Monday, September 15, 2003

Delayed Report on WMD's

Brother Dave sent this link on the delay of the official report on the "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq. According to this CBS report, the Iraq Survey Group has not found any evidence of WMD or even of a viable WMD "program".

Meanwhile, on MSNBC, Eric Aleterman offers an excellent rebuttal to the ridiculous claim that there was a liaison between Iraq and al-Queda. [Many thanks to Rob Salkowitz at Empahsis Added for the lead]

And yet, if recent opinion polls are to be believed, the majority of Americans believe there was a connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks. Many Americans believe WMD will eventually be found.

In other words, if these polls are to be believed, most Americans are idiots, and we pretty much deserve the proto-dictatorship we are about to slide into.
There is some good news however. The federal appeals court has halted the ill-considered California recall election. Supporters of the recall have pledged to file a brief with the US Supreme Court on Tuesday. This article from the San Francisco Chronicle suggests the high court may choose to dodge the bullet this time.

Well, one can only hope that the court will not choose to make another "once-in-a-lifetime" decision, as it did in 2000. Seems to me that doing so will negate the great pains the court went to in its Bush v. Gore decision to emphasize that it only applied to the special circumstances of that particular election.
On the plus side of this California thing, Bill Clinton is on the trail again. I heard a clip this morning of him speaking against the recall at an AME church. You could hear folk in the congregation shouting "Amen" as Bill talked about how those who supporting the recall were more concerned about the mote in the Gray Davis' eye than the log in their own. The man was a born preacher. And there's no fun quite like having Preacher Bill cleaning the Republican clock. If the High Court dodges the bullet, Brother Bill will have to go back to stumping for John Kerry (of all people).
I tell you what. When I seriously survey the current political landscape of America, it makes me want to crawl back to my fantasy Irish skerry. Is it any wonder that I've spent more time on poetry than on politics in the past two weeks? At least I can be semi-effective with poetry!
Speaking of good poetry, Christopher Key's “Trailer Trash” at The Barbaric Yawp is definitely worth a read. Viva la revolution!

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