Tristero

Thursday, July 03, 2003

Quagmire II: Iraqi Businesses Get Treated To Bush/Cheney Business Expertise  

From BBC News

Dr Fayez Rhene Aziz is director general of the Iraqi state vegetable oil company, which he runs from a chaotic temporary office in Baghdad.

The sight of US tanks in the streets is still disturbing
The group's previous headquarters were gutted by looters soon after American tanks rolled into the city.

After 13 years of international sanctions against Iraq, Dr Aziz is used to managing in difficult conditions.

But he says the current business climate is the worst he has ever seen.

Well, at least the US is inconsistent. It's just as bad here (see post directly below).

UPDATE: Joe Conason adds to our knowledge of Bush's attention to detail and his value as a businessman.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 9:57 AM

One Million Jobs Lost In Three Months  

Jesus:

The nation's unemployment rate shot up to 6.4 percent in June, the highest level in more than nine years, in an economic slump that has cost nearly a million jobs in the last three months.

Businesses slashed 30,000 jobs just last month, with cuts heavily concentrated on factory assembly lines, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

To repeat: The removal of Bush is not a partisan issue at all. His incompetence and the incompetence of his administration affects everyone.


posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 9:42 AM

Happy Fourth  

Blogging will be light to non-existent while mss and miranda and I vegetate at an undisclosed location for the next few days.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 9:22 AM

Lisa Rein: Bookmark The Link Below Now  

Those of us who have had to suffer through the 21st Century in America have had only two shining bright lights in the media firmament. The first is, of course, Paul Krugman's columns in the New York Times. Krugman has probably done more to alleviate depression amongst sensible Americans than all of the selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor prescriptions combined. The other, in case you don't know it, is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart which, aside from Krugman, is the only consistently truthful news source in the United States. The only falsehood I have ever heard on The Daily Show is that Jon Stewart describes himself as "a fake newsanchor on a fake newshow". We know better: The Daily Show, in fact, merely pretends to be a fake newsshow. If it wasn't so well disguised, the entire newsroom would have been round up and met the fate the Rosenbergs encountered fifty years ago.

Shamefully, very few of Jon Stewart's immortal broadcasts are archived at Comedy Central. Fortunately, blogger Lisa Rein has compiled quite a few clips here. For those of you who don't know Stewart, or need a quick fix, there is no more vital resource I can point you to. Thank you, Lisa, for the service you have done for your fellow citizens. When sanity returns to our country, I will nominate you for a Congressional Medal.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 8:34 AM

Bill Frist Visits Denver  

and not a single feline is safe.

Four more dead cats have been found in the Denver area, heightening fear among pet owners that a serial cat killer is in their midst.

Authorities say at least 40 mutilated cats have been discovered in Denver and its suburbs in the past year, including four killed over the weekend. The toll in Salt Lake City is 10 cats and another unidentified animal.

Christy Hughes had stopped reading stories about the attacks. Then her husband found the eviscerated body of their 15-year-old cat, Bugsy, outside the front door of their Aurora home two weeks ago.

"I blame myself, because had I read it, I never would have let my cat outside," she said Monday. "I've had a hard time forgiving myself for that."

For those of you who don't understand why Senator, excuuuuuuuuuuuuse me, Dr. Bill Frist is the Prime Suspect, go here. He's not nicknamed Cat Mengele for nothing, you know.

UPDATE: For a great analysis of Bill Frist and his relationship to cats, see Jon Stewart's report at Lisa Rein's great archive site. It may take a while to download the clip, but it's worth it.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 8:06 AM

Quagmire I (Afghanistan) Update  

From Asia Times:

Despite the best efforts of its military and intelligence apparatus and political manipulation in Pakistan, in the year and a half since the demise of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the United States and its allies have failed to break the Taliban and al-Qaeda in that country. Indeed, the resistance movement in Afghanistan has fully re-organized itself, even setting up offices, and official claims to the contrary, US forces are fighting in the dark...

Investigations carried out by Asia Times Online reveal the following:

The resistance movement has been named Saiful Muslameen (Sword of Muslims), as reported by Asia Times Online - Al-Qaeda's deadly seeds bear fruit , May 20.

The central office is located in Asadabad, near the Pakistani border, while several training camps have been established in Parachinar and Miran Shah (both in Pakistan)and other places. These are mobile camps that can be moved quickly according to required needs.

The main military committee is headed by Mullah Omar, supported by his commanders, including Mullah Dadullah and Ahktar Usmani.

Under the Saiful Muslameen, Afghanistan has been divided into five operational zones.

The zone commanders include famed Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, leader of the Hizb-i-Islami, in Kunhar, Jalalabad, Kabul, Logar and Gazni. Khost and Paktia and Paktika are under the command of Maulana Jalaludin Haqqani, while Gardez is under the control of Mullah Saifullah Mansoor. The appointments of two more war zone commanders had not been made at the time this article was written. These zones include Kandahar, Urugzan and Zabul.

These is also another force in play. An organization called the Khuddamul Furqan (Servants of the Holy Koran)was established soon after the Taliban retreated without offering more than token resistance in the face of advancing Northern Alliance troops in early 2002, largely on the advice of some former officials of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The Khuddamul Furqan's leadership was based in the Pakistani border town of Peshawar and they announced their separation from the Taliban over Mullah Omar's policy to harbor Osama bin Laden. Pakistani elements then helped them to contact the new Afghan government with a view to being inducted into the provisional administration in Kabul, but Northern Alliance members would have none of it, and the leaders of the organization have been biding their time ever since. Now, though, they have thrown in their lot with the resistance movement, and they have established their own pocket of resistance...

The hard truth is that US intelligence simply does not really know what is going on in the Taliban and al-Qaeda camps. This is evidenced by the countless raids that have been launched in recent times, none of which have resulted in the capture of anyone in Afghanistan.

In an effort to find a breakthrough, US authorities recently made two initiatives involving the Taliban. (See US turns to the Taliban , June 14) In the first, they tried to establish a new Taliban leadership through Mullah Ghous and other Taliban leaders who were expelled during Taliban rule from 1996-2001. This failed virtually before it was born. A second attempt was then made to forge contacts with "real" Taliban, with the idea being that they provide any acceptable leadership (ie, not Mullah Omar) to take a significant part in the running of the country so that peace could be established. This, too was rejected.

Another attempt to give Afghan clerics an important role in power politics is in the US cards in Afghanistan, but like the other attempts, this, too, looks like another shot in the dark.

Now you know why Afghanistan is rarely mentioned by US leadership.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 7:18 AM

Be Careful What You Wish For  

Attack on jeep in Iraq. July 3, 2003.

"There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there. "My answer is bring them on." George Bush. July 2, 2003.

This is what is called an issue of character. No one with any respect for the lives of American solidiers would ever speak this way.

Thanks to Shock and Awe for the idea and for the link to the picture.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 6:54 AM

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Newt Gingrich's Modest Proposal For a Ministry of Truth  

About a week or so ago I wrote about Newt Gingrich's call to target al-Jazeera, the BBC and other foreign media that didn't wholeheartedly support Bush's conquest of Iraq. (In fairness, he specifically targeted only Arab media for retaliation, but this limiting of focus is illogical; indeed, earlier he had sharply criticized the beeb for not being with the program 100%). Now Gingrich's entire article is up at Foreign Policy so it's time to highlight another extraordinary reccomendation. Do take the time to read the article. Its literary style is as stiff as an 8th grade social studies report by a grammar-obsessed B- student, but one thing is striking and that is its attitude towards the world:

In the entire article, there is not a single sentence, not so much as a phrase, that implies that the opinions of other countries should be given even the slightest weight whatsoever.

This isn't unilateralism. This is autism.

But I digress. Gingrich's basic beef is that the State Department isn't selling The Great American Product -George Bush- effectively enough. Not stated in the article but which Gingrich specifically addressed in a recent speech is that liberal appeasers like Colin Powell have to be neutralized. In addition, Newt is concerned that folks in other departments, like General Shineski, never get a chance to voice their pessimistic estimates when the country needs to be rallied. So here is what he recommends:

The president should receive a weekly report on U.S. successes and failures in communicating around the world from a special assistant for global communication,a new post with coordinating authority over the State Department, the Defense Department, and other agencies engaged in international communication efforts.

Is that clear? Gingrich is suggesting that a beauracratic layer be placed between all US governmental agencies that communicate with other countries. The purpose of this layer is assess how well the US sells itself overseas.

What Gingrich is proposing is no more or less than a Ministry of Truth. As there is hardly an agency that is not involved with international issues, the entire US government would report to it. He tries to minimize what his vision means by proposing a mere "special assistant for global communication" and not a Secretary of Truth, but there is no way his intent can be misconstrued.

This, of course, is as nutty as...well, it's as nutty as advocating pre-emptive unilateral war. What it tells us, primarily, is where Newt's brain is focused. If the Iraqis don't like us taking over the country, it's not because they have a different view from us, it's that they don't understand George Bush's vision of the world. If 90% of Turkey is against us, it's Colin Powell's job to get them to listen to reason. You don't sell the steak. You sell the sizzle.

Just for fun, a couple more choice nuggets from the article. Dig this: Newt comes within a hair's breadth of publicly accusing Powell of actively supporting fascist, genocidal states:

Key to transforming the State Department’s culture is the adoption of the right vision—President Bush’s vision. We can no longer accept a culture that props up dictators, coddles the corrupt, and ignores secret police forces.

Note also Gingrich's firm grasp on reality. All corrupt dictators with secret police forces are henceforth unacceptable to the United States. Well, that's nice. And they will disappear from the face of the Earth when porcine quadrupeds sprout wings.

For a rousing, patriotic conclusion, Newt realizes that he is not up to the rhetorical challenge. He needs better words from a better man and, really, a man like Gingrich can do no better than quote the words Bush himself uttered on that aircraft carrier he Top Gunned onto for a visit:

"[C]ommitment to liberty is America’s tradition—declared at our founding; affirmed in Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms; asserted in the Truman Doctrine and in Ronald Reagan’s challenge to an evil empire. We are committed to freedom in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in a peaceful Palestine. The advance of freedom is the surest strategy to undermine the appeal of terror in the world. Where freedom takes hold, hatred gives way to hope. When freedom takes hold, men and women turn to the peaceful pursuit of a better life. American values and American interests lead in the same direction: We stand for human liberty.”

Who could possibly disagree? I certainly can't, because I have no idea what Bush is talking about. These portentous phrases have all the intellectual heft of a canteloupe, and are just as cloyingly sweet.

If you'd like to see what a real proposal for reform of the State Department might look like, read some of the articles, papers, and speeches at the link at the end, labelled "Want to know more?"

Such a pity, because aside from Gingrich's awful article, the current issue of Foreign Policy has some excellent, excellent essays, including a special report on the Iraq aftermath.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 6:15 PM

Quagmire II: Bremer Asks For More Troops  

Looks like Gen. Shineski was right.

The U.S. administrator in Iraq is asking for more American troops and civilians to speed restoration of order and public services, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Wednesday, but a Pentagon official denied the report. The newspaper, quoting unnamed U.S. officials, said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was reviewing a request submitted by Paul Bremer amid escalating anti-American sentiment and attacks on U.S. forces...

The Inquirer, a major U.S. daily, said Bremer had asked for dozens of civilian officials to make up for a shortage of skilled Iraqi administrators who were not closely affiliated with the regime of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

A U.S. official told the newspaper that more troops were needed as a "stop gap measure" until international peacekeepers start to arrive. None of the officials the Inquirer quoted said how many additional soldiers Bremer had requested.

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 3:46 PM

It's A Christian's Duty To Pay Taxes  

Hey, if it works.

What does the Bible have to do with tax policy? For Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a lot.

Alabama's conservative Republican governor has created a new convergence of faith and politics. Citing his Christian faith, he's calling for a $1.2 billion tax hike, largely on the backs of wealthier taxpayers, for the benefit of the poor.

It's all adding up to the largest increase in the state's history, and perhaps the first based on the Bible.

"Alabamians are a faithful people who believe that creating a better world for our children and helping our neighbors are both sacred duties," Riley wrote in explaining his tax plan.

Alabama — which, like many states around the nation, faces mammoth budget problems — puts a larger tax burden on the poor than many other states. Even families earning less than $5,000 a year pay state income tax, and those earning less than $13,000 pay a much larger percentage in state and local taxes than those at the top of the income ladder.

Hmm... If only they'd keep this and drop all that anti-gay, anti-choice stuff...
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 2:42 PM

Bush: Quagmire II Will Be No Cakewalk  

President Bush acknowledged yesterday that the United States faces a ''massive and long-term undertaking'' in Iraq but said US troops would prevail over what his administration described as well-trained militants that have been killing and injuring US forces...

Of the 195 US military personnel killed in combat and accidents since the Iraq war started on March 20 (42 British soldiers have been killed), nearly a third have died after May 1, when Bush, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, declared major combat operations were over.

From Boston Globe.

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 7:14 AM

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

More From Quagmire II: It's Jihad time  

Things might be getting very serious, indeed.

An explosion late Monday in a mosque compound in Fallujah that killed 10 Iraqis, including the mosque's spiritual leader, has enraged the city's residents and prompted calls for a holy war against the United States.

People in Fallujah said Tuesday that American forces launched a missile into the mosque, a charge the U.S. military denied.

While Fallujah, about an hour west of Baghdad, has been a hot spot of fighting between residents and U.S. troops for months, the anti-American rhetoric and threats of violent response are reaching a new peak, with calls for Islamic jihad, or holy war.

Elsewhere in Iraq, violence continued.

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 7:50 PM

Homophobia Is Hip? Urban Outfitters Funds Rick Santorum  

Joe Conason blogged about the twerp who owns Urban Outfitter, the hip and groovy jeans store. Turns out Urban Outfitters gave Sen. Rick Santorum about $13,000. For those of you who don't remember, Sen. Santorum is the fellow who famously compared homosexuality to man-on-dog.

[Richard Hayne, founder/president of Urban Outfitters] is an ardent Republican. He is a financial supporter of arch conservative Sen. Rick Santorum, whose recent comments about homosexuals equated gay sex with incest and bestiality.

When PW [Philadelphia Weekly] asks Hayne about his financial support of Santorum, he initially denies it. And when presented with a computer printout of Santorum's campaign donors from the Center for Responsive Politics website--which cites a $4,650 contribution from Urban Outfitters--he responds: "I'll have to look into this. I don't think this is right." In fact, he and his wife have contributed $13,150 to Santorum and Santorum's Political Action Committee over the years.

Asked to clarify for the record whether he ever contributed to Santorum's reelection campaign, he counters, "I don't want to mislead you. Like many people, I have some affinity for Rick Santorum, and I have problems with some of his positions."

And where does Santorum's position on homosexuality fit in his comfort zone?

"I'm not going to comment on it," he says, irked.

I, too, am irked. Santorum is a right wing religious extremist. I bought a pair of jean at Urban Outfitters many years ago. Any place that proactively funds such people will never get my business again.

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 7:11 PM

Jesus' General Goes Native  

So Gen. J.C. Christian has decided to stop the blogging for a while and work full time on booting Bush out of office. He writes:

The important thing is that my county and state vote Democratic in 2004. I'm going to spend every possible moment until then working to see that it happens. I think this kind of old fashioned on the street organizing is the only way we're going to be able to overcome the advantage the conservatives have via their virtual stranglehold over the media.

He is 100% correct. All of us who really care about this country - moderates, liberals, and lefties of every stripe - should get involved with voter registration and organizing, to make sure as many Democrats get elected in '04 as possible. Once Bush and his extremists are back in Texas, then we can go about pursuing the transformation of the Dems or building a Green Party.

Until then, the first step must be to remove Bush from power.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 6:59 PM

Blame It On Bill: Chapter 1,223,984  

Bush is lying, oops, revising history again.Check out these quotes at a fund raiser.

Two-and-a-half years ago, we inherited an economy in recession.
George Bush at a fundraiser in Miami. July 30, 2003.

"This week, the official announcement came that our economy has been in recession since March.  And unfortunately, to a lot of Americans, that news comes as no surprise... Many economists warned me when I took office that a recession was beginning.  So we took quick action.  We passed the biggest tax cut in a generation, and we imposed some much needed discipline on federal spending.  And by the end of the summer, we could see signs that the economy was responding.
George Bush in radio address. December 1, 2001.

Yeah, the economy responded really well.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 4:52 PM

Bush Labor Policy: Work Overtime, Don't Get Paid.  

And they say we don't need unions anymore.

On March 31, 2003, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed regulatory changes, which if adopted, could make more than eight million white-collar employees ineligible for overtime pay. Under the current Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations adopted in 1938, most workers—an estimated 79% as of 1999—are guaranteed the right to overtime pay, or time and a half, for every hour worked beyond the normal 40-hour workweek. For white-collar workers, three tests determine whether they are exempt, and thus ineligible for overtime pay, or nonexempt, and thereby eligible for overtime pay. The rule changes proposed by the Bush Administration in March 2003 would make drastic changes to these tests, vastly increasing the number of exempt employees and making it likely that millions of them will work longer hours at reduced pay.

Via Cursor
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 4:48 PM

Josh Marshall On Katrina Leung Again  

Josh Marshall writes about Republican activist and accused Chinese double agent Katrina Leung in this article for Washington Monthly. He says that her ability to spy so effectively for 20 odd years is all of a piece with a problem that the FBI has had for years, namely a failure to compartmentalize information so that dangerous leaks won't occur.

Yes, this is so, but it is most emphatically not what makes Leung herself so important. There is more than a little suspicion that Leung was a conduit for Chinese government donations to the Republican Party. If so, this would make the Leung case almost as big a scandal as Watergate. And that is the major reason why there are no investigations scheduled by the Republican controlled Congress into Leung's activities.

Yes, Josh mentions this but does not emphasize it. Nevertheless, he has some interesting things to say about the case. Here are some excerpts:

The only bonafide Chinese spy so far turns out to have been not only a Republican, but a well-connected GOP fundraiser. And not just any Republican fundraiser, but one who happened to be sleeping with one of the lead FBI agents investigating Democratic fundraising.
SNIP
[H]er treachery touched everything: the 1997 campaign finance scandal, the investigation of Wen Ho Lee (the Chinese scientist at Los Alamos who was once suspected of selling nuclear secrets to Beijing), investigations of spies at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and much more.
SNIP
Freeh made a tacit arrangement with the new Republican barons on the hill, as David Plotz of Slate and others have written. Freeh would focus on multiple investigations of his nominal bosses in the Clinton administration--Whitewater, Henry Cisneros, Mike Espy, Vince Foster--in exchange for a free pass on his and the bureau's many failings. That left problems in counter-intelligence free of either internal or congressional scrutiny. If Clinton administration officials were alarmed about the FBI's compartmentation problems and had plans to fix it--and it's not clear that they were--there was little they could do because of the Republican power on the Hill. Any attempt to rein in the bureau would be seen as an effort to stymie those investigations. In that climate of malign neglect, the bureau's ills were allowed to fester.
SNIP
Some of the nation's most tightly-held and vital secrets were turned over to adversary states. That's the kind of failure that usually drives Republicans around the bend, and for good reason. The mere suggestion that this might have occurred in the Democratic Chinese fundraising scandal aroused paroxysms of GOP outrage: from the wildly overheated Cox Commission Report, to limitless hours of talk radio chatter, to Republican Sen. Fred Thompson's hearings, all pursuing a line of allegation--that Red Chinese money had bought favors in the American political system--that proved unfounded.

Now we have an actual Chinese spy--charged, though not convicted--who by all indications was funneling money into U.S. campaigns. Her treachery is an intelligence failure that comes on the heels of others tied to similar shortcomings at the FBI, and one in which vital secrets were given to a power, China, which these same Republicans were saying two years ago posed the greatest threat to the United States. And yet we've not had one hearing. Not one commission. There's been very little coverage in the press, nor is anyone yakking about it on talk radio.

The Republicans didn't create the problems at the FBI. But they've sat on their hands and put politics ahead of the national interest as the scope of the problem and the cost to national security have become increasingly apparent. Not only have they ignored the problem, they have actively sought to shield the FBI from the one reform that almost everyone agrees would make such breaches of national security secrets far less likely. That's not just politics as usual. It's not even garden-variety political hypocrisy. It's a betrayal of the public trust.

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 8:56 AM

Being Born Again Into Christ By Chuck Colson Does Not Cut Recidivism  

When I was a kid, there was a commercial for public safety which intoned, "75% of all fatal traffic accidents occur within 25 miles of home." Even then, I knew there was something screwy about this. Obviously most traffic accidents will occur within 25 miles of home because most car trips, at least back then, were within 25 miles or less of home. The proper measure is the percentage of accidents/distance. That is, what percentage of trips 25 miles or less end up as an accident versus percentage of trips 25 miles or more?

This kind of misrepresentation of stats is so common, it barely gets any notice, certainly not in the news. But sometimes, it is so egregiously misused that someone takes the trouble to point it out. Here, Mark Kleiman walks us through the reality behind the "success" of convincted Watergate felon Chuck Colson's InnerChange program, which claims to reduce recidivism rates by bringing prisoners to Christ, the born-again way.

Here's the way the study worked. The researchers took a group of 171 prisoners who entered the InnerChange program, and found then selected the records of a group of other inmates that met the selection criteria but didn't enter. The comparison group was selected to match the program entrants on race, age, offense type, and something called the "salient factor score," (SFS), a standard measure of recidivism risk. Then the post-release criminal behavior the graduates of the InnerChange program was compared to that of the matched controls.

Veeeeeeerrrrrrrrryyyyyyy zzzzzzzientifick, nicht war ?

But completely bogus. Not only were the entrants to the program a self-selected group, which means that in some important ways (such as a desire to change their lives) they weren't actually matched to the comparison group, but it was only the graduates -- 75 of the 177 entrants -- who showed better behavior than the pseudo-control group. Comparing all of the entrants (including those who dropped out, were kicked out, or got early parole) to all of the comparison group, the difference in recidivism reverses: the InnerChange group was slightly more likely to be rearrested (36.2% versus 35%) and noticeably more likely to actually go back to prison (24.3% versus 20.3%).

In other words, those who succeed, succeed, while those who fail are likely to fail. Whodathunkit?

As usual, the only faith here is that, despite all evidence to the contrary, the program just might work. Funding such stuff is just a boondoggle for conservatives.

And the amount to which people can be lied to by statistics argues strongly for requiring at least one, if not two, semesters of quantitative reasoning skills in high school.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 7:55 AM

As Reality Sinks In, Bush's Support Slips  

Looks like Bush's chickens are coming home to roost:

Most Americans still say things are going at least fairly well in Iraq, but the number who think things are going badly has tripled since early May, a new poll says.

Just over half, 56 percent, say things are going well, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, and 42 percent say badly.

The number who said things are going well has dipped from 86 percent in early May to 56 percent, and the number that say badly has grown from 13 percent to 42 percent.SNIPAlmost four in 10 say they believe the Bush administration deliberately misled the public about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, while six in 10 say they do not believe that.

More than half, 53 percent, say it would matter a great deal to them if they became convinced the Bush administration deliberately misled the public on that subject.

Thanks to TalkLeft for the heads up.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 7:51 AM

Monday, June 30, 2003

Who's In Charge Of Iraq WMD Search Again? Don't Ask Bush.  

Kos turns us on to this rather unnerving, but unsurprising, article in TIME:

Meeting last month at a sweltering U.S. base outside Doha, Qatar, with his top Iraq commanders, President Bush skipped quickly past the niceties and went straight to his chief political obsession: Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Turning to his Baghdad proconsul, Paul Bremer, Bush asked, "Are you in charge of finding WMD?" Bremer said no, he was not. Bush then put the same question to his military commander, General Tommy Franks. But Franks said it wasn't his job either. A little exasperated, Bush asked, So who is in charge of finding WMD? After aides conferred for a moment, someone volunteered the name of Stephen Cambone, a little-known deputy to Donald Rumsfeld, back in Washington. Pause. "Who?" Bush asked.

Now Kos says that this proves Bush is incompetent. But why limit ourselves to one person? No one in the upper echelon of Iraq or the military knew.

And worse, they don't seem to care.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 11:16 AM

Sunday, June 29, 2003

Tom Learns All About Google  

Leave it to Mr. Friedman to keep us informed about the cutting edge:

While you were sleeping after 9/11, not only has the process of technological integration continued, it has actually intensified — and this will have profound implications. I recently went out to Silicon Valley to visit the offices of Google, the world's most popular search engine. It is a mind-bending experience. You can actually sit in front of a monitor and watch a sample of everything that everyone in the world is searching for.

Golly. Who knew?

Within the next few years you will be able to be both mobile and totally connected, thanks to the pending explosion of Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity. Using radio technology, Wi-Fi will provide high-speed connection from your laptop computer or P.D.A. to the Internet from anywhere — McDonald's , the beach or your library.

Wow! You mean one day, I might be able to take my laptop to a coffee shop and surf the net? Heavens to Murgatroyd! What will they think of next?
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 5:29 PM

It Looks Like Bush Will Be Outed  

Yep. Apparently, the far, far right are gonna make Bush take a stand on gay marriange. Frist said he supported an amendment to ban gay marriages.

There is one nugget of good news in this repellent development, and that is that Bush will be forced to take a side. It will be interesting to see how he can weasel away from this.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 12:53 PM