Is George Bush a Deserter?

This is getting ugly. Peter Jennings took Wesley Clark to task for not repudiating Clark supporter Michael Moore's claim that Bush went AWOL while in the National Guard. The rumors have floated around for quite a while, but there never seemed to be enough pieces of the puzzle.

Does it even matter?
- If the claim is accurate, it lets Clark off the hook. It also casts doubts on young George W. Bush's integrity. How it affects the public's perception of President George W. Bush is another matter.
- If the claim is inaccurate, then Clark may have to disavow Michael Moore's conduct (like no one has ever done THAT before). The longer he waits to do that, the more it may hurt him.
It looks like everyone has to stop pretending that the 3000# rhinoceros is hanging out in the room.

Now there's more to back the claim. Read the article, view the linked evidence, and see what you think.

Also check out these sources:
An index of websites with "evidence" on this issue
The Boston Globe papers

Since the news media don't bother.....

You can find out who's zoomin' whom in the world of politics.

Independent and non-partisan, this may be the most significant web site ever - assuming that you care about the state of the world, and the size of the handbasket in which we're riding.

State of the Union Address, More of the Same

State of the Union Response
Claim vs. Fact analysis by the Center for American Progress

When you want to find something - anything - you use Google, right?

Go to Google and search for Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Or use this link.

And The Beat Goes On

And The Beat Goes On
President Bush and his aides have spent the last year and a half telling the American people that the war in Iraq would cost little. A new report by Defense News, however, says the president will propose another $50 billion, in addition to the $166 billion already spent. According to the non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the request "won't come until after the Nov. 2 presidential election" - effectively concealing the spending request from public scrutiny.

In the lead-up to the Iraq war, the president's staff conducted a PR campaign aimed at quelling public concern about its cost.
• Then White House Budget Director, Mitch Daniels, said Iraq "will not require sustained aid" and that the war cost would "be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion."


• The president's top reconstruction official at the State Department told Nightline that "The American part of [reconstruction] will be $1.7 billion and we have no plans for further-on funding of this."


• The president's top economist, Glen Hubbard, said that "costs of any such intervention would be very small".


• Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz "dismissed articles in several newspapers asserting that put cost of war and reconstruction at $60 billion to $95 billion."


• And Bush had his new Budget Director tell the Senate that "we don't anticipate requesting anything additional for the balance of this year" - six weeks before he announced a request for an additional $87 billion.


• When White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey admitted that Iraq could cost up to $200 billion in the fall of 2002, he was summarily fired for his candor.


• Days after the $87 billion request made by the president, the Administration was questioned by skeptical Republicans and Democrats in Congress about the rising costs of continued involvement in Iraq. But even then, the president dispatched Wolfowitz to answer the charges with a flat-out denial. Despite the public record leading up to it, Wolfowitz told Congress that "No one said we would know anything other than...this could be very expensive."

Complete article

Mission Accomplished...We're safer...The Iraqis Love Us...We Found the WMDs... [ pick one ]

Huh?

"Already, the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations."
-- GW Bush, 1.29.2004

Which Kay Report is that?

I can't believe it! Who could have predicted that the President would distort the truth in a State of the Union Address?

Whole LOTTa Hypocrisy

THEN

"Any appointment of a federal judge during a recess should be opposed."
- Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) 12/2000 opposing the appointment of an African American judge

NOW

"Judge Pickering's record deems this recess appointment fully appropriate."
- Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), 1/17/04

Um, Trent? Oh, never mind.......

It's time for another bar bet: I'll bet you don't know who invented the steam engine

Nope, it's NOT James Watt. You lose.

There were steam engines before Watt became interested in them, but they couldn't do much real work; too much steam was lost when it condensed inside the chamber as it cooled, and the engines used too much coal to be worthwhile. Watt became obsessed with the problem, and spent two years making little model steam engines, one after another.

Watt solved the condensation problem, and that's what made him famous.

While we're at it, here's a freebie: Henry Ford did NOT invent the automobile, or the internal combustion engine, or any noteworthy automobile components. Ford "invented" an unpatentable process: the assembly line method of manufacturing. For a while, that gave him a competitive edge over other auto manufacturers; Ford was the first to sell cars so cheaply that middle-class Americans could afford them.

So who invented the automobile? Defending how you define "invented", you might say that NO ONE invented the automobile.

George Selden was awarded a patent for a "road engine" in 1887. He expanded his claim to the point where he felt he deserved royalties from any and all automobile manufacturers. However, he never built an auto himself. In a lawsuit to enforce his patent rights (most manufacturers - except Ford - were paying royalties), a judge ordered him to build a car according to his patent claims. It failed, and the patent was overturned in 1911.

Back to Ford - a "model" Chronology:
1903: Model A (NOT the Model A)
1903-1906: Models C, F, K, N
1908: Model T
1927: Model A (the Model A)
1932: Deuce Coupe (of Beach Boys and American Grafitti fame)

Now you know.

Look out for John Kerry

Chief Sitting Bull proved at the Battle of the Little Big Horn that there is nothing quite like having the momentum coming out of Iowa.
-- Argus Hamilton

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He Had a Dream

No speech has ever had such an impact on me. I still get chills when I hear it. May his message and his dream live on.

Full Text

Listen to the speech

Dear Bill & Steve: Is it security or isn't it?

Microsoft on Word passwords: "It's not a security feature"

After a German security company publishes an easy how-to for cracking the passwords on MS-Word documents, Microsoft has responded by saying "it is not a security feature and should not be relied upon as such." Perhaps Microsoft should read its own help file for MS-Word 2003, which says that passwords are "a security method used to restrict access to computer systems and sensitive files." The help file goes on to say that "Passwords have a number of uses; for example, you can require a password to open a file to prevent unauthorized users from opening a document at all."

Perhaps Microsoft should have simply advised us not to believe everything we read.
Dan Farber, ZDNET

Maybe this item belongs in my other blog, Black Box: Help for the terminally befuddled, from a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, with 20+ years' experience on computers of all sizes, shapes, and smells. However, I prefer to keep the ranting in this blog.