Posts from — February 2008

Update: Suddenly the US thinks Muqtada al Sadr is the greatest, most wonderful individual in Iraq, and he has extended the cease fire for six months. The agitprop people are even using his formal title “Sayyid”, rather than “radical cleric”.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Iraq’s Sadr may not extend truce

BAGHDAD — Aides to Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr cast doubt Wednesday on his commitment to extending a six-month cease-fire that expires this month, saying U.S. and Iraqi forces had not necessarily earned Sadr’s continued cooperation.

The comments raised the specter of a return to sectarian violence and an upsurge in attacks on U.S. forces at an especially delicate time in the war. The United States is in the process of drawing down the additional 28,500 soldiers it deployed last year and has banked on a continuation of Sadr’s cease-fire to help keep the peace as American troops depart.

But Sadr loyalists have said their foes are taking advantage of the cease-fire to try to crush the movement politically and militarily.

Sadr has been tied up with his graduate studies, but they won’t matter if his forces are defeated. His group has been attacked by the Badr forces, the Iraqi government forces, and US forces, but have been restrained in response. If his representatives announce at Friday prayers that the cease fire will not be extended, all hell is very likely to break out. The US is about to find out that Sadr’s truce was a considerable part of the “success” of the surge, and things will get very dicey in Iraq, especially in Baghdad.

The BBC reports that there is no lack of stupidity in the Balkans: US embassy in Belgrade attacked

Several hundred protesters have attacked the US and other embassies in Serbia’s capital in anger at Western support for Kosovo’s independence.

Protesters broke into the US compound in Belgrade and briefly set part of the embassy alight. Firemen later found an unidentified charred body inside.

Other embassies, including the UK’s, were also targeted. The UN Security Council condemned the attacks.

The violence followed a peaceful rally by at least 150,000 people in the city.

Most Serbs regard Kosovo as their religious and cultural heartland.

Well, if Serbs were so fond of Kosovo, why didn’t they live there? If it was so important, why did they leave when they had a chance? They don’t really want it; they just don’t want anyone else to have it. This is a truly nasty minority among Serbs, and the nation won’t regain its equilibrium until the rest of the Serbian people tell them to get over it.

The BBC tells us in: Israeli MP blames quakes on gays

An Israeli MP has blamed parliament’s tolerance of gays for earthquakes that have rocked the Holy Land recently.

Shlomo Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the tremors had been caused by lawmaking that gave “legitimacy to sodomy”.

Israel decriminalised homosexuality in 1988 and has since passed several laws recognising gay rights.

Two earthquakes shook the region last week and a further four struck in November and December.

Excuse me, but if Israel has earthquakes for not discriminating against gays, why does Iran have earthquakes? One would certainly think that the policy would be consistent around the world, or at least throughout the Middle East.

Via Sinfonian at Blast Off!, Charlie Crist, the Republican governor of Florida, seems to be proposing a better health care plan than leading unDemocratic¹ Party Presidential candidates. He even acknowledges problems with dental care.

I know the unDemocrats are the party of change, because they have been nickel and diming me for years without doing anything about anything.

1. You can’t disenfranchise people and call yourself democratic.

The entire missile shot that took place last night was a agitprop stunt. We have done exactly the same thing in the past for a hell of a lot less money: from the CNN report on the shot

In 1989, a U.S. fighter jet destroyed an American satellite by firing a modified air-to-air missile into space from an altitude of 80,000 feet. That move adds to evidence the U.S. acted Wednesday strictly to guard against the prospect of a potential disaster, Cartwright said.

The ancient Phoenix air-to-air missile/F-14 system achieves a “hard” lock-on at 75 miles. We have newer and better missiles on newer and better aircraft. This was not a difficult shot, because there weren’t any active defensive systems on the satellite and the flight path was well known.

This mission was set up so that every service was involved, and that is exactly how the Iran hostage mission got screwed up – too many “cooks”. The whole thing was anti-missile system propaganda, to justify spending tens of millions of dollars more than necessary on a straight-forward air defense mission.

CNN reports Air Force: 1 pilot dies, another survives after F15Cs collide

(CNN) — An Air Force fighter pilot died Wednesday after two F-15C jets collided during a training exercise over the Gulf of Mexico, according to Air Force officials.

The planes were from the 33rd Fighter Wing, a combat-flying unit out of Eglin Air Force Base, near Pensacola, Florida.

A spokesman for the wing said the pilot died after having been rescued by a fishing boat and transported to the hospital at the base. The pilot of the other jet was also rescued and was listed in good condition, he said.

The crash happened at about 3 p.m. ET, about 50 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base which is in Panama City, Florida. A statement from the 33rd said the pilots were rescued at about 6 p.m. ET.

These guys fly over my house. The base surrounds all of the local towns. These are my neighbors.

Update: CNN is reporting that the Pentagon says they hit the satellite at 10:26PM EST. Now we wait for the aftermath from the debris created.

There’s a lunar eclipse on tap and they are apparently going to attempt the $60 million dollar publicity stunt of shooting down one of our own satellites which may cause debris to land in Canada.

Of course the Chinese are on our case because of all the grief the Hedgemony gave them for doing the same thing some months ago, and I would assume our northern neighbors aren’t exactly thrilled.

Regardless, the missile defense budget needs to have a stake put through it and then be cast into a volcano. We can’t afford it.

Update: This is the anniversary of John Glenn returning to earth from the first US orbital mission in 1962.

The BBC reports on findings that Computer software terms ‘unfair’

Some of the world’s biggest computer firms have been accused of imposing unfair contracts on customers who buy their software.

The National Consumer Council (NCC) has accused 17 firms, including Microsoft, Adobe and Symantec, of using unfair “end user licence agreements” (EULAs).

The NCC has asked the Office of Fair Trading to launch an investigation.

The NCC said the firms’ EULAs were misleading customers into “signing away legal rights”.

“Software rights-holders are shifting the legal burden on to consumers who buy computer programmes, leaving them with less protection than when they buy a cheap Biro,” said Carl Belgrove of the NCC.

[“Biro” is British for ballpoint pen, after the company that is the biggest manufacturer.]

You were once guaranteed that the media [diskette, CD, etc.] was without defect, but downloads have eliminated that problem. They also once provided manuals, but that was so “twentieth century”, that now you spend major dollars to tie up your computer and Internet connection for a major time span, and are not guaranteed anything. You certainly are not guaranteed that your hundreds of dollars with provide you with a program that does what they told you it would do, or anything else. About the only thing guaranteed is that if they suspect you may have copied their nonexistent program you have forfeited all of your worldly goods onto the seventh generation following.

CNN tells us Castro resigns as president, state-run paper reports. Actually, Granma is owned by the government, not just run by it, which is a healthier situation than the US where the media is owned by conglomerates and run by the government.

Fidel Castro has resigned so the Party can elect Raúl Castro, the current defense minister, president of Cuba. This is sort of like the Shrubbery resigning so the Supreme Court or RNC [same difference] can replace him with JEB.

No doubt Calle Ocho will have massive celebrations and fire guns in the air and set off some of their stored explosives, but you still can’t buy good cigars legally.

Fidel outlasted 10 US Presidents [OK, 9 and the Shrubbery] and wasn’t forced out, but retired – another millstone…er, milestone in US foreign policy.

After a decade Kenneth Quinnell is shutting down T. Rex’s Guide to Life to concentrate on his group blog, the Florida Progressive Coalition. In blog years the Guide to Life was Jurassic but the coming election has made trying to maintain the two blogs too much work.

Lurch was the Army vet who has been manning the controls at Main and Central since Jo Fish of Democratic Veteran made the space available a while back. Apparently he has died, but the family doesn’t want anything posted on the ‘Net just yet. Just like most old sergeants, Lurch wrote common sense pieces about the absurdity of the military. Those of us who read him regularly will miss his voice.

Update 02/24/08: Fixer has the details on Lurch’s passing.

skippy the bush kangaroo has a post up about a MoveOn petition that is telling the Democratic Party Super-delegates that they should vote for the candidate with the most delegates and not “swing” the nomination for the “loser”.

When MoveOn made the decision to endorse a candidate prior to Super Tuesday, they forfeited any right to claim impartiality. That’s why I dropped a long-standing relationship with the organization. Anything they have said or done from that point has to be viewed as an action in support of their chosen candidate. You can’t take sides and then claim to be impartial.

Demanding that people vote in a particular way is not democratic, although it is Democratic in a Boss Tweed and Daley Chicago machine sort of way. I bring up the political machine of Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley [father of the current mayor] because Obama and his supporters better get used to dealing with it, given Obama’s multiple references to Chicago politics.

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CNN reports USDA orders recall of 143 million pounds of beef

(CNN) — A slaughterhouse that has been accused of mistreating cows agreed Sunday to recall 143 million pounds of beef in what federal officials called the largest beef recall in U.S. history.

Keith Williams, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman, said investigators have found no cases of illness related to the recalled meat.

But Dick Raymond, the undersecretary of agriculture for food safety, said there was a “remote probability” that the meat from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company in Chino, California, could cause illness in humans.

When you have to move a supposedly not-dead cow with a forklift because it can no longer walk, that is not an indication of a healthy animal.

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The BBC reports on reality: Kosovo MPs proclaim independence

Kosovo’s parliament has unanimously endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia, in a historic session.

Celebrations went on into the night after Prime Minister Hashim Thaci promised a democracy that respected the rights of all ethnic communities.

Serbia’s PM denounced the US for helping create a “false state”.

A split later emerged at the Security Council, when Russia said there was no basis for changing a 1999 resolution which handed Kosovo to the UN.

This was going to happen as soon as Slobodan Milošević refused to offer anything to the moderates in Kosovo, and the people turned to the Kosovo Liberation Army. If Milošević had even pretended to compromise and hadn’t sent in the military, the people wouldn’t have to turned to the KLA and demanded independence. A map of ethnic groups makes it obvious that the Serbs didn’t want to live there, no matter what politicians many claim about the “historic heart of Serbia”.

It isn’t unexpected that Vladimir Putin has picked up the Pan-Slavic banner of Tsar Aleksandr I to declare solidarity with the Serbs, as he is always attempting to expand the influence of Russia [to expand his own power].

The ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have no intention of ever living under Serbian rule again. The sooner the Serbs accept that and move on, the better for all concerned, but it isn’t likely to happen.