The New Road

Republican Jesus

Republican Jesus rocks.

Megan pictures

Yesterday with her best friend Josephine:

A year ago:

And a year before that:

Madagascar

The problem with Madagascar is that there is no story. A lot happens, but it's just comic hijinks. The characters learn almost nothing and change not at all. In fact, several of the central characters have no arc at all. David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith are little more than movable window dressing.

I can't recommend this movie for very young kids, since it has some violence. And I don't recommend it for adults, since there really isn't anything to it.

Sadly, it's as the Pixar guys said. What Hollywood fails to realize in the rush to 3D is that story is what makes the Pixar movies so good. I can easily say, Finding Nemo is a story about a father finding his son and himself, and Toy Story is a movie about building trust and friendships. I have absolutely no idea what Madagascar is about. It's everywhere and nowhere.

My new favorite Bush line

Check this line out from Bush:

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

Whoops. Freudian slip there.

Sorta happy

I'm kinda happy with the result of this judicial stuff. I don't understand the reasoning of the right on this issue. Obviously they are wrong about the structure of the Senate and the move was completely unconstitutional. But even on a practical level, it was just stupid. They won't be a majority forever.

Anyway, I'm happy that the Republicans are sad. And that's what is important.

Layer Cake

I watched "Layer Cake" with Mel last night. I liked it. But not as much as liked "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". The plot was twisty, which works in that genre. But the comedy wasn't there, and I couldn't connect to the characters in the same way that I could with the other films.

What was stranger was the layout of the movie theatre. This wasn't some megaplex. There were only three theaters. One of which, the one we were in, was designed by Escher. Strangest theater I have ever been in.

iTunes to carry podcasts

"When Apple integrates RSS into iTunes." Is the answer that I have been giving to the question, "When is podcasting going to explode?" And now they have, or sort of have. They will be supporting podcasts within iTunes and that's all that matters. Podcasting is going to freaking explode!

BTW, I spent some time this weekend driving around listening to AM 1550, which is our local podcasting station. It was alright. I was pleasantly surprised. I put in in the AM rotation between left, right, and now, podcast.

Revenge of the Sith

Thanks to Landon I did the 12:01 thing for "Revenge of the Sith" last night. Well, this morning, actually.

Anyway, the movie is solid. There is lag after the initial insane battle sequence. Once the lull is over the action builds pretty continuously towards the conclusion. Lucas did a great job stitching up all of the loose ends. Though I imagine a website will be out soon with all of the details of how the movies didn't link up properly.

The anti-Bush stuff is there for sure. Annakin's statement about being "with me or against me", and Obi-Wan's "absolutes are for Siths".

Excellent script. The acting was a little less stiff this time. Great stuff with Yoda. The violence was somewhat intense for a Star Wars movie but nothing like what you would see in a real war movie.

Anyway, the best Star Wars movie in many, many years. Very watchable even if you haven't seen the super crappy Episode I, and the almost as bad Episode II.

More cute Megan pics

Bad stats for Fox news

Fox News has dropped 52% of their viewer base in the 25-54 demographic in the last six months. "False media. We don't need it do we?" -Public Enemy

It's official

My second book, Podcasting Hacks, has been announced on Amazon. Sweet! Pre-order today!

Megan from the boat trip

We took Megan on a boat trip around San Francisco bay yesterday:

Galloway rocks

This Galloway guy is great. Straight talk from a politician. Love it.

I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth.

Yes! Go, go, go!

Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer.

This is 8.8 billion is the least reported scandal in history. It should have brought this administration down. But because the entire media is controlled by the right wing we never hear about it.

Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice. I am here today but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever written to me or telephoned me, without any attempt to contact me whatsoever. And you call that justice.

This Oil For Food nonsense is ridiculous. It's the worst run conspiracy since the White Water investigations. And there appears to be little more to it than that. It's so depressing to see the media concentrating on this stupidity when we should be starting impeachment procedings the President for his lies that got us into Iraq. Where is the coverage of the massive Republican conspiracies that have our country in shambles, our kids dodging bullets and our people at each other's throats.

Oh, and, of course, the freaks over at Freepers are all about the violence; "Heard him on the radio this morning. He is an obnoxious twit who badly needs to have his face readjusted." and "He should be barred for the US for his views, not invited to call the American people names on our land." The response was basically that times fifty. Morons.

Daring to make mistakes

I went to the Computer History Museum this evening to see the Pixar guys talk about the evolution of computer graphics in film. Two of the directors were there and one said something really interesting. He said that he doesn't write or direct any better than anyone else, he just makes more mistakes faster. And they have an environment at Pixar where they can try things and have a healthy feedback cycle that they use to improve it.

I think that's so important. Particularly in my own stuff I've found that I would rather do something sloppy to start, then throw it out or hone it until it's great. Rather than trying to do it just once, but do it perfectly. That never works. In particular because there is such an emphasis on getting it perfect the first time. Of course, it takes a long time to figure out what's important to try and perfect and what can stay sloppy.

Update: The museum itself was great. The room full of hardware brought back some great memories and opened my eyes to what had come before the sight of even these old eyes. Crays. Data Generals. The old tube machines and IBMs. Amazing.

Crazy mule porking nonsense

File this in the "What the..." department.

Last night, anti-abortion extremist Neal Horsley was a guest on The Alan Colmes Show, a FOX News radio program. The topic was an interesting one - whether or not an internet service provider should allow Horsley to post the names of abortion doctors on his website. Horsley does that as a way of targeting them and one doctor has been killed. In the course of the interview, however, Colmes asked Horsley about his background, including a statement that he had admitted to engaging in homosexual and bestiality sex.

At first, Horsley laughed and said, "Just because it's printed in the media, people jump to believe it."

"Is it true?" Colmes asked.

"Hey, Alan, if you want to accuse me of having sex when I was a fool, I did everything that crossed my mind that looked like I..."

AC: "You had sex with animals?"

NH: "Absolutely. I was a fool. When you grow up on a farm in Georgia, your first girlfriend is a mule."

AC: "I'm not so sure that that is so."

NH: "You didn't grow up on a farm in Georgia, did you?"

AC: "Are you suggesting that everybody who grows up on a farm in Georgia has a mule as a girlfriend?"

NH: "It has historically been the case. You people are so far removed from the reality... Welcome to domestic life on the farm..."

Colmes said he thought there were a lot of people in the audience who grew up on farms, are living on farms now, raising kids on farms and "and I don't think they are dating Elsie right now. You know what I'm saying?"

Horsley said, "You experiment with anything that moves when you are growing up sexually. You're naive. You know better than that... If it's warm and it's damp and it vibrates you might in fact have sex with it."

Yeah, ok. Now I understand why every time the left brings up gay marriage the right brings up inter-species marriage.

9/11 and DVDs

Because of "Justice Sunday" I am now on the FRC mailing list. Today's blurb was on some neo-fascist judge that Bush found in the seventh level of hell.

...This description was highlighted by the Democrats of 1991, then in power in the Senate, despite the "well-qualified" rating from the American Bar Association, the highest rating the liberal law association gives. Since 1991, many changes have occurred. The Soviet Union has fallen, the Republicans have taken over both chambers of Congress, DVDs have replaced video tapes, and, of course, the tragedy of September 11, 2001 befell us. However, Judge Boyle still awaits approval to a judicial seat for which he is well suited.

Apparently 9/11, an event which is continuously invoked by Republicans whenever they want to restrict your rights, redistrict your state, raise your taxes or cut your benefits, is apparently akin to the changeover from VHS to DVD. And I remember my first DVD player purchase with such glee.

Oh, and they go on to liken a Senate vote to the practice of holding a door open for someone:

...That is simple courtesy for which Judge Boyle has been waiting 15 years.

What is it about Republicans that they don't understand that just because they hold a majority of the seat in the Senate, it doesn't mean that they represent a majority of the American people. In fact, the Democrats in the Senate represent far more actual people than the Republicans. The Senate works on a consensus, deal with it. It's by design.

Megan and the iPod

After Megan's bath last night she went into my office and asked me what the white iPod headphones were. So I showed them on me, attached them to the iPod, turned down the volume and started some Classical. Then I put them up to her ears. She loved it.

But that was kind of a pain since the ear-buds are so big they wouldn't fit in her ears. I ended having to hold them. So I put the Sennheisers on her. And she loved that. So we went around the house getting her milk and pajamas on with these Sennheisers on her head with me trailing behind her holding the iPod.

Kids are so cute.

Star Wars and Bush

When I mentioned that I had read "Revenge of the Sith" and said that it was filled with anti-Bush sentiment the response I got was incredulous. But check this out.

"I imagine that Revenge of the Sith is very much the film Lucas's fans want to see, but are some of them ready for an anti-Bush diatribe? Though every Star Wars film until now has existed in an insular comic-book world, a lot has happened since 1999 and 2002 in the real world and Lucas dares, for the first time, to address how the hollow political conflict in his franchise correlates with the reality outside its panels. (It would have been stupid not to strike a parallel.)"

Hey! Apparently I would have been stupid to not see the connection!

Come on, seriously, the guy is from Marin county. Of course he is going to hate Bush & Co.

Code Generation stuff

I love getting emails like this:

I study in the University of Applied Sciences in Krefeld Germany.
I write my final paper about Code Generation. And I should develop a Code Generator for the Company which I work in.
I looked for Information in Internet and I sowed overall your Name.
You are the God for Code Generators.
I ordered Your Book “Code Generators in Action”.
I hope so that I get it as soon as Possible.

Congratulations.
You are a grate Man.

Sweet. Jack Herrington, God for Code Generators! ;-)

Social Security flash movie

Obviously the Social Security war is over. Bush lost. But if you want to have some fun with the barrel, ducks, gun trifecta you should check this out. It's very well done.

I was thinking some more about the "Osama head in box" thing. I think that was the real Dubyah. Very rarely he pops out to say hi. Like he did with the "You can't win [the war on terror]" line.

He gave us the "wanted dead or alive" thing really early on. Then you could see him get slapped into shape pretty quickly because just a couple of weeks after that he gave us the "war on terror is bigger than one man" line which signaled the start of the push to war with Iraq. And that whole Iraq thing was just a neocon construction from the get-go.

Can't think of a single thing

I honestly can't think of a single thing that the Bush administration has done that has worked. Now abstinence programs are showing the expected rise in sexual activity. Which will, of course, raise the rate of teen pregnancy.

How has this administration failed us. Let me count (just a few) of the ways:

• The Iraq War
• Not finding Osama bin Laden (or his head)
• The economy
• The gas prices
• The social security plan disaster
• Letting Afghanistan slip back into a Taliban cesspool
• Bungling Iran
• Totally screwing up the Korea issue
• Doing nothing for peace in the middle east
• Totally ignoring Darfur
• Leaving the "No Child Left Behind" program, well, behind
• Lying to the country about the reasons for the Iraq war
• Pulling out of the Kyoto accord
• Turning the reputation of the country abroad into crud
• Turning our citizens against each other
• Turning the Congress into an all out war zone
• Declaring war on our own Judiciary (most of which Republicans nominated)
• Installing fascist laws like the Patriot Act
• Attempting to tap the ANWAR reserves that won't help us in the short term
• Screwing over our veterans and their families, while they are at war
• Putting our boys in worse peril by saying ridiculous stuff like "Bring it on.
• Not doing anything to prosecute rampant pedophilia in the Catholic church
• Prosecuting people like Martha Stewart who just lied, while giving Ken Lay, who single handedly sunk the economy, a free pass

And these are just the ones off the top of my head. I'm not even tryin'.

Beheading Bin Laden

Not a lot of press has come out about this one.

"Capture Bin Laden, kill him and bring his head back in a box on dry ice," he quoted Cofer Black as saying.

As for other leaders of Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan, Mr Black reportedly said: "I want their heads up on pikes."

So I guess Bush is big in favor of beheading. Nice. Turns out the Freepers are as well:

"Yeah, and what the hell is wrong with that? If he had been able to aquire the head, it should be taken to a taxidermist, preserved, and shipped to every corner of the US so everyone can see the face of evil. Once everyone has seen it we send it down here to Arizona for Cinco de Mayo to be used as a pinata!!"

"and then the pikes should be placed at the borders and ports of entry to the USA."

"Actually, I'd like to see it on display, sitting in or in some way physically connected with lard (or any pork product), in a special shrine in the center of whatever we build where the WTC used to stand."

"Sick? Not at all compared to people killed at the WTC on 911 and some flying off the building. I share the same feelings with CIA, so does many other people. I want to see his head chopped off too."

"I can just imagine Dubya hoisting the skull of OBL at the podium in the house O' Congress. Or at a press conference at the White House, then toss it to some waiting (very hungry) dogs as their mid day snack. "

"I'd drop it from the top of the Empire State building (smothered in bacon bits, of course.)"

Of course, with the benefit of Republican moral relativism they can have it both ways and be shocked and horrified about Nick Berg and the beheadings in Iraq:

"Hazing and old military initiation stunts are not to be compared with beheading an innocent american civilian! As much as I hated seeing the "abuses" of our MP's, it was nothing compared to this senseless barbaric act!"

"Clearly we don't behead the bad guys, who were actively TRYING TO KILL OUR TROOPS each day"

"Moslems are partil ro beheading folks. Every war involving them produces pictures of happy moslems carrying around boxes of heads. Bosnia and Indonesia come imediately to mind."

"Al Qaeda just beheaded an innocent American civilian and we must kill them all."

So it's ok for us to behead someone, even to parade it in the streets, have it sent around the country, put on display in front of the new WTC, or at the borders? But when Iraqi insurgents behead, that's a different story? Seriously?

Man, this morality stuff sure is confusing. I'm just going to stick with basic civility, common sense and my own morality and say that any beheading is bad. And, thus, question when it became acceptable that the President would ask for someone's head on a stick.

Oh, here is one from Scott McClellan, "[The beheading of Nick Berg] shows the true nature of the enemies of freedom." I suppose it shows the true nature of the President as well.

Another thought on this matter, the guys who talk about displaying the head are interesting to me since the whole display idea reminds me of what was done to the contractors in Fallujah. And in response to that display of body parts the Freepers had this to say: "There was a recommendation from a caller to Rush yesterday that made a lot of sense. He says the US should inform mullah's and clerics that they have days to deliver the murders and in the meantime, no more water, no more food, no more travel, electricity, fuel, etc. until ALL responsible killers are delivered. In the meantime, I'd park about 100 of CAT D-10s at the city gates and move them forward a foot each day for five days at which time all would crank up their engines, lower their blades and start dozing until they run out of fuel."

I really find it amazing when people who talk all day long about moral absolutism can be so contradictory in their own morality. Let me make it simple; torture is wrong, beheading is wrong, display dead bodies in part or in whole in celebration is wrong. It doesn't matter who is doing what to whom. The acts themselves are immoral and wrong.

Democrats not welcome at Church

If your Democrats, or tolerate Democrats, your presence at this Church is no longer required.

Oh, and Churches will now be able to preach politics from the pulpit, without losing their tax-exempt status.

Patriot Pastors

There's no religion like the religion that's blended with the government:

Read enough to give you shivers here.

From the bulletin board on this site:

"I pray that America will succeed in becoming a one-party, Christian-based nation. There is no room in our nation for persons who stray from our deeply held beliefs, and for those who do, God's punishment should be both swift and severe. It's obvious that the democratic party is the party of the devil, and even more obvious that George Bush and * Cheney are truly God's "terrible, swift sword". When we gain enough power to change/eliminate the many Godless courts, we can then begin the holy task of correcting the laws that prevent people of our faith from demanding compliance to our way of life. When this day comes, God will look down and smile, while non-believers will run in fear."

Fun educational games

The place the states game is fun. I got 98%. Though really it was 100% and there was a bug where it wanted pixel perfect alignment to give me the credit for Delaware. I know where Delaware is! I used to live in Pennsylvania for goodness sake.

A9

I just started playing with A9. It's very impressive.

Go Conyers!

Call your Congressman today to support Conyer's move to make Bush answer for his lying betrayal of the American people:

May ___, 2005

The Honorable George W. Bush President of the United States of America The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We write because of troubling revelations in the Sunday London Times apparently confirming that the United States and Great Britain had secretly agreed to attack Iraq in the summer of 2002, well before the invasion and before you even sought Congressional authority to engage in military action. While various individuals have asserted this to be the case before, including Paul O'Neill, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, and Richard Clarke, a former National Security Council official, they have been previously dismissed by your Administration. However, when this story was divulged last weekend, Prime Minister Blair's representative claimed the document contained "nothing new." If the disclosure is accurate, it raises troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war as well as the integrity of your own Administration.

The Sunday Times obtained a leaked document with the minutes of a secret meeting from highly placed sources inside the British Government. Among other things, the document revealed:

• Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired a July 2002 meeting, at which he discussed military options, having already committed himself to supporting President Bush's plans for invading Iraq.
• British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged that the case for war was "thin" as "Saddam was not threatening his neighbours and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran."
• A separate secret briefing for the meeting said that Britain and America had to "create" conditions to justify a war.
• A British official "reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

As a result of this recent disclosure, we would like to know the following:

1. Do you or anyone in your Administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document?
2. Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional authorization go to war? Did you or anyone in your Administration obtain Britain's commitment to invade prior to this time?
3. Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with the justification for the war as the minutes indicate?
4. At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq?
5. Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states?

We have of course known for some time that subsequent to the invasion there have been a variety of varying reasons proffered to justify the invasion, particularly since the time it became evident that weapons of mass destruction would not be found. This leaked document - essentially acknowledged by the Blair government - is the first confirmation that the rationales were shifting well before the invasion as well.

Given the importance of this matter, we would ask that you respond to this inquiry as promptly as possible. Thank you.

Sincerely,

****ENDS****

No matter what your politics are you cannot excuse a President that lied his way into a war. These documents prove without a shadow of a doubt that Bush lied to the American people when he said that plans had not already been set, and that the decision to go to war had not already been made.

If you believe in truth, you must impeach.

If you believe that the word of the President should be trustworthy, you must impeach.

We must impeach George W. Bush.

Megan's cabinet

Megan helped build a cabinet for her stuff yesterday.

Then promptly moved in.

Religious intolerance

The intolerance knife swings both ways. This time at the Air Force Academy. Where, not surprisingly, since 2001, has almost turned into a evangelical school:

Among the allegations are that cadets are frequently pressured to attend chapel and take religious instruction, particularly in the evangelical Christian faith; that prayer is a part of mandatory events at the academy; and that in at least one case a teacher ordered students to pray before beginning their final examination.

The report said it found that non-Christian cadets are subjected to "proselytization or religious harassment" by more senior cadets; and that cadets of other religions are subject to discrimination, such as being denied passes off-campus to attend religious services.

Sounds like my experience in the public high school system in Florida.

The demographics are pretty shocking.

More than 90 percent of the academy's students identify themselves as Christians -- 60 percent Protestant and 30 percent Catholic.

That's way out of line with the norm in America. And as with everything in the military it's covered up:

No punishments have been handed down for religious intolerance issues, but one case is being investigated by the Air Force inspector general and they could not comment on it, academy officials said.

What amazes me is how two faced the vocal Christian representatives are on this issue. On the one hand they will tell you they are a majority of the country, that the country was founded on their principles, and that the structure of the governemt should be redesigned to be more in line with Christian fundamentalist principles. And on the other hand they complain that they are a subjugated minority who's right to world domination is being interfered with by a nutty left wing judiciary (the vast majority of which they hired). Because these judges believe in silly nonsense like the Constitution, the separation of church and state, and the separation of powers.

Impeach

So with the secret memo that the British government is standing behind telling us that the President lied to and misled the American people into a bloody, costly and ineffective war, the question becomes; "What to do?" We are there, right? Why not just let the President get away with his lies and deceit? We need to impeach Bush. Not because it will bring the troops home. But because it's the right thing to do. Presidents should not lie to the American people about issues as grave as war.

Nixon was (almost) impeached because of lying to the American people about the Watergate break in. Clinton was (almost) impeached because he got a blow job in the oval office. So if you supported the Clinton standard for impeachment. Which is lying about some marital infidelity. Then you must support the impeachment of this President. He lied to our faces when he said he hadn't made up his mind to go to war. His people altered intelligence to create an artificial case for war. It's not just an honest mistake by a lovable idiot. It's deliberate deception of the American people to create a case for an illegal, immoral war that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of dollars and done nothing but create more resentment for America.

He's not sent by God. He's not the right hand of Jesus. He's not an adorable oaf. Wake up. He is a liar. He is a deceiver. He is hurting the country and betraying the brave men and women of our armed forces by putting them in harms way without a true and just cause. He must be impeached.

America, we stand as one

This is the best thing ever (this week).

ISO Community?

I was looking around for Ajax (the web server technology) and found the town of Ajax in Ontario. Which prides itself on being Ontario's first ISO 9001 Quality Community. What the hell does that mean? I've been through ISO audits. It's a bunch of crap. Besides, this just sounds spooky; Quality Community. Sounds like Stepford.

Mom's got back

I played Tiger Woods with my Mom at lunchtime. She developed a new avatar for herself. She had been playing tiger. Now she is playing:

Mega-back woman. Sweet. I'm not sure if this is good for my psyche though. ;-)

London starting to crumble

Blair won't be booted out of office over Iraq. Mainly because the opposition is more draconian than he is. But the stuff popping out of the British government is very interesting:

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

As is obvious now the war was absolutely pre-determined. Most likely just in the aftermath of 9/11 where the Bush administration saw an excellent excuse in the rubble of the twin towers to invade Iraq (which had nothing to do with it.)

And, as we know now, it was all about winning the war. There was no plan for winning the peace. And I'm serious about that. Previous reports have talked about slide shows where the military strategy was discussed in great detail but the aftermath slide had just the acronym 'TBD'.

Then there is this:

The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.

Yep.

And then there is this one:

The Defence Secretary said that the US had already begun "spikes of activity" to put pressure on the regime. No decisions had been taken, but he thought the most likely timing in US minds for military action to begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the US Congressional elections.

If it's not clear to you by now. It should be. This war was founded on bullshit, poorly planned, badly executed. And now we are reaping the benefits of that.

Leadership

I've found yet another reason to dislike Bush. There are several management styles. One common approach is to respect your peers and subordinates and build a consensus. Another is to treat your subordinates like lackeys and to micromanage. Tell them nothing and act like you have special arcane knowledge.

While I tend to favor the former, Bush obviously favors the latter. It's something I remember from interviews of him. He says he likes to tell people what to do and to be in a position where he doesn't have to answer questions. It's infuriating. I hate working for people like that. And now my life is controlled by one.

Is my life really controlled by Bush? I don't know. You tell me after you pay your $2.60 a gallon at the pump.

I had a dream last night that gas went to $10 a gallon this year and it all but crushed the economy.

More Tiger Woods

I played some more networked Tiger Woods over the weekend with my Mom. Problem is that we can't talk during the game. We could use the phone but then we would rack up the phone bills. My best bet, I suppose, would be to use Skype and just have that running in the background when we play our matches. I think the audio is multi-channel, so that I could hear the play by play (which is important) at the same time as I talk with her.