brainrow

It’s leap day today, and the stock market celebrated by plummeting. Stocks dropped yesterday, as well.

I think it’s because at his press conference yesterday, George W. Bush said, “I don’t think we’re headed to recession.”

Yikes! That’s about as official an announcement as you can get that we are headed for a recession. Wall Street insiders know you should never, ever, ever believe anything George W. Bush says. They ain’t dumb.

Mark Shields on the PBS NewsHour:

I just think the Clinton campaign strategy, I think, is open to serious question. And I compare it, quite frankly, to the United States’ policy in Iraq. There was no plan B after Baghdad fell. There was no understanding about the occupation.

There was no plan B for the Clinton campaign after the 5th of February. Whether that was a misconception, a delusion in arrogance, overconfidence or what, but there’s no doubt about it.

Hillary Clinton is out on the campaign trail asking, “Who do you want to have in the White House answering the phone at 3 o’clock in the morning when some crisis breaks out around the world?”

I’m thinking Barack Obama.

It’s difficult to predict how someone will respond in a moment of crisis — how he or she will cope with the unexpected. But Hillary Clinton’s “stay the course” campaign strategy isn’t a real confidence builder.

She expected to have the nomination locked up after Super Tuesday. When that didn’t happen, she decided to hunker down and wait for Texas and Ohio, much like Rudy Giuliani’s strategy of waiting for Florida.

Enough of that. Time for a change.

Over at All Hat No Cattle they’re talking about the George W. Bush Presidential Library:

The Library will include:

The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.

The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you can’t remember anything.

The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don’t have to even show
up.

The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don’t let you in.

The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don’t let you out.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room (Which no one has been able to
find).

The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first tour, they make you to
go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth tours.

The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with
shooting gallery.

The Mike Luckovich cartoon sums it up pretty well.

After 49 years as Cuba’s dictator, Fidel Castro is stepping down.

The U.S. government won’t change its policy toward Cuba:

Bush and his top advisers made it clear yesterday that they do not intend to relax the trade sanctions and other policies aimed at isolating the Cuban government.

Sure, why would you change a policy that’s working so well?

Just think: if this country had engaged economically, culturally or diplomatically with Cuba during the past 46 years, we might have had to settle for something less than the complete triumph of U.S. interests. If we had talked with the Cubans, who knows how long Castro would have been dictator?

Now, this is just piling on.

Just days after poor old John McCain was smeared by association with moral nullity Mitt Romney, here comes another assault on McCain’s reputation: he’s been endorsed by George Bush.

To be fair, this is George “Read My Lips” Bush, not George “I’m the Decider” Bush, but do you think the Democrats will note that little nuance when they’re running against McCain? No, they’ll keep repeating “John McCain was endorsed by George Bush” until McCain dies of shame.

Politics is a rough business.

Poor John McCain can’t catch a break. He’s headed toward the Republican presidential nomination at a time when eight years of Bush-Cheney rule are going to make things tough for any Republican. And now, a dishonorable rat-bag with no principles that aren’t up for bid crawls back out of the woodwork to taint McCain’s reputation by association with his own.

Senator McCain deserves better.

Via Wired, the Republican Party’s version of Valentine’s Day cards.

You know, I think this explains more about Republican worries about marriage than gay marriage ever did.

Stephen Colbert pays tribute to Mitt Romney:

Mitt will be missed … by comedians.

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s 199th birthday.

Lincoln succeeded James Buchanan as President of the United States. Buchanan always shows up on the short list when historians consider who was the worst president ever.

Despite his lack of Washington experience — he had served in the Illinois legislature, but had just a single two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives — I think Mr. Lincoln did a fairly creditable job as president.

It’s good to remember, in an election year, that we don’t have to settle for replacing the “worst” with someone “a little less bad.” We can aim higher than that.

Happy birthday, Abe.

On a DVD, playing on a big screen, with surround sound, this scene from Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is just breathtaking. I don’t know how effectively it will come across in a YouTube video — it’s certainly no substitute for seeing the movie properly — but I hope you’ll be able to see why I think this is worth sharing.

In fact, it’s good to be alive. It’s exciting.

So, how are things progressing in the Hundred Years War in Iraq? Not well:

Women in Iraq’s southern city of Basra are living in fear. More than 40 have been killed and their bodies dumped in the streets in the past five months for behaviour deemed un-Islamic, the city’s police chief says.

A warning scrawled in red on a wall threatens any woman who wears makeup or appears in public without an Islamic headscarf with dire punishment.

…

“Some women were killed with their children,” Basra police chief, Major-General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, told Reuters. “One with a six-year-old child, another with an 11-year-old.”

…

During the long rule of Saddam Hussein, who suppressed Islamists, Iraqi women in urban areas enjoyed some of the most casual dress codes in the Middle East.

Conservative Islamist influences have spread since the U.S.-led invasion removed Saddam in 2003. This has led to stricter interpretations of Islam in many parts of Iraq.

I read about religious extremists murdering women in Iraq, saying that the women are violating God’s law. And I hear Republican candidate Mike Huckabee saying:

I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards, rather than try to change God’s standards …

Now, for some reason, I get nervous whenever I hear politicians talking about “God’s law” or “God’s standards.” Theocracies are never run by God — they’re run by guys who have set themselves up as God’s spokesmen, guys who tell everyone what they want, claiming authority from God. It’s always that way.

No theocracy for me, thanks.

On Friday, George W. Bush spoke to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC):

Listen, the stakes in November are high. This is an important election. Prosperity and peace are in the balance.

Yes, there’s a chance the voters could elect a Democrat, bringing us prosperity and peace.

We had those things before Bush took the White House. Remember those dreadful days? Seven years into his administration, we don’t have either one. CPAC, the GOP and Bush are all determined to keep it that way.

A Daily Show listens to Mitt Romney’s withdrawal announcement, and has the only appropriate response. (Warning: strong language, bleeped but not really disguised.)

The voters have their own agenda in this cartoon by Denver Post cartoonist Mike Keefe.

Keefe also addresses the issue of John McCain’s age, but I don’t think his age is the issue.

George W. Bush is promising to help victims of this week’s storms in five southern states:

President Bush told those affected by a string of deadly tornadoes in the South that the U.S. government will help them and the rest of the country is praying for them.

Bush will visit damaged areas in Tennessee today.

Imagine what comfort the victims of the storms will take from Bush’s words and his brief presence, knowing how he helped the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Pray hard, folks.