2003-10-16 | 11:29 p.m.

corduroy licorice's uncle, who was an officer in the service, was assigned to give siegfried and roy a tour of his base. he tried to be as accomodating as possible, but had to draw the line when siegfried wanted to put a tiger in the tank they were riding in.

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from this week's harper's magazine e-mail:

"tensions were beginning to surface publicly between defense secretary donald rumsfeld and condoleezza rice, the national security adviser, over the creation of rice's iraq stability group, which will oversee the chaos in iraq. rumsfeld was irritated that he was not told about the new group, and there were rumors, which the white house denied, that rumsfeld has fallen out of the president's favor."

nic note: that's the first time i've agreed with an opinion of condoleeza's.

"president bush gave a speech before a military crowd in new hampshire and said that the situation in iraq is 'a lot better than you probably think.'"

nic note: the fact that dubya keeps giving speeches on military bases isn't a coincidence. not only does he not have to answer questions from the press, he's sure to get a positive, pumped-up response. i didn't make that up. i read it in harper's. (don't worry, i'm not getting all intellectual on your ass. i still read celebrity dreck, too.) after some consideration, i've realized that the line "a lot better than you probably think" could be used as a slogan for all kinds of products. "wadworth's cream soda. it's a lot better than you probably think."

"american soldiers bulldozed ancient groves of date, orange, and lemon trees in central iraq because, the soldiers said, the farmers know who is in the resistance but refuse to tell."

nic note: that's a new form of crop rotation i wasn't familiar with.

"pat robertson said that the state department should be blown up with a nuclear bomb."

nic note: gotta love crazy tv preachers.

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