August 2005 Archives

Something that I find hilarious 'bout the whole Iraqi Draft Constitution^tm is the truly amazing object lesson it provides regarding the "original intent" of the framers of our own constitution. Watching the various people argue over whether Islamic law will or will not be the driving force, what's up with women's rights and the whole federalism debate brings the whole issue into sharp focus:

Especially after a couple hundred years. It's all one huge, nasty compromise between competing parties.

Anyone who is pushing this line seems to me to be disingenuous - at best - and more likely a used car salesman.

Or worse.

Winning In Iraq

Too bad we have neither the troops nor the leadership in this administration to pull off a plan that might have actually worked.

Toyota has been running this ad for their "Toyota Time Clearance Event". Standard stuff with "epic" music playing in the background.

Wait a minute. That epic music is just a slower, more orchestrated version of What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor.

My lord, things really are getting weird out there. Next thing you know, people will be telling us that an Islamic state is a flowering example of true democracy that we planned all along.

Wait a minute.

So, I've been using the first version of Google Desktop since it was out in beta. I love it. It's, like, a zillion times better than any of the native Microsoft search and organization tools - my lord, it takes Outlook a zillion years to find anything and using the search options are akin to the monkeys in the first 10 minutes of 2001....

And I've now been using the beta of the latest Google Desktop version. Ye gods. I love it. The side bar is amazing. I love how the web clips just naturally pick up the RSS feeds of the web sites I frequent. And the enhancements to the desktop search are fantastic. Although a minor thing, I like the addition of the Google search bar directly in Outlook. Trillian has a plugin so I can index all my chats as well (doesn't that put a chill into your soul?). One minor bit is that you can now encrypt the index. But I'm not really sure what this accomplishes if all the sources - i.e. your email, web pages, chats, files, etc. - are out in the open.

My lord. They really are going to take over the world, aren't they? They even convinced me to blithely give away my privacy by enticing me with special sauce.

I'm doomed.

Divided They Stand

And the King said "Bring me the baby Iraq that I may split it in three"

First, let me just say that reading what is, admittedly, the English translation of the Iraqi draft constitution fills me with dread. Ara rightly brings up the whole "if it's a religious theocracy it can't be a democracy" basic problem. He shakes his head with disbelief at Christopher's assertion that "they may in time find a balance". But aside from these insurmountable problems, it seems to me that the whole "draft" isn't even on the level of a "draft". I mean, it reads like a few notes scribbled on a napkin during a late night bull session in a smoky bar. Seriously. It reads like a laundry list rather than what may be seriously considered as a constitutional draft.

Kind of scary, that.

And I guess it really comes as no surprise that the fabled Iranian nuke program seems to have vanished in much the same way the Iraqi nuke program did: No Proof Found of Iran Arms Program

Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined.

"The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions," said a senior official who discussed the still-confidential findings on the condition of anonymity.

So now we're in the incredibly unenviable position of either believing that Iran isn't really a worry in this regard, or.... what? Wouldn't it be nice if we could actually - you know - have faith in our own intelligence and administration? I kind of worry that the little boy who cried WMDs may actually one day find them. But it's hard to ignore the track record, close my eyes and pray to the baby Jesus that the administration is right. After all, going to war with Iran is not really something to do lightly - well, unless you're a neo con wacko who seems to worship at the altar of endless carnage.

And speaking of wackos who worship at the altar of endless carnage, we have - of course - Pat Robertson and his lovely call for assassination of a democratically elected leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. And, of course, the icing on the cake is the far right's apology of this action. Take, for example, Jeff Goldstein's hilarious piece reminding us who the real enemy is.

Many in the media will leap to condemn Pat Robertson’s remarkably obtuse public statement calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, and in the process of doing so will almost certainly attempt to paint the “religious right” en masse as a group of bloodthirsty whackos in the mold of Robertson. But while you’re reading that inevitable litany of attacks and condemnations, be careful to keep in mind just who Hugo Chavez is and what he stands for—as well as how much of a threat his regime actually is becoming to the US and its allies. .... Though Robertson clearly overstated the case—at least insofar as he spoke publicly, which will allow Chavez to play up his already legendary paranoia and anti-Americanism by tying Robertson’s statement to the official government line—it is nevertheless imperative that we don’t lose sight of who the real villain is here.

Maybe I'm a little behind the times, but a twice democratically elected leader (verified), who enjoys the overwhelming support of his constituency... well, it just doesn't seem like he's on the top list of bad guys, you know? I guess by Jeff's standards, Chavez should change his country to an Islamic theocracy and then he'll throw his support behind them.

Or maybe we have to invade Venezuela on false charges, torture a bunch of Venezuelans, create another Terrorist University and then install an Islamic theocracy. Maybe then Jeff will become super protective of the oil producing country and fight off all enemies (well, as long as he doesn't have to do the fighting - hands dirty, and all that).

(UPDATE: Stealing from LGM, here's the shorter Jeff Goldstein: "I agree with Pat Robertson about assassinating democratically elected leaders I don't like, but he was dumb to say it.")

Still, you gotta just love Bush's desperation level attempts to keep linking 9/11 with the Iraq war. And I stand in stunned awe at the audacity to compare the Iraqi constitutional process to the United State's own constitutional convention. But then, I never thought my country would end up torturing, prosecuting a war of aggression based on lies which ended up installing a religious theocracy. So maybe the process the Iraqi's are going through is on par with our venerated past....

And finally, I have to simply laugh at the latest energy "savings" proposal from this administration. I think the whole proposal amounts to a savings of 1/2 of 1 percent (10 billion out of 140 billion * 5-7 years). I don't know. It's kind of emblematic of the last 5 years - symbolic, token actions on the things that matter.

But hey, Chavez is the real enemy here. Let's not lose sight of that.

Well, leave it to Dean Esmay to find not one, but two lights at the end of the bleak tunnel of the Iraqi constitution.

I see five lights.

For some people the US can never win. Me? Three years ago I said, repeatedly, that if the best we could ever hope for from the new Iraqi government was a state that looked like modern Pakistan, it would be a huge improvement. I wanted much better, but I'd settle for that. Today I see no reason to change that assessment.

That said: the press has routinely proven itself incapable of reporting with any nuance or sanity on the goings-on in Iraq, so I'm going to keep a "wait and see" on this latest kerfuffle over "the role of Islam" that has so many people in a lather. The pitched battle right now is whether their new Constitution will say that Islam is "a" source of their laws, or "the" source, with stipulation either way that democracy and minority rights will be protected.

I can't get worked up about this. Especially because I see no reason to believe that the Iraqi people will ratify a constitution that a majority of them strongly disagree with.

And besides, my buddies would never let me down.

So I guess we'll see tomorrow. After all, I can certainly understand the slow dawn of terror creeping up in Dean's brain. I mean, after all, it's gotta be something truly mind bending to think that he's been the number one cheerleader for - what? - an Islamic state. Not a state with Muslims in it. But a state which looks an awful, awful lot like - wait for it - Iran!.

It's kind of cute for Dean to draw strength and consolation from his friends, Iraq Iran The Model. And I guess we only have one day to see if Dean's mighty blogs are more powerful than the reality of the Iraqi constitutional committee. But right now, I think Dean's on the losing side of history.

U.S. "concession" on Islam said to turn Iraq talks

Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish negotiators all said there was accord on a bigger role for Islamic law than Iraq had before.

But a secular Kurdish politician said Kurds opposed making Islam not "a" but "the" main source of law -- a reversal of interim legal arrangements -- and subjecting all legislation to a religious test.

"We understand the Americans have sided with the Shi'ites," he said. "It's shocking. It doesn't fit American values. They have spent so much blood and money here, only to back the creation of an Islamist state ... I can't believe that's what the Americans really want or what the American people want."

Of course the American people don't want an Islamist state! I'm sure that Dean will soon be saying that the fascist, totalitarian leftists have "finally" gotten what they want out of Iraq, and that it is - after all - all "our" fault. But the reality of the situation is that there's going to be a huge bout of buyer's remorse upon learning that several hundred billion, 1800+ American lives, 10000+ wounded and lord only knows what opportunity costs have bought us.

And when the American people go looking for someone responsible for this rather insane result, I don't think they're going to be blaming those who thought this was a stupid thing to do in the first place...

But you never know. I'm sure the Keyboard Kommandoes can turn the tide here. I'm sure that all we really need is another blog post or three for FREEDOM.

U.S. conceding to Iraqi Islamists, negotiators say

Islam will be "the main source" of Iraq's law and parliament will observe religious principles, negotiators said on Saturday after what some called a major turn in talks on the constitution and a shift in the U.S. position.

But don't worry!

It also, however, contained language establishing equal rights for women and protecting religious minorities.

Other Arab states, including secularly ruled Egypt, have similar phrasing in their constitutions, allotting a special role for Islam in the law.

And see how far they've come!

Army Planning for 4 More Years in Iraq

The Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq — well over 100,000 — for four more years, the Army's top general said Saturday.

In an Associated Press interview, Gen. Peter Schoomaker said the Army is prepared for the "worst case" in terms of the required level of troops in Iraq.

But don't worry!

4. Top CENTCOM Vulnerabilities:

1st - Premature drawdown of U.S. ground forces driven by dwindling U.S. domestic political support and the progressive deterioration of Army and Marine manpower. (In particular, the expected melt-down of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve in the coming 36 months)

A new Taliban has re-emerged in Afghanistan

Nearly four years after a U.S.-led military intervention toppled them from power, the Taliban has re-emerged as a potent threat to stability in Afghanistan.

Though it's a far cry from the mass movement that overran most of the country in the 1990s, today's Taliban is fighting a guerrilla war with new weapons, including portable anti-aircraft missiles, and equipment bought with cash sent through Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, according to Afghan and Western officials. While it was in power, the Taliban provided safe haven to bin Laden and al-Qaida.

The money is coming from "rogue elements and factional elements living in the Middle East," Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak asserted in an interview with Knight Ridder.

"Al-Qaida is channeling money and equipment," said Lt. George Hughbanks, a U.S. Army intelligence officer in Zabul province, one of the worst hit by the Taliban insurgency.

But don't worry!

Afghan and Western officials alleged that the escalating insurgency is being aided by Pakistan's powerful military intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence.

Islamabad, they charged, seeks a weak government in Kabul that it can influence. It also wants to keep tensions boiling in Pashtun-dominated areas on the frontier to block a settlement of a decades-old border dispute that the new Afghan Parliament is expected to try to end, they said.

"Pakistan is ... fanning the flames," charged Latfullah Maashal, the chief spokesman of the Afghan Interior Ministry. "The Pakistanis ... do not want to see a strong, peaceful and prosperous country (Afghanistan)."

The Taliban is being allowed to maintain arms depots, training camps and sanctuaries in the lawless tribal belt on Pakistan's side of the frontier, he said.

Mission Accomplished!

Twin Cities turning deaf ear to political talk radio shows

Locally, conservative-talk icon Rush Limbaugh's show has lost 43 percent of its audience among 25- to 54-year-olds in the past year. Sean Hannity's show is down a whopping 63 percent. The shift is serious enough that "we're weighing where these shows fit for us in the future," according to Todd Fisher, general manager at KSTP (1500 AM), which carries both syndicated programs.

Bet that's going to leave a mark.

"We're not sure yet what's really going on," said talk radio veteran Ken Kohl, Clear Channel's director of news and talk programming for northern California. "In general, the talk shows that are succeeding are ones that haven't been reliving the election, or constantly harping on the polarization between liberals and conservatives."

Kohl thinks many listeners have tuned out because of "war fatigue. I don't think a lot of people want to talk or hear about the war at this point."

We can only hope.

h/t Attaturk

Just got to love these guys. Suddenly it's like the Jerry Springer show...

Former aide: Powell WMD speech 'lowest point in my life'

"(Powell) came through the door ... and he had in his hands a sheaf of papers, and he said, 'This is what I've got to present at the United Nations according to the White House, and you need to look at it,'" Wilkerson says in the program. "It was anything but an intelligence document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose."

Lovely

"In fact, Secretary Powell was not told that one of the sources he was given as a source of this information had indeed been flagged by the Defense Intelligence Agency as a liar, a fabricator," says David Kay, who served as the CIA's chief weapons inspector in Iraq after the fall of Saddam. That source, an Iraqi defector had never been debriefed by the CIA, was known within the intelligence community as "Curveball."

After searching Iraq for several months across the summer of 2003, Kay began e-mailing Tenet to tell him the WMD evidence was falling apart. At one point, Wilkerson says, Tenet called Powell to tell him the claims about mobile bioweapons labs were apparently not true.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Via Tom the Dancing Bug.

Well, off to Oslo, Norway in the honorable service of House Harkonnen. Won't have any time to actually enjoy the country. I fear it will simply be a blur outside my field of view.

Still, there are some benefits. Apparently there's a huge fashion show going on and a zillion models are descending on the city at precisely the same time. And, to balance out the beauty, there's a librarian convention as well.

Too bad it'll all be a blur between flights.

Well, for quite a while - far longer than I would have ever predicted - John Cole has been kind of a darling of the liberal blogosphere. Getting neat little links from some of the top blogs, good press - the whole royal treatment. Why? Because he started simply taking the position that torture was wrong and that we, as a country, shouldn't be doing such things.

I've always been mystified why those on the left seem to shower praise upon those who merely exhibit what should be the de facto standard of human behavior, but I guess I can just mark this down to the liberal nature and tendency to see the best in everyone - the hallmark of a nanny state liberal mentality, I suppose.

But thank god that looks like it's all over. It looks like Cole has now ripped off the nicey-nice mask he's been wearing and lets the tentacles all hang out in a beautiful, unhinged rank against Cindy Sheehan. Well, not just against Sheehan. No unhinged rant is ever directed, laser like, at a narrow target. Nope. Cole, feeling the new found freedom of ripping off that mask which constricted his tentacles, unleashes his shot gun blast against the usual targets on the left.

Kind of cool to watch, in a sort of traffic accident gawking way. I mean, it's not like you get to see a bunch of entrails sprawled across the highway grooving to a coffee house beat every day.

So maybe this period of infatuation with Cole will finally come to a close. Most likely, not. It's how the world works these days. Disappointment everywhere.

Oh well. It really is kind of hilarious that Cole vents his spleen in such high form - with the surgical precision of a shotgun - and still is unable to answer the simple question that Sheehan is asking:

Why are we in Iraq?

Well, at least we know all about the subtleties of whoredom and who is and isn't one these days.

Gotta be thankful for the little things...

Update: Be sure to read Silber's response to Cole, CALLING BULLSHIT: BRING IT ON, CINDY. The thing that really torques off Cole is that Sheehan is an effective propaganda tool. It pisses him off that all the cards aren't in his side's hands.

No one has ever maintained that Cindy Sheehan’s views are entitled to a “free pass.” But it is not her views that are being attacked: it is Cindy Sheehan as a person. Cole thinks many in the “anti-war left” are “cynically exploiting” Mrs. Sheehan’s tragedy. Perhaps some of them are. If that’s true, I wouldn’t like it much (although my mind-reading skills are not too advanced, so I can’t determine people’s motives that easily in the absence of sufficient evidence).

But here’s the truth, which I do not hesitate to name: given the propaganda onslaught that’s gone on for the last several years with regard to Iraq—and the propaganda onslaught that is now underway with regard to Iran, with a still willing and still servile media—I don’t give a damn. Cindy Sheehan is being “cynically exploited” in order to stimulate a national discussion about whether we should get the hell out of Iraq? Good. It’s about goddamned time.

h/t Digby

Just got to laugh at the poor plight of those desperately clinging to some shred of straw still supporting their claims that global warming ain't real.

Well, you'd laugh if we weren't so severely screwed by such religiously motivated boobs.

Scientists find errors in global warming data

What's that, you say? Must be GREAT news for the global warming skeptics! They must be ready to get the big knives out now and start slicing up those claiming evidence of global warming.

Surface temperatures have shown small but steady increases since the 1970s, but the tropics had shown little atmospheric heating - and even some cooling. Now, after sleuthing reported in three papers released by the journal Science, revisions have been made to that atmospheric data.

Climate expert Ben Santer of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, lead author of one of the papers, says that those fairly steady measurements in the tropics have been a key argument "among people asking, 'Why should I believe this global warming hocus-pocus?'

Sounds pretty bad. Looks like our heroes are on the ropes, desperately fighting for their data...

After examining the satellite data, collected since 1979 by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellites, Carl Mears and Frank Wentz of Remote Sensing Systems in Santa Rosa, Calif., found that the satellites had drifted in orbit, throwing off the timing of temperature measures. Essentially, the satellites were increasingly reporting nighttime temperatures as daytime ones, leading to a false cooling trend. The team also found a math error in the calculations.

Wait a minute. That's the WRONG answer. My precious! My precious! The precious satellite data can't hurt the anti-global warming case! Why does it burn Smeagol?

When examining the balloon data, Yale University researchers found that heating from tropical sunlight was skewing the temperatures reported by sensors, making nights look as warm as days.

Once corrected, the satellite and balloon temperatures align with other surface and upper-atmosphere measures, as well as climate change models, Santer says.

Nooooooooooooo!!!!!

Not agreement with climate change models! Never that! Hsssssssss.....

Just wish I could deliver a personal thank you to all those who fight the notion of global warming with a religious fervor. I'm sure that there's another 5 or 6 billion people who will want to deliver the same personal thank you.

Warming hits 'tipping point'

A vast expanse of western Siberia is undergoing an unprecedented thaw that could dramatically increase the rate of global warming, climate scientists warn today.

Researchers who have recently returned from the region found that an area of permafrost spanning a million square kilometres - the size of France and Germany combined - has started to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

The area, which covers the entire sub-Arctic region of western Siberia, is the world's largest frozen peat bog and scientists fear that as it thaws, it will release billions of tonnes of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.

It is a scenario climate scientists have feared since first identifying "tipping points" - delicate thresholds where a slight rise in the Earth's temperature can cause a dramatic change in the environment that itself triggers a far greater increase in global temperatures.

The discovery was made by Sergei Kirpotin at Tomsk State University in western Siberia and Judith Marquand at Oxford University and is reported in New Scientist today.

The researchers found that what was until recently a barren expanse of frozen peat is turning into a broken landscape of mud and lakes, some more than a kilometre across.

Dr Kirpotin told the magazine the situation was an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming". He added that the thaw had probably begun in the past three or four years.

Climate scientists yesterday reacted with alarm to the finding, and warned that predictions of future global temperatures would have to be revised upwards.

"When you start messing around with these natural systems, you can end up in situations where it's unstoppable. There are no brakes you can apply," said David Viner, a senior scientist at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.

"This is a big deal because you can't put the permafrost back once it's gone. The causal effect is human activity and it will ramp up temperatures even more than our emissions are doing."

H/T to Dr. G.

"I think it's reasonable to expect that violence could, again, increase for a time, as it did during the last elections," he said during a Pentagon press conference. "But given the political progress, that should not necessarily be considered an accurate gauge of the enemy's future."

Rumsfeld: Iraq Unrest Likely Before Vote - 9 August, 2005

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday he anticipates even more violence in Iraq and acknowledged that the insurgency “could go on for any number of years.”

Rumsfeld braces for more violence in Iraq - June 26, 2005

Top Pentagon officials yesterday acknowledged a recent jump in insurgent violence in Iraq but described the escalation as nowhere near the peak levels of the past year and disputed suggestions that it represents a lack of progress.

Pentagon Plays Down New Rise in Iraq Violence - April 27, 2005

Senior U.S. officials say violence will continue in Iraq after Sunday's election, and that there will be a period of political uncertainty as the results are certified and the new interim government takes shape.

US Officials Predict Violence Will Continue in Iraq After Election - 27 January 2005

Violence in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to increase as elections approach and terrorists realize those countries are close to implementing democratically elected governments, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sept. 7.

Afghan, Iraqi Elections' Approach Likely to Increase Violence - Sept 24, 2004

US coalition allies are likely to come under increased attack in Iraq as insurgents seek out "weak spots" to derail general elections in January, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warns.

Rumsfeld warns of escalating Iraq violence - September 11, 2004

The US Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, denies the situation in Iraq is spiraling out of control. He says the attacks are the work of a relatively small number of people and not a popular uprising.

Rumsfeld denies Iraq situation spiraling out of control - 8 April , 2004

A U.S. commander warned of a surge in attacks against coalition forces before a July 1 deadline to transfer authority to Iraqis, and cautioned that strikes might not end even if troops kill or capture Saddam Hussein.

Surge In Violence Expected In Iraq - Dec. 8, 2003

I know I should probably just calm down and Zen out over the whole issue, but this is one thing that consistently gets my panties in a twist. The CDC calculates the odds of one dying in a terrorist attack in the US at 1-88,000. The same person trembling in fear of this remote event hops into their car and speeds away home at 10 miles over the speed limit. The chances of dying on the way home in a traffic accident are 1-in-265 (over 20 years of driving).

The entire right wing of American politics is telling us - non stop - how totally scary Al Qaeda is. So scary and powerful is Al Qaeda that we have to give up significant rights and bend the constitution to the breaking point so we can justify torturing people.

And it's not like I want to completely minimize the threat that international terrorism poses, but jeez louis people. Let's have some perspective here.

THE RECIPE FOR RICIN, Part II:
The legend flourishes from the Dept. of Justice to the Senate Intelligence Committee

Nevertheless, the "poisons handbook" has been chased around the net as a terrorism enabling manual, posted with the formula for ricin in redacted form by agencies or people wishing to show proof of the powers and plots of the enemy.

Careful examination of the electronic document shows that it is crammed with errors, seemingly the work of someone with little discernible sense, profoundly ignorant of the nature of simple compounds and incompetent in even minor procedures that would be conducted in a high school chemistry lab. What precious little information is actually factual can be found in any good general chemistry book.

The quality of the text is so poor it would be humorous if it were not attached to a preface which puts on the airs of a sinister man confessing a wish to pass on an esoteric and dangerous technical capability to sympathizers. (Indeed, since the material is so shaky it cannot be entirely ruled out that it was fabricated as a hoax or written by a total know-nothing simply wishing to create an impression of menace. If the latter, the person was successful.)

Whole there is little point to describing the handbook in fine detail, one recipe for poison gas was nothing more than the procedure -- also with mistakes -- for making a stink bomb, one often included in chemistry sets sold to young boys in the early Sixties. The experiment, which is characterized by an odor of rotten eggs resulting from the evolution of hydrogen sulfide, is said by "Abdel-Aziz" to be able to "kill a person only [sic] in 30 seconds."

It is good news that these al Qaeda and terrorist training manuals purporting to contain recipes for ricin show no capability. And frankly speaking, if they are to be taken at face value they indicate a shortage in critical thinking and capability on the part of their respective authors. However, it's also unsettling when our leaders demonstrate a similar lack of sophistication, deriving no benefit or comfort from the application of science, buying into whatever received wisdom or stupid rumor is generally accepted.

(emphasis mine)

An awful lot of critical thinking has to break down in someone to do the kind of crap that terrorists do. Combined with the unassailable fact that most everyone is pretty much ignorant of science and technology, the odds are heavily stacked against the terrorists. This stuff is hard, has always been hard, and there's not that many people who do it even poorly. That's why smart and talented people are valuable and highly prized - because most of us are bumbling idiots. And when you add to all this the fact that the people protecting us against these jackals are extremely intelligent (well, if you discount the current administration), well trained and highly motivated, you begin to see that - contrary to popular opinion - we're not in a "fight for our lives". It's not like WWII where 10's and 10's of millions of people died in a very short time.

Rather, we're in a situation where we need to be smart, pay attention, and do things right. Fear, however, is not conducive to maintaining any of these qualities. It makes you stupid, jumpy and unable to plan ahead.

Which is, I fear, precisely the state where the Jeff Goldsteins, Michelle Malkins, Jeff Jarvises and Michael J. Tottens of the world would like us all to be.

Exclusive: CIA Commander: We Let bin Laden Slip Away

But in a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora—intelligence operatives had tracked him—and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK. Asked to comment on Berntsen's remarks, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones passed on 2004 statements from former CENTCOM commander Gen. Tommy Franks. "We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001," Franks wrote in an Oct. 19 New York Times op-ed. "Bin Laden was never within our grasp." Berntsen says Franks is "a great American. But he was not on the ground out there. I was."

Every single bomber that claims alliegance to Al Qaida is this Administration's responsibilty. Every causualty is on their head. They let Al Qaeda metastisize into the distributed global organization that it is today. It's all on their head.

Iraq had an enormous opportunity cost.

Bin Laden determined to strike in US

How bin Laden got away

U.S. Concludes Bin Laden Escaped at Tora Bora Fight

How Bush blew it in Tora Bora

Knight Ridder Returns to Tora Bora, Concludes Many Terrorists Escaped

Document: Bin Laden Evaded U.S. Forces

Did U.S. mistakes let bin Laden escape from Afghanistan 3 years ago?

Tora Bora: What Really Happened?

U.S. Officials Believe bin Laden is in Tora Bora

One of the more boorish behaviors I find on the right is the buffing of their claim to being "centrists" by bashing the easy targets on the right. Goldstein does it repeatedly by barking that he occasionally criticizes O'Reilly, Hannity and even Coulter.

So, in this well worn path of criticizing the obvious outliers on your own side so that one may gain some "centrist" brownie points, let me criticize George Galloway.

George Galloway, in case you don't know him, is a Member of Parliament for the United Kingdom - or "MP" for short. He recently made a complete and utter dick of himself in Syria and on Arab TV by spouting some really whacked shit. You really should watch him, rather than just reading about what he said. You can catch Galloway's performance on MEMRI TV (I know, I know, but hey...).

I don't think there's any more to say about this performance which hasn't been said by those who have said it best.

If someone wants to express the vilest of views, they ought to be entitled to do so in the same public fora as the rest of us. But always with the caveat that you’re not allowed to directly incite violent or socially destructive behaviour. You can preach from the pulpit or publish in your newspaper that group X are the spawn of Satan and that God abominates their presence. But when you start wheeling out the metaphors and stirring up the crowd, then you’ve crossed a line my friend; the line between trying to convince people by argument and trying to force them into your view of the world by things that are not arguments. Galloway isn’t speaking truth to power on Al-Jazeera like he was in the House of Representatives; he’s speaking untruths to the powerless. And if you’re doing that, you mind your language or you start undercutting the basis of your right to free speech.

George Galloway: Wanker of the Left.

Via Crooks n' Liars, there's this challenge to Ann "Skull n' Bones" Coulter by Larry Johnson

After watching the stupidity and arrogance of Ann Coulter on the O'Reilly Factor (thanks to Crooks and Liars), it seems to me we ought to challenge Ann to put her body where her mouth is.  I'll pay for her to travel business class to Baghdad and stay there for a week, but on these conditions:

• When she arrives at the airport she must take a public taxi.

• She cannot hire a bodyguard or security detail.

• And, most important of all, she must stay at a hotel outside of the Green Zone and eat at a different restaurant every night using public transportation (i.e., a taxi).

If she's right, that things are going well and are safer today than one year ago, I say go show us.  Maybe FOX News will assign one of their intrepid cheerleaders, oops, I mean correspondents, to accompany Ann and show the world that a new day has dawned in Iraq.

What about it? Anyone want to go in with me and expand the offer to any one member of the Fighting 101st Keyboarders? It would be the same deal. One caveat, though. We'd not offer business class. They'd have to travel coach like everyone else.

In the comments, RS was querying me about the comic book I mentioned. Here it is: Reagan's Raiders.

Not quite as serious as Liberality, but still in much the same vein. And while it really is a hoot to see someone turn Sean Hannity into a cyborg super hero (gotta love the name F.O.I.L.), there's nothing like seeing Caspar Weinberger in super hero togs.

Fuck You. (changed it back because he really is a fucking moron)

Get a clue. You don't build up the security image of the democratic party by bitch slapping us first, rubbing our nose in the ground and then painting a big yellow stripe down our back while feeding the other party their favorite lines.

JHCORFC. What a moron.

Via D+UG, I find that everyone's butt buddy, Powerline's Hindrocket, has cracked open his super powers of media bias detection and has discovered a gaping void in the EMM ESS EMM coverage of our dear leader.

Apparently, there was a grenade launched at dear leader when he was speaking at a rally in Georgia (the country, not the state, in case you're wondering). What conclusion does the hind-one come to?

What I find rather weird about this is the almost total lack of coverage of his assassination attempt and subsequent capture in the American press. As best I can tell from a Google Search, the Washington Times is the only American newspaper that has even noted Arutyunyan's arrest. How is it possible that American journalists have so little interest in an attempt to assassinate our President?

How is it possible? Just doing the obvious Google search Bush +grenade turns up 631,000 hits on the general web - 1,390 in google news.

But this kind of mistake is something that we can all make. For example, D+UG also points to my close personal friend Dean Esmay who was also rather freaked out by what was apparently a paucity of coverage by the media. However, unlike our friend butt rocket, Dean drew the obvious conclusion.

I missed the story, but plenty of others saw it. The fact that the grenade didn't go off probably explains why it wasn't a big news event more than anything else.

But not Hindrocket - that gasbag of freedom has to dig - DIG I SAY! - to find the real truth behind the conspiracy of silence

The only parallel I can think of is the ho-hum attitude that journalists showed toward Saddam Hussein's attempt to assassinate former President George H. W. Bush--which was, in my view, more than ample reason to oust Saddam from power. Coverage of the disclosure of that attempt was so sparse that I would guess many Americans have no idea that Saddam tried to murder the former President.

And what's kind of interesting, and what kind of opens up the workings of his mind for all of us to see is the way that the Blog of the Year, Powerline - the home of the preeminent citizen journalists who are destined to displace the nasty EMM ESS EMM - reacts when faced with the fact that this wasn't a conspiracy of silence to discredit our beloved leader.

Seth is right; a Google search on the above spelling shows that the AP's story has run in a number of papers. The basic point, though, is still right: this story has gotten amazingly little interest or coverage, with the exception of a few outlets like the Sun.

What a total dick! Yea, John. It's only patriotic, politically correct publications like the New York Sun that have carried the story. I mean, it's not like every other media outlet in the entire country didn't run several stories on it.

There you have it. Confirmation bias in its purest form.

I, for one, welcome our new citizen journalist overlords. They are so 21st century.

Well, it'd be "Fascism" if it wasn't so mind bendingly adolescent. Nope, the correct "F" word for this stinky pile of trash is "Farce". Or maybe "FugginStupid". In any event, please go forth and gaze upon the minds of madness - A Chick tract on crack.

This comic book, which I whole heartedly endorse, is the quintessential representation of the modern conservative (and that means those "centrists", too) mind - er, at least what passes for a mind.

I used to find it amusing, now I find it down right terrifying. Conservatives will simultaneously tell us that liberals lost, the entire country is now "Red", and yet - for some reason - they still think that it's the liberals who are in charge of everything. From foreign policy, to the courts, to social policy: Liberals control everything.

Even worse, in the not to distant future, Sean Hannity and G. Gordon Libby will be forced underground to fight for "Freedom" (there's that other "F" word) against:

Liberality

It's not just a made up word.

Here we see Ambassador bin Laden praising presidents Moore and Clinton. Oh, and the correct phrase "fool me once..." is all the more precious when you think of how our dear leader mangled it (won't get fooled again).

Go out and get yourself a copy of this fine comic. It will become the de facto handbook for understanding the right wing mentality.

It's like the condensed milk of winged monkeys - not just for breakfast anymore.

Well, I can't say that it hasn't been interesting living in the country while the inevitable develops. Michelle Malkin and all the rest of the rabid right seem to have a high probability of getting their way.

Now that even the oh-so-reasonable amongst us have bought into the whole necessary evil of racial profiling, the ratchet has been clicked and pressure is on for the next logical step.

Fear Over U.S.-Born Extremists Is Brewing

But some senior authorities say there is enough anecdotal evidence to warrant concern, and suggest that whatever radicalized the British bombers could presumably also motivate Americans who have embraced Islamic extremist views expressed on websites and chat rooms, in radical mosques and elsewhere.

Terrorism investigators worry particularly about the American-born children of immigrants from countries known to harbor international terrorists or their training camps. An ability to move easily between cultures, and to travel widely on U.S. passports, would give such citizens a unique set of skills should they pursue terrorist intentions.

"These are second-generation Americans, people who grew up here, were educated here or were raised in this country and are now adopting this extremist view, and are now viewing their home country as the enemy," said Joseph Billy Jr., who heads the FBI's international counter-terrorism operations.

"You are talking about people who are actually here and living in the country and view us as the enemy," Billy said in an interview. "If the [terrorist] message is so strong that these people are willing to travel overseas and take up weapons, when are they going to be ready to cross the line?"

Hey, it's only reasonable to take precautions, right? It's now only a matter of time...