Oliver Willis has been kind enough to introduce the world to Pundette! She's America's sexy new right-wing pundit.

It's only been a month since that scout from the Heritage Foundation approached me after my set at Club Pink Kitty Kat. It was almost like something out of old Hollywood, him telling me that I "had the kind of face that looks like it should be selling faulty supply side economics to an unwitting public". I didn't think he made sense at first, but after a couple weeks at Heritage boot camp ("The facts don't matter, just as long as the sizzle is right") things got much clearer. Yes, belly dancing for the Rev. Moon on occasion is a little odd, but everyone swears this is how Laura Ingraham started out – and look where she is today!

Hilarious.

A few days ago, I posted a link suggesting that the North Korean government would prefer a Kerry Administration. On the other hand, maybe they don't.

Apparently, a North Korean spokesman has recently done an interview warning that Kerry’s call for CVID, and pressures from Democrats for military action mean that a Kerry administration would lead to heightened military tensions. He suggests that North Korea would respond to increased pressure from Kerry by test-firing ICBMs into the high seas close to prominent American cities, and test-detonating a H-Bomb. I’m not a qualified North-Korea tea-leaf reader by any stretch of the imagination, so I don’t want to speculate too much on the source and meaning of this. Still, on its face, it certainly appears to give the lie to Republican claims that North Korea would prefer a Democratic administration.

Beats me as to what the truth is. Personally, I doubt the North Koreans know, either. I just hope that whoever wins, the problem of North Korea can be taken care of in a way that doesn't involve an irradiated city or two.

Fallen Angel is one of those tragedies of modern comics. It's not about someone in the spandex and tights set, so the fanboys don't read it. It's not about some mailboy's relationship with a prostitute, so critics ignore it. But the fact is, Fallen Angel is one of the best ongoing series in comics today. Don't believe me? Well, Johanna Draper Carlson is giving you the chance to find out about Fallen Angel for free. So take her up on her offer. Or better yet, go buy the trade paperback collection of the first six issues. You won't be disappointed. Trust me.

(link via Jim Henley, who's back from hiatus!)

(see more of Chris Muir's stuff)

Both Matthew Yglesias and Rick DeMent have endorsed the idea that protesters shouldn't protest.

If people put all the time, energy, intelligence and ingenuity that they currently spend doing these things into boring jobs in Washington that involved ties and desks and offices then progressive politics would be about five times as effective as it is.

No no no no no no no no! Wrong! Keep protesters protesting! Keep them out there in the media and away from anything remotely resembling a policymaking authority. The last thing I want is the kind of nut who'll spend hours crafting a puppet that looks more like Guy Smiley than George Bush drafting legislation. Good lord, the legislators we have now are bad enough! If anything, we just need to balance things out. Give money to the Republican protest groups and encourage a right-wing protest culture, too! That way, the nuts on the left and the nuts on the right can harangue each other with semi-witty signs on the street while sane, reasonable people can breathe a sigh of relief and work on real policy issues.

Is it just me, or did watching John McCain speak at the convention tonight make you long for the concise, definitive stands of Kerry and George W's powerful command of the English language? Maybe his speech got better--I dunno. I fell asleep in the middle.

I have to say, the trial balloon floating from the Kerry-Edwards camp regarding Iran doesn't strike me as the soundest policy in the world.

If elected U.S. president, Sen. John Kerry would offer Iran a deal allowing it to keep its nuclear power plants if it gave up the right to retain bomb-making nuclear fuel, said Kerry's vice presidential running mate in an interview published on Monday.

Sen. John Edwards told The Washington Post if Iran did not accept this "great bargain," this would confirm the Islamic state was building nuclear weapons under cover of a nuclear power initiative.

If Iran rejected this proposal, Kerry would ensure European allies were prepared to join the United States in imposing strict sanctions against Iran, said Edwards.

"If we are engaging with Iranians in an effort to reach this great bargain and if in fact this is a bluff that they are trying to develop nuclear weapons capability, then we know that our European friends will stand with us," said the North Carolina Democrat.

First of all, there's no real guarantee that Iran would stick to this bargain, is there? I mean, you'd have to get Iran to agree to a really strict inspection regimen, or else the deal is pointless.

Second, I don't know what policy alternatives there are, but I think it's pretty evident that sanctions don't work at all. All a strict sanctions regime would do to Iran is cut them off from Western culture. And considering that most of the people fighting for freedom in Iran are inspired by Western culture, that seems like a very counterproductive thing to do.

On the other hand, I'm not even sure Bush has an Iranian policy, so at least Kerry-Edwards is starting the conversation...

In the comments to this post, Cynthia Jane, the woman who runs one of my favorite liberal blogs, had this to say about my knocks against MTV:

I'm fairly certain I'm not brain dead and I'm also certain I enjoy MTV every now and then. Even the silly reality programs and "Pimp My Ride."

While I don't take political advice from Sean Combs, I do appreciate the network's desire to encourage young people to vote.

For the first part, I'm sorry to say but as far as I'm concerned, MTV died when Headbanger's Ball was cancelled. And yeah, I know they brought it back, but it's not the same. MTV is dead to me.

But as for the second point, I'm not altogether sure that "encouraging young people to vote" is necessarily the right thing to do. Look, if you're going to vote, you ought to be an informed voter, and you ought to take the time to look at issues. If you're inclined to do those things, you don't need to be encouraged to vote--you're already going to. [Well, in this election, an informed voter might stay at home and play Playstation. - Ed. Good point.] But why encourage people to vote if they already don't care enough to educate themselves? Why insert people into the political process when the method of doing so is much more likely to have them voting based on peer pressure and gut emotions than reason and knowledge? I'm not sure that's the best way to let the system work.

(Floor's open, CJ...)

"This morning I looked in the fridge and thought: What am I going to do with all this beer? The stupidest thing I have ever thought."
-- James Lileks

As Election Day nears, there are important issues that must be weighed in the selection of a candidate for the Presidency. There is also a lot of annoying crap that doesn't matter in the slightest.

As a public service announcement, we at Heretical Ideas would like to point out what is and isn't important in weighing the two candidates.

Important:

• Foreign Policy towards the Middle East
  
• The growth in entitlement spending as the Boomers retire
  
• The growing budget deficit and tax policy
  

Not Important:

• Which set of candidate's daughters got booed by the brain-dead idiots who actually enjoy MTV
  
• Which set of protesters was the cleverest or weirdest
  
• The Democratic and Republican Conventions
  

While there is certainly nothing wrong with enjoying Non-Important items as a source of humor or entertainment, we at Heretical Ideas would caution the use of such items as making any kind of substantive point about anything.

Thank you for your time. We will now resume our regular programming.

"No opinion, however absurd or incredible, can be imagined, which has not been maintained by some one of the philosophers."
-- Rene Descartes

Mark Kleiman asks:

I continue to be puzzled by the fact that grown-ups -- people who who aren't religious bigots or jingoists and who understand that a tax cut not matched with spending restraint is just a tax shift from the present to the future and (in this case) from the millionaires to the rest of the population -- are still thinking about voting for George W. Bush.

Well, it's possible that a grown-up might:

(a) Think that there were more currently pressing issues that they prefer Bush's policy on;

(b) Think that Kerry would be worse in terms of long-term deficits; or

(c) Distrust Kerry's fitness for the Office of the President of the United States.

I don't necessarily agree with all of these positions. However, it is possible for a reasonable person to think any or all of the above. And they can do it without being a "jingoist or religious bigot." Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't make them a child or a bigot.

Rick DeMent's post on Social Security is your required reading for the day. Here's a snippet:

In the 90's the Clinton Administration used the payroll tax money to reduce the deficit, a noble cause I suppose but it allowed him to claim, falsely, that we had eliminated the deficit. This was a lie. George Bush perpetuated this lie when he took office in 2001 claiming that since the treasury was in surplus that Americans deserved to receive some of that money back in the form of a tax cut.

What Bush did was to take payroll tax money and give it to income tax payers in the form of a so-called tax cut (and calling it a tax cut was another fib, it was really a loan).

Read the whole thing.

Appartenly revenge is a dish served at the behest of your brain looking for a fix.

A Swiss brain imaging study shows that punishing people when they behave unfairly activates the same reward circuitry of the brain that is fired up when sniffing cocaine or seeing a beautiful face.

The findings, which appear in the Aug. 27 issue of Science, may partly explain the phenomenon of "altruistic punishment," which is exacting revenge on behalf of a stranger.

"A lot of theoretical work in evolutionary biology and our previous experimental work suggest that altruistic punishment has been crucial for the evolution of cooperation in human societies," said Ernst Fehr, the senior author of the study who is director of the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics at the University of Zurich. "Our previous experiments show that if altruistic punishment is possible, cooperation flourishes. If we rule out altruistic punishment, cooperation breaks down."

Added John Hibbing, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln: "It [the new study] fits with research that has been done in recent years on the importance of punishment, not just that we cooperate automatically. The notion that a bad guy is going to get it is really important to humans."

No doubt this will make Julian Sanchez point out that the lack of superheroes in American society is even more perplexing than he thought before.

"Government subsidies can be critically analyzed according to a simple principle: You are smarter than the government, so when the government pays you to do something you wouldn't do on your own, it is almost always paying you to do something stupid."
-- P.J. O'Rourke

No doubt the latest test failure of an anti-ballistic missile system will be trotted out by those who oppose it and say "SEE! I told you it doesn't work!"

I've always thought that the current lack of the technological capability to build an anti-missile defense system to be an odd argument against implementing a system. Because the fact is, just because we can't make it now doesn't mean we won't be able to later. We have test failures now so we can learn from those mistakes and then should there be a missile attack, it'll work.

I happen to think that the development of an ABM system is a pretty damn good idea. It's not like there is a shortage of countries who don't like us that are trying to develop the capability of hitting us (see - China, Iran, and North Korea). Just because right now our primary enemies are terrorist groups unlikely to use ICBM's does not mean that our enemies will always be unlikely to use ICBM's. It seems to me that it's better to develop a defense system now than try to put together a crash program when we really need it.

And it's not like an ABM system would be a total waste of money, either. A successful system would likely produce lots of spin-off technologies in high-tech industries. Additionally, an ABM system could theoretically double as a defense system against, say, a large asteroid heading towards earth. Or who knows--there may be applications for the technology we haven't thought of yet.

But those side benefits notwithstanding, the bottom line is that if our enemies are trying to build missiles to hit us, it seems to me the development of technologies that make it so they can't is a pretty good idea.

John Kerry has challenged Bush to a series of weekly debates. Naturally, the Bush campaign declined. And of course that's what was going to happen. I doubt seriously whether anyone things that John Kerry was serious to what would be, by my count, nine debates. They'd be a pain to put together, and probably only hardcore political junkies would watch them. The three debate system we have now is probably one debate too many, but at least its few enough to motivate people outside the hardcore political junkie realm to watch them.

But of course, making this challenge is a no-brainer for Kerry. He knows Bush won't take the offer, so he doesn't have to worry about it. And declining the offer makes Bush look like he doesn't want to debate. Just typical election year BS.

It's a gorgeous day outside, there's loads of books you haven't read--why are you reading about politics? Ahh well, so long as you are, you might as well read Jesse Walker's excellent take on the whole Swift Vet thing.

And P.S. -- Looking for a good book? I just tore through The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. These are two of those sci-fi classics that I've been meaning to read for years and never did. I've been missing out--these are two of the best damn books I've ever read. Especially The Stars My Destination, which after a re-read will probably take its place somewhere in my top 20 books.

God I'm tired of the sniping children trying to convince me they're grown up enough to run the country, when the evidence indicates otherwise.

From the Kerry P.O.V.:

One of President Bush's top lawyers resigned from his campaign Wednesday, a day after disclosing that he had given legal advice to a veterans group airing TV ads challenging Democrat John Kerry's Vietnam War service. The guidance included checking ad scripts, the group said.

Benjamin Ginsberg, who also represented Bush in the 2000 Florida recount that made the Republican president, told Bush in a letter that he felt his legal work for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had become a distraction for the re-election campaign.

"I have decided to resign as national counsel to your campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated military veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of the law, doesn't distract from the real issues upon which you and the country should be focusing," Ginsberg wrote.

The Kerry campaign portrayed Ginsberg's departure as another sign of ties between the Bush campaign and the veterans group, which has been airing ads accusing Kerry of exaggerating his Vietnam record.

And now from the Bushies:

Ginsberg said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday that he didn't advise the veterans group on strategy, nor did he tell the Bush campaign or the group what he discussed with the other.

In his letter to Bush, Ginsberg accused the media of a "stunning double standard" regarding the activities of groups supporting and opposing Kerry.

Law firms on the Democratic side are also representing both the campaign or party and outside groups running ads in the presidential race. Washington attorney Joe Sandler represents the Democratic National Committee and a group airing anti-Bush ads, MoveOn.org.

DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera said that "isn't even comparable" to Ginsberg's relationship with the Bush campaign and veterans group.

"Of course a lawyer can have multiple clients," Cabrera said. "The issue here is one of deception. The Bush campaign repeatedly denied anyone on staff, including its legal counsel, had any ties to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth."

Kerry is the subject of complaints by the Bush campaign and the GOP accusing his campaign of illegally coordinating anti-Bush ads with soft-money groups on the Democratic side, allegations Kerry and the groups deny.

And now the money quote from the article:

Neither campaign has produced proof of coordination on the part of its rival.

That just about sums it up, doesn't it? Good lord, this election gets me more cynical by the second.

"There are many who find the burdens, the anxiety, and the isolation of an individual existence unbearable. This is particularly true when the opportunities for self-advancement are relatively meager, and one's individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for. Such persons sooner or later turn their backs on an individual existence and strive to acquire a sense of worth and a purpose by an identification with a holy cause, a leader, or a movement. The faith and pride they derive from such an identification serve them as substitutes for the unattainable self-confidence and self-respect."
-- Eric Hoffer

The American Anti-Slavery Group has organized a rally in New York City on September 12 demanding that the United Nations do something to stop Sudan's ongoing genocide. They also have an online petition for those not in the area. I don't know that protesting the U.N. will do any good, but it can't hurt. So if you live in the NYC area, this is certainly one great cause to rally behind on the 12th.

A while ago I asked people what they wanted to see - stories that may have slipped through the cracks. I believe it was Dana, from Note-It-Posts that wanted to know what had happened to the soldier who threw grenades in a bunch of his fellow soldiers' tents in the first few days of the Iraq war. Here's the latest:

A military judge Tuesday delayed the start of the death penalty court-martial proceedings against Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar until February 15, almost two years after the grenade attack that killed two U.S. officers during the first days of the war on Iraq.

Akbar's defense lawyers entered a not-guilty plea for him Tuesday. He could face execution if convicted.

Another officer testified in earlier proceedings that when he confronted Akbar, he threw him down on his face and asked, "Did you do this? Did you bomb the tent?" He said Akbar answered, "Yes."

Guess we will see what happens.

After watching countless hours of Olympics with Amanda, and constantly yelling at the screen at the stupid judges and the infinitely-annoying commentators ("Ooh, and that's not going to do it Al. Her knees weren't straight. She should get her legs broken and reset so they look straighter for the next Olympics.") I agree with this article that says that no judged events should be Olympic sports.

I mean, when you run a race, or throw a discus, or ride a bike to victory, unless someone is caught doping or cheating some other way (hitting, biting, etc) you are the champion. It's a struggle against the other runners - a known quantity that can't be disputed without a black and white violation.

When you are left at the mercy of other humans - flawed and "impartial", the best routine that the world has seen could get low scores. And we saw this again and again during the gymnastics competition this year. Paul Hamm caught up in debate over whether or not he should have the all-around gold after all...and then there was that 10 continuous minutes of booing and yelling when the Russian Alexei Nemov received an unbelievable low score on his high bar routine. In fact, the crowd wouldn't relent, so the Olympic Official forced the Malaysian and Canadian judges to rescore the routine. Just like that. It didn't make a difference in the outcomes - but it did show how arbitrary and ultimately meaningless the judges' opinions really are. Will future games come down to whatever country's fans can continue yelling the longest?

Some may argue that the most deserving athlete will still win - it will be the one who has prepared the best and delivers the best performance. But again, it boils down to relying on the interpretation of that performance by people who are influenced by the reputation and past performances of a certain athlete, and that's just ridiculous. Unfortunately, gymnastics and figure skating will continue to be some of the most popular sports at the Olympics - and while that's not bad in itself, the transfer of power to finicky and easily swayed judges will remain total.

When Dean Esmay made this post, my jaw dropped. I honestly don't know what he was thinking when he posted it. The explanation he gave a few days later, I admit, didn't make much sense to me either, where he tried to pawn off his race-baiting by saying "well, Dave Chappelle does racist humor, too!" Why? Because while some of Dave Chapelle's humor skates close to the racist edge, it never really goes over (except in the horrible "Real World" skit in the first season of the show--although I suppose it was equally racist to blacks and whites).

At any rate, I think the Oliver Willis's discussion of Dean's post is worth reading, if only to be reminded that racism is still very much prevalent in America.

But even more annoying are white people (and people of other races) who like to pretend that racism is something we killed long ago in the mid-'70s (this seems to be the ageed upon time where racism died). It isn't true. America is far from being colorblind in almost every segment of society.

It isn't even the complex things. Try going into a department store without being regarded as either poor ("You know how expensive that is, right?") or a criminal. Or people assuming that blacks are only good for entertaining, but can't be taken seriously as political leaders or corporate chieftains.

I'm not black, but I can vouch for what he's saying because I've witnessed it. Hell, I can vouch for it by turning on the television.

And Oliver's right that a lot of white people just want to ignore it and pretend everything's hunky dory, too. This was something I had burned into me when I was in high school and it's stuck with me ever since. I was watching the final round of an Original Oratory competition in a forensics tournament. (For those who didn't do this in high school: in original oratory, the students write and memorize a persuasive speech on whatever topic they want; they'll give those speeches to a set of judges, who ranks each of the speakers.) There were two speakers who stood out in my mind--a white girl who gave a speech on how hard it was to be fat in American, and a young black man who gave a speech on how blacks are portrayed in the media.

The white girl was awful. Her speech was overly emotional, she stumbled over it, forgot her place once, and cried at the end. (And she was obviously faking it.) The black man gave one of the best speeches I have seen in my life. Not only was he one of the best speakers I've ever seen, period, his speech itself was well-written and argued. He didn't dwell on emotion. He presented facts, straight up. Things like how on the nightly news, for example, the picture of a suspect in a violent crime is far more likely to be shown if he's black. He had the statistics to back him up. Point after point, with statistics and concrete examples, he showed how media, and TV in particular, pictures blacks as ignorant, stupid, cowardly and violent. To this day, I can't turn on TV without seeing his points in action. That speech he gave has stuck with me for almost ten years now.

At any rate, after the judges had time to deliberate, they announced the results. One of the speakers took first place, the other next-to-last place.

Do I even need to bother telling you that the white girl took first?

I'm extremely pleased to see that Shaun of the Dead will be released here in the U.S. I saw a test screening of it a few months ago, and it is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. It opens September 24th--go see it!

This is a bit of rather disingenuous campaigning on the part of the Democratic Party:

A state Democratic Party effort to sign up new voters mixes images of a military draft notice with a voter registration form, calling on people to make a choice between the two.

The first page of the mailing shows a draft notice with orders to report to a military induction center. The next shows a helicopter with troops in the foreground beneath a headline that says "Officials in Washington are calling for more troops in Iraq." Below, the mailing asks "Which form would you rather fill out?"

The implication, of course, is that voting Democrat means no draft. That implication is, of course, a bald faced lie.

The fact is, only one of the candidates is calling on the military to expand: John Kerry.

Congressmen have, indeed, initiated legislation to re-instate the draft. Those Congressmen are Democrats.

All I'm saying is that saying that the Democrats are the party of not drafting, when the Republican leadership, including the President and the Secretary of Defense, are adamantly against a draft and the only people advocating expanding the military and reinstating the draft are Democratic legislators is a little deceptive.

(link to the campaign story via Jay Caruso)

"John Kerry in Oregon Friday lashed out at the White House over the high price of gasoline. He was sincerely upset. If John Kerry had known how much money the oil companies were going to make, he would have married one of the Rockefeller widows."
-- Argus Hamilton

According to Drudge, so take it with a grain of salt, Kerry has tried to personally call some Swift Boat Veterans to try and sort this whole brouhaha out.

Dem presidential hopeful John Kerry personally phoned anti-Kerry swift boat vets, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Kerry reached out to Robert "Friar Tuck" Brant Cdr., USN (RET) Sunday night, just hours after former Sen. Bob Dole publicly challenged Kerry to apologize to veterans.

Brant was skipper of the #96 and # 36 boat and spent time with Kerry in An Thoi. Kerry and Brant slept in the same quarters, and Brant used to put Kerry back to bed at night when Kerry was sleepwalking.

Brant received a call from Kerry at his home in Virginia while he was watching the Olympics on TV.

I have to admit, Kerry gets points in my book for trying to handle this thing personally. Shame it couldn't have been worked out like this years ago so we wouldn't have to have it all blow up now.

INT. OFFICE OF BIGTIME HOLLYWOOD PRODUCER - MORNING

FRANKIE NOTHOUGHT, 35, bigtime Hollywood Producer, is reading a script. There are piles of them on his desk. He slams the one he's reading down in frustration and sweeps the pile off his desk. Angrily, he picks up the phone.

FRANKIE

Get me Tommy Intern, now!

TOMMY INTERN, 22, enters the room. Fresh faced and eager, he nervously sits down across the desk from FRANKIE NOTHOUGHT.

TOMMY

What can I do for you sir?

FRANKIE

I'll tell you what you can do! Get these damned scripts out of my office! I'm a movie producer, for god's sake! I don't have time for all these scripts with their original ideas, clever dialogue, and deep characterization! Audiences don't want that!

TOMMY

Umm... what do they want, sir?

FRANKIE

I'll tell you what they want--they want stuff they've seen before! People go into movies for comfort! So they can turn off their brains and escape to worlds that they've been to again and again and again. They don't want new things. They want old things!

TOMMY

Umm... is that all they want, sir?

FRANKIE
(chuckles)

No, son, no. That's not all they want. You've got to look at trends, man! You have to give them what they've seen before but make it seem hip and trendy.

TOMMY

So... what trends are in now, sir?

FRANKIE
(chomping on cigar as he speaks)

Three things, man, three things. All the Gen-Xers are waxing ironically nostalgic for the 70's. The housewives are loving Ellen DeGeneres on TV--friendly lesiban talk show hosts are in. And of course, there's the whole Jesus thing.

TOMMY
(confused)

Jesus thing, sir?

FRANKIE

Oh yeah! Christian is in, man! Mel Gibson made his Jesus movie and all the conservative nutjobs flocked to it! HBO made their movie with 70s acting icons and liberal angels and every latte drinker in New York stayed home and watched. Jesus is in, man!

TOMMY
(nervously)

So what you're saying is that we need a remake of a religious movie from the 70s that stars Ellen DeGeneres...?

FRANKIE
(explosively stands up from his chair)

That's BRILLIANT! You'll go far, my boy! Now, what movie should we do?

TOMMY
(sweating and frantic)

Umm... er... I dunno... OH GOD!

FRANKIE

That's it! That's it exactly! We'll remake Oh God! and star Ellen DeGeneres as God! That's perfect!

FRANKIE walks over to the pile of scripts on the floor, arranges them in a pile, and drops his still-lit cigar on them. The scripts quickly burst into flames.

FRANKIE

With God as my witness, so long as I'm in Hollywood, I will never produce a script that's original and thought-provoking!

Bobby Allison-Gallimore lists four CD's that he should be embarrassed to own, but loves anyway. Okay, I'll bite. If I had to name four? Here we go:

1) Once More, With Feeling -- that would be the soundrack from the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think the embarassment factor is pretty self-explanatory there.

2) Bad Company, 10 From 6 -- Basically, Bad Company's greatest hits. I'm 25 years old, people!

3) Army of Darkness, Original Score -- Yeah, I listen to the score of Army of Darkness. I like it, okay?

4) Indigo Girls, Inigo Girls -- Yeah, buried beneath the piles of Pantera, Metallica, and Type O Negative, there sits perhaps the best lesiban folk album ever. And I love it.

Alright, now quit laughing at me and tell me what albums you're embarassed to own!

Presented without spin or commentary.

North Korea called President George W. Bush an imbecile and a tyrant who puts Hitler in the shade, unleashing a stream of insults Monday that seemed to rule out any serious progress on nuclear disarmament talks before the American elections in November. . .

. . . "The negotiating process is stalled. It is clear they have just refused to participate in talks before the American presidential election," said Alexander Losyukov, who was Russia's negotiator at the talks until this past spring and is now Russia's ambassador to Japan. He added in an interview last week: "There are expectations in Pyongyang of a change in American policy. Probably they are wrong." Kerry has indicated that if elected president, he would pursue direct bilateral talks with North Korea within the existing six-country framework of the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. However, he has sharply criticized Bush for promising to pull out one-third of the 36,000 American troops in South Korea without winning any reciprocal military concession from Pyongyang.

"The North Koreans made it very clear, politely, that they want Mr. Kerry to win the election," said Kenneth Quinones, a former U.S. diplomat who was in Pyongyang this month for a Korean studies conference.

It's kind of like a Rorschach test, isn't it?

"You hear a lot of whining from editorial writers about declining voter paticipation in the presidential elections. The gist of this whining is that there's something wrong with the voters. But look at the candidates. Maybe the voters aren't voting because they recognize that our current political system, which has been created by and for paid political consultants, is almost guaranteed to present us with a choice between two suit-wearing Muppets."
-- Dave Barry

Amanda and I spent a long (and expensive) weekend in Indianapolis at the GenCon gaming convention. Last year, we only spent one day there and drove back that night, and so we decided to fully enjoy ourselves this year we had to go for as long as possible. I thought initially that we might get bored, but I was wrong, man, wrong.

The great thing about GenCon is that you can sign up for over 500 game sessions on any day, not to mention the impromptu games that people start, or a quick game with some friends. Plus there are movie showings, seminars, celebrity (within the geek world) signings - pretty much anything that you could want.

We arrived Thursday night around 9 PM and were pretty exhausted since I had gotten up early that morning and worked a full day, Amanda went to school all day, and we got sort of a late start since I had a going-away party at work. I start my Master's degree officially tomorrow, though classes don't start for another month or so. We skipped the D&D; 30th Anniversary party in favor of sleep, which was a good call. The next morning, we had signed up for a game called "World Cup Bicycle Racing" which was actually a pretty good interpretation of professional bicycle racing, only in boardgame form. Some guy made it in his garage and was playtesting it, but I think that it was well done. We then moved on to a Euchre tournament - it is the Midwest, after all - and we both did pretty good overall.

That night, we took part in a live action game called "National Security Decision Making." It's basically a political/economical/military live action game where players represent the governments of two countries and the game coordinators introduce things like wars, famines, civil unrest, etc. The two countries in this game (which lasted 4 hours) were China and Russia. Amanda and I were on separate teams, and players were assigned random roles. Even though it was my first game, I drew the People's Republic of China Chairman. I could rule with an iron fist! I managed to survive the elections at the midpoint of the game, assassinate the leader of a coup attempt (damn party ideologues), and fend off nuclear disaster being threatened by North Korea. The great thing is that the players make the game, and the rules are more of a loose framework than anything else. Amanda didn't even know about the wars going on, but ended up getting second place overall for doing a great job of playing her role. I was happy to hear people yell "Hey, Mr Chairman!" for the rest of the weekend, myself. If anyone is interested in more details, let me know.

The next day Amanda played 8 hours of the classic Avalon Hill game Advanced Civilization. I wandered the convention hall, testing out different games they had demos of. My favorites: Marvel Vs. TCG was simple and a lot of fun; Settlers of Catan is another simple but very fun boardgame that I highly recommend; Lunch Money is a fast, non-tradeable card game that I picked up a copy of. Jeers go to all of the other collectible card games I tried - they were all either ill-explained or simply too complex for anyone to have fun with. Just because it can't be like Magic doesn't mean you can't make a simple game, guys. Plus, there's a limit to how many CCGs one human can support.

That night we played in a No Limit Texas Hold-Em Poker tournament, where I did fairly well until I started to get too aggressive. For $15 buy-in, it was worth a try, and I had a good time.

The greatest part of the weekend was people watching. The crowd was made up of a wide variety of people, but 85% of them were the greasy, hairy guys(and gals) you generally would associate with these type of games. In fact, in the convention book that everyone got a copy of, they specifically asked all attendees to shower every day. If you have to ask....well, something's not right. In a fun twist, any halfway attractive woman with more than 20% of the skin on her body showing (or lots of cleavage) would be stopped about every 4 feet by some guy snapping a picture. It made even the most trollish of females feel like a superstar.

But all in all, I can't complain. Other than having to deal with the unavoidable lack of social skills by some of the other conventioneers, and some occasional stanky people, I had a great time. The weekend flew by, I left with some cool new games and I will definitely be heading back next year. Hope to see some of you there!

As I've announced many times, my vote is up for grabs. So if you're a Kerry supporter, and you'd like my support and endorsement of his campaign, a word of advice:

Don't be a condescending a**hole.

I'd appreciate it.

"Free speech? During a political campaign? I really don't think that's what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment."

You know, it's odd to me that nobody's thought of this as being a problem.

About 46,000 people are registered to vote in two states, New York and Florida, a violation of both states' laws that could affect the outcome of the November presidential election, according to an investigation by the Daily News.

Many New Yorkers spend the winter months in sunny Florida, which played a pivotal role in the 2000 election after George W. Bush narrowly won the state in a contested ballot recount. Florida could be a crucial state in the November presidential election.

Makes it pretty easy to vote twice, wouldn't you say? Go to the polls in New York and fill out an absentee ballot for Florida. Of course, this problem was brought up four years ago, particularly with respect to college students. I am a bit surprised though that nobody's bothered to do anything about it. Ah well... it's just more grist for the partisan mill and one more reason why, if this election is close, the losting side will challenge its legitimacy for the next four years.

This seems like a pretty ingenius way to shut down meth labs.

Assuming you can discourage thieves you cannot easily catch, a new product called GloTell -- which is added to tanks of anhydrous ammonia -- will not only besmirch the hands of those who touch the fertilizer, but leaves its mark on anyone who snorts or shoots the end product.

GloTell is already proving to be a handy deterrent, but details had to be worked out between its birth as a farmer's brainstorm and finished product. The additive had to withstand the cold, corrosive nature of anhydrous ammonia. It had to be safe for the environment, safe for crops and even safe around children.

And in the two years it took to develop GloTell, researchers at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale found it did much more than just stain thieves pink. The visible stain, even if washed off, was still detectable by ultraviolet light 24 to 72 hours later. As an added benefit, the additive helped farmers detect any tank leaks, said Truitt Clements, spokesman for Illinois-based GloTell Distributors.

Best of all, the treated anhydrous ammonia rendered any meth it was used to make extremely difficult to dry and turned it an unbleachable pink, he said.

"Most people that are drug users, they like a clean-looking drug if they are going to ... put it in their body," Clements said. "We know the end-product is not pretty at all."

Snort it, and it turns the nose fluorescent pink. Inject it, and the telltale pink shows up at the injection site, he said.

During product testing, GloTell was added to anhydrous ammonia tanks at farms that had been having problems with meth thefts in Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana, Clements said. Within a week, the thefts stopped. On Tuesday, GloTell was unveiled at the Illinois State Fair.

Meth labs are a huge problem out here in the MidWest, largely because of the large risk of explosions as well as chemical contamination in the environment. This seems like a pretty good way to deter thefts of chemical fertilizers and illicit meth production--without government involvement at all. Kudos to the folks who came up with the idea.

Back in the 70s and 80s, Bob Dole was well-known as a GOP "hatchet man." It seemed that in his post-candidate years that those days were behind him. Well, I guess not.

Dole told CNN's "Late Edition" that he warned Kerry months ago about going "too far" and that the Democrat may have himself to blame for the current situation, in which polls show him losing support among veterans.

"One day he's saying that we were shooting civilians, cutting off their ears, cutting off their heads, throwing away his medals or his ribbons," Dole said. "The next day he's standing there, 'I want to be president because I'm a Vietnam veteran.' Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served. He wasn't the only one in Vietnam," said Dole, whose World War II wounds left him without the use of his right arm.

Dole added: "And here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds. Three Purple Hearts and you're out."

I understand the critique of Kerry's post-war activities, even though I don't personally find them at all relevant to his candidacy today. But it did suprise me that Dole would criticize Kerry over the validity of his Purple Hearts. That just seems low even for Dole.

"The problem is that, to become the president, you have to run for president, which in the past few decades has become a brutally degrading experience involving unspeakable depths of pandering and sucking around for votes and money. It's a great big Suck-a-Thon, is what it is. No dignified person would voluntarily submit to it; the people who do submit to it are usually defective to begin with, and come out of the process moderately deranged, if not actually insane."
-- Dave Barry

You know the thing that really kills me about this stupid election we've got coming up? Here it is: in all perfect honesty, I wouldn't trust George Bush or John Kerry to run a f**king McDonald's, much less the exectuive branch of the government of the United States government. They're both pampered little rich boys who, if they hadn't been born into rich families would be damn lucky to be pulling down $50K a year as middle management, if they hadn't gotten downsized in the 90's. And even then their management position would be due to politicking ability, not merit or management ability.

I despise them both, so goddamn much, as human beings. I hate and deplore the fact that this is an election over what set of advisors I pray has the President's ear at the right time of the day so that maybe a halfway decent decision will get made.

I loathe the fact that we live in a soceity today where everyone is so goddamned eager to pry into every tiny little bit of the lives of public figures that only the most power-hungry and weak-minded souls run for private office, while persons eminently more qualified are also the kinds of persons who would punch a papparazzi in the face--and deservedly so. But as a result, those people don't run for office. And look who we're stuck with now.

We're living in a time where some pretty big decisions have to be made, where policies really need to be formed by consensus, and that are going to shape the course of the future. Instead we get platitudes. Example: for all the praise of Kerry's "energy independence" plan, I've never heard anyone ask about the geopolitical details. Let's say we do manage to get independent of Middle East oil. Great. Now what do we do when the economy of the Middle East collapses and the whole region becomes full of warfare and genocide like sub-Saharan Africa, with Israel in the middle? And that's just one freaking question--and it ought to be bloody obvious. Ditto Bush's hydrogen economy--if he's actually serious about that.

And in the midst of all this, the worst part of election season is watching people whose commentary I used to admire and respect have descended into absolute insanity. John Kerry forgot the date he was in Cambodia? Who the hell cares?!?! The brother of some guy who published a book that badmouths Kerry doesn't like interracial dating? Who the hell cares?!?! What does that say about anything at all? NOTHING!

Alright. This ranting is going nowhere. It's a gorgeous day outside, so I'm going to grab some beer and a book, sit outside, read, and silently thank the founding fathers for creating a system of government that even the greatest fools and meanest souls haven't managed to botch yet.

Good grief.

A soon-to-be-released audit will show that at least $8.8 billion in Iraqi money that was given to Iraqi ministries by the former U.S.-led authority there cannot be accounted for, FOX News has confirmed.

And three senators want to know where the cash is.

The draft audit by the Coalition Provisional Authority's inspector general chastises the CPA — formerly led by L. Paul Bremer — for "not providing adequate stewardship" of at least $8.8 billion from the Development Fund for Iraq. The audit is not expected to be released for at least two or three more weeks, possibly longer.

You would think there would be some sort of accountability to misplacing close to $9 billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars intended for the benefit of the Iraqi people. But my money's on nobody getting punished for this at all.

Much I have severe doubts about the asserted competence of a Kerry Administration, it's hard to believe they could be worse than this one sometimes...

(link via Matthew Yglesias)

The Pope may be willing to turn a blind eye to purported servants of God who rape children, but he is certainly not willing to turn a blind eye to scientific research that harms noone.

Pope John Paul on Sunday condemned human cloning as an arrogant attempt to improve on God's creation.

"The sense of power that every technical progress inspires in man is well known," the pope said in a message sent from his summer residence in Castelgandolfo to a meeting of prominent Catholic cultural, political and business leaders in the Italian city of Rimini.

"The attempt by man to appropriate the source of life by experimenting with human cloning is example enough," he said in a message sent at the start of the week-long event.

Well, I suppose it took the Catholic Church centuries to admit that, yeah, the Earth goes around the sun, so it's no surprise that they take a dim view of cloning. Hell, some days I'm surprised the Pope travels by car--after all, internal combustion is just over a century old. But I digress. If there is some sort of all-powerful deity, then his opinion on "appropriating his power" would probably be indifference. After all, he's all-powerful. If he doesn't like something we do, he can stop it, right? Of course, if he's not all-powerful, just really powerful, then his opinion is either (A) delight that his creations are growing and developing into powerful beings in their own right (God as a good parent) or (B) fear that his creations may overtake him some day (God as a bad parent). If God's opinoin is "(A)", then scientific research into the human animal via cloning is just fine. If God's opinion is "(B)", then God is the enemy of the human race, and we ought to accelerate scientific research so he doesn't wipe us out.

That's my opinion, anyway.

The Iraqi soccer team defeated Australia yesterday 1-0, paving their way to play Paraguay in the Semi-finals on Tuesday.

Jeff Jarvis is preaching a great Sunday sermon.

By emphasizing Vietnam, Kerry scraped the scab of the war. And then the Swifties -- backed by Bushies -- poured salt onto it. The wound is not healed. And it's stinging again. If we're not careful, it will start bleeding.

Nothing good is coming of this. It's not illuminating anything about the candidates. Oh, you can screech at me all you want about this in the comments -- Lord knows, you have -- but all the screeching won't tell me what to think. As a voter, I still say I don't care.

I don't care about the Vietnam war.

We are in a war now. We are in a war against terrorists and Islamofascists and for modernity and civilization and America. That is the war I care about.

Can I get an Amen? A-MEN!

"The federal government has become gigantic, unbelievably expensive, insanely complicated, and absurdly bossy. Yet often this same government is sincerely trying, in its clumsy federal way, to do the right thing, to help us, much as King Kong sincerely believed he was helping Fay Wray when he carried her against her will up the Empire State Building."
-- Dave Barry

As Matt Welch rightly points out, the Kerry campaign has done very little to highlight what changes would be made in foreign policy should Kerry be elected.

Ever since the Democratic Convention in Boston last month, the John-John ticket has been grumbling about having to fend off accusations that would-be president John Kerry previously fudged vivid details of his war record in Vietnam and (most controversially) Cambodia. There is indeed considerable merit to the notion that a nation at war should be focusing on 2004 instead of 1968, but if Kerry's convention performance was any guide, his go-to selling point for taking the reigns of the "war on terror" is the fact that he was piloting swift-boats up the Mekong back when Osama bin Laden was busy trying to grow his first beard.

Those of us anxious to hear some actual specifics about what a Kerry foreign policy would be for, especially in the Middle East and Central Asia, were instead treated to a smorgasbord of what Democrats these days are against: alienating allies, manipulating intelligence, cutting benefits for military veterans and going to war against Saddam Hussein's regime in the precise way that President George W. Bush went to war against Saddam Hussein's regime. . .

. . .There were two excellent strategic reasons for this muzzled approach: By limiting most foreign policy discussion to a catalogue of Bush's sins, the Democrats could try to position this election as a referendum on the increasingly unpopular incumbent. And by offering little or no specifics in response, Kerry could remain a viable vessel for the many anti-Bush voters out there, even though they disagree violently about fundamental issues of war, Middle Eastern democratization and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

One thing that lures me away from casting my vote for Kerry is the realization that in the White House, Kerry will be facing not only a hostile Republican Congress, but Democrats themselves will be divided on crucial issues of foreign policy. Even though Presidents have a lot of leeway in foreign policy, their power isn't absolute. How does Kerry expect anything to get done in the foreign policy sphere without a strong, unified base behind him? I don't know the answer to that. It's obviously not going to be raised in teh campaign. I just hope he's thinking about it, that's all.

Whoo boy. The campaign is getting nastier.

A few hours after he spoke, the Kerry campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that alleged the group behind the ad was illegally coordinating its efforts with the Bush-Cheney campaign. It cited "recent press reports" and the group's own statements. The Bush campaign denied the allegation.

Campaigns often file complaints with the FEC, but the agency rarely intervenes quickly enough to alter the course of a race.

The Bush campaign has responded.

This is a frivolous complaint that even John Kerry’s chief strategist has said they have no evidence to support. Real coordination is what John Kerry’s campaign has been engaged in with the Media Fund, America Coming Together, and MoveOn.org. The revolving door of personnel, coordinated strategies and overlapping fundraising between the Democrat 527s and the Kerry campaign is a flagrant disregard of the spirit and letter of the campaign finance reform law.

Does that mean that Bush intends to file FEC complaints? Most likely. Ahh well. God forbid that campaigns debate issues and policy, I suppose.

Hopefully, this article might give proponents of racial profiling some pause.

Al-Qaeda allies are believed to be scouting U.S. targets, and the terror organization is using non-Arab recruits to avoid detection, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials say.

The FBI has counterterrorism investigations in virtually all 56 of its field offices but has not broken up a known surveillance cell, either because agents are tailing suspects who have not committed crimes or because they have descriptions but not identities.

This makes perfect sense. Not all Islamists or Islamist sympathisers are Arabs. So if racial profiling ever began in earnest, it might backfire because people would slip right through detection by virtue of being a non-targeted race.

"If I was going to kill you, I'd be stepping over your body right now on my way out the door."
-- Brisco County, Jr. (Bruce Campbell) in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

Whoops.

Critics say the FBI’s war on terrorism is out of order.

They may be right in at least one respect.

Visitors to the Detroit FBI’s Web site looking for a telephone number to call in tips about terrorist activity will find a toll-free number that hasn’t worked for nearly three years.

After being alerted Tuesday by a reader who said he had tried repeatedly to get through on the number in recent weeks, The Detroit News unsuccessfully made numerous calls to the phone number over the past two days.

Well, I mean it's not like fighting terrorism is the FBI's job or anything, right? And seriously, just because you're talking about a major city near the Canadian border, what possible consequences could this sort of action have?

The New York Times has a piece up about the Swift Boat Veterans. It's filled with a lot of unsurprising, irrelevant information. For example, would you believe that these guys organized? And that, in an election year when they're criticizing the Democratic nominee for President, Republicans have financed them?

But there's some meat in the NYT story, too, and it doesn't look good for the Swift Boat Vets.

The group's arguments have foundered on other contradictions. In the television commercial, Dr. Louis Letson looks into the camera and declares, "I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury." Dr. Letson does not dispute the wound - a piece of shrapnel above Mr. Kerry's left elbow - but he and others in the group argue that it was minor and self-inflicted.

Yet Dr. Letson's name does not appear on any of the medical records for Mr. Kerry. Under "person administering treatment" for the injury, the form is signed by a medic, J. C. Carreon, who died several years ago. Dr. Letson said it was common for medics to treat sailors with the kind of injury that Mr. Kerry had and to fill out paperwork when doctors did the treatment.

Asked in an interview if there was any way to confirm he had treated Mr. Kerry, Dr. Letson said, "I guess you'll have to take my word for it."

The group also offers the account of William L. Schachte Jr., a retired rear admiral who says in the book that he had been on the small skimmer on which Mr. Kerry was injured that night in December 1968. He contends that Mr. Kerry wounded himself while firing a grenade.

But the two other men who acknowledged that they had been with Mr. Kerry, Bill Zaladonis and Mr. Runyon, say they cannot recall a third crew member. "Me and Bill aren't the smartest, but we can count to three," Mr. Runyon said in an interview. And even Dr. Letson said he had not recalled Mr. Schachte until he had a conversation with another veteran earlier this year and received a subsequent phone call from Mr. Schachte himself.

Mr. Schachte did not return a telephone call, and a spokesman for the group said he would not comment.

The Silver Star was awarded after Mr. Kerry's boat came under heavy fire from shore during a mission in February 1969. According to Navy records, he turned the boat to charge the Vietcong position. An enemy solider sprang from the shore about 10 feet in front of the boat. Mr. Kerry leaped onto the shore, chased the soldier behind a small hut and killed him, seizing a B-40 rocket launcher with a round in the chamber.

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth describes the man Mr. Kerry killed as a solitary wounded teenager "in a loincloth," who may or may not have been armed. They say the charge to the beach was planned the night before and, citing a report from one crew member on a different boat, maintain that the sailors even schemed about who would win which medals.

The group says Mr. Kerry himself wrote the reports that led to the medal. But Mr. Elliott and Mr. Lonsdale, who handled reports going up the line for recognition, have previously said that a medal would be awarded only if there was corroboration from others and that they had thoroughly corroborated the accounts.

"Witness reports were reviewed; battle reports were reviewed," Mr. Lonsdale said at the 1996 news conference, adding, "It was a very complete and carefully orchestrated procedure." In his statements Mr. Elliott described the action that day as "intense" and "unusual."

As more of this sort of thing comes about the Swift Boat Veterans, I think that this whole campaign may end up backfiring on Kerry's critics. Look, as far as I'm concerned, it's the Swift Boat Vets' burden to prove their side of the story. Kerry's got military documentation on his side. Until those documents are proven false, the safe assumption is that Kerry's record is legit.

I don't really like John Kerry as a human being. I'm unconvinced that he is qualified to be President of the United States. I also don't think he is a particularly good Senator. I think that his conduct in falsely accusing U.S. soldiers of war crimes after Vietnam is particularly shameful. However, his military record itself shows that when he was over there, he served honorably, and I've yet to see anything to change my mind about that.

(Link via James Joyner, who has similar thoughts.)

Wow. Looks like Madden 2005 is smashing sales records.

"Madden NFL 2005," the latest version of Electronic Arts' pro football video game franchise, sold more than 1.3 million copies in its first week of release, the company said Thursday, citing internal figures.

The strong sales were expected, as the company said pre-orders for the game before its release were running well ahead of 2003, when "Madden NFL 2004" was the best-selling video game of the year.

Earlier this week, retailer GameStop said the game was already one of its best-selling ever.

Of course, that's what happens when you consistently put out a quality product. I don't have 2005 yet, but I love playing 2004. I'm also a huge fan of EA's NCAA Football series, which is a better game than Madden, if you ask me.

In a follow up to the Washington Post article I linked to yesterday, it seems that the Swift Boat Vets are sticking to their story.

Why would Thurlow's Bronze Star citation be wrong about "enemy bullets flying"? Former Navy Commander George Elliott, who signed Thurlow's citation, told Human Events he based the claim that there was enemy fire that day on an after-action report that Thurlow and two other officers on the scene believe was written by Kerry. I got the information from the after-action report," said Elliott.

Thurlow and his colleagues have good reason to believe Kerry authored this report because, other than Thurlow, there were only four Swift boat commanders on the scene that day in 1969. One was Kerry. One was Donald Droz, who is now deceased. And the two others were Richard Pees and Jack Chenoweth, who back Thurlow's claim that there was no hostile fire that day.

Thurlow, Chenoweth and Pees all say they did not write the after-action report that said there was hostile fire. All say they believe Kerry wrote it. "Kerry campaign researchers dispute that assertion,” the Post reported this morning, "and there is no convincing documentary evidence to settle the claim."

It seems like it should be simple enough to clear this up, I suppose. I don't know enough about day-to-day military ops. Can somebody help me out? When you have a situation like this, who writes the after-action reports? Who sees them? How do you know who wrote them? You can actually read the after-action report here on John Kerry's website, but I don't know how to interpret these things in terms of authorship.

Getting the date you were in Cambodia wrong is one thing--a lot of soldiers embellish war stories. But it seems to me that falsifying an official report is a more serious matter. However, if the author of the report turns out to be Kerry, all that does is make it an issue of his word versus theirs. I'm not sure what evidence could be brought to bear to clear up this incident at all. Although, I admit, the Kerry ad featuring Jim Rassmann, where Rassmann claims that there was Viet Cong fire, is pretty damned persuasive. As far as I'm aware, Rassmann doesn't have any reason to lie about this.

** UPDATE: Or, it may well be that nobody is lying at all.

It looks like the military investigation into Abu Gharib will place the blame on high-ranking officers in the military.

An Army investigation into the role of military intelligence personnel in the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison reports that the scandal was not just caused by a small circle of rogue military police soldiers but resulted from failures of leadership rising to the highest levels of the U.S. command in Iraq, senior defense officials said.

Of course, not so much blame that any officers be considered criminally liable.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been completed, said the 9,000-page document says that a combination of leadership failings, confounding policies, lack of discipline and absolute confusion at the prison led to the abuse. It widens the scope of culpability from seven MPs who have been charged with abuse to include nearly 20 low-ranking soldiers who could face criminal prosecution in military courts. No Army officers, however, are expected to face criminal charges.

Officials also said that the report implicates five civilian contractors in the abuse, and that Army officials plan to recommend that their cases be sent to the Justice Department for possible prosecution in civilian courts.

Hopefully, everyone who was involved in the horrific abuse at Abu Gharib will be punished for what they did. It was a sick and shameful thing. And any officers responsible should be punished, even if their responsibility doesn't rise to the level of criminal liability. Even negligence in this case should merit some type of punishment.

John Kerry yesterday:

peaking in Cincinnati at the convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Kerry attacked Bush’s plan to bring home troops from Cold War-era bases in Europe and Asia.

“Nobody wants to bring troops home more than those of us who have fought in foreign wars,” Kerry said. “But it needs to be done at the right time and in a sensible way. This is not that time or that way.”

Bush announced his plan Monday at the same gathering. The president said the repositioning of forces would help save money on maintaining bases overseas.

Kerry singled out Bush’s plan to cut 12,000 of the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea for criticism.

“Why are we withdrawing unilaterally 12,000 troops from the Korean Peninsula at the very time we are negotiating with North Korea — a country that really has nuclear weapons?” Kerry asked.

John Kerry, on August 1:

I will have significant, enormous reduction in the level of troops. . . . I think we can significantly change the deployment of troops, not just there but elsewhere in the world. In the Korean peninsula perhaps, in Europe perhaps. There are great possibilities open to us. But this administration has very little imagination.

Ahh... the politics of an election year. Seriously, what's the problem with Kerry saying, "Yeah, I think the President is doing the right thing in this case." ?

Of course, Bush could do the same--rather than have a silly flash game up on his website. But then again, class, dignity and intelligence are not exactly hallmarks of either Bush's or Kerry's campaigns.

(link via Jay Caruso)

** UPDATE: Geez... looks like Kerry isn't the only one who changed his mind on the issue. Although in fairness, the most recent Bush quote is from over two years ago, which is a much longer time to change your mind on an issue than two weeks. Still, doesn't look that good, does it?

** UPDATE 2: Oliver Willis has a different version of Kerry's quote, minus ellipsis.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Can you promise that American troops will be home [from Iraq] by the end of your first term?

KERRY: I will have significant, enormous reduction in the level of troops. We will probably have a continued presence of some kind, certainly in the [Middle East] region. If the diplomacy that I believe can be put in place can work, I think we can significantly change the deployment of troops, not just there [Iraq] but elsewhere in the world. In the Korean peninsula perhaps, in Europe perhaps. There are great possibilities open to us.

In context, this isn't so much of a flip-flop on Kerry's part. Presumably, when Kerry said Bush wasn't changing troop deployment "in a sensible way"--he meant without the diplomacy he believes can be put in place. What that diplomacy is, I don't know. But that certainly changes the charge of Kerry changing his tune.

"And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning."
-- Isaac Asimov

Here's a nightmare little scenario for Kerry supporters. After the Democrats have done their best to keep Nader off the ballot, might they end up being undone by Michael Badnarik? It's possible.

In New Mexico, the race for the White House is just as close today as it was four years ago. In Election 2000, Gore won the state by less than 400 votes.

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey finds both John Kerry and George W. Bush with 46% of the vote among New Mexico voters. Libertarian Michael Badnarik has 4% and Ralph Nader is not on the ballot in New Mexico.

This result moves New Mexico to the "Toss-Up" column for our Electoral College projection. Our previous survey in New Mexico showed Kerry with a 7-point lead. At that point, we placed the state's Electoral Votes in the "Leans Kerry" category.

Michael Badnarik's campaign has bought TV air time targeting New Mexico in particular. Given that the state has gone from leaning Kerry to a virtual tie, with Badnarik polling at 4%, I dare say that the ads may have been played a part. Particularly this ad.

It'll be interesting to see how this develops...

I think there's something to be said for this.

John Kerry said he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve when really that happened later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How can you trust the man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the hat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my God the hat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Meanwhile, GWB claims that the exposure of AQ Khan's global nuclear sales ring was a major success in the war on terrorism when, in fact, one of the most dangerous people on the planet has gotten the harsh, harsh penalty of house arrest and the US has not been allowed to interrogate Khan. Why? Pakistani government doesn't want an embarassing inquiry that would reveal their own complicity, Bush cut a deal: they try to get some high-value al-Qaeda targets before the election, and Bush continues to look the other way on Pakistani proliferation. But John Kerry said he voted for the resolution before he voted against it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whether the John Kerry "was he or wasn't he in Cambodia" story gets legs, I don't know. I still haven't decided if it's that important or not. But there certainly are aspects of Kerry's record that are ripe for criticism, in my opinion. His Senate attendance records, his general lack of leadership in the Senate, his lack of executive experience, etc. Not to mention his voting record. At any rate, I know that Matt doesn't want to be a partisan hack, but you'd think that a Kerry supporter might be wary of encouraging Bush supporters to make more substantive critiques of Kerry, wouldn't you?

Due to circumstances beyond the control of either me or my hosting service, the site was down most of the day. The problem's been solved and everything should work smoothly now. Thanks to Michal Wallace for solving the problem so quickly.

This New York Times op-ed by Dahlia Lithwick is pretty remarkable. Not so much for its actual content, but for the assumptions behind the cotent. The piece itself is an exhortation to opponents of President Bush to not make him out to be an idiot so as not to alienate swing voters. Of course, swing voters (like myself) probably don't take kindly to discussions about how best to manipulate them (I know I don't).

With that in mind, there seem to be two unspoken assumptions in this article.

1. That most Kerry supporters really do see Bush as an idiotic, bumbling child.

2. That swing voters don't read New York Times op-eds--Kerry supporters do.

I find both of these unspoken assumptiosn interesting, myself. I don't necessarily agree that these two things are true, but it seems that both of these assumptions would have to be believed, at least subconsciously, if you were going to make the decision to publish this op-ed in the New York Times.

This is unbelievable.

A Milwaukee minister whose attempt to perform an exorcism ended in the death of an 8-year-old boy was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison and 7 1/2 years of state supervision for the botched ritual last August.

The sentence bars Ray Anthony Hemphill, 46, a former maintenance worker with no religious schooling who conducted services in a strip-mall sanctuary, from attempting any more exorcisms during the next 10 years without formal training in the practice. Circuit Judge Jean DiMotto said the prohibition, and the extended supervision, were needed to protect Milwaukee from Hemphill's unorthodox religious practices.

"The community cannot risk another child being hurt, much less being killed, in a religious ritual," DiMotto said.

No kidding. The guy should go away for a lot longer than 30 months, if you ask me. And how on earth can you get "formal training" in exorcism? Kids, there's no such thing as demons! The child in question in this case had autism, and this "minister" preyed on the ignorance of his parents--probably to make a few bucks--and a child died in the process. Just a sick story all the way around.

Iraq's soccer team lost to Morocco yesterday 2-1. Never fear, though. Iraq's still playing in the quarterfinal round against Australia on Saturday.

I'm not all that terribly interested in the whole Vietnam record thing--bet it Bush's or Kerry's. However, seeing as how at least one of the Swift Boat Veteran's claims now appear to be contradicted by military records, I think that's worth mentioning.

Newly obtained military records of one of Sen. John F. Kerry's most vocal critics, who has accused the Democratic presidential candidate of lying about his wartime record to win medals, contradict his own version of events.

In newspaper interviews and a best-selling book, Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Navy Swift boat alongside Kerry in Vietnam, has strongly disputed Kerry's claim that the Massachusetts Democrat's boat came under fire during a mission in Viet Cong-controlled territory on March 13, 1969. Kerry won a Bronze Star for his actions that day.

But Thurlow's military records, portions of which were released yesterday to The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, contain several references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" directed at "all units" of the five-boat flotilla. Thurlow won his own Bronze Star that day, and the citation praises him for providing assistance to a damaged Swift boat "despite enemy bullets flying about him."

Thurlow maintains his claim that no enemy fire was present, even though it's in his own citation. Color me skeptical, though. Also of interest in the article is that Thurlow won't release his military records. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the Swift Boat Vets asking Kerry to release his? At any rate, this revelation is a pretty big blow to the Swift Boat Vets campaign against Kerry. If you're going to make as seroius charges against someone as they're making, they ought to have the evidence to back them up.

Daniel Drezner asks:

This leads to an disturbing question. Which is better: a foreign policy with a clearly articulated grand strategy but a f#$%ed-up policy process, or a foreign policy with no articulated grand strategy but a superior policy process?

Matthew Yglesias votes in favor of a "superior policy process."

This is like wondering if you should hire the architectural firm whose structural engineer doesn't know what he's doing just because you like their clear, aesthetic vision for your house. The only problem is -- your house is going to fall down, so the aesthetic qualities aren't all that relevant. You want to just buy the firm's pretty model and put it up as an object in your less-pretty, but non-collapsed, house constructed by the competition. Implementation is very important.

James Joyner opts for vision.

Honestly, this choice, even if we take its premises for granted, seems obvious to me. I'd rather drive a crappy car that breaks down now and again in bad neighborhoods, but at least know where I'm trying to go than drive a slightly less crappy car that turns around every few minutes because because it's nuancenator kicks in. Neither option is all that great, to be sure. But there is at least some slight chance of reaching your destination in the first instance. Indeed, in the second instance, even if you somehow got to where you were supposed to be going, how the hell would you know?

Personally, I think that the premises here are extraordinarily skewed. Despite the large amount of admiration for the "Bush doctrine" of foreign policy, the so-called doctrine appears to me to be largely the creation of conservative foreign policy intellectuals--not an actual grand strategy of the Administration. The Administration has some idea of what it wants to do, but it's deeply divided into ideological camps, with a President in the middle who's largely dependent on his coterie of ideologically divided advisors to make decisions. I don't think that the President really has a clear vision of what he wants to accomplish in the foreign policy realm, and Bush's lack of a grand vision is probably what hurts his Administration more than anything else.

As for Kerry, where on earth does this automatic assumption that he's going to have a competent foreign policy come from? In many ways, Kerry's presidency won't be all that different from Bush's. Both men are intelligent, but not intellecually curious. Both have a difficult time with decisionmaking. Kerry lacks executive experience, and his record in the Senate shows him to be more of a follower than a leader. The net result? The Kerry presidency is likely going to be centered around a non-intellectually curious man who is more dependent than usual on his advisors to make decisions. Sound familiar?

The worst part about this election is that we're caught in the middle of voting for two rather weak charactered sons of privilege who will be dominated by whomever has their ear. We're not really voting for President--we're voting for what set of advisors we want setting policy in the White House. And the thing is, who Kerry's will be is a fairly unknown quantity at this time. However, I wouldn't be surprised if it was composed of a bunch of old Democratic hands and a couple of guys Kerry knows. Pretty much like Bush. The two men are more alike than I think most partisans will admit.

"The meaning of life is not to be discovered only after death in some hidden, mysterious realm; on the contrary, it can be found by eating the succulent fruit of the Tree of Life and by living in the here and now as fully and creatively as we can."
-- Paul Kurtz

Mark Kleiman asks:

Does anyone have a theory about how announcing a plan to reduce troop levels in South Korea, without getting any sort of promise in return from the North Koreans, is supposed to be a good idea? I'm not asking for anything definitive, just a hint about how this could possibly come out on the plus side.

The only answer I could come up with off the top of my head was that if you were employing a "mad bomber" diplomatic strategy, removing American troops from the Korean peninsula might create the impression of a greater willingness to use nuclear weapons against North Korea. After all, having US troops there is like having hostages, because the use of nuclear weapons could potentially harm American forces. However, with no American troops in the theater, that concern with using nukes goes away.

Mind you, I'm not suggesting that this is Bush's intention or even a particularly good idea. Just a suggestion as to how it could "possibly be on the plus side."

In the short term, I think that this was a a pretty smart move by Kerry.

John Kerry on Tuesday condemned a television ad that criticizes President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard, even as prominent veterans linked to the Democratic presidential campaign echoed the commercial's accusations.

In a campaign shadowed by the war on terror, the military records of Kerry and Bush emerged again as an issue after Republican Sen. John McCain called on Kerry to denounce an ad that accuses Bush of using family connections to avoid the Vietnam War.

In the short term, this is a good idea. In the long term, though, you have to wonder about the precedent. Now that Kerry has condemned one ad, it's going to make any lack of condemnation of a particular ad or statement seem like a tactic endorsement of same. At least, that's the spin that will be used by Kerry's detractors. I think we're heading into dangerous political territory when the supporters of a particular candidate are used as fodder against the candidate. There are lunatics everywhere. And some of them have lots of money. Is it going to be incumbent upon every presidential candidate to monitor web sites, ads, etc. in order to know what to condemn? That seems like a waste of time to me.

(link via Oliver Willis)

I hope they could manage to do this one right.

The rumors about FREDDY VS. JASON VS. ASH are true. Today's Hollywood Reporter confirms that New Line Cinema has entered discussions with director Sam Raimi, the fellow who helmed the three EVIL DEAD pictures and who owns the copyright to Ash, the sarcastic hero of the DEAD trilogy. If a deal can be reached, Ash will go up against the two horror slasher icons in the sequel to last summer's FREDDY VS. JASON. In that case, it's expected that Bruce Campbell will strike a deal to play Ash for the fourth time. It's unlikely that Raimi would direct the film; he's got plans to helm SPIDER-MAN 3 (set for release in May 2007), but Raimi would likely take a producing credit on the VERSUS film.

The problem is, the only way this could be perfect is if Ash takes out Freddy and Jason once and for all. But the odds of that happening? Slim. Still, I don't think there'd be too much doubt that I'd be at the midnight showing of this one opening day...

"Don't touch that please. Your primitive intellect wouldn't understand things like alloys and compositions and things with... molecular structures."
-- Ash (Bruce Campbell) in Army of Darkness

"A domestic centerpiece of the Republican agenda for the second Bush term is getting rid of the Internal Revenue Service. They want to do away with the IRS. Whew! So I guess they are serious about going after terrorist organizations."
-- Jay Leno

It seems that Saturn has two more moons that no one has seen before, bringing the total up to 33.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spied two new little moons around satellite-rich Saturn, the space agency said Monday. The images were taken by Cassini on June 1 from 10 million miles out, as it approached the ringed planet. The spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn on June 30.

Geez, Saturn. You're like a moon factory.

In addition to the info that Alex posted the other day about comic movies, you can check out Comic Book Movie for all the news you would want about every comic-based movie coming out in the next 4+ years.

*WARNING* There may be some spoilers ahead, if you care about those things.

So I just got back from a post-work matinee of this movie and it was what I expected. Nothing more, nothing less, just some brawling and a predictable plot line. There was only really one "SWEET" moment for me when the predator and alien met for the first time, but that was about it. And what's with the lone survivor being some tough and sassy woman in every movie all of a sudden? It happened in Resident Evil, it happened in this movie...it's like everyone remembered the original Aliens franchise and now it's all the rage. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but when the plot is so formulaic that it HAS to be the woman who survives, it kind of hurts the overall feel of the movie.

Anyways, it was decent. I was interested in the trailer for Constantine and I also saw that a movie is being made about Man-Thing, a Marvel comic that I've never read but is basically an evil version of DC's Swamp Thing as far as I can tell. Constantine will be based on the Hellblazer comic and could be cool as long as: 1) Keanu Reeves doesn't suck it up as John Constantine, and 2) The writing is better than Hellboy's was. We shall see.

And the hits just keep on coming for the Iraqi soccer team.

Iraq (news - web sites)'s fairytale Olympic run continued on Sunday when they beat Costa Rica 2-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the Athens Games.

Second-half goals from Hawar Mohammed and substitute Mahdi Karim in Athens gave war-weary Iraq a perfect six points from two games in Group D of the men's soccer competition.

Iraq's under-23 side, who have endured extreme hardship to qualify for the Olympics, stunned Portugal 4-2 in their opening game. Iraq reached the Asian Cup quarter-finals last month.

"Our success is so important for our people and our country because we are facing so many difficulties," said Mohammed.

"We had no facilities or pitches to train on for so long but our determination has seen us through."

Here's hoping they keep it up!

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
-- Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) in The Princess Bride

• Apparently, Jude Law learned in an interview that Darren Aronofsky is directing the movie version of Watchmen and is planning on gunning for the chance to play Ozymandias. Apparently ol' Jude is quite the comics fanboy. Sounds good to me--Guy Pearce is my first choice for Ozymandias, but Jude Law would be a great pick, too.

• Speaking of gunning for jobs, since Bryan Singer is going to be doing the new Superman movie, that's left quite the gaping hole for X-Men fans. Apparently, though, Joss Whedon of Buffy, Angel and Firefly fame is gunning to direct X-Men 3. Cool by me--and let him write the thing, too!

• After becoming world-famous for playing Jesus in The Passion, what can Jim Caviezel possibly do to top that? Well, instead of playing the only son of God, he might be trying his hand at playing the Last Son of Krypton. Other rumors have Singer looking to cast an unknown, though, so time will tell on this one...

How did the fascist movement start? Who started it? What were it's beliefs? If you don't know the answers to those questions--or even think you do know, check out this fantastic article about the history and origins of European fascism.

Nick Gillespie isn't buying the "Dick Cheney: Evil Genius" theory that gets a lot of play in anti-Bush circles. Quite the contrary, Gillespie sees him as pretty much a snivelling "yes man".

Far from being the Richelieu of latter-day America, Cheney is the ultimate organization man, an insecure yes man whose balls are so tightly in the vise that he's always struggling not break down and cry. If anything, he's the Larry Tate of contemporary politics, a shameless ass-kisser who changes his opinions to flatter those in power, just like Darren Stephen's "bombastic boss" on Bewitched did. There's something about his demeanor that, to me anyway, suggests his entire adult life has been one never-ending Maalox moment—that he's always choking down a sour stomach.

And he makes some good points about it, too. Read the whole thing.

"For what we are about to see next, we must enter quietly into the realm of genius."
-- Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) in Young Frankenstein

Totally awesome.

In its first Olympic competition since its country was shattered by war, Iraq upset star-studded Portugal 4-2 on Thursday in a gritty, come-from-behind victory that set off cheers and celebrations among some 200 fans.

“This victory will be received with happiness by my people, who have suffered through much,” said Iraqi coach Adnan Hamad, whose countrymen were already taking to the streets of Baghdad, lighting up the night sky with streaks of celebratory gunfire.

I hope they go all the way.

It took over 200 police officers and no doubt thousands of dollars, but, hey--it's worth it to stop a major threat to our security.

After nearly a year of investigation, authorities arrested 23 people Tuesday and seized dozens of homes and vehicles in the first outward strike against an organization suspected of moving roughly $1 million in marijuana into Tucson each day.

More than 200 officers with four agencies canvassed the Tucson area with 35 arrest warrants and 20 search warrants against the multinational smuggling ring, said Tucson Police Department Capt. David Neri, commander of the multi-agency Counter Narcotics Alliance.

"Today was the first obvious large step in dismantling the drug-trafficking organization," Neri said at an afternoon press conference announcing the arrests. "This is an extremely significant case for Southern Arizona."

With secondary stash houses and trafficking hubs in at least Phoenix, Los Angeles, Denver, New York, New Jersey and Ohio, the marijuana was likely distributed nationwide, said Sgt. Marco Borboa, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.

Yeah, those damn pot smugglers. Always out there, beheading people on live TV, threatening government officials and financial institutions, blowing up buildings... oh wait, no. They don't do any of those things. They do, however, distract hundreds of law enforcement officers from focusing efforts on terrorists, murderers, and other criminals...

Where on earth do they find candidates like this?

It's not every day you get to ask the candidate an issue question like this.

"Don't you like to watch two lesbians playing pool?" I asked.

"Absolutely not," said Republican candidate Ed Heeney, who will be on the ballot in November for a seat in the Florida Legislature.

"They're not as sweet as everybody perceives," said Heeney, 50, of Boynton Beach, whose campaign has spiraled into a forum on lesbians and billiards.

For the record: He thinks lesbians are ruining pool in South Florida.

He tells of a harrowing pool tournament in a lesbian bar where his second shot on a run turned into a brawl.

"The lesbians were trying to get at me," he said. "The bar was full of them."

Uhm, is Mr. Heeney sure that he's straight? Lesbians are hot. Girls playing pool are really hot. How on Earth do you put them together and not like the results? If you're a straight guy, anyway.

Seriously, just as a total aside, can I just state for the record that blatant dislike for homosexuals completely baffles me? I understand, even though I disagree with, people who find homosexuality itself wrong. Centuries of tradition in lots of human cultures, blah blah blah... Okay, fine. You're wrong, but that doesn't necessarily make you nuts. But actual dislike for homosexuals per se? To the point of crude stereotypes and irrational attitudes like this nutjob running for the Florida legislature?

I don't get it. I really don't.

(Well, actually, I have a theory that it's rooted in male chauvanism, but I don't really feel like typing 5000 words on the subject, so I'm not gonna. Bottom line, though--ya don't like male homosexuality because it means a man has to "act like a woman", and ya don't like lesbianism because it's girls getting on quite well without a man thankyouverymuch. And maybe a dash of fear that a gay man might treat them the way they treat women... I suppose if I get a high demand I might hash this out some more, but let's leave it at that for now, okay?)

Link to the story came courtesy of Jim Henley, who I really wish would come off his blog hiatus permanently.

Dahlia Lithwick bemoans "free speech zones."

So it has come down to this: You are at liberty to exercise your First Amendment right to assemble and to protest, so long as you do so from behind chain-link fences and razor wire, or miles from the audience you seek to address.

The largely ignored "free-speech zone" at the Democratic convention in Boston last month was an affront to the spirit of the Constitution. The situation will be only slightly better when the Republicans gather this month in New York, where indiscriminate searches and the use of glorified veal cages for protesters have been limited by a federal judge. So far, the only protesters with access to the area next to Madison Square Garden are some anti-abortion Christians. High-fiving delegates evidently fosters little risk of violence.

I agree with a lot of the points in her piece--namely, that we should be wary of overzealously arresting people for their ideas. But while the "free speech zones" are silly, they're not necessarily unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has ruled that "time, place and manner" restrictions on free speech and assembly are okay. That is, a city can limit assembly to certain times and places for political or social rallies, so long as such restrictions are applied equally to everybody. This is a pretty hard common sense--protests, especially on a large scale, can make life miserable in a big city. It's not unconstitutional to say that you can't march in the middle of a highway during rush hour. By the same token, there's nothing wrong with a city saying that any rally expected to draw more than "x" number of people in a public park with limited facilities has to get a permit.

Now, the "free speech zones" in New York and Boston are pretty awful--especially with the chain link fences and whatnot. As a policy matter, we probably should work to strike some balance. But it's not like free speech is a potential victim here. People are perfectly free to criticize Democrats and Republicans alike by publishing web sites, magazines, flyers, pamphlets etc., or by holding rallies on private property, or by buying billboard space or advertising in news papers or delivering talking points to cable news networks or whatever.

I agree with Lithwick that we should have more balance in allowing rallies and protests near major political events. But that doesn't mean we take common sense out of the equation, either. It's not a violation of your free speech rights to say you can't march in the middle of the entrance to somebody else's gig--that violates the other guy's freedom of speech and assembly.

Even if this is true (it's Drudge and only Drudge, so who knows), why is it our business?

Democrat presidential hopeful John Kerry and his wife got into a heated argument after a campaign rally in Arizona Sunday night -- a heated argument so hot they spent the night in different rooms!

A well-placed law enforcement source tells DRUDGE how Kerry and Teresa Heinz moved to separate suites at Flagstaff's Little America Hotel.

"It was a cooling off, nothing more," says a top source.

While I admit that I laughed out loud at Jeff Goldstein's take on that story, the fact of the matter is, this stuff happens. Man, just because a guy's running for President, does that mean we have to know the intimate details of his life to the point where we know whether he had a spat with his wife? Gimme a freaking break, people. It's not our business!

Heart of Stone


What is Your Heart REALLY Made of?
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I await the snarky--"Well, of course--you're a libertarian!" comments...

(link via Fiat Lux)

"In ESPN magazine, John Kerry said he's learned a lot about life from playing sports. Yeah like so many other kids in impoverished areas who turn to polo as a way out."
-- Jay Leno

Wow. This is probably the most ridiculous anti-Bush attack I've seen yet. He's a bad president because he may or may not have made an illegal rugby move? Kids, we're facing some serious issues in this country. Maybe Bush is the best man for the next four years. Maybe Kerry is. I don't know--nor have I decided yet. (Actually--strike that "best man" and replace it with "better man"--neither of those guys would be my first choice for the Presidency.) However, reducing your attacks to childish, ridiculous personal attacks is not the way to convince anyone of anything--except that maybe you've lost your freaking mind to mindless hatred.

(link via Q and O)

While the media has been going back and forth over Bush's and Kerry's war service, completely overlooked has been this unit from the Vietnam War finally being cleared of the false charges filed against them over thirty years ago.

After more than 30 years spent hiding in the Los Angeles underground as wanted criminals, the members of the crack commando unit Alpha Team, commonly known as the A-Team, were cleared of all charges brought against them by the U.S. military, an army official announced Monday.

"In 1972, we arrested the members of the A-Team for a crime they swore they didn't commit," Gen. Stephen Lupo said. "They broke out of our maximum-security stockade, and from that moment forth, I thought of nothing but their recapture. However, a recent audit of their file has revealed that the arrest of the Alpha Force members was made in error. The U.S. military deeply regrets the mistake."

According to Lupo, the A-Team members' exoneration will occur before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on Aug. 24.

It's about time, if you ask me.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I don't care what the context or who it is--prison rape is no laughing matter. This is especially true in the case of a person who, although a scumbag, has not been proved to be a murderer in a court of law.

Prisons are nasty, brutal places, and dehumanize all parties involved. I don't know that there's a viable alternative to prison--especially for hardcore violent offenders, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to figure one out. Jokes about prison life don't really make matters better, and the overall feeling that prisoners somehow "deserve" what they get (even though non-violent offenders are the most common victims) is nothing short of disgusting.

"There's more to life than a little money, ya know. Don'tcha know that? And here ya are. And it's a beautiful day. Well. I just don't understand it."
-- Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) in Fargo

On the Kerry/Edwards official campaign blog, they are demanding that Bush deounce a guy writing an anti-Kerry book on the grounds that he appears to be anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Jewish.

Kerry campaign spokesperson Chad Clanton denounced Corsi's quotes and his book: “These quotes are disgusting and as unbelievable as the author's smears against John Kerry. President Bush should immediately condemn this sleazy book written by a virulent anti-Catholic, anti-religious bigot. It says something about the smear campaign against John Kerry that it has stooped to enlist a hate-monger.”

I think it's a little much to suggest that Joe Corsi is part of the official Bush campaign. Look, candidates of all political stripes have supporters who are kooky, racist, hatemongering, etc. Is it the job of a candidate to denounce each and every one of them? That seems a little unfair to me, whether it's this Corsi guy or Ann Coulter or Michael Savage or asking Kerry to denounce Michael Moore or Al Franken or whoever. Nutballs speak for themselves; not candidates.

James Joyner is not pleased with the OSCE monitoring U.S. elections.

You have GOT to be kidding me. We're not some Third World banana republic. The idea of foreign busybodies "monitoring" our elections is outrageous. The United States has more experience running successful elections than virtually all the OSCE members combined.

As I pointed out earlier this week, there's really no big deal about this. The OSCE has monitored both the 2002 mid-term Congressional elections and the 2003 California gubernatorial election. As far as I can tell, there was no claim of bias or unfair play by them in those elections--of course, you'll note Republicans won those elections, which may be why the right didn't care then.

At any rate, the idea that the U.S. is somehow lacking in problems of election fraud or miscounting is patently absurd. If OSCE monitoring makes the process more transparent and decreases fraud, what's the problem? There is ZERO evidence that they'll somehow be "biased" against Republicans or Democratsm. All there is is the kneejerk mistrust of any international organization, regardless of the merits of that mistrust.

President Bush has picked a replacement for George Tenet.

President Bush on Tuesday nominated Rep. Porter Goss of Florida to head the embattled CIA, saying the former agency operative "knows the CIA inside and out."

"He is well prepared for this mission," the president said of Goss, chairman of the House intelligence committee. "He's the right man to lead and support the agency at this critical moment in our nation's history."

I have zero idea as to whether he's suited for the role. He was the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, so I suppose he has some idea about what he's getting into, though. I just hope Bush managed to make a good pick. I'm not holding my breath, mind you, but stranger things have happened.

I always find it strange to read tributes to Johnny Cash's faith in the pages of National Review. I mean, it's not surprising that National Review and its readers would be interested in a country star who wore his faith on his sleeve. But you'd think they'd at least mention in passing that as a result of his deep Christian faith, Johnny Cash was, you know... liberal.

But I guess that wouldn't play as well to his audience, wouldn't it?

Interesting article from Gregg Easterbrook on how we don't need more firefighters.

Though firefighters have numerous duties, their chief task is to fight building fires--and building fires are in a long-term cycle of decline. In 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are available, there were 48 percent fewer building fires in the United States than in 1977, though there were substantially more buildings. From 1977 to 2002, civilian deaths in fires declined 46 percent and deaths of firefighters declined 38 percent. The trends of fewer fires, fewer civilian deaths, and fewer firefighter deaths hold for almost every year of the past quarter-century except 2001, the year of September 11. Stricter building codes, the proliferation of smoke detectors, and the fact that most new commercial structures and many new homes have built-in sprinkler systems has led to a big drop in the incidence and severity of building fires.

Once, fire trucks roared out of firehouses on a regular basis; now, a fire company may go days or even weeks without a fire to respond to. For instance the fire department in Green Bay, Wisconsin, reports that in 2003 , it received 389 fire calls--an average of one fire call per week for each of Green Bay's seven fire stations. Some fire departments have begun sending fire trucks along on ambulance calls, just to keep firefighters in practice manning their trucks and moving out fast. The decline in building fires should be credited in no small part to firefighters, their unions, and fire departments: All three spent decades pushing for smoke detectors, built-in sprinklers, and tougher building codes. The results have been extremely beneficial to the public. But this leaves firefighters with less to do.

This is one of those things so miraculous that it goes completely unnoticed. Ever since human beings started living in cities, fire has been one of the deadliest scourges of history. But now, along with the deaths caused by plague, earthquakes, and other catastrophes, we've managed to beat back fire, too. Not completely, mind you, anymore than we've conquered the aforementioned scourges completely. But still--take a step back. Pretty amazing, isn't it?

"A woman is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man. "
-- Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Honestly, I think that all the guys at these parties are just hoping that they will get laid, no matter what the "rules" are.

The idea for cuddle parties loosely came about after Mihalko, a 14-year masseur, began giving massages to other masseurs who never got the chance to receive them.

Signs that people need to be touched were brought home one day when Mihalko said he noticed a woman bawling from the emotional release that a massage provided her at an outdoor stand in midtown Manhattan.

"It started out as a joke," Baczynski said. "Now we talk about cuddling all the time. It's just been amazing."

Curiosity is a big driver for people who attend cuddle parties, and it is a better way to meet people than going to a bar, getting drunk and spending the night with someone just because of the need for some affection, she said.

An introduction to cuddling ensues, first by hugging three people. People then get in a circle on their hands and knees, rub shoulders and moo like cows. After a bit of swaying, everyone falls to their side, which puts them into an easy cuddling position.

And I read Playboy only for the articles.

John Kerry, on the war.

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said on Monday he would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing force against Iraq even if he had known then no weapons of mass destruction would be found.

Taking up a challenge from President Bush, whom he will face in the Nov. 2 election, the Massachusetts senator said: "I'll answer it directly. Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it is the right authority for a president to have but I would have used that authority effectively."

Er, wait a minute. I thought that, first of all, Kerry voted for the resolution in order to get things moving on the U.N. side. And even then that was because he was "duped" by the Administration on the WMD issue. So I guess he's changed his tune on that now, too?

Given that Kerry may be our next Commander-in-Chief, it would be nice to know that he's at least got some semblance of an idea about what he wants to do in Iraq.

Jeez, I hope they don't blame all this on the video games.

A dispute over clothes and a video game system between a young woman and a squatter in her grandparents' house apparently sparked the vicious beating and stabbing murders of six people whose bodies were found late last week in a blood-spattered home, police said.

Troy Victorino, 27, Robert Cannon, 18, Jerone Hunter, 18 and Michael Salas, 18, are charged with first-degree murder and armed burglary. The teens confessed shortly after they were arrested Saturday, authorities said.

I mean, there were clothes there too!

James Joyner ably deconstructs Kerry's war plans--at least, the ones given in this USA Today op-ed. He neatly sums up his points by pointing out:

With all due respect, Senator, it isn't a plan. It's a series of platitudes basically saying nothing more than "We're going to do exactly what the Bush Administration has been doing but it's going to somehow work when we do it."

And he's right about this point, too. Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: McQ has similar thoughts.

Summum Bonum

All the breath and the bloom of the year
in the bag of one bee
All the wonder and wealth of the mine
in the heart of one gem
In the core of one pearl all the shade
and the shine of the sea
Breath and bloom, shade and shine, wonder, wealth,
and how far above them
Truth that's brighter than gem
Trust that's purer than pearl,
Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe
all were for me
In the kiss of one girl.

by Robert Browning

Only reason for posting this poem is that as election time draws nearer, it's important to remember that politics is a means to an end, not in end in and of itself.

"It means I'll never have to work again."
-- Don McLean, upon being asked what 'American Pie' means

Apparently, the Congressional Black Caucus has gotten their wish, and international observers will monitor the presidential election.

A team of international observers will monitor the presidential election in November, according to the U.S. State Department.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was invited to monitor the election by the State Department. The observers will come from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

It will be the first time such a team has been present for a U.S. presidential election.

I don't relaly have an opinion on this either way. From my vantage point, both Democrats and Republicans have played dirty election tricks in the past, and if international observers will help prevent that, more power to them. I was interested to read, however, that this isn't the first time U.S. elections have been monitored.

OSCE, based in Vienna, Austria, has sent more than 10,000 personnel to monitor more than 150 elections and referenda in more than 30 countries during the past decade, Gunnarsdottir said.

In November 2002, OSCE sent 10 observers on a weeklong mission to monitor the U.S. midterm elections. OSCE also sent observers to monitor the California gubernatorial recall election last year.

Interesting. No doubt this sort of thing outrages a lot of conservatives, but I'm pretty internationalist by inclination, and I don't really see this as a bad thing.

Chris Lawrence answered Michelle Malkin's quiz, too. And he provided an answer to one of the questions that made me spit my coke out on my keyboard.

I oppose condom distribution in public schools.

Yes. The bastards ought to have to pay for them, just like the rest of us do.

I can't really argue with that.

"If falsehood, like truth, had but one face, we would be more on equal terms. For we would consider the contrary of what the liar said to be certain. But the opposite of truth has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field."
-- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Michelle Malkin has an ideological quiz for media types. I guess it's to rank how conservative you are. It's five points per yes, 20 questions, so all yes's would presumably be 100. Here are my answers:

1. I have never voted for a Democrat in my life.

0 points on this. I vote Democrat more often than I do Republican.

2. I think my taxes are too high.

I certainly do. But for the record, I'd prefer cutting spending than cutting taxes. 5 points.

3. I supported Bill Clinton's impeachment.

I did at the time. Looking back on it---ugh! Censure was probably a more appropriate option. 2.5 points.

4. I voted for President Bush in 2000.

Voted for Harry Browne. 0 points.

5. I am a gun owner.

Not at present. Eventually, though. 0 points.

6. I support school voucher programs.

Yes--with some hesitation. I am concerned that the implementation of such programs will only increase, rather than decrease, government involvement in education. 3.5 points.

7. I oppose condom distribution in public schools.

In high school and college? Not really. 0 points.

8. I oppose bilingual education.

Well, I support it in theory--teaching kids in their native language while they learn English and phasing out the native language instruction. But I do oppose it in its current incarnation. 2.5 points.

9. I oppose gay marriage.

Quite the opposite. 0 points.

10. I want Social Security privatized.

Yes. 5 points.

11. I believe racial profiling at airports is common sense.

No, I think it's stupid, because it ignores the fact that the terrorists we face aren't all of one race and ignores the alliances that Islamists are making with white supremicist and other groups. 0 points.

12. I shop at Wal-Mart.

And I love it! 5 points.

13. I enjoy talk radio.

If by "enjoy" you mean, "drives me to cynical suicidal depression about the future of the human race" then yes. If you mean "enjoy" in the normal sense, then no. 0 points.

14. I am annoyed when news editors substitute the phrase "undocumented person" for "illegal alien."

God forbid we use actual legal terms in public discourse. I don't have a problem with about 98% of the illegal immigrants in this country and I wholly support making their status legal rather than deporting them. I certainly oppose demonizing them. 0 points.

15. I do not believe the phrase "a chink in the armor" is offensive.

I also believe that this question was to insure at least one question where everyone said yes. 5 points.

16. I eat meat.

I am right this second, in fact. 5 points.

17. I believe O.J. Simpson was guilty.

With all the information I have now, yes. 5 points.

18. I cheered when I learned that Saddam Hussein had been captured.

Who didn't? Except maybe Saddam? 5 points.

19. I cry when I hear "Proud to be an American" by Lee Greenwood.

In annoyance? Yes. I do tear up on the rare occasions someone sings the third and fourth stanzas of the Star-Spangled Banner, though. 0 points.

20. I don't believe the New York Times.

They have problems, to be sure, but the bulk of their coverage is pretty reliable. 0 points.

Total points: 44. I don't think that makes me very conservative. But then, that's not really much of a surprise, is it?

Did Tom Ridge out a double agent last week? It certainly looks that way.

Douglas Jehl and David Rohde wrote in the article published Monday, Aug. 2, "The unannounced capture of a figure from Al Qaeda in Pakistan several weeks ago led the Central Intelligence Agency to the rich lode of information that prompted the terror alert on Sunday, according to senior American officials. The figure, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, was described by a Pakistani intelligence official as a 25-year-old computer engineer, arrested July 13, who had used and helped to operate a secret Qaeda communications system where information was transferred via coded messages." Reuters seems to say that the first, early morning edition of the article just identified the figure as "Khan."

Reuters implies that once the Americans blew Khan's cover, the Pakistani ISI were willing to give Rohde more details in Karachi.

This part of the Reuters chronology seems not quite right to me, unless the early-edition Jehl/Rohde story on Monday only gave "Khan" and not the full name.

Anyway, Khan had been secretly apprehended by Pakistani military intelligence in mid-July, and had been turned into a double agent. He was actively helping investigators penetrate further into al-Qaeda cells and activities via computer, and was still cooperating when the "senior Bush administration" figure told Jehl about him.

Juan Cole attributes this outing to stupidity or political calculation. To be fair, though, a third possibility is that Khan had outserved his usefulness as a double agent. Given that he was captured by the Pakistani ISI, which is riddled with Islamist sympathizers, it may well be that he was compromised before the Administration made its announcement last weekend. We'll probably never know, though.

"To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one's thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one's mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality."
-- Ayn Rand

This is a weird story.

Neal David Sutz of Mesa, Ariz., filed suit in federal court in Phoenix last week in connection with his effort to attend a taping of psychologist Phil McGraw's syndicated series in 2003.

Sutz and other prospective audience members were asked to sign a waiver attesting that they didn't suffer a mental illness and weren't under psychiatric care, according to the suit.

Sutz, who's been treated for bipolar disorder, informed a show representative of his condition and was told he could watch the taping if he didn't talk to McGraw or participate in the program.

So did this guy actually want Dr. Phil to help him out with his illness? Now that's crazy!

The Bush Administration is apparently targeting the coveted Amish vote in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Amish live without electricity, cars, telephones, and usually, without voting. But they are being sought out this year as Republicans try to sign up every possible supporter in presidential battleground states.

Amish almost always side with the Republican Party when they do vote — making them an attractive, if unlikely, voting bloc in the neck-and-neck campaign between President Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry. A majority of the nation's Amish live in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.

"Pennsylvania and Ohio are just absolute battleground states, and to think that the Amish could weigh in to the tune of thousands of votes that are clearly going to be Republican — that could be very significant for Bush," said Chet Beiler, a former Amish who has been dropping off voter registration forms at Amish businesses and farms in hopes of signing up as many as 3,000 new voters.

This is just pretty strange because I would never have thought of the Amish as a source for voters. I guess my gut's right on this, because the article indicates that less than 10 percent of the Amish even bother voting, which makes sense to me.

On a side note, one interesting aspect of going through law school is that until you do, I don't think it's possible to convey what a special status they have in American law. They're exempt from lots of laws--truancy laws and labor laws, in particular, that no other religious group would likely get away with. Don't get me wrong--I think that the survival of Amish communities is a really cool thing, even though their lifestyle is diametrically opposed to mine. But they're a fascinating part of American culture.

Now here's a remake that I can get behind!

VAN HELSING helmer Stephen Sommers and his producing pal Bob Ducsay have acquired the film rights to FLASH GORDON and will produce a new movie for Universal Pictures based on the pulp sci-fi hero. Sommers may write the screenplay for the FLASH film, as he did with the two MUMMY movies and VAN HELSING. He's also left the door open to possibly direct the new picture.

Personally, I say as long as they stick to Queen's soundtrack, it's all good.

"It's just another building, Clark. A few more guards; a few more locks."
-- Batman (Clark Bartram) to Superman (Michael O'Hearn) on breaking into the White House in the short film World's Finest

This is one of the funniest blogs I've come across in awhile. And you gotta love any dame with the stones to name herself after a divine command. Well, I do, anyway.

James Joyner will be debating Atrios (aka Duncan Black) on Janeane Garofalo's website. Should be fun, but Atrios is fighting way out of his intellectual weight class, so it won't be terribly enlightening. I'd love to see a good left/right matchup--James Joyner vs. Matthew Yglesias, for example, would probably be one of the most reasoned and thoughtful political debates of all time. Ah well... you take what you can get...

I haven't really looked into the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group much--though I agree that their TV ad is pretty devastating. As to the veracity of their claims? That I don't know.

However, I do agree with Jay Caruso that Kerry's attempts to threaten TV stations who air the ad with the possibility of a lawsuit will likely backfire on the campaign. Like Jay says, it makes it look like Kerry's got something to hide--regardless of the merits of the suit. Kerry's best bet would be either to ignore the group and hope the issue quiets down or respond with ads in kind.

So wearing this t-shirt means that you want to kill black people? Hmm... I seem to have missed that subtle message. I guess I wasn't wearing the right sunglasses today...

(via Michele)

It looks like the CPA had mismanaged Iraqi funds and disbursed it to U.S. companies in violation of its own rules.

That analysis and several audit reports released in recent weeks shed new light on how the occupation authority handled the Iraqi money it controlled. They show that the CPA at times violated its own rules, authorizing Iraqi money when it didn't have a quorum or proper Iraqi representation at meetings, and kept such sloppy records that the paperwork for several major contracts could not be found. During the first half of the occupation, the CPA depended heavily on no-bid contracts that were questioned by auditors. And the occupation's shifting of projects that were publicly announced to be financed by U.S. money to Iraqi money prompted the Iraqi finance minister to complain that the "ad hoc" process put the CPA in danger of losing the trust of the people.

This was just the sort of thing that needlessly hampered our efforts to rebuild Iraqi society. The rules were already laid down--how hard is it to follow them.

Oh, and some of you may be asking: Gee, if Iraqi funds were mismanaged, then who benefitted from the mismanagement?

Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., a subsidiary of Halliburton, was paid $1.66 billion from the Iraqi money, primarily to cover the cost of importing fuel from Kuwait. The job was tacked on to a no-bid contract that was the subject of several investigations after allegations surfaced that a subcontractor for Houston-based KBR overcharged by as much as $61 million for the fuel.

I'm shocked by this one. Totally, totally shocked. Well, I mean, shocked if you define the word as "not surprised in the slightest."

(link via Oliver Willis)

They've finally cast a Lord Voldemort for the upcoming Harry Potter movie. And the job goes to Ralph Fiennes.

He-who-must-not-be named has a name. Ralph Fiennes, who has played many a baddie in his time, with appearances including those in Schindler's List and Red Dragon, is to play the ultimate modern villain. He has been cast as Voldemort in the latest Harry Potter film.

Personally, I was pulling for Patrick Stewart as Voldemort, because I think he'd be perfect for the part. But Fiennes is an excellent choice, too.

Well, I moved the links back over to the right and the site seems to work a lot better that way. I've also toned down some of the color to make it easier on the eyes. Still having some individual entry issues, but permalinks for the past few days seem to work okay.

It looks like the Illinois Republicans are going to ask Alan Keyes to run for Senate.

Illinois Republican leaders asked two-time presidential hopeful Alan Keyes (news - web sites) on Wednesday to be their Senate candidate, but like a string of previous possibilities, Keyes said he needed a few days to think about it.

Keyes told a news conference Wednesday night that he would make an announcement by Sunday.

"If I do step forward to pick up that challenge, I will be laying a lot on the line in terms of what I have tried to do in this country," he said.

Funny, when I read this article, I didn't realize Keyes lived in Illinois. However, it turns out that he doesn't actually live there. I personally don't see the point in voting for a Senator who doesn't have any ties to the local community. But then, Keyes is probably a little too out-of-the mainstream with his conservative views to win an election, anyway.

"Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us. And on my soul, I swear: until my dream of a world where dignity, honor and justice becomes the reality we all share, I'll never stop fighting."
-- Superman, in Joe Kelly's What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?

Jonathan Rauch has a fascinating article about the effect 9/11 had on the DTCC.

America has changed since September 11. You don't always see the change, but it is there, nowhere more pervasively and importantly than at DTCC. DTCC? Chances are you've never heard of it. With luck, you will never need to.

If the economy were a house, DTCC would be the plumbing. It clears and settles the millions of stocks, government and private bonds, mortgage-backed securities, mutual fund shares, and other securities that are traded in the American financial markets. The markets, remember, trade only promises to buy and sell. After the trade, money and securities need to change hands. Only if the books close every night can buyers and sellers know their positions and resume trading the next morning.

As recently as the 1960s, Manhattan witnessed a daily Dickensian spectacle of messengers scurrying through the financial district with pouches of stock certificates and checks. Only when mountains of paperwork were processed could each day's books close. Each exchange, moreover, ran its own settlement system. In those days, Goldstein notes, the cumbersome settlement system strained to accommodate 15 million shares a day, and the stock exchange had to close on Wednesdays just to process its transactions.

In the 1970s, the financial sector set out to centralize and automate settlement. Today, a single private clearinghouse settles U.S. securities trades, with as many as 4.5 _billion_ shares changing hands on a peak day. That clearinghouse is DTCC. . .

. . . On the morning of September 11, Considine was in a meeting, planning that day's employee-appreciation picnic. The meeting broke up when everyone heard an unusual noise. By the time the second plane hit, many, including Considine, were watching, horrified, from the windows. As the towers collapsed, the company shut off the air conditioning, checked its emergency generators, and called the Federal Reserve. "I looked out and saw Lower Manhattan was just chaos," Considine says. "Everyone here was bleeding because we all knew someone."

She went from floor to floor, flashlight in one hand and walkie-talkie in the other, to reassure and rally employees. At about 11 a.m., word came that the Fed was staying open to process transactions. "As soon as we knew the Fed was ready to settle," she said, "we settled. It's embedded in our DNA. The salmon has to go upstream to spawn, and we settle."

Not all the miracle workers of 9/11 were at the Trade Center site that day. Considine spent two nights on her office couch. George Peretti, an engineer who speaks rapid-fire Brooklynese and is in charge of business-continuity planning, spent two nights on the floor and in office chairs. (The company has since bought air mattresses.) "We pulled out a lot of tricks to make things happen," Peretti says. With Wall Street devastated and many key banks and brokerages scrambling to evacuate their offices and improvise backup arrangements, DTCC still managed to close its books by 7:30 p.m. on September 11 -- less than three hours late.

That week, DTCC cleared $1.8 trillion. The financial system never felt a bump. Employees speak of that week with the awe and pride of combat veterans.

Interesting stuff. Read the whole thing.

Some former Gitmo detainees have written a book in which they allege horrific treatment.

The men — who were released from Guantanamo in March and flown home to England, where police freed them without charge — describe an experience of isolation and brutality at the U.S. base.

Their account alleges that they were "kept in cages infested with rats." One said he was put in a "cell smeared with excrement." All say they were subjected to beatings.

Ahmed claims a guard "kicked me about 20 times to my left thigh and punched me as well. I had a large bruise on my leg and couldn't walk for nearly one month."

I don't know whether these men are telling the truth or not. However, in light of the treatment of prisoners at Abu Gharib, it's not hard to believe their story. What's worse, their treatment probably led to a decrease in the quality of our intelligence about al-Qaeda, as well.

But the former prisoners say that after a year and a half of confinement, the harsh treatment led them to make false confessions during interrogations.

All three admitted to appearing in a video with Osama bin Laden, despite the fact that all three were in England at the time the video was taped, a fact later confirmed by British intelligence.

Rasul said, "I was going out of my mind and did not know what was going on. I was desperate for it to end and therefore, eventually, I just gave in and admitted to being in the video."

Torture is pretty much a no-win scenario, because given brutal enough treatment, you can get almost anyone to say almost anything. As Objectivists like to say, "the moral choice is also the practical one."

More good news from Pakistan.

Security forces in Pakistan have arrested seven more al Qaeda suspects, including two alleged high-level operatives of African origin...

...One of the men arrested on Monday in the Pakistani city of Lahore was a Nigerian, known as Ibrahim, who intelligence officials say was found carrying coded messages on computer disks.

Ibrahim is also believed to be linked to another recently captured suspect, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who had been sought by U.S. officials for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa...

...It is believed the U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies have been working together closely on the latest arrests.

"The intelligence agencies between Islamabad and Washington are working on the material that they've seized over the last few weeks and months -- the computers, the discs, the documents -- and they are trying to get as much information as they can in terms of some sort of a timetable," CNN Ash-har Quraishi reports from Islamabad.

Let's hope they keep up the good work.

Unless, of course, they're only capturing al-Qaeda members to keep Bush in office. If that's the case, then let those terrorists go!

This is interesting. It looks like a side "benefit" of acid rain would be to reduce the production of methane--thereby inhibiting any potential man-made global warming.

Acid rain, the pollutant blamed for killing fish and damaging forests, has been shown by new research to have an unexpected environmental benefit.

British scientists have discovered that it reduces emissions of a key greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

Their research suggests that the high sulphur content of acid rain cuts the production of methane, which is thought to be responsible for about a fifth of today’s enhanced global warming effect.

Food for thought. Oh, and that popping sound you heard? That was a Green Party activist's head exploding...

As you can see, I did a little site re-designing. The logo was developed by the wonderful Stacy Tabb of Sekimori Designs. The site design itself is mine, so don't blame her for any bugs or problems. Please bear with me while I work out the kinks.

** Right now everything seems okay except I'm having issues rebuilding the old individual entries. But I'm not too worried about that because I'm going to try and switch over to WordPress over the weekend. If you have any complaints (or compliments!) this is the post to discuss the re-design on.

** UPDATE: For some reason, the new individual entry permalinks aren't working right. Don't ask me why. I'm probably not going to get to it until tonight, so please bear with me. Regular posting seems fine, though.

** UPDATE 2: The permalink problem is a Moveable Type problem. Joy. Should be fixed when I switch over to WordPress later this week. The variable width problem is essentially being caused by the move of the links from right to left. I'll put them back when I get home.

"If the sky were to suddenly open up, there would be no law, there would be no rule. There would only be you and your memories."
-- Dr. Lilian Thurman (Katharine Ross) in Donnie Darko

Between getting married, going on honeymoon, and then catching up with the inevitable backlog of work, some of you no doubt forgot I have a co-blogger. Hell, I almost did, too. But hey--now he's back and with two posts to his name. Welcome back, Pauly!

We got a dog! Her name is Sadie, she's 1.5 years old and we took her from a lady that was no longer able to keep her, so she has a nice new home. She's a German Shepherd/Retriever/Chow mix and very nice. Plus she's housebroken and spayed, so that's all taken care of. Though she did steal an entire steak off the table the first day we had her...we just need to keep an eye on her!

No, that's a chew toy, not a sex toy on the floor next to her.

Yes, that is a copy of EasyRiders magazine.

I used to read Guitar World magazine religiously. I even had a subscription to it for about 5 years through middle school and high school. I used it mainly for the guitar tablature at first, but later began to realize that it was even better for telling me about new music that I probably would never hear on the radio (since the radio generally sucks for breaking good new music - well, music I would consider good).

Anyways, after a 5 year dry spell I picked up a copy of the magazine last week and ended up buying two new CDs as a result. One is Coheed and Cambria, which I can only describe as what you would hear if Rush covered a bunch of Jimmy Eat World songs with all the progressive rock elements thrown in - and that includes the helium-esque vocals, too. Their latest album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3 continues a story started in previous CDs which I have yet to decipher the entirety of. For those of you who are comic inclined, they are releasing the story in comic form in the next month or so, since an epic story is tough to get through in only lyrics (unless you don't care about song structure and just like infinite melodies, like Wagner). It's solid, "progressive punk" and is catchy but not simplistic.

I also bought Lacuna Coil: Comalies at the same time. The female vocalist is very Amy Lee (of Evanescence) sounding but there are also other elements that go beyond the simplistic guitar/keyboard that Evanescence relies on. The guitar work is more complex and male vocals are also included. Without the female singer, Lacuna Coil would remind me very much of Paradise Lost , another Guitar World pick I ran across when trying to see if there were any other bands similar to Type O Negative in the music universe (there really aren't as far as I know, the closest I could get was Laibach).

So, one magazine later and I ended up with a whole slew of new CDs to listen to. I also want to point to one more band - two fellow WPI graduates, Jon Acorn and Ben Schulkin, have a killer band called Burn in Silence that's along the same lines as Hatebreed, Killswitch Engage and Unearth. They are very heavy, and very tight. There is a download for their first song on the webpage, and they are playing a show at the Palladium in Worcester, MA this Friday with Machine Head. Check it out if you are nearby!

Kerry's plan to balance the budget includes an element that probably isn't going to happen.

"We can do this," Kerry said in remarks prepared for delivery on Tuesday. "We can return to the days where we balanced the budget, grew our economy and spent your money responsibly. We can balance our federal budget so you can grow yours."

Kerry promises to pay for all new government programs and cut the federal deficit in half in four years. To do that, he wants the power to veto individual spending decisions made by Congress and enforce budget caps with automatic spending cuts. (emphasis mine)

The "power to veto individual spending decisions"--otherwise known as a line-item veto--was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. As for the power to "enforce budget caps with automatic spending cuts"--I'm not sure exactly how he plans to do that, either, because the Constitution grants the power to Congress to control federal spending exclusively. But hey, who needs that silly old document anyway, right? We don't need separation of powers. After all, no harm can come from putting more and more power into the executive! We need strong leaders to tell us what to do!

Court's not happy with the state of the blogosphere today.

The blogosphere seems to be getting dumber. It’s rather disheartening but it seems like it’s just more and more of the same old thing. Bush is still evil and Kerry is still a commie. One side criticizes another for something and is making excuses for the same thing their side does 6 months later. Seriously, how many times do we need to hear about how Bush stole the election?

He goes on to point out some sites that don't fall into this mode, including this blog (thanks, Court!) It's a point well taken, but there are still lots of blogs out there that don't fall into the silly partisan mode, as I pointed out a little while ago. Miniluv certainly belongs on anyone's list of thoughtful blogs, as well.

Kevin Drum asks:

Then, on Monday, we learned that the heightened security alert in New York was due to information on a laptop computer that had been taken from a captured al-Qaeda terrorist after a 25-hour gun battle in mid-July — in Pakistan.

The Pakistanis sure as busy. I wonder why they couldn't do this in the summer of 2002. And the summer of 2003. Why did we wait until the summer of 2004 to put the screws on them?

This is such a dishonest question it's kind of sick. We've been "putting the screws" to Pakistan since September 12, 2001. However, the problems we face in getting Pakistan to address terrorism are numerous. For one, a lot of Pakistan's intelligence services are Islamist sympathizers, as is a large portion of Pakistan's population. That does put some difficulty in making an all-out effort against Islamism.

But that aside, Kevin is acting as though the past few days represent the first time Pakistan's intelligence services have caught any high-ranking members of al-Qaeda. Can we say "Khalid Shaikh Mohammed" anyone? That was back in March of 2003. And Mohammed is hardly the only ranking al-Qaeda member caught by the Pakistanis between 2001-2004. These arrests have been ongoing and anyone who's bothered to pay the slightest bit of attention knows that. There is an extraordinarily sick effort on the part of Bush's political enemies to make it look like any victory against terrorists is nothing more than political posturing. But hey, it does provide an easy way to make a conspiracy theory. Step one: ignore history. Step two: based on the history that you're overtly ignoring, make a prediction. Step three: when the predicted event happens in accordance with history, state that that proves your theory correct! It's easy!

** UPDATE: Steven Taylor has more arrests of top al-Qaeda members by Iraqis, all taking place before the current election cycle.

"Sputnik's song beeps and bops and fades away--one last echoing reminder of the soul's lonely search for that safe harbor beyond the broken-down old world--that silvery dream. That perfect someone. That perfect world."
-- Grant Morrison

Here's some more good economic news.

The American manufacturing sector sped up activity in July, cementing the longest stretch of rapid growth in more than 30 years, a survey showed.

The Institute for Supply Management purchasing managers' index (PMI), based on a survey of supply executives, rose 0.9 point from June to 62.0 in July, in line with private economists' forecasts.

It was the 14th consecutive reading above 50 points, which indicates an expansion in activity.

"The manufacturing sector continues to grow at a rapid rate as the PMI has now been above 60 percent for nine consecutive months," survey chief Norbert Ore said in a statement.

"This is the longest period of growth above 60 percent since the 12-month period of July 1972 through June 1973," he said.

The report also indictates a growth in employment in manufacturing domestically, as well. Which is strange, because here I thought all those "Benedict Arnold CEOs" were just aching to send good American jobs overseas...

Wow. Looks like we might actually have Star Trek-esque weapons in a few years.

The device works by creating an electrical charge through a stream of ionized gas, or plasma.

Bitar says it could be tuned to target the electronics of a vehicle or explosive device, or tuned to temporarily paralyze voluntary muscles, such as those that control arms and legs. The involuntary muscles, like heart and lungs, operate at a different frequency.

So far, this and a handful of similar weapons are only in the prototype stage. Production models, if approved by the military, would not be ready for a few years.

The device being developed by Schlesinger's company, HSV Technologies Inc. of San Diego, will operate similarly to Bitar's, except the electrical charge will be created by an ultraviolet laser beam, rather than plasma. He, too, says the device is designed for non-lethal purposes only.

"Later on, as certain agencies or law enforcement gets involved in this, and they see the need for lethality, I'm sure that can be developed later," Schlesinger said. "It could induce cardiac arrest, for example. But that is not our patent, and not our intent."

Cool stuff. Question: You think the engineers involved were influenced by Star Trek when they came up with the ideas? I'd lay down some money that they were. Some day, someone ought to write a book about how Star Trek has influenced the development of technology. You can't look around and not see it--at least a little bit. I know I can't look at my flip phone without the absolute certainty that an engineer wanted a phone he could flip up to say "Kirk here."

This article turned my stomach with its descriptions of some of the more horrific abuses that went on at Abu Gharib., including rape and the molestation of children--apparently confirming what Sy Hersh has been saying all along. What's worse is that the investigaiton into this appears to have been stalled completely.

Taguba was only authorized to investigate the role of military police in the torture at Abu Ghraib -- even though the Hard Site was controlled by military intelligence when the worst abuses occurred. Nevertheless, the classified annexes indicate that responsibility for the torture extends at least as high as several top-ranking officers in Iraq who have yet to be disciplined or removed from command. Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, who remains director of military intelligence in Iraq, was aware of the conditions at Abu Ghraib and received regular reports from officers at the prison. Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, who directed intelligence at the prison, admitted to Taguba that he did not actually report to the British colonel who was supposedly his supervisor. "On paper, I work directly for him," Jordan told Taguba. "But between you, me and the fence post, I work directly for General Fast." Fast is currently under investigation, but unlike lower-ranking officers and soldiers, she has not been reprimanded or charged in the abuses.

Miller, who was sent by Rumsfeld to speed up interrogations at Abu Ghraib, spent ten days in Iraq touring prisons and meeting with intelligence officials. The two-star general was commander of the military prison at Guantenamo Bay, Cuba -- known as Gitmo -- where "enemy combatants" were already being subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, including the use of military dogs to frighten prisoners. According to Col. Thomas Pappas, who commanded the military intelligence brigade at Abu Ghraib, Miller spoke with him about using dogs on prisoners: "He said that they used military working dogs, and that they were effective in setting the atmosphere for which, you know, you could get information." Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of all military prisons in Iraq, told Rolling Stone that Miller described his plan to "Gitmo-ize interrogation operations" in Iraq and boasted that prisoners at Guantenamo "were treated like dogs, because you can never let them be in charge."

Miller has denied making either statement. But whatever he said, his plan to "rapidly exploit internees for actionable intelligence" was quickly adopted at Abu Ghraib. A slide presentation in the classified files spells out the new "Interrogation Rules of Engagement," specifying that soldiers, with proper approval, may subject prisoners to dietary manipulation, sleep deprivation, stress positions and the "presence of mil working dogs." In at least one instance documented by Taguba and photographed by soldiers, a prisoner at Abu Ghraib was bitten by a dog. Most of the MPs who have been charged with crimes say they were told by military intelligence officers to "soften up" prisoners prior to interrogations. "MI wanted to get them to talk," Spc. Sabrina Harman told investigators, saying she was told to keep detainees awake. Sgt. Davis, who jumped on the pile of seven detainees on November 8th, said intelligence officers would tell guards to "loosen this guy up for us" and "make sure he has a bad night."

The classified files also show that intelligence officers at Abu Ghraib felt pressured to produce results. "Sir," Lt. Col. Jordan told Taguba, "I was told a couple of times . . . that some of the reporting was getting read by Rumsfeld, folks out at Langley [the Central Intelligence Agency], some very senior folks."

In May, after photos of the torture were published, Rumsfeld declared that he would take "all measures necessary" to ensure that such abuse "does not happen again." But the defense secretary had already sent a clear signal to commanders in Iraq about his position on the proper way to interrogate prisoners. In April, Rumsfeld transferred Gen. Miller from Guant?namo to Baghdad, putting him in charge of all military prisons in Iraq. Instead of court-martialing the man who authored the plan to subject prisoners at Abu Ghraib to harsh abuses, Rumsfeld has left him in charge of the facility.

Heads must roll over this. Read the whole thing.

(link via Oliver Willis)

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"
-- President Muffley (Peter Sellers) in Dr. Strangelove

Now this is pretty cool.

Here's an archaeological discovery that the average guy at the end of the bar can appreciate: An ancient brewery. A team of scientists from Chicago's Field Museum in July uncovered a brewery in the mountains of southern Peru where members of the Wari Empire made an alcoholic beer-like drink called chicha more than 1,000 years ago.

It wasn't just a mom-and-pop operation, but something that could deliver the goods when dozens, if not hundreds, of Wari decided it was chicha time.

"This was a very large scale of production that they are undertaking here in order to serve large numbers of people," Patrick Ryan Williams, an assistant curator at the museum, said in a telephone interview from Peru.

The brewery may be the oldest large-scale facility of its kind ever found in the Andes and predates the Inca Empire by at least four centuries, he said.

Now that's what I call a sign of civilization.

Michael Young desperately tries to make sense of Kerry's foreign policy--but it's a pretty impossible task.

So, let’s see: Kerry will reduce costs for the American taxpayer in Iraq (where, outrageously, not enough was paid on prosecuting the war and the postwar campaign by the Bush administration—though too much was paid for those goddamned firehouses); but he will spend more on troops elsewhere, even adding 40,000 new faces, who will help troops who are overstretched, overextended and under pressure, but not in Iraq, where they are most overstretched, overextended and under pressure.

Hell, even Vietnam was fought on better foundations than that.

Which Kerry should know. You know, having fought there and all. Oh--you didn't know what? It's true, believe it or not...

Good news from the global trade front.

World Trade Organization members approved a plan Sunday to end export subsidies on farm products and cut import duties across the world, a key step toward a comprehensive global accord that has been discussed since 2001, trade officials said.

The deal was approved by a consensus of the 147-nation body shortly after midnight, opening the way for full negotiations to start in September.

"Developed countries have recognized that agricultural trade with a heavy subsidy component is not free trade," Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath said.

But Nath said the United States, European Union and other developed countries also will benefit by removing heavy agricultural subsidies from their budgets.

This is a win-win scenario. Cheap food for the first world, saved tax expenditures for the first world, and a major economic boon to the third world--which also benefits the first world. Nice to see that this is coming together.

"Empire had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings. All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets."
-- Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) in Clerks