February, 2007 archive

are meaningless when you work out of your home.

Dammit.

Y’know, just because an employee of the Current Federal Administration says it, don’t make it true.

Indeed, given the track record of the sorry bunch currently besmirching the Nation’s Honor, an employee of the Current Federal Administration is a pretty good indication it probably ain’t true.

Attytood analyzes a call for help.

Professor Cole analyzes the lies:

. . . there is no evidence of Iranian intentions to kill US troops. If Iran was giving EFPs to anyone, it was to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and its Badr Corps paramilitary, for future use. SCIRI is the main US ally in Iraq aside from the Kurds. I don’t know of US troops killed by Badr, certainly not any time recently.

It is far more likely that corrupt arms merchants are selling and smuggling these things than that there is direct government- to- militia transfer. It is possible that small Badr Corps stockpiles were shared or sold. That wouldn’t have been Iran’s fault.

Some large proportion of US troops being killed in Iraq are being killed with bullets and weapons supplied by Washington to the Iraqi army, which are then sold by desperate or greedy Iraqi soldiers on the black market. This problem of US/Iraqi government arms getting into the hands of the Sunni Arab guerrillas is far more significant and pressing than whatever arms smugglers bring in from Iran.

We now know that Iran came to the US early in 2003 with a proposal to cooperate with Washington in overthrowing Saddam Hussein, and that VP Richard Bruce Cheney rebuffed it. The US could have had Iran on its side in Iraq!

The attempt to blame these US deaths on Iran is in my view a black psy-ops operation. The claim is framed as though this was a matter of direct Iranian government transfer to the deadliest guerrillas. In fact, the most fractious Shiites are the ones who hate Iran the most. If 25 percent of US troops are being killed and wounded by explosively formed projectiles, then someone should look into who is giving those EFPs to Sunni Arab guerrillas. It isn’t Iran.

Now, let’s all sing together the Bushie anthem:

If you’re lousing up one fraudulent war, how could lousing up two fraudulent wars be any worse?

Phillybits finds another test.

My results (editorial comment in italics):

Liberal

Based on your answers to the questionnaire, you most closely resemble survey respondents within the Liberal typology group. This does not mean that you necessarily fit every group characteristic or agree with the group on all issues.

Liberals represent 17 percent of the American public, and 19 percent of registered voters.

Basic Description

This group has nearly doubled in proportion since 1999, Liberals now comprise the largest share of Democrats and is the single largest of the nine Typology groups. They are the most opposed to an assertive foreign policy, the most secular, and take the most liberal views on social issues such as homosexuality, abortion, and censorship. They differ from other Democratic groups in that they are strongly pro-environment and pro-immigration, issues which are more controversial among Conservative and Disadvantaged Democrats.

I am hardly secular, but I believe that freedom of religion is a cornerstone of the Republic, and that includes freedom from the religions of others.

Defining Values

Strongest preference for diplomacy over use of military force. Pro-choice, supportive of gay marriage and strongly favor environmental protection. Low participation in religious activities. Most sympathetic of any group to immigrants as well as labor unions, and most opposed to the anti-terrorism Patriot Act.

War should be a last, not a first, resort. And the government must respect the rights of the citizens. Or we are all lost.

Who They Are

Most (62%) identify themselves as liberal. Predominantly white (83%), most highly educated group (49% have a college degree or more), and youngest group after Bystanders. Least religious group in typology: 43% report they seldom or never attend religious services; nearly a quarter (22%) are seculars. More than one-third never married (36%). Largest group residing in urban areas (42%) and in the western half the country (34%). Wealthiest Democratic group (41% earn at least $75,000).

All my exes live in Texas.

Lifestyle Notes

Largest group to have been born (or whose parents were born) outside of the U.S. or Canada (20%). Least likely to report having a gun at home (23%) or attending bible study or prayer group meetings (13%).

My family is DAR, UDC, and FFV (through the Wests). Been here longer than most families, unless you are of Native American, Spanish, or Portuguese descent.

A rifle and a shotgun at home, and, frankly, a damned good shot. Howsomever, I can’t see any good coming from strapping a Glock to my side to go to the 7-11.

2004 Election

Bush 2%, Kerry 81%

Well, duh.

Party ID

59% Democrat; 40% Independent/No Preference, 1% Republican (92% Dem/Lean Dem)

Well, yeah. Don’t like liars in private, don’t like them in public.

Media Use

Liberals are second only to Enterprisers in following news about government and public affairs most of the time (60%). Liberals’ use of the internet to get news is the highest among all groups (37%).

I’m a news junky.

Dan Froomkin analyzes this weekends leaks. The entire analysis is worth a read–for those who don’t want to get fooled again:

>The administration finally unveiled its case this weekend, first in coordinated and anonymous leaks to a trusting New York Times reporter, then in an extraordinarily secretive military briefing at which no one would speak on the record, journalists weren’t allowed to photograph the so-called evidence, and nothing even remotely like proof of direct Iranian government involvement was presented.

The result: The White House got the headlines it wanted.

But there is plenty of reason for reporters to be suspicious of the administration’s claims.

And looking at the big picture, one can’t help but wonder: Is this deja vu all over again? Is the Bush admininistration once again building a faulty case for war, this time against Iran? And is the press going along for the ride?

”It’s not something you get to see every day – bears falling out of trees,” said Pete Samek, whose 5-year-old daughter, Lucy Rose, watched from his shoulders.

And those are the bear facts.

Phillybits keeps finding these things.

Yeah, they are kind of meaningless, but they are fun.

Trudy Rubin, in today’s local rag, muses on why the Scooter Libby story did not just die three years ago (emphasis added):

In the end, Libby was indicted not for leaking Plame’s name – a potential felony – but for lying about who told him about her existence. He claims he learned it from NBC’s Tim Russert. (snip) Patrick J. Fitzgerald . . . says Libby got the information from Cheney.

Why would Libby lie about this? According to Fitzgerald, Cheney and his aides saw Wilson as a threat to “the credibility of the vice president [and the president] on a matter of signal importance: the rationale for the war in Iraq.”

This brings us to the present. In a buildup of tension that resembles a replay of the Iraq war run-up, the White House is claiming that Iran is America’s chief problem in Iraq.

Bush has authorized the U.S. military to “kill or capture” Iranian agents who are plotting attacks on U.S. troops, and U.S. special forces have raided Iraqi government offices and arrested visiting Iranians. We have moved more ships to the Persian Gulf and armed Iran’s Arab neighbors with Patriot missiles. Yet the Pentagon has repeatedly delayed presenting detailed evidence to support these claims against Iran.

Iran does present serious security problems in the region. But the drumbeat of new U.S. charges against Iran is disturbingly similar to the hype about Iraq in 2002 and early 2003.

(snip)

The Libby trial is a salutary reminder that the same leaders who cherry-picked Iraq intelligence are still in the White House. The Niger charge was patently false, yet Bush, Cheney – and Libby – promoted it. Perhaps they auto-hypnotized themselves into believing it. Hopefully, they can’t hypnotize the country again.

Meannwhile, a few miles down Interstate 95, the Main Street of the East Coast, William Odom, General USA-Ret, demolishes the myths of the NeoCon war supporters. See the italized paragraph to hear the drumbeats (emphasis added):

1) We must continue the war to prevent the terrible aftermath that will occur if our forces are withdrawn soon. Reflect on the double-think of this formulation. We are now fighting to prevent what our invasion made inevitable! Undoubtedly we will leave a mess — the mess we created, which has become worse each year we have remained. Lawmakers gravely proclaim their opposition to the war, but in the next breath express fear that quitting it will leave a blood bath, a civil war, a terrorist haven, a “failed state,” or some other horror. But this “aftermath” is already upon us; a prolonged U.S. occupation cannot prevent what already exists.

2) We must continue the war to prevent Iran’s influence from growing in Iraq. This is another absurd notion. One of the president’s initial war aims, the creation of a democracy in Iraq, ensured increased Iranian influence, both in Iraq and the region. Electoral democracy, predictably, would put Shiite groups in power — groups supported by Iran since Saddam Hussein repressed them in 1991. Why are so many members of Congress swallowing the claim that prolonging the war is now supposed to prevent precisely what starting the war inexorably and predictably caused? Fear that Congress will confront this contradiction helps explain the administration and neocon drumbeat we now hear for expanding the war to Iran.

Here we see shades of the Nixon-Kissinger strategy in Vietnam: widen the war into Cambodia and Laos. Only this time, the adverse consequences would be far greater. Iran’s ability to hurt U.S. forces in Iraq are not trivial. And the anti-American backlash in the region would be larger, and have more lasting consequences.

3) We must prevent the emergence of a new haven for al-Qaeda in Iraq. But it was the U.S. invasion that opened Iraq’s doors to al-Qaeda. The longer U.S. forces have remained there, the stronger al-Qaeda has become. Yet its strength within the Kurdish and Shiite areas is trivial. After a U.S. withdrawal, it will probably play a continuing role in helping the Sunni groups against the Shiites and the Kurds. Whether such foreign elements could remain or thrive in Iraq after the resolution of civil war is open to question. Meanwhile, continuing the war will not push al-Qaeda outside Iraq. On the contrary, the American presence is the glue that holds al-Qaeda there now.

4) We must continue to fight in order to “support the troops.” This argument effectively paralyzes almost all members of Congress. Lawmakers proclaim in grave tones a litany of problems in Iraq sufficient to justify a rapid pullout. Then they reject that logical conclusion, insisting we cannot do so because we must support the troops. Has anybody asked the troops?

Now, in contrast, let’s look at this from the standpoint of the Current Federal Administration:

If you’re lousing up one fraudulent war, how could lousing up two fraudulent wars be any worse?

I’m not even going to try to summarize this.

Just see for yourselves.

Boy, you just can’t beat the reality:

York Psychic Museum has shut due to unforeseen circumstances, the York Press reports.

No, it’s not Santie Clause. It’s a scale for model railroads, the most popular scale for diehard model railroad hobbyists.

I worked for the railroad for 24 years. The railroad is a lot of fun.

But I never really had the desire to come home and play with models, after working with the real thing all day.

Until now.

El Reg alerts us to the most recent advances in the hobby:

(At t)he International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, the Busch company recently unveiled its “latest contribution to the model train scenery business” – a set of figurines depicting a group of cops dragging naked strumpets onto the street and entitled “Police Raid on a Brothel”.

Professor Cole dissects a Bushie’s lies.

Feith came on Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room Friday and told three lies, for all the world as though he were still in a position to manufacture reality for the rest of us to study, however judiciously. Here is the transcript with the lies corrected.

It’s worth reading to see how machinations of the Bush war machine.

So we can try to stop it the next time.

Northwest:

A taxi driver found a wallet containing almost $6,000 in the back of his car, then raced to the airport in time to return it to his owner.

Vinod Mago, 55, says he never thought twice. The owner thanked him with $100, which Mago used to take his family out for dinner.

Northeast (in the same story linked above):

On Monday, a cabdriver in New York returned a bag containing 31 diamond rings to a passenger who had left it in a trunk. The passenger had tipped the driver 30 cents on an $11 fare.

30 cents. That was less than a 3% tip.

Tina Burlett thought someone had broken into her house and stolen her custom-made, $5,000 wedding ring, so she called the police, who filed a report. But Burlett’s grandmother already had a suspect in mind: the family pooch.

X-rays proved the grandmother right. The valuable bauble was inside the belly of Burlett’s pit bull, Missy, who has a taste for diamonds.

Apparently, they collared the culprit.

Andrew Sullivan.

Oh, yeah, then there’s this.

I won’t bother to analyze them, because Phillybits has done a great job, here.

But, face it, the Current Federal Administration is trying to lie us into another war.

Because lies and war are all they believe in.

Addendum:

More from ASP.

RawStory has more. And the Current Federal Administration’s claims must be true. They’ve prepared a PowerPoint presentation.

I mentioned as an aside that Delaware seems to be creeping towards limits drivers’ using cell phones.

Well,

A Middletown man was reaching down for his cell phone when he accidentally hit the accelerator and his pickup truck crashed into a store near New Castle this afternoon, police said.

Taking advantage of trust, just like the guy who pours oil on your driveway and calls it sealant:

Intelligence provided by former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith to buttress the White House case for invading Iraq included “reporting of dubious quality or reliability” that supported the political views of senior administration officials rather than the conclusions of the intelligence community, according to a report by the Pentagon’s inspector general.

Feith’s office “was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda,” according to portions of the report, released yesterday by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.). The inspector general described Feith’s activities as “an alternative intelligence assessment process.”

’nuff said:

A man who flooded e-mail systems with millions of messages advertising software that could steal passwords pleaded guilty to violating a federal anti-spam law.

Joshua Eveloff, 27, of Carter Lake, Iowa, admitted Wednesday that he faked information on the e-mails to conceal that they came from him.

The former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith has died at the age of 39 after collapsing at a Florida hotel, her lawyer said tonight.

Smith collapsed and was found unresponsive while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and Casino, said the lawyer, Ron Rale. She was rushed to hospital.

Normally, I wouldn’t comment on this, figuring it would be beat to death in other media.

But it happened that my colleague and I were talking about her just this morning on the way to the jobsite.

We agreed on one thing regarding the lawsuit over her husband’s estate: If he married her of sound mind and she made him happy in his last years, then she lived up to her end of the bargain and deserved her payoff.

As my colleague said, it’s unlikely that a rich old man an aged wealthy gentleman who was smart enough to amass all that money would kid himself about the nature of the relationship.

Cheesy ruckus up the road from me:

The battle over an English-only ordering policy at one of the city’s signature cheesesteak joints is apparently far from over.

The city’s human relations commission found evidence that the owner of Geno’s Steaks may have discriminated against immigrants by posting a sign telling customers, “This is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING ’PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH,”’ according to a letter sent to owner Joe Vento last week.

(snippage)

Vento’s legal team would not rule out some sort of mediation, but they said Vento, the fiery grandson of Italian immigrants, would not take the sign down.

I doubt this would classify as discrimination unless he actually refused to serve someone who ordered in Italian.

No doubt his grandparents were fluent in English when they stepped off the boat.

Ahhhh, the sweet smell of prejudice in the morning.