News – Political Ads Suck

US

Poking at Bush’s new ads. “Lead”, with it’s multicultural and multi-class diversity is nothing more than a hokey fluff ad with no substance at all. It preaches to the converted and annoys the opposition for the most part. “Tested”(one of the more controversial) is the same, though with a more patriotic spin than “Lead”. “Safer, Stronger” even has a lie, if you contrast the text in it with Bush’s words on a Meet the Press interview. What do I think? These ads tell me nothing, except for the skill of his PR men. And they don’t dispel Bush’s poor record as of late(in my opinion). No doubt Kerry’s will be just as brain dead.

Our ports have been one of the weak links in US security, with a mere 2% of cargo screened on the way in. A new initiative is looking to tighten up that weak link through technology. It looks good.. hopefully it will stand up to any real tests. Too bad we had to wait almost two and a half years for it to manifest.

Some scientists are looking at the discoveries in Mars and wondering.. so what? Some wonder, validly, what difference this discovery means for us. True, it won’t improve life here. But considering the big picture, it behooves us to wonder how water was stripped from the planet. If it once had water, something catastrophic must have happened. Considering we’re that planet’s neighbor, I find the possibilities a little disquieting. Don’t you?

At the top of the list of magazines is the New Republic with Michael Crowley calling the Dept of Homeland Security a bureaucratic Frankenstein.

Ashcroft is in the hospital for a case of gallstone-caused pancreatitis. And that’s all I will say on that.

Five of the nine Britons held in Guantanimo Bay are released, but four remain and are designated for military tribunals.. Britain would like them tried in accordance to international standards or returned home. I doubt that they’ll be tried with regard to international standards if tried by the US. An interesting note of this is that a British official says they have no intelligence on these men at all. One wonders if they’ll ever get a chance to formally respond to the charges against them.

Iraq

The Iraq constitutions has been signed. Twice delayed before, the ceremony was hastily arranged after disagreements caused a more elaborate Friday signing to be abandoned. This small ceremony was held despite the Sunday mortar attack within the green zone.

A mortar attack on an Iraqi police station today resulted in two officers and three civilians wounded.

US legal experts are headed for Iraq. I’ve no doubt they’ll be closely watched to see just how much assistance they give in forming a war crimes case against Saddam. Bremer stresses their presence as advisory only, but undue US influence in this would win few friends.

An update on the state of women in Iraq. Things aren’t looking good and some might think things are worse for them than before Saddam’s fall. Considering the make p of the IGC, detailed in the article, it looks like no help will come from there.. at least, not without US prodding.

Israel/Palestine

A big Israeli raid left 14 Palestinians dead, including three children. Israeli sources claim ten of those dead were militants. 72 others were wounded in the raid.

A tale of Ugandan Jews.

Iran

Iran wants to call case closed on their nuclear junk. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the IAEA says no dice. I agree with him.

Afghanistan

Human Rights Watch claims that US forces in Afghanistan have used excessive force in arresting suspected Islamic militants, resulting in avoidable civilian casualties. A response to the HRW report says that they have a “lack of understanding” of armed conflict laws. “Afghanistan is currently a combat zone, and forces here are engaged in combat operations against determined enemy forces. We apply appropriate rules of engagement for combat operations and are in full compliance with the law of armed conflict.” , Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty said. What force is too much can sometimes be a difficult question. Some cases of abuse are clear cut, others are not.

Haiti

Jean-Bertrand Aristide continues to insist he was abducted, while urging peaceful resistance to the ‘occupation’ of Haiti. Our government denies he was kidnapped, but I think the truth is somewhere between their respective stories. I think that the US offered Aristide assistance to leave the country, but only if he signed a resignation. So it was stay and risk death or take the provided plane. If that counts as a coup d’etat I don’t know. But it seems fishy to me.

Six were killed and nineteen wounded when Aristide supporters sprayed gunfire into a crowd of anti-Aristide revelers outside the National Palace. The attackers are said to be part of Aristide’s Lavalas movement.

General

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and the latest focus of flattery is the iPod. Whether Apple will crush the pPod software is a question to be answered by time. They’ve done things like that in the past for those who sought to mimic their innovative designs.

Today’s Papers has Israeli papers noting the US pressuring their government to not withdraw unilaterally until after the election. Seems that instability would be bad for everyone. Gee, you think? It also has the NYT saying Bush is making all the decisions in his campaign, including referring to Kerry as “the senator from Massachusetts who has a record of weakening national defense and raising taxes.”

Amusements

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop what happens when kids start acting out their favorite video games

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Theme: Combo KFC and A&W restaurants a big hit. What other business combinations would you like to see?