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
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"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
June 06, 2010
America: Still Completely Fucking Nuts
Here's more detail from the October 29, 2003 N.Y. Times story:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28— The director of a top American spy agency said Tuesday that he believed that material from Iraq's illicit weapons program had been transported into Syria and perhaps other countries as part of an effort by the Iraqis to disperse and destroy evidence immediately before the recent war.The official, James R. Clapper Jr., a retired lieutenant general, said satellite imagery showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria, just before the American invasion in March, led him to believe that illicit weapons material ''unquestionably'' had been moved out of Iraq.
''I think people below the Saddam Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse,'' General Clapper, who leads the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said at a breakfast with reporters.
He said he was providing a personal assessment. But he said ''the obvious conclusion one draws'' was that there ''may have been people leaving the scene, fleeing Iraq, and unquestionably, I am sure, material.'' A spokesman for General Clapper's agency, David Burpee, said he could not provide further evidence to support the general's statement.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at June 6, 2010 11:19 AMThis guy is bi-partisanly sociopathic and a Booz Allen alum.
Nothing suprising about this nomination but a little suprised it took them so long to find a way to slide this buffoon back into the higher echelons of the spy biz.
Posted by: bayville at June 6, 2010 11:30 AMI think it was brilliant to pick someone who sounds like he was in Dr. Strangelove.
Posted by: N E at June 6, 2010 11:47 AMHe said he was providing a personal assessment.
Based, not on one of those satellite thingies, but on a dowsing rod. "Here be WMD's."
Posted by: Happy Jack at June 6, 2010 12:56 PMThey have to get busy redoing that crippling NIE on Iran and they got a guy who can be trusted to redo it right.
Posted by: Minor Player at June 6, 2010 01:00 PMAlways Mr.Negative about everything. The bright side of this is that we know we don't have to listen to a single thing this guy ever says about anything. Saves time.
Posted by: Donald Johnson at June 6, 2010 01:02 PMIF ONLY it been Ollie, he's got good connections for crack.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 6, 2010 01:48 PMNew NIE: Saddam moved his WMD to Bin Laden's house in Teheran before the war.
Also: New intelligence from Bagram shows connection between 9/11 and the Turkish government.
Posted by: Why oh why at June 6, 2010 02:00 PMWere Poindexter and Bolton busy doing something else?
Posted by: darrelplant at June 6, 2010 04:26 PM"A spokesman for General Clapper's agency, David Burpee, said he could not provide further evidence to support the general's statement."
No, get it right dammit. What he said was "Evidence. We don't need no stinkin' evidence."
Clapper. Really, are you serious?
Posted by: catherine at June 6, 2010 05:11 PMW T F ?
We rented 'em. Still heeere.
Posted by: King of Yemen at June 6, 2010 07:27 PMPresumablly Dennis Blair was only telling Obama what he wanted to hear. And didn't want to help exonerate the WMD loonies. Sad
Posted by: Lincoln Perry at June 6, 2010 09:09 PM"I think it was brilliant to pick someone who sounds like he was in Dr. Strangelove."
My thoughts, exactly.
Posted by: catbirdman at June 7, 2010 12:23 AMI thought it was the Popeye movie.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 7, 2010 01:27 AMHoly crap!
Looks like we're going to need a bigger boat.
Posted by: LosGatosCA at June 7, 2010 02:22 AMBut notice O.'s statement. Who writes this junk? It's even more cliched, canned, and crappy than most political pronouncements. Do they have monkeys locked in a room typing out this garbage? Hmm...maybe not locked in a room, but locked in a lie.
Posted by: Rosemary Molloy at June 7, 2010 05:48 AMSAME AS IT EVER WAS
Donald Johnson wrote:
"The bright side of this is that we know we don't have to listen to a single thing this guy ever says about anything. Saves time."
Mark Twain wrote:
"If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed."
Posted by: N E at June 7, 2010 09:23 AMThis is an intelligence question. How many super tankers required to load daily oil flow from BP volcano in the Gulf of Mexico and where are they?
Posted by: RDuaneWilling at June 7, 2010 02:18 PM
