Bush scoffed at a question seeking his reaction to Schroeder's statement on Thursday that international law must apply to the awarding of the contracts.
"International law? I better call my lawyer," he said.
Is Bush just trying to be an asshole? I really wish he wouldn't drag me into it by invoking "the American taxpayer." Oh wait... as an owner of a non-profitable business I may not pay any taxes this year. Then, I wish he wouldn't drag my friends into it.
Maybe it wasn't Bush's intention to come off as an asshole. It looks like he really just meant to cover it up.
"I would say we are winning, I mean, clearly we're winning," said General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flanked by U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Forces loyal to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have killed 193 U.S. soldiers, hundreds of Iraqis and scores of international aid workers and other foreigners since U.S. President George W. Bush declared major combat over in May, and they continued their efforts yesterday, striking at targets across much of central Iraq.
The real situation in Iraq is definetly far from universal glee at what is largely, and perhaps properly, perceived as a U.S. occuptation. Still, I believe that the Globe errs in simplistically attributing the attacks to Saddam loyastists. By doing so, they continue to play into the hands of U.S. officials, even as they call them on their ludicrous claims. I have never seen any convincing evidence that the attacks have anything to do with Saddam. No doubt, some do, but I'm sure there are plenty of Iraqis that have good reason (dead relatives, children, foreign occupation, imperialistic designs on oil reserves) to be plenty mad at the U.S. without any mention of the former dictator.
Thursday, November 20, 2003
Singing Geeks Threaten $229 billion Market
"The world, especially here in America, is shifting to one that is an information society," McBride said. "In the future, is that $229 billion in software still going to be there? Or in the case of the Free Software Foundation's goal, is proprietary software going to go away?"
Despite administration claims, it is simply not true that no one could have predicted the chaos that ensued after the fall of Saddam Hussein. In fact, many officials in the United States, both military and civilian, as well as many Iraqi exiles, predicted quite accurately the perilous state of things that exists in Iraq today.
Many dissatisfied executives have been exploring franchising as a path to career independence. For some, it is a chance to build a business from the ground up. For others, it is a way to step away from depleted 401(k) plans, thin staffs and restrictive management.
Franchising typically increases in tough economic times as managers, fearful of downsizing or other job uncertainties, seek new options. But this year, franchisers say they are talking to more executives than ever.
As these women look up at the ''top,'' they are increasingly deciding that they don't want to do what it takes to get there. Women today have the equal right to make the same bargain that men have made for centuries -- to take time from their family in pursuit of success. Instead, women are redefining success. And in doing so, they are redefining work.
"Consumers are used to buying products from all over the world," Mr. Marineau said on the telephone from company headquarters in San Francisco. "The issue is not where they're made. For most people that's not gut-wrenching anymore."
'I think the country right now continues to get more conservative on economic issues and more progressive on social issues. I think Schwarzenegger is ahead of the curve.'
Tens of thousands starved in the latest famine, from 1995 to 1997. Lee, who asked that her given name not be used, was a clerk in a government office who notarized the deaths in her town. She is a pretty young woman, 29, with tumbling hair curling to her shoulders and smooth, flawless skin that belies the hardships she has faced and struggles to explain. "We started seeing cannibalism," she recalled, pausing. "You probably won't understand."
She went on: "When one is very hungry, one can go crazy. One woman in my town killed her 7-month-old baby, and ate the baby with another woman. That woman's son reported them both to the authorities.
"I can't condemn cannibalism. Not that I wanted to eat human meat, but we were so hungry. It was common that people went to a fresh grave and dug up a body to eat meat. I witnessed a woman being questioned for cannibalism. She said it tasted good."
"Most of the drivers in the congested 45-mile interval between the north and south ends of the loop-to-come, in fact, actually enter and then leave the interstate in that interval, and so will have no use for the loop. And the bulk of the 18-wheelers that cause so much stress for the urbanites in their noisy shadows likewise will have business inside the loop and remain on I-35.
But what Texans will get for the $1.5 billion they're spending on Texas 130, along with the estimated $167 million for Texas 45 Southeast, will be a shot at maintaining the traffic status quo rather than facing genuine big-city gridlock on I-35.
And, Central Texas policy-makers say, construction of Texas 130 and its sister toll roads will protect the area against further economic shocks such as Dell Inc.'s 1999 decision to put a plant in Nashville in part because of traffic problems in Central Texas."
"The proliferation of WiFi, or high-speed wireless Internet access -- among corporations, on university campuses and even in cafes such as Starbucks -- has also helped spur growth of the tablet PC, analysts said.
And while Promisel said there will be a consumer market for tablet PCs -- such as college students taking them to class for note-taking and such -- what really needs to happen for the tablet PC to take off is the development of new software applications for corporate customers."
'Every young democracy needs the help of friends,' Bush said in Tuesday's speech to the U.N. General Assembly. 'Now the nation of Iraq needs and deserves our aid. And all nations of good will should step forward and provide that support.'
'What surprised us was his attitude in his speech and the meeting,' said a senior diplomat familiar with one of Bush's private sessions in New York. 'It was, 'We're going to go ahead and do what we need to. You're welcome to come along. It's up to you.' ' A respected Republican foreign policy veteran said he has found the president's chilly approach to the United Nations and important allies 'baffling.' The former official -- who, like many interviewed for this story, would speak only on background -- described it as consistent with dominant themes in the Bush administration's overall approach to international affairs.
'It's unilateral by design,' said the former official, who described a White House and Pentagon that do not reach out or listen very well. Influential figures believe, he said, that 'if we pay attention to others, they'll just hogtie us. We'll be Gulliver and the Lilliputians.'
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union (search) asked the federal courts Tuesday to prevent the U.S. Secret Service (search) from keeping anti-Bush protesters far away from presidential appearances while allowing supporters to display their messages up close.
Sic transit and all that. Just four months after Operation Flight Suit, the superpower has become a supplicant to nations it used to insult. Mission accomplished!
"Some Southerners have the perception that Democrats are elitists and look down on things like, say, NASCAR racing," said Charles Bullock, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia. "So the Democrats have to begin showing that they are at least interested. That's a first step."
Edwards took such a step in his Senate race by sponsoring a race car. Democrat Mark Warner did the same in his successful campaign for governor in Virginia, a state dominated by the Republican Party. And now, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, one of the nine Democrats seeking the party's presidential nomination, is sponsoring a truck in NASCAR's racing truck series.
"If you're going to send a message of hope to rural America, there is no better vehicle than NASCAR," said David "Mudcat" Saunders, the Virginia Democrat behind Warner's sponsorship of a race car in 2001 who is now an adviser to Graham's presidential campaign.
But the liberal constituency that dominates the Democratic Party's presidential nominating process makes it difficult for Edwards and Graham to follow the example of Warner and largely ignore the cultural issues that frequently divide Democrats from Southern conservatives.
The new laws also include some things you can now legally do for the first time in Texas, including carry a passenger on your all-terrain vehicle on public property if the vehicle has a passenger seat (SB 1635), and drive your newfangled Segway vehicle ("electric personal assistive mobility devices") on sidewalks, bike paths and roads with speed limits of 30 mph or less (HB 1997).
The Whitehouse putting out misleading reports (aka, lying) is nothing new but asserting that it's necessary to mislead the public regarding basic health and environmental issues because it's a matter of national security?
President Bush's senior environmental adviser on Friday defended the White House involvement, saying it was justified by national security.
First lesson for the troops, it seemed: Don't ever talk to the media "on the record" -- that is, with your name attached -- unless you're giving the sort of chin-forward, everything's-great message the Pentagon loves to hear.
Will it go past the comittee to those that told the comittee what to say? More likely they've served their masters purpose and will do so one last time as scapegoats.
"Everything we've seen since the war has confirmed intelligence community suspicions about its the Office of Special Plans' sources of information," says Greg Thielmann, who ran military assessments at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research until he retired in October. "The rosy assumption about troops being greeted with flowers and hugs -- that came from that stream of intelligence. The assurance that they knew exactly where the weapons of mass destruction were, or that Iraq was ready to employ chemical and biological weapons in battle within 45 minutes of an order -- all of those stories have proven wrong."
