Politician-to-English translation

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I love this from a Powell briefing in Africa:

But to think that somehow we went out of our way to insert this single sentence into the State of the Union address for the purpose of deceiving and misleading the American people is an overdrawn, overblown, overwrought conclusion.

It’s a non-denial denial!

“…went out of our way” — Who said the Bush administration ever needed to go out of its way to lie?

“…this single sentence…” — Right, the one that implied that Saddam was threatening us with nuclear weapons?

“…for the purpose of deceiving the American people…” — But for some other purpose it would be OK?

“…overdrawn, overblown, overwrought…” — Every “un” but “untrue”!

A good lawyer must have crafted that sentence, eh?

(via Lambert)

Howard Dean: Demand the truth

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Howard Dean’s statment in response to the recent revelations (confirmations?) that the premise for the war in Iraq was based on lies:

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld’s statement yesterday — that he only found out that the Niger documents were forgeries — “within recent days” was stunning.

What is now clear is that there are those in this administration that misled the President, misled the nation, and misled the world in making the case for the war in Iraq.

They know who they are. And they should resign today.

There will be investigations, and the truth will come out — the American people must know the truth — and those in this administration must be held accountable for their failure to give us the truth before we went to war.

But we do not need to wait for the investigations to rid these people from our government — they can resign on their own today.

I am now convinced more than ever that it was a mistake to have given this administration a blank check to engage in this war — as too many in Congress did when they supported the Iraqi war resolution.

The CBS report is being linked to all over the ‘net (as well it should be). Dean has set up a petition calling for the resignation of the guilty parties, and both Kuchinich and MoveOn have similar petitions.

(via Mathew Gross, Lambert, and Kos)

Is 'explosive' the best word to use?

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U.S. report on 9/11 to be ‘explosive’:

A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.

Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be “highly explosive” when it becomes public.

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The report will show that top Bush administration officials were warned in the summer of 2001 that the al Qaeda terrorist network had plans to hijack aircraft and launch a “spectacular attack.”

Hill would not discuss details of the report, but said it will contain “new information” about revelations made last year, when the joint House-Senate investigation held nine public hearings and 13 closed sessions.

The final report was completed in December. Since then a working group of Bush administration intelligence officials has “scrubbed” the report, objecting to additional public disclosures.

Could be very, very interesting.

But — keep in mind that no matter what the report contains, it has already been “scrubbed” by the Powers That Be. Who knows what was lost at that point. And, additionally, as Kos points out:

…people are going to play the expectations game. In this case, the administration has an interest in really hyping the report, leaking suggestions that it will be, well, “explosive”. That way the actual report can’t live up to the expectations and the press will think, “oh, it’s really not that bad”.

Dark Fairytales

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There’s what looks to be an interesting art show opening tomorrow at the Roq la Rue Gallery called Dark Fairytales.

All of the work revolves around the title’s theme, “Dark Fairytales.” The artists were asked to work with existing fairytales — either the “classics” (such as the Grimm Brothers, or Hans Christian Andersen’s stories) — or stories from myths and legends around the world. They could even make up a fairytale of their own.

I won’t be getting home from work in time to hit the opening, but I’ll see if I can get down there sometime this weekend to check it out. Looks like there could be some interesting stuff there.

(via Kirsten [not Kirsten, though])

Always On

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The ubiquity of technology in the lives of executives, other businesspeople and consumers has created a subculture of the Always On — and a brewing tension between productivity and freneticism. For all the efficiency gains that it seemingly provides, the constant stream of data can interrupt not just dinner and family time, but also meetings and creative time, and it can prove very tough to turn off.

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Some people who are persistently wired say it is not uncommon for them to be sitting in a meeting and using a hand-held device to exchange instant messages surreptitiously — with someone in the same meeting. Others may be sitting at a desk and engaging in conversation on two phones, one at each ear. At social events, or in the grandstand at their children’s soccer games, they read news feeds on mobile devices instead of chatting with actual human beings.

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These speed demons say they will fall behind if they disconnect, but they also acknowledge feeling something much more powerful: they are compulsively drawn to the constant stimulation provided by incoming data. Call it O.C.D. — online compulsive disorder.

The New York Times article The Lure of Data: Is It Addictive? describes perfectly something I’ve been noticing all over the place, creeping up for a few years now — and something that I hope I’ll never fall prey to.

This actually ties in to some of my earlier rants about cell phone usage (and rudeness). Everywhere I go, people are constantly so obsessed with being in touch at all times with everyone and everything possible, that the real world practically ceases to exist for them. At the very least, it becomes far less important to them than any of their gadgets, which is my primary frustration. Conversations with someone standing right in front of you are suddenly interrupted for a cell phone’s ring, or a PDA’s beep, or any number of other electronic distractions, and suddenly the person who’s right there becomes secondary to checking the gadget to see what the beep is for.

When did it become so easy to blatantly shrug off real people for e-mail, pager beeps, or any number of other online distractions? And why do so many people accept it so easily? It drives me up the ever-loving wall when I’m being set aside for some gadget, and I make a concerted effort never to do that to others.

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Haunted Mansion Trailer

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Hot on the heels of the theatrical release of Pirates of the Caribbean (which I really need to see), Disney has released the trailer to their next ride-turned-movie, The Haunted Mansion.

I was a lot more interested in this before I saw Eddie Murphy in the trailer. Has he made anything even remotely funny since The Golden Child?

(via Cory Doctorow)

So who was the speech to?

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Bush didn’t make any friends at his stop at the Senegalese island Goree yesterday. After touring the island site that was a launching ground for slave traders, Bush gave an anti-slavery speech. Unfortunately, all the residents of the island had been herded up and penned in a football stadium. So much for anti-slavery.

“We never want to see him come here again,” said N’diaye, hiking her loose gown onto her shoulders with a frown.

As the sun rose over Goree before Bush’s arrival, the only people to be seen on the main beach were U.S. officials and secret service agents. Frogmen swam through the shallows and hoisted themselves up to peer into brightly painted pirogues.

Normally, the island teems with tourists, Senegal’s ubiquitous traders, hawkers of cheap African art, photographers offering to take pictures and all the expected trappings of a tourist hot-spot in one of the world’s poorest countries.

On Tuesday, shutters on the yellow and red colonial-style houses remained shut. The cafes were closed and the narrow pier deserted, apart from security agents manning a metal detector, near the sandy beach. A gunship patrolled offshore.

“We understand that you have to have security measures, since September 11, but to dump us in another place…? We had to leave at 6 a.m. I didn’t have time to bathe, and the bread did not arrive,” the father-of-four said.

“We were shut up like sheep,” said 15-year-old Mamadou.

Absolutely disgusting.

(via Atrios)