[via Contemporist]

It grew with Turkey’s parliament voting approval for the government to drive across the northern border of Iraq to pursue Kurdish rebels. Into the only part of Iraq that has had any kind of continual sense of stability. The bull eyes the china shop.

It screams in Pakistan, where the return of exiled former prime minster Bhutto was marred by two bombings in an assassination attempt (also here). The true front in the real war of necessity, descending closer to chaos. The stuff of nightmares if this lynch pin falls.

The floor is open for rebuttal, but isn’t this one of those worst case scenarios shaping up — a region-wide war? It’s not as though everything is as tenuous as the collection of coalitions that sparked World War I when Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, but this slope we’re on now is far too slippery for my tastes.

The timing is surreal; all of this comes a little over 24 hours after winning the 2012 Olympic bid and while the G8 convention is going on to the north in Scotland. In scale and scope, this attack is similar to the Madrid 3/11 attacks. So far no one has taken credit for the attacks, and the police claim there were no prior warning.

More than 30 total fatalities so far confirmed, with more to come (the number of fatalities on the bus area as of yet unknown). The world stands waiting once again.

At least on a personal level things are taking a continuing series of upward-turning curves, small though they may be. It gives me some comfort against all the woe and worry. I know I can’t be the only one who looks to ’05 with guarded optimism. After all the shit the first four years has given us, I think society as a whole is due for some good tidings. Anyone else with me on this one?

• More reports of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Guantanamo, this time courtesy of the F.B.I. Seems as though the torturers are using the F.B.I.’s name to shield the blame from getting passed onto the Department of Defense. Sick, just sick. Does anyone else find it frightening that we’ve now lost the majority of our moral high ground when it comes to this kind of thing? For every “enemy combatant” left to defecate on themselves or pull their hair out, we give rise to two or three terrorists to replace them. Not the way to promote the splendors of democracy or ensure the safety of our nation if you ask me.
• The long rumored MTA fare hike is now official. Monthly unlimited cards are to jump up from $70 to $76 a month, among other hikes. Great, there’s another $72 a year that I have to give over to someone else. This wouldn’t irk me so much if the MTA’s books were open. As it stands now, lots of nasty corruption rumors have been circulating.
• The FCC has given the go-ahead to the use of in-flight broadband. Cell phone use in planes is also to be decided upon soon. Probably of interest to those who fly a lot, but considering my terrestrial nature this is just one of those curious policy things I like to make note of.
• Just the mental image this one-line post creates had me laughing out loud at work.
• The process is now officially underway for Turkey to be evaluate for entry into the European Union. There are many steps along the way. The process could take up to 15 years and there is no guarantee that they’ll be admitted.
• Gizmodo has a picture of the Varioptic liquid lens that will add optical zoom and autofocus to future camera phones.
• A write-up on how to build traffic to your blog. Not like having this personal indulgence of mine widely known has ever been a big issue with me, but maybe I can use some of this on another blog I get involved with.
• Some Australian game has bought a virtual island for $26,500 in cash, and not virtual cash either. The slice of digitized land is in the online role-playing game Project Entropia.
• First it was XM releasing their MyFi portable satellite radio. Now it looks like Sirius is gonna follow suit and raise the stakes at the same time: they are rumored to be talking with Apple about integrating a Sirius satellite radio into the iPod. It’s times like this that I wish O&A were on Sirius and not XM. That and their NFL coverage package.
• Title how to get a budget out of a client. Hopefully I’ll get to use this tip some day on one of my freelance gigs.
• Looks like we’ll be waiting until spring for the new season of Chappelle’s Show to begin. My funny bone is heart broken at the news.

And finally…

• A new drug called called Sativex, used to treat the central nervous system of multiple sclerosis patients, is on track to get the green light from Canadian health officials. What makes this noteworthy is that it’ll be the first cannabis-based drug approved anywhere in the world.

“After a second explosion, people dropped everything, bags and shoes and ran, many trampling on others,” he continued. “People didn’t know which way to go. Some even went into the train tunnels without thinking other trains could be coming.”

It’s thought that this is an attack by the ETA, the militant Basque Homeland and Freedom in Euskara group. As interior minister Angel Acebes puts it: “I do not have the least doubt that it is E.T.A.”

Said the CIA’s former chief weapons inspector, David Kay:

.”The regime was no longer in control. It was like a death spiral.”

Yeah, that sure sounds like the summation of the greatest threat to organized freedom the world has ever known. Some are saying the president was fed bad intel which helped influence his decisions to go to war, but I find that to be total horse shit. Seems to me more like they just turned a blind eye to the things that didn’t backup their planned forceful intervention and blew out of proportion those things that could help their cause. I am personally ashamed that I too fell for the exaggeration of information.

And even if bad intel is the reason the president pushed us into battle, it’s still shame on him for not making sure on his facts before taking the steps. Cursory glances of morning briefing agendas aren’t good enough when the course of history and the lives of your citizens are at stake.

It’s this last bit of sound bite fodder that I want to address. Personally, I’m all for exploration and I think revisiting the moon and going to Mars are noble goals. NASA has for far too long been spinning its wheels and the private sector is on track to catch up sooner instead of later (see the X-Prize for proof of that), not to mention Europe and China wanting in on the action. Having lofty goals will serve the agency well, will give the youth of the nation something to set their minds to wonder and interest when talking about space instead of just boredom, and will give us a whole host of new compounds, gadgets and doodads that will need to be developed for the missions and will eventually filter down and become intwined in with our everyday lives. The only phenomena I’ve seen throughout history that can spur on technological development at the same feverish rate as lofty goals such as these is war, and I’d much rather have space be the midwife of invention instead of the bullet.

But Bush’s $1 billion extra to the NASA budget is just not going to get us there. It’s the hydrogen car all over again: a token addition to the budget so he can get his positive sound bite, but never to be heard of again. In addition, the rearranging of NASA’s budget is going to come at the cost of things like the Hubble Telescope, which has done far more to promote learning about the creation of the universe then many other programs. Hubble is set to be de-activated by 2010 and this half-assed attempt to curry favor with the public is the last nail in the coffin.

I like the notion, but I’m afraid the execution is going to lack much in its current state. Another case of this administration living far too short-sighted, even with their ultra long term goals. How would I do it better? To be honest, I haven’t the foggiest at the moment, but I do know when I hear something that won’t work and this plan certainly falls into that category.

As for my opinion on bringing Saddam into custody, it’s a good thing. Of course, I’ve never doubted that Saddam is evil. I’ve just doubted the way the war has been handled from start to muddled middle.

With all of that said, we still do have to remember that Saddam was indeed a malicious dictator who abused his people and his power. The people of Iraq, while going through a tumultuous change now filled with uncertainties, are better off without him. Don’t believe me? Try reading this excellent first hand account of the rebirth of Iraq and telling me that. Example:

Yet, Yasser admits: “The first fortnight, I was really, really depressed. Everyone in Iraq had been totally conditioned to wait to be told what to do by the state. Anybody with initiative got tortured or killed by Saddam, so people just waited for orders. So even after the liberation, they couldn’t understand that they were free; they didn’t know what it meant. But then I saw that gradually they were realising, and that day by day they were sort of defrosting.”

As for the immediate future of Iraq, our collective hands are going to have to stay intwined in it. Calls from both the left and the right now speak of distancing our nation from the mess we’ve made, strengthen by the way the mass media presents us with pictures and accounts of bombings and sound bites of Anti-American rallies from the Iraqis themselves. However, that would be a short sighted solution that would harm everyone all around:

There is a terrible fear among many Iraqis that they will not be able to match the Kurds’ achievement if they are abandoned by the Americans once again. “The memories of 1991 are so vivid,” says Sama. “People still fear that somehow the Americans will abandon us and Saddam will claw his way back from the grave. They say, `It happened in 1991, it could happen again.’ That’s one crucial reason why people are reluctant to cooperate with the coalition.” She adds: “I find it absolutely incredible that the anti-war people are now calling for the coalition to leave straight away. Nobody in Iraq wants that. The opinion polls show it’s just 13 per cent. Don’t they care about the Iraqi people and what they want at all? This isn’t a game. This isn’t about poking a stick at George Bush. This is our lives.”

Like it or not, we’re in this for the long haul. Bypassing the UN on our decision to make war is now going to bite us in the ass during our attempts to cultivate peace, as shown in the cool reaction to G.W. Bush’s most recent address to the Generally Assembly. It’s going to take saying “I’m sorry” and the willingness to give away a great deal of control in the process of rebuilding Iraq to the masses to even begin to fix America’s shattered image, but it seems as thought out current commander in chief refuses to see the obvious.

Regardless of who sits in the oval office after the 2004 election, they are going to have to deal with the Iraq situation well into their term because to abandon the people we liberated from oppression would be just as bad, if not worse, than the call to war itself. A mess was made on our behalf and we have to make sure it gets cleaned up.

Of course, in my opinion part of the cleaning begins with wiping the current administration from the White House.

Ever since the President’s address on Monday night and his 48 hour ultimatum, one news channel or another has served as the background sound to my day, and all of them were repeating the same mantra: war is coming, but we’re gonna let the Iraqi’s stare at the sky and make them worry about when things would start.

But wouldn’t you know it? Someone in the CIA managed to get info on Saddam’s location, and so things were sped up in an attempt to end the war before it ever really began with one shot. As of this moment it looks like the magic bullet missed it’s mark. Oh well.

At least the waiting is over. We’ve made our bed. Time to lie in it….

Although not addressed to his son in person, the message, in a speech at Tufts University in Massachusetts, was unmistakeable. Mr Bush Sr even came close to conceding that opponents of his son?s case against President Saddam Hussein, who he himself is on record as loathing, have legitimate cause for concern.

I guess this really isn’t a continuation of daddy’s war after all. Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. I just hope we all don’t have to live with the regret.

(Link via Plastic)

I’m impressed. Really, truly impressed. My faith in humanity has been destroyed by his failure to do exactly the wrong thing.

Crap. Now I have hope.

ìThe North Koreans should understand that it’s not going to be business as usual while they are in violation of their international agreements.”

While North Korea was in the wrong, I have this strange feeling that by admitting their plans before another country had the chance to point the finger, they’re actually trying to reform their ways. Maybe I’m dreaming; it’s just a thought….

• 7 Days: Iraq will say if it will “comply fully” with the resolution (or if Sadam is going to laugh in the face of the UN).
• 30 days: Iraq must reveal all programs, plants, materials, etc. that can be used in weapons production.
• 45 days: Inspectors must be allowed back in to resume their checks.
• Inspectors have 60 days to report back to the Security Council but may report violations earlier.

No places in the country are off limits this time around, and “serious consequences” are promised to Baghdad if it fails to comply. While the resoultion stops just short of guarenteening an automatic military responce, it also makes no mention of the need of another resolution for said military responce, which is a big deal considering how delicately the wording was put together.