Bush Plunges Into Middle East Politics This Week

[Eye and Monkey]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-mideast-bush.html

By REUTERS
Published: April 12, 2004
Filed at 0:31 a.m. ET

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - The Middle East, overshadowed by violence in Iraq, receives renewed attention this week as President Bush launches a new round of diplomacy to lay the groundwork for Israel's withdrawal of settlements from the Gaza Strip.

Bush is to meet on Monday at his central Texas ranch with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, one of Washington's closest allies in the Arab world. Mubarak is on his first visit to the United States in two years.

Besides Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects, Bush and Mubarak are expected to talk about the chaotic situation in Iraq, where mounting casualties and bloodshed raise questions about a U.S. pledge to transfer sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government by June 30.

They will also discuss Bush's Greater Middle East Initiative, which calls for political and economic reforms in the region. Mubarak has warned the United States against trying to impose a ready-made solution on the entire Middle East.

[Fovea]

1. Israel and the Pie Hole Effect.

Find a spot to spend the week near a civil defense shelter
if you live in the Middle East.

[progressivebydesign]

2. They mean Condi Rice is plunging into the ME.

That's why she's omnipresent these days.. Bush can't be trusted to utter a fucking coherent word. Not that he's stupid.. he's just lazy and disinterested. They promised him he could be Baseball Commissioner if he just showed up a few public events, and tried to stay sober enuff for photo ops. He didn't expect all hell to break loose.. and now he has to try and be presidential 60% of the time.. it's damn hard for a guy who doesnt' care, and doesn't understand.

[Eye and Monkey]

3. Perhaps she'll prepare a speech about missile defense shields.

Matter of fact, I understand that she has one on the shelf.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. Bush is to meet on Monday at his central Texas ranch

WTF? how long is that little bastard going to hide at the pig farm??

What strategy is being used here??

[tedzbear]

5. Having read nothing but one & a half page PDBs!

God forbid he strain his eyes (or tax his brain) on anything longer than two pages. Poor baby.

No wonder he missed 9-11.

:kick:

[Tinoire]

6. Kind of like he "plunged" into his college studies?

Screw that ass.

Probably still can't figure out what happened to his "Hooked on Phonics" tapes.

Screw him and all the people who do, or ever did, sympathize with that inarticulate, drunken frat-boy.

Yeah. Color me Liberal. Color me Dem.

Disclaimer:

I have never been confused enough to vote for Reagan or Bush Sr. And certainly never been mentally scrambled to the point of thinking that that Colin Powell and John MCain were "good" people.

Screw them and anyone who ever supported (/supports) them.

Sorry. It's time to zip the god-damned tent shut. It's getting too damned crowded in here- too much hot air.