Derek Scruggs

Fellow Coloradan Alex Komarnitsky decided to bring a charity twist to an SEO competition. Despite not being a professional SEO, he currently ranks number three for the search phrase. This is my attempt to help him win. The best way to get good Google mojo is to link to the target site with the keyphrase in the link, like this: v7ndotcom-elursrebmem

If you get a moment and want to help a good cause, paste the link code below into one of your web pages.

<a href="http://www.watching-paint-dry.com/v7ndotcom-elursrebmem">V7ndotcom Elursrebmem</a>

A former CIA officer joins the chorus of former officials claiming the Bush administration “cherry picked” intelligence.

What is most remarkable about prewar U.S. intelligence on Iraq is not that it got things wrong and thereby misled policymakers; it is that it played so small a role in one of the most important U.S. policy decisions in recent decades…

…The Bush administration’s use of intelligence on Iraq did not just blur this distinction; it turned the entire model upside down. The administration used intelligence not to inform decision-making, but to justify a decision already made. It went to war without requesting — and evidently without being influenced by — any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq.

Here’s the most damning part:

As the national intelligence officer for the Middle East, I was in charge of coordinating all of the intelligence community’s assessments regarding Iraq; the first request I received from any administration policymaker for any such assessment was not until a year into the war.

In the US and, I suppose, most of the West, the words “Tianenmen Square” usually stir up images of the Chinese government brutally suppressing the protests there in 1989. This is why I linked to English and Chinese versions of searches on the word “Tianenmen.”

However, I learned today on Slashdot (and confirmed with my wife) the Chinese people don’t use that phrase in connection with the 1989 protests. Instead, they usually refer to it as “6–4” because the crackdown began on June 4th. So here’s what a Google China search of “six four”  (六四, pronounced liu si) looks like. None of these pictures have anything to do with the events of 1989.

I don’t know why I feed the trolls. In the interest of free speech and all that, here’s her response. She lost me at “Jewish Communist.” Why not just “Soviets?” She took the rope and hung herself. The forensic evidence for the crimes of Mao and others is often very spotty – when’s the last time the Soviets invited medical examiners in to inspect the gulags? – but the eyewitness testimony, as with the Holocaust, is overwhelming.

I don’t doubt that millions of people could be murdered. And I concur with you, there is a great deal of evidence that suggests that over 20 million were killed under Mao and the Armenians by the Turks. Let’s not forget the 30 million (conservative estimate) Eastern Europeans slaughtered by the Jewish Communists. Butchers like Kagonovich, Yagota and so many others who ran the death camps and gulags.

I agree with you that there is much forensic, corroborative and substantial evidence for the aforementioned crimes against peoples but I was referring to alleged crimes committed by the National Socialists. There is zero evidence of Gas chambers at any of the German run camps. If the “holocaust” is defined as Jews being put into concentration camps where a small number died, most from natural causes, some from reprisals, and a very small amount from maltreatment, then I would agree with you, there was a “holocaust”. But don’t be surprised if many think the word “holocaust” hyperbolic to describe the events just listed.

I’ve studied this era of history too closely to believe the sickening tales ala “Schindler’s List” etc.

In my reply I suggested she join her friend Michael Hoffman in Idaho.

And thus concludes this thread. I’m done with this topic.

Deadeye Dick Cheney’s Gun Club

 From the twisted minds at Chickenhead.com.

Today the Daily Northwestern printed letters to the editor in response to Arthur Butz’s column. In addition to the what you might expect – angry alumni expressing their displeasure, in which group you can place me – they also received a letter supporting Butz from a Michael Hoffman, editor of a publication called “Campaign for Radical Truth in History.” A quick Google search and I found his (hate) site. He’s a conspiracy theorist who not only denies the Holocaust, but also believes, among many other things, that the Catholic Church is actually under the thumb of a Jewish conspiracy. He also is clearly a white supremacist – he wrings his hands over “black skin privilege” and condemns the idea of America being a melting pot.

He lives in Idaho. It’s a shame Butz doesn’t move there too.

Sigh…

One of my clients sent me this today. Clearly they have too much time on their hands.

This site was created in the wake of Superbowl XL. It’s main mission is to embarass the NFL enough to address the total lack of competence of their officiating crews. Too many events “happen to” the public… and we are forced to stand by and just accept the outcome from the powers that be. Well, fine! If it’s gonna be that way, then it’s time they get the public humiliation they deserve. Quietly complaining to your co-workers or posting on ESPN’s NFL board won’t change much, nor will a silly billboard. But OH!, embarassing the NFL with a big ole sign in the sky right next to Heinz Field is something that we as NFL fans will be able to tell our grandkids about.

See the proposed billboard here.

Today the Daily Northwestern allowed Holocaust-denier Arthur Butz to write an opinion piece. If you click through you’ll see that I posted a short response.

This afternoon I received this email:

I was checking out the postings concerning Prof Butz and the “Holocaust”.

Derek, I’m asking this next question with the most inquisitive, forthright honesty I can. I don’t mean this sarcastically or maliciously. I’m honestly amazed. You seem intelligent. Do you REALLY believe in this Holocaust stuff? I mean, do you sincerely believe that 1) people were gassed and 2) 6 million jews died?

I just can’t imagine, it boggles my mind that people believe things like this in this day and age.

I’m just asking. I just want to know. Do you REALLY believe, seriously, sincerely?

Here is what I wrote back:

My wife is from China. Over 20 million people died there under Mao, including her grandfather, and Mao wasn’t even efficient enough to operate death camps. Japan killed over 100,000 people in the rape of Nanjing. Genocide happened and there’s plenty of evidence. The real question is not whether Germany carried out the Holocaust, but why we continue to look the other way in the face of other genocides, both in the present (Sudan) and the past (Turkey and the Armenians in 1915-17).

6 million is easy to believe.

Where do people like this come from?

It’s easy:

Now, in order to be considered a “liberal,” only one thing is required – a failure to pledge blind loyalty to George W. Bush. The minute one criticizes him is the minute that one becomes a “liberal,” regardless of the ground on which the criticism is based. And the more one criticizes him, by definition, the more “liberal” one is. Whether one is a “liberal” — or, for that matter, a “conservative” — is now no longer a function of one’s actual political views, but is a function purely of one’s personal loyalty to George Bush.

“Liberal” IMO is actually pretty tame. “Traitor” and “America hater” are hurled around a lot too. The full explanation is here. It wasn’t too long ago that Bob Barr was an A player on the fundraising circuit because of his role in impeaching Clinton. Now in many conservatives’ eyes he’s just another whiny ACLU type. Meanwhile, Anne Coulter feels comfortable enough at CPAC to rant about ragheads.

Via Andrew Sullivan