Good, Bad, Ugly

Good.

In Bismarck, N.D., Saturday, almost nine thousand people took part in the world record snow angels event. The previous world record was 3,784. (AP Photo/Will Kincaid)

Bad.

Bad idea -- Prince Harry is going to Iraq. What he is trying to prove, I don't know, but he is endangering his own life and the lives of his whole regiment. They didn't sign up to be Harry's bodyguards but that is what they will be, while Harry himself might as well be wearing a bullseye. (AFP/Pool/Steve Dock)

And Ugly (but funny).

Cam Cardow

Shorter

Shorter Father Raymond J. De Souza:

Us religious people should have the right to discriminate against gay people or anyone else we hate anytime anywhere, so there!

Inside Iraq

Via Yglesias, the McClachy Baghdad Bureau has a blog written by its Iraqi staff, called Inside Iraq. This one is by a staffer writing as "Sahar":

At the Morgue.
We were asked to send the next of kin to whom the remains of my nephew, killed on Monday in a horrific explosion downtown, can be handed over. The young men of the family, as was customary, rose to go.
“NO!” cried his mother. “Isn’t my son enough?? Must we lose more of our youth?? You know there are unknowns who wait at the Morgue to either kill or kidnap the men who dare reach its doors. I will go.”
So we went, his mum, his other aunt and I.
I was praying all the way there.
I never thought a day would come when it was the women of the family, who would be safer on the roads. All the men are potential terrorists it seems, and are therefore to be cut down on sight. This is the logic of today, is it not? To kill evil before it even has a chance to take root.
When we got there, we were given his remains. And remains they were. From the waist down was all they could give us. “We identified him by the cell phone in his pants’ pocket. If you want the rest, you will just have to look for yourselves. We don’t know what he looks like.”
Now begins a horror that surpasses anything I could have possibly envisioned. We were led away, and before long a foul stench clogged my nose and I retched. With no more warning we came to a clearing that was probably an inside garden at one time; all round it were patios and rooms with large-pane windows to catch the evening breeze Baghdad is renowned for. But now it had become a slaughterhouse, only instead of cattle, all around were human bodies. On this side; complete bodies; on that side halves; and EVERYWHERE body parts.
We were asked what we were looking for, “upper half” replied my companion, for I was rendered speechless. “Over there”. We looked for our boy’s broken body between tens of other boys’ remains’; with our bare hands sifting them and turning them.
We found him millennia later, took both parts home, and began the mourning ceremony.
Can Hollywood match our reality?? I doubt it.

I am speechless, too.

I read the news today, oh boy

Good -- Hardaway dumped from NBA events for anti-gay tirade. The NBA did the right thing and did it fast.

Here's good news for Ralph and the Liberals -- and it's about time.

Sometimes its just more fun being in the Opposition -- it means you can say things like “With friends like that, you don't need enemies” when the 800-lb. gorilla insults us.

Tbogg points out:

... it looks like Al Franken is in to run against a very vulnerable Norm Coleman in Minnesota (they even elect Mooslims! there). We will now await the inevitable comments about a know-nothing Hollyweirdo running for the Senate from the same people who think that Curt Schilling should run against John Kerry.

And lots of other people have pointed out that the Bush deal with North Korea is the same as the Clinton deal with North Korea, but the Poorman sums it up best:

John “The Walrus” Bolton [says] "This is the same thing that the State Department was prepared to do six years ago. If we going to cut this deal now, it’s amazing we didn’t cut it back then." Except back then they wouldn’t have had so many warheads, or be so confident in their ability to put them together, or to defy the US without consequence, or just generally tell us to go fuck ourselves. This is, sadly, the best that could be hoped for. I get few enough chances to say “I told you so”, but, you know, I told you so.

Over at Firedoglake, Scarecrow writes an excellent summary of the week's events with the Bush administration and Iran:

Suppose you've elected an administration that is so completely incompetent that it has bungled almost everything it has done, so belligerant that it has squandered the almost universal international support it enjoyed in the weeks after 9/11 while alienating most of its historic friends and allies, and so dishonest that no one can trust what it says, making it impossible to discern whether any threat the Administration claims to see in Iran (or anywhere else) is real, exaggerated or "hyped" . . . That is the unstated dilemma that floated just below the surface all week long, as the Bush Adminstration blundered its way towards a war it claims it is not planning against Iran.

In my opinion, the whole "blame the Quds" story is being ginned up so that Bush would be able to attack Iran without congressional authorization, by claiming he was just protecting the US troops in Iraq.
Hmm, so young to be so cynical...

When science isn't

So here's another case where a wrongful conviction was at least partly based on "wrongful science" -- a presumption of forensic certainty which wasn't actually accurate at all.
We watch CSI and its clones every week, but I must say I'm gettimg more and more impatient with the plots -- maybe its the CSI effect in reverse.
I think the writers have run out of ideas for these shows.
Every week now, some science geek runs all over the city breaking into houses and slamming witnesses into the wall -- apparently, there are virtually no actual police officers in Las Vegas or New York or Miami who investigate crimes anymore. Then the Science Geek decides, on the basis of virtually no evidence at all, that the wife or the husband or the long-lost uncle or the stranger across the street is guilty of the crime and then, after an incredible chain of coincidence and luck, that very same Geek finds a fingerprint at the bottom of a well or a hair lying on an otherwise-pristine carpet or a scrap of fabric at the top of a tree which proves it. The accused, who never hires a lawyer, immediately breaks down and confesses all. Case solved.
Cue the three-minute song so they don't need any actual dialogue for the final "end of the shift/going home/life in the big city" scenes and they can expand it or cut it depending on how many commercials have been sold.
Hmmm, I guess I'm getting just a little jaded these days...

Ingrates!

In this USA Today story Bush says the children of Iraq will be grateful:

. . . Bush also was asked how he thinks Iraqi children will view the United States in 15 to 20 years.
"If we can help this government be able to create the conditions so that a mother can grow up — raise their child in peace, I think people will look back and say they'd be thankful of America," Bush said. "If America leaves, however, before the job is done, I think there will be great resentment toward America."

Really?

Shorter

Shorter Iraq War neocon analysis, from the new Vanity Fair article about the coming war with Iran:

Iraq isn't a failure. It's merely a success which hasn't occurred yet.

TOLD ya this was the greatest talking point ever.

Great line of the day

From the German version of the Financial Times, as translated by Maccabee, in his Kos diary The Coming Fall Of The Right Wing.:

Ronald Reagan is dead, Margaret Thatcher is senile and the ideological world that they created is now dying with them. From 1979 to 2004, the political Right won the Western world's battle of ideas. Conservatives triumphed because they were correct about the two biggest issues of that era: They were for free markets and against communism. But now confusion on the Right prevails, because today it is they who are on the wrong side of the West's two greatest political issues: climate change and the Iraq War.

UPDATE: Dana linked to the original English for this article, here, on Jan. 25 -- sorry, Dana, I hadn't seen this post earlier.

The domino theory

Simple questions

Glenn Greenwald reads the New York Times' latest fear-mongering article about Iran so you don't have to. And he gives us another chance to play Simple Answers to Simple Questions:

What is the point of this sort of article? Why would the New York Times just offer itself up again as a mindless vessel for what are clearly war-seeking accusations by the administration? Have they learned nothing?

What is the point? To give Republicans something to talk about on the Sunday talk shows.
Why would they do it? See next question.
Have they learned nothing? No. No, they haven't.
UPDATE Sunday: Juan Cole points out the dumbest aspect of the NYT story -- the Iranians have been supporting the Iraq SHIITES, while the Americans are being killed by the Shiite enemies, the SUNNIS:

Some large proportion of US troops being killed in Iraq are being killed with bullets and weapons supplied by Washington to the Iraqi army, which are then sold by desperate or greedy Iraqi soldiers on the black market. This problem of US/Iraqi government arms getting into the hands of the Sunni Arab guerrillas is far more significant and pressing than whatever arms smugglers bring in from Iran . . .
If 25 percent of US troops are being killed and wounded by explosively formed projectiles, then someone should look into who is giving those EFPs to Sunni Arab guerrillas. It isn't Iran.
Finally, it is obvious that if Iran did not exist, US troops would still be being blown up in large numbers. Sunni guerrillas in al-Anbar and West Baghdad are responsible for most of the deaths. The Bush administration's talent for blaming everyone but itself for its own screw-ups is on clear display here.

War by PowerPoint?

Via Raw Story and Laura Rosen we find this recent National Journal article on the politics of Iran intelligence:

Amid the continued political fallout over the faulty intelligence case for going to war in Iraq, the Bush administration is newly cautious about the specific intelligence it plans to present to the public to back up its claims that Iran is fighting a kind of proxy war with the United States in Iraq.
At least twice in the past month, the White House has delayed a PowerPoint presentation initially prepared by the military to detail evidence of suspected Iranian materiel and financial support for militants in Iraq. The presentation was to have been made at a press conference in Baghdad in the first week of February. Officials have set no new date, but they say it could be any day.
Even as U.S. officials in Baghdad were ready to make the case, administration principals in Washington who were charged with vetting the PowerPoint dossier bowed to pressure from the intelligence community and ordered that it be scrubbed again . . . the presentation was sent "back into the interagency process" . . .

I know this is a apparently-trivial side issue, but . . . PowerPoint?
They're promoting a war with PowerPoint? Haven't they ever heard of this?
Yes, its funny, but there is a more serious discussion about the problem of technical presentations on PowerPoint here.
Edward Tufte writes about the Columbia disaster and the findings of the investigation board that faulted NASA's reliance on PowerPoint presentations rather than technical reports as a primary cause of its inability to properly assess the risks of damage to the Columbia space shuttle mission:

In the reports, every single text-slide uses bullet-outlines with 4 to 6 levels of hierarchy . . . the rigid slide-by-slide hierarchies, indifferent to content, slice and dice the evidence into arbitrary compartments, producing an anti-narrative with choppy continuity . . .

As information gets passed up an organization hierarchy, from people who do analysis to mid-level managers to high-level leadership, key explanations and supporting information are filtered out. In this context, it is easy to understand how a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and not realize that it addresses a life-threatening situation. At many points during its investigation, the Board was surprised to receive similar presentation slides from NASA officials in place of technical reports. The Board views the endemic use of PowerPoint briefing slides instead of technical papers as an illustration of the problematic methods of technical communication at NASA.

So I wonder if the reporters who are going to have to analyze the Pentagon's PowerPoint slides to evaluate Iranian activity in Iraq have ever read the Columbia report?
But maybe it doesn't really matter, anyway. Returning to the National Journal article, it makes the point that the war is on regardless of any actual intelligence or evidence:

"Even if this PowerPoint presentation eventually gets made public ... what does this show us as to where Iran is really coming from?" [former National Intelligence Council Middle East analyst Paul] Pillar asked. "What is the larger significance? Even if Iranian assistance to an Iraqi group is proven to everyone's satisfaction, the [administration's] policy never rested on that. The policy [is being driven by a] much larger sense of Iran as the prime bete noire in the region, and that is why the administration is trying to put together these coalitions with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the Sunni states, that we've been reading about. None of this hinges [on the Iran dossier]. We are not going to call this off if we can't prove that Iran is furnishing munitions to Iraqi groups. ..."

Oh, well, that's alright then...

Show us the money

Hmmm -- CP reports Canadians blast Ottawa over treatment of Saskatchewan. Well, I should hope so:

Of the 108 submissions [to a Finance Department survey last summer] 50 criticized the Conservative government for failing to live up to promises to exclude resource revenues, just as Atlantic Canada's offshore energy wealth has effectively been excluded for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador under special deals with those provinces.
None of the other 60 issues raised came even close to that level of consensus, an internal accounting of the responses shows. . . .
The Finance Department's official report on the web-based consultations does not reflect the overwhelmingly pro-Saskatchewan nature of the web contributions.
"There were wide views on the treatment of natural resources," says the final report, posted on the Internet last month.
"Some suggested that all non-renewable resource revenues should be excluded from the equalization formula, a view shared by the substantial number of submissions from Saskatchewan.
"There were also submissions that supported the full inclusion of resource revenues in the equalization formula."
The Finance Department warned last summer when it announced the consultation that it was not intended to be a poll, though the internal documents indicate bureaucrats conducted a careful accounting of which issues received the most comment.
The department initially refused to release the documents under the Access to Information Act, saying all results would eventually be published. But officials relented last week after the office of the Information Commissioner of Canada launched an investigation.

Well, I'm almost certain I know where 12 of the submissions must have come from -- our very own Conservative MPs!
I'm sure of it, because they were so very vocal on this issue BEFORE they were elected to government. Of course they would have taken the opportunity offered by the Finance Department to remind Harper about his promises! [/snark]
And here is what they said -- Giant Political Mouse gathered these comments from 2004 and 2005:

“The matter of equalization has to do with Saskatchewan's natural resources which by right of the Constitution we should have complete access to, we should have total and complete benefit of. It is a right which is being taken away from us through the equalization process…. We want nothing more than the basic principles of fairness applied.”- Mr. Bradley Trost (Saskatoon—Humboldt, CPC) Hansard
“Saskatchewan has been ripped off by the federal government when it comes to equalization …Because of equalization, revenues from the very resources that are keeping the province afloat are being handed to the federal government which in turn distributes the money among the have not provinces”- Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, CPC) Hansard
Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on the equalization question…. We can find inequities that exist between provinces particularly as they relate to Saskatchewan. In that regard, there have been many studies commissioned showing that Saskatchewan has had the bad end of the deal on this one… All Saskatchewan wants is to be treated fairly and equitably… It is our position that non-renewable resources such as oil and gas should not be in the formula. The Minister of Finance, a native of Saskatchewan, has an obligation to the citizens of Saskatchewan and those in particular in Souris—Moose Mountain to ensure that the past injustices done to Saskatchewan are not repeated again.- Mr. Ed Komarnicki (Souris—Moose Mountain, CPC) Hansard
Saskatchewan is simply not getting its fair share out of equalization…. Just last week the Prime Minister visited Saskatoon, but refused to substantially negotiate or discuss the equalization matter with our premier…. Saskatchewan faces challenges. Its population has increased 14% since the Great Depression, while other provincial populations have flourished. With major industries in crisis, a static population and mounting fiscal pressures, we cannot afford to wait forever for this federal government to attend to this problem…. We need our NDP government in Saskatchewan to be supportive of our efforts to get a better deal for Saskatchewan. We need a provincial government that wants our province to prosper on the backs of its own industries. At the very least we need a provincial government that will hold the federal government to its constitutional obligations…. I plead with the government and the minister across the way to negotiate a fair deal with the province of Saskatchewan and to do it without delay.- Mrs. Carol Skelton (Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, CPC) Hansard
“The equalization formula that we have has totally shafted the province of Saskatchewan from every standpoint…. A good deal of the problem I have identified is the gross unfairness in the equalization formula. I want to point out a couple of those discrepancies. I also want to point out that the Conservative Party has clearcut policies on this matter as opposed to the government across the way…. I want to make it clear that this formula is grossly unfair to a province that has non-renewable natural resources…. This is bad policy. It is terrible policy…. This formula is unfair. It is shocking. I do not know what terminology I could use to describe the matter….. As a resident of Saskatchewan, I am looking at a formula that does not serve our province very well at all. As I stated at the onset, in many respects it shafts the people of Saskatchewan to the umpteenth degree. What is the government's response to this very serious problem? The finance minister says that it is too complicated to discuss.- Mr. Brian Fitzpatrick (Prince Albert, CPC) Hansard
"The truth of the matter is that in Saskatchewan the only elected official who is not demanding the same deal as was afforded Premiers Hamm and Williams is the Minister of Finance. That is shameful. Will the minister or his designate stand in the House today and do what is right, do what is fair, and simply commit to the elimination of the clawback provisions and give Saskatchewan people the same deal as afforded to Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia?"Mr. Tom Lukiwski (Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, CPC) Hansard
"Representatives of the people of Saskatchewan are obliged to speak out against an equalization system that penalizes our province with an over-emphasis on non-renewable resources and a complete failure to accurately measure fiscal capacity. The detrimental effects of the present equalization formula should not be under-estimated. It has and continues to have a real effect on the prosperity of the residents of Saskatchewan, robbing them of economic benefits resulting from energy revenues…. The concept of equalization is to assist have not provinces. However, under this formula, we could conceivably cement the economic stagnation of some provinces, such as my own, for decades to come. The treatment of Saskatchewan's non-renewable resources under the equalization formula is, to quote Courchene, “not only inequitable, it is fiscally and economically immiserating”`. We cannot allow this situation to persist."- Mrs. Lynne Yelich (Blackstrap, CPC) Hansard
“A tremendous number of our graduates and our kids are working in Alberta in that oil patch that Alberta started before this equalization formula became a hindrance. I take exception to that…. The whole equalization process, and the fundamental word in there is equal, has become a political process, not a practical process. One can argue that formula is as flawed as the equalization one and I would agree. It needs to be changed…"- Mr. Gerry Ritz (Battlefords—Lloydminster, CPC) Hansard
"I have a lot of people in my riding who would like to know why, when those parties were making this deal, there was not a single penny for agriculture and not a single penny for a fair deal for Saskatchewan in terms of equalization, an agenda that this party has been driving for months as the only ally of the Saskatchewan people in moving this issue forward."- Mr. Andrew Scheer (Regina Qu’appelle, CPC) Hansard
There is no equalization deal for Saskatchewan, which is what the Conservative Party has been consistently demanding from the government. To put it into perspective, a new equalization deal would have meant an additional $750 million for Saskatchewan, my province, this year alone.- Mr. Dave Batters (Palliser, CPC) Hansard
It was interesting to hear him say that equalization is not really about equality. It seems to me that it is…. We know that the current equalization formula is flawed…. We agree that Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia deserve to keep their offshore gas and oil revenues. However, we think that what is fair for those provinces is also fair for Saskatchewan…. . This change should be a slam dunk.- Mr. David Anderson (Cypress Hills—Grasslands, CPC) Hansard
"This is not something just unique to the Conservative Party, but we believe there is a tremendous flaw in the current equalization formula… It is estimated that Saskatchewan, had it received that same deal a decade ago, would have received an additional $8 billion for the province from non-renewable resource revenues…. In regard to equalization, Saskatchewan is being treated very unfairly…. By not providing a fair deal for Saskatchewan, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have turned their backs on our province"Mr. Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, CPC) Hansard

The Mouse has been giving yeoman coverage to this issue -- here's another recent post of his, a very useful roundup of Saskatchewan blog comments about the equalization issue.

They were expendable*

People who work for the Bush administration are soon going to realise that, when the Bushies need to save themselves, they'll throw you under the bus without a second thought.
Jack Abramoff? Nope, doesn't ring a bell. Scooter Libby? Didn't he used to work here? Doug Feith? Can't quite remember what he did around here.
*

What's that sound?

Oh, yeah -- Hell just froze over.
Cold enough for ya?

Speaking of my last post...