Posting will be lax.......

today and this weekend, most likely.

The arrogance of it all

Rumsfeld Chides Europeans for Lack of 'Vision'

BRUSSELS, Belgium — On his first visit to Germany since the war in Iraq, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revived the issue of Western European opposition to the conflict, suggesting it resulted from a lack of vision.

....

"The key, I believe, is that even as they are busy looking inward and rebuilding their economies and societies, they have had the vision to look outward as well, to find ways they can contribute to a more peaceful and secure world," he said.

"It suggests that the distinction between old and new in Europe today is really not a matter of age or size or even geography. It is really a matter of attitude — of the vision that countries bring to the trans-Atlantic relationship."

But at the same time:

German Arrested in France Is a 'Top Al Qaeda Boss'

French warship brings 532 to safety from Liberia

The French military led the multinational evacuation, code-named ''Operation Providence.'' It took out about 100 Americans and 80 French, as well as more than 100 Lebanese the merchant class of West Africa. There were also Indians, English and citizens of dozens of other countries, including one Nepalese.

Boy, "old Europe" seems to be pretty helpful. It seems more like the U.S. lacks the vision to succeed in battling terrorism. Because creating thousands of bin Ladens (perpetrator of 9/11 or not) by attacking Afghanistan, Iraq and whoever comes next is obviously not the answer.

Pay articles on the net suck

You can only see the first paragraph or so, but that alone says plenty: Censorship of the press in Iraq.

Paul Bremer has ordered his legal department in Baghdad to draw up rules for press censorship. A joke, I concluded, when one of the newly styled Coalition Provisional Authority officials tipped me off last week. But no, it really is true. Two months after "liberating" Iraq, the Anglo-American authorities and their boss Paul Bremer - whose habit of wearing combat boots with a black suit continues to amaze his colleagues - have decided to control the new and free Iraqi press.

We took their guns, as well. I'm guessing protesting is only allowed so the pundits can say "this is something the Iraqi's haven't been able to do since the beginning of Saddam's rule."

So they're only sorta liberated. But we're safer, right? Well, if by safer you mean a spike in Al-Qaeda's recruitment and missing WMDs, which were shipped out of the country, destroyed, or were never there in the first place. None of which mean we are really safer than we were before. But we've brought Middle East peace closer to reality, right? Uhhhh, we'll just skip that one.

War crime vote fuels US anger at Europe

The US has bitterly attacked European leaders for trying to stop the UN security council voting tomorrow to renew America's exemption from prosecution by the new war crimes tribunal.

The Bush administration has accused the EU of "actively undermining" American efforts to protect its peacekeepers from prosecution by the international criminal court, which was set up to try cases of genocide, war crimes and systematic human rights abuses.

This baffles me. Well, not really. It baffles me how anyone could see this and agree with it. If you are truly a humanitarian nation, you wouldn't need to worry about being prosecuted for war crimes. But, as The Daily Show so eloquently put it, "this is part of the U.S.'s new foreign policy: We do whatever the hell we want, you do..........whatever the hell we want."

Well, that's close to a quote.

Your days of influencing bands are over

From Blistering:

In the same interview, Hammett predicted that METALLICA's new album would influence other metal bands to play harder and faster once again and implied that another well-known arena act has already pulled the plug on their new release after getting an advance earful of "St. Anger".

"I have a suspicion that once this album drops and people hear it everywhere, I just have this suspicion that bands are gonna get heavier and start playing faster again," Kirk said. "I just have a suspicion that they are.

If St. Anger makes any band want to do the same thing as Metallica, they should be shot. The title track is one of the worst songs in history. This coming from someone who likes Metallica up-to-and-including the Black album, and can stand Load/ReLoad. But St. Anger is just horrible.

Of course, it's not surprising.

You can have guns, but not Shania Twain

Hammerdown points out Wal-Mart's hypocrisy in hiding mags like Maxim and FHM while allowing gun mags to continue to be sold.

It's pretty pathetic that our culture is much more afraid of sex than violence. Look at the attacks directed toward the Clintons, and the lack of questioning over the WMD issue. It's sad, and a bit scary, really.

Roadmap to...............where was it, again?

Israel attempts assasination of HAMAS leader.

Hamas Vows Revenge After Attack by Israel

This must be a detour on the Roadmap. Or it's one really fucked up roadmap to peace.

Speaking of Alterman.....

Altercation has a nice list of quotes by the Bush administration regarding WMD. Memorize your favorite today!

My books have arrived

Two of them, at least. 9-11 and The Fateful Triangle both by Noam Chomsky. I have a book by Alterman on it's way as well.

U.S.: 'High Probability' Al Qaeda Will Use WMD in Next Two Years

"Al Qaeda will continue to favor spectacular attacks but also may seek softer targets of opportunity, such as banks, shopping malls, supermarkets, and places of recreation and entertainment."

The report said the terrorist organization "will continue its efforts to acquire and develop biological, chemical, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons."

So in other words.............they're a terrorist group. Striking news.


[note: I'm changing the formatting a little, quotes are in italics now.]

Wow, nothing I posted was really interesting at all yesterday (technically, but it still feels like Monday). I'll be back later in the morning/afternoon with a vengeance. Good night.

The Nets lost last night, but the Mariners avenge their earlier loss to the Mets, which broke their 9 game winning streak, by a combined 20-1 in two games yesterday. So, all in all, not too bad of a day.

Report on 'unimposing' Saddam was suppressed

Downing Street is to come under fresh pressure this week to explain why an intelligence report, which said there was no proof that deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein posed a growing threat to the West, was suppressed.

Ah, who cares, it was all about liberating the Iraqi people.

Captives Deny Qaeda Worked With Baghdad

Found via Kos, buried in the NY Times.

WASHINGTON, June 8 — Two of the highest-ranking leaders of Al Qaeda in American custody have told the C.I.A. in separate interrogations that the terrorist organization did not work jointly with the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein, according to several intelligence officials.

Abu Zubaydah, a Qaeda planner and recruiter until his capture in March 2002, told his questioners last year that the idea of working with Mr. Hussein's government had been discussed among Qaeda leaders, but that Osama bin Laden had rejected such proposals, according to an official who has read the Central Intelligence Agency's classified report on the interrogation.

....

The Bush administration has not made these statements public, though it frequently highlighted intelligence reports that supported its assertions of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda as it made its case for war against Iraq.

I like the real time debunking of Bush's methods that we're starting to see. It was pointed out to me in the article that reported Bush was "satisfied" with the intelligence he received, and we see it here as well. The more of this towards Bush, the better. As long as it stays accurate, not like the shit thrown at the Clintons, most of which is false or misleading. Hell, the only way mainstream media even criticises Bush is if there's something blatantly obvious and they can't get away from it. Doesn't happen often, though.

Trailers as germ labs story continues to fall apart

But chemical weapons experts, engineers, chemists and military systems experts contacted by The Observer over the past week, say the layout and equipment found on the trailers is entirely inconsistent with the vehicles being mobile labs.

....

Questions over the claimed purpose of trailer for making biological weapons include:

· The lack of any trace of pathogens found in the fermentation tanks. According to experts, when weapons inspectors checked tanks in the mid-Nineties that had been scoured to disguise their real use, traces of pathogens were still detectable.

They just cleaned them really really well this time!

So the only evidence of Saddam's WMD program is falling apart. I suppose this was to be expected. Every other claim by the Bush administration has turned out to be false. No links to 9/11 or Al-Qaeda, the military put up credible resistance, and the country is currently worse off than with Saddam. And many can somehow say that the anti-war camp was proven wrong. I suppose the up-tight angles of the Saddam statue being pulled down by our soldiers makes an impact on people. Especially when the numbers at the statue were overwhelmed by the numbers that have protested against the U.S. But hey, it's not like Bush is the type to have some underlying agenda to lie about Iraq. That's "inconceivable."

O'Reilly on the WMD situation

Always entertaining to go through these, so let's begin.

Unfortunately, the WMD situation is now been politicized. Fanatics on the left are screaming about lies and conspiracies. Fanatics on the right are yelling it doesn't matter if any deadly weapons are found in Iraq.

Both sides are wrong as usual. The truth is the WMD issue does matter, and President Bush needs to explain it. Talking Points believes the Iraq war was just, and the progress now being made between Israeli and the Palestinians would never have happened if Saddam Hussein was still in power. Just that alone makes the war worthwhile. We are not even mentioning the mass graves and other horrors of Saddam Hussein.

So, it does matter, but the war was just as of right now? Isn't that saying it doesn't matter? Nevermind the sketchy assumption that Middle East peace is making progress, and that progress is because of the Iraq war or the fact that the mass graves are partly the fault of Bush v1.0. So O'Reilly takes the right wing position, but tries to spin it as the moderate position. No surprise there.

So, there is no question that America has done a good thing for the world. However, when the president of the United States tells the American people that U.S. intelligence has pinpointed deadly weapons and those weapons don't turn up, the President has an obligation to explain.

All Americans must have confidence that the CIA and other intelligence agencies are honest and effective. If the CIA told Mr. Bush there were weapons, did it make a mistake? If so, how did that mistake come about? These are logical questions that have to be answered in order for Americans to feel confident about their government.

But where's the suggestion that Bush distorted the intelligence? That's been the point the left is screaming about (and the point that the right would be questioning if they didn't have so much unfounded blind confidence in Bush). There couldn't have been another agenda, he just needs to explain. Nevermind that anti-war people were screaming about underlying agendas and the validity of Bush's WMD claims, which appear to be coming true.

That being said, it is fair to all the hunt for the weapons to continue without these hysterical accusations of lies and deceit. People making those charges are being irresponsible and hurting the country. Let's face it, there is a good chance that deadly weapons are hidden in Iraq. It is beyond belief that both President Bush and British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, would conspire to lie to the world about this issue. Simply inconceivable.

But it wouldn't be inconcievable that Clinton would've lied to the world about it, would it? And how are we irresponsible? It's irresponsible to not ask questions. Especially when the main points of the opposition to the war are coming true. O'Reilly acts as if these accusations come out of nowhere.

Thus, reasonable people are faced with two conclusions -- one, that the intelligence was wrong, or, two, that more time is needed to find the weapons. Talking Points just asks one thing from President Bush, an update on the situation in the next few weeks. That's a very reasonable request and one the President must take seriously if he wants to advance the cause of the USA throughout the world.

Or the third conclusion, Bush distorted the intelligence. Can't forget that. And didn't you give a few weeks, a few weeks ago? I believe so.

This is why people like O'Reilly. He reassures them that everything is ok, and makes it look like the moderate position, when in fact our discourse has been pulled right enough that moderate right wing positions look like moderate positions. He can avoid asking the really tough questions while making it look like he's just being reasonable.

Yes, the Nets won by 2 tonight. I missed the game because of work, though. My Mariners had their winning streak snapped tonight by the Mets of all teams. I hate NY.

Fair and Balanced, 6 to 1

Amplifying Officials, Squelching Dissent

Nearly two thirds of all sources, 64 percent, were pro-war, while 71 percent of U.S. guests favored the war. Anti-war voices were 10 percent of all sources, but just 6 percent of non-Iraqi sources and 3 percent of U.S. sources. Thus viewers were more than six times as likely to see a pro-war source as one who was anti-war; with U.S. guests alone, the ratio increases to 25 to 1.

....

The FAIR study found just 3 percent of U.S. sources represented or expressed opposition to the war. With more than one in four U.S. citizens opposing the war and much higher rates of opposition in most countries where opinion was polled, none of the networks offered anything resembling proportionate coverage of anti-war voices. The anti-war percentages ranged from 4 percent at NBC, 3 percent at CNN, ABC, PBS and FOX, and less than 1 percent--one out of 205 U.S. sources--at CBS.

Confirming the obvious, maybe, but still pretty interesting. Whipping boy Dan Rather's network, CBS, gets the lowest marks. Kinda funny. 25 to 1 of U.S. guests is pretty pathetic. And how many were competent voices?

More from FAIR

In the following quotes, well-known cable news hosts express anti-war feelings to hawkish guests. Can you guess which quote is “anti-American”?

* "Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?”

* "We're sending 250,000 of our young men and women to die so that somebody in Washington can prove they're tough. It's not us. We're not the ones that are going to die, they are.”

For many right-leaning pundits, these seemingly similar expressions of dissent are worlds apart. To them, the first quote--Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity (Hannity & Colmes, 4/6/99) expressing opposition to the Clinton administration’s 1999 Kosovo actions--is responsible criticism of the government. The second remark, said by then-MSNBC host Phil Donahue (Donahue, 2/13/03) in opposition to the war in Iraq, is disloyal, anti- American--possibly even treasonous.

Hamas Leader Breaks Off Truce Talks

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A senior Hamas official said Friday the militant group was breaking off cease-fire talks with the Palestinians, a surprise reversal that threw into doubt a key component of a Mideast peace plan.

The Middle East peace process crumbling again? The article at least suggests there's still hope:

However, a Palestinian Cabinet minister said talks with Hamas leaders abroad continued, suggesting there was still a chance to reach an agreement to end Hamas violence — including suicide attacks against Israelis. Others said Hamas, known for its pragmatism, would not risk a confrontation with security forces and would quickly resume talks.

Either way, it's not looking good.

U.S. Secret Report Raises Questions Over Iraqi Weapons

As the Bush administration was pushing last fall for a war against Iraq because of alleged weapons of mass destruction, a defense department report said it did not have enough "reliable information" Iraq was amassing these weapons, a defense official said on Friday.

....

Last week CIA Director George Tenet defended his agency's intelligence on Iraqi chemical and biological weapons, saying the "integrity of our process was maintained throughout."

Media reports had said CIA analysts had complained of pressure from the administration about their findings on Iraqi weapons.

When are we going to get people to question Bush and not the CIA? People like Bill O'Reilly think it's "inconceivable" that Bush lied to get us into war, and insists on blaming it on the CIA. The Bush administration seems to be untouchable. It looks like we'll only get that criticism if they fire Tenet and he lashes out.

I do wish the conservatives were right when they say the media is liberal, it'd be so nice.

Ashcroft Pushes Anti-Terror Law Expansion

Ashcroft held aloft what he said were copies of terrorist declarations of war against America. One quoted Nasser al-Fahd, a prominent Muslim cleric known to be sympathetic to al-Qaida, as saying it would be permissible if a bomb killed 10 million Americans.

Ashcroft also read aloud the names of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks as he defended the Justice Department (news - web sites)'s use so far of anti-terrorism powers.

Kids, these are called scare tactics. They are used when someone can't justify something logical, so he/she uses an emotional argument to sway someone. They should be avoided by all decent people.

Why the Israel and Palestine situation will never be settled.

Tens of thousands of right-wing Israelis, many of them Jewish settlers, rallied tonight in the center of Jerusalem and vehemently denounced the prospect of a Palestinian state as sketched by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

....

In Gaza, the militant Muslim groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad both said that for now, they were not willing to stop fighting against Israel despite Mr. Abbas' call for an end to the "armed intifada," or uprising, which began in September 2000.

"This plan is a disaster for the Palestinians, it does not deal with our problems," Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza City, said of the road map.

I don't know if the Road Map is much of a solution or not, and I don't know enough about the situation in general (trying to remedy that soon), but it really appears these people just can't get along.[/incredible understatement]

Then there's: Sharon sticks to script in front of Bush - but the backtracking has already begun, and that doesn't sound good.

I would just like to point out that Bill O'Reilly, who led a boycott of French goods, called boycotting "unamerican" in his book, The No Spin Zone. And apparently he has been spotted eating at a French restaruant. Maybe he's calling off the boycott since it appears that the French were right? Nah, probably not.

The Niger connection: Tony Blair, forged documents and the case for war

Report on the forged Niger documents the U.S. and Britain provided the U.N. This has been known for a while now, but I still wish the U.S. media cared even a little bit about the truth. There's a full blown scandal going on in Britain, almost nothing here. It's pathetic.

The Bush administration must be ecstatic about this. The FCC allows the media to become even more cosolidated, they (the media) denounce the internet as a reliable source, pulling people away from their best source for information, back into ABCNNBCBS and FOX, where nothing is trustworthy. They do things like the Washington Times article I posted about yesterday, all the while denouncing the rest of the media as liberal and trying to undermine Bush. It's mind blowing. It's so blatantly obvious, and people will still claim FNC is "fair and balanced."

And if we can't even get the information on Iraq heard, how are we going to get painful questions about 9/11 answered? Like why the utter lack of communication in the FAA or the gov't (that may be a bit too nice) happened, causing no planes to be sent up until hours afterward, or how the collapse of the WTC actually happened, seeing as the official story is completely impossible. It's absolutely pathetic.

Well, Nets lose by 12 in game one. They were close at times in the 2nd half (I missed the 1st half) but couldn't make a comeback. If the Spurs are gonna hold on to leads the Nets have problems.

Wolfowitz made some interesting comments yesterday.

From The Guardian:

Asked why a nuclear power such as North Korea was being treated differently from Iraq, where hardly any weapons of mass destruction had been found, the deputy defence minister said: "Let's look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil."

But here it says:

The difference between North Korea and Iraq, Wolfowitz said, is that the United States could not use economic pressure to strangle Hussein's regime "because the country floats on a sea of oil." North Korea, by comparison, is near economic collapse, and that offers "a major point of leverage," he said.

The normally reliable Guardian may have quoted Wolfowitz out of context. It doesn't make sense for him to admit something that huge. More on this will come out soon, I'm sure.

UPDATE: From the AP:

At the conference, Wolfowitz said North Korea would respond to economic action, unlike Iraq (news - web sites) where military action was necessary because oil money had been propping up its regime despite sanctions.

It looks certain the Guardian took the remarks out of context. The whole war being about just oil doesn't make sense anyway. It would have been infinitely cheaper to make a deal with Saddam. Look at all the rebuilding costs we're saddled with now. Iraq's oil fields may be fairly low yield anyway, so it's questionable that it would benefit us to have control. No countries were depending on Iraq's oil, so the control of the reserves idea doesn't seem to fly either. Oil may have been part of it, but it's not the main reason.

Anyway, Kos and others are discussing the topic.

UPDATED UPDATE: The more I look at Wolfowitz's comments, the more I think he was just reaching for something to justify the difference in action towards NK and Iraq. He chose oil, maybe not a wise decision, considering that was the main ulterior motive claim for the war. But I guess it shows how confident he is in the state of the media here, he doesn't have to worry about it being twisted like a lefty would.

A Lesson in Propaganda

Exhibit A: CIA says al Qaeda ready to use nukes

Al Qaeda terrorists and related groups are set to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in deadly strikes, according to a new CIA report.

"Al Qaeda's goal is the use of [chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons] to cause mass casualties," the CIA stated in an internal report produced last month.

"However, most attacks by the group — and especially by associated extremists — probably will be small-scale, incorporating relatively crude delivery means and easily produced or obtained chemicals, toxins or radiological substances," the report said.

Islamist extremists linked to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden "have a wide variety of potential agents and delivery means to choose from for chemical, biological and radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attacks," said the four-page report titled "Terrorist CBRN: Materials and Effects."

Fact No. 1: Most people only scan headlines.
To Use Fact No. 1: Make up headline that is close to content of article, but with slight and pivotal difference.

Al Qaeda's plans for chemical arms were revealed in a document obtained in summer 2002 that "indicates the group has crude procedures for making mustard agent, sarin and VX," the report said.

Mustard is a blistering agent, and sarin and VX are nerve agents that can kill humans in small amounts

Fact No. 2: People are bored easily
To Use Fact No. 2: Start talking about chemicals in as technical terms as you can, people will stop reading, and remember most likely just the headline.

This concludes the lesson in propaganda.

Standard Operating Procedure

And anyone who talks about an "intelligence failure" is missing the point. The problem lay not with intelligence professionals, but with the Bush and Blair administrations. They wanted a war, so they demanded reports supporting their case, while dismissing contrary evidence.

Hooray for Krugman! This point needs to be pounded home until EVERYONE gets it.

Bush, US losing global support: poll

Man, it says 76% of French, 57% of Germans want less to do with us. We already know most of the world didn't support the Iraq war. Just think, if it's this bad around the world, think of his ratings at home, where they actually have to deal with the guy. What? They're at 60-something percent? WHAT THE HELL? Oh, yeah. And this too.

UPDATE: More extensive AP article on same survey here.

'You Lied to Us'

Yeesh, I'm not really familiar with William Safire, but this column is out to lunch.

Quick — what was the biggest intelligence misjudgment of Gulf War II?

It was the nearly unanimous opinion of the intelligence community, backed by the U.S. and British military, that the 50,000 elite soldiers of Saddam's well-trained, well-equipped Special Republican Guard would put up a fierce battle for Baghdad.

But we see the opposite opinion by some lefties. They put up much fiercer resistance than they expected. Remember that General who said "This isn't the enemy we war gammed against"? It looks like this is just something that got twisted in the stream of propaganda that accompanies any war, and we really don't know what is exactly true. I don't know that you can call it much of an intelligence failure.

Turn now to the charge heard ever more stridently that U.S. and British leaders, in their eagerness to overthrow Saddam and to turn the tide of terror in the Middle East, "hyped" the intelligence that Iraq possessed germ and poison-gas weapons.

"Hype" means "exaggerate." As used by those who were prepared to let Saddam remain in power, it is prelude to a harsh accusation: "You lied to us. You pretended to have evidence that you never had; you twisted dubious intelligence to suit your imperialistic ends, so we were morally right and you were morally wrong."

Well, he's got the meaning down. Now, all that's left is for him to realize that's what happened.

Never mind the mass graves now being unearthed of an estimated 300,000 victims, which together with the million deaths in his wars make Saddam the biggest mass murderer of Muslims in all history.

We knew about that. Bush v1.0 deserted the Kurds after telling them to rise up.

And never mind our discovery of two mobile laboratories designed to produce biological and chemical agents capable of causing mass hysteria and death in any city in the world. Future discoveries will be dismissed as "dual use" or planted by us.

And Kos tells us about the CIA's admitance otherwise.

Long before the C.I.A. dispatched agents to northern Iraq, Kurdish sources were quoted in this space about terrorist operations of Ansar al-Islam, whose 600 members included about 150 "Afghan Arabs" trained by Al Qaeda; after our belated bombing, some escaped to Iran.

That Ansar al-Islam base has no connection to Saddam.

In the meantime, as the crowd that bitterly resents America's mission to root out the sources of terror whips up its intelligence-hoax hype, remember the wise "mistake" we made in overestimating the fighting spirit of Saddam's uniformed bully-boys.

I'd say it's more like we resent our President using our troops to destroy a country that is not a significant source of terror and the act of which will create many more terrorists.

O'Reilly and Franken Spar at Book Show

Reading the article, and reading other reports on it, I think this is a bit sympathetic to O'Reilly. But, I haven't seen the video or read a transcript, so I could be wrong. Al Franken is great, though. Another transcript I need to find.

If anyone knows where I can find a transcript of Noam Chomsky on C-Span yesterday, it'd be greatly appreciated.

'Bust-Enhancing' Pills Are Bogus: Researcher

SON OF A BITCH!!

You mean to tell me spam e-mail lies? Never!

'Evidence of WMD'

THE CIA planned to present US lawmakers with new evidence of Iraq's alleged weapons programs as early as next week, as the US civil administrator for Iraq urged patience in the hunt for Saddam Hussein, Time magazine reported today.

....

Officials at the Central Intelligence Agency told Time that they would present US lawmakers with fresh evidence, in a bid to overcome growing doubts about the quality of the information that led to the war.

Did we find more trailers? More circumstantial "intelligence"? To go a bit conspiracy theorist, are we planting evidence soon? We will soon see, I guess. Or not. We get a lot of empty promises.

French hold up weapons deal

Let the French bashing begin!

President Jacques Chirac, who exchanged a curt handshake with Mr Bush when the two men met for the first time since their fallout over Iraq, was resisting the White House's call for sweeping powers to allow ships to be intercepted on the high seas on suspicion that they were carrying weapons destined for terrorism.

Is "high seas" an actual technical (or semi-technical, at least) term? Sounds goofy either way.

Appears Bush wants to extend the PATRIOT Act out to the seas. We do what we want, if we have a "suspicion" kind of thing. I'm sure the mainstream media will catch on to this story and get some more French bashing going. All the while missing the fact that France appears to have been right about WMD. I'm getting a headache.

Finally, the archive links stop being a pain in the ass. And if anyone knows of a good template site, it'd be much appreciated. I'm not all that skilled at html or creative enough to do my own, and I've been coming up empty searching on the web.

The trailer find breaks down some more.

The trailer story becomes even shakier. What Really Happened also has some more debunking. The trailer appears to have a half an air conditioner in it. Odd.......

Can the Nets upset the Spurs in the NBA Finals, beginning Wednesday? No one seems to think so. And I would have to agree. The Spurs are clearly the best team in the NBA at the moment, while the Nets are in the Eastern Conference. That about says it all. I say Spurs in 6, I hope for Nets in 7. Let the games begin!

Straw, Powell had serious doubts over their Iraqi weapons claims

The source of the transcripts is questionable at this point, but that's pretty damaging stuff. Damaging to the one figure who may have some credibility left. At least to people skeptical of Bush, but not completely against him like me, or any of the blogs in my links. This will likely be a big deal in Britain, but not so much here. It's really becoming irritating (as if all this wasn't already). Anyway, Kos has some good posts about the WMD situation in the media, and there are some good comments for one of them. So go read.

Thanks to Swopa at Needlenose, who links to my post about Bush's satisfaction.

Terror Alert Drops To Yellow

Whew. I guess it's safe to go outside again.

Wouldn't it be nice if Bush got the same amount of pressure as Blair on the WMD issue? The British gov't is in an uproar, and Bush is "satisfied." I really wish people weren't mindless zombies when it comes to politics around here.

Waggy Dog Stories

Latest Krugman article. I don't even need to point out that it's good.

"For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on,"

- Paul Wolfowitz

My internet connection hates me. Five disconnects in the span of an hour and a half.

Rumsfeld involved in minor car crash

I will refrain from any malicious jokes or comments.

Bush 'satisfied' with Iraq intelligence

PRESIDENT George W. Bush believed that US charges about Iraq's unconventional weapons had been "borne out", despite the post-war failure to locate such arms, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said today.

"The president is indeed satisfied with the intelligence that he received," he told reporters, citing the discovery earlier this month of two mobile labs that could potentially have been used to produce chemical or biological weapons.

There's not much to say to that. It's just rather insane.

Be sure to read the rest of the article. Reports Ari trying to back his way out of the WMD claims, then reports a couple of past statements by the Bush administration.

al-Qaida Said to Scour Australia Targets

Hey, Howard's trying his luck at some of Bush's tactics. I doubt they work.

No Bunker where U.S. Bombs Targeted Saddam-CBS

Oopsy.

I'm bored, so I might as well go through O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo from the other day.

Before the Iraq war, I told you that the removal of Saddam Hussein would have positive consequences throughout the world. Those who oppose the war said I was nuts, that the conflict would hurt America and the world.

Well, first evidence says we were right... As Israel is now compromising with the Palestinian authority, although nothing is certain, but any kind of progress brings peace in that volcanic region closer. The reason Israel has finally agreed to the formation of a Palestinian state is that the USA has more than 100,000 troops in the area, and Israel's security, vis-a-vis Syria and Iran, is assured while Iraq, obviously, is no longer a threat.

Surprisingly, seeing how old O'Reilly is, he doesn't realize that this plan is just like all the others in history, which eventually failed. Sorry, no dice on that idea.

Saudi Arabia is also under enormous pressure to stop funding terror because the USA now has the Iraqi oil option. And the Saudis know that if they don't crack down on the fundamentalists, bad things may happen to the kingdom.

Two-thirds of Americans believe the Saudis are not our friends, and their oil card is much weaker now, so logically, the Saudis must begin to fight Al Qaeda aggressively, another benefit of the Iraq war.

Except the largest attack on U.S. interests since 9/11 just happened there. And the Saudis ARE fundamentalists. And I thought the war wasn't about oil? Oh, and then there's the possibility that Al Qaeda doesn't really exist.

Iran also feeling the heat. This country is run by fanatical Islamists who hate America and continues to supports suicide bombers and is developing deadly weapons. But Iran knows the USA is now standing on its western border, and that pressure is the only thing that can stop their madness. Yet another benefit of defeating Saddam.

I remember reading that Iraq wouldn't respond to pressure, that we've been doing that for 12 years and they withstood it. So what makes him think it'll work for Iran, especially when we bomb Iranian opposition groups?

Talking Points could list five more anti-terror factors that have been improved since Saddam was defeated, but suffice it to say that the global strategy designed by Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz is off to a good start.

I really hope they're better than the ones just listed. But I'm sure they aren't; why would you withold your best evidence?

Trucks Could Be Linked to Iraq Bioweapons

WASHINGTON - The discovery of two Iraqi truck trailers equipped with fermenters is the strongest evidence yet that Saddam Hussein had a biological weapons program, a U.S. intelligence report said Wednesday. But officials still have found no such weapons.

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"Examination of the trailers reveals ... an ingeniously simple, self-contained bioprocessing system," the report says. "Both trailers we have found probably are designed to produce BW agent in unconcentrated liquid slurry."

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There is no evidence the two trailers were ever actually used to make biological weapons, the intelligence officials said. Officials also said they did not expect to find biological agents inside the trucks, which they said the Iraqis probably had decontaminated.

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Intelligence officials who briefed reporters Wednesday on condition of anonymity, said they had considered and discarded possible legitimate uses for the trailers, ranging from the production of hydrogen to pesticides. The trucks would not be able to do any of those very well, they indicated.


"The Iraqis had a motivation to inefficiently produce a biological agent," said one intelligence official. "They had no motivation to inefficiently produce anything else."

Captured Iraqi scientists have said the vehicles were for producing hydrogen for weather balloons in support of artillery. The report acknowledges the trailers could be used to make hydrogen but says the effort would be inefficient compared with widely available commercial hydrogen generation systems.

A technical analysis of the trucks showed they could be used, though inefficiently, to complete the early steps of creating a biological weapon, intelligence officials said. Based on information from the source, they believe each truck was part of a two-truck or three-truck system that could create a finished agent.

Ingeniously simple, but inefficient. And just a bit more efficient than "producing hydrogen for weather balloons in support of artillery." And why would you scrub a weapons lab clean, but leave the lab? Wouldn't it be easier to torch it and leave NO evidence behind? Isn't that simpler? But those damn dirty Arabs, always leaving highly important documents, labs, etc just lying around.

Happy Birthday to me.

Tom Tomorrow gets a response from Time about the letter they printed originating from the GOP website. He vows to keep going. Good.

Came across this story on Fox News.

Officials are threatening businessman Bob Foor with 30 days in jail if he refuses to remove the 3 1/2-feet-tall and nearly 100-feet-wide flashing red sign from a massive old building he owns in the heart of the borough's historic district.

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The row began a year ago when Foor sought permission from the borough's historical review board to put up the sign. The board denied the request because of the size of the sign and the use of neon, both of which failed to comply with the district's historic appearance.

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Officials, who gave Foor 10 days' notice to remove the sign, say it violates the historic district's regulations, the sign ordinance and the zoning law. Borough Manager John Montgomery added signs must be inside the window.


Exactly why is this news?

Man, if you can, catch The Daily Show's Iraq: A Look Back show. SO funny. All the great stuff I missed at my Comedy Central-less college.

And why does Blogspot suck? I try loading up Hammerdown, and it never gets there. A pain in the ass I tell you.

Euro Soars to Record High Against Dollar

The euro soared to a record high against the dollar Tuesday in a major boost for many U.S. exporters but deepening the pain for the continent's struggling economy and American tourists in Europe.

We're inching closer to OPEC turning to the Euro instead of using the dollar. Then you should be worried. Very worried.

U.S. Plans Death Camp

Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday.

Well, we know they're guilty, they don't need rights. Trust us.

I have no comment on the location of the 1000s of tons of WMD at this point in time.

Patriotism

Patriotism is all the rage nowadays. People waving flags, holding signs, flags on porches, etc. The most potent weapon supporters of Bush have is questioning someone's patriotism. The mere mention causes people to vehemently defend themselves. If a righty doesn't like something, he merely calls you unpatriotic and you have to defend yourself, changing the subject. Just as the anti-war movement was hip for many young people, patriotism is hip for older people. But as is obvious to many, it's leading us down a bad road. An unquestioning, morally blind road with regards to the state of the world.

What drives this? Fear. And guilt. Fear that something awful will happen if we don't fight everyone and the guilt that soldiers are dying for them and they have to support it. Fear that the anti-war movement is representing them and they feel guilty and scared about. That's one thing that irritates me. There would be no troops rallies or anything if there were no anti-war protestors. They don't care enough to go out on there own initiative, they are coerced into it by guilt.

There's nothing wrong with being patriotic (here I go defending myself). But like many things, in excess, it's very harmful. You can see the incredible difference in opinions between the U.S. and the world and attribute it to detachment. We have no problem accepting bad things about France, but when it's your own country, it's not tolerable.

And one more thing: why is patriotism linked to God? One nation under God, God bless America. I realize these are old sayings, but they seem to be out in force these days. I really don't have much to say about this, other than it's wrong.

You can say this was an appropriate or an inappropriate rant with Memorial Day being, well, yesterday, now. But I needed to get it off my chest.

UN chief warns of anti-American backlash in Iraq

I believe he was proven right weeks ago.

It's Memorial Day for another 13 minutes. No, there's really no point to that comment.