May 09, 2007
Interestingly enough, Fred seems to take issue more with the MEDIA and their handling of Tenet's claims than with what Tenet has to say for himself.
Some excerpts from the piece:
I havenÂ’t read the book, but I have followed the media accounts. My attention was drawn to TenetÂ’s statements that al Qaeda is here and waiting and that they wish nothing more than to be able to see a mushroom cloud above the United States.I think Fred makes an excellent point here about CIA intelligence. We KNEW. KNEW. that Saddam had WMDs. The evidence is overwhelming. Just because he didn't have very many LEFT at the time of the initial conflict DOES NOT MEAN that he wouldn't attempt to restock. Or get newer, more dangerous toys. And the fact that they thought those "new toys" were coming in 5-7 years doesn't detract from the danger. Ladies and Gentlemen, The CIA's "5 years from now" is NEXT YEAR. Probably less than 12 months, even. And what if that was an OVERestimate.Naturally, the media emphasis is not on that. Its attention is on any differences Tenet had with the administration. The mediaÂ’s premise is that Iraq should not have been considered a real threat to us and that the administration basically misled the country into war. While one may take issue with Tenet on several things, I was intrigued that on some very important issues, Tenet did not follow the media script when answering RussertÂ’s questions.
[...]
On the issue of weapons of mass destruction, although Iraq undoubtedly had such weapons in the past, Tenet acknowledges that everybody got it wrong as to whether they would have them at the time of the invasion. On the nuclear issue, he said that the CIA thought that Saddam was five to seven years away from a nuclear capability — unless he was able to obtain fissile material from another source.
A couple of things occur to me here. In the first place, is five to seven years that far away? Since four years have passed since the invasion, that would be only a year from now if we had not invaded. If he had been able to obtain fissile materials, the time could have been much shorter. There are over 40 countries in the world with fissile material sufficient to make a nuclear bomb and much of it is unguarded.
The CIA could have been on the short side or on the long side of the estimate. They have underestimated the capabilities of hostile nations before, such as North KoreaÂ’s missile technologies. Also, Tenet acknowledged that before the Gulf War, the CIA had underestimated how far along Saddam was on his nuclear program.
All of this hardly fits with the notion that Saddam posed no threat. As Tenet made the media rounds, he may have helped the administration as much as hurt it, but he was in no danger of having that fact highlighted by his interviewers.
I don't even want to contemplate THAT in the context of the United States NOT going after Saddam. Do you?
Posted by: caltechgirl at
12:39 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 541 words, total size 3 kb.
May 07, 2007
The video is here.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this video is that it's a single shot, no cuts, no edits.
This is honesty, or he deserves about 12 Oscars.
Run, Fred, Run!
Posted by: caltechgirl at
02:47 PM
| Comments (9)
| Add Comment
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.
HEH!May 06, 2007
The new puppy is a little black standard smooth-coated Dachshund, and CaltechMom will pick her up tomorrow.
The only problem is that we won't get to meet her until after Mom has had her for a couple of weeks. And she needs a name before then!.
This is where you all come in. We're having a hard time giving Puppy-girl a name!
We'd prefer a girly name, two syllables, since that's easiest for the dog to learn, and something suitable to a little black doxie.
Also, it can't rhyme with "Molly" or "Dolly" because the Princess' name already does.
Have at it folks. There may be a prize for the person suggesting the eventual name!
No Dog. She called my mom tonight and said her brother took my dog for himself. The rotten bastard.
Posted by: caltechgirl at
12:02 AM
| Comments (14)
| Add Comment
Post contains 184 words, total size 1 kb.
I knew a couple of cool dachshunds when I was young named Schotzy and Candy. I would never have named a dog 'candy' but it really fit this girl.
I do love Heidi for a dachshund, of course... 
May 05, 2007
I participated via web feed and the live chat room, and it was a privilege to interact with many of the leading voices of the Military Blog community. The folks who participated in the chat are here. I enjoyed speaking with all of you!
One of the highlights of today's conference was the opening address, presented via video by President George W. Bush:
Kudos to Andi for putting the whole thing together so brilliantly. Thanks to all the panel participants and speakers for sharing your thoughts. And last but not least, thanks to BloodSpite and Mrs. Greyhawk for running the live chat and streaming video!
RG has pictures of the Tiara Gals who were present for today's festivities.
Posted by: caltechgirl at
05:27 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 135 words, total size 1 kb.
Here's last night's Fred speech, as mentioned below:
Also, Weekend Pundit has a great roundup of recent Fred links. more...
Posted by: caltechgirl at
11:59 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 59 words, total size 2 kb.
May 04, 2007
Last weekend a traffic jam several miles long snaked out of the Mansour district in western Baghdad. The delay stemmed not from a car bomb closing the road but from a queue to enter the city's central amusement park. The line became so long some families left their cars and walked to enjoy picnics, fairground rides and soccer, the Iraqi national obsession.Across the city, restaurants are slowly filling and shops are reopening. The streets are busy. Iraqis are not cowering indoors. The appalling death tolls from suicide attacks are often high because of crowding at markets. These days you are as likely to hear complaints about traffic congestion as about the security situation. Across Baghdad there is a cacophony of sirens from ambulances, firefighters and police providing public services. You cannot even escape the curse of traffic wardens ticketing illegally parked cars.
It's a fantastic piece that tells the side of the story that we rarely ever hear. The rest is excerpted below the jump.
Hey Dummocrats, you really think we should leave now?
Posted by: caltechgirl at
04:18 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 852 words, total size 6 kb.
One of the worst examples of this gender oppression was Afghanistan during the Taliban days. Women were not allowed to go to school, to work outside the home or even go out in public without a male family member. A woman with a medical emergency, but no male relatives to take her to a doctor, was expected simply to suffer or die. An aged woman with no one to bring her food was expected to starve. Too many did.Life for women under the Taliban and similar governments ought to inspire anger and indignation in everybody, especially human rights advocates. IÂ’m constantly surprised, however, by the apparent apathy among many who say they care about the rights of women and other minorities.
I doubt, for example, that our television networks have spent as much time exposing the horrors of life for millions of women in pre-liberation Iraq and Afghanistan as theyÂ’ve spent covering Abu Ghraib. For some reason, everyday atrocities such as the endemic beatings, honor killings and forced marriages of women just donÂ’t seem to be newsworthy.
The other side of that coin is that we also rarely hear about dramatic improvements in the lives of women when they come about due to American actions.
Fred's right. Where is the outrage at the perpetrators of these crimes? Where is the praise for those who come in behind and right the wrongs? Whether the hero is from the US or anywhere else?
Why does the media CONSISTENTLY portray the US as the world's only bad guy? Because we supposedly know better than the savages who live in other, less-advanced countries? Are they saying that people from other countries are STUPID? Or just that we should expect this kind of behavior, as we would from children, or animals who don't know any better?
Evil is evil. Cruelty is cruelty. Period. It shouldn't matter whether it's a battered wife in Peoria or a widow starving to death in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Everyone should be brought to task for their bad acts equally.
On the other hand, good is good, too. And it should be praised. Yet we never hear the good stories, the uplifting moments, the people and programs that reach out. All we hear is the bad, when it finally gets reported.
We should challenge ourselves to do as Fred ultimately suggests, to look at both sides of the story and ask "Where is the outrage? Whence comes the help?" and put these events back into real-life perspective, rather than seeing them only in the harsh blue glow thrown off by the boob tube.
h/t HWNNL
Posted by: caltechgirl at
01:57 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 456 words, total size 3 kb.
[T]his is aimed at everybody who fails to understand that going to college means they're supposed to put some effort into their education:Amen Sistah! I suspect many of you educators out there know exactly what she's talking about too!
1. No, I don't offer extra credit. Especially AFTER the final exam, when you would be the only one with the opportunity to do it.
2. I'm really sorry you got a D, but if you had paid attention to what I was saying earlier in the semester, and if you had paid attention to the fact that all the grades on the tops of the papers I handed back to you were Ds, it should not come as a shock to you.
3. I'm terribly aggrieved that you will, in fact, not be able to graduate. However, there are consequences for one's actions and one of the consequences of not doing the work in a class is that you fail the class. And one of the consequences of failing a class may be that you do not get to graduate. However, after the final exam is not the most opportune time to consider this possibility.
4. No, I cannot give an "incomplete" because you failed the class. "Incomplete" is for people who are PASSING, but, say, give birth three weeks before the semester is over. Or break their leg. Or have to care for their post-op father. Do not demean the purpose of an "incomplete" by trying to use it to save your own sorry ass.
5. And to all the people who call me on the phone 20 minutes after a (non-machine-graded) exam is over to ask me if I "have [their] exam graded yet" - stick that phone where the sun don't shine. First off, I'm not a mindreader, so I can't predict you're going to call me, and so, grade your exam first. Second of all, you're not entitled to get your exam graded any faster than anyone else's. Third, if you call me on the phone, it just slows me down, and it makes me annoyed to boot. Fourth, if I WERE clairvoyant and knew you were going to call me up asking if I had your exam graded, you can bet your sweet bippy that exam would be at the very bottom of the stack.
On the first day of class, I give my students Ricki's Super Secret Advice For Success In College. It is: "Don't piss off your professors."
Please consider that advice in the coming week. I still have your grades to assign.
Posted by: caltechgirl at
11:25 AM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 458 words, total size 3 kb.
1. In one hour, 10 guys get about 5 minutes each, which isn't really enough time even for soundbites.
2. No Fred. Why should I watch a debate over a YEAR AND A HALF before the election if it doesn't even include the guy I suspect I am going to get to vote for?
Turns out, I was entirely right in my thinking about this. Michelle Malkin, who liveblogged the whole thing was "getting whiplash" trying to keep up.
From what I've seen/ read, looks like (as expected) Giuliani was the big loser. Didn't prep well enough and stumbled through the few hardball questions he was tossed. Tancredo may have helped his cause by focusing on his major issue, and the other "small dogs" probably helped themselves by getting their names out there more. Romney and McCain, the other "tall dogs" either stayed steady or lost a bit.
The whole thing was mostly unremarkable except for the puerile questions.
Sister Toldjah also has a pretty in-depth liveblog post.
If you didn't see it the video is here (behind a commercial, and a disclaimer that doesn't apply), just hang on for the video. When the first video is over, it will tell you which is the next segment, so just click.
On the Fred front, he'll be speaking tonight to a gathering in Orange County, CA, to be shown on C-SPAN. Catch the best non-candidate in the race live!
Posted by: caltechgirl at
09:50 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 264 words, total size 2 kb.
May 02, 2007
Yes, I'm ok. A little stiff and nervous, still.
Here's what my poor baby car looks like now:
the front, driver side fog lights
The rear damage....
Here's what I did to the guy I got pushed into....
And here's what hit me:
The perfect advertisement for an SUV, no?
Posted by: caltechgirl at
07:01 PM
| Comments (26)
| Add Comment
Post contains 67 words, total size 1 kb.
Today Fred tackles "healthcare" (**cough, bullshit, cough**) in Cuba, and a possible documentary on same by Michael Moore:
The Cuban "official" story is one of a model of public health success: increased longevity and quality of life based on a preventative health focus.You might have read the stories about filmmaker Michael Moore taking ailing workers from Ground Zero in Manhattan to Cuba for free medical treatments. According to reports, he filmed the trip for a new movie that bashes America for not having government-provided health care.
Now, I have no expectation that Moore is going to tell the truth about Cuba or health care. I defend his right to do what he does, but Moore's talent for clever falsehoods has been too well documented. Simply calling his movies documentaries rather than works of fiction, I think, may be the biggest fiction of all.
While this PR stunt has obviously been successful -- here I am talking about it -- Moore's a piker compared to Fidel Castro and his regime. Moore just parrots the story they created -- one of the most successful public relations coups in history. This is the story of free, high quality Cuban health care.
The truth is that Cuban medical care has never recovered from Castro's takeover -- when the countryÂ’s health care ranked among the world's best. He won the support of the Cuban people by promising to replace BatistaÂ’s dictatorship with free elections, and to end corruption. Once in power, though, he made himself dictator and instituted Soviet-style Communism. Cubans not only failed to regain their democratic rights, their economy plunged into centrally planned poverty.
As many as half of Cuba's doctors fled almost immediately -- and defections continue to this day. Castro won't allow observers in to monitor his nation's true state, but defectors tell us that many Cubans live with permanent malnutrition and long waits for even basic medical services. Many treatments we take for granted aren't available at all -- except to the Communist elite or foreigners with dollars.
For them, Castro keeps "show" clinics equipped with the best medicines and technologies available. It was almost certainly one of these that Moore went to, if the stories in the NY Post and The Daily News are true.
Nothing about this story inspires doubt, though. Elements in Hollywood have been infatuated with the Cuban commander for years. It always leaves me shaking my head when I read about some big-time actor or director going to Cuba and gushing all over Castro. And, regular as rain, they bring up the health care myth when they come home.
What is it that leads people to value theoretically "free" health care, even when it's lousy or nonexistent, over a free society that actually delivers health care? You might have to deal with creditors after you go to the emergency ward in America, but no one is denied medical care here. I guarantee even the poorest Americans are getting far better medical services than many Cubans.
Folks, the only reason Cuban "healthcare" focuses on preventative medicine is that once people get sick, there's very little available treatment. The truth of the matter is more like this. (pictures and MORE references, if you can stomach them at the link. Let this serve as your warning.)
Fred continues here describing his take on Hollywood's love affair with the cagastro regime, and the hypocrisy of people like Michael Moore. It's well worth the read.
Honestly, the more I hear from Fred, the more I like. Run Fred Run!
h/t the Babalusians, who are also Fred fans!
Posted by: caltechgirl at
12:51 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 628 words, total size 4 kb.
May 01, 2007
It bothers Americans when we're told how unpopular we are with the rest of the world. For some of us, at least, it gets our back up -- and our natural tendency is to tell the French, for example, that we'd rather not hear from them until the day when they need us to bail them out again.There's more. Read the rest, including why he considers criticism form our allies as a badge of honor.But we cool off. We're big boys and girls, after all, and we don't really bruise that easily. We're also hopeful that, eventually, our ostrich-headed allies will realize there's a world war going on out there and they need to pick a side -- the choice being between the forces of civilization and the forces of anarchy. Considering the fact that the latter team is growing stronger and bolder daily, while most of our European Union friends continue to dismantle their defenses, that day may not be too long in coming.
In the meantime, let's be realistic about the world we live in. Mexican leaders apparently have an economic policy based on exporting their own citizens, while complaining about U.S. immigration policies that are far less exclusionary than their own. The French jail perfectly nice people for politically incorrect comments, but scold us for holding terrorists at Guantanamo.
Russia, though, takes the cake. Here is a government apparently run by ex-KGB agents who have no problem blackmailing whole countries by turning the crank on their oil pipelines. They're not doing anything shady, they say. They can't help it if their opponents are so notoriously accident-prone. Criticize these guys and you might accidentally drink a cup of tea laced with a few million dollars worth of deadly, and extremely rare, radioactive poison. Oppose the Russian leadership, and you could trip and fall off a tall building or stumble into the path of a bullet.
For someone "not" running for President, he sure as hell acts like he is.
Run Fred Run!
h/t los de Babalu
Posted by: caltechgirl at
01:01 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 359 words, total size 2 kb.
81 queries taking 0.1647 seconds, 269 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
