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Pyramid Scheme

Credit Guy Womack (no relation) for even further lowering the bar on the bullshit we can expect from defense attorneys. As lawyer for Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader of the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal, Womack yesterday offered a defense that managed to be at once offensive, incredible and troglodytic. From Reuters:

Graner’s attorney said piling naked prisoners into pyramids and leading them by a leash were acceptable methods of prisoner control. He compared this to pyramids made by cheerleaders at sports events and parents putting tethers on toddlers.
“Don’t cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year. Is that torture?” Guy Womack, Graner’s attorney, said in opening arguments to the 10-member U.S. military jury at the reservist’s court-martial.


Outrage was registered in all the expected outposts, but what of the slander to cheerleaders? Surely the Pyramid Defense doesn’t do the spirit industry any favors. I contacted Sheila Noone, editor of American Cheerleader magazine, for her thoughts.

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Paging Don DeLillo

“Hundreds of people were kept from their homes Friday in Graniteville, S.C., because of chlorine gas that was released after a train crash early Thursday. Bulldozers began moving the derailed cars.”
Cloud Rising From Train Wreck, Then Death and a Ghost Town, The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2005.
“Finally, after ‘a night of dream-lit snows,’ an ‘airborne toxic event’ originates in a rail accident at a nearby train yard. The dark billowing cloud is full of Nyodene D…”
Summary of Don DeLillo’s White Noise.
Related: Don DeLillo and the Towers

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Positive numbers, fuzzy math, and well-spun figures

bush_smiling_green.jpgThere’s an undeniable buzz in the air as January 30th, the date of the upcoming Iraqi elections, rapidly approaches. It’s much akin to that feeling of excitement one gets around the holidays as you watch presents slowly accumulate underneath the family Christmas tree, and they just keep accumulating, and you’re all, “Wow, how many of those presents are for me, and what did I get?
And since you’re such a simpleminded bastard, you hold a press conference, and you talk about how excited you are about your presents. You prattle on and on about how you “think elections will be such a incredibly hopeful experience for the Iraqi people.” And you add that

14 of Iraq’s 18 provinces “appear to be relatively calm.” The four remaining provinces “are places where the terrorists are trying to stop people from voting,” [you] said. “So I know it’s hard. But it’s hard for a reason. And the reason it’s hard is because there are a handful of folks who fear freedom.”

And then this Grinch-like Brent Scowcroft asshole, who served under your dad as his national security adviser, and who just now apparently decided to fucking betray you, starts trying to take a bunch of the presents away and opens them up and shows you that there’s coal inside the sloppily-packaged boxes. And then you go, “Wow, ‘coal’ is a bad metaphor for ‘dissent and civil war’, and the gift boxes are an even worse metaphor for ‘free and stable elections!'”
So, anyway, Scowcroft goes on:

“The Iraqi elections, rather than turning out to be a promising turning point, have the great potential for deepening the conflict,” Scowcroft said. He said he expects increased divisions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims after the Jan. 30 elections, when experts believe the government will be dominated by the majority Shiites.
Scowcroft predicted “an incipient civil war” would grip Iraq and said the best hope for pulling the country from chaos would be to turn the U.S. operation over to NATO or the United Nations — which, he said, would not be so hostilely viewed by Iraqis.

But you? You’re sticking to your guns; you’re a stubborn, close-minded simpleton, after all. You’re staying with those numbers you cited above, how 14 of the 18 extant provinces are “safe” and “calm.” And, yeah, there are those four troubled regions, but you know what? Four out of eighteen, thats less than a quarter of the Iraqi geographic spectrum.
But your math, as usual, fucking sucks, and is distorted to no end, and doesn’t accurately take into account the depth of the problem. Because what you’ve left out of your simpleminded assessment of reality is the key fact that, get this, those four troubled provinces together contain more than half the population of Iraq.
When even Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the commander of your ground forces in Iraq acknowledges this issue, it might help to pay attention. Particularly when he adds,

“I just can’t guarantee that everyone will be able to go to a poll in total safety,” he said. “I cannot put a bubble around every person walking from their home to the polling site.”

Because, while we’re dealing with tired clichés and bad metaphors, that “bubble” General Metz is talking about is so obviously wrapped around you, chump.

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Insensitive Headline of the Day

Residents Trickle Back, but Falluja Still Seems Dead
[The New York Times, Jan. 6, 2005]

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“Things are seriously fucked up here, bro. Can you maybe take me outta here when you leave? I’ll do anything: I’ll sit in baggage, I’ll work as a Steward. Anything.”

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Small Talk: Indonesian Social Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab confers with Colin Powell (Reuters)

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We all dislike it when the Bush family meddles in international and diplomatic affairs

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And, yes, this is totally taken out of context. “Giving aid”, “saving face”, blah blah blah. We just love us some good old Colin Powell, that’s all.

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Now That There Aren’t Any Cute White Kids Left, At Least We’ve Got Cute (White) Cats

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Feline survivor : A cat who survived the tidal wave, walks among the debris in search of food on the worst hit Thai island of Phi Phi. (AFP/Saeed Khan)
RELATED: One-year-old Hannes Bergman of Sweden
ALSO RELATED: Tween Karl Nilsson of Sweden
ALSO, ALSO RELATED: German baby, another German baby, German Nickelodeon fans, and brave, brave Petra Nemcova (practically German (Czech) and likely developmentally disabled (super-attractive)).

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Grave Unintentionally Hilarious

Unintentionally Hilarious Photo of the Moment, Vol. 44

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Meanwhile, In Bizarro World…

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We Got Spirit, Yes We Do: “If you love Jesus, cheer real loud!” [via Reuters]
After his landslide defeat by John Kerry, former president George W. Bush returned to his first career as a male cheerleader.
Vice President Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and several others in the President’s inner circle were arrested on war crimes charges.
Bagels no longer fattening…
Related: Are these the most covered-up cheerleaders you’ve ever seen?

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Hey, Colin: Don’t Burn the Bridge on the Way Out, Okay?

002powell.jpgThere’s a big difference between a slip of the tongue and an unconscious dig. Check out Colin Powell’s remarks on Meet the Press this weekend, and tell me if there’s any love lost between Powell and big Dick Cheney:

MR. RUSSERT: Were you worn down or frustrated by the philosophical differences with Secretary Rumsfeld or Vice President Cheney?

SEC’Y POWELL: I work for the president of the United States. He’s always allowed me to present my views. More often than not, the views of the senior leadership of the administration, myself, Secretary Cheney—excuse me, Vice President Cheney; I still remember him as my secretary when I was chairman—Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Dr. Rice—more often than not we agreed with one another.

Damn! Put away the claws, man.
But, mistakes aside, I assume Powell still considers Cheney a fiend. I mean friend. Whoops: my bad.