Month: November 2003

So what do you do if you’re trying to put together campaign commercials for a President who can’t seem to string together more two multi-syllabic words without stumbling? Simple! With just a little “digital cut and paste”, even Dubya can sound coherent!

When President Bush laid out the potential threat that unconventional weapons posed in Saddam Hussein’s hands last year in his State of the Union address last year, he became tongue-tied at an inopportune moment.

[…]

Yet in a new Republican commercial that borrows excerpts from that speech, Mr. Bush delivers that line as smoothly as any other in the address, without a pause between “one” and “vial,” and the v in “vial” sounds strong and sure.

Republican officials acknowledged yesterday that the change was a product of technology. The line, they said, was digitally enhanced in editing “to ensure the best clarity.”

(via Dori)

Back at the beginning of September, there was a bit of a fuss when Army Captain James Yee, who had been working with (ahem) “detainees” at Guantanamo Bay was suddenly held on suspicion of treason, espionage, and “aiding the enemy”. Well, charges against him have finally been filed. What has the military charged him with that caused all the ruckus?

Two counts of failing to obey a lawful general order, adultery, conduct unbecoming an officer, making a false official statement and failure to obey an order or regulation (the latter two charges stem from allegations that Yee viewed and stored pornography on a government computer).

Okay, so apparently the guy was a bit of a shmuck, not to mention a bit of an idiot if he was using government hardware for pornography, and was definitely breaking regulations (if all the allegations are true). But come on — treason and espionage are serious charges, and I would expect that the government wouldn’t be bandying them about unless they had some definite hard evidence of such behavior. Now, two and a half months later, these are the only official charges that they’ve been able to produce?

Chances are, the stories about Yee’s official charges won’t get nearly as much press, though. They’ll be buried four or five pages back in the newspapers, all most people will remember is how some Filthy Traitor was caught by Our Government, and they’ll never hear how inconsequential (at least in comparison to treason and espionage) the actual charges are. It’s a sadly typical situation these days, really.

Apparently Yee has been released pending trial, but some are wondering about the motives of the new charges:

Huda Sobuh, Captain Yee’s wife, told CAIR-Seattle: “I believe emphatically that my husband is innocent of all these charges. I stand by him. It is clear to me the U.S. government only wants to destroy his reputation and his family. They will not succeed.”

“These new allegations, including as they do serious violations of Islamic moral principles, have the odor of a smear campaign about them,” said Ibrahim Mohamed, CAIR-Seattle chairman. “A cynical person might question the government’s motivation for bringing these charges after having failed to back up earlier leaks pointing to espionage and support for terrorism.”

“To bring adultery into a case that began with public allegations of aiding the enemy is really outrageous, and the type of thing that can give military justice a bad name,” said Eugene Fidell, Yee’s civilian attorney.

Al-Muhajabah’s Islamic Blog provides some advice from the Quran, advice which I find to be applicable in many situations these days.

First, as a general rule, one should never blindly accept accusations from a source with questionable motives: O you, those who have faith! If a corrupt person brings you tidings, verify it, lest you attack some folk in ignorance and afterward repent of what you did. (Quran 49:6). Second, and specifically dealing with accusations of adultery, proper proof is required…: Why, when they heard this, did the faithful men and the faithful women not think better among themselves and say: This is a clear lie? Why do they not bring four witnesses? Whoever does not bring witnesses, such people are liars in Allah’s sight. (Quran 24:12-13)

This is so, so, so, so not on my Christmas Wish List:

Amuse your conservative friends and annoy your liberal neighbors with the brand new Ann Coulter Talking Action Figure. This incredibly lifelike action figure looks just like the beautiful Ann Coulter, and best of all . . . it sounds like Ann, too!

[…]

This highly collectible doll comes in a display box with information highlighting Ann’s unique contributions to America’s political discourse. If you can’t get enough Ann Coulter, you’ll want to order the Ann Coulter Talking Action Figure today!

At first I thought this was a joke or a prank or something, especially given the quotes that are apparently programmed into the doll (“Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like Liberals do. They don’t have the energy. If they had that much energy, they’d have indoor plumbing by now.”), but as far as I can tell, this is completely serious.

There is an entire series of “Talking Presidents” action figures available on this website that all have included quotes that seem to be meant to honor the person in question, including George W. Bush (“Freedom itself was attacked by faceless cowards, and freedom will be defended.”), George H. W. Bush (“I don’t see how you can be President if you didn’t believe in a being greater than yourself. I don’t see how you get the strength that you need at quiet moments, the tough moments.”), and Dennis Miller (“The only way we were going to get the French to go into Iraq was to tell them we thought there were truffles in there.”). There’s even one for Donald Rumsfeld (“The only choice one has is to proceed and use coercion.”), which I find at least as disturbing as the Ann Coulter action figure. The most obvious exception is the action figure for Bill Clinton (“I experimented with marijuana a time or two and didn’t like it, and didn’t inhale and never tried it again.”).

Truly bizarre. I guess you want to keep everyone happy over the Christmas season, right?

(via the usual suspects)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum.

[…]

Herman Schwartz, a constitutional law professor at American University who has written about F.B.I. history, said collecting intelligence at demonstrations is probably legal.

But he added: “As a matter of principle, it has a very serious chilling effect on peaceful demonstration. If you go around telling people, `We’re going to ferret out information on demonstrations,’ that deters people. People don’t want their names and pictures in F.B.I. files.”

The abuses of the Hoover era, which included efforts by the F.B.I. to harass and discredit Hoover’s political enemies under a program known as Cointelpro, led to tight restrictions on F.B.I. investigations of political activities.

Those restrictions were relaxed significantly last year, when Attorney General John Ashcroft issued guidelines giving agents authority to attend political rallies, mosques and any event “open to the public.”

Kind of makes me wonder what might be in my file….

(via Jon)