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Here's another fun detail from Vicente Fox's upcoming autobiography: He says that despite President Bush's cowboy image, the man is actually scared of horses.
Fox tells the story of the two men meeting in Mexico in early 2001, in which he invited Bush to ride a large horse. Bush nervously backed away. "A horse lover can always tell when others don't share our passion," Fox wrote.
Fun fact: Bush's Crawford ranch, purchased in 1999 in order to help create a down-home image for his presidential campaign, does not have any horses.
With the moderating, centrist voice of Sandra Day O'Connor now gone from the Supreme Court, a conservative counterrevolution that had been stymied for 20 years has now begun.this is a heavy listen!
So says Jeffrey Toobin in his new book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. His book is about how this counterrevolution developed. It's also a behind-the-scenes look at the court, its recent decisions and the personalities of the justices behind them.
The Nine is based on interviews with justices and their law clerks that were given on a not-for-attribution basis — meaning, in plain language, that Toobin heard stories, opinions and analyses directly from the horses' mouths, but isn't allowed to reveal who said what.
Toobin is senior legal analyst for CNN, staff writer at The New Yorker and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney.
McCain in South Carolina: I'm a B-word!
Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks
Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, the Pentagon, and aboard United Airlines flight 93, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.
Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, last extended on September 5, 2006, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2007. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.
This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.
GEORGE W. BUSH
via daai tou lam
Greenspan Book
Criticizes Bush
And Republicans
'They Deserved to Lose';
Former Fed Chief Defends
Pre-Bubble Rate Cuts
dark night of the cole.
Hagel to step down. I'm thinking this means a Romney/Hagel ticket. But who for Clinton? Less confidently I'm thinking Biden, although the idea of having to listen to that guy even more than I do now is kind of sickening.
Worst answer ever. Almost seems like he did it on purpose. Like he's a good soldier, and he'll do what he's told by his commander, including weeks of shameless political pandering, but he's not going to take all the blame - he's just the military genius in charge of Iraq.
In any case, that answer isn't going to fly. Or, worse for the Republicans, it really will fly but just not in the way they wanted. Chris Matthews has almost had three heart attacks today blasting Petraeus over it. "How can we send our sons and daughters off to war when their commanding officer doesn't even know if it is making us safer?" That's so obvious even a pundit can get it.
Still, yeah, I know it won't change anything. Except maybe to make it a little more uncomfortable for Bush while he's doing what he wants to anyway. But that's something at least.
How long before the wingnuts start to trot out the "I never liked Petraeus and his PHD Ivy League staff anyway - they're just a bunch of east coast elites who don't have the guts to do the job?"