Category — Uncategorized

Why couldn’t NPR have found someone other than Libby Lewis to report on the Lewis Libby trial and conviction?

Four-time winner Doug Swingley is out of the Iditarod with possible broken ribs and dislocated thumb. Swingley would have probably stayed in with just broken ribs, but you can’t really take care of your dogs with only one hand.

While it is cold, there has been a lack of snow this year, which makes the ground icy and bumpy. The snow usually cushions the sled from small irregularities, and softens falls.

During his liar-side chat™ the Shrubbery said he was ‘troubled’ by army scandal. Bovine excrement!

As Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof reports: “It’s Not Just Walter Reed”, and Ellroon of Rants from the Rookery focused on an earlier Washington Post piece, Shortages threaten Guard’s capability.

Facts: the entire military medical system [under the Department of Defense] is in disrepair, the entire veterans medical system [under the Department of Veterans Affairs] is experiencing major problems, FEMA is still not back to the same level of competence it had in 2000, the food system is not as safe as it was in 2000, the deficit is spiking, the housing and stock markets are in the tank.

Have you looked at the privatization scheme at Walter Reed? A five-year contract for $120 million, $24 million a year, and they are supplying 50 people to do the work of 300!? The President is the only one in Federal service who makes $400,000/year, so how is this saving taxpayers money?

The President is the single individual common to all of these problems. The people in charge of all of these areas report to the President. The President appoints these people. The President approves their budgets. The President is responsible for their performance. The “bureaucracy” is a term covering the employees of the execute branch of government – the Presidency. The President is the problem.

The BBC reports on a study by a British think tank: Report warns against Iran attack

The Oxford Research Group report is written by nuclear scientist and arms expert Frank Barnaby.

“If Iran is moving towards a nuclear weapons capacity it is doing so relatively slowly, most estimates put it at least five years away,” he says.

Mr Barnaby adds that an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities “would almost certainly lead to a fast-track programme to develop a small number of nuclear devices as quickly as possible”.

He says it “would be a bit like deciding to build a car from spare parts instead of building the entire car factory”.

The BBC then commits an act of blatant journalism, by assigning Gordon Corera , a security correspondent, to look at the claims in Iran: Can a military strike work?

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Okay, among the early candidates the only one who is worth my support is Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico. The three front runners lost my vote and support on the issue of Iran. They still don’t get it: AIPAC and their enablers are passing out the “brown acid,” and Clinton, Edwards, and Obama still haven’t learned to “avoid the brown acid”¹, the intel and spin that got us the very “bad trip” that is Iraq.

I refuse to vote for anyone who won’t make the effort to really learn about matters of war and peace. I’m not voting for another unnecessary war.

1. You have to be a older to really understand the reference, but someone has probably written about it on the ‘Nets.

In the Republican congressional leadership one finds:

McConnell of Kentucky, Lott of Mississippi, Blunt of Missouri, Cantor of Virginia, Putnam of Florida, and, from Texas, Cornyn, Hutchinson, Granger and Carter.

I think that might explain what Oliver Willis finds puzzling in his post: Conservatives Vs. Lincoln.

The period of the mid-nineteenth century tends to be presented in a “slightly” different fashion in American history classes depending on what region of the country you live in, starting with the name of the best known event in that period.

If you look at the change to Presidents Day, from the celebration of Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays, you might find the same geographic distribution among supporters of the change.

The Associated Press report on the ceremonial start: 82 teams, 1,000 dogs hit Iditarod trail.

Wikipedia provides some background on the biggest event in Alaska: Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race^®.

As always the Anchorage Daily News provides the daily coverage.

CNN carries an Associated Press report Ammo, weapons, tunnel found in California home:

More than 1 million rounds of ammunition, a cache of weapons and a tunnel were found at a man’s home after an explosive fire that forced a neighborhood evacuation, authorities said Friday.

…

Dozens of metal and cardboard boxes filled with ammunition for shotguns, small handguns and assault rifles sat in a driveway. Two of the assault rifles were illegal, [Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Juan] Zamora said.

The man had no permit for 75 pounds of black gunpowder that was also recovered, Zamora said.

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You constantly hear references to “the short bus” that are misinformed. The point is that the people on the “short bus” or in “special education” are not there as a result of personal choice, whereas the people usually referenced in these comments have made a choice.

I used the Association of Retarded Citizens [ARC] for years to provide services and can highly recommend them if your needs fit into their programs. The workers do what they do very conscientiously. You may be able to find someone who will be faster, but you won’t find anyone who is more thorough. The people in the program didn’t choose to have these limitations; the reductions in capability were imposed by nature or accidents.

As a case in point is Democratic Senator Carl Levin of the Senate Armed Services committee in this 02/27/07 exchange with the new director of National Intelligence:

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As the marsupial master of minuscule and coiner of the word “blogtopia”, skippy the bush kangaroo, notes, the winger study of profanity is tragiclly flawed by that scourge of the pundit classes –Innumeracy:

The term innumeracy was coined by cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter and popularized by mathematician John Allen Paulos. Possible causes of innumeracy are poor teaching methods and standards, and lack of value placed on mathematical skills. Even prominent and successful people will attest, sometimes proudly, to low mathematical competence, in sharp contrast to the stigma associated with illiteracy.

Consequences of innumeracy:

* Inaccurate reporting of news stories and insufficient skepticism in assessing these stories
* Financial mismanagement and accumulation of consumer debt, specifically related to misunderstanding of compound interest
* Loss of money on gambling, in particular caused by belief in the gambler’s fallacy
* Belief in pseudoscience, particularly when people use pseudoscientific information (i.e. astrology, etc.) to plan one’s life.
* Poor assessment of risk, for example, refusing to fly by airplane (a relatively safe form of transport) while taking unnecessary risks in a car (where an accident is more likely)
* Limited job prospects

Pathological innumeracy, known as dyscalculia, is often associated with neurological lesions.

Of course, no one who pontificates ever expects to be subjected to the scientific method, where others repeat your experiment and compare results, as that is a cruel feature of reality.

Of course, this does nothing to assuage the disappointment of some on the Left who felt they deserved a much higher ranking in the original results. They might consider not wasting their profanity in other people’s comments, and save them for their own site, to improve their chances next time. I also think we should expand beyond the “unholy seven,” as they are certainly dated.

It is just possible that Robert Gates understands what kind of trouble the Department of Defense is in because of the Rumsfeld years.

The rumors are that he fired the Secretary of the Army because Harvey went on the defense in reaction the problems at Walter Reed. First the wounded were pulled on base and told not to talk to the media to prevent any bad news leaking out, with the daily inspections thrown in as a threat. Then Maj. General Weightman was fired, despite only being in the job for about six-months, and Lt. General Kiley was put in charge, even though Kiley was the commander when the problems were first reported years ago and did nothing about it. This was a standard stall tactic. Harvey was planning to form a committee to study the issue until it faded from public notice, the standard Rumsfeld/Republican response to problems.

The Shrubbery has announced he is forming a panel to study the issue, so he can avoid responsibility for what he has done for the last six years. The Snowman will be telling reporters how the White House can’t comment on ongoing investigations, the standard dodge.

I think Gates has figured out that this isn’t going away, because Congress and the Washington Post [they love the smell of that Pulitzer] won’t let it go away. This isn’t going to swept under the rug, like Abu Ghraib, to fester, as Gates understands that he is going to have budget problems if progress isn’t made. The Democrats are investigating the problem, and Gates has to know by now that the entire military medical system is screwed up because of the lack of planning by Rumsfeld. Gates is dealing with a lot of political flag officers and he is going to have fire them before the remainder understand that they are going to have to do their jobs and not just brown nose.

CNN reports Army secretary quits in wake of hospital scandal:

Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey resigned Friday in the wake of recent reports of substandard conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a key facility treating troops wounded in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Harvey’s resignation at the Pentagon, just a day after Harvey removed the hospital’s commander, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, from his post.

A statement from the Army said it had “lost trust and confidence in the commander’s leadership.”

Harvey had been the Army’s top civilian official since November 2004. Before President Bush appointed him to the position, he spent much of his career working for defense contractors, according his Army biography.

Rumor has it that Gates fired Harvey when Harvey said Lt. General Kiley would be in charge of Walter Reed. Kiley is in line to be axed according to “reliable sources.”

Everyone is trying to get into world domination. According to an Associated Press report Swiss Accidentally Invade Liechtenstein:

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.

“We’ve spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it’s not a problem,” Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.

I think they are going to need to do a little more work on map reading, and someone needs to bring along a GPS receiver. It’s really embarrassing when you accidentally invade another country…especially if the country doesn’t notice.

On Day to Day Mike Pesca has a report ‘Times’ Gets Faked Out on ‘Diary’ Entry : “The New York Times unwittingly put a phony story in their “Metropolitan Diary” feature recently.” This details the reaction by the Times to being conned into running a fake anecdote, not news, but a fake fluff piece.

After you listen, consider the reaction of the Times to Judith Miller and her reporting.