A "from the ground" report that offers a different perspective on what's happening in Iraq. This is an excerpt of a letter from a North Carolina chaplain who's reporting on the status of NC National Guard troops stationed there.

] We continue to be very fortunate in that our area of
] operation has remained relatively stable. Our unit is
] making strides in training the Iraqi National Guard,
] Iraqi Police, and New Iraqi Army. These three components
] are essential to the long-term success of our mission.
] The quicker these units are trained to standard, the
] quicker we will be able to hand over authority to the
] Iraqi people! Also, we are spending money daily in order
] to improve the daily living conditions of the people. We
] have put in new wells, restored schools, paved roads,
] provided medical care, and distributed school supplies,
] just to mention a few of the countless projects! I know
] that the news only shows the 'negative' side of things,
] but there really is a lot of good being accomplished and
] progress is being made daily towards a free and
] democratic Iraq! The elections are also just around the
] corner, so we are in the planning stages of registering
] voters, locating polling areas, etc...This is definitely
] going to be a stressful time, as the insurgents make one
] last effort to derail the democratic process!

Chaplain from North Carolina sends letter from Iraq

] The panelists included: U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart,
] R-Pennsylvania, USA Today reporter Tom Squitieri, Lt.
] Col. Steve Grove of the U.S. Army and Col. John C. Burns,
] a faculty member of the Naval War College. The discussion
] was led by political analyst Jon Delano.
]
] While the speakers offered varying points of view on the
] situation in Iraq, all agreed that Americans must support
] and respect the troops currently fighting the battle.
]
] "I believe we have an unanimous agreement around the
] country that the men and women and the leadership are
] doing the best job that they can do," Delano said.
]
] The panelists also agreed that the war, not only in Iraq
] but on terrorism as a whole, is not one which will be
] over soon. But, instead, one that may last for
] generations.
]
] "The global war on terrorism is generational," said
] Burns, a 1980 graduate who rejoined the Naval War College
] faculty in August following a tour as the chief of
] operations for the Coalition Force Land Component
] Command.
]
] Burns and Grove, a 1983 graduate who has served on two
] deployments in Iraq as senior intelligence officer for
] the 82nd Airborne Division, believe that Americans at
] home are not necessarily hearing the successes of the
] battle in Iraq, but instead the sensationalized headlines
] from the media.

Washington & Jefferson College: Four Graduates Give Views on Iraq

Note: Someone on Memestreams recently challenged me to find *good* news about Iraq that wasn't coming from people directly associated with the Republican Party. So you'll be seeing several links in that theme . . .

] Athraa Hasoon paints a different picture. The Baghdad
] University professor told a crowd at Calvin College she
] lives a normal life, "Everybody goes to jobs. The
] children go to schools. It's okay."
]
] Hasoon and Hayder Abdulkarin are touring the country as
] part of the "Iraq-America Freedom Alliance." They tell
] crowds America is making a difference.
]
] Abdulkarin, a doctor who lost an uncle to Saddam says his
] country is no longer a prison, "Sometimes you need to pay
] for your freedom if you want to make a peaceful country."

Two Iraqis came to West Michigan to talk about the good news

Decius wrote:
] I'll drop my hat in but I'll bet people are afraid to tackle
] this. Its tough.

I found Friday's debate interesting because it drew more specific distinctions between the candidates on certain issues. On the other hand, it made things more difficult, because I agree so strongly with one candidate on some issues, and with the other candidate on other issues. :/ So, my comments are split here among the different issues, including which candidate I agreed with on each one.

Economy. I agreed with neither. I'll freely admit that economic issues are not my strong point. I've listened to plans from both sides, but have no strong opinion either way on whether one plan or the other is the clear choice.

Healthcare. Kerry. When the subject of prescription drugs came up, Bush's answer nauseated me. Like the issue of whether or not to import drugs from Canada, he gave the party line answer, "First I want to make sure they're safe." Oh give me a f***ing break. Most of those drugs are American drugs that we sold to *them*! Are we trying to say that we shipped unsafe drugs to Canada? That answer was just garbage.

War in Iraq. Bush. I've researched the heck out of this issue, and know it way better than most reporters and columnists who are writing about it. Saddam needed to go. We knew it, the world knew it, every single one of Saddam's neighbors knew it. Even other Islamic governments were calling for him to step down. We'd tried every other method of removing him from power, and nothing had worked. Every indicator said that he was just biding his time, waiting for world scrutiny to go away, and then he was going to rebuild everything. WMDs, weapon programs, everything. Military intervention was necessary. Clinton agreed. I agreed. The only thing most people disagreed on was, not that military intervention was necessary, but the *timing* of it. In other words, most thoughtful people are not so much upset that the war happened, but *when* it happened. But I still support the war, and think Bush had the right idea, and I'm hopeful that at some point more of the behind-the-scenes information will come out to explain why we chose the timing that we did.

War on Terrorism. Bush. This is another one that I've researched the heck out of, and know backwards and forwards. It is not a hypothetical question as to whether or not there are terrorist plots to cause widespread death and destruction. There *are* such plots, and they are actively trying to get one of them through our shields, and it's only through the hard work of our law enforcement personnel, tips from the right sources, and a fair bit of luck, that we've stopped the planned attacks since 9/11. I agree with Bush here, that it's not about waiting to be attacked and then responding, it's about carrying the attack to the enemy, and keeping the war away from our own shores. In a nutshell, on this one issue, I will sleep safe... [ Read More (0.5k in body) ]

RE: Debate ][

This movie is hard to describe, but I give it a *huge* thumbs up. When I do try to describe it, words and phrases come up like "unique", "quantum physics," "great visual effects," "a mix of a fictional storyline and interviews with real physicists," philosophy, comedy, pop music, metaphors, dance, biology, brain chemistry, spirituality...

The reviews of the movie are mixed, but I *loved* it, and I think that many of my intellectual friends would love it too.

If you're looking for mindless entertainment, don't go see this movie, because you'll probably be disappointed. But if you're looking for something fun and quirky and thought-provoking and educational and challenging and, yes, entertaining, I think you'll really really like this film. Personally, I walked out of the theater laughing and thinking. I didn't agree with everything in the film, but no matter what, I'm going to continue to be thinking about this movie for a long long time. And that's about the best I can ask for from any movie experience. :)

- Elonka

Movie Recommendation: 'What the Bleep Do We Know?'

There's been an enormous amount of news chatter and spin about the recent WMD report, with both sides in the political campaign claiming that it vindicates their point of view.

Me personally, I want to read the report for myself. For anyone else that wants to do this, here's a link. The report itself is over 1000 pages long, but there's a 19-page "Key Findings" section which is very readable.

I'm still working my way through the document, but so far it seems to be fairly-written, laying out what is and isn't known, and gives detailed documentation of how the information in it was obtained. In other words, it's free of all the hyperbolic spin which has been nauseating me lately in this election season.

I am meme-ing it here for anyone else that wants to read it for themelves . . .

The WMD Report

] WASHINGTON - Sen. John Edwards and Vice President Cheney clashed
] repeatedly in their debate last night, making impressive-sounding
] but misleading statements on issues including the war in Iraq,
] tax cuts and each other's records, often omitting key facts along
] the way.

Here are my own thoughts, after watching the debate live.

First, I think Cheney is a much better speaker than Bush. Between Kerry & Edwards, I think Kerry's better. Edwards struck me as a windup toy who was pre-programmed to say certain things in particular ways, but that he was incapable of original thought. When challenged, he'd fall back to rhetoric I've heard countless times before.

I had a lot of respect for the interviewer. She came up with interesting questions, and I especially enjoyed that she threw in a couple ringers, in a similar way that I think I would have if I were in her position. One of them was to ask a question about a narrowly-focused issue (the % of AIDS cases among a specific age demographic of black women), which though important, was one that the candidates would *not* have prepared for. The other, was to ask a question they'd heard a hundred times before, but to have them answer it in a way *different* than they normally did. In both cases, I was impressed with the way that Cheney handled it. He seemed to have the capacity to actually think about what he was saying. Edwards, on the other hand, kept falling back to old patterns. For example, when the interviewer asked, "Without referring to your running mate, can you explain why you should be Vice President?", Cheney handled the format just fine, but Edwards kept screwing up and repeating his "Kerry macros".

Also, there was one time that Cheney said something that was incorrect, which was when he said he'd never met Edwards before. After the debate, Edwards was reminded **by his wife** that he *had* met Cheney. And then Edwards was off in the spin room, accusing Cheney of again "misleading the American people". But if Edwards was so fired up about it, he should have brought it up *during* the debate, not after a reminder from his wife. What this tells me is that though they may indeed have met, that it was such a brief encounter that obviously neither of them made any serious impression on the other.

When I watch a debate, I'm listening hard to both candidates. Not just to hear what they're saying, but to observe how they're saying it, and compare it with other things that they've been saying. I'm also listening hard to distinguish what's genuinely coming from their heart, and what's just repeated sound bytes, or carefully-crafted messages that have been extensively wordsmithed by speech-writing teams or their campaign managers. In the case of last night's debate, I think that both Cheney and Edwards were occasionally guilty of being party mouthpieces who were repeating stuff that they didn't really believe, but were tol... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

The VP Debate

] A LEAKED report has exposed the extent of alleged corruption in
] the United Nations’ oil-for-food scheme in Iraq, identifying up
] to 200 individuals and companies that made profits running into
] hundreds of millions of pounds from it.
]
] The report largely implicates France and Russia, whom Saddam
] Hussein targeted as he sought support on the UN Security Council
] before the Iraq war. Both countries were influential voices
] against UN-backed action.

I would very much like to see a copy of this report... If anyone finds a copy of it online, could you please meme it? Thanks.

Saddam 'bought UN allies' with oil

] The ad isn't subtle. It says, "As vice president, Dick
] Cheney received $2 million from Halliburton. Halliburton
] got billions in no bid contracts in Iraq. Dick Cheney got
] $2 million. What did we get?" And it implies that Cheney
] lied to the public when he said in a TV interview that "I
] have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind."
 . . .
] To start, the $2 million figure is wrong. It is true that
] Cheney has received just under $2 million from
] Halliburton since his election, but nearly $1.6 million
] of that total was paid before Cheney actually took office
] on Jan. 20, 2001.

Some interesting datapoints on Cheney's Halliburton connection. If anyone's arguing the situation, pro or con, this site is worth reading to make sure you're getting your facts straight. :)

FactCheck.org - Kerry Ad Falsely Accuses Cheney on Halliburton

Not quite a live stream, but it does have images that are updated every 5 minutes. According to the webpage, this USGS cam is the closest-operating camera to the volcano, which means about 4 miles away. There were other cameras at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, but since the Level III alert went out earlier today, that facility has been evacuated, leaving only this webcam sending automated images.

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam