2020 Hindsight

Bush Credibility Gap

A side-by-side comparison between "what he said at the photo op (with picture)" and what he (or his administration) actually did.

Credibility gap, defined: "Public skepticism about the truth of statements, especially official claims and pronouncements: “The credibility gap [is] the result of a deliberate policy of artificial manipulation of official news” (Walter Lippmann). " (emphasis mine)

Apparently the journalist Lippmann, mentioned above, in a 1967 article in the Washington Post coined the phrase to describe lies by President Johnson about the Vietnam war.

A sad day in the neighborhood

Mister Rogers died. [via i-Boy]

Pluto mission: roger, we are GO! for funding

Initial funding approved for mission. Pluto's the only planet that we haven't visited by probe. It'll be run by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.

Quick Timeline: constructions begins in 2004; launch in 2006; arrival 2015

Salient debate points over this mission:

Some say, "No, don't go sooner; spend money developing propulsion technology (ion propulsion) to get there faster. The Ion stuff has been proven, so we CAN do it." From the other side: "Pluto's elongated orbit puts it at a point now (over the next decade or so) where it's warm enough to have an atmosphere. Wait too long, and the atmosphere'll freeze and fall like snow. Ready a probe and launch sooner. Don't wait to invent new technology, just GO."

Well, that, and get congress and the president to let loose some cash for it. Bush just approved $110 million to get the ball rolling (more's needed later-- nearly 400 million more)

[this post composed with help of rocket scientist boyfriend ; ) --who was glad to learn that 'pluto's a go, even tho we're (JPL) not doing it' ]

Goodbye and Godspeed, Pioneer 10

Pioneer 10, launched nearly 31 years ago (March 2, 1972) was planned for a 21-month mission. As of January 21, Pioneer was 7.6 billion miles from earth; signals oh-so-faint. It's now out of range.

After the interview, Saddam Hussein interviews Rather

The Iraqi leader led the CBS anchor to the overstuffed leather chairs in his high-ceilinged Bagh-dad office and "had questions about American public opinion and President Bush," Rather recalled from the Jordanian desert. "I said, 'Mr. President, you asked me and I will try to answer you. A lot of these answers I don't think you're going to like.'

[...] Rather was surprised when Saddam challenged Bush to a debate, a gambit that was quickly dismissed by the White House. "I wasn't sure he was serious," the anchor explained. "I said to him, 'Mr. President, are you joking about this?' He said no, war is too serious to joke about."

Pressed further, Saddam dismissed the United Nations as a forum for the debate he wants. He said he would be in Baghdad and Bush in Washington, and he suggested that Rather could moderate the televised faceoff. "I paused and said - I'm not proud of this - 'Mr President, I have enough troubles already.' He chuckled at that."

Excerpts from Dan Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein

Rather: What is the most important thing you want the American people to understand at this important juncture of history?

Saddam: First, that you tell them that Iraqi people are not the enemy of the American people. If the American people want to know more through dialogue through television screens, I am ready to dialogue with Bush, with Mr Bush, the president of the United States, and to appear together before the television. And I would say what I have to say ... about the American policy and he can say things about the Iraqi policy and let that be on television in a just and fair way.

Manila Wish List Item

Deep in the bowels of Manila Prefs, the Advanced Prefs page has so many options that there are a set of links at the top of the page to the different sections.

I'd love it if there were the same kind of thing for the Discussion Group Prefs page.

By the time you get into editing templates, it's very easy to copy and paste your changes intended for Chronological View into Topics View, instead.

More Manila Tweaks (CSS, Calendar)

I've been off on another, "play" Manila site converting a default Bryan Bell template to look kinda like this site, only different. When it's to a good point, I'll test it on the old 2020 site, tweak, and then bring it on over here.

CSS Calendar styling

Discussion Group CSS

Where is the list for CSS items for default layout macros related to News Items? I guess I get to create that.

Same with the difference between classes called .body and .blogbody, and .description

I may offer a list when I'm done with this. UserLand's "ManilaNewbies" site does not, to my knowledge, offer a list of default CSS classes that correspond to macros that represent portions of the site.

I once began working on a larger written work describing all that, including a macro chart listing macro and the page it can be found on, as well as screen shots of typical Manila pages with all page parts labeled, cross-referenced with smaller chart underneath describing what was what.

Is this the kind of thing you'd be interested in having? Should I work on it some more? (to be offered as pdf for nominal download fee, in $10 or under range)

Or should I just post a screen shot of what I was going after and then gauge interest?

On a lighter note

Tell me about your day. Go see this. Do.

Faith-based initiatives

Hurriedly deploying a new missile defense system without adequate testing. Just do it, it will work. That's what Bush and Rumsfeld want to do.

Go see the page I created earlier today (before my NewsItem switch sent everything else to limbo) wherein I link to damn near everything about the Missile Defense System, and the trend to deploy missiles without adequate testing (both the system that Bush/ Rumsfeld want to get going by 2004, and for the second generation of Patriot Missiles due to be deployed against Iraq Real Soon Now). Plus lots about a guy from MIT named Postol who's been a critic of the whole thing.

If Garret linked you to here, this is the page you want to read about missiles.