The (new) war to end all wars

President Bush began a new effort today to win support for the war in Iraq in the face of unyielding resistance and mounting deaths, telling veterans that the war against terrorism was no mere military conflict but “the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century.” LA Times

An “important conflict” at the beginning of the century? Hm, is that worth it? Well, at least he claims it’s the war to end all wars, so what could go wrong? Certainly worked out splendidly last time around, or didn’t it?

Supernova captured in ‘real time’

400 million years ago a star went poof. The cool thing: astronomers followed the event live a few hours ago since the light took that long to travel to our corner of the galaxy. The BBC has more.

UN denounces Israel cluster bombs

The UN’s humanitarian chief has accused Israel of “completely immoral” use of cluster bombs in Lebanon.
UN clearance experts had so far found 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets at 359 separate sites, Jan Egeland said. BBC

I’d like to add that those are Made in the USA™ cluster bombs.

Makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, doesn’t it? Or maybe that’s just that piece of shrapnel that shredded your intestines on the way to school courtesy of the Military Industrial Complex of the good old U.S. of A.

Greenland melt ’speeding up’

So long, Florida!

The meltdown of Greenland’s ice sheet is speeding up, satellite measurements show.

Data from a US space agency (Nasa) satellite show that the melting rate has accelerated since 2004.

If the ice cap were to completely disappear, global sea levels would rise by 6.5m (21 feet) BBC

AP poll shows Bush a liability to Republicans standing election

Republicans determined to win in November are up against a troublesome trend - growing opposition to President Bush.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted this week found the president’s approval rating has dropped to 33 percent, matching his low in May. His handling of nearly every issue, from the Iraq war to foreign policy, contributed to the president’s decline around the nation, even in the Republican-friendly South.

More sobering for the GOP are the number of voters who backed Bush in 2004 who are ready to vote Democratic in the fall’s congressional elections - 19 percent. These one-time Bush voters are more likely to be female, self-described moderates, low- to middle-income and from the Northeast and Midwest.
Two years after giving the Republican president another term, more than half of these voters - 57 percent - disapprove of the job Bush is doing. (…) AP

Flights

Just in case the last few posts give the idea that I am being blasé about the possible loss of life that could have easily occurred:

They said the airlines to be targeted were United, American and Continental, bound for New York, Washington and California. BBC

I am booked on a Continental flight on August 27 to Newark, New Jersey (What the BBC would call New York). The wife and I had also planned to go to London this summer. Wed didn’t go, but if we had it would have been this week and we could have ended up on a flight out of Hearthrow just like we did last summer.

This hit home hard.

But the point is that terrorists want to terrorize. If you’re scared they win.

Guardian: Blair warned Bush of terror threat to US airlines

Downing Street admitted Tony Blair would not have left the country on Monday for his Caribbean holiday if he had known the police would need to swoop so quickly to disrupt a terrorist plot. He has known about it in general terms for months, and has spoken to President George Bush about it on a number of occasions. The two leaders discussed it in more detail on Sunday, during a conversation on a secure line in which the prime minister outlined what he knew of the British cell being monitored by the security services. Guardian

So why the need for a PR effective bust that scared the shit out of thousands of Heathrow customer and millions worldwide? Afraid of another Forrest Gate?

Blitz post (Londoner’s know how this one’s meant)

No comment

“Homeland Security” head Chertoff keeps stressing that “the investigation is ongoing” and that their “british colleagues” are on their job.

Nice, now they don’t even have to answer any tough questions.

ORANGE?

Just woke up and still absorbing all the news. Some thought so far: Athis is just asininine: The British stop a flight heading for the US with actual terrorists on board. So the US goes to orange?

I take it we are keeping red for important things like elections? (Update: international flights to the US are on red, but still. The goal here is to not scare Americans too much, but enough to still think it’s all working.)

Quote: Attorney General Gonzales” “We are doing everything we can to ensure that americans can lead their normal lives.” Yeah, and apparently that’s not working. Meanwhile in split-screen on BBC World showed angry american tourists throwing out a large part of their belongings that they are not allowed to take aboard a flight.

TSA spokesman on BBC World. quote: “Don’t forget to enjoy your trip.” Right, because if you didn’t the House and Senate may stitch to Democrat control in the upcoming election.

Oh and don’t forget to carry on tampons outside their plastic covers and taste the feeding-milk for your baby in front of the security checkpoint staff. Otherwise the terrorists will be winning.

This is beyond absurd.

Snow: Lieberman lost because Democrats are Fascists

Sen. Lieberman lost a primary this week because he voted for the war in Iraq and continued to take the presidents side on some other key issues. Now The White House is trying to portray Lieberman’s loss, one of the few token Democrats the Bush administration kept trotting out in order to keep up the appearance, as a loss for the Democratic Party even though it was his “close” association with Bush that got him defeated. Press Secretary Snow earlier today:

QUESTION: On Lieberman. Are you telling us you now want to make the November election a referendum on the Democrat’s position on the Iraq war?

SNOW: No, I’m saying that there’s some Democrats who have said that the key issue is leaving and that there are some elements within the Democratic Party who are pushing hard to say, “Look, if you don’t agree with us, you no longer belong in the party.” You know, you take a look at the pillage today, they’re pretty hot. The Raw Story

Right, because the Democratic party is the “with us or against us” party that started 2 wars, is currently backing another, and shouts everyone down who dares to show even a hint of criticism down as unpatriotic™. Oh wait, that’s the Republicans.

Classic Karl Rove tactic: Take your own weakness (Iraq) and make it appear as if it’s the opponent’s fault. Also never attack your opponents weaknesses, but attack his strengths instead.

To win they take a position they don’t hold the rest of the time. Sneaky, but it’s worked since Bush “took” office.

Who needs to change if you can just bicker

With gas prices reaching an all time high in the US, the St. Pete Times has a list of things you can do to improve your gas mileage. It starts out with nonsense like this:

“I used to drive 10 miles over the speed limit, figuring I could get away with that,” said Rodriguez, 37, a sales representative from Tampa. “Now if I’m on the interstate and the speed limit is 65, I drive 55. If it’s 70, I drive 60. I read that the 55-to-60 range is where you get the best mileage, and I do see a difference.

Problem is, people pass her, lay on the horn or even cut her off.

“I’m not going fast enough for them,” she said. “I don’t care. I’m saving money, and they’re not.” St. Petersburg Times

Before ending a 900 word article with this gem of wisdom:

Buy a new car

Assuming fuel costs of $3 a gallon and travel of 15,000 miles a year, the difference between a vehicle that gets 20 mph and one that gets 30 mpg is $750 a year, or nearly $3,000 in four years. St. Petersburg Times

Wow. Who knew things have to change to change?

Nah, let’s just tell people they can piss everyone off by driving slower instead of telling them outright that if they have obscenely huge and/or inefficient car they will pay obscenely at the gas pump. I can just see that never-ending rush-hour traffic jam on I275 “drive slower” to conserve energy.

US scientists suggest storing CO₂ in ocean

Don’t get me wrong, this could help:

Storing carbon dioxide under the sea-bed could help to reduce global warming, according to US scientists. BBC

But I still say it’s better to fight the cause then try to fudge the symptoms. If we lower CO₂ emissions, we won’t even have to turn the oceans into our private dump. Again.

South Lebanese warned of strikes

It’s escalating. And that’s their word, not mine:

Israel has warned residents of southern Lebanon that it will escalate operations there as it continues its campaign against Hezbollah militants. BBC

Shoot first, and don’t get arrested

In the last year, 15 states have enacted laws that expand the right of self-defense, allowing crime victims to use deadly force in situations that might formerly have subjected them to prosecution for murder,

Supporters call them “stand your ground” laws. Opponents call them “shoot first” laws.

Thanks to this sort of law, a prostitute in Port Richey, Fla., who killed her 72-year-old client with his own gun rather than flee was not charged last month. Similarly, the police in Clearwater, Fla., did not arrest a man who shot a neighbor in early June after a shouting match over putting out garbage, though the authorities say they are still reviewing the evidence.
New York Times

Iraqi militia legally targeting homosexuals

Hardline Islamic insurgent groups in Iraq are targeting a new type of victim with the full protection of Iraqi law, The Observer can reveal. The country is seeing a sudden escalation of brutal attacks on what are being called the ‘immorals’ - homosexual men and children as young as 11 who have been forced into same-sex prostitution.

There is growing evidence that Shia militias have been killing men suspected of being gay and children who have been sold to criminal gangs to be sexually abused. The threat has led to a rapid increase in the numbers of Iraqi homosexuals now seeking asylum in the UK because it has become impossible for them to live safely in their own country.

(…) Homosexuality is seen as so immoral that it qualifies as an ‘honour killing’ to murder someone who is gay - and the perpetrator can escape punishment. Section 111 of Iraq’s penal code lays out protections for murder when people are acting against Islam.
The Observer (emphasis added)

4,000 US troops in Baghdad deployment

US forces have taken up positions in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in the first visible sign that a new security plan is being implemented.

Almost 4,000 US troops are being deployed there in an attempt to reduce the number of killings and kidnappings.

As the US troops moved into Baghdad, police said they had found at least 12 bodies around the city.

Last week, US central command head Gen John Abizaid said sectarian violence in Baghdad was as bad as he had seen.BBC

Republicans now faces an interesting dilemma: Either they can say that the situation in Iraq is bad and campaign on “staying the course” (Karl Rove has indicated that this is the likely strategy for the upcoming general election.) or they can just act like nothing is wrong, something that will likely be exploited by Democrats trying to regain a majority in the House and Senate.

Of course the last few months we’ve been told that everything is going to plan. Nevertheless it seems like there is a course change ahead.

Bush didn’t know there are two kind of Islam in Iraq prior to invasion

I wish I could say this was incredible, but I don#t doubt it for a second:

A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress (and two months before the invaion of Iraq) President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.

Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam–to which the President allegedly responded, “I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!”RawStory

Or else!

Not a resolution yet, only a draft:

The US and France have agreed the wording of a UN resolution to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

It calls for a “full cessation of hostilities”, demanding that Hezbollah halt all attacks and Israel stop all offensive military operations. BBC

It’s also unclear what would happen if either Israel (never!) or Hezbollah break the ceasefire. Is either side going to be sent to their room without dinner? I mean how much worse than all out war can it get?

Israel bombs Lebanese highway

Israel today extended its assault on Lebanon, making its first major attack on the Christian heartland north of Beirut and destroying four key bridges providing a vital aid supply route.

The Israeli air force strikes severed Lebanon’s last significant road link to Syria, stopped a convoy carrying 150 tonnes of relief and cut what the UN called its “umbilical cord” for aid supplies.
Guardian (emphasis added)

100,000 March Against U.S. and Israel in Baghdad

Not part of the plan, I take it? (Of course not. We all know there isn’t even a plan. This is the Bush administration we’re talking about here.)

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 4 — More than 100,000 followers of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched today to show support for Hezbollah, denouncing Israel and the United States for the violence in Lebanon.

The protesters filled 20 blocks of a wide boulevard and dozens of side streets in the Shiite-dominated Sadr City section of the capital. New York Times

Virus program incurs church wrath

Quote of the week:

“As Christians, we’re used to not always getting answers to our prayers immediately, but this seemed to take the biscuit,” said the spokesman. BBC

Israel to widen air and ground raids in Lebanon

The Israeli army has been told to prepare for a possible advance in what could be its deepest incursion into Lebanon for more than 20 years.

The defence minister’s order could see the army push up to the Litani river, about 30km (19 miles) north of the border, in pursuit of Hezbollah. BBC

Guardian: Israel bombs Lebanese highway, cutting it off from outside world

Israeli aircraft bombed southern Beirut last night and today launched raids on the highway north of the city, threatening to cut Lebanon’s only remaining link with the outside world. Guardian

All part of operation Without Thinking Twice, I take it?