Who is the most inappropriate person for this position?

Foxes and Henhouses Watch

Thanks to Ingrid for this article, "Bush puts hawk in nest of doves", which describes the horrible inappropriateness of yet another one of Bush's appointees. This one is Daniel Pipes, appointed to the United States Institute of Peace. Like appointing Ashcroft to guard the Constitution, the failed appointment of Linda Chavez to protect Labor, Negroponte to represent us at the UN, Elliot Abrams to the National Security Council, and the despicable Poindexter to the Pentagon and the Information Awareness Office, this appointment flies in the face of the spirit of the position. Is Bush merely ignorant, or is he deliberately goading and insulting us? An excerpt:

In a time when we need open and lucid dialogue to help instill harmonious relations throughout the world, President Bush's recess appointment of Pipes sends a completely contradictory message to the Muslim world. On one hand, the president has repeatedly called Islam a "religion of peace." On the other hand, he circumvents senatorial confirmation to appoint a man who has a documented history of disturbing anti-Islamic rhetoric. If he is trying to improve relations with the Muslim world by issuing this recess appointment, he is most certainly headed in the wrong direction.

Regression Watch

After many labor rights had been won in this country, such as the 40 hour work week, overtime pay laws, and health insurance laws, unions in this country began to get a bad rap, and perhaps they earned it. Unions were always vilified by the people in power, but we owe so much of our standard of living to them and the people who fought, and suffered, and were injured and even killed for those rights.

Thanks to Diana for sending this link to a petition to stop the current insidious campaign to end overtime pay, spearheaded quietly by Congressional Republicans (of course). Democratic Senator Harkin is trying to stop this giant step backwards for labor rights.

Disinformation Watch

MoveOn, the online democracy outfit, has recently begun a daily mailing/posting service calling out the Bush Administration lies. You can sign up for daily mailings or read today's post at MisLeader.org.

Franken Watch

If you had trouble with yesterday's mp3 link to the Late Show interview with Al Franken, try this link (thanks to Marti). When I clicked the original link, nothing seemed to happen for a minute or two, as it was downloading, then I got an audio player, so if it seemed to be broken, try it again and wait a minute or two.