While at a Harley-Davidson plant in Pennsylvania today, Bush jumped on top of a motorcycle. After he was finished, “he ripped off blue-tinted safety glasses that he insisted made him look like rock star Bono and jokingly struck a pose intended to show a hip side.”

UPDATE: Alternet has the video.

According to political operatives close to Sen. George Allen, the Senator used the derogatory phrase “macaca” not as an ethnic slur, but as a mash-up of “Mohawk,” referring to S.R. Sidarth’s distinctive hair, and “caca,” Spanish slang for excrement, or “sh*t.” Said one conservative: “In other words, he was a sh*t-head, an annoyance.”

Bush’s approval rating, according to a new Zogby poll. “President Bush’s job approval rating dipped two points in the last three weeks, despite the foiling of an airline terror plot and the adoption of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.”

In a column published yesterday, National Review editor Rich Lowry states that “Iraq War liberals might be making their first-ever correct diagnosis,” suggesting that the Iraq war is eliciting more similarities to Vietnam each day. Below is the rough evolution of Lowry’s position on the Iraq and Vietnam comparison:

April 1, 2003:

There are other niggling differences [between Iraq and Vietnam] — the low casualties (roughly 50 combat deaths so far, compared with 58,000 in Vietnam), a high level of public support, a volunteer, highly motivated Army and a definable enemy, cause and endgame. “¦ “Another Vietnam” is largely wishful thinking.

April 11, 2003:

Most of them were infected with a willful pessimism, prepared to believe the worst about America’s capabilities and its image among Iraqis, while puffing up the forces of Saddam. Now that reality has intruded, with a swift military victory and a warm welcome from Iraqi civilians, one wonders: Will TV jabberer Chris Matthews admit his foolishness in writing, “This invasion of Iraq, if it goes off, will join the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Desert One, Beirut and Somalia in the history of military catastrophe”?

August 15, 2006:

The left says whatever war is in question is “another Vietnam,” while the right denies it. After three decades of being serially wrong, in the Iraq War liberals might be making their first-ever correct diagnosis. “¦ It is not too late to tamp down that militia-directed violence, which hasn’t yet taken on an uncontrollable life of its own. But the clock is ticking, toward the hour when we will indeed suffer another Vietnam.

Lowry is inching closer and closer to the reality-based community, but in doing so, he wants us to forget what he told us in the past.

Following on Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) recent report showing that federally funded crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) mislead teens about abortion risks, CPC administrators begin to worry about the negative publicity and talk about tactics to keep unknowing women coming through their doors.

have commissioned “a pair of secret studies to pinpoint the military’s failures” in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. According to one of the authors, “the results won’t be pretty” when the findings are released this fall.

During a Fox News discussion on the diversion of a United Airlines flight because of an “unruly” female passenger, former Weekly Standard deputy publisher David Bass said, “She’s probably not an al Qaeda affiliate, probably not a terrorist, could just be a Ned Lamont supporter, we don’t know.”

Today, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times offer accounts of Bush’s recent meeting with a panel of Iraq scholars. The NYT piece claimed that the participants came away with the impression that Bush is “frustrated that the new Iraqi government”¦had not shown greater public support for the American mission.” The Times offers these quotes:

“I sensed a frustration with the lack of progress on the bigger picture of Iraq generally “” that we continue to lose a lot of lives, it continues to sap our budget,” said one person who attended the meeting.
["¦]
“I do think he was frustrated about why 10,000 Shiites would go into the streets and demonstrate against the United States,” said another person who attended.

More than 110 Iraqis were killed each day last month, and car bombs continue to erupt daily in Iraq’s most populous areas. Sixty percent of Americans oppose the war, yet the top concern for the White House this morning was to combat the impression that Bush is “frustrated” over these events and his own failing policies.

At the press briefing, Tony Snow said he took “exception to [the] verb, or variations of that verb.” He’s not “frustrated,” but rather, “determined,” Snow later said of Bush’s disposition on Iraq. Out of touch is a better description. Watch it:

Full transcript: Read more

“There is a misunderstanding, particularly in the media, that earmarks are ‘out of control,’ said Lewis, who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. He added that it is not outrageous for Congress to “massage” that tiny portion of the president’s budget.