Fear of Clowns

The Supreme Court cut some rocking meat yesterday! You've never heard that said before. Not that I never agree with the Supreme Court, to the contrary, they generally rock meat for the most part. Running through yesterday's three Supreme Court decisions regarding the rights of persons detained in Bush's war on terror: the executive branch must be held accountable to standards other than it's own and the president's duty to conduct war does not mean his power extends to suspending constitutional law. Neither can the executive branch can't make a nether-land prison to avoid constitutional unpleasantries.

Here are synopses of the decisions.

Other judges may rock meat differently.

// posted by Erik @ 6/29/2004 03:01:00 PM
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Astounding:

• WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is offering a novel reason for denying a request seeking the Justice Department's database on foreign lobbyists: Copying the information would bring down the computer system.

  "Implementing such a request risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating," wrote Thomas J. McIntyre, chief in the Justice Department's office for information requests.

  ...McIntyre explained in a May 24 letter that the computer system - operated in the counterespionage section of the Justice Department's criminal division - "was not designed for mass export of all stored images" and said the system experiences "substantial problems."

OK, so this means either:

• Their database solution really is not designed for "mass export of all stored images", which means they can't back up their data, which means they are flirting with a "major loss of data, which would be devastating."
• They're lying their asses off.

Some funny comments over at Slashdot.

// posted by Erik @ 6/29/2004 02:47:00 PM
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On today's Morning Edition, Renee Montagne asked Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage,

• Montagne : And when does Ambassador John Negroponte arrive, take up his duties? Today?

  Armitage: Probably not today, we want a little space between Mr Bremer's departure because we want to make the point that John Negroponte is not Jerry Bremer II; that the former soverign, the CPA has gone away and John Negroponte will be the first ambassador from the United States to the new Iraq.

• BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) John Negroponte, the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, arrived in Baghdad Monday to take over political contact between Washington and the fledgling Iraqi interim government.

  The former American envoy to the United Nations reached the Iraqi capital late Monday, hours after the handover of sovereignty to Iraq's new government.

  L. Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator of the U.S.-led occupation, flew from Baghdad about two hours after the handover ceremony.

// posted by Erik @ 6/28/2004 12:09:00 PM
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"The bitter differences of the war are over," Bush told a news conference, which was delayed by anti-American protests staged around the lightning U.S.-EU summit in Ireland.

This is how Bush was greeted in Ireland, he must not be paying attention:

They're getting ready for his visit to Turkey:

Here's an indication that the bitter differences are over in South Korea:

// posted by Erik @ 6/26/2004 01:42:00 PM
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Florida, 2000:

Palestine, 2004:

// posted by Erik @ 6/26/2004 01:29:00 PM
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Cheney:

• Saddam Hussein knew [al Zarqawi] was in Baghdad because we arranged to have that information passed to — to a third country intelligence service. In Baghdad, he ran the poisons facility, largest poisons facility we've ever found that al Qaeda was operating up in northeastern Iraq. He had about two dozen associates with him in Baghdad from an outfit called Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which had merged with al Qaeda.
  
  Zawahiri, who's bin Laden's number two, used to run the EIJ. And all of them, that operation, was in Baghdad prior to the time we launched in there.
  
  He's a man who ordered the killing of Laurence Foley. He tried to smuggle riacin and other products out of that poisons factory. People had been trained in the poisons factory in order to..
  
  (CROSSTALK)
  
  CAVUTO: Where is all that stuff now? Where are all those?
  
  CHENEY: Well, we destroyed the facility when we went in and...
  
  CAVUTO: Right.
  
  CHENEY: ... we launched air strikes on them when we first went in.

Reviewing:

• The US informed Saddam Hussein that al Zarqawi was in Baghdad. al Zarqawi has been toted as the "best evidence" of an al Qaeda/Hussein alliance. So we informed Hussein of his alliance?
• In Baghdad, al Zarqawi ran a poison facility in northeastern Iraq
• We found the "poison factory"
• The reason we didn't find the facility and it's products was because we destroyed it in airstrikes

Bizarre.

// posted by Erik @ 6/25/2004 07:02:00 PM
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Today, an Irish journalist asked Bush if he thought God was guiding him in his war on terror. Part of his answer was: "Don't try to take a speck out of your eye if I've got a log in my own."
- George Bush
6/25/2004

Here is the verse from Matthew Bush was thinking of:

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

Strange that Bush would think of that verse while thinking about what God thinks of his war on terror.

UPDATE: 6/26: The White House is angry that the Irish interviewer, Carole Coleman, asked hard questions and tried to keep Bush on topic when he wandered off. The gist of the short article:

• THE White House has lodged a complaint with the Irish Embassy in Washington over RTE journalist Carole Coleman's interview (RealPlayer) with US President George Bush.

  ... The Irish Independent learned last night that the White House told Ms Coleman that she interrupted the president unnecessarily and was disrespectful ... She also received a call from the White House in which she was admonished for her tone.

  And it emerged last night that presidential staff suggested to Ms Coleman as she went into the interview that she ask him a question on the outfit that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern wore to the G8 summit.

// posted by Erik @ 6/25/2004 01:34:00 PM
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The Supreme Court upholds Cheney's request to keep energy task force papers private, but keeps the case alive. Solicitor General Ted Olson steps down, Cheney tells Pat Leahy to "fuck off".

Bush, with a personal lawyer at his side, is interviewed regarding the outing of Valerie Plame.

The looming specter of Iraqi sovereignty after June 30 becomes more fantom-like.

Al Gore and John Kerry pile well deserved criticism on Bush; Lee Iacocca Changes Support From Bush to Kerry.

Insurgents launch coordinated attacks across Iraq, blowing stuff up and killing a bunch of people.

Chinese archeologists discover fossilized remains a saber-toothed elephant.

// posted by Erik @ 6/24/2004 05:39:00 PM
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Yesterday, a reporter asked Bush for the best evidence of a link between Hussein and al Qaeda:

• Q: The Vice President, who I see standing over there, said yesterday that Saddam Hussein has long-established ties to al Qaeda. As you know, this is disputed within the U.S. intelligence community. Mr. President, would you add any qualifiers to that flat statement? And what do you think is the best evidence of it?

  PRESIDENT BUSH: Zarqawi. Zarqawi is the best evidence of connection to al Qaeda affiliates and al Qaeda.

Today, however, when asked about the alleged Hussein-al-Qaeda link, Donald Rumsfeld directly contradicted Bush's "best evidence":

• The other thing I would say is that it appears -- I guess I don't know if I should say this or not, but I -- I suppose I can -- it appears that Zarqawi -- who is, everyone in the intelligence community seems to agree, is engaged as a significant leader of a network in Iraq and has in his past been identified by at least some intelligence as being a leader with respect to terrorist activities in other countries, not just Iraq -- may very well not have sworn allegiance to UBL.  But he -- maybe, because he disagrees with him on something, maybe because he wants to be “The Man” himself, and maybe for a reason that's not known to me.

  Now, therefore you probably -- someone could legitimately say he's not al Qaeda.

Rumsfeld placed an asterisk by his statement, noting that he was "not in the intelligence business". Then again neither is Bush.

// posted by Erik @ 6/17/2004 06:37:00 PM
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Canada's Centre for Puplic Opinion and Democracy puts out short articles containing the results of presidential preference polls on a state level. Dave Liep maintains amazing records of presidential election results (note that his use of blue for Republican and red for Democratic is the reverse of the norm)

One can compare the percentage of poll respondents that answer that they intend to vote for Bush in November to the percentage of the state popular vote and come up with an idea of where Bush has seemed to loose support the most. Of the states and polls I looked at, which were CPOD's first 33 news items of that type, most of the differences fall within the polls' margins of error. There were no states where Bush support had increased outside of the margin of error, but his support had fallen outside of it it Kentucky, West Virginia, Nevada, Arkansas, Maine, North Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, and Montana - all states which Bush won in 2000 except for Maine.

The state polls were taken by various pollsters at various times in June and May.

// posted by Erik @ 6/16/2004 11:57:00 PM
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Psilocybin is the active ingredient of magic mushrooms, and is classified as a Schedule I drug - meaning it is illegal for anyone to posses and has no accepted medical use. But a new study by researchers at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center asks whether the hallucinogen may be effective in "reducing anxiety, depression and physical pain" in terminal cancer patients. An interesting article about the use of psychedelic drugs in therapeutic settings.

// posted by Erik @ 6/13/2004 04:15:00 AM
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Reuters has a short article which reads in full:

• SEA ISLAND, Ga (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped into the U.S. political campaign on Thursday, saying the Democrats had "no moral right" to criticize President Bush over Iraq.

  The Kremlin leader, answering a reporter's question in Sea Island, Georgia, suggested that the Democrats were two-faced in criticizing Bush on Iraq since it had been the Clinton administration that authorized the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia by U.S. and NATO forces.

  The reporter had asked Putin to respond to U.S. press articles questioning Russia's place at the G8 feast of leading industrial countries.

  Putin brushed these off, saying such articles were part of an internal U.S. political debate.

  He went on: "I am deeply convinced that President Bush's political adversaries have no moral right to attack him over Iraq because they did exactly the same.

  "It suffices to recall Yugoslavia. Now look at them. They don't like what President Bush is doing in Iraq."

  Russia was adamantly opposed to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, as it has been to the U.S.-led military operation Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein.

  At the same time, Putin forged a strong friendship with Bush by offering immediate support in the global fight against terrorism. Both men go out of their way now to avoid criticizing each other publicly.

The article is titled "Putin Takes Bush's Side Against Democrats on Iraq" despite not citing anything that Bush and Putin agree on about Iraq. Indeed, it would be more accurate to title it "Putin Takes Democrat's Side Against Bush on Iraq" as the article mentions Democratic and Russian agreement on opposition to Bush's invasion of Iraq.

// posted by Erik @ 6/11/2004 01:59:00 AM
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// posted by Erik @ 6/06/2004 01:43:00 AM
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