Sloppy thinking gets worse over time
- The opposition to Mr Bush's visit also reflects widepread dislike of his foreign policy. A poll in Outlook found 72 per cent of Indians believed the US was a bully.Only 29% positive here. Quite remarkable that 1 point difference. Of course we have good reason to take it personally. Or the Indians are being polite.
Deadly Sin #6. Yes, that one. Gluttony. No, not on my part or yours. Those that spread the pork from K Street. And I won't discuss the Diet of Worms. 
Almost 90% think war is retaliation for Saddam's role in 9/11, most don't blame Iraqi public for insurgent attacksNow you can blame the media for that or blame the D.I.'s who are only following orders... all the way from the top.
bird flu may win. A thoughtful post from Laurie Garrett.First, let's stop pretending nature is mysterious, and concentrate on what we know.That's a stretch for most, I know.
Conservative icon William F. Buckley in a Friday column throws in the towel on the war, saying bluntly that our "mission has failed....different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat. "
Bill Buckley can say that, and great moderate and liberal newspapers can't?
Giornale Nuovo has another excellent post today on an 18th century book of emblems. The one I use here is emblematic of today. "The only thing worse than Iraq as a failed state is Iraq as a failed state with 130,000 Americans living there."from Democracy Arsenal.
Nikita Khrushchev gave his secret speech to the 20th Party Congress in the Kremlin fifty years ago... ...Robert ConquestThis a straight copy from Arts & Letters Daily today but they don't provide hard links. Of course I could send you there and describe what to look for but... Whatever, this relates to an earlier post about Karl Rove. I haven't read all of referenced articles yet but what I have read leads me to the question- "At what point will the pendulum have swung far enough for some future chief executive (small c, small e) to apologize for the current mess?"
...Wm. Taubman
... Anne Applebaum
... Claire Bigg
... Roy Medvedev
... Jeremy Page
... Boris Kagarlitsky
... John Rettie BBC Radio 4 story
... Nina Khrushcheva
... Tom Parfitt
... Richard Bruner
... and what an electrifying speech it was.
A very interesting interview with Mark Danner who teaches part time at the alma mater of all 3 of my readers. While you are there, sign up for TomDispatch's email alerts. Always worth a read. And have a chuckle over the Napoleon quote. 
That got your attention. It was meant to but not by me. One John Bolton, known habitue of Plato's Retreat back in the day, gets his little snit at a Federalist Society symposium plastered into all the gullible media outlets (Is there another type?) around our truth loving nation courtesy of the AP. Sentence #2 gets right to the heart of the "I Hate the Poor" meme so fashionable of late. John Bolton also criticized the U.N.'s budget, noting that two-thirds of members pay only 20 percent of the cost.Conveniently forgetting that that two-thirds of the world doesn't possess 2/3rds of the world's wealth and probably less than 20%. Why use facts when propaganda is so much more fun? A link? They're everywhere.
In the spirit of openness and honesty, (No, not on their part, mine) I'll share a link to yet another dastardly tale of greed and corruption starring the usual suspects while revealing one Victor Bout to be taking yet another star turn. 
Even Bill Buckley. Though he still thinks we've had some success in Latin America and elsewhere. 
With Apologies to Lennon/McCartney
You say Dubai and I say hell no.
I don't know why you say Dubai I say hell no.
Hell No, hell no.
I say wait, you say go.
I ask why and you say you didn't know.
I don't know why you say Dubai I say hell no.
Hell no, hell no.
TV is not something I watch and the seven and a half minute clip you can download here is enough for a few weeks. At least someone is directly in the face of the fundies 
So, let us stop whining about the dangers of unfriendly foreigners owning our firms and assets and get used to it. Unless we change our spending habits and stop our reckless fiscal and economic policies that are leading to the hollowing out of the US as a competitive producers of goods and services in the global market, the Chinese will indeed own most of America and its assets.
aka It's a Trucial Situation for you geography history buffs. Let him keep after his latest pet give-away. Bet his farm on it. Or his yacht. Even New York's own Donald has dealings with Dubai. Bring it on! When the folks at home have mulled it over, they won't need Donald to blurt- "You're fired!" 
What a pathetic attempt at humor. More of your tax dollars going to waste. It's a wonder any words squeeze in edgewise among the guffaws on the hotline to Washington. West Bank , Ninth Ward, what's the diff? 
And not by the Washington Post but yet another hide-the-story story from the Grey Lady.One of the Pentagon's top civilian lawyers repeatedly challenged the Bush administration's policy on the coercive interrogation of terror suspects, arguing that such practices violated the law, verged on torture and could ultimately expose senior officials to prosecution, a newly disclosed document shows.Doesn't seem a lot like breaking ranks. It seems the ranks agreed. Nice headline, editorrrr. Amazing how many balls one has to juggle to enforce complacency.
The lawyer, Alberto J. Mora, a political appointee who retired Dec. 31 after more than four years as general counsel of the Navy, was one of many dissenters inside the Pentagon. Senior uniformed lawyers in all the military services also objected sharply to the interrogation policy, according to internal documents declassified last year.
Mora thinks that the media has focussed too narrowly on allegations of U.S.-sanctioned torture. As he sees it, the authorization of cruelty is equally pernicious."To my mind, there's no moral or practical distinction," he told me. "If cruelty is no longer declared unlawful, but instead is applied as a matter of policy, it alters the fundamental relationship of man to government. It destroys the whole notion of individual rights. The Constitution recognizes that man has an inherent right, not bestowed by the state or laws, to personal dignity, including the right to be free of cruelty. It applies to all human beings, not just in America - even those designated as 'unlawful enemy combatants.' If you make this exception, the whole Constitution crumbles. It's a transformative issue."Read it.
As the price of oil fluctuates, we all buy it nevertheless. As the price of gold fluctuates, we can gauge the optimism of those that can afford it. Or is it no longer a hedge against hard times? 
The released notes document Donald Rumsfeld's 2:40 PM instructions to General Myers to find the "[b]est info fast . . . judge whether good enough [to] hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time - not only UBL [Usama Bin Laden]" (as discussed on p. 334-335 of The 9/11 Commission Report and in Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack).Rummy and Cambone were certainly busy on 9/11 as if they hadn't been previously, i.e., "Heh, opportunity knocks!"
When posturing doesn't mean standing up straight, leave it to your elected, not anointed, representatives to stand firm for their right to say Screw You while bowing. 
In the spirit of John Lennon, imagine a world where the military has gone out of business and Black Hole is as big as Wally World or Home Depot. 
While the Sheriff and the MSM have declared him innocent, I note he hasn't been charged. Why the worry? Do the boomerang now.
It
Can't Happen Here
Sinclair
Lewis
It
Can't Happen Here
Frank
Zappa
