Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Insta-Hoglets 2nd Nov.

Some punchposts with an occasional dose of snark.

  • Continuing sectarian strife in Iraq shows signs of spilling over into neighbouring Kuwait. The majority Sunni nation has seen anti-Shia attacks and riots, high-ranking military and security officers arrested for plotting anti-US attacks and an increasing level of sympathy to radical Islamist views at higher levels of society.

    Yep, that will be the "spreading peace and freedom" working then. Its instructive that invective is thrown as much at the US for aiding the Shia as at the Shia for collaborating with the US.

  • In an attempt to rescue their nation from descent into civil war, Iraq's leaders are reaching out to former Saddam-era junior military officers, telling them "You country needs you". Its unlikely that many will respond, however, after being sidelined and hounded for so long.

  • Bush has outlined his plan for a possible worldwide super-flu outbreak. Individual States are unhappy about coughing up the dough for their inhabitants and many say the plan to stockpile tamiflu and produce vaccine enough for everyone is insufficient. Meanwhile, Rummy - sure to get treatment at the head of the list - stands to make millions.

  • Larry Beinhart poses the first question for Alito - "Will you be an honest judge?" - and points out that so far Republican judges on the Supreme Court have been far more interested in the rule of Republicans than the Rule of Law.

    I don't think he should expect too much from a man for whom descriptive words like "nice", "quiet" and "bright" sound all too much like the Kansas BTK guy's neighbours explaining why they didn't ever suspect him.

  • Along those same lines, Shakespeare's Sister has some snippets from Scooter Libby's novel and comments:

    What kind of mind comes up with this shit, dreams up scenarios where children are raped by animals to train them in prostitution? Oh, right. A conservative one. One that has toiled under a lifetime of repression, and spent its time dreaming up legislation designed to control the sexual freedom of women and gays. It isn’t enough that men like Scooter Libby must repress their own sexualities; they have to oppress anyone who doesn’t succumb to exhortations to do the same.

  • The LA Times had an intruiging story last week about one of the many ways Big Pharma tries to warp public opinion - commissioning shlock-fiction about a group of shadowy terrorists who conspire to murder thousands of Americans by poisoning the medicine they're importing from Canada to beat U.S. drug prices. For the money offered they could have bought another Senator.

  • In Britain, Tony Blur, the neo-conservative Bush-puppet who hi-jacked the Labour Party, has come within one vote of defeat over a proposed amendment to his draconian new anti-terror laws. The amendment had been proposed by his own backbenchers and further discontent may express itself in another vote later today. Even the conservatives are against the bill for taking too many freedoms away from British citizens.
  • No comments: