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Saturday, October 01, 2005
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President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld contemplate the shit storm they and their party have brought down on the United States. Shit showers are expected over the weekend and throughout the coming years, until the whole Bush Bunch have been jailed for high crimes and misdemeanors.
(Via RatcliffeBlog—Mitch's Open Notebook.)
4:00:33 PM 
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Of all days, why did President Bush choose today to pardon four drug dealers? Are they all well-connected Republican donors or is George just paying them back for letting him crash on the couch? (via Think Progress)
(Via The Talent Show.)
2:43:06 PM
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(Via Communication Nation.)
Steve: This is really fascinating; a terrific Googlemaps mashup.
2:27:27 PM
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“It’s a problem that’s faced by police forces in every major city in our country, that criminals infiltrate and sign up to join the police force.”
(Via Think Progress.)
Steve: That's news to me, that "insurgents" attempt to join the cops in this country? Is that true? Is that what Rumsfeld meant? It sure sounds that way from the story.
2:19:14 PM
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President Bush, 9/28/05:
At this moment, more than a dozen Iraqi battalions have completed training and are conducting anti-terrorist operations in Ramadi and Fallujah. More than 20 battalions are operating in Baghdad. And some have taken the lead in operations in major sectors of the city. In total, more than 100 battalions are operating throughout Iraq. Our commanders report that the Iraqi forces are operating with increasing effectiveness.
Associated Press, 9/29/05:
The number of Iraqi battalions capable of combat without U.S. support has dropped from three to one, the top American commander in Iraq told Congress Thursday.
(Via Think Progress.)
2:16:32 PM
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Thanks to some research by The Kenosha Kid, Operation Yellow Elephant has uncovered exclusive right-wing talking points against the "Chickenhawk" argument. As you may have guessed it, right-wingers consider themselves freedom fighters in the "War Of Ideas", not chickenhawks who voice support for a war in which they refuse to serve. This list comes from Reagan Youth, also known as Young America Foundation: 1. We are engaged in a war of ideas on college campuses that is essential to winning the war on terror. This is also very important since hateful professors are spewing anti-American rhetoric at the students every day and students rarely hear all sides of the argument.
2. The Vietnam war was lost because there weren't enough people on the homefront telling the truth and supporting the war...
3. Where were these leftists when Clinton was sending our troops to Kosovo, Somalia, and Haiti? They weren't signing up then. Also, why aren't they serving in various UN peacekeeping missions worldwide, according to their logic?
4. The troops in our programs tell us it is so important to continue the battle of ideas on campuses and to support the men overseas through programs like what we did with Freedom Alliance to send needed supplies and thank you notes over there during the conference.
5. We are the ones fighting for the right to serve in ROTC on campuses. The same leftists who criticize us for not joining the military are stripping willing and able college students at Yale, Harvard, Emory, Stanford, etc from their rights to serve their country.
6. The majority of Americans do not serve in the military, so the Left is essentially disenfranchising them from contributing their voice to the debate.
7. The logic is flawed that only people who are involved in something can voice an opinion about it. For example – the public voices its opinion about a wide range of government programs even though most people are not in the government, and people speak about welfare but not many are actually on it or administering it.
Or to summarize--Liberals caused the U.S. to lose in Vietnam, critics of the Bush administration are anti-American, and last but not least, it's all Clinton's fault.
Zieg heil, bitches.
(Via AGITPROP: News, Politics, Culture and Propaganda -- Live and Direct From The American Empire.)
1:57:53 PM
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Hey, you, in the rest of America! As bad as the president is, at least you don't have a governor like this:
Sacramento -- I doubt I could sell this movie script to Hollywood. Shortly after hurricane Katrina destroys the Gulf Coast and floods New Orleans, data emerges to show that the capital of California is likely to be the next American city flooded out. Its levee system is at risk of catastrophic failure. A bipartisan Congressional delegation writes to Governor Schwarzenegger to ask her help in obtaining federal funding to ensure that Sacramento is not the next New Orleans. They wrote, in part:"The City of Sacramento has the highest risk of flooding of any major city in the country and has suffered serious floods twice in the last ten years. The proposal below will, in the next year, reinforce Sacramento's levee system to give it 100-year flood protection and advance work on Folsom Dam that will provide 200-year protection. It also addresses the risk to areas around Sacramento -- like Yuba-Sutter -- that have suffered major floods." At the same time, the California Reclamation Board, which oversees flood control in the state, votes to review urban development plans proposed for flood plains along the major rivers. It questioned whether in areas subject to repeated flooding, rebuilding without adding new protection makes sense. Here we have a combination of prevention and protection -- government at its best.
What happens? The Governor, who claims to be an independent populist who ran on a platform of freedom from special interests, fires the entire Reclamation Board, without explanation or warning, and puts in its place a new panel, drawn heavily from the very economic interests whose plans the Board is supposed to regulate. What was the Board's sin? In the words of one fired member, "we were adamant about not putting people in harm's way."
Hollywood might not believe it. But Governor Schwarzenegger did it. I'm baffled. Even if you think so poorly of the Governor that he would act so recklessly, why would he do so promptly on the heels of Katrina and Rita, while public memories are, frankly, rather fresh?
Any readers have a theory about why the Reclamation Board was fired, and why it was done this week?
(Via Taking the Initiative.)
1:55:42 PM
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“The invasion of Iraq I believe will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history,” said [Retired Army Lt. Gen. William] Odom, [former NSA director] now a scholar with the Hudson Institute....
(Via War and Piece.)
1:45:29 PM
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Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), ranking Dem on the House intel committee, reports in from on the ground in Iraq. Check it out.
[For full post, visit talkingpointsmemo.com.]
(Via Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall.)
1:45:18 PM
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Watch it in QuickTime!
10:21:15 AM
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Bill Bennett's "values," from Talking Points:
At any rate, since Mr. Bennett had been Secretary of Education I [Reed Hundt] asked him to support the bill in the crucial stage when we needed Republican allies. He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers,charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education. Well, I thought, at least he's candid about his true views.
What a loathsome creature this is, who has the audacity to whine about America's values declining. I guess he should know.
10:19:07 AM
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Jon Carroll talked about this African Watering Hole webcam from National Geographic a couple weeks ago, but I never got around to checking it out. Thanks to Boing Boing for mentioning it today. Mornings on the Pacific Coast of North America are best times, but there are some recorded highlights for those off times. Just amazing; the world is shrinking.
9:05:28 AM
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Lots of free PG Wodehouse from Gutenberg (index-page via OlB)
He greeted me with effusive shouts. Wouldn't hear of my standing the
racket. Insisted on being host. When we had finished, he fumbled in
his pockets, looked pained and surprised, and drew me aside. 'Look
here, Licky, old horse,' he said, 'you know I never borrow money. It's
against my principles. But I /must/ have a couple of bob. Can you, my
dear good fellow, oblige me with a couple of bob till next Tuesday?
I'll tell you what I'll do. (In a voice full of emotion). I'll let you
have this (producing a beastly little threepenny bit with a hole in it
which he had probably picked up in the street) until I can pay you
back. This is of more value to me than I can well express, Licky, my
boy. A very, very dear friend gave it to me when we parted, years ago
. . . It's a wrench . . . Still,--no, no . . . You must take it, you
must take it. Licky, old man, shake hands, old horse. Shake hands, my
boy.' He then tottered to the bar, deeply moved, and paid up out of
the five shillings which he had made it as an after-thought. He asked
after you, and said you were one of the noblest men on earth. I gave
him your address, not being able to get out of it, but if I were you I
should fly while there is yet time." from Love Among the Chickens.
(Via robot wisdom weblog.)
Woo hoo! Just the list of titles is a work of poetry.
9:02:58 AM
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Mark Gold reports on his One Hundred Friends work in Thailand.
[This] project is called: Ecotourism Training Center. It is part of a long term tsunami recovery effort that trains 24 young Thai men and women in three integrated areas of study: Computers, English and learning how to become diving instructors (as in scuba) so that these young people can get decent jobs in the tourist industry--all part of a curriculum focused on environmental education and sustainable tourism. All of these students lost family members and their housing and employment. They don't want handouts -- they want to work again and this program will allow them to do it.
There's a lot more, too. Mark's doing terrific stuff.
8:51:07 AM
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Sep 30, 2005 - Efrain Morales took this recent photograph of Mars. He took 750 individual frames of the planet with his telescope in Puerto Rico, and then merged them on computer to build these composite photographs.
Do you have photos you'd like to share? Post them to the Universe Today astrophotography forum or email them to me directly, and I might feature one in Universe Today.
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(Via Universe Today.)
8:51:04 AM
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Thanks, Jorn, for the linkage!
What I like about Robot Wisdom, besides the eclectic and wide scope, is Barger's ability to say a lot in a very few words.
12:06:51 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Steve Michel.
Last update: 11/1/2005; 9:45:58 PM.
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