I don’t know about you, but the past few weeks seem to have been incredibly long. I don’t know if it was the heat (which has, thankfully, diminished the past couple of days) or just the overall stress of life. Whatever it is, waking up is rougher and it seems there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Maybe, just maybe, this weekend will be one to allow some "catching up". Switching gears completely – I’m seriously believing that there is one huge database somewhere that aggregates names and addresses for everybody. Otherwise, how would a piece of junk mail arrive at our house, addresed to our daughter-in-law, under her maiden name? She’s never used our address for anything, although our son did. Did they somehow link marriage records and his address to ours? Who’s responsible for pulling all of that together? When I mentioned that to them, they pointed out that they frequently get junk mail addressed to us at THEIR house, which isn’t even in the same city and we’ve NEVER listed it as an address. Nowhere. No how. Somebody ’splain it to me, please!
On to the good stuff of the evening….as the P.R. train rolls on…
Petraeus will say violence is down in Iraq because he’s not counting the violence in Iraq
Read the article about the "Experts Doubt Drop In Violence in Iraq: Military Statistics Called Into Question" in today’s Washington Post, which confirms a very important point: General Petraeus and his toadies are lying about the level of violence in Iraq. It’s incredibly craven, but that’s what is happening. Basically, in the Petraeus view, to count the amount of violence means excluding from that count many incidents and forms of violence. For example, [...]
UPDATE: Break out the popcorn!! It’s movie time! Starring bin Laden! Specially-made for the 9/11 anniversary. Don’t you feel special?!
Tags: Patraeus, Iraq War, Violence in Iraq
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I’ve flown Southwest Airlines many times. So has my wife. We’ve never run into anything like this. I’m wondering if it was a singular event or the first indication of a new trend. I’m sure Southwest will have something to say. Sometime…
PEEK: Come Fly The Slut-Shaming Skies
Ann Friedman: Southwest Airlines is apparently now telling its female passengers how to dress [...]
Tags: Southwest Airlines, Dress Code.
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You’ve all heard about it by now – the Air Force flew five nuclear missiles from North Dakota to Louisiana. Accidentally. None of you will be surprised that the story isn’t going away, even though the Air Force says it’s investigating how the "accident" happened. The simple fact that an "accident" like this could happen is enough to keep me up at night. Especially when the plane probably flew right over our house…
Oops… Unauthorized Nuclear Warheads Transported
USA Today reported on Wednesday that “that five nuclear warheads were transported,” by a B-52 bomber “from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30.” WTF? The officers who first tipped the “Military Times to the incident who have asked to remain anonymous since they are not authorized to [...]
Another blogger agrees – how the heck could this mistake happen?
Loose nukes
It’s still very hard to fathom how something like this can happen, even accidentally. I realize that there are occasional bureaucratic snafus in any multi-layered system, even one as sophisticated as the U.S. military, but I simply cannot wrap my head around the notion that an Air Force bomber accidentally flew six cruise missiles armed [...]
Loose Nukes Followup
If blogging has any genuinely innovative quality about it, it’s surely its ability to, on occasion at least, rapidly deepen one’s understanding of an issue by attracting commentary and links from intelligent, informed people. In some 42 posts to my discussion of Larry Johnson’s alarm about the loose nukes, a large collection of links were offered by readers to help make sense of what happpened. Andrew Foland, a physics professor runs [...]
Tags: Nuclear Warheads, Nuclear Weapons, Minot, Barksdale
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I’m sure the John Edwards campaign has nothing but the best intentions when he announced that his health care plan would mandate physical checkups if you wanted to be covered. Forced checkups didn’t sit wll, apparently, with a lot of people..
Clarification from the Edwards campaign on "mandated care"
Looks like I’m not the only one who went apoplectic over "mandatory preventive care". The campaign has issued a more detailed clarification: "Senator Edwards believes it is critically important to take preventive steps that help reduce health care costs and prevent disease. The truth is many people do not currently seek medical services because they aren’t covered or can’t afford to see a doctor. That is why [...]
Tags: John Edwards, Mandatory Medical Care, Health Care
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A former Secretary of State is fed up. And she’s not sitting quietly anymore.
The Least He Could Do…
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has a scathing op-ed in the WaPo this morning, in which she says: “Our troops face death every day; the least the president can do is face the truth.” That would be swell, if I thought he knew what the meaning [...]
Tags: Albright, Iraq War, President Bush
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Forget anything you heard from anybody about the idea of closing Guantanamo Bay and releasing or moving the remaining prisoners. Ain’t gonna happen.
U.S. Spending $10 Million on New Gitmo Courtrooms
Far from getting ready to close Guantanamo, the U.S. is spending big bucks there to build new courtrooms. "The U.S. military is building a mobile courtroom complex on an unused runway at the Guantanamo Bay naval base and plans to be ready by March to conduct as many as three terrorism trials at a time. The $10 million project will add [...]
Tags: Guantanamo Bay, Gitmo, Terrorism Trials
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We’re still a few days away from the "official" Patraeus report, but there’s no shortage of other "reports" to read. It kind of makes one wonder just what will be left for Patraeus to say…
The reports before the report
Next week, the White House will unveil the progress report on Iraq, ostensibly written by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker (but really written by the president’s team), which will no doubt make quite a splash. But in the meantime, we’re seeing the release of several key reports, all of which offer a credible, [...]
Tags: Iraq War, Iraq Reports, Patraeus, Crocker
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Ya know, if I had plunked down $600 bucks a few weeks ago for a spiffy, new, iPhone – I think I might be just a tad bit PO’d right about now. Actually, I’m pretty darn sure I’d be PO’d. But, I didn’t jump. So, I’m a lot happier and still have the money. Oh, you haven’t heard? Read on…
Levy: Can Apple’s New iPods Deliver?
Steve Jobs explains the new iPod lineup, the competitive pressures facing Apple and the potential for angry customers over the iPhone price cut [...]
UPDATE: Apple’s giving SOMETHING to the early adopters…
Apple Inc (AAPL.O), faced with an outcry from iPhone customers who bought the device before a sharp price cut, will offer them a $100 store credit, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said on Thursday. The offer applies to people who bought iPhones at [...]
Tags: Apple, Steve Jobs, iPod, iPhone
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A court steps in with a sense of sanity..
Judge Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act
NEW YORK (AP) – A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act on Thursday, saying investigators must have a court’s approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the [...]
Tags: Patriot Act, Internet Records
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This, my friends, is called dissembling the Administration’s storyline…
False hype of al Qaeda in Iraq
…The author, Andrew Tilghman, is a former reporter for Stars and Stripes, an independent military-focused newspaper, and spent nine months in Iraq in 2005 and 2006. It was clear to me when we spoke that he had an excellent basis of knowledge about the conflict, and he asked all the right questions to get at the specifics of the topic. And he got fascinating answers from a variety of sources, which he weaved into a solid and damning assessment of the hyping of al Qaeda by [...]
Tags: al-Qaeda, Iraq War, AQI
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In the interest of fairness, I went looking for fresh ratings information about the Olmbermann-O’Reilly battle. You’ll recall that Countdown actually topped the O’Reilly program last Thursday night, with O’Reilly on vacation. So, in a more apples and apples comparison, here are the numbers from Tuesday night. O’Reilly’s back on top, but Keith’s numbers are bigger than I can recall seeing…
The Scoreboard: Tuesday, Sept. 4
Tags: Olbermann, O’Reilly
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Indeed. We were duped. Yet another example surfaced today..via Mahablog..
He Knew
Sidney Blumenthal writes that President Bush knew Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction before the invasion of Iraq. Or, at least, he was briefed on this but chose to disregard the briefing. On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein [...]
Tags: WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Saddam Hussein, George Tenet
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Some Conservative bloggers are waving the flag for the upcoming Patraeus report on the Iraq War, bashing those who are saying it’s likely going to be very one-side, in favor of the Administration. The problem is – there are other reports (already released) that do paint a bleak picture of what’s happening. Let’s see – four over here – one over there – seems like the scales tip a bit in favor of the bleak reports..
“Dems already dismissing Iraq war report”
Nice, Congressional Democrats are trying to undermine U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus’ credibility before he delivers a report on the Iraq war next week, saying the general is a mouthpiece for President Bush and his findings can’t be trusted. "The Bush report?" Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin said when asked [...]
Tags: Patraeus, Durbin, Iraq War
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Not that you’d expect the man put in charge by President Bush to be completely down-the-middle, some folks have dug up some incredibly interesting things from a few years ago…
Never Cry Wolf: Krugman Calls Out Petraeus On 2004 Pre-Election Editorial Pumping Up Iraq
…Petraeus has become the face of the surge, the man whose credibility has been built up as a patriot and non-partisan, who will deliver the straight, unvarnished truth. He’s a four-star general, dammit, and if he says the surge is working, well, it’s working. There are some, though, that claim to see through the varnish — the most prominent of which is Paul Krugman, who joined a chorus of bloggers and writers in uncovering an op-ed by Petraeus in the Washington Post, dating from [...]
Tags: Patraeus, Krugman
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This is downright shocking. I honestly don’t know what you can blame it on, but I don’t think this is something that necessarily points a finger at the Bush Administration. Still, it seems they could be doing more about it..
PBS’s NOW: Women in the U.S. military assaulted and raped by fellow soldiers
NOW: Roughly one in seven of America’s active duty military soldiers is a woman, but a NOW investigation found that sexual assault and rape is widespread. One study of National Guard and Reserve forces found that almost one in four women had been assaulted or raped. Last year alone, almost 3,000 soldiers reported sexual [...]
Tags: Military Sexual Trauma, MST, Sexual Assault
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It’s off and running. But, it’s not all smooth roads. Carpetbagger has word of one of the first bumps. Already..
‘I don’t even remember the details of his plan’
One of the principal knocks on actor/lobbyist/senator Fred Thompson’s presidential aspirations is that he’s kind of lazy and unwilling to go beyond the pleasantries and soundbites. He’s an all-hat, no-cattle candidate who doesn’t even take his own policy priorities seriously. After one day as a candidate, Thompson is already reinforcing the conventional wisdom. Fred Thompson says a [...]
Tags: Thomspon, Social Security
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One of the best Baghdad bloggers is back….after fears that something horrible had happened. This, my friends, is a true Must-Read.
… as one of the 1.4 million Iraqis who’ve fled their country and are living as refugees in Syria. Here’s her latest post. (For more on Iraqi refugees [...]
Tags: Riverbend, Iraq Refugees
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Law enforcement style success. This is a great post, with some saliant follow-up thoughts after a short discussion of the actual arrests. Read on…
Germans arrest 3 suspected terrorists, disrupt plot
The horrifying news is that three suspected terrorists in Germany were apparently poised to conduct some very deadly acts. The encouraging news is that German officials apprehended the would-be killers and disrupted their plot. The police in Germany have arrested three Islamic militants suspected of planning large-scale terrorist attacks against several sites frequented by Americans, including [...]
Tags: Terrorists, Islamic Militants, Terrorist Attacks
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Let’s see, if a plane flies from North Dakota to Louisiana, it likely flies right over…..Arkansas!
Breaking: B-52 Carrying 5 Nuclear Warheads Mistakenly Flew Across United States
From Americablog: CNN’s Barbara Starr has been breathlessly reporting the news that a B-52, loaded with nuclear warheads, flew across the country last week — without anyone’s knowledge. It has caused quite a stir in the military. Starr reports that Bush had to be informed about the mistake. Here’s an NBC report: An Air Force [...]
And, a possible reason for all of this:
Staging Nukes for Iran?
Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That’s like getting excited if you see postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense. So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of [...]
Let’s Update this one with thoughts from former CIA guy, Larry Johnson, via Talking Points Memo:
Tags: B-52 Bomber, Nuclear Warheads
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