What Bush Is Not: His Own Words

Negative Capability (Harpers.org)

The President of the United States is not a fact-checker.

I’m not a statistician.

I’m not a numbers-cruncher.

I’m not one of these bean counters.

I’m not very analytical.

I’m not a precision guy.

The President is not a micromanager.

I’m not a member of the legislative branch.

The President is not a rubber stamp for the Congress.

I’m not a censor-guy.

I’m not a lawyer.

I’m not a doctor.

The President is not an economist.

I’m not a stockbroker or a stock-picker.

I’m not a forecaster.

I’m not a predictor.

I’m not a pollster, a poll-reader guy.

I’m not a very good prognosticator of elections.

I’m not a committee chairman.

I’m not of the Washington scene.

I’m not a lonely person.

I’m not a poet.

I’m not a very good novelist.

I’m not a textbook player.

I’m not an emailer.

I’m not a very long-winded person.

I’m not a very formal guy.

I am not a revengeful person.

I’m not an Iraqi citizen.

I’m not a divider.

I am not a unilateralist.

I’m not a tree, I’m a Bush.

Some enterprising young blogger should locate all these video clips and build a great complilation.

I'm trying to lose some weight, and have set up a website to provide a little accountability. It's called Big Belly Burnoff. There's no need to go there unless you care to. Now on with the show...

Journalists' Death Make It Harder To Excuse Putin's Excesses

The New York Times

On Friday night, I got a call from Moscow: my friend Paul Klebnikov, the editor in chief of Forbes Russia, a Russian version of the American business magazine, had been fatally shot as he left work. Paul's wife, Musa, was in Italy with their three children and had just spoken to him on the phone before he was shot. She was heartbreakingly brave the next day. Please gather articles about her husband, she asked, for his boys.

Then the anger rose. I am among those former Moscow correspondents, and those people of Russian descent, who have tried to stay optimistic about today's Russia and President Vladimir Putin, even in the face of all the distressing reports about Chechnya, the Yukos oil company, the media clampdown and the swelling powers of the Kremlin. You have to remember where they were a scant 15 years ago, I would argue: Mr. Putin has to restore control over the government and economy, and the oligarchs have to be reined in.

It will be far harder to argue this, now that someone has pumped four bullets into a journalist who earnestly thought that he could help Russia make it by writing the truth about its dark underside. It's tough to continue pretending that Russia is just in transition, struggling to emerge from Communism's rubble. Twenty journalists have now been assassinated in Russia for their work; 14 since Mr. Putin became president. Not one of the murders has been solved.

Liberal Oasis points out that "Bush's curtailing of support for democracy is worsening the situation".

Juan Cole: Arguing With Bush Yet Again

America isn't safer as a result of Bush's military action

So, no, Americans are not safer, Mr. Bush. They face the threat of substantial narco-terrorism from Afghanistan. Iraq is a security nightmare that could well blow back on the American homeland. Pakistan remains a military dictatorship with a host of militant jihadi movements that had been fomented by the hardline Pakistani military intelligence. Saudi Arabia is witnessing increased al-Qaeda activity and attacks on Westerners. And the Israeli-Palestine dispute is being left to fester and poison the world.

These are not achievements to be proud of. This is a string of disasters. We are not safer. We face incredible danger because of the way the Bush administration has grossly mishandled the Middle East

The Republicans aren't fit to govern.

What If They Threw A Hatefest and Nobody Came?

Gay Marriage Issue Fails to Excite American Voters
U.S. Senate Votes Against Constitutional Ban on Gay Marriage
With Messing Back, 'Will & Grace' Is Whole Again

Bush's Plamegate Lawyer Is A Part of Ken Lay's Lawyer Brigade

BeatBushBlog

Bush consults a criminal defense lawyer in the ongoing inquiry into the outing of Valerie Plame. It turns out that this same lawyer, Jim Sharp, is representing Ken Lay in the Enron debacle.

They don't even pretend anymore, you know?