Posted 4:18 PM by Blah blah

Some Evidence on Iraq Called Fake (Washington Post): "U.N. Nuclear Inspector Says Documents on Purchases Were Forged....'We fell for it,' said one U.S. official who reviewed the documents. A spokesman for the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] said the agency did not blame either Britain or the United States for the forgery. The documents 'were shared with us in good faith,' he said."

Unleashing the dogs of cyber-war on Iraq! (Salon.com): "Saddam Hussein could lose Internet access at the flip of a switch, and there's not much his geeks can do about it."

Beyond Iraq, U.N. Is Issue (NY Times): "No one mentioned it publicly, but some members said they were also thinking about North Korea. If the Security Council cannot play the primary authorizing role in Iraq, it might throw the international system off balance in trying to unite in preventing the Korean peninsula from becoming a zone of nuclear threat and competition.

Then comes Iran, where international concerns about a secret nuclear weapons program are rising as Tehran's leaders sharply expand their civilian nuclear industries with heavy Russian assistance and technology.

In each case, America has asserted a security interest in the potential threats. Thus the consequences for how the Iraq crisis is resolved radiate out in many directions.

Posted 1:41 PM by Blah blah

From the World Affairs Council of N. California: please listen to the Feb. 20, 2003 radio broadcast "Target Iraq: What the Media Didn’t Tell You," speeches by Reese Erlich and Norm Solomon. Erlich says, according to lead U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, that some of what Colin Powell told the U.N. was plain wrong. Some weapons that Iraq was supposed to be hiding were actually abandoned buildings, etc. Solomon and Erlich do a great job in dissecting how the Bush Administration misuses language and is inconsistent in their logic for war.

Pro-War/Anti-War

What's my position on this war? Practically, I am mainly against the war for the horrendous economic, political, and human costs to the U.S. and the world. Economists estimate it will cost the U.S. at least "low-end, in the order of $100 billion over the next ten years. High-end, $500 billion maybe $600 billion over the next decade." See The Cost of War (The NewsHour, PBS). Also, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that Bush's proposed budget will leave the U.S. with a $338 billion deficit (Dow Jones) in fiscal 2004 and $1.82 trillion in deficits over the next decade. In this extremely weak economy, who the hell can afford this?

Add that to Bush's clumsy, arrogant, and unconvincing diplomacy, he is already damaging American poiltical and business relations for years and years, as well as the whole purpose of the United Nations.

The most convincing people I have found who present an eloquent pro-war case are Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary, and Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist and author of that excellent book on the Middle East, From Beirut to Jerusalem. I read that for my modern Middle East history class at Berkeley.

Watch, on video, today's meeting of the United Nations Security Council (C-SPAN). Part 1/Part 2. Wow, I've never seen a U.N. meeting before. Maybe you guys find this all boring, but I am intrigued and inspired to see how the world tries to civilly settle its differences. Cowboy Bush so seems out of place at the refined, cultured U.N. If you don't have time, at least see the beginning of Part 2, in which British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw makes an eloquent, vigorous, and compelling case against Iraq. Straw is a fantastic speaker!

Totally Unconvincing (MSNBC): "At his press conference, Bush failed yet again to make his case for war. Here’s why....Everyone knows that war has been the president’s first choice—not his last—since at least the summer of 2002. In trying to play the reluctant sheriff, Bush cast himself in a role that rang false. He has, for months, been the eager sheriff....Bush’s problem was that he started with a war cry and had nothing to escalate to. His anger has become a kind of monotone, which seriously depletes its effectiveness....

Bush was lucky that no reporter asked him about his administration’s most recent budget request for rebuilding Afghanistan—a big fat zero. (Congress added a couple of hundred million). He seems to think we can play 52-card pickup and then simply leave the room. The same logical inconsistency applies to North Korea, which he described as a 'regional problem.' Let’s get this straight: Saddam’s potential development of nuclear weapons five or 10 years from now constitutes an imminent threat to the United States, but North Korea’s possession of them five to 10 weeks from now does not?...

The president’s deeper logical problem relates to the way he uses the bully pulpit to make an argument. His habit—on display again Thursday night—is to simply assert, assert, assert until the message sinks in. It’s as if war supporters believe that if they repeat the Saddam-Al Qaeda connection enough, people will eventually believe it."

Posted 2:48 AM by Blah blah

Watch video of CBS's Dan Rather interviewing Saddam Hussein!

From the Charlie Rose Show, please listen to former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke . He talks about reaction to Colin Powell's speech on Iraq to the U.N., French and German opposition to war and concerns about some of the Bush administration's goals in a war with Iraq. I have the highest respect for Holbrooke and hope he wins the Nobel Peace Prize someday. He has a lot of practical insider understanding of what the major players are really thinking. Let's see if his predictions come true.

Pa. Democrat Backs Away From Iraq Vote (AP): "Eighty-one House Democrats voted Oct 10 to give Bush the option for military action against Iraq....The House resolution, which passed 296-133, authorized the Bush administration to use military force to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction — with United Nations backing if possible, or alone if necessary."

Text of House Joint Resolution 114, passed last October, authorizing Bush to use force against Iraq.

Seriously, please watch this excellent documentary from PBS's Frontline, on RealPlayer. Frontline is one of the best investigative news programs on TV. It tells the whole history, with behind-the-scenes clashes, of why and how Bush is so determined to go to war with Iraq, starting from the Gulf War. How people have been privately trying to change U.S. foreign policy. Sec. of State Colin Powell, despite what he has publicly said recently, has been a key voice for moderation and multilateralism in this battle of ideas. Powell has been the guy pushing Bush to ask for a United Nations resolution before war. His main opponent has been Deputy Sec. of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, whose ideas shaped much of Bush's National Security Strategy document published last year.

Watch The War Behind Closed Doors

Bush and Saddam are Friends

Aww, isn't this sweet? Now there's a good boy! They must have read John Gottman's relationship book. Click pix for full-size.

Posted 6:33 AM by Blah blah

Outsourcing rejection (Salon.com): "I screened job applicants over the phone for a company I didn't work for. My favorite part: Arrogant middle managers who suddenly began to grovel when they realized I wasn't the receptionist." Great article by Ali Davis, "a writer and performer in Chicago. She is currently working on a screenplay based on [her blog] True Porn Clerk Stories."

All of you interested in the IT industry and future business trends, please read this. That means people like you, Fred and Raven. What do you think of this news? It's by Automation Access, a system integrator in S. California:
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2003 and Beyond
Technology trends that will affect your business and how you do business.
Warning: very little of the following is speculation. Most of it has already been announced and is being implemented.

Big corporate executives expect to be off pillaging some other company in just months, but you, the small business manager, need to plan 5, even 10 years out - because you'll likely still be stuck in the same business.

Most small business information systems weren't planned - they just got plugged in to do specific jobs - but in today's increasingly competitive markets, that isn't enough. Carefully planning an information strategy is critical when your competition is worldwide.

This article is a guide to trends that are already in full motion and well known by technology specialists, but are far from obvious to most business managers. I can't tell you what to do about them, without studying your particular business, but it will cast some light on what you should be looking at.

Much of this article deals specifically with Microsoft and Microsoft's future. This is inescapable, because Microsoft is a huge part of the information industry - and aspires to being all of it.

Throughout this work are numerous references to substantial articles from major on-line and print sources, so you can see I'm not just blowing smoke - I'm talking about real trends well known in the industry.

Posted 12:07 PM by Blah blah

See who's linking to your blog at Technorati. For example, here's who's linking to me recently. I find this more up-to-date than Blogdex. You can see how various bloggers are tied together virtually. Also, both of these sites are great for finding out what the most popular links are in the Blogger world today.

Blogging has really exploded in Brazil, the Middle East, and China. For example, some of the most widely linked new blogs are in Arabic! (I was even linked by a blog in Portuguese.) Wouldn't it be cool to keep in touch with bloggers in Iraq and help diffuse whatever lies may be printed about each other's nations? Make Links, Not War!

This is outrageous: Revealed: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war (The Observer): "Secret document details American plan to bug phones and emails of key Security Council members....The existence of the surveillance operation, understood to have been requested by President Bush's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, is deeply embarrassing to the Americans in the middle of their efforts to win over the undecided delegations." I hear that Rice, former provost of Stanford University, is thinking of running for governor of California. Well there goes my vote for her! :(
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From the always insightful Thomas Friedman (NY Times): The Long Bomb: "[I]f taking out Saddam and rebuilding Iraq had been my goal from the minute I took office (as it was for the Bush team), I would not have angered all of Europe by trashing the Kyoto global warming treaty without offering an alternative. I would not have alienated the entire Russian national security elite by telling the Russians that we were ripping up the ABM treaty and that they would just have to get used to it. (You're now seeing their revenge.) I would not have proposed one radical tax cut on top of another on the eve of a huge, costly nation-building marathon abroad.

I would, though, have rallied the nation for real energy conservation and initiated a Manhattan Project for alternative energies so I would not find myself with $2.25-per-gallon gasoline on the eve of this war — because OPEC capacity is nearly tapped out. I would have told the Palestinians that until they stop suicide bombing and get a more serious leadership, we're not dealing with them, but I would also have told the Israelis that every new or expanded settlement they built would cost them $100 million in U.S. aid. And I would have told the Arabs: 'While we'll deal with the Iraqi threat, we have no imperial designs on your countries. We are not on a crusade — but we will not sit idle if you tolerate extremists in your midst who imperil our democracy.'...

[I]t would have helped generate more support to increase our staying power in Iraq and the odds that we could pull this off."
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A Simple Rule for Complimenting People

Intelligent girls want to hear they are sexy.

Sexy girls want to hear they are intelligent.

Guys, of course, want to hear both.

Posted 5:00 PM by Blah blah

Wow! Jeff of The Tin Man is blogging again! He was one of my favorite bloggers before he stopped writing in Feb. 2002. He's a gay lawyer in the New Jersey/Manhattan area. VERY eloquent and always thought-provoking. My favorite gay male blogger, Jeff writes extensively about his romantic life in the gay scene in New York City. I highly recommend reading him! Welcome back!

Here's a recent entry he wrote that I love. He also wrote a 151-page screenplay last year. The man's got talent.

Baby Blogs

This is so cute: Aren's Baby Blog. Blog by a baby.

Other babies who blog.

My own reliable source of baby pictures is, of course, Peg, down in S. California. Here are some typical pix of Peg, Aric, and their baby Ashlyn. Hiya Peg!

Posted 12:02 PM by Blah blah

Post Your Legs for Comments. Jane Computer Idiot.

Damn, I spend time trying to write something for your brain and get on average, ZERO comments.

Mira posts a pic of her legs (not for your brain), asks an HTML question, and gets TWELVE comments.

Girls always have it easier on the Net. *Wink*

Min Jung pioneered the term "dating for tech support." I know some of you ladies are guilty of this. I KNOW IT I know it!

My idea for the next reality TV show on Fox: Jane Computer Idiot, in which a beautiful woman pretends to be a techno-dummy as 20 men compete for the chance to marry her and give her 24-hour lifetime support on Microsoft Windows and things like where to find the "ON" switch on her computer. At the end, she reveals that she really is a PhD computer scientist, knows Linux, and is blind as a bat without her contacts.