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Friday, October 1, 2004 |
CommonDreams: "The White House has endorsed a proposed bill that would make it legal for U.S. intelligence officials to deport individuals to countries known to use torture to extract information."
11:34:42 PM 
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Some politicians talk in public as if they were speaking to children or mentally challenged people.
"Jack Straw today launched a fierce attack on the 'evil men' holding British hostage Kenneth Bigley who are trying to stop Iraq's march to democracy 'by bullet and bomb'." That 'bullet and bomb', however, is a lucky strike.
Timothy Garton Ash in The Guardian:
"Under Tony Blair, Britain has more than ever practised what I call the Jeeves school of diplomacy. Like the inimitable Jeeves, and like Alfred, the aged British butler to impetuous Batman, we are impeccably loyal in public but privately whisper sage advice, mixed with a little delicately worded criticism, into Washington's ear. 'Is that wise, sir?' we murmur, always the perfect gentleman's gentleman. But the boss
no longer acts on our advice.
Jeeves's tone of voice is perfectly caught by a recently leaked document in which the then British ambassador to Washington sums up his conversation with Paul Wolfowitz, the Bush administration's arch-hawk on Iraq. 'We backed regime change but the plan had to be clever and failure was not an option,' Jeeves reports himself as murmuring, subtly adapting to the American idiom.
Obviously we should keep engaging with the United States through all the many and intimate bilateral channels that have developed since 1941. But we must do these two other big things as well. What should start in Brighton today is not a violent, total reversal of British foreign policy, just a little velvet revolution. Its motto is clear: No More Jeeves."
A Gentleman of Leisure reacted to this in one of the famous Wodehouse groups (WodehouseIndia): "If Jeeves was setting UK foreign policy, it would at least work! The problem is that the country is being run by Bertie, while Jeeves has gone shrimping." I wholeheartedly agree.
Slate: "The bottom line is that there's hope for Kerry yet. Swing voters may not love themselves, but they like themselves well enough. Which means they like Kerry well enough. To build on that sense of well-being, I recommend that the Democratic National Committee spike swing-state reservoirs. Prozac for all! Highly attractive men and women should be bused in to seduce loners who seem mildly depressed or distracted. Loudspeakers should play 'Dancing in the Street' by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas around the clock. Copies of P.G. Wodehouse's The Code of the Woosters should be dropped from the sky."
Do I sense a tiny touch of resentment here?
11:54:52 AM
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We have a winner: John Kerry.
Something has changed today. A new wind seems to be blowing over this earth.
(Some minor, personal changes: Radio Userland has a new version, 8.1 and Apple upped my iDisk storage space to a gorgeous 1 GB.)
11:14:12 AM
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© Copyright 2008.
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