shake hands with himself

* "The White House said Thursday that Iran's incoming president was a leader of the student movement that orchestrated the capture of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, but the United States still hasn't determined whether he took hostages as alleged by some of those who were held." (link)
ok - so all those CIA folks who lined up to denounce him were just making shit up? why would they do that? and who orchestrated it?

* meanwhile, iran wont have da bomb till 2015 " in only the past decade our official estimates on Iran's nuclear capabilities have moved from 2000 to 2015. That's a real confidence builder in our official estimates, isn't it?" (link)

* "From this point forward Democrats should fuck with every Bush appointee that comes before them. Kneecap them. Humiliate them. Drag out every rumor, true or false and make them walk knee-deep through the muck and the slime. Everyone who accepts an appointment from George Bush should go into it knowing that they're going to get fucked over for the neighbors and family to see." (link)
john roberts is gay. john roberts is gay. john roberts is gay. john roberts is gay.

* a quick couple of local anecdotes - on Sunday, i was perusing the local paper over breakfast - and their piece on Terror in London was titled "War on Terror" - i laughed and noted that The Age obviously hadnt received the memo - GWOT has been rebranded GSAVE. tonight on the teeve, idiot foreign affairs minister Downer was justifying the gitmo tribunal process: "we are in a struggle against violent extremism"

* in the context of the fraudulent, rigged gitmo trials (which are a big story here - cos one of the first off the blocks is an aussie), i pointed out to my dad the differences between the abc's report and the nyt (which i documented here)
i generally dont talk to him about what i do - cos its so tedious - but occasionally theres an opening due to some local issue or whatever. he is kinda interested in current affairs stuff - more aware than say 90% of the population - so a useful indicator of somewhat-informed-but-very-Conventional-Wisdom - and i mentioned that pre-911, saddam had tried to sell his centrifuges to the americans and offered full inspections - he responded "but saddam wouldnt let the inspectors in"

* "I've no doubt myself that much of the international animosity for America arises from resentment of a president whose original idea of diplomacy was to shake hands with himself." (link)

* "Judy [Shalom, wife of the Israeli foreign minister], speaking on a television show about the recent bombings in London: "As long as I hold no official position, I can say it's not all bad for the English to find out what it's like."" (link)
i expect that her sentiments extend to the dead innocent brazilian vis-a-vis the palestinians.

* some quick advice: a) if you are a terrorist, dont travel with your cell phone b) next time theres a 911, dont move to iran

* i dont think ive mentioned, but theres a big, little election in ohio tues - between a batshit psycho repug who is knee-deep with coingate folk, and an iraq war vet dem of sorts who said that he hates bush, but he'd die for him anyway. lefty bloggers have raised a lot of money for him - apparently there was no chance he'd win, and now theres some chance. so good luck to him and to world. the repugs got really nervous and poured $500k into tv buys in the last week - it seems that our side has put up a good fight regardless, and their side is *desperate* not to lose - it seems as though we've won already - regardless of the battle outcome.