Monday, July 14, 2008
McCain To Support Morning-After Pill for Stupidity
By Don Davis
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"Look, do I have to draw you a DIAPHRAGM? It's obvious my mind is not a SPONGE, and I need a PLAN B to act as a PROPHYLACTIC against my blowing up like an IED, and causing my eventual WITHDRAWAL. Excuse me, I just watched my LIMP PERFORMANCE, and I feel a case of MORNING SICKNESS COMING ON."
You are not reading enough
Has the Internet killed the joys of sitting down with a good book?
The pile is waiting. The pile is getting higher. The pile looks impressive, probably isn't, still feels slightly overwhelming, vaguely threatening, even as it sighs, waits, drums its fingers on the inside of my skull, promising all manner of wonder and insight and syntactical bliss if I'd just, please, maybe, right now, even for just an hour or three, pay it some serious, focused attention. Please?
It's a bit of a problem. More than that, it's a moral, ethical, personal issue, a deep indignity of the soul, a painful twist to the nipple of my id.
See, I love books. Admire and appreciate and adore. Was a lit major at Berkeley, read voraciously, still love to read, still like to consider myself a big consumer of books and deep thinker about bookish issues and ideas and authoralia.
And yet, if I'm painfully honest, I have to admit it: I barely read books anymore. Not nearly like I used to, anyway. Not for a long, long time. And chances are, if you're at all addicted to the new media vortex, neither do you.
It's become a social conundrum, a cultural sore spot, a morose sign of the times. The question has been posed by agents and writers and a confused, hyperconsolidating publishing industry: What happened to all the readers? What happened to the culture of books? And the hint of fatalism, just underneath: If few truly read anymore, what of the state of the American mind? How much more dumbing down can we possibly stand?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/07/09/notes070908.DTL
Friday, July 11, 2008
Why Cheney Won't Take Down Iran
Reality Bites Back
Why the U.S. Won't Attack IranBy Tom Engelhardt
It's been on the minds of antiwar activists and war critics since 2003. And little wonder. If you don't remember the pre-invasion of Iraq neocon quip, "Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran..." -- then take notice. Even before American troops entered Iraq, knocking off Iran was already "Regime Change: The Sequel." It was always on the Bush agenda and, for a faction of the administration led by Vice President Cheney, it evidently still is.
Add to that a series of provocative statements by President Bush, the Vice President, and other top U.S. officials and former officials. Take Cheney's daughter Elizabeth, who recently sent this verbal message to the Iranians: "[D]espite what you may be hearing from Congress, despite what you may be hearing from others in the administration who might be saying force isn't on the table... we're serious." Asked about an Israeli strike on Iran, she said: "I certainly don't think that we should do anything but support them." Similarly, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton suggested that the Bush administration might launch an Iranian air assault in its last, post-election weeks in office.
Consider as well the evident relish with which the President and other top administration officials regularly refuse to take "all options" off that proverbial "table" (at which no one bothers to sit down to talk). Throw into the mix semi-official threats, warnings, and hair-raising leaks from Israeli officials and intelligence types about Iran's progress in producing a nuclear weapon and what Israel might do about it. Then there were those recent reports on a "major" Israeli "military exercise" in the Mediterranean that seemed to prefigure a future air assault on Iran. ("Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military's capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran's nuclear program.")
From the other side of the American political aisle comes a language hardly less hair-raising, including Hillary Clinton's infamous comment about how the U.S. could "totally obliterate" Iran (in response to a hypothetical Iranian nuclear attack on Israel). Congressman Ron Paul recently reported that fellow representatives "have openly voiced support for a pre-emptive nuclear strike" on Iran, while the resolution soon to come before the House (H.J. Res. 362), supported by Democrats as well as Republicans, urges the imposition of the kind of sanctions and a naval blockade on Iran that would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
Stir in a string of new military bases the U.S. has been building within miles of the Iranian border, the repeated crescendos of U.S. military charges about Iranian-supplied weapons killing American soldiers in Iraq, and the revelation by Seymour Hersh, our premier investigative reporter, that, late last year, the Bush administration launched -- with the support of the Democratic leadership in Congress -- a $400 million covert program "designed to destabilize [Iran's] religious leadership," including cross-border activities by U.S. Special Operations Forces and a low-level war of terror through surrogates in regions where Baluchi and Ahwazi Arab minorities are strongest. (Precedents for this terror campaign include previous CIA-run campaigns in Afghanistan in the 1980s, using car bombs and even camel bombs against the Russians, and in Iraq in the 1990s, using car bombs and other explosives in an attempt to destabilize Saddam Hussein's regime.)
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174953/why_cheney_won_t_take_down_iran
61-year-old librarian threatened with arrest at McCain town hall for holding sign
When Republican presidential candidate John McCan held a town hall meeting in Denver on July 7, 61-year-old librarian Carol Kreck showed up in the plaza outside holding a sign reading "McCain=Bush." She was asked by security to leave and then told by a police officer that she would be charged with trespassing on city property if she did not give up her sign.
When Kreck refused, she was ticketed, escorted off the premises, and threatened with arrest if she tried to return. "Why is that offensive?" Kreck said of her sign. "Why would Republicans who voted for Bush find it offensive?"
US will not hesitate to defend Israel, Rice warns Tehran
· Vow comes on second day of ballistic missile tests
· Leaders threaten to shut vital oil route if attacked
The US vowed to defend Israel and its other allies in the Gulf, as Iran carried out its second ballistic missile test in two days yesterday.
As the situation worsened in the Gulf, the French oil company Total said it would pull out of a large-scale investment in an Iranian gas field - a serious blow to Tehran, which is keen to exploit its gas reserves, and a victory for the Bush administration, which has been seeking to isolate the Iranian government.
A spokeswoman for the company said it was too risky to invest in Iran at present.
Oil prices resumed climbing yesterday as Opec said it would not be able to replace any shortfalls if Iran were attacked and took its crude supplies off the market.
The second volley of missiles was launched by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a politicised militia parallel to the regular army. The Pentagon, whose surveillance satellites and other technology track such launches, yesterday confirmed the second batch of missile tests, which were carried out at night.
Israel responded to the tests with a show of strength of its own, putting on display at the country's international Ben-Gurion airport its new spy and early warning plane, which can reach Iran. Israel also hinted that it would not hesitate to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
According to official Iranian reports, the weapons tested included long-range Shahab-3 missiles, capable of reaching Israel and US bases in the region. The reports said the missiles had undisclosed special features. But the Pentagon insisted they were only short-range ones.
The Revolutionary Guard commander, Ali Jafari, referring to the second tests, was quoted as saying: "The manoeuvre brings power to the Islamic republic of Iran and is a lesson for its enemies."
Iran has threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for Gulf oil exports, if it is attacked. Iran's state media said exercises yesterday involved divers and speedboats, as well as the launch of a high-speed torpedo called Hout. The missile tests and sea operations were an explicit response to Israeli manoeuvres last month, in which war planes were reported to be rehearsing air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, made it clear yesterday that the US would step in if Israel were attacked.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/11/iran.israelandthepalestinians1
Quote of the day
"The price of gas would fall by half, to around $2 a gallon, within 30 days of passage of a law to limit speculation in energy markets, four energy analysts told Congress on Monday."
- Rex Nutting
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Senate Joins House in Caving to White House Immunity Demands
Telecoms Let Off the Hook for Illegal Spying - For Now
Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Senate this afternoon passed the FISA Amendments Act, broadly expanding the president's warrantless surveillance authority and unconstitutionally granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the president's illegal domestic wiretapping program. The House of Representatives passed the same bill last month, and President Bush is expected to sign the legislation into law shortly.
"It is an immeasurable tragedy that just after its return from the Fourth of July holiday, the Senate has chosen to pass a bill that betrays the spirit of 1776 by radically expanding the president's spying powers and granting immunity to the companies that colluded in his illegal surveillance program," said Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "This so-called compromise bill represents a shameful capitulation to the overreaching demands of an imperial president. As Senator Leahy put it in yesterday's debate, the retroactive immunity provision of the bill upends the scales of justice and makes Congress and the courts handmaidens to the White House's cover-up of its illegal surveillance program."
The FISA Amendments Act won passage after several amendments intended to remove or modify the bill's immunity provision failed to pass. One amendment, offered by Senator Christopher Dodd, would have stripped immunity from the bill altogether. Another, introduced by Senator Jeff Bingaman, would have stayed the pending cases against the telecoms and delayed the implementation of the immunity provision until the Inspectors General of the Department of Justice and other U.S. government intelligence agencies finished their investigation into the spying program, thereby preventing Congress from granting immunity in the dark.
"We thank those senators who courageously opposed telecom immunity and vow to them, and to the American people, that the fight for accountability over the president's illegal surveillance is not over," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. "Even though Congress has failed to protect the privacy of Americans and uphold the rule of law, we will not abandon our defense of liberty. We will fight this unconstitutional grant of immunity in the courtroom and in the Congress, requesting repeal of the immunity in the next session, while seeking justice from the Judiciary. Nor can the lawless officials who approved this massive violation of Americans' rights rest easy, for we will file a new suit against the government and challenge warrantless wiretapping, past, present and future."
EFF is representing the plaintiffs in Hepting v. AT&T, a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of millions of AT&T customers whose private domestic communications and communications records were illegally handed over to the National Security Agency (NSA). EFF has been appointed co-coordinating counsel for all 47 of the outstanding lawsuits concerning the government's warrantless surveillance program.
For more information on the NSA spying:
http://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying
Contacts:
Kevin Bankston
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
bankston@eff.org
Kurt Opsahl
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
kurt@eff.org
Rebecca Jeschke
Media Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
press@eff.org
Rove ignores subpoena, refuses to testify on Hill
By BEN EVANS
WASHINGTON - Former White House adviser Karl Rove defied a congressional subpoena and refused to testify Thursday about allegations of political pressure at the Justice Department, including whether he influenced the prosecution of a former Democratic governor of Alabama.
Rep. Linda Sanchez, chairman of a House subcommittee, ruled with backing from fellow Democrats on the panel that Rove was breaking the law by refusing to cooperate — perhaps the first step toward holding him in contempt of Congress.
The White House has cited executive privilege as a reason he and others who serve or served in the administration should not testify, arguing that internal administration communications are confidential and that Congress cannot compel officials to testify. Rove says he is bound to follow the White House's guidance, although he has offered to answer questions specifically on the Siegelman case — but only with no transcript taken and not under oath.
Lawmakers subpoenaed Rove in May in an effort to force him to talk about whether he played a role in prosecutors' decisions to pursue cases against Democrats, such as former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, or in firing federal prosecutors considered disloyal to the Bush administration.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080710/ap_on_go_co/rove_subpoena
Sphere: Related ContentLife in a Carbon-Copy Town
What Dennis Has Done
By David Swanson
Imagine that you've not eaten a decent meal in months, that the hunger is squeezing and burning you from the inside, and that suddenly you find yourself at an 18-course feast of a dinner -- say perhaps at a summit meeting of world leaders discussing food shortages. You sit down at the table, and they bring in giant platters of the most delicious foods, building a rolling mountain chain of delicacies from one end of the table to the other. On Thursday, July 10, 2008, Americans, rich and poor, had this experience. Our national sustenance is found in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, and it's been many months that we've been deprived of them. In May of 2006, then House Speaker to be Nancy Pelosi had ordered impeachment "off the table." On Thursday, Congressman Dennis Kucinich put it back on, and we suddenly feasted our eyes on our recently lost Fourth Amendment, on our old staple Habeas Corpus, on our sweet Freedom of Speech, and on our bountiful right to be represented and hold our elected officials to the rule of law.
How did this happen? Millions of Americans made clear to Pelosi their demand for impeachment hearings for Cheney and Bush. And one member of Congress took unusual steps to bring impeachment back from exile. First Kucinich introduced 3 articles of impeachment against Cheney. Then he introduced 35 against Bush. And on Thursday he introduced a single article of impeachment against Bush charging him with misleading Congress into a war on Iraq. And in each case, Kucinich introduced his resolution on the floor of the House, forcing the issue into the media and public discourse, and forcing a vote by his colleagues.
Apparently feeling the pressure and reluctant to have Kucinich raise impeachment on a weekly basis, Pelosi told the media that she expected the Judiciary Committee to consider the matter this time, at least in some half-way sort-of-impeachment hearing. Kucinich held a press conference on Thursday at which he said that what he wants is an opportunity to present his proposals to the Judiciary Committee.
Imagine, for the sake of argument, that Kucinich gets what he's asking for or that Pelosi follows through on her statement in one way or another. The public pressure that has been building for over three years will have achieved a victory. The work of Judiciary Committee members led by Robert Wexler lobbying Chairman John Conyers to begin impeachment hearings will have contributed. But the proximate cause of Pelosi's restoration of impeachment to our public table will have been Kucinich's willingness to introduce impeachment resolutions.
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/34689
Sphere: Related ContentFish fossils plug hole in evolutionary theory
By Julie Steenhuysen Wed Jul 9, 1:48 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Some odd-looking fish fossils discovered in the bowels of several European museums may help solve a lingering question about evolutionary theory, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
The 50 million-year-old fossils -- which have one eye near the top of their heads -- help explain how flatfish such as flounder, sole and halibut developed the strange but useful trait of having both eyes on one side.
For flatfish, which lie on their sides at the bottom of the sea, this arrangement gives them the use of two watchful eyes.
But the trait has posed a problem for evolutionary biologists because no one had found any so-called transitional fossils -- fossils showing intermediate steps in the evolution of this trait.
"The important thing about this study is it delivers evidence of those intermediates," said Matt Friedman of The Field Museum and the University of Chicago, whose study appears in the journal Nature.
This missing link in the evolution of flatfishes has been seen as a hole in the theory of natural selection.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080709/sc_nm/fish_fossils_dc;_ylt=AiU0z_FYI_MZ4yy3VjFOMJADW7oF
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Bigfoot has a small carbon footprint
 | |
| July 10th, 2008 Because he lives a green lifestyle. It was environment week at News Groper. While that might sound a little dry, it most certainly wasn't. In a News Groper exclusive, Dick Cheney published the missing six pages of the climate report he tore out, Radiohead's Thom Yorke is optimistic that 42 more years of diplomatic pleasantries will solve global warming and Al Gore is sick of talking about the environment. (Much like you?)  What shop for photos? by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad You'd vote for McCain because of his pets? by Barack Obama Those six missing pages in the climate report by Dick Cheney  F--- Mario Lopez and his abs by David Hasselhoff This recession, like my hair, just needs an elaborate combover by Donald Trump Regards, The News Groper Editors | |
| News Groper is a network of fake parody blogs. | |
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Biofuels and the Global Food Crisis - Who Is to Blame?
U.S.-Brazil tension, a relatively recent development, resurfaced during the UN World Food Summit in Rome on June 3-5, encouraging the booming Brazilian sugar-based ethanol market to increase its new development projects. This rift represents a de facto counter move against the far less-efficient U.S. model predicated on corn-based ethanol production. Following the summit, Brazilian officials began a weeklong tour, stopping in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, during which they discussed a set of commercial agreements that will boost multilateral cooperation with several African countries. The trade agreements, projected to begin in 2009, include an expansion in ethanol investment, urbanism, air and sea transport, and cooperation in professional training between the two regions.
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In a statement that appeared in Brazzil magazine, Brazilian Secretary of Development Ivan Ramalho remarked that he hoped the meetings would enhance trade with other countries in order to diminish Brazil's over-reliance on the U.S. market. Brazil's recent trade initiatives with other developing countries have emerged largely due to the reluctance of some developed nations to lower trade subsidies. This impedes Brazil's ability to trade, adding significantly to the current debate over rising food prices. In an official statement released after the first set of meetings, Michel Alaby, Secretary General of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, called for solidarity among countries suffering from rising food prices and demanded that developed countries, especially the U.S. and Europe, eliminate international trade barriers in the agricultural sector (Brazzil Magazine). With the emerging agreements, Brazilian officials hope to call attention to the U.S.' highly inefficient corn-based ethanol production at the height of a snowballing food crisis. The government aspires to be a strong actor in the midst of the food crisis and plans to show the rest of the world the benefits of Brazil's efficient sugar ethanol market, while it professes to be executing projects stalling the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
http://www.coha.org/2008/07/biofuels-and-the-global-food-crisis-who-is-to-blame/
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Zen Of Midgets
The Japan G-8 summit photos offer a stunningly incongruous portrait of politics and nature.
One way to read the group shot involves the miniscule leadership displayed by world leaders just at the point the environment and climate change has moved to the forefront of the world agenda. To appreciate the larger tension in the photo, also consider that the leaders are actually sandwiched between the rock garden and Toyaka's massive Windsor hotel, this resort emblematic of the highest levels of consumption and wealth. (And, also notice how all of the male leaders except one thought to wear black this day.)
Similar to the first image, it is ironic to the point of blasphemy to see "W" -- someone so profoundly out of touch and detached from any true rhythm -- in such a blissfully meditative setting.
Courage Ain't Nothin' But A Six Figure Book Deal
by Paul Constant
The liberal Town Hall crowd applauded McClellan because he wrote a book titled What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception. It cautiously alleges the obvious: The United States government lied to its citizenry about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Some people are praising McClellan for being courageous. He isn't. And What Happened is not a good book. It's as bland, inoffensive, and generic as a political tell-all can be, and it contains exactly no insights or revelations. McClellan merely sold his story to the highest bidder because he is an opportunist and a fink.
In fact, McClellan is the worst kind of amoral snake-oil salesman, twisting with the shifting winds of public perception. If Bush's approval rating was above 50 percent, McClellan would still slither onto talk shows to praise the wisdom of the president's plan in the Middle East. He's the kind of idiot who actually says the word "irregardless" without any sense of irony.
But he does have the tireless, leg-humping energy of a used-car salesman, and I have never seen an author so shamelessly shill his work at every opportunity from the stage; practically every sentence referred back to his book, as though McClellan took a course on marketing before his appearance. He's obviously a spineless hack with a heart full of hate, but the Town Hall audience swallowed his bullshit so eagerly, their tickets should've come with bibs.
Media moguls meet at Sun Valley amid industry changes
By Sue Zeidler
SUN VALLEY, Idaho (Reuters) - The summer U.S. box office is sizzling due to hits like "Hancock" but Hollywood leaders focused on the chilling effects of industry change brought on by labor strife, fragmentation and new technology at the annual retreat of moguls this week.
Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp.
"The whole industry is in transition," said Anne Sweeney, co-chairman of Walt Disney Co's Disney Media Networks and President of Disney-ABC Television, as she left the morning session of the annual Allen & Co media confab in Sun Valley.
"I'd say that every day for the next five years, you have to track consumers and be adaptable," she said.
While the U.S. box office is on pace to top last year's record summer revenues of over $4 billion, industry watchers note the overall pie is being divided differently than a year ago as big studios such as Viacom Inc's Paramount have sought to cut risks but also profits by serving only as distributors of big films like "Iron Man" and "Kung Fu Panda."
Big studios are also facing oversupply as new, small players like Overture Films, Summit Entertainment, Weinstein Co and a repositioned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc have added films to the pipeline at a time of stagnating attendance and slowing DVD sales and an increasingly fragmented audience to the Web.
One speaker during the morning session of the conference predicted that DVDs were going the way of CDs, which have seen sales collapse with a wide-scale generational shift to digital downloading that the music industry has struggled to monetize.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Case Of The Invisible American War Machine
Last week, I thought there was something fishy about the photos from Amara, and now a new TIME article bears it out.
First, some background: In nearly every account of the push two weeks ago to clear out the Mahdi army from the southern city of Amara, the operation was described as an initiative of "Iraqi forces backed by US troops." Yet, in combing through the newswire images of the Amara action, I found a striking absence of involvement on the part of the Yanks.
...With one exception -- involving the first photo above, as part of that standard portrait of the "captured enemy weapons haul."
The fact the remote presence of an American GI commands first notice in the Getty caption seems almost too telling to ignore. It reads:
A US soldier stands in the background (L) as Iraqi police display a captured weapon in the southern city of Amara in Maysan province, 365 kilometers south of Baghdad, on June 18, 2008. Dozens of Shiite militiamen surrendered to Iraqi forces Today, hours before the expiry of a four-day deadline set by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for them to lay down their arms ahead of a new crackdown on militia in the south.
And the TIME article?
Well, stashed near the end of Monday's otherwise routine story about the Amara clean out ("Baghdad's Grasp on Iraq's South") was this passage on the American role, including a little nugget about the campaign's photo policy:
The offensive has been tough, Amara's commanders say, but they're not going it alone. Shortly after the morning's mission, four American soldiers visited al-Moussawi's station to inquire about progress made in dismantling an office used by the Sadrists. One of the soldiers, who said they were under orders to prohibit the press from photographing them, put the number of American troops brought into the area since last month at around 1,000. They are also building a new forward operating base in the area.
Indeed, despite a low profile, Harbia says the support provided by the U.S. forces has been a key component in Amara's success.
That General Petraeus, he's a PR genius.
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2008/07/amara-the-case.html#more
Atheist soldier sues Army for 'unconstitutional' discrimination'
/US KANSAS CITY, Kansas (CNN) -- Army Spc. Jeremy Hall was raised Baptist.
Like many Christians, he said grace before dinner and read the Bible before bed. Four years ago when he was deployed to Iraq, he packed his Bible so he would feel closer to God.
He served two tours of duty in Iraq and has a near perfect record. But somewhere between the tours, something changed. Hall, now 23, said he no longer believes in God, fate, luck or anything supernatural.
Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist.
His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety. 
In March, Hall filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others. In the suit, Hall claims his rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment were violated and suggests that the United States military has become a Christian organization.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/08/atheist.soldier/index.html
Sphere: Related ContentGOP club accused of racism for Obama web banner
By Cynthia Burton
The Web master, Ed Kuck, a recently elected Republican County committeeman, said he had seen the slogan on an Internet site and copied it onto the club's Web page about a month ago as "a joke."
He removed it yesterday from the site, http://homewebs.net/pem, after a community person told him it would offend people, he said.
"I found out it was inappropriate, and I took it down," Kuck said, adding: "I just want to apologize to anybody who was offended, because that wasn't our intention at all."
Pemberton Councilwoman Diane Stinney said a Republican friend had called to tell her about the ad, saying: "I just want you to know I'm very disappointed with our Republican page."
Stinney then reported it to fellow Democrats.
She said the slogan had offended her, adding that Pemberton is a very diverse community.
"We've come a very long way, and we people of different colors still have a lot of growing up to do, but there are other issues that the two [presidential] candidates have to and should be addressing," she said.
Rick Perr, chairman of the Burlington County Democratic Committee, said that, although the phrase was taken down, he preserved a copy of it.
Comparing U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee for president, "to O.J. Simpson, an accused murderer who was found civilly liable for his ex-wife's death, is reprehensible," Perr said in a statement. "Moreover, it is a veiled attempt at inserting race into the political arena, for which the Republicans should be ashamed."
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080709_N_J__GOP_club_accused_of_racism.html
State employee won't lower flags for Helms
U.S. and state flags have been flying at half-staff since Gov. Mike Easley ordered them lowered after Helms died Friday.
L.F. Eason III told his staff at the state Standards Laboratory to ignore the directive. The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that Eason sent workers an e-mail saying he didn't think it was appropriate to lower the flags because of Helms' "doctrine of negativity, hate, and prejudice."
Eason is calling it quits after 29 years with the Department of Agriculture after superiors told the 51-year-old to lower the flags or retire immediately.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/State_employee_wont_lower_flags_for_0709.html
Sphere: Related ContentNoah's Blog
Day 1
Rain.
Rain.
Day 2
Rain.
Day 3
Rain.
Day 4
Rain.
Day 5
Rain.
Day 6
So I was loading up the last of the animals last week when I walk past my neighbor Roger, the Molech-worshipper. He looks up and says "Hey, looks like rain."
True story.
Day 7
Now wondering if it was wrong to have borrowed Roger's hedge clippers.
Day 15
It's been the same every day for the last two weeks, but then last night, our mama elephant gave birth. I'll put up some pics soon.
Day 16
Just look at this little guy. We need to name him something. Anybody have an idea?
Day 18
Note to self: next time I'm on a long cruise and I want to play badminton and I only have one birdie, play below deck. I'm so stupid.
Day 20
I hesitate to write this down, but here goes. . . .
I was working late last night when I felt something bite the back of my neck. Without thinking, I slapped it. Long story short, the new world might have to do without the zhingi-zhingi fly.
Day 25
New Year's Day. A few resolutions for this year:
- Lose weight (let's face it, I'm not 300 years old anymore)
- Work out more
- Read the entire Bible (there's only four chapters in the whole thing, you think I would have done this one already)
-After we land, once a week: date night with the missus.
http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/noahs-blog
Sphere: Related ContentCow farts collected in plastic tank for global warming study
Scientists are examining cow farts and burps in a novel bid to combat global warming.
Argentine scientists are strapping plastic tanks to the backs of cows
Experts said the slow digestive system of cows makes them a key producer of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that gets far less public attention than carbon dioxide.
In a bid to understand the impact of the wind produced by cows on global warming, scientists collected gas from their stomachs in plastic tanks attached to their backs.
The Argentine researchers discovered methane from cows accounts for more than 30 per cent of the country's total greenhouse emissions.
A worthless gust of hot air
Taking part in a traditional Japanese Tanabata festival in Hokkaido this week, George Bush tied a piece of parchment to a bamboo tree. On the parchment, the President of the United States outlined his dearest wishes for the future of the planet. And there is evidence of yet more wishful thinking in the G8's communiqué on climate change from Hokkaido.
The leaders of the world's eight largest economies committed themselves to "avoiding the most serious consequences of climate change". They also set themselves a goal of halving global emissions by the middle of the century. It is hard to fault the target. But how is it going to be achieved?
There is no detail in the communiqué; no medium-term targets; no commitment to agreeing a legally binding successor to the Kyoto protocol at Copenhagen next year. There is not even agreement on the date from which CO2 cuts will be measured. The European Union is measuring its own targets from 1990 levels, but the Japanese Prime Minister spoke this week about using the considerably higher 2000 level as a benchmark. By far the biggest problem, though, is the lack of detail on the method. These leaders can set all the long-term goals they like, but without realistic means of achieving them, any document they produce will simply be a gust of hot air.
Should Bush be tried for war crimes?
The chorus demanding George Bush be prosecuted for torture and other constitutional abuses is getting louder
I had a good laugh when my friend Seth Gitell reported in the New York Sun on a campaign by the dean of the obscure Massachusetts School of Law to put George Bush and other top White House officials on trial for war crimes.
Lawrence Velvel, Gitell notes, wrote last month that his model was the Nuremberg trials held after second world war. Velvel went so far as to say that "we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top Germans and Japanese." Oh, my.
Though I found Velvel's apparently earnest quest as ridiculous as Gitell did, the idea of holding our leaders accountable for the crimes and constitutional violations of the past seven and a half years isn't ridiculous in the least.
We are less than a decade removed from impeaching a president and nearly relieving him of office because of a lie in a civil deposition about blowjobs. Yet when congressman Dennis Kucinich recently attempted to impeach Bush over torture, extraordinary rendition and other grotesque constitutional abuses, Kucinich's embarrassed fellow Democrats couldn't kill the measure quickly enough.
Why? Top Democrats are so complicit in what has happened since 9/11 that my guess is they dare not travel down that road. From voting in favor of the war in Iraq to holding the telecommunications companies guiltless for their role in spying on Americans (Barack Obama infuriated much of his progressive base by voting for immunity), the Democrats have often acted more as enablers than as a true opposition party. From their point of view, no doubt it's best to move on.
And yet we can't move on. Everywhere you turn, there are reminders of the demons that have been unleashed in the name of fighting terrorism. We are less democratic and less free than we were before Bush and Dick Cheney entered office following an election that they demonstrably did not win. If we don't come to terms with what happened, there's little chance of reversing our slide into authoritarianism.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/08/usa.warcrimes
A Tale of Two Cities
by caaron
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
And when it comes to broadband, Tokyo is a long way from Little Rock.
The Japanese enjoy broadband speeds that are up to 30 times faster than what's available here at a far lower cost. This faster, cheaper, universal broadband access – according to an excellent article in today's Washington Post – "is pushing open doors to Internet innovation that are likely to remain closed for years to come in much of the United States."
To the Japanese, our "high-speed" Internet service doesn't look much different from dial-up:
The speed advantage allows the Japanese to watch broadcast-quality, full-screen television over the Internet, an experience that mocks the grainy, wallet-size images Americans endure.
Ultra-high-speed applications are being rolled out for low-cost, high-definition teleconferencing, for telemedicine — which allows urban doctors to diagnose diseases from a distance — and for advanced telecommuting to help Japan meet its goal of doubling the number of people who work from home by 2010.
Open Secrets
What's the secret of Japan's success? Open access.
Less than a decade ago, DSL service in Japan was slower and pricier than in the United States. So the Japanese government mandated open access policies that forced the telephone monopoly to share its wires at wholesale rates with new competitors. The result: a broadband explosion.
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2007/08/29/a-tale-of-two-cities/
The Mind and the Obama Magic
But before I get into the details, it is important to get a sense of why Obama might be "moving to the Right." There are at least three possibilities. The first is for political expediency. The second is to reassure voters that he is a responsible leader, not a crazy radical. The third is that he thinks that nuanced positions don't have the effect of the moving to the right.
Let's start with the first possibility -- expediency, the one assumed by most observers.
The Political Expediency Argument
The usual political wisdom is (1) voters vote on the basis of positions on issues, (2) there is a left-to-right spectrum of voters defined by positions on issues, (3) most voters are in the "center." Polls are constructed to appear consistent with this tri-partite hypothesis. The Dick Morris strategy, based on this hypothesis, says: if a Democrat moves the Right, he will get more votes because he will "take away" the other side's issues. If Obama and his advisors believe this, then the more they more to the Right, the bigger their win should be. But all three hypotheses are false, and so is the conclusion based on it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/the-mind-and-the-obama-ma_b_111105.html
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Barack Obama should not move, or even appear to be moving, toward right-wing views on issues -- even with nuanced escape clauses. Arianna Huffington, Paul Krugman, and the NY Times Editorial Page all agree, for various reasons. I agree as well, for many of the same reasons, as well as important reasons that go beyond even excellent political commentary. My reasons have to do with results in the cognitive and brain sciences, as discussed in my recent book, The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st Century Politics with an 18th Century Brain.