Water On Mars

Confirmed

“We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. “We’ve seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted.”

Job well done. Congratulations to the team.

Someone Told Me Long Ago

There’s a calm before the storm

The timing seems odd, given that the US and Iraq seem to converging on just the kind of timeline for withdrawal of American forces which the IAI has always demanded as a condition for its joining the political process. Still, we may be about to find out whether the insurgency factions which turned against al-Qaeda and joined the Sons of Iraq can and will go back to the battle. Are they just a “bunch of hoodlums” (in the immortal words of Gen Jack Keane), an exhausted force which can safely be ignored, or are they the core of a still-formidable fighting force which voluntarily laid down its arms but could easily pick them back up (as, say, Steve Biddle would suggest)? I really hope that we aren’t about to find out.

Added to Muqtada’s militia realignment and statements about attacking US forces, I would hate for too many people to have a premature immaculate ejaculation. Maybe the media needs to listen more carefully to what Petraeus is saying, instead of hearing what they wish to hear in their gotcha reporting for and to the blogosphere.

Along those lines, to ballyhoo only six American deaths in Iraq in July makes the previous claim I made about the “Christian” nation, Americans don’t give rats ass about the Iraqi people, all the more true.

The cognitive dissonance of the media to these things makes them nothing more than cheerleaders in search of the lost pom poms.

Heh

Remockable It’s almost like being an authority on Wimberly Texas.

In the house of Dagon, a long haired one has chained himself to the main columns, and there is a shaking to and fro.

And you should not have crushed the weak and poor under your feet, you should not have perverted justice in the gate of the City. Look! There is a whistling, and a putting of the hand to the mouth, for the tree has been chopped down, and there is no helper for it.

Don’t Drink The Water

Serrano peppers from Mexico farm have salmonella, FDA Says

WASHINGTON — The salmonella strain linked to a nationwide outbreak has been found in irrigation water and a serrano pepper at a Mexican farm, federal health officials said today.

Dr. David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety chief, called the finding a key breakthrough in the case, as did another health official.

“We have a smoking gun, it appears,” said Dr. Lonnie King who directs the center for foodborne illnesses at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Olmert To Resign

Israeli PM to quit in two months

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced he will stand down two months from now, saying that a corruption case involving him is hurting his family.

Vowing to prove his innocence, he told reporters he would leave as soon as his Kadima party chooses a new leader at its internal election on 17 September.

Check Mate

Russia takes control of Turkmen (world?) gas

From the details coming out of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan and Moscow over the weekend, it is apparent that the great game over Caspian energy has taken a dramatic turn. In the geopolitics of energy security, nothing like this has happened before. The United States has suffered a huge defeat in the race for Caspian gas. The question now is how much longer Washington could afford to keep Iran out of the energy market.

Because You aren’t Angry Enough: Found on Reddit

The US bet on a gas pipeline through Taliban territory in Afghanistan and Pakistan to India while trying to sideline Russia and Iran! Putin is rivalling the emir of Kuwait as a fossil fuel master of the universe. The only question is when some big power will get hungry enough for natural gas to defy AIPAC’s congressional boycott on developing Iran’s oil and gas fields. It is likely that future historians will date the end of America’s superpower status from that date.

We are truly governed by idiots.

Oh yeah, Obama yada yada yada.

Update: Not in Afghanistan to guard pipelines, MacKay says

The proposed pipeline would run through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Construction is scheduled to start in 2010, one year before Canada’s Afghan mission is expected to end.

Oh Yeah

Heh

Blog sends oil and stocks higher!

Village Idiot Found

President Obama Continues Hectic Victory Tour

On his presidential-style visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem last week, Obama left a written prayer, intercepted by an Israeli newspaper, asking God to “help me guard against pride and despair.” He seems to have the despair part under control, but the pride could be a problem.

You know how it easy it would be to write something like that about Milibank.

It Is After All, Only A Blog

It’s become too distracting, for some of my readers I think, which I suppose some people would find welcoming, but I don’t. You guys aren’t too far behind me on this either, I don’t suppose.

As with all things human, 9998% of my readers do a good job at what they do, make mistakes, exhibit bias and prejudices, humor and anger. Except for a few wankers I find most Americans to be delightful to know, so long as I don’t have to know you too well.

Most mediums will provide an audience with only a facet of a persons personality, except for blogging which I think allows for a lot of personality to come across because it is an expression of an individual, or group of individuals, personal opinions. It shares the echo chamber effect of other mediums, something which I have tried to avoid, unsuccessfully on many occasions due to the political nature of the blog and the systemic nature of American politics.

I just have the benefit of having a blog with zero monetization, and so I can sky whenever I feel like it. That tends to chap some peoples asses, which I am happy to do, although I am working on other ways to it too, because some people just need to have the red ass. (Sounds like a blog title, “The Red Asses Review”. I googled it for you and it’s not being used, so you can use it, but I prefer “Fish Full of Airplanes”, and such.)

added a link

Gotta Be Something Wrong With This Clicker

Makes arms wave and city lights flicker,
starting to give this blog so much shine
must belong to you now it sure ain’t mine.

Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

Lobbyist Ban Deep-Sixed?

A while back the McCain put a new rule in place that no one involved in their campaign could be a federal lobbyist or foreign agent. But CBS has an interview out with McCain campaign manager Rick Davis that appears to say that rule is no longer in effect. Asked how many lobbyists work on the campaign, Davis tells Katie Couric: “We don’t make it a litmus test for employment at the McCain campaign.”

More wind sauce and air pudding from the McCain camp.

Truth Be Told

When Extremists Attack