Monthly Archives: September 2003

bush as saddam

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

Seems the pres wants to get his picture out (yea, I know the article says that some admin dude requested the pictures) but:

State Department types were taken aback last week to find that a longtime diplomatic photo exhibit along a busy corridor to the cafeteria had been taken down. The two dozen mostly grainy black and white shots were a historic progression of great diplomatic moments, sources recalled.
……
Then they were gone. And what was put up in their place? What else? A George W. Bush family album montage of 21 large photos of the president as diplomat. … There’s one of Bush meeting in happier days with his very good friend Jacques Chirac, president of France, and another with his even better friend, Gerhard Schroeder, chancellor of Germany.

You go read the article and decide whether the replacements are an improvement.
I understand that folks at all levels of the political ladder have a driving need to know their picture is everywhere. Marketing you know.
I wonder how soon the statues will start going up.
Via digby.

Saudi Flight: Yes or No

This entry was posted in War on Terrorism on by

A couple weeks ago I complained about the reported post 9/11 Saudi escape plane that might have been flying while US airports were locked down.
The final story is not yet in on this but Brendan Nyhan at Spinsanity suggests that the best available evidence indicates that the flight(s) actually did not leave the US until after the airports were open again. However, there still appear to be a few things to clear up:

1) What was the actual departure timeline? There appears to be no solid evidence of dates/times.
2) There may have been an incoming flight and/or a taxi flight (picking up folks) that occurred during the lockdown. What are the details?
3) Why were these folks allowed to leave the country in the first place? Seems like they would have been perfectly good candidates to spend some time in ashcroft’s gulag.

The administration needs to take the classified stamp off of information related to this event and tell the full story (with documentation). As I said two weeks ago, hopefully there is no truth to any of this.
Via Hit and Run.

Checking up on You

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Domestic Terrorism Law Libertarianism on by

This has the potential to put to make Hoover’s files and the FBI’s ’60s files look like childs play.

(12) The TTIC identities database, and the FBI’s database containing Purely Domestic Terrorism Information, will incorporate, to the extent permitted by law, available biometric dta, including data on persons who even if otherwise unidentified are known or appropriately suspected to be or have been involved in activities constituting, inpreparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism.

It was just a week ago that we were talking about rummie describing the opposition as “encouraging Washington’s enemies.” That certainly reads similar to ‘in aid of’ in the above paragraph.
The administration seems intent on getting its database on everyone up and running no matter the oppostion. And if you think it will not impact you because you haven’t done anything wrong, well, you are wrong.
1) To help them identify potential bad people they need an inclusive database. They need to have your data before you turn bad if they are going to quickly spot you before you do a bad thing.
2) Using the rummie rule I’m probably a candidate on the basis of this post alone let alone others. Think about how you fit into the bushies scheme of things.
Wake up and just say no! Now!
Via Talkleft.

Late Night Reading

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Economics Intellectual Property Late Night Reads on by

More D-Squared. This time on the microprobabily of micropayments. Which leads to:
Micropayments: First Clay Shirky and then Scott McCloud.
Reading Update (9/18): Kip, Longstory; shortpier, thinks micropayments for the right stuff will fly and suggests we also read Dirk Keppey’s supportive discussion at The Comics Journal.
Brian at Samizdata writes at leeennnnggth to suggest we all check out the new blog from the Adam Smith Institute. It may seem too free market for some but if they adhere to free market principles they will be an anathema to bush, et al.
Good Night!

WMDs Long Gone

This entry was posted in Iraq on by

Blix believes Iraq destroyed its WMDs 12 years ago:

“I’m certainly more and more to the conclusion that Iraq has, as they maintained, destroyed almost all of what they had in the summer of 1991,” Blix said.

If this is true just what will it take to reestablish the credibility of any intelligence agency that told a different story to the British, US or Australian administrations over the last decade?
Via the Daily Kos.