Posts from — August 2007

Unless you feel that netiquette requires that you do it, one of the nice things about the WordPress platform is that I see when people link to me, whether they do anything or not.  Trackbacks show up as comments for the post [see the Friday Ark “comment” on any Friday Cat Blogging for an example], but any link will eventually get back to me through Technorati, which is part of the Site Administration page.

I appreciate links, but don’t feel obligated to go beyond that because I will get the message.

KT Takes A Break

Kittens are hard work.

[Editor: KT was a kitten last year, but has kittens of her own somewhere. She has the classic gray and white markings of the group. I only see her in the evening when I put out “wet” food.]

Friday Ark

This has nothing to do with the Helen and Paris fling [no matter what Victor Davis Hanson may think].

From the Beeb – Bloggers battered by viral storm

Google’s Blogger site is being used by malicious hackers who are posting fake entries to some blogs.

The fake entries contain weblinks that lead to booby-trapped downloads that could infect a Windows PC.

Infected computers are being hijacked by the gang behind the attacks and either mined for saleable data or used for other attacks.

These people are real cyberscum and are responsible for major spamstorms and denial-of-service attacks through their robonets.

There are four Invests currently being watched in the Atlantic basin:

94L is the most serious possibility. It is tracking a lot like Dean and is currently East of the Lesser Antilles. Development has been slow because of dry, dusty air to the North, but that impediment will be passed in a few days and it should spin to life.

95L is due East of Jacksonville, Florida, and if it develops looks like a problem for shipping and fish.

96L is due East of Jacksonville, North Carolina, and if it develops might cause some excitement for coastal Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

97L is a Bay of Campeche pop-up that looks like it will be more unneeded rain to Mexico in the area Dean soaked.

The current steering is good news, but it won’t last. There have been several Bay of Campeche pop-ups lately, and if they get to head North, instead of West, life gets exciting.

The link on CNN’s front page says: Radical Iraqi cleric suspends his militia.

The title of the article is: Iraqi cleric suspends militia.

The lead paragraph is: “Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a suspension of his Mehdi Army militia for up to six months for restructuring, a senior aide said Wednesday.”

Later in the article they write: “Al-Sadr emerged as a popular grass-roots Shiite leader after the United States toppled Saddam Hussein, developing clout that has altered the political landscape in Iraq’s Shiite heartland.”

[Read more →]

NPR has a major round-up of stories, Katrina, Two Years Later, with one of the more important being Much Long-Term Katrina Recovery Aid Unspent.

The Shrubbery keeps talking about the $100+ billion that was allocated, but it doesn’t mean anything until it shows up in people’s hands so they can start rebuilding their lives.

Of course, there are more stories from Scout at First Draft on New Orleans and Ana Maria at A.M. in the Morning! on Mississippi.

Obviously the mortgage meltdown is just going to add more problems to the effort.

I like Noz’s suggestion that what we really need is a reenactment of the bathroom scene with bunnies.

Jack is proud that a Senator from his state of birth has closed the ‘Seamy Republican Bigwig’ gap of the Intermountain West, although I think we can all agree with Badtux that Louisiana still leads the nation with its combination of numbers of corrupt politicians and variety of activities.

A lot of people seem to be missing the point that what the Senator admitted to doing has less to do with the action or intent, but where it took place – in a public area. The fact that this took place in a public bathroom is what made it a crime. If he had done it in a bar he might have gotten spurned or scored, but he wouldn’t have gotten arrested.

A word of advice to public officials who get arrested – don’t try to impress the arresting officer with who you are. When you do that the officer has to spend a lot of extra time with a copy of the penal law to ensure you get charged with every possible offense. Instead of a misdemeanor appearance ticket, you are apt to end up with a dozen charges and major bail.

Update: US military spokesperson Emily Litella says “Never mind” as the Iranians are released.

CNN reports: U.S. detains Iranians in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — U.S. soldiers arrested members of an Iranian government delegation Tuesday at a hotel in Baghdad and took them to an unidentified location, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
…

The U.S. military said it detained some “Iranian citizens with Iranian passports” and their Iraqi escorts, who carried Iraqi Department of Energy badges, at a checkpoint in the Abu Nuwas market in eastern Baghdad’s Rusafa district.
…

[Read more →]

When not trying to be Teddy Roosevelt or Harry Truman, the Shrubbery spends a lot of time fixating on Winston Churchill. It’s too bad he never read anything written by or about Churchill and Iraq. It has a lot of relevance to the current mess in Mesopotamia.

While “Joke Line” mentions some of the history of Iraq in a July 30, 2006 column for Time, he missed the best part: Winston Churchill created Iraq. It was Winnie’s idea to combine the three separate Turkish provinces [one each for Sunnis, Shi’ia, and Kurds] into one nation for administrative purposes and to anoint the Sunnis to rule the new country after World War I.

But, as Dr. Cole points out, Winnie knew a loser when it was staring him in the face: Churchill on When to Throw in the Towel on Iraq.

[Read more →]

At this time two years ago I was sitting at the computer when the first rains from the outer bands of Katrina arrived. My feeling was that we had been spared the main hit, but were still going to experience a tropical storm. The eye came ashore almost 200 miles West of me, but tropical storm force winds were felt 50 miles to the East before the night was over.

Tonight all there is to watch is Invest 94L in the Atlantic, not what was then the fourth most powerful storm on record. I’m content with that.

Different veterans group, same disconnect for the Shrubbery.

The BBC reports: Bush warns Iran over insurgents

In a speech to US war veterans in Reno, Nevada, Mr. Bush renewed charges that Tehran has provided training and weapons for extremists in Iraq.

But he offers no proof of the claim because every time they run a dog-and-pony show with “proof,” they get caught faking it.

He also said:

Mr Bush said Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear technology threatened to put the Middle East “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust”.

I don’t guess Israel in the West, Pakistan and India on the East, and Russia to the North are considered a threat. No, the possibility that in a decade, if they actually are trying to build a nuclear weapon, Iran which hasn’t attacked anyone in a very long time will be a threat.

[Read more →]

A whole lot of y’all have posted on the unfortunate Ms Lauren Caitlin Upton, Miss Teen South Carolina, and her answer to a question on geography education. She obviously had no idea what she was supposed to say.

Excuse me, but half of the American electorate in 2004 voted for a man with an MBA from Harvard to be President of the United States who couldn’t have answered the question any better. All this video shows is that Miss Teen USA judges have higher standards than American voters.

I can assure you that Ms Upton feels bad about her performance, which is more than you can say about the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Update: in comments Scorpio of Eccentricity has a link to Ms Upton explaining what happened on the Today Show.

I try not to get involved with economics because I hated the subject instinctively, mainly because what I was hearing in class wasn’t logical and couldn’t be applied in the real world.

Max of Maxspeak was one of the few economists who made a point of connecting what was going on with the real world and now he has announced: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. A new position precludes blogging.

[Read more →]

There was plenty of time to get ready and position equipment and people, but political events and birthday parties were more important to the Shrubbery.

Nobody on the Gulf Coast wants to see him, it just messes up their lives dealing with his circus.

Update: the Institute for Southern Studies has released their Blueprint for Gulf Renewal. You can access a PDF of the report on-line. They followed the money and the picture isn’t nice.

Update 2: Sorry Greg. The Graphic is from Suspect Device: The Blog – with permission. There’s a link with the graphic, but I should have mentioned the source before people start thinking I have any graphic talent.