Weblog

Let’s try one of those egg timer thingies again, as the last one was kind of fun and I really, really want sleep now. Sleep good.

A silverfish just welcomed me back home to the apartment, at a good 2:50 in the morning. Got back from the after-party that took place after our gig (with Indefinite Particle Article) at Pizza Luce. People enjoyed themselves thoroughly, and the music flowed sweet and strong like the blood of Mount Olympus.

The last few days in Duluth have been foggy. I’m a sucker for winter fog. I like how it frosts everything up right nice like those spray cans of fake snow you can get around the holidays. The irony of those cans is that they carve little tiny holes in the ozone every time you use them, so one day, because of those cans, there will BE NO SNOW! And the only snow you’ll be able to see is the snow that comes from the can, but when you use the can you’re just ensuring that we’ll never ever ever ever see snow again!

Today was quite a long day. Homework, classes, photo-editing, 2 1/2 hours in a practice room memorizing parts for tonight’s gig… but after it all I got to chill in a house stocked with hippies and patchouli and hand drums. For some reason all the lights weren’t on in the house, so a few people ended up twirling and dancing in the dark in the next room.

It was also kind of strange, as in the darkness I could just barely make out the gossamer threads that held the group of people together. Like, how you know that two people know each other, but as the evening unfolds and you listen in on conversations and witness interactions, you are often surprised by how many people know each other. Like when your separate circles of friends start to mingle, you may think, “Oh, this could be bad because these people don’t know each other…” Strangely enough, you often discover social overlapping that you never considered. The circles manage to spin together without your steady hand.

I’ve got one minute. Perhaps I should mention what the silverfish said when I got home. Well, that’s an interesting story, but it-

Ya want it? You want damning proof that Iraq is lying? The Bush administration says they got it.

Electronic intercepts by the NSA are considered the most jealously guarded of all U.S. intelligence secrets and government officials are normally loath to even refer to their existence for fear of tipping off targets and drying up invaluable sources of information.

But in this case, officials said, the intercepts are so damning and dramatic that officials say their release outweighs the potential harm?especially given the increased likelihood that the United States will shortly be launching an invasion of Iraq anyway.

“Hold onto your hat. We?ve got it,” said one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the evidence gathered by the NSA.

I wish he had said “Hold onto your butts,” instead. That would have been damn cool, givin’ the ol’ hat tip to Jurassic Park like that.

Set aside the next ten minutes of your life and check out Something Awful’s Photoshop Phriday. Today? Recalled Foods. You’ll find most of these products in the new ‘tainted food’ aisle at Cub.

Tainted food: Helping undergraduates and the local poor fill their gullets with red tide starfish and rotten yams.

Leave to to the wires to print the news. The news that matters.

“When I have visitors, they sleep there with the fresh scent of toothpaste,” Kolpakov, 36, told The Saginaw News for a story Tuesday.

Creeped out yet? The rest is complete proof that the cold war is over.

A woman who says she bought magic wands from a self-described psychic to erase negative thoughts says $5,400 of her money was all that disappeared.

It’s not that she’s a sucker that makes this interesting. It’s that it happened in Bethlehem. I always thought Jesus would be reborn a spunky teenage girl pop singer. Perhaps the Son of God is a phony psychic, instead.

Lies, Lies, Lies! All I hear are lies! Funny. I thought today they would be lining up those lost mason jars of anthrax and heaving sledgehammers at them. Meanwhile, Bush wants to throw a kegger down at the U.N. on the 5th, at which he’ll get everyone sloshed enough that he can reveal new evidence for the case against Iraq, without anyone actually remembering anything the morning after. Allies are all for partying. France and Germany are still busy pissing their pants and might not RSVP.

And just for fun, here’s a picture of a clown.

Lileks is up with his review of the State of the Union Address. The speech is part one in a four-part series. SOTU, Bush/Blair, Powell before the U.N., War Time Live from the Oval Office. Collect the whole set.

What do aircraft wings, capitalism, rodents in Finland, and human hearts all have in common? Why are socialism and benevolent dictatorships such appealing economic and political philosophies, but so prone to corruption?

Steven has the words. Steven always has the words. If a day comes when Steven doesn’t have the words I’m going to brace myself for the moon to drop into the ocean and the earth to spin into the sun. Just like South Carolina sixth graders, Steven’s writings manage to hold reality together.

I really don’t know what to make of this. The leaders of all anti-war countries are running around, calling for Baghdad to cooperate fully with the weapons inspectors. That’s all they got. What if Baghdad doesn’t cooperate? What if Baghdad hasn’t been cooperating for twelve years? What if Baghdad lied on their dossier and didn’t account for everything? What if Baghdad has committed a material breach?

Germany, France, Russia and Canada said the arms experts needed more time, as did Secretary-General Amr Moussa of the 22-member Arab League and states neighboring Iraq.

“We are of the opinion…that the inspectors will get more time for their work,” Schroeder told journalists in Berlin.

At a later news conference after meeting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Schroeder said: “We are both of the opinion that nobody has the right to undertake any kind of action without a decision of the Security Council.”

Chirac, who discussed the issue with Schroeder by phone, echoed his call and urged Baghdad to give the inspectors “full and entire cooperation.”

Germany’s Joschka Fischer, also attending the EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, said: “War is no alternative. I think one can conclude that the inspectors are doing a great job which should definitely go on.”

There the answers stop. They only have answers as far as it would supposedly take to prevent a U.S. attack. Besides war they have no answers beyond the actions that have been unsuccessful for years; for the last two months. I really wish other world leaders had better things to do than get on the phone with Saddam and tell him to please play nice, pretty please, with sugar on top. Resolution 1441 was Iraq’s last chance to voluntarily disarm. They blew it.

It’s like a bad porno. A weapons inspector knocks on Saddam’s door. Saddam answers.

“Oh. You’re not my regular milkman.”

“…”

“Please, come inside.”

“…”

“Here, let me help you with that.”

“…”

“Oops.”

Iraq had every chance to avoid a war. Every chance for twelve years. How, you ask? Well, there is this…

QUIT FUCKING LYING.

Meanwhile, the British Foreign Secretary says Iraq is making a charade of the inspections, Kofi Annan calls for more party games, Colin Powell says Iraq is running out of time, Australia’s Prime Minister says Iraq is in material breach, and Daschle is asking for hardcore proof.

He’ll get it, but he won’t get it until a few days before the war starts. We need to get the proof out to sway the public (and the world), but we need to do it in such a manner that it won’t give Iraq any upper hand in the war. As soon as Iraq knows what we know they can piece together where that information came from, kill the persons responsible, and relocate the weapons. They could also figure out, from what we know, what we don’t know and use that knowledge against us.

It’s a sticky business. If Washington comes forward with hardcore proof they could make a compelling argument to the world for military intervention, and lay to rest all this craziness (though, from the other side, it would just replace it with another brand of craziness). However, if they reveal too much too soon they risk losing the war to win the popularity contest. Well, we won’t lose the war, certainly, but it could get a hell of a lot messier as a result. It’s all cost/benefit analysis.

Watch carefully what Bush says tomorrow. If we get specifics, we’re going in soon. Very soon.

The full text of Hans Blix’s statement to the U.N.