dsandler.org

Dear Secretary Powell: When I last saw you in Kabul in January, 2002 you arrived to officially open the US Embassy that I had helped reestablish in December, 2001 as the first political officer. At that time I could not have imagined that I would be writing a year later to resign from the Foreign Service because of US policies.

You know, all the CSS for dsandler.org is really screwed up. (Notice that the “dS” glyph underlying the menu at right, well, it’s just not there anymore.)

And you know what? I’m just not interested in fixing it at this point. I have a few redesigns for the site sitting on the shelf, anyway, and at some point I’ll deploy one, along with my new weblog infrastructure (very exciting!). But there’s just no time now, between scheduling movers, filing taxes, repairing my car, oh, and my day job. So you’ll simply have to wait. Désolé.

Well, there goes the neighborhood. Ambrosia is starting to port their games to Windows. (seen on /.)

Have you been keeping up with Get Your War On? You should!

Woman: Why does George W. Bush get everything he wants? Is it because he prays for it?

Man: What are you talking about? Didn’t you see the press conference? He prays for peace, my anonymous clip-art co-worker, he prays for peace—and he’s sure not getting that.

As a rule, I try to stay away from Fark. But occasionally, their Photoshop contests are hilarious, like this one on what movies we’d see if the MPAA forced each one to pass a “G” rating. Look for “High Plains Mister” (Fred Rogers, drifting into town), “BOO-BOOFACE” (starring Al Pacino and a super-soaker), “S.W.” (original title: “S.F.W.”), and “A Crayon Orange”. Oh, also, “Forgiven” (isn’t that sweet!) and “G” (starring Vin Diesel).

If you’re not already reading the BBC reporters’ weblog, you must.

Seen on cnn.com, with respect to the lethal fire-in-the-hole: “Camp Pennsylvania post in ’shock and disbelief’”.

Is that anything like “shock and awe”?

I really need to get my act together and post some of the pictures I’ve taken in recent weeks. Until then, I think this is pretty much my best ever “hold out the camera backwards and click the shutter” photo, period. (Taken Mar. 9, in Monterey with C&A.)

From MC Frontalot to y’all, a Special Delivery. [warning: witty white-boy rap included]

Raed: is he for real?

Salon has a brief, spunky little piece on televised war porn and our news networks. “You can almost hear them muttering to each other behind the scenes, ‘Where’s the shock and awe? We were promised shock and awe, damn it!’”

Raed, inside Baghdad. “the english speaking radio station on FM is now replaced by the arabic languge state radio program broadcasting on the same wave length. i just say thet because last night just as the BBC was broadcasting from baghdad (yes we have put up the sat dish again) their news ticker (or whatever you call that red band down there) said that the Iraqi state radio has been taken over by US broadcast.”

He even sort of looks like Optimus Prime.

Did anyone get a photo of that gorgeous, 180-degree rainbow in front of the Santa Cruz Mountains this morning? (As viewed from Silicon Valley.)

International Tribune / Asahi Simbun headline: U.S. STARTS IRAQ WAR

the AFP have a great photo of the Baghdad skyline under attack.

Early AP photos: Tomahawk launch; headlines overseas; Baghdad sky.

Okay, this guy translating Hussein on MSNBC is just terrible. Sorry, switching to CNN. > click <

Memo to Osama: quit watching CNN and run!

Unconfirmed (source: DEBKAfile): “IST 06:25 Two Iraqi divisions in Basra area of southeastern Iraq in process of capitulating to advancing US-UK force. They are the forces charged with defending the oil fields of region.”

NPR is reporting that Saddam Hussein may address Iraqis shortly.

Does the fact that I can’t raise many Iraqi websites (such as uruklink.net) mean that an EMP bomb was dropped in southern Baghdad by one of those F-117s?

Blogmonger is blogging the start of war. I’m looking for other weblogs that are carrying rapid-fire information—it seems that the web is as eerily quiet as Baghdad at the moment.

Well, here we go. “The opening stages of disarmament of the Iraqi regime have begun.” Hold onto your butts. ^*

Genius: A Warmonger Explains War to a Peacenik.

Excerpt:

WM	Powell presented a strong case against Iraq.
PN	He did?
WM	Yes, he showed satellite pictures of an Al Qaida poison factory in Iraq.
PN	But didn’t that turn out to be a harmless shack in the part of Iraq controlled by the Kurdish opposition?
WM	And a British intelligence report…
PN	Didn’t that turn out to be copied from an out-of-date graduate student paper?
WM	And reports of mobile weapons labs…
PN	Weren’t those just artistic renderings?
WM	And reports of Iraqis scuttling and hiding evidence from inspectors…
PN	Wasn’t that evidence contradicted by the chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix?
WM	Yes, but there is plenty of other hard evidence that cannot be revealed because it would compromise our security.

(There’s plenty more where that came from. Click the link.)

Good time to be at Apple: Al Gore has joined the Apple board of directors.

SARS identified. Identifying the virus as a member of the Paramyxoviridae family, Professor John Tam of the department of microbiology of the Chinese University said it was detected by electron microscopy. The finding, announced late last night, was further confirmed by a molecular technique that revealed the nucleic acid sequence of the virus.

Scott Rosenberg, of Salon: Eve of Destruction.

Erin sent me a much better link for The Thing?, which I spliced back into my original entry on the topic.

Oh, also, the Houston Linux Users Group and the Houston Palm Users Group.

OK, I will totally have to get involved with houstonwireless.org. Apparently they’re also #hwug on irc.freenode.net. Will have to check that out.

Oh, and, uh, in other news, the shooting starts on Wednesday.

Eugenia has a new desktop environment shoot-out at OSNews.com. (Watch out, it may be Slashdotted.)

First-hand accounts of SARS. “What you see and read on CNN, BBC etc is 24 hours out of date.” … “Masks are worn throughout the hospital. Staff are not going home to children.”

Colin Powell should get out while the getting’s good, like Robin Cook, who just today resigned from the British cabinet over the impending war with Iraq.

I just don’t know what to make of the ivrit-speaking apocalyptic carp.

Epilogue. Sitting here at IAH, at window AN214 (yes, they’re all labeled). The “A” terminal has a pathetic bookstore (unless what you want to buy is Dr. Phil or Left Behind hardbacks), so I think I’ll just check Slashdot headlines on my Palm until it’s time to board.

Oh, here’s my plane.

Leaving for the airport in about a half-hour.

Erin and I now have one foot in California and one in Texas, and that’s a pretty painful Twister position to hold for a month. Erin starts her new job tomorrow, and I’ll be back in San Mateo, dismantling our fort even as I hold it down.