The View From North Central Idaho

The Communist Party USA is for electing Kerry.

They aren't explicitly saying vote for Kerry, but things like:

How will the Communist Party USA and YCL do our part in this historic battle to deliver a decisive defeat to Bush...

And regarding Kerry:

He is not left. He is the vehicle by which George W. Bush, representing the most extreme reaction, can be defeated.

And in general saying how much better Kerry will be that Bush. 

Now I just wish we could get Osama on video tape telling us who he wants for the next U.S. President.

Why am I not surprised?  Complete article here.

By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
July 21, 2004

The Associated Press reported Monday that the head of the communist movement in Nicaragua and Sandinista Leader Tomas Borge announced his support for Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) presidential bid.

...

The Republican National Committee suggested that Borge must be one of the foreign leaders the Democratic presidential candidate says wants him to win in November.

"The cloud of mystery surrounding John Kerry's support by foreign leaders lifted a little over the weekend. Since Sen. Kerry won't tell us who they are we will continue to monitor New York's fine dining establishments hoping to glean some insight into the other still-mysterious foreign leaders supporting John Kerry," said RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke.

Pilots and air marshals are reporting Arab men are testing airplane security.  It's happening frequently.

Pilots and air marshals who asked to remain anonymous told The Washington Times that surveillance by terrorists is rampant, using different probing methods.
...
A January FBI memo says suicide terrorists are plotting to hijack trans-Atlantic planes by smuggling "ready-to-build" bomb kits past airport security, and later assembling the explosives in aircraft bathrooms.
...
A second pilot said that, on one of his recent flights, an air marshal forced his way into the lavatory at the front of his plane after a man of Middle Eastern descent locked himself in for a long period. 

The marshal found the mirror had been removed and the man was attempting to break through the wall. The cockpit was on the other side.

The second pilot said terrorists are "absolutely" testing security.
...
"It's a probe. They are probing us," said a second air marshal, who confirmed that Middle Eastern men try to flush out marshals by rushing the cockpit and stopping suddenly.

We don't have enough air marshals to put on all the flights.  Not nearly enough.  And these arab teams are have been composed of six to fourteen people.  That might be enough, with the right tatics, to neutralize the air marshals even if they were on the flight.  If you fly be prepared to defend the plane because the government can only do a very limited amount to protect you.  And remember the governments back up plan -- F-16s.

Link to the story.  Summary of the story:

A U.S. military spokesman in Tikrit told United Press International that the report was untrue.

"Nothing's been found. The report is not factual," said Master Sgt. Robert Cowens, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division, based in Tikrit.

It's not confirmed/official/etc. yet, but it doesn't come as any surprise to me.  Here is a link, but I included the entire article below.  Consistent with my other “comforting thoughts“.  Sleep well.

BAGHDAD, July 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday.

The official daily al-Sabah quoted the sources as saying the missiles were discovered in trenches near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"The three missiles were discovered by chance when the Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear heads," the sources said.

They pointed out that the missiles were actually discovered in the trenches lying under six meters of concrete and designed in a way to unable sophisticated sensors from discovering nuclear radiation.

The sources said al-Douri, who is related to former Vice Chairman of the Iraq Revolution Council and Saddam's right-hand man Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, was captured after Iraqi police intercepted an e-mail message in which he set a meeting with another former Baath official.

The report could not be authenticated by the interior ministry or the national security department, but the paper noted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiar Zibari made a surprise request recently to Mohammed el-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to resume inspections for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Copyright 2004 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.

Last week Los Alamos started getting in trouble and ended up being shut down. This week the news that Sandy Berger is under investigation for violation of security.  His lawyer and some politicians are making light of it saying it was “inadvertent” and/or “sloppiness”.  For anyone that has worked with classified data this excuse is like a high school student saying the boogie-man ate my homework.  You would be skeptical if they said their dog ate it but it's out of the realm of possibility for anyone to believe even for a second the boogie-man story.

Anyway... a memo just “came down” to inventory all our removable storage media.  I've worked here over 2.5 years and this is the first time this sort of thing has occurred.  I've had to do complete inventories with checks on all the markings, etc. before but never just removable storage media.  I had an administrative assistant ask me to open my safe and do the inventory with her.  No big deal--10 minutes out of my day.  I only had one hard disk and it took longer to log my entry into and out of the safe than to do the inventory.

Does anyone not believe this is going to be the last straw for the University of California management contract at Los Alamos?  It's up for renewal.  Battelle wants that contract, so do others.  Battelle might not get it but I'm nearly certain UC is going to be exceedingly hard pressed to hold on to it.

The Battelle Staff Association arranged for a group rate on the Columbia Gorge. Barb and I took Xenia and went on a short cruise on a sternwheeler.  We took a bunch of photos the more interesting of ours are here.  Xenia took a bunch too. We had a nice time.  I loved hearing about the history and geology of the area.  It was a long drive for us but by driving along the more scenic north side of the Columbia river on the way back made the drive enjoyable as well.

Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer was arrested in Japan on Tuesday.  I used to play a lot of chess.  That was pretty much all I did in high school and the first year or so of college.  Bobby Fischer won the world championship in '72 (I think) when I very much into the game.  I feel a fair amount of attachment to him for what he did for chess.  It makes me sad to read stuff like the following:

Mr. Fischer's legal troubles date back to 1992 when he emerged from hiding to play a highly publicized match against Russian Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia, then at war with Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Mr. Fischer won the competition, earning a prize of more than $3 million, but he was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury for violating United Nations sanctions against Yugoslavia by playing the match there.

...

"I think the U.S. is not going to exist much longer," Mr. Fischer said. "I think everybody is going to be surprised at just how soon the U.S. collapses and the U.S. becomes history."

In other such interviews, Mr. Fischer has praised the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Barb and I were talking the other day about how famous people are often strange.  She was reading a book on John Lennon and asked, “Does becoming famous make people strange or is it that only strange people become famous?”  My answer was, “I don't know.  But my hypothesis is that in order to be famous most people will have to be 'different' in some way.  Smarter, greater motivation, extrodinary talent, something like that.  Whatever it is that made them different may also have a tendency to make them strange.  And of course there are a fair number of examples of people that appear to be 'nice' and manage to handle fame fairly well.  But you are correct, it does seem like there is some sort of correlation.”

Bobby Fischer is possibly the greatest chess player that has ever lived and it's possible that whatever it was that made him such a good player also made him more than a little bit strange.

Read the complete story here.  But the bottom line is:

A new book written by a former FBI consultant claims that al-Qaida not only has obtained nuclear devices, but also likely has them in the U.S. and will detonate them in the near future.

...

Williams claims that al-Qaida has been planning a spectacular nuclear attack using six or seven suitcase nuclear bombs that would be detonated simulantaneously in U.S. cities.

Ground zero would likely be Washington D.C. and the major population centers.

Sleep well.

Here is the complete story, but the opening paragraph pretty much sums it up:

Mexico's attorney general has taken the unusual step of having an "anti-kidnap" chip stuck in his arm and then making the fact public - thereby ensuring that anyone lifting señor Rafael Macedo de la Concha will be certain to remove said limb at their earliest convenience.

RFID implants in humans for security purposes are counterproductive.  As pointed out in the article the only thing they might be good for is rapid identification of the bodies.

I donate blood on a fairly regular basis and almost never have any problems. A couple of donations ago I was approached by someone recruiting for platelet donors. They asked to take a sample of my blood for testing, I agreed, and they called me back a few weeks later to say I was a good candidate. Last night I did my first donation. Barb wants it to be my last.

I'm pretty sure the person doing my poking and running my machine was fairly new at this. Even though the needles are smaller than those used when donating blood when she put the first one in my right arm it hurt quite a bit more than it usually does when donating blood. After a few seconds it felt better and we proceeded. The one in the other arm went fine. As soon as she started up the machine I felt a sharp pain in my right arm. I informed them and she stopped the machine and had this "deer in the headlights" look on her face. Another person came over and looked at my right arm and said the needle had missed my vein. The second person offered to let me go home or she could use a different vein. I said go ahead and use the second vein. That seemed to go fine for a few minutes then I started sweating profusely and my stomach and head started feeling funny. I told my attendant and she had the same expression but seemed to know what to do. She turned off the machine again then she and the other person pulled the blanket off my lap and legs (most people get cold during the procedure), put cold packs on my forehead and neck, and asked me to take deep breaths. The one who knew what she was doing explained that the pain from the improper needle insertion caused this reaction from my body. The body drops the blood pressure in an attempt to reduce the risk of "bleeding out". The good thing is that this usually only happens once, after recovering in a few minutes it is very unlikely to happen again. I asked if it was mild "shock" but she said it wasn't, just a drop in blood pressure. I'm not so certain. I suspect it was shock. The symptoms all seem consistent. Anyway, after a few minutes I started feeling better and they restarted the machine. They had told me to boost my calcium input prior to donating and I drank extra milk. But they insisted I needed to take calcium supplements because the anti-coagulants would bind with the calcium in my blood and since calcium is used in nerve conduction I would start having symptoms such as tingling in my lips and generally have problems. I took the supplements they offered but a few minutes after sweating session I started the tingling in my lips. I reported it and the one who knew what she was doing said the machine had just gotten up to full speed and that was the reason I was just experiencing it. She adjusted the machine and the symptoms subsided some. Two and a half hours after I came in I was done and they removed the needles and put bandages on my wounds.

As I drove back to the house I did not feel normal. It wasn't the light headed feeling I sometimes feel after donating blood, it was different. I was tired and drained. My mind wasn't working up to full capacity either. I wasn't as alert and aware of things. I was glad I only had to drive a mile or so. I drank another large glass of milk and went straight to bed.

I'm feeling much better today. I hope my aerobics class goes okay tonight. Blood donation makes my aerobics rougher. I probably will donate once more to see if thing go better if they don't it will be my last donation of platelets. My next blood donation is next Tuesday.