micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links |
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Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm. Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net. Holmquist's full archives are listed here.
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Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution) Aljazeera.Net English Blogs that for one reason or another Holmquist would like to read on at least something of a regular basis (always in development) Thivai Abhor |
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
"So much idiocy in the world," as not sung by Bob Marley Via Matthew Barganier (in a roundabout way) and the always interesting Glenn Reynolds, I've come across a bit of wisdom from Bill Hobbs, who with regard to a speech by Joseph Wilson, writes: Regarding the Iraq war:I'd point out the flaw in this argument -it should be obvious- but past experience suggests that doing so wouldn't convince anyone. So just laugh with me.Of course we didn't find any terrorists when we got to Iraq, just as we haven't yet found any weapons of mass destruction, though on that score I remain of the view that we will find biological and chemical weapons and we may well find something that indicates that Saddam's regime maintained an interest in nuclear weapons - not surprising if you live in a part of the world where you do have a nuclear armed country, enemy of yours, that's just a country away from yours."(In other words, if Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, blame the Jews.) *** Matt Biven's has a column on this in Monday's Moscow Times on prolif. (Thanks to Sam Koritz for the link.) Also there's my "All Nations -including Iraq- want Nuclear Weapons." *** Oh, I don't care about the Wilson/Plume affair. I refuse to start telling Team Bush how they should run their "war on terror." *** "With no chemical or biological weapons yet found in Iraq, the U.S. official in charge of the search for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction is pursuing the possibility that the Iraqi leader was bluffing, pretending he had distributed them to his most loyal commanders to deter the United States from invading," Walter Pincus and Dana Priest write in today's Washington Post. "Such a possibility is one element in the interim report that David Kay, who heads the 1,200-person, CIA-led team in Iraq, will describe before the House and Senate intelligence committees on Thursday, according to people familiar with his planned testimony." *** I have told myself numerous times that I should take this blog less seriously, but then find it hard to pull back. I doubt that the blog is worth the time that I put into it. I have no effect on the likes of George W. Bush or Bill Hobbs, or probably anyone else. At this point in time I doubt I am going to pick up a large audience any time soon so if the blog doesn't satisfy me, it is time for a change of whatever kind I choose. But does it satisfy me? To be honest, I'm not sure. UPDATE: O.K. I may not "care" about the Plume/Wilson -if the cover of a Central Intelligence Agency agent is blown, it might not be a bad thing, IMHO- but, thank to Matt Drudge, I have some more to say. In a column published today, Robert Novak writes: The leak now under Justice Department investigation is described by former Ambassador Wilson and critics of President Bush's Iraq policy as a reprehensible effort to silence them. To protect my own integrity and credibility, I would like to stress three points. First, I did not receive a planned leak...Is Novak so dense, or partisan, as to ignore the possibility that this info was "planted" in this fashion so that it would appear as it does to him? I'm not saying that's what happened but it could have. In a Washington Times piece from today on the same matter, Helle Dale writes: What we do know is that damage is being done to the reputation of the Bush White House by the controversy over the leak. President Bush came into office with the promise to bring honor and integrity to the office of the presidency after the Clinton impeachment trial, and here we are now with calls for independent prosecutors coming fast and furious from Democrats, who hated the idea when Bill Clinton was the target.Of course the opposite is largely true now. More: In a politically sound move, and as soon as the CIA reported that "two senior administration officials" had given the name of an agent (i.e. Mr. Wilson's wife) to journalists, the White House lost no time facilitating the leak investigation. It was referred to the Justice Department on Sept. 27. So far, we have seen none of the Clinton-era, Janet Reno-style stone-walling in evidence.Give them time, especially if the investigation interferes with "the highest priorities that are going on in here." *** "A massacre of student protesters 35 years ago was touched off when at least 360 snipers under government command fired into the crowd, according to once-secret government files obtained by The Associated Press," Morgan Lee of the AP writes today. More here. 7:43 p.m. 10/01/03 |