U.S. immigration laws flawed, Sessions says

Well, yeah. You just noticed that? This was in a speech before the state association of police chiefs. Other visitors included:

GOP Gubernatorial candidate Bob Riley, who wants more cops hired even though he still doesn't say how he's going to pay for it;

GOP Supreme Court "justice" Harold See -- AKA the CEO's Best Friend -- who used the Pledge of Allegiance case to prove that he hasn't read the Constitution very carefully then said that the state needs judges to follow the law;

And an actual Democrat, Ag Commissioner candidate Ron Sparks, who wants the state to put a point of origin label all agricultural products sold in Alabama because "You need to know whether your lettuce is coming from Mexico or Sand Mountain," which isn't xenophobic at all.

National business group endorses Sessions' run

Wow, a business group endorsed a Republican! What are the odds?

"Alabama small business owners recognize and appreciate Senator Sessions' commitment to representing their hopes of a brighter future in Washington," Pete Havel, [National Federation of Independent Business'] southeast regional grass roots director, said in a news release.

They also recognize and appreciate NFIB looking out for them. Clearly, only a national organization can really reflect the attitudes of Alabama's small business owners.

CNN.com - Elvis is alive and well in cyberspace - August 16, 2002

Well, that might explain why my bandwidth seems all clogged the last couple of days.

What She Really Thinks

Ginger, of course, has real, non-flippant analysis of the resignation of INS chief Jimmy Zipper, or whatever his name is.

CNN.com - Bush calls for deficit reduction - August 17, 2002

Well, gosh, Trifecta-Boy, we didn't have a deficit until you were elected. Here's a simple chart to help:

Last 13.5 Years

Presidents Named "George Bush": Deficits
Presidents Not Named "George Bush": Surpluses

Any questions?

Damn You, Adam Smith!

The free market could bring woes to Bob Riley's November hopes

I dunno, somehow I doubt that the stock market/Enron/WorldCom/etc. will really play a big role in the Alabama gubernatorial election.

Make Your Own Kate Capshaw Joke

Chinese kids, adults start Space Camp exploration

So far, they're all present and accounted for. If you recall, one of the earlier Summer of Abduction™ stories involved a Chinese student who went AWOL while in the country to supposedly visit the Space Camp in Huntsville.

Meanwhile, nice to see that Chinese students know as much about the United States as American ones do about China:

In this first trip to the United States, Sujie and others seemed impressed by America itself.

"Everything is so well-developed and modern," she said. "I did not think it would be so in a country only 200 years old."

Apparently she expected us to live in stockades and lack indoor plumbing.

Instapundit.com

Professor, if DC is too small for a state, how about Puerto Rico? Population roughly four million, and growing; that would make it about the 25th-largest state by population, about the same size as Kentucky. It would have, I think, six congressmen and hence eight electoral votes.

Snakehead extermination approved

Supposedly, the poison plan will be implemented tomorrow. But knowing the snakeheads as I do, I expect they have a call into the governor and are also trying to get a stay from the Supreme Court... The State of Maryland has leased the DCSWF pond for the rest of the year and will presumably give the owner a nice sum. But they haven't been able to lease two ajoining ponds. Given that these are walking fish...

washingtonpost.com: Commissioner of INS to Resign

Man, the War on Terror just won't be the same without what'shisname. I mean, he's done such a great job so far, hasn't he?

Ex-Brady Buncher Campaigns for ADHD

You know you have a lousy medical condition when the guy who played Peter is your celebrity representative.

Child rape suspect bonds out of jail

Why is it okay for him to go free? Because they don't think he'll do it again. Well, great. In other news, the 11-year-old girl this cretin raped and impregnated is also mentally disabled! Terrific! Also, politics is getting involved:

Marshall's arrest prompted Gov. Don Siegelman to contact the Mobile Register on Friday, calling for legislation allowing juries the option of choosing the death penalty for repeated sex crimes against children.

Siegelman also said he supports mandatory chemical castration or voluntary full castration for repeat sex offenders.

A spokesman for Rep. Bob Riley, R-Ashland, Siegelman's opponent in the race for governor, said Friday that the congressman also supports the death penalty for repeated sex offenses against children.

"But none of this sissy lethal injection. I think we should go for hanging, drawing, and quartering them. And for castration, we should use nutcrackers."

I'm pretty sure that the courts wouldn't allow the death penalty for this. I personally think someone who rapes a child -- or an adult -- deserves to die, though I understand the arguments against it. And full castration seems a pretty clear case of cruel & unusual punishment.

CNN.com - Missing NASA probe may have split in two - August 17, 2002

Oops! This may be the saddest NASA screwup yet. I mean, cheap is one thing, but easily breakable? I told them that a wooden spacecraft was a mistake...

The Nando Times: Pentagon to conduct missile defense test

You probably know the rest of the script. Actually there are two scripts. Either the test will fail utterly, and yet be called a success because it would have worked except that it didn't, or the test will succeed because the Pentagon cheated by putting a tracking beacon in the missile.

washingtonpost.com: Fred Thompson, 'Law & Order' Senator?

How about that. I knew that Dianne Wiest had left the show, and that they hadn't replaced her yet. I never imagined that the reason was they were working on getting Thompson. I think he'll be great.

Orthopedic Art Exhibit

Two types of art: art by orthopedists, and art by their patients. I just think it's interesting, no real comment here.

Baschab to speak at Republican Women's lunch

If you're in Mobile Monday, why not stop by and ask Judge Pamela Baschab why she (alone among the members of the Court of Criminal Appeals) to uphold Medell Banks' conviction for a nonexistent murder. Feel free to make fun of her name.

Man, 28, charged with rape of girl

A better headline: "Corrections Officer, 28, rapes, impregnates girl, 11". Sweet Jesus. An 11 year old! What kind of world is this? Not that this sort of thing gets one hundredth of the attention of any given abduction case, despite the fact that it's hundreds of times more widespread. Too icky.

Mobile County District Judge Charles McKnight granted a request Thursday to place Marshall in solitary confinement, Giardini said. Authorities said they were worried that inmates in the jail might act on resentment toward a former jail guard, he said.

You think? Throw in the child-molester bit, and he'd be lucky to get out alive and with all his various pieces intact.

Good. Toss him in with the other criminals.

Songbird Population Declines Linked To Acid Rain

I suppose there's no such thing as acid rain, either? Poor birds.

Snakeheads Put Small Maryland Pond on World Map

Reuters finally has a Snakehead story. There's one piece of news I'd not seen before:

Even the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it favors killing the snakeheads, though it prefers a more humane method instead of the state's broad poison plan.

I'm not sure what they'd want -- tiny little individual lethal injections? -- but when PETA wants you dead, you really are an unlovable animal.

U.S. forces to be in Afghanistan for many years, top general says

Thank God we're not going in for any of that "nation-building", huh? Actually, this is good news, I just enjoy pointing out Bush inconsistencies.

Israel Tells US Delaying Strike on Iraq is Dangerous

Of course, Israel is hardly an uninterested party. I still think they're right.

The Nando Times: Four terror suspects try to kill selves

At the risk of being considered once again an anti-Muslim bigot: Boo-Flipping-Hoo. Why'd we save them?

The Nando Times: Bin Laden ordered pre-Sept. 11 assassination, ex-Taliban official says

Aw, that's okay. It's not like he's an Israeli or something.

'Human shields': Israelis slammed - AUG 16, 2002

I'm not agreeing with the use of human shields -- not that I necessarily think that's what the Israelis are doing here -- but isn't it odd that the people condemning the IDF for using "human shields" have no apparent problem with human bombs?

Choctaw County, Alabama

If you, like me, are outraged by the Medell Banks situation -- where an innocent retarded man is being held in prison for a crime he not only did not commit but which never happened -- here is some contact information for Choctaw County. I don't know if it will do any good, but perhaps if enough people give them the what-for the County Commission will rein in rogue DA Bobby Keahey, who continues to insist on Banks' guilt and refuses to let the case die.

NEWS: What Would Andy Do? - Christianity Today Magazine

Apparently, the Andy Griffithian Christian movement is more widespread than I thought. A software engineer from Huntsville created a Church study program on the series that has since gone national.

"Most of the writers of The Andy Griffith Show were actually Jewish," [Jim Clark, founder of The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club] says. "They were strictly writing to entertain people. But the fact that people draw other meaning is fine too."

Oh, let's not go there again.

(Thanks to H.D. Miller.)

NASA comet-chasing spacecraft falls silent

I'm pretty sure NASA didn't used to lose contact with its spacecraft like this. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like in the seventies and eighties, this wasn't a problem. How many is this for them now, just in the last few years? Three? Four?

Bush Makes Case for Broad Homeland Security Powers

Caption Contest time! I love this picture. Just use the comments.

CBS News | Colleges Offer Empty Nesters Help | August 15, 2002 13:07:09

How do they comfort parents whose kids are going off to college? Well, in one college in my hometown...

Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama sits parents down to watch a vintage episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" in which Opie, having raised three orphaned birds, faces the worry and loss of setting them free.

Australian state declares war on mutant seaweed - 8/15/2002 - ENN.com

Really, what more can I say?

Things I Don't Want To Know

Why the CIA library has a copy of a book (pamphlet, really) titled The Gaps In The Warren Report.

Found On The CIA Website

The George Bush Center for Intelligence

Make up your own joke here.

Joshua Micah Marshall has the candidates to be the other members of Congress who joined Dana Rohrabacher when he decided to personally negotiate with the Taliban in April 2001. And it's an interesting group, to say the least.

Centre Daily Times | 08/09/2002 | Psychic visits area seeking Song clues

Damned vulture. Said "psychic" said in this story, dated last Friday, that she expected to have the case solved "tomorrow". Guess what? Still missing.

Kansas City Star | 08/07/2002 | Two incumbents lose in Board of Education races

More creationism. The Kansas Board of Education is apparently going more "Conservative" -- that is, religious reactionary -- and should be evenly split 5-5 between people who think creationism should be taught in science classes and those who think science should be.

washingtonpost.com: Bush, in Shift on Egypt, Links New Aid to Rights

Every so often, Bush surprises me and does the right thing. This is one of those times. The prosecution of Saad Eddin Ibrahim was so over-the-top unjustifiable by democratic principles that I guess in the end it couldn't be ignored. If we're going to stop pretending that the "moderate" Arab states are anything more than allies of convenience and start pushing for real change... Well, it will be ugly in the short term, but it's what we should do.

Gill-netters challenge city's ban

Hey, I sympathize with the fishermen whose livelyhoods are in danger, but they're being stupid. If you catch all the fish you'll be out of business anyway. I don't know why they can't seem to figure this out. What, do they think fish spontaneously generate?

WebVoyager Intro

Fun With Cataloging

Today I've moved into American History, Sixties Style. It's a little disorienting.

Made Me Laugh:

McGovern: The Man and His Beliefs. Selected and edited by Shirley McClaine. I am not making this book up.

Made Me Sad:

R.F.K.: The Man Who Would Be President. Ralph de Toledano, 1967.

Hasn't Been Checked Out Since 1986:

The Best and The Brightest.

Park honoring Tuskegee Airmen set to open

The Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, which includes the field where the Airmen trained, opens today. Bravo.

Bob Riley, the GOP Gubernatorial candidate, sponsored the National Park designation and will give the keynote speech. But Governor Siegelman is there too, to make sure he gets some of the glory. If nothing else, the ceremony should be fun just to see those two on the same stage pretending to get along.

NASA works on hypersonic engine

Lest you think the scientists in Huntsville spend all their time on antigravity and missile defense, occasionally they work on things that might work and might ultimately have some practical value. For space travel to pay for itself, it has come down in price and that's the goal here.

Evangelist Says Muslims Haven't Adequately Apologized for Sept. 11 Attacks

Well, Franklin Graham hasn't adequately apologized for the Holocaust either, so they're even. For those who accuse me of being an anti-Muslim bigot because of my barely repressed glee at the deaths of members of the tyrant family of Arabia, this is what an anti-Muslim bigot looks like.

An Imaginary Homicide

Bob Herbert's NYT column today is about the ridiculous Choctaw County "murder" case, where a retarded man has been in jail for years for murdering a child who never existed. And the DA wants to keep him there. This is insane, of course, but when has that ever stopped a prosecutor?

Pope, Again, Heads Home and, Again, Rumors Fly

Home being Poland; there is speculation he might retire. I don't think Popes can retire. At any event, this is an awfully flippant story considering the subject matter. I mean, I'm flippant about people dying all the time, but I am not being paid.

Despite hype, child abductions are declining

I knew that, actually. That doesn't keep the national media from creating the Great Child Abduction Epidemic of 2002, however. I understand that there will be silly stories, especially in August. But this one is really in bad taste.

Cobb mulls teaching evolution alternatives

Yes, students in one Georgia county might be a little stupider and a little bit less informed. Just like the school board and the people who elected them. Morons.

Ananova - Arctic seal finds new home in Tokyo river

Well, I don't suppose I can blame this on global warming, can I?

albawaba.com: Top Hamas activist killed near Nablus; PA, Israeli teams meet in Jerusalem

Said "Activist" was planning to blow up a high-rise, which you have to admit is pretty active. CNN calls him a "leader".

Baldwin mulls tax to fight West Nile virus
State sees third infection of mosquito-borne disease

Oh, please. The Southern Alabama Skeeter Tax?

2,000 fewer students counted

The Birmingham City School System came up short on its enrollment count and is facing a deficit (because fewer students = less state money). Administrators can't understand why the numbers are off; I suggest it's because a lot of the teachers were educated by the Birmingham City Schools. (So was I, from grades 6-8.)

Eschaton

Atrios has the latest Ashcroft outrage; his attempt to gut Constitutional rights by declaring American citizens "enemy combatants". (Scalia: "What's wrong with that?")

Me, I'm hoping Nevada does legalize pot and Johnny Justice's head explodes.

ABCNEWS.com : Environmental Mistakes Fuel Squid Boom

The pessimist looks at the oceans and sees they're half full of fish. The optimist looks at the oceans and says "Calamari for everyone!"

ABCNEWS.com : Nevada Could Get Into Pot Business

A group is trying to move Nevada into the post-prohibition era. The vote will be tight but it looks like it has a shot. Of course, the Federal Government (Motto: "As Federalist As We Wanna Be") is going to try to stop it.

ABCNEWS.com : Baby Snatched From Mom's Car

I'm sorry about this baby and her mother, really I am. But frankly I'm getting sick of the "summer of abductions" coverage and the imaginary child abduction epidemic. Of course, this baby was apparently kidnapped by a Grey in a wig and false nose, so it is newsworthy.

Light/sporadic posting from me today and the next couple of days. We're having the "Fall Planning Institute" here. I don't know why they call it that since there's no planning done at it, but that's the name. I get to sit in lots of meetings that have nothing to do with my job. For fun!

The Nando Times: Adam Ant pleads guilty to charge in pub brawl

So much for being a Goody Two-Shoes. He pulled a starter pistol on patrons who made fun of his clothing, which worries me because I've been making fun of his clothing for about twenty years.

Not Rocket Scientists

Anti-gravity device too important to ignore
Since 1966, NASA has tried to repeat Finnish scientist's work here

Pardon me a moment while I bang my head on my desk.
...
...
...
Okay.

To Ron Koczor, the $650,000 NASA has invested in the project is worth the risk even if the science may seem wild. Koczor, who oversees the project at Marshall, believes the payoff could be advances in space transportation, new types of medical treatments and a host of other commercial applications.

Not to mention the entertainment value. I mean, $650,000 -- that's nothing. I mean, Carrot Top makes that kind of money, and he's not nearly as funny as government scientists trying to build an antigravity machine. How much are we spending on perpetual motion?

ajc.com | Metro | Push turns to shove in Barr-Linder race

An anti-Bob Barr protester attending a Barr campaign rally dressed as Yosemite Sam was pushed over by a Barr campaign worker. Apparently there's internet video of the incident, though this machine is creaky and I don't dare try to play video on it.

I suppose it's better than gunplay.

Boston.com / Latest News / Business / Wal-Mart profit rises 26 percent in second quarter, bests expectations

Isn't that usually the case? Economic slowdown = more people shopping at Wal-Mart. Which is probably a good thing, since soon enough most of us will be working there.

Ananova - Islamic militants attack Palestinians in refugee camp

Fighting amongst yourselves? Tsk, tsk... Lebanese "militants" attacked a Yasserite Palestinian "security" post. Two are dead. I'm not broken up about it.

Bush Convenes Forum in Waco on the Economy

My God, he's turning into Shatner!

I have one question... Is it really wise to hold an "Economic Forum" in a city that not only is best known as the location of the fiery deaths of a cult group but is also only one letter away from being "Wacko"? I'm just saying.

ESPN.com - Page2 - Delusions of grandeur in preseason

Tuesday Morning Quarterback is back.

USATODAY.com - Korean Air jet may have narrowly missed disaster

Korean Air Lines, which has a fine tradition of not knowing what the heck it's doing, issued a hijack alert... on September 11, over Alaska. NORAD scrambled fighters to possibly shoot down the plane. Luckily, nothing happened and the plane landed safely in Canada.

(Thanks to Frank for pointing out this story.)

CNN.com - India plans moon mission 'by 2007' - August 13, 2002

Wow. I mean, it's an unmanned mission, and it's not like they're going to learn much about the moon at this stage. It's a "here we are" mission. It's still pretty impressive.

CNN.com - Couple plan to clone a baby - August 13, 2002

Technically speaking, shouldn't the object of "to clone" be the progenitor, not the new person? I might be wrong. But any clone would start off as a baby anyway, wouldn't it? At any rate, better than even odds these people were conning Connie.

Revealed: Race hate 'exposed black workers to radiation at BNFL plant'

Well, this is a disturbing story. British Nuclear Fuels owns a plant in South Carolina, where a pattern of racist behavior has been alleged.

I'm not crazy about how apparently my hometown is a byword for racism even overseas:

Simon Woolley, head of Operation Black Vote, said: "We are talking about the levels of racism seen in Birmingham, Alabama, in the Sixties. [For] a British company not to be dealing with it head-on is completely and utterly scandalous."

The Scotsman - International - German wildlife gets a little dangerous with invasion of dumped exotic pets

And we all know what happens next. Though having close relatives of piranhas, as one German river was found to recently, is probably even scarier than the snakeheads. Reptiles are apparently big, in more ways than one, with pythons living wild in Hamburg and a komodo dragon and a giant snapping turtle having been captured.

Riley, Siegelman spar over taxes
Gubernatorial candidates discuss issues at Montgomery forum

Two white men running for governor and arguing about taxes? Wow, I never saw that before.

Seriously... I pointed to a story yesterday about the regressiveness of Alabama's tax structure, and both candidates say they plan to address that. Of course, neither candidate has a real plan on how they're going to pay for it, but it's a start.

Jordan Times (Features Section)
Assisted reproductive techniques

I don't know why, but this story just seems funny to me. I'll point out that the last section is on "Sex Selection".

News: 'Serious flaw' found in Internet Explorer

The Internet Explorer (IE) problem has been around for at least five years and could allow an attacker to intercept personal data when a user is making a purchase or providing information for e-commerce purposes, said Mike Benham, an independent security researcher based in San Francisco.

"If you ever typed in credit card information to an SSL site there's a chance that somebody intercepted it," he added.

Thank you, Bill Gates! It's been awhile since the last Microsoft security flaw, but this one's a doozy.

Except for the heat, feels like February

Stephen VodkaPundit is back from his honeymoon. And Sgts. Stryker and Schultz are both posting at the Daily Briefing again.

washingtonpost.com: Stones Help Trace Origin of Mongolian Nomads

Wow. Pushing sixty, preparing for a tour, and still they have time to help out Mongolian archaeology.

USS Clueless - An act of faith

It's apparently Anonymity Day in the blogosphere. My two cents:

Atrios says that he stays anonymous in part because of employment reasons, that his current or future employers might not appreciate what he says online. I think that's a valid concern. Den Beste is being a little naive here, thinking all that Demosthenes is worried about is social ostracism or losing friends. If I find myself in a situation where I have to choose between this website and my job, I have to take my job. And then I'll start publishing anonymously.

I considered being anonymous here, but decided against it. In large part that's because I've been publishing on the Internet since I was a student (and hence not open to immediate economic retribution). Of course, most of that was on baseball or entertainment, not politics. But I've rarely even used forum handles; I almost always use my name even in places where almost everyone else uses a pseudonym. At some stage I decided that handles -- like, say, "A.G. Android" -- were kind of silly, and so I don't use them.

Plus I like seeing my name on the screen. So sue me.

Palestinian factions reject call to end attacks on civilians

Can't have that, can we? It would throw hundreds of terrorists out of work. If Arafat's bunch can't even get Hamas, IJ and the rest to even pretend they aren't going to target civilians, why should Israel even pretend Arafat's in charge?

Troops involved in shooting at Ha'aretz's Gideon Levy punished

They weren't actually shooting at him, per se; they were shooting at a taxi he was in. The punishment (a suspended jail sentence for one, detention to base for another) seems kind of light to me, but I can understand why they might be a little trigger-happy.

(Via Sam Heldman:)

UA scholar's thesis blasts Alabama's tax structure

I didn't know anyone didn't know Alabama's tax structure was awful and regressive. I'm glad it's getting some attention. For instance, 70 percent of the state is timberland. Two percent of the state's revenue is property tax from timberland.

Interestingly, this wasn't a business school or poli-sci thesis, but a divinity thesis for Samford University, a Southern Baptist school.

The critique's theological premise is that Alabama must reform its regressive tax structure in order to be true to its strong Judeo-Christian tradition.

Theological commentary and Bible verses share pages with statistics.

The paper's epigraph quotes Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

As difficult as it is for me to be on the same side as the Southern Baptists (I was going to say "get in bed with", but you know the SBs and sex) if that's the way we have to go to do something about this state's tax structure, then Amen.

Ananova - Frogs under threat from turtle invasion

Frogs always seem to be under some kind of threat, don't they? In England, "red eared terrapins" have been spotted in a canal. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are being held to blame. Really.

ABCNEWS.com : CDC Chief: West Nile Is an Epidemic

Whee! Once again: NEVER GO OUTSIDE. If you must, please take the precaution of applying "Off" to all exposed skin and then wrapping yourself in mosquito netting.

The Miami Herald | 08/12/2002 | Leaping sturgeons! Giant fish injuring boaters

Apparently, in Florida it's the "summer of the leaping sturgeon". Actually, it's the summer of the Dreaded Chinese Snakehead Walking Fish, but I'll let that slide since the Giant Leaping Attack Sturgeon is making its presence known.

James Swan on Snakeheads on National Review Online

And now NRO is on the snakehead story. Pretty nice roundup of the cost and problems of invasive species generally.

Snakehead poisoning mired in details
Coordination effort delays plan to eradicate fish

Let's face it, we might as well just turn the rivers over to the DCSWF now and get it over with.

Pair tells Newsweek they saw bin Laden alive

Okay, who had August 12 in the pool?

The Nando Times: Wisconsin launches deer hunt to halt spread of chronic wasting disease

If you're in Wisconsin, you should probably wear orange all week just to be on the safe side.

CNN.com - Crocodiles tear apart Thai suicide woman - August 11, 2002

She decided to commit suicide by jumping into a crocodile pit. Yikes. If you're going to commit suicide, don't you normally want it to be less painful? Though this was at least showy, I'll give her that.

Reuters Wire | 08/11/2002 | Republicans say Bush can justify attack on Iraq

Boy, that sure is a surprise. Senators from his own party are backing the President? I guess Clinton really is out of office.

Fun With Referrer Logs

Google Search: address of frenchpeople

Yeah, I think that's another one of those searches I don't want to know about.

washingtonpost.com: Iran Is Said To Give Up Al Qaeda Members

To our "friends" the Saudis, of course.

Iranian authorities handed over the al Qaeda fugitives, all Saudis, knowing that whatever intelligence was obtained from them during interrogation in Saudi Arabia would be passed on to the United States for use in the war against terrorism, Saud said.

Of course it will. Never any doubt about that, nope.

Coming home
Temple Emanu-El thanks Baptists; renovation done

With protection from the FBI, the leaders of Birmingham's Temple Emanu-El carried their Torah scrolls back to the temple yesterday. They had been worshipping at Southside Baptist Church during renovations.

Mercury News | 08/11/2002 | Flesh-eating bacteria kill fisherman, 69

Oh, boy. Said flesh-eating bacterium lives in -- you guessed it -- fish. Now, if a snakehead got its fins on this we might all be in for it.