News That Blew

Salon is having an excellent day on two fronts: first it explores Al-Sadr’s ability to gain popularity and power in Iraq by being strong militarily, but more importantly, providing basic services/goods such as food to entire populations. Secondly, Salon has a feature on Colbert’s performance at the Press Corp examining it for what it is: a biting piece on the inaction and inabilities of the journalistic community. The name sums it all up (if you like shortcuts), “Cowardly and clueless, the U.S. media abandoned its post as Bush led the country into a disastrous war. A look inside one of the great journalistic collapses of our time.”

In the world of foreign relations, apart from today’s letter from the President of Iran to President Bush, Coming Anarchy has an excellent piece on the growing bond between Germany and the US, specifically over diplomacy with Iran. The most interesting portion deals with an interview Mr. Bush gave to a German newspaper about the differences caused by the Iraqi War:

Bild: Do the Americans have the feeling that they were abandoned by the Germans in the war against Saddam Hussein?

Bush: I’ve slowly realized that part of the nature of the German people is that they detest war. The Germans just don’t like war, regardless of where they stand on the political spectrum. And I can understand that. There’s a generation of people whose lives were destroyed by it.

The Washington Post has an article on the friendship of famed economist John Kenneth-Galbraith and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger. The best line comes first: “There was a time — it’s been decades now — when politicians or pundits would call people “liberal intellectuals” and not mean it as an insult.” In the spirit of Galbraith, the WP also has an article about Mr. Bush’s inability to deal with Social Security, entitled “An Irresponsible President”.

And in my funny but not really so funny news of the day, President Bush nominated an ex-Air Force general who looks like an albino bowling ball with eyes to be the head of the CIA. Conspiracy theories can be thrown out, because intelligence evidence can now be DIRECTLY edited by someone with vested interest in the Military-Industrial complex! Yayyyyyyy!