Author: Trish

Bolton-Free U.N.; Sanity-Free White House

Trish

That John Bolton and George Bush have accepted the inevitable and are finally relinquishing the U.N. ambassadorship is great news.

“This is a clear example of the breakdown in the Senate confirmation process,” Perino said. Huh?

Facing opposition from key senators, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton will leave office in a matter of days, the White House announced on Monday.

But how bizarrely they view things was evident in the comments of White House spokesperson Dana Perino.

“This is a clear example of the breakdown in the Senate confirmation process,” Perino said.

Huh?

Bolton being in the U.N. to begin with is a clear example of the breakdown and frickin’ subversion of the confirmation process — by Bush. Or has the White House already forgotten how they snuck Bolton in through the back door while everyone was leaving through the front?

Bush had bypassed the Senate in August 2005 by appointing Bolton to the position when the lawmakers were in recess, avoiding the confirmation process and angering senators concerned that Bolton had a temper and intimidated intelligence analysts to support his hawkish views while at the State Department.

At last, and thanks to the Democrats coming back (yah-hoo!), this smarmy move is being cancelled out. Take a few notes, and don’t try this underhanded crap again, you weasels.

Pahrump, Nev.: El Lugar Bueno ser Detenido

Trish

The town of Pahrump, Nev. is bracing for a crime wave after passing ordinances meant to show foreigners who’s boss.

Although Pahrump experienced a 32 percent drop in criminal activity in recent years (more about this in a minute), that was before so much stuff became illegal.

The ACLU will probably take legal action against the town. “People are nuts out there, totally nuts.”

First, there’s flying flags. Anyone who flies another country’s flag — say, just as a random example, Mexico’s — above an American flag, or worse yet, all by itself without an American flag, will get a $50 fine and 30 hours of community service.

Then there’s English. It’s now the official language of Pahrump, so don’t even think about speaking something else like — oh, off the top of my head — Spanish.

Finally, illegal immigrants will henceforth be denied benefits from the town. Which is kind of a hypothetical denial anyway.

“We don’t have any” benefits, town manager David Richards says. “If we ever have any, they’ll be denied to illegal immigrants.”

Pahrump is having a kind of time-delayed reaction to those uppity immigrants who made their presence known last spring.

The ordinance’s sponsor, Michael Miraglia, a retired Illinois state worker, said the flag restriction was a reaction to nationwide demonstrations in May against a crackdown on illegal immigration. He said he didn’t like seeing protesters waving Mexican flags and demanding immigrants not go to work that day.

“In Pahrump, we had Mexican restaurants closed that day,” he complained. “Only one restaurant stayed open.”

Well then, you can understand the outrage. It was probably a chain restaurant like Chili’s or Taco Bell. I’d pass a law too, I guess, but the American Civil Liberties Union is being a party pooper.

[Nevada board member Lisa] Rasmussen said the ACLU would probably take legal action against the town.

“People are nuts out there,” she says. “Totally nuts.”

Maybe so, but we at Pensito Review have a soft spot in our hearts for Pahrump. The town, about 60 miles closer to L.A. than Las Vegas is, arrested one Jon Ponder last year for robbing the Bank of America. Don’t worry, Buck and I made sure our Jon Ponder had an airtight alibi. Still, we’re keeping an eye on the town, just in case.

Time for Bush to Stop Holding Our Breath and Turning Us Blue

Trish

So far, the Bush administration policy of freezing out governments who disagree with it and “enemy-izing” them is — who would have thought — not working. With North Korea and Iran, it’s taken us closer to nuclear annihilation. It’s made formerly friendly Central and South America defy us. European allies who thought that maybe the U.N. inspectors could be right about Saddam not having weapons of mass destruction have been turned into alienated exes.

The Baker/Hamilton Iraq Study Group is expected to suggest we commit to pulling troops out of Iraq. It will also say we need to stop acting like four-year-olds using the silent treatment on playmates who didn’t share their ice cream cones.

James P. Pinkerton in the Dallas Morning News says the Baker Commission will be right.

Back in the good ol’ days before that spoiled child who is our president took over, talking to people used to work.

[Baker] started the controversy in October: “I believe in talking to your enemies. I don’t think you restrict your conversations to your friends.” Then, anticipating his critics, he added: “In my view, it’s not appeasement to talk to your enemies.”

…Baker was doing his best to clear a path toward negotiating with players in the Middle East – most notably Syria and Iran – without those negotiations being tagged with the scarlet letter “A,” for appeasement.

It didn’t work. On Monday, the hawkish Wall Street Journal editorial page sounded the alarm [and] worried that Baker and the “foreign policy establishment” might pressure Bush to “appease” Syria.

But there’s no good alternative to diplomacy, Pinkerton says. […]

Iraq Study Group Recommends Cutting and Running

Trish

This should be interesting.

The independent, bipartisan panel studying U.S. policy in Iraq has unanimously agreed to a report that will call for a gradual pullback of American combat troops in Iraq but stops short of setting a firm timetable for withdrawal, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

But Brave Bushie said we’d never, ever do that. Remember? His is not the party of “cut and run.” His is also not the party that matters anymore.

Still, it will be interesting to see how Rove et al frame this. After all, you’re either with them or against them.

Webb Gives Bush a Slap in the Face, Not a Pat on the Back

Trish

Many Congressional Democrats spent the days right after the election victory in Washington pulling their punches with the recently “thumped” president. Not Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), who stuck to the subject.

Webb has my admiration for his restraint. Most of us would have been unable to keep from saying, “He’s in Iraq, you moron. How the hell do you think he is?”

At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia’s newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall. But it wasn’t long before Bush found him.

“How’s your boy?” Bush asked, referring to Webb’s son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

“I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

“That’s not what I asked you,” Bush said. “How’s your boy?”

“That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President,” Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.

Webb has my admiration for his restraint. Most of us would have been unable to keep from saying, “He’s in Iraq, you moron. How the hell do you think he is?”

“I’m not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall,” Webb said in an interview yesterday in which he confirmed the exchange between him and Bush. “No offense to the institution of the presidency, and I’m certainly looking forward to working with him and his administration. [But] leaders do some symbolic things to try to convey who they are and what the message is.”

…The White House declined to discuss the encounter. “As a general matter, we do not comment on private receptions hosted by the president at the White House,” said White House spokeswoman Dana M. Perino.

Yeah, sure they don’t. Not to mention it’s just one more example of how profoundly her boss doesn’t get it.

Did Bush really think Webb would gush over him for remembering that Webb’s son is doing what Bush himself was too weak and selfish to do when it was his turn? The man’s son is in Iraq. If Bush really expected his question to be met with, “He’s great, and thanks for asking. How are the twins?” then he’s even dumber than I thought. And that can’t be possible.

Coulter Closer to Achieving “Joe McCarthy of Her Day” Status

Trish

Great letter to the editor in my local paper today, which in the interest of “fairness” runs Ann Coulter’s column. They do it, they say, to balance out Molly Ivins. As if.

Anyway, first part of Ann’s original diatribe:

I think it’s more a case of Coulter trying to remain relevant in a country that no longer believes simple, ignorant “you’re either with us or with the terrorists” arguments.

Six imams removed from a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix are calling on Muslims to boycott the airline. If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether.

Witnesses said the imams stood to do their evening prayers in the terminal before boarding, chanting “Allah, Allah, Allah” — coincidentally, the last words heard by hundreds of airline passengers on 9/11 before they died…

And then the knock-out punch from one Brad Cooper:

Editor: Ann Coulter’s column…was especially ignorant, even for her. To praise US Airways for ejecting imams traveling to a conference because they were, well, imams and were not hiding their faith, is an expression of the worst irrational anti-Muslim xenophobia since rednecks cheered the bombing of mosques.

US Airways’ rationale for ejecting the imams from the flight was insulting and shows just how little we’ve learned about Islam since 9/11. For Coulter to praise them for this show of timidity and ignorance highlights her own timidity and ignorance. So what is the real reason behind the anxiety about some religious clerics that disagree with Coulter’s myopic neo-con views being refused passage? I think it’s more a case of Coulter trying to remain relevant in a country that no longer believes simple, ignorant “you’re either with us or with the terrorists” arguments.

St. Augustine Record, I urge you to stop carrying her race-baiting, insulting, mean-spirited diatribes. She’s not a thoughtful conservative, she’s nothing more than Ed Anger wearing Prada.

Racism Rears Its Ugly Head Outside the South Yet Again

Trish

If anyone still needed proof that racism against blacks isn’t just a Southern thing, this week offered plenty.

First, there was the video of Michael Richards, whose Seinfeld character, Kramer, was the personification of New York City quirky. It’s hard not to get queasy watching the video, and harder still to come up with any reasonable explanation for the outburst other than…racism.

This was brought home to me the other night. I work at UPS part-time and a group of us — all white — were discussing the incident when an African-American supervisor walked up. Catching the tail-end of the discussion before silence descended, he asked us to elaborate. “He used the n-word,” someone said. “Oh, well,” the supervisor said, as if to say, “What’s new about that?” “But it wasn’t like a white person trying to be all cool rap,” someone added. “How was it different?” he asked. As everyone looked at their feet, I answered, “Because he said, ‘If this were fifty years ago, you, James, would be hanging from a tree with a fork up your ass.'”

Yeah, we’re talking way beyond tossing out the n-word for street cred.

The report that poor downtrodden white frat boys in Boston are fighting back frosted it.

Joe Mroszczyk, president of the College Republicans at Boston University, admits he set out to stir up a hornet’s nest when he came up with the idea of offering a whites-only scholarship at the school…

All the media attention is focused on a $250 Caucasian Achievement and Recognition Scholarship offered by Mroszczyk and the BU chapter of the College Republicans…

According to Mroszczyk, his group is offering the scholarship to point out “how ridiculous it is to have any sort of racially based scholarship.”

Well how very — pardon the expression — white of him to point out this particular sentiment in this unique way. Actually, Mroszczyk admitted he didn’t think it all up himself. He was inspired by a similar scholarship offered a couple of years ago at Roger Williams University in, not Montgomery, Alabama but Bristol, Rhode Island.

My “said it until people are ready to put a bullet in my head to get me to shut up about it” position continues to be that as long as America uses the South as a scapegoat for the racism rampant across the land — to neatly compartmentalize it and refuse to own it — we will never get any closer to solving our national dilemma. To me, it begins with admitting we are all sinners and going forth from there. But as long as the Michael Richardses and Joe Mroszczyks of the world can feel themselves superior to our backwards Southern asses, nobody’s getting anywhere.

Iraq Plan Unmitigated Disaster

Trish

Oh yeah. We’re getting closer by the day to being able to hand this thing over to the Iraqis and walk away. Because, you know, their police and security forces have really taken to this whole training thing.

Shiite militiamen doused six Sunni Arabs with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, and killed 19 other Sunnis in attacks on their mosques Friday, taking revenge for the previous day’s attack on a Sadr City slum…

The bloodshed underlined the impotence of the Iraqi army and police to quell determined sectarian extremists at a time when the United States appears to be considering a move to accelerate the handover of security responsibilities.

New Christian Coalition Head Resigns; Not Whacked-Out Enough

Trish

The leadership of the Christian Coalition, which has apparently not been paying attention lately, missed a rare opportunity to join mainstream America.

What does the Christian Coalition have to do with Jesus, beyond being a syllable in their name, I mean?

The reverend elected to take over as president of the Christian Coalition of America said he will not assume the role because of differences in philosophy.

The Rev. Joel Hunter of Longwood’s Northland, A Church Distributed, said Wednesday that the national group would not let him expand the organization’s agenda beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage…

Hunter, who was scheduled to take over the socially conservative political group Jan. 1, said he had hoped to focus on issues such as poverty and the environment.

“These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about,” Hunter said.

But what does the Christian Coalition have to do with Jesus, beyond being a syllable in their name, I mean?

Oh well. Even though they let this decent-sounding guy walk, maybe there was some softening in the group’s hard stance, or some sign they are open to change.

Not a chance.

A statement issued by the coalition said Hunter resigned because of “differences in philosophy and vision.” The board accepted his decision “unanimously,” it states.