Crouching Senator, Hidden Republican

Not a surprise, really. I wasn’t exactly ecstatic when he went with the Democrats last year, but now all this says about Joe Lieberman is that he’s not listening to or representing his constituents – instead, he’s listening only to himself talk. He’s doing whatever it takes to keep Joe Lieberman on the news or in the spotlight. Lovely example of representation right there (/sarcasm).

I don’t know exactly when Patraeus became the lapdog of the Administration, but it is evident that he’s becoming self-ignorant (watch video) to reality. We can’t find a shipment of 19k guns to the Iraqi police, and the Intel community continues to tell him who one of the real threats is. Does he seem to care or listen? No – he just repeats what I heard the President or his Administration say like a hour earlier.

Larry King Live spoke with Dick Cheney. Most of the time, when Cheney answered a question, all I heard was, “Wonk wonk wonk.” Watch this little video interview with Larry and you’ll see what I mean. Our Vee Pee isn’t even living on Earth anymore, really.

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The Slow Withdraw from Iraq

More fighting erupts in Iraq this week as the US struggles to contain the influx of insurgents. Everything was fine going in, but coming back out, militants fired on US soldiers. We know the body count of the militants, but nothing’s been released on the coalition side.

The hardest part of this entire conflict is that a lot of people – including the Administration – assume that there are defined bad guys and groups to attack to “win.” That’s totally not true. Take Pakistan, for example. Right now, the US has an ally in control of the government. But for how long? Pakistan can’t even control the militants in residence in the western half of their country, let alone assist the US in derailing them. On top of that, supposed neutral parties like China and Russia are supplying weapons and bombs to both sides of the conflict. The lesson that should be learned (but doesn’t seem to be taking) is that there are no set “bad guys.” The insurgents are a mixture of people – from religious zealots to political freedom fighters.

That’s why the reality of a pull-out of Iraq in the winter is being planned for in earnest by the Pentagon.

Congress Republicans give the distinction that they still support Bush in hiding information longer. I realize some Senators think that the FOIA is a violation of National Security, but what some of them don’t consider is that by setting a trend of hiding information that should be public domain, they are essentially sending the message that they are hiding someting appalling (or at least support it.) Which doesn’t equate to trust, which means less votes in elections. On the positive side of it, they are trying to work with Democrats to force through the security recommendations of the 9/11 commission. We’re not a semi-police state that censors information, people – this is the USA.

At the same time that Rupert Murdock is told to go f**k himself with the Dow Jones deal, Comic Con is in full swing. I wish I could attend this year. I’ve missed about 7 years of it now, and since it’s grown incredibly huge in the past years, now is the time to go. Damn.

Guy and his wife from Omaha is going to move to Afghanistan to help improve the quality of life over there. I love selfless people.

And finally, I wanted to talk about Obama and Clinton for a minute. I have to agree with some analysts about how Hilary seems to be a strong candidate who is one tough cookie to beat. So why do a lot of people bet on the long shot Barak Obama? Well, for one thing, he’s pushing the other candidates to work and think harder on both sides of the party line. He has taken a higher road when it comes to campaigning. John Edwards has followed Obama’s lead on that, which is refreshing. Clinton still takes shots at her closest contender because in reality, she’s afraid of him. He’s a better candidate with strong beliefs. She seems to be a wishy-washy Congresswoman who will say whatever it takes to win.

And that’s why he’s still there, nipping at her heels. I think eventually she’s going to do a Howard Dean and say/do something that will totally ruin her career as a politician. All because Barak Obama is patiently closing the gap between them, with better tactics and greater honesty.

And I’m done.

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Nutjobs Abound!

blogs4brownback has lost their top position as Classical Crackhead Nutjobs of 2007. How, you may ask?

You may have heard about Fred Thompson being hazed at a press conference the other day. Well, it appears that a group called, “Houston for the 9/11 Truth,” has claimed responsibility. After perusing their blog … thing … it is clear that they have overshot the batshit crazy over-religious Conservatives into the number one position on the Internet for You Gotta Be Fucking Kidding Me!?!? I know it’s probably upsetting for Psycheout, but hey – every biased interest group has to share the looney spotlight at some point.

So, we’re still hammering away at the Gonzales/Administration fuck-up that lead to them getting caught being politically biased in the Justice Department. Doesn’t help that the FBI contradicts a lot of what Gonzales has been testifying. Furthermore, as John Stewart attests in summary, “He’s smelt it, but neither confirms or denies of having dealt it.” God, I love that show (watch the video at the bottom).

Republicans fear another massive beating in the 2008 elections. I don’t blame them, when they have people like GOP-sponsored Tom DeLay standing up in Florida making a statement similar to, “LET THE RAPTURE … BEGIN!!!” If you’re a Republican and haven’t run away screaming yet, now is a good time to start.

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What Does This Say About The US

When we can’t even get along with our allies? Worst of all, our intelligence network will suffer for the next twenty to thirty years because of it.

The present Administration says that legal Congressional actions are “pathetic” in their eyes. Well, I guess I have to believe them, since the present Administration is living proof of the word “pathetic.” They would know pathetic pretty well, I think.

Maybe one reason why Iraq is lagging behind their end of the bargain is because the US isn’t living up to theirs. Looked into who is supposed to be shipping guns to the Iraqi forces – oh, why, it’s Halliburton! Not a huge fucking surprise that the company is still cheating the government to this very day, four years later. This is a big reason why the US is not getting anything done in the Middle East – retarded Administration contracts, leadership and direction.

The Europe install is delayed until August 8th. Woo hoo.

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Uncharted Space (WorldWork Games)

So it’s finally finished and available for purchase.

As you can see in this image, Denny Unger put together a lot of great ideas to manufacture a DIY gaming mat for space games. It’s rather large, with and without 1″ hexes, and comes with several interesting space backgrounds. One nice touch is that he included asteroids you can assemble that will have rules for movement later on when Wormhole is released. There’s a few other fun things to go with this prelude to the space combat game Wormhole coming out later next month.

One interesting thing is the new format for the instructions. It is an .exe file extention that has music that plays in the background while you read them. The music is an orchestral piece, and very nice for the price. Wormhole and it’s future releases will have the same appearance asthetically, and possibly be just as cool as Uncharted Space.

One thing you can hopefully count on is that the tabletop rules will have a scenario editor. I think as WorldWork Games has grown, so has its tools to produce better quality layouts and fun. DungeonLinx was a perfect example with the iMP.

We’re all anxiously awaiting the final version of Wormhole – myself included. The playtesting is mostly finished, and we’re mostly just doing clean up and tightening the game. I’m really pleased with the product that I’ve been allowed to play with, and I’m hoping that the line continues with more beautiful sets and new rules to expand the experience that is Wormhole.

You can order Uncharted Space here.

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Diplomacy

After Iran and the US exchanged some heated words between each other over what’s going on in Iraq, it’s back to the Middle East for Condi Rice. I never really understood why we think it’s a good idea to send a woman over to conduct diplomacy in countries where women aren’t usually allowed to show their faces.

Hilarity Clinton really just needs to shut her piehole. She is the worst instigator of her party. I don’t know if Obama could carry out his plan to meet with as many emissaries of rogue nations as he would hope in the first year of Presidency, but hey – that’s ten times the amount of effort the last three Presidents have attempted. This Administration seems content to be fairly stand-offish and ill-advised towards diplomacy.

John Edwards is giving back lobbyist money. I wonder how pissed off that makes other candidates who are taking lobbyist money?

As Bush makes up stories about the reasons for invading Iraq and defending the right to stay there until 2009, another Republican senator turns on him. It’s pretty bad when Arlen Specter doesn’t believe your bullshit anymore (granted, it’s over the Gonzales thing, but still – more people defecting to the IMPEACH movement, not trusting the Administration at all).

You gotta love a guy who apologizes after using state funds to buff up his drug habit. It’s sad and funny at the same time.

There may not be an update tomorrow, since I have a giant European install to prepare for (10 hours of moving code). Whew.

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Prep for all you WorldWorks Games fans

Uncharted Space is just around the corner, followed by Wormhole: Sathricans.

Note to all my loyal readers: I have been playtesting Wormhome, and it’s a fun, easy-to-construct set. On top of beautiful ship models and props, there’s a ruleset written by Bob Cooper.

When more managable sized images are available, I will post them here. But keep your eyes open!

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About Yesterday

I said the Pentagon conducted a few war game exercises and surveys that disproved the Administration’s fears of Iran or Al-Q taking over Iraq if the US was forced to withdraw. Well, you no longer have to take it from me, you can read about it here.

Don’t get me wrong – I like Major General Gaskins. Not only is he an upstanding African American Marine doing his job in Iraq, but he’s been stuck in the action to know what he’s talking about. But when you have one major ally in the war in Iraq reporting that they are running out of decent troops and equipment for the mission, you have to wonder how the hell the US is going to hang on for another “couple of years.” The Pentagon can’t even approve the requisition of new vehicles and armor for Iraq.

Hahaha. So the Under Secretary at the Pentagon fired a memo at Hilarity Clinton, saying that her exercising her right to Free Speech was propaganda for the terrorirsts. She turned around and wrote a stern letter to his boss, Robert Gates. I heard that good ol’ Secretary of Defense Gates turned around and told his Under Secretary to STFU and watch himself. LOL

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Am Tired Will Rite Tomoroe

It’s how I feel today. Work sucks. Too much werk, not enough fun.

I mean, all that happened was that the Pentagon said Hillary Clinton was a threat to national security for using her First Amendment rights in talking about her opinion about Iraq and troop withdraws, then the Pentagon war games turned out only to prove that neither Al-Q or Iran would likely take over Iraq if the US left (the fact that they ran the simulation like 1k times says that’s what they are thinking about doing anyway). And Plame’s case got thrown out of court because there’s not enough evidence to prove the Administration did it intentionally to bring harm to peoples.

Meh. Most exciting thing to actually happen was a steam main in NYC burst and for the first 30 minutes, everyone was pulling a Boston reaction of “TERRORISTSISTSISTSISTS.”

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