Friday, 27 February 2004

Gay marriage battle reaches New York

In a testament to the pathetic state of our national media, I found this on an Australian news network:

The battle over gay marriage in the United States has
spread to a small town in New York state whose mayor has began marrying
same-sex couples in the first such ceremonies in the state. The
weddings in the village of New Paltz, about 130 kilometres north of
Manhattan, come as California's Attorney-General plans to ask that
state's Supreme Court to rule on the legality of over 3,300 gay
weddings in the past two weeks in San Francisco. New Paltz Mayor Jason
West has married couples in a festive atmosphere outside Village Hall
in what the 26-year-old official describes as "legal marriage
ceremonies". Mr West has so far officiated at 19 gay weddings.
Some 200 people cheered and held up placards saying: "Congratulations"
and "Bush Get Out of My Bedroom," while a much smaller group of
protesters held signs saying: "Gay Marriage is Morally Wrong" and "Pray
for Them." Mr West ended each ceremony saying, "By the powers vested in
me by the state of New York, I now declare you legally wed".
New York's Department of State says in a statement it defines marriage
as a union "of one man and one woman" and that anyone marrying a gay
couple "would be violating state law and (be) subject to the penalties
in law."

It must be that the increase comes of the inborn human
instinct to imitate--that and man's commenest weakness, his aversion to
being unpleasantly conspicuous, pointed at, shunned, as being on the
unpopular side. Its other name is Moral Cowardice, and is the
commanding feature of the make-up of 9,999 men in the 10,000. I am not
offering this as a discovery; privately the dullest of us knows it to
be true. History will not allow us to forget or ignore this supreme
trait of our character. It persistently and sardonically reminds us
that from the beginning of the world no revolt against a public infamy
or oppression has ever been begun but by the one daring man in the
10,000, the rest timidly waiting, and slowly and reluctantly joining,
under the influence of that man and his fellows from the other ten
thousands. The abolitionists remember. Privately the public feeling was
with them early, but each man was afraid to speak out until he got some
hint that his neighbor was privately as he privately felt himself. Then
the boom followed. It always does. -- Mark Twain, THE UNITED STATES OF LYNCHERDOM (1901)

Posted by flow Frazao on February 27, 2004 at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

59 animals dead in Brazil zoo murder mystery

What could anyone possibly have against porcupines?

Nearly 60 animals have been killed at the Sao Paulo Zoo
since last month and police expect to track down the suspected killers
soon, a Brazilian official said on Friday. Laboratory tests have shown
the animals were killed with a rat poison banned in Brazil. Joao Carlos
Meirelles, a Sao Paulo state minister, said investigators had ruled out
the deaths being an accident, mainly because the dose was so high in
most of the dead animals. The 59 victims so far include an elephant,
dromedaries, monkeys and porcupines. "We can say with almost total
certainty that the suspects will be identified by next week, give or
take," Meirelles said The zoo management has put 15 workers on leave
while they are under investigation. It has also ordered all staff to
work in pairs. The latest victims have been the porcupines. In all, 36
were killed, of which six were ready to be donated to another zoo. "If
it's someone from inside of the zoo, I can't understand what is going
through this person's mind," said a security guard, who asked to be
identified only by his first name, Ronaldo.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 27, 2004 at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Georgia Watch: Feb. 27

Regular readers of this blog (all 9 of you ;) may recall a few pieces
I've done on Georgia (the former Soviet republic, not the state). I
know it was approximately 10,000 news cycles ago, but a few weeks back
the Georgian people overthrew their president in a stunning "velvet
revolution".
Within days of swearing in the replacement president, US Secretary of
State Colin Powell was on his way to Georgia to show support for the
new administration. It struck me as strange that America would take an
interest in such a small, seemingly inconsequential state. Obviously,
my first inclination was to follow the oil. After looking into the
situation a bit further I realized that the Bush cabal wasn't
interested in Georgia, but rather a smaller breakaway country called
Adjara. Adjara, though not having energy reserves itself, is the
corridor for a $3 billion pipeline through which huge supplies in
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan must pass through to reach the
West.
And wouldn't you know it? Immediately following the coup some very
shady things started happening in Adjara:

• The Adjaran Government (on the SW border of Georgia) is claiming to have uncovered a secret Georgian plot to seize the republic and it's capitol city of Batumi
  
  
• The Head of Emergency Situations Department of Adjara was shot in the head by an unknown gunman five days ago.
  
  
• An intrinsic part of today�s oil transport network is the Batumi Oil Transport Facility.
  
  
• Both Anadarko and Chevron have been "long time users" of the Batumi Oil Transport Facility in Adjara.
  
  
• Condoleeza Rice was on the Board of Directors for Chevron.
  
  
• Bush created/served as a consultant to Anadarko.
  
  
• This weekend, Colin Powell is heading to Georgia to offer the new president a "symbolic stamp of U.S. approval."

On February 25, the US Information Office issued this press release:

The president of Adjara, an autonomous region of the
republic of Georgia, has expressed "profound concerns" in a letter to
President Bush about mounting violence, intimidation and harassment by
the government of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili against
independent media and political opposition parties.
"I write you to express profound concerns about recent and ongoing
tragic and unlawful actions by the President and federal security
forces that violate our constitution and threaten the prospects of
free, fair and democratic parliamentary elections on March 28," Adjaran
President Aslan Abashidze wrote to Mr. Bush.
Saakashvili, who met with Mr. Bush today, has instigated an increasing
wave of street violence and intimidation in the Georgian capital,
Tbilisi, and in Adjara, the autonomous region whose capital, Batumi, is
a major Black Sea port.
Saakashvili has made an "escalating series of reckless and bellicose
statements threatening the constitutionally guaranteed autonomy of
Adjara," Abashidze said. "In recently nationally televised comments, he
has declared that he has sufficient forces to invade and occupy Adjara
and has threatened to launch air strikes against Batumi.
Alarmingly, this appears to be his notion of how democracy should
function and his approach to addressing opinions that may differ from
his own world view.
"To put this in a parallel American context, this would be tantamount
to a U.S. President threatening to use U.S. military forces to bomb
Austin and invade and occupy Texas. Such an outrage would be
inconceivable to all Americans. Unfortunately, we find ourselves
confronted by a reality that is equally incomprehensible."
In recent days, Saakashvili's security forces have raided the parent
company of Iberia Television, an independent media outlet, and locked
out its workers. Several Adjaran citizens were injured in street
violence in Batumi last Friday (2/20), which was accompanied by gunfire.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 27, 2004 at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bush to Limit Interview with 9/11 Panel to an Hour

This is so disgusting that I can't even comment on it:

The panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks on the United
States will get one hour to ask President Bush what he knew about
events leading up to the suicide airline hijackings, the White House
said on Friday.
"They are looking at an hour as you pointed out," White House spokesman
Scott McClellan said when asked by a reporter whether he could confirm
reports that Bush was limiting the meeting to an hour.
Rather than sitting down with all 10 members of the so-called 9/11
commission, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have only agreed to
meet privately with its chairman, Thomas Kean, and the vice chairman,
Lee Hamilton.
The panel would prefer that Bush meet with all of the members.

UPDATE: You know, I was just thinking about it, and I came up
with a quick list of things that President Bush does that take more
than an hour. I wonder if Americans (let alone victims' family members)
think these things are more important than talking to the 9/11
commission:

• Jogging

• Talking to Tim Russert on Meet the Press

• Going to the Daytona 500

• Vacationing

• Campaigning at taxpayer expense

• Prancing around on an aircraft carrier

• Carrying a fake turkey around Baghdad International Airport for 4 hours

• Meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to discuss the dollar's weakness against the euro

President Bush and Gerhard Schroeder

Posted by flow Frazao on February 27, 2004 at 01:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Aum Shinrikyo and the Axis of Crazy

This caught my eye this morning:

A former Japanese cult guru was sentenced to hang on Friday
for masterminding a sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway trains in
1995 that killed 12, sickened thousands and shattered Japan's myth of
public safety.
Shoko Asahara, 48, who led the Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth Sect), was
found guilty at Tokyo District Court of 13 charges including
responsibility for the subway attack and a series of other crimes that
killed another 15 people.
"His crimes did not stop at the murder of specific individuals but
expanded into indiscriminate acts of terrorism," said Judge Shoji
Ogawa.
"I sentence the defendant to death," Ogawa said after Asahara stood to
hear the verdict that concluded the eight-year trial. Eight guards had
to help him rise at the judge's order to stand.
The gassing, with its images of bodies lying across platforms and
soldiers in gas masks sealing off Tokyo subway stations, stunned the
Japanese public, accustomed to crime-free streets.
Aum's arsenal including sarin, first developed by the Nazis, raised
concern worldwide about the ease with which biological and chemical
weapons of mass destruction could be made.
[...]
Asahara set up the cult in 1987, mixing Buddhist and Hindu meditation
with apocalyptic teachings and attracting, at its peak, at least 10,000
members in Japan and overseas, among them graduates of some of the
nation's elite universities.
The pudgy, nearly blind guru predicted that the United States would
attack Japan and turn it into a nuclear wasteland.
He also claimed to have traveled forward in time to 2006 and talked to
people then about what World War Three had been like.
Asahara and other cult members ran for parliament in 1990 but won only
a smattering of votes.
"After failing badly in the national election, Asahara turned to arming
the cult and eventually came to desire to rule Japan and become a
king," Judge Ogawa said.
After this, Aum set up a huge commune-like complex at the foot of Mount
Fuji where members not only studied his mystical teachings and
practiced bizarre rituals but also built an arsenal of weapons
including the sarin used in the subway attack.

Pretty scary, right? But there's more. In Bill Bryson's book In a Sunburned Country, he reports that:

• At 11:03 PM local time on May 28, 1993, a large-scale seismic
  disturbance, elsewhere reported as measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale,
  was detected near the Banjawarn sheep station in remote western
  Australia. The few observers in the area reported seeing a flash in the
  sky and hearing an explosion.
  
• The blast was 170 times more powerful than the biggest mining
  explosion ever recorded in the region and was consistent with a
  meteorite strike, but no crater could be found.
• In 1995, after the Aum Shinrikyo in Japan had released nerve
  gas in the Tokyo subway system and killed 12 people, it was revealed
  that the cult owned a 500,000-acre property in western Australia near
  the site of the mysterious boom.
• The cult has two former Soviet nuclear engineers in its
  ranks, hopes eventually to destroy the world, and maybe wanted a bit of
  practice, eh?
• In 1997, scientists finally got around to investigating this
  disquieting possibility. "You take my point," Bryson writes. "This is a
  country . . . so vast and empty that a band of amateur enthusiasts
  could conceivably set off the world's first nongovernmental atomic bomb
  on its mainland and almost four years would pass before anyone noticed."

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding the event
observed and recorded in Western Australia on 28th May 1993. We are not
aware of any further information that has come to light since the
analyses undertaken between 1993 and 1997.
The event was analysed by the Incorporated Research Institute for
Seismology (IRIS). They concluded that it was consistent with the
impact of an iron meteorite with a radius of between 0.5 and 1.6 m. However,
a search by light plane shortly after the event failed to locate any
impact crater, which could be expected to be 90 m or more in diameter.
They also concluded the seismogram which was recorded was inconsistent
with a mine explosion, but were inconclusive as to whether it was a
local earthquake.
As no impact crater has been found it is most likely that the event
recorded by the seismic network was a small magnitude 3.6 earthquake,
which is not unusual in this region and consistent with the
seismograms. Since 1993, two earthquakes occurred in an area of 50 km
around the epicentre of the 28 May 1993 event. The seismic records of
these earthquakes were compared with the seismic records of the 1993
event, and showed similar characteristics consistent with typical
seismic activity for Western Australia. The observation of a meteor is
also not unusual in this region because of the clear skies and flat
topography, but we are unaware if there was an unusually large number
in the 1990s. --Clive D.N. Collins, Urban Geoscience Division, AGSO -
Geoscience Australia, Canberra, Australia

As we do not have any information other than what was
recorded on our seismic network we are unable to comment on reports of
phenomena in the atmosphere. We do however note that there is no
evidence of atmospheric sound waves (a 'sonic boom' for instance)
visible on the seismic records. Evidence for these waves have been
observed on records associated with known meteor sightings.
--Clive Collins

Jeremy Frazao's Grand Unification Theory

Everything and everyone is completely fucking insane.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 27, 2004 at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Gay Marriage Amendment: DOA

Josh Chafetz over at Oxblog has been tallying up senators, and has reached a total of 41 senators opposed to a gay marriage amendment.
Even if a few of them flip-flop, it still means the amendment has no
chance of passing.
Incidentally, only one Democratic senator has come out in favor of the
amendment. Not surprisingly, the Douchebag of the Day award goes to
Boll Weevil Zell Miller, who once again has shown he'll stop at nothing to demostrate his allegiance to the Republican Party.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 27, 2004 at 08:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 26 February 2004

Stephanie Herseth and the Hate Amendment

Via Kos,
we read that Stephanie Herseth, candidate for South Dakota's at-large
congressional district, has come out in favor of the Bush Hate
Amendment.
After Ben Chandler's win
in Kentucky, the blogosphere focused it's laserlike support on Herseth
in hopes that we could once again upset the Rovian GOP Machine.
However, we must now direct our energies elsewhere. Obviously, if
Herseth wins we'll take the seat, but we can't afford to expend our
efforts on a candidate who's not willing to do the right thing.
For what it's worth, I'd recommend checking out Doug Haines in GA12 if you're looking for a solid candidate to support.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 26, 2004 at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Get Your War On

On the eve of a House hearing on broadcast indecency, the nation's largest radio station chain suspended shock jock Howard Stern's show, saying it did not meet the company's newly revised programming standards. Stern's suspension Wednesday by Clear Channel Radio was the second time in two days that the company has acted against a disc jockey. The company on Tuesday fired the DJ known as "Bubba the Love Sponge," whose show drew a record fine of $755,000 from the Federal Communications Commission. The program aired in four Florida cities and included graphic discussions about sex and drugs "designed to pander to, titillate and shock listeners," the FCC said.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 26, 2004 at 09:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Livin Large

Calpundit pointed to this story
last night, and I ignored it at first. The theme is that Senators are
doing way better in the stock market than us ordinary schlubs, but I
figured "So what? They're rich. I'm sure they can afford some wicked
financial planners."
This morning I went and read the article and was sticking hard to my
"not a big deal" line, until I read this:

The Ziobrowski study notes that the politicians' timing of
transactions is uncanny. Most stocks bought by senators had shown
little movement before the purchase. But after the stock was bought, it
outperformed the market by 28.6 per cent on average in the following
calender year.
Returns on sell transactions are equally intriguing. Stocks sold by
senators performed in line with the market the year following the sale.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 26, 2004 at 07:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 25 February 2004

9/11 Panel: Rice won't appear at public hearing

Not surprisingly, Condi Rice has refused to testify at the public hearings for the 9/11 commission:

The commission investigating the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks said Wednesday that National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice had declined their request to testify at a public
hearing next month. "We are disappointed by this decision," commission
members said in a statement Wednesday. "We believe the nation would be
well served by the contribution she can make to public understanding of
the intelligence and policy issues being examined by the Commission."
Rice met privately with the panel on February 7. The statement also
asked President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to reconsider their
decision to be questioned only by the commission's chairman, former New
Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, a Republican, and its vice chairman, former
Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, a Democrat.
The statement said that Bush and Cheney "prefer not to meet with all
members of the Commission." Former President Bill Clinton and former
Vice President Al Gore have agreed to meet privately with all members
of the commission, the statement said.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 25, 2004 at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Danish Prisoner Released From Guantanamo

Free:

A Danish citizen held for two years in the U.S. military
prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to Denmark, the Foreign
Ministry said Wednesday.
The announcement came a week after the United States said it planned to
release five Britons and the Dane.
The man has not been named by authorities, but Danish media have
identified him as 30-year-old Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane. He was
transferred to Guantanamo Bay in February 2002 after being captured in
Afghanistan or Pakistan.
'The police have, according to an agreement with him and the family,
made housing available for the next few days,' the Foreign Ministry
said in a brief statement.
It said the man did not wish to speak to reporters.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 25, 2004 at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Run Against Bush

For all you runners out there.

There's a group in the DC area and I'm thinking about signing up. I'll keep you posted...

Posted by flow Frazao on February 25, 2004 at 01:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Former Iraq administrator sees decades-long U.S. military presence

With all the hubbub about gay marriage, Nipplegate, and Sex and the City, this article somehow managed to slip beneath the radar:

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, the former interim
administrator of post-conflict reconstruction efforts in Iraq, said
Thursday that a U.S. military presence in Iraq should last "the next
few decades," but questioned the mix of forces already there and
current plans to reconfigure the armed forces as a whole.
Echoing concerns raised by lawmakers at this week's defense budget
hearings, Garner said in an interview with National Journal Group
reporters and editors that the size of the Army and Marine Corps should
be increased by enlarging the infantry or ground forces. And he warned
that the current strain on National Guard and Reserve forces deployed
to Iraq and Afghanistan could cripple efforts to retain experienced
soldiers.
[...]
"Certainly the high-tech war is faster, it's neater and it works pretty
good, but not in all scenarios," he said. "The problem with the Army is
they just don't have enough infantry."

Posted by flow Frazao on February 25, 2004 at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Worm Has Turned

For the past three years, Andrew Sullivan
has been one of George W. Bush's loudest cheerleaders. In countless
articles in magazines like Time, Front Page, and the National Review,
Sullivan has stood behind Bush through thick and thin. His right-wing
blog is one of the most widely read on the internet, attracting
approximately 60,000 readers per day who log in to read why Andy backs
his boy W on The War on Terror, tax cut after tax cut, and scandal
after scandal.
Until now. You see, Andrew Sullivan is a homosexual.

The president launched a war today against the civil
rights of gay citizens and their families. And just as importantly, he
launched a war to defile the most sacred document in the land. Rather
than allow the contentious and difficult issue of equal marriage rights
to be fought over in the states, rather than let politics and the law
take their course, rather than keep the Constitution out of the culture
wars, this president wants to drag the very founding document into his
re-election campaign. He is proposing to remove civil rights from one
group of American citizens - and do so in the Constitution itself. The
message could not be plainer: these citizens do not fully belong in
America. Their relationships must be stigmatized in the very
Constitution itself. The document that should be uniting the country
will now be used to divide it, to single out a group of people for
discrimination itself, and to do so for narrow electoral purposes. Not
since the horrifying legacy of Constitutional racial discrimination in
this country has such a goal been even thought of, let alone pursued.
Those of us who supported this president in 2000, who have backed him
whole-heartedly during the war, who have endured scorn from our peers
as a result, who trusted that this president was indeed a uniter rather
than a divider, now know the truth.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 25, 2004 at 07:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mysterious disease kills more than 300 children in Afghanistan

More than 300 children have died of a mysterious disease in Afghanistan's northern province of Badakhshan in less than a month, An Afghan news agency reported yesterday. The agency quoted Shamsur Rehman, Deputy Governor of the province as saying that it appears to be a respiratory disease, which begins with flu but later chokes the breathing system of the children. Rehman said the number of casualties might be higher but getting exact numbers was difficult in the remote and extremely cold region at the foot of the Hindukush mountains. The official said the cities of Wakhan, Darwaz, Yaftal and Khwahan, bordering China and Tajikistan, have also been hit by the disease. "Relief organizations and government officials are providing succour to the people in several disease-hit areas, but there are many places, which cannot be accessed without helicopters,'' Rehman told said agency.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 25, 2004 at 07:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 24 February 2004

Letter Rip

Billmon's got a great idea going over at the Whiskey bar. It concerns using the Bush 2004 campaign's letter writing tool to mail letters to the editors of newspapers around the country:

But what I actually wanted to point out is that Bush 2004
has a really nifty letter-writing tool, which allows you to e-mail a
letter to the newspapers in your area. You just enter your zip code and the site automatically generates a menu of regional newspapers
-- helpfully ranked both by proximity and circulation.
You pick the papers you want, type in your letter -- or cut and paste
the paragraphs of boilerplate Bush propaganda helpfully provided --
then click, and voila! your letter to the editor is on its way to every
newspaper on your list.
I'm told, although I haven't checked myself, that this is a much more
sophisticated feature than anything you'll find on the DNC or the Kerry
campaign's web sites -- and even more technologically impressive than
Bush 2004's fully robotized campaign blog. I'm also told by someone
who's tested the letter-to-the-editor tool that the e-mails it
generates do not identify the letter sender as a Bush supporter (which,
in light of what I have in mind, is actually more the pity.)
Now it occurred to a Whiskey Bar reader that anybody -- including
Democrats, progressives, gays, brights and other second-class citizens
-- could use this GOP-funded tool to write and send our own letters to the editors, courtesy of the Bush campaign.

Of course, there's no reason to limit ourselves to letters about Gay Marriage. God knows there are plenty of topics to choose from. Pick one and get creatively subversive on Bush's candy ass.

Ready, set, GO!

UPDATE: It bears mentioning that the automated letter generator
leaves a cookie on your computer that could potentially be used to
collect personal data. For what it's worth, I'm of the opinion that
privacy is an ancient 20th century myth, so I'm not all that concerned
about it. I'm sure I'm on hundreds of lists by now, so one more isn't
exactly going to keep me up at night.
However, if you'd like to submit a letter without fear of Big Brother's
prying eyes you can always delete your cookies by going to Tools ->
Internet Options and clicking on "Delete Cookies". Assuming you're
using IE, of course.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 24, 2004 at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Gay Marriage Roundup

Just out of curiousity, what do you think about Gay Marriage and the
Gay Marriage Amendment? Let's get a little interactivity going here.
Leave a comment below with your age, home state, and your views. It'll
be interesting to see where we stand on this one.
D'OHLooks like Haloscan is having trouble with the comments. Patience is essential in the world of free web services...

Posted by flow Frazao on February 24, 2004 at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Grey Tuesday

Check it out:

Tuesday, February 24 will be a day of coordinated civil
disobedience: websites will post Danger Mouse's Grey Album on their
site for 24 hours in protest of EMI's attempts to censor this work.
DJ Danger Mouse created a remix of Jay-Z's the Black Album and the
Beatles White Album, and called it the Grey Album. Jay-Z's record
label, Roc-A-Fella, released an a capella version of his Black Album
specifically to encourage remixes like this one. But despite praise
from music fans and major media outlets like Rolling Stone ("an
ingenious hip-hop record that sounds oddly ahead of its time") and the
Boston Globe (which called it the "most creatively captivating" album
of the year), EMI has sent cease and desist letters demanding that
stores destroy their copies of the album and websites remove them from
their site. EMI claims copyright control of the Beatles 1968 White
Album. Danger Mouse�s album is one of the most "respectful" and
undeniably positive examples of sampling; it honors both the Beatles
and Jay-Z. Yet the lawyers and bureaucrats at EMI have shown zero
flexibility and not a glimmer of interest in the artistic significance
of this work. And without a clearly defined right to sample (e.g.
compulsory licensing), the five major record labels will continue to
use copyright in a reactionary and narrowly self-interested manner that
limits and erodes creativity. Their actions are also self-defeating:
good new music is being created that people want to buy, but the major
labels are so obsessed with hoarding their copyrights that they are
literally turning customers away. This first-of-its-kind protest
signals a refusal to let major label lawyers control what musicians can
create and what the public can hear. The Grey Album is only one of the
thousands of legitimate and valuable efforts that have been stifled by
the record industry-- not to mention the ones that were never even
attempted because of the current legal climate. We cannot allow these
corporations to continue censoring art; we need common-sense reforms to
copyright law that can make sampling legal and practical for artists.

UPDATE: This album is fucking sick. Get it while you can.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 24, 2004 at 06:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Pop Quiz

In an effort to prevent the weakening Institution of Marriage,
President Bush announced today that he plans to endorse a
Constitutional Amendment banning which of the following:

• Marrying purely for citizenship

• No-fault divorce

• Las Vegas wedding chapels

• My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance

• Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire

• Adultery

• Gay Marriage

Answer here.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 24, 2004 at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Busy Day

Blogging will be light today. Lots to do.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 24, 2004 at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 23 February 2004

RIP, Spot

President Bush's dog Spot, the 15-year-old English springer spaniel who had remained eager to please despite increasing health troubles, died on Saturday. Bush and his wife, Laura, went along with a veterinarian's recommendation to put Spotty, as the longtime Bush family pet was known, to sleep, according to White House spokesman Allen Abney. She had suffered a series of strokes recently, including one this week, he said. "The president and Mrs. Bush and the entire Bush family are deeply saddened by the passing of Spot," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Saturday in a statement. "A loyal and loving companion, Spot was a beloved member of the Bush family for nearly 15 years. She will be missed."

Thanks to August J. Pollak for the link.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 23, 2004 at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

NEA is a Terrorist Organization

According to the Secretary of Education:

WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Rod Paige called the
nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization" during a
private White House meeting with governors on Monday. Democratic and
Republican governors confirmed Paige's remarks about the National
Education Association. "These were the words, 'The NEA is a terrorist
organization,' " said Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin. [...]
He was implying that the NEA has not been one of the organizations that
has been working with the administration to try to solve 'No Child Left
Behind,' " he said. Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican, said of
Paige's comments: "Somebody asked him about the NEA's role and he
offered his perspective on it."

Posted by flow Frazao on February 23, 2004 at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Deadly Bomb Attacks in Iraq Since War Began March 20

From TBO.com:

Some of the deadly bombing attacks in Iraq since the war
began March 20. President Bush declared major combat over May 1. -Feb.
23: A suicide bomber detonates an explosives-packed vehicle outside an
Iraqi police station in a Kurdish neighborhood of the northern city of
Kirkuk, killing at least seven other people and wounding at least 35.
-Feb. 18: Two bomb-laden trucks blow up outside a Polish-run base in
Hillah, killing at least 10 people, including the two drivers. Some 65
people are wounded, including Iraqis, Filipinos, Poles, Hungarians and
an American. -Feb. 11: A suicide attacker blows up a car packed with
explosives in a crowd of Iraqis waiting outside an army recruiting
center in Baghdad, killing 47 people. -Feb. 10: A suicide bomber
explodes a truckload of explosives outside a police station in
Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, killing 53 people. -Feb. 1:
Twin suicide bombers kill 109 people in two Kurdish party offices in
the northern city of Irbil. -Jan. 31: At least nine killed, 45 wounded
by car bomb outside police station in the northern city of Mosul. -Jan.
18: Suicide car bombing near main gate to U.S.-led coalition's
headquarters in Baghdad kills at least 31 people. -Jan. 17: Roadside
bomb explodes near Baghdad, killing three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi
civil defense troopers. U.S. death toll reaches 500 with bombing. -Dec.
31, 2003: Car bomb rips through restaurant holding New Year's Eve
party, killing eight Iraqis and wounding 35. -Dec. 14: Suspected
suicide bomber detonates explosives in car outside police station in
Khaldiyah, killing at least 17, wounding 33. -Nov. 22: Car bombs hit
two police stations northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 12 Iraqis.
-Nov. 20: Truck bomb explodes near Kurdish party office in northern oil
city of Kirkuk, killing five people, wounding 30. Local officials blame
Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida. -Nov. 12: Suicide truck bomber
attacks headquarters of Italy's paramilitary police in southern city of
Nasiriyah, killing more than 30 people, including 19 Italians. -Oct.
27: Four suicide bombings target international Red Cross headquarters
and four Iraqi police stations in Baghdad, killing 40 people, mostly
Iraqis. -Oct. 9: Suicide bomber drives Oldsmobile into police station
in Baghdad's Sadr City district, killing nine Iraqis. -Aug. 29: Car
bomb explodes outside mosque in Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf,
killing more than 85 people, including Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed
Baqir al-Hakim. -Aug. 19: Truck bomber strikes U.N. headquarters in
Baghdad, killing 22, including top U.N. envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de
Mello. -Aug. 7: Car bomb explodes outside Jordanian Embassy, killing
19, including two children.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 23, 2004 at 01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

State Department Excluded From Senate Threat Hearing

The State Department's intelligence branch, whose skeptical prewar assessments of Iraq's weapons programs were more accurate than other agencies' judgments, is being excluded from a panel that advises Congress each year on worldwide threats. The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research was not invited by Republican leaders to testify at the annual threat hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee being held Tuesday, even though the bureau has participated in the hearing every year since it began in the early 1990s, congressional and administration officials said.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 23, 2004 at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Quote of the Day

Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss said during a conference call
arranged by the Bush campaign that Kerry has a �32-year history of
voting to cut defense programs and cut defense systems.�
When Kerry responded later, at his side was Max Cleland, a
triple-amputee Vietnam veteran who lost his Senate seat to Chambliss in
2002 after being portrayed as soft on homeland security.
Here's what Cleland had to say:

�For Saxby Chambliss, who got out of going to Vietnam
because of a trick knee, to attack John Kerry as weak on the defense of
our nation is like a mackerel in the moonlight that both shines and
stinks.�

Posted by flow Frazao on February 23, 2004 at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 22 February 2004

Public Enemy #1

Holy shit:

A secret report prepared by the Pentagon warns that climate
change may lead to global catastrophe costing millions of lives and is
a far greater threat than terrorism.
The report was ordered by an influential US Pentagon advisor but was
covered up by "US defense chiefs" for four months, until it was
"obtained" by the British weekly The Observer. The leak promises to
draw angry attention to US environmental and military policies,
following Washington's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on climate
change and President George W. Bush's skepticism about global warning
-- a stance that has stunned scientists worldwide.
The Pentagon report, commissioned by Andrew Marshall, predicts that
"abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as
countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food,
water and energy supplies," The Observer reported. The report, quoted
in the paper, concluded: "Disruption and conflict will be endemic
features of life.... Once again, warfare would define human life."
Some examples given of probable scenarios in the dramatic report
include: -- Britain will have winters similar to those in current-day
Siberia as European temperatures drop off radically by 2020. -- by 2007
violent storms will make large parts of the Netherlands uninhabitable
and lead to a breach in the acqueduct system in California that
supplies all water to densely populated southern California -- Europe
and the United States become "virtual fortresses" trying to keep out
millions of migrants whose homelands have been wiped out by rising sea
levels or made unfarmable by drought. -- "catastrophic" shortages of
potable water and energy will lead to widespread war by 2020. Randall,
one of the authors, called his findings "depressing stuff" and warned
that it might even be too late to prevent future disasters. "We don't
know exactly where we are in the process. It could start tomorrow and
we would not know for another five years," he told the paper. Experts familiar with the report told the newspaper that the threat to global stability "vastly eclipses that of terrorism".

Posted by flow Frazao on February 22, 2004 at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 21 February 2004

Saturday Morning Roundup

• INSURGENTS pounded the main prison in Baghdad with 33 mortar bombs and five rockets late Wednesday before US troops shot dead one person and arrested 55 others.
• The independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will have to consider scaling back the scope of its inquiry and limiting public hearings unless Congress agrees by next week to give the panel more time to finish its work, its chairman said yesterday.
• Five Britons and a Dane will be released from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they have been held for two years without trial as terrorism suspects, officials in Britain, Denmark and the United States announced Thursday.
• Israel will take down a section of the West Bank separation barrier that had isolated a Palestinian town, an official said Friday, days before world court hearings on the legality of the partition.
• Australia's Great Barrier Reef will lose most of its coral cover by 2050 and, at worst, the world's largest coral system could collapse by 2100 because of global warming, a study released on Saturday said.

And in what has become the requisite "Friday Afternoon Outrage" from the Bush administration:

After three years of watching Senate Democrats block his
judicial nominees, President Bush trumped them for the second time this
year by installing Alabama Attorney General William Pryor on the
federal appeals court.
Bush on Friday gave Pryor an almost two-year stint on the 11th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, calling him a "leading American
lawyer" and saying Democrats had used "unprecedented obstructionist
tactics" last year to stop him and five other nominees.
Last month, Bush did the same thing with Mississippi federal Judge
Charles Pickering, appointing him to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in New Orleans. Bush picked Pryor last April for a seat on the
11th Circuit that covers Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Abortion rights
advocates immediately opened a campaign against the nominee, citing his
criticism of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that said women
had a constitutional right to terminate pregnancy. Pryor also came
under fire for filing a Supreme Court brief in a Texas sodomy case
comparing homosexual acts to "prostitution, adultery, necrophilia,
bestiality, possession of child pornography and even incest and
pedophilia."

Posted by flow Frazao on February 21, 2004 at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Calling Matt Drudge

Word on the street is that Texas Governor Rick Perry is about to face a holy hellstorm.

I'm not one to breathlessly report every rumour I hear, but if there's any truth to this one... wow.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 21, 2004 at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

But Is It Faith-Based?

Hallucinogen May Cure Drug Addiction

Drug addiction has been the plague of modern America. But
that could now change forever. What started as a rumor may now actually
be an incredible breakthrough in the battle against addictions of all
kinds. Ibogaine has a number of strikes against it: It doesn't come
from a modern laboratory, but from an ancient plant. It was discovered
not by a scientist, but by a heroin addict. It is mildly hallucinogenic
and completely illegal in the United States. However, when it comes to
curing addiction, a reputable scientist believes ibogaine is nothing
short of a miracle. "I didn't believe it when I first heard about
ibogaine. I thought it was something that needed to be debunked,"
admits Dr. Deborah Mash, professor of Neurology and Molecular and
Cellular Pharmacology at University of Miami.
[...]
Like most addicts, Patrick tried to quit. But treatment for addiction
is notoriously ineffective. Only one in ten addicts manages to return
to a drug-free life. Most stay dependent on illegal drugs or their
legal substitutes, like methadone. "And I was a spectacular failure at
every possible treatment modality, every paradigm, every detox, every
therapy, nothing ever worked," admits Patrick. Even as Patrick Kroupa
despaired of ever kicking heroin, Dr. Mash was petitioning the Federal
Food and Drug Administration to allow a scientific test of ibogaine,
which by this time had been classified as a "schedule one" drug on a
par with heroin. In 1993, the FDA approval came through. "We were
established, we had a team of research scientists, doctors, clinicians,
psychiatrists, toxicologists and we wanted to go forward with this,"
describes Dr. Mash. But even with FDA approval, Dr. Mash could not get
funding to look into what was, after all, a counter-culture drug. In
order to complete her project, she had to leave South Florida and go
offshore, to the island of St. Kitts. In 1998, clinical trials finally
got underway. Patients were given carefully prepared oral doses of
ibogaine. What happened next astounded the sceptical scientist. "Our
first round in St. Kitts, we treated six individuals, and I will go to
my grave with the memory of that first round," says Dr. Mash. It
quickly became apparent that one dose of ibogaine blocked the
withdrawal symptoms of even hard-core addicts and was amazingly
effective for heroin, crack cocaine and even alcohol. There are two
reasons why: The first, science can measure. The second remains a
mystery. Dr. Mash admits, "I was really scared. I questioned my own
sanity on numerous occasions."

Posted by flow Frazao on February 21, 2004 at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Red Cross Visits Saddam Hussein in Custody

Here:

Officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross
visited former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Saturday, an ICRC
spokeswoman said.
"The visit took place this morning Baghdad time," Antonella Notari told
Reuters in Geneva. She said the visit took place in Iraq but she did
not disclose exactly where, under agreement with U.S. forces holding
Saddam since his capture in December. The Red Cross team included an
Arabic speaker and a doctor. Saddam wrote a message to be delivered to
his family, Notari said. Under the terms of the Geneva Convention
covering prisoners of war, which Washington has said applies to Saddam,
U.S. forces were obliged to give the ICRC access to the 66-year-old
former president. As is usual with the organization's visits to
detainees, the ICRC did not comment on Saddam's condition.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 21, 2004 at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 20 February 2004

Science Friday

New Data Shows Mysterious Force in Universe, as Einstein Said:

A dark, unseen energy permeating space is pushing the
universe apart just as Einstein predicted it could in 1917, according
to striking new measurements of distant exploding stars by the orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope.
The energy, whose source remains unknown, was named the cosmological
constant by Einstein. In a prediction he later called "my greatest
blunder," but which received its most stringent test ever with the new
measurements, Einstein posited a kind of antigravity force pushing
galaxies apart with a strength that did not change over billions of
years of cosmic history.
Theorists seeking to explain the mysterious force have suggested that
it could, in fact, become stronger or weaker over time � either
finally tearing the universe apart in a violent event called "the big
rip" or shutting down in the distant future. If the force somehow shut
down, gravity would again predominate in the cosmos and the universe
would collapse on itself. That version of oblivion is sometimes called
"the big crunch."
The new observations, which were led by Dr. Adam Riess at the Space
Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, made the tightest
measurements ever on the strength of the antigravity force over time.
The observations relied on Hubble observations of the exploding stars,
or supernovas, which are swept up in the dark energy's cosmic push.
But rather than seeing the changes in the push that many theorists had
predicted, Einstein's steady, unchanging cosmological constant fits the
data better than any of the alternatives. "What we've found is that it
looks like a semi-permanent kind of dark energy," Dr. Riess said. "It
appears like it's been with us for a long time; if it is changing it's
doing so slowly." "Einstein's theory," Dr. Riess added, "is looking a
lot better than before this data."
While the new results favor Einstein's nearly century-old prediction,
they do not yet entirely rule out the stranger and more changeable
forms of energy that some theorists have put forth. In particular,
scientific proponents of the big rip, in which the energy would
eventually become so powerful that it tears apart planets, stars and
even atoms, have been left with some hope. But the data suggest, Dr.
Riess said, that any ultimate cataclysm could not occur until well into
the distant future, perhaps 30 billion years from now.
The measurements raise new questions about NASA's decision, which is
now being reviewed, to let the Hubble Space Telescope die a slow death
in space over the next several years rather than attempt another
servicing mission with the space shuttle. NASA's administrator, Sean
O'Keefe, has said that a servicing mission would be too risky in the
wake of the disaster involving the Space Shuttle Columbia.
Dr. Riess said he disagreed with the decision to shut down the Hubble.
"The Hubble is an invaluable tool in the studies," he said. "Nothing
else can contribute this kind of data. I think to stop doing this
science with Hubble would be a very unfortunate choice."

The Hubble Space Telescope will be allowed to degrade and
eventually become useless, as NASA changes focus to President Bush's
plans to send humans to the moon, Mars and beyond, officials say. NASA
canceled all space shuttle servicing missions to the Hubble, which has
revolutionized the study of astronomy with its striking images of the
universe. John Grunsfeld, NASA's chief scientist, said Friday that NASA
administrator Sean O'Keefe made the decision to cancel the fifth space
shuttle service mission to the Hubble when it became clear there was
not enough time to conduct it before the shuttle is retired. The
servicing mission was considered essential to enable the orbiting
telescope to continue to operate.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 20, 2004 at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Kerry and Edwards go Head to Head on ABC News

Senator John Kerry and Senator John Edwards will go head to head on
�This Week with George Stephanopoulos� to air this Sunday, February
22, 2004 on the ABC Television Network (check local listings). In what
will likely be the first and only head to head match-up before Super
Tuesday on March 2, the exclusive on-the-trail interviews with Senator
Edwards and Senator Kerry will focus on the candidates� positions on
five major policy issues and how they differ from their opponent�s.
�No politics, no process no gotcha,� said George Stephanopoulos.
�We want to focus the candidates and the voters on the big
differences over the big issues.� The five issues are jobs, trade and
the economy, health care, Iraq, and terrorism.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 20, 2004 at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Big Deal About Universal Health Care

Here's a little story about a guy from Ohio who got a little sick one day:

A funny thing happened last week. Actually, it wasn't funny
at all. A few months ago I started getting strange stomach upsets when
I ate, sort of a weird bloating effect that hurt a lot and kept me up
all night when it happened. Then it started to happen more and more
frequently, eventually nearly every day, so I did what any rational
person would do: I pretty much stopped eating. Bad idea. I lost 15
pounds over the course of two months or so and the pain just got much
worse, until finally Mrs. Word Detective, who had been trying to get me
to go to a doctor for quite a while, convinced me to go to the
hospital. This seems a good time to mention that The Great State of
Ohio is one of those states that allows health insurance companies to
refuse to offer you coverage, which they did to us several years ago.
We had good coverage through the Authors Guild when we lived in NYC
(where insurance companies can charge you out the wazoo but can't
refuse coverage entirely), but since we moved out here we have had no
insurance.
Meanwhile, back at the hospital, it developed that I had a severely
inflamed gall bladder and needed immediate surgery. So they yanked the
little sucker out in the nick of time (it was three times normal size
and the surgeon said he didn't understand why I was still walking
around and not, like, dead), leaving me with four incisions that look
like bullet wounds, and sent me home six hours later. Total time in
hospital = 22 hours. I wasn't in intensive care, and I didn't even get
a real room, just a glorified closet with the bathroom 50 feet down the
hall to which I would stagger trailing my IV pole behind me. But I seem
to be all right now, although it still hurts when I cough or sneeze.
And then the other shoe dropped. Bills have begun to arrive. So far,
they amount to (is everyone sitting down?) a little over $22,000.
That's twenty-two thousand dollars. For 22 hours in the hospital. And
we haven't received the surgeon's bill yet.
This strikes me as absolutely insane. Twenty-two thousand dollars?
That's close to the advance on my last book, which took me most of a
year to write. We don't have anywhere near that amount of money. But
something tells me the hospital plans to get its money one way or
another. As in take away our house.

My brother
Jonah
Amy
Ted
My Uncle Billy
Jeff

Posted by flow Frazao on February 20, 2004 at 03:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Today's "What the Hell Is Going On" Story

I don't even know what to think about this:

Federal authorities tried Friday to unravel the story of a
Chicago investment banker who vanished on Valentine's Day, may have
gone to New York and then reappeared Thursday night on a Morocco-bound
flight, where he claimed he had been kidnapped by Al Qaeda.
Officials questioned Zubar Ghias, 27, in Bangor, Maine, but he was not
placed under arrest. A second passenger, whose name was not released,
was sitting next to Ghias, Bangor Police Sgt. James Owens said. Bangor
police removed both passengers from the flight and took them to the
FBI's Bangor office, Owens said. Neither was under arrest, he said.
Tony Caruso, assistant director of Bangor International Airport, also
said two people were removed from the flight. "It would make sense that
we would interview a number of people," said FBI spokeswoman Gail
Marcinkiewicz. Ghias was on board Royal Air Maroc's (search) Flight 201
when it took off from New York's Kennedy International Airport Thursday
evening en route to Casablanca. Federal authorities diverted the Boeing
767 to Bangor, where it landed about four hours later. Transportation
Security Administration (search) spokesman Mark Hatfield said the plane
was redirected because of a bomb threat, which he said had apparently
been made by a passenger. Marcinkiewicz cited calls from Chicago-area
media to an airline security desk in New York reporting a possible
bomb. "There was no bomb," she said. Holly Baker, a spokeswoman for the
Federal Aviation Administration in New England, said she knew nothing
about a bomb threat. Baker said the plane was diverted because "there
was a person aboard who they felt was a security risk." The plane,
carrying 92 people, was refueled and passengers were rescreened before
it took off again from Bangor International Airport at 3:51 a.m. en
route to Casablanca. Caruso said the pilot first told passengers that
the Boeing 767 had mechanical troubles "so the passengers wouldn't get
upset." The Bangor airport was notified 10 to 15 minutes before the
plane landed, he said. "We got a call that there was an irate passenger
on board, and also a bomb threat," he said. The Boston FBI office,
which oversees Maine, told Fox News that other passengers besides Ghias
had been questioned in Bangor. All were released.
Ghias was not in FBI custody, nor in Bangor police custody, the FBI
said. Ghias' family told Fox News that they had not yet heard from him
on Friday. 'I've Been Captured by Al Qaeda'
Before taking off Thursday, Ghias borrowed a cell phone from another
passenger and called his wife with a cryptic message. Eddie Rizzo, a
private investigator in Chicago, quoted Ghias as telling his wife: "I'm
on flight 201 to Morocco. I've been captured by Al Qaeda. They want me
to do something for them. I love you, I just gotta do this."
Marcinkiewicz wouldn't comment on Rizzo's story. "He basically told his
family he was forced onto the plane by some Arabic people," said FBI
agent James Osterrieder. "He basically said that his family was
threatened and commenced to tell us he had been abducted some time on
Valentine's Day actually, and that he had been held ever since, mostly
in New York City." The call from Ghias was the first contact his family
had with him in nearly a week. He disappeared one day after buying a
new ring for his wife in Chicago. Ghias' wife, who is 6 months
pregnant, last saw him Saturday when he picked her up from the airport
around 8 a.m., left her at their home and said he was going to do some
work at his office at J.P. Morgan Chase and Company, the NBC affiliate
in Chicago reported. She reported her husband missing around noon on
Monday. Ghias apparently never went to his office, and his 2003 Land
Rover was found at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. Chicago Police Sgt.
Scott Schwieger said police found two gold rings and a note asking for
help in the car, but investigators had not confirmed that it was
written in Ghias' hand, or for how long it may have been in the car.
Ghias withdrew about $5,000 in small bills from his checking account at
a Harris Bank branch in Chicago around 11:45 a.m. Saturday. Rizzo said
Ghias had dinner at his father-in-law's house Friday night and told him
he was interested in purchasing an antique wristwatch for $5,000.
Ghias' family held a press conference Thursday night. His uncle said he
wanted to thank God for bringing his nephew back. Tracked to New York The FBI said they tracked Ghias down to a
New York City location in at least one instance, on Feb. 16. A man who
matched his description purchased drywall, tape and glue at a hardware
store in Brooklyn using a credit card in the days after he disappeared,
Schwieger said. The store did not have a security camera, so there was
no positive ID, but according to Rizzo, the signature on the receipt
matches Ghias' signature. "I called the shop and talked to the owner,"
Rizzo told the television station. "He remembers the guy." Ghias may
have contacts in Brooklyn from business trips he had taken to New York
in the past, Schwieger said. Rizzo told Fox News that "the guy's
straight up," has a wealthy family, isn't involved in drugs and is a
"complete family man." "It is again the most bizarre case I've ever
handled and it goes from left to right every five minutes," Rizzo said.
"But the more I get into it, the more I really believe the guy."

Meanwhile, America loses it's collective shit over a Mel Gibson movie.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 20, 2004 at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Supreme Court Watch Part 2

High Court to Mull 'Enemy Combatant' Rule:

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether the
Constitution forbids the Bush administration from holding U.S. citizens
indefinitely and without access to lawyers or courts when they are
suspected of being "enemy combatants."
The justices will consider the case of Jose Padilla, an American
citizen, former Chicago gang member and convert to Islam who was
arrested in his home city after a trip to Pakistan. The government
alleges he was part of a plot to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb"
in the United States.
The Padilla case is a companion to another terrorism case the court was
already set to hear this spring. Together, the Yaser Esam Hamdi and
Padilla cases will allow the high court to take its most comprehensive
look so far at the constitutional and legal rights of Americans caught
up in the global war on terror.
Lawyers for both men claim their treatment is unconstitutional. Hearing
the cases together will simultaneously address the rights of U.S.
citizens captured abroad and at home.
At issue is the president's claim of authority to protect the nation
and pursue terrorists unfettered by many traditional legal obligations
- and outside previous precedents for government conduct in wartime.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear both cases in late April, with a
ruling due by summer.
[...]
The Padilla and Hamdi cases hit close to home for most Americans.
Padilla was arrested on U.S. soil, and the initial allegations against
him were aired in the civilian criminal court system. He was later
whisked to a military prison in South Carolina, where he was off-limits
to his lawyer or other outsiders for nearly two years.
Earlier this month, the Bush administration said Padilla could now see
his lawyers, although the government still contends it has no legal
obligation to allow such a meeting.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 20, 2004 at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Is Dick Cheney Scary On Purpose?

Good article from CBS News:

Sinister. That word keeps cropping up in descriptions of
Dick Cheney's public countenance. I don't quite understand how or why
this came to pass. But I'm now suspicious that it's a plot. Maybe the
image wizards at the White House figured out that in post-9/11 America,
having a dark, secretive, powerful sorcerer behind the throne was the
perfect tactic to create awe and obedience amongst us Muggles. After
all, Dick Cheney didn't used to be Dr. Strangelove. As a congressman
and Defense Secretary, Cheney was actually a pretty fun guy. He was
open with the press, relatively spin-free for his peer group and
popular for the deadpan wisecracks issued from his famously curled
mouth. He was a Republican that Democrats liked. Republicans did too.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 20, 2004 at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Progress Meter

Just to put things in perspective...

Here are the specifications for the computers used during the Apollo Missions (you know - the ones that put men on the moon):

Instruction Set: Approximately 20 instructions; 100 noun-verb pairs, data up to triple-precision
Word Length: 16 bits (14 bits + sign + parity)

Memory: ROM (rope core) 36K words; RAM (core) 2K words

Disk: None

I/O: DSKY (two per spacecraft)

Performance: approx. Add time - 20s

Basic machine cycle: 2.048 MHz

Technology: RTL bipolar logic (flat pack)

Size: AGC - 24" x 12.5" x 6" (HWD); DSKY - 8" x 8" x 7" (HWD)

Weight: AGC - 70 lbs; DSKY - 17.5 lbs

Number produced: AGC - 75; DSKY: 138

Cost: Unknown.

Power consumption: Operating: 70W @ 28VDC; Standby 15.0 watts

Posted by flow Frazao on February 20, 2004 at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The October Surprise

Mark your calendars folks, cause it's on the way:

THE United States is engaged in intense efforts to capture
al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who is believed to be still hiding in
the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the top US general
said today.
"It's been intense," said General Richard Myers, the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. "There have been operations that have gone on to
work that problem. We're organised to take advantage of the leads."
Myers refused to discuss the search in any detail, but assured defence
reporters here US intelligence agencies have spent "an enormous amount
of time" on the effort.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 20, 2004 at 07:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 19 February 2004

Mystery Writer

Guess who's the voice of reason:

On the dust jacket of his book, Richard Perle appends a
Washington Post depiction of himself as the �intellectual guru of the
hard-line neoconservative movement in foreign policy.�
The guru�s reputation, however, does not survive a reading. Indeed,
on putting down Perle�s new book the thought recurs: the
neoconservative moment may be over. For they are not only losing their
hold on power, they are losing their grip on reality.
An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror opens on a note of
hysteria. In the War on Terror, writes Perle, �There is no middle way
for Americans: It is victory or holocaust.� �What is new since 9/11
is the chilling realization that the terrorist threat we thought we had
contained� now menaces �our survival as a nation.�
But how is our survival as a nation menaced when not one American has
died in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11? Are we really in
imminent peril of a holocaust like that visited upon the Jews of
Poland?
�[A] radical strain within Islam,� says Perle, � ... seeks to
overthrow our civilization and remake the nations of the West into
Islamic societies, imposing on the whole world its religion and
laws.�
Well, yes. Militant Islam has preached that since the 7th century. But
what are the odds the Boys of Tora Bora are going to �overthrow our
civilization� and coerce us all to start praying to Mecca five times
a day?
In his own review of An End to Evil, Joshua Micah Marshall picks up
this same scent of near-hysteria over the Islamic threat:

The book conveys a general sense that America is at war
with Islam itself anywhere and everywhere: the contemporary Muslim
world .... is depicted as one great cauldron of hate, murder,
obscurantism, and deceit. If our Muslim adversaries are not to destroy
Western civilization, we must gird for more battles.

To suggest Frum and Perle are over the top is not to imply we not take
seriously the threat of terror attacks on airliners, in malls, from
dirty bombs, or, God forbid, a crude atomic device smuggled in by Ryder
truck or container ship. Yet even this will never �overthrow our
civilization.�
In the worst of terror attacks, we lost 3,000 people. Horrific. But at
Antietam Creek, we lost 7,000 in a day�s battle in a nation that was
one-ninth as populous. Three thousand men and boys perished every week
for 200 weeks of that Civil War. We Americans did not curl up and die.
We did not come all this way because we are made of sugar candy.
Germany and Japan suffered 3,000 dead every day in the last two years
of World War II, with every city flattened and two blackened by atom
bombs. Both came back in a decade. Is al-Qaeda capable of this sort of
devastation when they are recruiting such scrub stock as Jose Padilla
and the shoe bomber?
In the war we are in, our enemies are weak. That is why they resort to
the weapon of the weak�terror. And, as in the Cold War, time is on
America�s side. Perseverance and patience are called for, not this
panic.

Politics, as they say, certainly does make for strange bedfellows.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 19, 2004 at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Supreme Court watch

An important case is coming up before the Supreme Court next month:

Meet Dudley Hiibel. He's a 59 year old cowboy who owns a
small ranch outside of Winnemucca, Nevada. He lives a simple life, but
he's his own man. You probably never would have heard of Dudley Hiibel
if it weren't for his belief in the U.S. Constitution. One balmy May
evening back in 2000, Dudley was standing around minding his own
business when all of a sudden, a policeman pulled-up and demanded that
Dudley produce his ID. Dudley, having done nothing wrong, declined. He
was arrested and charged with "failure to cooperate" for refusing to
show ID on demand. And it's all on video. On the 22nd of March 2004,
the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Dudley and the rest of us
live in a free society, or in a country where we must show "the papers"
whenever a cop demands them.

"I'm investigating an investigation."
- Humboldt County Deputy Lee Dove

Posted by flow Frazao on February 19, 2004 at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 18 February 2004

Pop Quiz

Fill in the blank (from Atrios):

In 1958, nine years before the Court ruled in Loving v.
Virginia that miscegenation laws were unconstitutional, Gallup polled
people about interracial marriages.
_____% of Whites opposed them.
no cheating.
...and the winner is... 94%! (it's also frequently reported as 96%. I think 94% is the right number).

Posted by flow Frazao on February 18, 2004 at 07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

John Kerry's shifting stands

Check out this editorial from the Boston Globe (thanks to JoeKo for the link):

IN THE 2004 presidential field, there is a candidate for
nearly every point of view.
His name is John Kerry.
Equivocating politicians are sometimes accused of trying to be "all
things to all people," but few have taken the practice of expedience
and shifty opportunism to Kerry's level. Massachusetts residents have
known this about their junior senator for a long time. Now the rest of
the country is going to find out.
Here's how it works: Say you're in favor of capital punishment for
terrorists. Well, so is Kerry. "I am for the death penalty for
terrorists because terrorists have declared war on your country," he
said in December 2002. "I support killing people who declare war on our
country."
But if you're opposed to capital punishment even for terrorists, that's
OK -- Kerry is too! Between 1989 and 1993, he voted at least three
times to exempt terrorists from the death penalty. In a debate with
former governor William Weld, his opponent in the 1996 Senate race,
Kerry scorned the idea of executing terrorists. Anti-death penalty
nations would refuse to extradite them to the United States, he said.
"Your policy," he told Weld, "would amount to a terrorist protection
policy. Mine would put them in jail."
What does Kerry really think? Who knows? He seems to have conveniently
switched his stance after Sept. 11, 2001, but he insists that politics
had nothing to do with his reversal. Either way, one thing is clear:
His willingness to swing both ways fits a longstanding pattern of
coming down firmly on both sides of controversial issues.
Take the Patriot Act. Kerry condemns it fiercely as the stuff of a
"knock-in-the-night" police state. He vows "to end the era of John
Ashcroft" by "replacing the Patriot Act with a new law that protects
our people and our liberties at the same time."
So does that mean he voted against it in 2001? Au contraire! Kerry
voted for the law -- parts of which he originally wrote. He singled out
its money-laundering sections for particular praise but declared that
he was "pleased at the compromise we have reached on the antiterrorism
legislation as a whole."
Bottom line, then: Is Kerry for or against the Patriot Act? Absolutely.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 18, 2004 at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

ATTENTION TERRORISTS

You are hereby instructed to log into http://cia.gov/cia/english_rewards.htm and tell the CIA where the Weapons of Mass Destruction are.

Seriously. Do it or else.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 18, 2004 at 01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

NEWSFLASH: President Bush Not A Statistician

The Bush Administration is furiously backpeddling away from its earlier job growth predictions for 2004:

The White House backed away Wednesday from its own
prediction that the economy will add 2.6 million new jobs before the
end of this year, saying the forecast was the work of number-crunchers
and that President Bush was not a statistician. Bush, himself, stopped
short of echoing the prediction. "I think the economy's growing, and I
think it's going to get stronger," said Bush, the nation's first MBA
president. He said he was pleased that 366,000 new jobs have been added
since August. "But I'm mindful there are still people looking for work,
and we've got to continue building on the progress we've made so far."
The administration's refusal to back its own jobs estimate brought
criticism from John Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic
presidential nomination. "Now George Bush is saying he's going to
create 2.6 million jobs this year alone - and his advisors are saying,
'What, you didn't actually believe that, did you?' Apparently George
Bush is the only person left in the country who actually believes the
far-fetched promises he's peddling," Kerry said in a statement.

UPDATE: Amazingly enough, the White House Press Corps has
finally grown a collective set of nuts. Ever since the AWOL fiasco,
they've been asking questions and following them up with other questions. Take a gander at this unprecedented exchange:

Q: Can you answer the specific question, though? Was this
report -- was the prediction of this many jobs, 2.6 million jobs,
vetted prior to publication by the entire economic team? MR. McCLELLAN:
It's an annual report, David. It goes through the usual -- it goes
through the usual -- Q: That's not the question. Was it or was it not
vetted by the entire economic team? MR. McCLELLAN: It's an annual
report. It goes through the usual -- Q: So you don't know, or it was,
or it wasn't? MR. McCLELLAN: Can I get -- can I finish that sentence?
Q: When you answer the question. Let's hear it. What's the answer? MR.
McCLELLAN: The answer was, it is an annual economic report and it goes
through the normal vetting process. And if you would let me get to
that, I would answer your question. Q: -- the full economic team vetted
the prediction -- MR. McCLELLAN: It's an annual economic report. It's
the President's Economic Report. But again, the President -- Q: Just
say yes or no -- MR. McCLELLAN: -- it goes through the normal -- it
goes through the normal vetting process. Q: So the answer is, yes. I'm
not done yet, I've got another one. MR. McCLELLAN: Okay. Q: Why -- if
you're suggesting that people will debate the numbers, that's kind of a
backhanded way to say, oh, who cares about the numbers. Well,
apparently, the President's top economic advisors do, because that's
why they wrote a very large report and sent it to Congress. So why was
the prediction made in the first place, if the President and you and
his Treasury Secretary were going to just back away from it? MR.
McCLELLAN: Well, one, I disagree with the premise of the way you stated
that. This is the annual Economic Report of the President and the
economic modeling is done this way every year. It's been done this way
for 20-some years. Q: So why not -- why aren't you standing behind it?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think what the President stands behind is the policies
that he is implementing, the policies that he is advocating. That's
what's important. Q: That's not in dispute. The number is the question.
MR. McCLELLAN: I know, but the President's concern is on the number of
jobs being created -- Q: My question is, why was the prediction made --
MR. McCLELLAN: -- and the President's focus is on making sure that
people who are hurting because they cannot find work have a job. That's
where the President's focus is. Q: Then why predict a number? Why was
the number predicted? Why was the number predicted? You can't get away
with not -- just answer the question. Why was that number predicted?
MR. McCLELLAN: I've been asked this, and I've asked -- I've been asked,
and I've answered. Q: No, you have not answered. And everybody watching
knows you haven't answered. MR. McCLELLAN: I disagree.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 18, 2004 at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Spelling is hard

What a bunch of morons:

This White House press release last week caught our
attention:
NOTICE OF INTENTION TO ENTER INTO A FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH AUSTRILIA
Austrilia, a principality in the New Europe? Must be the latest member
of the mighty coalition of the willing, bringing that grand
organization of eligible contractors up to 64 members.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 18, 2004 at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 17 February 2004

Dem Captures Ky. House Seat AUTHOR: SmooveJ Zao

For those of you who haven't been keeping up, there was a special
election held for a House seat in Kentucky today. The Democrats haven't
won a special election since 1991, and this one was right in the heart
of GOP country.
Ben Chandler easily defeated
Republican opponent Alice Forgy Kerr 55 - 43. That, my friends is a
decisive win in a race that has national implications. In 2000, Bush
carried the state by 15 percent over Al Gore. This time around, Bush
and his cronies were pulling hard for Kerr, and they got spanked:

Bush made a commercial for Kerr's campaign and House
Speaker Dennis Hastert stumped for her. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
gave her $10,000 and loaned top aides to run her campaign. Both
national political parties spent money on advertising for their
candidates. Democrats, who once held sway in the Kentucky congressional
delegation, were down to one of six House seats.

Candidates like Ben Chandler, a Democrat competing in
Kentucky's special election to replace Rep. turned Gov. Ernie Fletcher
(R), are tapping into a new breed of political animal with potentially
deep pockets -- the Web log reader.
"We're raising [considerable] money off the blogs," said Chandler
spokesman Jason Sauer. "It's been really successful. Really beyond
anything we've expected."
With an investment of only $2,000, and in less than two weeks, the
campaign has raked in between $45,000 and $50,000 in contributions from
blog readers, and that number is growing every day, said Chandler
campaign manager Mark Nickolas.
Chandler -- a former state auditor and former state attorney general --
is facing off against GOP state Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr in the Feb. 17
special election for the Lexington-area House seat. But while Kerr has
outraised Chandler by several hundred thousand dollars -- as of late
last week, Kerr had raised about $1.2 million and Chandler was
estimating his fundraising total at about $650,000 -- Chandler's
campaign says its fundraising pace is picking up and at least part of
the surge has come from the Web.
"It has been phenomenal," Nickolas said. "I get an e-mail every time
there's a contribution -- and we know from the e-mail the source is a
blog when they come through that avenue. Since the morning of Jan. 29,
the FEC [filing] cut-off, I've put all those e-mails in a separate
file. So far there are 711." [...]
Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has paved the way,
raising millions in campaign cash from those who've visited his "Blog
for America" site -- but Chandler has followed a slightly different
model.
Instead of creating his own blog, Chandler is drawing potential donors
to his campaign Web site by running advertisements on 11 other popular,
politically oriented blogs such as Calpundit, Daily Kos and Instapundit
[...]
In order to track how well the blogosphere traffic is translating into
direct campaign contributions, Chandler's Web site encourages donors to
tack a few more cents onto their contribution so campaign operatives
can learn from which readers the cash is flowing.
Calpundit readers, for instance, are asked to add 15 cents to their
contribution, while Daily Kos readers are asked to tack a penny onto
their donation. If donors come to Chandler's Web site by way of
Instapundit, then they are asked to add three cents to their
contribution.
Nickolas said the contributions from blog readers are "averaging in the
$40 to $50 range." The vast number of contributions are between $20 and
$25, but every so often a $1,000 or $2,000 contribution will pop up to
"boost the average."
While Nickolas was initially hoping simply to make back the campaign's
$2,000 investment, the gamble has brought in more than 20 times that
amount.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 17, 2004 at 09:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Larry Flynt sets sights on Bush

Larry Flynt has announced he's going for the jugular on W:

Now the incorrigible Larry Flynt says he plans to market a
Bush abortion story as genuine - in a book to be published this summer
by Kensington Press.
"This story has got to come out," the wheelchair-bound Hustler magazine
honcho told the Daily News' Corky Siemaszko. "There's a lot of
hypocrisy in the White House about this whole abortion issue."
Flynt claimed that Bush arranged for the procedure in the early '70s.
"I've talked to the woman's friends," Flynt said. "I've tracked down
the doctor who did the abortion, I tracked down the Bush people who
arranged for the abortion," Flynt said. "I got the story nailed."
Flynt wouldn't disclose whether he plans to name the woman.

[ROBERT] NOVAK: Mr. Flynt, never let it be said that we
censor any of our guests here on CROSSFIRE, and you said you wanted to
talk about the election. Tell me what you wanted to say. FLYNT: Well,
during the impeachment debacle, we did an investigation which resulted
in the resignation of Bob Livingston and others and we have continued
this investigation and for eight months we've been looking into George
W. Bush's background. And we've found out in the early 1970s he was
involved in an abortion in Texas, and I just think that it's sad that
the mainstream media, who's aware of this story, won't ask him that
question when they were able to ask him the drug question without any
proof at all, and we've got all kinds of proof on this issue. NOVAK:
Well, you're...
FLYNT: You know, the guy admitted he was a drunk for 20 years, and if
the abortion issue is true then that puts him lower on the morality
scale than Bill Clinton. NOVAK: Mr. Flynt, you said if it's true and
you have no proof of that. I gather you are a very strong...
FLYNT: The hell we don't have proof.
NOVAK: Sir, I gather you're a very strong Gore supporter. Is that
correct? FLYNT: I'll vote for the lesser of the two evils. I don't like
either one of them. [BILL] PRESS: All Right, Larry Flynt, a man who
speaks his word, but we remind you they are Larry Flynt's words and not
ours. Larry Flynt, thank you very, very much for joining us. This was
followed by an online chat, in which Flynt went into greater detail:
CNN - Mr. Flynt, I would like to know how you plan to protect yourself
from a law suit by claiming to have the goods on GWBush.
Flynt: Because we have them and the truth is an absolute defense.
CNN; When and where are you going to publish information about George
W. Bush?
Flynt: When I said that we had the proof, I am referring to knowing who
the girl was, knowing who the doctor was that pereformed the abortion,
evidence from girlfriends of hers at the time, who knew about the
romance and the subsequent abortion. The young lady does not want to go
public, and without her willingness, we don't feel that we're on solid
enough legal ground to go with the story, because should she say it
never happened, then we've got a potential libel suit. But we know we
have enough evidence that we believe completely. One of the things that
interested us was that this abortion took place before Roe Vs. Wade in
1970, which made it a crime at the time. I'd just like the national
media to ask him if abortion is okay for him and his family, but not
for the rest of America. We're not looking at it as a big issue, we're
looking at it as a situation of people not being told the truth. I
think the American people have a right to know everything there is to
know about someone running for President.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 17, 2004 at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

22 down, 28 to go...

States I've been to (i.e. spent at least one night in):

create your own visited states map

Posted by flow Frazao on February 17, 2004 at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Polaroid Warns Film Users Not to 'Shake It'

Public Service Announcement:

Outkast fans like to "shake it like a Polaroid picture,"
but the instant camera maker is warning consumers that taking the
advice of the hip-hop stars could ruin your snapshots.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 17, 2004 at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Downward Sprial

Now the Iraqi insurgent psychos are targeting children:

" Iraq's continuing violence took an alarming turn Monday
when an explosive device went off in a schoolyard among children at
play, killing a 7- year-old boy and wounding four others. [...]
The 2 p.m. attack came as scores of children were playing outside
during recess. Some witnesses said a small group of children were
burning a pile of trash near a wall and may have inadvertently set off
an explosive device buried in the debris. Hours after the blast, a
child's torn shoe lay atop blood-soaked sand, and the schoolyard wall
was pockmarked by shrapnel. Mustafa Mohammed Saleh, a first-grader who
liked playing soccer and marbles, died at the scene, according to his
uncle, Karim Jamel Sumeili. The family lives one block from the school.
"We all ran over when we heard the explosion, fearing for our
children," Sumeili said. "We can't point fingers yet. But all this is
the responsibility of the Americans. They said they would give us
security, but all they have given us is horror and fear."

Posted by flow Frazao on February 17, 2004 at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tasty AND refreshing

You can thank the Bush administration for your refreshing glass of turpentiney, MTBE-laden water:

The Bush administration quietly shelved a proposal to ban a
gasoline additive that contaminates drinking water in many communities,
helping an industry that has donated more than $1 million to
Republicans.
The Environmental Protection Agency's decision had its origin in the
early days of President Bush's tenure when his administration decided
not to move ahead with a Clinton-era regulatory effort to ban the
clean-air additive MTBE.
The proposed regulation said the environmental harm of the additive
leaching into ground water overshadowed its beneficial effects to the
air.
The Bush administration decided to leave the issue to Congress, where
it has bogged down over a proposal to shield the industry from some
lawsuits. That initiative is being led by House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay, R-Texas.
The Associated Press obtained a draft of the proposed regulation that
former President Clinton's EPA sent to the White House on its last full
day in office in January 2001.
It said: "The use of MTBE as an additive in gasoline presents an
unreasonable risk to the environment."
The EPA document went on to say that "low levels of MTBE can render
drinking water supplies unpotable due to its offensive taste and odor,"
and the additive should be phased out over four years.
"Unlike other components of gasoline, MTBE dissolves and spreads
readily in the ground water ... resists biodegradation and is more
difficult and costly to remove."
People say MTBE-contaminated water tastes like turpentine.
[...]
In 2000, the MTBE industry's lobbying group told the Clinton
administration that limiting MTBE's use by regulation "would inflict
grave economic harm on member companies."
Three MTBE producers account for half the additive's daily output.
The three contributed $338,000 to George W. Bush's presidential
campaign, the Republican Party and Republican congressional candidates
in 1999 and 2000, twice what they gave Democrats, according to the
Center for Responsive Politics. Since then, the three producers have
given just over $1 million to Republicans.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 17, 2004 at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 16 February 2004

Fantasyland vs. Reality

Bush delivered a >campaign speech in Tampa today:

President Bush said on Monday that, contrary to recent
polls and his Democratic challengers, there is an "undeniable" sense of
economic optimism sweeping the country.
Bush acknowledged during a visit to a Tampa window and door
manufacturer that "a lot of economic growth depends upon the psychology
of the people making decisions all throughout our economy." Bush did
his part on Monday to shape that "psychology." "You can say, 'Well of
course, they just pick the upbeat people.' Well, the truth of the
matter is people are pretty upbeat all over the country. That's what
I'm here to report to you," he said.

A closely watched survey of consumer sentiment was sharply
lower in early February, showing Americans turned increasingly cautious
on the economy. Analysts say weak jobs creation has dampened consumer
confidence despite a strengthening U.S. economy. The University of
Michigan index of consumer confidence slumped to a surprisingly low
93.1 in February, reversing January's hefty rise to 103.8. "A 10-point
drop in the confidence index is significant and suggests there is a new
pessimism among consumers that was not there a month ago," said Chris
Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York. "I suspect it has
something to do with three surprisingly weak employment reports in a
row."

Posted by flow Frazao on February 16, 2004 at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 14 February 2004

Red Cross wants to visit Saddam

More than two months since Saddam Hussein's capture, the U.S.-led coalition still has not allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit him. ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal said Saturday the agency hopes to set a date for a visit soon. When asked why the visit is taking so long to arrange, Westphal said, "I'm not sure we're the right people to answer that question." The Red Cross has been working with the U.S.-led coalition to arrange a visit with Saddam since late December. The coalition has told the group it will be allowed to visit the deposed leader. "We are certainly in principle ready to carry out this first visit, and there have been a number of conversations going on with U.S.-led authorities in Iraq to find out how best to do this," Westphal said, speaking to CNN from Geneva, Switzerland, where the agency is based. Coalition officials were not immediately available for comment. Since U.S. soldiers found Saddam in an underground hiding place near Tikrit on December 13, the coalition has held the former Iraqi dictator at an undisclosed location. In January, the Pentagon classified Saddam as an enemy prisoner of war. The Geneva Conventions mandate Red Cross visits to prisoners of war, and the agency often makes such visits to independently verify their conditions in confinement.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 14, 2004 at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 13 February 2004

In Uganda, Terror Forces Children's Nightly Flight

Night was falling quickly. In the faded red and orange light of Africa at dusk, two 15-year-old girls, Jennifer Adoch and Susan Oyella, arms linked, backs straight, hair tightly shaved, hiked dusty trails without shoes, their feet swollen and callused. They walked with thousands of other children, all rushing away from the danger of nighttime rebel raids on their villages and toward the safety of the town center to sleep. Tiny boys in tattered clothing, girls with chubby cheeks clutching ragged dolls, others with foam mattresses balanced on their heads, others with nothing at all were walking. Jennifer and Susan sang a marching song. "People in Gulu are suffering. Education is poor. Communication is poor. There are no more virgins in Gulu," the girls sang sweetly in English. "They were all raped. Hear us now: There are no more virgins in Gulu." The children are called simply "the night commuters." About 15,000 young Ugandans trek every evening from more than 300 villages, some more than five miles away, into the safety of Gulu, about 175 miles north of the capital, Kampala. Other towns in northern Uganda, such as nearby Lira and Kitgum, also have their nightly flood of children. Rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, a guerrilla movement active in northern Uganda since 1987, raid villages at night, abducting boys and girls to fill the ranks of their army and to become sex slaves and porters. After the government launched an offensive two years ago, the kidnappings increased. Last year, an average of 30 children every day were snatched from boarding schools and homes, according to UNICEF. Terrified of abductions, which almost always took place at night, the children began to sleep in the towns, where it was harder for rebels to attack. Parents stayed behind in the villages to watch over their possessions. They, too, have been the victims of rebel kidnappings, but children are the main targets. An estimated 34,000 children have been abducted since 1994. "My family was killed by rebels so I started footing it to the bus park. So many [children] were there, too," said Jennifer, her large eyes shifting down. In the dark, three months ago, she was offered about 30 cents to sleep with a man. She said she closed her eyes and accepted the offer. "I'm not lazy. I can run. I have been beaten. I have been taken to discos and raped. I am not scared anymore," Susan said.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 13, 2004 at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

World Press Photo of the Year

World Press Photo of the year 2003 by French photographer Jean-Marc Bouju of the Associated Press shows a detained Iraqi man comforting his 4-year-old-son at a regroupment center for POW's near Najaf, Iraq. Picture was taken on 31 March, 2003.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 13, 2004 at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A brobdingnagian mess

UN official Ahmad Fawzi has been in Iraq for the past couple of weeks
trying to determine the viability of an Iraqi election. Apparently they
have decided that an open election (as opposed to the caucuses
recommended by the US) is not feasible by June 30:

A U.N. official said Friday elections could not be held in
Iraq before U.S.-led authorities hand power to an Iraqi government by
the end of June.
The United Nations is trying to mediate in a dispute between Iraq's
majority Shi'ites, who want elections before the transfer, and
Washington which says there is not enough time to organize them. "It's
not a question of delaying (the handover). It's finding a new
timetable," Ahmad Fawzi told BBC radio. "Elections will take place when
the country is ready and that will be after the handover of power."
Fawzi, a spokesman for U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, was speaking a day
after Brahimi held talks with top Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, who has spearheaded calls for elections before the June 30
handover. The Shi'ites, who were oppressed for years by ousted leader
Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, make up 60 percent of Iraq's population and
would likely dominate in an election. Brahimi, due in Kuwait Saturday,
said most Iraqis he met wanted early polls but that polls must be well
prepared. "I think we have agreed that the timing should not be a
prisoner to any deadlines," Brahimi told reporters after meeting Iraq's
U.S.-appointed Governing Council. "Elections should be held as early as
possible but not earlier than possible."

Supporters of Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani said on Friday an assessment by U.N. officials that
elections are not possible before June 30 could stir revolt against
their U.S. occupiers.
In Sistani's home town of Najaf, his supporters threatened to rise up
if they did not get their way. "If the United Nations and Americans do
not fulfil the wish of our religious scholars then fatwas (religious
edicts) will follow," Sheikh Rida Hamdani, a Sistani follower, said.
"At first there will be demonstrations or civil disobedience and
finally armed struggle." "We are all behind Sistani, and Shi'ites all
have arms," Hussein Khalifa, a 43-year-old community elder, said. "The
ball is in the United Nation's court...if they do not achieve our goals
we will open a front against them. What is this talk that conditions
are not ready for elections?...Are the only conditions ready the ones
that allow Americans to move about and do what they want freely in
Iraq?" In practice, how Shi'ites react to the U.N. decision will be
dictated by the orders from their religious leadership. When Sistani, a
recluse who communicates through aides, made it known he was demanding
elections, tens of thousands of Shi'ites came on to the streets to
demonstrate peacefully.
"The Shi'ites represent the majority and they have a strong attachment
to their religious leaders, so any fatwa to fight America will be
followed by all Shi'ites," said Sheikh Ali Sweidi, a Sistani disciple.
"It will be a grave mistake for America and the United Nations to pit
themselves in a confrontation with Sayyid Sistani's followers. They
will lose greatly if they oppose the Shi'ite religious authorities."

Most Think Truth Was Stretched to Justify Iraq War

Q: All in all, considering the costs to the United States versus the
benefits to the United States, do you think the war with Iraq was worth
fighting, or not?

Worth it: 48%
Not worth it: 50%

Compare to the Dec. 21 Post/ABC poll:

Worth it: 59%
Not worth it: 39%

Posted by flow Frazao on February 13, 2004 at 08:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The horrifying reality of gay marriage

Story:

Martin and Lyon, founders of the first lesbian rights
organization, Daughters of Bilitis (D.O.B.), have done and seen a lot
in their lifetime pertaining to lesbian rights. After meeting in
Seattle while working together in 1950, the two women quickly developed
a friendship and began dating in 1953. This year marks their 50th
anniversary.
According to Lyon, D.O.B., which was founded in 1955, began as a seed
of an idea of one Filippino woman. "She wanted a place where lesbians
could come together and dance and not be subject to raids by the
police," said Lyon. Lyon and Martin were two of eight founders (four
couples) of the organization. "We keep getting the credit because we're
two of the only ones who are still around," she said. According to
Lyon, the group was originally composed of four middle-class women and
four working class women. One of the eight women was Hispanic; another
was Filippino. "We were very politically correct," said Lyon.
Looking back, Lyon admits that times were really different then. "We
had to be so secretive," she said. "We didn't even know that there were
two other lesbian groups out there - one in San Francisco and one in
Los Angeles." Lyon adds that it was difficult to find out about other
groups and to spread the word simply because they had to be so careful.
What began as merely a social group eventually became widely known and
politically driven. D.O.B. concerned itself with issues such as lesbian
mothers' rights and abolishing discrimination. "We weren't really
interested in gay marriage early on," said Lyon. Gay marriage today,
however, is quickly becoming a possible reality, specifically in
Massachusetts. Lyon said that she never thought she would see such a
case in her lifetime, and is hopeful for a positive outcome. "We were
all ready for a rally in July," she said, referring to the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in Goodridge v.
Department of Public Health, a lawsuit seeking gay marriage, that was
originally expected this past summer.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 13, 2004 at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ouch

The soldier's girlfriend, who was weeping quietly in the cold rain, had more sense than all her purported betters in this city. Informed that the mayor of New York had just made a huge and bold move on the White House and asked for citizenship for her dead soldier, who was a Dominican, she said at the wake, "What good is it now? He can't use it." He sure can't. He was Private Luis Moreno. He was 19 years old. They were loading him in his box into a hearse for the ride to a cemetery forever. She also had a question: "Why is he dead?" She is Jessica Corporan and she is 18 and was going to marry him when he got back from Iraq. If you are going to have your heart broken, 18 is not the easiest age to evade pain, and she showed it on Friday. Mayor Bloomberg was proud that he sent a hand-delivered note to President Bush requesting citizenship posthumously for Private Moreno. The idea wilted in the noisy steam coming out of the radiators in St. Francis of Assisi church on Shakespeare Avenue in the Bronx. Along with Bloomberg's request, here was a general of the army giving a bronze star posthumously to Moreno. The general couldn't speak Spanish. Bloomberg's request was about a 19-year-old who was shot dead in a war in Iraq that was started and continues because of George Bush and no one else. The blood of 525 Americans is on his hands.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 13, 2004 at 08:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 12 February 2004

U.S. Mideast Commander Escapes Iraq RPG Attack

Close call:

The U.S. commander in the Middle East, General John
Abizaid, escaped unharmed from a rocket-propelled grenade attack in
Iraq on Thursday, the U.S. army said. "At 1330 in Falluja, General
Abizaid and General (Charles) Swannack were visiting a local Iraqi
civil defense corps compound when three rocket-propelled grenades were
fired at their convoy from rooftops nearby," Brigadier-General Mark
Kimmitt told a news conference. "No coalition soldiers or civilians
were injured." Kimmitt, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said
American forces returned fire and unsuccessfully pursued the
assailants.
Abizaid is the third high-profile American official to escape an attack
in Iraq. The others are U.S. administrator Paul Bremer, whose convoy
was attacked in December, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz,
whose Baghdad hotel was hit by rockets.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 12, 2004 at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 11 February 2004

On the brink of civil war

U.S. Military May Run Out Of Money

This is from military.com:

The military will have no money to pay for the ongoing wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan for three months beginning Oct. 1 because the
White House is declining to ask Congress for funding until December or
January, well after the presidential election. Army Chief of Staff Gen.
Peter Schoomaker told the Senate Armed Services Committee the $38
billion he has for 2004 war operations will last only until the end of
September, as he spends $3.7 billion a month in Iraq and about $900
million a month in Afghanistan. The Army has about 114,000 soldiers in
Iraq and roughly 10,000 in Afghanistan. "I am concerned on how we
bridge between the end of this fiscal year and when we can get a
supplemental in the next fiscal year," Schoomaker told the committee.
The fiscal year -- the government's spending year -- runs from Oct. 1
to Sept. 30 annually. Funds for 2004, therefore, run out Sept. 30,
2004. The Marine Corps, which will send about 75,000 Marines to Iraq in
2004/2005 and expects to need $1.5 billion, is in a similar financial
bind. [...]
President Bush is not asking Congress for a 2005 supplemental until
December or January, according to Pentagon comptroller Dov Zakheim.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters Tuesday the
decision not to request a supplemental rested with the White House. He
could not explain why the administration would allow a three-month gap
in funding the war on terror, ostensibly its top priority.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 11, 2004 at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

As for the budget... you judge it

Clever tagline, huh? Pretty proud of that one.
Yeah, anyway. Back to Very Serious Stuff. Take a look at the Cato
Institute's charts on Bush's budget. Stunning, to say the least. Here's a sample:

And this is the freaking Cato Institute, fer chrissakes. Not what I'd call a bunch of liberal, leftist commies.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 11, 2004 at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 10 February 2004

Temperature in Hell: 31F

Bill O'Reilly Now Skeptical About Bush

Conservative television news anchor Bill O'Reilly said on
Tuesday he was now skeptical about the Bush administration and
apologized to viewers for supporting prewar claims that Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction. The anchor of his own show on Fox News
said he was sorry he gave the U.S. government the benefit of the doubt
that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's weapons program poised an
imminent threat, the main reason cited for going to war. "I was wrong.
I am not pleased about it at all and I think all Americans should be
concerned about this," O'Reilly said in an interview with ABC's "Good
Morning America." "What do you want me to do, go over and kiss the
camera?" asked O'Reilly, who had promised rival ABC last year he would
publicly apologize if weapons were not found. O'Reilly said he was
"much more skeptical about the Bush administration now" since former
weapons inspector David Kay said he did not think Saddam had any
weapons of mass destruction.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 10, 2004 at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 07 February 2004

Don't wait for another Code Orange

Learn how to build your own gas mask from computer parts before it's too late:

Posted by flow Frazao on February 7, 2004 at 09:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 06 February 2004

The graph to end all graphs

Yowzah:

Posted by flow Frazao on February 6, 2004 at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

U.S. soccer team hears Osama chants in Mexico

Nice job on the foreign policy, guys:

The Mexican crowd hooted "The Star-Spangled Banner." It
booed U.S. goals. It chanted "Osama! Osama! Osama!" as U.S. players
left the field with a 2-0 victory.
And that was in a game against Canada on Thursday before just 1,500
people.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 6, 2004 at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Heartwarming

From AFP:

A
Beijing businessman has filed an application to trademark the Chinese
name of US President George W. Bush to help market his disposable
nappies.
The applicant, surnamed Guo, filed an application with the General
Administration for Industry and Commerce of China, stating he wants to
use the two-character phrase "Bushi" as a trademark, the Beijing News
reported. "I hit upon the idea by chance," said Guo. "Back in my
hometown in Henan province, the pronunciation of 'Bushi' sounds exactly
like 'not wet'."

Posted by flow Frazao on February 6, 2004 at 04:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Two More Guantanamo Prisoners Get Lawyers

A step in the right direction:

The military has assigned attorneys to represent two more
prisoners being held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who
were captured during the war on al-Qaida and the Taliban, the Pentagon
announced Friday.
Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul, of Yemen, and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud
al Qosi, of Sudan, have not been charged with any crime, the Pentagon
said in a statement, and no trial dates have been set. The
circumstances of their capture were not immediately clear.
Air Force Lt. Col. Sharon Shaffer will represent al Qosi, the Pentagon
said. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Philip Sundel and Army Maj. Mark Bridges will
represent al Bahlul.
The prisoners are the third and fourth to receive lawyers. Already,
Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen and David Hicks of Australia have been
assigned representation.
All are among the six President Bush previously identified as possible
candidates for trial by a special military tribunal.
About 650 suspected members of al-Qaida or the Taliban are being held
at the high-security prison at Guantanamo Bay. Human rights groups and
some foreign governments have criticized their treatment and the lack
of trials or access to lawyers.
The United States says the prisoners are "enemy combatants," not
prisoners of war, and says military tribunals are allowed under
international law.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 6, 2004 at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cambodia

New York Times reporter Nicholas D. Kristof has done a truly excellent piece on freeing sex slaves in Cambodia. Don't miss it.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 6, 2004 at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 04 February 2004

Bush Backs More Time for 9/11 Panel

Looks like Bush has turned around on the 9/11 comission's request for an extension:

President Bush reversed himself Wednesday and said he now
supports giving a commission investigating the 9/11 attacks more time
to produce a final report. The commission is scheduled to finish its
work on May 27. But panel members last month asked Congress for a
two-month extension, citing a need for full analysis of reams of
documents about the disaster. Bush had resisted that request for
months, saying through his spokesmen that the administration wanted the
panel to complete its work as soon as possible. Privately, White House
aides feared that delaying the commission's final report would result
in a potentially damaging assessment of the administration's handling
of pre-attack intelligence in the heat of a presidential campaign. On Wednesday, the White House relented, saying it backed moving the deadline to July 26.
But White House spokesman Scott McClellan also urged the commission to
wrap up its work 30 days after that. If Congress accepts Bush's
recommendation, the report would arrive at the end of August, just as
the presidential campaign is entering the post-Labor Day final stretch.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 4, 2004 at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Laugh it up, Chimpy

It's all fun and games when you're a rich white guy, isn't it?

Posted by flow Frazao on February 4, 2004 at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 03 February 2004

Georgia Watch, February 3rd

Nothing to see here. Move along. Keep it moving people...

Despite reassurances, fears remain in GeorgiaColin
Powell�s trip to Russia and Georgia last week was a success. Leaders
of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, which has had �tensions� with
Georgia�s new president, were fearful Georgians would use troops from
a �military parade� celebrating the president�s inaugural to
seize power in their port capital of Batumi. They didn�t, and
President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia and President Aslan Abashidze
of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara had a polite meeting, say sources
in Batumi, who also say President Abashidze purposefully turned out a
large crowd of his Adjaran followers as �warm-body insurance�
against military seizure. David Soumbadze, the Deputy Chief of Mission
at the Embassy of Georgia in Washington, D.C., told The Shadow that his
government �didn�t like the story� on The Hill�s website last
week that spelled out the fears in Adjara of a plot against them. (The
fears, well founded or not, were real: Sources
close to the Adjaran government tell us the black-market price of an
AK-47 automatic rifle rose from about $80 to $500, suggesting they were
being bought up quickly.) Soumbadze did say The Hill story was
widely circulated in both Georgia and Adjara and his government in
Tbilisi complained about its prominence. �Yes, there are some
tensions� with Adjara, Soumbadze said, but, �they have
diminished,� and he denied there was any plot. �We are committed to
democracy and reform and this kind of stuff,� he said, adding, �We
have no intention to use military actions against Adjara.�

• The Adjaran Government (on the SW border of Georgia) is claiming to have uncovered a secret Georgian plot to seize the republic and it's capitol city of Batumi

• The Head of Emergency Situations Department of Adjara was shot in the head by an unknown gunman five days ago.

• An intrinsic part of today�s oil transport network is the Batumi Oil Transport Facility.

• Both Anadarko and Chevron have been "long time users" of the Batumi Oil Transport Facility in Adjara.

• Condoleeza Rice was on the Board of Directors for Chevron.

• Bush created/served as a consultant to Anadarko.

• On January 24th, Colin Powell went to Georgia to offer the new president a "symbolic stamp of U.S. approval."

For more background, click here.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 3, 2004 at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

From Forbes, no less

The blood is in the water, folks. Even Forbes Magazine (you know, the one where Steve Forbes, former Republican Presidential contender is Editor-in-Chief) is letting loose:

WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - One day after proposing
bigger budgets for defense and homeland security, the White House on
Tuesday released a list of the 128 programs it wants gutted, from
education equity for women to combating alcohol abuse, a problem
President George W. Bush faced himself.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 3, 2004 at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Back in action

I'll try to post some pics n such from my trip tonight. In the
meantime, I submit to you a rare moment of candor from the White House:

Refreshing, no?

Posted by flow Frazao on February 3, 2004 at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack