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2008 June 30 — Why Now?
On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog
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Fun With My Computer

cat

I’m converting something that was created decades ago to a web-based version, and it has been “interesting”.

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June 30, 2008   14 Comments

Federal Court Gets “Snark”-y

Bill Mears of CNN tells us that the Court cites nonsense poem in ruling for Gitmo detainee

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A federal appeals court has slammed the reliability of U.S. government intelligence documents, saying just because officials keep repeating their assertions does not make them true.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington likened the Bush administration’s case to a line in an 1876 nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll: “I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.”

Portions of the court’s findings were released a week ago, including a ruling that a Chinese Muslim accused of being a foreign fighter was wrongly imprisoned. The full ruling was released Monday.

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June 30, 2008   3 Comments

We Did It To Ourselves

CNN tells us that General Shinseki was right and Rumsfeld was wrong: Army criticizes itself in Iraq invasion report

(CNN) — The U.S. Army’s official history of the Iraq war shows military chiefs made mistake after mistake in the early months of the conflict.

Failures to recognize the chaos engulfing the country and to send in enough troops to restore order after the 2003 invasion have long been highlighted by critics, but a new report shows the Army assessing itself.

Frank opinions from officers serving in the 18 months from the start of war to Iraqi elections in January 2005 reveal there were concerns at the time, not just about assumptions made by planners but at decisions taken once U.S.-led coalition forces had control of Iraq.

Understand that standard doctrine was all that General Shinseki was basing his opinion on, not some wild new concept. His estimate of 350K troops was what the manual called for in the situation, but Rumsfeld and the neocons wouldn’t listen and over 4000 dead later we are no closer to being able to get out.

June 30, 2008   4 Comments

Let’s Party Like 1930

Alexandra Twin, CNNMoney.com senior writer, tells us the good news: Stocks: Mixed day, brutal June

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks struggled Monday at the end of worst June for the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials since the Great Depression, amid rocketing oil prices and ongoing financial market woes.

This is what happens when you let a Harvard MBA and oil man run the country. Since the reign of Ronnie they have been systematically removing all of the controls put on business after the Great Depression because they were “unnecessary”, “no one would do those sorts of things today”, “the market will provide its own limits”, “regulation is bad for business”, etc. Without the regulation and controls they made all of the same mistakes with exactly the same results.

June 30, 2008   27 Comments