Checking in with Chancellor Angela Merkel

Such a busy, busy world, it’s easy to forget about our old friend Angela Merkel over there in Europe-land. But you remember how our last President treated her, right?

The pained look on her face, the tense shrug of her shoulders. Really says it all, doesn’t it? So I’m sure you’ll be glad to see that Chancellor Merkel is looking a little more relaxed these days:

That is the look of a happy woman!

(Oh, yeah — and I pulled both of these images off of Huffington Post, who somehow gets away without crediting anyone for images ….)

While The Middle East Burns, Bush Bicycles

I won’t pretend to be an expert on the Middle East, but as someone who has studied world history and politics, I can tell you (as if you didn’t already know) that the people of that region have suffered from violence and territorial disputes for thousands of years. In modern times, leaders from around the world have stepped in to negotiate truces between warring parties in order to maintain some sense of global peace. Which is why headlines like this are shameful:

“Bush Refuses To Interrupt His Final Vacation As Middle East Crisis Escalates”

Not exactly surprising, but shameful nonetheless. As ABC News Reports:

Even an emerging crisis in the Middle East, one he pledged to resolve just 13 months ago, has not drawn President George W. Bush from his final vacation before leaving office. Despite his personal pledge at Annapolis last year to broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinians before 2009, this weekend Bush sent his spokesmen to comment in his stead….

Since departing Washington for Crawford on Friday, President Bush has made no attempt to be seen in public. In fact, he has yet to leave his ranch.

The disagreements in the Gaza region will never be solved through violence. The Israelis, fed up with rockets periodically lobbed at them from Hammas in the Gaza Strip decide that they will stop them once and for all. But war does not work that way. The Israeli bombs don’t discern between civilians and soldiers. And in the end, the growing numbers of Palestinian civilians killed will do nothing more than create more anger among the Arab nations, and more animosity toward Israel. From The Washington Post:

Concerns mounted over the growing toll on civilians in the Gaza Strip as Israeli jets carried out airstrikes for the third straight day. Many of the casualties have been civilians who live around targets in the densely populated strip. The United Nations on Monday said at least 57 Palestinian civilians have been killed since the Israeli offensive began Saturday, based on visits to hospitals and medical facilities. Officials described that number as conservative.

In total, over three days, 364 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded, said Gaza medical officials, in the deadliest wave of attacks in Gaza since Israel captured control of the seaside territory from Egypt in 1967. Hamas has retaliated, firing a barrage of rockets into southern Israel that has killed four Israelis.

From ThinkProgress:

Today, in a press briefing delivered from the “Western White House” in Crawford, TX, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe was asked what is on Bush’s schedule today. In addition to receiving “updates on the ongoing situation,” Johndroe said, “I expect he’ll probably ride his bicycle today and spend time with Mrs. Bush.”

His Magic Touch: Demand for “Bush Shoes” Actually Creating New Jobs

Don’t ever say that George W. Bush hasn’t created new jobs:

Stampede for ‘Bush shoe’ creates 100 new jobs

Their deployment as a makeshift missile robbed President George Bush of his dignity and landed their owner in jail. But the world’s most notorious pair of shoes have yielded an unexpected bonanza for a Turkish shoemaker.

Ramazan Baydan, owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company, has been swamped with orders from across the world, after insisting that his company produced the black leather shoes which the Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last Sunday.

Baydan has recruited an extra 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271 – more than four times the shoe’s normal annual sale – following an outpouring of support for Zaidi’s act, which was intended as a protest, but led to his arrest by Iraqi security forces.

To meet the mood of the marketplace, Baydan is planning to rename the model “the Bush Shoe” or “Bye-Bye Bush”.

“We’ve been selling these shoes for years but, thanks to Bush, orders are flying in like crazy. We’ve even hired an agency to look at television advertising,” he said.

Bush: Humor FAIL

So now President Bush is yucking it up and making jokes about having shoes thrown at him during a press conference in Iraq, saying things like “I didn’t know what the guy said, but I saw his sole.”

Oh. Ha ha ha. Except, I doubt you saw anything, from where you were cowering behind the podium — while your old pal Prime Minister  al-Maliki stands by and … is that a smirk on his face?

And now the Bush lackies are scratching their heads and lamenting on the teevee machine just how ungrateful these Iraqi people are. Ungrateful!

From ThinkProgress

An Oxfam report from February 2008 put into startling focus what the U.S. invasion has really meant for Iraqis:

– More than four million Iraqis forced to flee either to another part of Iraq or abroad.
– Four million Iraqis regularly cannot buy enough food.
– 70 percent are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50 percent in 2003.
– 28 percent of children are malnourished, compared to 19 percent before the 2003 invasion.
– 92 percent of Iraqi children suffer learning problems, mostly due to the climate of fear.

Meanwhile, in this new bastion of democracy that we have fought and died for — under the direction of the Bush-Cheney War Machine — we have this news:

Shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist ‘beaten in custody.’

Because nothing says “democracy” like a good journalist beating. Well done, President Bush.

Muntadar al-Zaidi has allegedly suffered a broken arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC.

So much for grace under pressure

From the genius of Tom Toles:

McCain Watch: Bush’s Legacy Of Squandering Taxpayer Money

Yes, McCain Watch and Bush’s Legacy together in one post. They are the same. The same.

I’m on my lunch break at the conference, son don’t have time to write a long post. But I did just come across this disturbing piece over at ThinkProgress, which I feel compelled to share with you all:

Yesterday, President Bush announced his $700 billion plan to buy out troubled financial institutions. Demanding enormous faith in his administration’s stewardship, the plan “would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt,” and to hire outside firms “to help manage its purchases.” Further, the proposal provides no oversight mechanism:

Sec. 8. Review: Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Please read the rest of the post here. It’s a sad and dangerous legacy that George W. Bush is leaving us.