Low Earth Orbit

Satellite maintenance

I have to go off planet for a bit to do some repairs on the satellites. Please put your entire lives on hold in breathless anticipation of my return, which should be in a week or so.

UN Baghdad office bombing theory

[source, source]

The cement mixer was driven into the side of the converted three-storey hotel on which Mr de Mello's office was located, prompting the US administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, to speculate that Mr de Mello had been deliberately targeted.

de Mello was "heavily involved":http://www.un.int/bangladesh/images/sc/st/300701etimor.htm in the independence effort for East Timor. This was "high on the list":http://www.guardian.co.uk/indonesia/Story/0,2763,812527,00.html of grievances from Osama bin Laden. It's clear that the UN was hit because it was a "soft target":http://orbital-mind-control-laser.net/leo/archives/2003_08_20.html#000852 but that doesn't mean it was the *only* reason.

NY Times spins UN bombing story

[source, source] The ??NY Times?? "editorial":http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/20/opinion/20WED1.html says

Terrorists aim not just at inflicting death and devastation. They also hope to poison the emotional and political climate around their targets… The Bush administration has to commit sufficient additional resources and, if necessary, additional troops, to prevent that

The editorial page is a major page. Buried back on page A9 in the eleventh paragraph of a minor article is the information that

After a bombing at the Jordanian Embassy last week, senior American officials warned that other soft targets might be next. But the United Nations deliberately avoided sealing itself off because it feared that such barriers would send the wrong message to Iraqis seeking help.

AP "reports":http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2057250

U.N. officials at the headquarters had refused heavy security - aside from the recently built concrete wall - because the United Nations "did not want a large American presence outside," said Salim Lone, the U.N. spokesman in Baghdad.

So President Bush is blamed by the ??NY Times?? for *not* doing the bidding of the UN and now is blamed because the US military *did* the bidding of the UN. But of course, the UN must be held completely aloof from any consequences of its actions or it would be impossible to justify its continued existence.

FDR - worst US president ever?

[source, source] bq. Why is Hoover infamous for presiding over four years of Depression, not terribly uncommon in American history, while Roosevelt is much-beloved for presiding over an unprecedented two more presidential terms of Depression, while much of the rest of the world economy was recovering? The "CATO Institute":http://cato.org has an "excellent wrapup":http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v25n4/powell.pdf on the economic imbecility of FDR's policies. Basically FDR screwed the overall economy and the poorer sections of the citizenry to benefit people more likely to vote and generate campaign contributions.