"It's possible to combine all three types of wireless connectivity into a single device, but usually it means buying a device that is both a phone and a PDA with Bluetooth, then adding a Wi-Fi card. Chipmaker Texas Instruments (nyse: TXN - news - people ) says it has built up a chipset that would form the basis of just such a handheld, and it has been showing off a concept device it calls WANDA"

Now that I've got my new laptop on order, what I really need is a Bluetooth-enabled phone in order to be fully wireless with as-needed Inet connectivity. Full multi-media blogging from events will be a reality.
11:59:20 AM    comment []  Google It!  

"These are not just vague, eve-of-war fears. In a Fresh Air interview tonight that I can only describe as "dreadful," in the primal meaning of the word, CIA historian Thomas Powers put details on the face of these fears. He predicted, as everyone does, a swift U.S. victory in a month or so. Then a couple months of calm. Then, a gradual awareness: That this project of installing a client government in Iraq, even in the sunniest of outcomes, must last a generation or more. That hundreds of thousands of American troops have now become sitting-duck targets for suicidal terrorists who will have no need to hijack a plane to access their foes. That these troops will now sit on the border with another "axis of evil" enemy, Iran, which, like Saddam's Iraq, also seeks nuclear weapons. That this war, like Bush's larger "war on terrorism," has no clear definition of its aims, its scope or its foes -- and that such a war has no end in sight and can have no victory."

One of the things I heard on the radio this week was a particular lady from the midwest, expressing frustration with the on-going disarmarment regime and troup buildup was something to the effect of, "Let's just go do it and get it done." I believe all of the talk of a quick war is blinding people to the realization of what we are getting ourselves into. And fighting the urge to not be cynical and believe that this is what President Bush and the real (undercover) leaders (Chaney, Rumsfeld (sp?), Rice) really want. Us there for a generation or more. And we will. Or we will be in even greater danger in the future. Let us hope that a result of this invasion and occupation will be a model for self-determination (not colonial-era arrogance and inattention) of Iraq and others our leaders have their designs on.
12:35:53 AM    comment []  Google It!  

Didn't I read something days/months ago about Iraqi plans to suicide bomb ships in the Gulf, even in a circumstance just like this, if I recall. And it doesn't sound like we've got a planned defense. And it sounds like this could be a place where Sadaam starts the end...

Out in the Persian Gulf, the commander of American and British naval forces, Rear Adm. John M. Kelly, expressed concern that Iraq was preparing attacks on coalition warships.

On Monday night, Iraqi Army troops dispatched a large number of fishing vessels from coastal ports and moorings and sent them into waters where aircraft carriers, destroyers and submarines were standing by to launch aircraft and cruise missiles against targets in Iraq. Military intelligence monitoring also detected the preparation of missile launching sites that could be directed at naval targets, he said.

And as we're now praying for those fighting in our name, the last thing you want to read is that they aren't all ready, aren't ready to 'pounce' as I've heard on news broadcasts.

"Elsewhere on land, there were signs of supply shortages and bottlenecks. "I am not bringing my company into the desert without spare tires for every Humvee, because I know we are going to have flats," one exasperated Army major said. He worried himself through the day over the "breakdown issue" that he said was looming because of shortages of equipment needed to support the Army on its 300-mile trek to Baghdad.

At the 101st Airborne encampment, armed guards were stationed to prevent pilfering from trucks loaded with drinking water supplies. Hundreds of soldiers were still lining up at Army V Corps headquarters, trying to get last-minute anthrax and smallpox vaccinations"

And here's the thought we should all be thinking right now,

"But while the commanders huddled, the grunts, who have spent weeks working in hot and harsh desert conditions, packed gear, covered latrines, lined up for final telephone calls home and wondered whether their campaign would begin in a fog of swirling sand raised by the heavy winds that were predicted for the next two days.

"This is not going to be pretty," one soldier said ruefully."

One more very sobering quote, as I realize I'm kind of jonesin' on the details of where and how this is all happening. This is going to happen whether or not I cover it. Sleep on it.

"On land, many Army commanders expect little resistance across the Iraq-Kuwait border, followed by an increasingly fierce defense as American-led forces approach Baghdad, which is surrounded by well-trained Republican Guard divisions most loyal to Mr. Hussein.

General Wallace, however, said he expected "serious opposition" as his forces plow north. Another officer with the Third Infantry Division said Iraq had three second-tier divisions in the south: the 51st Mechanized Division around Basra, the Sixth Armored Division north of Basra and the 11th Infantry Division near An-Nassiriyah.

Those divisions have dug formidable defensive obstacles that include revetments and trenches filled with oil that, when set on fire, would form an obscuring and choking screen of smoke, the officer said. He also said there was some evidence that Iraqi engineers might destroy the dam on the Euphrates River outside Kerbala, flooding and narrowing the approaches to Baghdad."

Ain't gonna be pretty is right.
12:08:56 AM    comment []  Google It!