Topic: Bush
"I'm sure he's not fearful of English food."

George W. Bush has, it seems, offended Queen Elizabeth II by bringing no fewer than five of his personal chefs to Buckingham Palace.

"Her Majesty greeted the news that Bush was coming with his own chefs in absolute silence."

She was not amused?

"That's her general way of expressing disapproval. She's not thought to be [thrilled] about the whole visit anyway, but when you consider that she has excellent cooks herself, you can see why this would be taken as a bit of an insult."

You will find the whole thing in London Spy, a subset of Conrad Black's Daily Telegraph: Five personal chefs are in Dubya's entourage

According the Spy -

"The five Yankee fajita fillers - rather than being put up in Buck House - have instead been banished to the servants' quarters at the US Ambassador's Residence, Winfield House. `The chefs, along with most of the rest of the entourage, will either be staying at Winfield House or in nearby hotels,' says a US Embassy spokesman helpfully. `As for why the President needs five chefs, I really can't say. You'd better ask the White House.'"

The White House had no official comment.

Unofficially the Spy reports this for an unnamed source: "I mean, he's the President of the United States - maybe he needs a late night snack. I'm sure he's not fearful of English food."

Bush does not come across in this as a trusting sort of fellow. Or one of adventurous culinary proclivity. Is he too insular? Ah heck, maybe he just likes what he likes.

Topic: Iraq
Feedback / Pushback

Yesterday I discussed this: War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal ... Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger - The Guardian (UK) - Thursday November 20, 2003

Rick in Atlanta posted an interesting well thought-out response.

Topic: The Media
Dealing with "The Fox" --

Our friend at GrittyBits reports this:

"I had the most incredible luck yesterday to actually speak to Mr. Bill O'Reilly on the telephone."

Check it out.

Topic: Iraq
Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar, and sometimes not...

Well, sometimes you find news in the oddest places - here from the magazine Cigar Aficionado by way of the NewsMax, the somewhat shrill far-to-the-right-of-most-ultraconservative-Republicans news service. General Tommy Franks gave Cigar Aficionado an interview, and heck, he led the successful war to take over and occupy Iraq. So he must know a thing or two.

Interesting observations from the General? Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government. Well, that is possible.

Being pessimistic, or realistic depending on your mood, he says "the worst thing that could happen" is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts heavy casualties.

"It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world - it may be in the United States of America - that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important."

And Franks ends with this: "It's not in the history of civilization for peace ever to reign. Never has in the history of man. ... I doubt that we'll ever have a time when the world will actually be at peace."

You'll have to buy a hard copy of Cigar Aficionado to read the whole interview.

A detailed summary with many more quotes in here:
Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack
John O. Edwards, NewsMax.com Friday, Nov. 21, 2003

Topic: The Media
When good Canadians go bad....

What is it with conservative right-wing media barons?

I was living and working in Canada in the late nineties when Conrad Black, who owned a good share of the smaller newspapers in Canada, and some radio, television and magazine interests, renounced his Canadian citizenship so he could accept a peerage from Queen Elizabeth. Well, he was also running the successful and conservative (Tory) Telegraph newspaper in London. So he "went for it." He became a UK citizen and the new Lord Black of Crossharbour. Then the century ended and I resigned my position in London, Ontario and returned to Hollywood. And Conrad Black took his seat in the House of Lords.

Well, four days ago, Lord Black of Crossharbour abruptly resigned from position as head of his media empire, Hollinger International. One of the disgruntled shareholders proved Black had sort of siphoned off thirty-two million dollars of the organization's money for himself, and his friends and family. Oops.

Daniel Gross in the article you can link to below points out who those folks are. And it identifies those who were on the board of directors.

Henry Kissinger: "There's former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (a director since 1996), who would seem to have little insight into the business challenges facing a newspaper company--think newsprint prices, union contracts, the impact of the digital era on newspapers. (Strategic bombing of media competitors, after all, is typically not an option.) He evidently agreed: While the Board met four times in 2002, the proxy notes that `Mr. Kissinger did not attend 75% or more of the aggregate of the total number of meetings of the Board of Directors and the total number of meetings of the committees on which such director served.' In other words, in exchange for his $35,000 director's fee, Kissinger attended at most one meeting--and possibly none."

Cute.

And there was the Honorable Richard Burt, the former arms negotiator and Reagan-era ambassador to Germany; the Honorable James Thompson, the former Republican governor of Illinois; and the Honorable Richard Perle. The Honorable Robert Strauss, the Republican former ambassador to the Soviet Union, served on the board for six years but left in 2002.

What a crew! Richard Perle of course has been under fire for being a key member of our Defense Policy Board and one of the administration's chief spokesmen on why we're at war - the hawk of hawks - while making a lot of money for his friends because of the war. And even more of that is documented here.

Well, the business got driven into the ground. But Perle is still the key man who directs our foreign policy, or one of the key men.

Daniel Gross comments that "putting a bunch of right-wingers with occasionally dubious foreign policy credentials in the position of directing a profit-making business seems almost as illogical as putting a bunch of right-wingers with occasionally dubious business credentials in charge of foreign policy."

Hollinger International Inc.
Chicago Newspaper Network Chicago, Illinois
Chicago Sun-Times Chicago, Illinois
Daily Southtown Chicago and Southern Suburbs
Pioneer Press Suburban Chicago (Gateway to 48 sites)
Star Newspapers South and Southwestern Suburban Chicago (Gateway to 20 sites)
Suburban Chicago Newspapers Suburban Chicago (Gateway to six sites)
Post-Tribune Northwest Indiana
The Daily Telegraph London, UK
The Jerusalem Post Jerusalem, Israel
La Rep?blica San Jos?, Costa Rica

The article is here:

Man Overboard: Conrad Black's retinue of insiders, cronies, and clunkers
Daniel Gross - Posted Thursday, Nov. 20, 2003, at 1:37 PM PT SLATE.COM

And you'll find a related article here from a magazine named "Forward" where one Nathaniel Popper points out that not just Conrad Black resigned, but F. David Radler who oversaw the Jerusalem Post. Who is going to now assert Ariel Sharon is "a man of peace" - besides George Bush?
Hollinger Woes Casting a Pall Over Future of Neocon Papers