Posts from — June 2007

1944 – D-Day

President Franklin D Roosevelt told a news conference the invasion did not mean the war was over.

He said: “You don’t just walk to Berlin, and the sooner this country realizes that the better.”

FDR was a real “War President”. He didn’t go around telling people “Mission Accomplished” when there were a lot of battles to come. He was a Democrat and a believer in reality.

1966 – James Meredith, the first black man to enter the University of Mississippi, was shot and wounded after entering Mississippi on a civil rights march.

1968 – Robert Francis Kennedy died after being shot two days earlier following his announcement that he was running for President.

“Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws–but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted–when we tolerate what we know to be wrong–when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened–when we fail to speak up and speak out–we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.”

I doubt he would have written a letter to argue for leniency for “Scooter” Libby.

Update: Cookie Jill at skippy the bush kangaroo posted the RFK anniversary first, and I notice we both chose the same quote.

The BBC is reporting on Stem cell therapy for eye disease:

UK scientists are attempting to restore vision in people with a leading cause of blindness using stem cells.

The team has already repaired the vision of a handful of patients with age-related macular degeneration using cells from the patients’ own eyes.

…

A £4m donation from a US benefactor who wishes to be remain anonymous has enabled the teams to set up the London Project to Cure AMD with the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

[Read more →]

Dr. Jeff Masters, the Weather Underground’s hurricane guru interrupted his vacation: Severe Cyclone Gonu Prepares to Strike the Gulf of Oman

An unusual event is happening over the next 48 hours, as the first tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds, and major hurricane-force winds at that, is approaching the Gulf of Oman, to strike the eastern coast of Oman, curve northward, and make landfall on the coast of Iran. In the tropical cyclone best tracks and the modern era of weather satellites, there is no record of such an occurrence.

Oman is going to experience something it has never known, a hurricane. Almost everyone lives on the coastal plain, and if they haven’t evacuated to higher ground they are probably going to be underwater from the storm surge.

Jeff has a couple of people helping out, and the post is filled with pictures and graphics to demonstrate a disaster in the making. Almost everyone in the area lives on the equivalent of a barrier island, barely above high tide, and there are few roads out.

It is past the time when the Shrubbery needs to just STFU before he starts a war with Russia.

Putin knows that some leaders are idiots, he served under Brezhnev and Yeltsin, but there is a limit to his patience and he is at the end of his term. Putin doesn’t act like a “tough guy”; he is one. He was a KGB officer who worked in East Germany and other places. It doesn’t bother him to use force.

The BBC reports that Bush seeks to calm Russian fears:

US President George W Bush has said Russia has nothing to fear from a missile defence system to be built by the US, partly in eastern Europe.

Mr Bush said the Cold War was over and Russia was not an enemy of the US.

But, they also report that Bush criticises Russia on reform:

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The fine folks at Crooks and Liars have two video segments on Olbermann’s report: The Nexus Of Politics And Terror.

The timing of the announcements and arrests in these amateur “terrorist plots” is blatantly political. It is nothing more than a variation on the DHS color wheel from the Shrubbery’s first term. They won’t call the white supremacists and “Pro-Life” murderers and bombers terrorists, but the Animal Liberation Front, Earth First, and anyone who’s brown are so labeled.

I have no fondness for idiots who burn things in the name of the environment, because it is stupid – like the by-products of their fires don’t increase global warming. Nor do I appreciate people who “liberate” domesticated animals, so they can “die free” in a very short time because they don’t know how to live in the wild. Such people need to be prosecuted for their crimes, but they aren’t causing widespread panic.

I admit that I’m always suspicious when an “informant” is involved in an FBI arrest. My experience has always been that such people tend to be bigger criminals than those who are informed on. Talking about doing something that you obviously lack the ability to do, is not much of a threat.

Ahead of the Organization of American States meeting Secretary of State Rice Protests Venezuelan TV Closure to the Venezuelan foreign minister.

First off, let’s be clear exactly what Hugo Chavez did: he refused to renew the broadcast license for the RCTV network. He didn’t arrest the owners, padlock the building, blow up the transmitter; he refused to renew their 20-year license to broadcast over the frequencies designated for television.

The Center for Media and Democracy has a round-up of what’s been written on the issue: What’s Fair in Coverage of RCTV Shutdown?.

That includes an opinion piece by Bart Jones, who was a correspondent for the Associated Press in Venezuela, for the Los Angeles Times: Hugo Chavez versus RCTV

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The Justice Department has finally gotten around to indicting U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, and we can find out what he did.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Nearly two years after federal agents reported finding $90,000 in a freezer in his Washington home, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson has been charged with a global campaign to solicit bribes, obstruct justice and engage in racketeering, Justice Department officials said Monday.

The veteran Louisiana Democrat faces 16 criminal counts, said Alice Fisher, assistant U.S. attorney general in the criminal division.

“This case is about greed, power and arrogance,” said Joe Persichini, director of the FBI’s Washington field office, which led the investigation.

In addition to the racketeering and solicitation charges, Jefferson has been charged with money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The bad news is that Alice Fisher, who heads the DOJ Criminal Division has never prosecuted a traffic ticket, and this the first case tried under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Jefferson is a Louisiana politician, a group that make eels seem gritty by comparison. If it’s possible to slip away from a charge of corruption, a Louisiana pol will find it.

I hope this is enough for Speaker Pelosi to cut him loose and take him off the Homeland Security¹ Small Business committee.

1. Update: Mea culpa, I should have verified my memory. He was being considered for Homeland Security, but was finally put on the Small Business committee.

2. Update: He didn’t wait to be told: Jefferson steps down from House committee.

[Map updated for Tuesday coordinates]

Via Ellroon at Rants From The Rookery, Oman can expect a visit from Tropical Cyclone Gonu, and we can expect higher gas prices.

That is not a good place for a hurricane, with all of the oil production, the supertankers, three US aircraft carrier groups, this could be a very expensive hurricane/tropical cyclone indeed.

[Steve Bates is on R&R, so someone has to publish bad puns.]

You would think that there would be a few competent lawyers to prevent errors like this. This is the sort of thing that cost junior assistant district attorneys their first cases.

The Associated Press is reporting – Charges dropped for two Guantanamo detainees:

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Military judges dismissed charges Monday against a Guantanamo detainee who chauffeured Osama bin Laden and another who allegedly killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, marking a setback to Washington’s attempts to try detainees in military court.

In back-to-back arraignments for Canadian Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, of Yemen, the U.S. military’s cases against the alleged al Qaeda figures dissolved because, the two judges said, the government had failed to establish jurisdiction.

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It would appear that the Strategic Rocket Forces have regained their premier position in the Russian military

Luke Harding in Moscow for The Guardian reports on the May 29 Russian missile test:

Russia yesterday threatened a new cold war-style arms race with the United States by announcing that it had successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of penetrating American defences.

Russia’s hawkish first deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, said the country had tested both a new multiple-warhead intercontinental missile, the RS-24, and an improved version of its short-range Iskander missile.

Global Security has an article on the RS-24, a solid fuel intercontinental ballistic missile [ICBM] with a warhead containing multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles [MIRV], 10 of them.

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Ellroon of Rants from the Rookery had a two-part post [part one, part two] asking people what [books, movies, music, etc.] influenced their decision to be liberals.

I thought about it a long time and came to the conclusion that conservatives don’t want to do anything. conservatives didn’t want a revolution, they didn’t want to buy Louisiana or Alaska, they didn’t want to settle the West, they didn’t want to build canals, roads. railroads; they wanted to stay as 13 British colonies and have been fighting changes ever since.

If you read American history, there are no great successes for conservatives, and a number of major disasters that could have been ameliorated or avoided if action were taken.

Now I tend to be an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of person, but if something is wrong, you have to correct it. It doesn’t make sense to slough off all of the hard jobs to the people who replace you.

I don’t like paying taxes, but I benefited from the taxes that my parents and grandparents paid, so I have an obligation to the people who follow. Part of what being a country is all about is the continuity of rewards and obligation that tie together the generations. When a generation decides not to do their share, they weaken the ties, and the nation.

I’m a liberal because of the American Revolution – I think it was a good idea.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

Okay, I’m done for the time being messing around. This upgrade was a PITA because of all of the customizing I had done over the months, which I had to re-do in the new version.

Yes the fonts are bigger, because I wear bifocals and am tired of squinting. Teeny type may be the fashion, but it’s a pain to read quickly. The same goes for the debate between Serif and Sans Serif faces, I find the Serif more readable, so I use it for the text.

In general I have opted to allow users to see the typeface they selected in their browser as their choice for Serif and Sans Serif, rather than my choice, which is fairly odd and you probably don’t have it anyway.

Sorry, for all of the construction debris.

Before the election I made it clear that I wouldn’t vote for Bill Nelson. The choice between Nelson and Harris was a choice between the seventh and eighth levels of hell. Nelson is, was, and always will be a Democrat in name only. He has supported the loss of civil liberties and welfare for corporations every chance he had.

He isn’t a stupid man, he knows exactly what he’s doing, and he does it because he benefits. His vision of the world is as close minded as any neocon, but he’s intelligent enough not to say it out loud.

When the Pensacola Beach Blog reports on Nelson’s Torture Vote, my personal response is that this is perfectly consistent with Nelson’s entire career in the Senate.

Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars calls him a Liebercrat, but Lieberman used to be a Democrat, Nelson never was.

Nelson isn’t a conservative; he is just as radical as the rest of the Gingrich Repubs.