Just to remind folks, BG Taguba's father was a prisoner of war during the Bataan death march. So he might be rightly critical of inhumane prisoner treatment. The chance to serve on the side of justice must be especially empowering, to crack down on the kinds of abuse his father had to deal with. Sometimes bad things happen to good people...but sometimes the right person is in the right place at the right time.

He's still testifying on the hill now, if you haven't been watching.

Today's anagram, provided by Kevin is "Spot Thin Wagons". Let the games begin!

Yesterday's answer to the anagram "Roast Mules" was "Somersault".

I want to wash my mouth out with lye. Another former progressive group related to the good doctor meeting has concluded. The problem isn't the kewl kids who are massaging it into place: the problem is the idiots who want to comment constantly throughout the birth-pains. (And no, my idiotic mst3k-like commentary throughout the process is a flash-back to key-club-nazi-fightback, designed to inspire mirth and quiet laughter. I speak to loose tension, to let the people near me know I don't buy all the goods being sold. Importantly though, my dramatic asides consume no time and are spoken sotto voce.) The idiots who ask meaningless questions, to merely hear the sound of their own voices, these are the ones I condemn. There were far less this time, so that was good. Still, I long for the meeting where peoplw who actually have valid points speak out. Plus, no one threatened to quit this time. Kind of a letdown, really.

Before I hit the Powers-that-be, I suppose I should explain the flow business quickly. Basically, because of the White Power Incident on Thursday afternoon, I was unable to go to Barnes and Noble. I thought about hitting Afterwords, but instead decided to learn some vague law stuff with Fincher, reasoning that the books I wished to collect would be available at B and N the following day. As a result of this decision, Friday I buzzed by B and N and scored the book I was looking for for m-day, courtesy a tip from Jill. On the minus side, the book I wanted to pick up for y.t. wasn't available there. Consequently, I couldn't nab the Powers-mentioned-earlier because I was out of time. So I roll home for m-day and end up reading a Wittgenstein book which related to a conversation I had had earlier in the week. The book was a great way to spend the weekend. When I came back from funchester, Sunday evening, I called up a few friends and then walked over towards the afore-mentioned Afterwords. One exact conversation on the phone later, I'm outside when the party in question finishes. So, perfectly, I roll inside and find the particular Powers book in seconds flat. Calling back the earlier friend, I discover I need to wait an hour or so, so I roll north to a little kalorama park I hadn't hit in years.

Dusk hits and the lights come up, perfect for reading. Plenty of people play in the park, and snatches of conversation invade my consciousness as I read about a reference librarian and the double-helix-twisted lives fictional characters live. A bit later I get a call, close my book, and meander north.

So where's the flow?

Well, put simply: everything worked out. From the anthrax decision to not hit Afterwords (enabling me to walk around adams-morgan, dressed up beyond what I should have been, cream-flavored ice-cream dripping onto the sidewalk as I discussed briefly how a bill becomes a law) and to enjoy the evening, I was cursed to spend the weekend with the Wittgenstein book I wished to read anyway. Having finished that, I then managed to score the Powers book after a nicely timed conversation exactly as I needed to on Sunday. Each decision seemed like a halfway decent one, but in hindsight, they each fit; they each were perfect. Even today, as I sat at work, problems mounting, I managed to show up late for my evening political appointment. Yet to show up early would've been sheer hell. Only through pain came the consequence of victory.

That's where the flow idea comes in. I hate the concept of fate. And I am hesitant to debate free will with the likes of Brad and others. But, excluding all other variables, I do tend to hit waves right below their crest, to swim with the current rather than against. Things just seem to work. Causality may be an illusion, but if we go on the past record alone, things continually seem to work out for me for the best. A million ideas bubble to the surface, of which only two reify themselves, and yet the flow never ceases. Rinse, later, repeat. It's the only thing that keeps me going from day to day, the knowledge that each day will be easier, better, stronger, faster than the day preceding it. I've got the manic bit down fine. It's the depression I can never seem to conjure up. Oh, well. I'll just keep riding the current until I need to get off.

Time to end an amazingly amusing evening.

I meant to post this last night, but the incredible lameness of a certain-neigborhood-which-must-not-be-named, kept me from it. By the time I returned to the 'werkz, I was tired and in the mood for something other than sitting in front of an lcd and waxing nostalgic about the weekend.

The short version of the m-day weekend was that I got outside, worked mightily towards skin cancer, and read Brad's collegiate book by Wittgenstein, "Philosophical Investigations". It was half in german, which made it proceed twice as quickly, as every left-hand page I merely skipped.

Now, unfortunately, I am somewhat tardy in throwing up reviews of multiple movies and books, but I hope to amend this situation this evening, after a political meeting which I am already almost late in attending. Given the server maintenance I'm performing even as my fingers fly across this particular keyboard, I can merely hope that things go smoothly and that I am released from my work in time to hit the next event. If not, it could be a long night. And I don't like those.

The title refers to a concept I will explicate later. I've done it before, however, so the next post may be somewhat repetitive.

Kevin nailed the anagram in record time (at 11:13 am!). I'll post the solution tomorrow for all of you who wish to keep floundering about with it. As such, if he wants to suggest a new anagram for Tuesday, (thus solving the problem of having one person solves all of the anagrams...this way a new person will have to get the solution at least every other day) he has until tomorrow to suggest one to me.

In December, the CPA estimated how much power they would need right here (it's a .pdf document, annoyingly). Yet let's look at how well they did last week (the idiotic CPA put this one into an excel document!). Rather than force people to click links I'll throw up the images in a minute. But first let's see how high we've been...from the pdf mentioned earlier:

Now, according to others the CPA pushed the date back to July 1 from June 1. And if we already hit 4,518 on October 6th, you might be inclined to think the 6,000 MW number is completely doable in June or July. But you'd be mistaken, as you can see from the images below, the first two taken directly from the .pdf and the excel sheet, and the second extrapolated from the numbers contained within the excel sheet. Remember, these are all from the horse's...er...the CPA's mouth:

Click on each image to get a larger version. The first image is the official CPA prediction, made back in December. Remember, they were aiming for a June 1 deadline of over 6000 MW.

Here's the power produced in the past three months. Quite a bit lower than predicted. This is also the official CPA graph, from their excel sheet.

The sheet contained numbers going back to August, so I thought I'd regenerate the same graph, only with the history going back farther, so that I could see what the deal was with October and the 4,400 MW number. It turns out that day was a statistical outlier. There is no trend going up...so the 6000MW prediction is optimistic.

Some of you may have noticed that I discontinued the "credibility gap of the day" series. After a while it became somewhat predictable, and ever since the Secretary of Defense declared "the system is working" in response to questions about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, to say that there is a credibility gap is to actually give the administration too much credit.

With that said, I did like the daily stress of posting one item...so I'm hereby inducting a new feature: the daily anagram. If someone wants to solve the anagram, I'll post who achieved it first and their nickname. (If you don't have a nickname then this could be a way to finagle one out of me.) If not, I'll simply post the answer the following day.

So today's anagram is this: "Roast Mules". Go to town.

More on the blue pool weekend in a bit...

Wow.

First Friday was Fun. With a capital F. The art was so-so, although a late gallery provided some good stuff. The rain provided some drama, and helped us move from the mediocre galleries to the good ways in record time. Plenty of fun and memorable conversations with Deborah, Kevin, Fincher and friends. Dinner at Zorba's was a good way to end the evening. Anytime an experience ends with tasty skordalia and patates teganites is noteworthy in my book.

Only it didn't end. Those left hit "Mean Girls" in g-town which was surprisingly good. Review forthcoming, although the site of a math geek ripping his shirt off and several scenes ripped straight from the best moment of "Final Destination" were all amusing. Another great way to bow out. Only we get to the parking lot and nobody moves. Five minutes later I get out of the car and roll up on foot to the gatehouse. The arm was stuck in the down position, and the entire lot was full of cars honking though nothing was moving. I talk for about two minutes, think what the hell...i can always make up some story about carbon monoxide and manually bend the arm into a somewhat higher position. (I could feel it start to break so I didn't dare lift it the entire way.) I managed to get about 20 cars out of the lot while holding it up, including two SUVs, and my ride, of course, before two large SUV's blocked the rest. Damn Navigators. By that point some police had arrived and my arms were tired, when one cop looked at me and asked if I had keys to unlock the arms. I thought about being a smartass and saying "why the hell would I be holding this arm in the up position if I had a key?" but instead I merely commented "I don't work here" and ran up the causeway. A good way to end the evening.

Only it wasn't. On the way home, Deborah driving, we pass by what appears to be an accident. It isn't until the handcuffs come out that we realize a hooker is being busted at Logan Circle, as we watch. Light turns green, we pull away. Too dark for pix. Icing on a fantastic evening cake. Time to roll out for m-day weekend.

Deborah just reminded me...the best part about me lifting the parking arm for all the people in the parking lot was that none of us paid for parking. Sweet.

No, the 'werkz isn't falling apart. Yet. I just wanted to ask why every person and their cousin is/was/has recently taken their property exam? My co-worker called me up a minute ago to open up some document he left in the office that was about easements for his test this evening. Fincher finished hers earlier today. Forrest took his the other day. Does the entire world revolve around Edward? Are these directorial touches of a deranged mind? Mere minutes stand between me and First Friday Frivolity...

The other Warner from Virginia, that is. Finally the commonwealth will begin to move back towards a pro-business, fiscally conservative outlook. It's about time. A huge victory for him.

Not Rummy. That intern who "forgot to bring" the big charts McCain wanted. It certainly was the only humorous moment of the entire hearing, watching Rumsfeld go "um...we had it...it's here somewhere...wait, we forgot to bring it?!?!?!"

Oh, the protesters were fun too. Props to Warner for letting them chant until they got kicked out. Democracy is good after all, even if evil people live among us (or govern us!).

Lieberman sucks. Rummy is smart. Armed Service Senators are smarter, both Dems and Republicans. (Except Joe. And Jeff Sessions.) The one thing to take away from Rummy's testimony is that even worse stuff is going to come out soon. (See the section linked earlier mentioning "videotaped" and "young boys"). This is a huge disaster, no matter how you slice it.

Oh, and I'm proud that Warner used to be my Senator. He's a classy guy, even if he is a Republican. Plus, the irony of having Senator McCain grill the Secretary of Defense about prisoner of war treatment is enough to almost make my head explode. America, collectively, should be ashamed.

Stop your grinning and drop your linen. Rummy's on at 11:45, on c-span and abc. We'll see what happens...

Okay, it's now official: The FDA overruled common sense and it's own advisory panel to knock down Plan B. Both women and men were hurt by this completely unscientific decision. The first three paragraphs tell the main story:

This is outrageous. Outrageous. For over two years I've had a little purple sticker sitting on the light switch in my downstairs bathroom I picked up from some rally I passed on my way home from work at the USDA. It says that we need over-the-counter emergency contraception now, along with a url with more information. That was two years ago. How long will it take to get a useful drug like this to market? Simply staggering.

Forrest pointed me to this article which perfectly details the essence of America today, namely, that some bright kid thinks of a great idea, implements it, and then the idea is slightly modified, "tweaked" if you will, and the end result is completely against the original purpose. Much like the current administration's idiotic decision to delay rules about emergency contraception despite overwhelming scientific evidence that it would help mothers, not cause an increase in unwanted children (yeah...the logic of the dark side is too twisted for me to even grasp sometimes), what was done in this case is shameful. Let's roll the tape:

As a fictional character one said, fedora on head, "Fools...ignorant fools. They don't know what they've got there." Here's the full report. Read. Enjoy.

Oh, the title refers to a nice juxtaposition of "plan b" and legalese in my mind. Don't ask.

If you haven't been reading wonkette today, they shut down the building at 12th and E St. Which, unfortunately for me, contains the Barnes and Noble I needed to go to. I walk around, snag a mango lassi, head south, all for nothing. Grr. At least the lassi was tasty.

Now, it appears that the substance isn't Anthrax. Yeah. I could've told you that hours ago.

Deaf, dumb and blind. One of Toles' best, in my opinion.

If anyone notices that the site is broken, or that there is a spelling error, or a huge mistake, please e-mail me using the link at the bottom. That way the information stays crescent-fresh without problems. Thanks! Too often I hear people tell me hours or days later, "Hey, you were wrong about..." I'd much rather correct things as quickly as possible.

Apologies ranked by order of best to worst. I think the knock on Kerry is a little unfair (if only because if he really goes after Bush on this, he'll be viewed as an opportunist...every god pol knows when someone is digging their own grave you don't help out) but contrast the army statement with Bush's. A big difference. Levy's original article is key. Let's look at just two:

I love that TNR is finally getting its backbone back after the debacle of the Lieberman-love-in during the primaries. Today Ackerman is brilliant with his dissection of the delay releasing State's report on US human rights. And for a real stomach turning look, check out another TNR piece on Limbaugh's horrific non-apology. Perhaps TNR is finally returning to its roots.

It just keeps getting worse. From the article:

The Washington Post unearthed a whole bunch more photos today. Really bad ones. With that same woman who's in most of the others. I mentioned this before but it bears repeating and reiterating: this administration seems determined to lose. Every opportunity (the Washington Times today blared "Bush Does Not Apologize") they have to make a mistake, they do. That's why I'm convinced that they're going to pull out a large number of forces before the election. It'll allow them to claim a "victory" and to lower the number of forces in Iraq, thus reducing casualties. It'll also be the worst possible option at this point, but Bush and Co. aren't worried about Iraq anymore. They're worried about getting re-elected.

From my perspective, since I'm already convinced that they won't be re-elected, I can only look at these pictures and read these stories and think that Bush has managed to recruit more terrorists for Al Qaeda than any one person, before or since. His bungling has cost us lives, and is endangering the security of the United States.

You know, after looking at them, the floorplans are fairly good. Plenty of space, and better organized. (Where does the radio station go, though? And where, exactly is the...um...dining hall?) They tried hard.

The problem, of course, is that the my college's brand spankin' new student center is dog ugly. I won't even disgrace these pages to show you it, but it manages to look like some sort of Dr. Evil lair...and along the James Bond mega-villain lines, what's up with the hokey 1960's Great Hall? It looks like a stinking ski lodge. A total lack of imagination on the architect's part.

A great piece by Spencer Ackerman in his TNR blog. Read the whole thing. A quick clip:

Ackerman goes on and finishes with his best quote yet:

A known known, indeed.

Another wheel.

Here is the full Taguba Report. Read it if you haven't been sickened already, or even if you have. Props go out to LTG Sanchez, LTG David D. McKiernan, and of course, MG Taguba, who did a thorough job investigating such a horrible incident.

The wheels are falling off the bus. Yesterday the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah said Zionists were responsible for the attacks against the oil hub at Yanbu. Smooth move.

Bush is apolo^H^H^H^H^H evidently not apologizing for the prison behavior. Smooth move.

Can it get worse? Sure. But it's difficult to see how. We've already admitted that we've killed prisoners, after torturing them. Simply horrible.

My mind is filled with fees. A fee simple subject to condition subsequent, for instance. Or the deliciously Virginian fee tail.

I walked home through the Morg at midnight and saw a couple breaking up. It made me feel good, to not be them. Well, to not be dating them, too. People have this idea that they are special and unique but it's crazy. How many other people were screaming at each other on street corners...in DC...in America...the world? Too many to count. You just have to enjoy the drama, the delicious discord of everyday life. It hurts but you roll with it. The trick is (in addition to the trick mentioned in the title occasionally above) to appreciate the moments of bliss, to have lunch outside when the weather is nice, to drop your pile of work when your friend is free for lunch, to reschedule that boring political event when someone come into town. Failure to be spontaneous should be a sin. Along with silence, of course.

Work has been a little crazy of late...but there'll hopefully be more and lengthier posts tomorrow.