So Long Tripod Blog!
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Bu-bye!
Well, I finally did it. Blogger.com revamped it's blogging tool and I'm going to use it. My domain is still hosted by tripod but I needed a more friendly tool and me, blogger.com, google.com have become fast friends.

Please visit me now at: http://blog.qusan.com for the State of the Qusan or http://books.qusan.com for book reviews (in progress).

Excuse Me, I Thought This Was Iraq
Topic: Politics (and ranting)
So are we Israel now with these missile strikes which level several homes (in search of one or two people) and kill many innocents?

We don't have a lot of leeway here! Why err on the side of aggression?

But outraged residents accused the Americans of trying to inflict maximum damaged by firing two strikes -- one first to attack and another to kill the rescuers.


"The number of casualties is so high because after the first missile we jumped to rescue the victims," said Wissam Ali Hamad. "The second missile killed those trying to carry out the rescue."

Winning Those Hearts and Minds
Topic: Just Shakin' My Head
Yup! We are right on target. So, we have a little collateral damage here and there. It is worth the sacrifice to ensure a "peance freeance" Iraq!

"They brought us 22 corpses, children, women and youth," said cemetery worker Ahmed Hassan.

(Not Just) Knee Deep
Topic: Politics
Bush told he is playing into Bin Laden's hands

A senior US intelligence official is about to publish a bitter condemnation of America's counter-terrorism policy, arguing that the west is losing the war against al-Qaida and that an "avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked" war in Iraq has played into Osama bin Laden's hands.

Meanwhile, this fool is taking his lie on the road, bragging about successes that are really failures, alliances that aren't there and 'ties' that never existed.

Dog Day Afternoon
Topic: Politics
At the risk of sounding like chicken little, I'd say that this hasn't been a really good day for our efforts in the Middle East:

• The American hostage in Saudi Arabia was beheaded. Them suckers don't play and don't have a damn thing to lose because they are not afraid to die. Here is a hint: If the U.S. tells Americans to get out of Saudia Arabia today, it means you should have been gone last week.
• The isht eating grins that Karzai and Bush flashed last week while giving glowing reports of progress in Afghanistan are proving phony as rebels have taken control of a provincial capital and US soldiers are still dying there.
• We appear to be lacking UN votes to get blanket immunity from war crimes charges during our camgpaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan (seems our prison abuse fiasco lessened our credibility).

The sky might not be falling but all hell is certainly breaking loose!

It Keeps Getting Curiouser and Curiouser
Topic: Politics
WTF?: Russia "warning" on Saddam puzzles U.S

Let me see if I have this right. Almost 3 years after 9/11, over a year since we invaded Iraq, a couple of days after the 9/11 Commission declared that there was no link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and after being vehemently opposed to the war in Iraq, Vladamir Putin claims Russia warned us about Saddam planning terrorist attacks against the U.S.

I am sorry (actually, no I'm not) but this sounds like straight BS.

"After the events of September 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services several times received information that the official services of the Saddam regime were preparing 'terrorist acts' on the United States and beyond its borders," he told reporters.

"This information was passed on to our American colleagues," he said. He added, however, that Russian intelligence had no proof that Saddam's agents had been involved in any particular attack.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters he did not know anything about the information that Putin said Russia passed on. No such information was communicated from Russia through the State Department, he said.

"Everybody's scratching their heads," said one State Department official, who asked not to be named.

This is just more unsubstantiated nonsense. I wonder how much Bush paid/promised Putin for this crap!

When We Gon' Get To The Good Part ?
Topic: Just Shakin' My Head
I saw this topic on Oliver Willis' Site.

"A decision to impose martial law could be taken if the attacks continue," said Hazem Shaalan, the defence minister.

[...] Such laws carry uncomfortable echoes of the legal fabrications used by the former regime of Saddam Hussein and many current Arab governments to justify repressive and totalitarian rule...".

Now, people often say that things may get worse before they get better. But, in the case of Iraq, they only seem to be getting worse ... before they get worse!

I Guess It Doesn't Hurt To Ask
Topic: Politics
So we've got dozens of charges of abuse pending and we want to ensure the perpetrators are exempt from any type of punishment? Granted, we've violated every kind of law there is already but the sheer tenacity it takes to request the right to do wrong, when you've just been caught doing wrong positively slays me.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sharply criticized the United States on Thursday for seeking another exemption from the International Criminal Court, particularly in light of the Iraqi prisoner scandal.

"The blanket exemption is wrong. It is of dubious judicial value and I don't think it should be encouraged by the council," Annan told reporters.

The Bush administration, for the third year, is seeking to renew a Security Council resolution that would exempt from the court's prosecution military and civilian personnel "related to a UN-authorized operation" such as that in Iraq.

My One Last Hurrah For Reagan
I don't want it to seem like I am dancing on the coffin of the dead but all that gibberish about putting Reagan's face on the $10 bill and on Mt. Rushmore was starting to make my tummy gurgle. If you liked him, fine! Mourn, cry, miss him. But don't deify the man. He wasn't a saint to all.

Here is yet another perspective:

Maybe they have burned in their memories the way Reagan attacked welfare programs with stories of "strapping young bucks" buying T-Bone steaks, while hardworking taxpayers could only afford hamburger, or how Reagan fabricated a story about a "welfare queen" from Chicago with 80 names, 30 addresses, and 12 Social Security cards, receiving over $150,000 in tax-free income. That Reagan picked Chicago as the site of this entirely fictional woman, and not some mostly white rural area where there were plenty of welfare recipients too, was hardly lost on African Americans.

What Looks Like Crazy ...
Topic: I Just Don't Like Him
I've said it before. I'll say it again. The Dumb One is a whack job:

A new book by a prominent Washington psychoanalyst says President George W. Bush is a "paranoid meglomaniac" as well as a sadist and "untreated alcoholic." The doctor's analysis appears to confirm earlier reports the President may be emotionally unstable.



Dr. Justin Frank, writing in Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, also says the President has a ""lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions ... [and] pumping his fist gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad."