note to self

the whole nigerian yellowcake uranium thing has been confusing as all hell, and i don't see the MSM pick up the latest reports on the forgeries from italy's la repubblica. i want to take some time to read through the translation carefully, so that i get a better feeling for it. it just smells ... it smells like a nasty little conspiracy (and i am not eager for those). la repubblica is doing some really impressive investigative reporting here.

Doppiogiochisti e dilettanti tutti gli italiani del Nigergate translated as Double-Crossers and Dilettantes -- the Men Behind Nigergate Were All Italians

Pollari andò alla Casa Bianca per offrire la sua verità sull'Iraq translated as Pollari travels to the White House to present his version of the truth

Nigergate, il Grande Inganno sulle centrifughe nucleari translated as Nigergate: The Great Nuclear Centrifuge Scam

TPMcafe also has a timeline.

uranium from africa in a nutshell, and analysis from the left coaster.

tonight we have the wasting of time

but in somewhat creative ways -- elise wanted a new userpic and gave us a quote from rilke on which to base it, and i felt like playing with photoshop. mr. crantz can just stop laughing!

http://pics.livejournal.com/pleonastic/gallery/0000c078

i forgot that flickr jpgifies everything, which means the text is a wee bit less clear than in my original pngs. i have now moved the pics to livejournal's pic server.

[edit: Du mußt dein Leben ändern -> you have to change your life]

damn

harriet miers withdraws, taking the fall for bush's incredibly stupid decision, like a proper loyalist. she got all dressed up in protecting executive privilege, but what? y'all didn't think of that before? and does this mean that gonzales is off the short list?

damn, damn, damn. and things were going so well, what with the right tearing each other new assholes the way usually only the left does to itself, and the possibility of getting access to white house documents during the confirmation hearings.

and the next nominee will likely be anathema to the left.

resolution

for each angry political post, i vow to post at least two positive non-political ones.

the photography of ladislav kamarád. breathtaking landscapes.

via metafilter.

i don't usually like the looks

of american cars, but the 2006 pontiac solstice makes me drool. i have a serious thing for roadsters. never owned one.

the sportiest car i ever had was an alfa romeo alfasud in bright yellow, and even that was more useful than purely sporty. it did have zip, though.

i wish all reviews were like this

charles jade "un"reviews the Lenovo ThinkPad X41 Tablet at ars technica.

The X41 is based on the marketing-approved letter X, which may suggest seXiness or an unquantifiable eXtra something. The number 41 is nearly perfect

Power -- This light informs the user that the X41 is on—no, really. There should be an ontological indicator next to it to let the user know the computer really exists.

via tongodeon.

my liege, my lord, the sun in my sky

harriet miers original intent; her withdrawal letter rewritten.

via juliansinger.

(this is not an angry political post!)