Fiascoes in Three Takes

You can say that again! From the WSJ:

Just when President Bush seemed to have beaten back the Congressional defeatists on Iraq, along comes his own Justice Department to undermine some hard-won antiterror policy gains. The incompetence at Justice is getting to be expensive for Presidential power.

[…]

Some of the reaction on Capitol Hill has been typically overwrought, and the IG's audit found no evidence of intentional or criminal misuse. As a matter of law, such subpoenas are only allowed to seek certain kinds of records such as phone logs and travel information. This isn't a case of J. Edgar Hoover snooping on political enemies.

Nonetheless, the management lapses have done significant harm by allowing critics to claim that all such subpoenas should be barred. FBI Director Robert Mueller has acknowledged the foul-ups and says he's responsible, but it's astonishing that he didn't undertake his own audit much earlier. Those of us who have supported expanded government power to prevent another terror attack have done so with the expectation that the FBI and Justice will have processes in place that limit potential abuses. Mr. Mueller and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales both claimed that they did.

This is another fiasco for the FBI, which may simply be incapable of effective counterterrorism. Every independent group that has looked into the FBI--including the Robb-Silberman commission--has found that the agency is failing in that duty. Whatever discipline is handed out for this latest foul-up, the country needs to debate again whether domestic antiterror functions should be taken from the FBI and given to a new agency modeled after Britain's MI5.

MI5. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard a call for a new federal agency modeled on MI5; in fact, I’ve made the same sort of calls in the past. The idea is a good one except for one thing: time. It takes time to stand up a new bureaucracy, it takes time to pick and choose the personnel who will staff it, and it takes time to integrate that agency into the existing, over-large and largely inept federal intelligence community. And that’s probably the reason there’s been little or no movement on the idea. We simply do not have the luxury of time…the threat is too great and the proposed task is much too large.

Still and even, something must be done. The FBI seems immune to change, or, if not immune, incredibly resistant. Their information systems are 1970s vintage and their procedures, from all indications, are pretty much from that era, as well. I don’t believe decapitating DoJ by firing Gonzales (who does seem to deserve it) and Mueller is the answer. And I’m waaay out of my depth and area of expertise to suggest an alternate course. But I will say one thing: watching both Mssrs Gonzales and Mueller thrash about while trying to restore confidence in DoJ is painful. And that’s understating the case.

Captain Ed, as usual, has more.

Hell freezes over, SoCal edition:

AFTER WEEKS OF internal strife, House Democrats have brought forth their proposal for forcing President Bush to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by 2008. The plan is an unruly mess: bad public policy, bad precedent and bad politics. If the legislation passes, Bush says he'll veto it, as well he should.

It was one thing for the House to pass a nonbinding vote of disapproval. It's quite another for it to set out a detailed timetable with specific benchmarks and conditions for the continuation of the conflict. Imagine if Dwight Eisenhower had been forced to adhere to a congressional war plan in scheduling the Normandy landings or if, in 1863, President Lincoln had been forced by Congress to conclude the Civil War the following year. This is the worst kind of congressional meddling in military strategy.

[…]

By interfering with the discretion of the commander in chief and military leaders in order to fulfill domestic political needs, Congress undermines whatever prospects remain of a successful outcome. It's absurd for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to try to micromanage the conflict, and the evolution of Iraqi society, with arbitrary timetables and benchmarks.

Well, OK, they’re only stating the obvious. Still, that’s a big leap for The LA Times, nu? And you know they aren’t…uh…exactly overwhelmed with their new-found common sense. Nope. They absolutely, positively, have to get their licks in on Dubya. Which they do (“Bush's wartime leadership does not inspire much confidence. But...”). And of course, there’s that inference that the Dems need to “just do it,” as in: cut off funding for the war. Or rescind the authorization to use force in Iraq. They are the LA Times, after all.

At any rate, here’s hoping Madame Speaker reads and heeds the primary thrust of the op-ed: “Quit meddling!” Faint hope, that.

Related (sorta) stuff at Don Surber’s place: “Lefties Eat Their Own.” Excerpts:

A bunch of lefty protesters gathered Sunday outside the home of a government official to demand that the U.S. cut off funding for the war in Iraq, the AP reported. The official’s name: Nancy Pelosi.

[…]

But we are dealing with people who are never satisfied with anything. They are a small group of people; AP reported there are twice as many conservatives as there are liberals (via James Joyner). They prefer looking from the outside in. Now that they are inside, they turn on their own.

This is political suicide. Jonestown really is applicable. That cult began in California and was praised by Jane Fonda. Noted the AP of this new group, “Organizers count more than 140 arrests so far nationwide. Most involve charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.”

Hmmm. On the one hand we have the LAT. On the other: moonbats.

Your move, Madame Speaker.

I don’t normally read Malkin (for the same reason I don’t read Coulter: too much bomb-throwing). But this is rich:

First, Democrat Rep. David Obey spanks "idiot liberals." Now, Democrat presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is calling out the cowards who won't debate on Fox News. Punchy!

I did the Obey thing in a previous post. But Kucinich? Speaking up for Fox News (sorta, if you kinda squint)? Who’d a thunk it?

Once again, I’ll quote Mr. Morrisey, this time on Democrats, Fox News and Kucinich:

Or, as I said earlier, how can we trust these men and women to defend the United States and stand up to Iran, North Korea, and Osama bin Laden when they run screeching from Roger Ailes and Fox's viewers?

Memo to Democrats: When Dennis Kucinich has to scold you for lacking courage, you need a serious search-and-rescue for your party's stones.

What he said!!

And now I have to go see a man about a horse fast internet connection. I’m going to pay my ISP bill in person this month rather than mail it in, because I want to know what’s up with this fiber connection I was supposed to get sometime in January. Now that it’s mid-March. Enquiring minds wanna know, as it’s said…

Rain. And Lots of It.

Still making the rounds, but today is gonna look like this. It’s been raining non-stop since I awoke about an hour and a half ago, and the wind is out of the east. Which is highly unusual for P-Town since the prevailing winds are out of the west. But…rain is good. I’ve been noticing lately that our neck of the woods isn’t included in the draught monitor segments broadcast by the WX Channel. We had a lot of rain this past fall, and I’m guessing our deficit has been made up. That’s unusual, too!

September, 2006.

Back in a bit…

Time Changes, Yet Marches On

So. Didja reset the clocks? I’m in a sort of low-level daze, and will be in that state for a few days. I hated the time change back in the day. I was always an early guy at work and usually rolled out of bed at 0430 every morning. Moving the clock ahead effectively moved my get-out-of-bed time to 0330, and that’s waaaay too damned early for any human being to get up. That first week of daylight savings time was always very hard for me. Not so much, these days. And that’s a good thing…

More on General Ali Reza Asgari, the Iranian who defected to the West last week, from The Times (UK):

AN Iranian general who defected to the West last month had been spying on Iran since 2003 when he was recruited on an overseas business trip, according to Iranian sources.

This weekend Brigadier General Ali Reza Asgari, 63, the former deputy defence minister, is understood to be undergoing debriefing at a Nato base in Germany after he escaped from Iran, followed by his family.

[…]

According to the Iranian sources, the escape took several months to arrange. At least 10 close members of his family had to flee the country. Asgari has two sons, a daughter and several grandchildren and it is believed that all, including his daughters-in-law, are now out of Iran. Their final destination is unknown.

Wow. This reads like a John Le Carré novel. Getting someone’s entire family out of a police state is a complicated and dangerous affair for everyone involved. The man must be valuable, indeed, to risk an operation of this scope. And we (the general public) will probably never know what this really means. As for me, I’m simply glad the man defected and hope the European/American intelligence agencies use the information they obtain wisely. Read that as: to the Mullahs' GREAT detriment.

Pretty small, in the Grand Scheme of Things, yet important to some of us:

Internet radio stations are warning they could be forced off the air by a big increase in the royalties they pay to play music.

The warning comes after a decision by a US copyright body to increase royalty payments for music via the net.

Commercial webcasters in the US now face the prospect of paying more than twice as much for every track they play.

Frequent readers are aware I’m a BIG fan of Radio Paradise (see the sidebar). It pains me, considerably, to think RP might be driven out of business by such an arbitrary and ill-considered action by the frickin’ gubmint. But it ain’t just the gubmint. Oh, No…it ain’t. Enter the proverbial “special interests:”

There has been much discussion about how unfair these rates are, but our listeners find one fact particularly apalling: while Internet stations like ours are being told they must pay royalty fees that exceed their income, sometimes by several times over, FM stations - including those owned by media conglomerates like Clear Channel - pay nothing at all!

Yes, both FM stations and Internet stations pay royalties to songwriters and/or music publishers. But the royalties in question are owed to the owners of performance copyrights, which means, in most cases, record companies - and to them, FM stations pay nothing at all.

How is it possible for such a massive disparity to exist?

[…]

We are at a fork in the road. Down one path is a radio universe populated entirely by large corporations, who can either afford the legal firepower necessary to negotiate a reasonable settlement with the music industry (such as the satellite radio companies have done) or can afford to offer Internet radio as a “loss leader” (as Yahoo and AOL do).

Down the other fork we are presented with a universe of choices, freely available to all, produced by people who truly love and value what they are doing - including user-programmed channels such as those offered by lala.com, “discovery” channels such as those available at Pandora, and who knows what else in the coming years. None of those choices are viable under the new rate structure, and that would be a tremendous loss for all involved.

That’s Bill from RP, writing in an essay on Save Our Internet Radio. He speaks the truth when he says we’re “at a fork in the road.” I, for one, would simply hate to see my choices diminished, and I most certainly will not go back to commercial radio. Commercial radio lost it, years ago, to be blunt. Satellite radio is an alternative, but satellite radio isn’t nearly as eclectic or entertaining as internet radio. Although I tend to listen solely to RP, I do venture further a field on occasion. Especially when Bill goes off on a whiny sensitive singer jag….but I digress.

So. Is there anything to be done? Well, yes. Yes, there is, in a small way: Sign the online petition and open letter to the US Congress. I signed this morning and joined 14,867 other individuals who think this royalty thing is grossly unfair and a threat to our pursuit of happiness. I hope all y’all agree and sign the petition. Do it for the children!

Bedouins:

A new breed of worker, fueled by caffeine and using the tools of modern technology, is flourishing in the coffeehouses of San Francisco. Roaming from cafe to cafe and borrowing a name from the nomadic Arabs who wandered freely in the desert, they've come to be known as "bedouins."

San Francisco's modern-day bedouins are typically armed with laptops and cell phones, paying for their office space and Internet access by buying coffee and muffins.

"In 'Lawrence of Arabia,' the bedouins always felt like they were on the warpath. They had greater cause," said Niall Kennedy, a 27-year-old San Franciscan who quit his day job at Microsoft Corp. to run his own Web company, Patrick Media, out of cafes and a rented desk. "At a startup, you're always on the go, plowing ahead, with some higher cause driving you."

San Francisco's bedouins see themselves changing the nature of the workplace, if not the world at large.

Most interesting. I get the feeling that I know at least one Bedouin. The law of averages makes this possibility almost a certainty, given I worked in the IT industry (as did nearly all my friends/associates) whilst living in SFO. This wouldn’t be me, but I can relate.

From an e-mail sent by my buddy Ed in Florida:

What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons and civil engineers build targets.

True, that! {insert smiley face here}

Today’s Pic(s): Arguably the most exciting day ever around El Casa Móvil De Pennington. To make a long story short, I was dozing on the couch on a lazy summer’s afternoon when I (finally) hear all sorts of commotion outside. I say “finally,” because it took me a while to realize things weren’t as they should be… the AC droning away in the foreground effectively masked sounds from the outside. That, coupled with the fact the TV volume has to be set on "ear-splitting" to drown out the AC. So, anyway...I raise my shades to see the trailer next door blazing away as the good guys from the Portales Fire Department methodically dealt with it. Of course, the first thing I do is grab the camera and begin shooting. It was only later I realized I should have run, not walked to the nearest exit and got the Hell away…far away…from the fire. Propane tanks, and all that.

The Fire Department came back later that same day night and put the fire out again. It seems like they missed a hot spot the first time around…and the trailer ignited again in the middle of the night. Too much excitement…

August, 2005.

Plane Pr0n

Just to get started on a Saturday... Plane Pr0n! The vid is billed as being from Red Flag exercises at Nellis AFB, NV. There is no other detail. Lotsa F-15s, F-16s, the odd A-10, and a flash (or two) of German AF Tornadoes and Royal Navy Harriers.

(h/t: The Tailhook Association's Daily Briefing site)

Hunters, Killers, and Losers (Not Necessarily in That Order)

Chris Muir, of Day By Day fame, writes of his trip to Iraq (at Bill Roggio’s place):

People here will tell you they are mostly afraid of one thing-that we will leave soon, like we have since Vietnam, Somalia, etc., and that they will then be at the mercy of the terrorists who seep in from Iran, Syria, Egypt, and Saudia Arabia. A self-fulfilling circle, helped out vastly by our 'anti-war' citizens back home, who ironically enable wars as this by forcing constant US retreats through our political process. People here - real people, not 'Jamil Husseins' - want us here to give them time to reform their society.

I speculate this is one of the reasons I observed such high morale in our soldiers here. They are wanted here, unlike, say, in San Francisco. But, I digress.

“…unlike, say, in San Francisco.” Nice snark! The piece is short, but good. (h/t: Chap)

Gerard sez all there is to say about this lil news item:

Headline of the Democrats' hot new press release: SENATE DEMOCRATS ANNOUNCE JOINT RESOLUTION TO TRANSITION THE MISSION IN IRAQ

"Transition the mission." Has a nice lilt to it, doesn't it?

Beats "Let's cruise to lose," or "We'll pout until you pull out," or "Trick or treat... smell my feet... give me something good to eat."

Yes, this is probably number 13, or 14, or 15, or 16 in the Dems attempts to run without running, but at this point who is counting. Their attempts to fully manage failure will continue. As they say in the National Parks, "Once a bear gets hooked on garbage there's no cure."

Actually, this is SenConLosePlan 07-17, according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: There's 16 of them. There was the Biden resolution, then there was the Levin resolution, then there was the Reed-Pelosi resolution, the Murtha plan, the Biden-Levin resolution, the Conrad Funding Cut, there was a waiver plan, a Timeline plan, a Feingold resolution, an Obama resolution, a Clinton resolution, a Dodd resolution, a Kennedy resolution, a Feinstein resolution, a Byrd resolution, a Kerry resolution. And today would make No. 17.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

From last evening’s panel discussion on the subject by the Fox All-Stars; transcript here. (via RCP)

My Lord, but Congress seems to have more OpPlan specialists than the Pentagon. And they’re busy as all get-out (ahem), too!

More on that IRGC general who apparently defected to the West:

A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran's ties to the organization, according to a senior U.S. official.

Ali Rez Asgari disappeared last month during a visit to Turkey. Iranian officials suggested yesterday that he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The U.S. official said Asgari is willingly cooperating. He did not divulge Asgari's whereabouts or specify who is questioning him, but made clear that the information Asgari is offering is fully available to U.S. intelligence.

But then there’s this short blurb from Fox:

TEHRAN, Iran — A former Iranian deputy defense minister who disappeared from Turkey last month is not cooperating with Western intelligence agencies and his whereabouts remain a mystery, a U.S. official told FOX News Thursday.

My money’s on the WaPo’s story. Other sources agree.

NPR has a good interview with Col. Austin Bay: 'Embrace the Suck' and More Military Speak. I learned more than a lil bit from this article. Slang isn’t permanent; it evolves and changes according to time and place. And my “time and place” in the military is in the distant past, so much so that it almost seems pre-historic, at times. I’m a lil bit better after reading Col. Bay’s update.

Good news in today’s Telegraph (UK)…if true:

America is stepping up its hunt for Osama bin Laden by dispatching additional CIA operatives and paramilitary officers to Pakistan to kill or capture the al-Qa'eda leader.

US officials said that the mission is intended to intensify the pressure on the terrorist leader, who turns 50 tomorrow, and perhaps force him into making a mistake. He is widely believed to be hiding in the region bordering Afghanistan.

Satellite photographs and details of communications intercepts were given to President Musharraf of Pakistan last week by Stephen Kappes, deputy director of the CIA, as part of a strategy to persuade him to give US intelligence agencies more assistance.

Now wouldn’t it be neat if uninvited guests showed up at Osama’s birthday party tomorrow and provided free fireworks for the occasion?

“Idiot Liberals:”

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) berated a woman who approached him in a Congressional corridor, claiming that “idiot liberals” don’t understand the war supplemental spending bill process.

The altercation was videotaped and posted on www.youtube.com .

“We’re trying to use the supplemental to end the war,” Obey said. “You can’t end the war if you’re going against the supplemental. It’s time these idiot liberals understood that.”

Well, now. That’s just a bit strong, nu? But not, perhaps, as strong as this (a comment to this post, and there’s more in the same incredibly stupid vein):

Stop defending these (5.00 / 2) (#2)
by Che's Lounge on Fri Mar 09, 2007 at 10:32:38 AM EST

PRICKS!!!

Don't end this war by a thousand cuts, END THIS WAR NOW!!

Stop enabling the enablers. Obey's logic is as twisted as a strand of DNA.

Stop the war there, so we don't start a war here.

“…start a war here?” WTF does that mean? Or is this comment simply justification for Rep. Obey’s rather pithy observation? You decide…

Today’s Pic: SN3 on the bridge of USS Mason. Alternative title: “Deep in Enemy Territory.” The Boy’s affinity for all things Navy is simply alarming.

Port Canaveral, FL. April, 2003.

Of Fighters and Pig Books

Clue-free: I was watching Washington Journal this morning while making the rounds. A Mr. Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, was on…speaking about CAGW’s annual report on government waste, strangely enough. The report (The Pig Book) is smaller than usual this year, due to the moratorium on ear-marks. But…what caught my ear (remember, I’m reading at the same time and I’m male) was Mr. Schatz saying the F-22 is included in this year’s report. “We don’t need it,” sez Mr. Schatz, “because it was designed to fight the old USSR. The Cold War is over.” I go back to my reading. Then some clown calls in and I hear that “the military doesn’t even want the F-22, it’s only in the budget because of the collusion between Congress and the military-industrial complex.” Our Dear Mr. Schatz nods sagely up and down and lets the clown prattle on without correcting the many errors in fact the idiot was making.

I grabbed the remote and changed over to the WX Channel.

So. I got curious later and went looking for source documentation on this F-22 thingie at CAGW’s web site. Here’s what the Pig Book says about the F-22:

$1,190,000,000 for full funding of 20 F-22A fighter jets; this barrel of pork is so big that Congress will not even spend it all in one year. The bill funds 20 F-22s per year until 2009. The F-22 was originally designed as an air superiority fighter for use against the Soviet Air Force. Before Congress put the ink on the check, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sent a 13-page letter on June 20, 2006 to then-House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young urging Congress to stop funding this program due to its high cost and the fact that the aircraft is out of date. The GAO said, “DOD has not demonstrated the need or value for making further investments in the F-22A program.” The GAO also noted that the F-22s “are not sufficient to be effective in the current and future national security environment.” There are 22 test F-35 aircrafts that are more modern, effective, and cheaper. In 2003, Popular Science reported the F-22 had a price tag of $120 million each while the F-35 cost $35 million. In June 2006, the GAO report raised the F-22’s numbers, concluding that the multi-year contract would drive per-plane costs up to $183 million from $166 million. The F-35 made its maiden flight in December 2006. Apparently, the F-22 will be stopped only when pigs can fly. (Emphasis mine on the dumb-ass points)

I think the Air Force might disagree with this. Maybe. Here’s Lt. Gen Ray Johns, quoted in this month’s Air Force Magazine:

Buying the new fighters is “critical,” according to Lt. Gen. Raymond E. Johns Jr., deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs.

“While extending the service life of legacy aircraft meets some niche requirements,” they will find it increasingly tough to get past modern integrated air defense systems, Johns said.

“It’s critical that we keep production of our fifth generation fighters on track, ensuring sufficient quantities” to preserve the US edge in air combat, he said.

Nevertheless, there just aren’t enough F-22s or F-35s on order to meet all the Air Force’s commitments, which for the fighter force involves the ability to fight up to two nearly simultaneous major theater wars as well as ensuring sovereignty over US airspace.

[…]

The QDR also specified 183 F-22s, versus the Air Force’s long-validated requirement for 381. All agree the smaller figure was driven by monetary constraints and not by strategy.

“We still need and want 381,” Johns said, but he said the lower figure is “not ... a crisis to me” because the decision on whether to go beyond 183 will take place beyond the current planning cycle, in 2010. The Air Force succeeded in winning Congressional approval to buy the F-22 on a multiyear contract basis, getting three lots of 20 each. In Fiscal 2010, when the multiyear expires, the Air Force hopes to get approval to buy at least 20 more. The decision point will come beyond the term of the Bush Administration, which set the 183 limit.

The USAF is “extending the lives of 1980s vintage fighters” (F-15, F-16, A-10) in order to compensate for not getting the fighters we need. Some of the ‘80s fighters’ lives will be extended until 2030, making our fighter aircrews go to war in 50-year-old airframes. Now there’s a confidence-inspiring move.

I’m all for cutting real pork. But organizations such as CAGW don’t do themselves any favors, nor do they gain support, by advocating cuts in military programs when it’s patently obvious they don’t know what the Hell they’re talking about. And especially when they throw around bogus numbers to substantiate their points. Specifically: regarding the cost of the F-22 vs. the F-35:

In 2014, when production reaches about 21 airplanes per month, the F-35A will cost $48 million a copy. The F-35B and F-35C will cost $62 million and $63 million, respectively. By comparison, the Eurofighter Typhoon—probably JSF’s closest foreign competitor—costs more than $95 million and the F-22 is expected to come in at an average of about $120 million by the time production winds up in 2010.

CAGW overstates the F-22 costs and the F-35 costs are understated. But Hey! You substantiate your points however you can. Popular Science is a great authority on fighter procurement, I suppose. God only knows how much better they are than, say, USAF generals who are responsible for fighting the nation’s air wars and ensuring our front-line fighters are world-class.

(About the image: Titled "Hunters" this piece of art was created by Ken Chandler and downloaded from the official USAF web site. You can download the hi-res version of this painting here.)

Site Meter Issues?

Sometimes I wonder about Site Meter. They’ve been having problems of late, and Laurie recently suspected her Site Meter had gone away completely (and it had – for a while). They’ve been getting slower, and slower, and slower …sometimes to the point where they are completely inaccessible, as demonstrated by this message I received while trying to check my traffic just right now:

The page cannot be displayed

The request cannot be processed at this time. The amount of traffic exceeds the Web site's configured capacity.

---

Please try the following:

· Click the Refresh button, or try again later.

· If this error persists, contact the Web site administrator to inform them that this error continues to occur for this URL address.

HTTP Error 500.13 - Server error: Web server is too busy.
Internet Information Services (IIS)

I hope they clear it up. Especially since I sprang for the pay version last November.

Car Ad w/No Comment

Conviction, Defection, Insertion...

Today’s Big, BIG News is the Libby verdict. Actually, it was yesterday, but because I usually only blog once or twice a day it will be today, for all intents and purposes.

Since I’ve only been following this story haphazardly I don’t have a whole helluva lot to say about it, except that I agree with the WSJ:

The word "guilty" had barely crossed the airwaves yesterday in the perjury case of Scooter Libby before critics were calling it proof that President Bush "lied us into war" and demanding that Dick Cheney be strung up next. Maybe now Mr. Bush will realize that this case was always a political fight over Iraq and do the right thing by pardoning Mr. Libby.

The conviction is certainly a travesty of justice, though that is not the jury's fault. The 11 men and women were faced with confusing evidence of conflicting memories in a case that never should have been brought. In the end, they were persuaded more by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's story line that Mr. Libby, a former aide to Mr. Cheney, had lied to a grand jury about what he knew when about the status of CIA official Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush critic Joseph Wilson.

The most interesting thing about this whole affair is there was no crime committed until the special prosecutor’s investigation began, as Libby was convicted for lying to a grand jury. No special prosecutor, no grand jury, no crime. Pretty damned sad, if you ask me…which, of course, you didn’t. Ask, that is.

Still, one wonders what Hamsher, Hardin, and their various partners-in-crime (quite the world-class Leftie rant, there, at least as far as word count goes) are going to do in future, now that their whole raison d’être is gone. Do ya think they’ll fold up the tent and go home, now that the show is (nearly, save appeals) over?

Nah. Me neither. Because there’s just so much to be outraged over!

On the other hand, Libby’s conviction may have “larger consequences.” I use the scare quotes because…well…some in the Republican party just might be experiencing a twinge of apprehension. Captain Ed discusses:

However, Cheney and his office will have to answer a lot of questions over the next few weeks, and perhaps some of those may be in Congress. The Libby conviction will present a major distraction for at least a while, and the Republicans will have to answer for it in the next election. That's not a demand by me, but just a cold, hard, political reality. Libby lied to investigators who were probing the administration, and he was not some junior flunky at a folding table. Libby was an inner-circle man, and this will hurt. A lot.

Good stuff there, if one is interested in examining tea leaves or goat entrails.

This isn’t just good news, it’s frickin’ GREAT news…

A RETIRED Iranian general who went missing in Turkey last month has defected and sought asylum in the US, according to a well-connected Arabic newspaper published in London.

The newspaper, al-Shark al-Awsat, cited "high-profile" sources saying former Iranian deputy defence minister and Revolutionary Guard commander Ali Reza Asghari had gone over to the West.

Reports from Istanbul that General Asghari's family had also disappeared in Turkey support the likelihood that he defected rather than was kidnapped by either the CIA or by Israel's Mossad, as has been speculated. The general went missing from his Istanbul hotel a month ago.

Iranian authorities, who have been silent on the disappearance until this week, claim he has been abducted. "It is likely Asghari has been abducted by Western intelligence services," said Iran's top police officer, General Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam.

Defection of such a high-ranking figure would leave no external enemy to blame and would be seen as a rejection of the Islamic state by someone who well knows its inner workings.

If it’s true. Ya never know. Still, one hopes it’s true because the general would be a veritable intelligence gold mine, not to mention The Mother of All Embarrassments to Tehran. Much more here, including this:

Soon after his disappearance was discovered, Iran dispatched an operations team to Ankara to help the Turkish authorities to look for him. At the same time, a public relations campaign was launched with Iranian minister Mottaki has doing his best to downplay Asgari’s importance as an official in order to reduce the damage to the Iranian government’s image.

He wasn’t fooling anyone. It is clear that Asgari is a man privy to numerous secrets which Iran desperately does not want revealed. As well as being a former deputy defence Minister, Asgari was also a General in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC). The IRGC, more than any other branch of Iran’s armed forces, is aware of, and has access to Iran’s nuclear program. Its members are in charge of monitoring and protecting Iran’s nuclear installations, and scientists.

Wow. This is sooo much better than talking about Scooter, nu?

And this is pretty danged funny:

Ordinarily I try to come down on the side of law enforcement when it comes to homeland security. But this time DHS has crossed the line. Evidently, they are harassing decent people who simply want to exercise their right to board airplanes with magnets up their butt.

According to Reuters, Atlantic City resident Fadhel al-Maliki was searched while trying to board a plane, and they found the suspicious iron in his rectum, where--let's be honest--it wasn't bothering anybody. Except maybe Mr. al-Maliki. I have to ask. Is Islamism this guy's problem, or is it just that he's from Jersey?

Fadhel al-Maliki...isn't that the skinny guy who played the doctor on the coincidentally named show, Deep Space Nine? I wouldn't be too surprised if that guy turned out to have random pieces of hardware up his rear end. But that's a matter of personal choice, as the ACLU would surely tell you. It's one thing if he had a phaser up there and was running around bending over at people in the name of Allah. It's another if it's a purely recreational item, such as an Emmy award or a plastic Dr. Bashir action figure.

Steve does some great good things with words and dumb stuff from time to time, but this one is a classic… The real news story as at the “up their butt” link.

Today’s Pic: Another shot of SN3 taken at the Mickey Dee Play Palace. Note the tee shirt...

You don’t wanna know just how many shots I took that day. Or rather, I don’t want to tell you. Embarrassment, ya know.

Still in South Florida. Still March, 1998.

Just a Little Bit Cynical...

I’m projecting here, but Bec asked in the comments if I thought Bob Dole and Donna Shalala were good choices to head up the presidential commission that will tar and feather the usual suspects investigate the military health care scandal. The short answer: yes. The long, and cynical, answer follows. Oh, and the “projecting” bit? I’m projecting that Bec, and possibly others, are wondering why I haven’t commented on the Walter Reed thingie. That’s part and parcel of the long answer…

First: the caveats.

• In my 22-year Air Force career I never was shot at, let alone wounded. So it goes without saying I never spent any lengthy amount of time within the tender embrace of the military health system, let alone undergo numerous operations and months, if not years, of physical therapy.
• I was always subject to the Air Force’s health care system, save for the one-year period of time I spent in an AF tenant unit on an Army post. Say what you will, but I believe the stereotype of the USAF providing better people-care than our sister services. Just sayin’.
• I have never entered a Veterans Administration (VA) medical facility except as a visitor. So, by definition, I’m not qualified to render any sort of first-hand judgment on the quality, or lack thereof, of VA care. Their reputation isn’t sterling, however. Once again, just sayin’.
• The current scandal is less about the VA and more about the military. But the scandal will grow to include the VA, much sooner than later.

The military and the VA…especially the VA…have long-standing reputations (deserved or not) for providing mediocre health care to their clients. And “mediocre” may be too kind. There are, and have been, periodic scandals about abuse, neglect, incompetence, malpractice, and various other evils surrounding the military medical establishment as long as those organizations have been in existence. If you missed them, you haven’t been paying attention, or you’re very young. I myself am way too young to remember the earliest scandals, which began shortly after the Civil War. But the scandals come close on the heels of the nation’s latest war. The Biggie for my generation was the Agent Orange scandal and the associated lawsuits filed by veterans (and others) long and tortuous path through the courts.

Enter the cynicism. The military’s health care system will always be plagued by scandal, simply because it’s part of a large bureaucracy. And bureaucracies are the bane of modern existence, as we all know. As an example, does anyone really believe the average DMV will ever get fixed in our lifetime, or the lifetimes of our great-great-grandchildren? If so, then you also harbor hopes about the military medical system. I’m not equating the functions of the medical system and those of the DMV, they are apples and oranges, except for the fact they are both large bureaucracies and as such are subject to the immutable laws of nature, specifically the Law of Inertia. But can one expect meaningful change from another Commission? I think not. But we’ll do it. We’ll Commission. Yet again.

There will be much gnashing and thrashing. There will be lots…too much…blame-mongering and finger pointing for political gain. It’s already begun.

In hearings of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee at Walter Reed Hospital, Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) said that veterans and their families are "flooding us with complaints" and that "this may be the tip of the iceberg of what is going on all around the country."

And, citing a litany of news stories and congressional reports, Waxman threw doubt on claims by the Army's higher-ups that they were surprised by the Post's disclosures two weeks ago.

"They said, 'We never knew things were out of hand.' " Waxman said. "I have a stack of reports and articles that sounded the alarm bells."

I watched part of those hearings on C-SPAN yesterday. While not all of the proceedings were marked by blatant political posturing, there was enough if it to turn one’s stomach. Surprised?

So. What to do? I’m not advocating a “business as usual” approach. By all means, bring on the commission(s). Air it out. Make your recommendations. Do your absolute BEST to implement the recommendations and thereby ensure we’ll never see a scandal like this again. Until this war is over, that is, and the military recedes into obscurity until the next war. By "obscurity" I mean the military will become a wasteful use of funds that could be better used to stamp out drug abuse or protect Spotted Owls. That's just the way things work in America.

I could say more on this subject, but I think you get my drift. I’ll end on a positive note: My past and present experiences with the Air Force Medical Corps have been nothing short of superlative. The fact that I’m getting old and have (not to mention will need) direct access to the medical folks at Cannon AFB is one of, if not the, principal reasons I stay docked in Portales. I only wish every other military person and veteran had it as good as I do.

A Lazy Sort of Tuesday

Chap posted a great read today, all about Chief Ken Joyner, Submariner.

In 1950 America was segregated and unequal, though in New York there was token integration. Very naïve in the knowledge of racist treatment in the United States I went to 90 Church Street, the Federal Building in New York City. Raising my right hand and vowing to protect and defend, my Navy life began. Having passed the pre-requisite tests, unbeknownst to me I qualified with a group of pioneers. “The New Navy” Black men were being assembled to integrate the Navy for all men.

Read the whole thing. Courage comes in many forms, not the least of which is overcoming adversity the likes of which most people have never known.

Sometimes things work out like you want them to, or, at the very least, you find you’ve avoided a dicey situation or an outright catastrophe. Such was the case this morning when I awoke to find the propane gauge had reached the “Call Cortez Gas” level. And so I called. Only to hear the lovely Estella tell me that Albert just got his truck back yesterday after a week of downtime to have a new clutch installed. I think I posted about the trials and tribulations of finding an alternate supplier when Cortez is…uh…indisposed. The bottom line: it’s purt near impossible. But the state of my tank (full, diminishing to Call Cortez) just happened to coincide with Cortez’ downtime.

In which case: Thank You, Lord!

I’m still drinking coffee and making the rounds. And here it is: nearly noon. Damn but this retirement gig is stressful! {insert smiley face here}

Today’s Pic: Oh Hell…let’s do another Baby Pic. Coz…when all else fails, baby pictures don’t. Fail, that is. Bobby, aka SN3, in one of Micky Dee’s Play Palaces, somewhere in South Florida. Key Largo, I think, but wouldn’t bet my life on it.

March, 1998.

Apologies

Every time I try to talk to you
I get tongue-tied
Seems like everything I say to you
Comes out wrong and never comes out right

–Chad Kroeger (w/Santana)
(30 sec sample and lyrics here)

Writer’s block. Blog ennui. Whatever. But everything I write these past few days “comes out wrong and never comes out right.” At least it seems that way. As an example, one post that shouldn’t have made the cut was that DUI thing I put up day before yesterday. I had bad feelings about it, even after the third editing pass, yet posted it anyway. Suffice to say “it didn’t come out right.” And that’s an understatement!

Being blocked is a strange thing for me. Back in the day when I literally wrote for a living I was rarely blocked, although it did happen occasionally. In most cases (but not all) the block was clearly traceable and explained by the fact I didn’t understand what I was trying to say. The cure was to revisit the subject and learn more, often by talking it over with a subject matter expert. Once I achieved “understanding” the words flowed freely, if not eloquently. Eloquence came with editing, but it came.

I should note that “writing for a living,” in my case means writing and editing technical proposals, most often in response to a “Request for Proposal,” or RFP. The writing involved a mixture of describing technical solutions to specific problems and the “benefits” of our clearly superior solution vis-à-vis the solution(s) of our competitor(s). All under deadline pressure. And one never has enough time, for one reason or another. But hey! It was fun, in a bizarre sort of way, and I loved it.

But that was then. I’m at a loss to identify why I’m having such a hard time these past few days. I write for real fun now (not bizarre fun), it’s not work. Or at least it’s not supposed to be “work,” the way I see it. Yet writing is difficult, and writing well can be damned difficult. One can string words together fairly easily, but organizing those words into coherent thought is hard. It gets harder when one tries to be entertaining as well as informative.

It’s said that “we are our own worst critics,” and that may be part of what’s in play here. I really don’t know, but I’m working on finding out. In the mean time…please accept my apologies for the reduced output. Both of you.

Today’s Pic(s): From last Fall’s San Antonio trip. I was quite taken by this gas fountain in the courtyard of Pat O’Brien’s San Antonio store and took more than a few pictures of it, at least two of which I posted to the blog. But I missed the transaction going on in the right hand side of these pics as I snapped the fountain. Until this morning. Judging from the body language on display, one has the feeling that everything turned out quite well, nu?

October, 2006.

Help Needed

Laurie over at Soldiers’ Angels NY posted a plea from an Army spouse at Fort Benning GA yesterday:

I am writing on behalf of the military tornado victims of Thursday night's storm in Columbus, GA beside Fort Benning. The housing shortages and inadequate housing at Fort Benning causes many military families to look off base for housing. While the base did not receive much damage in this recent storm, many houses of military families off base were impacted.

These families are in desperate need of help and are falling between the cracks in the system. Inexplicably, they are not receiving requested help from the Red Cross, Military One Source, or United Way. Each of these organizations has suggested calling one of the others.

It’s not just Fort Benning, either. Army families at Fort Rucker in Alabama were also hit hard by those horrible tornadoes this past week.

Laurie has the details and a Paypal link. If you can spare a few dollars you should get on over to Laurie’s and pony up. To say this is a "good cause" would be redundant in the extreme…

Real Plane Pr0n

So…I was doing some cleaning up on the ‘puter (file maintenance, review-move-save-delete, you know…the usual) and I came across this ol’ pic I’d saved in the way-back (October 2003): REAL Plane Pr0n. Well, sorta.

I wonder what sort of uniforms the stews flight attendants wear on that blue plane?

Taxing Subjects and The Last Drip

OK…this is really politically incorrect. But, I agree.

Americans drink and Americans drive, and sometime they do both in the same evening. This can cause problems, although in the vast majority of instances it doesn't. That's why it's not against the law to drink and drive. It is against the law to drink too much and drive, as it should be. In other words, it's OK to drink and drive up to a point. The public policy debate centers on where that point is defined under the law.

Just a small part of a reasoned rebuttal to a hare-brained idea, to wit: Colorado Rep. Joel Judd’s (D-Denver), proposal to “…pull your license for five years for a first DUI offense and 20 years for a second - even if there were no damage or injuries involved.” Aside from rejecting Rep. Judd’s proposed bill the author discusses how the gubmint measures impairment:

It used to be set at a blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.10 percent. Under political pressure from groups like MADD, the level was tightened to 0.08. Single-minded zealots, like MADD, would like to tighten the standard even more. (In Sweden, it's 0.02.) They argue that, "Even if it would save only one life, wouldn't it be worth it?" The rational answer to that question is, "not necessarily." There would be no end to paranoid, risk-averse, nannyist control of your life if that were the only criterion for any law or public policy.

I think the 0.10 percent is a reasonable standard. The wiki, for what it’s worth, defines a 0.10 BAC standard in this manner:

Number of drinks: 5… BAC: .10 -.15… Effect: Person obviously intoxicated, delirium.

And I have a problem with that, because that rather loose definition doesn’t specify (1) Five drinks over what period of time? (2) Five drinks consumed by a 225 pound male, or a 110 pound woman? And (3) the variance between .10 and .15 is huge, and “delirium” as a result of five drinks seems a bit hyperbolic! My objections to the wiki’s definitions aside, I still think 0.10 is reasonable.

Like the author of the Rocky Mountain News article, I’m not advocating drunk-driving. I’m simply saying there’s no rational reason to make a felon out of me if I’ve had two glasses of wine with dinner and a drink after… over, say, a three hour period of time…and then drive home. I’m not impaired at that level of consumption. And most other folks aren’t, either. If you “blow” 0.10 under those circumstances (making a DUI conviction technically feasible), should you lose your license for five years, assuming it’s a first offense? I think not. (I don’t really know if my example—two glasses of wine and a beer—would result in a 0.10 BAC; I’m assuming.)

Just sayin’.

Here’s an article worth saving…or at least the links herein are worth noting, especially if you’re in the job market: How Much Should You Be Paid? There are also a few fun facts:

PayScale, which gets about a third of the traffic that Salary.com does, says it has information on jobs not usually found in corporate salary surveys like pornographic film actor (average salary: $63,275), rabbi (average salary: $98,610) and crossing guard (average hourly wage: $9.21), but so far no chick sexers, mimes or bloggers are in its roster. “We don’t get many boiler makers, but we get the jobs that are out there in volume,” Mr. Giordano said.

Hmmm. The fringe benefits in at least one of those “jobs not usually found in corporate salary surveys” are considerable. But then, so are the risks. But I digress.

I know I left a considerable amount of money on the table when I took my first job after I got out of the Air Force. I also know it took me damned near five years to recover. When you start low, you remain behind the power curve, no matter how many raises you get. I only wish there had been web sites like Salary.com when I went looking for my first job out of the military.

Speaking of money…here’s an interesting article on the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is gonna start hitting a lot of folks in the very near future, unless Congress does something about it.

If April 15 looms before you like a bad dream, we offer this troubling insight – next year may be a full-blown nightmare. That is, unless Congress kills the alternative minimum tax.

This insidious tax hike will slap an average $3,000 onto the bills of 23.4 million mostly middle-class families this year. In 2006, it nipped just 3.5 million taxpayers, because lawmakers temporarily raised an exemption.

But like a zombie, the tax is back, lurching toward the middle class to reverse the Bush tax cuts. And this levy loves children: It kicks in at $52,000 for couples with five kids. That's just a notch above San Diego's median income of $46,000, by the way. Childless couples escape the tax until their income reaches $75,000.

If this seems unjust, blame the stale Democratic war on the “rich.”

The article goes on to say it’s ironic that the current Democratic-controlled Congress are the ones who will have to do something to relieve Americans, middle-class Americans, of this egregious and unparalleled-in-the-Western-World tax. And, as one might suspect, the editors aren’t hopeful that change will actually happen.

Which reminds me: I gotta start thinking about taxes. April 15^th happens next month. Aiiiiieeee!

Today’s Pic: Another view of that oh-so-fascinating drip (to me, anyway, but as all y’all should know by now: I’m easily amused). This pic is 100% resolution but considerably cropped. I told you I took 17 pictures of this thing. But this pic will be the last one I’ll post. Aren’t you glad?

Click for larger, of course.

Nostalgia Attack

In today’s Bleat…a tip o’ the hat to the late, great, gone— but most certainly NOT forgotten— Strategic Air Command:

They're having a big Peace Prize assembly in a week, and asked if any parents would like to design the T-Shirts. I volunteered.

Alas, My domestic associates nixed the first design:

Hey, peace is their profession! Oh, all right. (grumble.) So I came up with the generic Earth with the word PEACE in Copperplate, since that’s the typeface the school uses for all its newsletters, but it looked rather stark, and seemed to imply OR ELSE. I did not use a peace sign, which has too many irritating connotations.

I liked James’ first draft better than the final design, which you can see at the link. And the "Peace is their profession" bit? Comes from the old SAC motto: "Peace is Our Profession." And it most certainly was. Moscow lived in absolute frickin' fear of SAC's heavy bombers and ICBMs, back in the day.

Has it really been 15 years since SAC absorbed its sister command, TAC, and morphed into Air Combat Command? Why, yes. Yes, it has been that long. And actually, if truth be told, TAC did the acquiring, not SAC—the proof is in the ACC organization coat of arms, which is nothing more than the old TAC patch with “Air Combat Command” in lieu of “Tactical Air Command.” The ascension of the Fighter Mafia, and all that. And I won’t even mention ADC, since they were essentially non-players in the grand scheme of things, what with being folded into TAC in the late ‘70s. (Note: I use “Fighter Mafia” not in this sense, but in the context of fighter pilots who became senior USAF officers and prevailed in the budgetary wars, as opposed to the generals in the manned bomber/ICBM community. Money equals power, ergo TAC won out over SAC. Just keepin’ things clear, ya know.) (Further parenthetical nonsense: if you chase the ADC link, you’ll learn something about where I spent the greatest part of my military career. But not near enough. The many radar sites I was assigned to during my career were…ahem…under the radar, for the most part. Most people in the Air Force, let alone the population at large, were unaware of their existence. I toiled in obscurity…)

{sigh} I’ve turned into an old man, waxing nostalgic for what once was. Sometimes it bees like that.

Another Late, Late Night/Early Morning

So. I found this last evening in a comments forum at RP, of all places:

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Here we go...

If you're here, you probably know what I am about to do, but here's the synopsis:
- From Aug 1 - Oct 9 2006 I will ride a motorcycle around China
- I'll be traveling with George Bourassa, Mike Barkelew, and David Poh
- George convinced a Chinese motorcycle company, Qingqi, to sponsor this ride
- Our route begins and ends in Jinan, Shandong province and will likely stretch as far west as Sichuan, on the Tibetan plateau
- Qingqi wants our photos and footage to turn into an advertising campaign
- I hope to post to this blog regularly to keep people apprised of our progress
...stay tuned!

The first entry on the blog is above; the last entry is on October 6, 2006. In between there are lots of photos and a very interesting narrative! Four guys, four dual-purpose bikes, China, and Tibet. Now there’s an adventure for ya!

Would you believe it’s 1140 and I’m just now finishing that first cup? S’true, Gentle Reader. Another one of those late, late nights, which ended around 0400 this morning. This time I was up into the early hours reading the blog, above. Time well-spent, in this case. T’isn’t always so.

Today’s Pic: The Roosevelt County courthouse in the dead of night. Or would that be in the wee small hours? Choose your favorite term for 0330 hrs in the morning, coz that’s when I took the pic. Most places are “eerily quiet” at this hour; Portales is much, much more so. I wandered around in the middle of the street (literally) for half an hour taking pictures, with neither a car nor a soul to drive one to be seen or heard…anywhere. For other views of the courthouse taken during this early morning outing, go here and here.

July, 2005.

Potty Mouth

I know. I said I was going. But there’s that last cup of coffee to finish and whilst doing so, I came across this:

So how much more does the Left use Carlin's "seven words" versus the Right? According to my calculations, try somewhere in the range of 18-to-1.

Suspicions confirmed! The Left wins the potty-mouth-in-print derby, by a wide margin. And there's blog-by-blog word counts, too. I (heart) technology!

More Gore and... Trolls!

Gore Redux… Gerard:

Many in the last few days have been at pains to point out THE HYPOCRISY! of private jets, mega-mansions, international rock concerts that save the planet by polluting it, and the myriad other sins against the Holy Gaia (Blessed be Her Name, amen). But if you do, pace please, you do not have the long view of a future Waterworld worse than the movie of the same name because there shall be no Kevin Costner in it. Your mortal sin is only that you have not quaffed from the shroom cup and had "the vision."

Our New Saints have had this vision. It has been extracted from their Book of Climate Revelations like crystal meth from cold pills, and we should not gainsay it simply because their generation absorbed enough pyschoactive chemicals over the decades to gobstop a pod of blue whales. What if they did? What if all this is some bizarre vision; some acid-flashforward? Is it any less a vision for having "consensus science" behind it.

I say that we should honor their shared hallucinations, that we should not take away one iota of a scintilla of a jot of their monumental self-esteem. After all, the rich, famous and deranged have feelings too. Besides, we no longer institutionalize people who "see dead planets." We just check them into rehab for the afternoon.

OK, I’ll get off this subject, eventually. But Gerard is just so damned eloquent on the subject! I’d be remiss if I failed to link. And you’ll be remiss and a lil bit poorer if you don’t go…

I said I’d get off this eventually. But not before pointing you to Iowahawk, who has the answer:

Earn Eco-Salvation the Quick and Easy Iowahawk Way

Are you concerned that your profligate personal lifestyle is harming the environment? Losing sleep over the long-term ecological damage resulting from those greenhouse gases constantly emitted by your family, your cars, your pets, and your shrubbery? Do you want to become carbon-neutral, but just don't know how?

Well rejoice, sinner! Carbon atonement is no longer the exclusive preserve of the Malibu set -- with the Iowahawk EcoPals Network! This unique new system lets you, the average Joe planet rapist, cleanse your tortured psyche of the stain of enviro-guilt for as little as $9.95 per year! If enough of you follow this simple three step program, we can save the world for our children -- who will soon be frolicking with healthy polar bears atop Earth's reforested glaciers. Act now before it's too late!

Lotsa good links, too, including some previously encountered right here at EIP. But, I’m not nearly as funny. Don’t forget to download one of the bumper stickers, just to make sure everyone knows you’re environmentally-correct. It’s the least you can do.

Trolls Beware! We know who you are…or we can damned well find out! The troll phenomenon is one of the more interesting annoying things about blogging. Trolls are nearly always anonymous. Trolls are very nearly always rude, at best. At their worst they can be deranged. The interesting thing, to me, is how stupid trolls are in their presumption of anonymity. In other words, the simplistic and very fallible logic is as follows: “If I use a pseudonym, no one will know who I am.” Wrong, Sparky. Just follow the “find out” link above and see just how much one can uncover about anyone…just by looking.

I get very, very few trolls here at EIP (Thank God) because I’m very, very small in the whole scheme of things. Small is good, sometimes. (h/t: Lex, who had an interesting encounter with the subject über-troll.)

Very abbreviated rounds today. I have to go run some errands, and the day grows short. So I’d best “get with the program,” as we used to say back in the day.

Whatzit?

Wha’izzit? (click for larger)

A (badly) hand-blown wine goblet, perhaps? Something else? Scroll down…

…

…

…

…

Nope! It’s just a bubble-drip, for lack of a better term. I thought it was pretty cool, which may or may not be a reflection on the quality of my life. You decide.

And now it’s off to make the rounds. Back in a bit.