Tuesday, March 16, 2004
We wanted animal rights
Scummy Republican dirty trick, so despicable even I didn’t expect it from them: blaming John Kerry for 9/11. Evidently he was told that security at Logan Airport was crap. The author of the following has evidently been on, where else, Faux News.
Going after public officials who break the law and license gay marriages is one thing (Wonkette: but the guy who married my parents is still at large), but ministers? When measures were described as being to “ban” gay marriage, I always thought that was over-statement. Actually though, arresting ministers (2 Unitarians in upstate NY) may be the logical next step, if you’re going to mix up state and religion so thoroughly. Of course, by the same logic you should be able to require that Catholic priests perform interfaith marriages and marriages by divorced people and so on. The crime the 2 ministers (both women, I now notice) committed is performing marriages under authority vested in them by NY state, and doing so without a license. This just shows what happens when you turn ministers of religion into agents of the government and license their activities, and why marriage needs to be made a totally civil function.
Quote from a former Guantanamo detainee: “After a while, we stopped asking for human rights. We wanted animal rights.”
Several more Baptist missionaries (the branch whose former leader described Muhammed as a paedophile) have been killed in Iraq.
Article detailing how Chalabi’s group gaslighted the American media.
And Henry Waxman has a report detailing Bush admin lies about Iraq. He even graphs them month by month. Download the pdf here.
Employees of the Dept of Heimat Security, who have nothing more important to do, have been told to look out for photo ops for Bush. Tom Tomorrow: “Homeland Security, working to keep you safe from terror--one photo op at a time.”
Speaking of Potemkin photo ops, there was an event which the Post headlined “U.S. Displays Nuclear Parts Given by Libya.” No story I’ve seen suggests that they showed anything more than a bunch of pipes, and some crates which they claimed contained important stuff.
The Columbia Journalism Review is tracking down tv stations that ran the fake news segments provided by the federal government hyping Medicare, complete with fake reporters. 6 so far.
Something I missed in Bush’s sanctimonious International Women’s Week speech: he mentioned a woman who had just been released from prison by Libya. Turns out, though, the chick’s actually a dude.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2993426915&category=1469
Spain is giving citizenship or residency to spouses, children and parents of those killed or injured in the Madrid bombings, showing a generosity the US never did. 1/4 of the dead were non-Spanish.
The NYT editorial page is almost exclusively devoted to whether the elections in Spain were a victory for Al Qaida (David Brooks and Edward Luttack) or not (Paul Krugman, in a column worth reading, mostly arguing that Bush has failed to go after terrorism in any serious way). Actually we have just witnessed that most awesome of political events, a peaceful transition of power effected by democratic elections. American (and British) conservatives are acting as if it was treason for people who didn’t like the Partido Popular to vote against it, because Al Qaida didn’t like it either. Doing something because it’s the opposite of what AQ wants isn’t any less an abdication of one’s democratic rights and responsibilities than is the opposite. Last year’s rallies in Spain against Spanish participation in the war were almost as large as last week’s rallies against terrorism, and polls suggest that the war wasn’t much more popular in Spain than the train bombings. The scary thing (attention John Kerry) is that the government was on track to be reelected anyway, and only lost when it cynically lied about a terrorist attack and tried to assign blame to people it wanted to attack anyway (attention George Bush). Also, the Spanish electorate proved capable of telling the difference between the war in Iraq and the “war” on terrorism, unlike Bush and a declining number of Americans.
Now I don’t think for a minute that the Spanish people voted the way they did as a bargain with terrorists to do what the terrorists wanted in exchange for not being bombed again. But even if they did, so what? Here’s a job for someone with Lexis-Nexis and a lot of free time: go through the writings of the clowns now chastising the Spanish and find where they said that restoring democracy or preventing genocide in Rwanda/Bosnia/Haiti/Sierra Leone/etc/etc/etc wasn’t worth a single American soldier’s life. And the Bush admin, which cynically bribes voters with tax cuts at the expense of the poor, ill and disadvantaged can hardly bitch about people voting to save themselves from being blown up. Especially when Spain was participating as a COW nation (why am I still the only one using that abbreviation)(Coalition of the Willing, if you’ve forgotten) in a war that was supposed to end Islamist terrorism, not bring it to Spain for the first time.
Or, to put it more succinctly, as I did yesterday, the critics of the Spanish electorate can fuck themselves.
Monday, March 15, 2004
You can't organize a war with lies
Sedna is not a planet. Pluto is not a planet either. I hope that settles that.
Bill Maher on why Bush should stop campaigning against Washington: “"Washington insider" is by definition a function of one's proximity to the president. That's you, Mr. Bush. You're ground zero. Ever wonder, sir, why everyone stands and they play music when you enter a room? When you're given check-writing privileges by the Federal Reserve, you just might be a Washington insider.”
Bush: “God loves you, and I love you. And you can count on both of us as a powerful message that people who wonder about their future can hear.”
DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO: Colin Powell, on Kerry’s claim that foreign leaders want him elected: “It's an easy charge, an easy assertion to make. But if he feels it is that important an assertion to make, he ought to list some names. If he can't list names, then perhaps he should find something else to talk about.” WMDs, Colin?
YOU’RE SO VAIN, I’LL BET YOU THINK THIS SONG IS ABOUT YOU: When Kerry made his open-mike comment that “These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen,” you’ll notice the R’s immediately assumed he was referring to them. Self-knowledge is a wonderful thing.
You’ll remember that someone turned the sayings of Rummy Rumsfeld into poetry. Someone else has taken the next step of turning that poetry into songs, having it sung by a soprano and putting out a CD. Listen to the songs here.
A kid in Philadelphia has been summoned to face truancy charges, for not showing up at a school he doesn’t actually attend. The fun part is that he got grades for classes at the school he does not attend. Not especially good grades, which is something, although he got a B in gym.
Spain’s next prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, says of Bush and Blair, “You can’t organize a war with lies.” Um, sure you can. Evidently it’s considered a really big blow for Bush that Spain has moved from New Europe to Old Europe. And to those on the right (Andrew Sullivan, Tim Hames in the London Times, etc), who are calling this a win for bin Laden, go fuck yourselves. That’s all the refutation they deserve.
PS, it wasn’t Bush who called PM Aznar “president” this time, it was Condi Rice.
An article in new website gadflyer.com--because we need yet another political website, sigh--argues that since the media let Bush get away with an ad with a flat-out lie, that Kerry plans to raise taxes $900b, we can expect more lies.
Bill Maher on why Bush should stop campaigning against Washington: “"Washington insider" is by definition a function of one's proximity to the president. That's you, Mr. Bush. You're ground zero. Ever wonder, sir, why everyone stands and they play music when you enter a room? When you're given check-writing privileges by the Federal Reserve, you just might be a Washington insider.”
Bush: “God loves you, and I love you. And you can count on both of us as a powerful message that people who wonder about their future can hear.”
DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO: Colin Powell, on Kerry’s claim that foreign leaders want him elected: “It's an easy charge, an easy assertion to make. But if he feels it is that important an assertion to make, he ought to list some names. If he can't list names, then perhaps he should find something else to talk about.” WMDs, Colin?
YOU’RE SO VAIN, I’LL BET YOU THINK THIS SONG IS ABOUT YOU: When Kerry made his open-mike comment that “These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen,” you’ll notice the R’s immediately assumed he was referring to them. Self-knowledge is a wonderful thing.
You’ll remember that someone turned the sayings of Rummy Rumsfeld into poetry. Someone else has taken the next step of turning that poetry into songs, having it sung by a soprano and putting out a CD. Listen to the songs here.
A kid in Philadelphia has been summoned to face truancy charges, for not showing up at a school he doesn’t actually attend. The fun part is that he got grades for classes at the school he does not attend. Not especially good grades, which is something, although he got a B in gym.
Spain’s next prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, says of Bush and Blair, “You can’t organize a war with lies.” Um, sure you can. Evidently it’s considered a really big blow for Bush that Spain has moved from New Europe to Old Europe. And to those on the right (Andrew Sullivan, Tim Hames in the London Times, etc), who are calling this a win for bin Laden, go fuck yourselves. That’s all the refutation they deserve.
PS, it wasn’t Bush who called PM Aznar “president” this time, it was Condi Rice.
An article in new website gadflyer.com--because we need yet another political website, sigh--argues that since the media let Bush get away with an ad with a flat-out lie, that Kerry plans to raise taxes $900b, we can expect more lies.
Sunday, March 14, 2004
Kind of folklore
Oh sure, I could say that Vladimir Putin was the president of Freedonia and you people wouldn’t blink twice, but show an unfamiliarity with a Muppet character...
The right-wing Spanish government loses the election badly. I’m still unclear (everyone is, really) how that happened. Was Aznar punished for his role in a deeply unpopular war in Iraq, and if so, was that because of the war itself or the Al Qaida response this week? Or was it because Aznar lied, and withheld evidence, to misattribute the bombings to ETA instead? All good reasons, of course, and that’s without going into the People’s Party’s domestic record, but I think we’d like to know here in the US whether it was the war or the lying. Turnout was 74%, up from 65% in 2000. The new PM’s grandfather was a Republican army officer killed during the Civil War.
On the other hand Russia today buried whatever remnants of democracy it had. It will be interesting to see how high the “none of the above” vote was. Turnout easily reached the 50% mark, thanks to giveaways of free haircuts, grocery discounts, movie tickets, vacation raffles, concerts, etc etc. Boy, I voted this month and all I got was a slightly sickly feeling.
I read a NY Times profile of John Kerry, from 1971. I’m not clear exactly what his story today is on how he joined up, but then he said in as many words that he was trying to stay away from being shot at. Which is why he joined the Navy, Vietnam not being a particularly naval sort of war up to that point. Unfortunately for him, 2 weeks before he got there, they decided to start sending the swift-boats he’d trained for up rivers (instead of patrolling safely off-shore), just to prove that there was nowhere Americans couldn’t go. And thus the 3 war wounds, which gave him the prerogative of asking to be sent home, which he did. There’s not much hint of the buddy-buddy, band of brothers, war nostalgia he’s exhibiting these days.
Jimmy Breslin reports on the massive engineering project of making sure that George Bush’s shoes never touch dirt.
Secretary of War Rumsfeld today says that it’s “kind of folklore” that anyone in the Bush admin said that Saddam was an immediate threat. Bloggers, start your google engines!
He also said that Bush ordered Powell and he not to get involved in the election campaign. That was on CBS. On Fox, Powell got involved in the election campaign.
Evidently the Republican candidate for Senate for Illinois used to be married to Star Trek Voyager’s 7 of 9. And there’s something in the child-custody court papers he doesn’t want made public.
The right-wing Spanish government loses the election badly. I’m still unclear (everyone is, really) how that happened. Was Aznar punished for his role in a deeply unpopular war in Iraq, and if so, was that because of the war itself or the Al Qaida response this week? Or was it because Aznar lied, and withheld evidence, to misattribute the bombings to ETA instead? All good reasons, of course, and that’s without going into the People’s Party’s domestic record, but I think we’d like to know here in the US whether it was the war or the lying. Turnout was 74%, up from 65% in 2000. The new PM’s grandfather was a Republican army officer killed during the Civil War.
On the other hand Russia today buried whatever remnants of democracy it had. It will be interesting to see how high the “none of the above” vote was. Turnout easily reached the 50% mark, thanks to giveaways of free haircuts, grocery discounts, movie tickets, vacation raffles, concerts, etc etc. Boy, I voted this month and all I got was a slightly sickly feeling.
I read a NY Times profile of John Kerry, from 1971. I’m not clear exactly what his story today is on how he joined up, but then he said in as many words that he was trying to stay away from being shot at. Which is why he joined the Navy, Vietnam not being a particularly naval sort of war up to that point. Unfortunately for him, 2 weeks before he got there, they decided to start sending the swift-boats he’d trained for up rivers (instead of patrolling safely off-shore), just to prove that there was nowhere Americans couldn’t go. And thus the 3 war wounds, which gave him the prerogative of asking to be sent home, which he did. There’s not much hint of the buddy-buddy, band of brothers, war nostalgia he’s exhibiting these days.
Jimmy Breslin reports on the massive engineering project of making sure that George Bush’s shoes never touch dirt.
Secretary of War Rumsfeld today says that it’s “kind of folklore” that anyone in the Bush admin said that Saddam was an immediate threat. Bloggers, start your google engines!
He also said that Bush ordered Powell and he not to get involved in the election campaign. That was on CBS. On Fox, Powell got involved in the election campaign.
Evidently the Republican candidate for Senate for Illinois used to be married to Star Trek Voyager’s 7 of 9. And there’s something in the child-custody court papers he doesn’t want made public.
Saturday, March 13, 2004
This will be your only present soon
Many of the older internet users will have fond memories of a website in Switzerland where you could plug in text and have it translated into “jive.” Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Dialectizer, which does that and more. Here is the 1st paragraph of George Bush’s weekly radio address, rendered into Redneck:
Jive:
Cockney:
Elmer Fudd:
Pig Latin (suddenly it makes sense):
Swedish chef (huh?):
Another option was “moron,” but why gild the lily? Here’s the link, knock yourselves out:
http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/
And if you’re still getting any work done, here’s the Random Masturbation Synonym Generator.
The Post jumps in on the story of the actuary who was ordered not to give Congress the true estimates (did I just say true estimates?) for the costs of Medicare. He was told to "cease responding directly to Congress". The guy who threatened to fire him now says it was said in jest. Of course it was. This isn’t just lying, this is a violation of separation of powers, it is the sort of thing that makes our system of government unworkable. In short, if Bush personally knew about this, it would be an impeachable offense.
While elsewhere in DC, the Washington Times actually conducted a survey which purports to show that 60% of respondents think that Kerry would be the preferred presidential choice of terrorists (Bush 25%).
Cal. State Senator “Pete” Knight, who wrote the anti-gay-marriage initiative that passed in 2000, turns out to have a gay son (all anti-gay activists have gay children, following the Iron Law of Irony). I think you know where this one is going...
Be vewwy vewwwy quiet: NATO forces in Bosnia put up posters for Ratko Mladic’s birthday, with pictures of handcuffs, saying “This will be your only present soon.” No word on what NATO sent him on the other 8 birthdays he’s celebrated while they’ve been hunting him down.
Lebensraum: the raccoon population of Germany has hit 1 million, and growing rapidly. They were introduced into the country by Goering in 1934. Meanwhile, native rabbits are dying out.
The Bushies are trying to get Jamaica to expel Aristide, and should really shut up.
So if ETA planted the bombs in Madrid, the right wing benefits in tomorrow (Sunday)’s elections, and if it’s Al Qaida, the left wing benefits. But if the government lies and says it’s ETA when it isn’t, and the left is unwilling to start accusing them of it while the bodies are still being buried, which means waiting until after they lose the election...? The government, of course, has no such compunctions, and has been bombarding newspapers with calls insisting it’s ETA. I’m not sure how close the election was before, but Al Qaida may just have ensured the reelection of another right-wing government.
A quote from Desmond Tutu: “When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said: "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”
Good mo'nin'. This hyar week, ah met wif intrepreneurs an' wawkers in Ohio an' Noo Yawk, an' talked t'them about how we are stren'thenin' South Car'lina's economah. On over th' past three years, South Car'lina's economah has faced a series of challenges: stock market decline, recesshun, terro'ist attacks, co'po'ate scan'als, an' th' unsartinties of war. Mah administrashun cornfronted them challenges squarely, an' acked boldly. We redooced taxes on families an' small businesses, we encouraged noo investment an' we is seein' th' results.
Jive:
Good mo'nin'. Dis week, ah' met wid entrepreneurs and wo'kers in Ohio and New Yo'k, and raped t'dem about how we are strengdenin' America's economy. Slap mah fro! Ova' de past dree years, America's economy gots faced some series uh challenges, dig dis: stock market decline, recession, terro'ist attacks, co'po'ate scandals, and da damn uncertainties of war. Ah be baaad... Mah' administrashun confronted dose challenges squarely, and acted boldly. Slap mah fro! We reduced taxes on families and small businesses, we encouraged new investment and we's seein' de results.
Cockney:
Good mornin'. Cor blimey guv! This week, I met wiv entrepreneurs and workers in Ohio and New York, right, and went on ter ffem about 'ow we are strengffenin' America's economy. Over the past free years, America's economy 'as faced a series of challenges: stock market decline, recession, terrorist attacks, right, corporate scandals, right, and the bloody uncertainties of war. Yer can't 'ave a knees-up wivout a joanna. Me administration confronted them challenges squarely, and acted boldly. We reduced taxes on families and wee businesses, we encouraged new investment and we're seein' the results.
Elmer Fudd:
Good mowning. Dis week, I met wif entwepweneuws and wowkews in Ohio and New Yowk, and tawked to them about how we awe stwengthening Amewica's economy. Ovew the past thwee yeaws, Amewica's economy has faced a sewies of chawwenges: stock mawket decwine, wecession, tewwowist attacks, cowpowate scandaws, and the uncewtainties of waw. My administwation confwonted those chawwenges sqwawewy, and acted bowdwy. We weduced taxes on famiwies and smaww businesses, we encouwaged new investment and we'we seeing the wesuwts. Oh, dat scwewy wabbit!
Pig Latin (suddenly it makes sense):
Oodgay orningmay. Isthay eekway, Iyay etmay ithway entrepreneursyay andyay orkersway inyay Ohioyay andyay Ewnay Yorkay, andyay alkedtay otay emthay aboutyay owhay eway areyay engtheningstray America'syay economyyay. Overyay ethay astpay eethray yearsay, America'syay economyyay ashay acedfay ayay eriessay ofyay allengeschay: ockstay arketmay eclineday, ecessionray, erroristtay attacksyay, orporatecay andalsscay, andyay ethay uncertaintiesyay ofyay arway. Ymay administrationyay onfrontedcay osethay allengeschay uarelysqay, andyay actedyay oldlybay. Eway educedray axestay onyay amiliesfay andyay allsmay usinessesbay, eway encouragedyay ewnay investmentyay andyay e'reway eeingsay ethay esultsray.
Swedish chef (huh?):
Guud murneeng. Thees veek, I met veet intrepreneoors und vurkers in Ooheeu und Noo Yurk, und telked tu zeem ebuoot hoo ve-a ere-a strengzeeneeng Emereece's icunumy. Bork bork bork! Oofer zee pest three-a yeers, Emereece's icunumy hes feced a sereees ooff chellenges: stuck merket decleene-a, recesseeun, terrureest ettecks, curpurete-a scundels, und zee uncerteeenties ooff ver. Hurty flurty schnipp schnipp! My edmeenistreshun cunffrunted thuse-a chellenges sqooerely, und ected buldly. Bork bork bork! Ve-a redooced texes oon femeelies und smell booseenesses, ve-a incuooreged noo infestment und ve're-a seeeeng zee resoolts. Um gesh dee bork, bork!
Another option was “moron,” but why gild the lily? Here’s the link, knock yourselves out:
http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/
And if you’re still getting any work done, here’s the Random Masturbation Synonym Generator.
The Post jumps in on the story of the actuary who was ordered not to give Congress the true estimates (did I just say true estimates?) for the costs of Medicare. He was told to "cease responding directly to Congress". The guy who threatened to fire him now says it was said in jest. Of course it was. This isn’t just lying, this is a violation of separation of powers, it is the sort of thing that makes our system of government unworkable. In short, if Bush personally knew about this, it would be an impeachable offense.
While elsewhere in DC, the Washington Times actually conducted a survey which purports to show that 60% of respondents think that Kerry would be the preferred presidential choice of terrorists (Bush 25%).
Cal. State Senator “Pete” Knight, who wrote the anti-gay-marriage initiative that passed in 2000, turns out to have a gay son (all anti-gay activists have gay children, following the Iron Law of Irony). I think you know where this one is going...
Be vewwy vewwwy quiet: NATO forces in Bosnia put up posters for Ratko Mladic’s birthday, with pictures of handcuffs, saying “This will be your only present soon.” No word on what NATO sent him on the other 8 birthdays he’s celebrated while they’ve been hunting him down.
Lebensraum: the raccoon population of Germany has hit 1 million, and growing rapidly. They were introduced into the country by Goering in 1934. Meanwhile, native rabbits are dying out.
The Bushies are trying to get Jamaica to expel Aristide, and should really shut up.
So if ETA planted the bombs in Madrid, the right wing benefits in tomorrow (Sunday)’s elections, and if it’s Al Qaida, the left wing benefits. But if the government lies and says it’s ETA when it isn’t, and the left is unwilling to start accusing them of it while the bodies are still being buried, which means waiting until after they lose the election...? The government, of course, has no such compunctions, and has been bombarding newspapers with calls insisting it’s ETA. I’m not sure how close the election was before, but Al Qaida may just have ensured the reelection of another right-wing government.
A quote from Desmond Tutu: “When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said: "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”
Friday, March 12, 2004
Because we are Americans, we don't abuse people in our care
Amusing story in which a reporter tries to get the views of the audience at a Bush campaign stop, only to be told “No speak English.” Well, neither does Bush.
The 2 Russians being held by Qatar for a bombing that killed a Chechen leader have admitted being members of the Russian special forces. And that the bomb was smuggled in from Saudi Arabia, where Russia had sent it by diplomatic bag. Russia, by the way, is still holding the 2 judo people (or Graeco-Roman wrestlers, in today’s Times’ version).
The US says that the impeachment of the South Korean president is a domestic, internal matter and none of our concern. Unlike, say, Venezuela. I mentioned the US is funding opposition parties there--well, it’s also funding the group collecting signatures for Chavez’s impeachment.
Colin Powell, denying the charges of brutality by the British Guantanamo detainees: “Because we are Americans, we don't abuse people in our care.” I assume that’s an attempt at irony.
Utah, which does abuse people in its care, especially if they’re women, is charging with murder a woman who refused to have a C-section. As we all know, the opinions of doctors have the full force of law. The story makes little sense: prosecutors are saying it was a matter of vanity, that she didn’t want a scar. Except she’s had 2 previous C-sections, so she already has the scar. Note that the hospital she went to was Mormon, a fact mentioned in none of the stories, which are all pretending that Utah is a normal state. I’d love to know how this case was drawn to the attention of the prosecutors.
More Bush slogans, via Wonkette:
"I Wasn't Using Those Rights Anyway"
“600 Dead American Soldiers Can't Be Wrong!”
“No, Monkeys Could NOT Do Better!”
and my new favorite: "Don't Settle for the Lesser of Two Evils"
The 2 Russians being held by Qatar for a bombing that killed a Chechen leader have admitted being members of the Russian special forces. And that the bomb was smuggled in from Saudi Arabia, where Russia had sent it by diplomatic bag. Russia, by the way, is still holding the 2 judo people (or Graeco-Roman wrestlers, in today’s Times’ version).
The US says that the impeachment of the South Korean president is a domestic, internal matter and none of our concern. Unlike, say, Venezuela. I mentioned the US is funding opposition parties there--well, it’s also funding the group collecting signatures for Chavez’s impeachment.
Colin Powell, denying the charges of brutality by the British Guantanamo detainees: “Because we are Americans, we don't abuse people in our care.” I assume that’s an attempt at irony.
Utah, which does abuse people in its care, especially if they’re women, is charging with murder a woman who refused to have a C-section. As we all know, the opinions of doctors have the full force of law. The story makes little sense: prosecutors are saying it was a matter of vanity, that she didn’t want a scar. Except she’s had 2 previous C-sections, so she already has the scar. Note that the hospital she went to was Mormon, a fact mentioned in none of the stories, which are all pretending that Utah is a normal state. I’d love to know how this case was drawn to the attention of the prosecutors.
More Bush slogans, via Wonkette:
"I Wasn't Using Those Rights Anyway"
“600 Dead American Soldiers Can't Be Wrong!”
“No, Monkeys Could NOT Do Better!”
and my new favorite: "Don't Settle for the Lesser of Two Evils"
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Letting bad leaders govern badly
Compare and contrast:
Scummy asst secretary of state Roger Noriega on Haiti, 2004 (or possibly the US, 2004): “We're not under any obligation to let bad leaders govern badly.”
Scummy national security adviser Henry Kissinger on Chile, c.1973: “I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.”
Robert Fisk’s columns, while still blocked to most of the non-paying public at the Independent site, can be found pretty quickly these days at www.robert-fisk.com, which I suspect exists purely to break copyright laws, but what the hell. For a while someone was posting them to the discussion pages of the Pravda website, which I thought was amusing.
Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet said that he’d have corrected Cheney’s lies, but he only found out about them 2 months later. Way to keep on top of the news, George!
Evidently the US military has been buying cadavers which were devoted to science, and then blowing them up to test landmines. Which could be fun, I suppose, if you’re, like, high, but probably not what the donors had in mind.
I’d like an explanation for why the 5 Brits released from Club Med Guantanamo are in such terrible physical condition. Possibly we’ll get to read it in a British tabloid--the bidding war has already begun (£200,000 so far for one of them, I hear)(the problem will be whether they tell the truth. One is saying the US troops brought prostitutes in and paraded them naked in front of the prisoners. While I’m less inclined to dismiss that out of hand as being just too silly, it’s still pretty silly). And Fisk asks why the Achille Lauro guy suddenly dropped dead. And I’ve lost track of how many prisoners have been beaten to death already. And these are the ones we hear about. US forces have been seizing Iraqi leaders for more than a year now, and you never ever hear or see them again--including Saddam.
But the good news is that the US military has been cleared, by the US military, in a report they refuse to release, of blame for killing 9 children in an air strike in Afghanistan in December. I feel so reassured. They do assure us that the incident resulted in a change in the rules of engagement. They won’t tell us what those rules of engagement are, what they were, or how they changed. I feel so very reassured.
Chile has legalized divorce, the last country in the Western Hemisphere to do so. Next stop, in 130 years: gay marriage!
Bush’s nominee to be assistant secretary of commerce for manufacturing and services turns out to have himself laid off his workers and opened a factory in China. The nomination may be withdrawn. In favor of a 22-year old Indian in Bangalore who’ll do the job for 1/6th the salary and no benefits, which for some reason will make Thomas Friedman very happy.
Just click here. Do it, I command you!
The Bushies threatened the chief Medicare actuary if he gave Congress the real cost of Bush’s Medicare proposals.
Bush was at the ground-breaking ceremony for a 9/11 memorial. Atrios headline: Bush Picks up Shovel and Actually Makes it Work. Reminds me of a favorite line about his father: he’s a man who calls a spade a shovel-thing.
And speaking of like-father etc, if you haven’t heard the term Muhammad Horton yet...you will. (Or google it now)
Astonishingly, the UN Security Council rushes to condemn ETA for the Madrid bombing, with no evidence that ETA was responsible (the right-wing Spanish government, heading into elections, really wanted it to be ETA)(which it probably wasn’t).
Bush made a statement on it. I was holding my breath waiting to see if he’d screw up PM Aznar’s name and/or job title yet again. Fortunately, he didn’t mention him.
Evidently recalls of cars, as ordered by the government, are sometimes issued only in certain states, because the defect relates to, say, cold or high temperatures. And it’s not like automobiles are, you know, mobile or something.
Hugo Chavez releases leaked documents from the US’s National Endowment for Democracy, which is spending $1m a year to overthrow him. Excuse me, I meant to say to build democracy. By overthrowing him. Most of it is seems to be fairly anodyne. They talk about bolstering the party system when they mean funding the opposition. But I’d like to draw your attention to one word in this sentence: “strengthening political parties remains a critical part of any long-term solution.” Did you spot the problematic word? If not, try again, I’ll be waiting in the next paragraph. No peeking.
How many of you got “solution”? Democracy is a process, one which is continuous. There is no solution. If you talk about democracy as a solution, you aren’t really interested in democracy.
Scummy asst secretary of state Roger Noriega on Haiti, 2004 (or possibly the US, 2004): “We're not under any obligation to let bad leaders govern badly.”
Scummy national security adviser Henry Kissinger on Chile, c.1973: “I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.”
Robert Fisk’s columns, while still blocked to most of the non-paying public at the Independent site, can be found pretty quickly these days at www.robert-fisk.com, which I suspect exists purely to break copyright laws, but what the hell. For a while someone was posting them to the discussion pages of the Pravda website, which I thought was amusing.
Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet said that he’d have corrected Cheney’s lies, but he only found out about them 2 months later. Way to keep on top of the news, George!
Evidently the US military has been buying cadavers which were devoted to science, and then blowing them up to test landmines. Which could be fun, I suppose, if you’re, like, high, but probably not what the donors had in mind.
I’d like an explanation for why the 5 Brits released from Club Med Guantanamo are in such terrible physical condition. Possibly we’ll get to read it in a British tabloid--the bidding war has already begun (£200,000 so far for one of them, I hear)(the problem will be whether they tell the truth. One is saying the US troops brought prostitutes in and paraded them naked in front of the prisoners. While I’m less inclined to dismiss that out of hand as being just too silly, it’s still pretty silly). And Fisk asks why the Achille Lauro guy suddenly dropped dead. And I’ve lost track of how many prisoners have been beaten to death already. And these are the ones we hear about. US forces have been seizing Iraqi leaders for more than a year now, and you never ever hear or see them again--including Saddam.
But the good news is that the US military has been cleared, by the US military, in a report they refuse to release, of blame for killing 9 children in an air strike in Afghanistan in December. I feel so reassured. They do assure us that the incident resulted in a change in the rules of engagement. They won’t tell us what those rules of engagement are, what they were, or how they changed. I feel so very reassured.
Chile has legalized divorce, the last country in the Western Hemisphere to do so. Next stop, in 130 years: gay marriage!
Bush’s nominee to be assistant secretary of commerce for manufacturing and services turns out to have himself laid off his workers and opened a factory in China. The nomination may be withdrawn. In favor of a 22-year old Indian in Bangalore who’ll do the job for 1/6th the salary and no benefits, which for some reason will make Thomas Friedman very happy.
Just click here. Do it, I command you!
The Bushies threatened the chief Medicare actuary if he gave Congress the real cost of Bush’s Medicare proposals.
Bush was at the ground-breaking ceremony for a 9/11 memorial. Atrios headline: Bush Picks up Shovel and Actually Makes it Work. Reminds me of a favorite line about his father: he’s a man who calls a spade a shovel-thing.
And speaking of like-father etc, if you haven’t heard the term Muhammad Horton yet...you will. (Or google it now)
Astonishingly, the UN Security Council rushes to condemn ETA for the Madrid bombing, with no evidence that ETA was responsible (the right-wing Spanish government, heading into elections, really wanted it to be ETA)(which it probably wasn’t).
Bush made a statement on it. I was holding my breath waiting to see if he’d screw up PM Aznar’s name and/or job title yet again. Fortunately, he didn’t mention him.
Evidently recalls of cars, as ordered by the government, are sometimes issued only in certain states, because the defect relates to, say, cold or high temperatures. And it’s not like automobiles are, you know, mobile or something.
Hugo Chavez releases leaked documents from the US’s National Endowment for Democracy, which is spending $1m a year to overthrow him. Excuse me, I meant to say to build democracy. By overthrowing him. Most of it is seems to be fairly anodyne. They talk about bolstering the party system when they mean funding the opposition. But I’d like to draw your attention to one word in this sentence: “strengthening political parties remains a critical part of any long-term solution.” Did you spot the problematic word? If not, try again, I’ll be waiting in the next paragraph. No peeking.
How many of you got “solution”? Democracy is a process, one which is continuous. There is no solution. If you talk about democracy as a solution, you aren’t really interested in democracy.
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Not uniquely comporting / toilet ambassadors / when is an hour not an hour
In a really bored mood last night, I watched some of Letterman, with Drew Barrymore, who evidently blew out most of her brain cells in her teens, although she did use the word “excoriate” in a sentence. Dave congratulated her for being the first to use the word on his show. She did not use it correctly.
Putin needs a 50% turnout for his coronation to be valid, as I’ve said before. Officials at all levels have been told to work to that end. So, someone applying for a restaurant license in Moscow was told to ensure 50 voters; hospitals in Khabarovsk posted official notices that no one would be treated if they didn’t fill out absentee ballots.
I think I’ve commented on this before, but the WashPost has done an analysis of how D’s investigated by Kenneth Starr were denied reimbursement for legal fees, as required by the independent council law, by a partisan panel of judges (the chair of which named his daughter Reagan, for christ sakes). The article points out that R’s in the same position were treated very differently.
I was surprised when Bush uttered the name of John Kerry on Monday. Confirmation of the rarity of this in presidential elections comes from the Post: “In 1992, a search of presidential records shows, Bush's father apparently waited until Aug. 17 before making an unprompted mention of Bill Clinton. In 1996, Clinton made his first unbidden criticism of opponent Bob Dole on July 2. And in 1984, incumbent Ronald Reagan waited all the way until Oct. 12, just weeks before the election, before identifying Walter Mondale”
Atrios notes that while Bush went after Kerry for calling for cuts in the bloated intelligence budget, Attorney General John “Lost to a Dead Guy” Ashcroft was proposing cuts in counterterrorism programs right up to 9/11 (although he did stop flying on commercial airlines, which is something we never heard enough about). Also, the Kerry cuts were $300m per year, which was about 1% of the intelligence budget, but it sure sounds like real money, doesn’t it, especially when Bush says it’s $1.5b, without saying that that’s over 5 years (this was when the NRO ran up a slush fund, then used that slush fund to build itself a whole new HQ, and hoped no one would notice).
DCI George Tenet testifies that some of the remarks by, say, Dick Cheney, do not “uniquely comport” with actual intelligence findings. That’s what you gotta love about government officials: they have more way of saying that something was a lie than Eskimoes have words for snow.
Favorite AP headline of the day: “N.Y. City Man Forced to Give up Monkeys.”
Only in Singapore: toilet ambassadors.
Speaking of toilet ambassadors, here’s a good background piece on Karl Rove:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1165037,00.html
Federal government grants to religious groups are now topping $1b per year. Oh, wait, it’s a lot more, but nobody’s really keeping count.
Honestly, Dubya, the Lincoln bedroom?
White House press briefings are now routinely hilarious. I was going to give the link to Tuesday’s, but I think I’ll paste it in for posterity, despite the length. It’s actually the length that makes it funny, and watching McClellan try to explain how Bush will answer every question the 9/11 commission might have, but do it in an hour (reminds me of a cartoon in which a man going back for more food at an all-you-can-eat buffet is stopped by a burly employee who tells him, That IS all you can eat):
Putin needs a 50% turnout for his coronation to be valid, as I’ve said before. Officials at all levels have been told to work to that end. So, someone applying for a restaurant license in Moscow was told to ensure 50 voters; hospitals in Khabarovsk posted official notices that no one would be treated if they didn’t fill out absentee ballots.
I think I’ve commented on this before, but the WashPost has done an analysis of how D’s investigated by Kenneth Starr were denied reimbursement for legal fees, as required by the independent council law, by a partisan panel of judges (the chair of which named his daughter Reagan, for christ sakes). The article points out that R’s in the same position were treated very differently.
I was surprised when Bush uttered the name of John Kerry on Monday. Confirmation of the rarity of this in presidential elections comes from the Post: “In 1992, a search of presidential records shows, Bush's father apparently waited until Aug. 17 before making an unprompted mention of Bill Clinton. In 1996, Clinton made his first unbidden criticism of opponent Bob Dole on July 2. And in 1984, incumbent Ronald Reagan waited all the way until Oct. 12, just weeks before the election, before identifying Walter Mondale”
Atrios notes that while Bush went after Kerry for calling for cuts in the bloated intelligence budget, Attorney General John “Lost to a Dead Guy” Ashcroft was proposing cuts in counterterrorism programs right up to 9/11 (although he did stop flying on commercial airlines, which is something we never heard enough about). Also, the Kerry cuts were $300m per year, which was about 1% of the intelligence budget, but it sure sounds like real money, doesn’t it, especially when Bush says it’s $1.5b, without saying that that’s over 5 years (this was when the NRO ran up a slush fund, then used that slush fund to build itself a whole new HQ, and hoped no one would notice).
DCI George Tenet testifies that some of the remarks by, say, Dick Cheney, do not “uniquely comport” with actual intelligence findings. That’s what you gotta love about government officials: they have more way of saying that something was a lie than Eskimoes have words for snow.
Favorite AP headline of the day: “N.Y. City Man Forced to Give up Monkeys.”
Only in Singapore: toilet ambassadors.
Speaking of toilet ambassadors, here’s a good background piece on Karl Rove:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1165037,00.html
Federal government grants to religious groups are now topping $1b per year. Oh, wait, it’s a lot more, but nobody’s really keeping count.
Honestly, Dubya, the Lincoln bedroom?
White House press briefings are now routinely hilarious. I was going to give the link to Tuesday’s, but I think I’ll paste it in for posterity, despite the length. It’s actually the length that makes it funny, and watching McClellan try to explain how Bush will answer every question the 9/11 commission might have, but do it in an hour (reminds me of a cartoon in which a man going back for more food at an all-you-can-eat buffet is stopped by a burly employee who tells him, That IS all you can eat):
Q: Does the President want to really get to the bottom of the cause of 9/11? If he does, why would he limit his interview with the commission to one hour and for other officials, and, stonewall on documents?
McCLELLAN: I'm glad you brought this up. This administration has provided unprecedented cooperation to a legislative body in the 9/11 Commission. We have worked closely with the commission in a spirit of cooperation. And you only have to go back -- and I would appreciate it if you would report some of the facts of the type of access we have provided to the commission. We have provided the commission access to every bit of information that they have requested, including our most sensitive national security documents. And the commission chairman has stated such --
Q: Well, the commission certainly is not satisfied.
McCLELLAN: -- and as far as the President, the President looks forward to meeting with the chairman and vice chairman and answering all the questions that they want to raise.
Q: Why don't you just open the books and get to the truth? The American people deserve it.
McCLELLAN: Did you not hear what I just said, Helen? Have you not looked at the facts? I think you need to quit reading some of the coverage and look at the facts.
Q: You just said, “all the questions they want to raise.” That means he’s no longer going to limit it to an hour?
McCLELLAN: Well, that’s what it’s scheduled for now. But, look, he’s going to answer all the questions they want to raise. Keep in mind that the commission --
Q: If they’re still asking at one hour, he’ll still answer them?
McCLELLAN: Keep in mind that the commission has already had access to all the information they requested, as I just pointed out, including our most sensitive national security documents. That’s what I’m talking about when I’m talking about unprecedented cooperation. And the commission has also -- yes, let me finish --
Q: The issue is whether he’s limiting it to an hour --
McCLELLAN: Let me finish, Mark.
Q: -- and I’m asking a very simple question. If they’re still asking questions at one hour --
McCLELLAN: I think it’s important to point out the fact. Mark, let me finish. Mark, can I answer? Let me finish. It’s important that we point out these facts when we talk about this issue, because the facts have not been pointed out. The facts have not been pointed out. But the President -- I mean, the commission will be meeting with the President, after having talked for hours on hour with White House and senior administration officials. We’ve provided more than 2 million pages of documents; we’ve provided more than 60 compact disks of radar, flight and other information; more than 800 audio cassette tapes of interviews and other materials; more than 100 briefings, including at the head-of-agency level; more than 560 interviews. Dr. Rice met with the commission recently, and even though only five members of the commission showed up, she sat down and visited with them for some four hours.
Q: I appreciate that. You reported all that when you first told it to us. I’m asking --
McCLELLAN: No, I don’t think it was widely reported.
Q: Forgive me, I take responsibility for what I report, and I reported it.
McCLELLAN: I understand you -- I understand. But I take responsibility of talking to everybody here.
Q: Okay. All the questions that they have, he’s going to answer. If they’re still asking at one hour, is he still going to answer?
McCLELLAN: I just said that the President will answer all the questions that they want to raise. I think that’s important to point out. I mean, it’s important to point out the unprecedented cooperation we have provided to this legislative body. We have worked very closely with the commission.
Q: -- when?
McCLELLAN: Still working on the exact time for that, working with the commission.
Q: Should we expect it soon?
McCLELLAN: Well, I mean, soon. They have to -- they’re going to complete their report by the end of July now, so --
Q: Let me just ask this again. You’re going to -- you’re committing the President to answer every question raised by the panel in that interview with him?
McCLELLAN: The President looks forward to answering all the questions that they want to bring up.
Q: Which might mean that it would last longer than an hour.
McCLELLAN: Look, he looks forward to the meeting. Let’s let the meeting take place. Obviously, keep in mind everything that the commission has already had access to, everybody the commission has always talked to, and now they’re coming to the President to ask some questions of the President -- or the chairman and vice chairman will.
Q: I just want to clarify that you said that the --
McCLELLAN: No, no, I understand.
Q: -- President will respond to all of the questions the panel wants to raise.
McCLELLAN: Absolutely, of course. Of course.
Q: Personally?
McCLELLAN: Of course. And keep in mind that what we’re talking about here is a seven-eight month period. Not eight years. Now, these threats didn’t happen overnight. These threats have been building for some time. But this President has taken action to do everything we can to make sure something like September 11th never happens again. He is strongly committed to making sure that this administration works closely -- continues to work closely and cooperatively with the commission to make sure that if there’s anything else that they can bring to our attention to help us prevent attacks like that from happening every again, then we have that information.
Q: Scott, purely from a PR point of view, how do you respond to a criticism launched by Senator Kerry yesterday who said, “The President finds time to go to a rodeo, but he doesn’t have more than an hour for the 9/11 Commission?” -- wouldn’t you acknowledge that, however well you think the administration, the President, and however unprecedented you think the cooperation is, isn’t he vulnerable to some criticism --
McCLELLAN: Suggest -- look at the facts. I mean, I’ll just point out the facts. Not suggesting; I’m pointing out the facts.
Q: We would never suggest you do anything else, Scott. But my point is, don’t you think that there might be some kind of PR problem for the President when his chief challenger can say, you’ve got time to got to a rodeo, and you don’t have time for the 9/11 Commission?
McCLELLAN: That’s why it’s important for everybody to report all the facts and the type of cooperation we have provided to the commission, and the type of access we have provided to the commission. It is unprecedented. But in terms of those remarks, it appears that he does not want to let the facts get in the way of his campaign. The facts are very clear. This administration has provided unprecedented cooperation to the 9/11 Commission, and provided access to every single bit of information that they have requested.
Q: Not unprecedented, I’m sorry. From Watergate on --
McCLELLAN: Go look at the chairman’s recent comments, Helen. I mean, I’ll be glad to go back through those.
Q: The only reason I won’t accept the word “unprecedented” is because, as I pointed out to you once before, President Ford actually testified in open session before the House Judiciary Committee --
McCLELLAN: Provided access to our nation’s most sensitive national security documents?
Q: Well, it depends on what aspect of --
McCLELLAN: Provide more than 2 million pages of documents? Provided access to hundreds of administration officials?
Q: So, but answer my question. When the President of the United States goes up to Capitol Hill, sits down in public session before an entire, full committee, and says, give me your best shot, how does the President sitting down for one hour --
McCLELLAN: Look at the facts of what we’ve done. Well, no, but keep in mind, you’re looking --
Q: We’re talking about the President’s time.
McCLELLAN: No, no, no, you’re missing the point, that the commission has already had access to everything that they’ve requested, including our most sensitive documents. They’ve already sat down and visited with White House officials and senor administration officials. And now they’ll have an opportunity to come to the President, and ask any question that they want to. The President is glad to answer their questions.
Q: So your view is that all the cooperation you’ve given -- the White House has given up to now makes it so that really an hour of the President’s time should be sufficient for them to get what they need out of him?
McCLELLAN: The President is going to make sure, as we have, that they have all the information that they need to do their job.
Q: Scott, just to make sure we’re on the same page --
Q: Scott, I think what’s puzzling everybody is why don’t you just say, instead of saying he’s staying for an hour, why not just say he’s going to sit there until the questions are answered?
McCLELLAN: I said he's going to answer all their questions.
Q: In one hour.
Q: Where is this one hour --
McCLELLAN: I'm not negotiating here from this podium with the commission.
Q: Nobody has asked -- Scott --
Q: -- one hour, is that what you’re saying?
Q: We're asking you to explain why there is this limit of an hour. Why not simply say -- forget the hour; the President is going to stay as long as he’s needed?
McCLELLAN: I think there are a lot of things that I pointed out. Go back to what the commission has already done, and then they will be sitting down with the President to visit with the President. And obviously, we're talking about -- we're talking about a seven-to-eight-month period here that they're going over. They're already going to have much of the information they need. Now they'll be coming to the President to ask some questions of him.
Q: Scott, since it now seems like the time --
McCLELLAN: Putting you next, Mike.
Q: Scott, since now seems like the time is negotiable, the President will now answer for as long --
McCLELLAN: I didn't say that. (Laughter.) Obviously, you work with the commission and you come to an agreement on the format and the setting for it. But I'm just stating a fact -- the President will answer all the questions they want to raise.
Q: I’m sorry, we all think you said it, so you said it. Okay? Is that a deal?
McCLELLAN: Putting words in my mouth? Just report what I said, is what I would appreciate.
Q: What you said doesn't make any sense, Scott. I mean, you're saying he'll answer all the questions --
McCLELLAN: Hold on. Norah has the floor.
Q: All right. Go ahead, Norah.
McCLELLAN: It's not free-for-all Tuesday.
Q: Now that the time limit has changed with the President, is also under negotiation the number of members who will be able to meet with the President? Because you've said -- you just said the commission has already had access to everything they have requested. But, in fact, the full commission is requesting to meet with the President, all the members, not just the chairman and the vice chairman.
McCLELLAN: Look, he will sit down -- he looks forward to sitting down with the chairman and the vice chairman. I pointed out to you that Dr. Rice made herself available to meet with all the commission; only five members showed up. There was another National Security Council official where only, I think, four showed up. There has not been one single commission member who has participated in every interview. I mean, they depend on others to provide them information. And so you have to look back at past practice and keep that in context, as well.
I encourage you all to go out and report all these facts and the American people have a clear understanding of the type of cooperation that this administration has provided to the commission, because it is unprecedented, it is very much in a spirit of cooperation, it is very much in a spirit of making sure that the commission has all the information they need to do their job and do so in a timely manner.
Obviously, when you're talking about legislative, executive branch, there are principles involved on certain matters. But we have bent over backwards to make sure they have all the information they need to do their job.
Q: Just to cross a “t” on Norah’s question, you referred to answering all the questions the panel has, answering all the questions the commission has. I thought that that meant more than the chairman and the vice chairman --
McCLELLAN: The meeting will be with the chairman and vice chairman. That's what ---
Q: Will it be for one hour or will it last --- (laughter).
McCLELLAN: We've been through this. I mean, I'm not looking at -- keep in mind -- I think it's important to report the facts of all the access that they've already had to information, which has been full access; all the access they've had to White House officials and administration officials; all the material that has been provided to them. And now they're coming to the President of the United States. Obviously, the President's most solemn obligation is the protection of the American people, and this President is acting to do everything we can to make sure something like September 11th doesn't ever happen again, by taking the fight to the enemy. And we're talking about -- we're also talking about a seven-eight month period, not an eight-year period. But these threats did not happen overnight, but this President is confronting them to make --
Q: Why does he complain all the time, then --
McCLELLAN: -- because he never forgets September 11th.
Q: Will the President apply a different standard and a different response to the intelligence commission that he appointed when he comes to talk with them?
McCLELLAN: What do you mean?
Q: Well, are these the same rules and arrangements by which he would testify ---
McCLELLAN: You're talking about an executive appointed independent commission --
Q: Right. Are these the exact same ---
McCLELLAN: --- and that's --- obviously, that’s just getting underway. And we're going to work -- the President has directed the administration to cooperate fully with that independent commission. And that's what we will. But you're jumping ahead of yourself at this point.
Q: That’s right, you're setting a precedent.
McCLELLAN: You're jumping ahead of yourself at this point. That commission is just getting underway.
Q: I’m jumping ahead of you, because you're setting a precedent with the President's --
McCLELLAN: The President has directed the administration to cooperate fully with the independent commission.
All right, one last one.
Q: Okay, so he will only testify for one hour -- that's a "yes"?
McCLELLAN: Well, that's what has previously been discussed with the commission. But I'm saying the President, of course, is going to answer all the questions they want to raise. I think that you all should make that distinction.
Q: It's scheduled for an hour; it might go longer.
Q: It might go longer?
McCLELLAN: Again, from this podium I'm telling you that the President, of course, will answer all the questions that they want to raise.
Monday, March 08, 2004
Pegged to reservations
MI5, the British Security Service, is expanding. Sort of. It won’t hire men taller than 5’11” or women of 5’8,” because they stand out in a crowd.
The RNC threatens 250 tv stations, threatening that they will lose their licenses if they run MoveOn.org’s ad.
A statistician says there is a 67% chance that God exists. The Grauniad, being a British paper, immediately tried to find out if they could place a bet. No, but the odds are 1,000/1 on the second coming.
The temporary pointless Iraqi constitution was finally signed today, although the Shiites immediately said that they didn’t mean it--their signatures were “pegged to reservations.” See how many of the triumphalist news stories that last phrase makes it into.
The US has increased the number of countries in which its soldiers have killed locals under George Bush by one today: Haiti.
Monologist Spalding Gray did commit suicide.
The R’s are talking about Kerry voting against 27 weapons systems. Most of this was a single vote in 1991. Some of the systems on that list were considered useless pork at the time by President Bush (the Bush whom you can call president without using quotation marks) and then secretary of defense Dick Cheney. Hasn’t stopped Cheney attacking Kerry on these grounds.
Remember Shrub’s Thanksgiving photo-op with the troops? Turns out the Iraqi sub-contractor that provided that meal still hasn’t been paid by Halliburton (and for $87m worth of other meals for the troops).
I haven’t mentioned Cyprus much, but there will be a vote April 20th on a reunification plan. It was originally a different date but had to be changed to one that wasn’t the anniversary of a coup in Greece. Which can’t have been easy to find.
55% of the Dutch prison population is foreign-born.
Afghan Puppet Prez Karzai, on International Women’s Day: “Please, my dear brothers, let your wives and sisters go to the voter registration process. Later, you can control who she votes for, but please, let her go.”
The Republicans on why Kerry is a North Korean stooge, or something (and they caught up with him being related to a French environment minister, which I mentioned weeks ago).
The RNC threatens 250 tv stations, threatening that they will lose their licenses if they run MoveOn.org’s ad.
A statistician says there is a 67% chance that God exists. The Grauniad, being a British paper, immediately tried to find out if they could place a bet. No, but the odds are 1,000/1 on the second coming.
The temporary pointless Iraqi constitution was finally signed today, although the Shiites immediately said that they didn’t mean it--their signatures were “pegged to reservations.” See how many of the triumphalist news stories that last phrase makes it into.
The US has increased the number of countries in which its soldiers have killed locals under George Bush by one today: Haiti.
Monologist Spalding Gray did commit suicide.
The R’s are talking about Kerry voting against 27 weapons systems. Most of this was a single vote in 1991. Some of the systems on that list were considered useless pork at the time by President Bush (the Bush whom you can call president without using quotation marks) and then secretary of defense Dick Cheney. Hasn’t stopped Cheney attacking Kerry on these grounds.
Remember Shrub’s Thanksgiving photo-op with the troops? Turns out the Iraqi sub-contractor that provided that meal still hasn’t been paid by Halliburton (and for $87m worth of other meals for the troops).
I haven’t mentioned Cyprus much, but there will be a vote April 20th on a reunification plan. It was originally a different date but had to be changed to one that wasn’t the anniversary of a coup in Greece. Which can’t have been easy to find.
55% of the Dutch prison population is foreign-born.
Afghan Puppet Prez Karzai, on International Women’s Day: “Please, my dear brothers, let your wives and sisters go to the voter registration process. Later, you can control who she votes for, but please, let her go.”
The Republicans on why Kerry is a North Korean stooge, or something (and they caught up with him being related to a French environment minister, which I mentioned weeks ago).
With all the talk about how sacred marriage is, Bush didn’t show up at the wedding of brother Neil, even though it was to his mistress rather than a dude. Jeb didn’t show up either. Whatever happened to that paternity test?
Kerry says he would have supported Aristide. Actually, we have proof that this is not true: he didn’t say a damned word during the coup, waiting for everything to be over before he speaking out. Where was he when it might have done Haiti some good?
The Sunday Telegraph reports that Kerry tried to put off being drafted for a year to study in Paris, and his draft board said no. There’s no real proof of this cited in the story. I smell a Republican dirty trick, especially since it’s the Telegraph, which has a track record of disseminating black propaganda from the CIA, which can then be quoted by American media (though it hasn’t been yet).
New York Life Insurance is to pay out life insurance claims from the Armenian genocide of 1915.
Fun Facts to Know and Forget: manufacturing an average desktop computer and 17in monitor uses at least 530lb of fossil fuels, 50lb of chemicals and 3,330lb of water - a total of around two tons.
Hugo Chavez vows a hundred-year war if the US invades Venezuela. Well, only if the US gets really lost, maybe starts out in Africa... could happen too.
Good description, if you can get at it past whatever the LA Times is doing with cookies that set off my browser’s alarm bells, of how Governor Ahnuld campaigned for his propositions (just like an actor plugging a film, duh).
Also, Nellie Connally, who was in the JFK death car, has a book out: From Love Field: Our Final Hours with President John F. Kennedy. Oh brother.
The firefighters in the Bush ad are actually actors.
Kerry says he would have supported Aristide. Actually, we have proof that this is not true: he didn’t say a damned word during the coup, waiting for everything to be over before he speaking out. Where was he when it might have done Haiti some good?
The Sunday Telegraph reports that Kerry tried to put off being drafted for a year to study in Paris, and his draft board said no. There’s no real proof of this cited in the story. I smell a Republican dirty trick, especially since it’s the Telegraph, which has a track record of disseminating black propaganda from the CIA, which can then be quoted by American media (though it hasn’t been yet).
New York Life Insurance is to pay out life insurance claims from the Armenian genocide of 1915.
Fun Facts to Know and Forget: manufacturing an average desktop computer and 17in monitor uses at least 530lb of fossil fuels, 50lb of chemicals and 3,330lb of water - a total of around two tons.
Hugo Chavez vows a hundred-year war if the US invades Venezuela. Well, only if the US gets really lost, maybe starts out in Africa... could happen too.
Good description, if you can get at it past whatever the LA Times is doing with cookies that set off my browser’s alarm bells, of how Governor Ahnuld campaigned for his propositions (just like an actor plugging a film, duh).
Also, Nellie Connally, who was in the JFK death car, has a book out: From Love Field: Our Final Hours with President John F. Kennedy. Oh brother.
The firefighters in the Bush ad are actually actors.
Saturday, March 06, 2004
I’ve seen this before, but I don’t think I passed it on: North Korea uses The Diary of Anne Frank in its schools, as a metaphor. Guess who’s Anne Frank, and who the Nazis are?
Jimmy Breslin on Bush’s “unlimited personal cheapness.”
Jimmy Breslin on Bush’s “unlimited personal cheapness.”
Friday, March 05, 2004
Mary Poppins wasn't good enough?
Yesterday I talked about Bush using 9/11 as another clean-slate moment, like his falling on the wagon. I debated including his coming to Christ (I feel soiled just typing that phrase), but I believe Bush doesn’t consider himself a true “born-again” Christian, because that would entail admitting that he was once wrong, which he is congenitally incapable of doing.
Take a quiz: which America-hating minority are you?
For once, it’s the Poles invading Germany. Polish gnomes, anyway.
According to the Post, the source for the US claim that Iraq had mobile weapons labs was some defector who talked to a foreign spy agency. Bush, Cheney, Powell, etc, bandied it about everywhere and no one in the US knew so much as the name of this alleged source. Now it turns out he’s related to a leader of Chalabi’s organization. Remember when a woman who testified to Congress in 1990 about Iraqi troops ripping babies out of incubators in Kuwait turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador?
More news from the culture wars: the relevant House committee approves increasing fines on broadcasters who air “indecent” material from $27,500 to $500,000.
Good Jeffrey Sachs piece on Haiti.
3 strikes inmates are now 1/4 of California’s prisoners. 672 of them are serving 25 years to life for simple drug possession, 354 for petty theft.
I mentioned that in Orange County three 12-year old girls falsely accused a homeless man of assault to cover up coming home late. They were, against expectations, given actual sentences. 30 to 45 days (the homeless man spent 8 months inside before being released).
Blair gives a defiant speech saying that everything he did in Iraq was right, and he’ll do it again. Possibly channeling one of those Bush ads, he says, according to the Guardian: “In what amounted to a personal testimony of his reasons for taking the country into conflict, the prime minister said the September 11 terrorist attacks had been a "revelation" that had convinced him of the need to tackle rogue states and "religious fanatics" prepared to "bring about Armageddon".” Armageddon, revelation, and THEY’RE the religious fanatics.
Speaking of religious fanatics, John “Lost to a Dead Guy” Ashcroft is in the hospital with something painful. Do you suppose he did something to piss God off, like give in to the temptation to...dance?
Or trying to get the medical records of women who had abortions, which a district judge has just refused to allow. The law banning “partial-birth abortions” included language asserting that the procedure (if there is such a procedure) is never medically necessary as justification for not allowing any exemptions for the health of the mother. And perhaps to set up this slimy little blackmail attempt by Justice.
David Bell, the chief inspector of schools in Britain, says that for girls to fulfill in life the potential they show in schools, they need strong role models, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Elsewhere in the papers, Patrick Stewart of Star Trek blames films for violence against women. He says nothing about violence against vampires. Or Klingons.
Take a quiz: which America-hating minority are you?
For once, it’s the Poles invading Germany. Polish gnomes, anyway.
According to the Post, the source for the US claim that Iraq had mobile weapons labs was some defector who talked to a foreign spy agency. Bush, Cheney, Powell, etc, bandied it about everywhere and no one in the US knew so much as the name of this alleged source. Now it turns out he’s related to a leader of Chalabi’s organization. Remember when a woman who testified to Congress in 1990 about Iraqi troops ripping babies out of incubators in Kuwait turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador?
More news from the culture wars: the relevant House committee approves increasing fines on broadcasters who air “indecent” material from $27,500 to $500,000.
Good Jeffrey Sachs piece on Haiti.
3 strikes inmates are now 1/4 of California’s prisoners. 672 of them are serving 25 years to life for simple drug possession, 354 for petty theft.
I mentioned that in Orange County three 12-year old girls falsely accused a homeless man of assault to cover up coming home late. They were, against expectations, given actual sentences. 30 to 45 days (the homeless man spent 8 months inside before being released).
Blair gives a defiant speech saying that everything he did in Iraq was right, and he’ll do it again. Possibly channeling one of those Bush ads, he says, according to the Guardian: “In what amounted to a personal testimony of his reasons for taking the country into conflict, the prime minister said the September 11 terrorist attacks had been a "revelation" that had convinced him of the need to tackle rogue states and "religious fanatics" prepared to "bring about Armageddon".” Armageddon, revelation, and THEY’RE the religious fanatics.
Speaking of religious fanatics, John “Lost to a Dead Guy” Ashcroft is in the hospital with something painful. Do you suppose he did something to piss God off, like give in to the temptation to...dance?
Or trying to get the medical records of women who had abortions, which a district judge has just refused to allow. The law banning “partial-birth abortions” included language asserting that the procedure (if there is such a procedure) is never medically necessary as justification for not allowing any exemptions for the health of the mother. And perhaps to set up this slimy little blackmail attempt by Justice.
David Bell, the chief inspector of schools in Britain, says that for girls to fulfill in life the potential they show in schools, they need strong role models, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Elsewhere in the papers, Patrick Stewart of Star Trek blames films for violence against women. He says nothing about violence against vampires. Or Klingons.
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Really quick, is God on America’s side?
Bush’s new ads are out. One slogan: “freedom, faith, families and facrisice, sorry, sacrifice, got a little carried away with the alliteration, our bad.”
Another: “An economy in recession. A stock market in decline. A dot-com boom gone bust. Then, a day of tragedy.” Election day 2000? The day the Supreme Court announced Bush v. Gore? Oh, right, September 11, 2001. Note that in one of these ads called “positive” by the press, there is the image of a dead body (under a flag), possibly the first dead body to appear in a presidential ad (insert your own joke about Ronald Reagan here). Bush is portraying himself as “optimistic,” while encouraging Americans to be pessimistic and fearful. Really, think about it, if the only qualities Bush has that they’re touting are his dubious abilities as warlord, why would any optimist vote for him?
Bush’s people are defending the use of WTC footage (favorite quote: “We thought it was important to begin with a reminder of what the country's been through” said senior campaign adviser Matthew Dowd. God knows we’d all forget about 9/11 if a day went by without a helpful reminder). They’re saying that 9/11 is Bush’s defining moment; “It's critical to who this president is.” I remember all the talk about how 9/11 gave him the legitimacy the election didn’t, but I don’t remember anyone making the comparison that just occurred to me, that he’s using 9/11 as the same automatic clean slate that his decision to stop drinking was. You know, forget everything he did before he turned 40; now we’re supposed to forget everything we knew and thought about him before 9/11. He’s got to be looking for another clean-slate moment right about now.
The Arnold got his $15b bond measure, because California goes all soft when he speaks to it in that cute foreign accent.
And Wal-Mart won here in Contra Costa, as we always knew they would.
A good but long Columbia Journalism Review article on how the newspapers failed to scrutinize Bushies’ claims about Iraq before the war.
NBC has a story on its website that the guy currently being blamed for attacks in Iraq, Abu something Zarqawi, is someone the US decided not to go after before the war. He was believed to have set up a bioweapons lab, which you’d think would be considered a serious threat. The Pentagon (this was June 2002) could have taken it out with missiles, but it was in Kurdish Iraq, under the US no-fly zone, which meant Saddam couldn’t be blamed for him (which did not, of course, stop the Bushies from doing so), and it would have shown that terrorists operating out of Iraq could easily have been dealt with by the US without going near Baghdad or toppling Saddam. Which is why Zarqawi was allowed to continue: a mission against him would have been “off message.”
Another: “An economy in recession. A stock market in decline. A dot-com boom gone bust. Then, a day of tragedy.” Election day 2000? The day the Supreme Court announced Bush v. Gore? Oh, right, September 11, 2001. Note that in one of these ads called “positive” by the press, there is the image of a dead body (under a flag), possibly the first dead body to appear in a presidential ad (insert your own joke about Ronald Reagan here). Bush is portraying himself as “optimistic,” while encouraging Americans to be pessimistic and fearful. Really, think about it, if the only qualities Bush has that they’re touting are his dubious abilities as warlord, why would any optimist vote for him?
Bush’s people are defending the use of WTC footage (favorite quote: “We thought it was important to begin with a reminder of what the country's been through” said senior campaign adviser Matthew Dowd. God knows we’d all forget about 9/11 if a day went by without a helpful reminder). They’re saying that 9/11 is Bush’s defining moment; “It's critical to who this president is.” I remember all the talk about how 9/11 gave him the legitimacy the election didn’t, but I don’t remember anyone making the comparison that just occurred to me, that he’s using 9/11 as the same automatic clean slate that his decision to stop drinking was. You know, forget everything he did before he turned 40; now we’re supposed to forget everything we knew and thought about him before 9/11. He’s got to be looking for another clean-slate moment right about now.
The Arnold got his $15b bond measure, because California goes all soft when he speaks to it in that cute foreign accent.
And Wal-Mart won here in Contra Costa, as we always knew they would.
A good but long Columbia Journalism Review article on how the newspapers failed to scrutinize Bushies’ claims about Iraq before the war.
NBC has a story on its website that the guy currently being blamed for attacks in Iraq, Abu something Zarqawi, is someone the US decided not to go after before the war. He was believed to have set up a bioweapons lab, which you’d think would be considered a serious threat. The Pentagon (this was June 2002) could have taken it out with missiles, but it was in Kurdish Iraq, under the US no-fly zone, which meant Saddam couldn’t be blamed for him (which did not, of course, stop the Bushies from doing so), and it would have shown that terrorists operating out of Iraq could easily have been dealt with by the US without going near Baghdad or toppling Saddam. Which is why Zarqawi was allowed to continue: a mission against him would have been “off message.”
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Don't blame me, I voted for...who the heck did I vote for again?
Some of the creeps currently poised to take power in Haiti were protected by the US, which refused to extradite death squad leaders back to Haiti, showing a sympathy for them they didn’t show any refugees from the civil war in the last week.
Let me quote myself on this subject, from June 1996: “The US frees Haitian death squad leader Emmanuel Constant without deporting him back to Haiti, citing concern for the overburdened Haitian courts and prison system, and not having anything to do with his CIA links at all, no sirree bob.” A search also turns up a News of the Weird piece that one Haitian colonel granted residency despite being wanted to serve out a homicide/torture conviction won $3.2m in the Florida lottery in 1997.
Good Haiti article.
The Central African Republic is telling Aristide to shut up about being kidnapped.
Now about the kidnapping thing: the Bushies are trying to reduce this to a single moment, when Aristide left. Were there US Marines with guns pointed at his head? If not, it doesn’t count as kidnapping and the US is exonerated. But Aristide being driven out does not come down to that single moment, but resulted from a series of decisions in which the US was involved. Not sending troops, obviously; visibly not backing up the elected president, which made the insurrectionists understand that no consequences would follow if there were no negotiations, which the US pretended to call for but its actions undermined; and the thing I come to back to, in part because while other facts are contested this one is not: the US demanded that Aristide sign a letter of resignation, so he could not be a president-in-exile, as he was after 1991. The US, its policy being run by long-time Aristide-haters like Otto Reich and that Noriega guy, created a situation where Aristide could either die or leave. Which is close enough to kidnapping in my book.
Florida is so progressive that not only can they teach evolution, they can give practical examples (or would have been had the classroom been higher).
As I write, there are 2 more hours before the polls close and CNN is announcing that Edwards is pulling out. Remember how the networks and news channels promised they wouldn’t broadcast exit poll results and so forth before the polls closed? Jackasses.
And Howard Dean wins Vermont, which you have to sorta admire.
Robert Fisk has a slightly incoherent article that might turn out to be important, questioning all the talk about a Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq.
From the Telegraph: “A Benedictine nun could lose her driving licence after hitting a car parked outside her convent at Krzeszow, Poland, while drunk at the wheel of a tractor.”
Alastair Cooke, 95, retires from broadcasting Letter from America on BBC (and NPR) after 58 years, the quitter.
The prime minister-designate of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, is talking about partitioning Kosovo. Here we fucking go again.
Baby Doc Duvalier wants to be allowed to return to Haiti. “This is my country. I'm ready to put myself at the disposal of the Haitian people.” And disposal is just what he deserves.
Coca Cola has started marketing bottled water in Britain. Turns out it comes out of a tap.
The British Tory party chooses its first openly lesbian candidate for Parliament. Labour has at least one that I can think of off the top of my head, one of a pair of identical twins who are both MPs, the other of whom is straight, which still sounds like a wacky sitcom to me.
Let me quote myself on this subject, from June 1996: “The US frees Haitian death squad leader Emmanuel Constant without deporting him back to Haiti, citing concern for the overburdened Haitian courts and prison system, and not having anything to do with his CIA links at all, no sirree bob.” A search also turns up a News of the Weird piece that one Haitian colonel granted residency despite being wanted to serve out a homicide/torture conviction won $3.2m in the Florida lottery in 1997.
Good Haiti article.
The Central African Republic is telling Aristide to shut up about being kidnapped.
Now about the kidnapping thing: the Bushies are trying to reduce this to a single moment, when Aristide left. Were there US Marines with guns pointed at his head? If not, it doesn’t count as kidnapping and the US is exonerated. But Aristide being driven out does not come down to that single moment, but resulted from a series of decisions in which the US was involved. Not sending troops, obviously; visibly not backing up the elected president, which made the insurrectionists understand that no consequences would follow if there were no negotiations, which the US pretended to call for but its actions undermined; and the thing I come to back to, in part because while other facts are contested this one is not: the US demanded that Aristide sign a letter of resignation, so he could not be a president-in-exile, as he was after 1991. The US, its policy being run by long-time Aristide-haters like Otto Reich and that Noriega guy, created a situation where Aristide could either die or leave. Which is close enough to kidnapping in my book.
Florida is so progressive that not only can they teach evolution, they can give practical examples (or would have been had the classroom been higher).
As I write, there are 2 more hours before the polls close and CNN is announcing that Edwards is pulling out. Remember how the networks and news channels promised they wouldn’t broadcast exit poll results and so forth before the polls closed? Jackasses.
And Howard Dean wins Vermont, which you have to sorta admire.
Robert Fisk has a slightly incoherent article that might turn out to be important, questioning all the talk about a Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq.
From the Telegraph: “A Benedictine nun could lose her driving licence after hitting a car parked outside her convent at Krzeszow, Poland, while drunk at the wheel of a tractor.”
Alastair Cooke, 95, retires from broadcasting Letter from America on BBC (and NPR) after 58 years, the quitter.
The prime minister-designate of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, is talking about partitioning Kosovo. Here we fucking go again.
Baby Doc Duvalier wants to be allowed to return to Haiti. “This is my country. I'm ready to put myself at the disposal of the Haitian people.” And disposal is just what he deserves.
Coca Cola has started marketing bottled water in Britain. Turns out it comes out of a tap.
The British Tory party chooses its first openly lesbian candidate for Parliament. Labour has at least one that I can think of off the top of my head, one of a pair of identical twins who are both MPs, the other of whom is straight, which still sounds like a wacky sitcom to me.
Monday, March 01, 2004
The constitution of Haiti is working
Russia has retaliated against Qatar for arresting its hitmen by arresting 2 members of a Qatari judo team. Can’t make this shit up.
Bush: “The constitution of Haiti is working. There is an interim president, as per the constitution, in place.” Well, maybe the Haitian constitution does actually establish a process involving death squads, coups and US Marines in order to select a new president, something like the electoral college. I mean have you ever read the Haitian constitution? It’s amazing how the US found troops to send into Haiti now, when there were none available last week to support the elected president. Even if you don’t credit the stories that Aristide was forced onto a helicopter at gunpoint by US forces (Later: including from Aristide himself), the whole thing does rather smell.
Even if he had to flee, Aristide should not have resigned. (Later: ah, it was a US condition for getting him safely out of the country. That much is admitted by Powell and McClellan. Let me repeat: the US told him to resign, or die. Aristide also says they threatened to remove his security. And is claiming that he didn’t actually resign. The US says he signed a letter of resignation: so let’s see it.). Bush says “This is the beginning of a new chapter,” using a metaphor derived from these things he’s heard of called books.
The US is talking about setting up a “council of elders” in Haiti. Normally I’d be using the word “puppet” right about now, and feeling a little silly about it, like I’m channeling a Maoist from 1969. For Haiti, I get to use the word zombie. Council of zombies. Granted their counsel might be restricted to “Braaaaains. Must eat braaaaaaaaains,” but it’ll still be better than the United States Senate.
Helpful fact: you kill zombies by filling their mouth with salt and sewing it closed. Saw it on an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
I asked, about the 5-second delay at the Oscars, whether they were trying to prevent another Janet Jackson or another Michael Moore. Answer: the latter under the pretense of the former. ABC threatened actors with being cut off if they said anything about Bush or the war.
From the Indy: “The Israeli fashion house Comme-il-faut plans to shoot its summer catalogue at Israel's West Bank security barrier this week, the company said yesterday, less than a week after troops shot dead two Palestinians protesting against the network of walls, wire and ditches.”
Bush: “The constitution of Haiti is working. There is an interim president, as per the constitution, in place.” Well, maybe the Haitian constitution does actually establish a process involving death squads, coups and US Marines in order to select a new president, something like the electoral college. I mean have you ever read the Haitian constitution? It’s amazing how the US found troops to send into Haiti now, when there were none available last week to support the elected president. Even if you don’t credit the stories that Aristide was forced onto a helicopter at gunpoint by US forces (Later: including from Aristide himself), the whole thing does rather smell.
Even if he had to flee, Aristide should not have resigned. (Later: ah, it was a US condition for getting him safely out of the country. That much is admitted by Powell and McClellan. Let me repeat: the US told him to resign, or die. Aristide also says they threatened to remove his security. And is claiming that he didn’t actually resign. The US says he signed a letter of resignation: so let’s see it.). Bush says “This is the beginning of a new chapter,” using a metaphor derived from these things he’s heard of called books.
The US is talking about setting up a “council of elders” in Haiti. Normally I’d be using the word “puppet” right about now, and feeling a little silly about it, like I’m channeling a Maoist from 1969. For Haiti, I get to use the word zombie. Council of zombies. Granted their counsel might be restricted to “Braaaaains. Must eat braaaaaaaaains,” but it’ll still be better than the United States Senate.
Helpful fact: you kill zombies by filling their mouth with salt and sewing it closed. Saw it on an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
I asked, about the 5-second delay at the Oscars, whether they were trying to prevent another Janet Jackson or another Michael Moore. Answer: the latter under the pretense of the former. ABC threatened actors with being cut off if they said anything about Bush or the war.
From the Indy: “The Israeli fashion house Comme-il-faut plans to shoot its summer catalogue at Israel's West Bank security barrier this week, the company said yesterday, less than a week after troops shot dead two Palestinians protesting against the network of walls, wire and ditches.”
Saturday, February 28, 2004
The three main fools of the 21st century
There’s something particularly amusing about Bush’s Friday Afternoon Massacre at his bioethics panel, and packing it with anti-abortionites. I don’t know what Randy Cohen would say, but I think that most ethicists would say that the ethical thing for an ethicist to do when the panel he or she is on has been ideologically purged and packed, is to resign.
The Iraqi Puppet Council reverses its introduction of sharia law. Bremer had not bothered to veto it in the two months since the first vote, as opposed to his abrogation of their decision to allow back all Iraqis expelled from the country over the last few decades except for Jews. The NYT didn’t say how long that decision took, but I’ll bet it was less than 2 months.
Colin Powell, who has been calling for negotiations in Haiti at the same time as he is suggesting that Aristide step down in order to ensure that there are no negotiations, is now referring to the insurrectionists as “the resistance.” (Later: it’s worse. They’re now actively blaming Aristide for the violence).
From the NYT: “President Bush has approved a plan to intensify the effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, officials say.” Oh, so they weren’t trying before. That would certainly explain it.
A woman in a wheelchair who John Edwards patted on the head says that he lacks disability etiquette. Speaking of which, oh holy shit:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22disability+etiquette%22&sourceid=opera&num=25&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
From News of the Weird: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who is widely believed by United Nations officials and Far East experts to be tolerating the starvation deaths of perhaps millions of his countrymen, launched a nationwide campaign in January to improve national health by eradicating smoking, whose practitioners, said Kim, are one of the "three main fools of the 21st century" (along with people ignorant about music and computers).
Friday, February 27, 2004
Why are you here?
Does anyone have an opinion on Prop 56? I don’t know if the provision reducing the anti-democratic 2/3 majority to pass a budget to a somewhat less anti-democratic 55% is worth voting for a prop. with that ridiculous provision of not paying legislators’ and the governor’s salaries if the budget is late, ensuring that only rich legislators had the luxury of voting their consciences.
Interesting story (well, I thought it was interesting) in the NYT about walk buttons. It seems that in NYC, 3/4 of those buttons do absolutely nothing, while most of the remaining buttons have to be pushed or you don’t get a walk signal. Reminds me (but not the NYT reporter) of a story a couple of years ago that many of the fire hydrants in NYC are also non-operative, but they keep them for the parking ticket revenue.
Didn’t watch last night’s debate (I think I’ve suffered enough already), but understand that Larry King’s first question to Kucinich was “Why are you here?” Larry King, mind you. Larry Fucking King.
Reporters should try that out on Scott McClellan, Bush’s hilariously inept spokesmodel, who said today the reason Bush won’t spend more than an hour with the 9/11 Commission, or with more than two members of it, well, it has something to do with separation of powers. Cuz Georgie is all about the checks and balances.
In Britain, says the Indy, “A couple who were forced to sell their house at a loss after learning it might contain body parts of a girl murdered by her father have lost their fight for compensation.”
An even more uplifting British story yesterday was of a 64-year old man who was mugged in a hospital, where he was visiting his sick wife. So he wasn’t there when she died, because he was being treated for his injuries.
Evidently in 1982 Reagan got the CIA to sabotage the Soviet Union’s natural gas pipeline through rigged software, creating a huge explosion.
The House passes (but the Senate won’t, so it’s academic) that bill making harming a fetus a separate crime. The anti-abortion side which passed this piece of excrement said it has nothing to do with abortion, but voted down an alternative that would have accomplished the same thing but without the symbolism by increasing penalties for injury to a pregnant woman resulting in the loss of the fetus. If this sort of symbolism wasn’t important to the social conservatives, they wouldn’t be bitching so much about the sodomites usurping the sacred institution of marriage when they could settle for civil unions.
Blair’s buds are still attacking Clare Short. While Blair refused to confirm or deny that GCHQ spied on Kofi Annan, Home Secretary David Blunkett said that his security clearance was higher than hers and he hadn’t seen... [excuse me while I go look that up] hadn’t “been shown” any transcripts. Ok, that pause was me realizing as I typed that Blunkett, who is blind, might have been playing rather unclever word games. Now I’m not sure. I might not have been thinking along those lines but for the Phillip Knightley piece in the Indy today on how Britain and the US can each say that GCHQ/NSA don’t spy on their own citizens because each side spies on each other’s citizens for them.
The Pentagon is creating a “news” “service” in “Iraq” and “Afghanistan”--sorry I mean Iraq and Afghanistan, providing text and photos of the uplifting side of military occupation, because they don’t like the negativity of the civilian press, which focus too much on car bombs and the deaths of soldiers. First, c’mon, soldiers’ deaths barely make the papers these days. Second, THE MILITARY is complaining that attention is being paid when members of THE MILITARY die.
Interesting story (well, I thought it was interesting) in the NYT about walk buttons. It seems that in NYC, 3/4 of those buttons do absolutely nothing, while most of the remaining buttons have to be pushed or you don’t get a walk signal. Reminds me (but not the NYT reporter) of a story a couple of years ago that many of the fire hydrants in NYC are also non-operative, but they keep them for the parking ticket revenue.
Didn’t watch last night’s debate (I think I’ve suffered enough already), but understand that Larry King’s first question to Kucinich was “Why are you here?” Larry King, mind you. Larry Fucking King.
Reporters should try that out on Scott McClellan, Bush’s hilariously inept spokesmodel, who said today the reason Bush won’t spend more than an hour with the 9/11 Commission, or with more than two members of it, well, it has something to do with separation of powers. Cuz Georgie is all about the checks and balances.
In Britain, says the Indy, “A couple who were forced to sell their house at a loss after learning it might contain body parts of a girl murdered by her father have lost their fight for compensation.”
An even more uplifting British story yesterday was of a 64-year old man who was mugged in a hospital, where he was visiting his sick wife. So he wasn’t there when she died, because he was being treated for his injuries.
Evidently in 1982 Reagan got the CIA to sabotage the Soviet Union’s natural gas pipeline through rigged software, creating a huge explosion.
The House passes (but the Senate won’t, so it’s academic) that bill making harming a fetus a separate crime. The anti-abortion side which passed this piece of excrement said it has nothing to do with abortion, but voted down an alternative that would have accomplished the same thing but without the symbolism by increasing penalties for injury to a pregnant woman resulting in the loss of the fetus. If this sort of symbolism wasn’t important to the social conservatives, they wouldn’t be bitching so much about the sodomites usurping the sacred institution of marriage when they could settle for civil unions.
Blair’s buds are still attacking Clare Short. While Blair refused to confirm or deny that GCHQ spied on Kofi Annan, Home Secretary David Blunkett said that his security clearance was higher than hers and he hadn’t seen... [excuse me while I go look that up] hadn’t “been shown” any transcripts. Ok, that pause was me realizing as I typed that Blunkett, who is blind, might have been playing rather unclever word games. Now I’m not sure. I might not have been thinking along those lines but for the Phillip Knightley piece in the Indy today on how Britain and the US can each say that GCHQ/NSA don’t spy on their own citizens because each side spies on each other’s citizens for them.
The Pentagon is creating a “news” “service” in “Iraq” and “Afghanistan”--sorry I mean Iraq and Afghanistan, providing text and photos of the uplifting side of military occupation, because they don’t like the negativity of the civilian press, which focus too much on car bombs and the deaths of soldiers. First, c’mon, soldiers’ deaths barely make the papers these days. Second, THE MILITARY is complaining that attention is being paid when members of THE MILITARY die.
Saying something pompous about national security
And some suggested Kerry slogans, from Wonkette:
• "Vote Kerry: He Led America To Victory In Vietnam!"
• "John Kerry: Pretending To Fight Against Special Interests Since Very Recently"
• "If There's A Rich Heiress America Can Marry John Kerry Will Find Her"
• "John Kerry: Al Gore But Without The Charisma"
• "Kerry For President: He Barely Even Knew Jane Fonda"
• "57 ways to kick Bush's ass."
Clare Short on Blair’s response to her revealing British bugging of Kofi Annan: “Either he has to say it's true, we are bugging Kofi Annan's office, which he doesn't want to say, or he's got to say it's not true and he'd be telling a lie, or he's got to say something pompous about national security.” Short could, but no doubt won’t, be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act.
The Bushies are going to go on and on attacking Kerry as a hypocrite. You heard Bush himself do it, now there’s this from the latest email to my cat: “The NEW John Kerry has slammed NAFTA, saying he would vote against it. The OLD Kerry praised NAFTA as a path to the future... The NEW John Kerry slams the Patriot Act. The OLD Kerry, who helped write the law, praised the Patriot Act as key to the War on Terror...” And on and on like that. How about this: The OLD George Bush had his pilot’s licence yanked; the NEW George Bush pranced around on a flight deck. The NEW Bush talks about marriage being a sacred institution; the OLD Bush spent the first 20 years of his marriage in bars, snorting cocaine off a hooker’s butt...
From each according to his abilities... : the greatest gap in wealth between the urban rich and the rural poor is in Communist China.
From the Daily Telegraph: “A Frenchman found himself in New York's notorious Rikers Island prison when an attempt at toilet humour backfired. After alarming a stewardess over the time he spent in the toilet on an American Airlines flight from the Dominican Republic, Franck Moulet joked: "My shit don't explode." But, with his poor English and thick accent, the hostess thought she heard him say: "Shit, it does not explode." Convinced he was a terrorist, she alerted the authorities in New York and M Moulet, 26, was charged with raising a false alert and found himself in Rikers Island for a week before being allowed to fly home.”
And this: “German prosecutors said yesterday that a student had been investigated for theft for plugging his laptop into an electrical socket at a train station and using 20 euro cents (13p) of electricity.”
The chairman of Smith & Wesson is forced to resign because, like the president of the Hair Club for Men, he is also a client. Asked why he never mentioned the 15 years in prison for several armed robbery sprees, he responded, “Nobody asked.”
The Russian foreign minister, in an outrageous display of mock outrage and evidently unclear on the meaning of the word terrorism, accuses Qatar of obstructing the war on terrorism for having arrested 2 Russian secret service agents for assassinating the former president of Chechnya with a car bomb.
Sharon said three weeks ago that he planned to pull Jews out of Gaza. Now he is seizing more land to add to settlements there, including Netzarim, a settlement of 60 families for whose benefit the movement of 10s of thousands of Palestinians is restricted. They are not allowed to use the main road through Gaza. The army is allowed to shoot anyone who looks at Netzarim through binoculars.
• "Vote Kerry: He Led America To Victory In Vietnam!"
• "John Kerry: Pretending To Fight Against Special Interests Since Very Recently"
• "If There's A Rich Heiress America Can Marry John Kerry Will Find Her"
• "John Kerry: Al Gore But Without The Charisma"
• "Kerry For President: He Barely Even Knew Jane Fonda"
• "57 ways to kick Bush's ass."
Clare Short on Blair’s response to her revealing British bugging of Kofi Annan: “Either he has to say it's true, we are bugging Kofi Annan's office, which he doesn't want to say, or he's got to say it's not true and he'd be telling a lie, or he's got to say something pompous about national security.” Short could, but no doubt won’t, be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act.
The Bushies are going to go on and on attacking Kerry as a hypocrite. You heard Bush himself do it, now there’s this from the latest email to my cat: “The NEW John Kerry has slammed NAFTA, saying he would vote against it. The OLD Kerry praised NAFTA as a path to the future... The NEW John Kerry slams the Patriot Act. The OLD Kerry, who helped write the law, praised the Patriot Act as key to the War on Terror...” And on and on like that. How about this: The OLD George Bush had his pilot’s licence yanked; the NEW George Bush pranced around on a flight deck. The NEW Bush talks about marriage being a sacred institution; the OLD Bush spent the first 20 years of his marriage in bars, snorting cocaine off a hooker’s butt...
From each according to his abilities... : the greatest gap in wealth between the urban rich and the rural poor is in Communist China.
From the Daily Telegraph: “A Frenchman found himself in New York's notorious Rikers Island prison when an attempt at toilet humour backfired. After alarming a stewardess over the time he spent in the toilet on an American Airlines flight from the Dominican Republic, Franck Moulet joked: "My shit don't explode." But, with his poor English and thick accent, the hostess thought she heard him say: "Shit, it does not explode." Convinced he was a terrorist, she alerted the authorities in New York and M Moulet, 26, was charged with raising a false alert and found himself in Rikers Island for a week before being allowed to fly home.”
And this: “German prosecutors said yesterday that a student had been investigated for theft for plugging his laptop into an electrical socket at a train station and using 20 euro cents (13p) of electricity.”
The chairman of Smith & Wesson is forced to resign because, like the president of the Hair Club for Men, he is also a client. Asked why he never mentioned the 15 years in prison for several armed robbery sprees, he responded, “Nobody asked.”
The Russian foreign minister, in an outrageous display of mock outrage and evidently unclear on the meaning of the word terrorism, accuses Qatar of obstructing the war on terrorism for having arrested 2 Russian secret service agents for assassinating the former president of Chechnya with a car bomb.
Sharon said three weeks ago that he planned to pull Jews out of Gaza. Now he is seizing more land to add to settlements there, including Netzarim, a settlement of 60 families for whose benefit the movement of 10s of thousands of Palestinians is restricted. They are not allowed to use the main road through Gaza. The army is allowed to shoot anyone who looks at Netzarim through binoculars.
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Does God have more influence than Oprah?
I thought about going to the opening of Mel Gibson’s Jesus Christ Beyond Thunderdome today, when all the religious kooks were going, and heckling, but I thought better of it.
Someone suggested this slogan: “Keep America Free From Ass-Fucking: Bush 2004.” Or: “Don't Switch Horsemen Mid-Apocalypse.”
According to the governor of West Virginia, Kerry “can legitimately say, 'I carried an assault weapon,' and I hunt. That could go a long way toward offsetting the gun issue.” Really? Does hunting gooks count?
The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee: “American elections make the case against Iranian-style "Islamic democracy" a little harder. Which is more democratic: rule by moolah or mullah?”
The Supreme Court rules 7-2 that states don’t have to pay for the training of ministers. No points for guessing the 2. Scalia: “The indignity of being singled out for special burdens on the basis of one's religious calling is so profound that the concrete harm produced can never be dismissed as insubstantial.” Boy, you’d really have to have, I don’t know, religious faith or something, to endure such torment. Fat Tony also says the decision could deny publicly funded drug benefits to priests and nuns. Scalia is getting stupider with age. The plaintiff in this case experienced such harm that he switched sides, becoming a lawyer (well, half switched sides, he was double majoring in pastoral studies and, um, business administration. I don’t think either God or Satan appreciate people hedging their bets like that.). 37 states don’t fund religious instruction, at least to people planning to become ministers, so which are the 13? That would be too hard for reporters to look up, so we don’t know.
Bush’s statement on the Unequal Rights Amendment yesterday, which I linked to, was 776 words long (compared to the 207 words Putin took to fire his entire cabinet), not one of which were “gay,” “homosexual” or “ass-bandit.” It could be fun in the coming months watching him attack the rights of homosexuals without ever acknowledging their existence.
Tanzania decides not to take that bribe in order to house black refugees Britain doesn’t want.
Britain drops its prosecution of GCHQ employee Katharine Gun, who exposed that the US asked the Brits to help spy on UN Security Council delegates. So now we’ll never know how the British responded, he says facetiously. (Later: yes we will: Clare Short, who resigned from the government over the Iraq war, says she saw transcripts of Kofi Annan’s conversations). Also, at trial she would have demanded the gov’s legal advice on whether the war was legal, which Blair doesn’t want out, for some reason.
Israel raids banks, steals $9m it claims is terrorist money sent by Iran and Syria (the sum varies wildly according to your source).
Alan Greenspan said that Social Security benefits need to be cut for future recipients--who should develop an irrational exuberance for the taste of cat food--rather than taxes being raised. Why is he expressing an opinion on this subject? John Kerry wants to reappoint Greenspan.
Bush evidently agreed to allow the 9/11 commission more time because he knew his surrogates in Congress would kill the extension for him. They even pretended that Bush’s chief of staff called Dennis Hastert to plead for the extension and was turned down. I mean come fucking on. And Condi Rice has refused to testify in public. Bush and Cheney are also refusing to testify to the whole commission.
In an international BBC poll, 56% of Britons believe God is more influential than David Beckham, 75% of American respondents said he has more influence than Oprah Winfrey and 94% of Indians placed him ahead of the batsman Sachin Tendulkar. Britain was the most atheistic of the countries surveyed, maybe because of all the rain, and has the lowest rate of church attendance. That also translates into only 31% believing that theirs is the only true god, compared to 51% in the US and 96% in Indonesia.
Secretary of War Rumsfeld is in Afghanistan (and he brought his wife), where Puppet Prez Karzai declared the Taliban defeated. Evidently all the violence is from common criminals. “Now every act committed by a Kalashnikov is not an act done by the Taliban or al-Qaida.”
The Netherlands plans to make immigrants take a test on the Dutch language and fine them every year they fail.
Someone suggested this slogan: “Keep America Free From Ass-Fucking: Bush 2004.” Or: “Don't Switch Horsemen Mid-Apocalypse.”
According to the governor of West Virginia, Kerry “can legitimately say, 'I carried an assault weapon,' and I hunt. That could go a long way toward offsetting the gun issue.” Really? Does hunting gooks count?
The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee: “American elections make the case against Iranian-style "Islamic democracy" a little harder. Which is more democratic: rule by moolah or mullah?”
The Supreme Court rules 7-2 that states don’t have to pay for the training of ministers. No points for guessing the 2. Scalia: “The indignity of being singled out for special burdens on the basis of one's religious calling is so profound that the concrete harm produced can never be dismissed as insubstantial.” Boy, you’d really have to have, I don’t know, religious faith or something, to endure such torment. Fat Tony also says the decision could deny publicly funded drug benefits to priests and nuns. Scalia is getting stupider with age. The plaintiff in this case experienced such harm that he switched sides, becoming a lawyer (well, half switched sides, he was double majoring in pastoral studies and, um, business administration. I don’t think either God or Satan appreciate people hedging their bets like that.). 37 states don’t fund religious instruction, at least to people planning to become ministers, so which are the 13? That would be too hard for reporters to look up, so we don’t know.
Bush’s statement on the Unequal Rights Amendment yesterday, which I linked to, was 776 words long (compared to the 207 words Putin took to fire his entire cabinet), not one of which were “gay,” “homosexual” or “ass-bandit.” It could be fun in the coming months watching him attack the rights of homosexuals without ever acknowledging their existence.
Tanzania decides not to take that bribe in order to house black refugees Britain doesn’t want.
Britain drops its prosecution of GCHQ employee Katharine Gun, who exposed that the US asked the Brits to help spy on UN Security Council delegates. So now we’ll never know how the British responded, he says facetiously. (Later: yes we will: Clare Short, who resigned from the government over the Iraq war, says she saw transcripts of Kofi Annan’s conversations). Also, at trial she would have demanded the gov’s legal advice on whether the war was legal, which Blair doesn’t want out, for some reason.
Israel raids banks, steals $9m it claims is terrorist money sent by Iran and Syria (the sum varies wildly according to your source).
Alan Greenspan said that Social Security benefits need to be cut for future recipients--who should develop an irrational exuberance for the taste of cat food--rather than taxes being raised. Why is he expressing an opinion on this subject? John Kerry wants to reappoint Greenspan.
Bush evidently agreed to allow the 9/11 commission more time because he knew his surrogates in Congress would kill the extension for him. They even pretended that Bush’s chief of staff called Dennis Hastert to plead for the extension and was turned down. I mean come fucking on. And Condi Rice has refused to testify in public. Bush and Cheney are also refusing to testify to the whole commission.
In an international BBC poll, 56% of Britons believe God is more influential than David Beckham, 75% of American respondents said he has more influence than Oprah Winfrey and 94% of Indians placed him ahead of the batsman Sachin Tendulkar. Britain was the most atheistic of the countries surveyed, maybe because of all the rain, and has the lowest rate of church attendance. That also translates into only 31% believing that theirs is the only true god, compared to 51% in the US and 96% in Indonesia.
Secretary of War Rumsfeld is in Afghanistan (and he brought his wife), where Puppet Prez Karzai declared the Taliban defeated. Evidently all the violence is from common criminals. “Now every act committed by a Kalashnikov is not an act done by the Taliban or al-Qaida.”
The Netherlands plans to make immigrants take a test on the Dutch language and fine them every year they fail.
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
The most fundamental institution of civilization
President Bush appeared on Al Hurra ("the Free One"), his new Middle East Television Network, and said that he is "the first American president to have articulated a Palestinian state."
If articulated is the right word.
Speaking of His Articulateness, today Junior announced himself in favor of defining marriage as between one illiterate alcoholic man and one glazed-eyed wife. Evidently marriage is “the most fundamental institution of civilization,” which is why most Republicans get married two or three times (personally I’ve never been institutionalized). And the institution is millennia old, although a few marriage licenses in New Mexico and San Francisco will evidently change it “forever.” I’d like everybody to stop and ponder that “forever.” It’s not just that gay people marrying somehow damages the marriages of straight people (I think this is a variant of the one-drop theory by which race used to be defined in this country), but that change will be permanent. Read the statement, it’s remarkably badly written (although it made Bush have to try to say “jurisprudence,” which is always fun to watch).
I was going to make a joke about the proposed amendment (which, by the way, would tell state supreme courts how to interpret state constitutions, which is I think a first)(this is necessary because the amend restricts rights rather than expands them; normally you don’t mind if state constitutions are read to give broader rights to, say, privacy) also including a provision by which homosexuals only had 3/5 of a vote, ha ha, but then it occurred to me that there is a precedent for that, beyond the slave thing, I mean. In 1882 polygamists were disfranchised by a bill pushed by a senator from, ironically enough, Vermont, who later also successfully advocated disfranchising all women in the Utah territory. Nobody is mentioning it, but the constitution of Utah defines marriage in the way Shrub wants; it was a prerequisite of statehood.
And King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia (age 81, father of 14), who recently supported gay marriage, announces that he is not gay. In case you were wondering.
Followup: the mother of the Uzbeki who was boiled to death has been released.
The Saudi education ministry issues a code of conduct: girls who don’t pray or do date boys may be suspended from school. But at least all their teachers aren’t terrorists like ours are.
Britain is trying to bribe Tanzania to take Somali refugees Britain wants to expel, and keep them in refugee camps. And it plans to start forcibly returning Iraqi refugees in April.
As I write/surf, Gary Bauer is on Nightline saying that gay marriage in SF opens up a can of worms. I’m telling you, everything said about this issue sounds dirty.
There is a move afoot to recall atty gen. Lockyer for not sending in the national guard to stop gay marriages.
Fun historical facts: the GI Bill was the first federal program to explicitly exclude homosexuals from its benefits.
The US finally announces it will try two Guantanamo detainees. You’d think they’d start with the most obviously violent types to justify the policy of detention. Instead, a couple of bodyguards, with a charge of accountancy thrown in. No violence, no involvement in terrorism. One is supposed to have made recruiting videos. Big fucking deal. The “worst of the worst”?
Oh, c’mon, he got a nice last meal out of it without even having to die, what more could he want?
If articulated is the right word.
Speaking of His Articulateness, today Junior announced himself in favor of defining marriage as between one illiterate alcoholic man and one glazed-eyed wife. Evidently marriage is “the most fundamental institution of civilization,” which is why most Republicans get married two or three times (personally I’ve never been institutionalized). And the institution is millennia old, although a few marriage licenses in New Mexico and San Francisco will evidently change it “forever.” I’d like everybody to stop and ponder that “forever.” It’s not just that gay people marrying somehow damages the marriages of straight people (I think this is a variant of the one-drop theory by which race used to be defined in this country), but that change will be permanent. Read the statement, it’s remarkably badly written (although it made Bush have to try to say “jurisprudence,” which is always fun to watch).
I was going to make a joke about the proposed amendment (which, by the way, would tell state supreme courts how to interpret state constitutions, which is I think a first)(this is necessary because the amend restricts rights rather than expands them; normally you don’t mind if state constitutions are read to give broader rights to, say, privacy) also including a provision by which homosexuals only had 3/5 of a vote, ha ha, but then it occurred to me that there is a precedent for that, beyond the slave thing, I mean. In 1882 polygamists were disfranchised by a bill pushed by a senator from, ironically enough, Vermont, who later also successfully advocated disfranchising all women in the Utah territory. Nobody is mentioning it, but the constitution of Utah defines marriage in the way Shrub wants; it was a prerequisite of statehood.
And King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia (age 81, father of 14), who recently supported gay marriage, announces that he is not gay. In case you were wondering.
Followup: the mother of the Uzbeki who was boiled to death has been released.
The Saudi education ministry issues a code of conduct: girls who don’t pray or do date boys may be suspended from school. But at least all their teachers aren’t terrorists like ours are.
Britain is trying to bribe Tanzania to take Somali refugees Britain wants to expel, and keep them in refugee camps. And it plans to start forcibly returning Iraqi refugees in April.
As I write/surf, Gary Bauer is on Nightline saying that gay marriage in SF opens up a can of worms. I’m telling you, everything said about this issue sounds dirty.
There is a move afoot to recall atty gen. Lockyer for not sending in the national guard to stop gay marriages.
Fun historical facts: the GI Bill was the first federal program to explicitly exclude homosexuals from its benefits.
The US finally announces it will try two Guantanamo detainees. You’d think they’d start with the most obviously violent types to justify the policy of detention. Instead, a couple of bodyguards, with a charge of accountancy thrown in. No violence, no involvement in terrorism. One is supposed to have made recruiting videos. Big fucking deal. The “worst of the worst”?
Oh, c’mon, he got a nice last meal out of it without even having to die, what more could he want?
Monday, February 23, 2004
You don’t hear the president in the Oval Office railing against the special interests
Noam Chomsky has an article on the op-ed pages of the NYT, on the Israeli wall, which is one of the signs of the apocalypse. You could look it up.
More fun with the Monkey in Chief.
Governor Terminator on why gay marriage is so dangerous: “All of a sudden we see riots and we see protests and we see people clashing. The next thing we know is there are injured or there are dead people, and we don't want to have that.” There has yet to be so much as an arrest. Maybe he’s confused it with his next movie, says Bill Lockyer’s spokesmodel. The Gropinator goes on to suggest that if SF can do this, other cities will give out licenses for assault weapons or to sell drugs. Where will it all end?
The Bushies put out an internet ad accusing Kerry of being a hypocrite because he speaks against special interests but has taken more lobbyist money than any other senator. Actually, he ranks 92nd, but His Fraudulency’s campaign people say it doesn’t matter that Bush far, far, far outstrips Kerry in this, because “You don’t hear the president in the Oval Office railing against the special interests.” No, all you hear from the “president” in the Oval Office is “Wheeee!” as he rolls around naked in large piles of cash.
Anti-immigrant hatred continues to grow in Europe, from anti-headscarf laws to bans on entry by Muslim clerics (Denmark) to loyalty oaths, etc. The semi-good news is that racist groups are dying as their message gets absorbed into the mainstream parties. Ironically, Jean-Marie Le Pen has been refused permission to run in regional elections in Provence, because he can’t prove residency.
Secretary of eddukashion Rod Paige calls the National Education Association a “terrorist organization.” None of the news stories so far mention Woody Allen’s film Sleeper, in which we are told that “The world came to an end when a man named Al Shanker got a hold of the atom bomb.” Shanker was a combative head of the teachers’ union in NY.
Rumsfeld went to Iraq. He told Iraqi police recruits “We're looking forward to Iraqis taking over the security of your country.” Meanwhile, a suicide bomber takes out another police station, in Kirkuk. During the war, Kurds took over Kirkuk, including the police, intending to add the region and its oilwells to Kurdistan.
The US tells Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First that there’s just no room for their observers at any Guantanamo “trials.” Fox News, on the other hand, has assured seats.
More fun with the Monkey in Chief.
Governor Terminator on why gay marriage is so dangerous: “All of a sudden we see riots and we see protests and we see people clashing. The next thing we know is there are injured or there are dead people, and we don't want to have that.” There has yet to be so much as an arrest. Maybe he’s confused it with his next movie, says Bill Lockyer’s spokesmodel. The Gropinator goes on to suggest that if SF can do this, other cities will give out licenses for assault weapons or to sell drugs. Where will it all end?
The Bushies put out an internet ad accusing Kerry of being a hypocrite because he speaks against special interests but has taken more lobbyist money than any other senator. Actually, he ranks 92nd, but His Fraudulency’s campaign people say it doesn’t matter that Bush far, far, far outstrips Kerry in this, because “You don’t hear the president in the Oval Office railing against the special interests.” No, all you hear from the “president” in the Oval Office is “Wheeee!” as he rolls around naked in large piles of cash.
Anti-immigrant hatred continues to grow in Europe, from anti-headscarf laws to bans on entry by Muslim clerics (Denmark) to loyalty oaths, etc. The semi-good news is that racist groups are dying as their message gets absorbed into the mainstream parties. Ironically, Jean-Marie Le Pen has been refused permission to run in regional elections in Provence, because he can’t prove residency.
Secretary of eddukashion Rod Paige calls the National Education Association a “terrorist organization.” None of the news stories so far mention Woody Allen’s film Sleeper, in which we are told that “The world came to an end when a man named Al Shanker got a hold of the atom bomb.” Shanker was a combative head of the teachers’ union in NY.
Rumsfeld went to Iraq. He told Iraqi police recruits “We're looking forward to Iraqis taking over the security of your country.” Meanwhile, a suicide bomber takes out another police station, in Kirkuk. During the war, Kurds took over Kirkuk, including the police, intending to add the region and its oilwells to Kurdistan.
The US tells Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First that there’s just no room for their observers at any Guantanamo “trials.” Fox News, on the other hand, has assured seats.
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