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Monday, Jun 12, 2006
Selected excerpts from the NewsMax review of Godless by Ann Coulter
"The truth," Coulter writes, "is the truth whether we like it or not."
[Editor's Note: Get Ann's new book for just $4.99 – Save $23! Go Here Now]
Killing Him Softly
To keep the story alive for yet another news cycle, the US government has released additional details about a dead terrorist, Abu Musab Zarqawi. Seems that the overpressure from a bomb blast trashed his lungs. He lasted almost an hour, probably in intense pain. News it is, but a leading story for yet another day?
Bully for the troops for whacking this guy. But fuck Bush for letting him operate for four more years than he should have. Bush let Abu Z get away in 2002 in order to bolster the case for taking out Saddam.
If only the media could keep that story alive. Ultimately, these facts are more important to the future of this nation than are the death throes of a terrorist.
March 2004
NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.
In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.
The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council.
“Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn’t do it,” said Michael O’Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution.
Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe.
The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq.
“People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president’s policy of preemption against terrorists,” according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey.
In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq.
The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it.
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.
Sunday, Jun 11, 2006
Re-Elect Gore!
Spoiler alert
I think Gore's new movie, which D and I saw last night, may do much to rehabilitate Gore's image -- along with raising awareness about the carbon issue.
One of my favorite parts was when he was picking apart a slide presentation by skeptics (the White House?). One slide showed a balance with stack of gold bar on one side, and the planet Earth on the other. I'm paraphrasing, and exageratin' now, but Gore said something like this ... "Lookee thar. Gold bars. Mmmm-MMM. Gold. I loves me some gold. Mmmm. Gold is nice. But what's that on the other side? The entire planet. Hmmm."
Very nice use of Southern attitude. I was about dying during that scene.
And, on a tangent, I'm getting into some more bicycling. I've got a mountain range to cross to get to work. Okay, small mountains. One thousand foot climb from here to the ridge line, and about a two thousand foot climb from the valley side. Still, that's considerable. But with a combination of car-pooling over the ridge, roof-top racks, and some flat land riding across the valley, I should be able to eliminate a couple of days of driving.
Besides the health benefit and saving gas, I went through a set of tires on my daily driver in 10 months. That's pretty quick even for me.
I've decided I need to expand my bicycle collection to include something less than 40 lbs. I'm fixing to get me one of these in extree large.
My target was a cyclo-cross style bike with gearing and geometry close to a touring bike, and flat handlebars like a mountain or commuter bike. Disk brakes would have been nice. This one seems to be as close as I can get without going custom.
It's got cantalever brakes, which is good. They'll give me clearance to upgrade to semi-nobby tires. The cable routing is road-bike style, meaning I've got to keep an eye on the gunk if I play in the dirt. I was leaning towards chromoly (how retro), but aluminum frame with carbon fiber forks should be fine. The slanted top tube is good for step over height. The gearing range isn't as extreme as I was hoping for, but it does have a granny. I think I may have to resort to walking on extreme uphills on the fireroads.
In general, I continue to be amazed at how good bicycles are these days.