Just sayin'

The Supreme Court may well rule that the President of the United States is legally entitled to detain any U.S. citizen for life—without trial or appeal—any time he points a finger at them and says the magic words “enemy combatant.”

Certainly that is the position of our current government. Sort of makes a person wonder who here is the real “enemy of freedom,” doesn’t it.

Filed under: politics

Guest cat is no F.I.B.

One guest this week: Sheldon, who makes his home in Madison, WI, home of Flavorless orange cheese! Beer brats! and Badgers! Spend fall rooting on Green Bay, and summer drunkenly ignoring the Brewers! Amusing pastime: give your “spare change” to a “skate punk” on “state street”! But beware: if you erect a building taller than the stately capitol dome, your firstborn child will be fed to rats. Rats I say!

Gentle reader, if that’s not cat heaven, I invite you to tell me: What is?

Filed under: cats

Disaster

I am certainly not an objective observer, but boy howdy, was that presidential presser tonight just about disastrous. The man is President of the United States. He swore an oath to defend us. 3,000 American civilians were killed on his watch. And yet he feels no personal responsibility, and when asked to name a mistake he’s made—any mistake, ever!—he can’t name a single one. The man’s arrogance knows no bounds.

And you know, if we really did have a liberal media—or even a media with one toenail poking up out of the pocket of their corporate overlords—that 3 hour spaz attack Bush had in response to ‘name me one thing you did wrong’ would be replayed every 5 minutes from now until they day he resigned.

Filed under: politics

New York Secedes from Union

How else to explain this:

In his first comments since Saturday’s release of the presidential daily brief, Bush said the document contained “nothing about an attack on America.”

[] The Aug. 6, 2001 PDB referred to evidence of buildings in New York possibly being cased by terrorists.

Filed under: politics

New Hobgoblin Away!

CLEANSES little minds of an embarassing consistency!

With only one easy application of NEW Hobgoblin Away!, Condoleeza Rice was able to argue that the August 6th PDB was not a warning, while simultaneously stating that it contained information that was used used to warn the FAA!

BEN-VENISTE: Isn’t it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

RICE: I believe the title was, “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.”

[]

RICE: You said, did it not warn of attacks. It did not warn of attacks inside the United States. It was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States. Commissioner, this was not a warning.

[]

KERREY: Actually it won’t be a question.

In the spirit of further declassification, this is what the August 6th memo said to the president: that the FBI indicates patterns of suspicious activity in the United States consistent with preparations for hijacking.

That’s the language of the memo that was briefed to the president on the 6th of August.

RICE: And that was checked out and steps were taken through FAA circulars to warn of hijackings

NEW Hobgoblin Away!—Now available in a convient spray! Don’t testify under oath without it!

Filed under: politics/war

Uh oh

There appears to be a serious Shia uprising in Iraq:

Seven U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in fighting with Shiite militiamen in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, the U.S. military said. At least 24 other American troops were wounded, the military said in a written statement.

Elsewhere Sunday, supporters of an anti-U.S. Shiite Muslim cleric waged violent demonstrations in four Iraqi cities, punctuated by a gun battle at the Spanish garrison near this Shiite holy city that killed at least 20 people, including two coalition soldiers — an American and a Salvadoran

[] Protesters also clashed with Italian and British forces in other cities.

The AP’s brilliant analysis: this “rais[es] questions about [the U.s.-led coalition’s] ability to stabilize Iraq ahead of a scheduled June 30 handover of power to Iraqis.”

No kidding. Open revolt by Shi’ites—who make up the majority of Iraqis, who were viciously oppressed and abused by Saddam Hussein, and who did in many cases greet invading troops as liberations—”rais[es] questions”. I’ll say. How about, what the hell are we doing in Iraq? And, how the hell are we going to get out? And, what kind of nation, what kind of life, will be left for the Iraqis once we’ve gone?

Filed under: politics/war

Smoosh

I stipulate that there is a possible world in which Fontana Labs’ contribution to this very funny thread at Crooked Timber caused me to spit coffee all over my keyboard. Here’s a taste (of the thread, not the coffee):

Are you there, Godot? It’s Me, Margaret
Young girl gets tired of waiting, waits anyway.

The Name and Necessity of the Rose
Monks search for a copy of Kripke’s fabled “Third Lecture.”

My contribution:

A Giant’s House for Mr. Biswas
Lonesome librarian aids insufferable immigrant in his quest to find a house with very high ceilings.

Filed under: culture/books

Top cats

The candidates running for #1 Cat in the Cat House have taken it upon themselves to raise the level of debate—just about as high as it can go. And they have brains the size of peanuts and sleep 20 hours a day.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, and you should be ashamed. George W. Bush’s brain is much larger than a peanut. I’d be willing to go as far as Brazil nut—unshelled!

Nonetheless, based on this feline data, I can’t but conclude that the guy lowering the level of our national discourse must be that nasty French dude, Jean Le Kerry or whatever he’s called. It’s obvious.

Filed under: cats