I Saw This Coming

When reports came out earlier that seismic activity was too low for the NoKorean test blast to have been nukular, I expected some sort of retraction. The blast had to be nukular to fit with Bushco's game plan.

An air sampling taken after
North Korea's claimed nuclear test detected radioactive debris consistent with an atomic explosion, Bush administration and congressional officials said Friday night. They said no final determination had been made about the nature of last weekend's mystery-shrouded blast.

One U.S. government official said intelligence officials assigned an 80 percent probability that the North Korean explosion was a nuclear detonation, based on the air sample collected Wednesday. The official said it appeared highly unlikely that the sample of radioactive material was produced by any other source, including a nuclear power reactor.

The official also said additional sampling might be conducted, not necessarily by airborne means. He would not elaborate, citing security concerns.

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Bloggers Destined To Hell?

Consider this:

Truly, blogging is a 21st century communications tool carrying great impact—and many dangers.

So what can we conclude? How should God’s youth approach blogs? Are there biblical principles that apply? Some teenagers in the world admit that blogging is pointless; should you feel the same?

The dangers listed above are the proverbial “tip of the iceberg.” Because this article is extremely important, some may need to read it twice and use it as a stepping stone to further study on this subject.

If you want to read more, go to the originating weblog!

OMG, you just can't write this stuff.

Do These Things Happen In 3's?

What's with those Yankee players and airplanes?

A private jet reportedly carrying New York Yankees star player Alex Rodriguez overshot the runway at a Los Angeles area airport on Friday, just days after teammate Cory Lidle died in a small plane crash in New York City.

"There were seven people on board and no injuries," said Victor Gill, director of public affairs at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, outside Los Angeles.

Gill did not have information on the identities of the passengers. But ABC News said that Rodriguez was aboard the jet and had told an ABC reporter by phone that he was doing fine.

I hope it stops at 2.

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Too Funny

Stolen from here.

Cat Blogging

Did you really expect a cat? Silly goose.

And Some Bad News

Probably only the first of many similar instances we'll here about.

One of Britain's most experienced television correspondents was unlawfully killed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, an inquest into his death ruled on Friday.

Veteran war correspondent Terry Lloyd, 50, who worked for ITN, was killed in March 2003 in southern Iraq as he reported from the front line during the first few days of the U.S.-led invasion.

The ITN News crew, which unlike most journalists covering the war was unattached to any U.S. or British unit, had come under fire at Iman Anas, near Basra, while driving towards the port city in two vehicles marked "Press".

Lloyd, who had reported from Iraq, Cambodia, Bosnia and Kosovo during his award-winning career, and translator Hussein Othman, were killed.

Their colleague, French cameraman Fred Nerac, is still missing believed dead while another cameraman Daniel Demoustier was able to escape.

An inquest in Oxford heard that Lloyd, a father-of-two, had been hit by an Iraqi bullet but then died when he was struck in the head by an American bullet.

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You Aren't Paying Attention, World

It seems dim son has found the international equivalent to signing statements so he can do whatever the hell he wants regardless what he has agreed to do.

THE US may seek punitive measures against Pyongyang "over and above" those being considered at the UN, in the wake of its nuclear test, The New York Times said today.

“Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was considering a trip to Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo as early as next week to negotiate punitive steps over and above those that might be acceptable to the Security Council,” the Times has said, citing an unnamed senior Bush administration official.

It continually amazes me how devoid of scruples that bastard is.

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And You Have A Big Nose & Money

Ridiculous. How is it that people who don't want to be slurred can do it so easily to others. BTW the few Jews I've known had neither big noses nor money. I just know the common stereotype.

Israeli Ambassador to Australia Naftali Tamir said this week that Israel and Australia are white sisters in Asia and should work together to improve ties with "the yellow race."

"Israel and Australia are like sisters in Asia," Tamir said in an interview with Haaretz during a visit to Israel this week. "We are in Asia without the characteristics of Asians. We don't have yellow skin and slanted eyes. Asia is basically the yellow race. Australia and Israel are not - we are basically the white race. We are on the western side of Asia and they are on the southeastern side."

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A Little Good News

It is long overdue, but...

The International Committee of the Red Cross was finally granted access this week to inmates at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Officials met with the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and 13 other suspected al Qaeda operative.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of planning 9/11 and former No. 3 leader of al Qaeda, Ramzi Binalshigh, were two of the detainees transferred recently to Gitmo from secret CIA prisons worldwide. Prisoners held secretly by the CIA were first acknowledged Sept. 6 by President George W. Bush.

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Careful Out There

Much MSM, But Few Owners

Yesterday I posted about how MSM is devolving into very few hands. Today I ran across some specifics if you're interested.

Here's what Time Warner owns. On the upper right corner of that page you can click to see what Viacom and Disney own as well as other corporations. The lists are amazing and frightening.

Oil...Water?

I just don't get the point of this poll. Why not ask whether Cuba should become the next state in the United States?

After a half-century of division and confrontation between the two Koreas, the capitalist South has become a fully industrialized country and the world's 11th largest economy, while the isolated communist North is on the verge of economic collapse. Similarity to the situation in Germany prior to its reunification has contributed to debate about whether, how, and when the two Koreas could be reunited.

When South Koreans were asked in a Gallup World Poll conducted this summer if the two Koreas should be united, the majority (67%) said yes.

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Its About Time They Woke Up

The public is finally seeing the Repugs for who they are.

An overwhelming majority of Americans think House Republican leaders put their own political interests ahead of the safety of congressional pages in their handling of the Mark Foley scandal, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll.

Seventy-nine percent of those polled — including 61 percent of Republicans — say GOP leaders were more concerned with politics than the well-being of the teenage pages.

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Breaking News...

So far this is the only place I've found this news item:

Mark Warner‘s decision to bow out of the early presidential race leaves a field still crowded with Democrats competing to be the most attractive alternative to front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton .

"It‘s good for Hillary. Anytime a serious contender drops out that helps the front-runner," said Steve Elmendorf, the deputy campaign manager for Democrat John Kerry ‘s 2004 presidential campaign. "Warner would have been, perhaps, the strongest, or certainly one of the strongest candidates, to become the anti-Hillary. This also will help somebody who‘s looking at that role."

"I respect his decision. It‘s such an intensely personal decision," Clinton said in Syracuse, N.Y., during a campaign appearance for her 2006 Senate re-election race. "He‘s been a tremendous public servant, and I hope we haven‘t seen the last of him in Democratic politics and on the national scene."

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You Knew This Was Coming

Jesus H Christ on Good Morning America, can't these idiots be stopped? Is their only answer to any problem an attack?

Encouraging Japan to build nuclear weapons, shipping food aid via submarines and running secret sabotage operations inside North Korea's borders are among a raft of policy prescriptions pushed by prominent US neo-conservatives in the wake of Pyongyang's reported testing of an atomic bomb.

Writing in publications ranging from National Review Online (NRO) to the New York Times, neo-conservatives claim, contrary to the lessons drawn by "realists" and other critics of the George W Bush administration, that Monday's supposed test vindicates their long-held view that negotiations with "rogue" states such as North Korea are useless and that "regime change" - by military means, if necessary - is the only answer.

And no, I won't link to NRO. That site might fry my puny computer.
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Yeah, Things Are Going Really Well In Baghdad

Of course that's if you discount mortar attacks aimed at munitions stores.

A blaze that destroyed an ammunition dump at a US military base in Baghdad was caused by a mortar attack, a US spokesman has said.

Iraqi officials said that shells "cooking off" in the fire had crashed down in five districts in the south of the city.

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Its A Strange World Indeed

A computer for all school children? Probably in Libya.

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You Should Go To This Site

If only to steal the great pix.

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Must Read IMHO

I offer a snippet to entice you:

The hysteria over North Korea's nuclear testing is no surprise: countries not under our thumb nor on our payroll aren't allowed to have deterrent capability. How are we supposed to bomb and/or invade them when they can hit back and hit hard? At bottom, this is what the present "crisis" is really all about. Of course, an isolated regime run by a man exhibiting questionable emotional stability is not something the sane wish to see wielding genocidal weaponry. But enough about Bush.

You can supply your own mental rim shot after that last sentence.

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So Just How "Free" Do You Feel?

How free and open is society when 5 companies control almost all of the MSM and 1 or 2 behemoths control the telephone networks?

The Justice Department gave its unconditional approval to AT&T Inc.'s buyout of BellSouth Corp. on Wednesday, a coast-to-coast behemoth that would be the largest U.S. provider of telephone, wireless and broadband Internet services.

What was the point of breaking up the phone companies in the first place? Why is it necessary to undo that?

Can you say monopoly? I thought you could.

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Be Still My Heart

We can hope and dream I guess.

Turnout in the 2006 midterm election may well be higher than normal, given the level of interest expressed by voters. Today, 51% of voters say they have given a lot of thought to this November's election, up from 45% at this point in 2002 and 42% in early October of 1998. Even in 1994 ­ a recent high in midterm election turnout ­ just 44% of voters had thought a lot about the election in early October.

The difference this year is due to record-high levels of Democratic enthusiasm about the election. Currently, 59% of Democratic voters say they have given a lot of thought to this election, up from 46% at this point in the 2002 election. Republicans, by comparison, are no more or less engaged this year than four years ago (48% now, 47% in 2002). Democrats are also far more excited about voting this year, with 51% saying they are more enthusiastic about voting than usual, up from 40% in 2002. Just a third of Republicans say they are more enthusiastic about voting than usual, down from 44% four years ago. [emphasis mine]

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My Oh My

From Overheard in New York:

Conservative guy: The second smartest person in this country is Ann Coulter. And let me tell you, she looks good in a pair of tight pants and Manolos at 2:30 in the morning.

--Metro-North

Overheard by: Stupid Liberal Hottie

You didn't expect me to post a flattering photo of her, did you? No way. No how.

Come to think of it, many people are very attractive at 2:30 in the morning if you're out drinking. The guy had to be drinking, right?

Why Are We There?

I posted this in comments over on Left I on the News.

Question: How many military bases do foreign countries have in the US?

Are there any? I know of none. So why do we demand bases in so many other folk's neighborhoods? We have learned nothing from the fate of the Roman empire?

For Complete Diversion From The Madness In The World...Contemplate The Banana

I don't know. Never know how my mind works or doesn't. I just liked this post.

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Must Read IMHO

From ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, a true goddess.

Oh Yeah, according to Google, that is a pic of the goddess.

Worst Fake Quote Ever

I stole the title and don't believe it is the worst fake quote ever, but its a good post you should read. Oh yeah, its about the "Foley thing". The scandal, not "that" thing.

For the last few days, Republicans and GOP-friendly commentators have been alleging, without citing any evidence whatsoever to back it up, that the timing of the Foley scandal was orchestrated by Democratic operatives as an "October surprise." Denny Hastert himself has, on several occasions now, engaged in this same paranoid speculation.

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600,000+ Dead Iraqi People?

Here's why this sounds plausible to me. I've lost the link, but read earlier that many people bury their dead in their own yards rather than leave their homes to take bodies to the morgue.

If thousands of people are shooting guns and blowing up things in your neighborhood, you'd probably not travel out either.

A team of American and Iraqi public health researchers has estimated that 600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003 American invasion, the highest estimate ever for the toll of the war here.

...

The figure breaks down to about 15,000 violent deaths a month, a number that is quadruple the one for July given by Iraqi government hospitals and the morgue in Baghdad and published last month in a United Nations report in Iraq. That month was the highest for Iraqi civilian deaths since the American invasion.

But it is an estimate and not a precise count, and researchers acknowledged a margin of error that ranged from 426,369 to 793,663 deaths.

[UPDATE}

First of all, Iraqi Muslims don't believe in embalming or open casket funerals days later. They believe that the body should be buried by sunset the day of death, in a plain wooden box. So there is no reason to expect them to take the body to the morgue. Although there are benefits to registering with the government for a death certificate, there are also disadvantages. Many families who have had someone killed believe that the government or the Americans were involved, and will have wanted to avoid drawing further attention to themselves by filling out state forms and giving their address.

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(read more about update)

Better Late Than Never

I'm one of those paranoids of which this article speaks as you can see here.

Sometimes, paranoids are right. And sometimes even when paranoids are wrong, it's worth considering what they're worried about.

I speak here of all who are worried sick that those new, fancy high-tech voting systems can be hacked, fiddled with and otherwise made to record votes that aren't cast, or fail to record votes that are.

I do not pretend to know how large a threat this is. I do know that it's a threat to democracy when so many Americans doubt that their votes will be recorded accurately. And I also know that smart, computer-savvy people out there are concerned about these machines.

The perfectly obvious thing is for the entire country to do what a number of states have already done: require paper trails so that if we have a close election or suspect something went wrong, we have the opportunity to go back and check the results.

And so it is heartening that a diverse group -- Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives -- in Congress has proposed legislation to give everyone, even the supposedly paranoid, confidence that our elections are on the level.

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Teh Beautiful

Aurora Borealis in Alaska.

A Site You Might Find Informative

rangeragainstwar.

As If You Don't Have Enough To Worry About

This is a topic I've neglected far too long, the next big global problem...water.

It looks dull, almost impenetrable in places. But if its findings are verified, it could turn out to be the most important scientific report published so far this year. In this month’s edition of the Journal of Hydrometeorology is a paper written by scientists at the Met Office, which predicts future patterns of rainfall and evaporation[.]

Stores of fresh water are being depleted faster than nature can replace them. In addition, sea water is replacing fresh water in hundreds of aquifirs around the globe. Its amazing how much harm to earth humans cause.

Oil? It isn't nearly the problem we humans will face if we start running out of water. Hell, friends will fight each other over water.

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Blogging Ethics

This is a good post about a blogger's naming one of Foley's prey:

Breaking news: There was a sex scandal in Washington DC this week!

I agree with this post. The boy should not have been named and the A-list bloggers who picked up on it and made sure his name was spread all over the world were wrong too.

As to the counterpoint link posted, no I am not jealous. Anyone with rudimentary internets skills could have found that info. We just didn't want to. We knew it didn't advance the story and it wasn't right.

The Elephant In The Room

This is a pretty comprehensive roundup of all things Foley:

There's a lot about the Mark Foley / Congressional page scandal that requires scrutiny and discussion, starting with the initial post on this weblog that led to a series of responses (1, 2, 3) that led to the initial ABC report and the more explicit revelations that followed.

I told you it was pretty comprehensive, what with all the links and such.

But the point I want to make is the holier-than-thou attitude of many bloggers including me. And the same attitude among the lefty pols. The Dems knew about Foley too. How could they have not? DC is a small, company town where everyone knows everything that's going on.

That said, I do feel the more culpable actors in this drama are the Repugs. It was "one of theirs" who was doing the preying and it was their responsibility to stop it. Sure the Dems should have intervened and maybe some did, but it was not their primary responsibility as it was for the Repug leadership. Nor did they have the clout required to sanction or dismiss this guy. Ultimately this is an elephant problem.

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And The Plot Thickens

Bushco has an out with NoKorea, but probably won't take it. After all they haven't responded in the past.

A North Korean official has warned that the communist nation could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the US acts to resolve its stand-off with Pyongyang, Yonhap news agency reported today.

“We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes,” the unnamed official said , according to a Yonhap report from Beijing. “That depends on how the US will act.”

Yonhap didn’t say how or where it contacted the official, why no name was given or why it delayed reporting until today.

“The nuclear test is an expression of our intention to face the United States across the negotiating table,” the official said. “What we want is security of the (North), including guaranteeing our system.”

The official also dismissed moves at the UN Security Council to sanction the impoverished nation over its reported nuclear test.

“We have lost enough. Sanctions can never be a solution,” the official said. “We still have a willingness to give up nuclear weapons and return to six-party talks as well. It’s possible whenever the US takes corresponding measures.”

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The Sky Is Falling, The Sky...

Now that we know it isn't safe to hide in a hole in the ground in NoKorea, we'd better up the terror alert level.

...[T]he White House plans to amplify national security issues, especially the threat of terrorism, after North Korea's reported nuclear test, in hopes of shifting the debate away from casualties and controversy during the final month of the campaign.

Go read the whole article. It actually focuses on the chances the Dems have of gaining control of the House and/or Senate. Good stuff.

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Eating Their Own

Who wrote this? Some wild eyed lefty blogger? Some terrorist symphathizer? Nope. Instapundit.

Message to the White House: You blew it on Harriet Miers and Dubai Ports because you ignored the early-warning signals from the blogs. You can't afford another such disaster.

Even Mickey Kaus can be right sometimes. And true to his stripes, he has to throw in a little jab at Clinton. They can't help themselves.

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First I've Heard Of This

Maybe that NoKorea nukular test didn't quite go as planned?

But even at 4.2 [Seismic], the test was probablya [sic] dud.

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Ah, The Old Soviet Union In America

As if Bushco's rape of the Constitution ain't enough, its now come to this.

Students in Okaloosa County can earn up to $500 for telling police who keyed cars, who's got drugs and other crime information.

Emerald Coast Crime Stoppers has partnered with the Okaloosa County School District to offer students a way to anonymously "snitch" about criminal activity in their schools and neighborhoods.

Folks, just how far are you going to let your government go?

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What A Month For Surprises

It appears NoKorea has performed a nuclear test.

North Korea says it has carried out its first test of a nuclear weapon, the state news agency (KCNA) has reported.

It said the underground test, carried out in defiance of international warnings, was a success and had not resulted in any leak of radiation.

The White House said South Korean and US intelligence had detected a seismic event at a suspected test site.

...

US White House spokesman Tony Snow said: "We expect the UN Security Council to take immediate actions to respond to this unprovoked act."

Of course only Bushco is allowed "unprovoked acts" without sancions.

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Is This News?

The British government tried to rein in U.S. policy in Iraq from the outset of the March 2003 invasion but found itself powerless to do so, a former cabinet minister was quoted on Saturday as saying.

David Blunkett, Home Secretary at the time of the invasion, told newspapers that Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld could not be diverted from their goal of dismantling the Iraqi Baathist government system.

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Woodward also tells Russert another fascinating nugget of information: Vice-President Cheney cursed him out over the information he revealed about the White House mettings with Henry Kissinger and hung up on him.

(video)

On the tube Republicans can throw anything into the wind without impunity even if the talking head knows it's garbage. Take these two. Rep. Kingston-GA and Rep. McHenry-NC, try to turn the Foley scandal into a Democratic conspiracy. These two weasels–and I use that word lovingly, try to absolve Dennis Hastert's involvement in covering up Foley's sexual proclivities and demand Nancy Pelosi be put under oath.

(video)

On Sept. 19, 2005, North Korea signed a widely heralded denuclearization agreement with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Pyongyang pledged to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs." In return, Washington agreed that the United States and North Korea would "respect each other's sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize their relations."
Story continues below ↓ advertisement

Four days later, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sweeping financial sanctions against North Korea designed to cut off the country's access to the international banking system, branding it a "criminal state" guilty of counterfeiting, money laundering and trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.

The Bush administration says that this sequence of events was a coincidence. Whatever the truth, I found on a recent trip to Pyongyang that North Korean leaders view the financial sanctions as the cutting edge of a calculated effort by dominant elements in the administration to undercut the Sept. 19 accord, squeeze the Kim Jong Il regime and eventually force its collapse. My conversations made clear that North Korea's missile tests in July and its threat last week to conduct a nuclear test explosion at an unspecified date "in the future" were directly provoked by the U.S. sanctions.

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Vice President Cheney sometimes starts speeches with a Ronald Reagan quotation about a "happy" nation needing "hope and faith." But not much happy talk follows. Not a lot of hope, either. He does, though, talk about the prospect of "mass death in the United States."

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Shit!

There's more out there than you want to know.

“Police in Kyrgyzstan have an obligation to ensure that perpetrators of domestic violence and bride-kidnapping are brought to justice,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “But more often than not, they simply don’t treat these as serious crimes.”

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I'm Alone Here

Does anyone know why I can't comment on Typepad sites? Help...