New Mine Detectors

(END COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: We are back, and as we all slogged back to work today, there was strange consolation that the people who do all the dumb stuff that makes it into our strange news segment were already here waiting for us again.

Let‘s play "Oddball."

We begin in Mozambique, where a Belgian group has a new high-tech method of finding and destroying old land mines—giant Gambian rats. Giant Gambian rats, hello!

The mines are left over from Mozambique‘s civil war, which ended over 10 years ago, and so far the huge rodents are showing some success. The trainers say the rats are better equipped for the job than metal detectors or bomb-sniffing dogs.

But how do you know when one of the giant Gambian rats has found an old land mine? [mine explodes] Oh. Oh, dear.

>> "Countdown w/ Kieth Olbermann", MSNBC, 11/19/04

Cartoons (11-28)

*All cartoons found at Slate's cartoon index*

Click for full size

Little School Kid = Valid Target...

JERUSALEM - On the morning of Oct. 5, Iman Hams, a slight girl of 13 wearing a school uniform and toting a backpack crammed with books, wandered past an Israeli military outpost on the Gaza Strip's southern border with Egypt. The Israeli captain on duty alerted his troops to reports of a suspicious figure about 100 yards from the outpost. Soldiers fired into the air, according to radio transmissions, military court documents and witnesses.

"It's a little girl," a soldier watching from a nearby Israeli observation post cautioned over the military radio. "She's running defensively eastward. . . . A girl of about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death."

Four minutes later, Israeli troops opened fire on the girl with machine guns and rifles, the radio transmissions indicated. The captain walked to the spot where the girl "was lying down" and fired two bullets from his M-16 assault rifle into her head, according to an indictment against the officer. He started to walk away, but pivoted, set his rifle on automatic and emptied his magazine into the girl's prone body, the indictment alleged.

"This is Commander," the captain said into the radio when he was finished. "Whoever dares to move in the area, even if it's a 3-year-old - you have to kill him. Over."

The girl's body was peppered with at least 20 bullets, including seven in her head, said Ali Mousa, a physician who is director of the Rafah hospital where her corpse was examined.

An investigation was undertaken, and the military's top commanders -- including the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon -- said repeatedly that the captain had acted properly under the circumstances. But Israeli newspapers published graphic accounts by soldiers who said they witnessed the incident, and Israel's Channel 2 television aired recordings of the radio transmissions.

As a result, the company commander -- identified by the army only as Capt. R -- was indicted this past week on charges of misuse of a firearm, ordering subordinates to lie about the shooting and violation of military regulations. In addition, the military moved to reexamine the investigation, which Yaalon conceded had been "a grave failure" and which the indictment alleged was the subject of an attempted coverup.

>> Full Article [MSNBC]

*Placeholder for possible ramble later on or for another post*

Elections Double Standard

The Washington Post and other leading American newspapers are up in arms about the legitimacy of a presidential election where exit polls showed the challenger winning but where the incumbent party came out on top, amid complaints about heavy-handed election-day tactics and possibly rigged vote tallies.

In a lead editorial, the Post cited the divergent exit polls, along with voter claims about ballot irregularities, as prime reasons for overturning the official results. For its part, the New York Times cited reports of “suspiciously, even fantastically, high turnouts in regions that supported” the government candidate. The U.S. news media is making clear that the truth about these electoral anomalies must be told.

Of course, the election in question occurred in the Ukraine.

In the United States – where exit polls showed John Kerry winning on Nov. 2, where Republican tactics discouraged African-American voting in Democratic precincts, and where George W. Bush’s vote totals in many counties were eyebrow-raising – the Post, the Times and other top news outlets mocked anyone who questioned the results.

For instance, when we noted Bush’s surprising performance in Dade, Broward and other Florida counties, a Washington Post article termed us “spreadsheet-wielding conspiracy theorists.” Meanwhile, the New York Times accepted unsupported explanations for why the U.S. exit polls were so wrong, including the theory that Kerry supporters were chattier than Bush voters.

But why the double standard? Why would Ukrainian exit polls be deemed reliable evidence of fraud while American exit polls would simply be inexplicably wrong nationwide and in six battleground states where Kerry was shown to be leading but Bush ultimately won?

>> Source Article [Consortium News]

Endless Prescriptions

Click for Full Size

Boondocks, 11-22&23-04

click for full size

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click for full size

"Your Dad Didn't Die In A Car Accident..."

A woman dying of cancer confessed to her daughter that she killed her husband years earlier and hid the body, authorities said this week after finding the remains inside a storage unit.

On her deathbed, the woman allegedly told her daughter that she had killed her husband, John Kelley, when they lived in California.

About 14 years ago, the woman had apparently begun telling her children that their father had been killed in a car accident
...

The woman’s daughter told police about the confession, and they found the man’s remains Thursday at a Somerville storage facility inside an unplugged freezer that was locked and sealed with duct tape, Coakley said.

The woman had shipped the freezer, with the body inside, from California six years ago, when she moved to Massachusetts, Coakley said.

>> Full Article [MSNBC]

Eesh, talk about getting away with murder. No need for the death penalty here. Goes to show you can put mutilated human body parts into storage and nobody will notice.

Does Anyone Disagree?

Cartoon by Bruce Beattie of the Daytona Beach News-Journal

The Morning Crash

At 7:42 a.m. many people are just getting up and about from their overnight slumber, perhaps dreading the day to come, or just simply wishing to just lay right back down but can't. Some go out jogging, others stop by the local Quick Trip to get some gas and coffee before heading presumably to work, all of them having been up for maybe an hour or two at the most.

At 7:42 a.m., I finally got home from work. It was a typical eight hour Friday night into Saturday morning shift. Nothing really eventful since the main "life" of the crew's mischieveous side was off as well as the night manager. Just plenty of time to think.

What I hate is by the time I get home, I've lost all coherant thought and any solid memory of some of the insightful thoughts from the night (I vaguely remember some memories of an old friend from years ago and some semi-somber reflection).

Heh, and I thought what I was brain storming about at work was hazy... try the school day before the work and the afterschool nap. Am I just that absent minded, or was it as boring of a day for the most part as I remember it being? O_o Part of my mind is now spinning off onto a tangent about how do you know something is real. Heh.

From Post Editorial (11-18-04)

In my 4th hour journalism class we every Friday go through the newspaper since the teacher writes up a little questionaire with the answers being in the paper. So afterwards I go back to the metro section and read through the editorials. There were a few things there of note that I thought were worth posting on:

We are independents who, over the years, have voted for the most qualified person, Republican or Democrat. Today, we find that, according to the new definitions, we are liberal and elitist when we don't vote Republican. Those words are thrown at us like curses.

We're liberal because we believe in helping those less fortunate, the hungry, the poor, the sick, not the wealthy or the greedy. We're elitist because we believe we need to be good stewards of the earth, to leave our children clean water to drink, clean air to breath and good soil to provide food. Christians are supposed to be good stewards, but many do not believe this includes our natural resources.

What is wrong with caring about others, protecting our natural resources, being tolerant and not forcing our beliefs on others? Why it that so bad?

We are conservative about spending and try to live within our means. We don't want to raise taxes, but we have to stop spending what we don't have.

Then there is the war, which we oppose. We have invaded Iraq, which did not have weapons of mass destruction, did not cause 9/11 and did not invade our country. Now that we have sent our National Guard to Iraq, who will protect us if Osama bin Laden strikes again?

We have many fears: our children's future, the environment, the debt and on and on. Mostly we fear for my wife's 52-year-old brother who is going to Iraq with our National Guard. If that makes us elitist and liberal, so be it.

P.A. and J.W. Atkinson
Chesterfield

>> An interesting edtirorial defending Ashcroft by Jonah Goldberg

Other common complaints included concerns about the holding of American citizens as "enemy combatants" and the alleged maltreatment of foreign enemy combatants at Guantanamo, Cuba. There's a fair argument there, but those weren't Ashcroft's calls. Indeed, the Justice Department wanted jurisdiction over enemy combatants in American courts. It was Bush's new attorney general nominee, then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, who recommended military tribunals.

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION: Loyalty outweighs expertise, good sense and, of course, intelligence

By Molly Ivins

The Bushies have one mantra: Git along or git out the door.

Whilst the punditry wanders weak and weary in the deep fogs of the "moral values debate," what say we pay some attention to what is going on, eh?

According to Newsday, "The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Ladin . . ."

Bad Nooz. In the first place, the concept of "purge" has not hitherto played much part in our history, and now is no time to start. Considerable pains have been taken to protect the civil service from partisan pressure for extremely good reasons.

"Disloyalty to Bush" or any president is not the same as disloyalty to the country. In fact, in the intelligence biz, opposing the White House is sometimes the highest form of loyalty to country, since when we fight without good intelligence, we fight blind. But this is not a purge of incompetent officers or of those who have caved under political pressure - this is a political purge of those "disloyal to George W. Bush."

That's what I was most afraid of in the next four years: the complete closing of the circle, the old Bush emphasis on loyalty as the first and most important asset, above brains, judgment or expertise. Bush has been making this mistake for years, and it is clear it will get worse. The clash of ideas is not welcome in his office. He wants everything solved in a one-page memo. This effectively limits him from being exposed to anything but obsequious third-rate thinking. It's precisely how he got into Iraq.

One of Bush's personal weaknesses is his tendency to go with his "gut" when both facts and logic are against him. This used to be just an intellectual failing, one that led many who know him to conclude he cannot think very well.

It is more alarming to find that those around him are so familiar with the phenomenon that they have now invented a sort of justifying philosophy for it. According to Ron Suskind's much-noted New York Times Magazine article, some White House staffers now refer slightingly to "reality-based" decision-making, as though it were quite inferior to delusional thinking. This bodes poorly.

One does not have to be an expert on the CIA to see the problem here. Bureaucracies are peculiarly vulnerable to bullying from the top. Punishing those who were right is not smart.

>> Full Editorial

Letters to the Editor

I wrote this almost a week ago as an assignment for journalism class, and just now finally submitted it to the Post Dispatch. I'm not holding my breath on it actually being published though.

The voting errors across the board by devices manufactured by the Bush-endorsing Diebold corporation are not too unexpected.

When power is at risk and a group is determined to maintain that power, they will pull behind the scenes strings while catering to their zealots for unconditional support to bring about the desired result and make it look legitimate.

Unless all the votes can be verified by the paper trail back to each voter, there will be manipulation by either party for their own gains. With no paper trail you're just placing faith in something you can't see, and therefore could be mistaken about.

When browsing the STL post's letters to the editor section to try and find a link to an email address to submit it to I came across two other letters I liked:

He can't ignore us
According to Cal Thomas' Nov. 10 column, 55.5 million American voters are elitist, condescending liberals who are just plain wrong. Wait a minute. Those of us who voted for Sen. John Kerry still have our rights as American citizens. We are entitled to and in fact pay for a representative government.

Because we are a very large minority, must we simply accept what the slightly larger majority wants? When did 51 percent become a mandate?

If Thomas had lived in the Roman Empire in the first century, would he have thought the early Christians wrong because they were a small minority? Should they have given up and worshipped along with the pagan majority?

On Nov. 2, Churchill County, Nev., voted for President George W. Bush and brothels. I suppose this means that anyone who lives in this county must agree with the majority that legalized prostitution is an ethical business and a nice family value.

I am sick of being ignored by Bush, Sens. Christopher Bond and Jim Talent, and Rep. Todd Akin. In the 18th century, a group of American patriots shouted, "Taxation without representation is tyranny." Unfortunately, this type of tyranny still prevails in the 21st century. Forty-eight percent of Americans are taxed but have no representation. Our concerns about the war, the economy, the environment, health care and education are ignored.

Real patriots do not remain silent in the face of injustice. Real patriots agree with Thomas Jefferson that "dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

Margaret P. Gilleo
Ladue

Electoral danger
While it is still fresh in our mind, I would like to see a bipartisan commission formed to study and answer the question, "Do we still need the Electoral College?"

Even though I supported Sen. John Kerry, think what a disaster it would have been had he won Ohio and thus won the presidency while President George W. Bush had 3 million more popular votes and lost. I think the country would have come unglued.

We have enough problems without carrying this ticking time bomb around in our back pocket. I have heard several arguments in favor of keeping the Electoral College, but I think it is time to seriously consider moving forward without it and elect the president by direct popular vote.

I would not do this, however, without having a thorough study to make sure that such a move would not create more problems than it would solve.

Bill Schwegman
Carbondale, Ill.

Peterson, Back to Afrika, Ads, and WTF

Creation Science Fair
I forwarded a link to Mike Tigas and Tony when I initially found something on a "Creation Science Fair" yesterday via email which from my standpoint is friggin hilarious in its absurdity and simultaneously chilling in the ramifications of how real the fair is and the people involved in it are. Tigas pounced on it while I was on first break at work (if his post time is accurate).
>> Creation Science Fair
>> Tigas' post on it (which includes what I pounted out as one of the worst parts of it: The student who got a high finish for his science fair entry about how God created women for homemaking)

Back to Afrika
This mornings' last item of "lighter side" business comes from Glenn Tigas. One needed piece of background: Mike and Glenn are Filipino. Glenn is full of nothing but racial based humor / political incorrectness. Its amazing how people don't hit him for any of it.

(8:30:08 AM) HAY FAGGOTT: black people need to go back to the city
(8:30:10 AM) HAY FAGGOTT: or afrika
(8:30:52 AM) NR363avs: and the jews in america?
(8:31:07 AM) HAY FAGGOTT: harmless
(8:31:11 AM) HAY FAGGOTT: or go back to germany or something
(8:31:23 AM) NR363avs: howz about filipinos?
(8:32:09 AM) NR363avs:
(8:32:37 AM) HAY FAGGOTT: go back to afrika
(8:32:53 AM) NR363avs: rofl

Drift Away

Whenever I have trouble with someone I disassociate myself from them, and from certain people they congregate around most, I guess its to ensure the least amount of "stress" or "pain" in the days after the introduction of the problem or the perceived peak of the problem. I can't tell whether I should be thankful for that approach or whether I should be more willing to just do battle with troubles instead of just drift away.

But I can't let it effect my grades like previous troubles have. But they always manage to overshadow motivation, which is always scarce for me when it comes to school for some bizarre reason. Maybe its the dumbed down curriculum, maybe its the dislike of the "intelligence" of the masses, I don't know. But I always find myself borderline in some classes where I pass the time not by doing the work, which I defer to another time and place, and then never get around to it, but by doodling or writing or in some cases trying to sleep (the latter has been mostly introduced into the equation by the double shifts I pull doing school in the day and work at night).

It's not that I can't handle it. I'm more than capable as I have briefly shown myself from time to time. It's just, I dunno how to describe it other than really to say that I can't fully get out of the hole I've dug. Every hand I've tried to take to help myself out lets go, in a sense, whether it be faith in "friends", latching myself to pet projects to maintain some sort of satisfaction of accomplishment and purpose even though they never get finished, or actual opportunities to leap forward that have been missed, whether they be in classes or with other people.

It's just all part of trying to drift away from the problem. Drift away from any reminders of the past with that person. Drift away from any reminders of the pain.

Sometimes it seems like I'm now drifting in the right direction, though, at least for a while. I thought so during second semester last year until the last week or two, though, too... Its a direction of hope. I can't believe I'm letting myself buy into that, but as I've previously stated I am a fool sometimes. A fool for people. A fool for false hope. A fool who's always anticipating a break eventually. So sometimes the benefits of being foolish / naive far outweigh the drawbacks than at other times.

...And I've lost all coherant thought on the subject. I think I managed to drift away there. Heh...

Another interesting thing to see, since I've been on the bottom looking up, trying to pull myself out of the hole, or at least the perceived hole if I'm actually out of it and not quite aware of it yet, is how the top ranking member of the class of 05, a friend of mine who I haven't talked to much in a while, is apparently sliding downwards. Its odd to see someone on top with what I wish I could have had the inclination years ago to begin going for such as the level of education (I was oblivious to the existence of honors classes for quite a while during my really blind and naive first few years of high school) or the personal life simultaneously achieved / allowed by the success, i.e. girlfriend staying by your side plus more friends than can probably be recalled all at once, and see them start going into a hole apparently.

Its odd. And it's something Tigas brought up the other day afterschool about always wanting more and ending up missing what you once had. For him it was the DDR machine at Jamestown and just watching anime on Saturday nights with his girlfriend, something he noticed recently, obviously. Even I miss what I once had, whether it be a former friend that I really liked but regretably destroyed things with years ago in spectacular fashion, or in just missing what I had before the summer (I miss the feeling associated with the latter, NOT the person that brought about the feelings).

Battle of Fallujah numbers update

-Click for Full Size [Globalsecurity.org]-

American Casualties
- 11/11/04 -
Dead: 18 [MSNBC] (.18%)
Wounded: 178 [MSNBC], 215 [FOX] (1.78 - 2.15%)
(just a little discrepency in the wounded figures...)
Total Forces: ~10,000

> This Mornings' numbers
Dead: 25 [FOX]
Wounded: ~ 170 [FOX] (1.7%)
(The wounded figures have gone down... what the hell?)
Total Forces: ~10,000

Iraqi Casualties
--NO UPDATE--

Insurgent Casualties
Original actual count before estimate of ~600: 71 Dead (5.9%)

- 11-11-04 -
Dead: ~600 [MSNBC, FOX] (~20-50%)
Wounded: Unknown
Total Forces: 1,200 - 3,000 (one estimate)
Captured: Vague / unknown
(unknown sized margin of error for civilians killed but presumed to be insurgents or if its an inflated body count to make the offensive seem successful, or a mix of both, etc.)

> This Mornings' numbers
Dead: ~1,200 [FOX] (~40% - 100%) (and it ain't 100% yet)
Wounded: Unknown
Among Dead: At least 30 "Zarqawi lieutenants" [FOX]
Captured: Still vague. Al least 14 "foreign fighters arrested" [FOX]
(same margin of error, especially as the numbers jump up as more buildings are blasted away)
Total Forces: 1,200 - 3,000.
With ~1,200 dead, there are estimated to be 400 left [FOX]
Refined Total Forces: ~1,600
Refined figure: Dead (~75%)
(No wounded?)

The 2nd Battle of Fallujah by the Numbers thus far

I figured I'd keep up with some numbers on casualties in the battle to [hopefully] "pacify" Fallujah, Iraq. For the hazy memories out there, Fallujah is the city that we let them have back in April after intense fighting in retaliation for the brutal murder of four American civilians and the hanging of their burned and mutilated bodies off of a bridge in the middle of town with crowds cheering gleefully. So I've occassionally checked the body counts as listed in FOX NEWS and MSNBC articles over the last few days.

American Casualties:
Dead: 18 [MSNBC] (.18%)
Wounded: 178 [MSNBC] 215 [FOX (earlier)] (1.78-2.15%)
(just a little discrepency in the wounded figures...)
Total Forces: ~ 10,000

Iraqi National Guard Casualties:
Dead: 5 [FOX] (.25%)
Wounded: 34 [FOX] (1.7%)
Reportedly captured: 20 (1%)
Total Forces: ~ 2,000

"Insurgent" Casualties:
Dead: ~600 [MSNBC, FOX] (~20-50%)
Wounded: Unknown
Total Forces: 1,200 - 3,000 (one estimate)
Captured: Vague / unknown
(unknown sized margin of error for civilians killed but presumed to be insurgents or if its an inflated body count to make the offensive seem successful, etc.)

Iraqi Civilian Casualties:
Dead: Unknown
Wounded: Unknown
"We don't do body counts" - Gen. Franks, CENTCOM (2003?)
Estimated Population of Fallujah: ~200,000 - 300,000

A Slap to Veterans

A number of ABC affiliates will not air "Saving Private Ryan", which in essence is a tribute to those who have fought and those who have died for the preservation of our way of life, out of fear of the FCC slamming them for it. Why? Janet Jacksons Boob.

With regards to the FCC:

"The agency made it clear then that virtually any use of the F-word — which is used repeatedly in “Saving Private Ryan” — was inappropriate for over-the-air radio and television." [MSNBC]

And then there is also really petty concerns about the violence depicted. War is not PG-13 related to where you can tone it down for all the little kids and the naive adults who cause a ruckus over depictions of the real word, where people still die and will always die horrible horrible deaths in areas, and fling Fuck around.

I get just as mad when people make a ruckus about seeing the realities of actually wars, like the war in Iraq, on tv. The school did that when first invaded Iraq. They banned newscast from being shown in the classrooms. Its the world you live in. Deal with it. Groups of people killing each other horribly is an actuality that will always be around.

But then it turns out to be because Fuck is said too much in it above all. Because, you know, kids never hear Fuck anywhere else. No way. I've just imaged hearing "precious" little "untainted" children going "Fuck" (can you sense the sarcasm?). If you can't handle it just turn the channel. That's why there are channel up and down buttons on the controller.

That's incredible when language affects you more than the violence and horrors of armed conflict claiming the lives of millions (as WWII did). That language thankfully never stopped the History Channel from airing HBO's "Band of Brothers" series un-bleeped.

Censorship is a simultaneously funny and annoying thing.

Post Column: Defining Liberals

This is a column from the St. Louis Post, which someone else had directed me to (since I seldom read the paper other than when in Journalism class).

When it comes to defining liberals, count me as one
By Bill McClellan
Of the Post-Dispatch
11/08/2004

A couple of blue men from a red state were having dinner a couple of nights after the election, and one of the blue men, a fellow who worked for Kit Bond many years ago, said something like this: "Back in Kit's early days, he never described himself as a conservative. In those days, nobody did. After the Goldwater debacle in '64, conservative was a dirty word, kind of like liberal is now. It wasn't until Ronald Reagan came along and defined conservatism in a new and positive way that people began using the word again. That's what the liberals need to do now. Right now, we let other people define us."

And just how would we define ourselves? Let me try.

I'm a liberal, and that means I believe in responsibility, both personal and collective. Collective responsibility? You betcha. I believe that society - that's us - has a responsibility to take care of the less fortunate and those who can no longer provide for themselves. Social Security, for instance, is a liberal idea. Both for retirees and the disabled. If a working person becomes disabled, he or she will get a monthly check. It's not going to put a person on Easy Street, but that person is not going to have to sit on the sidewalk begging like you see in some countries. Back when the whole Social Security program was being founded, many of our conservative friends were against it.

Our friends, I say, and I mean that. I believe that the people on the other side are our opponents, but not our enemies. They are mostly decent and patriotic. I believe in civility, and I am dismayed when people on my side of the Great Debate lose sight of that. It especially annoys me when people on my side assume a condescending attitude toward other working people.

You see, I'm a liberal and that means I support working people. In the struggle between labor and capital, I lean toward labor. Our conservative friends call organized labor a special interest, but this particular special interest is the reason we have a 40-hour workweek, paid vacations, health care benefits and decent wages.

I believe in responsibility so, yes, I'd raise taxes if I had my way. I believe that it is wrong to put current expenses on a credit card that will be passed down to our children. That may be good politics, sure, and our current president, a conservative, has cut taxes while presiding over the greatest increase in nonmilitary spending since the days of the Great Society. Under the watch of a conservative president and a Congress controlled by his party, we've gone from a surplus to a deficit. I'm a liberal, and I find this irresponsible.

I excluded military spending from that last argument, but I'd like to deal with it now. Because I believe in collective responsibility, I would never wage a war while cutting taxes. Shared responsibility means shared sacrifice. If we're going to ask the working-class kids of an all-volunteer military to put their lives on the line, we can at least make a small financial sacrifice ourselves. Maybe we'd pay a special fuel tax to fund the war. However we did it, we would do it together and we would do it now. We would not pass the debt down to our children.

What we would pass down to our children is a healthy planet. I'm a liberal, and I believe in the environment. The Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act were both liberal ideas. Many of our friends on the other side support industry and call our environmental laws onerous. They want those laws relaxed. I'm a liberal and I support the Sierra Club.

The ACLU, too. I support the rights of the accused. In so doing, I stand on the shoulders of the Founders of this country who were distrustful of governmental authority. I believe that a person who has been fairly convicted should be punished - I have served as a state's witness at an execution - but I believe that a white-collar criminal who loots a company should be punished as severely as a kid who robs a convenience store. I believe that if drug addiction is a disease for the rich, it should not be a crime for the poor. I believe in fairness. I'm a liberal.
>> Source [STL Post website]

Ivory Coast Unrest

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - French tanks took up positions outside the home of Ivory Coast’s president Monday, his spokesman said, raising fears of an attempt to oust him as French forces clamped down on an explosion of violence in its former West African colony.

Some 50 armored vehicles were moved around the home of President Laurent Gbagbo in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan, said presidential spokesman Desire Tagro.
...

France rolled out overwhelming military force Sunday, deploying troops, armored vehicles and helicopter gunships against machete-waving mobs that hunted house-to-house for foreigners.

In the second of two stunning days that stood to alter French-Ivory Coast relations — and perhaps Ivory Coast itself — French forces seized strategic control of the largest city, commandeering airports and posting gunboats under bridges in the commercial capital, Abidjan.
...

French military helicopters swept in to rescue a dozen trapped expatriates from the rooftop of a once-luxury hotel, flying them and their luggage to safety.
...

The chaos erupted Saturday when Ivory Coast warplanes launched a surprise airstrike that killed nine French peacekeepers and an American civilian aid worker. The government later called the bombing a mistake.

France hit back within hours, wiping out Ivory Coast’s newly built-up air force — two Russian-made Sukhoi jet fighters and at least three helicopter gunships — on the ground.
...

The slain French troops were among 4,000 French peacekeepers and 6,000 U.N. troops in Ivory Coast, serving as a buffer between the rebel-held north and loyalist south since civil war broke out in September 2002.

The peacekeepers are trying to hold together a nation whose stability is vital in a region where several nations are only just recovering from devastating civil wars in the 1990s. Ivory Coast is the world’s top cocoa producer and until the late 1990s stood as West Africa’s most prosperous and peaceful nation.
>> Full Article [MSNBC]

War on Edumacation

LITTLE EGG HARBOR, New Jersey (AP) -- The target was an object on the ground well within the confines of the Warren Grove firing range, a 2,400-acre scrub pine expanse used by the military to train pilots in bombing and strafing techniques.

But when the heavy gun in the left wing of an Air National Guard F-16 fighter jet fired Wednesday night, it sent 25 rounds of 20mm ammunition smashing through the roof and zinging off the asphalt parking lot of the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School 3 1/2 miles from the range.

- Source [CNN: Fighter Jet Strafes New Jersey School]

Oh noes! War has been declared against education!

You know what? In the middle of the night to be able to taregt and fire at a school of all the different houses and stores undoubtedly in the town also takes quite a bit of coincidental luck, or calculation.

Lies Are Easier to Handle than the Truth

I found this a few days ago when clicking around, its satirical since its on a site called "The Blog of the Attorney General", but, I agree with the point being made about embracing lies since facts and the truth may be too... downing? disheartening? to accept. I agree with that, since its something that I find entertaining to notice when I look and read around. Blue pill, or red pill?.

Liberals in general believe that there is an objective truth, consisting of facts. The Party knows better. The Party knows that, for most people, truth is what we tell them, through the Party-controlled media and the trickle-down words over office coolers of the official Party commissars such as Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc., soothing lies that they want to believe, and thus do. As long as the Democrats maintain allegience to little things like "truth" and "facts", they cannot win. Lies will always win over truth, because lies are what we really, in our heart of hearts, want to hear. We WANT to hear that we went into Iraq for righteous reasons and are winning. We WANT to hear that opponents of that Iraq policy are un-American. We WANT those cool, soothing lies. Until the Democrats realize that they are not running against a candidate, they are running against an alternative reality that we Republicans carefully present to the people, they cannot win.

- Source Blog [Blog of the Attorney General of the United States]

M'balz Es-Hari

Found this last night online, it's a SNL skit with Robert De Niro as Homeland Security spokesman Craig Fenson, alerting the public to such nefarious terrorists as M'balz Es-Hari, Hous Bin Pharteen (who oddly enough is targeting baked bean canneries among gas refineries), Awan Afuqya, and a number of others. Its pretty funny. The skit apparently is from January of this year.

- Click Here for Video -

November 5th

Am I getting too direct with people? It seems like ever since I said "forget you" to this former "friend" I've become that way with people. Maybe its just Audie and Glenn rubbing off on me in an unequal mix causing an unequal balance. I dunno.

But another effect its had in conjunction with how relaxed I'm getting at work (as well as direct just because of how co-workers are to me with casual middle fingers...) is that I've been loosening up.

I also browsed globalsecurity.org since it'd been a while (it gets into there, I like it). And found a number of satellite photos of Fallujah, and one section that details every post-fall of Baghdad op there has officially been in Iraq.

-Satellite View of Fallujah (click for full size)-

...
We had a pretty pointless Advisory day where they gave us a second report card with the notification of how the MAP scores "only help" us, when if its anything like regular classes, it should not. I mean where is the incentive to do well on the tests then? I'm one to talk, I know, having got Advanced or Proficient just from being a smart ass on the test since they made me take it despite being a Senior.

After advisory me, Mike, and Brenn find Glenn waiting for us out front. As we get to Mike's car there is this group of ten black guys right in front of us, and Glenn finds that to be the perfect moment for a racist joke:

Glenn: "Why don't black people celebrate thanksgiving? Because KFC is closed."

They all turned around. It was terrible but hilarious...

November 3rd

Yesterday was an entertaining day at school. Before first hour I found a very elaborate vote break down on CNN.com that goes by state by state and then it has a county breakdown, like for Missouri for example, indicating how strong each candidate won certain counties.

(as overwhelming as it seems for Bush, due to the proportion of the population dispersed among the counties it was a lot closer than it looks because of the many people in the few blue counties, especially St. Louis and St. Louis city)

And when Audie showed up he saw part of the map and saw Alaska went to Bush.

Audie: "Alaska? What do you have to say to get Alaska to vote for you??"
Me: "Promise them more heat."

My 2nd hour teacher rejoiced and savored the victory in the Senate that saw the Democratic leader Tom Daschle ousted just barely by his Republican opponent. During the hour she also handed out candy. I guess in celebration to the obvious Bush victory that just needed to be ratified by the electoral vote update.

But since the teacher lives in Illinois, and since its so heavily Democratic leaning, especially Chicago, she felt her Republican votes were wasted there. I pointed out that at least she's voting for what she believes in.

I spent lunch outside, its my peaceful escape from a lunch table that seems to have too much of a scar or negative aura connotated to it in my mind that I can't go there anymore. The only downside was the icy cold wind.

Farrell, who for Halloween the Friday before had been a crack addict (with flour all over his lips and coming out of his nose), had some noteworthy quotes during 4th hour (I wrote them all down, thats why I have so many). We were taking notes over how to do an arts review, and we were on the bit about music, and she was asking for descriptions of a piece of music she played.

Farrell: "[it had] high pitched squeals, kinda like cows being murdered in the pasture."

...

Farrell: "Sounds kinda bluesy and jazzie."
Zach: "Bluesy... look that up in the dictionary."
Farrell: "At least my last name isn't Bush: 'transhipment'."
Me: "'Misunderestimate'."

[with less than two minutes elapsed]
Farrell: "The background vocals sounded churchish."
Someone: "Churchish..."
Me [to farrell]: "wow, you're on a roll today."
Farrell: "And he had nice 'transhipment' between..."

By the end of 5th hour the teacher had the news on to show Kerry's concession speach during the last two minutes of class.

But I couldn't hear it, first off because the TV volume was too low, and second because so many of the seniors and juniors in there by the TV asked a really dumb question indicative I believe of the intelligence of the "average" Americans.

"What does concession mean?"

I fucking died... I swear... that's just terrible... I had to resist the urge to say something then and there.

Model U.N. was also yesterday. Mike had stated that he wasn't going, so Ben and Joe weren't going either. So I tag up with Brenn and head towards the theatre lobby to go meet up with Mike. On the way there I was... "captivated"? By this one gal heading for F hall that I occassionally see at her locker before 6th hour. So yeah, I was distracted for a moment. Heh. And then when we get outside it turns out there is a meeting, since Mike decided to switch the topic away from the election and towards charity and human rights.

But after twenty minutes it went into the election. Heh. It was inevitable. Mike though had a twelve page print out from CNN.com that had interesting Exit Poll statistics. So I made sure to print off a copy of that when I got home because of the numbers on it:

Vote by Gender:
Male (46%) - 55% for Bush, 44% for Kerry
Female (54%) - 48% for Bush, 51% for Kerry

Vote by Race and Gender:
White Men (36%) - 62% for Bush, 37% for Kerry
White Women (41%) - 55% for Bush, 44% for Kerry
Non-White Men (10%) - 30% for Bush, 67% for Kerry
Non-White Women (12%) - 24% for Bush, 75% for Kerry

As Glenn would probably put it: "Stupid white men..." Heh.

Vote by Race:
White (77%) - 58% for Bush, 41% for Kerry
African-American (11%) - 11% for Bush, 88% for Kerry
Latino (8%) - 44% for Bush, 53% for Kerry
Asian (2%) - 44% for Bush, 56% for Kerry

Vote By Income:
Less than $50,000 (45%) - 44% for Bush, 55% for Kerry
$50,000 or More (55%) - 56% for Bush, 43 for Kerry

Are you a Union Member
Yes (14%) - 36% for Bush, 61% for Kerry
No (86%) - 54% for Bush, 45% for Kerry

Vote by Party ID
Democrat (37%) - 11% for Bush, 89% for Kerry
Republican (37%) - 93% for Bush, 6% for Kerry
Independent (26%) - 48% for Bush, 49% for Kerry

Vote by Religion
Protestant (54%) - 59% for Bush, 40% for Kerry
Catholic (27%) - 52% for Bush, 47% for Kerry
Jewish (3%) - 25% for Bush, 74% for Kerry
Other (7%) - 23% for Bush, 74% for Kerry
None (10%) - 31% for Bush, 67% for Kerry

Vote by Church Attendence
Weekly (41%) - 61% for Bush, 39% for Kerry
Occasionally (40%) - 47% for Bush, 53% for Kerry
Never (14%) - 36% for Bush, 62% for Kerry

It goes on and on. Great stuff. Better than sports statistics, as Tigas pointed out.

Heh, when the discussion in Model U.N. went to cloning, I couldn't help but go. "Well, we wouldn't have to worry about a draft anymore because they could then just clone themselves an army." Its Science fiction right now, but it could probably be done further down the line, whether it be for mainstream army or for elite special forces units.

So I found a stack of Newsweeks and TIME magazines near the heater in the room, and found one from mid 2002 about the march towards war. Near the front of the class there was a Newsweek that had an article from March 2003 that I really liked called "Arrogant Empire". And then either a TIME or a Newsweek from late 2001 that had a breakdown of U.S. forces, air strikes, Northern Alliance forces, and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. What I never knew before was that the Taliban had an Air Force (even though very small).

Ah the memories.

Four more years of memories coming up. Enjoy the show, America. You voted for it.

The Day of Falsehood

I'd say "Day of Truth" for the American people but this is a decision on a contest of bullshit spouted from two unimpressive candidates. One was just a lesser evil. Especially since Nader isn't a prominent candidate when it comes to support.

What I found interesting when I voted this morning was how for the Presidential election portion there were four choices for Prez and VP: Democrat, Republic, Green, and either Libertarian or Constitution party. Which brings to mind a question... Does Nader even have a running mate (even though it makes no difference to the outcome of this election)?

What's interesting is how close the race is, and how much the global community has at stake, and the incredible level of interest they have in our election this year (providing evidence of how disconcerting the current Administration's affairs have been to the other industrialized nations of the world). So much is at stake for the country and the world.

And whoever wins will have half the nation despising him, just because of how polarizing this election campaign has been with all the attack ads. Intolerance seems to run high with Americans, but at no time is it greater than right now I'd argue, where insults are handed out based on who your support for President. And where physical harm could be threatened or dished out just because of one's philosophy being the polar opposite of anothers.

With the stakes this high, vote manipulation is inevitable by both sides. Especially in states and counties with electronic ballots which can easily be altered to show more support for the fixer's candidate than there was. Its a game that they can't afford to sit idly by and let the general public in its "wisdom" decide who will lead. Its a power play by both sides. Its all or nothing.

Bin Laden Tape

And to anybody who listened to the madman’s comments had to feel perversely liberated. Unless the tape was an elaborate, subtle feint to suddenly get this country to let it’s guard down (a very poor bet, to say nothing of exhibiting nuanced psychological planning in which the terrorists have shown no prior interest whatsoever) - Al-Qaeda’s sole intervention in this election will have turned out to be its head gangster to announcing that it didn’t really matter to him who anybody voted for, because the re-election of Bush or the election of Kerry wasn’t going to impact how Al-Qaeda wants to impact us.

This has to, in some minds anyway, have reduced the apocalyptic anticipations which the Bush-Cheney campaign has repeatedly invoked. Bin Laden may not be one for subtle actions, but it can’t have been accidental that he appeared without his trademark sub-machine gun. It’s not like he forgot it back in the cave. Don’t get me wrong on this: I’m not buying his explanations nor his posture as a borderline-sane geo-politician. But those intentions were clear. That was a policy speech. In his lunacy, he probably thought it was statesmanship.
>> Keith Olberman, MSNBC [view full source article]

It's a good post beyond this segment about the election in general and the psyche of the electorate during wartime. Its worth reading.

The Day Before Hell on Earth (i.e. Election)

In the last few months I have found myself distanced from politics, as well as news in general (probably made obvious by the lack of cited news stories). I mean I browse maybe two to three articles before first hour. Aside from that, I keep up very little with the news lately.

But today was a little different. For a month I've neglected various issues of TIME laying on my living room table, so finally I picked up the most recent one since I don't feel like I'm fully making an informed decision on election day. I'm just playing into some power hungry bureaucrats hands, I'm as gullible as the rest of the mainstream less intelligent general public no matter how I vote, and no matter how informed. why? Because who ever said the clowns up for office are telling the truth? And no matter what, you vote for a lie somewhere somehow, because some people base decisions off false information, like the false attack ads run by both campaigns, as chronicled among other things like debate falsehoods at FactCheck.org, its a really damn good source for nonpartisan facts instead of information manipulated by the party and candidate for the party and candidate.

So yeah, I vote in a little more than 12 hours before I go to school, and I'm going fucking nuts about the choice. Others can easily and blindly cast a vote for whomever they think looks better, or has a better voice, or strictly by party lines, or based on their "faith". I can't. Especially in this election which is obviously crutial in the history of America. A history that will be defined and decided upon in some ways tomorrow, as well as the subsequent lawsuits claiming foul play by both sides eager to manipulate to end up on top, even if they don't deserve to be by the true vote count.

Urg. Yeah, losing it. Heh. Not really, but when I really think about it I fall prey to the cynacism I cited slightly in more short article on Voter Apathy in the school paper.

...

One thing I recently realized after the party was how thinking I could help a friend out and cheer her up over the last few months only ended up bringing me down with her. Except, I'm not suicidal. No where near it. I'm just... sad? disappointed that that was to be the fate of our friendship.

She also has the misconception that I had my dad say some things to her after I went to work on Friday. I didn't. He did that on his own accord. He just doesn't like seeing me hurt or frustrated.

...

I interviewed several teachers today for my article on "Patriotism". Mr. Snidman kinda gave me answers as though I was crazy with the questions I was asking. Meanwhile I liked Mrs. Minutes answers quite a bit, such as where she went "blind patriotism is bad. intelligent patriotism is good" - she was refering to questioning those in charge being a form of patriotism, and more intelligent than just blindly following them and trusting them.

This story if I have the time to finish it as I want to write it will be so much more awesome than the short and kinda crappy Voter Apathy article that got published in the paper. It's a topic I can just ramble about and flow with because of how its about the subjectivity of Patriotism and what is Patriotic. All I've really got written so far is the lead and the teacher just loved it:

"You're unpatriotic". It's flung around like trays and meals during a food fight in the political crossfire, and it raises a question similar to the subjectivity of what is considered "good" or "real": What is "patriotism"?

Speaking of the paper, I liked Bova Conti's investigative stories on how foreign language classes are now supposedly for honors, but they don't count as honors, and how its affecting the top three ranking students in the class of 05.

In 6th hour we had three former students back from their Marine Corps training and a Sergeant who is usually at the school for recruitment (at least he was last year). We got to learn some of their hand to hand self defense techniques. Unfortunately my partner in the practice was a giant buff football player. That is my luck. Heh. One Marine was going into Logistics while the other private and the PFC (Private First Class) were going into Aircraft Maintenance.