Short Cuts

Oh, Look, Muffy, A Dictator For Us: At the height of one of the most repressive crackdowns in Castro's history, a gaggle of New York's Most Loathsome are winging their way south to sit and drool at his feet. While hundreds of dissidents eat roaches in prison, these swells have stirred their Armani covered bottoms from the tables at Michael's and the Four Seasons Grill Room to do something "politically meaningful." Yoko Ono is a group leader. That should tell you all you need to know. Mickey Kaus at Slate reports.

Speechless: Agence-France Press released pictures and a story yesterday of children tumbling out of a prison in northeast Baghdad. Some look no more than eight years old. They were jailed for refusing to join the Baath Youth Party. We don't have the vocabulary to further comment on this but if we rolled into Iraq for no other reason, this unspeakable find would be sufficient.

Check Out Time: Not to be cold-hearted but there seemed to be an inordinate amount of keening about the tank rounds lobbed at the Palestine Hotel. From this story: "We have warned news organizations that being in Baghdad would be very unsafe once military action began," one Colonel Lapan added. "It would be difficult to understand that people wouldn't understand the danger." Christiane Amanpour threw a hissy fit on CNN and called for an "investigation." Fine. Investigate and find it's call WAR.

The Smoke Also Rises: It must have been the slow and repetitiousness of the news yesterday as the media decided they are now in love with the murderous troll they now refer to as Baghdad Bob (hopefully that will soon change to Baghdad Bernie, as in "Weekend with...") The international media has made the Iraqi Minister of Information, who looks like Aaron Brown's father, into some sort of a camp war icon but it only works for one news cycle. Here's a little background on Saddam's delusional mouthpiece. Take note because his days would seem to be numbered.

Little Details We Liked A Lot: Moms don't care where you call them from - even jail if the case may be - but a call from your boy freshening up in Saddam's bathroom has to be the best. * Geraldo Rivera, the down market Dan Rather, takes a lot of heat from those on the right for his years as a total Clinton toad and those on the left for trading with the enemy (read Fox News.) Where ever he decides to make friends, according to this story, while he's covering the military, he'd do well to give up shaking hands with anyone. * There are several stories this news cycle of Iraqis looting government offices and shops. We hope our troops let them cart off most of it, unless it belongs to private shop owners. They've had nothing but murder and fear - maybe they can plant a geranium in a busted old computer.

-Your Spring Craving LComStaff

Wednesday, April 09, 2003