Posts from — August 2006

Echidne tells us of The Magic of Privatization, wherein the Congress and this administration have decided that rather than hire the extra staff needed to collect delinquent tax accounts at a cost of 3¢ on the dollar, they would rather outsource the job to collection agencies charging 22¢ to 24¢ per dollar collected.

And this makes sense because?

Commander Kirk Lippold didn’t receive a briefing saying that al Qaeda was determined to attack his ship and the investigation cleared him and his crew of wrongdoing in the attack on the USS Cole, but he’s being held accountable:

The attack killed 17 sailors and nearly sank the destroyer in Aden harbor, Yemen. A Navy investigation concluded in 2001 that Cmdr. Kirk Lippold and his crew probably could not have prevented the attack and should not be punished.

But in a written statement Monday, the Navy said Secretary Donald C. Winter concluded after reviewing the matter that Lippold’s actions before the attack on October 12, 2000, “did not meet the high standard” expected of commanding officers.

What about the high standards for Presidents or Secretaries of Defense? What about the generals responsible for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? What about the CIA director who signed off on the Iraq intelligence?

Update: I forgot to mention – for those of you who watch TV, tonight and tomorrow HBO will air the four hour Spike Lee documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. The entire film will be shown in full on August 29^th.

So today the Shrubbery tells the press that the Feds have supplied all of the money that’s needed, so it is the local governments that are responsible for the slow pace of recovery on the Gulf Coast.

Well, folks, it will shortly be two years since hurricane Ivan came roaring ashore, and local governments haven’t been able to even finish disposing of the debris because they can’t get a decision from FEMA as to the procedure they need to follow to receive Federal funding for the clean-up.

Ivan hit just before the 2004 election, one of the 4 hurricanes to hit Florida, so FEMA and the Shrubbery made a lot of promises that lasted until after the election. When it finally came time to present bills to the Feds, all of a sudden there were additional requirements and paperwork. Extra layers of management sprang up that seemingly had no purpose other than to slow or stop the process.

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This isn’t Alabama, it’s Watertown, New York: Sunday school teacher dumped for being female. With 54 years of experience, this clown has the gall to say she is not qualified to teach?! What are the chances this clown could have read the Bible if a woman hadn’t taught him to read in elementary school?

Here are a couple of things that women have taught us lately that men seemed to have missed:

“There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution.” US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor

“A state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation’s citizens.” US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

The winters are pretty bad in Watertown, on the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Maybe he froze his brain by breathing through his mouth when outside?

Update: Mustang Bobby has a carefully reasoned response to More Holy Crap.

Far be it for me to judge others, but I think Pierre of Candide’s Notebooks is a little put out with Joseph Lieberman, or so it seems in Lieberman, L’Immoraliste:

The hypocrisy makes Günter Grass’ belated admission that he was drafted into the Waffen SS look saintly in comparison: Joe Lieberman is calling for Don Rumsfeld’s resignation. Joe Lieberman—best man at the Pentagon’s wedding with neo-cons, valet to the Iraq invasion, concierge to the Bush White House to this day and fuse-lighter to every missile with an Arab destination—now thinks, three years too late (six, by fairer measures), that gunning for a dead horse by means of reviving his own senatorial horse race can help him in November. Calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation now is like Robert McNamara apologizing in 1995 for his Rumsfeldian role in the Vietnam War. It’s not only too late. It’s an offense to those already ruined by the errors.

That’s just the opening. I think he might have been ready for all-caps and bold towards the end.

Nice rant.

It would be wonderful if I didn’t understand the point of this cartoon by Mike Keefe of the Denver Post, because it would mean the Rovian nightmare was over, but given the circumstances, it’s pretty funny.

My older Brother sent me this from The Times, the real one in London that’s still a newspaper: Polar bear orphan saved from death by a caring hunter.

He sent it because they named the cub “DUMKA” (Думка) and he’s constantly looking for references to our name. In this case it’s used as a diminutive form of “DUMA” (Дума), the Russian parliament.

I was interested to see that there are still people stuck on the Chukotskij Peninsula (Чукотский Полуостров), which is the closest mainland point between Russia and Alaska across the Bering Strait. It was very military when I kept an eye on it and gave real meaning to the “Cold War”. Winter temperatures at Cape Schmidt (Мыс Шмидта) approached -100°F.

Western Slavs use “dumka” to refer to folk lore, and it has entered the musical vocabulary as a piece inspired by folk lore. The Ukrainians use it as a generic term for ideas or thoughts. The Russians generally think of a pillow when they say “dumka”

While I’m musing, it’s interesting that the West refers to legislatures as “parliaments” which is rooted in speech, while the Slavs believe they are rooted in thought.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

They made it quite clear to anyone that was paying attention what they intended to do, so reporting that Israel violated the cease-fire is a waste of bandwidth.

As far as the Israeli government is concerned, only Hezbollah can violate the terms of the agreement passed by the Security Council. That is the way they have always treated Security Council resolutions and the US protects them, so there is no point in even bringing it up.

This is why the European nations want clarity in the rules of engagement – they want the ability to return fire at anyone who shoots at them, not just one side.

The same article demonstrates why Hezbollah is so powerful. Beginning the instant the cease-fire was in effect, representatives of the social service wings of Hezbollah spread out throughout their areas and began assessing damage and cleaning up. They set up claim centers to begin distributing cash to those affected by the clashes.

The Lebanese government is still talking and trying to come with a plan, while Hezbollah obviously already had a plan in place and arranged funding for it.

If FEMA and the insurance companies were as organized as Hezbollah, the Gulf Coast would already be rebuilt. Hezbollah is like Tammany Hall with it’s own Special Forces brigade.

[I would note that 2½ weeks after the first anniversary of Katrina is being noted, the second anniversary of Ivan will occur, and things are still a mess.]

[Update: A Newsweek article on the rebuilding effort by Hezbollah.]

Kevin Drum accuses Jacques Chirac of France of failing to provide sufficient troops for Lebanon, probably unaware of the forces that are already in country with UNIFIL.

Swopa thinks this was a US-Israeli-French scheme to end the fighting while forestalling any restrictions on actions.

Juan Cole thinks:

The UNSC resolution was vague because US ambassador to the UN John Bolton wanted it vague or wanted the language about disarming Hizbullah in there. The Bush administration still has not learned the rule that you can throw your weight around at the UN and can do as you please, but if the results don’t suit other countries, they take revenge on you by simply refusing to save your bacon. It happened in Iraq. Now it is being repeated in Lebanon.

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If you are ever stuck up to your waist in a vat of dark chocolate, you should add cocoa butter to thin the mixture so that you can climb out.

It’s Hot

If I have to move, you will regret it.

[Editor: Katy [AKA KT – Kitten of Terror] is too hot to move. If I jumped on the plywood she’s lying on, I feel certain she would retaliate at some point.

Friday Ark

Kevin Drum located an article on making TATP.

Read it and get depressed about the stupidity of banning liquids and most of the current “plot”. You can’t do this on an airplane. It isn’t pour two liquids together, shake, and add fuse.

It is beginning to look like the guy arrested in Thailand may have to be “unarrested”, not unlike several recent “terrorists”.

No war zones safe enough for reporters and no giant court cases looming – heavens, what will the media do?

EDB at Anecdotes from a Banana Republic teaches me something new in Which international force?

Turkey: Lebanon is home to the largest Armenian diaspora community in the world. They don’t want Turkish troops in their midst, and for good reason.
Potential for lasting peace: Bad. Armenians might take up arms.

I had no idea there were so many Armenians in Lebanon.