The more I link to anti-Bush Washington Post articles, the more I become a partisan hack blogger. I'm reluctant to do this again, but it's just so hard not to because there is so much dirt to read about this president. Like this three-page analysis from today's paper: From Bush, Unprecedented Negativity: Scholars Say Campaign Is Making History With Often-Misleading Attacks

I'm all for negative campaigning. (How else can you contrast yourself with the other guy?) It's the misleading stuff that really gets to me. George W. Bush, as you'll see in this article, is more relentless in his misleading ads than any other major candidate in history.

In the future I'll try to cut back on the Bush-bashing posts.

Washington Post columnist David Broder is the king of journalistic neutrality. He enjoys nearly universal respect in DC because of his meticulous research and cautious, well-balanced views; In fact, a lot of people can't tell if he votes Republican or Democrat.

When it comes to matters of fiscal responsibility, however, any rhetorical restraint he normally has goes out the window. In this column about the budget, the gloves come off. At issue is President Bush's deficit reduction plan and the very different form it takes in Congress. Broder argues that the plan as it appears in Congress is shamelessly deceptive and could never reach the goals that the president set for it. What's more, Broder writes, this is what the president wanted all along.

This sounds right to me, but I would add one more thing: Bush's budget proposal is reckless even in its rhetorical form. Over the course of five years, Bush hopes to cut the budget deficit in half. This is much like a fat person saying that he will try to cut the rate of increase he gains in weight over the course of five years. On year 1 he will plan to put on 40 lbs., on year 2 he will put on an additional 35 lbs., and so on until year 5 when he will "only" put on 20 lbs. And remember, this is the plan in its presentable form, before it gets to Congress.

Tonight's link theme is Antarctica. You've all seen the natural beauty, but what about the culture?

The largest community in Antarctica is at McMurdo station, seen here (pic) from above. It's located on Ross Island, which is the farthest point south on earth accessible by ship.

The population generally hovers around 250 during the winter months and jumps to about 1000 in the summer. All of the residents are involved in scientific research or support services.

If you lived there, here's how you might spend your day: Get up and do some work at the office (pic), grab lunch (pic) and go back to work. Later, have some beers (pic) and play some foosball (pic) at Gallegher's Bar, before returning to the dorms (pic) to sleep. What's that, you say? It's Sunday? Well then why don't you get some exercise (pic and pic) and then enjoy the festival (pic and pic). Just don't forget to go to church (pic).

Whatever you do, try not to smoke. Fires are a very serious problem (pic) at McMurdo because of the dry air. In fact, it would be best for you to check out the McMurdo Station handbook for all the rules and regulations.

This idea and image come straight out of Kevin Drum's blog. I just had to pass it along.

Guess what this map represents. Click to find out.

Well, I finally found out who won that game of Celebrity Jeopardy. It was Ari Fleischer, as predicted.

This opinion column has already been linked in Feroze's away message, and I strongly recommend it as well. Topic: George W. Bush recently declined to help the Palestinian Authority with democratic elections. He was wrong to do so.

Welcome to the new address. Thanks for the zero comments from the last post.
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UPDATE: Ok, ok. So Blogger made you register with them before you could comment. I guess I could disable that, but I still don't want to reopen comments for several reasons. Sorry.

One of the best Washington Post editorials I have ever read, here. Topic: Why the Bush administration should reveal the interrogation rules it approved for prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Note that these sorts of rules have in the past always been public, but that this time around the administration actively had them classified.

A leading forensic death expert and a surgical expert are now saying that the Nick Berg beheading was staged. The evidence is compelling, and I believe it might be true, but I don't think there is any especially interesting explanation for this. Maybe they botched the first video shoot or maybe he died too early. In any case, read the full article.

Over at the once-reputable Kuro5hin website, however, a writer thinks that there is something more sinister to the story. Putting together 50 anomalies surrounding the death (some of which I can now tell you are no longer true), the writer concludes the following:

"This video was possibly constructed by U.S. operatives to impact the extremely volatile political developments in the U.S. and the international condemnation around the Abu Ghraib torture photos."

I am extremely doubtful of that conclusion, but I must admit that a lot of the circumstances surrounding the case really are fishy. In my opinion, nearly all conspiracy theories (including this one) are false, and I hate to tarnish my blog with them. But if you like them, check out the second link.

Remember those forged Niger uranium documents? And remember how nobody is saying much about who actually forged them? Well, I've long suspected that Ahmed Chalabi and his INC were somehow involved because of the amateurishness of the documents. (It was signed by dead people and other stuff way too stupid for the CIA or Mossad to do, and the INC had a vested interest in the forgery. Still, this doesn't totally exonerate the U.S. government. Dick Cheney and his office eagerly ate up the intelligence despite the CIA's repeated warnings that the documents looked fake.)

Now that Chalabi has been closely linked to Iranian espionage (this fact was also widely rumoured in the CIA for years and ignored by Cheney), it is quite plausible that Iran was responsible for the forgery together with Chalabi. For more circumstantial evidence, read this.

Indulge me while I make a mountain out of a molehill.

I recently found out that the San Fransisco area laboratory involved in the steroid scandal of U.S. Olympic sprinter Kelli White has now been linked to Maurice Green and Marion Jones, who are arguably the two biggest stars in American track and field. At this point there isn't any conclusive evidence that the two used performance enhancing drugs, but some is likely to come out. White intends to cooperate with investigators and will probably implicate other athletes. She is, to use her lawyer's words, only "the tip of the iceberg".

If this scandal knocks out Green and Jones it will be a huge dissapointment to the USOC, and to me as well. They both were terrific athletes and a pleasure to watch.

But -- and this is the mountain out of the molehill -- I think that this scandal is really good for America. In my opinion, the single most dangerous idea held by Americans is that we are an unqualified force for good in the world. This is the idea that has led us into a failed war in Iraq and into various other bullheaded policies. It's been a rough year for America, but my hope is that this developing scandal, along with the pictures coming out of Abu Ghraib and the increasingly negative worldwide view of America, will make some of our more self-assured voters and policy makers stop to look in the mirror and realize that we're actually pretty bad ourselves.

There's been a lot of buzz recently about U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama. For those who haven't heard about him yet, he's basically the flag bearer for Democratic hopes of retaking the Senate this year. His inspiring biography, which takes him from growing up on Chicago's South Side to becoming editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Review, makes me think this guy is future presidential material. Check him out.

Now hear this: Apparently his Republican opponent Jack Ryan has hired a guy to follow Obama around with a video camera wherever he goes in public. For the amazing details, see the article from the Chicago Sun. It's short.

Obama cannot go the bathroom without having the guy a few feet away. He is tailed whenever he drives somewhere in his car. When he's having private phone conversations, he's recorded on video.

This is political dirt-digging at its worst, with the intent to harass. When asked why the campaign was paying for this, a Ryan spokesman said that they just wanted to make sure that Obama did not contradict any of his public statements.

Oh I see. It's good to know that the Republican campaigners are so interested in holding other politicians to such high standards of integrity.

New pictures and videos are out from Abu Ghraib which for now are available exclusively on the Washington Post website. According to the article, some detainees "said they were pressed to denounce Islam or were force-fed pork and liquor".

U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith is a bad person. But he is also, in the words of Gen. Tommy Franks, "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth". Read why.

I have a profound and socially debilitating fear of dancing. So it was with great reluctance that I went to the senior formal tonight at Ravens Stadium. My date: Shamik.

We had to wait on some friends before leaving, so we spent the time on C-level in the library reading a bunch of technical science books and talking for some time about the Michelson-Morley experiment. It was an odd thing to do in formal attire.

When we got the the ballroom I quickly ditched Shamik for gender-related reasons and proceeded to the bar and then to various tables and sofas. For the next three hours many interesting things happened which I am not at liberty to talk about, but needless to say, I was having a good time. I even danced for a moment, but then quickly regained my senses and returned to a table where I belonged.

Later, in an act of injustice unrivaled in the history of the world, my night ended in sheer and utter disappointment. And with that, I returned here to my blog to record in the most general terms the events of this evening, an evening which on balance I would still give a 9 out of 10.

How can we get Americans to stop spending so much time on the internet looking for porn? Answer: by providing them footage of gruesome acts of violence that I once thought only the most inveterate sadist would enjoy.

The top 10 search queries at Lycos:
1. Nick Berg video
2. Nick Berg Beheading
3. Nick Berg and Iraq
4. Nick Berg Execution
5. Nick Berg Beheading Video
6. Nick Berg Killing
7. Nick Berg murder
8. Nick Berg assassination
9. Nick Berg decapitation video
10. Execution of Nick Berg

For shame.

This is a story about cicadas and how they taste...

Early this afternoon Shy, Andy Lamperski, Charlie, and myself headed off to the woods for some good cicada hunting, armed with a bucket and a few twigs.

A lot of cicada nymphs had already emerged from the ground this morning, but a few hung around until the afternoon near the surface of their holes and just kind of chilled. Our task was basically to inspect as many holes as we could and, if we were lucky, to pull out a grub and toss it in the bucket. I'd say about 95% of the holes were vacant.

When we had collected around 20 cicadas, we (sans Charlie - he had to go to Home Depot) brought them back to Andy's place and washed and boiled them before sauteing them in butter and garlic. We served them on a bed of fresh spinach.

Honestly, they were good. None of the oozing intestinal crap you might expect from bugs. These things were meaty in a shrimpy sort of way and carried a distinct nutty flavor. They were so fun to eat that we're going back tomorrow morning for more.

For those of you who still aren't convinced (the vast majority, I suppose), let me remind you that you happily eat bee vomit... so why not eat the whole bug? Cicadas, crabs, lobsters and crawfish are all in the same Arthropod phylum. Or, to make the same point diffently, cicadas are essentially the shrimp of the sky. Any fundamental difference between the two species is just a figment of your culture, which I urge you to shed. Trust me, your taste buds will thank you.

Was anybody able to catch tonight's episode of Celebrity Jeopardy? I predicted an Ari Fleischer win, but I was at the pool when it aired. Let me know if you saw it.

Tonight's link theme is North Korea.

Yesterday Kevin alerted me to the fact that North Korea's official website can be read in Esperanto. Now, I know Kim Jong Il is famously out of touch with the outside world, but really; Can't one of the guys in his propaganda machine pull him aside and tell him "Listen. About Esperanto..."?

The English version is somewhat interesting, and is far better designed than most other Third World dictatorship websites such as Myanmar's or, worse yet, Zimbabwe's.

Anyway, the site I'm really trying to promote is this one. The guy who made it was able to visit Pyongyang as a soccer player for the first ever amateur international sports match in the country. He came back with a hundreds of photos, and I strongly suggest you check them out. North Korea is so shrouded in secrecy, with hardly any pictures getting out, that we in the West really don't know what goes on in there at all. Virtually everything in these pictures - the architecture, the landscape, the culture - is really alien. It's only when you see someone in the pictures doing something culturally universal, like smoking, that you realize things aren't all that different between us. So go ahead, peruse the site. For the lazy, here are the highlights:

• Some imposing constructivist architecture here and here. These buildings just look very, well, Communist.

• Some cityscapes here and here. Am I the only one who is reminded of Machine City?

• Compare and contrast.

Finally, all this talk about North Korea reminded me of a book that came out last year written by a Japanese sushi chef who was employed by Kim Jong Il for over a decade. As I'm sure you all know, Kim is one crazy motherfucker, as the chef can attest. Earlier this year The Atlantic Monthly printed some excerpts from the book... it's a good read.

Celebrity Jeopardy is on every day this week at 7PM on Channel 2 in Baltimore. This isn't any old Celebrity Jeopardy. This is inside-the-beltway jeopardy, featuring a number of well known reporters and political types including Al Franken, Bob Woodward, Christine Todd Whitman, and Tucker Carlson. For some fairly entertaining commentary on the shows, see this Washington Post article. Tomorrow's lineup includes Ari Fleischer, Tim Russert, and Ashleigh Banfield. I expect Fleischer to win convincingly so go ahead and watch it and see for yourself.

I was able to catch most of today's episode, and boy, were Kweisi Mfume and Maria Bartiromo stupid. Both stayed in the red for most of the show, despite the fact that the questions were really easy. (I actually think Jeopardy is normally pretty hard.) Example:

"Tennesee Williams was born in this Mississippi town, named after the discoverer of America."

Anderson Cooper won the game by a large margin, despite giving the WORST answer on a difficult final jeopoardy question, which no one got right. Here it is:

"Element 79 on the periodic table, all of this metal ever mined in the world would only fill a cube 50 feet across."

The answer is at the end of this post. Maria thought it was platinum. Kweisi thought it was plutonium. And as for Anderson Cooper, what did he put?

"Coltan".

That's right, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper thinks that there is an element on the periodic table called "Coltan".

*The correct answer is gold, surprisingly. I actually got it right because I happened to see its atomic number the other day.

A few months ago I came to the conclusion that James Inhofe (R-OK) is the worst senator out there. Worse than Trent Lott. Worse than Rick Santorum. This is a guy who called the EPA a "Gestapo beaurocracy" and thinks that 9-11 was God's punishment on us for not surporting Israel enough. As for global warming? Inhofe calls it "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people".

Now this, via Josh Marshall. At a Senate hearing probing the prison abuse at Abu Ghraib, Inhofe thought it would be a good idea to say the following:

"I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment,"

"These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations," Inhofe said. "If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."

"I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right now crawling all over these prisons looking for human rights violations, while our troops, our heroes are fighting and dying.

As I pointed out in my previous post, a lot of these insurgents are total scoundrels who are capable of far worse deeds than their American captors. But that's not even close to being a good reason for downplaying what our prison guards did. What's more, Inhofe made those remarks this morning, after the Red Cross reported that military intelligence officers estimated up to 90% of the detainees were arrested by mistake. These people aren't mostly murderers and terrorists. They're mostly innocent bystanders who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Rumor has it that John McCain walked out of the hearings when Inhofe made the remarks. Good for him. Inhofe sucks, and he's the worst senator in office.

I just read the AP story that came out this hour about the videotaped beheading of an American hostage in Iraq. His name was Nick Berg. There's also a chilling still from the tape posted on the main FoxNews website. Some initial thoughts:

If we make a straight comparison between this image and the images coming out of Abu Ghraib -- abstracting from all background factors like who invaded who, who's working for an actual state, who's claiming to bring peace and human rights, etc. -- if we just make a straight comparison, this image is far worse than the ones coming out of Abu Ghraib. It's not even close. Even stories of the murder of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of American guards doesn't compare. With those stories you got the sense that one or two guards were getting out of hand with an unruly prisoner. Some of them might even have been caused by the torture techniques being taken further than the intelligence officers asked for. Maybe there was more to those stories - we'll soon find out - but I find it hard to believe that those murders were as well-organized and premeditated as the beheading of Nick Berg. I doubt that our prison guards, callous as they are, would ever do something that gruesome.

The reason I bring this up is because we should never forget who we're up against. Some of these guys are so ruthless it's barely human.

At the same time, if you put the background factors back in the comparison changes quite a bit. I'll be writing about those more in the future. Also, don't forget that in most cases we aren't even going after the right guys. According to yesterday's Red Cross report, up to 90% of Iraqi prisoners may have been arrested by mistake. I suspect the figure is exagerrated (which might explain why it's not getting as much coverage in the press as I would expect), but it's still an outrage, whether it's 90% or 10%.