terrorist != cuban bombers

An interesting article the indy media has dug up:

Setting the tone

Three years ago, after 9/11, President Bush appeared to draw the same line in the sand. Addressing members of the 101st Airborne Division, he declared, “If you harbor terrorists, you are a terrorist.”

Actions speak louder than words

Earlier this month, three anti-Castro Cuban exiles flew to Miami from Panama after serving four years in prison for “endangering public safety.” They were arrested in 2000 for plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro by planting explosives at a meeting the Cuban dictator planned to hold with university students in Panama.

And in case you think they only harbor those that attempt to blow things up, among the people allowed entry are:

Pedro Rémon, sentenced to seven years for the bomb plot in Panama, pleaded guilty in 1986 to bombing Cuba’s mission to the United Nations and later conspiring to murder its ambassador to the UN. A New York detective also fingered Rémon for the machine-gun murders of two political opponents.

Gaspar Jiménez, sentenced to eight years for the Panama bomb plot and falsifying documents, had previously served time in Mexico for the attempted kidnapping and murder of Cuban diplomats there. He was also indicted in Florida for blowing the legs off a liberal Miami radio talk show host in 1976. (The indictment was eventually dropped for insufficient evidence, even though the main witness passed several lie-detector tests.)

Guillermo Novo, sentenced to 7 years for the Panama terror plot, was arrested in 1964 for firing a bazooka at the United Nations, where Che Guevara was speaking. In 1978, he was convicted of participating in one of the worst acts of terrorism ever committed on U.S. soil, the car bombing in Washington, D.C. of former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier. (The conviction was later overturned on a technicality, though Novo was convicted of perjury.)

A fourth Panama conspirator, Louis Posada Carriles, left Panama for Honduras. He is still wanted in Venezuela on charges of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing all 73 passengers. In 1998, in an interview with the New York Times from a hideout in Central America, Posada admitted taking part in numerous acts of terrorism, including a wave of Havana hotel bombings in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist. He said his violence was funded by prominent U.S.-based supporters in the Cuban exile community

Terror by association. Perhaps he should have fired a bazooka at Salman Rushdie instead...

Also in the news today, the US today refused to allow Yusef Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, to enter the country. That story, here. Austensibly, because of his support (later retracted on 60 Minutes) of the fatwah against Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses. Maybe Islam is guilty of making rash statements, but I think his life's work shows that he's no terrorist.

Story source: The Independent
Vector: metafilter

Ziegler Brand Kitty Sweaters

I've figured out how to get rich.

Step One: Create a company to make and sell specialized cat sweaters.

Step Two: Invent a machine that you say deciphers cat language into English. Have it say "Let me out," "Give me food!," and "More catnip, beyotch." at random, since that's all that cats want anyhow.

Step Three: Advertise in Cat Fancy and sell a whole bunch of these to crazy old cat ladies.

Step Four: After a month, the box translates all your cat's language into "Buy me a Ziegler Brand™ Kitty Sweater!"

Step Five: Embedded microchip in kitty sweater turns off all sweater demands in the cat language translator, for a month, after which the box translates all statements to "I'm tired of this Ziegler Brand™ Kitty Sweater, buy me a blue (or red, green, yellow, whatever) one."

Step Six: Lather, Rinse, Repeat, and Profit, baby!

corrolation? causality?

amusing picture, not sure how accurate it is, but it is ironic nonetheless.

http://www.bartcop.com/message-from-God.gif

Now for some fact checking! Yay! Facts!
Weather: (from the NOAA):

Charley's track:
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2004/aug/charleytrack.gif

(Frances' curve into Marion County is the suspicious bit of the whole "god" map for me, but it looks pretty Kosher.)
Frances' track:
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2004/aug/francestrack.gif

(Ivan's track is the big thorn, since the eye came ashore right dead on Mobile Bay in Alabama, so this line, tracing it through Walton county, is pure fiction, baby. However, as the gif notes, Alabama went to Bush as well... Specifically Baldwin and Mobile counties, which split Mobile Bay down the middle.
http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/alabama/politics/alabama2000election.jpg )

Ivan's track:
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2004/aug/ivantrack.gif

Source: http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2004/hurricanes04.html

Election:

The election results are downloadable just about everywhere, this GIF seems to draw it's county-by-county breakout from the map supplied by USA today, and cited by lots and lots of right-wing talk show types, (Who somehow seemed to think that the number of square miles that went for Bush was actually relevant in the scope of the popular vote... Miles don't vote, people do.)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/vote2000/cbc/map.htm

So .... the end result? Not too far off. Feel free to be amused by this map and chuckle over it with your friends.

Oh yeah, Vector: metafilter, where you can read what other blowhards and panjandrums have to say as well.

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(If everyone is wondering why I'm posting so much, I have an awful cold, and I'm hopped way up on dextromethorphan. I've been having these two hour bursts of speedy heightened productivity, followed by a sort of buzzing bleary wave of a complete inability to concentrate. Now, I've done all my work in a sort of softly vibrating pink haze, and I've another half-hour to burn. Hang ten!)