micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links

2005-07-15T12:56:00.000-04:00

Today I finally got so frustrated with blogger that I went over to typepad. Why now after all this time? Well, the problem was nothing new.

You can now find all of the thoughts and links and musings and notes you have come to love and need in order to make sense of the world at mth.typepad.com. I'll be updating that site as time permits and, as always, trying to get my life together. May God bless each and everyone of you. More importantly, God will bless America.

2005-07-13T10:52:00.000-04:00

Hang Agee

I just can't bring myself to care about Karl Rove when there is important news in the world like yesterday when Bush said he won't wear a Speedo given to him by the Auburn men's swimming and diving team "in public." What an ungracious bastard!

Or if that doesn't do it for you, how about a Pentagon report confirming abuse of prisoners at Gitmo (Bryan Bender, Boston Globe, July 13)?

Or nine Iraqis merely suspected of terrorism suffocating in the heat door of hell they were left in, apparently by Iraqi security forces (BBC, July 11)?

Or a Graduate Institute of International Studies concluding that 39,000 Iraqis have died as the result of Uncle Sam's invasion (Irwin Arieff, Reuters, July 11)?

Nope, this stuff isn't worth talking about. I just hope that once we are done with Rove, we get to Philip Agee. Now there was a leaker one could really hate.

2005-07-12T09:12:00.000-04:00

You know, normally I would be all in favor of a plan to get the U.S. and Britain out of Iraq, but when, as Simon Walters reports in a July 10 story for The Mail, it is a secret plan drawn up by the British government (although one U.S. officials apparently have been allowed to comment on), I think maybe these British memos are all one big joke and the troops will soon be used to do something else terrible in the name of good.

2005-07-11T12:06:00.000-04:00

Stop talking about London

Can we all stop talking about Thursday's bombings in London. The whole thing is way out or proportion.

But Micah it was tragic event that reflects greatly on the future of society as we know it!

Possibly, but I doubt it. Those who already thought we were in some great, glorious, gloriously great and greatly glorious war for freedom still think that. Same for those who believed Bush is a cowboy and/or dumb and the people, in numbers no less than one, who thought the "war on terror" is largely a con that manipulates legitimate fears, ignorance and a lack of critical thinking haven't changed their opinions either. And let's face it, it wasn't as terrible as some think it. People die every day and many times the deaths are premature.

Well yeah, but this was intentional, it was the result of evil

For the sake of the argument, I will accept this premise and then add, yeah, so why did virtually nobody care when the government of Uzbekistan murdered hundreds of civilians on May 13 of this year in response to a protest?

This slaughter was the result of intentional malice on the part of humans, but news of it didn't take up the whole front page of my local paper the next day. And the undeniable truth that Uncle Sam supports the gov of Uzbekistan did not lead to any popular media fueled reflection on what it means for a country that loves to think of itself as promoting freedom to be supporting a brutal and repressive government by selling them weapons, training their troops and covering up their misdeeds.

This isn't something than happened in the nineteenth century or the 1980s, it has happened this year and shows no signs of changing, unless of course Uzbekistan gets out of line - then, I've predicted, we will hear about how terrible the government is and how the only response is U.S. punishment.

The funny thing is that Uzbekistan is a former Soviet Republic, so whenever someone says Reagan and U.S. of A. liberated people from Soviet domination, they are talking, in part, about how the people of Uzbekistan were freed. They were freed to be killed by their own good government, I guess.

Unless I am crazy -I do regularly wonder- but the May 13 killings in Uzbekistan and the U.S. relationship to the government responsible should, by any reasonable standard, have generated a whole hell of a lot more soul searching and policy pondering than the July 7 bombings in London. More people died, the killings were intentional and the issues raised were not part of the usual dialogue.

Ah yes, that last part probably explains it all. People in the U.S. would have to think of their country in a different manner if "May 13" was taken seriously. Nobody likes to do that, especially when we aren't the good guys.

2005-07-09T13:43:00.000-04:00

Keeping in mind what is really important

The most important lesson of 77, and one I deathly fear we are going to forget, is that our problems are more important than those of others.

I don’t know a single person who has died of the African death disease and I don’t care to. On the other hand, I, a typical midwestern, know exactly 63 people who died on the worst day in human history. The worst day in British history was of course smaller –don’t fear, their best days can’t hold even a small candle to our average days- I only know one person, Bucky Downs, who died on Thursday simply for living as a person who was as free as a person can possibly be when not living in the greatest country God ever created.

These people in Britain are very real to me. I can feel them and because of that, their lives matter. Now, if the talk radio callers I heard yesterday are right, and they most certainly are, we have a whole bunch of people in their countries to kill.

2005-07-07T09:39:00.000-04:00

Unlike most people, I don't have anything profound or particularly interesting to say about the bombings in London, although there can be no doubt that this just proves what everyone has been saying since at least September 11, 2001. Also, if CNN was any indication this morning, al Qaeda is now a very top heavy group. My memory suggests that this changes at least every couple of months.

In other news, there was clash between police and a thousand protesters, who took over a police station in Tikrit, Iraq yesterday, Reuters (July 7) reports. "The demonstrators demanded that the police chief and provincial governor step down, blaming their clan for killing the former official, Ali Ghalib al-Tikriti."

I do not know much about the politics of all of this, but it is a very intriguing development.

UPDATE: One more thing before I forget. Today on C-SPAN's Washington Journal a caller who said he has served in the military in Iraq for a year said matter of factly that the only solution to Iraq and terrorism is to destroy the countries that support terrorism. I expect to hear more and more of this as time ticks forward. Then again, I'm surprised I haven't heard more of it than I have by now. 10:20 AM EST 07/07/05

2005-07-06T11:21:00.000-04:00

China, Russia and the rest of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization called yesterday for the U.S. to set a date for its forces to leave member states Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the AP reports today.

I'm doubtful much will come of this, but if it does, expect to hear a lot about the awful things that the govs of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan do. There certainly is enough to go on and you know us Americans, we can't stand oppression when we are told not to.

So to be ahead of the curve, let me just say, "I don't know how those liberals can sleep at night supporting those evil governments in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. There is right. There is wrong. There is good and evil, and America has always stood on the side of the good. The fight is difficult, and while people of goodwill may disagree about the need for war, but there is no doubt that if America backs down at this moment that it will be seen as a victory for the forces of evil. America must and will prevail."

2005-07-04T10:07:00.000-04:00

Iraqi government gets the goose of anti-Americans

I bet the notoriously anti-American foreigners at The Observer were quite proud of the little stunt they pulled yesterday. Although it is one only day before America's birthday, they still published Peter Beaumont's account of brutality and torture by Iraqi security forces.

There's no doubt that all throughout the liberal world, they squealed, "this proves it. Bush lied. People died. We never should have gone to war."

What fools they are.

First of all it is common for lamestream legacy media types to lie in order to further their Anti-American pro-terrorism agenda, so it can be assumed with 98% accuracy that Iraqi security forces kick ass.

But let's just say that this is true. If so, who cares? I don't and I don't think any patriotic American does. We don't care about bad stuff in the world unless a good president tells us to. It is that simple. Saddam's forces torturing people was something that could not be tolerated. Whoever the hell is in charge of Iraq's forces torturing people can be tolerated.

In fact, the fine government of Iraq deserves lots of credit for admitting that these fine security forces have engaged in torture (Mariam Karouny, Reuters, July 3). Now they can say with pride, "under Saddam, you wouldn't have know about it. This proves how great we are due to America."

"Thank you, Iraqis," I reply. "Lots of people don't appreciate us, but you do and that is the greatest accomplishment of a country like yours. I will keep you in my prayers tonight as I watch fireworks, which I like to call Baghdad moments."

2005-07-02T18:46:00.000-04:00

While there is important news in the world like Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Samir Sumaidaie, reportedly writing that marines from a certain country in the Americas killed his cousin last Saturday in an act he said was the "killing of an unarmed innocent civilian - a cold blood murder" (Edith M. Lederer, AP, July 2) and the shocking news that the president of these here United States said nice things about the U.S. military today, but I just feel like laughing at Russell Shaw who writes in a July 1 Huffington Post entry that his "sister, a Floridian who voted for Nader in 2000, was one of the 537 voters who caused Gore to come up short in that state, and for Bush to win."

Talk about being weak at logic and math.

2005-07-01T21:18:00.000-04:00

Now that Sandra Day O'Connor wants to step down, America needs a another Supreme Court justice. We need one if we are to survive a free republic of people.

I suggest Andy Griffith or Mark Fuhrman.

2005-06-30T10:16:00.000-04:00

The lessons of September the 11th

I did not post yesterday because I was still in awe of President Bush's great speech to all the people of America.

President Bush is a great man. To say he is a visionary is to be a poet. To say he bold ideas is to be a philosopher. To say President Bush is the greatest American is to leave open even the thinnest possibility that he is not as great as Jesus Christ and Winston Churchill combined.

No President Bush has the type of greatest we Americans haven't seen since President Reagan. He is better than us. He is better than each and every one of us.

President Bush speaks great words and they deserve to be heard. When he speaks, you best sit down and get that scroll out because President Bush is about to expound on expanding your mind.

I feared for a moment Tuesday night that I had not done that when President Bush mentioned "the lessons of September the 11th" and I, thinking myself a traitor to freedom, did not know what they were.

Fortunately I have become familiar with a little website called google and figured I could look this up. I did a search for "the lessons of September the 11th" and to my shock I could find no list of "the lessons." It is as if President Bush just used this phrase when he wanted to justify something.

Bush, what a not nice guy he is.

Maybe the specific lessons that ought to be learned is that President Bush will call back to the worst day in human history in order to justify what he wants to do and that the public will, more or less, fall for it.

2005-06-28T17:09:00.000-04:00

The Prez will give his "big" speech tonight

The speech is unpredictable that Jennifer Loven of the AP already has a story up on it.

Bush will say that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is going at least relatively well and is worth it. He will not say he has long manipulated the public's real fears, ignorance and lack of critical thinking to justify actions in Iraq as well as the broader "war on terror." He will praise the troops. He will not say the U.S. tortures people.

People will say and write stuff about the speech. Their opinions will not be unpredictable. Some "good news" from Iraq will get bigger play and lots will say, "see we told you so."

Within two weeks -probably sooner- it will be as if this speech never happened.

2005-06-26T13:30:00.000-04:00

You may hear a lot of stories involivng a shark attack or two this summer. Don't believe any of them. It is just Osama in a costume.

Now I think you can see why we must continue in Iraq.

2005-06-25T12:53:00.000-04:00

America is still perfect!

What really gets my goat about all the evil leftists complaining about America's just treatment of the prisoners at Gitmo and around the world is that there still is no evidence that America has ever done anything wrong.

And don't think that has changed any because some Agence France Presse says that some people from the United Nations that did not support America's war to defend itself from Iraq and liberate the people of Iraq say the U.S. "has for the first time acknowledged... prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq."

First of all, these prisoners are all dirty terrorists who need to die.

Secondly, any attack on the actions of our soldiers is an attack on our soldiers who our defending America, our way of life, freedom and God and that is an attack on America, which is of course wrong. As Jesus says in the Bible, "America is the greatest country ever and can do no wrong. Attack Uncle Sam and my father will kick your ass unless the American military is more powerful."

Third, the sources are suspect. France and the United Nations hate America

Fourth, I'm sure America needed to torture these people and we are all safer because of it, if this glorious torture of the kind America would never engage in because we are better than them did in fact happen.

Lastly, this is all the evidence anybody needs so you should just shut your pie hole if you feel like saying more about this other than saying America never tortured anybody.

God bless America!

2005-06-24T09:41:00.000-04:00

We need a constitutional amendment to ban Bill O'Reilly or O'Reilly is wrong

Bill O'Reilly argued on yesterday's edition of his radio show in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning because he said burning a flag could be an intimidating act to someone who served in the military, or who has a relative who served, is serving and/or died in the military, or who has a relative who died on September 11, 2001, or who watched tv on September 11, 2001, or who has any shred of American decency in even the smallest part of their body.

How this would be "intimidating" exactly is not spelled out, but it makes sense to me. Following this logic, I propose a constitutional amendment to ban Bill O'Reilly from saying anything in order to keep him from intimidating me.

First of all, O'Reilly does intimidate me. I am a critic of the "war on terror" and an opponent of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and O'Reilly's recent comments seem to be threatening people like me with criminal penalties.

According to Media Matters for America (June 22), O'Reilly said on Monday that any critic of the Iraq war and the war on terror who goes beyond "dissent" to "undermine the war effort" is a "traitor" and should be arrested and treated accordingly. "[W]e could incarcerate them immediately," reportedly said he.

While Media Matters does have a brief transcription of O'Reilly's comments, to be fair, I have not heard these comments and so maybe O'Reilly was less than fully serious, but I suspect he was given his June 23 column "The Limits of Dissent." There O'Reilly does his usual bit regarding "there is a difference between dissenting from a war and trying to undermine a war" but, once again, does not define the difference and in fact suggests that any criticism that involves questioning or attacking the motivations of those in power or the actions of U.S. soldiers involves going beyond "dissent."

The popular news personality does approvingly and correctly point out that the U.S. government controlled most of what people in the U.S. knew about World War II while the U.S. was involved and calls on people to decide if they stand with "[t]he government and military, which is trying to defeat vicious killers, or those who are on a jihad to undermine the war on terror in the name of patriotism."

O'Reilly has created a clear binary dichotomy. You are either with the critics or on the side of the U.S. government. There really shouldn't be any doubt where O'Reilly stands if only because at one point he writes, "in a time of war, it might be wise to give the U.S. military the benefit of the doubt."

Given that the leaders of this land known as the U.S. of A have long record of mixing war and dishonesty, my response is, no, it isn't. No, it is not.

But I doubt that matters much to someone like O'Reilly. He doesn't want a reasoned debate. O'Reilly apparently wants to criminalize criticizing "the war effort."

O'Reilly did draw a distinction in yesterday's radio broadcast between a flag burning at a protest involving numerous people and a single person burning the flag in their back yard. (He called that "dopey," which seems to have become his favorite word and would be annoying if it wasn't overshadowed by the greater annoyance that is Bill O'Reilly. It is nonetheless quite offensive to one of the Seven Dwarves. No, correct that, it is offensive to all 7.) That, however, just bolsters my case for banning him since his website says that he is widely listened to, read and viewed and O'Reilly regularly boasts that he influences policy makers and public opinion.

If his idea takes hold, which they very well could if O'Reilly is an honest straight shooting man, I could be punished, and so the mere suggestion from someone in his position that critics of the "war on terror" and the occupation of Iraq should be imprisoned is an act of intimidation.

The courts and the public will no doubt say that O'Reilly has the right to say what he wants, so it becomes the duty of legislators to correct this problem. O'Reilly must be banned from saying, writing or in any other way communicating anything to another person, animal, living organism or anything else.

This would likely be hard on the man who calls himself "your humble correspondent." I assume he has enough money and assets to live comfortably someplace where nothing exists but him, but I doubt he could tolerate the loss of his very fancy soapbox. O'Reilly often comes across like a titular character in Orson Welles' 1941 film Citizen Kane in terms of needing the public adulation. As was the case with Kane, O'Reilly, at least comes across as someone who, doesn’t want his listeners to be well informed and intelligent. He wants them to rely on him for that.

The way out of this for O'Reilly is to admit that his argument for a constitutional ban on flag burning doesn't hold up. Maybe he could even add that many of his arguments don't make sense. Or he could just make the brilliant argument that he is important and "traitor[s]" like me are not by either saying as much or just ignoring this collection of words, which will be emailed to O'Reilly.

I await your response, expecting nothing less than a great and riveting exchange of ideas of the kind you are known for, Mr. O'Reilly.

2005-06-23T15:20:00.000-04:00

One of the common arguments against looking into what has been happening at Gitmo is that there are no serious allegations of abuse from guards, but maybe that isn't the case...

Attorney Clive Stafford-Smith says that his client, former Aljazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, has been abused. Aljazeera.net (June 22) writes:

"Sami has endured horrendous abuse - sexual abuse and religious persecution," said Stafford-Smith, who is on a visit to Qatar, on Tuesday.
"He has been beaten. He had a huge scar on his face when I saw him."
[...]
"He is completely innocent. He is about as much of a terrorist as my granddad. The only reason he has been treated like he has is because he is an Aljazeera journalist. The Americans have tried to make him an informant with the goal of getting him to say that Aljazeera is linked to al-Qaida...
Stafford-Smith also said that inmates who were children when they were arrested have been held in Guantanamo Bay since 2001.
Despite the US government's denials, he said they are being held in pitiful conditions.

The article, unfortunately, does not elaborate on what, if anything, Stafford-Smith said those conditions were.

Also, a group from the U.N. Commission on Human Rights is saying that it is not being allowed to investigate allegations of abuse at the prison in Southern Cuba (CBS News, June 23).

***

Me over at HorowitzWatch today:

In an interview with Jamie Glazov (FrontPage, June 23) about how popular culture is harming society, the great Ben Shapiro makes a curious comment about the cut and dry issue of fighting the terrorists:

I think that the "porn generation" ? people 10-30, I?d say ? has had more opportunity than any generation in world history... we?ve never truly had to face difficult foreign policy issues (until 9/11).
How does the worst day in the history of humanity create any sort of "difficult foreign policy issues"? An innocent country named America was attacked by people who hate our freedom and want to kill us all in an attempt to destroy our way of life and make themselves feel good about themselves. We must respond everywhere around the globe that is necessary and not give up till we have won.
You see, I've read my frontpagemag.com. I'm not going to fall for Shapiro's desire to see shades of a color I won't allow my children to even wear when there is nothing but good and evil. Victory to America! Death to traitors! Etc. Etc.

***

Insurgents in Iraq are building and using better bombs, which leads to a greater death toll, David S. Cloud reports in a June 21 New York Times story.

I'm surprised that there haven't been larger attacks like saying blowing up some barracks. Could it be that they don't really want to raise the stakes too high for fear that the United States will just say, "to hell with it, bomb 'em till there's nothing left"?

I suspect that such an attitude will gain increasing currency in the U.S. as the "war on terror" drags out, but then again I'm shocked it isn't more popular now than it is.

On a related note, Rush Limbaugh was railing yesterday about how the U.S. cares more about the Koran now than it did before September 11, 2001. This is actually true but where Limbaugh at least pretends to be baffled by this, I think it is merely the result of the popular sentiment that "we," meaning the people of the U.S., want to be loved for our military actions.

***

Arianna Huffington just might be on to something when she writes that Dem House leader Nancy Pelosi isn't that interested in Iraq or criticizing Team Bush's actions RE Iraq (The Huffington Post, June 23).

What I don't understand is how this could be since Rush Limbaugh and friends never fail to tell me the truth about how the Dems are an anti-war party that is bent on destroying America and helping our enemies.

***

H e r e a r e s o m e m o r e l i n k s w o r t h a v i s i t .

2005-06-22T21:50:00.000-04:00

Micah Holmquist (HorowitzWatch, June 20):

FrontPage would have you believe that a link between Saddam's government and al Qaeda has been proven because of May 23 AKI article on Iyad Allawi telling al-Hayat that a connection between Ayman al-Zawahiri of al Qaeda and Izza Ibrahim Al-Douri of Iraq has been found the Iraqi Secret Service while looking the files of Saddam Hussein's deposed government. (A UPI article, also from May 23, confirms these comments.)
While reading this it is important to keep in mind that Allawi once told British intelligence that Saddam's government could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes. The good doctor appears to have been less than reliable in that case.

Sounds like a good case to me.

2005-06-21T18:06:00.000-04:00

Michael Reagan is so great.

Yesterday he was ranting about how presidents shouldn't listen to congress or anyone else before going to war because such people might discourage him and that would mean not promoting democracy and freedom.

2005-06-20T08:36:00.000-04:00

The real reason Saddam did not kill us all

While the hip thing to do seems to be question whether the "Downing Street Memos" are fakes and copies, evidence supporting the idea that WMDs weren't the threat they were cracked up to be grow. Richard Norton-Taylor writes in today's Guardian about former British diplomat Carne Ross:

[Ross] says today that claims the government made about Iraq's weapons programme were "totally implausible".
He tells the Guardian: "I'd read the intelligence on WMD for four and a half years, and there's no way that it could sustain the case that the government was presenting. All of my colleagues knew that, too".
Carne Ross, who was a member of the British mission to the UN in New York during the run-up to the invasion, resigned from the FO last year, after giving evidence to the Butler inquiry...
"There was a very good alternative to war that was never properly pursued, which was to close down Saddam's sources of illegal revenue", he says.
Mr Ross also says sanctions imposed against Iraq were wrong. "They did immeasurable damage to the Iraqi civilian population. We were conscious of that but we did too little to address it", he says.

This is a packet of lies, of course. As President Bush said on October 7, 2002, Saddam was a deadly threat who kill us in less time than it takes to play the NBA Finals.

Saddam wanted to kill us all, but he is also a fan of pro hoops. He wanted to kill us all in 2002, but he also wanted to see if the Los Angeles Lakers could win another championship, so he decided to wait. Then 2003 came, his government was overthrown but that didn't damper his ability to kill or his enthusiasm for round ball. It was a tough choice for old Saddam. Once again he wanted to kill us all but could the San Antonio Spurs repeat. Saddam decided to wait, figuring he could stay on the run and we all know how that turned out.

Actually I made that story up. Saddam really wanted to see the Boston Red Sox win the World Series before he killed us all. The Boston Red Sox couldn't get the job done in time. The team that once traded Babe Ruth let down Saddam, so great a fan he didn't kill us all.

2005-06-18T14:10:00.000-04:00

RE British memos recently obtained by the Associated Press, Thomas Wagner of the AP writes in a story published today:

In one of the memos, British Foreign Office political director Peter Ricketts openly asks whether the Bush administration had a clear and compelling military reason for war.
``U.S. scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al-Qaida is so far frankly unconvincing,'' Ricketts says in the memo. ``For Iraq, `regime change' does not stack up. It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam.''
The documents confirm Blair was genuinely concerned about Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction, but also indicate he was determined to go to war as America's top ally, even though his government thought a pre-emptive attack may be illegal under international law.
``The truth is that what has changed is not the pace of Saddam Hussein's WMD programs, but our tolerance of them post-11 September,'' said a typed copy of a March 22, 2002 memo obtained Thursday by The Associated Press and written to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
``But even the best survey of Iraq's WMD programs will not show much advance in recent years on the nuclear, missile or CW/BW (chemical or biological weapons) fronts: the programs are extremely worrying but have not, as far as we know, been stepped up.''
...The AP obtained copies of six of the memos [that have become known as the "Downing Street Memos"] (the other two have circulated widely). A senior British official who reviewed the copies said their content appeared authentic. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secret nature of the material.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more speculation of the identity of the person leaking these memos. As for everything else, about the only thing that I see surprising me is Team Bush being honest.

2005-06-17T13:06:00.000-04:00

A well thought out post that I most certainly did not make up as I went along

When I read about or see people like Ben Feguson and Ben Shapiro, I think my parents should have named me Benjamin and I should be a hack idiot. That way, I'd have been living the good life for a decade or so now.

These people aren't intelligent and they deserve to be laughed at every bit as much as the prez or Sean Hannity. I guess it really isn't fair to pick on them just because of their age, but to talk about being "fair" with them is perhaps the first mistake a person could make. Or maybe it is second behind agreeing with them.

Some examples of the intelligent thinking these two fine young men engage in and receive praise...

Ferguson's book It's My America Too: A Leading Young Conservative Shares His Views on Politics and Other Matters of Importance contains a chapter on the greatness of NASCAR that contradicts itself on why people love the spectator sport series. At one point, it is because everybody can relate to driving and at another it is because virtually nobody knows what it is like to drive that fast. Now potentially a singular argument could be made out of this, or Ferguson could say that different people enjoy it for different, even opposite reasons, but then Ferguson says people don't like watching basketball because they have played it, as if nobody watches basketball on tv or in person and everybody who has played a game or horse knows what it is like to dunk the ball or play in the NBA.

Ferguson goes on to say that NASCAR drivers aren't overpaid like say football players, as if NASCAR drivers don't make large amounts money, and wouldn't like more. I am probably giving too much credit to Ferguson, but assuming he has actually thought this out, I would have to conclude that he thinks incomes not being widely known means they are small.

Ferguson also suggests that NASCAR is all about going out and doing it at the competition and that coaches and such don't play as big of a role. Yeah right. Crew chiefs, mechanics and pre-race preparation are highly important

Part of me thinks Ferguson should just come out and say he likes the whiteness of the events, but I suspect that is just the liberal in me talking since I find auto racing to be boring.

Now there is Shapiro, who I think is an astute mind for wanting Palestinians to get the hell out of Dodge and for writing, "One American soldier is worth far more than an Afghan civilian." Most won't say the simple downhome red state things that he says even thought they are true.

Now he is promoting a book of his entitled Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future. I haven't read the book but from the looks of things I have to once again give him credit for not solely blaming "Hollywood," but I do have to wonder how bad the problem is. Twenty years ago you could see Madonna's underwear on MTV. Now you can see Gwen Stefani's. Call me when she isn't wearing any.

***

I didn't mention this yesterday, but the real problem with Durbin's comments and most of what has been said in response is that it assumes America is so great that it is shocking that it or its representatives could ever do anything wrong. Yeah this is a perfect country and it always has been. Don't you know that historians have now proven neither slavery nor Native Americans ever existed in the land of the free.

***

Rush Limbaugh (June 16):

You know, everybody is talking about Senator Durbin... worried about the temperature at G'itmo, air conditioners being turned on and then turned off and the prisoners so beside themselves they're laying in the fetal position; they're pulling their hair out! I will tell you that no matter what. No matter what the temperature gets to at G'itmo, it's definitely cooler than it was at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco when the Clinton administration burned it to the ground. Come to think of it, I don't remember Durbin saying anything about that when it happened. He may have. I just don't remember it, and I think they blasted music for weeks when they tried to get the Branch Davidians to come out of that compound, did they not? And I thought they brought in big lights to shine on the compound during the night, all intended to keep them from sleeping. Didn't they do that at Waco? Where was Dick Durbin when this domestic torture was going on? These were US citizens the Clinton administration was targeting, including women and children and babies -- and they eventually burned them out with tanks, the Waco invasion... it was much hotter there than it ever is at G'itmo...

I can't find anything on Durbin commenting on the Branch Davidian siege via a quick google search for "waco" "branch davidian" "dick durbin" and Dems, like most people, generally weren't as angry about what happened on April 19, 1993 in Waco, Texas as they should have been, so Limbaugh is probably right and it is safe to assume that Durbin, who was in the U.S. House in 1993, is hypocritical.

Great one there Rush! You can't see that dirty deeds of the U.S. government due to being too busying bashing Democrats. Yep, it is only bad for the U.S. government to torture people when the Dems, not the GOP, are in power.

It is moments like this when I am really proud to say that I have never voted for a Democrat or Republican. Now if I can just convince more people to stop doing so.

2005-06-16T17:44:00.000-04:00

I've listened to enough talk radio and watched enough FNC to know that the Lamestream Media never says anything good about the military and always says the bad, so this morning I figured the Commie/Crescent News Network and PMSNBC would be full of nothing but Dick Durbin calling American troops Nazis, or maybe he was saying some were Nazis, or maybe it was just that some actions bore some resemblance to actions by Nazis, or maybe... oh who knows what he was saying. The point is Durbin said American troops are Nazis, something I would expect the MSM, or LM, to lick up like they were taking orders from Veronica Sawyer.

I turned on CNN a little past 7:30 AM EST this morning and they one who used to be pregnant was back slapping Bill Hemmer and the whole gang was laughing. I watched for 30 seconds and still didn't have a clue what they were talking about so I switched to MSNBC just in time to catch Don Imus and Lou Dobbs chatting about how the prisoners at Gitmo should be tortured more than they already are.

What a bunch of liberal freaks. Last night Michael Reagan was calling for bombing Afghanistan into oblivion. If you aren't doing that, I consider you to be the lowest form of terrorist supporting traitor on the face of the earth. You probably even also think there is merit to teaching the theory of evolution.

2005-06-15T09:04:00.000-04:00

F o l l o w m e t o t h e p l a c e s w e g o w h e n w e t r a v e l w i t h , o r t o , t h e s e l i n k s .

2005-06-14T09:46:00.000-04:00

Maybe we don't love freedom... wait, we only love it enough for when WE get to kill people

"U.S. and diplomatic officials" say the U.S. and Russia successfully argued against having a NATO document call for an international investigation of last month's civilian protester shooting spree by the folks of the government of Uzbekistan, R. Jeffrey Smith and Glenn Kessler write in today's Washington Post, because, at least for the land of the free, the U.S. didn't want to lose a base.

2005-06-13T09:52:00.000-04:00

The Cadillac News is usually so bad that I want to give Dale Killingbeck credit for his story in today's issue, "Law allows recruiters access," about military recruiters and local high schools, but they managed to completely screw this topic up.

Summary of the article - two high school counselors think most people they see join the military because they don't have any better options - No Child Left Behind "gives recruiters access to names, addresses and telephone listings of all junior and senior students" - Pine River school board member Jim Peterson says "a pacifist group" approached him about getting the same access to high school students but he said no because the school a has a policy against allowing such access unless there is a law involved.

There is no mention why military recruiting is controversial -the short of it is that some of the recruiters have an interesting relationship with honesty- and the "pacifist group" is never mentioned by name. Nor is it said that Peterson couldn't remember it or declined to give it.

This is horrible journalism in any context but in the context of this area, it will be read by people who say, "well allabe that's good to know that our finest young people are still joining the military. God Bless President Bush and our troops... why would I give a damn about some cowardly group of treasonous pacifists?"

***

"Iraq moved further toward a political stalemate today, as Shiite political leaders agreed on what they said was a compromise to include Sunni Arabs in the writing of this country's constitution, and Sunnis flatly rejected the offer," Sabrina Tavernise writes in a June 12 New York Times story.

***

Juan Cole compares Bush's fidelity to reality and the truth to that of "Baghdad Bob" in a June 9 Salon piece. Now where would you have heard that 25 months before?

***

A U.S. pull out from Iraq would not encourage civil war, Aaron Glantz argues in a June 10 antiwar.com piece, because the occupation is itself encouraging such a conflict.

FWIW, I'm not so sure. I do agree that the occupation is encouraging tensions in Iraq but those tensions are not new and it may be too late. There probably aren't any good options, in the sense of a "good" option being one where there is not a significant risk of disaster.

***

Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher writes that more newspaper columnists in the U.S. are writing critical pieces about the occupation of Iraq (Alternet, June 8).

I can't decide whether to write, "about time" or "too little, too late."

***

I'm sure glad that Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is worried about how contractors are a "hinderance [sic] to the war effort" in Iraq (dailykos.com, June 10). If that's his position, fine, but I don't ever want to hear or read about him as being against the occupation.

2005-06-10T14:38:00.000-04:00

Shame on those who keep me free

As a proud American who basks in the glow of freedom every day of my life, except Tuesdays in months that have an odd number of days, I am very much ashamed of some recent behavior by some of those who keep me free. Oh forget that, I am ashamed of those who keep me free. If I am supposed to thank the local guy at the recruiting station for "liberating" Iraq, I can blame him for what others do...

First there is "Major General" Joseph Taluto reportedly saying that not all of our terrorist enemies in Iraq are evil terrorists and even that, "If a good, honest person feels having all these Humvees driving on the road, having us moving people out of the way, having us patrol the streets, having car bombs going off, you can understand how they could [want to fight us]" (Phil Sands, gulfnews.com, June 9).

Former CIA Director John M. Deutch is calling for the U.S. to leave Iraq "as soon as possible," which is before the President says we are done (Alvin Powell, Harvard News Office, June 9).

Former soldier Dagan Walters has blamed his experiences liberating Iraqis for why he allegedly raped a woman (KIROTV.com, June 9). Why didn't this woman thank him for protecting her? Was it because she was a "call girl" and thus not very high in the morals department? Yes.

Two members of the Navy have been arrested and accused of trying to transport illegal drugs into Australia (Jade Bilowol, The Australian, June 9). Australia is a great friend of American freedom and we do not want their kids to become druggies like ours are.

The best way of describing how vile these actions are is to say these actions are as shameful as those of Harry Reid who is now saying if he doesn't get his way on getting some documents, he won't allow a vote on the President's choice to be the ambassador to the United Nations (CNN, June 9). And we all know how bad that is.

If President Bush makes a decision, it must be a good one and it is our job to follow it and support it, unless it is a bad decision, which this one is not.

2005-06-09T09:26:00.000-04:00

lol

2005-06-08T04:19:00.000-04:00

Downing Street Mania

British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a clear reason yesterday for the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, Great Britain and ABskdskghsakaville.

"[T]he fact is we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution, to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with international law. He didn't do so. And that was the reason why we had to take military action," Blair said in a joint White House press conference with U.S. Prez George W. Bush.

Bush didn't say anything to indicate that Blair was wrong on this not exactly trivial manner, so there you have it. The invasion was because international law had to be enforced, which makes perfect sense as international law does not have a long history of being violated and what's good for Nicaragua and the land of the free people who obey the law and court judgments unless they don't like them must be wrong for Iraq.

As you will likely hear, read and/or see far more about, Blair's comment was in response to a question about the Downing Street Memo.

Since I know most of you have the good sense to get your news exclusively from this blog, a bit of context is in order...

the June 1 edition of The Sunday Times printed what was said to be a July 23, 2002 memo containing the minutes of a meeting Blair had with key advisors that day. The memo says that based on recent meeting with U.S. officials it was the opinion of the advisors that:

There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD...
It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.

These are not shocking allegations but the memo was, and is, likely evidence that Team Bush was not on the up and up about the reasons for invading Iraq.

Although I have known about this report since about the time it was published, I have not written anything about, other than for the purpose of criticizing John Kerry, for a variety of diverse and different reasons:

1) I did not have anything particularly interesting to say about the document other than it seems to me that when you accept a war against "the terrorists," expecting accurate intelligence is nit picking.

2) I did not expect it to stir much controversy at all, given how nobody seems to care about the other deceptions and manipulations the Bush Administration has gotten away with. I'm happy to be wrong here, but I still do not get why people are inspired by this information.

3) I am of the belief that Bush will get away with everything that he had done. Yes he should be in a cage getting poked by school children on field trips, but I don't think it is going to happen. If people aren't outraged now, part of me doubts there would be much outrage if Bush came out and said, "I have lied to you. I have manipulated your fears, ignorance and lack of critical thinking. You are stupid for not figuring this out on your own.

4) I wanted to protect President Bush because Clinton signed something in 1998 and Kerry voted for the war and because one thing leftists never understand and never will understand is that America is right and not wrong and they are no right so they should just shut their pie holes and let real men and manly women do the hard work of keeping America safe, defeating evil and avenging those who paid with their blood on September 11 just for going to work in the greatest country is the history of the world and not being the lazy people who just sit at home, work a 9 to 5 job, collect a cushy pension and believe whatever the lamestream media tells them about why they should hate President Bush, the Republicans and America without ever once taking the step of going out and being a productive member of society who makes their own way, stands on their own two feet and resents having some big government bureaucrat taking their hard earned money away to go spend it some committee out their in Washington that will criticize American soldiers for defending freedom because this modern day soviet commie apparatchik will not shut their piehole and believe that America is always right due to their leftism. (Thank you Micah! You are a great American who has a wisdom one can't learn in all those fancy colleges where those liberals go.)

So those are my reasons for not commenting on it till know but I can go with the flow...

Moving back to yesterday's press conference:

Q Thank you, sir. On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July 2002 says intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action. Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?

A decent question, I suppose, although without a follow up that the reporter is willing to ask even after the two gentlemen have made it clear they want to move on, it won't produce anything like an interesting answer.

PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Well, I can respond to that very easily. No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all. And let me remind you that that memorandum was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that we were conducting as two countries at the time than me. And the fact is we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution, to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with international law. He didn't do so. And that was the reason why we had to take military action.
But all the way through that period of time, we were trying to look for a way of managing to resolve this without conflict. As it happened, we weren't able to do that because -- as I think was very clear -- there was no way that Saddam Hussein was ever going to change the way that he worked, or the way that he acted.

I've covered the international law argument above. The idea that going to the UN discounts the accuracy of the memo's findings is strange since the memo does say:

We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.

So going to the UN was not inconsistent with the contents of the memo.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I -- you know, I read kind of the characterizations of the memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I'm not sure who "they dropped it out" is, but -- I'm not suggesting that you all dropped it out there. (Laughter.)

I doubt anybody cares about this except elections and self-absorbed media types. So yes the joke worked in Bush's favor. What a sense of humor he has. Bush must be a great man, if he is indeed a man and not some greater species.

And somebody said, well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal with Saddam. There's nothing farther from the truth.
My conversation with the Prime Minister was, how could we do this peacefully, what could we do. And this meeting, evidently, that took place in London happened before we even went to the United Nations -- or I went to the United Nations. And so it's -- look, both us of didn't want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option. The consequences of committing the military are -- are very difficult. The hardest things I do as the President is to try to comfort families who've lost a loved one in combat. It's the last option that the President must have -- and it's the last option I know my friend had, as well.
And so we worked hard to see if we could figure out how to do this peacefully, take a -- put a united front up to Saddam Hussein, and say, the world speaks, and he ignored the world. Remember, 1441 passed the Security Council unanimously. He made the decision. And the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.

The implicit premise to what Bush says here is that something terrible would have happened if Saddam had been allowed to stay in power, but what isn't clear. Saddam would be in power? Yes that was really ruining the world and it is good to know the last brutal thug in power no long has power. An attack? Yep Saddam was waiting for just the right moment that it had not shown up over more than the last 12 years. International law being violated? Is that even news?

What this terrible event or series of events would have been is not stated because, in all likelihood, a credible answere did not and does not exist. The fact that virtually nobody will figure this out and say it publicly doesn't speak well for the possibility of government being held accountable.

2005-06-07T08:48:00.000-04:00

Last month the UN Development Program and the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation issued a report on conditions in Iraq, David Cortright, president of the Fourth Freedom Forum and a senior research fellow at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, writes in today's Christian Science Monitor:

The "Living Conditions in Iraq" study is based on a 2004 survey of more than 21,000 households. It shows the Iraqi people are suffering widespread death and war-related injury, high rates of infant and child mortality, chronic malnutrition and illness among children, low rates of life expectancy, and significant setbacks for women.
The Iraqi people were already suffering serious hardships when the war began - the result of Saddam Hussein's policies and 13 years of UN sanctions. Since the US invasion, the report notes an "alarming deterioration" in living conditions.
The innocent and vulnerable populations of Iraq are suffering the most. Malnutrition among small children is widespread. Nearly one quarter of Iraqi children suffer chronic malnutrition, and 8 percent suffer acute malnutrition.
Illness levels among Iraqi children are also high - due in part to a growing lack of safe drinking water and sanitation. Forty percent of urban households report sewage in the streets of their neighborhoods...
The new report also sheds light on the number of Iraqi deaths directly attributable to the US-led invasion and occupation. As of mid-2004 the war had caused 24,000 Iraqi deaths, the study estimated. This is the number for all deaths, civilian and military, in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion.

Yes, yes, yes, but the important point to keep in mind is that we Americans are only safe from the Iraqis because we invaded them. Our security comes first, as always.

2005-06-06T08:05:00.000-04:00

Reuters (June 5) reports that Haitian police killed 25 people in that country's slums as a way of showing they are getting tough.

***

"The Shiite-led Iraqi government acknowledged Sunday that its forces may have targeted innocent Sunni Muslims in a drive to crush the insurgency in southwestern Baghdad and its suburbs," Sameer N. Yacoub of the AP writes (June 5).

***

From the file of things I just don't understand, Shiite political parties did well in Lebanon's elections (John Kifner, The New York Times, June 5).

These people need to learn that democracy means doing what you are told or not being well liked by the coolest kid in the world.

2005-06-05T11:08:00.000-04:00

L i n k s c a n b e l o t s o f l o a d s , a n d l o a d s o f l o t s , o f f u n , s o h e r e a r e s o m e m o r e .

2005-06-04T09:20:00.000-04:00

Mickey Z. on Feltgate

2005-06-03T08:10:00.000-04:00

Oh Kerry

Steve Urbon of The Standard-Times writes about a June 1 first speech given by former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry (June 2):

Sen. Kerry puzzled over the apparent lack of interest by Americans in the Iraq war and the near silence in the U.S. mass media about the so-called Downing Street Memo...
"When I go back (to Washington) on Monday, I am going to raise the issue," he said of the memo, which has not been disputed by either the British or American governments. "I think it's a stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises stunning issues here at home. And it's amazing to me the way it escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed on the Internet, I can tell you that."

Although I guess I do hope to be wrong, somehow I doubt that Kerry will make too big of ruckus over this. The Downing Street Memo may not have been available during his campaign for the oval office, as least as far as we know, but the dishonesty of the Bush Administration over the invasion of Iraq was very clear by that point and I don't recall hearing Kerry say all that much about that, except for when it was in terms of how this hurt U.S. "credibility," which it rightly did.

***

Whenever I think about the great military victory that was Iraq I think of all the WMD hunt that wasn't that important. More info on this via a June 2 AP story that says UN inspectors believed WMD related equipment has been removed from 109 Iraqi sites.

***

"Violence in the course of the 18-month-long insurgency has claimed the lives of 12,000 Iraqis, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said Thursday, giving the first official count for the largest category of victims of bombings, ambushes and other increasingly deadly attacks," Ellen Knickmeyer writes in today's Washington Post.

Make up your own joke as the one about the insurgents being amateurs in light of what the U.S. has done is too obvious, even for me.

***

I'm glad that people are upset about their being a new bible where Jesus is Judith, a woman. It shows they care.

***

Random Abstract is a cool new blog with lots of links.

***

David Rees posted some new get your war ons yesterday and the first one, "Afghan crybaby," is one of his best ever.

2005-06-02T09:01:00.000-04:00

"I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency," Vice President Dick Cheney said recently of Iraq, despite no signs that the violence is easing (Adrian Blomfield, The Telegraph, June 2). ~~"And this time we really mean it."~~

2005-06-01T21:13:00.000-04:00

A bunch of Linda Lovelace jokes

So it appears that W. Mark Felt of the government's FBI was "Deep Throat" of Watergate scandal fame.

I'd hoped it would be Pat Buchanan or those kids from Dick (Andrew Fleming, 1999). On the other hand, I'm glad it wasn't Al Haig as that would force me to rethink all of my political and most of my social views.

Since Felt was tight with J. Edgar Hoover, it appears Felt's involvement may have been a proxy battle between Hoover and Richard Nixon, as Felt had not opposition to break ins for the cause of America. That said, it would be interesting to know who else Felt has talked to "off the record." Could he have had a change of conscience?

The most important question, however, IMHO, is why did the Watergate scandal bring Nixon down while U.S. intervention in Cambodia didn't? Similarly, why didn't the Iran Contra scandal bring Reagan down and why didn't Clinton suffer much for the bombing of Iraq in 1993 and, also from 1993, the raid on the Branch Davidian compound? These should have been bigger scandals from my vantage point.

2005-05-31T10:07:00.000-04:00

I could blog about minor matters in the world but the big news has to be that Rambo is back and a new masterpiece is set to start shooting this January. This one is said to follow the adventures of a nice family man Rambo who is pushed back into action to fight racists. And some people say that Hollywood isn't turning out great films!

OK let's be honest, this idea is lousy. Rambo should either be fighting "the terrorists" or it should be Rambo & Therapist.

2005-05-30T19:51:00.000-04:00

Cheney's perspective

In today's world we have:

-A report says there is now evidence that the United States was trying to goad Saddam's government into war in 2002 (Michael Smith, The Sunday Times, May 29 - to be honest I believe this was self-evident, if you tell someone constantly "I'm going to get you, you just wait, I don't know when but I'm going to get you" for several months, you are risking them coming after you first)

-More allegations of prisoner abuse at a unique part of Cuba (Paisley Dodds, AP, May 30)

-The possibility of civil war in Iraq (Jeffrey Fleishman, The Los Angeles Times, May 29)

-An ever most heroic effort by New Jersey State Assemblyman Craig Stanley to change the name of the New Jersey Devils to something less satanic (Angela Delli Santi, AP, May 29)

Things certainly are crazy, and so it is nice to have a voice of reason like Vice President Dick Cheney to sort things out:

Vice President Dick Cheney says he's offended by a human rights group's report criticizing conditions at the prison camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
The report Amnesty International released last week said prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba had been mistreated and called for the prison to be shut down. Cheney derided the London-based group in an interview set to be broadcast Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live."
"Frankly, I was offended by it," Cheney said in the videotaped interview. "For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously." [AP, May 30]

I know how you feel, Mr. Cheney.

2005-05-29T23:15:00.000-04:00

Media Matters noted noted on friday that the assassination fantasies of Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly on their radio talk shows haven't been getting a lot of press.

I would add that on Tuesday's edition of his show, Michael Reagan made a joke that I didn't quite understand but had something to do with stem cells and pain, if not death, being cause to the seven Republican senators who were part of the recent filibuster deal. John McCain was mentioned by name.

2005-05-28T18:00:00.000-04:00

Fox News (May 28):

The U.S. military is on the offensive in the War on Terror (search) to prevent terrorists from reaching America's shores, President Bush said Friday, adding that 20 years from now, historians will look back on the Iraq war as "America's golden moment."

President Bush speaking at U.S. Naval Academy graduation ceremonies yesterday:

Sitting in that crowd four years ago was Midshipman Edward Slavis. When I gave the order to liberate Iraq, he charged across the Kuwaiti border, leading a rifle platoon through 21 days of tough fighting into the heart of Baghdad. His battalion helped pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein. Ed says, "I will have time for myself later. Now I just feel privileged to spend my life doing something much larger than myself." He went on to say, "The mission will be a success, and 20 or 30 years from now historians will look back on the mission to Iraq as America's golden moment." Ed Slavis is serving his country with courage, and he's adding to the history of this Academy.

Leaving aside the distorted picture most people have of the statue toppling, Bush never called the invasion "America's golden moment." He quoted someone else as saying that in a way that strongly suggests he agrees.

Just thinking about the irony in FNC's mistake makes me dizzy.

2005-05-27T13:06:00.000-04:00

Am I the only person who just can't seem to care about "Koran incidents"? No. Am I the only person who follows the "war on terror" with such great interest who doesn't? Maybe.

Sorry but I just don't think it is all that big of a deal.

2005-05-26T09:18:00.000-04:00

Via Matt Drudge, I see that Helen Thomas acted like a stupid raghead bitch and didn't respect a great man like Scott McClellan yesterday:

Q The other day -- in fact, this week, you said that we, the United States, is in Afghanistan and Iraq by invitation. Would you like to correct that incredible distortion of American history --
MR. McCLELLAN: No, we are -- that's where we currently --
Q -- in view of your credibility is already mired? How can you say that?
MR. McCLELLAN: Helen, I think everyone in this room knows that you're taking that comment out of context. There are two democratically-elected governments in Iraq and --
Q We're we invited into Iraq?
MR. McCLELLAN: There are two democratically-elected governments now in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are there at their invitation. They are sovereign governments, and we are there today --
Q You mean if they had asked us out, that we would have left?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, Helen, I'm talking about today. We are there at their invitation. They are sovereign governments --
Q I'm talking about today, too.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- and we are doing all we can to train and equip their security forces so that they can provide for their own security as they move forward on a free and democratic future.
Q Did we invade those countries?
MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve.

What an asshole. This is a legitimate line of questioning and Scott is allowed to just brush it off to Steven who asks this penetrating question, "Is Prime Minister Abbas doing enough to crack down on terror?"

Oh, if you are an idiot like Jonathan R. at GOP Bloggers and think Afghanistan is sovereign, may I remind you that it was only Monday that Bush said U.S. troops in Afghanistan would remain completely under U.S. control. This despite Karzai's request of a couple days earlier for more Afghan control of these troops in Afghanistan.

The same thing has long been true in Iraq, and you know it should be made clear that although I think stupid liberal elite MSM reporters should be able to ask questions about this, this is a good thing since America is better than these loser countries. We are the greatest nation ever and deserve to be treated as such. I'm not going to take advantage of Memorial Day sales this weekend just so the land that I love can be treated like we are just a bigger Afghanistan or Iraq.

We are better than that, which is why we ain't leaving Iraq anytime soon and I can be certain the home of the brave is kicking ass for me, a good patriotic American.

2005-05-25T09:19:00.000-04:00

America has once again proven that we are the greatest nation ever. This time it is because of all the military weapons we sell to great governments in places like Egypt and Uzbekistan.

We even sell weps to Bahrain. Maybe they can use them on bloggers.

2005-05-24T09:47:00.000-04:00

For years America has remained great because great men and Ann Coulter have always stood up for freedom.

Now, however, with the "deal" on filibusters, I fear that this all has bee lost. The terrorists have won, freedom is lost etc. etc.

On the other had, this deal does all for those millions of Americans who did not vote for President Bush last November to have their voices heard.

2005-05-23T09:52:00.000-04:00

Michael Howard writes in today's Guardian:

US military commanders are planning to pull back their troops from Iraq's towns and cities and redeploy them in four giant bases in a strategy they say is a prelude to eventual withdrawal.
The plan, details of which emerged at the weekend, also foresees a transfer to Iraqi command of more than 100 bases that have been occupied by US-led multinational forces since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
However, the decision to in vest in the bases, which will require the construction of more permanent structures such as blast-proof barracks and offices, is seen by some as a sign that the US expects to keep a permanent presence in Iraq.

It is a more centralized way to bury our dead.

2005-05-22T18:35:00.000-04:00

Maybe it is just me, but there seems to be a lot of interesting news in the world as of late

Most of these stories , such as a May 2 Knight Ridder Newspapers report by Mohammed al Dulaimy that says some Iraqi journalists accuse the new Iraqi government of freedom of abusing them for doing their job, I'm probably not going to get around to writing about.

One place I've ignored is U z b e k i s t a n, which is of course my way of saying, I don't care. So at least several hundred people were killed in a protest. What difference does it make to me? I didn't know them. People die all the time. Get used to it. Besides it serves them right for being out on Friday the 13th.

Actually I am just mad that "freedom isn't free" bullshit is a fact of life when it comes to justifying the U.S. running other countries but these same people don't care about Uncle Sam fueling a repressive regime.

Democracy is great in theory but when people don't seem to mind a manipulative and dishonest government, it falls way short.

2005-05-21T10:01:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Mr. T!

UPDATE: Responding to laughable charges of abuse (Tim Golden, New York Times, May 20, more about how our great fighting men and women aren't that bothered by Afghans killed by their own is at Tim Golden, New York Times, May 22), longtime puppet Karzai is getting a bit ungrateful for American tastes. Daniel Cooney writes in an AP story from today:

President Hamid Karzai called on Saturday for control of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and demanded the United States take strong action against soldiers who abuse prisoners, following a report of alleged maltreatment of detainees at the main U.S. base here...
Karzai said he will bring up the issue when he meets American leaders during a four-day visit to the United States starting Saturday.
"We want the U.S. government to take very, very strong action to take away people like that are working with their forces in Afghanistan," Karzai told reporters before leaving Kabul. "Definitely ... I will see about that when I am in the United States."
He also demanded greater control over U.S. military operations here, including a stop to raids by American troops on Afghans' homes without the knowledge of his administration.
"No operations inside Afghanistan should take place without the consultation of the Afghan government," the president said.

What a fucking asshole! After all we've done for him, this prick now wants sovereignty? We gave them Freedom, how dare they ask for power.

Don't worry though as it appears that Karzai is nothing but a dirty drug dealer. David S. Cloud and Carlotta Gall writes in a May 22 New York Times story:

United States officials warned this month in an internal memo that an American-financed poppy eradication program aimed at curtailing Afghanistan's huge heroin trade had been ineffective, in part because President Hamid Karzai "has been unwilling to assert strong leadership."
A cable sent on May 13 from the United States Embassy in Kabul, the Afghan capital, said that provincial officials and village elders had impeded destruction of significant poppy acreage and that top Afghan officials, including Mr. Karzai, had done little to overcome that resistance.
"Although President Karzai has been well aware of the difficulty in trying to implement an effective ground eradication program, he has been unwilling to assert strong leadership, even in his own province of Kandahar," said the cable, which was drafted by embassy personnel involved in the anti-drug efforts, two American officials said.
A copy of the three-page cable, which was addressed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was shown to The New York Times by an American official alarmed at the slow pace of poppy eradication.
The cable also faulted Britain, which has the top responsibility for counternarcotics assistance in Afghanistan, for being "substantially responsible" for the failure to eradicate more acreage. British personnel choose where the eradication teams work, but the cable said that those areas were often not the main growing areas and that the British had been unwilling to revise targets.

There you have it. The new bastard and our old oppressors are working against us to make sure that DRUGS flood the streets of America.

It is once again time for us to nuke the rest of the world! 3:14 p.m. est 05/21/05

2005-05-20T23:16:00.000-04:00

"Thousands of Shiites stomped on American flags painted on roads outside mosques in a show of anger over the U.S. presence in Iraq," Abdul Hussein Al-Obeidi writes in an AP story published today. "Tensions spiraled throughout Iraq, particularly in its southern Shiite heartland, as more than 10,000 protesters heeded a call by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to step on and drive over American and Israeli flags painted on roads outside mosques. Many of the worshippers were chanting or waving the Quran, Islam's holy book."

In related news, in response to a question about the pics of Saddam in his underwear showing up in Rupert Murdoch owned newspapers, our great leader Bush said:

Well, you asked me whether or not that would inspire people. You know, I don't think a photo inspires murderers. I think they're inspired by an ideology that is so barbaric and backwards that it's hard for many in the Western world to comprehend how they think.

But Bush can!

2005-05-19T17:59:00.000-04:00

Satan appears busy.

2005-05-18T11:03:00.000-04:00

If Freedom Tower is built, Donald Trump said a few minutes ago in what I do not believe was an event made up by the little men in the television who draw the nice pictures, "the terrorists win."

The sad thing is this wasn't just some stupid comment but part of his bit for promoting his design.

This makes me into a big supporter of Freedom Tower because the way I see it, if we build it all is lost and we can stop talking about "the terrorists" and the clear concept "war on terror." We could just enjoy whatever remains of our lives, kind of like I would think believe who believe the rapture will happen soon would do if they acted like they believed the rapture will happen soon.

2005-05-17T23:20:00.000-04:00

H e r e a r e s o m e d e s t i n a t i o n s o n t h e w e b t h a t y o u m i g h t w a n t t o v i s i t .

2005-05-16T12:33:00.000-04:00

I'm what is sometimes called under the weather right now so I won't say much. However, Calgacus' "Newsweek Got Gitmo Right" (antiwar.com, May 16) is a must read if you want to get some more insight into the Koran Desecration controversy.

This really shouldn't be as big of a deal as dead and/or tortured Afghans and Iraqis.

2005-05-13T11:55:00.000-04:00

Yeah! We can make those evils look bad!

2005-05-12T13:15:00.000-04:00

The cancellation of Dennis Miller is all the proof I need that the public just doesn’t like pro-Bush propaganda. When will the evil conservatives in Hollyweird learn?

***

How come nobody talks about the positive impact slavery has on the economy?

2005-05-11T14:38:00.000-04:00

The AC and God need to work this kind of thing out

The Capitol and the White House were evacuated today as a result of the actions of the Antichrist who mistakenly had been under the impression that the r a p t u r e would happen by 10:00 a.m. eastern standard time.

I know this because while everyone else was leaving like fearful weaklings who never wrestled a mixed martial art match in their lives, I stayed in my office to get the truth.

"Why the devil are you still here?" yelled some Matrixesque thug straight out of Six: The Mark Unleashed.

"Um… Uh… I’m trying to get the truth out," I said with supreme confidence.

"Do you have the mark?" he replied.

"No… um… what ‘mark’ are you talking about?"

"Didn’t the message get out?" he asked one of his underlings.

The underling made a phone call. In the meantime I explained that while I didn’t have the mark that I had to be in good standing because I had been looking on the web for young boy from Jersey to have as a slave.

As I was telling my story, the underling interrupted to say that there had been a problem. The rapture had not happened and the planned takeover had to be postponed. A tear could be visibly seen in his eye.

They rushed out of the room and shortly thereafter people started returning to the buildings.

As it turned out, they were unaware that President George W. Bush had not died Tuesday at the hands of a grenade. Obviously President Bush’s survival changed everything.

It is really a shame that such confusion occurred. It may cause some people to change their opinions.

Nonetheless I felt quite lucky to have gotten out alive because I had really been working on a story about how I didn’t think the Army’s new influencing the influencers recruitment effort was going to work. I mean my son is 14, I’d love to see him become a man by beating up Iraqis in the expanding Iraqi prison market and the little shit won’t even talk to me since I first beat the hell out of him for not trying out for football 10 years ago. He just sits in his room, his cold dark room where I won’t allow him to even have a bed since he disappointed his family by not trying to be a gridiron hero.

I don’t believe that I owe him a second chance and the Good Lord knows that he certainly doesn’t deserve one but you know what I told him? "Son there are two types of wars. One is football and the other is war. You failed all of us with regard to the former but in the latter you still have a chance to be the next Pat Tillman. If you did that I would stop hating you and if you were dead, I wouldn’t even be able to beat you up anymore. I only do it so you have pent up anger and rage that you will be forced to let out on the enemies of this great land."

Still he didn’t respond and he has yet to join. These young kids today just don’t have what it takes to defend freedom and I blame them and the liberals.

2005-05-10T08:15:00.000-04:00

I like flags

Lew Rockwell makes an excellent point in a May 6 piece ("The Glory of War," lewrockwell.com) about how people in the this great land of ours tend to jump whenever they are told to:

The bloom on the rose of war eventually fades, leaving only the thorns. By the time this takes place, most everyone has already begun the national task of averting the eyes from the thorns, meaning the awful reality, the dashed hopes, the expense, the lame, the limbless, the widows, the orphans, the death on all sides, and the resulting instability. The people who still take an interest are those who first took an interest in war: the power elite, who began the war for purposes very different from that which they sold to the public at the outset.
Thus does the American public not care much about Iraq. It is not quite as invisible as other nations that were the subject of national obsessions in the recent past. Hardly anyone knows who or what is running El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, Libya, Serbia, or Somalia, or any of the other formerly strategic countries that once engaged national attention.
In fact, the president of Nicaragua, Enrique Bolanos (never heard of him, huh?) is visiting the White House next week in hopes of soliciting support for the upcoming election, which could prove to be dicey since the old US nemesis Daniel Ortega is running and gaining some support on a consistently anti-US platform. Should he win, one can imagine the White House swinging into high gear about how Nicaragua is harboring communists, er…terrorists. Or maybe not. Maybe he will rule the country and never make a headline. It is all up to the state.

Sounds good to me.

2005-05-09T13:05:00.000-04:00

I always hate it when they leave a young witch alive. Witches are just like the terrorists. They must be killed.

In other news, Friday evening I witnessed a beautiful rainbow. I also overheard a woman in her late 40s or early 50s tell a girl who I doubt was 8 that a rainbow is God's way of smiling.

2005-05-08T12:13:00.000-04:00

"After spending more than $4.5 billion on screening devices to monitor the nation's ports, borders, airports, mail and air, the federal government is moving to replace or alter much of the antiterrorism equipment, concluding that it is ineffective, unreliable or too expensive to operate," Eric Lipton writes in a New York Times story dated May 7. "Many of the monitoring tools - intended to detect guns, explosives, and nuclear and biological weapons - were bought during the blitz in security spending after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

All that patriotism sure paid off.

2005-05-06T00:01:00.000-04:00

Two U.S. soldiers have been arrested in Colombia on Wednesday for alleged ammunition distribution:

The two soldiers were detained during a raid Tuesday in a gated community in Carmen de Apicala, 50 miles southwest of the capital and near Colombia's sprawling Tolemaida air base, where the detained soldiers worked and where many U.S. servicemen are stationed.
National Police chief Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro said officers stopped a suspicious man in the area, who offered a bribe to be allowed to go free. Under threat of arrest, the man led the officers to a nearby house where more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition for assault rifles, machine guns and pistols were found, officials said.
Shortly afterward, the two U.S. Army soldiers - apparently unaware of the police operation - tried to go to the house. Castro said three Colombians were also involved.
``In the course of the investigation, two Americans arrived, they did not give a satisfactory explanation and were put at the disposal of the prosecutors' office,'' Castro said.

The U.S. State Department has confirmed the arrests.

***

I am all in favor of cracking down on sexy cheerleading. If this doesn't stop, men will think about female cheerleaders and want to look at pictures of them and, before you know it, an adult movie will be made about them.

We can't have that, so the solution should be that cheerleaders only perform in front of the team in order to inspire them.

***

When it comes to spending money on "defense," America kicks everyone else's asses combined!!! (Guy Anderson, Jane's Defence Industry, May 4)

***

Politics in Egypt is so confusing. Supposedly a bunch of Muslims who support the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested on Wednesday for demanding democracy (Nadia Abou El-Magd, Associated Press, May 4) and then more were arrested today to protest those arrests (Maamoun Youssef, Associated Press, May 6).

Now one could wonder why these people don't have jobs -lazy bastards- but everything else sounds good save for the Muslim Brotherhood part as those guys are evil.

I don't understand why evil people would support democracy as that bring hope and hope means that terrorists can't thrive. Maybe they are just bad at being evil.

***

http://www.defendpablo.org/

2005-05-05T20:50:00.000-04:00

For America so loved the world, that Bush gave his permission to look the other way at Evil that doesn't bother us

From the This Does Not Shock Me And This Should Be Getting More Attention file, Ken Silverstein reports in the April 29 edition of The Los Angeles Times that the U.S. of defeating evil in the world has been getting to know Sudan:

The Sudanese government, an unlikely ally in the U.S. fight against terror, remains on the most recent U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. At the same time, however, it has been providing access to terrorism suspects and sharing intelligence data with the United States.
Last week, the CIA sent an executive jet here to ferry the chief of Sudan's intelligence agency to Washington for secret meetings sealing Khartoum's sensitive and previously veiled partnership with the administration, U.S. government officials confirmed.
A decade ago Bin Laden and his fledgling Al Qaeda network were based in Khartoum. After they left for Afghanistan, the regime of Sudanese strongman Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir retained ties with other groups the U.S. accuses of terrorism.
As recently as September, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell accused Sudan of committing genocide in putting down an armed rebellion in the western province of Darfur. And the administration warned that the African country's conduct posed "an extraordinary threat to the national security" of the United States.

Between this and us freedom fighters getting friendly with the good non-abusive and democratic government of Uzbekistan -the U.S. never does anything else bad- it has become clear that Laura needs to get on Bush's case about a lot more than going to bed too early if they actually care about ending tyranny, which I'm going to guess they don't.

2005-05-04T13:54:00.000-04:00

Great, I can now sleep at night knowing that Abu Faraj al-Libbi is not on the loose, but it just boils me deep down inside to know that even as we speak liberals are trying to figure out ways to exploit the latest details of the death of American hero Pat Tillman.

The mans was a great hero and a tribute to America and God. That is all anybody needs to know, although I hope he did get to abuse some Afghan haji ragheads while he was over there.

***

It is good to see that the great new democracy of Kuwait won't be allowing those with vaginas to vote (Diana Elias, Independent, May 3).

2005-05-03T10:56:00.000-04:00

Bob Herbert (New York Times, May 2) makes me sick. If the brave fighting men and women who keep me safe and free call the stupid Iraqis ""hajis" and "ragheads," then I say haji raghead is the name God should have given them. If the brave fighting men and women who keep me safe and free want to abuse some haji ragheads, it must be for the best.

Any haji raghead who doesn't answer to their name should be shot or tortured, based on which is more convenient at the time. And since we are liberating them, those haji ragheads better have a smile on their face. God doesn't like grumpy people.

***

"The U.S. military plans to allow regional combatant commanders to request the president for approval to carry out preemptive nuclear strikes against possible attacks on the United States or its allies with weapons of mass destruction, according to a draft new nuclear operations paper," says Kyodo News in a May 1 story.

***

John Tierney has a column in today's New York Times where he argues that "middle-class Americans" support Republicans and Bush because they identify with him:

...they don't vote for Mr. Bush simply because he reads the Bible every day. One of the main reasons they like him is that he gets bashed so often. When Jon Stewart sneers at him, they empathize because they're used to being sneered at themselves.

OK, that makes a lot of sense. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity -both of whom are at least as influential with the U.S. as a whole and certainly more influential with the demo in question- sneer at Democrats all the time. Limbaugh and Hannity also criticize "the terrorists" regularly, but I don't seen too many "middle-class Americans" supporting "the terrorists.

Tierney is right that the people he speaks of tend to identify with Bush and the Republicans more, but I suspect the reason is the GOP tells a more attractive story.

2005-05-02T10:29:00.000-04:00

Having nukes is bad, unless you are a cool country like Tony Blair's.

2005-05-01T12:59:00.000-04:00

I don't think the new pope is working out.

2005-04-30T12:27:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I got a message in the mail about jury duty, specifically the strange idea that I should be on a jury. One of the questions was:

Are you physically or mentally able to carry out the functions of a juror?

While it is nice to know that I only have to be one or the other, since neither was explained in the small group of papers sent to me, I have no idea how I should answer and frankly I think anybody who chooses either the "Yes" box or the "No" box -the only two options- shouldn't be on a jury if they didn't the problem involved here.

2005-04-29T20:57:00.000-04:00

I read the transcript of Mr. President Bush's press conference from last night, and I have never loved Mr. President Bush more.

Where do I begin on how great He is? Any and all answers would have to be incomplete, but I most liked the fact that, in an obvious tribute to Jeff Gannon, or maybe just press conference traditions, the questions asked were weak and Mr. President Bush still didn't answer them. This is wonderful and shows how great Mr. President Bush is because reporters who participated in this charade don't deserve answers and it is just plain stupid and dumb to think a public that tolerates this sort of politics and reporting somehow even might deserve better answers.

On a less satirical note, I would like to say that most hillarious bit about this event has been the controversy about the networks bumping the end of the press conference. They never should have aired it. Given the time constraints, and the way most news organizations cover and behave during these events, it was destined a pep rally for the Bush.

2005-04-28T07:46:00.000-04:00

There are too many jokes about killing Bush in the world

Randi Rhodes, one of the most annoying radio hosts I've ever heard, ran a skit on her program on Monday that depicted a shooting of George W. Bush. This gets brought up on Drudge and Air America and Rhodes apologize.

Bush lying to and manipulating the public in order to enact policies that result in killing people is not that big of a deal but make a joke about killing Bush and you've crossed some sort of line that exists I don't know exactly how. Yep that makes a lot of sense. There are just too many jokes about killing Bush in the world. They pose a real problem and threat to us all. As for the actual killing of people by the United States, there just isn't enough.

What we just don't seem to understand in these liberal times is that that the reason the president can treat us like we are we idiots and we still go along with his plans is because he is better than us. He is our King. He is our God.

2005-04-27T17:10:00.000-04:00

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs wants the media to know that Captain American and Spiderman will be visiting the Pentagon tomorrow "from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EDT, to meet Pentagon personnel and their families as part of the national program, 'Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day.'

The advisory also mentions that Marvel Comics will be distributing a "'America Supports You' special edition 'Salute Our Troops' comic book at the event.

Although not mentioned in the press release, there can be no doubt that this is part of an effort by Steve Rogers to repair his image, which was hit hard, and rightfully so, after he made some anti-American comments in the wake of September 11th reason for war.

It is worth noting that no mention of Frank Castle or his alter ego the Punisher is made, even though he has made similar comments.

2005-04-26T10:40:00.000-04:00

The truth and a lie

Reuters (April 25) writes:

U.S. investigators have found that American troops who shot dead an Italian agent at a Baghdad checkpoint on March 4 committed no wrongdoing and will not be disciplined, an Army official said on Monday.
But Italy disagrees with key findings in the preliminary report by the U.S. military investigators and has balked at endorsing it, added the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Yep, America did nothing wrong but those pasta lovers can't get over the fact that they are inferior to us. For shame.

However, this is no great change in the practices of the enemy estate as The Washington Compost's Dana Priest has a story in today's paper that is full of anti-American lies:

U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday.
Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions by shipping military and other products across its borders, the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."

What this means is that everybody knows Saddam gave his weapons of mass destruction to Syria in order to avoid getting caught, but they just can't come out and say it because everybody -the media, the press, the government- is against America.

2005-04-25T11:19:00.000-04:00

I am so sick of anti-American, pro-terrorist, pro-evil journalists like Nick Meo who writes in today's Independent as if it is a bad thing that some loser anti-American UN fuck is now in the unemployment line because of his anti-American stances:

The UN's top human rights investigator in Afghanistan has been forced out under American pressure just days after he presented a report criticising the US military for detaining suspects without trial and holding them in secret prisons.
Cherif Bassiouni had needled the US military since his appointment a year ago, repeatedly trying, without success, to interview alleged Taliban and al-Qa'ida prisoners at the two biggest US bases in Afghanistan, Kandahar and Bagram.
Mr Bassiouni's report had highlighted America's policy of detaining prisoners without trial and lambasted coalition officials for barring independent human rights monitors from its bases.
Prisoners captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region are held at US bases, often before being shipped to Guantanamo Bay. Human Rights Watch called on Saturday for a US special prosecutor to investigate the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and Charles Tenet, the former-CIA director, for torture and abuse of detainees in jails around the world, including Abu Ghraib in Iraq. They should be held responsible under the doctrine of "command responsibility," it said...
The UN eliminated Mr Bassiouni's job last week after Washington had pressed for his mandate to be changed so that it would no longer cover the US military.
Just days earlier, the Egyptian-born law professor, now based in Chicago, had presented his criticisms in a 24-page report to the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
The report, based on a year spent travelling around Afghanistan interviewing Afghans, international agency staff and the Afghan Human Rights Commission, estimated that around 1,000 Afghans had been detained and accused US troops of breaking into homes, arresting residents and abusing them.

So let me get this straight, this pinko asshole thinks we Americans are wrong for treating non-Americans they way God wants them to be treated as a way of bestowing the gift of freedom.

Where does the UN get these crazy people?

2005-04-24T15:55:00.000-04:00

The Iraqi government is good, but ours is better

The Iraqi government is doing just fine, but the American government could kick its ass, micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links found.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari -he's the Iraqi Prime Minister- is having lots and lots of trouble forming a cabinet, Hala Jaber reports in today's Times. According to the story, if this guy with a name that would never fly in the land of the free doesn't form a government by May 7, one month after he became PM, then he has to resign to be accordance with a rule of that country's current constitution.

What makes this really amusing, however, is that our old buddy Ayad Allawi says in today's Observer that Iraqis elected officials need to get their act together to change this situation or risk going back to the bad things of the past. Iraqis should expect to hear a lot more of this type thing as I predicted a couple of months ago.

But that's nothing compared to the government I am not at all proud to live under. Why aren't I proud? Because when you are born an American you realize from birth that you are better than everyone else and always will be in whatever areas you deem to be important at the time.

Now, where should I start in this list, which will not be anywhere near as long it would be if I were doing America the justice it so rightfully deserves because frankly I have other things to do today...

The greatest black woman ever, although that likely isn't saying much since she is probably the only great one ever, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice removed some numbers from a report so that it would show the truth about declines in the great terrorist evil during 2004 instead of an increase as the liberal facts would mislead one into believing (Julian Borger, The Guardian, April 23).

God should and no doubt will bless Miss Rice for this since numbers and other things only mean what we want them to mean and do not exist unless we want them to.

Justice was recently served when all of the important military leaders were cleared of false accusations that had something wrong in relationship to the wonderful prisonguarding done at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (BBC News, April 23).

Some may want you to believe that this "scandal" has weakened America but don't worry, Patrick Cockburn reports in today's Independent that our fighting men and women are still killing plenty of Iraqis.

On a related topic, Josh White reports in Tuesday's Washington Post that the brave men and women who keep me safe from evil did not get all the presents of torture they wanted. Shame on us. Shame on us. Shame on us... but more than three times because our brave warriors of liberty still did a great job:

Interrogators used the perception of newfound latitude to interview an unidentified detainee on Sept. 23, 2003. According to the detainee's statement, he was made to lie across folding chairs while an interrogator beat the soles of his feet with a police baton. He said he was later hit in the back and the buttocks with the baton while in a painful stress position. A military intelligence staff sergeant who supervised the interrogators said a "fear up" approach had been approved for the interrogation. The unnamed sergeant wrote in a rebuttal to a reprimand that senior leaders were blurring the lines between official enemy prisoners of war and terrorists not afforded international protection.

A few months ago a guy showed me a patch or something that had something or another to do with American POWs, but before doing so he asked me if I was a veteran. I said no, although I have done things in my life. He then showed it to me and said that if I had said yes, he wouldn't have shown it to me because it would have made me cry. Reading White's story has caused me, for the first time in my life, to understand what he meant.

The Iraqi government is good, but we are America and we are better. We always will be. That is just they way it is, world.

2005-04-22T09:17:00.000-04:00

While the historic news involving the Pope has forever changed things to the point that this blog may enjoy and/or experience a change in posting patterns that you might be able to recognize if you really cared enough, the world remains an interesting place.

Yesterday I saw a t-shirt with an image of a pot leaf on top of a Confederate flag. I'm real glad that there are still some people in this crazy world who realize everything would be great if the darkies were enslaved and harvesting our pot.

There's a Cialis ad on a television with the "right time" theme. At one point the gentlemen and his lady are at a bookstore. He points to particular part of a book and they laugh. Then they embrace before walking off, which was nice because fucking right there in the book store wouldn't have been the best, not that I am happy ever having contemplated the phrase "that's funny, let's make up love, make love like we used to before you had to use that shit, by using that shit."

Finally yesterday Bush said:

I welcome to you the nation's capital, where sometimes politics gets in the way of doing the people's business. Take John Bolton -- he's a good man I nominated to represent our country at the United Nations. John's distinguished career and service to our nation demonstrates that he is the right man at the right time for this important assignment. I urge the Senate to put aside politics and confirm John Bolton to the United Nations.

Does the fact that Bush says this automatically mean that Bolton needs to drawn and quartered? No, if it did, Bush and/or Bush's handlers would start to take that into consideration.

I oftentimes tell audiences this -- and it's important for our fellow citizens and people around the world to hear this -- that freedom is not America's gift to the world, freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world.

This is why God makes us all free...

2005-04-18T14:15:00.000-04:00

The cable news networks, and all other media outlets but this on, are covering this up in order to suck up to I don't know who, but there is a major credentials battle going on in the conclave right now. Some misguided souls think each member of The Electric Mayhem should not get their own vote.

2005-04-17T13:37:00.000-04:00

Diane Warth has a very interesting idea with regard to all the talk about "democracy" and Senate practices (April 14):

In times like these, when one party controls the House, Senate, and Executive Suite, and said Congress is good for little more than rubber-stamping whatever dictum the head office passes down no matter how terminal to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, dismiss that useless body of pelicans entirely untill such time the "opposition" controls at least one branch. It might even spur the generation of a real opposition.

I'm too cynical to think it would work, but it could, in a way, be fun...

2005-04-16T10:07:00.000-04:00

My good personal friend RNC chair Ken Mehlman sent me an email on Thursday that, in part, said:

Tomorrow, as Americans pay their taxes, millions are benefiting from the much needed tax relief that was championed by President Bush and Republicans in Congress. Because of the tax relief, Tax Freedom Day, the day when Americans finally have earned enough money to pay off their total tax bill for the year, is today ? 18 days earlier than it was in 2000 when Bill Clinton was President. Thanks to President Bush and Republicans in Congress, while many Americans prepare to file taxes tomorrow, we can celebrate Tax Freedom Day today because we are keeping more of our own money.

That's fine so far as it goes, but if hardworking people, such as myself, work harder over the next eight and half months and make more money to do more to bolster the economy and pay for dominating the world, my overall taxes will increase at a different rate, due to commie progressive tax rates, which means that I will not become free of taxes on April 14.

I am still a slave, just as Iraqis were under Saddam, and I blame one person for this: President George W. Bush!

Mehlman goes on:

But that could change if liberal Democrats regain control of Congress in the 2006 mid-term elections and roll back President Bush's tax relief measures. With some of these tax cuts set to expire in a few years, we cannot allow the Democrats to run out the clock and raise taxes on every taxpayer!

Not really. The current tax structure is in place and, if is considered as a multi-year system, as it should be, it is not a change in the tax rates to not change the tax rates. This stuff isn't difficult to figure out.

2005-04-15T17:08:00.000-04:00

In a world where there are great comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and whoever is on VH1 at the moment, I think it is sad that Larry the Cable Guy's latest cd, The Right to Bare Arms, sold 92,000 copies in its first week.

2005-04-14T11:28:00.000-04:00

Shame on Carl Ford!

John Bolton is the kind of man who made America great.

2005-04-13T12:27:00.000-04:00

I think Mel Gibson will make a great pope.

2005-04-12T10:41:00.000-04:00

"The Secret to the Success of Blogging" is my latest Press Action piece.

2005-04-08T14:32:00.000-04:00

http://www.wallstreetthebook.com/

2005-04-07T08:35:00.000-04:00

In an April 3 Independent story, Andrew Buncombe writes:

America's leading civil liberties group has demanded an investigation into the former US military commander Iraq after a formerly classified memo revealed that he personally sanctioned a series of coercive interrogation techniques outlawed by the Geneva Conventions. The group claims that his directives were directly linked to the sort of abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib.
Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reveal that Lt General Ricardo Sanchez authorised techniques such as the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners, stress positions and disorientation. In the documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Gen Sanchez admits that some of the techniques would not be tolerated by other countries.
When he appeared last year before a Congressional committee, Gen Sanchez denied authorising such techniques. He has now been accused of perjury.
The ACLU says the documents reveal that the abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere was the result of an organised and co-ordinated plan for dealing with prisoners captured during the so-called war on terror that originates at the highest levels of the chain of command. It says that far from being isolated incident, the shocking abuse at Abu Ghraib that was revealed last year was part of a pattern.

I pray to God Himself that these liberals do not cause us to lose the war.

2005-04-06T18:02:00.000-04:00

Hey, we have our dead to bury

"Afghanistan's defence minister on Tuesday gave one of the clearest signs yet that Kabul is open to permanent basing of US forces in the country, saying his government was in discussions with the US that could include air bases in Afghanistan after the current nation-building process ends," Peter Spiegel writes in yesterday's Financial Times.

"General Abdul Rahim Wardak said the details of what would constitute a long-term US presence were still under discussion. But he signalled Kabul was eager for 'enduring arrangements' that could include permanent air bases or 'pre-positioned' military equipment that would be used by rapidly deployed US forces in a crisis."

2005-04-05T21:27:00.000-04:00

It happened yesterday, but I am now 28 years old.

2005-04-04T10:27:00.000-04:00

How come Sinead O'Connor isn't getting more airtime out of the Pope's death?

2005-04-03T11:12:00.000-04:00

While I mourn the fall of my beloved Spartans, I think it is important that we remember the Pope, who died or something. Here are two important questions that get at what it means to be alive in 2005...

-Can the Pope skip Church if he doesn't fell like going?

-How come Sun Ra never got to be the Pope?

Also, as George Carlin once said, "I don't care what country the fucking Pope is in?"

2005-04-02T11:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday on Sean Hannity's radio show, Pat Buchanan said that Reagan and the Pope defeated communism without firing a shot. Now I'll ignore a lot and say, what about Grenada?

If invading Grenada doesn't count, I would like a list of other wars and interventions done in the name of defeating communism that were not actually for that goal.

2005-04-01T09:47:00.000-05:00

Mitch Hedberg has passed away.

2005-03-31T13:06:00.000-05:00

Reportedly some woman named Terri Schiavo died today in Florida.

2005-03-30T18:02:00.000-05:00

riverbend's "Two Years..."

2005-03-29T13:27:00.001-05:00

How we love Iraq

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will soon back a U.S. pullout of Iraq, reports Robert Novak in yesterday's Chicago Sun Times. Novack also says that Paul Wolfowitz is/will be supportive of this plan "to leave even if what is left behind does not constitute perfection."

Why they aren't shooting for a desert utopia is beyond me since the BBC reports today that the Iraqi parliament couldn't get anything done in their second session and banned the media from covering the proceedings, by which I think the BBC report means no direct coverage.

This of course should not be used in any way to say that their is a lack of transparency in that government, just as the details included in Charles Hanley's recent AP report on the dangers of unaccounted for equipment and materials in Iraq should not in any way say anything even the slightest bit remotely bad about our wonderful leaders' wonderful plan to liberate the Iraqi people, protect us good Americans or whatever the goal was:

Dozens of ballistic missiles are missing in Iraq. Vials of dangerous microbes are unaccounted for. Sensitive sites, once under U.N. seal, stand gutted today, their arms-making gear hauled off by looters, or by arms-makers.
…two years after U.S. teams began their futile hunt for weapons of mass destruction, Iraq has… a landscape of ruined military plants and of unanswered questions and loose ends, some potentially lethal, an Associated Press review of official reporting shows.
The chief U.N. arms inspector told AP that outsiders are seeing only a "sliver" of the mess inside Iraq. Demetrius Perricos reports that satellite images indicate at least 90 sites in the old Iraqi military-industrial complex have been pillaged.
The U.S. teams paint a similar picture. "There is nothing but a concrete slab at locations where once stood plants or laboratories," the Iraq Survey Group said in its final report.
But that report from inside Iraq, though 986 pages thick, is at times thin on relevant hard information and silent in critically important areas.
The Iraq Survey Group, which ended its arms hunt in December, says a complete accounting of the Samouds "may not be possible due to various factors."
Besides the Samouds, up to 34 Fatah missiles — a similar but solid-fueled weapon — are also unaccounted for. And more than 600 missile engines may be missing; the U.S. document simply doesn't report their status.
Perricos, in the AP interview at his New York headquarters, expressed concern about the missiles. "If they have been destroyed, somebody should know they've been destroyed or not. Have they gone somewhere?" he asked.
The worry is not that Iraqi insurgents might field the missiles, he said, but that advanced Samoud or Fatah parts might secretly boost missile-building programs elsewhere in the region or beyond. "The engines can easily be sold for a lot of money for the insurgency," he said.

The whole thing is worth reading.

In light of the evidence, there is no reason that Team Bush should be able to get out of Iraq while still claiming that we did our duty as Americans to fix the world of Iraqis and to make the world safe for America.

If a pullout does begin, which I support in case that was not clear, I have little doubt that this is exactly what they will claim and that they will get away with it.

2005-03-28T10:24:00.001-05:00

Hugo has pointed the way to two very different interesting destinations on the web...

The first is David Randall and Andrew Buncombe's story in yesterday's Independent on the revelations of abuse of Iraqis by Uncle Sam at a jail in Mosul:

An investigation by a US officer after a prisoner's jaw was broken found that inmates were hit with water bottles, made to do exhausting physical exercises until they collapsed, deprived of sleep, subjected to deafening heavy metal music and had cigarette smoke blown into sandbags they were forced to wear as hoods. One soldier said troops "always harassed the hell out of detainees"; another said that at times "the detainees would get so scared they would piss themselves".
In December 2003 a prisoner died after four days of continuous punishment. According to the documents, which were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, mistreatmentwas [sic] not confined to Abu Ghraib jail, where abuse and sexual humiliation of inmates caused worldwide outrage last year.
The facility at Mosul was run by the 311th Military Intelligence Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division. In a memo, the investigating officer said: "There is evidence that suggests the 311th MI personnel ... engaged in physical torture." His report in January 2004 said prisoners' rights under the Geneva Conventions had been violated.

Hey losers, this is just part of the job of getting the best possible information so we can rid the world of terror and evil.

The other place of interest is zeynep's post entitled "Due to Today's Developments, Tens of Millions of People Not-Named Terri Schiavo May Die," which is primarily based on a March 23 AP article by Rajesh Mahaptra on criticism of India's new legislation that will curtail the ability of the Indian manufacturers to make low cost generic version of medications:

Some 50 percent of 700,000 HIV patients taking antiretroviral medicines in Africa, Asia and Latin America rely on low-cost drugs from India. A month's dose of a generic AIDS drug cocktail costs US$30 (euro22), or 5 percent of similar drugs sold by Western producers.
"Because India is one of the world's biggest producers of generic drugs, this law will have a severe knock-on effect on many developing countries which depend on imported generic drugs from India," said Samar Verma, regional policy adviser at Oxfam International...
Officials also allayed fears that the new law will push up prices of essential medicines. Jairam Ramesh, the governing Congress party's economic adviser, said more than 90 percent of essential medicines currently sold in the country are generic products with expired patents. Also, nothing in the new law prevents the government from setting caps on prices of new essential drugs in the future, Ramesh said.
Ellen 't Hoen of Doctors Without Borders, who led representatives from more than two dozen aid groups, said the bill was still vague in many respects and allowed for abuses by multinational companies...
A key concern relates to the government's ability to override patents on medicines that a large number of people need, but can't afford to buy. The bill says the government must wait at least three years before this is allowed, except in a national emergency.
Even though India has some 5.1 million HIV-infected people -- the second largest number after South Africa -- the disease is not seen as a national emergency, and Indian companies will therefore no longer be allowed to copy new inventions in AIDS treatment, Hoen said.

I will be convinced that Hardt and Negri's "multitude" could become a reality when those with the technical know how necessary to produce these potentially life saving medications seize control of their production and find a means to then distribute them in a more just manner.

2005-03-27T20:31:00.000-05:00

MSU 94
Kentucky 88

I have never seen a greater game. Better played games? Yes. Better outcomes (sports fandom is subjective to me)? Yes, but not by much. A game more symbolic? I doubt it and there is beauty in that.

My beloved Spartans had gone since 2001 without a championship. This was the last shot at it for seniors Alan Anderson, Tim Bograkos, Chris Hill and Kelvin Torbert, and they did it.

Michigan State had a 23-16 lead with 8:14 left in the first half. Kentucky went on an 11 point run. The first half end at 37-33. The Spartans had it tied up less than two minutes into the next period.

MSU dominated much of the second half with quick play from Maurice Ager and Shannon Brown, stifling defense and Paul Davis' solid play. They had an 8 point lead with 5:20 left and things looked good.

Kentucky, as you might have guessed if you didn't already know, came back and tied it up with last second three to secure an extra five minutes. Patrick Sparks may have had his foot on the line when he took the shot. He probably didn't, and Kentucky had the energy.

The Wildcats scored the first four of overtime and went up 79-75. MSU looked lost and I think it appeared to just about everybody that they were going to lose, but they kept it tight by finally getting three point shot after four offensive rebounds.

The first overtime ended at 81-81 after MSU prevented Kentucky from scoring on another shot with less than a second. The second overtime was better and through great free throw shooting, Michigan State won 94-88.

The game featured MSU playing well, screwing it up and falling behind, making a sold comeback that they couldn't quite finish and then looking hopeless. In short, it was MSU basketball for the last four seasons. But redemption came and somehow that makes everything ok. They are champions.

Some things are sublime because they are not what came before.

2005-03-26T12:33:00.000-05:00

The Culture of Death rolls on...

Terri Schiavo's parents have given up on federal appeals, but in more important Culture of Death news...

Army commanders do not agree with the recommendations of investigators and will not prosecute 17 soldiers for the deaths of Iraqis...

"The United States has committed 'grave violations of human rights' against prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq, the Foreign Affairs Committee of Britain's parliament said in a report on Friday," Reuters says in a story from Thursday...

"Newly released government documents say the abuse of prisoners in Iraq by U.S. forces was more widespread than previously reported," Matt Kelley writes in an AP story published today. "The documents released Friday were the first to reveal abuses at the jail in Mosul and are among the few to allege torture directly."

Yep, Terri Schiavo's case is the most important event going on in the world today that involves the United States and state sanctioned life and death.

2005-03-25T15:53:00.000-05:00

Rush responds to Micah

Rush Limbaugh responded to me today on his radio program. No my name wasn't mentioned and the doctor of democracy didn't respond to yesterday's entry on this here collection of stuff but in saying that the coverage of Terri Schiavo's case over the last week has lead some to believe that "mercy killing" is justified, Limbaugh must have been commenting on what I wrote yesterday in a comment on Hugo's blog:

The more I think about this, the more I believe that people should have an option in living wills to state that they do not want a feeding tube to be removed, or life support removed, and then to die naturally but that, under certain situations, they want to be killed. I know that sounds harsh but for all the talk of "dignity" in death, I just can't see how death from dehydration, even if it does not involve pain, is dignified.

My words were inexact because I am not clear on what I want my formulation to be, but I do agree with what I wrote, so I guess, according to Limbaugh, I am taking joy in the eventual death of Schiavo.

Of course, I have heard Limbaugh more than once this week say that some people are happy that Schiavo is dying and will be really happy when she is dead. According to Limbaugh's own If It Were True They Wouldn't Need To Say It So Much logic of yesterday I have to conclude that Limbaugh is wrong about this. May God damn him to hell.

2005-03-24T15:06:00.000-05:00

Rush Limbaugh said on his radio program today that lots of news outlets have been reporting that many medical experts say death from dehydration is not painful for someone in the state that Terri Schiavo is in. Limbaugh then proceeded to refute this claim by saying that if it were true, “they” wouldn’t need to keep saying it.

I plan to use this logic in the future.

2005-03-22T10:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I heard what could have beent he greatest moment in the history of talk radio. Michael Reagan said it was illegal to starve a dog to death and thus argued that in light of Terri Schiavo, that we treat dogs better than humans.

I guess the phrase "put to sleep" means nothing to this son of a dead prez, or maybe he was saying that he would favor just killing Schiavo and those in her situation over the removal of feeding tubes.

***

Leonid Ragozin of BBCRussian has an interesting look at the instability in Kyrgyzstan (March 21).

***

"The budget deficit has overtaken terrorism as the greatest short-term risk to the U.S. economy, and concern about the current account gap is rising, a survey of American businesses released Monday showed," Reuters says in a March 21 story. "In the survey of 172 members of the National Association For Business Economics, 27 percent said the deficit or government spending was the largest short-term threat to the economy, up from 23 percent who thought so in August."

2005-03-21T11:38:00.000-05:00

"VIDEO footage of the treatment of prisoners by the US military at Guantanamo Bay would reveal many cases of substantial abuse as 'explosive as anything from Abu Ghraib', a lawyer said today," John Sheed writes in today's The Australian. "Adelaide lawyer Stephen Kenny, who represented Australian David Hicks during the early part of his detention at the military prison in Cuba, told a law conference today 500 hours of videotape of prisoners at the US base existed."

2005-03-20T09:43:00.000-05:00

Afghanistan is now a wonderful place with law and order and no brutality, certainly none from The Great Liberators, the brave men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who keep us safe each night from the terrorists who just that close to breaking into our houses and taking our freedom without payment, Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark do not report in yesterday's Guardian.

2005-03-19T09:53:00.000-05:00

Via a comment from Hugo, here's Lindsay Beyerstein's "Lies Terri Schiavo's parents told me."

One things I should have said yesterday, but didn't, is that it is amazing how many of the "supporters" of Schiavo aren't interested in the specifics of this case so much as the role judges in policy decisions and abortion.

Also, yesterday G. Gordon Liddy said on his radio show that the treatment of Schiavo is something like would happen in Nazi Germany. He did not disclose when he will be having lunch with Ward Churchill.

2005-03-18T18:02:00.000-05:00

I don't know what exactly to think of the situation involving Terri Schiavo because of the disputes over what is in fact the case.

For instance, Manuel Roig-Franzia and William Branigin of The Washington Post write today, "[c]ourt-appointed doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state," but Schiavo's parents appear to have a much different view. Abby Goodnough and Maria Newman of The New York Times write today, "her parents... believe she responds to them and want her to be kept alive by providing her with nutrition through a tube."

Chris Johnston of Times Online writes (March 18), "[d]octors say she has no hope of recovery, and Michael Schiavo says that his wife told him years ago that if anything ever happened to her she would not want to be kept alive artificially," but you can hear a lot of very different things on right wing talk radio.

If somebody tried to clarify what was true according to the rules of science and did so in a manner that attempted to explain what the basis for other view points was, would they be believed or trusted?

I doubt it.

One thing that can be heard on right wing talk radio is that this is about society being increasingly willing to kill. What a joke. Today's the second anniversary of the beginning of the invasion stage of the U.S. war in Iraq. 100,000 or so Iraqis have been killed in the process, or maybe it was roughly 20,000, and virtually nobody wants to talk about them. The Sean Hannitys certainly don't. And what about all the millions who die from starvation each year? We could just feed a lot of them if we really wanted to, just as we could continue to feed to Schiavo… if we really wanted to.

2005-03-17T10:48:00.000-05:00

From the department of what ever is on the other side of projection, yesterday Bush said:

I like the idea of people running for office. There's a positive effect when you run for office. Maybe some will run for office and say, vote for me, I look forward to blowing up America. I don't know, I don't know if that will be their platform or not. But it's -- I don't think so. I think people who generally run for office say, vote for me, I'm looking forward to fixing your potholes, or making sure you got bread on the table.

***

Conal Urquhart reports in Monday's Guardian that the Druze are kicking ass again:

Dozens of Christian families have fled their homes in northern Israel, accusing the Israeli police of failing to protect them from attacks by their Druze neighbours.
The quiet town of Mughar was paralysed for three days last month when thousands of Druze youth roamed the streets, attacking properties and cars belonging to Christians. Twelve people were injured - two of whom were shot.
The violence began when a rumour spread among the Druze that Christian schoolboys had created photomontages of Druze schoolgirls with naked bodies and posted them on the internet. The police found no evidence and arrested a 16-year-old boy for starting the hoax.

God Bless Each and Every One of Them!

***

"At least 108 people have died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of them violently, according to government data provided to The Associated Press. Roughly a quarter of those deaths have been investigated as possible abuse by U.S. personnel," writes the AP in a story published yesterday.

***

"America's top general [Richard Myers] said Wednesday that Afghanistan is secure and the United States is considering keeping long-term bases here as it repositions its military forces around the world," Stephen Graham writes in a March 16 AP story.

And I thought we only wanted a place to bury our dead.