Saturday

An interesting week as I try to get used to a new schedule. Mostly positive, mind you, but also tiring. Last night we went to a local dive to hear my guitar teacher play, and that was enjoyable even though my tolerance for smoke-filled rooms is not what it used to be.

Reading the news, a few interesting items caught my eye.

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More bad news for Bush. This NEWSWEEK Poll is very interesting, but this particular question is most damning:

"24. Do you think President Bush's decisions about policy in Iraq and other major areas are influenced more by the facts or more by his personal beliefs, regardless of the facts?"

I am sure he hates that question to begin with, but the answer is even more troubling. 67% believe that he ignores facts.

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More news bad for Bush that makes me grin a bit. Turns out that the Libby trial might be quite entertaining as none other than Karl Rove has receieved a subpeona to testify. Has to be a little scary since he has all that grand jury testimony and the months spent trying to keep his own scaly neck out of an indictment.

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Oh, Bushy, where do you get these ideas? Faithful Progressive points us to an article that notes that one of the State of the Union personal success stories is actually in an industry that is hardly well accepted. The Baby Einstein story, which puzzled me at the time, is actually considered a "scam" by those who know, and others see it as clearly irresponsible. Remember all that info suggesting that infants not watch tv? SOF and I wondered this morning who in the White House thought that a line about this dubious effort deserved SOTU mention. FP suggests that it is "kind of fitting for this Administration, which has inflicted so many scams on the American public." Hah.

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Many of us have found the Bush-as-War-President hard to stomach. I know Clinton had numerous problems, and also found a way out of the draft (which conservatives hated, btw) but he seemed, in my mind, to have a certain humility about his role. He surrounded himself with pretty good military minds and was willing to listen to them.

Glenn Greenwald points us to a fascinating discussion by Garry Wills on the notion of the civilian Commander in Chief that is worth some consideration.

"Wills recounts that Dwight Eisenhower, 'a real general,' would not exchange salutes while President, because saluting was for those in the military, not civilian Presidents. The practice of presidential saluting was begun by Ronald Reagan, who -- like our current President -- loved ceremonial displays of warrior courage and military power even though (more likely: because) he had none in his real history."