I protest.

Just one quick note.

I've been far too busy lately to post here but I have been following the Abu Ghraib horror as it has unfolded. Probably the best stuff I've read has been at Respectful of Otters, she has a lot of good stuff to say included a reference to the Stanford Prison Experiment. The outcome of that experiment is essential knowledge for anyone wishing to understand just how something like the horror at Abu Ghraib (not to mention the rest of Bush's new gulag) can happen.

I've signed both the Democratic Party and Truemajority petitions calling for Rumsfeld's resignation. I personally don't think he should resign, I think that he should be fired, indicted and put on trial for war crimes. I think that Bush should be the one to resign and if he doesn't, he should be impeached. Whether they admit it or not, this is their fault and they should be held responsible. Of course, they won't be. That's just the sick reality. There is no justice.

Finally, anyone who thinks that, somehow, "liberals," "feminists" or "Clinton" is to blame for this situation is a fool.

And, unfortunately, that's all I have time for now.

Murder.

An idiot named "Jeff" insulted me after reading my last entry here, claiming that I "have no concept of the real world" and said that I should be ashamed of myself. (As to that last suggestion, I suggest that Jeff perform an anatomically improbable action upon himself. Twice.) He then asked me,

By the way, where are your comments on Nicholas Berg!!

Well, I definitely do have a comment about Nicholas Berg, Jeff, but I don't think you're going to like it very much. Yeah, it's horrible for his family, yeah, it was a horrible way to die. Sure, yeah, it was a bad thing. He certainly didn't deserve what happened to him and the pricks that did it definitely deserve to have justice served them. On the other hand, what about this? Or this? Was Berg's death any more horrifying than the hundreds of deaths in Fallujah? Deaths, by the way, of women and children, not just men and certainly not just "terrorists."

The answer is that no, it's not. The only difference is that this death was televised. Those hundreds and thousands of others weren't.

I feel for Berg's family. So do a lot of other people. I just have one question, though:

Where the fuck was that concern when innocents were dying in Fallujah a month ago or all over Iraq a year ago?

Hmmm?

Watching history.

I finally had the time last night to watch Al Gore's speech to MoveOn. It was impressive. Now I know why the wingnuts are trying to convince people that he's gone crazy. Of course, he's not crazy, he's just very, very angry, and for good reason.

I was particularly impressed when he called for his personal friend George Tenet to step down. It seemed clear that that was not an easy thing to do.

Will Gore's speech have an effect? Yes, of course it will, and in fact it already has. No, I emphatically do not think that any of the members of Bush's administration will resign, not even Tenet. None of those people have the honor to do such a thing; it would be tantamount to an admission that they were wrong. And certainly Bush won't fire any of them, for the same reason. But, on the other hand, that video has been at the top of the C-SPAN most-watched list since Wednesday. That says something by itself.

Even if Gore's speech is just one more nail in the coffin of the Bush presidency, it will have been worthwhile. I suspect, though, that it will be more than that. I further suspect that our children and their children will be watching and reading about that speech in their history classes one day.