males of military rage

IM STILL STRUGGLING WITH MY COMPUTER. SHES WINNING AT THE MOMENT. HERE IS SOME RANDOM STUFF IN THE MEANIE-TIME.

* the startribune calls blinnky a liar. LINK

* everyone is looking forward to krugman smacking down okrent this week - its apparently gonna be here nytimes.com/byroncalame - i hadnt realised that okrent was *that* stupid.

* "Hariri called for a high turnout but the response was tepid. An Interior Ministry official said only 27 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots" LINK

* " (CNN) -- Insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi suffered only a minor combat wound and called on Osama bin Laden to put an specified plan into the motion, according to an audiotaped statement attributed Monday to the Jordanian-born terrorist.
CNN has not confirmed the voice on the recording is al-Zarqawi's... In Washington, a spokesman said the CIA could determine the recording's authenticity in a few days." LINK
in all my time watching zarq, i dont think ive ever actually read anywhere a story saying 'hey - you know how we said last week that the recording could be verified in a few days, well, we heard back from the CIA and they said xyz.'
(ftr, my favorite one was 'people in the cnn office say that the voice sounds like zarq')

* "More than 140 car bombings occurred in May, according to a senior U.S. military intelligence official in Baghdad. That exceeds the previous record of 135 in April." LINK


* raimondo is very excited about the franklin thing LINK and LINK

* " The deployment last week of 15 stealth fighters to South Korea, along with the severing of the American military's only official interaction with North Korea, appears to be part of a new push by the Bush administration to further isolate North Korea despite China's hesitation to join the effort." LINK

* "The chief of police in Basra admitted yesterday that he had effectively lost control of three-quarters of his officers and that sectarian militias had infiltrated the force and were using their posts to assassinate opponents.
Speaking to the Guardian, General Hassan al-Sade said half of his 13,750-strong force was secretly working for political parties in Iraq's second city and that some officers were involved in ambushes... "I trust 25% of my force, no more."" LINK


* repug talking point: " You never see TV shows depicting a 15-year-old teenage girl driving across the state border to get an abortion with a Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton T-shirt on.”" LINK

* operationlightening seems ridiculous - can anyone tell me the plan? surely the '40,000' troops would be better getting some training than this lightening nonsense. i can only presume its a PR campaign, but it looks like a dangerous game. they have pre-sold the gig, giving the resistance time to get outta town if they want - so maybe their logic is that if they announce it loud and early and big, the baddies will escape beforehand and the egadmin can 'prove' that they were successful. but what if a sufficient number of the baddies remained to cause a lot of trouble? the egadmin cant afford the potential of a loss like this - imagine if it goes badly. will we hear the stories of baghdad blowing up? and collaborators getting blown up in even larger numbers than weve see, and a breakdown of command and large numbers of desertions.
if the resistance was scared, they'd escape the capital in advance, and the radmin would get their publicity shots of arresting people with the city and newcops getting blown to pieces. put your hand up if you think the resistance is scared... hmmmm, i didnt think so.
2 eyars later they cant control the airport highway, and now they wanna save the city in one gulp? sounds like a risky proposition...
and then they have the audacity to tell us that they are gonna rollout Lightening to other cities. franchise fever.

* "Today Show to Interview Gay Hating Mayor West from Spokane Tuesday Morning" LINK
amazing. think of how far we've come since mcgreeveys speech was televised. and in such little time...

* " The Vice President of the United States saying on national television that allegations of mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay are false." LINK

* "But the operation met with skepticism even before it started.
For one thing, few believed the government could commit the 40,000 soldiers and paramilitary police officers it had promised, since the American command's latest official count of the number in Baghdad Province, reaching deep into the countryside beyond the capital itself, totaled only slightly more than 30,000." LINK

* if u google "drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay" (which is what galloway called hitchens) the number one return is wotisitgood4 - somehow even above the original guardian article that reported it. googles algorithms suck. LINK

* somehow im number 5 return on google for the term "orange jumpsuits" - i know that it has been a crusade (sic) of mine to see them all dressed in orange, but googles algorithms are totally screwed.

* "Until Bush concedes defeat to the growing list of Senators who have serious concern (like Senator John McCain) that this battle over requested evidence is not just about Bolton but about the principle of separation of powers in government, then Bolton's nomination will sit in limbo." LINK