9.10.02

VVV

House Affirms "Under God" In Pledge Spurred by a recent court ruling, the House passed a bill Tuesday that would reinforce support for references to God in the Pledge of Allegiance and the national motto. The measure passed in a 401-5 vote. Those members voting against the bill were Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Michael Honda, D-Calif., Jim McDermott, D-Wash., Bobby Scott, D-Va. and Pete Stark, D-Calif.

So 1.25% of the House has read the Constitution.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 19:45 -- link --

VVV This has got to be the saddest form of procrastination ever. I'm using the Prior-Art-O-Matic to find out about famous geographers. Apparently B L Turner II is like a normal fizzy drink, but [he] can be used as a metal detector. And Ellen Semple is a rubber fish that has been featured in Star Trek! And Karl Ritter is a bathtub that records memos!

Addendum: It looks like John Mars is going to protect us from the terrible secret of space.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 00:15 -- link --

7.10.02

VVV

Poll Finds Arabs Dislike U.S. Based On Policies It Pursues A comprehensive survey of attitudes and opinions in the Arab world has found that Arabs look favorably on American freedoms and political values, but have a strongly negative overall view of the United States based largely on their disapproval of U.S.policy toward the region.

What's that you said about them just hating our freedom, Mr. Bush?
posted by Stentor Danielson at 18:09 -- link --

6.10.02

VVV

Attack May Spark Coup In Iraq, U.S. Analysts Say Senior intelligence experts inside and outside government have reached a consensus that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would likely be ousted in a coup led by members of his inner circle in the final days or hours before U.S. forces launch a major ground attack. Faced with an imminent, overwhelming U.S. assault and the choice of either being Hussein's successors or being imprisoned or killed in the fighting, top-ranking officers or a group of military and other senior officials would take the chance to eliminate the Iraqi leader, several senior administration officials and intelligence experts said in recent interviews.

On the surface, this sounds nice. If we rattle our saber loud enough, Saddam's lieutenants will overthrow him, we won't have to actually launch any missiles, and everybody will be happy (except Saddam, of course). But there are a few problems with this scenario, beyond the question of how likely this type of coup really is (since there have been plenty of reports lately suggesting Saddam wouldn't go easily). First, would this type of coup really constitute effective "regime change" of the type the administration wants? There are few guarantees that Saddam's top officials would be much less evil than their former master. Following the coup the American military would back off, as would UN arms inspectors, in order to let the "new" regime get settled in and to avoid making it look like a Western puppet government. But then they could go ahead and be as recalcitrant as Saddam, and we'd be back in the same situation.

Second, it would be dangerous for the military to plan on a coup, because that would be disastrous if it failed. Counting on Iraqis to overthrow Saddam could lead military planners to not commit sufficient forces to the operation, and to avoid serious planning of how to run Iraq after Saddam's fall. Neither of those things are needed if Iraqis do all the dirty work and have a government already set up. But they're vital if Saddam proves resilient and the US has to take matters into its own hands.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 12:27 -- link --