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November 2005 Entries
Senate Intelligence Committee on Joe Wilson
It is very interesting to read a little more about Joe Wilson.
During Mr. Wilson’s media blitz, he appeared on more than thirty television shows including entertainment venues. Time and again, Joe Wilson told anyone who would listen that the President had lied to the American people, that the Vice President had lied, and that he had “debunked” the claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. As discussed in the Niger section of the report, not only did he NOT “debunk” the claim, he actually gave some intelligence analysts even more reason to believe that it may be true. I believed very strongly that it was important for the Committee to conclude publicly that many of the statements made by Ambassador Wilson were not only incorrect, but had no basis in fact.

In an interview with Committee staff, Mr. Wilson was asked how he knew some of the things he was stating publicly with such confidence. On at least two occasions he admitted that he had no direct knowledge to support some of his claims and that he was drawing on either unrelated past experiences or no information at all. For example, when asked how he “knew” that the Intelligence Community had rejected the possibility of a Niger-Iraq uranium deal, as he wrote in his book, he told Committee staff that his assertion may have involved "a little literary flair."

via Seantor Pat Robert's web site.

posted @ Wednesday, November 30, 2005 9:18 PM | Feedback (0)
Dear France: Try Land for Peace
Rich found this and I've been needing to post it for a while. It's a great article suggesting France surrender some land in exchange for peace.
First, until this plan is implemented in full, we must insist that the French government acknowledge that there is no military or police solution to the problems of violence in its suburbs and only through recognizing the legitimacy of the demands of the murderers and rioters outside Paris can the problems be resolved.

And it just gets better!

posted @ Monday, November 21, 2005 7:26 PM | Feedback (1)
Weapons Inspector Interview
Here's an interesting interview with a weapons inspector.
It was probably on my second inspection that I realized the Iraqis had no intention of ever cooperating. They had very successfully turned The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections during the eighties into tea parties, and had expected UNSCOM to turn out the same way. However, there was one fundamental difference between IAEA and UNSCOM that the Iraqis did not account for. There was a disincentive in IAEA inspections to be aggressive and intrusive, since the same standards could then be applied to the members states of the inspectors. IAEA had to consider the continued cooperation of all the member states. UNSCOM, however, was focused on enforcing and verifying one specific Security Council Resolution, 687, and the level of intrusiveness would depend on the cooperation from Iraq.
posted @ Thursday, November 17, 2005 7:36 AM | Feedback (0)
Scientific Atlanta 8000 Sucks
I think this is my third post or so with this title. I don't know why I continue to use this infernal box. Oh yeah, it's cheap. Plus it doesn't cost much.

AND IT CAN'T FIGURE OUT DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!

After the time change half my scheduled recordings disappeared and half are an hour off. How can you write software to record TV shows and get this wrong? That would be like forgetting third gear in a car. Apparently they couldn't figure out the leap year either. I'm still just awe struck at the simple things this product does wrong.

  • If you turn off the power while watching a recorded show it makes you start at the beginning. How hard is that to fix? My old ReplayTV did this right FIVE YEARS AGO!
  • If you're recording a show and watching it delayed, it stops playing back when it stops recording. And when you go back to play the recording your back at the beginning.

As soon as cable cards ... (pause while I do a little Googling...) ... Hmmm. It seems cable cards ARE available here in the sticks. TimeWarner is now offering them. It may be time to get the MediaCenter PC I've been thinking about.

In any case, the Scientific Atlanta 8000 sucks. It's cheap. It records two channels at once. It's integrated with the cable company without a little IR blaster for the cable box. Those are the only benefits.

posted @ Thursday, November 03, 2005 10:17 PM | Feedback (1)
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