Posts from — October 2005

In his conversation with Terry Gross, Richard Clark noted that the invasion of Iraq has done what Iran was unable to do in a decade-long war: Saddam was removed, the threat of WMDs was gone, the Iraqi army was destroyed, and the Iraqi Shi’ia are free to ally with Iran.

And what a wonderful Iran we have. The new Iranian President, who is somewhat more radical than the Ayatollah Khomeini, has called for the elimination of Israel.

Apparently the fact that Mr. Gilliard has reported this multiple times, has had his picture displayed on his site and other blogs, and has never denied it, was confusing to people.

While I question Mr. Gilliard’s judgment in his support of Manchester United and his aversion to spell checking, I sort of thought that you should have realized he was Black the second or third time he said it.

Apparently she hasn’t applied for a job recently and doesn’t understand that employers like to check on your work history and want you to answer all of the questions on the application.

Pat Leahy on NPR just said that the Republicans were responsible for Ms. Miers not getting a hearing.

To avoid shortages for the flu season, Roche has stopped shipping Tamiflu because of personal hoarding.

The hospital visits have exposed me to television again. Trying to track a hurricane on the Weather Channel is an exercise in frustration and the content of the channels selected by the other woman in my Mother’s room is enough to make one sick.

The soon to be Tropical Storm Beta would appear to be a threat only to Nicaragua, but Central America certainly doesn’t need the rain.

It’s good to see that Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof made it through Wilma relatively unscathed and is back on line.

Based on the complaints coming from people down South, it would appear that the Florida emergency management team has been FEMA-ized.

When Cheney said he didn’t know Joe Wilson I knew he was lying, but I didn’t know why I knew. I knew my reaction was deeper that “they attacked Wilson, so Cheney had to know”. That would be my surface reaction, but I KNEW Cheney and Wilson were acquainted.

It finally came to me: Gulf War I.

Cheney was the Secretary of Defense under G.H.W. Bush for the first Gulf War and he was so involved that he went to Saudi Arabia to watch the build up and launch of the war.

At the time, Joe Wilson was number 2 in the Baghdad embassy under April Gillespie. At the start of the war Ms. Gillespie was out of the country and Wilson was the highest ranking American official in Iraq. Wilson would have been the main source of information on the official position of the Iraqi government and about conditions in Baghdad. Bush I cited him for bravery in dealing with Saddam.

Cheney and Schwartzkopf would have been on the address list for Wilson’s reports and the reports would have been featured in the daily intelligence briefings. Wilson would have been the channel to Saddam to arrange the end of the war.

There is no way I can accept that Cheney didn’t know a major player in the most important event in his political life before he ran for Vice President.

Does anyone believe that a Secretary of Defense doesn’t know the name of the highest American official in a country we are about to invade?

That’s the Presidential Seal, as redesigned by Harry Truman to correct some weaknesses he felt existed in the original created by Rutherford B. Hayes for White House invitations.

If you like it there are plenty of companies willing to sell you just about anything with the seal on it.

Important things require the use of the Great Seal of the United States, which is pictured on the back of the one dollar bill.

Steve Bates reports that the White House is upset by the use of the seal by The Onion and has told them to stop.

Frankly I think Harry would approve of The Onion, and I know he would agree with most of what I write. Hell, George H.W. Bush would probably approve of much of it.

The military is a bit testy about this event according to CNN. Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, chief spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq: “The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone,” he said. “It is an artificial mark on the wall set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives.”

The Colonel was correct, Bill Frist called for a moment of silence to memorialize the event in the US Senate. The Senate majority leader, famous for misdiagnosing ophthalmologic conditions [he said Mrs. Schiavo could see and his trust was blind], felt it was necessary for his failing hopes to run for President to be seen supporting the troops, even those who can no longer vote.

Next up was the Shrubbery who brought it up in a dog show [they used to be dog and pony shows before Holden cornered the pony market] before military spouses. He proceeded to talk about sacrifices required in the “War on Terror”, even though none of his friends or family have sacrificed anything. The military and the middle class are making all of the sacrifices while large corporations are recording record profits.

Steve is also talking about this.

On a related note, Mark Fiore has a new animation out on a hurricane theme.

The guys in Lakeland came through all right, but PoP and Bobby are in the dark for the time being along with millions of others.

This article on the Unisys TSA contract shows a remarkable lack of knowledge about contracting in the IT world, and why it is fiscally foolish to get rid of government IT workers and use contractors.

A contractor charging twice as much for an employee than the employee is paid is the norm, not a remarkable condition. It annoys the employees to no end knowing that the company is making 200% or more for their work, but others are willing to pay it, so that becomes the standard.

This is a reality of outsourcing and privatization.

It’s time to think good thoughts for Aikane and Robert around Lakeland, and for Mustang Bobby and PO’d Patricia on the Atlantic coast.

The waiting and obsessive hurricane tracking are eating up their Sunday.

Hunker down and stay safe.

While the nano-crystals [we are talking 100 atoms and less] are known to produce light, he discovered a way of making them produce white light that can be used to increase the output of light emitting diodes [LEDs] with no increase in power consumption.

If you created a film or spray with the dots you could have a surface that would generate its own light in the presence of a lesser source. For example, if you coated the inside of a tunnel, your headlights could cause the entire tunnel to glow with a much brighter light than your headlights alone could produce.

Over at archy John’s post, Bork hates Miers, makes reference to the Saturday Night Massacre, October 20, 1973, when talking about Robert Bork.

When “conservatives” talk about Bork’s failure to be confirmed as a justice of the Supreme Court, they like to portray the event as a “liberal” attack on a “conservative”. They don’t mention that Bork was a tool of the Nixon administration’s attempt to stop the investigation of Watergate.

Nominating Robert Bork to be a judge was an attempt to bury the truth of Watergate. It wasn’t going to happen, and anyone with a minimum of understanding would have known better that to have made the attempt. Bork was tested and found wanting. He might have the wisdom of Solomon, but he displayed the moral courage of Daffy Duck.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of people were put at risk by what the White House did. A major intelligence operation tasked with monitoring weapons of mass destruction was exposed to unfriendly intelligence agencies around the world.

The ability of the United States to maintain, much less expand, its human intelligence capabilities was permanently damaged by this action.