If you don’t listen to WBUR you’re an asshole and I hate you. Also, if you don’t donate to them this year I hate you.
Pledge now or feel my wrath.
If you’re wondering why I’m so bitter its because none of you told me about this veritable gold mine of a resource. This station brings water to my eyes. Dr. Pants is very upset.
Well a little anyway.
Lets start with the following:
- We had no right to invade Iraq. Iraq posed no threat to the US and had no links to Al Qaeda. That much is as clear as day no matter what anyone else says.
- We invaded Iraq for the following reasons: OIL, He tried to kill my daddy, OIL, Haliburton, OIL, having an american base of operations in the middle east, OIL, Oedipus, and for the bunnies
- Iraq is not better off now. Yes Saddam is gone and he is/was a bad man but Iraqis were united in hating him as opposed to the west. There was an infrastructure in place(utilities, govt etc… no matter how corrupt) and there weren’t bombings taking place every day killing dozens.
- Women had more rights under Saddam than it looks like they will once a theocratic islamist regime/govt comes into power soon.
- 2000+ and counting US deaths and at least 100k Iraqis killed by US military. This is the blood on our conscience that will not wash away much like Vietnam.
- The US is most definitely not safer now than we were before we invaded. This has not only created a great recruiting tool for “the terrorists” but also caused a general feeling of ill will with the Muslim world and absolutely wasted the political cache and sympathy we had following 9/11
Now where do I agree with Bush: We cannot pull out now or anytime soon.
- Just because we invaded for the wrong/no reason and have destroyed the country doesn’t mean we can “cut and run” now. We have to fix or at least make a good faith effort to fix the mess that we have caused. Those 100K+ deaths and the many more to come are on the US’s hands now.
- The leaders of the resistance are definitely aligned or associated with Al Qaeda now and they are more organised than any other group in Iraq. If we leave, they will take over and that is bad.
What we should do:
- Apologize. Not to the american people but to the Iraqi people. Engage in diplomacy and use Imam Al Sastani (sp) one ofthe more respected people in Iraq to calm tensions. Explain US intentions clearly without double talk.
- Stop torturing people. Pass laws. Prosecute Rumsfeld and Cheney (realistically at least a slap on the wrists). Make the 10% or so of the military in Iraq who are complete idiots take some “How to behave like a decent human being” classes.
- Insist on a true democracy. Model it after the former Pakistani govt(an Islamic republic where women had at least quasi-equal rights) or a democracy that works in a majority muslim nation(indonesia?Bangladesh?).
-Send more soldiers if necessary. Thats what the generals want. Hire actually qualified people to implement the occupation!
- Impeach Bush
Maybe the Joe-mentum can keep going for Mr. Lieberman and take him to the nomination in ’08. The Republican nomination that is.
Pucker up.
cunt (kŭnt)
n. Vulgar Slang.
1. The female genital organs.
2. Sexual intercourse with a woman.
3. a. Offensive. Used as a disparaging term for a woman.
b. Used as a disparaging term for a person one dislikes or finds extremely disagreeable.
Here‘s why.
Side note: My Rep., John Tierney, kicks ass at the beginning.
They filled up Copley Square yesterday. It’s still full today.
One pair of boots for every soldier killed in Iraq, 2054 as of this morning.
Such a tasteful and reverent exhibit makes me so fucking sick.
I guess Michael Brown himself was well aware that he wasn’t qualified for his position at FEMA. Perhaps this was known before… but reading it in this context is quite something.
As Hurricane Katrina ripped into the Gulf Coast, the government’s emergency management chief was making flippant remarks about his responsibilities, e-mails show.
“Can I quit now? Can I come home?” former Federal Emergency Management Director Michael Brown wrote to Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of public affairs, the morning of the hurricane.
A few days later, Brown wrote to an acquaintance, “I’m trapped now, please rescue me.”
As employees looked for direction and support on the ravaged Gulf Coast, Brown offered to “tweak” the federal response.
Brown resigned on September 12, 10 days after President Bush told him, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
A heck of a job alright.
I would say that this is the biggest story in Sports this year. The biggest star of a sport just came out of the closet. Jus the second time in sports that this has happenned (see martina navratilova). The WNBA isn’t the biggest sport but it is popular enough and enough people know about Sheryl Swoopes that it should have a positive impact on society. Since Sports is all about the $$ I would really be interested to know if 1. She gets endorsements etc, 2. The WNBA will continue to market her, 3. What the backlash is. Two great articles in ESPN:
Swoopes and business
Swoopes in her own words
Adding to the indictment blue balls is this juicy nugget from today’s Times.
Umm:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 – I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
And:
Mr. Libby’s notes indicate that Mr. Cheney had gotten his information about Ms. Wilson from George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, in response to questions from the vice president about Mr. Wilson. But they contain no suggestion that either Mr. Cheney or Mr. Libby knew at the time of Ms. Wilson’s undercover status or that her identity was classified. Disclosing a covert agent’s identity can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent’s undercover status.
Cheney telling Libby about Plame’s identity isn’t illegal, but Cheney greenlighting Libby to reveal Plame’s name to Judy Miller after some late-night anal-blasting, that’s a different story.
There is a debate with our lawmakers and foreign governments as to who should be given control over various internet core services. Although I am far from surprised about their stance on these issues, the political statements being made are amusing at best.
“Turning the Internet over to countries with problematic human-rights records, muted free-speech laws, and questionable taxation practices will prevent the Internet from remaining the thriving medium it has become today,” said California Republican Rep. John Doolittle in a statement.
Iraq War? Abu Ghraib? Patriot Act? Digital Millenium Copyright Act? RIAA/MPAA vs. America? HARRO?
“The United States is uniquely positioned in the world to protect the fundamental principles of free press and free speech, upon which the Internet has thrived,” Goodlatte said in a statement.
You mean uniquely positioned as being represented by people who are full of shit.
Shrug.
From the Harper’s Index:
Number of journalists killed in Vietnam during twenty years of war there: 63
Number killed in Iraq since March 2003: 71
And yet fellow journalists still cover these deaths in passing, as they move to more important topics like teens missing in Aruba or Katie Holmes’s pregnancy. Maybe instead of working to change the government, we just start taking over the media, that will probably get the kind of results we need. Nah, fuck it, I’m too lazy.