The Center for Public Integrity (no, not the White House, it’s a non-profit), has released a report that chronicles nearly 1000 false statements made by senior Bush administration officials in the run-up to the Iraq War. They have an overview, biographies, key false statements, and a searchable database online at their website. It’s pretty damn shocking. As the date of the war’s start got closer (who knows if it was predetermined), the amount of false statements increased so that in February, 2003 they peaked. On March 19, 2003, we started bombing Iraq.

Lee H. Hamilton, the co-chair of 9/11 Commission is interviewed below in a video produced by CPI about the impact of this report.

I don’t get sick often, but when I do, I really go all out. I went to the campus clinic on Friday and the doctor told me I (probably) had a virus that is going around. I made it through work that night, but by the time I was done, I felt like shit. Saturday is when it took off. I was basically in a NyQuil/Robotussin dizzy haze for 36 hours. I would wake up enough to get some more water, but then it was back to bed where I would pass out for another 5-hour stretch. I missed a good show Saturday night (sorry Kempz), forgot to open up The HIVE for some folks this morning, and listened to the same Car Talk episode twice because I was too weak to turn the volume down on the clock radio.

I broke down today and ordered pizza so I wouldn’t have to go out (which I couldn’t have done even if I wanted to because the NyQuil has severely affected my balance and depth perception). Some nursing student friends of mine told me I have GERD (acid reflux disease), so I made an effort to not eat very much and, amazingly, it worked. While I was eating (slowly, to make it last), I watched a couple of episodes of this new show called Reaper. I don’t watch much television, but this show has Ray Wise in it and I love Ray Wise.

For the past week or so, every time I access Google, either directly, or through the built in search tool in Firefox, I get redirected to the Spanish-language version. Apparently, I am not the only one with this problem.

On the surface this seems like a good idea. “Google.com” is such a ubiquitous location now, that many people around the world would probably type that in when it would actually be better for them to go to the language-specific site for their region (not that language is as closely tied to region any more, but still…). The weird thing is that Google lets you set your “preferences” that get stored as a cookie. The ip detection process seems to totally override that, which undermines the entire “preferences” service.

Anyway, if you are having the same problem, go here and send Google an email telling them your ip address and pleading with them to fix this.

Update: They seem to be responding to these requests pretty fast, although the fix within their system may take a while…

Thank you for your note. We recently updated our location files and we
understand you’re now being redirected to www.google.es. As you may know,
we normally redirect users in countries other than the United States from
Google.com to one of our country-specific sites (e.g. www.google.co.uk for
Google UK) to provide easy access to country-specific search features.

There’s nothing like opening a new pair of Converse All-Star Chuck Taylors. Even though they’re now made in China and don’t last as long, they’re still my favorite pair of shoes.

Also, tonight, Billy Joe Winghead and JATT in Burlington. I probably shouldn’t go since classes start tomorrow at 9am, but BJW came all the way from OK City, so…

So, like the 2008 Presidential election, my undergrad is entering its home stretch which means months and months and months to go. Technically, I have two classes left in my major, but I haven’t done my language requirement, so thats going to delay everything. In the meantime, I’m not that far away from a second major in Political Science, so it looks like I’ll be double majoring - something I never even contemplated when I got back into school.

Being an undergrad at 30 can be demoralizing, but what else is there to do? I’m so in debt at this point it’s almost insane. I’m not going to take any more loans after this semester which means I will have to find a “real job” while I go to school. Fuck. Why can’t we just have free education?

I’ve also decided to alter my grad school direction just a bit and pursue the conflict resolution program here at UNCG. Maybe then I’ll do another masters in Middle East studies, or just go ahead and start working on a doctorate (something that is still hard to comprehend).

I really hope there’s some kind of job out there in the next few years, or I’m basically screwed.