Few citizens have bothered to equip themselves to deal with volcanic upheaval, solar flares, or the Lord's purifying flame
Ah yes, a bit of good-natured tweaking from the fine folks over at The Onion. Hell knows we could use a good chuckle, especially after dredging up the horrors of 9/11 all over again. Between that and the Katrina anniversary, I need some coaxing out from underneath my bed.
But who knows how long it will last. Yesterday there were a few little goodies over in the Middle East.
At Saddam Hussein's trial, he lashed out against "agents of Iran and Zionism" during his trial. Yes, Iran. Remember what I posted yesterday? Saddam is a lot of things but he is not stupid. Au contraire, he is a wily bastard and you just know all hell is going to break loose during his trial when he pulls out the four aces up his sleeve- all the years of support he received from the US. He is going to name names, dates, and all the ugly details. His starting in on mentioning Iran is merely the opening gambit. He knows this will strike a chord among many of his fellow Sunnis, given the bloody war in the 80s between Iran and Iraq that some estimate resulted in a total of a million casualties.
The other event is even more intriguing. Militants attempted to storm the US embassy in Syria. Now the initial AP report made it sound like it was just a gun battle, but this morning's Boston Globe says that attempts were made to blow up the embassy. But the rub is this- the attack was turned aside by the Syrian military.
We have been on less than friendly terms with the Syrians and President Assad for many years, mainly due to their support for Hezbollah. But confounding the image of the Syrians supporting terrorism is Assad's own troubles with Al Qaeda. Assad is more secular and he has cracked down on Islamic fundamentalists in the past. But we didn't hear any of this during this summer's events in Lebanon. All we heard- at least here in the States- is how Syria supported terrorism.
Again, this is more grey that will cause heads to explode within the GOP. The American people do not like grey, it cannot be condensed into 15 second sound bites that will not interfere with the latest "reality" dreck spewed out by the networks, and by begrudginingly complimenting Syria for their actions, they could conceivably, by Karl Rove standards, be accused of being soft on terrorism.
Yes, politics is stupid and evil and brings out the worst in people. Perhaps this is why I love them so much. This is the true reality- venal craven weasels going after one anothers' throats. It's the human version of cockfighting. And to that I say, let the games begin.
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But who knows how long it will last. Yesterday there were a few little goodies over in the Middle East.
At Saddam Hussein's trial, he lashed out against "agents of Iran and Zionism" during his trial. Yes, Iran. Remember what I posted yesterday? Saddam is a lot of things but he is not stupid. Au contraire, he is a wily bastard and you just know all hell is going to break loose during his trial when he pulls out the four aces up his sleeve- all the years of support he received from the US. He is going to name names, dates, and all the ugly details. His starting in on mentioning Iran is merely the opening gambit. He knows this will strike a chord among many of his fellow Sunnis, given the bloody war in the 80s between Iran and Iraq that some estimate resulted in a total of a million casualties.
The other event is even more intriguing. Militants attempted to storm the US embassy in Syria. Now the initial AP report made it sound like it was just a gun battle, but this morning's Boston Globe says that attempts were made to blow up the embassy. But the rub is this- the attack was turned aside by the Syrian military.
We have been on less than friendly terms with the Syrians and President Assad for many years, mainly due to their support for Hezbollah. But confounding the image of the Syrians supporting terrorism is Assad's own troubles with Al Qaeda. Assad is more secular and he has cracked down on Islamic fundamentalists in the past. But we didn't hear any of this during this summer's events in Lebanon. All we heard- at least here in the States- is how Syria supported terrorism.
Again, this is more grey that will cause heads to explode within the GOP. The American people do not like grey, it cannot be condensed into 15 second sound bites that will not interfere with the latest "reality" dreck spewed out by the networks, and by begrudginingly complimenting Syria for their actions, they could conceivably, by Karl Rove standards, be accused of being soft on terrorism.
Yes, politics is stupid and evil and brings out the worst in people. Perhaps this is why I love them so much. This is the true reality- venal craven weasels going after one anothers' throats. It's the human version of cockfighting. And to that I say, let the games begin.
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posted by Stevie Z at 1:18 PM
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