At least we get to keep SOME civil liberties

CNN.com - House approves Patriot Act renewal - Mar 7, 2006

Ok, it's not as bad as it could be. And, some of its original provisions WERE necessary. Hopefully, as the War on Terror winds down, we can keep watering down this monstrosity and gradually win back our inalienable rights.

Joby Fortson & Texas Redistricing

The New Yorker: Fact

Once again, a private email that Joby Fortson sent to a small group of his friends has made it into print in a story regarding the Texas 2002 redistricting. The original article, as well as this one, is unfair to Joby for a number of reasons:

(1) The original email was a personal message sent to a small number of friends, it was chock full of inside jokes that the general public, not being part of that social circle, didn't get; Because it was an email sent to friends, and not intended for outside distribution, comments on its grammar etc. really should be ignored.

(2) Joby is not, nor has he been, a political operative; rather, he is a very well educated person working in politics who took the time to do a quick and dirty analysis of the potential Texas redistricing results. Joby's analysis cannnot be taken to imply any work or assistance by him on the redistricting process;

(3) Any inferred malice on Joby's part was nothing more than good natured ribbing of his many Democratic friends. In fact, as a result of the email's inside jokes, Joby personally apologized to U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in writing after the email became public.

(4) Politics is a contact sport, and as Joby points out, the Democrats in 2002 reaped what they has sown in the 1990 re-districting.

How do I know all of this? I am a professional colleague of his.

The fact that institutions like the New Yorker continue to use Joby's analysis as proof of Republican malfeasance, simply shows how far the liberal media has to stretch to malign the Republican Party and its members.

Good news for small "r" republicanism

Rise in Online Fundraising Changed Face of Campaign Donors

Excellent quotes from today's Thomas B. Edsell article at the Washington Post (Page A03)

" . . . The surging number of campaign contributors in 2004, especially the small donors who gave online, changed the character of one of the most important constituencies in U.S. politics, the people who finance presidential elections.
This key group has become more reflective of the middle class, has a higher percentage of women and is far more willing to contribute without being directly solicited. . .

" . . .More than half of Democrats gave online, more than double the percentage of Republicans. More than 80 percent of the contributions by people ages 18 to 34 were made online. Almost half of all small, online donors gave without being asked first by the campaigns. . . "

This is very good news for our Republic. It shows the beginning stages of movement away from television-centered, one-way mass communications, and back to a more grassroots involvement in the political process. After all, elections and politics belong to the citizen voters, not the politicians we elect.

Brownie is the new Jewel

I'm so happy these tapes surfaced to vindicate Mr. Brown. Like others, I had found fault with him; however after reading about and viewing the tapes on the news, and watching his interview, I have changed my mind. He was a scapegoat for the highest powers; they rewarded his loyalty by throwing him to the wolves. Much like Richard Jewel, he was simply a man trying to help others, and was then crucified by the media, and others (including me).

He deserves credit, and an apology, from all of us.

The Subtle Pessimism of Earl

My Name is Earl is supposedly a show based around a (flawed)conception of Karma; or as the show puts it "Do good things and good things happen; do bad things and bad things happen." Therefore the show seems appropriately upbeat. But this is only a superficial reading of the television program.

Despite the nobleness of Earl's mission to right the wrongs he has committed, it is never easy for him, and usually costs him more trouble than he caused in that particular instance. Therefore, in essence, My Name is Earl is really a show about a different concept: that no good deed goes unpunished. A proper lesson for our cynical/realist age.

Modern Technology: Turning War into a Videogame

Will Saletan has an excellent article about this interesting topic in Slate on Feb. 12 called Joystick vs. Jihad. Below are a few choice quotes to give you the flavor of the article...

This is the future of warfare: hunting enemies abroad at little or no risk to ourselves. A year ago, at least 750 unmanned aerial vehicles were assisting American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan; by now, the number is probably closer to 1,000. The Pentagon's budget and its Quadrennial Defense Review, released last week, propose a near doubling of our arsenal; within two decades, "45% of the future long-range strike force will be unmanned." ...

... In the Cold War, we used satellites to spy and intercontinental ballistic missiles to deter. We could track the Red Army level Moscow in minutes. But those devices won't work in the age of terrorism. You can't see an army, because terrorist don't have one. You can't threaten cities, because terrorists don't own any and don't care how many people die. Our lame attempt to kill Osama Bin Laden with cruise missiles in 1998 exposed the obsolescence of satellites and missiles. We need machines that can hunt and kill closer to the enemy...

...Drones fit the bill. In Kosovo, we used them to spy. After Sept. 11, we armed them with missiles. We hunted and blew away one al-Qaida operative after another—at least 19 hits in the last four and a half years, according to U.S. officials. Whenever a commando assault in unfriendly territory risked too many casualties, we sent a drone to do the job. We couldn't match terrorists' love of death, their willingness to take their own lives in the course of taking ours. But we could counter their expendable human killers with expendable inhuman killers. The joystick answered the jihad....

...Reluctance to kill was a big problem in World War II. By one military estimate, fewer than one in four American riflemen in combat pulled the trigger, and "fear of killing rather than fear of being killed was the most common cause." The Army tried to solve this problem by making its training exercises feel more like real combat. But what if we could do the opposite? What if we could make combat seem unreal? What if we could turn it into a video game?

Very interesting article that is worth a look in Slate.

DVR Undermines Olympics Ratings

Ratings of Games take dive for NBC�-�Sports�-�insider.washingtontimes.com

The real reason that the Olympics ratings are down compared to other television is the growing use of DVR. Many people watch their primtime shows while recording DVR so that they can fast forward through parts of the olympics they don't like (for me that would be all figure skating, biathlon, and some of the women's sports).

Because Nielsen doesn't yet provide reliale ratings for people who timeshift the primetime shows, it looks like olympic viewership is going down. However, I suspect that most people w/ DVRs (a growing share of the population) are simply watching the olympics during the pre-primetime hours and that total viewership is static compared with previous years.

Clinton Abandons Freedom of Speech

ISLAMABAD: Former US president Bill Clinton on Friday condemned the publication of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) caricatures by European newspapers and urged countries concerned to convict the publishers.

What a coward. There's a reason that we, the United States, preserve and protect the freedom of the press - because it is essential to have as many different viewpoints as possible when operating a Democracy, as well as a basic human right (the right to free expression without fearing violence). But Freedom of Speech does not end becase somebody else is offended.

Now, I'm not saying the European Union is a democracy, because it's not. But civilized Westerners have been fighting for free expression since long before our Revolutionary War. The fact that Clinton would ask the US convict publishers shows that he really doesn't care about the values enshrined in our Constitution.
Clinton is backing away from American principles to appease the middle east and those in the West who sympathize with them. It really makes you wonder (again) whether he has any real principles at all, or is just a very talented opportunist.
Shame on him.

The Value of Lobbyists

The rise of the lobbyist is directly related to the poor pay on Capitol Hill and the Executive Branch. Every year or so, the Office of Personnel Management, the General Accounting Office, or the Congressional Management Foundation put out studies comparing the salaries of Hill Staff and Federal employees with their private sector counterparts. The results show private sector employees with the same education and background making upto TWICE as much money as their public sector counterparts.

Why does this matter? Because the people who do the legwork and have institutional memory leave the Hill or Executive Branch due to "status-income disequilibrium" (see Bobo's in Paradise by David Brooks). In other words, their salary is not commensurate with the prestige of the job they hold. So they look for a new position that pays more money. Thus Members of Congress thus lose the people who know best which policies and strategies have and haven't worked in the past.

However, Members still have access to those former staffers turned l0bbyists, and the former staffers still have access to their contacts including members. Without these former staffers turned lobbyists continuing to advise members, individual Congressmen and Senators would have to continually reinvent the wheel.

In short, lobbying provides a valuable service to Members of Congress, which is why they continue to flourish.

Oh- and the idea that a staffer can be bought off for a $50 lunch is absurd. Staffers value their positions, and want to protect their respective members, too much to do so.

Failed Equivalence btw Clinton Impeachment and Putative Crimes of W

ABC News: The Note: Hailing the Chief: "Wethinks doing everything you believe to be legal and justified to protect Americans against terrorism is not at all viewed the same way by the American people as doing everything you believe to be legal and justified to protect yourself from an intern sex scandal."

The By-Product Theory of Public Policy

A recent report by the Council on Foreign Relations bolsters support for what I began calling the By-Product Theory of Public Policy. The report states:

Dec 16 10:47 AM US/Eastern

The US Congress ends the year divided as never before, over issues ranging from the Iraq war, to immigration reform and a series of ethics scandals. Many political observers now say relations between ruling Republicans and rival Democrats on Capitol Hill are the worst they have ever seen. They predict the wrangling will not improve as the United States heads toward mid-term elections in November.

"People naturally disagree about who is responsible for the partisan tone and tactics in Washington DC these days, but most agree on this -- its worse, its more intense, and its nastier," said Nancy Roman, vice president at the New York based Council on Foreign Relations.

Much of the bickering is over Iraq, which has caused sparring between the two political parties and among factions within them.

The Republicans dominate the Senate and House of Representatives.

It has been weakened by a number of scandals, particularly involving House leader Tom DeLay. But the rift in the party became evident when the Senate last month voted 79-19 in favor of a resolution calling on President George W. Bush's administration to show clearer signs of progress in Iraq.

Republicans were also divided over support for an anti-torture proposal that Republican maverick Senator John McCain has forced the White House to accept.

The Democrats have also struggled to find a common voice on Iraq, torn between the public disenchantment with the US military campaign and the need to offer a viable alternative to the administration's "stay the course" approach -- particularly after Democratic Representative John Murtha last month called for an immediate troop pullout.

On most other issues, however, the political battles in Congress have been drawn along traditional lines -- with Republicans and Democrat squaring off against each other.

Senator Lindsey Graham told US television this week that Iraq more than any other issue has given parties on both sides ammunition to attack each other.

"There is no political consensus in this country. Democrats or Republicans are struggling. We've lost our national unity when it comes to Iraq," he said.

"I wish we would quit running ads against each other and try to find consensus."

In a letter to fellow lawmakers this month, leading Republican, Senator Richard Lugar, lamented the negative tone and called for greater comity.

"The quality of congressional debate has an impact on events in Iraq and our prospects for success," wrote Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"We should continually strive to elevate our debate by studying thoughtful sources of information and embracing civility in our discourse," he said.

The Council on Foreign Relations concluded in a study that the Congress wars were even weakening the United States on the world stage.

"People in both parties are complaining that they do not know what the other side thinks on critical foreign policy issues. They say there is generally less engagement and ideas are not being sharpened through debate -- the tough questions are not being probed," the report concluded.

"The job is to diminish and destroy any chance at political success before the guts of the policy are even contemplated," the document continued.

"Over time, the political game has overtaken the deliberative-policy process, which results in a dumbing-down of policy."

Thus validating my concept that any public policy actually enacted into law is a by-product of each political party trying to achieve advantage over its rival; it is not made through a careful, deliberative means.

LAPD Killed B.I.G.

Some conspiracies are real . . .

"Allegations published Friday in a Rolling Stone magazine article raise new questions about a possible cover-up of critical information about the 1997 slaying of rapper Notorious B.I.G. and the possible role of Rampart scandal figure Rafael Perez and another former LAPD officer."

More Evidence Religious Right is Anti-Woman

Many evangelicals unwittingly live as feminists, Moore says - (BP)

Canadian Minister Of Defence Claims US Developing Weapons vs. "ET" Civilizations

The former MoD claims that US ambitions to weaponize space and man a moon station are driven by knowledge of ETs and a desire to defend ourselves from them.

I also noticed the article emphasizes "ethical" ETs. I wonder if the Minister is doing this intentionally. Most people wouldn't bother commenting that ETs are ethical. Is this an attempt at influencing people to view aliens as benign or is he trying to send a subtle message that there are also malign aliens visiting?

Another Commercial Playist Update

Apparently, I'm not the only one to have this idea. Apple has released what it considers the top 50 songs used in commericals.

Commercial Soundtracks (Updated)

I also am mixing a CD composed entirely of songs that appear in television commercials. This gives quite a variety as older bands license songs to make money, while younger bands do it to get airplay and boost sales. A prime example of the latter is Dirty Vegas, whose license with Mitsubishi really paid off.

So far I have the following songs qued up to burn, and they're quite good so far. Just need a few more til I burn it.

1) Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins) - Major League Baseball)
2) Days Go By (Dirty Vegas) - Mitsubishi
3) Lose Yourself (Eminem) - Apple iPod
4) Whip it (Devo) - Swiffer
5) Baby got Back (Sir Mix Alot) - Target Back to School
6) Pictures of You (The Cure) - HP
7) 100 Years (Five for Fighting) - JP Morgan
8) Do You Want My Way (The Who) - Monster
9) Just What I Needed (The Cars) - Circuit City
10) Jane Says (Jane's Addiction) - Jack Daniels
11) Supterstitious (Stevie Wonder) - Levi's
12) Under Pressure (Queen) - Zales
13) Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand) - Sony PSP
14) Sweet Melissa (The Allman Brothers) - Cingular
15) The Boys are Back in Town (Thin Lizzy) - Wrangler Jeans
16) Dust in the Wind (Kansas) - Subaru B9 Tribeca
17) No Sleep Tonight (The Faders) - iTunes + Cingular

As always, suggestions and help on this topic are welcome.

My Online Personality Test Results

Main type	Variant

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test
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Enneagram Test Results Type 1 Perfectionism 80% Type 2 Helpfulness 30% Type 3 Image Awareness 76% Type 4 Sensitivity 20% Type 5 Detachment 50% Type 6 Anxiety 46% Type 7 Adventurousness 56% Type 8 Aggressiveness 63% Type 9 Calmness 66% Your main type is 1 Your variant is sexual

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U.S. Fascism on the March

Congress Arrives at A Deal on Patriot Act

The deal basically extends most Patriot Act provisions for 7 years. Maybe these provisions arguably were needed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. However, when the act passed, the public was assured that these extraordinary powers would would sunset after a few years. Unfortunately, Congress and the Bush Administration follow the basic bureaucratic desire to constantly aggrandize power and fight any diminution of power or authority.

American Fascism is on the march . . .

Politicizing the FDA

New York Times article
Washington Post account (better)

Congress' non-partisan investigative arm, The General Accountability Office, found numerous irregularities and substantial evidence of political interference in the FDA review process for making Plan B an over the countere drugs. One finding is that the FDA considered factors for Plan B that have not been considered in any other over the counter decision for the past ten years.

The Washington Post account states:

Senior Food and Drug Administration officials were told that the application to sell the "morning-after pill" without prescription was going to be rejected before the staff completed its scientific review and months before the decision was made public, government investigators reported yesterday

. . the GAO was unable to fully assess McClellan's role because he would not speak with investigators and because the agency provided no documents reflecting his communications with other officials. The FDA told the investigators that e-mails to and from McClellan had been deleted and that written memos were routinely destroyed.

Raising the possibility that this practice was a violation of federal record-keeping law, the congressmen wrote that "as the Plan B decision makes clear, retaining the documents of the agency head is essential for the transparent operation of government."

Basically, the sex-negative portion of our population prevailed upon the Bush Administration and HHS Secretary Leavitt to replace sound science on Plan B with ideological positions aimed at stopping people from being responsible with their sexuality. They would prefer instead if sex was only for procreation and not as an enjoyable act for those who don't share their values.

Bush Didn't Lie About WMD

Andrew Sullivan is very articulate in making a point I have tried to make repeatedly in the past: EVERYBODY was convinced that Saddam had WMD.

BUSH DIDN'T LIE: I'm sympathetic to the president's case that he was not the only one who supported war against Saddam because of the threat of WMDs. The consensus at the time - and it was shared by opponents and supporters of the war - was so overwhelming that Saddam's WMDs were a premise of everyone's case, pro and con. Maybe Scott Ritter and Baghdad Bob get a pass on this. But not many others. Nevertheless, all the rest of us were wrong. Were we lied to? I see no reason yet to believe we were - in the strong sense that deliberate untruths were consciously uttered. Was the post-9/11 atmosphere sufficient to blind many people to the possibility that they might be wrong about this premise? Certainly, that's the case for me. I wasn't skeptical enough. I followed the groupthink. I shouldn't have. It's also true, I think, that in the effort to ensure that the CIA was doing its job, some around the veep's office and elsewhere may have seized on materials of dubious, if not discredited, validity. In retrospect, they were not skeptical enough either - and they have a much higher responsibility in this respect than bloggers or even Democrats who do not have full access to the full intelligence.

One point Sullivan neglects is that it is also possible that the the US and the West were the victims of both Saddam's posturing to gain power and an aggressive disinformation program conducted by the Iranians (including Mr. Chalabi).