So much finger pointing, no one to point at

It's Saturday, but does that mean the news stops? Nope. It keeps right on rolling.

Condoleeza Rice, our current Secretary of State, has come out and said that Russian central government has too much power. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union 16 years ago, Russia has worked, not always succeeding toward a Democratic government. However, in recent years, President Vladimir Putin has begun to crack down on civil liberties. Certain individuals that oppose his methods or his policies have found themselves imprisoned, broke or dead.

Elections for the Duma, Russia's legislative body, and the President this coming December and March. Putin has pledged to step down but may seek election with a pro-Kremlin party and thereby, gaining the Prime Minister position. With the current shift back towards totalitarian rule, it may not surprising that he would make such a move.

The same time that Secretary Rice visited Moscow and gave her grim assessment of the Democracy in Russia, there is a bit of tension between our two nations regarding Nuclear Missiles. You thought those days were over? Yeah, just like I thought Marvel would never kill Steve Rogers.

The United States wants to create Missile defense sites in the Czech Republic and Poland. The system is an effort to counter any posible long range strikes from Iran. Russia, however, can't help cut see them as a deterrent to their own aresnal. In other words, its like when the USSR parked missiles 90 miles off the coast of Florida: Cuba. Putin had basically told them to think long and hard about doing that. He does not want another Cold War. I can't say we're excited at the prospect either. Putin has threatened to pull out of an intermediate-range missile treaty that the USSR signed with the US.

Both sides agreed to meet again in six months in Washington to review this but it doesn't appear to be promising. This will just give the US time to catch its breath and Russia to hold its elections. Our position on the danger of a rogue state such as Iran possessing nuclear weapons is unlikely to change. Russia's position, that Iran is not lying aobut its nuclear program and poses no threat, is also unlikely to change.

Back in 2003, the leader of the coalition forces in Iraq was a man by the name of Lieutenent General Ricardo Sanchez. He retired in 2003 and only now will come out and speak about his feelings concerning the Iraq War. At the time, he says he was following orders and would have been inappropriate to oppose his Commander-in-chief. He now says the administration was "catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic". He also stated that there is no way the military could have achieved the objectives on their own.

In addition to his criticism of the administration, he also levelled some at the National Security Council stating there was "neglect and incompetence". He also railed politicians for having a "lust for power" and "loyalty to their political parties above loyalty to the Constitution". "While the politicians espouse a rhetoric designed to preserve their reputations and their political power, our soldiers die," was one of the most damning statements he made.

What a mess!

Mario Scaramella, the Italian academic who met with the late Alexander Litvinenko on November 1st, has reportedly tested positive for Polonium-210. This is the same highly radioactive element that was discovered in Litvinenko's body. Scaramella had gone into hiding in fear for his life due to the demise of the former Russian spy.

Related to this mess is Yegor Gaidar, a former acting Prime Minister and economist who became severely ill in Ireland. He has since been taken to a Moscow hospital where he has reportedly, been recovering. Also, one of three planes removed form service in the UK, has been cleared of radiation. Despite this, a hotel in Sussex, England, was evacuated to search for Polonium-210.

The British government is demanding cooperation from the Russian government into this case. Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of culpibility in his poisoning and Putin has denied any involvement in the matter. However, Russia has pledged that it will cooperate with the investigation.

Though there are many mysteries - even going back to the October 7th slaying of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya - one of these is where the radioactive materials came from. So far, no nuclear labs are reporting any thefts. Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's state atomic energy agency Rosatom, has stated that only 8 grams of the substance are made a month. He also said it cannot be "obtained illegally there". A lethal dose would be as little as 6.8 picograms (I really went and looked that up and even found out what a picogram is. 1 pg is 1/1,000,000,000,000 of a kilogram. This makes it awfully minute. I'm such a little investigative reporter!). It is also notoriously dangerous to handle but has a half life of roughly 138 days.

In an article posted in CNN yesterday, the Republican party wants a law outlining when fetuses feel pain. It seems the bill is less about actually creating such language in legislature but is actually an act to shore up Republican loyalty. When the Democrats take leadership of congress next year it is likely that few, if any, abortion restrictive bills make it even to the floor of either house. Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, even called the Democrats "Hardcore pro-abortion loyalists." I think thats a little generalist. There are some Democrats who are not pro-choice. And to call anyone pro-abortion is demeaning. No one is for abortion. They are for the choice. Hitler was pro-abortion.

Other news today: Typhoon Durian has killed 388 people so far. There are also 75 people missing. The Phillipines has been socked by four such storms in four months. At the same time a real whopper of a storm is pummeling the midwest with rain, snow and everything in between. Fortunately, I'm up north in Minnesota where its a balmy 23 today. That's warm for this week!

On this day in 1941, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia signed into action the Civil Air Patrol.

On this day in 1955, Rosa parks was arrested for not getting up and moving to the back of the bus for a white person. It sparked the Montgomery bus boycott which helped catapult Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to his role as Civil Rights Leader.

Back on this day in 1990, while we were gearing up for Gulf War I, The two sides, Anglish and French, met underneath the English Channel to unite both sides of the Chunnel. It would be another 4 years before it actually did business but it made it possible to walk on dry land from England to the mainland for the first time in 8,500 years ago. This was the last ice age.

In 1991, the Ukraine voted to get the hell off the sinking ship known as the USSR. The Soviet Union's days were already numbered.

"You with the wells... GET OUT!"

Chad (تشاد) has taken the step to order oil firms out of it territory. Chevron Texaco and Petronas (from Malaysia... those wonderfaul towers belong to them) have been given their marching orders because they failed to pay taxes. Exxon Mobil is the only remaining oil company and the rest of the will be controlled by the state. I thought President Idriss Deby had taken a page from the book of Bolivia's President Evo Morales. If so, good on him.

Iran (جمهوری اسلامی ايرا) still claims their nuclear facilities are for peaceful energy only resources. One cannot help but distrust the oligarchic theocracy. They do not have a great record and their President challenges the existence of the Holocaust. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (محمود احمدی نژاد) continues to say nuclear weapons are not on the table while touring a Heavy Water plant in Arak (اراک). The BBC quotes him as saying "There is no discussion of nuclear weapons. We are not a threat to anybody, even the Zionist regime which is a definite enemy of the people of the region." Supposedly this plant will also be beneficial to health institutions as well.

In Gaza (again) Israel (מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל )made some interesting airstrikes. They dropped some ordinance on a Reuters van. Two journalists were injured. The IDF claims they were driving suspicious and in a combat zone. They also claim it was not clearly marked but "the armored car was clearly labeled as a media vehicle, with signs on all sides, including the roof". Good job boys!

Up North in Canada, the leader of that country's Green Party is calling for a renogotiation of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). Elizabeth May, elected at a convention on saturday, compared the free trade deal to cancer by saying "unlimited economic growth is the ideology of the cancer cell". In other words, economic growth should be checked rather than be free wheeling. Gotcha.

Remember a few days ago when Pluto was still a planet? Not anymore! Now, just like Plan B, there are opponents to this unthinkable decision. Some scientists find it embarrassing. There are of course those who believe its the right way to go. Because of new technologies there are other distant objects that rival Pluto's size, new definitions must be written and agreed upon. Though this makes sense, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) waited until the end of the convention in Prague to vote on the resolution. Most of the delegates weren't there had left. Of the 2,700 attending, only 424 voted. That's roughly 15.7%. Hardley a majority. We'll see what happens to poor Pluto. I still think we've pissed off the Plutonians who will one day strike back with their death ray.

Last but not least, I want to chime in on George Will's declaration that Article 9 of Japan's constitution be reconsidered. For those that do not know, General MacArthur wrote the Japanese constitution back in those dark occupation years and in it was a stipulation that Japan (日本国)could not have military forces. It could retain some for self-defence (自衛隊) mind you and it needed it considering China (中國) and later Korea (조선) and Viet Nam. However, the events in the past decade or two have raised the amount of self-defence Japan must do. Its budget for said self-defence is "$45B". That's enormous. We, the United States, are supposed to provide the bulk of defence but with two wars and various conflicts and operations, that is untenable. Will, writing for the Washington Post, asserts quite correctly that the time has come to change things. With increased tension in East Asia and the long ongoing dispute over Taiwan (中華民國), there is a need for Japan to be a true military power again. Its dubious they'd go a mad rampage of the Pacifc since they are predominantly pacifist. They beat us economically anyway. Will also keenly points out that we need a pro-American ally. Japan is that ally. Just adding my two cents.

On this day back in 55 BCE, Julius Caesar landed in Britain. It would never be the same.

On this day 15 years ago, Moldova declared itself free of the USSR.

The President of Syria has NIMBY

That's right: Not in my backyard. Bashar Al-Assad (بشار الأس,) President of Syria, has stated that foreign soldiers in Lebanon "negates the sovereignty of Lebanon". So does a political party within the nation throwing missiles at another. The fact is, the UN has a right to step in and try to keep hostilities to verbal threats and name-calling. The undersigned parties (that would be the nations who are members) give them that right. It what its there for. To mediate conflicts so we don't have WWIII like we thought we might.

Let's put it in a smaller scale. Take a city like Chicago with its sizable Polish population starting sending rockets to Milwaukee to get at its German population for, I don't know, 6 million Poles dying in World War II. Milwaukee fights back. They send missiles back at civilian areas like Evanston and the Loop. They knock down the Sears Tower. Now, the rest of the country, a federal representative body, that these two cities and their respective states are members of, must do something since neither can stop sheeling the other. It intercedes and brokers a cease fire between the two. In the cease-fire is a plan that 5,000 troops will be provided by Illinois and 5,000 from the rest of the nation. They'll be headquartered at the border on Illinois' side, the one who started hostilities while the troops in Wisconsin, fall back to Racine. Would this violate all of Illinois' sovereignty? Think on that while I grab a cup of Earl Grey.

The fact remains these two sovereign nations need to get along and the UN, a representative body (with little real power) actually brokers such a cease-fire. Though they are having a hard time getting the troops (see earlier post), they still got this truce with both sides agreeing. That means Lebanon was ok with the French camping out on their lawn or anyone else for that matter. The thing is the Syrain President (whose birthday is September 11th) doesn't like the idea of foreign troops being so close to him. Maybe he should've thought of that before he gave Hezbollah weapons and aid.

News you can use! So I went onto the Washingtonpost.com. I like reading the Post ever since I did a term paper on the Pentagon Papers (oy vey (אױ װײ)) and saw how the Post and Times stood up to the man (w00t). Anyways, I went there. And what to my wondering eyes should appear but a bunch of Filipino teenagers with South Park gear. The article in question is about how text messaging is mobilizing political protests especially in the Phillipines where it is incredibly popular. In fact, they are the biggest users of the techology. The article goes on to cite how Filipino president Joseph Estrada was forced out of office in 2001 in a "coup de text". At first I was amazed such a thing was reported. Then I started thinking "Thanks a lot, Post!" Now over here they'll know that's how we organize rallies. They're on to us now!

News Flash: Milwaukee is the drunkest city. The Twin Cities, where I live, is #2. I could've told them that!

News Flash (...again!): The French are really sending troops!!! [faints]

On this day back in 1920 (only 86 years ago), Poland opened a can of whoop-ass and beat the ever loving shit out of Russia. WTF? Course, Russia was not the big bad USSR yet and Poland was in between big conflicts with Germany. Unless you count Milwaukee and Chicago.

Other topics of mild concern: Ann Coulter your roots called; they want their peroxide back.

Mary Jordan took that photo. Not I.