Author: Fuzzy Curmudgeon

If you’re like me, you probably weren’t planning to anyway, but if you were, let’s help them get their lowest Nielsens ever. The Washington Prowler has any number of good reasons for you not to watch, not the least being that Susan Sarandon will be a presenter.

Well, not really started yet, anyway, but still:
Iraqi Soldiers Surrender on Kuwaiti Border
Funny. Too funny.

Tariq Aziz Dispels Rumors That He Defected
Two really good possibilities:

• He has a body double just like Saddam, and it’s the double talking; or
• The body double defected

Ya never know with those wacky Iraqis.

Like Jonah says, it can be somewhat painful, but there’s no question that this is great radio.

Also from Fox, same article as below:

“Iraq is not the kind of country that can be dictated to,” said Saadoon Hammadi, speaker of Iraq’s parliament, as legislators convened for a special session to discuss the U.S. ultimatum.

Pardon me while I belly-laugh. Iraq is a dictatorship to begin with. And you’ll do what you’re told when we rip through your ineffective army that’s planning to surrender the first time they see our dust on the horizon.

Some lawmakers vowed to sacrifice their lives for Saddam.

Be our guest. (Why are we calling you lawmakers? Saddam makes your law.)

I feel your pain. Not.

(From Fox) Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said black lawmakers had asked to meet with Bush but were rebuffed.

Possibly because you have nothing new to add?

I see Helen still just can’t keep her goddamn mouth shut. I saw part of this on TV earlier so I think this is all Helen Thomas flapping her jaw, except for the first question, which was a follow-up from someone else (just included for completeness), and there’s another one further down that may not be her.

Q Is there any doubt that there’s going to be war?
Q I pick up on that — what you said. Does it bother the President that most of the world is against this war, and half of America? And I have a follow-up.
MR. FLEISCHER: Helen, this is an issue where you and I will never agree when you state your premise about what the people think.
Q This isn’t you and I. This is a very legitimate question.
Q There’s a new poll showing —
MR. FLEISCHER: Helen, I think there’s a lot of public polling that you can see out there. The recent poll from your neighbor to the right, ABC News showed that 79 percent of the American people think that Saddam Hussein is a threat to the United States. I’ve heard you say on many occasions most Americans don’t think he’s a threat to the United States.
Q I didn’t say — is said the war.
MR. FLEISCHER: So I understand your strong opinions clearly. I’m not sure the American people agree with you.
Q That’s a very personal attack. I said the war. Are they in favor of —
MR. FLEISCHER: I thought it was an accurate observation.
Q Are you saying 79 percent of the American people are for this war?
MR. FLEISCHER: What I just said to you is that according to that ABC poll, 79 percent of the American people think that Saddam Hussein is a threat to the United States.
Q That wasn’t what I asked you.
MR. FLEISCHER: In terms of support for a war, again, talking about the public polls, I saw one this morning in USA Today that put that figure at 66 percent, if I recall.

Unbelievable. Kindly choke on something and die horribly, Ms. Thomas. (And that is a personal attack.) What amazes me is how cool Ari stays when that harridan fires up. I say again: Helen Thomas needs to be one of the first against the wall when we start shooting liberals.
(And screw you, Michelle from Washington DC, who doesn’t like that I advocate shooting liberals. Don’t like it, get your own fuckin’ blog.)

It must truly pain Tom Daschle to know that he’ll just be an asterisk in history once all of this is over.
More here.

Tobacco Farmer Drives Tractor Into D.C. Lake
Don’t we have snipers to handle this? Kill the fucker and send in the bomb squad.
Jeez. Traffic’s bad enough in downtown DC (been there, lived in Silver Spring, drove in downtown DC more than I’d like to remember) and then something like this happens. Fucker deserves to die.

Jonah Goldberg makes the point that we should be watching for any evidence that giving war a chance can actually accomplish the good that diplomacy is inherently incapable of:

As readers of NRO know, there are numerous writers around here who are deeply skeptical of the notion that violence never solved anything. Violence ended the Holocaust and slavery. Police carry guns because sometimes they run into problems which require a violent solution. Etc.
Well, as war looms, I think it makes sense that we all, readers and writers alike, keep an eye out for problems being solved by the mature and moral application of force. For example, diplomacy couldn’t win the cooperation of the Turks, but lo and behold, American commitment to violence did the trick. Or, for those who believe that improvement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict must come before anything else, you might want to note that the Palestinian parliament rebuffed Yasir Arafat yesterday. Arafat desperately wants to retain his dictatorial control of the Palestinian Authority. But he could not win support from the parliament for his gambit to diminish the power of a new prime minister (who is a longtime critic of Palestinian terrorism). How could this burgeoning quasi democratic reform happen? After all, it’s taking place against the backdrop of Ariel Sharon’s hardline policies and, perhaps more important, as the armed might of the United States is asserting itself in the region. Perhaps the reformers feels that history is, for once, on their side.
Anyway, even if you disagree with these interpretations, I think we should all be on the lookout for successes where “diplomacy fails” and we give war a chance. Yes, war has unintended consequences, but that doesn’t mean they’re all bad consequences.

It isn’t really surprising that being belligerent makes bullies stand down. And that’s what people like Saddam, Arafat, and Osama are: Classic schoolyard bullies. Saddam and Arafat already know they’re in trouble, and they sound just like kids in school who threaten dire consequences and melt like butter when you decide to smack the crap out of them. My guess is that, if Osama is still alive (something I seriously doubt), he’ll need a change of pants when we finally catch up with him. Just like any bully whose bluff is called.