annika's journal
annika's journal
...it's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
This is so geeky it's like super-duper geeky on steroids.
h/t Meryl Yourish.
I'm amazed at the naivety of some media pundits regarding Condoleeza Rice's proposal to the Iranians. It's being trumpeted as a major change in U.S. foreign policy. It is not that at all. Here is what she said:
The positive and constructive choice is for the Iranian regime to alter its present course and cooperate in resolving the nuclear issue, beginning by immediately resuming suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, as well as full cooperation with the IAEA and returning to implementation of the Additional Protocol which would provide greater access for the IAEA. This path would lead to the real benefit and longer-term security of the Iranian people, the region, and the world as a whole.Iran has stated publicly that they have no intention of giving up their right to process uranium. Today they repeated the assertion:. . .
Thus, to underscore our commitment to a diplomatic solution and to enhance the prospects for success, as soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table with our EU-3 colleagues and meet with Iran’s representatives.
The Iranian news agency said Iran accepts only proposals and conditions that are in the nation's interest. "Halting enrichment definitely doesn't meet such interests[.]"They've reiterated their insistence on nuclear research countless times. In fact, they've already called Rice's overture "a propaganda move."
Well, of course, it is.
You see, Rice's proposal contains a poison pill -- a condition designed to be unacceptable to the Iranians. Upon Iran's rejection of the offer, we can re-claim the rhetorical high ground we lost when Ahmadi-Nejad sent that stupid letter. We are attempting to regain the "initiative," which is a military analogy that means that we're trying to control the game by placing our opponent on the defensive.
Iran either accepts the conditions or they don't. Either way it's a win-win for us. If they accept the conditions, we gain time to promote regime change from within (assuming the Bush administration takes my advice). If they reject the offer, we gain leverage with our allies and public opinion (assuming we spin it right). Or, you can look at it another way: if the Iranians agree to stop enrichment, they would look really bad if they started it up again for any reason.
Look, regime change is the ultimate goal here and everyone should know this. Ahmadi-Nejad is a bigger nutcase than Saddam ever was, and infinitely more dangerous. We cannot be safe as long as Iran is controlled by religious extremists who hate us. Democracy in Iran is the necessary next step in any permanent solution to the problem of Islamic terrorism.
If you look at what we did to set up Saddam Hussein, you'll see we used the same poison pill method. On the eve of war, we proposed a multi-layered ultimatum which Saddam could not possibly have satisfied. He tried submitting a 12,000 page Declaration of Compliance, but of course that hastily prepared document never had a chance. And the ultimate result is that Saddam is now in prison instead of ruling Iraq.
Now, in the case of Iran, we need to manuever them into a position where we can take out the regime without using the military option. At least I hope that's the plan, because attacking Iran's nuclear facilities in the near future would be politically disastrous, if not technically unfeasible.
But the Iranians have a poison pill of their own, which they haven't yet trotted out. It's called the "security gaurantee" card. When the time is right, they will play it, don't worry. Iran will demand that we give them the same assurance we once gave to Castro: that we won't try to overthrow the current government. As I pointed out above, regime change should be our ultimate goal, and therefore we must never agree to that condition. If Iran plays the security guarantee card effectively, they may regain the rhetorical advantage unless we are ready to counter it.
I blogged about starlings once before. I guess it's time to do it again.
If you love birds like I do, check out Joelle Biele's poetry.
To a Group of StarlingsAll day you’ve chased the nuthatch, the titmouse,
the purple finches in the trees, and now
you strut down the street like overgrown boys,
raccoon coats hiding your matchstick legs,
the sidewalk your grand runway, and you’re
boys on newspaper boxes, little drummers
playing buckets and pails, shoe-shine men calling,
hustlers, shiny watches, the old shell game.
Bird of midnight sheen, of oil and ink,
of trashcans in the alley, you’re
my hard-times bird, my hand’s shadow.
You swarm over the roofs like thought
before it falls, you shoot from the furnace
with the coming rain, dirty stars, faraway flames.
I don't want Barry to beat Hank. Barry may be the most amazing hitter I've ever seen, but as a cheater, it would be a disgrace for his name to top the legendary Hank Aaron's. Barry should quit after this season.
Carl the gardener would know what to do.
What you've got to do is cut the hamstring on the back of his leg right at the bottom... he'll push everything off to the right. He'll never come through on anything. He'll quit the game.Alas, Barry is thinking of coming back.
Now 40 home runs shy of catching home run king Hank Aaron, Bonds believes he may have another season in his 41-year-old body.Quit, Barry quit."If my health feels good and if I feel I can play," said Bonds, who turns 42 in July, "then I'm going to play. If I'm healthy enough, it's a good shot. It's still a long way away. We're still in May. Anything can happen between now and then."
In anticipation of setting the new record, Barry has decided to change his image, too.
"The funny part is that it's brought out a softer side to me. And I don't want to go back to the other side. I'm having more fun. It's probably hurting my career more than anything because I'm not mad. I'm just happy."A softer side? Well maybe getting off the roids had a little to do with it too...
From AP:
Iran's foreign minister said Tuesday that Tehran is ready to restart negotiations with the European Union on its nuclear program, but he ruled out direct talks with the United States.Come on. "Raised hopes?" Among who? I hoped that Santa Claus existed, but it didn't happen. Iran is not going to stop enriching uranium, and they are playing everybody for fools. They also announced that bilateral talks with the U.S. are out. Like that was going to do any good anyway. But maybe we can stop hearing about how we're the bad guys 'cause we don't want to talk to them."I announce that Iran is ready to respond positively to the call" made by the Nonaligned Movement "for resuming the negotiations on Iran's nuclear issue without any preconditions," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters.
"Accordingly, I would announce our readiness to restart immediately the negotiations with the EU Three to resolve the issues," he said, referring to Britain, France and Germany.
The announcement raised hopes that Iran would react positively to a planned package of incentives meant to convince it to abandon uranium enrichment. The package has been put together by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.
You wait. Negotiations will start again, then in a few months the Iranians will either break it off or do something that will cause us to stop talking and spend another five months ramping up for a security council meeting. This cycle can go on as long as they need it to. Diplomacy alone cannot succeed here. If the goal is to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, only regime change can solve the problem.
Here is the real reason why the Iranians want to talk now. They have run into some technical problems that they need to sort out.
Diplomats, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the topic's political delicacy, say that Iranian engineers stopped pouring a raw form of uranium, called UF6, into arrays of centrifuges after just 12 days, even as the nation erupted in celebrations of the enrichment feat. The reports, which have now been widely circulated, say the Iranians kept the empty centrifuges spinning, as is standard practice because slowing the delicate machines can cause them to wobble and crash.Whoa, what happened to the ten year estimate everybody's been throwing around?. . .
[O]n April 11 . . . the Iranians announced that they had enriched uranium to the low levels needed to fuel a nuclear reactor. They depicted the achievement as just the start of a sprint. "Our young scientists are working day and night," Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who is in charge of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, told an Iranian television interviewer the next day. "People are shocked and surprised that this has happened so quickly."
Then, on April 28 in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that the Iranians were assembling two more cascades, or strings of centrifuges, each consisting of 164 machines. On May 17, David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a research group in Washington that tracks the Iranian program, told Congress that those cascades were expected to start operating in May and June, respectively.
But in an interview last week, a diplomat close to the international watchdog agencies disclosed that the atomic agency would report soon that the Iranians had made little progress on the new cascades.
That would be a setback, at least as measured by Iran's declared intentions. It has said the pilot plant is to hold a total of six cascades made up of 984 centrifuges — a goal nuclear analysts expected Iran to achieve later this year. They see that as roughly the minimum number of centrifuges Iran would need to enrich enough uranium to make a single bomb. Analysts say that if the complicated plant worked reliably and efficiently, and if Tehran decided to throw out the inspectors and abandon its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, using the cascades to make fuel for a nuclear weapon would take a little more than two years.
And here's the quote of the day, from a German:
"They've cracked the code," one senior German official said last week. "We're kidding ourselves if we think we are going to deny them the knowledge" of how to produce nuclear fuel.He's right. That's why regime change is the only answer.
Iran is clear on one thing. They will not stop enrichment, even if the negotiations begin anew, and even if the EU offers the incentive package that's been floated.
"They say that they want to give us incentives. They think that they can take away our gold and give us some nuts and chocolate in exchange," hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said earlier this month."Or stop us," he might have said."We don't need incentives. There is no need to give us incentives, just don't try to wrong us," he said.
Update: Tod Lindberg of the Washington Times makes the case for negotiation. The central focus of any negotiation with Iran is to answer to these questions:
Is there anything Iran wants more than a nuclear weapon? If so, is what Iran wants instead in any sense reasonable? If what Iran wants is not reasonable, is there anything reasonable that Iran would accept in exchange for a verifiable end to its nuclear program? The answer to those questions may be "no," "no" and "no." But we would be better served by demonstrating that the answers are "no" than simply by assuming and asserting they are.Put me in the camp with those who think negotiation is futile. Ultimately futile, but worthwhile if we use it to our advantage like the Iranians are currently doing. You see the Iranians negotiate in bad faith to buy time. But we need time too. We need it to stir up internal unrest, promote internal division and opposition to the mullahs, and then covertly support a counter-revolution. It's the only way, short of the military option, that we can ever be sure of stopping the Iranian bomb.
So I say yeah, negotiate. Put on a good show, but we sure as hell better be doing something else too while we still have options. I worry that the Bush administration is not able or willing to multi-task like the Reagan administration was. A linear strategy like: "First try diplomacy, then if that doesn't work try sanctions, then if that doesn't work..." is a losing strategy. Reagan's offensive was multi-faceted and complex. We don't think of it that way because we only remember the brouhaha over the missiles. But the Bush administration really ought to be studying the Reagan model more closely.
I cannot hear this speech without breaking up when he gets to the words "Why... why did you do it?"
This was one of a handful of truly great speeches of the post war era. It's closing lines are what Memorial Day is all about.
I couldn't recommend any Memorial Day post more highly than this one, from Cassandra of Villainous Company.
Also read this angry poem: "Who Cares if A Soldier Dies?" re-posted at I Love Jet noise.
Take a Memorial Day trip through the National Mall with Romeocat. There are plenty of great pictures and video from her recent visit.
And this video is unabashedly patriotic and fun. h/t Sanity's Bluff.
God bless America's heroes and defenders.
Readers of annika's journal don't need to be reminded about Memorial Day, or what it stands for. But here's another way to honor those who died to preserve our freedom. Make your voice heard to save the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Cross.
The Thomas More Law Center, which does such great pro bono public interest work, has prepared a letter asking the president to help preserve the Memorial Cross from efforts to destroy it by secular zealots.
I'm not exactly sure why a tiny group of chronic complainers feel so threatened by this cross and other symbols meant to honor our nation's heritage. But they won't stop until all traces of religious faith are erased from public sight. And then they'll find something else to destroy. They only reason they are succeeding is because they complain so loudly while we who disagree stay silent.
Here's a little piece of doggerel I came across, which will probably only appeal to my fellow aviation nuts. I found it in Clash of the Carriers, a great book I'm reading about the First Battle of the Philippine Sea (otherwise known as the Marianas Turkey Shoot).
Oh Mother, dear Mother, take down that blue star,
Replace it with one that is gold.
Your son is a Helldiver pilot;
He'll never be thirty years old.
The people who work for Curtis
are frequently seen good and drunk.
One day with an awful hangover,
they mustered and designed that clunk.
Check out the animation section in this link. If you follow the "planes and commanders" link, then click on "radio newscast of the battle," there's a pretty cool vintage audio broadcast.
Country musicians Big & Rich pay tribute to the sacrifices of our Vietnam heroes in the song and video, "8th of November." It's very touching and well done. See it at Tammy's blog.
Now, it seems there are apocryphal Peter Pumpkin stories too...
Continuing on this jailhouse theme: some folks refuse to take getting arrested seriously.
[How much you wanna bet Casca starts hanging out at County after seeing number 4?]
Everybody knows I'm a Republican and therefore am good friends with Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. So with the recent unfortunate unpleasant verdicts, I thought I'd do what I could to ease the transition to their new lifestyle.
I consulted the Prison Bitch Name Generator.
Herafter Ken Lay shall be known as: "Queer Johnny," and Jeff Skilling shall be known as "Butt Blaster."
Nice monikers.
Just out of curiosity, I checked my own. It is "Ben Dover," which, coincidentally enough, is the name I used when I did that 5 year stretch for check kiting back in the '90s.
Update: A little more research on folks who are (or should be) in prison yields the following gems:
Michael Jackson = "Wannabe." As in wannabe startin' somethin?
Martha Stewart = "Backroom Baller." Sounds like an AC/DC song.
Ted Kennedy = "Fudge Packer." Thus the waistline.
Scott Peterson = "Man Hole."
O.J. Simpson = "Glory Hole."
Saddam Hussein = "Honey Hole."
I know you all really liked my Dukes of Hazzard banner for the car. Well, if you're a fan of the R/T, you should go here. Michele (yes, that Michele) has a post about it with some nice pictures.
By the way, I actually saw a sweet General Lee replica driving around town the other day. I wish I was quick enough with the camera phone.
Also (and this news doesn't have anything to do with Chargers, but it is related to the 70's car theme), one of the great car chase scenes ever filmed is now on DVD. The obscure 1973 film The Seven-Ups, starring Roy Scheider and Tony Lo Bianco, features a really long chase that takes place in and outside New York City. My brother, who's an expert on these things, says this chase scene is better than Bullitt's, and I can't disagree.
As long as we're looking at YouTube videos, take a look at Taylor Hicks's American Idol audition.
I think the coolest thing about Taylor's audition is when Simon asked him why he was there. He does not say, "Because I wanna be the next American Idol," which 99% of the people said.
Simon: Why you here?It's so simple and direct an answer, I can almost imagine the young Elvis Presley saying something like it to Sam Phillips back in the day.Taylor: I want my voice heard.
Taylor: Why?
Taylor: Cuz I feel like I got one.
I also love the fact that Taylor was so underestimated during his audition. Paula and Randy liked him, but you know they never imagined he might win. Not after that audition, which really wasn't too good.
Go Taylor! I hope he gets some good songs to sing because he could really become a star if the machine lets him.
Now this is a really catchy tune I bet you'll be humming all day tomorrow.
h/t to J.D.
Newsweek has more background on the internal feud that led to Porter Goss's surprise resignation. It's an interesting story that involves a Clinton era fuck-up in Belgrade. Well, Goss thought it was a fuck-up, but CIA thought it wasn't. Goss was chair of the House Intelligence Committee at the time, and the dispute carried over into his short lived DCI term. It sounds like Goss was doomed from the start. When he was appointed to head the CIA, he inherited the same enemies he made as Intelligence Committee chairman. It was just a matter of time before he left or got kicked out.
One wonders why Bush would select Goss to a head an agency where the top guys already had an axe to grind against him. That couldn't have been the plan, since Hayden is now planning to re-hire a guy who quit because of Goss -- as Hayden's new deputy! What a mess.
I like how critics say, "well when the Taliban were in power at least there wasn't any opium trade." Of course there wasn't, the Taliban system of law and order was extremely effective because it was extremely brutal. But if you were to suggest that the allied forces use the same brutal methods to stop the resurgence of opium growing, you'd hear, "but that's the only way these poor farmers can earn a living."
So which is it?
Today's poem is by Sugawara Takesue no Musume, 11th Century Japanese poetess.
Ah me ah me
Ah, me! Ah, me! My weary doom to labour here in the Palace!
Seven good wine-jars have I - and three in my province.
There where they stand I have hung straight-stemmed gourds of the finest -
They turn to the West when the East wind blows,
They turn to the East when the West wind blows,
They turn to the North when the South wind blows,
They turn to the South when the North wind blows.
And there I sit watching them turning and turning forever-
Oh, my gourds! Oh, my wine-jars!
American Idol is the best family show on TV. I'm tired of hearing some folks put it down, because there's a reason it's the number one show. It brings families together twice a week for good old fashioned entertainment that's non-political, non-violent, and safe for viewers of all ages. It's the type of entertainment that hasn't been around since the Muppets got cancelled. Sure it's least common denominator stuff, but I think that's a good thing. We need that sometimes, especially nowadays.
I hope y'all switched over to CBS after American Idol. If you had, (on the West Coast) you would have just caught Carrie Underwood trying to finish her performance of "Jesus Take The Wheel," and getting all choked up. Then about a minute later, she accepted the Academy of Country Music award for Record of the Year. And to think, only a year ago she was pretty much a nobody. It's a nice song, and I'm happy for her. Carrie also won Top New Vocalist.
[By the way, I love any industry awards show where the winners thank Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. It's a little unorthodox, but hey, entertainers are often non-conformists.]
Next, I hope you didn't miss hunky Trace Adkins trying to keep a straight face while singing "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" inside a flock of nearly naked showgirls. That was some feat of concentration, although he kept turning around to check out the girls. And CBS kept cutting away from the action on the stage, which got pretty racy.
I also enjoyed watching Gretchen Wilson sing my new favorite song, "Politically Uncorrect," which features the lyrics:
I'm for the preachers who stay on their kneesBack to AI. I wouldn't be going out on a limb if I predicted that Taylor will win it all. he gave three solid performances, but really impressed me with the last song because the lyrics were so awful. While Katherine tried to do justice to her lame original song, Taylor did his best to make his song fit him. I also think Taylor deserves to win because he just seems like such a nice guy.
And I'm for the sinner who finally believes
And I'm for the farmer with dirt on his hands
And the soldiers who fight for this land
And I'm for the Bible
And I'm for the flag
And I'm for the working man
. . .
I'm just one of many who can't get no respect
Politically Uncorrect
Jack and Audrey will try to have sex. Audrey will attempt to delay her orgasm until Jack shouts "NOW!" They both finally give up in frustration when they realize Jack is unable to "upload" anything without Chloe's help. Jack will then confront President Logan, shoot him in the leg, and go into hiding. Rocket Romano will then perform emergency first aid, but die in a freak helicopter mishap while helping evacuate the president on Marine One. A guilt-ridden Henderson will return to CTU, revive Tony, and with the help of Barbaro's vet, create a superhuman CTU agent by attaching Tony's head to a robotic body. Finally, a plane will crash somewhere.
lol: my boy James T. Kirk love dat leftover beef!
Via Victor.
When defending class boundaries gets serious, muhfukka:
Providing an example of the harm that may be done through symbolic gentrification, Halnon cited Wooden and Blazak’s study of San Francisco gutter punks who took drastic measures to defend against "frat boys and pro athletes" who invaded their "symbolic turf" by appropriating body piercing as a style. One group of gutter-punks responded by cutting off their pinky fingers.Via gcruse."The extremity of such action may be understood as measure of the extreme value of symbolic territory for the socially and economically disenfranchised," notes Halnon.
Three poems by Randy Jackson, via Popwatch:
Yo, yoYo, yo.
Yo, yo.
Amazing, amazing.
Loved the jacket.
Loved you.
Amazing.
Yo, baby, ElliottYo, baby, Elliott
So check it out, dawg
Elliott
So check it out, man
I hated
Check it out
Did not like the arrangement
Yo, Taylor, manYo, Taylor, man
I don't know what's goin' on, man
I don't know if it's me tonight or whatever
But dude, that was completely the wrong song
For me
For you
I didn't get it
It wasn't half as good as the original
It felt like weird karaoke to me
I don't know what's happenin' here
I don't know what's goin' on here
Even Paris Bennett Gets the BluesI felt like it was kind of a struggle
For you to find that place
Where you own the stage
Like you always do
Week after week
Here's an example of media trickery in the choice of headlines. MSNBC (home of the Bush-hatin' tag team: Matthews and Olbermann) chose the following headline for their story on the president's immigration speech last night:
Bush talk of immigrant amnesty divides GOPYou might think, reading that headline, that Bush is in favor of amnesty. Yet nowhere in the story do the writers provide this important quote from the text of the speech, which might provide some important explanatory context to their headline:
[W]e must face the reality that millions of illegal immigrants are already here. They should not be given an automatic path to citizenship. This is amnesty, and I oppose it. Amnesty would be unfair to those who are here lawfully and it would invite further waves of illegal immigration.Look, I know and you know that Bush's plan amounts to amnesty. But the press is supposed to be accurate and impartial. By crafting an inflammatory and misleading headline, and then "forgetting" to provide Bush's own disclaimer from the very speech that this story is supposed to be about, MSNBC is deliberately trying to pour gas on this GOP fire.
That's another reason why I never watch that channel.
Web Loafer has uncovered a historical photograph showing Vice President John Nance Garner during a hunting trip in 1937. The vice president is the one with his gun pointed at another guy. Senator Truman is also among the party.
You may remember that Truman was famous for saying "the buck stops here." Well, this picture shows the origin of that phrase. Vice President Garner's most famous quote was when he described the vice presidency as "not worth a bucket of warm piss."
This is so cute: The Kosher Village People.
[turn speakers on]
h/t Darleen.
Crazy ninja kid jumping over shit.
Via Kevin.
Also, "today's lesson: never mix alkali metals with water."
Right.
Via visitor HH.
Today is Bobby Darin's birthday. He was born in 1936 as Walden Robert Cassotto. One of the greatest popular music records of all time is Darin's second LP, That's All. My dad had the original vinyl record. I say "had" because I stole it, and now I have it. Of course I can't play it, because I don't have a working record player, but so what. It's a collector's item.
The otherwise lackluster Kevin Spacey movie about Darin's life did a good job of showing how Darin changed from a bobby sox rocker to a Sinatra-esque swinger with the release of That's All. Every song is a gem, especially the most famous single to come off of that album, "Mack The Knife."
Dick Clark begged Darin not to record "Mack," but thankfully he went and did it anyways. Now, its become a jazz standard that even twenty-somethings like myself know by heart. What other song written by a communist (Bertolt Brecht) can you say that about?
On the back of That's All, they reprinted a telegram from Sammy Davis, Jr., which I love:
Really, when you talk about guys who could swing, the name Darin belongs right up there next to Frank and Sammy.
Come for the comics, stay for the political stuff.
Or come for the political stuff, stay for the comics. Or come for the politics and the comics. stay for the beer. Okay, there's no beer. Do whatever.
And his name is Tony Snow.
New White House Press Secretary Tony Snow continued to go after the media Thursday by accusing the Associated Press and Washington Post of unfair coverage of President Bush.It's on muhfukkas! It is on! Ha-ha!Since starting his job Monday, Snow has challenged five major news outlets in a clear signal that he will be more aggressive than his mild-mannered predecessor, Scott McClellan.
. . .
This week he has hit back at The New York Times and USA Today. On Thursday, he criticized the AP for a story headlined: “Army Guard, Reserve fall short of April recruiting goals.”
The White House countered: “The Army National Guard, Air Force Reserve, and Marine Corps Reserve all have exceeded or achieved their year-to-date recruitment goals.”
The White House also pointed out that the Washington Post ran an editorial calling Bush’s tax cuts “a windfall for the rich” on Thursday, the same day the paper also published a news article saying the measure would benefit the “middle class.”
The following retort by CBS, after being hit by one of Snow's emails, is ROTFL ironic:
[CBS reporter Jim] Axelrod suggested he was the victim of “selective editing on the part of the White House to make their own political points.”Selective editing?! Ohh, that's rich! Pot, meet kettle.
“Very simply, the White House is cutting and pasting to make a point, something they accuse their critics of doing constantly,” he said.With good reason, I might add.
“I am always open to criticism,” he added, “but if the White House has a point to make, perhaps they should furnish the full and proper context.”Well, the shoe is on the other side of the fence now, ain't it bro? Or the other foot. Or whatever. Anyway, it's about time.
I can't wait to see what will happen when Snow gives his first public briefing on Monday. It's as if he's said "I know you guys are going to give me about 15 minutes of grace time, and then you're going to go for the jugular. So why don't we just cut to the chase."
h/t to Rightwingsparkle.
Was something that scared me very much. And since I feel like I'm being a little paranoid, I thought I'd throw it out to you all.
You may have heard about the Danish Imam Abu Laban, who has decided to leave Denmark because of that country's supposed intolerance of Muslims. I first read about it from the Baron at Gates Of Vienna. (Now of course, the radical Imam appears to have called off the emigration.)
The Baron thought Laban's announcement was a good sign. My initial reaction was quite the opposite. I asked myself why now? This is a guy who has basically enjoyed enormous success waging jihad inside Denmark. (See Sugiero for a rundown on his nefarious activities.) He doesn't sound like the kind of guy who would skedaddle over a few rough words. Might there be some other reason Laban wants to leave Denmark now?
Remember, the major news story from last week was Ahmadinejad's letter to President Bush. Some have described this letter as a "call to Islam," which is step one in the process of declaring jihad against the west. (See Robert Spencer, Elder, IBA, LGF, etc.) I think this interpretation is correct. Especially since Ahmadinejad has acknowledged that his letter is, in fact, a call to Islam.
Remember, Iran is run by religious fundamentalists and end-of-the-world nut-jobs. They are not motivated by the same things that motivate modern rational states. Iran views itself as the vanguard of a pan-Islamic movement. They hate the U.S., they hate Israel, and they hate Denmark. (They're not too crazy about the rest of Europe either, but everything in due time.) Iran is also lying about their nuclear ambitions. They are unashamedly playing a delaying game against the west, in order to string us along until they can develop a deliverable nuclear arsenal.
I should add that Iran is executing their strategy beautifully, with a sophistication and a knowledge of its enemies' weakness that I only wish we could duplicate from our side of the conflict.
I should also add that Iran may already have one or more nuclear devices, from some other source. They could have a black market bomb (one of the missing Russian ones) or they could have bought one through a friendly nation.
Anyways, the question I'm getting at is this: Am I paranoid for thinking that the Danish Imam is making plans to leave Denmark because he knows something bad is going to happen there? And soon?
Keep your powder dry.
Update: AP reports that traces of weapons grade uranium have been found in Iran! Hat tip to California Conservative.
[c/p A Western Heart; technorati: Iran]
I encourage everyone to see United 93. There is a post at The Cotillion (it doesn't seem right to call it a carnival or link fest, with such a subject) where you can sample many of our reactions to the film. Whether you're planning to go to the movie or not, these are definitely worth reading, as they are all deeply felt.
Sorry about poetry day yesterday. Finals have really fucked up my schedule. But here's your comic fix for the day.
Have I been out of it, or has this story slipped under the radar? It happened two weeks ago and I'm just hearing about it now.
Jose Manuel Pelayo-Ortega was a crazy passenger on a flight to Sacramento who claimed he had a bomb and was subdued by passengers.
I thought it was odd that, with United 93 premiering that week and all the illegal immigrant stuff in the news, that nobody seems to have reported the story! Pelayo-Ortega's hometown was not released, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was illegal. I only found 12 links on Technorati. It must have been back page stuff in the press. Is this being hushed up, or am I just out of it?
Update: Here's the Bee's story.
If I have any influence at all with this blog, let me use it now.
Vote for Elliott Yao Ming tonight. He totally annihilated the competition. And the competition was exceptional. But the dude with the bad teeth fukken' rocked!
Vote for Elliott!
Perimeters on this show are about as successful as they are in real life. Just ask OBL, Musab al-Zarqawi and John Allen Muhammad.
[The following post was posted earlier today on annika's journal backup blog, which every good A's J fan should have bookmarked.]
As everyone knows by now, CIA chief Porter Goss has resigned today, quite unexpectedly. He did so in a joint appearance with President Bush, on a Friday afternoon. Bush said something equivalent to "heck of a job Gossie" or some crap like that.
All these signs point even an unseasoned observer like myself to the following conclusion. He was probably fired.
The fact that nobody expected this, and nobody in the administration has tried to explain away the unexpectedness is also a clue. The fact that Goss's statement used the words "step aside" not "resign" may or may not be significant.
Time Magazine has a piece on the resignation, which everybody and their brother is linking to, perhaps because it's one of the first MSM contributions that at least tries to piece together some background. Read it here.
Captains Quarters speculates, persuasively in my opinion, that Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend will replace Goss. An announcement is scheduled for Monday, so we will see.
I doubt that the speculation regarding hookers and "Duke" Cunningham, even if true, would be the reason for so sudden a resignation. I could be wrong, but isn't it a bad idea to fire an important intelligence chief over sex during a time of war? If it's a bribery scandal, that's a different story. But sex? I mean, who cares if he's still able to do his job, right?
I have no clue why he might have been fired, if indeed he was. But maybe he had serious philosophical problems with the bureaucratic restructuring that was mandated by the 9/11 Commission report. I think the whole CIA is in disarray over this, and that it has been floundering from internal division and external pressures for quite some time. Goss's resignation is a symptom of the agency's dysfunction.
I never quite understood why it was a good idea to consolidate the intelligence services under an all-powerful czar. If the problem is faulty intelligence, consolidation would tend to exacerbate that problem. What we really need is redundancy. A system of competing, parallel and independent intelligence agencies should be more likely to generate good information, even if such a system were less efficient.
Again, I'm no expert, but I think the changes should have been limited to enforcement of interagency information sharing, breaking down "the wall," renewing the Patriot Act, and expelling the dead wood and anti-American moles. But creating a whole new level of bureaucracy? When has that ever been a solution to any problem?
I'd much rather have multiple guys reporting to the president on intelligence matters than one DNI chief. I don't know anything about Negroponte, he may be a stand up guy, but what if he's not? He's the only gatekeeper now. If he screws up, if he downplays some key information that later turns out to be important for instance, who's there to challenge him?
Perhaps we'll find out more this weekend about why Goss left. But sudden changes in key positions, no matter how management tries to downplay them, are never good for morale. Anyone who's ever worked in a large company knows this. Goss came into the position with a lot of fanfare, he was a former agent and was supposed to be the perfect guy to get the CIA back on track. Now he's out. I don't like what I'm seeing here, and now my morale is starting to be affected.
Hook up with a guy . . . get shot and die.
Update: Nice try Scof. But your theory, "DUI = bad career move," while it has some supporters, fails to explain Shannon's death earlier this season, right after she hooked up with Sayid. Thus, my theory is superior.
Thirty-six years ago, what has become known as the Kent State Massacre took place.
On May 4, 1970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The impact of the shootings was dramatic. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close. H. R. Haldeman, a top aide to President Richard Nixon, suggests the shootings had a direct impact on national politics. In The Ends of Power, Haldeman (1978) states that the shootings at Kent State began the slide into Watergate, eventually destroying the Nixon administration. Beyond the direct effects of the May 4th, the shootings have certainly come to symbolize the deep political and social divisions that so sharply divided the country during the Vietnam War era.The most famous poetic response to the incident is of course Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Ohio." Whenever I'm reminded of Kent State, it's Neil Young's opening guitar notes that immediately pop into my head. In the liner notes to the legendary compilation album Decade, Neil Young writes:
It's still hard to believe I had to write this song. It's ironic that I capitalized on the death of these American students. Probably the biggest lesson ever learned at an American place of learning. My best CSNY cut. . . . David Crosby cried after this take.Other musicians as diverse as Dave Brubeck, John Denver, Yes and the Beach Boys have all composed works inspired by the tragedy.
On the web, I found a couple of poems dedicated to the Kent State shootings. They range from the ironic to the angry. Allen Ginsberg references the incident in his poem "Hadda Be Playin' On A Jukebox," which was later set to music by Rage Against The Machine.
The most interesting poem to me was the one published immediately after the shooting in the Soviet propaganda newspaper Pravda. Over on our side of the Iron Curtain, the event instilled greater momentum to the peace movement. But for most adherents, it always remained a peace movement, except for those on the radical fringe.
On the Soviet side, the incident seems to have been a call to arms, judging by the crazy warlike imagery in this propaganda poem. Also take note of the clumsy materialist stereotypes of American youth by the communist poet.
Flowers And Bulletsby Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(English translation by Anthony Kahn)Of course:
Bullets don't like people
who love flowers,
They're jealous ladies, bullets,
short on kindness.
Allison Krause, nineteen years old,
you're dead
for loving flowers.When, thin and open as the pulse
of conscience,
you put a flower in a rifle's mouth
and said,
"Flowers are better than bullets,"
that
was pure hope speaking.Give no flowers to a state
that outlaws truth;
such states reciprocate
with cynical, cruel gifts,
and your gift, Allison Krause,
was the bullet
that blasted the flower.Let every apple orchard blossom black,
black in mourning.
Ah, how the lilac smells!
You're without feeling.
Nothing, Nixon said it:
"You're a bum."
All the dead are bums.
It's not their crime.
You lie in the grass,
a melting candy in your mouth,
done with dressing in new clothes,
done with books.You used to be a student.
You studied fine arts.
But other arts exist,
of blood and terror,
and headsmen with a genuius for the axe.Who was Hitler?
A cubist of gas chambers.
In the name of all flowers
I curse your works,
you architect of lies,
maestros of murder!
Mothers of the world whisper
"O God, God!"
and seers are afraid
to look ahead.
Death dances rock-and-roll upon the bones
of Vietnam, Cambodia -
On what stage is it booked to dance tomorrow?Rise up, Tokyo girls,
Roman boys,
take up your flowers
against the common foe.
Blow the world's dandelions up
into a blizzard!
Flowers, to war!
Punish the punishers!
Tulip after tulip,
carnation after carnation
rip out of your tidy beds in anger,
choke every lying throat
with earth and root!
You, jasmine, clog
the spinning blades of mine-layers.Boldy,
block the cross-hair sights,
drive your sting into the lenses,
nettles!
Rise up, lily of the Ganges,
lotus of the Nile,
stop the roaring props
of planes pregnant
with the death of chidren!
Roses, don't be proud
to find yourselves sold
at higher prices.
Nice as it is to touch a tender cheek,
thrust a sharper thorn a little deeper
into the fuel tanks of bombers.Of course:
Bullets are stronger than flowers.
Flowers aren't enough to overwhelm them.
Stems are too fragile,
petals are poor armor.
But a Vietnam girl of Allison's age,
taking a gun in her hands
is the armed flower
of the people's wrath!
If even flowers rise,
then we've had enough
of playing games with history.Young America,
tie up the killer's hands.
Let there be an escalation of truth
to overwhelm the escalating lie
crushing people's lives!
Flowers, make war!
Defend what's beautiful!
Drown the city streets and country roads
like the flood of an army advancing
and in the ranks of people and flowers
arise, murdered Allison Krause,
Immortal of the age,
Thorn-Flower of protest!
Correction: I must apologize and amend what I said up there regarding the poet. When I wrote this last night, I cut and pasted the name Yevgeny Yevtushenko without really thinking, although the name sounded familiar. This morning John's comment inspired me to look up his stuff, which I was able to do, since I have a very fine book of contemporary world poetry, which Shelly sent me last year.
The truth is, the poet was not some unknown communist hack for Pravda, which I thought at first. Yevtushenko is one of the best known and controversial Russian poets of the twentieth century. Here's his Wikipedia entry.
Reading "Flowers And Bullets" alongside Yevtushenko's more famous protest poems like "Babii Yar" (which laments the Nazi execution of 96,000 Jews near Kiev) or "The Heirs Of Stalin," I was able to place the above poem in better context. The poet had a history of using his art to condemn atrocity.
That's what happens when you critique the poet instead of the poem. A common mistake. But I still stand by my criticism of the poem, which really fails to understand the American "peace movement" of the '60s and '70s. And it really was a socialist propaganda piece, which urged violent retaliation against a capitalist enemy. Whether Yevtushenko really held the same sentiment, or whether he just knew how to market a poem, is an open question I suppose.
I'm no criminal lawyer, but I think there's got to be some way to simplify a jury verdict form that's 42 pages long. That's just insane.
One interesting tidbit I gathered from the jury verdict (until I got bored and gave up reading it) was that the jury unanimously rejected two of the most often cited arguments against the death penalty in this case, namely
That a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release . . . will be a more severe punishment . . . than a sentence of deathand
That the execution . . . will create a martyr for radical Muslim fundamentalists, and to al Qaeda in particular. [see pages 6 and 7]The jury unanimously refused to buy either argument.
But nine jurors seemed to agree that the touchy-feely rationales of "unstable childhood," "dysfunctional family," "physical and emotional abuse" blah blah blah, were mitigating factors in this case. [id.]
That's disturbing.
So let's say we catch OBL? If he claims a bad childhood would another jury let him off? Even if he killed 3000+ people, was unrepentant, and the jury agrees that life in prison is not the most severe punishment available? Dr. Laura should have sent the jury a copy of her book.
I don't know. I can't say I undersand how the jury came to its decision, and I don't really have time to study all 42 pages of this thing, but something stinks.
Anyways, I don't have a major problem with sticking the guy in jail for the rest of his life. Except for the fact that Amnesty will probably be agitating for his release within about six months. And how much you wanna bet the lefties will be carrying signs with his picture on it during the next anti-war rally. Right along with the free Mumia signs.
And how long do you think it will take for al Zarqawahiri to kidnap another hostage and then demand this guy's release from prison?
Oh well. They say he won't be in the general population, so there's little chance he'll get the shiv. But you know, these things have a way of happening, even when you think they won't. I wouldn't be surprised if ten years from now we hear about ZM's unexpected "suicide." If you know what I mean.
Findlaw link via Dr. Rusty.
[CP: A Western Heart]
Okay, issue spotting this bizarre story I see fraud, conversion, IIED, NIED, breach of contract and a good faith purchaser issue. I don't see defamation, but those facts might have been left out of the story. And you have to throw in negligence, whether or not the facts are there, just to get the insurance coverage involved.
Okay, back to the real studying.
Via Old Skool.
I'm having fun with the protests mainly because illegal immigration is not "my issue," like it is for so many people. Living in California, I have known illegal immigrants all my life, and they have all been wonderful people. To a person, the illegals I've known came here to become American, and they love America. They shouldn't be here, but I'm not going to call them bad people. "Some of my best friends are hispanic" (including my boyfriend).
If I have to be pinned down on the issue, you can categorize me on the side of border enforcement. Just driving around today, I could see the impact of illegal immigration on quality of life. Traffic was nonexistent. And in gridlocked Sacramento, that's saying something. But there's also the well documented cost of illegal immigration to our health care and education systems. And also there's the rule of law angle. My mom immigrated legally, why shouldn't everybody else?
One thing I noticed, the hundreds of thousands of people who left work and school and flooded the streets today had about a hundred thousand different ideas about what the hell they were "protesting" about.
Watching the news tonight, it seemed that nobody marching today had a clear idea what their goal was. Some thought they were protesting Bush, unaware that he's on their side. Some wanted amnesty, unaware that Congress is about to give them just that. Most simply wanted to announce their presence to the world -- the latino version of "we're here, we're queer!"
To the organizers, today was a chance to cynically exploit a perfectly laudable sense of ethnic pride. The international communists who were behind today's demonstrations hope to turn these folks into activists. Get them marching for an ill-defined issue, make them feel as though they are victims, and the next step (they hope) will be to turn them into an army of proletarians. Yes, the holy grail of the American Socialist movement! It's not going to happen though. Today's marchers want into the American dream, not to destroy it.
The most annoying thing about the protests is how they illustrate the left's desperate desire to re-live the sixties. Journalists long to force another presidential resignation. College professors long for the days of mass rallies and sit-ins. And jobless neo-hippies just want to fight the power, whatever that might be. And all of them want the chance to re-live the civil rights movement by creating a new bandwagon to jump on: "immigrant" rights. Never mind that it's an oxymoron.
And who's to blame for the massive turnout today across the country? Well it's the Republican strategists who wanted to sneak an amnesty bill through, while still retaining plausible deniability. They inserted a penalty provision, simply to allow themselves the chance to deny that they are really for amnesty. It's a stupid idea, not only because nobody is going to pay the penalty, but also because it motivated a hell of a lot of the people in the streets today. Most illegals realize that they can't afford to pay the fine and they'd rather stay underground than either incur the penalty or be deported. If the Republicans had been more honest and dropped the pretense of an unenforceable penalty, you probably wouldn't have seen half as many people out there today.
But so what? Because the main thing I want to say about all these protests is "thank you." Thank you to the communist organizers who thought this would be a good idea for their cause. You guys just handed Republicans an early October surprise. Yes, Joe and Jane Six Pack will remember today's illustration of the direction our country is heading, and they will try to put the brakes on by voting Republican in November. Sure there's a perception that Republican politicians are part of the problem, but it's still a two party system and swing voters know enough to pick the lesser of two evils.
So when the Democrats fail again to recapture Congress, they can blame the Mexican flag and el "Nuestro Himno."
Feliz el Primero de Mayo.
El voto por el sombrero favorito por favor.
Alfonso Bedoya de la Treasura del Sierra Madre es en el picturo la izquierdo. Y seor Eli Wallach de el Bueno, el Malo y el Feo es en la derecha.
[Eli Wallach es un judio, pero no importa.]
El voto por la favorita pictura del hombre de sombrero.
Viva el sombrero. Viva el sombrero! Arriba, Arriba! Viva el Primero de Mayo! Dos burritos por favor, hold de mayo. Olé!
Need translation help? Click here.
Shaq and Kobe just can't stop competing with each other.
The former Lakers teammates became fathers again Monday when their wives gave birth to girls six minutes apart.Congratulations to both couples.. . .
Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant was born at 2:03 a.m. PDT in Orange County, Calif.
. . .
Shaquille and Shaunie O’Neal became parents for the sixth time when Mearah Sanaa O’Neal was born at 4:57 a.m. EDT in a South Florida hospital.
And speaking of Kobe... what a game on Sunday. It was also great watching Nash choke, twice. MVPs are not supposed to fall apart like that. Did Magic ever? Jordan? Bird? Nash's got skills, but trust me. Ten years from now, nobody's going to remember who he was, except he was that skanky lookin dude who let the ball get away from him twice in that legendary Laker game.
In honor of Cinco de Mayo, which for some inexplicable reason was moved to May 1st this year, I plan to eat a burrito.
I love burritos. Did you know that the burrito was invented in San Francisco? Really. The restaurant that made the first burrito is still there. I used to eat there a lot. I can't remember the name of the place but they do make awesome burritos.
I also highly recommend the new McDonald's-owned place called Chipotle. Fantastic burritos there. It's a chain, so one should be popping up near you very soon. There's one in Sacramento, which always has a long line.
Today, when you say the word "burrito," say it like Carlos Mencia in this video. Roll your r's in solidarity with today's festivities. Or just for the heck of it, because it's fun to do. Say "Damn you burrito!"
Link via Casca.
