I said that the Franco-German plan on Iraqi inspection was sensible. It’s also invisible. OK, I expected it to be dismissed by the Bushies, but both the NY Times and McNeil-Lehrer today took their cues from them and neglected to provide the actual details of the plan, as if discussion of alternatives to war were irrelevant because Secretary of War Rumsfeld says so.
Rummy and Powell, increasingly reading off the same hymnal, both use the word “inexcusable” to describe Germany, France and Belgium’s refusal to act on the presumption of a war by sending weapons to Turkey. Well, we’ve already forgiven Germany for that whole Hitler thing and the Holocaust thing, but yes, this time they’ve finally done something inexcusable. And France--well, the NY Post’s front page shows a picture of graves in Normandy and the headline "They died for France but France has forgotten." Yeah, it’s like they haven’t seen Saving Private Ryan.
And by the way, 150 million people are not and cannot be “isolated.”
Israel has been replacing the old gas masks given out after the last Gulf War. Except for the Occupied Territories, of course.
FAIR has a good report (fair.org) on the numerous allegations the US has made against Iraq over the last few months subsequently disproved by UN inspectors or otherwise, and suggests that the media should have treated the Powell report with a touch more skepticism, whereas in fact his claims were often reported as if they were fact, without the usual distancing words like “claimed”, “alleged” that they’re supposed to make when reporting unverified assertions.
PETA’s president has written to Yasser Arafat, complaining about an attempt to blow up Israeli soldiers with explosives strapped to, gasp shock horror, a donkey. “We watched on television as stray cats in your own compound fled as best they could from the Israeli bulldozers. . . . If you have the opportunity, will you please add to your burdens my request that you appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of this conflict?” I looked at the PETA website, but could find nothing more on this, although there was a pop-up ad for Burger King. Veggie burgers, of course.
The 8th Circuit rules that an insane prisoner who is (usually) sane only when medicated can be executed. The court says that Arkansas has an interest in having sane inmates, so the side-effect of sanity should not impact his fate.
Monday, February 10, 2003
Sunday, February 09, 2003
Buy a slurpie--if you hate America
I got a paper cut today from a bagel. How is that possible? Not from the knife, either, from the actual bagel.
Click here. Just do it (except people receiving email from Kevin, who had the same idea, but whose mail server, unlike mine, was working this morning).
The exec director of the New Hampshire Republican Party just resigned. It seems he hired a telemarketing firm to jam the lines of the Democratic party’s get-out-the-vote operation with 5-second hang-up calls last election days.
The Franco-German plan on Iraq is nicely sensible. So of course it is rejected out of hand by the US. Powell has joined Rummy in condescending to the Europeans, telling Germany and France to read UN resolution 1441 again.
Rummy, in a breathtaking interview with the Times of London, answers one of my questions, how he could say that if Saddam fled he could get amnesty. The Rumster says that the country he goes to could simply say that it wasn’t going to extradite him. See, I was wondering how the US could legally give him world-wide asylum, but the man who discredits my first name says, just ignore international law altogether. Hell, the judges on the International Court are just a bunch of girls. Probably on the same menstrual cycle. (There, I’ve finally figured how to use that joke without being accused of sexism--I’ve attributed it to Rocket Rummy.)
Sue Myrick, the NC Congresscritter who I mentioned made comments about all 7-11 owners being Arabs, explains that she simply wanted to remind people of the dangers of terrorism, including "the illegal trafficking of food stamps through convenience stores for the purpose of laundering money to countries known to harbor terrorists."
The new Union of Serbia and Montenegro is going along smoothly. The prime minister of Montenegro refused to attend celebrations of the new forced marriage and accused the EU of forcing Montenegro into it, and promises a referendum on real independence in 3 years. (I just read for the first time that the US may be encouraging them, because it wants a new vassal state--and a nice new naval base). Montenegro has been called a Mafia state by the Italians, of all countries, and a bunch of its leaders are implicated in a scandal in which the deputy state prosecutor bought a sex slave from Moldova and passed her around. And they just failed, again, to elect a president. No one has noticed or cares that Kosovo was forced into the same country without any pretense that anyone cares what Kosovans want.
The US is making a deal with Turkey allowing it to occupy Iraqi Kurdistan. No, no, *first* you get the Kurds to fight for you, *then* you betray them; it’s worked so well in the past.
Click here. Just do it (except people receiving email from Kevin, who had the same idea, but whose mail server, unlike mine, was working this morning).
The exec director of the New Hampshire Republican Party just resigned. It seems he hired a telemarketing firm to jam the lines of the Democratic party’s get-out-the-vote operation with 5-second hang-up calls last election days.
The Franco-German plan on Iraq is nicely sensible. So of course it is rejected out of hand by the US. Powell has joined Rummy in condescending to the Europeans, telling Germany and France to read UN resolution 1441 again.
Rummy, in a breathtaking interview with the Times of London, answers one of my questions, how he could say that if Saddam fled he could get amnesty. The Rumster says that the country he goes to could simply say that it wasn’t going to extradite him. See, I was wondering how the US could legally give him world-wide asylum, but the man who discredits my first name says, just ignore international law altogether. Hell, the judges on the International Court are just a bunch of girls. Probably on the same menstrual cycle. (There, I’ve finally figured how to use that joke without being accused of sexism--I’ve attributed it to Rocket Rummy.)
Sue Myrick, the NC Congresscritter who I mentioned made comments about all 7-11 owners being Arabs, explains that she simply wanted to remind people of the dangers of terrorism, including "the illegal trafficking of food stamps through convenience stores for the purpose of laundering money to countries known to harbor terrorists."
The new Union of Serbia and Montenegro is going along smoothly. The prime minister of Montenegro refused to attend celebrations of the new forced marriage and accused the EU of forcing Montenegro into it, and promises a referendum on real independence in 3 years. (I just read for the first time that the US may be encouraging them, because it wants a new vassal state--and a nice new naval base). Montenegro has been called a Mafia state by the Italians, of all countries, and a bunch of its leaders are implicated in a scandal in which the deputy state prosecutor bought a sex slave from Moldova and passed her around. And they just failed, again, to elect a president. No one has noticed or cares that Kosovo was forced into the same country without any pretense that anyone cares what Kosovans want.
The US is making a deal with Turkey allowing it to occupy Iraqi Kurdistan. No, no, *first* you get the Kurds to fight for you, *then* you betray them; it’s worked so well in the past.
Saturday, February 08, 2003
A poison factory is a term of art
Evidently the US tabloids have been calling the French what Le Monde has translated as primates capitulards et tou-jours en quête de fromages (cheese-eating surrender monkeys). It comes from Les Simpsons. There is also a column against France in the Sunday NY Times by Tom Friedman, whose IQ drops a point per day as we approach war. Yes, the French aren’t convinced of the need to fry the children of Baghdad, they must be stopped. Rumsfeld says that European governments that don’t support the war will be rejected by their own people. Meanwhile, his own German relatives told him to go to hell.
A British story, but it’s bound to be happening here too, says that bullied children are turning to steroids.
Colin Powell showed a satellite picture of what he called “terrorist chemicals and poisons factory” in northern Iraq. An Observer reporter has gone there, and it is no such thing, although there is a bakery. The NY Times also reports on this. Defending the lie, a State Dept spokesmodel says, “A poison factory is a term of art.”
Also in the Observer, a bit more about the British citizen Texas executed this week. I had missed the fact that the real murderer didn’t serve even a day of jail time. And that all 12 jurors signed a petition asking for DNA testing, which was never done.
The Bush admin threatens public schools with loss of federal funds if they don’t allow students and teachers to pray, loudly and openly, although not with each other.
The GAO gives up on its attempt to get the records of Cheney’s energy task force. Wimps. And in the Senate, James Inhofe hired a mining industry lobbyist to oversee clean air legislation.
6 of 7 of the judges on the new International Criminal Court will be women.
A British story, but it’s bound to be happening here too, says that bullied children are turning to steroids.
Colin Powell showed a satellite picture of what he called “terrorist chemicals and poisons factory” in northern Iraq. An Observer reporter has gone there, and it is no such thing, although there is a bakery. The NY Times also reports on this. Defending the lie, a State Dept spokesmodel says, “A poison factory is a term of art.”
Also in the Observer, a bit more about the British citizen Texas executed this week. I had missed the fact that the real murderer didn’t serve even a day of jail time. And that all 12 jurors signed a petition asking for DNA testing, which was never done.
The Bush admin threatens public schools with loss of federal funds if they don’t allow students and teachers to pray, loudly and openly, although not with each other.
The GAO gives up on its attempt to get the records of Cheney’s energy task force. Wimps. And in the Senate, James Inhofe hired a mining industry lobbyist to oversee clean air legislation.
6 of 7 of the judges on the new International Criminal Court will be women.
Friday, February 07, 2003
Good cop
I’ve finished reading Powell’s speech, and the impression of intellectual dishonesty grows. Here’s my favorite: “in the history of chemical warfare, no country has had more battlefield experience with chemical weapons since World War I than Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.” What he means by battlefield experience is that Iraq was subject to chemical warfare by Britain in 1920 (1921?). Also, I didn’t know Hussein had been in power for 85 years.
He also used the “dual-use” argument, that the chemical weapons “infrastructure” was embedded within civilian industry, so deeply that no one, including experts (UN inspectors, say) could tell. He offered no proof of this, of course.
Does anyone remember Reagan showing grainy satellite footage of that runway being constructed in Grenada, implying that it was a huge secret, when anyone could, and did, just walk in and take all the photos they wanted, as some smartass reporters could, and did? Well, Powell says that, while Iraq will argue that various equipment is being used for legitimate purposes, “But if that is true, why did we have to learn about them by intercepting communications and risking the lives of human agents?” Because you and your little friends like playing spies?
Incidentally, if Powell is good cop to Rumsfeld’s bad cop, has anyone considered that the police tactic of good-cop-bad-cop is actually a piece of play-acting? Is it possible that all that posing as a “dove” was just a prelude for this week’s little morality play, wherein honest and not-at-all-warlike General Powell finds himself persuaded all against his will of the necessity for war?
Bad cop Rummy Rumsfeld (played by Dennis Franz) says that Germany won’t help us--just like Libya and Cuba.
The picture of an Iraqi plane spraying chemical agents wasn’t actual footage, by the way, although news channels didn’t necessarily label it as a Pentagon art project.
And what do you suppose was actually in that vial of anthrax?
It turns out that the British “dossier” on how bad Saddam is, which Powell praised in his speech, was plagiarized to a large extent, right down to the typographical errors, from published articles, some of them years old. So much for MI6, whose sources turn out to be a subscription to Jane’s Intelligence Review.
He also used the “dual-use” argument, that the chemical weapons “infrastructure” was embedded within civilian industry, so deeply that no one, including experts (UN inspectors, say) could tell. He offered no proof of this, of course.
Does anyone remember Reagan showing grainy satellite footage of that runway being constructed in Grenada, implying that it was a huge secret, when anyone could, and did, just walk in and take all the photos they wanted, as some smartass reporters could, and did? Well, Powell says that, while Iraq will argue that various equipment is being used for legitimate purposes, “But if that is true, why did we have to learn about them by intercepting communications and risking the lives of human agents?” Because you and your little friends like playing spies?
Incidentally, if Powell is good cop to Rumsfeld’s bad cop, has anyone considered that the police tactic of good-cop-bad-cop is actually a piece of play-acting? Is it possible that all that posing as a “dove” was just a prelude for this week’s little morality play, wherein honest and not-at-all-warlike General Powell finds himself persuaded all against his will of the necessity for war?
Bad cop Rummy Rumsfeld (played by Dennis Franz) says that Germany won’t help us--just like Libya and Cuba.
The picture of an Iraqi plane spraying chemical agents wasn’t actual footage, by the way, although news channels didn’t necessarily label it as a Pentagon art project.
And what do you suppose was actually in that vial of anthrax?
It turns out that the British “dossier” on how bad Saddam is, which Powell praised in his speech, was plagiarized to a large extent, right down to the typographical errors, from published articles, some of them years old. So much for MI6, whose sources turn out to be a subscription to Jane’s Intelligence Review.
Thursday, February 06, 2003
These horrible agents
I meant to direct your attention to a N Korean propaganda poster featured on the front page of the NY Times Saturday, but forgot. Fortunately, here it is, and several others.
I saw an SUV outside Trader Joe’s last week, with a Ralph Nader bumper sticker. I took it for post-modern irony. Or possibly delusion: it was parked in a compact space, so maybe the owner thought they were driving a Sentra. Anyway, I’ve got a modest proposal: since SUVs are only purchased to drive your kids to a soccer game on a butte and such, I say let’s ban them from paved roads altogether. They’ll get good use out of their 4-wheel drives, and the rest of us will get faster, safer commutes.
Interview with Kurt Vonnegut on the war and such.
On why we should send the Statue of Liberty back to the frog-eaters.
Symbolism of the week: when Colin Powell went to the UN today, the staff covered up Picasso’s Guernica.
Said Powell: “Clearly, Saddam will stop at nothing until something stops him.” Clearly.
He also said (clearly) that when Resolution 1441 passed, “No Council member present...had any illusion...what serious consequences meant.” In other words, he is again saying that the French (etc) actually voted to let the US go to war with Iraq, and just either forgot or are lying about it.
Well, Powell successfully made the case that Iraq isn’t being very cooperative with the inspectors, and that neither is the United States. Imagine how much more effective the inspectors would be if the US hadn’t saved up its alleged intelligence for this day. Yes, the Iraqis are trying to hide weapons. But, as Powell himself said a few days ago, just because there’s a UN doesn’t mean that nations give up their sovereign right to defend themselves. How much more so for Iraq, which is being asked to give up all its weapons more dangerous than a pointy stick, when it is faced with certain war. Powell’s actual evidence was semi-convincing, though most of it depended on relying on him to be right and telling the truth about what those buildings were (although those satellite pictures were great, weren’t they? And that’s after being deliberate fuzzed up to hide our capabilities. Certainly good enough that you’d have to ask why we need U-2 flights), who those people were, and for god’s sake, how seriously are we expected to take this line: “Stop talking about it. They are listening to us. Don't give any evidence that we have these horrible agents.” These horrible agents? You mean your agent Maury who got you this gig, telling you it was an episode of Law & Order? Horrible agents indeed. Who writes this dialog?
Even William Safire, who has pretty much turned off his analytic skills for the duration, wonders why if we knew about an Al Qaida base in northern Iraq (an area not under Saddam’s control, but effectively an American protectorate anyway), we didn’t just bomb it into oblivion. The aluminum tubes were brought out again, and still prove nothing. Some defector testimony, which is always valueless, and stuff obtained by torture. The Iraqi-Al Qaida connections are laughable, of course (some of Powell’s claims have already been denied by British intelligence).
Speaking of intelligence, Guardian arcticle on previous American intelligence failures and/or lies: the Kuwaiti babies in the incubators, the Tonkin Gulf “incident,” the “chemical weapons” factory in Khartoum, etc.
Oh, and North Korea just threatened the US with a first strike. You’d think that would be news, but the good people at the NY Times evidently don’t.
2 Republican Congresscritters from NC have little problems with racism. Howard Coble, chair of the subcommittee on domestic security, says that FDR was right to intern Japanese, because weren’t a multicultural society then. And Sue Myrick also warns of the enemy within: “Look at who runs all the convenience stores across the country.”
Speaking of the enemy within, the World Court just ordered the US to stop executing Mexican nationals.
I saw an SUV outside Trader Joe’s last week, with a Ralph Nader bumper sticker. I took it for post-modern irony. Or possibly delusion: it was parked in a compact space, so maybe the owner thought they were driving a Sentra. Anyway, I’ve got a modest proposal: since SUVs are only purchased to drive your kids to a soccer game on a butte and such, I say let’s ban them from paved roads altogether. They’ll get good use out of their 4-wheel drives, and the rest of us will get faster, safer commutes.
Interview with Kurt Vonnegut on the war and such.
On why we should send the Statue of Liberty back to the frog-eaters.
Symbolism of the week: when Colin Powell went to the UN today, the staff covered up Picasso’s Guernica.
Said Powell: “Clearly, Saddam will stop at nothing until something stops him.” Clearly.
He also said (clearly) that when Resolution 1441 passed, “No Council member present...had any illusion...what serious consequences meant.” In other words, he is again saying that the French (etc) actually voted to let the US go to war with Iraq, and just either forgot or are lying about it.
Well, Powell successfully made the case that Iraq isn’t being very cooperative with the inspectors, and that neither is the United States. Imagine how much more effective the inspectors would be if the US hadn’t saved up its alleged intelligence for this day. Yes, the Iraqis are trying to hide weapons. But, as Powell himself said a few days ago, just because there’s a UN doesn’t mean that nations give up their sovereign right to defend themselves. How much more so for Iraq, which is being asked to give up all its weapons more dangerous than a pointy stick, when it is faced with certain war. Powell’s actual evidence was semi-convincing, though most of it depended on relying on him to be right and telling the truth about what those buildings were (although those satellite pictures were great, weren’t they? And that’s after being deliberate fuzzed up to hide our capabilities. Certainly good enough that you’d have to ask why we need U-2 flights), who those people were, and for god’s sake, how seriously are we expected to take this line: “Stop talking about it. They are listening to us. Don't give any evidence that we have these horrible agents.” These horrible agents? You mean your agent Maury who got you this gig, telling you it was an episode of Law & Order? Horrible agents indeed. Who writes this dialog?
Even William Safire, who has pretty much turned off his analytic skills for the duration, wonders why if we knew about an Al Qaida base in northern Iraq (an area not under Saddam’s control, but effectively an American protectorate anyway), we didn’t just bomb it into oblivion. The aluminum tubes were brought out again, and still prove nothing. Some defector testimony, which is always valueless, and stuff obtained by torture. The Iraqi-Al Qaida connections are laughable, of course (some of Powell’s claims have already been denied by British intelligence).
Speaking of intelligence, Guardian arcticle on previous American intelligence failures and/or lies: the Kuwaiti babies in the incubators, the Tonkin Gulf “incident,” the “chemical weapons” factory in Khartoum, etc.
Oh, and North Korea just threatened the US with a first strike. You’d think that would be news, but the good people at the NY Times evidently don’t.
2 Republican Congresscritters from NC have little problems with racism. Howard Coble, chair of the subcommittee on domestic security, says that FDR was right to intern Japanese, because weren’t a multicultural society then. And Sue Myrick also warns of the enemy within: “Look at who runs all the convenience stores across the country.”
Speaking of the enemy within, the World Court just ordered the US to stop executing Mexican nationals.
Tuesday, February 04, 2003
To the president's recollection, he thinks he has been there
GeeDubya calls the US space program “a desire written in the human heart.” But he can’t remember whether or not he’s ever visited the Johnson Space Center. Which is in Houston. Says his spokesmodel, “To the president's recollection, he thinks he has been there.” In George Bush’s head, no one can hear you scream. Ari Fleischer also says Bush has never seen a NASA takeoff or landing because there are so many other beautiful things to see.
Speaking of beautiful things to see in Texas, the state executed that innocent guy today. The prosecution did release to the defense the documents it had previously withheld, a full 7 hours before the execution, so that’s fair enough. The DNA test was never performed.
All hail the Union of Serbia and Montenegro Until the Next Civil War, as the nation of Yugoslavia is voted out of existence. Farewell, Union of Southern Slavs, and don’t let the war crimes tribunal hit you in the ass on the way out.
From the Daily Telegraph (a story about Britain): “The Catholic Church is to appoint an education "tsar" to fight suggestions that Catholic schools are breeding grounds for sectarianism and religious bigotry.” Yes, to show how open and tolerant you are, you’re appointing a TSAR.
Speaking of tolerance, New Mexico’s state senate saves the proud sport of cock-fighting from being outlawed. Evidently it’s an important part of Hispanic culture, according to some assholes.
Evidently I failed to mention the Bush plan to let states reduce Medicaid payments, impose co-pays, throw people off, etc etc, without having to get federal permission. This would not only set off a race to the bottom, which we’ve already begun, but end Medicaid as an entitlement program, which is the idea.
Speaking of beautiful things to see in Texas, the state executed that innocent guy today. The prosecution did release to the defense the documents it had previously withheld, a full 7 hours before the execution, so that’s fair enough. The DNA test was never performed.
All hail the Union of Serbia and Montenegro Until the Next Civil War, as the nation of Yugoslavia is voted out of existence. Farewell, Union of Southern Slavs, and don’t let the war crimes tribunal hit you in the ass on the way out.
From the Daily Telegraph (a story about Britain): “The Catholic Church is to appoint an education "tsar" to fight suggestions that Catholic schools are breeding grounds for sectarianism and religious bigotry.” Yes, to show how open and tolerant you are, you’re appointing a TSAR.
Speaking of tolerance, New Mexico’s state senate saves the proud sport of cock-fighting from being outlawed. Evidently it’s an important part of Hispanic culture, according to some assholes.
Evidently I failed to mention the Bush plan to let states reduce Medicaid payments, impose co-pays, throw people off, etc etc, without having to get federal permission. This would not only set off a race to the bottom, which we’ve already begun, but end Medicaid as an entitlement program, which is the idea.
Drinking pesticides for fun and profit
Here’s a subtle clue that your housekeeping might not be the best: after hearing a loud crash in my bedroom during one of Sunday’s earthquakes, I couldn’t figure out what had fallen down.
The fed gov is asking a court to dismiss a suit by a whistle blower who said that Star Wars doesn’t work, and was fired. The gov says that letting her have her day in court would let military secrets out (like the fact that Star Wars doesn’t work, I’m guessing).
Speaking of secrets, Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator of Nebraska, owned the company that ran the voting machines that counted the votes that put him into that office in 1996 in a surprise win (the company threatened to sue someone who found went public). Article on how computerized vote-counting is a black box that leaves no verifiable paper trail. The whole country is now Florida. The Hill reports (there’s a link to the story from the above link) that Hagel failed to disclose his interest in the company, as required by law. His company makes half the voting machines used in the US, and this is very paranoid-making.
So why is Tony Blair, whose pursuit of whatever the latest opinion poll tells him to pursue is legendary, following Bush’s line so assiduously when he can’t even bring the Labour party behind him, much less the British people? I’m thinking Shrub’s got pictures of him tied up and being whipped, possibly by Hillary Clinton. Today, Mr. Blur actually channeled Lyndon Johnson: "History points to this lesson: show weakness now and no one will ever believe us when we try to show strength in the future”.
Guardian on the US’s war in Colombia, and the legalization of new death squads in that country. For the spelling-challenged, this is the nation of Colombia, not the space shuttle Columbia. When Colombia falls apart in a mass of flaming debris, it will not be available at reasonable prices on Ebay.
Bayer paid college students, mostly in Edinburgh, to test out some pesticides. By drinking them. This actually violates the Nuremberg Code. Bayer is a subsidiary of IG Farben, which brought you Zyklon B.
The fed gov is asking a court to dismiss a suit by a whistle blower who said that Star Wars doesn’t work, and was fired. The gov says that letting her have her day in court would let military secrets out (like the fact that Star Wars doesn’t work, I’m guessing).
Speaking of secrets, Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator of Nebraska, owned the company that ran the voting machines that counted the votes that put him into that office in 1996 in a surprise win (the company threatened to sue someone who found went public). Article on how computerized vote-counting is a black box that leaves no verifiable paper trail. The whole country is now Florida. The Hill reports (there’s a link to the story from the above link) that Hagel failed to disclose his interest in the company, as required by law. His company makes half the voting machines used in the US, and this is very paranoid-making.
So why is Tony Blair, whose pursuit of whatever the latest opinion poll tells him to pursue is legendary, following Bush’s line so assiduously when he can’t even bring the Labour party behind him, much less the British people? I’m thinking Shrub’s got pictures of him tied up and being whipped, possibly by Hillary Clinton. Today, Mr. Blur actually channeled Lyndon Johnson: "History points to this lesson: show weakness now and no one will ever believe us when we try to show strength in the future”.
Guardian on the US’s war in Colombia, and the legalization of new death squads in that country. For the spelling-challenged, this is the nation of Colombia, not the space shuttle Columbia. When Colombia falls apart in a mass of flaming debris, it will not be available at reasonable prices on Ebay.
Bayer paid college students, mostly in Edinburgh, to test out some pesticides. By drinking them. This actually violates the Nuremberg Code. Bayer is a subsidiary of IG Farben, which brought you Zyklon B.
Sunday, February 02, 2003
Creationists are suing a Texas Tech professor who won’t write letters of recommendation for students who don’t believe in evolution.
The Catholic Church bans transsexuals from being priests.
I mentioned that Bush’s little initiative on AIDS in Africa mostly bypasses the UN AIDS fund. That fund ran out of money today.
The US is planning to use sea lions in the Iraq war.
You can now pass Florida’s high school PE requirements online. Now why didn’t they have that when I was in high school?
The Bush admin wants to keep using methyl bromide, a pesticide due to be banned under an international agreement to protect the ozone layer, because it is necessary to one of the American industries most beloved of Republicans: golf courses.
CanNOT make this shit up.
Speaking of poison gases, it seems that the gassing of the Kurds in Halabja was actually the work of Iran, not Iraq.
Britain is working on setting up new tests for aliens seeking citizenship. It includes how to use a telephone, what the cops can and can’t do, “etiquette of everyday life,” equality of the sexes, the funny name of that guy Mrs. Wallace Simpson was fucking, why Wales only gets a “National Assembly” while Scotland has a “Parliament,” etc etc. What it does not include, to much tut tutting, is British history. I believe the American system is that if you can correctly answer any historical questions (what decade did World War II occur in, that sort of thing), you are promptly expelled.
Well, there’s nothing like a little shuttle explosion to break the monotony of war coverage. Shrub, in a speech I thankfully missed, said, "The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today.” He added, “On the other hand, the joker who named Uranus...”
Observer on an innocent man Texas is due to execute this week. The police kept back evidence of his innocence, just brought to light. And the judge who is to decide whether to issue a stay, has evidently already made up his mind--if you count a letter to the pardons & parole board telling them they should fry the guy--but is willing to take new evidence, two days after the execution.
The Catholic Church bans transsexuals from being priests.
I mentioned that Bush’s little initiative on AIDS in Africa mostly bypasses the UN AIDS fund. That fund ran out of money today.
The US is planning to use sea lions in the Iraq war.
You can now pass Florida’s high school PE requirements online. Now why didn’t they have that when I was in high school?
The Bush admin wants to keep using methyl bromide, a pesticide due to be banned under an international agreement to protect the ozone layer, because it is necessary to one of the American industries most beloved of Republicans: golf courses.
CanNOT make this shit up.
Speaking of poison gases, it seems that the gassing of the Kurds in Halabja was actually the work of Iran, not Iraq.
Britain is working on setting up new tests for aliens seeking citizenship. It includes how to use a telephone, what the cops can and can’t do, “etiquette of everyday life,” equality of the sexes, the funny name of that guy Mrs. Wallace Simpson was fucking, why Wales only gets a “National Assembly” while Scotland has a “Parliament,” etc etc. What it does not include, to much tut tutting, is British history. I believe the American system is that if you can correctly answer any historical questions (what decade did World War II occur in, that sort of thing), you are promptly expelled.
Well, there’s nothing like a little shuttle explosion to break the monotony of war coverage. Shrub, in a speech I thankfully missed, said, "The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today.” He added, “On the other hand, the joker who named Uranus...”
Observer on an innocent man Texas is due to execute this week. The police kept back evidence of his innocence, just brought to light. And the judge who is to decide whether to issue a stay, has evidently already made up his mind--if you count a letter to the pardons & parole board telling them they should fry the guy--but is willing to take new evidence, two days after the execution.
Thursday, January 30, 2003
His willingness to terrorize himself
Maybe Shrub could make his case for the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection by saying that he has no evidence for it because he’s relying on the US intelligence agencies that so completely failed to notice the 9/11 guys.
At least it would make more sense than this: "The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself."—Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 29, 2003
I missed something obvious about the timing of the war. It’s not just the weather, it’s the reservists. A shitload of reservists have been called up, and you don’t keep reservists sitting around for months, or send them home to call them back later. This is actually how World War I started.
Not that we’re waiting. A report yesterday that doesn’t seem to worry anybody in particular says that US troops are already operating in northern Iraq.
I’m told Bush’s one effort at pretend compassion, the AIDS initiative, actually amounts to less than what our proportional (by population and wealth) contribution to the UN Global AIDS Fund should be but isn’t. And most of it goes to US pharmaceutical companies and church groups. (His other new initiative, $600m for drug addicts, will be in the form of vouchers that can be used at religious groups--see a trend here?). Actually, $2b a year to treat 30 million with AIDS in Africa--to say nothing of prevention--that’s, let’s see, carry the 2, $67 per year each. How much does it cost to keep an American with AIDS alive for a year?
The Herero are suing Germany for genocide (look it up, I can’t explain everything to you).
I Am Your Father’s Skeleton, Luke: Two teenagers stole a Broadway actor's skeleton from a New York crypt and took it to a party dressed as Darth Vader the Star Wars character, police said. Michael Herz, 18, and Michael Sossi, 17, deny taking the body of Elmer Grandin, who died in 1938, and two other skulls.
At least it would make more sense than this: "The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself."—Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 29, 2003
I missed something obvious about the timing of the war. It’s not just the weather, it’s the reservists. A shitload of reservists have been called up, and you don’t keep reservists sitting around for months, or send them home to call them back later. This is actually how World War I started.
Not that we’re waiting. A report yesterday that doesn’t seem to worry anybody in particular says that US troops are already operating in northern Iraq.
I’m told Bush’s one effort at pretend compassion, the AIDS initiative, actually amounts to less than what our proportional (by population and wealth) contribution to the UN Global AIDS Fund should be but isn’t. And most of it goes to US pharmaceutical companies and church groups. (His other new initiative, $600m for drug addicts, will be in the form of vouchers that can be used at religious groups--see a trend here?). Actually, $2b a year to treat 30 million with AIDS in Africa--to say nothing of prevention--that’s, let’s see, carry the 2, $67 per year each. How much does it cost to keep an American with AIDS alive for a year?
The Herero are suing Germany for genocide (look it up, I can’t explain everything to you).
I Am Your Father’s Skeleton, Luke: Two teenagers stole a Broadway actor's skeleton from a New York crypt and took it to a party dressed as Darth Vader the Star Wars character, police said. Michael Herz, 18, and Michael Sossi, 17, deny taking the body of Elmer Grandin, who died in 1938, and two other skulls.
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
"Exoatmospheric kill vehicle" would make a terrible name for a rock band
I mentioned a man suing the police for sending him a Valentine’s Day Card. Here is what it said: "Will you be my Valentine? I'm hoping we can meet. We have a cosy cell, prepared here in St John Street."
Bush said that if Saddam ain’t evil, evil has no meaning. John Pilger, in a somewhat over-the-top article, suggests that dropping 800 cruise missiles on Baghdad, the majority of whose population is under 14, might constitute that. Well, as Bush didn’t say to the Iraqi people, Your real enemy isn’t surrounding you, it’s over-head and coming straight for you. This is the administration that has claimed that Iraqi will be dancing in the streets when we “liberate” them. I don’t think there’ll be that much dancing in the rubble.
OK, that was me being over-the-top, not Pilger. Pilger does call Bush a fascist, but if you read past the hyperbole, you can see that it comes from someone who know what he’s talking about regarding American bombing (he is an Australian journalist who helped break the story of the secret bombing of Cambodia, and wrote about East Timor for 25 years).
The real problem is that nothing is unthinkable for the Bushies. I don’t think they’ll actually use nuclear weapons against Iraq, but they’ll sure plan for it and threaten it. I was about to say that they might even use smallpox or something, but it’s not like the US hasn’t used biological warfare against Iraq before: targeting water purification and sewer treatment plants, then denying Iraq access to replacement parts and medicines (did they get away with the attempt last month to stop Iraq importing antibiotics?), etc.
Incidentally, if I were Iran, I’d be worried about the several minutes Bush spent talking about them. And Iraq. And N Korea. He didn’t repeat the phrase Axis of Evil, but it’s obviously still in his oddly chimp-like head.
Also in the speech, the return of the Laffer Curve, which I don’t think anybody has pointed out yet. Drug benefits on Medicare only for those who subject themselves to HMO controls.
And very vague assertions of connections between Iraq and Al Qaida. On Prime Minister’s Questions today, Tony Blair had a rather hard time dealing with the fact that British intelligence has cleared Iraq of that allegation. The new emphasis on terrorism suggests that the whole WMD thing isn’t going over well. His father also changed the rationale for attacking Iraq several times in the run-up to the fighting, and Reagan with Grenada. There is also a focus, in relation to inspections, on down-grading the inspections themselves and saying that Iraq fails if it doesn’t do all the work itself. This is of course partly because the inspectors have hit several hundred sites and found zippo, but also because it shifts focus from the lack of cooperation with the inspectors by the United States, which has failed to provide them with real intelligence, if any. The growing talk about an “Adlai Stevenson moment” is clearly worrying them.
By the way, if terrorists had blown everyone up, the president would now be John Ashcroft. The horror. The horror.
Michael Kinsley on the speech:
For my fellow censorship buffs, a landmark: the BBC has allowed the first broadcast of “cunt,” in a docudrama about witch-hunts. They say it wasn’t an offensive term in the 16th century.
The Post says the “new evidence” about the Iraqi WMD programs is confined to dual-use materials--like those aluminum tubes. They really do have nothing.
Evidently, the key Star Wars contract was won by default by Raytheon in 1998 after Boeing got caught spying on it and dropped out. So no actual analysis was done as to whether Raytheon’s “exoatmospheric kill vehicle” would actually work. Which it doesn’t. No one ever prosecuted Boeing (for example, for fucking up an $800m. bidding process), because then people might have wondered why it was still left in charge of the Star Wars project (that’s not me, it actually says that).
The White House cancels a poetry symposium because some of the poets might oppose the war.
Many government documents on the resignation of King Edward in 1937 have been released, if anyone is interested. Evidently they threatened to take his money away if he came back to Britain without permission. The Guardian has the best coverage.
Bush said that if Saddam ain’t evil, evil has no meaning. John Pilger, in a somewhat over-the-top article, suggests that dropping 800 cruise missiles on Baghdad, the majority of whose population is under 14, might constitute that. Well, as Bush didn’t say to the Iraqi people, Your real enemy isn’t surrounding you, it’s over-head and coming straight for you. This is the administration that has claimed that Iraqi will be dancing in the streets when we “liberate” them. I don’t think there’ll be that much dancing in the rubble.
OK, that was me being over-the-top, not Pilger. Pilger does call Bush a fascist, but if you read past the hyperbole, you can see that it comes from someone who know what he’s talking about regarding American bombing (he is an Australian journalist who helped break the story of the secret bombing of Cambodia, and wrote about East Timor for 25 years).
The real problem is that nothing is unthinkable for the Bushies. I don’t think they’ll actually use nuclear weapons against Iraq, but they’ll sure plan for it and threaten it. I was about to say that they might even use smallpox or something, but it’s not like the US hasn’t used biological warfare against Iraq before: targeting water purification and sewer treatment plants, then denying Iraq access to replacement parts and medicines (did they get away with the attempt last month to stop Iraq importing antibiotics?), etc.
Incidentally, if I were Iran, I’d be worried about the several minutes Bush spent talking about them. And Iraq. And N Korea. He didn’t repeat the phrase Axis of Evil, but it’s obviously still in his oddly chimp-like head.
Also in the speech, the return of the Laffer Curve, which I don’t think anybody has pointed out yet. Drug benefits on Medicare only for those who subject themselves to HMO controls.
And very vague assertions of connections between Iraq and Al Qaida. On Prime Minister’s Questions today, Tony Blair had a rather hard time dealing with the fact that British intelligence has cleared Iraq of that allegation. The new emphasis on terrorism suggests that the whole WMD thing isn’t going over well. His father also changed the rationale for attacking Iraq several times in the run-up to the fighting, and Reagan with Grenada. There is also a focus, in relation to inspections, on down-grading the inspections themselves and saying that Iraq fails if it doesn’t do all the work itself. This is of course partly because the inspectors have hit several hundred sites and found zippo, but also because it shifts focus from the lack of cooperation with the inspectors by the United States, which has failed to provide them with real intelligence, if any. The growing talk about an “Adlai Stevenson moment” is clearly worrying them.
By the way, if terrorists had blown everyone up, the president would now be John Ashcroft. The horror. The horror.
Michael Kinsley on the speech:
“It would be a fine reason to topple other governments around the world that torture their own citizens and do other despicable things. Is the Bush administration prepared to enforce the no-torturing-children rule by force everywhere? And what happens if Saddam decides to meet all our demands regarding weapons and inspections? Is he then free to torture children and pour acid on innocent citizens without fear of the United States?Sorry I only found this afterwards, but here’s the State of the Union drinking game, along with scores—this is actually well worth looking at, it’s quite revealing.
“If Saddam's human-rights practices morally require the United States to act, why are we waiting for Hans Blix? Or if the danger that Saddam will develop and use weapons of mass destruction against the United States justifies removing him in our own long-term self-defense, what does torturing children have to do with it? Bush was careful not to say explicitly that Iraq's internal human-rights situation alone justifies going to war-though he was just as careful to imply that it does. But Bush has said clearly and often that Saddam's external threat does justify a war all by itself. So, human-rights abuses are neither necessary nor sufficient as a reason for war, in Bush's view, to the extent it can be parsed. Logically, they don't matter. That makes the talk about the torture of children merely decorative, not serious.”
For my fellow censorship buffs, a landmark: the BBC has allowed the first broadcast of “cunt,” in a docudrama about witch-hunts. They say it wasn’t an offensive term in the 16th century.
The Post says the “new evidence” about the Iraqi WMD programs is confined to dual-use materials--like those aluminum tubes. They really do have nothing.
Evidently, the key Star Wars contract was won by default by Raytheon in 1998 after Boeing got caught spying on it and dropped out. So no actual analysis was done as to whether Raytheon’s “exoatmospheric kill vehicle” would actually work. Which it doesn’t. No one ever prosecuted Boeing (for example, for fucking up an $800m. bidding process), because then people might have wondered why it was still left in charge of the Star Wars project (that’s not me, it actually says that).
The White House cancels a poetry symposium because some of the poets might oppose the war.
Many government documents on the resignation of King Edward in 1937 have been released, if anyone is interested. Evidently they threatened to take his money away if he came back to Britain without permission. The Guardian has the best coverage.
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
And the State of the Union is...the envelope, please...strong!
In Davos, Colin Powell strayed from his script and used the words “great crusade.” You just may hear more about this. He also says again that Saddam is running out of time. If the Bush admin had a theme song, it would be the one from Jeopardy.
Another amazing scoop from the Guardian: “Arab World: US Flag Burnt in Protests.”
CBS says the Iraq war will start with a bombardment of 300-400 cruise missiles, in the first day, more than in the whole 1991 war. And the same again the second day.
The Comcast cable company refused to accept anti-war commercials to run on CNN in the DC region during the State of the Union address (obviously not actually during, but that’s what AP says).
If the US didn’t like Libya getting the chair of the UN human rights commission, I really don’t think it will be pleased in May when the chair of the Conference on Disarmament goes to Iraq (it goes alphabetically).
In preparation for war, many American soldiers are making deposits at the sperm bank (some of which have military discounts). Many of them are less afraid of being killed than of being Gulf War Syndromed into infertility.
From the Daily Telegraph: A convicted burglar has been given legal aid to sue the police for sending him a Valentine's card last year. Gary Williams, who has a 12-year criminal record, was one of 10 known burglars and car criminals who received cards from Brighton police. But when he opened the card, his girlfriend thought it must be from another woman. She was so cross that, before he could explain, she hurled an ashtray at him, and it went whistling past his head. Williams, 26, will go to the High Court next month to seek a judicial review of the actions of Ken Jones, the chief constable of Sussex. He is seeking damages, arguing that the card was malicious and caused him distress.
State of the Union address, some random quotes and sarcastic comments:
“No one was ever healed by a frivolous lawsuit.” Did he not see Patch Adams, in which Robin Williams taught us the healing power of frivolity?
Creepiest line to a secularist: “we will transform America one heart and one soul at a time.”
He said we should set a high standard for humanity by banning cloning. Makes it sound like an entrance test.
On Saddam Hussein: “If this isn’t evil, evil has no meaning.” That would be very worrying to Boy George, whose vocabulary is already pretty small.
Another word in his vocabulary that he trotted out several times is security. For example, he talked about a peace between a secure Israel and a democratic Palestine (on the same day that the first part of the BBC news at 3 was given over to a live broadcast of Sharon’s victory speech, which actually made me more nauseous than Shrub’s). And he would defend the “freedom and security of the American people.” Who precisely is threatening the freedom of the American people? No one, but you’re not supposed to look at the construction that closely. The problem is that security is a purely negative virtue, so he needed to pair it with a positive one. Or more positive, since freedom itself is only the absence of restrictions. Which is why the speech only offered freedom to Iraq, not democracy.
He actually brought up those damned aluminum tubes again, saying they were “suitable for atomic weapons production.”
Nothing about Osama. Guess Bush isn’t mad at him anymore.
Another amazing scoop from the Guardian: “Arab World: US Flag Burnt in Protests.”
CBS says the Iraq war will start with a bombardment of 300-400 cruise missiles, in the first day, more than in the whole 1991 war. And the same again the second day.
The Comcast cable company refused to accept anti-war commercials to run on CNN in the DC region during the State of the Union address (obviously not actually during, but that’s what AP says).
If the US didn’t like Libya getting the chair of the UN human rights commission, I really don’t think it will be pleased in May when the chair of the Conference on Disarmament goes to Iraq (it goes alphabetically).
In preparation for war, many American soldiers are making deposits at the sperm bank (some of which have military discounts). Many of them are less afraid of being killed than of being Gulf War Syndromed into infertility.
From the Daily Telegraph: A convicted burglar has been given legal aid to sue the police for sending him a Valentine's card last year. Gary Williams, who has a 12-year criminal record, was one of 10 known burglars and car criminals who received cards from Brighton police. But when he opened the card, his girlfriend thought it must be from another woman. She was so cross that, before he could explain, she hurled an ashtray at him, and it went whistling past his head. Williams, 26, will go to the High Court next month to seek a judicial review of the actions of Ken Jones, the chief constable of Sussex. He is seeking damages, arguing that the card was malicious and caused him distress.
State of the Union address, some random quotes and sarcastic comments:
“No one was ever healed by a frivolous lawsuit.” Did he not see Patch Adams, in which Robin Williams taught us the healing power of frivolity?
Creepiest line to a secularist: “we will transform America one heart and one soul at a time.”
He said we should set a high standard for humanity by banning cloning. Makes it sound like an entrance test.
On Saddam Hussein: “If this isn’t evil, evil has no meaning.” That would be very worrying to Boy George, whose vocabulary is already pretty small.
Another word in his vocabulary that he trotted out several times is security. For example, he talked about a peace between a secure Israel and a democratic Palestine (on the same day that the first part of the BBC news at 3 was given over to a live broadcast of Sharon’s victory speech, which actually made me more nauseous than Shrub’s). And he would defend the “freedom and security of the American people.” Who precisely is threatening the freedom of the American people? No one, but you’re not supposed to look at the construction that closely. The problem is that security is a purely negative virtue, so he needed to pair it with a positive one. Or more positive, since freedom itself is only the absence of restrictions. Which is why the speech only offered freedom to Iraq, not democracy.
He actually brought up those damned aluminum tubes again, saying they were “suitable for atomic weapons production.”
Nothing about Osama. Guess Bush isn’t mad at him anymore.
Sunday, January 26, 2003
It is now illegal in France to insult the flag or boo the Marseillaise (6 months + €7,500). I haven’t said enough about France’s rapid movement in an authoritarian direction, of which this law is the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, much of what Secretary of War Rumsfeld calls Old Europe does seem to be moving backwards. Italy is on the verge of restoring immunity for members of parliament--immunity is a standard protection for democracy in other countries, but Italy is, well, Italy. Berlusconi, who keeps changing laws to legalize his many illegal activities, often retroactively, this week has changed a law to let him continue breaking the rules after he dies: he wants to be buried in a place too close to a population center, in violation of some perfectly sensible health codes from the 19th century.
Saturday, January 25, 2003
He’s got big ones
No Elephant Sex, Please, We’re British: the Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire has fired a herd of African elephants who have become a little too, shall we say, frisky. Where will they go where their sexual antics will be tolerated? France, of course. The Guardian does not say precisely what the elephants have been doing--I assumed the obvious until the last sentence: “workers involved with the elephants will be offered alternative positions at Longleat Safari Park.”
A British radio station held a contest offering tickets to a concert by a former Spice Girl to whoever could sit on dry ice the longest. Three of the contestants missed the festival because they spent 8 to 10 weeks in hospital with severe ass injuries (their nerves froze first so they didn’t realize there was a problem; also, their brains were very very small).
The Senate has quietly struck out of the budget funding for John Poindexter’s Big Brother program and the registration of enemy aliens. Also dead, Bush’s idea of letting states limit trips to the ER on Medicaid. On the other side, Bush plans to let federal housing money be used to build places of worship, ‘cuz Jesus needs a place to live too, I guess.
I saw on the BBC news, but not I think anywhere else, that this week the Israeli Supreme Court approved the use of human shields by the military.
An interesting piece on the op-ed pages of Saturday’s NY Times on the Kennedy administration’s efforts to impose inspections of the nuclear facilities of Israel, which fooled inspectors every time. Although the article doesn’t say it, Israel’s tactics were more like North Korea’s, demanding throughout the 1960s ever-escalating bribes in terms of aid & military hardware in exchange for not building nukes, which it did anyway.
With the shortage of oil imports due to Venezuela’s little local difficulties, the US has been greatly increasing its oil imports from, would you believe, Iraq.
I haven’t had the time to pay as much attention as I’d like to the Israeli elections, which sound like fun. The Likud defense minister went on walk-about yesterday while his handlers went ahead of him calling out “He’s got big ones, he’s got big ones,” meaning exactly what you think it means. Today, the secular party held a rally--today being the sabbath. A prominent Orthodox rabbi, a rabbi mind you, said that he hoped the party’s leader would burn to a cinder--said that about a man who survived Nazi concentration camps.
A British radio station held a contest offering tickets to a concert by a former Spice Girl to whoever could sit on dry ice the longest. Three of the contestants missed the festival because they spent 8 to 10 weeks in hospital with severe ass injuries (their nerves froze first so they didn’t realize there was a problem; also, their brains were very very small).
The Senate has quietly struck out of the budget funding for John Poindexter’s Big Brother program and the registration of enemy aliens. Also dead, Bush’s idea of letting states limit trips to the ER on Medicaid. On the other side, Bush plans to let federal housing money be used to build places of worship, ‘cuz Jesus needs a place to live too, I guess.
I saw on the BBC news, but not I think anywhere else, that this week the Israeli Supreme Court approved the use of human shields by the military.
An interesting piece on the op-ed pages of Saturday’s NY Times on the Kennedy administration’s efforts to impose inspections of the nuclear facilities of Israel, which fooled inspectors every time. Although the article doesn’t say it, Israel’s tactics were more like North Korea’s, demanding throughout the 1960s ever-escalating bribes in terms of aid & military hardware in exchange for not building nukes, which it did anyway.
With the shortage of oil imports due to Venezuela’s little local difficulties, the US has been greatly increasing its oil imports from, would you believe, Iraq.
I haven’t had the time to pay as much attention as I’d like to the Israeli elections, which sound like fun. The Likud defense minister went on walk-about yesterday while his handlers went ahead of him calling out “He’s got big ones, he’s got big ones,” meaning exactly what you think it means. Today, the secular party held a rally--today being the sabbath. A prominent Orthodox rabbi, a rabbi mind you, said that he hoped the party’s leader would burn to a cinder--said that about a man who survived Nazi concentration camps.
Thursday, January 23, 2003
The larrikin moon
Bush today opened his mouth, which is never a wise move for him. He said that Iraqis who obeyed orders to use WMDs would be “persecuted as war criminals,” and referred to “the so-called inspectors”. Also, France and Germany will be “held to account” if they don’t back Bush’s war.
And then Secretary of War Rumsfeld opens his mouth and pisses off all of “Old” Europe.
WaPo on the sort of advice Bush gets on AIDS and homosexuality.
(Later): Jerry Thacker has had to withdraw, although he says that his calling AIDS a “gay plague” was taken out of context.
Orrin Hatch will make it harder for D’s to block Bush’s nominees for judgeships the way he allowed R’s to block Clinton’s nominees.
Also in the hypocrisy stakes, Harvey Pitt is *still* in charge of the SEC, which just quietly gutted most of the new accountancy rules imposed after last year’s scandals, which were, after all, *last year’s* scandals.
Been meaning to mention Maureen Dowd’s column of the 23rd, which says precisely some of the things I said recently: “The Bushes seem to believe that the divisive thing in American society is dwelling on social and economic inequities, rather than the inequities themselves.”
The Sundance Film Festival is going on right now and one of the big hits is a documentary about some of my relatives. It sounds like the film thinks they didn’t actually abuse all those children, so that’s nice, I guess.
Speaking of sex with children, we need to know exactly how the story about Scott Ritter leaked to the press just as he was about to go to Baghdad on a peace mission.
For your surfing pleasure, it is now possible to access all of Salon’s articles. They make you watch a commercial first (although if you have more than one screen up at once and your speakers off like I do when I web-browse, this isn’t much of an inconvenience). Actually, Salon is not what it once was, but some of its political and cultural writing is still worth reading.
And then Secretary of War Rumsfeld opens his mouth and pisses off all of “Old” Europe.
WaPo on the sort of advice Bush gets on AIDS and homosexuality.
(Later): Jerry Thacker has had to withdraw, although he says that his calling AIDS a “gay plague” was taken out of context.
Orrin Hatch will make it harder for D’s to block Bush’s nominees for judgeships the way he allowed R’s to block Clinton’s nominees.
Also in the hypocrisy stakes, Harvey Pitt is *still* in charge of the SEC, which just quietly gutted most of the new accountancy rules imposed after last year’s scandals, which were, after all, *last year’s* scandals.
Been meaning to mention Maureen Dowd’s column of the 23rd, which says precisely some of the things I said recently: “The Bushes seem to believe that the divisive thing in American society is dwelling on social and economic inequities, rather than the inequities themselves.”
The Sundance Film Festival is going on right now and one of the big hits is a documentary about some of my relatives. It sounds like the film thinks they didn’t actually abuse all those children, so that’s nice, I guess.
Speaking of sex with children, we need to know exactly how the story about Scott Ritter leaked to the press just as he was about to go to Baghdad on a peace mission.
For your surfing pleasure, it is now possible to access all of Salon’s articles. They make you watch a commercial first (although if you have more than one screen up at once and your speakers off like I do when I web-browse, this isn’t much of an inconvenience). Actually, Salon is not what it once was, but some of its political and cultural writing is still worth reading.
Monday, January 20, 2003
Happy National Sanctity of Human Life Day
Headline in NY Times world brief section: “Northern Ireland: Protestant Group Upset.” Woodward and Bernstein would be proud.
Site at which you can click on any year since 1776 and see who US troops were killing or threatening. The producers of the site seem to think that the US is not a peace-loving nation.
Today (Sunday) was National Sanctity of Human Life Day, as proclaimed by GeeDubya.
Isn’t it interesting that when we read that, we all know he actually meant--and only meant--fetuses, and American fetuses at that.
Secretary of War Rumsfeld helped put out the point of the day Sunday that if Saddam Hussein left Iraq, he could be offered immunity from prosecution. Leaving the question, prosecution by whom? The US can’t immunize someone from the International Court, it can’t speak for the next Iraqi government (well, it probably can, but you’re supposed to pretend that your puppet governments are capable of speaking when you’re drinking a glass of water), so Rummy really only means that the US won’t prosecute him, like Manuel Noriega, which was never very likely. Either that or the Rumster forgot that he doesn’t actually speak for the entire world. God I hate that man.
Site at which you can click on any year since 1776 and see who US troops were killing or threatening. The producers of the site seem to think that the US is not a peace-loving nation.
Today (Sunday) was National Sanctity of Human Life Day, as proclaimed by GeeDubya.
Isn’t it interesting that when we read that, we all know he actually meant--and only meant--fetuses, and American fetuses at that.
Secretary of War Rumsfeld helped put out the point of the day Sunday that if Saddam Hussein left Iraq, he could be offered immunity from prosecution. Leaving the question, prosecution by whom? The US can’t immunize someone from the International Court, it can’t speak for the next Iraqi government (well, it probably can, but you’re supposed to pretend that your puppet governments are capable of speaking when you’re drinking a glass of water), so Rummy really only means that the US won’t prosecute him, like Manuel Noriega, which was never very likely. Either that or the Rumster forgot that he doesn’t actually speak for the entire world. God I hate that man.
Friday, January 17, 2003
Empty war heads
Bush wants pain and suffering in malpractice lawsuits limited to $250,000. That last sentence was of course fallacious. Bush couldn’t give a shit about limiting pain and suffering, he wants to limit compensation for doctors whose incompetence inflicts pain and suffering, or perhaps more importantly, for their insurance companies. Those insurance companies have, like everyone else who invests heavily in the market, not been doing that well, but they expect their other investments, in campaign donations to Republicans, to perform rather better. Naturally the insurance companies want to shift their losses from having bought stock in Enron to those who most deserve to bear them: those scheming bastards who have been crippled and tormented by the mistakes of their doctors. Bush of course said nothing about doing anything to reduce malpractice, which you might have expected at the same time as he was proposing to reduce the costs to doctors of malpracticing. Maybe this is because gross incompetence is a way of life for GeeDubya, taken for granted like the air he breathes.
Any comments he might have made about doing this to ensure continued access to doctors (didn’t read the whole speech) were made nonsense of by his plans to cut payments to Medicare doctors yet again, announced last month, or by the plan announced on the very same day as his malpractice speech to let states restrict the access of Medicare patients to emergency medical services.
But that isn’t the real addition of insult to injury. No, the real jaw dropping, you gotta be shitting me insult is the provision that got almost no attention: he wants any money plaintiffs receive from their own insurance companies to be deducted from awards. In other words, he wants to shift penalties awarded against doctors guilty of medical malpractice from the guilty doctors to the insurance companies of their innocent victims.
So the inspectors found some empty warheads in Iraq. I guess that means the warhawks will stop attacking the inspectors as incompetent, huh? I’ve heard conflicting opinions from Iraq and from the empty war-heads in charge of US foreign policy as to whether Iraq accounted for them, but nothing from the UN inspectors yet. Of course anything that the US says about the content of the Iraqi submission is automatically suspicious given the 8,000 pages the US decided to censor before handing it to anyone else. In further sloppy reporting, I haven’t heard what happened to the warheads: did the inspectors remove them for destruction, or what? Also, I take it warhead means the part of a rocket that doesn’t contain the engine and propellant, which makes it pretty much just an empty metal container. OK, they may be more sophisticated than that, but it would have been nice if one of the many fine news sources I patronize had looked into this. One quick and dirty guide to their sophistication or lack of it might be the price.
Any comments he might have made about doing this to ensure continued access to doctors (didn’t read the whole speech) were made nonsense of by his plans to cut payments to Medicare doctors yet again, announced last month, or by the plan announced on the very same day as his malpractice speech to let states restrict the access of Medicare patients to emergency medical services.
But that isn’t the real addition of insult to injury. No, the real jaw dropping, you gotta be shitting me insult is the provision that got almost no attention: he wants any money plaintiffs receive from their own insurance companies to be deducted from awards. In other words, he wants to shift penalties awarded against doctors guilty of medical malpractice from the guilty doctors to the insurance companies of their innocent victims.
So the inspectors found some empty warheads in Iraq. I guess that means the warhawks will stop attacking the inspectors as incompetent, huh? I’ve heard conflicting opinions from Iraq and from the empty war-heads in charge of US foreign policy as to whether Iraq accounted for them, but nothing from the UN inspectors yet. Of course anything that the US says about the content of the Iraqi submission is automatically suspicious given the 8,000 pages the US decided to censor before handing it to anyone else. In further sloppy reporting, I haven’t heard what happened to the warheads: did the inspectors remove them for destruction, or what? Also, I take it warhead means the part of a rocket that doesn’t contain the engine and propellant, which makes it pretty much just an empty metal container. OK, they may be more sophisticated than that, but it would have been nice if one of the many fine news sources I patronize had looked into this. One quick and dirty guide to their sophistication or lack of it might be the price.
Thursday, January 16, 2003
Divisive
I bought shoes today. I hate buying shoes. Fortunately, the shoe store was near a Krispy Kreme, and I don’t so much mind buying donuts.
North Korea’s website. Probably its only website.
It is now legal to have unmarried sex in Georgia. Plan your vacations accordingly. In the case involved, a 16-year old boy was ordered by the court to write an essay on why he shouldn’t have sex (in Georgia the age of consent is 16, although I guess only if you’re married; however, asking a 16-year old student of the Georgia education system to write an essay is just plain cruel). He wrote that it was none of their business. Unmarried sex is still illegal in 9 states and the District of Columbia.
News from the exciting world of cock fighting: in the Philippines, a fighting cock with razors attached accidentally kills, heh heh, his owner, after hitting him in the groin.
In his speech attacking affirmative action at the U of Michigan, Bush attacked “racial prejudice” at length. It’s just discrimination he doesn’t mind too much. Or at any rate, he’s willing for it to end, but only if it happens accidentally, as some commentators have said. Actually, though, what he really wants is for the issue of race to just go away. This is why he talks about prejudice, which doesn’t directly hurt anyone, and why he attacks affirmative action as “divisive,” as if rocking the boat is the worst thing he can accuse it of. Compare this to his preemptive claims that critics of his tax cuts for the rich were engaged in “class warfare.” Remember, it’s not racial and class inequality that are the problem, as far as he is concerned, but people bringing those inequalities to our attention.
In place of “quotas,” he approves the humbug plan adopted in California, and elsewhere, after affirmative action was banned in the university system, of taking the top, what is it, 5%?, of students at each high school, in effect replacing racial quotas with the divergent standards of schools in different neighborhoods. Elsewhere, he has criticized these differing standards as the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” but here he actually makes them the basis of his policy (or “basics of his policy,” as GeeDubya would say).
I was gonna say that “divisive” is what Trent Lott would mean when he used the words “stirring up the niggras,” but I decided that was too crude.
Secretary of War Rummy Rumsfeld again (see mine of 11/18/02) says that it doesn’t matter what the UN inspectors say about Iraq having WMDs (there, I’ve finally given in to the acronym). In fact, if they find no weapons, it just shows how sneaky the Iraqis are. On 11/18/02 I called this the heads I win tails you lose approach (in case you haven’t committed all my emails to memory)(and if not, why not?). Actually Rumsfeld has never been a big fan of having proof for the assumptions behind his policies (like GeeDubya with tax cuts). Bob Woodward reports that Rummy was calling for war with Iraq on 9/12/01, with, obviously, no proof of Iraqi involvement. To be fair, recent polls suggest that Americans think that some or most of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, which is further evidence that in a democracy you get the government you deserve (or, to roughly quote H L Mencken, democracy is the theory that the people know what they want and deserve to get it--good and hard).
The Supreme Court decided 5-4 that it wasn’t double jeopardy to give a death sentence to someone in his second trial after the jury in his first trial found him guilty but deadlocked over the sentence, which in Pennsylvania law meant he automatically got a sentence of life rather than death. I guess it comes down to how you define “jeopardy.” Since he was found guilty the first time, and the second trial was on his own appeal, then yes a second *verdict* of guilty doesn’t count as double jeopardy. But the second trial certainly put him in jeopardy of a *sentence* of death for a second time, and the 5th Amendment reads that no one shall be “subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb”--the wording doesn’t confine jeopardy to the verdict. Either way, to create the possibility that challenging your conviction, as in this case, would put you in danger of the death penalty, is to pervert the course of justice. Even if it weren’t unconstitutional, it would be wrong and dangerous. In fact, I may be wrong, but I see nothing in the ruling that stops prosecutors who didn’t go for the death penalty in the first trial doing so for the second, purely as a way of punishing prisoners who dared challenge their conviction.
The NY Times didn’t like the $41 hamburger at all.
North Korea’s website. Probably its only website.
It is now legal to have unmarried sex in Georgia. Plan your vacations accordingly. In the case involved, a 16-year old boy was ordered by the court to write an essay on why he shouldn’t have sex (in Georgia the age of consent is 16, although I guess only if you’re married; however, asking a 16-year old student of the Georgia education system to write an essay is just plain cruel). He wrote that it was none of their business. Unmarried sex is still illegal in 9 states and the District of Columbia.
News from the exciting world of cock fighting: in the Philippines, a fighting cock with razors attached accidentally kills, heh heh, his owner, after hitting him in the groin.
In his speech attacking affirmative action at the U of Michigan, Bush attacked “racial prejudice” at length. It’s just discrimination he doesn’t mind too much. Or at any rate, he’s willing for it to end, but only if it happens accidentally, as some commentators have said. Actually, though, what he really wants is for the issue of race to just go away. This is why he talks about prejudice, which doesn’t directly hurt anyone, and why he attacks affirmative action as “divisive,” as if rocking the boat is the worst thing he can accuse it of. Compare this to his preemptive claims that critics of his tax cuts for the rich were engaged in “class warfare.” Remember, it’s not racial and class inequality that are the problem, as far as he is concerned, but people bringing those inequalities to our attention.
In place of “quotas,” he approves the humbug plan adopted in California, and elsewhere, after affirmative action was banned in the university system, of taking the top, what is it, 5%?, of students at each high school, in effect replacing racial quotas with the divergent standards of schools in different neighborhoods. Elsewhere, he has criticized these differing standards as the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” but here he actually makes them the basis of his policy (or “basics of his policy,” as GeeDubya would say).
I was gonna say that “divisive” is what Trent Lott would mean when he used the words “stirring up the niggras,” but I decided that was too crude.
Secretary of War Rummy Rumsfeld again (see mine of 11/18/02) says that it doesn’t matter what the UN inspectors say about Iraq having WMDs (there, I’ve finally given in to the acronym). In fact, if they find no weapons, it just shows how sneaky the Iraqis are. On 11/18/02 I called this the heads I win tails you lose approach (in case you haven’t committed all my emails to memory)(and if not, why not?). Actually Rumsfeld has never been a big fan of having proof for the assumptions behind his policies (like GeeDubya with tax cuts). Bob Woodward reports that Rummy was calling for war with Iraq on 9/12/01, with, obviously, no proof of Iraqi involvement. To be fair, recent polls suggest that Americans think that some or most of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, which is further evidence that in a democracy you get the government you deserve (or, to roughly quote H L Mencken, democracy is the theory that the people know what they want and deserve to get it--good and hard).
The Supreme Court decided 5-4 that it wasn’t double jeopardy to give a death sentence to someone in his second trial after the jury in his first trial found him guilty but deadlocked over the sentence, which in Pennsylvania law meant he automatically got a sentence of life rather than death. I guess it comes down to how you define “jeopardy.” Since he was found guilty the first time, and the second trial was on his own appeal, then yes a second *verdict* of guilty doesn’t count as double jeopardy. But the second trial certainly put him in jeopardy of a *sentence* of death for a second time, and the 5th Amendment reads that no one shall be “subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb”--the wording doesn’t confine jeopardy to the verdict. Either way, to create the possibility that challenging your conviction, as in this case, would put you in danger of the death penalty, is to pervert the course of justice. Even if it weren’t unconstitutional, it would be wrong and dangerous. In fact, I may be wrong, but I see nothing in the ruling that stops prosecutors who didn’t go for the death penalty in the first trial doing so for the second, purely as a way of punishing prisoners who dared challenge their conviction.
The NY Times didn’t like the $41 hamburger at all.
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
Bored as dead rats
In another display of arrogance, the Bush admin decided that Tom Ridge didn’t have to show up for a confirmation hearing chaired by Joe Lieberman. In another display of Democratic cravenness, Lieberman has caved in, and even given up his chairmanship a few days early, showing the leadership style that makes him totally unsuited for the office he announced he was running for the same day.
http://www.theonion.com/onion3901/bush_on_north_korea.html
You know that new car smell, the real one, not the one in the spray cans? It’s poisonous, can give you sick building syndrome. It takes 3 years for the level to drop into the safe range.
The biggest split over what to replace the World Trade Center with is between the sexes. Naturally, men want really tall, thrusting, throbbing towers at least the height of the original. Women are more concerned about safety. Actually, whose stupid idea was it to exempt the towers from fire department regulations anyway? Just don’t do that again, and we’ll keep the replacements below 50 stories.
The French minister of education (I’ll give the URL for the educationalists on the list), says what no other minister of education has ever said--school is boring, and by god it’s supposed to be boring. Why when he was in school, “80 per cent of us were as bored as dead rats”.
Turkmenistan’s loony leader, Sapamurad Niyazov, who renamed the months, has announced that later this week (in the month of Turkmenbashi) 32 people allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate him will go on trial. He also announced what their sentences will be.
In different parts of today’s NY Times, it is reported that Cal. Governor Gray Davis plans to cut 500,000 people from Medicaid, and that he will spend $220,000,000 on a spanking new death row for San Quentin, capacity of 1,000.
The world’s stupidest kidnappers released their victim, a former Goldman Sachs exec, after he promised to pay them $5 million. They actually got caught, just after that, because they ordered a pizza using his credit card.
http://www.theonion.com/onion3901/bush_on_north_korea.html
You know that new car smell, the real one, not the one in the spray cans? It’s poisonous, can give you sick building syndrome. It takes 3 years for the level to drop into the safe range.
The biggest split over what to replace the World Trade Center with is between the sexes. Naturally, men want really tall, thrusting, throbbing towers at least the height of the original. Women are more concerned about safety. Actually, whose stupid idea was it to exempt the towers from fire department regulations anyway? Just don’t do that again, and we’ll keep the replacements below 50 stories.
The French minister of education (I’ll give the URL for the educationalists on the list), says what no other minister of education has ever said--school is boring, and by god it’s supposed to be boring. Why when he was in school, “80 per cent of us were as bored as dead rats”.
Turkmenistan’s loony leader, Sapamurad Niyazov, who renamed the months, has announced that later this week (in the month of Turkmenbashi) 32 people allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate him will go on trial. He also announced what their sentences will be.
In different parts of today’s NY Times, it is reported that Cal. Governor Gray Davis plans to cut 500,000 people from Medicaid, and that he will spend $220,000,000 on a spanking new death row for San Quentin, capacity of 1,000.
The world’s stupidest kidnappers released their victim, a former Goldman Sachs exec, after he promised to pay them $5 million. They actually got caught, just after that, because they ordered a pizza using his credit card.
Monday, January 13, 2003
Do you want fries with that?
I talked a while back the growing partisanship in Congress, in the sense of increasing intolerance of independence by rank & file Congresscritters. For more evidence of this, see this story
on changes in Congressional rules to tighten control by the leadership over the committees. This is important.
New Senate majority leader Bill “Kitty Killer” Frist says that critics of his civil rights record ignores “the fact I go to Africa once a year or twice a year to work with the African American community.” Um, I think those people are the African AFRICAN community.
CIA black propaganda alert: the sudden reports in several sources that Saddam Hussein might fake a coup, even fake an assassination using one of his doubles, before or during a US invasion. The hawks must be very worried about their war being taken away from them. Fake coup indeed.
In NY, a restaurant is offering a $41 hamburger. The meat is Japanese kobe beef, whatever that means. Evidently the cows are fed beer and get massages. Oh, and the restaurant is one of those that charge a service charge (20%), rather than have tipping. The Times reporter enjoyed it.
Damn, now I'm hungry again.
on changes in Congressional rules to tighten control by the leadership over the committees. This is important.
New Senate majority leader Bill “Kitty Killer” Frist says that critics of his civil rights record ignores “the fact I go to Africa once a year or twice a year to work with the African American community.” Um, I think those people are the African AFRICAN community.
CIA black propaganda alert: the sudden reports in several sources that Saddam Hussein might fake a coup, even fake an assassination using one of his doubles, before or during a US invasion. The hawks must be very worried about their war being taken away from them. Fake coup indeed.
In NY, a restaurant is offering a $41 hamburger. The meat is Japanese kobe beef, whatever that means. Evidently the cows are fed beer and get massages. Oh, and the restaurant is one of those that charge a service charge (20%), rather than have tipping. The Times reporter enjoyed it.
Damn, now I'm hungry again.
Sunday, January 12, 2003
Drawing ridicule, scorn and anger
The government of Greenland has collapsed, after 37 days, in a controversy over a healer being brought in to drive evil spirits out of the government’s offices. The government resigned. So it worked.
Weapons of Mass Irritation: the US has been spamming Iraqi military and other leaders with emails suggesting that they not use their weapons against the US invasion, or face “personal consequences.” Also that if they help the US defeat Saddam, their credit will improve, penises grow larger, and watch women have sex with donkeys (I’m guessing. Actually, I’d like to see the exact text of these emails, if anyone runs across them).
In Britain, someone posted in the website Friends United that he’d become a great success since high school, selling cocaine. He’s now in prison.
I guess relating to Iraq, John Bolton, #3 man in the State Dept: “There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.”
When the ex-boyfriend of a Portland, Ore. cop was arrested for drugs, the cops went through her garbage cans and had her used tampons tested for drugs. (The story I read doesn’t say what the results were, but I think negative). She sued. A newspaper decided to go through the police chief’s garbage and list its contents in the paper. That would be one response. The other, I humbly submit, is for everyone in Portland to send their used tampons to the police or DA.
Ill. Governor George Ryan has pardoned or commuted all 150, 156, or 167 (how hard a fact was this for the newspapers to check, really?) people on death row. Here’s the response of the brother of one homicide victim: "How can one person have all of this authority and power?" As opposed to the power to decide that someone else’s life should be snuffed out. I can’t even imagine thinking that way, where a commutation is some awesome tyrannical use of absolute power, while signing a warrant of execution is nothing. Another relative of a victim (or maybe the same one) says "It's like we were murdered again." We? Ryan rightly says that his decision "will draw ridicule, scorn and anger."
Weapons of Mass Irritation: the US has been spamming Iraqi military and other leaders with emails suggesting that they not use their weapons against the US invasion, or face “personal consequences.” Also that if they help the US defeat Saddam, their credit will improve, penises grow larger, and watch women have sex with donkeys (I’m guessing. Actually, I’d like to see the exact text of these emails, if anyone runs across them).
In Britain, someone posted in the website Friends United that he’d become a great success since high school, selling cocaine. He’s now in prison.
I guess relating to Iraq, John Bolton, #3 man in the State Dept: “There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.”
When the ex-boyfriend of a Portland, Ore. cop was arrested for drugs, the cops went through her garbage cans and had her used tampons tested for drugs. (The story I read doesn’t say what the results were, but I think negative). She sued. A newspaper decided to go through the police chief’s garbage and list its contents in the paper. That would be one response. The other, I humbly submit, is for everyone in Portland to send their used tampons to the police or DA.
Ill. Governor George Ryan has pardoned or commuted all 150, 156, or 167 (how hard a fact was this for the newspapers to check, really?) people on death row. Here’s the response of the brother of one homicide victim: "How can one person have all of this authority and power?" As opposed to the power to decide that someone else’s life should be snuffed out. I can’t even imagine thinking that way, where a commutation is some awesome tyrannical use of absolute power, while signing a warrant of execution is nothing. Another relative of a victim (or maybe the same one) says "It's like we were murdered again." We? Ryan rightly says that his decision "will draw ridicule, scorn and anger."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
