Another Argument Down The Tubes

As Bush supporters desperately defend his disastrous presidency, they scramble to find scraps from his crumbling regime. Lately they've been charging that Congress was privy to the same intelligence as Bush, and yet the Democrats voted for war. They deny that Bush skewed intelligence to serve his nefarious purposes. Oh yeah?

Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The administration has refused to provide the Sept. 21 President's Daily Brief, even on a classified basis, and won't say anything more about it other than to acknowledge that it exists.

The information was provided to Bush on September 21, 2001 during the "President's Daily Brief," a 30- to 45-minute early-morning national security briefing. Information for PDBs has routinely been derived from electronic intercepts, human agents, and reports from foreign intelligence services, as well as more mundane sources such as news reports and public statements by foreign leaders.

One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime. At one point, analysts believed, Saddam considered infiltrating the ranks of Al Qaeda with Iraqi nationals or even Iraqi intelligence operatives to learn more about its inner workings, according to records and sources.

There's so much more detailed in this National Journal article, Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel.

Lawrence Wilkerson Takes Aim

AnneGearan, AP Diplomatic Writer, reports:

A top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that wrongheaded ideas for the handling of foreign detainees arose from White House and Pentagon officials who argued that "the president of the United States is all-powerful" and the Geneva Conventions irrelevant.

In an Associated Press interview, former Powell chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson also said President Bush was "too aloof, too distant from the details" of postwar planning. Underlings exploited Bush's detachment and made poor decisions, Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson blamed Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and like-minded aides. He said Cheney must have sincerely believed that Iraq could be a spawning ground for new terror assaults, because "otherwise I have to declare him a moron, an idiot or a nefarious bastard."

No matter how many times I read reports of this type, as officials continue to come forward and confirm the rumors, it's still extremely disturbing. The noted Israeli military historian, Martin Van Creveld, has written in the US Jewish newspaper Forward that,

For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.

The Disturbingly Cute Little Forest Mushroom

One of my favorite illustrations from Gallery of the Absurd, this one of Kelly Osbourne is really cute.

Panda Cam

AP/San Diego Zoo, Ken Bohn

If you can never get enough panda cuteness, check out the San Diego Zoo Panda Cam. There are also panda blogs, photos, videos, slide shows and panda news on their site.

The Smithsonian National Zoological Park also has a panda cam and lots of information.

'Fess Up

Photocopiers take a beating during the holidays. Case in point.

Tim Andrews, a Canon employee from London, said: "We always fit lots of new glass to copiers after New Year due to 'rear-end copying.'"

Geoff Bush from the north of England said one case he'd attended, where a young lady had cracked the glass mid-scan, also jammed the scanner so that it wasn't until the machine was fixed and her colleagues all sober that copies of her backside starting pouring from the machine.

I'm sure this problem isn't confined to England. They just have the cojones to admit it.

Bloated Car

What the...??

The Blind Leading The Blind

Michael Brown, the disgraced former director of FEMA, has started a disaster-preparedness consulting firm! This kind of jaw-dropping insanity is a reflection of the mixture of incompetance and arrogance that characterizes the Bush administration.

"If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses — because that goes straight to the bottom line — then I hope I can help the country in some way," Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.

Brown said officials need to "take inventory" of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.

If a company needs to hire Brown to do that, they don't have a prayer of succeeding.

Sad News

Sam, the World's Ugliest Dog, has died. R.I.P., Sam.

The Ubiquitous Paris

Paris Hilton is one of the most photographed women in the world. Watch how her facial expression doesn't seem to change in this flash sequence. I've never understood the fascination people have for her, and yet this is the second time I've blogged about her. 14's brilliant illustration is, so far, my favorite of all the ones she's posted in her Gallery of the Absurd, which just featured the new Paris Hilton VooDoo Doll. Notice the droopy left eye, the vacuous expression and the grotesquely large hands and feet.

Weather Update

It's looking good for us now. The storm has doubled back like a hairpin, and the path now takes it through the Camagüey area of Cuba and south of the Bahamas. If it continues that way, we might only get a few clouds and some wind, as we've been getting for the last couple of days.

Sunday update: Gamma is one strange little storm. Now it looks as though it may miss Cuba entirely or fall apart completely. Friday's track took it right across Palm Beach County. Two days later it's nowhere near Florida. Maybe it still has some tricks up its sleeve. When it comes to tropical systems, you DO need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. But, still, don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters.

Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don't steal, don't lift
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don't wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles

Subterranean Homesick Blues

The Punching Bag

HA! Ahem.

Update: Gamma's track has moved to the south since yesterday, so if it continues with the track it's on, we should be spared the worst of it. It now looks as though Cuba, the Keys and the Bahamas will be in its path.

Just Because

I love to plantblog. Three blue ribbon winners from the Tropical Fern and Exotic Plant Show in Miami last year. The middle one is a species of Lycopodium, an ancient plant and fern ally. It's flanked by two entries of the same orchid. I grow it, but don't remember the name. Orchids aren't really my thing. The few that I have are tied onto trees and pretty much take care of themselves.

Each year this orchid produces new shoots with leaves, like the ones you see at the top of the plant. These grow longer and longer as the plant ages. The following year, the old stems sprout flowers all the way down to the tips. As the plant gets older and has more and more flowering stems, it puts on a spectacular display.

Operation Restore Mojo

James Wolcott dissects the last throes of neocon support for the worst presidency in this country's history in an article entitled "Windbags of War Give It One Last Wheeze". Clever with words, that Wolcott. After citing the same old tired rhetoric of Bush apologists, he comments,

No one better embodies the creamy elitism of the neocons than does [Bill] Kristol, who believes that the American people are a lumpy mass easily manipulated and are incapable of arriving at judgements of their own. But they can, they do, and they have. They have turned against this war and slowly come to the conclusion that they were deliberately misled. Questioning the patriotism of the war's critics isn't going to work because a majority of Americans now share that criticism and don't think of themselves as unpatriotic. Bush's counteroffensives are no longer effective because he's lost the confidence of the American people: they've had it with this guy.

Josh Marshall, of Talking Points Memo, sums it up.

"What a sorry, sorry, unfortunate president -- caught in his lies, his half-truths, his reckless disregard ... caught with, well ... caught with time. Time has finally caught up to him. And now he doesn't have the popularity to beat back all the people trying to call him to account. He could; but now he can't. So he's caught. And his best play is to accuse his critics of rewriting history, of playing fast and loose with the truth -- a sad, pathetic man.

[snip]

"In the president's new angle that his critics are trying to 'rewrite history', those critics might want to point out that his charge would be more timely after he stopped putting so much effort into obstructing any independent inquiry that could allow an accurate first draft of the history to be written. In any case, he must sense now that he's blowing into a fierce wind. The judgement of history hangs over this guy like a sharp, heavy knife. His desperation betrays him. He knows it too."

It's his blogger allies who don't.

The First Annual MySpace Stupid Haircut Awards

Some kids wear their pretentiousness and self-absorption on top of their heads. DemonBaby has compiled a sort of 'Hall of Shame' of fantastically stupid hairstyles floating around MySpace. Here are the super heroes of bad style. The hipsters, the goths, the just-plain-confused. He includes his own picture at the end of the list, and I have to say, he looks way too young to be so clever. Very funny!

"Dark Red Flower"

Nadia Anjuman
(1980-2005)

Nadia Anjuman, age 25, died Sunday, Nov. 6, in Herat, Afghanistan. It appears she was beaten to death. Her husband, who confessed to striking her on Friday, has been apprehended, as has her mother.

Anjuman published her first book of poems this year, a collection entitled “Gul-e-dodi, which means dark red flower.” Her work was especially popular among women in Afghanistan and Iran.

A piece in the Middle East Times reports, “Under the fundamentalist Taliban regime of 1996-2001 women were denied the right to education and could not even leave their homes without a male member of the family.

“Women have been given more freedom since the Taliban were toppled in a US-led campaign in late 2001. But rights groups say that (women) are still mistreated by men, including through sexual and domestic violence.”

United Nations spokesman Adrian Edwards called Anjuman’s death, “tragic and a great loss to Afghanistan.” He added that “violence against women remains dramatic in Afghanistan—in its intensity and its pervasiveness.”

A tribute from someone who knew her.

Anjuman leaves behind her Dark Red Flower and a six-month-old daughter.

What Is Laura Bush On??

Seriously. Uppers? Mood stabilizers? General zombie pills? Can she look more demented?



Well, maybe. :)

These photos were taken during Charles and Camilla's recent visit to the US. Calm and pleasant Camilla looks as though she's suppressing a laugh. She probably can't believe her eyes.



The most disturbing one is hilariously captioned on Dependable Renegade. Oh, my God. How funny! Click for the caption.

Hot Dogs For Homos

This video is just too frikken hilarious!

Gone With The Wind

Begonia 'Little Miss Mummey', another victim of Hurricane Wilma.

Word Play

This is circulating on the Internet, purportedly from The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational. I don't think it has anything to do with the Post or with Mensa, because I can't find any confirmation of it. It's funny, nonetheless.

Readers to are asked to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's {2005} winners:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly

3. Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

4. Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

10. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

11. Decafalon: The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

12. Glibido: All talk and no action.

13. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

14. Arachnoleptic fit: The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web. [This one doesn't meet the criteria.]

15. Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

16. Caterpallor: The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

17. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an a s s hole.

18. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

Become a Republican

Hey Democrats! Sick of losing elections? Bored with honesty and common sense? Feel like America has lost its mind? Become a Republican!

I could never do it. I'd have to give up tofu.

The Ship Is Sinking

Two analysts of US national security have concluded that the present troop levels in Iraq are not sustainable for the US:

Unless the Bush administration significantly cuts American troop levels in Iraq next year, the U.S. military's roughly 140,000-strong presence there will become a detriment to America's national security, according to a report released this week.

"It has become clear that if we still have 140,000 ground troops in Iraq a year from now, we will destroy the all-volunteer army," said the report written by the center's Lawrence Korb and Brian Katulis. Korb served as assistant secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan.