Bolton Rage

All day metal music fests, no matter how hi-larious GWAR is, are not the way god intended us to spend a lovely sunday. But since I am not a believer...it is the way I spent my sunday. Not as a fan mind you, but as a worker. I avoided getting punched in the head and being soaked with a dyed liquid shot from a cock shaped cannon. All in all, a successful day.

Two Minutes Hate
Although the story is getting buried by Palmeiro's suspension, (honestly, is this even news? We all know they have been juiced for years) Bush appointed John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador over the weekend.

The prez says that it was too important to leave vacant any longer. Yes, so maybe instead of sidesteping almost half of the senate and waiting until they are on recess to appoint your ambassador (the political equivalent of cutting the cats hair while your mommy is out and then, when she returns saying, oh i thought it was okay!) you should have sent up a person with decent credentials.

The president acts as if the criticism against Bolton was unwarranted. Honestly, this is a guy who is supposed to represent the United States at the UN and no one understands why some senators are worried that in 1994 Bolton said "there is no such thing as the United Nations." It does bother people that our new ambassador said "If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldnt make a bit of difference." This is a guy who has gained a repuataion in law school and throughout his legal and political career, as being abrasive, astute, humorless, and relentless in the pursuit of his political agenda.

Here is a snippet of an article in the New Republic (via my pal newbie) that isnt just a scary "What'd Bush just do" kind of moment but a "Oh god it is a wonder all of us arent dead" kind of moment:
"Indeed, even the administration's one rogue-state proliferation success shows how its fixation on regime change impedes our foreign policy. On December 19, 2003, the Libyan government announced that it would give up its unconventional weapons programs and submit to international inspections. In return, the United States and Britain lifted sanctions that had been in place since Libyan operatives assisted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The success was the product of years of talks, whose turning point was the German and Italian seizure of a ship, the BBC China, carrying nuclear centrifuges to Libya from the network run by Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. (Although Bush officials long credited PSI for the seizure, State Department and foreign officials now admit the operation had nothing to do with the initiative.)
The deal almost fell through, however, because John Bolton, then Bush's top arms control official, reportedly insisted in talks that Washington's ultimate goal was regime change in Libya. Fortunately, according to Newsweek, high-level British officials intervened, asking the State Department to pull Bolton from the U.S. delegation and reassuring Muammar Qaddafi that policy change, not regime change, was the goal. Left unchecked, the administration's ideological impulses would have scuttled the negotiations. Libya is, in other words, the exception that proves the rule: Conservatism is constitutionally incapable of effectively fighting nuclear terrorism."

So, congrats Bolton...i am sure you meant it when you said you were "profoundly honored, indeed humbled..."

At least it cant last forever right?

~tweet tweet