Bush’s Bunker Presidency: Galvanized by the news of the “shadow government,” the phrase “bunker mentality” is, appropriately on everybody’s lips with regard to the Bush dysadministration. Reassess the Shrub’s performance since 9-11 in this light and we see, if we haven’t already, that the impression of a confident resolved leader collapses beneath a haze of ‘spin’ by his handlers from his father’s era. James Carroll comments:

George W. Bush’s frantic, ad hoc ”war against terrorism” can seem to be yet another manifestation of presidential unsteadiness. Indeed, an air of low-grade panic has been a mark of Bush’s responses since the very day the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked.

Since then the president’s careless rhetoric and bluster have appalled allies, mobilized new enemies, and turned the US State Department into a damage control center. The vice president’s status as the man in hiding has become a national joke. The Defense Department initiated, then dropped, a Soviet-style office of strategic disinformation. Boston Globe via Common Dreams

As an aside, can we really be confident with the announcement that the disinformation office has been closed? It is more likely that is disinfo…

Sure, one would expect such sentiment from the Boston Globe, but Bush Doctrine: war for the appearance of purpose, an editorial from the Daytona Beach News-Journal (“no hotbed of radicalism, as far as I know”, says Adam in sending the link), suggests that a broader range of people are starting to notice that the emperor has no clothes, despite the ‘popularity ratings.’ Noting with concern that the complimentary profiles of Dubya can’t exactly get a bead on which powerful past president he is supposed to be like —

“to be so often compared to so many presidents should signal alarm, not self-confidence. It speaks of a void at the center of power that must be made up.”

it concludes that, with such a disconnect between blurred vision and reality, coherent doctine is shelved in favor of

“this administration’s best trick: war. War, especially war against a ragged but resilient enemy, at least projects the appearance of purpose while obscuring failures of leadership.”

As Adam asked, how much cognitive dissonance can the nation bear? [thanks, Adam…]

But, of course, in the eyes of some of our friends, the editorial staff at the Daytona Beach News-Journal are aiding and abetting the enemy. spinsanity

Staff cry poetic injustice as singing Ashcroft introduces patriot games. Oh, man, you can even see and hear one of his performances on the web! Thank you, thank you, George W., for an appointment rife with such entertainment potential.

Cognitive Functioning of Long-term Heavy Cannabis Users Seeking Treatment: “These results confirm that long-term heavy cannabis users show impairments in memory and attention that endure beyond the period of intoxication and worsen with increasing years of regular cannabis use.” Journal of the American Medical Association

Hate Watch: Rallying against hate on the bench:

Clergy representing scores of Alabama and Southern houses of worship joined local and national gay rights advocates on the front steps of Alabama’s Supreme Court yesterday, calling for the removal of Chief Justice Roy Moore for “hateful and homophobic remarks” made in a recent judicial opinion…

Moore’s incindiary remarks came in his concurring opinion in a child custody case between a lesbian mother and heterosexual father. The unanimous opinion of the court, which allowed the father to keep custody of his two children, made no mention of the mother’s sexuality. Justice Moore, however, attached a long concurrence saying that homosexuality is “an inherent evil against which children must be protected.” tolerance.org

Park Rangers With Respirators: “Unless President Bush bestirs himself, the controversy over snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park is likely to become for Interior Secretary Gale Norton what arsenic was for Christie Whitman: a thoroughly misguided and wholly unnecessary policy initiative that favors a small group of people Mr. Bush has in his camp anyway while annoying a far larger constituency he can ill afford to lose.” NY Times editorial

Thomas Friedman: The Core of Muslim Rage: “Why is it that when Hindus kill Muslims it elicits an emotionally muted headline in the Arab media, but when Israel kills a dozen Muslims it inflames the entire Muslim world?” NY Times

The Psychology of Submission: “Today, the goal of nation-building is a courageous submission to the market. The international community has a duty to help make it happen. There are four steps, time-tested by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.” Adbusters

David Corn: When 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Go Bad: ” Theories that the U.S. government aided or engineered the 9/11 attacks aren’t just horribly misguided — they distract from the nefarious deeds our leaders actually do perpetrate.” AlterNet

The Imperialism of Everyday Life: John Zerzan, a philosopher and writer in Eugene, Oregon and author of the forthcoming Running on Empty:

“The less people really live – or perhaps more correctly, the more they become aware that they haven’t really lived – the more abrupt and frightening death becomes for them, and the more it appears as a terrible accident.” Theodor Adorno’s observation of decades ago seems even more pertinent today. Exploding jetliners and anthrax can terrify; meanwhile a much deeper crisis triggers a far more pervasive and fundamental fear. Adbusters

Very tentative, but could we be edging toward a breakthrough in the Middle East peace process? The Saudi land-for-peace proposal seems to be gaining momentum, from a surprising corner: Syria backs Saudi Middle East plan:

‘The Middle East peace proposal put forward by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah gained significant momentum yesterday when Syria gave its backing to the land-for-peace plan, according to the official Saudi press agency.

It quoted a Saudi official as saying that talks yesterday between Crown Prince Abdullah and the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, had been “positive and successful”. However, no Syrian statement on the talks was immediately available.’ Guardian UK

Faking It: Sex, Lies, and Women’s Magazines: Liza Featherstone from Columbia Journalism Review: “How can women’s magazines run scrupulously reported and fact-checked articles on such subjects as breast cancer and women in Afghanistan, but tell complete lies in articles about sex?” AlterNet

A Belgian court on Wednesday delayed a ruling on a war crimes investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his role in the 1982 massacre at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Boston Globe Recall speculation that the January carbomb assassination of Lebanese militia leader Elie Hobeika related to the possibility of his testimony at the looming war crimes trial.

Blair Fires New Warning at Iraq, Gets Flak at Home:

“British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a stark warning to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Wednesday that he could face the wrath of the West but quickly ran into fire from members of his own Labour Party…

But he faces stiff opposition, not just from European allies, but his own rank-and-file. A parliamentary debate on Wednesday was suspended after politicians traded bitter accusations over Iraq with a Foreign Office minister.”

Reuters

Intercepted Al Qaeda E-Mail Is Said to Hint at Regrouping: “Newly detected Internet traffic among Al Qaeda followers, including intercepted e-mail messages, indicates that elements of the terror network may be trying to regroup in remote sanctuaries in Pakistan near the Afghan border, government officials say.

United States officials said they had discovered the existence of new Web sites and Internet communications that appeared to be part of a concerted Al Qaeda effort to reconstitute the group and re-establish communications after the war in Afghanistan.” New York Times [name: “FMHreader”, password: “FMHreader”]