My birthday is coming up soon -- Dec. 4th -- and Christmas follows soon after... and I have something in mind that I would really appreciate right now, but haven't been able to afford this year.

I want British citizenship, so that I will finally be a dual citizen.

Now technically, you'd think that I would already have it because my mother is British, but that's not what the law says. Until recently, children born of British mothers weren't British citizens at birth, and there are all sorts of fees they they nail you for before you can be a citizen... about $250 worth of fees, infact.

I've always been very proud of being both American *AND* British, and I think I can be a worthy citizen to both countries. Infact, if I can get my citizenship taken care of soon, I might even be able to vote in the next British election!

If you can help me defer some of the costs so I can file for citizenship by Christmas, I'd very much appreciate it. Click the button below to make a contribution via Paypal.

Ouch. Good thing Doonesbury isn't translated into Arabic, AFAIK.

Awhile back, a soldier in Iraq sent me pictures he obtained secondhand of a group of Iraqi youths, some as young as 12, who had tried to ambush a US patrol.

The soldier in question knew that our soldiers were justified to take action, and yet he also felt that it was a bad situation -- basically fucked up, and certainly hard on the soldiers who find themselves in the position of killing young kids.

There's very little to say about the pictures, and really, I would rather not make any grand points on this one. It is the way it is. Young people will seemingly always heed the call of their country's leaders, the call for revenge. Some will kill, and some will die. Both sides will have valid reasons to feel that their cause is a just one.

( Graphic pictures ahead )

How various presidents conduct themselves in front of the troops...



President Eisenhower in Korea, 1952. He got in the chow line with the rest of the soldiers. Note the civilian clothes under the parka.


George Sr. in very civilian garb.


George Bush addressing the troops, Dec. 2004. Phoney epaulets, patches, etc.
General Versace. How couture! Get him a hat, and he could pass as a bellboy.

The transcript of Rumsfeld's grilling by soldiers in Kuwait has been released, so we can see some of the details the press didn't report on, as well as identify other hard questions that Rummy teetered around.

One thing the press didn't mention much was this quote regarding the armament of vehicles...

"Since the Iraq conflict began, the Army has been pressing ahead to produce the armor necessary at a rate that they believe -- it's a greatly expanded rate from what existed previously, but a rate that they believe is the rate that is all that can be accomplished at this moment."

In other words, the Army believes that equiping 13 vehicles a day with armor is not only a significant improvement... it's the best that can be done... and Rumsfeld feels that this state of affairs is an Army issue, and therefore not something he has any control over as Secretary of Defense.

Great. Just great.

And now, the questions:

Q: I was wanting to know why I cannot enlist as a single parent in the regular Army, but I can enlist in the National Guard and be deployed?

SEC. RUMSFELD: I don't have the vaguest idea. But by golly, we're looking for folks in the Army. You ought to be able to enlist in the Army and I'll try and figure out how in the world you ought to be able to do it.

So, Rumsfeld's answer is that Reservists who have kids that depend upon them don't deserve the same rights as regular Army. His "solution" is that they should wait until they (and their young children...) have been screwed over by the Reserves for several years, at which point they can sign up to join the Army. Gee, thanks.

Q: My question is what is (being done) to address shortages and antiquated equipment that National Guard soldiers . . . are going to roll into Iraq with?

SEC. RUMSFELD: The -- now settle down. Settle down. Hell, I'm an old man and it's early in the morning. I didn?t take -- just gathering my thoughts here. In any organization you're going to have equipment and materials and spare parts of different ages. And I am told -- and no way I can prove it, but I'm told -- that the Army is breaking its neck to see that there is not a differentiation as to who gets what aged materials in the military, in the Army, as between the active force, the Guard and the Reserve. I'm told that they are, instead, trying to see that the equipment goes to those that are in the most need and who are most likely to be using it - the equipment. And that varies among the Guard and Reserve and the active force.

...in other words, the reservists get the shittier equipment. ;-)

Q: Mr. Secretary . . . We're helping -- or trying to help -- about 150 soldiers get their contingency travel pay. We?ve gone through the chain of command; we've tried IG channels. These soldiers have gone -- some since July -- without getting travel pay. Thousands of dollars, they're having creditors call them at home, call their spouses at home, threatening collection action. We have a big problem. There seems to be a problem with the Defense Finance Accounting Service.

SEC. RUMSFELD: Can someone here get the details of the unit he's talking about? That?s just not right. Folks have earned money and are due money, ought to be able to get the money and they ought not to have to put their families under stress while they're waiting for the money.

In other words, I didn't know about this. Well, not *I* meaning *me*, but I meaning Rumsfeld. I've heard about these kinds of problems for months. Hell... you can't help but hearing soldiers complain about how the military has screwed them over on getting them money due to them. Maybe I hear from more soldiers than Rumsfeld does... not that it's my job or anything.

Q: Mr. Secretary, my question is with the current mission of the National Guard and Reserves being the same as our active duty counterparts, when are more of our benefits going to line up to the same as theirs, for example, retirement?

SEC. RUMSFELD: I can't imagine anyone your age worrying about retirement. Good grief. It's the last thing I want to do is retire. The pay and benefits for the Guard and the Reserve relative to the active force have been going up unevenly at a rate faster than the active force. . . the incremental changes that are made each year, in terms of pay and benefits and health care and retirement . . . have brought the Guard and Reserve up at a faster level than the active force. . . if anything, I think the data suggests that the Guard and Reserve forces had been advantaged relatively compared to the active force over the past four years.

Short answer: Never. Besides, you may not even live to see retirement anyway. Now don't you wish you joined the Army instead of becoming a "weekend warrior"? Long weekend, eh? Sucker! Hey... how'd you like to re-up?!

Q: My husband and myself, we both joined a volunteer Army. Currently, I?m serving under the Stop Loss Program. I would like to know how much longer do you foresee the military using this program?

SEC. RUMSFELD: The Stop Loss has been used by the military for years and years and years. It's all well understood when someone volunteers to join the service. It is something that you prefer not to have to use, obviously, in a perfect world . . . It's basically a sound principle. It's nothing new. It's been well understood. It's been used as little as possible. And my guess is that it will continue to be used as little as possible, but that it will continue to be used.

Short answer: Never. Next time, read the fine print before signing on the dotted line. Be glad you're not a reservist like that other guy. By the way... would you like to reenlist too?!

Lastly, I wanted to point out just how ludicrous it is that Rumsfeld is still trying to blame the state of the military on Clinton. Let's assume that Rumsfeld was learning his job or was otherwise impaired prior to 9/11. Well, just days after 9/11, he *KNEW* that Iraq was on the short list for invasion... so why are our soldiers still trying to get armored vehicles and enough ammunition to practice with. Even if you cut him a break, he's had 39 months to get our military in shape. What gives?!

How long is 39 months? In December 1941, the US Pacific fleet was decimated at Pearl Harbor.Hitler's Germany controlled the European mainland and his army was at the gates of Moscow... and 80,000 US troops were cut off (and eventually forced to surrender) in the Philippines.

And 39 months later... the Japanese Navy was decimated, it's cities in ruins from constant firebomb attacks. Iwo Jima fell, Okinawa was on the chopping block, and US armies crossed the Rhine into the heart of Germany, cutting off over 300,000 German soldiers.

So, when Rumsfeld says that equiping 13 armed vehicles a day is the best our country can do after 39 months, I have to laugh. A lot. Derisively, even.

When Rumsfeld talked to soldiers in Kuwait, he probably didn't expect to be put on the spot about how he's absolutely failed to provide them with adequate armor and equipment.

Fortunately, he's got answers. Four years into the Bush administration, the reason for these problems is clear!

It's *STILL* Clinton's fault!

"As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time..."

Of course, our government *KNEW* we'd be going to war just days after 9/11... so you'd think that nearly forty months later, things would be improved, and we'd have armored personnel carriers for troops that were, you know... armored.

When these answers didn't quiet the dissent from the soldiers, Rumsfeld accused them of being young rabblerousers who picked on the elderly...

"Now settle down, settle down. Hell, I'm an old man, and it's early in the morning."

Rumsfeld also pointed out that armor can be hazardous to your health.

"If you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up. And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up..."

Gee. Why armor anything at all, when it can be blown up? Cast off your body armor, soldiers!

Personally, I always thought that the idea was that the Humvees and the tanks were replaceable, myself... but that soldiers (i.e. someone's son, daughter, father, mother, friend, etc.) weren't. Silly me.

Rumsfeld did crow about how the most powerful country in the world is able to upgrade about 400 armored vehicles a month, however. Wow... that's like 13 a day. USA! USA! Really impressive when you figure we have billions of dollars to spend on this task that are just sitting around collecting dust.

I know how we can easily double that number. We need to hire the A-Team, McGuyver, and the people over at Junkyard Wars and Battlebots and let them loose. Maybe we can even hire the Aussies who did "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome"... we'd have those vehicles armored in no time!

Bush has another alternative though, since reenforced armor is, apparently, an explosive substance. Spiritual armor! It's not Iraqis we're fighting after all, but Satan himself... and he's in Falluja! (Or at least he was...) Simply gird your loins with truth, strap on your breastplate of righteousness, take the shield of faith, and don your helmet of salvation... how hard is that?!

Or, as Specialist Pepin of the New York National Guard says,
"It's kind of like an act of faith. When you get in your vehicle, you just hope, you know. Say a little prayer before you go out."

See?! It works!

Humorous and remarkably straightforward sex ed courtesy of the Beeb.

For the boys -- "Willy Wonky"
For the girls - "Funny Flaps"

Could you imagine something similar aimed at young teens on PBS? They couldn't do this, even though most of PBS' money is from private donations... because too many cranks would complain about all that Satan-worshipping anti-religious edjumakation. Just goes to show you that Americans are the *REAL* prudes, eh? So much for the British being the repressed ones...

Of course, some regional groupings of Americans would tend to be more tolerant of improved sexual education. Let's call them the Blue focus group. Others would be more intolerant. Let's call them the Red focus group.

Now, if sex education was dumbed down or considered a taboo subject amongst the Red focus group, then you would expect that they would be, on average... well... really bad lovers. Not only that, you'd also expect them to be more prone to spurn reason (and even their own self-interest) in order to embrace a culture of violence and fear... a culture of violence caused by repressed sexuality, one that is more likely to have low self esteem and likely to commit criminal acts driven by low self esteem, such as beastiality, pediophilia, etc. You'd even expect that such a culture would be statistically more likely to marry their own relatives!

And though you'd expect some statistical evidence to support such findings, such as all of the worst cities for crime to be a part of the Red focus group, that still wouldn't be conclusive proof, and certainly it wouldn't mean that *everyone* in the Red focus group is sexually repressed, bad in bed, senselessly violent, and prone to sleeping with farm animals.

It just implies that it's statistically more likely. If you believe in science, y'know... ;-)

A male-female belly dancing duo.

good dancer... Nice sword!

Prior to my new 160GB drive, I spent several months not doing a lot of file trading. Well, now I've got room to burn, so I've been itching to find ways to fill some of it up.

And yes, I know about the RIAA with its stupid lawsuits, but I tend to not download a lot of commercial music anyway, sooo phhhbt!

I turned my back on the latest software for a few months, only to be pleasantly surprised upon my return. Ares Galaxy is the new god... and a faster, more protective one, too. Given how bloated and prone to crashing P2P apps can be, Ares Lite's basic install (with only the required files checked) appears to be the best way to go, especially since NavHelper is a form of spyware. (I do suggest that if you use P2P software, you also have a firewall in place, and check regularly for virii and spyware.)

Currently, Ares doesn't appear to be a target for the RIAA, in part due to its size, and in part because of the protections built into the software. Ares has several security features built-in that make using P2P software feel a little bit less like waiting for the hammer to fall. These additions include a built-in, regularly updated block list of IP addresses known to be used by the RIAA and its cronies. In addition, Ares scans all the media that people share, which helps to accurately identify files and makes it much harder for the powers-that-be to flood the network with phony or corrupted files.

There is both an advantage and potential drawback to this pre-scanning of shared files. It takes a *LONG* time to do, uses a lot of resources to do it, and its default scan for files is rather agressive. This agressive scanning creates a rather generous downloading experience, with a healthy selection of files available, but it also means that if you let it loose on your drives, you might be stuck with a slow system for quite a long time. I recommend defining a given directory or two to share files in by selecting Library > Preferences button > Manual Configure. That way, you can get to know the site a bit better and add new files and directories to be shared gradually, rather than having the application choke on all of your files at once.

So, you have Ares, and it looks (and acts) a lot like Kazaa... so what's the big deal? Probably the most obvious one I've seen is download speed. It seems to function much like BitTorrent, in that download speeds increase with the popularity of the file. BitTorrent is still faster for video, but Ares has some advantages as far as convenience and sometimes even selection. It's nice waking up to find you've now got a serious collection of Invader Zim...

The only tricky part of Ares is making sure that it doesn't crash your system. It probably won't, but it did cause me a few minor headaches (and several complete system freezes and reboots) because of an apparent conflict with my drive backup manager. Really, I suspect Ares doesn't like much of anything which gets on the 'net and tries to do backups or software updating while it's churning away. Guess I'll have to do those backups manually for now...

I'm still kicking Ares around, and I'm not entirely convinced that it doesn't have issues as far as its use of system resources. Despite its initial fast downloads, the speed of the downloads do seem to decrease over time. There could be some potentially good reasons for this behavior, however.

In any case, I have a Ren & Stimpy to watch that I haven't seen in years, so I'm happy for the moment.

So, I tested out LJ's latest moblogging features, to see how they compare with that of Flickr.

Conclusions:
I still prefer Flickr.

LJ allows my phone company's fluff text to be sent along with the body of the message post. You can add two dashes to the end of your LJ post to stop this behavior, but Flickr makes it easier by intelligently stripping it out without me having to think about it.

Also, why does LJ want to stick every image you post behind an lj-cut? What if I don't want an LJ-cut? Shouldn't I have the choice on that? It's my journal, after all...

The simple fact is that LJ's approach to usability here kinda sucks. Taking pictures with your phone is already too kludgy and dorky. On top of the standard subject and body text that you need to type up, LJ also wants us to remember to add the dashes to keep the spam out of our post... and to add all the photo post specific tags they created.
lj-gallery... lj-imgsecurity... lj-imgsize... lj-imglayout... lj-imgcut...

Of course, if you miss a dash or get the name wrong, you've messed up your post, and probably don't have any way of correcting it. Bollocks! Meanwhile, your date is left waiting around for ten minutes while you attempt to post a crappy low-res picture to your journal. See?! No wonder you never get asked out on a second date!

Camphones are the cheap bastard offspring of real digital cameras, but despite their drawbacks, what makes them worth using is ubiquity and convenience... but small digicams are getting pretty ubiquitous too. So, the lesson here is to make phonecams as convenient as possible. Point. Click. Share. Anything more than that is too much. That's why you want to pre-define all the relevant variables ahead of time, rather than trying to text them out on the run. Anything you type in outside of the basics should only be to change your settings from a pre-defined setting of your choice, not to configure things the way you want them by default.

Flickr does this well. LJ doesn't.

So, in summation of my findings: We all want convenience. Convenience. Convenience. Convenience... and a second date.

AP is pointing out that 135 US dead in Iraq this month is apparently a tie for the previous worst month in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Iraqi insurgents are still battling in Falluja... and some are coming back into the city to fight.

"Just when you think you have an area cleared, someone comes out of a tunnel, a spider hole and starts shooting . . . It's a dense city, easy to conceal in and move about . . . They move sometimes from buildings with ladders across rooftops. . . We are seeing tunnel and sewage system out into the river that the insurgents are using as a rat line, from those pipes along the river to come back into the city."

Meanwhile, a US serviceman in Connecticut, distraught over having to deploy to Iraq a second time, found a novel way to avoid having to do so.

I think he'll get to stay home now. The neighbors must've been shitting themselves...

Apparently, the Chinese government is blocking http://news.google.com , which is a shame...

A bigger and more shameful thing, however, is that Google News launched a Chinese version of their site, and censors the content.

After previous attempts to dodge the issue, Google recently admitted to self-censorship of their Chinese content, and yet claims to be "the only major search engine that does not censor any web pages". Somehow, I think this rice-paper-thin distinction will be lost on its Chinese users.

Hey Google... if you hate censorship, then how about turning some of that brainpower loose to find ways to help circumvent the Great Firewall of China, rather than helping create a false reality... a mythical land of harmony where the Tienenmen Square massacre doesn't exist.

As I once told a friend who works over at Google...
"Just because Google has a policy not to do anything evil, doesn't mean that everything they do is good."

...though I generally dislike screensavers, and consider them an unnecessary burden and potential cause of conflicts on my computer. I like the idea of this one, and I have installed it.

The screensaver uses thousands of computers worldwide to drain the available bandwidth on spam sites, thereby making the use of spam less profitable. Lycos' screen saver "pulls its punches" however, so as to not DDOS the sites in question.

Yes, it's vigilante, and yes, it isn't the ideal solution... however, it's an idea that open source developers are bound to take even further and make significant improvements to, and I tend to believe that encouraging a lot of bright people to think up ways to hurt spammers is noble cause. Expect the inevitable open source solutions to be a whole lot more effective, clever, and generally less throttled than Lycos' attempts. In the meantime, using the screensaver is a little bit of payback and is worth supporting for the time being.

Technically, the software is only supposed to be available to Lycos' European users, but anyone can download and install it. Here are direct links to the software that avoid Lycos' ad pitch.

Direct download for Windows version.
Direct download for MacOS X version.
Direct download for MacOS 9 version.

Expect a fast-paced "running battle" as spammers and Lycos adjust their tactics, and as Open Source developers quickly enter the fray with their own solutions. Should be fun to see what happens. The fallout might be bloody. I guess we'll see...

***Update: Lycos' anti-spam screensaver is programmed in Shockwave Flash, which means that you can run it on a webpage. That means you can open several pages at this link and leave them running all the time, thereby nuking spammers in a quicker, more agressive manner. Excellent! ***

One of my biggest peeves with PCs has always been installing internal drives. I hate internal drives. I hate jumpers. I hate dipswitches. I hate twisty ribbon cables which aren't instinctive as to how they connect, and which invariably aren't long enough. I hate small, cluttered cases with sharp metal corners. I hate how there's a dearth of places to mount your drives. I hate having to power off my computer to attach hardware, only to find out that something is wrong... and then having to guess whether it is a hardware problem, a cable problem, a jumper problem, a power problem, or any of the other random variables that PCs love to throw at you. Maybe I'm just too old to find the idea of wasting my time due to crappy design an interesting, novel learning experience anymore. (Did I say that my next computer will be a Mac?!)

In comparison, the Mac-blessed have had SCSI for pretty much forever... and now they have Firewire... and USB 2.0 (as opposed to slower PC-standard USB 1.1). If they want something, they plug it in to the outside of their computer, and it pretty much works. If they want to bring their stuff over to another computer, they pick it their drive, bring it over to another computer, and even boot off of it -- no jumpers required -- or they simply network the computers in question together. Note the emphasis on simply.

Somehow, none of this seemed like a particularly useful or important thing over in the PC world, I guess.

So, when I got a chance to get 160 GB of plug-n-play external drive goodness for only about $60 this weekend, I jumped at it. All that space. Music. Video. Even room to automatically download the latest bittorrent offerings. Sexah!

I held off on installation until after the weekend because I had noressa over and thought it would be too painful and time consuming...

Least. Painful. Install. Evar.

Data storage is love.

A friend in the US National Guard just let me know that beginning in January, the National Guard is increasing its $5,000 bonus for a six year reenlistment to $15,000.

And yet, he -- and many others -- will be turning the offer down. That said, he's still afraid of getting involuntarily stop-lossed.

As he says,
"The sweet honey is always served, but when it proves ineffective the next step is crotch kicking..."

Yesterday in Iraq, 17 Iraqi political parties joined a meeting at Adnan Pachachi's residence in Baghdad, where they urged a delay of up to six months for Iraqi elections. The parties which were there included major Kurdish political parties, and all of those parties in attendance urged delayed elections... except one. The political party of Iyad Allawi, the unelected Iraqi Interim prime minister.

Well, today, after the initial announcement made the news, Allawi's party let the other shoe drop, urging a delay in the elections. Allawi himself appears to have used other party members to seperate himself from the decision, but he *IS* the head of his party.

In other words, it appears that the fix is in. The meeting itself seems to have been set up by Pachachi, Allawi, and the Kurds as a justification for not holding an election that they can't win. The hope is that they will be in a stronger position in the future. This, incidentally, sounds very consistant with expatriot Pachachi's beliefs.

"You have the secular Shiites who are the majority. . . The religious groups, whether Sunni or Shia, are better organized. They are organized because others are fragmented. The secularists are fragmented because they have different political beliefs. The religious groups are well organized, and they have financial resources, which give them an edge. . . I am trying myself actually with some others to bring all these groups together, in spite of their political differences. . . If you can get them into one sort of national front . . . then we can really enter the elections or the selection process well organized and pretty strong. So we can really face up to the fundamental religious groups."

Which is all fine and well, but you shouldn't delay democracy so you can bring about your idea of what it should be. Unfortunately, the actions of Allawi have done much to discredit Western democracy in Iraq. He's been as helpful to the cause of democracy in Iraq as Zarqawi has been to the cause of Iraqi resistance; both undermine otherwise legitimate movements.

Personally, I don't think that any delay should be legally allowed... and it might not be. If you look at those fighting for a delay in voting, their supporters have no reason to ask for a delay, as they are not greatly effected by the current instability in Iraq and should have no problem getting to the polls. Instead, they're fighting for a delay because they simply are not ready and cannot win.

There are hundreds of Iraqi political parties and factions; a distant minority of 17 is a drop in the bucket, and does not a majority make. For them to complain about elections is no more legitimate than the Iraqi Sunni parties who have decided to call the elections illegitimate. It would be hypocritical to listen to and make exceptions for Allawi and his supporters, but not to do the same for the Sunnis who feel like they're being railroaded.

Maybe the ultimate truth is that Iraq is just not ready for democracy. It never finished all the hard societal work to evolve towards it. They're no more ready for it than Germany was after WWI... arguably less. And yet, we've promised them and the world that elections is what we will give them, and we promised to give it to them by a set date. If we now reneg on that promise, Sistani will be pissed off, and so will 60% of the Iraqi population. For them, the election brings hope not only for self-rule to begin, but for the occupation of Iraq to soon end.

After Sadr backed down and chose to go legitimate, the past few months have seen a shift in the resistance towards one which is primarily Sunni-based. That has actually been advantageous to US, who have been able to "divide and conquer", destroying Fallujah without any widespread resistance from the Shi'ites. Delaying elections, however, would be seen as a betrayal not only by Sistani, but also by Sadr. It could greatly increase the level of general unrest throughout the whole country, and would put the pressure on Sistani to strongly oppose any delays. Either Sistani would have to bring his people out in the streets, or someone like Sadr would do it for him and look like a hero in the process, as Sistani has been seen by many as being silent while Fallujah was destroyed.

The big threat for the United States in Iraq isn't isolated resistance, but true Arab unity. While it seems that there should be a leader in Iraq who can unite the Shi'ite, the Sunni, and the nationalists, there doesn't appear to be one as yet... only a vacuum. The question is, will such a leader ever materialize?

***Update: 42 Iraqi -- primarily Shi'ite -- political parties respond to the request for delayed elections, saying that such a move would be illegal and would be a victory for the terrorists.

BBC is reporting that elections are going to go ahead as scheduled. ***

I have been in touch with some of the Ukranian LJers, and have additional information to pass along.

Protesters are still in the heart of Kiev, where a tense standoff exists. Soldiers and police forces appear to be split between both sides of the conflict, and some military units have taken position on the outskirts of the city. There are rumors of Russian troops inside Ukraine, located around key buildings, and of threatening Russian troop movements outside the Ukraine. Despite this news, a compromise may be in the works, and there are unsubstantiated rumors that power could be turned over to the opposition tomorrow.

In an atmosphere of government-imposed censorship of the media, the Internet and mobile technology has apparently been a big part of organizing the opposition. Those opposed to the current President are using email, SMS messaging, and the Internet to spread the news about what is going on and get protesters on the streets, even in the middle of a snowy winter.

olivanova says:
"My boss is in Kiev, out in the street and he's saying that everything is very peaceful and calm. Some of the police share the views of opposition and even wear orange bands. Two of the members of the central election committe are making statements about the fraud during elections and asking the rest of the committee not to sign the final document tomorrow. Ukrainian artists have shown amazing support to Yuschenko, spending all their time with the people, cheering them up and showing them the example of civil responsibility. A statement has been made by Yuschenko's partners that Kuchma is willing hand in the power, but will do it tomorrow. People are asked to come tomorrow, but a lot of them will stay for the whole night near the Presidents' Administration building. A lot of people say they should push it to this night, as there should be a reason behind Kuchma's will to postpone the process. I've heard that tomorrow there will be more people coming to support the current regime and it might get bloody...
People who live in Kiev give a lot of support to the Yuschenko's supporters that have come to Kiev - they are giving out food, bringing clothes and blankets, hosting people. A lot of businesses have closed their offices, stores and production to let people participate in protests... "

taste_of says:
"There were literally hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of the ukrainian capital Kiev today. Tens of thousands will spend this night in tents erected right on the main street of the capital Kreschatik, on the Independence square and at the presidential palace. Many of the LJ users are there whole day or night with their digital cameras and from time to time post new pictures. Some of the people are on the streets with their mobile phones and their friends are posting their messages."



 He also directs people to view some excellent photos of what is going on, located in LJ's 2004_vybory_ua , which appears to be the major community for sharing information about the current Ukranian elections on LiveJournal. (Or, as LJ is affectionately called over there, ЖЖ, which translates into ZHZH, short for ZhivoiZhurnal.  (Sexy sweet acronym!)

ukihito says:
"Now most of the people are in front of the President HQ and on the main square. They demand to accept the real choice of the people of Ukraine. Kuchma said that he is willing to negotiate, but only in the morning (it's just after midnight now in Kiev). There is a danger of them to plan some kind of an action to break the force of people who are having their shift at the street camps on Kreschatik and the Square of Independace. Yuschenko supporters don't want to use the force, and are willing to wait until the next morning to start negotiations to let Kuchma hand in the power to Yuschenko. However, this is unlickly to happen as the Head Ballot Office (whatever it's called) has not counted the votes yet and has not signed the official results. The President can be proclaimed only after they do that. This is the situation. It's flying in the air now, I would say. Noone knows what is going to happen next."

vi_z recommends those who read English to check out http://eng.maidanua.org , which is translating news (and rumors...) about what is happening on the fly, thanks to numerous volunteers.



_greka recommends reading these comments on the BBC website for an indication of what Ukranians are thinking about the elections.



Oh... and emdrone says:
"You being a dishonest prick -- what is easy to conclude from your reaction to the Falluja shooting . . . All you wish to hear is new details along the lines of the official Western propaganda."



Believe it or not, he seems to think I'm *not critical enough* of US actions in Iraq, and that all I do is parrot pro-US propaganda. (He also accuses the BBC of censoring his comments, and of being "complete bullshit produced by probably the largest enemy propaganda machine.")

All I can say is my sincere thanks to the ZHZH Ukranians who found time in the midst of their impending civil war to contribute to this post... ;-)  And special thanks to emdrone!  Thanks to him, now I've been accused of being *both* a terrorist sympathizer *AND* a  US propagandist.. It almost feels like being a real journalist!

Until recently -- the people of Ukraine, a country of 48 million people that lies between Russia, Rumania, and the Black Sea -- have been under the control of a former Soviet hardliner, Leonid Kuchma.

Kuchma is arguably one of the world's most corrupt politicians, with ties to illegal arms smuggling to Saddam-era Iraq, the murder of opposition leaders, the government control of the media, and the systematic repression of opposition journalists. A series of protests has finally convinced Kuchma to step down and support free elections, but he has done most everything he can possibly do in order to support his hand-picked successor, Viktor Yanukovich. What's more, the Russian government has apparently gotten involved in the race, with widespread accusations of them directly funding Yanukovich and attempting to sway the vote in his favor.

On the day of the election, numerous exit polls indicated an overwhelming win for Viktor Yushchenko, a pro-western candidate. Despite that, official results from the government show a solid win for Yanukovich.

Last night in Kiev, over 100,000 people camped outside in the snow-covered heart of the city, protesting the results of the election, refusing to honor the results. Their cause was buoyed by election observers, who issued numerous statements  stating that the government failed to meet the accepted standards for fair elections, and accusing the government of numerous acts of intimidation, vote fraud, and misconduct.  Given that the option may be civil war, what the Ukraine needs now is widespread awareness of their situation and international support for fair elections.

Tommorow in San Francisco, there will be a protest in front of the Ukranian Consulate from 10am - 12pm, where anyone can show their support for democracy and fair elections in the Ukraine. The consulate is located at 530 Bush Street, between Grant and Stockton.

If you can make it, you may want to wear orange, the color of the pro-democracy faction in the Ukrainian elections. I'm adding an orange ribbon to this post as a symbol of support for fair and democratic elections in their country. I will be monitoring the numerous Ukranian journals on LiveJournal, and hope to pass on some of the stories, pictures, and maybe a bit of the struggle of Ukranians for a free, democratic government.

For a good taste of what is going on, you may appreciate kurzik's movies ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) of what is going on over there.  My best wishes for them and for a free Ukraine.

Kevin Sites' weblog post for Nov. 21st is a very honest behind-the-scenes account of the now-infamous video of a Marine shooting a wounded Iraqi.

By all indications, Mr. Sites was a professional, doing his job.

In any case, Mr. Sites is not the one on trial here. He's not going to be judged by his fellow soldiers, as to whether his actions stained the reputation of the Marines and that of the United States of America. If the evidence suggests that the soldier obeyed the rules of engagement and is innocent of wrongdoing, then his peers can certainly make that call.

The price of standing on the moral high ground is that sometimes you're a more visible target. Those who would argue that the Marines should sink down to the level of our enemies should consider whether such a course of action saves lives in the long run, and protects the honor of our Marines and our nation.

Who said that the moral high ground doesn't come at a price? Brave warriors stand tall.