The online journal, notebook and playground of HFM

The US. Army names two Iraq outposts after oil companies. Also, the military renames an Iraq airport “Bush International Airport.” Take a picture, George, it’s the only airport you’ll ever get.

A conversation between a warmonger and a peacenik. Vaguely resembling a conversation I’ve had several times recently.

Portland Crime lab too broke to respond to some crimes: “But the lab’s work has been slowed by the state’s budget turmoil. A total of 85 out of 135 state lab positions were originally cut by the Legislature. About half of those jobs have been restored. Still, the cutbacks have had a profound impact on the crime lab… Bullet casings from a shooting spree in Portland went unanalyzed. And a body in Astoria lay in a kitchen in a puddle of blood for 30 hours, because the lab was too broke to send specialists on the day of the shooting.”
Yeah, the government doesn’t need all that tax money, does it? Better not get raped or murdered in Portland any time soon. Or in Indiana, for that matter.

From Toronto’s Globe & Mail newspaper: “Washington delivered a stern message to Canada on Tuesday, saying Americans feel disappointed and betrayed by the Canadian decision to stay out of the war in Iraq.
At a breakfast speech to the Economic Club of Canada, Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, said “there is a lot of disappointment in Washington and a lot of people are upset” about Canada’s refusal to join the United States in its efforts to depose Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.”

Read the Justice Department’s memo proposing sweeping new powers for the government to spy on little ol’ you.

Chaka Khan… hmmm.

A dry-cleaning business in Fresno, California has been vandalized and set on fire because the name of the business is “French Cleaners.”