Yo, Bush!  The next time you stand up in a press conference and wax on poetically about how you as a war criminal want to bring freedom to those who yearn to be free, try to imagine that this woman is sitting in the front row before you build up a head of steam.

Released through various news agencies on Friday and Saturday were stories with the headline:  U.S. may reduce forces in Iraq by spring.  And on Sunday there was the headline: U.S. Generals Doubt Iraqi Force Strength

My guess is none of this news was released without administration blessing; so apparently the approach now is 'blind them with bullshit'.

Fareed Zakaria was once again on The Daily Show tonight.  Someone should really clue in the on-point Jon Stewart, that his good friend Fareed Zakaria was one of the biggest supporters for our invasion of Iraq.

The Village Voice pretty much nails it in it's opening (one run on sentence) paragraph.

Fareed Zakaria's career reads like some crazy America fantasy: Neoconservative policy wonk becomes darling of the ultra-liberal Daily Show. Political columnist and editor of Newsweek International is dubbed an "intellectual heartthrob" by Jon Stewart. Upper-class Indian academic raised in mostly secular household becomes America's favorite explainer of the Muslim world, regularly appearing on Charlie Rose, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, and now on his own weekly PBS news series, Foreign Exchange With Fareed Zakaria (airing Saturdays at 10 a.m. on WNET).

But Fareed is soooooo much more ...

We start off our line up with the new bobbsey twins, Obama and Hillary ... both taking a moment to lighten up.

On to The Great Eight ...

Something this morning from The Guardian and Steve Bell:

Russia should not fear a missile shield in eastern Europe, George Bush said in Prague today, in his latest bid to placate Vladimir Putin, who has threatened to aim missiles at western countries in retaliation.

This from the Guardian this morning:

"My message will be: 'Vladimir - I call him Vladimir - you shouldn't fear a missile defence system. As a matter of fact, why don't you cooperate with us on a missile defence system?'" Mr Bush said.

Well who do you trust?  More below the fold...

Fred Thompson announced this week that to promote his run at the presidency he is giving up his day job playing a prosecutor on the TV series "Law & Order."  What hasn’t been publicized is that Thompson has been behind the scenes with Fox Network to begin production of a new series "AEI:  Washington".  

Fox when contacted for comment responded "Yes it’s true.  We had a treatment for a production that would highlight the mission of the American Enterprise Institute.  Fred Thompson, a fellow at AEI an organization that has been considered the think tank par excellence for promoting the neo-con agenda, was a natural".

More below the fold ...

The pickings are getting slim from across the pond.  The Brits and Frogs are involved in their own domestic issues.

But Martin Rowson of The Guardian was able to capture Blair’s Farewell Tour in Baghdad.   Just a few hours after a mortar bomb had fallen in the protected green zone near the British embassy and in a weekend when eight American soldiers were killed and 43 Iraqi civilians were found murdered.

Yep ... that’s Rumsfeld on drums, Wolfowitz on base and our very own Prz-nit all the way to the right on guitar ... Wow!



A couple more below the fold ...

Well, I'm posting a review of the weeks best of Steve Bell, Martin Rowson, Mr. Fish and anybody else that catches my fancy along with anything I may have cobbled together.

We start with some-Wolf and no-Blitz Wolfowitz.

This first entry was done by Steve Bell of The Guardian several weeks ago when we were all asking ... How can we miss you when you won't go away ...

More below the fold ...

I generally am known in these parts by the graphics I post but  for this diary I would like to focus on my prose.

I’m a closet patriot.  A Vietnam vet that pays his taxes gives generously to political and non-political grass roots organizations and volunteers to drive old folks to the polls on Election Day.  But not so deep down I’m a contrarian.  My contrary views have led me to the point where I’m a traitor to this country.



More below the fold --

Of course the big news this week is that Tony Blair has announced that he will be stepping down as Prime Minister.  This has caused a flurry of retrospectives of ‘The Blair Years’ and prominent in every one of them ‘The Chimp’ looms large.

Here is a retrospective of the Blair Years courtesy of Steve Bell of The Guardian.  Steve has had an easy job of it over the last 6 years.  Low hanging fruit indeed.  Sometimes Steve depicts Tony as a lap dog, at other times a boy scout; but always, with his left eye larger than his right.  You’ll note The Chimp and The Lap Dog in all of the following ...

There will be no jump suit but it looks like it's all over for 'Little Wolf No Witz' Wolfowitz.

From the NY Times ...

WASHINGTON, May 7 — A committee of World Bank directors has formally notified Paul D. Wolfowitz that they found him to be guilty of a conflict of interest in arranging for a pay raise and promotion for Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, in 2005. The findings stepped up the pressure on Mr. Wolfowitz to resign.

We start off with something old; something new ...

Even though, from at least an international perspective, the Chimp has blown his wad ... I'm sure he could round up a coalition to invade the Sudan.  All he'd have to do is keep it from his political base.

More below the fold

Because of my weird working/sleeping habits I'm now watching Stephanie Miller Live on MSNBC ...

Good show ... fast paced

Wolfie's troubles continue to mount after the the executive board of the World Bank convened a special investigation that will report back at the end of this week.

Most of us had anticipated that there would not be much news for the next few days.  But lo and behold this from bloomberg:

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, under investigation by the bank's board of directors, hired Robert Bennett, an attorney who represented former President Bill Clinton against sexual harassment claims.

Wolfowitz retained Bennett, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, a day after the board on April 20 set up a group to probe the World Bank chief's decision to give his companion a pay increase.

More on the flipside

Paul Wolfowitz failed to appear yesterday at a high rollers meeting of the World Bank.  Some speculate that it's because he's on his way out ... other's suggest that he was asked not to attend since everybody was meeting on his fate.


From this morning's 'The Guardian'

Paul Wolfowitz failed to appear at a high-profile World Bank meeting yesterday, sparking rumours that he was on the verge of quitting as president.

No explanation was offered for Mr Wolfowitz's absence from the conference in Washington, on the day when the bank's governing board was meeting to discuss the controversy over the president's ordering of promotions and pay rises for his partner, Shaha Riza.

The board, made up of 24 representatives of the bank's member countries, had cleared its agenda to deal with the breach of the bank's ethical rules by Mr Wolfowitz.

More on the King of Spades below the fold

While the politicians bleat, this April has started off to be one of the worst in terms of fallen warriors since George Bush started his private war in Iraq.

As of today 18 service men/women have given their lives for George Bush's messianic wet dream in the first 5 days of this month.  Of note is that 6 of these have been British troops and of that 6, 2 were women.

Update ...  Just announced Gates has order on desk to call up 12,000 more National Guard troops.

More below the fold ...

Eat What You Kill has been used in various parts of the business sector, mainly sales, to summarize that one is only paid for the new business brought in or product sold.  In it's fullest it says You will only eat when you've brought home the bacon.

In an earlier time it was if you kill it, you must eat it.  It was a guide to early conservation when many hunted for their diner.

I think that the country is lost when no matter what is reported; no matter what excuse is made, you know it’s not the truth.

Just reported was that another helicopter made a hard landing.  The crew was rescued but the reason for the crash was mechanical malfunction.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. Army helicopter made a "hard landing" in northern Iraq and preliminary reports indicated a mechanical problem, the military said Thursday. The two crew members were injured.
The OH-58 Kiowa helicopter, mostly used in surveillance and light attacks, came down south of Kirkuk, a military statement said.
The two pilots were rescued and taken for medical treatment, but the statement gave no details on their injuries.
"Preliminary reporting shows the cause of the hard landing was mechanical and not hostile fire," it said.

Apparently, a ‘hard landing’ is when a helicopter crashes and anybody (please somebody) survives.

More after the break.