Vacations Of Mass Relaxation

Berlusconi apologizes to Jewish leaders for saying that Mussolini was benign. Note that it took him something like 6 days to do so. He had an excuse: he was drunk. So that’s all right then.

I’m not sure if Rummy and Bush actually went out of their way to say, finally, that Saddam Hussein was not connected to 9/11, or if reporters just got close enough to them to ask the question, but it’s been suggested that Cheney’s bullshit-fest Sunday was the last straw for the political media, which are increasingly tired of being lied through. (A thorough dissection of Cheney’s lies here. Well worth reading, even though none of you would have been taken in, to understand how blatantly the Bushies act as if we are all retarded.) Still, as every lefty blog points out, Bush made the case explicitly in his 3/18/03 letter to Congress certifying that he’d just tried his darndest, but war was now the only option: “(2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.”

Tuesday, Condi Rice said that Saddam was targeted because he posed a danger in "a region from which the 9/11 threat emerged".

Speaking of the region, Saudi Arabia is mulling over whether it wants nukes. To use against whom? No points for any reply that quotes a Tom Lehrer song.

Speaking of lefty blogs, the Democratic Party just started one, and it’s surprisingly good. They asked for slogans to promote Rumsfeld’s hilarious idea that Iraq should develop its tourism industry.

Colombian war lord, I mean president, Uribe, last mentioned here 2 days ago for his planned amnesty for death squads, today implemented an amnesty for the world’s biggest death squad, signing one of those agreements exempting Americans from extradition to the UN international war crimes court. Oh the irony.

Ashcroft says he’s never used the provision of the Patriot Act allowing access to library and bookstore records. Of course we can legally have only his word for it, because it’s against the Patriot Act for anybody to say differently. The first rule of Patriot Act: you do not talk about Patriot Act. Well, if it’s not being used, he won’t mind it being rescinded, now will he?