Bits and bobs...

Sarcastic responses to signs.

What a president Al Gore would have made....

Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons

Permaculture...

..a simple system for designing sustainable human settlements, restoring soil, planting year-round food landscapes, conserving water, redirecting the waste stream, forming more companionable communities...

No photoshopping? How will beauty product corporations keep women buying crap to do the impossible?

Dead boars and green toxic algae

Is this to keep them out or us in?

After a couple of false starts, Predator unmanned drone aircraft are scheduled to start roaming the Canadian border next week.

State and federal officials will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Grand Forks Air Force Base Monday, where the first Predator arrived in early December.

That ceremonial milestone had to be delayed twice because of a maintenance problem and turbulent weather.

The Predators, unarmed versions of the aircraft being used in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, have been patrolling the Mexican border since 2005. The Grand Forks base is the fourth of five outposts along the northern border where the aircraft will be based.

Why does this not comfort me?

More on torture

I've pulled this from this post:

David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo quoting a reader talking about his Air Force training:
"Imbued within this training during the Cold War was the sense that part of what set us apart from our communist adversaries was our adherence to the Geneva Conventions, and that the inhumane tactics used by those adversaries was part and parcel of the totalitarianism that we were combating. There was also the sense--a point of pride really--that we could and would prevail despite holding ourselves to a higher standard. It was, in fact, the higher standard that we were fighting for.
[snip]
"Our trainers were careful to instruct us on the Geneva Conventions and which interrogation techniques were covered and which were illegal. I have a very clear memory of what they said about waterboarding. As I recall, water boarding was classified as torture and was a violation of the Geneva Conventions. They told us about the technique for the simple reason that the North Vietnamese used it on American Forces. They wanted us to know about that technique in case we were ever captured by "scumbags who didn't respect the Geneva Conventions." There were no demonstrations; it was considered too traumatic."

In the neocons' mind, Iraq IS a success

So obviously we can win the upcoming war with Iran:

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski (ret.), a veteran of the Pentagon with firsthand experience of the administration’s cherry-picking of intelligence, reveals why Bush thinks he can win a war with Iran, why few politicians are serious about withdrawal and why “when they call Iraq a success, they mean it.”

[snip]

JAMES HARRIS: The highly speculative people have said they’re out because we’re going into Iran. You might’ve read the news…

KAREN KWIATKOWSKI: Well yeah, I don’t… I had not seen that connection made, but I certainly am alarmed at the daily signs that indeed this country is getting ready to instigate an attack on Iran. All the signs are there, the suggestions that Iranian bombs are killing American soldiers, that’s not true, but it’s certainly been made in, I think every American newspaper, the suggestion that Iran is somehow killing Americans. The suggestion that Iran has nuclear weapons, is imminently close to nuclear weapons. That is not true but that’s been, those claims are made, even by this Administration. The idea that we have two carrier battle groups currently in the region and in fact I just saw today, Admiral Walsh, one of the big guys in the Navy said that we’re very concerned about what Iran is doing even more so than Al Qaeda. So there, all the signs are there that we are being, we’re going to wake up one morning soon, very soon, and we will be at war with Iran. We will have bombed them in some sort of shock and awe campaign destroying many lives and setting back US relations even further than we’ve already done it with Iraq.

JOSH SCHEER: I want to continue on Iran. You spent obviously many years in the military and you talk in those kind of terms that many people maybe not know about. Can we not just politically, and not just in the region, but can we support another war in another country? Right now we’re in Afghanistan, we’re in Iraq. Can we feasibly actually go into Iran, or is this going to be a shock and awe campaign?

KAREN KWIATKOWSKI: You know, I think the, one of the big reasons that Bush and Cheney think they can do Iran is that they believe, well, they’re hearing from the Air Force and the Navy, two of the three main branches of our military, the two that have been left out of the glory of Iraq, you see. And those guys want a piece of the action, and so they’re advertising to the Administration and publicly, I mean you can read it for yourself, the Air Force and the Navy have targets they believe they can overwhelmingly hit their targets, deep penetration, possibly nuclear weapons, I mean, nothing is off the table as Dick Cheney says “nothing is off the table.” And the delivery of these weapons, whether they’re conventional or nuclear will be naval and Air Force. They’ll be Navy from the sea and Air Force form long range bombers and some of the bases that we have around the… so I don’t think, certainly, I don’t know, I’m not in the Army, wasn’t in the Army, I was in the Air Force, I don’t think the Army could support any type of invasion of Iran and they wouldn’t’ want to. I’m sure that they’ve, they’ve had enough with Iraq and our reserves are in terrible condition. We’ve got huge problems in the Army and in the Reserve system. So I don’t think there’s any intention to go into Iran, but simply to destroy it and to create havoc and disruption and humanitarian crisis and topple perhaps the government of Ahmadinejad. We want to topple that government. Yeah, we’ll do it with bombs from a distance. I don’t know if you call that shock and awe, we’ve been advertising it for a long, long time. It will not be a surprise to the Iranians if we do it.

Snarks on a Plane!

Bryan at Why Now? is doing an excellent job explaining the idiotic rumpus over Pelosi's plane:

The Secret Service and House Sergeant at Arms want the Speaker to fly on military aircraft with secure communications and no intermediate stops. This is in response to 9/11 and recognition that the Speaker becomes the President if both the President and Vice President are unable, for any reason, to continue to serve.

This was the procedure when Republican Dennis Hastert was Speaker, and the House Sergeant at Arms, a Republican appointee, believes the practice should continue.

Rep. Hastert is from outside of Chicago, approximately 598 air miles from Washington, DC. Speaker Pelosi is from San Francisco, approximately 2449 air miles from Washington.

And here:

I noticed in the coverage of the Air Pelosi non-event no one mentioned that when the media flies on government aircraft, like Air Force One, they get charged for the ride. If Speaker Pelosi brings guests, they are going to get a bill - that’s how the system works, just ask the White House press corps.

Oh, if she brings Jack Murtha, he doesn’t get charged. Retired military can fly “space available” on military aircraft for free. It’s a benefit.

Thanks, Bryan, for keeping sight of the facts as the Right Wing Smear Machine goes into overdrive.

Update: Pelosi herself answers the manufactured 'scandal'.

When will they start secretly using it to make their campaign opponents break out in a literal sweat during a debate?

They say it's for Iraq, but it certainly will be used on us, just like the NSA warrantless wiretapping was supposed to be listening to al-Qaeda, but gosh darn, they accidentally listened to everybody's calls. This machine is just too convenient.... (Article via Watertiger who provides a pic.)

The new machine shoots a beam:
"You've just been hit with a new nonlethal weapon that has been certified for use in Iraq -- even though critics argue there may be unforeseen effects.

According to documents obtained for Wired News under federal sunshine laws, the Air Force's Active Denial System, or ADS, has been certified safe after lengthy tests by military scientists in the lab and in war games.

The ADS shoots a beam of millimeters waves, which are longer in wavelength than x-rays but shorter than microwaves -- 94 GHz (= 3 mm wavelength) compared to 2.45 GHz (= 12 cm wavelength) in a standard microwave oven.

The longer waves are thought to limit the effects of the radiation. If used properly, ADS will produce no lasting adverse affects, the military argues.

Documents acquired for Wired News using the Freedom of Information Act claim that most of the radiation (83 percent) is instantly absorbed by the top layer of the skin, heating it rapidly.

The beam produces what experimenters call the "Goodbye effect," or "prompt and highly motivated escape behavior." In human tests, most subjects reached their pain threshold within 3 seconds, and none of the subjects could endure more than 5 seconds."

The article ends:
"The development of a truly safe and highly effective nonlethal crowd-control system could raise enormous ethical questions about the state's use of coercive force. If a method such as ADS leads to no lasting injury or harm, authorities may find easier justifications for employing them."

Exactly.

Update: more data.