Tidbits

MISSING from the internet

• One of the best pre-2001 speeches on terrorism was by John P. O'Neill.  It used to be at this url 'http://www.NationalStrategy.com/speakers/oneill.html'.  It is nowhere anymore on the net, except in an abridged form which removes all mention to american christian terrorists.  Thanks to the Wayback Machine (which uses archive.org) I found the speech, and will keep it available here.  NOTE: This is not the douchebag who wrote the sleazy book, the guy who debated John Kerry in June, 1971, and simply repeated the government propaganda.  John P. O'Neill was probably the closest thing America had to James Bond.

Regular Stuff

• America is Iran bashing again, and, again, there is no basis in fact.  You might have read a story, like this one from the UK's Telegraph or the NY Times about this "warhead" program.  Mr Jeffrey Lewis over at ArmsControlWonk helps shred the case in a thorough manner, here.  Long story short, there is a huge difference between a "re-entry vehicle" and a warhead.  In an e-mail discussion the author of the NY Times peice quotes the START treaty for his definition of "re-entry vehicle" and then ignores the fact that, under START rules, only warheads count for anything.  Only warheads count under START, the Iran laptop (which might even be fake) discusses no nuclear issues at all and is just about re-entry vehicles (according to all accounts), but the NY times and numerous other <expletive deleted> newspapers put the word "WARHEAD" in the headline. 
  I think they are a bunch of "war heads."
• Did anyone realize that Pajama's Media, far from being innovative, appears to be a combinationg of Huffington Post and name your own right blog review here?  Anyone want to bet that some law Professor isn't the one _really_ reading all those blog entries?
• Have any of you been to Dr Khadduri's blog?  The link has been in my blogroll for a while.  He is an Iraqi nuclear scientist who defected in 1998.  If you read the comments in this post you can see he has upgraded the template of his blog, following my directions. 
• My mapping software has been reworked.  What it does is, very accurately, is depict poll numbers on a state by state basis, and can animate them for a time-lapse view.  It should not be too much trouble to expand it to a nationwide county map.  That's a "yay" for me, since the original script was a bit messy.  The technical term is refactoring and it means that it is now in a shape that makes it far easier to manage.  For instance, if someone wanted to describe a new input format, or output map, I should be able to oblige. 

And the News

• Palestinians have the right to open the Gaza/Egypt border, and do so.  The Albany, NY Times-Union has a nice picture. 
• Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group (a sort of cabal, Wes Clark is part of it) was kicked out of Indonesia, according to the Guardian.  ICG is fairly OK, but they are not particularly forthright.  A tiny Swedish outfit names Transnational.org discusses this group at length.  The shorter version is that it is a bit of a conspiracy, and they especially liked US action in Kosovo.
• According to the blog of recent commenter M., the Jazeera staff have a new blog called Don't Bomb Us.
• I didn't quote the Washington Post ombudsman before, but she's got the best quote on Bob Woodward's version of ethics and attachment to truth, from the Boston Herald

  Howell wrote that Woodward had committed a "deeply serious sin ... the kind that can get even a very good reporter in the doghouse for a very long time."
  
  "He has to operate under the rules that govern the rest of the staff -- even if he's rich and famous," she wrote.

  
  I simply suspect that Woodward is making this story up now, so wasn't acting unethically before.  His book will look shoddier and crappier the more obvious it becomes he was just a war cheerleader.