Topic: General News.
Well, it’s August 1st and you know what that means. W is off to Texas for “several weeks” to, according to Scott McClellan, “shed the coat and tie” and get in a few holes of golf.
Not so quick, Dubya’, there’s that John Bolton recess appointment to get done first. After all, Condi says she’s doing a lot of work getting ready for those big “high-level meetings” at the UN in September aimed at “refreshing” the world body and “we need our permanent representative.” How permanent he is going to be is up for debate. Christopher Dodd called him damaged goods and even Trent Lott thinks a recess appointment is “a little bit of a thumbing of the nose” at the senate and will, “cause you more problems down the road.”
Then there’s the Joseph Biden letter asking Condi to explain why Bolton “forgot” to tell the senate that he had been interviewed by an inspector general regarding the erroneous claims about Saddam and the Niger “yellow cake.” This might turn out to be a real short stay. One wonders what the administration is thinking here.
It’s pretty amazing that people so high up in the government have the memories of earthworms but can still manage to hold these high positions. Not that anybody at the UN is going to take this guy seriously, anyway. Condi has already said he will be kept on a tight leash, a ringing endorsement if I ever heard one, so what is he going to get accomplished, besides alienating our allies and making the listeners of Rush Limbaugh happy? (Warning: may cause anal leakage.)
A lot did get accomplished in the congress just before the recess. $14.5 billion in tax cuts for the energy industry companies, including tax payer subsidies for the nuclear industry; a $286 billion highway bill where all the congressmen got their pork; a gun “shield” law, and an overwhelming two vote win for CAFTA. They all must be very satisfied they did such good work for the American people.
Especially, Don Young, the sole representative from Alaska who got a $200 million bridge and $3 m. for a documentary on infrastructure advancements in his home state. John McCain, always the voice of reason, and the father of a black baby, said the highway bill is “terrifying in its fiscal consequences and disappointing for the lack of financial discipline.” President Bush said the bill would,” strengthen and modernize the transportation networks vital to America’s continued economic growth.” Of course, if you keep in mind that the spin coming from the White House is always the exact opposite of the truth, then these bills are billion dollar boondoggles.
Don’t forget the Gun Bill:
Senator Larry Craig (R. Idaho.) want us to know that, “this bill says ‘go after the criminal, don’t go after the law abiding gun manufacturer or the law abiding gun seller.’”
Yeah, that’s what I get from this. All those frivolous lawsuits by gun violence victims, is threatening the industry. And just because that kind of rhetoric sounds exactly like an NRA talking point, it doesn’t not mean the senator is in anyone’s pocket. After all, what would we do if there were no gun manufacturers? Think about it! Democrats, as usual, tried to obstruct the bill by attempting to put provisions in that would do things like ban “cop-killer” bullets, but luckily the republicans easily blocked them.
The LA Times wrote that “stocks for some gun makers rose Friday as it became clear that supporters of the legislation would defeat amendments by gun control advocates to allow lawsuits on behalf of children and law-enforcement officers harmed by firearms.” Screw kids and cops! This is about making money. Go back to Boston Teddy and molest some more kids with your liberal catholic priest friends!
The CAFTA 15
The NY Times thinks applause is in order for the “CAFTA 15,” the brave democrats who went along with 202 republicans to vote for “free trade.” Those democrats “chose principle over politics” in defying their party leaders, says the Times editorial board.
Yeah, right, very principled. I’m sure the goodies they were promised in the transportation bill had nothing to do with it. The republicans who voted for the bill, were principled too, even the ones who had to be brought along kicking and screaming. Jim Kolbe said the house leadership would “twist some republican arms until they break in a thousand pieces,”to get this done. This proves, along with the two votes to spare, that this bill is the right thing to do. The bill’s effect on our exports will be about equal the total global exports of New Jersey. WOW!
Kids left alone in immigration raid.
Now that more manufacturing jobs will be headed south, perhaps the flow of illegal immigrants from Central America will be stemmed. Then things like this won’t happen:
AP reports that in Arkadelphia Ark. “about 30 children, some as young as 3 months old, were left without their parents after immigration agents raided a poultry plant and took the parents away to face possible deportation.” The mayor of Arkadelphia said,” A lot of those families had kids in daycare in different places, and they didn’t know why mommy and daddy didn’t come pick them up.”
In a raid on Petit Jane Poultry 119 people were picked up. The majority, were from Mexico but two were from Honduras, one was from El Salvador, and one was from Guatemala. Now, they can go home, sans offspring, and get great new jobs thanks to the CAFTA 15!
In today’s news:
King Fahd is dead, long live King Abdullah. King Fahd, was the one who invited the Americans into the kingdom, which has lead to some much trouble for us. Prince Naif, the Saudi interior minister, now becomes the Crown Prince, and his best buddies the Whabbis become even more powerful.
Speaking of Saudi Arabia, reports out today say a suspect in the bungled 7/21 bombings in London who is under arrest in Italy, Osman Hussein, called Saudi Arabia before he was arrested last Friday.
Hussein has been talking the ears off Italian interrogators. (Maybe, we should render our terror suspects to Italy from now on!) He has reportedly said the attack was conducted out of anger over the invasion of Iraq. NO, NO, it’s because you hate us! The 7/7 bombers were mainly from Pakistan, but the 7/21 bombers are almost all from East Africa; this points to the global nature of the fight we’re in here.
K-2, Brute?
Uzbekistan has given Rummy 180 days to get take our airbase at Karshi-Khanabad and shove it. The Uzbeks were apparently torked off about a plan by the UN to fly refugees out of Kyrgyzstan who had escaped the Andijon massacre, to Europe. Many of these have arrived in Romania and will stay there for 6 months before moving on to the US and Canada.
Plus, the US has called for an independent investigation into the massacre. For once we’re doing the right thing. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if we could get the hell out of Afghanistan. Maybe, it’s not such a big deal for the pentagon. As I noted on Friday, the Brits are worried they might be left “holding the baby” next year.
In a related story regarding Afghanistan:
AP: “thousands of rockets, mortars, and anti-aircraft ammunition have been seized in Ghanzi province in central Afghanistan, the largest cache of weapons found in months, a government spokesman said yesterday.”
The theory is that these arms are being stockpiled to disrupt the September legislative elections. Of course, these large seizures might also be an indication of even larger stockpiles that won’t be found. You know the old adage; that is if you find one roach that means there’s a thousand more behind the wall.
Staying in the region, Pervez Musharraf says 600 suspects have been detained in a crackdown on extremists in Pakistan. This is his way of showing the west that he’s really trying to do something. How many of those 600 are really guilty of anything? I doubt his security forces are that good.
Musharraf has also vowed to expel the 14,000 remaining foreign students of madrassas suspected of being incubators for terrorists that then leave to wage jihad. So what? He might want to ask the Saudis to stop funding these madrassas; that might help. And the fighting in Kashmir is continuing apace, no change there. Where are those groups getting their support?
India
In India, another terrorist, this time a Hindi, is back in the courts. Lal Krishna Advani, the president of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), former deputy prime minister, appeared in court in Uttar Pradesh on charges of inciting a Hindu mob to demolish the mosque in Ayodhya in 1992. The destruction of the mosque led to the deaths of thousands of Muslims.
Posted by bushmeister0
at 1:09 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, 2 August 2005 11:19 AM EDT