Hyatt Regency is now Hyatt Imperial
We learned from Paul Kidd this morning that the trappings and fears which go with our imperial presidency have now been extended to the president's cabinet, specifically to our bloody secretary of war. In order to feel comfortable while staying in Adelaide during talks with members of the Australian government [an ally], Donald Rumsfeld apparently needs an entire 25-story hotel for himself and his immediate staff. Kidd, who is attending the 2005 NAPWA Conference and staying in a hotel across the road, reports that Rumsfeld's Hyatt Regency is surrounded by concrete barriers, wire mesh and barbed wire.
The meetings were scheduled to discuss the direction of the continued involvement of Prime Minister John Howard's government in America's unending wars.
The original site of the talks was to have been Sydney, and the change to Adelaide was made because of security concerns, raised by both governments following recent passionate but peaceful protest activity in the subcontinent's largest city. The Australian government has exercised its brand-new draconian "anti-terrorist" laws and will ban activists and protestors from the venue in Adelaide.
[image from buggery.org]
Sadly, it is probably not an unreasonable precaution for this administration considering the fact that they have managed to make enemies of most of the worlds population. Also, Im betting that the intelligence they have privy to is not now, nor ever was, as lousy as they would have us believe. Perhaps with all the bad karma and warfare they have dished out, they actually do have an accurate assessment of their security needs while traveling.