Alternate Entries

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Okay, it's not like we didn't know this. But it's fun when mags like US News and World Report weigh in. There's no way out of this now.

The U.S. News analysis also showed that during the final two years of his obligation, Bush did not comply with Air Force regulations that impose a time limit on making up missed drills. What's more, he apparently never made up five months of drills he missed in 1972, contrary to assertions by the administration. White House officials did not respond to the analysis last week but emphasized that Bush had "served honorably."

Some experts say they remain mystified as to how Bush obtained an honorable discharge. Lawrence Korb, a former top Defense Department official in the Reagan administration, says the military records clearly show that Bush "had not fulfilled his obligation" and "should have been called to active duty."

I personally am fond of the "they remain mystified as to how Bush obtained an honorable discharge." I bet I know.

posted by jeev | 9:56 PM |

Friday, September 10, 2004

This is amazing. The British Library's Shakespeare quartos in high-rez images, all available over the Web.

Via Boing Boing, truly A Directory of Wonderful Things.

posted by jeev | 5:25 PM |

A Washington Post editorial on the prisoner abuse scandal:

A day of congressional hearings yesterday confirmed two glaring gaps in the Bush administration's response to hundreds of cases of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first is one of investigation: Major allegations of wrongdoing, including some touching on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other senior administration officials, have yet to be explored by any arms-length probe. The second concerns accountability. Although several official panels have documented failings by senior military officers and their superiors in Washington, those responsible face no sanction of any kind, even as low-ranking personnel are criminally prosecuted. To use the phrase of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), this "is beginning to look like a bad movie."

No interest in getting the facts; no accountability. Not a bad description of much of this administration.

posted by jeev | 1:21 PM |

New uses for databases? The upside to job hunting - you run across listings with phrases like this: "a propitiatory data management application".

From Webster's 1913: Propitiatory \Pro*pi"ti*a*to*ry\, a. [L. propitiatorius: cf. F.
propitiatoire.]

Having the power to make propitious; pertaining to, or
employed in, propitiation; expiatory; as, a propitiatory
sacrifice. --Sharp.

posted by jeev | 9:01 AM |

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Is that fourth or fifth grade?

[Andy] Card is now the White House chief-of-staff, and it was he who had to interrupt the ensemble reading of The Pet Goat in order to tell George W. Bush that someone had flown airplanes into the World Trade Center, thus starting the clock on the now-famous Seven-Minute Glaze. Card was talking to the two delegations about that moment, clinging to the GOP talking points like a nun to her beads. The president “didn’t introduce fear into any of those young children or through the national media, to the American people,” explained Card. Then, he attempted to explain how the president feels about the 200 million-odd souls who are, after all, his employers:

“It struck me as I was speaking to people in Bangor, Maine, that this president sees America as we think about a 10-year-old child. I know as a parent I would sacrifice all for my children.”

Let us leave aside any discussion prompted by Card’s remarks that might uncomfortably contain the word “Fatherland.” Let us take him at his word -- namely, that the president of the United States looks at the world’s longest-standing free democratic republic and sees . . .

A middle-schooler.

I wish it hadn’t been Andy Card who gave us this peek behind the curtain, because I know him to be a sensible, decent person who wouldn’t have mouthed this lunacy unless he really meant it. If it had come from one of the wolverines in Karl Rove’s shop, it wouldn’t have been half as frightening. Nevertheless, what Card said perfectly encapsulates this administration’s approach to governance -- its fundamental contempt for democratic restraints and its hubristic insolence toward any limits on its political appetites. Our president is our Daddy. He will make his wars to keep us safe, and all we have to do is love him back, and do what he tells us to do. Go shopping. Go on happy vacations. Leave the decisions to Daddy and to Daddy’s friends. They run things so we don’t have to.

Icky. But fundamentally correct, I think. Darth Vader, indeed. Unfortunately, some of us seem to like it.

Charles Pierce, via Atrios.

posted by jeev | 9:20 PM |

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

In case you want the blow by blow of Dubya's, uh, little service record problem, Eric Bohlert over at Salon lays it all out in easy to follow detail. Not a pretty picture.

posted by jeev | 10:22 PM |

My, this could be getting interesting:

As the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman during the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and the run-up to the Iraq war, Sen. Bob Graham tried to expose what he came to believe were national security coverups and manipulations by the Bush administration. But he discovered that it was hard to reveal a coverup playing by the rules. Much of the evidence the Florida Democrat needed to buttress his arguments was being locked away, he found, under the veil of politically motivated classification.

Now, as he prepares to retire after 18 years in the Senate, the normally cautious former governor of Florida is unleashing himself in a new book, "Intelligence Matters: The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia and the Failure of America's War on Terror."

Salon's interview with Sen. Graham here.

posted by jeev | 3:18 PM |

It's hit the wires. The Boston Globe story on Dubya's failure to serve:

But Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation, a Globe reexamination of the records shows: Twice during his Guard service -- first when he joined in May 1968, and again before he transferred out of his unit in mid-1973 to attend Harvard Business School -- Bush signed documents pledging to meet training commitments or face a punitive call-up to active duty.

He didn't meet the commitments, or face the punishment, the records show.

And tonight on 60 Minutes, more from Ben Barnes.

And from the world of blogs, some of the sources of the Globe story.

posted by jeev | 1:31 PM |

Well, we know this, but it's still important to see it written out in black and white:

Even if the United States saved billions of dollars by withdrawing all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush would still be unlikely to fulfill his promise to reduce the federal budget deficit by half within five years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.

In the final independent assessment of Mr. Bush's fiscal policies before the November election, the Congressional agency predicted that, if no existing laws changed, the federal deficit would see a much smaller decline, to $312 billion in 2009 from a record of $422 billion in 2004.

[]

If Mr. Bush persuades Congress to make his tax cuts permanent, the federal deficit will increase to about $500 billion in 2009. The new estimate is the first time the Congressional agency has projected that Mr. Bush will probably fail to achieve his goal of reducing the deficit by half in five years.

Deficits have soared under Mr. Bush, who took office when the budget had a surplus of more than $150 billion and is now presiding over the second record deficit in a row.

One more way we can't afford four more years.

posted by jeev | 1:06 PM |

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

And meanwhile, in the Other War, 1,000. It was only a matter of time.

Via Atrios

posted by jeev | 4:09 PM |

The video wars have begun.

posted by jeev | 4:07 PM |

I sent the Kerry campaign some money. So I get DNC mail. Mostly that mail is circular filed: I really don't need two full color, "frameable" ink jet prints of Kerry and Edwards shaking hands at the convention. I saw it live. That was enough. But today I got a different sort of picture, over a letter signed by James Carville. Finally the Kerry campaign has gotten smart and enlisted the aid of people who know how to win.

And the picture, which the letter exhorted me not to throw away? A black and white of Dubya and Cheney. The choice, it says, is just as black and white. Look at it now and do something or watch these two and the disastrous results for the next four years.

posted by jeev | 1:46 PM |

Monday, September 06, 2004

You know those endlessly circulated email jokes? Well, even though they're evil, sometimes they're pretty funny. Case in point, this picture of the tag from an item made by a small American clothing manufacturer. It could be photoshopped, but I hope not.