Disarmament Sketches

Back in the fall of 2002, I had the pleasure of buying a copy of Disarmament Sketches at a book signing by the author, Amb. Thomas Graham. It was close to the end of the evening, but I had time to ask him one question, "What about Iraq?" This was while UN inspections were in high gear and before the shooting started. He said that it would turn the entire Muslim world from Morocco to the Phillipines into a huge Al Queda recruiting camp.

After the declassification of a portion of the recent NIE report on Iraq, it turns out that Amb. Graham was exactly right.

Electoral Statistics and Prognostications

These links to my favorite poll-watcher in the Netherlands.








And while we're at it re: statistics, here's a graph of the terrorism stats behind the National Intelligence Estimate from http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Instantly clear is the effect of the War in Iraq.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ahoy, its September 19th already and that means... its International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Get your "5 A's" ready, put on your piratitude, swagger a bit, drink some grog, and get 15 of your friends to hang out with on a dead man's chest. Just to keep you straight about it, those important A's are:

Ahoy!
Avast!
Aye!
Aye-aye!
Arrr!!

Schlepp will be hosting UN visitors, and probably not get a chance to fully embrace TLAP until after 4:30 in deference to their cultural sensitivities and such. Arrr!

Don't miss www.talklikeapirate.com and chase down the links to their half dozen or so short videos on YouTube.

Keep to the code!

Bravo, Olbermann!

I was incredibly encouraged by Keith Olbermann's MSNBC piece tonight. Very much on target and in sync with my thoughts. Unfortunately, everyone who needed to hear his remarks were probably watching Disney's strange view of 9/11 on ABC. And recent research indicates that "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." Yes, Simon and Garfunkle beat the behavioralists by about 35 years.

Think I'll get brave and record my 9/11 + 5 years SchleppCast. Schlepp and I were in Bonn, Germany and it seemed like all of civilization was burning down behind us. How were we going to get home? http://www.travelschlepp.com

Its one year to the day that I found Louie, a white Curious George kind of monkey, on the shoulder of I-40 westbound in the pouring rain. Since then he's become the nucleus of a series of stories about leaving New Orleans and Mandi, the little girl who owned him in the Lower Ninth Ward. Those stories are now podcasts as well.

Meanwhile, the world doesn't seem to have much improved. Like Louie, many from New Orleans have not returned or can not return. Iraq continues its civil war, Korea continues to snub us, Iran merrily continues its nuclear program, Bin Laden is still at large, our debt to China increases, large-scale terrorist plots continue to come to light, Darfur (and all the rest of Africa) continues to be ignored, Bolton is being pushed forward for confirmation as UN Ambassador, my real wages are not keeping up with the cost of living, health insurance is more expensive but less effective, the WMD-in-Iraq debacle unfolds with Plame and the Downing Street memo, key republicans and lobbyists are criminally indicted, Cheney shoots a man in the face and there is a 24-hour cover-up... the list keeps going on and on.

With all that in mind, this November -- vote.