September 2007 Archives

EvilNed was kind enough to hook me up with a Grand Central account. Thanks Ned.

Incidentally, I apparently now have a few of these invites to give out too so if you want one, let me know.

For now, I picked a 309 area code number so you home folks can call me without too much hassle. I picked a Monmouth number out of a hat basically and I'll give it to you if you hit me with a message or some form of communication.

The web button will allow someone to call your Grand Central number without giving out the number. I really don't expect that I would get any serious calls this way, but I figured I would throw it out here. As one can with any calls coming in, you can configure how the call is handled. Right now I've got it redirected to my cell phone, but if looks like it is being abused, I'll just have it go to my Grand Center voicemail.

Otherwise, use the following. I'll find a place on the main website to put it too. More likely than not the Contact page.

Now I've tried this out and if you click the button, it will call your phone, then call mine and I'll have to accept the call based on your name. So stick around a moment if you try this. I'll eventually pick up.

Well, found out there were a couple plugins for Moveable Type that were killing the comment system. You can send me feedback on my posts now, though most of you are probably tired of trying.

That said, I *am* planning another run at upgrading the blog to the latest version and since the last two attempts have failed so miserably, we'll see how this goes.

Wish me luck.

Well, it turns out that having a private army protecting our diplomats just seems to backfire, just like any other Bush-initiated program.

Some Blackwater 'roid goons shot up a bunch of Iraqi civilians on Sunday and the Iraqi government would just love to run them out. Give that link a listen.

A "fair" investigation is planned but who knows what that means considering that Iraqi eyewitness accounts are nowhere close to what Blackwater and the State Department are saying?

Example: "You say people were shooting at you and a bomb went off?" "Um, no one was shooting at you and the bomb went off thirty minutes before you arrived."

Another problem is this: if these guys are so good at what they do, how come the only people that got shot up were civilians?

"Blackwater's independent contractors acted lawfully and appropriately," says Anne Tyrell, a company spokesperson. But how can anyone act lawfully when they are not bound by Iraqi law or US military law? What does acting lawfully even mean to them? Keeping the body count low?

Though legally not under Iraqi law (I don't know how you logically deduce that, but there you go), the Iraqis are gonna try to take these guys to court. More questions answered here.

Another not-so-friendly look at Blackwater to wrap up the day.

The RIAA is notoriously a bunch of pricks about how they go after supposed music pirates. Suing grandmothers, small children, the Amish - this is their MO. Here we have the case of Tanya Anderson, who was stalked by the RIAA, who couldn't prove she stole anyway and refuted her claims that's she's not a violent hip-hop fan.

They stalked her grade-school age daughter posing as her grandmother, threatened her landlord, and made Tanya ring up thousands in legal fees, which of course they won't pay. So, now she's suing the bastards. Best of luck to you and I hope you stick it to them for as much as they can bleed.

Immigrant songs are the new folk protest songs.

In Congress, Chris Dodd and Patrick Leahy are trying to restore the Constitution by reinstituting habeus corpus. You know, so the Feds can stop pulling people off the street for no reason, sending them to Eastern Europe to get tortured, and then dropping them off at Gitmo with no charges filed. Real all-American stuff in the Age of Bush.

Speaking of Congress, here are our most corrupt members. See if you are being represented by one.

I'm not, but our governor is bad enough, and one of our senators is a complete and utter dirtbag and a liar.

Arlen Specter is quietly funding abstinence education behind our backs. And you thought he was a rational Republican.

The State Department Inspector General office is overly politicized and ignores Bush crony abuses. Why am I not surprised?

Finally, a day to sit back and relax a little. Some home cooked food, play with the dog, watch some baseball and watch my fantasy baseball team make it to the league final and also peripherally watch my two fantasy football teams go 1-1 with wins this week. Plus, the apartment is a little more picked up now since Leslie's schedule got a very brief breather (not completely, she's still on call) and I'm home for a couple days before rolling out again.

Some more reaction to conservative anti-troop asshat Dave Rye:

How To Support the Troops, GOP-style:

* Drag them into an illegal war.
* Keep them there.
* Suggest that bringing them home is "abandoning them in the field."
* Call them stupid after they die.

by kath25 on Sat Sep 15, 2007 at 12:36:33 PM PDT

Also:

Gary Vincent Says: September 15th, 2007 at 7:36 pm

Mr. Rye,

Your theory is stupid and insulting. And it
would be even if the soldier you insulted
hadn’t died on the field of battle, but that
makes your comments even more odious.

And while I might misspell “recalcitrant,”
if I weren’t careful, I would know what it
meant, and I think I know a few other
things too, or at least I tried in the course
of earning a bachelors and a masters
degree.

I bet you even think you support the troops.
How can you look in the mirror?

oh, by the way, I sign this note:

Staff Sergeant
Army of the United States, Retired.

That about sums up my feelings on this. Maybe Olbermann will pick up on this. Check out his latest on Bush's "what me worry?" war speech the other night.

More on said speech from the IHT.

Rolling out in a few days. Wish me luck.

"Pardon my skepticism, and certainly no disrespect for the dead Montana soldier, but in my time in the Army I never heard such a word as “recalcitrant” escape the lips of any Staff Sergeant."

- David Rye, conservative moron, accusing our troops of being too stupid to have written the recent NYT editorial against the war.

I don't know how they stand putting up with idiots like this, but insulting the dead, specifically in this case, Sgt. Yance Gray, where I come from is considered pretty damn low of a thing to do.

Apparently the GOP just calls that scratching the surface. Then again, given the treatment of Max Cleeland in 2000, Tammy Duckworth and others in 2006, John Kerry in 2004, and just about every other Democratic vet by the Republicans, this shouldn't be too much of a surprise for all of us.

These REMFs and armchair generals only live to use our military for political gain, and ignore them at best and insult them and deny them materiel and medical treatment at worst.

One encouraging bit of news is that our military, both active and Guard are donating primarily to Barack Obama and Ron Paul, the two foremost anti-war candidates in their respective parties. Obama leads any candidate in funds given by this group. If that isn't heartening to those of us against the war and a revelation to those who blindly follow Bush, I don't know what is.

Meanwhile, FAUXNews didn't even broadcast the Democratic response to Bush's speech the other night. You know, the one where he looks like he's about to cry? Yeah, real fair and balanced you fricking idiots. Somebody either pull them off the air or start treating them like the partisan jerkoffs they really are.

Then again, the same network reports on Iraq far less than other networks do. Hell, Anderson Cooper is probably emoting from the Green Zone as I type this.

Oh, and the Iraqis actually want our military there occupying them, according to Tony Snow. Well, that's only 21% percent of them, and most of them are Kurds.

"What, you are going to take the wetback's word over ours? We are Americans."

Crystal Tancredo, who claims to be related to GOP Scumbag Tom Tancredo, after slapping an officer who was already trying to stop her from shoving another person around

Tavis Smiley is accusing the GOP of ignoring minorities. The man has a point. They've all blown off appearing at a debate at Morgan State University, historically known as a black college.

And every Republican candidate except John McCain have blown off Univision and it's proposed debate. They didn't even respond to requests from the network.

More examples of the GOP's sabotage of its relations with Latinos here.

Look, it is one thing for me to personally decide never to vote for a party that actively supports the racists in its ranks. It is another thing for said party to ignore that members of other races even exist in America.

This is complete and utter BS and there is no way around that point of view, so don't even try convincing me otherwise.

According to a recent poll, 55% of Americans believe the Constitution explicitly established the US as a Christian nation.

One, this is incorrect, and wrong.

Two, in light of all this anti-immigration, anti-Mexican racist BS, I find it ironic and sad that immigrants learn more about being an American and our history in trying to become citizens (and, granted, not all of them do) than our redneck brethren.

Honestly, I think EVERY American should be able to pass a citizenship test before they're allowed to vote. Not a simple Constitution test, but the whole enchilada, so to speak.

Got a half hour today waiting for stuff to happen and ran into the following articles.

One is a profile of Christian Bale, who damn near morphs into different people for his roles. I'm usually impressed by the results.

Some High School Musical girl had a nude picture posted online recently, bringing up a flurry of stories from Disney and those who are shocked - SHOCKED! - that people get naked, much less let their significant others take pictures that way. This article points out how foolish such people are. And no, I don't have any links to the picture, so don't even bother asking.

A reprieve from the FCC for those of us who don't want to shell out for a new high-def TV. Apparently support for analog signals is now to extend until 2012, right about the time Mayans may have thought our world would end.

I'm all tied up in the second round of my fantasy baseball league. I could be happier about that but hopefully my pitching will step it up over the weekend and get me the win so I can go to the finals.

In real life, the Cubbies insist on screwing themselves out of the playoffs. That's how it looks to me anyway. They lost their lead to the Brewers (and what are *they* still doing in contention?) and are at least holding ground...kind of.

In the really, real world, Obama gave gave some more details on how he'd get us out of Iraq...if only we'd just listen to him. Or elect him president for that matter. A little self-serving, yes, but that doesn't mean he's wrong.

Recently, I linked you to an article in the New York Times (or IHT I think the link was at) written by seven soldiers who wanted us to know how much of a fool's errand we have sent our soldiers, Marines, and other service folks on in Iraq. Turns out two of them died recently. At least they shared their thoughts before passing. Hopefully this helps turns the hardened hearts and deaf ears of enough Republicans to side with the Democrats to end this war so many more troops do not have to die in vain.

Bush has been reported recently to endorsing a plan to "withdraw" 30,000 troops from Iraq next year. This isn't him being kind-hearted. This isn't about his pet general Petraeus being wise. This is definitely not about the ill-fated "surge" being successful. This is about taking a tired army stretched to its limits and getting them the hell out of there. This is, realistically, about the surge forces ending their tour and coming home. No one politician or REMF should get credit for bringing the troops home sent their in a reckless plan to quell a few city centers of violence. Especially not Bush. The only credit goes to those forces who actually left their homes and families to get shot at and did their duty.

But that's okay with the GOP. Our soldiers' sacrifices are "a small price to pay" according to Ohio's GOP jerkwad John Boehner.

To go along with my post's yesterday, yes, Virginia, all that lying from Bush and Cheney and their ilk is paying off. One in three Americans believe Saddam Hussein had something to do with the September 11th attacks. That is a lot of gullible idiots led, lying and coerced by evil bastards to believe something more implausible than the Tooth Fairy. And some live right next to you.

Shameful.

"I think we should not have had this discussion on 9/11 -- Or 9/10 or 9/12 -- because I think it perpetuates the notion that the original decision to go into Iraq was directly related to the attacks on 9/11"

- Barack Obama, on how the GOP planned, and the Dems idiotically went along, with having Petraeus and Crocker testify before Congress this week.

Bush and company keep trying to tie the 9/11 attacks to their illegal and failed war in Iraq. They have literally lied so much and so often that people just pretty much believe their bullshit anymore.

You want to know why I'm pulling for Obama? Because he calls a lie a lie, especially when it involves twisting our military leaders to play cheerleader for a piece of shit coward like Bush when it comes to justifying wasting more American lives and treasure.

So, for reasons unexplained, the second I tried to start up my laptop here on site, it takes a dive.

As in, no recovery, kindly reinstall the OS.

So, I'm out a TON of files, which recovery tools has thus far been unable to find from my freshly formatted drive. This affect my work and my files for the Vast Empire, not to mention some not-yet-uploaded updates for the website. Oops.

Well, this just encourages me to keep backing up more often. The PC last month, and now this. Data is fragile and nebulous.

So, today, as you know - unless you are REALLY unaware of things - is the September 11th anniversary. Not sure that is the right word, but let me know if you've got something better. A lot of self-serving speeches by politicians, misplaced patriotism by bigots, and genuine loss by the emergency responders and families of the victims.

Plus, what is missing is actual nationwide reflection on how far we've been pushed away from the global solidarity the day created, and the anger generated by how conservatives have abused our greatest moment of vulnerability and cohesiveness and twisted it to evil deeds.

And that's all I have to say on it. You could read more here or in a million other articles out there.

Apparently liberals are more nimble-minded than conservatives according to a recent study that concludes "liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas". No, really? So, for people who predominantly don't believe in evolution, why do conservatives act like Neanderthals?

In any event, hoist a pint to your ability to use your brainpan for something other than a hat rack. And in Britain and Ireland, you will be able to continue using pints and ounces as measurements due to a recent ruling, forestalling, at least for now, the total conversion to the metric system in those two countries.

England without pints. Silly buggers.

You can put your money where your mouth is and support the troops while not being gung-ho for the "kill all the brown people" war. At least in Minnesota. If any budding millionaires are reading this article, please consider setting one up in your own state.

As a throwaway, here's someone crying about those of us surfers (including me) that block ads on websites. If *you* are not using Firefox already, what are waiting for? If you already do, get the extension here if you haven't already.

Before I head out the door, I wanted to share a few of the idiots I'll be traveling with apparently.

Southwest kicked a girl off its plane for being too revealing in her outfit. One, sure she's a Hooter's waitress, but this is the airline that used to deck out its flight attendants in hot pants. Two, when you look at the outfit, it isn't *that* skimpy. Three, Thursday and Friday nights coming into Vegas from LA and Phoenix are tons of strippers going to work our clubs here. And don't think they're dressed in power suits.

A McDonald's employee was hauled into jail for serving a police officer oversalted burger. Apparently the whole batch of meat was oversalted but the officer, probably rightly so, assumed only he was given the bad burger. Two things though. One, shame on McDonald's for not throwing out the batch. Two, why the hell did the cop finish the burger?

Either way, I think he's going to be eating a lot of spittle in his future.

Bush, trying to expedite his life, celebrated Rosh Hashanah week early this year. This is still not as bad of a timing mishap as his dad moving Pearl Harbor day to September, but it begs the question, "Why can't Bushes read a calendar? And why do we keep getting these idiots in office?"

Have a good week. I'm headed to Phoenix.

So, spent some time this weekend watching Blue Planet on the Discovery Channel. Always interesting catching a nature show. And just plain damn cool.

In any event I've been reading a lot of environmental stuff lately. Some interesting, others not so much. I wanted to link you to some of the titles in varying degrees of interest and readability.

First off is The World Tomorrow. Not so much a call to arms but a pictoral of what could happen to the Earth under various conditions.

Even more interesting is Alan Weisman's The World Without Us, an imagining of what the world would be like if we just up and disappeared. I saw him on the Daily Show recently and picked up the book this weekend. Highly interesting and thought provoking. I recommend you give it a shot.

A lot drier of a read but chock full o' information is the Little Green Handbook. Since it is a bit harder to read I haven't gotten too far into it but I'll keep plugging away at it.

This seems very ironic and sad to me. In recent days, I've read news of Jews going back to Germany to obtain citizenship granted to their ancestors by the descendants of those who ran them out. Just one way to break into the European Union for jobs. This isn't really insidious and, hell, if I had that kind of opportunity, I'd probably jump at it too. That said, it's odd news to me.

The real brutal news comes out of Israel itself, when a group of neo-Nazis was busted recently. Even though just slightly Jewish, they were allowed to emigrate under the Law of Return. I don't blame the law myself, though some are looking to restrict it; but seriously, how much do you have to hate yourself to be racist against your own blood?

Bush is a bumbling idiot. You already knew that, but here are more recent examples.

Jamie Foxx is a frigging moron too and here's why. I doubt he's getting any more of my money. Idiot.

Here's an idiot flight attendant. Just forgot about this story but remembered it today since flying is on my mind. Though I'm flying Southwest so it will be more crazy and less stupid.

At least one judge thinks the PATRIOT Act is illegal and got rid of some of it. Some Bushite is already planning to send him to Cuba I imagine.

Bush knew and promptly ignored news that Saddam had no WMDs. I'm not surprised, just continually disappointed by our so-called "leader".

Apparently sectarian violence isn't down, it is just calculated differently. It isn't genocide unless you shoot the victim in the back of the head. Otherwise, it's just "common" murder.

The same morons who brought you Swift Boat ads against Kerry are moving to bend the rules to split California's electoral votes. Honestly, I don't necessarily think they have a bad idea, but I'd rather it be done across the board in every state instead of just some partisan trickery to split Democratic-leaning states up.

FAUXNews apparently tried to ignore the Larry Craig story. I mean, at least when they weren't banging the drum to run him out of their party. Bigots. And that's why the only Republican I ever voted for was running for Coroner. And that's probably the only one I ever *will* vote for.

More on Larry Craig from his home state newspaper if you are still interested. I'm too conflicted to care at this point.

That moron Glenn Beck wants to give everyone in New Orleans a gun to combat crime in the Big Easy. That's right, letting them die in the midst of a hurricane wasn't enough for conservatives. Now they want to turn the place into Grand Theft Auto: Crescent City.

Meanwhile other Louisiana cities are on the anti-baggy pants bandwagon. Hell, if nothing else they can make their gangbangers look respectable, I guess. I know I've commented on this before, but seriously, can't we just send all the gang members to Iraq? That'll stop a lot of the copycats anyways.

At least until we have to institute the draft to fix the military Bush broke.

Hey! We found those weapons the Iraqis keep "losing". Many of them are showing up in Turkey in the hands of Turkish separatists. And yeah, they're our allies and all, but hell, if Turkey is about to become some fundamentalist theocracy as recent events indicate, the Kurds better have enough guns at hand to fight off the mullahs and their idiot followers that are sure to follow.

STOP BUILDING THAT WALL! Illegal immigration seems to have fallen off already. Between racists like Tancredo having power, the Border Patrol finally stepping up to the 21st century, and our crappy housing market, there isn't much need for Mexicans to cross the border illegally. Our economy sucks! Congrats Republicans!

Ugh.

Still on-call. Still not going that well. Losing the will to help others rapidly. Can't sleep, so I'll post a few links for y'all here.

Want to know how to beat carnival games? Click here.

How to explain the duplicity and hypocrisy of Republicans to your kids.

Suddenly, Bush needs France in order to help get us out of Iraq.

And, after selling off our country to foreign interests, NOW Bush is worried about the trillions of dollars in debt we owe to other countries, many of which don't have our best interests in mind. Let's not forget, Bush is a businessman more experienced in bringing companies to their knees as much as he is bringing them to scandal. Looks like he's at least staying consistent.

Other failures include our acquiescence as China destroys their environment in a rush to modernize. Plus, our bang-up job in Afghanistan has done nothing to reduce the spread of heroin production in the nation. If anything, poppies are springing up everywhere.

The amount of Americans without insurance is rising again. And yes, no thanks to Bush, who continues to work to limit health care to America's children. Tax cuts to billionaires, but no medicine for our young. Once again, kindly remember these things with an election season just around the corner.

There's a female Beefeater in the ranks in the UK. She seems glad to be there, which is always a nice touch to a story.

Weekend America had a story about military tattoos this morning that deserves both a look and a listen. Enjoy.

I've managed to knock out a few good reads lately and wanted to share with you.

From the founder of Lonely Planet, a book about visiting the countries no one is supposed to go to. Actually, the stories are benign and nowhere as evil as your local fearmongering politicians would like you to believe.

From the world of internet news and keeping an eye on the media (not to mention a tongue in cheek), comes the following book from the founder of Fark.com about how the news is the way it is today. Sadly, nothing encouraging, but at least I have a better look on what to look for.

S.M. Stirling's Emberverse trilogy really interested me and I've recently gotten around to giving them a re-read. The first of the second trilogy follows the journey of many of the children of the protagonists of the early books as they grow into adults. A great alternate Earth concept and good writing to boot. Pick up the first three books (I linked to them awhile back, just check the Books category) and then pick up this one. Also, head over to the fan site for Stirling and start reading the early sample chapters for Dies the Fire if you want to try-it-before-you-buy-it.

Last up is William Gibson's latest book, Spook Country. The godfather of cyberpunk literature finally comes back even closer to our modern, post-9/11 paranoid world and gives his take on meta events as only he can. Don't just take my word for it, read Josh Ellis' review in last week's City Life.

Barnes & Noble changed their affiliate program and their link setup frankly sucks hard these days, so I'm now using Amazon and likely will turn to Borders once they cut the cord with Amazon, whenever that will be.

McCain, on how to be a double-dealing shitheel in the same speech. When asked about Don't Ask, Don't Tell and his support for it:

More news on Bush's idiocy and the GOP fools who want to follow in his dirty footsteps.

Bush runs off to Iraq for a photo op, promising the troops help and vaguely teasing them with the notion of sending some of them home.

Which, of course, is utter BS on his part. He's got a mere 14 percent "success" rating in Congress given that the Dems are tired of his lies and, frankly, so are many in his party. Meanwhile, the same Congress is appropriating funds to supply and support the troops when Bush's Pentagon won't. Meanwhile, Bush blames the same Congress for not funding his war. Who's kidding who here?

And, well, he's out of troops to send on his misadventures anyway. And, oh yes, despite the pep talks from Washington, morale is slipping.

In the presidential race, Sam Brownback finds that his anti-gay, anti-rights campaign earns him boos even in a crowd of Republicans in a FAUXNews-sponsored debate. See? Not all Republicans are hate-spitting bigots. Just the ones that run for office.

That said, I'm not really sure we should be THAT worried about the evil spector of a President Brownback, as evidenced here:

Mitt Romney was first in line to thrown Senator Larry Craig under the bus. Look, I almost feel bad for Craig. I mean, obviously he's got some internal issues to deal with and having his party treat him like a leper isn't going to help him do that. That said, if he wasn't such a bigoted asshat I could probably drum up some actual empathy. Now, I just see him as a pathetic poster child of the GOP's hate machine. Looking at how they treat their own, you see how narrow-minded, small, and hateful they really are.

Remember that when it is time to vote.

Had to reapply the theme to get the look back normal again but am having image issues on the backend of the MT system. Oh well, I'll give it a few months and see if the upgrade goes any smoother then.

Also, for those who give a damn, here is my MySpace account link. Add me if you wish or whatever. I think I've modded the code enough to where I can stand it for awhile, but it still seems a weird and too structured way of going about things.

But at least I've caught up with some folks, so that's really nice.

I have to run out and build servers as part of my jobs, and supporting workstations as well. Some of these locations are in fairly rural areas and, increasingly, on ships with teeny little satellite connections. So, you could imagine I don't have days to sit around and wait for Windows Updates to download and install, much less download them in batches myself.

For awhile I have been using the fine tool from the gang at AutoPatcher, which rolls out updates easily. It has different flavors for various Windows OSs and has never failed me. However, all good things come to an end and there is no difference with this. Microsoft sent a cease-and-desist to folks just trying to provide a useful tool to us hardworking IT stiffs and the AutoPatcher guys broke the bad news just the other day.

That said, if you are in need of such a tool, I found one decent mirror to get the final Core kits and updates. I've grabbed everything I needed and hope you can make use of the final releases yourself if you find the need to grab them.

I tried to update to the latest version of Moveable Type and could not get it to work. You'll notice the funky performance and visuals until I can get this fixed. Sorry.

Well, we're off for the weekend. Time to sit in the woods and ignore the hectic parts of life. And yes, we're taking Mono with so he can chase squirrels or something. Be back Monday.

If *you* need more encouragement to go outside, give this article a listen.

Have a good one folks.