lies sex and videotape

April 3, 2008--For a man who came into office as the nation’s first M.B.A. president, Mr. Bush has sometimes seemed invisible during the housing and credit crunch. As the economy eclipses Iraq as the top issue on voters’ minds, even some Republican allies of the president say Mr. Bush is being eclipsed and is in danger of looking out of touch.—NYT A1 I’ll believe my lying eyes

--US Cites planning gaps in Iraqi assault on Basra. Maliki Underestimated Militias, Officials say, and overestimated Iraq Army. A “defining moment” does not turn out as had been anticipated. –NYT A1, A11 Out of touch abroad as well as at home.

--President Bush threw the NATO summit meeting here off-script on Wednesday by lobbying hard to extend membership to Ukraine and Georgia, but he failed to rally support for the move among key allies. –NYT A16 ibid.

--This year Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, predicted that “some Americans are going to die” because of the public debate that resulted when Mr. Lichtblau and his New York Times colleague James Risen disclosed the existence of the Bush administration’s secret surveillance program; for the same articles Mr. Lichtblau and Mr. Risen won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. –NYT B9—and the corpses are all over the place...

--Thus husband of Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow told authorities that he used the Internet to arrange a $150 sexual tryst with a prostitute at a metropolitan Detroit hotel, police said. SBT A1.—So do we call it a “tryst” because Midwesterners are more polite, or because it’s less than a $5000 gig? But hey, he’s not gay, and it’s just another reason for getting those sex robots into production ASAP—maybe they’ll sell cheaper in the Midwest (because, like American cars, they’re made in Detroit?)