Regrading the Playing Field

I'm not yet to the point of taking a stand on this. However, there seems more than a little evidence that the timing of the whole shitaree was called from this side of the pond. Given what we have seen of rovian obsessiveness, i.e. partisan politics, secrecy, and public relations being much higher priorities than actual thwarting of terrorism, a person with even a quantum of awareness might be inclined to be a tad more inquisitive than the pablum-supplying MSM. There is a definite smell in the air.

My favorite recovering neocon, Andrew Sullivan seems to be wearing the same tin foil headgear as I am. So I'm beginning to think my smelling fraud on this latest gig out of London isn't an exercise in well-earned paranoia, but will prove to be indisputable fact. Here's Andrew today, quoting a memo from Craig Murray, Blair's ambassador to Uzbekistan:

"None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time.

In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms.

What is more, many of those arrested had been under surveillance for over a year - like thousands of other British Muslims. And not just Muslims. Like me. Nothing from that surveillance had indicated the need for early arrests.

Then an interrogation in Pakistan revealed the details of this amazing plot to blow up multiple planes - which, rather extraordinarily, had not turned up in a year of surveillance. Of course, the interrogators of the Pakistani dictator have their ways of making people sing like canaries. As I witnessed in Uzbekistan, you can get the most extraordinary information this way. Trouble is it always tends to give the interrogators all they might want, and more, in a desperate effort to stop or avert torture. What it doesn't give is the truth ...

We then have the extraordinary question of Bush and Blair discussing the possible arrests over the weekend. Why?"

Read the rest of the post here. The only thing left is for the Brits to do is quietly free the suspects for a lack of evidence (and blame US impetuousness for it) and send the Poodle the Medal of Freedom for advancing the perverse cause of Bushco.

UPDATE:

The first of the "terrorists" in London got his walking papers today. Wonder when the rest will follow...

Ah Vanity - As if the Scumbag Had Any Face to Save

This post helps me understand why I feel sort of dirty and soiled as a simple result of my role as an American citizen in these times who has not taken protest to the point of being jailed (Cindy S. you rock!!). I mean really. This is where we are as a country? The majority of us? Holy shit.

I've been thinking a lot about the quote about The Decider's dissatisfaction with the Iraqi response to his invasion of their country. Here it is again:

"[T]he president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq, and was puzzled as to how a recent anti-American rally in support of Hezbollah in Baghdad could draw such a large crowd."

Where to start? Froomkin has coverage of the quote in today's column, including this:

"Bush had only one demand: 'It's important to have someone who's willing to stand up and thank the American people for their sacrifice in liberating Iraq.' According to Bremer, he came back to this single point three times in the same meeting. Similarly, Ghazi al-Yawar, an obscure Sunni Arab businessman, became Bush's candidate for president of Iraq's interim government because, as Bremer reports, Bush had 'been favorably impressed with his open thanks to the Coalition.' "

This really is all you need to know about the man who is president. He starts a war under false pretenses for dubious motives (democracy only became a motive, remember, when other rationales failed) and is pissed that the citizenry of the invaded and occupied country, who are dying in a civil war at the rate of 3000 a month, aren't sufficiently paying him tribute.*

We only thought we were fucked. People are dying by the dozens a day in a war we are losing and this fucktard is concerned he's not receiving proper glory.

*(I know that if I were an ambitious con-man of scraping intelligence, the game plan for bilking Bush is the brown-nose supreme. It worked, for a while, for Chalabi, after all - and look what good that relationship did and how well it turned out. Seriously, if you're negotiating with The Decider, how could you NOT think he could be rolled?)