Posts from — July 2006

To be a senator, but a lot of them are, and they deal with important issues about which they know nothing.

By now you seen references, like this one on Blonde Sense about Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.

First off he complains about the speed of delivery of office e-mail, which he calls “internet”, and he’s right to complain. Many of us who send e-mails to Congress have been complaining for an extended period about the lousy mail server that Congress uses, but in this case it has absolutely nothing to do with the Internet: an e-mail within Congress never gets on the Internet. Ted call your Congressional IT administrator and chew him/her out and suggest that they switch to the standard, free software that does a much better job.

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It takes a lot to get the Swiss to involve themselves in something outside their borders. While every able-bodied male between 18 and 55 is a member of the national guard and keeps an assault weapon and ammunition at home, they try to stay neutral and don’t go looking for trouble.

Sometimes you have to speak up:

Neutral Switzerland does not often venture into political controversy. But this statement is likely to cause some irritation in Israel and the United States.

A spokesman for the Swiss foreign ministry said that, as the depository country for the Geneva Conventions, encouraging respect for international law was a declared aim of Switzerland’s foreign policy and the statement should be read in that context.

It says there is “no doubt Israel has not taken the precautions required of it in international law to protect the civilian population and infrastructure.

“The destruction of a power station, the attack on the offices of the Palestinian prime minister, the arbitrary arrests of a large number of democratically-elected representatives of the people and ministers… cannot be justified.”

Since most people don’t get involved with such things and often wonder what it means when people start talking about military units, I have a separate page, Organization, that is part of something I may finish one day about the Civil War. The information is an “ideal”, but it will give you a feel for unit sizes.

When someone says that a suspect is from Company B of the 1^st Battalion of the 502^nd Infantry Regiment of the 101^st Airborne Division, you can get a feel for what they are talking about and why someone in the 502^nd is said to belong to the 101^st.

Frankly, I’m not sure I would want to fly when one of the safety concerns is circling vultures, but NASA launched the shuttle Discovery apparently successfully.

There were some pieces of foam shed during lift-off, but at a later time in the launch cycle and it is felt that they were carried away from the vehicle.

About that ICBM that was going to destroy Omaha, which is why they received so much extra Homeland Security money, the BBC reports on the launch.

The CNN coverage is in line with Pentagon “spokesperson”, Judy Tenuta who said: “Hey, it could have happened!”.

State Department “spokesperson”, Emily Litella said: “Never mind.”

Didn’t you hate it as a kid when you had dreams of explosions and rockets that would reach to moon, but you got a wimpy sparkler and two adults telling you to be careful with it.

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…

Independence wasn’t really achieved until September 3, 1783 when Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, and, to be factual, our current government only dates from March 4, 1789 when the first government under our Constitution was installed.

Liberty was not extended to all men until December 6, 1865 with ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, nor were women given the one of the most important rights of men until August 26, 1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment recognizing their votes.

In truth, until July 2, 1964 when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, there was no mechanism to force government to recognize the rights of all American citizens.

This is the 230^th anniversary of the signing, the 180^th anniversary of the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and the 40^th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act.

When are the Wingers going to figure out they are being used? The Shrubbery and company don’t think there is any real threat to their persons from “terrorists”.

If they were worried about attacks they would not be attending announced events all over the country. The security for those events is designed to keep protestors away, not terrorists. If you are worried about terrorists you don’t buy properties in resort areas and then have the FAA make them no-fly-zones so their location appears on the flight charts the government hands out.

If you are concerned with threats you remain in a defensible location and allow your security people to do their job. You do not go flying around the country in a large readily identifiable aircraft and move around locally in a large readily identifiable caravan of vehicles on a known schedule.

Tom Ridge played with the “terror alert” based on the poll numbers. Apparently he took his crayons with him when he left, because it hasn’t changed at all since the last election.

When it is politically expedient they release information on the sources and methods being used to combat terrorism. People should never have been told about Valerie Plame, nor about Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, but the White House has revealed the names of both. They have shown more concern for the names of the people who crafted their energy policy, than public servants trying to protect this nation.

I wondered how, given the “Stop-Loss” that was in effect, a member of the 502d allegedly involved in the rape/murder could have been discharged. CNN provides the answer: a “personality disorder”.

This guy was pulled out of a war zone and given an honorable discharge for a “personality disorder”. Exactly what kind of “personality disorder” could an airborne infantryman have that would disqualify him for military service, and be benign enough to allow him to be released on the unsuspecting civilian population?

I suspect that the Army realized he was crazy and wanted to be rid of him. They dumped him to avoid having to take care of his problems. I suspect someone in his chain of command knows a good deal more about the crime than has been admitted.

It wasn’t “by the pricking of my thumbs”; it was by accumulation of things that I heard and read that did not fit the normal patterns for numerous events.

Two experienced infantry soldiers, members of the 502^nd Infantry Regiment are captured. How? These guys were armed and armored. They would as soon shoot you as look at you and they were working in an area noted for attacks.

Here are “some of the dogs that didn’t bark”:

• An Iraqi talking to the BBC mentioned finding the bodies by the odor. Decomposition is faster in the heat, but they must have been killed on they day they were taken, or may have been dead when taken, for the process to be that far along.
• There were no demands made. The demands are almost always totally outrageous, but they make them.
• There was no video of the death. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed credit for the deaths, but they always put up a video of the event. The Russians were shown dying, but not the Americans.
• The mutilation was well in excess of the norm including Iraqi reports of castration.

War is a form of insanity, but after a while things tend to settle into a pattern. This incident breaks the pattern. This was a different type of insanity.

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Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

An all UEFA final.

Germany v. Italy and Portugal v. France

Terry’s back to blogging at Nitpicker and wonders if the so-called conservatives understand the rules of the WWII-era “Office of Censorship” that they want to reinstate, and who would be most affected by those rules.

If you would like to read something lighter about the media you might try the work of another Terry, as in Pratchett, who as a book called The Truth. It is fantasy, okay? There is really nothing in it about wealthy guys from Australia or Pittsburgh who mess around with the world as a hobby and to make a lot of money. It’s a work of fiction, no matter how familiar some things may seem, because it’s set on a planet that’s as flat as a pizza. It has wizards and talking dogs, nothing like our planet.

Both have wooden heads and work with clowns, but one is a Florida congresscritter.

La fête du
Canada
Day

Thank you for not yet building a fence along your southern or western border, and for brewing great beer.

Schedule of Ottawa events and some background.