OK, worst hotel ever. Even though we're a little down the hall from it, the elevator beep volume is deafening, and the plumbing is malfunctioning so there's literally something that sounds exactly like and is as loud as a fire alarm going off periodically. Oh, and there's construction and jack hammering outside our window as they rebuild the courtyard. So there's not been a lot of much needed sleeping. We're checking out today and going to a different hotel.
After that I think we'll take a walk down by the old harbor, so I'll post those pictures later today if I can.
Other than that, Sy Hersh has a quote on why it's so hard for Kerry to get a lead on Bush (more) which sort of echoes the studies on how Bush supporters are highly disconnected from reality and have far less understanding of science, history, world events, and so on in comparison to normal people.
"I think one thing you have to face up to is the fact there are roughly 70 million people in America who do not believe in evolution - and those are Bush supporters."
One of the fundamental failings of democracy is that for it to work, you really do need an intelligent and well informed voter pool. If not, you end up with Iraq, which is ready to vote in an Islamic government, or America which is still in favor of Bush, although the tide is slowly turning. In the shadow of Amnesty International pointing out that the US has not changed it's pro-torture stance (more), Hersh has also been talking more about the tortures he's seen (more). Some excerpts:
So orders came down from the generals in Baghdad: We want to clear the village, like in Samarra. And, as [the soldier] told the story, another platoon from his company came and executed all the guards, as his people were screaming, "Stop!" And he said they just shot them one by one. He went nuts, and his soldiers went nuts.... And the company captain said, "No, you dont understand. Thats a kill. We got 36 insurgents."
The women [at Abu Ghraib] were passing messages out saying, Please come and kill me because of whats happened. And basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children ... the boys were sodomized, with the cameras rolling, and the worst above all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking. That your government has, and theyre in total terror its going to come out.
Other than that, Rumsfeld admits that the US had no plans on how to deal with insurgency (more) — even though they'd started planning the war in the late 90s (more). Both US (more) and Iraqi (more) officials are debunking the various spins on where the missing 380 tons of explosives went, including the notion that Russia did it (more). The fact is, a convoy of 40 to 60 trucks moving 380 tons of explosives isn't going to be missed in a tiny country under constant air and satellite surveillance. The US government should know perfectly well where it is, no matter how many times Bush comes up with a new reason (more, more) — sound familiar?
Anyway, this computer is missing some of its keys so writing these entries is a pain in the ass. If you'd like to stay up to date, here are three great resources:
Metafilter is also pretty good at posting relevant links, although the above three my favorites.
All that said, it's really the 2008 election that's going to be interesting… After all, with the US having as little as four and a half years of domestic oil supplies left, if hostilities between the US and the rest of the world continue to rise, it will be forced to go to all out war, probably nuclear, simply to keep itself fed (more). Welcome to the apocalypse (more, more, more).
They say hurricaines are a symptom of global warming. Maybe that's why almost 60,000 absentee ballots in Florida just went missing (more)?
Thought you might like Bush's
“one fingered victory salute” to America (his quote on it). Of course, I think I can say with some certainty that this video might even
help Bush get re-elected… sad.
