Chaos Digest

future pilot

2006-11-01T02:14:00.000-06:00

golfquote
Originally uploaded by haydesigner.

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We're Moving!

2006-08-05T00:08:00.000-05:00

Check out the new site.

Religious Recognition

2006-08-04T19:13:00.000-05:00

Got this from my cousin (thanks Mess!)... in these trying times, it truly is necessary to recognize, and acknowledge, the differences between faiths:

In these times, it is important for all of us of all faiths to recognize these four Religious Truths:

Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's chosen people.
Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian World.
Baptists do not recognize each other at Hooters.

Australia blogging, volume 1

2006-08-04T18:15:00.000-05:00

Do not call him a "koala bear".

He's a marsupial. Also, do not call him a "koala marsupial". Sarcasm sometimes doesn't translate (as some of my coworkers and I learned).

This was taken at my conference's gala event on Wednesday evening. This little guy was completely docile and didn't mind being manhandled by a bunch of people. In fact, he was a complete ham and would pose for pictures. We were able to pet them, and their fur is soft, but slightly on the coarse side. He pretty much just sat on the tree, munched eucalyptus and turned to face the camera. A few delegates were able to touch noses with him, but I was a bit too chicken for that. Pretty much everyone there was facinated by these guys (there were two, but this was the more photogenic of them), and by the end of the cocktail hour, many of us were threatening to take him home (Although I'm sure I would have had a problem with customs).

This morning we leave Sydney for Cairns. More pictures coming soon!

Rabid Chinese

2006-08-04T06:19:00.000-05:00

I'm not quite sure how to react to this:

They said they would kill all dogs within five km of 16 villages where rabies had been found, suggesting 500,000 dogs were under threat.

The move comes days after 50,000 dogs were killed in south-western China in response to a rabies outbreak.

In a five-day cull, dogs were clubbed to death in the street as their owners watched. Other dog owners took matters into their own hands, poisoning or electrocuting their pets.

I honestly understand the substantial danger of rabies, but can't they just innoculate all the dogs? Or is it just easier/cheaper to force a killing rampage?

But regardless of all that, how could someone -- anyone, really -- possibly club a dog to death? How could anyone watch it? How could an owner stand by? I literally would try to pummel the person unconscious who was trying to do that to either of my dogs.

This one's for the Finns

2006-08-04T02:47:00.000-05:00

A lot of our groupies are Finnish. Dunno why but it is true.
So, debate amongst yourselves.

Five weird things about me

2006-08-04T00:39:00.000-05:00

1. My eyes change color from blue to grey to bright emerald or olive green with brown flecks. Some days they are a mottled mix of all of them. There is no "most" or "all" box for eye color on the driver's license application.

2. Artificial languages in movies and television shows stick with me. I can, for pathetic example, tell you Leeloo's whole name if you ask.

3. Animals like me. Just about all of them. It freaks out my husband.

4. I have an impossible-to-place accent. I used to have a Finnish one, and then there were the Valley Girl days, then a lot of newscaster-type practice on losing both accents. Somewhere in there my elocution became a bit too clipped. The scotch-and-cigarettes, phone-sex voice helps, tho.

5. I married my ex-boyfriend's best friend. My husband is also the former husband of an old business partner. It is a long, drawn-out saga that is probably not as sordid as you might think. Oh okay, maybe a little sordid.

So there you have it. Now I tag all of our posters, TheHim, Daniel and The Culture Ghost.

Election prelude?

2006-08-02T19:13:00.000-05:00

Conservatives lose majority on State Board of Ed. Giant turtle on whose back we ride said to be disappointed.

Natural gas prices soar

2006-08-02T10:43:00.000-05:00

Natural gas futures soared for the third straight day Wednesday as scorching temperatures baked states in the Northeast and the Midwest.

Those of you in winter states, remember those staggeringly high heating bills last year? Well, this winter ain't looking so good either.

Hmm, that is a lot of soap

2006-08-02T10:28:00.000-05:00

I want the time to build one of these. For anyone who might be able to translate... I am curious to know what they are exclaiming.

100 Reasons

2006-08-02T09:39:00.000-05:00

With just 100 days until election day, the DSCC has a list of 100 Reasons For A New Direction. I seriously thought I was going to trim it down to about 10 or so, but sadly (seriously, I wish this list did not exist), it became too hard to ignore most, and probably ended up with about 60 or so.

The ones that disturb me the most I bolded:

1. Failure to plan for post-war Iraq
2. Failure to reduce violence in Iraq
3. Failure to be honest with the American people about WMD intelligence
4. Failure to hold Administration accountable for failed policies in Iraq
5. Failure to conduct Congressional oversight of White House management of Iraq
6. Failure to listen to General Shinseki about troop levels needed in Iraq
7. Failure to honestly account for the fiscal costs of the Iraq War
8. Failure to provide adequate armor to American troops on the front lines in Iraq
9. Failure to prevent or even investigate contract abuse by firms like Halliburton
11. Failure to capture Osama bin Laden
13. Failure to prevent Somalia from falling to Pro-al Qaeda Islamic extremists
14. Failure to follow through on the war in Afghanistan
15. Failure to secure many terrorist convictions
16. Failure to effectively respond to Hurricane Katrina
21. Failure to enact the 9/11 Commissions recommendations
23. Failure to curb billions of dollars of contract abuse in the Dept of Homeland Security
24. Failure to conduct Phase II of pre-war intel probe as promised by Chairman Roberts
26. Failure to secure the Social Security numbers of 26.5 million veterans
29. Failure to keep the military at readiness level needed to counter new threats
30. Failure to prevent North Korea from quadrupling its nuclear inventory
31. Failure to further prevent war in the Middle East
32. Failure to stabilize Middle East after Iraq, allowing Iran to expand its influence
37. Failure to prevent Russia’s slide away from democracy
38. Failure to heed warnings that VA was underfunded, resulting in a $1 billion shortfall
39. Failure to provide mandatory funding for veterans’ health care
40. Failure to end record-breaking GOP-created budget deficits
47. Failure to stop giving tax breaks to companies that send U.S. jobs abroad
48. Failure to restore job growth to Clinton levels
49. Failure to reduce number of Americans in poverty
50. Failure to increase real household income
51. Failure to reduce income inequality
52. Failure to pass pension reform
57. Failure to reduce reliance on foreign oil
59. Failure to revoke massive tax breaks for oil companies bringing in record profits
60. Failure to enact price gouging legislation
65. Failure to enforce the Clean Air Act
68. Failure to put seniors ahead of big drug companies in the new prescription drug bill
70. Failure to be up-front about the real costs of the Medicare Part D legislation
78. Failure to pass comprehensive ethics reform even after Jack Abramoff’s guilty plea
79. Failure to close the revolving door between Congress and lobbyists
80. Failure to investigate the CIA leak case
81. Failure to fire any administration official involved in the CIA leak case [haydesigner's note: As Bush promised he would do!!]
85. Failure to fully fund No Child Left Behind
90. Failure to boost maximum Pell Grant amount as promised
91. Failure to renew the ban on assault weapons
94. Failure to confront the White House when it’s wrong
99. Failure to focus on issues important to the public instead of pandering to conservatives with wedge issues

Just Breathe

2006-08-02T08:46:00.000-05:00

Since the asthma medication is flowing this week, here is a topic near and dear to my, umm, lungs. Two bills (H.R. 3282 and H.R. 5766) are coming up for a vote in congress. Each seeks to undermine clean air legislation. The American Lung Association has set up a form. Send a note to your congressperson to vote "no" on these bills.

The Best Impeach.

2006-08-01T23:12:00.000-05:00

Ever.

Tell me again that all the troops support the president.

Thanks to Freeway Blogger, via Apostropher.

GOP Shenanigan Roundup

2006-08-01T12:42:00.000-05:00

Out in Pennsylvania, Santorum gets help from a Green whore:

Thanks to the generosity of GOP donors, a Green Party candidate is expected to make it onto the ballot in Pennsylvania's Senate race and siphon votes from Democratic front-runner Bob Casey in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Rick Santorum

Meanwhile, some Marion County, Indiana voters suddenly aren't voters anymore.

Republicans may continue purging names from the Marion County voter rolls despite Democrats' concerns that some voters could be disenfranchised.

In an emergency meeting Monday, the Marion County Election Board sided with Republicans, who were concerned about potential voter fraud due to people registered in more than one location and deceased voters who were never taken off the books.
The Election Board voted 2-1 in favor of allowing Republicans to continue purging names.
The controversy began Friday when Republicans started removing the names of voters they thought were ineligible. The names came from a list supplied by a vendor contracted by the secretary of state's office that indicated about 36,000 Marion County voter registrations were questionable. Republicans were certain that about 4,500 of those names should be purged immediately. Purging of additional names also is being considered.

And in Alabama, Republicans are hoping to let the state's Republican governor set up and manage their new voter database, rather than placing the process in the hands of an impartial third party.

Alabama's probate judges have asked a federal court to keep the Alabama Democratic Party out of a lawsuit over development of a statewide voter registration database.

The filing by the Alabama Probate Judges Association said allowing the Democrats to intervene would unnecessarily inject politics into the case, which is what Democrats said Republicans were trying to do.

The latest pleading came after state Democratic Party chairman Joe Turnham filed a motion last week seeking to stop the court from naming Republican Gov. Bob Riley to take over the task of setting up the voter database. Turnham called that "a partisan attempt to affect the Democratic secretary of state negatively in the upcoming election."

Back To The Attic

2006-08-01T12:15:00.000-05:00

Less than a year after a conservative Republican majority on the State Board of Education adopted rules for teaching science containing one of the broadest challenges in the nation to Darwin’s theory of evolution, moderate Republicans and Democrats are mounting a fierce counterattack. They want to retake power and switch the standards back to what they call conventional science.

Today In History: The Battle of Athens

2006-08-01T12:14:00.000-05:00

The so-called "Battle of Athens" began Aug. 1, 1946, when veterans opened fire on the local jail to stop corrupt local officials from stealing an election.

"It was scary," said Powers, a retired elementary school principal who was right in the middle of the fighting and was sprayed with pellets from a shotgun blast.

Felix Harrod, 84, was a 25-year-old poll watcher at the courthouse during the shootout and said it was common for incumbents in the county about 45 miles northeast of Chattanooga to take ballot boxes to the jail and stuff them with pre-marked ballots.

That was a practice the former soldiers hoped to stop. They offered an all-ex-GI, nonpartisan ticket that promised a fraud-free election and reform. Their rallying cry: "Why fight overseas for freedom and come home and be denied the right to have your ballot counted?"

The shooting continued until the pre-dawn of Aug. 2 when the former soldiers tossed dynamite at the jail, prompting deputies and a sheriff candidate holed up with ballot boxes to surrender.

The uprising left one man with a bullet wound and sent a deputy to prison.

On the 60th anniversary of the uprising, Powers and others who can recall the 1946 violence shake their head as state election officials predict only about 35 percent of voters will cast ballots in Thursday's primaries in Tennessee.

"The lesson is that people ought to take voting a whole lot more seriously than they do and not let things get out of hand," Powers said. "Don't let the politicians just take over."

We've come a long way, haven't we?

One of the stupidest things I've read in awhile

2006-08-01T08:10:00.000-05:00

Due to unintended effects, a law can achieve the opposite of its supporters' intentions. The minimum wage is such a law.

It is intended to reduce poverty, but it does not. Instead it encourages teenagers to drop out of school and reduces low-income workers' future job prospects and earnings.

I glanced at the report they all referred to... it takes two fairly arbitrary pieces of data -- data that may very well be completely unrelated -- and assigns an assumption that the authors apparently wanted to be true.

It is official

2006-07-31T21:31:00.000-05:00

In the mail today:

San Diego State University
The Tustees of The California State Univeristy
upon recommendation of the Faculty
have conferred upon

Mrs. Haydesigner

the Degree of

Master of Business Administration

with all rights, priviledges and honors thereunto appertaining.

Given at San Diego State Universtiy this
twenty-second day of May, two thousand and six.

Pinch My Ride

2006-07-31T21:21:00.000-05:00

Insurance companies generally won't pay for cars with transponder antitheft system that somehow get stolen. Those transponder antitheft system, which link a key a tiny computer chip to a car's computer are supposed to be, for all intensive purposes, theftproof.

They're not.

Then he confirmed Hyser’s story. The mythical Honda override exists: It’s a series of presses and pulls of the emergency brake. Each car, it seems, has a unique override code, which correlates to the VIN.

Then I grabbed the emergency brake handle between the front seats and performed the specific series of pumps, interspersed with rotations of the ignition between the On and Start positions. After my second attempt, Honky’s hybrid engine awoke with its customary whisper.

I had just jacked my own car.

Off the Beaten Path

2006-07-31T20:45:00.000-05:00

Now, I personally am interested in institutions of higher learning for professional reasons, but some of you may be interested for personal reasons. The NYT has a very interesting and lengthy article that may give you some new and very intriguing viewpoints:

"There are more than 2,500 four-year colleges and universities in the United States -- an educational landscape unmatched anywhere in the world

Pay less attention to prestige and more to “fit” -- the marriage of interests and comfort level with factors like campus size, access to professors, instruction philosophy. In their caliber of undergraduate teaching, many lesser-known campuses, in their opinion, are on equal or near-equal footing with brand-name universities, and in some ways are more three-dimensional.

“My view is that there is a very modest to zero correlation between general academic prestige and the quality of undergraduate experience available to students,” says Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. “Those seeking hidden gems are very wise, especially if they are committed to coming to a campus and becoming very active students, taking advantage of faculty office hours, undergrad research experiences and the like.”

“The difference in faculty quality between institutions is much smaller than ever,” Mr. Shulman says, “and the opportunities for students in smaller, less prestigious institutions has never been greater.”

Even the notion that a prestige degree unlocks doors and leads to higher earnings has been challenged...

It may sound weird, but instruction philosophy was the primary reason for my substantial dissatisfaction at SDSU last fall.

C'Mon, Kathy! Hang tough!

2006-07-31T15:18:00.000-05:00

The state Republican Party bluntly told Rep. Katherine Harris that she couldn't win this fall's Senate election and that the party wouldn't support her campaign, a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press shows.
---
The Harris campaign didn't return a phone message seeking comment Monday.

The letter was also signed by national committeewoman Sharon Day and national committeeman Paul Senft.

"Katherine, though it causes us much anguish, we have determined that your campaign faces irreparable damage," the letter said. "We feel that we have no other choice but to revoke our support."

"The polls tell us that no matter how you run this race, you will not be successful in beating Bill Nelson, who would otherwise be a vulnerable incumbent if forced to face a stronger candidate," it said.

Plan B (not from outer space)

2006-07-31T13:04:00.000-05:00

F.D.A. Plans to Consider Morning-After Pill

Monday, the FDA reversed itself, saying that it had reviewed about 47,000 comments from the public, with an overwhelming majority supporting the view that the drug could be sold both as a prescription and nonprescription product.

The only thing that has been keeping this from approval so far has been a bunch of fringe wackos (or as the president would say "my base") trying to force their values onto private medical issues. Every medical review of this product has deemed it safe and effective. It will still be harder to get than condoms which seems wrong to me, but its a step in the right direction.

Blair and Bush, sitting in a tree

2006-07-31T10:55:00.000-05:00

Republicans might be able to ratinalize Bush's horrible approval ratings as "partisan politics" brought about by ~~corporate-owned~~ "terrorist-loving liberal media" that spread vicious ~~truth~~ ~~truthiness~~ lies about our president... but it becomes a bit harder when his ~~only~~ closest ally is getting flat-out punked out in his country too:

Ipsos MORI found 67 per cent of respondents were dissatisfied with the way Mr Blair was doing his job, while only 23 per cent were satisfied.

People, as a whole, are generally pretty damn stupid. But when you have that many people in two of the most advanced countries in the world saying "Dude, your shit stinks"... well, even if you are upwind, you should really start to wonder that maybe the shit really does stink.

Strive

2006-07-31T04:39:00.000-05:00

"It matters little how we die, so long as we die better men than we imagined we could be -- and no worse than we feared."

One of the made-up quotes at the beginning of an Andromeda episode.

I saw. I liked. I blogged.

The egg no longer runnuth over

2006-07-30T23:54:00.000-05:00

Inks have been created to appear after three minutes to indicate a soft-boiled egg, after four minutes for medium and after seven minutes for a hard-boiled egg.

Also noted:

He said: "I love soft-boiled eggs with toasted soldiers but I get so frustrated if I get the timing wrong and the egg is too hard to dip my soldiers in."

Must... resist...

Oil Spill Threatens Lebanon Coast

2006-07-30T23:38:00.000-05:00

A Lebanese NGO has launched an international appeal for help to combat the environmental crisis caused by a huge oil spill south of Beirut, more than two weeks into an Israeli air war.

Smooth move genuises.

Justice In The Dark

2006-07-29T19:39:00.000-05:00

U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill.

A 32-page draft measure is intended to authorize the Pentagon's tribunal system, established shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks to detain and prosecute detainees captured in the war on terror. The tribunal system was thrown out last month by the Supreme Court.

Administration officials, who declined to comment on the draft, said the proposal was still under discussion and no final decisions had been made.

Senior officials are expected to discuss a final proposal before the Senate Armed Services Committee next Wednesday.

According to the draft, the military would be allowed to detain all "enemy combatants" until hostilities cease. The bill defines enemy combatants as anyone "engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners who has committed an act that violates the law of war and this statute."

Legal experts said Friday that such language is dangerously broad and could authorize the military to detain indefinitely U.S. citizens who had only tenuous ties to terror networks like al Qaeda.

"That's the big question ... the definition of who can be detained," said Martin Lederman, a law professor at Georgetown University who posted a copy of the bill to a Web blog.

Vote for me, and all your wildest dreams will come true.

2006-07-29T19:07:00.000-05:00

Katherine Harris' new campaign manager is an energetic young conservative best known for an anti-gay marriage initiative in Massachusetts and for bringing actor and National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston to speak at his liberal college.

Bryan Rudnick, a member of the Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee, was named her fourth campaign manager on Thursday.

In a statement, Harris said she was "delighted" to have Rudnick on her team, saying he "has over 10 years of experience in Florida politics."

That seemed to be a bit of a stretch, since Rudnick was a senior at Brandeis University in the spring of 2000.

¿Que? Cause/Effect?

2006-07-29T18:12:00.000-05:00

If you REALLY want to stop illegal immigration

2006-07-29T17:13:00.001-05:00

We all know Bush is a huuuuuuge hypocrite about the stem cell/snowflake baby veto, right? There is no possible way to logically dispute that (although if you feel you can, please let me know in the comments).

Well, here in metaphorical black and white, is another example of the hypocrisy, this time on illegal immigration. See, before the unelected boy prez Rove decided to make illegal immigration a hotbutton, election year issue, there were some rather obvious numbers that showed how the administration dealt with the 'problem' of illegal immigration. Now Spleen actually linked to this article a few days ago (for a different reason), but I thought it was worthwhile to highlight some of the other info... allow me to bold a bit:

The Bush administration in its first four years was responsible for 318 fines against employers who hired illegal workers, an average of fewer than 80 each year. That's down from 5,587 fines against illegal employers during the eight years of the Clinton administration, according to the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, an average of 698 each year. And the problem is getting worse; in 2004 only three employers received fines for illegal hiring.

Work site arrests have fallen even more drastically under this president. From 1995 to 1998, there were between 10,000 and 18,000 work site arrests of illegal aliens each year. But during the Bush administration, work site arrests fell to just 159 in 2004.

So, to be clear, BEFORE it became a pandering issue to white racists everywhere, the Bush administration not only did squat about the 'endemic tide' of illegal immigration, you could start to make a viable argument that they were enabling it with no enforcement of current laws. Hypocrite. Even with all the spittle and rhetoric and xenophobia flying around, the only sane and rationale way to stop illegals from coming over is to stop giving them the incentive to bypass the legal process. And in virtually all cases, that means not giving them jobs.

And how do you stop giving them jobs, everyone?

politics, politics, politics

2006-07-29T08:07:00.000-05:00

Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.
- David Broder

Is it a civil war, or isn’t it?

2006-07-29T04:59:00.000-05:00

Are there objective criteria to determine a modern civil war? Yes, all the ones from 1940 to 2005.

Does iraq fit all those criteria? Undeniably.

Did the US cause it?

What could it hurt?

2006-07-28T14:36:00.000-05:00

Since blowing the holy fuck out of everything and screwing millions hasn't produced the reverent poll numbers Bush needs to continue blowing the holy fuck out of everything and screwing millions, he's decided to try diplomacy (leavened with a heaping helping of "send someone else's army") in the Middle East.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday they want an international force dispatched quickly to the Middle East but said any plan to end the fighting must address long-running regional disputes to be effective.

The leaders, standing side by side in the White House’s East Room after meeting in the Oval Office, said they want to see a U.N. resolution aimed at the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants introduced next week. Bush announced he was sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice back to the region on Saturday to negotiate the terms.

His insistence that the resolution address "long-running regional disputes" would be prudent and wise, if it weren't coming from someone who hadn't spent the last few years trying to foist democracy on the Arab world at gunpoint.

Oh, and Tony "Checkers" Blair was there, too, though purely as a prop. If there's one thing Bush has learned (and the odds are good that it is just one), it's that you can't say "multinational" without waving around your tame, token foreigner.

The Obvious Comparison

2006-07-28T12:45:00.000-05:00

DarkSyde at DailyKos makes the following interesting observation.

Two examples of leaders of what some call proto-fascist subgroups within larger populations; Left: Mohammed Omar, reclusive leader of the Taliban. The Taliban is a violent subculture within a much broader, mostly peaceful Islamic population. Right courtesy Crooks and Liars: Ann Coulter is a member of the extremist neoconservative faction which exists within a larger mostly peaceful North American conservative population. Although members of either group would intensely dislike the comparison, components in both the Taliban and the neo-conservative religious right utilize similar propaganda tactics to spread a comparable ideology of authoritarian cultism, religious fundamentalism, violence, and hatred.

What, me worry?

2006-07-28T09:06:00.000-05:00

Alberto Gonzales appears to have missed a few important details in his quest to convert America into a torture state. Details like, oh, Title 18 of the U.S. Code and stuff.

An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts.

Senior officials have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment.

In light of a recent Supreme Court ruling that the international Conventions apply to the treatment of detainees in the terrorism fight, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has spoken privately with Republican lawmakers about the need for such "protections," according to someone who heard his remarks last week.

Well, what kind of people would want to go and criminalize abusive treatment of detainees? Sheesh, the nerve...

Is this propaganda?

2006-07-28T00:48:00.000-05:00

See, it is okay to have an agenda. It is when you have a hidden agenda that you lose all semblance of respectability (let alone believability).

And in case you were wondering, yes, that is the very definition of propaganda.

US Ambassador to UN Defends Record

2006-07-27T18:41:00.000-05:00

I was suckered into clicking the article by the apparently supportive headline. I admit, I was wondering what the positive things were that ~~Michael~~ John Bolton would point out that he has accomplished since vowing to reform the UN. Here is one:

'In my daily relationship with ambassadors, I treat them with respect and they treat me with respect and I think we get the job done,' Bolton said.

And damned if I could find anything else.

Seriously, if that is all you can say about your short tenure so far, why the hell would anyone consider him competent, let alone the best man for the job?

The hearing was interrupted several times, including when the ceiling sprung a leak and water began pouring down in front of the nominee.

You know, if I was one of the 'biblical/rapture/praisegod' type of people, THAT would be something I would take as a sign from above.

Republi...hey! Look over there!

2006-07-27T14:55:00.000-05:00

Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), who is in charge of keeping Congress in GOP hands this fall, surprised the political establishment yesterday by airing an early television advertisement that made no mention of his party affiliation.

Reynolds is chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

Here Comes The Neighborhood

2006-07-27T14:46:00.000-05:00

War protester Cindy Sheehan has purchased a 5-acre plot in Crawford with some of the insurance money she received after her son was killed in Iraq.

The group she helps lead, Gold Star Families for Peace, says on its Web site that it will return next month to protest the war in Iraq in the small town near Waco where President Bush has a ranch. Like last year, Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, will again demand to meet with the president.

“We decided to buy property in Crawford to use until George’s resignation or impeachment, which we all hope is soon for the sake of the world,” Sheehan said in a newsletter set to be sent to supporters Thursday.

They eat their own...

2006-07-26T22:02:00.000-05:00

US gov't sues Missouri officials on AT&T subpoena

Specter Signing Statement Bill Is Out

2006-07-26T21:44:00.000-05:00

Talking Points Memo has the text here.

Section 4 appears to disallow courts the use of signing statements as a "source of authority," which seems to mean that courts simply couldn't consider what the president may have written in a signing statement. This seems like a good thing to me, but then comes Section 5.

Any court of the United States, upon the filing of an appropriate pleading by the United States Senate, through Office of Senate Legal Counsel, and/or the United States House of Representatives, through the Office of General Counsel for the United States House of Representatives, may declare the legality of any presidential signing statement, whether or not further relief is or could be sought. Any such declaration shall have the force and effect of a final judgment or decree and shall be reviewable as such.

This, as I read it, simply means that Congress can basically declare a signing statement to be as binding as any law simply by issuing an "appropriate pleading," which I take to mean a consensus resolution.

Section 6 focuses on giving the Supreme Court the jurisdiction to interpret signing statements, and gives Congress the right to present evidence in cases where signing statements are considered. I'm way over my head here, but doesn't this basically serve to legitimize signing statements as part of the legislative process?

I'll want to see some professional legal interpretations, but my sense of this is that Specter basically did what I expected. On it's face, in today's climate, this would allow the Congress to challenge a signing statement in court. On the other hand, it looks to my unskilled eye like he's also proposed a mechanism wherein the signing statement helps guide the final shape of a law, and made it possible for a president with a friendly Congress to "adjust" laws by fiat. Fortunately or not, Specter's draft doesn't seem to be catching on with the rest of the GOP...

Why is the president ignoring our laws?

2006-07-26T14:42:00.000-05:00

Lou and I both want to know. I'd kinda like for him to knock it off.

With upraised right hand and left hand on the Bible, each of our presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush, has solemnly sworn to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution of the United States.

Blagojevich Increases Lead

2006-07-26T10:46:00.000-05:00

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has increased his lead over challenger Judy Baar Topinka (R) by five points since May, according to a new Survey USA poll.

Blagojevich currently tops Topinka 45% to 34%.

God Wants You To Carry Rapists' Children

2006-07-26T10:15:00.000-05:00

Or so says the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

A Good Samaritan Hospital emergency room doctor refused to give a rape victim a morning-after pill because he said it was against his Mennonite religion.

Rebuffed by the doctor, the woman called her gynecologist, who wrote the prescription. Her local pharmacy told her it was out of the drug and referred her to a sister store in Reading.

The former medical director of the hospital said he sees nothing strange about asking a woman from eastern Lebanon County to drive to Reading for a drug.

"People drive to Reading to buy jeans. Even if that were the case, that you had to drive to Reading to get this [prescription], to me that does not rise to a compulsion that you have to pass laws that [doctors] have to do something," Dr. Joe Kearns said.

Emergency contraception, often called the morning-after pill, gives a high dosage of birth-control medicine that can prevent pregnancy.

It's a pill that Dr. Martin Gish, the physician who treated the rape victim, said he has prescribed.

"This is an issue I've struggled with for years," Gish said. "My current feeling is life begins at conception, and I feel that anything that interferes with that" causes an abortion.

"The dilemma I have is the whole rape issue: Which side are you more concerned with? Are you more concerned about the mother or the life that was possibly created? That's my dilemma," he said. "I personally don't have this thing worked out. I'm not sure how my faith can line up with my practice at times of what I'm asked to do."

The state backs up his refusal.

Thank goodness for Illinois...

Conservatives Are Revolting

2006-07-26T10:06:00.000-05:00

Conservative national security allies of President Bush are in revolt against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she is incompetent and has reversed the administration’s national security and foreign policy agenda.

The conservatives, who include Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle and leading current and former members of the Pentagon and National Security Council, have urged the president to transfer Miss Rice out of the State Department and to an advisory role. They said Miss Rice, stemming from her lack of understanding of the Middle East, has misled the president on Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"The president has yet to understand that people make policy and not the other way around," a senior national security policy analyst said. "Unlike [former Secretary of State Colin] Powell, Condi is loyal to the president. She is just incompetent on most foreign policy issues."

He's going to have to do something; she won't simply be able to hide, like Don "Anyone seen Don lately?" Rumsfeld. It's really too bad she's not going to work out; she so perfectly complements the gaping void in Bush's understanding of the world that it's a shame to break up the set. Well, at least she'll have a little more free time...

Kathy Go Boom

2006-07-26T09:50:00.000-05:00

TPM has a Kathy Harris update:

A new Strategic Vision poll...puts Nelson up by 38 points. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
---
Inside: Harris spokeswoman Jennifer Marks dismissed the poll numbers, saying Harris had a "history of gracefully rebounding despite negative predictions and questionable polls."

Outside: "I've never seen a candidate implode in slow motion, like she has," said Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "She's become this walking, talking political time bomb, and she lit the fuse herself."

Well, haven't seen her say she won't drop out for a while now. Perhaps her situation is starting to sink in. On the other hand, she clearly knows how to jigger an election; perhaps that "graceful rebound" narrative masks some upcoming "surprise..."

When Shills Attack

2006-07-26T09:45:00.000-05:00

A campaign appearance by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today quickly turned into a bitter complaint session, with conservative voters visibly angry at him over illegal immigration and the parole of convicted murderers.

The San Diego County event, at a community park, was tightly controlled by Schwarzenegger campaign aides. But some members of the invited audience turned on the governor, while others alternately booed and cheered some tense exchanges.

Spineless Specter

2006-07-26T09:44:00.000-05:00

If the White House barks, Arlen compromises. Why is this quisling toady "leading the fight" against Bush's warrantless spying on American citizens? We could use some spotlight-grabbing dissent again, Harry.

The Pennsylvania Republican had called the media to announce a deal with President Bush that would force a judicial review of the NSA operation, which Specter, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called a "flat violation" of existing law. His uneasiness with the White House came out only under questioning. Specter admitted that he still did not know much about the secret program itself, since the president has refused to brief him on the details. More tellingly, he appeared resigned to not knowing, as if frustration was a fact of life for Congress. "I am used to that," he said.

Such defeatism is rare among the upper ranks of the Senate leadership, especially among powerful chairmen like Specter, who has played a central role in just about every recent legislative battle, from Supreme Court nominees to the Patriot Act reauthorization to the gay marriage amendment. This spirit of resignation will again be put to the test Wednesday morning, when Specter convenes a hearing on his wiretapping bill, a proposal that would radically reshape the legal landscape for warrantless electronic surveillance on Americans and others inside the United States.

Net Neutrality Update

2006-07-26T09:33:00.000-05:00

Art Brodsky quickly summarizes the current state of the Net Neutrality fight. It's not over, and our side needs to keep up the calls.

mathematically speaking...

2006-07-26T00:39:00.000-05:00

Breaking News:
President Bush quietly issued a signing statement yesterday that redefined "majority" as anything over 3%:

The problem mentioned most often by all the adults polled was the war - in Iraq and conflicts in general - 22 percent; economy at 14 percent; immigration and political leaders at 9 percent; the energy crisis at 8 percent and terrorism at 7 percent.

Other problems mentioned were: morality, 4 percent; education, 3 percent; crime and drugs

burn beeoch

2006-07-26T00:28:00.000-05:00

If mac users are looking to upgrade either their powerbook DVD drives ($91+shipping) or their desktop ($32+free shipping), those are the two cheapest prices I found for what seems to be the fastest drives out there.

Availabot

2006-07-25T18:56:00.000-05:00

I need one of these for each buddy on my list.

Arlen Specter is a lying bag of crap. Again.

2006-07-25T10:44:00.000-05:00

Behold the media narrative that Arlen Specter is riding to America's rescue, a cranky, gray knight on a big, white stallion.

A powerful Republican committee chairman who has led the fight against President Bush’s signing statements said Monday he would have a bill ready by the end of the week allowing Congress to sue him in federal court.

“We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will...authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president’s acts declared unconstitutional,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the Senate floor.

Specter’s announcement came the same day that an American Bar Association task force concluded that by attaching conditions to legislation, the president has sidestepped his constitutional duty to either sign a bill, veto it, or take no action.

"Poooowerful Republican..." Can't you just hear the hoofbeats? I hope so, because there's certainly a lot of horseshit here.

Specter's legislation is intended solely to create the impression among disenchanted voters that the GOP is actually a group of ethical people who will police themselves when things finally go too far.

Specter's announcement is fantastic theater, a fireworks display of pander, sidestep and misdirection. The reality of his legislation leading to a censure, much less an impeachment, of the president is almost nil. In fact, it's so unlikely that there's no way that containing Bush's actions could ever be the goal.

We know Specter's already outed himself as a liar. He claims on one hand to be averting a constitutional crisis and defending innocent Americans from a predatory executive, while on the other hand his proposed legislation legalizes unmonitored warrantless wiretapping and strips away the administration's accountability for crimes past and future. Glenn Greenwald has the analysis:

I say this because the provisions of the Specter bill which, as I explained here, provide such retroactive de-criminalization (Section 801), are not changed in any meaningful way through the July 11 amendments. If that is the case, enactment of this bill into law would be a travesty of unparalleled proportions, for reasons I explained here:
The idea that the President's allies in Congress would enact legislation which expressly shields government officials, including the President, from criminal liability for past lawbreaking is so reprehensible that it is difficult to describe. To my knowledge, none of the other proposed bills -- including those from the most loyal Bush followers in the Senate -- contained this protective provision. And without knowing anywhere near as much as I would need to know in order to form a definitive opinion, the legality of this provision seems questionable at best. It's really the equivalent of a pardon, a power which the Constitutional preserves for the President. Can Congress act as a court and simply exonerate citizens from criminal conduct?
The Supreme Court in Hamdan just made clear that the President's legal defenses for eavesdropping on Americans in violation of FISA are baseless. That means that the President has been violating the criminal law, and continues to do so. What possible rationale is there for Congress to immunize him from liability by retroactively rendering legal his criminal conduct? If political officials can violate the law, and then have their Congressional allies enact new laws to magically turn their crimes into legal acts, then the rule of law, by definition, does not exist.

Perhaps it's simpler to let the bill speak for itself. Here's Arlen Specter reining in the boy king:

"Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit the constitutional authority of the President to collect intelligence with respect to foreign powers and agents of foreign powers."

Why write a law at all, if not to legitimize the Bush administration's crimes?

Specter lied to us again today. Even as he claims to seek control of the president's outlandish and unprecedented behavior, he's planning to offer Bush cover on the most egregious and Nixonian of his crimes: selectively, secretly ignoring Congress, the body of law and the Constitution behind them.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the bill that's supposed to come forward later this week will, in fact, restrain the president's future actions, and hold him accountable for his crimes. I doubt it, but I suppose anything's possible.

What seems far more likely to me is that somewhere along the way, Arlen Specter decided that both the GOP and the country would be better off under a Republican administration, and that if he wanted to remain a player in the new order, he'd better do something to secure his seat at the table. Now, what does Bush really need? Easy! The one thing he can't get on his own: legitimacy. In exchange for power, Specter's going to give it to him.

I'm betting that when the bill comes out, there are provisions that will not only create a rubber-stamp legitimacy for Bush's previous signing statements, but that there will be a baked-in control method that will prevent hypothetical future Democratic presidents from taking advantage of the same power. Congressional committee review of Bush's secret vetoes basically puts legislative control in the hands of the GOP, no matter who controls the House after the mid-terms. Submit any bill you like, guys, we'll fix it in the signing statements.

Arlen Specter, the man who unmade the legislature. Nice work, asshole.

Can we do anything about this? Sure. There are still a few stopgaps left that might derail Specter's legislation. There might be one or two sentimental old Republicans would would prefer to govern a republic, rather than advise a monarch. The Democrats might stand the fuck up and start explaining what we know about Specter and his "noble" fight. Of course, nothing will happen unless the masses get restless. Things won't change unless the Congress gets word that the people are on to them.

We'll have more once the markups are released, so stay tuned.

Five 'killed' in Gaza shelling

2006-07-25T00:53:00.000-05:00

I'm curious... why is the word 'killed' in quotes from this BBC headline?

Five 'killed' in Gaza shelling

Anyone have any ideas?

How dare they want to actually do some investigations!

2006-07-24T18:57:00.000-05:00

Democrats do so hate America. And Democracy. Oh, and god too! And snowflakes! And everything else that will make you vote for me!

As for Bush himself, he is curtailing his traditional August working vacation at the ranch so that he can barnstorm before the midterm elections. Their outlook thus far seems so ominous for the G.O.P. that one Presidential adviser wants Bush to beef up his counsel's office for the tangle of investigations that a Democrat-controlled House might pursue.

I think that just speak volumes. Even to Bush-supporters.

George H.W. Bush and his Secretary of State James Baker were seen as heroes by some Palestinians; Bill Clinton made the quest for Middle East peace a centerpiece of his legacy project. Bush aides say the times were different then and the vaunted progress under Clinton turned out to be what one called 'a false stability.'

I wonder... what could have possibly destabilized the region? I'm drawing a blank here... somebody help me out....

Bubble bursting?

2006-07-24T18:13:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks old, but somewhat related to Rob's post below, it looks like we are getting strong signs that the housing market is starting its long, long awaited crash. I drove around the last two weekends on my bike, and I have NEVER seen so many "Open House" signs before! Seriously, some corners had like 6 or 7 signs (not just 'for sale' signs, but 'open house')... that is a sign that it is not just the owners, but the realtors are starting to freak out.

While I have no preconceptions about housing prices going back to what they should be (especially here in the insanely priced San Diego locale), it will affect not only the big money invested in construction, but also the huge housing job market. So many fairly unskilled laborers have been living a good life for the past 10+ years, asking and getting big bucks because the demand was so strong. But if/when that job market crashes, methinks many of whose laborers will have a hard time finding jobs that pay anywhere near what they have become accustomed to getting.

The Stupid Economy

2006-07-24T13:14:00.000-05:00

BOPnews' Hale Stewart hypothesizes the five major flaws of Bush's economy. Short form: weak job growth, weak wage growth, debt, federal debt and the deficit. He's got supporting data for each, and has invited reasoned dissent from them's as has some. Worth a read, if only to deflate the "bestest economy ever" bullshit coming from the right.

Signing statements “threat to the Constitution and to the rule of law.”

2006-07-24T09:58:00.000-05:00

Another red flag goes up, this time from the lawyers.

The American Bar Association said Sunday that President Bush was flouting the Constitution and undermining the rule of law by claiming the power to disregard selected provisions of bills that he signed.

President Bush signing the renewal of the USA Patriot Act. He later issued a "signing statement" saying he would disregard part of the law.

In a comprehensive report, a bipartisan 11-member panel of the bar association said Mr. Bush had used such “signing statements” far more than his predecessors, raising constitutional objections to more than 800 provisions in more than 100 laws on the ground that they infringed on his prerogatives.

These broad assertions of presidential power amount to a “line-item veto” and improperly deprive Congress of the opportunity to override the veto, the panel said.

While the ABA was careful to point out that this shouldn't be construed as an attack on the president, they must realize there's really no way out of a Cheney counterattack. For my part, any headlines that have the administration badmouthing the American legal process are fine with me. The faster people figure out the White House hates the rule of law, the better our chances of avoiding a dictatorship.

UPDATE: WaPo gets a clue.

"The president is indicating that he will not either enforce part or the entirety of congressional bills," said ABA president Michael S. Greco, a Massachusetts attorney. "We will be close to a constitutional crisis if this issue, the president's use of signing statements, is left unchecked."

Stopping inconvenient truths at the source...

2006-07-23T23:39:00.000-05:00

From 2002 until this year, NASA’s mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: “To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can.”

In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” deleted. In this year’s budget and planning documents, the agency’s mission is “to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.”

David E. Steitz, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the aim was to square the statement with President Bush’s goal of pursuing human spaceflight to the Moon and Mars.

But the change comes as an unwelcome surprise to many NASA scientists, who say the “understand and protect” phrase was not merely window dressing but actively influenced the shaping and execution of research priorities. Without it, these scientists say, there will be far less incentive to pursue projects to improve understanding of terrestrial problems like climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

Cheney: More Of The Same

2006-07-23T23:22:00.000-05:00

Had enough? Dick hasn't.

"This conflict is a long way from over," Cheney said at a fundraising appearance for a GOP congressional candidate. "It's going to be a battle that will last for a very long time. It is absolutely essential that we stay the course."

If this administration could do literally anything right, anything at all, now would be the time. Watching jobs leave, fuel prices soar, wages stagnate, money fly overseas, bodies fly home and our civil rights quietly float away while this lying fascist fuck stands in front of a podium and stridently demands more of the same is just too much to bear.

Lonely world

2006-07-23T07:10:00.000-05:00

But dernit, when you know you are always right, you absolutely must stay the course!

[Via Kottke]

Editors at Newspapers help terrorists

2006-07-23T06:29:00.000-05:00

But editors at the White House, why, they love America!

For that matter, the president's comment about almost being done with his remarks was removed as well. In fact, as it turns out, the Bush gang edited quite a bit.

As Dana Milbank noted, Bush mentioned his support for vouchers, prompting booing and cries of 'no!' that the record will not reflect. 'The booing,' Milbank explained, 'like the heckling, was omitted from the White House transcript.'

It's not as if the Bush gang doesn't believe in recording boos in official White House transcripts. Indeed, in one speech Bush delivered in Miami in October 2004, the transcript reflects 16 interruptions in which the audience is not only credited with booing, but the Bush gang even added an exclamation point for emphasis.

Thoughts...

2006-07-23T01:23:00.000-05:00

Just thinking out loud, but before this administration, we knew that:

Stubbornness (i.e. "Stay the Course!") was a negative trait
The President of the United States of America was not above the law (even Nixon learned that lesson)
Torture, as agreed upon in the Geneva Conventions, was heinous, immoral and illegal
Foreign policy had a vision longer than 3 months
We did not invade countries that did not attack us
Jailing people for 4 year with no charges and no legal help was illegal (and, quite frankly, incomprehensible)
In a democracy, poor people (or even poor cities) deserved as much consideration as rich people
Failure had consequences (on the people that actually failed, I mean)
Seething hatred (of anyone, regardless of religion) was not a Christian trait

I bet he liked slides as a kid, too

2006-07-21T23:24:00.000-05:00

Either...

2006-07-21T23:12:00.000-05:00

...you have to be seriously into the works of HR Giger and artificial goth robochicks OR seriously into amazing Flash web interface design to enjoy the work of Cromm Cruac. Either way, it's not something you run across every day.

Galactica Season 3 Starts In October

2006-07-21T14:54:00.000-05:00

Here's the trailer.

Extreme Hammock

2006-07-21T10:58:00.000-05:00

What if the Freewayblogger was just a total slacker? He'd probably do more stuff like this...

Southwest Airfare Specials

2006-07-21T06:20:00.000-05:00

If anyone is interested, Southwest Air just announced a $44 to $99 one-way sale.

Fly Southwest Airlines from $44 to $99 one-way in select markets with 10-day advance purchase. Purchase through July 24 for travel August 1 - August 16, 2006.

Here are Chicago's:

Chicago Midway, IL
$44 one-way, to/from Cleveland, OH
$44 one-way, to/from Columbus, OH
$69 one-way, to/from Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood, FL
$44 one-way, to/from Indianapolis, IN
$99 one-way, to/from Jackson, MS
$69 one-way, to/from Orlando, FL
$44 one-way, to/from Pittsburgh, PA
$49 one-way, to/from St. Louis, MO

There are other cities as well. Of course, San Diego's only option is to Oakland. Whoop whoop. Plus, I already got my tickets for Denver next month.

Nope, we're going to court.

2006-07-20T15:20:00.000-05:00

Despite the administration's claims that they're on solid legal footing performing warrantless surveillance, they've been dealt yet another legal setback.

A federal judge declined motions on Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit against AT&T alleging the firm illegally allowed the U.S. government to monitor phone conversations and e-mail communications.

At this pace, we ought to see some of these court proceedings hit right around the elections. Dems need to start hammering the privacy issue now.

Tell me more about these french-fry cars...

2006-07-20T15:15:00.000-05:00

Kuwaiti economists suggest the Israel/Lebanon conflict could drive oil over $100 a barrel.

What's the time? It's time to get ill!

2006-07-20T10:59:00.000-05:00

McDonald’s Corp. is striking back in the ongoing fast food breakfast war with a new billboard in Wrigleyville.

Designed by ad agency Leo Burnett with the input of an engineer, the billboard features a real sundial whose shadow falls on a different breakfast item each hour until noon, when the shadow of the McDonald’s arches are dead center.

Clever idea, but if you actually ate that much McDonald's food, you might run into, um, some health problems.

Subbacultcha

2006-07-20T10:09:00.000-05:00

Everything's cool...once.
(Hat tip to Edison, who's got an uncanny knack for finding weird focal loci...)

Stupidly Ironic

2006-07-20T00:32:00.000-05:00

PASSENGERS clung on for their lives as a luxury cruise ship came close to capsizing off Florida, washing people out of swimming pools and scattering furniture overboard.

The roll sent holidaymakers aboard the 113,000-tonne Crown Princess flying off their sunloungers and smashing against railings.

Stairwells and lift shafts became waterfalls as the ship's four pools emptied over the 15 decks, which were left strewn with broken glass and blood.

The incident, suspected to have been caused by a faulty steering mechanism, happened 11 miles (18km) off the coast of Florida on Tuesday. The ship's poolside cinema had been scheduled to screen Titanic hours later.

Yes, I get the irony of it all, but seriously, who the hell is stupid enough to think showing "The Titanic" on a cruise ship would be fun? It is like making people in a dentist's waiting room watch this movie, or making your kids watch this flick right before you drive them to summer camp.

And, of course, we are taking our first cruise in October.

Bush Invents New Classic Blunder

2006-07-19T13:09:00.000-05:00

Turkish officials signaled Tuesday they are prepared to send the army into northern Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi forces do not take steps to combat Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there - a move that could put Turkey on a collision course with the United States.

Turkey is facing increasing domestic pressure to act after 15 soldiers, police and guards were killed fighting the guerrillas in southeastern Turkey in the past week.

"The government is really in a bind," said Seyfi Tashan, director of the Foreign Policy Institute at Bilkent University in Ankara. "On the one hand, they don't want things to break down with the United States. On the other hand, the public is crying for action."

If the Turks invade, there's a fair chance that they'd simply annex northern Iraq, which would wind up dividing the country into Kurd, Sunni and Shiite regions. This would be bad, both for the Iraqis and for our efforts to stabilize the region.

[...]there is no way to divide Iraq that will not set off fights over control of oil. More than 90 percent of Iraq's government revenues come from oil exports. The Sunni Arab west has no developed oil fields and thus would have no oil revenues. The Kurds want the northern oil fields, but have no legitimate claim to them and no real way to export the oil they produce (their neighbors Iran, Syria and Turkey have restive Kurdish populations of their own and thus no interest in helping Iraq's Kurds achieve self- sustaining freedom). Control of Basra would also be an issue, with various Shiite groups looking to separate and take control of the oil in the south.

Dividing Iraq would also harm regional stability and the war on terrorists. Sunni Islamist extremist groups with ties to Al Qaeda already dominate the Sunni insurgents, and division would only increase their hold over average Iraqis. And with Iraqi Sunnis cut out of oil money, Arab Sunni states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia would be forced to support them, if only to avoid having the Islamist extremists take over this part of Iraq.

Iran, of course, would compete for the Iraqi Shiites. The Kurds have no friends: Turkey, Iran and Syria would seek to destabilize the north and exploit the divisions between the two main Kurdish political unions. In the end, these divisions could spill over into the rest of the Middle East and the Arab world, creating a risk of local conflicts and the kind of religious tension that feeds Islamist extremism.

Washington has made serious mistakes in Iraq, and they may lead to civil war. Dividing Iraq, however, is virtually certain to make things worse. It would convey the message that America has been defeated and that it abandoned a nation and a people. Even if one could overlook the fact the United States effectively broke Iraq and has a responsibility to its 28 million people, it is impossible to deny that leaving behind a power vacuum in an already dangerous region is hardly a viable strategy.

No wonder conservatives are pissed.

Conservatives complain that the United States is hunkered down in Iraq without enough troops or a strategy to crush the insurgency. They see autocrats in Egypt and Russia cracking down on dissenters with scant comment from Washington, North Korea firing missiles without consequence, and Iran playing for time to develop nuclear weapons while the Bush administration engages in fruitless diplomacy with European allies. They believe that a perception that the administration is weak and without options is emboldening Syria and Iran and the Hezbollah radicals they help sponsor in Lebanon.

Can someone tell me again why Condi Rice and Don Rumsfeld have jobs...?

More Bush monitoring, no Congressional oversight.

2006-07-19T12:57:00.000-05:00

[from Raw Story]
The ACLU has (probably) found three more major financial programs that the Bush administration has tapped into without any Congressional oversight.

Bolero: The Bill of Lading Electronic Registry Organization is an electronic exchange of trade for documents such as bills of lading (descriptions of shipped goods that control ownership of property when it is in transit). Owned in part by SWIFT, Bolero counts many of the world's largest corporations as customers.
CHIPS: The Clearing House Interbank Payment System, another financial transfer service, is privately owned by the New York Clearing House Association. It primarily handles international funds transfers denominated in U.S. dollars for banks and their large customer transactions. Customers include most of the major U.S. banks.
Fedwire: A wire transfer service run by the Federal Reserve, Fedwire allows U.S. banks to transfer funds to other participants on behalf of each other and their customers.

"The American public has a right to know just how many spying programs this administration has created without Congressional authorization or judicial oversight," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project, in a release. "We hope these official requests will help answer that question - and if illegal spying is taking place we will demand an end to it."

Reed Concedes

2006-07-18T21:52:00.000-05:00

And good riddance.

Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, unable to overcome his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, conceded defeat Tuesday in Georgia's Republican race for lieutenant governor.

Stuff It

2006-07-18T21:32:00.000-05:00

Bush Blocks Investigation Of Controversial Bush-Approved Program

2006-07-18T13:47:00.000-05:00

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal probe of the warrantless eavesdropping program that monitors Americans' international calls and e-mails when terrorism is suspected.

The department's Office of Professional Responsibility announced earlier this year it could not pursue an investigation into the role of Justice lawyers in crafting the program, under which the National Security Agency intercepts some telephone calls and e-mail without court approval.

At the time, the office said it could not obtain security clearance to examine the classified program.

Under sharp questioning from Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, Gonzales said that Bush would not grant the access needed to allow the probe to move forward.

What's weird about this is that it's a fairly frank admission that Bush obstructed justice. The fact that it's coming from Alberto Gonzales in sworn testimony in front of Arlen Specter guarantees that there's a high-confidence loophole in here somewhere, but it's still an incredibly brazen "fuck you" to anyone who values constitutional law.

Good News, Bad News

2006-07-18T13:14:00.000-05:00

Good news, the IRS is moving to keep political campaigns out of churches:

In notices to more than 15,000 tax-exempt organizations, numerous church denominations and tax preparers, the agency has detailed its new enforcement program, called the Political Activity Compliance Initiative, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Under the initiative, the IRS plans to expedite investigations into claims of improper campaigning, no longer waiting for an annual tax return to be filed or the tax year to end before launching a probe. A three-member committee will make an initial review of complaints and then vote on whether to pursue the investigation in detail.

Bad news, there may be an undue focus on churches that didn't stick to the script:

"The IRS should make clear that a charity's right to criticize elected officials is not suspended because an election is taking place."

Since 2004, the IRS has investigated more than 200 organizations, including All Saints Church in Pasadena.

Two days before the 2004 presidential election, the Rev. George F. Regas, the church's former rector, delivered a guest sermon that pictured Jesus in a debate with George W. Bush and John Kerry. Although Regas didn't endorse a candidate, he said Jesus would have told Bush that his pre-emptive war policy "has led to disaster."

The church drew national attention when the Rev. Ed Bacon, rector of All Saints, disclosed the IRS investigation and later said the agency believed the church had violated federal tax code barring tax-exempt organizations from intervening in political campaigns and elections.

The non-partisan OMB Watch has criticized the new IRS program, suggesting a high potential for abuse and a chilling effect on valid criticism of public figures.

According to the report, factors that contribute to the program's potentially chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech are:

- the vague "facts and circumstances" test that is used to determine if a violation has occurred;
- secrecy surrounding IRS investigations and enforcement actions;
- IRS statements that it intends to prevent repeat violations before an election;
- the threat that an organization's tax-exempt status will be revoked if it continues an activity that has yet to be deemed in violation of tax law; and
- a lack of deadlines for completing investigations and closing cases.

The report recommends steps to remedy these problems, such as issuing concrete guidance, and creating bright line rules defining partisan intervention, and/or safe harbors. The IRS, according to the report, should also develop complaint standards and investigate how other agencies deal with harassment situations.

"The IRS should make clear," explains report author Kay Guinane, "that a charity's right to criticize elected officials is not suspended because an election is taking place."

A complete listing of PACI procedures and guidelines are available here, if you're inclined to try and spot the loopholes. According to the IRS, there are still 40 cases pending from their 2004 enforcement push. I'd be curious to see how many of these were Bush critics, and what penalties get handed out.

Federal Star Chamber

2006-07-18T09:59:00.000-05:00

You can't have a democracy if the courts work in the dark.

A lawsuit in San Francisco federal court accusing AT&T of illegally collaborating with the Bush administration's electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens would be transferred to a secret court accessible only to the government under new legislation backed by the White House.

Of course, with the unrelenting push for expanded presidential powers, I'm not sure the administration wants a democracy anyway.

Oh, so that's what "illegal donations" means!

2006-07-18T09:35:00.000-05:00

Just in from the busy little world of our favorite Floridian...

Federal investigators have interviewed U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris' former top political strategist about the congresswoman's dealings with a defense contractor at the center of a widening Capitol Hill corruption probe.

Political consultant Ed Rollins confirmed Monday that Justice Department lawyers and FBI agents recently questioned him for two hours in Washington. He said the discussion focused on Harris' dealings with Mitchell Wade, a defense contractor who funneled $32,000 in illegal campaign contributions to Harris and also bribed a former California congressman.

Wade, who is cooperating with federal authorities, pleaded guilty to giving the illegal donations to Harris in 2004. He also admitted trying to curry favor with her in 2005 by offering to hold a fundraiser for her U.S. Senate campaign in Florida.

Fortunately, she's already lawyered up.

No good deed goes unpunished...

2006-07-18T09:25:00.000-05:00

We addressed this last fall, when the first rumors circulated.

A doctor and two nurses have been arrested in connection with the deaths of patients at a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina hit the city, the Louisiana attorney general’s office said Tuesday.

The three were arrested late Monday and booked on charges of second-degree murder, said Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles C. Foti.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the three were suspected of mercy killings.

Foti last fall subpoenaed more than 70 people in an investigation into rumors that medical personnel at Memorial Medical Center had euthanized patients who were in pain as they waited in miserable conditions in the days after the hurricane to be rescued.

I can only hope that these people get a chance to make their case in front of a reasonable jury.

But, but, what about all those taxes?

2006-07-17T23:32:00.000-05:00

[from Bring It On!]
If you'd like to be evacuated from Lebanon, please have your money ready.

The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need. For the portion of your trip directly handled by the U.S. Government we will ask you to sign a promissory note and we will bill you at a later date. In a subsequent message, when we have specific details about the transporation arrangments, we will inform you about the costs you will incur. We will also work with commercial aircraft to ensure that they have adequate flights to help you depart Cyprus and connect to your final destination.

Best food review I've ever read.

2006-07-17T23:00:00.000-05:00

If there were a Food Court at The Hague, the Colonel would be in big trouble.

soul sucking registration required (or BugMe Not)

Newest Apple release: xMac Rollup

2006-07-17T21:26:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I know this is a 'joke' product, but it is seriously where I feel the laptop will be going, perhaps in even less than ten years (I think I've even blogged about it here before).

The projected keyboard apparently has a working prototype, and I believe we already have flexible screens that roll-up (but only in B&W, I think). The glaring problem then becomes, what of memory and power source? The CD/DVD drive would be a huge issue here, and might be replaced by something like ultrahigh capacity thumbdrives. As for RAM and power source... well...

Issue 6: Oops!

2006-07-17T15:57:00.000-05:00

Interesting idea... JPG Magazine, a magazine by photographers that is printed-on-demand. I was browsing through their sample and came across this fantastic image!

I do have to wonder why they did not make the format of the magazine landscape instead of portrait, since a huge majority of photographs are shot landscape. Still, I love the passion that led to this creation, and since it is POD, perhaps I (and others) can get involved in a similar venture someday. Hmmm...

Send In The Smart People

2006-07-17T14:01:00.000-05:00

Rolling Stone says the draft is lurking again, but this time in a form designed to tap middle class professionals.

According to an internal Selective Service memo made public under the Freedom of Information Act, the agency's acting director met with two of Rumsfeld's undersecretaries in February 2003 precisely to debate, discuss and ponder a return to the draft. The memo duly notes the administration's aversion to a draft but adds, "Defense manpower officials concede there are critical shortages of military personnel with certain special skills, such as medical personnel, linguists, computer network engineers, etc." The potentially prohibitive cost of "attracting and retaining such personnel for military service," the memo adds, has led "some officials to conclude that, while a conventional draft may never be needed, a draft of men and women possessing these critical skills may be warranted in a future crisis." This new draft, it suggests, could be invoked to meet the needs of both the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.

The memo then proposes, in detail, that the Selective Service be "re-engineered" to cover all Americans -- "men and (for the first time) women" -- ages eighteen to thirty-four. In addition to name, date of birth and Social Security number, young adults would have to provide the agency with details of their specialized skills on an ongoing basis until they passed out of draft jeopardy at age thirty-five. Testifying before Congress two weeks after the meeting, acting director of Selective Service Lewis Brodsky acknowledged that "consultations with senior Defense manpower officials" have spurred the agency to shift its preparations away from a full-scale, Vietnam-style draft of untrained men "to a draft of smaller numbers of critical-skills personnel."

Not that I'm rooting for these idiots to actually start, but I have to admit I'd love to read those compulsory skills lists just to see who managed to come up with the least appealing combination of talents.

I wish god would get his dates straight

2006-07-17T06:09:00.000-05:00

I will say, however, that they did pick a very fine date.

What the hell, it's hardly a campaign anymore anyway...

2006-07-16T23:18:00.000-05:00

Katherine Harris has taken back $100,000 of the $3.5 million she gave her campaign for Senate. The reason: she's finishing renovating her home in Washington, D-C.

The Harris campaign says the Republican congresswoman would sell the house, if necessary, to fund her embattled Senate race.

The campaign announced Harris repaid some of the money she already gave the campaign in a press release detailing fund-raising for the three months ending June 30th.

The campaign says Harris has raised $1.2 million in donations during the quarter. By comparison, Democratic Senator Bill Nelson $2.5 million in the same quarter.

The announcement comes the same week Harris lost much of her core campaign staff for the second time since getting in the race last summer. Her campaign manager resigned after three months on the job, saying Harris was uncontrollable.

And catch this quote from her former campaign manager, Jim Dornan.

"I have never heard of a candidate taking money out of a campaign coffer like it's an ATM. It absolutely boggles my mind," said former Harris campaign manager Jim Dornan. "This is a woman who has completely lost touch with reality. You don't take your campaign contributors' money, whether it's yours or not, and spend it to renovate your house. This is absolutely insane."

So, do the renovations include padding the walls?

Pug Bowling

2006-07-16T15:31:00.000-05:00

Plus, I love the Spanish version of "Hotel California!"

Can you say, "insane escalation?"

2006-07-16T15:17:00.000-05:00

Newt Gingrich wants to turn the Israeli's Lebanon incursion into an all out world war on the entire Middle East.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so.

Gingrich said in an interview Saturday that Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president.

"We need to have the militancy that says 'We're not going to lose a city, " Gingrich said.
---
He said Bush needs to deliver a speech to Congress and "connect all the dots" for Americans.

Umm, I guess this could be early spin on the proposed Iran attack...

That's your domain name??

2006-07-15T18:31:00.000-05:00

Oh, how could I possibly pass this one up?? Some take a sec to get, and some it is actually harder to figure out what the real name was intended to be:

Therapistfinder.com
Penisland.net
Whorepresents.com
Mp3shits.com
Cummingfirst.com (and that is a church!!)
Regalcock.com
Mofo.com
Nycanal.com

Inevitably Iran

2006-07-15T18:07:00.000-05:00

Apostropher points us toward this Arthur Silber post explaining why an attack on Iran is not just unavoidable, but apparently already in work.

Cold Skirmishes

2006-07-15T17:51:00.000-05:00

In a chilly summit prelude, President Bush blocked Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization on Saturday and President Vladimir Putin mockingly said Moscow doesn't want the kind of violence-plagued democracy the United States has fostered in Iraq.

Winning Ugly Is Still Winning

2006-07-15T17:36:00.000-05:00

DK at Talking Points Memo counsels Democrats to learn how to press an advantage when they finally get one.

How to explain the Democrats getting knocked back on their heels by Arlen Specter’s FISA proposal? I don’t have a complete explanation, but here’s what I think is a significant part of the answer.

After public outcry over domestic spying and other secret, extra-constitutional programs and a Supreme Court decision squarely against the Administration, many of us—myself included—at a deep and perhaps unconscious level presume that the Administration will have to cede some ground, compromise, reign itself it in.

The louder you argue, the more humble you should be when proved wrong, right? Argue loudly and wrongly enough times, and you start to lose credibility, right? By the unwritten Queensbury rules many of us live by, admission of error, of defeat, of poor judgment is the right and noble thing to do.

Democrats seem to have a highly evolved (and perhaps misplaced) sense of sportsmanship: magnanimous in victory; chastened in defeat. Whereas Dems will rise to a political fight when they deem circumstances warrant, Republicans consider politics nothing but a fight, with peace the exception, not the rule.

And so it is that many Democrats are unprepared to face an adversary who has a fallback position situated just inches behind the frontline, and a fallback position just inches behind that, and so on indefinitely.

The Republicans politic as though they're after a one-party system, no matter how ugly they have to be to get it. The Democrats politic as though they'll get their turn to govern again no matter what they do.

Blagojevich Surges

2006-07-15T14:07:00.000-05:00

Rasmussen has Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich up 11 points over challenger Judy Topinka this week, reversing her recent lead in the polls. He's also getting a 43% approval rating, which isn't great, but even if people aren't crazy about him they're clearly not willing to hand the GOP any more control.

Balance of power

2006-07-15T02:30:00.000-05:00

"The terrorists only knocked down two of the tallest buildings in the world. The Bush administration is looking to bring down the constitutional separation of powers, the marvelous balance that has allowed this nation to grow in strength over the years without becoming a dictatorship.

That is just a great opening paragraph. Here is another:

The inventors of America were keenly aware of how power can be misused when it is held in too few hands. They didn't want a weak nation, but they wanted the power of that nation spread around just enough that one arrogant, or foolish, man or cohort of men could not run roughshod over the powers and freedoms of others.

Balance. Checks and Balances. Whadda concept. I wish someone had the foresight to make that the law of the land.

Surprisingly, people don't come to support hate-spewing bitch

2006-07-15T01:29:00.000-05:00

Bob Beauprez, a Republican, is running for governor of Colorado. campaigns are always about moolah, so he came upon a surefire way to bring in the contributions!

“We found out the hard way,” says former Beauprez for Gov campaign chief Steve Truebner, “that Ann Coulter is not a major draw for donors.”

Just think... if they actually had to pay her for her appearance, then she actually cost them money... sweet justice indeed.

Mario... LIVE!

2006-07-15T00:36:00.000-05:00

Man, I totally wish this was how my ungrad days were. If this doesn't justify college tuition, I don't know what does.

Army Snatchgangs?

2006-07-14T23:54:00.000-05:00

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has until 5 p.m. Friday to hand over a raft of documents to Congress that might shed new light on detainee abuse in Iraq. The documents could substantiate little-known allegations that U.S. forces have tried to break terror suspects by kidnapping and mistreating their family members.

It now appears that kidnapping, scarcely covered by the media, and absent in the major military investigations of detainee abuse, may have been systematically employed by U.S. troops.