(The Devil made me do it.)
12.07.2009
Whoa baby!
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates denied Sunday that President Obama had set an "exit strategy" for Afghanistan, and he forecast that only a "handful" of U.S. troops may leave the country in July 2011, when a withdrawal is due to begin.
link: Robert Gates says Afghanistan withdrawal will be gradual - latimes.com
The ink isn't even dry yet, is it? On that peace prize?
Because just what the hell
BAGHDAD -- Even as the U.S. military scrambles to support a troop surge in Afghanistan, it is donating passenger vehicles, generators and other equipment worth tens of millions of dollars to the Iraqi government.
Under new authority granted by the Pentagon, U.S. commanders in Iraq may now donate to the Iraqis up to $30 million worth of equipment from each facility they leave...
Some of the items that commanders may now leave behind, including passenger vehicles and generators, are among what commanders in Afghanistan need most urgently, according to Pentagon memos.
link: U.S. leaves in Iraq equipment that it may need in Afghanistan
The sky is falling, OMG!
Officials gather in Copenhagen this week for an international climate summit, but business leaders are focusing even more on Washington, where the Obama administration is expected Monday to formally declare carbon dioxide a dangerous pollutant....
An EPA endangerment finding "could result in a top-down command-and-control regime that will choke off growth by adding new mandates to virtually every major construction and renovation project," U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said in a statement....
link: Business Fumes Over Carbon Dioxide Rule - WSJ.com
Please, Chamber of Commerce, save us from certain doom! Or, alternatively, go soak your head.
See this, dude?
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration, buoyed by a resurgent Wall Street, plans to cut the projected long-term cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program by more than $200 billion, in a move that could smooth the way for the introduction of a new jobs program.
link: Estimated TARP Cost Is Cut by $200 Billion - WSJ.com
What have I been telling you all this time? Ninety-nine percent of the world's problems could be solved by just finding a better accountant. A better accountant could just make them disappear.
Poof.
Look, next time something is almost needless...
In a move that's sure to make Internet freedom advocates everywhere laugh out loud, Chinese government censors hard-pressed to stem the tide of porn are now offering to pay web users to go searching for it.
Almost needless to say, China's interest in pornography has swelled, in a manner of speaking.
link: Chinese censors pay public to surf for porn | Raw Story
...why don't we just round it off to needless and let it go at that. Although I can see how you might have been distracted.
In the right place at the right time
The Washington Post’s Alec MacGillis reports that the stimulus has been a boon for D.C.-area contractors. According to reports from stimulus recipients, federal agencies are paying contractors millions to help sort through applications for stimulus funding. “The money’s largely going to places where it’s always been going,” says a former government official. MacGillis reports: “Of stimulus grants and contracts awarded so far, the District has received nearly 10 times as much per capita as the national average.”
link: Jobless Rate Edges Down; White House Credits Stimulus - ProPublica
12.06.2009
Don't look now but I think we're surrounded
SYDNEY – Two stars of the "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here" television show have been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly killing and cooking a rat to eat during filming.
link: Rat cooking lands TV show in hot water - Yahoo! News
Internet time
Bart Decrem, chief executive of Tapulous, a start-up company that publishes musical rhythm games, recalls the early days...
link: App Store Is a Game Changer for Apple and Cellphone Industry - NYTimes.com
We're talking, here, about the early days of the iPhone which was, what, three years ago now? Or possibly four?
12.05.2009
OK, wait, could we maybe just talk this over here?
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA 1226 PM EST SAT DEC 5 2009 ...FIRST PLOWABLE SNOWFALL OF THE SEASON FOR MUCH OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND LATE TODAY AND ESPECIALLY TONIGHT...
link: AccuWeather.com
How is this necessary, really?
We thought what we did mattered...
A Eulogy for Old-School Newsrooms
They were loud, chaotic and politically incorrect. They weren’t very diverse. But they sure were full of journalistic passion--and fun...
link: A Eulogy for Old-School Newsrooms | American Journalism Review
I was proud to be a member of "the shabby tribe of rapscallions and reformists." It was incredibly challenging and difficult work, but also a helluva lot of fun. If you weren't there, you really wouldn't understand; if you were there, you are lucky indeed.
-Paul Knue
Global heat
Copenhagen Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards to city hotels warning [climate] summit guests not to patronize Danish sex workers during the upcoming conference. Now, the prostitutes have struck back, offering free sex to anyone who produces one of the warnings.
12.04.2009
But who's counting?
There are 68,000 U.S. troops and 42,000 from other countries in Afghanistan. The U.S. Army's recently revised counterinsurgency manual estimates that an all-out counterinsurgency campaign in a country with Afghanistan's population would require about 600,000 troops.
link: Obama plans to send 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan | McClatchy
12.03.2009
But not today
In the film, "The Day After Tomorrow," the world gets gripped in ice within the span of just a few weeks. Now research now suggests an eerily similar event might indeed have occurred in the past.
Looking ahead to the future, there is no reason why such a freeze shouldn't happen again...
link: Earth could plunge into sudden ice age - LiveScience- msnbc.com
Before I set out for downtown this morning I checked my weather widget and it was registering 59 degrees and sunny (the sun I could see through the window and yes, I actually looked). Now, early afternoon, the sun's gone but the temp is 62. This must be spring!
But...but...but...
KABUL (Reuters) – The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan reassured top officials on Thursday that Washington was not planning an early exit, part of a charm offensive to sell President Barack Obama's new strategy on three continents.
link: McChrystal tells Afghans U.S. not leaving yet - Yahoo! News
I can see how "we'll start leaving in 2011" squares with "we're not leaving any time soon," but how does "we're making your war bigger" become a charm campaign?
12.02.2009
Obit for 2009 Bears
The 2009 Chicago Bears, a National Football League franchise, have passed away from playoff contention. The Bears are 89 years old.
Future NFL Hall of Fame candidate Brett Favre was on hand in Minneapolis, Minnesota to announce the Bears' time of death, 6:23 p.m. CST. Mr. Favre listed the official cause of death as "537 yards of total offense allowed," but Bears' authorities are still investigating.
link: RIP 2009 Chicago Bears - Leshock Value
Half a baby for you, half a baby for me...
Obama maps exit plan, says NYTimes.
WEST POINT, N.Y. — President Obama announced Tuesday that he would speed 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in coming months, but he vowed to start bringing American forces home in the middle of 2011...
link: Obama Adds Troops, but Maps Exit Plan - NYTimes.com
But read down just a little further:
Senior administration officials suggested, however, that any initial withdrawal starting in mid-2011 could be very limited, depending on the military situation at that point.
In fact, withdrawing just one guy in 2011 would would fulfill that wimpy pledge and there was not a word, apparently (I haven't finished reading the speech) about when the so-called withdrawal would end.
In other words, no map at all, or none that I can see. A plan without a plan.
So he's saying there's a plan but not saying what the plan is (the righties would screech about giving away secrets to the enemy), and he's giving McChrystal troops but not all the troops he wanted (the lefties would screech about that, especially since Obama opposed Bush's "surge" in Iraq, or claimed he did). We all go home with half a baby here.
Except Obama. He goes home with his very own whole war.
I'm not sure which one...
...but I think one of those ribbons is for sitting around listening to Presidential speeches.
One-stop shopping for all your election needs
Diebold Inc. (DBD) has sold its money-losing U.S. election-systems business, just seven years after acquiring it amid hopes of rising demand for voting technology upgrades in the wake of the 2000 presidential election fiasco.
Diebold, whose main business is making automated teller machines, said Thursday it sold the voting-machine unit to privately held Election Systems & Software Inc. for $5 million, about one-fifth of what it paid in 2002.
ES&S, a private company, now controls something like 85% of all U.S. vote counting.
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