News – Bush and Kerry Mud Fight (1/2)

US

Kerry bashes Bush. Bush bashes Kerry. Cheney bashes Kerry. Democrats submit a report of over 200 misleading statements made by administration officials. And we have months more of this yet to come. Excited any?

The state of the ads is no better. Both Bush and Kerry are releasing vapid, brainless ads. Kerry’s are a little less dishonest than Bush’s, though.

Seems our display of Libya‘s nuke gear has offended them. I don’t know what they’re on about. We can’t show off our spoils like a trophy and expect them to show no offense?

What do polls overseas say about us? For what its worth(polls being less than perfect), seems we’re unpopular. Some claim that we’re still looked up to. And in the eyes of some, sure. But I’d wager that just as many dislike us. Both sides should be addressed.

A prototype project to use unmanned drones to patrol Arizona’s border with Mexico has been unveiled. It adds two drones, four new helicopters and 260 Border Patrol agents to the forces already patrolling.

Despite our tech, US friendly fire casualties have actually risen in percentage. Sandia National Labs leads a field of contenders seeking to develop radio tags to help bombers and missiles not hit allies. Of course, this is well and good until someone figures out where the tags are, grabs them and starts mounting them on their own gear. Any viable tags would have to modulate their signature randomly(updated in whatever software analyzes them) to keep from being used as decoy material by savvy enemies. Their ultimate usefulness will be seen in the final implementation.

Another note of electronic voting machine shenanigans. I don’t see how anyone can expect any confidence in these things with as often as they screw up and as often as it is shown that the government doesn’t take the security and reliability of these things seriously.

Why Bush is worse than Regan on in formation. Namely, not giving it out or even suppressing it before it can be created.

Israel/Palestine

Israel makes an accusation that Arafat’s Fatah movement intended to use an 11 year old boy as an unwitting human bomb. Apparently the boy was found to have been carrying explosives through a checkpoint at Nablus. He was only saved, they say, because the cell phone rigged to set them off failed. Apparently the kid challenged the army’s story saying that he wouldn’t have been released so quickly had be been packing explosives. Personally, I wonder just what evidence they have that Fatah was the one that outfitted the boy, if he was packing. Personally, I don’t doubt either side’s story is plausible, but no one is giving the info to prove anything. Meanwhile Israeli helicopters attack two cars in Gaza with misiles, killing two Islamic Jihad fighters, wounding over a dozen people, including, it is said, a two year old girl who is in critical condition. It’s all just sick. Neither of them is the great defender of children in my opinion.

Arafat says Israel wants to destroy Gaza. Doubtful. If they really wanted to destroy the Gaza Strip, they could.

Iraq

One year after the war, the Guardian speaks to a local Iraqi leader frustrated at the lack of US support he gets. He’s a well educated Sunni who believes that the US forces are making a mistake in lumping all Sunni’s in as Saddam supporters.

Afghanistan

We’re giving Afghanistan another 1 billion in reconstruction aid over the 1.2 billion already promised. I have no idea if it will be sufficient. Seems like a pittance compared to what we spend in Iraq.

Spain

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is sticking with his plan to pull out Spanish troops. Despite Bush’s call to stand by the US. What surprises me some is that it mentions the Bush Administration perhaps seeking a UN resolution to try and keep folks like Spain in. That sort of thing for 1,300 troops? Or do they fear Spain might lead some mass exodus? Or is the tiny addition of their prior cooperation so important in an ideological sense?

Jamal Zougam, the first main suspect int eh Madrid bombings, is believed to have links with Islamist extremists in the UK. There is no note that the links are relevant to the Madrid investigation, however.

Haiti

Haiti’s new PM chose a cabinet yesterday. Not one of them is an ally of Aristide or a member of his party. Was this a good idea? Perhaps, but it might play off poorly with those who still do support Aristide.