No Rock And Roll Fun

NOW - IT'S RUMSFELD SET TO MUSIC: There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. Ah, the pure poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, the man who, zen-like, is responsible for the behaviour of US troops, and yet also, will not be held responsible for the behaviour of US troops. Fans of Broadcasting House's 'Donald Rumsfeld Soundbite of the Week' will know that Donald has quite the way with lies and obsfucation, and they'll be doubtless delighted to discover that Elender Wall and Bryant Kong have set him to music, creating a chamber orchestra piece from his, um, work.

Interestingly, Rumsfeld himself is a fan: "Someone gave me a copy of this thing, and here is this woman with a wonderful voice singing my press conference," Rumsfeld marveled at a meeting of the Newspaper Association of America last month. "Now, if that doesn't tell you something about the state of the world!"

We're heartened that he managed to get round to the CD, although he couldn't make time to read any of the reports coming out of Iraq about coalition troops abusing Iraqis - we guess you have to prioritise these things. We're not sure what Rumsfeld thinks the CD tells him about the state of the world, but since he's part of a team that can get a big document saying "There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq" and think that it tells you Iraq has got a nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programme so advanced you'd better buy a gas mask, we're not sure we'd trust his conclusions anyway.