President bush speaking to employees at a Tennessee ethanol pruduction facility


Raleigh, NC (APE) - President George W. Bush yesterday took a tour of Novozymes North America Inc. a manufacturer of enzymes designed to harvest ethanol from various renewable resources. Bush touted ethanol as an answer to virtually all of America's problems, from oil independence to all controversies both foreign and domestic. Bush then took a quick jaunt via Marine one to tour another ethanol distillery in nearby Tennessee to emphasize the point.

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

I feel like Count Vitte who served the insipid Czar Nicholas II in the final years of Russia's monarchy. A stupid boy sovereign who believed he was annointed by God. His subjects, the ungrateful peasants and proletarians lost their stomach for a noble war.

Rabble rousers, subversives and opportunists sowing the seeds of dissent and undermining morale. "Peace, land and bread!" Now it's peace, healthcare and raise the minimum wage! Put a mustache and beard on Senator Schumer and he resembles Leon Trotsky! Instead of Lenin's propaganda pamphlets we have blogs. Hillary Clinton might as well be the reincarnation of Vladimir Lenin's wife Nadezhda Krupskaya.

Just in time for the Holidays... a Christmas Classic digitally remassacred...

I feel like I'm caught in a time warp.

Condi Rice just said that the U.N. will lose credibility if it doesn't deal with Iran. Let me repeat that; the U.N. will lose credibility.

Now, maybe I'm mistaken - I don't have a perfect memory - but I think we tried this one before. Let's see . . .

At the United Nations Security Council, it is very important that the members understand that the credibility of the United Nations is at stake, that the Security Council must be firm in its resolve to deal with a true threat to world peace -- and that is Saddam Hussein. But the United Nations Security Council must work with the United States and Britain and other concerned parties to send a clear message that we expect Saddam to disarm.

This really shows a lack of creativity, I think. This argument might have had teeth prior to Iraq, but I don't think Mr. 32%-Approval-Rating is going to get away with it again. Presumably, this is why he had the only likable member of his cabinet say it. But seriously, you'd think he'd have used the last two years to come up with something new.

Rice/Straw vows were exchanged today in Baghdad with the sounds of automatic weapons and mortar fire as a backdrop

Baghdad, Iraq (APE) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British foreign Secretary Jack straw today stunned the world with a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday and a quick ceremony at an undisclosed location. Rice was sent reeling from a visit this weekend to Straw's hometown of Blackburn during which she was consistently met with angry protesters. Rice's visit to England and Straw's family was a stark contrast to the warm reception Straw received when he visited Rice's home state of Alabama last year. Well-wishers speculated that perhaps this might have weighed heavily in the couple's elopement to Baghdad.

J. Edgar Hoover

I remember Nixon's FBI of the late 60's and early 70's (actually J. Edgar Hover's FBI) spying on Americans who were against the war, or just "different." In fact, after the FOIA Act came along, it was a cool exercise to get one's FBI file to see what kind of outlandish info they kept on you. I thought those days were over.

But not with the most paranoid and secretive administration in history, as Bill Moyers has pointed out. President Bush let loose the NSA snoop dogs himself in a 2002 secret executive order, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

J. Edgar Bush

MSNBC has the story:

NEW YORK - The National Security Agency has eavesdropped, without warrants, on as many 500 people inside the United States at any given time since 2002, The New York Times reported Friday.

That year, following the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush authorized the NSA to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of people inside the United States, the Times reported.

Before the program began, the NSA typically limited its domestic surveillance to foreign embassies and missions and obtained court orders for such investigations. Overseas, 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time.

--snip--

But some NSA officials were so concerned about the legality of the program that they refused to participate, the Times said. Questions about the legality of the program led the administration to temporarily suspend it last year and impose new restrictions.

[cross-posted at And, yes, I DO take it personally]

first we have condi doing some fast talking...

European foreign ministers said Thursday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had assured the NATO allies that the United States does not allow torture of terrorist suspects and respects principles of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.

[...]

Rice "addressed the principles that guide United States policy with regards to respect for international law," Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht said.

Rice assured the U.S. allies "that at no time did the United States agree to inhumane acts or torture, that they have always respected the sovereignty of the states concerned and even if terrorists are not covered by the Geneva Conventions, they have still applied the principles governing those Geneva Conventions," de Gucht told Belgian RTBf radio network.

[cross-posted at And, yes, I DO take it personally]

in two news articles and one editorial, the nyt today looks at the rapid erosion of the precious little that's left of the bush administration's credibility...

quick, quick... we better DO something like REALLY FAST...

(abc news has the exclusive story...)

   Two CIA secret prisons were operating in Eastern Europe until last month when they were shut down following Human Rights Watch reports of their existence in Poland and Romania.

    Current and former CIA officers speaking to ABC News on the condition of confidentiality say the United States scrambled to get all the suspects off European soil before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived there today.

    The officers say 11 top al Qaeda suspects have now been moved to a new CIA facility in the North African desert.

    CIA officials asked ABC News not the name the specific countries where the prisons were located, citing security concerns.

so, if the sources are "current and former CIA officers," one would tend to believe them... ~shakes head, rolls eyes~ u.s. credibility in the world community just dropped another 15 points...

And, yes, I DO take it personally