Terrorist Threat Alert

Imagine.....

Imagine yourself an Iraqi. You've suffered terribly under a ruthless dictator.
Then
- The Americans invade your country under false pretenses.
- They promise democracy but don't organize elections.
- They appoint exiles to rule you, exiles who spend most of their time out of the country and the rest in a few highly protected areas.
- The occupiers break into your homes in the middle of the night and arrest your men, who then disappear, with no accountability.
- They shoot Iraqis at roadblocks and from convoys.
- They declare war on the second most popular man in the country, announcing his death in advance.
- They open the economy to US corporations and give them sweetheart contracts, ignoring local business.
- Then they write hundreds of laws and establish commissions limiting any future government.
- They build permanent military bases on your soil.
- Then they turn your country over to a former associate of Saddam Hussein, also a former CIA agent, known for his ruthless brutality.

Imagine that was your country. What would you do? It's actually much worse. Read the whole story by Stephen Soldz

Al Gore Was Robbed

The September 11th Commission report Thursday listed ten missed opportunities to prevent the hijackings. Six came under President Bush and four came under Bill Clinton. Al Gore says six of those missed opportunities should have come under him.

Freak Waves Are No Tall Tale

From Wired News:

Massive waves up to 100 feet in height -- once thought to be extremely rare -- actually roam the oceans quite frequently and could threaten to overturn ships and oil rigs, a European Commission study has found.

The study, announced last week and conducted on radar images gathered by two European Space Agency satellites during a three-week period in 2001, revealed that no fewer than 10 of the so-called rogue waves rose from various oceans around the world in that time. Not too long ago, scientists had believed that such waves formed just once every 10,000 years, according to the space agency.

The findings could lead to the prevention of many wave-related accidents in the future, said Wolfgang Rosenthal, lead researcher for MaxWave, the European Commission-funded group responsible for the study.

Preventing wave-related accidents is both a financial and safety concern for the maritime industry. Most large ships and oil rigs are designed to withstand waves up to 50 feet. However, in 1995, an instrument onboard the Draupner oil rig in the North Sea recorded an 85-foot wave.

In 2001, two cruise ships in the South Atlantic -- the Bremen and the Caledonian Star -- reported that their bridge windows were smashed by 100-foot rogue waves.

MaxWave researchers suspect that rogue waves also played a role in the sinking of some of the 200 large supertankers and container ships that have gone down in bad weather over the past two decades.

Unfortunately for those in harm's way, there is still much more research to be done before a solution can be proposed. For instance, no one yet seems to know how the waves are formed in the first place.

"We don't know what's going on out there," said Paul Liu, an oceanographer and rogue-wave researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "There are some theories, but I don't think those theories can ever translate into the real ocean environment."

Indeed, while rogue waves have been found where currents meet, they have also appeared far away, leading researchers to believe that wind and other weather-related phenomena may also contribute to the waves' size.

A new project, dubbed WaveAtlas, is now attempting to shed light on the mystery by creating a catalog of waves and related accidents that can be examined for correlations. The project group is expected to publish its findings in early 2005.

"I think there are a lot of rogue waves out there," he said. "It's like if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it. What happens if a wave appears in the ocean and no one can record it?"

If a wave appears in the ocean and no surfer is there to ride it......
or
If a wave actually managed to appear at San Onofre, and no one was sober enough to ride it, did it really exist?

Presidential Position Outsourced

Congress today announced that the Office of President of the United States will be outsourced to overseas as of June 30th, the end of this fiscal year.

The move is being made to save $400K a year in salary, a record $521 Billion in deficit expenditures and related overhead. "The cost savings will be quite significant" says Congressman Adam Smith ((D) - Wash) who, with the aid Congress' research arm, the General Accounting Office, has studied outsourcing of American jobs extensively. "We simply can no longer afford this level of outlay and remain competitive in the world stage," Congressman Smith said.

Exporting American jobs has been a popular trend lately, ironically at the urging of President Bush. Mr. Bush was informed by e-mail this morning of the termination of his position. He will receive health coverage, expenses and salary until his final day of employment. After that, with a two week waiting period, he will then be eligible for $240 dollars a week from unemployment insurance for 13 weeks. Unfortunately he will not be able to receive state Medicaid health insurance coverage as his unemployment benefits are over the required limit.

"I'm in shock," Mr. Bush stated. "I thought fer sure I'd have some job security around this here place. I have no idea what I'll do now," he further lamented.

Preparations have been underway for some time for the job move. Sanji Gurvinder Singh of Indus Teleservices, Mumbai, India, will be assuming the Office of President of the United States as of July 1. Mr. Singh was born in the United States while his parents were here on student visas, thus making him eligible for the position. He will receive a salary of $320 US a month but with no health coverage or other benefits. Due to the time difference between the US and India, Mr. Singh will be working primarily at night, when offices of the US Government will be open. "I am excited to serve in this position," Mr. Singh stated in an exclusive interview. "Working nights will let me keep my day job at the American Express call center. I always knew I could be President someday."

Congress stressed patience when calling Mr. Singh as he may not be fully aware of all the issues involved with his new position. A Congressional Spokesperson noted that Mr. Singh has been given a script tree to follow which will allow him to respond to most topics of concern. The Spokesperson further noted that "additional savings will be realized as these scripting tools have already been used previously by Mr. Bush here in the US. Such scripts will enable Mr. Singh to provide an answer without having to fully understand the issue itself."

Congress continues to explore other outsourcing possibilities including that of Vice President and most other Administration appointees.

[ furnished by NeoN ]

Who Needs Fact-Checkers, Anyway?

Associated Press 7/27/04:
"Democrats also are looking to their keynote speaker, Barack Obama, their Illinois Senate candidate who would be the first black Democrat ever to serve in the Senate, to energize the party's base."

- Barack Obama would NOT be the first black Democrat ever to serve in the Senate.
- He would NOT be the first black Democrat from Illinois to serve in the Senate.
- He would NOT even be the first black Democrat from Illinois to serve in the Senate in the past 5 years.

AP, get a clue: Senator Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL, 1993-1999), was the first black woman, as well as the first black Democrat, elected to the Senate.

Who Needs Fact-Checkers, Anyway?

[ Update: Maybe what AP meant to say was that Obama would be the first black, male, Democratic senator from Illinois who isn't a female or white and isn't from another state. ]

Bush's Greatest Hits

Things that George W. Bush has done so well that he shouldn't be reelected:

# Largest US deficit ever
# Greatest number of dead and wounded soldiers since vietnam
# First President since Hoover to preside over an economy that has lost, not created, jobs
# The dirtiest air quality
# First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record
# Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market
# Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television
# Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history
# First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community
# First president to run and hide when the US came under attack

For Every Action, There Is An Equal, But Opposite Reaction"

Newton's 3rd Law of Motion is one of the basics of physics. It often applies in daily life, too.

In case you haven't noticed, the Bush Administration launched a war on terror (which was a good thing). Part way into that war, they launched another war (which was NOT such a good thing) The higher-ups in the administration deluded themselves that it would be a quick, easy, popular war - high gain, low risk. And they figured that with some creative persuation, that Congress and the American public would easily consent to the war.

Things didn't work out as planned. To whit:

U.S. casualties are in the thousands.

The Iraqi people want us to leave.

Iraq neither housed terrorists which threatened us, nor supported them.

Iraq had no WMDs.

Iraq had no air force and had no ability to launch missles.

The 2 or 3 billion dollar projected cost of war was, um, off by a bit. Costs have exceeded $120 billion and show no signs of slowing down.

Meanwhile, our military faces many threats - besides the obvious ones of daily battles.

Our troops are still underfunded and under-equipped, while corrupt corporations are getting fat on no-bid contracts - most of which are embroiled in controversies regarding misuse of funds.

Our nation and our best/brightest (our troops) have been shamed by the abuse of prisoners, abuse of international agreements, and abuse of our laws here at home. Not only have our leaders NOT prevented these problems, it's becoming evident that our leaders encouraged those abuses.

Military recruiting and re-enlistments are down.
National Guard recruiting and re-enlistments are way down.

Many of the nation's governors are complaining to senior Pentagon officials that they are facing severe manpower shortages. National Guard units are often deployed to handle homeland emergencies. For example, the western USA is facing a 5th stright year of draught and wildfire danger; the available emergency worker pool is less than half its normal size. Recent Midwestern and Southern flooding exposed a similar problem.

Need proof the military is stretched to its straining point? Look no further: AP reports a 68-year-old doctor from Alabama has been reactivated for duty and is headed to war.

What will we do if a REAL threat to the USA happens?

I know: let's give a tax cut to the wealthy.

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