Neil’s take: not bad, nothing special, didn’t tell him anything he didn’t know before (except the details on the Bush family’s ties with the Sauds and the Bin Laden family).
I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t already read and heard all about it from everyone, on the Internet and in real life. One expat, on seeing the film, had become an expert on the foibles, failings, and fuck ups of the Bush White House.
(Others don’t even acknowledge its existence because they’re going to vote for Bush anyway.)
Basically, if I didn’t already know about the Patriot Act via ice cream van, chasing representatives (senators?) down to ask them to enlist their children, the images of wounded and dying Iraqis and American soldiers, and the opening scene, I would have laughed and cried and been shocked a lot more.
The images of George Bush sitting and doing a great impression of a deer in headlights while trying to read My Pet Goat were still pretty effective, though, I must say.
In These Times has a pretty well documented piece on how the Bush administration used the intelligence assessments it received on terrorism threats. I’d like Michael, Steve, Kevin, and Dan to read it, then tell me again why Bush is best-qualified right now to lead their nation into war, then into peace and unity, regaining international respect, support, and co-operation around the world.
But then again, they might not care for such things, and want someone to barrel ahead and satisfy an agenda, justified or not. In that case, the Bush White House is the best team for the job.
As the company bus was leaving Jimei, we ended up temporarily stuck behind this truck whose driver had clearly not thought about height restrictions when it came to bridges.
Tom Ridge defended his Orange terror alerts for New York, Washington, and North Jersey by saying that even if the information was old, some of it had been updated recently. Plus:
“We said at the beginning that the casings were done in 2000 and 2001, but were updated as recently as January of this year,” said Fran Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show. “And, in fact, what we know about al Qaeda is that they case things and they do their homework well in advance and then update it before an attack.”
Hey, I’m all for pre-empting any possible attack by being more alert and trying to secure valuable buildings. Makes us safer and all that, right? The Bush administration has been working tirelessly over the last three years to disable and destroy al Qaeda, right?
“I think the indications are that this has been a very longstanding effort on the part of al Qaeda,” one official said Sunday, “that it dates from before 9/11, it continued after 9/11 and based on what it is that we are concerned about, we know about in terms of al Qaeda’s plans and intentions that it probably continues even today.”
So, three years after a country like the US, with all its defence spending, has *cough* taken the war to the enemy *cough*, terrorist groups like al Qaeda are still able to plan for attacks effectively enough to worry the Homeland Security Department?
I’ve just learned that my much younger godbrother Iain, of Kilmacolm in Scotland, is the proud father of a baby girl. Jesus fucking Christ on a pogo stick with bouncy exercise shoes. According to my mum in an e-mail to Iain’s dad:
He has beaten my 2 girls to parenthood.
And he is very welcome to that title, thank you very much.
Congratulations Iain — you guys sure know how to shock a girl.
Commando sheep won’t be fenced in, where they would survive better in WWII than most of our boys who can’t even execute Playstation war game moves accurately (private joke, points if you get it).
I promise that I only look this dazed and confused because I’m a newbie at the office. I promise I will one day remember everyone’s name, their department, and what floor they work on. I promise that I will one day get vocal at a meeting where the only language used is Chinese, even if it’s only to ask a question. I promise to bring my own coffee mug in the morning. I promise to learn to use my computer’s Chinese version of Windows 98 as well as I learned how to use it in English (or I could get a new computer…). And I promise not to surf porn in the office.
My first day was good. I was assigned a number of projects. I was given stationery. I have my own computer and my own extension. Goddamn, I have an office, although that’s down to a complete fluke and is no measure of my abilities and experience.
(I got home to find out from SimonWorld that Glenn had, as promised, sent some link love my way while I was busy trying to get used to a full-time job again. Thank you, Glenn.)
