God Talk

If you want to see someone reasonable discussing the athiest viewpoint, you can't do much better than this opening statement by Sam Harris:



This statement was part of a debate with Chris Hedges. You can view the full exchange here:

Truthdig discussion

Finally

Obama finally sat down with the Chicago press and answered all questions about Tony Rezko.

Details here


With that albatross flung off his neck I feel a lot better about candidate Obama.

So much so that I think I'll do a post shortly on delegate math and Hillary's predicament.

Determination

Here is a link to a video of Bill Moyers interviewing former journalist Sarah Chayes. She has been helping to rebuild Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.

Hope is irrelevant

She seems like a remarkable woman and I admire her fortitude.

Woman in red

Vanessa Cariddi grew up in Maine and from a young age was captivated by opera. If you've ever traveled around rural Maine you'd know how improbable that was.

Knowing nothing about opera I will describe her voice as luscious. She appears in this video dressed in red and on the right:



Here is a link to her website: Vanessa Cariddi

I've seen enough of Hillary

I've decided that I've had enough of Hillary's campaign. She just drove me away with this bit of shameless, scorched-party groveling for votes:

"I think you'll be able to imagine many things Senator McCain will be able to say. He's never been the president, but he will put forth his lifetime of experience. I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Senator Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002,"

Source: Clinton on her plane en route to Fort Worth from San Antonio.

Now I hope she loses in a rout.

ADDENDUM: So much for a Texas rout, but now Hillary has been caught exploiting racism.

Her desire to win now exceeds my desire to vote for her.

Whitewater too?

The worst-case scenario I can come up with for Democrats in 2008 goes something like this:

1. Obama locks up the nomination
2. The press suddenly realizes the Tony Rezko story (see here and here) is worth looking at after-all.
3. The trial becomes a circus, with Obama forced to testify.
4. John McCain plays the race card.
5. Al Sharpton rides in and kicks the hornets nest.

Maybe it is a good idea for Hillary not to concede the nomination after-all?

Jack Nicholson endorses Hillary

Here is a YouTube video of Jack Nicholson endorsing Hillary Clinton:

The one that got away...

As I watch the case of Roger Clemens unfold I am reminded of another public liar that got away. The one I am thinking of lied to the American people, the U.S. Congress, and our closest allies and the end result was another Vietnam.

On one hand, you have an aged and overweight pitcher sticking pharmaceuticals up his butt to extend his career, and on the other, casualties in the tens of thousands.

Which one finds room on Ms. Pelosi's table?

Turkish Invasion

Turkey has been attacking the Kurds in Northern Iraq:

Turks rolling along


The Kurds have managed to oversee one of the more stable areas of Iraq, probably because they hated Saddam Hussein so much (they were the "own people" in the sentence "He gassed his own people").

How will they view US inaction in the face of such an intrusion into the free and soverign, happy and virtuous, somewhat sandy Iraq?

What happens if the Turks mistake US soldiers for Kurds?

What happens if Iran decides to defend the Kurds?

What if the UN decides to send in peace-keeping troops (I know I'm being absurd)?

Isn't this story a little bit bigger than the attention it draws from the corporate media?

How much are the Kurds going to take?

Vegans

I mentioned earlier that I don't like the word "Vegan" and it's true. What I don't like is that vegan doesn't describe someone that eats a healthy diet, but rather a whole lifestyle.

Perhaps I should go with "plant eater", or the Latin version "plantaedere", or "herbivorous", or "vegemite"? Whatever the phrase it should identify someone that predominantly eats plants, but isn't going to say no to thanksgiving dinner with friends or proper superbowl fixin's.

I need a word that means adopting the food for its' health benefits without rigidity, while rejecting the vegan-culture.

I suppose Americans working for social change in the sixties who weren't interested in adopting hippie culture faced the same grammatical challenge. Society likes its' pigeon-holes. Either you are "anti-war" or a "hawk", and you're not expected to oppose dumb wars on their demerits without being pegged a dove.

C'est la vie.

Mission Accomplished?

In 2007 901 US soldiers died in Iraq. That is a 3.4% increase from 2006's 871 deaths (details here). There is also no foreseeable political progress being made (the ostensible reason for the escalation), Iraqis are neither safe nor free, and yet Osama still is.

However, the public is being sold on the idea that this constitutes a "success". It is clearly a marketing success, and one favoring John McCain, the presidential candidate with the most enthusiastic aspirations for escalating and extending our occupation.

Studying The China Study

I have been raised as a carnivore with a fondness for gravy. I enjoy bacon, and steaks, and pork chops, and lamb chops, and fried chicken, and brisket and pulled pork, and grilled salmon. I am sure that over a lifetime I am personally responsible for more than one barnyard's decimation. And I don't like the word vegan either.

But, I have been reading "The China Study" lately, a book about nutrition by T. Colin Campbell. It is a book which promotes a whole-grain, low-fat, vegetable based diet, the benefits of which include...

Living longer
Having more energy
Lowering blood cholesterol
Reversing heart disease
Preserving eyesight
Stronger bones
Avoiding impotence
Avoiding strokes
Prevention of kidney stones
Avoiding Alzheimer's
A lowered risk of prostate, breast, and other cancers
Avoiding arthritis
and it may help to prevent diabetes.

The evidence suppporting Dr. Campbell's findings is scientifically based, well presented, and startlingly clear. So much so, that I am reconsidering the way that I eat.

I am reminded of a passage from Plato's Gorgias, during which Socrates wishes to denounce oratory by comparing it with "cookery"...

"Cookery puts on the mask of medicine and pretends to know what foods are best for the body, and, if an audience of children or of men with no more sense than children had to decide whether a confectioner or a doctor is the better judge of wholesome or unwholesome foodstuffs, the doctor would unquestionably die of hunger. Now I call this sort of thing pandering and I declare that it is dishonourable - because it makes pleasure its aim instead of good, and I maintain that it is merely a knack and not an art because it has no rational account to give of the nature of the various things of which it offers. I refuse to give the title of art to anything irrational..."

Source: Gorgias

Why is it that desire and reason pull in opposite directions?

For now I am going to incorporate more vegetables and fruit into my diet and take things one meal at a time. I'll write about this book some more, and leave you with a handy link for more information:

The China Study

Singing Friday

Sung to the tune of Cocaine, by Eric Clapton

McCain

If you wanna end war you better not vote for; McCain
When Saddam is gone and you wanna fight on; McCain
It's no lie, It's no lie, It's no lie; McCain

If you wanna drop bombs, bombs on Iran; McCain
Don't forget this fact, we're still in Iraq; McCain
It's no lie, It's no lie, It's no lie; McCain

If you got bad news and wanna keep them blues; McCain
It's a pain in the ass all this expensive gas; McCain
It's no lie, It's no lie, It's no lie; McCain

He won't leave, He won't leave, He won't leave; McCain

U.M.

Mitt Out

Mitt Romney has decided to call it quits.

Details here
Read his speech here

Let's take a look at the math for the Republican race:

The total number of Republican delegates is 2,380
The total number of delegates awarded so far is 1,197
Therefore, there are 1,183 Republican delegates left

Republican candidates need 1,191 delegates to win

John McCain has 714 delegates
Therefore, John McCain needs 477 more delegates, or 40.32% of those remaining.

Mike Huckabee has 181 delegates
Therefore, Mike Huckabee needs 1,010 more delegates, or 85.38% of those remaining.

If all of Mitt Romney's delegates (286) should go to Mike Huckabee, then he will have 467 delegates.
Therefore, Mike would need 724 more delegates, or 61.20% of those remaining.

Ron Paul has 16 delegates.

I'll leave that math as an exercise for the reader

From JFK to GWB with love

Someone took one of the latter speeches of John F. Kennedy and set it against images which place the Bush years in context.




I think the speech was given at Columbia University shortly before Kennedy's murder, and is referred to as, "Speech on Secret Societies and Freedom of the Press".

His voice and his words still have the power to linger, specifically these for me:

"Even today there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its' arbitrary restrictions. Even today there is little value of insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it."

I'm just saying...

Mike Huckabee, the candidate, manages to wear his religion on his sleeve even more than his Mormon opponent. So on a day that he swept the south, I find it interesting that...

Tornadoes swept the south, killing at least 45


In the Bible God shows his displeasure via natural forces. So, if you're a Bible-believing Christian in "Huck's Army", then how do you reconcile these rare, winter, killer tornadoes with your enthusiasm for Huckabee?

Mike Huckabee won in Tennessee and tornadoes killed 24 there.
Mike Huckabee won in Arkansas and tornadoes killed 13 there.

Kentucky voters are leaning towards Huckabee (Survey USA).

I can't find a poll for Mississippi, so the case is incomplete.

Could God be trying to warn the faithful here, or is it a simple coincidence?

How does one know for sure?

ADDENDUM: Alabama, which Huckabee also won, is now under tornado watch.

ADDENDUM2: Alabama wound up one of the "worst hit states" joining Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Here are pictures of the devestation: BBC News

Storm Cloud Norman

In a January 23rd Wall Street Journal article Norman Podhertz has an argument with himself and defends the position that he was right all along about Iraq and somebody needs to bomb Iran. He argues...

"The upshot is that if Iran is to be prevented from becoming a nuclear power, it is the United States that will have to do the preventing, to do it by means of a bombing campaign, and (because "if we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long") to do it soon."

Source

Some of the assumptions in the piece are:

[*] It is the 2005 NIE (which corroborates his opinion) that is correct, not the 2007 NIE (which does not).

[*] There is only one solution to the problem of Iran and it involves dropping bombs on Iran. Every other idea is crap.

[*] The threats of Russia and China are irrelevant considerations.

[*] George W. Bush will get this one right (third time is the charm).

[*] Once the bombing is finished, Mission Accomplished. There will be no appetite or instrument for revenge.

[*] Our military doesn't have enough to do at present and would be delighted to escalate the conflict.

[*] Israel will escape the bombing our bombing is concerned about.

[*] All the other western nations need weathermen to know which way the wind blows.

[*] A democratic president, or John McCain, couldn't possibly be a match for Bush-administration competence.

[*] A tanking US economy, stretched thin by tax-cuts, corruption, and war, can survive an energy price hike.

It must be nice to live in a world where you are always right and every disaster serves as confirmation of your conceit.

Obama Super Tuesday Conundrum

What most unsettles me about Barak Obama is:

1. There seems a well-oiled hand guiding the love-fest and I don't know who that is. Here I am thinking about a "Business Roundtable" type organization (not angels or aliens). He has raised too much money for an unknown, garnered too many fawning press articles of adoration, and has too rapidly built an efficient political machine out of whole cloth. Bugs Bunny would say there is something that doesn't add up.

2. He has on a number of occasions used words and phrases which reinforce conservative ideology, for instance attacking Hillary over "mandates", praising Reagan, and so-on. Whatever Hillary's faults she doesn't attack the left, knowing to do so preconcedes the issue. Here's a very interesting take on this issue:

Freedom riders

3. The Obama campaign is committed to the democratic party only to the extent that it supports Mr. Obama: See here


What I like about Obama is that on Iraq he spoke up when it mattered and his speech stands up rather well to history:

October 2, 2002

What I don't like about Barak is where was his follow-through once he achieved Senatorial powers?

Who is this man and where does he want to go?

The most pronounced problem in America isn't that we haven't been left enough, or right enough, or center enough. It is that our leaders are too beholden to corporate string pullers to serve the common good. We can no longer implement an idea that works for everyone if corporate lobbyists tug their little strings.

Free-market fundamentalists would argue that unregulated capitalism is best for everyone. I sez, "Poppycock!"

I argue that Enron is one recent example of why that isn't so. I argue that executive pay packages are bilking owners of their earnings. I argue that Japan opened a car factory in Canada recently because Canada provides health care to their citizens (meaning health-insurance premiums are becoming a drag on our economy)

Are any of the candidates that remain going to cut some of those strings?

Is Obama?

That is what I'd be asking myself heading into the voting booth.

The debate

The democratic candidates have been whittled down to two, Obama and Hillary. Here they are in a debate which took place in Hollywood on 1/31/08:



Both Barak and Obama did very well swiping at Mitt Romney and the notion you need a CEO to run America (into the ground).

I thought Barak stumbled out of the gate and I am weary of his platitudes. I've never seen a candidate get such a free ride in all my life.

Hillary seems to be a candidate-by-rote. There is an automaton vibe in her coached gestures, smile, and answers.

What most interested me was the healthcare section of the debate.

Universal single-payer healthcare is cheaper, covers everybody, is employed successfully across the globe, and easy to understand. Canada has it and their economy is doing better than ours. It is too bad that neither candidate is willing to support it outright. Why not make the republican defend the mess we have now?

Barak says "special interests" a lot. Usually that is code for "unions". Is Obama fervently anti-union?

Hillary's healtcare "plan" was a disaster that we're still stuck with. Insurance was better and cheaper before politicians like her got involved. So why does she always bring it up as if we should be impressed?

Obama is fast on his feet. He stumbles a bit getting what he wants to say out, but his answers are usually steered in an intelligent direction. He got to the word "balance", as in balanced tax burden, when talking about funding his healthcare plan and that is something even people like Warren Buffet agree with.

There are a lot of things Hillary "would do", "when" that she "hasn't done", "now or then". As the president Bush has pillaged and plundered where was her outrage and thunder? Where was her opposition to the tax cuts, to the war, and on and on and on.

After all that talk about healthcare I have my doubts if either Obama or Hillary will be able to make anything better. The piecemeal approach they both talk about can be defeated on 1,000 fronts.

The point Wolf Blitzer wanted to hammer home and did was their plans require tax increases. What if either of them had talked about the savings that come from going to a universal single-payer healthcare system?

From and From

From the Constitution of the United States:

"No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law"

From the president Bush in response to a Law passed by Congress which forbids using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq:

The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President.

Source

This is a rather obvious illegality that even Ms. Pelosi seems to have noticed and I didn't think she noticed anything that mattered.

Entering the ring?

Is Ralph Nader going to run in 2008?

Here is the place to find out:

Which side are you on?

I wish we had instant run-off voting in this country so I could cast a vote for Nader without worrying about screwing over my second-favorite choice. Then I could support him without reservation.

Does Nader have a chance?

Not this again.

Throwing in the towel

It looks like Colonel Klink and John-Boy Walton will be calling it quits today.

John Edwards was my top pick for the democratic nomination and it is difficult to see him end it. I think he would have done much better in the general election than Obama or Hillary.

Giuliani seemed to sink lower in the polls the harder he worked. Perhaps he wasn't willing to suck-up to the theocrats the way McCain is? Perhaps Americans are ready to move on from 911? Perhaps he isn't very cuddly? Whatever the case his campaign goes the way of Fred Thompson's, lot's of hype with little traction.

I suspect Giuliani would also have done better in a general election than some of his competitors. Perhaps instant run-off voting, at least in the nomination process (which requires no new laws, just DNC and RNC rule changes), would help candidates like Rudy and John, since it has a track record of selecting more moderate candidates with broad appeal.

Stating the obvious

"We believe that the most reliable guide for our country is the collective wisdom of ordinary citizens."

The president Bush
State of the Union Address
1-28-08
View Source

And what does that collective wisdom have to say about the president Bush?

Click here

The wheels on the bus go round and round

As America's problems escalate under bad management, or very good espionage, president "Smoke him Out" continues to embarrass us all with his idiotic annual ramblings known as the State of the Union address. It is like watching a loved one sinking to alcoholism, complete with bouts of denial and impaired judgment.

In his hands ignorance is a fault so pure as to leave no room for Reason, and perhaps this blissful state explains the perpetual smirk.

I have had too much of him a long time ago.

He has denied global warming in the face of undeniable evidence, and has asserted WMDs in the face of an absence of evidence.

He has pledged America's word to lies and done so without shame or apology.

He has abandoned one of our greatest cities (New Orleans) to speculators.

He has taken a strong economy and turned it into a weak one.

And worst of all he failed my Trust in him, bought with the blood of 911 heroes, and valued at nothing.

So, it was with great pleasure that I read this article in the Boston Globe called, Our one-way trip to disaster.

It is a meanness on my part, I suppose, to enjoy it when the president Bush is dealt a blow of ridicule, but I believe that if only more people would ridicule him democratic enablers like Nancy Pelosi might finally defy him.

Obama's dark side

I am not that high on Obama. He has the gift of oratory and a lot of style, but he doesn't seem capable or interested in defending democratic principles. His constant whining is not going to deflect Republican dirty-tricks, and the fact that he is black is not enough to attract my vote.

In addition, there is some dirty laundry in his closet involving a man by the name of Will Rezko.

Details here

And here


Will Barak-heads take the time to learn about his dark side before he is swept into the nomination?

Economic Stimulus

What does a liberal economic stimulus package look like?

Universal single-payer health coverage for all Americans.

Perhaps people could afford their house payments if they didn't have ballooning health-insurance premiums?

Between the cost of premiums, co-pays, and deductibles even many Americans with insurance cannot afford to get sick.

'Tis time.
'Tis high time.

My other healthcare idea this morning is this: Why doesn't Canada offer its' national healthcare policy to Americans? If our politicians are incapable of solving real problems anymore maybe we need to start outsourcing political solutions?

Why not?

Who is Sibel Edmonds?

A story that is receiving much attention abroad but none at home involves an FBI translator named Sibel Edmonds. Here is an informative article on her story:

Found in Translation

The questions this article raises for me are:

Could there be traitors very highly placed in the US government?

Why would Rupert Murdoch's media outlets report this abroad but not at home?

How credible is the Valerie Plame connection?

This story is particularly interesting given that I have just watched 3 Days of the Condor (in which Max von Sydow was terrific).

ADDENDUM: Daniel (Ellsberg) jumps into the lion's den on this story...

Read his comments here

Nasa: Global warming danger point approaching rapidly

This article discusses a warning from N.A.S.A. that global warming is proceeding at an accelerated pace:

Only a decade of can-do left

Here is RealClimate's Beginners Guide to Climate Change

How are Washingtonians addressing this pressing problem?

If you guessed by spending tax money to make the situation far worse you guessed correctly.

Coal is carbon

It is time to rally in support of any technology which doesn't produce carbon and oppose any that does. It is time for people to climb off their high horses and push carbon-neutral energy with one voice before those D.C. cretins spend tax dollars to burn pure carbon.

Mining coal pollutes the water and burning it pollutes the air. How ignorant of us, then, to accelerate global warming by burning it too.

Have you noticed?

Have you noticed that Canada, in spite of having a "socialist" single-payer healthcare system, has a dollar that is currently stronger than the US dollar?

Details here

I'd think a thing like that would get noticed.

Thin coverage for Edwards?

The corporate media seems to be encroaching on our democracy by narrowing the candidates for us. On the republican side they are doing what they can to ignore Ron Paul. On the democratic side Dennis Kucinich gets the shortest straw.

It also looks to me like John Edwards has received significantly less attention than he deserves. Someone in camp Edwards seems to agree:

Alien riders in the sky

Folks in Stephenville, Texas claim a large alien craft slowly flew over them:

Details Here

This sounded familiar to me. In fact, it sounded an awful lot like a story out of Phoenix in 1997:

Phoenix details here

According to the first article:

"Fourteen percent of Americans polled last year by The Associated Press and Ipsos say they have seen a UFO."

If the poll represents a random cross-section of the population at large, that would extrapolate to more than 20,000,000 people.

Those inclined to take no chances are busily constructing Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanies in order to combat alien mind-control transmissions.

I prefer to keep my tongue in my cheek, which has thus far proved no less effective.

Sub-prime market analysis from dummies

I thought it would be interesting to take my understanding of the sub-prime market fallout and explain it in terms even I can understand.

Some fast-talking promoters made risky loans look like safe loans using cell-phone-bill-like hoodwinkery. Many banks, including Citibank, fell for the smooth talk and invested in the risky loans (dubbed SIVs, or Structured Investment Vehicles) as if they were safe loans.

When the truth came out Jack discovered he traded his milk cow for a few magic beans that, when planted, did not germinate.

Thanks to the United Arab Emirates Sovereign Wealth Fund (at $7.5 billion) and the Government Investment Corp. of Singapore (at $6.88 billion) Citibank will likely recover.

What does it mean that a nation that is ranked 146th out of 167 nations by Reporters Without Borders in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index now owns a not insignificant piece of the world's largest bank?

Will American financial services soon follow American manufacturing overseas?

Will all of our financial information now be exposed abroad?

When I took out a mortgage I went down to the local branch of the local bank. Before the ink was dry, they sold the loan to Fannie Mae, who then sold it to a large regional bank, which was then purchased by Citibank, who is now partially owned by the repressive government of Singapore. The experience reminds me of being sold down the river, as in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin".

All these multi-tasking, multi-global corporations are racing humanity into a ditch using the ability to spend as their golden rule aren't they?

Is life to be nothing more than a dog-fight?

Warming signs?

It is uncharacteristically warm in New England this January, but as I type this a strange thing is happening. Several robins (about a dozen) are wandering around my snow-covered back yard looking for worms. They, of course, will never make it to spring since there will not be fruit on the branches for months, and while warm, it takes a great many warm days to melt feet of snow and thaw the ground.

Why did they come back so early?

Yesterday I noticed a spider come out of hibernation and build a nest between my window panes. Like the robins there is little opportunity for him to survive, unless spiders can go in and out of hibernation.

Are these signs of nature going out of whack?

The early bird is supposed to get the worm, isn't it?

'Tis a recession stupid

The Bush legacy of failure continues to flourish impressively, now making gains in the economic sector.

According to the BBC, Merrill Lynch says the US economy is in a recession:

Defecits don't matter?

House prices are falling while credit card debt is rising:

Sub-prime fallout

The unemployment rate jumped to 5 percent in December:

Whole numbers

Please vote for someone smart this year.

Do re mi

When I think of all the injustice that black Americans have had to suffer under America's racist past, few examples of it offend me as much as those often-told stories of black patients unnecessarily suffering because they were barred from white-only hospitals.

There is something revoltingly distasteful about the very idea of one human being denying medical care to another because of the color of their skin.

Last night I saw Sicko and it brought back these haunting stories. We may no longer have white-only hospitals but it seems we have green-only hospitals. They're a paradise to live in or see; But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot if you ain't got the do re mi.

I think that if you live in a country with universal healthcare you owe it to yourself to go and see Sicko. If you are American and watch the DVD version be sure to watch the feature on Norway.

It is a disgrace that 18,000 Americans die each year of treatable illness because they don't have insurance. It is beyond disgraceful it is sick.

Corporate Media

I have decided that I like the phrase "Corporate Media" better than I like the phrase "mainstream media". Most of our media is controlled by large corporate conglomerates, like Disney or GM, which have agendas that often contradict with the goal of truthful dissemination of information. It is why the "evening news" has become "infotainment". And it is why candidates that don't support American hegemony are barred from debates.

Well, the internet giveth when the television taketh away.

Here is Bill Moyers interviewing Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul

I think America has become too spoon fed when these contrariaen voices ar silenced.

Hillary's myth

Running for president seems to entail installing a myth into the public opinion and then carefully nurturing it.

Hillary Clinton, for her part, goes unchallenged as the "experienced" democrat. She chides others, Obama for instance, for their lack of it. She pretends at every turn to excrete experience from her every pore.

But...

Hillary has been a Senator from New York for a term and change and that doesn't exactly set the standard for excellence.

If she wants to argue she is experienced because she was close to Bill's success, then that seems like a weak position, especially for a democratic candidate. Experience through osmosis?

If she goes against someone like John McCain the myth she has so carefully built to win the nomination becomes exposed as hollow in the face of his record.

Now that she is struggling in the polls I wouldn't be surprised to see Obama pop Hillary's experience bubble, or else counter it by brining someone like Joe Biden aboard his campaign.

Since he is more Clinton than Clinton, perhaps he will follow James Carville's advice: "When your opponent is drowning throw them an anchor."

We shall see.

Tonkin avoided?

It has been reported in Newsweek recently that defense secretary Robert Gates instructed his commanders to keep cool heads, and particularly in matters that might expand our Middle-East conflict into Iran.

When I today read that five Iranian speedboats threatened 3 US warships in the Straight of Hormuz, but were not fired upon, I recalled the Newsweek story.

Given the U.S.S. Cole catastrophe who could blame the US contingent for firing on the speedboats?

I expect it isn't easy to stand down when you've got superior force and think this speaks very highly of the officers involved. With Iraq still volatile and our forces still extended it would be to our enemies advantage to widen the conflict.

Just another Genocide?

President Bush used the word "genocide" to describe the situation in Darfur, then promptly did nothing about confronting it.

In Burma the population is striving for democracy but being brutally repressed by, of all things, the "State Peace and Development Council".

Details here

President Bush has indicated that he is troubled by the trouble, but when are nations obligated to act?

This is a thorny question for a state, which likes to reserve the right to brutally repress dissent with waves of free-swinging, billy-club toting, tear-gas fogging police, for instance. How does one condemn brutality abroad without undermining the home-made variety?

Sir Thomas Moore, in his classic "Utopia" laid out 3 conditions for war.

1. When your nation is attacked.
2. When an ally (or trading partner) is attacked.
3. To free a People from tyranny.

Our war in Iraq might have met the third condition, but we overstayed our welcome in the form of an occupation.

What about Darfur and what about Burma?

Is it worthwhile to fight a war in a land without oil simply to free a People from tyranny?

Subterranean wonder of Italy

Here is interesting art news. As far as I can tell it is a true story.

World's Eighth wonder?

Every once in a while you see crazy benefit humanity.

Pat Condell to "Islamofascists"

I'm not sure who Pat Condell is or what triggered this speech, but there is something about this which seems new. YouTube is a global soap-box, but unlike those found in public places, it is a soapbox you intentionally encounter.

Here is Pat with a message to "Islamofascists". You will likely learn a few British put-downs:

Al

When Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace prize, here is what he said:

Al's Speech


Imagine how different the world would be if Al Gore was president.

It's easy if you try.

The Supreme Court of 2000 has a lot to answer for.

Prison Nation

The opening paragraph to this New York Times article dropped my jaw:

"About one in every 31 adults in the United States was in prison, in jail or on supervised release at the end of last year, the Department of Justice reported yesterday."

More here

4.7% of American adults were in prison, jail, or supervised release at the end of last year.

Wow!

The U.S. now leads the world in incarcerations per capita.

Wow!

Here are some explorations to help realize the enormity of these numbers:

Fenway Park holds 38,805 people when sold out. 4.7% of 38,805 people is 1,823 people.

If one in 31 adults was in prison, in jail or on supervised release at the end of last year and you were at a party with 8 people in it the odds are 77% percent that one person does not belong to that group (assuming the party-goers represent a random cross-section of the population)

(30 / 31) ^ 8 = 77%

If the party has 16 people in it (about the size of a hockey team) the odds become 59%, and at two dozen people the odds are 45%.

A football team has 53 players (with 11 on the field). That's a 17.6% group.

The Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental will now seat 467 people. That's a 0.00002% group.

Effusive thanks are extended to Roger, who was persuaded to de-dumb my probability efforts. You can read interesting analysis by Roger on the 2004 election:

Here and here.

On wet wood

Is waterboarding torture?

Of course it is.

Anybody that uses this practice in America's name brings dishonor to himself and his nation. To fail to "keep the honor clean of the U.S. Marine" is a dereliction of leadership which leads to a crisis of morale.

Low morale often leads to stories like these.

Waterboarding is torture and the legal justification for that assertion is straightforward. The U.S. government is a signatory to the "Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment". We signed it and are therefore obligated by law to uphold it.

We are not, and the president Bush has no Constitutional authority to break treaties. He may escape his due Justice due to Nancy Pelosi's exasperating sense of duty, but engaging in waterboarding (aka Chinese water torture) makes the United States of America a liar and a criminal.

Why pretend otherwise?

When you share the moral stage with Communist agents, Nazi war criminals, and witch hunters it is base to expect applause.

So why give it?

All the same to you?

Question 1

A father does not like the way his daughter dresses so he strangles her to death. When the police arrive the girl's brother fights with them trying to prevent their entry.

Is this family:

A) Amish
B) Christian
C) Muslim

Answer here

Question 2

A woman is raped and this rape transfers shame unto her family due to societal customs. Therefore the father and/or brother of this rape victim murders her and it is considered honorable.

This family lives in:

A) Canada
B) Spain
C) Pakistan

Answer here


Question 3

Which "Holy Book" advises, "Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it. But you may hate a thing although it is good for you, and love a thing although it is bad for you. God knows, but you know not"

A) The Christian Bible
B) The Buddhist Tripitaka
C) The Koran

Answer here

Question 4

"On January 23 , 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl disappeared in Karachi, Pakistan. He was scheduled to meet with a source, but it turned out to be a trap. For the next month, his colleagues, friends, and family searched for him frantically, and then a video arrived. It depicted Pearl admitting that he was Jewish and culminated in his on-screen decapitation by..."

A) Franciscan monks
B) Islamic militants
C) Christian anti-abortion militants

Answer here (PDF)

What is the lesson to be drawn from a sober reflection of these answers?

San Francisco Treat

Here is some guitar playing by a friend of mine that often plays in the San Francisco area. If you like ragtime music and prefer it played with gusto, then you'll enjoy the music of Craig Ventresco




If, perhaps you prefer Spanish-flavored guitar, then voila, here you go:



And here is a sentimental favorite:



And finally, a fine duet and novelty song:




Thanks YouTube. It's been a while since I've seen my ol' friend strummin' around.

Corpocracy is here

Serious people that don't like what they see when they look at Wall Street and tell their fellow Americans about it have a way of becoming "Ross Perot'd", that is, they fall from the good graces of the plutocrats.

That hasn't happened in Mr. Monks case, perhaps because his illuminations reliably precede catastrophes (like Tyco's rocky fall from the good graces of investors). Now, this former appointee of Ronald Reagan is warning that democracy is taking a back seat to what is supposed to be a means and not an end (i.e. a corporation).

Here is a link to an article which discusses some of Mr. Monks views at Corporate Crime Reporter: Monk on a Mission

I haven't read my copy yet, but I look forward to doing so soon. If I have pricked your interest click the above picture to be taken to the Amazon page where you can purchase a copy.

Solidifying democracy's defeat

Have you heard of Senate Bill 1959, known also as the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007?

Here are the full details

Think un-American activities commission and you begin to get the gist of what it is, except this bill goes much further and has the scope to criminalize thoughts.

I expect this bill wishes to criminalize political Islam within the United States, but the trouble is the bill is so broadly worded as to criminalize whatever whim strikes those with the power to enforce it.

Perhaps some examples...

If Mitt Romney becomes president and decides non-Mormon Christians are radical then they would be arrested.

If Hillary Clinton becomes president and decides Norman Podhertz has a "radical agenda" then he would be arrested.

If Rudolph the red-nosed Giuliani becomes president and decides that gun owners are "adopting an extremist belief system" then they would be arrested.

If Ron Paul becomes president and decides that democrats are "trying to coerce the civilian population of the United States in furtherance of political objectives" then they would be arrested.

Is it wise to give that much power to people that crave it as cravenly as politicians?

What a believing Mormon believes...

Mitt Romney is a Mormon and a believing Mormon believes this about black people...

That black skin is a curse from God for being descended from an evil race of people.

It is said that, "As a man believes so will he act."

N.I.E. on Iran

N.I.E. stands for National Intelligence Estimate. It is the term paper, if you will, of our N.I.C., which stands for National Intelligence Council, on some subject.

In this case, the subject is Iran's nuclear intentions (PDF)

The N.I.E. contradicts the president Bush and his bluster regarding Iran so the republican response is twofold Blame the messenger and Keep up the pressure

Do these misguided liars aspire to make of our world a throne of ashes?

When does Ms. Pelosi expect to take up the responsibility associated with her office?

The core of hell

I think that Dante was wrong about hell, but that it wasn't his fault. They didn't have electronic gadgets back in his day. How could he have known that deep down in the bowels of hell there would be a core used to cruelly torture scientists that brought blinking and beeping things into this world?

I cite two recent examples and leave you to consider them:

1. I have on my new car a safety feature called Dynamic Stability Control. It is a whiz-bang feature that improves handling in slippery conditions. However, when it engages an icon flashes three times in yellow. Blink. Blink. Blink.

Why?

At a moment that I am slipping and sliding my dashboard wants to distract my attention from my driving to tell me that I am slipping.

This engineer, I sez, will be subjected to the special torments of the core of hell. As his feet, say, are placed in the brimstone an icon on the wall will flash warning him about the temperature. An insistent beep will beep beep beep along with the blink blink blink. The devil jailor will grin.

2. While shopping for band-aids recently a motion-activated advertising gizmo blurted out a verbal assault upon my person in a child's voice. It wanted me to take interest in a purple-whatzit to cover my "ouchie". It took the trouble to repeat this helpful advice every thirty seconds. If I had a hammer that thing would have been a pile of plastic fragments wrapped in purple whatzit. Needless to say I moved on without making a purchase of band-aids.

The marketer, and the engineer, which inflicted this scourge upon the rest of us will be subjected to the special torments of the core of hell. As their sides are pierced with hot pokers they will hear helpful advice every thirty seconds offering them purple whatzits.

Again, I don't blame Dante, since how could he have forseen such monstrous behavior?

CIA Operation Pincer

Is the CIA "going operational" with a plan to destabilize Venezuela?

Operation Pincer

This would be a lot of people to harm just so oil companies can earn even more obscene profits at our expense isn't it?

Aren't we supposed to make the world safe for democracy?

Is the US now going to destabilize all nations that use national resources for the benefit of their citizens?

Look out Norway! In fact all you Slavic people best be on your guard. Don't think we'ze don't know what yur a doin' over thar' jes because it's cold. We knows. We seize eva'thang.

ADDENDUM: Embassy official accused of trying to sway public opinion

Right on time?

Too greedy

I don't eat a lot at Burger King but after reading this story I am going to eat nothing from Burger King. When greed goes this far there should be a response. So, however humble my one-man boycott may be, I am going to do it anyway.

An avalanche can start with a pebble can it not?

Scrooging migrant workers

Power

Generally speaking you gain political power by preying, or praying, on People's fears. To cite two examples, the fear of death turned into the power of religion and the fear of poverty turned into the power of communism.

It struck me that as I thought about power that America's enemies and America's politicians are invoking the same methods against us. That is, the power to divide is the power to conquer whether you are employing a "red state" political strategy or waging a holy war for the glorification of an imaginary friend and his poet.

I began to wonder...

How can America defeat the external threat of religious extremism abroad, while pandering to it at home (see, for instance, John McCain's supplications)?

How can America promote cooperation abroad while miring itself in partisan bickering at home?

Have we become too divided to stand?

Is there that which unites us anymore?

Lists

It is getting to be the time of year for "Best of" lists, so, here are some of my favorite rebukes of the Bush administration (since 2000):

Channel Surfing the Apocalypse (love the banjo):



Will Ferrel as George Bush on a ranch in Texas:



Stephen Colbert Roasting the president Bush:

2006 White House Correspondents Dinner

And an excerpt from the final scene of the Chaplin masterpiece The Great Dictator, written to skewer Hitler and Mussolini but applicable to all training-wheel tyrants that want to turn the clock of human progress backwards:

Edwards onto something

John Edwards' campaign is onto something with the "Politics of Parsing" pieces.

Here is installment two



Cha cha cha

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Security Trust

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is author of the books Infidel and The Caged Virgin: An emancipation proclamation for Women and Islam.

Not surprisingly she has become so much the target of Islamic wrath that she needs a security detail 24/7 to protect her from the "religion of peace". The Dutch government used to provide such security, but when she traveled to the U.S. for safety's sake the Dutch revoked her detail and announced it to the world, placing her in grave danger.

Sam Harris has set up a website with an urgent appeal for donations to cover her security costs:

Helping Ayaan


A little-discussed fact, for some reason, is that there are no more committed enemies of Islamic fascism than liberals. Islam cannot tolerate multi-culturalism. Islam cannot tolerate feminism. Islam cannot tolerate free inquiry. Islam cannot tolerate secularism. This is why New York is despised by Islam. This is why London, too, was attacked. Jihadists can't stand freedom so they can't stand liberals.

Ayaan is in danger because she is a committed to freedom and here is the question you must answer: "Is it important to give aid to a voice that challenges the barbarism of political Islam or isn't it?"

Time is critical now that the Dutch have shamefully deemed toleration of intolerance a virtue.

My global warming

Ever wonder what would happen to your neck of the woods if/when sea levels rise in response to glacial melting?

Wonder no more. Here is a link to a site that displays an interactive map adjusted for user-selected flood levels.

How high's the water mama?

Imagine the potential for disaster planning.

Why protest?

I suppose I blog because it is my way of publicly acknowledging that I do not agree with the behavior of the Bush administration. I do not agree that we should torture abroad and suspend habeas corpus at home. I do not agree that Iran poses a serious threat to America. I don't agree that Iraq attacked us on 9/11. I do not agree that politicizing the department of Justice is good for America. I do not agree that striving to "drown government in a bathtub" is a good way to govern. I do not agree that supporting the troops means cheerleading incompetence.

The war in Iraq is something I find particularly exasperating. The reality is that our objectives in Iraq don't matter a whit because the president's incompetence exceeds all challenges placed before it. Furthermore the specific challenge of Iraq has been hopelessly doomed. Look at this recent news, for instance:

Clashes between rival Shiite Muslim militias in the holy city of Karbala today killed at least 50 people, torched three hotels and prompted Iraqi authorities to order the evacuation of more than 1 million pilgrims from the shrine where they had gathered.

More than 150 people were injured in the helter-skelter panic that followed random gunfire by militants in the Mahdi Army loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr and those of the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

....The death toll threatened to climb, with witnesses reporting dozens of bodies in the streets surrounding the Imam Hussein shrine and amid the smoldering rubble of the three buildings set on fire during the rampage.

Source

Every day seems to bring worse news from Iraq but everyone in Washington talks as if Iraq is a land somewhere over the rainbow where bluebirds sing.

President Bush does not seem like he will ever learn from his mistakes and I cannot imagine how he ever kicked the alcohol habit with denial like he possesses. I hear admitting you have a problem is the first step one must take.

Good and Beautiful things...

At times when life presses in with its burdens it pays to be aware of the Good and Beautiful things that surround us.

Here is one such story about a cat named Sergeant Podge:

A little pick-me-up


And here is a 15-lateral football play in which Trinity U. defeats Millsaps 28-24 with two seconds left to play:



Here's a video about Moebius Transformations which is engaging to watch:




And we end with a crowd-pleasing link to a video of a hockey brawl that is seriously out of control. Perhaps it is neither Good nor Beautiful, but it is incredible to see.

Halifax Jr. Fight

Down in Memphis

One of the things that struck me as I toured Memphis, Tenn. last year was how many people were homeless.

One other thing also struck me. It seems that in order for a homeless person to get a bed for the night they must come up with about 7 dollars. The effect of this is predictable. All the panhandlers for miles ask not for change, but for 7 dollars.

The local political response seems to have been to post signs asking citizens not to give money to pan-handlers. This would be the 7 dollars they need for a bed thanks to their earlier policies.

We have the mouse eating the cheese and the cat eating the mouse.

The next step is easy to predict. Police will begin dogging tourists that respond to pleas for money.

This will not likely be a boon to tourism. Perhaps this will even create even more homelessness?

In Florida people have been arrested for feeding the homeless. Perhaps they have already taken steps one and two and are now moving to criminalize compassion:

Details here

There are always so many obstacles to behaving well in this world of ours that I don't enjoy stories like this.

Let the bar raise!

I hate to scapegoat our media for the mess the US is currently in, when it is of course the Bush administration and republican ideology that deserve the lion's share of blame, but every once in a while a story comes along which is so important for it's unimportance that it speaks volumes. Such a story has just appeared in the Washington Post, a paper which in my opinion reached a new low.

They wrote a story about Hillary Clinton's boobies: Tits to win?

Then, rather than apologize and correct for the lack of judgement, they tried to defend the nonsense (here) with an article that begins "A journalistic assessment of Hillary Clinton's cleavage became the most improbable presidential campaign controversy yet".

I will take my response no further than to point out that you cannot conflate "journalistic assessment" and "cleavage" in the same sentence if you want to maintain credibility. You will hold your readers attention, Janet-Jackson-like perhaps, but do people take their news from Janet Jackson?

In the interest of journalistic thoroughness may I suggest a few more topics of national importance which the Post must assess?

• Just exactly how large of an imprint, in square inches, does the backside of Karl Rove make at the beach? What is the volume in cubic centimeters? How many yards of cloth does his tailor use to make his pants?
  
• What is causing the sickly pallor of John McCain? It seems to have come on about the time he "made nice" with the president. Is he still in possession of his soul?
• How is Condi Rice's bust-line holding up these days? We have been treated to an article about her boots and her shoe purchases but her titties have been sadly devoid of thorough journalistic attention.
• Is Joe Biden a Pomade man or does he prefer Dapper Dan?
  
• How much does president Bush pay for his haircuts?
• Certainly Madeline Albright must have had days where her hem-line was a little higher. Are there any articles in the archives equating that with saucy teasing? What about for Margaret Thatcher?
  

"Tisk, tisk!", I sez, and "Tut, tut!"

Impeachment for Cheney?

Articles of impeachment for Richard B. Cheney have been brought to the floor of the House by Ohio's Dennis Kucinich. Here he is reading them:

A. B. C. Impeach Cheney


Most people seem to know it should be done, yet everyone politely pretends not to notice.

Most everyone, that is.

Beautiful

Not many political ads can lay a claim to beauty, but that is really quite a masterwork:





It shows both why I don't care for Hillary Clinton and why John Edwards is my favorite.

I watched it again and again.

If you would like to see it again try the official version where you can also support the Edwards for president campaign:

La la la la laaaaaa
Ba da bump.
Ba da bump.
Ba da bump, da dump dump.

Candies and Flowers

Here are a few memorable lies told to us about Iraq:

We would be welcomed with candies and flowers. We would be welcomed as liberators. Gratitude would name boulevards in Iraq after American presidents. This war would be short, sweet, and self-financing.

Iraq could attack us with their stockpiles of WMDs.
Iraq could pass their WMDs off to al Qaeda.
Mushroom clouds could blacken our skies.

We'll turn a corner just as soon as we get Saddam.
We'll turn a corner just as soon as Iraqis vote.
We'll turn a corner when we kill al-Zarqawi.


The lies keep coming and coming and coming from the president Bush and his administration. When caught in a lie they lie, then lie about it.

According to Andrew Tilghman, even the presence of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) is "a myth":

Story here

Haven't you had enough?

You aren't going to keep listenting to tall tales about Iran, about progress, about valuing the opinions of commanders "on the ground" are you?

Where is the tipping point, the straw that breaks the camel's back, the cry of wolf rejected?

Stop believing him. Stop pretending he has credibility. Stop it!

Covering sick children

Here is an analysis of the health care debate over SCHIP. It was prepared by the Rockridge Institute which rethinks progressive politics:

Which Child Left Behind?

The U.S. does torture

The Bush administration has aggressively pursued the power to torture since their bottoms first warmed oval office chairs. The documentary record is so extensive in this regard it renders protestations to the contrary "quaint".

The United States of America, with the president Bush at its' helm, does torture.

Why?

Nothing says Power like the unfettered ability to Torture. It is the Unholy Grail of unchecked and unbalanced authority.

A detailed discussion here

The object of torture is torture.

The power to torture is the power of the tyrant.

And...

Governments that set up illegaly-operated concentration camps like Guantanamo usually turn into tyrannies.

It is decidedly un-American, and a story like this is a stake in the heart of America's identity.

Do you think of torture when you see the Statue of Liberty in New York's harbor?

Justice on sale

Corporatism is corporate power replacing government power, which effectively erodes civilian power. Mussolini thought corporatism better described fascist Italy.

If you look at the FISA story it is fundamentally a story about AT&T and other "TelComs" purchasing immunity from elected officials in order to escape a court decision:

Details here

When the rule of law is up for sale then we no longer have a Justice system to be proud of. If this kind of thing isn't reigned in, we won't have much of a democracy either.

I have said repeatedly the one word which defines democrats at their best is Justice. When they fight for social Justice or economic Justice or the rule of law they are fulfilling their raison d'etre. If Harry Reid is mixed up in this then he is setting the worst possible example for his party.

Cheney sez...

"Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state [Iran] fulfills its grandest ambitions."

US vice president Cheney
Sunday, Oct. 21

Edwards said...

Here is what John Edwards had to say about Hillary Clinton's vote cast in support of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment:

Evidently, Senator Clinton and I learned two very different lessons from the Iraq war. I learned that if you give President Bush even an inch of authority, he will use it to sanction a war. As the New Yorker recently reported, the administration is actively preparing plans to attack Iran. Despite this clear evidence, Congress recently passed a bill to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, a bill Senator Clinton supported and that takes this nation one step closer to war. While Senator Clinton tries to argue both sides of the issue, the truth is her vote opens the door for the president to attack Iran. I believe we must not allow the president to use force against Iran when so many other diplomatic and economic options are still available.


Source

Leadership when it matters is the only kind that is relevant.

Dumbledore's closet

Here is a saucy bit of news for those who appreciate JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels:

Dumbledore, the Merlin-like character whom is headmaster of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, is gay.

JK sez...

I'll bet there was a moment of inhalation that would have sucked a hot-air baloon out of the sky.

Is Blackwater a terrorist organization?

When I look at the way that Blackwater comports itself in Iraq, stealing from the Iraqi government, staying when asked to leave, gunning down 17 Iraqi citizens, and inspiring riots in Fallujah, I'm left wondering what the Bush administration has unleashed.

Should the international community declare Blackwater a terrorist organization? If not, why not?

What separates Blackwater from Hamas?

What if the US decides to leave Iraq but Blackwater decides to stay, or vice-versa?

Blackwater appears to be facilitating the practice of torture flights, a practice that disgraces America and weakens our alliances with Western nations.

Who holds Blackwater accountable?

How dependable are Blackwater loyalties?

Can the US be made to pay retribution for Blackwater actions?

Will Blackwater turn its guns on American citizens once the war is over?

This isn't a slippery slope it is a cliff-leap.

Red Sox headed to World Series

The Red Sox eliminated the Cleveland Indians in game 7 of their division series and are now World Series bound.

They will be facing the Colorado Rockies in a 7 game series that starts Wednesday evening.

And the Red Sox closer looks like this:

Johnathan Papelbon

So there is optimism in Boston.

To the Yankees

I would just like to say to the New York Yankees:

I know you feel you are the center of the baseball universe and that the other teams revolve around you,

BUT...

Please hold your baseball news, like that surrounding Joe Torre, until after the playoffs are done.

Have some class!

Neverwhere

The closest thing I've read to Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist is a book by Neil Gaiman called Neverwhere.

It has legendary villains and makes heroes of those that fall through society's cracks. It takes the phrase "London Underground" to new depths, creating a whole world out of forgotten subway stops, abandoned sewer projects, and also by taking names like "Earl's Court" quite literally.

This book is, "A lightning strike of imaginative power", sez I, "and fans of Dickens are sure to love it".

Is Information Shock Prevention?

Naomi Kline, a Canadian journalist, has written a new book called "The Shock Doctrine" which dissects the economic ideas of Milton Friedman. His ideas seem to be self-justification for unbridled greed, which can only be devotedly followed when one closes his heart and mind to the suffering caused by them.

Alfonso Cuaron has produced a short film with Naomi that illustrates the gist of the idea. It's emotional power to length quotient is exceedingly high.



Naomi believes that information is shock prevention. I, however, disagree that information is sufficient therapy in a world where the love of Truth grows colder every day. I used to think that was so until George W. Bush was reelected by a majority of American voters in the "information age".

I think the diagnosis is unbridled greed, which would imply a prescription of extraordinary Generosity. Simple human kindness is missing from these schemes.

Simple human kindness.

And the pop song asks: "Where did all the good people go?"

A capable spy

If the president Bush were a traitor or a spy you'd have to admire his competence. He took over a country at peace that was "paying down the defecit too fast" and proceeded to turn it into a world-wide target of political Islam while simultaneously weakening relationships with our allies.

That is a pretty good one-two punch to America's gut, and taking steps to crush the laws which make us free and the ideas which make us strong, is another effective blow.

In the meantime he has built up a russian-style network of ring-kissing cronies and appointed them to positions well beyond the grasp of their talents. This has meant a decrease in our capacity to respond to emergencies on American soil at a time when a good argument for doing the opposite exists.

He has also, curiously and on more than one occasion, taken steps to turn the fury and focus of our armed forces away from Osama's network.

Bill Scher over at Liberal Oasis has a post detailing many such moves:

Defying Pa's Plans

And Peter Bergen reminds us of the counter-productive nature of many current policies:

How Osama got away

And then there is this curious story:

Leaking ship of state

When one considers that most of these events are not the result of inaction, but instead of consistent action, one begins to wonder if this is incompetent leadership or competent betrayal.

At least that is so when the one in question is I.

An obscene veto

Did you know that, "according to a recent Georgetown University poll, 9 in 10 Americans - including 83 percent of self-identified Republicans - support an expansion of the children’s health insurance program".

Did you know that George W. Bush vetoed such expansion on the grounds that government would succeed and that would be bad?

Confused?

Paul Krugman tells you all you wanted to know about Bushian (conservative?) ideology but were afraid to ask:

An Immoral Philosophy

When the president Bush's policies produce more sick children at higher cost to the taxpayer and conflict with what the vast majority of Americans want, then how can the president Bush justify his actions to conservatives?

If there were credible republican support for these measures then they would sail through Congress and handily defeat a veto.

It must be, then, that republican lawmakers are more interested in crony-capitalism than cost control, payola schemes than federalist memes.

Where have traditional conservatives, by which I mean socially conscious and fiscally conservative voters, gone?

Two books

With the weather turning colder and the nights growing longer I thought you might be looking for something to read.

I have recently read two books that I enjoyed very much. The first was...

The Last Town on Earth, by Thomas Mullen

It is a novel that describes what happens to a small town that tries to cut itself off from the outside world during the Spanish influenza of 1918. As unlikely as this might seem, it is a thrilling page-turner of a book.

The second book was...

Flight, by Sherman Alexie

It is a book about what it means to find a home where you belong, as well as a tale of seething anger transformed.

Can I get an Amen?

If you watched "The Corporation" you might remember one of the businessmen interviewed by the name of Ray Anderson. He runs a successful carpeting company.

When he looked at the impact his company, Interface, had on the environment what he came up with shocked him. He then set a goal for turning his company into one that is "a sustainable operation that takes nothing out of the earth that cannot be recycled or quickly regenerated, and that does no harm to the biosphere."

He is a good part of the way to his goal and, thanks to the efficiency efforts required to turn his company astern, it is good for his bottom line.

James Carville often chastised democratic candidates for opposing without proposing, and I often feel the weight of that challenge on my shoulders.

Isn't it uplifting to find that following your beliefs is good for the earth and for People and for business too? Of course, that makes it all the more damning that modern companies largely fight EPA regulation reflexively, but a movement requires those that lead by example.

My hat is off to Ray Anderson for daring to act on those new-found beliefs at no small risk. His efforts may serve to blaze the way for others.

Full Story Here

Woody's Devotion

Woody Guthrie couldn't stand Irving Berlin. He thought his songs were too sentimental, too fancy. Most of all he seemed to dislike "God Bless America".

In defiance of Irving he wrote his own devotional song to America and he called it, "This Land is Your Land".

Here is a terrific version of Woody's classic sung by another defiant one, Bruce Springstein, who calls it "the greatest song ever written about America ... that gets right to the heart of the promise about what America is supposed to be about."



Here is a verse that Woody wrote and Bruce didn't sing

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

That in itself is interesting, since most people don't sing this verse (but Bruce did):

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Bruce has been speaking out and speaking up for a good long time. The line in the video which caught my attention is, "With a country, just like with people, it's easy to let the best of yourself slip away."

Plato urged us to, "Remember the Good". Shakespeare said, "To thine own self be True." Bruce tells us, "It's easy to let the best of yourself slip away."

What has always united Americans has been our Constitution and our Bill of Rights. It represents "the Good" in this land of ours. Here's hoping it doesn't slip away.

What goes up...

It is said that what goes up must come down.

Last month, six W80-1 nuclear-armed AGM-129 advanced cruise missiles went up from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., and came down in Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.

Did six come down?

This news story reports that it was 5 nuclear warheads: See Here

Are we missing one?

In this analysis of the event Explosive Implications the care with which these bombs are handled is elaborated. That would seem to make answering this crucial question as simple as the math involved.

Curiously, "Six members of the US Air Force who were involved in the Minot AFB incident, have died".

Details here

Here are the details of those six whose tales will not be told:

1. Airman First Class Todd Blue (Cause of death not released)
2. Airman Adam Barrs (killed in a crash)
3&4. A "married couple" from the base (killed in a crash)
5. First Lt. Weston Kissel, 28, a Minot Air Force Base bomber pilot (killed in a crash)
6. Air Force captain John Frueh (body found near Badger Peak in northeast Skamania County, Washington)

Move away folks. Nothing to see here...

Not a pain gun

Raytheon has developed a gun which uses directed energy to cause excruciating pain for distances of up to a half mile. As I understand it, the agony ray emits micro-waves attuned to human nerve-ending frequency. This induces a burning sensation without the bother of a flame and it leaves no mark.

Details here


When I think of the skill, money, and energy being used by Man to harm men as contrasted against presidential vetos of healthcare for children I can only wonder at our fate.

Why are people so single-minded and tireless in their pursuit of inflicting suffering?

Crapitalism

Under the leadership of George W. Bush we are accumulating the weaknesses of our heretofore enemies. These weaknesses include: a compliant press, a frightened populace, a crony economy, break-down of the rule of law, state-torture, and criminalization of trivial offenses. These traits are what made totalitarian nations like Russia weak.

Weak and laughably incompetent.

Always in totalitarian regimes like the one we are being gaily led to by the pied piper press, there is a stultifying ideology which requires the constant "weeding" of the infidels, insurgents, protesters or what have you.

In America's case the harmful ideology is free market fundamentalism like the type preached at the Chicago School of Economics.

See this video for more info.

As the election for 2008 warms up I find I have one essential question.

Who will put a stop to the destructive march towards fascism initiated by George W. Bush? Who will roll back the policies and rescue government from the bathtub drowning?

We have enjoyed a hybrid economy in America for so long we have no idea how bad life can be when ideology comes first and the lives of citizens comes second.

A small taste of this life is being expressed in Washington, where, the president Bush stands ready to defend ideology with a veto that harms children by blocking their access to health-care.

A big taste of this life is expressed as the collapse of Enron, Tyco, or the influence of Jack Abramoff.

This ideology which puts the profit of a few cronies ahead of the lives of children is disgusting, perverted, and crass and people should say so. It is mean, petty, and especially heartless behavior coming from a pampered prince of privilege like the president Bush.

The trouble with the Chicago School of Economics ideology is to organize society such that money concentrates and people dilute is to invite misery.

Are totalitarian societies happy places?

Are fascist societies prosperous long?

Are totalitarian societies conducive to the expansion of knowledge?

Are totalitarian markets accessible to small businesses?

Are totalitarian societies good places to raise children?

I sometimes worry that too few see where America is headed to save it. This market fundamentalism is perhaps better described as Crapitalism, since the greatest wealth engine humanity ever created is turning to crap because of it. You need a culture of dishonesty and corporate protectionism to keep crapitalism afloat.

As a way of life it is crap!

There is nothing wrong with honest business, big or little, but dishonest business is a cancer to humanity. Without honest accounting investors are bilked by CEOs through balooning salaries and golden parachutes.

It is harmful to people and harmful to society and the only agency strong enough to reign it in is government.

Will this video come to represent America's future? Pax Americana

How high's the debt Mama?

How high's the debt, mama?
Two trillion high and risin'
How high's the debt, papa?
Two trillion high and risin'

Two trillion bucks don't seem that bad
Let's keep spendin' money and just be glad
Let's keep the bubble growin' higher and higher,
Two trillion high and risin'

etc.

How high's the debt, mama?
Ten trillion high and risin'
How high's the debt, papa?
Ten trillion high and risin'

Let's keep on borrwin' from the Commie Chinese
Even though they got us down on our knees
The factories are closin' but outsourcin' is good
Ten trillion high and risin'

Well it's ten trillion high and risin'

R.I.P. Johnny Cash

Union Jack will leave Iraq

I've always felt sorry for the way the US abused its' trust with the British people in order to entangle them in our Iraq folly, and all the more so for the way they sturdily stayed on trying to make lemonade from rocks.

They are at the end of their patience, it seems, and have vowed to leave Iraq by Christmas.

Story here

They should not be allowed to leave without a grateful thank-you from America. Our stupidity placed them in peril, as the London bombing attests, and it would have been quite easy for them to abandon us to our folly.

Easy, but perhaps not British.

I offer my thanks to the British people, not for reinforcing our mistakes, but for refusing to abandon us to them.

Ed-You-Kay-Shun

"Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" [1]

"Childrens do learn!" [2]


[1] President Bush, 2001, at Washington TV/Radio Correspondents dinner

[2] President Bush, Wednesday September 26, 2007, addressing New York school children