Open thread

I just like that I can determine, from any computer (as long as I'm logged in), whether there are any new comments I haven't read. That is pretty cool.

In case you've noticed I'm barely around and rarely posting, it's due to an impossible schedule right now. I may have some time next week to resume blogging, but until then, I'll try to link to some stuff that is important.

"If not here, where? If not now, when?"

According to Rumsfeld, al Qaeda has the means to manipulate American media like the Washington Post. He seems to think that al Qaeda has managed to cause the WaPo to exagerate the number of Iraqi civilians killed in the latest spate of secterian violence by a factor of 3 or so. Perhaps the WaPo is the leader of the Fifth Column in America.

Rumsfeld said "We do know, of course, that al-Qaeda has media committees. We do know that they teach people exactly how to try to manipulate the media. They do this regularly. We see the intelligence that reports on their meetings. Now I can't take a string and tie it to a news report and then trace it back to an al-Qaeda media committee meeting. I'm not able to do that at all."

More at the Washington Post

I'll bet the only thing he is correct about is that he can't find a string from al-Qaeda that controls the WaPo.

Party line vote in the Senate Intel committee, no investigation. Rather, the committee will "demand" Potemkin oversight.

Hagel, who had been one of the most outspoken Republican critics of the program, hailed the draft legislation, "We are finally reasserting Congressional oversight."

Snowe said, "This sets a marker for judicial and legislative oversight."

No end to the perfidy.

Not only did the US Senate decide to give the President a pass on his felonies, but DeLay handily won his primary. The only consolation is that voter turnout was a dismal 7%.

A NYTimes editorial comments on the quality of prisoner kept at Gitmo. While the administration has claimed that those incarcerated at Gitmo were the "worst of the worst", this seems to be rather less than true representation of the prisoners.

AP has finally succeeded with a suit to disclose basic information about the detainees. It seems that most of them were wrongly swept up, and Gitmo seems to serve as a holding pen for the administrations mistakes.

More at the Times

When did the CIA first receive copies of the Niger uranium forgeries? - Part 3: The Non-Burba Forgeries

The Left Coaster

Has posted the fourth of a very interesting series on the Niger Forgeries. The numbering only seems off, there is an introduction as well.

I really like the open thread option. There are a lot of things I run across on the web that may be of interest, but may not be of worth a separate diary entry. Or, if entered as comments in another diary stream, they seem to just get lost. The open thread works fine, look at all the comments its gathered.

A neater alternative was a new feature I saw at MyDD, which they call Breaking Blue. It looks to me like an open thread comment type log, but it is fixed in one place rather than a pseudo-diary that moves down the page. It is just a push down stack.

I have never been in this position before, and have found out that it is kind of fun. In the past I always had some obligations and responsibility to all of my places DP needs at one level or another.

But, now being in the position of a user, I can finally experience the users pleasure at not having any responsibility, but being free to say things like:

Hey caleb, wouldn't it be great if?
Hey caleb, we know you can do it.
Hey caleb, you could do it if you really wanted to.
Hey caleb, I do this on my home computer, why can't you?
Hey caleb, that's really great. Now, how about...
Hey caleb.......
;^)
Really, the open thread is just fine.
Thank you for all your hard work.