turn that shit UP

Movin On UP

2004-06-21T22:12:00.000-04:00

At long last, the moment you've all been waiting for. After months of tinkering, I'm making the leap. This site has now officially moved to
www.frazao.org
See you there.

Bonnaroo

2004-06-21T12:57:00.000-04:00

Finally posted some pictures from Bonnaroo. Check them out if you think you're qualified.

A lovely little tale

2004-06-18T17:16:00.000-04:00

I just saw the most amazing thing happen.

This little old lady was standing by the side of a busy road trying to work up the courage to step into the street to hail a cab. About 50 feet away two white cops stood by their cars casually chatting to each other over a Starbucks.

I watched as a young black guy walked up to the old woman and offered to help her flag down a taxi. I couldn't hear what she said, but the relief on her face was clearly visible - she wasn't having any success, and definitely appreciated the help.

Meanwhile, the cops are standing around chatting and watching this whole episode unfold.

The black guy stepped out into the street and put his hand up in the universal sign for "I need a cab", and not 15 seconds later a cab with no passengers and it's "On Duty" lights on went speeding by.

Obviously, this wasn't the first time the guy had been dissed by a taxi. Shaking his head, he glanced over at the cops with a look of exasperation on his face.

Here's where it gets incredible.

Without a moment's hesitation, one of the cops goes "That's bullshit" and JUMPED into his car and took off after the cab. Sadly, I couldn't see whether or not he caught him because they went around a corner.

It was a heartening little vignette. Everything from some guy helping an old lady get a cab, to the old lady not being all like "Help! A black person!!", to the cops actually doing the right thing.

All in all, a great way to end the week.

Bush on Religion

2004-06-16T16:12:00.000-04:00

At yesterday's news conference, Bush was asked to respond to Ron Reagan's eulogy of his father on Saturday:

"Q He said that politicians should not wear religious faith on their sleeve. And a lot of Republicans interpreted those remarks as being critical of you and your position on stem cell. I'd like to ask you about that.

"PRESIDENT BUSH: Whether or not a politician should wear their -- I've always said I think it's very important for someone not to try to take the speck out of somebody else's eye when they may have a log in their own. In other words, I'm very mindful about saying, you know, oh, vote for me, I'm more religious than my neighbor. And I think it's -- I think it's perfectly -- I think it's important for people of religion to serve. I think it is very important for people who are serving to make sure there is a separation of church and state."

Thanks for clearing that up.

Moron.

A Fitting Tribute to Ronald Reagan

2004-06-07T09:06:00.000-04:00

There has been, and will continue to be, a lot of talk about how to honor our 40th President. Instead of putting his smiling face on a coin or on Mount Rushmore perhaps we should give him the memorial Nancy Reagan has asked for:

In a rare appearance last month, former first lady Nancy Reagan spoke at an event to raise money for embryo stem cell research. She hoped, she said, that others would benefit from research on such diseases as Alzheimer's, which had afflicted her husband, Ronald.

"Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him," she said. "Because of this, I'm determined to do whatever I can to save other families from this pain."

Reagan, 82, who was married to the nation's 40th president for 52 years, had been by the ailing president's side, particularly as the family publicly acknowledged his bout with the disease 10 years ago.

Reagan's recent public support of stem cell research, however, has put her at odds with other Republicans, including President George W. Bush, who opposes the research.

Still, Reagan, whose support carries much clout, is doing what she says she has to do. "I just don't see how we can turn our back on this," she said at the fund-raiser.

Luckily, not all countries have been taken over by fundamentalist regimes. The UK has recently opened the world's first stem cell bank, and Australia announced today that it would
distribute embryonic stem cell lines free of charge to scientists who want to use them for research.

Many scientists believe that embryonic stem cell research has the potential to yield profound insights into a range of afflictions, including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Sadly, the Bush Administration has made it illegal to distribute federal funds to American researchers who work in what has quickly become the most active areas of biological discovery.

Although the first human embryonic stem cell line was created in the United States, the majority of new embryonic cell lines - colonies of potent cells with the ability to create any type of tissue in the human body - are now being created overseas, a concrete sign that American science is losing its pre-eminence in a key field of 21st-century research. Nearly three years ago, the Bush administration prohibited the use of federal funds to work with any embryonic cell lines created after Aug. 9, 2001, because of moral concerns over the destruction of human embryos. At the time, the president said there would be more than 60 lines of these cells available. But today there are only 19 usable lines created before that date, and that number is never likely to rise above 23, according to the National Institutes of Health.

However, the number of cell lines available to the world's researchers, but off-limits to U.S. government-funded researchers, is now much higher: at least 51. It could rise to more than 100 over the coming year. There are three new lines in Dvorak's lab, with four more in progress. And there are also new lines in Sweden, Israel, Finland, and South Korea. Last week, the world's first public bank of embryonic stem cells opened in Britain, a country where there are at least five new lines and more on the way.

"Science is like a stream of water, because it finds its way," said Susan Fisher, a stem-cell researcher at the University of California at San Francisco. "And now it has found its way outside the United States."

George Bush - Master of the Obvious

2004-06-04T12:26:00.000-04:00

Bush then presented the pope with the medal, calling John Paul "a devoted servant of God."

No shit, Sherlock. He's the fucking Pope.

Crazy Here, Crazy There, Tons O' Crazy Everywhere

2004-06-03T15:02:00.000-04:00

Don't have much time for blogging today, but get a load of these two articles:

Crazy Article #1:

The LAPD's figures show a 5% year-on-year rise in homicides from Jan to April 2004.

And while the number of homicides fell in some neighbourhoods last year, it only ever continued to rise in the hardcore gang areas.

In civil-rights lawyer Connie Rice's words, the officers are simply "shovelling quicksand" - and without more equipment, back-up, effective witness protection, training and, crucially, more officers, they are fighting a losing battle.

And she should know. Having worked with the community and the LAPD on various initiatives and reform programmes ever since the 1992 Rodney King case sparked riots, she is now about to begin investigating the newly re-opened Rampart police corruption scandal inquiry.

Aside from a rising homicide rate, Ms Rice warns that the gangs are crossing a line that has not been crossed before: They are now targeting police officers themselves.

She says: "It's one thing for gangsters to exchange fire with the police in situations, but we are now starting to see sniping. We are now seeing the ambushing of cops by gangsters and we should be panicking.

"We are on the way to a point of no return and we will end up in a Falluja situation. It is already a Falluja situation in some areas. LA is on the road to Falluja."

Crazy Article #2:

Bush Administration Freed Terror Suspect

Nabil al-Marabh, once imprisoned as the No. 27 man on the FBI's list of must-capture terror suspects, is free again. He's free despite telling a Jordanian informant he planned to die a martyr by driving a gasoline truck into a New York City tunnel, turning it sideways, opening its fuel valves and having an al-Qaida operative shoot a flare to ignite a massive explosion.

Free despite telling the FBI he had trained on rifles and rocket propelled grenades at militant camps in Afghanistan and after admitting he sent money to a former roommate convicted of trying to blow up a hotel in Jordan.

Free despite efforts by prosecutors in Detroit and Chicago to indict him on charges that could have kept him in prison for years. Those indictments were rejected by the Justice Department in the name of protecting intelligence. Even two judges openly questioned al-Marabh's terror ties.

The Bush administration in January deported al-Marabh to Syria — his home and a country the U.S. government long has regarded as a sponsor of terrorism.

Kidnappers target, torture Iraq's best doctors

2004-06-02T16:45:00.000-04:00

Horrible:

For two months, someone has been kidnapping the best doctors in Iraq. Health officials and doctors estimate that as many as 100 surgeons, specialists and general physicians have been abducted from their homes and clinics since the beginning of April. Some were beaten and tortured. Most were released after the payment of between $20,000 and $200,000 in ransom.

Already plagued by outdated equipment and drug shortages, Iraq's fragile health-care system is buckling under this new security threat. Some doctors who have not been kidnapped have fled Iraq — just as the nation most needs their help.

"We are losing the brain power of our most brilliant doctors," said Dr. Sami Salman, internist and medical director at the Special Care hospital at Baghdad's Medical City health-care complex. "You can't just replace these people overnight."

Ransom, it seems, is not the only motivation for the crimes. In many cases, abductors have ordered the physicians to leave Iraq, sometimes setting a deadline. Iraqi officials fear that the abductions and threats are an organized attempt to cripple the country's healthcare network, likening the tactics to terrorist attacks on the country's oil pipelines or electricity plants.

"These are not purely thieves," said Dr. Amir Kuzaii, deputy health minister. "These people have different aims. They are professionals. They want to paralyze the basic functions of the country."

Why Do Umbrellas Hate America?

2004-06-02T11:25:00.000-04:00

First of all, notice that the guy next to him doesn't seem to be having any trouble at all. Unless perhaps this was a "God tried to suck George Bush into the blades of the presidential helicopter" sort of event.

In any case, someone else might have assessed the situation, surmised that the umbrella was hopelessly screwy, and put it down instead of stubbornly holding it up as if nothing were seriously wrong.

But that wouldn't really be George Bush's style, would it?

Funny Shit

2004-05-28T14:17:00.000-04:00

Not much time for blogging lately, but here's some funny stuff to check out:

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: PROS AND CONS OF JOHN KERRY'S TOP TWENTY VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
BUSHGAME.COM - The Anti-Bush Online Adventure. Help Hulk Hogan, Mr. T and He-Man defeat George Bush and Voltron.

Group Unearths Part of Ancient University

2004-05-27T12:53:00.000-04:00

Cool:

Polish archaeologists have unearthed 13 lecture halls believed to be the first traces ever found of ancient Egypt's University of Alexandria, the head of the project said Wednesday.

"This is the oldest university ever found in the world," Grzegory Majderek, head of the Polish mission, told The Associated Press.

The lecture halls, with a capacity of 5,000 students, are part of the 5th century university, which functioned until the 7th century, according to a statement from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

"This is the first material evidence of the existence of academic life in Alexandria," Majderek said. Knowledge of earlier intellectual pursuits in the Mediterranean coastal city came through historical and literary documents and materials.

Ancient Alexandria was home to a library, which was founded about 295 B.C. and burned to the ground in the 4th century. Ruins were never found, but Alexandria was an intellectual center where scholars are thought to have produced the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and edited Homer's works.

The auditoriums were found near the portico of the Roman Theater in the eastern part of the ancient city.

All the lecture halls are of identical dimensions. Each contains rows of stepped benches in a form of semicircle and an elevated seat apparently for the lecturer, the Antiquities Department statement said.

Homeland Insecurity

2004-05-26T17:13:00.000-04:00

Have a great summer:

Despite losses around the world, al-Qaida has more than 18,000 potential terrorists, and its ranks are growing because of the conflict in Iraq, a leading think tank warned Tuesday.

[...]

The estimate of 18,000 fighters was based on intelligence estimates that al-Qaida trained at least 20,000 fighters in its training camps in Afghanistan before the United States and its allies ousted the Taliban regime. In the ensuing war on terror, some 2,000 al-Qaida fighters have been killed or captured, the survey said.

The United States remains al-Qaida's prime target, the report said. An al-Qaida leader has said 4 million Americans will have to be killed "as a prerequisite to any Islamic victory," the survey said.

I'd like to thank George Bush, Congress, and the piss-poor Media for "taking the fight to the enemy". Great job guys. That whole flypaper strategery is working out real well.

I'd also like to take a moment to thank all the spineless Americans out there who were either too chickenshit or too stupid to even consider the idea that this war was a lie. During the run-up to the invasion there were articles being published all over the world casting doubt on the Bush Administration's claims of "hundreds of tons of WMD" in Iraq. By the time we started Shocking and Aweing even UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix was saying that he hadn't found any WMD at all and that he needed more time to determine what the situation was.

But that didn't give the average American any pause at all. Most of you were out for blood. I was called unpatriotic, unAmerican and worse because I insisted this war was a deception. From the very beginning I maintained that the Bush Administration was trampling on the Constitution, destroying our international relationships (freedom fries, anyone?), and had placed us in greater danger.

Sadly, my voice was drowned out by the legions of Americans who believed George Bush's lies about Nigerian yellowcake uranium and Saddam's ties to Al Qaeda. Bush used 9/11 as a pretext to wage his foolish war and most of you ate it up. Seventy percent of Americans didn't even bother to notice that none of the hijackers were Iraqis.

Over and over I was accused of "helping the terrorists". But in the end, who really helped Al Qaeda? Who gave them the perfect recruitment tool? Who gave them the holy war they so desperately wanted? Who allowed American resources to be diverted from Afghanistan and the actual war on terror to the make-believe threat in Iraq?

Not me, that's for sure.

As a resident of a major metropolitan area in the US, I pray to God that none of these Al Qaeda plots comes to fruition. But if they do, there will be plenty of blame to go around. Sadly, the war that you all accepted on blind faith may coming home very soon. And if it does just remember that I did everything I could to stop it.

Photographer Makes High-Resolution Camera

2004-05-26T14:51:00.000-04:00

I've been taking pictures for a couple of years, and I've found it's something that I really enjoy. For me, it's a perfect combination of art and science. I get into messing around with shutter speeds and double exposures, and since I got a digital camera I've been tinkering with Photoshop. I come out with some cool stuff every now and then, but this guy has taken things to a whole other level:

When photographer Clifford Ross first saw Colorado's Mt. Sopris, he was so taken with the beauty of the mammoth formation that he jumped on the roof of his brother-in-law's car - denting it - to photograph the landscape.

But Ross found that his 35mm photos didn't get anyone else excited. They simply didn't capture enough detail to convey the majesty of the white-capped mountain surrounded by grassy fields.

So he decided to make a camera that could create an image as awe-inspiring as the vista before him. The result was R1, a 110-pound, 6-foot film camera that produces what experts say are some of the highest-resolution landscape photographs ever made.

"Mountain I," a 5-foot-by-10-foot color photograph captured by that camera, is on display at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York through July 30.

Ross, 51, wanted to share a near-replica of reality, without any of the blurring visible in most large prints. "You can choose to go up to the picture and experience it intimately with a sense of unbroken reality," he says.

Details of the mountain's snowcapped peak - 7 miles from the camera - are in sharp focus, as are individual blades of grass only 30 meters away. When sections of the image are magnified nearly four times, other details are clearly visible: the shingles on a barn 1,200 meters from the camera, a red bird in the grass 45 meters away.

A lower-resolution image captured on everyday 35mm film would break down when displayed at the size of "Mountain I." Viewers would see a fuzzy, fractured image - and Ross' miniature red bird would likely not be visible at all.

"You have to ask the question, `What's the point of painting a scene like this when you can reproduce it with no loss of resolution?'" says Conor Foy, a 36-year-old painter. "The resolution of this seems to be more than anything I've seen before."

Ross acknowledges that he has very little technical background. "I'm not a research scientist and I'm not a designer of photographic mechanisms," the first-time inventor says. "I'm doing this because I want to make a piece of art."

Mouseland

2004-05-26T10:56:00.000-04:00

Here's a little story by Tommy Douglas (1904 -1986), one of Canada's best known New Democrats. He first wrote it down in 1944, but it's as still as relevant as ever:

Mouseland

It's the story of a place called Mouseland. Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do.

They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election. Used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for the next four years afterwards too. Just like you and me. And every time on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats.

Now if you think it strange that mice should elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for the last 90 years and maybe you'll see that they weren't any stupider than we are.

Now I'm not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows. They conducted their government with dignity. They passed good laws--that is, laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were good for cats weren't very good for mice. One of the laws said that mouseholes had to be big enough so a cat could get his paw in. Another law said that mice could only travel at certain speeds--so that a cat could get his breakfast without too much effort.

All the laws were good laws. For cats. But, oh, they were hard on the mice. And life was getting harder and harder. And when the mice couldn't put up with it any more, they decided something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the black cats out. They put in the white cats.

Now the white cats had put up a terrific campaign. They said: "All that Mouseland needs is more vision." They said:"The trouble with Mouseland is those round mouseholes we got. If you put us in we'll establish square mouseholes." And they did. And the square mouseholes were twice as big as the round mouseholes, and now the cat could get both his paws in. And life was tougher than ever.

And when they couldn't take that anymore, they voted the white cats out and put the black ones in again. Then they went back to the white cats. Then to the black cats. They even tried half black cats and half white cats. And they called that coalition. They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them: they were cats that tried to make a noise like a mouse but ate like a cat.

You see, my friends, the trouble wasn't with the colour of the cat. The trouble was that they were cats. And because they were cats, they naturally looked after cats instead of mice.

Presently there came along one little mouse who had an idea. My friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea. And he said to the other mice, "Look fellows, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats? Why don't we elect a government made up of mice?" "Oh," they said, "he's a Bolshevik. Lock him up!" So they put him in jail.

But I want to remind you: that you can lock up a mouse or a man but you can't lock up an idea.

Pathetic

2004-05-26T09:26:00.000-04:00

It's only been in the news every day for the past two weeks:

Two rehearsals for his prime-time speech were not enough to keep U.S. President George W. Bush from mangling the name of the Abu Ghraib prison that brought shame to the U.S. mission in Iraq.

During the half-hour televised address, Bush mispronounced Abu Ghraib each of the three times he mentioned it while announcing U.S. plans to tear down the infamous jail and replace it with a new facility.

The prison, the scene of torture under Saddam Hussein and the setting for the Iraqi prison abuse scandal under the U.S. military, has a name that English speakers usually pronounce as "abu-grabe".

But the Republican president, long known for verbal and grammatical lapses, stumbled on the first try, calling it "abugah-rayp". The second version came out "abu-garon", the third attempt sounded like "abu-garah".

White House aides, who described the speech as an important address on the future of Iraq, said Bush practised twice on Monday before boarding his helicopter for his trip to the speaking venue at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

link.

Rampaging Cicadas Attack George Bush

2004-05-25T23:59:00.000-04:00

Even the cicadas want Bush gone.

It's About Time

2004-05-24T16:47:00.000-04:00

Finally, someone has taken some decisive action regarding the Abu Ghraib prison torture. Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, has implemented a policy that is sure to stem the tide of pictures coming out of Iraq.

He has banned cameras from US military compounds:

MOBILE phones fitted with digital cameras have been banned in US army installations in Iraq on orders from Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, The Business newspaper reported today.

Quoting a Pentagon source, the paper said the US Defence Department believes that some of the damning photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad were taken with camera phones.

"Digital cameras, camcorders and cellphones with cameras have been prohibited in military compounds in Iraq," it said, adding that a "total ban throughout the US military" is in the works.

Problem solved.

What's That Up In the Sky?

2004-05-24T16:24:00.000-04:00

It's a bird!

It's a plane!!

It's SUPER BUSH!!!

Yes, this is real. The ad linked to above was actually paid for by the Republican National Committee. I suppose this is the way the RNC views our President. Unfortunately, here's how the rest of the world sees him:

As a recent Kos diarist put it, "Finally, a leader that combines the intellect of Dan Quayle, the paranoia of Richard Nixon, and the physical dexterity of Gerald Ford."

Free Stuff

2004-05-24T15:38:00.000-04:00

MoveOn.org is giving out free stickers.

Pretty cool.

About Time

2004-05-24T11:28:00.000-04:00

Is America ready to join the rest of the civilized world by outlawing the death penalty?

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that a convicted Alabama killer can pursue an appeal claiming lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment in his case.

Justices said that lower courts were wrong to block appeals by death row inmate David Larry Nelson, who was less than three hours from execution last fall when the Supreme Court gave him a temporary reprieve.

Looks like we'll find out.

Minimize Profits for Big Oil

2004-05-21T16:42:00.000-04:00

Stick it to The Man and shop around for the lowest gas prices in your area.

10 Stories the World Should Hear More About

2004-05-21T14:29:00.000-04:00

Go now

The stories are not ones that have never been reported, but are often second-rung issues that need more thorough, balanced and regular attention. The list itself is a snapshot of the most compelling stories that, at this point in time, the Department of Public Information believes are in need of more media attention. And the top story is merely the first among equals.

The list includes the plight of child soldiers in Uganda, who are emerging as central figures amid deadly violence and a growing humanitarian emergency; the crisis of children orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa; and overfishing as a threat to marine biodiversity.

Sometimes it's easy to get swept up in the 14 second news cycles, but every now and then it's good to step back and take a look at some of the other things that are going on in the world that don't get any coverage. One of the stories that I found particularly interesting is about Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation around the world:

Far from the eyes of the world, some sixty-four indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation in Amazonian Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia – the Tagaeri, Huaorani, Taromenane, Corubo, Amamhuaca, Mascho, Kineri, Nanti, Nahua and Kugapakori, among others – are condemned to gradual extinction. These tribes remain mysterious, avoiding all contact with strangers and preferring the isolated existence they have maintained for centuries. What little is known about them has been gleaned from other indigenous groups and from chance encounters with developers and rights groups. But what is clear is that their numbers are rapidly dwindling: the Coruba now number only 40; and the number of Mascho speakers is estimated to be between 20 and 100. The Amamhuaca language, it is thought, is spoken only by 720 people: 500 in Peru and 220 in Brazil.

Do They Teach That In Law School?

2004-05-21T13:16:00.000-04:00

What the hell:

David Fink, a lawyer who barked like a dog at a witness during a deposition, has been fined $8,500 for misconduct and harassment of opponents.

[...]

During a deposition in which Kittle [the defendant] was giving sworn statements on Jan. 16, 2002, he referred to letters he had received from Fink. He called them threatening, "mad dog lawyer" letters, according to Kittle's lawyer, Samuel Friedman.

At the continuation of the deposition the next day, Friedman said, Fink started barking like a dog when Kittle was asked about the letters by Donald Creadore, the lawyer who had taken over the case from Fink.

Friedman said Fink "behaved in a very mocking manner, making the witness feel intimidated, speaking over other people and making it difficult for the court reporter to record much of anything."

Dear Abby

2004-05-20T12:15:00.000-04:00

Check out this letter from today's Dear Abby (the most popular and widely syndicated column in the world):

DREAM TO BE PRESIDENT IS NOT OUT OF GIRL'S REACH

DEAR READERS: I'm still receiving fascinating letters in support of the 13-year-old girl who was ridiculed by her teacher and classmates for revealing that she'd one day like to be president of the United States. Read on:

DEAR ABBY: I read the letter from "I Have a Dream" and would like to offer her encouragement:

DEAR "I HAVE A DREAM": I was touched by your letter to Dear Abby, and I want you to know that you can become the president of the United States because of who you are, not in spite of it. I have no doubt a woman will be president one day, and America would be lucky to have you leading us every step of the way.

When young people like you express such a desire to make a difference in people's lives, you should be applauded. Your teacher and your classmates were wrong to laugh at your dream.

What you already know, but they seem to have forgotten, is that we live in a country where every child, girl or boy, has an equal chance to grow up and become president, or a teacher, or a doctor, or a CEO, or the shopkeeper down the street. That is what makes our country unlike any place on Earth. Anything is possible.

But to do the things we believe in, we all have to work hard, do our best, and fight those who do not always believe in us. It is not easy to ignore their criticism, and it is tough to look beyond their doubts. But remember, doubters never made America a better place. It is people like you -- people who dream big and are filled with hope -- who make a difference in this world.

Always remember that the great thing about America is that you can become president, and you should never let anyone tell you different. -- SEN. JOHN KERRY, WASHINGTON, D.C.

DEAR SEN. KERRY: To say that you are a busy man these days is an understatement. That you would still reach out to help a child says volumes about you as a person.

Whoever it was on the Kerry campaign who thought to do this gets a gold star for the day. Just think of how many people in Middle America skip over the A section and head straight for Dear Abby and the comics. This is the kind of manuever that sticks in people's heads, and John Kerry just pulled one off in a big way.

In all fairness, I'm sure George Bush would have written a letter as well... except that he doesn't read newspapers:

"I don't watch the nightly newscasts on TV, nor do I watch the endless hours of people giving their opinion about things ... I don't read the editorial pages; I don't read the columnists." In fact, Mr. Bush said he barely "skims" four newspapers delivered daily to the Oval Office.

Strange Things Are Afoot en El Casa de Chalabi

2004-05-20T09:08:00.000-04:00

Breaking news this morning is that U.S. troops have raided Chalabi's house in Iraq:

U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police raided the residence of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi on Thursday, and aides accused the Americans of holding guns to his head and bullying him over his criticism of plans for next month's transfer of sovereignty.

There was no comment from U.S. authorities, but American officials here have complained privately that Chalabi - a longtime Pentagon favorite - is interfering with a U.S. investigation into allegations that Saddam Hussein's regime skimmed millions in oil revenues during the U.N.-run oil-for-food program.

A Chalabi aide, Haidar Musawi, accused the Americans of trying to pressure Chalabi, who has become openly critical of U.S. plans for how much power to transfer to the Iraqis on June 30.

[...]

American soldiers and armed U.S. civilians could be seen milling about Chalabi's compound in the city's fashionable Mansour district. Some people could be seen loading boxes into vehicles. Aides said documents and computers were seized without warrants.

[...]

For years, Chalabi's INC had received hundreds of thousands of dollars every month from the Pentagon, in part for intelligence passed along by exiles about Saddam's purported weapons of mass destruction.

The question is, how did Chalabi fall out of favor so fast? Less than a week ago, he was still receiving $340,000 per month from the Pentagon. In the space of a week he's gone from being "our kind of guy" in Iraq to being the subject of armed raids?

I doubt it. There is a classic nation-building technique that was employed in British colonies all over the world. The British government would pick their favored leader, arrest him and then make a hero out of him. When the populace was sufficiently whipped into a fury about it the British would release the guy just to "keep the peace" and then hold elections. Inevitably, their handpicked stooge would win by a landslide.

Of course, if this is what Bush and his clown troupe are trying to do (and I'm not saying it is), it's going to fail miserably. Most Iraqis think of Chalabi as a opportunistic, bank robbing thief who spent the last 30 years living comfortably outside Iraq:

Chalabi, a former banker and longtime Iraqi exile, was convicted of fraud in absentia in Jordan in 1992 for embezzling $US288 million from Petra Bank into Swiss bank accounts and was sentenced to 22 years in jail.

Good luck making a hero out of this guy. It'd be easier selling a line of plush, snuggly Ken Lay dolls.

If Bush had any sense he'd have sent Chalabi's fat ass back to Jordan a year ago. Instead he put him on the Administration's payroll to the tune of almost $400,000 per month. That's certainly one thing you can say about rich crooks - when times get tough they stick together.

UPDATE: Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks this is all another neoCon (link via Atrios):

Michael Rubin - a young staffer at the American Enterprise Institute who's just left the Pentagon, where he played a small role as a neocon cog in the Office of Special Plans war machine - let a herd of cats out of the bag about his favorite Iraqi phony, Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress.

Chalabi, of course, is the roly-poly perpetrator of intelligence fraud and the convicted bank embezzler who still hopes to be leader of Iraq. Lately, Chalabi has scuttled into a would-be alliance with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the scowly fatwa man. In doing so, he's had the temerity to criticize the United States, leading some fuzzy thinkers to believe that Chalabi, whose puppet strings are made of steel, might be trying to show some independence from Washington. Well, says Rubin, who served as one the Pentagon's liaisons to Chalabi, that's exactly what they want you to think:

"Much of the information he collected was to roll up the insurgency and Ba'athist cells. It caught people red-handed," said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser who is now at a conservative think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute.

"By telegraphing that he is not the favorite son of America, the administration will bolster him, showing he is his own man."

In other words, it's all a big con game. The still-neocon-dominated Pentagon-which this week stopped funding Chalabi's INC - is playing its last card, hoping that it can boost Chalabi's sagging fortunes by pretending to sever ties with him. That, the neocons hope, will allow Chalabi to strengthen his ties to Sistani, the king-making mullah who, they hope, holds Iraq's fate in his wrinkled hands.

Cicada Update

2004-05-19T21:45:00.000-04:00

There are tons of cicadas around now. It's not quite reached Plague of Locusts proportions yet, but it's definitely gross. In the city it's not too bad, but I work out in the suburbs and there are cicadas all over the place.

In case you've been living in a cave for the past few months, this is the year of the cicada:

About 3,000 kinds of cicadas populate the globe, and most live conventional lives of a few years' duration. The eastern half of the United States is home to a unique set of species, called periodical cicadas, whose members spend 13 or 17 years underground before suddenly emerging into a frenzied and noisy adulthood.

Periodicals are the glamour girls and boys of the cicada world. And we are about to greet them again.

A few inches below the surface of the soil, in about 15 states and the District, billions of cicadas that were spawned in the spring of 1987 are ready to leave their subterranean homes and taste life in the open air.

In a few weeks, probably in early to mid-May, the cicada nymphs will crawl out of the ground, shed their skins and unfurl their wings. The males will out-roar lawn mowers in their search for a mate. The females will lay their eggs in the branches of trees. Then, beginning in mid-June, the adults will all die.

Prepare to welcome Brood X (that's 10), as a federal bureaucrat named this batch of 17-year cicadas. Periodical cicadas last appeared in the Washington area in 1996, when Brood II came topside. That emergence, while sparser overall, affected Virginia more heavily than will X, which will largely sidestep the Old Dominion.

The good news is that these insects are almost entirely harmless -- they don't bite or sting, although they can startle. They may make a few outdoor weddings even more unforgettable than brides and grooms might hope.

The rest of the news is that they are pretty hard to miss. There is of course the noise. But there is also their charm.

Elizabeth Kraft discovered that after a few days, she was enchanted with the bugs. "It was really creepy, but it's also amazing. It's an amazing encounter with nature."

As I said before, walking to work has become quite an adventure. The cicadas hang out on trees and go shooting around on unsteady wings. I've become used to getting divebombed by huge bugs. It's a bit disconcerting, but it makes me feel like I'm back in the jungle. Until I get to work. Then the whole jungle illusion kind of fades.

If you haven't gotten enough of all these grubs n bugs, check out some photos:

Harold and Kumar Go To Whitecastle

2004-05-19T14:51:00.000-04:00

Odds are this movie will suck, but there is a slim chance that it may turn out to be the best movie in the history of the universe.

UPDATE: Fight childhood obesity the Japanese way - with scaryass lunches.

Step One: Remove Head From Ass

2004-05-19T13:36:00.000-04:00

The CEO of Diebold has finally realized that promising to deliver the election to Bush was a mistake:

Walden O'Dell, the chairman and chief executive of Diebold, has said that it was a "huge mistake" for him, as the head of a voting machine company, to express support for President George W. Bush's re-election in a fund-raising letter last year.

O'Dell, in a meeting with reporters and editors from The New York Times on Monday, also said Diebold was working to address computer security problems and build voter confidence in its wares. He apologized for mistakes and stood up for what he said the company had done right.

"The country had a crisis" after the 2000 election debacle, he said; his company realized that it "could help; it would be an opportunity to serve, and it would be a good business."

O'Dell drew criticism of his company in August when he sent an invitation to a fund-raising party that said, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." He said he had not written the letter himself, though he declined to say who had. He added that he intended only to sign a "party invitation."

[...]

He said he could not discuss California, which on April 30 prohibited the use of Diebold's machines in four counties for the November election. The California secretary of state, Kevin Shelley, has asked state's attorney general to investigate whether Diebold should face charges.

Yet another example of what has become a classic Republican trifecta: corrupt, inept, and monumentally stupid.

Fighting Terror With Terror

2004-05-19T13:16:00.000-04:00

What a disaster:

A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party before dawn Wednesday in western Iraq, killing more than 40 people, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said it could not confirm the report and was investigating.

Lt. Col Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of Ramadi, said between 42 and 45 people were killed in the attack, which took place about 2:45 a.m. in a remote desert area near the border with Syria and Jordan. He said the dead included 15 children and 10 women.

Dr. Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi, put the death toll at 45.

Associated Press Television News obtained videotape showing a truck containing bodies of people who were allegedly killed in the incident. Most of the bodies were wrapped in blankets and other cloths, but the footage showed at least eight uncovered, bloody bodies, several of them children. One of the children was headless.

This report is unconfirmed as of yet. Hopefully it will turn out to be false.

UPDATE: Confirmation:

The U.S. Army said Thursday it killed around 40 people in an attack on suspected foreign fighters in Iraq near the Syrian border, but disputed reports that the victims were members of a wedding party.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. military in Iraq, told Reuters the attack early Wednesday was within the military's rules of engagement.

"We conducted an operation about 85 kilometers (53 miles) southwest of al-Qaim...against suspected foreign fighters in a safe house," Kimmitt said. "We took ground fire and we returned fire."

Kimmitt said there were no indications that the victims of the attack were part of a wedding party. He said a large amount of money, Syrian passports and satellite communications equipment had been found at the site after the attack.

[...]

Dubai-based Al Arabiya television showed pictures of several shrouded bodies lined up on a dirt road. Men were shown digging graves and lowering bodies, one of a child, into the pits while relatives wept.

"The U.S. planes dropped more than 100 bombs on us," an unidentified man who said he was from the village said on Al Arabiya. "They hit two homes where the wedding was being held and then they leveled the whole village. No bullets were fired by us, nothing was happening," he added.

Guests and relatives at Arab weddings often fire guns in the air in jubilation.

----------------------

A video grab image shows an Iraqi man crying in the cemetry in Ramadi May 19, 2004. The U.S. army said on Thursday it killed around 40 people in an attack on suspected foreign fighters in Iraq (REUTERS/Al Arabiya Television/Via Reuters Television)

----------------------

Iraqis mourn over those killed during a wedding party in this image from television, in Ramadi, Iraq, Wednesday, May 19, 2004, following an alleged missile attack by U.S. Armed Forces. (AP Photo/APTN)

----------------------

FLASHBACK:

American military officials were last night trying to explain one of their worst blunders during the nine-month war in Afghanistan after a US plane mistakenly targeted a house full of wedding guests, killing at least 30 of them.

The bombing happened at 1am yesterday in a village in the rugged and mountainous central region of Oruzgan, 105 miles north of the southern city of Kandahar.

[...]

The incident is deeply embarrassing for the American military, which has so far had little success in fulfilling its initial war aim of hunting down Osama bin Laden. Most senior Taliban figures together with remnants of al-Qaida decamped to Pakistan's tribal regions late last year, intelligence sources believe.

In Washington, the Pentagon yesterday admitted that at least one bomb dropped by western warplanes had missed its target, but it could not confirm claims that members of a wedding party had been killed.

[...]

American warplanes have made several other grievous errors during their war in Afghanistan - but are not believed to have killed so many civilians at a single stroke.

According to local Afghans, 11 members of a wedding party were killed in a similar incident in May in the village of Balkhiel, 30 miles north of the town of Khost.

The guests were bombed after celebrating by firing into the air. US officials later insisted their planes had come under enemy attack.

The village of Hazar Qadam wrongly bombed in January is also in Oruzgan. Some 16 innocent people were killed and 27 captured. The 27 were later released after US officials admitted their mistake and allowed them to return home.

In April four Canadian soldiers died when a US fighter bombed them by mistake during a training exercise.

And last December planes bombed a convoy from the eastern town of Khost, killing a group of tribal elders travelling to Kabul for Hamid Karzai's inauguration as interim leader.

Bush and Powell Hold Secret Meeting With Aznar

2004-05-19T07:51:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Jose Maria Aznar snuck into the White House for a nearly secret meeting. Luckily Soj was paying attention:

White House Downplays Its Ties With Aznar During Meeting in Washington

[Translated from original Spanish by Soj]

Washington - The ex-President of the Spanish government, Jose Maria Aznar, is a good friend of the American President, George W. Bush according to the White House spokesperson, Scott McClellan. Those were the few official words said about the meeting between the two leaders.

Aznar ended his tour of the United States with a private meeting with Bush, which Colin Powell also attended. The meeting was remarkable for the absolute silence of the participants.

McClellan, during a press conference, would not go into more details about the meeting. "Aznar is a good friend of the President, but now he's a private citizen. He's the ex-president (of the government) of Spain. No further comments."

Jose Maria Aznar also did not say anything. He left the White House through a side door far from where the press were gathered.

The State Department spokesperson said it is "Quite normal for Bush and Powell to meet with an ex head of state" but refused to go into details on what was discussed during the meeting.

Aznar has also remained silent on a meeting he had on Monday in the Pentagon with the American Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

Neither anyone traveling with Aznar nor anyone in the Pentagon would give a statement about the meeting, which occurred during one of the lowest points for RUmsfeld, when he was being grilled by opposition Democratic Party members of Congress over the abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners.

Polemics in Spain

Aznar's trip to the United States has caused a great deal of political debate in Spain. Many members of the PSOE [current government] are especially upset over the critical stories coming from the American media about the decision to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq.

In an interview in the Los Angeles Times newspaper, Aznar stated that he considered the withdrawal of troops from Iraq to be tantamount to a declaration of victory for the terrorists.

In that interview, Aznar stated that the only way to put a brake on violent acts, such as the decapitation of American Nicholas Berg, is for Spain and the rest of the international community to give its support to the United States.

If I were the President of the Government, the Prime Minister of Spain, the troops would still be fulfilling their obligations" in Iraq, said Aznar.

This was Aznar's first trip outside of SPain since the Popular Party (PP) lost the general elections back on March 14.

Aznar has stated that the Madrid train bombing in March, in which 192 people died, had an effect on the parliamentary elections, which were won by the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE).

The election results "would've been diferent if those terrorist attacks had not occurred. We know this", said Aznar in his Los Angels Times interview.

He also warned that in American, just like in Spain, "the terrorists will do what they can to affect the elections in the United States"

Zapatero Not Upset

Aznar's statements were roundly criticized in Spain, with people like Josep Borrell, the head of the PSOE members running for European Parliament elections and his counterpart in the CiU, Ignasi Guardans, amongst others who accused Aznar of "disloyalty".

The PP came to the defense of their former leader, although various articles published in Spain have indicated that the Party has asked Aznar to refrain from making public statements" to try and put a cap on the criticism.

To clarify the issue, the President of the Government, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapataro, stated on Monday that he was "not bothered" by Aznar's criticism and added, "to each their own".

In the same vein, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Angel Moratinos, stated in Brussels on Monday that he was not concerned about Aznar's statements about the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq because his comments "are neither important nor listened to".

So why are Bush/Powell/Rumsfeld meeting with Aznar? Who knows. But here's a telling snippet from yesterday's White House press briefing:

Q Do you have a readout on the Aznar meeting, and a purpose for that meeting?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, one, President Aznar is a good friend of the President's. And secondly, this was a meeting with a private citizen -- he is a former President of Spain -- and I'm not going to have any further readout beyond that.

Q Were Rice and Powell also involved?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm just not going to have any further readout of the meeting. He did bring some other people with him. But I will leave it at that.

Why is it telling? Because it shows how completely idiotic this administration is. Aznar isn't the former President of Spain. He's the former Prime Minister. It's not a big deal, but you'd think that BushCo would make an effort be respectful of one of his only two friends in the world.

What a bunch of clowns.

Conflict Map

2004-05-17T16:31:00.000-04:00

Take a look at the Conflict Map:

In the course of the 20th century, mankind experienced some of the most devastating wars of all times. Where did these wars take place? Have some regions experienced more wars than others? Who were the main protagonists in these conflicts? This map gives you the opportunity to answer these questions. It displays wars with at least 1,000 military battle deaths.

The Nobel Peace Prize celebrated its centennial in 2001. Where did the Laureates and nominees come from? How many Africans have received the prize? Alongside the map on wars you will find statistics showing the geographical distribution of Peace Prize nominees and Laureates since 1901.

Along with being a sobering look at 20th century warfare, it's also a super cool bit of web programming.

Spheres of Influence

2004-05-17T15:43:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post has an incredible graphic up describing Bush's Spheres of Influence. Interesting stuff.

Fer Chrissakes

2004-05-14T22:19:00.000-04:00

Hello? Earth to the Kerry Campaign? Anyone there?

The Senate on Tuesday rejected by a single vote Sen. Maria Cantwell's amendment to provide extended federal unemployment benefits to 47,000 Washington workers and more than 1 million others nationwide.

The vote came as the chamber moved toward passage of a $170 billion corporate tax bill that would benefit Boeing, Microsoft and other U.S. exporters and help defuse a mounting trade dispute with the European Union.

Cantwell, D-Wash., sought to attach her amendment to the tax bill, but the Republican-controlled Senate rejected it on a 59-40 vote. The amendment required 60 votes to overcome objections it violated budget guidelines.

"It's really disappointing," said Cantwell, who has repeatedly over the past several months sought to convince the Senate to extend the benefits.

Cantwell said she ran into a Republican leadership that was determined to defeat her amendment. She said she hadn't decided what comes next.

"It took a lot to get this vote, to get the momentum," she said.

Guess who was the only senator to miss the vote.

UPDATE: Apparently, this tactic was organized and executed by the Republicans in the senate. The majority schedules the vote when they know the challenger won't be there for campaign reasons and then makes sure the vote fails by one vote. Pretty slick, and it makes for a damning headline. Take a look at the list of voters:

40 Rs voted against (well, 39 + Zell)

The Rs that voted for extending benefits were:
Bond (MO)
Dole (NC)
DeWine (OH)
Murkowski (AK)
Smith (OR)
Talent (MO)
Voinovich (OH)

and

Snowe, Collins, McCain & Specter.

The latter four could conceivably have voted this way on principle. However, the former seven would NEVER have voted for extending unemployment benefits.

This was a setup. Even if Kerry had hopped on a plane and flown back, one of the seven would surely have switched his vote at the last second.

Those Republicans... they're pretty slick. They almost fooled me for a second there.

They Can Put A Guy On The Moon...

2004-05-14T16:27:00.000-04:00

...but they can't balance a checkbook?

As NASA sets course for the moon and Mars, the space agency's finances are in disarray, with significant errors in its last financial statements and inadequate documentation for $565 billion posted to its accounts, its former auditor reported.

[...]

"The documentation NASA provided in support of its September 30, 2003, financial statements was not adequate to support $565 billion in adjustments to various financial statement accounts," the auditor wrote in a Jan. 20 report to Cobb, NASA's inspector general. It also noted "significant errors" in financial statements provided by NASA.

That big number -- $565 billion, with a "B" -- was the result of posting problems, new software and a "massive cleanup" of 12 years of NASA's financial records, said Patrick Ciganer, NASA's chief for integrated financial management.

Third Day In a Row

2004-05-14T16:23:00.000-04:00

If this headline looks familiar it's only because it's a new record every freakin day:

Terror Fears Push Oil Prices to New High

Oil prices soared to a record Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, crossing $41 a barrel and settling at the highest point in the 21-year-history of crude futures trading in New York.

Calling Bullshit

2004-05-13T09:47:00.000-04:00

According to this NY Times article, the CIA is practicing torture as official interrogation policy:

The Central Intelligence Agency has used coercive interrogation methods against a select group of high-level leaders and operatives of Al Qaeda that have produced growing concerns inside the agency about abuses, according to current and former counterterrorism officials.

At least one agency employee has been disciplined for threatening a detainee with a gun during questioning, they said.

In the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a high-level detainee who is believed to have helped plan the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, C.I.A. interrogators used graduated levels of force, including a technique known as "water boarding," in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown.

These techniques were authorized by a set of secret rules for the interrogation of high-level Qaeda prisoners, none known to be housed in Iraq, that were endorsed by the Justice Department and the C.I.A. The rules were among the first adopted by the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 attacks for handling detainees and may have helped establish a new understanding throughout the government that officials would have greater freedom to deal harshly with detainees.

Defenders of the operation said the methods stopped short of torture, did not violate American anti-torture statutes, and were necessary to fight a war against a nebulous enemy whose strength and intentions could only be gleaned by extracting information from often uncooperative detainees. Interrogators were trying to find out whether there might be another attack planned against the United States.

The methods employed by the C.I.A. are so severe that senior officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have directed its agents to stay out of many of the interviews of the high-level detainees, counterterrorism officials said. The F.B.I. officials have advised the bureau's director, Robert S. Mueller III, that the interrogation techniques, which would be prohibited in criminal cases, could compromise their agents in future criminal cases, the counterterrorism officials said.

This piece has been getting a lot of attention, but to be honest I'm surprised that it's even news. It's one thing to see the sadistic escapades that have been going on in Abu Ghraib, but I was just under the assumption that the CIA was torturing the shit out of "high level" detainees. Was I alone in thinking this?

Back when they captured Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in all his bedraggled, Ron Jeremy-esque glory, I figured that they'd whisked him off to some underground bunker somewhere for some Marathon Man style questioning. He was one of the many "Number Two" Al-Qaeda operatives we'd captured, and it was such a huge accomplishment to have arrested him. There was all kinds of talk about the time-sensitive nature of his intelligence and how every hour was precious because Bin Laden would be changing his plans, blah blah blah.

Now the NY Times is reporting that the worst thing we did to him was pretend to drown him? I don't buy it for a second. If our lowliest redneck troops were hooking electrodes up to Iraqi farmers then just stop for a second and think about what the CIA would be doing to Al Qaeda's second in command. "Threatening a detainee with a gun"? Please. I'm willing to bet the CIA went medieval all over these guys and now they're worried they might be held accountable.

I'm calling bullshit. This is a coverup in the making.

UPDATE: I just reread the article, and buried in the middle is the following paragraph:

There is now concern at the agency that the Congressional and criminal inquiries into abuses at Pentagon-run prisons and other detention centers in Iraq and Afghanistan may lead to examinations of the C.I.A's handling of the Qaeda detainees. That, in turn, could expose agency officers and operations to the same kind of public exposure as the military now faces because of the Iraq prison abuses.

Torture is the new black. Everybody's wearing it, but nobody wants to admit they've got a whole closet full of it.

Six Months And Counting...

2004-05-13T09:30:00.000-04:00

Kos brings this CBS News poll (MoE 5%) to our attention. It looks like Bush's house of cards might finally be on the verge of collapsing:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as President?
Approve 44 (46)
Disapprove 49 (47)

How about the economy? Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the economy?

Approve 34 (39)
Disapprove 60 (54)

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the situation with Iraq?

Approve 39 (41)
Disapprove 58 (52)

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the campaign against terrorism?

Approve 51 (60)
Disapprove 39 (32)

Do you think the result of the war with Iraq was worth the loss of American life and other costs of attacking Iraq, or not worth it?

Worth it 29 (33)
Not worth it 64 (58)

Time to break out the bubbly? Not quite. But this is definitely some heartening news.

Whiskey Bar World Tour

2004-05-13T09:16:00.000-04:00

Billmon is going to be in Jordan for the next few days. Should be some interesting posting going on over there, so stay tuned.

They're Here

2004-05-12T01:06:00.000-04:00

Saw my first cicadas tonight. Fiona and I got home from a movie at about 12:30AM and there were about 25 of them on our front door. A few had just hatched out of their weird little grub shells and were sitting there drying out, all white and red-eyed. They look creepy. It's hard to imagine a hundred zillion of them flying around all over the place, but from what I hear that's the way it's going to be for the next month or so.

Fiona was totally disgusted, but the ten-year old kid in me was secretly thrilled. I can't wait till they're everywhere.

Word to the Wise

2004-05-11T14:53:00.000-04:00

Why you should never put your picture on the internet.

News Flash: Government Employees Are Uneducated Liars

2004-05-11T11:10:00.000-04:00

I wish I could say this is unbelievable:

At least 28 senior-level federal employees in eight agencies have bogus college degrees, including three managers at the office that oversees nuclear weapons safety, congressional investigators have found.

The problem is likely even bigger, mainly because the government has no uniform way to check whether employees' alma maters are "diploma mills" that require little, if any, academic work, the General Accounting Office reported.

The findings by the investigative arm of Congress were to be presented to a Senate committee Tuesday.

An earlier GAO report revealed how easy it is to buy a degree from a diploma mill; this one shows high-level federal workers securing such degrees at taxpayer expense. The tally was $169,471 at just two of the schools.

The colleges in question often use names similar to those of accredited schools and offer degrees largely on a person's "life experience." Some simply sell degrees for a flat fee.

Among those with bogus degrees in the GAO review were three workers with emergency operations roles and security clearances at the National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Department of Energy.

One of those workers paid $5,000 for a master's degree from LaSalle University, an unaccredited school, the report said. He attended no classes, took no tests and told the GAO his degree was "a joke."

Other senior government employees with bogus degrees worked for the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Transportation and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Small Business Administration and the Office of Personnel Management.

Under law, the federal government may only pay tuition for academic degree training at schools sanctioned by a recognized accrediting body.

I'm currently working for the federal government, and believe me - these people are no geniuses. I'd be impressed if they even had the smarts to figure out how to buy a fake degree, much less earn a real one.

Lite Blogging

2004-05-07T15:15:00.000-04:00

Blogging will be pretty sparse this weekend. Life intercedes.

Just Plain Nuts

2004-05-06T12:54:00.000-04:00

This has got to be the best name in the history of snack foods:

A few potential slogan ideas come to mind:

"So good, everyone'll wanna pop a nut!"

"Mmm, nut-poppingly delicious!"

"I'd bust my balls for some Nut Poppers!"

"Hey, quit popping my nuts! Pop your own!"

"Nut Poppers? Hang on, I'm coming!"

"Have YOU popped a nut today?"

"New Planters Nut Poppers! Taste the explosion!"

Be sure to check out the official Nut Poppers site! While you're there, visit the games section and play "Nut Vendor," in which the object is to "sell your nuts," and Slam Dunk!, in which you can "take it hard to the rim!"

Yes, America Can!

2004-05-06T11:58:00.000-04:00

Actually, it's Yes, Made In Canada!

U.S. PRESIDENT George W. Bush rode across Ohio yesterday in a bus emblazoned, "Yes, America can." It turns out the bus was made in Canada.

The front of the bus bore another label: Prevost Car, jointly owned by the Swedish Volvo Bus Corp. and Britain's Henly's Group PLC.

Prevost's manufacturing facility is in St. Claire, Que.

Foreign-made vehicles are a touchy topic in the job-strapped industrial Midwest -- states like Michigan and Ohio.

A Bush campaign spokesman said many of the components are American-made.

C-L-U-E-L-E-S-S

Georgia Update: I Am Psychic

2004-05-05T13:17:00.000-04:00

Looks like the shit has hit the fan in Georgia:

Georgia imposes rule over Ajaria

Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili has imposed direct presidential rule in the rebel region of Ajaria.
The moves came amid growing pressure on Ajaria's leader Aslan Abashidze to accept Tbilisi's authority or resign.

The Georgian government has warned Aslan Abashidze that he has only a few hours to step down and avoid bloodshed.

Police have joined the thousands of people in Ajaria's capital to call for his resignation, but Mr Abashidze still has the support of private militias.

[...]

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania was able to enter Ajaria for talks with local officials, the BBC's Natalia Antelava in Batumi said.

Mr Zhvania had to cross on stones over a river into the territory, because Mr Abashidze's militia blew up bridges linking Ajaria with the rest of the country.

Georgian officials have said that Ajarian forces may have planted explosives at the region's main oil terminal in Batumi.

Earlier on Wednesday, Georgia's security council secretary, Vano Merabishvili, said Mr Abashidze's private militia must lay down their arms to avoid blood being spilled.

And here's the money quote:

The US is backing the construction of a multi-billion dollar pipeline to transport Caspian Sea oil through the volatile region to the international market.

Boy, is that ever an understatement. Here's a little background to sum up where the "interests" lie in the Caspian region:

The Head of Emergency Situations Department of Adjara was shot in the head by an unknown gunman on February 22.
On March 22, the Adjaran government arrested four men and claimed to have uncovered a secret plot to seize the republic and it's capitol city of Batumi
An intrinsic part of today's oil transport network is the Batumi Oil Transport Facility.
Both Anadarko and Chevron have been "long time users" of the Batumi Oil Transport Facility in Adjara.
Condoleeza Rice was on the Board of Directors for Chevron.
Bush created/served as a consultant to Anadarko.
On February 28, Colin Powell went to Georgia to offer the new president a "symbolic stamp of U.S. approval."

And of course, we've got Mr. Oil himself on the record saying:

"I cannot think of a time when we had a region emerge as suddenly to become strategically significant as the Caspian."
- Dick Cheney, CEO Halliburton, Inc. 1998

I've been following this story for a while now. For a more in depth look click here, here, or here.

It kills me how predictable these people are. Every conflict, every "insurgence", and every invasion can be easily explained by simply following the oil. It always leads to the same place.

Click for detailed maps of Caspian oil/natural gas pipelines

UPDATE: Reports are now coming in saying that Abashidze has resigned. Obviously this is good news in that it would avoid more unnecessary bloodshed in the region. We've already had quite enough of that, thanks.

UPDATE II:Now it's looking like he's NOT going to resign:

Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze dismissed reports regarding his intentions to flee Adjara as “disinformation.”

“Secretary of the Russian National Security Council Sergei Ivanov will arrive in Batumi and we will discuss who to solve the current crisis in Adjara,” Aslan Abashidze told Adjara TV, while thousands of protesters are rallying in Batumi demanding his resignation.

“We should avoid bloodshed,” he added.

President Saakashvili said a shortly before the Abashidze’s comments that he asked Russian President Putin, with whom Saakashvili talked twice on May 5, to grant Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze political asylum after he resigns.

“Several hours are left before the final victory,” Mikheil Saakashvili added as a hint that Abashidze is ready for resignation.

However, in his comments to the Adjara TV Aslan Abashidze showed no sights that he intends to step down.

I'll shut up now. If there's one thing this world doesn't need any more of it's idiotic breathless reporting. I'll leave that to Drudge.

From the Horse's Mouth

2004-05-04T17:18:00.000-04:00

Riverbend is a female Iraqi blogger. There have been a lot of talking heads spewing forth about the pictures, but sometimes it's good to go straight to the source:

The pictures are horrific. I felt a multitude of things as I saw them... the most prominent feeling was rage, of course. I had this incredible desire to break something- like that would make things somehow better or ease the anger and humiliation. We've been hearing terrible stories about Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad for a while now, but those pictures somehow spoke like no words could.

Seeing those naked, helpless, hooded men was like being slapped in the face with an ice cold hand. I felt ashamed looking at them- like I was seeing something I shouldn't be seeing and all I could think was, "I might know one of those faceless men..." I might have passed him in the street or worked with him. I might have bought groceries from one of them or sat through a lecture they gave in college... any of them might be a teacher, gas station attendant or engineer... any one of them might be a father or grandfather... each and every one of them is a son and possibly a brother. And people wonder at what happened in Falloojeh a few weeks ago when those Americans were killed and dragged through the streets...

All anyone can talk about today are those pictures... those terrible pictures. There is so much rage and frustration. I know the dozens of emails I'm going to get claiming that this is an 'isolated incident' and that they are 'ashamed of the people who did this' but does it matter? What about those people in Abu Ghraib? What about their families and the lives that have been forever damaged by the experience in Abu Ghraib? I know the messages that I'm going to get- the ones that say, "But this happened under Saddam..." Like somehow, that makes what happens now OK... like whatever was suffered in the past should make any mass graves, detentions and torture only minor inconveniences now. I keep thinking of M. and how she was 'lucky' indeed. And you know what? You won't hear half of the atrocities and stories because Iraqis are proud, indignant people and sexual abuse is not a subject anyone is willing to come forward with. The atrocities in Abu Ghraib and other places will be hidden away and buried under all the other dirt the occupation brought with it...

It's beyond depressing and humiliating... my blood boils at the thought of what must be happening to the female prisoners. To see those smiling soldiers with the Iraqi prisoners is horrible. I hope they are made to suffer... somehow I know they won't be punished. They'll be discharged from the army, at best, and made to go back home and join families and cronies who will drink to the pictures and the way "America's finest" treated those "Dumb I-raki terrorists". That horrible excuse of a human, Janis Karpinski, will then write a book about how her father molested her as a child and her mother drank herself into an early death- that's why she did what she did in Abu Ghraib. It makes me sick.

Where is the Governing Council? Where are they hiding now?

I want something done about it and I want it done publicly. I want those horrible soldiers who were responsible for this to be publicly punished and humiliated. I want them to be condemned and identified as the horrible people they are. I want their children and their children's children to carry on the story of what was done for a long time- as long as those prisoners will carry along with them the humiliation and pain of what was done and as long as the memory of those pictures remains in Iraqi hearts and minds...

So, Uh, What're You Saying?

2004-05-04T13:46:00.000-04:00

Take a look at this chart. Notice a pattern?

Can You Hear Me Now Part II

2004-05-03T23:40:00.000-04:00

I know it's hard to imagine, but if you should ever happen to notice our media acting irresponsibly feel free to give them a call.

Here are the numbers, followed by the extensions required to reach the comment line. For extensions not listed, you have to ask the human to leave a comment.

ABCNews - 818-460-7477 ... 4
CBSNews - 212-975-4321
CNN - 404-827-0234 ... #, 1
FoxNews - 888-369-4762 ... 7, 1
MSNBC - 201-583-5000
NBCNews - 201-583-5222

News From Tip of the Iceberg

2004-05-03T10:18:00.001-04:00

Veteran journalist Sy Hersh was being interviewed by veteran media whore Wolf Blitzer yesterday. Here's an excerpt of the transcript:

BLITZER: You mentioned My Lai. A lot of our viewers remember you broke the story of the My Lai massacre. You won a Pulitzer Prize for your coverage during the Vietnam War.

Give us your historic perspective, what you saw, what you reported in Vietnam, and what you're reporting now in The New Yorker magazine.

HERSH: Oh, there's no -- we're talking about in My Lai shooting people in cold blood. We're not -- that did not happen.

BLITZER: As far as you know, no one was killed at Abu Ghraib, is that what you're saying?

HERSH: No, that's not true. There were people killed, yes, but not by the soldiers, not by the reservists. There were people killed -- I can tell you specifically about one case. One of the horrible photos is a man packed in ice. You want to hear it? I'll tell it to you.

They killed him -- either civilians, the private guards, or the CIA or the military killed him during an interrogation. They were worried about it. They packed him in ice. They killed him in evening. They packed him in ice for 24 hours, put him in a body bag, and eventually at a certain time -- don't forget, now, the prison has a lot of other Army units about it, and they didn't want to be seen with a dead body.

So they packed him in ice until it was the appropriate time. They put him on a trolley, like a hospital gurney, and they put a fake IV into him, and they walked out as if he was getting an IV. Walked him out, got him in an ambulance, drove him off, dumped the body somewhere.

That literally happened. That's one of the things I know about I haven't written about, but I'm telling you, that's where you're at. There was bloodshed on the other side of the...

BLITZER: We heard from Dan Senor earlier in this program, suggesting he said he didn't know of anyone who died at Abu Ghraib prison.

HERSH: I have some photographs I'll be glad to share with him anytime he wants to know.

I have a feeling this particular rabbit hole goes far deeper than we're being led to believe. This is extraordinarily ugly stuff and it happens to be coming out at what might be the worst possible time in terms of Arab sentiment towards the US. I don't know if there's any way we're going to be able to recover from the damage that's already been done, let alone recover from any additional atrocities that seem to be simmering near the surface.

And by this point it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) - the Bush Administration has absolutely no idea how to handle this. They are even more clueless now than they were one year ago.

Can You Hear Me Now?

2004-05-03T10:18:00.000-04:00

Just in case things aren't clear:

Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S. oil company by sales and market value, Thursday reported net income of $5.44 billion, its biggest first-quarter profit on record without one-time gains. ConocoPhillips, the largest U.S. refiner and the third-largest U.S. oil company, on Wednesday reported profit of $1.62 billion, also a record.

Surging oil and gasoline prices pushed ChevronTexaco Corp. to record profits of $2.56 billion in its first quarter, easily topping Wall Street's expectations.

And finally:

Study: Shoppers Deserting Supermarkets

For financially pressed consumers, it's coming down to a choice between spending on gasoline or groceries, and gasoline is winning, a food industry analysis finds.

[...]

Gasoline prices have been soaring: about 35 cents a gallon since December, driven by surging crude oil prices, according to gasoline industry analyst Trilby Lundberg.

The food industry report said the fuel price increases are tightening the pressure on personal budgets that already were squeezed hard by credit card bills.

"...and gasoline is winning." Truer words hath ne'er been spoke.

Buffett Joins Kerry Campaign as Economic Advisor

2004-05-03T10:05:00.000-04:00

Here's an interesting bit of news:

Warren Buffett, the world's second wealthiest person, said on Sunday he had joined Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's economic advisory team.

Buffett has long been a critic of the tax policies of the Bush administration, which he believes favor the wealthy and big corporations over the middle class.

[...]

Buffett, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at $42.9 billion, said he was not likely to have much contact with Kerry and expected to play a limited role.

He said that he believed the election would be more about Bush than about Kerry.

"I personally think our election will be a referendum on George W. Bush," Buffett said. "The Kerry campaign is much less important than how people feel about Bush."

Buffett's support of Kerry is the second time in the past year he has entered the political fray. Though a Democrat, Buffett was an economic advisor to Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, in his successful bid to become governor of California.

You're Fired

2004-05-02T11:06:00.000-04:00

If only it were this easy.

(thanks to Ruth for the link)

Priorities

2004-04-30T13:48:00.000-04:00

Keep up the good work, guys:

The Treasury Department agency entrusted with blocking the financial resources of terrorists has assigned five times as many agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama bin Laden's and Saddam Hussein's money, documents show.

In addition, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said that between 1990 and 2003 it opened just 93 enforcement investigations related to terrorism. Since 1994 it has collected just $9,425 in fines for terrorism financing violations.

In contrast, OFAC opened 10,683 enforcement investigations since 1990 for possible violations of the long-standing economic embargo against Fidel Castro's regime, and collected more than $8 million in fines since 1994, mostly from people who sent money to, did business with or traveled to Cuba without permission.

The H is O

2004-04-29T22:47:00.000-04:00

Change for America brings the following excerpt of a Washington Post article to our attention:

We weren't looking for someone, but I thought this would be a talented guy we should hire, and he was available," Gow said. In early 1971, Gow gave Bush a job as a management trainee. He was required to wear a coat and tie and dispatched around the country and even to Central America, looking for plant nurseries that Stratford might acquire. The newly buttoned-down businessman also moved into a garage apartment that he shared with Ensenat off Houston's North Boulevard, an old 1920s neighborhood close to downtown.

"We traveled to all kinds of peculiar places, like Apopka, Florida, which was named the foliage capital of the world," said Peter C. Knudtzon, another Zapata alumnus who was Stratford's executive vice president and Bush's immediate boss.

Once or twice a month, Bush would announce that he had flight duty and off he would go, sometimes taking his F-102 from Houston to Orlando and back. "It was really quite amazing," Knudtzon said. "Here was this young guy making acquisitions of tropical plants and then up and leaving to fly fighter planes."

What the fuck? Am I reading this right? George W. Bush was flying a government-owned F-102 back and forth from his job locating "tropical plants" in Central America? Is this for real?

Interestingly, Change for America (the organization that's floating this information) is run by Joe Trippi. He's been referred to as "The Democratic Karl Rove" in some places. Last seen as Howard Dean's campaign manager, he has a long history in politics. A classic Trippi story comes from when he was a Walter Mondale operative during the 1984 primary against Alan Cranston. Somehow, tickets for a crucially important Jefferson-Jackson Day fundraising dinner in Iowa had been almost completely bought out by the Cranston campaign:

Trippi is nearly hysterical when he calls Campaign Manager Bob Beckel and Deputy Manager Mike Ford in Washington. "He speaks so fast, it was hard to keep up," Beckel recalls. "I said, 'Joe, What's the bottom line? What do you need?' He said, 'I just need permission to do whatever I need to do.' ... I just said OK." But there isn't a lot Trippi can do. He can try to get the Iowa Democratic Party to sell him more tickets. But there's no way they're going to sell him $275,000 worth, which is what Trippi estimates Cranston has bought. And, even if they would, there's no way he can afford to drop that kind of cash on an off-year event. When it comes down to it, Trippi is going to have to get his hands on tickets that have already been sold. Cranston tickets. Lots of them. And yet, once he accepts that proposition, the solution is almost elegant in its simplicity: What's to stop him from just marching right up to Cranston's people and asking for them?

"We started really early in the day," Trippi remembers, reflecting on how he and an Iowa colleague named Tom Cosgrove solved their JJ problem. "They stopped about three miles out [from] the staging area--the Mondale buses coming from Minnesota or wherever they were coming from." What follows is one of the most ambitious political makeovers in history. A team of Mondale aides, led by Cosgrove, plasters the bus with Cranston paraphernalia--stickers, posters, buttons, everything. Three miles down the road, the bus pulls up to the Cranston tent, where a Mondale/Cranston supporter gets out and tells a real Cranston aide he has 52 people on the bus. The aide looks up at the bus, surely admiring the military-like discipline that has brought a busload of Cranston supporters from "Los Angeles or wherever" out to the middle of Iowa this early in the day, and quietly congratulates himself. He promptly hands over 52 tickets.

And it continues like this, through bus after bus of Mondale supporters: Stop three miles up the highway, lather the bus in Cranston paraphernalia, drive on to the Cranston tent, claim your tickets. And the Cranston campaign just keeps forking them over. Happily. Hell, the more buses that show up, the more impressed the Cranston people are by their own handiwork. Never does it occur to them that these busloads of supporters aren't the genuine article. At least not until the real Cranston buses start showing up. "Twenty buses pull up, and they're out of tickets," Trippi says, still amused at the spectacle almost 20 years later. "More Cranston buses keep pulling up, and they don't have the tickets anymore." Score one for Walter Mondale.

It's going to be a long, hot summer for the Bush Campaign.

Liquid Body Armor

2004-04-29T14:52:00.000-04:00

This report just in from Tomorrowland:

Army scientists are working on a liquid body armor for clothing that stays flexible during normal use but can harden to stop a projectile when hit suddenly.

Researchers hope the liquid could be used in sleeves and pants, areas not protected by ballistic vests because they must stay flexible.

The liquid, hard particles suspended in a fluid, is soaked into layers of Kevlar, which holds it in place. Scientists recently had an archer shoot arrows at it to see how well the liquid boosted the strength of a Kevlar vest.

"Instead of the arrow going through the Kevlar, it is completely stopped by the Kevlar vest -- and sometimes just bounces right off," said Norman Wagner, a University of Delaware chemical engineering professor who is working on the project.

Vests treated with the liquid have also blocked stabs from an ice pick, and researchers are doing more tests to see if it can stop bullets or shrapnel, too.

[...]

Eric Wetzel, a mechanical engineer who heads the project team for the Army lab, said a "shear thickening fluid" is a key component of the liquid armor. Hard particles are suspended in the liquid, polyethylene glycol. At low strain rates, the particles flow with the fluid, enabling clothing to stay flexible. But when heavily strained, the particles become rigid.

"If it's impacted suddenly by a projectile or a knife, say, it rigidifies and somehow restricts the ability of the fabric to move," Wetzel said.

The transition happens very quickly, a millisecond or quicker.

Wetzel and Wagner are optimistic the liquid body armor will be useful to local police and prison guards -- and perhaps it could one day protect people in automobile and airplane crashes.

This futuristic substance is also known as "Oobleck" - a mystifying mixture of water and corn starch that has fascinated first graders since the dawn of time.

Bush Compares Pro-Choice To Terrorists

2004-04-29T13:33:00.000-04:00

Karen Hughes isn't the only one trying to draw a connection between 9/11 and the Pro-Choice movement, Chimpy has had at it as well. This is from his National Sanctity of Human Life Day proclamation, January 18, 2002:

"Unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law. On September 11, we saw clearly that evil exists in this world, and that it does not value life. The terrible events of that fateful day have given us, as a Nation, a greater understanding about the value and wonder of life. Every innocent life taken that day was the most important person on earth to somebody; and every death extinguished a world. Now we are engaged in a fight against evil and tyranny to preserve and protect life. In so doing, we are standing again for those core principles upon which our Nation was founded."

This was over 2 years ago, but I think it is still pertinent. September 11 has been a gift to this administration, while it was truly a tragedy for the rest of us. They have been able to bend it around to serve many of their political motives. I mean, engaged in a fight against evil and tyranny? Wow.

(Thanks to Matt for the post)

George Bush Would Be So Proud

2004-04-27T15:56:00.000-04:00

Afghanistans first execution took place today:

Afghanistan has carried out its first execution since the fall of the Taliban regime, putting a notorious former military commander to death with a bullet to the head, officials said Tuesday.

The April 20 execution remained secret for a week until it was revealed in a scathing report by Amnesty International, which accused powerful politicians of silencing Abdullah Shah before he could expose their human rights violations.

Jawed Ludin, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, said the Afghan leader signed Shah's death warrant reluctantly.

Karzai has commuted two prior death sentences, but was compelled by the heinous nature of the crime, Ludin said. Shah was convicted of killing one wife by pouring boiling water over her body and murdering his infant daughter by bashing her repeatedly against a wall.

Yeah, that's right. I don't believe in the death penalty. I think it's a sign of a backwards, barbaric culture. Obviously, pouring boiling water over people is wrong and bashing babies against walls is wrong. If anybody deserves the death penalty, it's this guy.

But nobody deserves the death penalty. Gandalf put it best when he said:

"Many who live deserve to die, and some who die deserve to live. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too quick to deal out death and judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."

And I Thought My Loans Were Bad

2004-04-27T12:55:00.000-04:00

Steve Stanzak is an NYU sophomore. In order to cut expenses, he's been living in the NYU library for the past 8 months:

After convincing a relative to co-sign on a loan, Stanzak lived at University residence hall his freshman year.

But last summer he wasn't as lucky. Stanzak couldn't foot the $1,000 housing deposit and lost his family's support.

"My loans weren't approved with housing included," he said. "But when I dropped $15,000 in housing out of it, it worked."

The result: Stanzak could finance his education but was left without a place to hang his hat.

He then had an epiphany that would reshape his NYU experience.

"I heard a myth that somebody used to live in the library," he said. "Then I got to thinking, 'Why couldn't you do it?'"

That's certainly one way to deal with skyrocketing tuition costs...

Winning Their Hearts And Minds

2004-04-27T12:49:00.000-04:00

This is what we do to looters.

Keep up the good work, boys.

What Did George Bush Do With His Medals?

2004-04-27T11:12:00.000-04:00

I was just wondering.

Oh wait... maybe he keeps them in a little box with his Mensa certificates.

Scary Thoughts

2004-04-26T18:28:00.000-04:00

Jordanian police claim to have disrupted a major Al Qaeda plot:

Jordanian authorities said Monday they have broken up an alleged al Qaeda plot that would have unleashed a deadly cloud of chemicals in the heart of Jordan's capital, Amman.

The plot would have been more deadly than anything al Qaeda has done before, including the September 11 attacks, according to the Jordanian government.

Among the alleged targets were the U.S. Embassy, the Jordanian prime minister's office and the headquarters of Jordanian intelligence.

U.S. intelligence officials expressed caution about whether the chemicals captured by Jordanian authorities were intended to create a "toxic cloud" chemical weapon, but they said the large quantities involved were at a minimum intended to create "massive explosions."

[...]

In a series of raids, the Jordanians said, they seized 20 tons of chemicals and numerous explosives. Also seized were three trucks equipped with specially modified plows, apparently designed to crash through security barricades.

The first alleged target was the Jordanian intelligence headquarters. The alleged blast was intended to be a big one.

"According to my experience as an explosives expert, the whole of the Intelligence Department will be destroyed, and nothing of it will remain, nor anything surrounding it," [suspected ringleader] Azmi Jayyousi said.

[...]

A Jordanian government scientist said the plot had been carefully worked out, with just the right amount of explosives to spread the deadly cloud without diminishing the effects of the chemicals. The blast would not burn up the poisonous chemicals but instead produce a toxic cloud, the scientist said, possibly spreading for a mile, maybe more.

The Jordanian intelligence buildings are within a mile of a large medical center, a shopping mall and a residential area.

"And there is no one combination of antidote to treat nerve agent, choking agent and blistering agent," the scientist said.

Living in Washington DC, one can't help but think about this stuff when riding the Metro or walking around on the Mall with a million other people. Now, I don't want to sound like an alarmist, but the preceding story made me think about what would be required in order to pull off a stunt like this around here. Basically, all you'd need (besides the chemicals), would be a way to transport all the stuff:

Missing Tanker Truck Raises Terror Concerns

A gasoline tanker truck has been missing from a Pennsauken parking lot for more than a week, sending local officials and the FBI scrambling.

The New Jersey Office of Counterterrorism has asked all the state's law enforcement agencies to look for the truck.

"We don't know what the motive was behind the theft," FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said. "It could have been stolen by another individual in the fuel-hauling business. But we feel it's important to find it, find out who took it, and find out why it was taken."

Assuming you can get your hands on the chemicals and some method of delivery, the only other thing some crazy motherfucker would need would be a deep state of militant psychosis:

A letter purporting to come from Osama bin Laden's militant Islamist al Qaeda network said a big attack on the United States was in the final stages of preparation, a London-based Arabic newspaper said on Thursday.

"We bring the good news to Muslims of the world that the expected 'Winds of Black Death' strike against America is now in its final stage...90 percent (ready) and God willing near," the letter said.

The letter, signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades which said it is part of al Qaeda, was sent to the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper. A copy of the letter was faxed to Reuters in Dubai.

It was not possible to independently authenticate the letter.

Ugh. I need to go lie down.

Photos from the March For Women's Lives

2004-04-26T11:26:00.000-04:00

I've posted some photos I took at yesterday's march here.

Noam Chomsky Enters the Blogosphere

2004-04-22T08:50:00.000-04:00

Noam Chomsky's got a blog up and running called Turning the Tide. It looks like it's updated sporadically, but it's definitely worth keeping an eye on:

Typically, military occupations are quite successful, even by the most horrendous conquerors. Take, say, Hitler's occupation of Western Europe and Russia's postwar occupation of Eastern Europe. In both cases, the countries were run by collaborators, security forces and civilian, with the troops of the conqueror in the background. There was courageous partisan resistance under Hitler, but without extensive foreign support, it would have been wiped out. In Eastern Europe, the US tried to support resistance (inside Russia as well) until the early 1950s, and of course Russia was in confrontation with the world dominant superpower. There are many other examples.

Consider, in contrast, the invasion of Iraq. It eliminated two monstrous regimes, one of which we are allowed to talk about, the other not. The first was the rule of the tyrant. The second was the US-UK imposed sanctions regime, which killed 100s of thousands of people, devastated the society, strengthened the tyrant, and compelled the population to rely on him survival -- probably saving him from the fate of other gangsters supported by the current incumbents in Washington, all overthrown from within; that was a plausible surmise before the war, and is even more so in the light of postwar discoveries about the fragility of Saddam's rule. The ending of both regimes was certainly welcome to the population. The US had enormous resources to reconstruct the ruins. Resistance had virtually no outside support, and in fact developed within largely in response to violence and brutality of the invaders.

It took real talent to fail.

Woman loses her job over coffins photo

2004-04-22T08:22:00.000-04:00

Remember this photo?

Well, the woman who took it has been fired:

A military contractor has fired Tami Silicio, a Kuwait-based cargo worker whose photograph of flag-draped coffins of fallen U.S. soldiers was published in Sunday's edition of The Seattle Times.

Silicio was let go yesterday for violating U.S. government and company regulations, said William Silva, president of Maytag Aircraft, the contractor that employed Silicio at Kuwait International Airport.

"I feel like I was hit in the chest with a steel bar and got my wind knocked out. I have to admit I liked my job, and I liked what I did," Silicio said.

Her photograph, taken earlier this month, shows more than 20 flag-draped coffins in a cargo plane about to depart from Kuwait. Since 1991, the Pentagon has banned the media from taking pictures of caskets being returned to the United States.

[...]

Maytag also fired David Landry, a co-worker who recently wed Silicio.

Are We Secure Yet?

2004-04-21T21:54:00.000-04:00

Not only are we leaving Iraqi nuclear facilities unguarded, we also seem to be having a tough time keeping track of our own radioactive waste:

Two pieces of a highly radioactive fuel rod are missing from a Vermont nuclear plant, and engineers planned to search onsite for the nuclear material, officials said Wednesday.

[...]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said it was possible the spent fuel was mixed in with a shipment of low-level nuclear waste and ended up at a repository in South Carolina, or a facility in Washington state. He said it was also possible it was taken to a nuclear testing facility run by General Electric, which designed the plant.

The material would be fatal to anyone who came in contact with it without being properly shielded, Sheehan said. Spent nuclear fuel also could be used by terrorists to construct so-called dirty bombs that would spread deadly radiation with conventional explosives.

But wait, there's more!

In 2002 a Connecticut nuclear plant was fined $288,000 after a similar loss. That fuel was never accounted for.

Whoopsies!!

One Out of Two Ain't Half Bad

2004-04-21T18:43:00.000-04:00

Oh man:

Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey said that during the recent militia attacks, "about 50 percent of the security forces that we've built over the past year stood tall and stood firm," he said.

"About 40 percent walked off the job because they were intimidated. And about 10 percent actually worked against us," said Dempsey, describing that group as infiltrators.

Those damn infiltrators. I guess it's just a classic case of 23,000 bad apples spoiling the whole bunch.

Zanzibar Outlaws Homosexuality

2004-04-21T11:53:00.000-04:00

Here's a vacation idea for Rick Santorum:

Zanzibar's parliament unanimously passed a bill late on Tuesday to outlaw homosexuality, with jail terms of up to 25 years for gay relationships.

It will have to be approved by President Amani Karume to become law, but a close aide to Karume said the president would assent to the bill.

"There is great concern for the erosion of moral standards in Zanzibar," the aide said.

Not that it's the least bit relevant, but guess who's Zanzibar's most famous progeny:

Freddie Mercury (b. Farrokh Bulsara on September 5th 1946 in Zanzibar)

Pointing the Bone

2004-04-20T15:57:00.000-04:00

Sounds rather Clintonian to me:

Aborigines invoked an ancient curse on Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Tuesday by "pointing the bone" at the conservative politician to protest against his decision to scrap a top aboriginal body.

Aborigines believe that to point a kangaroo bone at someone is to bring that person ill fortune, and the black magic is strong enough to cause death.

Coalition of the Hasta Luego

2004-04-20T14:56:00.000-04:00

Spanish troops have already begun pulling out of Iraq.
Honduras Will Withdraw Soldiers From Iraq Early
374 Salvadoran and 302 Dominican troops are due to be pulled out in July.
Thailand, which has more troops on the ground (451) in Iraq than Australia, says it will withdraw its medical and engineering troops from Iraq if they are attacked.
Colin Powell expects more countries may follow Spain's lead.

By the way... if you were thinking that Honduras is merely following Spain on their way out the door, then here's something to think about:

With the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis scheduled to occur in 10 weeks, President Bush announced yesterday his selection of John D. Negroponte, a veteran diplomat, to serve as the first U.S. ambassador to Baghdad since Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled.

[...]

Negroponte was also the U.S. ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s, when army death squads held sway. He was later accused by human rights activists of having done little to limit the death squads' activities or to bring pressure to bear on the Honduran government.

[...]

In 1995, The Baltimore Sun published a series about a Honduran army unit that was trained and equipped by the CIA and that kidnapped, tortured and executed hundreds of suspected subversives during the 1980s. The articles showed that Negroponte had access to information about abuses committed by the battalion.

Not only is Negroponte's appointment a slap in the face to the Honduran people, it's also an unmistakable warning sign as to what may be about to go down in Iraq.

The Hondurans have seen what Negroponte is capable of, and I'm sure they don't want to have any part of it this time around.

UPDATE: For more information, here's Negroponte's wikipedia entry. It is a must read.

Kerry/Dems raise almost TWICE as much money as Republicans in 2004

2004-04-20T14:30:00.000-04:00

This news makes me feel all tingly inside:

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and his Democratic allies have raised almost twice as much money as the Bush-Cheney campaign so far this year, according to recent government filings.

The data show that despite the fears of many Democrats, their White House nominee likely will not be significantly hurt by his funding disparity compared to President Bush this election year. The figures also call into question the effectiveness of campaign-finance reform and whether it has in fact wrung special-interest money out of politics.

Twenty-one of the largest Democratic-allied 527 groups - named after a section of the tax code - raised nearly $57 million in the first three months of this year, according to reports filed last week with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and sorted by fundraising watchdog groups such as PoliticalMoneyLine.com and the Center for Public Integrity.

[...]

"Thanks to 527s, we will be outspent by the Democrats," said Mehlman, according to a participant who took notes of the meeting. "MoveOn.org is a huge threat and has hurt the president. Every action makes a difference."

I love how the republicans are trying to paint themselves as the underdogs on this one. Like there's any possible way that they can be "outspent". These guys have had unlimited money for the past 20 years, and they've finally met a challenger who might be able to keep up. THAT'S what they're afraid of, nothing more and nothing less.

Republicans know the only way they can win elections is to buy as much face time on TV and in newspapers as they can. Running on issues is not an option for them, because by definition the Republican party's interests lie with a minority of people (i.e. the very rich). Their only shot at victory comes via massive disinformation campaigns which can only be effective against an opponent who lacks the means to counter their lies on a broad scale.

For the first time, Democrats have coalesced around their party. Last weekend's MoveOn.org bake sales demonstrated structure and support on a scale that was previously known only to the GOP.

We're not going to be able to outspend the Bush Campaign, but we might be able to effectively counter the smear tactics the Republicans will be employing. Let's just hope that's enough.

Columbine Dad Turned Away From NRA Event

2004-04-20T11:55:00.000-04:00

On the fifth anniversary of the Columbine school shootings:

A man whose son was killed in the Columbine High School shootings literally walked in his child's shoes to the National Rifle Association convention, where he hoped Vice President Dick Cheney would address the federal assault weapons ban set to expire in September.

Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was killed with an assault weapon in the Littleton, Colo., killings five years ago Tuesday, said continuing the ban is common sense.

Assault weapons "are the weapons of gangs, drug lords and sick people," Mauser said before his three-block march to the convention, which runs through Sunday. "It is a weapon of war and we don't want this war on our streets."

[...]

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry issued a statement before Cheney's address, saying "most voters don't know that (Bush and Cheney) are standing against major police organizations and breaking their promise to renew the assault weapons ban - which helps keep military-style assault weapons out of the hands of criminals and terrorists."

Mauser entered the convention hall where the NRA was meeting, but was turned away by a security guard as several conventioneers applauded. A couple of conventioneers yelled "Get a life" and "Vote for Bush."

"Get a life??"

Like, oh my God. That guy's kid was killed with assault weapons at a public high school. What a loser.

Don't Feed the Homeless

2004-04-20T11:23:00.000-04:00

Looks like it's illegal to feed the homeless in Tampa:

A group of young people, one toting a camcorder, gathered with friends Sunday afternoon across the street from Massey Park.
The tape rolled as police made three arrests at the park. All were charged with trespassing after ignoring repeated warnings not to feed the homeless without a permit.

James Ronald Dunson, 19, Christopher Robert Ernesto, 40, and Amberly Nicole Banks, 22, were arrested. Dunson faces an additional charge of resisting an officer without violence when he went limp, forcing the officers to pick him up to make the arrest.

Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said the three left officers little choice.

``We've given them plausible alternatives; however, they refuse to comply with the law,'' he said. ``The police have gone to great lengths to provide them with information on where the feeding can be done legally.''

U.S. Marines engaged in 'silent war' near Syrian border

2004-04-19T13:36:00.000-04:00

BAGHDAD – The United States has been fighting what officials term a silent war with Syria which killed at least five soldiers over the weekend.

U.S. officials said U.S. Marines have deployed along the Syrian border to stop the flow of insurgents and equipment to Iraq. They said marines have engaged with both Sunni insurgents as well as some Syrian security personnel along the border in clashes that have intensified over the last few weeks.

The U.S. military presence – increased by more than a third over the last two months – was said to be focused on the western Iraqi towns of Al Qaim and Qusaybah, regarded as key points in the smuggling of insurgents and weapons from Syria to Iraq.

Link.

Cheney's Wife Grilled by Third Graders

2004-04-16T13:30:00.000-04:00

Link:

Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, faced some tough grilling Friday when she met American and South Korean third graders on a tour of a U.S. military base in Seoul.

Among the questions: "Do you like America or Korea?" and "Did your husband ever fight in a war?"

Mrs. Cheney stopped in at the Seoul American Elementary School on the sprawling Yongsan Army Garrison in the South Korean capital to give a short history lesson from her 2002 book "America: A Patriotic Primer."

I wonder why she didn't read from, her 1981 book Sisters? Oh wait, maybe because it's an erotic lesbian romance novel:

"Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl."

Insert 2000 words

2004-04-15T18:02:00.000-04:00

April 15, 2004

---------------------------

April 6, 2004

Probe Shows Iraq Nuke Facilities Unguarded

2004-04-15T18:00:00.000-04:00

Holy Mother of Sweating Jesus:

Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in European scrapyards.

The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a letter to U.S. officials three weeks ago informing them of the findings. The information was also sent to the U.N. Security Council in a letter from its director, Mohamed ElBaradei, that was circulated Thursday.

The IAEA is waiting for a reply from the United States, which is leading the coalition administering Iraq, officials said.

The United States has virtually cut off information-sharing with the IAEA since invading Iraq in March 2002 on the premise that the country was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

No such weapons have been found, and arms control officials now worry the war and its chaotic aftermath may have increased chances that terrorists could get their hands on materials used for unconventional weapons or that civilians may be unknowingly exposed to radioactive materials.

According to ElBaradei's letter, satellite imagery shows "extensive removal of equipment and in some instances, removal of entire buildings,'' in Iraq.

In addition, "large quanitities of scrap, some of it contaminated, have been transfered out of Iraq from sites'' previously monitored by the IAEA.

[...]

The IAEA has been unable to investigate, monitor or protect Iraqi nuclear materials since the U.S. invaded the country in March 2003. The United States has refused to allow the IAEA or other U.N. weapons inspectors into the country, claiming that the coalition has taken over responsibility for illict weapons searches.

OK, this is getting out of hand. Ha ha, our President's a retard who can't pronounce the word "instigate" or testify in front of the 9/11 commission without a grown-up. Tee hee. Laugh it up, America.

Meanwhile, nuclear materials are being taken from Iraq and no one is there to stop it from happening. This is beyond Democrats vs. Republicans. Believe it or not, that crap doesn't actually matter. Sometime in the near future a nuclear weapon is going to be detonated in a major Western city and we'll still be talking about PDBs and gay marriage.

Could someone maybe take a few minutes out from the partisan bitch-slapping and make a phone call or something? Maybe have somebody in Iraq go out and put up a fucking fence around the radioactive shit? I mean, what the hell is going on here?

Stay Tuned

2004-04-15T17:51:00.000-04:00

It's only going to get worse:

A Fort Campbell, Ky., soldier who police say robbed a bank and then surrendered just wanted to go to jail, Keokuk police said. "He told us he couldn't take it any more," police Capt. Kevin Church said.

"The robbery wasn't for financial reasons. He wasn't doing it because he needed the money, and we know he didn't want to hurt anybody. He wanted to be in a cell."

Master Sgt. Kenneth Lee Schweitzer, 38, of Louisville, Ky., walked into the Keokuk Savings Bank in southeast Iowa about 3 p.m. Tuesday, fired a large caliber handgun into the air and demanded cash, police said.

Schweitzer, a member of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, left the bank, climbed into his pickup truck and drove to the police department, where he turned himself in.

"He also said the exact reason for robbing the bank was personal," Church added. "He said, 'The only thing I can live in is an 8-by-8 cell.' He realized he was going to jail and he's prepared to do so."

We'll also be seeing quite a bit more of this:

Two American soldiers have deserted, claiming asylum in Canada rather than serve in Iraq. They argue that the war is illegal under international law.

Man. This stuff is really bumming me out.

Good News From Africa

2004-04-15T17:35:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought everything was completely fucked up, here comes a brilliant invention from Nigeria.

More Info On Sapphire

2004-04-15T13:47:00.000-04:00

I seem to be getting a lot of hits from SAPPHIRE-related searches today, so here's a bit more on the Water That Isn't Wet:

Tyco Fire & Security announced today a groundbreaking advancement in fire protection technology with the introduction of its ANSUL® SAPPHIRE(TM) Fire Suppression System. This revolutionary technology utilizes a new sustainable* chemical agent that fights fires without causing any damage to electronics, works of art, irreplaceable artifacts and other critical assets. This system provides the ideal solution for hospitals, museums, libraries, telecommunications centers and other facilities seeking to protect critical assets that could be damaged by ordinary fire suppression systems.

The SAPPHIRE Suppression System uses 3M® NOVEC(TM) 1230 Fire Protection Fluid. It looks exactly like water, but does not cause the type of damage associated with water when putting out a fire. It can be used to protect rare exhibits, electronic equipment and other delicate items without causing any harm. In fact, items can even be immersed in the agent. The fire protection fluid will quickly evaporate, safeguarding these items -- and leaving them unaffected.

The SAPPHIRE Suppression System chemically interferes with the fire combustion process, therefore bringing it to a halt. It also works faster than a water sprinkler system, which is designed to work when it detects an actual flame. SAPPHIRE Suppression Systems detect fire at invisible levels, identifying particles of combustion before they turn into damaging flames.

[...]

Other benefits of the SAPPHIRE System include an atmospheric lifetime of only five days, versus 33 years for the closest chemical alternative, as well as zero ozone depletion. In addition, the SAPPHIRE Suppression System offers the greatest safety margin over other non-sustainable halocarbon alternatives.

Apparently they've been demonstrating it on various morning talk shows where people have been dunking their heads in vats of SAPPHIRE and coming up with totally dry hair. Sounds like pretty cool stuff, but I still want to know whether or not it's going to revolutionize bong-related program activities.

But Who's Counting?

2004-04-15T13:33:00.000-04:00

During Tuesday's press conference, Bush repeatedly referenced "50 tons of Mustard gas found at a turkey farm in Libya." Along with being a perfect setup for a Homer Simpson line, Bush's claim is also totally inaccurate:

While struggling unsuccessfully this week to think of a single mistake he has made since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President Bush committed three factual errors about weapons finds in Libya, the White House said on Wednesday.

[...]

"They could still be there. They could be hidden, like the 50 tons of mustard gas in a turkey farm," said Bush, referring to Libya's voluntary disclosure of weapons in March.

The next day, the White House said the accurate figure for the Libyan mustard gas was 23.6 metric tons, or 26 short tons, not 50 tons.

Moreover, the substance was found at different locations across Libya, not at a turkey farm. And observers did not find mustard gas on the farm at all, but rather unfilled chemical munitions, the White House acknowledged.

Has this guy ever been right about anything?

Bake Sale for Democracy

2004-04-15T13:12:00.000-04:00

I know it's short notice, but MoveOn.org is holding a nationwide Bake Sale for Democracy on Saturday.

On Sat., April 17, all across the country, thousands of people will organize bake sales to raise money for MoveOn PAC's campaign to Take Back the White House. While George Bush raises money mostly from wealthy donors, we will demonstrate the broad-based grassroots support supporting MoveOn PAC and John Kerry.

There are about 15 going on within a 10 mile radius of my house, and I've signed up for one at Eastern Market. I also noticed the event at Dupont Circle has about 70 people signed up for it so far.

I bake a mean batch of brownies, and a few people at work have volunteered some goodies, so it should be good fun. I'll try to issue a full report over the weekend.

A Busy Person's Guide to the Bush Press Conference

2004-04-14T15:20:00.000-04:00

In case you missed Bush's press conference last night, here's a quick summary.

Check it out. It's perfect.

Iraq Update

2004-04-14T08:55:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post reports that the truce in Fallujah has been broken. And the New York Times tells us that the situation has officially entered the David v. Goliath stage:
That same day, Brent Bourgeois, a 20-year-old lance corporal from Kenner, La., said he had seen an American helicopter fire a missile at a man with a slingshot.

"Crazy, huh?" the corporal said.
At least 82 US troops have been killed and 560 wounded so far in of April, giving us the deadliest month since American boots hit the ground in Iraq.
US troops prepare to mount an assault on the "Shiite Vatican":
NAJAF, Iraq - A 2,500-strong U.S. force, backed by tanks and artillery, pushed to the outskirts of the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Tuesday for a showdown with a radical cleric...

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said their mission was to "capture or kill" radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

American units set up a cordon on approaches to the city, barring militiamen from leaving.

Some 2,500 U.S. troops were massed outside of the city and commanders met Tuesday to review battle plans.

"We have consolidated north of Najaf and are preparing for combat operations," said Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste, commander of the 1st Infantry Division.
And finally, remember this "hearts and minds" photo? Well, it looks like it's under investigation by the Pentagon.

Yet Another Argument For Universal Health Care

2004-04-14T08:27:00.000-04:00

Beyond sad:

Thomas Hamill's neighbors knew all too well about the hard times that drove the gentle family man to sell off his dairy herd and take a high-paying but dangerous job in Iraq, where he has been missing since he was abducted last week.

"This is a small town. It hits us hard. God bless him, he's just trying to make a living for his family," said longtime resident Marion Gilbertson.

Hamill fought hard to keep the dairy business that had been in his family for three decades, working long, exhausting hours to pay off loans to the Merchants & Farmers Bank, friends said.

But he needed to find a way to raise his two young children and pay for heart surgery needed by his wife, Kellie.

He sold his cows and milking equipment, and last September the 43-year-old volunteer firefighter signed on to drive a fuel truck for a year in Iraq for up to $120,000, tax free.

Last Friday, he was captured by gunmen who attacked a convoy. They threatened to kill Hamill unless U.S. troops stopped attacking the city of Fallujah by a Sunday morning deadline. The deadline passed and there has been no word on his fate.

Imagine that - a farmer has to sell off his farm and sign up to drive a truck in Iraq so that his wife can get heart surgery. Only in America.

The Implications Are Endless

2004-04-13T22:49:00.000-04:00

Scientists Make "Water" That Doesn't Get Things Wet

A new chemical concocted by scientists at the Tyco's Fire and Security Division looks and acts just like water except for one thing... it doesn't get things wet.

During Tuesday's Good Morning America, a representative of Tyco Fire and Security displayed the amazing properties of the chemical that's called "Sapphire."

The chemical has all the firefighting properties of water, yet it will not cause the damage to items that is usually associated with water.

As part of a demonstration, Pelton submerged several items into a tank of Sapphire that was on the Good Morning America set. Books did not get wet. Electronics were not be destroyed. Items that were submerged in the liquid were dried in a matter of seconds, and showed no ill effects according to Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and other members of the Good Morning America staff who saw items plunged into it.

Wet T-shirt contests will never be the same.

No, but seriously, what happens if you put it into a bong?

All kidding aside though, if they can invent water that isn't wet, why not just invent fire that doesn't burn? Or an economic recovery without jobs? Or a supreme court justice who's against freedom of the press?

I could go on, but I'm sure your mind is already reeling.

Just to Make Things Absolutely Clear

2004-04-13T22:28:00.000-04:00

Dick Cheney is still making money from Halliburton:

Vice President Dick Cheney received $178,437 in deferred pay last year from Halliburton Co., the Texas oil-field services company he once headed that has since received billion-dollar government contracts in Iraq.

[...]

Cheney reported $198,600 in vice-presidential salary for the year.

In case you missed it, Cheney is the ex-CEO of Halliburton, a company that is currently under investigation for overcharging the U.S military for fuel supplies in Iraq, among other things.

In other words, he's made almost as much from his ties to a war-profiteering company as he has from the Vice Presidency.

A Question for Tonight's Press Conference

2004-04-13T16:47:00.000-04:00

"Mr. President, recent reports indicate that of the approximately 600 Iraqis who have been killed in the US offensive on the town of Fallujah, 160 were and women and 141 were children.

So, question: if any of the dead women were pregnant, were their unborn babies included in the figure of 141 children killed?"

If That Train Jumps Off the Track...

2004-04-13T15:41:00.000-04:00

You don't see headlines like this every day:

Russian train mysteriously disappears

Yamalo-Nenetsky region is currently investigating mysterious disappearance of a passenger train with people on board.

Head Engineer: David Blaine.

Halliburton Suspends Some Iraq Supply Convoys

2004-04-13T14:38:00.000-04:00

This is why using private companies to supply our forces is a bad idea:

Halliburton Co. has suspended some convoys delivering supplies to the military in Iraq due to escalating violence, U.S. Army and company officials said Monday, raising the danger of shortfalls in food, fuel and water supplies if the situation continues.

[...]

Peter W. Singer, a scholar at the centrist Brookings Institution in Washington who has written a book on military contractors, said the decision to suspend deliveries revealed one of the risks involved with private contractors.

The military can order soldiers to perform tasks, but contractors in Iraq are free to make their own decisions about security risks. While the U.S. can eventually hold a company responsible, there is no immediate recourse to force a civilian worker to do a job.

"There is no legal jurisdiction over these personnel to order them the way the military does a soldier," Singer said. "That's why these gaps in service are quite dangerous."

Obviously, this should rank somewhere between the outrageous price of gas and Janet's nipple on the outrage scale. I'd like to think the press whores will ask Bush about it tonight, but I know better...

Ted Rall

2004-04-12T11:09:00.000-04:00

Winner of the Day

2004-04-12T07:49:00.000-04:00

Remember that British guy who sold everything he had and bet it all on red?

A GAMBLER who staked everything he owned on one spin of a roulette wheel won 155,000 pounds yesterday.

Ashley Revell sold all his possessions to raise 77,000 pounds - and put the lot on the ball stopping on red in a Las Vegas casino.

He watched it bobble for several heart-stopping moments before it landed on red seven, doubling his money.

The Londoner, 32, punched the air with delight and said afterwards: "That was the most amazing experience ever in my life.

"I can't describe my feelings going through that." His parents were at the Plaza Hotel and Casino for the amazing bet, shown on Sky One last night.

Ashley, who tipped a croupier 400 pounds, added: "It’s down to Mum and Dad. I knew, even if I lost, I’d always have a home to go to."

Pure balls.

Faces of the Fallen

2004-04-10T00:49:00.000-04:00

Like our President, I'll be taking the rest of the weekend off. I leave you with this, courtesy of American Leftist:

Faces of the Fallen

(click for hi-res version)

American deaths in Iraq since war began: 648

A Question of Reality

2004-04-09T15:52:00.000-04:00

The following versions of reality, submitted for your examination:

Scenario One (presented by Donald Rumsfeld)

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promised "robust military action" to deal with the rise in violence in Iraq in the past week.

"There are those who don't want Iraq to be free," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon press briefing Wednesday. "They are trying to stop progress towards freedom and self-government. We will not allow them to succeed."

[...]

Rumsfeld denied any loss of control in Iraq in response to a question and took umbrage with the term "pitched battles." He said the number of opposition fighters were small and not an "army" or even "large elements," but merely a "mixture of a small number of terrorists, a small number of militias, coupled with some demonstrations and some lawlessness."

Scenario Two (presented by News Limited Australia)

THOUSANDS of Sunni and Shiite Muslims forced their way through US military checkpoints Thursday to ferry food and medical supplies to the besieged Sunni bastion of Fallujah where US marines are trying to crush insurgents.

Troops in armoured vehicles tried to stop the convoy of cars and pedestrians from reaching the town located 50 kilometers west of Baghdad.

But US forces were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops.

Some 20 kilometers west of Baghdad, a US patrol was attacked just moments before the Iraqi marchers arrived. Armed insurgents could be seen dancing around two blazing military vehicles.

Two US Humvees tried to stop the marchers but were forced to drive off as residents joined the marchers, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greater).

US troops again blocked the highway further west, but were forced to let the Iraqis past as they came under a hail of stones.

I report, you decide.

Kerry On Iraq

2004-04-09T15:26:00.000-04:00

There's been quite a bit of clamoring for John Kerry to make a statement on the current situation in Iraq. A lot of people see it as a perfect opportunity to hit Bush early and hard on national security - his self-declared "greatest strength". Part of me agrees, and would like nothing more than to see Kerry slam the crap out of Bush for making what has become an unprecedented foreign policy mistake.

However, this Salon article highlights the rationale behind Kerry's silence:

A Kerry spokesman told Salon on Thursday that it's incumbent on Bush -- not Kerry -- to address the crisis in Iraq. "What has the president said about this?" the Kerry spokesman asked. "He needs to explain what his policy is, what his plan is to address what's going on right now. But he's been down on his ranch in Crawford. The spotlight isn't on John Kerry. The spotlight needs to be on Bush. He's the president, and he's the person who has carved out these policies."

As much as it pains me to see Bush teeter on the edge without delivering the knockout punch, this strikes me as a very astute position for Kerry to take. George Bush rushed into this war without any forethought whatsoever, and the current situation is wholly due to his rash behavior. By keeping out of the fray, Kerry illustrates that, he, contrary to Bush, is capable of recognizing a complex problem. There is no simple solution to the Iraqi mess, and Kerry would be a fool to pretend otherwise.

Besides, it doesn't really matter what John Kerry would do because he's not the President yet. As November draws closer it will be necessary for Kerry to come up with a plan, but for right now all eyes should be on Bush. George W. Bush is the one responsible for this magnificent failure of a war. He got us into this, and I for one, would like to see if he has any ideas on how to get us out.

Remember This Guy?

2004-04-09T15:03:00.000-04:00

Well he hasn't forgotten about us:

North Korea said Friday the standoff over its atomic ambitions was on the brink of nuclear war as US Vice President Dick Cheney headed to the region for talks with key Asian allies.

The Stalinist state's official news agency accused Washington of "driving the military situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war" with plans for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea.

[...]

In the commentary the North Korean news agency said Pyongyang had no choice but to boost its nuclear weapons drive in the face of US intransigence and its "moves to put the strategy of pre-emptive nuclear attack into practice."

Luckily, Dick Cheney's heading over to the Korean peninsula to smooth things out. Thank God we've sent a calm, reasonable man who has a long history of creating peaceful resolutions to intractable problems.

Oh wait. They mean this Dick Cheney:

Nevermind. We're fucked.

President Bush: AWOL From His Own War?

2004-04-09T09:21:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy couple of days. I'm moving the site over to a new server, and trust me when I tell you that it's no picnic. Posts may be sparse for a while, but hopefully it'll be worth it.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who's been hard at work lately. Here's a quick snippet of what's been happening:

Main Iraqi Military Developments
1. Fallujah: Ten Iraqi insurgents and two US soldiers were killed as marines met ferocious resistance. As the day drew to a close, sniper fire and mortars were being fired around the main marine compound in the industrial area on the eastern edge of town.
2. Baghdad: Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr's militia, the Mehdi Army, vowed to resume combat against US-led occupation forces, after US tanks and gunships destroyed the group's main headquarters in the capital. Some 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the capital, a US patrol was attacked and armed insurgents could be seen dancing around two blazing military vehicles.
3. Baghdad: Five Iraqis killed and 18 wounded by a makeshift bomb on a fruit stand that went off in the town of Baladrooz, 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. The blast killed five passersby and wounded 18 other people, police said. Six cars were also destroyed.
4. Samarra: Fighting broke out between US troops and unknown gunmen. Protestors fired rocket-propelled grenades at the headquarters of the US army and Iraqi paramilitary forces in the city, triggering retaliatory fire. Earlier, mosques urged people to show solidarity with the residents of Fallujah.
5. Karbala: The United States sent 120 troops to help Bulgarian troops in Karbala deal with the escalating conflict, after Sadr's militia issued an ultimatum to occupation forces to quit the holy city. The Polish army said its troops were meeting with moderate Shiite clerics to try to ease tensions, adding that patrols had been suspended within the town for the soldiers' protection.
6. Kut: The US commander of ground troops in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, said his troops will retake the central Iraqi city "imminently".
  1,300 Ukrainian soldiers evacuated their base in the city under US protection on Wednesday, leaving it a militia stronghold.
7. Najaf: The inner part of the holy city remains under control of the Mehdi Army, including police stations and government buildings. Hospital officials said 10 Iraqis were killed and 20 wounded in clashes there on Wednesday.
8. Samawa: Japanese troops in the southern Iraqi town have temporarily halted humanitarian operations amid reports they have come under attack for the first time.
Afghan Renegade Continues Advance Despite Talks

The Afghan government tried on Friday to persuade a renegade adviser to President Hamid Karzai to withdraw forces that overran a remote northern province in a fresh challenge to the U.S.-backed government.

General Abdul Rashid Dostum's largely ethnic Uzbek militiamen invaded Faryab from neighboring provinces on Wednesday. They took over the provincial capital Maimana on Thursday, forcing the governor and provincial military commander Mohammad Hashim Habibi to flee.
Three Japanese Civilians Held Hostage

Seven South Koreans, three Japanese and a Briton have been seized in Iraq and militants have threatened to burn the Japanese alive unless their country withdraws its troops.
MSNBC: A Bureaucrat Testifies In Front of the 9/11 Commission

Republicans who had been hoping that Condi Rice would calm the political waters with her testimony to the 9/11 commission have to be disappointed. Stylistically and tactically she was serviceable. Her voice seemed to quaver at times, but overall she was a confident master of detail, choosing, for the most part, to praise rather than confront the accusatory Richard Clarke. But the larger picture she painted of herself, her president and the administration certainly won't help George W. Bush's re-election chances.

Iraq is in shambles, Afghanistan continues to fall apart, and the National Security Advisor has absolved herself of any responsibility relating to our nation's security. Not to mention the fact that the US is currently running record deficits, huge trade imbalances, plummeting currency rates, etc. etc. Even the most optimistic American must be concerned about the present state of affairs.

Luckily, we've got a President who knows what to do in times of crises. When the going gets tough, as they say, the tough go on vacation:

This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.

[...]

Bush spent the morning watching national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's televised testimony to the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, then toured his ranch with Wayne LaPierre Jr., chief executive of the National Rifle Association, and other leaders of hunting groups and gave an interview to Ladies' Home Journal. He is not scheduled to appear in public until Sunday, when he will visit nearby Fort Hood, the home base for seven soldiers recently killed in Baghdad.

President Bush leads a tour of Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas with wildlife conversation leaders and sportsmen leaders, Thursday, April 8, 2004.

This editorial from today's New York Times puts it better than I ever could:

Condi Rice was in Washington trying to pass her oral exam before the 9/11 commission yesterday, and the president was on vacation in Texas. As usual, they were in close agreement, this time on the fact that neither they nor anyone else in this remarkably aloof and arrogant administration is responsible for the tragic mess unfolding in Iraq, and its implications for the worldwide war on terror.

The president called Ms. Rice from his pickup truck on the ranch to tell her she had done a great job before the panel.

It doesn't get more surreal than that.

Mr. President, there's a war on. You might consider hopping a plane to Washington.

Red or Black?

2004-04-09T07:42:00.000-04:00

Things are about to get mighty interesting for this guy:

A British man who has sold all his possessions, including his clothes, will stand in a rented tuxedo on Sunday and bet everything on a single spin of the roulette wheel.

If he wins, he doubles his money. If he loses, he will be left with only the television crew documenting his every move.

Ashley Revell, a 32-year-old Londoner, said he was worth about 75,000 pounds ($138,000) after he sold everything in March.

[...]

He had not decided yet whether to place his money or red or black on Sunday afternoon.

"I don't know man," he said. "One of them is going to be the right thing to say and one is going to be the wrong thing."

He added that if he won he would probably take his winnings rather than spin again.

Fire Map

2004-04-07T13:35:00.000-04:00

Debka gives us a pretty good map of the conflict(s):

Iraq Roundup

2004-04-07T08:51:00.000-04:00

In case you missed it, here's some key Iraq-related information:

12 Marines, 66 Iraqis Killed in Fierce Battles
Saddam being held in Qatar
Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is being held at a US military base in Qatar, rather than in Iraq, a British newspaper said.
Muslim Rivals Unite In Baghdad Uprising
BAGHDAD, April 6 -- On the streets of Baghdad neighborhoods long defined by differences of faith and politics, signs are emerging that resistance to the U.S. occupation may be growing from a sporadic, underground effort to a broader insurrection by militiamen who claim to be fighting in the name of their common faith, Islam.
Fallujah security situation worsening
This link is a transcript from an Australian station. It's worth a read, if only to get an idea of how chaotic things must be in Iraq right now.
Nader calls for Bush to be impeached over Iraq war
Bill O'Reilly says we should get out of Iraq.
And finally, President Bush will be on vacation for the rest of the week:
"MR. McCLELLAN: It will be after his remarks, before departing the community college. Then the President makes remarks in Charlotte at a Bush-Cheney 2004 luncheon. Then we depart for St. Louis.

And in St. Louis, the President looks forward to throwing out the opening day pitch for this game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers. Following the opening pitch, the President will also participate in a live interview with Fox Sports Midwest. And then he will also participate in an interview with Mike Shannon, who is the co-anchor for Cardinals baseball on KMOX. And then we go to Crawford for the rest of the week."

Information is currently coming out of Iraq at a slow trickle. Much of this can be attributed to the news blackout that seems to have taken effect:

"On MSNBC TV News (Keith Olberman's nightly show)

I just learned the following on coverage of Operation Vigilant Resolve:

Because of the danger and the nature of the operation (the closing off of the roads, etc.)

Coverage has been assigned to a small embedded "pool" of reporters.

(When a "pool system" is in effect, those selected reporters agree to share their raw data/notes/reporting with everyone else.)

MSNBC played a phone message from one (so in effect they admit that they do not have anyone on the scene):

Lourdes Navarro of the Associated Press."

Furthermore, the same media that was giddy with girlish anticipation over "Shock and Awe" one year ago is now sheepishly silent on what's arguably been the single worst day of the war. On CNN last night at 10PM EST we had Larry King's gab fest. MSNBC featured notable non-expert Barry Manilow. And Fox brought us the laughably retarded Hannity and Colmes.

Obviously, our media will be useless over the next few weeks. I'd recommend reading as much as possible from foreign outlets such as the BBC and ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Company).

I mean, Barry Manilow? Can you believe that shit?

Funny Guy

2004-04-06T21:23:00.000-04:00

What a comedian!:

EL DORADO, Ark. April 6 � President Bush has a penchant for dishing out good-natured insults, and usually the victim laughs along. But Sammie Briery didn't seem much amused when Bush fired one at her Tuesday.

Bush was wrapping up a town hall-style appearance at South Arkansas Community College when he let the jest fly. It was a mother joke, a blonde joke and an insult all in one.

"You and my mother go to the same hair-dye person," Bush said to Briery, whose blondish bob bore little resemblance to Barbara Bush's shock of white hair.

The audience in the gymnasium laughed, and Briery smiled, but replied firmly: "President Bush, I'm a natural blonde."

"Oh, yes," Bush agreed.

"I'm just a natural blonde," she repeated.

"I couldn't help myself, sorry," Bush shrugged.

Don't worry George. Keep on joking about dye jobs and the missing WMDs, and these ratings will be up in no time!