Odds and ends

[pecunium]

Silly quiz, because I like the answer (though I personally tend to identify more with Loki, but perhaps that totemic... Foxes and I)



<td bgcolor="#000000">I Am Coyote</td>

Coyote is a fun-loving goofball and that fits you to a T. Playfully silly, you appear somewhat bumbling at times, and your goofy exterior sometimes makes people forget what a quick mind and razor wit hides behind that amiable grin. In the mythos of the Plains tribes, Coyote is also a Creator, and stole fire as a gift for mankind. Your gift to the world is the creative fire of your quick, capable mind.

Which Trickster Are You?
Take the Trickster Test at www.isleofdreams.net.


On other fronts: Does anyone else see a bit of scattered thinking on the part of the Administration?

We keep hearing that a terrorist event will help Bush get re-elected, but we also hear people saying that it might lead to the voters letting the terrorists win (implication: A vote for Kerry is a vote for bin Laden... which doesn't follow, if you ask me, but they aren't, which is probably best for all, as they aren't likely to take my advice and resign... which seems nicer than leaving a pistol on the desk and expecting them to do the honorable thing).

Which is why the whole, "Suspend the election," thing amuses me. It seems they don't think they can win (this I was flipped off by George Bush certainly says (if true) that he's feeling the heat.

Mind you, I don't think suspending the election is amusing... The thought make my blood run cold... I don't know what I think about it (no, I do know what I think, I just don't know what to do). Rebellion requires others, and success requires some sort of plan. The best thing would be, IMO, a lot of vocal protest.

But the spectre of Martial Law lurks there, and I am one of those who might be asked to provide the martial aspects.

Horns of a dilemma, no?

In support of the theme here (that the Administration is at a loss) go read Phil Carter at Intel Dump and look at what he has to say about Early Bird (the DoD/Gov't news feed) which has taken to running corrections, and letters to the editor; above the fold.

For those who don't know, Early Bird is a wire service. It started life as a collation of a lot of news, printed up and delivered, early in the morning, to offices at the Pentagon.

It is now one of the most popular news feeds going, among those who set policy. I get to read it because I have access to DoD accounts, and it is great stuff (when we got the secure net in Iraq I could get it, which was how I stayed in touch with what was going on in the world, and how I knew we were screwing up in Iraq... stupid shit we denied, when the Iraqis knew we were wrong. It wasn't mendacious, just knee-jerk, but symptomatic).

And in the limited squib (about half a dozen stories) which gets pasted onto the splashpage when I log into my Army account (to collect my mail) the letters and corrections are getting top billing.

Yep, some flack, writing that some editorial/op-ed piece was wrong, or that some reporter didn't spin it the way the administration wanted it, who got into a paper somehwere, gets top billing, more important than any other news in the world.

Here, for example, is todays list, in my sidebar

US Doesn't Practice Torture -- (Letter)
Corrections [a note from the NYT about the destruction of Bush's pay records]
Report Says CIA Distorted Iraq Data
Wars Causing Shortage Of Officers
Army Unit Leaves Behind A Crushed Foe, Calmer City
Nations Slow To Deliver Iraq Aid
Strikes On Iraqi Oil, Electricity Seen As Inside Job
Afghan President Describes Militias As The Top Threat


The annoying thing is that, apart from this, Early Bird is amazing. The breadth of scope, the range of its tapping the sentiment of the nation,and the world (it is a a cross section of the news, it keeps one very well informed) is magnificent.

And someone is trying to spin me, and the others who read it.

People who don't really need to be propagandized. They know what's going on, and they have pretty much made up their minds already.

Back to the kitchen for me.

TK

Comments

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

No, I can't think of anything. First, we are talking a national election... One might argue that an attack like that (something vague, but smallpox isn't all that risky... if one is exposed, a vaccination within a few days does the trick... but a dusting of powdered uranium hexaflouride could make large areas uninhabitable, and require clean-up, if not evacuation, containment and lots of treatments...) and two, unless it was that sort of attack, and done before the election, the effect wouldn't be felt until afterwards.

If all that's done is to proactively (i.e. in advance) delay them, all that happens is the target moves.

So, if a massive attack, which rendered a large area unlivable, and required massive aid to repair were to happen... I might (just might) accept that a delay was needed, and I might want that delay to be longer than a couple of weeks, because I'd not want the after-effects of the attack to be as large in the voting public's mind.

But short of that, I can't see any justification.

TK