sisyphusshrugged | Oct. 26th, 2003

Oct. 26th, 2003

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed has denied that U.S. President George Bush rebuked him for his claim that Jews control the world by proxy, while repeating his controversial comments.

Mr. Mahathir is quoted in a Malaysian newspaper, the New Sunday Times as saying that Mr. Bush lied when he said he reprimanded him at the APEC summit last week.

He is quoted as saying that if the president had rebuked him when the two leaders met at the summit of Pacific Rim leaders, he would have reacted by rebuking the president.

President Bush has said he told Mr. Mahathir at the meeting that his comments were divisive and wrong.

Mr. Mahathir told the newspaper that he is not surprised the president would lie about the reprimand because, he said, the president also told a lie about weapons of mass destruction to go to war against Iraq.

Emphasis, of course, mine.

Boy, our allies sure do love us, don't they.

Bush wants three additional powers from Congress. First, he wants to give the Justice Department the authority to confiscate records and compel testimony without review by a court or grand jury. ...Second, Bush wants to chip away at the right to bail. Current law allows a judge to deny bond for anyone shown to be dangerous or a flight risk. And, for anyone accused of international terrorism, there is a presumption against granting bond.

And third, Bush wants to expand the reach of the federal death penalty by making it applicable to "domestic terrorism."...Bush also wants the death penalty for those convicted of providing "material support for terrorism," a law that can be violated even when people think they are giving money to a charity and don't know the group is a designated terrorist organization.

No word yet on whether presidential houseguests would be subject to this, but on the whole one imagines not.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was having one of his irregular chats with Senators last Wednesday, speaking in the secret, soundproof fourth-floor Capitol chamber used for highly classified conversations, when someone interjected the question that was on everyone's mind. "What troop levels do we expect to have in Iraq a year from now?" asked Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader. And with that, the Pentagon chief began to tap dance. His reply, according to a Republican Senator in the room, was a classic Rumsfeldian fugue--complete with interesting hand gestures--mentioning reductions and foreign troops and steady progress. Or, as the G.O.P. Senator described it later, "it was a five-minute, total nonanswer, just unbelievably obtuse." Another Republican Senator put it this way to TIME: "Rumsfeld believes in his own magic."

It is increasingly fair to ask: Does anyone else? For nearly three years as Defense Secretary, Rumsfeld has employed everything from smiling charm to podium-pounding bluntness in his battles with Congress, the Pentagon bureaucracy and his colleagues in the Bush Administration over who controls foreign policy. But his recent pronouncements, both public and private, have grown into a regular political distraction for a President who is already on the defensive for his handling of the Iraq war and its aftermath--both of which were designed largely by Rumsfeld himself.

Rumsfeld has lately kept busy strewing political wreckage on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. First, he wrote a frank memo about the war on terrorism that was at odds with much of the Administration's public spin for the past several months. Then he alienated the one person, apart from Bush, on whom the Pentagon most relies for sustenance--Virginia Senator John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. A former Navy Secretary, Warner went to the Senate floor to complain that Rumsfeld had in effect ignored his request for an investigation into Lieut. General William "Jerry" Boykin, a top Army officer in the war on terrorism, who had been preaching anti-Islamic sermons, in uniform, to evangelical Christian gatherings. When Rumsfeld denied ever seeing Warner's letter--something of a stretch, as Warner not only faxed the letter to Rumsfeld's office but also had it hand-delivered by Pentagon courier--lawmakers took the gloves off. "His treatment of the chairman of the Armed Services Committee is more disdainful than I have ever seen," said Republican Senator John McCain. "It's just not appropriate."

the knives, I think we can safely assume, are out.

You know, there were only a certain number of people in that secret, soundproof fourth-floor Capitol chamber used for highly classified conversations.

I wonder if Mr. Bush will take steps to find out which one talked?

I've just gotten an invitation to "Join the thousands of americans who are having their penis enlarged"

On the upside, I probably wouldn't have to face too much of a line for the ladies room.

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Sisyphus Shrugged

Lasciate ogni speranza and put your feet up.

Oct. 26th, 2003

Oct. 26th, 2003

well, maybe he only buked him once.

and after we get the writs of attainder, we'll talk about quartering troops in your house (after the

Mr. Mojo falling

as ESPN goes, so goes the nation

to which one sends one's regrets

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