Posts from — April 2007

“Very Active” Hurricane Season Predicted:

“The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season should be ‘very active,’ with nine hurricanes and a good chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coast, a top researcher said Tuesday.

Forecaster William Gray of Colorado State University said he expects 17 named storms in all this year, five of them major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. The probability of a major hurricane making landfall on the U.S. coast this year: 74 percent, he said.”

Not 2005, but not the break that 2006 provided. Two months to go for the official start.

The BBC highlights a problem which affects the entertainment industry in the current stand-off: C[hannel] 4 may pull drama over Iran fears.

Channel 4 says it is considering delaying a drama about British soldiers in Iraq as the UK negotiates to free 15 Royal Navy personnel captured by Iran.

The Mark of Cain, which was due to be broadcast on Thursday, shows British troops abusing Iraqi detainees.

I’m not in favor of censorship, but this is probably not a good time to remind people of the coalition treatment of detainees in Iraq. This is why adherence to the Geneva Conventions is not “quaint” – you do it to protect your own people.

Update: Michael Hirsh of Newsweek looks at The Rose Garden Offensive, and doesn’t buy it:

Bush came out swinging against a Democratic Congress determined, he argues, to undo the benefits of the “surge.” Time for a reality check. Finding the thorns in Bush’s Rose Garden address.

Update: Magpie at Pacific Views looked it up: so far the Dems have taken 57 days this year for this bill. The Reps took 86 days in 2005 and 119 days in 2006.

Update: Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway notes that Mr. Absent is complaining about Congress taking a break the day before he heads back to Crawford for Easter. [Back in January she noted he had racked up 365 days at Camp David and 405 days in Crawford in 6 years.]

From BBC coverage of the Shrubbery’s press conference: Bush warns over Iraq funds delay

US President George W Bush has warned that US troops will suffer if a dispute with Congress over a war funding bill is not resolved soon.

Speaking at the White House, Mr Bush said Congress was failing in its “basic responsibility” to give troops the equipment and training they need.

Actually, Congress has been funding equipment and training for years, and the Pentagon hasn’t been using the money. Rumsfeld was not replacing equipment, and people were being sent to Iraq without training. The problem for the last six years has been the Department of Defense, not Congress.

Not that Congress has been doing a great job. The 109^th Congress under Republican leadership still hadn’t passed the budget bills that were due in October of last year when they left, but the Shrubbery didn’t complain about that.

Congress is the branch that declares war, authorizes money, writes the rules [UCMJ] for the military, has to agree on the commissions of officers. Congress has more power regarding the military than the “Commander in Chief.” If Congress wants the war to end, it is over. If the President doesn’t agree, Congress can impeach the President.

It’s time that Congress takes its responsibilities seriously, and starts to use its power.

Update 04/03: Via Juan Cole, The Australian carries a report by James Hider in Baghdad for The Times:

…21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital.

The victims came from the Baghdad market visited the previous day by John McCain, the US presidential candidate, who said that an American security plan in the capital was starting to show signs of progress.

John feels a need to prove that Iraq is becoming Eden, so he interrupts the war by showing up and demanding to go on a walking tour. He wanders outside the Green Zone and visits a market for a total of an hour and declares that a new era in dawning.

He fails to mention the sweep looking for bombs and snipers before he went, the 100 infantrymen in his bodyguard, the three Blackhawks used for aerial surveillance, the two Apache gunships for extra punch, or the personal body armor. He makes no mention of the lives he put it harm’s way, the cost, the wear and tear on people and equipment that were involved in this political stunt.

Quiddity noticed the reaction of a mild-mannered Middle East professor at mild-mannered Midwestern university, Doctor Juan Cole.

Quiddity is as stunned as I am. Dr. Cole wears tweed jackets and glasses, and always sounds so professorial.

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Lurch at Main and Central labeled his post: Soylent Green.

Add Gravy Train, Jerky Treats, Pounce, Ol’ Roy, Dollar General and Happy Trails brands to the list of those who used the suspect wheat gluten. But the fun part is:

Wheat gluten is sold in both “food grade” and “feed grade” varieties. Either may be used in pet food, but only “food grade” gluten may be used in the manufacture of products meant for human consumption.

This was “food grade” gluten and they still haven’t identified the source, so it could have been used in the stuff you microwaved last night. I don’t guess consumers are ready for the truth – no one is inspecting the food supply.

As Pensacola Beach Blog puts it :McCain’s Walk on the Wild Side.

Anyone with a company of heavy infantry, three Blackhawks and two Apaches for air cover, and personal body armor can walk through a carefully selected Baghdad neighborhood.

John McCain is clueless. He has hitched his wagon to a mission on its way over a cliff.

They started arriving this morning, a new kuddle of kittens at Out, Standing in Her Field. No time for pictures yet.

Shakespeare’s Sister has become Shakesville [http://www.shakesville.com] effective immediately, because making the move yesterday wouldn’t have worked. [Come on, who would have accepted the new site thing on April Fool’s Day?]

New name, new look, new location, with new and improved snark added.

Update: Now with Woof.

I’ve said before, you can’t trust any information provided as a result of torture. That reality is embedded in US law. People continue to promote torture because they are sadistic bastards: it doesn’t provide useful information, so QED they are sadistic bastards. Courts also refuse to recognize any agreement that results from coercion, a polite name for torture. The whole reason for coercion is to force people to do something they wouldn’t do if given the choice.

Lt. Col. V. Stuart Couch, JAG USMC, understands this. Pierre of Candide’s Notebooks tells the story of the colonel in The Conscience of the Colonel. The colonel has every reason, including the death of a friend to want to see al Qaeda pursued and destroyed, but he knows at a gut level if someone was coerced, you can’t be sure anything he said was true.

After all these years we are still hearing stories like, UK man released from Guantanamo: “Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi national, was held at the US detention camp in Cuba on suspicion of links to terrorism while on a trip to Gambia in 2002.” The man and a business associate are picked up in Africa, declared terrorists, and sent to Guantanamo. After four years he is released because there is no real evidence that he did anything wrong.

Then there’s Gitmo Australian Gets 9 Months, the story of David Hicks:

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Jams O’Donnell of Poor Mouth is celebrating his first blogiversary™.

Go congratulate or harass him as is your wont.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.