or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
May 16, 2007
Ouch
There's almost no new information in George Tenet's book. But he does come up with an internal CIA email that I don't think has ever been published. It was sent on August 30, 2001 from one CIA analyst to another assigned as a liaison to the FBI. It's about the FBI's failure to ask for a warrant to search the belongings of Zacarias Moussaoui:
Please excuse my obvious frustration in this case. I am highly concerned that this is not paid the amount of attention it deserves. I do not want to be responsible when they [sic] surface again as members [sic] of a suicide terrorist op...I want an answer from a named FBI group chief for the record on these questions...several of which I have been asking since a week and a half ago. It is critical that a paper trail be established and clear. If this guy is let go, two years from now he will be talking to a control tower while aiming a 747 at the White House.
Or as Condoleezza Rice put it: "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would...try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile."
In fairness to Rice, though, the planes hijacked on 9/11 weren't 747s. Advantage: Condoleezza!
Posted at May 16, 2007 10:58 PM | TrackBackApparently, they could predict it while they were drunk, too, judging by the number of omitted articles and incorrect word choices. That, or Moussaoui wrote it humself....
Posted by: darrelplant at May 16, 2007 11:50 PMApparently, they could predict it while they were drunk, too, judging by the number of omitted articles and incorrect word choices. That, or Moussaoui wrote it himself....
Posted by: darrelplant at May 16, 2007 11:50 PMThey didn't see it coming because they weren't REALLY looking. (asleep at the wheel)
Posted by: Mike Meyer at May 17, 2007 01:40 AMi think BushCo and their collective brain density should have been enough to collapse their quantum wavefunctions and transport us into an alternate reality.
i'm sorry, is it obvious that i just finished reading mostly harmless again?
Posted by: almostinfamous at May 17, 2007 12:42 PMthe planes hijacked on 9/11 weren't 747s
That, my friend, is one ballsy joke.
Posted by: Lame Man at May 17, 2007 02:39 PMi think BushCo and their collective brain density should have been enough to collapse their quantum wavefunctions and transport us into an alternate reality.
It already happened. In the alternate reality, we invaded Iraq in 2003 and are still occupying it today.
Posted by: Anderson at May 17, 2007 07:38 PM
