drat fink
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moving company
"Boyd and Blade's company, Berkeley Systems, was famous for its flying toaster screensavers. When the couple sold the company in 1997, they had 120 employees and $30 million in annual revenue. Boyd and Blades were catapulted into national prominence when they became disgusted with the Clinton impeachment process and created a website that tapped into a huge groundswell of opinion that wanted the country and particularly the Republicans to, as the name suggests, move on."
democracy when
"Even those suffering from justification fatigue ought to pay special attention to this one, because it goes beyond the category of reasons offered in support of a course of action that has already been decided upon and set in motion. Unlike the other justifications, it is both a reason for war and a plan for the future. It also cries out for elaboration. Democracy is a wonderful idea, but none of the countries in the Middle East, except Israel and Turkey, resemble anything that would look like a democracy to Americans. Some Middle Eastern countries are now and have always been ruled by monarchs. Some are under the control of an ethnic or religious group that represents a minority of the population. Saudi Arabia and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan are the world's only major nations named after a single family, and in Saudi Arabia the royal family functions as, in effect, the country's owner. Most Middle Eastern countries don't even make the pretense of having freely elected parliaments; in Iran, for example, candidates have to be approved by the mullahs. And the very problem that democracy in the Middle East is meant to solve—rising Islamic radicalism, encouraged or tolerated by governments that see it as a way to propitiate their increasingly poorer and younger populations—makes the prospect of elections dangerous, because anti-American Islamists might win."
what now
eric alterman interview at cal pundit
write or wrong
ahh, a spiteful mentally unstable poet has inscribed me in his book of strife. he shall be richly rewarded with frankinsights and mirth in the after-laugh, although both are in short supply here.
purchasing order
doing what we do best, bribing consensus.
you can get americans on the cheap. hell, well even pick up the tab. just a few concerned looks some lazer guided missives and a whole lot of nonlethal gas and were ready to roll.
bomb squad
"The euphoria in the West following the collapse of the Soviet Union had an amazing effect. The general public came to believe that the end of the cold war also meant the end of the nuclear peril, and that the nuclear issue could be taken off the agenda of important problems. This is seen in a public opinion poll in the UK about the most important issues facing Britain. During the cold war, more than 40 per cent put nuclear weapons as such an issue. Since the end of it, the percentage dropped rapidly, and nowadays is practically zero."
india irate
havent read it yet, but heres a report from india entitled Behind the Invasion of Iraq.
park avenue west
oh yeah, *cough* and a new football stadium.
a poor excuse for a link
have to throw up the obligatory link to the latest clay shirkey article which explains both why im poor and unpopular.
but i sure know how to link.
just three easy steps to...
"The plan is in three stages: first, US-led military rule; second, a transitional phase with an American military governor ruling alongside a civilian leader appointed by (or at least acceptable to) the international community; and, finally, handover to a regime sympathetic to and nurtured by Washington."