Peacekeeping

I do not think that word means what you think it means:

Israel announced plans Monday for 1,400 new homes on land the Palestinians claim for a future state -- just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended a peacekeeping mission to the region.

She's quickly earning the worst secretary of state ever title.

Another One Bites the Dust

More Bushco, more corruption (WSJ, subscription required):

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson is expected to announce his resignation Monday, according to people familiar with the matter, a decision that will deal a blow to the Bush administration's efforts to tackle the housing crisis.

The exact reasons for Mr. Jackson's decision couldn't be learned. Earlier this month, two Democratic senators, Patty Murray of Washington and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, sent a letter to President Bush urging him to request Mr. Jackson's resignation, arguing that accusations of wrongdoing had made him ineffective.

Get out and get your pardons while you still can.

Doublespeak

Bushco:

The dollar is likely to remain under pressure for the next few months at least, but its weakness is not inconsistent with the Bush administration's strong dollar policy, former U.S. Treasury undersecretary Tim Adams said on Monday.

"A strong dollar policy is a pledge by the United States not to use the dollar as a tool to gain competitive advantage in global markets. So it's not inconsistent," Adams, who was the Treasury's top international official until last summer, told a conference in Hong Kong.

Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?

Oops, My Bad. But It's Really Not My Bad

Condi.

Think Progress snarks:

Perhaps one casualty of the Iraq war has been the conservative belief in personal responsibility

That would be insightful if Bushco had any to begin with.

We Will Have a Nominee Before the Convention

Dean is on it.

At this point, the only remaining question is how ugly the Clinton campaign is willing to get. By all indications, pretty ugly.

Nobody Could Have...

Thousands of supporters of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched in Baghdad on Thursday to protest against a three-day-old crackdown against his followers and call for the downfall of the U.S.-backed government.

Mass demonstrations were held in the Sadr City, Kadhimiya and Shula districts. An Interior Ministry source said hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets.

"We demand the downfall of the Maliki government. It does not represent the people. It represents Bush and Cheney," said Sadr City resident Hussein Abu Ali.

Continuing the U.S. occupation of Iraq is not a good idea, precisely because the Iraqis want to govern themselves, even if at times not in our image.

Link.

War?

Oh yeah, that war.

The Bush administration hailed an Iraqi offensive against Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra as a ``bold decision'' that shows the country's security forces are capable of combating terrorists.

At least 40 people were killed and 200 wounded in two days of fighting between fighters loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi troops, the Associated Press reported, as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki pledged to restore security in the southern oil hub. The clashes continued today in five Basra neighborhoods, Agence France-Presse said. Separately, 14 people were killed and 140 were wounded in fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City, Sky News said, citing Reuters.

``This is what we have been wanting to see the Iraqis do,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters in Washington yesterday. ``This is one of the first times that they've had such an entrenched battle and we'll be there to support them if they need it.''

Fighting bad guys, yeah!!!

Do these even understand the most basic underpinnings of strategy? Like how the truce al-Sadr signed is one of the major reasons that has stopped things from going from horribly bad to horribly worse, and gunning for a fight with him is one of the dumbest things we can do?

Al-Sadr threatened to instigate protests nationwide if the raids by Iraqi forces weren't stopped. ``If the government does not respect these demands, the next step will be civil protests in Baghdad and the provinces,'' his spokesman Hazam al-Aaraji said yesterday, reading a statement from the cleric at a news conference in Najaf aired on state television.

Fighting spread late yesterday to Sadr City in eastern Baghdad and Kut and Hilla, south of the capital, AFP said, citing unidentified security officials.

I'm sure when the country is embroiled in death and destruction we'll be greeted with another "nobody could have predicted..."

By the way, why Basra?

Basra has been plagued by the smuggling of ``oil and its derivatives, weapons, drugs and other prohibited materials,'' al- Maliki said yesterday in a statement carried by state television. The government ``is firmly resolved to restore security and stability and to impose law.''

I'm sure Cheney's recent visit and focus on the oil law had absolutely nothing to do with this.

Update: The cease fire is over. Very bad things are going to happen.

Placating David Broder

Hillary.

There is no one person more responsible for the current depression than Alan Greenspan. And after it all fell to pieces, he had the gall to tell us "nobody could have predicted it." Bullshit. We did. That's just more of the same line we've heard time and time again since this administration took office.

The money quote is hilarious.

The Audacity of Hopelessness

David Brooks writes a column. I can't believe I'm linking to it, but I am.

Read on.

FOX Refuses to Pay Indecency Fine

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Defying federal regulators, Fox Television said today it won't pay a $91,000 indecency fine levied recently by the Federal Communications Commission for a 2003 episode of a reality television show that featured strippers and whipped cream.

Fox said in a prepared statement that it won't pay the fine imposed against five of its stations because it believes the FCC's decision that the show in question was indecent was "arbitrary and capricious, inconsistent with precedent, and patently unconstitutional."

This is not, by any means, an endorsement of indecency laws (I think they're silly); I wanted to highlight the brazen hypocrisy that is FOX.