From Ricardo Montalban:
Patriotism is honor and love of your country and your brothers and sisters. With politics I get the impression that it's all about what's good for the party and not necessarily what's good for the country.
Ok, altogether now...
KHAA-AN!!!
I've seen a couple people point to this, but this is the first person who's taken the trouble to take a screenshot of it. Unbelievable. The really sad thing is, we have no way of knowing whether this is because someone at MSNBC screwed up, or if someone's playing games. *sigh*
He's now declared that the war on terror is unwinnable. Sounds to me like Mr. Namby-Pamby Sourpuss Pants needs an attitude adjustment.
Seriously? Drug money? Seriously?
Of course, now that I think about it, I don't really know where the Swift Boat Veterans gang is getting their money from, either. Maybe they're selling chilled baby brains on the black market. Of course, I'm not saying that they are getting their money from selling chilled baby brains on the black market, I'm just saying does anybody really know whether they're getting their money from selling chilled baby brains on the black market?
Seriously, I think someone should really look into this.
With all this talk about medals, we shouldn't forget to look at Dubya's collection
Posted by Jason at 08:57 AM
George is a little confused about his current job requirements.
With respect to al-Sistani arriving in Najaf to save the shrine, etc. Juan Cole says this:
I think the big losers from the Najaf episode (part deux) are the Americans. They have become, if it is possible, even more unpopular in Iraq than they were last spring after Abu Ghuraib, Fallujah and Najaf Part 1. The US is perceived as culturally insensitive for its actions in the holy city of Najaf.The Allawi government is also a big loser. Instead of looking decisive, as they had hoped, they ended up looking like the lackeys of neo-imperialists.
The big winner is Sistani, whose religious charisma has now been enhanced by solid nationalist credentials. He is a national hero for saving Najaf.
For Muqtada, it is a wash. He did not have Najaf until April, anyway, and can easily survive not having it. His movement in the slums of the southern cities is intact, even if its paramilitary has been weakened.
Then just now I read this from Bob Dreyfuss, who points out the Sistani arrived in Najaf under British escort:
Sistani supposedly is doing all this as an independent force, but if you believe that, I have a mosque in Najaf to sell you. He is effectively an Anglo-American agent now, which is what he and his ilk have been since the 1990s. And in the case of England, they’ve been British stooges since the 1790s. But as always, they are unreliable pawns. The paradox of Sistani, the Catch-22, is that if he is able to deliver, then he will deliver an Iraq which will be gripped in the benighted stupidity of Islamic fundamentalism—not like Iran’s, but equally awful, and just as likely to engage in a jihad against nationalism and the left. But, if he is not able to deliver, than more militant Islamic forces will emerge to displace him, or kill him.
So America's a loser in this because they assaulted a holy city for days, pissing off the country (not to mention the Islamic world in general) and not getting anything out of the effort. Except that they're a winner because Sistani is actually in their corner. But wait, they're still the big loser because if Sistani were to get his way we'll have another fundamentalist state in the Middle East. Of course, if Sistani is not successful in calming things down, someone more radical will charge into his place. Ow ow ow my head...
Guess what, gang? The number of American fatalities in Iraq for 2004 just passed the number for 2003! And guess what...they're dropping at a faster rate, too. The average so far this year is 2.04/day in 2004, as opposed to 1.68/day in 2003. Funny how we're not really hearing much about casualties, anymore, isn't it?
Weird story. The analysis is what surprised me. I would have never thought to interpret the incident as evidence of a kind of master/slave complex. I would have just thought, "Asshole doesn't know what an ear of corn costs."
In her latest piece in Newsweek, Patti Davis writes:
Performers like Linda Ronstandt are fired from gigs because of an opinion expressed on the stage; people who are angry at Bruce Springsteen’s political views want to boycott his music. We all know what happened to the Dixie Chicks. What became of calm, civilized disagreements, acceptance of the fact that we don’t always agree with each other? When did things turn so ugly, and when did anger reach this kind of crescendo?Even all the nastiness over John Kerry’s war record can be put into this messy category. Whatever you believe about what Kerry did or did not do in Vietnam, one thing is clear: the men who are denouncing his record, his wounds, his medals, are angry about the very public antiwar stance he took 33 years ago. It’s not just currently expressed opinions that can put you on the firing line; in this new climate of vengeance, there is no statute of limitations.
Now, notice a pattern here? Linda Ronstadt spoke out in support of Michael Moore. Springsteen has come out in favor of Kerry. The Dixie Chicks spoke out against Bush and his dumbass war in Iraq. All "left-wing" positions. The people trying to shut them down are all right-wingers. Let's see now, what was that slogan from a while back? Oh yeah...
From an NY Times editorial:
You can choose to connect these dots, or cast your vote in November based on whether Colonel Mustard was in a Swift boat with a lead pipe. But Abu Ghraib can't be blamed solely on bad apples anymore. It was the direct consequence of an administration ready to bargain away the rule of law. That started with the suspension of basic prisoner protections, because this was a "new kind of war." It led to the creation of a legal sinkhole on Guantánamo Bay. And it reached its zenith when high officials opined that torture isn't torture unless there's some attendant organ failure. for a handful of malcontents who watched training videos or played paintball.
This is also symptomatic of an administration and a president that will not admit fault or take responsibility, and of a Congress, media, and public that lets them get away with it.
Sooeee!
BREAKING, from 'Another Bruce':
I swear that I witnessed George W. Bush having carnal relations with a swine. I am willing to sign an affadavit stating so.
I can now appear in commercials stating. "I am a pig farmer. While at a campaign stop in Iowa. George Bush attacked one of my sows. George Bush is a pigf****r. I know, because I was there."
Soon I will appear on the cable news shows. The Washington Post will dutifully report on my claims, because, it will not judge my credibility. I will be appointed to be a federal judge by the Kerry administration. My career path is set. Bring it on.
...developing, on the front page of the Washington Post, tomorrow!
[Eschaton]
This sounds like a fun way to protest, although I have to say that I'm not sure what the appropriate regional expression is around these parts.
Fuggedaboudit!
In the spirit of Paddy Chayefsky's classic movie monologue from "Network," the liberal comedian Wednesday urged New Yorkers -- and other Americans -- to simultaneously scream the all-purpose local wisecrack at the moment that President Bush accepts the nomination.
"This is a form of protest that is very non-disruptive," Franken said at a press conference in the Park Avenue office of Air America radio network, where he hosts a talk show.
Franken said the September 2 protest, called the "Great American Shout-Out," will not "tax our public safety system at all."
Website here. [Eschaton]
Josh wraps it up in a bow:
The same sort of moral cowardice that led him to support the Vietnam war but decide it wasn't for him, run companies into the ground and let others pay the bill, play gutter politics but run for the hills when someone asks him to say it to their face, those are the same qualities that led the president to lie the country into war, fail to prepare for the aftermath and then refuse to take responsibility for any of it when the bill started to come due.
Guess who else (should have) earned a couple medals for his military service. Let's play compare and contrast.
From Josh Marshall:
The military records all back up Kerry. Back in the old days -- i.e., last month --official military records used to be considered at least presumptively accurate. Now, everyone knows or should know that every after-action report or medal citation isn't necessarily the product of an exhaustive investigation. Yet, they're not meaningless. At a minimum one would assume that the burden of proof would lie with those who dispute their veracity.So, as I say, all the Navy records support Kerry's account. On top of that, all the people who were in Kerry's boat support his version of events.
Say it with me now: All the military records support Kerry. Go ahead. All the military records support Kerry. Change the emphasis some if you like. All the military records support Kerry. All the military records support Kerry. All the military records support Kerry. Why are we talking about this again? All the military records support Kerry.
From Juan Cole. Read the whole thing and talk about it with all your undecided friends.
But to address the substance of this Big Lie is to risk falling into its logic. The true absurdity of the entire situation is easily appreciated when we consider that George W. Bush never showed any bravery at all at any point in his life. He has never lived in a war zone. If some of John Kerry's wounds were superficial, Bush received no wounds. (And, a piece of shrapnel in the forearm that caused only a minor wound would have killed had it hit an eye and gone into the brain; the shrapnel being in your body demonstrates you were in mortal danger and didn't absent yourself from it. That is the logic of the medal). Kerry saved a man's life while under fire. Bush did no such thing.
3,042 pounds of brain matter lost for lack of any in the White House.
This goes in the dep't of When Can We Please Grow Up?:
Marketing officials have gone to court to demand the withdrawal from news stands of the latest Greek edition of Playboy magazine.Headlines such as "2004 seconds of ecstasy" and "Go for a Sexathon gold" corrupts the Olympic image, they say.
The explicit take on the Olympics was described as a "brutal insult".
Playboy also contains headlines such as "Gianna's wild Rogge and Roll" - a reference to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge and Athens 2004 chief Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki.
It also sports a cartoon of the Olympic rings composed of condoms.
Ok, where to start...first off, I do believe that in the ancient Games the competitors were pretty much buck-nekkid. Emphasis on the "buck," since chicks weren't allowed. I guess it took the great 20th century minds to uncover the joys of women running. As for the condoms thing, well, the way I heard it Greco-Roman wrestling isn't the only contact sport enjoyed at the Olympics. Those 130,000 condoms can't all be for water balloons.
Wow. Bitch-slapping as meta-message (ok, "meta-debate"...same diff). Who'd have thought you'd ever see those phrases living happily together?
Good information on how to interpret the margin of error, for those of us with limited knowledge of statistics.
This made me laugh (apologies to J & L, may your email box remain blissfully spam-free):
Entry #1: Happy anniversary!Entry #2: Happy anniversary to you both! :-D
Entry #3: Having been there and done that, boy, can I empathize. One of the things that helped me after the antibiotics had run their course was Pepcid AC. Helped quench the flames that seem to accompany this.
I haven't known quite what to make of Bush's announcement about a plan to reshuffle troop levels in Europe & Asia, but a column in the LA Times shed some light on the issue. Here's a summary:
In short, though proposals like Bush's once sparked fears of American isolationism, they now are igniting concerns about unilateralism.
Essentially, the fear is that by stationing more troops in the US, we would be able to deploy them without having to get permission to use bases, airspace, etc. So when Bush talks about "flexibility" he could mean "the ability to invade/bomb/attack whoever the hell we want without having to get the diplomats involved." Given recent history, I think there's some reason to be concerned about this motive.
Juan Cole has an update/summary on the al-Qaeda agent we had in Pakistan until his cover was blown. It's well worth reading. My takeaway is that even if the US wasn't directly responsible for blowing his cover, Ridge's press conference and raising the terror alert sent enough people scurrying for detail that someone was probably bound to spill the beans. So even if the Bush administration didn't leak the guy's name, they might as well have. What's fascinating is that first we got warnings of al-Qaeda casing NY, and then we got warnings not too long after than the "chatter" had quieted down, thus triggering more panic in the Bush administration. Looks to me like the chatter stopped because the bad guys realized we could listen in, so they clammed up. Question: are our guys so dumb they didn't realize they were the reason for the drop in chatter, or were they deliberately trying to spin the news?
I mostly find this interesting because it wasn't that long ago I was involved with a project where capitalization of various internet terms became a minor headache for me. Apparently I was ahead of my time.
By changing its style to lowercase the 'I' in internet, Wired News is placing this medium squarely where it belongs: on an equal footing with radio, television and Gutenberg's wonderful innovation, moveable type. [Wired News]
Whenever I speak with librarians about fair use or the Copyright Act more generally, I inevitably hear them express concerns that we run the risk of becoming a pay per use society, one in which content is available only for a fee, writes Rick Boucher. I am concerned that the bookmobiles we all grew up with, and their modern-day equivalents, will be replaced by a world in which access to information will depend on the ability to pay and, worse, a world in which a payment gets you only a license to view or listen to something, not to actually own it. But I know it is said by some technologists and economists that this is the way it should be, if only because it is the most efficient means of allocating something in a market economy. [Lessig Blog] [Cinema Minima]
From The American Prospect:
Intelligence matters. The job of the president of the United States is not to love his wife; it�s to manage a wide range of complicated issues. That requires character, yes, but not the kind of character measured by private virtues like fidelity to spouse and frequency of quotations from Scripture. Yet it also requires intelligence. It requires intellectual curiosity, an ability to familiarize oneself with a broad range of views, the capacity -- yes -- to grasp nuances, to foresee the potential ramifications of one�s decisions, and, simply, to think things through. Four years ago, these were not considered necessary pieces of presidential equipment. Today, they have to be.
My only quibble here is when he says that at one point intellectual curiosity, etc. was not considered necessary to be President. Maybe the author thought that, and maybe the network yammer-meisters thought it, but speaking as one who has always cringed at Dubya's lack of engagement with the world, I've always thought the President should have more than a handful of brain cells to rub together along with the will to use them. I would wager that I'm not alone in that, either.
MoveOn.org is at it again, trying to raise money to run ads during the Republican National Convention. Hopefully CBS will cooperate this time.
Apparently there are some folks trying to make Kerry's volunteering to go to Vietnam look like it wasn't such a big deal. Supposedly swift boat missions became more dangerous only after Kerry volunteered. Fine. Even assuming that's true, he did volunteer to go into a war zone, did he not? Anyone? Anyone?
Interesting...you can now apparently make your own postage stamps.
Iraq National Congress Office Closed
Al-Hayat reports via Agence France Presse that the head of the office of Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress in Baghdad has been told by the caretaker Iraqi government that he had 24 hours to close the office.
Ahmad Chalabi and his nephew Salem, previously darlings of the US Department of Defense, now face arrest for money laundering and murder, respectively.
It is one thing for an individual politician to be arrested. It is another for a political party to be targetted. Tuesday's report sounds like the second, and if it is true, it seems to be another indication that Iraq under US auspices is slipping back into dictatorial methods.
Ahmad Chalabi gave an interview on al-Jazeerah Tuesday in which he said that the US came to Iraq as liberators, but within a couple of months had become occupiers. He condemned the massive US military operations in Najaf and said that although he was sure he could play a mediating role to end the crisis, he realized that he would not be allowed to do so.
Al-Jazeerah also reported that Iraqi Minister of Justice, Malik Dohan al-Hasan, has threatened to resign unless the judge who indicted the Chalabis is fired. Al-Hasan has also expressed sympathy for the Mahdi Army members in Najaf.
[Juan Cole]
Via BBC, Scrabble champ offends the fragile
The three letters looked innocent enough - E, L and Z.But when Trey Wright combined them to make LEZ during the US Scrabble contest finals being taped for television, he provoked uncommon excitement.
The 32-point score put him on the verge of victory, but the use of a slang term for lesbian threatened to take him off the air.
When, oh when, can we please grow the hell up?
This is cool-- someone's done a version of Lord of the Rings using bits of old Hollywood movies.
The Stockstock screening was last weekend. As I expected, some of the films were excellent, some were pretty lame, and mine fell somewhere in the middle. I don't know what the organizers' plans are for posting any of the films online, so I'm going to go ahead and make it available here. The Transparent Media intro is something that I added after the fact, since that would have violated the rules of the festival, but other than that this is exactly what was shown in Seattle...enjoy!
