Google is never wrong about anything.

Keep this in mind.

the UNPOPULIST

Posted by: Ace at 04:59 AM | Comments (2)
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In a shocking development, Dave from Garfield Ridge has confessed to aiding the Taliban during the '01 invasion.

He is now being held without trial at Guantanamo Bay. Reportedly with a huge grin on.

A draft manuscript obtained by The Associated Press is classified as secret pending a Pentagon review for a planned book that details ways the U.S. military used women as part of tougher physical and psychological interrogation tactics to get terror suspects to talk.

Saar said he witnessed about 20 interrogations and about three months after his arrival at the remote U.S. base he started noticing "disturbing" practices.
...
One female civilian contractor used a special outfit that included a miniskirt, thong underwear and a bra during late-night interrogations with prisoners, mostly Muslim men who consider it taboo to have close contact with women who aren't their wives.
...
Some Guantanamo prisoners who have been released say they were tormented by "prostitutes."
...

In another case, Saar describes a female military interrogator questioning an uncooperative 21-year-old Saudi detainee who allegedly had taken flying lessons in Arizona before the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Suspected Sept. 11 hijacker Hani Hanjour received pilot instruction for three months in 1996 and in December 1997 at a flight school in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"His female interrogator decided that she needed to turn up the heat," Saar writes, saying she repeatedly asked the detainee who had sent him to Arizona, telling him he could "cooperate" or "have no hope whatsoever of ever leaving this place or talking to a lawyer.'"

The man closed his eyes and began to pray, Saar writes.

The female interrogator wanted to "break him," Saar adds, describing how she removed her uniform top to expose a tight-fitting T-shirt and began taunting the detainee, touching her breasts, rubbing them against the prisoner's back and commenting on his apparent erection.

In November, in response to an AP request, the military described an April 2003 incident in which a female interrogator took off her uniform top, exposed her brown T-shirt, ran her fingers through a detainee's hair and sat on his lap. That session was immediately ended by a supervisor and that interrogator received a written reprimand and additional training, the military said.

In America we don't call this torture, we call it VIP.

I'm not sure we'll ever see Dave again.
More here, here, and here.

the UNPOPULIST

Posted by: Ace at 04:29 AM | Comments (9)
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But you guys and gals knew that already.

As if you needed any more proof, here is the most influential military journalist in America going stark raving mad in CounterPunch magazine.

L.A. Times columnist Max Boot fisks Hersh here in his column, but if you prefer to get your smackdown juice mainlined right into your vein, feel free to stop by Garfield Ridge to read my post on Hersh's delusions.

-- Dave at Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Ace at 11:13 PM | Comments (5)
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From Friday's New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 - President Bush said in an interview on Thursday that he would withdraw American forces from Iraq if the new government that is elected on Sunday asked him to do so, but that he expected Iraq's first democratically elected leaders would want the troops to remain as helpers, not as occupiers.

I'm pretty sure I've heard the President and other Administration officials mention this before-- that if asked, we would leave-- but I hadn't heard it recently. Thus, I assumed that we might have been downplaying the previous statements.

But nope, President Bush went on record right before the elections. If the Iraqis elect a government that wants us out of Iraq, we're going to leave Iraq.

I just hope that, if we do leave, we're able to bring along Zarqawi's head atop the turret of the last tank out of Iraq.

-- Dave at Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Ace at 09:17 PM | Comments (3)
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This would be funny.

View image

Story here.

(Just trying to beat D @ GR for posts at this point)

the UNPOPULIST

Posted by: Ace at 08:56 PM | Comments (3)
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For the peeps:

If you don't believe that bloggers are giving newspapers a headache, talk to Nick Coleman. A veteran newspaper columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Coleman is in the middle of an old-fashioned feud with one of the leading conservative Web logs in the country.
 
So far, his battle with Powerlineblog.com — Time magazine's "blog of the year" — has sparked an anger-spewing column by Coleman, an ombudsman's clarification, and a threat by a leading bank to pull advertising from the newspaper.
...
So is this the future of blog-newspaper relations in 2005 and beyond? According to Coleman, yes, and not in a good way. He says traditional news outlets need to keep tabs on the blogs and shoot back when necessary. "Editors and writers in mainstream media are very naive," he says. "Readership and power of the blogs is increasing." He also claims that the blogs are dangerous because they are not under the same ethical restrictions as mainstream media and seek to stay on the attack, facts be damned. He contends "the mainstream media is under assault."

Posted by: Ace at 08:36 PM | Comments (2)
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Either this is an ad, or it's for real.

I'm pretty sure it's an ad. If so, I apologize for wasting your time.

If it's for real, well, you must understand, I can't take any chances.

Because the Superbowl is in *nine* days, and I guarantee you I ain't missing the game on account of some crazy-hairy demonic dripping well-tart.

-- Dave at Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Ace at 08:08 PM | Comments (11)
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Dear jordan,

Listen to this one: "Dean had the oranges," said one of the other candidates for DNC Chair recently, "but he couldn't make orange juice."

It might take a second to figure out, but he was talking about you.

As the race for DNC Chair heats up, the attacks on Howard Dean have been relentless, even bizarre. But Governor Dean usually isn't the target of the attacks -- you are. And, unfortunately, those attacks have been more serious than the one about oranges.

They say that you don't really matter. That you have made no difference.

Obviously, Governor Dean has a different view. You and hundreds of thousands of others have built something to last beyond a single election cycle -- you have revived our democracy and breathed new life into the Democratic Party.
                            ...
They say you don't count. That your work to elect Democrats at every level of office, in every region, somehow didn't matter. That the consultants and strategists have fought these last few elections just fine, thank you, and there's no need for change.

They ignore the doors you knocked on and dollars you gave to elect Dean Dozen candidates -- new mayors in Utah and Oregon, judges in Alabama and Georgia, and governors in Washington State, New Hampshire and Montana.

Governor Dean believes that a bottom-up strategy of empowering Democrats in local communities will be the core of a lasting majority.
                            ...
Since my last e-mail to you, Governor Dean has been all over the country, including Georgia, Missouri, California, Michigan and Kentucky, talking to the 447 people from every state and territory who will decide this election. Your support has made that possible.

But the race just gets tougher -- and the stakes get higher. The other candidates have raised huge sums in unlimited donations from corporate interests and wealthy individuals. And they're spending it on negative attacks -- not just on Governor Dean, but all of us who support him.
                             ...
These desperate attacks come from people inside Washington who want to preserve the status quo -- even if it means keeping Democrats in the minority for another decade. They worry that reform from outside Washington will threaten the comfortable place they have made for themselves inside the establishment.

But in politics, the only place that counts is first place. And we need reform because it's time the Democrats took first place back.

Thank you.

Tom McMahon
Executive Director
Democracy for America

I cannot demand strongly enough: If you are an officer of the DNC, vote Howard Dean. If it helps, I like to think of him as "a reformer with results."

Your cooperation is appreciated.

Posted by: Ace at 08:00 PM | Comments (3)
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Somehow this is both breath-taking and cute:

At the Babylon Hotel tribal sheikhs in long gowns and Arab headdress gathered to hear politicians extol the virtues of Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, who was being touted as the only man with the strength and will to solve IraqÂ’s numerous problems.

Across town Kurdish voters were treated to large slices of chocolate cake, folk dancing and poetry readings praising democracy and reminding them of their duty to their nation.

Elsewhere street urchins were discovering that democracy can pay. They have been hired en masse to put up posters and billboards on every wall space available and probably paid a little extra to tear down the slogans of rival politicians.

Some of the campaigning methods are fairly crude.

One boy said that the police had given him a stack of posters of the Prime Minister and ordered him to put them up around his neighbourhood. The Iraqi Electoral Commission has received complaints that some parties have warned voters that they would “go to Hell” unless they supported their candidates. Others have used photographs of influential religious leaders, such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in their campaign posters even though the Shia cleric is not running in the elections.

Viva.

Posted by: Ace at 07:31 PM | Comments (1)
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Is good promotion.

Regular followers of my self-obsession will understand, that any and all attention is noticed and appreciated, in lieu of being won or deserved. (This cuts down on labor.)

To all who have stopped by, who have put their time in now, for later when I am king of the Internets: Thanks.

It means something. To all of us, I know.

the UNPOPULIST

Posted by: Ace at 07:20 PM | Comments (4)
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