become a bullet stopper. stop bullets now!

VOTE
* "something like 40% of Iraqis believe they are electing a president"
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GA27Ak07.html

* apparently 72% of registered voters voted in iraq. shorter lines than blueamerica. despite 100 choices (50 have already withdrawn) on the ballot. despite the fact that no-one knew where the polling sites where. despite the fact 40% of voters thought they were voting 4 pres. despite the security checks.

* will chalabi be president?

* apparently everyone had to hand in their cellphones before voting. it seems that they havent invented shoebombs there yet. or americans are getting suckered with the whole airport thing.

* fisk "The big television networks have been given a list of five polling stations where they will be "allowed" to film. Close inspection of the list shows that four of the five are in Shia Muslim areas - where the polling will probably be high - and one in an upmarket Sunni area where it will be moderate." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7910.htm

* did anyone see blinky's little speech after the iraq elections??? he is becoming increasingly unhinged - he couldnt even look at the camera - which he usually does well. his giggly little rumsfeldian eyes were darting around everywhere

* i wonder what the election polling is showing. do iraqis have lots of orange in their wardrobes?

WAR
* the pnaccers write a letter to congress demanding troop increases "of at least 25,000 active duty troops each year over the next several years." who the fuck do these people think they are??? she's drafteeeeee. http://www.newamericancentury.org/defense-20050128.htm

* " The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq (news - web sites) was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to government ministries... The U.S. officials relied on Iraqi audit agencies to account for the funds but those offices were not even functioning when the funds were transferred" i wonder if (some of) that is financing the 'insurgency'? altho the explosives were all free, thnx to alqaqaa
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=4&u=/ap/20050131/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_funds

* genius friedman "You give me $18-a-barrel oil and I will give you political and economic reform from Algeria to Iran." didnt we have prices below that in the clinton years? http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/opinion/30friedman.html

* ftr - when i ask cwly? im being facetious of course, tedkeneedy notwithstanding. 'we' dont wanna leave - not even to free up resources to go invading other countries. 'we' can get those resources elsewhere - it might be called the 'American Jobs Creation Act' or the 'MakeWork Act' or the ' Bullets are bad, Stop Bullets Act"

* "Much of what this administration is doing is dangerous. And if Barbara Boxer is the only opposition politician willing to take them on, one day Californians will be naming schools and highways after her." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=123&e=1&u=/ucrr/20050129/cm_ucrr/pleasebenicetodoctorrice

* trivia point: both the ams and the brits have had their worst days wrt deaths in the last coupla weeks. pretend elections rock.


* "Said Cheney in Krakow, "The death camps were created by men with a high opinion of themselves - some of them well educated, and possessed of refined manners - but without conscience. And where there is no conscience, there is no tolerance toward others ... no defense against evil ... and no limit to the crimes that follow." " http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2005/01/cheney-at-auschwitz-dick-cheney-knows.html

* the beeb has just re-broadcast "the power of nightmares" duh - obl doesnt exist. zark doesnt exist. alq doesnt exist.
http://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?pid=2149

* i wonder what the 'dead american' count really is - surely not the 1400 number that is going around. i imagine that the 'dead soldier' count is much higher than that. but how bout we throw in the 'dead contractor' count for starters? we can start with the fabfallujahfour and keep adding from there...

AMDOM
* jonk on mtp "i will state now, unequivocably...'

* who is writing the sotu? gerson has gone right - but the new guy from spookywsj has just joined - surely he isnt trying to put something together in a few weeks? itll be suitably scary anyways. grrr. praps we'll get some more dostoevsky. and praps maybe even some Dog. will the 'insurgents' try to disrupt the speech?

* "But experts say there is no scientific evidence that children raised by gay couples do any worse - socially, academically or emotionally - than their peers raised in more traditional households."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/29/politics/29marry.html?oref=login

* i hate frankluntz

* the beeb has gone nuts with the mjacko story. already. on iraqelectionday. 'the most famous person ever to go to court' what sort of circus are we in for?? its been hitting the news at about 8mins past the hour all day - and the segment is about half as long as the shamelection, and above the 'C130 Down' story

* a while back i postulated that theres something fishy going on with socsec - it looks like a fight the pres cant win (using current rules), and yet he seems to betting the farm on it - i guessed they may have 'one-party' solution or some such. kevin has some other ideas
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_01/005536.php

* the maggiegallaghermarriageexpert thingy is ridiculous - they are obviously hanging her out to dry - as if the 2nd worst of the payola crew was some borderline $21000 shill. puhleeeease.

* blinky doesnt see ghosts in the whitehouse - he gave up drinking years ago.

* in case u missed it, blackpeople die earlier. which is bad. speaking of socsec, the dow is down 4% this year, nasd down 6%. i wonder if the mkts is pricing in the socsec changes and all of that demand/liquidity. or maybe it was already priced in, and is now being priced out. or maybe the 2trill is making them nervous. or something.

* theres some new legislation called the 'stop govt propaganda Act' being introduced this week. cept payola is already outlawed. speaking of new orwellian legisaltion - try the "American Jobs Creation Act" http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/opinion/30sun1.html

OTHER
* first listen to chembrothers new album: the best new album ive heard in the last year. also the only new album ive listened to all year. it didnt make me tingly. i do like galvanise tho - praps its a familiarity thing.

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war makes me mad, sad, bad. tsunamis makes me sad.
wotisitgood4.blogspot.com