Of novelist Philip Roth, The New York Times asks, “Why Is This Man Smiling?”
I assume they mean metaphorically.
Month: September 2005
So guess what — maybe it really was all about the oil:
If Zarqawi and bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks; they’d seize oil fields to fund their ambitions; they could recruit more terrorists by claiming an historic victory over the United States and our coalition.
We had to go into Iraq so that when we screwed things up by going into Iraq, we would be there to — no, see, my brain hurts just thinking about it. Zarqawi and bin Laden gaining control of Iraq was not an issue until we invaded the country.
It’s a little like a kid who gets his hand caught in the cookie jar and claims it wasn’t him, that it’s not his hand or there is no jar, and then finally breaks down and says, okay, yes, he had his hand in the cookie jar, but it was only to keep the cookies away from other people — very bad people, who might use the cookies to spoil other people’s appetites before dinner. Except, of course, nobody dies over cookies.
Link via fellow capper Jurrasic Pork, although the quote’s actually taken from the full text of Bush’s speech.
I’m sorry. I know one of the fruits of political victory is that you get to reward your cronies with well-paid, do-very-little jobs, and that everyone does this. But you’re supposed to do it with the ambassadorship to Luxembourg…not with running a department of emergency preparedness. It’s especially appalling that they didn’t bring in someone with expertise after 9/11 when everyone in America, as one, agreed we needed to beef up that area.
Obviously, a hurricane is beyond human blame, and the political miscalculations that have come to light—the negligent planning, the delayed rescue and aid efforts, the thoroughly confused and uninspired political leadership—cannot all be laid at the feet of President Bush. But you could sense, watching him being interviewed by Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America”—defensive, confused, overwhelmed—that he knew that he had delivered a series of feeble, vague, almost flippant speeches in the early days of the crisis, and that the only way to prevent further political damage was to inoculate himself with the inevitable call for non-partisanship: “I hope people don’t play politics during this period of time.”
The observation that the United States is best understood as a third world country that happens to have a lot of money has never seemed more correct.
Plus two links, offered with no little comment:
FEMA head fired from last job (as the goddamn commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, of all things)
Both links via Boing Boing. There is some good news coming out of New Orleans, but sometimes it seems like the bad just keeps on coming.
It’s unbelievable how ineptly — almost criminally so — this has been handled by the Bush administration.
The Red Cross has been ordered not to enter New Orleans with relief. While, meanwhile, the Army Times is starting to refer to a number of the hurricane victims in New Orleans as “the insurgency.” (First link from Making Light)
Just when you thought things couldn’t get more fucked up. Which Broadway musical will our Secretery of State go see now? (I hear Avenue Q is supposed to be good, Dr. Rice.)
I sent some money, through my employer, last week to the Red Cross. Now I can only hope it gets to the people who need it most. (And no, I most definitely don’t mean Trent Lott.)
Rockne S. O’Bannon’s idea for Cult, about “a kind of Charles Manson-slash-Hannibal Lecter kind of cult figure,” was, in part, inspired by Farscape fans. But y’know, in a good way.
It doesn’t sound like a terrible idea for a show, although on the page it does bear some unfortunate resemblance to FreakyLinks. Of course, he’s developing it for the WB, which doesn’t have a great track record with horror of the non-Buffy (or non-Charmed) variety. I guess some of it will depend on how this year’s Supernatural does.