Microsoft and the DOJ have filed a revised sttlement proposal with the judge. Nothing interesting to see there.

The New York Times reports today that suicidal terrorists may be rewarded in paradise with white raisins, not virgins.

Jenin and Balata
I try to restrain myself from commenting on Israel and Palestine. I really do. Really. But sometimes I cannot. The current Israeli incursions on Palestinian refugee camps are surreal, and I don’t think the media is describing them vividly enough.

Just for starters, people seem to be glossing over the fact that these are refugee camps in the first place. The Balata refugee camp was established in 1950 as a tent city for people displaced after Israel gained independence. It’s still there, and it’s still a refugee camp. The other camp is Jenin, which was created in 1953. The residents of these camps are in the care of UN agencies, not the Palestinian Authority. We’re talking about two entire generations of people who grew up in the squalor of refugee camps at this point.

Secondly, the Israeli army has moved into the camps in force, with tanks. The Balata camp is 252 dunums, which is about 63 acres (to compare, a square mile covers 640 acres), and has around 20,000 residents. The Jenin camp covers an area of about 90 acres and has about 13,000 residents. These conditions make for urban warfare at its worst. Israeli troops are blowing holes in the walls of residences in the camps and moving from building to building that way so as to travelling on the street and exposing themselves to gunfire.

Is it any surprise that Israeli reservists are refusing to serve in the occupied territories at this point? I condemn the Palestinians who support terrorism and the killing of innocents, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. These people are crammed onto miserable little plots of land that aren’t even large enough to support a decent farm, much less an entire town. The vast majority of them have no jobs and no state services, and now the IDF has invaded the camps, in hopes of arresting militants, siezing weapons, and destroying bomb-making facilities. What the Palestinians do have is guns and plenty of time on their hands. Should it surprise anyone that the Palestinians are fighting back tooth and nail? What would you do?

And the most grotesque point here is that the even as the Israeli government rightfully condemns terrorism, the IDF is engaged in actions that inevitably result in the deaths of civilians and inevitably fail to accomplish any positive outcome as well. If they captured every militant who they believe is hiding in the refugee camps, would it put an end to the suicide bombings? Would it even reduce their frequency? I think we can all predict the long term effects of living in miserable conditions and being the subject of repeated military assaults by an occupying force.

A non-randomly selected group of news stories on the refugee camp invasion:

• Jerusalem Post: Soldier, 15 Palestinians killed as IDF enters refugee camps
• Ha’Aretz Daily: W. Bank Soldier killed, another injured during IDF raid
• BBC: Israeli raids take heavy toll
• ArabicNews.com: Some 12 Palestinians killed, 150 wounded by Israel

One thing I find interesting in reading the conservative Israeli press is that they talk about what wretched hives of scum and villainy the refugee camps are, but fail to examine the conditions that lead to their current state. I have no doubt that many terrorists operate out of the camps, but perhaps an alternate solution would be to change things so that the camps are no longer needed.

Remember when Salon started charging for ad-free content and people laughed at them? Now Slashdot is doing the same thing. Their way of going about it looks like it’s going to be an accounting nightmare, though. It wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t last and they went with some sort of flat rate structure pretty soon.

More HP dirt, courtesy of Interesting People.

Life is cheap in south Asia, isn’t it? Indian Muslims kicked things off with an arson attack on a train full of Hindus, killing 58, and the next thing you know, Hindu rioters have massacred over 250 Muslims. I honestly have no way of relating to these sickening developments.

The Smoking Gun: Enron’s Code of Ethics

Republicans in Congress don’t seem to be on the same page as John Ashcroft — they seem to feel we have no king but President Bush. Here’s Trent Lott’s response to Tom Daschle’s concerns about future plans for the ongoing war:

How dare Senator Daschle criticize President Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism, especially when we have troops in the field? He should not be trying to divide our country while we are united.

So President Bush should be able to do any damn fool thing he wants and we should just get in the back seat and ride along? Can Trent Lott explain what the purpose of having a representative government is in the first place? I can’t bear this sort of authoritarian stupidity. And if I were a soldier in the field risking my life every day, I’d certainly want somebody in Washington to be making sure that I really needed to be there.

I’m honestly not sure what to do with the news that we’ve set up a hidden, “just in case” government manned by high ranking civil servants that would take over if someone blows up Washington, DC. The plans for such a replacement government have been in place since the Cold War, but on 9/11 the civil servants were actually spirited away to their secret bunkers, and the shadow government will continue to be deployed indefinitely.

My gut response is to ask whether this is really necessary, and what its implications are. I find it bizarre and disturbing, but I’m not exactly sure why. It may be because it betrays a certain bunker mentality at the White House.