Posts from — March 2005

[^TM Kevin Drum]

---

The Kid

Where are the fish?

[Edit: This is the youngest of the feral cats. She hangs around my Mother’s side pond hoping for a fish to commit suicide. The pond is out of the picture.]

Friday Ark

---

---

Well the wacko, Steve Fossett, made it, landing back in Salina, Kansas at about 1949GMT, or 1:49PM CST. In spite of a problem about fuel, they went for it and became the first solo flight around the world without refueling and the longest flight by a jet aircraft without refueling.

Better than expected tailwinds made the flight possible.

---

---

bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now…

Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | New York | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming | Washington D.C

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Edit: Stolen from Steve who stole it from Allan. The joy of being a military brat who joined the military.

---

---

There is no doubt that the Bush administration will take credit for anything positive that occurs the Middle East and accept no blame for anything bad that happens.

This claim of spreading democracy in the region, usually by pointing to the Iraqi elections, would be a good deal more believable if a few of America’s allies in the region would hold some free and open elections after releasing the local media from its state-run status.

If Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, etc. would show a little willingness to improve their standing on the State Department’s list of human rights abusers, and allow a little democracy for their citizens, I might think we were having a positive effect. If a few of them would advance from the 13^th to even the 18^th century, I might see something positive coming from this total disaster.

Personally, think the one individual who has the most profound effect on the possibility of some democratization of the Middle East was Yasser Arafat. His death resulted in a generally democratic election taking place in occupied Palestine. Now if Sharon would do the world a favor and die, we might see some peace in the area, as long as he isn’t assassinated.

---

---

On All Things Considered today, Robert Siegel talked with Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States.

Mr. Moustapha repeated the Syrian government’s position that they had sent troops into Lebanon at the request of the Lebanese government, and now that the Lebanese government has asked them to leave, they will withdraw the troops.

In response to a question about the recent comments by Condoleezza Rice and George Bush, Mr. Moustapha wondered why their concerns were made to the press and not to the government of Syria.

Asked about claims that the recent attack in Israel was aided by groups in Syria, he noted that such claims had been made in the past, but to date no evidence has been presented to the Syrian government to support any of the claims, and indicated that it would be nice if such things were handled in diplomatic meetings between governments instead of press conferences.

---

---

The only woman ever awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, she was a military doctor during the Civil War. The award was signed by Andrew Johnson, taken away under Woodrow Wilson, and reinstated by Jimmy Carter.

This page is a condensed version of her life.

Writing about Major General Rainville reminded me of Dr. Walker.

[Edit: Woodrow Wilson was a Virginian who thought D.W. Griffith’s The Birth Of A Nation was “fair and balanced”.]

---

---

Maru, who recently returned from a “vacation” at an undisclosed location in the Caribbean, tells us that Yahoo has a story about the Canadian Minister of Defense, Bill Graham, was delayed at the airport, apparently because of a US watch list.

Assuming this isn’t more Bullshevik pique because the Canadians don’t want to play “Star Wars” with George, who is the William Graham on the list?

Perhaps it is the “star” of WWF: Superstar Billy Graham? No, the WWF has too much in common with NASCAR. Targeting an idol of their base wouldn’t be very Republican.

Perhaps it is Nixon’s favorite preacher: Reverend Billy Graham? No, see above.

It must be the concert promoter: Bill Graham. Just the thing: a Russian Jewish immigrant who fled the Nazis and made a pile of money in Rock and Roll. So similar to George Soros, that wingnuts would drool over any inconvenience. Even better, since he died in 1991, he can’t even sue. Yep, it must Bill Graham.

---

---

Jillian at The Snarky Cat has been moved to investigate Choicepoint. Read the post and understand that the Bullsheviks have no intention of regulating or providing oversight of such companies. Based on the evidence they don’t have any safeguards in place to verify who has access to the data or whether the data is accurate. An individual’s only option, other than setting up a bogus company to alter Choicepoint’s database, is to sue them.

---

---

When I heard this story on NPR’s All Things Considered I thought that I would see what a particular individual had to say about it.

I mean a Vermont Public Radio reporter on the national feed talking about the state’s Adjutant General, Major General Martha Rainville, VANG, the first woman to hold the position in the history of the militia or National Guard, I thought that it would certainly be covered on a certain blog.

Given that it’s the first day of Women’s History Month and we are only just recovering from the righteous Drum beating over “the issue that will not be named”, there’s is no point in a bayou dweller posting on a Green Mountain story.

I was wrong. One award and they forget their roots.

---

---

Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway in her Open Mind, Open Heart post of learning from the web logs points to Juan Cole’s article on the history of Lebanon.

Things are not always the way they are presented by the media or the government. While he alludes to their actions, Dr. Cole doesn’t specifically mention the names of the two people in modern times, i.e. that last fifty years, who have created the image that people in the Middle East have of the United States.

If you are really interested in learning why they hate us, look at the actions of the Dulles brothers. John Foster Dulles was the Secretary of State in the Eisenhower years, and Allen Dulles became the Director of the CIA during that period. I’m not going to point you to anything, because you need to discover for yourself why people don’t think the US has much credibility when it comes to spreading democracy.

Hint: US officials didn’t always believe that a democratic government was capable of fending off the blandishments of Communism.

On a related note, how bad is it when arts and letters commentators like James Wolcott feel obligated to comment foreign policy? In Second Verse, Same as the First notes the attempt to morph the Hezbollah into the new foreign terrorist threat to the United States.

Mr. Wolcott is certainly worth a daily read for his standard fair of snark about people and the arts, but this administration is becoming so annoying that he felt compelled to comment.

---

---

Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof mentioned this attempt by confirmed millionaire wackos…ehrrr… adventurers Steve Fossett & Richard Branson to set another record: non-stop solo flight around the world.

They do have the good sense to have Burt Rutan build the aircraft. Rutan’s Voyager, the first aircraft to fly around the world without refueling, and Spaceship 1, winner of the X Prize are part of The National Air and Space Museum collection.

You can follow the flight from Salina, Kansas and back at this site.

Update 03/02/05 1600CST: There’s a problem. 2600 pounds of fuel is “missing”. The mission is on to Hawaii, but no one is sure beyond that point.

---