A sobering week indeed, folks. The BHC is not sure how much levity we can make out of the latest revelations coming out about Iraq and the Bush administration but, without doubt, it is a heavy, heavy weight that America is now shouldering thanks to the arrogant incompetence of this current administration. Naturally, Limbaugh breezes in on his own particular brand of hot, fetid air and, in view of the enormous screw ups in Iraq, Bush confirms that Rummy is doing a fine job. The BHC shudders to imagine what a lousy job would have produced. And bin Laden has now some need to offer a bounty to get his jihad fantasies to come true.

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Bum Rush


Rush Limbaugh must be thinking that Rumsfeld and Bush are getting all soft and lefty. He appears to be more than miffed that people are bent out of shape about this so-called "prisoner abuse" when, really, it's nothing worse than crazy frat-house hijinks. Despite Bush and Rummy denouncing such treatment as disgusting, sadistic and cruel, you certainly would not come away with the impression that White House neocons and Rush were of the same idealogical bend when the Abu Graib prison abuses are describe by Rush like this:

This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation....I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?

and by Rumsfeld like this:

Beyond abuse of prisoners, there are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence towards prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman...

Of course, a much deeper story is now coming to light given the coverage that the Red Cross report documented this abuse last year and it is certainly a much larger story than Rush could likely every wrap his incredibly numb skull around. Besides, he seems more than happy to skim the photos and fondly recollect his heady days at college. The BHC suspects most of America is none too keen to learn of Rush's homosexual, sado-masochistic frat-house parties wherein, by his own obtuse admission, he relishes thoughts of winding up in a pile of naked Arabs with a hood on his head while a frat brother takes pictures of his fat, hairy ass. Woo hoo...party on, Rush! Oh yeah, and lets not forget the attack dogs.

"If you look at these pictures, you cannot deny that there are elements of homoeroticism …I've seen things like this on American websites. You can find these if you have the passwords to these various porn sites, you can see things like this."

An open confesssion, it would seem, that Rush has all the passwords he needs to keep himself entertained for hours on end.

As readers of the BHC are probably aware, Limbaugh's idiotic remarks were reported roundly in the press and elsewhere. Rush has worked hard at becoming the nation's biggest blowhard and this naturally entails the need to quickly respond to criticisms of his own special brand of right wing lunacy:

LIMBAUGH: All right, so we're at war with these people. And they're in a prison where they're being softened up for interrogation. And we hear that the most humiliating thing you can do is make one Arab male disrobe in front of another. Sounds to me like it's pretty thoughtful. Sounds to me in the context of war this is pretty good intimidation -- and especially if you put a woman in front of them and then spread those pictures around the Arab world. And we're sitting here, "Oh my God, they're gonna hate us! Oh no! What are they gonna think of us?" I think maybe the other perspective needs to be at least considered. Maybe they're gonna think we are serious. Maybe they're gonna think we mean it this time. Maybe they're gonna think we're not gonna kowtow to them. Maybe the people who ordered this are pretty smart. Maybe the people who executed this pulled off a brilliant maneuver. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got physically injured. But boy there was a lot of humiliation of people who are trying to kill us -- in ways they hold dear. Sounds pretty effective to me if you look at us in the right context.

There is so much that is ugly and wrong with Limbaugh's spouting, it really is difficult to know where to begin. Now, as emotional creatures, human beings do not, in general, react to the worst kinds of humiliation and abuse by thinking their tormentors are "serious" and so shouldn't be messed with. It should be obvious to most readers that the likely outcome of such abuses and torture will not be a mollified Iraqi population. If anything, the episode of Abu Graib will make things much, much worse, something already confirmed by the brutal execution of Nick Greb. The clear, concise statement, "we're at war with these people." will likely come as a bit of surprise to most Iraqis. In the minds of Rush and his ilk, and he is not alone in that position, the mission of delivering freedom and democracy to "these people" has morphed into a war with them. Are Iraqi citizens aware of the shift in policy that has the US now "at war" with them? Hey, what happened to that "liberator" bullshit?

Rush further pronounces the abusive behaviour as "pretty smart" which is not only bizarre but completely contradicts his previous statement that these were just the hijinks of a few goofballs "blowing off steam". Well, which is it? It is now well-known that the abuse was extensive and could not have occurred without some in command knowing, possibly even ordering it. Rush even admits this: "Maybe the people who ordered this are pretty smart." A further deceit has him lying that "Nobody got hurt. Nobody got physically injured." The BHC and America has known for sometime that Rush does not like having his "arguments" inconvenienced by facts like the Red Cross report (see above) which documents that, in eight seperate incidents of American guards shooting Iraqi detainees, seven prisoners died and eighteen were wounded. And how does one deal with the information that 70% to 90% of those arrested were simply rounded up and hauled off to prison. They weren't insurgents taken prisoner during battle. Most were just Iraqi civilians getting hauled off in the dark of night. Soldiers themselves have explained that they had to bring back x number of Iraqis and so would grab just about anyone.

Days have passed and Rush has attracted more criticism. His response has been, of course, to dig his heels in even more. The BHC has begun to wonder just what are the side effects of long term OxyContin abuse? Is Rush just some sort FDA test particle? Given the range of his comments about the photographs of the prisoner abuse, could it possibly involve tendancies toward sado-masochistic, photo fetishism? We are not quite sure how else someone would get to be so whacked out, but let's just hope the FDA sees to it that that stuff is removed from the market, post haste.

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Those Ol' Cotton Fields

This whole free market, global trade thing is just not working out well for the Bush administration these days. As though the White House doesn't have enough to occupy the days, the WTO has recently ruled against the US in a dispute over cotton subsidies brought to the world trade body by Brasil. The timing of this action must be a source of some consternation for the Bushies since the Republicans generally count on the support of the Farm Belt and with $19 billion in subsidies to American farmers right now, being told that those subsidies must be curtailed cannot be welcome news six months before the election. Damn these international bodies! The UN and now that bloody WTO. We run this world, not them!*


Read it....

*No, this is not a quote of Rush Limbaugh...but it could be.

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Javaan Jive


A prominent Canadian researcher, Dr. Ranjit Kumar Chandra, is facing claims that data in his widely reported study of a nutritional supplement's effects on thinking and memory in the elderly have been fudged. Readers may ask, why, good Doctor, would you do that?

Money.

It seems that a study conducted by Dr. Chandra claimed to have demonstrated cognitive benefits of a daily supplement which Dr. Chandra formulated and patented. His daughter licensed the rights to the supplement under her company, Javaan Corp. Sweet deal. Patent a new pill, license it to your daughter's company and then come out with a study that shows how great and effective this pill is so run out and buy it right away from...your daughter's company.

Peer researchers are beginning to suspect that the "study" may be completely fraudulent. No one has yet established whether Dr. Chandra did all the cognitive tests and statistical analyses that he claims to have carried out. As experimental psychologist, Dr. Seth Roberts, who studies learning and memory at UC Berkeley, says, "The statistics were not just implausible, they were impossible."

Chandra defends his work with the ever plausible "there is more than one way to do statistics" argument. Apparently, doing statistics and skinning cats are, in some odd way, related.


Read it....

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Technical Malfunction

Recently the BHC was pointed to this notice on the Department of State website:

Postponement of Release of “Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2003-2004”

The release of “Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2003-2004” scheduled for May 5, 2004 has been postponed for technical reasons that have held up completion of the report. We will announce a new date for the release of the report once it reaches the final stage of printing.

Technical reasons? Like we can't actually find evidence that the Bush Administration supports Human Rights and Democracy. That kind of technical reason?

Check it....

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Rum Runner

Just how encouraging is it to be told by one of the very small population of human beings on earth to have bankrupted a Texas oil company, come close to bankrupting the US Treasury and generally buggered things up from his first moments in the White House that, "You are doing a superb job"?

In the face of that job evaluation, try imagining things were Rumsfeld really screwing up. Bush, seemingly, has no sense of irony; not much of a deficit really, considering all the other senses with which he is so obviously unfurnished.

The maelstrom surrounding the Donald, those Abu Ghraib photographs buzzing around his head like a cloud of horseflies, has more than confirmed the continued disconnect from reality which this administration suffers. First, they do nothing when presented with evidence that Al Qaeda is planning an attack on US soil. Then, they do nothing when presented with evidence about abuses at Abu Graib prison; evidence they produced. This blathering about "accountability" and Rumsfeld assuming responsibility for this debacle doesn't appear to entail anything other than saying he is responsible.

"Yes, officer, I shot that man."
"Ok, then you're assuming responsibility for this?"
"Yes. Yes, I am."
"Right, then. Off you go."


The failure of leadership....

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Thars gold in them thar kills

An audio recording of what is purported to be Osama bin Laden's voice has popped up offering 10 kilos of gold to anyone who might manage to kill Iraqi proconsul, Paul Bremer, and/or UN Secretary General, Kofi Anan. This strikes the BHC as a rather, well, western. way to accomplish bin Laden's jihadist goals. Normal appeals to defend Islam against the infidel perhaps have been falling to the ground, although there seems to be no evidence that the number of fundamentalist, islamic nuts is on the wane. He also has offered 1 kg. of Au to anyone who killed a "soldier or civilian" from countries which are "possessors of the veto, such as Americans or Britons." The BHC somberly ponders whether this had much to do with the horrifying execution of Nick Berg, despite claims of the Muslim terrorists that it was revenge for the Abu Graib abuses. The execution video documents the terrorists saying that "the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib 'is not redeemed except by blood and souls..." That and a few pounds of bullion.


Read about it....

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grimmer and grimmer....