Attack reindeer loses antlers. A male reindeer which gored two hillwalkers is taken off a mountain after having its antlers removed by a vet. [BBC News | UK]
heh. Attack reindeer. heh.
Gun battle outside British embassy. British embassy staff in Yemen escape unhurt after a gun fight near the building in the capital Sanaa. [BBC News | UK]
Remind me never to go to Yemen - it's hot, it's dry, it's full of al Qaeda supporters, and gun fights break out near Western embassies. Oh yeah, and things seem to blow up in their harbor. Whoops.
A great line in a recent Law and Order. Lenny Briscoe, played by Jerry Orbach, is interrogating a suspect. The suspect tells a story and reaches a point where no one believes him, not even the suspect himself. Lenny says: "Now there's five minutes of my life that's lost forever."
I've heard variations on this line for a long time - actually, a wrestling reviewer was the first place I saw it, referring to bad matches as "five minutes of my life I'll never get back". heh.
Give 'em hell, Al. With a series of fiery speeches, the former vice president recovers his voice, his backbone and his place as the 2004 Democratic front-runner. [Salon.com]
I'm trying to figure out how it happened, but Gore grew himself some balls. In one speech, referring to Ashcroft's spending $8000 on drapes to hide the "Spirit Of Justice" statue's exposed breasts, Gore said "He put Lady Justice in a burqa." Right on, Al. Let Lieberman, the Republican-in-Democrat-clothes, bend over for Bush. Let Gephardt close his eyes and hope that the war issue goes away when he opens them. Fight the good fight - someone's got to.
War Talk Shapes Fall Elections [Washington Post: Front Page]
This is the PROBLEM! This is WHY we're going to war! Below the main headline is the following: "Democrats' Ability to Use the Economy Against GOP Wanes" and that is EXACTLY what the Bush Junta wants. If it weren't for this crap clogging up the media for the last two months and the rest of the time leading up to the election, the Dems would be walking away with the House and Senate...now it's a lot more unsure. Worse, there's nothing that can be done to stop them from succeeding in their vile plans. Damn them.
You Gotta Have Friends [New York Times: Opinion]
A very good read by Thomas L. Friedman. He points out that the American people care more about other things (the economy, terrorism) than Iraq, and they're not all that keen on going it alone. He then busts out a simply great line:
"Mind you, I think some of Mr. Bush's wild and crazy unilateralist rhetoric — STOP ME BEFORE I INVADE AGAIN! — can be useful now."
And then, miracle of miracles, he spends the rest of the editorial making that great line make sense! Seriously! While Friedman has more confidence in our ability to run roughshod over the Iraqis and win really, really quickly and really, really easily than I do, we can both agree that eventually the US will take over. What matters to Friedman (and is actually more important to me than the initial conflict as well, though that's worth resisting in and of itself) is what happens afterwards. We need to build a nation in Iraq that currently doesn't even vaguelly exist. We've done well on this in the past (Germany, Japan, and Friedman's more recent example, Bosnia), and we've done poorly (Somalia sticks in my mind, as does Friedman's example, maybe our greatest failure in this respect: Lebanon). We need allies to pull this off.
Why, you say? If we're talking solely in terms of economic and military capability, yes, the US could, on its own, rebuild Iraq, no problem at all. True, we have some cultural deficiencies if we're trying to work with Muslim peoples, like the various peoples of Iraq, but hey, we can always drag Turkey and Kuwait in and make them help us, right? But here's why that's not enough: the US gets bored. Quite frankly, when it comes to international affairs, we're quitters. Once the whiz-bang stuff stops, the American people have a tendency to go pretty isolationist. We'll eventually start to bring troops home, cut back on aid, etc...and odds are we'll do so before that's safe. We need the other big democratic (or mostly democratic) governments to help out, too - to keep us committed to the process, and to help fill the hole left when we start to pull out. If we want to build Iraq, here's who we absolutely need to have involved: the UK and Turkey (both of whom are almost certainly already on the bus, as it were), France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany (the obvious major NATO powers), Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic (those three'd be mainly a symbolic move, including the most important former Soviet bloc states now in NATO), and most importantly of all - Russia. Russia's got the deep economic connections with Iraq, and while Muslims don't exactly like them either, having the US and Russia working together carries an immense legitmacy in the non-Muslim world.
Why? Because We Can [New York Times: Opinion]
"Why are we attacking Iraq, which may someday team up with terrorists, instead of Iran, which has already teamed up with terrorists?"
"Midterms."
"Multiple choice, right? I hate those essay tests."
That's taken from the above, a dialogue by Maureen Dowd between Bush, Rumsfeld, and Rice. Funny, funny stuff.
Giganotosauruses on the Field [New York Times: Opinion]
Ok - this is an editorial on the size of defensive and offensive linemen in the NFL. Seriously. The Cowboys just cut a 410 lb. lineman, and still average 335 lb. per offensive lineman. Wow. Those are some big guys. No wonder football doesn't seem real to me...
posted by Orange Goblin at September 28 9:39 AM. Anyone go to the anti war protest in London today? The number of the people has been estimated from between 3000 (by the police) to 350,000 (by the organisers). I reckon 200,000. Either way, its the largest peace protest ever in the country. Me and my friends sign was a great success, with many people commenting on it/photographing it. It was the only black one we saw, so easily stood out. It said 'Its all about the oil' on one side, and on the other there was a picture of Bush looking stupid, and 'No to War'. The protest was peaceful (or was when I left) and on the whole, a success. The only question is, will Bush and Blair take any notice? [MetaFilter]
Alright, I'm a total peacenik - I'm a fervent pacifist and support of diplomatic means. But the only reason I'd show up at a big peace rally (like the one in London today) would be to be able to say I was there. My mom was in college at the same school I went to (Oberlin College) when Kent State happened - Oberlin shut down immediately afterward, and damn near the entire student body went to protest in DC. Part of me has always been jealous of my parents' generation, who actually had things to protest against that could rally hundreds of thousands of people to get to the streets. We've yet to be stuck with anything like that in my time - and when you get down to it, I hope we never do. I'm afraid we're going to, though, and soon - the war is about to start.
posted by 86 to Baseball September 28 10:16 AM. Rey calls me stupidThe always-disappointing Rey Ordonez thinks Met fans are stupid. Apparently, we boo too much. As far as I can tell that start and ends his list of reasons why we're dumb, but its gotten him fired up. Rey wants to be more relaxed, wants to play somewhere where they don't hate errors and 0-4 games and where they don't expect you to be a machine. For the record, Rey's machine is firing at .254 avg, 1 HR, 2 SB, and 19 errors on the season. Rey makes $6 million. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! [SportsFilter]
Well, Mets fans ARE stupid - but not for booing Rey Ordonez. I'll take Rey Sanchez, who has far superior defense while hitting a bit better, whining less, oh, and making $750k. Ha! Stupid Mets...
UN draft sets Iraq tough demands. Baghdad rejects a US-drafted resolution which says Iraq must give details of its arms programmes within days or face possible military attack. [BBC News | WORLD]
...as if Iraq's even relevant in this matter any more. If the Bush Junta can persuade France and Russia to vote for their resolution, and China to abstain, they'll get what they want. I don't know if they'll succeed in that - Russia, especially, looks like a tough sell. Which is bizarre - I'm actually counting on Vladimir freakin' Putin, the Butcher of Chechnya, to prevent slaughter in Iraq. Oy.
More Than One Option on Iraq [New York Times: Opinion]
As the Times' editors realize here, Ted Kennedy's speech yesterday against pre-emptive war against Iraq was very, very important. For one thing, he didn't dick around on wording - he called a spade a spade, and Bush's war a war. Every other prominent public figure has pussyfooted around using "war" to describe the Iraq plans, but it sure as hell would be war. Kennedy also eloquently put forward the case for war as only a last resort. He brought up a good point - we didn't invade Cuba during the Cuban Missle Crisis, and we sure as hell were under much greater direct threat then than we are now.
U.S. Agribusiness Peddles to the Proletariat in Cuba
By Lizette Alvarez
September 27, 2002
Fidel Castro and nearly 300 American companies set aside four decades of estrangement to kick off the largest American trade show ever in Cuba.
... [AB: snipping a bit - they're trying to sell food to Cuba, mentions Jesse Ventura's there]...
However, as if having the man the CIA couldn't shave and "the Body" under the same roof were not enough, the event was spiced with some surreal happenings.
Otto J. Reich, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, recently expressed his disappointment with the event, and cautioned Mr. Ventura and others traveling to Cuba to steer clear of the island's "sexual tourism."
[Driver 8]
Me, I'm shocked that Reich wasn't there trying to blow it up. This is a man with ties to anti-Castro terrorists, after all. I'm still baffled as to how this man ever got confirmed...
Windows 2000 Runs On Xbox Under Linux [Slashdot]
This is Big. Yes, it's too complicated for your average Joe off the street to get going, but it's a giant step towards the eventual fate of the Xbox - a cheap computer you can buy used that hooks up to the TV and runs everything you could really want. I need to get around to picking up an Xbox soon, before the new hardware (they're changing configuration to prevent mod chipping) rolls out. I might not play many games on it, but the play potential is huge.
The Gloves Are Off: Bush Links Iraq, Al Qaeda. Plastic::Politics::War: Information "gleaned from senior al Qaeda detainees captured", according to Condoleezza Rice. [Plastic: Most Recent]
Yeah, well the info either came from those "senior al-Qaeda detainees", who, this article points out, are being held without any rights and may just be saying anything they can to get some food, or the info came from..um...Bush's imagination? I mean, I'm a skeptic, true, but this pushes way past anything I can accept without evidence. And if you actually expect the Bush Junta to give us any evidence, you're a sucker.
A spam I received yesterday:
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I'm really frightened now.
Larry Bird is inducting Magic Johnson into the Basketball Hall of Fame right now - and he got a bigger round of applause than anyone else has come CLOSE to getting. 'course, the ceremony's in Massachusetts - we love our Larry. And Larry just showed us why:
"I practiced every day for hours, for just one reason...to beat those damned Lakers."
Love ya, Larry - you will always be the greatest player ever. Magic's great, but not as good as you. =)
Mass arrests at anti-IMF demo [BBC World]
A Democrat pollster friend of mine lives a couple blocks from the World Bank/IMF buildings...I bet he's getting a kick out of all this. Me, I'm sorry I keep missing the show - these guys are jokers, but a big protest is really just street theater, no matter the cause it's nominally supporting or opposing.
posted by Argyle at September 27 3:56 PM. Making the case for United Nations intervention against the United States - Ted Rall takes a look at the world situation from a slightly different perspective. The scary thing is that this could run unedited in the newspapers of many countries around the world and their readers would agree with it. Is America out of touch with the rest of the world? [MetaFilter]
*whistles innocently*
Boost for life on Jupiter moon [BBC Science & Nature]
Woohoo! Aliens, BABY! From what this says, it seems to me that if Europa's been exposed to the needed organic compounds, there's actually quite a good chance there's life in its oceans...yay!
What's in the great British banger?. Changes in meat labelling have been proposed by the Food Standards Agency. BBC News Online asks what is in the great British banger? [BBC News | UK]
Well, I'm wanting sausages now. Ok, I'm not. Things like this make me almost want to go vegan. While I've always assumed truly disgusting stuff goes into hot dogs and sausages, it takes an article like this to make me actually realize it. There goes breakfast...
Blondes 'to die out in 200 years' [BBC Science & Nature]
Yes! Blondes are going extinct! I'm fine with that - I prefer brunettes. =)
Archer 'had lunch with policewoman'. Lincolnshire police investigate an off-duty police officer who allegedly met Lord Archer while he was on day release from prison. [BBC News | UK]
Ok - let me try to get this straight. Lord Jefferey Archer, who has been a member of Parliament and the House of Lords and who has written a whole lot of trashy Clancy-esque novels, was sentenced to prison last year for lying during a libel trial in 1987. Since then:
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Inside story |
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July 2001 - Sent to high security Belmarsh prison
August - Moved to Wayland prison in Norfolk
October - Moved to North Sea Camp open prison
July 2002 - Appeal refused
August - Signs new book deal and starts work at Lincoln theatre on day release
September - Moved to Lincoln jail |
That's taken from the BBC story I'm linking to here. The "open prison" let him, well, wander off, I guess. He got busted for going to a friend's party while he should have been...somewhere else? This story is just plain bizarre. What's more, it's obviously huge in the UK - every day or two has another article about this weirdness at the Beeb. THIS is why America needs nobility. I'm tired of celebrity scandal - I want nobility scandal!
Aborigines recover vast territory. Australia returns a piece of land four times the size of Belgium to an Aboriginal tribe - the largest piece of land to be given back so far. [BBC News | WORLD]
Four times the size of Belgium? No offense to any Belgians who read this, but wouldn't that be about the size of Los Angeles? =)
Congress Nearing Draft Resolution on Force in Iraq [New York Times: International News]
OK, Al Gore might be just playing to the liberal base in the Democratic party, positioning himself for the 2004 primaries, but I don't care - he's saying all the right things. Yesterday, he said:
"What's going on nationally, with the attack on civil liberties, with American citizens in some cases just disappearing without right to counsel, without access to a lawyer, I think that is disgraceful,"
which is something I haven't heard said enough. Padilla and Hamdi are American-born American citizens and their Constitutional rights to counsel, a speedy trial, etc... are being straight up ignored. The Bush Junta must be called on this repeatedly, by anyone who can speak.
Also, Ted Kennedy will be giving a speech today on the Iraq situation, which will mean that both of my senators will have spoken out. This *might* start to get them my support again, after both of them voted for the abominable USA-Patriot act last fall.
Oh yeah, and Bush said "There's no doubt he can't stand us. After all, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time." about Hussein. Hello? Does anybody else realize that he just explained exactly why we can't trust him to be rational and even-handed when it comes to Iraq? Sure, Hussein's attempt to kill Bush The Elder was horrible, another crime on his ridiculously long list. But if some guy had put out a hit on my dad, I sure as hell wouldn't be able to be unbiased about him. How come no one's brought this up?
Ours Not To Reason Why by Michael Kinsley [Washington Post: Editorial]
Gore's Glass House by Charles Krauthammer [Washington Post: Editorial]
The first editorial is worth reading for the good points it makes - its tagline reads "Shouldn't Americans have some kind of role in deciding whether we go to war against Iraq?" which seems pretty obvious to me. Kinsley doesn't really raise any topics that I haven't already heard, but he's saying them in the Washington Post, which means something.
Krauthammer, on the other hand, is spewing shit. At the time of Clinton's missile attacks following the embassy explosions, the right screamed "wag the dog!" and bashed Clinton...now Krauthammer is bashing Clinton (and Gore through Clinton) for not overthrowing the Taliban then. Oh, and he brings up the late '98 bombing of Iraq, which came, he says,
"[R]ight in the midst of the House debate on impeachment. The timing was so wag-the-dog precise that it actually caused a postponement of the vote, with some Democrats suggesting that with the country now in crisis the impeachment proceedings should be canceled altogether and the whole mess left to the next Congress."
Did any Dems actually say that? I know I just wanted it to end - Clinton wasn't getting thrown out of office, and everyone knew that. And if Krauthammer can still claim that Clinton was wagging the dog back then, why can't we point out that Bush's team has all but admitted they're wagging the friggin' dog with Iraq this time? Karl Rove's disk, anyone?
Krauthammer ends his column after mentioning that the Times reports that Gore, while writing the speech, consulted "a fairly far-flung group of advisers that included Rob Reiner," which Krauthammer jumped on. After making a wise-ass comment on Bush's foreign policy team having all these big names while Gore is talking with Meathead, he closes with the following:
"Had it not been for a few little old ladies baffled by the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach, Fla., American foreign policy today would be made by Gore-Reiner instead of the Bush brain trust. Who says God doesn't smile upon the United States of America?"
No, no, Chuck. It wasn't a "few little old ladies" that threw the election to the Bush Junta. It was depriving innocents of their votes because a report from Texas said they were felons. It was depriving innocents of their votes because their name was similar to that of a felon. It was having much more lenient ballot guidelines for Republican-leaning overseas absentee ballots than for Democrat-leaning urban ballots. It was Bush's cousin in the Fox News control room declaring Bush the winner of Florida extremely early on, while Gore was actually still in the lead. It was the Bush Junta getting vote-counting stopped in the courts whenever momentum seemed about to send the Gore total over Bush's. It was the Supreme Court appointing Bush in the end. And you know what? Even disregarding the probablity that Gore consulted Reiner on writing the speech, what with Reiner's writing and acting experience, I'd rather have Reiner advising my president on foreign policy than Rumsfeld, Cheney, or Wolfowitz.
I can't tell you how much I missed the Daypop Top-40. Smooch! [Scripting News]
Hmm...Daypop's been down since I started blogging, so this is a new discovery for me. Seems pretty cool - links to the most popular topics in the blogosphere. If nothing else, this should supply Charly Z, the Raven, and myself with more Googlebait. =)
Which reminds me - an update on the Googlebaiting, aided by using Extreme Tracking's free referrer/IP/hit tracker, which makes it a lot easier to see queries from over night, and see long-term query totals.
How do you dislocate a rib? I'm watching SportsCenter, as I do most mornings, and they start talking about the QB for Washington State, Jason Gesser...who's recovering from dislocating his rib. How the hell do you do that? I always thought that you dislocated a bone by popping it out of its joint...Ribs don't HAVE joints. The article I linked to doesn't go into detail on how the injury happened, so I guess I'll never know...
Baghdad Is Planning For Urban Warfare [Washington Post: Front Page]
According to the Bush Junta, this won't be a problem - the Iraqi civilians will tell us where the Iraqi soldiers are, 'cos they hate Saddam so much. Yeah, right. This is going to be ugly.
In pictures: Escape from Bouake [BBC World]
Those are some of the 160 schoolkids the French have managed to evacuate out of chaos-ridden Bouake. Of course, now that the white people are safe, we'll be leaving and letting the natives rot - that's just how things go, right?
Alan Greenspan Gets a Royal Honor. WBZ Sep 26 2002 2:22PM ET [Moreover - Boston news]
Eek! An Ayn Randista has been knighted! I know, I know - Greenspan has gotten where he is now DESPITE being a Randista, but still, it's spooky. Kind of like if Scientologists ever got control of a couple Cabinet seats...now THAT would be freaky.
Back-Seat Lovin' Takes A Back Seat, As Teens Stay Home For Sex. Plastic::Etcetera::Sex: A recent study shows that 56% of teens surveyed in 2000 had sex for the first time at their own homes, or the homes of their partners. So, no need to valet that car seat. [Plastic: Most Recent]
Ohboy - I'm so not going there.
Congress 'close to agreement on Iraq'. President Bush says the US Congress is close to passing a resolution on military action against Iraq¸ despite a major political row. [BBC News | WORLD]
...not that he has any actual evidence to suggest that Congress actually IS close to passing his resolution. All he says is that the White House and Congress will "speak with one voice". This is just as empty and bullshit as when his handlers attack Democrats for disagreeing in public - he's trying to make things the way he wants by just saying that's how they are, like a 4 year old would.
Russians 'beat off Chechen rebels'. Russian forces lose a helicopter and at least 17 die as heavy fighting erupts with Chechen rebels in the republic of Ingushetia. [BBC News | WORLD]
While I know it's actually an autonomous republic inside Russia, hearing about things like "the republic of Ingushetia" makes me think of The Mouse That Roared - there are so many small "republics" and "autonomous regions", etc in Russia with names that sound made up - Tanu Tuuva being the most famous, thanks to Richard Feynman...
Looks like I'm trickling memes down and not up today. At some point I need to think and write about linking to higher-profile sites. On the one hand, what's the point? Does anyone ever need to point to Mefi, Dave Mark, RCB, etc.? On the other hand, it seems weird to avoid linking to popular sites and you can still assume that you may have readers who don't read all the most popular blogs and news sites, or you can take a completist attitude toward the material, trying to make your own archive as useful as possible. As with most such things, I probably wiggle through the middle between extremes. I feel less compelled to link to a popular site unless the source material is a strong fit for the purpose of this blog. Then when I do I want to give via credit. Lastly, it's a two-way web and there's something to be said to sending traffic to anyone (and showing up in their referrer logs), regardless of whether it's just more "rain on the ocean" (quotation courtesy of new father Scot Hacker—congratulations, Scot!—from a slightly different context). These same issues apply to blogrolling, only moreso. [Radio Free Blogistan]
I know that I have at least a couple readers who don't read the Big Boy Blogs (hi Rachel!), but even if everyone who read my blog DID read them, they might have missed the story - I know that I miss a lot of things that later get picked up by other blogs. Additionally, I'm also viewing this blog as partially a k-log - if I'm attempting to gather information and links that interest me, I should put everything that interests me, not just the obscure stuff. I'm not claiming to be some kind of genius who'll provide new and amazing material every day...I'm just a guy, writing and reading. My primary audience is myself, so anything that I want to see, I put here.
I'm babbling again - lousy day at work and my buying addiction is bugging me again. Argh - this is almost as bad as smoking. Ok, it's not nearly as bad, but it's still annoying.
I'm out the door to work, but I just checked my referral logs and found a truly bizarre google query:
"naked pictures of Madelyne gorman toogood"
No, seriously.
Kennedy sounds election battle cry. Charles Kennedy uses his party conference speech to claim the next general election will be fought between Labour and his Liberal Democrats. [BBC News | Front Page]
I'm so jealous of the British sometimes - not only do you all have a third major, nationwide party, but they're growing. What's more, they're supporters of porportional voting - which America desperately needs.
posted by FilmMaker at September 26 12:37 AM. Iraq trains terrorists? Conclusive evidence from our leaders? Why do I suddenly feel like I am living in Oceania? [MetaFilter]
I don't know about 1984, but I hear that an Iraqi burned down the Reichstag! Another one blew up the Maine! Let's get 'em!
...and before someone gets on me for making a Nazi reference, all I'm saying is that the Bush Junta has no credibility on Iraq, either with me or the global community. They're going to keep coming up with this convenient information that supports their goal of going to war with Iraq, without ever providing hard evidence for their accusations. The Bush Junta does not have a history of telling the truth to the American people or the world - why would they start now?
Could U.S. Aggression Toward Iraq Mean Regime Change - In Britain?. Plastic::Politics::International: Saddam's survived Bush I; could he outlast Tony Blair? [Plastic: Most Recent]
There'd be a certain irony to a Labour PM's support for a Republican US President possibly leading to his ouster...if this would lead to a Conservative government coming to power in the UK, I'd almost think Bush's handlers had that as a deliberate aim. But no, if Blair gets the boot, it'll be a party thing - he'd get replaced by another Labour MP...
New Scientist: Venus' Atmosphere Implies Life [Slashdot]
Is it really right to say that "Venus' Atmosphre Implies Life"? Having read earlier coverage of this, I got the feeling that what we now know implies the POSSIBLITY of life, akin to Europa, the moon of Jupiter with a frozen shell covering what's believed to possibily be an ocean of water underneath. I know that even Slashdot needs to keep their headlines short and catchy, but this is questionable.
Intel Demos 4.7-GHz Pentium [Slashdot]
Now, I'm not that old, but I have been using computers for 20 years or so now. The first non-terminal we had in our house (Dad had a dumb-terminal and a printer-terminal for work before this) was a 10MHz 286 with 640k RAM and a 40Mb hard drive...now Intel's got a 4.7 GHz Pentium. Wow.
Spinning on Iraq [Washington Post: Editorial]
Now *THIS* is an editorial worth reading. Bravo, editors of the Washington Post - you nailed the issues on the head.
Prince defends right to speak out. UK latest: Prince Charles's office yesterday defended his right to express his views to ministers in the wake of mounting Labour criticism of his private letters to the government. [Guardian Unlimited]
I gotta say - the only reason Labour's throwing a fit over this? 'cos the Prince is more conservative than they are. If he were advocating a socialist policy, do you really think they'd be complaining?
Joe Conason's Journal. Democrats finally wake up. Plus: Who does the better Chomsky imitation, Gore -- or Sullivan! You decide. [Salon Headlines]
Sullivan's attacks on Gore for opposing Bush's adventurism look not just vicious and deceitful, but full on hypocritical in light of a quote Conason finds, delivered by Sullivan in the wake of Clinton-ordered bombing of Iraq in 1998, after the end of the previous inspection efforts. At the time, it was attacked by the right as wagging the dog - Monica who? - I never thought so, though I did disagree with it at the time for different reasons. Here's Conason quoting Sullivan:
"Back then, Sullivan wrote the following Chomsky-like sentence in a column for a London newspaper: "The many Iraqi civilians being wounded or killed in Operation Desert Fox surely deserve some assurance that they are regrettable victims of a just war, not missile fodder for a narcissist's final gamble.""
Military role for Iraq opposition planned. Washington appears to be preparing to train Iraqi opposition groups to act in support roles in the event of an invasion of Iraq. [BBC News | Front Page]
Except for the Kurds (whom the Turks won't let us arm or train for fear they might decide to cause trouble on the Turkish side of the border), there's no significant Iraqi opposition group on the ground in Iraq. This isn't like Afghanistan - there's no Northern Alliance sitting there, occupying a decent portion of the territory and able to go on the offensive quickly. No American attempts will create such a group either.
Clinton pleads for Nigerian woman who had sex outside marraige. In other news, Clinton looking for international interns. [FARK]
Ha. Ha. Yup, the death sentence (by stoning) handed out to a woman who had a child more than 9 months after being divorced (that's all the evidence against her) is definitely a good reason for another lame Clinton sex joke. Fark goes off my subscription list now.
posted by homunculus at September 25 11:34 AM. Similarities between the United States and the Roman Empire. With the comparrison having become common, it is interesting to consider just how much the two really have in common. What would Cicero think? [MetaFilter]
I've been feeling this more and more lately - we're in the latter days, of course. And when the Vandals start closing in, I'm buggering right off to Ireland, thanks.
posted by owillis at September 25 11:04 AM. Daschle Accuses Bush of Politicizing Iraq Debate "You tell those who fought in Vietnam and World War II they are not interested in the security of the American people" because they are Democrats, Daschle said. "That is outrageous. Outrageous." The full text of Daschle's comments. Do we finally have an opposition party? [MetaFilter]
Thank you! It's about time that someone point out the freakin' obvious here. Trent Lott's reply?
‘‘I think that Sen. Daschle needs to cool the rhetoric," Senate Republican leader Trent Lott said. ‘‘We need to do it in a bipartisan way. Accusations of that type are not helpful."
Oh, come on! This is a perfect example of the abuse of the word "bipartisan" by the right wing. They seem to be saying that we should just agree with whatever Bush says for the sake of unity - which is absurd. I want Inigo Montoya to show up and say "This word you keep saying...I do not think it means what you think it means." Just because El Jefe Bush wants to go to war doesn't mean that the rest of us have to bend over and accept it.
Salon.com News | The opportunist. Rightwing attack dog Andrew Sullivan snarls and bears his fangs, snapping at Gore. Warmongering columnists are outdoing themselves going after Gore in a white heat frenzy. Rather than "idiocy" as Sullivan feebly claims, Gore's statement was a principled critique of Bush's idiotic rush to war against Iraq. Gore is also totally correct that the US has lost the good will and solidarity it received after 9/11. There has never been more anti-US hostility throughout the world. A headline in Le Monde after 9/11 stated "Nous sommes tous les Americains," We are All Americans, stating solidarity with the US; Bush's arrogance and chauvinism has driven French anti-Americanism to a fever pitch. Growing German hostility to Bush's warmongering has been well published. And this is growing hostility for close Western allies! Anti-American in the Arab world, Latin America, etc has never been so high. Sullivan and the warmongers SIMPLY LIE in arguing for war and against a principled stand such as Gore took. The lines are being drawn...
Salon.com News | The opportunist [Blog Left: Critical Interventions]
He's right (not Sullivan, or Michael Kelly at the Wasington Post, but the writer of the above). This is getting out of control - the rest of the world is looking at America like a bull in a china shop. And they're right - the Bush Junta are thugs on a global scale. The attacks by the right-wing pundits on anyone who dissents are frightening. I was disturbed by Ashcroft, Cheney, et al attacking critics of the "war on terror" as unpatriotic, but now? Now it's getting scary. The right is saying we must be bipartisan! Bipartisan support for the president! It sure seems to me that they're using bipartisan as code for meekly following El Jefe. Gore's criticisms are entirely appropriate - I don't think they went far enough, but I understand that I'm in the minority politically. Argh - I'm not very coherent here, I know, but I'm really, really disturbed by this. I feel like running away from the US before it all falls apart.
News beats porn online. Those secretly addicted to the web at work are more likely to be looking at news than a pornography site¸ a survey suggests. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]
Wow - times sure have changed. I'm betting porn still takes up more total bandwidth, though - at least when you take spam into account.
In President's Speeches, Iraq Dominates, Economy Fades (washingtonpost.com). Bush mentions nothing but Iraq in his speeches and daily photo ops; because he has nothing constructive to say on the economy, the war on terror, or anything; he is a one-note diversion machine, IRAQ, IRAQ, IRAQ, desperately trying to divert attention from his growing failures re the economy and everything else and hoping that people do not focus on issues before the election but thing of nothing but IRAQ! IRAQ! IRAQ!
In President's Speeches, Iraq Dominates, Economy Fades (washingtonpost.com) [Blog Left: Critical Interventions]
It's disturbingly true - I critiqued a Bush speech at a fundraiser a couple days ago, and the only mention of anything economic was an attack on the expiration date for his tax "relief". It's really simple - Bush is stuck with a recession and policies that won't end the recession, so he's going for foreign adventurism to distract the masses.
Rescuers 'secure' Ivorian school. French troops reach the international school in Bouake where more than 160 children have been trapped by fighting. [BBC News | WORLD]
yay!
Germans offer to co-lead Afghan force [BBC World]
I view this as an entirely good thing - the US has done a crap job in Afghanistan since bombing the bejeebies out of the Taliban and assorted weddings. The Kabul government doesn't even control all of Kabul, for chrissakes. Germany would hopefully commit themselves fully to to building a stable government and nation in Afghanistan - the US is either too distracted by the shiny new target of Iraq, or too embarrassed by the failure to capture bin Laden to pay attention. Of course, the American press will either ignore this, or follow the Bush Junta's lead and spin
