Hilariously bitchy.

"The only prerequisite for getting published in Salon is scoring a 23/26 on The Alphabet Quiz."

(Thanks to Sheila O'Malley for the new addition to the blogroll. That's all it takes, folks. Make me laugh.)

From the "Well, duh" dept.

Anonymous Pentagon guys are concerned about the strategic use of the media as psy-ops tools and its deleterious effect on the military's "credibility".

Although most of the work remains classified, officials say that some of the ongoing efforts include having U.S. military spokesmen play a greater role in psychological operations in Iraq, as well as planting information with sources used by Arabic TV channels such as Al Jazeera to help influence the portrayal of the United States.

Other specific examples were not known, although U.S. national security officials said an emphasis had been placed on influencing how foreign media depict the United States.

These efforts have set off a fight inside the Pentagon over the proper use of information in wartime. Several top officials see a danger of blurring what are supposed to be well-defined lines between the stated mission of military public affairs — disseminating truthful, accurate information to the media and the American public — and psychological and information operations, the use of often-misleading information and propaganda to influence the outcome of a campaign or battle.

As a member of said American public, allow me to officially lend my whole-hearted endorsement to the efforts of the military to spread disinformation about their actual plans via the fifth column--er, fourth estate. Terrorists watch CNN too, you know. Better I know too little before the fact than that they know too much.

Several of those officials who oppose the use of misleading information spoke out against the practice on the condition of anonymity.

Well, of course they did. Brave, brave dissenters.

(Linked by Jonah Goldberg in the Corner.)

Your moment of clarity.

From Andrea Harris:

The French are mean, authoritarian motherfuckers and always have been.

This has been your moment of clarity.

Hey hey, ho ho, United Nations got to GO.

Senator Norm Coleman has written a beautifully concise summation of the shamefully underreported Oil-for-Food scandal for today's Wall St. Journal. If the forces within the US media giants had any concept of right and wrong, this would be the biggest political scandal since Teapot Dome, but since they consider the matter of Dubya skipping a TANG physical in the early 70s to be much more important than Saddam Hussein lining his pockets with billions of UN dollars, I don't reckon I'll hold my breath waiting for the scandal to break with any force.

And for those who think we went to war in Iraq because we wanted to take over their oil fields, or because the president is seeking petty revenge for an assassination attempt on his father (perhaps if he'd attempted to assassinate Bill Clinton the high dudgeon of the left might have been stirred), or because the current crop of US warmongers just really enjoy blowing the crap out of other cultures, read the following very carefully:

Mr. Annan was at the helm of the U.N. for all but a few days of the Oil-for-Food program, and he must, therefore, be held accountable for the U.N.'s utter failure to detect or stop Saddam's abuses. The consequences of the U.N.'s ineptitude cannot be overstated: Saddam was empowered to withstand the sanctions regime, remain in power, and even rebuild his military. Needless to say, he made the Iraqi people suffer even more by importing substandard food and medicine under the Oil-for-Food program and pawning it off as first-rate humanitarian aid.

Since it was never likely that the U.N. Security Council, some of whose permanent members were awash in Saddam's favors, would ever call for Saddam's removal, the U.S. and its coalition partners were forced to put troops in harm's way to oust him by force. Today, money swindled from Oil-for-Food may be funding the insurgency against coalition troops in Iraq and other terrorist activities against U.S. interests. Simply put, the troops would probably not have been placed in such danger if the U.N. had done its job in administering sanctions and Oil-for-Food.

I'm not saying the US has acted out of pure-minded altruism in Iraq. I am saying it acted out of reasonable self-interest, and that ought to be enough justification for our present labors.

Radio Free Cincinnati.

My friend Bern is married to one of the funniest guys I have ever met. Sample his genius here.

Elf me hard.

Courtesy of Bill McCabe, the trailer for the ROTK extended edition.

Yes. Oh, hell, yes.