Bush Is Making Me Crazy

He Just Won't Stop, Will He?

Poor English Language
Bush continues his serial-killer style assault on the English language:

While visiting tornado-ravaged Tennessee, President Bush stopped in to speak to residents affected.

We're sorry you're going through what you're going through.

You know, life sometimes is, uh, you know, is unfair, and you don't get to play the hand that you wanted to play. But, the question is, when you get dealt the hand, how do you play it?

What the hell is this? Did Bush slap these lines together while high on coke after listening to 'The Gambler' on repeat for three hours straight?

MY HEAD HURTS

Source: Raw Story

Freedom's On the March
In Iraq, another disaster area visited by Bush, we have more cheery news on our 'Progress':

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture.

The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce.

This probably belongs in my forthcoming book on Conservatives being sick pervert killers, actually, but I'll save the snark for another day, because this is just too grim.

"Fear, fear is always there," says 30-year-old Safana, an artist and university professor. "We don't know who to be afraid of. Maybe it's a friend or a student you teach. There is no break, no security. I don't know who to be afraid of."

Her fear is justified. Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, is a stronghold of conservative Shia groups. As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year -- 79 for violation of "Islamic teachings" and 47 for so-called honor killings, according to IRIN, the news branch of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Yes, we've brought liberty to Iraq for sure now.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Sawsan says, the situation was "the best." But now, she says, it's "the worst."

"We thought there would be freedom and democracy and women would have their rights. But all the things we were promised have not come true. There is only fear and horror."

Anarchy's a kind of freedom, right?

Right?

Source: CNN.com

Iraqi Cake Industry
It doesn't involve cake shaped like Spongebob or Barbie Princesses, though.

The UK government has flown antidote medicine to the Middle East after some Iraqis became seriously ill from eating cakes laced with the poison thallium.

Two of the victims, both children, died after eating cake delivered to a military club in Baghdad.

What kind of a horrible place have we created? It's like something out of a Bosch painting, only REAL.

Thallium is a lethal poison much used by Saddam Hussein's regime against its opponents. It has not surfaced since his overthrow.

It is an ideal assassin's tool, being tasteless and easy to administer, and its effects take some time to appear.

It then causes a lingering and painful death. An antidote known as Prussian Blue can be effective if taken quickly.

An investigation is under way in Baghdad, but the affair remains shrouded in mystery. The manager of the air force club told the BBC he believed it was carried out by conspirators with a grudge against the club's administration.

In what appeared to be a goodwill gesture, a former official delivered two cakes laced with thallium.

So really, this is three stories in one, all illustrating different aspects of our grotesque, monstrous failure in Iraq.

1: The collapse of Iraq's medical system. The victims had to be flown antidote into the country, then be taken to Jordan for treatment. The treatment for Thallium poisoning is the administration of a well-known and common antidote, orally. That can't be done in Iraq anymore; they have no functioning medicine.

2: Another of Saddam's weapons has turned up in the hands of our enemies. They've got his bomb making engineers; they've got his Semtex and other plastic explosives; and now they've got his Thallium. What a great job we did securing his resources!

3: The process of creating a stable government? Not so much on the working. Instead we get an endless series of murderous feuds.

It's just... a little too much this early in the morning.

Source: The BBC

iPod Terror Alert
Don't worry about Iraq, though -- El Presidente is keeping you safe from the evils of iPods and business travel!

The seizure of electronics at U.S. borders has prompted protests from travelers who say they now weigh the risk of traveling with sensitive or personal information on their laptops, cameras or cellphones. In some cases, companies have altered their policies to require employees to safeguard corporate secrets by clearing laptop hard drives before international travel.

Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Asian Law Caucus, two civil liberties groups in San Francisco, plan to file a lawsuit to force the government to disclose its policies on border searches, including which rules govern the seizing and copying of the contents of electronic devices. They also want to know the boundaries for asking travelers about their political views, religious practices and other activities potentially protected by the First Amendment. The question of whether border agents have a right to search electronic devices at all without suspicion of a crime is already under review in the federal courts.

The lawsuit was inspired by two dozen cases, 15 of which involved searches of cellphones, laptops, MP3 players and other electronics. Almost all involved travelers of Muslim, Middle Eastern or South Asian background, many of whom, including Mango and the tech engineer, said they are concerned they were singled out because of racial or religious profiling.

We'll teach those dirty brown people to buy mp3 players and travel on business yet!

The flailing is just getting surreal. Is there anything we, as Americans, can't become scared of now?

Source: The Washington Post