freedom fries walk

* the stupid freedom fries walk is on tomorrow: "Organizers said they expect 3,000 to 10,000 participants." (link)
how funny is that! they can hardly get anyone to turn up.

* ill wager that the attendance at the peace rally on sep 24 will dwarf the freedom fries walk attendance. besides, wouldnt u rather see Thievery Corporation than that iraq&roll guy? i know u do.

* driftglass: "What the rank and file Republicans are either too deeply retarded to understand – or secretly approve of – is the fact that the obliteration of the moral and governmental levee between fascism and democracy is not by accident or mistake: That Is The Plan." (link)

* and go read this piece by driftglass (link)

* "The United States expects Iran will be referred to the UN Security council over fears it may be developing nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said." (link)
damn. not even katrina can slow them down.

* "Karen Hughes, longtime adviser to President Bush, was sworn in Friday as the State Department's new head of public diplomacy. She will concentrate on improving the United States' image in the Middle East and countering what Bush called terrorists' lies about America." (link)
i feel so much safer now that karen has started work.

* on padilla: ""The exceedingly important question before us is whether the president of the United States possesses the authority to detain militarily a citizen of this country..." Judge Michael Luttig wrote. "We conclude that the president does possess such authority."" (link)
jeebus.

* "Just imagine bin Laden having been at large this long in President Al Gore’s administration. In fact, it’s impossible to imagine, because President Gore, under such circumstances, wouldn’t have lasted this long. You probably didn’t know, until you read this column, the number of days bin Laden has been at large. But I assure you that if Gore had been president, you and every American would have known, because the right would have seen to it that you knew, asking every day, “Where’s Osama?” If Gore hadn’t been impeached, it’s doubtful he’d have survived a re-election campaign, with Americans aghast at how weak and immoral a president had to be to permit those 2,700 deaths to go unavenged this long." (link)

* Ha'aretz is reporting that arafat was posioned (or had AIDS?). nyt is reporting otherwise (link)
* man - everyone is piling on. even novak! perhaps he is trying to garner some support from left blogistan in anticipation of the plame-gate indictments.

* more curious google results - if u search for "Brownie you're doing a heck of a job", wotisitgood4 is in the top 10. higher even than the whitehouse!

* arthur is leaving us :-( here is his last post. its kinda sad - for a bunch of reasons. he is a great writer.

* "Q Scott, when the President said a week ago that no one anticipated the breach of the levee, it seems to have been well established that that was just wrong, that there were many federal reports, many stories over the years saying that in a hurricane of this strength that they would be breached. Why was he so willing, and has he asked his experts how he could have been --
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I think you've characterized something wrong and interpreted something that he said in the wrong context. I'm glad you brought this question up, because we did actually, I think, respond to one news outlet that had asked about this, and most others had just interpreted it a certain way. And it's been interpreted wrong." (link)
oh my. incredible. in the olden days, we used to say something like "these people have no shame" - but that was really just a way of trying to shame people. those days are over.

* there are now about 60000 troops patrolling nola, with another 30000 due in the next day or two. by all accounts, thats about 500 soldiers per citizen.