Wolfowitz wants to build a "global anti-terrorist network of friendly militias," bypassing insufficiently pliable national militaries in favor of building up warlords and death squads and you’ve got to be fucking kidding. He said this to the House Armed Services Committee, but of the 15 stories on this subject turned up in a news.google search ("friendly militias" or "wolfowitz +militias"), none are from an American source.
Voter registration in Afghanistan, like this year’s opium crop, has surpassed expectations. And by surpassed expectations, I mean they faked so many of them, after such a poor initial showing, that no one can keep a straight face. Except for Secretary of War Rummy Rumsfeld, visiting Afghanistan yesterday, who said "Given the campaign of intimidation and attempts to dissuade people from registering, the surge in registration has to be a very vivid demonstration that the Afghan people are determined to make democracy work." Oh yeah, it just "has to be." Couldn’t be anything else.
The WaPo’s Washington Briefing section finds that since the start of 2003, Bush has only mentioned bin Laden 10 times in public appearances, 6 of those in response to questions. The last time he spoke about him at any length was in March 2003, when he downplayed his importance--"Terror is bigger than one person." Unlike, presumably, the war on terrorism, which his campaign tells us every day is personified by one, oddly chimp-like, person.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Rich, white and wishy-washy
The White House has a pamphlet, "President George W. Bush: Friend of the American Jewish Community," which I can’t find online, although they emailed it as a pdf to Jewish leaders, some of whom were quoted, without permission, as if they supported Bush, but do not. And there’s this: "For Yasser Arafat, the message has been clear. While he was a frequent White House guest during the last administration, he has never been granted a meeting with President Bush." And evidently this was put out at gov expense, not by the campaign. Anyone know where a copy exists online?
Speaking of pandering, this is Bush’s "W Stands for Women" site. With 140 million women in this country, the 4 listed under "Women supporting W" include a former Miss America (!), and the vice president of West Group Commercial Real Estate. And it leads off with this condescending quote from Shrub: "Our country, my administration and my own life are improved and enriched by strong, capable women, from my wife, daughters and mother to senior members of my White House team. I’m proud that our administration has more women in senior positions than any administration in the history of our country. America’s wives, mothers and daughters bring strength, dignity, compassion and integrity to our communities and our country." He really does have difficulty seeing women other than as appendages of men. Would he refer to Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Powell as "America’s husbands, fathers and sons"? Or not mention a single specifically women’s issue, as opposed to security, the economy, although it does mention education, as if women are allowed to be concerned for their children, but not for themselves.
And still speaking of pandering, here’s a WaPo article on ads that a white businessman, J. Patrick Rooney, who profits greatly from Bush policies, is running on black radio stations attacking Kerry for being "rich, white and wishy-washy", and Teresa Heinz-Kerry for having commented that with her Mozambican roots she could be called African-American, although Rooney, who I repeat is white, says in the article that he goes to an "all-black church." OK, stupid and silly, but... rich, WHITE, and wishy-washy? Is attacking a candidate’s race ok if he’s white?
We know from the recent Tigger-bad-touching case that the actors in character costume at Disney World have limited range of vision and motion. So OSHA has decided that maybe they shouldn’t be next to moving vehicles, and fined Disney a whopping $6,300 for an incident February where "Pluto" got his foot caught in a float at the "Share a Dream Come True" parade and was run over and killed, which for all we know was his dream, I mean if your job is to dress as Pluto, you must have pretty weird dreams. But my point was...$6,300. You may lose respect for me, but I have to say that fine is pretty Mickey Mouse.
Speaking of pandering, this is Bush’s "W Stands for Women" site. With 140 million women in this country, the 4 listed under "Women supporting W" include a former Miss America (!), and the vice president of West Group Commercial Real Estate. And it leads off with this condescending quote from Shrub: "Our country, my administration and my own life are improved and enriched by strong, capable women, from my wife, daughters and mother to senior members of my White House team. I’m proud that our administration has more women in senior positions than any administration in the history of our country. America’s wives, mothers and daughters bring strength, dignity, compassion and integrity to our communities and our country." He really does have difficulty seeing women other than as appendages of men. Would he refer to Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Powell as "America’s husbands, fathers and sons"? Or not mention a single specifically women’s issue, as opposed to security, the economy, although it does mention education, as if women are allowed to be concerned for their children, but not for themselves.
And still speaking of pandering, here’s a WaPo article on ads that a white businessman, J. Patrick Rooney, who profits greatly from Bush policies, is running on black radio stations attacking Kerry for being "rich, white and wishy-washy", and Teresa Heinz-Kerry for having commented that with her Mozambican roots she could be called African-American, although Rooney, who I repeat is white, says in the article that he goes to an "all-black church." OK, stupid and silly, but... rich, WHITE, and wishy-washy? Is attacking a candidate’s race ok if he’s white?
We know from the recent Tigger-bad-touching case that the actors in character costume at Disney World have limited range of vision and motion. So OSHA has decided that maybe they shouldn’t be next to moving vehicles, and fined Disney a whopping $6,300 for an incident February where "Pluto" got his foot caught in a float at the "Share a Dream Come True" parade and was run over and killed, which for all we know was his dream, I mean if your job is to dress as Pluto, you must have pretty weird dreams. But my point was...$6,300. You may lose respect for me, but I have to say that fine is pretty Mickey Mouse.
Happy no matter what
I’ve gotten to the point where I can mostly ignore the banner ads Blogspot puts at the top of my site (a small price for the free hosting). Still, what’s with the one "Achieve personal freedom, learn how to be happy no matter what"? Self-help and New Agey goodness via "The Toltec Way." I guess that gets points for originality. But how did the Google program pick that particular ad? Did it analyze my site’s content, decide it was depressing as hell and that people reading it would need to "learn how to be happy no matter what"?
The British Court of Appeal will allow evidence obtained by torture, at Guantanamo, to be used to allow the home secretary to detain people indefinitely as terrorism suspects without charge or trial. The torture evidence was the sole evidence. Lord Justice John Laws (the other judge is named Lord Justice Pill; it’s like a very weak Monty Python sketch) says that if the home sec "has neither procured the torture nor connived at it, he has not offended the constitutional principle which I have sought to outline." So that’s ok then. And that he has no "duty of solemn inquiry as to the interrogation methods used by agencies of other sovereign states." Jesus wept.
Elsewhere in the British criminal justice system, a man on temporary release from prison (not clear why; he is supposed to be serving a life term for rape and sexual assaults) bought a lottery ticket. He won £7 million, so he was immediately moved from an open prison to a high-security one because with all that money, he now poses a flight risk. And his victims get to sue him for the money.
Turns out that Rep. Rodney Alexander of Louisiana, who switched parties from D to R last week at the last minute, to keep the D’s finding someone to run against him, was violating LA. election law.
A guest at a wedding in the Philippines is killed, cooked and served to the other wedding guests. The family of the bride were annoyed because he had touched her bottom.
The British Court of Appeal will allow evidence obtained by torture, at Guantanamo, to be used to allow the home secretary to detain people indefinitely as terrorism suspects without charge or trial. The torture evidence was the sole evidence. Lord Justice John Laws (the other judge is named Lord Justice Pill; it’s like a very weak Monty Python sketch) says that if the home sec "has neither procured the torture nor connived at it, he has not offended the constitutional principle which I have sought to outline." So that’s ok then. And that he has no "duty of solemn inquiry as to the interrogation methods used by agencies of other sovereign states." Jesus wept.
Elsewhere in the British criminal justice system, a man on temporary release from prison (not clear why; he is supposed to be serving a life term for rape and sexual assaults) bought a lottery ticket. He won £7 million, so he was immediately moved from an open prison to a high-security one because with all that money, he now poses a flight risk. And his victims get to sue him for the money.
Turns out that Rep. Rodney Alexander of Louisiana, who switched parties from D to R last week at the last minute, to keep the D’s finding someone to run against him, was violating LA. election law.
A guest at a wedding in the Philippines is killed, cooked and served to the other wedding guests. The family of the bride were annoyed because he had touched her bottom.
Ok, maybe Russert is only a semi-douchebag of liberty
Paul Wolfowitz thinks Pakistan has suffered enough on the whole spreading-nuclear-technology-to-anyone-with-a-MasterCard thing (by the way, a little-reported fact that puts Pakistan’s seriousness about this into perspective: not only was A Q Khan not prosecuted, he was allowed to keep all the money he made selling nuclear secrets). Wolfy wants to resume training Pakistani military officers in US military academies because, he says, this is the best way to increase our wonderful influence and decrease that of the Islamic fundies. See, the military is really powerful in Pakistan, so we should try to influence the military and not, say, work to reduce its power and restore (semi-)democracy. About the supposed beneficial influence of military to military contacts, I have just four words: School of the Americas.
Martin Sieff in Salon has a list of 21 mistaken assumptions Neocons made about Iraq. Put all together like that, it’s kind of awesome.
OK, maybe I owe a partial apology to Tim Russert, if it’s true that all he told the special prosecutor was that he hadn’t been leaked to. That’s not the same as naming names, but even helping in a process-of-elimination investigation is wrong.
Martin Sieff in Salon has a list of 21 mistaken assumptions Neocons made about Iraq. Put all together like that, it’s kind of awesome.
OK, maybe I owe a partial apology to Tim Russert, if it’s true that all he told the special prosecutor was that he hadn’t been leaked to. That’s not the same as naming names, but even helping in a process-of-elimination investigation is wrong.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
And even my credibility
The WaPo has misquoted an attack made by Bush on Kerry today. It’s the usual flip flop thing about Iraq. The Post has Shrub beginning a sentence, "After months of questioning my motives and my credibility..." Now, I saw those remarks on McNeil-Lehrer and he actually said "questioning my motives and EVEN my credibility," which is a much more revealing comment because it is so arrogant of him to think that his credibility is beyond doubt.
First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.
Remember the scenes in Fahrenheit 911 with the military recruiters? The Post’s Sunday magazine has a good article on the subject. It’s all very Glengarry Glen Ross.
Billmon covers why Porter Goss is such a crappy choice to head the CIA for 5 months.
Saletan at Slate has an interesting article about the politicization of stem cell research, which reminds me that I meant to mention Laura Bush’s atrocious little intervention into that debate, which was to accuse proponents of stem cell research of offering false hope that cures are right around the corner. What the hell is she saying, that medical research shouldn’t be conducted unless it will produce immediate results? Where would we be if Alexander Fleming had had that short an attention span?
(Update: Good Michael Kinsley piece on this, ending "While she battles rhetorically against false hopes, he (George) works to ensure that there is no hope at all.")
The US military declares central Najaf a free-fire zone, ordering all civilians out.
Because of the reintroduction of the death penalty in Iraq, Danish troops there have stopped handing over prisoners, who might be executed for, say, "endangering national security." The British, while ostensibly opposing the death penalty decision, are not following suit. The US...actually, has anyone of significance in the US gov even been asked about capital punishment?
Billmon covers why Porter Goss is such a crappy choice to head the CIA for 5 months.
Saletan at Slate has an interesting article about the politicization of stem cell research, which reminds me that I meant to mention Laura Bush’s atrocious little intervention into that debate, which was to accuse proponents of stem cell research of offering false hope that cures are right around the corner. What the hell is she saying, that medical research shouldn’t be conducted unless it will produce immediate results? Where would we be if Alexander Fleming had had that short an attention span?
(Update: Good Michael Kinsley piece on this, ending "While she battles rhetorically against false hopes, he (George) works to ensure that there is no hope at all.")
The US military declares central Najaf a free-fire zone, ordering all civilians out.
Because of the reintroduction of the death penalty in Iraq, Danish troops there have stopped handing over prisoners, who might be executed for, say, "endangering national security." The British, while ostensibly opposing the death penalty decision, are not following suit. The US...actually, has anyone of significance in the US gov even been asked about capital punishment?
Dammit, I didn't get a free ice-cream sundae on my birthday
Kerry’s position on the Iraq War this week, as I understand it, is that he was right to vote to give Bush a blank check, even if he’d known that all of the intel was cooked, but Bush was wrong to use it the way he did. Kerry is obviously looking towards the future, when he might want to lie to Congress and be given absolute power. You have to keep those options open.
Tim Russert = Elia Kazan.
One-point plan.
The ACLU reports that the federal government increasingly bypasses privacy laws by using private companies to collect data on Americans. Of course we know about airlines passing along info on passengers to the gov since 9/11, sometimes without being asked. But the ACLU (in a pdf that keeps stalling when I try to download it) says the practice has grown tremendously, with the gov buying data, using court orders or simply asking for it. I remember something from early in the Reagan administration. There used to be an ice-cream parlor chain called Farrell’s, one of those olde-timey things where the staff wear straw hats and striped shirts, there are too many banjos, and you bring children on their birthdays, when they get a free sundae. Farrell’s was found to be handing its birthday list over to the Selective Service, which was harassing people who hadn’t signed up for the draft on their 18th birthday. This was discovered because people had, naturally, made up false identities to scam a free ice cream sundae.
The NYT has an editorial today against the banning of Al Jazeera in Iraq. It is against it, as am I. But the article makes some rather odd assumptions while trotting out its clichés. It says twice that "Owie" Allawi is "supposed" to be moving Iraq towards democracy (actually, the second reference is that he is supposed to be merely "pointing the way toward a more democratic Iraq," possibly in the manner of pointer breeds of dog which have been bred to indicate the location of a bird that has been shot out of the sky. And really, "more democratic Iraq"? Could you possibly set that bar lower?). He’s "supposed to" be doing that? Whose supposition is that? The NYT says that he "has begun yielding to the same kind of authoritarian mentality that has stifled democracy in too many neighboring states." Too many? What’s the right number? So are we meant to believe that Allawi was a liberal democrat who is being corrupted by power? Where’s the evidence that Allawi’s mentality was ever anything other than authoritarian? And when was democracy stifled in a Middle Eastern state; when was there ever a democracy to be stifled? The problem is that the Times is assuming that democracy is the normal state of affairs if there is no untidy interference from tyrants, ethnic strife, etc. That, I think, is what they really meant by "supposed to": that the natural flow of events is towards democracy, like one of the laws of the universe: a nation-state in motion tends to moves towards a state of representative democracy and civil rights. This is not the case. Democracy is hard, democracy is not natural or inevitable. This is not to say that Arabs are incapable of democracy--that straw man Bush keeps trotting out--but the laws of history do not ineluctably lead towards American-style democracy, and it will be much harder work to create representative democracy and, especially, liberal democratic values, than it would be to create another dictatorship. Only if you own up to that do you have any chance of accomplishing it.
Tim Russert = Elia Kazan.
One-point plan.
The ACLU reports that the federal government increasingly bypasses privacy laws by using private companies to collect data on Americans. Of course we know about airlines passing along info on passengers to the gov since 9/11, sometimes without being asked. But the ACLU (in a pdf that keeps stalling when I try to download it) says the practice has grown tremendously, with the gov buying data, using court orders or simply asking for it. I remember something from early in the Reagan administration. There used to be an ice-cream parlor chain called Farrell’s, one of those olde-timey things where the staff wear straw hats and striped shirts, there are too many banjos, and you bring children on their birthdays, when they get a free sundae. Farrell’s was found to be handing its birthday list over to the Selective Service, which was harassing people who hadn’t signed up for the draft on their 18th birthday. This was discovered because people had, naturally, made up false identities to scam a free ice cream sundae.
The NYT has an editorial today against the banning of Al Jazeera in Iraq. It is against it, as am I. But the article makes some rather odd assumptions while trotting out its clichés. It says twice that "Owie" Allawi is "supposed" to be moving Iraq towards democracy (actually, the second reference is that he is supposed to be merely "pointing the way toward a more democratic Iraq," possibly in the manner of pointer breeds of dog which have been bred to indicate the location of a bird that has been shot out of the sky. And really, "more democratic Iraq"? Could you possibly set that bar lower?). He’s "supposed to" be doing that? Whose supposition is that? The NYT says that he "has begun yielding to the same kind of authoritarian mentality that has stifled democracy in too many neighboring states." Too many? What’s the right number? So are we meant to believe that Allawi was a liberal democrat who is being corrupted by power? Where’s the evidence that Allawi’s mentality was ever anything other than authoritarian? And when was democracy stifled in a Middle Eastern state; when was there ever a democracy to be stifled? The problem is that the Times is assuming that democracy is the normal state of affairs if there is no untidy interference from tyrants, ethnic strife, etc. That, I think, is what they really meant by "supposed to": that the natural flow of events is towards democracy, like one of the laws of the universe: a nation-state in motion tends to moves towards a state of representative democracy and civil rights. This is not the case. Democracy is hard, democracy is not natural or inevitable. This is not to say that Arabs are incapable of democracy--that straw man Bush keeps trotting out--but the laws of history do not ineluctably lead towards American-style democracy, and it will be much harder work to create representative democracy and, especially, liberal democratic values, than it would be to create another dictatorship. Only if you own up to that do you have any chance of accomplishing it.
Monday, August 09, 2004
The slaveholder's position
Fay Wray has died. ‘Twas old age killed the beauty.
Zambia decides that democracy is literally too expensive, postponing local government elections for 2 years.
Bush says that there’s no point in raising taxes on the rich because "the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."
Alan Keyes says Barack Obama’s support for abortion rights is "the slaveholder’s position." No, you’re thinking of Jack Ryan, your predecessor as R candidate for Senate for Ill.; he’s the one who was into whips and chains. He also said something about a victory for him being a victory for God. Hard to believe they actually had to go out of state to find a candidate like this.
Last week I advocated smiling on passport photos to screw up the biometrics. But this is better: a German has won the right to stick out his tongue (like the Albert Einstein picture, you know the one) in his passport photo.
Zambia decides that democracy is literally too expensive, postponing local government elections for 2 years.
Bush says that there’s no point in raising taxes on the rich because "the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."
Alan Keyes says Barack Obama’s support for abortion rights is "the slaveholder’s position." No, you’re thinking of Jack Ryan, your predecessor as R candidate for Senate for Ill.; he’s the one who was into whips and chains. He also said something about a victory for him being a victory for God. Hard to believe they actually had to go out of state to find a candidate like this.
Last week I advocated smiling on passport photos to screw up the biometrics. But this is better: a German has won the right to stick out his tongue (like the Albert Einstein picture, you know the one) in his passport photo.
This business we call show trial
In my previous post, I didn’t link the two Iraq stories together as strongly as I should have. The issuing of warrants against the Chalabis while they were out of the country--and both warrants at the same time though for very different crimes, as a Daily Kos writer points out--tells you everything you need to know about the Interim Puppet Government’s willingness to use the criminal justice system against its political foes, like Karl Rove subordinating the federal government here to the dictates and timing of the Bush "re"-election campaign. Now apply that lesson to the death penalty: people willing to distort the justice system arming themselves with the ultimate sanction to use against their political, clan, ethnic and religious enemies. Roll on the show trials. (Update: shorter version of this argument, from Wonkette: "Hey, it's an unelected, unaccountable government without a functioning justice system and the ability to kill whomever it deems guilty! That seems familiar somehow.")
Also, according to the NYT, it’s broader than I realized: the death penalty applies to attacks on infrastructure, "endangering national security," and activities related to biological and chemical warfare, which I take to mean this will be applied retroactively. And the American-appointed Allawi will begin this wave of executions under the protection of the American military, which makes them our executions.
Alan Keyes figures out a way to justify running for Senate from a state not his own: Barack Obama is a bigger traitor, not to his state, but to "the declaration of principles our country was founded on," by supporting abortion rights. In fact, Keyes is a little like Abraham Lincoln: "You have to ask yourself: Are we in a position where if I do nothing the principles of national union will be sacrificed?" Pompous much? The WaPo explains why the Republicans’ cynical choice of Keyes is a travesty, and they do it without even once using the word whacko, which is the difference between a newspaper and a blog.
Also, according to the NYT, it’s broader than I realized: the death penalty applies to attacks on infrastructure, "endangering national security," and activities related to biological and chemical warfare, which I take to mean this will be applied retroactively. And the American-appointed Allawi will begin this wave of executions under the protection of the American military, which makes them our executions.
Alan Keyes figures out a way to justify running for Senate from a state not his own: Barack Obama is a bigger traitor, not to his state, but to "the declaration of principles our country was founded on," by supporting abortion rights. In fact, Keyes is a little like Abraham Lincoln: "You have to ask yourself: Are we in a position where if I do nothing the principles of national union will be sacrificed?" Pompous much? The WaPo explains why the Republicans’ cynical choice of Keyes is a travesty, and they do it without even once using the word whacko, which is the difference between a newspaper and a blog.
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Apparently I threatened somebody who subsequently was killed
Iraq restores the death penalty, supposedly only until stability is restored. Because capital cases are most likely to be fairly and dispassionately tried in trials held during a civil war. The ultimate penalty (unless you count having Lynndie England laugh and point at your genitals) will be applied for murder, kidnapping and drug-running. It is unclear if it applies to Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi government also issues arrest warrants for Ahmed Chalabi and his nephew Salem Chalabi, who is Saddam’s prosecutor, for money laundering (or counterfeiting, depending on what story you read) and murder, respectively. The murder is that of an official in the finance ministry, who had prepared a report on the Chalabis’ seizure of properties. The government’s level of seriousness about this can be seen by the fact that they announced this while both Chalabis were out of the country. Salem "Witchtrials" Chalabi told CNN that "apparently I threatened somebody who subsequently was killed." Apparently?
Newly released Nixon tapes suggest that he delayed the inevitable military withdrawal from Vietnam in order not to hurt him in the 1972 elections. Henry Kissinger talked on the tape (8/3/72) about finding "some formula that holds the whole thing together a year or two"; by January 1974, he said, "no one will give a damn." Comparisons with Iraq are obvious.
US officials are trying to shift the blame for leaking the name of the Pakistani undercover agent onto a Pakistani intelligence official.
Mexico has found 2 men on its Most Wanted list. They were in jail. One of them, according to a story which provides no further information, is known as "the bullet swallower."
Just listened to a political humor program (excuse me, humour programme), "The Now Show," on the BBC website, thanks to a mention of it in the comments at lefti.blogspot.com. Rather good. Some of the references may be too British for Americans, but even if you decide not to listen to the whole 30 minutes (the current program will be online until the next one comes out Friday), don’t miss a song by Mitch Benn about 25 minutes in about the politics of fear. "Crap your pants for America, foul yourself for freedom..."
Update: the program has now been replaced. The lyrics are available online, but it's not the same thing. It wouldn't hurt to email the BBC about putting the song online permanently; there's certainly a demand for it, as I can testify from the number of people reaching this site through Google searches for it (I've become the go-to guy for Crap Your Pants for America; I'm so proud).
Update to the update: the lyrics are no longer online anywhere, so I'll append them here:
Crap your pants for America
We live in troubled times
Our enemies surround us
We must be vigilant
To the dangers all around us
There's evil little furr'ners
And perverts here as well
It's your patriotic duty
To be as scared as hell
So crap your pants for America
Foul yourself for freedom
Soil your shorts for the USA
Crap your pants for America
Only Dubya can save us
And we'll hide beneath our beds, and quake and pray
It could happen any minute
It could happen any place
So gaze with deep suspicion
In every stranger's face
Your government is struggling
They've run out of ideas
They've run out of excuses
All they've got left is fear
So crap your pants for America
Foul yourself for freedom
Soil your shorts for the USA
Crap your pants for America
The land of the paranoid
The panic-stricken, jittery, and free
I am a Disaster Action Kid, bow down before me!
Turkmenistan, home to the looniest dictator of all the loony dictators in all the former-Soviet Central Asian dictatorships, now has the plague, possibly because most of the health-care professionals were fired, and all those with foreign credentials. The government has responded by making the word plague illegal.
In South Africa, the National Party of Verwoerd, P.W. Botha, F.W. DeKlerk and Vorster, the party that built apartheid and imprisoned Nelson Mandela, will dissolve itself and be absorbed by the ANC. It got 1.65% at the last elections. President Thabo Mbeki calls the Nats a “party of oppression” and, um, welcomes its members into his own party. I have mixed feelings about this. The Nats are, obviously, no great loss and should not let the door hit them in the ass on the way out (they used to employ black servants to hold the door open for them), but SA is moving slowly but not irreversibly in the direction of a one-party state, one result of which is an AIDS policy only slightly saner than that of Turkmenistan (which also made the word AIDS illegal, although to be fair, it made the disease illegal as well), and no proper opposition party able to hold the government’s feet to the fire on the issue.
Bob Harris at the This Modern World blog reports that September will be National Preparedness Month, nicely coordinated with the Republican convention. Harris covers that well, so I don’t need to, but while following links through government websites, I came across the FEMA for Kids website, hosted by Herman the spokescrab. I encourage everyone to get a Disaster Action Kids Certificate, by filling out the online form provided. You must fill out Two Things You Learned (mine: FEMA has nothing to do with the femoral artery; Natural disasters are a sign that God hates America.) and list One Disaster You Learned About (the Bush administration)(naturally). Oh, gyp, they don’t mail it to you, you have to print it out yourself.
In South Africa, the National Party of Verwoerd, P.W. Botha, F.W. DeKlerk and Vorster, the party that built apartheid and imprisoned Nelson Mandela, will dissolve itself and be absorbed by the ANC. It got 1.65% at the last elections. President Thabo Mbeki calls the Nats a “party of oppression” and, um, welcomes its members into his own party. I have mixed feelings about this. The Nats are, obviously, no great loss and should not let the door hit them in the ass on the way out (they used to employ black servants to hold the door open for them), but SA is moving slowly but not irreversibly in the direction of a one-party state, one result of which is an AIDS policy only slightly saner than that of Turkmenistan (which also made the word AIDS illegal, although to be fair, it made the disease illegal as well), and no proper opposition party able to hold the government’s feet to the fire on the issue.
Bob Harris at the This Modern World blog reports that September will be National Preparedness Month, nicely coordinated with the Republican convention. Harris covers that well, so I don’t need to, but while following links through government websites, I came across the FEMA for Kids website, hosted by Herman the spokescrab. I encourage everyone to get a Disaster Action Kids Certificate, by filling out the online form provided. You must fill out Two Things You Learned (mine: FEMA has nothing to do with the femoral artery; Natural disasters are a sign that God hates America.) and list One Disaster You Learned About (the Bush administration)(naturally). Oh, gyp, they don’t mail it to you, you have to print it out yourself.
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Exudation of Optimism
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told a BBC World Service interviewer who was asking too many questions about the excuses for going to war with Iraq to "fuck off." Sadly, the Beeb didn’t broadcast the words. Can’t find a transcript on their website, either. I guess they took his advice.
The American-appointed administration in Iraq bans Al Jazeera for 30 days, renewable, claiming it instigated violence (by reporting on it) and that it failed to show the "reality of political life," and should "readjust its policy agenda" during this time-out. While that certainly reflects the appointees, and of Arab governments which have also banned Al Jazeera (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc), I have to wonder whether they did it on their own, or at the instigation of the Americans. Bremer, Rumsfeld and Kimmit certainly would have loved to be able to get away with that (they could only "accidentally" bomb its offices, although they did try to get Qatar to clamp down), but now have plausible deniability. Here are some old posts of mine which mention the US’s verbal and sometimes literal war on Al Jazeera: 4/8/03, 6/15/03, 7/27/03, 4/13/04, 4/29/04.
Al Jazeera’s website, which has several details that, say, the NYT does not, notes that the closure did not have the legally required court order, and that thing about them adjusting their policy agenda is actually a piece of paper they have to sign before they will be allowed to reopen. And that the order followed remarks by Rumsfeld Friday in which he said that AJ and Al-Arabiyah "have persuaded an enormous fraction of the people that we’re there as an occupying force, which is a lie, that we are randomly killing innocent civilians, which is a lie. ... And they’ve persuaded a pile of people that what's happening is a terrible thing." Rummy also says that its reporters were paid by Saddam Hussein (who actually also banned the station). By the way, after those Abu Ghraib pictures, maybe Rummy shouldn’t be using the phrase "pile of people."
Is there actually a need for an "Anna Kournikova of chess"? After reading that story, I put that phrase into Google, quite frankly looking for pictures (which the Telegraph didn’t have) so I could judge for myself as part of my quite legitimate blogging duties, and it turns out there are actually a bunch of women (and girls) trying to be the Anna Kournikova of chess.
Headline (WaPo) that makes you too scared to actually read the story: "Ga. Town Torn Over Feelings for Wild Chickens."
Another WaPo headline: "Kerry Leads Bush in Exudation of Optimism." They probably make a salve for that.
The American-appointed administration in Iraq bans Al Jazeera for 30 days, renewable, claiming it instigated violence (by reporting on it) and that it failed to show the "reality of political life," and should "readjust its policy agenda" during this time-out. While that certainly reflects the appointees, and of Arab governments which have also banned Al Jazeera (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc), I have to wonder whether they did it on their own, or at the instigation of the Americans. Bremer, Rumsfeld and Kimmit certainly would have loved to be able to get away with that (they could only "accidentally" bomb its offices, although they did try to get Qatar to clamp down), but now have plausible deniability. Here are some old posts of mine which mention the US’s verbal and sometimes literal war on Al Jazeera: 4/8/03, 6/15/03, 7/27/03, 4/13/04, 4/29/04.
Al Jazeera’s website, which has several details that, say, the NYT does not, notes that the closure did not have the legally required court order, and that thing about them adjusting their policy agenda is actually a piece of paper they have to sign before they will be allowed to reopen. And that the order followed remarks by Rumsfeld Friday in which he said that AJ and Al-Arabiyah "have persuaded an enormous fraction of the people that we’re there as an occupying force, which is a lie, that we are randomly killing innocent civilians, which is a lie. ... And they’ve persuaded a pile of people that what's happening is a terrible thing." Rummy also says that its reporters were paid by Saddam Hussein (who actually also banned the station). By the way, after those Abu Ghraib pictures, maybe Rummy shouldn’t be using the phrase "pile of people."
Is there actually a need for an "Anna Kournikova of chess"? After reading that story, I put that phrase into Google, quite frankly looking for pictures (which the Telegraph didn’t have) so I could judge for myself as part of my quite legitimate blogging duties, and it turns out there are actually a bunch of women (and girls) trying to be the Anna Kournikova of chess.
Headline (WaPo) that makes you too scared to actually read the story: "Ga. Town Torn Over Feelings for Wild Chickens."
Another WaPo headline: "Kerry Leads Bush in Exudation of Optimism." They probably make a salve for that.
Friday, August 06, 2004
7 minutes
Kerry said that if it had been him in that classroom on 9/11, he would have gotten up and left. Guiliani accused him of taking his cues from Michael Moore, who is rapidly becoming a figure of hate among the R’s. But the fact that Guiliani could link Pet-Goat-gate to Moore just shows that almost no one else talked about it for almost 3 years; Moore owns the issue. Now, I suggested not two weeks after 9/11 that if someone ran film of those 7 minutes in a split screen with images from NY from those same minutes, or with sound from the Pennsylvania plane’s black box, Bush would be finished.
And it’s not a cheap shot. Once the second plane hit, it was clear that terrorists were using passenger planes as weapons, and the only person then legally allowed to order civilian planes shot down was the president (although we now know that Cheney illegally ordered planes to be "taken out"), who should have been collecting information in case there were other hijacked planes, as indeed there were. It was criminally negligent of Bush to remain in that room.
And it’s not a cheap shot. Once the second plane hit, it was clear that terrorists were using passenger planes as weapons, and the only person then legally allowed to order civilian planes shot down was the president (although we now know that Cheney illegally ordered planes to be "taken out"), who should have been collecting information in case there were other hijacked planes, as indeed there were. It was criminally negligent of Bush to remain in that room.
Affirmatively taking action, but not affirmative action. Head... hurt.
Asked by minority journalists about affirmative action at colleges & universities, Bush, evidently thinking he was fooling somebody, said "I support colleges affirmatively taking action to get more minorities in their school." Showing what happens the one time a year he lets himself be questioned by a group that hasn’t been properly screened, he is asked about legacy admissions--such as his own undeserved admission into Yale--and forced to come out against them.
Russia is stonewalling Poland’s war crimes/genocide investigation of the Katyn massacre.
And an Indonesian appeal court quashed 4 more of the few convictions for the 1999 massacres in East Timor, leaving only 2 people whose convictions stand. 18 were convicted; the 16 whose sentences were overturned were all in the military or police, the other 2 were civilians.
A shorter version of that story appears in the "news in brief" section of the Daily Telegraph. Now, the Tel is a right-wing newspaper with low journalistic standards, but I’ve been reading it online for 8 years. Today’s news in brief section demonstrates why. Along with the genocide story, there’s a story about Dutch politicians considering making unsolicited toe-licking a crime after a man who engages in that hobby can’t be convicted of anything (better headline in the Guardian: "Toe-Sucker Not Brought to Heel"), a man who shot himself in his own buttocks, the world’s hairiest man gets his ear hair trimmed, a German in a Spanish jail who glued his hand to his girlfriend’s during a visit to prevent his being extradited, and a sect of Muslim wife-swappers in Nigeria fighting off the police with bows and arrows.
Russia is stonewalling Poland’s war crimes/genocide investigation of the Katyn massacre.
And an Indonesian appeal court quashed 4 more of the few convictions for the 1999 massacres in East Timor, leaving only 2 people whose convictions stand. 18 were convicted; the 16 whose sentences were overturned were all in the military or police, the other 2 were civilians.
A shorter version of that story appears in the "news in brief" section of the Daily Telegraph. Now, the Tel is a right-wing newspaper with low journalistic standards, but I’ve been reading it online for 8 years. Today’s news in brief section demonstrates why. Along with the genocide story, there’s a story about Dutch politicians considering making unsolicited toe-licking a crime after a man who engages in that hobby can’t be convicted of anything (better headline in the Guardian: "Toe-Sucker Not Brought to Heel"), a man who shot himself in his own buttocks, the world’s hairiest man gets his ear hair trimmed, a German in a Spanish jail who glued his hand to his girlfriend’s during a visit to prevent his being extradited, and a sect of Muslim wife-swappers in Nigeria fighting off the police with bows and arrows.
The greatest of Satans
Muqtada al-Sadr issues a sermon calling the US "the greatest of Satans." Aw shucks, now we’ll just get a swelled head.
To answer my question of yesterday, the NM Republicans did indeed demand driver’s licenses from the people they required to sign the loyalty oath.
The wingnuts are entering the electoral process in all their glory. First up, James Hart has won the Republican primary for Tennessee’s 8th district congressional seat. Wasn’t James Hart the main character in "The Paper Chase"? "Mister Hart, here is a dime, call your mother, tell her you will never be a wacky United States congressman." Hart is running on a platform of "Stop Welfare and Immigration Replace it with a War on Poverty Genes." His website has to be seen to be believed. I especially liked the "Socrates Vs. Jesus" link (a dialogue, not a cage wrestling match), which, fortunately, I read before going back and seeing all the eugenics stuff about black people having low IQs, after which it became harder to laugh. I know it’s a very safe D seat, and I once lived in a safe D seat where the R candidacy for Congress went to a guy running against the Trilateral Commission conspiracy to take over the world, but that’s not the same thing as an open racist running for Congress in the South.
And the R’s in Illinois offered the US Senate candidacy to dotty right-wing talk show host Alan Keyes, who does not live in Illinois. There might be justification for the very occasional carpetbagger--Hillary Clinton and Bobby Kennedy as senators for NY--but if we (especially those of us who live in under-represented California) have to put up with the Electoral College and the Senate as violations of the principle of one-person-one-vote, then we have a right to demand that it is actually the states themselves that are being represented, and not political parties. In most other representative democracies (France, the UK, etc etc), the national parties drop candidates into districts chosen by the parties (parachutists, they’re called in France), so that senior members of the parties get the safe seats and the interests of local voters don’t get heard at all. So Keyes was not wrong in 2000 when he decried Hillary’s candidacy as a violation of the principle of federalism. A system in which local interests are overridden by those of the national parties is entirely different than the system we have known up till now, and we shouldn’t just back into it without considering the consequences. The constant interventions of Tom DeLay in Texas give some sign of where that leads.
To answer my question of yesterday, the NM Republicans did indeed demand driver’s licenses from the people they required to sign the loyalty oath.
The wingnuts are entering the electoral process in all their glory. First up, James Hart has won the Republican primary for Tennessee’s 8th district congressional seat. Wasn’t James Hart the main character in "The Paper Chase"? "Mister Hart, here is a dime, call your mother, tell her you will never be a wacky United States congressman." Hart is running on a platform of "Stop Welfare and Immigration Replace it with a War on Poverty Genes." His website has to be seen to be believed. I especially liked the "Socrates Vs. Jesus" link (a dialogue, not a cage wrestling match), which, fortunately, I read before going back and seeing all the eugenics stuff about black people having low IQs, after which it became harder to laugh. I know it’s a very safe D seat, and I once lived in a safe D seat where the R candidacy for Congress went to a guy running against the Trilateral Commission conspiracy to take over the world, but that’s not the same thing as an open racist running for Congress in the South.
And the R’s in Illinois offered the US Senate candidacy to dotty right-wing talk show host Alan Keyes, who does not live in Illinois. There might be justification for the very occasional carpetbagger--Hillary Clinton and Bobby Kennedy as senators for NY--but if we (especially those of us who live in under-represented California) have to put up with the Electoral College and the Senate as violations of the principle of one-person-one-vote, then we have a right to demand that it is actually the states themselves that are being represented, and not political parties. In most other representative democracies (France, the UK, etc etc), the national parties drop candidates into districts chosen by the parties (parachutists, they’re called in France), so that senior members of the parties get the safe seats and the interests of local voters don’t get heard at all. So Keyes was not wrong in 2000 when he decried Hillary’s candidacy as a violation of the principle of federalism. A system in which local interests are overridden by those of the national parties is entirely different than the system we have known up till now, and we shouldn’t just back into it without considering the consequences. The constant interventions of Tom DeLay in Texas give some sign of where that leads.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Soldiers in the army of compassion
Slate has a report on a Bush campaign rally in Columbus. What’s interesting is Bush’s tendency to use the same words in different contexts (granted, he has a small vocabulary) in ways that are suggestive. One word is heart. He advocates government funding of religious anti-addiction programs because "sometimes it requires a change of heart in order to change habit." But talking about terrorism, he says "we’re facing an enemy which has no heart, no compassion." Compassion is something Our Side has, and evidently it’s a weapon of some kind, because "All of you are soldiers in the army of compassion." He again calls on citizens to love their neighbors, and tellingly says that "We can change America one soul at a time by encouraging people to spread something government cannot spread, which is love." Why on earth not? He didn’t mention gay marriage in this speech, I don’t think, but his approach to that subject makes it quite clear that he thinks government can tell you what to feel about certain people. And while he castigates government, which "can never...put love in a person’s heart," some of us don’t want government or anyone else telling us what emotions to feel towards whom. P.S.: David Brooks, in his 8/7/04 NYT column, says Bush campaign events are "like a travelling road show of proper emotions."
Getting back to the army of compassion, he says that "change agents" can put an arm around someone who needs love and help make their life better. But in the part of his speech about terror, he says "we’ve got to say to people who are willing to harbor a terrorist or feed a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists." (This could be a reference to the various Islamic charities whose funds the government has seized, to individuals who did nothing illegal themselves but whom the government wishes to criminalize because they knew other people who the government does not like, or nations like Afghanistan under the Taliban.) So change agents are supposed to make judgments about who they feed and shelter, and be darned careful about who they offer love and compassion to, which isn’t particularly Christian, I’d have thought. To sum up, there can be no compassion without judgment of the worthiness of people to receive that compassion, government can’t spread love, and the enemy has no heart. His use of the same sort of words to describe both domestic and foreign policy gives some insight into his thinking, but that’s as far into the dark recesses of Bush’s brain as I care to go today; I’m getting claustrophobic in these cramped environs.
The full text of the Columbus event isn’t online now, but he used very similar language in Dallas Tuesday.
Update: the NYT also has an article on the Columbus rally, but doesn't say whether and how members of the audience were screened. After the "loyalty oath" thing in New Mexico, this needs to be an element of news reports of all Bush/Cheney campaign events.
Getting back to the army of compassion, he says that "change agents" can put an arm around someone who needs love and help make their life better. But in the part of his speech about terror, he says "we’ve got to say to people who are willing to harbor a terrorist or feed a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists." (This could be a reference to the various Islamic charities whose funds the government has seized, to individuals who did nothing illegal themselves but whom the government wishes to criminalize because they knew other people who the government does not like, or nations like Afghanistan under the Taliban.) So change agents are supposed to make judgments about who they feed and shelter, and be darned careful about who they offer love and compassion to, which isn’t particularly Christian, I’d have thought. To sum up, there can be no compassion without judgment of the worthiness of people to receive that compassion, government can’t spread love, and the enemy has no heart. His use of the same sort of words to describe both domestic and foreign policy gives some insight into his thinking, but that’s as far into the dark recesses of Bush’s brain as I care to go today; I’m getting claustrophobic in these cramped environs.
The full text of the Columbus event isn’t online now, but he used very similar language in Dallas Tuesday.
Update: the NYT also has an article on the Columbus rally, but doesn't say whether and how members of the audience were screened. After the "loyalty oath" thing in New Mexico, this needs to be an element of news reports of all Bush/Cheney campaign events.
Preserving Tigger's Magic
In an effort to make passports harder to forge, the British government will reject any passport photos in which the subject is smiling. Screws up biometric readings. I think in future we should all beam like demented monkeys on any photo id’s. Got through that without making any comments about British dentistry.
(Update): Funny, I wrote that before seeing this WaPo story about American US's plans to use biometric data in passports, even though it won't work. The Post doesn't mention the thing about smiling.
A Disney World employee was acquitted of fondling a 13-year old girl while dressed as Tigger. His lawyer (who himself moonlights as Tigger and Goofy at Disney World, which is normally not the best recommendation for an attorney) put on the suit in court and demonstrated to the jury how the costume limited vision and motion. The jury members were also invited to try on the suit, although Disney had tried to prevent the costume being entered into evidence, in order to preserve Tigger’s "magic."
Alabama executes a 74-year old. He was the oldest person executed in the US since 1941.
The US is thinking about writing a jolly stiff letter of protest to Israel, which just started building new settlement housing in violation of promises made to the US. The settlements will completely encircle East Jerusalem, and probably be annexed to Jerusalem (since 1967, the area defined by Israel as the West Bank has been steadily whittled away as land is annexed to what Israel defines as Jerusalem).
(Update): Funny, I wrote that before seeing this WaPo story about American US's plans to use biometric data in passports, even though it won't work. The Post doesn't mention the thing about smiling.
A Disney World employee was acquitted of fondling a 13-year old girl while dressed as Tigger. His lawyer (who himself moonlights as Tigger and Goofy at Disney World, which is normally not the best recommendation for an attorney) put on the suit in court and demonstrated to the jury how the costume limited vision and motion. The jury members were also invited to try on the suit, although Disney had tried to prevent the costume being entered into evidence, in order to preserve Tigger’s "magic."
Alabama executes a 74-year old. He was the oldest person executed in the US since 1941.
The US is thinking about writing a jolly stiff letter of protest to Israel, which just started building new settlement housing in violation of promises made to the US. The settlements will completely encircle East Jerusalem, and probably be annexed to Jerusalem (since 1967, the area defined by Israel as the West Bank has been steadily whittled away as land is annexed to what Israel defines as Jerusalem).
Republicans Anonymous
The Florida Republican Party is refusing to make public the names of the delegates to the national convention, citing privacy concerns (I suspect anti-Cuban nutjobs). Someone needs to make clear to them the difference between private and public, and a convention that votes on the top candidates and platform of a political party is not private. One hint: the US taxpayers will be paying millions of dollars. This is the same lack of understanding of the distinction between public and private shown by the requirement that members of the general public sign a semi-literate loyalty oath to George Bush in order to enter an event with Dick Cheney. On that, I’ve been waiting in vain for a follow-up story to tell whether signatures were checked against id’s, or if an unusual number of attendees shared the name Michael Mouse. Link (which may get past the annoying registration barrier).
A day after Memphis’s city council chairman refused to let an Iraqi delegation enter city hall to learn about democracy and civil rights, two of the delegates were the victims of armed robbery in the city. So really, they just need that visit to Graceland, and to talk to the supporter of eugenics about to become the Republican candidate for Congress in Tennessee’s 8th district, and they’ll have learned everything we have to teach them.
A day after Memphis’s city council chairman refused to let an Iraqi delegation enter city hall to learn about democracy and civil rights, two of the delegates were the victims of armed robbery in the city. So really, they just need that visit to Graceland, and to talk to the supporter of eugenics about to become the Republican candidate for Congress in Tennessee’s 8th district, and they’ll have learned everything we have to teach them.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Best forgotten
Happy 90th anniversary of the start of World War I. Here’s more on the survivors, 4 of whom showed up at the Cenotaph in London (there are 23 British veterans of the Great War still living), and are profiled and interviewed here. One of them even has one of those and-if-I-didn’t-have-a-pocket-watch-to-take-that-German-bullet.. stories. As I noted a couple of days ago, there is tension in their stories between the need to remember and the awfulness of those memories. One said, "I will never forget my comrades. You cannot think about the morbid things that took place. If you did, you could not go on." He’s 108 (and doesn’t look a day over 107), so no one can accuse him of not going on. Another: "You've gone over the top, you're buried in muck and when they dig you out you've got another face looking at you. And that face hasn't got a body, and the rest has been blown away. ... No one would know what it was actually like unless they were there. Your imagination won't go that far. It's best forgotten." Story. Other story.
Speaking of historical memory, one of those surveys I’m never entirely sure whether to believe says that half of 16- to 24-year olds in Britain know that when Protestants march on July 12 in Northern Ireland, they are commemorating the Battle of the Boyne (1690), while 15% think it was the victory at Helm’s Deep (in the second book of The Lord of the Rings).
While both Bush and Kerry were campaigning in Davenport, Iowa, three banks were robbed. Does anyone know where Dick Cheney was at the time?
Speaking of historical memory, one of those surveys I’m never entirely sure whether to believe says that half of 16- to 24-year olds in Britain know that when Protestants march on July 12 in Northern Ireland, they are commemorating the Battle of the Boyne (1690), while 15% think it was the victory at Helm’s Deep (in the second book of The Lord of the Rings).
While both Bush and Kerry were campaigning in Davenport, Iowa, three banks were robbed. Does anyone know where Dick Cheney was at the time?
Knowing what I know today
I have another take on OrangeAlertGate. The July Surprise failed: the capture of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani didn’t distract from the Democratic Convention and got so little attention that it was hardly worth whatever Pakistan was bribed. So this week they tried for a second bite at the apple, claiming that the arrest was accompanied by this incredible intelligence coup. Well, this time it earned the Bushies the publicity they didn’t get last week, but the wrong kind.
Missouri, the "For God’s Sake Don’t Show Me" state, votes in a referendum to add a ban on gay marriage to the state constitution.
Update: I just figured it out, when I saw a headline "Gay Marriage Ban in Mo." This is actually part of Fox's strategy to get everyone talking about which character on The Simpsons is coming out of the closet in January and getting married. Now we know it isn't Mo the bartender. Isn't it clever of them to get an entire state to participate in their PR campaign?
The Chalabis and other former exiles are trying to ensure that the 3 million Iraqis living abroad can vote in the next elections.
Bush said this week that "knowing what I know today, we still would have gone on into Iraq." But just what does Bush know today?:
Missouri, the "For God’s Sake Don’t Show Me" state, votes in a referendum to add a ban on gay marriage to the state constitution.
Update: I just figured it out, when I saw a headline "Gay Marriage Ban in Mo." This is actually part of Fox's strategy to get everyone talking about which character on The Simpsons is coming out of the closet in January and getting married. Now we know it isn't Mo the bartender. Isn't it clever of them to get an entire state to participate in their PR campaign?
The Chalabis and other former exiles are trying to ensure that the 3 million Iraqis living abroad can vote in the next elections.
Bush said this week that "knowing what I know today, we still would have gone on into Iraq." But just what does Bush know today?:
- That Dick Cheney sure has a big head.
- That pet goat sure is funny.
- I like pie.
- Nuclear is pronounced nookyuler.
- Ride bike, fall down boom, ow.
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