The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need. For the portion of your trip directly handled by the U.S. Government we will ask you to sign a promissory note and we will bill you at a later date.

Hey people who just found yourselves getting bombed by the Israelis? Your country will get you out! Of course, you'll need to pay for that service, probably including combat pay for the Haliburton group that gets you out since the actual military forces we would normally use are all tied up in Iraq, and we have a liner ready to go into the port of Beirut, just as soon as they stop bombing there, and assuming we can find a pier still standing, and we've even tasked a destroyer to protect the liner from the airplanes firing harpoon anti-ship missles that we sold to Israel which are designed to take out a destroyer in one shot (to say nothing of that big floating target we plan to stick you on if we can get it to what's left of the docks that is). Or if you prefer, you can walk to Jordan and maybe see if you can catch a connecting flight from there to someplace else as the Beirut airport has been bombed to shit.

If we actually had ANY interest in actual peace in the Mideast, there is usually a full carrier battle group stationed in the eastern Med, and we could say, Lebanon is a no-fly-zone to any except US planes which will be flying in humanitarian supplies (and hey, we could even make some money off the red cross flying the stuff in) and the planes of the carrier battle group there to enforce that, but since that would put us in opposition to Israel, you can forget about that ever happening. Hell, we could even put Hawkeyes up and pinpoint the Hezbollah launch locations and hit those instead of blowing up random shit in Beirut. That's something AWACS capability is good at.

Too bad actually helping people is a fantasy world.

Lebanon Situation Update - July 15, 2006 - US Embassy Beirut Lebanon

President Bush on Tuesday ordered a temporary suspension of environmental rules for gasoline, making it easier for refiners to meet demand and possibly dampen prices at the pump.

Great, so the price stays the same and Exxon makes MORE??? George, you're insane.

Bush Eases Environmental Rules on Gasoline - Yahoo! News

A small group of current and former conservatives -- including George Will, William F. Buckley Jr. and Francis Fukuyama -- have become harsh critics of the Iraq war. They have declared, or clearly implied, that it is a failure and the president's effort to promote liberty in the Middle East is dead -- and dead for a perfectly predictable reason: Iraq, like the Arab Middle East more broadly, lacks the democratic culture that is necessary for freedom to take root. And so for cultural reasons, this effort was flawed from the outset.

Or so the argument goes.

Let me address each of these charges in turn.

...

Mr. Wehner is deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House's Office of Strategic Initiatives.

Standard (and lame, and transparent) attack strategy ... Opponent makes claim X, which is valid. To refute opponent's claim, restate it after amplifying it by a factor of 10. Then show how claim 10X has weaknesses. Finally, declare victory.

After reading the piece, it's also factually misleading. Is there a drift away from people like Zarqawi? Not relly, his following was small in the first place. Is there an increasing drift towards Sadr? Yes, and who was causing all kinds of problems earlier? Zaqawi on a "small, terror" level, but Sadr on a broad strategic level. In the three years between now and the W regime leaving office, we will get to see just how horribly this has all gone.

Bush Explains Why Fukuyama Is Wrong

Brian J. Doyle, 55, is charged with seven counts of use of a computer to seduce a child and 16 counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor, according to a sheriff's office statement.

On March 12, according to a police statement, Doyle contacted a Polk County computer crimes detective posing online as a 14-year-old girl "and initiated a sexually explicit conversation with her ... Doyle knew that the 'girl' was 14 years old, and he told her who he was and that he worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"Judd said that Doyle, in the first conversation, told the detective his position with DHS and "started immediately into pretty vulgar language. He explained in graphic detail the sexual acts he wanted to perform with this 14-year-old."

As the two continued chatting online, police said, Doyle gave her his home and office phone numbers, and the number to his government-issue cell phone. He also had explicit telephone conversations with a detective posing as the girl, authorities said.

In addition, he used the Internet to send "hard-core pornographic movie clips" to her, and also used an America Online instant-messaging service to have explicit online conversations with her.

Doyle also sent photos of himself that were not sexually explicit, but said he would send nude photos if the "girl" would buy a Web camera and send him nude photos of herself. In one photo, Judd said, Doyle's DHS security tag is clearly visible.

"I read the transcripts," Judd said. "I wanted to see if this was just as outrageous as the detectives depicted it ... It shocked all of us who have worked vice, narcotics, organized crime, homicides."

This is sure to be all over the news today...

While not directly related to this, I've asked this question around lately: "what the hell is DHS doing?" Answers have varied. No one seems to know exactly. Mostly stuff about establishing little fiefdoms and sharing email servers. My favorite comment so far has been "creating new ways to fuck up." Their press center is simply the "Remarks from Michael Chertoff" page. DHS appears to be a black hole.

CNN.com - DHS spokesman arrested in child sex sting - Apr 4, 2006

A brief clause in the memo refers to a third possibility, mentioned by Mr. Bush, a proposal to assassinate Saddam Hussein. The memo does not indicate how Mr. Blair responded to the idea.

Now it seems to me if me whacked him (and got away with it) there wouldn't have been a need for war, but since killing him was discussed as a means to provoke one, that REALLY makes me wonder what the actual reason for the war was.

I hope Helen Thomas hits him on this again.

Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says - New York Times

President Bush said Tuesday that American forces will remain in
Iraq for years and it will be up to a future president to decide when to bring them all home

Does anyone else remember "Mission Accomplished?" We're going to let this ass leaves troops in harms way for nothing for years? No, no and more no. Go back to Crawford.

Bush: Troops to Stay in Iraq for Years - Yahoo! News

Negroponte tried to focus on progress in Iraq, but he acknowledged a civil war would be a "serious setback" to the global war on terror.

"The consequences for the people of Iraq would be catastrophic," he said. "Clearly, it would seriously jeopardize the democratic political process on which they are presently embarked. And one can only begin to imagine what the political outcomes would be."

Saudi Arabia and Jordan could support Iraq's Sunnis, Negroponte said. And
Iran, run by a Shiite Islamic theocracy, "has already got quite close ties with some of the extremist elements" inside Iraq, he added.

While Iraq's neighbors "initially might be reluctant" to get involved in a broader Sunni-Shiite conflict, "that might well be a temptation," Negroponte said.

I was wrong, there actually is a worse scenario than the ones that I normally consider, and Negroponte describes it. I don't think this is a likely result, at least not an overt one, but a proxy fight a la the Spanish Civil War? That seems entirely plausible.

The civil war is happening and going to escalate. We don't have the troops on the ground to pull off an actual occupation and shut it down. The only questions now are, how big, how long and how are we going to get out of the way?

Spy Chief: Iraq May Spark Regional Fight

The average income of American families, after adjusting for inflation, declined by 2.3 percent in 2004 compared to 2001 while their net worth rose but at a slower pace.

Are you better off than you were four years ago? No? Join the club.

Average American Family Income Declines - Yahoo! News

In approving the $6.8 billion purchase, the administration chose not to require state-owned Dubai Ports World to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government.

And it comes out... Someone at the White House cut an under the table deal on this.

Arab Company, White House Had Secret Deal - Yahoo! News

President Bush on Tuesday defended a deal that would let a United Arab Emirates-based company run some key U.S. seaports, telling reporters that he would veto any bill to hold up the agreement.

So it's not good enough for US companies to handle security at airports, but it's ok for foreign companies to handle security at docks? I'd love to hear the logic that allows both of those...

CNN.com - Bush says he'll veto laws to sell ports - Feb 21, 2006