Falling into the East River

Conditions: Sunny and warm. Ahhhhh.


Biggest Story of the Century?

You'd think something as white hot as the White House being in defiance of Congress would be the lead story on American news channels. But thanks to the continuing wacky antics of pop starlets, I guess America has other things on it's mind. Still, some people are calling this the biggest story of the century. That's worth something, right?

On Friday the WH told Congress it will order the Justice Department to disregard Congress if it tries to hold recalcitrant Administration officials in contempt, even though Congress has every right under the Constitution to expect the Department of Justice to enforce Congressional subpoenas. We need to be very clear about what this latest WH defiance means: the White House believes the Justice Department does not have an obligation to uphold the law on behalf of the Congress of the United States; instead, DoJ exists solely as a legal arm to shield the President and his staff from all efforts to hold them accountable under the law. Of course, the Attorney General, a man without honor or sense of his legal obligations to the American people, will do nothing to overturn the WH capture of America’s Justice Department.

As the New York Times lead editorial recognized Sunday, the Bush White House is now in complete and open defiance of all lawful Congressional efforts to hold the executive accountable for misconduct and possible crimes committed by members of the White House staff. Just as Bush claimed he had an inherent right to disregard Congressional statutes (e.g., FISA, the Geneva Conventions, signing statements) and the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments, or to cover up WH complicity in crimes (via commuting Scooter Libby’s prison term), the President is now claiming he can ignore any Congressional oversight of White House misconduct. - Firedoglake.com

It's always struck me how the general American 'public' seem only to respond to the big obvious things, and less so to the long-developing and complicated things. So anyone wanting to create an uproar needs to find a simple short and 'fresh' phrase to generate any useful outrage. Simply talking about how Bush is instigating a constitutional crisis just isn't going to get the job done.



Prodigal Son Returns?

It might, finally, be starting to happen. Here is an article from the current U.S ambassador to the U.N that lays out a pretty strong case for the U.N taking the lead in dealing with the existential mess that is Iraq itself, and the unease in the the region.

The United Nations possesses certain comparative advantages for undertaking complex internal and regional mediation efforts; it can also help internationalize the effort to stabilize the country.
[...]

To do this work, the United Nations will need additional political, financial, logistical and security support from states with interests in the region. In addition, the coalition will need to maintain forces in Iraq to build on the initial positive security results of our new strategy in Iraq, and to work with the United Nations to ensure that the coalition’s military strategy supports the internal and regional mediation efforts. The United States recognizes its responsibilities and is prepared to do its part.

While reasonable people can differ on whether the coalition should have intervened against Saddam Hussein’s regime, it is clear at this point that the future of Iraq will have a profound effect on the region and, in turn, on peace and stability in the world. The United States endorses Mr. Ban’s call for an expanded United Nations role in Iraq to help Iraq become a peaceful, stable country — one that will be a responsible partner in the international community and a force for moderation in the region. - NYTimes.com

At first, this is pretty damned galling considering what happened in 2003. You know, where the U.S dismissed the U.N as an impotent debating chamber and declared an illegal war on another sovereign country. It is a fact of the realpolitick world that we have now come around to this point, where the U.S recognizes the shit it is in and is prepared to go back to the U.N for help. And the U.N will eventually help, because it is (still) in everyone's best interests for this to happen.


And how does the fundamental U.S right-wingers, who hate and fear the U.N and truly believe America is winning in Iraq, react to this, you ask? Badly. Check out a take on this from FamilySecurityMatters.org. Witness if you will the triple-backflip required to write this bit:

It seems clear that we have Al Qaeda and rogue Baathist insurgents on the run in Iraq. We are chasing them from one after another of their safe havens. Why, then, is the administration calling for handing the fight to the U.N.?
[...]
If, by some chance, the situation in Iraq stabilizes and the Iraqi government survives, who will be given the credit? I think we all know the answer to that. We can hear the commentators saying that the U.N. will have “saved” the U.S. in Iraq.

Terrorism! Challenges! Homeland! Global! Moms and kids! Looking toward the future!

This website scares me.


Searching For The God Particle

Here is something interesting, It's to do with the balance of the particles that make up the universe. See? Riveting.

Earlier this summer, the physics world was jolted by a rumor that a team of scientists from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, in Batavia, Ill., had found a bump in their data that might be a legendary particle that has haunted physicists for a generation. It is known colloquially as the Higgs boson and sometimes grandly as the “God particle.” According to the Standard Model that has ruled physics for 30 years, the Higgs endows elementary particles in the universe with mass.
[...]

Confirming the rumored bump would confirm a profound conjecture about how nature works, cementing into place the last missing piece of the so-called Standard Model and perhaps pointing the way to a deeper theory that could answer questions the current model leaves open — such as why the universe is full of matter but not antimatter — a New World of physics.
[...]

“A bump is going to happen somewhere,” said Dr. Dorigo, who added that determining the significance of these bumps was the hardest part of the process to explain to the general public. To physicists, the gold standard for a discovery is what they call a “5-sigma” bump, where sigma is a measure of bumpiness known as a standard deviation. A bump that high means that the odds are less than 1 in 3.5 million that it was produced by chance. - NYTimes.com

There is also a political side to this search, in that the American institution doing the research is about to be out gunned by a new enormous European CERN collider that's just been completed. Funny how science works.



Trouble at NASA

Did we know that there's an ongoing strike at the Kennedy Space Center between the shuttle contractor, and the machinists union? Well it may well not be related, but NASA has confirmed an apparent act of sabotage of a piece of computer equipment for transferring data intended for the International Space Station that was due to be taken up in the next Shuttle flight.

Someone intentionally damaged a computer intended for the International Space Station, NASA said Thursday.

The computer had no command and control or navigation functions, according to Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations.

The damage would not have affected the astronauts, he said.

The shuttle Endeavour is supposed to take the computer to the space station after its August 7 launch.

The computer is to be installed in the U.S. laboratory to monitor sensors on the space station's truss.

"It will be repaired, and it will fly on this flight," Gerstenmaier said.
[...]

"The damage is very obvious. It's easy to detect. It's not a mystery to us," he said, according to AP. - CNN.com

Seriously, what's with NASA these days?



Another Google Earth Trip!

Pack your bags, we're off around the world, again! This time the emphasis is on funny and weird stuff, from all over. Boarding at PCWorld.com





Laughing Like There's Something Funny.

They're listed as 'Bad metaphors from stupid student essays', and the rumor is that they're actually all made up deliberately stupid. And they're all actually similes. But I don't care. These are funny as hell, enjoy. A sample lies below.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.


The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr. Pepper can.


They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.


John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.

The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

And the rest are here.



End transmission.