Haven't the terrorists already won?

That's a question that I ask myself more and more nowadays, and one I almost brushed off the first time I heard it, uttered by my wise friend Fabrizio. Given the fact that there isn't a bigger outcry about what this president did to this country, my only guess is that many others did the same brushing, and they probably haven't realized yet how far back in time this country has gone in the short time span of four years.

9/11 was a horrible day and what happened that day will never be forgotten, nor should it, but at the same time will never be fully avenged. Not even capturing Osama bin Laden alive and killing him on live television for the whole world to see would bring those who died that day in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania back. Nothing could.

What Bush has done to this country ever since, however, is just as horrible and could be undone only by his impeachment and removal from office. The damage he inflicted to America's image and standing on the world stage and to Americans' freedoms and rights cannot be expunged without a radical, shocking action. At this point, Bush is like a cancer for America. Only a good dose of chemotherapy and some surgery could stop it in its tracks.

The Abu Ghraib torture scandal, the Valerie Plame scandal, the corruption scandals, the lying to us to trick us into letting him drag us into an unjust, illegal, immoral war, the cronyism, the lack of responsibility and accountability, the incapability to act like a leader when disaster strikes and the people need you most, the disregard for the poor and the needy to the benefit of the rich and ultra-rich, and now, the hubris shown in ordering to spy on American citizens' phone conversations and emails and refusing to stop doing it.

I read a good article about how much this country has lost since 9/11 in terms of liberties and freedoms by Robert Steinback on the MiamiHerald.com. This is the crucial passage, but the whole article really deserves a read:

President Bush recently confirmed that he has authorized wiretaps against U.S. citizens on at least 30 occasions and said he'll continue doing it. His justification? He, as president -- or is that king? -- has a right to disregard any law, constitutional tenet or congressional mandate to protect the American people.

Is that America's highest goal -- preventing another terrorist attack? Are there no principles of law and liberty more important than this? Who would have remembered Patrick Henry had he written, "What's wrong with giving up a little liberty if it protects me from death?''

Bush's excuse for what he did is that he has to do anything he has to in order to protect us from other terrorist attacks, and that he's keeping us safe. As a result, he has broken the law, federal and constitutional, but won't repent or stop doing it. Not too many people seem, so far at least (I hope,) too concerned or outraged by his actions, but I for one beg to disagree. What he did was illegal and wrong. He should stop doing it immediately, and also pay a price for what he did so far.

I guess, being a foreigner, I feel the whole spying a lot closer to home than the average American, but you should be outraged too. I now know for a fact that all my emails to my friends and my weekly phone calls to my parents in Italy have been overheard, evaluated, probably copied and stored, and classified according to Bush's frame of reference (and that's what I like the least, I mean, the guy is a freak.)

I have nothing to hide, and I'm sure my emails haven't raised any anti-terrorism flags, but I'm just as sure that I've been labeled as dangerous because I don't agree with the administration policies. God forbid any error ever occurred to my legal status in this country, I could be jailed without any rights indefinitely, without being able to see or talk to my family for years... or ever.

Now, you might say, Well, if you've got nothing to hide, then why worry? And you'd be right, if only it were true that this administration never lied or misrepresented the facts, or made a mistake and accused an innocent of a crime he or she didn't commit, or labeled as dangerous and viewed as a threat to national security an organization like PETA, which only cares for the welfare of animals.

Well, to you, my dear friend, who thinks there is nothing wrong with the government spying on my communications if I have nothing to hide, since I'm not American and who knows if I can really be trusted, I would like to ask, Do you still feel like it's ok for the government to spy on people now that it's come out that it's not just foreigners they are targeting, but ANYBODY?

And that includes you too. Maybe you just called an old friend from college who now lives in France, or maybe you just called that hotel in Spain where you plan to spend your next vacation, but you can't be sure that your name hasn't been inserted in a file somewhere on a well hidden computer hard drive and be kept for future reference, just in case, you know... something happens...

This country has always been regarded as the bastion of liberties and democracy. Whenever a dictator raised his head anywhere in the world, he knew that sooner or later, he might have had to deal with the United States of America and all its mighty power, be it military, economic, or political.

Today, no country in the world is proud to side with the US of A, which is seen as a bully, a lawbreaker, a torturer, and a greedy nation that'll do anything to get its way, no matter how many treaties it has to breach, how many promises it has to break, or how many innocents it has to jail, torture, or kill.

Nice work George. How many more years of you bruising our face do we have to endure? Not too many if Americans realize what's happened to them and the Congress lives up to its constitutional duties of oversight of the executive branch and the president's illegal actions.

Let's just hope for a better 2006 for America and what it always stood for.

Alien

I just realized I forgot to post about the last book I read, Alien by Alan Dean Foster. It's good, although I still can't figure out if it's an adaptation of the movie or if the movie is an adaptation of this book. The book states the latter, but the two are so similar, and that rarely happens, that the former looks more likely.

I don't know, all I know is that I can't find the book itself on online resellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which is quite unusual, and I'm a little bothered by the whole thing, because I certainly wouldn't have wasted any time reading a book based on a movie I saw. I don't know why, but I feel like the adaptation process works only one way, not both.

Anyway, for anyone who hasn't read the book or seen the movie, stop reading here, there are spoilers ahead.

The story is about the crew of the Nostromo, a commercial spaceship en route to Earth that is forced on a detour by the onboard computer known as Mother to investigate an alien communication.

The crew is none too happy to have been disturbed from its deep sleep hybernation for a mission that will only delay their return home and their fat paycheck collection, and that has nothing to do with their "day jobs," but they have to oblige. Only the scientific advisor seems positively ecstatic about the possibility of such a promising discovery, which makes sense, given his duties... and his real nature and mission.

One of the crew members ends up being attacked and infected by the alien life form they went to investigate, and eventually the whole crew is taken down, one by one, until Ripley, the sole human survivor, and her cat Jones are able to take the escape-pod to safety and kill the alien on the way to it.

Like I said, a great story, a good book, a must-see movie. The reason I now believe the book is an adaptation of the movie is that nowhere was a particular event not recounted in the movie or needed me to create a mental image for it. But why then would the book say the movie is an adaptation?

All considered, it was a good read, but I had bought the book a while back and was in Italian, which I wouldn't do anymore now. Just like watching a movie not in its original language is something I don't enjoy anymore, reading a book not in its original language felt forced and at times fake. Amazing how I never felt that way for most of my life, and I would never have known the difference had I not moved to the States.

Bush is no compassionate man

I read this CNN article this morning and this paragraph caught my eye:

Among successes the White House claims in 2005: A bankruptcy law that made it harder for Americans to wipe out their debts, legislation to discourage multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuits and confirmation of John Roberts as chief justice of the United States. Bush also won a free trade pact with six Latin American countries. There was a highway bill, at last, to modernize the transportation network. He also got major energy legislation -- the first such national plan in more than a decade -- although the act does little in the near-term to ease gas prices, which topped $3 a gallon after the hurricane.

So, let's analyze the self-titled compassionate-conservative Bush's successes:

• he was able to get through Congress a bill that makes it much harder for ordinary Americans to declare bankruptcy in order to start over when you're swamped by debt (for example with a hospital, after a grave illness for which you had no insurance to pay,) while corporations can still declare bankruptcy to get out of their commitments to their customers;


• he was able to get through Congress a bill that makes it much harder for ordinary Americans to sue multimillion dollar corporations in so-called class-action lawsuits in order to hold them accountable for their misdeeds (for example when such companies hide the evidence that their product causes cancer or death;)


• he was able to get through Congress a highway bill that was so full of pork, it dripped fat all over the place (this after he pledged not to sign anything that showed any sign of pork at all;)


• he was able to get through Congress an energy bill that doesn't help ordinary Americans or the environment, but only his fat friends in the oil industry.

Now, tell me again, how are we supposed to consider these as successes??

Successes for whom? Certainly not the American people, who gave the moron his job.

Mariah ties the King

I recently posted about Madonna tying the King, Elvis Presley, for the highest number of Top 10 hits in history (36) on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

And now, it's Mariah Carey's turn to catch up to the King:

CAREY ON: With "Don't Forget About Us" now topping Billboard's Hot 100 chart, Mariah Carey has tied Elvis Presley for second place among recording artists with the most No. 1 singles in the rock era. Carey and the King now each have 17 (although some music-biz sources credit Presley with 18; long story), while The Beatles boast 20 (backwards versions not included).

And considering that she's just 35 years old, what are the chances that she won't pass both Presley and the Beatles to become the artist with the most No. 1 singles ever?

I really like Mariah Carey. Her voice is a gift for humanity to hear, I believe, but she fell off my grace when she decided to go all rap and hip-hop on me. Why? Because that kind of music's beats stifle her voice, to the point of suffocation, which, with a voice like that, should be considered a criminal offense.

The last album I have of hers is, unfortunately, Glitter, given to me by my dear friend Vittorio who didn't know I had stopped really caring about her at that point. Her last effort, The Emancipation of Mimi, garnered critical praise (and obviously public support,) and I've been mildly tempted to consider buying it, but I haven't yet and don't know if I will. It feels like she went back to her roots not because she believed in them, but because they sold more then her latest efforts.

Who knows, maybe someday I'll give her another try. After all, even criminals deserve a second chance.

A tiger can't change its stripes...

As usual, Bush presented a rosier picture about Iraq and its new parliamentary elections than reality seems to offer. In other words, he lied.

He said, rightly so, that it was unprecedented and historical that the citizens of Iraq could freely vote, but accusations of voting irregularities and rigging have surfaced that put the whole election result into question.

Actually, Bush might be caught in a catch 22 here, since he can't denounce the election as irregular and call for a do over (since he'd lose face, not having allowed one when his first dubious election was called into question) and at the same time is faced with the same religious fanatics who rule Iran to take over in Iraq. What a position. No wonder the guy looks 20 years older then when he took office 5 years ago!

Obviously, nobody knows what will happen, but the secular parties and the Sunnis are already threatening to refuse the results and boycott the next parliament if an international review isn't conducted. Well, wouldn't that be a pretty sight?!

A few quotes from Yahoo! articles here:

Dozens of Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups threatened to boycott Iraq's new legislature Thursday if complaints about tainted voting are not reviewed by an international body.

A representative for former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi described the Dec. 15 vote as "fraudulent" and the elected lawmakers "illegitimate."

A joint statement issued by 35 political groups that competed in last week's elections said the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, which oversaw the ballot, should be disbanded.

It also said the more than 1,250 complaints about fraud, ballot box stuffing and intimidation should be reviewed by international organizations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference or the Arab League.
[...]
"We hold the IECI responsible for all the violations which took place during the elections and demand that it be dissolved and a suitable alternative to be found," said the statement read by Ali al-Timimi, the head of the Hilla al-Fayha List, a secular Shiite ticket Babil province south of the capital.

"If this is not achieved, then we will have no choice but to refuse the results and boycott the new parliament."

and here:

More than 10,000 people marched through Baghdad on Tuesday in support of a national unity government of Sunnis and Shiites.
[...]
Officials said insurgents were trying to deepen the political turmoil surrounding the contested vote. Preliminary figures have given a big lead to the religious Shiite bloc that controls the current interim government.
[...]
Sunni Arab and secular Shiite factions are demanding that an international body review more than 1,500 complaints, warning they may boycott the new legislature. They also want new elections in some provinces, including Baghdad. The United Nations has rejected an outside review.

"We will resort to peaceful options, including protests, civil disobedience and a boycott of the political process until our demands are met," said Hassan Zaidan al-Lahaibi of the Sunni-dominated Iraqi Front for National Dialogue. He spoke in neighboring Jordan, where representatives of the groups have met in recent days.

Isn't democracy fun!

Back to work

Our second Christmas with the kids is passed and it went pretty well. They had a lot of fun opening presents, especially Nicole. I foresee Daniel will be just as excited next year, when he'll be a little older. The most amazing thing is seeing how much Nicole believes in Santa Claus. Amazing. Her eyes lit up when she saw the stockings full to the top, the missing cookies and milk, and then... she saw the tree!! Daniel was pretty much just following her, but given his energy level, I think next year he'll probably overtake her in the presents-opening race. Anyway, we went to Grandma for Christmas dinner and everything went ok. The only sad thing was seeing how tired Grandpa looks and how hard it is for him to get around now. I hope he'll get better soon. His birthday, as Nicole pointed out, is the next one up! Santa was very generous not just with the kids, but with all of us, although the kids definitely got the lion share of presents, as it should be. Anyway, I'm currently enjoying both my mug warmer and my foot rest, so... thank you Santa ;) PS: the magnet is the sweetest thing ever. Thanks.

Bird Flu Update

Unfortunately two more people have died in Indonesia, and it looks like the H5N1 virus is developing resistance to the only known drug to have any effect on the virus itself, Tamiflu:

The latest news comes as researchers reported two cases of patients in Vietnam who died after failing to respond to the drug Tamiflu.

The drug, which governments around the world have been stockpiling in case of a pandemic, is the most effective yet found in combating the virus.

The Vietnam cases, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, suggested the H5N1 virus which causes bird flu is mutating and becoming resistant to the drug.
[...]
The lead researcher into the Vietnam cases described the latest findings on Tamiflu as "very worrying" - but said they were not surprising.

Dr Jeremy Farrar said all microbes, whether parasites, bacteria or viruses, eventually started to develop drug resistance.
[...]
However, Dr Farrar said there was some evidence to suggest viruses that developed drug resistance were also less likely to gain the ability to jump from person to person.

Let's just hope the evidence holds true this time too, even though this virus has already shown several unpredictable behaviors.

The United Kingdom joins the civilized world

I'm obviously referring to the legalization of civil union ceremonies in the UK, starting this week, first in Northern Ireland, then in Scotland, and finally in England and Wales.

The biggest name to attract attention in the papers was obviously that of Sir Elton John, who "married" his longtime companion David Furnish.

The reason I'm putting the word marriage in quotes is that:

[The Civil Partnership Act] means same-sex couples can have their relationships recognised in law for the first time.

It also provides registered gay and lesbian couples with a number of legal rights and entitlements already held by heterosexual couples in civil marriages.
[...]
Couples will benefit from a major change in next of kin status and inheritance tax and pension rights.
[...]
The couples will be granted new rights in areas such as employment, pension and inheritance. But the partnerships are not officially regarded as marriages under UK law.

So it's definitely not perfect, but it's a good start, that puts the UK ahead of many other European countries (though some are ahead of it, like Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands) and certainly of the US.

A good week for gay civil rights.

Europe, the big polluter

I often blast the US for not doing more to save our planet from the damaging effects of global warming, but this time I'm pointing the finger at Europe. This article from Energy Bulletin (originally posted on The Independent,) says that Europe is polluting much more than any other country in the world, except for the US of course, which pollutes twice as much as Europe:

The document highlights Europe's "ecological footprint", the estimated land area required to produce the resources each person consumes and to absorb the waste they produce. At five global hectares per person, the figure for the 25 EU member states is half of that for the US but larger than Japan and more than double the average for countries such as Brazil, China or India.

And the Union is not doing enough about it by far:

Europe is devouring the world's natural resources at twice the global rate.

Climate change on a scale unseen on the European continent for 5,000 years is now under way, according to the report, which warned yesterday that at current rates three quarters of Switzerland's glaciers will have melted by 2050.

The document points out that the four hottest years on record were 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004, all within the past decade, which suggests things are getting worse at a faster pace, and that 10 per cent of Alpine glaciers disappeared during summer 2003 alone.

Jacqueline McGlade, the agency's executive director, said: "Without effective action over several decades, global warming will see ice sheets melting in the north and the spread of deserts from the south. The continent's population could become concentrated in the centre."

"Even if we constrain global warming to the EU target of a 2C increase, we will be living in atmospheric conditions that human beings have never experienced. Deeper cuts in emissions are needed."

The report's authors believe that individual behaviour needs to change but also urged reform of the taxation systems to ensure that polluters pay more, and naturally, when you point the finger at big money:

The recommendation for more use of the tax system to discourage waste provoked a political row last night. The agency report called for "a gradual shift of the tax base away from taxing 'good resources' such as investment and labour, towards taxing 'bad resources', such as pollution and inefficient use".

What a surprise, who would have ever thought that the bad guys would object at being taxed more just because they are the ones causing the bigger share of the problem. Are we crazy? Why don't we pay their taxes too, so they can go out and buy themselves another private jet or something nice like that.

Europe is definitely doing more than the US on this matter, but I'm hoping the next president, whoever he (or she) is, will try to better our image in the world and reduce our polluting levels, at which point even Europe will have to do better than what it's doing now, or risk taking that notorious number one spot.

Bush, the new Hitler

A timeless post I read last week in AMERICAblog linked to this excerpt:

"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

Hermann Goering, Hitler's Reich-Marshall at the Nuremberg Trials

How scary is it that the same kind of rhetoric used by the Nazis to explain their methodology has been (and is being) used in America today by this corrupt administration to justify attacking a sovereign country based on lies and manipulated intelligence and to attack its own critics at home?

Let's just hope the few checks and balances still present in the institutions of this country, and the larger freedoms and availability of information Americans enjoy will be enough to stifle any efforts on the part of George W. Bush to bring the US back in time to the most horrifying period in the history of humanity.

George W. Bush, the WORST PRESIDENT EVER.

Madonna, the new Queen of Billboard

I read this on the TVGuide website:

THE KING IS DETHRONED: With "Hung Up" now perched at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, Madonna has tied Elvis Presley's record for the most Top 10 hits in history. Both her Madgesty and the King of Rock 'n' Roll have scored 36 apiece.

And considering that Madonna is far from dead and has quite certainly a few more hits in her future, I'm sure the tie will be broken in her favor soon, and she'll be alone on top for many years to come.

See you soon, Vittorio

Vittorio went back home almost a week ago, but the emptiness he left at home and in my life is still palpable.

We always have the best of times together, laughing like crazy teenagers and teasing each other endlessly (I'm not surprised it's hard for Ray to be around us when we're being ourselves.) The last time we spent so much time together was in 2003, and I honestly don't know when the next chance will be. Because of the kids, my trips to Italy have slowed down dramatically, and whenever I go there I always have to divide my time up among all my friends from when I lived there.

Anyway, we spent quite a bit of time together, either with my whole family or just the two of us. Our road trip to Maine was a blast, in spite of both of us being sick, which made us resemble more Maggie Smith and Judi Dench then Thelma & Louise. We saw so many beautiful spots and so many typically American things, that you casually always see in movies.

When he left last Wednesday, I was very sad. I cried. A lot. I'm hoping some time soon, we'll see each other again. In the meantime, I guess I just have to be thankful for these technological marvels called email and instant messaging, which allow us to stay in contact much more than with the more expensive telephone call.

I miss you, Vitto. Always. I wish the world were a much smaller place, or that we lived much closer. Neither is true. But our friendship is. And lives on.

Much love, Massimo.

Vitto & I are in Bucksport, ME on our road trip and after a week in the States he hasn't blogged about any of it yet!!

Technology to our rescue

I personally love technology. I can't imagine not having my computer, my car's navigation system, or my cell phone. There are, however, many people who do not like technology, and this CNN article is for them:

A Web camera in a Norwegian artist's living room in California allowed her sons in Norway and the Philippines to see that she had collapsed and call for help, one of the sons said Friday.
...
He said the family was on the verge of tears when they watched on the Web camera as ambulance personnel assisted their diabetic mother, who is recovering in the Desert Valley Hospital in California.

"I thank that camera and my sons for my life," Karin Jordal told the Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende by telephone from her hospital bed. She has lived in the U.S. and Spain on and off for the past 15 years.
...
He said the family set up Web cameras in their homes because of the high cost of staying in touch by telephone when they live so far apart.

"But now I see the Internet as a way to save lives. It's also a wonderful tool for people who live alone in some remote area, and might need help," he said.

A nice ending to a good story. Don't we all need to read stuff like that from time to time? :-)

Greenhouse effect: the big killer

The Washington Post reports on a WHO (World Health Organization) study according to which Earth's warming climate is estimated to contribute to more than 150,000 deaths and 5 million illnesses each year, and these numbers could double by 2030.

Climate change is apparently driving up rates of malaria, malnutrition and diarrhea throughout the world, but especially in developing countries where the problem has not been addressed and where existing conditions make it worse.

"Those most vulnerable to climate change are not the ones responsible for causing it," said the study's lead author, Jonathan Patz, a professor at the university's Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and its department of population health sciences. "Our energy-consumptive lifestyles are having lethal impacts on other people around the world, especially the poor."

The regions most at risk from climate change include the Asian and South American Pacific coasts, as well as the Indian Ocean coast and sub-Saharan Africa. That's because climate-sensitive diseases are more prevalent there and because those regions are most vulnerable to abrupt shifts in climate.

"Climate change makes it even more important to combat diseases of the poor, many of which are highly climate-sensitive," said Campbell-Lendrum, who wrote the Nature paper with Patz. "We already have good evidence that there are a series of significant risks to health, which makes it even more important to curb greenhouse gas emissions in a short period of time."

Much remains uncertain about the impact of climate change:

Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment issued a report this month outlining two possible scenarios with varying degrees of extreme weather events. In one, warming would simply strain the world's resources; the second "would involve blows to the world economy sufficiently severe to cripple the resilience that enables affluent countries to respond to catastrophes."

But what does Bush care about that? It's not like he's in a position of power that would allow him to help fix the problem of global warming (we all know he's not the real president, just a placeholder,) especially since he doesn't believe it even exists. And he'll be long gone from the White House when the economy starts suffering from the global effects on public health of the greenhouse effect.

Worst president. Ever.

Plamegate thickens, against White House's wishes

By now, with sacrificial-lamb-Libby indicted and out of the White House and with Rove still by his side, Bush was hoping the scandal would just die out. Not so fast Junior, not so fast.

One of the most famous American journalists of all time, one-half of the team of journalists who brought down Nixon's administration by fiercely and unrelentingly reporting on the Watergate scandal, Bob Woodward, has revealed that he was told about Valerie Plame's identity a whole month before Robert Novak's column first outed her.

He seems to support the administration's take that it was only mentioned to him casually and he, shockingly, holds that the outing of an undercover CIA spy in charge of WMDs during wartime isn't a big deal, and that no big consequences followed the revelation.

I beg to disagree. If he was told around the same time as other reporters were, and by a third high-level official in the White House, then the conspiracy charges pursued by special prosecutor Fitzgerald in his case against Libby are very well funded. Why? Because now we know that there were several administration officials engaged in divulging top secret information to reporters from widely distributed publications.

Furthermore, now we have a third White House official who endangered national security during a time of war. Woodward, in fact, said it wasn't Libby and it wasn't Rove, and he hasn't said who yet, although it looks like it's Hadley, the current National Security Adviser to Bush and former deputy of Rice when she held that position. This is certainly more problematic and damaging for the administration, since another one of the leakers is constantly by the president's side, advises him on national security (while having absolutely no respect for it) and enjoys the top-most level of clearance.

We'll see if he now gets subpoenaed by Fitzgerald (he stated he didn't come clean earlier because he didn't want to be subpoenaed or go to jail -- wait, I thought he said it was a casual conversation, if there was nothing serious about it, why worry? Why hide?)

In the end, this dark cloud is still hovering over the White House and it doesn't look like it will dissipate anytime soon, for our good luck (I hope at least it stays there until next year's midterm elections.)

Bush lied again

So the Pentagon admitted yesterday that, yes, they did use the lethal chemical white phosphorous as a weapon in Iraq, as they've been accused of doing, but not against civilians.

Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that U.S. troops used white phosphorous as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Falluja last November.

At the same time, they denied an Italian television news report that the spontaneously flammable material had been used against civilians.

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said that while white phosphorous is used most frequently to mark targets or obscure positions, it was used at times in Falluja as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants.

"It was not used against civilians," Venable said.

Now, let's analyze this. The Italian state-run television RAI's documentary that aired a couple weeks ago accused the American military of using this chemical agent in the Fallujah battle in Iraq indiscriminately, killing men, women, children, insurgents, and innocents.

As you would expect, the Pentagon denied the allegation as long as it could, until, faced with the evidence and mounting criticism and rage, it had to admit that they did use it, but not against civilians. Now, if you've been accused of something which you deny, then admit to it, but only partially, what are the chances that the part to which you're not admitting is also true and you're just trying to cover up your tracks a little longer?

Italy's state-run RAI24 news television aired a documentary last week that alleged the United States used white phosphorous shells in a "massive and indiscriminate way" against civilians during the Falluja offensive.

The State Department initially denied that U.S. troops had used white phosphorous against enemy forces. "They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters," a department Web site said.

The department later said the statement had been incorrect.

I mean, at this point, is there really anyone left in this country (or the world) who believes anything at all that comes out of these people's mouths?

Vittorio's visit

This is it, tomorrow night my very best friend, Vittorio, will be here for almost two full weeks of laughing, talking, bitching, and gossiping!!

I can't wait. If you don't count a few hours last year, it's been 2 years since we've had the chance to spend some time together. So much has happened in these two years... He hasn't even seen the kids yet! I miss him all the time and really wish we lived closer.

He actually just told me he started smoking again, which disappointed and saddened me considerably. I hope that soon he'll find the will and the strength to quit again. It's a nasty vice that has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Tomorrow around 7.30 pm, America get ready, a hurricane will make landfall in New York City!!

Shouldn't we be prepared to face the threat of an asteroid hitting the planet?

After all, it has happened countless times in Earth's geological past, and it will happen again. That's a mathematical certainty. And that's what a group of astronauts has realized and they decided to raise public awareness on the issue. They said:

Imagine last year's tsunami, last month's earthquake in Pakistan, and Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma all rolled into one -- and then some. If nations can't handle those calamities, what's going to happen when an asteroid collides with Earth?

Apparently, there is a small asteroid already on a possible collision course with Earth, and the small discrepancy that right now puts it passing just to the side of the planet could easily be wiped out by unforeseen events:

In 30 years, there is a 1-in-5,500 chance that a smallish asteroid will land a bull's eye on our planet. At 360 yards wide, it could take out New York City and much of the surrounding area.

Fortunately, experts believe further observations of the asteroid, 99942 Apophis, will almost certainly rule out an impact in 2036. Nevertheless, it's precisely that kind of predictable and preventable threat -- and the thought of being ill-prepared for it -- that alarms the world's normally intrepid spacefarers who are calling for action.

The scientists are saying that the current technology is far enough along that an asteroid could be deflected before hitting Earth, so why not get ready? Do we really want to wait until it's too late?

"The possible consequences are way worse than your run-of-the-mill natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis and hurricanes. As bad as they may be, this can dwarf them."

The association created by the scientists wants NASA to expand its Spaceguard Survey, a program that discovers and tracks near-Earth objects -- asteroids and comets -- that are at least two-thirds of a mile across. So far, 807 of an estimated 1,100 of these big rocky asteroids have been discovered in the inner solar system along with 57 comets; California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is plotting their future tracks, hoping to rule out any impact, since:

An asteroid two-thirds of a mile wide, at impact, would be enough to easily take out a good-sized European country. By comparison, an asteroid or comet believed to be six to seven miles across wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

The asteroid that could potentially pose a threat to us is called Apophis and will whiz by Earth in 2029, passing within an unnerving 18,640 miles. That's a few thousand miles closer than many communications satellites and 220,000 miles closer than the moon. Worse news is that in 2036 it will move in even closer, leading to the 1-in-5,500 chance it will strike.

Even though the asteroid will probably not hit the planet, the question is, at what point do you begin to spend hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in order to do something? Furthermore, are some places on the planet more dispensable than others?

The point of impact, for instance, could be inadvertently shifted from one part of the world to another by an intervening spacecraft, jeopardizing one country instead of another. Who's liable if an asteroid-deflecting mission goes awry? Indeed, who decides if such a mission is needed and how far in advance should that decision be made?

One way of solving the potential problem of an incoming asteroid would be a nuclear-powered (to quickly get to the asteroid) spacecraft that could either land on the asteroid and apply a small but continuous force over months in order to alter its Earth-smashing course, or hover above the asteroid and use its gravity to push it aside. Any sensational last-minute asteroid crackups "Armageddon" style wouldn't work, since the pieces could wind up on a collision course with Earth themselves. The only problem with this scenario is that the technology for such an "asteroid tugboat" is on hold because of budget cuts.

One thing is certain. It's only a matter of time before planet Earth is hit again by an asteroid and I don't think we can even remotely imagine the amount of devastation it could cause to the human species and every other on this world.

New York to lose 9/11 funds

Well this sure is the right way to get those poll numbers sinking even faster, George. From Associated Press:

Congressional budget negotiators have decided to take back $125 million in Sept. 11 aid from New York, which had fought to keep the money to treat sick and injured ground zero workers, lawmakers said Tuesday.
...
The tug-of-war over the $125 million began earlier this year when the White House proposed taking the money back because the state had not yet spent it.

New York protested, saying the money was part of the $20 billion pledged by President Bush to help rebuild after the Sept. 11 attacks. Health advocates said the money is needed to treat current and future illnesses among ground zero workers.
...
Top New York fire officials recently lobbied Congress to keep the funding. Fire and police officials say they worry that many people will develop long-term lung and mental health problems from their time working on the burning pile of toxic debris at ground zero and they want to use the money to help them.

How crazy is that?! Does Bush like behind hated by the country and being considered a failure of a president? Does he actually enjoy being a lame duck less than a year into the first year of his second stolen term?

It's already reckless that Congress decided to assign the funds for terrorism prevention measures to the states evenly instead of based on a per-capita basis or on the risks of a specific state to actually be a target of terrorists. As a result, a state like Montana that would probably never even see the shadow of a terrorist within its borders, gets as much money as the state of New York, chock full of world renown landmarks that are the primary targets of any terrorist cell.

Now, however, Bush is telling the city of New York, the worst hit on 9/11, that he wants his money back. And why? Because they haven't spent it yet? That's just sick. And as usual, the news comes out just after election day, so that the Republican candidate's chances of winning aren't hurt. And Bush doesn't have to run for anything anymore, so he can rescind any promise made, screw any other Republican running in the future.

Yes, because this shines even more light on the pack of lies that this president is willing to tell his constituency in order to get what he wants. Bush promised $20 billion dollars to the city of New York and now wants them back because he doesn't agree with how they're spending the money. Sick and slimy.

This administration, and its cronies over at the Hill, are dangerous for America. Period.

Box Office still sputtering

After the end of the summer box office, the most lucrative for Hollywood, I stopped following its performance as much, because I figured movies of higher quality were certainly going to start to come out given the approaching awards season.

Think again. It's the middle of November and, although I have never been so absent from movie theaters as I've been this year in at least two decades, I know I haven't missed much. The movies offered up by the movie capital of the world have been, to put it gently, subpar. Even compared to the usual overblown and overrated blockbusters.

This past weekend, overall receipts were down 15 percent from the same weekend last year. That's a lot of money people, and it could turn 2005 into the absolute worst year on record for Hollywood.

The big question is, will the studio moguls learn anything from it? Unlikely. There is already talk of considering this year like a bump on the road, and wait and see for 2006's performance before deciding if there really is anything to worry about. That will translate into more of the same for the audience next year, and probably the one after that, since it does take at least a couple of years for a picture to go from concept to projection booth.

I wonder how many bad years in a row it will take for movies to become enthralling again. And to think that it isn't long ago that I've seen one of the most beautiful and overwhelming pictures ever, The Hours, by Stephen Daldry.

Bad news for Bush and the GOP

Robert Novak is a very conservative journalist (the one that first outed Valerie Plame as a CIA agent to the world) and this is his take on last Tuesday's election results:

This morning, columnist Bob Novak wrote of congressional Republicans fearing for next year's elections after Tuesday's losses, "The antidote to avoid that fate is to keep as far away from President Bush as possible, a lesson underlined by the president's failed election rescue mission for former Virginia state Attorney General Kilgore. The consequences may be profound. As his approval rating dipped, Bush increasingly has been treated in Congress as a lame duck. Tuesday's Virginia outcome increases the propensity of Republican senators and House members not only to avoid their president on the campaign trail but also to ignore his legislative proposals." [Chicago Sun-Times, Novak Column, 11/10/05]

Schadenfreude.

Bush disregarded CIA warnings that there were no Al Qaeda-Iraq links

Now that the Democrats have forced the GOP's hand in the Senate to finish the so-called Part II of their investigation into whether the Bush administration lied to the Congress and the country to go to war in Iraq, more and more evidence of Bush's deceptions are coming out.

This is from today's CNN:

A January 2003 CIA report raised doubts about claims that al Qaeda sent operatives to Iraq to acquire chemical and biological weapons -- dramatic assertions that were repeated weeks later by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations in making the case for the invasion of Iraq.
...
The CIA report appears to support a recently declassified document that revealed the Defense Intelligence Agency thought in February 2002 that the source, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, was lying to interrogators.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, this week released the DIA report in alleging the administration cited faulty intelligence to argue for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
...
The document obtained by CNN was provided recently to Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who have been pressing for an investigation into the ways in which the Bush administration used intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the war.

In January and February 2003 President Bush and Powell each made dramatic assertions that Iraq had ties to al Qaeda and argued for military action to prevent Baghdad from providing its suspected stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

I'd like to know what Powell thinks of this evidence now surfacing that implicates him as well as the president, even though he was probably just reluctantly following orders. One thing is sure, he lost all his credibility here. It would have been smarter of him to quit, rather than go in front of the UN and lie for Bush and his minions, especially since he probably knew (or suspected) that the intelligence was faulty, and he could have used his sources in the Pentagon to find out if he was right.

This doesn't look good for Bush or the GOP at large. If more evidence comes out that he lied, next year the Democrats might really take back Congress, and then, what's going to stop them from impeaching Bush and Cheney?

The White House lied to the public according to the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee

Former Senator Bob Graham, who was still in office when the war preparation was undergoing, has come out publicly with his criticism of the White House saying:

"This was one of the most reprehensible and damaging breaches of American security in modern times," said Graham, who was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the fall of 2002, when the administration made its case for war against Iraq.
...
Asked directly if White House officials lied to the public about Iraq intelligence, Graham said "yes."

He said the administration suppressed "all the nuance" and internal disagreement among intelligence agencies over whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, then exaggerated the threat and covered up their activities.
...
Graham said Friday he was "suspicious" about the intelligence reports on the Iraqi threat he saw during the fall of 2002.

He voted against the war resolution, saying Iraq would drain resources from the war on terrorism.

"The administration did not want the best judgment of the intelligence community," Graham said.

"This was an administration that wanted to be blind going into this war. They did not want to have the most credible assessment of what was the reality of the case for war and the consequences of war."

Since he voted not to give the president the authority to go to war in Iraq I tend to believe him and his version of the facts, also because in the end, he was right.

And not having voted to authorize the current oil-war, he has even more credibility then, say, Hillary Clinton, for a 2008 presidential run, for which he's considered a potential candidate.

He also had this to say about the Plame-scandal:

"It's impossible to believe that Scooter Libby would have done this on his own, but rather this was part of a larger conspiracy to attempt to discredit Joseph Wilson," Graham said.

Graham called on Cheney to "defend and explain himself" in the wake of the indictment of Cheney's top aide, Lewis Libby, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak case.

So Mr. Vice President, what did you know and when, and what was your role in the leak?

PS: it looks like the Democrats have finally realized that the public is fed up with the Iraq debacle and that it is finally waking up to this administration's shrewdness when it comes to getting what they want. The public is with us and, hopefully, we'll be able to take Congress back next year and the White House in 3 more. Keep your fingers crossed...

Welcome to Kansas, ca. 1200 AD

Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back in time to the state of Kansas, USA. Yes, the religious right has succeeded in its goal to take over that state's board of education and change what's being taught to kids from scientific material to faith-based material.

Not only that, they also rewrote the definition of science.

Revisiting a topic that exposed Kansas to nationwide ridicule six years ago, the state Board of Education approved science standards for public schools Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.

The 6-4 vote was a victory for intelligent design advocates who helped draft the standards. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.

Critics of the new language charged that it was an attempt to inject God and creationism into public schools in violation of the separation of church and state.

"This is a sad day. We're becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that," said board member Janet Waugh, a Democrat.

She's so right. Right now, the whole world laughs and pities them.

The new standards say high school students must understand major evolutionary concepts. But they also declare that the basic Darwinian theory that all life had a common origin and that natural chemical processes created the building blocks of life have been challenged in recent years by fossil evidence and molecular biology.

In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

Incredible. I feel bad for all the sane parents still in the state of Kansas who will see their kids' brains sullied by these insane theories. Their only chance to make things right is to go vote next year and vote Democrat, kick those morons out of office, and change everything back to what it was (and what it should be,) once and for all.

Another school shooting

It happened Tuesday and involved a student shooter and a dead assistant principal. Another assistant principal and the principal himself were taken to a hospital.

So sad. The level of violence in this country is amazing, and the fact that there are so many guns around makes it all that much worse. I understand that it's a constitutional right to bear arms, but I don't see why there can't be more safeguards, especially when so many of these accidents have already happened and continue to happen.

It just goes to show that if you have a good enough lobbyist and enough money to throw at politicians, you can get whatever you want.

And innocent people pay the price for it. As usual.

US Army proves Bush a liar

A couple days ago, I posted about the accusation Italian public television RAI made that the US had used illegal chemical weapons (White Phosphorous) against innocent and unarmed Iraqi civilians, INDISCRIMINATELY (notice the irony here, since chemical weapons were one of the many reasons given by Bush for attacking Iraq.)

Well, now there is hard evidence that the accusation, although denied (GET OUT!!) by the Bush administration, is in fact true. And the proof comes from the Army itself, so it will be quite hard for Bush to disprove it (is he gonna start smearing the US military like he does with everyone who doesn't agree with him?)

Check out this link at Daily Kos:

"WP [i.e., white phosphorus rounds] proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."
...
there is no way you can use white phosphorus like that without forming a deadly chemical cloud that kills everything within a tenth of a mile in all directions from where it hits. Obviously, the effect of such deadly clouds weren't just psychological in nature.
...
Bogert is a mortar team leader who directed his men to fire round after round of high explosives and white phosphorus charges into the city Friday and Saturday, never knowing what the targets were or what damage the resulting explosions caused.

SHAKE AND BAKE!! Absolutely appalling. Let's see how the administration pulls itself out of this sticky mess and how much more America will be hated now in the Middle East.

President Bush. Worst President Ever.

France's riots

It's been two weeks now that France has been rattled by civil unrest that has caused a lot of property damage and plenty of political turmoil. The spark for the violence was the accidental death by electrocution of two teens of North African descent, while they were hiding from the police in an electricity sub-station in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.

The violence has spread to Paris and several other cities in France, and was feared it could spread to other European cities as well. The underlying problem is racism.

Racism exists and is a problem on both sides of the Atlantic (actually, everywhere in the world,) but it's been mostly ignored in Europe for decades. Immigrants (legal and illegal) pour into just about any European country from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe. They perform the lowest paying jobs and duties that Europeans don't want to do anymore, and are regarded as inferior to the countries' "real" citizens.

Naturally, it was only a matter of time before we would see in Europe the same kind of riots and violence America witnessed in the past decades, before and after the Civil Rights Act was added to the US Constitution.

The 'rioters' demand to be treated fairly and equally, especially if they are legal immigrants or citizens themselves, a request that is more than reasonable, if you ask me.

From CNN:

Violence in France appeared to be on the decline as officials toughened their stance against rioters and threatened to deport any foreigners convicted of involvement.

Vehicle torchings continued overnight as the unrest stretched into a 14th night. But the number of arson attacks dropped.
...
Vandals set several cars on fire in Toulouse, including one they pushed into a school courtyard, setting the facility on fire.

Another school was torched in the eastern city of Belfort, and vandalism at power stations in Lyon, France's second-largest city, caused blackouts. The night before, Lyon's subway system was shut down after a petrol bomb was thrown in a train station, French media reported.
...
Although France's national unemployment rate is about 10 percent, in areas hit by rioting the level is nearer 40 percent.

France has no affirmative action; an official French study found that youths with Arab-sounding names have their job applications rejected up to five times as often as those with traditional French names.

I'm Italian, so I can speak for experience. Immigrants come in, take up some job no one else wants to do, and try to insert themselves in the local society. Problem is, they look and sound different. Everybody knows they are immigrants, and are viewed with suspicion and diffidence, no matter their situation or behavior.

The citizens tolerate them, as long as they stay 'invisible.' As soon as they try to affirm their rights, to which they should be entitled, especially after living in a country for years, they are put back in their place, and told not to make a stink.

That's not right, and can't keep them quiet forever, especially when their population grows in number at a faster pace than the citizenry itself.

Large minority pockets can be found everywhere across the Old Continent, but they are seldom viewed or treated as the so-called 'locals.'

I'm curious to see if the latest unrest will finally bring about some much needed expansion of civil rights and full acceptance on the part of the European countries that, just like the US, can't keep on ignoring the problem of immigrants as if they didn't exist or were undeserving, since Europe's economy depends on them just as much as it depends on its 'real' citizens.

Democrats score in off-year elections

Well, well, well. Finally some good news for us liberal (= smart) thinkers.

I know that Tuesday's elections weren't for the White House or the Congress, but still, there were two governorships (New Jersey and Virginia) up for grabs, and one race was really close, but we won both.

Above all, Bush tried to help the Republican candidate by showing up Monday night in Virginia, and it totally backfired on him, since the guy lost anyway. And this will have repercussions next year during the midterm election races. Bush might be viewed as poison (just as Bill Clinton was after the Lewinsky debacle) instead of an advantage:

The loss in Virginia was a personal setback for Bush, who put his declining political capital on the line with an election-eve visit on behalf of Republican former attorney general Jerry Kilgore -- only to see him soundly defeated by Democratic Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine.

With Bush's popularity at the lowest level of his presidency, the results helped giddy Democrats claim momentum one year before elections to decide control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress and 36 governorships.
...
Kilgore's poor showing could give pause to Republicans considering calling on the president for help in the 2006 elections.

"I think it would have been closer if the president hadn't gone in there," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told reporters.

"It really is a disaster for Bush," said Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, who called the results "the logical consequence of Bush's growing unpopularity."

"Virginia is Southern and conservative and that's the Republican base," Sabato said. "If they start losing their base, it's easy to imagine both houses of Congress going Democratic."

What a nice mental image :-)

Furthermore, all the ballot initiatives championed by the once-rising-star of the Republican party, Arnold Schwarzenegger, were defeated, hence (re)positioning California solidly on the Democratic side of the electoral spectrum and dimming the prospects of the Terminator to win a full term next year.

As for gay initiatives, it was a mixed bag. A state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was approved in Texas, as expected, but an attempt to repeal an anti-discrimination law in Maine failed, and this was the only real contest that mattered (nobody thought Texas would endorse gay-rights at this juncture in time.) From MaineToday.com:

Maine voters decided Tuesday to keep the state's gay rights law on the books, making Maine the last New England state to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.

All in all, a good showing for the Democrats everywhere. Now let's just hope this is a good omen for next year's midterm elections. Wouldn't it be nice to take back Congress and then impeach the lying scumbags in the White House?

Another black eye for Bush and America

A documentary about the use last year of internationally prohibited chemical weapons on innocent civilians by US military forces in Fallujah, Iraq, will be broadcast tomorrow night in Italy by state-owned TV channel RAI:

The documentary - 'Fallujah - the hidden massacre' - uses witness accounts from former US soldiers, Fallujah residents, video footage and photographs, to support its claim that contrary to US State Department denials, white phosphorous was used indiscriminately on the city, causing terrible injuries to civilians, including women and children.

"I heard the order being issued to be careful because white phosphorous was being used on Fallujah. In military slang this is known as Willy Pete. Phosphorous burns bodies, melting the flesh right down to the bone," says one former US soldier, interviewed by the documentary's director, Sigfrido Ranucci.

"I saw the burned bodies of women and children. The phosphorous explodes and forms a plume. Who ever is within a 150 meter radius has no hope," the former soldier adds.
...
The evidence in 'Fallujah - the hidden massacre' claims to show the US forces did not use phosphorous in the legitimate way - to highlight enemy positions - but dropped the substance indiscriminately on the city, and on a massive scale. The documentary also shows the terrible damage wrought by the US bombardment of Fallujah, and the carnage to civilians, some of whom lay sleeping.

Equally disturbingly, a document in the report claims to prove that the U.S. forces have used the MK77 form of Napalm - the chemical used with devastating effect on civilians during the Vietnam war - on civilians in Iraq.

Naturally, the use of white phosphorous and Napalm is prohibited by UN conventions and the US signed up to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997, but c'mon, it's just an international agreement.

No wonder nobody respects the US in the world anymore. I wonder if the media will report about this story this side of the Atlantic.

Nice work, George. You're doing a heck of a job.

Back

I'm back at work from my business-learning-trip to Ohio. It was a very tough week, and I learned a lot. Now I'll have to practice as much as possible with the material, in order to learn even more and get better at my job.

All in all, I'm not looking forward to the next classes (sometime next year.) But like I said before, I don't have a choice and will have to attend them.

I'm still tired from the past couple of weeks. First, there was the anxiety for my midterm, then, the anxiety for the trip, then the stress of the class, then the anxiety for the test on Friday (which went very well,) and then the trip back. Friday night I was tired, but nothing compared to how I felt on Saturday. I really felt like I got beat up or something. I'm still not fully recovered.

Anyway, it's good to be back.

Almost home :-)

Rove is guilty. Why is he still working at the White House?

In this ABCNews article, Matthew Cooper, one of the reporters involved in the Valerie Plame scandal had this to say when asked who his source was:

One of the reporters at the center of the investigation into the leak of the identity of an undercover CIA officer, says he first learned the agent's name from President Bush's top political advisor, Karl Rove.

Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper also said today in an interview with "Good Morning America," that the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, confirmed to him that Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative.
...
There is no question. I first learned about Valerie Plame working at the CIA from Karl Rove," Cooper said.

Libby has since claimed that he heard the Plame rumors from other reporters. Cooper disputed that version of events. "I don't remember it happening that way," he said. "I was taking notes at the time and I feel confident."

If a trial goes ahead, Cooper said he would name Rove as his source of the information.

"Before I spoke to Karl Rove I didn't know Mr. Wilson had a wife and that she had been involved in sending him to Africa."

Why is Karl Rove still working in the White House? His name has been linked to a CIA agent outing scandal time and again, but he still has his top level post in the most powerful government in the world during a time of war, and still has access to national-security-level classified information.

Where is the outrage?! Can we think of any other president so spineless, ineffectual, arrogant, and dangerous that he keeps a traitor on his side during wartime? I believe even Reagan and Nixon weren't so stupid, insane, or crazy.

You're doing a heck of a job George. Curious to see what your legacy is going to look like in a few years.

OnBase training - Day 3

Oh my God, I'm so tired. Today was by far the worst day, so chock full of information I felt like I wanted to scream. I'm starting to really worry about the following classes, which everyone says are MUCH harder than this one. And I have no choice but attend them. Unless of course, I find another job (yeah right, like that's ever gonna happen!!) Anyway, one more lecture day and then the test. Can't wait for this whole thing to be over. I miss my family, my routine, my house. I'm homesick at this point, and I really just want to go home. I don't know how people who are always on the road do it. I guess you must be cut out for it.

Mars is nearby for a while. Take a look at it.

I, unfortunately, couldn't do it on Saturday night, when it made the closest approach of the current swing by, because the sky was all cloudy :-(

And now I'm in Ohio, where I can't see it with my telescope. Hopefully, it'll still be there on Friday when I get back, and the sky won't be cloudy again.

Good night :-)

I spoke to Ray, my love, early tonight but I just realized I forgot to tell him good night. And by the time he sees this, it's probably going to be too late, so, have a good day love. Talk to you soon. Love you. Massimo

The culture war re-ignites

This morning I was having breakfast and the TV was showing Bush's next pick for the Supreme Court (he sure didn't waste any time, feeding my fears that Miers was just a pawn in the big scheme of things -- he couldn't appoint a radical judge right away, so he picked someone everyone opposed, for different reasons, so that he could pick that radical freak next.)

The radical freak we all feared is Samuel Alito, and I sure hope with all my heart he will not be confirmed. I sure hope the Democrats will fight this nomination to the end, including through the use of the filibuster, if it comes to that.

The guy is, simply put, a radical right-wingnut and he has proven it with years of opinions on the bench. Here is one of his latest exploits:

In the early 1990s, Alito was the lone dissenter in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case in which the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses."

The Pennsylvania legislature could have rationally believed that some married women are initially inclined to obtain an abortion without their husbands' knowledge because of perceived problems - such as economic constraints, future plans or the husbands' previously expressed opposition - that may be obviated by discussion prior to the abortion," Alito wrote.

That opinion is just so crazy, I can't believe a sane person would ever express it. Abortion is such a contested issue in America, and this is the last person we want on the highest court to make decisions he clearly prejudges based on his personal views. His appointment would absolutely bring the repeal of Roe v. Wade closer to reality.

This is some more from AP:

Democrats pointed to two cases in which he had issued rulings from the bench that were rejected by the Supreme Court. More than a decade ago, he upheld a requirement for spousal notification in an abortion case. Earlier this year, with O'Connor casting the deciding vote, the high court threw out a death sentence that Alito had upheld in the case of a man who argued his lawyer had been ineffective.

While there was no immediate talk of a filibuster that would deny Alito a yes-or-no vote, Democrats also expressed dismay over rulings on gun control, immigration and the Family and Medical Leave Act over a 15-year career on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

Abortion, death penalty, gun control, immigration, health care rights. This guy is on the wrong side of every issue, and all these issues will come in front of the court within a few years. We DO NOT want some psychopath that will reject every sane argument and throw our civil rights in the crapper (and the country back in time by at least 200 years.)

This guy MUST BE DEFEATED. Period.

$$$ trumps human life

Why is that always the case? This report came out Saturday, but it's so shocking that I needed to post this here:

During the four weeks of testimony, the trial focused on a 1985 report by the Office of Special Planning, an antiterrorist task force convened by Peter Goldmark, who was the executive director of the Port Authority from 1977 to 1985.... After a visit to Scotland Yard in London that year, he wrote a memo saying that Scotland Yard was "appalled" that there would be public transient parking beneath a facility like the World Trade Center.

The report concluded: "A time-bomb-laden vehicle could be driven into the W.T.C. and parked in the public parking area. The driver would then exit via elevator into the W.T.C. and proceed with his business unnoticed. At a predetermined time, the bomb could be exploded in the basement. The amount of explosives used will determine the severity of damage to that area."

Which is exactly what happened.

That no action was taken after a warning like that from the authorities, is horrible and appalling. Congress should launch an investigation into the matter immediately.

I hope the families of the victims win millions in damages. Although the money won't bring back their loved ones, at least the same money earned by the people responsible for not taking action will change hands now and go to the victims' families.

A victory for gays!!

The Alaska Supreme Court has sided with the gay and lesbian couples who sued to obtain the benefits enjoyed by heterosexual couples when they get married, overturning a lower court ruling that had let the current discrimination in place:

Gay rights advocates claimed a major victory after the state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to deny benefits to same-sex partners of public employees.

In overturning a lower court ruling, the state high court said Friday that barring benefits for state and city employees' same-sex partners violates the Alaska constitution's equal protection clause.

And this wasn't just a fluke. It was a unanimous decision that sets the stage for Alaska to join 11 other states that already have laws, policies or union contracts providing employee benefits in all eligible same-sex unions. Furthermore, other courts in the country could now be looking to the state of Alaska on how it handled the equal protection rationale.

The city of Anchorage, the defendant, will not appeal the decision, but the Republican Governor was outraged by the decision (GET OUT!!) and is already looking at ways to undo it.

The best part of the ruling was the reasoning behind the overturning itself:

In the 2001 Superior Court ruling overturned Friday, Judge Stephanie Joannides said the state and city did not have to extend benefits to same-sex couples, equating them with unmarried heterosexual couples who also are not eligible.

The high court said that comparison failed to acknowledge the fact that heterosexual couples can choose to get married, while homosexual couples cannot.

OnBase training - Day 1

I survived. It was a loooooong day. Actually, it's not that bad, but the amount of information that the teacher throws at us is unimaginable. He has a good analogy for it: it's like drinking from a fire hose. Trust me. He wasn't exaggerating. The teacher is very nice though. Funny, knowledgeable, and willing and eager to answer any question you might have, which is great if you don't understand a concept. Hyland seems like a great company to work for. The median age must be like 30-35 and virtually every employee I saw today had a smile on his or her face. They have a meeting on Monday mornings were they have a recap of the week and where the company stands and they pick a deserving employee who gets to spin a "wheel of fortune" to win a prize (up to a $1,000 cash!) They also have a weekly barber shop (sometimes a masseuse...) and on site daycare. They even used to have a dry cleaning service where you can just drop off your clothes, they clean them for you, and you can pick them up at the end of the day. All deducted from your paycheck, so you don't even have to worry about the bill. How great is that?! The class, like I said, is a mountain of information thrown at you, and can get quite boring and dry at times. The worst part is that, because of the amount of information to teach, the guy can't slow down too much, which makes taking notes much harder. Thankfully, he said the test on Friday is open books, notes, everything we want, and whether you pass it or not doesn't even mean you won't pass the class. Phew!

Cleveland, Ohio

Here I am!! As you can see I do have Internet access, so I won't be cut off a whole week! :-)

The flight went great and was very short, like an hour. The hotel is fabulous. It's not just a room, it's a studio, with a fully furnished kitchen (regular fridge, stove, microwave, dishwasher, cooking area, and marble counters -- people, I don't even have them at home!) and a beautiful bathroom. Very nice indeed.

Well, just wanted to check in. Time for bed I'm afraid. I'm so tired.

New House!

Before I go, I want to post a picture of the house Ray and I have put an offer on. Yesterday, we had the inspection, which seems to have gone pretty well. Here it is. Isn't it beautiful?

Business trip

My very first business trip starts today. I'm leaving this afternoon for Cleveland, Ohio, to attend a week of training at Hyland Software, Inc. regarding OnBase, the base product for the development work we do at Computer SI, my company in Norwalk, Connecticut.

The class starts tomorrow and lasts till Friday, when I'll be back home with my family at last.

I'm not that enthusiastic about going, because the classes last from 9 to 5 each day (Friday we have a test from 9 to 1,) and might be quite intense. After that, I'll be all alone in a hotel room, so it certainly can't count as a vacation.

Ray won't have it too easy either, since he'll have to take care of the kids and the dogs by himself, although his mom and sister have already offered and planned on helping him a lot. (Thank you.)

I don't know if or how much I'll be able to go on the Internet, so I might be cut off all week for all I know.

I'll post more about how it's going if I can, otherwise when I'm back.

Bye,
Massimo.

Body hanging from tree mistaken for Halloween decoration

Check this out:

The apparent suicide of a woman found hanging from a tree went unreported for hours because passers-by thought the body was a Halloween decoration, authorities said.

The 42-year-old woman used rope to hang herself across the street from some homes on a moderately busy road late Tuesday or early Wednesday, state police said.
The body, suspended about 15 feet above the ground, could be easily seen from passing vehicles.

State police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Oldham and neighbors said people noticed the body at breakfast time Wednesday but dismissed it as a holiday prank. Authorities were called to the scene more than three hours later.

"They thought it was a Halloween decoration," Fay Glanden, wife of Mayor William Glanden, told The (Wilmington) News Journal.

"It looked like something somebody would have rigged up," she said.

What a sad story. It's sad enough that the poor woman didn't have the strength to go on anymore, without the added insult of being mistaken for a decoration.

An innocent mistake though, albeit unfortunate.

Mars swings by on Saturday night!

From CNN:

Mars is ready for another close-up as the Red Planet will swing unusually close to Earth this weekend.

On Saturday, Mars' orbit will bring it 43.1 million miles away from Earth, with its closest pass scheduled for 11:25 p.m. EDT.

The two planets -- normally separated by about 140 million miles -- will not be this close again until 2018.

Should make for a nice sighting with my telescope!!

Kutsher's Country Club

Oh well, I finally found the time to organize and resize the pictures of this "wonderful" place our family visited a couple weeks ago... (you can click on the pictures to see a bigger size and check out the details.) This is what we saw on the internet on Kutsher's Country Club: Pretty nice isn't it? Well, this is what we saw when we got there: I can actually picture that ceiling coming down on your head when you're heading for the emergency exit, running for your life, in a fire or something... It was raining outside... and inside. Containers were all over the place, just like in the following picture: And this is the close up of the opening in the ceiling: Another one here: Is this a place you'd call Country Club? Not I. We felt like it hadn't been renovated in at least 40 years (it actually felt like being on the set of an episode of "The Twilight Zone.") How can you even think of keeping a place like this open to the public? Here is some nice wallpapering: Electrical panels in the corridors, at anybody's reach (Ray actually joked we could shut off every room on the floor just going by and run away...), and without a door to keep it shut: This passageway led to the racquet ball courts and gym, very attractive, isn't it? Here is the detailed view: And a nice view of the outside: Then there were the signs. This one was to our room: And, as if having a sign to the rooms made of paper and stuck to the wall(paper) with duct tape (instead of, I don't know, printed metal hung on the wall,) weren't appalling enough, here's the detail of how two extra rooms were added by hand (what, they weren't there when they printed the sign?), in such little size, you can't see them if just going by, so if that's your room, you might be wandering for a while: And here's another sign. You would think, if you're printing a sign to put on a wall, something that doesn't really change daily, like this one, and you make a mistake, you fix it and print another one, right? Not at Kutsher's (and check out the nice tape they used): Speaking of the health club, this is what the men's locker room looked like: It just screams HEALTH CLUB at you, doesn't it? Yeah, more like "get in here barefoot and you'll catch some weird African disease." And to wrap this horror show up, this is the daycamp facility, which is where parents could leave their kids for the day and have some time for themselves (check out the broken mirrors held together with yellow tape): This is where they kept their supplies... ... right next to a working iron. We actually found Nicole in this exact area when we went to pick them up - in spite of it being forbidden to kids - chewing a safety pin. The girl in charge also fed them peanut butter and jelly for lunch without having asked us ahead of time if either of them was allergic to peanut butter -- so they could have ended up at the hospital. Needless to say, she didn't get any tip. And this is what the kids could play all day long with: A big fat NOTHING. All the boxes were empty!! Oh well, live and learn. Nothing much we could have done about the place's conditions I guess, but at least, like I said in a previous posting, the time we spent there, was good.

The insurgency gets stronger and more lethal

John Aravosis writes this about the over 2,000 dead American soldiers in Iraq:

We know they're dying faster -- it took 18 months for the first 1000 casualties and just 14 months for the next 1000. The insurgency is getting stronger and more lethal. So if that continues, we can expect to hit 3000 dead next August. (And we WILL still be in Iraq ten months from now.)

Nothing seems to stop the insurgency. Things will only get worse for our soldiers. We should leave soon, and quickly.

I wonder if Bush will be on his next 5-week vacation next summer when we hit 3,000 dead. Unless, of course, things get even worse and we hit that digit earlier than that. Whatever, chances are he'll be on vacation anyway.

Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad itching for war?

That would seem to be the case, given what he said in an interview:

During a meeting with protesting students at Iran's Interior Ministry, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quoted a remark from Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world."

The president then said: "And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism," according to a quote published by Iran's state news outlet, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Such a statement is reason to worry. A big reason, and to worry a lot. The reaction has been of severe condemnation from several of the world capitals, and Israel's vice premier has understandably called for Tehran to be expelled from the United Nations.

Israel's Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Iran should be expelled from the United Nations.

"Since 1945, the establishment of the United Nations, no head of state which is a member of the United Nations ever called for the destruction of another member of the United Nations, publicly and clearly, as the president of Iran did," said Peres, a Nobel peace laureate.

"It is against the charter of the United Nations, it is against the practice of the United Nations, and you cannot have a charter where some of the people are for peace and self-defense and the other half for the destruction of it."

Naturally, this is all the more troubling given the fact that Iran might be developing nuclear weapons:

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Ahmadinejad's views "underscores our concern and the international community's concerns about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons."

And it's not just the US. This morning I heard on the radio that British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that that kind of talk could justify a preemptive strike against Iran. Canada mentioned the Islamic country's nuclear ambitions as adding to the gravity of the statement. And in Europe, France, Germany, and Britain, the three countries currently involved in negotiations with Iran to avert sanctions (or worse) in exchange for Iran renouncing its nuclear ambitions, all called in their respective Iranian ambassadors to demand an explanation for the incident.

Troubling times loom ahead.