drat fink

return to sender

scott rosenberg post on truth-telling among the business and political elite and how one reporter's email about davos is making waves. definitely checkout the email link and the law meme piece too.

cold wards

anybody see that nova about dirty bombs? i think the scariest thing was the conditions in which some of the russian bioweapons were stored. they went into one lab and a batches of the plague were in chock full of nuts coffee cans in a 1950s kelvinator. i think they were still getting ice delivered to keep it cold. cant somebody send them a few new ge refrigerators, or at least a kenmore?

sorry, it wasnt the dirtybombs episode, it was this one about biowarfare.

high comedy

"It's also nice to see that in John Ashcroft's America, unlike during the "freewheeling" Clinton Administration, celebrities aren't getting away with their sinful ways. As part of the sting, the DEA raided Tommy Chong's house in Pacific Palisades. They didn't get Chong, but they later picked him up as he attempted to drive an ice-cream truck made of marijuana across the Mexican border.

Hah-hah! I am funny blogger who makes funny pot joke! Link me! Link me!"

communication breakdown

reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated, or some such line. having telephony difficulties over here at df central. thatll learn me not to pay my bill on time. currently operating on a hand-cranked machine. hope to be back up to speed in the next few day, or a few days after that, or sometime later on past that point. should be any time now. *drums fingers on desk* *smiles wanely* *itches scalp* *itches beard* *itches nose* *sniffs* *clears throat* *types slowly* *yawn* hey, did the war start yet?

behind the green door

i missed this frontline The War Behind Closed Doors but it will be available online on tuesday.

ethelene gaseousness

ethel is back. and despite the tidal wave of new left bloggers to wade through, hes still a top shelf muckraker.

"The Israelis are building a wall in Bethlehem to separate the Arabs from the Jewish part of town, just one more wall in a catacomb of walls and checkpoints trapping Palestinians in, well...

Ghettos

And I mean that in the sense of the Warsaw Ghetto."

chilly willy

"This is the transcript of an interview between former President Bill Clinton and James Fallows, of The Atlantic Monthly, on October 21, 2002. It occurred at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Clinton was in Fayetteville to deliver a speech on foreign policy honoring his mentor, the late Senator J. William Fulbright. Also present at the interview were two of Clinton's associates from Arkansas, including Rodney Slater, former Secretary of Transportation. Clinton and his group arrived 45 minutes late. Clinton strolled into the interview room and took out a cigar, which he never lit."

sword swallowers

"The Cross-Blog Debate has come to an end, and the responses are in. From here on out, it's freewheeling debate in comments sections, on blogs, in the street, from the rooftops... whatever floats your boat."

genrul dynamix

i posted this elsewhere (as i was needlessly revising someone elses parody) but as usual in my haste i made a mistook.

war is a mainly a manly game
its not just played for fun
its not just waged for fame
its aim is zero sum

our zero hero is saddam
we'll target him with glee
and after he is less than none
we'll head towards galilee.

you cant be serious enough to think
that north koreans will take issue
that syrians will make us blink
that iranians arent made of tissue

and what do we care
with our bombs bursting in air
home of the crossed hair
our rockets red glare

blank stairs

"Pinker takes aim at three targets in his book. He calls them the Blank Slate (the notion that the mind has no inherent structure), the Noble Savage (the notion that man is born innocent and is corrupted by society), and the Ghost in the Machine (the notion that mind differs from matter). These correspond, at least loosely, to the philosophical traditions of empiricism, Romanticism, and dualism, respectively. Pinker considers all three traditions because he believes they are typically found together. While this seems doubtful (Marxists subscribe to the Blank Slate and the Noble Savage but reject the Ghost in the Machine, while Catholics do the opposite), it doesn't much matter. Pinker ends up attacking what he takes to be the errors of the Blank Slate almost exclusively and the other two targets mostly disappear. "

man hunt

"A new survey of the Lake Mungo site has now revised the date of the burial to 42,000 years ago. Nearby rock flakes, which seem to be human artifacts, occur in a layer of sand dated to 46,000 to 50,000 years ago, according to a report to be published in the journal Nature on Thursday by James M. Bowler of the University of Melbourne and other Australian colleagues.

The revision means that the Lake Mungo remains support rather than contradict the theory that a change occurring only 50,000 years ago endowed human societies with capabilities for travel and exploiting new environments."

nothing to see here

"MOSCOW – When George H. W. Bush ordered American forces to the Persian Gulf – to reverse Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait – part of the administration case was that an Iraqi juggernaut was also threatening to roll into Saudi Arabia.
Citing top-secret satellite images, Pentagon officials estimated in mid–September that up to 250,000 Iraqi troops and 1,500 tanks stood on the border, threatening the key US oil supplier.

But when the St. Petersburg Times in Florida acquired two commercial Soviet satellite images of the same area, taken at the same time, no Iraqi troops were visible near the Saudi border – just empty desert."

suck face

new ana marie cox weblog -- the antic muse

blogPAC

"So, what if the "grassroots", at least those of us represented by sites like dKos, MyDD, Atrios, Talk Left, DU, and others, were able to pool the resources of their respective readers? Yesterday I pledged $25/month, or $300 a year. If 334 of my readers did the same (my daily readership is in the 6,000 range, Atrios is probably double that), that would be $100,000 in the DNC coffers -- real money. In the GOP, that would make this site a "Pioneer", with special access to GOP decision makers. I would expect the same from the DNC."

i shut em down

"Anti-war coalition leaders, emboldened by the massive turnout at peace rallies in London and around the world, are planning to try to shut Britain down should Tony Blair defy public opinion and go to war without a UN resolution."

digging in

"I believe that the energy and the commitment that brought average people into the streets in rather impressive numbers yesterday was about mistrust of American power in the hands of this administration. Diplomacy by bludgeon, the flatulent public proclamations of “unilateralism” and “benevolent hegemony” and the ham-handed, ever changing rationales for the invasion have served to confirm in many minds that disarming Iraq is merely afirst step in a much larger global agenda. These documented ambitions (which, granted, most people only sense rather than know,) combined with a dubious election, an eccentric if not downright radical foreign policy team and a President whose childlike rhetoric and blindingly obvious lack of qualifications for the job of world leader make America appear to be slightly unstable and potentially threatening. We are the most powerful country on earth and yet something strange and unnerving is going on with our politics. This worries people."

left bunk

"A group of wealthy Democratic donors is planning to start a liberal radio network to counterbalance the conservative tenor of radio programs like "The Rush Limbaugh Show.""

hitchen post

"It was an especially frigid weekend on Mount Winchester, with temperatures dropping into the teens and the snowfall reaching approximately three feet. The solarium, as it often does during the harshness of February, cracked under the weight of snow, endangering Roger's seven prize orchids and nearly freezing our beloved cat, Mr. Hitchens. Of course, we didn't leave the house, but thanks to the Orange Alert, we had ample bottled water and tinned sea bass. I would have spent the weekend drinking wine, but I've vowed not to consume any French products until those Vichy cowards bow down to the noble dogs of war. A collective ass saved twice, apparently, does not evince gratitude from a nation of weaklings."

dont go making my heart

harvard squared

notes on winer at harvard blogs

licensed to quill

the vote is in (trouble)

"The question is not whether electronic balloting is a good thing or a bad thing. It is what kinds of electronic balloting have built in safeguards and checks against electronic fraud, and what kinds don’t. The recently passed Help America Vote Act (HAVA), includes $3.9 billion to help state and local goverments install hi-tech upgrades to their voting technology. What is being overlooked is that not all electronic voting systems are created equal. Some of the ones on the market, perhaps even most, have serious flaws that enable unscrupulous people to alter vote counts and commit massive electoral fraud. Some also are designed to leave no electronic backup or paper trail that would enable state officials to discover vote tampering or conduct recounts."

"This, my friends, is a disaster waiting to happen."

french kicks

well, at least they won the '98 world cup.

so much to answer for

"ANSWER's nyet doesn't irk Lerner as much as the fact that Not In Our Name and United for Peace & Justice didn't oppose it. Before Lerner had been suggested as a speaker, the coalitions engineering the San Francisco event had agreed that any individual who had publicly disparaged one of the organizing groups could be vetoed as a speaker by that group. ANSWER used this right to banish Lerner. (The rabbi maintains he had no intention of using his podium time to slam ANSWER: "Why waste my three minutes on ANSWER?") Other organizers of the San Francisco event argued against ANSWER's thumbs-down but ended up abiding by the agreement. (ANSWER has not been involved in the organizing of the coming New York City protest.)"

your history

"In a recent article on HNN Professors Eric Foner and Glenda Gilmore worry that academic freedom is being eroded. While they address the McCarthyite tactics of the right, I think there may also be another interesting story here."

moving company

"Boyd and Blade's company, Berkeley Systems, was famous for its flying toaster screensavers. When the couple sold the company in 1997, they had 120 employees and $30 million in annual revenue. Boyd and Blades were catapulted into national prominence when they became disgusted with the Clinton impeachment process and created a website that tapped into a huge groundswell of opinion that wanted the country and particularly the Republicans to, as the name suggests, move on."

democracy when

"Even those suffering from justification fatigue ought to pay special attention to this one, because it goes beyond the category of reasons offered in support of a course of action that has already been decided upon and set in motion. Unlike the other justifications, it is both a reason for war and a plan for the future. It also cries out for elaboration. Democracy is a wonderful idea, but none of the countries in the Middle East, except Israel and Turkey, resemble anything that would look like a democracy to Americans. Some Middle Eastern countries are now and have always been ruled by monarchs. Some are under the control of an ethnic or religious group that represents a minority of the population. Saudi Arabia and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan are the world's only major nations named after a single family, and in Saudi Arabia the royal family functions as, in effect, the country's owner. Most Middle Eastern countries don't even make the pretense of having freely elected parliaments; in Iran, for example, candidates have to be approved by the mullahs. And the very problem that democracy in the Middle East is meant to solve—rising Islamic radicalism, encouraged or tolerated by governments that see it as a way to propitiate their increasingly poorer and younger populations—makes the prospect of elections dangerous, because anti-American Islamists might win."

what now

eric alterman interview at cal pundit

write or wrong

ahh, a spiteful mentally unstable poet has inscribed me in his book of strife. he shall be richly rewarded with frankinsights and mirth in the after-laugh, although both are in short supply here.

purchasing order

doing what we do best, bribing consensus.

you can get americans on the cheap. hell, well even pick up the tab. just a few concerned looks some lazer guided missives and a whole lot of nonlethal gas and were ready to roll.

bomb squad

"The euphoria in the West following the collapse of the Soviet Union had an amazing effect. The general public came to believe that the end of the cold war also meant the end of the nuclear peril, and that the nuclear issue could be taken off the agenda of important problems. This is seen in a public opinion poll in the UK about the most important issues facing Britain. During the cold war, more than 40 per cent put nuclear weapons as such an issue. Since the end of it, the percentage dropped rapidly, and nowadays is practically zero."

india irate

havent read it yet, but heres a report from india entitled Behind the Invasion of Iraq.

park avenue west

oh yeah, *cough* and a new football stadium.

a poor excuse for a link

have to throw up the obligatory link to the latest clay shirkey article which explains both why im poor and unpopular.

but i sure know how to link.

just three easy steps to...

"The plan is in three stages: first, US-led military rule; second, a transitional phase with an American military governor ruling alongside a civilian leader appointed by (or at least acceptable to) the international community; and, finally, handover to a regime sympathetic to and nurtured by Washington."

takes one to know one

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
-Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

change up

"Internally, economics and demographics have conspired to put added pressure on Riyadh in the direction of reform. The Islamic kingdom is facing a barrage of unprecedented problems, as its population has doubled in 20 years to 23 million, even though income from oil has remained flat, with no prospects for sustained growth. In terms of material infrastructure, per capita investment has been halved in the past decade, leading to a bottoming out of basic social services. Unemployment among the young has risen sharply. The royal family may recognize that as these popular frustrations grow, they will need to be channeled through more accommodating political mechanisms."

sand storm

"WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 — Saudi Arabia's leaders have made far-reaching decisions to prepare for an era of military disengagement from the United States, to enact what Saudi officials call the first significant democratic reforms at home, and to rein in the conservative clergy that has shared power in the kingdom."

in EFFect

"John Perry Barlow, the man who popularized the term 'cyberspace', discusses the Total Information Awareness project, online activism, file sharing, and the prospect of a digital counterculture."

there is a supermarket on the sun

"The Powell is sent in order to carry the water."

scandal du jour

the center for public integrity has received a confidential report out of the justice department outlining a proposal for new executive powers that would decrease liberties in the name of anti-terrorism.

bill moyers interviews the head of cpi.

not a factor

had to post a link to this ridiculous exchange between o'reilly and the son of a 9/11 victim who is anti-war. o'reilly is an uber-blowhard and a member of a subspecies distantly related to humanity (more oily than a coelacanth) but he pulls in viewers so occasionally we must acknowledge his existence.

kurdistan aside

i posted this on an eschaton thread

last night on charlie rose, richard holbrooke basically said if youre expecting a democratic iraq after we invade dont hold your breath because iraqs neighbors (most prominently, turkey) dont want it. the message was that if given the freedom to vote, the iraqis might choose to split the country up into its three component ethnic enclaves which as we all know would destabilize the region. apparently, whats good for the former yugoslavian states is problematic here. and not only are the turks fearful of an autonomous kurdish state but the chinese and the russians dont like the precedent it sets for their notorious recalcitrants, tibet and chechnya.

so expect puppet regimes for the foreseeable future as we "educate" iraqis in the ways of "democratic" institutions, or at least until the oil runs out.

also, holbrooke aint no bushie.

treasons in season

"Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have documented many instances in which pundits and politicians have tried to demonize dissent, suggesting that it is unpatriotic and even that it aids the enemy. But none has gone so far as to suggest an actual prosecution for treason simply for voicing one's political views - until now."

"In an editorial yesterday, the editors of the New York Sun, a conservative newspaper founded last year, call on New York City to obstruct a protest against a potential war in Iraq for as long as possible and to monitor the protestors for "an eventual treason prosecution." This breathtaking article is a direct attack on the free speech rights of every American."

prewar games

"BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 6 -- An Iraqi biologist acquiesced to a private interview with U.N. weapons experts..."
"...senior U.N. official involved in the inspections said Blix has been led to believe that President Saddam Hussein's government will soon relent on two other key issues: a guarantee that Iraq will not try to shoot down U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flying over the country at inspectors' behest and a commitment to enact legislation permitting a long-term presence of inspectors."

i the paxman

tony blair grilled about the war on british tv.

the alter of sacrosanct

eric alterman debunks the myth of a liberal bias in the media in his new book. everyones talking about it. you dont want to be left out, do you?

county kohn

"For 15 years -- since 1988, four years after election to the US Senate -- Kerry knew his grandmother was Jewish. Since then, he ''sought to know the true story of his immigrant grandfather, Frederick A. Kerry,'' the Globe reports. As it turns out, Frederick A. Kerry was born Fritz Kohn, in a small town in the Czech Republic that was then was part of the Austrian empire. Kohn changed his name to Kerry around 1902 and emigrated to the United States in 1905. ''In 1921, Frederick Kerry went to the Copley Plaza Hotel, entered a washroom, and shot himself in the head,'' reports the Globe. ''It was front-page news.''"

the borges

"To talk closely to Jorge Luis Borges is to track him through a labyrinth of his pasts experiences and attitudes, and the walls that one encounters in the search might be painted in unexpected ways. These may furnish clues or merely diversions in the pursuit, but to understand Borges at least partially is to realize that these clues and diversions are the Borges. We must not expect to find Borges the same each time. There is not one Borges, but many."

"This is the Jorge Luis Borges whom the Artful Dodge encountered on April 25, 1980."

dean dome

howard dean supporters blog

fag hags

"A once unthinkable change is coming to one of the social hubs of Ireland: The pub is going smoke free."

"Bowing to health concerns, the government said Thursday that it will ban smoking from all workplaces including pubs, where a pint and a cigarette have long gone hand in hand."

l ementary

"The agency is aggressively trying to shake that antique image. By 2005, after some delays, Mr. Reuter said, it expects to have the entire L line refitted so that its new trains can be operated automatically, by radio signals sent by a distant computer, much like the Meteor driverless subway line in Paris. (For the foreseeable future, a train operator will ride aboard the trains in case of problems. The L line will serve as a kind of pilot project for automating other lines, which are much more complicated.)"