I am Trying to Sell You a Lie

Philly

2008-07-25T17:06:28Z

Back in Philly doing the apartment hunt--and I've found one. Yay me. Anyone in the area reading this, if you want to rock, Priscilla Queen of the Desert's playing tonight. Drop me a message. Maybe I'll have that wireless thing figured out by then.

Georege Carlin Dead

2008-06-23T22:45:01Z

Via the Bulldada News Blog:

Saint George Carlin's soul has been flung up onto a roof somewhere. The National Cynical Network is broadcasting a tribute: [1]

"I'm a little bit like herpes, I keep coming back." -George Carlin

Final Grad School Update v2.0

2008-04-24T06:29:18Z

Just a quick, final final update. Saint Mary's offered me a slot and I turned them down because I've accepted it at Temple. Look at that list though. The bottom three, in alphabetical order, all accepted me. That's a bit of an odd distribution. Still, exciting. Hopefully I'll be getting my orientation packet soon. I'm actually very nervous about not having it yet. After all, I did turn down two other offers for Temple and I obsessively over-think every decision I make. So that's fun.

Application Status:
U. Alaska Fairbanks: REJECTED!
U. British Columbia: REJECTED!
U. Houston: REJECTED!
Indiana U.: REJECTED!
U. Iowa: REJECTED!
U. New Mexico: REJECTED!
Penn State U.: REJECTED!
Portland State U.: REJECTED!
Saint Mary's College of California:: ACCEPTED!
U. Southern Maine: ACCEPTED!
Temple U: ACCEPTED!

Final Grad School Update

2008-04-20T22:24:43Z

Just for the sake of completeness. Received the official rejection from U. Alaska. Don't care. Got rejected from the University of Houston which is neither here nor there but I keep getting emails from their financial aid department telling me to fill out more forms so I can get all of my financial aid. That's an odd records system. They are carefully monitoring which financial aid forms I've filled out so they can give me as much money as possible when I go to their program, but they've failed to note they rejected me from their program.

Both PSU's rejected me, Penn State once again having the nicest rejection letter. UAF and Portland were rather bad though I think UNM keeps the title of worst rejection letter.

Finally, Saint Mary's has waitlisted me. I'm rejected unless enough people they offer a position to decline. Then I'll be offered a spot. Which I'll decline cause I'm going to Temple.

I looked Temple up on Google Maps and just started giggling. It was unbecoming. Suffice to say, I'm very excited. I'm trying to refrain from starting the countdown because the leave date is far enough away that I'll just be increasing the sense of misery that is the definition of living in Houston, TX.

Application Status:
U. Alaska Fairbanks: REJECTED!
U. British Columbia: REJECTED!
U. Houston: REJECTED!
Indiana U.: REJECTED!
U. Iowa: REJECTED!
U. New Mexico: REJECTED!
Penn State U.: REJECTED!
Portland State U.: REJECTED!
Saint Mary's College of California: Waitlisted
U. Southern Maine: ACCEPTED!
Temple U: ACCEPTED!

Grad School Update

2008-03-24T05:32:59Z

Two weeks and there's some news to report as the little list below indicates. First the good news: the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine accepted me. It was kind of hard to tell them "no." Temple's the place, no question, no doubts, but USM had a semester abroad in Ireland. I offer this as proof of a karmic conspiracy trying to keep me from seeing fingertrouble perform live. Come to Philly Tim. We'll take a train to DC, get drunk and shout allegations of fornication with livestock at the White House. In America we call that "elevating the political discourse."
Continuing the parade of rejections, Indiana turned me down just like they did last year and it looks like my application to Alaska has stalled. Every school asks for transcripts from colleges where you did coursework for college credit. I only went to the University of Iowa and thus sent out (many many many) transcripts from them. I also spent a summer at Trinity in Dublin, but via a program with Iowa. I had also, and this I had forgotten, taken a course at Ball State University when I was in high school. My school was on the BSU campus and we had the option to take some college courses for high school credit. I took one on screenwriting for radio and TV at the suggestion of one of my English teachers and it was a good course and I remember it fondly when I remember it at all.
Which I didn't do while applying to grad school.
This lead-in makes the situation seem more imposing or dire than it is. I applied to grad school last year and didn't receive any comments about not sending a transcript from BSU and I've been accepted to Temple without any comment on that front either. And it's not like I'm trying to hide the fact that I took the course. It's listed at the top of my U Iowa transcripts (where it's noted that I did not take the course for college credit). Every school I've applied to is aware of it if they want to make it an issue.
And only Alaska has. They've asked for a copy of my BSU transcript which I might be more inclined to send if I hadn't already ordered about $300 worth of transcripts, had to already order an extra set sent to them because the original got lost and hadn't already been accepted by Temple. Plus the guy I talked at Alaska about this basically said I had committed a crime and was trying to perpetuate fraud on the university by not including BSU on the list of schools I'd attended. Apparently I am committing fraud by not telling them about a class they only know about because of documents I sent them. So Alaska can go eat a big frozen caribou cock. I'm sure they'll have better luck finding one of those than good students.
I've been looking at Temple on Google maps and giggling. Hopefully two more years studying English will give me the words to express my excitement.

Application Status:
U. Alaska Fairbanks: DELETED!
U. British Columbia: REJECTED!
U. Houston
Indiana U.: REJECTED!
U. Iowa: REJECTED!
U. New Mexico: REJECTED!
Penn State U.
Portland State U.
Saint Mary's College of California
U. Southern Maine: ACCEPTED!
Temple U: ACCEPTED!

Grad School Update

2008-03-11T00:29:11Z

Another letter, another rejection, this time from the University of New Mexico and I have to note that this is the worst rejection letter I've ever received. I don't know why some of these letters are so poorly-composed (I had the same reaction to bad rejection letters from agents)--you work with writers, why couldn't you do this right?
It is a form letter of course, they're all form letters, but that makes the task of careful wording all the more important. The job is to say what you mean without potentially meaning something else. And yes, that's not an easy task but, again, they're a writing program. They're composed of people whose expertise is words. Instead of reading, like Iowa's, that there were just too many applicants and I didn't make it in, I read UNM's letter as saying I'm not good enough for their program.
I'm actually kind of mad about it because it's so bad. I feel like, "You're rejecting me and you can't even do this minor thing right? I don't even want to go to your program now." I'm taking it too personally. Granted, the converse is also true. I get far too excited over well-composed rejection letters like Penn. State's last year. Fantastic. May I get rejected like that every year? I felt like sending a thank-you note back to the rejecter. The letter just left me feeling so hopeful when I was in a really scary place. And I guess that's my beef with the UNM letter. These things matter. They're being sent to people who are really depending on a positive answer. And you can't give everyone a positive answer but you'd better give them a good answer. I get something like this and I have to wonder if the people behind it have any clue about what they're doing at all.

Application Status:
U. Alaska Fairbanks
U. British Columbia: REJECTED!
U. Houston
Indiana U.
U. Iowa: REJECTED!
U. New Mexico: REJECTED!
Penn State U.
Portland State U.
Saint Mary's College of California
U. Southern Maine
Temple U: ACCEPTED!

Grad School Update

2008-03-07T23:19:37Z

Two more letters arrived today. The first came from the University of British Columbia (whose name I've been spelling wrong in these posts). It was just the official notice that I had not been accepted into their program. They'd sent me an email earlier when the decision was made, which I must note is a good system. University of Texas did the same thing last year. Sure it's a bit of a sting, like a pinprick in the heart, when you finally get the letter in the mail saying "no" after you've already been told "no" by email, but it speeds things up wonderfully. I'd rather know than wait. So today UBC reminded me that they didn't want anything to do with me. Maybe they saw the typos coming.
The second letter came from the University of Iowa, my alma mater and the premiere writing program in the world. That's not going overboard either. A degree from U of I practically guarantees a teaching job in any school you want as well as nice connections in the world of writing. They said "no" just like they did last year. There was a detail included in the rejection letter--both this year's and last--that explains why I've never felt bad about getting rejected by these programs.

"We have a limited number of openings and must turn away many promising applicants. this year, eight hundred thirty-five people applied for twenty-five spaces."

Ignoring the uncapitalized "this" (which provides hope to my screw-up heart), I did not rank in the top twenty-five out of eight hundred thirty-five people. That means I was not in the top 3 percent. I am completely at peace with those numbers. They do not hurt my feelings.
However, getting into Temple... Wow. Is that a rush. It didn't strike me until last night--I'm actually good at what I do. I'm never particularly sure.

Application Status:
U. Alaska Fairbanks
U. British Columbia: REJECTED!
U. Houston
Indiana U.
U. Iowa: REJECTED!
U. New Mexico
Penn State U.
Portland State U.
Saint Mary's College of California
U. Southern Maine
Temple U: ACCEPTED!

Caucus... Sounds About As Dirty As it is

2008-03-05T03:48:38Z

Texas had their primary and caucus today. Yes, both, which makes Texas unique and weird in its own special way, which is kind of what Texas does. Texas has early voting so, about two weeks ago, I went down to the Community Center to pull the virtual lever for Obama (and a long list of other candidates in other races that I had been completely unaware of--and I looked up info on who was running in the election beforehand).
Two weeks later it's actually election day. I leave around 7 PM to get to the polling place for the caucus being held at an area junior high and the first thing I notice is I'm following people to the place. The school's not on a main road and you have to take a bit of a zig-zag path to get to it, but on the way I get the suspicion that the people in front of me are going to the same place I am. You get that feeling driving sometimes when you and the person in front of you happen to take a few of the same turns, but it eventually ends. This didn't. They were going to the school. And when we got there, no parking. None. Every space was filled, both sides of the road were filled with parked cars, it looked like a minor concert festival that had been over-sold. The turnout for this election cycle is energizing me like nothing before. When the campaigns started last year I wanted to die. I couldn't do a year's worth of elections. But people's reactions to this, this is new, this is big, this is weird and I want to see where it goes. I also want to know whether it'll continue on into 2010 and 2012.
Luckily I find a parking space right in front of the school (someone had voted and just vacated it). Went in, milled about, then went where I was directed for my precinct. Everybody gets into four lines and we all write our names, our address and who we're supporting, Barack or Hillary. By the time I reach the paper they've run out of official sign-in sheets and are using yellow legal paper. I put the info on the yellow legal paper and then join everybody else in the return to general milling about. After everybody's signed in, they do the count: 89 attendees, 44 for Obama, 45 for Clinton. Since there are 15 delegates to assign from my precinct, that means Clinton gets 7.65 and Obama gets 7.35. Only the rules require that all fractions get rounded down. So what happens to that extra delegate? The people running the show call up their higher-ups who, apparently, say "flip a coin." Obama wins the extra delegate. Not the most inspiring moment I've ever been a part of.
Then came the final step: selecting the delegates. Eight of the people who voted for Obama would be going to the Senatorial Convention on March 29th as delegates. So I, along with seven other people, volunteered. Hey, this show's getting strange and I want to see how it ends!
So I am now a delegate for Barack Obama and will be doing whatever a delegate does at the Senatorial Convention. Now I'm getting excited. Maybe I can finagle this into a free trip to the national convention. Then I can see some real strangeness.

Grad School Update

2008-03-03T23:15:07Z

Got another letter in the mail today which means another update on my graduate school application process.

The letter came from Temple University in Philadelphia. It was a thin little thing and I was hoping it said something like, "We're missing a copy of your transcripts. Could you send up another one?" or "We have received your FAFSA data and have added it to your information." Alas, it did not say either of those things or anything as relatively inconsequential as that. Instead the letter said I have been accepted into Temple's MA program in Creative Writing.

Did I read that wrong? No, no, first line, "Welcome to Temple University!" Am I dreaming? I did sleep in today. No, no, Ubuntu looks fine on my laptop (oh yeah, new computer came in last week. Swanky), but not angelic so this is reality. I've been accepted into Temple's graduate program. I've been accepted into a graduate program. I have a future again!

And I will be honest, Temple is not my first choice. "First choice" implies that you think you have a chance of getting in. I applied because it's in Philadelphia and Samuel R. Delany teaches there (a sci-fi author who writes really artful, surrealistic stories in a sci-fi idiom and whose stuff I think is neat). Applying was like dropping a quarter into the slot machine--why the hell not? And I just hit the jackpot.

Material factors will come into play: what's the cost of living, tuition, etc.; how much financial aid will I get; how will it compare to other schools that accept me (if other schools accept me)? But that's all to be learned later. Right now, Temple University has accepted me to their graduate program! Woo-Hoo!

Application Status:
U. Alaska Fairbanks
U. British Colombia: REJECTED!
U. Houston
Indiana U.
U. Iowa
U. New Mexico
Penn State U.
Portland State U.
Saint Mary's College of California
U. Southern Maine
Temple U: ACCEPTED!

Spies Who Love You

2008-02-18T22:10:06Z

From fingertrouble:

It Begins!

2008-02-15T19:44:18Z

I got the email today. I will not be a graduate student at the University of British Colombia next semester. They rejected my application.
It's a bummer, certainly, but not wholly unexpected, I don't take it personally. The fact is I was applying as a foreigner and not even as a foreigner from a country that doesn't offer its own educational opportunities. And the math is against me with all these programs. Many applicants, few slots. There are still ten other programs I'm waiting to hear from. If I'm rejected from all of them, I'll sign on to the EPIK program and head off to Korea to teach English.
Yes, that's right, here begins my countdown to willful deportation! Will plans be derailed by acceptance into an MFA program, unexpected romance, alien invasion? Only time will tell.

Application Status:
U. Alaska Fairbanks
U. British Colombia: REJECTED!
U. Houston
Indiana U.
U. Iowa
U. New Mexico
Penn State U.
Portland State U.
Saint Mary's College of California
U. Southern Maine
Temple U.

Bad Hair Day

2008-02-09T00:34:22Z

PD Project Part 1B is now up at d.con. I'm going to try to update that with a new disc every Wednesday and Saturday. Why? Because to do it any slower would mean dedicating about three months of my life to these films and I'm not going to do that.

But that's not what I wanted to post about. I decided to get a haircut today and went down to the local SuperCuts because why wouldn't I? I have a hard time getting them to cut my hair the way I like it, but that's my fault. I shaved my head a while ago and now, just when it's the way I want it on top, it's too long on the back and sides. Then when I get it cut, it's always too short on top. I thought this time I'd get it done right. I'd insist, "leave the top alone. Just trim it up a little bit to make it clean." I thought it would work. So I drove down, walked in to ask if they had a space open, and no one would talk to me.

It was weird. They looked right at me, stared for a little bit, and didn't say a word. And yes, they were busy and understaffed. That's fine, didn't bother me, I could wait. But normally they say, "be with you in a moment" or something. Nothing. So I sat down and started flipping through an old magazine. One of the hair dressers finished the haircut she was doing, rang them out, and then just sort of disappeared. Didn't start cutting someone else's hair, didn't ask me to sign in, just vanished. And it wasn't just me. A guy came in after me, got ignored and finally just walked out. I followed him. It was pretty clear they didn't want me to pay them money.

What the heck? Did I smell? I'm not even a tough customer. Sure, the above makes me sound particular, but I've never complained about how my hair was cut to the hair-cutter (they've got big scissors and I'm sitting with my neck exposed). And the bad haircuts are my fault. I fail to communicate what I want. But even with that, I'm an easy $12+tip. I don't need a lot of detail work. Ten minutes, tops, and I'm out of there. So why'd they freeze me out? Now I've got to find a new place to give me disappointing haircuts when I wanted to spend my weekend watching painfully awful films.

PD Project Part 1

2008-02-03T21:02:37Z

Rumors of my death have been exaggerated. Rumors of my computer's death have not. Ugh. And right when I was planning to start blogging stuff again.
Anyway, here's something new I'm messing about with. It'll be cross-posted here and on d.con. I currently have four "50-Movie Mega Packs" of DVDs (Chilling, Sci-Fi, Horror and Drive-In Movie Classics) and really haven't watched any of them. My goal is to watch as many of these movies as I can and post the public domain ones to the Internet Archive. Below the cut is Disc 1 of the Sci-Fi pack.

Disc 1A

The Incredible Petrified World (1957) runtime: 1:03:16
A group of four scientists and reporters descend into the ocean in an experimental diving bell whose cables break, leaving them stranded on the ocean floor. They find a series of volcanic caves--with air but no exit--and a survivor of a sunken ship who has been there for fourteen years.

One of those odd movies where nothing actually happens and the "heroes" don't do anything. Like riding a roller coaster with no hills.

Opens with about five minutes of stock footage shot at a municipal aquarium somewhere while a bland narrator talks about ocean life and mysteries of the deep--mysteries that have no bearing on this film.

This film was already on the Internet Archive which means I didn't have to think about it beyond writing this little review.

Archive.org page

Wikipedia article

Queen of the Amazons (1946) runtime: 1:00:14

A group of four Americans are on a quest to find a friend who disappeared on a safari. Their search takes them from India to Africa while they are harried by a shadowy conspiracy and tales of a "white she-devil" ruling an army of African tribesmen.

One of the things I've noticed with these old films (gleaned from watching these collections, The It's Alive Show and Mystery Science Theater 3000) is how often they have a really good plot. The search for the son, student, friend and fiancé lost on a safari with overtones of deeper conspiracies at work is good. I'd read that story, I'd watch that movie. Then that good central idea is absolutely torpedoed either through laziness on the part of the filmmakers or the prevailing prejudices of the era, if not both.

This movie uses both to blow. Not only is it a vast collection of stock and PD footage cobbled together by short scenes of cardboard characters flatly portrayed, it lets its sexism and racism undermine the interesting parts of the story that it's already set up! Not only do the characters dismiss the concerns of the local "savages" over the dangers in their own backyards (cause what would they know--they just live there), the movie establishes two different women as being smart, savvy and absolutely in charge. In fact the heroine is an expert markswoman who's leading the group in the search for her fiancé. Yet when a lion attacks the camp, she picks up a gun and...

does nothing but scream in terror. Same again with the eponymous Queen of the Amazons. She's the leader of several tribes, is a capable warrior, even the beasts of the jungle bow to her. So why is she paralyzed when she gets threatened with a spear? I'm not being a knee-jerk PC liberal here (although I am a knee-jerk PC liberal). The movie doesn't make sense even on its own terms.

But it's got a monkey AND a trained raven, so that's got to count for something.

This film was already on the Internet Archive which means I didn't have to think about it beyond writing this little review.

Archive.org page

Wikipedia article

Robot Monster (1953)
I'm not watching this again! I have seen it enough! Guy in a gorilla suit and a diving helmet menaces the last six humans on Earth with threats delivered via video chat and a bubble machine. Considered one of the worst movies ever made, this flick is still under copyright! (RE0000107158/1981-11-06) Amazing and depressing that I've seen it so many times.

Wikipedia article

This was episode 0107 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and can be viewed on YouTube (in 9 parts) or downloaded from the Digital Archive Project.

I'll be back next week with side B of Disc 1: three more films--all public domain--including a woman acting like a cat, an invisible man and a film by your messiah and mine, Mr. Roger Corman.

Where I am Now

2008-01-19T08:34:00Z

So I haven't posted since May, since Jerry Falwell died actually, and it seems like there should have been something good worth mentioning between then and now. However the presidential election was already ramping up and there can be nothing good while that's going on. There will be nothing good until November and even then there won't be anything good. It'll just mark the beginning of four years of apoleptic rage or seething resentment and betrayal. No matter who wins. You can decide which party is which, it doesn't matter.

It also doesn't help that I'm in a place where nothing can be good, ever--Texas. Specifically a refinery town on the outskirts of Houston. I don't want to be in Houston. I lived here before, during school breaks during my freshman and sophomore years of college. I didn't like it. Oddly enough, when I graduated from college I tried to get a job in Houston. Had to spend the last of my savings to get a plane ticket, a hotel room and a car rental to go to the interview and I didn't get the job. When I wanted to be here, Houston didn't want me. And now that I don't want to be here, I'm back. Why's it work out that way?

When I first heard him tell that joke, I knew the exact place he meant. I've been there. My preferred local art house movie theater is just down the road from it. I have stood in that spot (this spot). I have crossed the event horizon. No matter where I've been, no matter where I go, I will always, somehow, end up back in Houston, TX. In truth, I will never truly leave.

Oh, and a quick snapshot of my situation: I live in a town of 60,000 people and 0 bookstores. But don't worry--there are plenty of churches. I'm applying to grad school... in Alaska... and the joke is I'm not joking. Get me the hell out of Texas!

Thank You Mitch Clem!

2007-05-16T20:05:22Z

Yeah, that's about right.

Arthur's Back

2007-04-27T05:10:39Z

Once Upon a Time... returns:

As long as the Military Commissions Act remains in force, we live at the mercy of the Executive, and we remain in the anteroom of Hell. Almost no one even tries to move us to a safer location, where we might live in peace and liberty.

More.

Kurt is up in heaven now.

2007-04-12T06:50:56Z

Kurt Vonnegut dead at 84.

Neat

2007-04-08T07:31:50Z

It's a game.
It's only a game.

Where We Are Now and Where We're Going

2007-04-05T23:06:24Z

Seymour Hersh interviewed by Rolling Stone:

Why would you go to war when you don't have to go to war? It takes very little courage to go to war. It takes a lot of courage not to go to war.

Also:

Did America learn anything from Vietnam? Was there a lesson in the way that war ended that could have prevented this war from starting?
You mean learn from the past? America?... On the other hand, I would argue that some key operators, the Cheney types, they learned a great deal about how to run things and how to hide stuff over those years.

Also:

What's the main lesson you take, looking back at America's history the last forty years?
There's nothing to look back to. We're dealing with the same problems now that we did then. We know from the Pentagon Papers -- and to me they were the most important documents ever written -- that from 1963 on, Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon lied to us systematically about the war. I remember how shocked I was when I read them. So . . . duh! Nothing's changed. They've just gotten better at dealing with the press. Nothing's changed at all.

[Via]

Suicide Club

2007-04-05T20:34:09Z

Just got the new Atlantic in the mail today and there's an article about anonymous suicide groups in Japan-"Let's Die Together" by David Samuels (membership required). It's a good piece and a weird story, but it reminded me of Suicide Club-a surrealistic Japanese horror film. I highly recommend the film if for nothing else than this clip (WARNING: VIOLENT CONTENT):

Was this just an excuse to post that video? Well, you need to ask yourself, "Are you connected to yourself?"

I am now playing Infection, please join my team

2007-04-04T18:33:34Z

At it again.


THIS CARD RELATES TO GAME # 10
my status

my team status

last known infection

game status

Dead Kennedys and Penguins

2007-04-03T05:37:39Z

From this Pandagon post:
Dead Kennedys:

and penguins:

Reminiscent of something...

2007-04-02T07:26:01Z

Admit it, this kind of makes sense.

My Newspaper Says My "Faith" Isn't Real

2007-04-02T05:55:19Z

From Bruce Ledewitz's "The Wall Falls" run in this Sunday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

But why is the victory of religion a defeat for the left? After all, national prayers do not lessen support for policies the left embraces, whether gay marriage or stem-cell research. Nor are minority religious believers or nonbelievers likely to be oppressed. As comparative-religion scholar Huston Smith has pointed out, even the non-theistic religions, such as Buddhism, employ God concepts. The notion of transcendence and deep meaning that the word God symbolizes has its place in all religious traditions. In addition, there are not many actual atheists on the left (or the right). Materialism is not that easy a position to hold.

Well that's nice. Would they try to do this with any other "religion?" "There are not many actual Christians as the problem of Theodicy is too omnipresent and difficult to ignore." Alternately, "The weight of empiricism is too much to resist."
Yes, I am an empiricist, I am an atheist. I don't believe in God. In fact, I don't believe at all. I don't have faith-not in God, not in religion, not in government, not in authority. My "belief structure," if you can call it that at all, is best summed up as, "Sure, you say you can fly, but you have to show me." It's the old rule-extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. As an atheist I make no claim. The world we experience is the world there is. If there is some separate, over-arching, unknowable order, you have to prove it. Saying it's "ineffable" doesn't suffice.
On a related note: Survey: US Trust Lowest for Atheists I feel loved. Here I've been afraid of admitting that I have no faith because someone might shoot me. Now it turns out if people find I have no faith, they won't let marry into their family. Thanks America! Really digging that openness to a plurality of ideas.

Fighting Terror with Terror in the new Gulf of Tonkin

2007-04-01T07:11:11Z

Since I was cited on Matthew Good's blog by my friend John, I might as well comment on the latest developments like everyone else.
Last Tuesday, Democracy Now! interviewed independent journalist Reese Erlich who said the US is financing activities by the Kurdistan Workers Party or the PKK-a Kurdish group that operates out of Northern Iraq. Erlich says the US is "sponsoring [the PKK] to carry out guerrilla raids inside Iran and its part of a much wider plan by the United States to foment discontent and actual terrorist activities by ethnic Iranians in various parts of Iran."
This coincides with Seymour Hersh's claims in the New Yorker that the US, in hopes of undermining Iran and Syria, is bolstering "Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda."
This begs the question then, what about the so-called War on Terror?
The Authorizations for Military Force that Congress passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks and in the run-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq give Bush the authority to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran in the name of fighting terrorism. The presence of two US aircraft carriers in the Gulf as well as the massive military maneuvers-the biggest since the invasion of Iraq-performed this past week certainly lend themselves to that interpretation.
However both Bush and his war's approval ratings are at record lows and ever diminishing. His advisers may be telling him to wait for or stage a Gulf-of-Tonkin-like event that would then justify a full-scale assault on Iran. Without such a justification, a pre-emptive strike could result in Congress responding by not only cutting all funds to any further attacks on Iran but also by cutting funds to the war in Iraq, effectively ending both. It'd be best if Congress would take some sort of action now to prevent an attack on Iran, but, really, asking them to rescind two pieces of legislation and reclaim their Constitutional powers is far too much to ask. After all, it's not like they were elected to end the war.
Anyway, if that is the case, why hasn't Bush been able to use the capture of British sailors as his jumping-off point? It most likely comes down to the old saying, "What if they had a war and no one showed up?" Bush's first problem is the captured sailors are British, not American, so the response has to come from Tony Blair. Blair though is currently a bigger lame duck than Bush. He's announced the date that he's stepping down as Prime Minister, has already started withdrawing troops from Iraq and his successor is openly opposed to not only the war in Iraq but to any further military "adventures" with the Americans. Yet even with that Blair might still have the authority to send British troops into Iran if the military was willing-which they're not. Beyond the morale-sucking failure that is the occupation in Iraq, the British military is very angry with the Americans over a "friendly fire" death of one of their soldiers in 2003.
From the March 16th Christian Science Monitor, one week before the capture of the British sailors. "A British coroner has ruled that the 'friendly fire' death of a British soldier in Iraq, in 2003, was an unlawful and criminal act... [The coroner] also criticized American officials for refusing to cooperate with his inquiry." The British military, to put it bluntly, doesn't want to play with us anymore.
But ignoring all of that, putting that all aside, the US still has two aircraft carriers in the Gulf ready to take out Tehran. All Bush has to do is give the order. Only the military may not be responding to every order they've been getting. Reuters reports that, "The U.S. Navy on Tuesday said it had no information to substantiate a market rumor that Iran had fired at a U.S. naval vessel in the Gulf.
"'Navy has nothing to substantiate that report right now,' a Navy official said. 'At this juncture, there is no validity to it.'"
How much more Gulf-of-Tonkin can you get than a fired shot that was never fired? And yet the first report of it is literally the Navy saying it didn't happen. It's sounding like even the US military doesn't want to play Bush's games, which just takes it all back to Seymour Hersh.
Hersh said a few years ago that US military leaders told Bush the only military option against Iran was a nuclear one. Their army's too big and they've buried their strategic targets deep underground. If you want to remove their nuclear capabilities, you'll have to use nukes. They told Bush this under the assumption that he would hear the word "nukes" and beg off the attack. Instead he told them to prepare the nuclear option.
There is a sense that no one wants to be associated with the new war. Look to the previous attempts to justify an assault on Iran with "Iran is giving weapons to insurgents!" Of course no one would go on the record with that initially and when they finally found someone who would, the reporters could see "Made in the U.A.E." stamped on the side of the seized weapon containers. Now we have the largest military maneuvers since 2003 along with claims that they aren't in response to Iran's seizing of the sailors. Only when asked when the war games were planned, no one will go on the record with a date. The New York Times, though, known for asking the hard questions in the run-up to wars, did print a statement from an unnamed government source that the maneuvers were planned well before the current situation. And if you can't trust an unseen voice speaking off the record so they can escape any sort of accountability, who can you trust?
Why not exiled dissidents who want to overthrow the current regime? After all, it's who we turned to for information about Iraq. The AP is reporting that "The National Council of Resistance of Iran - the political wing of the Iranian MEK opposition group which is listed as a terrorist group by Britain, the U.S. and the European Union - said the British crew's capture was planned in advance, but offered no evidence to support the claims." Not only have we gone full circle, we've done it so fast that, as in Superman: the Movie, we've gone backwards in time.

links:
Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran
Democracy Now!
MatthewGood.org
Arthur Silber
Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker
selected Seymour Hersh on Iran:
Seymour Hersh - "The Redirection," March 5, 2007
Seymour Hersh - "The Next Act," November 27, 2006
Seymour Hersh - "Last Stand," July 10, 2006
Seymour Hersh - "The Iran Plans," April 17, 2006
Seymour Hersh - "The Coming Wars," January 24, 2005