Dan Feidt's log on Minnesota, Information Operations, spinstorms and latent contradictions.
Well, it has been a week of scarce updates, because I am in the midst of looking for jobs in the Twin Cities, a somewhat scarce proposition these days.
I was batting around the idea of perhaps starting a political Wiki project using the TikiWiki software I installed, but no sooner had I fired it up than I found one of my favorite sites, the DailyKos, had started their own Wiki, the dkosopedia. The interesting thing about Wikis is they promote a sort of merging, such that there is only one wikipedia, and only one disinfopedia on the Internet, although Wikis for, say, Linux support are also become more frequently used.
I entered some stuff into the dkosopedia, and I've been generally impressed by the progress they have made, as well as the lack of disagreement among writers so far. I put stuff on the Department of Defense and Minnesota, early forms such as they are.
So the dkosopedia would serve nicely in place of any attempted wiki project of my own so far. Some people I know have been batting around other ideas.
I'll throw this in before I wander off to do the job apps... good old John Dean observes the significance of Bush hiring a personal lawyer from outside the government on the Valerie Plame case. It doesn't look good for Bush at all on this count.
Crucial new humor comes from the Bush/ZombieReagan '04 campaign, rapidly evolving. My favorite poster: "Bush is safe. I only eat brains." Honestly, this precanned celebrity necro-worship is very boring, but at least it's only reached .6 PrincessDiDeaths in terms of syrupy wretchedness.
On the flip side I will offer Antiwar.com libertarian Justin Raimondo's praise of Reagan as someone who was smart enough to leave Lebanon and probably wouldn't have believed in the Patriot Act.
My favorite site the Agonist has switched to a Scoop engine like I used to have for their news digestion. Advance! Technology! As for other sites, gotta love Jesus' General
A little older news: the Americans have issued an arrest warrant for Ahmed Chalabi's aide Francis Brooke. Hurray. And the hunt for who leaked to Iran.
This was published a few days ago on Capitol hill Blue. I would take it with an enormous grain of salt, more as a reflection of the mood than actual journalism: "Bush's erratic behavior worries White House aides:"
President George W. Bush’s increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader’s state of mind.Probably satire, but damn accurate! Posted by HongPong at June 11, 2004 04:59 PMIn meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as “enemies of the state.”
Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home.
“It reminds me of the Nixon days,” says a longtime GOP political consultant with contacts in the White House. “Everybody is an enemy; everybody is out to get him. That’s the mood over there.”
In interviews with a number of White House staffers who were willing to talk off the record, a picture of an administration under siege has emerged, led by a man who declares his decisions to be “God’s will” and then tells aides to “fuck over” anyone they consider to be an opponent of the administration.
[.....]
God may also be the reason Attorney General John Ashcroft, the administration’s lightning rod because of his questionable actions that critics argue threatens freedoms granted by the Constitution, remains part of the power elite. West Wing staffers call Bush and Ashcroft “the Blues Brothers” because “they’re on a mission from God.”“The Attorney General is tight with the President because of religion,” says one aide. “They both believe any action is justifiable in the name of God.”
But the President who says he rules at the behest of God can also tongue-lash those he perceives as disloyal, calling them “fucking assholes” in front of other staff, berating one cabinet official in front of others and labeling anyone who disagrees with him “unpatriotic” or “anti-American.”