Miss Kelly

David Warren on Obama's Ship of Fools

I'm finding very little time to blog these days (the garden beckons 24-7), but will occasionally post and link to goodies such as this zinger from David Warren on Obama's Ship of Fools:

"We learned a simple thing this week: that the BP clean-up effort in the Gulf of Mexico is hampered by the Jones Act. This is a piece of 1920s protectionist legislation, that requires all vessels working in U.S. waters to be American-built, and American-crewed."

"So while, for instance, the U.S. Coast Guard can accept such help as three kilometres of containment boom from Canada, they can't accept, and therefore don't ask for, the assistance of high-tech European vessels specifically designed for the task in hand."

"....Now, an exemption can be granted even to the Jones Act: by executive order, all the way to the top. This was granted, promptly, by the Bush administration, when it was organizing the rescue arrangements that responsible local authorities had failed to provide, at the time of Hurricane Katrina. Which was, incidentally, a vastly larger environmental catastrophe than the piddling oil leak that now commands the news.

"But the Bush administration had a huge advantage over its successor. Bush had gone out of his way to find competent people, with experience of their fields, to staff his administration. Many were despised throughout the media for their known conservative tendencies, but what can you do?"

"...Bush had not, as his successor has, loaded up a ship of fools consisting of academic ideologues, under no particular direction from a captain who is himself off playing golf, and partying with America's coolest people. Which is exactly what Obama was doing for weeks after April 20, when Deepwater Horizon blew up; though to be fair we should also mention the fundraisers and commencement speeches. But there is little evidence that, away from his TelePrompTer, he does anything except appoint more fools to run the government for him."

Major zing.

BTW, I wouldn't call it a "piddling oil leak," but it can and will be largely remediated. 

Spengler's Take on Bush and Benedict, Islam and Christianity

Nifty article by Spengler at the Asia Times Online about the affinities between President Bush and Pope Benedict, and a very different take on what the future may hold in Europe.  On what President Bush and Papa Ratzi have in common:

"Acting on faith in politics means exactly what it does in personal life: to do what is right even when it is dangerous to do so, when received opinion howls against it, and when the ultimate consequence of such actions cannot be foreseen. After Pope Benedict XVI showed unprecedented courtesy to visiting American President George W Bush last week, much has been written about the Christian faith that binds the pope and the president."

"It is not only faith, but the temerity to act upon faith, that the pope and the president have in common. In the past I have characterized Benedict's stance as, 'I have a mustard seed, and I'm not afraid to use it.' Despite his failings, Bush is a kindred spirit."

Spengler speculates on why the U.S. invaded Iraq after September 11th, and he discusses the Bush's decision to do so:

"Bush was magnificently right to conduct a punitive expedition against Saddam, but horribly wrong to wade into the mire of nation-building. He should have found a cooperative dictator to replace Saddam and marched out, as American neo-conservative historian and political commentator Daniel Pipes suggested at the time. Nevertheless, as I wrote in 2004, 'The West should be thankful that it has in US President George W Bush a warrior who shoots first and tells the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to ask questions later. Rarely in its long history has the West suffered by going to war too soon. On the contrary: among the wars of Western history, the bloodiest were those that started too late.' "

Finally, while many in the West wring their hands about post-Christian Europe - not to mention  post-Europe Europe (due to the failure of Europeans to reproduce themselves, while their Muslim populations have large families), Spengler sees a very different possibility:

Monday Miscellania

The UK Telegraph recommends these 50 books for summer reading.  I can't imagine "enjoying" reading Things Fall Apart while at the beach.  Does make me want to read A Moveable Feast (Hemingway) and Kim (Kipling).

Also from the UK Telegraph, a neat opinion piece suggesting that we have "misunderestimated" how history will eventually judge President Bush. 

Interesting WSJ article about Project Nur, a college organization that's a student-led initiative of the American Islamic Congress.  Project Nur is an organization for Muslim students who want an alternative to the "hardline dgomatists" and radicals of  Muslim Student Association groups.  Project Nur sponsored the Muslim women's film festival held in Boston last month.  More power to them!

President Bush Heads to the Vatican Next Friday

UPDATE BELOW

President Bush travels to Europe from June 9th to the 16th, 2008.  While he's over there, he's stopping in at the Vatican to meet with Pope Benedict on June 13.  It's the third time the two men have met officially, and Mr. Bush’s fifth visit to the Vatican.  "Never in U.S. history has a president consulted so often with the leader of the Catholic Church." The extent of Catholic influence in the Bush administration has not gone unnoticed.  Boo-yah!!

"....there is reason to believe that Benedict, despite some important policy differences with the president (most notably over Iraq), feels a genuine affinity with Bush as both a man and a leader."

"Benedict, who has warned against the increasing secularization of Europe and praised the prominent role of religion in American public life, is likely to appreciate a head of state who is 'not afraid to express his faith as a Christian,' said the Rev. Joseph Fessio, a former student of the pope who now runs Ignatius Press, Benedict's principal English-language publisher."

"In the president, the pope finds a key supporter of the Catholic church's positions on such controversial questions as abortion, stem-cell research and same-sex marriage. Bush's arguments have frequently echoed Benedict's appeals to 'natural law' and even employ the terms of Catholic social doctrine (despite the fact that the president is a Methodist)."

"Nowhere has the congruence of their thinking been clearer than at April's welcoming ceremony at the White House, when Bush cited Benedict's denunciation of the 'dictatorship of relativism,' and the pope noted the importance of American religiosity as inspiration for abolitionism and the civil rights movement."

"To which Bush replied, 'Thank you, Your Holiness. Awesome speech.' "

I like the body language in this photo, the mirroring of their hands and legs, both men leaning slightly towards each other (photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images). 

Two of my favorite leaders apparently share a personal and spiritual bond, I like it.

UPDATE, 6-8-08: Papa Ratzi to host President Bush in medieval tower:

"Pope Benedict will unusually host talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in a restored medieval tower on Friday, to repay him for a warm reception at the White House, the Vatican said."

"...St. John's Tower is a round structure on a hilltop inside the Vatican gardens that is sometimes used as a residence for important guests."

"After their private talks, Bush and the pope will stroll in the gardens to see a statue of the Madonna."

Cool!

Pope's Welcome at the White House

I upgraded my cable to get EWCN, Mother Angelica's Catholic news network, just in time this morning!  The ceremony held at the White House to welcome Pope Benedict was quite something, we don't get pageantry like that very often. 

Things I noticed: the crowd spontaneously singing "Happy Birthday" to the Pope before the formal ceremony began... President Bush tapping his foot to the U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps performing Yankee Doodle.... the gorgeous singing of the the Our Father by American soprano Kathleen Battle, and Battle Hymn of the Republic by a military choir.  Bush got a lot of applause during his speech for this line:

"In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred, and that "each of us is willed, each of us is loved, and each of us is necessary."

I saw Archbishop Sean O'Malley in the crowd and local imam Talal Eid too.

I love the Pope's wave to the crowd, he puts his hands up and wiggles his fingers. The EWTN correspondent likened it to playing the piano in the air.

The Pope's words are here, and the President's remarks are here.

Where Can I Get a Kanga Like That?

I loved the photo that was on Drudge a day or two ago, with the young Tanzanian women dancers wearing skirts and halter tops made of fabric with George Bush's image on it.  I found other photos at Reuters, but not as memorable as that one.  The traditional African fabric is (according to Yahoo News) called "kanga."  I would love to have some of that fabric! Maybe some enterprising Tanzanian folks will offer it over the internet. 

Der Speigel Interviews Kissinger on Radical Islam, Europe, Bush

Omina21 tipped me off to this interview with Henry Kissinger at Der Speigel.  Lots of pithy comments on who Kissinger backs for prez (John McCain), Europe's weak commitment to NATO and its own security, and George Bush, among other things.  Selected excerpts follow, but do read the whole thing.

On the Democrats call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq

Kissinger: The issue is: Are American forces withdrawn as part of a political settlement? Or are they withdrawn because America is exhausted by the war? In the latter case, the consequences of an American withdrawal would be catastrophic.

SPIEGEL: Do you think there would be another eruption of violence?

Kissinger: There would be a high possibility of killing fields. Radical Islam won't stop because we withdraw.  A rapid withdrawal would be a demonstration in the region of the impotence of Western power. Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaida would achieve a more dominant role, and the ability of Western nations to shape events would be sharply reduced. The virus would have huge consequences for all countries with large Muslim populations: India, Indonesia, and large parts of Europe.

Friday Miscellania - George Bush, Al Quaeda Reader

David Warren write about Russia's recent bullyish moves and our president : "We will miss George Bush":

"Like al-Qaeda in Iraq, and the many other adversaries America and the West must continue to face, the Russians are looking forward to the time after George Bush leaves office. It is assumed that the American electorate has by now tired of playing policeman to the world, and that the next president will be a liberal Democrat, eager to make unilateral concessions, slash military budgets to fund social programs, and cut-and-run from foreign battlefields."

"They may well be right. One of the things the non-U.S. West fails to appreciate is the frustration of even the rightwing Republican constituency, with allies who lack the will, and refuse to put up the money, for their own defence -- all the time assuming that the American taxpayer will pick up the slack and that the American military will be there to protect them should they ever really need it. And that includes not only protection from potential invaders, but policing the high seas from pirates, monitoring airspace for intruders, and providing an international rescue service after natural disasters."

New book out, The Al Quaeda Reader, edited and translated by Raymond Ibrahim.  The book is reveiwed at Victor Davis Hanson's website here.  It's divided into two sections, writings intended for fellow Muslims (where the war against the West is based on the "traditional Islamic doctrine of jihad"), and writings meant for Westerners (the war against the West is "a just response to the depredations of Western powers").  As Bruce Thornton (the reviewer) writes:

"...contrary to the deceptions of apologists and the naïve delusions of some Westerners, the bases of the jihadists’ actions lie squarely within Islamic tradition, not in the alleged Western crimes against Islam....History shows that bin Laden has the better understanding of Islam than do Western apologists..."

Read the whole thing, buy the book, get educated!

"The Al Qaeda Reader, simply by letting our enemies speak in their own voices, explodes the popular delusion that Western crimes and policies are responsible for the “distortion” of Islam that al Qaeda represents. As Ibrahim writes, 'This volume of translations, taken as whole, prove once and for all that, despite the propaganda of Al Qaeda and its sympathizers, Radical Islam’s war with the West is not finite and limited to political grievances — real or imagined — but is existential, transcending time and space and deeply rooted in faith.' This means that the fight will be long and hard, that leaving Iraq or creating a Palestinian state will not buy peace, and that the side that accurately understands its enemy and has confidence in its own beliefs will ultimately triumph."

Pope Benedict and President Bush to Meet Tomorrow

Two of my favorite world leaders are meeting tomorrow: President Bush is going to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Benedict:

"U.S. President George W. Bush is coming to the Vatican for his first formal audience with Pope Benedict XVI, a meeting seen on both sides as immensely important. Vatican officials said the June 9 encounter would give the pope and the president a chance to sit down for a survey of dramatic situations around the world, including Iraq, where thousands of Christians have been forced to flee."

"The Bush administration believes the audience will highlight the shared values and common objectives of the Vatican and the United States.  In an interview June 1 with Catholic News Service, the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Francis Rooney, said the meeting was 'a hugely important reflection' of the president's respect for the role of the pope and Vatican agencies around the world. 'It opens up opportunities for doing good in the world ... by leveraging our mutual values and interests in promoting human dignity and religious liberty and for broadening all freedoms,' Rooney said. 

"One specific area of common concern is global terrorism, Rooney said.'Certainly, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the use of religion as an excuse for terror are areas the Holy Father has spoken clearly about,' he said."

"Vatican officials said one sure topic would be the fate of Iraqi Christians, who have faced increasing violence and discrimination since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003 and the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Rooney said the Bush administration is also troubled that thousands of Christians have left Iraq."

There's more discussion in the article of faith-based private charity and fighting AIDS (where Bush's anti-AIDS program has met with great successes and is far greater than what any other country is doing). 

The Pope may visit the United Nations next year.  Cardinal Sean O'Malley of the Boston Archdiocese has already invited Pope Benedict to Boston.  I'm praying pretty hard for that one!  What a fantastic visit that would be. 

Is Anything Beyond the Pale? Bush Bumper Sticker

Last month, my husband and I were tooling around in Olympia, Washington, and we drove by this car.  The bumper sticker reads "George W. Bush - A President Worthy of Assassination."  Green marijuana leaves decorated the sides of the car.  The license plate reads FRYDRYD, referring to (I believe) cars that run on biodisel (click photo to enlarge). Hope someone keeps an eye on this young man.

Perhaps the bumper sticker was an advertisement for the BBC "documentary-style" film that depicts the assassination of President Bush by a Syrian sniper, showing at the Toronto Film Festival next month.  Repugnant.  As The Anchoress notes, these folks would likely not be amused by a film depiction of Bill or Hillary's assassination.   

P.S. Not a good idea to drive around Aberdeen with that other sticker.  Lot of negative vibes on that car, OLYWA Dude.  Watch out that your karma doesn't bite you in the butt.

Pres. Bush Gets a Bear Hug from a Merchant Marine

I was glad that The Anchoress picked up this story.  There were pics in the Boston Globe of the Merchant Marine who spontaneously hugged President Bush at the MM graduation ceremony earlier this week.  Cute as can be.