and armitage's disappointments? not a lugubrious person, armitage doesn't nominate disappointments spontaneously. but he'll answer a question honestly: "i'm disappointed that iraq hasn't turned out better. and that we weren't able to move forward more meaningfully in the middle east peace process."
then, after a minute's pause, he adds a third regret: "the biggest regret is that we didn't stop 9/11. and then in the wake of 9/11, instead of redoubling what is our traditional export of hope and optimism we exported our fear and our anger. and presented a very intense and angry face to the world. i regret that a lot."

president bush said the public's decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath.

"we had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections," bush said in an interview with the washington post. "the american people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me."

with the iraq elections two weeks away and no signs of the deadly insurgency abating, bush set no timetable for withdrawing u.s. troops and twice declined to endorse secretary of state colin l. powell's recent statement that the number of americans serving in iraq could be reduced by year's end. bush said he will not ask congress to expand the size of the national guard or regular army, as some lawmakers and military experts have proposed.

...last week, powell said u.s. troop levels could be reduced this year, but bush said it is premature to judge how many u.s. men and women will be needed to defeat the insurgency and plant a new and sustainable government. he also declined to pledge to significantly reduce u.s. troop levels before the end of his second term in january 2009.

...bush acknowledged that the united states' standing has diminished in some parts of the world and said he has asked condoleezza rice, his nominee to replace powell at the state department, to embark on a public diplomacy campaign that "explains our motives and explains our intentions."

bush acknowledged that "some of the decisions i've made up to now have affected our standing in parts of the world," but predicted that most muslims will eventually see america as a beacon of freedom and democracy.

i never have dreams about showing up naked to school or sitting down for a test and realizing i forgot to study for it. my anxiety dreams tend to revolve around haunted houses, falling and losing things. so i�m confused, sitting up here on stage in front of a piano, my hands shaking like blurry exposures and the songs i�d spent all week practicing suddenly gone, inaccessible, while 20 strangers, my teacher and matt & kelly sue stared up at me in expectant horror. i start to play, and then i hit a wrong note. �wait. let me start again.� i know i know how to play musette; i�ve been playing it for two goddamn months now. this is ridiculous. but eventually i give up; i go on to the next song. same thing, same wreckage of bad rhythm and forgotten notes. i can feel sweat building up, that same flop sweat that comes on during lessons, but this is so much worse. i am able to just barely play sleeping beauty waltz by tchaikovsky and everyone applauds, mostly out of pity, it seems. i bow as instructed and walk back to my pew and sink down. i�ve just had my ass handed to me by a 7-year old girl in a black dress. tell me this is a nightmare.

white house paid commentator to promote law

seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.

the campaign, part of an effort to promote no child left behind (nclb), required commentator armstrong williams �to regularly comment on nclb during the course of his broadcasts,� and to interview education secretary rod paige for tv and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004.

in the greatest remarriage comedies, enduring romantic happiness is only possible by falling in and out of love with the same person�your true love often being difficult to live with yet impossible to forget. but by forcing yourself to forget�sometimes just to go on living�you lose a part of your soul. kaufman made the memory purge literal and the process by which the memories leak back into the psyche literal, too.... michel gondry brings all his delirious visual imagination to bear on this precarious lover's mindscape, and the performances are heartbreaking�jim carrey the straightjacketed clown, kate winslet the rash, unstable, desperately unhappy romantic. if you didn't get it, see it again. if you didn't like it, i am so, so sorry�for us both.