Eclectic Amateur

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US government can not pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.
— Sen. Barack H. Obama, March 2006

As the French saying goes, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Looks like I called it right back in 2003:

Microsoft Opens Source to China. Then think through the national security implications if Jim Allchin’s sworn testimony is actually true.

So, is Jim Allchin guilty of perjury, or is Bill Gates guilty of treason? You decide!

Fast forward to late 2010.  Now, due to Wikileaks, we know the following:

Chinese security firms with ties to the Chinese military have hired hackers, including the group responsible for the original Blaster worm, U.S. diplomats alleged in a 2009 cable published Saturday by WikiLeaks.

The companies also have access to the source code to Microsoft Windows.

According to the U.S. State Department’s daily security briefing of June 29, 2009, Topsec of Beijing had employed “a known Chinese hacker” from June 2002 to March 2003. Identified as Lin Yong, aka “Lion,” the hacker served as a senior security service engineer to “manage security service and training.”

…

America researchers and security analysts have long suspected that China’s military has extensive cyberwarfare capabilities. In 2007, a Department of Defense report claimed that the PLA had first-strike know-how, and had created military units charged with developing viruses to attack enemy computer networks.

Looks like we can clear Mr. Allchin of the perjury charge.

That leaves the treason charge against Bill Gates…

I eagerly await Sarah Palin to call for Bill Gates to be “pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders” for this “treasonous act” of compromising our military security with respect to a potentially hostile foreign power.

But I won’t be holding my breath.

Elegy in a Country Churchyard

The men that worked for England
They have their graves at home:
And bees and birds of England
About the cross can roam.

But they that fought for England,
Following a falling star,
Alas, alas for England
They have their graves afar.

And they that rule in England,
In stately conclave met,
Alas, alas for England,
They have no graves as yet.

- G.K. Chesterton

“Men are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern.”
– G. K. Chesterton

The G20 leaders display the gravitas necessary to reassure a nervous public that all will be well.

An email exchange regarding the above (4/29/05) Day by Day strip:

Z: Funny, sad, or really really frightening?

M: They like to know where at least *one* of the other guy’s hands is.

And now for something completely different!

For my first try at a web poll, let’s go with an international relations question:

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color: 000000;
background: #F0F0F0;
;
}
#dark {
font-family: arial,verdana;
font-size: 11px;
color: FFFFFF;
background: #000000;
color: #ffffff;;
}
#table {
font-family: arial,verdana;
font-size: 11px;
border: 1px;
border-color: #000000;
border-style: solid;
}
#but {
font-family: arial,verdana;
font-size: 11px;
}

John Forbes Kerry and Lurch.

You decide.

UPDATE: Thanks to Dawn Eden for the link and the kind words.

I didn’t think of it all by myself — I woke up to the alarm Thursday set to WJR to hear Paul W. Smith saying the fateful words:

“So, do you think Senator Clinton will be Lurch’s running mate?”

Since I couldn’t get the image out of my head, I decided to share it with everyone else, too.

(The answer is apparantly “no”.)