Invest 96L has become Tropical Depression 12
Position: 10.1 N 36.2 W. [10PM CDT]
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 16 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph.
Wind Gusts: 45 mph.
Minimum central pressure: 1006 mb.

Currently 1700 miles East of the southern Windward Islands [the lower islands of the Lesser Antilles]. While it might become a hurricane, it currently looks like a fish bothering central Atlantic storm.

Neither Invest 94L in the southern Gulf of Mexico, nor Invest 97, just East of the Lesser Antilles, have shown much development.

Laura Rozen has located a PDF version of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment that barely stops short of a declaration of war on Iran. It will show up in the Senate in the next few days, and will be another nail in the coffin of reasoned debate.

I have little confidence in the ability of the Democrats to find a spine and do the right thing by rejecting this load of jingoistic bovine excrement, so I suggest they purchase one of these for the housekeeping crew at the Capitol. At least we’ll get a green lawn out of it.

Oliver Willis notes that:

Microsoft is apparently offering a tool to downgrade PCs to XP from Vista. From my quick experience with Vista, that seems like a feature, not a bug.

That has to hurt. OW includes a link to the software. I try not to go to the Microsoft because they keep trying to download their malicious software program that I keep rejecting. This is not good news for the system software group. I think they are encountering resistance to hardware upgrades that are really necessary for Vista to be usable. Vista doesn’t have support for a lot of peripherals that people already use and like even though they are a few years old.

A very nice CNN article, Brzezinski: U.S. in danger of ‘stampeding’ to war with Iran

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski likened U.S. officials’ saber rattling about Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions to similar bellicose statements made before the start of the Iraq war.

“I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly, are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq,” Brzezinski told CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer” on Sunday.

[Read more →]

Before the GOP brought up their blatantly anti-free speech campaign talking point on September 20, they were offered a resolution by Senator Barbara Boxer, No. 2947:

Statement of Purpose: To reaffirm strong support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and to strongly condemn attacks on the honor, integrity, and patriotism of any individual who is serving or has served honorably in the United States Armed Forces, by any person or organization.

The GOP filibustered this resolution with Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Joe LIEberman (Likud-CN) the only crossover votes.

It was never the troops or military service, it was always a political attack on MoveOn.org.