Pale about Palin...

I think Palin was absolutely the perfect choice for McCain...but I'm going to ignore that for now, to bring you a symbolic representation of the 2000 presidential election...

I hope it won't track on to my emotional journey in 2008 so easily. ("What- it'll never happen; ah...it might; yes, yes, yes; Well, shit.")

Especially since there's such an easy fix...

Pretty funny...

This was a great idea... I'm still amazed that the WSJ bit though...

McCain slaps Bloomberg in the face...

If any of you thought that Bloomberg had a chance at McCain's veep...it's more of a backhand really...

"I think it's a fundamental tenet of our party to be pro-life but that does not mean we exclude people from our party that are pro-choice. We just have a -- albeit strong -- but just it's a disagreement. And I think [former PA governor Tom] Ridge is a great example of that. Far more so than [New York City Mayor Michael] Bloomberg, because Bloomberg is pro-gay rights, pro, you know, a number of other issues."

The quote comes in the context of a discussion about McCain's likely choice of a pro-choice (or formally pro-choice) veep. McCain's honorable position comes out of fairly natural logic: yeah, I know, killing babies is wrong- but it's better than giving them to gay couples. (Oh wait, what does he think about that?)

Nah- he's american, isn't he?

The authors of the Left Behind series are pretty confident that Obama is not, in fact, the antichrist (via Sullivan):

"I've gotten a lot of questions the last few weeks asking if Obama is the antichrist," says novelist Jenkins. "I tell everyone that I don't think the antichrist will come out of politics, especially American politics."

"I can see by the language he uses why people think he could be the antichrist," adds LaHaye, "but from my reading of scripture, he doesn't meet the criteria. There is no indication in the Bible that the antichrist will be an American."

High speed rail...

John's recent post over at City Desk got me thinking about transportation, and mostly why we don't have one of these. 100 miles in 30 minutes. Wow.

If we do get one, it will probably happen here first. But this would be good too...and this.

The g-phone

Google appears to be on track to release a phone in the fourth quarter of this year. Supposedly it will have both a touch screen and slide out physical keyboard. Youtube has video:

Elven Training...

I've recently been reading the Fellowship of the Ring, and I just ran into this passage:

'Celebrant is already a strong stream here, as you see,' said Haldir, 'and it runs both swift and deep, and is very cold. We do not set foot in it so far north, unless we must. But in these days of watchfulness we do not make bridges. This is how we cross! Follow me!' He made his end of the rope fast about another tree and then ran lightly along it, over the river and back again, as if he were on a road.

'I can walk this path,' said Legolas; 'but the others have not this skill. Must they swim?'

There was a time in my life when a group of people I'm close to thought that I should try to become an elf- they helped me on this path by holding me in the air by my ears. (I believe the line of thinking was, "Well, if you can't be a superhero, you might as well be an elf.")

Little did they know that I would pick up my elven skills later in life:


And yet, people still insist on calling me a hobbit...

Soldiers Abroad give their money to...

Obama. By a margin of 6 to 1.

Those elitist bastards clearly hate our country...and want to lose...and retreat...or something.

Go veg or die- immigrant!

PETA's latest attempt:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plans today to announce an unusual marketing pitch to the U.S. government: Rent us space on the fence for billboards warning illegal border crossers there is more to fear than the Border Patrol.

The billboards, in English and Spanish, would offer the caution: "If the Border Patrol Doesn't Get You, the Chicken and Burgers Will — Go Vegan."

"We think that Mexicans and other immigrants should be warned if they cross into the U.S. they are putting their health at risk by leaving behind a healthier, staple diet of corn tortillas, beans, rice, fruits and vegetables," said Lindsay Rajt, assistant manager of PETA's vegan campaigns.

Combining the current top 2 news stories...

Georgia's delegation to the 2004 olympics in Athens amounted to 372 athletes (4 medals). That's a pretty impressive number considering how tiny Georgia is (about 4 million people).

Interesting comparisons:
Ukraine: 239 athletes (population, about 46 mil)
Azerbaijan: 38 athletes (population almost 9 mil)
Kyrgyzstan: 11 athletes (population about 5 mil)
Russia: 456 athletes (population, about 142 mil)

Only the following countries sent more athletes than Georgia:
Australia (482), China (407), Greece(not too far to travel-441), Germany (479), Russia (456), and the US (536)...

Contracting in Iraq...100 billion!?

$100 billion dollars has been spent on private contractors in Iraq. A figure that amounts to 20% of the total cost of the war. That nytimes article considers how the privatization of a major US military project (uh, that is, a war) raises new and interesting questions:

Contractors in Iraq now employ at least 180,000 people in the country, forming what amounts to a second, private, army, larger than the United States military force, and one whose roles and missions and even casualties among its work force have largely been hidden from public view.

Unsurprisingly they also focus on how these contracts inevitably end up in the hands of people with strong ties to the administration:

In addition, the dependence on private companies to support the war effort has led to questions about whether political favoritism has played a role in the awarding of multibillion-dollar contracts. When the war began, for example, Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company run by Dick Cheney before he was vice president, became the largest Pentagon contractor in Iraq.

That's concerning...but, as I said, kind of inevitable. Government money will always (to a large degree) go to people with the most powerful lobbyists. VP usually does a pretty good job.

I think what is more disturbing about this "unprecedented" level of contractor involvement in a war effort (according to Charles Tiefer, professor of government contracting- there is a whole academic offshoot of law dedicated to this?)is its potential impact on troop morale. Contracted employees (who serve in all sorts of functions- the range of which we can't really know because...well, they're private contractors with records that can be a little spotty) make tons more money than their military counterparts. Not only is this wasteful (which the article focuses on), but it seems like a good way to gut our military. This kind of system (I would think) encourages people to get their training in the military, but to abandon that career as soon as possible in favor of contracting where they can make a lot more money (and, again, as the article suggests, avoid a good deal of "bureaucratic" crap that comes with working in a branch of the government). Smart people won't be career military men - they'll go over to contracting.