Category — Uncategorized

Riverbend has a post from Damascus up today talking about life in exile and the problems of being a refugee –Bloggers Without Borders….

One of the things that struck me is that the Hedgemony is so concerned with its own legacy it doesn’t seem to notice that it is improving Saddam Hussein’s image among the Iraqi people. It is hard to believe that Americans could screw anything up so badly that a brutal monster like Saddam would start to look good to his victims.

Jams of Poor Mouth has a post on an unusual reaction to the situation in Burma. I make no claims regarding the efficacy of such action, but if you are interested:

Embassy of the Union of Myanmar
2300 S Street, NW
Washington DC 20008

Homeland Security will probably get a little squirrely over this, but they need to learn how to use ‘Net search engines.

Bringiton at Corrente discusses a recent incident involving a 75-year-old woman an Comcast cable system.

The woman was plainly wrong. Just look at the accompanying picture. She used a 16-ounce curved claw hammer, probably a Plumb model 11406 from the handle, and that was simply wrong. She should have used a 16-ounce ball peen hammer like the Plumb model 11426. I know some of you are thinking that a 32-ounce double-faced engineer’s hammer was the proper choice, but she is 75, and that would be too much hammer for the job.

Remember, when your purpose is to convince a customer service organization about your seriousness in pursuing service, a demonstration of knowledge and competence is important in the presentation of your complaint.

Via Facing South I found this wonderful article, Louisiana kicks off 2007 gov races, at State Line.

Louisiana has an open primary, i.e. party identification doesn’t matter, everyone gets to vote, and the top two finishers go on to the general election if the top vote getter receives less than 50% of the vote. If the number 1 candidate gets more than 50%, they are automatically elected.

They are holding the primary tomorrow and Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) would seem to be on track to win the whole thing, except there’s an LSU-Auburn University football game tomorrow and it’s the first day of deer season for several areas in the state.

To win outright, Jindal needs the good ol’ boys to put off shooting Bambi for a while, and to get to the polls before kick-off. He’s asking a lot of Louisiana voters.

The price of diesel has gone above £1.00 per liter in Britain, that would be $7.78 per gallon. Too bad we don’t have anyone in control who has friends in the oil industry…oh, wait.

Strange how that worked out – almost everything the Hedgemony does cause the price of oil to rise, and then take a dip at election time.

National Weather Service Mobile

… Northern Gulf Coast deluge of October 18th and 19th 2007…

The National Weather Service in Mobile has collected the following rainfall totals since Thursday morning Oct 18, 2007… ending at 7 am CDT Friday Oct 19, 2007. Rainfall continues to move through the western Florida Panhandle and portions of southwest Alabama. Thus… the final storm total amounts will be higher still. In addition… Doppler radar estimates and other data sources indicate that much higher rainfall totals occurred in some locations. Additional rainfall reports will be added as they are received.

Navy Pensacola, FL (npa) 14.88 inches
West Pensacola, FL (cocorahs) 14.72 inches
6.2 W Mary Esther,FL (cocorahs) 12.90 inches
Pensacola Regional Airport, FL (pns) 11.89 inches
Mary Esther, FL (hrt) 11.74 inches
Destin, FL (dts) 10.38 inches
6.4 W Crestview, FL (cocorahs) 10.30 inches
Valparaiso, FL (vps) 10.02 inches
Niceville, FL (coop) 9.94 inches
ft Walton Beach, FL (cocorahs) 9.58 inches
2.3 se Niceville, FL (cocorahs) 9.44 inches

[Read more →]

This is a start: Air Force To Fire Officers For Nuke Gaffe

(CBS/AP) Four Air Force officers are being relieved of duty after losing track of six nuclear-armed cruise missiles, which were flown on a B-52 bomber across the United States without anyone knowing it, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

In addition, more than 60 Air Force personnel have had their nuclear security clearances lifted, adds Martin.
…

Two Defense Department officials said earlier Thursday that the Air Force investigation found long-established procedures for handling the munitions were not followed and one official said it recommends that five or more officers be relieved of their duties.
…

[Read more →]

The weather has been noisy this morning with thunderstorms coming ashore. The front generated a tornado in Pensacola that caused some damage, but the worst hit structure, a preschool had been evacuated before the tornado hit.

The guys at Weather Underground have added a new feature, a tornado map, to show where tornadoes have hit. It is an overlay on a Google map, so it should be intuitive if you use the Google map site.

It looks like this front is at least going to provide some rain to South Georgia, but probably not much to the areas that need it most.

CNN announces what most of us knew was coming: Turkey approves Iraq incursion

(CNN) — The Turkish parliament has voted to allow its military to make an incursion into Iraq and chase down Kurdish rebels staging cross-border attacks.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government had asked parliament in Ankara on Monday to authorize a military incursion, and the lawmakers responded with overwhelming approval, 507 to 19.

Parliamentary approval, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said before the debate, would not necessarily trigger immediate military action and many analysts doubt a full-scale invasion will be launched.

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Badtux, the snarky penguin, wonders if the “Reich wing” will loose the hounds on the latest child, a toddler, who is an example of the good SCHIP can do?

Of course, they’ll do it – they are scorpions, it is their nature.

The GOP view children as props. They are to be used when necessary and then ignored. They know that normal people view all children as precious beings to be loved and nurtured, so they are useful for PR, but they take forever to earn their keep.

If you hop into the Wayback Machine to last year, Tom Reynolds [R-NY26], then head of the GOP House election committee, shows how the GOP uses children. Faced with a press conference about the Mark Foley mess and his actions, he used them as “human shields” to prevent the reporters from asking questions about the sex scandal. His supporters, the parents of the children, didn’t seem to have a problem with their children being used to prevent their Congresscritter from answering questions about misconduct with teenagers.

CNN reports on Australia’s election: Howard sets November elections

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) — Australia’s next federal election will be held November 24, Prime Minister John Howard announced Sunday at a news conference in Canberra.

The results could see one of the United States’ staunchest remaining allies in Iraq lose power to the anti-war opposition.

“This country does not need new leadership, this country does not need old leadership. It needs the right leadership,” Howard said in making the announcement.

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The BBC notes US rejects Russian missile call

Talks between the US and Russia about a US anti-missile system in Europe have ended acrimoniously and without any sign of progress.

The US rejected Russian appeals at the talks in Moscow to halt the scheme.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country would take steps to neutralise the threat posed by the missile system if it went ahead.

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As my Mother is constantly telling people who try to tell her she can’t say something – “I’m an old lady, what are they going to do?”

Doris Lessing [no, not Paul Krugman’s cat, the real one] is the 88-year-old British writer who just won the Nobel for literature and isn’t very impressed. Jams has the more formal BBC interview, while August has her instant response when told by the reporters waiting for her on her front stoop.

If she decides to give a Nobel lecture, I would expect her to say whatever she thinks.

The BBC confirms an earlier report: Turkey recalls ambassador to US

Ankara is recalling its ambassador to Washington for consultations amid anger at a vote in Congress labelling the mass killing of Armenians as genocide.

The passing of the resolution by a House committee on Wednesday despite appeals by the Bush administration was denounced by President Abdullah Gul.

Turkey accepts there were mass killings in 1915-17 but denies genocide.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said the ambassador would return to Turkey for a stay of “a week or 10 days”.

“We are not withdrawing our ambassador,” said ministry spokesman Levent Bilman.

“We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations.”

I hope Ms Pelosi is happy, but she must be aware that the Armenian community tends to vote Republican and I don’t think this attempt to curry favor is going to do much to alter that. This is the same kind of pandering that the Miami Cuban community gets through the Cuban policy.