Confidence in Bush down
In yesterday's post about the media's role in why so many Americans have been misinformed about Iraq, I said one of the conclusions was that "if the media repeat something often enough, and give people enough information, people do change their attitudes."  It appears that the continuing bad news about Iraq and the Bush administration's handling of things, not to mention the continuing economic worries, is changing public perceptions.  The NY Times reports that Americans' confidence in Bush has dropped and fewer people now believe Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11.  One graph:

"Nearly half of Americans said they believed that removing Mr. Hussein from power was the main reason for taking military action in Iraq, followed by about a quarter who said the main reason was protecting the supply of oil and one-fifth who said the goal was to stop Iraq from manufacturing weapons. But only about 4 in 10 Americans said they now believed Mr. Hussein was personally involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, compared with about 5 in 10 who said so in April. More than half of Americans said that relations between the United States and its European allies were worse than when Mr. Bush took office, and fewer than half said that leaders of other countries around the world had respect for Mr. Bush."

9:19:51 PM      trackback [] 

Lori Berenson gets married in a Peruvian jail
For all my singleton friends:  Is it me or does it just make you crazy to see people who seem to have everything going against them still find true love? (Lori and Anibal Apari at right; AP photo)

Other things that don't seem fair
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in case you somehow missed it is running for governor of California -- make that the Republican front-runner -- was a serial groper (see stories in the LA Times here or the NY Times here).  Isn't that the sort of thing the Republicans were always trying to get Bill Clinton on?  (Thanks, Jim, for the links.)

4:58:50 PM      trackback [] 

Okay, well, I think I fixed it.  So annoying.  [3:35]

Apologies for the way the site looks - having Radio problems.  Will fix soon!... [3:09]

3:35:15 PM      trackback [] 

2:20:42 PM      trackback [] 

Give them enough rope…
I’ve been telling my friends for a long time that if you give this administration enough rope they’re going to hang themselves with it.  Their arrogant insistence on going it alone in Iraq has made it difficult to get assistance from our allies.  Bush’s posturing in his flight suit now looks pretty ridiculous given the on-going problems the military faces – and that’s a result their own over-confidence leading to poor post-war planning.  Now we see the White House’s pre-war bullying of the intelligence community coming back to bite them (see NY Times today and TPM).  How ironic if John Ashcroft could now use his broader investigative powers on the White House.  But the public doesn't want Ashcroft to investigate the White House because he's too close to the people involved.  No, 69% of Americans polled want a special prosecutor.  That can't be good news for Bush.

10:23:10 AM      trackback []