Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Watching snippets of an Arsenal v. Bolton game on Fox Sports World tonight, I was amazed at how excited and loud football fans in the UK are - the second a goal gets scored, the entire crowd rose out of their seats screaming. THAT is my kind of sport.
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Prince defends right to speak out. UK latest: Prince Charles's office yesterday defended his right to express his views to ministers in the wake of mounting Labour criticism of his private letters to the government. [Guardian Unlimited] I gotta say - the only reason Labour's throwing a fit over this? 'cos the Prince is more conservative than they are. If he were advocating a socialist policy, do you really think they'd be complaining?

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Joe Conason's Journal. Democrats finally wake up. Plus: Who does the better Chomsky imitation, Gore -- or Sullivan! You decide. [Salon Headlines] Sullivan's attacks on Gore for opposing Bush's adventurism look not just vicious and deceitful, but full on hypocritical in light of a quote Conason finds, delivered by Sullivan in the wake of Clinton-ordered bombing of Iraq in 1998, after the end of the previous inspection efforts. At the time, it was attacked by the right as wagging the dog - Monica who? - I never thought so, though I did disagree with it at the time for different reasons. Here's Conason quoting Sullivan: "Back then, Sullivan wrote the following Chomsky-like sentence in a column for a London newspaper: "The many Iraqi civilians being wounded or killed in Operation Desert Fox surely deserve some assurance that they are regrettable victims of a just war, not missile fodder for a narcissist's final gamble.""

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Military role for Iraq opposition planned. Washington appears to be preparing to train Iraqi opposition groups to act in support roles in the event of an invasion of Iraq. [BBC News | Front Page] Except for the Kurds (whom the Turks won't let us arm or train for fear they might decide to cause trouble on the Turkish side of the border), there's no significant Iraqi opposition group on the ground in Iraq. This isn't like Afghanistan - there's no Northern Alliance sitting there, occupying a decent portion of the territory and able to go on the offensive quickly. No American attempts will create such a group either.

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Clinton pleads for Nigerian woman who had sex outside marraige. In other news, Clinton looking for international interns. [FARK] Ha. Ha. Yup, the death sentence (by stoning) handed out to a woman who had a child more than 9 months after being divorced (that's all the evidence against her) is definitely a good reason for another lame Clinton sex joke. Fark goes off my subscription list now.
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posted by homunculus at September 25 11:34 AM. Similarities between the United States and the Roman Empire. With the comparrison having become common, it is interesting to consider just how much the two really have in common. What would Cicero think? [MetaFilter] I've been feeling this more and more lately - we're in the latter days, of course. And when the Vandals start closing in, I'm buggering right off to Ireland, thanks.

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posted by owillis at September 25 11:04 AM. Daschle Accuses Bush of Politicizing Iraq Debate "You tell those who fought in Vietnam and World War II they are not interested in the security of the American people" because they are Democrats, Daschle said. "That is outrageous. Outrageous." The full text of Daschle's comments. Do we finally have an opposition party? [MetaFilter] Thank you! It's about time that someone point out the freakin' obvious here. Trent Lott's reply? ‘‘I think that Sen. Daschle needs to cool the rhetoric," Senate Republican leader Trent Lott said. ‘‘We need to do it in a bipartisan way. Accusations of that type are not helpful." Oh, come on! This is a perfect example of the abuse of the word "bipartisan" by the right wing. They seem to be saying that we should just agree with whatever Bush says for the sake of unity - which is absurd. I want Inigo Montoya to show up and say "This word you keep saying...I do not think it means what you think it means." Just because El Jefe Bush wants to go to war doesn't mean that the rest of us have to bend over and accept it.

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Salon.com News | The opportunist. Rightwing attack dog Andrew Sullivan snarls and bears his fangs, snapping at Gore. Warmongering columnists are outdoing themselves going after Gore in a white heat frenzy. Rather than "idiocy" as Sullivan feebly claims, Gore's statement was a principled critique of Bush's idiotic rush to war against Iraq. Gore is also totally correct that the US has lost the good will and solidarity it received after 9/11. There has never been more anti-US hostility throughout the world. A headline in Le Monde after 9/11 stated "Nous sommes tous les Americains," We are All Americans, stating solidarity with the US; Bush's arrogance and chauvinism has driven French anti-Americanism to a fever pitch. Growing German hostility to Bush's warmongering has been well published. And this is growing hostility for close Western allies! Anti-American in the Arab world, Latin America, etc has never been so high. Sullivan and the warmongers SIMPLY LIE in arguing for war and against a principled stand such as Gore took. The lines are being drawn... Salon.com News | The opportunist [Blog Left: Critical Interventions] He's right (not Sullivan, or Michael Kelly at the Wasington Post, but the writer of the above). This is getting out of control - the rest of the world is looking at America like a bull in a china shop. And they're right - the Bush Junta are thugs on a global scale. The attacks by the right-wing pundits on anyone who dissents are frightening. I was disturbed by Ashcroft, Cheney, et al attacking critics of the "war on terror" as unpatriotic, but now? Now it's getting scary. The right is saying we must be bipartisan! Bipartisan support for the president! It sure seems to me that they're using bipartisan as code for meekly following El Jefe. Gore's criticisms are entirely appropriate - I don't think they went far enough, but I understand that I'm in the minority politically. Argh - I'm not very coherent here, I know, but I'm really, really disturbed by this. I feel like running away from the US before it all falls apart.

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News beats porn online. Those secretly addicted to the web at work are more likely to be looking at news than a pornography site¸ a survey suggests. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY] Wow - times sure have changed. I'm betting porn still takes up more total bandwidth, though - at least when you take spam into account.
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In President's Speeches, Iraq Dominates, Economy Fades (washingtonpost.com). Bush mentions nothing but Iraq in his speeches and daily photo ops; because he has nothing constructive to say on the economy, the war on terror, or anything; he is a one-note diversion machine, IRAQ, IRAQ, IRAQ, desperately trying to divert attention from his growing failures re the economy and everything else and hoping that people do not focus on issues before the election but thing of nothing but IRAQ! IRAQ! IRAQ! In President's Speeches, Iraq Dominates, Economy Fades (washingtonpost.com) [Blog Left: Critical Interventions] It's disturbingly true - I critiqued a Bush speech at a fundraiser a couple days ago, and the only mention of anything economic was an attack on the expiration date for his tax "relief". It's really simple - Bush is stuck with a recession and policies that won't end the recession, so he's going for foreign adventurism to distract the masses.

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Rescuers 'secure' Ivorian school. French troops reach the international school in Bouake where more than 160 children have been trapped by fighting. [BBC News | WORLD] yay!
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Germans offer to co-lead Afghan force [BBC World] I view this as an entirely good thing - the US has done a crap job in Afghanistan since bombing the bejeebies out of the Taliban and assorted weddings. The Kabul government doesn't even control all of Kabul, for chrissakes. Germany would hopefully commit themselves fully to to building a stable government and nation in Afghanistan - the US is either too distracted by the shiny new target of Iraq, or too embarrassed by the failure to capture bin Laden to pay attention. Of course, the American press will either ignore this, or follow the Bush Junta's lead and spin it as the Germans attempting to make up for the American-bashing during their just-completed parliamentary campaign...

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US in Ivory Coast rescue mission. US troops land in West Africa to safeguard 160 American schoolchildren caught up in a military uprising in Ivory Coast as fighting continues. [BBC News | WORLD] No, seriously - an American school that draws its students from the children of missionaries off in the countryside of Ivory Coast has been isolated. Their school is in Bouake, the city still held by rebels. Rebel soldiers are firing in the area around the school, with reports of some shots fired at the school. The British and Germans are joining the Americans, as the large French presence already in country moves towards Bouake to evacuate the 300 American and 600 French nationals trapped there. It's all quite surreal.

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Louder War Talk, and Muffled Dissent [Washington Post: Front Page] "Several Democrats pointedly suggested that Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and Gephardt are putting politics over policy by rushing to back a unilateral strike against Iraq." You think?
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Senate Approves New 9/11 Inquiry [Washington Post: Front Page] This is a Good Thing. It was absurd that an independent commission hadn't been set up yet. The only reason I can think of for Bush giving in now is that he and his handlers are confident that Iraq can distract the American public from the intelligence failures leading up to 9/11 - and any fault on the part of Bush or his appointees. Hopefully, that won't be the case. We need to know how this was able to happen, especially since what we've found out so far suggests that the ridiculous new civil-liberties infringements that Ashcroft and Bush ushered in aren't needed - just following through on information we already had would have done the trick.

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"Spirited Away". Japanimation godhead Hayao Miyazaki takes a deranged and delightful voyage to the other world, where parents become pigs and the Radish Spirit rides the elevator. [Salon Headlines] I'm looking forward to seeing "Spirited Away" sometime this weekend - it's playing in Boston - but really, I just had to post that headline. I NEED to see a movie in which the Radish Spirit rides the elevator, oh yes I do. =)

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Indian troops end temple siege. Commandos end the siege at a Hindu temple in Gujarat state¸ as Delhi indirectly blames Pakistan for the attack that killed 30 people. [BBC News | Front Page] I'm shocked - India NEVER jumps the gun in blaming Pakistan for Muslim terrorists, do they?
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Rocket Scientists Find a Rocket. Asteroid-discovery mania may be rampant, but one apparent asteroid spotted recently is in all likelihood part of a long-missing Apollo spacecraft. How do scientists know? It's the paint. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News] I was really excited by the thought of another moon - damn space junk.
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