August 13, 2004

• I dunno. You comment that Dubya and his coterie should be ripped to pieces by the ghosts of the troops they sent to be slaughtered in Iraq and you're accused of being reactionary. (-;
• Seriously, though, the lack of civil debate is disturbing.
• Who wants civil debate? A large portion of the world's population (those being bombed, maimed, occupied, etc.) would welcome a Tomahawk through an oval office window. Collateral damage? Oh well. Shit happens.
• The problem with the terror alert is it's worthless. It can't give us any useful information without betraying that we have useful information. So it either has to be too vague to be worthwhile, or specific enough that the terrorists can determine our sources of information. And if the thing is so useless for protecting us from terrorists, what is the point in having it? I think the better way to deal with it would be to give up on color coding how afraid we're supposed to be and maybe to find some way of preventing the terrorist attacks.
• I am a prostitute.
• I'm a gay marriage.
• Please. The cons crying about the lack of civil debate is truly rich, considering they were the ones that mastered the fine art of lowering the signal-to-noise ratio. I'm not saying that the dems sinking to that level is any better, but for someone hoist by his own petard to then bitch about his predicament is the height of ridiculousness. Should we give terror warnings credence? Sure. But we should also take them with a grain of salt when they happen to come out when BushCo needs a boost in the polls.
• Every word in the Bible is true.
• Really? Shit! Now I'm a platonic friendship.
• And I'm a shellfish by-product.
• Seriously, though, the lack of civil debate is disturbing. Yes, I agree here. However, the article says: Bill Clinton's rocket attacks in Afghanistan in the hopes of killing Osama bin Laden Um, let's please not forget that Clinton also bombed a pharmeceutical plant in Sudan, leading to many thousands of deaths. the Bush people felt obliged to release the fact that the British and Pakistanis had arrested al-Qaida computer guru Mohammed Nasin Noor Khan Yeah, like they had no choice. Give me several breaks! While the level of discourse is sadly vicious, I think this has more to do with the Republican framing of politics as war than with Democratic jabs at questionable Bush administration terror alerts. (The data for the NYC alert was from three years ago! Growl fume spit
• Doesn't Dick Morris have some toes to suck?
• *adores Turkmenbashi* beeswacky, pray for us.
• I'm a terror alert. Please report any Syrian airline passengers in this thread to me. Oh, and keep shopping.
• Found an Ethiopian over here. Ratchet the terror level up to beige.
• Bomb Addis Ababa. And Abba - just to be sure. Now I'm a smart bomb! Weeeeeeee! Watch out, brown people! I'm-a coming to blow off your arms and legs!
• Like a bang, a boom-a-boomerang Dum-be-dum-dum be-dum-be-dum-dum Oh bang, a boom-a-boomerang
• I don't have a sense that there's a lot of anger.
• I am a desk lamp.
• I'm vague sensation of the uncanny.
• I'm Spartacus!
• It was a comforting article in that it mostly lacked the usual vicious partisan spin. But it wasn't really all that insightful. I'm with Sandspider - the terror alerts shouldn't be public information since there's nothing useful the public can do with them. If they have specific intelligence, they should put men on the job of protecting the expected targets and/or locking up the suspected terrorists. I think, for example, the idea of putting plain clothes marshalls on random flights in case of hijackings was a rare wise decision.
• Image light bulb.
• No, I'm Spartacus!
• I'm ME! No one can take that away.
• Since the author seems focussed on partisan dislike of the administration as a bad thing, does that mean it's OK that I'm vehemently against the administration from a non-partisan standpoint?
• No, I'm Spartacus.
• I'm a paddleboat full of child molestors who can't be prosecuted because they are in international waters and all they talk about is fishing and molesting children because that's all they have in common and they have to fish to survive.
• check please
• Holy Christ, hasn't anyone heard of Dick Morris? He's a vile hack who gives not a shit about freedoms, morality, or anything else except getting politicians elected. He wants us to stop caring so much so politics can go back to being an arcane insiders' game run by assholes like him. I beg you not to take his "thoughts" seriously and to return to your previously scheduled rage at the evils our unelected administration is perpetrating.
• (Er, "our" for the unfortunate citizens of the US, that is; the rest of you can point and laugh while you dodge the missiles.)
• This is bullshit. Of course people should be angry. It's a great republican trick to do millions of things that would make any reasonable person angry, then call their critics unstable, mean-spirited, etc when they actually show a little anger. Sometimes people pretend to be "reasonable" because they know they are completely in the wrong-- I'm reminded of the Simpsons where Homer forgot to pick bart up at soccer practice for 3 days: HOMER: now we could argue all day about who forgot to pick up who, but let's just say we were both wrong and leave it at that. Some of the hippie rhetoric does go too far, comparing Bush to Hitler or real dictators, or saying America is the worst country in the world, does nothing but show a tremendous lack of perspective. But using terror alerts for PR? Damn right. Of course they are. It would be silly to think otherwise. I'm sure there is some genuine cause for concern at times, but I'm sure PR factors in too.
• Nope... I'm Spartacus. posted by Spartacus at 0:72BC UTC on August 14 I'm wrapping my house in duct tape.
• Dick Morris frequently comments on Australian politics in the local press. So he gets international asshole points.
• I am a gluten-free communion wafer.
• I'm Daisy_May. No, wait, I'm NOT Daisy_May, swear to God!
• I want to be your Space Invader.
• I'm daisy_may. posted by daisy_may at 7:01 UTC on August 14th For the record, I have never seen MCT and daisy_may in the same place at the same time.
• Pity daisy_may munged the time/date format, eh, the_bone?
• Yep. I am teh suX0r.
• *hides Spiderman costume*
• Wait, so Dick Morris is saying that the Bush administration had to reveal the identity of their mole because people weren't believing the terror warnings? So it's all the Democrats' fault, really? Feh.
• Everything's the democrats' faults. They're a symbol of everything that's wrong with this country. When you're sleep, democrats will recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so all of your ice cream melts. They will demagnetize the strips on all of your credit cards, screw up the tracking on your VCR and use subspace harmonics to scratch any DVDs that you try to play. Democrats will give your ex-girlfriend your new phone number. They will mix Kool-aid into your fish tank. They'll drink all of your beer and leave your socks out on the coffee table when company's coming over. They will put a dead kitten in the back pocket of your good suit pants and hide your car keys when you are late for work. Democrats will make you fall in love with and want to marry a gay penguin. They will give you nightmares about circus midgets. They will pour sugar in your gas tank and shave off both your eyebrows while dating your girlfriend behind your back and billing the dinner and hotel to your Discover card. They will seduce your grandmother. It doesn't matter if she's dead, such is the power of democrats, it reaches out beyond the grave to sully those things we hold most dear. They move your car randomly around in the parking lot so you can't find it. They will kick your dog. They will leave libidinous messages on your boss's voice mail using your voice! They are insidious and subtle. They are dangerous and terrifying to behold. They also look good in a rather interesting shade of mauve. Democrats will give you Dutch Elm disease. They will leave the toilet seat up. They will make a batch of Methamphetamine in your bathtub and then leave bacon cooking on the stove while they go out to chase grade-schoolers with your new snowblower. My apologies to the good times virus for stealing its thunder.
• *hides gay penguin* Lies! Lies!