What is genocide? Well, it's, um, not something our allies do. Or ever have done.

"We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915," Bush said in a brief statement. "But this resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings and its passage would do great harm to relations with a key ally in NATO, and to the war on terror."

"Yes, historic mass killings, tragic suffering. Yadda yadda. But it's not genocide."

Um, whoops?

Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the United States in response to a House resolution that would call the World War I massacre of Armenians by Turkish forces genocide, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed the measure 27-21 Wednesday, even though President Bush and key administration figures lobbied hard against it. The full House is expected to vote on it, possibly Friday.

I'm curious - has anyone heard a harsh word from Mr. President "Democracy Is On The March for the Proud Peoples of the Middle East" Bush about how his Turkish allies have been bombing the hell out of Kurdish Iraq for the last week?

Pakistan ought to be the model of democracy in the Islamic world, being secular and more modern than its neighbors, but a political crisis is rapidly developing there. Now Osama bin Laden, likely hiding in Pakistan's rugged, semi-autonomous, northern mountains, has called for a holy war against President Musharraf.

A 72 year old minister from Kansas goes to Orlando for a gospel conference. After landing in Orlando he isn't feeling well and asks for assistance. They bring him a wheelchair, roll him out to the taxi area and leave him.

He sits there, UNNOTICED, unattended, for three days! At a major airport!

Outrageous!

What's wrong? How many travelers walked by this man, not seeing, in a hurry to get to Disney, Sea World, whatever? Was it because he was an elderly black man in a wheelchair?

And how many employees ignored this man, not my job, wanting to clock out? Where was Homeland Security? Apparently, there is no security paying attention at OIA.

Please, people, care about those around you! Take a moment, look around, does someone need help? Have patience with the elderly. You may be in their shoes some day.

(H/T to the Philips Phile, one of the best shows on radio despite their cheesy website, by way of XM 152.)

In case you missed it, the federal government used the "sneak and peek" warrant provisions of the Patriot Act to bust up the Cock County cockfighting scene.

It seems we have forgotten that the "Patriot" in "Patriot Act" stands for "Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism," (you can thank John Ashcroft for the tortured acronym, which along with color coded terrorist threat charts are keeping America safe from terrorist attacks since 2001).

Not that I'm trying to defend it, but can someone explain when cockfighting became "terrorism"? First they came for the cockfighters...

Michael Silence has more here and here, and Joe Powell comments re. the ever expanding threat to civil liberties.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is reporting that Gitmo will be shutdown following an announcement by Bush tomorrow. Developing...

UPDATE: White House denies there was any meeting or any announcement re. Gitmo scheduled for tomorrow. Olbermann says that AP reported there was a meeting scheduled, but now it has been canceled. Speculation is that Dick Cheney leaked the story to kill the whole idea.

UPDATE: Here's the updated AP story.

If the logic is that we are occupying Iraq so the people there don't come here and litter I-40 with IEDs, does this mean we should invade Guyana?

In which terrorism is not terrorism but instead simply a law enforcement problem.

Fire! Polite Applause
My Final Column for Knoxviews.com

By Don Williams

Barring a change of heart* on someone else's part, this is my last column for Knoxviews. Here's all I know about the reasons why. On Monday, Randy Neal left half-a-message on my answering machine telling me he was cutting me back...

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Scooter Libby and this not so sacred earth
By Don Williams

If Lincoln was right to suggest that the dead hallow the earth, then America and Iraq grow more sacred by the day. Take Tuesday, March 6, when Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Scooter Libby, was pronounced guilty of lying and obstructing. Media related another story that day, but in such a way that you would’ve thought it happened in a different universe. It was about how suicide bombers murdered at least 100 Shiites and injured more than 250 during a holy pilgrimage in Iraq.

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Lots of money for terrorists
by Don Williams

One of the unimpeachable truths about our unimpeachable president is that he’s providing lots of money to terrorists, most recently to Sunnis linked to al-Qaeda.

This is the point at which readers of a certain stripe will shake their heads and start calling for mine. Maybe one in ten will double-check my source--famed journalist Seymour Hersh’s latest article in the New Yorker, or his interview with CNN’s Wolf Blizter last Sunday. If you watched, you heard Hersh say something that should’ve been banner headlines. But then, what’s the fate of the Middle East compared to Anna Nicole.

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If you were paying attention to the world this week, you probably heard that a trusted aide and translator for the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan was arrested on espionage charges. Also, in the past day or two, British and American soldiers in Iraq raided houses thought to be important centers for Shia insurgents, only to wind up holding Iranian diplomats as captives. These diplomats were invited to Iraq by Jalal Talibani, who sat with President Bush in the White House earlier this month...