5/30/2003:   The United States Army, U.S. Marines, and coalition forces have been searching door-to-door, vehicle-to-vehicle, and person-to-person, effectively strip searching the country and terrain of Iraq searching for the weapons that were the core reason behind our latest war. And besides a van that *could* have been used for producing bioweapons (although no traces of bioweapons were discovered in it), there has been no sign of those weapons.

The Bush administration coined this stupid marketing phrase, "Weapons of Mass Destruction", quickly and mercifully shortened to the equally dimwitted TLA (three letter acronym) WMD. They stood in front of Congress, the U.N., and the people of the United States of America and told them that WMDs were being produced in Iraq, ostensibly somewhere where the weapons inspectors couldn't find them, and if we didn't act soon, we were looking at a gun pointed at the world's skull with a madman's finger on the trigger. It was act now or risk the deaths of millions.

And now, weeks after the Iraqi war was finished, we still can't find these weapons.

And now, the intelligence community, which was protesting Bush's actions before the war, have taken a hardline, official, and very public stand against the way Bush fabricated "intelligence" to be used as propoganda to mislead our elected representatives so they would grant him a range of powers not seen since... well, since King George of England was in power...

A group has formed called the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. VIPS has written a formal letter of protest about what it called "a policy and intelligence fiasco of monumental proportions." In it, they say, "While there have been occasions in the past when intelligence has been deliberately warped for political purposes, never before has such warping been used in such a systematic way to mislead our elected representatives into voting to authorize launching a war."

(Note: There's a great write up on all this in the New York Times)

I've mentioned earlier that several heads of the CIA and Pentagon Intelligence resigned just prior to the war because of the way they said the American public was being lied to. And the VIPS has stated directly that rumors and hearsay were being giving undue credibility when communicated to the people we hire to represent our interests, our Congressmen.

Y'know, the last time a President lied to the American public, he got impeached. And those lies didn't get anyone KILLED.

I honestly feel that, while Saddam was an evil man and he deserved to be deposed, there are lots of evil people in the world that we do nothing about because they aren't doing anything that requires that we put the men and women of our armed forces in harms way. We lost over a hundred good people in this war, and for what? To secure oil rights?

Two things to consider:

• When troops entered Baghdad, what was the first site the secured? Ready? The offices of the Oil Ministry. Surprise! Meanwhile, various businesses, hospitals, social infrastructure offices, museums, etc., were pillaged by Iraqi thieves. But they were not allowed to disturb the information on the oil reserves, the equipment, the procedures, the contracts, etc., involved in running the oil business that is Iraq.
• Bush's Dad was head of the CIA at one time. My Dad is an electrician. I'm not an electrician, but I dare say I know more about the work done by an electrician than the average shmoe walking down the street. Bush *did* follow in his father's foots steps, at least the muddy smudges he left in the White House. He knew what power could be wrung from well-spun propaganda.

5/14/2003:   I *really* don't have time to write -- in spite of the many things going on the world that drive me right around the bend -- but I just *had* to comment on this.

It seems that an attorney has decided to protect us all from the trans-fatty acids in Oreo cookies, those same fatty acids that make the cookies so crispy-yet-melt-in-your-mouth-good and the creamy filling so absolutely-addictively-yummy, so he's filed a class-action suit against Nabisco for selling cookies that are not part of this nutritious breakfast.

Must... control... Fist... of... Death...

Ok, I recently made a promise to myself that I would attempt to better myself by not calling anyone names. I'm trying to remove that particular behaviour from my repetoire. You know, "a life unexamined," etc., etc. So...

Who let this ...(struggle)... fella... out of his cage? What ...(struggle)... parent... would raise a ...(strain)... kid... who would be so ...(grimace)... obviously and disingenuously motivated by greed as to attack someone for making cookies, especially Oreo cookies?

Whew.... This resolution ain't gonna be an easy one...

Anyway, the attorney claims his motivation comes from the fact that his father died of coronary problems and that package of Oreo cookies, with its load of trans-fatty acids, is a little heart attack cluster bomb waiting to happen.

Of course, his dear old Dad probably died from eating more red meat than a wolf on a Texas range while puffing stogies and throwing back slugs of bourbon, but who would be stupid ... oops, um... careless... enough to go after the beef industry with its millions of collective dollars of lobbying clout? No, a much better and easier target is Nabisco. One can say that red meat has some kind of redeeming value in its protein content, but Oreo cookies? I think Nabisco would be hard pressed to prove any real nutritive value in that wonderful icon of American culture, the Oreo cookie.

(Queue segue) Which brings me to my point. Ok, deep breath... no name calling...

I sincerely wish this... gentleman... would... find something more constructive to do with his time. I take grave offense at his lawsuit against Nabisco and one of the simple pleasures of nearly every American's childhood, the uniquely delicious Oreo cookie. His flimsy excuse about his father is repulsive, denigrating, and shameful. I highly doubt this ... man's... father would be proud of what he's attempting to do, which when boiled down can only logically be seen as an attempt to fleece a company with deep pockets.

First McDonalds, then Nabisco. Come on people, there are some foods that we *all* know are not good for us, but we eat them anyway while telling ourselves we'll have to do some (extra?) sit-ups Real Soon Now. But suing for lack of discretion on the part of the consumer?

Give me a break.

5/2/2003:   So.

Hm.

Still waiting.

Strange. There don't seem to be any WMDs. Even at places we were all shown satellite pictures of, there don't seem to be any WMDs at all. Test results of possible traces of precursor chemicals consistently test negative.

Former U.N. inspector David Albright brought up a good point. If the information the Pentagon was circulating was accurate, and there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the war, panic should be ensuing as more and more time passes without a clear determination of the location of the WMDs. The longer it takes to find the weapons, the better the chances that they could fall into the hands of terrorist organizations.

But there is no panic, no worry, not even evelated concern. Why?

Perhaps because there are those in the Pentagon that know that the stories were fabricated. There was the example of Bush's speech in which he relates that Iraq was attempting to purchase uranium from African nations. The report he cited turned out to be not only blatantly false, but falsified so badly that anyone in the intelligence community should have immediately picked up on the fact that it was a construction. So blatant in fact that various people in the government have pointed out that it was most likely fabricated within the government itself and pushed along by the highest levels of our government to provide necessary fuel for Bush's agenda, so blatant that two top CIA leaders resigned in disgust.

5/2/2003:   Nic Robertson of CNN: There is no such word as "nukular", no matter how many times Bush pronounces it that way. It's "nuclear". Like this: NOOK-lee-r (or NYOOK-lee-r).

I can't tell you how funny it is for an American to hear someone with a British accent using a pronunciation you usually expect from a Second Amendment spouting, sloped forehead-sporting scholar of the backwoods whose education consists of learning how to pick ticks off hound dogs, how to spit watermelon seeds and tobacco juice, occasionally at the same time, and how to count using buck antler points and beer cans.

Come on, Nic, you're a smart guy. Speak English, man...

5/2/2003:   I took my daughters to see Avril Lavigne recently. It was their first concert. Dad knew to take ear plugs for everyone, and in the Arena it was LOUD. They were impressed, although the younger of the two fell asleep about two thirds of the way through. And that's why I'm writing.

Avril, honey, your music rocks. It really does. It's fun, it's well written, and it sounds good. But your stage performance stinks. Straight up, from a guy that's been rockin' all his life.

The highlight was when she brought out bags of beach balls. The idea was that the audience would toss them around. But there's a problem: the beach balls are emblazoned with Avril logos. Avril spent a couple of minutes asking that people not hog the balls to keep as souvenirs, that they bounce them around the heads of the crowd instead. But two minutes after the balls hit the crowd, they were all gone. Dumb. Avril, if you're going to go that, and it's a cool idea, just get plain beach balls. Or get the kind that you can put glow-sticks in. But don't put your logo on it. Really.

But back to my point: She needs to pump a little energy into her performance. She's a good singer (not great, but good), her material is perfect, her stage equipment is ok (three big LED screens behind the drummer provide decent visuals), but the most energy you get out of her is the occasional jump, jump, jump thing. As as soon as she does that, the performance-starved fans start jumping right in time with her. They love her; she should use their abundance of energy to really take it over the top.

What you end up with is a desire to go watch MTV for the action you didn't get on the stage. It's cheaper, and you can hit "record" on the VCR if you have to take a break. And you can always get your own bag of beach balls and bounce them all you want while you watch....