Yet Bush is described by another recent visitor as still resolutely defiant, convinced history will ultimately vindicate him.

"I'll be dead when they get it right," he said during an Oval Office meeting last week.

I'm wondering how many more adjectives really need to be added to "lying, thieving, sociopathic bottom feeder" to "get it right." Maybe he really is right and the rapture is coming, but the only way I'm seeing that is if W really is the anti-Christ.

New York Daily News - Politics - Poor Bush had a week that reeked

The Americans, who are frustrated with Mr. Maliki’s political dependence on Mr. Sadr, appear to be working hard to help build the coalition. President Bush met last week in the White House with the leader of the Iranian-backed Shiite party, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, and is to meet this week with the head of the Sunni Arab party, Tariq al-Hashemi.

Iraqis? Looks to me like Maliki isn't the toadie that Il Dupe thought he was and is trying to get rid of him. For the other groups, the Kurds will toss in with anyone who says "back me and I'll let you do whatever you want," the Sunnis hate al Sadr as the backer of the Shia death squads, and the Iranian backed Shiites are following the lead of their Iranian mullahs who see al Sadr as a future threat to them.

They may get their anti-Sadr coalition, but it's only going to speed the trip to total chaos. The civil war is wide open.

Iraqis Seek Coalition to Curb Cleric - New York Times

Dutch bank ABN AMRO NV became the latest enterprise to tap into the growing popularity of Second Life, by opening a branch on Friday inside the Internet-based virtual world.

ABN AMRO, the Netherlands’ biggest bank, said it will create a virtual bank resembling ABN’s real-life outlets, offering financial advice.

Okay... that's cool!

Reuters/Second Life » Dutch bank ABN sets up branch in Second Life

The US Department of Justice today took a major step against impunity for atrocities in bringing its first-ever criminal charges for torture committed outside the United States, Human Rights Watch said today. The Justice Department indicted Charles "Chuckie" Taylor, Jr., son of the former Liberian president and currently in custody in Miami, for torture committed in Liberia.

Wow. Welcome to really bad precedents set by these guys. They've just put in motion the jurisprudence that should be used to prosecute themselves.

Going after torturers is a good thing. Going after them when you've been doing it too? At worst hypocritical, at best, the hoist for your petard.

Reuters AlertNet - US: Justice Dept. Brings First Charges for Torture Abroad

"Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

When it comes to their familes vs the entire country, well Mr. Kingston, they're the ones who have their priorities straight, and if you don't like it, you shouldn't be there.

Culture Shock on Capitol Hill: House to Work 5 Days a Week - washingtonpost.com

That first killing threw the Ice staff in El Paso into a panic. Their informant had helped to commit first-degree murder, and they feared they would have to end his contract and abort the operations for which he was being used. But the Department of Justice told them to proceed.

And now, the next installment in, "The Government does anything it wants - including murder"

The ICE and DoJ guys aren't commenting because they're getting sued. Folks, this isn't something you get sued for, this is conspiracy to commit first degree murder. The guy did it, his government handlers knew he did it, and instead of doing something about it, they PAID HIM TO KEEP DOING IT.

The Bush Administration. Now with more criminals!

The House of Death | World | The Observer

The Conspiracy to Defraud the United States

16. Beginning on or about a date unknown, but no later than August of 2002, and continuing to the present, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the defendants,

GEORGE W. BUSH,
RICHARD B. CHENEY,
CONDOLEEZZA RICE,
DONALD M. RUMSFELD, and
COLIN M. POWELL,

and others known and unknown, did knowingly and intentionally conspire to defraud the United States by using deceit, craft, trickery, dishonest means, false and fraudulent representations, including ones made without a reasonable basis and with reckless indifference to their truth or falsity, and omitting to state material facts necessary to make their representations truthful, fair and accurate, while knowing and intending that their false and fraudulent representations would influence the public and the deliberations of Congress with regard to authorization of a preventive war against Iraq, thereby defeating, obstructing, impairing, and interfering with Congress' lawful functions of overseeing foreign affairs and making appropriations.

Arts? What? Well I haven't added "Books" as one of my things, so I put it in the closest category I could get. This one looks interesting, in the sense of the old curse, "may you live in interesting times."

Too bad this is just a book. This one could be really interesting to see played out for real.

TomDispatch - Tomgram: Elizabeth de la Vega, Indicting Bush

The Bush administration wants North Korea's attention, so like a scolding parent it's trying to make it tougher for that country's eccentric leader to buy iPods, plasma televisions and Segway electric scooters.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! What an enormous pile of crap.

U.S. bans sale of iPods to North Korea - Yahoo! News

Von Luck fought in the Wehrmacht's armored forces for six years in Europe, Russia, and North Africa; then spent five years in a Russian labor camp. His narrative is as free from cant as it is from braggadocio and false modesty.

I just finished reading this. If you're a historian, this is an amazing read. Some of the things you sort of read and go what the hell? "We invaded Poland, and I stopped at this nice woman's house, had tea, then went next door and bought a watercolor painting..." That's not a quote, but that basically happened. Funny, bizarre, tragic and horrible all in turn or at the same time.

It's a good read.

Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck: Books: Hans Von Luck

Militiamen grabbed six Sunnis as they left Friday worship services, doused them with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by

Things are going so well in Iraq, we can only lose if we... Who is the administration trying to kid? Is the idea that we're the ones who dropped the crate of eggs so we have to be the ones to put them back together? Into something we can stick back under the chickens to hatch? Welcome to impossible, and the only ones left who don't get that are the ones who make the policy.

Shiites burn 6 Sunni worshippers alive