useful information
Or at least something to read while waiting for the vodka in your freezer to get cold can be found at the home bartenders best friend Droogle and all manner of splendid reading for boozehounds everywhere can be found at Modern Drunkard magazine, where they put the "fun" in "functional alcoholic"

Oh, that Ann
Ann Coulter L'il Junior Miss Conservative Club - PATRIOTIC POSTERS - WHITEHOUSE.ORG

Alexander's next target for conquest: your coffee table
Kevin Wood / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
Alexander the Conqueror
By Laura Foreman
Da Capo, 211 pp, 35 dollars
As Hippocrates, a near contemporary of the subject of Laura Foreman's new book, famously wrote: "Life is short, art is long, the crisis fleeting, experience perilous, decision difficult."
This wisdom is reflected both in the life of King Alexander III of Macedon and in Foreman's biography Alexander the Conqueror.

Alexander's life was certainly short. He died just weeks shy of his 33rd birthday, but his legacy had a long-lasting effect on the world.

Ascending to the throne of Macedon in northern Greece at 20 after his father was assassinated, Alexander conquered an empire that stretched from Greece to modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan and included Egypt, Libya, the Middle East and Persia. He conquered what to him would have been most of the known world in just 12 years. His adventures were unquestionably perilous, and he was badly wounded half a dozen times before his mysterious death, possibly at the hands of a poisoner.

Decisions were rarely difficult for the man who cut the legendary Gordian Knot with a single sword-stroke and went on to fulfill the prophecy that the man who contrived to undo it would become lord of all Asia. He proved himself a master tactician in battle time and again, defeating his enemies with a combination of surprising maneuvers, cunning deception and audacious feats of engineering. Alexander had little capacity for self-doubt and the charisma of a natural leader of men.

But journalist and pop historian Foreman also shows us a man who was obsessed with outdoing his famous father, who presided over numerous massacres and the bloody sacking of cities, and who murdered one of his best friends in a drunken brawl.

Like life, the text of Foreman's book is short, with large type and wide margins. She has proved that art is long by balancing the brevity of her concise but elegant text with a wealth of lavish illustrations: Not a single page goes by without a color photograph of a statue or other artifact depicting Alexander. His lasting legacy of inspiration is reflected in the wide range of color reproductions of paintings from across Europe and Asia. Numerous photographs of battlefields and ruined palaces also serve to bulk up this elegant volume.

This is not a scholarly work, but more of a popular history--classics for the coffee table. Foreman's descriptions of events and critical analysis is fleeting. She often relegates important issues--such as the fate of the citizens of Thebes, one of Alexander earliest and bloodiest conquests, and Alexander's possible role in his father's death--to one- or two-page inserts that interrupt the main text, making it an attractive book to browse through, but a difficult one to sit and read at length.

Nor does she make decisions or draw conclusions about her subject. Instead, she shows the reader a dual view of Alexander, listing his accomplishments, virtues and lasting influence, but never shying away from his occasional misjudgments, murderous excesses or hubris.

Alexander the Conqueror makes no clear judgment about whether the remarkable ancient Macedonian should be remembered as great or terrible: "Having accomplished so much and died so young, Alexander set a standard for achievement that endures to this day...His greatness, therefore, is beyond doubt. His goodness is another matter."

Copyright 2005 The Yomiuri Shimbun

From the Sludge report

DeLay Treated for Heart Condition
WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was treated for a heart condition Thursday at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center, his office said.
The Texas Republican was released and returned home after a series of testsTom Delay has a heart

Tom Delay has a heart? Who knew?

Powell's Last Mile as FCC Chairman
By Roy Mark
WASHINGTON -- Seven years after joining the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Michael Powell bade a teary goodbye today at the conclusion of his 90th FCC open meeting.
"Government service is not lucrative and it takes a painful toll on you personally and your family," the often controversial Powell said. "It saddens me when public officials and bureaucrats are criticized for having alternative motives or when someone personalizes disagreements."

coughswiftboatvetscough, coughfairnessdoctrinecough, coughnipplegatehowardsterncough,

All hail ZOGG!
Resistance is futile

Depends on your definition of "hole"

Apparently the story we were told about Saddam Hussien being found in a so called spider hole underground were
fiction

Hungry?
I might dispute the "world's greatest" part but this looks like a preety damn good grilled cheese sandwich to me

Inukshuk at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo 

Expo 2005 and why Canada is cool

I went to an event at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo last night that illustrated for me once again one of the best things about Canada.

The themes of the World Expo being held in Aichi Prefecture, Japan this summer is "Nature's Wisdom." Canada was the first country to sign up to take part and our pavillion is built on the theme of the "Wisdom of Diversity" - you can read all about it here .

Visitors to the pavillion enter to a show simulation the northern lights, then enter the outer ring that tells the story of Canada's "geo-sphere" and "bio-sphere" -- in plain English, the geography and wildlife of the great white north from Baffin Island to Windsor, from Vancouver to St. John.

The inner ring, and this is where it gets good, is Canada's "ethno-sphere" which celebrates the diversity of cultures and ethnicities in Canada. In his speech last night, deputy head of mission at the embassy MacKenzie Clugston, who for the record spoke only in French and Japanese and had a Japanese interpreter give the English version (how cool is that?), pointed out that, according to the 2001 census

47% of Canadians are of an ethic background that is not British, French or First Nations and 85% think multiculturalism is a good thing.

That really struck me. Living in monocultural conformist Japan, where there is a lot of xenophobia even today about "foreign devils" and reading some of the crap from the cultural conservatives in North American about the evils of immigrants and nasty foreigners and illegal aliens ruining the good ole US of A, it was nice to see the Canadian government get it right and showcase the cultural, intellectual and even financial prosperity that comes from having a diversity of experiences, backgrounds and opinions represented in the population. Three cheers for the cultural mosiac!

"It's the tolerance, stupid!"

Oh, and despite having recently become a U.S. citizen, Alanis Morrisette will be coming to do a concert there. Click the link to write songs like her.

We have met the enemy and he is us

From the NY Times
Many Missteps Tied to Delay in Armor for Troops in Iraq
By MICHAEL MOSS

Published: March 7, 2005


he war in Iraq was hardly a month old in April 2003 when an Army general in charge of equipping soldiers with protective gear threw the brakes on buying bulletproof vests.

The general, Richard A. Cody, who led a Pentagon group called the Army Strategic Planning Board, had been told by supply chiefs that the combat troops already had all the armor they needed, according to Army officials and records from the board's meetings. Some 50,000 other American soldiers, who were not on the front lines of battle, could do without.

The view from up North for our American Friends

Missile Counter-Attack
Former Canadian Foriegn Minister Lloyd Axworthy fires back at U.S. -- and Canadian -- critics of our BMD (I think that's "bullshit missile defense") decision in An Open Letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Do you think he'd go back into federal politics?

Please, make it stop. My God, think of the children
The gay conservative offspring it speaks of is Alan Keyes daughter. It is amazing this woman is still being paid to spout such hateful drivel.Ann Coulter: Calling the kettle gay

WTF? Wingnuttery in action
Diana West: Fear and loathing of the gonzo establishment
Who is Diana West and has she ever read any Thompson or even had a beer?

Kung fu fighting
you may enjoy this

Breakfast with the doctor, a good line and a good quote

“I like to eat breakfast alone, and almost never before noon; anybody with a terminally jangled lifestyle needs at least one psychic anchor every 24 hours, and mine is breakfast. In Hong Kong, Dallas or at home – and regardless of whether or not I have been to bed – breakfast is a personal ritual that can only be properly observed alone, and in a spirit of genuine excess. The food factor should always be massive; four Bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crepes, a half-pound of either sausage, bacon or corned beef hash with diced chilies, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, a chopped lemon for random seasoning, and something like a slice of key lime pie, two margaritas and six lines of the best cocaine for dessert…. Right, and there should also be two or three newspapers, all mail and messages, a telephone, a notebook for planning the next 24 hours, and at least one source of good music…. All of which should be dealt with outside, in the warmth of a hot sun, and preferably stone naked.”
-Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: Jimmy Carter and the Great Leap of Faith -

"Jeff Gannon ... He is a White House correspondent who has been lobbing softball questions at the president and his press secretary, turns out he is actually a paid escort for wealthy homosexuals... He actually had two jobs - one obviously was sleazy and shameful and the other was a gay male prostitute... I think I know what Bush meant now when he said he has a mandate."
- Bill Maher

Q:"If you had been in President Clinton's place would you have resigned?"
A: "If I had been in the President's place I would not have gotten the chance to resign. I would have been lying in a pool of my own blood and listening to my wife ask, 'How do you reload this son of a bitch?'"
-Texas Congressman Dick Armey

"Kelly Joe Phelps could not get get any cooler without moving to Antarctica. "

In your ear
Kevin Wood / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

Jack Johnson
In Between Dreams
Universal, 2,548 yen
With his latest release, surfer-cum-filmmaker-cum-folk rocker Jack Johnson explores the joys of domesticity while broadening his musical palette.
In Between Dreams mixes rhythmic folky acoustic guitar-based songs with the occasional funky rocker like the scorching "Staple it Together" to offer up a relaxing, sunny package of tunes that linger in the listener's ear for days.
In Between Dreams showcases Johnson's gift for making the personal universal with playful love songs like the bouncy "Better Together" and "Banana Pancakes," a paean to waking up slow. His songwriting has always been strong, but the combination of strong hooks and laid-back grooves heard on this disc are proof he has hit his stride. His no-frills vocal style and chunky acoustic guitar provide a warm tone that runs throughout the whole album.
Johnson branches out musically here, using a wider variety of tempos than on previous CDs. His arrangements have become more subtle and complex, filling out the trio bare-bones sound with an accordion evoking French chanson on "Belle" and using piano for the first time on a few tracks. While his signature conversational folk-meets-rap cadences remain in place on songs such as "Better Together," Johnson belts out "Breakdown" and "Good People" like an old-time R&B singer and shows a hint of Nashville on the rootsy "Do You Remember."
In Between Dreams is a lazy, sun-drenched day at the beach.

Kelly Joe Phelps
Tap the Red Cane Whirlwind
Rykodisc, 2,414 yen
At the other end of the spectrum, the no-less brilliant Kelly Joe Phelps could not get get any cooler without moving to Antarctica.
Tap the Red Cane Whirlwind is a collection of solo live recordings from a series of California club dates last March that show a master slide guitarist, singer and songwriter at his peak.
Phelps' songs tend toward dark narratives about people on the margins of life, mining much the same vein as Tom Waits, but sounding nothing like him.
After starting his career as a jazz musician, Phelps rediscovered and reinvented for himself the blues. His lyrics are both evocative and mysterious, his singing understated yet powerful and his guitar work sparse and hypnotic. It's an intense package.
The songs on this disc are like a suibokuga ink painting in which the initial impression of spare simplicity gives way to endless subtle shadings that provide the work immense beauty and power. This album is not background music--it is lie-on-the-floor-with-the-lights-out music.
First-time listeners may find the opening 10-minute interpretation of Skip James' "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" a bit slow and meandering, but like good Scotch, Phelps is an acquired taste that packs a punch. A mailed fist in velvet glove clutching a rose. Spend a night home alone and listen to all the Phelps you can lay you hands on.

Citizen Cope
The Clarence Greenwood Recordings
BMG, 2,548 yen
Yet another highly original singer-songwriter, in this case with some serious studio production chops, Citizen Cope aka Clarence Greenwood's sophomore effort is an ambitious album that uses slow hip-hop beats to back a genre-blurring mix of blues, R&B, funk and pop. Citizen Cope delivers arty, poetic lyrics in a plaintive, rough-edged voice over broad-ranging arrangements that utilize stabbing horns, melodic piano and chunky guitar riffs.
The former Basehead hip-hop deejay sounds like a Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen born in 1977.
Copyright 2005 The Yomiuri Shimbun

Evidence of a White House 'cult'
Kevin Wood Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
By Seymour M. Hersh
HarperCollins, 416 pp, 25.95 dollars
Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command is a stunning expose of the mismanagement, mendacity and misconduct behind the actions of the U.S. government and military in relation to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The book is a reworking and updating of Hersh's shocking series of investigative reports, originally published in The New Yorker, on various disturbing aspects of the foreign policy of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
Despite administration claims to the contrary--Richard Perle, one of the architects of the Iraq war, called the author "the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist"--Hersh is hardly a wild-eyed radical. He earned his journalistic spurs and a Pulitzer Prize breaking the story of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and recently won his fifth George Polk Award for his work breaking the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse story.
In a recent interview, Hersh asserted that the United States has "been taken over by a cult"--the neoconservative cabal of ideologues the White House has put in control of U.S. foreign policy, military and intelligence apparatuses. Chain of Command paints a chilling portrait of an administration so convinced of its righteousness that it refuses to see any facts that do not fit its preconceptions. Goals set by the president, vice president and defense secretary were to be achieved by any means necessary--and woe to those who let moral or practical objections get in the way.
Hersh gets his information firsthand from a wide range of insiders and from official documents ranging from congressional reports to U.S. Army investigations.
And damning information it is.
In discussing the systematic abuse at Abu Ghraib, Hersh draws heavily on an internal report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, providing a long list of "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at the prison after the president and his national security team turned to Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller to help improve interrogation results in Iraq. As head of the controversial internment and interrogation center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Miller had been criticized heavily by the International Committee of the Red Cross for the treatment of prisoners there.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the senior commander in Iraq, accepted Miller's recommendation that "Army prisons be geared, first and foremost, to interrogations," and that military intelligence, not military police, should be in charge of the prison system.
The result was that MPs were routinely directed to "set the conditions" for interrogations by military intelligence officers, Central Intelligence Agency operatives and private contractors by breaking the prisoners' will through coercive treatment that included beatings, sleep deprivation and sexual humiliation.
In autumn 2003, Sanchez authorized military interrogators to use dogs at their own discretion, without his prior approval. Hersh points out that the order requires dogs "to be muzzled and in control of a handler when in interrogation rooms but put no restrictions on the use of dogs in other settings."
In one of many examples of the inappropriate use of military dogs in Iraq, Hersh writes: "One military intelligence witness, Spc. John Howard Ketzer, told Army investigators that he watched a dog team corner two male prisoners against a wall at Abu Ghraib, with one hiding behind the other and screaming. No interrogation was going on. 'When I asked what was going on in the cell, the handler stated that...he and another of the handlers was having a contest to see how many detainees they could get to urinate on themselves.'"
Hersh claims what happened at Abu Ghraib stems from the reliance of the president and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on secret operations and special forces units in the war on terror. The switch to such tactics was Rumsfeld's pet project--even before 9/11 he was moving to change the U.S. military into a smaller, faster, smarter, more high-tech fighting force that would rely chiefly on precision air strikes and commando raids.
Such tactics require precise intelligence, and plenty of it. When such intelligence was not forthcoming, Rumsfeld ordered drastic measures, including the formation of a special, highly secretive intelligence unit in the Pentagon with blanket approval to kill or capture high-value targets. This blanket approval seems to have had a trickle-down effect.
A senior intelligence official is quoted as saying: "So now we get our 'High Value' target lists and the Special Forces are given authority to kill on sight. The guys begin to think, 'Shit, if I can shoot him (a high-value target) on the street, why can't I do what I want when he's under my control in prison.' Rank-and-file soldiers--not Special Forces--are authorized to get tough. The seam between the special high-value targets and the general prison population begins to come apart."
The chapter detailing Rumsfeld's battles with senior military commanders over the war in Iraq is revealing. His ideas on modernizing and streamlining the U.S. military were not popular with the generals. It was Rumsfeld's insistence on a smaller footprint on the ground that led to the deployment only 150,000 U.S. troops in the invasion of Iraq, instead of the 450,000 Pentagon planners recommended. Hersh quotes a variety of senior army officers as saying that the war was micromanaged by Rumsfeld and his civilian advisers, who regularly overruled the Joint Staff.
"'He thought he knew better,' one senior planner said. 'He was the decision maker at every turn.'"
Again and again, Hersh quotes intelligence and military officers as saying senior administration officials politicized intelligence and heard only what they wanted to hear. Intelligence agents who could not confirm the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were ignored, and generals who warned the invaders might not be greeted with flowers were sidelined.
"They were so crazed and so far out and so difficult to reason with--to the point of being bizarre. Dogmatic, as if they were on a mission from God," one intelligence officer is quoted as saying.
Chain of Command is a difficult book to read in several respects. The stomach-turning descriptions of torture practiced on innocents at Abu Ghraib will horrify anyone with an ounce of humanity. The lengthy list of examples of hubris, wishful thinking, arrogance and blatant stupidity by Rumsfeld, Perle and others in overruling Pentagon planners and intelligence professionals will appall most readers and enrage many.
In the book's epilogue, Hersch poses a series of questions raised by his catalog of the Bush administration's sins, omissions and errors: "How did eight or nine neoconservatives who believed that a war in Iraq was the answer to international terrorism get their way? How did they redirect the government and rearrange long-standing American priorities and policies with so much ease? How did they overcome the bureaucracy, intimidate the press, mislead the Congress, and dominate the military? Is our democracy that fragile?"
Given the litany of errors, abuses and arrogance contained in Chain of Command, the future does not look bright.
Copyright 2005 The Yomiuri Shimbun

Week Links

First and foremost, a shout-out to my fellow hack Les "Red Hot" Coles for suffering a fool gladly and helping me set up my list of standing blog link. His blues blog that heads the list is a must-read for music fans everywhere. Check it out

This Cheesehead and winner of the Woodshed's Wanker du Jour award clearly hadn't read this interview with Hunter S. Thompson's widow or any of Thompsons work on the 2004 election.

Our laugh of the day comes from the nice people at Slate who give us a look at what William Faulkner would have said about the Georgie Bush. Also via the sludge report we have this classic bit of wingnuttery.

Finally, for those who enjoyed "Kissing Hank's Ass" (see earlier post) here is collection of Hankisms

Dumbest. Population. Ever.

Harris Interactive | The Harris Poll - Iraq, 9/11, Al Qaeda and Weapons of Mass Destruction: What the Public Believes Now, According to Latest Harris Poll

"Hank's right because he says he's right"

"Kissing Hank's Ass" is a brilliant little movie based on this script.

"If you kiss Hank's ass, He'll give you a million dollars; and if you don't, He'll kick the shit out of you."

Pulp fiction meets right wing theology You may have met these guys on Little Green Footballs or Powerline.