Bush Admin. F**ks Up, Again

Unmasking of Qaeda Mole a U.S. Security Blunder-Experts

...working under cover to help the authorities track down al Qaeda militants in Britain and the United States when his name appeared in U.S. newspapers.

"The whole thing smacks of either incompetence or worse,"

Um, yeah.

Alternate History

Alternate History: The Cincinnati

What if things had gone differently? What if the Founders had taken as their model not late eighteenth-century Britain, but that other great example of good government: the Antonine dynasty of the Roman Empire, in which each Emperor "adopted" the leading military politician of the next generation as his successor?

I just thought it was cool.

(Actually, I thought, Brad! Thanks! That gives me an idea for a story. )

True, *and* funny!

Bush says his administration will "never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people."

Laughing and crying...

Niger Story Cracking Open

Want to know how forged documents about Nigerian uranium wound up in US hands? Josh Marshall tells us the forged documents were deliberately released by an Italian intelligence officer.

in late June there was a piece in the Financial Times which alleged various evidence for the proposition that Iraq had in fact sought to purchase uranium from Niger. The story also suggested that the 'security consultant' was himself the likely forger of the documents and that this 'scam' had only served to obscure the real evidence of the sale of uranium to Iraq.

...You’ll remember that most of the papers in the bundle of Niger-uranium documents that arrived at the US Embassy in Rome were actually authentic. It was only a subset of the documents --- those specifically related to the alleged Niger-Iraq transactions and a couple others --- that were bogus.

In late 2001, the SISMI officer brought the Niger Embassy employee a packet of documents --- those later identified as forgeries --- and instructed her to slip them in with the other documents she was providing to the ‘security consultant’ on an on-going basis.

She mixed those documents in with authentic documents which she had access to in the course of her work at the embassy. She then passed those documents --- again, a mix of authentic and forged ones --- to the ‘security consultant’. [to be sold to other intelligence agencies and the press]

Presidential Ad Campaigns

The Living Room President.

How neat! Presidential compaign commercials since 1952, thanks to the American Museum of the Moving Image.

(Hat off to Crooked Timber, for the tip!)

One Pair Socks

Took forever to knit, but that's just me.

One pair socks, knitted with Caron Dazzleaire yarn. Or Wintuk. Pale, creamy color, on something like size 4 needles. 36 sts in the round at the ankle, and a little chevron texture design on the heel. I putzed around with the toe, and did one as a star toe, the other something out of Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Without Tears.

First sock...oh, May? Second sock, cast on, knit, and finished in one weekend, during the same weekend my apartment (filled with boxes) ceased to be my apartment.

Multi-tasking good.

Still working on the blue cotton tank!

Bush Would've Gone In Anyway

I just listened to President George W. Bush say, "Knowing what I know today, we still would have gone on into Iraq" [referring to the WMDs we've failed to find], in response to a question from a reporter in today's Rose Garden press conference.

The President went on to explain that although Saddam may not have had WMDs, he had the capability to make them.

Every nation has the capability to *make* weapons of mass destruction. Maybe they have money. Or they know a guy who knows a guy. Or they have a chemist.

Blankets with smallpox were a very effective weapon of mass destruction during the settlement of North America. Does this mean every nation with doctors is a threat to the U.S.?


(Edited later to clean up quote after transcript available instead of just my memory.)