Thursday July 21, 2005 Opening Thread
TOP STORY
How Would Rove Know Valerie Plame's Name Was Supposed to be a Secret? It Said "Secret" Next to Her Name.
UNDERBELLY STORY
Much to the Chagrin of the Entire Muslim World, Republican Tancredo Goes on Talk Show and Proposes Blowing Up Mecca
(Huh, Newsweek-like outrage suspiciously absent...)
FRONT PAGE STORIES
Roberts Update
Grand Theft Auto Gets 'Adults Only' Label While Violently Racist Game Left Alone
Your Safety: Bush Visits a U.S. Port to Promote the Patriot Act.
Ask Yourself:
Does the Patriot Act force ports to screen all cargo containers? No.
Can bombs/nukes/WMD fit into cargo containers? Yes.
What percentage of cargo containers in ports like the one Bush was at are screened? 5%
Does the Patriot Act let Alberto "Torture Guy" Gonzales look at your library records? Yes.
Can bombs/nukes/WMD fit into your library records. No.
PET STORY
Shark Contest Ends in 6 Minute Disappointment
DEVELOPING STORIES
Cheney Attends Theme Team Meeting
Dems Will Hold Own Hearing on Rove
EXTRA CREDIT:
The Violence Policy Center this week released a new study on 50 caliber anti-armor sniper rifles, which are legal to sell to the general public in the US. The study reveals details of a previously secret 1985 report written by US secret service officials that says large caliber sniper rifles pose a threat to the president, to other senior government officials, and to civil aviation. 50 caliber rifles are accurate to over a mile, and can penetrate armor plating. Congress and the White House have followed the NRA's lead on the issue of 50 caliber weapons - they're sold now with fewer federal controls than a standard handgun.
The Army Times reports that the Defense Department quietly asked Congress this week for permission to raise the maximum age for military recruits to... what. What do you think the maximum age is that they want to recruit people. 25? 28? 30? Try 42! Right now the rule is 35. Wow.
Remember hearing about the new weapon the Pentagon was testing, the big gun that shoots microwave beams to heat you up and cause intolerable pain? Well the New Scientist Magazine is now reporting that the gun is due to be deployed in iraq nesxt year - it's mounted on a vehicle and is codenamed Sheriff. If that doesn't weird you out, consider this: according to new scientist, the military tests on this thing required the people participating in the tests? pretending to be rioters? to remove metal objects like coins from their clothing, and to remove their glasses and contact lenses to protect their eyes. Think they'll take all those precautions when they fire it at Iraqis next year?
Listen. Stream. Download.
undepleted uranium - the gift that keeps on giving
Of course that microwave weapon sounds more heinous than the happy little bits of undepleted uranium that litters Afghanistan and Iraq. The thought that microwave guns would melt contact lens to the cornea sounds like good old military complex sense, if you're holding the gun. I don't know if anyone's considered this, but I think whoever thinks up these weapons must be actually operating out of a bunker in Bellevue.
Still my greatest concern, because it's real, it's on the ground, it's affecting our troops as well as Afganis and Iraqis, is the undepleted uranium. I understand that it comes from armor piercing bullets and larger artillary. When such a weapon hits a tank, the UU turns into a cloud. Our troops breath it in. It goes into the ground. Kids play on these tanks. This is a nightmare. How bad can it get, I wonder? Yet I never read anything about it in the newspapers. What efforts are being done to clean up this radioactive mess? But the greater question is why the military must use such destructive munitions in the first place?
I realize that the military is in (oddly enough) the honorable business of killing, but between the UU and the microwave gun, I wonder if the honorable military isn't turning into a real Star Wars' death star that wins at all costs or more quaintly, actually wins by cutting off its nose to spite its face.
- parent
By orbieJuly 21, 2005 - 1:16pm