(no subject)

So, Iraq had their elections today.

15 million Iraqis were eligible to vote out of a population of 26 million. Of those, 11 million voted.

6,655 candidates ran for 275 parliament seats. 307 parties and 19 coalitions were registered for the ballot.

Interesting times, indeed. I can't fathom trying to keep track of 307 parties. And results in two weeks. I'm sure it was like this in the old days, before I was old enough to vote. But dang!

Here's what Wonkette had to say about Bush's accountability for the bad intel:
Still, with yesterday's inclement weather, we were worried sick about all the traffic accidents that were going to occur as all the people that the President would be firing in the wake of his intelligence revelation would be leaving town at the same time everyone who had lost their job would be returning. Turns out those fears were misplaced. As far as we can tell, those same PNAC clowns who busted out foreign policy Madlibs with Ahmed Chalabi and cut intellgence reports into pretty paper snowflakes are still dancing and juggling and flopping around the Bush White House in their oversized shoes.

This is the brilliance of the twenty-first century: as long as we act like we're taking responsibility, we don't have to learn a damn thing. That's the luxury of an age in which winning in the polls supercedes actual tangible results. Still: don't look back in anger at the intel of yesteryear. It wasn't all bad. That August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing, for example -- that was some pretty hot stuff.

The Mupdate

Yesterday morning, I barrelled out of my house at 8:55am, as per usual. My destination was simple: stop at Peet's for my fix, then putt off to work in Sacramento.

My neighborhood was snuggled amidst the morning fog. Fog, the double edged sword of weather. If you have nowhere to go, I love fog. Fog is mysterious and yet cozy. Driving in it, however, can be stressful. The only mystery the fog holds for you on the road is what clown you will narrowly avoid battering.

My garage door was nearly entirely opened as I was pondering the fog. My head was tilted slightly downward while contemplating this, when I heard a metal-on-other metal "clink" followed by the appearance of a bolt falling to the ground. I also saw the nut and the washer, but I did not see where these little seemingly crucial bits came from. I looked up and realized that I take my garage door opening mechanism entirely for granted. Nothing looked out of place. Nothing looked out of place, of course, because I didn't study the opener beforehand. There I was, a troubleshoter without a baseline. I was lost.

It did sound different.

However, I did need to get to work, so I put the errant bits in a safe place and trundled off to work.

Upon returning home last night, I dragged out the ladder and a flashlight and began closer inspection of my garage door opener. My closer investigation was delayed by a rather comical expression of my neuroses, which featured me making very sure I was not about to run into any spiders or their webs as I crawled up the ladder.

Yes, I get the heebies with webs in my face.

After several minutes of squinty exploration, I found a spot on the opener where black paint was missing around a hole. The reason why I didn't suspect this hole before was that this is the part of the opener where there are numerous holes just like it. And since there was already a bolt in one of the holes, I wasn't sure that an additional one was required. Thanks to the missing paint, my mystery was solved. I grabbed a few tools and re-fastened the rogue bolt, nut and washer.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my brief adventure into home repair.

Holocaust Denial in Iran

Iran's president denies that the Holocaust occurred.

An Iranian cleric backs him up.