"Congress and Bush enacted an $87.5 billion package last November for this year's U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In April 2003, a $79.5 billion measure was approved for that year's activities. "

This is what the war is costing us people. 764 solder's lives, and 192 Billons dollars.

And what is our return? What have we gained? No WMDs, but of course we stopped the horror that was Saddam. And thats a good thing right? I mean just forget the fact that Bush has single handedly mortally wounded the NATO Alliance, the fact we have troops "blow[ing] off some steam" as Rush says by by pseudo-sodomizing some of the same people we are liberating. We "stopped" WMD proliferation in Iraq while we overlook our ally Pakistan selling outlawed Nuclear Weapons Technology. We removed a horrible dictator who didn't value civil rights, so overlook our other allies who are just as guilty of denying its citizens these rights.

And Powell was right when he told Bush if we start this war, we will have to own Iraq. And we do. The administration glosses over it everyday, but the line between fighting Saddam's Army and fighting in the Iraqi Civil War was crossed a *long* time ago. And take a look at the deaths per month: the Iraqi Civil War is killing us faster than Saddam ever could or did.

That is what we have in Iraq now. Civil War. Think about that. Civil War. Yet there are no UN peace keepers helping to secure and police the country. No UN assistance in drafting a constitution, or in organization a vote. No Red Cross personal visiting prisons like Abu Ghraib until the Army so nicely invited them yesterday. Iraq is engaged in a Civil War, and because of Bush's arrogance, we are largely fighting it alone.

So, to get where we are today, its costing us 764 deaths and 192 Billion Dollars. But its not over. We aren't leaving. We can't. Iraq is in anarchy. Yet we insist on transfering sovereignty of a country that is so unstable that it requires 138,000 US, not Nato, not UN, but US troops to stay until 2006 by June 30 for some stupid ass reason or another. Why? This is a country where the major faction leader who is even the closest to a moderate, Sistani, is calling the quasi-defined government we are supposedly handing sovereignty to illegitimate. Yet we stick by this meaningless date of June 30, instead of creating a government that will in some way be effective and will be viewed as legitimate to even a small segment of the Iraqi population.

And to those who say that having an democracy in the Middle East, an "island of stability, "a "foothold" is worth the cost, I ask you to remember. Remember the last "island of stability" the US tried to create in the Middle East. And by "tried" I mean preemptively overthrew a government and set up a government that was more alike to our thinking. It was Iran. It was the Shah. And People saw it was a puppet government, and the Ayatollah Khomeini was what we got. "The Great Satan" is what we got. Radical Islam as mainstream policy is what we got.

Yes we rebuilt Europe at the end of WWII. We also had the support of our biggest trading partners, a strong economy, and no brain drain or job flight. We have none of that now, and oh by the way, the war to liberate the country is still raging, and is bloodier than ever before.

Ultimately, its the Iraqis who will suffer from our vanity, our belief that the US, and not the UN, and through them the whole world should rebuild Iraq. Sure we can do it, but it will be half done, like some 50 year old Hollywood star that looks beautiful in glance, but whose insides rot.

What will the return on our investment of blood and bucks be in Iraq, and will our current policies create the best return? I have no answers, but the are Things to Ponder

Things To Ponder : Return on Investment in Iraq

] After a year of tackling the Windows security nightmare,
] Microsoft has killed its Next-Generation Secure Computing
] Base (NGSCB) project and later this year plans to detail
] a revised security plan for Longhorn, the next major
] version of Windows, company executives said.
]
] On Tuesday, Microsoft executives confirmed that NGSCB
] will be canned. The project, dreamed up with Intel in
] 2002, was once code-named Palladium.

I hate this technology to my core. I see its uses (banking, online transactions, etc), but this closed spec will be used extensively by Microsoft to protect its code and cause incompatibilities.

Its like Nuclear technology.Yes, we have over 440 Nuclear power plants worldwide, but we have orders of magnitude more Nuclear weapons.

[ That sounds like an argument that we should never have developed Nuclear science... which seems somewhat out of character.

The fundamental distinction is that closed-spec "Trusted" computing is not inevitible, as was nuclear, and will not leave us prey to our enemies in the way microsoft would have you believe. There are solutions to the security and IP problems we have today that don't require my PC to be locked away from my control.

I'm sure you agree with this... i was just trying to distance the issue from the analogy you made. -k]

Microsoft Shelves Palladium in Longhorn (for now)

] Then Rush Limbaugh put it all in perspective, after a
] caller remarked that the "stack [of] naked men" was "like
] a college fraternity prank."
]
] RUSH: Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no
] different than what happens at the skull and bones
] initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it
] and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then
] we are going to really hammer them because they had a
] good time. You know, these people are being fired at
] every day. I'm talking about people having a good time,
] these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of
] heard of need to blow some steam off?

[ Jesus. There's so much wrong with this I don't even know where to start. Fucking asshole Limbaugh. If you need to demean someone in this fashion in order to "have a good time" or get some "emotional release", then you're a monster, and deserve no less than the harshest punishment under military law. A dishonorable discharge shouldn't even be a question... the number of years spent in a dark, cold, uncomfortable cell should be the only topic of discussion as pertains to these individuals. It's like slamming puppies against a wall for fun, only worse, because it's not to cute and cuddly, but dumb, animals, but to real people, with intellect and, well, once they probably had some dignity.

You want to talk about hampering our military effort... you have no concept of how much damage these acts have done to america. None. We've engendered more hatred and anger with a few photos than I ever thought possible. This war is lost. Period. The message is gone. The good intent, whatever there was, is gone. The enemy is stronger than ever, and we're to blame. More Americans will die as a result.

But then, I suppose someone like Rush would argue that it wouldn't be a problem if the military would have suppressed these photos. Torture and humiliation is bad PR, but it's a necessary OUTLET for our uniformed men and women... we just need to keep quiet about it, for the safety of the US fucking Fatherland. Fuck you Rush, for insulting the thousands of HUMAN BEINGS that make up our armed forces. No one can call themselves a patriot who believes that actions such as these are anything less than reprehensible. End of story. -k]

Wonkette

] A Disney executive says it told Miramax last May that it
] did not want to be connected to the North American
] distribution of the film because it could be politically
] divisive.
]
] But Moore claims Disney is worried it could lose tax
] breaks it gets in Florida, where the president's brother
] Jeb Bush is governor. Disney denies that, according to
] The Times.
]
] Miramax says its deal with Disney only allows the company
] to block distribution of a film if it is over-budget or
] gets an NC-17 rating, neither of which appears to apply
] to Moore's movie. The two companies could go to mediation
] over the dispute.
]
] "I would have hoped by now that I would be able to put my
] work out to the public without having to experience the
] profound censorship obstacles I often seem to encounter,"
] Moore wrote in the statement on his site.
]
] "Some people may be afraid of this movie because of what
] it will show," Moore wrote. "But there's nothing they can
] do about it now because it's done, it's awesome, and if I
] have anything to say about it, you'll see it this summer
] %u2014 because, after all, it is a free country."

[ This is far more interesting than i thought... Is Moore making that shit up about tax breaks (i wouldn't put it past him) or is disney really that corrupt (also very possible)?

He can be a dick, but you gotta admire Moore's tenacity. -k]

CBS News | Disney Blocks Anti-Bush Film | May 5, 2004 10:07:58

] NASA on Monday released a sweeping 180-degree view of a
] broad crater punched in the surface of Mars that was
] photographed by the space agency's Opportunity rover as
] it perched on the rim of the 430-foot-wide depression.

[ Few things are as humbling, or as exciting, as being able to experience the exploration of another planet. Really incredible how much success we've had with these two rovers.

Pix here : http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040503a.html -k]

NASA's Opportunity rover takes in sweep of Mars crater

] It may just be pocket change for the richest man in the
] world, but Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has been fined
] $800,000 by the federal government for violating an
] antitrust rule.
]
]
] ] The technical incident has nothing to do with the
] government's massive antitrust battles with Microsoft
] (MSFT: Research, Estimates).
]
] Gates, whose fortune has been estimated at more than $40
] billion, ran afoul of the Federal Trade Commission and
] the Justice Department's Antitrust Division for his
] purchases of stock in a drug company and a waste-hauling
] firm.

Doh

[ Of course, if you do the ratio of $800k:$40B and then do $X:$your_net_worth, and solve for X this amounts to less than a parking ticket in relative terms. It's a lot of money, but fortunately for him, he has it, a lot. -k]

Microsoft Gates fined $800,000 for antitrust violations - May. 3, 2004

] Incidents of violence, discrimination and harassment
] against Muslims in the United States soared 70 percent in
] 2003 over the previous year, an Islamic civil rights
] group reported on Monday.

[ Can't say this surprises me. Frickin' people. -k]

US Anti-Muslim Incidents Up 70 Pct in 2003 -Report

] The Fraunhofer Institute, originator of the file format
] that brought the music industry to its knees, is adding
] surround sound and copyright protection.

[ Anyone have any more info about this? This is the first I've heard of it. Specifically, I want information about this "Light Weight DRM" of which they speak. I have little doubt that it's just as breakable as every other DRM scheme has been, but I'm curious. I'm also curious how good the psychoacoustic modeling must be do what they claim. I don't have a 5.1 system, and I'm not likely to pay for an encoder, so I don't have a practical need for any of this. Hardly any music is released in 5.1 as it stands... -k]

MP3 Grows Up%u2014But Do We Want It To?

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- A federal drug agent shot himself in the leg during a gun safety presentation to children in what police describe as an accident. His bosses, however, are still investigating the incident.

Irony I ro ny
1. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs: “Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated” (Richard Kain).

2. An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity.

[ HA! -k]

Gun safety presenter shoots self

] Mr. Bush is right to champion free trade and global
] prosperity, since an economically integrated world will
] be a more stable one. And he is right to hope that China
] in particular stays on the free-market path. But if
] China, with its 1.2 billion people, does keep up its
] brisk economic growth, won't the day come when it can
] match America's defense budget without breaking a sweat?
] How can America then afford to keep its military so
] potent as to "dissuade potential adversaries from
] pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or
] equaling, the power of the United States"?

this is Robert Wright from Sept. 2002... another quote :

"Yet the Bush administration, with its limited regard for both international law and world opinion, is making America not just sheriff, but judge, jury and executioner. This strategy could lead to a number of outcomes, but national security isn't among the more likely."

Contradictions of a Superpower