Hmmm... this is interesting: Iraq suggests timetable

Iraq raises idea of timetable for US withdrawal
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and SEBASTIAN ABBOT, Associated Press Writers
7 July 2008
BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister said Monday his country wants some type of timetable for a withdrawal of American troops included in the deal the two countries are negotiating.

So... what'll W and his minions do if our "puppet" Iraqi Government starts asserting itself... against us?

The news reports on negotiations regarding Status-of-Forces-Agreement have been none too encouraging of late. The Iraqis seem to want to actually exercise the sovreignty W has promised them.

Sing a song!

Tongue-in-cheek advice for Dana Perino

The recent Fed court ruling ridiculing W's Administration for presenting an "Alice in Wonderland" argument suggests other ways in which the Administration could consciously adopt Lewis Carroll as a mentor.

For example, during press briefings, Dana Perino could quote from Alice:

‘I have answered three questions, and that is enough,’
 Said his father; ‘don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
 Be off, or I’ll kick you down stairs!’

Just a suggestion...

Have fun!

In my lifetime!

Black students helped end 'Massive Resistance'
By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 6, 2008
NORFOLK, Va. - The "Norfolk 17" were honored Sunday at the church that educated them 50 years ago when six of the city's all-white public schools closed under Virginia's defiant response to court-ordered desegregation.
...
Virginia's Massive Resistance cut funds to any school that dared to integrate.

Schools were closed and private academies were created to educate white students who could afford the tuition.

In my lifetime, America was racially segregated.
Today, a black man is a major-party candidate for the Presidency.
[note: I consciously opted for 'black' rather than African-American - Obama's heritage is too mixed... this, too, is progress!]

Now, can we move beyond "identity" politics?

Sing a song!

"Why no posts?", you ask.

I've gone from 3-4 posts/day to 3-4 posts/week.

The reason?
I've been contributing to the political process in a more direct way, volunteering for Martin Heinrich's campaign for NM1.

What this means in practice is that I've been spending many hours on the computer updating a donor database.

Initially I worked in the campaign office - on a very old machine with none-too-reliable wireless connection to internet. After one particularly frustrating afternoon on this primitive system I asked if I could take the work home. Since then I've been working on home system - which is a brand new Dell desktop with broadband connection.
Even with this best-of-all-possible worlds, database updating is still extremely tedious and time-consuming. [Latest task: updating area-codes to reflect recent bifurcation of New Mexico into two area codes - most of the state ("most" by area) is now area code 575. The database interface allows no simple "find/replace" option: it's a matter of search by zipcode & updating records based on phone prefix. There's also basic housekeeping involved: checking that mail address includes title ("Mr.", "Mrs.", "Ms.", "Dr.", etc.), and that, e.g., "Ln" is spelled out "Lane".

On the bright side:
1. I believe my efforts contribute more directly to success in November than Al Qaeda in ABQ could ever hope for.
2. (personal): the campaign work provides a welcome transition to retirement... I am, in fact, working more hours and more diligently for the campaign than I ever managed at work!

On the down side:
My enthusiasm for Al Qaeda in ABQ is less intense than it was.
It'd help if more folks posted comments!
(many thanks to p.m. prescott for his thought-provoking responses!)

Have a nice day.

more Hezbollah in the news

Hezbollah said to train Shiite militiamen in Iraq
By HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writers
Tue Jul 1, 2008
BAGHDAD - Hezbollah instructors trained Shiite militiamen at remote camps in southern Iraq until three months ago when they slipped across the border to Iran — presumably to continue instruction on Iranian soil, according to two Shiite lawmakers and a top army officer.

Why do I care?

My long-standing deluded conspiracy theory has Cheney orchestrating a "terrorist" attack on Halloween. The nominal culprits? Hezbollah. This provides W with the excuse to bomb Iran, adjourn Congress, and cancel the elections.

Note: the lead paragraph above makes a point of citing Hezbollah's links with Iran!

Whenever Hezbollah features prominently in news - particularly when it is tied to continuing violence in Iraq with clear suggestion that Iran is to blame - I simply see puppet-masters pulling the strings, preparing us - the U.S. public - for the upcoming attack & W's consequent dictatorship.

Yes, I am delusional.

Whatever happened to grammar?

Police: Ex-convict suspected of killing 8 captured
By JIM SUHR, Associated Press Writer
1 July 2008
GRANITE CITY, Ill. - Police and FBI agents captured an ex-convict suspected of killing eight people in two states as he smoked a cigarette outside of a southwestern Illinois bar Tuesday night.
[emphasis added]

Has no one heard of a dangling modifier? Did this guy really kill eight people in two states while smoking a cigarette outside an Illinois bar? Hmmm... maybe the bar was in East St. Louis, on the river, and he killed folks in Illinois & Missouri - shooting across the Mississippi.

No - I don't mean to make light of the crime, only of the reporter's language!

Have fun!

If the govt says it, it must be true

Evidence Faulted in Detainee Case
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: July 1, 2008
NYT
In the first case to review the government’s secret evidence for holding a detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a federal appeals court found that accusations against a Muslim from western China held for more than six years were based on bare and unverifiable claims. The unclassified parts of the decision were released on Monday.

With some derision for the Bush administration’s arguments, a three-judge panel said the government contended that its accusations against the detainee should be accepted as true because they had been repeated in at least three secret documents.

The court compared that to the absurd declaration of a character in the Lewis Carroll poem “The Hunting of the Snark”: “I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.”
...
“This comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true,” said the panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Okay - the Federal Court did a better job at lampooning W's "argument" than I could hope to match. No further comment required.

Stop the madness!