen as one of the most pivotal battlegrounds in the presidential election."

Amazing to think that the all these newly registered voters amounts to "fraud", to be guarded against. That's about as un-Democratic as the Rebubbalicans can get.

The real voter fraud is that perpetrated by the Bubba-governed states where voters' votes are not counted and where lawful electors are unlawfully taken off the voter lists. If there is a fraud to blocked, it is indeed this one, coming exclusively from the Rebubbalican party.