Steve Gilliard is the Daily Kos

And he has three recent posts I strongly agree with:

He berates Friedman for promoting a theory of idiocy. Probably better than my calling Friedman a "brilliant but naive" idiot.

He notes Remsfeld's illegal and unconstitutional Failure at Gitmo which is running into problems now so more Rummygrams are going out as that idiot tries to conduct foreign policy.

And is all over Rice as Rice Repeats U.S. Complaints About France and tries to help her understand why Europeans support Chirac.

Excerpt from the last:

Well, the Texicutioner, as he is called in most of Europe, is despised. Not disliked, or distrusted, but despised. And that has to do with his habit of executing people regardless of their actual guilt or innocence. Bush was regarded as an idiot before his election. Subesequent events have only confirmed the obvious to most Europeans.

Saddam Hussein couldn't threaten his neighbors. The whole WMD thing was a put up job. And then, there is the slight fact that the Secretary of Defense is a meddler who undermines you and the Secretary of State on a regular basis. He's attacking the fundamentals of our relations with our most important allies .

The French objected to the culture which the former communists were buying into. The coalition of the billing were being bought like some former French colony and then saying they wanted to be included in the EU. Can't do both. If you're up for rent, how can you be part of a united Europe.

Then there is the fact that Iraq was liberated from dictatorship into anarchy. Seems some of the folks took that the hard way. Considering millions protested the coming of war and politicians outside the US have to respond to the people who elected them and not just US dictates.

Of course, the talk of "punishing" allies for opposing US policy, a policy which is coming undone as we speak, just makes things worse, of course.

Then, there is this matter of picking leaders. See, the Europeans look at the Palestinians and the way the Israelis blow up their homes and are offended. Because Israel has a large, strong, effective, army and the Palestinians do not. Now, most Europeans believe that Israel has a right to exist. But they don't believe in the kill an Arab for peace plan Sharon has instituted. They also don't like the kill a Jew for peace plan being run by Arafat. But what they really, really dislike, is us telling the Palestinians who should run their country and acting like we're taking orders from Likud headquarters.

We don't have to like Arafat. We cannot, however, change the way the Palestinians choose their leaders and pick one more to our liking. It's an anti-democratic thing to do. Something our European allies dislike intensely, since we did that to the Italians in 1948 and the Greeks in 1967. We may have forgotten it, but they haven't.

That's because Americans treat politics as a nusance and Europeans don't. They take it seriously and they take politicians seriously. So the French and the Germans find only idiocy behind Bush's good ol' boy demeanor. They expect a man with his education and breeding to actually be educated. He's not royalty where idiocy can be hidden. The fact is that they assumed presidents were like his father and Clinton, bright, knowledgeable, educated, familiar with Europe and Europeans. Not this wanna be hayseed braying about Jesus every five minutes like an old fisherwoman and having no respect for individual rights.

Bush is the ugly American writ large. He knows little except America is the best place on earth with the best people on earth and everyone else wants to be us. Needless to say, this doesn't sit well with people who's plumbing systems date back to Augustus.