Month: April 2004

I think it’s pointless to hold hearings focused on whether the Bush White House could have averted 9/11. The answer is: Of course not. Not because of breakdowns in communication between Intelligence gathering outfits. Not because they didn’t listen to Richard Clarke. Not because, if it was a high priority for Clinton, it automatically became a low priority for Bush.

They couldn’t have averted it because of what Rice said some time ago: “No one could imagine terrorists flying planes into buildings.” That’s not true. No one *in the Bush administration* could imagine it. Writers of fiction have imagined it. Information gatherers imagined it. The administration simply could not because they consistently display lack of imagination. Every job requires a proper tool. In this case, the tool–imagination–simply wasn’t in their toolbox. If a carpenter needs a Philips head screwdriver and all he’s got is flatheads, oh well. You’re screwed.

Nothing in their subsequent behavior has indicated imagination. Congressional hearings into the war in Iraq would simply uncover the same lapse: They didn’t imagine that we would get the reception we did. Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” a year ago because he couldn’t imagine that, a year later, they’d still be shooting at us and that there’d be talk of more, not less, troops going in. I don’t blame him entirely. I couldn’t imagine that a year later they’d be talking about sending in more troops. Then again, I wasn’t asking voters to trust the lives of their young men to me.

Then again, the one time we did see a display of imagination–the fantasy that Saddam had WMDs–that didn’t turn out so hot.

What may make or break John Kerry’s campaign is offering an alternative view to Iraq. If he says, “I hate that we’re in there, but we have no choice but to stay and even escalate force,” then Bush wins. If on the other hand he says, “We wanted to give Iraq self-determination. If that self-determination involves killing each other in civil war, oh well, that’s their choice, but we’re out of there,” I dunno. That might work. Me, I don’t want to see people die in Iraq in civil war, but the fact is that people *are* going to die there in civil war because they’re not a united country, they’re composed of various factions who want to kill each other. The question is, how many of those who are going to die are going to be Americans?

I can’t imagine.

PAD

I introduced Peter to the South Park Character Generator.

Finally, the colorized version is here for the– well, I leave it to you to guess who they are. Or you could just buy the book and find out.

Folks told me I should try and send my “Chicago” parody to Al Franken at Air America Radio.

First I tried to create an account at their website, which was repeatedly stymied as assurances of a confirming e-mail proved empty. When the e-mail with the special “unlocking” code finally showed up, I went back to the website, entered the code, and was send three times to a page that said, “You shouldn’t have been sent to this page.” Swear to God, that’s what it said.

Finally, managing to make that all work, I went to the “Contact us” section. There it said they could be e-mailed, or be sent snail mail, or be reached via Fax. I tried e-mail about six times. It wouldn’t go through. It either told me to fill out the “comments” section, which I had but it didn’t seem to realize it, or it would remove the topic line and then tell me I had to fill in the topic line. Fax? Nice notion. If there was a fax number there, I couldn’t find it. Which leaves snail mail, but I doubt I want to bother with it.

I tried to e-mail them about how crappy their website was. That wouldn’t go through either.

Which all works out, I guess, because my radio doesn’t pick up 1190 anyway, lord knows I tried.

Yeah, I bet Rush is just shaking in his boots.

PAD

Just in case anyone didn’t know, Harlan Ellison–literary great and all around spiffy guy–has written the intro for the “Fallen Angel” trade paperback, due out in June. I figured I’d present an excerpt from it:

“While (FALLEN ANGEL) is neither the capstone nor the culmination of a writing career that will continue to enrich us for decades to come, it is as one with Moore

So am I the only one who, upon hearing that Bush and Cheney would only testify together before the 9/11 panel, immediately flashed on that scene from “Chicago” with Billy Flynn and Roxie doing the press conference where you never see the dummy’s mouth move…almost.

At which point the following occurred to me:

Continue Reading “Investigations, Chicago Style” →

I had just finished a quick rewrite on “Fallen Angel #13,” was about to save it so I could then send it off…and my computer cut out. One moment working, the next, a paperweight.

Three screaming calls to Glenn later, and he was on his way to lend his technical expertise. So the computer’s up and running now although, as I noted, I didn’t get much done.

Oh, for any interested, there’s a 25 question interview up with me over in the Pulse at comicon.com.

PAD