Hand over those hands!

In the recent (wonderfully aggressive) interview of George W. Bush by Irish reporter Carol Coleman, the "one who must not be called President" admonished the reporter about what a "brutal dictator" Saddam was. (Duh!):

"Listen, uh, uh, I wish they [the people of Ireland who oppose Bush] could've seen the 7 men that came to see me in the Oval Office. They had their right hands cut off by Saddam Hussein because the currency had devalued when he was the leader, see?" [Emphasis mine] (Partial transcript here)

Bush says this without mumbling at all, as if he had somehow practiced these lines (16:40 into the video) -- or had 3 days' advance warning (go to the 2:44 mark in that one for context) -- before changing the subject when Coleman tried to ask him where those weapons of mass destruction are. He then summons the ghosts of 9/11 once again (see 18:00 - 18:30 of the interview) as justification for attacking Iraq!

Bush (paraphrase of his echolalia):

"Le, le, lemme, lemme finish. Lemme finish. You ask the questions, and I'll [evade] them, if you don't mind!"

That was then. This is now:

But following a recent string of fatal attacks on Iraqi officials by the insurgents, Iraqi Minister of Defense Hazim Shaalan tells Newsweek that "we will hit these people and teach them a good lesson they won't forget. Americans and allied forces have certain restrictions we won't have." He declined to be more specific, except to say, "It's our country, its [sic] our culture and we have different laws than you do." (A few days later, after yet another suicide bombing, he was more blunt: "We will cut off their hands and behead them.") [Emphasis mine]

Say, what?! That's not what "disarm" means, Mr. Bush. It's not what "handover" means either. Oh, well. I do recall talk of decapitation coming from the Bush administration in March of 2003. And they wonder why this shit happens.

Can you say "Lex Talionis"?

Bush (direct quote, 19:48 in):

"I do believe the world is becoming a better place. Absolutely!"

Happy, happy! Joy, joy!

[Edited for clarity, 11:35 PM]

Your host Maddog was watching Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer on CNN after midnight this morning. My wife was curious why I insisted on watching this cheesy dimwit about whom I complain so often. "So I can keep track of what kinds of lies he tells today," came my reply.

I didn't have to wait long at all.

Wolf's first guest (on tape) was U.S. Secretary of State (Terrorism) Colin Powell -- that bastard who displayed computer graphics and unidentifiable flying objects to the UN as "evidence" that we were "all gonna die" and should "be very afraid."

Here's how Wolf began the interview:

BLITZER: Mr. Secretary, welcome back to "LATE EDITION." Thanks very much for joining us.

You're in Turkey right now. Three Turkish citizens are being held prisoner, apparently by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Iraqi terrorist. What do you say to the Turkish government that clearly is concerned about what is going on in Iraq? [Emphasis mine]

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is not Iraqi. He's Jordanian. You'd think that Wolf would know that. I bet Colin Powell does, too.

Here's what Powell had to say in his reply (continuing directly):

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, the president just met with Prime Minister Erdogan, and obviously this came up, and we assured the prime minister that we were doing everything we could to secure their safe release.

Once again, this shows that we're dealing with a terrible terrorist organization led by Mr. al-Zarqawi, that doesn't care about human life, that does not care about the Iraqi people. [Emphasis mine]

This coming from someone whose actions have led to the deaths of around ten thousand Iraqi citizens!

And no, Powell never did anything to correct Wolf's lie about al-Zarqawi being an "Iraqi" terrorist. (Read the entire transcript of the [scripted?] Blitzer-Powell interview here. Read the transcript of Powell's February 5, 2003 lie-fiesta before the United Nations Security Council here, or watch the video of the lies here. Where are all those things, dammit?!)

Later in the show, Wolf interviewed both Republican Senator Bill "Ricin" Frist and Henry "War Criminal" Kissinger, but I'd already had my fill of lies by that time.

Doesn't that sound like state media to you?

Fahrenheit 9/11
Unfortunately, Michael Moore's latest film hasn't made it to my island hideaway yet (I'll probably have to start a petition), but my pal at The Poison Dart (who also has a very interesting recent post about Spain's former government's "suspected" involvement in the Madrid bombing) has, and he informs me that it's breaking all kinds of box office records. My own analysis of why it's doing so well goes like this:

1) The same people who were out in the streets protesting prior to the invasion of Iraq are coming back out of the woodwork -- out of "hibernation," so to speak.
2) In the meantime, lots of people have renounced their allegiance to the AWOL cowboy in the White House or have, at least, begun to question it (due to the dizzying effects of all that cognitive dissonance).
3) In addition to winning the Palme d'Or, all the opposition to the film has INDEED created more interest in it!

Box Office Mojo shows that Michael Moore holds 3 of the top 7 positions in the box office takes for documentary films. I don't know how accurate their data is, but it's certainly interesting enough to merit a look.

Countdown to handover
But hey, everything's gonna be better on Wednesday when the U.S. hands over whatever it is they're (magically) handing over, right?

Right?!?!

UPDATE: I guess everything's all better now, seeing how they did that secret shaky handover thing two days early and all. Barring today's death, injuries, and beheading threats, all seems to be going, er... just, um... peachily?

According to today's Taipei Times, People First Party (PFP) legislator Chiu Yi (AKA "earthworm") and 3 others have been indicted on charges related to riots which occurred on March 26 of this year at Taiwan's Central Election Commission office. On that day, when the results of the March 20 presidential election were to be announced, several pan-blue politicians led rioters who threw eggs and stones at the CEC office, finally breaking the glass doors and storming the building.

The Taipei Times article has this to say about the indictment:

Four People First Party legislators were indicted by Taipei prosecutors yesterday for allegedly leading the unruly crowd that gathered outside the Central Election Commission on March 26. According to the indictment, the four legislators -- Chiu Yi, Feng Ting-kuo, Lee Ching-hua and Lin Hui-kuan -- led a group of protesters that smashed the commission building's glass doors and attempted to stop commission employees from posting the official results of the March 20 presidential election on its bulletin board. The police attempted to disperse the crowd because the protest was not legal. According to witnesses' and police officers' testimony, the four legislators ignored the police's orders. Chiu is alleged to have shouted through a loudspeaker: "Beat [President] Chen Shui-bian! Beat the commission!" The four legislators told prosecutors that they were not aware of the police's efforts to disperse the protesters -- an argument the prosecutors rejected because the protests were illegal in the first place. Chiu, Feng, Lee and Lin were indicted on charges of violating the Assembly and Parade Law. Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence for the legislators.

I'm disappointed that they weren't charged with far greater crimes related to rioting or sedition. Why weren't they?! After all, you may recall the crybaby loser pan-blues repeated complaints about an unfair judiciary after Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the election. I wonder why they weren't immediately put under the jail?

I also wonder what ever happened to that psycho-bitch Shen Chih-hui with regard to her participation in the riot at the CEC, the March 21 riot at the Taichung District Court, and the April 10 riots in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei. She should have been among those indicted here.

Taiwan's crybaby loser pan-blues' approval ratings plummet

As Gomer Pyle might have said, "Surprise, surprise, surprise!" After all, who would have figured that such idiotic behavior would lead to this?

After nearly three months of crying, screaming, whining, repeatedly tearing down President Chen Shui-bian's portrait, complaining of "unfairness," inciting people to murder the president, and just plain shit-stirring, "the disapproval rate of the pan-blues' protests has increased to 67.8 percent from 53 percent," according to an article in today's Taipei Times.

The survey, which was done by a group called Taiwan Advocates, also draws this conclusion:

"[I]f the election were held today, 60 percent of the public would vote for the Democratic Progressive Party-backed [DPP] presidential ticket of Chen and Vice President Annette Lu, while 40 percent of the voters would support the KMT-PFP alliance's Lien [Chan]-James Soong ticket."

Well, go-o-lly! The pan-blues have only been shooting themselves in the feet almost every single day since the March 20 election.

In that election, DPP incumbents Chen and Lu won the presidential race by a margin of only 0.228 percent the day after they were struck by two bullets during a campaign parade in Chen's southern Taiwan hometown of Tainan. Neither candidate sustained life-threatening injuries, but the opposition cried foul after they lost, despite saying just the day before that the shooting wouldn't affect the outcome of "their" election.

Then the crackpot theories about a "staged" shooting became just another of the pan-blues' many desperate attempts to sway public opinion. Because the shooter or shooters have not been captured, these theories have continued to spread, but no proof has ever been offered to back them up. In fact, renowned forensic expert Dr. Henry Lee and his team, approved by the pan-blues, has debunked most of the theories.

According to the Taipei Times article linked above, political analyst Yang Sen-hong (Romanized elsewhere as "Yang Hsien-hung" and "Yang Hsian-hong"), while not naming any sources for his figures, makes this claim:

"[T]he percentage of people who regard the election-eve assassination attempt on President Chen as fraud increased from 29.7 percent to 31 percent in the two month period between March 30 and May 20..."

Given that the pro-blue media constantly promulgated such theories during that period, it's surprising that it didn't increase more than a mere 1.3 percent, a much smaller number than all those people who were led by American right-wing media to believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001.

As far as the propaganda of the pan-blues is concerned, I'll just have to invoke another Gomer Pyle sound bite: "Well shame, shame, shame!"

What's with all the sick sentimentality emanating toward Ronald Reagan from so many of the lefty blogs? Practically speaking, he's been lifeless for more than a decade, during which the left had no trouble coming up with things to hate about him. However, it seems that now that everybody and their mother is doing some sort of tribute to what a "good guy" he was, or how he "wasn't as bad as Bush" (who "isn't the most evil person in the world, so there!").

All I can say to this most unusual phenomenon is, "What the fuck?!"

At least Robert at My Blahg had the right idea yesterday, and Greg Palast (as I was informed just as I was getting ready to post this) has written something worthy of your undivided attention.

I hope that the left has merely had a "momentary lapse of reason" and is starting to wake up again. Perhaps Reagan's corpse is beginning to emit a rather noticeable odor, with no way to be "gracious" about pointing it out -- and it is necessary to do so.

Kos poster Meteor Blades is one of those who has rung the alarm to get us to wake the fuck up. S/He says:

How far are we as people of the left willing to go while the avalanche of Reagan mythology spews forth from every cranny of television, radio, the press and Blogworld?

[...]

[I'm not] talking about those who have suggested that out of human decency or, at the very least, smart politics, we liberals and people who are further to the left stay out of attack dog mode for a few moments.

What troubles me, irks me, makes me want to scream is the incomprehensible willingness of so many people on the left who should know better not only to stand silent while others sanitize the Great Salesman’s two terms in the presidency but also to parrot many of the untruths that have put the halo on him ever since he left the White House.

It is one thing to bite our tongues for a few respectful moments while Reagan’s fans sign the Icon’s commemorative guestbook, tell us what a fabulous leader he was and try to persuade us that we are all better for his having passed this way. It is quite another to repeat the bullshit ourselves.

Someone else pointed out a great piece written by David Corn in 1998 which was good enough to be republished in 2003: "66 Things to Think About When Flying Into Reagan National Airport." I think it's good enough to be repixelated here, but I'll add links for each of the 66 items as I come across them:

The firing of the air traffic controllers, winnable nuclear war, recallable nuclear missiles, trees that cause pollution, Elliott Abrams lying to Congress, ketchup as a vegetable, colluding with Guatemalan thugs, pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, voodoo economics, budget deficits, toasts to Ferdinand Marcos, public housing cutbacks, redbaiting the nuclear freeze movement, James Watt.

Getting cozy with Argentine fascist generals, tax credits for segregated schools, disinformation campaigns, "homeless by choice," Manuel Noriega, falling wages, the HUD scandal, air raids on Libya, "constructive engagement" with apartheid South Africa, United States Information Agency blacklists of liberal speakers, attacks on OSHA and workplace safety, the invasion of Grenada, assassination manuals, Nancy's astrologer.

Drug tests, lie detector tests, Fawn Hall, female appointees (8 percent), mining harbors, the S&L scandal, 239 dead U.S. troops in Beirut, Al Haig "in control," silence on AIDS, food-stamp reductions, Debategate, White House shredding, Jonas Savimbi, tax cuts for the rich, "mistakes were made."

Michael Deaver's conviction for influence peddling, Lyn Nofziger's conviction for influence peddling, Caspar Weinberger's five-count indictment, Ed Meese ("You don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime"), Donald Regan (women don't "understand throw-weights"), education cuts, massacres in El Salvador.

"The bombing begins [sic] in five minutes," $640 Pentagon toilet seats, African- American judicial appointees (1.9 percent), Reader's Digest, C.I.A.-sponsored car-bombing in Lebanon (more than eighty civilians killed), 200 officials accused of wrongdoing, William Casey, Iran/contra.

"Facts are stupid things," three-by-five cards, the MX missile, Bitburg, S.D.I., Robert Bork, naps, Teflon.

Don't tell me that you "don't recall" any of that. If you can forget that stuff, you deserve whatever the Republi-Nazis dump on you. Unfortunately, it's being dumped on me, too.

Isn't it about time to wake the fuck up?!

UPDATE -- RELATED LINKS:
* Ted Rall: Reagan's Shameful Legacy
- cleaning the Vaseline off the lens
* William Rivers Pitt: Planet Reagan
- see how Reagan made today's "media" what it is
* David Ignoramus (The Assassinated Press): Reagan: Protean Template For Media Bullshit
- pulls no punches
* The Ronald Reagan Myth vs. the Google Reality
- lets you dig up much more info for yourself

A semi-update to the previous post

A lot has been made of the "implausibility" of the events in the new film "The Day After Tomorrow." We'll have to wait and see if the negative reviews achieve their intended effect, but empirical evidence shows that both the reviews and the movie are affecting some people.

While I was out doing some shopping Tuesday evening, I overheard part of a conversation that went something like this:

A: I just saw "The Day After Tomorrow."
B: You did? I heard that a lot of people have already gone to see it.
A: You have to keep in mind that it's science-fiction.

Can you say, "Hook, line, and sinker"?

There's more than one kind of fiction
A square is always a rectangle, but a rectangle isn't necessarily a square. Wrap that concept securely around your brain, and you'll be less likely to get confused by the remainder of this post.

Just what is "fiction" anyway? While the term sometimes refers to outright lies, the term is more frequently used in reference to stories (in the literary sense) about things which are plausible and realistic but not necessarily based on factual occurrences. Literary fiction often speaks truth about human nature and relationships. Good fiction can teach us more about truth than any so-called "reality show" ever could.

This quote says a lot about the subject at hand:

A lie hides the truth. A story tries to find it.
- Paula Fox, A Servant's Tale

When Michael Moore referred to the "fictitious president" in his acceptance speech after receiving the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film, he was clearly talking about the multitude of lies descending upon us from Washington, D.C. like hordes of locusts in the guise of the truth. No matter what you think of the outcome of the 2000 U.S. presidential election, it can only be described as dubious.

We saw a purging of the voter rolls (carried out by Florida's then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris), a recount (demanded by Republicans), a cessation of the recount (pressed by Republican rioters-for-rent), and an election decision made by the (mostly Republican-appointed) Supreme Court.

Don't ya just love "democracy" in action? (Hence the name of this blog.)

The future is now
"The Day After Tomorrow" is categorized by the Internet Movie Database in this manner (links in original):

Genre: Action / Drama / Sci-Fi / Thriller (more)

Science-fiction is defined on Dictionary.com as:

A literary or cinematic genre in which fantasy, typically based on speculative scientific discoveries or developments, environmental changes, space travel, or life on other planets, forms part of the plot or background.

"The Day After Tomorrow" fits a couple of those elements precisely: speculative scientific discoveries and environmental changes. But one particular scene in the film reveals human nature via dramatic action.

I'm referring to the section of the film in which a huge wave hits New York City. People are running everywhere. The water is already high enough to cover the bumpers of all the cars, and traffic is at a standstill. Everyone is blowing their horns. Simply put, it's pure chaos.

The action in the scene (described here minus some key details so as to avoid "spoilers") shows us that in times of crisis, some people will use their money in an attempt to buy their safety, others -- blissfully ignorant of the danger at their backs -- will gladly take that money, and yet others -- in spite of their own injuries -- will stop and help those in need. In a good story, you can guess which of these characters will survive.

How about some more of that type of "fiction" that just plain lies through its teeth? George W. Bush continues repeating to this day that "the world is safer" because of his so-called "war on terror."

That's pure and simple up-is-downism!

In the fiction of the Bush "presidency," which is much stranger than the literary variety, the only truth is the knowledge that we have seen lies which resulted in something much worse than a stained dress or a broken family. We have seen true evil on American soil.

Pentagon also "fooled" by "rhetoric" of "The Day After Tomorrow"
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of old news, but I'd bet many people have already forgotten about this one:

Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

· Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
· Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism

Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York
Sunday February 22, 2004
The Observer

Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.. [sic]

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'

The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority. [Emphasis mine]

Are there any more questions about why so many negative reviews have been written about "The Day After Tomorrow"? If so, go see it for yourself -- without any restrictions on "how you should think about it."

Related links:
* Read more about the Pentagon's report on global warming and download a copy here.
* The Supreme Court's December 9, 2000 "stay" stopping the Florida recount [Link is to an Adobe Acrobat Reader file, despite the ".fdf" extension]
* Greg Palast's report, "The Theft of the Presidency," with links to video files
* Salon.com's "Everything you need to know about the Florida recount"