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Comments from Reliable Source in the WP
In case you're wondering, President Bush was following an Arab custom that denotes close friendship when he walked hand in hand with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah after they exchanged greetings in Crawford, Tex., yesterday."It's a sign of respect and affection -- nothing sexual whatsoever," Saudi spokesman Nail Jubeir informed us from the scene.
It turns out that the pair previously held hands at two summits. And yesterday Bush also kissed the Saudi leader on both cheeks.
"You and me against the world
Sometimes it feels like you and me against the world ..."
American Idle
Later - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay - who has enough problems to deal with - carefully avoids DUBYA's compulsion to man-hand everybody he sees!
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Wonkette
BUSH ASKS ABOUT "SPLASH DAY"
President Bush raised eyebrows on Tuesday when he asked locals in Galveston (Queen of the Gulf) , Texas: "Do you still have Splash Day?"
"Splash Day" is the annual "adult oriented enormous beach party" celebration on the Gulf Coast.
BUSH: Do you still have Splash Day?
(LAUGHTER)
BUSH: You have to be a baby boomer to know what I'm talking about.
(LAUGHTER)
BUSH: I'm not saying whether I *** came *** or not on Splash Day. I'm just saying, Do you have Splash Day?
(LAUGHTER)
Was Bush unaware "Splash Day" is now a fully gay and lesbian event on the beaches? 
From - Reliable Source in the WP
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"Washington-based conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, 40, has been diagnosed with breast cancer ...
According to a friend: 'Fortunately, the doctors believe at this point that they have caught the cancer early enough to give her a hopeful prognosis.' "
Post-surgery, her doc says he found no cancer in her lymph nodes; the prognosis is good. Laura's syndicated radio show's a guilty pleasure when Da Rev bumps into it now and then. She's the UN-Coulter - i.e., humorous, charming, cute, female (no visible Adam's Apple) . . .
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Cute kitty . . . Awwwww . . .
Everybody points to problems - but where are their solutions?
Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, raises the alarm:
"In Pakistan, the United States is deeply concerned with the madrassahs, that is, the private fundamentalist Islamist schools. Here we have so-called Christian academies and home schooling, our own form of madrassahs."
I agree, to a degree. And I'll just add that the Yurps (France, Netherlands, Denmark, et al.) have permitted themselves to be cowed into a potentially volatile situation - not out of political correctness - but more a combination of fear and lethargy. And here in the USA, Saudi-funded madrassas teach the radical Islamicist hatred of all things infidel. Yup, it's the fundamentalism, Stupid. If we are in danger of letting a rabid 5th column of Islamicists threaten our way of life, what if anything, does Jim or anyone propose? If we agree there's a problem, what is the solution?
I recall when George Wallace ran for president in '68. He identified the massive rifts between classes and generations. He recognized the discontent on so many sides. Man, he could lay it all out for us - in detail and in living color - what was troublin' the US of A. His solution, as such, was to threaten to run over pointy-headed intellectuals.
I wonder how that would have worked out?
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The Brit election's heating up!
David Cameron - tory leader Michael Howard's close shadow cabinet ally - insisted it was fair for Howard to brand Mr Blair a liar:
"Tony Blair was told by the intelligence services that the information on weapons of mass destruction was sporadic and patchy and yet he told the Commons it was detailed, authoritative and extensive."
Tony Blair has created distrust, reneged on promises he made at, and destroyed a major opportunity for republicans to support a new police service - and for the IRA to move away from the past - when he gutted the Patten proposals on policing in order to appease unionists. There will always be a republican response to British interference in Ireland. Currently, it is not in the form of armed struggle. Few believe that the IRA is preparing for a return to armed struggle. Fewer still believe the IRA will disband.
Throughout the Peace Process Blair has given a guarantee that he is
committed to the implementation of the Godot Friday Agreement, and yet he contradicts himself by making its implementation
conditional on IRA disbandment. Linking the rights of the nationalist community to a demand on Sinn Fein that the IRA must dissolve is counter-productive.
Given the history since 1997, it would seem that it matters little who is elected in England. Brit governments seem incapable of moving past traditional orthodoxy to treat Sinn Fein as an equal participant.
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So long, Ol' Paint. Good night, Irene.
