Abuse

Horrible. The hypocrites.

Twisted Democracy

Opposition expects to do badly in the elections, so withdraws, claiming fraud. And media swallows it. (via TPMCafe).

Iraq Irony

It is a better Iraq, just don't go there. The Hindu:

CAN THERE be a greater irony than that a country after being "liberated" amid such hype and supposedly on the road to democracy should be seen by its own "liberators" to have become so dangerous that they are forced to warn their citizens not to visit it?

Yet, this is what the British Government has done after a spate of kidnappings and killings of its nationals in Iraq. Short of imposing an outright ban on travel to Iraq, the Government has made plain that it does not want Britons to go there — with the unstated subtext that if they do they would be doing it at their own risk.

WMD, In Hindsight

More information surfaces on

...more evidence of how many questions the intelligence community had about pretty much all the evidence of Iraqi WMD during the lead-up to the war ... (also) the secret British memo, which came to light in the final days of the recent British election, which suggested that almost a year before the start of the war the US was shaping the available intelligence to make the case for war.

We knew that didn't we. Yet all inquiries on both sides of the Atlantic leave everyone involved unscathed.

From this post on Talking Points Memo. Read the whole post to find out, from someone who should know, one instance of how politicians from both sides of the aisle can sit together and bail each other out.

This from one of the linked items I found refreshingly honest:

But Thomas Patrick Carroll, a former officer in the Clandestine Service of the CIA, suggests in the conservative Front Page Magazine that those dwelling on the memo may be missing the forest for the trees.

It is simply inexcusable for opinion makers and public intellectuals (e.g., those who made such a fuss about the 'revelations' in the Downing Street memo) not to grasp the strategic imperatives behind what we are doing in Iraq and elsewhere. It's certainly okay to disagree with our strategy, but for supposedly sophisticated commentators to miss the entire point and continue raving about WMD and UN sanctions is simply beyond the pale.

They lied, so what!

Of the people, by the people ...

Democracy - government of the people, by the people, for the people. But in practice it doesn't quite work out that way. X company contributes to politician Y (say) or party Z. Y/Z wins. X demands his pound of flesh from Y/Z. After all, there really are no free lunches on this small planet. Unfortunately the flesh turns out to be of the people. So what! Read about it here as the credit card companies demand their dues from the politicians they bankrolled.

No, it did happen!

After a Libertarian Girl who is not a girl - which pales into comedy of course compared to this - comes a reporter who is not a reporter, working for a news organization that is not a news organization. At least not really. His job? Lobbing softball questions at White House news briefings "intended not to elicit information but to boost President Bush and smear his political opponents." All this in 2004 - election year, though he was still at work till it all came out a week or so ago. Sounds improbable? It did happen! Read this piece on the topic at the New York Times.

And it also turns out he is not Jeff Gannon as the White House thought but James D Guckert. Or did the White House know better after all? All this after it turned out that other journalists were paid money to plug the administrations policies, as the article points out. Is anyone surprised?

The article raises at least one important point:

The errors of real news organizations have played perfectly into the administration's insidious efforts to blur the boundaries between the fake and the real and thereby demolish the whole notion that there could possibly be an objective and accurate free press. Conservatives, who supposedly deplore post-modernism, are now welcoming in a brave new world in which it's a given that there can be no empirical reality in news, only the reality you want to hear (or they want you to hear).

In fact, I would say it is not just the administration but also the right blogosphere which is involved in this effort. Sounds like a conspiracy theory - well it must be one that has occurred to many people.

Warning bells

I have this on Arthur Miller's passing away at my other blog. As I say there, some warning bells are sounded for America.

Girl turned mystery guy

Libertarian Man of Mystery - who used to be Libertarian Loser Guy earlier and Libertarian Girl even earlier - is going strong and getting out some great posts. This one, for instance, which explains the culling of the guilt-free genes from the Jewish gene pool thus making Jews overwhelmingly Liberal. And Mormons solid Republicans. Hilarious. As this reader got it while many others did not:

Speaking as an escaped Mormon, this post was absolutely hilarious. Keep it up.

Kyoto kicks off

As the Times of India notes. But,

"...but the country that is the world's biggest emitter has not joined yet, and that is regrettable," said Japan's top government spokesman, chief cabinet secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda.

Australia, the only other developed nation not to join, defended that decision, with environment minister Ian Campbell saying the country was nonetheless on track to cut emissions by 30%.