Former White House Press Secretary Slams Bush

Scott McClellan, Former White House Press Secretary, has written a scathing memoir about his time as the spokesperson for the Bush White House (from July 2003 to April 2006). The book, he says, discusses “the story of how the presidency of George W. Bush veered terribly off course.”

Apparently McClellan positions himself as the poor innocent guy who was fed lies by the White House and ended up looking like an idiot. Personally I don’t buy it. This is the same lame story all of the American leaders have been giving during Senate and Congressional hearings over the last few years:
“Well, shucks, if I’d known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have said/done those things.”

It’s the standard “get out of jail” card and it smells of bullshit to me. It was obvious to everybody with a slender grasp of the facts that the Bush White House was bullshitting about Saddam. There were plenty of people arguing against their case. If you’re going to stand up in front of the world and put a story out there, like McClellan did every day for three years, then you had better be sure that story is true and correct. As someone in the comments on the Politico site said, he should have put his country (and the truth) first, and his obsequious toadying to Bush last.

Read more.

G’Day World #326 – The CIA

I just finished reading Tim Weiner’s book “Legacy Of Ashes: The History Of the CIA” and thought I should talk more about it. I think this is one of the most important books that have come out in the last decade. Why? Listen to the show to find out. I start by reading out a list of countries that the CIA has committed acts of terrorism and violence in, either directly or indirectly, over the last 60 years. It’s a long, long list.

Please buy and read the book.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thepodcastnet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=038551445X&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

The music on today’s show is “Echoplex” from the new Nine Inch Nails album “THE SLIP“, which is licensed under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license.

NIN encourage you to
remix it
share it with your friends,
post it on your blog,
play it on your podcast,
give it to strangers,
etc..

ROCK ON TRENT REZNOR!

The Slip

G’Day World #325 – Jonathan Oxer

This is the longer audio piece from my chat with Jonathan Oxer. Jonathan has an RFID chip embedded in his arm which he can use to operate electronic devices in his house. Why? Listen and find out. If you haven’t yet seen the video to go with it, it’s here.

Keep up to date with Jon’s experimentation on his blog.

As a result of all the media interest in his high-tech home, Jonathan is set to host a new TV show called SuperHouse which will go to air later this year. Check out www.superhouse.tv to find out more.

The music on today’s show is “Demon Seed” from the new Nine Inch Nails album “THE SLIP“, which is licensed under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license.

NIN encourage you to
remix it
share it with your friends,
post it on your blog,
play it on your podcast,
give it to strangers,
etc..

ROCK ON TRENT REZNOR!

The Slip

Australia ranked only 27th most peaceful nation

Australia slipped two places to be ranked only the 27th most peaceful out of 140 countries on the Global Peace Index 2008, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, while neighbour New Zealand is fourth.

The USA ranked 97th, below China, Cuba and Libya.

I wonder who much coverage this will get in the MSM. Are you, as a citizen of Australia, happy with the result? Do we want to be a peaceful nation?