massdestruction

Scooter is responsible for hurricanes too

Are these guys idiots? I mean, I have read a Wall Street Journal before, I know they are all on the President's team but give me a break. Today on WSJ.com Gerald Seib and Neil King assert that NOW the President is losing popularity abroad. Um.... Now? How about 5 years ago? I would be willing to bet that the President's official popularity numbers abroad changed by a total of 0 after Scooter was indicted.

This is the shit we (the left) has been screaming since he first said "Axis of Evil". These two dorks site our troubles in the U.N. and then turn to Scooter... um... Bolton perhaps?

Has the Wall Street Journal entered into that space Fox News worked out for itself - that space in journalism where you pretend to be trustworthy but no-one *really* takes you seriously?

Its not entirely out of the question that the right is now going to try to pin as many problems as possible to Scooter in order to protect Bush and whoever the Republican presidential nominee might be in 2008.

Scooter

I'm sure you don't need my blog to tell you that the indictments have begun, so I'll just add this. While Scooter wasn't a "main character" I always found him charming and funny. I also think I have found some incriminating evidence of Scooter hanging out with John Bolton. That's John Bolton isn't it? pre-mustache? I don't know.

We the peoples

Isn't it amazing? When the U.N. (60 years old this past Monday!) didn't agree with Bush he said it was a useless organization and made sure his posse started their own investigations of corruption. Now that his numbers are lower than any other Presidents in history, half of his administration is facing indictments, and his war is falling apart he actually goes to the U.N. to help stir up noise about another country he knows absolutely nothing about.

You can't have it both ways. You can't send a tool like Bolton (whose name keeps popping up in the Plame affair) to thumb your nose at the U.N. and then turn around and ask for their help. What happened to the Neo-con death cult unilateralism approach? Didn't work so well? Do you really think the world would go along with you on yet another Middle East war drum pattern?

If there are indictments in the Plame affair, I wouldn't be surprised if bombs didn't start falling... if they haven't already.

I include below the Charter of the United Nations. Yes, there is corruption, bureaucracy, and other faults in the U.N. — it is a human endeavor. Still, at its heart is this charter and it is a beautiful statement. Read this and think about the U.S. approach lately:

We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, and for these ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, Have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims. Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

Dick(s)head on a platter

According to this article in the New York Times Dick Cheney is the source of Valerie Plame's identity. OK first, with editors like the New York Times has (thanks to the Judy Miller crap for teaching us this) who the hell knows if this is at all true. Second, if it is true does this mean that Dick Cheney will be put to death for treason? Dick Cheney is on record for supporting the death penalty so we must assume he thinks its a good idea for treason. Maybe he thinks its a deterrent or perhaps it just feels right to him? Would he rethink his position on the death penalty if his own head were in the noose?

Let's be serious... even if he is proven of treason he probably wouldn't even see jail time. This is really serious too - when Valerie Plame's name was leaked the front company she claimed employment from was immediately entered into the databases of foreign intelligence agencies. At that point, anyone else who claimed to be employed by the company was immediately outed as well. I have only heard a little about the front-company so I have no idea how many employees it claimed but it is many people. Dick Cheney released the names of many agents to foreign intelligence services. This from the guy who played up the national security line so much he was insinuating that if we voted for John Kerry we would be attacked. I suppose we now see that National Security and "Keeping my ass in shitloads of money" seem like the same thing to him.

Mr. Murdoch, I think you missed something

I learned on Le Show this week that Rupert Murdoch isn't taking sides in the Italian elections because he only owns T.V. interests there and he has to be fair with T.V.

Yep. I ain't lyin'. Here's the money quote:

I believe that in TV one is using a public licence to disseminate the news and it is important that you should remain absolutely fair. If I were publishing a newspaper or magazine here I would consider that quite differently.

Oh... right... you all know he owns Fox News right? Yep, the same Fox News who are the *only* people in any form of journalism calling the Valerie Plame outing the criminalization of politics.

And as an aside to the Fox News employees: If you guys mean the introduction of crime to politics then I suppose I agree with you. However, I believe you are trying to say about this treason case that it is making politics criminal. Yeah... No.

Its French, bitch

The fine folks from the Daily Show have a new show that follows immediately called "The Colbert Report" with Stephen Colbert. There have been two shows so far and I am already giving it the Dave star of approval. If you have ever seen one of the newer crop of shows like the "O'Reilly Factor" where a dumbass gives his dumbass opinions then tries to interview someone and keep the focus on himself you will immediately understand what they are trying to accomplish on the Report (that's a silent T, its French, bithch).

If you are a long-time viewer of the Daily Show you will also know that this show is spawned from a satire commercial they ran a few years ago. I think that is a beautiful thing. It took some cajones to flesh out that commercial into a nightly show.

Remember, anyone can read the news to you. Stephen promises to feel the news at you.

Torture

I just watched the latest Frontline which was about torture by American troops (and unidentified people) in the War on Terror. When the horrors at Abu Ghraib happened I contended that it was "most disturbing thing I have ever heard in regards to my country". I still hold to that. The problem is that it seems as though it did not stop there and has not stopped even now.

Soon the Frontline folks will have the episode available online for you to view (thanks to the fine folks at iBiblio I might add). If you think you know about what the U.S. is doing try watching it. If you don't think you know, try watching it too.

Two things I have learned this evening are 1)Dick Cheney wanting to amend the "McCain Amendment" (which restates that the U.S. should not and will not use torture) so that intelligence agencies will be allowed to use torture. Read about it in this blog. 2) The firsthand accounts of torture by soldiers that Donald Rumsfeld said did not exist. These accounts include very new incidents as well as direct links to high ranking officers ordering the torture. Read these accounts at Human Rights Watch.

If you never wanted to be actively involved in politics does this change your mind?

Italian diving team

I have watched enough soccer matches in my life to have seen some really crazy things. I have seen a goal in a Korean league match come from the someone kicking the ball to the opposing keeper in a show of sportsmanship after an injury, and I have even seen an African match where lightening struck the field and knocked out the majority of players. Yesterday I saw another spectacle that, in its own way, ranks up there with those two.

Anyone who follows the sport knows that one aspect of the game which is probably most loathed is diving. This is when a player pretends to be fouled and falls to the ground in a dramatic fashion hoping to draw the foul and even get the opposing player sent off. It is something that itself is supposed to be a foul but all too often referees are fooled by the antics. If you really follow the sport you also know that the Italians are the world's worst (best?) divers. Players like Totti and Toni will fall at the slightest breeze from a defender, its almost expected.

This weekend I was relaxing in front of a match between Udinese and Sienna, neither of whom I know much about so I was the ultimate neutral fan. At one point a player was injured and, like most stadiums, the Sienna-employed stretcher workers came out to help carry him off the field if he needed it. The player needed no such assistance as he was simply wasting time but as the stretcher workers were picking up their gear one of them took a dramatic and flailing dive backwards as if he had been hit squarely in the jaw. Unfortunately for him replays show that no one was even near him except other stretcher workers. Unfortunately for us, and Udinese, the referee was fooled and actually sent a player off(it must have been a random selection).

I could only find one English-language article on the debacle and it seems to believe that there was contact but they also state that Fiorentina was Udinese's opponent, and I am positive that's not true. It does quote the stretcher worker who said a player hit him with his water-bottle. I can't find any English-language articles that say what has happened a day later though.

Sometimes I find diving infuriating, sometimes it makes me laugh. This time it baffled me.

I am unsure where this fits into the Soccer Fatwa.

I'm in a good mood after days like this one

I don't just like this photo because it shows a Chelsea player after a goal. I don't just like this photo because it shows joyous Chelsea fans celebrating with the Chelsea player. I don't just like this photo because it is taken from a 5-1 Chelsea win over a good team. No, I like this photo because its really cool — I mean, look at that jump — look at that sea of people. Cool photo isn't it?

Liberian goal

In some ways it is refreshing that it is taking many days to count the votes for the election in Liberia. No projections, no exit polls, no spin — just simple vote counting. At this point it is a close race between former soccer star George Weah and the Harvard educated Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Due to election rules stating a candidate must get at least 50% of the vote to win, it appears
that there will be a runoff between the two.

As I noted earlier in this blog I am pulling for George(who besides being a soccer star is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and worked hard on HIV/AIDS education in Liberia) however, the more I read about the two candidates the more I am convinced that Liberia is going to be better off no matter who wins. This is a good thing for a country that recently was engaged in a civil war.

Need more imagineering, not enhancineering

I think we take for granted the strides we have made in electronics over the last couple decades. With globalization we are witnessing a problem that I am not sure we thought about while dreaming about the future where our toasters are our best friends and do our laundry.

Over the last week just about every major digital camera manufacturer has issued "service advisories" on their CCDs (the chips that actually do the imaging) - long story short, they are admitting that their products may fail miserably with no warming. The reason for this is simple, they ALL are using the exact same CCD made by Sony in their cameras. So far Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Konica-Minolta, Ricoh, Fujifilm, and probably some more I don't know about have issued these advisories over the exact same chip. Obviously this is not all models from these manufacturers, mostly they are the less expensive consumer models but check if you own one of these brands.

Why are all these companies stuffing Sony CCDs in their cameras? What happened to competition and innovation? I read not too long ago that there are only three manufacturers of LCD screens for TVs and monitors. Three? Why only three? There must be twenty or thirty brands selling them and some of those are major companies.

Microsoft claims that regulation will kill innovation but I am beginning to think that "business" will kill it more. If it somehow makes more sense for all of these major camera manufacturers to license and purchase chips from one company then innovation has already been killed by business. How boring to think that Sony is going to be the only company innovating. Maybe we all will be using minidiscs soon.

Another tool

OK first, I really like Helen Thomas more and more even though she was banished to the back row by Bush. Second, although I feel bad for Scott McClellan - I mean, what a lame-ass job, I still cannot believe he actually repeated that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. You too, Mr. McClellan, are a tool.

He had a 3:00 mustache waxing

This is really disturbing to me. John Bolton (yes, the prick we sent to the U.N. on a recess appointment) has blocked a simple briefing on genocide in Dafur. He claims he did it to "make a statement" that the U.N. should talk about what they will do instead of just hearing about the problem but this is the same guy who went on the Bill O'Reilly show and said that no American lives were worth stopping genocide in Dafur. Side note: he didn't offer any solutions when he vetoed hearing the briefing.

What a tool.

God said that?

From BBC:

... Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

If you ever wanted proof that there is no god...

All my friends are virile

I just want to say that in my post about bicycle seats I was not trying to suggest that the three people I named are having any problems in their drawers - I'm simply suggesting that because they are avid cyclists that, if they have not, they should pay particular attention to the fit of their saddles.

Also, I have had three people tell me to turn comments back on because of that post. Well, first I am surprised that's the one that prompted the suggestion and I am not about to turn them back on, what a pain in the ass.

No money where mouths are

A friend sent me this list of political donations by celebrities. Its an amazing thing to find out Prince is a Republican but it also pisses me off that many supposedly politically active people give so little despite their big salaries. Sarah Vowell, I am looking at you. Meg Ryan did you say something? Ted Nugent you're for which side again?

Its decided. Celebrities are fucking lame.

Is that a bicycle seat injury or are you sad to see me?

While I am on the kick of posting other people's ideas instead of my own... I know I have a few friends who are "serious" cycling enthusiasts... well... um... Brad, John, Bryan you guys might want to read this report. I won't say anything else about it.

Jerri Herriet

Fun at Harriet Miers' expense? Well sure, but if you are woman enough to put your name into a position that gets as grilled as much as a Supreme Court Justice nominee does I like to think that we are laughing with you. To that end, check out Wonkette's new poll. I laughed heartily while voting for Jerri Blank.

A special note to my European friends

If you live in Europe please take note, our Neo-cons have you in their sights too. Trust me when I say to you that nothing good can possible come of this. Please make appropriate plans to harshly say "no thankyou" to these idiots. Thanks for your time.

Recipe for success

A new NC State law goes into effect today - Domestic Violence victims can now get a temporary handgun permit. Hey, its a simple recipe for happier days.

We love working on symptoms, never the cause.