Fear of Clowns

My name is Ulrich Haarbürste and I like to write stories about Roy Orbison being wrapped up in cling-film.

// posted by Erik @ 3/30/2004 07:43:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

Yesterday:

• Q Well, what I'm asking is, is there an effort or a willingness to compromise on this, or is the White House adamant and dug-in that there can be no public sworn testimony by Dr. Rice?

  MR. McCLELLAN: No, our position remains the same, in terms of the principle, and why we believe it's important to uphold that principle.

Today:

• ... the White House on Tuesday agreed to allow national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify publicly and under oath before the commission investigating the September 11, 2001, attacks.

// posted by Erik @ 3/30/2004 12:08:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

Blasts from the past:

• "It is highly likely that a significant al Qaeda attack is in the near future, within several weeks."
  - George Tenet, June 22, 2001
• "Something really spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon."
  - Richard Clarke, July 5, 2001
• "I didn't feel that sense of urgency."
  - George Bush, December 20, 2002

// posted by Erik @ 3/29/2004 04:29:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

• The United States ambassador in Canberra warned Australia's up-and-coming opposition leader his campaign pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq by Christmas would have "serious consequences".

We all know from UNSCR 1441 that "serious consequences" means "war".

// posted by Erik @ 3/24/2004 09:10:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

• From the Committee's interim report: "Former Sudanese officials claim that Sudan offered to expel bin Laden to the United States. Clinton administration officials deny ever receiving such an offer. We have not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim." (Right-wing myth debunked.)
• Timothy Roemer: "[W]e have a book issued by Richard Clarke which is a blistering attack on the Bush administration. We have Dr. Rice on the airwaves saying that she strongly condemns and disagrees with Mr. Clarke's assessments and analysis. I would hope that this discussion would not be for the airwaves and would not be a partisan type of discussion that we have, but belongs in this hearing room tomorrow in a substantive way so that the 10 commissioners can ask factually based questions and so the American people have the access to those answers to try to make this country safer. So I would underscore your comments, Mr. Chairman, that I hope Dr. Rice will reconsider and come before our commission for the sake of the American people tomorrow. (APPLAUSE)"
• Colin Powell: "We gave them 24, 48 hours to consider it and then I called President Musharraf and said, We need your answer now. We need you as part of this campaign, this crusade" (CRUSADE?)
• Donald Rumsfeld: "In reflecting on what happened on September 11th, the question is, obviously, the Good Lord willing, things would have happened prior to that that could have stopped it. But something to have stopped that would have had to happen months and months and months beforehand, not five minutes or not one month or two months or three months." (Perhaps Rumsfeld was limiting to "something" to a military campaign - however the timing of the scrambling of jets and the readiness of those jets is an issue the commission is examining.)

// posted by Erik @ 3/23/2004 08:45:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

• There must be two Americas: one that sets the captive free, and one that takes a once-captive's new freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with nothing to found it on; then kills him to get his land ... we have invited clean young men to shoulder a discredited musket and do bandit's work under a flag which bandits have been accustomed to fear, not to follow; we have debauched America's honor and blackened her face before the world ... And as for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can have a special one--our States do it: we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.

  - Mark Twain, 1901

// posted by Erik @ 3/20/2004 10:38:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

I was thinking "tinfoil" and it guessed "aluminum foil" ... I was thinking "kale" and it guessed "arugula" ...

// posted by Erik @ 3/20/2004 10:10:00 AM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

On Face the Nation yesterday, Rumsfeld was attempting to claim that nobody in the Bush administration had claimed Iraq was an immediate threat. Not facing an immediate threat is a funny justification for going to war, but that's not the most interesting part. Thomas Friedman, also a guest on the show, repeated for Rumsfeld a sentance from his own September 19, 2002 testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee: Said Donald, "No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world and the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq." Rumsfeld began to explain,

• "Mm-hmm. It - my view of - of the situation was that he - he had - we - we believe, the best intelligence that we had and other countries had and that - that we believed and we still do not know--we will know."

Don't bother trying to read that out loud. It doesn't make any more sense. After chattering about how much VX one can fit in the hole Hussein was found hiding in, Rumsfeld eventually he came around to his point:

• [Saddam Hussein] - he didn't say, 'Come in and look and see what we have.'

Maybe not in Rumsfeld's twisted reality, but most of us did hear Iraq say 'Come in and look and see what we have.' And even if Hussein had denied access to inspectors, it would not have changed the claims made by administration officials that Hussein did certainly posses large stockpiles of banned weapons ... and was building more ... and could attack New York, etc, etc. Rumsfeld's attempt to blame Iraq for his own mistaken beliefs is as nonsensical as it is lame.

// posted by Erik @ 3/14/2004 11:32:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

I just wanted to get that off my chest.

// posted by Erik @ 3/13/2004 03:30:00 AM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

• The next wave of Bush ads will feature pictures of the space shuttle Columbia exploding.

// posted by Erik @ 3/10/2004 01:37:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

It's not the angle most likely to pop into your mind ...

// posted by Erik @ 3/09/2004 10:40:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

Somehow I missed the part in the ClearChannel-Dumps-Howard-Stern story where Stern evolves from a Bush supporter to a Bush detractor three days before his show was yanked. Here is Stern mocking Bush: "Your marriage is a joke if fags get married ..."

// posted by Erik @ 3/09/2004 01:50:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

Yesterday, tendrils examining two smoldering scandals reached further into the Oval Office. The story that's received more play conserns Air Force One call records being subpoenaed by the Justice Departments probe into the outing of Valarie Plame. Less noticed "involved in or aware of" theft of files on judicial nominees by a Republican staffer.

These two things pile on top of last month's decision by the Senate Intelligence Committee to consider whether White House officials misrepresented intelligence analyses of the supposed threat posed by Iraq.

Maybe the White House will change their position on global warming and say that is the source of the heat.

// posted by Erik @ 3/05/2004 04:08:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

Yesterday, tendrils examining two smoldering scandals reached further into the Oval Office. The story that's received more play conserns Air Force One call records being subpoenaed by the Justice Departments probe into the outing of Valarie Plame. Less noticed "involved in or aware of" theft of Demorat's memos on judicial nominations by a Republican Judiciary Committee staffer.

These two things pile on top of last month's decision by the Senate Intelligence Committee to consider whether White House officials misrepresented intelligence analyses of the supposed threat posed by Iraq.

Maybe the White House will change their position on global warming and say that is the source of the heat.

// posted by Erik @ 3/05/2004 04:08:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.
- Will Will Rogers

Dennis Kucinich cruised to an easy victory in my Precinct's caucus with 55 votes. John Kerry came in a distant second with 34 votes. I was part of the majority.

Although I'm not a member of the Democratic Party but Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor, the Will Rogers quote remained in the forefront of my mind the entire evening,. The caucus chair had to be constantly prompted by helpful caucus goers who were familiar with the process. She really didn't know what was going on, so could neither explain what was supposed to be going on. Even after the straw poll, matters were uncertain for some people. I should note that the elected Chair had moved out of the Precinct and for some reason, the Chair (who was elected an associate chair last time) had to ride her bike to the elected Chair's home to pick up the materials earlier today. There were not enough copies of a single form, including the Presidential preference ballots. I should also mention that it was a record turnout for a primary in the precinct - there were too many people to fit in the classroom we were to use, so everybody had to move into the hall. Then we moved to a wider hall.

Also notable is the fact that tonight was the first time in my Precinct's history that it came up with all 34 delegates allotted to it for the Senate District Convention. I'm one of them.

Resolutions were passed to the effect that the Democratic Farmer-Labor platform should endorse:

• Hospitals and Nursing homes being directly regulated by the government
• Equitable access to student loans for all persons
• Two resolutions about family planning and reproductive rights
• Repealing the Patriot Act
• A reversal of the doctrine of preemption
• That Minnesota test public school students on current MN curriculum standards instead of the repealed Profile of Learning standards (as is happening under No Child Left Behind
• An increase of funding for HIV education/prevention
• Equal marriage rights for same sexed couples

I'm proud to live in the most progressive precinct in the state!

// posted by Erik @ 3/02/2004 07:40:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

// posted by Erik @ 3/02/2004 01:12:00 PM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post:

Link ...

// posted by Erik @ 3/02/2004 11:28:00 AM
permalink | 0 comments | post comment | email post: