The facts will show the world the truth

AP headline: “Man ‘Mad at the World’ Kills 5 Co-workers.” Well I’ll bet the world isn’t too happy with him either.

The 9/11 commission complains that the government is delaying producing documents and refusing to let officials testify without minders being present, evidently waiting out the 18-month clock on the commission, and no one has yet compared this to Saddam’s techniques towards UN arms inspectors, as obvious a comparison as it is. Hell, you’d think the Bushies would welcome the comparison, since it turned out that Saddam wasn’t even hiding anything.

Asked in a press conference in South Africa, "Do you still believe they were trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa?", Bush said: "Right now? One thing is for certain, he's not trying to buy anything right now." Now how would he know what Saddam is or isn’t doing right now? On the same subject, Ari Fleischer: “I think the burden is on those people who think he didn't have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they are.” And Bush again: “There's no doubt in my mind that when it's all said and done the facts will show the world the truth.” Pretty much by definition.

Incidentally, those claims that there’s other evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa? If it exists, then we are in violation of Security Council resolution 1441 for failing to turn it over to the IAEA.

In South Africa, Bush failed to reiterate demands that Mugabe step down as president of Zimbabwe, saying that SA’s Mbeki was “the point man” on Zim. Mbeki then said that in fact South Africa had successfully created dialog between the Zim government and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (pronounced just like its spelled), which is in fact a lie. At least two British papers refer to SA’s “quiet diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe, which is the term Reagan used for his policy towards apartheid South Africa.

Berlusconi not having insulted Germans enough last week, his tourism minister attacks Germans as "hyper-nationalistic blonds" and "beer-swilling yobs.” (What’s the Italian for yob?) Schröder cancels his plans to holiday in Italy and will vacation in...Hannover. Berlusconi says I feel sorry for him.

A Pakistani newspaper editor is jailed for life for publishing a “blasphemous” letter. The law of blasphemy is frequently used in Pakistan against Christians. [Later: another story has the top Pakistani university about to ban all sorts of “vulgar” Western literature.]

Elvis was The King, and eBay is selling his crown. The one from his mouth. And part of a tooth.

“Danish troops in Iraq were sent salt for de-icing, a snowplough and lawnmowers in a recent shipment. The 380-strong group had complained of the heat in armoured vehicles with no air-conditioning. Many vital supplies, including stakes for their tents, have not been delivered. (AFP)”

I smell Bush backing away from the idea of sending troops to Liberia. Right now, Bush is saying he won’t send troops until Charles Taylor leaves the country, and Taylor is saying he won’t leave until the troops arrive. If anyone were serious about this, this would not be a major obstacle. Bush doesn’t want to send troops if they’d look like they were propping Taylor up, but the recent record of performance by the US military entering a political vacuum is not good. The US did send a few military types to scout out the situation, and they were greeted by actual by god dancing in the streets. So what do I think? I’d like to see some sort of force go in, but not the US and not the West African countries either (Bush talked about training the ECOWAS force in peacekeeping, so they can do as good a job in Liberia as we’re doing in Iraq, presumably). This is what the United Nations is for. Peacekeeping is required and US troops are flat-out incapable of doing it. However good the intentions of the operation, the result will always be bad because US troops’ first through tenth priority is always their own protection, which they take to mean aggressive searches, road blocks, armored personnel carriers, no personal contact, a lot of yelling (in English), and shooting anyone who looks at them cross-eyed.

From the WashPost: “The Department of Homeland Security launched an operation yesterday to help protect children from pornographers, child prostitution rings, Internet predators and human traffickers.” If the dept has time for this, then the country is obviously secure from terrorism and the dept can be abolished.

And here’s a story from California: “The state Board of Education delayed for two years yesterday a requirement that all high school students take an exit exam to graduate, saying some have not been prepared for the high-stakes test.” This shows, if further proof was needed, that tests do not test existing knowledge but rather test-taking skills. Nobody should need to “been prepared” for the test.