Author: MichaelPellegrini

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Bush Administration Must Be Held Accountable

Seig Heil!
The controversy over the firing of the eight US Attorneys continues to percolate in Washington DC, amid new charges by President Bush of partisan politics and democrats leveraging for political “show trials.”

House and Senate Judiciary committees are now preparing subpoenas for senior Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove and Harriet Miers.
President Bush has counter offered to have Rove and Miers testify “informally” in closed door sessions with the committees, where they would not be under oath, and no transcripts would be kept.

If Bush is worried about having them testify under oath, and have a transcript kept of the testimony, there’s only one thing he could possibly be worried about: being caught in a lie – where later, Rove and Miers might face perjury charges is the truth does prevail. Continue reading “Bush Administration Must Be Held Accountable”

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Mid-week Rants

Scooter Libby is a jailbird

Once Crook Down…Bunches To Go…

Yesterday’s guilty verdict in the trial of Lewis “Scooter” Libby for lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice is an important victory for Americans – after six reckless years of governing with impunity, the Bush administration has finally been held accountable for its criminal actions.

Perhaps the tide of their lies has finally started to turn.
The only unfortunate thing is that Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove were not also indicted.
Although perhaps that too, will also eventually come to pass.

A Cop on Every Corner in Baghdad…

News reports suggest that President Bush’s much vaunted troop “surge’ is having an effect, quelling the violence in Baghdad. Muqtada al-Sadr and many of the other Shi’a and Sunni militants reportedly left in anticipation of the American forces arrival. And now sectarian violence in the city is at an all-time low since the invasion.
Just great!

My only question is, will this have any permanent or lasting effect?
The answer, I think, is obvious: Having all these American soldiers there will certainly have a quelling effect on violence. Their presence would intimidate the hell out of anyone. So, sure: if we place 10 American troops on each and every corner of Sadr City, or wherever, the residents will all be on their very best behavior – as long as the American troops remain.
But as soon as they leave, of course, the militants will quickly filter back and it will return to business as usual.

Continue reading “Mid-week Rants”

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George Bush: Next Stop Tehran!

WMD's? I don't got to show you no stinkin' WMD's!
Anyone remember Colin Powell jumping up and down at the UN, holding a vial of what he said was something that proved Iraq was manufacturing Weapons of Mass Destruction? Oh, yeah!

Well that information was given to him by the very same people that are now claiming that Iran is providing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) to Iraq.

And the information is likely about as good as the old WMD charges.
The news media has been busy digging, looking for sources to confirm the validity of the Iranian ties, but to date, not one single substantive tie has been made.

Even some of Bush’s own military commanders dispute the charges. As General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated in an interview with the Voice of America, “We know that the explosively formed projectiles are manufactured in Iran,” Pace told Voice of America during a visit to Australia. “What I would not say is that the Iranian government, per se, knows about this.” Link to Voice of America article.

Continue reading “George Bush: Next Stop Tehran!”

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George W. Bush: Man or Moron?

Bush Moron!
So George Bush gives us platitudes, pats us on the head and tells us daddy knows best: the only way to succeed in Iraq and make America safe from the menace of al Qaeda is to increase troop levels there and send more American kids off to their deaths.

What a load of tripe!

I can’t believe he’s still peddling the tired myths about al Qaeda.
Let’s get this straight: before we got involved in Iraq, there was no link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Sure, they were both Sunni Muslims, but to say that they were even on speaking terms is a fantasy – Saddam was a secular Sunni; bin Laden is devout. Politically, theologically, philosophically and otherwise, bin Laden and Hussein were diametrically opposed.

To suggest that they were buddies because they were both Arabs is like saying Hillary Clinton and Jerry Falwell are best friends because they’re both Americans. Ludicrous at best.

By invading Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein, we created an opportunity for al Qaeda to fight us head to head, in a territory where (once Saddam was out of the picture) they had friends.

Our invasion of Iraq is the best thing that ever happened to al Qaeda – because now they’ve got people beating down the door to volunteer to fight the “Crusaders” as they call us.

Continue reading “George W. Bush: Man or Moron?”

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Wi-Fi Makes Fiber Obsolete?

I don’t believe wireless and fiber will ever really compete. I think there will always be a place for both. They both have unique attributes: wi-fi’s portability, and fiber’s speeds. Each has it’s own place – they compliment each other.

The main problem with wireless – at least at this early stage of the game – is that it just can’t provide enough bandwidth to effectively compete with fiber.
I haven’t really kept close tabs, but it seems like most of the metro wi-fi projects are advertising speeds ranging between 1-3 mb/s.

Now 3 mb/s may be just great for web browsing, email and light gaming (assuming the latency isn’t too terrible). But that’s about it. I wouldn’t go downloading the latest Linux distros or anything on a connection like that. Much less downloading a movie or loads of mp3’s or programs.

Continue reading “Wi-Fi Makes Fiber Obsolete?”

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Let’s Fire George Bush

Steve Bell -Bush and the Iraq Study Group Report
It’s been over a week now since the release of the Iraq Study Group report. The basis of the report is that the situation in Iraq is “grave and deteriorating,” and that there is no workable military solution. The report states that the only path with some potential for success is a joint diplomatic/political venture involving Iraq’s neighbors. Iraq Study Group Report

The bipartisan panel includes heavy-hitters from both sides of the aisle: a former Supreme Court Justice, two former Secretary of States, a former Attorney General, a former Defense Secretary, a former White House Chief of Staff.

Study Group CompositionAccording to recent polls, the public is firmly behind the findings of the report.

In the results of a Washington Post/ABC News poll released today, 46% of all Americans support the findings of the report, while 22% oppose it. 52% of Americans believe we’re losing the war in Iraq, and 79% favor putting American troops in support, not combat roles. And most importantly, 69% of all Americans believe all US troops should be withdrawn from Iraq by early 2008. Poll Results

Continue reading “Let’s Fire George Bush”

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A World Without Net Neutrality: The Death of the Internet As We Know It

Bellsouth
BellSouth and a few others telecos have recently started advocating a “pay-by-the-byte” type of pricing scheme. Under those proposals, consumers who access high-bandwidth applications, like file sharing or VoIP or online gaming would pay more than people who just web surfed or read email.

An example of the current justification for the proposed pay-by-the-byte pricing was given by BellSouth Chief Technology Officer, William Smith.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Smith, they said, “often laments the fact that his parents, who use the Internet for only low-capacity activities such as Web surfing and email, pay fees similar to those of heavy users who suck up capacity by downloading music or using BitTorrent, which is used by millions to download movies and other material off the Internet. Overall at BellSouth, 1% of broadband customers drive 40% of Internet traffic, he says. “People who drive cost in the network create additional charges in the network,” Mr. Smith says. “If my elderly parents don’t use a lot of traffic we ought to be able to create a service plan that meets their needs.”

Oh, my heart goes out to those poor people! What philanthropy! What humanitarians!

This development follows the recent proposals by the telecos to make Google and other high-bandwidth content providers pay extra in recognition of their popularity – and the extra bandwidth people consume accessing those sites.

Continue reading “A World Without Net Neutrality: The Death of the Internet As We Know It”