Ark's Ark

Constitutional Angst.

Just how long does it take to write a constitution?

Paul Bremer: “This certainly can’t be done in just a few months..”

George W. Bush: “I do think it would be helpful to get the United Nations in to help write a constitution,ï¿½ Bush said. ï¿½I mean, theyï¿½re good at that.”

The Founding Fathers of America: The Constitutional Convention made many drafts and many revisions to the Constitution. The Convention started, May 25, 1787; and adjourned, September 17, 1787. From the US Constitution FAQ

Benjamin Franklin, speaking before the Convention: I agree to this Constitution with all its faultsï¿½if they are suchï¿½because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and I believe, further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.

Good ol’ Ben. He’s always been my favourite founding father. I’d love to raise up his ghost right about now. There’d be more than just kites getting hit by lightning.

Hop on Pop

Laura Bush Shares Her Story for Lifetime Television’s 300th ‘Intimate Portrait In a life of rare opportunities and experiences, what has been Mrs. Bush’s fondest memory: “One of my happiest memories is watching him [President Bush] lie on the floor reading Doctor’s Seuss’ “Hop on Pop” to the girls and they would take it literally and hop on pop, start to jump on him as little babies in their little Doctor Denton pajamas with their feet in it. It was such a really precious sight and a memory I’ll always have.”

If I ever get to see anyone jump up and down on Bush, I expect it’ll become one of my fondest memories too…
Bush Crush. We like to Crush. We like to Crush President Bush.

OK, I feel better now. I’ll try to find some proper news. Preferably some that doesn’t involve Rattling Rush Limbaugh. Not that I don’t rejoice in his downfall, but no-one in the UK has ever heard of him.

North Korea postures wildly

North Korea says it is using plutonium to make bombs
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday it has completed reprocessing its 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods and is using plutonium extracted from them to make atomic bombs.

“The (North) successfully finished the reprocessing of some 8,000 spent fuel rods,” a spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the North’s official news agency, KCNA. The spokesman was not named.

Accusing the United States of taking a “hostile policy” toward the North, the statement said that North Korea “made a switchover in the use of plutonium churned out by reprocessing spent fuel rods in the direction increasing its nuclear deterrent force.”

North Korea also said it will reprocess more spent fuel rods to be produced from the small reactor in its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang.

Earlier this week, North Korea claimed that it was taking “practical measures” to boost its nuclear weapons program as a deterrent against what it calls a U.S. plan to invade.

The claim came as some U.S. intelligence analysts are becoming increasingly concerned that the communist regime may have three, four or even six nuclear weapons instead of the one or two the CIA had estimated.

New atomic bombs would give Pyongyang more authority at the negotiating table, and may allow it to part with one, either in a test or by selling it, experts say.

The United States and its allies are trying to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear programs. The North says it will do so only if the United States signs a nonaggression treaty, provides economic aid and opens diplomatic ties.

The nuclear dispute flared in October 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted running a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of international agreements.

Oh doom. We’re really getting into pre-emptive strike area now.

Ukrainian Peacekeeper dies.

The Times reports:

A Ukrainian peacekeeper has been killed in Iraq after a vehicle he was travelling in overturned. He became the first soldier from the former Soviet republic to die in the country, the Defence Ministry said in Kiev. Yuriy Koydan, commander of a Ukrainian unit patrolling the area around the Kut airbase in southern Iraq, died from injuries suffered when his vehicle turned over, the ministry said.

I’m especially puzzled by this as, while the Ukraine agreed to send non-combat troops on humanitarian grounds (532-man 19th Army Battalion, specialists in biological and chemical weapon handling, to be based in Kuwait.), they did so on the condition that they would not enter Iraq.

WMD found?

The Hindustan Times reports:
Kuwaiti security authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle $60 million worth of chemical weapons and biological warheads from Iraq to an unnamed European country, a Kuwaiti newspaper said on Wednesday.
The pro-Government Al-Siyassah, quoting an unnamed security source, said the suspects had been watched by security since they arrived in Kuwait and were arrested “in due time.” It did not say when or how the smugglers entered Kuwait or when they were arrested.

The paper said the smugglers might have had accomplices inside Kuwait. It said Interior Minister Sheik Nawwaf Al Ahmed Al Sabah would hand over the smuggled weapons to an FBI agent at a news conference, but did not say when.

Government officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Iraqi Interior Minister Nouri Al-Badran met on Tuesday with Sheik Nawwaf and discussed cooperation between the two countries in security matters. His visit is the first by an Iraqi interior minister to Kuwait since 1990.

If this is true, then it be huge. WMDs finally located. The Bushies and Blairites will be dancing the dance of joy. I’m a bit suspicious. The timing is real convenient for George and Tony.
Were the weapons being smuggled for terrorist use, or was the European nation buying them?

The source for the HT was the Associated Press, so we should see it cropping up elsewhere over the day.

Update from 2007. It turned out to be a pack of lies, so far as I can tell.

Guantanamo infiltrated?

The BBC reports that a third Guantanamo employee has been charged with espionage.
Making the large assumption that the charged men are guilty, it begs the question just how efficient al-Qaeda is? To get three operatives into the US highest security concentration camp must take some doing. Maybe we’re in a whole lot more trouble than we realised. Next they’ll be charging White House officials with treason…

Scandal

There doesn’t seem to be much doubt as to whether the illegal leak occured. What the world eagerly awaits now is the answer to “How high did it go?”. *Does the Regime Change dance.*
As the Washington Times amusingly said today“But it is worth noting that the Bush White House team is utterly unqualified by both experience and disposition to be as effective as Mr. Clinton and his scandal managers were. After all, Mr. Bush has never had a significant scandal, and most, if not all of his team have never worked for someone who has.”

TWT, once again proving that it is sent to us from a parallel universe. I hope they prove to be right about the Bushies being rubbish at covering up, now that the mainstream media has relocated its teeth.

No scandals. Well apart from his election, his tax cuts, and his phony war at any rate.

Alexa