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Via Bob Geiger’s The Saturday Cartoons, Nick Anderson, editorial cartoonist of the Houston Chronicle, has The Missile Defense Game.

Note, that as a reward for my mis-spent youth, I was actually able to hit things. Your mileage may vary.

Michael of Musing’s musings has managed to sneak back into the US from his travels in Europe, even though he didn’t have a deadly, contagious disease, and notes that there is a bill coming before Congress that could help a group that really needs it: homeless kids.

The admissions process is bewildering enough, and the financial aid obstacle course a nightmare if you have a stable home life, so imagine what it’s like for a kid who is homeless. It is cheaper to send a kid to college than to jail, so this makes economic sense.

Go, read the post, and then do something about it.

…well, sort of. They have by-passed a switch to see if that was the problem, but the computers are working for the moment.

The shuttle crew managed to staple the torn thermal blanket back in place, as they decided against the nails, and couldn’t find the duct tape.

The skeptics get their say in the Associate Press article:

The days-long computer problems fueled skepticism toward the Bush administration’s “Vision for Space Exploration,” which calls for finishing the space station in three years, grounding the space shuttles in 2010 and building next-generation vehicles to go to the moon and Mars.

“This growing chorus of opposition to the current vision … is finding expression in the difficulties of the station,” said Howard McCurdy, a space public policy expert at American University. “We’re learning a great deal from the space station, and one of things we may be learning is we shouldn’t have built this particular one.”

McCrudy probably thinks that a missile defense system ought to actually shoot down missiles and the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be able to manage emergencies. There’s one in every crowd, continually carping about waste, fraud, abuse, and incompetence.

On the 11^th I wrote about the response of a senior Iranian security official to US threats, and today Juan Cole talks about the Iranian response to the bombing of the al-Askariya Shrine:

Iran’s Supreme Jurisprudent,Ali Khamenei, managed to blame the Iraqi Baath Party, the Wahhabi sect of Islam, the Salafi Jihadi radicals among Sunnis, and the United States, jointly for the blowing up of the minarets at the al-Askariya Shrine in Samarra.

…it is my impression that in recent months he has tended to leave the wilder talk to his rival Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi and his protege, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. I don’t think Khamenei’s remarks on this matter are a good sign.

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Why, you may ask are a picture readily identifiable as Thomas the Tank Engine [to anyone who is around toddlers] and the symbol for chemical weapons in the same post?

As Whig at Cannablog points out, the people who added counter tops to your pet food and antifreeze to your toothpaste are using lead paint on wooden toys.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission if you have any Thomas & Friends™ Wooden Railway Toys, you should immediately take them away from the children and return them to the place of purchase or manufacturer.

Nothing from China should be allowed in the United States without a complete analysis and 100% inspection.

This from ABC News : Tearful Testimony in $54 Million Pants Lawsuit

A Washington, D.C. law judge broke down in tears and had to take a break from his testimony because he became too emotional while questioning himself about his experience with a missing pair of pants.

Administrative law judge Roy Pearson is representing himself in civil court and claimed that he is owed $54 million from a local dry cleaner who he says lost his pants, despite a sign in their store which ensures “Satisfaction Guaranteed.”

The case gained national attention soon after the lawsuit was filed. The pants are expected to be introduced into evidence, although the judge says the pants are not his, and the correct pants are still missing.

The sartorial loss caused Pearson to suffer what he calls severe “mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort.”

It is time for an intervention. This guy is a judge and he is overcome with grief over a pair of pants? Why is this case in court? This is why there are mental health laws. This is the reason they changed “one size fits all” to “one size fits most,” because of people like this judge.

There was a time when I had my suits made to order in Britain. They had better fabric, and nothing fits like a custom suit. If you have spent $1000 on a suit, you take it to the place you bought it for alterations, not to a Korean dry cleaners. If it was an older suit and the alterations were because of weight gain or loss, don’t waste your money, it won’t fit right.

Kevin Drum wonders about Matthew Yglesias’s endorsement of this strategy:

Zbigniew Brzezinski at the conference says the US and Israel should try to put their demands for Iranian disarmament in the context of support for a regional nuclear-free zone (i.e., Israeli nuclear disarmament). After all, he says, if we’re supposed to believe that Israel’s nuclear arsenal isn’t a sufficient deterrent to ensure Israeli security in the face of Iran’s nuclear program, then it obviously isn’t a very valuable asset.

Matt thinks this will put pressure on Iran and will be a good thing. Kevin thinks it’s a waste of time because Israel wouldn’t agree to it and Iran would use it as a stalling tactic.

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While CNN doesn’t seem to care, CBS notes: Iraq Braces For Worst After Shrine Blast

(CBS/AP) Suspected al Qaeda bombers toppled the towering minarets of Samarra’s revered Shiite shrine [The Shrine of the Ali Al-Hadi and Hassan Al-Askari] on Wednesday, adding new provocation to old a year after the mosque’s Golden Dome was destroyed.

The attack stoked fears of an upsurge in intra-Muslim violence. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government asked for U.S. troop reinforcements in Samarra, 60 miles north of here, and for a heightened U.S. military alert in the capital.

But within hours, three Sunni mosques south of Baghdad went up in flames, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan, and attackers set fire to three more mosques in the capital itself.

Shorter General Barry McCaffrey [USA Retired] on NPR “Oh shit, it’s time to leave!”

Juan Cole echoes that sentiment, in a very scholarly fashion.

[Note: The CNN top stories at 7PM CST were pathetic, even for an “Entertainment” section.]

MSNBC reports: Court overrules Bush ‘enemy combatant’ policy

RICHMOND, Va. – The Bush administration cannot legally detain an immigrant it believes is an al-Qaida sleeper agent without charging him, a divided federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The case involves a Qatari national and suspected al-Qaida operative who is the only person being held in the United States as an “enemy combatant.”

In the 2-1 decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found that the federal Military Commissions Act does not strip Ali al-Marri of his constitutional rights to challenge his accusers in court. It ruled the government must allow him to be released from military detention.

The best news is that this comes from the Fourth Circuit, the appeals court of choice for neocons and others stuck in the timeline of the First Crusade. This court thinks Roger Taney was a liberal and Joe McCarthy had a pinkish tinge.

Via Suburban Guerrilla in The Times [the real newspaper in London, not the bird cage liner in New York]: Iran threatens Gulf blitz if US hits nuclear plants

IRAN has threatened to launch a missile blitz against the Gulf states and plunge the entire Middle East into war if America attacks its nuclear facilities.

Admiral Ali Shamkhani, a senior defence adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that Gulf states providing the US with military cooperation would be the key targets of a barrage of ballistic missiles.

This isn’t bombast from the ribbon cutting figurehead of Iran, Ahmadinejad, this is from the national security advisor to the real power in Iran, Khamenei, the man with actual control of Iran’s military. They can do it, and they will do it if attacked.

Scout at First Draft has done a lot of work on all of the issues surrounding Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. This week it was DHS cronyism. When January 2009 finally gets here and there is a change of administration, the Department of Homeland Security is going to be cut back to its third level managers, because there are no civil service people in the top two levels, everyone is a political appointee. In his effort to break unions, the Shrubbery has politicized every department in government, appointing ideologues and partisans to professional positions for which they are not qualified. There is no one available to “watch the store” during the transition period.

Scout’s second piece is on the insurance companies that whistle-blowers are claiming transfered a good deal of their liability to the government Flood Insurance program.

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A song parody, GOP Piety Song from Mad Kane, of course.

Juan Cole of Informed Comment: “The Republican candidates are way behind the Dems in internet popularity so far. Imagine losing a race because you did not have enough Facebook friends.”

Kevin Drum Political Animal on cold cash, in which Rep. Don Young [R-AK] get a $40k “campaign contribution” and then adds $91M to a bill to improve roads in Lee County, Florida. Being from Alaska, Rep. Young didn’t have to wrap it in foil and stick it in a freezer.

The BBC is reporting: Saudi prince ‘received arms cash’

A Saudi prince received secret payments from the UK’s biggest arms dealer, a BBC investigation has revealed.

BAE Systems made regular payments of hundreds of millions of pounds to Prince Bandar bin Sultan for more than a decade.

The payments were made with the full knowledge of the Ministry of Defence.

Prince Bandar would not comment and BAE systems said they acted lawfully at all times. The MoD said information about the Al Yamamah deal was confidential.

The Prince served for 20 years as Saudi ambassador to the US.

This is the Shrubbery’s best buddy; the man who taught him everything he knows about the Middle East, the current national security advisor to Saudi King Abdullah. It looks like he was paid about $2 billion for his consulting gig.

Tony “the Poodle” Blair stopped the government investigation into the Al Yamamah deal because of “national security concerns.”

Update: I forgot to include the currency conversion when looking at the total Bandar received.

Both CNN and CBS are carrying this Associated Press report: Turkish Officials: Troops Enter Iraq

(CBS/AP) Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who attack Turkey from bases there, Turkish security officials said. One official said the troops had returned to their bases by the end of the day, but Turkey’s foreign minister denied its troops had ever entered Iraq.

The BBC has nothing on this and Iraqi and Turkish officials are denying it happened.

Things are a mess and there are Turkish officials who want to launch a full-scale invasion of Kurdistan to deal with the rebels / terrorists / freedom fighters who have been attacking the Turkish military in recent weeks. To date there has been no permission granted by the Turkish government, but there are elements in the government and military pushing for it.

This may have happened, but it is also possible that this was a political ploy directed at the Turkish government. In any case, the Turkish / Iraqi border is not a good place for a family vacation.