It's here! It's here! The new quarterly report from the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction (October 2008) has arrived! In the report, you'll find lots of PDFs and Excel spreadsheets explaining how your hard-earned tax dollars are being put to good use over there. For example, the 15th Finance Battalion spent $35.80 on "disguises". Because you know how those … Read More
PNAC 2.0
Think Progress: It looks like Bill Kristol may be making good on his threat to revive the Project for the New American Century. Since May, visitors to PNAC's website were informed that "this account has been suspended," but now the website is back up, though it does not seem to have been updated with any new material. PNAC's militaristic ultra-nationalism … Read More
Obama Change (Gitmo Version)
Already Obama is gearing up to reverse the Bush position with respect to Gitmo detainees. Unlike Bush, who doesn't believe in the right to a speedy and fair trial is part of those God-given rights that we hold to be self-evident, Obama is… …quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to … Read More
A Fatwa I Can Get Behind
Whenever you hear about Muslim clerics issuing a fatwa, it just makes you want to run for the nearest bomb shelter. Fortunately, this one is a pretty good fatwa: Muslim clerics from around India approved a fatwa against terrorism Saturday at a conference in Hyderabad. Maulana Qari Mohammad Usman Mansoorpuri, president of the Jamaiat-Ulama-i-Hind, called terrorism the most serious problem … Read More
Kim Il Jong: The Photoshopped Photo
I never have the patience to examine photos for fakeness. Thank God others do. North Korea release a photo of its dear leader, Kim Il Jong, to show the world that rumors of his illness or death are unsubstantiated. The BBC, among others, saw the photo and cried "Photoshop!" Yeah. It looks like they're right. Which only means that … Read More
Killer Apps
The notion that al Qaeda would coordinate terrorist attacks through Twitter — well, that strikes me as a rather unsound fear. It just doesn't sound very clandestine….
World View
According to a recent BBC worldwide poll, these countries prefer Obama over McCain as U.S. President: The United Kingdom Germany France Poland Italy Turkey Lebanon United Arab Emerites Nigeria Kenya China India Russia Singapore Indonesia Australia Phillipines Canada United States Mexico Panama Brazil Those were ALL the countries that the BBC polled. ALL of them prefered Obama I felt sad … Read More
McCain In 1998, On Osama Bin Laden
From an interview with Mother Jones, when asked about whether to conduct military strikes against bin Laden, John McCain said: You could say, Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that’s depicted? Most of us have never heard of him before… Ok. Well. It was 1998. I’d venture to say that most of the public, and probably many … Read More
Ironic Headline Juxtoposition Alert
In this corner…. Bush: China must end detentions, ensure freedoms In the other corner…. Pentagon: U.S. will still detain Hamdan even if he is acquitted (The next sound you hear will be my head hitting the table….)
Required Reading
For constitution and "war on terror" geeks only: Dworkin’s article in The NY Review of Books explaining the historic significance of last month’s SCOTUS decision in Boumediene v. Bush. It’s too detailed to summarize here: just read it.
That’s Got To Leave A Mark (GOP Response: “We’re Fucked”)
The Prime Minister of Iraq has endorsed U.S. plans for an withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Well, not Bush’s plan. And not McCain’s plan (McCain doesn’t really have one). Nope, the Bush-backed Iraqi PM supports Senator Obama’s plan: BERLIN (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s … Read More
Can’t Kill Or Capture Our Way To Victory
Hmmmm: Barack Obama warned yesterday against the risk of a “creeping militarization” of U.S. foreign policy, saying the State Department should lead U.S. engagement with other countries, with the military playing a supporting role. “We cannot kill or capture our way to victory” in the long-term campaign against terrorism, Obama said, arguing that military action should be subordinate to political … Read More
There’s Such A Thing As Casting Too Wide A Net
1,000,000? Seriously? The "terrorist" watch list now has more than one million names. Do you feel safer now? Since February we’ve been tracking the size of our government’s list of ostensible terrorist suspects, which according to the government’s own report (pdf) has been rising at a rate of 20,000 per month. Okay. I know we live in a dangerous world, … Read More
Since When Is Ignorance A Virtue?
So here’s the latest scandal rocking the Obama campaign…. Last week, Obama said this: Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language. You … Read More
Not Funny
John McCain once again "jokes" about his desire to kill Iranians. And he’s not talking about the Iranian military or anything — he’s joking about killing Iranians. I guess that’s good red meat for the conservative masses, but the targets of McCain’s blood lust "joke" are ordinary Iranian civilians. I know it’s easy to think of Iran has some sandy … Read More