Drivers, Start Your Engines...

I knew that the presidential race was going to get nasty real fast, but I'm always surprised when I'm correct in any predictions. It looks like Sarah Palin has found her role in the McCain campaign, that of attack weasel, though wearing really expensive heels. She gets to say the real mean things, while keeping away from any reporters, who you know, do nasty things in return, like ask questions that need answers. But this means that those pulling the strings already see her as disposable, so might as well throw her under the bus. I guess we can scratch Alaska off the list as the place where wounded elephants go to die...

Of course, what she said was silly and lightweight, that a neighbor of his was a terrorist 40 years ago, when he helped found the Weather Underground. The association here is that Obama is a radical Black man, who helped capture Patty Hearst...

And how does the Obama campaign hit back after a personal slander on their candidate? Why, John McCain was erratic in his handling of the economic crisis, erratic I tell you! I'm waiting for the gloves to come off here and have them bring up the dirt again that Bush's people uncovered against McCain: the gambling, being a member of the Keating 5, his public shows of anger and contempt towards women, and his claiming to be clueless during his wife's fight with drug addiction. Man, let's bring back some of the wonderful slander of yesteryear and start asking when did you stop beating your wife?

A couple of entries ago I had written about the dangers in Iraq posed by depleted uranium, including birth deformities. Turns out the articles I'd read had to do with the first Gulf War, not the current one, and the jury is out on whether the claims of birth defects are linked to depleted uranium. It's a product considered safe in the US, and is used in false teeth to make the enamel look brighter, along with giving them that nice glow in the dark.

I received an email from Roger Helbig who stated: "DU has not been used to reinforce any Hummers, trucks or troop carriers. It is used, sandwiched inside welded steel plates, thus not exposed to the environment, to bolster the armor of some M1A1 Abrams tanks – one of those “heavy armored” tanks in the Gulf War, protected its crew when it was attacked by three Iraqi tanks, all of which fired the first shot, before it successfully killed each of the three Iraqi tanks in turn with one shot of the DU kinetic energy penetrator “magic bullet”. The third round killed the third tank after it had hid behind a sand berm. You can read about this at

Tab - F - Use of DU in the Gulf War
The effectiveness of DU as an anti-tank munition and as armor is vividly demonstrated at the top of this page
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/du_ii_tabf.htm

Far as the deformed children, those are the heart of the myth. Very clever, and exceptionally effective propaganda. Some of the photos, though, clearly are of Harlequin Fetal Syndrome (Harlequin Ichthyosis) a very rare genetic skin disease that results from both parents having a recessive gene. The first case of this disease which generally killed the affected fetus or infant was noted in 1750. Still, it was so rare that it took in even Dr Siegard Horst-Gunther along with the peace activists who flocked to Iraq to see for themselves the terrible effects of the UN Sanctions. They wanted to believe and they did. They never asked if it was true. Unfortunately, there has been no effort to find out what the real condition that is behind each of these grotesque photos, it is just taken on faith that it is DU. "