08.29.06
News analysis: Bush’s “little boy who cried wolf” diplomacy receiving less traction
by Terri Firma
The Bush administration is fighting to get a tighter reign on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but is speaking to deaf ears in the international community. After warning the world about Iraq’s nuclear arsenals, before invading and finding the cupboard bare, as it were, he is encountering resistance to his claims of similar capabilities on the part of Iran. “I get the feeling the world community is taking me a little less seriously than before,” Bush confided to close associates like CIA director Michael Hayden, who have requested anonymity. He has said. “I even tried to say, ‘No we mean it this time,’ but they’re not even listening.”
He may still be able to marshal a group of like-minded nations without the benefit of the UN endorsement, similar to how he entered Iraq with the well-known “coalition of the willing,” also known as the United States, England, Poland, and a few stiffs. However, this is seen as a less promising and more costly direction to follow with the Iranian threat.
Rumsfeld asking for less media coverage of Iraqi insurgents, who plan attacks for maximum PR value
by Tom Toburn
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfled has stepped up criticism of media outlets he accuses of enabling terrorists and Iraqi insurgents who says are planning attacks that are cynically geared toward achieving maximum PR value and news coverage.
These have included bomb and insurgent attacks at high profile targets in major cities.
Rumsfeld has discouraged the media from reporting on numbers of casulaties in the past, and accusations of detainee abuse, because he has said that it only serves to embolden the enemy.
Osama bin Laden has professed a desire to convert Whitney Houston to Islam, and Rumsfeld has also urged the media to play down threats to public figures like Oprah Winfrey. “I’m very glad, for example, that they played down the video where there were threats made to MacKenzie Phillips,” referring to the daughter of “Mamas and Papas” singer John Phillips, and one-time co-star of the series, “One Day at a Time,” which was not even aired on the Al Jazeera stations. Similarly, terrorists at one time held effigies of former “Eight is Enough” star Dick Van Patten, and Jerry Van Dyke of “Coach.” Some have speculated that the failure to attract the same level of publicity is partially due to the death of Abu Mussad al Zarqawi, who was considered more media saavy than his successors.
Bush’s leadership style reflects “learning from his mistakes”
by Terri Firma
The Bush Presidency has been characterized by a trial-and-error approach, that has been more effective at future prevention than in sidesteping calamitous events, according to a new book by Cecilia Buckner, “The 7% Presidency,” reflecting on the number of times administration projections have been in concordance with actual outcomes.
This is unprecedented since the time of Grover Cleveland who famously introduced actions as the nation’s 22nd President (1885-1889) that he had to reverse when he became the nation’s 24th President (1893-1897). He refused to admit he was wrong, but said simply, “I choose to do it different this time, plus I lost the election last time.”
“We learn from our mistakes but doesn’t mean the same as admitting we’re wrong, and I think the American people appreciate that,” Bush has conifided to close associates, like Ari Fleischer, after swearing them to secrecy. Adaptation has taken many forms for the President. The administration now takes all terror warnings extremely seriously, since the warnings did not adequately prompt action before the 9/11 attacks. The administration chose to fortify troops and engage with all partners in Iraq, as well as seeking to better pursue diplomacy with Iran before any prompting for war, after the miscalculations associated with planning and execution of the Iraq invasion. And the administration has more aggressively pursued preparedness plans for natural disasters that followed Hurricane Katrina. This is the first time this has been a part of chief executive orthodoxy since the Cleveland Presidency, or before that, Millard Fillmore’s “Maybe I get it wrong sometimes, but don’t tell me about it” doctrine in 1862.
08.28.06
Protestor glut at Bush summer vacation site
by Paula Berrer
Protest groups are competing for space outside the Bush family’s vacation retreat site in Kennebunkport Maine. The housing compound is nestled along narrow country roads, but protestors are lining both sides of the streets for miles into town, among them representatives of Hurricane Katrina survivors, Iraq war protestors, advocates for the 9/11 families, environmental activists, veteran’s rights groups, and, inexplicably, representatives of the United Way. Some are accusing the groups of piling on in confronting the President in such a relentless fashion.
Opposing the protestors, as in previous incidents at the President’s old ranch at Crawford Texas, are supporters of the President, such as the Gold Star Families for War Mongering (holding banners proclaiming, “Hell no, let them go”), a newly formed, nebulously named group, “Hurricane drowning victims for Tax Responsibility,” and a rabid group of attorneys representing executives from the energy industry.
Bush finishes Camus, taking up Kafka, as part of summer reading blitz
by Paula Berrer
Increasingly tiring of being told that missing 9/11 warnings, the aftermath of Katrina, and the fight in Iraq and have tragic and “Kafka-esque” overtones, President Bush has chosen Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” as his next summer reading assifnment. Like Albert Camu’s “The Stranger,” which he chose to read prior, Mr. Bush is seeking to “expand his horizons,” says Press Secretary Tony Snow, particularly in light of recent revelations that he is suffering from the “Dorian Gray Syndrome,” wherein the body undergoes decay when focused on overly isolated points of view.
“I understand it’s a little like that Jeff Goldblum movie, ‘The Fly,’ except that guy turns into a cockroach,” he said in referring to the 1986 film. “Sounds pretty whack, huh?”
Also coming highly recommended to the President is Fyodor Dosteovesky’s famous tale of redemption by way of the visiting foreigner, “The Idiot.”
Republican congressional candidates distancing selves from Bush; “hardly know the man”
by Paula Berrer
Increasingly tenuous re-election challenges for some high profle congressmen are leading to distancing from President Bush, with some candidates saying “I hardly know the man.” Senator Mike DeWine, in a particularly tight campign against a Democratic challenger, tried to play it very close to the vest when reporters asked him to respond to challenges that he is a “rubber stamp” for priorities of President George W. Bush. “George who?” he coyly posited to reporters. “I have no idea who Mr. Brown is speaking of.”
Republican strategist Karl Rove, speaking off-the-record, said such startegies are not unusual in off election year cycles, but expressed his usual confidence in Bush as chief executive, saying “The congressmen will come around again, especially after we can get around to using the bully pulpit to scare the shit out of our base again.”
Chertoff enacts underwear and negligee airport security measures
by Terri Firma
In the face of new securty threats a US bound Portugese flight was stopped and terrorists apprehended attempting to transport bombs and detonators in the lining of their underwear and negligee. Airline passengers are being asked to disrobe to their underwear, camisoles ad slips, then undego a full pat-down seach, before boarding planes. This is in the aftermath of what Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff is calling “a serious and dire threat” from terror groups seeking to use underwear and negligee in a fashion that is similar to the Portugese terrorists.
The Homeland Security threat level has been raised to ”orangish-reddish” until the measures are in place at all airports with flight entering the United States.
Though many are accusing the Homeland Security Department of repeatedly acting reactively and retrospectively in enacting new security measures, Chertoff is claiming the underwear and negligee security measures had been in the planning stages for some time, “though they were felt to be a little provocative at the time they were initially proposed. Now, it is clear that passengers will prefer the new approach instead of exposing themselves to additional risk.”
Nasrallah’s stature in Muslim world grows, considering record and film deals
by Paula Berrer
With the enhanced stature that has followed his newfound fame as Hezbollah leader in the Lebanese conflict with Israel, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is weighing film offers, and the possible release of a rap album on Mega-Death Records’ Dubai division.
This is on the heels of the increased use of Nasrallah’s name for newborn babies born in sympathetic Arab regions, and the rapid rise in Wheaties sales since the cereal maker has featured the terrosist leader on its cereal boxes.
“There are so many opportunties that are open to me that were not open before, praise Allah,” Nasrallah told Reuters in an interview to be published Monday.
Nasrallah will be represented by Creative Arts Agency by Tims, Nutter and Steele, the division that manages the career of actor Will Smith, among others.
08.24.06
“I met with my foreign policy team, we still have no idea what we’re doing. We’re taking a break.”
by Paula Berrer
As he leaves for a summer retreat at his Erie Pennsylvania ranch, President Bush met for a final time with his foreign policy team, and announced to reporters, “I met with my foreign policy team, we still have no idea what we’re doing. We’re taking a break.”
For weeks, the President has been disputing reports that the outcome of the Iraq incursion has led to re-assessment of the approach he and his team have taken in response to the rise of international terror networks, and the 9/11 tragedy, but now he is saying they all just need a little break.
He also asked that reporters stop singing “Hey hey, we’re the Monkees,” everytime his team approaches the podium.
O’Reilly tells liberals: hating Bush is not a policy position
by Tom Toburn
Respondong to the success of the upstart Lamont candidacy in the Connecticut Senatorial race, FOX News analyst Bill O’Reilly told viewers yesterday, “I have news for Mr. Lamont and his liberal supporters: hating President Bush is not a policy position. It is not a stand on the issues. It is hate and hate-mongering and nothing else. It is that simple.”
Lamont phoned in to the program, and said to O’Reilly, “But I don’t hate President Bush,” and O’Reilly retorted, “Yes you do, you victimizing liberals all do. Now don’t deny it, because I know you do. And I don’t want to get into my voodoo witchcraft powers on this, because I don’t know that its relevant to my telling my viewers I know who you are, and what you’re about, and I’m calling you out on it.”
Lamont attempted to deny the charges, and explained that many liberals, supporters of his as well as others, simply have positions that are long-held, that are not supported by the President and his Republican supporters in Congress, but O’Reilly denied its relevance to his theory, reminded Lamont that he does hate the President, and insisted Lamont not enter the “No-Spin Zone” till he could defend his position better than that.
