:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 12.05.2006 ::
:: Bad Day? ::
Bush says he's 'not happy' to have to accept Bolton resignation as U.N. ambassador
International Herald Tribune
WASHINGTON: Lacking the votes to keep his job, embattled U.N. Ambassador John Bolton is resigning, a defeat for a chagrined President George W. Bush who had clung to hopes of Senate confirmation.
Bolton got the position in August 2005, appointed by Bush when Congress was in recess. With that temporary assignment about to expire, and his long fight for confirmation going nowhere, Bolton made it official Monday.
He handed in a resignation letter that did not mention the political fight behind it. It said simply: "I have concluded that my service in your administration should end when the current recess appointment expires."
"I accepted. I'm not happy about it," Bush said Monday afternoon in the Oval Office, with Bolton at his side. Bush did not name a replacement, and officials offered no timetable for an announcement.
The setback for the White House seemed to put a hold on talk of bipartisanship after last month's election gave control of the Senate and the House of Representatives to Democrats. Both formerly were in the hands of Bush's Republican Party.
Bush considered Bolton a strong voice as the United Nations dealt with crises in Iraq, Lebanon, North Korea and other complex matters around the world. Bolton also pushed the administration's effort to reform the United Nations.
Most Democrats strongly opposed Bolton, whom they viewed as a brusque, ill-suited diplomat. Some Republicans helped scuttle his nomination, including moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.
The president had stinging words for Bolton's opponents.
"They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time," Bush said in a statement. "This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country."
Democrats, though, said Bolton's resignation signaled a fresh start.
"Hopefully this change marks a shift from the failed go-it-alone strategies that have left America less safe," said the incoming Senate majority leader, Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada.
"With the Middle East on the verge of chaos and the nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea increasing, we need a United Nations ambassador who has the full support of Congress and can help rally the international community to tackle the serious threats we face," said Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 presidential candidate.
Read more here.
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