Robust McManlyPants on Average Display

Ha ha!  Ten large!

A DC socialite is offering $10,000
for hard evidence – we’re talking pictures, hair, phone records, etc. -
that Gannon is/was gettin’ it on with someone in the
administration.  C’mon, you know we’re all thinking it.  We
all know it was happening.

Gods, but I wish I had a time machine.  Or a free weekend to spend in DC on someone’s tail.

Ha ha!  Tail!

(With apologies to Adult Swim’s Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, of course.)
(more…)

It had been rumored for a bit, but now it’s official. 
They fell to lack of funding for future products.  Their problems
were few but significant, and their games were fantastic.  I have
a heavy heart as I type this.  The people who came up with Fallout deserve better than this. (more…)

If you read Sluggy Freelance then you remember the storyline in which
Bun-Bun went around killing and collecting the powers of the various
embodiments of the holidays.  Eventually he was a murderous orange
& black personification of Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving,
Halloween, Christmas and others, practically the avatar of the classic
power-grab. 

An odd intro, I know, until you read this from the Washington Post:

The Pentagon is promoting a global counterterrorism plan that would
allow Special Operations forces to enter a foreign country to conduct
military operations without explicit concurrence from the U.S.
ambassador there, administration officials familiar with the plan said.

And why should that matter?

The plan would weaken the long-standing “chief of mission” authority
under which the U.S. ambassador, as the president’s top representative
in a foreign country, decides whether to grant entry to U.S. government
personnel based on political and diplomatic considerations.

Well, yee-fucking-haw, it’s like an episode of Wild Wild West meets West Wing. 
Apparently Rummy & his runnin’ crew tried this a bunch of times
under during the first term but Powell & the rest of the State
Department fought back and wouldn’t let them get away with it.

The State Department and the CIA have fought
the proposal, saying it would be dangerous to dilute the authority of
the U.S. ambassador and CIA station chief to oversee U.S. military and
intelligence activities in other countries.

Over
the past two years, the State Department has repeatedly blocked
Pentagon efforts to send Special Operations forces into countries
surreptitiously and without ambassadors’ formal approval, current and
former administration officials said.

The
State Department assigned counterterrorism coordinator J. Cofer Black,
who also led the CIA’s counterterrorism operations after Sept. 11, as
its point person to try to thwart the Pentagon’s initiative.

“I
gave Cofer specific instructions to dismount, kill the horses and fight
on foot — this is not going to happen,” said Richard L. Armitage,
describing how as deputy secretary of state — a job he held until
earlier this month — he and others stopped six or seven Pentagon
attempts to weaken chief-of-mission authority.

That’s a pretty strong metaphor, especially
from a, uh, diplomat, but maybe that just serves to emphasize how
serious of an idea this is.  The ambassador is the Executive
Branch’s personal representative in a country.  It’s not a
separation of powers issue here – diplomats are specifically tasked
with being in charge of approving, disapproving and being the boss of
any government official in any capacity in the country where the
diplomat is stationed.  To let one arm of the government – DoD -
into the country without consulting the diplomat and without giving the
diplomat veto power is to set up all kinds of shit-storm potential;
namely, what happens when everything goes completely tits-up in the
middle of some secret operation?  Fuck, you don’t even have to
wait around for something like that.  What happens when a diplomat
shows up in a country and that country’s government says, “Thanks, but
we have no real reason to trust you or work with you since your
position has been stripped of authority and your Secretary of Defense
is just going to storm the palaces whether you like it or not. 
Try not to crash on your flight home, asswipe, we sure don’t need you
here.” 

That gets right to the root of the main
problem I think I have with Bush’s foreign policy – well, okay, my
third or fourth-rank problem with it, coming after the massive and
unnecessary loss of innocent life and the $200 billion and counting
that he’s spent on a war that ultimately was fought so he could rub his
dad’s nose in it over the Thanksgiving turkey.  That problem is
this:  Bush has made it near-impossible for an American to be a
welcome sight in a traumatized region.  The war in Iraq has
stripped our military of its image as a liberating force.  I think
in the realm of global politics you’re only as trusted as your last
act.  Our last (and current) act is known to the world through
images of dead and injured children, destroyed homes and prisoners in
pyramids.  That shit isn’t exactly liberating.  For now – not permanently, I hope, but for right now – the sight of an American tank means trouble, not aid. 

And they want to do the same thing to our
diplomats?  Strip them of the ability to be taken seriously, to be
seen as the genuine and authoritative face of America in their
country?  They want to render them, at best, friendly people with
funny accents?  The point of an ambassadorship is to have an
American nearby who can make one phone call and be in touch with the
President, who can negotiate in good faith, advise as needed, know what
their government is up to and be trusted to have the best
intentions.  That is diplomacy – it is the active
adherence to a philosophy that before the shooting starts we will give
someone a chance to talk with us, that we will work to take the safer,
kinder, more civilized path of communicating before we let
things devolve into the chaos of conflict.  To strip diplomats of
that sort of aura of authority and good faith, that power to say I am America
to their hosts and, yes, that accountability for having approved of
anything that goes on in the country where they represent us is to
render the State Department nothing more than the PR wing of the
Department of Defense.

Oh, wait, that already happened.

Fuck, it’s not even like a case can be made
that at least the DoD are professionals who can be trusted to conduct
themselves in an according manner:

In one instance, U.S. commanders tried to dispatch Special Forces
soldiers into Pakistan without gaining ambassadorial approval but were
rebuffed by the State Department, said two sources familiar with the
event. The soldiers eventually entered Pakistan with proper clearance
but were ordered out again by the ambassador for what was described as
reckless behavior. “We had SF [Special Forces] guys in civilian clothes
running around a hotel with grenades in their pockets,” said one source
involved in the incident, who opposes the Pentagon plan.

So what’s Condi doing about it?

Debate over the issue reignited last month, as
Armitage and then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell departed and
Condoleezza Rice prepared to replace him, said an administration
official familiar with the matter. When the Pentagon refused to change
language in the execute order, that put the issue before Rice.

In
the past week, however, she has made it clear that she intends to
protect the existing chief-of-mission authority. “Rice is resolute in
holding to chief-of-mission authority over operations the way it exists
now, for a very rational reason — you need someone who can
coordinate,” said a senior State Department official.

Oh yes.  You don’t need someone to say
no, you don’t need someone familiar with the local customs to step back
and say, objectively, this is not a good idea.  You need someone
to coordinate.

Jesus H.

(more…)

Gods, but this would be beautiful.  From Reuters, via Slashdot:

TiVo Inc. (TIVO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) shares jumped more than 17 percent on Wednesday, fueled by speculation that Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) might make a try to buy the digital video recorder maker, analysts said.

“What we hear on the street is that Apple is interested in their
business and that they are a takeout target,” said analyst Steven Kroll
Jr. of Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co.

Representatives for Apple and TiVo both declined comment.

How wonderful would that be?  Wonderful enough to get me to get a
Mac mini, that’s how wonderful.  Of course, I already want one for
no real reason, so it’s not like I’m short on desire. (more…)