News – Bush Actually Said It

Iraq

You’ll never believe it. Bush actually let the words ‘I’m sorry’ pass his lips. Better check the ground temp.

Already fighting off their own abuse allegations, Britain has fresh ones now as the Daily Mirror parades a soldier who claims to have witnessed savage beatings.

Moqtada al-Sadr seems in a defiant mood still, appearing to many armed supporters in a Mosque on Najaf’s outskirts.

A former US interrogator at Abu Ghraib(Link updated for the current mess) says that most of the Iraqis there are innocents, picked up at random by US troops or question by under qualified intelligence officers. Cooks and drivers as interrogators?

A roadside bomb kills four Iraqi police in Mosul.

A recording on the Internet, attributed to Bin Laden, offers gold as a reward for killing U.S Iraq administrator Paul Bremer or U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Comparisons of the violence against detainees to pornography. Amusingly, one of the commenters on Washington Journal this morning made a stupid quip that some people in California would pay for what was done to those Iraqi men. True, perhaps, but that’s one of the most idiotic comments I’ve heard recently.

The US military is launching offensives into Najaf and Kerbala. In Kerbala, tanks destroyed a Sadr office with heavy machinegun fire then took up positions 500 yards from the gold-domed Imam Hussein shrine. The action in Najaf was to seize the governors residence in the city as the US has named a new governor for Najaf.

International Papers wail on the Abu Ghraib incident and aftermath.

Israel//Palestine

Thus far the public statement is that all Gaza settlements will be pulled. Of course, I’ll believe it when I see it as Sharon has lost all credibility with me as I’ve watched him over the last few years.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie expects to meet with Condi Rice soon, which would be the highest level administration official he’s talked to.

Bush distances himself from assurances given to Israel that it could keep some of the Arab land captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Jordan’s King Abdullah has it in writing that Bush won’t prejudice the outcome of final negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Pakistan

A suspected suicide bomb blows up a Shiite Mosque in Karachi. Six were killed, about 50 wounded.

US

Rummy faces down congress today over Iraq. Many have been calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation.

Kerry presses the assault on Bush’s commander in chief performance.

Despite vauge notes of annoyance, Bush says Rummy will remain in his cabinet.

Bush said yesterday that he’d help hasten the end of Castro’s reign in Cuba. At the very least, we won’t need hundreds of thousands of troops to occupy Cuba.

A tape with the recollections of air controllers who communicated with or tracked hijacked jets on Sept. 11, 2001 was destroyed without anyone hearing it. The cause of this destruction is chalked up to poor judgment.

Morning after pills, say US regulators, won’t be available without a prescription. They have indicated, however, that they may reconsider that position.

US Anticensorship Bureau Found Censoring

The Cicada’s are coming!

General

CDs and DVDs aren’t invulnerable.

Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock’s super-entertaining, super-disgusting documentary, could open many eyes when it comes to fast food. I’ll have to look into getting a gander at it.

Can some video games be too hard? Yes! And that’s why we have cheat codes. 😉

Slate reads the Politics of Truth so you don’t have to. Interesting tidbits plucked for your reading pleasure.

Today’s Papers has militants from a predominantly Christian tribe in Nigeria killing 500 during a raid on two Muslim towns, Colin Powell not in the know about the $25 million soon to be asked for, questions on why the Taguba report was labeled classified in the first place and more in a rather long page of news for this day.

Amusements

Snake causes head-on collision. Slithers away without a scratch

<A HREF="http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2004/05/06/mannequin_in_aldermans_office_draws_complaints/”>Milwaukee politician comes under fire for having female mannequin in his office

Residents are at their wits’ end after being bombarded in their homes and gardens for three years by a phantom golfer, despite living nowhere near a golf course or park

Neurotically Yours: Foamy’s Rant 3

Mark Fiore: Lets Get Physical

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this golfer bending over

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop how the world would be different if caffeine did what fat does, and vice versa

Fark Photoshop Challenge: The Weekly World News is on vacation. Photoshop what their return will be like