And now, a word from our Dear Leader...

Quagmire

Shiite rebels in control

"The battle for this Sunni Muslim stronghold continued for a fourth day Thursday, and five more U.S. troops were reported killed. In Iraq's south, militiamen loyal to an anti-U.S. Shiite cleric controlled large swaths of three cities."

That's 40 U.S. soldiers killed this week. Let's express that as a ratio of U.S. deaths per weapon of mass destruction confiscated. Oh yeah, you can't divide by zero.

Yay!

Verizon to offer the Treo 600 From Engadget

They haven't said anything official yet, and there's nothing more than a "Coming Soon" on their homepage, but we have some good news that we think is going to make a lot of people happy: Verizon Wireless is finally going to carry the Treo 600. And it sure took them long enough, too. Sprint was offering the phone nearly six months ago, and we'd almost thought that Verizon was going to skip the Treo 600 altogether and just wait for the 610 to come out.

Anti-U.S. Uprising Widens in Iraq; Marines Push Deeper Into Fallujah

I can't wait until Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and all their acolytes start blaming Demoncrats bad attittude for this miserable failure. In other words, we didn't clap our hands hard enough, so Tinkerbell died.

Audio Codec Quality Shootout

This taste test by Extreme Tech makes me feel a little better about my hard-thought decision a few months ago to encode and store all of my CDs in WMA format instead of MP3. Everything I'd read said WMA (Series 9) was better, but I worried about compatibility issues: a lot of devices support WMA, but nearly everything supports MP3. What if I ever wanted to buy an iPod?

The clincher for me was Windows Media Player's automatic song-organizing and downsampling abilities. It fetches album art in the background and integrates that info into Windows native file system -- unlike Apple's iTunes, win which you have to open an application to get all the relevant info. The downsampling feature means it can shrink files on the fly while transferring them to a portable audio device.

Well as it turns out, the Media Player can do that with MP3s, too. And that made me wonder if I made the right choice going with WMA. Apparently, I did. Now, if only Apple would back down and let the iPod play WMA files.

(I expected a deluge of angry comments from Mac fans on the article, but several posters make some valid criticism of the article's methodology.)

Maybe Bush is a uniter after all...

Muslim rivals unite in Baghdad uprising

More flowers of welcome from the Iraqis

12 Marines killed in new fighting

I'm guessing the Bush campaign will be trotting out those "Mission Accomplished" photos anytime soon. It's time to fire Don Rumsfield and send in more troops. There's no realistic way to pull out of Bush's mistake now, so we need to suck it up and do the job right.

And of course, fire Bush in November.

What if...

I'm doing research for a story I'm doing on the 40th anniversary of the mainframe computer and came across an interesting tidbit: IBM in the late 1970s was toying with the idea of rebranding Atari computers to create a PC line -- it's attempt to take on these crazy Apple IIs and TRS 80s that were so popular at the time.

IBM's executive council rejected the idea, and as we all know, IBM built its own PC line, albeit using off-the-shelf components. The rest is history. (In a last gasp, Atari would eventually develop its own line of IBM-compatible PCs.)

I can't help thinking whether the Atari platform would have become standard had IBM had gone ahead with the idea. Would the platform, which would presumably be harder to clone, have become so dominant? Would Motorola (which made the chip) be the dominant CPU maker rather than Intel? Given my experience with Atari, would I have become a programmer instead of a journalist?

Did someone say 'quagmire?'

Rioting sweeps Iraqi cities; 8 U.S. soldiers killed

Now that the Shia hate us along with the Sunni, the only group left to alienate are the Kurds.

Not to beat a dead horse, but...

Powell no longer sure that Iraqi trailers were weapons labs

My career has peaked

Slashdot linked to a story of mine. I'm afraid to read the comments, though. The /. crowd can be pretty harsh.

Mystery solved

Police: Evidence doesn't support abduction claim

For example, the honor student told police that after taking her at knifepoint, her captor used duct tape, rope, cold medicine, a gun and a knife to keep her under his control.

Although those items were found in the marsh where she was located, buttressing her account, police obtained videotape Thursday that showed Seiler entering a Madison store and buying those items, he said.

Also, during the time she said she was held captive, two witnesses reported having seen her apparently "walking freely" in different areas of the city, he said.

Someone used her computer during the time she was missing. Also, he said, the computer had been used to look up a five-day weather forecast and search wooded areas in and around Madison.

As I suspected...

Police: Wisconsin Student Changes Story

"She initially told police she was abducted at knifepoint from outside her apartment early Saturday. Assistant Police Chief Noble Wray said Friday she changed her story when investigators confronted her with inconsistencies in her account. "

Good thing to keep in mind for Friday's jobs report

From Eschaton.

So, let's choose our criteria in advance. Anything under 140K is seriously bad. A number between 140K and 240K isn't particularly good, but at least a sign that things could be picking up. And, anything under 306K is proof that the tax cuts are not working as promised.

Top Focus Before 9/11 Wasn't on Terrorism

Top Focus Before 9/11 Wasn't on Terrorism (washingtonpost.com)

The address was designed to promote missile defense as the cornerstone of a new national security strategy, and contained no mention of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or Islamic extremist groups, according to former U.S. officials who have seen the text.

Is there anyone who still believes Bush and Cheney weren't asleep -- or more fittingly, drunk -- at the wheel?

And the Iraqis continue to welcome us with flowers

3 U.S. soldiers hurt in ambush near Fallujah

The Bush recovery continues

Forecasters scale back job hopes

Police to interview student about her disappearance

Good. There's something fishy about this girl's abduction story. What makes me really suspicious is that she was the "victim" in another weird attack in February.

Newsmap

Here's an interesting way to look at the news. This flash front-end takes Google news feeds and presents the information in a visual way. Big, popular stories are given bigger chunks of the map. A clever solution to an old problem with online news -- namely, how to prioritize the stories without the layout and headline cues printed newspapers offer. Not a perfect solution, mind you, but an innovative one.

CNN Report Puts Letterman In a Tizzy, Temporarily

Here's a White House that can't even tell the truth aboutmeaningless, easily verifiable things. The Bushies lie so often, they just do it reflexively.

White House warns OPEC

CNN.com - White House warns OPEC - Mar 31, 2004: "McClellan did not directly respond to questions about why that strategy has not worked, but said the administration remains in constant contact with oil producers. 'We believe oil prices should be set by market forces in order to make sure that we have adequate supplies available. That's always been our view."

Memo to the Bushies: an industry cartel isn't what most people would call "natural market forces." That's why we have antitrust laws.

So much for Harvard credentials

BostonHerald.com - Local/ Regional News: Scientist nabbed for SARS scam: Cops: Suspect bilked pals

This professor scammed collegues and students out of $600,000, only to fall for the Nigerian classic. Nice.

We got pictures!

Here are some we took with the digital camera. We still have developed anything from the (flim-based!) disposable cameras, which have all the pics from Sao Paulo. We were afraid the digital camera would get stolen in Sao Paulo. Had we known all the Japanese tourists had much better models to steal, we would have brought the digital cam.

I highly recommend the slideshow mode.

So much for our "war president"

Government "failed you," Clarke testifies

For anyone not paying attention, this is pretty devastating for the Bushies. Clarke's testimony -- which by all accounts was brilliant in the face of sharp questioning by GOP lawmakers -- kicks out what was presumably the strongest leg of Bush's election platform. Everyone was willing to overlook his total incompetence on the economy, slavish submissiveness to big business and, of course, utter stupidity. He was a bold, decisive leader, after all. Well, so much for that myth. Watch the testimony -- the Bushies are floundering.

Highlights include:

"You urge policymakers to imagine a day after hundreds of Americans lay dead at home and abroad after a terrorist attack and ask themselves what else they could have done," Roemer said to Clarke. "You write this on Sept. 4, seven days before Sept. 11."

In response, Clarke simply replied, "That's right."
(From the LA Times story)

And, my favorite:

Then he admitted there was a difference between his earlier testimony and his book. "There's a very good reason for that," he went on. "In the 15 hours of testimony, nobody asked me what I thought of the president's invasion of Iraq." The heart of his book's attacks surrounds the war. "By invading Iraq," he said, taking full advantage of Lehman's opening, "the president of the United States has greatly undermined the war on terror." End of response. Lehman said nothing.

In the second round of questioning, Thompson returned to the August 2002 press briefing. "You intended to mislead the press?" he asked, perhaps hoping to pound a wedge between the media and their new superstar.

"There's a very fine line that anyone who's been in the White House, in any administration, can tell you about," Clarke replied. Someone in his position had three choices. He could have resigned, but he had important work yet to do. He could have lied, but nobody told him to do that, and he wouldn't have in any case. "The third choice," he said, "is to put the best face you can for the administration on the facts. That's what I did."

Well, Thompson asked in a bruised tone, is there one set of moral rules for special assistants to the White House and another set for everybody else?

"It's not a question of morality at all," Clarke replied. "It's a question of politics." The crowd applauded fiercely. (From Slate.)

By the way, I'm back from Brazil.

In Brasil!

As expected, I haven´t had much Internet access, but finally found a little cafe that charges in 15-minute increments. So in other words, this will have to be quick. It´s strange how different some things are -- take this Portuguese keyboard, for instance, with a super-short shift key and common characters in weird places -- and how much other things are the same.

Anyway, I´ll write more later...

The Bush recovery continues

Jobs growth remains weak

U.S. to launch 24/7 hunt for bin Laden

CNN.com - High-tech snooping for bin Laden: "U.S. forces searching for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan will soon implement high-tech surveillance tactics in the region, enabling them to monitor the area 24 hours a day, seven days a week, CNN has learned. "

Hey, I've got a question: why weren't we doing this already?

Saturday Samba

Andrea picked up my passport from San Francisco this morning, newly stamped with a Brazilian visa. We fly out Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, our cheap tickets take us through Chicago, so there's a lot of flying involved.

I'm excited to go, but I have two concerns: 1) Getting kidnapped. 2) Not having Internet access for two weeks. Andrea's sister has DSL, but it's an hour or so away from her parents' house, where we'll be staying.

I've downloaded a Portuguese-English dictionary for my Palm phone, stocked up on Claritan and sunscreen, so I'm all set. We'll take lot of pictures.

Enough said...

New U.S. Effort Steps Up Hunt for bin Laden: "Much of the timing now is driven by the weather: as winter snows melt, troops can navigate in the high mountain passes and trails where many Qaeda and Taliban members are believed to be hiding. When that moment arrived last year, many of the forces and American intelligence operatives now engaged in Afghanistan were tied up in the Iraq."

Scalia defends involvement in Cheney case

Scalia defends involvement in Cheney case

Scalia told a gathering at Amherst College on Tuesday night there was nothing improper about his accompanying Cheney to Louisiana last month to hunt ducks. The trip came three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Bush administration?s appeal in a case involving private meetings of Cheney?s energy task force.

?It did not involve a lawsuit against Dick Cheney as a private individual,? Scalia said in response to a question from the audience of about 600 people. ?This was a government issue. It?s acceptable practice to socialize with executive branch officials when there are not personal claims against them. That?s all I?m going to say for now. Quack, quack.?

Well, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck...

If only this fad had died along with him

MSNBC - Diet doctor had heart disease

Diet guru Dr. Robert Atkins, who died last year after a fall in New York, had a history of heart disease and weighed 258 pounds at the time of his death, a newspaper reported Tuesday. Atkins' popular diet stresses people should eat high-protein meats and cheese over carbohydrates in order to lose weight.

He who makes the rules wins the game

What a surprise. It looks like George Bush's Iraqi intellegence commission will be a total whitewash.

More on the oh-so impartial Antonin Scalia

Scalia Was Cheney Hunt Trip Guest; Ethics Concern Grows

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia traveled as an official guest of Vice President Dick Cheney on a small government jet that served as Air Force Two when the pair came here last month to hunt ducks.

The revelation cast further doubts about whether Scalia can be an impartial judge in Cheney's upcoming case before the Supreme Court, legal ethics experts said. The hunting trip took place just weeks after the high court agreed to take up Cheney's bid to keep secret the details of his energy policy task force.

Not good.

MSNBC - Mad cow's 'downer' status disputed

This could be a problem for Kerry in the general election

Green light for gay marriages in Mass.

At the least, it puts him in a tough spot. Edwards' "state's rights" approach might be a little easier for moderates to tolerate.

Nice, he even gets to pick the panel members

Bush to pick panel for WMD inquiry

A senior administration official said Monday that Bush will name the members of the commission. The official said the president had consulted some "appropriate" members of Congress about the appointments.

That way, he can make sure there won't be any conflicts of interest.

In other news, Richard Nixon will create a panel to investigate Watergate.

Capoeira

To force ourselves to get more exercise, Andrea and I took a Capoeira class today and will probably start going regularly. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art, but unlike Karate, invloves no actual fighting. It's more like gymnastics, really. Apparently, you're supposed to dance until your attacker leaves.

I thought I was going to die for the first half of the class and had to sit down to rest. So apparently, it's working.

Bush tries to pass the buck

MSNBC - Bush to order inquiry of Iraq intelligence lapses: "By setting up the investigation himself, Bush will have greater control over its membership and mandate. The senior White House official said it would be patterned after the Warren Commission, so named for its chairman Earl Warren, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court, which led a 10-month investigation that concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing President John F. Kennedy."

Good news! The beef industry won't be allowed to feed cows chicken crap anymore!

CNN.com - FDA: No more chicken waste for cows

Monday's measures go even further and include the following:

• Banning chicken waste, known in the industry as "poultry litter," from livestock feed. Poultry litter consists of bedding, spilled feed, feathers and fecal matter collected from where chickens live.

Keep in mind that these are the same rules Bush officials opposed just a few months ago.

Dick Cheney, are you listening?

Ex-Arms Hunter Kay Says No WMD Stockpiles in Iraq

Watergate II?

Infiltration of files seen as extensive: Senate panel's GOP staff pried on Democrats

If nothing else, the story proves that Robert Novak is a tool.

In case you think Bush's "private savings plan" is a good substitute for Social Security...

Retirement Funds Hit by FAC Debacle

An FBI raid of FAC's office on El Toro Road turned up assets worth a bit more than 1% of the $813.9 million that Lewis' clients supposedly had accumulated. Lewis, known to his family, friends and clients as an investment genius, was nowhere to be found. As of late Friday, he was being sought by the FBI.

Among the cruel twists of the FAC debacle is that so many investors, like O'Hara, were gambling with their retirement funds. Many lost virtually everything. According to SEC filings and attorneys involved in the case, the victims include Lewis' computer technician, who mortgaged his house to invest with FAC, and the mother of Lewis' live-in companion, who handed over her entire $250,000 in retirement savings.

FAC's books listed 1,340 IRAs and Keough retirement accounts, according to analysis by Robb Evans & Associates, the court-appointed receiver in the case. That indicates that as many as about 40% of the 3,290 active investors lost at least some of their retirement savings.

Nope, no conflict of interest here

Cheney, Scalia socialized while Supreme Court considered case

"Scalia and Cheney, longtime friends, had dinner at a restaurant on Maryland's Eastern Shore in November, two months after the Bush administration asked the justices to overrule a lower court's decision requiring White House to identify task force members."

And yes, folks, Scalia participated in the 2000 Busg vs. Gore election case.

Happy MLK day, from George W. Bush.

Bush appoints Pickering to U.S. appeals court

You can read about Pickering's civil rights record here.

like I said...

The President: Aides Say Bush Is Already Absorbed in 2004 Race: "Over all, the mood among the 160 staff members at Bush-Cheney headquarters is sunny, while the strategy is to cast the Democrats as angry and out of touch with what Mr. Bush calls the essential optimism of America."

But, hey, we don't have to pay that car tax anymore.

Budget Ax Would Fall Heavily on the Poor, Ill: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget promises higher costs and hurdles for thousands of Californians, from some children with cancer who would no longer get state help paying for chemotherapy to high school graduates who would be shunted to community colleges instead of universities."

This calls for more tax cuts -- and a trip to Mars!

The Unlocked Box - How Bush is plundering Social Security to close the deficit.

WMDs found -- in Texas!

Case Yields Chilling Signs of Domestic Terror Plot

Andrea's back

She made it safely home and after a 30-minute nap, went straight to work. Her mom seems to be doing fine after the operation, and further tests will determine the severity of follow-up treatment.

But so far, so good.

While we're ont he topic...

This Modern World: Dean Can't Win

The Dean Dilemma

Expect this to be a big theme of the campaign -- indeed, the Republicans are already starting to harp on it. Personally, I think his "anger" is a plus. Bush effectively neutered Gore in 2000 by forcing him to play on Bush's playing field -- remember that second debate? Super-nice, noncontroversial and completely lacking in any substance. The GOP is trying to force Dean to ignore his strengths -- his ability to get people riled up about what Dubya is doing to this country -- and play to his weaknesses. I like the angry Dean, and I think he should stay that way.

The other big theme, of course, will be Dean's supposed lefty tendancies, something being played up in his fight with the Clinton "New Democrat" wing of the party. But it's just not that simple. With the right VP candidate, Dean could beat Bush. And that, my friends, is why the GOP is bending over backwards to pretend it's delighted to see Dean as the nominee. (To their credit, another National Review columnist, and other conservative thinkers, aren't counting Dean out.) The Bushies are worried. And with a record like his, they should be.

Yahoo! News - Texas Rep. Ralph Hall Switches to GOP

Yahoo! News - Texas Rep. Ralph Hall Switches to GOP:

He told The Associated Press that he's always said that if being a Democrat hurt his district, he would switch or resign. He said GOP leaders had recently refused to place money for his district in a spending bill and 'the only reason I was given was I was a Democrat.'
(Emphasis mine)

He also said he did not agree with 'all these guys running against the president.'

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said Democrats are 'reaping what they've sown.'

'Their leaders have lined up behind Howard Dean (news - web sites)'s brand of angry, intolerant politics. They've made their message clear: 'moderates need not apply' and that's a sad trend for a once-great party,' DeLay said.

Apparently, DeLay didn't know about the the facts outlined three paragraphs before his quote. Which party is the angry, intolerant party?

That Parent-Child Conversation Is Becoming Instant, and Online

And I thought my family was geeky.

Bush opposed mad-cow rules just a few weeks ago

New meat rules reverse industry efforts: "The Agriculture Department's announcement yesterday of a ban on the sale of meat from ailing 'downer' cattle marked a policy turnabout for the Bush administration, coming only a few weeks after the department and allies in the powerful meat lobby blocked an identical measure in Congress."

Why does Goerge Bush hate America?

CNN.com - Wary U.S. turns spotlight on international flights - Jan. 2, 2004

CNN.com - Wary U.S. turns spotlight on international flights - Jan. 2, 2004

British Airways canceled Flight 223 from London to Washington today, the third time in three days the flight was disrupted because of security concerns, the airline said. Today's cancellation came a week and a half after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised the terror alert to orange, its second-highest level.

I've got an idea: why don't they load the plane up as planned, only put guards on it, check every piece of luggage and instead of flying, get the plane away from the airport and round up the suspects? By cancelling the flights, it looks like they're just telling the terrorists to reschedule.

Hey, just like the Bush administration!

Thousands Rally in Hong Kong to Demand Free Elections: "Many business tycoons oppose further democracy, contending that the public does not understand the importance and complexity of creating an environment conducive to investment."

Yeah, murdering millions of innocent people / making foreign travelers get fingerprinted -- pretty much the same thing,

Brazil to fingerprint US citizens: "'I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis,' Federal Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva said in the court order."

Another example of being a little too loose with the Holocaust comparison.

We Didn't Smacko Jacko, Say Calif. Cops

I must admit, Fox News wrote a great headline.

Cyber blackmail targets office workers

MSNBC - Cyber blackmail targets office workers

Something tells me this story is bogus. First, the primary source is an unnamed "British detective." Two, the story doesn't cite a single instance in which the ploy actually worked. No victims or perpetrators are quoted, and the only victim cited is an unnamed "Scandinavian university." And third, it just sounds farfetched. How are these perpetrators getting merchant credit card accounts, which would be necessary to accept the credit card ransom, as outlined in the story? Wouldn't nine out of 10 recipients report the e-mail to authorities, who'd then track the merchant accounts? Bogus.

Remember those Bush officials who said the nation's meat supply is safe? They were lying.

As Probe of Infected Cow Spreads, So Does Worry:

"Already, consumers who ate meat that might have come from the sick Holstein are concerned. Grocery stores were shipped ground beef and beef patties from meat that included the infected cow 11 days before a test for mad cow disease came back positive and the meat was recalled -- it is not yet known how much of the meat was pulled off grocery shelves or has been consumed. "

Because Ashcroft is too busy reviewing you library records!

Now It's a Scandal - New evidence that a House GOP leader offered a bribe.

From Slate's Timothy Noah:

What does a guy have to do to get a congressional bribe investigated? Even making allowances for slow readers, John Ashcroft's Justice Department is taking an awfully long time to decide whether to do anything about the (unsuccessful) attempt to bribe Rep. Smith.

Yes, I felt it, and yes, I'm OK.

Three Killed in Strong California Coast Earthquake

I've been in several minor earthquakes now, and this one -- a long side-to-side motion -- was the most unnerving.

Depends on what the definition of "is" is

Depends on what the definition of "is" is

Powered flight a hoax!

CNN.com - Bush honors anniversary of first flight - Dec. 17, 2003: "One hundred years after the brothers' first flight, a meticulous reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer made a valiant attempt to take to the air on Wednesday.
Much like many of the brothers' early efforts, the plane could not get airborne. It struggled down a narrow track and unceremoniously came to a halt in a mud puddle. "

Republican family values

Thurmond Kin Acknowledge Black Daughter: "Rather than wait for the request, the family issued a statement which, in effect, supports her contention that she was born to Mr. Thurmond, then 22, and Carrie Butler, who was 16 and employed by Mr. Thurmond's parents as a housekeeper in Edgefield, S.C."

Bush wins re-election

U.S. forces capture Saddam near hometown

Sigh.

Unelectable.

Biography of President George W. Bush

Hustle and bustle

Andrea and I had a busy weekend. We visited a friend of hers selling Brazilian jewelry at a wine tasting in Livermore. After that, we had dinner in Pleasanton and stuck around for a Christmas parade. Then we went to her newspaper's holiday party. Needless to say, I was very tired.

Hopefully, next weekend will be much calmer.

They can't even tell the truth when the news is good...

(via Atrios):

White House Version of Mid-Air Exchange Disputed

Finally, some common sense in e-voting

Wired News: E-Votes Must Leave a Paper Trail

Sometimes, California politicians can get it right.

DeLay's next fundraiser?

Funny reference to a story in one of my recent posts.

San Diego Fire Warnings Were Repeatedly Ignored

Once again, people get the government they deserve. Or in other words, sometimes, taxes are a good thing.

G.O.P. Leader Solicits Money for Charity Tied to Convention

From today's New York Times:

It is an unusual charity brochure: a 13-page document, complete with pictures of fireworks and a golf course, that invites potential donors to give as much as $500,000 to spend time with Tom DeLay during the Republican convention in New York City next summer and to have part of the money go to help abused and neglected children.

Representative DeLay, who has both done work for troubled children and drawn criticism for his aggressive political fund-raising in his career in Congress, said through his staff that the entire effort was fundamentally intended to help children. But aides to Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader from Texas, acknowledged that part of the money would go to pay for late-night convention parties, a luxury suite during President Bush (news - web sites)'s speech at Madison Square Garden and yacht cruises.

Classy.

Back in the 21st century!

I have phone AND Internet service now. Now my house is truly a home.

Occupational Hazards - How the Pentagon forgot about running Iraq. By Jacob Weisberg

Nice one by Slate's Jacob Weisberg.

Back during the 2000 campaign, George Will and others argued that presidential intelligence didn't matter. This notion was reinforced after Sept. 11, when it became fashionable to argue that Bush's "moral clarity" was preferable to the ability to comprehend many sides of a complicated issue. In fact, presidential intelligence does matter. The intellectual qualities Bush lacks—historical knowledge, interest in the details of policy, and substantive (as opposed to political) judgment—might well have prevented the quagmire we're facing in Iraq right now. A more engaged president—one who understood, for instance, the difference between the Sunnis and the Shiites—surely would have asked about Plan B.

Almost completely moved in

With some help from Andrea, I'm pretty much settled into my new apartment in Sunnyvale. One glitch: I still have no phone service, though Pac-Bell insists they've turned it on. And that, of course, means I have no Internet access.

But why can't the media report on all the copters that aren't getting shot down?

U.S. Helicopter Downed in Iraq, 15 Soldiers Killed

My, what a good idea it was to invade Iraq. Bush is so smart.

Rock the vote

Read about security problems with Diebold's electronic voting machines. They threaten democracy and have the nerve to sue people pointing out that fact.

Where there's smoke...

Andrea and I went to a going-away dinner party last night hosted by Alex and her husband Chris, which was fun. But as we got closer to their house, about an hour away in "The O.C.," we could smell the smoke, see the haze and -- we think -- feel the heat of the Southern California fire.

This morning, that haze and smell had drifted all the way up to Los Angeles itself. Scary.

We visited the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, the fancy new architectural landmark by Frank Gehry. It was awesome and beautiful. We also visited the almost-as-new Los Angeles Cathedral. Andrea and I agreed that it looked a little bunker-ish for a church, which presumably aims to reach out into the broader community. But I thought the inside was really nice, an understaed, spartan arrangement.

It's unfortunate that it took my moving away to inspire us to see Los Angeles' cultural heritage.

Thousands flee as wind fuels flames

This must be why there's a weird haze outside and pieces of ash are floating everywhere. I'm not kidding.

According to Ann Coulter, this is treason

Rumsfeld Challenges Progress in War on Terror

Ah yes, the wisdom of overseas outsourcing

Pakistani transcriber threatens UCSF over back pay

Budget cuts at the copy desk?

Oops.

(from The Smoking Gun)

It's not exactly "Dewey Defeats Truman," but the New York Post made a colossal error today on its editorial page. The paper somehow printed an editorial bemoaning last night's Yankees loss to the Boston Red Sox, noting that the "Curse of the Bambino boomeranged this year" and that the Bronx Bombers "couldn't get the job done at home." The editorial concluded, "Wait'll next year!" Obviously, the Post piece was drafted while the Yanks were trailing the Sox, but was--unbelievably--not yanked when the club tied the game in the eighth inning and won it on Aaron Boone's walkoff home run in the 11th.

I sometimes lose sleep wondering whether I misspelled a name in a story that's gone to press or get sick to my stomach when I discover an easy-to-check error. I can't imagine what the editors at the Post are thinking.

I feel safer already

At Iraqi Depot, Missiles Galore and No Guards

Is it just me, or is Donald Rumsfeld looking dumber every minute?

Crossing the picket line

Doing our best to imitate France, pretty much everyone in L.A. went on strike this week. I don't have to ride the bus, but I do have to buy groceries. The workers have a right to strike, of course, and it's always in a person's best interest to maximixe one's salary. But at the same time I don't feel too much sympathy for them. Their main gripe is that they'll finally have to start shelling out co-pays. I say this is a good thing. One of the reasons health care costs are spiralling is because drugmakers and hospitals can keep raising prices, knowing insurance will pick up most of the tab. If people had to pay more of the costs, demand would wane, and prices wouldn't continue going up so quickly.

Of course, insurance should be set up in such a way as to encourage preventative care, without triggering abuses by patients or doctors.

Hey! Maybe we could set up some organization designed to carefully watch costs -- set up discounts with networks of doctors and reward them for being more efficient and making costs part of the health care equation -- and pass those savings onto the insured. Oh yeah, that's what an HMO is supposed to do.

Welcome to the real world, grocery clerks.

On the move again

I've signed the lease, ordered electric and phone (more importantly, DSL) service and contacted the movers.

I'll be in a decent location in Sunnyvale about 10 minutes away from work. It's Andrea's old apartment complex, only the rent has dropped $150 since she lived there, not counting the $50 discount I get because of the death of the previous tenant. The renter was required to tell me about the passing, presumably because the law reflects the sensibilities of thr Bay Area's Chinese population.

Anyway, I'm close to a grocery store and In-and-Out Burger, and a short walk takes me to a P.F. Changs's, Starbucks, Borders and misc. places. And then there's downtown Sunnyvale, which has a few shops and restaurants.

And of course, my beautiful girlfriend is a short drive away.

One of the worst ledes (yes, that's how it's spelled) I have ever read:

Davis on Letterman tonight
:

"Maybe it was only a matter of time, but still-Gov. Gray Davis has gone Hollywood. Well, maybe not Hollywood, but tonight he will go late night, 'Late Night with David Letterman' to be exact."

1 in 5 doesn’t speak English at home

"Nearly one in five Americans speaks a language other than English at home, the Census Bureau says, after a surge of nearly 50 percent during the past decade. Most speak Spanish, followed by Chinese, with Russian rising fast."

I found the study that the article article is based on. Portuguese ranked so low that they had to lump it in with Portuguese Creole. Yes, there is such a language. Considering the size of Brazil that can mean: 1) Not a lot of Brazilians emmigrate or 2) They all speak English, even at home.

I'm doing my part to make sure the latter is true.

Arnold's revenge on the L.A. Times

And on any newspaper, for that matter: ever try fitting "Schwarzenegger" into a headline with a subject, verb and object? Copy editors can't use "actor" as a substitute anymore, and his new position makes "Arnold" too demeaning. California journalism just got a lot tougher.

And for the record, I think this might be the first governor most people have seen naked.

Fox distorts, we deride

Study hits war views held by Fox fans


"Heavy viewers of the Fox News Channel are nearly four times as likely to hold demonstrably untrue positions about the war in Iraq as media consumers who rely on National Public Radio or the Public Broadcasting System, according to a study released this week by a research center affiliated with the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs"

A big reason why homes cost so much in California

From today's San Jose Mercury News: "Because of the city's strict voter-mandated residential growth control initiative, the group had to go through the city's competitive application process multiple times to secure approval to build their 100-unit project in two separate phases, said Tom Iamesi, the group's director of housing development.
The city program, enacted by voters in 1977 and updated in 1990, established a formula that limits growth to about 200 homes per year, with 20 percent of those new homes allotted to affordable housing annually, said Jim Rowe, Morgan Hill planning manager."

And a primary motive for the growth-control measures, of course, is the state's wacky property tax laws, which reward cities for businesses, but not the residents who live there.

Why are Republicans so wasteful of tax dollars?

Questions are Raised on Awarding of Contracts in Iraq

From the New York Times:


"Last month the Iraqi Governing Council questioned why the American occupation authority had issued a $20 million contract to buy new revolvers and Kalashnikov rifles for the Iraqi police when the United States military was confiscating tens of thousands of weapons every month from Saddam Hussein's abandoned arsenals.

On Wednesday the Iraqi council, in a testy exchange with the occupation administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, challenged an American decision to spend $1.2 billion to train 35,000 Iraqi police officers in Jordan when such training could be done in Iraq for a fraction of the cost. Germany and France have offered to provide such training free."

Of course, the real question is not why the Republicans are so wasteful, but why they're so brazenly corrupt. They're spending like this so their contributors can get nice hefty government contracts.

Another Bush lie

Report Offered Bleak Outlook About Iraq Oil

New trouble for Schwarzenegger

New trouble for Schwarzenegger

"Browne said Friday on the television show “Inside Edition” that Schwarzenegger groped her ankles and knees during an interview in the 1970s."

OK, I'm no Schwarzenegger fan, but is it really possible to "grope" someone's knees and ankles?

Big news day

Lets summarize:

1) The Gropenator apologizes.

2) Rush Limbaugh is a drug addict.

3) No weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

4) The Bush recovery continues.

Am I forgetting anything?

My favorite is Drudge's take on the Limbaugh story. It wasn't "Limbaugh accused of drug abuse," but "Media orchestrates attack of Limbaugh." Ah, yes, the liberal media made him do it. And it looks like one of the side-effects of the drugs he was abusing is hearing loss, which may explain why he went deaf so early. Drug abuse is tragic, but it's hard to feel sorry when it happens to someone who'd made a career of castigating others for the very same thing.

Why can't Republicans just control themselves and take personal responsibility?

Women Say Schwarzenegger Groped, Humiliated Them

It's official

Andrea formally got a graphic design job at the Mercury News, the news I couldn't say publicly until today. Congratulations, sweetie!

Yeah, right.

White House gathering inquiry data

Why can't they just admit what everybody already knows? It was Karl Rove. I'll be glad to see that slimeball lose his job. It's too bad people that connected always land feet first, though.

Next up, the Lewinsky-style finger-wagging denial

White House Denies Leaking CIA Agent's ID

Why does George Bush hate America?

White House grapples with allegation

That's right folks, two senior officials blew the cover of a CIA agent to get revenge on her husband for criticizing the government. So basically somebody there broke two laws and obviously has no respect for the First Amendment. But then again, would we expect anything less from an administration that likes to keep public policy secrets, rewrite history and hide facts when they become inconvienent?

Oh, and here's the beauty. The guy's criticism was 100% correct.