2006 archive

I don’t know that I agree with this–I sure don’t want to, but it’s a sad commentary on the current state of our polity that it sounds plausible.

This car owner got his money’s worth:

It was the tiny transmitter from the LoJack device in a car stolen Saturday afternoon in Elkton, however, that led to the recovery of 14 more stolen cars and pickup trucks, two motorcycles, several stolen car trailers, three flatbed trailers, a watercraft and trailer, racing dragsters, as well as assorted tools, chainsaws, lawn mowers and other garden equipment.

Chiominto said the vehicles included Chevrolet Camaros, Ford Mustangs, Chevy Tahoes and Dodge pickup trucks.

(snip)

The value of the recovered goods was estimated at between $700,000 and $1 million, Chiominto said.

Summer.

August.

Hot.

Why do so many persons find that surprising?

In other news, here’s a neat story about the heat index.

Personally, I think the heat index ranks right up there with the wind chill factor: Another number to get hysterical television weatherpersons off and make us feel even more miserable than we already are.

Firefox:

The Mozilla Foundation has released an updated version of Firefox following the discovery of multiple security vulnerabilities involving the popular browser software.

The flaws create a means for hackers to conduct cross-site scripting or to otherwise seize control of vulnerable systems.

Opera:

Opera is pushing a vision of a browser that works on any device or operating system platform, including mobile devices and gaming consoles, as part of a push designed to persuade more users to switch from Microsoft’s dominant Internet Explorer web browser.

(snip)

After releasing Opera 9 last month, the Norwegian software developer is working on initial product roadmaps for Opera 10. The firm is soliciting the views of end-users and web developers on the features they would like to see included in the next version of the browser.

Deplorer:

Microsoft has announced plans to offer Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update to customers as soon as the long-awaited browser update becomes available.

IE7 will be distributed via Microsoft’s automatic update service in a bid to offer customers improved protection against security threats. (In other words, they are going to force it on users–ed.)

“Have it your way” even in the art gallery:

British boffins have built a digital picture frame that adapts its image to suit the mood of the viewer. Dubbed ’empathic art’, the interactive image responds visually to eight distinct facial expressions.

Saying it don’t make it so, Donnie boy (emphasis added):

Rumsfeld, who testified alongside Abizaid and Pace, did not comment directly on the prospect of civil war but said Iraq’s future lay in the hands of Iraqis, beginning with a reconciliation process that has yet to get under way.

“Ultimately the sectarian violence is going to be dealt with by Iraqis,” Rumsfeld said.

And under tough questioning by Sen. Hillary Clinton about previous appearances before the committee, he denied that he had ever “painted a rosy picture” of the situation in Iraq.

Hmmmm.

How about these, just to pick a few?

I can’t tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won’t last any longer than that.

I don’t do quagmires.

“Well, the Office of Management and Budget, has come up come up with a number that’s something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question.”

And a whole litany here.

Here’s how Dana Priest described the Clinton-Rumsfeld moment in her chat today:

San Francisco, Calif.: Good day, Ms. Priest, have you seen any of the “grilling” our Secretary of Defense is getting on Capitol Hill today, particularly from Senator Hillary Clinton? Mashup your national security expertise with purely political calculus for a moment, and please tell us if you think the Lamont challenge is figuring into Clinton’s stronger tone with the Secretary.

Rumsfeld responded, “My goodness!” initially to Hillary’s question.

Dana Priest: Yes. This was a riveting moment between Clinton and Rumsfeld. The room was quiet and still. She read through a damning litany of charges–charges which have been substantiated in our newspaper and elsewhere repeatedly so they weren’t off the wall at all. And his comeback was equally as awesome–starting with a quiet My Goodness (read: you’ve certainly overdone it now lady) and an eloquent defense, which included a rewriting of history (the Iraqi Army disbanded itself, “I don’t know who said what about the Taliban” being gone from Afghanistan).

What a moment!

My, the lies do get tiresome after a while.

When I can get a transcript of the question, I’ll append it to this post.

Update, 8/4/2006:

Here’s a link to a transcript of the exchange, in which Rumsfeld actually says, “The idea that the army was disbanded I think is one that’s kind of flying around. My impression is that, to a great extent, that army disbanded itself,” and “I don’t know who said what about where the Taliban had gone, but in fact the Taliban that were running Afghanistan and ruling Afghanistan were replaced. . . . Are there still Taliban around? You bet.” (Follow the links to see the duplicity documented.)

Here’s a link to the Senator’s list of Happy Rummy Remarks. It’s longer than mine, but I don’t have a staff.

(aside) I wonder whether these folks realize that their statements are news and get recorded and written down. Or are they just convinced that, if they repeat the lie often enough, people will believe it.*

*See table 4B, item 2, at the link.

Update, 8/4/2006: Dick Polman’s take on Rosy Rummy.

Apparently some of the Younger Generation* doesn’t know one end of a hammer from a screwdriver:

“They know they’ve got to buy real estate; they know it’s a good investment. But that doesn’t help you when you swing a hammer and hit a pipe in the wall,” says Lou Manfredini, a Chicago hardware store owner who gives do-it-yourself advice on local radio and nationally online and on TV. “Unfortunately, homes don’t come with an instruction manual.”

Contractors say it’s not unusual for them to get frantic calls from young do-it-yourselfers who get in over their heads.

Sometimes, the mistakes are silly.

Michel Hanet, who owns a door replacement business called IDRC in Scottsdale, Ariz., has arrived at homes to find doors hung upside down. He’s also discovered more than one sliding pocket door that won’t open because someone nailed a picture on the wall and into the door.

“The younger generation are more likely the ones that are getting into trouble,” Hanet says. “The baby boomers have the money to do it (not this baby boomer–ed.), so they just call and say ‘I don’t like my doors; just come and replace them.'”

*Anyone more than ten years younger than the person who uses the phrase “younger generation.”

Well, not really. I have some good friends. Some in person, some in electrons over the net.

And some (one) very special friends, but my youngest child moved out today to find his own way in the world.

It’s the first time in 27 years that I haven’t had what the law describes as a “minor child” dependent on me.

I have frequently and readily quoted one of my friends: “My God, I’m ready for the empty nest,” said he.

But I’m not sure I am.

God speed, Second Son.

And First Son (that’s the one who fights for George Bush’s lies, by the way) and your wife (she still hasn’t told me what she sees in you, but that’s a different story). And First and Second Daughters and your husbands (I know what your husbands see in you and I hope they recognize how lucky they are).

And life goes on.

This fellow is a class act.

I would vote against him, but he’s still a class act:

Jonathan Paton, a Republican state legislator in Arizona, is up for re-election. He’s also an Army National Guard officer on his way to Iraq.

How much is a good night’s sleep worth?

Hollandia International, an Israeli company, is betting that discerning Americans will pay $10,000 and up – way up – for a cushy mattress and a moveable frame.

My bed, including the frame, mattress, and box springs, cost about $700. Granted, that was a firesale price at a going out of business sale. But let’s do a little arithmetic.

10,000/700=14.3 (rounded).

I would be hard pressed to believe, skeptic that I am, that this Hollandia is almost 15 times better than my bed, which seems to work just fine, thank you.

Furrfu!

Department of Homeland Security, La Migra Division, protecting us from the threat posed by 82-year-old Haitian preachers; it started on October 29, 2004 and ended four days later:

Excerpts of from the AP story follow. Click the link to read the whole thing.

When he stepped off the plane, he showed the immigration officer his tourist visa, which didn’t expire until 2008. He’d made plenty of trips to the United States without trouble, had his throat cancer surgery in New York years before. He often visited his brothers in that state, both American citizens now. His niece, Edwidge, was an accomplished author with a home right here in Miami.

But the customs officer had asked how long he planned to stay, and the reverend told him the God’s honest truth.

“A group that is causing trouble in Haiti wants to kill me,” he said.

“They burned down my church …

“I fear for my life … ”

He explained that he might need temporary asylum.

(and he was hustled off to detention; his medicine was confiscated and the prison doctor prescribed him something different.–ed.)

(snip)

Rev. Dantica took a chair next to his lawyer inside Krome’s asylum unit. A hearing officer was readying to ask Pastor why he had fled Haiti and believed it too dangerous to return home.

From a speaker phone on the desk, a Creole interpreter asked Pastor to move closer so he could be heard more clearly. Rev. Dantica leaned in when suddenly …

“Oh my God,” John Pratt thought.

Pastor was vomiting uncontrollably. Bile covered the desk, his face, the front of his detention uniform. He’d dropped his voice box, which was rendered inoperable. Slumped in his chair and barely conscious, Pastor couldn’t communicate.

Medics arrived, and took Pastor away on a stretcher. Inside the urgent care unit, medical personnel started an intravenous line, ran three electrocardiograms to check Pastor’s heart and found a replacement voice box. His abdomen was swollen and tender to the touch. All signs seemed to point to a bowel obstruction, the staff physician concluded.

Rev. Dantica was put in leg restraints and placed in an ambulance.

(snip)

He died alone — at 8:46 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2004, in the criminal ward of a strange hospital, a guard outside his door.

Related analysis here.

Then, again, perhaps it’s not ironic atoll:

Worried about an excess of flesh visible on the banks of the River Seine, Paris City Hall has banned thong bikinis, topless sunbathing and nudity at the summer sand-in-the-city event known as Paris Beaches, Le Parisien newspaper reported Saturday.

Grab some popcorn, sit back, and watch the show (courtesy factcheck.org):

Senate candidate Bob Corker accuses two rivals of voting to raise their own pay while in the House, but in fact Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant repeatedly voted against raises.

Bryant fires back with a charge that Corker failed to pay his taxes, when in fact businessman Corker paid millions, sometimes voluntarily giving the government more than he owed.

What’s this say about the current Federal Administration?

An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts.

Senior officials have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment.

In light of a recent Supreme Court ruling that the international Conventions apply to the treatment of detainees in the terrorism fight, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has spoken privately with Republican lawmakers about the need for such “protections,” according to someone who heard his remarks last week.

What have we done to have officials who fear prosecution for war crimes?

May God have mercy on our souls.

Phillybits said it so well:

There’s so much going on in the world right now and so much of it is wrong, it’s hard for me to even muster a coherent thought that remains within reason in terms of the dialogue I want to set forth here. Some of the news I’m reading right now has just got me so thoroughly angry that it’s probably best if I refrain for the time being.

Furthermore, you’re not missing any of it if you’re not reading it here. Your major bloggers are always on top of every thing going on the world and I guess with so many other people writing, it’s ok if I miss something and take a break.

So did Digby:

This is a very dangerous moment for the world. The US is showing over and over again that it is immmoral (sic) and incompetent. That is the kind of thing that leads ambitious, crazy or stupid people to miscalculate and set disasterous events in motion. The neocons have destroyed America’s carefully nurtured mystique by seeking to flex its muscles for the sake of flexing them. What a mistake. This country is much, much weaker today because of it and the world is paying the price. At some point I have to imagine that we are going to be paying it too. Big Time.

The incompetent bumbling evil of the current Federal Administration is stultifying. Yeah, they talk about family values.

Watch their actions. I don’t know about the values of their families, or of your families, but the values of my family do not include law-breaking, torture, lying, or concentration camps.

Even that bastion of far-left-leaning pinko commie thought, the American Bar Association, has had enough.

This is a hoot–especially the link to 404 page about half-way down.

You can run, but you can’t hide:

Drunks in Nassau County, New York, are advised that the traditional dash to the john, normally accompanied only by sighs of relief and cries of “jeez, that feels better” may in future be interrupted by public messages broadcast from talking urinals.

The Washington Post today featured a chat with Amal Saad-Ghorayeb,
Assistant Professor at the Lebanese American University and author of Hizbu’llah: Politics and Religion. I found it very interesting.

This is not to say that I agree with any, some, most, or all of what she says (she is, after all, Lebanese and her viewpoint is that of a Lebanese), but that what she says contributes to an understanding of why the Middle East pot just keeps boiling:

Among other things–many other things–she says, in response to a question,

I think the US has played a very destructive role in this current conflict. It is the only Western nation to completely side with Israel and to refuse an immediate cease-fire. The Lebanese govt. which is closely allied to the US has beseeched the US to end Israel’s aggression but the administartion refuses to do so, thereby undermining and weakening that govt. In her visit to Lebanon today, Rice again refused to press Israel for a cease-fire. And then you have John Bolton’s famous line about there being “no moral equivalence between civilians killed by Israel and the victims of terrorism.” In other words, an israeli life is more valuable than a Lebanese life. How can the US be considered an honest peace-broker in this conflcit?

The chat and her article can help understanding of what’s happening over there.