Mild Thursday Edition of Around the Internets

Mild Thursday Edition of Around the Internets

Internal sabotage offers a tempting explanation for the fact that so much has gone wrong for the United States since 2001. After 9/11 Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan--which had financed the Taliban and trained the hijackers at its camps--but Bush shocked analysts by attacking Afghanistan and Iraq instead. Was Bush's refusal to search for bin Laden in his nation of residence the result of spectacular incompetence--or a continuing alliance with the same Islamists his father's presidency had armed and funded? Are we losing the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq because of Rumsfeld's stubborn insistence on understaffing the military? Or are our leaders intentionally dragging out combat to accomplish their masters' aims: increasing the popularity of radical Islam and the recruitment of terrorists? Even Bush's domestic policies, from tax cuts paid to the rich people least likely to stimulate the economy to his attack on Social Security, seem designed to undermine U.S. stability and prosperity. Was Bush crossing his fingers when he swore to preserve and defend the constitution?

--From Recent Ted Rall editorial

Item: As I marvel at all of the violently evil things that the Bush administration does, I too have thought that they're not really big fans of the United States. I've always thought that a clever Democratic Party and/or opposition party ad to the GOP would simply show Bin Laden or the latest villain de jure poisoning the water, wrecking the social security system, weakening the military and whatnot and then saying "Oh, wait. That's what the Republicans are doing..." Our bad.

Item: I had never read anything by Chris Bunch but I had heard he had written the best novel about Vietnam ever. He died recently. Here's his obit and a remembrance from Norman Spinrad. This makes me want to check out his work, especially that massive science fiction series that was a bestseller in the Soviet Union.

Item: Robert Cringely is doing a series called NERDTv. He's going to release the series online and you'll be able to download. Related: Frontline and the British documentary "Power of Nightmares" online for free.

Item: Two impressive webcomics efforts over at 2 Political Junkies here and here.

Item: Interesting Fake Sites That Promote New Cloning (looks like cloning for spare parts) movie The Island here and here. I guess Ales Rarus lost. Thank God. Actually, if we let stem cell research go forward (in S. Korea and Russia at least), you could get your spare parts without growing full bodied versions of Evan or Scarlet. Hey, it's just a movie.