This is a few days old, but it’s bugging me.  

    More
than two years after the scandal, with the damage to our national reputation
compounded by new killings at Haditha, and now standing
on a world stage, knowing full well that the entire Arab media is
watching. . . Chimpus Maximus still can’t bother to even try to
pronounce the word for the torture place?  (See
the 51:07 mark of his stand-up with Tony Blair. Transcript here.)

   
Now, granted, I only speak like eleven words of Arabic, and maybe I’m
wrong or missing Bush’s subtle mastery of the Iraqi dialect or
something.  I ain’t no dang linguist.  Not pretending to be.  And granted, the phrase

may not immediately come tripping off your lips, particularly when
you’re trying to look tough by pushing your Texas accent forward.

    
But here: just say the word “Paris,” but with a broad, goofy, mock French
accent, using a gutteral, back-of-the-throat “r” that almost makes a “g” in the process, a noise so French
that Ann Coulter would just pee if she heard it.  Bingo.  That’s
decently close to the sound at the beginning of “Ghraib.”   Not
perfect, but easy.  Takes like two minutes to learn.  Close enough for horseshoes and global war on
terror.  Particularly when you know the whole world is listening, and
your international reputation depends on showing that you actually give
the slightest damn about the Arabic world, despite Gitmo and the
torture and the killings and the cover-ups, and your war isn’t just
about politics and power.

    But Bush just can’t be bothered, I guess.  So, “Abu Guh-REB“ it is.

    So imagine a Saudi dictator expressing his deep, abiding
compassion for Katrina victims in the city of New Vuhr-LANE.  His own
people might not catch it, but you’d sniff right away that he wasn’t
really sincere.

    Now imagine that the guy’s army had actually tortured innocent people there.  Would you be impressed with how much he cares?

    You get the same impression by reading the full transcript, too.  Bush’s “bring it on,” for example, was
“misinterpreted.”  The press fussed like this was some sort of apology, but come on

    Update: decided to bump this to the top of the page.  People need help.

   A bunch of email is still sitting unopened; my apologies to
folks I haven’t replied to lately.  Still, most of this site’s best stuff
is sent in by you guys, at least when I can get around to checking it out.

    Andy B., who has done considerable relief work
himself in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, shares suggestions re charities in
the wake of the Java earthquake, both specific to the event and more
general.  I can’t vouch for perfection here, but I’m sure he knows a
boatload more than I do.  I paraphrase a bit for brevity:

    Since World Vision apparently has a bit of a specific-god missionary rep, he also suggests for others of a slightly different god bent the Church World Service, ADRA , CRS/CARITAS, and LWS, depending on how your own god bends.  He also suggests a number of European groups, among them: Merlin, Malteser, GOAL, and Concern.

    Meanwhile, Atlas Logistique
transports stuff for other good guys, so they’re a way of hitting the
relief infrastructure, if you will.  For shelter projects, he
recommends the International Organization for Migration.  Let’s also not forget the International Rescue Committee and the American Refugee Committee.

   
If you go for more capitalist solutions, setting folks up with small
businesses that are intended to make relief self-perpetuating and
profitable, check out Population Services International or other groups you can Google under “social marketing.”

   
Andy also points out that there’s a big diff between short-term relief
and long-term development work, and that sometimes in a crisis the
former tends to get all the play, when the latter needs support just as
much.  Good point.  So aim accordingly.

    Finally, if you ever have a yen to run off to someplace that could really use your time, check out Relief Web, which has a job board and everything.

    Sorely tempting, I must say. 

    The quake scoreboard, so far: 6200 dead, 30,000 injured, 200,000 made homeless.

    Want to help?  Go to it.

    Thanks.

    Update: decided to bump this to the top of the page.  People need help.

   A bunch of email is still sitting unopened; my apologies to
folks I haven’t replied to lately.  Still, most of this site’s best stuff
is sent in by you guys, at least when I can get around to checking it out.

    Andy B., who has done considerable relief work
himself in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, shares suggestions re charities in
the wake of the Java earthquake, both specific to the event and more
general.  I can’t vouch for perfection here, but I’m sure he knows a
boatload more than I do.  I paraphrase a bit for brevity:

    Since World Vision apparently has a bit of a specific-god missionary rep, he also suggests for others of a slightly different god bent the Church World Service, ADRA , CRS/CARITAS, and LWS, depending on how your own god bends.  He also suggests a number of European groups, among them: Merlin, Malteser, GOAL, and Concern.

    Meanwhile, Atlas Logistique
transports stuff for other good guys, so they’re a way of hitting the
relief infrastructure, if you will.  For shelter projects, he
recommends the International Organization for Migration.  Let’s also not forget the International Rescue Committee and the American Refugee Committee.

   
If you go for more capitalist solutions, setting folks up with small
businesses that are intended to make relief self-perpetuating and
profitable, check out Population Services International or other groups you can Google under “social marketing.”

   
Andy also points out that there’s a big diff between short-term relief
and long-term development work, and that sometimes in a crisis the
former tends to get all the play, when the latter needs support just as
much.  Good point.  So aim accordingly.

    Finally, if you ever have a yen to run off to someplace that could really use your time, check out Relief Web, which has a job board and everything.

    Sorely tempting, I must say. 

    The quake scoreboard, so far: 6200 dead, 30,000 injured, 200,000 made homeless.

    Want to help?  Go to it.

    Thanks.

    If you’ve noticed the site running faster lately, that’s the work of webmaster Colin and the fine folks at Islandnet.com, who are climbing around in the hull of the ship with prop wrenches and spanners while guys in red shirts and boots trot around on Red Alert, all because I got cranky the other day while freaking out about being ready for the traffic that might be coming when the book comes out in a couple of months.

    There’s a lot more to do

    This link will only work today, so click right now to see what’s so amusing.

    UPDATE: here’s what I was referring to, in Amazon’s daily list of books by their order in sales.  The new book was exactly one place ahead of an old book by somebody I used to criticize pretty roundly, something that just looked pretty damn strange when they appeared on the same page:

    And yes, I do think that is a very hard choice, but the price, I think. . . the price is worth it.

    (If you don’t catch the reference, clickityclikkikikickit.)