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July 26, 2006
When George met Nouri
President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held talks Tuesday in Washington, D.C., the results of which surprised some people. Al-Maliki resisted condemning Hezbollah, and called for an immediate cease-fire to hostilities in Lebanon and Israel - something the Bush administration doesn't want.
Many observers also criticized the prime minister's fashion sense, as his, "I was elected prime minister of Iraq and all I got was this kevlar t-shirt" top failed to wow White House staffers.
However, both leaders were in agreement that Iraq is in a poor state, and neither offered an innovative plan to improve the situation.
Bush said, "Obviously the violence in Baghdad is still terrible and therefore there needs to be more troops." Al-Maliki added, "... God willing, there will be no civil war in Iraq." God could not be reached for comment, but has been noticeably silent on the politics of the region.
In a somewhat related note, Crosy, Stills, Nash and Young are touring the nation, spreading an anti-establishment message that, "We don't have to believe what our president believes to be patriotic," according to Neil Young.
Fair enough, and I agree with a lot of what they have to say, but they're preaching to the converted at their shows. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that not many oilmen and GOP heavyweights will be sitting out in the audience rolling doobies.
In fact, preaching against Bush at a CSNY show is sort of like singing the praises of plastic surgery at a Hooters restaurant. While you may meet with a receptive audience, in the end you'll feel that your energy would have been better spent perfecting your ping-pong game.
Finally, and completely unrelated to the above items, Time Inc. is going to stop publishing "Teen People" magazine. The Web site will live on, but sources inside the company said they were sick of CNN's Anderson Cooper harassing them about more coverage. As for me, I'm a Soledad O'Brien guy.
Posted by Greg Sidor at July 26, 2006 02:38 AM