From ABC As one of the Bush daughters left Argentina, a U.S. embassy spokesman denied reports they suggested the twins leave in an official statement issued this evening. First Daughter Barbara Bush ended a 25th birthday vacation trip to Buenos Aires and left the country on a flight late last night, ABC News has learned. Her sister Jenna plans to stay for at least another 10 days, sources tell ABC News. —– Continue reading Argentina’s problems cut by half…Not Jenna leaves

Another cog gone from the wheels of the war machine: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s most senior adviser on Iraq is leaving the State Department to return to his teaching job. Philip D. Zelikow is the best-known member of Rice’s academic brain trust at the State Department, and the author of sometimes contrarian appraisals of the Iraq conflict and reconstruction effort. He holds the title counselor, a sort of adviser without portfolio. [snip] When Zelikow returned, according to the Bob Woodward book “State of Denial,” he wrote a secret memo characterizing Iraq as “a failed state” two years after the … Continue reading Zelikow Out

There’s a new Quinnipiac University poll out. American voters disapprove 58 – 35 percent of the job President George W. Bush is doing, matching his all-time low in a June 1 Quinnipiac University poll. Voters disapprove 66 – 30 percent of President Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq and say 56 – 40 percent that going to war in Iraq was the wrong thing to do. The folks at Q-piac have another poll out ranking twenty politicians based on the respondents’ “warmth of feelings” for each. Chimpy closked in at number 15. The survey, taken the week after the … Continue reading Chimpy Matches All-Time Low in Q-piac Poll

Iraq: Two mortar rounds hit a U.S. military post in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, setting it on fire, police and witnesses said. A large cloud of black smoke was seen rising above Baladiyat, a predominantly Shiite area of capital, at about 3 p.m. Hagel: We have misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam. Honorable intentions are not policies and plans. Iraq belongs to the 25 million Iraqis who live there. They will decide their fate and form of government. It occurred to me this weekend, listening to family and others … Continue reading Gimme A Couple Years To Say My Prayers

Rove won’t git Dick won’t quit Twins partay Troops stay Get your mind off peacetime You ain’t going nowhere Whoo-ee ride me high Tomorrow’s the day Group Baker gonna come Oh oh are we gonna fly Down in the easy chair Added: And here’s dirty hippies singing original lyrics for all you dirty hippies. Listen, do it for Jonah Continue reading You Ain’t Going Nowhere

Father God must be extremely unhappy with Katherine Harris. Not content with her complete humiliation at the polls just less than three weeks ago, He has decided to trample her legacy as Florida Secretary of State to bits, burn the bits to ashes, then bury the ashes in the cat litter box. Katherine Harris is staying out of the bitter fight about the election results in the race to fill her congressional seat. But the contested race is likely to further cement her political legacy with election controversy. The same touch-screen voting machines Harris praised in 2001 as an end … Continue reading Your Monday Morning Republican Juggernaut Update

The Bush Assministration’s eagerness to frighten everyone before the fifth anniversary of 9/11 really fucked-up British antiterrorism efforts and allowed one group of alleged plotters to roam free. A team of suspected terrorists involved in an alleged UK plot to blow up trans-atlantic airliners escaped capture because of interference by the United States. An investigation by MI5 and Scotland Yard into an alleged plan to smuggle explosive devices on up to 10 passenger jets was jeopardised in August, when the US put pressure on authorities in Pakistan to arrest a suspect allegedly linked to the airliner plot. As a direct … Continue reading Major Fuck-Up

The Italians will be gone by Friday. The last of Italy’s soldiers in Iraq will return home this week, ending the Italian contingent’s presence in the south of the country after more than three years, Premier Romano Prodi said Monday. The Brits are ready to cut-n-run. Britain said Monday it expects to withdraw thousands of its 7,000 military personnel from Iraq by the end of next year. [snip] British Defense Secretary Des Browne was the second senior official in recent days to talk of reducing the number of British troops in Iraq. And don’t forget Poland! Poland’s president said Monday … Continue reading Bugging Out

Ray in New Orleans has a post up about Iraq Veterans Against the War coming to New Orleans to gut homes… During breaks we talked about the war. I talked about the flood and the barriers to returning home that most New Orleanians face. They talked about depleted uranium testing and PTSD treatment. They were outraged at what they said was the disparity between how much our government spends for engineering battalions to rebuild in Iraq, while a ragtag bunch of volunteers with a pickup truck get to rebuild an American city. Ray has more and pics.Check it out. I … Continue reading Wrecking

Sheesh, it’s been nearly a week since the last gaggle. Talk about your lame ducks. Continue reading Haven’t Missed Much

Oh, the humanity! To the list of those penning books about the prez add the most authoritative source of all: President Bush. Insiders say that he’s been working on the project for a year. “He’s doing a memoir,” one insider says. “He’s keenly interested in it.” But here’s the odd part: Bush hasn’t actually written a word yet. Instead, he and his aides have been packaging the stuff he wants to reference so that he’ll be ready to write when the project moves into that stage. And that probably won’t happen until after he leaves office. Continue reading It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Blurst Of Times!?!!?

Yet more evidence that the Internet is journalism’s downfall: With its newspaper operations in distress and its corporate image in tatters, the company is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up its baseball team, the Chicago Cubs. Tribune owns the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, two venerable newspapers that are in disarray because the parent company can’t seem to generate big enough profits to satisfy its investors on Wall Street. Life at the L.A. Times is so chaotic that the paper’s editor and publisher both quit recently, rather than submit to Tribune Co.’s seemingly endless cost-cutting. … Continue reading Blogger Ethics

U.S. President George W. Bush, left, meets Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung beneath a monumental bronze bust of Ho Chi Minh. AP Photo/Kham, POOL “When they said we were gonna have our pictures taken under Ho’s bust I thought Condi was gonna go topless.” AP Photo/Charles Dharapak Continue reading Ho Rules!

George Allen to voters: “Yes, I’m exactly as much of a dick as you think I am.” A. Continue reading Senator Macaca

From Holden: Despite glowing stories about the Army’s new troop transport vehicle, it turns out that the Stryker ain’t all that. The vehicle is known as the Stryker, and 311 of the lightly armored, wheeled vehicles have been ferrying U.S. soldiers around northern Iraq since October 2003. The Army has been ebullient about the vehicle’s success there, with Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, telling the House Armed Services Committee last month that “we’re absolutely enthusiastic about what the Stryker has done.” But the Army’s Dec. 21 report, drawn from confidential interviews with operators of the vehicle … Continue reading Stryker Is The New Patriot Missile

“Dude. Why’d you let me eat all that stuffing?” A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Too Much Turkee Edition

Chinchillas wish you all a happy holiday. Last year Mr. A and I hosted an Orphan Thanksgiving for all our expat friends who were stuck in town over the weekend for work and had nowhere to go. I made the traditional dinner, which led to me trying to explain to a guy from Taiwan what the deal was with the turkey and the whole holiday in fact. I stammered around the whole “community gesture with the Native Americans” thing and eventually just came up with, “It’s an excuse to get together with people you like when it’s really fucking cold … Continue reading Thankfulness

Thanks to all for their cold remedies suggested earlier this week. I was better yesterday, but today woke up feeling like a truck containing a brass quintet and the New York Jets’ offensive line ran over my sinuses. And I thought to myself, “What would make me feel better? Oh, yeah, the Chimp could do something stupid.” Thus, you get a caption contest: I don’t have a caption, just a DayQuil-fueled observation that it looks like he’s about to chow down on the turkey’s neck right there on national television. A. Continue reading Turkee

You know, when you’ve spent the previous day ponderingRichard Cohen’s idiocy, reading this isthat much harder: Wearing fatigues, Army Spec. Bryan Anderson climbed out of a limousine, stood on his prosthetic legs and raised a prosthetic arm in triumph. Anderson, who in a burst of heat and shrapnel in October 2005 became only the fourth triple-amputee of the Iraq war, came home Tuesday in a hero’s parade that rolled through his hometown of Rolling Meadows, led by a convoy of 150 motorcycles. “I’ve spent a long time getting ready for this day at Walter Reed,” Anderson said. “This is real … Continue reading Homecoming

Any surefire cold/flu remedies, with particular emphasis on sore throat treatments, would be appreciated around these parts. Does that Airborne shit actually work? A. Continue reading Bleh

Oh, my. This should set a few winger headsa-poppin’. A talking Jesus doll has been turned down by the Marine Reserves’ Toys for Tots program. A Los Angeles company offered to donate 4,000 of the 1 foot-tall dolls, which quote Bible verses, for distribution to needy children this holiday season. The battery-powered Jesus is one of several dolls manufactured by one2believe, a division of the Valencia-based Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Co., based on biblical figures. But the charity balked because of the dolls’ religious nature. Toys are donated to kids based on financial need and “we don’t know anything about … Continue reading Why Do The Marines Hate Jesus?

The Bush Family better get used to theirpariah status. Former President George H.W. Bush took on Arab critics of his son Tuesday during a testy exchange at a leadership conference in the capital of this U.S. ally. “My son is an honest man,” Bush told members of the audience harshly criticized [sic] the current U.S. leader’s foreign policy. The oil-rich Persian Gulf used to be safe territory for former President Bush, who brought Arab leaders together in a coalition that drove Saddam Hussein’s troops from Kuwait in 1991. But gratitude for the elder Bush, who served as president from 1989-93, … Continue reading Pariah

I have a feeling Chimpy is about topitch a fit. Only one in four Americans believe President Bush is a better president than his father, George H. W. Bush, a new CNN poll has found. Six in 10 said the elder Bush, who served one term from 1989-1993, did a better job in office, according to a poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation. Twelve percent said both were equally good or bad, and 2 percent offered no opinion. The poll also found that 59 percent disapprove of President Bush’s handling of his job; 38 percent approve of it. Continue reading Somebody Tell Iran To Duck

CHimpy pulls down a38% approval rating in the latest CNN/Gallup poll, which included more of the same on Iraq. Which comes closest to your view about what the U.S. should now do about the number of U.S. troops in Iraq – the U.S. should send more troops to Iraq, the U.S. should keep the number of troops as it is now, the U.S. should withdraw some troops from Iraq, or the U.S. should withdraw all of its troops from Iraq? Send more troops 16% Keep same number as now 21% Withdraw some troops 27% Withdraw all troops 33% No opinion … Continue reading New CNN/Gallup Poll

This cannot be good. U.S. troops blew up two cars Tuesday inside the heavily fortified Green Zone after dogs indicated explosives were inside the vehicles that were used in the motorcade of the parliament speaker, an adviser to parliament said. In what could signal a major security breach, the explosives were found and detonated near the Convention Center, where parliament meets and government officials hold news conferences, Wissam al-Zubeidi said. The armored cars were used as part of the convoy for Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, al-Zubeidi said. One of the vehicles was regularly used by al-Mashhadani’s son. The speaker is … Continue reading Boom Times in the Green Zone