Helen, We Hardly Knew Ye

so, everyone know who helen thomas is? no? okay. helen is the stanchion of of white house press corps ethics. she has had a front row seat at every press conference and daily briefing for a few decades. she has always been the first reporter allowed a question and all other reporters defered to her. until about 4 years ago when the bush cartel decided it din't like her queations anymore (i.e. the questions were tough, insightful and well prepared). since then she has literally been relegated to a back row seat and has not been called on once by either bush or mcclellan. she has since then called bush the worst president she has ever covered and the most dangerous to our country well-being. not because she's bitter, but because she can see through all of the smoke, lies and disingenuousness thrown out by this administration. and bush was right to shunt her aside if only to maintain any measure of credibility.
today, however, bush called on her. her question? "why did we go to war with iraq?". this question has not been asked once since the actual incident. and she has made no secret of what she would ask if allowed to. bush's response was...um...not really a response (surprise, surprise) so much as it was an attempt at more smoke and lies. she didn't let him escape, but continued to force him to address the actual question. the result was predictably depressing in light of what bush said or, rather, wouldn't say. in short, his answer was no answer at all. it was evasion and ducking, because he knows he has no viable reason for attacking iraq. only armchair quarterbacking and revision. remember the weapons of mass destruction that anyone with half a brain could tell was pure crap? niger yellowcake? the reasons why valerie plame was outed? or saddam hussein wouldn't let UN inspectors back into the country when it was us who booted them out right before we began bombing? then on to saddam being a brutal dictator who gassed his own people with our weapons of mass destruction some ten years earlier? engaged in brutal executions of enemies? was a bad, bad man and we were liberating the iraqi populace? if you don't, helen does. she is the grand dame of political reporters and brooks no bullshit.
if you were bush you wouldn't call on her either.
also, bush is saying once again that he never tried to link saddam to 9/11.
oy vey.
on a lighter note, i tried out the new cafe a couple of blocks away. very cool. their condiment bar is the backside of a VW bus with its back door flipped up. there is a Woodstock poster on the wall. while i was there today, they were trying to decide where to hang an old fender stratocaster. someone in the family has been collecting thermoses for a loooong time and these decorate the upper book shelf running the length of about half the place.very hippy dippy and happy. the license plate frame on the bus actually proclaims washington as the liquid sunshine state. ahem. my latte was good and the food smelled terrific. evidently, the family is a local legend. they had some kind of cafe or store something downtown, but decided to get out of there. i only had 30 minutes to soak in the ambience, because i was getting my first haircut since last summer next door from the liberal activist woman. good haircut, great conversation. one of her stickers said "beef: it's what's destroying your colon". a poem next to her mirror spoke of mothers distracting military recruiters until their sons and daughters could head for the hills and until there was no more need for recruiting. she found me a good radio station while i was there. she named her son after john lydon. she partied with sha na na and the who on a boat and got really puking sick. she's into new music, but loves todd rundgren, the ramones, the sex pistols (duh!). i just love getting professional haircuts from independents. you never know where the conversation is going to go.
so, i found a sliver of culture two blocks from my house. man, that's depressing. this town has almost nothing. but it IS two blocks from me.
it's raining today and feeling like it's still winter. we had some great sunshine yesterday and teases of it today, but the water is settling in for the evening.
have a great night, ya hear?