BunkBlog

Can you believe that this image got the cartoonist a visit from the Secret Service? What’s especially ironic is how intensely conservative the cartoonist is. He intended this homage to Vietnam War journalism to indict the media frenzy for turning this into an anti-Bush thing. (Not saying which side of the fence I fall on, since it’s irrelevant to this subject.)

Police called to Congress. Is our legislature turning into the Taiwan legislature, with fistfights coming soon?

I was talking with someone at work today and discussed news. In particular, the change at work from CNN Headline News as the default channel in the breakroom two years ago contrasted with the default now of Fox News. I have a hard time not calling Fox News Faux News, considering how blatantly slanted their news is. My coworker mentioned the liberal bias of CNN, which I can certainly agree with. However, CNN Headline News doesn’t have the time to be blatantly biased, with their 30 minute recycle rate.
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House Approves Ban on Burning U.S. Flag

Gee, it requires a two-thirds majority in House and Senate, and approval by three-fourths of the state legislatures. Yeah, that’s gonna happen.
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Iran arrests Al Qaeda terrorists and President Bush says he’s not impressed.

Anyone surprised?

Both Arianna Huffington and Tom Tomorrow make the correlation between the Spin Doctors of 1600 Pennsylvania and the Matrix Reloaded. Guess it’s not too much of a stretch, considering how the administration’s views on most international events seem at least slightly off from the objective reality.

To counterbalance the various Conservative parodies of the Iraqi Leadership playing cards, here are the Republican Chickenhawk Cards. These are the men and women who are so hot to put our servicemembers in harm’s way, yet were never so inclined to join up themselves.

A little story about a raid based on the USA PATRIOT Act. It’s an enlightening (I just can’t stop using that word today) piece about where the Fourth Amendment is today.

Howard Dean is not a man I necessarily endorse politically, but his article in Common Dreams, Bush: It’s Not Just His Doctrine That’s Wrong, is a good look at how Bush’s administration is a bit off. Unlike much of political debate the past two years, it’s a well-written and calm essay. Not once does he claim that Bush is not the president, unlike the bombastic Michael Moore. He focuses entirely on the policy decisions, foreign and domestic, that Bush and his cabinet have made.

I think it would be hard to find a less clued-in politician than Tom Watson. He uses the phrase “l33t hax0rs” on his site, and he’s a British Member of Parliament. Yeah, very authentic. He won’t harsh your buzz, if you drop him a line on the Interwebnet, though. Ouch, brain hurts.

Thanks to BoingBoing.

Yet another person who seems to think that attacking Iraq is defending ourselves or taking revenge for the 9/11 attacks.

Repeat after me, “There were no Iraqis among the hijackers.”

Maybe you’d also like to remember, over half the hijackers were Saudis, but Saudi Arabia is our friend so it’s impolite to mention.

I’m sure there will be many people debating the various points of the speech last night. I’ve only got two points to make:

1. Nuclear – not only should you pronounce it correctly, you should not invoke the specter of nuclear weapons as a “one day” thing when we’re talking about this week.
2. Hitler – As anyone involved in online debate knows, using Hitler as an analogy (even obliquely) is a sure way to remove any rational debate from a discussion. Bad form. The word “appeasement” is generally linked with the disastrous choice that Chamberlain made to let Hitler take a little so there would be “peace in our time.”

I actually wrote this before the president’s speech, but didn’t get it posted until after. Timing is everything.

One should never discuss politics or religion unless prepared to have a battle of wills. I suppose sexuality could be added to that old axiom, but that tends to be either political or religious depending on your point of view.

The USA certainly is embroiled in a real battle royale between peace-loving hippies out of touch with reality and the gun-toting neanderthal warmongers. That should offend just about everyone.

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Dixie Chicks Pulled from Air After Bashing Bush – guess Texan radio stations never heard of Edmund Burke.

Re: the resignation of career diplomat John Brady Kiesling from the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece, which was recently made public. His resignation letter is worth quoting:

“The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America’s most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson.

We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.”

Kiesling later asks: “Has oderint dum metuant really become our motto?”

This phrase, now quoted regularly among the most militant denizens in the White House, means, “Let them hate us so long as they fear us.” It was penned by Lucius Accius, the Roman poet (170 B.C.), and was said to be a favorite phrase of the emperor Caligula.
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You’ve just got to love these women: get nekkid for peace!
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Saddam denies weapons of mass destruction – well, guess that finishes that then, eh?

Norwegian MP plays while debate rages. The debate, of course, being whether Norway would send any of their crack troops to help out in a coalition attack on Iraq. Once again, the public (outside Norway anyhow) lets loose a collective, “so what?”

I wish I could get Metalion for my Palm, though. It looks sweet, but it’s PocketPC only for now.
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Germany won’t help with war on Iraq. And a collective, “So what?” rose up from the crowd.
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