Ethel the Blog
Observations (and occasional brash opining) on science, computers, books, music and other shiny things that catch my mind's eye. There's a home page with ostensibly more permanent stuff. This is intended to be more functional than decorative. I neither intend nor want to surf on the bleeding edge, keep it real, redefine journalism or attract nyphomaniacal groupies (well, maybe a wee bit of the latter). The occasional cheap laugh, raised eyebrow or provocation of interest are all I'll plead guilty to in the matter of intent. Bene qui latuit bene vixit.

The usual copyright stuff applies, but I probably won't get enraged until I find a clone site with absolutely no attribution (which, by the way, has happened twice with some of my other stuff). Finally, if anyone's offended by anything on this site then please do notify me immediately. I like to keep track of those times when I get something right.

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"When they say, 'Gee it's an information explosion!', no, it's not an explosion, it's a disgorgement of the bowels is what it is. Every idiotic thing that anybody could possibly write or say or think can get into the body politic now, where before things would have to have some merit to go through the publishing routine, now, ANYTHING." - Harlan Ellison JOLLY OLD PALS Other stuff of mild interest to some: unusual literature scientific software blog physical oceanography glossary computer-related tutorials and texts Thursday, March 13, 2003 TRIGGER HAPPY = OPERATIONAL ERROR VOA News relates how the Israeli "defense" forces are so trigger happy they're starting to shoot their own. Two security guards from a West Bank Israeli settlement were killed Thursday in an apparent accidental shooting by Israeli troops. Israel radio says Israeli troops opened fire on the car by mistake. It described the incident as an operational error. Witnesses said the vehicle carrying the two Israelis was struck by what they described as 'a heavy volume of precise fire.' Some accounts said an Israeli helicopter gunship had fired a missile at the car. Other witnesses said Israeli troops on the ground had fired on it, killing its two occupants. ... Ah, one wonders where Char the Idiot is these days to soil his trousers over the phrase "helicopter gunships." posted by Steven Baum 3/13/2003 04:02:33 PM | link NOW WHO WOULD WANT TO DO THAT? The Washington Post tells us how the Cabal - since the forgery is too bloody obvious for them to credibly claim it's not a forgery - is having its ostensibly domestic spooks look into the matter, although the ostensibly domestic spooks aren't quite sure whether it's a matter for them or for the ostensibly foreign spooks. "IT'S SOMETHING we're just beginning to look at," a senior law enforcement official said yesterday. Officials are trying to determine whether the documents were forged to try to influence U.S. policy, or whether they may have been created as part of a disinformation campaign directed by a foreign intelligence service. "We're looking at it from a preliminary stage as to what it's all about," he said. The FBI has not yet opened a formal investigation because it is unclear whether the bureau has jurisdiction over the matter. The phony documents - a series of letters between Iraqi and Niger officials showing Iraq's interest in equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons - came to British and U.S. intelligence officials from a third country. The identity of the third country could not be learned yesterday. ... All I can say is that's it's a good thing for Sharon that Wolfowitz or Perle reminded him to not sign the documents after he vetted them, although given the nature of the forgery he sure as hell didn't proofread it very closely. posted by Steven Baum 3/13/2003 02:53:38 PM | link MORE QUOTES OF THE WEEK The Progressive Review channels some more Seymour Hersh quotes via the Harvard Crimson. "I have never seen my peers as frightened as they are now." "I have never seen such dissent even with three and four star generals. The war is particularly not popular with the marines." "Congress has gotten so much dumber it's embarrassing. There has been a collapse of Congress. It's an incredible failure. A staggering failure." posted by Steven Baum 3/13/2003 01:43:53 PM | link DOUG AND HITCH Via Atrios, we find an interesting email dialog between Doug Ireland and Christopher Hitchens, i.e. Paul Wolfowitz's newest groupie. Here's a bit from Ireland: ... Now, it's very clever of the old Oxford debater that you are to try to change the subject to the Democratic Party, because you know I've chronicled its sellouts over these last years. But the subject is, how do you square your public declaration of support for Bush with the rest of your life's work pre-9/11? I see that you are now beginning to squirm away a few centimeters from your earlier statements. But, cher Christophe, your joshing reference to your "crucial swing vote" puzzles me, since as I recall you?ve never seen the merit in taking out citizenship papers (a subject on which I criticize you not) and therefore can't vote anyway, so all that matters is the idea behind your publicly expressed views. And in that respect, it seems to me that it is your logic which is flawed. If Bush is worth supporting for re-election because the only issue which matters is terrorism, as you claim, wouldn?t that lead anyone following your thought process to conclude that a down-the-line ticket vote for the president?s party flows from your prioritization of that issue? And the president?s party is the antithesis of everything for which you have stood lo these many years. You say your single issue includes "the defense of pluralist society against the theocrats." But what about Bush and his theocrats, who are quite busy trampling into the dust the constitutional insistence on the separation of church and state through a series of patronage boondoggles for the enhancement of the GOP-labeled "faith-based initiatives"? And as to whose elevator goes to the top floor, we have testimony from no less a credible witness than the former head of Bush?s own White House office of faith-based initiatives, who dropped a dime on the whole rotten gang in Esquire, telling us in detail what we already knew - that Bush and those around him are an ignorant bunch with absolutely no real interest in policy or ideas, and who fashion every decision and prise de position to their electoral strategy. The goal in scrapping the civil-service system and trading its Hatch Act-protected employees for wage slaves of private-sector companies chosen for their political loyalty to the Republicans is just part of the grand strategy for creating a de facto one-party state, in which no opposition can get real traction against the GOP money advantage. And such a state will inevitably be a militarist one, as the pronouncements of Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Wolfowitz, Perle and the rest - coupled with the astronomical military budgets that are indebting the next several generations with an unparalleled deficit - all tell us. Dubya's is the most deeply reactionary administration to occupy the White House since Calvin Coolidge, and has succeeded where Reagan failed in eradicating the barriers against federal funding of religion-based prejudice. As to your assertion that the mendacious spoiled rich kid Bush is a paragon of character, I can only ask you to pass me the airsick bag; even as a joke such a claim would be rather nauseating. But you're not joking, are you? As an example of Bush's "character," I re-pose to you the AIDS question, which you danced away from answering in an earlier e-mail, saying, "It's not my subject." (Gee, I would have thought that this pandemic, which has already killed more worldwide than the Black Plague, was a subject for everyone.) And let me add that, if Kerry turns out to be the Dem nominee, and it smells from here as if he might well be - despite the many reservations I have about him, if there is one single issue on which there is the starkest of differences between Kerry and Dubya it is AIDS. Kerry has been by far the single most pro-active senator on AIDS issues, not only in terms of legislation but in criticizing both Clinton and Bush for their unconscionable failures and their capitulations to the god crowd. (Richard Gere, by the way, was as right as rain in his criticisms of Bubba on AIDS the other day.) So, it seems to me that your obsession with the theocratic terrorists abroad is leading you to swallow a particularly noxious, deadly, life-taking form of theocracy at home which kills the innocent way beyond our shores. And I can't recognize the friend whose writings on the Christers, like La Mere Teresa and other revealed-religion frauds, have been so deeply felt and flawlessly argued, with the chap who's now crying Vote for Bush. Did you read Dubya's remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast this week, in which he affirmed that all his policies are based on his religious views? Tell me, cher ami, that you don't buy this Texas bouillabaisse of superstitions. You don't, do you? ... posted by Steven Baum 3/13/2003 01:37:55 PM | link Wednesday, March 12, 2003 QUOTE OF THE WEEK "Forty years ago, he would have called me a communist, and 70 years ago, he would have called me a Jew." Sy Hersh, on being called a terrorist by Richard Perle (via Altercations) posted by Steven Baum 3/12/2003 04:14:42 PM | link THE PLUNGE PROTECTION TEAM AT WORK? Is Nelson Hultberg another paranoid conspiracy addict, or is the market manipulated by the very powerful to their political and financial advantage? The contention that the Cabal and its operatives lie like rugs doesn't exactly cast doubt on the rest of the story. ... Here's a hypothetical assessment of how such manipulation could be brought about. It's early Friday morning in Washington D.C. around 7 AM. Some of the head boys in the PPT are pretty certain that they are going to have to intervene into the markets today and do some price shoring up, as well as some price suppressing. The UN Security Council is meeting, and some of the higher-ups at the Treasury Department have let it be known that they do not want any embarrassing market plunges today. Since the Dow looks especially vulnerable, and gold is threatening to break $360 (which would requireWashington's banker buddies in New York to incur some big short position losses), it is necessary to swing the PPT into action in a vigorous way. Thus, some of PPT's senior members at JPM and Goldman are notified to begin heavy buying of S&P futures if the market weakens today and looks like it may start crashing. JPM and Goldman both check to make sure adequate funds have been wired from their special PPT offshore accounts to cover "market stablization activities." They then alert their agents to be prepared to buy S&P futures and sell Gold futures heavy. Since both the equities and gold markets are especially threatening this day, and the PPT does not want to take any chances of them blowing past its buy and sell efforts, its senior members decide to help strengthen their MONETARY intervention with some PSYCHOLOGICAL pressure. They decide that "mood enhancement" is also needed to turn around the heavy pessimism of the investing public today. Such mood enhancement is decided to be carried off by the floating of a sensational rumor, something that will inject a jolt of confidence into traders and stampede the equity shorts to cover and the gold longs to dump. This will accomplish two things. Number one it will bolster JPM's and Goldman's manipulation trades making them that much more effective while requiring less money. And number two, it will provide a reason for the sudden turnaround, which will diminish any suspicion about blatant intervention by all the cynics and conspiracy theorists. Seeing that one of al-Qaeda's top operatives, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, has just been captured in Pakistan, it is decided that the rumor plant will be that two of bin Laden's sons have also been captured. This will be positively electrifying to the market, because it will imply that the apprehension of bin Laden himself is close at hand, and that al-Qaeda is just about finished. To initiate the plan, PPT authorities call a low level CIA contact in Pakistan. They tell him to plant the rumor that U.S. forces have just arrested two of bin Laden's sons in a fierce gun battle near the Afghanistan border. The CIA contact is instructed to pick a local village politician to relay the information to, someone he knows will spread it. Baluchistan Home Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zahri immediately comes to the CIA contact's mind. Zahri is well respected among his peers, but not overly sophisticated in the ways of the U.S. Government. So he readily believes the CIA contact when he phones him with the false report about the capture of bin Laden's sons. Being human, Zahri is eager to spread such startling news right away. Being a public official, he seeks to publicize it and notifies several reporters in the area. Being human, the reporters accept the rumor as "confirmed" because it came from a "public official" with CIA connections. They then rush it onto the international wire services. The frenzy begins as the news hits New York City about 11 AM and proceeds to make the rounds. CNBC quickly picks it up, and being human, they run with it over the air. Flashing "Alert" graphics appear on their telecast, and gushing talking heads spell out the wondrous news to millions of investors throughout the world. The report streaks throughout the trading floor in the way electricity lights up a city after a blackout. The story is reported and enhanced repeatedly. "President Bush to soon make an announcement about the capture!" flashes on one of CNBC's bulletin bands. Fear pulverizes the shorts, and they stampede to cover. Longs rush in to catch the train before it leaves the station. Equities rally big time, while over at Comex just the opposite is happening. PPT's banker buddies have shorted gold substantially and the price of all delivery months tank over $10.00 in 30 minutes. The threatened move past $360 is defeated. Long closeouts descend into the pits like balloons coming down at a political convention. After the dust settles at days end, a different picture evolves, however. A Los Angeles Times story reports on the wondrous news, "Although the latest report came out of Pakistan, Major Gen. Rashid Qureshi, a presidential spokesman, accused anonymous U.S. sources in Washington of feeding, in some cases, what he called false information to reporters." In an interview on Friday Qureshi states, "I don't know how these reports based on Washington sources are claiming that there have been arrests in Baluchistan. I have checked up with the intelligence agencies, and there is absolutely nothing. I don't say that sources in Washngton are liars, but they are certainly not telling the truth." [Reprinted in The Dallas Morning News, March 8, 2003, p. 18A] ... posted by Steven Baum 3/12/2003 01:37:05 PM | link WHERE ARE YOUR PAPERS!!! WorldNetDaily tells us what the power abusers are trying to get away with. Larry Wallace, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, has been forced to apologize publicly for the actions of TBI agents at a peace protest on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Wallace, whose tenure as director has been highly controversial, sent undercover agents to the Wednesday protest, which drew several hundred participants, to gather information. One of the agents approached several speakers, identified himself as a TBI agent, and demanded the correct spelling of their names, their addresses, and other personal information. One protester, speaking on condition of anonymity, told WND, "I felt like I was confronted by the Gestapo. I was literally afraid and horribly concerned." But the protesters weren't the only ones concerned. Newly inaugurated Gov. Phil Bredesen issued an immediate condemnation of the TBI operation, calling it a "huge mistake." In a public statement, Wallace readily admitted to having sent undercover operatives to videotape recent anti-war rallies. According to Wallace, the "covert" operation was pursued to "protect protesters and ensure there were no threats to national security." He denied, however, that the state's top police agency was keeping files on protesters. Wallace also acknowledged that agents had not been sent to pro-war rallies in the state. ... posted by Steven Baum 3/12/2003 01:20:02 PM | link Tuesday, March 11, 2003 INFORMATION IS EVIL Here's an item (via Atrios) about the Ignorance Is Bliss Administration's attempts to create even more bliss. The Washington Post details how the Cabal wants to spread joy to the states, i.e. those sacred containers of States' Rights. ... Last month, the nation's governors came to Washington complaining about inadequate federal funding for the states. But states are about to find it much harder to make this complaint -- because the Bush administration has decided to stop publishing the budget report that states use to see what money they are, or aren't, getting from Washington. The White House's Office of Management and Budget is discontinuing the annual report called "Budget Information for States" -- the primary federal document reporting how much states get under each federal program. In fiscal 2003, the report ran 422 pages. In 2002, it was 415 pages. And for fiscal 2004? "The volume will not be produced this year," said Trent Duffy, OMB's spokesman. He said the change will reduce the cost of "paper and producing another volume." ... Yep, that publication was a real budget buster. It probably cost as much as the weekly maintenance budget for one fighter aircraft, i.e. it was the moral equivalent of killing a U.S. soldier. posted by Steven Baum 3/11/2003 01:47:03 PM | link THE HISTORY OF THE PLANS Michael Klare reports on the history of the Cabal's plans to invade Iraq, including details of an internal squabble over how to carry it out. ... From the available evidence, namely the accounts of those with access to senior administration officials, President Bush gave his approval for the initiation of advance planning for a war with Iraq at some point following the 9/11 terror attacks, and certainly before his "axis of evil" statement in February 2002. By the spring of 2002, newspapers were reporting that the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), General Tommy R. Franks, was well advanced in early preparations for a war, and was meeting regularly with senior Pentagon officials in Washington to develop the basic plan of attack. By this point, senior American officials were also meeting with military and government leaders in friendly Middle Eastern countries to secure permission to deploy U.S. troops on their territory in anticipation of an assault on Iraq. But this is when an internal Pentagon struggle over timing and tactics arose. Many senior officials in Washington, led by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, favored an innovative plan of attack that would require a relatively small invasion force of approximately 50,000-75,000 U.S. combat troops. This plan, modeled on the war in Afghanistan, would have relied on the heavy use of American air power combined with the extensive use of U.S. Special Forces and "proxy" armies made up of anti-Hussein Kurds and Shiites. This plan was particularly attractive to many administration officials because it could be implemented quickly--by the early fall of 2002--thus reducing the risk that international diplomacy and domestic protest would be able to erect any barriers to a U.S. attack. The "Afghanistan Redux" plan was opposed, however, by many senior military officers--uncomfortable from the beginning with the idea of invading Iraq and occupying Baghdad--who feared that the small American invasion force would be chewed up by Iraqi armored divisions. They lobbied instead for a more conservative plan, entailing the deployment of about 200,000 American combat troops, backed up by powerful armada of ships and planes. This plan, sometimes called "Desert Storm Lite," would have required an additional several months to put into motion, pushing the theoretical starting date for a war into February 2003. (The terms "Afghan War Redux" and "Desert Storm Lite" appear in an article by Pentagon correspondent Thomas E. Ricks in the Washington Post for July 31, 2002.) All last summer, senior administration officials fought over which of these plans (or variations thereof) should be adopted. On one side in this debate were the administration "chicken hawks" (so called because they had largely avoided military duty over the course of their careers) like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Douglas Feith (the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy); on the other side were career military officers, led by General Franks of CENTCOM. According to some reports, Franks was repeatedly sent back to his headquarters in Florida to redesign the attack plan because his proposals were considered too conservative (i.e., too slow) by the chicken hawks in Washington. From what can now be determined, it appears that President Bush finally made a decision on which of these invasion plans to follow in late August. Possibly fearing the political fallout of a battlefield disaster should a lightly equipped U.S. invasion force confront heavily armed Iraqi forces, Bush selected the more conservative military strategy favored by Tommy Franks. At that point, the countdown to war began in earnest as preparations got underway for the deployment of some 200,000 U.S. combat troops to the Middle East. But no matter how eager the chicken hawks were to go to war, it is not possible to move 200,000 troops and all their equipment to a battlefield 8,000 miles away overnight. It takes time: six months at a minimum. So, when President Bush gave the go ahead in late August, the earliest starting time for the initial attack automatically became late February or early March of 2003. Since early September everyone in the know in Washington has been aware that the war will break out sometime around March 1st, give or take a few days. ... posted by Steven Baum 3/11/2003 01:15:42 PM | link REWRITING HISTORY The Memory Hole details how the "liberal" media changes history to make the Cabal look better. When Bush gave his second prime-time press conference in two years (on 6 March 2003), in a flustered moment, he admitted that the production was "scripted." But in transcripts of the event, all media outlets, except one, have changed or removed that embarassing moment. ... posted by Steven Baum 3/11/2003 01:03:52 PM | link DEMOCRACY MARCHES ON Bruce Kennedy describes a press conference in Pakistan that provides further insights into that burgeoning democracy, and which also probably gave Ari Fleischer a stiffy. Foreign journalists had to give their head a shake today when they attended a first-ever press briefing by Pakistan?s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), a dog-and-pony show to tout what they claim is their "independent" capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Addressing journalists from CNN, ABC and other major media at the ISI headquarters in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, in what appears to be an effort to counter growing US criticism of Pakistan's efforts to apprehend "terrorists", events immediately got off to a bad start. Journalists were required to hand over cells phones at the door Monday morning which they gladly obliged but the further request to leave their notepads and pencils outside was another matter. After media members objected saying that these tools of the trade were necessary to ensure their story was told accurately, ISI officials reneged and allowed them to bring in their pens and papers. ... The remainder of the article raises yet more questions about the supposed capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the latest and greatest "most dangerous man in the universe," a myth made all that much harder to believe by the officially released Cabal picture that showed him looking like John Belushi after a two-week bender. posted by Steven Baum 3/11/2003 12:53:52 PM | link POWELL'S DESCENT This ABC item is remarkable only for the illustration of Colin Powell's credibility further dropping out of sight. On one of the Sunday morning propaganda circuses, Powell responded thusly to reports that both the "aluminum tubes as nuclear weapons" and "Iraq tried to obtain uranium from Niger" stories pushed by the Cabal are false: "Well, with respect to the aluminum tubes, we still believe the case is out. The CIA has done a great deal of analysis on those tubes. They are not persuaded that they're just for rockets." "With respect to the uranium, it was the information that we had. We provided it. If that information is inaccurate, fine." That second statement can be shortened to "if the information we provided is inaccurate, fine" or, even more succinctly, "so we lied, big deal". posted by Steven Baum 3/11/2003 12:43:08 PM | link KILL THE WITNESSES GuluFuture tells of the Pentagon's plans for reporters who fail to toe the line. The Pentagon has threatened to fire on the satellite uplink positions of independent journalists in Iraq, according to veteran BBC war correspondent, Kate Adie. In an interview with Irish radio, Ms. Adie said that questioned about the consequences of such potentially fatal actions, a senior Pentagon officer had said: "Who cares.. ..They've been warned." According to Ms. Adie, who twelve years ago covered the last Gulf War, the Pentagon attitude is: "entirely hostile to the the free spread of information." "I am enormously pessimistic of the chance of decent on-the-spot reporting, as the war occurs," she told Irish national broadcaster, Tom McGurk on the RTE1 Radio "Sunday Show." Ms. Adie made the startling revelations during a discussion of media freedom issues in the likely upcoming war in Iraq. She also warned that the Pentagon is vetting journalists according to their stance on the war, and intends to take control of US journalists' satellite equipment --in order to control access to the airwaves. Another guest on the show, war author Phillip Knightley, reported that the Pentagon has also threatened they: "may find it necessary to bomb areas in which war correspondents are attempting to report from the Iraqi side." ... posted by Steven Baum 3/11/2003 12:24:31 PM | link Sunday, March 09, 2003 MORE "DEMOCRACY" IN PAKISTAN Here's a good 'un. President Musharraf of Pakistan - whose mandate for leadership came via a military coup - decided last week to amend the constitution, something he can do whenever he wants without the consent of the people via either a direct vote or a vote by their representatives. The opposition in Parliament which, by the way, Musharraf can dissolve whenever he wants to, objects to this. So what Fleischerian comment does the leader of Musharraf's ruling party come up with to describe the workings of one of the essential features of any real democracy? ... Later, the leader of the governing Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q), Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, denounced the opposition groups and accused them of undermining democracy. He asked them to accept the LFO in order to ensure the smooth working of parliament. ... Look for Musharraf to dissolve the parliament sooner rather than later if the opposition doesn't shut up and do as Musharraf (i.e. the Cabal) tells them, an act of true democracy that's sure to give Bush, Rumsy, Cheney, etc. sharp pangs of envy when it happens. posted by Steven Baum 3/9/2003 09:15:29 AM | link KURDS AWAIT NEXT BUSH BETRAYAL The Washington Post describes how the Iraqi Kurds are preparing for another betrayal at the hands of the Bush Clan. An obvious prediction is to expect the "good" Iraqi Kurds to be suddenly found to have gone "rogue" and joined with the "evil commie" Turkish Kurds after the former's political expediency as an invasion pretext has vanished. ... For the first time since the modernization program began in 1997, the pesh merga are being deployed to defend against an invasion of their territory, a U.S.-protected haven in the northern stretches of Iraq where the Kurds have enjoyed self-rule since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But the pesh merga are not deploying against the forces of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to the south. Rather, units are taking up posts in towns and villages along the border with Turkey, preparing to repel Turkish troops if they try to occupy the Kurdish zone during the expected U.S.-led war against Iraq. The Turks are their historic enemies, having repressed Kurdish nationalism inside Turkey. The Kurds believe Turkey is now poised to do the same inside Iraq. The Bush administration appears to be a partner in the Turkish plan. To persuade its NATO ally to provide it with bases and easy access to northern Iraq, the United States has discussed letting the Turks into the Kurdish zone. The Turks say they will move in -- reports from Turkey say troops and equipment are already moving toward the border. The purpose, Turkish leaders say, is to prohibit refugees from flowing into Turkey, keep the Kurds from declaring independence and disarm the pesh merga. ... posted by Steven Baum 3/9/2003 08:39:24 AM | link

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