(no subject)

Good morning, gentle readers.

I woke up and flipped on Cspan just in time to hear Condi's discussion with the 9/11 Commission. Interesting stuff. I cannot really decide yet what I think about it. Based on what I have seen so far, she insulted Clarke a bit, she skirted a few questions on contents of certain memos.

But more on her later. I'm Tivo'ing the rest.

Last night I was able to slumber sans medication. Though I'm still a bit stuffy, I've been able to workout for the past few days with little incident, and function fairly well.

I've got some manual labor in store for me today, as I perform a move of 17 workstations (pc, monitor and phone in each workstation). It will be a wire-punching and patch cabling festival!

Back to work for me.

(no subject)

Here are some interesting links this morning:

A little review on Condi Rice's Expertise: http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10213

This article includes a little tidbit I did not know about:
Rice defended Gates, who was accused of preparing false testimony for former CIA director Bill Casey on the Iran-Contra scandal. Senator after senator complained that Bush's National Security team had completely missed the boat on the collapse of the USSR. Most damaging of all, the Bush NSC stood accused of skewing intelligence to mislead Congress into permitting arms sales and loans to Saddam Hussein's Iraq for two years after the gassing of the Iranians and the Kurds. Indeed, under the first Bush administration, Iraq's access to U.S. agricultural products and biological agents including anthrax and botulinium toxins was first cut off on Aug. 2, 1990, the day Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait.


Here is a summary of issues to consider in appraising Rice's testimony this morning: http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=44768

Here's a NRO opinion on how the 9/11 Commission really cannot help but make an "intellectually suspect" opinion: http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins200404080814.asp

I suppose we could make that claim about all historical reviews. Hell, all of our opinions about historical events are tainted by our hindsight views. At some point, we can make some judgement and learn some lessons. Sure, we need to seek to understand the spirit in which those decisions were made. But if you're asking us to try to fathom the lack of interest in the Bush administration to take preventative action before 9/11, despite numerous documents suggesting the threat, with such a history of 20 years ignoring this threat, well, guess again.

(no subject)

Thanks, harpua.

You will live in Apartment.
You will drive a Pink Nissan Murano.
You will marry David Boreanaz and have 2 kids.
You will be a Director in Boston.

Yes, I played MASH.

If I use a different lucky number, I get:

You will live in Apartment.
You will drive a Lavendar Mini Cooper S.
You will marry Adrian Paul and have 1 kids.
You will be a Vice President in Raleigh.

Damn. Still kickin' it in an Apartment. That's a terrible investment! Especially since I could whore out Adrian and make BANK!

Let's try another number:

You will live in Shack.
You will drive a Blue Highlander.
You will marry Hugh Jackman and have 4 kids.
You will be a CEO in Washington DC.

Crikey! what's a girl gotta do to get a House! Four kids! Talk about a Womb with a view...

Sigh:

You will live in House.
You will drive a Pink Highlander.
You will marry Brad Pitt and have 6 kids.
You will be a CEO in Boston

Alright, my work is done. Six kids. Argh. I hope Brad digs child care.

Painting Pictures...

While sites like American Progress are providing interesting refutation to Condi's testimony, I think, unless we want to impeach the president, the point is moot. I think by the time we take into consideration the Administration's lack of effort in counterterrorism measures before 9/11, given the number of reports, in addition to drumming up WMD intelligence in Iraq, and various dubious domestic policy deceptions, we probably have grounds.

But the real problem now is Iraq. Not two weeks ago, it wasn't going so badly. Data of "positive" surveys were coming out, etc. Now unrest is growing. Now it seems it is hard to please everyone.

Here's an interesting article from the American Conservative.

Another Ayatolla
An excerpt of interest:
Interestingly, Britain’s arch-imperialist, Winston Churchill, authorized the RAF to drop poison gas on “primitive tribesmen,” meaning Iraq’s Kurds and Afghanistan’s Pashtun, a fact conveniently forgotten by Tony Blair and George W. Bush when they excoriated Saddam Hussein for “gassing his own people.”


Here's a speech by Senator Robert Byrd.

Here's something that warrants more data. The question needs to be asked, what corporations are prospecting Iraq right now if Mark Levine's

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How about Pockets of Acceptance?

At long last, I am finally wising up and watching the Daily Show.

Just in time for him to cover Dr. Rice's testimony.

Tee hee.

I'm amused. I'm disgusted. I'm amused. I'm disgusted. I'm dismused.

A Pamphlet of Portends and Ill Omens

http://www.redcoat.net/pics/iraq-explained.gif