Source: Boing Boing Blog; 11/11/03; 1:49:10 PM

Bush wants to shut down London while he visits. Bush is so frightened of his staunch allies in Britain that he is demanding that the city of London be practically shut down during his three day visit there.

American officials want a virtual three-day shutdown of central London in a bid to foil disruption of the visit by anti-war protestors. They are demanding that police ban all marches and seal off the city centre.

Link [Boing Boing Blog]

What. A. Fucking. Pussy.

That's right, the President of the United States of America is a big fucking pussy.

Note to non-U.S. readers: He actually lost the election, you know. More Americans voted against him than voted for him. So please, SEND HELP!!!!

10:33:02 PM     leave/read comments []

US Senate backs Syria sanctions. The upper house backs a bill to slap sanctions on Syria if it fails to address the issues of terrorism and WMD. [BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]

Once again, the Bush administration goes blundering into the world, heart set on pissing off every single country in the world, this time with the help of the U.S. Senate.

The bill allows President George W Bush to impose sanctions if Syria is found to be backing terror groups or acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

The Senate amended the bill, meaning it must now go back to the House.

Under the amended bill - passed by 89 votes to four - President George W Bush will have more power to waive the economic and diplomatic sanctions if he deems it in the national interest.

Aside from the fact that George W. Bush wouldn't know what is in the national interest even if it came up, pissed on his shoes, slapped him across the face and planted a big wet one in his ear; using a stick, sans carrot, on the Syrians is just a plain BAD IDEA. (Of course, the currency of the BA is bad ideas, but never mind that for the moment.)

Seymour Hersh fills us in on why we should play nice with Syria.

America intelligence and State Department officials have tol me that by early 2002 Syria had emerged as one o the C.I.A.[base ']s most effective intelligence allies in th fight against Al Qaeda, providing an outpouring o information that came to an end only with the invasion of Iraq.

.....

...after September 11th the Syrian leader, Bashar Assad, initiated the delivery of Syrian intelligence to the United States. The Syrians had compiled hundreds of files on Al Qaeda, including dossiers on the men who participated[~]and others who wanted to participate[~]in the September 11th attacks. Syria also penetrated Al Qaeda cells throughout the Middle East and in Arab exile communities throughout Europe. That data began flowing to C.I.A. and F.B.I. operatives.

Syria had accumulated much of its information because of Al Qaeda[base ']s ties to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic terrorists who have been at war with the secular Syrian government for more than two decades.

.....

Syria also provided the United States with intelligence about future Al Qaeda plans. In one instance, the Syrians learned that Al Qaeda had penetrated the security services of Bahrain and had arranged for a glider loaded with explosives to be flown into a building at the U.S. Navy[base ']s 5th Fleet headquarters there. Flynt Leverett, a former C.I.A. analyst who served until early this year on the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, told me that Syria[base ']s help [base "]let us thwart an operation that, if carried out, would have killed a lot of Americans.[per thou] The Syrians also helped the United States avert a suspected plot against an American target in Ottawa.

Syria[base ']s efforts to help seemed to confound the Bush Administration, which was fixated on Iraq. According to many officials I spoke to, the Administration was ill prepared to take advantage of the situation and unwilling to reassess its relationship with Assad[base ']s government.

From here it looks like the Syrians have been addressing the issue of terrorism, and have been a valuable ally against Al Queda, whom you will remember (even if the Bush administration doesn't want you to), killed around 3000 New Yorkers. As for Weapons of Mass Destruction, how can you help find something that was never there?

My ghod, this stinks to high heaven. And on Veteran's Day, no less. For shame.

5:51:46 PM     leave/read comments []

Dong Resin has a great post up this morning on the Patriot Act. In between the stuff that'll make you laugh till you cry, there's some analysis that'll fill you with bitter rage at the obtuseness of humanity. Can you ask for a better combination? I think not.

11:53:46 AM    

Blur-ing parallel lines.

11:43:34 AM     leave/read comments []

Yes, the Bush administration has found yet another way to make the entire world, even the South Koreans, pissed off at the U.S.A..

Countries Urge U.S. to Drop Steel Duties [AP World News]

Japan demands end to tariffs in 30 days or else will retaliate in concert with the Europeans. South Korea says it hopes everyone will play nice but is not ruling out retaliation, as well. [Nippon Goro Goro]

11:36:40 AM     leave/read comments []

Merriam-Webster 0wnz0red by McDonald's.

Jonas sez, "It appears that dictionary producer Merriam-Webster's has yielded under pressure from McDonald's. Yesterday, the word 'McJobs' disappeared from their web site's page with "new" words in the new edition. I have links to the google-cached version with the word still there - and a pdf-print of it - , and to the 'cleansed' page (and the code)."

Link Terry sent a letter to the dictionarians and got this back: "You'll be glad to know that we have not removed the entry for McJob from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition (which is available on-line by subscription at www.Merriam-WebsterCollegiate.com). Although we did alter some marketing text on our main Web site that quoted the entry, the dictionary itself remains unchanged."
[Boing Boing Blog]

11:34:11 AM     leave/read comments []

12:41:47 AM     leave/read comments []