For those that are interested in checking out Jacob Fred "live" from the Knitting Factory they will be on BET Jazz next month.  I don't get BET Jazz, but I may try and find someone that does to record it.

From: "Jacob Fred's Manager"                                          
To: FredHeads@yahoogroups.com                                                 
Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2002 01:02:52 -0000                                         
Subject: [FredHeads] JFJO on TV!!! (BET Jazz - 10/23/02 and 10/27/02)         
                                                                              
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey                                                       
On BET JAZZ                                                                   
Wednesday, October 23rd at 8pm and Sunday, October 27th at                    
10pm.                                                                         
                                                                              
Set that VCR!                                                                 
Need I say more?                                                              

"Fleischer's unusually colorful remarks created a stir in the White House press corps, and Fleischer called reporters after the briefing to tone down the impact of his words. "I was making a rhetorical point about the cost of the bullet," he said. "The point I'm making is not an administration policy. If the Iraqi people took events into their own hands, the world would not shed a tear. I'm not stating administration policy, I'm stating the obvious.""

The Washington Post take on Fleischer's comments. 

"WASHINGTON - Commenting on the cost of a war in Iraq, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer ( news - web sites) said Tuesday it would be cheaper if President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites) simply were assassinated. "

Well, interesting noises coming from the White House.  It also mentions exile as a possibility.  Delving a bit further into the transcript, Ari goes on to comment on the two possibilities.

On exile:

"Q And the second question is, you just said before, the cost of a one-way ticket is less than that, the cost of a single bullet is less than that. Are you suggesting that two perfectly good alternatives, to your mind, would be an exile of Saddam Hussein --

MR. FLEISCHER: As you know, Secretary Rumsfeld, and many others, including the President, are not shy about saying the Iraqi people -- after all, this was called the Iraqi Liberation Act -- the Iraqi people can help resolve this matter, as well, and the Iraqi military. And so there are many options that the United States is prepared to see, and the President has said the military option is not his first choice, but the President is indeed prepared, if necessary, to use force. And that's why he's asked Congress to authorize it.

Q Will you help in the one-way ticket scenario? is the U.S. government willing to provide assistance in that regard?

MR. FLEISCHER: I think that's part of regime change, isn't it, if Saddam Hussein is gone? "

On assassination:

"Q You addressed David's question about one-way ticket. What about one-way bullet? Is the White House advocating assassination as a possible option for Saddam Hussein?

MR. FLEISCHER: I think that it's fair to say that the Iraqi regime is not satisfied with Saddam Hussein, that Saddam Hussein has created a great many enemies inside Iraq. And it is impossible to last forever as a brutal dictator who suppresses his own people, who tortures his own people, who deliberately brings women in public to be raped, so it can be witnessed by their families. He has not exactly created goodwill among the Iraqi people.

Q If I could follow on that, would the White House like to see Saddam Hussein dead?

MR. FLEISCHER: The policy is regime change. And that remains -- and that remains the American position. Clearly, in the event that there is any type of military operation, command and control would, of course, be issues that would come up.

Q Is the hope, though, that he ends up dead in all this?

MR. FLEISCHER: Regime change is the policy, in whatever form it takes.

Q I just want to re-ask again then, the question I've been asking for several weeks. Is the administration about to rescind the executive order prohibiting assassination of foreign leaders, and claim that he's an international terrorist, and in fact, put out a hit on him?

MR. FLEISCHER: No. The policy remains in place, per the law.

Q Why is there no consideration to rescinding that executive order?

MR. FLEISCHER: It's just -- because it's not come up as matter that I've heard discussed, Connie. And so I can't tell you why something doesn't get discussed.

Q Could you ask?

MR. FLEISCHER: I don't really think it's an issue. The policy remains regime change, as expressed by the Congress."

And then at the end of the briefing:

"Q Ari, could I just clarify the one bullet line -- is the White House from this podium advocating the assassination of Saddam Hussein by his own people, by his military?

MR. FLEISCHER: No, the question was about potential costs and different scenarios for costs. And I just cited the fact that Saddam Hussein has survived as a result of the repression and suppression of his own people, and that's a reality about what life is like inside Iraq.

Q But I'm not asking you a question about costs. I'm asking you if you intend to advocate from that podium that some Iraqis, person put a bullet in his head?

MR. FLEISCHER: Regime change is welcome in whatever form that it takes.

Q So the answer is, yes?

MR. FLEISCHER: Thank you."

[via DrudgeReport]

"After careful review, Salon's editors have decided to take down from our Web site an article titled "Tom White played key role in covering up Enron losses" that we published on Aug. 29. We took this unusual step because we have come to the conclusion that we can no longer stand by the story in its entirety. Though we have corroborated most of the reporting in the article, some unanswered questions remain. "

I assume this is why Scott is busy today.  I know basically nothing about journalism as a art/business, so I'll let others comment further, but its good to know Salon is responsible, and openly brings to light this issue on the front page, instead of it getting buried somewhere.  This is why I've supported Salon with subscriptions and this weblog, and you should too.

If you don't, who will?

When I started this weblog, I wasn't sure what I'd use it for.  I was mainly concerned with supporting Salon in any way I could to keep it around.  I subtitled it "Security, Music, and Movies" because these are three things I enjoy a lot, and figured I could comment intelligently on. 

However... I've always enjoyed talking and reading about politics, world affairs and such.  I just didn't feel a need to burden you, the weblog readers with it.  That changed however, when the "War on Terrorism" became the "War on Everyone With Oil."  So, now, rather than just reading the articles I used to read, I'm sharing them with all of you, along with commentary where I might have something intelligent to say (not too often thankfully ;) )  Besides, I get bored waiting for something interesting to happen in the Music/Movie/Security world ;)

As such, since I've noticed some grumbles from readers that they aren't getting what was advertised, I've changed my subtitle a bit.

Just in case you were wondering...

"Mr. Bush also mused that our children should know about, as he put it with authority, "the nearly impossible victory of the Revolutionary War." One doubts that the presidentially ordained version would include colonists' resolute commitment to guerrilla warfare and terrorist tactics in breaking the back of the world's greatest military power, which, in retrospect, severely mitigated the near impossibility of an upstart-American victory. Two-hundred years later in Southeast Asia we relived that lesson in reverse, but that probably should be left unsaid in State-approved textbooks as well. It does so muddle things, don't you know. And, of course, the president wants "our children to know about America's liberation of Europe during World War II." With independent perseverance they may also discover the Russians, among others, had a little something to do with crushing Nazism. But once again moral clarity would be threatened by official acknowledgement. Communism was, in all cases and at all times, immoral and evil, thus its war efforts could not have matched ours."

A interesting response from the History News Network to the President's speech on teaching history, from which the infamous 'fool' excerpt was drawn.  No fun is made of Bush's stumbling over foolishness, but plenty poking at his sense of history.

"Atomic energy officials said Monday that a substance seized by police near the Syrian border was not weapons-grade uranium as Turkish officials first reported, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Atomic Energy Institute chief Guler Koksal said the material was harmless, containing zinc, iron, zirconium and manganese. "

Double Oops.  You'd think they'd at least get the fact that it was Uranium right.  I mean, messing up the weight (apparently by neglecting to subtract the weight of the lead container) is one thing...

[via DrudgeReport]

"I understand US politics, up to a point. I know about the oil, the congressional elections, America's economic problems and the long history of US isolationism, blood kin to grouchy unilateralism, that drives the Republican right. But there is something deeper than that going on behind the now-routine charge of anti-Americanism. The historians call it exceptionalism, the sense that the US is a special, even unique case, the belief that America is beyond question the greatest country the world has seen, and the conviction that anyone who doesn't always agree must be an enemy. Some Americans, a large number of them, don't understand why other people don't understand them. September 11 gave some of them cause, so they think, to put the worst possible interpretation on that confusion."

Another good article from the Glasgow Sunday Herald on all of us anti-Americans.

[via Smirking Chimp]