Monthly Archives: July 2003

Evil Canadian, Bad Soldiers

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Iraq Patriot Act on by

Jeffrey Kofman wrote this story and on Wednesday Drudge revisited old news identifying Kofman as both gay and canadian which to some, including Kofman, appeared to be new news:

Reached in Baghdad, the Toronto-born Mr. Kofman expressed surprise at being singled out because of his passport.
“I guess my secret is out now,” he said.

As they again use ad hominem arguments to protect themselves the bushies steamroll ahead squashing those who spoke out:

“It was the end of the world,” said one officer Thursday. “It went all the way up to President Bush and back down again on top of us. At least six of us here will lose our careers.”
First lesson for the troops, it seemed: Don’t ever talk to the media “on the record” — that is, with your name attached — unless you’re giving the sort of chin-forward, everything’s-great message the Pentagon loves to hear.

This appears pretty consistent with the bushie view that freedom of speech is ok as long as it speaks the bushie line.

When’s the next War?

This entry was posted in War on Terrorism on by

Excuse me, but aren’t these folk old enough to be off their training wheels? From today’s LA Times:

“They planned on an unrealistic set of assumptions,” he [James Dobbins] said. “Clearly, in retrospect, they should have anticipated that when the old regime collapsed, there would be a period of disorder, a vacuum of power They should have anticipated extremist elements would seek to fill this vacuum of power. All of these in one form or another have been replicated in previous such experiences, and it was reasonable to plan for them.”
Looking back from the third floor of the Pentagon, Feith dismissed such criticism as “simplistic.” Despite initial problems, he said, progress is being made, with order returning to most of the country and a new Iraqi governing council in place.
Still, he and other Pentagon officials said, they are studying the lessons of Iraq closely � to ensure that the next U.S. takeover of a foreign country goes more smoothly.
“We’re going to get better over time,” promised Lawrence Di Rita, a special assistant to Rumsfeld. “We’ve always thought of post-hostilities as a phase” distinct from combat, he said. “The future of war is that these things are going to be much more of a continuum
“This is the future for the world we’re in at the moment,” he said. “We’ll get better as we do it more often.”

Is this the future you plan to live in?
Via Tristero via Atrios.

Email the pres?

This entry was posted in bush on by

Forget it! I gave the new system a try. It took about 4 minutes to get to the second screen and that screen did not seem to be working. Your mileage may vary. This whole process must be part of the bushies desire to return to traditional values or some such thing and they do seem to encourage snail and fax mail:

If you are interested in commenting on other topics, or if your message is sensitive or requires personal attention, please do not use this system. Please write President Bush at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20502 or fax to 202-456-2461.

More details at the NYT. Via Sisyphus Shrugged who does not have a permalink to this post but it follows the one linked below.

You can still email the vicepres the traditional way at vice.president@whitehouse.gov though you may just want to impeach him after reading this from Sisyphus Shrugged.

Educating our Kids?

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It is stuff like this that will lead more people to question the credibility of governmental structures:

The hard lesson came from an Albany judge who ruled against Angela’s age-discrimination suit challenging the state Education Department’s edict that kids have to stay in school until age 16 and can’t get general equivalency diplomas until they turn 17….
“It’s very demoralizing,” said Lipsman, who vowed that he’ll “go to prison before my daughter goes to a city high school.”
Albany Supreme Court Justice Bernard Malone blamed Lipsman for steering his brainy daughter to college after she completed eighth grade at Public School 187 in Washington Heights.
“Angela was not legally free to skip high school,” Malone wrote this week in ruling against Angela.
He noted that Angela could have been declared a home-schooled student and placed in a fast-track program, or she could have attended high school programs that allow students to earn college credits simultaneously.

Trying to put everyone in the same box leads us to the lowest common denominator: great in math and broken in human affairs.

Via Hanah at Quare
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