First, rest in peace, Hunter S. Thompson. I haven't read much of his work, but what I have read, I've enjoyed. Here are some samples of Thompson's writing. Perhaps one of my fellow writers who is a bigger fan than I may have more eloquent eulogy.
From the "I Want To Believe" department: According to our vast Berkelian spy network, the Conservative Political Action Conference turned into the Conservative Kool-Aid Quaffing Conference when House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Chris Cox told the attendees that The Nukes Are Out There and we nabbed 'em:
"America's Operation Iraqi Freedom is still producing shock and awe, this time among the blame-America-first crowd," he crowed. Then he said, "We continue to discover biological and chemical weapons and facilities to make them inside Iraq." Apparently, most of the hundreds of people in attendance already knew about these remarkable, hitherto-unreported discoveries, because no one gasped at this startling revelation.
That's news to me. As far as I am aware, the number of active production facilities that the US has discovered -- excepting the Ansar poison labs outside Saddam's control that Condoleezza Rice's National Security Council refused three times to bomb -- still ranges in the mid to low zeroes, and I hadn't heard of any chemical or biological weapons discoveries in about a year. Those that were found were were a decade old and dilipidated to the point that a soldier hit by one that was duct-taped into one of those Irritatingly Ubiquitous Detonations (or whatever the army is calling them these days) succumbed to a mild case of dilated pupils and was put out of action for a whole few minutes. Imagine if the insurgents used incendiary devices with marijuana warheads. It would be so much worse, but at least our soldiers wouldn't be as stressed out after a patrol.
And from what I know of the blame-America-first crowd, they're quite unshocked and unawed at the predicted quagmire that America is wallowing in in Iraq. The only shock might be at the blindness and intentional stupidity of an America that seems to enjoy causing problems for itself in some masochistic, self-hating manner. Hell, they have web pages, let's take a look at what they're thinking: the Workers' World Party, the guys behind International Answer: "All evidence points to this struggle continuing as it has for the past 20 months, despite the election." Wow, what a panicked and emotional statement of shock and awe! How 'bout the Revolutionary Communist Party, the guys behind Not In Our Name? "This U.S.-dominated election was staged and orchestrated to legitimize the U.S. invasion and conquest of Iraq and to cobble together a comprador regime, which would enable the U.S. imperialists to exert long-term control of the country and undercut Iraqi resistance." A little more emotional, but it doesn't look like they've given up thinking the US is the bad guy.
I'll leave you with the repetition that Chris Cox is the House of Representatives' top guy on national security and the obvious fact that if there were any truth to his statement, we'd have been hearing about it everywhere. It's worth repeating a link to this classic, which should be mandatory reading for everyone interested in modern US politics
Mr. No WMD drops two bombshells: Scott Ritter says the Iraqi election was rigged to shave 8 percentage points off the Shiites' total, and Bush has signed off on plans to attack Iran this summer
Honored titles like Master Sergeant, Quartermaster, and Master-at-Arms will soon be joined by Rave Master as the Army is thinking of distributing eckies to GIs for combat stress. Hey, it's not a bad plan: if the drugs don't relieve combat stress, the back-rubs will. However, the increased bottled water use in already-parched Iraq might stretch US logistical capabilities, and glow bracelets wouldn't exactly be conducive to night operations. Okay, snark mode off: they're trying it on psych patients who are already stateside, not active duty soldiers.
Riverbend has a post fearing that Iraq might turn into another Iran. In case you'd forgotten or weren't aware, she lives there.
About 200 contractors have been killed in Iraq, including about 75 "security consultants" and "security contractors" (ie, mercs). The list is linked to web citations, and it's less than I would have expected. I found it while trying to dig up information on some of the more esoteric/conspiratorial rumours about US casualties in Iraq -- that immigrants hoping to serve in exchange for a green card or citizenship are not counted in official US casualty counts, and that Mazen Dana reported finding a mass grave of US non-citizen soldiers near Abu Ghraib and that he was being followed by the US shortly before his death -- and it does strike me as odd that no one on the list is Mexican.
Via Eschaton, witness a short flamewar between Minnesota Politics Guru and Time Magazine's Weblog of the Year, Powerline.
Miracle of miracles: a fairly intelligent opinion piece in the Washington Times
Pharyngula comments on a German anthropologist discovered to be a fraud. In a more disturbing aspect, the fraudster's university's documents on Nazi medical experiments have been mysteriously destroyed, and his father was a Nazi MP...
Bill Maher continues being his Politically Incorrect self with a new column titled "Kids Say the Darndest, Most Stalinist Things". Amusingly offensive quote:
Lest we forget, last month the people of Iraq risked death and danger to send a simple, inspiring message: America, get out of our country. But also, we want the freedoms you take for granted.
The latest example of "Might Makes Right" morality from the Bush Administration: Justice Department lawyer and torture advocate John Yoo declares that Congress "can't prevent the President from ordering torture" because "the core of the Commander-in-Chief function" is that any order Bush gives to his soldiers is tautologically legal, overriding contrary law. For more on the the government's support for this doctrine, read my earlier article Kingmakers in the Pentagon.
The Financial Times has an article about the 1921 race riot of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I consider myself at least moderately well-read about US history, but this is an event I'd never heard of.
While playing with numbers, Washington College notes this Presidents' Day that President Washington's popularity is waning. The frightening part: given the option, Republicans would overwhelmingly elect George Walker Bush over George Washington, 62-28%. Not surprisingly, 35% of them think GWB is the best or 2nd-best President ever, with 46% saying same of Reagan and 39% of Dems saying same of Clinton. Lincoln has the most cross-party support, but both parties like their late-20th-century Presidents better. Onetime giants Thomas Jefferson (yay) and Andrew Jackson (boo) had almost no support. Another scary part is that 20% of Dems couldn't answer what century the Declaration of Independence was signed...
US Agency for International Development head Andrew Natsios is going to Afghanistan with a "press contingent" of right-wing opinionists Rush Limbaugh and Mary Matalin along with CNN news anchor Daryn Kagan, who is Limbaugh's girlfriend. Matalin is a former advisor to Dick Cheney. This raises the intriguing questions of whether there are political or otherwise non-journalistic reasons for bringing along Matalin and Limbaugh, whether the trip to Afghanistan constitutes payment to Limbaugh, whether the two were invited, whether this was at the expense of real journalists, and so on. One wag on another blog suggested that Limbaugh wanted to go to Afghanistan because that's where most of the world's opium is produced.
Soon-to-be-formerly straight-A Texas high school student boycotts standardized testing, declaring "These tests don't measure what kids really need to know, they measure what's easy to measure. We should be learning concepts and skills, not just memorizing. It's sad for kids and it's sad for teachers, too." I agree with the principle, but hope it doesn't hurt her college prospects. A gem in the DKos comments is a comparison of No Child Left Behind to football.
Happy Fun Presidents' Day Quiz from the Detroit Free Press. I got 13.
Posted by Warrior Tang at February 21, 2005 12:41 PM