Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Oh looky here: Associated Press says, “President Bush is seeking relief from record-high gas prices and support for Middle East peace as he opens his Texas ranch to Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer.“ Remember Crown Prince Abdullah? He is the half-brother of Saudi Arabia’s incapacitated King Fahd who had a major stroke in 1996. Prince Abdullah is the defacto leader of Saudi Arabia. Remember King Fahd? He had 100 wives and god knows how many sons. Remember Crown Prince Bandar? Bandar’s father is Prince Sultan, half-brother of Crown Prince Abdullah. Bandar’s mom was a servant and Prince Sultan didn’t recognize him as kin until he was a teenager. But never mind, Bandar had his own agenda, which was to become as Western as possible and to ingratiate himself with the Bush family. Which, the little Arab bastard did to a fare-thee-well. As a regular overnight guest in both the White House and the Bush residences in Crawford and Kennebunkport, Prince Bandar became “family” to the Bushes. And he became Georgie Bush’s rich fun-loving best friend and advisor about petroleum profits. Remember this news story from Reuters? It appeared April 18th, last year. "Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before November to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day, journalist Bob Woodward said in a television interview Sunday." Prince Bandar was supposed to keep oil prices at $40 a barrel. Today, the projection for the rest of 2005 and 2006 is $50 a barrel. No matter. Bandar was only supposed to talk gibberish up to the election. Everyone knew he had no actual power. So now Georgie Bush is going to kiss a little Number-One-Son ass. The good-time-Charlie GWB saw as his opposite number in the Arab world isn’t useful anymore. And Abdullah doesn’t have to actually lower oil prices either. This show of down-home hospitality in Crawford, TX is just that. A show. Oh…and what was that other thing? Bush wants Prince Abdullah to know that GWB supports peace in the Middle East. Remember the Middle East? What with all the pageantry and lies coming out of the Vatican, that peace and freedom in the Middle East crap has gotten short shrift. So how’s peace and freedom working out? As of yesterday, 1571 American soldiers have been killed. The insurgency has not been stopped. The White House (Rove), which promised to keep its controlling global interventionist mitts off Iraq, gave VP Cheney and Secretary of State Rice new Iraq orders. And they did what they were told to do. They phoned Iraq's new president, Jalal Talabani, and ordered him in no uncertain terms to get a move on and get his new government formed and up and running ASAP. So much for letting them rule themselves. Apparently, the GOP is so transfixed with googling at its own reflection that it hasn’t noticed the latest trend. Most people in the USA are so disgusted with the religious right, with Senate Majority Leader William Frist and with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay that elections in 2006 and a chance to get rid of these clowns can’t come soon enough.