Remember.
Archives for 2003
Terrorist Activity
My brother reports to me that the overpasses in the DC/Maryland are packed with digital screens relaying the message to all concerned citizens that they should “Report all suspicious terrorist activity.”
Non-suspicious terrorist activity is to be ignored, apparently.
Suspicious Activity
What is going on onboard the USS Nassau?:
A U.S. Navy vessel experienced no loss of life during months of action in the Persian Gulf, but as it returned to the United States on Monday, one sailor was missing and another presumed dead.
A ship search on the USS Nassau continued Monday for Petty Officer 1st Class Shaun Dale, after a sea and air search the day before turned up no clues as to his whereabouts. He was first reported missing from a Sunday morning roll call on the Nassau , an amphibious assault ship with a crew of nearly 1,000.
WTF?
They better go back to the drawing board, because this dog doesn’t hunt:
THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber.
Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday.
The plans were revealed by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of 680 suspects from 43 countries, including two Australians.
The suspects have been held at Camp Delta on Cuba without charge for 18 months.
General Miller said building a death row was one plan. Another was to have a permanent jail, with possibly an execution chamber.
This is a pretty appalling idea.
Gorejack
Commenters in this post have spoken and one in particulalr threw out a name I think fits, so from now on, I have decided that when an individual (usually a Democrat) brings up the topic of Election 2000, the thread has officially been “Gorejacked.” Gorejacking works very much like Godwin’s Law– in that whoever brings up the election 2000 is generally regarded to have lost the argument, and the thread is now declared null and void. Much like borking, Godwin’s law, and the Higgins Manoeurve, we hope you find room in your heart for this new term.
Proper Usage:
Main Entry: Gorejack (verb)
Pronunciation: (g0r ‘jak)
Definition: To inject or invoke the results of the contested Bush/Gore 2000 election into any discussion of politics, political parties, or any other historical or social issue. Usually this will be used to demonstrate the genuine corruptness of either Democrats or Republicans. Whoever Gorejacks a conversation is assumed to have lost the argument, and the conversation is no longer useful.
This is not an administration that intends to allow something as feeble as the democratic process get in the way of their intent to rule on a perpetual basis. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Bush simply refuse to leave office, either if defeated in 2004, or when his term (according to that little thing, the Constitution) expires in 2008. After all, consider the Bushites reaction to potential electoral defeat in 2000; their response was to simply stop the counting of votes.
The Gorejacking in the previous passage has been bolded for easy detection. Note the hysterical and conspiratorial tone of the post- this is a good first sign that a thread is about to be Gorejacked.
Congrats
Much to my surprise, the University of Virginia defeated Johns Hopkins today in the NCAA Division 1 Lacrosse Championship. After watching Hopkins rip Syracuse in the second half of the semi-final game, I was convinced no one would beat Hopkins.
Congrats Cavaliers.
Information, Please
One of the most annoying things about this administration is that they have been so wildly successful at slowing the flow of information. Mike McCurry and company would have loved to have had this amount of success. The problwm with this isthat it leaves the rest of us in the dark, and no one knows what the hell is going on. Take for example, this article:
The sudden shift in postwar strategy in favor of an American and British occupation authority has visibly deflated the Iraqi political scene, which earlier this month was bustling with grass-roots politicking and high expectations for an all-Iraqi provisional government.
This week Kurdish leaders are clearing out of Baghdad to return to the north to consult with their constituents about a course of action. They have asked the new American civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, to visit northern Iraq to confront the popular disenchantment.
Will this story be like the previuos 500 that have come out of Iraq, and in two weeks be throroughly discredited? I don’t know- no one knows what the hell is really going on, and that is a problem, whether the Administration recognizes it or not. If the public is unaware of the situation, accidents, setbacks, and military deaths can be portrayed and spun by the press as abysmal failures. We need to know what is going on, and I am hard pressed to say that we are getting the information we deserve.
*** Update ***
The more I think about it, the more of a problem this is for the administration. The main outcry in Gitmo with the detainees was the secrecy PRIOR to their being viewed by outside sources. Once it was known how they were treated, most of the catcalling and international accusations died off.