Murtha Plans To Deny Bush Funding For Troop Escalation

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Murtha Plans To Deny Bush Funding For Troop Escalation:

Murtha and BushPresident Bush is widely expected to announce a plan next week to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq by at least 20,000. Congress may not cooperate.


In an interview with Arianna Huffington, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), the chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Committee, said he intends to block funding for any escalation plan. An excerpt:


When we asked about the likelihood of the president sending additional troops to Iraq, Murtha was adamant. ‘The only way you can have a troop surge,’ he told us, ‘is to extend the tours of people whose tours have already been extended, or to send back people who have just gotten back home.’ He explained at length how our military forces are already stretched to the breaking point, with our strategic reserve so depleted we are unprepared to face any additional threats to the country. So does that mean there will be no surge? Murtha offered us a ‘with Bush anything is possible’ look, then said: ‘Money is the only way we can stop it for sure.’…


He says he wants to ‘fence the funding,’ denying the president the resources to escalate the war, instead using the money to take care of the soldiers as we bring them home from Iraq ‘as soon as we can.’


A memo from the Center for American Progress, released December 27, recommends ‘an amendment on the supplemental funding bill that states that if the administration wants to increase the number of troops in Iraq above 150,000, it must provide a plan for their purpose and require an up or down vote on exceeding that number.’


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(Via Think Progress.)

Stormtroopers crash the 2007 Pasadena Rose Parade

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Stormtroopers crash the 2007 Pasadena Rose Parade: "Xeni Jardin:

BB pal Bonnie Burton of Lucasfilm says,


Here's my behind-the-scenes look at the
Star Wars Spectacular at the 2007 Rose Parade: 200 stormtroopers,
Grambling State Marching Band, floats and Grand Marshal George Lucas. Lots
of great pics of troopers practicing on the field and having fun meeting
each other from 22 different countries!

Here are the images: Link.

I'm also blogging all about it here: Link.



Those float activities commemorate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. About a million people are expected at the parade today. A really loud, low-flying aircraft passed over my house in LA this morning -- shook the walls, scared the heck out of both me and my dog, and seemed to be flying from the direction of the parade. Maybe it was a Rebel Alliance ship heading out to kick some Empire butt.

Here's a related photoset of float prep, with closeups that show how they build these flower floats, from Lorelei: Link (via Wayne's List).

Update: About the low-flying, insanely loud aircraft that gave me instant 9/11 flashbacks and sent my golden retriever running for cover, Wil Wheaton says:

That was the stealth bomber and two stealth fighters. They fly over the
rose parade route every year, and scare the everlivingfuck out of a lot
of people who don't know what the hell is going on. They go right over my house, about 1200 feet above my bedroom.


Update: Wil's brother Jeremy captured the stealth crafts in flight as they flew away from the parade -- snapshot below. They look so small and distant in this photo, but trust me: they sure sounded like close-range whupass.

Brian Roller says,

In your section about the flyby before the Rose Bowl game, it was mentioned that 2 stealth fighters and a stealth bomber flew by, along with wikipedia links about them, one of which was wrong. The two aircraft following the B2 are F22s, which are stealth but are not the F117 you linked to. The B2 is actually VERY quiet... however I live near a base that operates F22s and can attest that they are not, which was likely the concern.



"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Pictures of an eagle taking on a fox

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Pictures of an eagle taking on a fox: "the Golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos, are able to attack and kill mammals substantially bigger than they are. Some will attack and kill deer (including reindeer, roe deer and white-tailed deer) and pronghorn, and there are ridiculous, authenticated cases where Golden eagles have killed domestic calves exceeding 100 kg in weight."

(Via digg.)

Birth of an Island

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Birth of an Island: "slashmojo writes that while some islands are sinking, last August another rose from the ocean, formed by volcanic activity and caught in the act by a passing yacht. From the article: 'What looked like a brown stain on the South Pacific turned out to be a spectacular drift of floating pumice stones stretching more than 16 km — and an indication an island was being born nearby... 'We are getting emails from volcanologists saying this is so rare.'' Here is the blog post of the yachtsman who photographed the nascent island.

(Via Slashdot.)

PC Mag VIP posts switcher tips

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There are switchers, and then there are Switchers. Robyn Peterson, executive product director/executive producer at Ziff Davis, is a capital-S-Switcher; when the guy who's responsible for PCMag.com jumps the tracks to a Mac, there's a serious movement afoot.

Peterson has his rationale for the switch and a list of five tips for switchers ('Where's the Start menu?!?') posted over yonder. Just one more indication that the Intel migration, though challenging and sometimes painful, is paying dividends in market share for Apple.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)