Rusted Sky

Why didn't THIS get any notice?

Teheran raids Iraq in attack on Kurds

Teheran has attacked an anti-Iranian Kurdish group based in Iraq, it emerged yesterday, raising fears that instability there could spill over into the rest of the region.

Iraq's defence ministry said more than 180 artillery shells were fired and Iranian troops crossed three miles into Iraqi territory before withdrawing.

The incursion, which occurred on April 21, came after Iranian claims that a number of attacks had been conducted against Iranian army and Revolutionary Guard posts in recent weeks.

They are accused of operating from bases around Haj Oman, which was the centre of the Iranian attack. Four people were said to have been wounded.

The group, known as the Pejak, is fighting for the creation of a ''Greater Kurdistan'' linking predominantly Kurd- populated areas in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.

J.

Ethanol: A Tragedy in 3 Acts

Um. If you think a 25-30% drop in fuel economy when running on an ethanol-gas blend is a good thing, as well as selling it for more than gasoline...

Also, corn doesn't seem to be an efficient feedstock for ethanol production, overall taking about as much energy to make a gallon of ethanol as you'd get from burning it. Apparently sugar cane's a lot better - but unless you're looking to annex Cuba or plow Florida under and put in fields of sugar cane (which, from reading elsewhere, is REALLY fought by the sugar lobby to keep the price of sugar UP) (Didn't know there was a sugar lobby? Neither did I...) it's just not going to be cost/energy effective...

J.

Test

Let's look them over.

15 Must-See Summer Movies - Newsweek Entertainment - MSNBC.com

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - Yes
2. The Da Vinci Code - Eh. Maybe. Didn't find the book interesting enough to finish it.
3. Superman Returns - Quite likely.
4. Little Miss Sunshine - Nope.
5. An Inconvenient Truth - No.
6. Talladega Nights - Unlikely.
7. Brothers of the Head - Don't think so.
8. The Devil Wears Prada - Um, no. Next?
9. Nacho Libre - Eh, maybe when Netflix gets it. If I remember.
10. Mission: Impossible III - $396 million? Must see? Don't think so.
11. Miami Vice - Retread. What's next? A movie version of St. Elsewhere?
12. The Science of Sleep - Actually sounds good - quite possible.
13. The Break-Up - Retread. No. How about some FRESH actors, eh?
14. Monster House - Maybe.
15. Click - A magical remote that lets you fast forward through life. Don't think so.

Guess I'm getting picky - good luck to the folks who are putting out these 'Must See' movies. Maybe they'll resonate better with other folks, but it's pretty bad when only 4 out of 15 have any sort of appeal. At least to me - your mileage may vary.

J.

Rusted Sky

I’m going to be trying a changeover here - from Milblog.org to RustedSky.Net. And I’ll be changing from MT to WordPress. We’ll see how it goes… (And please note, the RustedSky.net link's not live yet...) You can preview things at Rustedsky.milblog.org.

Then again, if I can simply rename my MT setup... Well, we'll see. Gotta admit, WordPress went in a lot easier than any MT install I've done...

J.

newsobserver.com | Evan Bayh: Making a stand on stewardship

Q: Why do you think we should abolish the Electoral College?

A: "I think our president should be chosen by the majority of the American people. That is ordinarily the case. But in 2000, as we all recall, we elected this president with fewer votes than the other candidate got. I just don't think in the modern era that is appropriate."

J.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran hits out at 'dangerous' US

Iran has strongly criticised the US at the United Nations, accusing Washington of threatening to launch a military strike against its nuclear facilities.

In a letter delivered to Secretary General Kofi Annan, Iran said the US was "openly" planning to attack Iran in breach of international law.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iran nuclear plan 'irreversible'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has again vowed never to give up Iran's nuclear programme.

Mr Ahmadinejad said the pursuit of peaceful nuclear technology was Iran's "absolute right... our red line".

He was speaking after the UN's atomic watchdog said Iran had failed to meet a Security Council deadline to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.

A top US diplomat has said he expects European states to prepare a binding UN resolution on Iran's nuclear programme that could allow for sanctions.
US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns was speaking ahead of Paris talks between all five permanent members of the UN Security Council on the issue.

But he insisted that diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis were not over.

a title="BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iran says UN sanctions unlikely" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4963802.stm">BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iran says UN sanctions unlikely

Iran has predicted Russia and China will block any move to impose sanctions over its nuclear programme.

Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said in Tehran that the two veto-wielding states had told Iran they were "against sanctions and military attacks".

Top diplomats from all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, as well as Germany, are in Paris for talks on the issue.

BTW, I really don't think Ahmadinejad understands that 'irreversable' doesn't mean what he thinks. When it comes to their nuclear facilities - all their work is reversable. Blow it into tiny pieces, and that'll 'reverse' things for a while.

J.

Trying to do an export and import...

I gave up temporarily on WordPress - figured it'd be best to stay with the devil I knew re configuration and coding. So, please be patient...

J.

That ddn't work ANYWHERE near the way I expected it to.

Hold on - let me reload. AGAIN.

(Mutter-mutter... now where did I leave that darn duct tape?)

J.

Dr. Sanity's on a roll today. Go and take a look - lots of good posts.

Me, I can't hardly keep my eyes open. I'm off to bed...

J.

Didn't see THAT on the preview...

Okay, back to the drawing board...

J.

Half-ton man seeks life-saving surgery

The calories needed to maintain that bulk had to come from somewhere.

I'm not entirely unsympathetic with his plight - but it took some diligent eating to get to that condition.

J.

Greenspirit - Home page of Patrick Moore

That's interesting - one of the founders of Greenpeace speaking out against activist excesses...

J.

Frankly, there were a lot of folks saying it better than I could. Anyway, this is rather predictable.

After Protests, Backlash Grows

While a series of marches focused much of the nation's attention on the plight of illegal immigrants, scores of other Americans quietly seethed. Now, with the same full-throated cry expressed by those in the country illegally, they are shouting back.

Congressional leaders in Washington have gotten bricks in the mail from a group that advocates building a border fence, states in the West and South have drawn up tough anti-immigrant laws, and ordinary citizens, such as Janis McDonald of Pennsylvania, who considers herself a liberal, are not mincing words in expressing their displeasure.

"Send them back," McDonald said. "Build a damn wall and be done with it."

I've got no problems with folks who want to immigrate, who want to follow the law. Apply, come over, learn English, learn the history, go through the procedures... and become a citizen. Glad to have you, welcome to the dream.

This... DEMANDING legalization, while carrying Mexican flags, while promoting the Aztlan movement, while threatening to take back the Southwest if not allowed citizenship - that just doesn't cut it.

Well, I think ANSWER was looking to provoke a backlash. They may well get it - but not quite what they expect.

J.

I'm trying to get rid of that little white bar on either side of the title above. Very aggravating...

If you're good with CSS code, the stuff's in the extended entry for your perusal. Any suggestions/advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

J.

Or maybe a sideshow, it's hard to tell.

Moussaoui defiant at sentencing - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema sent Zacarias Moussaoui to prison for life Thursday, to “die with a whimper,” for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

...

Brinkema firmly refused to be interrupted by the 37-year-old defendant as she disputed his claim that his life sentence meant America had lost and he had won.

“Mr. Moussaoui, when this proceeding is over, everyone else in this room will leave to see the sun ... hear the birds ... and they can associate with whomever they want,” she said.

‘Absolutely clear who won’
She went on: “You will spend the rest of your life in a supermax prison. It’s absolutely clear who won.”

And she said it was proper he will be kept away from outsiders, unable to speak publicly again.

“Mr. Moussaoui, you came here to be a martyr in a great big bang of glory,” she said, “but to paraphrase the poet T.S. Eliot, instead you will die with a whimper.”

I think a lot of his outbursts in court were designed to get a death penalty verdict. And though there's the possibility that he's 'crazy like a fox' and used those outbursts to manipulate the jury into giving him life in prison instead of death - seeing as the whole psychology of the jihadist is formed around the idea of martrydom - you've got to wonder whether for all his bravado and bluster he actually was hoping for the notoriety of a death sentance, knowing it would likely be a good five or ten years before it could be carried out.

As it is - like the judge said, he's going to die essentially forgotten. No quick, glorious martyrdom, just a 7x12 foot room and solitary confinement for the rest of his life.

Would it be mean of me to suggest his menu include hearty breakfasts of bacon and eggs (cooked in bacon grease), nourishing lunches of fried (in bacon grease) ham and cheese sandwiches, and luxurious dinners of cranberry roast pork?

Probably - but you know something? I just don't care.

J.

FOXNews.com - DDT: A Weapon of Mass Survival

The U.S. Government has finally begun to reverse policy on the insecticide DDT. Let’s hope that this policy shift represents the beginning of the end of what can only be called a crime against humanity: the decades-old withholding of the world’s most effective anti-malarial weapon from billions of adults and children at risk of dying from the disease.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) told the Washington Times this week (May 3) that it endorses and will fund the indoor spraying of DDT in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria kills more than one million Africans annually, mostly children under five and pregnant women.

Malaria accounts for 10 percent of Africa’s disease burden and causes $12 billion yearly in lost productivity.

USAID reportedly will use about 20 percent of its $99 billion budget to fund indoor spraying with DDT, according to the Times. “Between 1 million and 1.5 million people will be protected,” a USAID official told the Times.

Yeesh.

I think using DDT for malarial control is an idea that's long past time. But $13k per person to do this? And that would seem to be an ANNUAL expense?

Why not just give them tickets to the US and a $10k stipend while they learn how to be citizens? That would kill two birds with one stone - it'd get them out of the malarial regions, and cut costs.

$13k. Hey, I've got mosquitos in my back yard - can I get some of that?

J.

TCS Daily - Why Isn't Socialism Dead?

An interesting look at how, despite the fact that Socialism/Communism seems to drag everyone down to the same level of misery over time, people keep thinking that THIS time whoever's proposing it will get it right...

Despite the proven body count when they get it wrong, the attraction never seems to fade.

J.

But then, that's about all the time it seems is allowed these days to cover any story - so you go for the most sensational sound bite you can come up with. And frankly, it doesn't do much good for the public discourse when the news sources don't do a complete job of reporting the news - both bad and good.

Let's face it - reporting in a war zone's damn dangerous and expensive. It's VERY hard to do a good job, or even an adequate one - but it's one of the most important things to do in a conflict of this magnitude which will likely stretch on another couple of decades.

Serving the People of Iraq and Iran: Declaring War on the Sound Bite Insurgency

Our sound-bite society believes anything it sees or hears in short-length bursts. Some Americans are so sure that ‘sound-bite equals reality’ that when confronted with the much-more detailed truth they are not sure how to react. Maybe they get it from the French. Nothing illustrates more clearly the strategic success of the Sound Bite Insurgency than what does not get reported about Operation Iraqi Freedom.

A couple of days ago, on the third anniversary of President Bush’s appearance on the USS Abraham Lincoln declaring the end of major combat operations in Iraq, sound bites galore were spewed to the four winds, accusing the president of all manner of lies, deceptions, and failures on that occasion and in the interval since then. The trouble is that often sound bites are inimical to the truth, especially when they come from the Sound Bite Insurgency (SBI).

You get money by selling advertising time to sponsors. In order to charge big bucks for that time, you've got to have good ratings. In order to get good ratings, you need a consistent viewership. In order to get consistent viewers, you have to either give them what they want (see the Michael Jackson trial) or what they'll tune in to watch on a consistent basis (which is usually bad news). Good news doesn't sell well. Bad news does. Blood sells. It's all about the Benjamins.

So they make the bucks, while putting out a shoddy product. Well, what a surprise there.

Oh, by the way - he's got opinions on Halliburton, too.

Serving the People of Iraq and Iran: Halliburton, Halliburton!

Summary: A lot of people in the media and in the Democratic Party have insinuated that one of the main reasons that we are in Iraq is because Dick Cheney profits from Halliburton, and Halliburton wants to make a lot of money. I want to give you my perspective on what Halliburton is contributing to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

There are very few companies that could take on the logistical responsibilities that Halliburton takes on. Providing all of the services that Halliburton does for approximately 150,000 soldiers all over the country is remarkable. Never once have I been without a hot cooked meal. I have always been able to take a shower when I wanted to—almost always with warm water. Every barracks that I have stayed in has been cooled by air conditioning. I can lift weights whenever I am not on duty or on some kind of mission.

Halliburton employees are doing a lot of things that it would cost a lot more to do if soldiers were involved. Its subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) coordinates all of the logistics on the bases that I have been on, from showers, toilets and garbage, to movies, ping pong tournaments, and weightlifting, to food, ice, water, and Gatorade. KBR employs further subsidiary companies from Africa and Eastern Europe to take care of sanitation—such as ensuring that toilets and showers are clean, and that garbage is transported to the dump and burned. Barbers cut my hair. Cashiers provide most of what I need at the Post Exchange. People at the embroidery shop sew insignia on my caps and repair tears in my uniforms. I have met very courteous Halliburton employees from India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sudan, Hungary, and many more—not to mention Iraq.

All snarky comments aside, very few people have any idea just what a logistical effort it is and how much material it takes to even FEED 150,000+ people four meals a day, much less do anything else that Halliburton does.

Back in the late 80s, early 90s the trend was to outsource the divisions of the military that were concerned with troop support - because civilians could do it cheaper and better. One of the main reasons we needed so many people in WW2 was that we had to carry a complete infrastructure along to supply the front lines - look up the "Red Ball Express". It was necessary to have mobile field kitchens, mobile bakeries, mobile laundries and shower units - all manned by soldiers, all needing to be fed, all needing transport. It was a hellacious logistical challenge, but one that was necessary because there wasn't any other way to do it.

Now there is - and it costs less that having the military do it.

If you're not impressed, it's because you don't realize the magnitude of the challenge, and how it was overcome - and it's pretty amazing to me that we've got companies in existance that can do what it took hundreds of thousands of men in the 40's. Sure - you can rail against them all you want, but the hard truth is that if the military had to do it all, it'd cost a LOT more, and the quality wouldn't be good at all. So bitch about Halliburton if you will - but they're doing a hell of a good job.

J.

This morning on the way to work, the story I heard was that he had an accident. A little while after that, he'd had an accident - then higher-ups showed and took him home, but he didn't have a breathalyzer test, despite the fact that he'd been weaving as he walked and had (at least according to one source) smelled of alcohol. At lunch, the narrative was that he'd mixed phenergan and Ambien. Well, I'll tell you - the few times I've had phenergan for nausea the last thing I wanted to do was go for a drive... but apparently Ambien can cause sleepwalking...

Now this?

Rep. Kennedy to enter rehab - Politics - MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON - Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Friday he was entering treatment for addiction to prescription pain medication, a decision made after a highly publicized car crash near the Capitol that the congressman said he cannot recall.

Kennedy, D-R.I., said he would seek immediate treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

He announced his decision to reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference. He walked in alone, gripped the lectern, cleared his throat and began haltingly.

Kennedy, who has struggled with addiction and depression, said he had checked into the Mayo Clinic over the Christmas holidays and returned to Congress “reinvigorated and healthy.”

“Of course, in every recovery, each day has its ups and downs, but I have been strong, focused and productive since my return,” Kennedy said.

'Not how I want to live my life'
The congressman said he again became concerned about his condition after the Thursday morning car accident.

“I simply do not remember getting out of bed, being pulled over by the police, or being cited for three driving infractions,” Kennedy said. “That’s not how I want to live my life. And that’s not how I want to represent the people of Rhode Island.”

As he was leaving the room, Kennedy was asked whether he might resign, and he shook his head no. “I need to stay in the fight,” he said. He did not take other questions.

And here's a question for you political junkies out there. Apparently it's okay for a Democrat to have an addiction to painkillers and bouts of depression and keep his position. If he were a Republican with the same problems - would you be thinking he should stay?

Frankly, I'm abivalent about whether he should stay or go. He's got problems, but they're nothing that others haven't overcome. He could rise above them - or succumb to the Kennedy Curse of too much money and no responsibility or accountability.

It seems like the Capitol police have decided to 'help' him on the responsibility/accountability thing. Being a Kennedy's pretty damn tough. It's good to have friends in high places...

J.

Beat up your PC - use your fists to smash your computer to pieces

In this stress reliever game use YOUR MOUSE to click the parts of computer on your desk. You can beat your PC until you smash it to peieces. Have fun guys!

AndI just don't quite know what to make of it. Consider this article...

Confident Democrats Lay Out Agenda

Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage, roll back parts of the Republican prescription drug law, implement homeland security measures and reinstate lapsed budget deficit controls.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in an interview last week that a Democratic House would launch a series of investigations of the Bush administration, beginning with the White House's first-term energy task force and probably including the use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Pelosi denied Republican allegations that a Democratic House would move quickly to impeach President Bush. But, she said of the planned investigations, "You never know where it leads to."

In recent days, Democratic confidence has been buoyed by a series of polls indicating that not only is Bush growing increasingly unpopular, so are Republicans in Congress. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Friday found that 33 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, the lowest rating of his presidency. And only 25 percent approves of the job Congress is doing, a figure comparable to congressional approval ratings before the 1994 elections that swept Republicans to power.

The AP-Ipsos poll found that 51 percent of Americans say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress. Only 34 percent favor Republican control.

"We have to be ready to win," Pelosi said, "and we have to tell [voters] what we will do when we win."

Your mileage may vary on this - but I'm thinking their immediate, primary need is to discredit Bush as quickly as possible.

I've NEVER, in watching the political scene for the last 30 years, seen such a self-centered, self-obsessed pack of cretins as the current Democratic party... short of, perhaps, the Perotistas in '92 and '96. Their priorities aren't aimed at doing what's good for the country, or winning the WoT, or making sure our borders are secure, or handling the energy crisis - it's to gain power and wreak revenge on their personal and political enemies - and if it doesn't do anything good for the country that's just too damn bad.

I'd expect that sort of childish, revenge-seeking crap from grade schoolers, or maybe high-school cliques. But these are grownups, supposedly responsible enough to run the country. What they're putitng up as a 'plan' if they get into control would be amusing in a blackly comic way in a movie. But after two hours in a theater, you come out and get back to real life. And you can go "Damn, that was entertaining, but I'm glad real life isn't like that."

The Dems have fought Bush tooth and nail to avoid any energy reform. They've fought drilling in ANWR and anywhere else in the US territorial waters. They've fought him tooth and nail on homeland security, and the running of the WoT. Social Security's in trouble, and they've been VERY proud of their ability to keep ANY substantial reform from even being considered.

It wasn't too long ago they were floating the idea of registering illegal aliens to vote. Here in Georgia, they've been fighting hard the idea of requiring voter ID.

And I'm supposed to trust them? To believe they have a better idea? I've SEEN Democratic 'better ideas' - it's called promise everything you can to get elected, and then do jack shit about the stuff you promised. When the next elections come around, promise everything you can to get re-elected, and blame everything that DIDN'T happen after the previous election on either the other party or unforseen occurances in the economy, or unforseen complications on the national or world situation. And for Finagle's sake, NEVER let Republicans propose or implement anything, because someone might get the idea that Republicans aren't the bad guys.

What the hell. I lived through the sucky 70s. Maybe we need another Democratic President and a Democratic administration to remind us how they can almost completely FUBAR the economy. But I'm afraid that we cannot afford a President, House, and Senate that's not willing to respond with strength to an attack, which is what would come along with that. And we could well and truely screw up the Middle East if we were to go into isolationist mode and withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Let's not even discuss what would happen to gas prices if we did so.

Crap. I really wish the Democratic party would find some damn adults to put in charge instead of the overgrown teen-agers that seem to be at the helm. Maybe this isn't really the way the whole Democratic party is headed, maybe Pelosi is just tossing out trial balloons to see what floats. But overall? As far as I'm concerned this is a lead balloon, and if the Democratic party tries to float with it I'm not seeing they're going to get much traction aside from their committed base. Legislative foolishness is one thing - malignant stupidity is something else again.

Like the old saying goes - you should always vote. You might not have anyone or anything you want to vote FOR, but there's almost certainly going to be someone you'll want to vote AGAINST. And stuff like this makes it a LOT harder for me to consider voting for a Democrat. If they want me to believe they take the problems facing the country seriously - this isn't a way to gain my confidence on that matter. And if this is meant to inspire my trust in their ethical sensibilities and stability - they can pretty well kiss that trust goodbye.

J.

The MoxArgon Group is an amiable group of Intergalactic Overlords. They seem to have a lot of the answers we earthlings are lacking...

The MoxArgon Group: Time To Open MoxArgon's Mail-Sac! -

XRAN This e-mail comes from Markos Moonbatsis. Markos writes:

Isn't it so f**king cool that the retired Generals and CIA folks are putting the screws to those crypto-fascists Rumsfeld and Chimpybushitler?

MOXARGON Sure, if you want your precious democracy destroyed. Ask yourself these three questions:

1. If a cadre of senior military officers and intelligence operatives started leaking classified information and subverting national security, during wartime, to deliberately undermine a sitting Democratic president and boost his Republican opponents wouldn't you be screaming about "coups" and "vast right-wing conspiracies?"

2. Wouldn't the media be portraying these men and women as sinister figures trying to seize power in Washington instead of calling them heroic whistleblowers and giving each other prizes for endangering American lives?

3. Why does having a Republican president make a covert military/intelligence coup more palatable to you?

Think about it.

And the best conclusion I've come up with is that a lot of the people on the left who are praising this sort of thing don't understand that we're not looking at a game called "Who Gets To Control The United States Government" that's loosely styled on "The Weakest Link". Instead, we're in one large game of "Risk" - and a whole lot of more repsonsible people are trying hard to get an adequate position for the US while being undercut badly by some groups at home.

Playing games with politics is usually inconsequential. In fact, it can even be a source of sour amusement, of black comedy, as you watch and correlate actions taken (or not taken) with results (or not) five, ten, fifteen years down the road. Playing political games, scorekeeping with elections - it can be a relatively harmless pasttime, and in the past it didn't make much of a difference.

Now - we don't have the luxury of playing that game. Yet the Democrats don't seem to get it.

What's inconsequential and a source of amusement when the stakes are low can be a damn disaster when the stakes are high. And right now, I'm convinced we're looking at the highest stakes - at the survival of western Civilization.

Bush is not the cause of the problem. There's a lot of (by our standards) non-rational actors out there, and the various actors and plot lines intertwine like a Tom Clancy novel cubed. The end result is the same, however - everyone's angling for what THEY think is best for them - and a whole lot of them don't give a good goddamn if they burn down the rest of the world to get what they believe they want..

Sound silly? Sure is. It's easy to make fun of that idea. And when faced with an enemy who has a penchant for torturing women before killing them it'd be really nice to be able to believe that somehow, someone you despise is the cause of it. Becuase you DON'T want to believe that there can be people so vile, so cruel, so depraved...

And these are the people the likes of Michael Moore revere. Perhaps that says more about Moore and the causes he supports than you want to consider.

J.

Buy gas at a specific price per gallon, and sock it away until you need it.

First Fuel Banks

The idea of a fully automated fueling site began in the mind of Denis Feneis. His sons, Jim and Dan Feneis, expanded this idea into a prepay, automated gas bank, with features that would allow consumers to prepay their fuel expense and lock into a set price.

All this was only a dream until computer technology made this concept feasible. In April of 1982 Jim and Dan made this dream a reality when they built the innovative system of First Fuel Banks I at 625 SE Lincoln Avenue in St. Cloud, MN. This was the first fueling site of its kind in the world. Many others have tried to imitate, but none have been comparable.

J.

TaxProf Blog: CBO Reports Tax Revenue Gusher in 2006

The Congressional Budget Office reports "robust" growth in tax revenues for the first four months of 2006:

Obviously, the thing to do is tax it more. I suggest an immediate 30% tax increase on corporate profits, and 10% on all personal income.

We can stymie this booming economy! All it takes is a bit more sacrifice on all our parts, and we'll get a recession, possibly even a depression!

Seriously - for an economy that's supposedly a sucking wound on the chest of the body politic, it's pretty odd that tax revenues are rising the way they are. Especially the personal tax revenues... and also consider we've got an unemployment rate of 4.7% - that's much better than it's been for most of my life. You might argue that the jobs aren't any good - but you don't get a 10% increase of personal tax revenues from burger flipper jobs.

I'd like to see Bush make his tax cuts permanent. Let's see if we can keep the growth going.

J.

Moussaoui Fails in Bid to Withdraw 9/11 Guilty Plea

Facing transfer to the nation's toughest federal prison, Zacarias Moussaoui served up what may be his final legal surprise yesterday: The al-Qaeda conspirator said he was not involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror plot after all and wants a new trial to prove it.

Instead, you got sentenced to live the rest of your life in a solitary Supermax cell. No chance of parole, no death row notoriety and no 72 virgins as a martyred jihadi... and all of a sudden - you didn't do it?

No, you poor sap, you're not getting another trial - you can't withdraw a guilty plea after the trial's over. You're going to be in jail for the rest of your life - seeing nobody but the guards who'll haul you out of your cell once a day for exercise. In five years you'll be a fading memory. In ten, forgotten. In thirty? Buried in a prison graveyard - unmourned and unremembered.

You won, man. You said you were guilty. If you weren't, you sure as hell played your part to the hilt. You convinced the jury you were guilty as hell.

You won against the American legal system. Now you've got to live with it. In a 7x12 cell.

Alone.

J.

BREITBART.COM - Newspaper Circulation Declines 2.6 Percent

Newspaper circulation fell 2.6 percent in the six-month period ending in March, according to data released Monday, as more people turned to the Internet and other media outlets for news and information.

The decline in average paid weekday circulation was about the same as the previous six-month reporting cycle for the period ending last September, according to the Newspaper Association of America, a trade group.

J.

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Interview with President Bush by an Economist is worth your time to read - especially with all the histrionics from the Democrats on a lot of the subjects he touches on.

On a related subject - a politician in Costa Rica is promoting the Flat Tax as a solution for the revenue problems there. It'll be interesting to see if it gets passed - a small-scale test would certainly either validate the concept or show it unworkable.

Not much blogging today - Aaron caught the Goopy Sneezes over the weekend, was out Monday... and Monday evening I got it. Stayed home from work today (second time for a non-surgical reason in 8 years) but should be able to go back tomorrow... Sure hope She Who Needs To Stay Healthy doesn't get this...

J.

When they managed to stall Social Security reform last year? After all, the problem didn't need fixing!

Project on Social Security Choice

When President Bush mentioned, during this year's state of the union address that Congress had failed to do anything to fix Social Security's looming financial problems, Democrats jumped up and cheered. This week they received a rebuke in the form of the latest report from the system's nonpartisan trustees.

Is Social Security as bad off as latest report indicates? - MarketWatch

Now, the trustees are saying the Medicare hospital trust fund will become insolvent in 2018, two years earlier than predicted in 2005, and the Social Security trust fund will run out of reserves in 2040, one year earlier than predicted a year ago.

Not surprising, pundits and others are speaking their minds about the so-called crisis and the possible solutions to fixing Social Security and Medicare, the need for which seems to grow larger and larger with each passing year. Is there a problem or not? And if so what are the solutions?

But there's a decided tendency in our political class to look at a problem, look at when the problem will hit (2018, 2040) and go "Eh, I'll be long out of office with a pension by then. Why should I do anything about it aside from the usual handwaving?"

And so the problem doesn't get solved, or even addressed seriously until the folks who'll be directly affected by the lack of a solution (IE the politicians who'll be in office when this hits) realized they have to do Something NOW. And the solution will be hideously expensive and make everyone unhappy.

But for now? Everything's fine. Go back to your TV. Nothing to worry about - just move along. The politicians know what's best for you. Trust them... If they say it's okay, then it must be - because they wouldn't use something as important as Social Security for partisan advantage, now would they?

J.

I don't get troll-spam, instead I get stuff like this...

My name is Mary Jean Collins, I’m PFAW’s Political Director, and I’ve got great news.

I’m looking at the latest Cook Report – a universally respected evaluation of the competitiveness of congressional and gubernatorial races across the nation – and its findings show a progressive surge that is building daily.

The ruling party is finally getting its comeuppance for the jaw-dropping malfeasance in government for which it has become known – and I, for one, will take pleasure in turning these failures into a progressive rallying cry.

Tom DeLay and Duke Cunningham have already delivered early gifts by deciding to cut and run from Congress. Other members of Congress in cahoots with Jack Abramoff are fearfully waiting for additional shoes to drop. And citizens across the nation are more intent on taking back their government than they have been in a long time.

November 2006 could bring us the most earth-shaking midterm elections in over a decade – and we want you to know how PFAW Voters Alliance can help you bring a progressive mandate to Washington this fall.

Faced with nearly three more years of a disastrous Bush presidency, you surely want a Congress that can check and balance the executive branch as much as I do. By making a contribution and becoming a donating member of People For the American Way, you will start receiving insider news on the Voters Alliance’s strategy in the 2006 congressional elections.

Make a contribution today.

The hurdles that progressives face in today’s political and media environment are immense, but this administration’s overreaching has brought us a huge opportunity

If you are angry about where the country is headed today, change its direction. Decide today to become a donating member of People For the American Way with as little as $10, $20, $50 or more.

www.PFAW.org/go/PFAW_November

Sincerely,
Mary Jean Collins
Political Director

P.S. After you have made your donation to People For the American Way, we’ll let you know right away how the Voters Alliance is working to have an impact on the November elections – and what you can do to help!

Overall the letter was nicely written, well-laden with buzzwords designed to invoke an emotional response, and darn short on facts to support the premises laid out. Nope, no money for you!

J.

Powerhouse

Seems familiar, somehow. (Somewhat embedded audio...)

J.

TheReligionofPeace.com - Islam: Making a True Difference in the World

More and more I''m getting disabused of the idea that Islam is a religion compatible with civilization...

Yeah, I know - it's just the 'bad apples' that give Islam it's bad name. Sure seems like there's a lot of those bad apples around...

J.

Bush says brother could be president - Politics - MSNBC.com

ORLANDO, Fla. - President Bush suggested Wednesday that he’d like to see his family’s White House legacy continue, perhaps with his younger brother Jeb as the chief executive.

The president said Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is well-suited for another office and would make “a great president.”

We've already got one 'royal' family (with all the excesses that implies) in the Kennedys. And admittedly we don't see the same excesses in the Bush family - but still... I'm a bit reluctant to see another Bush try for the slot.

Considering that there aren't any Democrats currently angling for President that I'd trust to hold my wallet, much less run the country, if Bush runs I'd likely vote for him - but I'm hoping to see what other candidates the field might hold.

J.

Gateway Pundit: More Good News! Iraqi Tribal Leaders Unite & Denounce Terror

On a related note, Al Quaeda's complaining about the working conditions in Iraq. Not enough men, not enough supplies, no support from the Iraqi people and they're apparently managing to alienate their Iraqi insurgent support.

All in all, it's tough to be Al Quaeda... (heh)

Oops - more news. The Brookings Institution report on Iraq is up. And All Things Conservative has a bit of analysis on the numbers.

J.

Comments closed due to spam

A melange of articles... First, there's

Winds of Change.NET: Europe's Shame, Europe's Suicide

The Futurist: Europe is Giving Up on the Future,

The Futurist: The Winds of War, The Sands of Time - Part I

The idea of a shortage of wars is a bizzare one, isn't it? You'd think it'd be a good thing. However, if you're dependent on bad news and blood for revenue, it isn't. Further conclusions in

The Futurist: The Winds of War, The Sands of Time - Part II

Interesting stuff to think about... Of course, the stuff going on in South America may put paid to that premise...

J.

You've got to pay sometime...

Palestinian gasoline supply halted - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com

NABLUS, West Bank - Palestinian gas stations began shutting down and motorists lined up at pumps after an Israeli fuel company cut off deliveries Wednesday, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that has followed Hamas’ rise to power.

An end to fuel supplies could cripple hospitals, halt food deliveries and keep people home from work — a devastating scenario for an economy already ravaged by Israeli and international sanctions.

It's bizzare to me how the Palestinians always manage to paint themselves as the victims of everything but their own stupidity. Hamas won't consider peace with Israel, say they want to do everything possible to destroy Israel, and Israel's supposed to keep PAYING them? For what - good behavior?

It's like the saying goes - the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Hamas can stay the course - but they won't be getting shit, and they shouldn't.

J.

As I've detailed before, I've gotten the little guy a laptop loaded w/Linux (Knoppix distribution) for his birthday. He's thrilled at it - and has been poking around exploring the games. But we ran into a slight problem when trying to play DVDs...

Basically, we've got one set of DVDs that'll work - a copy of the old "Victory At Sea" documentaries from WW2. Everything else comes up with a "The source seems encrypted, and can't be read. Your DVD is probably crypted. Accoerding to your country laws, you can or can't install/use libdvdcss to read this disk, which you bought. (Media stream scrambled/encrypted)."

I'm figuring that the DVD player on the distro (Xine, .993) is in need of this, but I sure can't find any simple method to install it. Anyone know how to do it?

J.

FOXNews.com - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Calls Israel a 'Tyrannical Regime' - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Iran's president on Thursday intensified his attacks against Israel, calling it a "a tyrannical regime that will one day will be destroyed," but also said he was ready to negotiate with the United States and its allies over his country's nuclear program.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has previously said Israel should be wiped off the map, told a cheering crowd of students in the Indonesian capital that it is every country's right — not just the United States — to use new technology to meet energy needs.

He said his country was willing to negotiate, but that the United States first must drop its "bad attitude."

"We are not only defending our rights, we are defending the rights of many other countries," he said. "By maintaining our position, we are defending our independence."

And so, two steps forward, one step back. They'll push it again in a couple of days, then back off a bit. It's all just playing for time - one day he's going to announce they've got da Bomb, and everyone better do what they say or someone's gonna get nuked.

That's when it gets expensive.

How much longer are we going to play this out?

J.

Of course, things like American Idol have priority, right?

Check out the things that aren't getting air time...

From My Position... On the way!: We're losing in Iraq, Just like we lost in Vietnam

NOW, Go read the full stories. See, there is good news coming out of Iraq by the Public Affairs Office daily. The MSM chooses not to cover it, because the cast changes on “The View” and getting kicked off “American Idol” is more important.

The mainstream media are a bunch of jackasses. We’re winning this war, everywhere except in the media. Just like Vietnam.

J.

had a really "Wild" time!

Hairy hybrid: Half grizzly, half polar bear - World Environment - MSNBC.com

IQALUIT, Nunavut - Northern hunters, scientists and people with vivid imaginations have discussed the possibility for years.

But Roger Kuptana, a guide from Canada’s Sachs Harbor was the first to suspect it had actually happened when he proposed that a strange-looking bear shot last month by an American sports hunter might be half polar bear, half grizzly.

Officials seized the creature after noticing its white fur was scattered with brown patches and that it had the long claws and humped back of a grizzly. Now a DNA test has confirmed that it is indeed a hybrid — possibly the first documented in the wild.

Well, I hope they had fun, however it happened!

J.

I wonder sometimes... if the NSA WASN'T doing anything to monitor stuff like this, would people get bent out of shape over them NOT doing it?

Pajamas Media: "NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls"

As Outside the Beltway put it...

“So, the government has my phone records? Sure, I trust mega-corporations who sell my private information to telemarketers with this information. But a government agency that collects and analyzes signals intelligence? I dunno.”

YMMV, but I don't see a problem sufficient to warrant the reaction by some.

J.

Kind of looks like it.

Snow issues detailed rebuttals to media coverage of the president - Examiner.com

WASHINGTON - New White House Press Secretary Tony Snow is starting off in a combative mode against the press by issuing detailed rebuttals to what he considers unfair coverage of Bush.

“The New York Times continues to ignore America’s economic progress,” blared the headline of an e-mail sent to reporters Wednesday by the White House press office.

Minutes earlier, another e-mail blasted CBS News, which has had an unusually rocky relationship with the White House since 2004, when CBS aired what turned out to be forged documents in a failed effort to question the president’s military service.

“CBS News misleadingly reports that only 8 million seniors have signed up for Medicare prescription drug coverage,” Wednesday’s missive said. “But 37 million seniors have coverage.” On Tuesday, the White House railed against “USA Today’s misleading Medicare story.”

“USA Today claims ‘poor, often minority’ Medicare beneficiaries are not enrolling in Medicare drug coverage,” the press office complained. “But by April, more than 70 percent of eligible African Americans, more than 70 percent of eligible Hispanics, and more than 75 percent of eligible Asian Americans are enrolled or have retiree drug coverage.”

A good PR man can make all the difference in any effort.

J.

Guess which 50% pays only 3.46% of the taxes...

TaxProf Blog: Joint Economic Committee Releases Tax Cuts Make Tax System More Progressive

Anyway, that's an interesting graph. It really shows where the money's coming from.

J.

Comments closed due to spam

I'm finding it kind of odd...

Independent Online Edition > Calls for public inquiry into July 7

Report blames lack of funding for failure of security services to stop the attacks that killed 52 people. The conflict in Iraq has so far cost Britain more than $4,000m. The report said that this war had fuelled the anger of Muslims.

In Britain, they didn't have enough funding - and couldn't do what we're doing in the US - and got blasted.

It would look like there could be a balance - but I sure don't see quite where that particular balance point would be. I'm thinking, and you might well disagree on this, that we're perhaps a bit too observant... but it's better for the security folk to be overzealous than complacent and miss something.

I might also point out that for all the fears put forth of a 1984-style oppressive surveillance type society with mandatory incarceration for dissent, that doesn't exactly seem to be happening. There's a lot of dissent, some of it pretty vocal, and some of it pretty extreme on the internet. Yet despite the fact that you can be tracked pretty darn easy through your footprints on the web - that dissent still exists.

I wonder, sometimes, if the folks screaming about the silencing of dissent and the potential jailing of the dissenters aren't simply projecting what THEY would do if they were in a position to silence speech they didn't agree with. You kind of see that in some of the speech limits in some universities, where anything other than the approved groupthink is immediately censored and discouraged (and here I thought that college was supposed to be a time of exposure to diverging ideas - guess that divergence is only allowed along very slender paths...) in the name of 'tolerance' and 'diversity'.

And you take a look at other countries like Egypt - where dissent WILL get you jailed. Or Iran, where speaking out against the regime IS potentially lethally dangerous.

And then you take a look at the folks in the US living in quivering fear about NSA programs and data mining... (Shakes head...) When you're examining something through a soda straw, it really narrows your field of view and you lose sight of the big picture. You end up focusing on a pinpoint, and you miss the club coming your way.

You can't be secure without expenditures and procedures to establish and maintain said security. Britain learned that. And after 9/11, I'm surprised that there's folks who would willingly hamstring our security agencies to the point of near-uselessness because of fear they might do too much. But again - where's the balance point? How do you establish that, when the folks who complain the loudest want the least?

J.

Check out Lateral Science - The Ernest Glitch Chronicles.

Steampunk, kind of. "Anarchic Experimental Science in Victorian Weardale" definitely!

Enjoy!

J.

Foreign Affairs - The Global Baby Bust - Phillip Longman

....

Still, both day-to-day experience and the media frequently suggest that the quality of life enjoyed in the United States and Europe is under threat by population growth. Sprawling suburban development is making traffic worse, driving taxes up, and reducing opportunities to enjoy nature. Televised images of developing-world famine, war, and environmental degradation prompt some to wonder, "Why do these people have so many kids?" Immigrants and other people's children wind up competing for jobs, access to health care, parking spaces, favorite fishing holes, hiking paths, and spots at the beach. No wonder that, when asked how long it will take for world population to double, nearly half of all Americans say 20 years or less.

Yet a closer look at demographic trends shows that the rate of world population growth has fallen by more than 40 percent since the late 1960s. And forecasts by the UN and other organizations show that, even in the absence of major wars or pandemics, the number of human beings on the planet could well start to decline within the lifetime of today's children. Demographers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis predict that human population will peak (at 9 billion) by 2070 and then start to contract. Long before then, many nations will shrink in absolute size, and the average age of the world's citizens will shoot up dramatically. Moreover, the populations that will age fastest are in the Middle East and other underdeveloped regions. During the remainder of this century, even sub-Saharan Africa will likely grow older than Europe is today.

FREE FALLING

The root cause of these trends is falling birthrates. Today, the average woman in the world bears half as many children as did her counterpart in 1972. No industrialized country still produces enough children to sustain its population over time, or to prevent rapid population aging. Germany could easily lose the equivalent of the current population of what was once East Germany over the next half-century. Russia's population is already contracting by three-quarters of a million a year. Japan's population, meanwhile, is expected to peak as early as 2005, and then to fall by as much as one-third over the next 50 years -- a decline equivalent, the demographer Hideo Ibe has noted, to that experienced in medieval Europe during the plague.

...

Today there is a strong correlation between religious conviction and high fertility. In the United States, for example, fully 47 percent of people who attend church weekly say that the ideal family size is three or more children, as compared to only 27 percent of those who seldom attend church. In Utah, where 69 percent of all residents are registered members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, fertility rates are the highest in the nation. Utah annually produces 90 children for every 1,000 women of childbearing age. By comparison, Vermont -- the only state to send a socialist to Congress and the first to embrace gay civil unions -- produces only 49.

Does this mean that the future belongs to those who believe they are (or who are in fact) commanded by a higher power to procreate? Based on current trends, the answer appears to be yes. Once, demographers believed that some law of human nature would prevent fertility rates from remaining below replacement level within any healthy population for more than brief periods. After all, don't we all carry the genes of our Neolithic ancestors, who one way or another managed to produce enough babies to sustain the race? Today, however, it has become clear that no law of nature ensures that human beings, living in free, developed societies, will create enough children to reproduce themselves. Japanese fertility rates have been below replacement levels since the mid-1950s, and the last time Europeans produced enough children to reproduce themselves was the mid-1970s. Yet modern institutions have yet to adapt to this new reality.

It looks like China and India are going to be especially hard-hit. With the One-Child Per Family policy in China, and the relatively wide availability of both abortion and prenatal gender identification in China and India, fewer females are being born since the preference is for sons. This naturally means that when it's time, there's going to be a lot of guys who won't have any opportunities, and who's only outlet for romance might be virtual.

The article goes on to advocate much more government intervention, but one thing I didn't notice at first glance seems to me to be a no-brainer when it comes to government control... banning of contraception in a society when certain levels of population and productivity are reached. I'm not an advocate, BTW, of a straight chastity approach, or of not teaching kids about sex. And it seems to me like getting government involved in promoting a population expansion is pretty risky stuff with a great potential for abuse. (See Margaret Atwood's "A Handmaid's Tale" for an example of that...)

But it looks like there's a problem coming down - it'd be good to have some ideas on how to deal with it.

J.

This is a very interesting read on some of the documents found recently.

The Middle Ground: Battle for Baghdad II: Zarqawi on the Offense

Most interesting, at least to me, is the small number of mujihadeen supposedly left in the Bagdad area. The concentration is now on car bombs and IEDs, not on suicide bombers - because the numbers just aren't there to support that method of delivery.

And other supplies are getting pretty short, apparently. You run out of men, you run out of materiel - at that point you're militarily ineffective.

If the situation in Iraq stabilizes for a while with the 'insurgency' ineffective, the average Iraqi's going to be pissed when they start up again and knock out infrastructure and kill the people they're supposedly trying to 'free'.

So they've really got only about three choices - they can back off and preserve resources, which will allow things to get better and turn the population against them when they try to stir up stuff again, or they can continue using the limited resources they have at the rate they've been going - which means they'll be out of business soon - or they can scale things back pretty severely to preserve resources, but continue things at a low level and try for a good big hit that the media can latch onto to show that things aren't getting better.

From reading that post, that document, and associated linkage, it's pretty clear that Al Q isn't playing to the rank and file Muslim any more. They're playing, planning, and targeting things RIGHT at the western media. That's where they're getting positive reinforcement - not from the people they so blythly blast with random bombings...

J.

Traces of Uranium Said Found in Iran - Yahoo! News

VIENNA, Austria - The U.N. atomic agency found traces of highly enriched uranium on equipment from an Iranian site linked to the country's defense ministry, diplomats said Friday, adding to concerns that Tehran was hiding activities aimed at making nuclear arms.

The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for revealing the confidential information, said the findings were preliminary and still had to be confirmed through other lab tests.

Initially, they said the density of enrichment appeared to be close to or above the level used to make nuclear warheads. But later a well-placed diplomat accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency said it was below that, although higher than the low-enriched material used to generate power and heading toward weapons-grade level.Of course, it might have come from somewhere else...

Yeah, that's the ticket. It was probably planted by Americans. Because that nutcase who's the mullah figurehead's just a harmless little puddy tat... who's casting himself as a regional hero. Last time we saw that sort of thing was with Saddam.

I fear this is going to get messy sooner than I had thought. Sure hope I'm wrong...

J.

NBC: Guard may patrol U.S. border - Politics - MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON - As the White House prepared for President Bush to address the nation on immigration, sources told NBC News on Friday that the Pentagon could deploy as many as 5,000 National Guard troops to the country’s southwest borders to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

The White House said it was seeking time from television networks for the president’s remarks on Monday at 8 p.m. ET. Bush, trying to build momentum for legislation that could provide millions of illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens, is to speak from the Oval Office.

Yeah, I'm dreaming. I know it.

Barring that, in order to stem the influx we can make the border secure militarily. That'll be expensive (though not as much as trying to reboot Mexico) and it won't be a short-term operation.

Second - I'm not in favor of any amnesty program. At all, in any form, for any purpose. In essence, all that would do is raise the stakes even higher for the illegal aliens in the short run to get in before any amnesty deadline, and give legal immigrants who've jumped through all the hoops to get here and become legal citizens a sharp slap in the face. It's the wrong move, in my opinion, when what should be announced is that any company found employing illegal aliens would be charged $20,000 per alien found. If the company goes under, so be it. Announce they've got 30 days to get in compliance. And that the first illegal alien who's still employed by a particular company AFTER the 30 day grace period who calls a Turn-in Hotline to turn in the company for employment violations would receive a reward of $15,000 and a first class ticket home. (One way, of course. Only one illegal alien turn in per company, please.) The cost of chicken might go up 50 cents a pound, because the chicken companies would need to replace their workers - but it'd be worth it.

And add in another change - that children born in the US of illegal immigrants are NOT automatically US citizens. They can apply for citizenship when they reach a certain age - but no more citizenship at birth if the parents aren't legal immigrants.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. On the one hand, the Dems (and perhaps SOME of the Repubs) see the illegal aliens as a voting block they need to court, to keep the legal latino block happy. However - pandering to 10% of your constiuency at the expense of the other 90% is a fool's move.

The future just keeps getting more and more interesting. I wish it would stop doing that...

J.

Excpet the Dems weren't ALWAYS the minority party...

Larry Craig, US Senator from Idaho: Energy Resources Issue Briefing

We are experiencing higher gasoline, oil, and natural gas prices today because of decades of restricted development of new sources of petroleum.

From ANWR to off-shore development such as Lease Area 181 in the Gulf of Mexico, we have identified oil and natural gas reserves that can be developed and used responsibly. Yet time and time again efforts to increase supply, and reduce prices, are blocked. For instance, ten years ago President Clinton vetoed development in ANWR.

Sigh.

Could we get folks in Washington that know how to plan beyond the next election? PLEASE??

There's some interesting graphics. This one shows the exclusions area. No drilling in the red or yellow zones please!

This one shows how dependent we are on foriegn imports. (Canada and Mexico included...)

If they're serious about energy independence, then the folks in Washington have to realize that the global oil market's not going to drop significantly, and that if they're saving the oil offshore and in ANWR for a rainy day, it's starting to look pretty wet outside so we need to start drilling NOW and building more refineries NOW- not when oil reaches $100 a barrel. And all the political foolishness and posturing they can manage isn't going to do much to affect the price of crude.

From one of his briefings...

Recognizing this trend, about 10 years ago, a Republican-controlled Congress approved environmentally responsible drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR). Although drilling would not have threatened the environment - endangered caribou herds have actually increased since the Alaska pipeline was finished, using it for warmth - then-President Clinton vetoed the bill.

Today, ANWR would be producing 1 million barrels of oil each day, had it been developed. The chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Pete Domenici noted that the estimated reserves in ANWR are enough to replace what we import from Iran. Even in a global market, an additional 1 million barrels a day is a significant amount that would undoubtedly bring the price of oil down.

Natural gas prices are exceptionally high as well, which is why the Energy committee recently approved legislation to open an area in the Gulf of Mexico known as Lease Sale 181 for exploration. This area is estimated to contain enough natural gas to heat 6 million homes for 15 years. Despite the fact that no exploration or development would take place within 100 miles of U.S. shores, well out of sight of land, some in Congress still oppose this bill.

While the Democrats threaten to filibuster Lease Sale 181, oil companies from China may soon be drilling closer to our shores than we are in the Gulf. Through an agreement with the Cuban government, Chinese companies are allowed to explore for oil and natural gas in Cuba's Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 45 miles from Cuban shores. Soon, it may be possible to see Chinese oil rigs from the shores of the Florida Keys.

Enough is enough. I am not content to sit atop massive domestic deposits of oil and natural gas while American families pay through the nose for a tank of gasoline. I will not accept the argument that 100 miles off the Florida coast is too close to drill, while communist China develops reserves only 45 miles away. U.S. companies are much more environmentally conscious, skilled, and have a better safety record than the Chinese. If we are serious about protecting the environment, we should not overlook these facts.

J.

But there's no such thing as fair play in war.

I'm wondering, just as a premise here, if our advanced capability to take the hurt to the enemy isn't causing some folks to go "You know, that's just not fair" and search for some way to handicap our efforts.

Because it sure seems like any decisive advantage we manage to come up with in regards to the communications intercept abilities gets exposed. First, it was Osama's sat phone. Then the NSA taps, and now the data mining...

Secretary of State Henry Stimson said in 1931 that 'Gentlemen do no read each other's mail." when he shut down the cryptographic intercepts and decoding being done in 1931. Fortunately, the next Secretary of State started things up again, and as a result we were able to pretty consistently collect and read ENIGMA intercepts throughout the war. (And the history of that effort's a darn good read in itself.)

Back then, if a reporter had heard about those he'd have kept it quiet. There was a war on, after all, and we needed any advantage we could get. Fairness be damned - all's fair in war. There's no way it would have been plastered into the headlines, or shown on a newsreel.

Nowdays - if a reporter gets a whiff of something like that, they're on it like ducks on a piece of corn. You almost expect fist fights to determine who gets to break the story.

And this is seen as being patriotic. Hamstringing our abilities to hurt the enemy. What is this? Neo-Victorian sportsmanship, where everyone has to 'play fair' in war, where one side, if it has an overwhelming advange, has to be handicapped somehow?

Do we have to play 'fair", in accordance with the media rules, by giving away our comm intercept advantage? Becuase it sure seems to me like they're trying to handicap our efforts, and it doesn't make me feel well-disposed toward them one bit...

Stimson must be really happy in his grave at this point...

J.

In five years he won't be thought of any more.

FOXNews.com - Moussaoui Starts Serving Sentence at Colorado's Supermax Prison - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

WASHINGTON — Convicted Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui on Saturday began serving his life sentence at the nation's most secure prison after U.S. marshals flew him overnight from Virginia to Colorado.

Marshals brought Moussaoui early Saturday to the Supermax federal prison in southern Colorado, where he will spend 23 hours a day in his cell and have little to no contact with other notorious criminals.

"He has now begun serving his sentence of life without the possibility of release," the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement.

J.

Our old mattress was one of the premium models from the Original Mattress Factory. (The name would lead you to believe that they've been around a very long time. However, there's no 'mammoth skin' specials listed. Obviously, they've not been around THAT long.) Thick, heavy, it did the job for a numberof years. However, lately She Who Needs A Good Night's Sleep had been complaining about backaches. And since for her to complain about something takes some pretty serious discomfort, and since we'd ALREADY putt a couple of boards under the mattress on her side of the bed the LAST time she complained, we figured it was time to look at a new sleeping surface.

We figured IKEA would be a good starting point. Try out their mattresses, see what feels good, and then go from there. So we went down, had dinner, and started examining the beds on display.

One thing that we noticed - the spring mattresses weren't all that comfortable to her. Me, I'll sleep on anything that'll keep me from feeling like I'm sleeping on a pile of rocks. I can sleep (and have slept) on everything from wall to wall carpet to a thin foam pad to some of the plushest mattresses available commercially. It's flat? It's padded? I'll try it - hand me a pillow. Yes, that ream of paper will do nicely.... zzzzzzzzzzzz

But I digress. The point was, the spring IKEA mattresses didn't cut it, until you got into their high-end products. Something odd was noticed, however, and that's that the FOAM mattresses were quite comfortable. So, after a good bit of mattress testing, we ended up buying an IKEA SULTAN FORESTAD foam mattress, and it wasn't even much of a problem getting it home. It fit without any problems in Sue's minivan - being rolled up in a cylinder about a foot in diameter. (I'd love to see the machine that does that, and wraps it, btw...) Then get it upstairs, cut the wrapper, and watch it expand... and expand... and expand... and I was reminded of a survival kit sleeping bag I bought back around 1986 or so - like this one on EBay which was a down bag that was vacuum packed and put into a 13"x13"x1" container. Once you opened it - that was it, it was never going back into the container again. And so it was with the mattress...

We got the old mattress off the bed, put the new one on - and the first thing that struck us was that it was a lot thinner. (Well, we already knew that - it was about half the depth of the old spring mattress.) The second - there was much better isolation between the two halves. Before, if she or I rolled over, the other person knew it immediately. Not now, with the new mattress.

That was about two weeks ago. There's a few things that I'm still not quite used to. First, the bed's lower than I expect. I figure I'll get used to that, though. Second, it's 'dead' compared to a spring mattress. But that's tolerable. Third, I seem to be getting more REM sleep - since I'm remembering a lot more of my dreams that I'm used to. Which is very odd, but tolerable. All things considered, I'd say it's a success. And She Who Needs A Good Night's Sleep has no more backaches.

That in itself is worth the roughly quarter of the cost of the cheapest Original Mattress Factory foam mattress in the size we wanted...

J.

High Oil Prices: Don't Shoot the Messengers: How Not to Ruin Your Life - Yahoo! Finance

Here are a few ways of looking at the disgraceful and useless attack on the oil companies, sparked by the skyrocketing price of gasoline across the world.

First, the oil companies are only the messengers. They don't set the price of oil. That price is set on world markets by traders in suspenders making huge, immense wages (and paying very little tax) for trying their best to guess which direction oil is going. The traders set their bids and asks, depending on terrorists in Nigeria, sabotage in Iraq, edgy leaders in Iran, storms in the Gulf of Mexico, Chinese industries growing like mushrooms, and Americans unable to drive small cars (and frankly, I'm one of them -- I like my big car a lot).

There's a gigantic oil market stretching across the globe. The behavior of Russian President Vladimir Putin towards his country's vast oil reserves, the antics of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the posturing of Bolivia's new leader, Evo Morales, the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency Ratings of U.S. carmakers -- all of these go into the making of oil prices.Ben's Stein's thinking is that we may be seeing an oil boom right now. And certainly, there's a lot of speculation going on that the prices are going to get even higher. But he cautions...

As for me, I question if the commodities boom can go on forever. I have some of the funds I just mentioned, but not a lot. Commodities booms come and go -- historically, they've never gone on forever.

If you think this one will, here's a hint. When people say, "Hey, this nonstop boom has never happened before," and someone responds, "This time it's different," hold onto your wallets. "This time it's different" is one of the most frightening phrases in economics. It's entirely possible that the next move for oil is a long step down. Then won't we be sorry for shooting the messengers?

J.

Seeing the stick applied elsewhere convinced Libya that the carrot was preferable...

U.S. to renew ties with Libya - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Monday it will restore normal diplomatic relations with Libya for the first time in over a quarter century after deciding to remove Moammar Gadhafi’s country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

“We are taking these actions in recognition of Libya's continued commitment to its renunciation of terrorism and the excellent cooperation Libya has provided to the United States and other members of the international community in response to common global threats faced by the civilized world since September 11, 2001,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.

J.

To transfer a gigabyte of data?

Will video break the Internet? - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com explores the question of what will happen when massive numbers of people start downloading video.

BellSouth estimates it costs about a buck to provide 2 GB. That pays for maintenance, sales, support, and other costs.

However... I'm not sure about that. Once the hardware's in place, it doesn't matter whether there's a lot or a little going through it - it's always going to be sucking power so the infrastructure cost is a constant whether someone's pulling down a 2k .WAV file or doing a 5 GB backup. That leaves sales/support/other...

Could it be the actual cost is unable to be determined? If you've got a stable cost for operations and infrastructure, then you divide that by bandwidth used. The more bandwidth used, the less it costs per gb - or so it seems to me.

Odd thing to think about, isn't it? The more you use, the less it costs.

J.

FedEx Thunderstorm deviations - Google Video I think most of it has to do with the music that was chosen - but when you consider that each of those specks is a fully loaded jet heading to the FedEx hub, you can't help but appreciate the complexity and scope of the technology, and how it all intertwines.

J.

There's a fair number of video clips here. The Boeing Widebody Crosswind Landings are VERY interesting. Talk about crabbing into the wind!

And from another place - 25 hours of FedEx plane travel.

Enjoy!

J.

Flickr Photo Download: Male Hap Arnold

Male (and female) Billy Mitchell

The Hap Arnold looks kind of like the old-style dress blues, the ones I wore until about '97 or '98, then they changed to a more 'corporate' look, almost like a business suit. However, it looks like the Hap Arnold collars got pumped with steroids. I know it's the Air Force, but you don't expect your uniform to take off with you! Those collars would be a pain to maintain..

More and more it strikes me that I'm getting disconnected - It's been what, three years since I retired? I can pretty well figure I won't get called back at this point, and that's okay. 23 years was enough.

Well, I saw a lot of uniforms come and go... I won't have to wear the new digital camo, won't need to get a set of new dress blues. But I must confess that sometimes I miss it. I miss the feeling of being part of something unprecedented in history - but I don't miss the jobs I had at all.

J.

The above was generated by The Newspaper Clipping Generator - Create your own fun newspaper.

Re Iran - The EU hasn't realized yet that you can't negotiate with someone in good faith when the other person has no intention whatsoever of sticking to the agreement. However, Iran's managing to avoid sanctions for the time being, so their diplomatic dance is working FOR THEM. For everyone else, we're looking at a deftly flourished knife in the back in the final step as the EU maintains that they're making progress with Iran.

Re Bird Flu - it seems to be fading out, mutating into something that's not a problem. Better luck next time.

Re Da Vinci Code - whole lot of screaming and shouting going on by folks who should know better. It's FICTION, folks, and I guess it goes to show there's a lot of folks who can't tell the difference between fiction and reality these days. (Sadly, a lot of them seem to be getting into journalism.)

That's it for right now...

J.

In the groups I run in, there's only two couples I know who have more than one child, and quite a number of couples with none.

Over at One Hand Clapping - The vanishing American family the reasons for this are thought about.

I think his examination of the problem, along with Glen Reynolds' take on things, make for some pretty interesting reading...

J.

Comments closed due to spam

"Vould you like some OOoooil, little girl?"

FOXNews.com - Iran to Offer Economic Incentive to Europe to Keep Uranium Enrichment - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

TEHRAN, Iran — In a surprising turnabout, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday Tehran was willing to offer strong economic incentives to the European Union in return recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium.

I hope not. But to think that Iran would negotiate in good faith isn't the way to go.

J.

In her article, neo-neocon: Floods in New England: weather, climate, and change NeoNeocon points out that we're not sure at all about the cause of global warming.

And the fact that Mars seems to be warming too would indicate there's something going on that MAY be related to human activity, yet might not necessarily be caused by it. And perhaps human activity MIGHT be contribuiting - but might not also.

Personally, I'm thinking it's getting cooler. The spring here has been much cooler than normal. Here it is, mid-May, and we've only had to put the air conditioner on once? Also, I think it's getting warmer - we didn't even have a decent snow this last winter, and I remember when I moved here in '84 the winter of '84/85 was a pretty cold one with plenty of ice and snow. And I recall it snowing a couple of times in El Paso, TX, when I was a kid.

Long term? Heck if I know which way things are going. I won't object to a cool May, however. It keeps the electric bills down...

Something else to consider - the 'Little Ice Age' apparently stretched from to 1550 to 1850 or so. The Medieval Climate Optimum (Or Medieval Climactic Anomaly or Medieval Warm Period) stretched from the 10th to the 14th Century.

Establishing a norm as 'today' and treating any variation off that as anomalous and needing to be corrected IMMEDIATELY however possible (via Kyoto or the like) seems to be ignoring a lot of factors and variations that have little to do with actual human activity. Could we be affecting things? Sure. But how much - if any?

J.

Ah, SATA. One thin cable, one power connector - and all of a sudden life's beautiful data streams into your drive without a single hesitation.

Except when it doesn't.

I've had some... interesting... problems lately with the SATA connections in Big Blue lately. The 250 GB drive will work fine, for a while, after removing and replugging the cable. I'd already swapped out cables once to cure this problem - the cable that came with the drive was decidedly iffy, and I guess after ten or twelve replugs on the new cable the connectors aren't quite what they should be.

There is a bit of an indication that some SATA cables aren't what they should be. However, simply because I'm getting cheap-ass cables things should work - right? The alternative, that the drive's getting ready to fail, has crossed my mind. But I don't think it's likely.

It's troubleshooting 101 - examine how the thing fails. The drive will be recognized on boot and work for about three or four minutes IF I unplug and replug the SATA cable into the drive. Then it'll lose contact with the drive.

After that, I can reboot a half-dozen times, power the system on and off, hit the reset button, whack it with a newspaper - and the drive won't be recognized by either the on-board SATA controller or the add-in. Until I unplug and replug the SATA cable, and it'll work for a few minutes.

So, I'm down to connnector problems on either the drive or with the cable. I'm hoping it's just the cable. That's what seems most likely at this point. Otherwise, I'll be kind of ticked at losing the stuff on that drive.

J.

YouTube - The Gathering

Boggles the mind, it does...

J.

You can hear the conspiracy theorists revving their engines.

The Flight 77 Pentagon videos are out. Predictably, this has engendered a fresh round of conspiracy theorists saying that it must have been a missile or a bomb.

And I've got one close by. The boy's got a screw loose, I've got to admit. He's CERTAIN beyond any possibility of doubt, and won't even entertain the possibility of thinking that maybe he could be mistaken. You see, he saw this article on the internet that just made perfect sense to him, and ...

Yeah. At that point it all became crystal clear that there was no Flight 77 in the first place. Nevermind the manifests, never mind them fiding wreckage of all types, never mind them finding wheel rims and spars and aluminum aircraft parts like crazy, never mind the eyewitnesses, never mind the light poles knocked down, never mind all that. He found some badly-coded pages that proved to him it was all a conspiracy. He doesn't know WHERE the people are from Flgiht 77, but it wasn't a plane that hit the Pentagon.

And it's not like he's stupid - he's a pretty smart guy. But it didn't make sense to him that there wasn't a plane-shaped hole punched in the 3-ft thick, steel-reinforced side of the Pentagon. (Let's see - thin aluminum vs. concrete and steel... you might get the fuselage in because of the mass, but you won't get the wings - they're too light and not rigid enough.)

I've tried sending him the link to the Popular Mechanics debunking of 9/11, he doesn't believe it because there's a lot of sites which form a loosely styled '9/11 Truth Organization Movement' that debunk the 9/11 debunking. I've briefly llooked at those sites - and man, talk about loose connections and convoluted reasoning. (We won't go into the crappy coding.) These are the sorts of folks who'll claim that the buildings were prepared for demolition and implosion, and that the planes were actually guided by the Mossad. Now, having seen videos of the amount of prep work that goes into a building implosion, I don't see how such a thing could have been hidden from the occupants.

But they WANT to believe that there was an insanely massive conspiracy to cause 9/11. It doesn't matter what sort of evidence exists that disproves it - they'll seize on one word, one phrase, and spin off incredibly convoluted and complex theories that PROVE Occam's razor's so dull it couldn't cut cheese. Scientific American even has an analysis.

But you know something? Trying to sort through all the garbage that 9/11 conspiracy nuts have tossed out makes my head hurt. (And not just me, either, it would seem.) So in an effort to tighten up the loose connections in my head, I think I'll close with this, from the Scientific American Article.

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Fahrenheit 2777 -- 9/11 has generated the mother of all conspiracy theories

...

Temperature differentials of hundreds of degrees across single steel horizontal trusses caused them to sag--straining and then breaking the angle clips that held the beams to the vertical columns. Once one truss failed, others followed. When one floor collapsed onto the next floor below, that floor subsequently gave way, creating a pancaking effect that triggered each 500,000-ton structure to crumble. Conspiricists argue that the buildings should have fallen over on their sides, but with 95 percent of each building consisting of air, they could only have collapsed straight down.

All the 9/11 conspiracy claims are this easily refuted. On the Pentagon "missile strike," for example, I queried the would-be filmmaker about what happened to Flight 77, which disappeared at the same time. "The plane was destroyed, and the passengers were murdered by Bush operatives," he solemnly revealed. "Do you mean to tell me that not one of the thousands of conspirators needed to pull all this off," I retorted, "is a whistle-blower who would go on TV or write a tell-all book?" My rejoinder was met with the same grim response I get from UFOlogists when I ask them for concrete evidence: Men in Black silence witnesses, and dead men tell no tales.

We can't even keep secrets in the NSA, yet somehow the thousands of people that would have been needed for the 9/11 conspiracy have never leaked. Obviously, there's a mass grave somewhere, probably Area 51, where they, and all their families, and all their acquaintances, and all THEIR familes and acquanitances were buried after the military knocked down the towers - then they sent the Men In Black with their little forgetfulness rays to erase all traces those people ever existed.

Right.

Sorry, I won't shave with that razor.

J.

Hey, who needs that damn oil anyway? It'd take years to come on line - and who wants to plan further ahead than the next election?

News from The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House rejected an attempt Thursday to lift a quarter-century congressional ban on offshore oil drilling in coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico amid arguments that new supplies are needed to lower energy prices.

A proposal to end the long-standing moratorium as it applies only to pumping natural gas was expected to be voted on later in the evening as lawmakers moved toward late-night approval of a $25.9 billion Interior Department spending bill.

J.

Gotta buy those votes somehow!

Illegals granted Social Security - Nation/Politics - The Washington Times

The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment -- even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents.

"There was a felony they were committing, and now they can't be prosecuted. That sounds like amnesty to me," said Sen. John Ensign, the Nevada Republican who offered the amendment yesterday to strip out those provisions of the immigration reform bill. "It just boggles the mind how people could be against this amendment."

The Ensign amendment was defeated on a 50-49 vote.

"We all know that millions of undocumented immigrants pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for years and sometimes decades while they work to contribute to our economy," said Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican.

"The Ensign amendment would undermine the work of these people by preventing lawfully present immigrant workers from claiming Social Security benefits that they earned before they were authorized to work in our community," he said. "If this amendment were enacted, the nest egg that these immigrants have worked hard for would be taken from them and their families."

Mr. Ensign was among 44 Republicans and five Democrats who voted to block such payouts.

"It makes no sense to reward millions of illegal immigrants for criminal behavior while our Social Security system is already in crisis," said Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican. "Why in the world would we endorse this criminal activity with federal benefits? The Senate missed a big opportunity to improve this bill, and I doubt American seniors will be pleased with the result."

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said it would be unfair to deny illegals the benefits.

"We should not steal their funds or empty their Social Security accounts," he said. "That is not fair. It does not reward their hard work or their financial contributions. It violates the trust that underlies the Social Security Trust Fund."

I'm not against immigration. I AM against line-jumpers, and folks who'll gladly pander to them to get more votes down the line. And here's a classic example of it. Screw the system, screw the folks who've played by the rules - if there's some potential votes, then let's get their illegal asses in and get them beholden to the Democractic Party. (And as far as McCain goes - he's just looking to keep his ass in office, he's not worried about the good of the country or Social Security.)

There's already a backlash.

Within hours, the vote had become an issue in this fall's elections, raised by a Republican challenger to Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Democrat.

"Instead of protecting the retirement security of Americans who are earning an honest living and abiding by the laws of our country, Debbie Stabenow sided with people who are here illegally and abuse our Social Security system," Oakland County, Mich., Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a press release. "Allowing illegal immigrants to use their illegal work history as credit towards receiving Social Security benefits shows that Debbie Stabenow has forgotten who she is supposed to be working for in the U.S. Senate."

The priorities of a senator are, to my thinking, to do what's best for the country, for their consituency, and lastly for their party. This doesn't seem to be best for the country - and the constituencies seem to not be exactly appreciative of it. This leaves, in my opinion, the thought that she's doing what's best for her Party.

Yeah, she's got her damn priorities straight.

J.

When trying to make sense out of what's going on in Iraq, it's a lot like looking at a 10x20ft mural through a soda straw. And the biggest problem is that you have no control over where that straw points. Trying to survey a very large, complex area with a very tiny viewpoint makes it nearly impossible to determine what the big picture is. (You can test this out for yourself - take a piece of opaque paper, about 8x11, and cut a hole about the size of this -o- in it. Now hold it up to your monitor, and try to figure out what's going on while looking through that small bit of paper. Congratuations! You now have the same point of view as a reporter looking at Iraq!)

Really, all we have to go on re the success or failure of the efforts in Iraq is what the media is willing to report. Naturally, their prime purpose is NOT to inform, it's to bring in revenue. Everything else - advertizing, maneuvering to get ratings so you can charge more for the ads, maneuvering to get the eyeballs watching so you can get the ratings - is subsidiary to that function. And as you can tell from news coverage these days, you don't get good ratings by covering something that's going right - you get it from sensationalistic reporting.

(It does rather explain why is the Natalee Holloway case still is in the news, why the USAToday phone flap got such gleeful (and credulous) coverage, why Brittany Spears seems to be damn near the focus of a DFACS investigation (She drove with her baby seat facing the wrong way! OMG the horror!) and newspaper front-page obsessions with the DaVinci Code.)

Yet the reality as experienced by those over there is far from the same narrative the media is feeding us. Are things bad? In some places. Are things good? In a lot of places. It's how the story is framed, and you can sometimes tell more by what isn't reported, or barely gets a mention than what is headline news.

For example - active duty reenlistments in Iraq are WAY up, to the point where the Reserves are getting a bit strapped - since one of their primary sources of manpower was people getting off active duty. Virtually all the narratives you get out of folks in Iraq is that it's a vitally needed job, an unpleasant one, but one with great rewards as they help the Iraqi people stand on their own two feet.

Reality is not created by news reporting. The mural doesn't change simply because one is forced to view it through a straw. What's on your monitor isn't determined by the tiny aperture you view it through - it just distorts how you understand what's going on. The picture is there - but too close and you miss it all.

The Real Iraq

Spending time in the United States after a tour of Iraq can be a disorienting experience these days. Within hours of arriving here, as I can attest from a recent visit, one is confronted with an image of Iraq that is unrecognizable. It is created in several overlapping ways: through television footage showing the charred remains of vehicles used in suicide attacks, surrounded by wailing women in black and grim-looking men carrying coffins; by armchair strategists and political gurus predicting further doom or pontificating about how the war should have been fought in the first place; by authors of instant-history books making their rounds to dissect the various fundamental mistakes committed by the Bush administration; and by reporters, cocooned in hotels in Baghdad, explaining the carnage and chaos in the streets as signs of the countrys impending or undeclared civil war. Add to all this the days alleged scandal or revelationan outed CIA operative, a reportedly doctored intelligence report, a leaked pessimistic assessmentand it is no wonder the American public registers disillusion with Iraq and everyone who embroiled the U.S. in its troubles.

It would be hard indeed for the average interested citizen to find out on his own just how grossly this image distorts the realities of present-day Iraq. Part of the problem, faced by even the most well-meaning news organizations, is the difficulty of covering so large and complex a subject; naturally, in such circumstances, sensational items rise to the top. But even ostensibly more objective efforts, like the Brookings Institutions much-cited Iraq Index with its constantly updated array of security, economic, and public-opinion indicators, tell us little about the actual feel of the country on the ground.

To make matters worse, many of the newsmen, pundits, and commentators on whom American viewers and readers rely to describe the situation have been contaminated by the increasing bitterness of American politics. Clearly there are those in the media and the think tanks who wish the Iraq enterprise to end in tragedy, as a just comeuppance for George W. Bush. Others, prompted by noble sentiment, so abhor the idea of war that they would banish it from human discourse before admitting that, in some circumstances, military power can be used in support of a good cause. But whatever the reason, the half-truths and outright misinformation that now function as conventional wisdom have gravely disserved the American people.

For someone like myself who has spent considerable time in Iraq - a country I first visited in 1968 - current reality there is, nevertheless, very different from this conventional wisdom, and so are the prospects for Iraqs future. It helps to know where to look, what sources to trust, and how to evaluate the present moment against the background of Iraqi and Middle Eastern history.

BTW, I actually have to applaude the coverage of the issues surrounding immigration. So far - SO FAR - they're doing (IMHO) a pretty good job of reporting all sides.

At least, for now.

J.

As they THINK it should be - not as it IS.

Gateway Pundit: The Mysterious Vanishing Refugees of the New York Times

Admittedly, most fiction writers have an end-point, then start the story and bend the plot to that end. Since when did journalists take that as their model for what they should do with their craft?

J.

FOXNews.com - Researchers Make Light Travel Backward, and Faster Than Light

Odd stuff. Enjoy!

J.

BREITBART.COM - Castro healthy enough to live till 140 years old: doctor

J.

In Rusted Sky: Loose connections... I detailed the problem I was having with the SATA cable on a drive. Went over to the local computer retail outlet and got another couple of cables (Hey, one was $2, the other was $5, figured $7 wasn't all that much to spend) and tried them out.

To no avail. The system still failed to recognize the drive.

So, muttering words that shouldn't be put onto a blog like this I pulled the drive out, laid it next to the system, and one last time hooked everything up.

And the darn thing worked. I backed the data off it I wanted, and then powered it down again, brought it up - and the little sucker was a lot more reliable.

Now, for about the last fifteen years or so I've been operating on the assumption that it didn't matter what orientation the drive was in. Right side up, upside down, on it's side - drives still read. The only thing I don't do is mount them so the heads have to move vertically - no front up or down.

And I haven't seen a lot of failures that could be attributed to drive orientation. Things just chug along...

Until they don't. But - for the time being, this one's working. Maybe I put a twist in the cable, maybe it had some dust settle in a delicate place, maybe it didn't like being mounted upside down. But for now, it's working.

J.

Pointing out how little we hear of overseas news - apparently there was a problem in Antwerp, and the media found something else to focus on. Guy gets kicked out of school, shaves head, dresses like a skinhead, buys rifle, shoots three people.

Apparently the blame is being placed on 'not being multicultural' enough.

Brussels Journal has the details. Frustration over being kicked out of school and looking for a scapegoat? Racism? You read, you make the call.

One very big problem I'm seeing is the serious denial that Europe's got problems. Instead, we see some rather bizzare circumlocations which are trying hard to place the blame ANYWHERE but where it actually belongs.

Of course, trying to figure out where it DOES belong may take some doing.

Paul Belien, the author of this piece, thinks it's because Europe has lost faith in the future.

Like the Columbine School Massacre a few years ago in the US, Hans Van Themsche’s killing spree is indicative of a society where young people have lost all respect for human life. Is it a coincidence that this should happen in a society that has lost respect for human life itself? Belgium has a very liberal abortion law and wants to extend its euthanasia legislation to minors and to the senile elderly (whose guardians will decide for them). Is it a coincidence that at the same time so many young people have also lost their faith in the future? They listen to Satanic and “goth” music, dress in black, shave their heads and write in farewell letters that “heaven does not exist.” Having lost faith in heaven, they then decide to turn the world into hell.

Wouldn't it be odd if Islam takes over Europe in fifty to a hundred years, without there being any pitched battles or genocidal struggle? Instead, wait for your enemy to die of old age, bury him with respect - and then go back to the mosque and play with the grandkids...

Update: Fixed a busted link. Guys, why didn't you tell me it wasn't working? Do I gotta do EVERYTHING around here? (grin)

J.

From Zogby International - about EGYPT, of all places.

For the following series of statements, please tell me if knowing about each makes you much more favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat less favorable, or much less favorable toward Egypt, or does it make no difference?

If you knew that Egypt is a strategic partner and is working together with the US in the war on terrorism ...?

Much more
Somewhat more
Somewhat less
Much less
No difference
Not sure

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

That Egypt is a major importer of US products to the tune of $3.5 billion annually ...?

Much more
Somewhat more
Somewhat less
Much less
No difference
Not sure

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

That Egypt is the largest importer of US wheat ...?

Much more
Somewhat more
Somewhat less
Much less
No difference
Not sure

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

Egypt was the birthplace of the earliest Christian church. It now has a population of 10 million Christians ...?

Much more
Somewhat more
Somewhat less
Much less
No difference
Not sure

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

Egypt's President Sadat was the first Arab leader to make peace with Israel ...?

Much more
Somewhat more
Somewhat less
Much less
No difference
Not sure

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

Egypt's leaders have long been a force for moderation in opposing extremism of all types in the Middle East ...?

Much more
Somewhat more
Somewhat less
Much less
No difference
Not sure

BTW, they asked if I knew other folks who'd possibly want to sign up for Zogby surveys. Tried to sign you up, Jason, but it said your email address was already registered. However, JBouler and Rawb have been so tapped, as has John C., Linda and James Y. If you don't want to look at their surveys, just discard them, and I apologize in advance for signing you up for them.. But it's kind of interesting to look at a supposedly 'impartial' polling service, and realalize they're pushpolling pretty darn hard.

J.

That's bookin'.

The mountain that broke the speed limit - LiveScience - MSNBC.com

Especially considering it was a mountain, where a half-inch a century's considered fast...

All things considered, I'll bet it was a hell of a show, and one that was likely fatal to spectators in the local area.

J.

They, after all, are not only more caring, more sensitive, and compassionate than you, they're better looking and bathe with more expensive soap.

Reid calls language proposal racist?-?Nation/Politics?-?The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called a proposal to make English the official language "racist" on the Senate floor yesterday.

"This amendment is racist. I think it's directed basically to people who speak Spanish," the Democrat said during the already tense debate over immigration reform.

Moments later, the Senate approved the measure on a 63-34 vote. Virtually all Republicans were joined by 11 Democrats to approve the largely symbolic amendment. Immediately following that vote, the Senate approved a second amendment, declaring on a 58-39 vote that English is the "common and unifying language."

Such proposals enjoy overwhelming support among American voters.

The idea of a single country with 350 million people boggles the mind. The idea of a unified country of 350 million without a common and unifying language doesn't quite pass the giggle test as far as I'm concerned.

Did you ever wonder just why Europe never quite coalesced into a monolithic entity? The EU aside, if you were to look at a linguistic map of Europe you'd see it fragmented into many languages and dialects - and it's pretty hard to get a large country together when most of the people can't understand one another. You need a common language, a lingua franca so to speak. Why not use English? (Alternatively, we could always bring back Latin. Maybe Esperanto? Ah, hell, let's go with English.)

So this wierd idea, that a country as large as the United States, with the population it has, DOESN'T need a unifying language just doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe it does to you - and if it does, could you explain it to me?

J.

Now that's just overkill.

PC Power & Cooling 1KW Turbo-Cool PSU - Quad SLI

Okay, I know there's hard-core gamers out there - but come on. 500 watt power supplies I can see. Heck, the original IBM PCs had 63.5 watt power supplies, and they were, um, shall we just label them 'marginal' and be done with it? Fill up the case with cards, try to add in a hard drive, and sudden, unexpected reboots were in your future. (There was even an 'add-on' power supply extender that provided power to run a hard drive. Aftermarket, of course - when folks were trying to add a hard drive but not willing to pay the $3k premium to IBM. You pay $250 or so for a little box that'd hang off the back of your system, and you could put in a 10 or even 20 MB drive! MFM at first, then RLL. Western Digital made the interface cards...)

Frnakly, I don't see how you can stuff a kilowatt's worth of cards and hardware into a standard case. Even with the power-hungry processors and video cards, I just don't see it.

J.

Someone did something stupid, and 26 million+ records have been 'lost'. This includes names, date of births, and social security numbers.

First rule of data management in the military - if it's got a SSAN, you either file it, lock it away, or shred it. This 'data analyst' took the whole damn database home. (That's a no-no, BTW.) And it got 'stolen'.

Thanks a heap, dumbass.

Latest Information on Veterans Affairs Data Security -- Firstgov.gov

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has recently learned that an employee, a data analyst, took home electronic data from the VA, which he was not authorized to do. This behavior was in violation of VA policies. This data contained identifying information including names, social security numbers, and dates of birth for up to 26.5 million veterans and some spouses, as well as some disability ratings. Importantly, the affected data did not include any of VA's electronic health records nor any financial information. The employee's home was burglarized and this data was stolen. The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

The 'data analyst' is under investigation. I hope for their sake that it's just a simple theft - if these names were sold, I hope they get a month for every name that was compromised...

J.

Dumb Looks Still Free: The anti-everything party

That pretty well defines the Democrats any more...

J.

Salon.com Technology | Ask the pilot

The same technological magic that makes the spread of wild conjecture so effortless should, you would think, make countering and dismissing it no less easy. Strictly speaking, indeed it does. But it all depends who's paying attention. The fact is, the human proclivity for believing in conspiracies is a lot stronger these days than our proclivity for analyzing and debating them. Maybe that's human nature, or maybe it's some perverse/inverse fallout of technology. Either way, there are lots more people around who are hungry to make us believe something than make us not believe something. With respect to Sept. 11, a pro-conspiracy Web site is certainly a lot more exciting, and will garner a lot more hits, than an anti-conspiracy Web site. Both kinds are out there, but it's the conspiracy traffickers, regardless of their credibility, who believe more passionately in their cause, and consequently garner more attention.

It's distressing that so many people become married to a preposterous idea based on little more than erroneous interpretations of some pictures and selective, manipulative use of evidence. But in debating this stuff now and again, you learn that it can be a bit like arguing religion. Evidence, or lack of it, has little to do with what motivates many believers. At the heart of their convictions is something utterly unprovable. It's faith.

Having said all that, I don't wish to belittle the idea that perhaps some important truths have been concealed, and it is hardly my intention to give our fearless leaders undue credit. Considering the extent to which we've been chicaned, shystered and condescended to these past six years, why should we trust them? We shouldn't, frankly, but remember Carl Sagan's famous quip about extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary proof.

(Which just goes, I suppose, to show just HOW sneaky and devious they were.)

J.

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

Iraqis can participate in three historic elections, pass the most liberal constitution in the Arab world, and form a unity government despite terrorist attacks and provocations. Yet for some critics of the president, these are minor matters. Like swallows to Capistrano, they keep returning to the same allegations--the president misled the country in order to justify the Iraq war; his administration pressured intelligence agencies to bias their judgments; Saddam Hussein turned out to be no threat since he didn't possess weapons of mass destruction; and helping democracy take root in the Middle East was a postwar rationalization. The problem with these charges is that they are false and can be shown to be so--and yet people continue to believe, and spread, them. Let me examine each in turn...

You see it time and again whenever 9/11's mentioned - lead 'em to an engineering analysis of why the Towers fell as they did, and they dismiss it as false. Debunk the Pentagon/missile theory, and they question why the landscape wasn't torn up on the way in. Thirty+ years later, and there's still folks convinced we didn't make it to the Moon. Bush made a deal with the Iranians to hold the hostages until after Reagan's inauguration, and he flew there in an SR-71. There is NEVER sufficient evidence to convince someone that something happened - or didn't happen, if they're not willing to be convinced.

Here we have someone take on Iraq's urban legends. I think he makes a good case.

J.

That wake-up call's going to come sooner or later...

Jerusalem Post | Iran test-fires long-range missile

Iran conducted a test launch Tuesday night of the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which is capable of reaching Israel and US targets in the region, Israel Radio reported. The test came hours before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with US President George W Bush in Washington to discuss the Iranian threat.

Military officials said it was not clear if this most recent test indicated an advance in the capabilities of the Shihab 3. They said the test was likely timed to coincide with the Washington summit and with comments made by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah during celebrations in Beirut marking the 6th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

"What deters the enemy from launching an aggression is the resistance's continuous readiness to respond," Nasrallah told scores of supporters. "Northern Israel today is within the range of the resistance's rockets. The ports, bases, factories and everything is within that range."

What deters a response right now is that you haven't seriously pissed people off yet and folks are watching to see if you're going to tone it down. But this escalates things considerably - a range of 750 miles gets you from Iran to the Ukraine, Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq, India - and they're all watching to see what you do. You're getting close to the magic point where you go from 'potentially troublesome loon who's rather entertaining' to 'overly aggressive and dangerously troublesome loon'. At that point, there will indeed be a response.

And it isn't going to be 12 years of worthless sanctions, I don't think...

J.

National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee - Iran: Major protest rally in Tabriz

APA

Azerbaijanis meeting in Tabriz dispersed, killed 20

[ 23 May 2006 18:32 ]

Iran police used tear gas and bullets in dispersing rally held in Tabriz on May 20 as a result of which 20 killed, more than 100 injured, West Azerbaijan National Revival Movement Baku bureau has told APA. Police did not allow occupying Azerbaijan Milly Majlis, 1945, and present Tabriz city government house.

The hospital where injured are kept, has been blockaded by the police. Guard forces taken to city to calm down the rally attacking student hostelhave arrested about 100 students. Slogans were sounded in the meeting: Tabriz lives despite Babek’s death, Azerbaijani hero, Chohragani, Garabagh is ours, and Turkic language will not be substituted with Persian language. Today at 16.00 meeting will be held in Tabriz, Urmiya, Maraga, and Miyane cities.

Iran News - Iran arrests 54 after ethnic Azeri riots

LONDON, May 24 (IranMania) - Iranian police arrested 54 people after riots over a newspaper cartoon which provoked angry protests in the large ethnic Azeri community, a legal source said, according toan AFP report.
A cartoon in Friday's edition of Iran newspaper had depicted an ethnic Azeri as a cockroach, sparking clashes between police and thousands of people in the main northwestern city of Tabriz.
"Fifty-four people have been arrested from the ones identified yesterday for vandalism," Tabriz prosecutor, Yusef Firoozi, was quoted as saying by the student ISNA agency.
"They have all had police records and the rest of those identified will be arrested soon."
A local intelligence ministry official, identified as Valizadeh, told ISNA: "the ones inciting unrest and vandalism yesterday were all supported by foreigners and were linked with issues in Khuzestan".
The oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan has an Arab majority and has been seen a series of bombings in the past year.

Valizadeh also accused the United States and Israel of seeking to incite ethnic disputes in Iran.

"Now that we are more united than ever, American and Israeli intelligence services have put Iran's ethnic issues on the agenda. Exploiting yesterday's move was in line with that," he was quoted as saying.

National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee

Iran: Maryam Rajavi calls for nationwide solidarity with anti-government protests
Tuesday, 23 May 2006

Government buildings torched, many arrested during uprisings in three northwestern Iranian provinces
NCRI - Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect, hailed the popular uprising in East and West Azarbaijan and Zanjan provinces and described it as an expression of the nation’s will for the overthrow of the clerical regime in Tehran. She called upon all Iranian people, specially the youth, to join the heroic popular uprising of the Azarbaijani people.

zaneirani

The protesters in Tabriz. This is so much more than it looks! Who knows maybe Mana Neyestani has started a whole new revolution! After all the last revolution started with an article published by Ettelaat newspaper! The thing is... a small and to some people an insignificant matter can bring on the change!

... and we all know about Ceauşescu!

Things in Iran are interesting - and underreported.

J.

Tradition's a powerful binding force. Custom can, in circumstances, take on the force of law to the extent that if something is not permitted by custom, it's taboo. This can be troublesome - or it can actually be rather reassuring.

Consider, if you will, the customs and mores of a heirarchial system like the military. Many of them are based on the UCMJ, many more have been developed over the years as a means of getting people from all walks of life and all varieties of interests and ranks to function together as a cohesive whole with a minimum of interpersonal friction. You HAVE to have a structure that can provide a social lubricant (so to speak) so the system operates well.

Consider the rules you live under daily. If you go up or down stairs, you stay to the right. If you drive, you observe traffic laws. Take an elevator, and you let people off before you get on. What benefit do you get from observing those rules? They provide a structure for social interaction, a framework of expectations. If you're driving along and you stop at a light, you expect cross traffic to stop when the light changes so you can go. You take turns, and everyone gets where they're going. The guy who ignores the light has the potential to harm much more than his own vehicle, so the impetus is there to obey the law.

Customs and law provide a framework for society. There's certain expectations about how you're supposed to act in public, and though there's folks who take a childish delight in ignoring those expectations (letting a swinging door slam in the face of a little old lady with packages is a real side-splitter) by and large people behave pretty well towards each other. You try to be honest, or at least I do, and I'm trying to teach the little guy the same, because honesty DOES seem to be the best policy long-term. Deal with others fairly, and they'll deal fairly with you - pretty much. Being polite when talking with folks both in person and on line makes sense - because people will pretty much treat you the way you treat them. (That's something that a lot of folks never seem to pick up.) And I'll admit that I've sometimes not lived up to that standard.

That doesn't stop me from trying, however. I'm not the person I want to be - but I'm a hell of a lot further along than I was thirty years back.

All the rules, from simple things like how to use a fork properly at the dinner table to obeying traffic laws to cultural conditioning against random murder are designed to enable large numbers of people to fit together as painlessly as possible. Sure, they curtail individual freedoms in some cases - but in return they provide certain expectations of reciprocal behavior that allow folks to get along. And we abandon them at our risk.

You see that happen a lot on-line. People are anonymous - they can post whatever sort of garbage they want if they happen to disagree with someone's opinion. Message boards like the one here are particularly bad - anyone trying to post accurate information is leapt upon by folks posting, um, interesting sorts of stuff. (It does ebb and flow - look for the 'strong sells'.) You also see it on political boards a lot, and depending on your orientation you can find the hate speech on either the left or the right of the spectrum. (BTW, what I see referred to as 'hate speech' usually takes the form of disagreement with the stated slant of the board, not stuff like "You're ugly, and your mother dresses you funny.")

Disagreement doesn't equal hate, sorry. Neither does it equal censorship. The Dixie Chicks are screaming about censorship, because they think GWB's an idiot and don't mind making it known. Hey, it's a free country and I've got no problems with that. They also are trashing the audience that would supposedly buy their music, saying they'd rather have a few cool fans instead of a bunch of rednecks - and that's fine by me. What I have a problem with is when they start complaining that not playing their music is censorship - especially seeing the stations that play their music seem to get a fair number of complaints, and since the media relies on ratings... well, unless you're looking to depress your ratings why would you play music the listeners didn't like? (Hmmm. You know, that strikes me as odd - if everyone's against Bush, you'd think there'd be more call for their music... But I digress.)

One thing about real life is that actions have consequences. You break the rules (written and unwritten) and there can be a reaction. Speed in front of a cop, and get a ticket. Be rude to someone to their face, and you'll not gain their affection. On-line, however, the normal social courtesies aren't mandatory. You insult someone, and you're anonymous - there's no repercussion.

And that eventually leaks over into your personal life. If you're lucky, it won't leak over much.

One of my favorite lines from the movies is from "Buckaroo Banzai" (a quirky little film, you ought to see it...) uttered by John Bigboote' - "Integrity is who you are in the dark." When the only limits you have on you are those you've placed yourself - when nobody can watch you - what will you do? How will you behave? Do you chafe at the strictures of society, limiting the things you can do, or do the structures provide you a comfortable framework to lead your life?

It's tempting at times to throw off the rules. And I'll admit I've done that a few times - done things that (in retrospect) seemed a lot more attractive before they were done than after. Sometimes the best way to find out why a particular rule or custom exists is by disregarding it, and living through the results. You can learn a lot from your mistakes, usually.

So before you think it good to tear down something, it might be a good idea to take a long, close look at it - and figure out why it's there in the first place. Customs tend to come into being so everyone knows what's going on. Civility is the grease that keeps our gears from grinding. Abandoning civility doesn't make you edgy, doesn't make you hip, doesn't make you cool - it just makes you look like someone trying to throw sand in the gears.

And in closing, I'll leave you with the eloquent words of A Jacksonian on civility - whether it be on-line or interpersonal...

Dumb Looks Still Free: Commenting Rules

Suzie - By forgetting civility in conversation we lose the Civilization our predecessors fought so hard to gain. I do not mind *reasoned* disagreement since that is honorable and still allows for friendship through that understanding.

That is why I like the 1632 series (out of many) a Catholic Priest and a Methodist Minister disagree about much, but share in their joy of fixing cars. And they learn to ease up on their disagreements until it becomes a means of jest and easing tension. Civility and understanding are the ties that bind society together. We fray them at our peril.

J.

You may remember Faye Dunaway. Born in '41, that means she's 65 years old.

However, at the Cannes Film Festival she doesn't look a day over wierd.

Yeah. Scary.

I blame her dentist, her hair stylist, her plastic surgeon(s) (she must have had a team to stretch her skin so tight - think she can close her eyes at night?) and her dress designer. She's trying to look 20 - and failing in a rather ghastly manner.

Ah, Hollywood. Where what's real isn't important - appearance is everything. And that appearance ... well, one can only wonder if another Jaws movie is in the works.

J.

I'll post whatever answer I get back.

Sir:

Rep. Hastert and Rep. Pelosi’s attempt to place Senators and Representatives above the law in regards to the matter of Rep. William J. Jefferson is exactly the wrong way to go about things. You are elected public servants, and as such should be the FIRST to adhere to the law, expect others to do so, and be visible and concrete examples to the nation of how law-abiding citizens should act.

Their actions and requests for the FBI to immediately return documents obtained under a valid search warrant doesn’t mesh with the idea of them as public servants. Instead, they seem to believe they have significant exemptions to the laws the rest of us have to live under. Such actions make me seriously question the wisdom of repeatedly re-electing incumbents into a system which rewards seniority with more and more privilege yet disconnects that privilege with the responsibilities of the office.

You may see little to nothing wrong with making yourself and your fellow Congressmen exempt from the laws the rest of us have to follow – but your attitudes on this ARE noticed, and will be clearly remembered come election time.

I urge you, and would like to see you disassociate yourself IMMEDIATELY from any attempt by Reps. Hastert and Pelosi to raise those whom we elect to office above the law.

Thank you.

You can find your congresscritters here.

www.senate.gov
www.house.gov

J.

The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney: Air America Budget Cuts, Al Franken, Jim Wiggett, Rob Glaser

Not looking good at all...

If they're lucky, they might last another year. But they don't seem to be expanding their listener base much, which means their ratings must suck terribly. And with bad ratings, the revenue stream (which seems to be more like a tiny trickle) doesn't support much. It would also seem like the stars of Air America have large staffs and lots'o'perks.

Well, it's nice work if you can talk someone else into paying for it. But the money's about gone... and with it, Air America.

Oh, it might survive in a greatly reduced version, but it's sure not healthy.

J.

Now Bush is geeting into this.

Bush orders Jefferson records sealed 45 days - | -Reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday ordered records seized from Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson's office to be sealed for 45 days in order to work out a dispute over the documents with the U.S. Congress.

Leaders of the House of Representatives are outraged that the FBI seized a computer hard drive and two boxes of papers from Jefferson's office. They contend the search violated the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.

In a statement, Bush said he was taking the unusual step of directing the Justice Department to seal all the materials recovered from Jefferson's office last weekend for the next 45 days.

"This period will provide both parties more time to resolve the issues in a way that ensures that materials relevant to the ongoing criminal investigation are made available to prosecutors in a manner that respects the interests of a co-equal branch of government," Bush said.

Oh, there needs to be some 'plainin' of what's going on.

J.

Keep 'America' in Michigan schools - 05/24/06 - The Detroit News

Keep 'America' in Michigan schools

State bureaucrats want to do what Stalin, Osama could only dream about
Michael Warren

Censoring the word "America" from our own schools is something Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden would never have thought possible. Michigan has done it without a whimper.

In perhaps a well-intentioned, but pernicious example of political correctness, the Michigan Department of Education is attempting to ban the "America" and "American" from our public schools. Even though the word "America" appears in the department's own civics and government benchmarks, the department's style protocol for the Michigan Education Assessment Program requires that "America" and "Americans" be expunged from our testing and grade level expectations. Last week, the department ordered that our hard-working teachers not utter the words.

UPDATE -

Detroit News Online | Printer-friendly article page

Superintendent's letter
'America' remains in class
The Michigan Department of Education is not taking the word "America" or "American" out of the classrooms of Michigan ("Keep 'America' in Michigan schools," May 24, by Michael Warren). No such edict has gone out, or will go out, to school teachers across Michigan.

We are not seeking to do away with the terms "America" or "American" from classroom instruction. It's not going to happen. I consider myself an American. We live in the United States of America. We are citizens of the United States of America. But the vernacular is that we're Americans.

This is very important to me, if not personal. I am an avid student of the life and works of Thomas Jefferson. He was a great American and he helped set the tone and path for all Americans who followed him. The precepts Jefferson set forth set the course for this great nation. That is why we are what we are today.

The conversations and internal communications between diverse members of an independent association of social studies supervisors have been misconstrued as Department of Education policy. I would never approve the removal of "America" or "American" from use in our classrooms. Not on my watch.

Mike Flanagan
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Lansing

I'll keep a watch on this. There's something that's not smelling right, and I'm not sure if the odor's coming from Mr. Warren or Mr. Flannigan. I DO think it possible that Mr. Flannigan got blindsided by this, and that the change MAY have been made without his input - but it seems odd he wouldn't have had a hand in it.

UPDATE 2 -

From the original link:

What a state social studies consultant is telling educators in e-mails about using "America" and "Americans" in tests and courses:

"I have promised teachers that we would delete the use of American [when we are really ONLY referring to the United States] from the GLCEs (grade level content expectations) so that everything is consistent and correct as soon as it was feasible."

"It is ethnocentric for the United States to claim the entire hemisphere."
-- Karen Todorov, Michigan Department of Education

UPDATE 3

Keep our schools safe for 'Americans' - 05/25/06 - The Detroit News

Keep our schools safe for 'Americans'

Michigan needs to control bureaucrats run amok

Why no Americans?

What state officials previously said about excluding "America" and "American" from the social studies MEAP tests and courses:

"We all know that there are many more 'Americans' [South, Central and other North Americans such as Canadians, Mexicans, etc.] than just people living in the United States." -- Karen Todorov, Michigan Department of Education social studies consultant

"We don't want to offend other people who may consider themselves Americans." -- Martin Ackley, Michigan Department of Education spokesman.

Michigan's politically correct bureaucrats almost killed the use of "America" in social studies classes. Fortunately, state school Superintendent Mike Flanagan says he is stopping this nonsense. But taxpayers and parents must remain vigilant against this dumbing down of our students.

The problem began 10 years ago. That's when the Michigan Department of Education eliminated the use of "America" and "Americans" on its Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) social studies testing, according to Karen Todorov, the department's social studies consultant.

As she has made clear in e-mails and other statements, Todorov says it is "ethnocentric" for educators to refer to Americans when Canadians and residents from Central and South America are also Americans.

Department spokesman Martin Ackley defended the practice Tuesday by saying it was part of a national trend of being "more historically accurate." He used the hypothetical example of a transfer student from Mexico getting confused if the MEAP test referred to America.

But the full name of this country is the United States of America. It's a fact that shouldn't be censored for fear of offending Canadians or residents of Central or South American countries.

After all, America isn't just a name, it's a philosophy. It represents a set of ideas -- such as freedom, free enterprise and checks and balances on government -- that have been instrumental in improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people. That's why it's called the American dream and the American way of life.

The issue became even sillier last week when Todorov told a meeting of the Michigan Social Studies Supervisors Association that officials should tell their teachers not to use "America" or "Americans."

"We use the United States after the founding of the nation, and before that 'the colonies of North America' or 'North Americans,'" she wrote in an e-mail.

These views have already been shared with some social studies instructors around the state. This reflects a national trend in which the education establishment waters down basic facts of history it finds distasteful. One example is eliminating B.C. and A.D. after historical dates. (The initials stand for before Christ or the Latin for after Christ.) Yet it is common usage for people worldwide to define time periods by the birth and death of Christ.

Now that this exercise in political correctness has been exposed, Flanagan properly promises that "America" and "American" won't be banned. He says Todorov's statements have been "misconstrued."

But this, too, is revisionist history -- as demonstrated by the department's initial defense of excluding "America" from the MEAP test and Todorov's vigorous defense of the philosophy on Frank Beckmann's WJR radio show.

Flanagan may soft pedal her comments as an innocent "conversation," but they had the blunt force of the state behind them. That explains why educators we talked to Wednesday were reluctant to go on the record -- for fear of angering state officials.

It's fine that Flanagan has promised that this will stop. But the proof of his convictions will be in his actions, not in his words. His department should restore the use of "America" on the social studies MEAP test. And perhaps he should keep a better eye on what his officials and consultants are up to when they think no one is looking.

Wow. Not like there's any, you know, agenda there. Just being pedantically 'correct', to avoid offending people...

J.

Lately things have been... spotty. Last weekend we had quite a bit of down time. This week, there's been significant delays. Finally tonight I called to report it - and reached a level of customer service that just didn't impress me much.

The girl I talked to didn't seem to have a clue about networks or computers. Faced with a modem that had no 'cable' light showing, and thus insufficient signal for a connection, she insisted that I unplug everything (which I did) then plug everything back in, which I did, and then I had to direct-connect a computer to the modem instead of the router.

Seeing everything's wireless, I couldn't very well do that. She had her script to follow, however, and come hell or high water if I wouldn't connect a computer directly to the modem she wouldn't help me.

I've been a Comcast broadband customer for a good ten years. I asked to speak to her manager - and she informed me that one wasn't available. I finally ended up hanging up on her, after getting to the point where I realized that not only was she unwilling to break out of her scripts, but she was actually enjoying NOT being helpful.

And like a glutton for punishment, I called back. (I blame giving blood today.) This time, I got hold of a guy who knew what he was doing. He was able to check signal levels, found that my uplink speed was down near dialup rates, and the downlink wasn't much better. Also, my modem was reaching the end of it's supported life, and signal strengths weren't what they should be.

I talked to him for maybe five minutes, and got more accomplished and scheduled than I got in 15 minutes talking to the script girl. (Since it didn't seem like the girl even bothered to check line quality, I'm not at all sure that I would have gotten anything from her even IF I'd gone through all her checklists.)

So anyway, they're batting .500 right now. We'll see what happens when the technician comes out. But I'm feeling not exactly warm and fuzzy towards ComCast as this point, and may very well switch out. I've talked to the folks at BellSouth FastAccess DSL Internet Service, and by the time you put together a package (basic phone, internet, DirectTV) the cost will be about what we're spending for ComCast. Supposedly we're close enough to a switching office so we can get max speed out of a DSL line. And at this point, giving ComCast the heave-ho is pretty tempting.

But I'll wait until after the tech comes - we'll see where things go from there.

J.

Man, I can't believe the deaf ear that's being turned on this issue.

White House compares illegal immigration to speeding - Examiner.com

WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday said a Senate bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants is analogous to a traffic law that allows a speeder to pay a fine and continue driving.

"If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder, are you?" White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.

"So the fact is, you have paid your debt to society," he added. "And we have come up with a way to make sure that the debt to society gets paid. Then you move forward."

The "traffic ticket" analogy raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where many House Republicans regard illegal immigration as a grave crime.

But this idea that being here illegally is like a traffic ticket... no.

J.

Mostly down. They'll be coming out Wednesday w/a new modem. It almost seems like the fool thing has gone nocturnal - when it's dark it starts working better, when it's daylight it doesn't work at all. It MAY be a temperature-sensitive component failing... I'm about to stick the thing in a gallon ziplock bag and dunk it in icewater, see if that helps...

J.

Check out Blackfive.net, Sgt Stryker's Daily Brief and others -

And think about why today's Memorial Day.

It's great to be anti-war - and you won't find folks who are much more against war than the career folks in the US Military. However,w e're also pragmatic enough to realize that being 'anti-war' unilaterally usually means submitting to whoever decides they want to take your land, resources, or population. Gandhi 'won' in India because he was dealing with Great Britain and the sense of fairness incluated into the British psyche. Against Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan, or Fundamentalist Islam he'd have lasted real quick - and that's the sort of mentalities that START wars.

Honor the folks who've kept you free - and even if you disagree, honor the folks who've bought you that right.

J.

The network was up this morning (29 May) for a while - it failed around 9:30 or so. I've been pinging the local gateway since about 9:30 AM - it's been a consistent "Request timed out." the whole time.

Finally, around 10 PM the ping log looks like this. (Not the real gateway address, btw...)

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=63
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=63
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=63
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=63
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=63
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=63
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=63
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=63
Request timed out.
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=63
Reply from 71.43.72.188: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=63
Request timed out.

Well, we'll find out Wednesday. At least the network's liable to actually be DOWN while the tech is here. I hate trying to troubleshoot intermittent problems, and it's nice to see one that's 'dependable' in a manner of speaking...

J.

And during the prosecution of a war to come out publicly and ADMIT your mistakes is giving information to the enemy that they can use to exploit those mistakes or similar conditions.

So this came as a surprise to me.

Bush, Blair admit difficulties in Iraq - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

In unusually introspective comments, Bush said he regrets his cowboy rhetoric the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks such as his “wanted dead or alive” description of Osama bin Laden and his taunting “bring ’em on” challenge to Iraqi insurgents.

“In certain parts of the world, it was misinterpreted.”

He also cited the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. “We’ve been paying for that for a long time,” Bush said.

Blair regretted the way in which Saddam Hussein’s political allies were purged from the Iraqi military and government soon after the fall of Baghdad. Critics have said the sudden purge left a security vacuum in Iraq and encouraged former regime loyalists to take up arms against the newly installed government.

Blair also said allies seriously underestimated the insurgency.

“It should have been very obvious to us” from the beginning, Blair said.

Which leads me to wonder - do THEY consider the war in Iraq over? Or do they consider the insurgency reduced to a point where it's essentially ineffective as a means of altering national momentum?

Interesting thought, isn't it? Yes, the insurgency will continue to take their potshots, and with the help of Iran will likely continue for several years. But there's less and less support for them, and even less legitimacy for them in the international press, now that Iraq's leadership is taking hold.

It could well be Bush and Blair are clearing the decks for action against Iran. (Which has its own internal problems that are getting more and more serious - though you sure couldn't tell it from the papers.) Where is it all going to end up? Heck if I know - but I'm thinking they think Iraq's over the hump, and it's downhill from here. (In a good way.)

A related (though very old) poster here. More posters here... and if I were of a religious bent, this one could be modified easily to fit today's problems with Islam. Yep, they're WW2 propaganda posters - but don't be so quick to discard the idea that propaganda posters don't have any validity in today's environment.

J.

We're recovering at work from a patch meant to protect the systems here against the Word Exploit that came out a week or so back - that has some 'interesting' side effects with other apps, along with a too-fast rollout of McAfee 8.01, patch 11, and updates to some other software we use, which hasn't gone on as smoothly as we would like.

So, maybe more tonight. If ComCast shows up and fixes the problem.

Update:

ComCast was supposed to show between 5 and 8. I checked my cell phone at 8:30 because I was going to call ComCast because the tech was late, and there was a voicemail message. (I'd left the cell phone inside, since the weather was 'tolerable' we decided to spend the evening outdoors) And the @$%$###@% #^#$#@%$^% at ComCast called at 5:20 to see if I was home. Because they won't dispatch a technician if nobody answers (which the #%$&^&^#^$ !#@!#!@#%$#s I talked to TWICE hadn't bothered to MENTION to me) and since nobody was home....

We got cancelled. Well, whoever was supposed to come out, I hope they were able to get an hour or two free.

I got their next available 'slot' - which was between 8 and 11 SUNDAY MORNING.

So. It'll be 10 days since I first called this in. Today was day 6.

I ain't impressed. Tomorrow I think I'm going to talk to Bell South, see what sort of folderol I've got to go through to get their system in place...

After I got off the phone with ComCast, I went over to the splitter, and swapped outlets to see if that would help. The cable modem coax was on a -7db outlet, and the regular TV on a -3db leg. Swapped the two, and the cable modem's working again, and the TV's okay.

Damn, but that's aggravating. I could have swapped those out if the #@$%@#@#%@ #$@%^&^*^%#@! tech I'd talked to on the phone had suggested it.

J.

Thanks to AJacksonian, I found this little speed test.

My speeds aren't bad for download, think they could be better for upload.

Download Speed: 5448 kbps (681 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 352 kbps (44 KB/sec transfer rate)

J.

Like calls to like, eh?

LA NUEVA CUBA

Member of Cuban Communist Party in charge of international relations Fernando Ramirez and Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki here on Sunday conferred on matters of mutual concern.

According to a report released by the Foreign Ministry's Public Relations Department, at the meeting Mottaki referred to Iran-Cuba friendly relations as an example of solidarity between the two justice-seeking and freedom-seeking nations.

The foreign minister pointed to the continuously growing trend of bilateral ties between the two governments and said that there are more extensive and diverse capacities for further cooperation.

Damn.

J.
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