Posts from — February 2007

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on this day in 1809.

[Update: see Fonts Again up above for corrections and more information.]

This a chart of the Persian/Farsi alphabet. It has a few more sounds and letters than Arabic, but the alphabets are very similar. Like Arabic and Hebrew it is written and read from right to left, the reverse of English. Today’s date would be written 7002/21/20 5831/11/32 in Farsi numbers. [My bad, I forgot that Iran has its own solar calendar, as they should since they started the whole solar calendar craze. Other Islamic countries tend to use the Muslim lunar calendar.]

Don’t expect people to believe that Ahmadinejad made a particular bomb in his basement because you have stenciled “Made in Iran” on the side. If you are claiming to trace serial numbers, those numbers had better be in the Farsi alphabet, not the Latin alphabet.

Pierre Tristam’s article on the Baghdad dog and pony show, Bush Junta Locks and Loads has a picture of some of the “proof” of Iranian involvement, an RPG-7 round. The RPG-7 was introduced by the Soviets in 1961 and has been manufactured in many countries, including IRAQ, but with obvious ENGLISH markings, I would guess it was produced in Pakistan faked by Americans.

[Update I corrected the sample date to show the calendar differences, but then I looked at the markings again and saw “Lot: 5-31-2006” and it took me a bit to realize that the Pakistanis, like the Brits and most Europeans use day-month-year when writing dates in numbers. The US is rather unique in the world in using month-day-year. That rocket propelled grenade was probably stenciled by an American.]

In their headline CNN says: U.S. ties Iranian leader to bombs killing U.S. troops. If you read the report you have to accept so many unsupported claims to get there that I have a bridge I what to talk to you about as soon as you get your fortune from Nigeria.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The U.S. military Sunday presented evidence it says shows an elite Iranian force under the command of Iran’s supreme leader is behind bombings that have killed at least 170 U.S. troops in Iraq.

U.S. officials have made general statements in the past year about Iranian involvement in Iraq, but haven’t provided many details.

The charges came at a Baghdad briefing by a senior defense official, a senior defense analyst and an explosives expert, all of whom asked to remain unnamed.

Juan Cole has a slightly different headline: NYT Falls for Bogus Iran Weapons Charges. The professor looks at the casualty reports and says no way, uh-uh, not even close.

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Below I thought I was nitpicking the BBC on their translation. It is worse than that.

The BBC translation from below:

“This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law.

This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons.”

Munich Conference on Security Policy translation:

“And of course this is extremely dangerous. It results in the fact that no one feels safe. I want to emphasise this: no one feels safe! Because no one can feel that international law is like a stone wall that will protect them. Of course such a policy stimulates an arms race.

The force’s dominance inevitably encourages a number of countries to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”

BBC quote in Russian:

“Это, конечно, крайне опасно и ведет к тому, что никто уже не чувствует себя в безопасности, потому что никто не может спрятаться за международным правом, как за каменной стеной, – отметил российский лидер. – Такая политика является, конечно, катализатором гонки вооружений. Доминирование фактора силы неизбежно подпитывает тягу ряда стран к обладанию оружием массового уничтожения”.

The BBC job cuts have really affected the quality of their translation services. Putin does not mention nuclear weapons, he specifically refers to WMDs: “оружия массового уничтожения”. The official translation is a bit literal for my tastes, but that beats the heavy paraphrasing of the BBC version. Wars have started over less.

I noticed in the coverage of the Air Pelosi non-event no one mentioned that when the media flies on government aircraft, like Air Force One, they get charged for the ride. If Speaker Pelosi brings guests, they are going to get a bill – that’s how the system works, just ask the White House press corps.

Oh, if she brings Jack Murtha, he doesn’t get charged. Retired military can fly “space available” on military aircraft for free. It’s a benefit.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

From the BBC, Putin attacks ‘very dangerous’ US:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has attacked the United States for what he said was its “almost uncontained” use of force around the world.

America’s “very dangerous” approach to global relations was fuelling a nuclear arms race, he told a security summit.

[snip]

Mr Putin told senior security officials from around the world that nations were “witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations”.

“One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way,” he said, speaking through a translator.

“This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law.

“This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons.”

While signaling that the Shrubbery can forget about any UN Security Council resolutions that permit the use of force when the US is involved, it is a major power saying what much of the world already thinks: the US is part of the problem, not part of the solution. The refusal to negotiate in any meaningful way has set the US outside the normal diplomatic sphere.

[A translation nitpick: the phrase “nobody can hide behind international law” , would have been better translated as “nobody can be shielded by international law”. Mr. Putin was speaking in Russian.]

Updated: to reflect new information on aircraft types

The Secret Service and House Sergeant at Arms want the Speaker to fly on military aircraft with secure communications and no intermediate stops. This is in response to 9/11 and recognition that the Speaker becomes the President if both the President and Vice President are unable, for any reason, to continue to serve.

This was the procedure when Republican Dennis Hastert was Speaker, and the House Sergeant at Arms, a Republican appointee, believes the practice should continue.

Rep. Hastert is from outside of Chicago, approximately 598 air miles from Washington, DC. Speaker Pelosi is from San Francisco, approximately 2449 air miles from Washington.

Rep. Hastert used a C-21A, a military version of the Learjet 35A, which is based at Scott AFB, in southern Illinois. Pilots have to be qualified in the aircraft they fly, so crews would either have had to deploy to Washington with their aircraft, or they were flying from Scott to Washington one day and then flying from Washington to Chicago and then back to Scott the next day. I assume they deployed two aircraft and associated personnel to Andrews AFB on a temporary duty [TDY] basis. The range on the aircraft is 2,300 miles and the Air Force is removing them from service.

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Amphibious Assault

This will teach them the folly of not protecting their ports.

[Editor: for Ellroon of Rants from the Rookery who recognizes the danger.]

Update on 02/10 – Juan Cole reviews Feith in the Situation Room: Three Lies.

Update 2 – Here’s the transcript of the Alex Chadwick interview with Feith on Day to Day.

Listen to Douglas Feith Responds to Criticism on NPR’s Day to Day to hear an amazing thing, an on air NPR reporter arguing with a Republican.

The audio is available now, and a transcript will be available later.

Feith tried to spin things and the host had the documents in front of him and called Feith on the spin.

If you’re interested, Feith claims that they weren’t generating intelligence, they were just criticizing intelligence.

Picketing

We aren’t scared of the flash. Two minutes of Cuteoverload and the Daily Kitten, or we won’t leave.

[Editor: Trying to use my computer is not always easy.]

Friday Ark

Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog was wondering how long this latest attack would continue on the Edwards campaign, when he noticed that the MSM has switched to 24/7 coverage of a celebrity death.

For those who don’t know, William Donohue has at various times claimed a membership of 300,000 in his organization. That’s an impressive number if you don’t know that there are 66.4 million self-identified Catholics in the United States. Representing less than one-half of one percent of American Catholics shouldn’t give you much of a voice, but he has made it on to the Rolodexes of the media bookers, so he becomes an “expert.”

I’m sorry I thought that Tim Russert was important enough to have been included in the Valerie Plame outing. I was embarrassed for him when it came out that he wasn’t even significant enough to be included with the rest of the press corps when the White House wanted to broadcast a leak. Even worse, Scooter Libby thought he would be too embarrassed to admit he was out of the loop.

I’m sorry I thought that it was possible for Jonah Goldberg to finally act like a mensch and pay up after an apology to Juan Cole. As usual, other people had to clean up after him.

Most of all I’m sorry that I live in a time and place where the media have lost their connection to the truth. With all of the resources available via the Internet that once required weeks of research, those whose function is to report the truth make no effort to verify what they are told. It is sad when the average newsletter is more apt to be accurate that the major news organizations.

ter·ror – fear [Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French terrour, from Latin terror, from terrEre to frighten; akin to Greek trein to be afraid]

ter·ror·ism – the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion

The Catholic League’s president, William Donohue, has stated on multiple occasions that he has a problem with “secular Jews” in Hollywood, and Michelle Malkin thinks interning the Japanese Americans during World War II was such a great idea, that the camps should be opened for all of the Muslims in the United States.

I don’t know for sure, but Amanda’s last name, Marcotte, and Melissa McEwan’s references to attending Loyola would tend to make me believe that both were raised as Catholics at a minimum.

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