Noted...

Cannon here, with a few general comments on the news.

Does Dick shoot promiscuously? I never know what to make of Wayne Madsen. He seems to be "on to something" about half the time -- and the other half, he just seems to be "on something." His observations on the Cheney shooting strike me as being, at the very least, interesting...

WMR has learned that this incident is not the first involving Cheney and hunting accidents. According to informed sources on Maryland's Eastern Shore, two years ago Cheney was shooting at ducks from a duck blind in Trappe, a Maryland Eastern shore town where former Secretary of State James Baker III maintains a residence. The sources reveal that Cheney nearly accidentally shot half of his hunting party and Secret Service detail. Eyewitnesses to the Maryland duck hunting incident claim that Cheney is "trigger happy" and a "maniac with a gun."

Perhaps a reader can dig up some confirmation...?

Madsen also seems to think that the third person on the infamous hunting trip -- "Pamela Pitzer Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein" -- has some connection to the laundering of CIA drug money through Swiss banks. I'm not persuaded by this suggestion. Where's the evidence? In light of Liechtenstein's notorious banking laws, I doubt a money launderer needs any help from an ambassador.

It's about damn time! I've been screaming at people slandered and libeled by the rightists to start making lawsuit noises, and now editorial cartoonist Ted Rall is contemplating just such a move. In a public speech, Ann Coulter claimed that Rall and Gary Trudeau had submitted cartoons in favor of Holocaust revisionism. Jurors might agree that this sort of remark imputes neo-Nazi sentiments to Rall and Trudeau. Slander of that sort should not be protected by Coulter's ubiquitious "just kidding" defense.

(And please note that, unlike Coulter (an alleged lawyer), I have used the term "slander" properly.)

They hate us in Turkey. And that's sad, because at one time, the Turks did not hate Americans. Actually, before Bush took office, American culture had won over many in the Islamic world, particularly in Turkey. Just a couple of years ago, Bush held up the Turkish example as a model for the rest of the Middle East.

Now the most popular movie in Turkish history -- "The Valley of the Wolves: Iraq" -- portrays American soldiers as quasi-retarded, bloodthirsty maniacs:

The movie is standard Hollywood action-adventure fare, but with the villains wearing the Stars and Stripes. The heroes are dapper and kind; the Americans are slovenly, sadistic and stupid. An American who questioned why a smiling comrade is spraying a metal container full of Iraqi prisoners with bullets is quickly killed.

Some of the incidents in the film draw on actual events, though they're portrayed in such a way as to impose the worst of motives on the Americans: American soldiers guffaw as they set dogs on prisoners at Abu Ghraib, lie in wait so they can target wedding guests when they celebrate with gunfire and open fire on a mosque just as the call to prayer is sounded.

Other scenes portray Americans as cartoonishly evil. When confronted by the Turkish hero, the main U.S. villain, played by American Billy Zane, surrounds himself with little children, saying he knows the hero's "weak spot."

This is how we are now seen in what used to be the most pro-American nation in the Islamic world.

The Republicans will answer, as always, that they don't care if the world loves us; what counts is whether the world respects us. Unfortunately, the world feels neither love nor respect, nor even (as we sink into massive debt and economic decline) fear. We are loathed, loathed even by our one-time allies, thanks to George W. Bush.

Atta and Abramoff. On Democratic Underground, an interesting discussion was sparked by one of my older pieces (which was sparked, in turn, by one of Daniel Hopsicker's finest investigative articles) on the mysterious visit paid by Atta and company to one of Jack Abramoff's Sun Cruz casino boats just prior to the "Big Wedding." (Hopsicker says that his informants place Atta on the boat, although Atta's name does not appear in other published accounts.) One comment by a Florida native struck me as highly interesting...

The other "odd" thing about it is Sun cruz was the "old people" boat..

If they were out to have a "good time" the last place they would want to go is that boat. The boat primarily catered to seniors, not people out to have a good time. The only reason I ever went on it was because I could go for free.. I worked at Gators which is right beside Sun Cruz on the pass.. They had a common parking lot, and they gave passes to anyone that worked at Gators.. Otherwise I never would have stepped foot on the boat. You can stand on the pass bridge, and see the passengers from both boats. The other boat (it has changed hands on several occasions) catered to a younger crowd, it had really loud bands, and it had dancing and drinking games, and special discounts for newlyweds, and college students.

Well, you all know my suspicions: Atta and his co-conspirators acted on behalf of Osama Bin Laden. Osama was a man with some heroin for sale. Casino boats provide perfect cover for the shipment of drugs.