Category — Uncategorized

From All Hat and No Cattle – On the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, declared: Fission Accomplished.

[If I had any PhotoShop skills, I would have created a graphic.]

BadTux risks flipper and craw in the frozen pizza bake-off of his bachelor cooking series.

Leeds University takes another tack with: N = C + {fb (cm) · fb (tc)} + fb (Ts) + fc · ta

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Terry at Nitpicker has been plumbing the depths and dredged up: John Hinderaker: Media Analyst.

The premise of the Hinderaker piece is that Dr. William Gray doesn’t believe in the global climate change, and since Hinderaker considers Dr. Gray “the world’s leading expert in the science of forecasting hurricanes,” everything Al Gore says is wrong.

I’m well aware of Dr. Gray and his work. For years he provided some of the best predictions for tropical weather that were available. He built an excellent model based on the information he had, and made his name on that model. The problem is that the model doesn’t seem to work anymore. The assumptions on which the model is based are now untrustworthy.

In his April, 2005 typhoon forecast, Dr. Gray’s model predicted:

• 13 named storms
• 7 hurricanes
• 3 intense hurricanes
• 41% probability of a major hurricane landfall on the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle westward to Brownsville, Texas.

The actual 2005 hurricane season produced:

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Monica Goodling, Senior Counsel to the Attorney General, has resigned and is still trying to avoid testifying before Congress.

Insiders wonder if she is looking at a position in CorCraft.

Matteo “Matt” Fontana, an Education Department administrator, was put on paid leave, while conflict of interest/corruption charges in the student loan program are under investigation.

He really should have recognized the name of that corporation before he bought the stock.

In the upper Midwest, Rook’s Rant notices the four top administrators in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota have resigned their administrative positions.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune says that Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney, Rachel Paulose, took the job in March 2006, at age 33, after serving briefly under Deputy U.S. Attorney General Paul McNulty.

“Paulose is a native of Minnesota who served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the district from 1999 to 2002. She also worked in private practice for the Dorsey & Whitney law firm from 2002 to 2006. Paulose began her legal career in Minneapolis as a law clerk to James Loken, chief judge of the Eighth U.S. Court of Appeals, from 1997 to 1998.”

Not exactly an overpowering resumé.

In the spirit of ScarfGate, Needlenose has a post featuring a picture of Nancy Pelosi in Saudi Arabia. It’s interesting that of the male Saudis are wearing “dresses” with “scarves” on their heads, while Speaker Pelosi is wearing a suit, and has her scarf around her neck.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend – Arab proverb?

No one can possibly be this stupid. Arabs know better, so this is probably something they foist on outsiders. The enemy of my enemy is, at best, a temporary ally, and no more.

The US should know this because al Qaeda was born from the remnants of the forces it supported to oppose the Soviets in Afghanistan. If the US had been a friend, it would have paid all its bills and not abandoned Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew.

The US is at it again, looking for surrogate armies to bother Iran.

ABC News Exclusive: The Secret War Against Iran

A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.

The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran.

As Steve of No More Mister Nice Blog notes, some time ago it was determined that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al Qaeda operation officer behind 9-11, was one of the founders of the Jundullah.

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Barbara O’Brien has scoured the ‘Net to cover ScarfGate.

It’s interesting that there are photos of both Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice in hajibs, while Speaker Pelosi is wearing a scarf.

I admit that I’m old enough to remember when the only women who wore hajibs in the US were nuns. I don’t remember anyone harassing them over the practice: it was part of their religion.

Nancy Pelosi is the perfect person to deal with the Shrubbery. As a grandmother she has a lot of experience dealing with toddlers throwing tantrums.

Presented for your consideration:

On 04/05/07: ‘No deal done with Iran’ – Blair

Prime Minister Tony Blair has insisted no deal was done to free 15 Royal Navy crew members, as they arrived in the UK after being held in Iran for 13 days.

They were released “without any deal, without any negotiation, without any side agreement of any nature”, he said.

[snip]

The diplomats insisted the only written communication was an exchange of diplomatic notes several days earlier.

It is thought the British note included an offer to hold discussions to clarify the border line to avoid problems in future, says the BBC’s Frances Harrison in Iran.

On 04/04/07: Iran ‘access’ to Iraq detainees

Iranian officials have dismissed any link between the British crew and Iranian detainees in Iraq, while Britain and the US have said any exchange deal would be out of the question.

On 04/03/07: Seized Iran diplomat free in Iraq

US officials denied any involvement in the kidnapping and said they did not know about the diplomat’s release.

Francis Urquhart: “You might well think that. I couldn’t possibly comment.”

Oh, well, at least they appear to be considering actually drawing the border that everyone keeps pretending exists.

Kevin Drum located this graph which shows who benefits from a Shrubbery Recovery – corporate profits.

It hard for the benefits to flow down to the little people when the government keeps subsidizing corporate dams.

Don’t forget – the tax cuts are supposed to spur investments. Investments don’t appear to be spurred; they appear to be bedded down in their stall.

If you are looking for terrorists, people who advance their causes by instilling fear in people, look for members of the Shrubbery’s party.

Over at the Pensacola Beach Blog John has been running a series of reports beginning last Friday that were carried in the Pensacola News Journal about Democrats planning to shut down Guantanamo and move the “captives”¹ to military bases around the country, including Pensacola Naval Air Station.

I ignored the story for two reasons. Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense, is leading the drive to close Guantanamo, not the Democrats; and Eglin Air Force Base wasn’t on the list.

There was a Federal Prison on Eglin AFB until hurricane Ivan. The decision was made not to repair the damage after the hurricane, and the prison was shut down. Eglin is the largest Air Force Base the US has. There is a half-million acre national forest on the base. It would be the logical place to move the population of Guantanamo.

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Hatch has been running around saying that Carol Lam, the US Attorney removed from her post in San Diego, was appointed to her position by Bill Clinton, having been a law school professor with no experience.

Ms. Lam joined the Justice Department during the Reagan administration, and was appointed a US Attorney by George W. Bush after the “careful examination of her credentials” by the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by ORRIN HATCH.

Again – liar or senile?

To paraphrase the Abbé Arnaud-Amaury of Citeaux: Impeach them all and let the Senate decide.

They are all incompetent, corrupt slugs. Charge them all with malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance. When they bother to do their jobs, they do them badly, or simply to enrich themselves and their friends.

They are the dandelions in the lawn of government and must be pulled out, root and all.

Swift Boat donor’s appointment sidesteps Congress

President Bush named Republican fundraiser Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium on Wednesday, using a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress where Democrats had derailed Fox’s nomination.

[snip]

Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation, Bush withdrew the nomination last month. On Wednesday, with Congress out of town for a spring break, the president used his power to make recess appointments to put Fox in the job without Senate confirmation.

This was an open declaration of war. He doesn’t intend to confer with Congress for any reason, no matter what the Constitution says. Impeach the slimy chunk of garbage, or de-fund him. There is no point in trying to work with him.