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07/15/2003 Archived Entry: ""

For some time, a clever spoof has been making the e-rounds. Click Google and do a search under "Weapons of Mass Destruction"; the first site to pop up imitates an "Error" URL -- at least, in format -- which states, "The weapons you are looking for are currently unavailable. The country might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your weapons inspectors mandate." (should this page become suddenly unavailable thro' this means, click here.) Major media has finally picked upon the phenomenon...so how long can it last? Or does Google have a sense of humor?

It is amazing to me that Bush's house of cards is starting to crumble over some 16 words uttered in a Presidential address -- "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

After all, as Paul Reynolds observes, "Of the nine main conclusions in the British government document "Iraq's weapons of mass destruction", not one has been shown to be conclusively true." Why now? Why this? But, then, I was surprised that Clinton was broght down by a Monica and a cigar. The key element is that the scandal is spreading, with more and more people/agencies being caught out in lies. As Paul Sperry observes, "In congressional testimony last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld swore repeatedly that he'd just "days" earlier learned that the uranium charge President Bush made against Iraq six months ago was bogus.
Since then, he's had to correct the record twice, finally admitting he knew the allegation was false as early as March – less than two months after Bush's now-controversial State of the Union speech and just before the Iraq war started." It is being called Niger-gate -- Niger being the presumed nation sourcing the alleged uranium. Who forged the documents that lead to those infamous 16 words? Jack Shafer provides a chronicle. Where will it ultimately come to rest? The US blames the UK, the UK blames the French, the French...well, it usually does end by blaming the French...so that may be the culmination. D'ya think?

Today's pick of cartoons: It May Influence His Followers by Tom Toles; Liberty Problem Solved by Tony Auth; Exit by Dick Wright; and, He's Not Clint Eastwood by David Horsey.

Today's pick of articles: 1) The still relevant "Mourn -- and organize -- on the 4th of July, 2003 by Thomas L. Knapp from Rational Review. Tom declares, "Fundamental transformation requires a radical agency. The choice facing the libertarian movement on the North American continent is whether it will become that agency and fight to bring forth upon this continent a new and better society based on human freedom; or whether it will ignore the call of history and indulge itself in false moderation and ineffectual reformism, while 300 million human beings are plunged into a new Dark Age by the forces of statism." 2) Neo-conned by Ron Paul, "The modern-day, limited-government movement has been co-opted. The conservatives have failed in their effort to shrink the size of government. There has not been, nor will there soon be, a conservative revolution in Washington. Political party control of the federal government has changed, but the inexorable growth in the size and scope of government has continued unabated." 3) Troubled Sleep - Getting Used to the American Gulag by Chris Floyd from CounterPunch, "History has shown us this sad spectacle many times before: a people sleepwalking into tyranny and disaster. A people lulled into a stupor by alternating currents of fear and frivolity, afraid to cast off their comforting ignorance--their willful ignorance--of the crimes being committed in their name."

Best to all,
mac