“In August, I think it was … [National Intelligence Director] Mike McConnell came in and said, we have some new information. He didn’t tell me what the information was …“ (2007-12-04)x60 President Bush uttered that statement last week, claiming ignorance…
Comet Holmes Still Visible
2007-12-07: I saw Comet Holmes again the night before last, one of the few clear nights during this cloudy late autumn near Erie’s southern shore. Being far enough from city lights to see the milk of the Milky Way, I…
New Phantom Galaxy Picture from Hubble Telescope
2007-11-30: Yesterday NASA and the European Space Agency released a nice picture of galaxy M74 composed from data taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003 & 2005.x40 The galaxy is in Pisces, about 32 million light years away, and…
Tricky Republicans Give Cheney Impeachment New Life
“In his conduct while Vice President of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, in violation of his constitutional oath to … defend the Constitution … has purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United…
Big Brother Bad Idea Still Breathing
In 2002, John Poindexter, a major outlaw in the Iran-Contra scandal, took the reins of the U.S. Defense Department’s Total Information Awareness project (TIA).x10 One of the features of TIA, was the “Terrorism Futures Market”, which would set up a…
Senate and Prez ‘Over the Top’ with Slaps at MoveOn
Republican leaders and news outlets whipped up a little furor over MoveOn.org’s ad headlined “General Petraeus or General Betray Us? — Cooking the books for the White House.“x01 A common comment was that the ad was “over the top.“x02. The…
White Hurricane of 1913 was Deadliest Great Lakes Storm
31 cargo ships and barges stranded, twelve ships sunk with crew, 253 sailors drowned — that was the the toll of the most disastrous storm ever to hit the Great Lakes. The first November gale of 1913 started on western…
Bin Laden’s Reverse Psychology Missed by Prez and Pundits
Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader wanted for murder of U.S. citizens overseas and suspected of running the September 11, 2001, airliner attacks that killed 3000 people, issued a new video addressed to Americans, just days before Congress returns to…
Will Bushies Sell Iran War ‘Product’?
In September 2002 a reporter asked President Bush’s Chief of Staff Andy Card why the administration was suddenly pushing for an invasion of Iraq70x71. Card replied: “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.” Shortly…
The Great Black Swamp
“Water! Water! Water!” wrote an early surveyor of northwestern Ohio, “tall timber! deep water! Not a blade of grass growing or a bird to be seen50.” The surveyor was traveling in the Great Black Swamp, a forty mile (64 km)…