thou mine art?

if i had spent my days as a scrivener fanning the embers of creativity, rather than crafting the next threatening letter, would my art now be refined to the point where someone would see the value, see the thought that went into the composition. and am i now doomed by the banality of my wasted days, toiling in someone else's dream battles forever?

after my last post and the article there linked,

i read with interest the proponents of the Democratic talking point that the incompetence of the administration weighs strongly against the wisdom of war with iran. after that, i read an equally thoughtful point that bush can reclaim the mantle of competence with some cosmetic changes to his cabinet: change of defense secretary, etc.

i reiterate that there is no iran crisis. best to leave this to future, more competent presidents. the paralell should be drawn to social security. don't fix it if it ain't broke. wait. use caution. end the imbroglio you started before beginning the next conflagration.

i never understood why so much confidence has been placed in w, on whose watch 9/11 occurred, when it's been proven time and time again that the man can't be trusted. he's a stone faced liar who should never be believed again. god i wish this nightmare would end.

after 9/11, I would have understood if the us government lit up a nuke in some barren desert somewhere, just to send a message. now, with talk of "tactical" nukes and bunker busting nukes, and small nukes I have a sickening sensation that such senseless emotion runs still in the veins of those with their fingers on the proverbial button.

I read an article this morning about some guy in Pennsylvania who killed his wife by throwing a microwave at her and banging her head on the floor because she wouldn't make him a sandwich. The money quote was that he didn't mean to do it, and that he was sorry to have killed her. It would suck if W felt that way after he launched nukes, but it would be too late then also. The genie would again be out of the bottle. These fools who think that evil acts are okay if done in some good name or another will ultimately see karma spinning the shit back at them. They let loose the demons of war and never care to see where they come to rest, even if it's home where they ultimately return.

never occurs that we might all get off this planet before we destroy any of it. never occurs at all. no common purpose. with no mission to save the planet for the day, there is no chance of the race ever leaving it. champagne supernova.

makes sense

A policy toward Iran that is in the national interest would be the exact opposite of this administration's. Begin direct negotiations, open channels of communication. We are the threat, and only we can de-escalate it.


There is no crisis.

words fail

ninja terrorists

Black Box Voting is the only issue that matters, and Brad Blog is the best source for black box voting news

Our Elections are Now Officially 'A National Disaster in the Making'

life in the new reich

libertarian librarians and democratic dictators

wiiiaai

“The Administration Has Repeatedly Acknowledged Intelligence Problems And Has Taken Multiple Steps To Address Them.”

What did the Senate know about the bogus mobile weapons trailers, and when did it know it?

Josh Marshall asks:

"When did the administration let Congress in on the fact that those mobile weapons labs weren't bio-weapons labs at all and that we'd just been conned by some emigres on the make?

We're focusing now on the president's flogging of this bogus story shortly after the Defense Intelligence Agency gave a definitive verdict on the falsity of the claim. But when did they tell Congress? And how late did other administration heavies continue to make this claim?

My recollection is that with most of these stories like the trailers and the tubes and the nuclear this and that, most of this stuff wasn't definitively knocked down for many, many months after the war. Like old soldiers these fables didn't die so much as they faded away. The certainty diminished. More doubts were raised. But for what always struck me as deeply cynical reasons, the White House never publicly pulled the plug on any of these tales because as long as they kept some level of uncertainty hanging in the air they didn't have to address the fact that the central argument for the war had turned out to be false.

Hell, you've still got Hitchens publicly holding out for the Niger canard. And that's just an example of the fact that you can always find folks deep enough in the tank to churn out tall tales for the true believers to eat up.

Anyway, when did the White House tell Congress that the mobile weapons story was bunk?

A reader pointed me toward this portion of the congressional record from July 17th, 2003 in which Senators Durbin and McConnell discuss then heated WMD debate. They both discuss the mobile bio-weapons trailers with the assumption that that was what they were. And this was the day after then CIA Director George Tenet gave five hours of closed door Senate testimony on the WMD debacle. That certainly suggests that Tenet didn't knock down the mobile lab fable in that lengthy session dedicated to the topic of pre-war WMD intelligence.

What does Durbin say? ..."

why is it

that the ones who can't grasp the common sense in ending the drug war, predominantly, have had no meaningful hallucinogenic experiences?

do hallucinogenic experiences increase one's common sense?

how often is common?

few who listen to the hendrix song "spanish castle magic" can appreciate the significance of this hallucinogenic vision, of the reports of shared halucinations of spanish cities. it's in the south american shaman's brew, but one need not visit south america to see the castles.

show me the way to the next whiskey bar

no don't ask why

vigilence

is now more important than ever. the next big evil is in the works. a stench wafts from Mordor.

Robust Penetrators are NOT good

Nukes.
Helpful animation via Booman.

The Best Truthiness

money can buy.

Despite no confidence

in dim son, the military will fuck things up with Iran. It's what military's do, and pre emptive war is now the norm. So, all of you who supported this divine right of intervention in Iraq, it's a little late in the game to suggest that your fueher might not be competent enough to rely on to get it right. Hat tip to apostropher for both articles.

KARAMA

is a bitch. Scaife has a shitload of bad coming his way.

interesting

the problem i have with modern day conservatism is the notion that privatization is somehow better than direct government action. Like you get a choice of less competence and efficiency and greatly reduced likelihood of corruption and fraud. The idea that one is intrinsically better than the other: private action versus government action misses this fundamental issue; one is always on two axes of efficiency/competence and honesty/public interest on the other. the fact of the matter is that either political system will function very well provided that ethics and fair dealing are somehow properly valued. it's more than just economics and politics that must be conveyed by the ideal one places on the perch of one's philosophy. it is by more than our words or actions that we are known; it is also by what we stand for. Integrity and nobility. These are not necessarily the same.

Seymour Hersh

writes in the New Yorker about Rumsfeld and the Pentagon’s increasing interest in using tactical nuclear weapons.

disaster planning

I was reviewing a summary of a disaster preparedness primer, when the table of contents suggested something missing, so i wrote:

I don't see "Elect a Democratic chief executive" anywhere on your list.

Nor, "Spend Federal tax money on public works here at home like in New Orleans, instead of in the First Independent Exxon Nation of Iraq."

Florida Governor's Race

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist wants the public to know he is "anti-murder."

Democratic state Sen. Rod Smith wants a paper trail for voting machines.