Hey, look! Bush says a democratic Iraq could be "a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom". It would be, I can't disagree with that. But I fail to see how giving the Turks and Iranians control over large swaths of the country and installing an American military government counts as democratic. Plus there's what we're hearing these days (no link, sorry) about what the Bushistas plan to put in place for after the US troops leave: another dictatorship, fronted by not-yet-defected generals in the current Iraqi power structure. That's right - guys scummy enough to be trusted by Saddam Hussein. What the hell is wrong with this picture? I mean, besides everything?

Over at LiberalOasis, there's always a good mix of information and humor...but they may have topped themselves with this one, from a list of side agreements in the US-Turkey deal on Iraq...

5. In order to facilitate Turkey’s admittance to the European Union, Bush will start campaigning against it.

Which plays into something that's been on my mind lately. I can't dig up specific poll numbers right now, but it seems that your average West European LOATHES Bush. I mean, they positively despise the man. Not to say I disagree, but damn! It's not even like he's directly fucking up their countries, yet they're able to see what the majority of Americans are blind to: George W. Bush is just about as close to a worst-case-scenario of a president as could ever exist. He stole the presidency - I read a column at the Washington Post, I think it was, a week or two ago by a French academic living in the States who made the point that the French people aren't anti-American - they're anti-Bush, and were from the beginning. As a nation, they were offended by Bush's theft of the White House - and we, the citizens of the United States of America, sat on our asses. Like the rest of the world, the French displayed an outpouring of sympathy for the US following 9/11 - and Bush proceeded to burn that goodwill faster than I thought possible. I heard a British political commentator on NPR this evening, pointing out that the majority of the British populace hold Bush in contempt. Good GOD! This man is the platonic ideal of incomptent twit. Can't we fire him before everyone starts hating us rather than just the administration?

Oh, that's great - a bit from an NBC news commercial of an SUV driver asserting his right to putter about in his gas guzzler: "I can afford the gas, so I'm gonna drive it." Uh, yeah, you can afford the gas thanks to the ludicrously low gas taxes in this country in comparison with the rest of the developed world. God DAMN.

I spend a lot of time bitching about things, even without using the blog as much. A_____ and I were driving down to Waltham yesterday to see "The Guru" and I spent about half the drive ranting on the Bush Junta's latest travesties. DAMN. I hate this so much. I'm so tired of feeling like the end of everything great about America is just around the corner. This is why I'm supporting Dennis Kucinich for President - he's not likely to win, but he makes me feel like we can stop these bastards, like we can really fight back, like there's still hope - and we have to stop them, we have to stop them now.

Something I wondered while driving in the rain Saturday night: why are a disporportionate number of the callers on Car Talk British? There seems to be a British caller at least one out of every two or three shows, if not more frequently - definitely a higher rate than they occur naturally in the US. Strange.

How many troops were initially sent into Vietnam back in the '60s, when we sent the first combat troops in? I ask because the coverage of the US troops being sent to the Philipines reminded me of that. That's not a good thing, by the way.

The TSA's Latest Directive: Random Vehicle Searches. Plastic::Work::Terrorism: "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun randomly inspecting vehicles as they approach airports, including cars and trucks that drop off passengers" [Plastic: Most Recent]

That reminds me - does anyone know if any of these various civil-liberty-and-privacy-violatin', terrorist-seekin', information-gatherin' programs actually include gun purchasing data? I seem to remember this NOT being included, which makes perfect sense, given our current administration's ties to the NRA. But that just seems SO stupid that I can't believe it. Anyone know anything about this?

Something that keeps bothering me: the anti-aircraft weapons installed around DC. Why are they there, exactly? It's not like Iraq can fly a plane to DC and drop chemical weapons - they'd have enough trouble getting out of Iraq, let alone across the Atlantic and all. The only aerial threat I can think of is hijacked airplanes. And if hijacked airplanes are still so much of a threat that we need missles surrounding the nation's capital, doesn't that suggest that we've done a pretty horrible job in responding to 9/11? Or am I missing something?

As I was driving into work this morning, I heard a Joe Jackson song. My first thought was "Another Jackson brother? I thought we'd been through them." Ok, not really, but I did think of Joe Jackson the basketball player, currently on the Sacramento Kings. But that's completely beside the point. I heard this song, "Awkward Age" or something like that. It was amazing - that is, it's amazing how much it sounded like Elvis Costello circa 1980 if you'd taken away his attitude, his originality, and his lyric-writing ability. This Joe Jackson guy has listened to a LOT of Armed Forces and This Year's Model - the only thing missing was the organ. His singing style was even a lightweight ripoff of Costello's. I want to make it perfectly clear - it wasn't a GOOD song, just a song that jumepd out at me as completely derivative, though admittedly derivative of great music.

Oh, hi, everybody. I've got a bit more free time, so I thought I'd make another run at blogging again. My daily 4pm-6pm meeting has gone away, which gives me a lot more time during the rest of the day to write. More later - I've got another meeting now. Shock. =)