Pentagon coordinated Halliburton deal
A Pentagon e-mail said Vice President Dick Cheney’s office “coordinated” a multibillion-dollar Iraq reconstruction contract awarded to his former employer Halliburton, Time magazine reported on Sunday.Just when you thought this administration couldn't get any more corrupt. But, hey, at least it's not a lie about sex, right?
MSNBC - Pessimism grows about Iraq's future: "Inside the Green Zone, the heavily fortified U.S. administration compound that Salim was about to enter when the suicide bomber struck, expectations are grim. 'It will take a lot of doing for this not to end in a debacle,' a senior occupation official said. 'There is no confidence in the coalition. Why should there be?'"
So next time Bush tries to laud his boldness, resolve and leadership, try not to laugh too hard in his face.
Not quite. If this "Traces of sarin in bomb story" turns out to be true, it isn't even remotely proof that Dear Leader was right. Before the right-wing bloggers start citing this as vindication, remember that chemical weapons were a specialty of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Al Queda leader who operated in U.S.- and Kurd-controlled Iraqi territory before the Gulf War II.
From a Slate article I've cited before:
As far back as June 2002, U.S. intelligence reported that Zarqawi had set up a weapons lab at Kirma in northern Iraq that was capable of producing ricin and cyanide.This is the same guy who could have been killed long before the invasion had the White House just given its OK. But that, of course, would have undermined the need for our invasion.
Car bomb kills head of Governing Council
We're getting ready to hand over power, and we can't even guard the Iraqi head of state?
Of course, maybe that's my media bias talking. I mean, why can't they report on all the Iraqi officials who weren't killed by a suicide bomber?
MSNBC - Powell criticizes Arab governments: "Powell said he has made clear, specifically to Arab leaders, that systematic torture of prisoners is unacceptable anywhere. Yet, he said, their denunciation of the killing of Nicholas Berg, kidnapped while in Iraq seeking business for his Pennsylvania communication company, fell far short of their attacks on the United States for the treatment of detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison."
Good point. One of the main differences between our prison scandal and those of these Middle East dictatorships is that here, it's actually a scandal. You'll rarely -- if ever -- see the governments of Syria, Iran or even Saudi Arabia launching investigations into their own behavior. It was our own military and our own press that brought this scandal to light. That's more than you can say about any Middle East country, except maybe Israel.
White House memo shifts abuse inquiry’s focus
A story in the latest edition of Newsweek has shifted the focus of the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal to the question of whether the Bush administration established a legal basis that opened the door for the mistreatment.Now, I don't believe Al Queda qualify as soldiers (they're not uniformed, they target civilians, etc.), and I actually don't have too big a problem with high-value subjects getting a little roughed up, assuming it doesn't taint the info we get or chances of prosecution. But to simply throw away the Geneva convention for ordinary, secured prisoners -- 90% of which the Red Cross says are mistaken detentions -- is a grave, grave mistake.
...
And the Newsweek story reports that U.S. soldiers and CIA operatives “could be accused of war crimes. Among the possible charges: homicide involving deaths during interrogations.
I'm probably quoting more than I'm allowed to, but this article on Slate is worth a read:
The implications of this are more shocking, in their way, than the news from Abu Ghraib. Bush promoted the invasion of Iraq as a vital battle in the war on terrorism, a continuation of our response to 9/11. Here was a chance to wipe out a high-ranking terrorist. And Bush didn't take advantage of it because doing so might also wipe out a rationale for invasion.
The story gets worse in its details. As far back as June 2002, U.S. intelligence reported that Zarqawi had set up a weapons lab at Kirma in northern Iraq that was capable of producing ricin and cyanide. The Pentagon drew up an attack plan involving cruise missiles and smart bombs. The White House turned it down. In October 2002, intelligence reported that Zarqawi was preparing to use his bio-weapons in Europe. The Pentagon drew up another attack plan. The White House again demurred. In January 2003, police in London arrested terrorist suspects connected to the camp. The Pentagon devised another attack plan. Again, the White House killed the plan, not Zarqawi.
When the war finally started in March, the camp was attacked early on. But by that time, Zarqawi and his followers had departed.
As unlikely as this scenario is, I think it would be a dynamite move, in the good sense of the word.
If this is true, the Bushies are far worse scumbags than even I imagined:
"Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi's operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam."
Zarqawi is the guy probably responsible for beheading Nic Berg.
Islamic Web site claims revenge killing
"A video posted Tuesday on an Islamic militant Web site showed the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq, and said the execution was carried out by an al-Qaida affiliated group to avenge the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers."
Nic Berg truly owes you a debt of gratitude.
Good idea. Because, clearly, he will not be able to escape -- seeing as how all of Iraq is united against him, and all.
From Wired News:
Data from independent product-testing organization Consumer Reports indicates that hybrid cars get less than 60 percent of EPA estimates while navigating city streets. In Consumer Reports' real-world driving test, the Civic Hybrid averaged 26 mpg in the city, while the Toyota Prius averaged 35 mpg, much less than their respective EPA estimates of 47 and 60 mpg. Hybrid cars performed much closer to EPA estimates in Consumer Reports' highway tests.Well, this is disappointing. But the story should have compared real-world milage between traditonal and hybrid cars.
Bush says Rumsfeld doing a 'superb job'
Yes, apparently, we've:
1) Caught Osama
2) Freed Afghanistan from the clutches of opressive Islamists
3) found the weapons of mass destruction
4) Established a pro-U.S. democracy in the Middle East
5) Given the Middle East a fine example of respect for human rights
6) Secured cheap oil for low, low gas prices
7) And, of course, ended a regime of torture, murder and rape.
With a record like that, what's not to praise about Rumsfeld's performance? No wonder the military loves him so much!
Blogger added a commenting system in a big upgrade, so I switched. One nice thing about this one is you can put the comments right on the page itself, not a separate pop-up window. (This may have been possible before on YACCS, but I didn't take the time to figure it out.)
So, feel free to comment away...
Looks like Mary Jo was wrong. From the blog of a MS developer:
First of all, let's go to MSN Search (Google brings up the same result, actually), shall we, and see if there's any official information from Microsoft. So, search for "What hardware does Longhorn need?" and you find video of Joe Beda talking about this issue over on Channel9. Now, he's one of the guys who works on Avalon. A key piece of Longhorn. I believe him before I believe any unnamed source.
Second, I go around and meet lots of people working on Longhorn. Most of us have standard Dell machines. 3GHz or so. One gig of RAM. 80GB hard drives. 128MB video card (ATI or Nvidia). Some of us are lucky and have 64 bit processors from AMD or Intel. Some of us are lucky and have high res screens. Lots of us have multiple monitors.
Here's a hint. Longhorn runs on my one-year-old machine. So, obviously the rumored requirement isn't a minimum one. At least I don't think I have a 8GHz processor yet.
Also, remember, there will be different scenarios supported. Will a business user need the same capabilities that a gamer will need? Will a Tablet PC offer the same hardware capabilities that a Dell desktop will supply?
Come on people, think!
Longhorn to Steal Limelight at WinHEC
"Microsoft is expected to recommend that the "average" Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market today."
This can't be right. First of all, who has machines beefy enough to even beta test this thing? Second, Microsoft wants to sell this to as many people as it can. If they're going to require this kind of hardware, they may as well be writing an OS for the Mac.
A beta version of Yahoo Messenger 6.0 is out. It offers a couple of neat additions, including better integration with mobile devices. It automatically forwards IMs to your phone when you're offline, and text messaging to phones is much easier. It also integrates with Launchcast, which is nice if you use the service. And you can make yourself invisible to specific contacts.
In other beta news, I've been testing the new Google Mail service, which should be more widely available soon. This one could be a category killer. It gives you a gigabyte of storage on the theory that you should never have to delete your messages. Searching is a breeze, and it automatically groups related messages while viewing. It's fast, too. Common tasks that take two or three clicks on other Web mail sites take on Google single-click or less -- choosing from a pull-down menu takes no clicks at all.
Some have raised privacy concerns because the service displays ads targeted according to the e-mail's contents (they show up only on e-mail you receive). It does feel a little weird, but the fact is, most e-mail is "read" by a series of computers on its way from the sender to the recipient. Triggering ads based on certain keywords in the e-mail doesn't mean the computer is actually comprehending it, or judging you. And for those who worry that certain keywords might attract government scrutiny, well, guess what -- that's already a reality with nearly all e-mail systems.
One minor caveat: Google says a gigabyte of storage means you never have to delete anything. Well, based on my mail over the last two days, my inbox will be full in about 4-5 years.
