Russia gets Gas, and Other Stuff

The CS Monitor is reporting that glasnost is officially dead as the Kremlin assumes (rather re-assumes) control of roughly 30% of all Russian petro-assets.

How much more will they grab? Hard to say, but given the West's and the burgeoning Chinese and Indian markets for black gold, no matter how you slice it, it's a damned good business for the state to be involved in.

Russia is the currently the second largest petroducer(new word!) and the Russian state is likely eager to futher 'tap' into this highly lucrative field.

The Monitor reports that:

[...]

A long-delayed law on subsoil resources, to be passed by the Duma next year, is expected to ban foreign-owned companies from exploring or developing Russian oil fields and other key mineral resources.

"Amazing changes are happening swiftly, because Putin has understood that energy is Russia's key card to play at the international table," says Michael Heath, a political analyst with Aton, a Russian brokerage. "Instead of the military force the Soviet Union used to project its power, Russia is using oil as a major tool of foreign policy."

[...]

Much like the US gov't. is heavily involved with the 'defense' industry, Russia is playing to its strength.

While this will be seen as a gigantic step backward from the Russian's particular form of democracy, it is more an evolutionary one.

We've got double secret wiretapping going on in the interest of national security.

Are not Russia's oil reserves a matter of national security?

I'm certainly not condoning either activity. I just bring this up as a countervail to the Right that will pounce on this as a talking point that the Kremlin will simply ignore.

When all is said and done, the US government only really cares about the flow of oil. If the Russian state gives the world a good market rate, we'll be more than accepting of the takeover of the Russian petro-assets.

The US doesn't seem to really concerned about truly open markets, and much less so about democracy, but we need cheap SUV juice dammit! Open markets for the US, and the US only is the true prize.

Capitalism without democracy is okay.
Democracy without capitalism is cause for invasion.

Condemning the Russians for reclaiming their oil assets is not likely to happen in the circles of power where these things are really decided.

The talking heads will continue to parrot Russian civil rights violations, and a return to the Soviet Union's way of conducting the show(our own record in these two areas has been less than exemplary as of late). This has absolutely nothing to do with the real issue.

We need cheap oil. The Russians have oil. The deals are done.

Damned shame, really.

George Makes The News

WaPo is reporting that Bush has been attempting to tailor the news more to his liking.

What a shock!

I'll only give you the first couple of paragraphs:

President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security.

The efforts have failed, but the rare White House sessions with the executive editors of The Washington Post and New York Times are an indication of how seriously the president takes the recent reporting that has raised questions about the administration's anti-terror tactics.

Leonard Downie Jr., The Post's executive editor, would not confirm the meeting with Bush before publishing reporter Dana Priest's Nov. 2 article disclosing the existence of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe used to interrogate terror suspects. Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, would not confirm that he, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Washington bureau chief Philip Taubman had an Oval Office sit-down with the president on Dec. 5, 11 days before reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau revealed that Bush had authorized eavesdropping on Americans and others within the United States without court orders.

(much more at link)

Well, when you're engaging in all manner of legally grey area activities, it ought to concern you. However, coming clean on these issues rather than attempting to quash reporting on them is the noble thing to do. No one ever accused Bush of nobility.

These articles have nothing to do with national security, and everything to do with White House damage control.

Given the past and present behavior of this White House, it can hardly come as a surprise that a surprise that The Gang is yet again trying to manage the news.

Bush had a fawning press after 9/11. Apparently he still thought that this was the case - and I'm certain that in many instances this is still true - but now it seems that a glimmer of a working democracy is rearing its head.

Can there be any doubt that 'access' was discussed at these meetings?

How disappointing this must be to the reigning monarch.

Add'l: There's a lot more good stuff in the article. a couple of other topics, and of course added color regarding Bush's tactics.

Merry Christmas!

In spite of the allegations that the liberal elites are out to destroy Christmas everywhere, we at pure bs wish to toss some water(no, it's not Holy water, merely tap water) on this non-starter by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!



I guess it's a reindog or something..Close enough to 'Max' in Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas to be hip without stepping on copyright ;)

I have to go 'shred some wiretaps with care, in hopes that my civil rights will still be there.'

Merry X-Mas everyone!

Oh, and for any Right-wingers that think 'X-mas' somehow lessens the impact of Christmas, I suggest that you read up on your Greek. 'X' is derived from the greek word XPIΣTOΣ, which when transliterated(real word, honest!) means Christos. The Greek word for Christ.

XXXtreem Bigotry!

..//Brought to you nearly live by RIGHT-WING PUNDITS!

Todd: Tonight on XXXreem, boy, those RIGHTies are really in the Christmas spirit! And we bring it to you nearly LIVE!

I'm here with my co-host, Tom Hun to discuss the daily savagings of limp-wristed Lefties, non-Aryan culture and a whole host of other topics of import to the RIGHT!

Tonight we look at two items by pillars of the RIGHT, Bill O' Reilly, and Ann Coulter.

Tom, do you have anything to add before we begin our first segment?

Tom Hun: Um, No.

Todd: Thanks ever so much for sharing that insight with our viewers, Tom. You really are a clueless (bleep) aren't you?

Tom: Uh, yes. But I'm pretty.

Todd: I'll pretend you never said that, you useless soiled teabag. Getting back on track, in our opening segment, that bastion of vitriole, Bill "Kill a Hack for Jesus" O'Reilly says this on his 'Daily Hate' radio program:

O'REILLY: All right, "No Spin News" real quick. Transit strike hits New York City. New York says it's against the law. The transit people don't care, and da-da-da -- 33,000 transit employees, and they're gone, so everybody's walking around. There's price gouging. A friend of mine told me that his daughter had to go out to the airport, a run that would cost you 40 bucks, and then somebody wants $300 to take you out there, you know, that kind of thing. Immediately, that person should be shot dead. Did you get that, you left-wing smear sites who are listening? OK? Just pass that around -- "O'Reilly wants cab drivers shot dead" -- big headline on the left-wing website. You gotta give them something, ladies and gentlemen. [laughter] These little weasels.

WOW. Now that's Harsh! Way to go, Billy O!

Tom Hun: You have to love those clipped sentences, Tom. Nothing appeals to the short attention span crowd like...um, where was I going with this?

Todd: Hell if I know, Tom. [laughter] For all I know, You're a closet butt pirate. I have no idea why I just tossed that out, but it's XXXtreem!

Tom Hun: What?

Todd: We'll be RIGHT back after this commercial break! Stay tuned!

Todd: Now, in part two of Hateapalooza 2005, that blonde pundit, Ms..or is it Mr. Tom?

Tom Hun: I dunno, kinda hard to tell. She looks like she might have a package.

Todd: Regardless, Ann "Maim a Kitten, Cuz It's Fun" Coulter writes in her always informative 'Weekly Brownshirt' column:

[...]

Which brings me to this week's scandal about No Such Agency [NSA] spying on "Americans." I have difficulty ginning up much interest in this story inasmuch as I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East and sending liberals to Guantanamo.

Damn it, Tom. Ann really puts it together here. Spying on all arabs, pitching daisy cutters recklessly in the cradle of civilization, and all the while never forgetting that all those damned libruls ought to sent to Camp X-Ray! You're Damned Right, Ann!

Anything to add, Tom?

Tom Hun: Just one quick thought, Todd. Coulter missed hitting that one out of the park by not expressly stating that libruls go directly to Gitmo. Habeas corpus is for losers, Todd.

Todd: I'd say pussies, but essentially, you got that RIGHT, Tom![laughter]

Well, we're out of time, and we'll see you RIGHT here next week for another installment of Hard RIGHT unqualified and unresearched news. News for the RIGHT news that matters!

For XXXtreem Bigotry, this is Todd "The Left is Never" Wright, and Tom "I'm named after Attila" Hun, saying So Right! See you next week for our another segment of XXXtreem Bigotry!

Merry Aryan Christmas to you all!

Goodnight everyone!

Tom Hun: Todd, you're a narcissistic bastid.

Todd: Why thank you, Tom. And a Merry Christmas to you as well. You wanna maybe get a drink or something..or something?

*****

Stay tuned to Fox for another episode of Great Reich History, as our expert team of historians examine the 1939 German invasion of Poland in Great Reich History: Blitzkreig, the Poles went crazy over it!.

*****

Many thanks to the folks at Media Matters. The material for our fist segment was taken from this piece. The Ann Coulter item was robbed here. See both pieces for added color and background.

It's all true.

Lest anyone think I've completely left my mind, the above is intended purely as political satire. The statements made by O'Reilly and Coulter are most likely accurate, as Media Matters seldom mis-steps, but fortunately, the balance is pure fancy.

New Stuff Just Around Corner

I know. I haven't been making any entries.

For this I am sorry.

However, I have been following along. The political scene is rife with Abramoff rumors, an Osama myth(okay LIE) has been uncovered, The Iraqis are claiming voting fraud(they truly are on a similar path to democracy as the US), and Time Magazine staff minded its minders by naming yet more Western person(s) as Persons of the Year(admittedly, the Gates foundation and Bono are good choices, great even), but I find this to be the exception.

On that last note, there are some great people doing important work this year that you may wish to consider supporting.

Media issues:

For accuracy in righting the Right consider, the indispensible Media Matters.

Good television:

PBS Link to local station finder

Then there are so many around the globe in need that there is no way for me to compile a list in the few minutes it's taking me to compose this post.

Charity Watch is a good place to start, whilst ReutersAlertnet's searchable NGO database is a good place to start on a quest for a broader international search. In addition ReutersAlertNet also offers an emergency by region page which when you find a cause you'd like to assist with, simply open the link, and get the latest NGO news on the situation.

The caveat here is to always check out the organization before making a donation.

Until I go live with the site redesign ~1 January, I'll be making few entries.

Happy (insert your celebrated holidys here)!

Family arrives tonight. I'll be busy through to Monday. Plus my employer expects me to bloody work tomorrow! The nerve!

I'll be posting a list of 5 predictions for 2006 on 31 December. Stay tuned for the worst forecasting you've ever read!

Oh Yeah..What A Rush

That reflexive anthro-apologist Rush Limbaugh is again claiming madness about humankind's footprint upon the planet.

His climatology credentials are par excellence. As best as I can tell, he has no academic climatic credentials - having lasted but a year in college - and no experiential substance to back up his claims.

I'd say that he just 'makes shit up,' - and yes, he does make a self-referential plug of his own website's 'essential stack of stuff'(subscription required) - but I do not know that this is a fact. One can only imagine the voluminous material of peer-reviewed material refuting ecosystem change walled up in this haven for the latest in scientific debate.(heavy sarcasm)

Media Matters has Rush's latest.

I hesitate to call them lies, as I do not honestly know if Mr. Limbaugh possesses the acumen to differentiate between established fact and fantasy. His record is this area isn't very good.

Getting to the point, Rush claimed that, "[t]here is no evidence that we could destroy ecosystems."

While Media Matters does a good job of dispelling this obvious myth, the BBC's Guide to global environmental environmental issues is chock full of the good stuff.

Two other good sources are Bill Moyers' excellent Earth On Edge series and the World Resources Institute's terrific EarthTrends site. These last two sources are an ecosystem by ecosystem break down as to how far things are already impacted by human activity, as well as projections of future changes.

I don't think that I need to go into the Pleistocene-Holocene extinction event which is almost universally agreed to as being caused by human effect..and is accelerating even now.

A quick primer.

I would have never known about Limbaugh's latest if it was not for the tireless crew at Media Matters. I subscribed to their email updates, and it allows me a glimpse into the 'Right' mind that I would otherwise miss.

As I have stated many times before, I am not an expert on anything but some obscure mathematics, and semiconductor gate process modification.

I'm not a climatologist, but I understand much of the mathematics behind the modeling, and am open to new interpretations of data sets. Mr. Limbaugh cannot alter his positions even when confronted with evidences to the contrary.

His rigidity in thinking is a concern for us all, as Mr. Limbaugh is unfortunately, a primary 'news source' for millions of Americans.

Rush is Wrong.

Hey, look at that. I made an entire post about Limbaugh without mentioning midnight Denny's Oxy runs.

Damn!

Well, almost.

Come on, People. We Just Gotta Spy!

The NYT is reporting that Bush has vigorously defended operation wiretap, while calling for the Senate to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act.

It's comical in a warped sort of way.

As is the norm, the best stuff is mined from the end of the article. According to the Times report, Bush said, "In a war on terror we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment."

Any possible safety garnered from the wiretaps, and the PATRIOT Act have been more than offest by the Iraqi Adventure. Not to mention our pertro-centric middle-eastern policies over the last 50+ years(of which Iraq is merely the latest example)

Sometimes things just aren't a very good idea.

Slavery in the US was once considered essential and legal. Now I'm not foolish enough to equate the onerous provisions of the PATRIOT Act, and wiretaps with slavery, but it is useful to illustrate a point.

I say let's try and be without the PATRIOT Act for a single moment. If we feel brave enough, maybe two, or perhaps three moments.

Remember George, it was you that said if we allow the terrorists to alter our way of life, then they have won(paraphrasing)

Do you really want the terrorists to win, Mr. Bush?

The Ugly Side of Happiness

There is another study confirming what most people know, happy people tend to do better at living.

Unfortunately, I have had to release more happy people for lack of the ability to perform their tasks than their more serious, dour, yet technically more adept engineering colleagues.

It may just be that engineering isn't a people oriented profession. This is of course true. If my HR counterparts prevailed upon applicants that performing partial differential equations AND being jolly were unequally weighted - that the math far outweighs a smile - then maybe I'd have a better employee retention rate.

You'd not likely know it from the tone of this blog, but I am a gregarious and yes, happy guy.

Sure, I rail against injustice, but I feel that to be strongly positive. My colleagues are sometimes put off by my often anarchistic rantings, but I always do it with a smile :)

Verbal Fish Wrap

Sorry for the snarky title to W's Big Event of W's Big Night. Well, okay, I'm not sorry.

Official White House Transcript

For the truly informed dissenter, there is useable material in virtually every paragraph with which to take task.

In a nod to the WoC(War on Christmas), Bush ends his 'speech' with:

Next week, Americans will gather to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. Many families will be praying for loved ones spending this season far from home -- in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other dangerous places. Our nation joins in those prayers. We pray for the safety and strength of our troops. We trust, with them, in a love that conquers all fear, in a light that reaches the darkest corners of the Earth. And we remember the words of the Christmas carol, written during the Civil War: "God is not dead, nor [does] He sleep; the Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail, with peace on Earth, goodwill to men."

Just some quick observations from this paragraph.

1) Wiccans, Atheists, Agnostics - you guys don't matter to me.

2) Bush missed the word "does," but he remembered that God is a guy.

Optional: God is alive. He doesn't sleep, and science hasn't progessed since the time of the AMERICAN Civil War. We're so damned Amero-centric that we don't even notice such things.

3) "Right" is capitalized...And the 'Right' shall also prevail.(nod to Karl Rove?)

I do appreciate the sentiment, just not the messenger. Those were originally the words of Lonfellow in the poem, Christmas Bells. Love the coded messages :)

That's all for the moment, gotta feed.

Update: I'd rather not have published this entry. I did so after only ten minutes of waking from the evening's slumber. But I did, so I'll let it stand.

Bush's Big Night!

Gotta love the CNN Headline: Bush: Iraq pullout would hurt credibility

I'm betting that Barbara Bush is ruing the fact that '41' didn't 'pullout' early ;)

Senior's um, error has cost the US any shred of credibility we might once have had.

All I can add is 'thank Nature' that this is the last in Bush/Iraq war series of propaganda messages speeches.

In related news, Russ Feingold reminded folks that Bush is acting like "King George Bush" over the wiretapping fiasco.

Note to self: If anyone uses the term 'Tapgate,' Wiretapgate,' or other such silly monikers to describe this situation, I shall hunt them down and.....No, Todd. Bad, Todd. Bad.

It's really unfortunate that I won't be able to watch Action George deliver his address this evening. I have to change cat litter or something ;)

A special shout out to Bill O'Reilly, who I would like to wish a Happy Ramadan!

I know I'm a few months late, but with Bill being a few centuries out of touch, I don't believe he'll notice.

Allahu Akhbar, Bill!

Oh, and by the way, Bill, you are one letter away from being black. You are only one mutation away from being cool. Well, maybe more than one. Later, bro!         *shiver*

I'll be back to my usual blogging blather with the turn of the new year. For now, I'm just keeping the spirit alive. Fight the machine!

The White House: More Of The Shame..

..Another day, another scandal at the Bush White House.

What the hell was that whole bit about restoring dignity to the Office he was driveling about 5 years hence? I dunno.

Anyhow, the WH has admitted that The Boy authorized spying on citizens. Bushy boy(Dick's toy) then has the gall to aver that the Senate's non-vote on the very PATRIOT Act that was at the heart of his 007ish conduct? I see, it's the Senate that is being irresponsible? WTF, Geo?

I have also been following O'Reilly's rabid rants about the imminent demise of all things Christian. Media Matters gives me all the O'Reilly I can digest. What a true assclown.

To the eight GOP cultists that litened to today's radio address, you'd have my condolences - IF you could think for yourselves! To borrow from Nike: "Just do it!"

I have been following along. Honest. It's just that with the holidays, my mother, trying to set-up some new electronic gear, and a myriad of other things, I haven't had much of a chance to rant.

Since it is the Anti-Christ(mas) season, hop on over to ReutersAlertNet, poke around, and give if you can.

(Just so no one thinks that I am anti-Christian, the above comment was made in the lowest spirit of humor..Simply a jab at O'Reilly ;)

I am doing physical stuff as well. I cut up some 25mm Medium Density Fibreboard(AKA MDF AKA Particle board) for some loudspeakers I helped design. Well, essentially, I did the work for the crossover network. The cabinet size, bracing, drivers, and a host of other things were selected by the wacky, but knowledgeable folks over at Parts Express, whose debt I shall never be able to repay. It's very cool to get free advice from audio engineer PhDs, as well as really bright enthusiasts.

Parting shot.

George says: "Wiretaps without oversight saves lives in the Warren Terrah." Maybe. We'll never know.

Todd says: "Bush's lack of respect for anything concerning the environment will likely be his legacy."

Not Iraq. Iraq is temporal, no matter how well, or poorly, things go there. I do hope that the Iraqis get what they need to live in peace.

'Planet Killer George' carries with it an undeniable element of fact. That his 8 years in office were marked by obvious climatic effect, and he chose to do nothing of substance about it; that my dear readers is what the petro-soaked boy from Connecticut will be remembered. If civilization survives in any recognizable form.

That's your daily dose of hyperbole from the angry environmentalist.

Just another scandalous day of pure bs™ served steaming hot - courtesy of the 'Hassen bin Sober' White House.

Of Bush's Mea Culpa and Jellyfish

It seems as though Bush's Iraq Speech Series© has been given a 'thumbs up' by the majority of the MSM, and yes, the invertebrates in Congress(even some Dems.) because of his acceptance of 'responsibility' for taking us into war based on flawed intelligence.

If you've been following along, Bush has had TWO YEARS to utter these words. This is what passes for as leadership in this issue? In the private sector, this sort of BS would have you at the unemployment line faster than(ya know, something really fast, a speeding bullet, a runaway train, a White House smearing of a political foe, maybe a sexual harassment allegation?)

Look, the guy said, "It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong." But there is plenty of evidence to the contrary, showing that pre-war intelligence that did not validate the use of force in Iraq - which has been a neo-con dream for over a decade - was merely pushed aside.

For more color on this issue see Seymour Hersh's excellent The Stovepipe.

In this WaPo piece no mention is given to the now voluminous amounts of material that questioned the White House's own intelligence gathering apparratus, the White House Iraq Group. The WHIG members read like a who's who on Prosecutor Fitzgerald's indictment trail.


I don't think it necessary to elucidate the statements made by former White House officials, Richard A. Clarke(picked by four presidents for anti-terrorism roles) and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who when famously interviewed on 60 Minutes said about the Bush Administration:

"From the very beginning[of Bush's first term], there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go."

Was the intelligence bad? Absolutely.

But, had all the intelligence been properly vetted - especially the nuclear weapons reconstitution program intelligence - then the case for an invasion would most likely have never been deferred to the President by Congress.

I'm not even going to include the statements of pet Iraqi exiles such as Ahmed Chalabi, or the admissions wrought from Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi under what is now apparently tortuous conditions.

Yes, Mr. Bush. The intelligence was bad. What you need to do is level with the American people, and tell us why the intelligence was bad. Spill the beans.

I know that you and your handlers are justifiably fearful of letting some nasty facts enter the public consciousness, but after all that you've put us through the last five years, it is the least that you can do.

I don't expect much from the media, but how about both Repubs. and Dems. demanding the whole truth, not some rubber-stamped milquetoast non-admission by BushCo.

Get me some vertebrates. Stat!

I hope that from the tone of this entry that it is not viewed as political humor. Although it was great fun in the penning of this piece. It is still a serious matter that needs to be truly addressed.

By the way, I'll give you a buck if you promise to hold your breath waiting for a full White House disclosure ;)

Sorry 'bout That

My lack of updates, that is..I have been following along, but time constraints and my work schedule has not permitted me to properly maintain the blog over the last week.

In a VERY small effort to atone for these transgressions, I offer the following observation.

This week(two days ago, in fact) President Bush acknowledged that 30,000 Iraqi civilians had died as a result of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Admittedly, I haven't read a great deal of commentary this week, and even less radio and TV, but I have yet to hear anyone discuss the 1,000,000 that died as a result of the decade plus of UN(essentially US sanctions against Iraq) and any estimates of how many more Iraqis are likely to die as a result of our 'interventions.'

That the situation remains grim in much of the country is beyond debate.

Bush also made the oblique 9/11-Saddam reference this week. If this was indeed retribution for 9/11, wouldn't a ten Iraqis to one American ratio seem a bit extreme?

I'm well aware that most people view their own as more valuable than 'the other,' but the mis-leader of the (erstwhile) free world should grasp the political realities of treating 'the other' inequitably.

A real issue that isn't getting the airtime that it should, save for some of the foreign press is the humanitarian crisis in post-earthquake Pakistan/Kashmir. Commendably, ReutersAlertNet has been covering the tragedy with the necessary balance of cool-headedness, while sounding the alarm. The Himalayan earthquake is shaping up to be the number 2 humanitarian cris of 2005. Katrina, while tragic, is minor by comparison.

Feel like reading?.

***************************************************

Okay, in other stuff, I am still working on a total site overhaul, and will be sticking with Blogger for now. If I ever get a larger readership, I'll move to a different platform, but for now, free is good. Launch date: 01-01-2006

***************************************************

The major environmental post I promised, is still in the works. I'd like to publish one major article per week. That's part of the site overhaul.

I'm also considering doing a three panel comic strip. Since I have no ability ot draw beyond the VERY rudimentary level, I have a cartoonist that's really talented to help out.

I'm looking to add three weekly features in 2006. I think that's as much as I can promise and deliver on.

We're Making Progress

In Iraq, that is.

Paul Starobin, writing for the National Journal notes in this great treatise on civil wars:

[...]

"All states are like rocks, with fissures in those rocks," says Mark Stoyle, a historian at the University of Southampton in England, who is the author of the recently published Soldiers & Strangers: An Ethnic History of the English Civil War. "If the state is hit by a hammer blow, it will break along certain lines." That is what happened in 17th-century Britain under the disputed reign of King Charles I, Stoyle observed, and in his view, what is happening now in Iraq.

[...]

(98% more at link)

Gee, I wonder what the "hammer blow" in Iraq was? Could it be the US invasion? Nah..the US would never foment civil war(what an oxymoron). But it appears that indeed we have...yet again.

The tribal, nationalistic, and religious, differences between the three major 'ethnic groups' in Iraq has been elucidated by anyone and everyone with or without a truly informed opinion.

What Starobin does in this fine piece, is add some obvious some obvious human tendencies(greed - for oil in this case) as well as clearly defining just what constitutes a civil war.

The US let the genie out of the bottle in Iraq. And this is one angry, vengeful genie.

Want to be a better person? Read the article.

Getting Caught Up

I'm still working on my moonlighting gig, but it is progressing well.

A couple of things that I noticed today that were a little disturbing, but not altogether unexpected, was that one of the Internet's three greatest resources, wikipedia has again come under fire for a non-thinking individual's act.

Defaming, even if meant as a joke(?) has no place in what has become an indispensable source of information for 'Netizens everywhere.

I just don't think that persons are responsible enough to always make accurate entries. Or knowledgeable enough. Or.....

The problem is vexing. How do you go about continuing to allow anyone with web access to make entries whilst preserving the integrity of the material?

I really do not see how these two entities(anonymity and integrity) can be preserved given wikipedia's relatively small staff of volunteers.

By the way, the other two greatest non-specific sources are, in my humble opinion, The Wayback Machine and the XML protocols which include such wonderful things as RSS/ATOM feeds, and a host of other dynamic web services.

Sorry, Google, but for my web use these other offerings get far more use.

The other thing that I found troubling is the tempest in a thimble 'war on X-mas' memes continuing life and spread. This is a dumb bomb.

I'm certainly no expert on X-tianity, but I have read enough about comparative religion to have feel reasonably assured of two things:

1) Dec. 25 was chosen by many earlier religions/cults predating Christianity as the day of their savior's birth. Easy cited examples would be Horus, Mithra, Dionysus and Krishna who were also reputed to be born on Dec. 25.

The date of Christ's birth was summarily cast in stone to assimilate Pagans into Christianity in 350CE by Pope Julius 1.

2) This should be of prime importance to Christians(that have actually read their holy book), is that Jesus' apostles wished his resurrection to be the sacred day. As for that whole Easter bunny(leveret = Pagan worship) bit coinciding with Christ's resurrection, that'll wait for another day ;)

Still Workin' Plus Other Stuff

Yeah, I'm still working under deadline pressure. Trying to fix someone else's work is never fun.

This is going to be a two part post. The first is personal, the second blogganal(?)

First of all, we had something on the order of 38cm(15in.) of snow locally. That was yesterday. After spending a couple of hours digging out from this early season storm, I dug out some more.

An update on my mom's health. She's okay. As you may or may not know, she has hepatic lymphoma. After being poked, prodded, otherwise violated by the medical community, she is going in next week(this week to my European readers) to have the tumor excised, and radio-therapy is likely after that.

Needless to say, my blogging activities are going to be interrupted. I'll still make entries, but hey, she's my mother, and she comes first.

I expect to back at regular daily 'bs'ing around the turn of the new year.

Okay, enough gloom. Now for something a bit odd.

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If you're a news junkie - and living in the US - you couldn't help but hear the Right-Wing echo chamber railing against this so-called 'war on Christmas' being waged by the usual suspects on the left. The ACLU, homos, atheists, homo-atheists, et al.

As far as I know, it was started by Jerry Falwell(wish he'd fall down a well of stairs, the hateful bastid) and picked up by that all-spun shithead Bill O'Reilly.

As a strong agnostic I would welcome such a war. This is a war that I could personally get behind. Funny thing is, it doesn't exist.

It may be that Falwell hasn't fleeced his flock enough, and needs another chin for X-mas. You know, the guy's on another baseless fund raising drive. For the sake of the balance of this post, please accept this simple premise.

If that is true, how do Bill O, and the balance of the unbalanced justify joining the assault?

I don't think it's about money for O'Reilly and Co. I think it could be about something far more insidious. O'Reilly changed the subject at precisely the time the UNCCC(United Nations Conference for Climate Change) meetings were taking place in Montreal. Granted, this could be merely coincidental. I'm not even going to suggest any more than that.

But the timing is uncanny. You have a non-issue(the war on Christmas) being bandied about while the most vexing problem facing humankind is being debated in Montreal. It's no secret that the Bush administration and their foot soldiers consider global climate change a 'back-burner' issue at the most optimistic. Why not take it right out of the news cycle by appealing to American's emotions instead?

It's a helluva lot easier to get most Americans riled up about symbolic bullshit than it is to get the masses to seriously consider an issue where the data is still streaming in, and the modeling imperfect. It's becoming clear that if anything the models were too optimistic, and things are far more advanced than predicted.

Please do not leave comments suggesting that I'm declaring this as anything more than a thought experiment. I am not.

I would say that the thing which separates my notion here, and that of Falwell's and O'Reilly's is that mine is at least plausible. There's is pure fancy.

If this is being spun as war against X-tianity, or family values, or some other such nonsense, I'm not buying into that mound of steaming dung. That's likely the bait you're supposed to take. Admittedly, I should know this, but alas I do not. My television viewing time is nearing zero, and I do not read Right-Wing propaganda. That being said, I feel a sense that this how the Right is treating this ghost of an issue. Pay attention to the elephant in the room!

I'd love to end this on a humorous note, but that seems to be beyond me at the moment.

By the way, the Global Climate Change extravaganza that I promised earlier is still in the works.

Happy Solstice,

todd

W Saves

Letting babies use a dummy while they are sleeping may reduce the risk of cot death - sudden infant death syndrome - a study suggests today.

Researchers in California, writing in the journal BMJ Online First, gave the results of questioning mothers or carers of 185 babies who died and 312 other parents, reopening the debate about the role of dummies.

The risk of death from SIDS may be decreased by 30% when a Tom Cruise doll is used as a sleepmate. Asked for comment, researcher Dr. Bunsen "Burner' Highdome said, "It's not clear that Mr. Cruise is intellectually challenged, but he does harbor some very odd beliefs." Dr. Highdome further noted similar observations with John Travolta and Kirstie Alley dummies.

A more startling revelation was that when George W Bush plush toys were selected as cribmates, the resultant decrease in mortality was on the order of 90%. Dr. De-Kun Li, the lead researcher, declined our request for comment.

The White House however, did respond to our request for comment. Vice President Richard B. Cheney responded by saying, "Hell yes I think it works. I dare not even take a quick nap without my 'Little George'™. It's the best life insurance a guy can get." We pressed VP Cheney about the efficaciousness of the therapy on infants, and he responded, "Infants? Who cares. As long as it works for me, I could care less about those damned non-productive rug rats - especially the brown ones."

That's your pure bs health report for December 9, 2005. Back to you, Bob.

******************************************

The above was intended as political humor. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, or nearly dead, is purely intententional.

Sorry 'Bout That

..The lack of any entries yesterday, that is.

Today is weird as well. I may not be able to make any entries until later this evening. I took on some outside contract work, and I'm under deadline pressure to fix a problem.

Since I have until Monday AM to finish the project, this weekend could be a bit lite as well.

Bin Laden, Refined

It seems as though another dispatch has been received from al-Zawahiri calling on the mujahideen to concentrate their attacks on oil assets.

Today, oil futures are down on supply figures in what has to be a personal slight against bin Laden to move the markets as he once did.

On the other hand, if concerted attacks occur against oil producing Muslim counties, or other types of attacks in the same countries may have the effect of lifting oil prices.

Now for the interesting part of the story. Right at the end of the article we have this:

A book of interviews with people who know bin Laden reveal he vowed never to be taken alive and once gave his bodyguard a pistol with two bullets to shoot him if it appeared he might be caught. The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History by CNN security expert Peter Bergen also claims bin Laden intensely dislikes deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

That bin Laden hates Saddam hardly comes as a shock, but the suicide pact is interesting.

The Koran seems clear about the suicide issue. From public sources:

Suicide and Martyrdom

The Koran makes it very clear that suicide is forbidden: 4:29.

But it states several times that the martyr can expect an afterlife in
paradise: they are "alive" (3:169), and have a blessed afterlife: 3:170-174,22:58.

This certainly lends credence to the oft-stated meme that bin Laden's version of Islam is a perverted one. Although I am certain that in bin Laden's mind he is at war, and his death under these conditions would please Allah. Maybe. Okay, so it might be a stretch.

*************************************

UPDATE: The BBC is now reporting that the bin Laden/Zawahiri video tape was received by al-Jazeera in September. So, one of the big themes the media picked up on - that ObL survived the Afghan quake - is still unknown.

Eco-Post Day 2

This last weekend's Independent carried an article with a provocative headline, and a clear message. If you follow the link, you'll find the piece titled: "What planet are you on, Mr Bush? (and do you care, Mr Blair?)"

It's a sternly worded piece that is not available to non-subscribers.

The essential theme of the piece is that we are now in the grip of global climatic change, and that without the co-operation of the US, China, India, Brazil and others in the establishment of a new set of protocols once Kyoto expires in 2012, we're pretty much f&cked.

I'll offer the following points concerning indisputable, measureable facts about what is happening to our climate right now.

I'll toss them in a little bulleted blockquote for easy digestion:

• GLOBAL MELTDOWN


Across the planet, rising temperatures are taking their toll


• CARBON DIOXIDE


New research has found that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - the main cause of global warming - are higher than at any time in the past 625,000 years.


• HOTTEST EVER


This year is expected to be the warmest ever recorded; 1998 was the hottest so far, but the past three years currently occupy the next three places.


• DESERTIFICATION


The giant Kalahari desert, already four times the size of Britain, threatens to become larger still, covering farmland in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.


• EXPANDING OCEANS


The level of the world's seas and oceans is rising twice as fast as in the past, as their waters expand in rising temperatures and glaciers melt.


• OCEAN EXILES


The people of the Carteret Islands, a scattering of atolls off Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific, have started to leave as their homes succumb to rising seas.


• HURRICANES


Hurricane Epsilon - the 14th of the year - is forming in the Atlantic, even though the worst recorded hurricane season by far formally ended on Wednesday.


• GLACIER MELT


Greenland glaciers have suddenly started racing towards the sea and melting. Much the same is beginning to happen to glaciers in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.


• WATER SHORTAGE


Areas such as the western USA, which depend on mountain snows for their water supplies, are running short as less snow falls - and what does fall melts earlier.


• DISAPPEARING SPECIES


Sealife and birdlife have declined catastrophically this year along America's north-west Pacific coast, after a similar meltdown in the North Sea.


• CORAL REEFS


Corals on the Great Barrier Reef are bleaching out and dying as sea temperatures rise and scientists fear that the whole reef may perish by 2050.

Tomorrow's environmental installment will cover the popular movement to alter the politics of global climate change, and dis-honor those countries that are unwilling to at least try to do something to save the planet's climate and ecosystems.

Faux News..Spins Awayyy!

In further evidence that political humor writes itself, Fauk Snooze is reporting that Tommy 'The Dollar Cleanser' DeLay might have a wee bit of a struggle getting his old job back on The Hill. However, if you were unaware of the money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges DeLay faces, Focks never hints at the charges in this splendidly misleading headline: DeLay's Bid to Reclaim Former Leadership Post Uncertain

Indeed. His main concern ought to be the acquisition of mass amounts of soap-on-a-rope.

Condi Unedited

Speaking in Germany earlier today, Dr. Rice cast this pearl of wisdom:

"We recognise any policy will sometimes result in errors, and when it happens, we will do everything we can to rectify it."

She was of course responding to allegations of torture and secret CIA prisons.

I needn't go through the litany of errant policies put forth by the Bush administration that have not been addressed.

I think I should inform the reader that I have nothing personal against Ms. Rice. It's simply the fact that she is part of the Bush cabal that has done such a miserable job at governing this country over the last five years.

I'm pretty certain that she's smart enough to do a good job as Sec. of State, but she seems to have no will of her own. She is a hopeless partisan.

All one need do is read her testimony bfore the 9/11 Commission when she was Bush's National Security Advisor to see that she has issues with straight talk, but not toeing scripted lines.

Rice's Big Gap

From the IHT via the NYT(sounds very hip-hop) this article illustrates the various obstacles that the US needs to overcome in order to claim any sort of moral high ground.

I should state that I have been very skeptical of any and all claims from the WH. The CIA has been much more frank about their business.

They spy. They do some things that we'd rather not ever know about. So would the CIA. But it is what it is. I have a lot of respect for the individual agents working for the 'Agency.'

However, some of their schemes have turned out to have very negative effects for the US, and the world at large. Saddam's coup and support of ObL are currently the most newsworthy folks propped up by various means in the name of defeating the spread of Communism.

Shorter CIA: Good people, sometimes questionable policy.

Getting to the IHT article. I'm just going to mine the article for quotes to illustrate the issues with which Dr. Rice is contending. Without further ado:

Did anybody believe her on this Continent, aroused as rarely before by a crescendo of reports about secret prisons, CIA flights, allegation of torture and "renditions" of prisoners to third countries so they can be tortured there?

"Yes, I did," Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a conservative member of the German Parliament, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "The thing I believe is that the United States does obey international law, and Mrs. Merkel said that she believes it, too."

"What's important is that the balance between democratic principles and secret services needs to be maintained," zu Guttenberg said. "I take it as a reaching out of the hand when she says mistakes have happened and we have to rectify them."

Two things:

1) Why is it that partisans are always ready to publicly believe even those that they surely must know to be serial liars?

2) I totally agree with the last part of zu Guttenberg's assessment. Spies need to be able to spy, but there is a line that needs to be drawn that is only crossed in the most extreme of circumstances.

From the Left:

"I think what she means is, 'We don't use it[torture, secret detention] as an official way to do things, but we don't look at what is done in other countries,"' said Monika Griefahn, a Social Democratic member of Parliament, referring to Rice's comment on torture. "And that's the problem for us."

I'd have to agree that this is essentially the point that Rice has made, and is going to continue to make. The bigger problem for me is the almost 'non-coverup'. The Administration seemed to be weighing the level of political fall-out while not addressing European concerns. Kind of a 'let's see just how bad this gets before we stick a toe in the water.'

The European view, by contrast, is that they understand the terrorist threat perfectly well, but the Bush administration's flouting of democratic standards and international law incites more terrorism, not less. It is not certain that Rice changed many minds on that score in her recent statements.

"She didn't reassure anybody," François Heisbourg, special counselor at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said in a telephone interview. "She just spouted a kind of 'the end justifies the means' argument, and 'we have saved lives.'

"You should at least bring proof of that," Heisbourg said, "citing at least one example of an aborted attack."

It is unclear just how many attacks the US(worldwide?) WoT has prevented. The US press has reported as few as 10 attacks prevented, and as many as 100(many of these being in the planning stage). Of course the press only amplifies the WH's message. The numbers and all other details are national security secrets.

Lastly, from the center, an American's view.

"The Europeans' lack of realism is a big problem, but I'm also frustrated with the inability of the United States to behave like a successful big power," said John Kornblum, a former American ambassador to Germany, now director of the investment bank Lazard-Frères in Germany.

"The Europeans do have this propensity," he continued, referring to the propensity to put the worst possible interpretation on American actions, "but unfortunately, we have given credibility to that sort of behavior."

(much more at link)

And that, my dear readers is Ms. Rice's uphill battle.

No Evidence, No Investigation!

Surely the Poles must know the logical fallacy here. In this AP report from Warsaw, the Polish "Justice Ministry"(Orwell would kill for this) announced that without prior evidence that there would be no investigation into alleged CIA 'black-sites' in Poland.

Political humor that writes itself. If this isn't fawning to the US, then I do not know what is..?? Help me!

As we reported last night, ABC reported via CIA contacts that two Secret prisons were shut down in Eastern Europe last month.

On the other hand, Romanian officals called for an investigation into the secret centers, while also declaring that there was no evidence for their existence.

The Polish declaration is full of carefully worded legalese. I know how serious this subject is, but it's fascinating to see relatively new governments acting just like the Old Guard.

They've taken pages right out of the Bush playbook as well as that of the USSR.

Meet the new boss...

Read, learn and marvel.

The hypocrisy runs deeper than a Soviet nuclear sub ;)

Behind the Curve

As you're likely aware, the 'National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States' AKA the '9/11 Commission,' recently issued a report giving the US preparedness against a future terrorist attack a series of grades. Your leadership has failed you....Miserably.

The LA Times provides lots of detail while we steal the report card. The grades are:

A minus: Making efforts with other countries to crack down on terrorist financing.

B: Finding a balance at home between security and civil liberties.

C: Getting private businesses to be prepared to respond in case of an emergency.

D: Making improvements in screening checked bags and cargo on flights.

F: Helping emergency agencies acquire radios and other equipment that would let them communicate with each other during a disaster.

Incomplete: Revamping the CIA, including improvements in its use of human intelligence operations.

Thank you, Bush voters.

On a happier note, as widely reported, the ban on certain sharp objects allowed in air travel has been lifted by the Transportation Security Administration Ironic, no?

Clean Up Your Act!

Here is the first of the four articles that I lost in cyberspace during one of Blogger's haywire moments.

From the NYT comes an article about the failures of Kyoto, and what may lie in the future. The US' and Australia's failure to sign on, as well as exemptions to the two countries that have both the the largest populations, and rapid industrial growth rates - India and China - foretell of something more dramatic in the offing.

The only options open to us as a species at the present are to dramatically cut greenhouse emissions now. The technological challenges of geological carbon sequestration are not insoluble, but are not ready for use on the scale necessary to halt global climate change at present.

Kyoto was a terrific first mis-step. Most peoples around the globe realized that the time was nigh for a planet wide policy for reducing greenhouse emissions. But it was a mis-step.

Let us hope that by the end of 2006, we will have supplanted it with something with much more teeth(no, not like the entire Osmond family ;)

If we do not take care of our planet, then our planet will surely take care of us.

The gun is at our collective heads, a round is in the chamber and the hammer is cocked - what we do at this juncture will determine if we are seen as saviors, or there will be no one left to read our history.

I know it's a bit heavy on the drama, but climate change is not isolated to changes in the oft-cited things like rise in sea level, desertification, etc. It will have dramatic consequences for things as widely disparate as diseases of global reach to geo-political upheaval as hot, dry countries covet the resources of those experiencing less effect.

Don't take a tree-hugging lefty's word for it, here's the DoD's observations.

Go gentle reader, now go, and reduce your carbon footprint!

UPDATE: Because of time..well, essentially sleep issues, I can rewrite no more than one of these per day. Hence I'll be re-releasing one per day over the next four days.

Condi Admits to 'Black Sites'

I only caught a moment of this as I do not watch network news. ABC claims to have much more on tonight's Nightline.

I'd record it, but my home brewed DVR just puked it's HDD. I don't have a handy replacement.

If anyone knows where I can get a copy of the program, or a transcript, I'll be forever in their debt.

Update: link and details here.

Gotcha!

Tom DeLay's Family Values

Besides being a serial dickhead, Tommy's in troubbbbble!!

His GOP friendly judge, the honorable Pat Priest today upheld The Hammer's really serious charge of money laundering, while dismissing the lesser charge of conspiracy.

Money laundering. The domain of cocaine cartel overlords and Texas Republicans. What strange bedfellows rampant criminality makes(apologies to W. Shakespeare)

All Humor is Political

Today's pic. begging for a caption comes courtesy of Time magazine online. Please do not take this the wrong way. All I'm trying to allude to here is why the US has to jettison our Sec. of State to Europe looking a bit forlorn.

The evidence:Link to Photo

Can't we afford to give Condi a makeover? From her deeply furrowed brow to her, bloodshot eyes, through to her petroleum stained bicuspids(or is that from 'chewing?') the woman just looks worn out.

My take. We'll spend a half-tillion dollars fighting wars of 'option'. We'll provide billions in tax relief for corporations sending jobs overseas, but we can't get our ambassador of good-will a decent tooth whitening? This is simply unacceptable.

Kee-rist, Bush sent her over to Europe to assuage their fears that we're a band of torturers. The man should have saved a grand to get her a proper look for a diplomat.

U-N-C-L-E

The Village Voice offers up the facts in the ongoing torture war between the sane, and the insane.

As has been pointed out here, and I'm certain by numerous others, the way we treat our prisoners, detainees what have you, is certain to have an impact on the way in which our captives are treated. Since our spy network and militaries are the largest in the known universe, you can see how profound the implications are likely to be.

The Voice copped my headline. "Who'll Break First?" is definitely a pure bs kinda headline.

It's a good primer on the ongoing debate. I'm no fan of John "Keating Five" McCain, but I am thoroughly in his court on this issue. The piece is worth a read for some of the absurd said by people that should know better, but appararently do not.

The stammering Krauthammer offers up a gem that must be read.

Follow all the links for the complete background. No. Just do it.

Missing Post Message

Just a note on my missing environmental posts. There are 4..Yes, 4!

Since I am 9mi.(14.5Km) from my source material, and my employer(the bastids!) probably feels that it is more important to have me here working on arcane mathematics than blogging, it may be a day before I can get them rewritten and posted.

I checked all the usual suspects in Blogger/Pyra/Google and they are simply not there. They did publish as advertised(according to the software), but alas no confirming evidence remains.

Woe is me. I'll not complain though, as this gives me time to really put down my thoughts in good order.

If this post seems like a lot of blather, I understand. However, the environment is the most important issue, political or not facing all of us today.

Legal Parsing, Courtesy of Condi

WaPo just released the transcript of Ms. Rice's pre-flight 'remarks.'

Again, she presses the fear button, and there is a lot more here than in the WaPo summary below.

It appears that her trip will consist of a re-definition of torture, and why we have to breach international law in order to get the bad guys.

By all appearances she'll also trot out a minor revision of the "you're either with us or against us in the fight against terror" balloon first uttered by GWB in November of 2001.

In all, it appears that she'll do her job as National Propandist, and toe the Cheney line.

Don't take my word for it. Read her statemant and make up your own minds.

You can't be concerned with the old, tired concepts on international law when there are bad guys out there.

Update: Time has just weighed in with far less than what we've given you. However, the most unflattering photo of Ms. Rice is sure to bring comment.

More on Rice's Non-admission

WaPo has the latest on Rice's pre-flight grilling, and her answers are most telling.

Oh yeah. The Link

She's sticking to Cheney's message awfully well.

A few things that jumped out from the Post's article are these:

Rice asserted that the U.S. does not transport terrorism suspects "for the purpose of interrogation using torture" and "will not transport anyone to a country when we believe he will be tortured."

How do you not parse this to mean that while we try to transport suspected persons(note the use of "he") to places where they will not be tortured, we can't always be sure that this is the case?"The U.S. does not permit, tolerate or condone torture under any circumstances," she said, and does not transport and has not transported detainees from one country to another "for the purpose of interrogation using torture."Really. She obviously needs to be introduced to Richard B. Cheney. I hear that the guy thinks torture a real hoot. By the way, Condoleezza, nobody's buying what you're selling here. You're sure to get a warm reception in Europe when spewing garbage like this.

She said that "where appropriate, the U.S. seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured."

My favorite one liner, which contains the curious phrase: "Where appropriate."

How quaint a notion. When is it inappropriate to ensure that we send people not convicted of a crime to places where torture is routinely practiced?

Any violation of detention standards is investigated and punished, she said, citing the case of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison that "sickened us all" and the abuse of detainee by an intelligence agency contractor in Afghanistan.

Hey, we've seen how "sickened" Dick Cheney and - as much as I hate to point it out - our people guarding these individuals were.

She said that international law allows a country to detain a suspect for the "duration of hostilities," but that the U.S. "does not hold anyone longer than necessary to evaluate evidence against them."

(much more at link)Tell that to the people still held in the legal black hole that is Guantanamo Bay. I have no time for your non-admissions, Ms. Rice.

Add'l: Somehow my entries from yesterday are missing. I'll have to reconstrict them, and make new postings. They were a series of environmental posts. They are in my usual stilted, clipped fashion, but I'll re-enter them regardless!

Correction: At the beginning of this entry, I penned: "WaPo has the latest on Rice's pre-flight grilling..." This is incorrect. These are the higlights from a prepared statement. I did not alter my post to reflect my error. I'll let this correction serve as notice that I am aware of my mis-step. Sorry for any mis-conceptions this may have caused.

Leave It To Feaver

Here's the NYT article referenced below. Not a great more deal than what E&P reported, but some good fill-ins.

Of note:

In their paper, "Casualty Sensitivity and the War in Iraq," which is to be published soon in the journal International Security, Dr. Feaver and his colleagues wrote: "Mounting casualties did not produce a reflexive collapse in public support. The Iraq case suggests that under the right conditions, the public will continue to support military operations even when they come with a relatively high human cost."

"Under the right conditions?" Would those conditions be being sold a bill of goods based upon a mountain of falsehoods?

To me, that line is the wheat. Read on! It won't hurt a bit. I promise(headache, maybe)

Puffed Rice

The Guardian is reporting that the US' diplomat's diplomat, Condoleezza Rice will tell Britain and the EU to 'back off' on the subject of secret CIA detention centers, and their alleged attendant practices.

That Rice was going to go into full denial mode was pretty much broadcast last week..I provided color here and elsewhere(hint: do a site search)

She likely won't deny the existence of secret CIA detention centers, but will deny that the US is doing anything 'illegal.' Or maybe she'll just aver that whatever it is that we're doing must be done in order to stop the evil doers.

Via The Guardian:

[snip]...US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will inflame the transatlantic row over America's alleged torture of terror suspects in secret jails by telling Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and other European officials to 'back off'.

Rice, who arrives in Brussels tomorrow for a meeting with Nato foreign ministers, has been under pressure to respond to claims the US has been using covert prisons in Eastern Europe to interrogate Islamic militants. Human rights groups have alleged the CIA is flying terror suspects to secret jails in planes that have used airports throughout Europe, including Britain...[/snip]

I wonder if 'back off' is the actual language the US is attempting to convey? 'FO' would be more apt.

More here:

[snip]...Rice's refusal to answer detailed questions on what has become known as 'extraordinary rendition' will anger many in Europe. Last week Straw wrote to Rice asking for clarification about some 80 flights by CIA planes that have passed through the UK. European politicians and human rights groups claim the flights and use of a network of secret jails breach international law.

State Department officials have hinted that Rice's response to Straw and other European ministers will remind them of their 'co-operation' in the war on terror. She is expected to make a public statement today stressing that the US does not violate allies' sovereignty or break international law. She will also remind people their governments are co-operating in a fight against militants who have bombed commuters in London and Madrid. She will drive home her message in private meetings with officials in Germany and at the EU headquarters in Brussels.

Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said Rice told him in Washington she expected allies to trust that America does not allow rights abuses...[/snip]

(more at link)

No folks, she unfortunately is not joking.

I do agree with Rice that the US doesn't break international law. We mangle it into something unrecogizable, and then claim it doesn't apply to us. Is it any wonder that the US is turning into a global pariah? Nobody's gonna let the US play in their reindeer games this year.

I wonder if pushing the fear button works as well in Spain and the UK as it does here? Ms. Rice will likely find out.

'America does not allow rights abuses.' Strange. Tell those folks in Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib, Ms. Rice. I simply have not the time for your lies.

There is so much layered hypocrisy here that it's difficult to wrap your head around it all. It's a damned good thing we've had five years of practice with this stuff. Otherwise, our collective heads might explode from the utter rubbish being strewn about.

Next week(this week for my foreign visitors) looks to be a very interesting week.

Update: The Times Online has more. Quotes Scott McClellan: "When it comes to human rights, there is no greater leader than the United States of America" Intriguing. Untrue, but intriguing.

Update 2: The Independent ominously reports on the CIA 'black-sites' under the headline: "The torture files." Ouch! That has to hurt.

Update 3: The BBC is reporting on a Der Spiegel article claiming over 400 suspicious flights in German airspace. It's a pretty speculative piece, but it is another warning flag.

Read 'em all!

Any further comments will be contained within a new entry.

Bush's Feaver Fever

Those ever resourceful folks over at a REAL journalistic resource, Editor & Publisher claims that people in the know, know who Bush's National Strategy for Victory in Iraq penner is..At least in large part. The person most responsible's name is Peter D. Feaver, a 43-year-old Duke University political scientist(I always chuckle at the term 'political scientist')

Let's keep this brief, as The Times is sure to have lots to say about this in tomorrow's edition.

Just a quick teaser:

Feaver, the Times’ Scott Shane writes, "was recruited after he and Duke colleagues presented to administration officials their analysis of polls about the Iraq war in 2003 and 2004. They concluded that Americans would support a war with mounting casualties on one condition: that they believe it would ultimately succeed."

This past June, the Washington Post observed that Feaver's studies had already "helped influence the White House thinking."

But Christopher F. Gelpi, Feaver's colleague at Duke and co-author of the research on American tolerance for casualties, tells the Times on Sunday that this week's 35-page report "is not really a strategy document from the Pentagon about fighting the insurgency. The Pentagon doesn't need the president to give a speech and post a document on the White House Web site to know how to fight --the insurgents. The document is clearly targeted at American public opinion." Dr. Gelpi said he had not discussed the document with Dr. Feaver, who declined to be interviewed by the Times.

E&P has learned that Feaver is on leave from Duke until at least August 2006. According to his curriculum vitae, obtained by E&P, he describes himself as "Special Advisor for Strategic Planning and Institutional Reform, National Security Council Staff."

The study he did with Feaver, along with Jason Reifler, challenged the post-Vietnam view that Americans will only support military operations if casualties are low. Rather, they declared, based on a study of recent polls, that public acceptance for the Iraq war depended much more on feeling that the war was a worthy cause--and even more, a belief that the war was likely to end well.

(much more at link)

As if anyone thought that the document, replete with a speech was really about 'winning' on the ground in post-war Iraq.

That seems laughable. It would be if it wasn't so tragic.

This is group-think at its worst. All that the White House has to do to turn around public opinion concering Iraq is to keep too many of OUR guys from getting killed. This will magically metamorphose public opinion from dour to happy.

These guys are obviously deluded. I think that most Americans would support the war if there was real progress being made. It's not so simple as a body count.

This one-dimensional type of thinking is very clearly outlined in an absolutely terrific book by Jeff Schmidt titled: Disciplined Minds Amazon link.

How could these guys not land on Team Bush? Bush must love the simplicity of the message.

Stay tuned for the NYT piece tomorrow. It could be a winner..Unlike the PR ploy: National Strategy for Victory in Iraq ;)

Radio Bush: Deconstructed

Let's get right to it

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Earlier this week I visited Arizona and Texas to observe firsthand our efforts to protect our southwest border. And I met with customs and border protection agents who are working tirelessly to enforce our laws and keep our borders secure.

Illegal immigration and border security are issues that concern Americans. We're a nation built on the rule of law, and those who enter the country illegally break the law. In communities near our border illegal immigration strains the resources of schools, hospitals, and law enforcement. And it involves smugglers and gangs that bring crime to our neighborhoods. Faced with this serious challenge our government's responsibility is clear. We're going to protect our borders.

I already commented on the absurdity that we are a nation governed by the rule of law. In addition to my earlier caustic remarks, I'd like to add that just this past week, Lawrence Wilkerson(Colin Powell's Chief of Staff) stated that Dick Cheney committed a domestic crime for his role in the various prisoner abuse scandals, and additionally, thought that this would be a breach of "international crime as well." There's the president's rule of law in action.

Since I took office we've increased funding for border security by 60 percent, and our border agents have caught and sent home more than 4.5 million illegal immigrants, including more than 350,000 with criminal records. Yet we must do more to build on this progress.

"Took (the) office?" I'll let that stand.

Bush goes on to tell us how evil immigration is, and how, through the use of increased manpower, technology(remember this guy?), and a host of other initiatives we're going to stop illegals from coming in to pick fruit and get those Wall Street types to work the lettuce crop(okay, so that last bit's not in the address, but who the hell is going to do this essential work?)

Finally, comprehensive immigration reform requires us to create a new temporary worker program that relieves pressure on the border, but rejects amnesty. By creating a legal channel for willing employers to hire willing workers we will reduce the number of workers trying to sneak across the border, and that would free up law enforcement officers to focus on criminals, drug dealers, terrorists, and others who mean us harm.

Now he's on message. All those illegals are here to harm us. Press that fear button! Press it, damn you! Your poll numbers are in the toilet. Press it!

In the interest of fairness, you can read the President's immigration reform proposals here

We're "Fair and Balanced" here at pure bs!

Our nation has been strengthened by generations of immigrants who became Americans through patience, hard work, and assimilation. In this new century we must continue to welcome legal immigrants and help them learn the customs and values that unite all Americans, including liberty and civic responsibility, equality under God, tolerance for others, and the English language. In the coming months, I look forward to working with Congress on comprehensive immigration reform that will enforce our laws, secure our border, and uphold our deepest values.

Jees, George(native American name: "Governs with his Dick") the indigenous peoples upon which we bestowed smallpox, tuberculosis, and a host of other diseases upon might take umbrage with your entire statement. And didn't we sort of steal their land?

Being an agnostic, I am not living under any god's guiding hand. Much less 'his' repressive social ideas.

How does Bush get away with using "tolerance for others" and the establishment of "English language" for all in the same sentence? That's for minds greater than mine to decipher(I know the answer. It plays to his base..sad, no?)

Thank you for listening.

No, George. Thank you for providing us with such fine leadership and for ending your address with the word 'assimilation.'

The above radio address is available for viewing, and listening at the following link: President's Radio Address

This would make great political humor if it wasn't so damned true(I am not touting my own puerile attempts at humor. I'm talking about "The Address" as delivered)

Let's face it, if I could write, I wouldn't be involved with blobs of sand.

Oh, Brother

This being Saturday, El Presidente Bush once again filled the airwaves with the weakly Radio Propaganda Clambake Address.

I just can't let the whole thing pass without comment. When you start off with:

Good morning. Earlier this week I visited Arizona and Texas to observe firsthand our efforts to protect our southwest border. And I met with customs and border protection agents who are working tirelessly to enforce our laws and keep our borders secure.

Illegal immigration and border security are issues that concern Americans. We're a nation built on the rule of law, and those who enter the country illegally break the law.

Rule of fu%king law? Does this man think that the populace doesn't think?

(well, there is some good evidence that many do not, but others certainly do)

He and his circus of assclowns have spent the last five years disproving this very point. By design, or otherwise, it matters not. Argggh!

I just cannot let this pass unchallenged. This is especially good because there is no copyright issue, and I can rip the whole speech(?) without breaching copyright protection.

I'm involved with work again, but will provide my readers with a minimum of three things today.

Since there are about ten things that I'm pissed off about today, I'll try and put the issues out that are the most irritating. Bush's speech(?) is a given ;)

Blowin' In The Wind

This is for all you stats freaks - of which I am one.

In light of the fact, that 'Epsilon' is now the 14th hurricane, and the 26th named Atlantic tropical storm of this season of record destroying hurricane season, I thought an update was in order.

The actors:

1. Arlene


2. Bret


3. Cindy


4. Dennis


5. Emily


6. Franklin


7. Gert


8. Harvey


9. Irene


10. Jose


11. Katrina


12. Lee


13. Maria


14. Nate


15. Ophelia


16. Philippe


17. Rita


18. Stan


19. Tammy


20. Vince


21. Wilma


22. Alpha


23. Beta


24. Gamma


25. Delta


26. Epsilon

Lovely group, don't you think?

Now, In addition to this being by far the busiest tropical storm/hurricane season record, there are some other records that fell as well.

Most category five storms in a season!

Most expensive hurricane season ever!

There may be others of which I am not aware, but even the most petro-centric dunderhead can see that if the increase in both number and power of storms is due to ocean surface temperature warming(and there is good evidence to support the relative strength claim) that it is going to be far cheaper to cut our atmospheric carbon emissions, and other greenhouse gases than to clean up after a few Katrinas per year.

(sorry 'bout the run-on sentence)

Not to even mention the other likely outcomes of accelerating climate change. We're in deep now.

This may be my next tact for approaching my wooden headed Congressmen. They're the four horsemen of the environmental apocalypse. The only thing that'll turn them is a well argued financial benefit to limiting pollutants.

Now it's time to do the research(well, it's likely way past midnight, but I'll be able to say that I tried)

Iraq and Vietnam: No Parallels

Honest. You can trust us We're the government!

This is political humor that's already written.

• Johnson blames Vietnam on faulty intelligence



• Bush blames Iraq on faulty intelligence(sort of)(there's faulty intelligence at work, but it's a shared experience..makes you want to go hug a group of neo-cons)

From images of crippled warships to images of mushroom clouds over the Big Apple, it's comforting to know that the grown-ups are still in charge.

FWIW, I didn't intend it to be unordered list Friday, but it seems to be going in that direction ;)

Rebel, Rebel..

I meant to post an entry concerning this NYT piece concerning the Iraq resistance groups earlier, but I just spaced it.


Sleep deprivation 1, todd's blog 0.

Super quick synopsis:

• Over 100 groups



• Horizontal structure



• We're not winning(unless you define the metric with fomenting violence across Iraq)

****************************

That's all I have time for. Gotta run.

Happy Friday!

Roving in Uncharted Waters

Karl Rove may be back on the hotseat in the Plame leak case. The NYT is reporting that the summoning of Ms. Novak, which we first reported here is likely to focus on contadictory statements and/or alterations of testimony(s) Rove gave to the Grand Jury after learning that Matt Cooper might possibly have identified Rove as a source in the leak.

From the NYT piece:

People involved in the case said that at a minimum Ms. Novak communicated to Mr. Luskin that Mr. Rove might face legal problems because of potential testimony from Mr. Cooper, her colleague. They said Ms. Novak had told Mr. Luskin that Mr. Cooper might have been in contact with Mr. Rove about Ms. Wilson in the days before her identity became public. Mr. Cooper helped write an article on Time's Web site in July 2003 that was among the first, after Mr. Novak's column, to divulge Ms. Wilson's identity, using her maiden name, Valerie Plame.

As stated, that may be the minimum of Rove's trouble with regard to this piece of the puzzle. However, the NYT also reports in some detail the circumstances surrounding an email from Rove to Stephen Hadley that recounted a conversation beteween Rove and Cooper which in turn lead to Rove's altering of his testimony. Guess what is in the email? Details of a conversation Rove had with Cooper prior to his Grand Jury testimony.

Oh yeah. Karl is definitely out of the woods here. NOT!

More On Iraqiganda: Confirmed!

According to Reuters, the White House has expressed 'concern' over the US military secretly funneling American Happy Items to Iraqi media outlets.

Is this an admission that someone knew? Apparently they do now.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch speaking about the allegations:

Lynch replied that al Qaeda leaders believe "half the battle is the battlefield of the media," citing a letter, released by the United States in October, said to have been written by al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, to the extremist network's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"And what Zarqawi's doing continuously is lying to the Iraqi people, lying to the international community, conducting these kidnappings, these beheadings, these explosions so that he gets international coverage to look like he has more capability than he truly has," Lynch said.

How is one to read this? Is it that if Zarqawi's doing it, we get the green light to follow suit?

Is this the Zarqawi letter that has had its veracity questioned? It's the only letter of which I am aware.

Some more stuff:

'WE DON'T LIE'

"We don't lie. We don't need to lie. We do empower our operational commanders with the ability to inform the Iraqi public, but everything we do is based on fact not based on fiction," Lynch said.

Okay, this should easy enough to confirm. Let's get all the facts out on the table, and let some neutral party investigate any claims made. Seems simple enough. Too simple. It'll never happen.

Lynch did not explicitly confirm the practice of paying newspapers to run pro-American articles, first reported on Wednesday by The Los Angeles Times, but other officials did confirm it. The Times also reported that the military had bought an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a radio station to disseminate pro-American views.

A senior State Department official, who asked for anonymity because his views could be seen as critical of the Pentagon, said the reports of planted stories undermined U.S. diplomats' efforts to foster democracy in Iraq.

Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat defeated by President George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election, told reporters at the White House, "I think that the United States of America paying for stories in Iraqi papers undermines America's credibility."

"What we need are Iraqis who really believe what they're saying and say it for themselves," Kerry said.

Eek! I agree with Kerry. He's been in a lot of weird places politically lately, but I agree that this is the path to initiating integrity in Iraq. We have to start somewhere.

A defense contractor involved in the effort, Washington-based public relations and strategic communications firm Lincoln Group, declined to detail its activities.

Ahh, no comment from the viper's den. That's pretty shocking ;)

[Scott] McClellan said Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had indicated Pentagon officials are looking into the matter. "We need to know what the facts are. Gen. Pace indicated it was news to him as well," McClellan said.

So, other officials have confirmed the existence of the Happy Time stories, but the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs doesn't know anything about their existence. That's convenient.

At least Scotty didn't go into reflexive denial mode. Perhaps having his mouth crammed full of his feet so many times, he has learned something...Nah!!

Am I the only one to see that it's not criticism of the war that hurts troop morale, but the inane way in which it is being conducted? That has to really effect the troops.

If I was in uniform I'd be livid. I'm trying to stay alive and get home, whilst we are going out of way to undermine my ability to continue to inhabit this planet above ground. I'd be god damnned pissed off. Hell, I am pissed off!

US-Iraq Policy: bin Laden's Golden Goose

Just one day after President Bush's stay-the-course-with-few-modifications speech, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Peter Pace had the following to say:

"There is no option other than victory," he said. "You need to get out and read what our enemies have said ... Their goal is to destroy our way of life."

Sure, that may be true now that we've gone in, and turned Iraq into a recruiting tool for bad guys, but this wasn't so before Cheney, Rummy, Wolfie, Rice et. al. set us off on our Excellent Iraq Adventure.

Bush's speech of yesterday must be hailed as a propaganda coup for Islamic extremism.

Not being able to watch Bush deliver his speech, I've been relegated to reading it.

Did anyone notice that there are some made up words in the speech? How about some utter falsehoods and mis-directions?

Bush actually - according to the official transcript - uttered this sentence:

Victory will come when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can provide for the safety of their own citizens, and when Iraq is not a safe haven for terrorists to plot new attacks on our nation.

Excuse me, "Saddamists?" Shouldn't that be "Hussseinistas" or some other equally nonsensical bit of tripe.

And what the hell about Iraq being a safe haven for terrorists? If you read this logically, the Pres. implies that Iraq is currently a safe haven for the bad guys, but we're working on it.

Lastly, and most sadly, the mean old terrorists can't plot NEW attacks against our nation. The tacit code here is that they have done so before. This is simply fantasy.

From all appearances, the attacks of 9/11 were pretty much planned within our borders.

Lots of smoke and mirrors, but little in the way of fact. If the mass media doesn't call Bush out on these fabrications, democracy is dead in the US.

All Pollutants Are Global

The Journal Nature has an online article posted concerning the weakening of Atlantic Ocean currents.

The researchers report that there has been a 30% weakening in the 'Atlantic meridional overturning circulation' which helps to warm the upper latitudes, and includes the Gulf Stream.

The change has been extremely rapid. The 30% weakening has taken place in the last 50 years.

Since the material is likely to be new to most readers, I urge you to go and read the whole article. I cannot die it justice here. It's simply too much material to enter into a blog post. I have lots of far more detailed information, that I am going to be adding to my own online resource center within the next couple of months.

If there is one message that everyone needs to take away from this article, it is this:

"This is quite sensational information in itself," says Detlef Quadfasel, an oceanographer at the University of Hamburg in Germany. "But it is also an important message to politicians who negotiate the future of the Kyoto agreements: we do change our climate."

I am not going to continue to write my Congressmen(they are all men) and ask just what the f&ck they are doing to save us from ourselves. That avenue hasn't worked. I don't yet know what I am going to do. Me, you, the majority of the US scientific community, and other like minded individuals and organizations haven't been able to get the US to even sign onto Kyoto, much less do what's really necessary to halt the warming of the planet.

Kyoto is only a tiny fraction of what we need to do. But it's an important first step that the current Administration deems not economically feasible.

Well, when the Midwestern US dries up and can no longer produce an abundance of crops, their uppance shall be at hand.

The only thing less economically viable to signing onto Kyoto is to do nothing. That threatens us all.