Good God

My man Dave:

I swear this is for real. The wingnuts are blaming the Clintons for the leak of a CIA agent's identity . . .

Words fail me . . .

This Monkey's Kung Fu is Very Strong...

Go see what Kung Fu Monkey has to say about the president and unintelligent design. Recommended.

I'm not going to rehash the whole ridiculousness of Intelligent Design, or as it's more commonly known: "Creationism Trying to Look Serious By, Say, Squinting -- Like Denise Richards Playing the Nuclear Weapons Expert In That Bond Movie". My pal Orac has all the necessary links. If you don't understand that there's absolutely no contradiction between believing in God and evolution, then frankly I'm not going to waste the time trying to jam a rhetorical screwdriver into your pineal gland's butterfly valve and crank up the air flow. Nor will I trot out another version of I Miss Republicans, although I suspect that a fair number of people out there are pretty rattled, as it's become the number one entry page to this blog over the last day.

That's sort of in the middle of a terrific rant. Don't miss it.

Down, Down, Down, In A Burnin' Ring O' Fire

Go see Newsweek's latest poll numbers. Bush keeps dropping. I'll be happy when he drops through the gallows floor.

The myths of Hiroshima

This editorial in the LATimes knocks some big holes in the mythology surrounding the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan.

Americans were also told that use of the bombs "led to the immediate surrender of Japan and made unnecessary the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands." But it's not that straightforward. As Tsuyoshi Hasegawa has shown definitively in his new book, "Racing the Enemy" - and many other historians have long argued - it was the Soviet Union's entry into the Pacific war on Aug. 8, two days after the Hiroshima bombing, that provided the final "shock" that led to Japan's capitulation. (my bold)

The bomb was dropped, as J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, said in November 1945, on "an essentially defeated enemy." President Truman and his closest advisor, Secretary of State James Byrnes, quite plainly used it primarily to prevent the Soviets from sharing in the occupation of Japan. And they used it on Aug. 6 even though they had agreed among themselves as they returned home from the Potsdam Conference on Aug. 3 that the Japanese were looking for peace.

There are other reasons we used the bomb, but you have to look kinda deep (foreign documentaries on The History Channel at 3AM) to find 'em:

Justification for the $2,000,000,000 (with a "B") expense.

Plain old-fashioned Revenge, served hot.

Because we could.

Not to justify it, but kindly remember that the Japs killed more civilians at Nanking with bullets and bayonets than were killed with the two A-bombs, not to mention their atrocities elsewhere.

I think it's fortunate for Germany that they surrendered before the bomb was ready, although we may not have used it on them because they didn't sneak-attack us, and they're white. They certainly committed atrocities that dwarfed Japan's.

It points to competence, your honor

This via Roger Ailes the Good:

A White House council on volunteerism said Friday it's taking another look at how the President's Call to Service Award -- accompanied by a laudatory letter from President Bush -- was issued to Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a California Death Row inmate who has written a series of books warning young people against the gang life.

A spokesman for the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation said that neither the council nor Bush had any way of knowing that the person they were honoring was a condemned multiple murderer. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Personally, if the guy is trying to redeem his worthless ass by helping kids from Death Row, more power to him. But this shows the kind of idiots who are running the show at 1600. I'm sure it would only have taken a Google search to figure out what this guy was about. It's the same way they planned for Iraq. Chimpy Inc has brought superficiality to an art form.

Update: 12:50:

I did a Google search just to see. Here's his homepage.

Go get him

I love this woman. Reminds me of my mom . . . only younger . . . and still alive.

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- The angry mother [Cindy Sheehan] of a fallen U.S. soldier staged a protest near President Bush's ranch Saturday, demanding an accounting from Bush of how he has conducted the war in Iraq.

[. . .]

She said she decided to come to Crawford a few days ago after Bush said that fallen U.S. troops had died for a noble cause and that the mission must be completed.

"I want to ask the president, `Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?" she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "Last week, you said my son died for a noble cause' and I want to ask him what that noble cause is?"

[. . .]

My mom was a tough broad too, and refused to take shit from anybody. I'm glad at least one news service covered this.

Via Cabana Boy.

This is what we're dealing with

Me a year ago (give or take):

[. . .]

You know, I write spy novels and some science fiction. The reason I bring this up is not to peddle books, but to make an observation. Bush & Co's actions sound like the plot of a fucking spy novel. It's as if they're taking literary license with the war, the way I would when I ask my audience to suspend their belief in the flow of time and the details. (If writers didn't, novels would be SO long and boring, and filled with minutiae, that no one would want to read them.) But wars don't proceed like novels do. The president is not an omnipotent being, like a writer, who can mold the world so the outcome is in his favor. War, and running a country, involves minutiae on a biblical scale and all the details have to be addressed BEFORE war is declared. It's as if Bush thinks the world works like a TV show or a pulp fiction novel.

Newsweek [link over there] via Attaturk today:

...the White House can at least feel reassured by FX itself, which is part of the Fox TV empire. One of the favorite shows among White House aides has been "24," the Kiefer Sutherland counterterrorism cliffhanger drama. White House aides regularly swap stories about their favorite Sutherland shoot-outs with foreign agents, terrorists and generally bad guys. "Over There" may be a different beast, but it probably appeals to the same crowd. [my emphasis]

Running a country is NOT a fucking TV show, you idiots.

Dear Mrs. Kerry

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

I'm going to suggest an idea that Bush/Cheney/Rove will hate. That alone should make this post worth reading, shouldn't it?

One year ago tomorrow, August 5th, the sleazy Swift Boat crowd ran their first attack ad on your husband.

[. . .]

Which means if you want justice, you're going to have to do it yourself.

I know what I would do if my spouse was lied about and smeared. I'd spend part of my vast fortune fighting back. And while my vast fortune is not quite in the same league (same universe!) as yours, doesn't that actually make it even more reasonable a suggestion? (Granted, it's totally unfair that I, who don't even know you, make any comment at all -- but that doesn't make this a bad idea.)

After all, 10% of your fortune would buy a huge ad campaign; yet it still leaves you with a decent reserve.

[. . .]

Good letter and a good idea. Read the rest at the Huffington Post. (Hat tip: Colorado Vets)

Oppenheimer's deadly toy

60 years ago today, we learned we can kill people with more efficiency and in greater numbers than we ever could before. Pray we never feel compelled to use them again.

There was a pika, a blinding flash of pink, blue, red, or yellow light -- none of the survivors ever agreed on the color -- brighter than 1,000 suns but coming from a fireball only 110 yards in diameter. In that split second the hypocenter or point of impact reached a heat of 300,000 C. Within a 1,000-yard radius granite buildings melted, steel and stone bridges burned and so did the river below them, roof tiles boiled, and people evaporated, leaving their shadows "photographed" like X-ray negatives on walls and pavements.

[. . .]

How low can you go?

How's 38%? Ha-Ha!

WASHINGTON - Americans' approval of President Bush's handling of Iraq is at its lowest level yet, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that also found fewer than half now think he's honest.

[. . .]

Hat tip: The Farmer

Another Dead Journalist in Iraq

Steven Vincent, a freelance journalist from New York, has become one of more than two dozen journalists killed in Iraq this year. Possibly targeted for his articles, Steven has been published in the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times and the National Review.

His reports on corruption in Basra quite possibly made him a very big target:

"Then there was the highly-placed official in the Electrical Transmission Directorate who admitted to us that the government pays the notorious Garamsha tribe to protect high-voltage power lines from--well, the Garamsha themselves. A businesswoman complained that if you're not affiliated with a religious party, your low bid--even for projects involving international NGOs--will have difficulty finding acceptance. The owner of a cargo-hauling company described the port of Um Qasr as a veritable On the Waterfront-like scene of smuggling, theft and looting--which, when accused of complicity in the crimes, the former port manager blamed on--who else?--corrupt Americans."



Further reading:
Reality check

Trouble in Murdoch paradise?

We can only hope. From Australia:

"Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his eldest son Lachlan, who last week resigned from the family's News Corporation, have denied reports the departure is related to a dispute over inheritances, reports say.

The Australian Financial Review reported that Lachlan's resignation was prompted in part by Murdoch senior's decision to make sweeping changes to his family's shareholding in News Corporation which would substantially reduce the power of his four adult children.

The changes would give Murdoch's two infant children with third wife Wendi Deng an equal interest in the AE Harris Trust which holds the family's 6.17 billion US dollar holding in News Corp., it said without naming sources.

"There is no dispute. All my children will be treated equally and I look forward to the day when Lachlan wants to return to News Corporation," Rupert Murdoch said, according to reports attributed to New Corp's US spokesman.

The company's Australian spokesman, Greg Baxter, also said that Lachlan Murdoch's decision to leave News Corp. was based solely on his desire to return to Australia and begin the next phase of his career.

"There is no relationship between his decision and the speculation and rumours," Baxter told The Australian.

According to the Australian Financial Review, the changes to the shareholdings would invalidate the deal Murdoch struck with former wife Anna during their divorce proceedings in 1999.

That deal granted Anna's three children, Elizabeth, Lachlan and James, as well as Murdoch's daughter from his first marriage, Prudence McLeod, control of the trust in the event of his death.

Under the new deal, Deng will become the most powerful player in the family trust when Murdoch dies because she will act as guardian to her two children, Grace, 3 and Chloe, 2, until they can claim their inheritance at the age of 30.

The review said that simmering tensions among the older Murdoch children about Deng's role had culminated in the resignation of Lachlan, 33, from his position as deputy chief operating officer for the global media organisation on Friday.

News Corp. sources also hinted at disagreements between Rupert and Lachlan over the father's interference in the Fox TV station group run directly by Lachlan.

Lachlan has also felt undermined by senior executives and was at odds with News Corp. chief operating officer Peter Chernin, it said."

Emphasis in bold is mine.

Friday Cattle Dog Blogging

Princess Shayna



"When's mom coming home, damn it?"

Cattle Dog note: Notice all the hair on the rug in my office? Australian Cattle Dogs have a dual-layer coat they shed twice a year and boy do they shed (enough for 5 dogs). It takes about 6 weeks. In that time, I leave the vacuum out and plugged in. That rug was vacuumed not 24 hours before this pic was taken. And no, she doesn't get the attitude from me, it's the Dingo blood.

Republican Love

Go see Bizarro.

Ha-Ha

Roberts helped the queers! How crazy do you think the Wingnuts are gonna get over this? Heh.

Intelligent Designs

Since we've been on the subject, the CultureGhost has been messing around with evolution (here and here). Excellent. I'm certain there will be more.

The Idiot

Freiheit und Wissen has a great post up on Novakula.

Interoffice Memo

Just got this e-mail from the Mrs.:

"TOWEL HEADS"

Recently I received a warning about the use of this politically incorrect term, so please note, we all need to be more sensitive in our choice of words.

I have been informed the Islamic terrorists, who hate our guts and want to kill us, do not like to be called "Towel Heads," since the item they wear on their heads is not actually a towel, but in fact, a small folded sheet.

Therefore, from this point forward, please refer to them as "Little Sheet Heads."

Thank you for your support and compliance on this delicate matter.

Quote of the Day

From a story at YahooNews about the latest Marines to be wasted uselessly killed in Iraq:

"We are never going to win this thing militarily, that is the bottom line,"

said Lieutenant General John Sattler of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, in a candid conversation in Washington last week.

I hope he has his resume ready.

Welcome

Pic courtesy of Maru.

Update: 15:45:

For another great pic, visit the Colorado Vets.

History Lesson

This has been on other blogs recently, and here, but if you haven't read "Fisking the 'War on Terror'" by Juan Cole, do so now.

By giving the Muj weaponry like the stinger shoulderheld missile, which could destroy advanced Soviet arms like their helicopter gunships, Reagan demonstrated to the radical Muslims that they could defeat a super power

That asshole's hand is reaching out of the grave to help Bush fuck up America. I hope he's in Hell.

Iraq Veteran on the "Truth Tour"

This is a coupla weeks old, but well worth reading seeing as how we're climbing Media's frame today. Iraq Veteran Paul Rieckhoff at The Huffington Post (which isn't turning out too badly, I think):

In an act of blatant propaganda, half-a-dozen conservative talk radio hosts spent the past week broadcasting from Iraq on a Defense Department-sponsored trip aimed at finding the "good news that the old-line liberal news media won't tell you about." The trip was sponsored by "Move America Forward"--the same idiots who sold "I Love Gitmo" bumper stickers on their website.

Even before arriving in country, the so-called 'Truth Tour' had taken to depicting the conflict in rosy terms. After a barbecue at CENTCOM in Tampa, commentator Howard Kaloogian spoke with excitement about the upcoming, "vacation adventure."

Mr. Kaloogian, take your war tourism and stick it up your microphone. You and your buddies stayed for a mere four days in the luxurious confines of the Green Zone and saw images like these. Real troops are there for a year and see images like these (Note: link is to OpTruth. Original page not found).

This is a war zone, not a photo op. For the Troops in Baghdad, Tikrit and Fallujah, who are being deployed for their second and third tours, this war is far from a 'vacation adventure.' This type of shameless cheerleading and agenda-driven journalism is an insult to those who have sacrificed on the frontlines of this war and experienced its terrible toll.

What's a coupla thousand American lives compared to a chance to ingratiate yourself with the White House and further your career? These wingnut deejays are despicable.

Anonymous Lies From Anonymous Sources

Frances Cerra Whittelsey in The Nation:

So now we know for sure. Those "highly placed Bush Administration sources" anonymously quoted over and over again in front-page and cover stories are, in fact, the likes of Karl Rove and Lewis Libby. The Valerie Plame affair has not only outed the chronic propaganda leakers in the Bush Administration; it has also exposed for the public to see the corrupt relationship between the White House and leading members of the national press corps.

It's no wonder George W. Bush has such contempt for the media. His cronies must laugh regularly about how easily they manipulate reporters. Driven by ego and competitive pressure, they are willing carriers of the Administration's propaganda, blinded by feelings of false power because they are close to the people actually pulling their strings.

We need a national shield law, but not to protect promises of confidentiality to some of the most powerful people In the world. We need it to protect reporters who place their jobs on the line--and frequently lose them--when they take the risk of exposing abuses of power by those inside government and without.

No, the first lesson of the Valerie Plame affair should not be about how better to protect reporters like Judith Miller, although reporters clearly need better protection. Instead, let's first make it an occasion for soul-searching about how the mainstream media covers the President of the United States.

I have nothing to add to that.

A Very Intelligent Design...

I would have posted this earlier, but it took awhile for the blood to return to my brain. Greg Moses at Counterpunch has the best idea yet on the teaching of ID:

Also in a perfect world, George W. Bush will be spending decades in prison for his part in launching at least one cold-blooded and illegal war. So in the perfect world that Bush is helping to shape, why couldn't he teach intelligent design in prison, too? It will make a fine seminar for war criminals.

What a positively fine idea. Go read the rest.

Intelligent Design

Atrios expresses my feelings on this exactly:

[. . .]

Kudos to our wonderful media for treating this as a he said/she said issue, where one side is the entire legitimate scientific community and the other side consists of a bunch of good Christian liars trying to dress their religion up as science. They tried once before with "Creation Science" and now they're trying again with "Intelligent Design."

We are at the pinnacle of technological evolution and yet in this day and age, there is still a debate. Incredible. I have zero tolerance for stupid as it is, but this takes the cake.

Hackett . . . again

I was gonna post on this but in light of Gord's post below, and in the spirit of not beating a dead horse, I'll just send ya over to Cabana Boy who already did.

How'd I Do, Pop? Huh? Huh?

Go see the picture at Dependable Renegade, another NYC blog. Heh. Thanks, Cleek.

Close, But No Cigar - This Time

If you're following the now-decided Hackett/Schmidt race in Ohio - and who isn't? - it seems even the Reps couldn't cheat the results enough to make it a landslide.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The apparent win by Republican Jean Schmidt in Tuesday's 2nd Congressional District election was in no way shocking, but the fact that Democrat Paul Hackett made it a very close election is nothing short of astounding.

Carl Forti, a spokesman for the NRCC, said last Thursday that the party had decided to "bury'' Hackett because of a quote that day in USA Today in which Hackett said he was willing to go to Iraq and serve for "the son of a bi - - - in the White House."

One of the most endearing qualities of Marines is their use of tact and diplomatic language.

And don't miss Billmon:

Paul Hackett easily beat my expectations, as well as those of the Washington punditburo, in Ohio's special congressional election yesterday. He did not, however, beat his opponent, Jean Schmidt, who will now take her rightful place with the other GOP heel clickers in our Chamber of People's Deputies.

If Schmidt's victory margin is in double digits, this tells us that there is not much of an anti-GOP wind in Ohio right now. If the margin is say six to nine points for Schmidt, then there is a wind, but certainly no hurricane. A Schmidt win of less than five points should be a very serious warning sign for Ohio Republicans that something is very, very wrong, while a Hackett victory would be a devastating blow to the Ohio GOP.

He then goes on at length about Clermont County's political machinations, you should pardon the pun.

Of course, none of this proves, or even makes a circumstantial case, that yesterday's election was stolen. Maybe the inhabitants of Clerrmont County really are just unusually witless in their devotion to the GOP cause. I live in a Republican machine county myself, so I know how that goes.

But it's still rather remarkable how often the lightning seems to strike in Clermont -- and at the just the right time, producing just the right amount of votes for an otherwise endangered GOP candidate. Like I said, I'd feel a lot better about it if the party stalwarts who run the county's elections were describing the inner workings of the system to a grand jury -- under oath.

Good point, 'Mon. I wonder if Fitzgerald will be free soon...

Nor is there any reason to be defensive about raising the question. After Florida 2000, Ohio 2004, and everything that's come light since then about the Rovian death grip on power, it doesn't seem too tinfoilish to wonder whether the GOP's approach to close elections in Ohio isn't the same as the party's approach to close votes on the House floor -- in which the count is held open until the leadership gets the result it wanted.

Personally, my posting style does not admit to the concept of "planning ahead", but Billmon's sure does. Go read.

Like Fish in the Sea

That's how Chairman Mao described guerilla fighters. It's true whether they're "Freedom Fighters" (yours), or "insurgents" (theirs). Gary Brecher has the best article on the subject vis-a-vis Iraq that I've seen lately. Via AlterNet.

If you've been following guerrilla wars as long as I have, you have to laugh when you hear Army PR guys say that the Iraqi insurgents are just a teeny-tiny bad apple in a big barrel of shiny Red Delicious Iraqis. One bad apple -- that little beady-eyed Al Qaeda operative Zarqawi -- is supposedly responsible for the whole mess. Sorry, folks, but insurgencies just don't work that way.

Of course, you can't blame US Army guys for doing their job -- lying to the press. But you sure can blame the press for buying it. I can't believe how pig-ignorant reporters are about the basics of guerrilla warfare This planet has been bursting with guerrilla wars for the past century, but the perky, smiley guys 'n' gals reporting from Iraq still know more about hair spray and "Dating Do's & Don'ts" than they do about urban warfare.

Guerrillas start from scratch. They need to collect the materials for a bomb, put it in place, and set it off without attracting attention. Imagine doing that in a crowded, noisy Baghdad street and you'll see that it wouldn't be possible without the cooperation of everybody in the neighborhood, from the Radio Shack guy who donates the trigger to the granny on the corner, timing the US patrols as she waves sweetly at the GIs.

Our GIs may not be able to tell the difference between an Iraqi and a Saudi or Chechen, but the pro-American Iraqi cops sure can. So the only job these foreign jihadis are really fit for is suicide car-bomb drivers. The insurgents keep the foreign jihadis under wraps until the target convoy comes into view. Then you just put him in the driver's seat and point him at the target.

Contrary to what the dumb-ass press keeps saying, the leaders don't need to "fuel" the insurrection. It's got all the fuel it needs. The Iraqis, not just the Sunnis either, are so pissed-off by now that the real leaders' job is mostly persuading the hotheads to take it slow, plan their attacks.

If about 65 attacks per day is "taking it slow", I hope the leaders don't cut 'em loose anytime soon.

Do not miss this article.

A world of our own making

Juan Cole:

[. . .]

Reagan also decided to build up Saddam Hussein in Iraq as a counterweight to Khomeinist Iran, authorizing US and Western companies to send him precursors for chemical and biological weaponry. At one point Donald Rumsfeld was sent to Iraq to assure Saddam that it was all right if he used chemical weapons against the Iranians. Reagan had no taste in friends.

[. . .]

A must read. Hat tip: Corrente.

Rendition

From the Green Lantern:

Tell me, if someone were dicing YOUR penis like a tomato, how long before you "confessed" to being an Al Qaida terrorist?

This is not the nation I put my ass on the line for.

Cows Pass Cars as Polluters

From the LATimes:

Got smog?

California's San Joaquin Valley for some time has had the dirtiest air in the country. Monday, officials said gases from ruminating dairy cows, not exhaust from cars, are the region's biggest single source of a chief smog-forming pollutant.

The entire exercise of estimating cow emissions has been lampooned on talk radio as "fart science" run amok - although most gas actually comes from the front end of the cow.

"I'd like to challenge the people that came up with this information to enclose yourself in a shop with a cow, and at the same time have someone enclose themselves in a similar shop with a car or truck running," one critic, Steve Hofman of Ripon, Calif., wrote to the Modesto Bee. "Then let me know the results."

Boy, that'd be a day at the beach, huh?

When we drive down south, we pass lots of dairies and a huge feedlot that's right next to I-5. I actually kinda like the smell, mostly because it's temporary at 70mph. It'll actually wake my dogs up. They love it.

Make up your own jokes about installing catalytic converters and annual smog checks.

Bolton and Democrats

Evan Derkacz has a few things to say about the silver lining behind the cloud of Bolton's appointment, and then he starts in on the Democrats. Via AlterNet.

And despite the fact that it would have been nice if Bush had appointed someone whose goal it was to work with the world to, um, work with the world, if it means that Bolton won't be able to pursue his and the administration's agenda to further isolate America, that may not be such a bad thing. A wash, as it were.

Point is not to diss Kerry; a good number of Democrats are guilty of this hemming and hedging. The point is that it's not only ethically bankrupt to avoid firm, or overly compromising positions, it's bad strategy. With their opposition to Bolton the Democrats are beginning to see the value in not compromising, in taking a stance and fighting for it.

Never mind that Bolton was confirmed ... for now, anyway. Despite administration cries that a permanent presence is necessary in that position, Bolton's one and a half year tenure makes him the substitute teacher of UN ambassadors.

In the long run the Republican machinery has a strategy for branding the Democrats and its adherents will swallow it. It doesn't much matter what the Dems do, the strategy isn't going to shift much. But maybe the Dems need to go back and get some of that good old fashioned schoolyard wisdom. If they call you a sissy for playing the violin, giving up the violin will not make the other kids think you're cool. Walk over to the one calling you a sissy, look 'em in the eye and play a kickass version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." They still may not like the violin but they will respect you.

They'll respect you a Hell of a lot more if you set down the fiddle and then play a real "kickass version". On them.

Let's review

Missouri Mule at Blondie's documents the atrocities over the past week. Required reading and lotsa links.

Contrasts

Via His Highness:

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush may consider bypassing the Senate by appointing John Bolton as United Nations ambassador on a temporary basis if Democrats continue to hold up a vote on his nomination, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan suggested.

"If the Senate fails to act and move forward on those nominees, sometimes there comes a point where the president has needed to fill" a vacancy "in a timely manner," McClellan said today at his regular briefing.

[. . .]

As opposed to:

[. . .]

Bolton isn't the first UN ambassador nominee to be stalled by partisan bickering. Richard Holbrooke, who was nominated to the post by President Bill Clinton in 1998, was held up for 14 months before winning confirmation in August 1999.

At one point during the long stalemate, White House officials raised the prospect of a recess appointment with Holbrooke, according to two people who were involved in the matter. Holbrooke refused, saying it would diminish his credibility at UN. [my emphases]

The difference between real men and wannabe losers.

Have a Blast This Summer

Actually, it's all over for this year, but I know you'll want to bookmark it for next year. The University of Missouri at Rolla offers Summer Explosives Camp.

Ever wonder how dynamite works? What about fireworks? At the 2005 Summer Explosives Camp, you will not only learn how these things work, you will actually be able to get hands on experience! You will learn:

1. How to prime and shoot dynamite.
2. Safety precautions when handling explosives.
3. Where explosives are used.
4. The curriculum and department of Mining Engineering at UMR.
5. What careers are available that are explosive related.
6. How underground blasts work.
7. How explosives are used in industry.
8. How to set up and shoot off a fireworks display.
9. And much more!

Fixer could probably get a gig teaching the graduate course: "Alcohol, Dynamite, and Fun in the Sun"!

Not surprised, are ya?

WASHINGTON - President Bush sidestepped the Senate and installed embattled nominee John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations on Monday, ending a five-month impasse with Democrats who accused Bolton of abusing subordinates and twisting intelligence to fit his conservative ideology.

"This post is too important to leave vacant any longer, especially during a war and a vital debate about UN reform," Bush said. He said Bolton had his complete confidence.

[. . .]

Puh!

Oh Fucking Swell...

The TimesOnline has an interesting piece on the recent disappearance of Al Qaida websites. This paragraph got my attention:

Ironically, the most readily available sources of accurate online information on bomb-making are the websites of the radical American militia (my bold). "I have not seen any Al-Qaeda manuals that look like genuine terrorist training," claims Clarke.

I think it's ironic that perhaps our home-grown christo-fascist militant wingnuts are training radical Islamists online. One fundamentalist whackjob is as bad as any other, I suppose, even if they seem to be at cross-purposes.

Rove Update

From the August 8 issue of Time:

As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the Administration. That prospect increases the chances that White House official Karl Rove and others learned about Plame from within the Administration rather than from media contacts. Rove has told investigators he believes he learned of her directly or indirectly from reporters, according to his lawyer.

From Think Progress:

If these revelations are true, the least of Rove and Libby's concerns is perjury. Today's disclosure adds further evidence that the White Hose consciously dug out Plame's identity, used it, and then engaged in a massive cover-up by pinning blame elsewhere. Moreover, it appears far more players were involved in this orchestrated, administration-wide effort than previously believed. The key question, if these revelations are true, is why did these administration officials lie so overtly to the special prosecutor? Knowing hard evidence would come out sooner or later against them (through leaks, emails, etc), the White House officials still chose to lie. What could they possibly be trying to hide? Perhaps this wasn't just a "third-rate smear."

What's that gurgling sound? Could it be Rove circling the drain?

I think I'll schedule an appointment for a wax job so I'll look nice for my neighbors when I do the Dance of Joy!

Double standards

[. . .]

Dov Hikind, state assemblyman of Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish Community: "You look at London. You look at Madrid. You look at every single case of the individuals who were involved. You know, they look basically like this."

Dov Hikind is referring to the printout of the FBI's most wanted list and how the photo should not be ignored as one of the guides in the NYPD bag search policies.

Dov Hikind: "This is what they look like. Now...they surely look like they come from the Middle Eastern country."

The assemblyman from Brooklyn strongly feels police should be able to stop anyone they want even if the individual fits into one particular group. [Link]

[. . .]

I wonder what he'd say if the people they're looking for were Jewish? If the NYPD jacked up every Hasid or anybody wearing a yarmulke. I'd be willing to bet we'd hear the shouts of 'anti-Semitism' from every corner of the city. Didja notice one of the London bombers was black, you idiot? Are ya gonna jack up every brother in New York too? For folks who say 'never forget' some of 'em certainly have.

Blogging?

Don't know what my schedule will be today. I gotta take a class and test (New York State Vehicle Inspector certification) and I don't know when I'll be home this afternoon. I'm sure the rest of the gang will have some thought provoking posts for ya today though.

More 'moral values'

A Denton County constable drove to a Colorado restaurant on Thursday and called a woman he met through the Internet to let her know he had arrived, according to court papers.

Instead of Marsha showing up with her 8-year-old daughter for a sexual encounter, he met her colleagues - Canon City, Colo., police officers.

Larry Dale Floyd, a 62-year-old constable from The Colony, was arrested on suspicion of soliciting to have sex with a child and was charged with seven related crimes, Canon City police said. [DallasNews.com]

[. . .]

While all I can think about is 'interrogating' this guy for a couple weeks in my own inimitable style, the Sister has a more level headed analysis:

[. . .]

What the hell is it with these people? And exactly how much of this crap am I going to have to read while simultaneously being lectured by the GOP about how they're the party of moral values? Get real, you bullshit artists. Your party is full of men who use your cloak of alleged virtue to hide their depraved proclivities, and until you can purge your ranks of this inordinate number of elected perverts and quit peddling your godliness under the guise of hatred, I don't want to hear anything more about how you're so superior to the rest of us mere mortals, whose greatest transgression is simply not worshipping your hypocrite king.

The same reason these guys flocked to the priesthood is the same reason they flock to the Republican Party. They can hide and do their dirty work. I'm sorry, but pedophiles deserve a bullet, period. With a recidivism rate of close to 90%, there is no rehabilitation for these clowns.

Ethics? Puh!

From Arianna via Atrios:

[. . .]

A recurring theme in many of the conversations and e-mails is how Judy [Miller], to the dismay of many of her colleagues, never played by the same rules and standards as other reporters . . .

Let us not allow Judy to hide behind 'journalistic ethics'. The only time she considers ethics is when she's in trouble and needs an out. I hope she rots in jail.