Testing...

Blog is moving.......to here. Plan accordingly.

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."