Jeremy, say it ain't so! Say you're not stepping away from AHIAH. Who will keep us on our toes? Well, I guess the rest of us. Anyway, here's a great picture I found on the Drudge Report today. Let's play NAME THAT CAPTION.
- posted by Bethany @ 9:35 PM

 
Alright, alright. Hold your horses. I know I've been AWOL lately, but hey, George Bush did the same thing back in Alabama, and now he gets to blow stuff up for a living.

I've been pretty busy looking for jobs and apartments recently, and I'm sorry to say I haven't really had the time to formulate insightful thoughts for the blog. Sure, I could toss up some cool links, maybe crack a joke or two, but it wouldn't be anything you couldn't find elsewhere on the net. I'd like to think AHIAH has come to offer something more substantial. In its 5 or so months of rambling pontification, I'd like to think that we've produced something original, that those who have bookmarked us have come to expect and appreciate a perspective on politics and current events that is more than the sum of its hyperlinks (not to mention some good banter about the Goszinski family). The fact, though, is that I simply haven't been in a position to deliver a product of that caliber lately. Hence the silence.

There is certainly no dearth of fodder: Abu Ghraib, Nader and Kerry, the new dinosaur discovered by a scientist on horseback (what?). All I'm saying is, I'm going to be stepping off the soapbox for a little while. At this point, most of my energy is focused on finding a job for when I get back in July, after a few weeks in Maine, Nebraska, and Maine again. Come to think of it, if any of you know a DC-area company looking for a political blogger with a passion for grammar and a penchant for pasta-in-a-box, or maybe just someone to empty their wastebaskets, feel free to contact me. I also happen to be nasty on the weed-whacker.

As for the Horse, well, it's been a wonderful run. I can't emphasize enough how much I've enjoyed reading your comments and caption suggestions. I feel like there should be a little AHIAH slideshow with Green Day's "This Time of Year" playing in the background here. Maybe I'll get back on the Horse, too, once my life has settled down a bit. Or perhaps a new site will arise to take its place? I really can't say for sure. As Pliny the Elder once remarked to me over a pint at Cap City, "In these matters, the only certainty is that nothing is certain."

So, without further ado, I'm peacing out. Keep your feet on the ground and your head in the blogosphere, which is sure to change journalism and play a major role in public policy one of these days. And don't forget to write.
- posted by Jeremy @ 12:41 PM

 
Fun on Google!

Go to google and type 'miserable failure' and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button underneath the text box.

If you think that is funny type 'weapons of mass destruction" and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button.


- posted by reid @ 11:01 AM

 
Okay, so I know... everyone's talking about NEWS, and I will contribute one piece of NEWS... which is a very interesting article that isn't actually newsworthy so much as good commentary on one of the talking points all over the place. Some of you have likely read and/or seen former Stanford Professor Philip Zimbardo talking about the Abu Ghraib prison in light of an experiment he conducted when at Stanford in the 70s. I had heard about the prison experiment before. Basically, this professor organized a project in which some students became "prisoners" and some "guards." In the end, the guards were abusing the prisoners in all kinds of ways that "Stanford students" would never have done. The argument is that much of behavior is dependent upon environment. It's a noteworthy point but this article by Bill Saletan argues that the two (Abu Gharaib and Stanford) are not entirely comparable. Not a point I would argue, necessarily, but worth reading either way.

While I'm here, some sheer entertainment and a bit of comedy about sin. Sin is funny. And sin is on topic these days, so I'm not really completely off point. Click on "Ten" when you go to the site, and enjoy.
- posted by Grand @ 12:10 AM

 
Ohio's Reply to the question of the day:

An interesting question you ask... Given that opportunity I would let the photos rip faster than a GB can declare war on a defenseless country. Although I am tempted to analyze your the timing aspect of your question, I can not help but think to myself that it really doesn't matter. Speaking for Ohio.... Everyone has lost completely lost interest in this war. We knew the war was never about WOMD, but deep in our hearts we prayed the war would lower gas prices (since everyone in ohio has a suv, or really large pick up truck). If the pictures were of GW himself (wearing a britney spear's like outfit) throwing eggs at the prisoners maybe.. just maybe the ohioans may bother to flip from espn.

Which reminds me... I'm late for sportscenter.



- posted by reid @ 4:30 PM

 
QUESTION OF THE DAY: If you were an influential White House staffer, and you knew there were more obscene photos of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, would you make them public now (ie, the rip-off-the-Band-Aid theory) or hold off? And why? (or why not?)
- posted by Bethany @ 12:00 PM

 
Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post summarizes all the buzz of Kerry-doubt that is trickling through the media pipeline. Highlights here:

Why all the downbeat stories?

• Democrats can't believe that Kerry is slightly trailing Bush after the violent setbacks in Iraq and the fallout from the 9/11 commission hearings.

• Handicappers don't understand how a decorated Vietnam War veteran running against a man with gaps in his National Guard record got bogged down explaining whether he had thrown away his medals or his ribbons 33 years ago.

• Journalists slavishly follow the polls in search of some new trend to divine.
- posted by Bethany @ 8:52 AM

 
While Rumsfeld's fate is certainly worth pondering, to be completely honest I really don't care what comes of him. We have bigger problems, I think. I've been mulling the implications of these pictures for the last few days and trying to come up with the best way to talk about them, but what startles me is my immediate reaction to the pictures when I saw them on the news a few days ago: I cringed and thought, Oh man, that's terrible.

With time, I'm coming to understand that it's so, so much worse than that. JTA sent me an article from Wednesday's Post, which contains the following paragraph:

These photos, we insist, are not us.

But these photos are us. Yes, they are the acts of individuals (though the scandal widens, as scandals almost inevitably do, and the military's own internal report calls the abuse "systemic"). But armies are made of individuals. Nations are made up of individuals. Great national crimes begin with the acts of misguided individuals; and no matter how many people are held directly accountable for these crimes, we are, collectively, responsible for what these individuals have done. We live in a democracy. Every errant smart bomb, every dead civilian, every sodomized prisoner, is ours.

Read it here. Then let me know if you have any idea what we can do about it.
- posted by Jeremy @ 11:26 AM

 
Thanks Battleground State Correspondent. Glad to hear you haven't been swept up in the wave of irony that is the Bush Campaign Bus [motto: Can we alienate the rest of the world and express no regard for our nation's financial solvency? "Yes, America Can!"]. I had to get that line in somewhere. Anyway, here's a new question for everyone.

Apology-Gate 2004. Where will it end? Will more pictures surface? Will Rummy go bye-bye? Discuss.
- posted by Bethany @ 8:52 AM

 
Sorry for the delay everyone. There were numerous attempts by the man to keep me from spreading the truth straight out of Ohio's political scene. None of which were successful.

I look forward to sharing the intense political events that will occur as well as the very outspoken majority here in the oh. More to follow...
- posted by reid @ 3:07 PM

 
Without getting all up in the grill of our battleground correspondent's inaugural post, I just want to poke my head in here and get this link out to you. It's a new article by Chuck Todd in the Washington Monthly that says what no one else will: that, more likely than not, John Kerry is going to win this election in a landslide. I would describe it as 'prescient.' I have also been known to decribe pasta-in-a-box as 'nourishing,' however, so you may want to take my adjectives with a grain of salt.

PS Lauren do you know this cat? He runs the Hotline.
- posted by Jeremy @ 8:59 AM

 
Reid, Battleground State Correspondent Extraordinaire, is having some technical difficulties at the moment.
- posted by Bethany @ 10:40 AM