>From the nattering nabobs of negativism... BUSH MAKES FAREWELL VISIT TO IRAQ: President George W. Bush made an unannounced farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday, just weeks before he leaves office and bequeaths the unpopular Iraq war to President-elect Barack Obama. Bush flew secretly to the Iraqi capital to hold talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and address a rally of U.S. troops. An Iraqi journalist threw two shoes towards George W Bush, without hitting him, as the US president was shaking hands with the Iraqi prime minister in his office in Baghdad on Sunday, an AFP journalist said.
-------------- makes you wonder if the Iraqi journalist had read this... OFFICIAL HISTORY SPOTLIGHTS IRAQ REBUILDING BLUNDERS: An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure. The history, the first official account of its kind, is circulating in draft form here and in Washington among a tight circle of technical reviewers, policy experts and senior officials. It also concludes that when the reconstruction began to lag particularly in the critical area of rebuilding the Iraqi police and army the Pentagon simply put out inflated measures of progress to cover up the failures. ------------------ Can you imagine the peaks and valleys experienced by this talented anguished performer...after winning the Oscar in her debut movie appearance (Dreamgirls), this dastardly deed was done by Jennifer's brother-in-law(!!!???): ***Jennifer Hudson's sister, Julia, celebrated turning 31 on Oct. 23 with cake and a small party at home. The next morning, police say, Julia's estranged husband William Balfour booted last February from the house on Chicago's South Side where they lived with Julia's mother and 7-year-old son showed up and spotted a gift he believed came from another man. That jealousy is the motive that led Balfour, 27, to return to the house after Julia had left for work and shoot her mother Darnell Donerson, 57, Jennifer's brother Jason, 29, then take Julia's son, 7-year-old Julian King, and later kill him as well, prosecutors allege. ----------------------------- COMMENTARY By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: If there is anything Ive learned as a reporter, its that when you get away from the thing itself the core truth about a situation you get into trouble. Barack Obama will have to make three mammoth decisions after he takes the oath of office on cars, Kabul and banks and we have to hope that he bases those decisions on the things themselves, the core truths about each. Because many people will be trying to throw fairy dust in his eyes. The first issue will be whether to bail out Detroit. What is the core truth about Detroit? Auto executives will tell you that its the credit crisis, health care, retirement costs and unions. Sure, those are real. But the core truth is that for way too long Detroit made too many cars that too many people did not want to buy. As even General Motors conceded in its apology ad last week: At times we violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards and our designs become lackluster. Walk through any college campus today. You dont see a lot of Buicks. Over the years, Detroit bosses kept repeating: We have to make the cars people want. Thats why theyre in trouble. Their job is to make the cars people dont know they want but will buy like crazy when they see them. I would have been happy with my Sony Walkman had Apple not invented the iPod. Now I cant live without my iPod. I didnt know I wanted it, but Apple did. Same with my Toyota hybrid. The auto consultant John Casesa once noted that Detroits management has gone from visionaries to operators to caretakers. I would say that they have now gone from caretakers to undertakers. If they are ready to bring in some visionaries and totally restructure inside or outside of bankruptcy so they can make money selling cars that people will want to buy, then I say help them. Id hate to see the Detroit auto industry go under. But if all we are doing is prolonging auto undertakers, then we have to let nature take its course. --------------------- COMMENTARY By PEGGY NOONAN: Is this the last Christmas of the old era, or the first Christmas of the new? Will people spend in a way that responds to what's around them (Nothing seems changed!) or to what they know is coming (Did you see this week's jobless numbers? Highest in 26 years!)? Will they go for some last big-ticket items, sliding the platinum card along the counter with a "We who are about to die salute you" flair, or will spending reflect a new prudence, and the new anxiety? Assume the latter. There's a new mood taking hold. --------------------- COMMENTARY By FRANK RICH: Rod Blagojevich is the perfect holiday treat for a country fighting off depression. He gift-wraps the ugliness of corruption in the mirthful garb of farce. From a safe distance outside Illinois, its hard not to laugh at the culture of Chicago, where even the president-elects Senate seat is just another commodity to be bought and sold. But the entertainment is escapist only up to a point. What went down in the Land of Lincoln is just the reductio ad absurdum of an American era where both entitlement and corruption have been the calling cards of power. Blagojevichs alleged crimes pale next to the larger scandals of Washington and Wall Street. Yet those who promoted and condoned the twin national catastrophes of reckless war in Iraq and reckless gambling in our markets have largely escaped the accountability that now seems to await the Chicago punk nabbed by the United States attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WebTV Dawgs/Dittos" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/WebTV-Pals -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
