Friday, 30 July 2004
Science Friday
This is the coolest thing I've seen in a while:
[...]
The system can automatically recover wide-angle views of what people are looking at, including panoramic details to the left, right and even slightly behind them. It can also calculate where people are gazing - for instance, at a single smiling face in a crowd.
Because the algorithms can track exactly where a person is looking, the system may one day find use in surveillance cameras that spot suspicious behavior or in interfaces for quadriplegics who use their gaze to operate a computer.
Dr. Nishino and Dr. Nayar plan to try their corneal imaging system with archival photographs. "It will be fascinating to go back and look at photographs of important people like John Kennedy," Dr. Nayar said. "From a single image of the eye, we may be able to figure out what was around him and what he was looking at."
Posted by flow Frazao on July 30, 2004 at 02:58 PM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Iraqi Attacks on Ammunition Stockpile
I found this video posted at Information Clearinghouse, which is not what I would term a reliable resource. It's interesting reading, but unless I can find the material there verified by at least one other source, I tend to doubt it's credibility.
After a bit of poking around I managed to dig up this pdf from NATO which verifies the attack:
A suspected Katyusha rocket hit the ammunition dump of the Kirkuk US Air Base at around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, starting fires and causing a chain reaction of explosions. Thick clouds of smoke covered nearly the entire city. The fires were put out at about 5 a.m. on Thursday morning.
There were no casualties on the base, but the explosions caused damage across a wide area, shattering windows and damaging cars. Some of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps garrison vehicles were damaged by flying debris about 1.5 km (1 mile) from where the ammunition was stored.
It's so rare to see unfiltered video straight from Iraq. It's gotten to the point where I've grown so used to seeing sanitized clips accompanied by the constant ramblings of morons from CNN that when I see something untouched and unedited it seems almost surreal.
(Click image to watch)
To download this video, right click here and choose "Save As".
Posted by flow Frazao on July 30, 2004 at 12:11 PM in Iraq | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Daily Roundup
Here's some news that's worth mentioning (sort of). There are simply not enough hours in the day to write about all this crap:
- Turban-wearing student interrogated by SS for five hours for taking pictures of his school.
- New memo proves the EPA and it's administrator, Christie Whitman, knew that asbestos levels at Ground Zero were at a level two times what is considered safe
- New York's governor, who approved a 38-percent pay increase for legislators a few years ago, vetoes a bill to raise the minimum wage by two dollars
- Delta Air Lines considers adding surcharge for talking to an American customer service representative, rather than one from India.
Have a good weekend, everybody!
Posted by flow Frazao on July 30, 2004 at 03:21 AM in Random News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Thursday, 29 July 2004
The 44th President of the United States
He did it! I was worried that John Kerry would blow it, but he just hit the ball out of the park. Man, is it nice to see a President give an address without blubbering the words or losing his train of thought mid-sentence. It was a brilliant performance.
The full text of his speech is definitely worth a read. But in case you're pressed for time, here's the short version:
I kid, I kid. If I had to choose one single passage that resonated the most for me, I would have to pick this one:
To me, that is the one thing that John Kerry offers that Bush cannot. W has become too divisive to bring America together on any issue. No matter what the topic, from war to marriage, from taxes to healthcare, and from the environment to stem-cell research, George Bush has managed to use it as a wedge issue. After four years of polarizing the nation, he has absolutely no capacity to be the uniter he once promised he could be.
For the first time, it's not about getting Bush out. After tonight, I actually like John Kerry. I want him to be our next President. After a long, long time I'm finally feeling positive again about the direction this country is taking.
Help is on the way.
UPDATE: Just wanted to point this out:
July 29, 2004 - Top Al Qaeda Figure Nabbed In Pakistan
This is what we're up against. These people will stop at nothing to hold onto power.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 29, 2004 at 11:50 PM in Our New President | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Billmon Nails It Again
Billmon is the uber-blogger. If you're not reading him daily, you should be.
The three laws:
1. A Republican may not injure a corporation, or, through inaction, allow a corporation to come to harm.2. A Republican must obey the orders given it by corporations except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A Republican must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 29, 2004 at 12:47 PM in ReDefeat Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Short Lesson On Bushonomics
After three years, it can finally be said that George Bush's economic platform is working precisely according to plan. The IRS released a report yesterday which goes a long way to describing the effect of Bushonomics on the average person:
The total adjusted gross income on tax returns fell 5.1 percent, to just over $6 trillion in 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, from $6.35 trillion in 2000. Because of population growth, average incomes declined even more, by 5.7 percent.
[...]
The unprecedented back-to-back declines in reported incomes was caused primarily by the combination of the big fall in the stock market and the erosion of jobs and wages in well-paying industries in the early years of the decade.
In the past, overall personal income rose from one year to the next with relentless monotony, the growth rate changing in response to fluctuations in economic activity but almost never falling.
[...]
Before the recent drop, the last time reported incomes fell for even one year was in 1953. The only other time since World War II that the I.R.S. reported an interruption in income gains was from 1947 to 1949, but that was because of changes in the tax law at the time that affected how income was reported rather than an actual fall."
So the average American's income has dropped almost 6 percent in the last few years. But at least those tax cuts are helping, right? Isn't the Bush administration getting things back on track for America?
If by "back on track" you mean record deficit then yeah, things are coming along swimmingly:
The annual summertime analysis is expected out this Friday, said several congressional aides speaking on condition of anonymity Tuesday. That would be well after the frequently ignored legal deadline of July 15.
Friday will be a day after the Democratic National Convention ends — a release date that would prevent presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and others at the gathering from citing its figures to criticize Bush.
Some aides said they believed the projected shortfall would be close to $450 billion, though one said it would be about $420 billion.
Either way, the White House was ready to emphasize that the figure is well below the $521 billion it projected for this year last February, and tie it to improvements in the economy."
Great news!! The deficit isn't quite the half trillion dollars they thought it would be! As a matter of fact, this news is so amazingly good they're going to release it on a Friday afternoon.
So, you ask, where is all this money going? Like I said, everything's going according to plan. For example, if you're a CEO then odds are you're loving life right about now:
Bushonomics - Leave No Billionaire Behind.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 29, 2004 at 10:10 AM in ReDefeat Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wednesday, 28 July 2004
Mystery Creature Lurks In Baltimore County
This is pretty bizarre:
A Glyndon man found a way to secretly record the beast while it grazed in his yard. For a while it was just lurking in the woods watching the Wroe family until the Wroes started watching it.
Jay Wroe: "My truck was parked here, started getting in my truck. I kind of saw it there where the sunlight is and said what in the world is that?"
More images can be found here.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 28, 2004 at 07:51 AM in Random News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday, 27 July 2004
Stone Cold Illin
Been pretty sick lately. Hopefully I'll be back to full strength tomorrow, but no promises.
Ugh.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 27, 2004 at 06:01 PM in TTSU Maintenance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Soldier Responds to Michael Moore
Last weekend Fahrenheit 9/11 crossed the $100 million mark. Impressive totals, but it's not all cream cheese and jelly. There are a few people who aren't exactly thrilled by the movie:
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 27, 2004 at 09:23 AM in Iraq | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Thursday, 22 July 2004
Was This Part Of The $87 Billion?
Looks like Klinger's prayers have finally been answered:
The New Yorker magazine reports in its July 26th edition that members of all four branches of the U.S. military can get face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction and nose jobs for free -- something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills.
"Anyone wearing a uniform is eligible," Dr. Bob Lyons, chief of plastic surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio told the magazine, which said soldiers needed the approval of their commanding officers to get the time off.
Between 2000 and 2003, military doctors performed 496 breast enlargements and 1,361 liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents, the magazine said.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 22, 2004 at 12:16 PM in War on Terra | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wednesday, 21 July 2004
Italian Expert Reviews Olive Garden Fare
The Verdict?
Apparently the food is less Italian than Jack Daniels:
Everyone looks glum. "I must console myself," Marcella says. She orders a Jack Daniel's."
Posted by flow Frazao on July 21, 2004 at 05:13 PM in Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
And I Want To Be Able To Breathe Underwater
The man is obviously either insane or retarded. Possibly both:
[...]
"The enemy declared war on us," Bush told a re-election rally in Cedar Rapids. "Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president... The next four years will be peaceful years." Bush used the words "peace" or "peaceful" a total of 20 times.
George Bush would also like to be:
- The Environmental President
- The Balanced Budget President
- The Complete Sentence President
- The President Who Can Shoot Webs From His Wrists, Swing From Buildings And Save The Day
- President Bush, 2/8/04
Posted by flow Frazao on July 21, 2004 at 07:52 AM in Funny Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday, 20 July 2004
Let The Games Begin
Get a bunch of juiced up hardbodies together for two weeks of sex and booze and what have you got? The Olympic Games:
It’s "a two-week-long private party for thousands of hard-bodies," says Nelson Diebel, an American swimmer who won gold twice in Barcelona. Like a mirage, the village appears in the middle of an exuberant host city for two weeks every two years. Open only to competitors, coaches and trainers, it’s a wonderland of hormones, glycogen and dance mixes.
[...]
At the Albertville winter Olympics, condom machines in the athletes’ village had to be refilled every two hours. And in Sydney the organisers’ original order of 70,000 condoms went so fast that they had to order 20,000 more. Even with the replenishment, the supply was exhausted three days before the end of the competition schedule. (For the record, athletes who were in Sydney report that the Cuban delegation was the first to use up its allocation.) Salt Lake City in 2002 went even bigger: 250,000 condoms were handed out, despite the objections of the city’s Mormon leadership."
Gives a while new meaning to "Going for the gold", doesn't it?
link via kottke.org (over on the left sidebar)
Posted by flow Frazao on July 20, 2004 at 03:55 PM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
In Case You Needed Another Reason Not To Eat At KFC
Here's the latest development in the "Fast Food Is Really Really Bad" saga:
[...]
The undercover investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation and still does undercover work for the group, said in a telephone interview that he saw "hundreds" of acts of cruelty, including workers tearing beaks off, ripping a bird's head off to write graffiti in blood, spitting tobacco juice into birds' mouths, plucking feathers to "make it snow," suffocating a chicken by tying a latex glove over its head, and squeezing birds like water balloons to spray feces over other birds.
He said the behavior was "to alleviate boredom or vent frustrations," especially when so many birds were coming in that they would have to work late.
On April 6, one day he filmed, workers made a game of throwing chickens against a wall; 114 were thrown in seven minutes. A supervisor walking past the pile of birds on the floor said, "Hold your fire," and, once out of the way, told the crew to "carry on."
On another day, he said, the supervisor told the crew to kill correctly because inspectors were visiting."
It also bears mentioning that Pilgrim's Pride plant in Moorefield, W.Va., the chicken factory at which the tape was shot, won KFC's "Supplier of the Year" award in 1997.
To pretend that these types of violations are the result of "a few bad apples" would be absurd. The American food industry is rife with these types of violations.
It's disgusting and disturbing, and sadly we (myself included) condone it with every bite. I've been doing my best to eat vegetarian, but it's a struggle most days.
Articles like this, however, make it that much easier.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 20, 2004 at 03:41 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
But What About The Salsa?
Michael P. Monn was arrested early Sunday in the parking lot outside the pool.
An officer saw a nude man carrying a box of Frito Lay snacks and a container of nacho cheese run toward a Jeep in the lot and stopped him.
"The male had nacho cheese in his hair, on his face and on his shoulders," Maryville Police Department officer Scott Spicer reported. "The nude male had a strong odor of alcohol and was semi-incoherent."
Investigators said someone climbed an 8-foot fence, broke into the pool snack bar through a window, threw nacho cheese on a wall and scattered chips on the ground. About $40 in chips and $7 in nacho cheese were stolen. "
Posted by flow Frazao on July 20, 2004 at 09:19 AM in Random News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Monday, 19 July 2004
Get Those Spatulas Ready
Because I have a feeling we're about to see a whole lot of flip-flopping coming from the White House in response to the Sept 11 Commission's upcoming report.
The Washington Post has a handy summary of how the 9/11 commission's findings differ from the Bush administration's previous misstatements and exagerrations (to put it tactfully):
Posted by flow Frazao on July 19, 2004 at 01:58 PM in War on Terra | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Happy Captive Nations Week!
George Bush has issued an official proclamation declaring this week to be Captive Nations Week:
[...]
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim July 18 through July 24, 2004, as Captive Nations Week. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities and to reaffirm their commitment to all those seeking liberty, justice, and self-determination.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-ninth.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Please allow me to clarify the situation. Iraq WAS a captive nation, you see. Now it is free and happy, even though America still has yet to transfer power to the Iraqis in anything but name.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 19, 2004 at 01:53 PM in Funny Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday, 18 July 2004
That's What I Call A Billboard
This is the design of one of two an anti-war billboards that will be displayed over Times Square, in New York, during the Republican Convention. The sign is being put up by Project Billboard.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 18, 2004 at 09:42 AM in ReDefeat Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
This Land Is Your Land
Seriously though, this is the funniest shit I've seen in a long time.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 18, 2004 at 09:30 AM in Funny Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Friday, 16 July 2004
The Worst Is the Soundtrack of the Boys Shrieking
About a week ago, Tom Tomorrow did a report on (hold your breath) children at Abu Ghraib. According to a German TV news program, the International Red Cross found at least 107 children in coaliton-administered detention centers in Iraq.
When I first read it, I was skeptical, because I hadn't heard of it anywhere else. However, today I came across an article describing Norway's reaction to the child abuse:
As a reaction to the alleged torture of children, Norwegian authorities state they will address the US both politically and diplomatically and clearly state that it is not tolerated.
"Such assaults are unacceptable," said Odd Jostein Sæter, parliamentary secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, to the Norwegian television channel NRK. "It is against international laws and it is also unacceptable from a moral point of view. This is why we react strongly, as we already have reacted to the abuse which is documented at the prisons in Iraq."
He said that Norwegian authorities will use its first possible opportunity to respond to the Americans actions both politically and diplomatically. He stressed that jailing and assaulting children will not be tolerated.
This is beyond bad. Not only are we about to lose yet another ally over this, but just try and imagine what the reaction is going to be around the world when the news breaks big.
And it will break BIG.
Sy Hersh (the guy who reported the original Abu Ghraib story the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, among many others) is saying things are far worse than anything we've seen so far:
There is a video of Hersh addressing the ACLU here. He begins at about 1hr 8min in, but Ed Cone provides us with a short synopsis:
"The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking," the reporter told an ACLU convention last week. Hersh says there was "a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher." ...
Words fail me. I really don't know what else to say. Will frat hazing be the explanation for this as well?
Posted by flow Frazao on July 16, 2004 at 03:45 PM in Iraq | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The UN Report and American Health Care
Yesterday, the UN launched it's Human Development Report for 2004. The index measures education, life expectancy and standard of living and ranks all the countries in the world in a wide variety of tables and lists. The full report can be downloaded here, but the best way to view the data is from this page.
It's especially interesting, because as an American I'm constantly being bombarded with the idea that America is the best in the world.
However, if you take a look at the 285 page report you start to notice that America is good, but claiming that we're the best country ever is a little like claiming we've got the world's best soccer team or the highest standard of living on the planet, without exception.
They're are nice ideas, but they're simply not true:
The United States was ranked in eighth place, a drop of one position from 2003, and Sierra Leone was in last place on a list of 177 rankings."
Personally, I don't put much stock in that type of across-the-board ranking. It's interesting, but it doesn't actually reveal all that much.
However, it is quite another thing to look at the more in depth studies. Here's a particularly telling one:
1 Norway 6.9
2 Sweden 7.5
3 Australia 6.2
4 Canada 6.8
5 Netherlands 5.7
6 Belgium 6.4
7 Iceland 7.6
8 United States 6.2
9 Japan 6.2
10 Ireland 4.9
Private health expenditure (% of GDP)
Direct household (out of pocket) spending, private insurance, spending by non-profit institutions serving households and direct service payments by private corporations.
1 Norway 1.2
2 Sweden 1.3
3 Australia 3.0
4 Canada 2.8
5 Netherlands 3.3
6 Belgium 2.5
7 Iceland 1.6
8 United States 7.7
9 Japan 1.8
10 Ireland 1.6
As you will notice, the US spends roughly the same amount of public funds on health care as the other 9 countries in the top 10. However, when you look at how much money is spent privately (note the term "Direct household (out of pocket) spending") you will notice a huge discrepancy.
Why is that? Why is it that US citizens wind up spending so much more of their own money on healthcare? Could it be that Universal Health Care is actually less expensive than the system we currently employ?
We as a society need to seriously consider a single-payer system. We are the last of the developed nations to deny our own citizens access to health care. It's an idea who's time has come.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 16, 2004 at 01:33 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Just Keeping You On Your Toes
On July 12 George Bush declared that America is safer thanks to his Presidency:
"But wait!!" You cry, "Didn't the CIA just announce that the threat is the highest it's been since 9/11?"
Wellllll, it depends what you mean by "just". If you mean July 13, then that would be a Yes:
"This is about as serious a threat environment as I have seen since 9/11," said McLaughlin, the deputy director who took over on Sunday.
"OH MY GOD!! THEY'RE COMING!! EVERYBODY RUN!!"
"Be calm. Stand down. There's no specific threat. Nothing to worry about"
Gotcha!
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 16, 2004 at 11:07 AM in ReDefeat Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Flowers for Lila Lipscomb
Patriotboy spins this tale of a business with it's heart in the right place:
The florist is The Organic Bouquet. If you're sending flowers, this is a golden opportunity to support a business with good politics.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 16, 2004 at 08:05 AM in Iraq | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Thursday, 15 July 2004
Time's Up
In case you'd forgotten, today marks Osama bin Laden's deadline for Europe to surrender:
"I offer a truce to them (Europe) with a commitment to stop operations against any state which vows to stop attacking Muslims," bin Laden said in a recording which CIA officials said they believed to be genuine.
He set a three-month deadline, presumed to expire on Thursday.
I wonder if France is getting antsy.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 15, 2004 at 04:44 PM in War on Terra | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Passengers Give Troops First-Class Seats
"The soldiers were very, very happy, and the whole aircraft had a different feeling," flight attendant Lorrie Gammon told The Dallas Morning News in Thursday's editions.
The June 29 seat-swap on American Airlines Flight 866 from Atlanta to Chicago started before boarding, when a businessman approached one of the soldiers and traded his seat.
When the swapping was done, "the other two first-class passengers wanted to give up their seats, too, but they couldn't find any more soldiers," Gammon said."
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 15, 2004 at 12:25 PM in War on Terra | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
So This Is What A Real Leader Looks Like
Somebody give this man a big microphone:
 |
"When human lives are in jeopardy, there should be outrage," said Rangel, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, who was cuffed and led away by Capitol Police after standing defiantly in the doorway of the embassy, The Associated Press reported.
[...]
The protest, reportedly organized by Rangel and several others, was part of an effort to bring attention to what many are calling genocide in East Africa. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) estimated that between 10,000 and 30,000 already have died over the last five months, and nearly 2 million have been left homeless.
The agency also said that more than 56,000 homes had been burned to the ground, estimating that 350,000 will die if aid fails to reach those displaced, AP reported."
Something tells me that unlike Colin Powell, Representative Rangel won't be prancing around singing YMCA the day after addressing the crisis in Sudan.
Rangel's phone number is (202) 225-4365 in DC and (212) 663-3900 in New York. Give him a call or shoot him an email and tell him you support his efforts to bring attention to the East African genocide.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 15, 2004 at 11:52 AM in World News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Win A Gmail Invitation
GMail.com is giving away gmail invites. Don't you want to be one of the cool kids?
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 15, 2004 at 11:42 AM in Weird Earls | Permalink | Comments (69) | TrackBack
Freed Swede Speaks Out About Gitmo Torture
The upcoming trials of Guantanamo prisoners are not going to be pretty:
Mehdi Ghezali, the son of an Algerian-born immigrant, told Swedish media in interviews published or aired Wednesday that he was interrogated almost every day at the U.S. naval base on Cuban soil.
The 25-year-old man, who was arrested in Pakistan where he says he was studying Islam, was released on July 8 after pressure from Sweden.
Ghezali told Dagens Nyheter daily and Swedish public radio he had cooperated for the first six months but stopped talking when his interrogators kept asking the same questions.
In April the military changed their tactics, he said.
"They put me in the interrogation room and used it as a refrigerator. They set the temperature to minus degrees so it was terribly cold and one had to freeze there for many hours -- 12 to 14 hours one had to sit there, chained," he said, adding that he had partially lost the feeling in one foot since then.
Ghezali said he was also deprived of sleep, chained for long periods in painful positions, and exposed to bright flashes of light in a darkened room and loud music and noise.
"They forced me down with chained feet. Then they took away the chains from the hands, pulled the arms under the legs and chained them hard again. I could not move," he said. "
As far as I'm concerned, the most striking thing in the article is not the torture. It's how Ghezali got to Guantanamo in the first place:
He said he was visiting a friend in the Afghan town of Jalalabad near the Pakistani border when the U.S. invasion started. He decided to return to Pakistan when he heard that villagers were selling foreigners to U.S. forces.
Pakistani villagers seized him as crossed the border from Afghanistan and sold him to Pakistani police, who turned him over to the U.S. military. He was flown from Pakistan to Afghanistan and arrived in Guantanamo in January 2002, he said.
There have been numerous reports that US forces were paying bounties for "terrorists" in Afghanistan. I'm willing to bet that when the trials start, we'll find that the vast majority of prisoners in Guantanamo aren't related to Al Qaeda in any way, but are merely villagers who were in the wrong place and got rounded up by greedy warlords and traded for money.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 15, 2004 at 11:38 AM in War on Terra | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wednesday, 14 July 2004
Powerlunch
My brother Matt's band just wrapped up an east coast tour. A sample of their music is available online here, but if you really want to get the full flavor of Powerlunch you should buy a CD:
908 S. 6th St.
Philadelphia, PA
19147
For what it's worth, I've been listening to it for the past few days and it's awesome. The mp3's that are linked to above really don't do it justice.
Also, if there's enough interest I'd be more than happy to set up online payment through this site. If you'd like to get a copy and don't want to bother with mailing checks, leave a comment on this thread and I'll see what I can do.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 14, 2004 at 11:43 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The Federal Marriage Amendment Gets Spanked
Andrew Sullivan, once the gay poster boy of the Republican Party, has changed his tune when Bush started trying to push the case for the Hate Amendment. The absurdly offense measure (and the GOP) is thankfully headed for a humiliating defeat, and Sully sums it up:
UPDATE: The Senate vote for cloture (to end debating and get to voting) was defeated this morning:
The sad and pathetic Republicans couldn't even manage to get a majority to vote for their hateful Amendment. I'd like to think they'd be humiliated into dropping the whole ridiculous idea, but we all know better.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 14, 2004 at 10:28 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Colin Powell Can't Be Bothered To Travel
In a striking testament to the Bush Administration's contempt for foreign relations, MSNBC reports that Colin Powell is the least traveled secretary of state in 30 years:
[...]
Powell also has significantly shorter trips than any predecessor -- an average of 3.3 days. He rushes through meetings in conference rooms and foreign ministries and spends virtually no time sightseeing.
In 3 1/2 years, his only nonbusiness moments have been 15 minutes in a Nepalese temple in 2002 and a couple of hours at the ancient ruins of Petra during a three-day trip to Jordan in 2003. In capitals abroad, it has become his custom to apologize for the brevity of his visit and express the hope he can stay longer next time.
In fact, Powell has progressively cut the average length of his trips, from 4.6 days in 2001 to 2.9 days this year. Kissinger's trips lasted an average of 8.7 days, while most other recent secretaries averaged about five days."
I really shouldn't be surprised that our so-called leaders express such embarrassingly little curiousity about our world. Whereas I would jump at the chance to represent America in Nepal or Jordan or any other of the dozen countries Powell has rushed through, I am among a small minority of Americans.
Astonishingly, less than 20% of Americans currently have a valid passport. Given that, I suppose Powell's lack of interest in the world around us simply mirrors our own.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 14, 2004 at 08:25 AM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Why Do Republicans Hate Jobs?
Here's a handy chart illustrating job growth by President since the Great Depression. It's interesting to note that the worst performing Democrat still created more jobs than the best performing Republican.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 14, 2004 at 08:08 AM in ReDefeat Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday, 13 July 2004
Pick Up the Phone, Dammit
A friend of mine just sent me an email reminding me that the FMA is coming up for vote in the Senate tomorrow. Sez she:
(scheduled to go up for a vote in the senate tomorrow.)"
Yet another friend told me that he'd recently called his Senator in Virginia and was told that the calls had been coming in like crazy and were five to one in support of the FMA (that's a 5 to 1 majority of people who want to deny homosexuals the right to marry).
Additionally, we are now 15 working days away from the end of the current session of congress and the assault weapon ban is due to expire on September 15 with no effort being made to preserve this popular and reasonable restraint on gun violence.
As Atrios points out, even George W. Bush himself supports the Assault Weapons Ban:
George W. Bush
1999
"The president supports the current [assault weapons ban] law, and he supports reauthorization of the current law."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan
April 2003
Obviously, this is totally unacceptable. Use this handy website to find the phone numbers of your senators and tell them what to do. Please don't let this insane shit slip through the cracks.
(Thanks to the real Ali G for the tip and the Senate link)
Posted by flow Frazao on July 13, 2004 at 04:03 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Passing the Buck part XXVII
There's been a lot of talk over the past few days blaming the CIA for screwing up intelligence during the rush to war:
Following release of the findings of a yearlong inquiry by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the panel's Republican chairman said Congress might not have approved the Iraq war had lawmakers known the truth.
[...]
The report, which was highly critical of departing Director George Tenet, said the CIA kept key information from its own and other agencies' analysts, engaged in "group think" by failing to challenge the assumption that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and allowed President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to make false statements."
The Senate report is a blatant attempt to absolve the Bush administration of responsibility for hyping the WMD threat from Iraq. Blaming the CIA is the easy way out, and the false pretenses and phony data were not the sole work of the CIA – President Bush and his entire national security team are to blame as well.
This article, from October 11, 2002, describes the "unrelenting pressure" on the CIA to come up with evidence supporting the case for war:
In what sources described as an escalating "war," top officials at the Pentagon and elsewhere have bombarded CIA analysts with criticism and calls for revisions on such key questions as whether Iraq has ties to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, sources said.
The sources stressed that CIA analysts—who are supposed to be impartial—are fighting to resist the pressure. But they said analysts are increasingly resentful of what they perceive as efforts to contaminate the intelligence process.
"Analysts feel more politicized and more pushed than many of them can ever remember," said an intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The guys at the Pentagon shriek on issues such as the link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. There has been a lot of pressure to write on this constantly, and to not let it drop."
[...]
Intelligence sources say the pressure on CIA analysts has been unrelenting in recent months, much of it coming from Iraq hawks including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his top deputy, Paul D. Wolfowitz.
CIA officials who brief Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz on Iraq routinely return to the agency with a long list of complaints and demands for new analysis or shifts in emphasis, sources said.
"There is a lot of unhappiness with the analysis," usually because it is seen as not hard-line enough, one intelligence official said.
Another government official said CIA briefers "are constantly sent back by the senior people at Defense and other places to get more, get more, get more to make their case."
Obviously, the CIA is partly to blame for the egregious intelligence failures. However, this is NOT the end of the story. George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the rest of the White House staff should not be absolved of resposibility. They stood over the shoulders of analysts and instructed them step-by-step.
The CIA may have lied about intelligence, but they did it because they were ordered to by George Bush and his cronies.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 13, 2004 at 03:18 PM in Iraq | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bummer of the Day
Talk about adding insult to injury:
David Walker, 28, was arguing with a friend at a pub in South Yorkshire, northern England, when he went home to get his sawed-off shotgun, which he jammed into his trousers.
But as he walked back to the pub, the gun went off, blasting pellets into his testicles. Doctors later removed what remained of his testicles during emergency surgery."
Posted by flow Frazao on July 13, 2004 at 02:26 PM in Random News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Friday, 09 July 2004
Antarctican Currency
Antarctica has it's own currency:
Who knew?
Posted by flow Frazao on July 9, 2004 at 02:21 PM in Weird Earls | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Trump Slams Bush On Iraq
If only The Donald could fire him:
"What was the purpose of the whole thing?" Donald Trump asks in an Esquire interview. "Hundreds of young people killed. And what about the people coming back with no arms and no legs?"
Posted by flow Frazao on July 9, 2004 at 12:19 PM in Iraq | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Thursday, 08 July 2004
Real Torture In A Fake Jail
Is there ANYBODY in charge in Afghanistan? What the hell is going on over there?
The U.S. military, facing a widening inquiry into prisoner abuse, quickly distanced itself from the three, who had been posing as American agents before being detained Monday. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday "the U.S. government does not employ or sponsor these men."
Afghan officials also dismissed claims by the apparent ringleader, Jonathan K. Idema, that he was a "special adviser" to their security forces, saying the three had posed as military agents on a self-appointed hunt for terrorists.
The Americans and four Afghans who were detained along with them "formed a group and pretended they were fighting terrorism," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said. "They arrested eight people from across Kabul and put them in their jail."
Another Afghan security official said intelligence and police officials who raided the group's house Monday found the prisoners strung up by their feet.
"They were hanging upside down," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said a report showed the men also were beaten.
Jalali said the Americans had no "legal link" to any Afghan or other authorities.
Still, officials said they were seen regularly around Kabul wearing military uniforms and armed with assault rifles.
Let me get this straight. Some guy who's allegedly former military made his own way over to Afghanistan at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom (or whatever it was called). He somehow managed to procure a military uniform, an assault weapon and a crew of Afghan underlings and he's been running his own jail there ever since??
How was this allowed to happen? Can any sociopathic loser with a Soldier-of-Fortune subscription go become a mercenary in Afghanistan?
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 8, 2004 at 09:11 PM in War on Terra | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
The Headline Says It All
Ridge Warns of Election Threat in U.S. But No Details Yet
(link via Atrios)
Posted by flow Frazao on July 8, 2004 at 05:09 PM in War on Terra | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The GOP Smear Machine
Get a load of the RNC's made-to-order smear of John Edwards over at
But that's not all, folks!! Those crazy Republicans are one step ahead of everybody! Take a gander at:
www.kerrypicksclark.com
www.kerrypicksvilsack.com
and
www.kerrypicksbayh.com
They're totally inept at planning wars, but man are they thorough when they wage character attacks. The GOP was ready to screech about anybody the second Kerry made the announcement.
Seriously though, you'd think with all that money they'd be able to hire a decent web designer. That's some ugly-ass html right there...
Posted by flow Frazao on July 8, 2004 at 12:20 PM in ReDefeat Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wednesday, 07 July 2004
Free Kerry/Edwards Bumper Sticker
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 7, 2004 at 05:49 PM in ReDefeat Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Since When Do You Need Experience
To be President of the United States?
This is pretty funny coming from George W. Bush. When he was
"You've been a great governor," Hatch declared of his rival for the Republican presidential nomination. "My only problem with you, governor, is that you've only had four and going into your fifth year of governorship ... Frankly, I really believe that you need more experience before you become president of the United States. That's why I'm thinking of you as a vice presidential candidate."
George W. Bush shows us the number of elected
offices he held prior to becoming President.
If elected Vice-President, John Edwards will have served a full six-year term as a United States Senator. He will be 51.
Now can everyone please shut the fuck up and start talking about some issues?
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 7, 2004 at 03:26 PM in ReDefeat Bush | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What Privacy?
There is no such thing as privacy:
Upholding a lower-court decision that the provider did not violate the Wiretap Act, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set a precedent for e-mail service providers to legally read e-mail that passes through a network.
[...]
Last week's ruling means that e-mail has fewer protections than phone conversations and postal mail. Granting e-mail providers the ability to read e-mail is equivalent to granting postal workers the right to open and read any mail while it's at a post office for sorting, but not while it's in transit between post offices or being hand-delivered to a recipient's home or business.
The ruling also has repercussions for voicemail messages, as long as certain provisions in the Patriot Act remain law.
Before the Patriot Act, the legal definition of wire communication included voicemail messages. This meant that authorities had to obtain a wiretap order to access voicemail messages or face charges of illegal interception under the Wiretap Act. Under the Patriot Act, however, the definition of wire communication changed. Voicemail messages are now considered stored communication, like e-mail. As a result, law enforcement authorities need only a search warrant to access voicemail messages, a much easier process than obtaining a wiretap order.
The provision in the Patriot Act that changed this is set to sunset in December 2005, but if the current administration has its way, the law will be renewed."
If you're interested, you can find the courts ruling here (PDF).
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 7, 2004 at 01:23 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
People Are Strange
I was just perusing my website referral logs, and I noticed that someone came to TTSU via a Google search for information on "how to shit on cats".
This site was number 3 out of 301,000.
I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 7, 2004 at 09:30 AM in TTSU Maintenance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday, 06 July 2004
There Is No "Why"
I went up to Maine for the Fourth of July to do some whitewater rafting with some friends. I'd never done it before, but it was great fun. We spent most of the morning drifting down the Penobscot River, basking in the sun, and taking in spectacular views of Mt. Katahdin and the general beauty that is the Maine wilderness. It was a welcome change from the constant grind of Washington DC.
Whereas the morning was a calm float down the stream, the afternoon was quite a bit more intense. We hit 11 sets of rapids, with a few category fives thrown in. Apparently, this is the most violent grade - a category six is said to be "unraftable".
According to the guide, each set of rapids had an imposing, testosterony name like "Bonecrusher" and "Executioner". Needless to say, it was a hell of an introduction to the sport. Who would have thought that going over a waterfall in an inflatable raft could be so much fun?
Luckily the constant splashing made it impossible to tell who had pissed their pants.
After a great weekend, we headed back to the city this morning from Manchester NH. It was a redeye flight leaving at 6:45 AM, so we weren't exactly on top of things, and my wife wound up forgetting to take my Leatherman out of her bag. It set off the alarm when we went through security, and since it was 6:25 we were quickly told that our only option was to leave the Leatherman if we had any hope of catching our flight.
It may sound strange, but I have a bit of an attachment to my Leatherman. First of all, the thing has been around the world with me, and it's helped me out innumerable times. I spent a night in a seedy Cairo hotel with the knife blade jammed into the wall above my head in case any ambitious Egyptians got it in their heads to fuck with me. Thank God I've never had to use it in that capacity though - I can barely fillet a fish without getting queasy.
Secondly, the particular model of Leatherman (the Leatherman Flair) is no longer manufactured. It's the only high quality Multitool out there with a full length blade AND a corkscrew, both of which are absolutely essential tools as far as I'm concerned. It also has a butter spreader and a cocktail fork, but I'm not so much of a pansy that I consider those to be indispensible.
Luckily, the guy in front of us heard this whole scene with the security guard go down. His wife had just dropped him off and was standing on the opposite side of the security barrier, and he said if I ran and caught her she'd be happy to mail it back to me. I sprinted away, found her, and gave her my info, showering her with gratitude the entire time.
However, since I'd crossed the ever-important security barrier, I now had to pass through the whole process once again. By this time it was about 6:35 and our flight was due to take off in 10 minutes. What else could I do but patiently wait in line all over again?
When 6:40 rolled around, they called my wife and I over the airport intercom and told us to get our asses to the gate or else the flight would be leaving without us. By this time, Fiona was absolutely flipping out (she doesn't like to miss planes, I guess) and I had to beg the people in front of me to let me through.
I made it through the metal detector with no beeps, and my wife and I sprinted for Gate 15. We got there just as they were about to close the doors. I couldn't believe we'd made it.
How naive of me to think it would be so easy.
As I handed the Southwest guy my boarding pass, I heard Fiona call out from behind me: "J, you don't have the backpack? Where the hell is the backpack??"
In the midst of the Leatherman confusion, either she or I must have put down our carryon pack - the one with $1,000 worth of camera equipment in it - for a fraction of a second. I can only assume that at the moment it hit the floor, the crack security team at Manchester Airport snatched it up and immediately sent it downstairs to the bomb-sniffing room.
Seeing as I was willing to miss a flight for a $65 Leatherman, it was instantly obvious to me what was going to happen when the Southwest guy said "You guys need to make a decision - I've got to close these doors right now."
I was not getting on that plane without my camera.
So, without even a kiss goodbye, Fiona had to jump onto the plane and head home without me. I watched her plane taxi away from the gate and headed off to locate my bomb/camera bag.
After being bounced around from person to person for 20 minutes, I was told that my backpack was most likely in the "Communications Center". Eventually a skycap instructed me to "go down that hallway all the way to the end, take a left, take your second right and then go in the last door on the right."
As I walked deeper and deeper into the bowels of Manchester Airport, I wondered how far I'd be able to get without having somebody stop me and ask why there was somebody in pink flip-flops and a skull and crossbones T-shirt wandering around a supposedly restricted area. I started walking by people wearing air traffic control headphones and carrying those weird light up cones they use to direct planes. Nobody questioned me once.
Eventually, I found the door marked "Comm Center" and walked right in through the unlocked door. At this point, I found myself confronted with a wall of video monitors displaying what must have been every inch of terminal space. I was literally in the heart of the airport, and I had walked in without answering a single question or showing so much as a Blockbuster card.
Luckily, they had my bag, and I made it onto the next flight, where my wonderful wife was waiting for me at the gate with an iced coffee. I've done a fair amount of travelling, so I don't get bent out of shape by delayed flights or other minor inconveniences, but as I'm sure you can imagine I did get to thinking about the current state of Homeland Security.
It seems to me that our Homeland is just as secure as it ever was. The reason I was able to walk through the inner sanctum of the airport is pretty simple - I'm not going to blow anything up, and everybody knows it. Should I have been stopped by somebody? Probably, but it's really not that big a deal.
I know it might seem like an oxymoron, but it actually made me feel safer that I could walk around without having an M-16 thrust in my face by some jumpy National Guardsman. For the first time in a long while, I felt like I was walking around in the America that I remember. The whole experience, from the wonderful couple with the Leatherman right through to the Comm Center Adventure made me feel like this era of constant unrelenting tension could be coming to an end.
Wouldn't that be nice?
Happy Fourth of July, everybody.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 6, 2004 at 07:01 PM in Little Stories | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Beijing Brainwashes Sars Hero
This is certainly one way to deal with whistleblowers:
Jiang Yanyong is being interrogated about his letter denouncing the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, said sources quoted by the Washington Post.
[...]
Mr Jiang - a doctor in China's People's Liberation Army - is being held under 24-hour supervision at an undisclosed location, the Washington Post said.
The authorities have threatened to keep him in custody until he "raises his level of understanding" about the crackdown on the student-led rallies for democracy on the Tiananmen Square, it said, quoting one of the sources familiar with the situation.
In response to the Washington Post questions, the Chinese government said in a statement: "Jiang Yanyong, as a soldier, recently violated the relevant discipline of the military."
"Based on relevant regulations, the military has been helping and educating him," the statement added.
Mr Jiang's family said they had not heard from him in more than a month, apart from a single handwritten note, the UK's Times newspaper reported.
"We are very concerned and have no idea when or if he will come back," a family member told the newspaper.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 6, 2004 at 05:53 PM in World News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Friday, 02 July 2004
If I Can't Keep My Beer Cold...
... then the terrorists have already won:
Along with this now familiar general warning, the FBI has introduced the specter of a new terrorism threat: booby-trapped beer coolers. A lightly classified bulletin sent to 18,000 state and local agencies last week advised local authorities to look out for plastic-foam containers, inner tubes and other waterborne flotsam commonly seen around marinas that could be rigged to blow up on contact. Also, the bulletin warned, terrorists might attach bombs to buoys. FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials say no such devices have actually been discovered, nor is there any current intelligence that terrorists are hatching plots involving floating bombs."
Happy Fourth of July, everybody!
I'm going white water rafting in Maine this weekend, so there won't be any posts until Tuesday at the earliest. Have a great weekend, and be careful with those beers.
PS - This is a real article from Time Magazine. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 2, 2004 at 08:11 PM in War on Terra | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What the Hell?
This is not a good sign:
"There may have been 3,000 to 4,000 people here as of 5 p.m. yesterday," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said as he gazed upon the empty camp at Mashtel. "Now, as you can see, no one is here. I can't imagine they spontaneously moved."
[...]
As many as 30,000 people have died and 1 million more have been driven from their homes by a scorched-earth campaign carried out by pro-government Arab militias. The militias, called the Janjaweed, were recruited to wipe out a rebel insurrection that began 16 months ago, but they have unleashed their fury on civilians who belong to the same tribes as the rebels.
[...]
At the Zam Zam refugee camp, Annan talked with tribal elders. Senior Sudanese officials listened to every word.
Ahmed Noor Mohammed, one of the elders, was asked if women were being abused in the camp. He rattled off a long sentence in Arabic.
"Some women face some difficulties. Masked men, even soldiers ..." Annan's translator began. Before he could finish the sentence, Sudanese government minders and officials cut him off, saying he had translated it wrong.
"They are afraid, but they don't have any problems," said Ibrahim Hamid, the minister of humanitarian affairs, who was seated next to UN leader.
After Annan's entourage left, Mohammed said women were scared to leave the camp because of the Janjaweed. "
Just yesterday, Colin Powell visited Sudan and was ouspoken regarding it's urgency:
Annan, meeting with Sudanese officials, said urgent action was needed and that he hoped "to make some real progress in the next 24 to 48 hours."
The United Nations has called the situation in Darfur the world's most serious humanitarian crisis. Powell has described it as "horrific" and "catastrophic."
However, did this get Colin Powell down? No way!! He was right back on his feet today singing YMCA in Jakarta:
After all, it's only genocide, right?
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 2, 2004 at 03:21 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Our Pathetic Media
How much has this whole war/trial/Halliburton welfare program cost? $100 billion? $150 billion?
You'd think the least they could do is let us know what's going on, but guess what? You'd be wrong:
American and Iraqi officials did not want any footage shown of Iraqi guards or court personnel, and they asked broadcast and cable news nets to honor this request.
But the situation took an unexpected turn even before the hearing began, when U.S. officials ordered CNN and Al-Jazeera, the pool camera crews, to disconnect their audio equipment. Officials said it was the wish of the Iraqi judge.
Following the hearing, the CNN footage was taken to the convention center, where a CBS News employee transmitted the footage after it was viewed and okayed by two military censors.
As the silent footage of Hussein began to air on U.S. networks around 8:30 a.m. ET, CBS News anchor Dan Rather explained that the tapes had been "taken to another location, edited, and what you're seeing is in effect a censored version" of what happened in court earlier today.
I am neither shocked nor awed by this revelation. Saddam had longstanding ties to prominent US officials throughout the period during which he's being charged with genocide. The last thing the US government wants is to give him an open mike from which he can divulge secrets about Rumsfeld, Cheney, Perle et al.
What I can't believe is that our media is going along with it. I know I should be used to it by now, but man. That's just so weak.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 2, 2004 at 02:56 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Fox Porn, part 2
Just received this email from the FCC:
Good morning,
FCC is not permitted to censor or restrict the availability of non-broadcast programming shown over cable systems, even when the program in question may be offensive to some viewers.
Cable operators do not have the same restrictions on program content as regular television broadcast stations.
Information addressing broadcast journalism is being e-mailed for your review.
Regards,
FCC, CGB, Gettyburg PA
**************************
You wrote:
I would like to file a complaint against The Fox News Channel for showing the penetration of a vagina by a penis during the hours between 6 AM and 10 PM.
The incredibly offensive image was shown during "On The Record with Greta van Sustern" and "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on 6/29/04.
If I had children, they could have been watching during this time. Is there no decency in this world? I shudder to think of the fragile little minds which have been warped by Fox News.
Sincerely,
[SmooveJ]
Oh well. Twas fun while it lasted.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 2, 2004 at 11:48 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
It's Coming
Yesterday, two major American papers gave their op-ed pages over to pieces supporting a reinstatement of the Draft. USA Today had one, as did the Washington Post.
They both lay out seductive arguments for why a reinstatement seems like a good idea. Needless to say, it's total bullshit. For example, here is the final paragraph from the WaPo op-ed by Noel Koch:
First of all, there were plenty of rich kids who managed to dodge the draft, and a fair number of them wound up in political office (see Bush, George W. and Cheney, Dick). Why on earth would this draft be any different?
Secondly, if the draft produces politicians who have "appreciation of the true costs of conflict", then why are we stuck in the current quagmire? The guys sitting in the WH and the Capitol all lived through the Vietnam era, so how come they don't know the difference between a war and a cakewalk?
Furthermore, if the argument had any validity at all then the generals and politicians in charge in the 1960s would have used their own experiences from WWII and Korea to argue against fighting in Vietnam. Hell, a lot of them wanted to invade Cuba knowing full well that would mean war with the Soviets.
The draft is not the solution to this problem. The last thing the world needs is another wall in Washington DC with 60,000 names on it.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 2, 2004 at 08:56 AM in War on Terra | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Which Family Value Is This?
Might as well go ahead and make it the new party platform:
"We're Republicans, we're coming to your town, and we're going to fuck you."
Agencies are flying in extra call girls from around the globe to meet the expected demand during the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 gathering at Madison Square Garden.
"We have girls from London, Seattle, California, all coming in for that week," said a madam at a Manhattan escort service. "It's the week everyone wants to work."
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 2, 2004 at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Coz Lays It Down Again
"They think they're hip," the entertainer said. "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."
Cosby elaborated on his previous comments in a talk interrupted several times by applause. He castigated some blacks, saying that they cannot simply blame whites for problems such as teen pregnancy and high school dropout rates.
"For me there is a time . . . when we have to turn the mirror around," he said. "Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in."
- Dr. Huxtable
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 2, 2004 at 08:04 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Woohoo!!
The email subscription thingie over on the right finally works properly!! I've been messing with it for over a week, and it's been messing with me right back. It's supposed to send out an email every night with all the posts that have published over the course of the day, but it's not as simple as it sounds. It never is, is it?
Sometimes it would send out just the last post. Other times it would send out all the posts, but only the first 30 words in each one. A few days ago it sent out an email with all the posts. ALL the posts. Like, over 500 of them.
After a lot of monkeying with the RSS template, I finally realized that it had to do with the format of the date string. So I fixed it up and it's been nothing but peaches and butterscotch ever since.
Enjoy.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 2, 2004 at 07:48 AM in TTSU Maintenance | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Thursday, 01 July 2004
From Oakland, CA
Posted by flow Frazao on July 1, 2004 at 01:53 PM in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Big Apple Bites Back
It looks like W won't be visiting Ground Zero when he makes the trip to NYC for the Republican National Convention in September.
Man, between Cheney getting booed at Yankees Stadium and Bush being afraid to set foot near the WTC, it's starting to look like this whole New York thing might not have been such a great idea after all.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 1, 2004 at 01:39 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Fox Porn
Click here to view the unedited porn sequence which appeared on Fox News on 6/29/04.
If I had kids, they could have been watching during this broadcast. I shudder to think how many fragile little minds would have been warped by Fox News.
Luckily, the above link describes how to file a complaint with the FCC.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 1, 2004 at 01:06 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
'Thin Blue Line' prisoner executed in Texas
For the Errol Morris fans.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 1, 2004 at 11:28 AM in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
More Mad Cows
What a surprise. The USDA is expecting more cases of Mad Cow Disease, but you shouldn't worry about it. God knows they're not too concerned:
About half of the cases will go undetected and passed on for human consumption, Robert LaBudde, president of Least Cost Formulation Ltd., a food industry consultancy in Virginia Beach, Va., told UPI.
[...]
LaBudde said he bases his prediction on the one positive case detected so far, compared to the number of downers, or at-risk animals, in U.S. herds -- which amounts to about 250,000 by his calculations. That would yield about 68 cases among the at-risk cows, he wrote in a recent article published in Food Safety magazine. In Europe, the number of cases among seemingly healthy animals has been about half that seen in the at-risk cows. So in the U.S. that would yield 34 additional cases, for a total of 102.
Only about half the cases will be detected, however, because many animals will not show any symptoms, LaBudde said. This is based on the experience in Europe, where half the animals that test positive have no outward symptoms of infection, he added.
The USDA's surveillance plan focuses predominantly on animals with obvious signs of the disease, such as staggering, the inability to stand or dying from it. Only a small percentage of healthy-appearing animals will be tested.
LaBudde said the department should test all cows over age 5 regardless of their health status, because these are the most likely to have passed through the lengthy incubation period of the disease and test positive. He called the USDA's failure to do that bordering on "negligent."
The USDA and the meat industry have insisted the U.S. beef supply is safe because the most infectious parts of the cows -- the brain, spinal cord and intestines -- are being removed."
See, here's the thing - the USDA can insist all they want, but the reality is that we don't know very much about the agents that actually cause Mad Cow disease. They're called prions, and they're unlike anything else in modern medicine:
- baked at 680 degrees F for one hour (hot enough to melt lead)
- bombarded with radiation
- soaked in formaldehyde, bleach, and boiling water/
Finally, just to scare the living shit out of you, even if the USDA does discover widespread infections in US herds there is no way the agency can force a recall. In fact, no state or federal agency has clear authority to institute a mandatory recall of meat or poultry products.
According to Edward L. Menning, DVM, editor of the Journal of Federal Veterinarians:
Posted by flow Frazao on July 1, 2004 at 08:12 AM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack