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Terribly Sad
Friday, July 21, 2006

I support the existence of the Country of Israel. I also support the formation of the Country of Palestine. I do not support the horrible war that Israel is visiting on Lebanon and Gaza. I do not support the attacks of Palestinians and others on Israel (though I find it easier to understand the attacks of the weak on the powerful -- what else are they supposed to do...) I do not support the acquiescence and complicity of my government in the slaughter. Terror is terror whether it is carried out by nation-states or small groups. It is never justified.

This is just more horror visited on the world. Nothing good will come of it in the short or long run. It emboldens the stupid and the rash. It supports only the convictions of the worst. We will not have peace through the killing of children. We will not have peace through war.

I'm sorry.

Garbage in, Garbage out
Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The National Asset Database

[It] so flawed, the inspector general found, that as of January, Indiana, with 8,591 potential terrorist targets, had 50 percent more listed sites than New York (5,687) and more than twice as many as California (3,212), ranking the state the most target-rich place in the nation.

This would be funny if it was.

American Naivete
Wednesday, July 12, 2006

From Riverbend's Baghdad Burning via the NYT:

We've been hearing whisperings about rapes in American-controlled prisons and during sieges of towns like Haditha and Samarra for the last three years. The naiveté of Americans who can't believe their 'heroes' are committing such atrocities is ridiculous. Who ever heard of an occupying army committing rape??? You raped the country, why not the people?

It's not naivete, it's forced denial.

Wonderful Greenwald essay
Thursday, May 11, 2006

At http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/05/still-searching-for-excuses-for-bushs.html.

Better late than never: thanks Steven Colbert
Thursday, May 11, 2006

http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/

More non-surprises
Thursday, May 11, 2006

New evidence, however, suggests that these [abstinence only] programs have contributed to soaring rates of unplanned pregnancies, out-of-wedlock births and, yes, abortions among women who are young or poor.

hmm, why can't I get paid big bucks to do nothing badly?
Wednesday, April 26, 2006

I must not know the right people... If enough circumstantial evidence [NYT] piles up in the forest. Does it make a stink?

Good for whom?
Wednesday, April 26, 2006

A very well documented discussion of what's good for whom from FAIR. Short version: rich get richer and the poor get ... ignored. Wait, that's not news.

pretty pictures
Tuesday, April 25, 2006

I take issue with the presentation and some of the conclusions being promoted (there are several correlation must mean causality issues for example) but the pictures are nice.

Billmon - exactly
Wednesday, April 12, 2006

I mean, what exactly does it take to get a rise out of the media industrial complex these days? A nuclear first strike against a major Middle Eastern oil producer doesn't ring the bell? Must every story have a missing white woman in it before the cable news guys will start taking it seriously?

If you want, read the whole thing. It's good.

Systemic problems
Thursday, April 6, 2006

Insurance companies: what's their goal? To make money for shareholders or to help those that get hurt?

"If last year's hurricane season had occurred 10 years ago, it would have been devastating for the company," said Allstate Vice President Fred F. Cripe in an interview. "Last year, it was merely disappointing."

Disappointing? Whoa. What's your purpose?

Good news, bad news from American Scientist
Monday, April 3, 2006

Good news:

Propensity for Deep-Seated Receptors Make Bird Flu Tough to Transmit

Two new studies may knock back the notion that avian flu will emerge as the world's next great flu pandemic. That's because the same characteristic that makes the flu so deadly also makes it very difficult to transmit from person to person, according to studies appearing in the journals Nature and Science.

Bad news:

Studies: Sea Levels May Rise More, and More Rapidly, Than Previously Believed

Sea levels may rise higher and faster than previously believed, according to new studies that synthesize the latest research into melting glaciers and ice sheets with fossil review of impacts from long-ago periods of climate change. The research, published in the journal Science, comes in with a new upper limit for sea level rise: It's possible that seas could climb as high as 20 feet by the end of the century. Such a dramatic jump would swallow low-lying islands and atolls and would advance on heavily populated coastal areas on every continent.

Civilization is nothing more than an elaborate game...
Saturday, April 1, 2006

Dave Pollard:

Civilization is nothing more than an elaborate game we have all agreed to play because the rules appear to be mostly fair, and the scorekeeping mostly truthful.

Those of us on the pessimistic side of the blogosphere have been predicting the collapse of civilization in this century, brought about by some combination of overpopulation, overconsumption, global warming, the end of oil, epidemic disease, cascading natural disasters and universal access to recipes for weapons of mass destruction. What we may not have noticed, like those in the Great Depression who didn't call it that until it had been in full swing for four years, is that civilizational collapse has already begun. Not with any of the aforementioned 'bangs' but with a whimper: the loss of importance of law and truth, as the belief and respect of many for them has slowly eroded to nothing.

Depressing thoughts: the game is already over, we just haven't realized it. I think he may well be right.

Greed all around
Thursday, March 30, 2006

"All you need is love or a blank paycheck," Speiss said.

Apple Computer / Apple Corporation / Music / etc... Blah.

More Harper's
Tuesday, March 28, 2006

An Arkansas science teacher was ordered not to tell his students the actual age of stones. A poll found that Americans trust atheists even less than Muslims, recent immigrants, and lesbians, and a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, found that confident, self-reliant children tend to grow up to be liberals, while whiny, annoying children tend to grow up to be conservatives.

What about whiny, self-reliant children?

Capitalism means you can't stand on principles
Tuesday, March 28, 2006

from Harper's

Colgate announced that it would buy Tom's of Maine for about $100 million.

James Howard Kunstler opens up
Wednesday, March 22, 2006

It's a rant, but it's a good one:

It was interesting to note over in England how many people were out enjoying themselves in the public realm, with other people. By public realm I mean in the streets, the cafes, the pubs, the parks, the riverside promenades and other places explicitly designed for humans to enact their hard-wired social proclivities. Everywhere I went in Oxford, Cambridge, and London I was amazed at the hordes of young people so obviously enjoying the company of groups of their friends, and what a contrast this was to the current culture back home where you hardly ever see anything but a couple, or perhaps two couples, out in a bar or restaurant, and where the Starbucks cafes are filled with solitary individuals, and the streets are for cars only, usually with lone occupants. It was also startling in England to see groups of old people walking together in the streets or sitting on a blanket in the park, because in America old people have been conditioned to go about outside of home only in cars. Today's older Americans have spent their entire lives in a car-obsessed culture in which walking is seen as uncomfortable at least and at worst socially stigmatizing, something only winos do.

Erosion happens
Monday, March 20, 2006

In both the natural and the political world:

To understand just how House Republicans are eroding the legislative process, one must first understand how the chamber's committee system is supposed to work.

This is a very depressing article from the LA times on the changes occurring in the federal government's legislative process. If true (and I have a feeling that it is), then why hasn't it been more reported? Facts like the amount of time between bill introduction and hearings should be easy for reporters to gather. Will the other shoe ever drop?

Minimum wage
Friday, March 10, 2006

Over the past ten years, Members of Congress have raised their own pay by $31,000, but the minimum wage hasn't gone up a cent. It's still just $5.15 - $10,700 a year for a full-time worker. No one can live on that. It's more than $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. In the wealthiest country on the face of the earth, no one who works for a living should have to live in poverty.

Senator Kennedy wants to do something about it.... You can sign up to show your support.

Rumsfeld says Iraqis will need to fight their own civil war
Thursday, March 9, 2006

Or something like that.

Jonathan Schell is worth reading
Friday, February 24, 2006

Via Tom's Dispatch.

Schell steps back from Ground Zero to view the crisis of the republic.

hallmarks of a moral coward
Monday, February 20, 2006

Josh Marshall:

It's all of a piece with the man's record. He's afraid of accountability. That's why he's such a fan of self-protecting secrecy. That's why he's big on smearing government whistle-blowers. It's really just two sides of the same coin. He's afraid of accountability. It's the same reason why he's such a notorious prevaricator -- lies to avoid accountability.

Thanks Dick.

Apathy - why we keep fighting
Friday, February 17, 2006

Roger Ebert on Why We fight:

One watches "Why We Fight," and nods, and sighs, and leaves.

What it says should concern us, but apparently it does not.

White house to review spying rules
Friday, February 17, 2006

This makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over. Having an opposition party in this country would be a good thing.

From my brother
Thursday, February 16, 2006

Very cute (and true)!

Ouch
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Pain rays are U.S.:

The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture.

The medical model of human as a system of sub-systems implies that you can cause pain without causing damage. A holistic or autopoietic model implies that this is nonsense. I'm depressed that we're working on such a thing. It's so open for abuse (warning, graphic and disturbing images).

Trust ............................. Gap
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

The NYT gets it:

We can't think of a president who has gone to the American people more often than George W. Bush has to ask them to forget about things like democracy, judicial process and the balance of powers — and just trust him. We also can't think of a president who has deserved that trust less.

Don't drink the water
Sunday, February 12, 2006

It looks clean but that's mostly marketing:

Bottled water, the designer-look drink that has become a near-universal accessory of modern life, may be refreshing but it certainly isn't clean. A major new study has concluded that its production is seriously damaging the environment.

death by a thousand blows
Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Just in case you hadn't noticed, we're in a Bushworld too absurd for words. But that hasn't stopped this administration from yakking its collective head off.

Tom Engelhardt waxes sarcastically about our administration's efforts to destroy the country while staying in power.

The dark humor is a natural reaction but probably a disservice. Still, what can the real opposition do when the putative opposition is all too ready to get along. Speaking truth to power is hard. Authenticity is hard.

tragic regardless of your viewpoint
Tuesday, February 7, 2006

This is from the World Socialist website but it's terrible regardless.

One of the terrible legacies of the criminal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is the number of maimed, sick or traumatized former US soldiers—many of them barely in their twenties—who will require medical assistance for the rest of their lives. For political reasons, the scope of the tragedy is barely being reported despite the impact it is having on a significant layer of young men and women, their families and communities.

Even worse, however, is the cost to the Afghani and Iraqi societies.

We need an independent counsole
Saturday, February 4, 2006

Must read article from the Nation's Ari Berman.

Krugman nails it again
Saturday, February 4, 2006

In case you haven't read this yet, it's worth it.

So President Bush's plan to reduce imports of Middle East oil turns out to be no more substantial than his plan — floated two years ago, then flushed down the memory hole — to send humans to Mars.

...

In other words, this administration is all politics and no policy. It knows how to attain power, but has no idea how to govern. ... [I]t's why the state of the union — the thing itself, not the speech — is so grim.

Hello Ohio?
Friday, February 3, 2006

House Republicans are taking a mulligan on the first ballot for Majority Leader. The first count showed more votes cast than Republicans present at the Conference meeting. Stay with RollCall.com for updates.

via Roll Call via Bruce Schneier.

With plans like these...
Thursday, February 2, 2006

US forces should be able to "disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors, and weapons systems dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum".

One sort of, kind of has to hope that we remain incompetent.

how does this sort of thing keep happening
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

From Harper's:

It was revealed that Senator Bill Frist's AIDS charity had paid almost a half-million dollars in consulting fees to Frist's political friends...

Shouldn't people have more sense and politicians less guile?

Media Matters Matters
Saturday, January 28, 2006

Lies, hypocrisy, etc. the entire Media Matters piece ought to be a must read for all, especially for reporters...

The Washington Post repeated GOP spin that the NSA spying is a clear winner for them; the Post didn't bother to include so much as a hint that an apparently illegal violation of civil liberties ordered by a wildly unpopular president might not be as much of a slam-dunk winner as Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman would have us believe.

Mal-Wart
Saturday, January 28, 2006

Who's the leech?

Stan Cox asks
Thursday, January 26, 2006

Is it possible for a corporation that sells everyday, necessary products like food to do three things at once: (1) pay a living wage, (2) charge prices that most people can afford and (3) provide an acceptable return to its shareholders?

Go and see for yourself...

Remember, the law only applies when convenient
Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Alberto Gonzales on FISA:

But Gonzales said following that law would overly burden the government with paperwork and other requirements when it needed to respond quickly.

Um, you really can't make this stuff up.

Connections and consequences
Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Paul Krugman explains some of why you can get powered up in Iraq. To condense:

The US decided to base electricity generation on natural gas but instead of building the required pipelines, they pushed to concentrate on oil production.

The US choose not to raise electricity prices for fear of creating unrest but also removed tariffs so that richer Iraqis bought lots of power hungry new appliances and toys.

It's hard to do things right if you don't understand how things connect.

the fourth
Wednesday, January 25, 2006

how quaint.

Fourth Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. "

Global Guerrillas... growing disruptions
Tuesday, January 24, 2006

As we coast along the crest of sword, remember to:

... be prepared to see a growing emphasis on the selection of targets ... that cause cascading system failures -- failures that maximize the scope of the damage to the scale free and tightly coupled networks we see in developed countries.

... guerrillas don't need to achieve either an absolute moral or economic victory. All that is needed in this hyper-competitive globalized economic environment is an effort that damages the ability of the target state to compete -- Adam Smith's invisible hand will quickly take care of the rest.

Go girl
Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Molly Ivins:

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes. The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. Who are you afraid of?

Who is the dummy?
Wednesday, January 18, 2006

You decide:

So, the question for the American people remains — is Bush so ill-informed that his war policy is guided by a false historical analysis and so forgetful that he can't remember important events in which he played a leading role?

Or does Bush think that the American people are so gullible that they will buy whatever he sells them — as long as he does it with a folksy charm?

Why do they hate us?
Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Let me count the ways

This was another example of how what we do there does not fully register here. There are tens of thousands of Pakistanis in the streets and outraged--as they should be--at the violation of their national sovereignty (by a supposed ally!) that led to the killing of their fellow citizens. If it turns out that General Pervez Musharraf knew about the attack in advance and okayed it (explicitly or implicitly), he may well have trouble staying in power. Meanwhile, this certainly makes one (or should make one) think of that old, cliched question: why do they hate us? Hey, I know; it's only a dozen or so lives. But here you have the big, bad U.S. of A. raining death down from the sky with impunity, treating faraway villagers as nobodies that no one in Washington needs to worry about. No one pays for this. No one is punished. Can you spell "resentment."

Global warming is just a theory
Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Let's ignore it.

A team of biologists and climate scientists says in a new study that it has linked the extinction of a widespread group of animals to global warming.

Besides, it'll cost too much to fix and only the little people will be hurt... sigh.

Say it loud, Al!
Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Man, I wish this guy had fought for his victory. Man, I wish this guy had campaigned harder. Man, I wish our SCLM had given him a break.

As we begin this new year, the Executive Branch of our government has been caught eavesdropping on huge numbers of American citizens and has brazenly declared that it has the unilateral right to continue without regard to the established law enacted by Congress to prevent such abuses.

It is imperative that respect for the rule of law be restored.

After Downing Street, After lies about Iraq, WMD, After dropping the ball on Al Quaida, After Katrina, After Medicare, After deficits, After all this corruption and mismanagement and lying and stealing and death... Can we please impeach him and Cheney and fire Rumsfeld and move on. For god's sake, let's stop the repression.

Nuclear thoughts
Tuesday, January 17, 2006

I'm probably being dreadfully naive but why is it that we get to decide who does and doesn't get to build nuclear power plants or even nuclear weapons? Why is no one pointing out that the US under Bush et. al. is investing heavily in new types of nuclear weapons and not pursuing disarmament? Why are we being referred to the security council for ditching the ABM treaty (don't hear much about that anymore), nuclear proliferation (our own), etc., etc.

Do I want Iran to have nuclear bombs? No. Do I want the U.S. to have nuclear bombs? No. Do I trust my government? What reason has it given me lately for trust.

Way to help our allies
Sunday, January 15, 2006

Typical.

Rallies around the country continued fitfully today to protest the United States airstrikes on a Pakistani village that were intended to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda, but killed at least 18 civilians.

Molly Ivins
Sunday, January 15, 2006

She is so often on target, it's scary.

My theory is that they don't tell him anything, that's why the president keeps sounding like he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Irony from high places
Saturday, January 14, 2006

The United States will not allow Spain to sell military aircraft with American technology to Venezuela, saying the sale would aid the increasingly "antidemocratic" government of President Hugo Chávez and would destabilize the region, the American Embassy announced Friday.

Ha, ha, these Washington guys sure are funny (NYT).

Chávez: democratically elected.

Bush: one election clearly stolen (from my point of view at least) and another that smells pretty fishy. And talk about destabilizing!

A surprisingly fine editorial from the NYT
Friday, January 13, 2006

Confirmation hearings seem unlikely to shed muck light on what a person really believes now. The NYT calls him on several statements but it doesn't seem as if enough attention is being paid by the people that can actually do something about it.

I can't tell whether Alito is a reasonable man or a man on mission. I fear the latter and wish there was something that could be done to stop his nomination and find a justice closer to the center. Alas, "the worst are full of passionate intensity and the center cannot hold."

US army in Iraq institutionally racist
Thursday, January 12, 2006

Imagine that.

It's often that of which we are not aware that turns our greatest assets into flaws. I think that almost all of the men and women serving in the US Army are great people and want to help and do great work. But their leaders have failed to train them and guide them so that are trapped in a morass. Damn sad.

Bush's failed anti-terrorism strategy
Tuesday, January 10, 2006

From Michael T. Klare via Tom's Dispatch:

President Bush has essentially guaranteed America's failure. In the final analysis, the President's incompetent management of the war on terror has helped the jihadists take better advantage of their strengths while exploiting America's weaknesses. This does not bode well for the future of global peace and stability.

Don't bet that it can't keep getting worse
Monday, January 9, 2006

From the Observer:

Hunger strikers are tied down and fed through nasal tubes, admits Guantánamo Bay doctor

You can't make this stuff up
Sunday, January 8, 2006

As usual, this would be funny if it was.

In 2003, lawmakers tried to get a handle on Bush's use of signing statements by passing a Justice Department spending bill that required the department to inform Congress whenever the administration decided to ignore a legislative provision on constitutional grounds.

Bush signed the bill, but issued a statement asserting his right to ignore the notification requirement.

There ought to be a law... of course, if there was it would be ignored.

Howard, Howard, Howard
Sunday, January 8, 2006

Telling it straight! Yes!!

And I think, frankly, that Joe is absolutely wrong, that it is incumbent on every American who is patriotic and cares about their country to stand up for what's right and not go along with the president, who is leading us in a wrong direction.

Priorities
Wednesday, January 4, 2006

Typical.

"There is a battle for the future in science and technology. That's what is going to govern the future of our country. Not increasing investments in those areas sends a signal the country is going to regret," said Dr. Harold Varmus, a former NIH director and Nobel Prize winner who now heads the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Blank checks and balances
Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Bruce Schneier:

if people from both the Legislative and the Judiciary branches knowingly permitted unlawful surveillance by the Executive branch, then the current system of checks and balances isn't working.

Government out of balance.

Standing up, sitting down, training wheels
Monday, December 19, 2005

Those delightful Iraqi troops. They even get to play with pretend guns

U.S. forces guarded Cheney with weapons at the ready while Iraqi soldiers, who had no weapons, held their arms out as if they were carrying imaginary guns.

Aren't they cute.

I'm all for it
Monday, December 19, 2005

Democracy Now:

President Bush has admitted he secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without ever seeking court approval. Famed constitutional attorney Martin Garbus and former intelligence officer Christopher Pyle both say it is an impeachable offense.

No matter where you go
Monday, December 19, 2005

There you are. Are successful people happy or do happy people become successful?

The results of all three types of studies suggest that happiness does lead to behaviours that often produce further success in work, relationships and health and these successes result in part from a person's positive effect

Situation Normal: Rich get Richer
Tuesday, December 13, 2005

From the Florida Sentinel:

A FEMA program to reimburse applicants for generators and storm cleanup items has benefited middle- and upper-income Floridians the most and so far cost taxpayers more than $332 million for the past two hurricane seasons, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found in a continuing investigation of disaster aid.

United States: world power, two year old, or both
Tuesday, December 13, 2005

The Toronto Star says that the US walked out of climate talks because they got mad at something Paul Martin said.

Wah, Wah. That Mean Mr. Martin called me names.

I dislike headlines like this. The country didn't walk out; probably about half of its citizens agree with Martin and wish our delegation had stayed.

Meany, Meany, I'm not listening

Aside from the fact that it's obvious that the US was looking for any excuse to learn, blaming our reaction on an exceptionally mild remark from Martin is almost insulting.

They're my toys and you can't play anymore. Wah

Truth stranger than fiction, blah blah blah
Tuesday, December 13, 2005

From Harper's Weekly:

Iraq's Victorious Army Group was holding a contest to see who could design the best website to promote their message of jihad. The contest winner will receive Allah's blessings and be allowed to fire three rockets at an American military base.

Mike Wallace points out the obvious
Friday, December 9, 2005

Do you think that [your lack of experience] has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?

Thanks Mike!

Pelosi tries to hold someone accountable for something
Friday, December 9, 2005

Not that it will work.

I hope this is true
Wednesday, December 7, 2005

"As a matter of US policy, the United States' obligations under the CAT (Convention against Torture), which prohibits cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, those obligations extend to US personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside of the United States," she said.

Though it's hard to know why anyone would believe her or the rest of this administration.

Robbing banks makes money
Tuesday, December 6, 2005

Just like torture and illegal renditions save lives. The ends don't justify the means. My government isn't mine.

WSWS scores (though it's unlikely anyone will notice)
Tuesday, December 6, 2005

It is worth pointing out that it was Lieberman who, in September 1998, gave a scathing denunciation of President Clinton's conduct in the Monica Lewinsky affair. This speech contributed to the political atmosphere in Washington in which the House Republicans could proceed to impeach Clinton for lying about a sexual affair. The senator from Connecticut has delivered no such moralizing sermon against George Bush and Richard Cheney for lying about a war that has cost the lives of more than 2,100 Americans and well over 100,000 Iraqis.

This is so obvious I don't know why anyone has to even say it... It's also so important that everyone should be saying it. Why isn't anyone listening?

Open Letter to O'Reilly
Thursday, December 1, 2005

Here's my response to Bill O'Reilly's latest inanity (see Media Matters for full details):

To Shane Coppola and Bill O'Reilly,

"Very secret plan" indeed. That's the silliest thing I've heard for a long while.

Unless the O'Reilly factor is supposed to be fictitious entertainment, it needs to be shut it down. Though many people appear to find it entertaining, spewing venom, attack and innuendo is not news. Bill O'Reilly talks about "secret plans" without proof, he talks about the main stream media advancing an agenda without proof, he says he will name names but does not, then he names three names but fails to back up his accusations. I'd be curious so see some links to "left wing smear sites going after anyone who stands for Christmas"; I'd be curious to understand how Stalin, Hitler, Zedong and Castro run "secular, progressive" societies; I'd be even more curious to understand why you let O'Reilly continue to blather on without regard for the truth or the basic standards of argument and conversation.

Sincerely,

Gary King

Josh Marshall calls the NYT on "higher standard"
Thursday, December 1, 2005

From the NYT today:

Though some Republican officials said Democrats ... were equally guilty of questionable behavior, including lobbyist-paid trips and underreporting of campaign contributions, they acknowledged that Republicans, because they control the White House and Congress, are being held to a higher standard by many voters.

Josh Marshall notes that standards have nothing to do with it;

It's simply that the vast majority of the public corruption in Washington is being done by Republicans. Full stop. End of story.

There goes the liberal main stream media again, showing such bias towards the left, not. Way to say it Josh!

Ring the bells for impeachmnet
Tuesday, November 29, 2005

No one can claim that any of this was unexpected. The dangers had been foreseen by numerous analysts and commentators long before the war started but they were ignored in Washington, mainly for ideological reasons.

Martin van Creveld, one of the world's foremost military historians, says that the Iraq war is the "most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 BC sent his legions into Germany and lost them". He also thinks the Bush should be impeached.

I'm all for it.

Meanwhile, Joe Lieberman shows an astounding lack of insight. The word "tool" keeps coming to mind (thanks to cursor.org).

Winner: didn't get the message award
Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Michael Brown:

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown announced that he was starting a disaster-preparedness company.

(reported in Harper's).

Bruce Schneier comments on Domestic Surveillance
Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Bruce Schneier weighs in on the increasing powers of the military to spy on US citizens.

Domestic Surveillance
Monday, November 28, 2005

The excellent Walter Pincus reports that

The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.

and the Democratic Veteran has excellent followup.

This is bad shit.

Wow - close to 2/3 or American's think Bush misleads
Monday, November 28, 2005

From a Harris Poll (via the WSJ).

While the telephone survey of 1,011 U.S. adults indicates about 64% of Americans believe the Bush administration "generally misleads the American public on current issues to achieve its own ends," opinion on the topic is clearly divided along party lines. A large majority (68% to 28%) of Republicans say the Bush administration generally provides accurate information. However, even larger majorities of Democrats (91% to 7%) and Independents (73% to 25%) think the information is generally misleading.

America: police state?
Sunday, November 27, 2005

Bruce Scheier writes about the FBI policing efforts running up to New Year's day, 2004. On the basis of a rumor, the FBI collected gobs of information without telling anyone, probably still has the information and can use it for whatever purposes it deems fit without judicial oversight.

This isn't about our ability to combat terrorism; it's about police power. Traditional law already gives police enormous power to peer into the personal lives of people, to use new crime-fighting technologies, and to correlate that information. But unfettered police power quickly resembles a police state, and checks on that power make us all safer.

Compare and contrast with police efforts in Rotterdam

September 2005, Rotterdam. The police had already identified some of the 250 suspects in a soccer riot from the previous April, but most were unidentified but captured on video. In an effort to help, they sent text messages to 17,000 phones known to be in the vicinity of the riots, asking that anyone with information contact the police. The result was more evidence, and more arrests.

I think I know what kind of state in which I want to be living.

Scheier closes with this thought:

As more of our lives become digital, we leave an ever-widening audit trail in our wake. This information has enormous social value -- not just for national security and law enforcement, but for purposes as mundane as using cell-phone data to track road congestion, and as important as using medical data to track the spread of diseases. Our challenge is to make this information available when and where it needs to be, but also to protect the principles of privacy and liberty our country is built on.

Right on Bruce!

Reality on the ground... hope sinks again
Saturday, November 26, 2005

Holy Shrinking safety Batman, soon it'll be hard to go to bathroom in Baghdad.

Thanksgiving thoughts from Alter-net
Thursday, November 24, 2005

Thanksgiving:

One vehicle for taming history is various patriotic holidays, with Thanksgiving at the heart of U.S. myth-building. From an early age, we Americans hear a story about the hearty Pilgrims

...

This is the mark of a well-disciplined intellectual class -- one that can extol the importance of knowing history for contemporary citizenship and, at the same time, argue that we shouldn't spend too much time thinking about history.

I personally don't want to get rid of Thanksgiving. It's good to thankful for all we have. I would, however, like to move it away from its Pilgrim past. Maybe we could have a day of remembrance in November and move Thanksgiving to April or May as a sort of Spring-is-here, It's-great-to-be-alive, Winter-is-over.

Black Phosphorus
Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Even if the US is right on the legality, there is no question that it has inflicted a serious propaganda blow on itself.

Again.

Jonathan Schell
Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Quoted:

We all keep referring to the "Bush Administration," yet administering seems to be the last thing on its mind.

Liars - why don't we care enough?
Tuesday, November 22, 2005

From Harper's

A White House document showed that executives from large oil firms met with Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force in 2001; the document was released a week after representatives from those firms testified before a Senate committee that they had not met with the task force.

Welcome Mr. Cronkite
Tuesday, November 22, 2005

For months, media watchers have wondered if we would any time soon witness another "Cronkite moment" -- some sort of dramatic statement by a mainstream media figure that would turn hearts and minds against an ill-advised war, for good. It hasn't happened. But perhaps a not-very-famous, 73-year-old gentleman named John Murtha will be the new Cronkite.

Thank you John Murtha!

Message: I'm embattled and embittered
Wednesday, November 16, 2005

This was a speech that presented Bush's case implausibly and inappropriately. It's hard for a president to sound unpresidential on a patriotic holiday, but Bush achieved that dubious distinction today.

the End of News?
Wednesday, November 16, 2005

In late September, the Government Accountability Office—a nonpartisan arm of Congress—issued a finding that the Bush administration had engaged in "covert propaganda," and thereby broken the law, by paying Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator, to promote its educational policies. The GAO also faulted the administration for hiring a public relations firm to distribute video news segments without disclosing the government's part in producing them.

Read the whole review.

Why does Jimmy Carter Hate America?
Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Of even greater concern is that the U.S. has repudiated the Geneva accords and espoused the use of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, and secretly through proxy regimes elsewhere with the so-called extraordinary rendition program. It is embarrassing to see the president and vice president insisting that the CIA should be free to perpetrate "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment" on people in U.S. custody.

Didn't he hear George say that "We don't torture"?

Well worth reading for a good summary of the many, many things that are heading in the wrong direction.

Interesting advice
Tuesday, November 15, 2005

CNN has a collection of advice e-mailed to the President. Who knows how filtered or selected it is but it's interesting regardless to hear (supposedly) real people talking. It's no surprise, but many still do not get it... I don't understand why anyone thinks it's important to be "united" in the good and bad or how someone can wave the canard of "if you don't like, leave". Sigh.

Posts I liked
Monday, November 14, 2005

Once upon a time... takes Nicholas Kristof (pay only link) sharply to task.

Meanwhile, Eric Alterman points to a funny Danial Day-Lewis:

"The media are sick and tired of people in my profession giving their opinion, and yet you're asking me my opinion. And when I give it, you'll say, 'Why doesn't he shut up?'"

Josh Marshall recommends a Truth and Reconciliation Commission today and reveals prescience back in 2003.

While it's conceivable that bold American action could democratize the Middle East, so broad and radical an initiative could also bring chaos and bloodshed on a massive scale.

And finally, the sad humor of political comics.

Guilty until dead
Monday, November 14, 2005

Senate votes down legal relief:

"What this will show is that we have abandoned the rule of law and are afraid to justify our detention and treatment of prisoners in a court of law." Jonathan Hafetz, a constitutional law expert at New York University law school.

Whatever happened to Truth, Justice and the American Way?

Look here if you want to do something about and talk to your senator.

Robertson forgets his bible again
Thursday, November 10, 2005

Conveniently forgetting that the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, that Christ came for the sinners, not the saved and Jesus' discourse on the Temple of Siloam, Robertson covers himself with stupidity, callowness and theological foolishness again:

Conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them on Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck.

How someone as mean-spirited and just plain silly as Robertson can have anything to do with something purportedly intelligent is beyond me.

White Phosphorus
Thursday, November 10, 2005

Just bad. Just bad. Just terribly bad.

It's about time
Thursday, November 10, 2005

The Nation takes a stand:

"The Nation therefore takes the following stand: We will not support any candidate for national office who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq a major issue of his or her campaign. We urge all voters to join us in adopting this position. Many worry that the aftermath of withdrawal will be ugly, and there is good reason to think they are right. But we can now see that the consequences of staying will be uglier still. Fear of facing the consequences of prolonging the war will be worse."

Josh Marshall
Wednesday, November 9, 2005

Josh Marshall says it:

The executive is in corrupt hands. Nothing will change till that does

Lying, lying, lying: impeach.

Amy Sulllivan: "Bush's war on faith"
Wednesday, November 9, 2005

The IRS is going after an Episcopal church that had the gaul to host a political speech against our great leader. Remember, in the United States, only speech we like is free.

Next, we can break the shackles of gravity
Wednesday, November 9, 2005

[The Kansas vote is] 'the next step in breaking the shackles of evolution.'

Says former Kansas school board chairwoman Linda Holloway.

Kansas intends to continue it's work by repealing the law of gravity (it's not a real law in any case), ignoring the limits on the speed of light, redefining pi, and permitting more than one thing to be in the same place at the same time (after all, think of the space we can save...).

This is so typical
Tuesday, November 8, 2005

We learn that the CIA is likely to be holding uncharged people prisoners in secret black prisons in foreign countries and is probably using torture... What's the first thing that comes to Frist and Hastert's minds? Stop the leak:

Congress's top Republican leaders today demanded an immediate joint House and Senate investigation into the disclosure of classified information to The Washington Post that detailed a web of secret prisons being used to house and interrogate terrorism suspects.

Why not, "stop the prisons!" Damn, it sucks being the dominant power.

To be fair, other legislators like Chris Shays (R) and Nancy Pelosi (D) do advocate investigating the prisons too.

War is hell
Tuesday, November 8, 2005

It doesn't get any better.

"Burned bodies. Burned children and burned women, white phosphorus kills indiscriminately." said Jeff Englehart, former soldier in the U.S. 1st Infantry Division who had taken part in the Falluja offensive (lightly edited)

But don't worry, we're just being conventional.

The U.S. military says white phosphorus is a conventional weapon and says it does not use any chemical arms.

And the victims are just conventionally dead.

An incendiary device, white phosphorus is used by the military to conceal troop movements with smoke, mark targets or light up combat areas. The use of incendiary weapons against civilians has been banned by the Geneva Convention since 1980.

The United States did not sign the relevant protocol to the convention, a U.N. official in New York said.

After all, we're the United States. We're the good guys. We don't need to sign treaties because we know we're only and always going to do the right thing.

Science, religion, etc.
Tuesday, November 8, 2005

Maybe we should have laws required the teaching of alternate views of God? After all, Intelligent Design is just a theory and the idea that the Christian God is the intelligent designer is also just a theory... Perhaps the designer is actually Krishna or enlightenment or Odin.

torture
Monday, November 7, 2005

We don't torture and we're not going to but we won't put up with any rules that might get in the way...

Cheney's camp says the United States does not torture captives, but believes the president needs nearly unfettered power to deal with terrorists to protect Americans. To preserve the president's flexibility, any measure that might impose constraints should be resisted. That is why the administration has recoiled from embracing the language of treaties such as the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which Cheney's aides find vague and open-ended.

Why don't people minds explore when they try to hold these thoughts in mind and maintain consistency?

Let's be clear
Sunday, November 6, 2005

David Sirota:

And let's be clear - the perception that we were misled is consistent with the actual facts of what happened.

Torture
Thursday, November 3, 2005

Non-denial, denials, part 1

Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, Romania's prime minister, insisted on Thursday there were no C.I.A. bases inside the country. "I repeat: we do not have C.I.A. bases in Romania," he told journalists.

Of course not, the CIA has CIA bases in Romania.

Non-denial, denials, part 2

When reporters asked Romanian government officials whether Romania had ever cooperated with the United States over receiving detainees ... "In the portfolio of projects of the Romanian government, there is no activity as the one that you refer to."

Hint, just say "No". It sounds better, it's stronger and it just might be believed.

and Part 3:

Marius Bercaru, spokesman for the Romanian Intelligence Service, said in a telephone interview and later in a written reply that "the Romanian Intelligence Service does not have any intelligence on such detention centers in Romania."

Hmmm, I think he just said "I don't know" in 15-words. It's a bad sign.

Not getting the picture... the Bush years
Thursday, November 3, 2005

George says:

"Look," he said, "I understand not everybody agrees with the decisions I've made, but that's not unique to Central or South America."

"Truth of the matter is," he went on, "there's people who disagree with the decisions I've made all over the world. And I understand that.

See, it's not just our neighbors to the south that think I've done stupid things, ... it's everyone! This is the good news? No, George has an answer:

"But that's what happens when you make decisions."

Whoopts, he forgot to say "bone-header, completely pointless, unethical, stupid decisions". Idiot. Can we impeach him now.

Unhappy news
Thursday, November 3, 2005

Some quotes from the news:

The Delay Case:

"It says that the judges who we elect can't be trusted to apply the law neutrally in cases that in some way, shape or form bear on their political beliefs," Silver said. "If that's true, we really need to revamp the whole system.

Healthcare:

The United States lags behind several other nations when it comes to medical errors, high out-of-pocket health-care costs, and foregone health care as a result of those high costs, according to a new survey released Thursday.

Oil:

With a 51-48 vote, the Senate approved requiring the Interior Department to begin selling oil leases for the coastal plain of the Alaska refuge within two years.

...

Bush and other drilling advocates argue that the country needs the estimated 10.5 billion barrels of oil ... The United States now uses about 7.3 billion barrels of oil a year.

So we're going to trash this place for oil that will last little more than a year at present consumption rates. Hey, I've got an idea. Let's just all shot ourselves in the foot and hop to work.

Sorry, feeing bitter.

Sounds peachy to me
Thursday, November 3, 2005

Elizabeth de la Vega via the Nation via my brother.

The presidential fraud is wider in scope and far graver in its consequences than the Enron fraud. Yet thus far the public seems paralyzed.

Twice nothing is still nothing
Thursday, November 3, 2005

In the "can't do anything right department"

Commanders in Afghanistan said security at the prison had been redoubled after the detainees escaped.

I bet the escaped Mr. Faruq has memories that make his hatred burn:

Most details of his interrogation are unknown, except that the questioning became prolonged, extending to around-the-clock sessions, American officials said. Some interrogation specialists have said he probably was left naked most of the time, with his hands and feet bound.

We sure showed him that America is like a great satan.

The 8.5 pound solution
Thursday, November 3, 2005

Expensive Humvee armor (74 million pounds) is no match for the used 8.5 pound artillery shells that can be purchased on the Iraqi black market. Bummer. Maybe it's time we realized that we are part of the problem.

Not in my name
Thursday, November 3, 2005

A European Union commission is investigating reports that the CIA has set up a network of secret jails in Eastern Europe to detain suspected terrorists.

If this is true, then it's one more nail in the coffin that holds American democracy. We kissed moral supremacy good bye when we invaded Iraq and have been burying it ever since. Damn, this shouldn't be happening with my money.

Can we please impeach the man. Please.

Conservatives say "just let 'em die"
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

After all, it's better to let your daughter risk cancer than do anything that might hint of condoning sex.

Pesky liberals respond:

Alan Kaye, executive director of the National Cervical Cancer Coalition, likened the vaccine to wearing a seat belt.

"Just because you wear a seat belt doesn't mean you're seeking out an accident," Kaye said.

Damn them.

Three cheers for Harry Reid
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

See his statement over at Talking Points Memo. I'd call it a must read (or maybe I'd make a bad pun and call it a Must Reid!).

Intelligent Falling
Friday, October 28, 2005

From the Onion:

"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down,"

After all, gravity is just a theory and those so called clever scientists have been ever so long trying to combine it with quantum mechanics.

"Three years ... too late"?
Thursday, October 27, 2005

I'm not sure what this person means?

"It is extremely unfortunate and inappropriate for so-called peace groups to stage a vigil ostensibly in support of our deployed troops," said Meredith Leyva, chairwoman of Operation Homefront. "The debate over Iraq is three years and two Iraqi elections too late."

I find this comment insulting. Does she think we protest because of the 2000 American deaths? Did she sleep through all the other protests? Many have been against this war long before it started.

What's a factor of two between friends...
Friday, October 21, 2005

There go the lungs of the planet... Not to mention bio-diversity, the possibility of new drugs, indigenous peoples, etc... Wait. That wasn't a sentence. Oh well.

How hot can you go?
Thursday, October 20, 2005

More importantly, how hot will we go? Unfortunately, no-one knows. The reporter Mike Davis, however, has a story printed over at Tom's Dispatch that indicates it may get a lot hotter than most anyone has expected:

Where other researchers model the late 21st-century climate that our children will live with upon the precedents of the Altithermal (the hottest phase of the current Holocene period, 8000 years ago) or the Eemian (the previous, even warmer interglacial episode, 120,000 years ago), growing numbers of geophysicists toy with the possibilities of runaway warming returning the earth to the torrid chaos of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM: 55 million years ago) when the extreme and rapid heating of the oceans led to massive extinctions.

Between peak oil, global warming, and America's apparent self-destruction... the world my kids will live in may be a very bleak place.

Training and health care are competitive advantages
Thursday, October 20, 2005

Ontario Canada has a new Toyota plant and the United States doesn't. The main reason: workers in Ontario are easier to train.

... Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. ... "The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.

Gary Fedechun is the president of the Canadian Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association so he could be accused of bias. On the other hand, Toyota is going to Canada in spite of the more than double sized incentives offered in the states.

Another advantage:

Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada...

Though it looks as if America is never going to even try the experiment, maybe you can do well by doing good.

I hope everyone starts walking
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

From Bruce Schneier: if you're on a cycling path in Scotland, you'd better not walk on it! I hope that some savvy protesters start walking the path every day; or even start walking their bicycles. Stupidity will not protect anyone from terrorism.

Dave Pollard quote
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

From How to Save the World:

But the answer to the plight of the "underdeveloped" nations is not more development. It is an end to exploitation, tyranny and overpopulation.

YES!

I signed the pledge
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Why will I only support candidates for office who

• Acknowledge that the U.S. was misled into the war in Iraq
• Advocate for a responsible exit plan with a timeline
• Support our troops at home and abroad

Because in Iraq, today, American troops are causing more damage and death than they are preventing. Worse, they are doing it in my name. War is not an answer; war destroys answers; it destroys options; it destroys hope. As a country we must stand for our highest ideals not because it is convenient or profitable, but because it is right.

Have you?

If you care about Iraq and don't read Juan Cole
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Then you are kidding yourself. Thoughtful, well written, reality-based. This quote is from September 25th, 2005.

Let's get them out, now, before they destroy any more cities, create any more hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons, provoke any more ethnic hatreds by installing Shiite police in Fallujah or Kurdish troops in Turkmen Tal Afar. They are sowing a vast whirlwind, a desert sandstorm of Martian proportions, which future generations of Americans and Iraqis will reap.

The ground troops must come out. Now. For the good of Iraq. For the good of America.

Impact of Inequality
Sunday, October 16, 2005

Great snippet from Social Design Notes on a new book.

Richard Wilkinson is a professor of social epidemiology, an expert in public health. From that vantage point he sees the world in terms of its physical and psychological wellbeing, surveying great sweeps of health statistics through sociological eyes. He has assembled a mountain of irrefutable evidence from all over the world showing the damage done by extreme inequality. However rich a country is, it will still be more dysfunctional, violent, sick and sad if the gap between social classes grows too wide. Poorer countries with fairer wealth distribution are healthier and happier than richer, more unequal nations.

Methinks they protest too much...
Friday, October 14, 2005

Hmmm.

he service members were excited about the opportunity to speak with the President. No one intended to tell them what to think or how to express themselves; going through likely questions in advance was meant solely to help the troops feel at ease during an obviously unique experience.

Facts and theories
Sunday, October 2, 2005

I suspect that many others have already weighed in on this (and you can find them here if you want), but facts are facts and theories are theories and a lot of heat in the "evolution" vs "intelligent design" debate arises from an unfortunate elision of the difference. That (many) things fall when we drop them is a fact. That it is harder to go uphill than downhill is a fact. Gravity is a theory that explains those facts. That the earth is really old is a fact (unless you want to discount a lot of evidence). That animals change when their environment changes is a fact. Evolution is a theory that explains those facts. So is Intelligent Design. It would be hard to disprove the theory of gravity on scientific grounds -- there is to much else you'd have to give. It would be almost as hard to disprove evolution. On the other hand, it would be impossible to disprove Intelligent Design. And that is the rub. Teach if you want, but don't pretend it's science.

By the way, this must be one of the better blog names that has nothing to do with the current debate!

First we said, then they said... will he listen?
Saturday, October 1, 2005

Echoing comments long bruited about amongst the anti-war crowd, Michael Schwartz posted an eloquent description of the problems in Iraq in mid-September.

Not long after Baghdad fell to American troops, it was already apparent that the United States was part of the problem, not part of the solution, in Iraq; and that, as long as the American military occupied the country, matters would just get worse. Every passing month has only predictably confirmed that reality. There's no reason to believe that the next year of our military presence will be any less destabilizing than the last.

Now the generals running the Iraqi war effort are echoing those opinions:

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. generals running the war in Iraq presented a new assessment of the military situation in public comments and sworn testimony this week: The 149,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are increasingly part of the problem.

But will the man putatively in charge ever start listening?

Apes! Apes? Apes...
Friday, September 30, 2005

Sad juxtaposition:

Some of the great apes - chimps, gorillas, and orangutans - could be extinct in the wild within a human generation, a new assessment concludes.

and

Gorillas have been seen for the first time using simple tools to perform tasks in the wild, researchers say

We have much to learn and time is running out.

Who gets pardons
Friday, September 30, 2005

Why does the president get to give pardons? Who decides? Mail fraud, drug dealing, mailing a threatening letter... why is GWB involved at all? Who are these people?

Fox guarding henhouse, part 2
Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Disgusting.

Brown told congressional investigators Monday that he is being paid as a consultant to help FEMA assess what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to a senior official familiar with the meeting.

Reporters without Borders on cyber-dissidence
Monday, September 26, 2005

Weblogs can matter because they allow the human voice to get out. Reporters without Borders explains how to speak when speech isn't free. Ars Technica has a write up.

Michael Schwartz: reasons to withdraw
Friday, September 23, 2005

Michael Schwartz pens an excellent essay on why the American presence in Iraq is more likely to stimulate a civil war than prevent it. The main lines of opinion are that we need to stay until the Iraqi's are ready to help themselves -- the paternal response. Schwartz argues that Americans are actually the main cause of the violence and, more importantly, that the violence will only get worse if the Iraqi's "stand up" and act the way we want them to.

Another "it'd be funny if it wasn't so aggravating"
Thursday, September 22, 2005

From the Washington Post via Bruce Schneier. Oh, and watch out for those pressure cookers.

Last throes
Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Summarized from Harper's Index:

At least 167 Baghdad residents were killed in 14 separate bombings, with 570 wounded. The next day 40 people were killed with car bombs and guns. Twenty-one more were killed the next day, 52 more the day after that, and 7 the day after that.

That's a pretty clear downward trend. We're winning!

At least 30 more people were killed the following day.

Shhhh.

Krugman, the Left Coaster and a shadow government
Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Krugman on Race and Katrina:

For race is the biggest reason the United States, uniquely among advanced countries, is ruled by a political movement that is hostile to the idea of helping citizens in need. […] … To put it crudely: a middle-class European, thinking about the poor, says to himself, "There but for the grace of God go I." A middle-class American is all too likely to think, perhaps without admitting it to himself, "Why should I be taxed to support those people?"

and the Left Coaster on a Shadow Government:

Why should everything go through Congress, especially when Congress is controlled by a bunch of selfish, greedy, and immature thugs, republicans all? Get outside the box a bit This could be done. To put to the torch the lie that government is the problem. Because it's not government that's the problem, it's the people executing it that are the problem.

Sounds like a great idea to me... Maybe we could expand on Edwards "two Americas" theme.

The best government money could buy... wanted more
Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Ex-Iraqi defence minister wanted over $1bn fraud

• Warrant issued after army left with old weapons
• Allawi regime blamed for lack of checks on ministry

Health insurance, not
Friday, September 16, 2005

Our economy continues to do "great". How about this wonderful statistic. Just think of all the money these companies are saving.

About 60 percent of companies nationwide offer health benefits to employees, compared to 69 percent in 2000, the survey found. Most of the companies that eliminated health benefits have fewer than 200 employees.

Google knows all
Friday, September 16, 2005

This may not last but it's amusing while it does:

Major CNN story
Friday, September 16, 2005

Headline news:

From my brother.

Dopes dupe dummies
Thursday, September 15, 2005

There's an old Mister Boffo strip that shows a group of neredowells reading the paper at a bar. The headline reads "Dopes Dupe Dummies while Dingbats Doze". One of them opines "Let's put it this way, none of us came out looking too good."

That's how this story in the NYTs leaves me feeling. The US bungles it's (then) major focus on the (so called) war on terror, makes truly asinine freshmen like mistakes, etc. Yet somehow the (so called) opposition in this country shows an equally impressive lack of talent in getting the message out and still loses. My gawd. We're a democracy. We deserve what we get. Damn.

double serving of SAT words
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

From Andrew Sullivan. "Catastrophic Insouciance" has a nice ring to it and this post adds what ought to be another nail to a fundamentally flawed presidency and a deeply flawed human being.

Chertie, you're doing a heck of a job...
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Or not.

All true
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

"George Bush... does not attack those who falsely accuse him of the most horrible acts and neglect. Instead, he doggedly goes on helping the least among us."

In an alternative universe, perhaps.

Probably clueless, possibly evil
Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Eight children, locked in meter high cages, with alarms and blocked with heavy furniture.

"This year they have played and had fun and laughed like no other children have, which they have never been able to do," the woman said.

Ohio. Hang your head.

Extra, extra: Peggy Noonan makes sense
Sunday, September 11, 2005

I guess big storms really can bring out the best in people:

People with no food and water who are walking into supermarkets and taking food and water off the shelves are not criminal, they are sane. They are not looters, they are people who are attempting to survive; they are taking the basics of survival off shelves in stores where there isn't even anyone at the cash register.

But still wearing rosy glasses:

But the whole story of our last national crisis, 9/11, was courage--among the passersby, among the firemen, among those who walked down their stairs slowly to help a less able colleague, among those who fought their way past the flames in the Pentagon to get people out. And it gave us quite a sense of who we are as a people.

That's a nice myth but not true:

The Associated Press reports that thousands of people are accused of using ATMs to steal $15 million from a credit union whose computer security system was damaged on September 11.

I guess we all want so badly to believe the best... especially of white New Yorkers. Class and race, class and race, class and race and gender.

Wolcott
Sunday, September 11, 2005

James says it:

Here we are coming up to the 4th anniversary of that horrible day, and Ground Zero still lacks a memorial or even a palatable design, Osama Bin Laden is unapprehended, Iraq is a vale of tears, and a dorky "Freedom March" is being staged in Washington. One can only hope that the dead of New Orleans receive a more decent and deserving memorialization than the dead of 9/11 have gotten.

I am so angry
Tuesday, September 6, 2005

Many other weblogs are giving excellent, detailed reporting of the disaster caused by the Bush administration's failure to plan, failure to foresee, failure to act, failure to acknowledge, failure to do anything quickly enough to help. I am so angry. I am angry at so called Christians celebrating this as an act of their vengeful god; I am angry at my government's pitiful, pitiful attempts to blame this on the black, the poor, the other guy, anyone but them. I am angry at politicians who "feel their pain" and at those who don't. There is no excuse. This is criminal. I can barely concentrate.

Living on the edge
Sunday, September 4, 2005

The dominos fall:

THE International Energy Agency has warned of a global energy crisis sparked by the damage Hurricane Katrina has inflicted on strategically important oil refineries.

We're out on a limb with little flexibility or room for error.

Seeing it coming (apart)
Saturday, September 3, 2005

A history of FEMA

In June, Pleasant Mann, a 16-year FEMA veteran who heads the agency's government employee union, wrote members of Congress to warn of the agency's decay. "Over the past three-and-one-half years, FEMA has gone from being a model agency to being one where funds are being misspent, employee morale has fallen, and our nation's emergency management capability is being eroded," he wrote. "Our professional staff are being systematically replaced by politically connected novices and contractors."

Judge not, lest ye yourself be judged
Friday, September 2, 2005

Disturbing, non-biblical and damn depressing.

More reasons torture sucks
Monday, August 29, 2005

From Tom's Dispatch.

Ah, Pat, it's the first commandment
Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Pat Robertson forgets he's supposed to be a Christian minister.

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war.

Another sign that the religious right may be more about being on the right than being religious.

Sudan
Sunday, August 21, 2005

From Tom's dispatch:

In short, Sudan embodies a collision between a failed state and a failed energy policy. Increasingly, ours is a planet whose human population is devoted to extracting what it can, regardless of the human and environmental cost. The Bush energy policy, crafted by oil companies, is predicated on a far different future from the one any sane person would want his or her children to inherit -- a desolate world that few Americans, cocooned by the media's silence, are willing to imagine.

Damn depressing if you have a conscious and live in the so called developed world.

Civilian uses of UAVs
Saturday, August 20, 2005

EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Center) has a summary of the civilian uses of unmanned arial vehicles (UAVs):

The federal government's redirection of military technology toward the civilian population is troubling. The use of UAVs gives the federal government a new capability to monitor citizens clandestinely, while the effectiveness of the expensive, crash-prone surveillance planes in border patrol operations has not been proved. The costs of these unmanned aerial vehicles outweigh the benefits.

You can see their bias but it is troubling. Why do we need to do this? Do we (the people) want to do this?

Hedonic Treadmill
Monday, August 15, 2005

This just in from News-Medical.net: the rich not only look happier than you, they are happier than you.

As we've feared all along, it's hard to keep up with the Joneses.

The hedonic treadmill requires a specific type of relative income effect, one where "keeping up with the Joneses" means continually increasing one's own income, because we are convinced that the Joneses are increasing theirs.

Like the red queen, we must run as fast as can just to stay in place. Alternatively, we could change the playing field.

Juan Cole presents an alternative history
Friday, August 5, 2005

Oh wait, this is real. Very awesome.

More torture. Why don't we feel tortured by it?
Thursday, August 4, 2005

More reports of us torturing them and then us lying to us about the torture. This sucks.

Bill McKribben on this "Christian Nation"
Thursday, August 4, 2005

And therein is the paradox. America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox ... illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture.

That's hitting the nail square on the head. What I'd really like to hear, however, is the response from the Christian right. How do they reconcile their lives with their lies?

Why do reporters keep writing this?
Monday, August 1, 2005

and how can anyone read it without laughing?

Rove was the first person to tell a Time magazine reporter that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, but did not disclose her name, according to the reporter.

Oh, I see. He didn't say her name. Well then. Everything is just fine. Hunky Dory. Peachy. Great. My gawd.

Oh, also, I have to agree. Novak is an ass. If I was his boss, I think I'd fire him.

Networks of abuse
Monday, August 1, 2005

The practice of concealment has been a part of local enforcement culture since the 1950s as the church was cementing its role as a social service powerhouse - an institution that urged young Catholics to seek careers in public service, including law enforcement.

Cops, priests, fire fighters, ... the good guys (and they were mostly guys). They worked together, grew up together, helped each other out. Sometimes that was good. Sometimes, it was really, really bad. Kudos to the Toledo Blade and its investigative reporters.

Really sad
Sunday, July 31, 2005

From this Week:

Suicide epidemic: Suicide is now the leading cause of death among young adults in China, the government said this week. A quarter of a million Chinese kill themselves every year, and another 3 million make unsuccessful suicide attempts. Many suicides are college students who leave notes expressing their regret at failing to live up to their parents' expectations. "Society is full of pressure and competition, so young people, lacking experience in dealing with difficulties, tend to get depressed,"

Ouch. What a horrible thing poor self esteem is.

Architecture of surveillance
Friday, July 29, 2005

Bruce Schneier comments on a MediaLab experiment:

We're building an infrastructure of surveillance as a side effect of the convenience of carrying our cell phones everywhere.

the Real Crime
Thursday, July 28, 2005

From Frank Rich vis Jonathan Schnell via Tom's Dispatch:

The real crime here remains the sending of American men and women to Iraq on fictitious grounds."

Yup. Can you impeach a vice president?

Weird
Monday, July 25, 2005

From Seattle Times:

The Justice Department blocked efforts by its prosecutors in Seattle in 2002 to bring criminal charges against Haroon Aswat, according to federal law-enforcement officials who were involved in the case.

British authorities suspect Aswat of taking part in the July 7 London bombings, which killed 56 and prompted an intense worldwide manhunt for him.

Why do American's work so hard?
Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Because we're sick. We have a collective national anxiety disorder.

Mark Morford at SF Gate takes the national pulse and finds it thin and reedy. Most of us work too hard for too little that is real and valuable. At the same time, we scoff at those who live alternative life styes while thinking:

Oh you're so lucky that you have the means to do that, we think. I'd love to do that but I can't because I have too many a) bills b) babies c) doubts, we insist. We always think such lives are for others and never for ourselves, something people with huge chunks of cash reserves or huge hunks of time or huge gobs of wildly ambitious talent can do. It is never for us.

And truly, this mind-set is the national plague, a fate worse than death.

And while it must be acknowledged that there are plenty who are in such dire financial or emotional circumstances that they simply cannot bring change, no matter how much they might wish it, you still always gotta ask: How much is legit, and how much is an excuse born of fear?

Fear, as Frank Herbet wrote so long ago, is the mind-killer. The political left is pretty sure that all those orange alerts were suspiciously timed to keep the public rallied behind Bush et. al. out of fear. We all fear change and death. We are all burdened by much needless fear that keeps us from connecting with others (they won't like me if they know the real me). The thing is, is that:

The powers that be absolutely rely on our lethargy, our rampant doubts, the attitude that says that it's just too difficult or too impracticable to break away. After all, to quit a bland but stable job, to follow your own path implies breaking the rules and asking hard questions and dissing the status quo. And they absolutely cannot have that.

So why do we work so hard, and "play" so hard, and spend so hard. Because we're afraid.

It is not for everyone. It implies incredibly difficult choices and arranging your life in certain ways and giving up certain luxuries and many, many people seemed locked down and immovable and all done with exploring new options in life, far too deeply entrenched in debts and family obligations and work to ever see such unique light again. Maybe you know such people. Maybe you are such people.

But then again, maybe not. This is the other huge truism we so easily forget: There is always room. There are always choices we can begin to make, changes we can begin to invite, rules we can work to upset, angles of penetration we can try to explore. And if that's not worth trying, well, what is?

It might not be Rove
Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Geov Parrish at Working for Change points out that it might not be Rove and why that matters.

It's easy, and fun, to imagine Karl Rove in handcuffs. It's far more damning to get to the heart of what actually happened here. In all likelihood, Rove did not do what he is accused of.

But somebody did.

We need to continue to focus on the crime and not worry so much about the person who committed it.

My two cents regarding Olen
Tuesday, July 19, 2005

I'm going to steal my two cents from Lance (via Atrios):

But Olen, who didn't like it that the nanny was exposing the Olens' personal lives on the web, thought it was fine for her to expose the nanny's personal life in the New York Times. This in itself was the act of a bully. But it was also the act of a person with very little self-awareness, because the portrait she paints of herself is far worse than the sketch the nanny drew on her blog.

Exactly! Olen comes off as a complete idiot in the NYT piece.

Imagine the shoe on the other foot
Monday, July 18, 2005

Imagine that the "bad guys" did this to an American (civilian or soldier)

He was forced to dance with a male interrogator, was subject to strip searches for control measures, not for security, and he was forced to perform dog tricks

...

handcuffing detainees to the floor, covering one prisoner's mouth with duct tape, ``improperly'' playing loud music, and depriving detainees of sleep.

Imagine how the Congress and the Senate would react.

Imagine how the media would react

I think foreign policy should take the golden rule very seriously!

Three cheers for New Zealand