The Billiken's Bluff

I feel like I used to try to be funny and somewhat insightful. Now I just post some half-hearted Bush-bashing rant every week or so.

Poor showing.

So says Donald Rumsfeld.



Don Imus suggests an alternative exit strategy:

Give the country back to Saddam. He’s learned his lesson. He probably won't torture Kurds anymore, or gas small children. He hasn't really even done that sort of thing since the early 90s anyway. The man knows how to control the region. Saddam looks healthy, spry, well-rested. I say give it back to him and get the hell out of there.

This sounds ridiculous. Preposterous. Untenable. Unconscionable. But who has a better plan to stabilize Iraq?



We will find out tonight when Bush delivers a speech to the nation where he will unveil his detailed 35-page plan, titled "Our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq."

On Sunday, President Bush fielded questions from reporters in Beijing.

Apparently, Mr. Bush seemed tense during much of the day. When a reporter asked him about that later, he said, "Have you ever heard of jet lag?"

After ending his brief meeting with reporters, the president turned around and tried to go out a door that was locked. Turning back to reporters, he said, joking: "I was trying to escape. It didn't work."



This all seemed funny. Bush came off as a good-natured, goofy guy. Faced with tough questions posed by foreign news agencies he tried to joke his way out.

Today, we find out that faced with similarly tough questions last year, Bush considered bombing his way out.

Downing Street is facing calls to publish a transcript of a conversation in which Tony Blair allegedly persuaded George Bush to drop plans to bomb Arab TV station Al-Jazeera.

According to reports, in a memo Bush said he wanted to attack the TV station in Qatar - a key Middle East ally of the west. And it allegedly details how Mr Blair argued against an attack on the station's buildings in the capital city of Doha, saying it would lead to retaliation.

Al-Jazeera is well-known for broadcasting videos from Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda followers, a policy which his angered the Bush administration.

The transcript allegedly records a conversation during Mr Blair's visit to the White House on April 16 last year, in the wake of a failed attempt to root out insurgents in the city of Fallujah, in which 30 US Marines died.

Now that is an escape plan.

Last Friday I wrote about the Jordanian response to al-Zarqawi's hotel bombings:

I'm not sure how many people were a part of this demonstration (it wasn't tens of thousands that much is for sure), however it looks promising. Over the past four years terrorists attacks in Iraq, Egypt, Indonesia, have ignited, for the most part, anti-US/Israel protests. This time the anger appears to be aimed at the responsible party, al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian born leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

I still don't know how many Jordanian citizens were involved in the original protest last week, but I do know that:




A Jordanian soldier guards during an anti terrorism rally in downtown Amman, Jordan, Friday, Nov. 18, 2005.Tens of thousands of flag-waving Jordanians thronged downtown Amman on Friday in the 'March of the Nation,' a noisy, emphatic demonstration against the deadly terror attacks that struck the kingdom last week.

And in related news, in an audiotape released Friday, al-Zarqawi threatened to chop off King Abdullah II's head and bomb more hotels and tourist sites.

Love in the Time of Spam Mail

Protests in Jordan comdemning al-Zarqawi:

Jordanian citizens gathered near the Radisson Thursday, some of them parents with children, to march in solidarity against the attacks. They waved Jordan's red, black, green and white flag and carried pictures of King Abdullah.



Traffic backed up where the demonstrators spilled into the street, but many of the vehicles carried flag-waving demonstrators as well, their drivers blaring horns as they passed the scene. The demonstrators stayed as night fell and began to chant that al-Zarqawi, a native of Jordan, is "a lowlife."

I'm not sure how many people were a part of this demonstration (it wasn;t tens of thousands that much is for sure), however it looks promising. Over the past four years terrorists attacks in Iraq, Egypt, Indonesia, have ignited, for the most part, anti-US/Israel protests. This time the anger appears to be aimed at the responsible party, al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian born leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Hopefully, this will signal the beginning of new era in the Middle East were people take responsibility for changing their countries and regions from within.

The Sacramento Kings played the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night. During the pregame introductions, Sacramento treated their 17,000 fans to a video depicting Detroit as a city of desolate, garbage-strewn streets full of rundown buildings and torched cars.



Watch the video here.

John Thomas, Kings President of Maloof Sports and Entertainment, issued an apology for the video. "It's a terrible mistake," he told reporters. "That's not us. That's not how we do things. We apologize to the great Detroit Pistons organization and to the city of Detroit."



Detroit WHAT>!?!#@$Q%#!>

and Paris too.



In addition to much of the rest of France.



The shoe is now on the other foot:

The French were quick to point out the poverty, inequality and bureaucratic incompetence that Hurricane Katrina exposed in the USA. Now, they face a similar wake-up call in their own backyard.