Lame Duck Disease

‘Sparked by today's Washington Post story Cheney's Office Is A Focus in Leak Case that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumours that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.’ 

 

Cheney Resignation Rumours Fly

From US policy and the 'Oval Office cabal':
[...] He also denounced the abuse of detainees and said that Powell was particularly upset by it. "Ten years from now, when we have the whole story, we are going to be ashamed," he said. "This is not us. This is not the way we do business. I don't think in our history we've ever had a presidential involvement, a secretarial involvement, a vice presidential involvement, an attorney general's involvement in telling our troops essentially, 'Carte blanche is the way you should feel. You should not have any qualms because this is a different kind of conflict'. "You don't have this kind of pervasive attitude out there unless you've condoned it," he said, adding. "It will take years to reverse the situation within the military." He said it was a "concrete example" of the result of the way the cabal worked. [...]

From Alleged Desecration of Bodies Investigated:
[...] The latest scandal surfaced Wednesday when an Australian television network aired video showing members of a U.S. airborne unit purportedly setting fire to the Taliban bodies, followed by other soldiers, identified as specialists in psychological operations, using the event to taunt other enemy fighters and draw them out of nearby hills to retrieve the remains. [...]

Trust John Howard for a useful distraction away from his Crawford buddy's woes. Get a shock-jock to prompt him for his thoughts on the death penalty for Saddam Hussein.

Did I write 'triple-ply'? 

I meant Murdoch gets Easynet
[...] BSkyB's chief exec James Murdoch: "Today's offer reflects the exciting opportunities that now exist to combine quality entertainment with significant high-speed connections.
"We see value for families in moving well beyond just another triple play to offer a new level of connected entertainment and communications services," he said. [...]

Value for families ... and the UK government! Safe, government-approved broadcasting, free of distasteful stuff like collateral damage.
 

Adolpho Perez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize, talks

Q: Why are you opposed to Bush visit in your country? (Argentina)

Adolpho Perez Esquivel: Bush is a danger for the entire world. He does not respect the International Declaration of Human Rights, nor international agreements, nor the UN security council. He invades countries, he lies to the entire world, including his own people. Bush is responsible of violation of human dignity, of massacres in Iraq, in Afghanistan but he forbids that people speak of the State Terrorism sponsored and enacted by the United States. In Latin America, Bush is a menace as the US has bases everywhere in this continent, in Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and in the Pacific.

Recently US troops have set up un Paraguay, on the border with Bolivia. The Paraguayan Government has given these US troops total immunity. The US have taken interest in Paraguay because Paraguay possesses great reserves of water. Bush wants to impose a Free Trade Agreement between all countries of the American continents but that free trade is only an illusion because the rich countries control prices and the “economic development

From the BBC

Protests as Americas summit opens
Protesters rally in Argentina at the Summit of the Americas

The Summit of the Americas has begun in Argentina, bringing together the US president and 33 other regional leaders to discuss free trade and poverty.

The official opening was preceded by protests during which thousands of demonstrators chanted "Get out Bush".

George W Bush faces vocal opposition over US plans to revive talks on a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Venezuela's leader Hugo Chavez told protesters he would bury the FTAA - and defeat US "imperialism".

Keep up with the translations, Gus. 

I'm bored by my own cynicism, I dismiss sedition, it's time for action! Down with Fortress Oz and gated communities for selected immigrants. I declare war on conviction politicians and papal bull.

Any humanitarian alternative is better than what Anglo-Americo-Aus is offering. Let's see what the Latins, and Islam, can come up with.

F%$#!

‘Yesterday, the Senate delivered a blow to the White House and its current Iraq strategy. Seventy-nine Senators – including some of the President's closest allies – voted for a resolution requiring President Bush "to explain to Congress and the American people its strategy for the successful completion of the mission in Iraq." The resolution called for a significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty in 2006.  

 

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) commented that "historians will look back on this day and say this was a turning point ."  

 

The question is whether the Bush administration will tell the American people what its plan for success in Iraq is.’ 

 

A Turning Point On Iraq

A Nation Rocked to Sleep

'Majority Of Americans Are Un-American'

The slimiest US administration in 100 years.  

 

The Incredible Lying BushCo

Cause

from the BBC
US rejects surprise Iran letter

A surprise letter to the US president from Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not solve the growing nuclear dispute, US officials have said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough, telling the Associated Press: "This letter is not it."

read more at the BBC

----------------------

If you dare to scroll back to the top cartoon heading this line of blog, you'll see what the whatever secretary may do with the letter... But then the paper may not be soft enough...

Diplomacy is not a tissue...