Much Pain, Little Gain

From the New York Times:
...civilian and military intelligence officials, as well as top commanders with access to intelligence reports, now say they learned little about the insurgency from questioning inmates at the prison. Most of the prisoners held in the special cellblock that became the setting for the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib apparently were not linked to the insurgency, they said.

Baseless Allegations

By now everyone has probably heard about George W. Bush's unfortunate bicycle mishap (and possibly John Kerry's, 'Did the training wheels fall off?' comment). However, I think there are some holes in the official story that suggest that the Administration is once again trying to hide the truth from the public. As Kos as pointed out, the explanation the White House gave for the incident seems unlikely. It was said that it was "raining a lot and the topsoil [was] loose" when Bush had his accident, but it had not rained in days. Unless third parties not affiliated with Bush, the White House or the GOP come forward, I plan on sticking by own theory: It wasn't the training wheels that fell of the bike, but rather it was George W. Bush who fell off the wagon. In his past, President Bush partied a bit too much. He now claims to have left that all behind and been sober for years. Now with a tough re-election campaign before him and mounting troubles in Iraq, I think he's lost his resolve. I suspect that last weekend's "biking accident" was actually the result of a wild behavior or carelessness due excessive drinking.

Then again I could be wrong, in which case, I am just glad this isn't Brazil.

On a related note, Hesiod doesn't think Bush is really 6 feet tall.

GAAAAAH

Kerry Will Accept Nomination at Convention
On the one had, delaying his acceptance would have allowed Kerry to raise more money, but it is like that bad publicity from doing so would outweigh the fundraising benefits. It would do a lot to neutralize the Democrats' desired image as the Party for ordinary people, because Kerry would get, fairly or not, blasted for being so concerned with money and it would feed the perception of Kerry as an unprincipled opportunist that the Bush campaign is trying so hard to create. In short, we'd be doing Karl Rove's work for him. At any rate, this whole Hamlet bit about to accept or not to accept the nomination doesn't really matter. I doubt if most voters are even vaguely aware of it and those that are will probably forget about it in a day or two.

Down and Out In New Mexico, Ohio, Nevada...

Apparently George W. Bush is also getting hammered in the swing states. Out of the 16 states profiled in the Wall Street Journal poll, Bush has the advantage in only four. Kerry now leads in several states that Bush one in 2000, in some cases quite decisively.

Down & Out in Washington

Bush's approval rating is down to 41% according to CBS. Here is another interesting tidbit from the CBS poll:

The last time the percentage that said the country was on the wrong track was as high as it is now was back in November 1994. Then, Republicans swept into control of both houses of Congress for the first time in decades.

They say that the results of campaigns involving an incumbent President are usually not very close. At some point in the election cycle, the polls begin to fork in one direction or another, perhaps George W. Bush is about to get forked without mercy.

Another Administration Accomplishment

The North Korean Uranium ChallengeThe discovery that North Korea may have supplied uranium to Libya poses an immediate challenge to the White House: while President Bush is preoccupied on the other side of the world, an economically desperate nation may be engaging in exactly the kind of nuclear proliferation that the president says he went to war in Iraq to halt.

North Korea might be auctioning nuclear material off to other hungry dictatorships and God knows who else while the President does basically nothing. How can anyone honestly think that the Republicans are serious about national security and defense issues when they can allow something like this to happen?

"The Best Economy In A Generation"?

U.S. Workers' Wages Lag in Recovery While Company Profits Soar
U.S. corporate profits surged 87 percent from the third quarter of 2001 to the end of 2003, according to Commerce Department figures. Wages and salaries grew 4.5 percent.

The increase in workers' pay was the smallest for the first nine quarters of any recovery since World War II, said Barry Bosworth, who directed the White House Council on Wage and Price Stability during Jimmy Carter's administration. After inflation, real wage gains were 1.1 percent, Bosworth said.

I am guessing that won't be any questions relating to this on the Growing Economy Quiz over at the Bush Campaign's homepage.

On an unrelated note, it is a bit odd that Bloomberg ran something like this. It is after all a news service that targets investors and is owned by a multi-billionaire Republican politician, yet the story they cover certainly has a radical element to it and they quote experts from the center-left Brookings Institute and the leftist Economic Policy Institute (home to Comrade Max. I guess this supports the observation among many media critics that the financial press' reporting, particularly wehn it comes to matters that have a political angle, is often a lot better than more mainstream outlets, since their clients demand accurate information to make business decisions and have no time for what passes for fairness and balance.

Make The Big Time

Now you too can learn how to write like the Esteemed Thomas L. Friedman, thanks to the New York Observer.

All Tomorrow's Purges

The AP Reports:
President Bush's national security team, which has stayed remarkably intact despite missteps in Iraq and his slumping approval ratings, is likely to undergo a major facelift if Bush wins a second term. Maybe even before.
Though the article doesn't say it, I suspect that the neoconservatives might be the biggest losers if such a shake up. The rest of the Republican Party is very displeased with them because of the mess in Iraq. The fact that the US has turned on their golden boy Ahmed Chalabi shows that their influence is in decline. However, their absence from a possible future Bush Administration is not at all comforting. After all, Bush was the man who hired them in the first place.

A Zoo Too Far

Anger over razing of Gaza zoo
During the past five years, Mohammed Ahmed Juma and his brother, Fathi, slowly built their privately owned zoo into one of this city's best-loved community institutions. Last week, it took less than 30 hours for Israeli army bulldozers to destroy it...

Like much of the other destruction in the 6-day-old Israeli offensive in Rafah, the demolition of the zoo seemed a psychological attack on Rafah's population rather than a military strike against the Palestinian guerrillas who maintain a strong presence in the city...

[An Israeli military spokesman ]said Israeli forces had been forced to react to "an explosive device" found on a road outside the zoo. His account did not make clear why such an incident might have necessitated the destruction of the zoo.

Generally I am supportive of most Israeli policies and actions (with the exception of creating permanent Settlements in the occupied territories), but the destruction of the zoo seems unwarranted and mean-spirited. Then again, the aggressive move may have been necessary to prevent terrorist from gaining access to the LLAMA OF DOOM.

INFORMATION

It has been a very long times since this weblog was visited by anyone looking for something out of the ordinary or anything at all really, through a search engine. Today, when I was checking the vitals at GoStats I found that this site had been visited by someone who wanted to know "when_was_the_anamatronic_dinosaur_created", someone else looking for "regess_pleasure_pain" and another internet explorer searching simply for "dog".

Apparently the B of P is also attracting a pretty diverse audience, that and we maybe under surviellence (we have been viewed 4 times by a government computer and 5 times by computers that belong to the US military).

Viv ROCKS IT!

You can find out more about Erik, Matt, Steve and Pie at vivtheband.com. They are truly the Dakona, perhaps even the Junoon of our Generation. I highly recommend dancing around on the stage at one of their shows to anyone who really likes to identify themselves with words like "different", "unique" or "alternative".

Kaufman Returns

Andy Kaufman Returns After 20 Years
New York City, NY (PRWEB) May 19, 2004 -- Twenty years ago, on May 16, 1984, most of the world believed that we had lost a comedic legend forever. This has turned out to be what will inevitably be known as the greatest comic prank ever conceived. Andy Kaufman, by all accounts, is alive and well at age 55 and is now living in New York City on the upper west side. To his loyal supporters and fans, Andy says "sorry about faking my death," in a recent interview with ABC News at his apartment. In order to reach legendary comic status and seal his place in the history of performance art, he said it was "necessary to go away for twenty years."

...and he has a blog.

Update: He is still dead. Yahoo! got taken for a ride and since Yahoo! is a vital resource for much of the blogosophere, so was I.

The Imperialists Strike Back

Onetime U.S. ally Chalabi's home, offices raided

U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police on Thursday raided the residence and party offices of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi and arrested an unknown number of his associates, completing the longtime Pentagon favoriteÂ?s fall from grace in the eyes of Washington.

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At a news conference after the raids, Chalabi, a prominent member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said that U.S. authorities were pressuring him because he has been "calling for policies to liberate the Iraqi people" when the U.S. transfers power to an interim Iraqi government next month.

But Pentagon officials told NBC News that they were acting at the behest of Iraqi authorities investigating the disappearance of millions of dollars in cash and other assets following the fall of Saddam Hussein

Even better, 16 INC (Iraqi National Congress) associates have warrants out for their arrest for fraud, kidnapping and other related charges. Just last week the Pentagon cut off INC's subsidies and now they are activelyharassingg them. This has all be long overdue, but at least now Ahmed Chalabi is starting to get what he deserves.

For all the 3rd term seniors out there...

Play "slackers", the game where you win by failing.

Dern those activist judges usurping the authority of elected legislatures...

Bush Renews Call to Ban Gay Marriage President Bush on Monday renewed his call for Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages.

On the same day that Massachusetts began issuing licenses to gay couples, Bush said in a statement, "The sacred institution of marriage should not be redefined by a few activist judges."

Bush Marks School Integration in Kansas
President Bush marked a half-century of school integration at the symbolic home of the movement Monday, saying "it changed America for the better, and forever."

"Fifty years ago today, nine judges announced that they had looked at the Constitution and saw no justification for the segregation and humiliation of an entire race," Bush said at the opening of a national historic site at Monroe Elementary, a former all-black school in the heartland of the school desegregation effort.

More Violence In Iraq

Suicide Assassin Kills Iraq Council Chief A suicide bombing killed the head of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council as his car waited at a checkpoint near coalition headquarters Monday, a major setback to American efforts to stabilize Iraq just six weeks before the handover of sovereignty.
This is only going to get worse before it ever gets better. Transferring sovereignty and elections are crucial to building a legitimate government in Iraq and undermining the appeal of the insurgents. The militias and terrorist groups know this, so it is in there interest to cause so much chaos that it is impossible to form a new government.

On a related note, WE HAVE FOUND THE WMD, kind of. A roadside bomb containing nerve gas was detonated, but failed to kill anyone. It was almost certainly not invading and occupying Iraq over, but its a safe bet that the hawks who are less rigorous in their thinking will trumpet this bit of news with great enthusiasm.

Mind the trap

It maybe that I have been an unwitting acomplice to the GOP. In a previous post I chided Kerry for campaigning rather than voting for a bill to extend unemployment benefits. According to Newsday, the Republicans might have set up Senator Kerry:

The Democrats countered that the vote was only a setup to make Kerry look bad. After all, they'd been trying to vote on the amendment for months, but the Republicans kept blocking it, claiming that the extension would break the budget. In fact, Democrats charged, the Republicans intentionally stacked their votes to create a one-vote loss that they could then blame on Kerry. And if he had come back to Washington for the vote, they would have flipped their votes the other way to make sure the amendment failed.

I feel so cheap, so dirty...

Ouch

From the AP:
A Newsweek poll released Saturday put Bush's overall job approval at 42 percent, the lowest yet in that poll. Other recent survey have rated Bush in the mid-40s.

Staying The Course?

Maybe not:

Secretary of State Colin Powell emphatically said yesterday that if the incoming Iraqi interim government ordered the departure of foreign troops after June 30, they would pack up without protest, but emphasized he doubted such a request would be made.

Perhaps Dennis Kucinnich should rip into the Administration for co-opting his position on Iraq.

A more in-depth look at recent statements by Powell and L. Paul Bremer are available on Iraq'd.

Update: Bush is now saying the US will stay in Iraq after June 30th, though it is not very clear what he means by this. He could think, like Powell, that the interim government that takes power after the handover of sovereignty will continue to permit the presence of American forces or that it the opinion of the new government would be irrelevant. The first assumption, as was pointed out in the Iraq'd post linked to above, may prove to be very wrongheaded in light of the serious unpopularity of the American military in Iraq and the second view might be more realistic, but would also seem to render the June 30th day more or less meaningless.

Blogging's Lame Cousin

Blogging is in the world of journalism, a rather poorly regarded activity. Blogs and bloggers usually don't create original content or provided their readers with new information (there are some exceptions, Blogstar Josh Marshall for example went to New Hampshire to report on the Democratic primary), but rather restate, analyze and ponfticate on new gathered by actual news organizations. This is not to say that blogging serves no purpose, only that it does not serve a very important one. The Week Magazine is a lot like weblog that is printed on paper. The Week, like a weblog, mainly recycles information from other sources, with articles about articles that have appeared in other magazines and newspapers. Except unlike a weblog, the information is already a week old...and you have to pay for it. This might be justifiable if the The Week was really insightful and interesting, but it isn't, it is merely a way to very effectively seperate fools from their money.

Priorities!

John, you look like a real jerk when you do something like this:

The Senate by a single vote rejected an election-year effort Tuesday to extend federal unemployment benefits.

Democrats tried to attach the benefit to a corporate tax bill. On a 59-40 vote in the GOP-controlled Senate, they fell just shy of the 60 votes needed to overcome objections that extending the benefits violated last year's budget agreement.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was the only senator who missed the vote. He was campaigning in Kentucky.

It is hard to see how the benefits of his campaign stop in Kentucky outweigh the potential harm of this story, not that is devastating, but when put into a broader narrative it could cause problems for Kerry. Also, and this point is more important that the tactical foolishness of Kerry's decision, people are going to run out of their unemployment relief because of this and sink into poverty. It is really hard to justify that, especially when you are a liberal democrat.

New to dorking around on the losernet

Another one enters the blogo/livejournalsphere.

Absurd

Top Officials Hold Fake Degrees

They are safety engineers at nuclear power plants and biological weapons experts. They work at NATO headquarters, at the Pentagon and at nearly every other federal agency. And, as CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, they're employees with degrees from phony schools.

Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Abell has a master's from Columbus University, a diploma mill Louisiana shut down. Deputy Assistant Secretary Patricia Walker lists among her degrees, a bachelor's from Pacific Western, a diploma mill banned in Oregon and under investigation in Hawaii.

This story isn't as alarming as it would seem on the surface. At least some of the public servants with these degrees have other, much more important qualifications. Charles Abell, for example, seems to have a lot more going for him than his diploma from Columbus Printing Press. Then again, Abell was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, so it makes sense that he experienced and meets the needs of his job. One wonders though if others further down the line, who still do important work, recieved less scrutiny and may not have the right training.

At last

Finally, a piece of relatively hopeful news from Iraq:

Iraqi Cleric Sketches Deal to End Insurgency
Senior aides to Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr agreed with other Shi'ite Muslim factions on Tuesday that Sadr could pull his Mehdi Army militia out of Najaf in return for a U.S. withdrawal from the holy city.

If the agreement in principle can be put into practice, it could end an insurgency against the U.S. occupation that has swept Shi'ite southern Iraq (news - web sites), threatening U.S. plans to reduce its military presence and hand power to an Iraqi government.

Spiro T. Speaks Out

You can now listen to the disgraced former Vice President denounce student political movements and/or attack television news coverage.

Time for a midcourse correction

It looks like even the neoconservative David Brooks is having second thoughts about the course American foreign policy has taken in the last few years. In today's column he writes:

To conserve our strategy, we have to fundamentally alter our tactics. To shore up public confidence, the U.S. has to make it clear that it is considering fresh approaches.

We've got to acknowledge first that the old debates are obsolete. I wish the U.S could still go off, after Iraq, at the head of "coalitions of the willing" to spread democracy around the world. But the brutal fact is that the events of the past year have discredited that approach. Nor is the U.N. a viable alternative. A body dominated by dictatorships is never going to promote democratic values. For decades, the U.N. has failed as an effective world power.

We've got to reboot. We've got to come up with a global alliance of democracies to embody democratic ideals, harness U.S. military power and house a permanent nation-building apparatus, filled with people who actually possess expertise on how to do this job.

From the looting of the Iraqi National Museum to Abu Ghraib, this has been a horrible year. The cause is still just, but to keep it moving forward, we have to reinvent the enterprise.

Now that Brooks recognizes the problem will he connect the dots and link the mess we are in now with the current administration in power? If he doesn't it will be a real feat of doublethink.

Developing...

From the Marine Corps Times:
“Apparently, the worst is yet to come,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an Air Force Reserve colonel and military lawyer, told reporters outside the Senate committee hearing room. “We’re talking about rape and murder.”
Graham was referring to video images of alleged abuse of detainees inside the prison. Rumsfeld has acknowledged that such footage exists.

Update: I've come across some more information (thanks to atrios) on the unreleased videos and imagines and it sounds very bad indeed:
“There are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence towards prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," [Rumsfeld] said. “... It’s going to get a good deal more terrible, I’m afraid.”

Rumsfeld did not describe the photos, but U.S. military officials told NBC News that the unreleased images showed U.S. soldiers severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi female prisoner and “acting inappropriately with a dead body.” The officials said there was also a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys.

Graham is right, the worst is yet to come.

Arnold is a girly man

Schwarzenegger: Doll-Makers Bobbled It
Schwarzenegger is suing a company that he alleges unlawfully used his image for a toy plastic "bobblehead" doll...

"He's no different than any other politician," said Todd Bosley, an owner of Ohio Discount Merchandise Inc. in Canton, Ohio. The company has produced a variety of bobbleheads of public officials. "We didn't reference him in any way, shape or form to his past movies or anything like that."

These sorts of things are part of participating in public life and being an elected official (just like abusive anonymous commenters are part of the blogosphere). If he doesn't like it, he can leave politics. Besides, if I were him I'd be angrier about this business.

Fire Away

Rumsfeld’s job could be at stake in new hearingsDefense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, facing growing demands that he resign or be fired, will go on the offensive Friday when he appears before lawmakers to address the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers, defense officials told NBC News on Thursday.

President Bush gave Rumsfeld a vote of confidence Thursday, but Senate Republican aides said his job was on the line Friday.

Rumsfeld has deserved to lose his job for a very long time, hopefully he'll get what's coming to him after the furor over the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Bush, as the above quote indicates, seems to be standing by his Secretary of Defense for now. However, this could change if he is put under enough pressure. It looks like Bush was really jerked around by the Defense Department:

Bush did acknowledge, however, that he had called in Rumsfeld on Wednesday to complain that he had not been told about the Army investigation several months ago that uncovered photographs of the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. “I should have known about the pictures in the report,” he said.

Bizzare

Robbers Die Trying to Hold-Up Suicide

A Hamas suicide bomber blew up two armed Palestinians who tried to rob him at gun point in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas claimed the ?stickup men? worked for Israeli intelligence, while Palestinian security forces said the two were ordinary thieves.

Rather than give up his explosives, the bomber detonated them, killing himself and the two robbers near the border fence between Gaza and Israel.

The robbers forced the bomber to lie on the ground and tried to steal the bomb, but the militant detonated it, killing all three. The other Hamas man and the guide escaped.

Stupidity all around.

Throw the bum out

Greenspan is set to retire from his
current post in 2006.
US Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says that he will seriously consider former treasury secretary Robert Rubin to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan when he retires.
"I'd certainly look to somebody like a Bob Rubin," Kerry told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.

Voting for Kerry may now be a two for one deal. Not only do you get rid of Bush and his political appointees, but there is a chance that Randian geek might also get the boot too.

Draft Chatter

U.S. eyes proposal to draft women

The chief of the U.S. Selective Service System has proposed registering women for the military draft and requiring that young Americans regularly inform the government about whether they have training in niche specialties needed in the armed services...

The plan, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, highlights the extent to which agency officials have planned for an expanded military draft in case the administration and Congress authorize one in the future.

You have to wonder if these press stories that hint at the reinstitution of conscription are meant to test the water. Senator Hagel's comemnts on brining back the draft woudl certainly fit in with such a campaign.

Chalabi's hobbies

Josh Marshall has information about Ahmed Chalabi:

Chalabi and his supporters regularly take credit for trying to warn the US that a planned coup attempt, run by the CIA from Jordan in 1996, had been compromised and would fail.

High-ranking CIA agents, however, believed it was Chalabi who had tipped off the Iraqis because he -- i.e., Chalabi -- was not part of it, and thus would have been left out in the cold had it succeeded.

On this point, it has never been clear to me what the nature of the evidence was that made people at CIA believe this. And thus I cannot speak to or vouch for the quality of that evidence. On that point I want to be clear. But I've spoken to enough folks to be quite clear that this was their consensus view of what happened.

And according to Newsweek, Chalabi too has information and is willing to share it:

U.S. officials say that electronic intercepts of discussions between Iranian leaders indicate that Chalabi and his entourage told Iranian contacts about American political plans in Iraq. There are also indications that Chalabi has provided details of U.S. security operations.

Despite all Chalabi's treachery and deception, I think he'll have very little sway in post-occupation Iraq. His only power comes from his connections with the Pentagon and even his allies in Washington are getting wise to his game. It is only a matter of time before he is more or less cut adrift. When this happens, he will be out of luck and without any clout. Iraqi politicians (or militants) with actual bases of support will almost certainly elcipsle him.