I’ve been pretty critical of the U.S. occupation in Iraq, but it sounds like there are other stories of occupation/peacekeeping gone bad.

On Friday a UN helicopter gunship fired a rocket at supporters of former rebel commander Col Jules Mutebusi.

The UN Peacekeepers involved have at least some American involvement, as the spokesperson is American.

My point isn’t to excuse the problems the US is having in Iraq, but to dampen any expectation that a Kerry victory and UN involvement will stop the killing and deaths overnight–or possibly at all. Once people get used to killing other people as a solution to their problems, it is very hard to get them to stop.

Quote about The Day After Tomorrow’s science:

Even one of the movie’s admirers, Friends of the Earth Director Tony Juniper, concedes that "the depiction of the science is exaggerated and at times misleading."

If The Day After Tomorrow were about economics:

A ten-cent increase in the federal minimum wage casts millions of blacks and Hispanics into permanent unemployment and despair; all of the unemployed women scrape up pennies by offering themselves as prostitutes, while all of the unemployed men swarm to the suburbs to rape soccer-moms and then riot so violently in the cities that the Empire State building, the U.S. Capitol, the Sears Tower, and the Bank of America building all crash violently to the ground, killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians, including a kindly book-peddler specializing in works by and about Ayn Rand.

And, to put it into perspective:

I’m confident that, should any such silly movie ever be made, no president of a market-oriented thinktank would say about it that "the depiction of the economics is exaggerated and at times misleading, but the scale of the threat and the underlying politics are all too true."

Read all the economic disaster scenarios; they’re pretty funny.

So John Ashcroft is warning us all of terrorist attacks, but as my bright friend Oscar noted, “Why hasn’t the color-coded alert level gone up if there’s this big threat?”

To which I responded, “Bush Poll Number Threat Level: High.” Think about it: they’re releasing pictures of people they want to capture, but have no specific threat from them, but there are terrorist attacks coming, but it’s safe to enjoy your vacation as usual, and it’s not worth raising the terrorism alert level.

This is getting to be Bill Clinton-level “Operation: Look, a Baby Wolf!” politics–just not as well-executed. If the threat is real, raise the alert level and get the word out. If the threat isn’t real, stop giving us alerts about how likely John Kerry’s election is this week and have a nice, warm cup of Shut Up.

The ACLU wants to remove part of LA County’s seal because it’s religious. Los Angeles county has a religous symbol? These stupid right wingers and their crusades against any representation of Greek religi-

Oh, wait, you mean that’s not what they’re upset about? The huge personnification of an ancient Greek religious figure in the middle? Oh, it’s the cross on the side. You know, on Los Angeles County’s seal. For those of you who don’t hablo, Los Angeles means “The Angels.” Now why would a town founded by a bunch of Spaniards who were spitting out Catholic missions right and left have anything to do with Christianity?

Hmmm…this is sooooo hard. Math is hard! I bet the ACLU director played with a Barbie and can’t do math. And can’t read and other hard stuff. Boy, thinking about the obvious makes me tired.

Sure the ACLU does a lot of good work, too. But America doesn’t get a pass about Abu Ghraib prison just because we send food aid to Africa.

And this comes from someone who supports taking “In God We Trust” off the money, getting rid of the office of Senate and House chaplains, and removing “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

This deserves a Cartman:

“Yeah, you know we believe in equality for everybody and tolerance and all that gay stuff. But dude, —- you.”