Cheers!

Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you've got;
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?...

Working on a blog like ASZ has the unintended consequence of keeping my attention focused on depressing current events. Sometimes the psyche just needs a holiday from all the bullshit, and this past Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day (weatherwise) in the Northeast U.S. So, it seemed like a good time for a day trip to New York City to get my mind off of things for a bit.

Despite being somewhat agitated by the long wait inbound at the Holland Tunnel (is there any good way in and out of the city on a weekend?), I actually found a place to park at 11th St. S. and Avenue of the Americas, right on the border of the Greenwich Village and West Village neighborhoods. There are several shops in the area that my wife is quite fond of, ergo the reason that the Village was our first destination. Myself, I'm partial to Washington Square, and it was a great day to just hang out with the crowd in the square.

I confess a love affair with Greenwich Village. The ambiance of the neighborhood is hard to describe to someone who's never been there. Walking to Washington Square, you pass through residential areas that are truly tremendous. The Village is not the type of place that's packed with the tourist busses. The multitude of small shops, vintage clothing flea markets, and street sales on a (early) summertime weekend makes you forget all about the WalMarts of the world. And if you can't find a great place to eat, you're simply not looking.

After a rather late (4PM) lunch, we headed uptown for a few hours, and then cleared Manhattan by 8PM. All in all, it was a completely relaxing 10 or so hours except for fighting the traffic. So, as my traveling companion dozed on the drive home, I started thinking about my day. I don't know if this was a good mental move, particularly since there was one instance that brought me back to Blogistan reality.

I came away from my day with the desire to grab George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul "Jerry" Bremer, and Dan Senor by the lapels and drag them into Washington Square on a warm Saturday afternoon. "Guys," I would tell them, "this is what real life's about. I know living in the dungeons must be bleak. You need to get out more. Whatever you're doing, whoever you're doing it to, is not so important. This is what's important. George, sit down awhile. Hey, Don, check out the street performers over there! And Jerry, isn't watching those dogs in play yard better than the doggy videos from Abu Ghraib? Dan, loosen up, take off the shirt and get some sun on your pasty white ass. When you're ready, guys, let's roll over to Jekyll and Hyde's for a Margarita!"

Ok, so my fantasy scenario would be an untidy representation of my true agenda (cue the dark music). That's OK. I figure these guys have more than a nodding acquaintance with false agendas. When we left the square, I'd take them for a walk down Christopher St., cut over on Ave. of the Americas, then make a left down 11th St. When we got to 7th Ave., we'd make another left. And then stop.

If there were ever an ersatz memorial that all of my government buddies needed to see, it would be the one at 7th Ave. S. and Greenwich St. I have to tell you that until yesterday, I didn't know it existed myself. It's a simple chain link fence around a parking lot. This simple chain link fence has literally thousands of 3"X3" ceramic tiles hanging on it - you know, the kind of tiles on the wall in every American bathroom. The tiles wired to this fence are hand painted, and have a single theme - New Yorkers (specifically kids) paying tribute to the events of September 11, 2001.

In my little mental passion play, about a dozen armed New Yorkers firefighters would step out, and force the guys I'm escorting to read every single message on every single tile. My own unexpected viewing the tiles was an emotional experience for me. I figure Bush, Rumsfeld, Bremer, and Senor's should be, too.

"Why have you forgotten?" would be my simple question to each (in my best Jacob Marley voice, of course). If I could rattle some chains for effect, that would be cool, too.

...After which, we'd finally head down the street for those Margaritas. I think Dan Senor would be a hoot with a few drinks in him.

How Many Shoes Left to Drop. . . on the Iraqi Prison Abuse Scandal? Newsweek Weighs In

I got this link off Josh Marshall's Talking Points site, and thank him tremendously. Frankly, I don't have Newsweek on my regular reading list, but this article looks outstanding. Just the existence of outstanding reporting from other folks not named Hersh is going to find those higher ups who evidently approved or encouraged the hijinks at Abu Ghraib. On that topic, Josh Marshall comments on the Pentagon nondenials:

Rumsfeld spokesman Larry Di Rita's widely-quoted statement -- "Assertions apparently being made in the latest New Yorker article on Abu Ghraib and the abuse of Iraqi detainees are outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture." -- isn't a denial, it's splutter -- a classic non-denial denial.

And he's so right. There's lots of evidence in the Newsweek piece, though, that from the top the Bushites were planning getting around the Geneva Conventions, all the way from just after 9/11. From the Newsweek article:

One Justice Department memo, written for the CIA late in the fall of 2001, put an extremely narrow interpretation on the international anti-torture convention, allowing the agency to use a whole range of techniques—including sleep deprivation, the use of phobias and the deployment of "stress factors"—in interrogating Qaeda suspects. The only clear prohibition was "causing severe physical or mental pain"—a subjective judgment that allowed for "a whole range of things in between," said one former administration official familiar with the opinion.

What is fascinating here is that Powell was once more kept out of the loop. It is like these folks instinctively knew the one guy whose moral compass still pointed north, and, as per usual, they bypassed him.

Cut out of the process, as usual, was Colin Powell's State Department. So were military lawyers for the uniformed services. When State Department lawyers first saw the Yoo memo, "we were horrified," said one. As State saw it, the Justice position would place the United States outside the orbit of international treaties it had championed for years. Two days after the Yoo memo circulated, the State Department's chief legal adviser, William Howard Taft IV, fired a memo to Yoo calling his analysis "seriously flawed." State's most immediate concern was the unilateral conclusion that all captured Taliban were not covered by the Geneva Conventions. "In previous conflicts, the United States has dealt with tens of thousands of detainees without repudiating its obligations under the Conventions," Taft wrote. "I have no doubt we can do so here, where a relative handful of persons is involved."

Those folks working for Colin Powell can make you proud to be an American, even if the rest of this Administration sickens you.

Josh Marshall has an interesting point. He says that like one does with polling, throwing out the high and low scores, and then concentrating on the middle ground (I think that's done in figure skating scoring, but then we'd have to make obligatory complaints about the French judges again, wouldn't we?), one might use the same method to evaluate what will be a flood of investigative journalism in the next couple weeks, months. I'm not so sure. As with numerous talking heads and Senators over the last few days, I'm convinced there was some high level orchestration of the abuse at Abu Ghraib. And I'm just not interested in playing fair with these weasels, anyway, though I respect Josh Marshall for it.

We're going to find that the blame will land at Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc., or perhaps a mere layer down from them. That's clear, otherwise the Bushites would throw some lower-level stiffs under the bus now, and get the scandal out of the way while there is still plenty of breathing room before the election. Hmm, it sure would be nice if this took three months to come out. . .

OK, I feel dirty now, like a whole gaggle of Republicans drooling over a blue dress and with sparkling eyes at the prospect of months of scandal. Then again, war and dead Americans is a bit more important than a stained dress.

. . . the most crooked, you know, lying group
I've ever seen. . .

This may be the most prescient line of the election if today's New Yorker bombshell proves true. It will show every person in the Administration who has commented on the Iraq prison abuse scandal to be a liar. And the New Yorker article is indeed strong. Here's the first three paragraphs, but you can get the entire article here: New Yorker Online

The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror.

According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon’s operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.

Rumsfeld, during appearances last week before Congress to testify about Abu Ghraib, was precluded by law from explicitly mentioning highly secret matters in an unclassified session. But he conveyed the message that he was telling the public all that he knew about the story. He said, “Any suggestion that there is not a full, deep awareness of what has happened, and the damage it has done, I think, would be a misunderstanding.” The senior C.I.A. official, asked about Rumsfeld’s testimony and that of Stephen Cambone, his Under-Secretary for Intelligence, said, “Some people think you can bullshit anyone.”

I'm willing to wait and see whether this story is accurate, but the last story brought to us by Seymour Hersh, about the abuse itself in Abu Ghraib, turned out 100% true. The writer of this story has integrity, and this morning is going to be very interesting watching the Bushies on the news programs denying without denying. Sputtering is already proceeding on Fox.

Rumsfeld, at the least, is done.

The Ravings of James Dobson

I got this from Andrew Sullivan, a man who has some pretty strong conservative credentials when it comes to foreign and fiscal policy, but also a man James Dobson and much of the wacky religious right would run over with a bus if they could. Andrew Sullivan is gay, after all, and outspoken about how he feels on the issue. Anyway, he posted this quote by Dobson, which comes from his May newsletter.

"Barring a miracle, the family as it has been known for more than five millennia will crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself. This is a time for concerted prayer, divine wisdom and greater courage than we have ever been called upon to exercise. For more than 40 years, the homosexual activist movement has sought to implement a master plan that has had as its centerpiece the utter destruction of the family. The institution of marriage, along with an often weakened and impotent Church, is all that stands in the way of its achievement of every coveted aspiration. Those goals include universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, discrediting of Scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting of special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrinating children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies."

How can one address all the inaccuracies here, such as his identifying some kind of 40 year old gay conspiracy (Stonewall, traditionally viewed as the beginning of the gay rights movement, celebrates a 35th anniversary this summer). But lies are standard for this self-styled Christian Dr. Dobson.

The lies and distortions remind me of what the Cossacks, Poles and Russians told each other as they worked themselves up for pogroms over the centuries. How different from a lie about Jews needing the blood of Christian babies for their Motzoh from a lie about gays wanting to repeal pedophilia laws? Yes, Dobson lies to his constituency to spread hatred just as Churchmen lied to their constiuency throughout time in order to promote hatred of the Jews.

Would anyone trust this stinking piece of filth with their children?
Frankly, I can't look at the guy without thinking I would never leave him with my children. I would demand honesty from such a person, at the very least. How ironic that Dobson's organization is "Focus on the Family," when he promotes such hate.

What's the final word here? In two days gays in Massachusetts will become legally married. In two years those rights will spread to another state, and then another. But fundamentally there are changes in attitude already. Go stop a 15 year old, or an eighteen year old and ask him or her about gays and lesbians and you'll find much wider acceptance than even among 30 year olds. My children, and I hope to raise a few in a couple years, will not have the kinds of fears Dobson promotes. You see, Dobson has lost his litle culture war, let's just hope he doesn't decide to incite violence on his way out.

Take a slug of coffee. Spit. Rinse. Spit.

But Will It Really Fly?

Kevin Drum comments on Colin Powell's trial balloon re: Iraqi sovereignty and booting out the occupation forces.

Do I smell exit strategy?

And has anyone yet figured out to whom we're turning over the quagmire?

I hate it when pesky questions get in the way.

She Came In through the Bathroom Window

I'm thinking of one of the patsies in the latest drama. Lynndie England -- in the photos -- leering stupidly -- charged by the military for her stupidity. I'm thinking she is at least seven years younger than my daughter, Becca -- almost 27 -- , who has been married almost three years, and is about to get her BS in psychology and criminology.

Music is in my head tonight. It's always in my head, but tonight the muse struck. The Beatles. "Abbey Road".

"Didn't anybody tell her?
Didn't anybody see?
Sunday's on the phone to Monday,
Tuesday's on the phone to me."

We're talking about a young woman just out of high school and not someone with particularly bright prospects. And now she is the world's representative of the worst of the the US military.

Do you have children? Mine are almost 32 and almost 27 and I think about them EVERY day. I see my daughter for eight hours, three days a week. (we work together) I fought tooth and nail to keep my son out of the army when he was 18. He never went in, even though he fought me every step of the way. I don't think I'm some wonder of a mother. I just knew it was not a good place to go. I wonder about Lynndie's parents, and what they thought about her choice ... her limited choices.

I have no links for you. If you want to see what the US media is doing to Lynndie England you'll have to grab a little search engine queen dust from me and Google some decent key words. It's late, and I hate that the muse chose this hour to give me something to write about. What about when I'm awake at 5 AM fergoodness sakes?

Boy, you gonna carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time
Boy, you gonna carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time

Without Comment

From Sadly, No!



And after all of that, Rumsfeld is a survivor.

Future History of the American Inquisition

Read the following, then...

The concepts of an inquisition and inquisitorial procedure lie deep in the roots of world history. Inquisitions were used during the decline of the Roman Empire until the Spanish Inquisition's decline in the early 1800s. An inquisition can be run by both civil and church authorities in order to root out non-believers from a nation or religion. The Spanish Inquisition was one of the most deadly inquisitions in history.

The American Inquisition was used for both political and religious reasons. The United States is a nation-state that was born out of religious struggle between numerous different belief systems including Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and Judaism. Following the liberal successes of the 60's and 70's, the leaders of the U.S. needed a way to unify the country into a strong nation. The PNAC chose Christianity to unite the U.S. and in 2004 even asked permission of the pope to begin the American Inquisition to purify members of the Catholic Church in America. The Cardinals and Bishops of the Catholic Dioceses in the U.S. complied.

In 2004, Bishop Michael Sheridan became the inquisitor-general for most of the U.S., aided and abetted by Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis. He was responsible for establishing the rules of inquisitorial procedure and creating branches of the Inquisition in various cities of the Denver Diocese.

The Inquisition was run procedurally by the inquisitor-general who established local tribunals of the Inquisition. Accused heretics were identified by the general population and brought before the tribunal. The were given a chance to confess their heresy against the Catholic Church and were also encouraged to indict other heretics. If they admitted their wrongs and turned in other aggressors against the church they were either released or sentenced to a prison penalty. If they would not admit their heresy or indict others the accused were publicly introduced in a large ceremony before they were publicly chastised as (presumptive) presidential nominees or sentenced to eternity in purgatory. The American Inquisition's reign of terror was finally suppressed in 2005....read the original to see how little of the text I changed.

Diminished Expectations

Funny how perceptions and expectations change over time. I was watching Bob Novak on the CNN Paula Zahn stupidfest a few minutes ago as they discussed Monkey Boy's(tm) plummeting approval ratings. Novak was saying, "oh, the war is going badly right now, wait until the situation improves, sovereignty on June 30, yada yada yada".

Excuse me, Bob?

A) Iraq was supposed to be a quick and dirty police action. That's how it was sold, like an "In and Out" burger. It wasn't supposed to be a fucking quagmire with no end in sight.

B) "Mission Accomplished" was over a year ago. Major fighting was done. Baghdad should be literally blooming with flowers from all the grateful Iraqis.

No, Bob, you've seen the top of the polls for George W. Bush. There is no bottom. Actually, if I had any concern, it would be that there is a theoretical Rovian bottom that triggers something other than elections in November.

Personal to Bob Novak: You're a partisan hack, Novak, masquerading as a journalist / commentator. Your allegiance was bought and sold many moons ago. Paradoxically enough, the only thing that could salvage your career at this point (assuming the Plame thing doesn't completely explode in your face, like everyone is anticipating) is a Bush loss. At least then you could ply your hate trade on President Kerry.

It seems to work for Oxy Rush.

Admin Note: Haloscan is Back

Bah. I finally got frustrated with Blogger's internal commenting module, so I've switched back to haloscan comments for the time being. Comments for the three most recent posts were copied over prior to the changover.

And You Wonder Why I Feel Paranoid

This is getting too weird.

Speaking to reporters outside his home in West Chester, Pa., Berg's father, Michael, said Thursday that his son was investigated by the FBI over contact he had with a terrorism suspect while he was a student at the University of Oklahoma.

A senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Berg volunteered information about the 2002 investigation when he was detained in Iraq. The official said that an e-mail address traced to Berg had been used by an unidentified individual with purported connections to terrorism.

The investigation showed that Berg had never met the suspect individual and had not given the e-mail address to that person. Investigators concluded that Berg's e-mail address had been spread among dozens of people with links to the university.

The suspect individual appears to have been acquainted with Zacarias Moussaoui, an al-Qaida adherent now in federal custody and awaiting trial on conspiracy charges stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks, the official said...

Let's think about this for a minute.

What are the chances that a heretofore unknown broadcast antenna repair specialist (a tower jockey) would end up in Iraq, unsponsored, looking for work, and have any connection, even six degrees of separation, with Zacarias Moussaoui??

Somewhere around PowerBall chances, I would think. Where's my tinfoil hat?

There are just so many loose ends about this whole story that don't add up...

Something stinks like yesterday's diapers.

Update 9:40PM EDT: And then factor in this from Kos...

Updated Update,10:30PM EDT: Democratic Party leadership needs to show some balls. I'm exceptionally disappionted in Pelosi (among others)...

A Wise Counsel Member Speaks

I got this from Lupin at Billmon's Whiskey Bar. I should have found it myself, but I was being a hausfrau earlier today. It's from Kurt Vonnegut, and it's very fine. I would love to talk Vonnegut and any of his labors of "love" any time. Enjoy.

Cold Turkey, by Kurt Vonnegut at In These Times.

Just a teaser from the top of the piece:
"Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace.

But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas."

Talk to me about Vonnegut and Bokonon and Ice-Nice and Dresden and Biafra...

Mr. Berg Speaks Up

I'm not at all sure Mr. Berg isn't speaking through the pain of losing his son so extraordinarily gruesomely and publicly, at least a little, but his words strike me as important in a time when Mr. Rumsfeld can make a surprise visit to Abu Ghraib hot on denying we violated the Geneva Conventions. These pictures in the mind of Berg and Rumsfeld, on both ends of a lawsuit just a month ago, are starkingly, achingly incongruent. While I am not necessarily a pacificist, I respect a man such as Berg. Rumsfeld, on the other hand, seemingly would give him the back of his hand.

The following are all from a story found on www.yahoo.com.

"My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this," Berg said in an interview with radio station KYW-AM.

That's either the most bald accusation I've seen in a long time, or an enraged father mouthing off. I'll not blame the man if he is either, but the details, especially of Mr. Berg's son not being released until the lawsuit against Rumsfeld were filed, calls the lie on the government assertions that American forces never held Nick Berg. This is looking more and more like a cover-up.

Evidently, Rumsfeld and company can't get the Iraqi security forces to back up their story.

Michael Berg rejected U.S. government claims that his son had never been held by American authorities in Iraq. The Iraqi police chief in the city of Mosul has also contradicted statements by the U.S.-led coalition concerning the younger Berg's detention.

Mr. Berg testifies again:

"I have a written statement from the State Department in Baghdad ... saying that my son was being held by the military," Berg said. "I can also assure you that the FBI came to my house on March 31 and told me that the FBI had him in Mosul in an Iraqi prison."

What does it earn Mr. Berg to make the story up, or the Iraqi police chief in Mosul? How could they possibly have concocted this conspuiracy together in order to refute the official Bush/Rumsfeld line? No, there is neither motive or opportunity here. But there is plenty of motive for the military authorities to concoct lies, coming as they are off a horrific scandal and not wanting one whiff of responsibility for Berg's death. Then again, when have they taken responsibility in this whole bloody war and occupation in Iraq?

If you are finished grinding your teeth, you may now rinse and spit.

Six Degrees of Godwin's Law

Intrigued? Been on the Internet long enough to know what Godwin's Law is? Ever subscribe to newsgroups? Here is a summary of the immortalized law enacted years ago:

Godwin's Law is a natural law of Usenet named after Mike Godwin (godwin@eff.org) concerning Usenet "discussions". It reads, according to the Jargon File:

As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

It pretty much means exactly what it says - as a Usenet thread goes on, the chances of somebody or something being compared to a Nazi approach one.

Stuff and bother! as Winnie the Pooh would say ... I think if the comparison to the decline of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Third Reich fits, we ought to wear the darned jackboot. So, in my universe today, I'm "suspendering" (esoteric Firesign Theatre reference) Godwin's Law to bring you something interesting to read. One simple page ...

They Thought They Were Free, but then It Was Too Late. The author is Milton Mayer.

An excerpt: "Once the war began," my colleague continued, "resistance, protest, criticism, complaint, all carried with them a multiplied likelihood of the greatest punishment. Mere lack of enthusiasm, or failure to fhow it in public, was "defeatism." You assumed that there were lists of those who would be "dealt with" later, after the victory. Goebbels was very clever here too. He continually promised a "victory orgy" to "take care of" those who thought that their "treasonable attitude" had escaped notice. And he meant it; that was not just propaganda. And that was enough to put an end to all uncertainty."

I'm not sure Richard thought I'd be the "keeper of the tinfoil" at the ASZ when he asked me to blog at his place. I suspect he might have had an inkling. But then Richard has Orwell in two titles recently. No wonder I feel so much at home. ;-)

Enjoy your reading. Carry on.

Paging George Orwell

So, Rummy makes a surprise visit to Iraq today - to Abu Ghraib prison, no less. That's actually a good thing. Leaders should poke their heads out of the foxhole every now and again. According to reports, Rummy promised that he "was determined that those in the wrong be punished."

Again, good for him.

What I found to be either mildly amusing or downright creepy (depending on given mood of the day) was this statement:

...a new complex of outdoor camps is going to open soon on the grounds outside the main prison building. It will be called "Camp Redemption," he said...

Like I said, creepy. Kind of like the moniker, "Homeland Security".

Remember General William Boykin?

Oh, you all remember him. He was the guy who got promoted last fall and then it was discovered that he's going around in his spare time talking about how his Christian God is so much more righteous than the God of Islam. Remember? He came this close to saying the "C" word ["crusade"]. Here's how Newsweek reported on it at the time:

WILLIAM BOYKIN is the general who has recently been appointed to a senior Defense Department post. Over the last two years the general has given dozens of addresses to evangelical Christian groups in which, describing his battle with a Somali (Muslim) warlord, he has said: “I knew that my God was bigger than his God. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.” He has also repeatedly explained that America’s enemy was “a spiritual enemy ... called Satan.” The enemy will only be defeated, he added, “if we come against them in the name of Jesus.” A few more of these and Osama bin Laden won’t need to make videos anymore.

Newsweek Opinion Piece
I'm sure we can all agree that General Boykin's words, at the very least, are not good for Arab-American relations. Gosh, what if it was folks like him who ran the interrogations at Abu Graib and other sites in Iraq? Well, WIRED is reporting that General Boykin, our latter-day crusader, was involved in the planning of interrogation methods.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army general under investigation for anti-Islamic remarks has been linked by U.S. officials to the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, which experts warned could touch off new outrage overseas.

A Senate hearing into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners was told on Tuesday that Lt. Gen. William Boykin, an evangelical Christian under review for saying his God was superior to that of the Muslims, briefed a top Pentagon civilian official last summer on recommendations on ways military interrogators could gain more intelligence from Iraqi prisoners.

Critics have suggested those recommendations amounted to a senior-level go-ahead for the sexual and physical abuse of prisoners, possibly to "soften up" detainees before interrogation -- a charge the Pentagon denies.

Of course, our relations with Muslim nations can't get much worse.

How about a new slogan for this Presidency? Bush ran last time on being a "uniter not a divider." Perhaps what he really meant was that he'd unite the world against us?

Rummy's Reading the Polls

So, I guess "Don" Rumsfeld must be reading ASZ - at least the post about American attitudes (as polled) toward the Abu Ghraib situation.

Rumsfeld Backs Iraq Interrogation Methods

Clash of Culture Redux

It seems like a long time ago and far, far away when I said that TeamBush had no clue (or didn't care to seek one) how to deal with Middle East culture on their terms. My basic point is that their culture is truly rooted in history - thousands of years of it - whereas ours has, for the most part evolved over the past 100 years. Prior to WWI, U.S. culture was still pretty much a mirror of Olde European culture.

Folks in America have been taken aback by the staged murder of Nick Berg. Separating a persons head from their body is just not considered good form in the U.S. We associate this type of execution with serial killers such as Jeff Dahmer. The preferred method of state-sanctioned dispatching of human beings is lethal injection. Strap a person on a gurney in an operating room-type environment, alcohol swap the vein (what's the purpose in that?), and start the IV drip. Clean, sterile, and medically approved.

The Arab world is a bit different. They've been beheading people for thousands of years, and are still quite prolific in the art of state-sanctioned beheading:

Saudi Arabia uses public beheading as the punishment for murder, rape, drug trafficking, sodomy and armed robbery, apostasy and certain other offences. 45 men and 2 women were beheaded in 2002 and a further 52 men and 1 woman in 2003.

The condemned of both sexes are given tranquilizers and then taken by police van to a public square or a car park after midday prayers. Their eyes are covered and they are blindfolded. The police clear the square of traffic and a sheet of blue plastic sheet about 16 feet square is laid out on the ground.

Dressed in their own clothes, barefoot, with shackled feet and hands cuffed behind their back, the prisoner is led by a police officer to the centre of the sheet where they are made to kneel facing Mecca. An Interior Ministry official reads out the prisoner's name and crime to the crowd of witnesses.

A policeman hands the sword to the executioner who raises the gleaming scimitar and often swings it two or three times before approaches the prisoner from behind and jabbing him in the back with the tip of the sword causing the person to raise their head...

I'll spare you the more graphic details. Click on the above link if you want the full story -- from an intellectual standpoint, it's actually quite interesting.

As Westerners, our revulsion to Nick Berg's manner of death is primarily cultural. We just don't do that kind of thing on this side of the pond. From a Middle Eastern tribal perspective, it's simply business as usual. I don't see anyone (with maybe the lone exception of Amnesty International) bitching about Bush's buddies in the House of Saud swinging a sword toward someone's neck at an average of once a week.

There will never be a way to resolve the cultural differences between Western and Middle Eastern cultures. It just won't happen, no matter how hard we try. I'm not saying that we embrace the cultural divide so graphically illustrated by the execution of Nick Berg, but that we at least acknowledge the differences that exist and that fundamental societal culture can not be imposed. Culture is ingrained over the course of a people's history, not at the barrel of a gun (or over a barrel of oil).

Getting Past the Fear Factor

This post is a little expansion of a comment I made over on another blog tonight. Comments come and go, and you always think of something to add after you hit the "submit" button. Here's what kicked off my thought process - a comment from another poster (and yeah, Kate, I spell checked this one):

As I said many many many moons ago, I think Bush (esp if reelectd) will kill us all. I'm way past worrying about abortion, Supreme Court nominations, etc. We're in DEAD ZONE country now.

I'm an optimistic geezer by nature. I made it through the Cuban Missile Crisis, living near a ground zero first wave target area.

NEVER, EVER, forget that "scared" is exactly what TeamBush wants. It's the coin of the realm. Karl Rove is pinning his pasty-faced future and upcoming paychecks on the fact that America will be scared and angry.

Am I angry? I can get that way, especially when I see and read and hear the lack of humanity exhibited by the 70 percenters in this country. Actually, I suppose even my "anger" is more like "incredulosity" (is that a word?). I'm incredulous that the morons running the show are still allowed to run the show by consent of the governed, even after everything that's happened in the past few years.

What I can control is "scared". Maybe I simply have too much mileage on the wheels to be really scared, at least for myself, any more. Maybe Osama will blow up a train somewhere around Decatur. Maybe he'll light off a stink bomb in the Mall of America -- not that this would be necessarily a bad thing. Maybe, just maybe, he'll find some way to nuke Portales, NM. The bottom line is that the chances of him actually making a physical impact on my life are nil. I expect to outlive OBL by a wide margin.

Again, Dubya lives and dies with the fear factor. If more people started acting less like scared rabbits and more like rational human beings, we wouldn't be in this mess. If we all viewed the country in which we live in terms of geography and happenstance of birth rather than nationalistic jingoism (and I freely acknowledge that every nation has it), we'd probably all be happier people...

...at least if we all had our partners performing oral sex on us occasionally (see how I kept that non-gender specific?). And that's the root of the problems today. Too much Jesus, not enough blowjobs.

But I digress. Folks, America's not going anywhere -- Dubya or not -- at least unless the San Andreas fault decides to open up, and even then we only lose a little piece of it (sorry, Kate).

Believe me, I don't want the thugs in the Bush admin running things post-January 20, 2005. But look at what Hitler did to Germany. Look at what the U.S. did to Japan, in particular, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We will survive these trying times without the rapture taking place, regardless of whether God's agent on Earth (Dubya) wants it or not.

Peace. Sleep well tonight. And get laid.

Richard

The Bad Barrels That Corrupt Any Good Apples They Touch
Addendum 2:30pm PDT for photo:


As I had posted last week, Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 really reached out and grabbed me since the disclosure (shocked, simply shocked) of torture by US people of prisoners in Iraq. I did my magic search engine queen incantation ... waved the potion around, and voila!

Bad Barrels ...

Excerpt: "In 1971 researchers created a simulated prison in a basement on Stanford University campus. They randomly assigned 24 students to be either prison guards or prisoners for two weeks.

Within days, the "guards" had become swaggering and sadistic, to the point of placing bags over the prisoners' heads, forcing them to strip naked and encouraging them to perform sexual acts."

There's more including Hannah Arendt's quote on the banality of evil. But read it for yourself, and then look up in ASZ's archives for the link to the Stanford Prison Experiment.

I report. You decide. Or not.

What did We Expect?
Extremely sad, entirely predictable.
CAIRO, Egypt - A video posted Tuesday on an Islamic militant Web site showed the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq (news - web sites), and said the execution was carried out by an al-Qaida affiliated group to avenge the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.

The video bore the title "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American." It was unclear whether al-Zarqawi — an associate of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) — was shown in the video, or was claiming responsibility for ordering the execution...The only thing more predictable will be the American response.

Amazing

"Recently, photographs were made public that 

appeared to show U.S. soldiers abusing 

Iraqi prisoners. Do you think the soldiers 

mistreated these prisoners on their own, or 

do you think they were following orders from 

their commanders?"

 

        On         Following 

        Their Own    Orders    

      

 ALL          47        31    

 Republicans  58        18    

 Democrats    38        45    

 Independents 51        26    

 

"Do you think the Pentagon acted properly in 

dealing with this matter, or do you think 

it tried to cover up the abuse?"





                 Acted       Tired to

                 Properly    Cover It Up    

 

 ALL               32           52    

 Republicans       50           35    

 Democrats         17           70    

 Independents      36           47    

 

"Do you think Donald Rumsfeld should resign as 

secretary of defense because of this 

matter, or not?"

 

                 Should      Should

                 Resign      Not Resign    



 ALL               24            66    

 Republicans       10            84    

 Democrats         40            47    

 Independents      18            75  

I guess I'm further out in left field than I thought...

University of Pennsylvania National Annenberg Election Survey.
May 6-9, 2004.

I Don't Know about You, but...

I listen to the radio a lot. Air America, for sure, but I also listen to the big Clear Channel AM station in the Los Angeles area, and their news-readers keep saying alleged abuses by US detention personnel in Iraq . I don't think they are just playing it "safe" legally. Nope. I think they are trying to manipulate opinion, cast doubt. I have no link for any of this. But, listen to newscasts on radio and TV in your neck of the woods, and see how many of them use the "A" is for Alleged word. There are purported hundreds of photos, and the "report". I don't know how the word "alleged" exists in the galaxy where this is concerned.

I'd love to hear what's going on in your media neighborhood about it.

A is for alleged
B is for Basra
C is for Chalabi
D is for Detention
E is for Electrodes
F is for Fallujah...
or Fascism...

Sanity, Such as It Is

I used to define mental "health" differently years ago. It was more "healthy" then. But that was then, and this is now, and Tom Tomorrow is one of those pallatives that seem to keep me sane today.

Enjoy. This Modern World: 'Mission Accomplished,' One Year Later

Happy Anniversary, Everyone!

Whatever gets you through the night 'salright, 'salright
It's your money or life 'salright, 'salright
Don't need a sword to cut through flowers oh no, oh no

Whatever gets you through your life 'salright, 'salright
Do it wrong or do it right 'salright, 'salright

Don't need a watch to waste your time oh no, oh no
hold me darlin' come on listen to me
I won't do you no harm
Trust me darlin' come on listen to me, come on listen to me
Come on listen, listen

Whatever gets you to the light 'salright, 'salright
Out the blue or out of sight 'salright, 'salright
Don't need a gun to blow your mind oh no, oh no
John Lennon

Precious

This is one of those "words don't adequately describe" moments. Counsel says...

...One of England's Denver-based attorneys, Giorgio Ra'Shadd, said the military was so short of troops in Iraq that untrained people were being used as guards. "Because there was a shortage of personnel the commander on the scene took people who had no idea how to be MPs and cut them off at the neck from their leadership," he said. "That is crazy."

He said his client was being offered up as a scapegoat for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. "What is offensive to me is that we have generals and the secretary of defense hiding behind a 20-year-old farm girl from West Virginia who lives in a trailer park," Ra'Shadd said.

So, now Bush is on the verge of losing the WV trailer park vote. Will he make it as far as the convention?

(No offense meant to anyone who lives in a doublewide and/or in West Virginia. Really. I mean it. Dammit.)

Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier

As if I weren't already disturbed enough by the stomp, stomp, stomp of militarism everywhere, there's this from Australia.

Soldiers Fined over Kitten Cruelty

Beyond the revulsion I feel when reading this short "news" item, I wonder what the parents of young women who will marry these mangled souls might be thinking, and about the welfare of any of their children or future children.

Monday, Monday, can't trust that day.

"A Failure of Leadership at the Highest Levels"

Here's an excellent editorial on the Abu Ghraib situation, and the failure of leadership that the incident represents. I want you to read the editorial without knowing the source. The source of the piece is attributed below. Read the strong words - "morons", "accountability", "professional negligence". This editorial pulls no punches. Considering the source, I'm quite surprised.

Around the halls of the Pentagon, a term of caustic derision has emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the heart of the furor over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: the six morons who lost the war.

Indeed, the damage done to the U.S. military and the nation as a whole by the horrifying photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees at the notorious prison is incalculable.

But the folks in the Pentagon are talking about the wrong morons.

There is no excuse for the behavior displayed by soldiers in the now-infamous pictures and an even more damning report by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. Every soldier involved should be ashamed.

But while responsibility begins with the six soldiers facing criminal charges, it extends all the way up the chain of command to the highest reaches of the military hierarchy and its civilian leadership.

The entire affair is a failure of leadership from start to finish. From the moment they are captured, prisoners are hooded, shackled and isolated. The message to the troops: Anything goes.

In addition to the scores of prisoners who were humiliated and demeaned, at least 14 have died in custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army has ruled at least two of those homicides. This is not the way a free people keeps its captives or wins the hearts and minds of a suspicious world.

How tragically ironic that the American military, which was welcomed to Baghdad by the euphoric Iraqi people a year ago as a liberating force that ended 30 years of tyranny, would today stand guilty of dehumanizing torture in the same Abu Ghraib prison used by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen.

One can only wonder why the prison wasn’t razed in the wake of the invasion as a symbolic stake through the heart of the Baathist regime.

Army commanders in Iraq bear responsibility for running a prison where there was no legal adviser to the commander, and no ultimate responsibility taken for the care and treatment of the prisoners.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, also shares in the shame. Myers asked "60 Minutes II" to hold off reporting news of the scandal because it could put U.S. troops at risk. But when the report was aired, a week later, Myers still hadn’t read Taguba’s report, which had been completed in March. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also failed to read the report until after the scandal broke in the media.

By then, of course, it was too late.

Myers, Rumsfeld and their staffs failed to recognize the impact the scandal would have not only in the United States, but around the world.

If their staffs failed to alert Myers and Rumsfeld, shame on them. But shame, too, on the chairman and secretary, who failed to inform even President Bush.

He was left to learn of the explosive scandal from media reports instead of from his own military leaders.

On the battlefield, Myers’ and Rumsfeld’s errors would be called a lack of situational awareness - a failure that amounts to professional negligence.

To date, the Army has moved to court-martial the six soldiers suspected of abusing Iraqi detainees and has reprimanded six others.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who commanded the MP brigade that ran Abu Ghraib, has received a letter of admonishment and also faces possible disciplinary action.

That’s good, but not good enough.

This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential - even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.

Source: Army Times

The Face of America

His photo could be that of any of hundreds of thousands of anonymous U.S. soldiers in desert cammo. But suddenly, Spc. Jeremy Sivits find himself cast on the world stage as The Face of America.

The first public hanging in the Abu Ghraib abuse fiasco has been scheduled for May 16. Not surprisingly, the first perpetrator to be tried is a lower echelon enlisted person - Spc. Sivits. It's not clear what Sivits role in this whole mess might have been, but there's been speculation that Sivits was one of the principal photographers of the pictures the world has seen to date. So, that makes sense to me, in an Orwellian kind of way - go after the guy who took the pictures.

As this event plays out, observers need to keep a couple of things in mind. First off, a military court martial is most certainly not the same as a civilian criminal trial. I guess the best analogy I can make is that it's more like a grand jury hearing, the difference being that both the prosecution and defense present their respective cases. Military personnel typically refer to the courts martial process as "Kangaroo Court", and anyone watching Sivits trial will quickly figure out why military personnel hold this view. If this is indeed televised, it will be very clear very early that it's not like Tom Cruise and Demi Moore going after Jack Nicholson in "A Few Good Men".

While the manner in which Gen. Kimmitt announced the proceedings was quite unusual, his statement that "we try to make these types of proceedings as transparent as possible" is specious. I can not, in my memory, recall any court martials in recent history being held in a public forum. In fact, the military (in general) goes out of their way to shut out press and media, even in murder trials.

A Pittsburgh Post Gazette article this morning on Sivits is quite revealing, in terms of the Bush Administration, Department of Defense, and the military hoping that this very public evisceration of Spc. Sivits will wash the blood from their hands. It's obvious to the most casual observer that Sivits will be the American face of Abu Ghraib. If he was in fact involved, he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent, and that's a good thing. But it's also clear that the timing of the trial, and Sivits himself, were chosen in a last ditch effort to quell world outcry:

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said yesterday that Sivits' military trial, which is open to news media, including Arab outlets, will be held on May 19 at the Baghdad Convention Center. The convention center is being used because it will accommodate what military officials expect to be a large media contingent from around the world.

The Baghdad friggin' Convention Center! I'm sure the place isn't as big as, say, the Javits Convention Center in New York, where the RNC convention is being held this fall, but, wow! Sivits becomes an instant celebrity. I'm already wondering if Entertainment Tonight or E! will be seeking press credentials.

There's a lot more yet to be written in this story. Certainly, there's a lot of risk management involved on the part of the military and Bush Administration. What will Sivits defense team be allowed to bring to the table? Are they going through the normal discovery process (which would suggest this has been in the works for awhile)? Will the various precursor reports (Taguba and Red Cross) be dissected? Will fingers be allowed to be pointed in other directions?

In the final analysis, the following quote from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette is probably the most disturbing:

Sivits' mother, Freda, said yesterday that the family would have no comment on the military's decision to court-martial her son first.

"We've been told to keep our mouths shut," Freda Sivits said. She declined to say who gave the family that advice.

My guess would be someone from "Don" Rumsfeld's organization (and you can figure out on your own why Rumsfeld's name is in quotes).

New Day, New Look, New Feel

In keeping with the spirit of Blogger's overhaul (our cordial host), I'm in the process of making some changes to the blog format. I know you'll bear with me for a little while as I get the templates updated, linkage reposted, etc. etc.

I hope you find the new comment interface a bit more, eh, forgiving than Haloscan's. If it doesn't work out, I'll flop back to Haloscan...

Unfortunately, in the transition, we've lost prior comments (and the ability to comment on posts prior to the transition). My apologies, but I hope you'll find it worth it going forward!

Cheers!

This Can't be a Good Thing

Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov and at least three others died in an explosion Sunday during celebrations at a stadium in the Chechen capital. Now, I freely admit (almost sheepishly) that I know next to squat about the situation in Chechnya, other than it's supposedly a Muslim hotbed. But two things strike me - this will immediately be attributed to al Qaeda (or some faction thereof), and Vlad Putin's taking a page right out of Dubya's playbook:
Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "He was a genuine and heroic person who showed in everything he did that there can never be any equality between bandits, terrorists and an entire people."

The blast comes a few weeks after Putin, in his annual state of the nation address, proclaimed the "military phase of the conflict may be considered closed" in Chechnya.Maybe someone can enlighten me about the whole situation. I'm sure I'll be reading a lot about this during the course of the day.

Bad Weeks. Bad Months. Bad Years.

From Terence Hunt - a shot of the good stuff.

Gee, I Could'a Told Ya This Two Years Ago

Excellent catch from Atrios - Washington Post page 1 tomorrow - Dissension Grows In Senior Ranks On War Strategy.

Maybe the lockstep logjam is breaking.

Snit Time

Ok. This one's been coming on for awhile. I've got myself in a bit of a snit tonight. Under most circumstances, I find myself in fairly close alignment with Max Sawicky @ maxspeak.org. And I'm not so sure I'm that out of alignment with him right now, it's maybe just my interpretation of or the phrasing of Max's latest entry. Maybe the "support the troops" mantra just finally reached my quota of bullshit for the day, I dunno.

But.

I'm getting weary of every criticism of Bush administration (and by extension, military leadership) misdeed and misstep receiving the Fox News bitchslap of, "Stop it!! You're demoralizing our men and women in uniform!"

[rant]

Well, fuck me. No one held a gun to anyone's head and made them enlist. Serving in the military is a noble endeavor, but unless I missed the memo and there's conscription in place (which there's not), every person in Iraq wearing the American flag on their shoulder volunteered for service. Joining the military entails certain risks, like going to war and getting maimed or killed. It's in the job description.

Now, I'll agree that It isn't right for these "kids" to get placed in harms way by graybeard assholes with hidden agendas, or that they got roped into Fallujah Follies because of a flag-wrapped recruiting sales pitch full of half lies (short version: avenging 9/11). But they're there.

What I say, or Max says, or Atrios says, or Tom Brokaw says, or George Bush says means not one goddamn thing to the armed services in Iraq. The cries of "support the troops" and "we can't dissent too loud because it will demoralize the troops", is cast iron bullshit for domestic U.S. consumption only.

The best way we can support the men and women in Iraq is to get some sane leadership at the helm, and then get them back here as cleanly and quickly as possible.

[/rant]

BTW, in case you're wondering, I'm a Vietnam era vet.

Oh, and I understand now that DOD has quietly told Halliburtion / KBR to kill internet access for GI's in Iraq for the next 90 days.

---

Ship of Fools
I Report -- You Decide.

In the 15th century Hironymous Bosch painted his "Ship of Fools":

Bosch imagined "the whole of mankind is voyaging through the seas of time on a ship, a small ship, that is representative of humanity. Sadly, every one of the representatives is a fool. This is how we live, says Bosch--we eat, dring, flirt, cheat, play silly games, pursue unattainable objectives. Meanwhile our ship drifts aimlessly and we never reach the harbour. The fools are not the irreligious, since promiment among them are a monk and a nun, but they are all those who live ``in stupidity''. Bosch laughs, and it is sad laugh."

Which one of us does not sail in the wretched discomfort of the ship of human folly? Genius that he was, Bosch not only moved the heart but scandalized it into full awareness. The sinister and monstrous things that he brought forth are the hidden creatures human beings' inward self-love. His misshapen demons have an effect beyond curiosity. We feel a hateful kinship with them. "The Ship of Fools" is not about other people, it is about us, or ... some of us.

We joke about periodically rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic or the "Lietanic" as Richard calls it. As we see in Bosch ... the follies of our kind are not new people ... and I'm guessing not new to those who think often about reality TV and ultimate wrestling smack-downs, and stock car races.

I report. You decide. Or not. The choice is yours.

---

I Contracted Slave Labor for Mothers' Day

My daughter, Boo (Becca) and I have a good relationship. She is almost 27 years-old, married 2-1/2 years. Her husband appears to be a gem (not in the rough). So the other day I was thinking, "do I want them to buy me something or could we do something else?"...

I called her up (is a that a mid-western US colloquialism?) and proposed that I needed help to put my backyard pond into a working pond. (I'm a long time pondkeeper). I asked if she and the superman Tom could come over and help me work for three or four hours. She said, "Sure!"

Tomorrow, I'll have a waterfall back working outside my bedroom window, and a pond where I can hopefully have plants and fish in a week.


Lovely Koi...

But it's Mothers' Day that's on my mind. Particularly the original impetus for the day which seems to come from a call by the poet Julia Ward Howe in 1870. Her call was not for a Hallmark or telecom moment. Her call was for a general strike by mothers against future carnage like what had just "happened" in the US "Civil War".


Geov Parrish wrote a very poignant essay on the subject with the entire text of Howe's call to "arms".

Working for Change has it In the Name of Womanhood and Humanity

Here is an excerpt:
"Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water of of tears
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience."

I think it's a must read, but then I've been saying the same thing for more than thirty years.

How many mothers and wives really want to send sons and husbands into the mess the US government is now in?

Happy Mothers' Day!

---

Important Reading

Check this out.

I'll comment later today. Great piece on the complicity of the 5th estate in our current mess.

---

I'm checking out of here for a few days

Ah, Cleveland, city of light, city of magic. . .

But I'll be back Tuesday night and rearing to go. Before I go, a little humor from Andy Borowitz, who can be found here: Borowitz Report
BUSH SETS GUINNESS RECORD FOR DAYS WITHOUT APOLOGY

Prez Notches over 10,000 ‘I’m Sorry’-free Days

President Bush celebrated a major milestone today as the The Guinness Book of World Records announced that he had set the world record for consecutive days without making an apology of any kind.

Mr. Bush’s world record, set during an appearance on the Arabic-language Al Arabia television network today, stands at 10,043 apology-free days, according to Guinness spokesman Ian Lakely.

“With this record, President Bush has certainly raised the bar for remorselessness,” Mr. Lakely said. “There’s no one even in shouting distance of him.”

According to the Guinness experts, the last documented apology by Mr. Bush occurred in the 1970’s during a golf game with longtime golfing buddy Charles “Whiffy” Wiffington.

“I caught him moving his ball closer to the cup and he sort of mumbled, ‘Sorry’ under his breath,” Mr. Wiffington said. “I guess that counts.”

While many in the Arab world had hoped that Mr. Bush might use his appearance on Al Arabia to offer an apology for the abuse of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, the President, mindful that his world record was at stake, stopped short of doing so.

In defending Mr. Bush’s actions, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, “The President has made it his policy not to apologize for refusing to apologize.”

In other news, the finale of “Friends” is expected to be a huge ratings winner in Iraq, where millions of Iraqis are longing for the chance to say goodbye to some Americans.

Elsewhere, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there would be a total overhaul of procedures at Iraq’s prisons, including the elimination of “rush week.”
The guy just cracks me up, and somehow, there's always a spark of truth more insightful than the typical NT Times Editorial page..

See you really soon, and don't forget to floss!

---

Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Lietanic

I'm really pressed for time this evening, so just a quick post to acknowledge both the Senate and House hearings with Rumsfeld and his entourage today. Fortunately, I did have an hour or so to listen to the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings, and from what I've picked up since then, it's pretty much more of the same old shit.

What's important to understand is that there was no way Rummy was going to be publicly nailed to a crucifix this afternoon. He did his dance; the congressional committees did their usual partisan two-step ("horrors, horrors, but this isn't us, it's the work of a few bad actors, we didn't know, blah de fucking blah"). One thing I have come way with this afternoon is that I finally believe that a significant chink in the Bush armor has developed. Is it enough to sink the ship? Probably not.

What sinks the ship is what's coming. A picture may indeed be worth 1000 words; it's the only way to explain national reaction since the photos were published. The story has been around for awhile. But now it has a face (hooded though it may be), electrodes, and a dog collar. There are (by Rumsfeld's admission) many more photos coming. There are (again, by Rumsfeld's admission) video and audio coming (if they can't figure out where the leak is and how to suppress it). If pictures are worth 1000 words, video and audio will be worth 100,000 photos. And so, the neocon empire will sink in the sunset.

The end can't come soon enough.

---

Did Bush and Rummy Know about Prison Abuse

It is hard to figure how they couldn't, given the reports and such in both the Army investigation and on the Senate Floor by Bingaman. Thanks to SLATE we have a very interesting chronology of events and Bush, McClelland, Rumsfeld, Condi statements. I like this one, four days after the New Yorker report was published, by George himself.
"Because we acted, torture rooms are closed, rape rooms no longer exist, mass graves are no longer a possibility in Iraq."—Bush, remarks at "Ask President Bush" event, Michigan, May 3, 2004Evidently the Bush gang wasn't going to react to this Prison abuse until the public reaction grew too much to bear. Typical of them -- governing by polling?

Please spit. Let it out!

---

I said, "Obie did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?"

I nearly did. In my recent distress over the turning and turning of our world's widening gyre, I almost dug myself a hole and pulled the dirt in after me. Confidentially, all that was left was the dirt-pulling. But thank the Universe, Richard came back and told me I was still a "good child". ;-)

So here I am doing my good, pain in the ass child routine for all to see.

This is your assignment. It involves reading and thinking and angsting, but I know you're all up to the task. In light of all that's happening in our very skewed world, the very warped US of A, I want you to read some of the works of the social psychologist Phillip Zimbardo, recently retired from Stanford University. He was the man who authored and supervised the Stanford Prison Experiment in the early 1970s. I'm not going to front-load this. You will have to read it for yourself, if you're inclined, and let me know your thoughts. While you're doing that, read the PDF of one of his recent papers.

The links:

The Stanford Prison Experiment ... at the top is a link to the Slide Show. It is long and worth the effort.

Next: Current essays ... click on the one that reads: A Situationist Perspective on the Psychology of Evil: Understanding How Good People Are Transformed into Perpetrators (2003)

My husband, my dear heart, tells me that I should not let this stuff consume me. He worries. I tell him that I don't know how it can't consume me. I can still get to a Buddhist sort of "still point" inside me, but I live in this world, ... and many things are coming apart. (Some of those things need to come apart, don't mistake me for some sort of reformist. I'm not that. I'm nutty, but not that nutty. LOL) I wanted to post a nifty photo of our Happy Planet from space but couldn't find one. I'm hoping Richard can help me out.

Addendum 3:28 PM PDT: I found a wonderful photo of Earth from Mars. It's too big to link here for you to see, but you can see it here. I just put it on my Mac G4 desktop. Black background. It's magnificent. Enjoy our big blue, green and white marble in space.

Update 10:40PM EDT

---

Oh, Bother

You simply can't compare the events of 9/11 to Watergate. I think I've posted here previously that one of the real black holes of information for me about 9/11 is the 32 minutes between the time FAA controllers recognized the first hijacking and the actual impact with WTC2. Another 15 minutes passed before the second plane hit WTC1. As I was driving back home during the morning of 9/11/01, the air traffic control aspect of this whole thing nagged at me. What were the controllers doing for 45 minutes? Sitting on their thumbs? What were the American Airlines supervisors who were in communication with flight attendant Betty Ong on first plane doing besides talking? Out of all of the aspects of 9/11, these gaps have never been answered to my satisfaction.

Then comes this report today from the NY Times:
WASHINGTON, May 6 - At least six air traffic controllers who dealt with two of the hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, made a tape recording that day describing the events, but the tape was destroyed by a supervisor without anyone making a transcript or even listening to it, the Transportation Department said today.

The taping began before noon on Sept. 11 at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, in Ronkonkoma, on Long Island, but it was later destroyed by an F.A.A. quality-assurance manager, who crushed the cassette in his hand, cut the tape into little pieces and dropped them in different trash cans around the building, according to a report made public today by the inspector general of the Transportation Department...(more)Let me categorically state that I'm not a conspiracy nutcase. I do not believe Mohammed Atta was the shooter on the grassy knoll.

But the most important national event in any of our lives, and a mid-level functionary of FAA systematically turns what might have been a critical piece of evidence, the most important ATC information available, to dust.

I'm really bothered by this revelation.

(Thanks to Allez @ PEMB for this catch!!)

---

Abu Ghraib - We've Been There Before...
Hirota Isomura and Toshio Kobata

Two critically ill internees killed by sentry July 27, 1942, during transfer to Lordsburg Internment Camp. Isomura was a fisherman from San Pedro, California. Kobata was a farmer from Brawley, California. These two Issei, along with almost 150 other prisoners being moved from the Fort Lincoln Internment Camp in Bismarck, arrived at the New Mexico train station. While the other prisoners were forced to march the mile from the station to Lordsburg, Isomura and Kobata were too ill to walk. The two were driven to the front gate of the camp, arriving before the rest of the prisoners. At approximately 2:30 a.m., camp guard Private First Class Clarence A. Burleson suddenly opened fire on the two men.

When the other newly arrived prisoners asked the camp physician about the condition of the two men, they were told that Isomura and Kobata were receiving medical care at the camp hospital. When morning came and the question was asked again, the doctor claimed that the two were shot during an escape attempt while on their way to the camp. Their graves were dug by two other Japanese American inmates, who were told "these graves are for the Japanese who died; if you don't do your work quickly, I will make you dig two more graves."There's so many "dirty little secrets" in American history. I don't suppose that's any different than any other country, but our dirty little secrets seem to be particularly rooted in violence. We could be talking about treatment and wholesale slaughter of Native Americans, slavery, prison systems, post-reformation lynchings in the south, or a whole host of other (and mostly racially motivated) atrocities, including Japanese internment camps in WWII. The bottom line is that we're pretty good at abusing those different than ourselves.

Let's get past a myth - America is not a "peaceful nation". In fact, a case could be made that the U.S. is the most violent country on the planet, both in terms of real aggression and the culture that breeds this aggression. In the 21st century, we are one of the few countries in the world that codifies capital punishment - state sponsored execution. We can watch heads roll 50 times a night on TV, but you won't see one bare boob. But the abortion issue? No, no, life is sacred.

I tire of the evangelical dichotomy.

I'm reminded of what allied forces did upon liberation of concentration camps during WWII - they forced the local citizenry, who turned a blind eye toward the horrors in places like Dachau and Auschwitz, to come in and view the carnage, and literally clean up the mess. As Americans, we've never been forced to confront the stink of reality of our (to paraphrase soon-to-be ex-DefSec Donald Rumsfeld) "untidiness" to other members of the human race. The images of atrocities at Abu Ghraib, even sterile as they may be, force us to confront that reality. So it shouldn't be surprising that Mom and Pop Heartland are literally screaming that the images of prisoner abuse shouldn't be shown.

This is our culture. This is who we are. 228 years after the revolution, we've still got a chip on our national shoulder.

Update, 4:35PM - From Fearless Leader this afternoon:
"I told him I was as equally sorry that people seeing those pictures didn't understand the true nature and heart of America," Bush said, standing in the Rose Garden alongside Abdullah.Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. People seeing these pictures most certainly do understand the true nature and heart of America. And therein lies the heart of the problem.

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Haiku

Hoods bring darkness
Flowers and candy explode:
Humanity dies.

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Tim ing is Everything

Too funny. Or sad, depending on your POV.

Notice to the Press
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
May 4, 2004

Postponement of Release of “Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2003-2004”

The release of “Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2003-2004” scheduled for May 5, 2004 has been postponed for technical reasons that have held up completion of the report. We will announce a new date for the release of the report once it reaches the final stage of printing.

2004/489
[End]

Released on May 4, 2004I guess that a complete rewrite based on Iraqi prison issues could be considered a "technical reason"...

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A Mickey Mouse Response to Michael Moore

This just ain't right.
WASHINGTON, May 4 - The Walt Disney Company is blocking its Miramax division from distributing a new documentary by Michael Moore that harshly criticizes President Bush, executives at both Disney and Miramax said Tuesday.

The film, "Fahrenheit 911," links Mr. Bush and prominent Saudis - including the family of Osama bin Laden - and criticizes Mr. Bush's actions before and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks...First off, I don't want Michael Eisner deciding for me what's good or bad. Second, it seems to me that Eisner has enough on his plate without kicking up a ruckus about distribution of Moore's film by a Disney subsidiary. Third, I feel pretty confident that this film is going to be a blockbuster.

I have no doubt that someone will pick up the distribution rights. The film is ready to release, and no way it sits on a shelf until some later date (presumably, after the election), particularly with Moore debuting the film at Cannes next month. And even if Disney continues the blockade, I wouldn't be surprised to see Moore himself "release" the movie over the web (through some offshore channel, no doubt).

Bottom line: a Mickey Mouse move by Disney, IMO.

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We Interrupt Your Nightly Angst for This Important Announcement

The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL's Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, 3-2. Jeremey Roenick scored the winning goal in overtime to send Toronto to a 4 games to 2 series defeat. The Flyers face off in the conference championship series against the Tampa Bay Lightning starting Saturday, the winner advancing to a berth in the Stanley Cup finals.

Carry on.

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How SHOULD we Honor Our War Dead?

The conservatives protested the Koppel program last Friday, and the Sinclair Group pulled the program off the air, all for Koppel reading the names out loud and showing the picture of each man or woman killed in the line of duty. The closest I've found to a similar honoring of the Dead is at the web site of a publisher specializing in newspapers for servicemen,
www.militarycity.com. Yes, all along during the war in Iraq the paper which can be found in every United States Base Exchange in the world.

I spent the afternoon reading the list of our war dead. It is moving to see the ranks, ages, hometowns and pictures of the soldiers. I was particularly moved at four casualties on the 23rd and 24th of April of this year. All men are from Arkansas, and an internet friend of mine nicknamed Emerald Eagle had told me of these men she knew who had died. As much as I like Emerald Eagle, it was not until I ran across their names on this list that I fully appreciated that community's, and our, loss.

Go here for the list of the dead: US Soldiers Who Died in Iraq. Remember, this is in a conservative publication. The Republican spin machine only wants to make sure to suppress publication of dead soldiers when they are read aloud by ABC, or when pictures of coffins are taken by contracted employees. Evidently they approved of this message.

This story enrages me, but I am also solemn and nearly praying for these lost souls. I need a more heartwarming image, so I thought I'd leave you with one, this one from Army Times:



At the mention of Karl Rove's name it is recommended that you spit three times.

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The Prisoner Abuse Issue -- Some Republicans are Reacting Strongly

I've found some evidence that the Republicans in Congress, not to mention folks like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and Tom Daschle, are highly worked up about the abuse problems in Al Graib.

Here's John Warner:
Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said the allegations, "if proven, represent an appalling and totally unacceptable breach of military conduct that could undermine much of the courageous work and sacrifice by our forces in the war on terror."Of course, Warner's stress appears to be to praise the current troops, but he is right nonetheless. The actions here will harm how we view our loyal and capable troops.

Here's Tom Daschle:
As the committee met, Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said on the Senate floor that he wants Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to come to the legislative body "no later than the end of this week ... and explain to us what they know."

Among other things, Daschle said he wanted to know why President Bush was not earlier informed of a report that American soldiers had subjected detainees to blatant and sadistic abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison and why Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers have not yet read the two-month old report.

"Why, in other words, has there been this extraordinary disconnect, this unbelievable failure of communication, of oversight," Daschle said. "We cannot let this action go without doing all that we can to ensure that we understand all of the circumstances ... and be provided with ... specific and detailed response involving discipline."These incidents may be the tip of the iceberg, as Ted Kennedy is claiming, but that doesn't matter. There are many things that have happened here that appear to take forever to get to the Secretary's or President's desks. Why? Management style. The notion that one can delegate tasks and let them be done does not mean all responsibility for getting the tasks done properly and ethically is handed off at the same time. Responsibility is lacking here something fierce, both with the defendants who are claiming CIA involvement and orders, or the same from independent contractors, but also from the higher up sin the Bush team.

A couple more reactions. From a few other Republicans:
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she fears that photos depicting Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody apparently being sexually humiliated and physically abused, which have been widely broadcast on TV, could incite more violence against American troops in Iraq.

Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Jeff Bingaman, N.M., said the concern goes beyond the actions of a few soldiers.

"There is a bigger issue here," Hagel said Tuesday on NBC's "Today.""Was there an environment, a culture that not only condoned this, but encouraged this kind of behavior? We need to look well beyond just the soldier. Who was in charge? Was there a breakdown in command here? ... We need to understand all the dynamics of this."That these Republicans are reacting this strongly shows me this issue is not going away and is as heinous as those of us on the left think. Remember, your friendly neighborhood PR guy says to get out in front of bad news and condemn it, especially when it makes your position look bad, such as the Republican pro-war, pro-military position. By this logic, look for this to get far worse.

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The End of the Age of Enlightenment?

Everyone is talking about Abu Ghraib prison, and the abuses that have occurred during detention of Iraqis. My gut feeling is that what we know right now is only the tip of the iceberg. Like many such horror stories from past wars, it will take years for the full story to be told.

Driving into work today for the first time in two weeks, I listened to NPR reporting on reaction of Iraqis and the world at large. It comes as no surprise to me that world reaction has been extremely negative. It also comes as no surprise to me that, despite the administration's feigned "horror", there doesn't appear to be a real sense of outrage that Americans could actually perpetrate such acts.

I want to put the shoe on the other foot for a moment. If pictures such as those that have been published over the last week depicted, say, Israelis abusing Palestinian prisoners (like that has never happened...), U.S. public support of Ariel Sharon's policies would drop off the map. There would be an unprecedented public outcry for censure and bringing the perpetrators to justice. I don't sense this in the U.S.

According to reports, a handful of military personnel (enlisted personnel, I presume) face potential court martial charges over the abuses. Another handful of "supervising officers" have received the dreaded Letter of Reprimand -- slaps on the wrist and little more, other than the dead ending of military careers. And what's most disturbing to me is what I'll call "heartland reaction" -- folks in the U.S. horrified by the pictures, but only to the extent of questioning why the pictures needed to be shown in the first place. The attitude seems to be "war is hell", and sometimes shit happens.

Here's the problem. This isn't a case of shit happening to warriors. Many of the prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison are there as a result of either guilt by association or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again, the heartland reaction seems to be to hang 'em all, and let Allah sort them out.

Bloodlust by combatants in wartime is nothing new. History books are replete with tales of savagery during the prosecution of wars. Perhaps we have simply deluded ourselves that, as a species, we entered an age of enlightenment many years ago. A basic, philosophical recognition of natural law (21st century translation: human rights) took place way back in the 17th and 18th centuries. Montesquieu and Voltaire, among others, grounded their philosophy of enlightenment in a fundamental acknowledgement of basic human rights.

Juan Cole sums it up nicely today:
There simply is no logical or ethical comparison between the killings and desecrations of the four private commandos at Fallujah by a mixture of guerrillas and mobs, and the systematic torture of Prisoners of War by a democratic country.

Any equivalence would suggest that the United States military is not, and cannot be expected to be, better than an enraged mob in a small occupied city in Iraq's western desert. What was done to the commandos was horrible, and it was a crime by civilians and irregulars who should be arrested and punished.

The United States is a government, not a mob. As such, it has entered into treaty relations and made commitments to international law. It is a signatory of the Geneva Conventions, which govern how prisoners are to be treated. The United States army violated the Geneva Conventions when it tortured Iraqi prisoners of war. Period. It was a series of serious crimes not by isolated civilians but by agents of the US government. Crimes of states are always more serious than crimes of individuals, because states are organized collective institutions upon which civilization depends. There is no excuse for it, least of all that sometimes town mobs have behaved worse.When it comes to wartime bloodlust, 2004 is no different than 1969, or 1943, or 1917 or 1863 or 1777. I suppose what is most disconcerting is that, in the age of instant media, our horror is registered in realtime rather than over months or years. You would think that instant media would have brought Voltaire's vision of social accountability of all nation-states closer to reality.

He'd probably be very depressed to find out he was all wrong.

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From the "You can Dress Me Up..." File

I have an idea for a new law. No entertainer outside of Branson, Missouri should be permitted to close their show with the Lee Greenwood song, "God Bless the USA".

One night last week, I thoroughly embarassed my lovely wife when, at the end of his set, our entertainer for the evening started belting out a cover of the most jingoistic, smarmy, beer-drinking, NASCAR-dad inspiring song ever written. Never mind the political implications of the song: I thought it was completely inappropriate for the singer to get into nationalistic bombast when his stage was outside of the U.S., and the audience (while predominantly American) had a significant contingent of foreign nationals. I also thought it was a really cheap ploy to get applause at the end of a lackluster performance.

So I didn't stand up and sing and clap along with 95% of the crowd. Fortunately, I wasn't alone in my crappy little protest, as a few others weren't taking the bait either. The fact that they had canes and walkers makes no difference.

Later on, I overheard my wife telling people that I was a drunk Frenchman. She was only half right.

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On Further Review...

I've had the opportunity to re-read Dick Clarke's book, "Against all Enemies", this time a bit more critically than on my first quick pass. On a second reading, you get the sense of many incomplete tidbits of information that (presumably by editorial necessity) Mr. Clarke relies on the reader to pursue further. One such passage that jumped out at me was a description of a golden opportunity for understanding the nature of the al Qaeda organization:
Then in the spring of 1996, two chess pieces moved. Bin Laden flew to Afghanistan, closing some of his Khartoum companies and houses. After he left, Jamal al-Fadl, who had been privy to much of the "bin Laden network" based in Sudan, sought U.S. protection. He had been siphoning off funds and feared al Qaeda would kill him. Fadl's interrogation helped...discover the size and shape of the network. And that's the only mention of al-Fadl in Clarke's book. Just this past weekend, an article buried in the Sunday New York Times revealed how important al-Fadl really was:
One of its first members when he swore allegiance around 1990, he held a position of confidence with Mr. bin Laden that included helping to manage his payroll, testimony has shown. Mr. Fadl had access to the files of each of the group's members, knew their aliases and was privy to details of Mr. bin Laden's global financial network. He developed an intimate knowledge of Mr. bin Laden's businesses, which prosecutors said were fronts for terrorism, and was able to describe how Al Qaeda used false passports, smuggled arms and tried to buy components for nuclear weapons.

In 1996, Mr. Fadl fled the organization after he embezzled about $110,000 from one of Mr. bin Laden's companies, eventually walking into an American embassy in Africa and offering his services in the fight against Al Qaeda. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in a closed 1997 proceeding, and until he testified, prosecutors referred to him in court papers only as CS-1, for confidential source.

In February 2001, wearing a white skullcap, an open-neck shirt and blue jeans, Mr. Fadl identified himself in a Manhattan courtroom and began several days of riveting testimony against four men charged with conspiring in the embassy attacks, in which more than 200 people died, and in the killings of 18 American soldiers in Somalia in 1993. So, you can see that al-Fadl was more than just your typical squealer, and because of his former position within bin Laden's organization, federal marshals placed him in the witness protection program. He was apparently deposed / debriefed during the course of many video conferences, some of which were taped. Ultimately, al-Fadl helped convict the four men. The problem is, video taping anyone in the witness protection program is against policy. The line of thinking is that such videos could reveal the identity of the witness. And more importantly, when the trials began in 2001 on John Ashcroft's watch, federal marshals did not reveal the existence of the videos to the prosecution. So, now the prosecution is trying to get the convictions overturned, and secure a new trial for the defendants.

Damn the discovery process.

But anyway, out of this whole bag of worms, Clarke described the opportunity in a few short words. And this is where many people fail to grasp the connected nature of many of the events that Clarke describes in his book. Lastly, the post-squealer treatment of al-Fadl seems to almost be Chalabi-esque in nature:
As officials press him for help, he presses back, asking them to fix his car, buy him a house and give him money, for himself and for his parents back in Sudan. The authorities, it becomes clear, have taken responsibility not just for a witness, but for an entire family. Indeed, testimony in the bombings trial showed that the government had spent almost $1 million on Mr. Fadl and his relatives.Too bad al-Fadl wasn't peddling porn. Then he could have really cut a sweet deal with Ashcroft's crew.

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Reality Sucks

I've been away for the past week on a mind numbing experience. But I'll talk about the evils of excessive alcohol consumption at a later date. Suffice it to say that there are times in life when, for the sake of one's personal sanity, it's necessary to empty the brain. Seven days in an environment where pretty much the heaviest mental lifting required is "which dinner entree should I order?" really helps to soothe the soul.

One thing I rediscovered is that it's an exercise in futility to try and completely divorce yourself from events in the outside world. It doesn't matter how geographically (or mentally) distant from reality you choose to remove yourself. Someone, somewhere in the world, is still publishing six-page New York Times synopses. So I wasn't completely out of the news loop. Still, the lack of a "real time news feed" was both a comfort and, at times, maddening.

A lot of crap has gone down on the world stage since I began my self imposed exile, and I'll be getting around to discussing those topics over the next few days. Suffice it to say I was taking notes while I was away.

Many thanks to Doc and Kate for taking care of the blog in my absence! I knew ASZ would be in good hands.

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Why isn't this Blasting in Every Living Room

They call it a liberal media, but this story about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners is going almost noplace in the mainstream media, and the abuse is intensely shocking. Rape, forcing men to masturbate in front of each other and in front of women guards. Beatings. I'm thoroughly disgusted, but more so that the mainstream media is treating this as a mere blip on the horizon.

The whole story is brilliantly told in this week's
New Yorker. Perhaps I should not be too upset -- this story may build. CNN is reporting this as I write this.

Will the Bush attack committee now go after Seymour Hersch for reporting this?

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It was a year ago today

All the papers are taking stock of our progress in Iraq one year after Georgie boy called "Mission Accomplished" in that highly staged macho-fest on the Lincoln. Here's the Washington Post, for example, but I could grasp at any number of publications with a simple google of the words.
Reuters Article in the Post More interesting are the editorials we'll see in the coming days. Still, there are a couple items that caught my eye. First, from that Reuters article.
Cries of "victory over the Americans" echoed from minarets and guerrilla gunmen celebrated in the streets under the green banner of Islam and Saddam-era Iraqi flags. Thousands who had fled a month of heavy fighting streamed back to their homes after U.S. Marines pulled back from their siege positions.
It appears the clumsy way we handled Fallujah has made the Iraqi insurgents think they have won. This isn't normal battle here. They can draw the idea of winning from the smallest thing, and that will charge them up even more. Why did we attack Fallujah? I would argue it was done out of pure emotional reaction to the bodies hanging from that bridge a month ago. What is the result? Could it be the first victory for the insurgents? How often will we continue to give them what they see as moral victories?

No, the mission is not accomplished. I'm struck also today that there is no mention of Al Qaeda or of Osama Bin Laden. I'm not claiming the hunt for him has been abandoned, but it is important to note that the quicksand of the Iraqi desert has so caught us that we don't appear to remember the real reason for the war on terror. Bush has gotten us into a deep hole.

I have a vintage bottle of Scope here which might help you rinse and spit.