Open Thread #1

At popular request we will hold this thread open for whatever people want to talk about.

Pat Lang

Comments

[Curious]

Hey hey hey,

I like open thread. They are like box of chocolate, you never know what you gonna get... *in forest gump drawl*

must visit funny blogs/sites. (warning, high chance of up amusing oneself to death)

http://fafblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.michaelberube.com/index.php
http://www.theonion.com/content/index

Also try the comedy directory (audio stream)
http://dir.xiph.org/index.php

[Stiff Mittens]

Here's one:

http://radio.punkvinyl.com/

[Curious]

prawling the internet for audio instead of text.

(rare poetry recording, avantgarde, experimental, etc)
http://www.ubu.com/

High quality music database
http://www.epitonic.com/
http://www.betterpropaganda.com/top_downloads.asp
http://www.insound.com/mp3/

play list community (search for the more obscure playlist. speeches, odd music, video clips, etc)
http://webjay.org/

People who blogs about music. (follow link list for more destinations)
http://sixeyes.blogspot.com/
http://blog.largeheartedboy.com/

enjoy.

(thre are also group of people doing review of odd/obscure movies. some of them are definitely must read)

[Geoff]

I’m particularly fond of this one.

www.turcopolier.typepad.com

He he…

[Minnesotachuck]

Anyone know anything about what's behind this post by Kevin Drum? http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_10/007464.php
More info from "La Republico" about the planning of the Iraq war.

[Curious]

>> Posted by: Minnesotachuck | 31 October 2005 at 03:31 PM<<

Josh marshall and Laura Rosen have some entries few days back. (including link to translation)

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
http://www.warandpiece.com/

Something is up with Bush Italian connection. They also stonewall FBI document requests

[Eric]

I have a question for Pat or anyone else who wants to jump in.

To what extent do you think the not-weird elements of the Democratic and Republican parties have bought into this
preemptive war, democratization and nation-building at the barrel of a gun philosophy?

@200 billion+ a pop, this new-new thing doesn't seem to compute.

At what point does everyone get tired of this wrecking ball aimed the wrong way?

[ked]

I don't think many sensible moderates have bought into the Neocon vision or ever did. At the time of the War Decision, they simply gave Bush the benefit of enough rope to hang himself. The Neocon juggernaut was rolling along smoothly & standing in the way was pointless, even dangerous, given the reign-of-fear-of-terror that the cabal was fomenting. If the Iraq War worked, no one wanted to be left out in the cold. If it failed, well, it wasn't for lack of political power or due to domestic opposition was it? So everyone stood back to let the brat & his gang of ideological thugs have their way. It was the prudent thing to do.

Now, with his policies on most fronts proven to be foolish (at best) & self-destructive (at worst), what is being done? Basically, nothing. The "adult supervision" in the US has given up because the problems just don't have clear solutions.

Meanwhile, Soldiers & Marines die daily. So, remember, when Leadership is screwing up the country, it must be resisted early, often & strongly. Silence is capitulation to stupidity or extremism. At the moment, "everyone" appears to have moved to the complacency phase of the program - at least until our next Big Reactionary Event. Doesn't it just make you proud to be an American?

[Alibubba]

I have a question that I've never heard resolved to my satisfaction.

You'll recall that (I don't remember the date) Saddam's sons, Qusai and Udai, were found holed up in a house. American troops surrounded them and eventually shot them up after a long gun battle and standoff.

The official story was that U.S. forces had no way of knowing if the Hussein boys could have escaped through a secret tunnel and, therefore, it was necessary to grease them then and there.

Now there were probably few other people who deserved such a fate more than the brothers. But it seems to me that their capture could have resulted in some useful intel.

Curiously, Q & U were ratted out by the owner of the house -- who presumably should know if there were secret tunnels under his own house. Was there no tear gas available in the Mideast? Couldn't our troops have simply laid seige and starved them out?

The whole affair was very odd to me. Does anyone have any comments or clues?

Eric

I think they mostly believe their own BS. pl

[Curious]

~~~To what extent do you think the not-weird elements of the Democratic and Republican parties have bought into this
preemptive war, democratization and nation-building at the barrel of a gun philosophy?
Posted by: Eric | 31 October 2005 at 05:10 PM ~~~

strickly Iraq speaking, I think those people was thinking. Hey. easy in, easy out. It's just Iraq. We beat 'em up good 10 years ago and they didn't even fight. So let's do it. 5-6 months top plus all the glory.

Basically, I believe they are just wreckless and believe their own happy thoughts.

But let's see if they still believe that. If you notice, Neocon is pushing Syria into the same confrontational direction. Bolton is already warming UN and setting up Syria for attack.

Sooner or later Bush will push for 'Can I attack Syria' resolution.

[Sally Strope]

Yesterday during Wolfe Blitzer's blame-the-victim segment with Joe Wilson, WB implied you and Larry Johnson (?) said that Mr. Wilson outed his wife when he and Mrs. Wilson posed for Vanity Fair. I'm interested in your take on this. I deduced Wilson was so cool during the inquisition and Wolfe was so steamed about Wilson's calm demeanor (why would he be?) he was ready to say anything to try to get to Wilson.

Sal

Take a look at Booman Tribune and you will see the answer.

pl

[Dave]

Alibubba,

My understanding is that the section of the house that Uday and Qusay chose to hole up in had been fortified against assault. The defenders shot up the entry team (I believe they were from one or another of the SMUs, based on photos I recall seeing of the equipment some soldiers involved in the attack carried, but take this with a grain of salt - memory's fallable and good equipment's pretty pervasive nowadays, in any case) who then pulled back and let the 101st have a go with the high firepower option, including use of TOW missiles.

Hard to see what other alternative they had -- hanging about on the edge of Mosul surrounding Tier 1 personalities while the bad guys cogitate on potential responses is a recipe for bad things to occur. Don't think it was an issue of tunnels, more like the need to not be pinned to one location for so long.

[Lynne]

The GAO report is out. The 2004 election was stolen.

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/152

[Eric]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/22/AR2005112201692.html

Just saw this description of interrogation techniques authorized by Porter Goss in a Pravda on the Potomac editorial.

NKVD and KGB used several of these techniques on detainess from the late 20s onward. Anne Applebaum described their use in her book Gulag.

Interesting.