Saddam Pleads For Peace, and an interview With Gerald Ford From beyond the grave

Yesterday on the Baath Party website, a letter was posted, written by Saddam Hussein on the day he was sentenced to death. The letter, while still quite arrogant in nature, pleads with the Iraqi people not to hate, but to peacefully coexist, adding a plea not to hate the invading coalition forces. While this seems strange coming from a man who has just been sentenced to death for his genocide of Kurdish Iraqi citizens, I still sincerely hope that his former people still listen and bring an end to the sectarian violence that is taking more lives each day in the war torn country.

Hussein goes on to say goodbye to the Iraqi people, praises God, and says, "Long live Iraq, long live Iraq ... Long live Palestine ... Long live jihad and the mujahideen". He concludes with the reason for the letter – the court refused to let Hussein give a final statement, and Saddam wanted to be heard.

I don't quite know how to react to this, to be perfectly honest. In the early 90s, during Operation Desert Storm, I was in grade school and it was pretty cut and dried – Saddam was the enemy. Three years ago when he was dragged out of a shoebox sized foxhole in his hometown, I have to admit, as much as I was glad he had been caught, I felt a little sorry for him. He looked all unkempt and disheveled such a far cry from the powerful despot in military regalia. Now his execution is less than 30 days away, and I have to hope that his plea for peace among the different factions of Iraq is genuine. Now all we need to do is make sure that every Iraqi sees it. We all know how well leaflets work, so let's shoot rockets into the leaflet factory…that might work.

As a side note, I find it really interesting that an interview with former president Gerald Ford is just coming to light in the days following his death. In the interview, from 2004, Ford is candid about his disdain for the methods and motivations behind the invasion of Iraq. He posited that diplomacy and sanctions were still viable options, and that the whole platform of WMDs was as much bullshit as we all knew at the time. Ford, even in death, and even though never duly elected president, shows more grace in one moment than Bush will ever be able to accomplish. Though he gets a bad rap for the pardoning of Nixon, I believe he will still be remembered more fondly than George W. Bush. RIP Jerry.

Currently listening: Final Straw By Snow Patrol Release date: 30 March, 2004

If I could prove with very shoddy evidence that Ann Coulter has the plague...

Could we execute her for treason? 

No...just kidding...but if she has any unpaid parking tickets, let's execute the bitch, just so she'll shut the hell up.  I'm currently reading the book I've listed below, Brainless, and I have to say...as much as I hated her before, now, I just think she needs to be locked in a rubber room. 

The book is an examination of Coulter and her many many contradictions.  A rabid anti-feminist, Coulter says she believes that women should be stripped of the right to vote...unless of course you would try to take away Ann's own right, which she has schemed and falsified records in order to do.  There are serious questions as to her age because there is a chance she falsified her birthdate on her first voter registration in order to vote at the age of 16, a felony, by the way.  Also, in the 2005 election, she registered her real-estate agent's address as her own and knowingly voted in the wrong precinct(another felony). 

More later on the lunatic, but I have to read more of the book first

Currently reading: Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter By Joe Maguire Release date: 10 October, 2006

Political Drivel

You know, sometimes I don't pay attention as well as I should.  Yesterday I saw a headline about Bolton submitting his resignation to president Bush, and my mind first went to Michael Bolton.  Now, as great as it would be for us never having to hear that pussy sing ever again, it's even greater that the report was referring to John Bolton, the beleaguered UN rep, who decided to resign rather than get completely spanked in confirmation hearings that would have certainly turned out with him being denied a reappointment to the post.

And then today, I saw a headline about Gates going before the Senate, and my first thought was of Bill Gates. Robert Gates makes more sense, since he's Bush's nominee to replace the outslithering Rumsfeld.  Why did my brain go to Bill Gates?  Who knows.

Well, Gates is starting off his confirmation hearings by pandering to the Democrats in what seems like a desperate attempt to get himself confirmed as defense secretary.  He started out his day as the first Republican in Bush's administration to actually admit that we're not winning the war in Iraq.  Now, although this is a step in the right direction in terms of message, if you sort through the bullshit, it can be only seen as pandering to the congressional majority for approval.

So, Iowa governor Tom Vilsack has thrown his hat in the ring for the 2008 Democratic nomination, and is coming on strong, attacking McCain, and saying a bunch of stuff that's obvious to a kid in freshman Poli-Sci class.  His latest is that he wants to shrink the number of troops stationed in Iraq to a tiny little security detail.  Wow...a democrat opposing the staunch authority of the evil republicans by cutting and running just like they said the democrats would.  Now, I don't oppose scaling back troops, as you all well know, but if we pull out all at once, Iraq will collapse even more completely into the civil war the republicans are denying the very existence of.  We need to do this in stages, so the Iraqis can be positioned to keep the infrastructure of the government intact.

Currently listening: Destination: Beautiful By Mae Release date: 25 February, 2003