Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Grand Ol' Party Swearing on the Senate floor. Getting booed at the ball park (scroll down). Call girls working the convention. What will we tell the children? [Thanks to EA.] 11:48:22 PM    comment [] The word on the Iraqi street I can't wait for these comments from true, honest to goodness Iraqis to be recited by Sean Hannity on his show. [Link via ODub.] 11:26:14 AM    comment [] Bremer's Ascension Bremer finishes his tour of duty and leaves to tell his tale to others and build again. Salon's Eric Boehlert summarizes the significance of today's transfer of responsibility sovereignty. This time there was no "Mission Accomplished" banner flying high. Forsaking public, self-congratulatory speeches, the much-anticipated transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people did not take place among pomp and circumstance, nor was it captured for history by a throng of journalists. Instead, the transfer occurred nearly in secret inside a well-secured building behind the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, witnessed by a handful of participants in the five-minute service. Coming off a weekend of unending violence, during which more than 100 Iraqis were killed by terrorists protesting the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the pageantry of a ceremony on June 30 suddenly seemed less inviting to both the United States and its Iraqi partners in the interim government, and the transfer of power was quickly moved up to Monday. It was just the latest U.S. plan for the Iraqi occupation to go awry. That sovereignty is being passed to Iraq against a backdrop of violence so extreme that martial law is being seriously discussed by the new Iraqi government highlights how poor the postwar conditions are and how big of a challenge the new government faces. Indeed, the handover occurs as a wide range of foreign policy experts have concluded that the plan to invade Iraq as well as the postwar-construction phase have failed on nearly every front. I don't know whether I completely agree. I mean, how can it be considered a failure when Bremer capped taxes for all Iraqis? Would that we were so fortunate. Lucky duckies. 2:29:48 AM    comment [] Cheney Swearing Interpretation #547 Some think it was an appropriate, long overdue response to Democratic carping. Others think it indicates Cheney is losing it. I happen to think he was trying to court the young urban vote. 1:40:08 AM    comment [] The Day After Tomorrow According to a Brooklyn police officer, evacuation signs have started to sprout up unannounced around NYC. After some investigating, he discovered they have been placed in preparation for extreme weather. I finally found the information as to who put up these signs and why. It was the Office of Emergency Management better known in NYC as the OEM. This is the mayor's agency that responds to disasters. They are being placed because we are moving into hurricane season, and I suspect that they are preparing for the possibility of a hurricane colliding in full force with New York City. Since an unheard of hurricane developed and landed on Brazil, they may be bracing for one this year. Usually hurricanes don't affect New York City as much as they do the coastal towns of Long Island and New Jersey, but I do remember two hurricanes that actually hit New York and all they did was bring heavy rains-- nothing more (by the time they arrived they were down graded to Tropical Storms). If you go up on the OEM website and look up "evacuation " it explains that the area of evacuation is any areas within 10 city blocks of the coast. It even mentions tornados and other extreme weather cycles (almost like LA in "The Day After Tomorrow"). I have not seen anything about these signs in the newspapers. I can only guess that they don't want to fully alarm the public yet. I experienced my first hurricane here in Baltimore within the year, and flood waters came up to my street. Not quite a tidal wave, but shocking nonetheless. Postscript: The character supposedly playing Cheney in the movie was hardly credible. He didn't swear enough. 1:23:09 AM    comment []

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