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Saturday, August 25, 2007
I'd walk away from a nut case, too.
In the current issue of the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik has an interesting piece on the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy and how France is changing under his presidency. Buried at the end of the article is what I'd argue is the most important part of Gopnik's whole piecefor those of us who live in the US, anyway:
Yet another thing we have Dubya's administration to thank for: Going from being the so-called world's only superpower to a new life as the crazy guy on the international block in only six years. Labels: 'War on Terrorism', Dubya, France, Iraq | | Posted by Magpie at 1:13 PM | Get permalink
Friday, August 24, 2007
If you're going to lie about something ...
You should try to make your lie believable. This is especially true if you're a public official, because some damned blogger is going to fact-check you. (This used to be the job of the 'mainstream' press, but you know how that's turned out.) Today's case in point involves US director of national intelligence Mike McConnell. In an interview [transcript here] with the El Paso Times earlier this week, McConnell claimed that the requirement that spy agencies get a FISA court warrant to conduct a foreign intelligence wiretap is making it hard for the nation's spy agencies to fight terrorism:
200 hours of paperwork? That sounds like a lot of time to this magpie. It also sounded like a lot to Ryan Singel at Threat Level, and he actually did the numbers on McConnell's claim:
Leaving aside the question of whether it really takes 200 hours to prepare a FISA warrant, I'd suggest that all the time spent putting together the supporting info for a warrant is a good thing (and that most of the 200 hours McConnell claims is spent doing stuff that would need to be done anyway). Wouldn't you agree that the fact that intelligence agents (in McConnell's words) 'go through this process to justify what it is they know and why and so on'basically, forcing them to make a good case for why a wiretap is needed might help prospective wiretappers to better focus on what's really important once the FISA warrant lets them start eavesdropping? Just asking. Labels: 'War on Terrorism', Big fat liars, FISA, Wiretapping | | Posted by Magpie at 1:20 PM | Get permalink
It's nothing, really.
Just the biggest known void in the universe. Via New Scientist. Labels: Astronomy, Really Big Things, Science | | Posted by Magpie at 12:35 PM | Get permalink
Thursday, August 23, 2007
I think the press is finally noticing ...
... that Dubya is pulling reasons for staying in Iraq out of his butt. Dubya's speech to the VFW yesterday (see this earlier post) seems to have finally pushed a number of US reporters over the edge. Good examples are this video clip featuring MSNBC's David Shuster [WMV file, thanks to Crooks and Liars], and this commentary by Joseph Galloway, McClatchy's senior military correspondent:
In fairness, though, I should point out that McClatchy (and its previous incarnation as Knight Ridder) has been almost the only mainstream US news organization that's been critical of Dubya's Iraq adventure right from the start. Via McClatchy Washington Bureau. Labels: 'War on Terrorism', Big fat idiots, Dubya, Iraq, Surge | | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Ooooooh, shiny!
I bet you didn't realize that you needed to watch a Finnish-language cover version of YMCA. 70's hitmakers Gregorius work it hard! But you did, didn't you? Labels: Music, Shiny things, Silliness | | Posted by Magpie at 7:12 PM | Get permalink
Cheney does it again.
And while we're on the subject of lying and historical revisionism (see the post below), I see that VP Dick Cheney is once again claiming that the vice president isn't part of the executive branch. My brain hurts. Via The Hill. Labels: Big fat liars, Cheney, Investigations, Wiretapping | | Posted by Magpie at 10:39 AM | Get permalink
Iraqi insurgents = Al-Qaeda = Khmer Rouge.
To most people, the logical leaps needed to make that equation would be impossible, but nothing is too difficult for our Dear Leader. In a speech given to members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars earlier today in Kansas City, Dubya unloaded some of the most preposterous misunderstandings (and outright lies) about the world's history since the Second World War that this magpie has had the misfortune to hear. For example, the prez said that the US was responsible for the decolonization of Asia and after 1945. (It wasn't.) He likened the 'war on terror' to the war against Japan and the Korean war. (As a historian, I can't think of any significant similarities.) And he attributed the murderous rule of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia to the fact that the US withdrew its troops from Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. (In fact, the success of the Khmer Rouge was due to a CIA-sponsored coup that replaced a neutralist government with one more sympathetic to US war aims in Vietnam. The Khmer Rouge wouldn't have had a chance without a US-backed enemy to fight against.) However, all that pseudo-history pales when compared to Dubya's main contention: If the US withdraws from Iraq, Al-Qaeda will not only wreak destruction on the Iraqi people like that suffered by Cambodians in the Khmer Rouge years, but Osama bin Laden will bring a similar reign of terror here to the US.
This, of course, completely ignores the facts that 1) there was no al-Qaeda threat in Iraq prior to the US-led invasion; 2) Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11; and 3) the US occupation of Iraq is what has turned that country into a terrorist magnet and training ground. But hey, facts never get in Dubya's way when he's trying to support some stupid policy that he's already committed himself to. If you have a strong stomach, I strongly suggest reading Dubya's whole speech. I'm sure the GOP is already sending out talking points based on what he said, so you might as well get a good handle on the arguments for the occupation that the 30-percenters will be tossing at you between now and when the administration has to make its Iraq progress report to Congress next month. Labels: 'War on Terrorism', al-Qaeda, Dubya, Ignorance, Occupation, Surge | | Posted by Magpie at 10:05 AM | Get permalink
Adding injury to injury.
If you think things are bad when your mortgage goes into foreclosure, just wait until the Internal Revenue Service gets done with you. Via NY Times. Labels: Bastards, Bubbles, Economy, Housing, Taxes | | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Batten down the hatches!
Unless we are very lucky, a global recession is in the cards. As this excellent post explains, the US housing bubble is really just a symptom of a more widespread problem that is currently battering the world's financial markets. (And, yes, Dubya's administration bears some of the blame.)
I highly recommend reading Numerian's whole post at The Agonist. It's the best explanation of what's going wrong in the economy that I've seen. Labels: Bubbles, Credit, Economy, Greed, Wall Street | | Posted by Magpie at 12:16 PM | Get permalink |
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