apple juice

Oh wait, I see, you meant any criminals…. not someone involved, who is a criminal, but actual people that are convicted of crimes.

Because, I guess, if you had to fire anyone involved in criminal activity, you’d probably have to fire half the administration.

A Sidestep and a Backtrack

Is Rove a Criminal?

Perfectly Stated: Rove Isn’t the Real Outrage

Washington is electrified with the abundant energy of buzz from a scandal — speculation about Rove, about Bush, about Cheney’s aide, Scooter Libby. Who leaked? Who may have lied? How did Novak slip the noose? But the real scandal is the ongoing mess in Iraq, the murder just the other day of innocent children (is there any other kind?) and the false notion that, somehow, taking out Hussein would make us all safer. London gives the lie to that.

A little Sunday reading for everyone:

If It’s a Muslim Problem, It Needs a Muslim Solution

it is essential that the Muslim world wake up to the fact that it has a jihadist death cult in its midst. If it does not fight that death cult, that cancer, within its own body politic, it is going to infect Muslim-Western relations everywhere. Only the Muslim world can root out that death cult. It takes a village.

and…

We’re Not in Watergate Anymore

The pettiness of this retribution shows just how successfully Mr. Wilson hit the administration’s jugular: his revelation threatened the legitimacy of the war on which both the president’s reputation and re-election campaign had been staked.

Both articles will shed some light for you…

I think the terrorists are going to be their own demise.

I don’t think they realize that these attacks unite the civilized world, and do not divde it as I assume they hope.

Sure, it creates impassioned discussions, and differences of opinion on how to deal with their threats, but that is the beauty of a democracy. If one administration goes to far (Patriot Act), or pursues the wrong goals (Iraq), they are checked. In the end, through freedom of expression, the press, and our governmental process, the better solutions are found. This is true of all of the democracies of the world.

The situation of our country and the world has me feeling very uneasy. I don’t understand anymore. I never did understand. Karl Rove is an evil genius. I can’t figure out what their ends are.
Read more »

Democrats Block Bolton

From the all indications, Bolton is not the man that I want representing our country at the UN. Well, Bush isn’t the man I want for president either, projecting our image to the world, we all know how that’s going.

I wish the Democrats would offer up an alternative. They aren’t helping themselves by merely continuing to block Bolton. I have no ideas who this credible alternative would be, but conceivably, they could come up with someone a majority of the senate would approve.

Abuse Week – Behind Bush’s latest assault on the press. By Jacob Weisberg

Newsweek hardly bears sole responsibility for rioting deaths in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which were fomented by anti-American agitators and reflect both a pathological religious fanaticism and anger over many other issues. What’s more, Bush’s flacks are in no position to prosecute this case. When it comes to torturing inmates to death, sexually humiliating prisoners, and otherwise doing our best to outrage the religious sensitivities of devout Muslims, Scott McClellan has nothing to say. But faced with an erroneous charge that an American guard might have insulted a copy of the Quran, he turns livid and demands satisfaction. There’s something of a pot-and-kettle problem here.

But the problem with the Bush administration excoriating Newsweek’s insensitivity to Islam isn’t just hypocrisy. There’s a larger issue of bad faith and an underlying lack of appreciation for the necessary role of a free and independent press. With increasing forcefulness, Bush has tried to undermine the legitimacy of the media, or at least that subculture within it that shows any tendency to challenge him. When the Bushies say there ought to be more of a check on the Fourth Estate, they aren’t really asking for more care and accuracy on the part of journalists. They’re expressing frustration that they still have to put up with criticism at all.

Reminds me of a certain Wilco song…

It’s become so obvious
You are so oblivious to yourself

You’re tied in a knot
But I’m not gonna get caught
Calling a pot kettle black
Every song’s a comeback
Every moment’s a little bit later

I guess Bush hopes we’ve forgotten about everything else they’ve done.