explanation at last!

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/20/pelosi.bush/index.html

Apparently it is now detrimental to national security to say the presdient is an incompetent jackass. No wonder it's taking me so long to get my clearance!

As several others have done, I suggest we all write our representatives, and maybe send Mr DeLay a note as well

The Hon. Tom DeLay
242 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515

The Hon. Tom DeLay
Office of the House Majority Leader
H-107 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

just to remind them that criticism of our elected leaders is not just a right, it's a duty.

If you need a good quote or two to include, you might look here. One of the better ones is:

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
- President Theodore Roosevelt, 1912

so much for interesting fantasies

http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp?fid=1&threadid=8951

In short, the "I ride my bike through Chernobyl" website was apparently significantly "factually enhanced".

CS Lewsi on theocracy

Someone pointed me to this, and I thought john_arundel in particular might enjoy it.

slacktivist quite interesting

Actually, all his bits on the LB books are good too.

also pretty amusing

http://slate.msn.com/id/2100637/

pretty damning evidence

'Wedding video' clouds US denials

A videotape has been broadcast which purports to show before-and-after footage of a wedding which Iraqis say the US bombed, killing about 40.

The film, released by a US news agency, combines a wedding home movie with video of the aftermath of the attack, which the US says targeted militants.

Some victims and survivors appear to be present in the wedding video.

from the BBC

British FO document leaked

A document leaked to the Sunday Times and bearing all the hallmarks of a genuine Foreign Office memorandum has revealed the extent of British unease at American military operations in Iraq.

from the BBC

This appears tot ake a very sensible aproach to addressing the ongoing security problems in Iraq. I only wish I thought it would be heeded at #10 or in Washington.

quite appalling

Anti-war poetry is apparently sedition as well.

Bill Nevins, a New Mexico high school teacher and personal friend, was fired last year and classes in poetry and the poetry club at Rio Rancho High School were permanently terminated. It had nothing to do with obscenity, but it had everything to do with extremist politics.

The "Slam Team" was a group of teenage poets who asked Nevins to serve as faculty adviser to their club. The teens, mostly shy youngsters, were taught to read their poetry aloud and before audiences. Rio Rancho High School gave the Slam Team access to the school's closed-circuit television once a week and the poets thrived.

In March 2003, a teenage girl named Courtney presented one of her poems before an audience at Barnes & Noble bookstore in Albuquerque, then read the poem live on the school's closed-circuit television channel.

A school military liaison and the high school principal accused the girl of being "un-American" because she criticized the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's failure to give substance to its "No child left behind" education policy.

The girl's mother, also a teacher, was ordered by the principal to destroy the child's poetry. The mother refused and may lose her job.

Bill Nevins was suspended for not censoring the poetry of his students. Remember, there is no obscenity to be found in any of the poetry. He was later fired by the principal.

After firing Nevins and terminating the teaching and reading of poetry in the school, the principal and the military liaison read a poem of their own as they raised the flag outside the school. When the principal had the flag at full staff, he applauded the action he'd taken in concert with the military liaison.

Notice that apparently Iran is now an official "enemy nation"

Writers and editors who have spent years translating essays, films, poems, scientific articles and books by Iranian, North Korean and Sudanese authors have been warned not to do so by the U.S. Treasury Department under penalty of fine and imprisonment. Publishers and film producers are not allowed to edit works authored by writers in those nations. The Bush administration contends doing so has the effect of trading with the enemy, despite a 1988 law that exempts published materials from sanction under trade rules.

Robert Bovenschulte, president of the [publications division] American Chemical Society, is challenging the rule interpretation by violating it to edit into English several scientific papers from Iran.

[Edit] In fact, the Treasury Department has since clarified that editing and translating falls into the category of dealing with "informational materials" which are specifically exempt from these sanctions.

The importation from any country and the exportation to any country of information and informational materials as defined in Sec. 560.315, whether commercial or otherwise, regardless of format or medium of transmission, are exempt from the prohibitions and regulations of this part. (Code of Federal Regulations 31, Chapter V, Part 560, Section 210)

informational materials are "Publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact disks, CD ROMs, artworks, and news wire feeds." (Code of Federal Regulations 31, Chapter V, Part 560, Section315)