The lefty fringe behaves as expected. From the open thread on the London attacks:

I’m waiting for Bush’s Iraq spin.

by AnthonySF on Thu Jul 7th, 2005 at 08:14:51 PDT

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I’m waiting for Bush’s Iran spin.

by doink on Thu Jul 7th, 2005 at 08:31:42 PDT

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Bush said . . . For Americans to be on guard going to work this morning or something to that effect in the articles I am reading. You might know he would try to get Americans to be afraid. He invokes Fear instead of making us feel safer.

I am sure he figures this tragedy will scare Americas and help his support of War.

by wishingwell on Thu Jul 7th, 2005 at 08:46:47 PDT

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I’m sure we wouldn’t have been “on guard” had our blessed f’ing President not told us so. You know, I’m just a simpleton who can only do things my daddy tells me.

And it’s not our job to be on guard, it’s his, and he’s been asleep at the wheel before. His job is to protect us, not scare the shit out of us further (terrorist attacks do that already).

Take your sunshine and stick it up your ass.

by iowasteele on Thu Jul 7th, 2005 at 09:07:19 PDT

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oh, yes, lather up with fear

No need to actually guard the transit systems, ports, coastlines, nuclear plants.

Just froth at the mouth and pack up for Tehran!

The wilful and PATHOLOGICAL neglect/incompetence of this administration is stunning.

They demand our support because of the danger they aided and abetted.

Oh yeah, and you are far more likely to be killed in your SUV than to be killed by a terrorist.

by texan in exile on Thu Jul 7th, 2005 at 09:15:37 PDT

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Is Tony Blair’s Regime Over?

. . . Tony Blair put all of his anti-terrorist
“eggs” in George Walker Bush’s scheme to keep terrorists occupied in Iraq, to supposedly help deflect terrorist attacks elsewhere.

The war on terror being conducted by Tony Blair and George Walker Bush is an abject failure.

by wdrath on Thu Jul 7th, 2005 at 08:14:57 PDT

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do you think

blair might use this event as a rallying point for the rest of his term? by all accounts this is horrible and reflects poorly on blair, but so did 9/11 for Bush, and we know how that turned out.

i know there was a lot of speculation he would step down next year or in 2007 and let Brown take over. But maybe he can spin this like Bush used/s 9/11, and stay around for as long he likes?

by bearever on Thu Jul 7th, 2005 at 08:24:59 PDT

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Nah

I think all the people of the world are sophisticated to that kind of trickery now, having witnessed it in action in such spectacular fashion over here.

[long excerpt cut–JVL]

Our history informs our subconscious that shit could always be a great deal worse. I believe that’s the fundamental difference between America and Britain. The British national psyche has a much longer history of experience and so we lack an overall willingness to follow behind one person who claims to know a path through the dark forest. We don’t need that one person; we are all confident we can find our way out again, like we did last time.

We have been there, done that, know what I mean? Londoners and Brits in general are just not that impressed by things that go on these days. They’re not as ready to do the sheeple thing.

This is why I, as a Brit, am imploring people to keep the spotlight on important stories here in America and not let London have all of everyone’s attention. Please. 🙂

by Loquatrix on Thu Jul 7th, 2005 at 08:45:12 PDT

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Blair and Bush have made the U.K. and the U.S.

LESS safe.

When are we going to adopt this talking point?

What has Bush done to make us safer? Our entire military is in Iraq. If Bush chose to direct even a fraction of the billions that went into Iraq to our subways, ports, chemical plants, etc., we might be safer.

Don’t let Bush exploit this – don’t let him do this again. And if it happens in the U.S., will Democrats roll over again?

by diana04 on Thu Jul 7th, 2005 at 09:17:31 PDT

It goes on and on and on.

We have a routine in my house most mornings. My wife takes the first shower, I stop in the study on my way to the kitchen to start breakfast. In the study I quickly check the headlines to make sure that the world is still standing before I start scrambling the egg whites. Most days everything’s fine. Some days it’s not.

A few initial thoughts:

* I would not want to be London’s Mitt Romney–in charge of organizing their Olympics. One of the great advantages of having the Olympics in Salt Lake was that the city didn’t have an enormous soft-target of a public transit system, like the Underground. Whoever has that job won’t be getting much sleep tonight.

* We should all be proud of our president. In direct contrast to his reactions on September 11, 2001, he was clear-minded, strong, and very nearly eloquent this morning:

The contrast between what we’ve seen on the TV screens here, what’s taken place in London and what’s taking place here is incredibly vivid to me. On the one hand, we have people here who are working to alleviate poverty, to help rid the world of the pandemic of AIDS, working on ways to have a clean environment. And on the other hand, you’ve got people killing innocent people. And the contrast couldn’t be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill — those who have got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks.

The war on terror goes on. I was most impressed by the resolve of all the leaders in the room. Their resolve is as strong as my resolve. And that is we will not yield to these people, will not yield to the terrorists. We will find them, we will bring them to justice, and at the same time, we will spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm their ideology of hate.

That’s good, strong stuff.

* Anyone who buys the line that these attacks are in response to Britain’s role in Iraq and Afghanistan should be ridden out of town on a rail. You know what terrorists do? They kill people. It’s who they are. They don’t need provocations and their “reasoning” is always post facto. The people of Bali weren’t fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no Iraq and Afghanistan on September 11 or at Khobar Towers.

There is no appeasing these people. If the Western allies pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow, there would still be attacks for some other slight–maybe the affront of having troops in Saudi Arabia. If our Zionist infidel troops were pulled out of the Hijaz, there would still be attacks because there are Jews in the Holy Land. If the Jews were scrubbed out of the Holy Land, there would still be attacks because there are Gucci stores in Riyadh. It never ends. And so we should care not at all about why these monsters tell us they are making war against us.

What we should care about is making them dead, as quickly as possible. To their credit, George W. Bush and Tony Blair seem to understand this.

I had been meaning for some time to remark on the supposed resemblance between Iran’s president elect Mahmoud Ahmadenejad and that of a young revolutionary during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. But don’t they mean F. Murray Abraham?

Fox finally places a story in the entertainment press about The Inside–days after letting the show expire on the table.

Could this mean they’re not entirely sure they want to pull the plug?

They say the best French fries can’t be found in France, but rather in Belgium. I’ve never been to Belgium (except passing through on a train) but I can tell you the best fries I’ve ever had were from a snack stand in Rotterdam. I was visiting my sister’s in-laws, who are Dutch, and live in the bucolic town of Papendrecht, southeast of Rotterdam. I sampled the local fare, including deep-fried croquettes stuffed with a sausage paste, Frikandel (deep-fried sausage), and Saucijzenbroodje (pastry stuffed with sausage and probably deep-fried). Yes, it was a real Saucij-fest. But what stood out clearly were the fries, or Patat, as they call it. They’re medium-sized (larger than the ones at McDonald’s), with a golden-crisp exterior and a white, tender interior, piping hot. Of course it came with mayonnaise–but in their defense, it was more like Miracle Whip. And yes, it was delicious.

Galley Brother B.J. sends along this link with news about X-Men 3. The news is–surprise!–not good:

Brett Ratner is spicing up the new X-Men 3 movie with the addition of his very own fantasy – a sex siren mutant who seduces her opponents rather than battles them. Ratner takes over from departing director Bryan Singer, who made the first two movies, and the Rush Hour film maker is determined to leave his mark on the comic book series. The new mutant has not yet been cast but unknowns Kate Nauta and Aya Sumika will reportedly audition. A source tells Pagesix.com the mutant will be, “An unbelievably hot and sexy hooker. Her super power is that she secretes a pheromone that helps her to seduce men. She can seduce anyone.” The source adds of the auditions, “They are open to all ethnicities who are in their early-to-mid 20s.”

Even so, it will be hard for X3 to get under the bar which has been lowered by Fantastic Four, which may be the worst comic book movie ever. Makes Batman Forever look like Bridge on the River Kwai.

Congratulations to NASA for successfully colliding a space probe into the speeding comet Tempel 1. The comet quickly broke apart into two distinct pieces about the size of Texas. Scientists say one of the particles will hit northwestern Canada while the other will land in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in approximately three days.

Singin’ in the Rain and Gene Kelly receive a lovely tribute in this wonderful commercial for the new Golf GTI. John Pod on the Corner tipped me off to this. But credit goes to DDB of London and this guy who dances under the name Elsewhere.