Archive for November, 2007
Louai The Loquacious
Here’s a very welcome development in TWAT. Louai al-Sakka, a “senior member of the al Qaeda terrorist groupâ€, one “tasked with special high-level missionsâ€, has suddenly decided to start telling his story. Without the assistance of water-boarding, or other tried and trusted loquacity-boosting techniques and implements: Since being convicted as an Al-Qaeda bomb plotter last [...]
What The F*ck Is A B*ck?
This WaPo story about a relatively minor shooting incident in Baghdad involving security guards should a) come with a diagrammed flow-chart, so that readers can follow and fully appreciate the flow of evasion of responsibility between the three principal institutional actors—Unity Resources Group (security company), RTI International (“a North Carolina-based firm that promotes democracy in [...]
LaCondi And The River Of Time
Once upon a time there were two loyal courtiers, Buttercheeks and LaCondi. (Or maybe one of them was a courtesan?) They served at the pleasure of the emperor. And the emperor was lustily mightily pleasured by them both. Which was, of course, an unending source of pleasure to the twain. For long months, the emperor [...]
Rudee’s Priceless Hypocrisy
Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman was appointed to the bench by Mitt Romney in April 2006, when he was Governor of Massachussetts. She is now under fire for making a questionable bail decision with regard to Daniel Tavares Jr., a convicted killer who had finished serving his original sentence: In June, Tavares completed a 16-year [...]
Happy Thanksgiving!
Enjoy a side of inflation with your turkey. Merrill Lynch, the world’s biggest brokerage and one of the most powerful names on Wall Street, calculated a Thanksgiving cost-of-giving index using the prices of traditional holiday meal items such as turkey, cranberries, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie — as well as the cost of flowers, gifts [...]
Condi’s Conference
This is brilliant. “Organizers†confirmed on Tuesday that Condi’s conference “will take place Monday through Wednesday†of next week. Who’s coming? Who knows? The same organizers say “it was too soon to know which of the 49 invited nations and organizations would attendâ€. The conference starts the Monday after Thanksgiving. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, it’s [...]
Early Alzheimer’s?
Bush‘s latest statement on Pervez Musharraf is unbelievable, even for him: He’s done more for democracy in Pakistan than any other modern leader has. The Times of India calls this “an astonishing defense of the now widely-reviled dictatorâ€. Hard to improve upon that. The latest joke in Pakistan is that Bush and Mush are a [...]
Business As Usual In The Justice Department?
(1) The Justice Department, even under Michael Mukasey, continues to be a perfect example of the Lewis Caroll universe that the Bush administration inhabits. When the Bush Justice Department fires U.S. Attorneys for having an excellent job performance, they have to haul their competent asses out of the system. When the Bush Justice Department fires [...]
Affirmative Action With A Difference
Who says we can’t learn valuable lessons from less-developed countries? Take Malaysia, for instance. They have an affirmative action program that some of the Republican presidential candidates might want to embrace. It benefits the country’s Malay Muslim majority. And it’s not as if they don’t have downtrodden minorities. Bookmark on DeliciousDigg this postShare on Facebookshare [...]
Helping Condi Build Her Legacy
Once upon a time, the Bush administration paid some attention to the mess in the Middle East. Or maybe that should be “a Bush administration”? It was, after all, back when Colin Powell was Secretary of State, and Condi Rice was screwing up national security, not international diplomacy. And back in those days, the Bush [...]