Unrelated: Please note I’m aware this page is taking its sweet time to load. Everyone who might be able to fix it is off for the weekend. I will try to get the problem addressed tomorrow.
Update: Unreal — “Bush Sees Tide Turning in Iraq.” If I had time, I’d google for how many times he’s said that since, oh, 2003.
The tide turns four times a day where I live. Maybe if Bush spent more time by the ocean, he’d realize it’s not that tide turning is not that big a deal.
FWIW, in case it helps, I’ve seen a bunch of blogs having slow loading problems this week, which one attributed to some bad blogads code. That would jive with the symptoms I’m seeing, where the load stalls seeming to wait for blogads servers.
I’m sure it is blogads. The blogad staff didn’t respond to my email, and I suspect they are off for the weekend. Usually they’re pretty good about getting back to me. I hope this can be fixed tomorrow.
And here I was blaming that polar bear video link… which I see is off the page now.
Speaking of blogads, is it just me, or is Teresa Heinz Kerry being played by actress Jill Clayburgh in that one on the left? (Sorry… lots of random thoughts piling up while waiting for those comments.) Anyhoo….
Mr. Kerik slept all day and held only two staff meetings, one upon arrival and one for the benefit of a Times reporter doing a profile. Rather than train Iraqi police, Mr. Kerik gave upbeat McCain-esque appraisals of the dandy shopping in Baghdad’s markets.
Great Googly Moogly, I think that’s the final straw for me. I’m forming a howling mob… who’s with me?!
I’m with you joanr16. It just keeps getting worse. That fellow from Britain who asked “why don’t they just ask them to step down?” has no idea of the pervasiveness of the mess here. who would have expected this, in the beginning? Cronyism and greed is going to take this country down, if we don’t tame it quick.
Doesn’t look like there is any one in America who is willing to do what it takes to take this corrupt administration down and willing to do the right thing. These bums will go into some other field in 2009 at some exorbitant salary while the rest of us are too busy trying to make ends meet.
comment 4, ..why don’t they just ask them to step down?
In Democracy 2.0, with true multi-party support implemented via a parliamentary system, governments can be taken down by a simple vote of no-confidence. This is what the fellow from Britain is used to.
Under Democracy 1.0, the original duo-party version that is still running, and badly so, in the United States, individual government officials can only be removed through impeachment.
Under both versions, entire governments can be replaced via scheduled elections.
We in Tech Support have been trying to get you people in the USA to upgrade for a long time, and now you’re seeing why.
“We in Tech Support have been trying to get you people in the USA to upgrade for a long time, and now you’re seeing why.”
I needed that laugh, moonbat. I do know the difference, but was trying to point out something – that we don’t even seem to be trying to change.
I used to think the British system was extremely giddy, what with governments changing so often, but have been having second thoughts.
comment 7, Lynne, I was only being somewhat tongue in cheek.
Our system is old, dating from the late 1700s. I never formally studied poli-sci, but I think ours was the first attempt at Democracy, after the Greeks. Following our lead, other countries created their own democracies a bit later. For example by the 1860s, Canada created a parliamentary democracy. And so, most of the rest of the world’s democracies are on later, revised versions of the ideas that still govern our country.
I’ve never lived under a parliamentary democracy. But the thought of having viable multiple parties that each get a seat at the table, as well as the apparent ease at which governments can be voted out, seems to be worth whatever instability this might entail, to my naive opinion.
We literally have more choices in toilet paper than we do in viable political parties. I live in California where there are typically 6-8 parties on the ballot every election, but the system is wired so that voting for a minor party means voting for one of the majors. And so having all these parties is in effect meaningless or even counter productive.
Anyway, things are badly screwed up here. The Frank Rich piece was great. It’s amazing to see someone cut through the mountains of corruption and distracting detail and present the story so clearly and forcefully as he did.
That said, I’m reminded that Charlie Savage won a Pulitzer Prize this week for exposing Bush’s signing statements. The sad thing is that he won an award for doing his job, for revealing the truth. Not to minimize what Savage did, but it’s so exceptional these days, that journalists get a big prize when they do what they’re supposed to be doing all along.
Frank Rich is such a good writer with punch in each sentence and a powerful way of getting the complete picture across.
The repair of damage done during the Bush/Repub years of ‘sleaze and incompetence’ will have to include a clear account of structural damage to governmental institutions. The Bushies are like trashy renters who not only failed to maintain good clean order, it’s like they were tearing out the plumbing, the wiring, and the fixtures, maybe even the wall studs of the place…….selling off the understructure of our government just to enrich themselves at the expense of the landlord [collectively, us]. I think a lot of this structural damage happened via ‘outsourcing’.
I have used a physical analogy on purpose here. Though these ‘renters’ will be ousted, the damage they leave behind, without a thorough re-building effort, will continue to affect whomever next reside in the halls of power. We really do need to repair some basics, especially respect for our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Maha, I too will be glad when the down-load time improves for your site.
“it’s like they were tearing out the plumbing”…LMAO
Exactly..it’s like the price of recycled copper outweighs the benefit of running water and proper sewage facilities.
“It’s up to the Iraqi people and the Iraq elected folks to show America and the world they’re ready to do the hard work necessary to reconcile and move forward.” — George W. Bush
Is this statement condescending or am I being overly critical? Kiss and make-up and be good little Iraqis,OK. We Americans know you can do it if you really try.
and what’s with the “folks” jargon”?…who’s he trying to be? Will Rodgers?
I don’t doubt their is regular tidal action– in the reflecting pool of Junior’s own ego.