Archive for September, 2006

The path to 9/11

Watch this space President Bush is on message, Sadamists are taking over the asylum and the Fourth Reich of the Apocalypse is bering down on the free world (if you can afford the subscription). So where is the liberal media in it’s rebuttal or backing of the march for war? Well here it is ABC’s “THE PATH TO 9/11″ which the ever fair and balanced refers to as:

“the miniseries no one wanted to see”…”From the looks of it, the story is going to be about how stupid the government was: If only they’d listened to one man, all would have been right!”

A few shot well placed advertisements for small cash loans (small cash? classy place) later: (the bold letters are some shitty attempt at Googlejuice by fox )

O’Neill left the FBI in 2001 when he claimed his superiors wouldn’t listen to his warnings about Al Qaeda, and became the head of security at the World Trade Center. He was the subject of a PBS Frontline special called “The Man Who Knew.”

The miniseries seems to be based on the PBS show, which is outlined in painstaking and unintentionally humorous detail on the PBS Web site.

In the TV version, O’Neill is described as “Early 40s to early 50s, a New Jersey native, a tall, burly, no-nonsense man with a taste for the high life, he’s an FBI Special Agent, smart, determined, and tenacious in pursuing the big picture.

“O’Neill is known for his sharp elbows and Irish temper. He is on the trail of Usama Bin Laden from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Hungry to make busts in the pursuit of those responsible for taking American lives, O’Neill becomes a bitter opponent of Al Qaeda along the way, and is loudly and impatiently angry with the State Department honchos who balk his investigations…”

Think Brian Dennehy.

Historians should have a field day with this version of the decade-long terrorist plot. But why not? Screenwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh got his start on another soap opera, “Falcon Crest.” He also wrote the upcoming miniseries “Into the West” and was cited for “The Day Reagan Was Shot.” Marc Platt is the producer, and David L. Cunningham — who helmed the recent miniseries revival of “Little House on the Prairie” and several B-movies — will direct.

The remaining 15 characters needed to make this story of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history include former local New York TV reporter John Miller, who interviewed Usama in 1998; Richard Clarke (”soon finds himself at odds with high-ranking members of the Administration, even as he chairs meetings devoted to the extermination of Al Qaeda…”); Sandy Berger, national security adviser to President Clinton; a number of FBI agents such as Neil Herman and Bill Miller; some of the actual plotters, such as Mohamed Atta; as well as former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine.

And there will be more to come, as the miniseries casts for just about everyone involved in national security and the plotting of the Sept. 11 tragedies. Who will play bin Laden? Or Saddam Hussein? Agents, consult your clients: History is going Hollywood.

Right wing mickies!

ABC has yet to comment on the affair, but it’s on BBC Sunday at 8pm for all to see. In the mean time Sandy Berger and Madeleine Albright have been getting their legal ores in trying to avoid the inevitable re-write of history. Wielding my trusty copy of the 9/11 report and having read the Bob Woodward books I tend to have some belief in though little empathy with the two. What I do realize is that if this was some heroic left wing targeting of the Bush administration’s dislike of swatting at flies (direct address of Bin Laden) Fox News would be staying shtumm, by reacting the lead their audience to a great piece of pro Republican propaganda.

Meanwhile with two years left President Bush should be well into changing the names in Tommy Lee’s Biography “I’m drivin but look who’s eating my Dick Chaney”

hey how’d they get that Saddam ref in there

Democracy in crisis as MP meets MPs

Democracy was left fighting for its life today as a fairly and lawfully elected politician from one country met a group of fairly and lawfully elected politicans from another country.

Representatives from bastions of democracy like the Ulster Unionist Party, which was so keen on democracy it ruled a one party state for 50 years, and the current US administration, which gained power in a democratic election by gaining less votes than its opponent, criticised the politicians for meeting each other in an open fashion and trying to learn from each other’s history.

Critics of the move claimed that the meeting was only designed to boost the prospects of the attendees at their respective elections, which is anathema in any democracy.

The British Labour Party has not reacted to the meeting, but demonstrated how sensible politicians behave in a mature democracy by ditching open dialogue and discussion.  Instead they showed that the best way to choose the leader of a nuclear power is by signing childish notes, whispering behind each other’s back and giving cowardly briefings to any foolish passing journalist who is interested.

 

 

Boring conversation boom “shows no sign of ending”

The explosion in suicide-inducing conversations about property prices around Northern Ireland shows no signs of abating, new figures have revealed.  

Annual statistics show that the number of boring discussions about house prices have risen by 25% over the last year.  And experts say that the trend shows no sign of slowing.

“You can’t walk into a pub anywhere now without hearing some absolute tosser boasting about how his or her house is worth £600 more this week, “ said Professor of Obnoxious Twat Studies at the University of Ulster, Mr Hal Ifax.

“Unfortunately the rest of us, who don’t give a monkeys about the market in BT whatever, have no option but to endure these morons blather on while they don’t realise that if they cash in on their property they’ll have to buy another one at an equally ridiculous price, and that the market always, ALWAYS, comes down eventually.”

“The Samaritans have been alerted to the high liklihood of wrist slitting incidents for the forseeable future, ” continued the Professor.  “In the meantime, if anyone overhears one of those tedious conversations, please resist the urge to clean Boots out of their paracetomol stock, and instead proceed to talk about the world rise in interest rates, the flexibilty of renting, and the inevitable bursting of the bubble.  These actions should stem the worst of the symptoms.