Porno for Women

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Marureen Dowd - Hey, W! Bin Laden Still Determined

July 18, 2007
Hey, W! Bin Laden (Still) Determined to Strike in U.S.
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON


Oh, as it turns out, they’re not on the run.

And, oh yeah, they can fight us here even if we fight them there.

And oh, one more thing, after spending hundreds of billions and losing all those lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re more vulnerable to terrorists than ever.

And, um, you know that Dead-or-Alive stuff? We may be the ones who end up dead.

Squirming White House officials had to confront the fact yesterday that everything President Bush has been spouting the last six years about Al Qaeda being on the run, disrupted and weakened was just guff.

Last year, W. called his “personal friend” Gen. Pervez Musharraf “a strong defender of freedom.” Unfortunately, it turned out to be Al Qaeda’s freedom. The White House is pinning the blame on Pervez.

While the administration lavishes billions on Pakistan, including $750 million in a risible attempt to win “hearts and minds” in tribal areas where Al Qaeda leaders are hiding and training, President Musharraf has helped create a quiet mountain retreat, a veritable terrorism spa, for Osama and Ayman al-Zawahiri to refresh themselves and get back in shape.

The administration’s most thorough intelligence assessment since 9/11 is stark and dark. Two pages add up to one message: The Bushies blew it. Al Qaeda has exploded into a worldwide state of mind. Because of what’s going on with Iraq and Iran, Hezbollah may now “be more likely to consider” attacking us. Al Qaeda will try to “put operatives here” — (some news reports say a cell from Pakistan already is en route or has arrived) — and “acquire and employ chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear material in attacks.”

(Democrats on cots are ineffectual, but Al Qaeda in caves gets the job done?)

After 9/11, W. stopped mentioning Osama’s name, calling him “just a person who’s now been marginalized,” and adding “I just don’t spend that much time on him.”

This week, as counterterrorism officials gathered at the White House to frantically brainstorm on covert and overt plans to capture Osama, the president may have regretted his perverse attempt to demote America’s most determined enemy.

W. began to mention Osama and Al Qaeda more recently, but only to assert: “The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th.” His conflation is contradicted by the fact that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, as the Sunni terrorist group in Iraq is known, did not exist before 9/11.

Fran Townsend, the president’s homeland security adviser, did her best to put a gloss on the dross but failed. She had to admit that the hands-off approach used by Mr. Musharraf with the tribal leaders in North Waziristan, which always looked like a nutty way to give Al Qaeda room to regroup, was a nutty way to give Al Qaeda room to regroup.

“It hasn’t worked for Pakistan,” she conceded. “It hasn’t worked for the United States.”

Just as we outsourced capturing Osama at Tora Bora to Afghans who had no motive to do it, we outsourced capturing Osama in Pakistan to Mr. Musharraf, who had no motive to do it.

Pressed by reporters on why we haven’t captured Osama, especially if he’s climbing around with a dialysis machine, Ms. Townsend sniffed that she wished “it were that easy.” It’s not easy to launch a trumped-up war to reshape the Middle East into a utopian string of democracies, but that didn’t stop W. from making that audacious gambit.

The Bushies, who once mocked Bill Clinton for doing only “pinprick” bombings on Al Qaeda, now say they can do nothing about Osama because they can’t “pinpoint” him, as Ms. Townsend put it. She assured reporters that they were “harassing” Al Qaeda, making it sound more like a tugging-on-pigtails strategy than a take-no-prisoners strategy.

We’ve had it up the wazir with Waziristan. Surely there are Army Rangers and Navy Seals who can make the trek, even if it’s a no-man’s land. If it were a movie, we’d trace the saline in Osama’s dialysis machine, target it with a laser and blow up the mountain.

W. swaggers about with his cowboy boots and gunslinger stance. But when talking about Waziristan last February, he explained that it was hard to round up the Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders there because: “This is wild country; this is wilder than the Wild West.”

Yes, they shoot with real bullets up there, and they fly into buildings with real planes.

If W. were a real cowboy, instead of somebody who just plays one on TV, he would have cleaned up Dodge by now.


http://select.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/opinion/18dowd.html?ex=1184904000&en=ef8c891d1c42d252&ei=5121&emc=eta1

Harper's Weekly - 7/17/07

July 17, 2007

A White House report showed that only eight of eighteen benchmarks for progress were being met in Iraq, but President Bush asked Congress to wait for another report in September before passing judgment.1 2

Ryan C. Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, pleaded against withdrawal. “In the States,” said Crocker, “it's like we're in the last half of the third reel of a three-reel movie, and all we have to do is decide we’re done here, and the credits come up, and the lights come on, and we leave the theater and go on to something else. Whereas out here, you’re just getting into the first reel of five reels, and as ugly as the first reel has been, the other four and a half are going to be way, way worse.” Unpersuaded, the House voted to begin withdrawing from Iraq in four months.3 4

White House spokesman Tony Snow confirmed that the Iraqi government may take the month of August off, because August is very hot in Iraq. “But, you know,” he added, “they may change their minds.” 5

Two car bombs killed at least 75 people in Kirkuk,6 and a truck carrying 200 suicide-bomb vests was seized near the Syrian border.7

Kurdish guerrillas were fighting Iranian troops,8 and Turkey was amassing more than 200,000 soldiers along its border with Iraq. 9

The U.S. Army fell more than 1,000 soldiers short of its June recruiting goal,10 and the British military insisted that it had not released man-eating badgers in Basra. 11

The Senate voted to double the bounty on Osama bin Laden to $50 million;1

$282 million in American currency was stolen from a bank in Baghdad;. 2 and bin Laden's son Omar announced that he had taken a 51-year-old British grandmother as his second wife.3

China executed Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of its State Food and Drug Administration, for taking bribes to approve untested medicines including an antibiotic reported to have killed ten people.4

Dr. Richard Carmona, former U.S. surgeon general, told a congressional committee that the Bush Administration had censored his speeches and discouraged him from discussing science in public.5

Tourism was down in Crawford, Texas, where George W. Bush owns a very small ranch. To make up for declining sales of Bush merchandise, Bill Johnson, the owner of Crawford's largest gift shop, was stocking more Americana. “We're changing our mix,” he explained. “As a business, we have to do what we have to do to be successful.” 6

John McCain, whose campaign was collapsing, was suspected of violating both Senate ethics rules and criminal law by making a fundraising call from the Republican cloakroom in the Senate.7 8

The phone number of Senator David Vitter (R., La.), an advocate of family values and of Rudolph Giuliani, was found on the client list of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who is accused of running a Washington, D.C., area prostitution ring.9

Florida State Representative Bob Allen (R., Merritt Island) was arrested for offering to perform an unspecified sex act on an undercover police officer for $20.10

Over 500 victims of clergy sexual abuse settled their claims with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for $660 million; the Archdiocese is expected to sell up to 50 church properties to raise funds, as many of the the cases date from periods when it had little or no sexual-abuse insurance.11 12

An interdenominational congregation in New York City was suing to prevent a large ad for bidets, depicting naked derrieres with smiley faces on them, from being erected on their Times Square church. 1

Pope Benedict XVI decreed that, by definition, Protestant churches are not churches.2

A Hindu prayer at the opening of a U.S. Senate hearing was interrupted by three angry Christians,3 and militants in northwest Pakistan, misleadingly calling themselves the Taliban, tore up a peace treaty and killed at least 70 people in a series of bombings.4 5 6

Striking teachers in Trujillo, Peru, threw eggs and tomatoes at President Alan Garcia, 7 and in Mexico oil-pipeline sabotage forced more than 100 companies to reduce or suspend production.8

Garbage was overflowing in parts of Oakland, California, after two weeks of dispute between Waste Management, Inc., and Teamsters Local 70. “It stinks,” said Oakland resident Jarod Smith.9

The French celebrated Bastille Day, 10 and Russia celebrated the 60th anniversary of the AK-47. “On behalf of all my brethren who died in the anti-American war to liberate our country,” said Senior Colonel To Xuan Hue, the defense attaché from Vietnam, "we thank you for inventing this weapon.” 11

Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson passed away peacefully amid song and prayer.12

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/07/WeeklyReview2007-07-17

Flashback - December 28, 2006

Here's another in the short-running series of "flashbacks." Actually, they are posts I made in other places around the net, before starting up this blog in January of 2007. This one is from just after this past Christmas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

December 28, 2006

Now, I know I'm not the only one with "issues" where my father is concerned. Knowing that others have similar issues makes it a little better. A little.

Following is a re-cap of our weekend with my visiting parents, and other things in life. There are other examples beyond these, but I'll save those for later. Maybe....

On Dec 27 I got an XMAS card from my sister card postmarked 16 Dec. We're still in the middle of settling into a new home with all the concomitant mess. It's taking forever to get things unpacked and arranged. In her card, she said that "we found out if we gave a party, things will get done." Makes sense to me. Unfortunately, our rooftop deck is not done yet by the builder, and no amount of partying - or threat of partying - is going to hurry up that one. But that's a thought to remember...

I had to talk to about five people at the Post Office over the last week before a Supervisor finally told me that I was going to have to go to our new Post Office and physically pick up our mail that had been forwarded from our old apartment address. Oh! I thought the Post Office delivered mail. Silly me!

Turns out the PO won't deliver our mail until a cluster box is installed on our property. But we didn't know that. Our builder hadn't told us that. In fact, our builder had attached mailboxes to each of the three houses, as if we were going to actually get mail there, and so we would periodically, anxiously, increasingly frustratingly, peek into them to see ... nada.

The PO Super that finally called me back said cluster boxes were supposed to be installed this week. This is actually a good thing, because the mailbox the builder attached to the house doesn't lock and so anyone passing by - and there does seem to be an interesting assortment and number of people "passing by" - could nab our mail. One of them already absconded with my tool box, on the day after we moved in! Welcome to the neighborhood! No worries, however. It was full of old rusted shit that I hadn't gotten rid of in years. Time for a new start! Bright side and all.

(Turns out, a neighbor has told us that the house that was on the property before ours was built was this huge antebellum mansion type-home that had been left to disrepair because the owner had died. Slowly, the abandoned home became a haven for drug dealers and a shooting gallery. Eventually, it became a crack house. So, maybe all these people passing by the house are still looking for the crack house. Wonderful!)

At least with a cluster box, our mail is safe from the gypsies, tramps and thieves. And it will only be a short walk to the corner to the cluster box. AND, the box will be facing Bagby Street*, which will help visitors to know that they are in the right place after all. You see, our driveway faces Dennis Street. In fact, all three of the townhomes driveways face Dennis Street. But the addresses are all on Bagby Street. How fucked up is that? So far, everyone except UPS has had trouble finding us. Heckuva job, Brownie!

According to the PO Super, all new construction uses cluster boxes. Period. Makes sense. I just happened to be driving in the Mustang with the top down on a gorgeous December day a few blocks away from the PO where they were holding our mail when he called me, so I just zipped right in. Maybe they should consider a "drive-thru" lane.

And let's hear it for mobile phones, because the phone company, AT&T, still can't seem to get it together to get us landline telephones. But that's another story. If it ain't one thing ....

GEEZ.

Oh, yeah, the parents...

We four kids got the parents a new telephone system with intercom, speakerphone, the works for Christmas because their present phones are a hodge-podge of phone types big and small, some really old. All four of us siblings are going to chip in to pay for it, but it's only $129 for four handsets and a base unit. Not a bad deal. But the question is, will they figure out how to use it? My father is 80 and my mother is 78. She is sharp, but he is showing some signs of dementia and memory loss, not to mention ass-holiness, but that's really nothing new.

I spent a couple of hours over the holidays showing them how to use them, because I bought an exact same system for our new home. We also have an assortment of phone types from over the years. I'm going to act as their "tech support" if they get confused about the phones. They can call me up (if they can figure out how to call me up) and ask me questions about the phones, and I'll have the same type. We'll see how this works.

He is a menace where electronics is concerned. He's got bits and pieces of four computers at his home, in various states of disrepair, because they all quit working properly, for God knows what reason, and he can't put them back together again. Can't throw them out though, oh no.

He's the kind of guy that will "click, click, click-click" frantically on the computer, expecting instant responses, and when the system gets bogged down, he gets frustrated, curses, and wanders off, forgetting what he was doing. Just TRY to teach him anything! Oh, God! First, he has to show you THIS, and THIS, and THIS. Argh!

He's got voicemail on his mobile phone (at least he HAS a mobile phone) but he can't ever remember how to access it. So there's no point in leaving a voicemail for him, because he'll forget how to access it. Hey! Just press 1, then enter your password! It's a universal feature of mobile phones. "I can't remember my password!" (sigh)

Even though they are getting pretty old and feeble, they insist on driving. Watch out! They arrived back home safely after the 450-mile drive, split over two days. Turns out he found the hearing aid he thought he'd lost while he was here. He thought he'd forgotten to bring his hearing aids on the trip down, but on the third day visiting, he found them, in a pants pocket. This time, it fell into a box with a radio we gave him for XMAS. And they found the purse Momma thought they'd left here. 'Twas in the backseat after all. (sigh)

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there was a box hung up in this bureaucratic mailbox morass that was destined for Momma for Christmas. It was one of those Magic Bullet blenders, but now that I have seen her again in person and how slow and frail she is now, I'm thinking twice about giving it to her. Funny thing is I got a two-for-one deal and was planning to keep one for my lovely wife.

Check it out - http://www.buythebullet.com/ Psst! Got an extra Magic Bullet over here! Make me an offer!

The thing is, my mother was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, which sounds bad, but is "better" than the Hodgkins Lymphoma. She's been undergoing chemo and has had her ups and downs. She's getting better. The recent tests were negative (good), and so has only two treatments left before they give her a break. She was pretty tired a lot during our visit. My poor sweet little Momma.

She should not be struggling to cook for herself that much, but it appears the old man is not really stepping into the breach in this regard, i.e. not cooking that much, if at all. He made one comment that all he gets at home is soup and sandwiches, compared to the wonderful meals that my wife cooked up during their visit. Nice. See, HE should be cooking and taking care of HER, but all he wants to do is play his trumpet in Dixieland bands at home. He is obsessed with the horn. Totally self-centered. It's maddening.

Here's a sad example. Momma had waited to go up all three flights of stairs to see our new rooftop deck until she was ready, and so on Christmas Day, with an icy drizzle blowing at about 25 mph from the north, it was finally time. I wanted to combine the trip to the deck with a test of the new telephones we'd bought, so I asked Daddy to stay down on 2 (in the kitchen), with the other phones and the base unit, and we'd take a phone up to the roof. So, three of us up top, one down below. I asked him to page us via the intercom when we'd gotten up there. Or, I could page him when we got up there, whichever. He agreed.

(He'd already been up to 4 to see the deck, on the first day they'd arrived, but Momma didn't want to push it. She was tired. There are 64 stairs to the very top. Even I get a little winded after one flight, and Momma would stuggle up them slowly.)

When Momma is ready and I announced that we were going, he jumps up and says, "I'll go with you."

"OK, fine, you go Daddy, and I will stay down here with the other phones," I said with all sense of resignation firmly tucked away. He had already forgotten that he'd agreed to stay below with the other phones. Not a good sign.

That's silly enough, perhaps, but what wasn't silly is that he was behind Momma, telling her to hurry up the stairs and don't be so slow! Jesus Christ! She's freakin' taking chemo and she takes time to get up the stairs, and you're trying to hurry her up! I jumped his shit for that one.

Cute, huh?

And so it goes. I hope everyone had a great holiday, but that's just because I'm an optimist. I actually know better.

*some details were changed to protect, uh, me.