August 17, 2003
Saturday Reading
Magpie, who I really enjoyed having tea with yesterday, points out the incipient soldiers' pay cut for our troops serving in the Gulf.
Ampersand's been doing a lot of reading, himself. Special mention for Trish Wilson, who takes a wrecking ball to the 'War on Boys' argument.
Daily Kos: Commentary on the blackout and deregulation. The Texas GOP tries to cancel elections because they don't have a quorum, but they'd need to have a quorum to cancel the elections. And the Democratic party in Kentucky continues to try the novel tactic of being an opposition party, make sure to click through to the comic.
Pandagon puts us on notice that Fresno liberals are fighting their wingnuts.
TalkLeft on how, while actual drug checkpoints are illegal, fake checkpoints are just fine. Click over to read about the latest salvo in the drug war.
How to Save the World comments on another win for corporations at our expense as Consumer Reports comes under fire for providing accurate safety information.
The Guardian: A profile of Idi Amin. Why many British are moving to France.
The Asia Times: Profile of a GWII publicist. The IMF worried about US economy. The contract for the new Iraqi media infrastructure is being badly mismanaged by ultra-secret defense contractor SAIC. The Afghan resistance is firming up and getting organized.
From the Washington Post, a survey of world opinion hands Schwarzenegger the thumbs down. Says one Israeli journalist:
Posted by natasha at August 17, 2003 12:09 AM | TrackBack...Schwarzenegger's "debut as the instant favorite in the race for governor of California only confirms the world's opinion of Americans," he wrote. "They like violence, power, revenge, riches, success and fame, and they don't know the difference between real life and fantasy, between real people and characters in an action movie." ...
I usually don't go around plugging my blog entries in other peoples' comments sections but I was hoping that you would find this worthy of mention.
It's becoming clear that a major cause of the blackout was the failure of the Ohio power grid to detach from the national grid when it was having problems. The company that operates the Ohio grid is FirstEnergy. FirstEnergy has a long history of corporate malfeasance and substandard procedures. The most notorious is its Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, which suffered such extensive corrosion that before it was finally shut down, only 3/8 inch of shielding was preventing a meltdown like Three Mile Island.
And there's more. Lots more. Details at my blog.
This ends my shameless link whoring.
Posted by: Al-Muhajabah on August 17, 2003 03:10 PM