Steve's Serendipities

Comments and Links from my Internet travels. -- My comments are in bold blue italics. -- Clickable Links are in bold orange.

Steve's Current Quote or Thought:
Just a reminder: the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is still open; capacity is 800. Hmmmmm...

Friday, March 31, 2006

Dutch blaggers explode ATMs

Even if you know what a blagger is, I bet you haven't heard about this...
The U.K. Register reports:
"Dutch blaggers explode ATMs"
posted by Steve @ 8:04 AM

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Saddam's Delusions: The View from the Inside

This story takes up 11 web pages; however, it is really interesting to read...
Kevin Woods, James Lacey, and Williamson Murray write about "Foreign Affairs - Saddam's Delusions":
"The quoted paragraph(s) from the linked web page go here."
posted by Steve @ 8:03 AM

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Immigration's root cause

So why wouldn't our astute politicians focus on this principal reason?...
Bernd Debusmann, a Reuters Special Correspondent, digs into the immigration issue:
"That income gap is the principal reason why hundreds of thousands of Mexicans cross the border with the U.S. illegally to seek work -- yet it rarely figures in the heated and increasingly emotional debate over immigration now raging in the United States."
posted by Steve @ 8:02 AM

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Michelle Malkin

Protesting is certainly within ones rights; however, when it gets to this, I must take offense...
Michelle Malkin has issues with the immigration protests:
"Whittier area students from Pioneer, California and Whittier high schools walked out of classes to protest the proposed federal immigration bill March 27, 2006. The protestors put up the Mexican flag over the American flag flying upside down at Montebello High. (Leo Jarzomb/Staff photo)"
posted by Steve @ 8:02 AM

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Thursday, March 30, 2006

Heart-Healthy Ham

Weird science or a glimpse of the future?...
The Scientific American has the latest:
"a team of researchers has realized that vision, creating several healthy pigs with meat rich in omega-3s."
posted by Steve @ 7:24 AM

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Christopher Hitchens being himself

If you know of Christopher Hitchens, you can only guess where he spends some of his time.
But, it is clear, that at one time or another, he obtained quite a vocabulary...
Christopher Hitchens calls his article:
"My Ideal War - How the international community should have responded to Bush's September 2002 U.N. speech."

"But what did the president get instead? The threat of unilateral veto from Paris, Moscow, and Beijing. Private assurances to Saddam Hussein from members of the U.N. Security Council. Pharisaic fatuities from the United Nations' secretary-general, who had never had a single problem wheeling and dealing with Baghdad. The refusal to reappoint Rolf Ekeus—the only serious man in the U.N. inspectorate—to the job of invigilation. A tirade of opprobrium, accusing Bush of everything from an oil grab to a vendetta on behalf of his father to a secret subordination to a Jewish cabal. Platforms set up in major cities so that crowds could be harangued by hardened supporters of Milosevic and Saddam, some of them paid out of the oil-for-food bordello."
posted by Steve @ 7:23 AM

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It's Carter's fault

im·pu·is·sant (noun).
One who lacks power or effectiveness; or is weak...
I've never been a Jimmy Carter fan so Mychal Massie's writing rings true to me:
"The truth is the liberal party that was founded on racism, slavery and separatism are in the process of losing their minds. On the one hand, it is hysterical to listen to their mendacious diatribes. On the other, they are a sad commentary on the landscape of human existence. They are a morose collective of impuissants who, being out of power and void of constructive ideas, rely upon ipse dixit and misrepresentations. They forget, however, that there is a written record that convicts them of their duplicity."
posted by Steve @ 7:22 AM

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Censure former President Carter?

Think President Carter is over the line lately?
If so, you can sign a petition for censure at the following website:
CensureCarter.com:
posted by Steve @ 7:21 AM

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Wednesday, March 29, 2006

World Public Opinion

Widely reported by the old, biased, lame, mainstream (sic) media. NOT!...
Did you miss the January 31, 2006 poll at World Public Opinion? Here is just one of the results:
"Iraqis overall have a positive view of the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Asked, “Thinking about any hardships you might have suffered since the US-Britain invasion, do you personally think that ousting Saddam Hussein was worth it or not?” 77% say it was worth it, while 22% say it was not."

"Gallup asked the same question in April 2004. At that time, 61% said that it was worth it and 28% said that it was not."
posted by Steve @ 7:27 PM

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Allies?

Some of our "allies" are mentioned here.
Kinda makes you wonder...
In the New York Times, Richard Bernstein writes "Germans Say 6 Companies Sold Nuclear Parts to Iran Network":
"A prosecutor in the state of Brandenberg, Benedikt Welfens, told German television on Monday that several million dollars' worth of equipment that could be used for a nuclear program had been shipped from Germany to Iran, via a Russian company that operated in Berlin in 2003 and 2004."

"'Its main business is the supply of Iran's nuclear program,' Mr. Welfens said on the ARD television network. He said the parts included special cables, pumps and transformers, worth about $3.6 million."
posted by Steve @ 2:56 PM

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Producing "reality"

I think it's very clear now that our adversaries devote a lot of time and effort to creating scenes and impressions that they hope will be shown in the world's media.

Events are "produced" just like "reality" TV.
And sadly, for many, it is blindly accepted as the truth.
And the bad guys know it!...

Trivia - In Pakistan they actually call them "fully managed episodes" (but our media does not).
Reuters reports in Bagdad:
"U.S. commanders in Iraq on Monday accused powerful Shi'ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage accusations that U.S.-led troops massacred unarmed worshippers in a mosque."

"'After the fact, someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was. There's been huge misinformation,' Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, said."The quoted paragraph(s) from the linked web page go here."
posted by Steve @ 12:45 PM

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US bank approves ripped-up application

You are using your shredder, aren't you?...
The U.K. Register seems surprised by this:
"US bank approves ripped-up credit card application"
posted by Steve @ 8:44 AM

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Junk Land?

As written, this seems like an acceptable idea. Now, let's see what the politicians and environmentalists say...
Holly L. Fretwell writing in the Wall Street Opinion Journal:
"The Bush administration proposed a novel idea recently: Sell off a tiny fraction of National Forest land to save money and raise funds for rural schools."
posted by Steve @ 8:43 AM

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One illegal immigrant

Trust me. I've having my chauffer checked out right now...
United Press International reports:
"Clinton chauffeur an illegal immigrant"
posted by Steve @ 8:42 AM

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Different strokes for different folks

There's no holding back in this article...
Deroy Murdock writes in the National Review Online:
"... liberal Democrats stay mum while “their people” get seized, maimed, and killed over there. Rather than demand the total defeat of these butchers, Operation Iraqi Freedom’s shrillest opponents instead accuse President Bush of carelessly blundering into war while brilliantly manipulating Democrats into authorizing hostilities. Al Qaeda’s man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, elicits shrugs while America’s true enemies, they suggest, are Guantanamo, the NSA terrorist-surveillance program, and the just-renewed Patriot Act."
posted by Steve @ 8:41 AM

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Tuesday, March 28, 2006

More drones

The useful kind, that is.
Looks like we're not the only ones using high-flying technology...
Murray Brewster reports for the Canadian News Network:
"Air force to establish first all pilotless formation"

"It can be described as a milestone," said Maj. John Casey, a helicopter pilot and the commander of the TUAV flight in Kanadahar.

"It's a milestone in the ongoing transformation of the air force and the Canadian Forces."

"For security reasons, military officials on the ground here will not say how many drones are in use, but an average manned flight involves six to 12 aircraft."
posted by Steve @ 8:23 AM

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Border Security

How can this be?...
At EagleForum.org, Phyllis Schlafly reports:
"If you don't have access to Texas newspapers or the internet, you may not have heard the sensational news about the enormous cache of weapons our government recently seized in Laredo, Texas. U.S. authorities grabbed two completed Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), materials for making 33 more, military-style grenades, 26 grenade triggers, large quantities of AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles, 1,280 rounds of ammunition, silencers, machine gun assembly kits, 300 primers, bullet-proof vests, police scanners, sniper scopes, narcotics, and cash."

"Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) reported that sheriff deputies spotted a military-style Humvee near El Paso, Texas, with a mounted .50-caliber machine gun escorting a caravan of SUVs bringing illegal drugs into our country. Our outgunned and outmanned sheriff deputies and state highway patrol couldn't do anything except take pictures."

"Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) says that if you visit the border, you will find that almost everyone who lives there is armed for protection from illegals. Just imagine if you had to carry a gun when you go to the grocery store or take your kids to school!"
posted by Steve @ 8:22 AM

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Immigration

This is apparently going to get interesting
(if not bloody)...
In an article at NewsMax.com, they report "James Sensenbrenner Not Deterred by Immigration Protests". Here's one of his points:
"I do not believe that illegal aliens should receive legal government documents, such as driver's licenses," he explained. "Illegal aliens should not be granted amnesty and a path to citizenship. This would be a slap in the face to all those who have followed the law and have come to America legally."
posted by Steve @ 8:21 AM

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Monday, March 27, 2006

Rich Lowry watches "Meet the Press"

I read the transcript of this show.
I was astonished that so many unproven accusations went unchallenged...
Rich Lowry apparently noticed it, too:
"John Murtha is the longtime Pennsylvania congressman and former Marine who fits the Democratic party’s preferred political formula on the war. That formula is to say inane or incoherent things, but have a veteran say them on the theory that, then, no one will notice their inanity or incoherence. This was basically the rationale of the John “Reporting-for-Duty” Kerry presidential campaign in 2004. Murtha was on Meet the Press this past weekend to mark the third anniversary of the launching of the assault on Baghdad."
posted by Steve @ 8:34 AM

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Charitable Accounting

I need a special category for stories like this...
Laura Italiano writes in the New York Post:
"Manhattan prosecutors say Winferd Keaton - a 45-year-old father of one from Edison, N.J., who was still on probation for a previous embezzlement - deserves extra scorn because he drained funds from two Brooklyn homeless shelters.

"He is stealing not just from a not-for-profit, the Salvation Army, but ultimately, he is stealing from the poor and homeless," lead prosecutor Elson Ho told a Manhattan Supreme Court judge yesterday."
posted by Steve @ 8:33 AM

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Public Affection?

"The times they are a changin" (Bob Dylan)...
LifeSite.net is reporting:
"New UK Law: Restaurants Must Permit Gays to Publicly Exhibit Affection"
posted by Steve @ 8:32 AM

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Private Savings Accounts

Sounds like this won't work until everyone is more educated.
Perhaps "the rich get richer" saying is really true...
Star Parker writes in an article titled "Private Savings Accounts Don't Attract Less Educated":
"However, according to a team of psychologists from Swarthmore and Stanford, who discussed the results of their work recently in the New York Times, Americans do not uniformly welcome more choices into their lives."

"Specifically, whereas higher income, better educated individuals welcome the empowerment of more choice, working class Americans, who represent the majority of our workforce, often do not."
posted by Steve @ 8:31 AM

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Sunday, March 26, 2006

Lodi man sues himself

If this doesn't work, maybe the dog could sue for something...
This came from the Associated Press a few days ago:
"AP Wire | 03/15/2006 | Lodi man sues himself for vehicle damage"
posted by Steve @ 8:04 AM

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The mystery of the skipping stone

Skipping stones, bouncing bombs, & torpedo design?.
You know physics, don't you?...
Well, now that I've wondered, PhysicsWeb.org has some answers:

"In 2002 an American called Kurt Steiner set a new world record when he threw a stone across a river in Pennsylvania and made it bounce 40 times."
posted by Steve @ 8:03 AM

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Dems shadow Steele

Politics is rough business. Could this be called stalking?...
From an article by Thomas Dennison in the Maryland Gazette about the election campaign for Maryland Senator:
"Paul D. Ellington, Steele’s chief of staff and longtime political consigliere, told The Gazette that the Democratic Party is worried that Steele is connecting with Marylanders and is willing to do anything for the party’s political gain."

"Ellington said he expects Democrat researchers to attend campaign-related events, but attending public events such as municipal tours is excessive."
posted by Steve @ 8:02 AM

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"Gotcha's" or "Pimping"

It seems to me that every headline is a "gotcha", and there are more "whistleblowers" than workers.
Then, in every story, the accuser either offers no proof, or astoundingly, agrees with the investigations that have found no wrongdoing so far.
Could it be that the media is just pimping for ratings?...
Roger Aronoff writes at a website called "Accuracy In Media":
"The fact remains that, unlike then-president Clinton, who led a military action against Serbia without seeking or acquiring congressional approval, President Bush sought the approval of Congress and got it. And this was after Congress passed-and Clinton had signed-a policy seeking regime change in Iraq."

"After getting congressional approval, the U.S. took the matter to the United Nations, where it got a unanimous Security Council resolution, 1441, to give Iraq one last chance to come clean on its weapons of mass destruction programs. The clear implication was that if Iraq didn't cooperate, the next step would be military action."
posted by Steve @ 8:01 AM

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Saturday, March 25, 2006

Troops spending their own money on equipment

Now, where did I hear stories like this before?...
Richard Foot, writing for CanWest News Service:
"Troops spending their own money on equipment"
posted by Steve @ 9:53 AM

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Lies, illegal, all about oil

A Brit discusses the 3rd anniversary of the Iraq war...
Tim Hames, in an UK Times opinion column, writes:
"The e-mail contained rhetoric that has become familiar, though fatuous. It railed against 'lies about weapons of mass destruction', an 'illegal war', 'Abu Ghraib' and the 'expropriation of Iraqi resources'. All the words so often employed about Iraq were there, except, of course, 'Saddam' and 'Hussein'. In any case, the entire episode started in March 2003 was condemned as an 'occupation' that has 'brought nothing to the Iraqi people except ever increasing death and destruction.'"

"'I suppose it depends on how you define 'nothing'. If two elections, one constitutional referendum, a free press, an independent judiciary, greater religious liberty, the lifting of economic sanctions, reintegration into the region and the wider international community count for 'nothing', then nothing is a reasonable assessment. As many leaders of the anti-war movement have nothing but contempt for 'bourgeois democracy' and hate capitalism and its manifestations, then, for them, 'nothing' is entirely accurate."
posted by Steve @ 9:52 AM

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In the Sydney Morning Herald

The Australians want balanced Iraq news, too...
I found this article in the Sydney Morning Herald. Here's one paragraph:
"He also sent me a letter which has been circulating among soldiers for a month, from the mayor of Tal 'Afar, near the Syrian border, praising the "lion hearts" of the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment who have changed the city from "ghost town in which terrorists spread death and destruction to a secure city flourishing with life"
posted by Steve @ 9:51 AM

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Friday, March 24, 2006

Good news re: Bird Flu

This sounds like it might be good news...
According to the Scientific American website:
"Bird Flu Resides Deep in Lungs, Preventing Human-to-Human Transmission"
posted by Steve @ 12:25 PM

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03-24-06 Wonder Land

Every Friday, I enjoy Daniel Henninger's column "Wonder Land". Today is no different...
In Dan Henninger's opinion column:
"It wasn't the sort of set speech that presidents normally read, bobblehead bouncing between two teleprompters. Holding a hand microphone, Mr. Bush walked around a stage before a few thousand people giving a largely extemporaneous talk on Iraq and his presidency. It was mesmerizing. One kept expecting Mr. Bush, whose deepest supporters despair at his inarticulateness, to stumble into the underbrush of confused facts or argument to nowhere. Never happened. Not once. For over an hour, it was nothing but net."
posted by Steve @ 12:14 PM

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Catching them and throwing them back

Canada is soft on child pornographers...
In the Toronto Sun, Linda Williamson takes issue with Canada's sentencing of child pornographers:
"Canada's maximum penalty for trafficking in child porn is 10 years. It has never been used. Jail terms are rare -- the usual sentence in a child porn case is house arrest. (By contrast, in 1999, a U.S. child porn distributor was sentenced to 1,335 years in prison.)"

"On Friday, Edmonton's Carl Treleaven, who pleaded guilty to helping run the chat rooms at the centre of this worldwide child-sex-video ring, was sentenced to just three and a half years in jail -- even though the judge called him a "danger to society" and the volume and depravity of the images he traded "unprecedented."

"Pathetic. Yet this was the toughest sentence ever imposed in Canada for distributing child porn! One Edmonton cop called it a step forward."
posted by Steve @ 9:03 AM

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Questions Surround Activities of Clinton Donor

Let there be no doubt that the world of politics is paved with money...
Meghan Clyne reports in the New York Sun:
"Senator Clinton's likely Republican opponent in 2006 and a South Korean newspaper are raising questions about campaign donations the New York Democrat has received from a New York businessman who is involved in an organization that sets up cultural events in North Korea."

"The organization was founded by a man who later resigned as South Korea's ambassador to America after allegations emerged that he helped establish a "slush fund" for South Korean politicians."

"'Once again serious questions surround Senator Clinton's fund-raising operation,' the Republican challenger in Mrs. Clinton's Senate re-election bid, a former mayor of Yonkers, John Spencer, said about the donations. 'We know that federal charges were levied against her fund-raisers from her last campaign and that she has taken money linked to supporters of Iranian mullahs. Now another issue pops up. Senator Clinton needs to come clean and answer these latest questions.'"

"A request for comment from Mrs. Clinton's Senate office was referred to her campaign spokesman, Sam Arora, who did not return repeated phone call and e-mail requests for comment Monday, Tuesday, and yesterday."
posted by Steve @ 9:02 AM

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Meathead

It's Archie's choice of words, not mine...
In FrontPage magazine, Lloyd Billingsley writes about Reiner's plan. Among many, here's one snippet:
"The question of costs and revenues casts a particular light on already existing preschools plans such as Ready to Start. This program has been operating for two years in two Kern County districts in partnership with local businesses, education agencies and colleges."

"The five-week summer program uses existing facilities and spends $350 per child. (The tab for Reiner's plan is more than $8,000 per child.) The program uses a structured academic program, tests children before and after the session, and tracks them as they progress through elementary school. Children increased their scores by the end of the program and retained the skills through kindergarten."
posted by Steve @ 9:01 AM

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Thursday, March 23, 2006

Let George do it

200,000 deaths in 3 years.
Sooner or later, everyone seems to need (and want) our cavalry...
In today's Wall Street Opinion Journal:
"...All of this is a repeat of the same feckless U.N. pattern we've seen in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq.

So that leaves . . . guess who? The cowboy President, the American unilateralists, the Yankee imperialists--or, to put it another way, the only nation with the will and wallet to provide order in an otherwise Hobbesian world."
posted by Steve @ 10:07 AM

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Equal treatment is requested

Did this guy just call out the media?...
In the National Catholic Register, Mark Shea closes his article with:
"So to the mainstream media I say: If you must pull the noses of believers, then have the courage of your alleged principles and oppose radical Islam."

"Otherwise, shut up about being the “guardians of free speech,” for your courage is a permanently exposed as a fraud and we can henceforth declare with confidence that the real reason you bully Christians and cringe before radical Islamic thugs is simple: The Vatican does not issue fatwas."
posted by Steve @ 9:06 AM

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Trusted him, did you?

Fool me once; shame on you...
Investor's Business Daily calls Governor Corzine a "promise breaker":
"New Jersey: Gov. Jon Corzine joins his tax-happy predecessor, Jim Florio — and former President Bill Clinton — in a rogues' gallery of Democrats elected under false fiscal pretenses."
posted by Steve @ 9:05 AM

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Ann Coulter wonders about polls

I wonder about them, too...
In this article, Ann Coulter remembers quite a few past poll headlines; and then reminds us of the most important poll result:
"And then -- despite the fact that every single man, woman and child in America opposed the war in Iraq and despised George Bush -- a few months later, Bush won re-election against well-respected war hero John Kerry."
posted by Steve @ 8:04 AM

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Under reporting Muslim violence

So, does the media suppress certain bad news to be politically correct?...
At TownHall.com, John Leo concludes:
"Suppressing news, whether out of multicultural deference or fear, is a perilous business. We can’t know how to react to upheavals if we aren’t told about them."
posted by Steve @ 8:03 AM

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Merit Pay Plan Is a Bitter Apple

Life is quite complicated in the world of teachers compensation...
Julia Crowse writes for the Ledger in Lakeland, FL. She begins:
"The modern reality of teaching in Florida schools makes Bess Lott, a 32-year veteran, wonder whether she'd choose teaching as a career if she had it to do over."
posted by Steve @ 8:02 AM

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Another CIA Attack on Bush

So, why is the media so trusting of Paul Pillar?...
From Paul Aronoff at Accuracy in Media:
"In the face of all of this comes Paul Pillar, another disgruntled former CIA official. According to Guillermo Christensen, writing in the Wall Street Journal, 'it is hard to think of anyone in the government who was more directly involved in reaching the wrong conclusions about what was going on in Iraq than Mr. Pillar himself.'"

"Christensen was a CIA intelligence officer for 15 years, and is currently with the Council on Foreign Relations. He says Pillar was in the best position of anyone to draft a National Intelligence Estimate, 'recording for all what was going on in Iraq.' He says Pillar has a political agenda, against this administration, and 'made no bones about it in discussions with think-tank audiences long before he left the agency.' He accuses Pillar of 'violating his confidences' and causing damage to the CIA. 'For a CIA officer to discard this neutral role and to inject himself in the political realm is plain wrong,' wrote Christensen. 'It will end up making the CIA even less relevant than it is today, if that is possible.'"
posted by Steve @ 8:01 AM

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Wednesday, March 22, 2006

NBC reports. You decide.

This behavior just doesn't sound right to me.
Apparently, I'm not alone...
Cliff Kincaid calls them:
"Traitors at NBC News"
posted by Steve @ 8:38 PM

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The Democrats Plan

I've heard a lot about the Dems revealing their plan, but I don't think this is what they were being asked about...
Rowan Scarborough writes about it in the Washington Times:
"Senate Democrats have mapped a political battle plan for the March congressional recess..."
posted by Steve @ 8:37 PM

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Sen. Durbin's tune has changed

Senator Durbin is highly critical of the Iraq war;
but, there was a time (1998) when...
Senator Durbin, in a press release, said this:
"I fully support President Clinton and our national security team's decision to take swift action against Saddam Hussein."

"The attack against this dictator should come as no surprise."
posted by Steve @ 8:06 AM

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Spitzer Versus the Poor

The NY Sun questions candidate Spitzer's latest lawsuit...
The NY Sun Editorial Staff reports. I wonder if they wrote it as a staff out of fear. They begin with:
"So the Lord High Executioner of Wall Street, Eliot Spitzer, now wants to make it "fraud" to help a poor person save for retirement. That's the message of the complaint filed this week in New York State court in Manhattan in The People of the State of New York against H&R Block. Those who have been following Mr. Spitzer for years now thought they'd pretty much seen it all, but for an example of leftist ideology run amok, this lawsuit sets a new standard of cynicism, denying those of modest means a first step into the system of capitalism and savings that is enjoyed with impunity by wealthy leftists such as Mr. Spitzer himself."
posted by Steve @ 8:05 AM

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Senator Schumer

The Washington Times is the counterweight to the Washington Post...
In this opinion column the Times editors discuss Senator Schumer, They begin:
"The one thing that hasn't prompted Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, to rush before a camera is his organization's identity-theft scandal. This makes sense, from where he sits. The Democratic media was never interested in the story: The Washington Post buried yesterday's coverage of the plea bargain in its Metro section and the New York Times mentioned it only in passing. Mr. Schumer has been able to duck the story for the six months since it emerged that campaign committee staffers stole the credit report of Lt. Gov. Michael Steele of Maryland in the search for dirt. All this begs questions about the sincerity of Mr. Schumer's pose as the scourge of identity theft -- as well as the lengths to which some Democrats will go to smear Republican candidates."
posted by Steve @ 8:04 AM

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Presidential material? - John Kerry

Even if you are non-political, you might wonder about this guy...
I found this at NewsMax.com. You can try to guess who said:
"I can say to an absolute certainty,
'Boston Gone by 2036.'"
posted by Steve @ 8:03 AM

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Presidential Material? - John McCain

If true, this doesn't sound like presidential demeanor...
This little tidbit can be found in the middle of the page at Families for a Secure America:
"Encounter with John McCain"

"John McCain SCREAMS AT 9/11 FSA MEMBERS FOR OPPOSING HIS BILL TO GIVE AMNESTY FOR ILLEGALS"
posted by Steve @ 8:02 AM

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Presidential Material? - Hillary Clinton

A long story about Hillary. This is only Part 2...
In the New Media Journal.us, Joan Swirsky writes a series on Hillary Clinton:
"So it’s not a matter of who has kept the rather intimate company of crooks, is familiar with criminal charges or is more corrupt. Rather it is who will succeed: Hillary in getting the suit against her dismissed or Mr. Paul in winning it and effectively quashing The Scandal Queen’s aspirations for a presidential run in 2008."
posted by Steve @ 8:01 AM

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Tuesday, March 21, 2006

A bang-bang man?

The megalopolis you never heard of.
Either did I, until I read this article.
It's almost mind-boggling...
The UK Guardian writes about the "Invisible City":
"Chongqing is the fastest-growing urban centre on the planet. Its population is already bigger than that of Peru or Iraq, with half a million more arriving every year in search of a better life."

"Cities are good for the rich. If you have money you can do anything. If you don't want to carry something, you just hire a bangbang man.'"
posted by Steve @ 8:25 AM

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Voter registration rolls

Looking at our election system is sometimes scary.
For what it's worth (in one city) ...
Journal Sentinel in Milwaukee reports:
"City drops 105,000 names from voter registration rolls."

"That represents about 23% of the 450,000 names that had been on the rolls. Officials had said they were unsure if a purge of the rolls had been conducted after the 2000 election."
posted by Steve @ 8:24 AM

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Qusai writes

The Hussein family: Nice people, heh?...
This a copied verbatim from the Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents website. It is evolving by the minute and I can't seem to post a link that works.
CMPC-2003-012666

Republican Guard Secretariat Presidential Office

Special Security Organization
Republican Guard Chief of Staff Security
Number / [blank]
Date / March 14, 2003

Secret and Personal
Presidential Office/ Special Office
The Secretary:
Re / Kuwaiti POW’s

Regarding the execution of Mr. President, Commander Saddam Hussein’s (God protect him) orders, according to the decision of the Revolutionary Command Council on Friday, March 4, 2003.

Transfer all Kuwaiti POW’s / a total of 448 captured Kuwaitis who are located at the Al-Nida Al-Agher Prison and the Intelligence / General Center and Kazema Prison in Al-Kazema, to make them human shields at all locations that are expected to be attacked by the American aggressors. Put them in communication locations and essential ministries, radio and television, Military Industrial Commissions, and all other locations expected to be attacked by the criminal Anglo-American aggressors.
Transporting them should be in coordination with:
Intelligence Services Directorate Republican Guard Chief of Staff
Under direct supervision of the Special Security Organization / Organization Security

[Signature]
Qusai Saddam Hussein
Supervisor
of the Republican Guard Secretariat
March 14, 2003

A copy to:
Intelligence Service Directorate / Office of the Director
Republican Guard Chief of Staff / Office of the Chief of Staff
posted by Steve @ 8:23 AM

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Daniel Henninger in the WSJ

Ethics - Politics - What's important?
We clearly have a problem.
This is one of those articles that I had to read and think about one sentence at a time...
Daniel Henninger discusses it, beginning with:
"Tales from the Enron trial got you down? Like Andrew Fastow's testimony of how he laundered $10,000 as a tax-free gift to his own sons? So after work you stumble home, seeking refuge from the workaday sludge in the stark competitive world of Sports Illustrated, which this week is awash in the details of the doping case against Barry Bonds, an Icarus, legend has it, who flew toward baseball heaven on wax wings made from human growth hormone."
posted by Steve @ 8:22 AM

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'Al Qaeda' in Commons

The Brits have their security questions also...
From "The Sun" in the U.K.:
"Former detainee Mahmoud Suliman Ahmed Abu Rideh even sat in the Commons public gallery for a debate."

"He was invited to Westminster on Tuesday by Lord Ahmed, who met him at Regent’s Park mosque three weeks ago."

"The father of five — suspected of being a money man for terror groups — was given a SECURITY sticker for his Parliamentary visit."
posted by Steve @ 8:21 AM

 0 comments

Monday, March 20, 2006

"Precious little Autum" - hardly

A hat tip to my friend Harry.

If this is poetry, I can do without it...
Michelle Malkin writes:
"One of the nation's fastest-rising poetry prodigies is a 7-year-old New York girl whose poisonous demagogic advocacy of black separatism makes Al Sharpton look like Mr. Rogers."
posted by Steve @ 9:27 PM

 0 comments

Too sick; but OK to play?

Gossip (or news) from the U.K...
Yahoo News U.K. reports:
"Simpson slammed for safari"
posted by Steve @ 5:46 PM

 0 comments

Only as strong as the weakest link

Apparently, the prosecutors are clean.
Unfortunately, someone else is not.
And worst of all, the reporting looks to be questionably not precise (read biased)...
At RealClearPolitics.com Debra Burlingame discusses the problems associated with the Moussaoui trial:
"The Moussaoui case serves as a vivid reminder of the corrosive impact of prosecutorial misconduct. When a prosecutor breaks the rules, it's not just the defendant who loses. We all do."
"So said the editorial page of the Chicago Tribune last week. But hold on here. There is no evidence that any prosecutor broke any rules in the Zacarias Moussaoui case. What happened in that Alexandria, Virginia courtroom last Tuesday was the result of the highly professional, highly ethical prosecution team unilaterally reporting the misconduct of a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lawyer who is neither a criminal prosecutor nor a member of the prosecution team."
posted by Steve @ 5:25 PM

 0 comments

Spyware-for-hire

So who's watching your computer?...
"Spyware-for-hire couple plead guilty", reported in The Register:
"Investigators allege the duo developed and sold customised spyware or Trojan horse packages designed to evade detection by security tools..."
posted by Steve @ 8:04 AM

 0 comments

Rich Lowry on Immigration

In addition to my general dislike for illegal immigration, the strawberry part has me thinking.
Illegal aliens keep the price down so strawberry growing stays in the U.S.
Otherwise, the growing will shift abroad, increasing the trade deficit.
So, are we stuck with picking (no pun intended) the lesser of the two "evils"?...
Rich Lowry writes for the National Review:
"A core element of the American creed has always been a belief in the dignity of labor — at least until now. Supporters of a guest-worker program for Mexican laborers say that "there are jobs that no Americans will do." This is an argument that is a step away from suggesting that there are jobs that Americans shouldn't do."

"President George Bush, a strong supporter of the guest-worker program, has long said that "family values don't stop at the Rio Grande." We are supposed to believe, however, that the work ethic does stop there — it is only south of it that people can be found who are willing to work in construction, landscaping and agricultural jobs. So, without importing those people into our labor market, these jobs would go unfilled, disrupting the economy (and creating an epidemic of unkempt lawns in Southern California)."

"This is sheer nonsense. ..."
posted by Steve @ 8:03 AM

 0 comments

Immigration to Russia - 20 mil annually

Did you know this? It's surprising to me...
From the Russian News & Information Agency:
"MOSCOW, March 15 (RIA Novosti) - Over 20 million people come to Russia every year as part of a post-Soviet 'migration boom', and half of them are in the country illegally, a senior Russian migration official said Wednesday.

'More than 20 million migrants annually come to Russia, mainly from former Soviet republics. Experts say about 10 million of them do so illegally,' Federal Migration service head Konstantin Romodanovsky told the State Duma, parliament's lower house."
posted by Steve @ 8:02 AM

 0 comments

Immigration Issues

As with so many issues, immigration changes will never please everyone. This article explains some of the issues; and of course, the politics...
"At the Border", by Tamar Jacoby:
"These provisional workers could travel at will, they could change jobs if they wanted and could bring their families to the country to live with them. But unless Congress vastly increased the annual quota of permanent visas (green cards)--a difficult step in today's political climate--most would have to wait 60 or 70 years for this prerequisite of citizenship. The result would be a permanent caste of second-class noncitizen workers, people we trusted to cook our food and tend our children and take care of our elderly relatives--but not to call themselves Americans or participate in politics. They would live in permanent limbo, at risk of deportation if they lost their jobs, hesitant to bargain with employers and unlikely to make the all-important emotional leap that is essential for assimilation."
posted by Steve @ 8:01 AM

 0 comments

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Directorate of National Intelligence

This looks like another "Able Danger" scenario.
I'm sure the government has our best interests at heart. Aren't you?
Right after their self-interests and self-protection, of course...
The Wall Street Opinion Journal is wondering about this information. Here are some selected quotes from their editorial:

"These items--collected and examined in Qatar as part of what's known as the Harmony program--appear to contain information highly relevant to the ongoing debate over the war on terror. But nearly three years after Baghdad fell, we see no evidence that much of what deserves to be public will be anytime soon."

"And our alarm bells really rang when the intelligence official added another category of information that's never slated to see the light of day: "We cannot release wholesale material that we can reasonably foresee will damage the national interest." Well, what exactly does that mean and who makes the call? The answer, apparently, is unaccountable analysts following State Department guidelines."

"America went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan because we believed that the truth about the regimes in those countries justified it. Why should so much of that truth now be deemed so sensitive?"

PS- Since this was written, 48,000 boxes of info are being released and posted at the:

Foreign Military Studies Office Joint Reserve Intelligence Center website.

It looks to be quite interesting.
posted by Steve @ 11:24 AM

 0 comments

Jim Rutz is watching

I agree with this writer, but, apparently good news doesn't sell.
And that's why it is the way it is...
Jim Rutz is watching the news:
"If you want to know what happened today, you don't have to turn on the tube. I will be happy to tell you right now, no extra charge."

"Ready? Here goes: What happened today is about what happened yesterday. And the day before. Namely:

Four billion people went to work or took care of their kids. They cooked food, paid bills, washed clothes, handled problems, had a few laughs, did most of their chores, and got enough sleep to face tomorrow.

That's the stuff of real life. But don't expect your favorite news anchor to report something so majorly boring."
posted by Steve @ 10:43 AM

 0 comments

The latest on "Nessie"

There's a sucker born every minute
- Phineas Taylor Barnum...
According to a report in The Australian:

"Loch Ness monster 'an elephant'"
posted by Steve @ 9:52 AM

 0 comments

Created in thin air

Advertisements right outside your windows?...
According to NewScientist.com:

"The night sky could soon be lit up with gigantic three-dimensional adverts, thanks to a Japanese laser display that creates glowing images in thin air."
posted by Steve @ 9:51 AM

 0 comments

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Birth Certificates

The world as we know it is changing.
Who decides "A" or "B"?
And how long before a "B" files a discrimination charge, because they think they should be an "A"?...
The U.K. Daily Telegraph reports on events in Spain:

"According to an announcement in the Official Bulletin of State 'The expression 'father' will be replaced with 'Progenitor A', and 'mother' will be replaced with 'Progenitor B'.'"
posted by Steve @ 9:54 AM

 0 comments

Hey buddy! Wanna buy a list?

So you register your gun(s), and you get put on a list.
The bad guys get the list, find you, and steal your gun(s).
And the end result is: the bad guys have the guns. Ughh!...
The Toronto Sun discusses gun registration:
"A fortnight ago, and in the wake of another calculated but seemingly out-of-the-blue robbery of a registered gun collector, even the Toronto Star finally entertained the possibility that the national gun registry might have been compromised and that sensitive information might have leaked to criminals."

"Trouble is, this is hardly cutting-edge news."
posted by Steve @ 9:53 AM

 0 comments

Clinton Quiet About Past Wal-Mart Ties

And which way is the wind blowing today?...
The Associated Press reports this via Yahoo! News:
"As Clinton sheds her Arkansas past and looks ahead to a possible 2008 presidential run, the Wal-Mart issue presents an exquisite dilemma: how to reconcile the political demands she faces today with her history at a company many American consumers depend upon but many Democratic activists revile."
posted by Steve @ 9:42 AM

 0 comments

And the bad guys know it

Apparently, Europe talks a lot and carries no big stick...
In the Wall Street Opinion Journal :

"So for years the Troika continued talking, maintaining the illusion that Tehran was playing by the rules as equal partners and denying the reality that the Mullahs will gain great economic and military leverage over Europe in the very near future."

"Europe could have suppressed the Iranian threat if it had convinced the mullahs two years ago that it was willing to contemplate military options. Only Europe lacks core values that it holds sacrosanct and that it's willing to defend at the highest cost. It will continue to operate on the diplomatic field and cling to soft power even though this is the path of certain defeat when confronted with power players burning with geopolitical and religious ambitions."

"Thanks to European illusions about soft power, the free world has two options left on Iran: disaster or catastrophe. America and Israel will bleed for Europe's lack of conviction."
posted by Steve @ 9:41 AM

 0 comments

Friday, March 17, 2006

The Condit's are still in the news

I'm thinking that Chandra Levy couldn't be found either.
So, do you think something runs in the family...
The Modesto Bee reports:
"The son of former congressman Gary Condit, Chad Condit is a target of a $2.4 million lawsuit filed by California's political watchdog agency. The regulators claim Condit and his sister, Cadee Condit, illegally pocketed campaign money their father raised."

"But in the two months since the Fair Political Practices Commission filed the lawsuit, officials have been unable to reach Chad Condit to deliver legal papers."
posted by Steve @ 8:04 AM

 0 comments

Soldiers build wheelchairs for Iraqis

Another "bet you missed this" story...
Nathan Burchfiel writes for Crosswalk.com:

"Soldiers and other volunteers use their free time to participate in the program. Soldiers assemble the chairs and distribute them to Iraqis of all ages who have debilitating diseases like cerebral palsy and injuries that limit mobility."
posted by Steve @ 8:03 AM

 0 comments

Zarqawi Was Here

Some people actually go to Iraq and talk to the people...
Michael J. Totten is one of them:
"Did you live here when the village was occupied by Zarqawi?"

“I did,” he said. “Life wasn’t good. We had no freedom. TV was banned. Women couldn’t walk outside without an abaya. There was violence. Anyone not affiliated with them was treated badly. During prayer time everyone was required to go to the mosque. If we didn’t go we were insulted and fined 50 dollars.”"
posted by Steve @ 8:02 AM

 0 comments

FBI files on PETA

I am NOT a fan of PETA.
And this group watches them like a hawk.
Did I really say that?...
The group's website is Animal Scam. They report:
"that (among other things) PETA recruits interns from overseas for "the sole purpose of committing criminal acts."
posted by Steve @ 8:01 AM

 0 comments

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Silicosis - Lawyers On Trial

Is this like getting caught with your hand in the till?
This followed one of those "do you think you might have been exposed" advertising campaigns...
Investors Business Daily reports on the silicosis law suits:
"In a 250-page ruling, Jack bluntly said the 10,000 claims of silicosis before her were part of a 'scheme' that was 'manufactured for money.' Since then, more than half of those 10,000 claims have been pitched out of court or voluntarily pulled by trial lawyers — a tacit admission, we'd say, that the claims were bogus to begin with."

"Some doctors' shameful willingness to make questionable diagnoses of silicosis to fill up class-action lawsuits has caught the attention of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. On Wednesday, the panel invited a few physicians in for a chat. Two were forced to testify by subpoena, and all three took the Fifth."
posted by Steve @ 8:54 AM

 0 comments

Tom Wolfe - 'nuff said

I'll let the writer tell it...
Joseph Rago writes the Opinion Journal's Featured Article on March 11, 2006:
"In the course of the reporting, however, it came out that Mr. Wolfe had voted for the Bush ticket. "The reaction among the people I move among was really interesting. It was as if I had raised my hand and said, 'Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you, I'm a child molester.'" For the sheer hilarity, he took to wearing an American flag pin, "and it was as if I was holding up a cross to werewolves."

"George Bush's appeal, for Mr. Wolfe, was owing to his "great decisiveness and willingness to fight." But as to "this business of my having done the unthinkable and voted for George Bush, I would say, now look, I voted for George Bush but so did 62,040,609 other Americans. Now what does that make them? Of course, they want to say--'Fools like you!' . . . But then they catch themselves, 'Wait a minute, I can't go around saying that the majority of the American people are fools, idiots, bumblers, hicks.' So they just kind of dodge that question. And so many of them are so caught up in this kind of metropolitan intellectual atmosphere that they simply don't go across the Hudson River. They literally do not set foot in the United States."
posted by Steve @ 8:53 AM

 0 comments

Zogby's Bogus Poll

I've posted about my mistrust of polls before.
I see that I'm not alone... .
Tim Kane calls this Zogby Poll bogus, and he explains why:
"As a veteran, I have been hoping that a pollster would take the obvious step of asking our troops for their opinions, and I think Zogby International deserves credit for making the effort."

"But as an economist, my appreciation eroded sharply when I took a closer look."
posted by Steve @ 8:52 AM

 0 comments

"Survey says", but is it right?

I have to admit that everytime the New York Times is disputed, I'm there...
Michael J. New writes in the National Review Online:

"... the New York Times published an article arguing that recently enacted parental-involvement laws have been unable to reduce the incidence of abortion among teens. On its surface, the analysis looks convincing. In 6 states, the authors track the percentage of abortions among pregnancies for girls under 18 both before and after the passage of parental-involvement legislation. According to the data presented by the authors, the passage of legislation appears to do little to change this percentage. Furthermore, after the enactment of legislation, the childbearing decisions of minors continue to closely track the childbearing decisions of women ages 18 to 19 — women who would not be directly affected by parental-involvement legislation."

"However, there exist some significant shortcomings with the Times's analysis."
posted by Steve @ 8:51 AM

 0 comments

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Global Warming - the latest

"felling 60 million trees"; that has to be a "WOW" in any frame of reference...
PhsyOrg.com has this article: Greenhouse theory smashed by biggest stone:
"The Tunguska Event, sometimes known as the Tungus Meteorite is thought to have resulted from an asteroid or comet entering the earth's atmosphere and exploding. The event released as much energy as fifteen one-megaton atomic bombs. As well as blasting an enormous amount of dust into the atmosphere, felling 60 million trees over an area of more than 2000 square kilometres. Shaidurov suggests that this explosion would have caused 'considerable stirring of the high layers of atmosphere and change its structure.' Such meteoric disruption was the trigger for the subsequent rise in global temperatures."
posted by Steve @ 9:07 AM

 0 comments

Scientists Find Big Afghan Oil Resources

Every little bit helps. I hope they remember who their saviours are, before the Russians get it all...
John Heilprin, writing for the AP:
"Two geological basins in northern Afghanistan hold 18 times the oil and triple the natural gas resources previously thought, scientists said Tuesday as part of a U.S. assessment aimed at enticing energy development in the war-torn country."
posted by Steve @ 8:56 AM

 0 comments

About Oil

The ANWR oil drilling argument goes on...
Investor's Business Daily wonders:

"So why does the green movement fight drilling in ANWR so viciously while operations in Canada's oil-sand fields expand?"

"Again, nothing wrong with buying more oil from Canada. But it seems wholly unnecessary when the earth is ready to bestow 12 billion barrels of precious oil — and possibly as many as 16 billion barrels — from beneath the barren ANWR landscape that is within our borders and that could be fairly easily pumped out."
posted by Steve @ 8:45 AM

 0 comments

Hillary Clinton & Abramoff

And the old media justs ignores it...
At the National Review, Byron York has some interesting info:
"Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has accepted campaign contributions from a Saipan garment-industry tycoon, sometimes described as a sweatshop operator, whose ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff have been part of the lobbying scandal investigation."

"Three weeks after Mrs. Clinton's visit, the paper continued, "a Guam Democratic Party official arrived in Washington with more than $250,000 in campaign contributions. Within six months of that, [a group of] Guam businessmen had ponied up more than $132,000 for the Clinton-Gore reelection campaign and $510,000 in 'soft money' contributions to the Democratic National Committee, making the island, with its 140,000 residents, the biggest donor to the Democratic Party per capita of any territory in the United States." Later, the Post continued, "the contributions from Guam were followed...by signs of a significant and controversial change in the Clinton administration's policy toward the island."
posted by Steve @ 8:43 AM

 0 comments

Yale doesn't want to be in the spotlight

Someone's feathers have really been ruffled...
John Fund has a column called "On the Trail":
"At noon on Saturday, Yale called back to say that once again no official would grant an interview of any kind. Spokesman Tom Conroy said he had spoken with Mr. Suvarov and been assured the emails had been sent in a private capacity. When I asked Mr. Conroy if he had specifically asked about the content of the emails, he said he had not, noting that many people at Yale send personal emails from their computer."

"But not like these. I then obtained permission from Mr. Taylor and Ms. Bookstaber to share the Surovov emails with Yale. Mr. Conroy said he didn't believe most donor information was a public record, but said he would have to confirm that for me. Yesterday, 48 hours after I first asked for reaction to the Surovov emails, Mr. Conroy notified me that Yale administrators were not available and the university would be making no comment."
posted by Steve @ 7:52 AM

 0 comments

Can this be legal?

Did someone's wish come true?...
From Ananova.com:

"A new gadget repels gangs of teenagers by emitting a high-pitched noise that can be heard only by under 20s."

"Police are backing the Sonic Teenager Deterrent, nicknamed the Mosquito because of its sound, reports the Daily Telegraph."
posted by Steve @ 7:51 AM

 0 comments

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

The Feingold Resolution and the Sound of Silence

Looks like both political parties are in disarray...
Dana Milbank writes about it in the Washington Post:
"Democratic senators, filing in for their weekly caucus lunch yesterday, looked as if they'd seen a ghost."

"I haven't read it," demurred Barack Obama (Ill.)."

"I just don't have enough information," protested Ben Nelson (Neb.). "I really can't right now," John Kerry (Mass.) said as he hurried past a knot of reporters -- an excuse that fell apart when Kerry was forced into an awkward wait as Capitol Police stopped an aide at the magnetometer."

"Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) brushed past the press pack, shaking her head and waving her hand over her shoulder. When an errant food cart blocked her entrance to the meeting room, she tried to hide from reporters behind the 4-foot-11 Barbara Mikulski (Md.)."

"Ask her after lunch," offered Clinton's spokesman, Philippe Reines. But Clinton, with most of her colleagues, fled the lunch out a back door as if escaping a fire."
posted by Steve @ 11:08 PM

 0 comments

WSJ vs NYT and others

Take this as a reminder to be careful what you believe...
The Wall Street Opinion Journal calls it the:
"Best of the Web Today"
posted by Steve @ 8:45 PM

 0 comments

Could they get any looser?

This sounds like it might get very interesting...
In his commentary titled "Expect Journalistic Tongues to Loosen", Jack Kelly says:

"Journalists will be paying rapt attention when Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman go on trial next month for violation of the Espionage Act of 1917."

"Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman were officials of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. They received classified information from Lawrence Franklin, an analyst at the Department of Defense, which they passed on to an Israeli diplomat, and to journalists. They are the first private citizens ever to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act."
posted by Steve @ 9:24 AM

 0 comments

Surprise, surprise! Saddam had WMDs after all

We haven't heard from Pat Boone for a while...
In this article, Pat Boone wonders about the lack of breaking news:
"The new mystery is why the politicians and the news media are taking scant notice."

"If what's being learned isn't news, well what is? Even rumors about this would deserve notice bigger than these facts are getting. Has the definition of news become just the bits that fit an ideological agenda? Are raw facts off the menu?"
posted by Steve @ 9:23 AM

 0 comments

Savings Rates

Couldn't different savings rates be right for different groups of people?
It seems that as the baby boomers retire, their savings rates will decline, and drive this measurement to irrelevance....
In this article by Ellen Simon "Economists at Odds Over Savings Rates" on Yahoo! News, she writes:

"Now that America's savings rate has been negative for an entire year, a first since the Great Depression, the question is whether we're a spendthrift nation on its way to the poor house or whether we're looking at the wrong numbers when we calculate savings."
posted by Steve @ 9:22 AM

 0 comments

Caller ID can be spoofed!

I didn't know about this. Did you?...
AOL News - Caller ID May Not Be As Trustworthy as You Think:

"For instance, Spoofcard.com sells a virtual "calling card" for $10 that provides 60 minutes of talk time. The user dials a toll-free number, then keys in the destination number and the Caller ID number to display. The service also provides optional voice scrambling, to make the caller sound like someone of the opposite sex."

"Caller ID spoofing appears to be legal, though many of its uses are not. The Federal Communications Commission has never investigated the issue, spokeswoman Rosemary Kimball said."
posted by Steve @ 9:21 AM

 0 comments

Monday, March 13, 2006

More on Saddam's terrorists links

Just maybe, the old media will have to own up...
On the blog named "EnterStageRight", Sam Wells begins:
"Captured Iraqi intel confirms pre-war links between Saddam's regime and terrorists."

"The DNC's mantra that President Bush 'misled the nation into war' is losing whatever clout it once had as more and more people become better informed. The massive post-invasion evidence mounts confirming that it was the mainstream media and leading Democrats -- not the Bush Administration -- who lied to the American people on the issue of pre-war ties between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaida terrorists."
posted by Steve @ 9:29 PM

 0 comments

A metaphor; perhaps?

This article seems to have dual intentions.
One involves historical hindsight, and the other, a metaphor referencing something else...
Once again, an Opinion Journal featured article:
"Yet not until after Srebrenica and its 7,000 dead men and boys in 1995 did the U.S. step in and lead an ineffective Europe to stop the fighting."
posted by Steve @ 7:58 PM

 0 comments

The Saddam Tapes

After reading this about the Saddam tapes, try to figure out what might be going on here...
From Sunday's OpinionJournal - The Journal Editorial Report:
Gigot: Steve, we've been able to listen to, I think, 12 hours of Saddam's tapes. He was apparently like Nixon. He liked to listen to--he liked to tape himself and hear what he had to say. Maybe keeping it for history. There are about 3,000 in total. Has the government even listened to those tapes in their entirety?

Hayes: My understanding is that they have not. Now I think that some members of Congress on the intelligence committees have had access to more than just the 12 hours--maybe 50 or 60 hours of these tapes. But this broader array of tapes, 3,000-plus hours, has not yet been made available to policy makers.

Gigot: Amazing. All right, so if we could find out all of this out, what is holding the administration back? It would seem to me it would have a good reason to make it all public.
posted by Steve @ 5:37 PM

 0 comments

Online Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus. Free access.

There is a new addition to the "Links" list on the right...
The Free Dictionary.com describes themselves as follows:
"Online Dictionary - English dictionary, medical dictionary, legal dictionary, financial dictionary, computer dictionary, thesaurus, dictionary of acronyms and abbreviations, dictionary of idioms, thesaurus, Columbia encyclopedia, Wikipedia encyclopedia, Hutchinson encyclopedia, examples from classic literature, pronunciations, word browser, glossary. Free access"
posted by Steve @ 5:06 PM

 0 comments

Proof of bigfoot colony?

Several basketball scouts were reported to be in the area. (Sorry, I just couldn't resist)...
WorldNetDaily reports:

"Wildlife group claims proof of Bigfoot colony"
posted by Steve @ 9:15 AM

 0 comments

Rendell grabs reporter's recorder

The Gov's a little testy at times; wouldn't you say?...
The Associated Press reports:
"HARRISBURG -- An angry Gov. Ed Rendell took a tape recorder away from a newspaper reporter during an impromptu interview this week, refusing to give it back for several minutes, according to the paper..."

"...Rendell has been involved in other confrontations with reporters, including grabbing the neck of a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter in May 1994 when he was the city's mayor. Philadelphia Daily News columnist Gar Joseph, in a Friday item entitled "Rendell 6, reporters 0," cites five other alleged physical confrontations with reporters from the Inquirer or Daily News.

In February 1999, the Daily News also reported that Rendell grasped a reporter's notebook after becoming angry during an interview."
posted by Steve @ 8:54 AM

 0 comments

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