drat fink

down (ing) stre et memo rex

"Whether that same potential exists with the Downing Street memo story isn't clear. Actually, strike that -- it's perfectly clear, but only if the focus is widened to include the entire policymaking process that led up to the invasion. The memo itself may be the smoking gun, but the story is the crime, or crimes rather -- the manipulation of the intelligence, the deliberate efforts to sabotage a diplomatic solution, the use of strategic disinformation (i.e. lies) against a domestic audience, the possible forging of evidence, and, perhaps most importantly of all, the cover up afterwards, which is still in progress."

got dem home depot blues

as far as i can recall i have encountered nothing in my life nearly as moronic as home depot locking up access to exacto knives and their blades and then requiring a photo id to purchase. their concern has nothing to do with the possibility that they might be used to steal from the store because they are not at the register, and theres access to any number of more lethal weapons that are not under lock and key. so, essentially, this policy was put in place as a knee jerk reaction to a 9-11 story which may itself have been a fabrication. i should add that no record of your id is affixed to your purchase, so even if you were to, say, hijack an airplane with the intention of using it for purposes of terror, i cant imagine how they could link the two. i suppose it could be some cabal of lawyers idea of protecting home depot from some sort of liability claims but that makes it no less absurd that an orange cloaked clerk still struggling with the english language can deny me access to blades because my id doesnt meet some arbitrary standard.

downing street meme-oh

road to serfdom parses blair/bush response to downing street memo. heres where their lies go off the rails for me. how could saddam ever comply with the resolution to their satisfaction?

a) inspectors say they cant find wmd in iraq
b) our "faulty" cherry-picked intelligence says hes lying
therefore.....

c) we must invade immediately because.....we must, thats all!
d) oops, we were wrong, but saddam is a baddy and
e) iraqis yearn for democracy
f) except the ones who dont

get this man an intern-et, or a corner table at tpm cafe

"No chance of a Seymour Hersh blog then?

If I were smart I'd do it but I don't really care. I know a lot of journalists have put up a web page or blog but that's a bit too involved for me. I'm the type of person that when my screen blanks out, I immediately start screaming and dial my youngest son. It's a generational thing. I keep saving my work but I don't want to know anything about the soul of the machine. I just bought a new Dell computer with broadband so I could jump around the net more - I was happy with a 56k modem but everybody laughed at me."