Wednesday, August 30, 2006

What a relief

Rummy sez that the U.S. is still able to start a new war despite being bogged down in Iraq.

Gee, I'll sure sleep better at night knowing that.

Monday, August 21, 2006

What the Bush Administration doesn't want you to know about the war on terror

We're losing.

Extra, extra! Murder suspect drinks a beer!

Maybe it was a slow news day.

Now he tells us

Dubya, in a rare moment of candor, has finally admitted that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

Of course, Bush apologists will claim that he never said that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. Strictly speaking, that's true. George Bush never uttered the words, "We should attack Saddam Hussein because he aided and abetted the 9/11 hijackers." The argument was that he might aid and abet some terrorists some day. But one can lie by omission as well. Supporting a pre-emptive invasion of Iraq was a major change in policy that happened almost immediately after 9/11. It is natural to draw the conclusion that 9/11 had something to do with that change in policy. If you're asking the country to go to war, then failing to make clear that the country you propose to attack had "nothing" to do with the reason that policy is suddently being changed is, at best, a sin of omission.

It is amazing to me that the apologists can still breathe with their heads buried so deeply up their [ahem!]... in the sand. It should certainly be clear by now that Iraq could not have done us any harm, and so attacking them on those grounds was, at best, a collossal mistake. But it's actually even worse than that. There is no coherent policy that can justify the invastion of Iraq. 9/11? Bush just admitted Iraq had "nothing" to do with it. WMDs that could fall into the hands of terrorists? He didn't have any, and the only reason we didn't know it is that we didn't do our homework. A pre-emptive strike against fundamentalist Islamic fasism? Saddam Hussein was a secular dictator. And the only reason he was in power is that we put him there to help check the rise of Islamicists in Iran. Indeed, our invasion of Iraq has emboldened and strengthened Islamic fundamentalists in Iran, Lebanon, and even in Iraq.

The goal of stopping the spread of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism is a noble one. But to believe that Bush Administration policies are advancing that goal requires an almost complete disconnect from reality. It is exactly the same sort of disconnect that is required in order to believe that martyrdom is noble. The most supreme irony of this entire situation is the inability of the two sides to see that in the respect that maters most they are in fact exactly alike.

Now this is getting creepy

I swear to God that I had not seen this when I wrote the last line of my previous post.

Carrying too much cash is a crime

Further evidence that the war on drugs is completely out of control, the police confiscated $124,000 in cash from a man on the grounds that it was drug money. But the only evidence that it was drug money was the cash itself. No drugs were found, nor was there any evidence that the man was engaged in any illegal activity. The seizure was upheld by the eight circuit, overturning a lower court ruling. the majority opinion states that "Possession of a large sum of cash is 'strong evidence' of a connection to drug activity."

Next I suppose they'll be throwing people in jail for having shifty eyes.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

No wonder the Chinese are kicking our butts

From BBC NEWS:

"Apple Computer has said a report of labour conditions at its iPod plant in China found workers did more than 60 hours a week a third of the time.

Staff making the world's most popular MP3 player also worked more than six consecutive days 25% of the time.

Apple said the hours were 'excessive' and said its supplier would now be enforcing a 'normal' 60-hour week."


I also had occasion to spend the evening with someone who works at the port of Los Angeles who told me that freight container traffic has increased 40% over the last two years. That's a mind-boggling rate of growth, but what he told me next really made my jaw hit the floor: once a container enters the U.S. it never leaves! It's cheaper for the Chinese to manufacture a new container than it is to ship an empty container back!

I wonder where all the containers end up. There must be quite a stack of them now. At least a few of them are being made into buildings. Maybe this is the answer to our homeless problem?

Thursday, August 17, 2006

How indeed?

George Bush asked a mother who lost a son in Iraq, How do you know his life would have been good?

Funny how he never thinks to ask this question about frozen embryos.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Two down, eight to go

The first and ninth having been safely dispatched, the neocons are starting to go to work on the Fourth Amendment.

In other news...

We interrupt this blog to bring you word that ten thousand people died yesteday because they didn't have access to clean water. Another ten thousand will die today. Another ten thousand will die tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled war on terror.

Careful what you wish for

Ever wish you could put an end to world hunger? Yes? Then I guess this is all your fault.

Space aliens like open-source software

Here's proof.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Crazy news roundup

An Alaska Airlines flight was evacuated on landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday after the flight crew became suspicious of a toy found on board.

A five-year-old girl's passport application was rejected because her photograph showed her bare shoulders. The contentious passport photo
Hannah Edwards's mother, Jane, was told that the exposed skin might be considered offensive in a Muslim country.


Who would have thought that it would be on the Republicans' watch that we'd see all this runaway paranoia and political correctness? Not me. Nope.

Nuf sed

On August 15, 2006 21:30 EST the United States will have been at war in Iraq longer than it was at war with Germany in World War II.

And we wonder why they hate us

I challenge anyone to look me in the eye and tell me that we're still the Good Guys after reading this.

We imprisoned and tortured a person whom we knew to be innocent of any crime for five years. Then when a court finally ordered him to be released we try to imprison him again because he overstayed his visa!

And we wonder why the world hates us?