'Unprecedented' security for Bush. Security for the London visit of President George Bush will be "unprecedented", the Met chief says. [BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]

Weenie, weenie, weenie.

The £4m blitz will involve all Scotland Yard's armed units and up to 5,000 officers, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens said.

"The bubble" - a ring of 700 of Mr Bush's own secret service agents - will also surround Mr Bush.

How......Imperial of him.

4:28:45 PM     leave/read comments []

It's good to know that there are still gangsters in Las Vegas.

I guess the "What happens here, stays here" ad campaign is working.

Yakuza-LV Money Laundering.

The MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas was used by Japan's loan-sharking czar to launder money, according to law enforcement sources in the United States and Japan.  The suspect ran a shady firm, Goryokai, affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza group.

 

Story developing... [ Nippon Goro Goro]

3:35:12 PM    

It's Friday! Time for another dopey internet quiz!

You are The Midnighter.

The Midnighter was a secret product of the labs of Henry Bendix, part of his Stormwatch "Academy" program, the members of whom were duped into becoming Bednix's personal Stormwatch team. One of many individuals given superpowers by that ruthless personage, he lost his original identity in the process. He was transformed into "Night's Bringer of War", a living weapon designed to "hit thing's until they don't work anymore. The Midnighter automatically analyses every situation he is in as a combat scenario, his computerised senses instantaneously checking out multiple battle strategies until he has located the best one to win the fight at minimal effort. To aid him in the actual fight he has heightened reflexes and strength, and a superb knowledge of most forms of combat.

What Gritty No Nonsense Comic Book Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Props to Adam for the link.

3:09:06 PM     leave/read comments []

As an old friend of Hungry Mind Ruminator Books, this saddens me. It was a great bookstore, even if it was filled with too many snooty Macalester students at any given moment. (I kid, I kid.)

Source: Boing Boing Blog; 11/14/03; 12:15:21 PM.

Ruminator Books's auction. Ruminator Books, an indie bookseller in St Paul, MN, is in dire financial straits and is holding an auction in order to keep its doors open.

An original piece of artwork from Ralph Steadman; Paul Auster's reading glasses; A hunk of wood from Rick Bass's writing cabin; Drawings from Siri Hustvedt and Oliver Sacks; A musical manuscript by Bill Holm; A copy of an early manuscript of 'The Laws of Our Fathers' signed by Scott Turow; T-shirts from Margaret Atwood, Richard Ford and Neil Gaiman; A first draft manuscript page from Charles Baxter; Rick Moody's electronic music CD; A letter written to Russell Banks by Jonathan Safran Foer on a piano roll of 'It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing'; A shirt given to Neal Karlen by Kurt Cobain; A Romanian flag given to Andrei Codrescu amidst gunfire during the 1989 revolution.; also: A limited edition of Mary Poppins (signed on D.L. Travers deathbed); valuable broadsides and handmade books; sports memorabilia; a brownie recipe; a pen blessed by the pope;and a portable personal altar with angel cards; And much more...

Link

(Thanks, Heidi!) [Boing Boing Blog]

2:59:08 PM    

Japan-US Iraq (Kyodo) UPDATING.

Nothing of substance reported from today's meeting between Koizumi and Rumsfeld.[Nippon Goro Goro]

I mean, it's pretty hard to have a substantive conversation with a murderous sociopath.

12:31:07 PM     leave/read comments []

By George! You couldn't make him up, and you don't have to. Like him or loathe him, George Bush is for real - and heading soon for a capital city near you. Rupert Cornwell introduces our celebration of the remarkable career of Britain's favourite US President [ The Independent ]

The U.S. and the U.K. share a new wrinkle in their "special relationship" - lots of folks on both sides of the big pond can't stand Dubya. Heck, the English might even hate him more than Americans do. After all, supposedly just under half of American voters actually voted for Chimpy.

It is not only Bush the Chicken-hawk warmonger and promoter-in-chief of the great illusion about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction who they will be denouncing. It is also Bush the ignorant, self-righteous Christian warrior, Bush the smirking executioner and Bush the believer in one law for America and another for everyone else. And, of course, Bush the "Toxic Texan", an image made flesh by the "ghost ships" bearing down on Hartlepool, whose US-produced contaminants will find a last resting place on Britain's unpolluted isle.

....

No more reassuring is the secrecy with which he and his high command operate. Add that to Bush's aversion to press conferences and Republican control of both houses of Congress, and the Bush White House often appears beyond accountability.

Indeed, today's Washington has a whiff of Soviet ways; suffocating internal discipline, resentment of even reasoned, moderate opposition, and a refusal to admit even the tiniest error. For imperialists, read "evildoers". With their condescending "we know best" attitude, Messrs Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest offer as close an impersonation of the Politburo as you will find. As was said of the pre-glasnost Kremlin then, so with the White House now: you know nothing, but understand everything.

It's like the U.S. has its very own Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev.

Happy stagnation!

12:03:58 AM     leave/read comments []