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| Saturday, January 13th, 2007 | | 1:28 am |
Iraq troop surge unlikely to affect Guard here a Guard soldier could be mobilized for a 24-month stretch in Iraq or Afghanistan, then demobilized and allowed to return to civilian life, only to be mobilized a second time for as much as an additional 24 months.
Are they determined to destroy our readiness completely? One can't help but start to wonder by now if anyone can be this incompetent, or if something more sinister is going on. In practice, officials said, the Pentagon intends to limit future mobilizations to 12 months.
Oh, well at least there's that! So as long as nothing goes wrong, you won't have to push these new limits. Nothing's going to go wrong, right? Right? I mean, the last four years have gone pretty well, haven't they? Ah, nuts. | | Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 | | 3:55 am |
House moves to implement last of 9/11 panel recommendations Highlights of the bill
Provides more homeland security grants to states based on risk of terrorism attack, rather than states' populations.
Now there's a no-brainer. Establishes new, separate grants for state and local first-responders for better emergency communications systems.
Mm-hmm. Directs Homeland Security Department to establish a system for inspecting all cargo carried on passenger aircraft over the next three years.
Wait, what? A dirty bomb in all the crowded places before you have to pass through the terminal security check makes for a devastating attack. What, move the security checks further out? Wherever you put the checks, you have a large number of people vulnerable to attack. This is absurd. Requires scanning of all containers bound for the U.S., using the best available technology. Large ports would be given three years, and smaller ports five years, to comply.
Same here. A nuclear weapon detonated just outside one of our major ports would be a terrible blow. No security checks can stop this. Continues to provide $250 million per year collected in airport security fees for the installation of inline explosive detection systems for checked baggage at airports, through 2011.
See above. Requires Homeland Security Department to conduct an annual vulnerability assessment for all critical infrastructure sectors.
Hmm, OK, seems fine. Requires strengthening intelligence and information sharing with local law enforcement.
Another no-brainer. Promotes efforts aimed at nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and preventing their falling into the hands of terrorists.
Yep. Requires the president to impose sanctions on anyone trading nuclear enrichment technology to a non-nuclear state.
Hm. We should know all too well how useless sanctions can be. I'm not saying we shouldn't have that tool in our toolbox, just that it isn't all it's cracked up to be. Calls for the U.S. to improve its communication of ideas and information to people in Muslim countries.
I guess. So if all that security theater is just that, is it hopeless? No, of course not.
US House passes Democratic security bill
Ah, and they passed it.
Zoo puts humans on display Dr. Carla Litchfield, who is conducting the experiment, has laid down firm rules for the new apes: no nudity, no rude behavior and no jumping into the enclosure spa.
"No nudity"? What kind of zoo exhibit has the animals clothed?!
Official: More Troops to Deploy to Iraq
Womb transplants may one day be a reality
| | Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 | | 1:57 am |
Dems prepare slew of oversight hearings
Cheney's Halliburton Stock Options Rose 3,281 Percent Last Year, Senator Finds
And this is the kind of thing we need Congress shining its light on.
Chavez pushes closer to socialism Chavez said he would soon ask the National Assembly, which is solidly controlled by his allies, to approve a law giving him powers to approve such changes by decree and without further approval.
Ah, you just gotta love wannabe totalitarians. Nice ad hominem: Chavez lashed out at Insulza for questioning his government's decision not to renew the license of an opposition- aligned TV station. "Dr. Insulza is quite an idiot, a true idiot," Chavez said. He used a vulgar Spanish term that translates roughly as idiot. "The insipid Dr. Insulza should resign from the secretariat of the Organization of American States for daring to play that role."
Bystander Pulls Off Daring Subway Rescue A quick-thinking commuter saved a teenager who apparently suffered a seizure and fell onto subway tracks in Upper Manhattan, by jumping onto the tracks himself and pushing them both between the rails, beneath the oncoming train.
| | Monday, January 8th, 2007 | | 2:34 pm |
Michigan teen creates nuclear fusion
Bush claims power to open Americans' mail without warrants
U.S. House passes more ethics reform, budget rule
So far, so good!
Will another white male be elected president in 2008? And consider this. Since 1952, there's been only one presidential election year in which the name Nixon, Dole, or Bush was not on the GOP ticket. (The exception is 1964, when Barry Goldwater and William Miller were trounced.) In fact, no Republican has been elected to the White House without either the name Nixon or Bush on the ticket since Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928! And should Senator Clinton win in 2008 and serve two terms, either a Bush or a Clinton will have been president for 28 consecutive years.
I knew about that last part, but didn't realize the rest. Hmph, worse than i thought. There's a confused statement in the article that all presidents but Kennedy and Nixon were Protestants; the first four were Deists (Adams a Christian in name only, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison even less so). Lincoln and Tyler are largely thought to have been Deist, though those cases are more controversial. | | Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 | | 3:54 pm |
How old is the Grand Canyon? Park service won't say Washington, DC -- Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
Toyota to build 100,000 vehicles per year in Woodstock, Ont., starting 2008 He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.
Quarter of Britons think cancer is matter of fate
Who says we Americans have the monopoly on unscientific thinking?
What now in Somalia? "Everything we've done has been counter-productive," she said, citing CIA support last year for a rapacious warlord's alliance which had plundered Mogadishu under the guise of fighting terrorism. "Now, when it seems we haven't done anything, it is working."
And that sums up military adventurism perfectly. Can we cut it out now? More: Both Shinn and Hippel said that the Ethiopians were aware of the danger they will be seen as occupiers and wanted to leave as soon as possible.
Brilliant! If only we'd had these Ethiopians instead of the Bush administration back in 2003! I wonder if we can get the Constitution amended to allow Ethiopian citizens to be president and elect one of them in 2008?
Somali Government Pushes for 90-Day Martial Law "The Cabinet approved last week martial law for 90 days," interim Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed said. "We need parliament [to] approve. So, all of us, we are going back. Parliament will debate. If we succeed to get the votes, then I will come back to implement the martial law to take the weapons out of the hands of the civilians."
And the new(ly empowered) Somali government's first priority is the treasured government pastime of disarming the citizenry. Big surprise. If you had to live in Mogadishu, would you want to be unarmed? This article goes on to say that Somalis sure as hell don't.
Guard in execution of Saddam Hussein is arrested Speaking of those protesting the abuse of Mr. Hussein, Mr. Faroun, the prosecutor, asked, "Where were these critics when Saddam's people were executing whole prisons full of innocent people?"
I was skimming this article when i came to this paragraph. Something struck me about it, so i stopped and read the paragraph closely. Then i read it again and had a realization. This is the sign i've been looking for--that countless people have been looking for--and it isn't even new! It's been staring us in the face for quite some time, possibly since the end of the initial invasion. Iraq has made progress, and Iraqis are--well, perhaps not better off, but freer!. No critics in Iraq spoke out against Saddam's executions of "prisons full of innocent people" because the critics feared for their own lives. The freedom to protest and criticize the government did not exist under Saddam. The purple thumbs were the first sign of hope, but i was rather cynical about it. Elections can be a sham. It's a bit harder to be cynical about this. Not that the Bush administration can take any credit for this. If Iraq emerges from this war in any kind of health at all, it will be despite the past few years of utter incompetence (or horrendous betrayal, depending on how paranoid you are). Thousands upon thousands of lives lost, our allies distanced, our prestige and moral authority gone, our military readiness squandered: maybe not just incompetence? Nah, i'm not that paranoid.
Death toll of female troops 'troubling' "But deliberate exposure of women to combat violence in war is tantamount to acceptance of violence against women in general."
Is deliberate exposure of men to combat violence in war tantamount to acceptance of violence against men in general? I'm sure the friends and families of men killed in combat don't suffer any less than those of women killed in combat. | | Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 | | 3:15 am |
This "apology" from the cbsnews.com editorial directory is infuriating. Those who know me know that i frequently rail against journalistic incompetence and malice, and this is a perfect example of both. Really, it's just a simple thesis: The men who ran the Republican Party in the House of Representatives for the past 12 years were a group of weirdos. Together, they comprised one of the oddest legislative power cliques in our history. And for 12 years, the media didn't call a duck a duck, because that's not something we're supposed to do.
Huh. And all this time, i was under the impression that is the most fundamental of journalistic responsibilities. More fool me. He goes on to compare them to the Chess Club, which i at first did not understand. I'd rather Chess Club members in Congress than the rats we always get. Then i realized this is just the standard dislike, distrust, and misunderstanding of intelligence. Guys like Dick Meyer can't tell the difference between what he doesn't like about Newt and what he didn't like about the nerds in school. They were zealous advocates of free markets, low taxes and the pursuit of wealth; they were hawks and often bellicose; they were brutal critics of big government.
Advocates of free markets? Utter nonsense. This bunch of rats was interested only in pork and graft, in protectionism for their buddies in bloated, helpless-without-government-interference corporations. Critics of big government? Has Mr. Meyer been paying to attention to the crap "reporting" companies like CBS churn out instead of paying attention to what this pack of rats actually did? The size of the federal government continued its standard climb with this pack, and at an accelerated rate once Bush took over.
- We need some beauty to lower the blood pressure after that: Shuttle Launch Seen From ISS
U.S. questioned Iraq on rush to hang Saddam
I haven't paid much attention to the world during the holiday season, so i didn't even know he'd been hanged. Just like that, he's gone. Good riddance, mind. But we're still there. Dying.
| | Thursday, December 14th, 2006 | | 4:40 am |
| | Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 | | 2:24 pm |
| | 4:15 am |
| | Sunday, December 10th, 2006 | | 4:43 pm |
Wii beats PS3 but both suffer Ebay effect The real winner was the PlayStation2, he said, which sold 663,000 units after Sony dropped the price from $149 to $129.
As a Nintendo partisan, as one who cheers what promises to be a truly different game experience with the Wii and who laughs at the over-priced, under-supplied, poorly featured (Blu-ray?! who cares!) competition, i've naturally enjoyed watching Wii beat PS3. I'm quoting this, though, because the obvious has happened, even though i don't remember anyone predicting it (i sure didn't).
Radical Muslims must integrate, says Blair
| | Monday, December 4th, 2006 | | 3:20 pm |
Security Of Electronic Voting Is Condemned The assessment by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, one of the government's premier research centers, is the most sweeping condemnation of such voting systems by a federal agency. In a report hailed by critics of electronic voting, NIST said that voting systems should allow election officials to recount ballots independently from a voting machine's software. The recommendations endorse "optical-scan" systems in which voters mark paper ballots that are read by a computer and electronic systems that print a paper summary of each ballot, which voters review and elections officials save for recounts.
Atheist National Guard Officer Resigns Commission Over Remarks Made By Lt. Gen. Blum and Others
| | Thursday, November 30th, 2006 | | 3:02 am |
| | Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 | | 2:02 am |
Picking DVD 'Zone Locks'
Hm, i guess this is progress? Here we have mainstream Business Week addressing the problems with DRM, even if Wildstrom is confused about what region codes are for. At first, he repeats the lie spread by DVD CCA, MPAA, and the like: to prevent copyright violation. Later, though, he refers to the actual reason: to control when and at what price the law-abiding can acquire a legal copy of a movie. Oddly enough, looking over the DVD CCA web site now, it seems their FAQ tells most of the truth about region coding; it doesn't mention that they'd lose the ability to sell DVDs at drastically different prices in different countries without them. So maybe the disinformation campaign is nothing more than standard clueless journalism? Eh, it's probably both. While we're on the topic, support DMCA reform.
Police target dangerous suspects before they can offend Ms Richards said that once an individual had been identified, police would decide whether to make moves towards an arrest, or to alert the relevant social services who could steer those targeted into "management programmes."
Target suspects. Suspects. Before they commit a crime. They're talking about arresting or "managing" innocent people. Trying times indeed. I hope the citizens of the UK can stop this, and i hope we can prevent this from happening here in the US.
How Gene Patents Are Putting Your Health at Risk A fifth of your genes belong to someone else. That's because the U.S. Patent Office has given various labs, companies and universities the rights to 20% of the genes found in everyone's DNA--with some disturbing results. Many U.S. labs won't perform certain genetic tests because of patent restrictions or fees. One company that holds a license for a gene connected with Alzheimer's has refused to let other labs work on its gene. The company that "owns" a genetic mutation for breast cancer charges up to $3,000 for a breast-cancer gene test.
Fed up with patents and other "intellectual property" scams yet? | | Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 | | 11:50 am |
| | Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 | | 2:22 am |
| | Sunday, November 19th, 2006 | | 11:56 pm |
| | Thursday, November 16th, 2006 | | 2:30 am |
| | Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 | | 6:08 pm |
| | 2:12 pm |
| | Friday, November 10th, 2006 | | 11:27 am |
Sen. Allen Concedes Defeat in Virginia And there you have it, the Democrats have taken Congress. I hope they live up to our expectations... I realized today that i now have to find right-wing news sources again. It's been a long six years since i listened to Rush (though i obviously never stopped listening to Rush). I'm not dumb enough to expect my current predominantly left-wing sources to provide the same kind of criticism of the new Congress. Remember South Dakota's abortion ban, passed shortly after Roberts and Alito were confirmed to the Supreme Court? Most thought this would go before this new Supreme Court eventually, leading them to possibly overturn Roe v Wade. That's not going to be necessary, at least not yet: a slim majority of South Dakota's voters disagreed with their state legislature and overturned the law with a ballot measure. Can't get enough of that space race 2.0 action. Woman charged over terror handbooks She's not charged with hurting anyone, or blowing anything up. She's not charged with trying to do so. She's not charged with planning to do so. She's not even charged with talking about doing so. She's not even charged with posessing "illegal" weapons. She's charged with possessing banned books. Keep on rockin' in the free world. |
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