NY POST blames Dem for Laura Bush’s takedown of Condi Rice

The Rag is shocked, shocked, I tell you…link

Rice appeared before the Senate in defense of President Bush’s tactical change in Iraq, and quickly encountered Boxer.
“Who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price,” Boxer said. “My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young.”
Then, to Rice: “You’re not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family.”
Breathtaking.
Simply breathtaking.
We scarcely know where to begin.

How about you begin right here:

catfight?

Laura Bush did Condi up ROYALLY in an interview for People Magazine almost a month ago:

she is single, her parents are no longer living, she’s an only child. You need a very supportive family and supportive friends to have this job,” the First Lady said.

That’ll leave a mark…

Bad stuff, according to the Post’s self-righteous criteria

But even to suggest that Condoleezza Rice is not fit to serve her country because she is childless is beyond bizarre.
It is perverse.

So go after Laura Bush. At least Boxer had a legitimate reason for making the point, and it was a pale and nonspecific paraphrase of Laura’s clawjob (which evidently passed muster with both the President and the Post….)

AM I WRONG? AM I WRONG?

All-you-can-eat hotdogs at Dodger Stadium: contests inevitable.

link

it’s not gonna be pretty, folks…

The right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium will be converted into the special section, giving around 3,000 fans as many hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, nachos and sodas as they want.
Tickets will sell for $35 in advance and $40 on gameday, and some items at the concession stand aren’t in play — beer, ice cream and candy will be sold separately at regular prices.
“Instead of paying cash, fans ask for whatever they want, and they get it. There are going to be some self-service parts, buffet-style, as well,” Dodgers executive vice president and chief operating officer Marty Greenspun said.

Here’s hopin’ they put an instant replay camera out there….

(I’d prefer In-and-Out Burgers, myself.)

WALTER
Yeah, go figure. Well we’ll go out
there after the, uh, the.

He waves a hand vaguely toward the stage.

WALTER
What have you. We’ll, uh–

DONNY
We’ll be near the In-and-Out Burger.

Bush approval tanks after bizarre speech UPDATED

?????????????

Rasmussen puts Bush’s approval at 35%, a sudden drop of 4 points in one day, with 61% disapproval (up 3), after his speech on Iraq, a speech in which his appearance and demeanor must be termed at least “different,” and probably better described as “disturbing.” And that is not to mention the content of the speech, which rambled off in odd directions at times.

These are easily the worst ratings ever given Bush by Rasmussen, which has traditionally given him 3-4% more approval than have other polls.

Some have suggested that Bush did not give the speech live, that the quality of the images suggested it was video of one of his rehearsals. Certainly no photographers were allowed to take pictures after the speech, an apparently unprecedented step. Why would that be? I am not a conspiracy theorist, but one can readily surmise that if the speech were videotaped, details of appearance would show up in still photos that would give away the game.

I don’t want to speculate any further on what was up with the speech. Somebody will find out, someday. But I do have my ideas on what went wrong….none of em are very reassuring about our current president’s capacities.

Whatever else can be said about America’s understanding of George Bush, the people do have a “gut feeling” about somebody who is acting strangely. I see no other explanation for the dramatic rejection in the Rasmussen poll.
UPDATE: Even a dead cat bounces, but the next day Rasmussen poll had exact same results. However, by the 14th, his approval was up to 39, with disapproval down to 58, and on the 15th he was back up to a more customary 41% approval, but still with 58% disapproval.

Tony Snow’s “Warrior” in Iraq, Michelle Malkin, documents utter failure

[crossposted at dkos]

Tony Snow: what went wrong?

Dear Leader’s PR flack Tony Snow designated Michelle Malkin as a new warrior in the WH’s “media war”…..attempts to prevent the truth coming out about Iraq. Of course, MM has gone to Iraq, on a fool’s errand, but is now sending back stuff showing how bad it really is.

Yes, there is danger and chaos and unspeakable bloodshed in parts of Baghdad. Sectarian violence–compounded by everyday street crime and tribal conflict–is rampant. Corruption, incompetence, and apathy infect the Iraqi government….Slum dwellers have pirated satellite dishes, illegally siphoned electricity, and illegally diverted water. The Maliki government does not recognize the existence of the camps.

Pretty dismal, eh…
She mentions some unspecified

….pockets of success and signs of hope amid utter despair…

There is a nice pic of our kids handing out blankets to the poor. We all know the troops try to help the Iraqis, and we know how cute the Iraqi kids are. And she tries to make it seem like Iraqis want us there (we know that’s not true). But painting schools and handing out a few blankets doesn’t change what is going on there. I think Malkin has helped to make clear that American troops are not going to be able to remake Iraq.

Oops. Not sure that’s what Tony Snow had in mind for Michelle.

And I’m sure the post will be scrubbed or edited radically before long. So run on over and check it out, maybe somebody can do some screen shots and save it while it’s still up.

Did Bush lie about Maliki’s request for more US troops?

NY Times:

While senior officials in Washington have presented the new war plan as an American adaptation of proposals that were first put to Mr. Bush by Mr. Maliki when the two men met in the Jordanian capital of Amman in November, the picture that is emerging in Baghdad is quite different. What Mr. Maliki wanted, his officials say, was in at least one crucial respect the opposite of what Mr. Bush decided: a lowering of the American profile in the war, not the increase Mr. Bush has ordered.

not trying to fool the Murcan people about Iraq yet again, are ya, Little George?

As a result, the Iraqis, upon whose energetic leadership this whole scheme supposedly rests, seem to be holding their noses:

Mr. Dabbagh said that the government’s objective was to secure the eventual withdrawal of American troops, and that for that to be possible there had to be security for Iraqis. “If this can be achieved by increasing either Iraqi or multinational forces,” he added, “the government, for sure, will not stand against it.”

DUDE
No, man, nothing is fucked here–

LEBOWSKI
NOTHING IS FUCKED?? THE GODDAMN PLANE
HAS CRASHED INTO THE MOUNTAIN!

The Dude takes a hurried sip from his drink.

DUDE
C’mon man, who’re you gonna believe?

The story on the street in Baghdad is that everyone knows this latest cover story will collapse:

A Shiite political leader who has worked closely with the Americans in the past said the Bush benchmarks appeared to have been drawn up in the expectation that Mr. Maliki would not meet them. “He cannot deliver the disarming of the militias,” the politician said, asking that he not be named because he did not want to be seen as publicly criticizing the prime minister. “He cannot deliver a good program for the economy and reconstruction. He cannot deliver on services. This is a matter of fact. There is a common understanding on the American side and the Iraqi side.”

And the next Buscheneocon ploy will be to plunge into the intrigues and coups (undoubtedly butressed by periodic “elections under occupation,” of course) that will require continuing escalation.

Views such as these — increasingly common among the political class in Baghdad — are often accompanied by predictions that Mr. Maliki will be forced out as the crisis over the militias builds. The Shiite politician who described him as incapable of disarming militias suggested he might resign; others have pointed to an American effort in recent weeks to line up a “moderate front” of Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political leaders outside the government, and said that the front might be a vehicle for mounting a parliamentary coup against Mr. Maliki, with behind-the-scenes American support.

We throw away our kids and our money and our good name for this?

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., noted his own past support for the administration on the war but said he could not continue. He declared, “I have not been told the truth over and over again by administration witnesses, and the American people have not been told the truth.”

link

MAUDE
(grimly)
The story is ludicrous.

Selling pizza for pesos gets death threats

link

I’m gettin rid of that Canadian quarter…..

DALLAS — A pizza chain has been hit with death threats and hate mail after offering to accept Mexican pesos, becoming another flashpoint in the nation’s debate over immigrants.

“This is the United States of America, not the United States of Mexico,” one e-mail read. “Quit catering to the damn illegal Mexicans,” demanded another.

Dallas-based Pizza Patron said it was not trying to inject itself into a larger political debate about illegal immigration when it posted signs this week saying “Aceptamos pesos” — or “We accept pesos” — at its 59 stores across Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California.

Pizza Patron spokesman Andy Gamm said the company was just trying to sell more pizza to its customers, 60 percent of whom are Hispanic.

Wal-Mart, H-E-B supermarkets and other American businesses in towns along the Mexican border accept pesos. And some busineses in New York and Minnesota communities along the northern border accept Canadian dollars.

The difference here is that many of the pizza joints are far from the border, in places like Dallas, more than 400 miles away, and Denver, more than 700 miles.

“If people would understand that the majority of our customers are Hispanic, then it might make more sense for a company to sell pizza for pesos,” Gamm said.

Trader Joe wine tasting: Barefoot California Merlot

Barefoot California Merlot

My basic routine for tasting cheap wine is as follows:

1) unscrew the cap
2) is it combustible?
3) can it be safely applied to bare skin?
3) filter out the flies
4) rinse out my coffee mug
5) assemble stomach pump
6) cautiously have dog sample wine
7) wait 30 minutes
8) taste
9) obtain standard battery of blood and liver tests
10) use leftover for cleaning paintbrushes, etc.

Using this and other FDA protocols, I have determined that Trader Joe’s Barefoot California Merlot is, well, apparently non-toxic and quite pleasant to consume. On the cheap wine scale, I give it 4 belches out of 4, for the modest sum of $5.50.