Kevin Hayden at The American Street has been busy lately. He just finished changing servers and revamping the line up on the “Street” and now he has launched an Oregon-centered site: Wagontongues.

He was also kind enough to consider me someone who is fighting against the repression and criminal acts.

When you first read the article, U.S. Offers Anti-Proliferation Treaty, it seems reasonable, but the devil is in the details.

This treaty will take affect when the five permanent members of the UN Security Council [US, Russia, China, Britain, France] approve it. There is no provision for verification in the treaty. It is designed to produce an automatic Security Council resolution. It doesn’t address current stockpiles of weapons-grade material.

My guess is that the US has figured out that Russia and China are not going to go along with the US plan to get UN cover for an attack on Iran, so they are trying an end around to generate an automatic UN excuse.

The way this turkey is worded, the US claim of Iranian production of weapons-grade material is all that will be needed to get an automatic resolution.

The US might have more standing on this issue if the Shrubbery hadn’t violated the old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by cutting a deal with India to supply nuclear material.

Oriskany, New York is the site of one of the bloodiest and most significant battles of the Revolutionary War. A group of primarily Dutch and German colonists stopped a force of British troops, Tories, and their Native American allies, blocking the Mohawk River valley. The casualties were so great that there weren’t enough men left in the valley to bury the dead.

As a result, when the Lexington-class of carriers were being built, ships that carried the names of important battles, one of them was designated the USS Oriskany.

Oriskany is my Mother’s hometown and where I happened to graduate from high school, [military brats see a lot of schools].

The Pensacola Beach Blogger reported the Oriskany was sunk off the coast of Pensacola yesterday to become an artificial reef. He also has links to the museum in the village and to pictures of the sinking.

In the BBC article on the Oriskany there is a link to video of the sinking.

Like many who saw service on the “O” in Korea and Vietnam, she was buried at sea, now she will be reborn as a habitat for fish.

Lance Mannion is subbing over at Michael Bérubé’s blog and he has a great comparison between the current US government and the government of Ankh-Morpork in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novel: Guards! Guards!.

I’m a fan of Pratchett and have read all of the Discworld novels. This one has a 1989 copyright and is a great fit to our current situation. It’s hard to accept that there’s little difference between the US and a pizza-shaped world of witches, wizards, and dragons.

With these people in charge, you can forget political science research and turn to the fantasy writers to understand what’s going on.