Happy Middle Easter! Soon there'll be an egg hunt. I wonder what they'll find?

- Michael 9:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Oh yeah, and now I just heard that Bush wants to change the Iraqi money to dollars, just in case OPEC decides to use the Euro instead of dollars. How's that for free-market competition? What about all those rupees? Are they worth doodly-squat now? What a great idea, wish I'd thought of it. Wait a minute, I did. Before the war. Funny how that works. Can't wait for that pipeline through Jordan -- or was it the port of Karachi? It's both! Keeping it from getting blown up, though, that'll take a permanent occupying army, forever. Or haven't we heard yet?

- Michael 6:39 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Thanks to Buzzflash for pointing out This great Salt Lake City cartoon.

- rob 1:32 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Phew... We're back to Yellow Alert folks. I don't know about you, but I feel much safer now. Heck, I'm leaving the car unlocked, the driver's side door open, and my wallet on the seat.

But don't let those heady days of being at Orange Alert become nothing but a memory. If you get one of our fine Orange alert mouse pads or tshirts you can celebrate those days forever! (and it will also come in handy when we go back to Orange Alert in May (or June or July....).

- rob 1:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Found this thanks to This Modern World:
Please, no more made-in-the-USA monsters

To continue with the CIA thread of a few posts down, here comes a plea from Col. David Hackworth:

Then, in 1990, Saddam did a Noriega and foolishly bit the hand that fed him – as has almost every U.S.-sponsored Cold War dictator from every dark corner of every continent. His ill-conceived blitzkrieg against one of our primary gas stations, Kuwait, only served to get him locked down in Iraq for 12 no-fly-zone years, with heavy sanctions and bombing raids.

And when he still didn't get it, the pre-emptors decided to take him out for good.

Now billions and perhaps trillions of our dollars and our best and brightest will be rebuilding Iraq to create a stable government – a beacon of democratic light in a dismally troubled region.

But that's only if we don't empower yet another world-class serial killer, and then in a decade or two have to spend still more precious American lives making another regime change in a country that's already paid too hard a price.

- rob 1:28 AM - [PermaLink] -

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It is now clear to me more than ever that corporations have finally gotten their wish: The Pentagon, their own private army. We saw it in Chile, we're seeing it in Venezuela and now the entire Middle East. God forbid the Iraqis should control their own resources. The idea is laughable. It's almost quaint. What bothers me so that I can't sleep at night is that I know this mindset, and it won't be appeased, it won't be sated, it won't be swayed by appeals or the rule of law until every obstacle to what it covets is destroyed and forced out of existence. If Coke could annihilate Pepsi with an army it would. This is what keeps me up at night, because sooner than later this demon will come home. Everyone's cool with it when it's Afghanistan and Iraqis, but how cool are we going to be when it's you and me? Competition is supposed to be built into the system, the so-called free market, and every kind of law that's being broken right now is done in the name of it, yet do you think for one minute that the Carlyle Group or Halliburton or Bechtel will tolerate a competitor? Especially when now they can send in the marines and just steal everything, and murder anyone who gets in their way? People are all winking at each other over this, but how much will they wink when it's us?

- Michael 10:08 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I've got a new theory. As with many of my theories, I'll probably ignore it in the future and move on to a new improved theory, but for now here is my new theory: We won't actually go into Syria.

Perle wants to, Cheney wants to, and Rumsfeld wants to, but I have a feeling Rove won't let it happen. He knows that would be going too far for Bush politically. He'll let this talk continue, he'll let the left get all hysterical about this coming catastrophe. Then he’ll put the brakes on. Then come the election the right-wing press (radio and Fox) will crow about the idiotic wolf calling left, and the campaign will point out how Bush is a peace lover and prevented yet another war. Then he’ll get elected, and then, miraculously we'll find out Syria did something heinous and we will invade. Or maybe not.

- rob 9:53 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Michael wanted this link posted: US Troops Encouraged Ransacking

"It was an American tank that did that [pulled down the statue], right beside the hotel where all the journalists stay. Until lunchtime on April 9, I did not see one destroyed Saddam portrait. If people had wanted to pull down statues they could have taken down some of the small ones without any help from American tanks. If it had been a political upheaval, the people would have pulled down statues first and then plundered."
....

"Now the US is compelled to do everything themselves because there's no political body within the country which will challenge the existing structure. The two who came in from outside the country were annihilated at once. (The reference here is to General Nazar al-Khazraji, who returned from Denmark and the Shiite Muslim leader, Abdul Majid al-Khoei.) They were cut to pieces with swords and knives by a furious crowd in Najaf because they were thought to be American puppets. According to the Danish newspaper BT, al-Khazraji was brought from Denmark to Iraq by the CIA."

I have read similar articles about the statue scene, such as this one. I hadn't posted them earlier because I wanted to be just a little bit happy about this. I just wanted to believe for a moment that some good was happening, even though I disagreed with the war, I wanted America to be good again. Well... not yet. But we will. Don't be silent.

- rob 9:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

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blah blah Syria blah blah warning blah blah Syria. Yet another article about American warnings to Syria, but it features this great bit:

Lawrence Eagleburger, who was US Secretary of State under George Bush Snr, told the BBC: "If George Bush [Jnr] decided he was going to turn the troops loose on Syria and Iran after that he would last in office for about 15 minutes.In fact if President Bush were to try that now even I would think that he ought to be impeached. You can't get away with that sort of thing in this democracy."

- rob 4:09 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I understand the need of an agency like the CIA. Information is defense. Information is safety. But the CIA doesn't seem to gather as much as it seems to create, and its these operations that so often get us in trouble, from aiding little guys like Noriega, to big bads like Bin Laden in the eighties. So it is to be expected that an article should pop up about CIA's ties with Saddam.

- rob 4:04 PM - [PermaLink] -

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You know, what is great about Bush is that he isn't a one issue kind of guy when it comes to foreign policy. No he's acting like an imperialist in South America as well. America possibly aiding a coup against a democratically elected President in Venezuela, isn't really what promoting freedom is all about. I do so easily get confused. Oh my gosh, I'm having a Tom Lehrer flash back again:

For might makes right
And 'til they've seen the light
They've got to be protected
All their rights respected
Till somebody we like can be elected

- rob 3:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

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You know in the Eighties we used to make fun of Ron Reagan Jr. (as everyone always makes fun of Presidential offspring) but after reading this recent interview, I'm really starting to like him.

Reagan says his opinions about the war were not changed by the rapid fall of Baghdad. "Look, whether or not Saddam was a bad guy, or whether the Iraqi people were terribly oppressed, was never the issue. I mean I'm happy for the Iraqis, but that's not what this was all about. Nor was the military conclusion ever in doubt; this was the Dallas Cowboys playing a high school team. Their army was a third the size it was in '91, and it didn't give us much trouble then.

"And the weapons of mass destruction? Whatever happened to them? I'm sure we'll find some," he laughs. "They're being flown in right now in a C-130.

[snip]

.... Imagine installing such a blank slate in the presidency of the United States! This is a regency, not a presidency.

"And they told us, 'Don't worry about W. not knowing anything, good old Dick Cheney will be his minder.' Dick Cheney? And this was going to be compassionate conservatism? Dick Cheney is to the right of Genghis Khan, he wants to drill in your backyard, he wants to deny black people their rights --it was all there in his voting record for us to see. What were we, rubes?"

- rob 5:43 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Okay maybe Gore's election was stolen here, but that doesn't mean it was stolen everywhere!

- rob 2:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Krugman has another typical good article about what has been happening while we weren't looking.

- rob 2:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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So if the initial cost of this war with Iraq is 72 billion dollars, is it not fair to expect our playing cards to have better quality photos?

- rob 2:39 PM - [PermaLink] -

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could it be... is it possible... are the Democrats growing a spine?

- rob 5:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Why did humanity begin to create cities? Why did humanity begin to cultivate crops? Why did humanity begin to keep livestock? The answer to all of these questions my lie in Iraq, home of ancient Sumeria. Some of the answers actually may lie in the Baghdad's National Museum of Antiquities... well... they may have been there. Nothing much left there now. So now we can ask new questions, how come with our "strained resources" we were able to devote "a whole company of Marines, along with at least a half-dozen amphibious assault vehicles [to assign to] guard the Oil Ministry?" Hmm... the history of humanity, the history of the people we liberated... orr oil documents... It is a tough call. Glad we left it to oil men. Makes you wonder if the original name of this military campaign was "Operation Iraqi Liberation." (got that joke from another site, and thanks to MediaWhoresOnline in pointing out this article).

- rob 5:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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France and Defense Contractors

With all the jokes about France always surrendering, it would be good to remember the cause of their swift defeat: The Maginot Line. Basically it was the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, now called Ballistic Missile Defense System) of the thirties, a huge and expensive military undertaking. It was, of course, the largest military failure of all time, as the Nazi’s just went around it. And that is the problem with the Strategic Defense Initiative; we are spending BILLIONS on an untested technology that is already out of date. France wasn’t prepared for a mobile modern army, and we are pretending our enemies will play by the rules. Our own strength makes that somewhat inevitable; we are so strong that anyone fighting us by the rules will lose, so the enemy breaks the rules. In this case the enemy (terrorists) loves breaking the rules anyway, and we’ll still win anyway, but this is still an issue. Germany “broke the rules” by going into France via Belgium (which was neutral) because it could not go through the Maginot Line, it was too strong. America isn’t going to be attacked head on, ever. We only have to fear terrorism.

But given the state of things the Bush Administration is still investing heavily on “missile defense” and leaving other things wanting. Sneaking in “Weapons of Mass Destruction” on a freight ship seems like an obvious danger, so one would assume that the security budget at our ports has increased. Nope it’s the same as it was pre-9/11.
How much did the port authorities said did they require additionally to make the ports secure?
2 billion.
How much is the missile defense budget?
62 billion
How much is a good friendship with a defense contractor?
Priceless… I guess.

Money in the budget is limited, so instead of cutting back on veteran benefits (but I thought the GOP supported our troops?), perhaps we should cut back on useless defense projects.

I wonder how much the French defense contractors of the thirties pushed for the Maginot Line?

- rob 5:31 PM - [PermaLink] -

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It is Monday again, why not have some humor about conservative idiots?

- rob 1:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Yes I know it is unfair to take people out of context, but it is certainly fun, Buzzflash has some good recent quotes from the party in charge:

"We should just turn the sheriff loose and have him arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line."
- U.S. Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)

- rob 1:12 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Oh of course a reporter would say something negative about the war (see below), that's because the media is all liberal. Remember that, they are liberal, please don't look at the facts.

- rob 1:10 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If you want to read what our reporters think of the war coverage... you've got to go to England:

But as it happens, incredibly, there are many people who believe that these news briefings - which get surprisingly high ratings - are real. That when people in uniform speak, they speak the truth. Really. Truly.

- rob 1:09 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Don't ask me why this song popped into my head this morning. But it seems very appropriate now: Tom Lehrer's Send the Marines:

For might makes right
And 'til they've seen the light
They've got to be protected
All their rights respected
Till somebody we like can be elected

Members of the corps
All hate the thought of war
They'd rather kill them off by peaceful means
Stop calling it aggression
We hate that expression
We only want the world to know
That we support the status quo
They love us everywhere we go
So when in doubt
Send the Marines

I don't know if it is reassuring or not to think that that song is about 40 years old.

- rob 1:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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So what are our predictions for Syria:

1) In 2003?
2) A nice spring 2004 campaign?
3) An October surprise (right before the November 2004 election)

What you didn't know we were going to invade Syria?

Here and here is where the ground work is being laid.

Saddam's weapons of mass destruction are hidden in Syria! No, no one has said that yet... give it time.

- rob 12:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

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There's got to be a General Flowers/Bill Clinton/Bush joke in there someplace. "Follow the honey"? I don't know ... "A General in Flowers is worth two in George Bush"? Wait a minute, I'm working on it ... "One General's Flowers are worth two Bills in Jennifer Bush"? Hold on ... "A Gennifer in Flowers is worth two Generals in Bush"? I've got it, "A Bush in the hand is worth two Generals in Flowers" ... somebody stop me ...

- Michael 12:49 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Follow the money.

- rob 10:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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