Turning yet another corner

Iraq Watch

As we approach the totally meaningless June 30 "deadline" for keeping things exactly as they are now in Iraq ("partial sovereignty" has as much meaning as "partial pregnancy"), Bush is taking more and more press appearances. The bottom half of this essay provides 12 important questions the press should ask Bush about Iraq, the occupancy, and the "turnover". Here is an excerpt:

3. Presumably the American troops to be stationed on these bases will remain under the control of the Pentagon and beyond the legal reach of any "sovereign" Iraqi state. Such arrangements are usually covered by a "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA) that we normally impose on the government in whose territory our bases are placed. Who will sign the SOFA on the Iraqi side? What are its terms? Will it be binding on the new government you hope the Iraqis will elect early next year?

Bush Rant Watch

Here is a fantastic Bush Rant:

These are facts, not partisan rhetoric. Do any of them even make you restless? The cynical game these shape-shifters have been playing in the Middle East is too Byzantine to unravel in 1,000 pages of text. But the hypocrisy of the White House is palpable, and beggars belief. If there's one American who actually believes that Operation Iraqi Freedom was about democracy for the poor Iraqis, then you, my friend, are too dangerously stupid to be allowed near a voting booth.

Does it bother you even a little that the personal fortunes of all four Bush brothers, including the president and the governor, were acquired about a half step ahead of the district attorney, and that the royal family of Saudi Arabia invested $1.476 billion in those and other Bush family enterprises? Or, as Paul Krugman points out, that it's much easier to establish links between the Bush and bin Laden families than any between the bin Ladens and Saddam Hussein. Do you know about Ahmad Chalabi, the administration's favorite Iraqi and current agent in Baghdad, whose personal fortune was established when he embezzled several hundred million from his own bank in Jordan and fled to London to avoid 22 years at hard labor?

Traitors Watch

There still is (at least) one traitor loose in the halls of the White House, the person who exposed Valerie Plame's identity. That investigation is still grinding on, highlighted last week when Bush himself consulted a personal lawyer on the case. Looks like someone is feeling a little guilty. Here is a bit of John Dean on Why Bush Needs a Lawyer:

Suffice it to say that whatever the meaning of Bush's decision to talk with private counsel about the Valerie Plame leak, the matter has taken a more ominous turn with Bush's action. It has only become more portentous because now Dick Cheney has also hired a lawyer for himself, suggesting both men may have known more than they let on. Clearly, the investigation is heading toward a culmination of some sort.

Book Watch

As Dubya recently quipped about himself, he has been good for the book industry. Jon Stewart remarked, "Yes, there certainly are a lot of books about what a bad president you are".

Calvin Trillin has written a book of verse about our current mis-administration called "Obliviously On He Sails : The Bush Administration in Rhyme". Below are two delicious excerpts:

Richard Perle: Whose Fault Is He?

Consider kids who bullied Richard Perle--
Those kids who said Perle threw just like a girl,
Those kids who poked poor Perle to show how soft
A mamma's boy could be, those kids who oft-
Times pushed poor Richard down and could be heard
Addressing him as Sissy, Wimp or Nerd.
Those kids have got a lot to answer for,
'Cause Richard Perle now wants to start a war.
The message his demeanor gets across:
He'll show those playground bullies who's the boss.
He still looks soft, but when he writes or talks
There is no tougher dude among the hawks.
And he's got planes and ships and tanks and guns--
All manned, of course, by other people's sons.

I CAN'T APPEAR WITHOUT MY NANNY DICK

(George W. Bush explains the interview arrangements he's made with the 9/11 Commission)

When called upon to testify
I said I was a busy guy
So maybe we could do it on the phone.
They really want a face to face.
I said, OK, if that's's the case,
I'm certainly not doing it alone.

I can't appear without my nanny Dick.
for Nanny Dick I've got a serious jones.
I can't appear without my Nanny Dick.
I love the way he cocks his head and drones.

Cartoonists show me as a dummy,*
With voice by Cheney (or by Rummy).
I am the butt of every late-night satirist.
But I just can't go solitaire.
I need the help that's due an heir.
I need a dad, and dad's a multilateralist.

I can't appear without my Nanny Dick.
He brings along a gravitas I lack.
I can't appear without my Nanny dick
The one who knows why we attacked Iraq.

Yes, Condi Rice is quite precise
With foreign policy advice
On who's Afghani and who's Pakistani.
I like to have her near in case
I just can't place some foreign face,
But Condoleezza Rice is not my nanny.

I can't appear without my Nanny dick.
I wouldn't know which facts I should convey.
I can't appear without my Nanny Dick.
It's Nanny Dick who tells me what to say.

*Though Charlie McCarthy's the dummy
Whose name has been most often heard,
Some folks who remember that act say
I'm close to Mortimer Snerd.

Dubya Poppins Watch

A little fun with a genuine photo.