Burt Rutan, one of the aerospace industry's premier engineers is going for the gold, putting a privately-built spacecraft into sub-orbital space. Pretty cool. Rutan is the guy whose most famous design, The Voyager, hangs in the Air and Space Museum. Check it out:

..."Watch." Out of the heavens streaks White Knight - an airplane that looks like a spaceship mated with a water bug, with twin tail booms and long, straight wings suspended over a capsule shaped like a bullet. "Now you'll see him go right into boost on full afterburner." White Knight dives low over our heads, pitches up, and screams 80 degrees skyward in a remarkable display of muscle, its carbon fiber airframe powered by two afterburning jet engines. At 10,000 feet it rolls over, a small white cross in a sea of eternal blue. "Dammit! Those guys are having too much fun," yells Rutan. "I'm gonna have to stop paying them!"
...
If everything works according to plan, sometime this summer White Knight will take wing with SpaceShipOne attached to its belly. At 50,000 feet, they will separate; SS1 will fire a rocket motor that burns nitrous oxide and rubber, and some 65 seconds later the craft and its three passengers will be floating in blackness 330,000 feet above Earth. "They will see and feel suborbital space," Rutan says, plunging into the crowd, "what nobody has seen and felt but Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom in the Mercury-Redstone program, and Joe Walker in the X-15."
...
...Rutan is no bar-stool dreamer; since 1974, Rutan has designed from scratch, built, and flown 38 different aircraft, all without a single fatality or injury. His company, Scaled Composites, has developed everything from Voyager, the only airplane to fly nonstop around the world on one tank of gas, to the outer shell of the DC-X, a prototype single-stage spaceship for McDonnell Douglas.

via Billmon:

The More Things Change ...
After the prison amnesty last week several hundred protesters surrounded the secret police headquarters in Baghdad for two days, demanding to know about sons and fathers who were arrested years ago and have not been released ...

It is unclear how many prisoners were freed and how many remain in jail. Although the social affairs minister said all the prisons were empty, officials refused to allow journalists into the vast Abu Ghraib compound, 20 miles from Baghdad, where many political prisoners have been held.

The Guardian
October 28, 2002

---

Remarkably, the Americans have also set up another detention camp in the grounds of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad ... Every day, relatives scuff their way along the dirt track to reach the razor wire barricades surrounding Abu Ghraib, where they plead in vain for information about the whereabouts of the missing.

The response from impassive American sentries is to point to a sign, scrawled in red felt-tip pen on a piece of cardboard hanging on the barbed wire, which says: “No visits are allowed, no information will be given and you must leave.”

The Times of London
July 9, 2003

How long until they kick off Phoenix II? Or maybe they already have.

That purveyor of finer riots and mayhem, Undersecretary of State John (Stop the Count!!) Bolton almost got to make the claim about Syria having WMD's. But it looks like somewhere in the 1600 Crew creeping Darwinism exists and a smarter monkey has evolved.

The Central Intelligence Agency and other agencies blocked a Bush administration plan to deliver sharp new warnings this week about Syria's efforts to develop unconventional weapons, according to United States government officials.

The C.I.A. and the other agencies raised strong objections to testimony that John R. Bolton, an under secretary of state, had planned to present to Congress on Tuesday.

The hearing was postponed, and Congressional officials and other government officials said one reason was the dispute over Mr. Bolton's plan to say in a classified portion of his testimony that Syria's development of chemical and biological weapons had progressed to the point that they posed a threat to stability in the Middle East.
...
A call to Mr. Bolton's office was referred to the State Department press office. A spokeswoman, Brooke Summers, said Mr. Bolton's testimony had been postponed because he "had to attend a White House meeting at the time that he was scheduled to attend the subcommittee meeting." She said the hearing was likely to be rescheduled to September.

Took the Geek Quiz over at Thudfactor. I discovered I may have a job if I get canned and the blogging thing doesn't work out...

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.

---

Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend.

You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines!

Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals!

You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Okay all my republican readers, explain this to me in terms I can understand. The tax cuts will benefit us all...right? If any of you can do what Sandy Weill just did, I'll say one nice thing about Dubya (but just one, and just once).

Set back the clock to 1993. Marginal income tax rates topped out at 39.6 percent—a result of tax increases by Presidents Bush I and Clinton. Corporate dividends—mostly received by those in the upper income brackets—were taxed at the same rate as ordinary income. Ditto for income created by exercising options. Capital gains were taxed at a 28 percent rate.

Plainly, these taxes didn't inhibit hard work, investment, or capital formation since the '90s brought an orgy of wealth creation. People made millions in options income, capital gains, Wall Street bonuses, corporate profit-sharing, and the like. Because the rewards went disproportionately to those in the higher income—and hence higher tax—brackets, government revenues grew at a rate far faster than overall economic growth.
...
But President Bush has redesigned the tax code in the past few years. And the changes, by design, will make it much harder for the government to grow out of the deficit. In 2001 and 2002, marginal tax rates were lowered. They were lowered again this year, dropping the top marginal rate to 35 percent. Long-term capital gains are now taxed at 15 percent, down from 20 percent before. And now dividend income will be taxed at 15 percent—regardless of your marginal income tax rate.
...
(By increasing Citigroup's dividend, as he did last week, outgoing CEO Sandy Weill just granted himself an annual stream of income of $32 million that will be taxed at 15 percent. Under the old regime, had he chosen to take that sum via options or a bonus, he would have paid more than twice as much in taxes.)

Okay, I'm waiting.

So the 1600 Crew has another extremist that they want to grant full lifetime employment to as a Federal Judge. But it seems that the potential Hizzoner can't quite get to that part of the dialog with the Senators known as telling the truth. A lying republican? Under Oath no less? I am just so damn shocked.

Mr. Pryor's nomination was set for a vote today but was postponed after the Democrats raised a new issue that has little to do with his conservative views. They say Mr. Pryor may have been untruthful in answers to the committee about his role in soliciting political donations from tobacco, drug, energy and banking corporations that are often investigated by states and their attorneys general.

Let me start this with that Famous Internet Disclosure: I Am Not a Lawyer - IANAL.

That being said, let me reference this excellent article from the Air Force's in-house press organ, Air Force News (as opposed to AF Times, a Gannett pub).

A May 26 letter to the editor in a civilian publication sent by an Air Force officer expressing his personal opinions about the president of the United States has called into question freedom of speech in the military.

The letter accused President Bush of knowing about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks beforehand and allowing them to take place for political reasons. At issue was whether the officer's letter violated Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Article 88 states, “any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the governor or legislature of any state, territory, commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”

“The purpose of Article 88 is to maintain good order and discipline among the force by prohibiting the use of contemptuous language or acts that would tend to undermine the authority of (our civilian leaders)," said Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Fiscus, the judge advocate general of the Air Force.

Although the article does not specifically address statements made by enlisted members, Air Force Instruction 51-902 does prohibit airmen and noncommissioned officers from making similar remarks, Fiscus said.

Article 88—Contempt toward officials
“Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”

It's more likely that the hyper-vindictive chickenhawks would choose to prosecute these men and women under the most catch-all of the regulations of the UCMJ, article 134, clause 2 which reads like this:

“Though not specifically mentioned in this chapter, all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, and crimes and offenses not capital, of which persons subject to this chapter may be guilty, shall be taken cognizance of by a general, special, or summary court-martial, according to the nature and degree of the offense, and shall be punished at the discretion of that court.”
clause 2:
(2) Disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces (clause 1).
(a) To the prejudice of good order and discipline. “To the prejudice of good order and discipline” refers only to acts directly prejudicial to good order and discipline and not to acts which are prejudicial only in a remote or indirect sense. Almost any irregular or improper act on the part of a member of the military service could be regarded as prejudicial in some indirect or remote sense; however, this article does not include these distant effects. It is con-fined to cases in which the prejudice is reasonably direct and palpable. An act in violation of a local civil law or of a foreign law may be punished if it constitutes a disorder or neglect to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces. However, see R.C.M. 203 concerning subject-matter jurisdiction.

All the Pentagon and media flap about the "getting back" at these men and women has to be making no one in the field very nervous, they know all this already. They also know that they can tie the system up in knots by demanding a Courts-Martial in Lieu of NJP (that's what happened at Tailhook...lots of officers, most in fact invoked that right after they saw what happened to the first guy who went to Admiral's Mast...and look how many trials there were of those guys: Zero). It's also making the 1600 Crew look like what they are: a bunch of weak, pathetic Chickenhawk Losers who beat up on the little guy.

Mirror: 1600 Crew, 1600 Crew: Mirror.

Step right up folks, he weeps! He cries! He wails like a demented Coultergeist at a Noonan Channeling! He's not sure if he's a boy or a girl!

If it weren't for Mark Levin, on WABC radio in New York, I wouldn't even have known what Blair had said. Levin read portions of the speech during his show, and I started to cry while I was listening to it, as I was driving home - weeping at the wheel, really! I was thinking - "This is a great man. We are lucky to be living at the same time he is." I think of what he has gone through in his own country, and of his strong convictions and actions. (It's not so surprising, actually - I have them, also. But given what's going on in Europe these days....)
I feel like I'm living in an alternate universe. I turned "The Today Show" on this morning, and while there was a piece from Iraq by Brokaw (who's coming around on this issue, I think), the next story was, of course, about Kobe Bryant. Is anybody there at all? Does anybody care? What is wrong with the world these days, or is it just the media? Couldn't we start some sort of news channel that really DOES deal with what's going on in the world - the important, earth-shaking events going on in the world currently?
Listen: when a moderate-to-liberal lesbian has come to appreciate (and listen to) Mark Levin and WABC talk radio, the world has turned seriously upside-down."

Hey Andy by the way, do Blair and Bush count as man-on-dog? Just wondering. Could you maybe ask L'il Ricky for clarification?

Inquiring minds and all that. I mean that's your sort of media question...right?

Oh, and I don't even want to know what brought you to this whole cruci-fixation thing...

Could it get any more humiliating than this for the 1600 Crew? A NYT headline that says:

U.S. May Be Forced to Go Back to U.N. for Iraq Mandate

President Yo Soy es Mas Macho, who embodies all those UN-hating republicans having to go back to the UN and ask for assistance in Iraq. What delicious irony.

The Bush administration, which spurned the United Nations in its drive to depose Saddam Hussein in Iraq, is finding itself forced back into the arms of the international body because other nations are refusing to contribute peacekeeping troops or reconstruction money without United Nations approval.

With the costs of stabilizing Iraq hovering at $4 billion a month and with American troops being killed at a steady rate, administration officials acknowledge that they are rethinking their strategy and may seek a United Nations resolution for help that would placate other nations, like India, France and Germany.

Administration officials contend that they are being practical, but within their ranks are policy makers sharply critical of the United Nations and those who would consider it humiliating to seek its mantle after risking American lives in the invasion that ousted Mr. Hussein.

Matt Stoller over at "To the Point" has a great piece on the Middle-East, Bush and what some of this mess means.

The fundamental problem for the Republican leadership on foreign policy is not that they lie or misrepresent what's going on; it's that Americans are optimists and believe in a world that can aspire to good, and that in presenting us with a deeply cynical and dishonest case implying that the world is a terrible place fit only for American weaponry and power, they are depriving us of the ability to hope and be idealistic about what America means. That to me is offensive on a very fundamental level. America is based on an idea, on the concept that America is a new world that can change the old, that it can lead, and that prosperity and freedom can belong to anyone who is willing to subordinate him or herself to the rule of law and hard work. This isn't just pie-in-the-sky wishfulness, as it's true that most people really just ARE simple shopkeepers who want to be left alone to play with their kids. America harnesses that desire, and that's why America is so attractive. Bush does not believe in this version of America. His America is based the cold hard reality of force and the inherent viciousness of human nature, which is why he as governor of Texas made fun of people on Death Row before denying their stays of execution. He never has believed this version of America, and neither do his deputies. The Democrats are by and large incoherent on this, tactically reactive against lies but allowing the worldview of a big bad world full of meanies instead of hopeful shopkeepers to remain unchallenged.

Not related, I think, but an interesting coincidence. A new audio tape is out there with a voice purported to be that of Saddam Hussein, calling for a "jihad" against the "occupiers", which means of course, the troops already getting fired on everyday. And Wolfowitz goes to Iraq. Gee, he missed the first day of the war he so desperately wanted what's he wanna go for now? Damn Rubbernecker.

In an audiotape marking Thursday's 35th anniversary of the Baath Party coup, a voice purported to be that of Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to continue a ''holy war'' against U.S. forces. Even so, the banned holiday was a remarkably quiet day for American troops in Iraq.
...
American helicopters filled the Baghdad skies late Thursday afternoon, presumably as security for Paul Wolfowitz, the U.S. deputy secretary of defense, who will tour the country to see U.S. commanders and increasingly demoralized soldiers.

On Thursday, the Pentagon raised the number of U.S. personnel killed in combat since the start of the Iraq war on March 20 to 147 equaling the total killed in combat during the 1991 Gulf War.

Of that number, 30 members of the U.S. occupying force of 160,000 have been killed in anti-American assaults since President Bush declared an end to major hostilities in Iraq on May 1.

''I look forward to seeing firsthand evidence of what it means for the Iraqi people to be liberated from decades of brutal repression,'' Wolfowitz said after his 12-hour flight from Washington.

1st General Order "I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved."

2nd General Order
"I will obey my special orders and perform all of my duties in a military manner."

3rd General Order
"I will report violations of my special orders, emergencies, and anything not covered in my instructions, to the commander of the relief."

Ranting again...boring...

Intelligence is a hit-and-miss business.
...
Does that mean Clinton lied to us? I mean, apart from about Gennifer, Monica, and which part of the party of the first part's enumerated parts came into contact with part of the party of the second part's enumerated parts.

They spent $70MM to go after Clinton your highness and came up with nothing that was worth that much...and you helped stoke the fires. The Leader of the Axis Weasels, the myopic boy king, is threatened with questions about any facts and you just can't stand it Sully, because the answers might lead where you don't want to go. As David Ehrenstein once pointed out, you are fully supportive not of a right to privacy for those you scorn, but a "right to secrecy" whether for yourself or the mediocre hacks you worship and sell yourself for.

A 10-year old Ohio boy on his way home from Orlando apparently had a Teddy Bear with a .22-caliber handgun in it. But, unlike Rep Issa, it really wasn't his.

Airport security workers found a loaded handgun stuffed inside a brown teddy bear that a 10-year-old boy was carrying on a trip home after his family's Florida vacation, authorities said Thursday.
...
The TSA found a loaded .22-caliber gun after the bear was opened. The boy's family told investigators that the bear was a gift from a girl at the hotel where they stayed during their Orlando vacation.

"She appeared at their hotel room door and offered them the bear," said Robert Johnson, a TSA spokesman in Washington. "The mother said it was OK and so the boy took it."

The Miami Herald reported that the gun had been concealed by cutting a half-inch hole at the bottom of the bear, and that the gun had been reported stolen in 1996 in California.

Hey! send someone to Pinocchio Issa's place and ask if he's missing any .22's. See if his nose grows under questioning or he blames it on his brother.

The man leading the recall drive against Gov. GRAY (truly) Davis, RepREP Darrell Issa, actually is guilty of weapons offense, even though his initial claim was it was "an 'unloaded...little teeny pistol.' ". Sure Darrell, and those aren't deadly either...well in fact what the dis-Honorable Gentleman from California had was a .25-caliber pistol with 44 rounds of ammunition, and a tear-gas gun with two rounds of ammunition.

Also on July 2, the Sacramento Bee quoted Issa as blaming his brother for the gun. Issa "said he was fined $100 for possession of an unregistered firearm that was his brother's, but declined to go into detail," the newspaper wrote.

Issa elaborated in a July 4 interview with the Los Angeles Times.

The gun was an "unloaded, never-fired, in-the-box, little, teeny pistol," the newspaper quoted him as saying. The newspaper also said Issa denied owning the weapon but wouldn't say who did.

"It wasn't mine. I've never owned a gun, er, I've never registered a gun...but that's neither here nor there," he was quoted as saying.
...
"He said he's got the right to carry it, because he's from Ohio," Payne said. "Back then even an off-duty police officer in Ohio couldn't carry a (concealed) gun, so there was no way he could carry a gun like that.

"It was a B.S. story, and (my partner and I) were laughing about it later."

Issa was booked for carrying a concealed weapon, a felony. The following month, he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of possession of an unregistered gun and was fined and put on probation, court records show.

Here's another thing that we can potentially thank the 1600 Crew for: the declining power of American Brand Names overseas. It was just sooo cute to make fun of the French and our other allies who were reluctant to find their troops in Iraq based on poodle-intel and the word of God's other son. Now it seems that consumers anxious to be that Marlboro Man, well they really aren't so anxious if that means American.

But what if American products have started to stand for something else? Such as bullying imperialism or intolerance of the rest of the world's problems? Would it be time to suggest to the makers of Marlboro that they tone down their American heritage when selling their cigarettes abroad? Would that spell the end of those big-sky advertisements with open roads and square-jawed guys in cowboy hats?

One member of the Texas Lege is holding up Dee-Lay's Dream of an extra six seats in the House. One man. The New York Times opines that President Hold-em's chosen successor, Rick Perry is contemplating another 30-day "special session" to try and push the issue again, thus coining a new word: "Perrymandering".

Mr. DeLay's office succeeded in tracing the Democrats, suggesting that he might better serve Republicans in the search for Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein rather than opposition truants.

Yellowcake. Policy. Politics. "Contrite" George Tenet.

"I believe that there was if not a battle royal between the CIA staff and the White House staff, certainly some back and forth," he said. "I believe that in this case, the White House political staff was looking at every rock, every nook and cranny to make their case and I believe the political staff prevailed."

"There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus," says the Democrat and University of Pennsylvania political science professor. "What you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."

Sometimes something is just so correct.

Tommy Franks replacement at CentCom seems like a pretty rational guy (for an Army type...gotta have that inter-service thing there). He speaks fluent Arabic, he's got loads of experience and it seems that maybe he sees the forest for the trees. So how long will he last? He has already contradicted St. Donald in public, a crime that got the previous Army Chief of Staff sent off to an ignominious retirement ceremony. Abizaid is calling a spade a spade. It's a guerrilla war in Iraq, and he recognizes that, and is properly setting up to fight that way, or so it seems.

These Iraqi forces, Abizaid said, "are conducting what I would describe as a classical guerrilla-type campaign against us. It's low-intensity conflict in our doctrinal terms, but it's war however you describe it."

Abizaid's remarks were in sharp contrast to those of Rumsfeld, his boss, who insisted from the same lectern 21/2 weeks ago that the U.S. military was not involved in a guerrilla war and who said as recently as Sunday on ABC News that the fighting in Iraq did not fit the definition of guerrilla war.

While Rumsfeld said that he did not have any good evidence that the Iraqi attacks were being coordinated at the regional level, Abizaid said yesterday that there is regional organization and that it is possible that these regional organizations could become connected throughout the country.
...
He hinted at a shift of emphasis, saying the focus on the size of the U.S. force in Iraq is misplaced as a measure of effectiveness against the Iraqi insurgents. "You all have to understand it's not a matter of boots per square [kilo]meter," he said. "Everybody wants to think that, but that's just not so. If I could do one thing as a commander right now, I would focus my intelligence like a laser on where the problem is, which is mid-level Baathist leaders."

Abizaid also may be just the guy to get the troops morale back on track. I suspect he's a far more hands-on leader than Franks was, and involvement by someone at his level may be just what morale needs. He seems to already have plans to try and get the 3ID out of there by fall. And that's a good thing.

I am still a little bit baffled by the whole "Christian" thing and the Death Penalty. I know, I've heard the arguments and everyone's got an opinion. But in the case of The DOJ's Chief Snake Handler, you have to wonder why he has such a fixation on the whole process. It's almost obsessive-compulsive in a way...kind like his hero Heini Himmler, I guess. Seems he wants to toss aside Puerto Rican opposition of the last 76 years and go for it in a federal case down there.

This island, it is safe to say, hates capital punishment. It has not had an execution since 1927. It outlawed the practice two years later and wrote this antipathy into its Constitution in 1952: "The death penalty shall not exist."

That is why a federal trial here, in which the Justice Department is seeking the execution of two men accused of kidnapping and murder, has left many Puerto Ricans baffled and angry.
...
"Although we are talking about some facts that are very gruesome, the people of Puerto Rico do not approve in any way of capital punishment," said Arturo Luis Dávila Toro, the president of the Puerto Rico Bar Association.

"If the people of Puerto Rico decide that capital punishment cannot be used, even in federal prosecutions, it is against the Compact of 1952," Mr. Dávila Toro said. "How can I explain that my Constitution is not respected by the nation that teaches us how to live in a democracy?"

People here associate capital punishment with the military government installed by the United States in 1898, after it took Puerto Rico from Spain in the Spanish-American War. That government executed two dozen mostly poor and illiterate people before the island outlawed the death penalty.
...
Mr. Pérez Mojica, the informant, sat in front of a Puerto Rican flag as he answered questions through a translator on Monday. The American flag was tucked in a far corner of the courtroom.

The translation into English seemed superfluous if not comic to many people in the courtroom, whose Spanish was mostly better than their English.

Judge Laffitte, who occasionally corrected the translator, tried to explain the importance of preparing a clear written transcript in English.

"This is a sensitive and important case," he said in court on Monday, and he wanted to be sure that the appeals court judges in Boston understood what had gone on during the trial.

One of the best things about moving DEMVET are the stats that my host has. The best search phrase that has brought someone here so far is: jerry springer hooker check

Gotta love that one...oppo research perhaps?

MSGOP has a story about how much money President Bank-Book has raised to date for his 2004 failing reelection bid.

Ken Mehlman, Bush’s campaign manager, defended the prodigious fundraising, given the fact that the president has no primary opposition and the Democrats will spend much of their money on their nomination battle. “We’re expecting this will be a close race, and we intend to have the resources we need to communicate our message and to build a strong grass-roots organization,” he told reporters in a conference call.

Approximately 12,500 donors gave Bush the maximum contribution of $2,000, according to Mehlman, and the campaign’s Web site listed 18 individuals who have already earned the designation of “Ranger” by raising at least $200,000 for Bush, as well as 50 individuals or couples who have qualified as “Pioneers” by raising $100,000.

Although Bush campaign officials emphasized the broad-based reach of their fundraising effort, about 70 percent of the money raised came in contributions of $2,000.

Someone at the receiving end of a minimum-wage or poverty-line job (like say a married E-3 in Iraq) isn't about to dump Two Grand into the GOP campaign coffers this year or next.

Gunfire on the 38th Parallel is not a common occurance, as I think anyone who has been stationed on the Korean DMZ might tell you. But now? Today?

South and North Korean soldiers briefly exchanged machine gun fire along their border on Thursday, but the South Korean military said it did not suffer casualties in the shootout.

It was not immediately known whether any North Korean troops were injured or killed in the firefight in the Demilitarized Zone, a buffer area that was created at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War to keep opposing armies apart.

Tension on the Korean Peninsula is high over North Kore's suspected development of nuclear weapons, and such shooting incidents in the DMZ are rare. In recent years, however, negotiations and reconciliation efforts have moved forward despite such outbreaks of violence.
...
North Korean soldiers fired four rounds at 6:10 a.m., and South Korean soldiers issued a warning broadcast before firing 17 rounds in response one minute later, said Maj. Lee of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said the North Korean fire came from a machine gun, and that the South was using a machine gun called a K-3.
...
Under terms of the armistice, North and South Korean soldiers can patrol in the DMZ, but they are not allowed to move around with heavy weapons such as machine guns.

However, Lee said the two sides are allowed to keep machine guns inside observation posts, and that the guns used in the shootout were located in such posts. Lee, who did not give his first name, said the incident happened near the South Korean town of Yonchon, 35 miles north of the South Korean capital, Seoul.

Then the moralistic little republican congresscritters would have such bright, stringent lines to follow in their investigation and questions. Right? If tomorrow Lincoln Chaffee or another moderate republican senator decided to follow Jim Jeffords, how fast would the wagons be circled and how loud would the Wurlitzer be?

After today's testimony by Tenet, I doubt the sanctimony factor would be so high, but the shrillness factor would go up exponentially.

Senators spoke after CIA Director George Tenet made a 4 1/2-hour closed-door appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Tenet repeated his statement that he bears responsibility for allowing Bush to include his State of the Union speech a claim that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa for a nuclear weapons program.

But Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said the issue wasn't why Tenet failed to keep the information out of the speech but who was so determined to put it in and why.

"All roads still lead back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," he said, referring to the White House address. "The question is, Who in the White House was so determined to put information in the State of the Union which had been discounted so dramatically by American intelligence sources?"
...
Responding to a question, committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said White House officials could possibly be called before the panel to discuss the handling of the intelligence.

He described Tenet as "very contrite. He was very candid, very forthcoming. He accepted full responsibility."
...
Roberts said it was clear "there were mistakes made up and down the chain." He said the hearing reaffirmed his belief that "the handling of this was sloppy."
...
Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., a presidential candidate and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Bush should take responsibility for the reference to the Niger uranium.

"The responsibility is not the CIA's; it's not anyone else's. It is the president's responsibility. And those 16 words (about the uranium) were spoken by the president and he has to take responsibility for them," he said.

Tenet's appearance had been planned before he took responsibility for the uranium information being included in Bush's speech, Roberts said. He had been scheduled to discuss information sharing with U.N. inspectors.

Before the hearing, Roberts also denounced the "partisan flavor" of the discussion.

Now if we can just get Pat Roberts to act like a grown-up and not a tyke having a continual temper-tantrum over "partisanship", the facts (proving or disproving this) might come out. Perhaps he'll call my favorite 1600 Crew official, Ashley Snee...what a great name, has that whole Mortimer Snerd thing going for it.

Sully in a desperate bid to look both timely and hip, tries to make fun of Sen. and Presidential candidate Bob Graham for sponsoring a NASCAR car...

THE NASCAR CANDIDATE: Bob Graham tries to woo the red states by sponsoring a NASCAR driver. Hey, why not the WWF?

It was only a matter of time, I guess. A C-130 coming into Baghdad was targeted by a Surface-to-Air Missile today. No word whether it was great flying and countermeasures by the Pilot and Crew that saved it; the SAM shooter might have been too nervous/excited and just missed; or if it was a combination of both and just luck. I'm glad it was a miss, the last thing anyone needs was a success like that by the Iraqi's today.

The C-130, like most military planes, has countermeasures that can be used to defeat surface-to-air missiles. Military pilots in hostile areas also use tactics such as flying close to the ground to make it harder for missiles to hit their planes.

I think there are a lot of troops who wonder what exactly mission was accomplished. I also suspect after today, when they fnally get orders out, their preferred method of transport to the exits will be in tracked APC's to a ship waiting in the Gulf.

that the soldiers in Iraq today followed the past example of their current commander in chief? Wouldn't that be interesting? I'm sure there's a Senate campaign somewhere out there that needs workers.

Indeed.

Well known fact: Pat Robertson wants G-AAW-D to call "home" three justices of the Supreme Court, because they have some type of illness...and it'll give the Imbiber-in-Chief a chance to replace them so the morals squads can again return to our bedrooms. Smaller known fact, Robertson himself had prostate cancer and subsequent surgery. Question here is, did they miss the prostate and get the brain? I mean both are pretty close to his backside, I rectum, but certainly no one could mistake his prostate for his brain, it's bigger right? So they would have had to take out the largest oval object near his ass...oops.

There's his excuse when the next Eric Rudolph goes on a rampage and cites Pat as his inspiration...I couldn't have said it they took out my brains.

Alrighty then.

UPDATE: This is a post I did a long time ago about Robertson. The statement was made when Robertson was running for president in the 80's.

From the closing paragraphs of the article, written by an Honorable Marine who was in the first wave ashore at Inchon. Substitute Dubya for patrobertson where appropriate...it fits, I think.

"Neither Pat Robertson nor I could carry their gear. He is trying to get elected by standing on those frozen bodies I saw, by putting himself in the company of those seven Marines who repulsed the enemy.

Imagine a person who aspires to be President being so loose with the truth, so lacking in grace and so dishonorable.

He says God talks to him. I'd like to hear what God says to him about this."

LEO T. CRONIN Former Corporal U.S.M.C.

Remember all the furor over the lack of qualified translators after 9/11. Well, 9/11 changes a lot of things, we got war, the Patriot Act, Excessive Ashcroft...etc...it seems that the one thing it did not change was the FBI culture of ummmm...do nothing. Now, believe me, the FBI is not a do-nothing organization, there are some out-freaking-standing FBI agents out there, who like all Law Enforcement professionals keep us safe at the risk of their own lives, and never ask anything in return other than to be able to go back to work tomorrow and do it all over again.

Then there are the desk-bound careerists, who carry badges, guns and live to be government bureaucrats. They make stories like this possible. I thought maybe they were "getting gone", but apparently not...they are in fact, winning.

An FBI translator, Sibel Edmonds, was hired to translate Turkish intel (documents and wiretaps) and found not only spying inside our government, but that one of her co-workers might have been "co-opted" by Turkish Intelligence. She also was too efficient, getting an entire eight hours work done and turned in within her eight-hour day, only to find it all erased by her supervisor, who did that so he could show "a need for more translators, and hence a requirement for a bigger budget" because of a "backlog". This was likely vital intelligence, National Security stuff, not the answers to the NYT crossword.

Edmonds says that to her amazement, from the day she started the job, she was told repeatedly by one of her supervisors that there was no urgency - that she should take longer to translate documents so that the department would appear overworked and understaffed. That way, it would receive a larger budget for the next year.

“We were told by our supervisors that this was the great opportunity for asking for increased budget and asking for more translators,” says Edmonds. “And in order to do that, don't do the work and let the documents pile up so we can show it and say that we need more translators and expand the department.”

Edmonds says that the supervisor, in an effort to slow her down, went so far as to erase completed translations from her FBI computer after she'd left work for the day.

“The next day I would come to work, turn on my computer and the work would be gone. The translation would be gone,” she says. “Then I had to start all over again and retranslate the same document. And I went to my supervisor and he said, ‘Consider it a lesson and don't talk about it to anybody else and don't mention it.’”
...
Take the case of Jan Dickerson, a Turkish translator who worked with Edmonds. The FBI has admitted that when Dickerson was hired last November the bureau didn't know that she had worked for a Turkish organization being investigated by the FBI's own counter-intelligence unit.

They also didn't know she'd had a relationship with a Turkish intelligence officer stationed in Washington who was the target of that investigation. According to Edmonds, Dickerson tried to recruit her into that organization, and insisted that Dickerson be the only one to translate the FBI's wiretaps of that Turkish official.

“She got very angry, and later she threatened me and my family's life,” says Edmonds, when she decided not to go along with the plan. “She said ‘Why would you want to place your life and your family's life in danger by translating these tapes?’”

Edmonds says that when she reviewed Dickerson's translations of those tapes, she found that Dickerson had left out information crucial to the FBI's investigation - information that Edmonds says would have revealed that the Turkish intelligence officer had spies working for him inside the U.S. State Department and at the Pentagon.
...
What kind of information did she leave out of her translation?
“Activities to obtain the United States military and intelligence secrets,” says Edmonds.
...
Sibel Edmonds was fired. The FBI offered no explanation, saying in the letter only that her contract was terminated completely for the government's convenience.

But three months later, the FBI conceded that on at least two occasions, Dickerson had, in fact, left out significant information from her translations. They say it was due to a lack of experience and was not malicious.

Director Mueller, the American Public is calling: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON THERE?

How are they all related? Let's see...we invaded Afghanistan to remove the Taliban and their criminal enterprise al-Qaida. Okay. We toss out the Taliban and their friends and set up a puppet government, whom we don't really fund or protect, then we go off Talib hunting in the hinterlands of the Hindu Kush, getting our remaining Afghan friends and allies wasted as we go...follow me so far? Let's see if this article from the AsiaTimes makes it a bit clearer. Oh, and as for Opium, well we have basically turned over record crops to the warlords (remember them?) to sell and ship out ... one has to wonder where that ends up.

It is rather well known that al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants have been avoiding the US dragnet by hiding in Balochistan and in Pakistan's tribal agencies (FATA) bordering Afghanistan. The Balochi Shi'ites, most of whom immigrated ages ago from the Hazara region in central Afghanistan, have been providing the Americans and the Pakistanis intelligence about al-Qaeda and Taliban militia in the province. That led to a number of arrests of al-Qaeda operatives. But while their intelligence was accepted, neither the Americans nor the Pakistanis saw it necessary to provide the Shi'ite sources with adequate security.

It is certain that more killings will ensue, likely precipitating full-fledged sectarian violence between Shi'ites and Sunnis in already-troubled Pakistan that may, sooner or later, embroil the keeper of the Shi'ite faith - Iran. Indeed, some in Washington, particularly the neo-conservatives thumping to "take out" the Iran regime, would like to get Tehran involved in the brawl. This crude layer of the American political mainstream hopes that such action by Tehran would provide the "smoking gun" to justify a regime change in Iran to the hapless American populace.

To repeat the ABCs of this situation: the key players in Pakistan on whom the US is relying to eradicate Taliban extremists are the very individuals who created the Taliban. By supporting President General Pervez Musharraf in his power grab in 1999 in a coup under the pretext of replacing a "fundamentalist" with a "moderate", Washington did manage to buy off a small section of the Pakistani army personnel. These switched from being pro-Taliban to become pro-American. Needless to say, Musharraf is one of them. Since then, Washington has dumped money on Pakistan, looked away from its enriched uranium-for-missile deal with North Korea, and suppressed information about the on-going support to the Taliban and al-Qaeda militia by a section of the Pakistan army and the ISI.
...
More recently, when Musharraf was touring abroad for 18 days in late June appeasing Western leaders, Pakistan's chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Mohammad Aziz Khan, identified America as Pakistan's number one enemy.
...
Nobody knows better than Karzai the problem of being a puppet of Washington. Karzai, who is referred to as the "mayor of Kabul" by cynical Kabul residents, was wholly at the mercy of the Americans from the time he was made leader. The US provides him an inner core of bodyguards, and he remains as distant from the Afghans as he was the day he was sworn in. Meanwhile, Americans are out there "fixing" things.

One of the things that the Americans "fixed" is drug production. During the Taliban days, opium production had reached a peak of 5,000-plus tons. In 2001, with the warehouses filled to the ceiling with raw opium, the Taliban wanted to show how "good" they were, and stopped poppy cultivation in the territories they controlled - about 95 percent of the country. The opium price soared, and the Taliban regime and its Pakistani benefactors made huge profits. At the same time, the Taliban, citing their efforts to end the venal drug trade, sought recognition as the legitimate Afghan government.
...
One of these short-cuts involved a deal with the warlords. The deal was to allow the warlords to grow poppy, so that these warlords could buy arms and recruit militia to strengthen their ranks. In return, they would not only provide the Americans with the intelligence on where the al-Qaeda and the Taliban are hiding, but would also provide the Americans with fighters.

What came of this approach? The first thing that happened is that poppy fields and the poppy growers took over Afghanistan. In the year 2002, about 3,750 tons of opium was harvested. In cold cash, this translates conservatively into anything between US$5-6 billion for the warlords.

The results of more brilliant foreign policy decisions from the 1600 Crew and President Bring-'em-on.

A reader writes to Sully and upbraids him for being nice to Pat Robertson. Seems that even some of Sully's contributors know the difference between a viper and a gartersnake, a distinction which seems to have escaped Sully on more than one occasion, on any number of things, especially concerning anything republican. This reader says to Sully:

"...I take your arguments seriously enough to consider them as those of a thoughtful human, not the spawn of Satan. Thus I was particularly annoyed to read the snippet today on "the social right's darling, Pat Robertson." As you can tell, I'm a social conservative, but I also consider Robertson an ignorant bigot and fast talker who is an embarrassment to me (and many of my friends on the social right). I refrain from associating you with nutbar leftist homosexuals; I'd appreciate it if you would refrain from associating me and other social conservatives with Robertson (whom I loathe)."

I take the point. But there was a time when Robertson was regarded as a pillar of the consrvative establishment, defended by the likes of Norman Podhoretz, etc.

Except Twain uses the words, "honest writer".

Former Defense Secretary William Perry has spoken, and it's not about Easter Bunnies and Santa Claus. He spoke about a small southeast Asian problem. Called North Korea. In making his stupid Axis of Evil speech, Presdent Quien-Es-Mas-Macho drew the North Koreans into a box. Feeling (and being)far more economically disadvantaged than say Iran, the NK's started to re-develop the one true ecomomic asset they have. Real Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now it's starting to look like they may want to use them, whether as high-atomic weight fund-raising tools or perhaps WEAPONS.

Former defense secretary William Perry warned that the United States and North Korea are drifting toward war, perhaps as early as this year, in an increasingly dangerous standoff that also could result in terrorists being able to purchase a North Korean nuclear device and plant it in a U.S. city.

"I think we are losing control" of the situation, said Perry, who believes North Korea soon will have enough nuclear warheads to begin exploding them in tests and exporting them to terrorists and other U.S. adversaries. "The nuclear program now underway in North Korea poses an imminent danger of nuclear weapons being detonated in American cities," he said in an interview.

"The nuclear program now underway in North Korea poses an imminent danger of nuclear weapons being detonated in American cities,"

Fred Kaplan writing in Slate today sums up all the bad choices that the 1600 Crew has made and distilled it down to the one that might work. Talk to the NK's and begin to offer reasonable, humantiarian aide.

So, unless Bush prefers a nuclear North Korea to the pangs of compromise, he is left with one course—a negotiated buy-out. Kim has been requesting such a buy-out ever since the crisis started last October, and if Bush can see beyond the cliché of tagging all such schemes as "blackmail" or "appeasement"—if his advisers could remind him that all diplomacy (especially nuclear diplomacy) involves a certain amount of bribery—there may be a chance to stop this wreck before it happens.

Essentially, Kim's minions say he will abandon his nuclear program and open up the reactors to inspection, in exchange for a U.S. non-aggression pact and the resumption of some economic assistance. This isn't a bad deal, really. A bipartisan group of congressmen who went to Pyongyang last month put a 10-point plan on the table, outlining a way to achieve these ends. The minions said they liked it. No one has explained why Bush shouldn't adopt the plan as his and start the talks.

Obviously, some administration officials think he should go for a negotiated solution. That's why they leaked Plan 5030—to highlight how closely this crisis might veer to war. Kim Jong-il thinks we're going to attack him, so he rushes his nuclear-weapons program to deter the onslaught—which incites Pentagon officials to drum up better plans to attack him. The alarming question before us all: Will Bush break this deadly circle, or complete it?

And that scares me.

Bear with me on this tale. Here's the link to the quote below. It seems that President Macho Pants is not the first Bush to show utter contempt for the US Military. It can hardly be said of GHWB, who did his duty, flew off of carriers into combat and really really served as the youngest Naval Aviator in history (19 years old, I believe). But his daddy, ol' Nazi-trading Prescott, he was a horse of a different color.

In June, 1918, just as his father took over responsibility for relations of the government with the private arms producers, Prescott went to Europe with the U.S. Army. His unit did not come near any fire until September. But on August 8, 1918, the following item appeared on the front page of Bush's home-town newspaper:
High Military Honors Conferred on Capt. Bush

For Notable Gallantry, When Leading Allied Commanders Were Endangered, Local Man is Awarded French, English and U.S. Crosses.

International Honors, perhaps unprecedented in the life of an American soldier, have been conferred upon Captain Prescott Sheldon Bush, son of Mr. and Mrs. S.P. Bush of Columbus.

Upon young Bush ... were conferred: Cross of the Legion of Honor, ... Victoria Cross, ... Distinguished Service Cross....

Conferring of the three decorations upon one man at one time implies recognition of a deed of rare valor and probably of great military importance as well.

From word which has reached Columbus during the last few days, it appears as if the achievement of Captain Bush well measures up to these requirements.

The incident occurred on the western front about the time the Germans were launching their great offensive of July 15.... The history of the remarkable victory scored later by the allies might have been written in another vein, but for the heroic and quick action of Captain Bush.

The ... three allied leaders, Gen. [Ferdinand] Foch, Sir Douglas Haig and Gen. [John J.] Pershing ... were making an inspection of American positions. Gen. Pershing had sent for Captain Bush to guide them about one sector.... Suddenly Captain Bush noticed a shell coming directly for them. He shouted a warning, suddenly drew his bolo knife, stuck it up as he would a ball bat, and parried the blow, causing the shell to glance off to the right....

Within 24 hours young Bush was notified ... [that] the three allied commanders had recommended him for practically the highest honors within their gift.... Captain Bush is 23 years old, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1917. He was one of Yale's best- known athletes ... was leader of the glee club ... and in his senior year was elected to the famous Skull and Bones Society....

The day after this astonishing story appeared, there was a large cartoon on the editorial page. It depicted Prescott Bush as a small boy, reading a story-book about military heroism, and saying: "Gee! I wonder if anything like that could ever truly happen to a boy." The caption below was a rehash of the batting- away- the-deadly-shell exploit, written in storybook style.

Local excitement about the military "Babe Ruth" lasted just four weeks. Then this somber little box appeared on the front page:
Editor State Journal:

A cable received from my son, Prescott S. Bush, brings word that he has not been decorated, as published in the papers a month ago. He feels dreadfully troubled that a letter, written in a spirit of fun, should have been misinterpreted. He says he is no hero and asks me to make explanations. I will appreciate your kindness in publishing this letter....

Flora Sheldon Bush.

Columbus, Sept. 5

Prescott Bush later claimed that he spent "about 10 or 11 weeks" in the area of combat in France. "We were under fire there.... It was quite exciting, and of course a wonderful experience." @s8

Prescott Bush was discharged in mid-1919, and returned for a short time to Columbus, Ohio. But his humiliation in his home town was so intense that he could no longer live there. The "war hero" story was henceforth not spoken of in his presence. Decades later, when he was an important, rich U.S. Senator, the story was whispered and puzzled over among the Congressmen.

Talk about utter and complete contempt for the military...

Remember Superman's X-ray vision? Well some really smart and geeky company developed a device to allow the TSA screeners not to have to actually touch you to screen you for ... whatever. It uses some type of X-Ray scatter technology that lets them see under you clothes, but not like a "real" X-Ray. Okay. Now, we all know that the one thing that X-Rays do is ummmm, zap your cells and cause damage right? It's why folks who work around them wear those little badges, that measure exposure. So by implication, there must be some danger, right. Well trust our boys in the administration to cover for the vendors of such things...the HomeLand Security Department wants to exempt vendors who make machinery/devices that could hurt you and me from any culpability. Why am I not shocked?

The Homeland Security Department today proposed regulations to shield technology vendors from liability for domestic defense products that cause unintended damage, injury or death.

The regulations would implement the Support Antiterrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act of 2002. That law, a subtitle of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, aims to spur development of antiterrorism technologies by protecting vendors.

Under the SAFETY law and regulation, cases against vendors of technologies chosen by the department for antiterrorism deployment would be heard in federal rather than state courts.
...
The protection would also expand the so-called government contractor defense. Otherwise, “many companies may not invest in potential lifesaving technologies to protect Americans,” the department said in an announcement.

The DHS secretary would have broad discretion to decide whether to shield an antiterrorism technology from liability.

Not really a surprise, as noted before, no one really wants to get sucked into The Quagmire of the new millenium. After Dumsfeld went around Old Europe trashing all our allies in NATO, all the future allies took note of the tone and demeanor of the administration and the policies it was following. Seems that we did a pretty good job of throwing a party and getting stood-up.

After weeks of high-level discussions with the United States, India today rejected an American request to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq, saying it would only consider doing so under an "explicit" U.N. mandate.

The announcement following a cabinet-level security meeting this afternoon was a setback to the Pentagon's efforts to bolster its forces in Iraq with contributions from allies. For the past several weeks, India has been seriously considering the deployment to Iraq of a full army division -- about 17,000 men -- which would have been the second-largest foreign contingent in the country after that of the United States.

Some senior ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had argued that such a contribution would advance India's economic and strategic interests both in the gulf and in terms of its relations with the United States.

If Iraq's invasion [is] unjust immoral and illegal, how can its occupation, caused by the invasion, be just and acceptable?" columnist Praful Bidwai wrote in the latest issue of Frontline, a liberal newsmagazine here. "It is completely illogical to oppose the war on Iraq, as the Indian government and Parliament did, and then support its occupation and become part of it."

No, really. Over in the bottom of the Fish Pond is a link to a BBS that has a sort of a pro-blogger thrust to it. Seems that a couple of guys (we'll call 'em Pat and Joe to hide their identities) are looking for other/alternative ways to get bloggers involved interactively. They have a righty...and me so far. Anyhow, I'll be "posting" as it were over there as a participant from time to time and trying to uphold my sterling reputation as a bastion of progressive free-thinking.

However, please rest assured that I'm not giving up DemVet...I like my new home too much...

And on a final note...I want to welcome everyone who came from UggaBugga and thank QQ for the kind words the other day. To quote President Eloquence himself, it was "darn good" of QQ to say all those nice things about DemVet, hope you all come back often!

And while we're on the subject of photographs...
Seems that for President Yellowcake, even having his picture taken is an "event". The unprecedented access that the media has had to the president to take pictures ended with the installation of BushRoveCo. After all, we would not want say, Will Ferrell doing Chevy Chase doing Smirk? Right? I mean it was bad enough to invent the word "strategery", that only resonated on SNL and here in blogtopia...but having real, candid moments photographed, something that every president has had done since Matthew Brady, well not in this mis-administration.

All recent presidents have had official photographers, and all have distributed White House photographs that they hoped put the president and his administration in the best light.

But photographers, picture editors and even administration officials say that no other administration has moved as forcefully as the Bush White House to limit the access of outside news photographers to the president. There are two reasons, they say: the administration's desire for secrecy, and new technology, like the ability to send digital photos by e-mail, that makes immediate dissemination of images possible.
...
Generally, the official pictures of Mr. Bush follow the White House's narrative line of a manly, resolute leader, like the photograph of the president clearing brush at his Texas ranch wearing a cowboy hat. Others portray him as deeply engaged in his duties, like one widely used photograph of Mr. Bush in an intense meeting in the Oval Office the morning after the United States opened the war against Iraq.
...
"This administration, in times of crisis, has really put out its own image from its own employees," said Chuck Kennedy, a Knight Ridder photographer who has covered the White House since Ronald Reagan's last term. "I don't know that any one of these handouts is a grand fabrication or a distortion of what's going on, but we're only getting one voice."

White House officials say that allowing a group of news photographers in for that scene would have compromised security and changed the character of the meeting. "Have you ever been in the Oval Office when the photographers come running in?" Mr. Fleischer said. "Literally, it's a thundering herd. That picture could not have taken place."

Photographers readily acknowledge that behind-the-scenes photography is not necessarily reality either. "You're going to see what they want you to see," said Dirk Halstead, a former Time photographer who covered the White House.

Mr. Halstead, who is now assembling collections of presidential photography at the Center for American History at the University of Texas, said that the lack of outside access would leave a gap in the public record of the Bush presidency.

"I really think we're going to come up short on an historical basis from the standpoint of `What were these people really like?' " Mr. Halstead said. "Eric's pictures are there, but they are suspect because he's working for the president."

From a WaPo article on the decline and fall of Bush Poll numbers:

"If we have the capability of finding out that Joe Blow No-Name has dodged his taxes for the past 10 years, why don't we have the capability of . . . finding a foolproof method of finding out whether the intelligence we gather is accurate and making it rock-solid before we jump into another situation?" said James Pike, 41, an auto mechanic from Ogdensburg, N.Y.
...
"I don't really know that we have any business there," said Penny Tarbert, 50, who is disabled and lives in Bucyrus, Ohio. "They've been fighting this [civil war] for a long time. I think we've got ourselves in enough right now that we don't need to be spreading ourselves any thinner."
...
"I'm worried about how long we're going to be there," said Betty Stillwell, 71, a writer from central California. "We were supposed to be in there and out. By now I thought they would have set up a government, and they haven't done that yet. . . . I think the whole thing was poorly planned, no thought to the aftermath."
...
"I don't think any [casualties] are acceptable, but they're necessary," said Chris Eldridge, 29, an electronics technician from Louisville. "They're a lot lower than I expected. I expected there would be more during the initial fighting. I expected a lot more killed. Fortunately there hasn't been."

Danny Buckner, 53, a Navy retiree who lives in Brownwood, Tex., had a somewhat different view. "Considering we are having a cease-fire we sure are losing a lot of lives," he said. "They're killing us right and left. I don't know what the deal is."
...
"It would be nice if we could find Saddam Hussein and get it over with," said Susan Leidich, 39, a homemaker from Birch Run, Mich. "It seems like if the military leaves, it could be like Desert Storm [the 1991 Persian Gulf War], and then Saddam Hussein would take right back over."

The survey suggests that most Americans believe the recent war produced mixed results. Six in 10 said it damaged the image of the United States abroad, and half said the conflict caused permanent damage to U.S. relations with France, Germany and other allies who opposed the war. The public was equally divided whether the war contributed to long-term peace and stability in the Middle East.

Real voices, real concerns. Our fellow Americans. Is the long siesta ending?

If there were one state in the United States that does not need the program that's a failure from the get-go, the infamously labeled "No Child Left Behind" education program, it's Iowa. I have a small amount of experience in the Iowa Educational system...and I found that it's a system that more states should model their systems on, not vice-versa. But no, in order to institutionalize the stupidity and rigidity of "testing" as a measuring device for distribution of funding, measurment of Teacher and Pupil competance, Iowa may be the final state to knuckle under to get much-needed federal funding. (What was that republican states' rights mantra again?)

This is from a column in the Des Moines Register, which pretty accurately compare the best (Iowa) to the worst (Florida)

Iowa's public schools are among the best in the country. Florida's are closer to the worst.

One reason Florida's schools are struggling is because of a statewide education plan that requires them to put other considerations aside to boost standardized test scores.

When you have a good thing, you stick with it. And when something isn't working, the last thing you do is impose it on others. But that's exactly what will happen to Iowa under President Bush's education plan known as the No Child Left Behind Act. It takes the model that's crippling Florida's, and so many other states' schools, and imposes it on ours.
...
Teachers shunned good literature for short essays, and they discouraged creative or research-based writing in favor of formulaic, five-paragraph pieces, according to Gloria Pipkin, a former Florida teacher and now a literacy consultant in the vanguard of opposition to the movement. She calls it "cannibalizing" curriculum and says, "They just basically aim for mediocrity."

Under the Bush plan, starting no later than 2005, schools must annually test third- through eighth-graders in reading and math and demonstrate improvements every year. Noncompliant schools receiving federal Title I money for their proportion of low-income students could be shut down, taken over by the state or watch their dollars follow families to other schools. Noncompliance could cost Iowa schools $114 million in federal money.

If there ever were a program that deserves to die quick and painless death when we have a new administration, it's this "Education" program of Smirky's. I know that in VA, when my kid was prepping for the SOL's (Standards of Learning) tests, imposed by the idiot-bastard legislature, all they did was memorize, memorize, memorize. I thought maybe she was commuting to Third grade in Tokyo for six months.

Reading closely, isn't it so amazing that the "flagship" is in Jebby's state...and of course, that bastion of literacy, Texas.

can I get a -heh-? Never mind.

Former Nixon Press Secretary Ron Zieglar once made an amazing statement:

Ziegler: referring to the announcement that President Nixon believed no none in the administration, "past or present" should be given "immunity from prosecution," stated that this was "the operative statement." R. W. Apple, Jr. asked if that meant all other statements were "inoperative." Yes, responded Ziegler.

Regarding the whole Yellowcake Affair, and with some apologies to Herman Wouk, can we rename Smirk "Ol' Yellowcake"? (Caine Mutiny)

Sunday Snark Off. For Now.

via the Cosmic Iguana and a loyal reader, this little piece that just furthers the case that Bush Loves The Military and Veterans NOT!!!

Its formal title is The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2003. Veterans say it is a long overdue measure to end what they have nicknamed The Disabled Veterans Tax. By either name it is a hot-button issue for 670,000 disabled American military veteran
...
In other words, if a military retiree is judged 100 percent disabled as a consequence of old war wounds or Agent Orange or bone damage from jumping out of airplanes, he would draw a maximum disability payment of $2,300 per month. His retired pay would disappear entirely, under the law.

Curiously, if a former soldier served only a two or four-year tour and was later judged disabled he would draw full disability payments with no reduction for any other payments he might receive from Social Security or a government or private retirement plan.

Remember that BushCo has passed taxcuts that would have paid for this "budget buster" for the next 1000 years...

Well, it almost worked. They "selected" a "government" in Iraq without the direct intervention of Fat Tony Scalia. Sort of.

Iraqi political leaders and the U.S.-led provisional government were in the final stages of setting up the political body, according to diplomats and negotiators, who expected the formal announcement of the council's makeup as soon as Sunday.

L. Paul Bremer, Iraq's American administrator, said the Governing Council of Iraq planned to meet for the first time Sunday and is part of the U.S. "plan to support the establishment of this government of, by and for Iraqis."

"It represents all the strands from Iraq's complicated social structure — Shiites, Sunnis, Arabs, Kurds, men and women, Christians and Turkmens," Bremer wrote in an opinion piece posted on the New York Times web site Saturday.

Internationally known former exiles like Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Council and former foreign minister Adnan Pachachi, and Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani are expected to be on the panel. Groups that remained in Iraq during Saddam's 23-year rule will have a more prominent role, the western diplomat said.

An editorial from the Austin-American Statesman. Bet Smirk cancels his subscription over this.

It's impossible to imagine Dwight Eisenhower or John F. Kennedy uttering something so shallow. But Bush knows his audience: millions of baby boomer men who missed military service but who still harbor adolescent fantasies of guns, glory and conquest. These are the same men whose pulses raced over Bush's "Top Gun" performance on an aircraft carrier, a piece of bravado that left many veterans appalled.
...

The White House also cut budgets for upgrading military housing, and it proposed caps in pay rates for the lowest ranks of enlisted personnel.

It also whacked veterans' benefits, cutting $14.6 billion over 10 years.

Bush is waging war on the working families of soldiers, too, by changing the rules on who is eligible for overtime pay, attacking trade unions, cutting social service benefits, and rewarding his wealthy friends with tax cuts.

Congress is blameworthy too, led by flag-waving military service evaders such as House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Out of 535 members, only Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., has a son serving in Iraq.

...and it's one-two-three what're we fightin' for?
don't ask me I don't give a damn
next stop Afghanistan
...
Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Bushies with the tools of the trade,
Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Iraqi Cong. *

*apologies to the sensitivties of Country Joe, any fans or anyone who is a lawyer for any of the formerly mentioned...I just couldn't resist. original song, © I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" copyright © Tradition Music, BMI, 1965 renewed 1993 by Alkatraz Corner Music, BMI

Via the ever vigilant Buzzflash...

This is a great essay on the republicans and why the seem to hate Servicemen and Veterans...and I don't want to hear any BS about Clinton shutting down the military, that's such a bunch of horseshit (but I will agree that Clinton was hardly an advocate for Veterans either)...in the 80's under the Alzheimer Icon they were cutting the shit out of programs for dependants and JR enlisted, increasing deployments and cutting services. Bush I defined and implemented the BRAC (Base Re-alignment And Closing) Commission, with the "leadership" of Chickenhawk Cheney. So stick the "Clinton hosed the Military" arguments where it don't shine. End Of Rant.

What have the Republicans done that is so bad? The Republicans have had complete or total control of the federal government since 1994, holding the House of Representatives the entire time, the Senate all but a year and a half and the White House since 2001. During this time, the federal government had huge budget surpluses (on paper). This means that they could've easily gotten any programs to help veterans and soldiers passed. They could've increased funding for veteran's programs and they could've improved the quality of life for active soldiers who are in harm's way. Have they done so? Clearly not.

With apologies to the old margarine commercial, I think that President Scholastically Impaired is about to get a lesson in InnerBeltWay RealPolitik. The force of Nature? The intelligence community. George Tenet may have fallen on a rubber sword, but he did it way too willingly. He seems to have accumulated enough markers in the Intel community to burn a few now, and I think he's lit the match. Whoa. Cool.

''There was no significant pattern of cooperation between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist operation,'' former State Department intelligence official Greg Thielmann said this week.

Intelligence agencies agreed on the ''lack of a meaningful connection to al-Qaida'' and said so to the White House and Congress, said Thielmann, who left State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research last September.

Another former Bush administration intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, agreed there was no clear link between Saddam and al-Qaida.

''The relationships that were plotted were episodic, not continuous,'' the former official said.

A United Nations terrorism committee says it has no evidence other than Secretary of State Colin Powell's assertions in his Feb. 5 U.N. speech of any ties between al-Qaida and Iraq.

Even the Trickster got rebuffed by the CIA in his day trying to use them to hide the details of Watergate, and he was at the time the Master of Institutional Intimidation in DC. Got him nowhere with CIA though.

So Shrubby has declared that the Yellowcake Affair is over...I suspect that the folks who invented the concept and practice of the Mighty Wurlitzer might beg to differ, and I hope that they do...in a big way. A little discordant music might wake up a sleeping giant. And then then let the games begin....

1. Burt Rutan, Airplanes, and Space Flight
   
2. Sort of that whole surrealist thing here?
   
3. Oops, they almost did it again
   
4. I am a Geek Translator. I can make good money.
   
5. Oh they fooled me...
   
6. Another Extremist for another Lifetime Job
   
7. The UCMJ and servicemen who speak out
   
8. Stop the presses, is Sully a Lesbian?
   
9. Neocons to UN: Fahk Awf
   UN to Neocons: Samebackatcha Pal
   
10. To the Point, no kidding