Posts from — October 2005

They stole his “Mission from G-d” bit from The Blues Brothers and now they are “borrowing” his Samurai routine from Saturday Night Live.

Digby reports on the arrest of Walid Muhammad Farhan Juwar al-Zubaydi, Al Qaeda hair stylist.

Come on, this is an obvious rip off, and John’s estate deserves credit and royalties.

Excuse me while I laugh hysterically. What goes around, comes around.

More tests are needed to determine if the Greek outbreak is also H5N1, but it is definitely an H5 variant.

What a thrill, I have a ring-side seat for the worst hurricane season on record.

They are also working with governments in the area struck by the earthquake, so that aid can be distributed efficiently.

These are some really high quality photographs that taxpayers spend a lot of money on and don’t even know they exist. I get a feeling that the Agency is doing this to show Congress that they are useful and should be funded.

The data is capable of some really amazing tricks if you have the computing power and software.

[Howard Kurtz, Host:] Lucy Dalglish, if Karl Rove is indicted, if Karl Rove is indicted, what if he’s not indicted? Isn’t this the worst kind of journalistic speculation?

[Lucy Dalglish, Committee For Freedom Of The Press:] Yes. You know, I think it’s always dangerous to speculate whether or not. You’re really besmirching someone’s reputation, although I’m not sure you can do that with Karl Rove. But it is very, very, you know — I would prefer that people keep an eye on what the — you know, watching him testify and going in and out of the courthouse.

But will it bring down the administration? I don’t know. I don’t know.

[Editor: my emphasis]

Shield laws are for the protection of journalism, not propaganda. If you know, or should know, that you are part of a disinformation campaign you are not acting as a journalist.

If Ms. Miller had been acting as a journalist she would have written an article announcing that “senior officials” in the Bush administration are conducting a smear campaign against critics of the intelligence being used to justify a war with Iraq. Ms. Miller reported nothing and denied having been contacted by administration officials to spread the story about Ms. Plame.

If you are attempting to inform others, you are acting as a journalist. If you are distorting or concealing information you are a propagandist. The heart of the matter is the intent of the writer.

Bloggers may be journalists, propagandists, or bystanders, depending on their intent. The same is true of people with bylines printed in the New York Times.

This is a bad position, as, depending on how the steering winds build, it could go almost anywhere, including following the path that Stan took over Central America.

Update: [10/17/05] It’s officially Tropical Storm Wilma, and ties a record for the most named storms with a month and a half to go. No real indication where it’s heading but it will probably become a strong hurricane in a couple of days.

Fifty-eight-year-old George Hoey Morris, of 385 Wade Morris Road in Eclectic, Alabama, and formerly of Okaloosa County, is charged with false swearing of voter information.

Investigators with the Okaloosa Sheriff’s Office say although Hoey was convicted of a felony offense involving the sale of illegal narcotics in Colorado in 1980, he registered as a qualified voter in Okaloosa County in 1999 and cast a ballot in November 2002, a violation of Florida election laws.

Federal authorities say the arrest means Morris will remain in detention in the Montgomery Alabama City Jail where he’s also charged with immigration fraud.

I’m including it because of the rarity of someone being arrested for voting fraud in Florida, and the fact the guy lives in Eclectic, Alabama. It takes some getting used to.

If you like wildlife photography, don’t miss it.

As Terry at Nitpicker notes he has Three Down and three to go for the complete set. Perhaps he should check with Colin Powell who apparently has some affinity for that attempt.

The latest failure, referenced in this CBS piece, Bush, Troops Have Rehearsed Chat, is insulting to the military.

While the 42^nd Infantry Division is now a unit of the New York National Guard, the members should have more regard for the history of the “Rainbow Division” than to participate in a political event.

When Rumsfeld has a chat with the troops, it got embarrassing, but it was real. Real soldiers got to ask their questions, and Rumsfeld gave them answers. Rumsfeld may not have liked the questions, and the troops may not have liked the answers, but the event gave Rumsfeld information he couldn’t get any other way.

Bush could have gotten his questions answered in the manner he wanted by watching the Pentagon TV channel. Talking to division Public Relations personnel is not the way to find out what is happening in a war zone and ordering the military to participate in staged political events is demeaning.

I doubt it was an accident that the rehearsal made it onto to the general network feed. I would guess that someone who was unhappy with what was going on arranged for the “accident”.

™ ^{[Kevin Drum]}

The New Chair 2

Definitely needs to be bigger.

[Editor: Sox tests the new chair, but isn’t impressed, he was hoping for a recliner – Lazy Boy. {I said it to save Steve the effort}]

Friday Ark

It would seem the system would be a lot simpler if fewer people had exemptions or exemptions that involved smaller numbers, so they have suggested lowering the exemption on mortgage interest for homeowners, and the exemption on employer supplied health care.

A small bit of advice for those who propose “supply-side economics” in 2020 [every 20 years it gets tried in hopes of a different outcome]: don’t use the boats and tides analogy. The problem is that New Orleans after Katrina rather clearly demonstrated that poor people don’t have a boat. They are already working hard to keep their heads above the water and they drown in the “tide” [inflation] created by the tax elimination for the rich.

“There is no [hack, cough, cough, cough, sniff] problem in Brazil. [sneeze, hack, hack, cough, spit, cough, cough, sneeze] There is no disease [cough, sneeze, cough, cough] threat from [cough, cough, rasp, rale, spit] Brazilian exports. [hack, sneeze, cough, cough, cough]”

The message gets lost when everyone is waiting for the sound of the ambulance arriving, looking for tissues, or wanting to call 911.