Zimbabwe Wants to Draw Back Tourists:

As the new government grappled to revive the shattered economy, [Vice President Joyce] Mujuru said it was time for all Zimbabweans ''to take serious introspection to see to it that whatever we say and do does not contribute to the negative perceptions'' the country suffered abroad.
''We are here now, through our ( Read more... )

I recognize the value of legislatures.  I truly do.

But goddamn, legislators are dumb.

"Another difficulty was that key Congressmen, whose support would have been necessary for the passage of any loan, quickly made it clear that they would demand in return nothing less than free elections and freedom of speech inside the Soviet Union, and the ( Read more... )

You know this is the official photo of Cheney that hung in U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide?


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Clinton, just build some houses already.

Asked his perspective on how the country fell into such economic hard times, Clinton responded in an NBC ''Today'' show interview by asking rhetorically: ''Did any of them seriously believe that if I had been president and my economic team had been in place the last eight years, that this would be taking ( Read more... )

[T]he range of topics discussed reflected our shared attention-deficit disorder: [...] why he was relying on General Petraeus to be the chief spokesman for Iraq policy ("Because I've been here too long--every time I start painting a rosy picture, it gets criticized"); [...] and his emotions ("I do a lot of crying in this job").  A fly buzzed around ( Read more... )

some guy in iraq just threw shoes at bush

Someone posted this on the ncaafootball community, but it's anonymously making the rounds on football discussion boards.  The BCS (Bowl Championship Series) rankings, determined partly by computers and partly by voters (hence the emphasis on "style points" - which translates roughly to beating the crap out of weaker teams instead of being a gracious winner) ( Read more... )

Hey, or we could stop making Secretary of State a pity job and take diplomacy more seriously, y/y?

NYT: Clinton Decision Holding Up Other Obama Choices

Speaking of which: If Mrs. Clinton does not end up at State, then Jim Steinberg, the former deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, is at the top of the list for the national ( Read more... )

I don't know what got into the NY Times' editorial board today. It's truly hilarious that Americans think the U.S. military is like, "critically ill-equipped". Guys: we are really, really not.  We have the most powerful military in the world.  We have the best equipment in the world.  That is part of the quagmire.  That is why it's a quagmire.  ( Read more... )