The Vertical Railroad

What you all really want to see

2005-04-25T21:51:00.000-04:00

By the way, this has nothing to do with this picture, but it's been reported that Keanu Reeves and Diane Keaton are an item. Didn't think it was worth it's own post, but I still wanted to put it out there. Now read the political stuff!

Growth = Bad? Not in America, you Commie!

2005-04-25T21:37:00.000-04:00

Here's an interesting read that takes all those neoclassical-economists-who-live-in-a-bubble-where-growth-is-the-ultimate-goal-despite-the-fact-that-their-mathematical- models-are-purely-hypothetical-and-really-do-not-take-into-account-the-real-world (they ignore a little something I like to call "reality") to task. You find the article here.

Speaking of credit cards

2005-04-25T21:31:00.000-04:00

Guess who just got the final nail in the coffin that is his political career due to not one, but two of those little plastic babies?! Why, Tom DeLay of course! Thank you, Washington Post:

The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number.

DeLay's expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.

House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists. DeLay, who is now House majority leader, has said that his expenses on this trip were paid by a nonprofit organization and that the financial arrangements for it were proper. He has also said he had no way of knowing that any lobbyist might have financially supported the trip, either directly or through reimbursements to the nonprofit organization.

Let's see if your God helps you now, asshole!

Click this link. . .

2005-04-25T21:21:00.000-04:00

to see polling statistics detailing Bush's failure in the eyes of the American people. Personally, I don't put much stock in polls, especially ones done by newspapers, but hey, if it's your bag, by all means click here.

He's Baaaaaack!

2005-04-25T21:04:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought the Gannon/Guckert controversy had been successfully swept under the rug by the GOP and the MSM, the Secret Service has just been forced to release the security logs pertaining to the male escort/WH reporter, and it ain't pretty. From The Raw Story:

Guckert made more than 200 appearances at the White House during his two-year tenure with the fledging conservative websites GOPUSA and Talon News, attending 155 of 196 White House press briefings. He had little to no previous journalism experience, previously worked as a male escort, and was refused a congressional press pass.

Perhaps more notable than the frequency of his attendance, however, is several distinct anomalies about his visits.

Guckert made more than two dozen excursions to the White House when there were no scheduled briefings. On many of these days, the Press Office held press gaggles aboard Air Force One—which raises questions about what Guckert was doing at the White House. On other days, the president held photo opportunities.

On at least fourteen occasions, Secret Service records show either the entry or exit time missing. Generally, the existing entry or exit times correlate with press conferences; on most of these days, the records show that Guckert checked in but was never processed out.

In March, 2003, Guckert left the White House twice on days he had never checked in with the Secret Service. Over the next 22 months, Guckert failed to check out with the Service on fourteen days. On several of these visits, Guckert either entered or exited by a different entry/exit point than his usual one. On one of these days, no briefing was held; on another, he checked in twice but failed to check out.

How are the Democrats so ineffectual that haven't been able to capitalize on this shit at all?

Gays, in the military?

2005-04-25T20:53:00.000-04:00

I missed this article in the NY Times last week, but I'd like to take this opportunity to address/make fun of it.

Here's a little excerpt for those of you who still have not registered with the Times (go to bugmenot.com, they have usernames and passwords for just about every free site you can think of).:

The office of the general counsel at the Pentagon has proposed decriminalizing consensual sodomy among adults, a change to its 55-year-old policy on sodomy that would bring the military legal code more in line with laws that govern civilians, according to a memorandum sent to Congress.

Under Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, it is a crime to engage in "unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex," even with mutual consent.

The changes proposed by the Pentagon's lawyers would narrow the definition to prohibit acts of sodomy with a person under age 16 or acts "committed by force." Their memorandum says this would "conform more closely to other federal laws and regulations."

Recent rulings by the Supreme Court and the United States Court of Criminal Appeals for the Armed Forces have raised questions about the constitutionality of the military's ban on consensual sodomy.

While the change would not alter the military's policy against gay men and lesbians in uniform, advocates for gay rights said that recent court decisions and the proposed changes to the military code could have broader implications for gay men and lesbians in the armed forces.

"Pentagon leaders can no longer justify banning gays because of private, consensual conduct if the military sodomy statute is repealed," said Steve Ralls, a spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a gay rights group.

If you ask me, the whole thing is a backhanded set-up by the Army. They know that they need more soldiers, and they lose a number of damn good ones to this little "don't ask, don't tell" policy each year. By changing one law under the pretense of updating to the common standard in our society at large, they know that they are laying the groundwork for any semi-intelligent lawyer to use the law to overturn the Army's ban on gays in general. Therefore, they can get more soldiers without pissing off the Christian right because they can just shrug and point to those hated "active" judges as the real culprits. It's a smart move, I'll give them that.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

2005-04-25T20:48:00.000-04:00

Back from the dead

2005-04-25T20:46:00.000-04:00

I really should be doing work right now, but I've decided to return to my old haunts and put up some interesting and often frustrating articles. Check them out, they'll blow your mind. BLOW IT!!!

According to Slate, Americans may be actually be wising up. No, no, they haven't called for Bush's impeachment, that would be too wise. No, they have begun to pay off their credit card debts at a growing rate. What? Americans actually curbing their spending and taking their futures into account? That's simply not the American way! We should be spending and wasting, giving nary a thought to where we'll be five, ten, fifteen years from now!

. . . All is not tulips and nectar over at MBNA, the largest independent issuer of credit cards. Yesterday it reported a poor quarter and ratcheted down earnings expectations for the year. Its stock sank to a two-year low. Credit card giant Capital One Financial had a better quarter, but its stock has been slumping lately, too. Bad news for the credit card companies may be better news for us. There are signs at both companies that consumers may be responding to higher rates by doing something almost completely unexpected and practically un-American: paying down credit card debt.

The credit card industry presumes, based on happy experience, that Americans will borrow more money each quarter to support their spending habits, regardless of the direction of interest rates, and that enough consumers will be happy simply to pay off just enough debt to allow them to borrow more. But last quarter MBNA, to its apparent shock, found that "results were further impacted by unexpectedly high payment volumes from U.S. credit card customers," and that "the payment volumes were particularly higher on accounts with higher interest rates."

In other words, customers didn't respond to rising rates by continuing to pay the minimum and going deeper into debt; they paid down the principal more rapidly than expected. A detailed breakdown of MBNA's business shows that between the fourth quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of 2005 (i.e., between Dec. 31, 2004, and March 31, 2005) domestic credit card loan receivables—balances outstanding—fell from $13.9 billion to $10.9 billion in the U.S. alone. Meanwhile, U.S.-managed loans—balances outstanding plus receivables that MBNA has securitized and sold—fell sharply from $80.2 billion to $74.8 billion, down 6.7 percent.

I'm a little late on this

2005-04-07T02:56:00.000-04:00

But if you haven't seen what Sen. Cornyn, a Republican from Texas (of course) said the other day regarding the Schiavo controversy, then you're in for a treat. Basically the man was justifying attacks on judges due to their sometimes "active" judicial rulings. Here's the money quote:

I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that's been on the news and I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in - engage in violence.

Just to let you know, Cornyn is a former District Court judge, a former member of the Texas Supreme Court, and the former Texas Attorney General. Talk about forgetting your roots.

Finally someone says it. . .

2005-04-07T02:52:00.000-04:00

Andrew Sullivan is back (not really) and better than ever (not really). But check this shit, yo:

Last night on Hardball , I said what I think needs to be said. Under John Paul II (and his predecessors), the Roman Catholic church presided over the rape and molestation of thousands of children and teenagers. Under John Paul II, the church at first did all it could to protect its own and to impugn and threaten the victims of this abuse. Rome never acknowledged, let alone take responsibility for, the scale of the moral betrayal. I was staggered to see Cardinal Bernard Law holding press conferences in Rome this week, and appearing on television next to the man who announced the Pope's death. But that was the central reaction of the late Pope to this scandal: he sided with the perpetrators, because they were integral to his maintenance of power. When you hear about this Pope's compassion, his concern for the victims of society, his love of children, it's important to recall that when it came to walking the walk in his own life and with his own responsibility, he walked away. He all but ignored his church's violation of the most basic morality - that you don't use the prestige of the church to rape innocent children. Here was a man who lectured American married couples that they could not take the pill, who told committed gay couples that they were part of an "ideology of evil," but acquiesced and covered up the rape of minors. When truth met power, John Paul II chose truth. When truth met his power, John Paul II defended his own prerogatives at the expense of the innocent. Many have forgotten. That's not an option for the victims of this clerical criminality.

I Know It's Calling the Kettle Black. . .

2005-04-04T11:36:00.000-04:00

But come on people, where's all the news? Pope this, Pope that. I understand the deathwatch that took over the news channels and such, but at this point I think we can start focusing on other news. How's Iraq doing, anyway? Michael Jackson? Gary Condit?

NY Times' Stellar Pope Coverage

2005-04-02T16:25:00.000-05:00

First of all, there's this (my bold):

Even as his own voice faded away, his views on the sanctity of all human life echoed unambiguously among Catholics and Christian evangelicals in the United States on issues from abortion to the end of life.
need some quote from supporter

John Paul II's admirers were as passionate as his detractors, for whom his long illness served as a symbol for what they said was a decrepit, tradition-bound papacy in need of rejuvenation and a bolder connection with modern life.

And then there's John Paul II's headshot:

I hear JP II is trying to land the role of Judas in Heaven's production of "Jesus Christ, Superstar." I'm just afraid he doesn't have the pipes for it.

No More Domestic Violence

2005-03-26T14:18:00.000-05:00

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

A judge has ruled that Ohio's new constitutional ban on same-sex marriage prohibits unmarried people from being able to file domestic violence charges, a decision that has prompted an immediate appeal by prosecutors.

Judges and others across the country have been waiting for a ruling on how Ohio's ban on same-sex marriage, among the nation's broadest, would affect the state's 25-year-old domestic violence law, which previously wasn't limited to married people.

Wednesday's ruling by Cuyahoga County common pleas judge Stuart Friedman changed a felony domestic violence charge against Frederick Burk to a misdemeanor assault charge.

Burk, 42, is accused of slapping and pushing his live-in girlfriend during a January argument over a pack of cigarettes.

His public defender, David Magee, had asked the judge to throw out the charge because of the new wording in Ohio's constitution that prohibits any state or local government from enforcing a law that would "create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals."

Prior to the amendment's approval, courts applied the domestic violence law by defining a family as including an unmarried couple living together as would a husband and wife, the judge said. The new amendment banning same-sex marriage no longer allows that.

Brando to Reprise His Role as Jor-El, Christopher Reeve to Remain Dead

2005-03-23T23:52:00.000-05:00

You heard it here first-ish: Marlon Brando will be in the new Superman movie. Don't ask me how or why, just read this.

Maybe now they can make an "Oh God Four" starring John Denver and George Burns. We can only dream.

O.C., Oopsy

2005-03-23T23:48:00.000-05:00

Ever see magumbos on a skeleton? You have now (nsfw). Thanks Mischa!

Bush in Stages

2005-03-23T23:44:00.000-05:00

Flash imagery of our president courtesy of the Economist:

“INTELLECTUAL” is hardly the first word that springs to mind when you contemplate George Bush. Mr Bush glided through the best education that money can buy without acquiring much in the way of “book learning”. At school, he formed a stick-ball team called the Nads (providing him and his pals with a chance to shout “Go Nads”); at Yale, he was famous for doing the alligator, a dance that involved falling on the floor and rolling around; at Harvard Business School, he wore cowboy boots and chewed tobacco, a strutting provocation to the lefty penseurs who dominated Harvard Yard.

Because I can. . .

2005-03-23T23:27:00.000-05:00

Oh how the mighty have fallen. This serves all you people right for worshipping a talentless hack just because she looks good in a red-leather jumpsuit. Now look at your precious queen. Look at her!

UPDATE: Link is broken, go here. And upon further thought, it's not that she looks bad necessarily, just that she looks so plain. What's next, we're gonna find out that our pop singers are only average singers?

A Few of My Favorite Things

2005-03-23T23:13:00.000-05:00

And they're all rolled into one. First off, we've got the GAP, unfortunately my coiture of choice. Then we've got an aging-yet-still-hot Sarah Jessica Parker in a catfight with an aging-yet-still-not-legal Joss Stone. Top that off with the allure of big advertising bucks and we've got what I like to call a dream come true.

It seems that although SJP is viewed as one of the fashion mavens of Hollywood these days, that is still not enough to convince GAP to keep her aboard as their spokesmodel. Instead, they're going for a younger, slightly thicker though perhaps more talented (so I hear) star (so I don't hear, but maybe someday soon) whom they hope will attract more people from the right demographics. I didn't realize that the GAP's prime demographic was 17-year-old girls, what with their new business-line and all, but then again in this economy it's only a matter of time before teenagers are back in the workplace, with Lewis Hine close behind.

Well, I promised you a catfight, so here it is:

"Sarah's spring campaign for Gap has only just started and she felt the announcement of her replacement in the same week that the new ads are appearing is a bit of a snub," one friend said.

"Joss is not only a teenager, she's also a virtual unknown. Had her replacement been a big star, perhaps Sarah wouldn't have minded so much."

Ok, not so big a catfight, but come on, SJP!

You can check some of the financial stuff behind the issue (I'm in an Econ. class, so sue me) here.

Target is the new Tiffany

2005-03-23T22:55:00.000-05:00

I never really understood the idea of registering at stores when you get married. I always kind of thought it is was a little bizarre for a couple to tell people what to buy them instead of having faith in your friends and family's gift-choices (though my girlfriend just told me it's to avoid getting "like" thirty blenders, which I suppose is true). Anyway, apparently more and more people are registering at (shudder) Target and (vomit) Wal-Mart. That's the new America for you. From Reuters:

About a third of brides reported registering at specialty stores like Crate & Barrel and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., while another third registered at stores with a broad scope of discounted products, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target.

The remaining third registered at department and national chain stores including Neiman Marcus Group Inc., J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Kohl's Corp..

"They cover such a wide variety of products," Peter Greene, general manager of NPD Houseworld said, referring to the popularity of discount stores such as Target as a place to register. "A lot of it has to do with what's available" in terms of the wide variety of products sold there.

Couples on average register for bridal shower and wedding gifts at 2.5 stores, but the registry captures only about 33 percent of wedding and 35 percent of shower gifts, according to the survey.

The average wedding guest spends about $59 for a shower gift and about $126 for a wedding gift, the NPD poll showed.

Back from Vacation. . .

2005-03-21T10:57:00.000-05:00

Just to get into this shit. Instead of writing my own piece decrying the brainless, gutless, and unconstitutional act by Congress yesterday (which I don't really have time to do at the moment), I'll let Digby speak for me. I think he nails it pretty damn well.

By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law . Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are also aware that Republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug (no pun intended) on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country.

Those of us who read liberal blogs also understand that that the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus far.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are aware that the bankruptcy bill will make it even more difficult for families who suffer a catastrophic illness like Terry Schiavo's because they will not be able to declare chapter 7 bankruptcy and get a fresh start when the gargantuan medical bills become overwhelming.

And those of us who read liberal blogs also know that this grandstanding by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be anathema to any true small government conservative.

Those who don't read liberal blogs, on the other hand, are seeing a spectacle on television in which the news anchors repeatedly say that the congress is "stepping in to save Terry Schiavo" mimicking the unctuous words of Tom Delay as they grovel and leer at the family and nod sympathetically at the sanctimonious phonies who are using this issue for their political gain.

This is why we cannot trust the mainstream media. Most people get their news from television. And television is presenting this issue as a round the clock one dimensional soap opera pitting the "family", the congress and the church against this woman's husband and the judicial system that upheld Terry Schiavo's right and explicit request that she be allowed to die if extraordinary means were required to keep her alive. The ghoulish infotainment industry is making a killing by acceding once again to trumped up right wing sensationalism.

This issue gets to the essence of the culture war. Shall the state be allowed to interfere in the most delicate, complicated personal matters of life, death and health because a particular religious constituency holds that their belief system should override each individual's right to make these personal decisions for him or herself. And it isn't the allegedly statist/communist/socialist left that is agitating for the government to tell Americans how they must live and how they must die.

One of the things that we need to help America understand is that there is a big difference between the way the two parties perceive the role of government in its citizens personal lives. Democrats want the government to collect money from all its citizens in order to deliver services to the people. The Republicans want the government to collect money from working people in order to dictate individual citizen's personal decisions. You tell me which is the bigger intrusion into the average American's liberty?

MADD mad at MADDatGM, and vice-versa (got that?)

2005-02-28T03:17:00.000-05:00

Yeah, confusing, I know, but let's try and work through it. Apparently a new group, MADDatGM, is taking General Motors to task for the company's, get this, involvement with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Unbeknownst to me (and I imagine most of you), GM is big supporter of the anti-drunk driving group, giving them millions of dollars each year. Now an organized group of tavern owners, beer suppliers, bar owners, and a bunch of other retards are attacking GM, saying that MADD is not really against drunk driving, but instead wants the reinstatement of prohibition. Whatever. Check it out here. From the Detroit Free Press:

A national campaign -- called MADDatGM -- has been launched with the backing of 17,000 bars, taverns and liquor stores to attack the automaker and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, mostly for their efforts to lower legal blood-alcohol levels. The effort has so far been a low-key one, but GM officials say the Washington-based trade group behind it is threatening that its members will quit buying GM vehicles for corporate fleet use -- which could cost the automaker millions of dollars.

The campaign, which already has a Web site and says it will distribute posters and coasters at various stores and bars, argues that MADD is no longer just trying to halt drunken driving, but has become a prohibitionist group that wants to criminalize all drinking. The campaign argues that GM, with its long-running support of MADD, supports prohibition and that tavern or liquor-store owners should think twice about buying GM cars or trucks.

MADD denies that it's trying to halt social drinking, saying its mission is focused on three things: preventing drunken driving, helping victims of drunken driving and halting under-age drinking. MADD notes that the MADDatGM push is from businesses that make money off alcohol sales and are angry MADD successfully lobbied for tougher national blood-alcohol levels for drunken driving.

GM is one of MADD's top corporate sponsors, donating over $3 million the last five years and placing executives on MADD boards. GM spokesman Alan Adler says the automaker supports MADD because "our focus is on drunk driving and the 17,000 people killed each year by drunk driving on the highways."

GM made a commitment in 2000, in honor of MADD's 20-year anniversary, to donate at least $2.5 million over five years to MADD. That commitment expired at the end of 2004, and GM hasn't decided how much it will donate to MADD in 2005 and beyond, Adler said.

In Honor of the Oscars. . .

2005-02-28T02:28:00.000-05:00

Which kind of sucked, by the way, I present this enlightening article from the NY Times on the history of advertising in the movies. It really is pretty cool to see how the two have been tied together basically since the birth of cinema. And by "cool" I mean sickening.

Supreme Court Declines to Look at Dildos

2005-02-22T15:31:00.000-05:00

From the all-knowing AP:

The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to review the constitutionality of a state law banning the sale of sex toys, rejecting an appeal that said consumers have a right to sexual privacy.

Without comment, justices let stand a lower court ruling that said Alabama had a right to police the sale of devices that can be sexually stimulating.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the challenge on behalf of merchants and users seeking to overturn the 1998 state law. They say the Supreme Court's 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which decriminalized gay sex on privacy grounds, protects sex toy users from unwarranted state intrusion in their homes.

"The sexual devices covered by the statute have many recognized beneficial uses and are used by consenting adults in deeply private acts that are beyond the reach of government regulation," argues the filing on behalf of Sherri Williams, an adult novelty retailer, and seven other women and two men.

A divided three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. It said in a ruling last July that siding with the sex toy merchants could open the door to the legalization of undesirable sexual behavior such as prostitution.

"If the people of Alabama in time decide that prohibition on sex toys is misguided, or ineffective, or just plain silly, they can repeal the law and be finished with the matter," the court said.

"On the other hand, if we today craft a new fundamental right by which to invalidate the law, we would be bound to give that right full force and effect in all future cases including, for example, those involving adult incest, prostitution, obscenity, and the like."

That's right, I learned that in math class: Dildo + Human Orifices = Prostitution.

Um, if anything, I think legalizing sex toys will decrease prostitution. Like my pappy always said, "Buy a whore, you have mediocre sex for twenty minutes, buy a pocket-pussy, fuck like a champ for a week." What? That's what he said!

But seriously, I'd like to commend the Supreme Court for not somehow trying to link the legalization of sex toys with homosexuality. We're making real progress here!

P.S.
I apologize to any of my professors and parents' friends for such a crude entry. Hmmm, maybe "entry" isn't the best word. Oh well, you can still see my remorse, can't you?

She Says What We're All Thinking!

2005-02-22T15:16:00.000-05:00

From the AP:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House candidate in 2008, joined 2004 nominee John Kerry and other Democrats Thursday in urging that Election Day be made a federal holiday to encourage voting.

Fucking finally! I've been saying this since I was in 6th grade (also about the same time I started reading Hunter S. Thompson, count it!).

In addition to creating a federal holiday for voting, the bill would:

• Require paper receipts for votes.

• Authorize $500 million to help states make the changes in voting systems and equipment.

• Allow ex-felons to vote. Currently an estimated 4.7 million Americans are barred from voting because of their criminal records.

• Require adoption of the changes in time for the 2006 election.

And my favorite part of the article:

Both parties have called for changes to ensure a more accurate vote count. Republican efforts have centered on reducing voter fraud, while Democrats have called for making access to the ballot box easier and simpler.

Telling, isn't it?

Tom Cruise's New Beard!

2005-02-22T15:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, I did that because I can. Here's the article, if that's what you're really interested in.

Corporations + GOP = BFF

2005-02-22T14:50:00.000-05:00

Robert Scheer of the LA Times talks about the gay (and therefore illegal!) union between Big Business and Big Government:

Here's the agenda, as laid out by the president and the Republicans who control Congress: First, limit people's power to right wrongs done to them by corporations. Next, force people to repay usurious loans to credit card companies that make gazillions off the fine print. Then, for the coup de grace, hand over history's most successful public safety net to Wall Street.

Of course, the GOP and the White House use slightly different language for this corporate-lobbyist trifecta: "Tort reform," "eliminating abuse of bankruptcy" and "keeping Social Security solvent" are the preferred Beltway phrasings for messing with the little guy.

The first installment came last week with the passage of a law that will make it more difficult for consumers to win class-action lawsuits against private companies. Because state courts, which are closer to the people, have proved sympathetic to the liability claims of ordinary folks, the new legislation puts many class-action suits in federal courts, which turn out decisions more attuned to the heartfelt pleas of corporate attorneys.

What is so phony about the much ballyhooed tort reform is that it aims not at overzealous lawyers but only at those who happen to represent poorer plaintiffs. Corporate lawyers are very much in play in writing this new legislation.

. . . Next on the corporate wish list is savaging Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief, which is offered to individuals who can't pay their debts. It allows them to give up nonessential assets in exchange for a fresh start. Chapter 7 has been a tool for family and societal stability for decades; torquing it in the favor of credit card companies has been a fantasy of the industry for almost as long.

Never mind that it is obvious to everybody who gets junk mail that lenders should be far more responsible about how they hand out credit cards. The credit industry's sleazy come-ons, onerous interest rates and frantic marketing to teenagers go unaddressed by Congress; it is only consumers who are expected to be conscientious.

Is "onerous" too strong? Hardly. It's way beyond onerous when a struggling parent puts back-to-school expenses on an "introductory rate" credit card and then sees the interest rate surge toward 30% when she's two days late with her payment. Now $500 in books and clothes are going to cost her thousands by the time she can afford to finish paying for them. Ironically, considering the number of senators and representatives who love to quote Scripture, such outrageous usury was explicitly condemned in the Old Testament as what it is, "extortion."

Krugman: Bush Will Change the Debate, Bitchslap Liberals

2005-02-22T14:30:00.000-05:00

Well, in so many words. Anyway, Paul Krugman's column in the Times today appeared to begin with his usual "Social-Security-is-a-sham" talk, but swiftly moved into a more widespread and vicious attack on Bush himself, and by the end, was challenging Bush to a duel. Well, not a duel per se, but he did mock the President for "playing the terrorism card." From the NY Times:

The fact is that Mr. Bush, while willing to go to war on weak evidence, hasn't taken the task of protecting America from terrorists at all seriously.

Consider, for example, the case of chemical plants.

Just days after 9/11, many analysts identified sites that store toxic chemicals as a major terror risk, and called for new safety rules. But as The New York Times reported last fall, "after the oil and chemical industries met with Karl Rove ... the White House quietly blocked those efforts."

Nearly three and a half years after 9/11, those chemical plants are still unprotected.

Other major risks identified within days of the attack included the possibility of terrorist attacks on major ports or nuclear plants. But in the months after 9/11, the administration flatly refused to allocate the sums that members of the House and Senate from both parties thought necessary to secure these sites.

And when the administration does spend money protecting possible terrorist targets, politics, not national security, dictates where the money goes. Remember the "first responders" program that ended up spending seven times as much protecting each resident of Wyoming as it spent protecting each resident of New York?

Well, it's still happening. An audit of the Homeland Security Department's (greatly inadequate) program to protect ports found that much of the money went to unlikely locations, including six sites in landlocked Arkansas, where the department's recently resigned chief of border and transportation security is reported to be considering a run for governor.

Goodbye Rube

2005-02-22T14:17:00.000-05:00

As we all know, the world lost the Godfather of Gonzo to a bullet in the brain on Sunday. Now the lawyer of the man I like to call Hunter S. is saying that the signs were there, however faint. From the Boston Globe:

"This was definitely not spur of the moment," said Tobia, who plans to fly to Colorado today to help carry out Thompson's wishes. "He arranged to have things dealt with, and he wanted his family close by, but he didn't want anyone to know -- he didn't want anyone to try to stop him. In a weird way, he wanted it to be, I think, a celebration."

Was there anything specific that led Thompson, the model for a character in the comic strip "Doonesbury," to commit suicide? Tobia said he did not know, but noted Thompson has written about suicide and talked about it with friends.

The decision, he said, had nothing to do with the reelection of George W. Bush or the current trend in national politics, which provided a certain grist for Thompson's mill. Nor did he have significant financial problems. With his land, archives, royalties, and other valuable possessions, Tobia said, Thompson's estate is worth millions of dollars.

The best explanation, perhaps, is that in recent months Thompson had chronic pain from back surgery and an artificial hip. He also broke his leg on a recent trip to Hawaii and was limping, which made it difficult for him to travel.

"He didn't want to waste away," Tobia said. "He did not want to exist as an invalid or as someone who needed constant care. It wouldn't suit his sense of self.

I don't blame the man for not being clued-in on Thompson's fateful plans, for there would have been no stopping him anyway.

Note: I once heard a great story involving Hunter S. Thompson, a bar, and cumquats. Katie can fill in the blanks for you.

2005-02-22T14:15:00.000-05:00

You were an original.

A Rare Sight Indeed

2005-02-22T14:10:00.000-05:00

Famous camera-shy screenwriter Charlie Kaufman picked up his first WGA Award, thus showing his face. Here is the (small) picture. Memorize his face and pester him for autographs and movie roles when you see him in public. That'll teach him.

Fuzzy Math

2005-02-16T11:21:00.000-05:00

Cragg Hines of the Houston Chronicle takes a look at Bush's mathematical magic

Almost half — 47 percent — of those questioned in a survey for the Washington Post, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University believe that Social Security has major problems but is not in crisis. (The survey is the product of 1,236 randomly selected adults nationwide interviewed Feb. 3-6 and another 1,231 interviews Feb. 4-6).

Even if the president is correct in his dire predictions, perception being reality in politics, public doubts will make it difficult for Bush to press what would be historic revisions of the iconic plan through Congress.

What's to blame for this credibility gap, the chasm between the president's repeated cries that the sky is falling and the public's refusal to buy it?

Could it be the administration's penchant for numeric funny business? Say, a budget that omits future funding for the occupation of Iraq or the financing of Bush's proposed semi-privatization of the Social Security system. And those doozies are just a couple of things that have been left out of or fudged in a single document.

The White House has gone from "fuzzy math" (Bush's description of Al Gore's figuring in the 2000 presidential debates) to math that is so indistinct and imprecise as to resemble the matted coat of some extinct quadruped.

That's it. We have arrived in the fiscal realm of the wooly mammoth.

Even the president's own party has been had. In the last week we've learned that the Medicare prescription drug plan, instead of costing $400 billion over 10 years (2004-2013, a period that included two years when the plan was not to be up and running) will cost $720 billion (2006-2015, the first decade of its actual operation).

The conservative Heritage Foundation offered a quiz on the point: "Question: How much money will it cost taxpayers to give all Medicare patients prescription drug coverage over the next 10 years? Answer: Depends on which 10 years."

Bush's Approval Rating Drops: Shocking!

2005-02-14T02:37:00.000-05:00

From the AP:

Public confidence in President Bush's job performance and the nation's direction slipped in the opening weeks of his second term, particularly among people 50 and older, the poll found.

Adults were evenly divided on Bush's job performance in January, but now 54 percent disapprove and 45 percent approve. The number who think the country is headed down the wrong track increased from 51 percent to 58 percent in the past month.

The poll, conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs, was taken after the president's State of the Union address and the elections in Iraq and at the start of a heated debate over creating personal Social Security accounts.

Older Americans, especially those 65 and above, were most responsible for the declining confidence and approval numbers. Middle-aged people between 30 and 50 were about evenly split on Bush's job performance.

What a bunch of flip-floppers these geezers are.

Why America is Full of Fatties

2005-02-13T14:04:00.000-05:00

I've been saying this for years: apple juice is making America fat. Seriously. The US is the only country that regularly feeds the stuff to our kids, and we also have the highest obesity rate in children in the world. Coincidence? I think not. From CNN/AP:

A growing body of science is linking sweet drinks, natural or otherwise, to a host of child health concerns, everything from bulging bellies to tooth decay.

"All of these beverages are largely the same. They are 100 percent sugar," Dr. David Ludwig, an expert on pediatric obesity at Children's Hospital Boston, said recently. "Juice is only minimally better than soda."

The trouble is that parents who are quick to limit a child's soft drink consumption often overlook or even encourage juice indulgence thanks to the beverage's good-for-you image.

But that image can be overstated. Though healthy in moderation, juice essentially is water and sugar. In fact, a 12-ounce bottle of grape soda has 159 calories. The same amount of unsweetened grape juice packs 228 calories.

. . .The danger of juice is that too much can throw off the balance of calories and nutrients children need, according to Dr. Terrill Bravender, director of adolescent medicine at Duke University Medical Center.

In very young children, too much juice cuts the appetite for nutritionally superior breast milk or formula. In older children, it often supplements other foods, potentially adding hundreds of excess calories.

Part of the problem is that the calories in juice are so concentrated. Just half a cup (4 ounces) of apple juice has 60 calories, the same as a whole apple, but without the fiber that makes fruit filling.

Alan Keyes is Kicking Gay Daughter Out of House

2005-02-10T02:56:00.000-05:00

This is one story that kind of stayed under the radar during the Illinois senate race, I guess because Keyes never had a chance as well as because outing political civilians is not cool. But now that she is officially out, you should all check out this entry in her Xanga journal. I just don't get how some parents can turn off their love so quickly, reject their children outright when things don't work out as they planned. Good Christians my fucking ass.

Condi Warms Up, Body Temp. Reaches 30 Below

2005-02-10T01:58:00.000-05:00

WP article on how Condi is on the offensive with her newfound charm:

When Rice stepped out on the world stage this week as America's new secretary of state, though, she seemed like a different woman -- engaging, self-confident, even commanding in daily on-the-record interviews.

Rice even showed moments of openness and humor. Shortly after takeoff on Air Force Two from Washington to London last Thursday, she ventured from her spacious cabin-office to the back of the plane where the press sits -- in the only cramped economy seats on the modified Boeing 757. (Eight staffers had been displaced from the plane to make room for what was billed as the largest press corps ever taken on a State Department trip -- 19 American and foreign journalists.)

"We're going to travel a lot and I wouldn't want anyone to feel lost," she said with a grin. "Therefore I have for each of you the pocket world atlas as a little memento of our first trip together." Each copy was inscribed inside with her signature and the date.

It was the beginning of a charm offensive orchestrated by a team imported from the White House, including James Wilkinson, the administration's fast-talking equivalent of a whirling dervish who once studied to be a mortician and last year was featured in People magazine.

I don't care, I still think she's a bitch. A smart one, I'll give her that, but a bitch nonetheless.

Things that Rhyme with Corey: Gory, Story, Allegory, Montessori. . .

2005-02-10T01:46:00.000-05:00

For anyone who got that reference, good job. For all you others, too bad.
Anyway, I don't think I have ever posted about Michael Jackson on here before. Kind of a personal rule for me. But I couldn't let this one slide, for it involves my second favorite Corey, Corey Feldman.

Because Everybody Loves Jude Law

2005-02-10T01:38:00.000-05:00

Good father, terrible husband?

Jeff Gannon, the Fake Newsman

2005-02-10T01:25:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure how aware of this you guys are, so I figured I throw something up about it. There is a widespread search currently going on in cyperspace trying to figure out who this guy "Jeff Gannon" is. It seems that he is a reporter in the White House pool, yet his name is a pseudonym and the news service he works for, Talon News, is essentially a fake news outlet. None of this would be too big a deal if it weren't for the fact that he was subpoenaed in the investigation into who outed Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. It's really an interesting little, well possibly big, news item, and it seems that it will be around for awhile. In fact, this guy may be the chink in Bush's armor that could ruin a second term (as is par for second terms in recent years). Really, check this out.

Farmers, Veterans, Elderly Vote for, Get Screwed by Bush

2005-02-10T01:18:00.000-05:00

This article just about sums up the fact that it the same demographics that voted Bush back into office that are the ones that are going to get hit the hardest with by his economic policies. From The Capital Times in Madison:

. . . It's our farmers, our veterans, our frail elderly who are going to pay for George Bush's tax cuts for the rich and for the ill-conceived, incredibly expensive war, which have combined to throw our nation into such debt that other nations are starting to worry about our economic health.

Surely, this president can't be serious about forcing America's veterans - more than 14,000 of them with serious injuries suffered in his war with Iraq - to pay a bigger share of their prescription drugs, plus charge them an up-front $250 fee to be treated in the veterans' health care system.

But, yes, there it is in the budget he sent to Congress Monday: a budget that cuts Medicaid help to the states, eliminates most of the farm subsidies enacted only a few years ago, and shifts yet more costs onto the financially strapped states.

CNN Headline: "Rice seeks to repair Turkey ties"

2005-02-05T13:58:00.000-05:00

So many jokes you can write with this one

In Case You Haven't Heard. . .

2005-02-03T17:38:00.000-05:00

There have been some strange happenings in Nepal over the last few days. On Tuesday, King Gyanendra disbanded the government and ordered the house arrest of the prime minister. And, in a move right out of Kim Jung Il's playbook, the king shut down the airports and stopped all international flights from entering and leaving the country. He has also been extensive limitations on the press in Nepal. What the hell is going on here? Let's go to the booth.

2005-01-31T22:25:00.000-05:00

Flea is getting married to a model. That is all. Gotta love Flea.

Wow, Jessica Coen is pretty damn attractive

2005-01-31T22:20:00.000-05:00

Yep, that's none other than Gawker editor Jessica Coen (with crazy publicist Jonathan Cheban) lookin' pretty cute at some dinner the other night. Go read Gawker, look at this picture, and tell me you're not in love.

Spitzer Kicks Ass, Again

2005-01-31T22:10:00.000-05:00

Looking as presidential as ever (wishful thinking, no?), NY State Attorney General (and gubernatorial candidate, and possible presidential candidate) Eliot Spitzer settled with Marsh & McLennan, the insurance industry's biggest broker. MarshMac (a name used by those in the know, which I am definitely not) will be forced to pay $850 million in settlements, as well as promise to change their whole way of doing business. On the flip side, the company will not be fined nor penalized for its shady behavior.

Hmmm. . . I think I would have preferred to see the company out on its ass, but hey, I'm not the AG so maybe this is for the best.

P.S.
Insurance is overrated, DIY medicine is the best.

Apple Voted Top Brand

2005-01-31T21:58:00.000-05:00

You can read all about it here.

Two reasons why I don't like this: first, the more popular Apple gets, the more people buy Macs, and the more people buy Macs, the more viruses (or viri, if you like) and such are targeted at Macs, which ultimately means I actually will have to be careful with my computer and buy some anti-virus software, and frankly, I'm not willing to do that; second, Ipods suck, and anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't owned their's for very long.

That being said, peep this little tidbit from the article:

After Apple and Google’s first and second position ranks, Ikea, a furniture maker topped out at third place, Starbucks grabbed the fourth spot, and Al Jazeera swiped the fifth position due to its unbiased and accurate reporting on War on Terrorism and activities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hmmm. . . which one of those brands seems oddly out of place? And how bizarre that this would appear in a techie article.

P.S.
So it looks like I made the right call going with Al Jazeera.

Audit Shows US is Missing $9 BILLION(!) in Iraq

2005-01-31T21:49:00.000-05:00

And just because I can, I'm sending you all to Al Jazeera to read about this. That's right, suck it up, bitches (this will come back to haunt me later in life, I'm sure).

Ok, a Little More Cynicism

2005-01-31T21:43:00.000-05:00

Here's the Guardian's piece on the elections yesterday that took a little wind out of my sails, though it's nothing compared to some other articles that totally decried the election. I'll put those up later. . . maybe. From the Guardian:

The most obvious message to draw from yesterday's elections in Iraq is that it will be a long time before it becomes clear who the real winners are. Not only is this literally the case - in that it will be at least a week and a half before the results are known, and many of the candidates were anonymous - but figuratively too. This election is, as Kofi Annan observed, only a first step in deciding Iraq's future. What happens from now on will decide what path Iraq continues along.

. . . When a nation holds its first elections after a long period of dictatorship, a temptation is to rejoice at the mere fact of its happening. The images and experiences of the countries formerly encased in Europe's Eastern bloc, as well as more recent examples in South Africa and Ukraine, have gained a romantic resonance. It would be too simplistic to transfer that romance to Iraq, because this was an election almost entirely unlike those others. In many respects it is difficult to be confident that this was a free or fair election, given the violence and intimidation surrounding it. On one side, Sunnis were threatened by the likes of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to stay away from the polls, while on the other Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued edicts requiring his followers to vote. The fruits of democracy have yet to be tasted in Iraq. Yet that is not to say that something good cannot come of it, just that it is not yet obvious what the final outcome will be.

Ultimately though, with the election out of the way, attention now turns to the other questions that have become more urgent. Even if the elections have been some sort of success, we are still no closer to knowing when US and British forces will withdraw from Iraq. Similarly, we are still no closer to seeing the final shape of Iraq's constitutional settlement. Most importantly, we still have no idea when the grim nightmare of violence for Iraq's people will finally end.

Allawi Calls for Unity, Again

2005-01-31T21:32:00.000-05:00

You know what? As cynical as I am, I'm happy about yesterday's turn out. I know it will not solve the big problems in Iraq (read: security), but it is still a step in the right direction, no matter how small a step it is. Anyway, today, interim PM Allawi asked the people of Iraq to unify as one. How quaint (ahh, there's my old cynicism). From the WP:

A day after Iraq's first free vote in half a century, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi called on Iraqis to unite and promised to reach out to the country's alienated Sunni Arab minority. The Sunni reaction may determine whether the electoral euphoria can be translated into the stability that has eluded Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

"The terrorists now know that they cannot win," Allawi said in a statement Monday from Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. "We are entering a new era of our history and all Iraqis -- whether they voted or not -- should stand side by side to build their future."

The need for national reconciliation emerged as a theme in the wake of Sunday's elections, as Iraqis awaited the results and the naming of a 275-member parliament that will appoint government leaders. In Baghdad and some other parts of Iraq, the vote generated scenes of jubilation. But it apparently failed to draw large numbers of Sunnis, especially in rural areas. Many stayed away in protest or because of intimidation.

Jenna Bush is Living It Up

2005-01-25T03:38:00.000-05:00

And why shouldn't she, she's like 23 years old. From this picture it looks like she learned from an early age that spilling beer was a sin comparable to murder. Wonder who taught her that.

Gonzales Being Rewarded for Helping Bush Get Out Jury Duty? Never

2005-01-25T03:35:00.000-05:00

My sometimes-boy over at Newsweek Michael Isikoff has been doing a little investigating regarding AG-to-be Gonzales getting Bush out of jury duty so he would not have to disclose his DUI. Check it out.

Senate Democrats put off a vote on White House counsel Alberto Gonzales's nomination to be attorney general, complaining he had provided evasive answers to questions about torture and the mistreatment of prisoners. But Gonzales's most surprising answer may have come on a different subject: his role in helping President Bush escape jury duty in a drunken-driving case involving a dancer at an Austin strip club in 1996. The judge and other lawyers in the case last week disputed a written account of the matter provided by Gonzales to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It's a complete misrepresentation," said David Wahlberg, lawyer for the dancer, about Gonzales's account.

Just like Slater says, "That's why we're rush-in you"

2005-01-25T03:12:00.000-05:00

Seeing how I was just at my cousin's Bar Mitzvah this past weekend, I figured why not start back up with this article. Pretty frightening, yet hardly surprising. From the AP:

A group of nationalist Russian lawmakers called Monday for a sweeping investigation aimed at outlawing all Jewish organizations and punishing officials who support them, accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.

In a letter dated Jan. 13, about 20 members of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to investigate their claims and to launch proceedings "on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist."

Echoing anti-Semitic tracts of the Czarist era, the letter's authors accuse Jews of working against the interests of the countries where they live and of monopolizing power worldwide. They say the United States "has become an instrument for achieving the global aims of Judaism."

"It is possible to say that the entire democratic world today is under the monetary and political control of international Judaism, which high-profile bankers are openly proud of," the letter says.

Along with outlawing Jewish organizations, the lawmakers call for the prosecution of "individuals responsible for providing these groups with state and municipal property, privileges and state financing."

Definitely read this whole article, it's pretty scary how cyclical this world is.

Jerry. . .Hello

2005-01-24T03:18:00.000-05:00

Well guess who's back in town boys and girls. That's right, after my long hiatus, I have returned. And I have decided that in order to make this site work and to continue to have a life, I will only be updating every other day or so, unless something really cool comes up in between. So adjust your schedules accordingly, I'm going to bed, and I will see all of you tomorrow.

Tsunami Warning Ignored to Protect Tourist Industry?

2004-12-30T13:38:00.000-05:00

A Swedish newspaper is reporting just that. Excerpts from Raw Story:

Just minutes after the earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Sunday morning, Thailand’s foremost meteorological experts were sitting together in a crisis meeting. But they decided not to warn about the tsunami “out of courtesy to the tourist industry,” writes the Thailand daily newspaper The Nation.

The experts got the news around 8:00 am on Sunday morning local time. An hour later, the first massive wave struck. But the experts started to discuss the economic impacts when they discussed if a tsunami warning should be issued.

The primary argument against such a warning was that there had not been any floods in 300 years. Also, the experts believed the Indonesian island Sumatra would be a “cushion” for the southern coast of Thailand. The experts also had bad information; they thought the tremor was 8.1. A similar earthquake occurred in the same area in 2002 with no flooding at all.

One expert The Nation spoke with also noted that the department had only four earthquake experts among their

900-strong meteorological department. A second told The Nation that a tsunami warning was discussed but that because of the risk, they opted not to issue a warning.

“We finally decided not to do anything because the tourist season was in full swing,” the source said. “The hotels were 100 percent booked. What if we issued a warning, which would have led to an evacuation, and nothing had happened. What would be the outcome? The tourist industry would be immediately hurt. Our department would not be able to endure a lawsuit.”

Somehow I wouldn't be surprised if this were true.

Fuck, It Happened Again

2004-12-30T13:32:00.000-05:00

Who stole my idea?

There is a Link Between Iraq and Al Qaeda, and We Made It

2004-12-30T13:27:00.000-05:00

From the Christian Science Monitor:

When Mr. Zarqawi's terrorist movement emerged in Iraq more than a year ago, intelligence analysts saw it as separate from Al Qaeda, with more ferocious rhetoric than the better-known terror group and a willingness to kill large numbers of Muslim civilians.

But now, the US and its allies face a grave and growing threat: an alliance of mutual interests and convenience between the group that carried out the 9/11 attacks in the United States and the one that has contributed so much to Iraq's chaos.

"There were certainly some differences between bin Laden and Zarqawi,'' says Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies. "But these differences were minor compared to the biggest things they have in common - their desire to hit at the US."

And probably one of the scariest realizations I've had in awhile:

"In some ways Al Qaeda as an organization is dying, but it is influencing other groups to become like Al Qaeda. Iraq is now the major recruiting center," he says.

He also worries of another trend that may mirror the Afghan experience. "These fighters have been practicing terrorist tactics, car-bombings, in Iraq from day one and now they're much more radicalized. They'll take their tactics home with them when they leave."

$35 Million Dollars

2004-12-30T13:13:00.000-05:00

Is that all this country can find? Wow, we're really digging deep. I mean, we're giving less money to this crisis than the GOP is spending on Bush's inaugural activites over four days, or than how much we spend in Iraq every six hours.

P.S.
It was crass for the GOP to have all this inaugural stuff during wartime anyway (inaugural balls and the like were canceled during WWII because they knew the money could be better spent elsewhere, like, ahem, armor for the troops), but to continue going through with it now is even more disgusting. These faith-based supporters should put their money where their mouths are and take care of those in need.

Another Crazy Thing About the Earthquake

2004-12-27T14:15:00.000-05:00

When I first heard about it, I immediately thought of the huge earthquake that hit Iran last year. Now I found out that it that this earthquake/tsunami hit Indonesia a year ago to the day that that earthquake hit Bam, Iran, killing 31,000 people. Can't wait till next year!

Almost 23,000 Dead

2004-12-27T14:08:00.000-05:00

And more to come. Absolutely unbelievable. And of course the headlines are still saying "3 Americans Dead." I love how that's how we put things into perspective, that by talking about American deaths it will make the tragedy resonant with Americans. If that's what it takes to get this to hit home with us, that's pretty sad and fucked up.

On another note, did you know that the island of Sumatra was actually MOVED 100 FEET?!

A Response to TIME's "Person of the Year" Pick

2004-12-23T20:24:00.000-05:00

TomPaine.com has printed this letter to the editors of TIME magazine. It was written by the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq.

Dear Time Editors:

My son, Spc. Casey Sheehan was killed in Iraq on 04/04/04 . This has been an extraordinary couple of weeks of "slaps in the faces" to us families of fallen heroes.

First, the Secretary of Defense—Donald Rumsfeld—admits to the world something that we as military families already know: The United States was not prepared for nor had any plan for the assault on Iraq . Our children were sent to fight an ill-conceived and badly prosecuted war. Our troops were sent with the wrong type of training, bad equipment, inferior protection and thin supply lines. Our children have been killed and we have made the ultimate sacrifice for this fiasco of a war, then we find out this week that Rumsfeld doesn't even have the courtesy or compassion to sign the "death letters"—as they are so callously called. Besides the upcoming holidays and the fact we miss our children desperately, what else can go wrong this holiday season?

Well let's see. Oh yes. George W. Bush awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to three more architects of the quagmire that is Iraq . Thousands of people are dead and Bremer, Tenet and Franks are given our country's highest civilian award. What's next?

To top everything off—after it has been proven that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, there were no ties between Saddam and 9/11 and over 1,300 brave young people in this country are dead and Iraq lies in ruins— what does Time Magazine do? Names George W. Bush as its "Man of the Year." The person who betrayed this country into a needless war and whom I hold ultimately responsible for my son's death and who was questionably elected, again, to a second term, is honored this way by your magazine.

I hope we finally find peace in our world and that our troops who remain in Iraq are brought home speedily—after all, there was no reason for our troops to be there in the first place. No reason for my son and over 1,300 others to have been taken from their families. No reason for the infrastructure of Iraq to be demolished and thousands of Iraqis being killed. No reason for the notion of a "happy" holiday to be robbed from my family forever. I hope that our "leaders" don't invade any other countries which pose no serious threat to the United States . I hope there is no draft. I hope that the five people mentioned here (and many others) will finally be held responsible for the horrible mistake they got our country into. I hope that competence is finally rewarded and incompetence is appropriately punished. These are my wishes for 2005.

This isn't the first time your magazine has selected a questionable man for this honor—but it's the first time it affected my family so personally and so sorrowfully.

Cindy Sheehan

Jesse Jackson Speaks Dramatically, People Kind of Listen

2004-12-23T20:09:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to bother summing this up for people. Please just read this article. I'm sure there is a lot more to come.

Kerry Joins Ohio Lawsuit; Other Shoe, Balls Finally Drop

2004-12-23T19:45:00.000-05:00

That's right boys and girls, good ol' John L. Kerry has finally decided to jump aboard the lawsuit that the Green and Libertarian Parties have filed regarding possible voter fraud in Ohio. As far as I know, Truthout.org broke the news, so I think you guys should hit them up for the info. On top of that, they have a great video and story that basically tells exactly how one company, TriAd Systems, knowlingly and purposely tampered with the election results. You check it out here.

New York Electoral Votes Go To: John L. Kerry

2004-12-22T18:19:00.000-05:00

That's right, John L. Kerry. I'm not sure who that is, maybe they meant John F. Kerry, the guy who ran for President? From WNBC:

Even John Q. Public knows the middle initial of losing presidential candidate John F. Kerry. But New York's 31 electoral college votes are currently on the books for some guy named John L. Kerry.

State officials acknowledged the mistake Tuesday after the official certificate of vote appeared on the website of the National Archives.

The document was sent to officials and archivists in Washington and Albany, as well as Columbia University in New York, before the error was spotted.

"The ballots were correct, but for some reason with this document when it was typed up, nobody caught it in the proofing, including myself," said New York Department of State spokesman Peter Constantakes.

Maybe the "L" stands for "Loser."

Bowlmor Lanes and Arafat: The Inside Story

2004-12-22T17:53:00.000-05:00

It has come to light that the recently deceased Yasser Arafat was an investor in none other than Bowlmor Lanes. For those of you not privileged enough to live in New York, Bowlmor Lanes is a trendy/hip/lame bowling place downtown. I know a kid who had a Bar Mitzvah there. And a briss. From Bloomberg News (via Gawker):

Arafat used a holding company to buy stakes that ranged from $285 million in Egyptian mobile-phone company Orascom Telecom Holding SAE and its affiliates to some $30 million in private equity, mostly in the U.S. These included $3.2 million in Herndon, Virginia-based Simplexity Inc., which makes electronic-commerce software, $2.1 million in New York- and Boston-based Vaultus Inc., which makes software for wireless computers, and $1.3 million in New York-based Strike Holdings LLC, which owns the Bowlmor Lanes bowling alley in Manhattan's Greenwich Village.

Arafat, who died on Nov. 11 at age 75, disclosed $799 million of investments in documents the Palestinian Authority has released over the past two years that show he didn't just invest in building basic services in the West Bank and Gaza.

At a time when the authority was starved for funds, Arafat's money managers placed bets from Tel Aviv to Silicon Valley on venture capital funds, software startups and telecommunications companies.

Bowlmor Lanes does brisk business with Wall Street, boasting a client list on its Web site that includes Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Credit Suisse First Boston, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bear Stearns Cos. and Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney unit. Bowlmor also promotes bar mitzvah parties and offers a kosher caterer.

Washington Gubernatorial Race Finally Over?

2004-12-22T05:17:00.000-05:00

Washington state Democrats seem to think so. They are touting an 8 vote victory for Christine Gregoire over Republican Dino Rossi. Considering Gregoire lost the first two counts (the initial count by 261 votes, and the original machine recount by 42) this would be a pretty amazing story. It would also prove once again that something seriously needs to be done about our voting process and machines. We can't keep having hand recounts after every election.

By the way

2004-12-22T03:38:00.000-05:00

If anyone wants to link to my site or wants me to link theirs, tell me. Or if you want to suggest a site I should link or try to be linked from, tell me as well. Hopefully tomorrow I will finally get around to setting up my links list.

Thanks,

David

More C-SPAN Watching. . .

2004-12-22T03:09:00.000-05:00

Has lead me to this site, verifiedvoting.com. Check it out, if you dare.

P.S.
C-SPAN rocks!

Speaking of Donations

2004-12-22T02:51:00.000-05:00

I've heard this before, but I think it's more pressing now. We blue-staters love to talk ourselves up, but there's no denying a problem here. From the CS Monitor:

At this time of the year, charities of every shape and size are hunting for the most generous donors. To find them, the Catalogue for Philanthropy has a counterintuitive suggestion: Look in the nation's poorest states. That's because the Catalogue's Generosity Index for 2004 shows that giving as a percentage of income is highest in states where folks have the least to give. Mississippi - the nation's poorest in terms of average household income - ranks No. 1 in generosity, followed by Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

By contrast, residents of the nation's richest states appear downright Scrooge-like. Connecticut claims the highest average household income but ranks 44th in terms of percentage of income donated to charity. New Jersey and Massachusetts seem even stingier, ranking 47th and 49th respectively in giving, despite their second- and third-place rankings in income.

Why is this the case? Well, religion, obviously.

"The reason low-income states give a lot is religion," said George McCully, president of Massachusetts-based Catalogue for Philanthropy, whose index uses 2002 IRS tax return data to compare each state's average itemized charitable deduction with its average adjusted gross income.

"They are tithing, evangelical Protestants, and they are giving in proportion to their income," he says. "Up here [in the Northeast], religion doesn't help our giving. I wouldn't say it hurts, but it doesn't help, either."

Few dispute such a connection between religious faith and giving; American religious institutions depend almost entirely on gifts from members. But even so, other factors - including race and denomination - also appear to influence giving.

See, this is where I find faul with this article. Unlike in blue states where I imagine most people who are donating are giving to AIDS groups and the John Doe Fund and the like, red-staters more often give through their churches. But, church donations predominantly go towards the upkeep of the church. Therfore, while perhaps blue-states give less, it is in a way more altruistic because those charities receiving the donations do not return anything to the donater. Church donations, on the other hand, inherently help those who give because it helps keep the church the donaters attend in business. Do I make any sense?

This is still not an excuse for the lack of funds charities receive today, especially in the wealthy, blue states.

Here's a neat little map showing you why you suck.

More Donation Opportunities

2004-12-22T02:46:00.000-05:00

I imagine a bunch of you would be interested in this.

A number of Planned Parenthood affiliates have created different versions of this scenario. Here's how it works at Planned Parenthood of Central Texas (PPCT) in Waco, where the Pledge-a-Picket program is going strong: Each time a protester shows up at the clinic, a donation is made to PPCT. This campaign makes lemonade out of lemons by allowing Planned Parenthood supporters to pledge between 25 cents and one dollar per protester.

Despite the low pledge cap, which is designed to encourage donations, the money adds up, especially since the picketers never go away. Every month, participating donors get a short update on activities and a monthly billing for their pledge. It's like sponsoring a runner in a charity marathon.

Once a week, PPCT puts a sign outside its clinic that says, "Even Our Protesters Support Planned Parenthood." To date, the Pledge-a-Picket program has raised $18,000 for PPCT. While not a significant chunk of its overall revenues, Pledge-a-Picket contributes greatly to PPCT's patient assistance fund, which helps clients who don't have resources get the care they need.

I don't normally like to be so clear about where I stand on certain subjects (or at least go as far as to plug groups' websites), but I think the cleverness of this allows it.

Semi-Semi-Semite-Daily Statistic

2004-12-22T02:39:00.000-05:00

In light of my recent meeting with Larry Kramer, I decided to throw up some very real AIDS statistics. From Avert.org:

Total number of AIDS deaths between 1981 and the end of 2003: 20 million.

Number of children orphaned by AIDS living in Sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2003: 12 million.

By December 2004 women accounted for 47% of all people living with HIV worldwide, and for 57% in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2003, young people (15-24 years old) accounted for half of all new HIV infections worldwide, more than 6,000 became infected with HIV every day.

In this giving season (I hate that line), please remember those who are not on your gift list. And if you can't think of a good gift for someone, why not donate money to an AIDS charity or other type of charity in their name?

Sign of the Apocolypse

2004-12-22T02:26:00.000-05:00

I was just watching the press conference for the "Inaugural Demonstration Permit for Conservatives " at the National Press Club on C-SPAN (I'm a loser, I know), and Larry Bailey, the head of Vietnam Vets for Truth ended the press conference jokingly saying "Peace out, man." I don't know what to say.

Some Good, Interesting News from Chile

2004-12-22T02:21:00.000-05:00

Apparently the front-runners in the presidential election in Chile are both women. This is something that I was completely unaware of until about two minutes ago, and I have to say, it's really nice to hear. I just hope Hillary doesn't look to this for inspiration. From the CS Monitor:

Former Defense Minister Michelle Bachelet, a virtual unknown before 2000, who once ran for a municipal council seat and got 2 percent of the vote, officially announced her intention to run for president of Chile last month. She is favored to win both her coalition party's nomination and the general election a year from now.

Nipping at her high heels is Soledad Alvear, the hard-working, tightly wound former foreign minster, who belongs to Ms. Bachelet's coalition - the center-left Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia, which has governed Chile for the past 15 years. She is less popular but might yet snag the nomination.

Either one, according to polls, would trounce the right-wing candidate, Santiago mayor Joaquín Lavín, if the election were held today. The latest numbers from Foundation Futuro show Bachelet winning 59 percent to 33 percent when pitted against Mr. Lavín; Ms. Alvear would win 50 percent to 36 percent.

"During the 17 years of [Gen. Augusto] Pinochet's dictatorship [1973-90], typical South American machista tendencies were magnified, and advances for women were frozen," says Ricardo Méndez, a pollster and commentator here. "But since then, there has been a pendulum effect, and people's attitudes are changing rapidly to make up for lost time. Women candidates are the latest manifestation of this process."

UPDATE:
How condescending are my above comments? They're not meant to be, just came out that way

Someone At the Baltimore Sun Must Be Reading My Blog

2004-12-22T02:13:00.000-05:00

From The Baltimore Sun:

In a horrifying way, the explosion that tore apart the giant tent that served as a dining hall at an American military base near Mosul, Iraq, was neither unusual nor unexpected.

Soldiers at Forward Operating Base Marez south of Mosul had already described in e-mails to their families their unease about the safety of the dining hall -- a long, high tent pitched atop a concrete pad -- and the ability of Iraqi insurgents to target the base.

Easter Sunday was particularly bad, as Adam Szafarn, a 23-year-old specialist with the Maine National Guard, told his family.

"There was just round after round after round," his mother, Sheila Szafarn, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from South Portland, Maine, recall ing that her son and other soldiers spent much of that day in concrete bomb shelters. "They couldn't go anywhere. They were just riding it out."

Her son e-mailed her after Tuesday's attack to say he was safe, but his mother remembered earlier messages about the dining tent. "He doesn't like going to the dining hall, because of the lack of safety," she said. "It's a soft building."

Thanks to a plentiful supply of mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and a lack of American troops to patrol the perimeter of forward bases, Iraqi insurgents are able to strike with relative ease.

Mortars rained down on the chow hall more than 30 times this year, according to a report by the Richmond Times-Dispatch , which has a reporter embedded with soldiers there. One round killed a soldier last summer as she scrambled for cover, the paper's Web site said.

Just hours before the mess hall blast, a soldier from a Virginia National Guard unit was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds she suffered in a mortar attack in October targeting another part of the base.

Riggs, the retired Army general, said the attack precisely on a mess hall at lunch time would likely indicate more than luck. Perhaps a sympathizer inside the base was able to "walk off" the distance to the mess hall. "That almost has to be a physical survey," he said.

While soldiers were caring for the dead and wounded Tuesday at Marez, workers down a dusty road at the base were constructing a new steel and concrete chow hall for the soldiers.

The only difference is that this article goes on to say that more man power is needed to protect the bases and root out those who are attacking them. I agree. Like I always say, the quickest way to end this war is to reinstate the draft, for sending all of our young men and women over to Iraq will either ensure a victory, or it will scare America so much that we will be forced to completely pull out.

Don't Worry About Anything, We're Gonna Be A-OK

2004-12-22T01:47:00.000-05:00

Forget the deaths in Iraq, all of our problems are solved for the DOW IS UP! WOOOOOOOO! GO MONEY!

From the Financial Times:

Wall Street steamed ahead on Tuesday, boosted by strong gains in transportation stocks and an upbeat report from the chip sector. Pharmaceuticals were also in the spotlight after a new study raised fresh questions about painkiller safety.

By the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.9 per cent to 10,759.43 - a 3½-year high - while the S&P 500 was up 0.9 per cent at 1,205.45. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1 per cent to 2,150.91.

A strong rally in October and November has left shares in the leading US indices hovering near their highest levels since 2001, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq touching 3½-year highs last week. The strong gains that came in the wake of the US presidential election have given way this month to slower progress on Wall Street, however, leaving stocks trading mostly flat in spite of a slew of year-end merger and acquisition activity.

MONEY!

The Death of 19 Soldiers Could Have Been Prevented

2004-12-22T01:21:00.000-05:00

As the news keeps coming in (and changing, for that matter) about the "rocket attack" (now believed to be a suicide or planted bomb attack) on a mess hall tent in Mosul, one thing is glaringly obvious to me: it could have been prevented. From CNN:

CNN personnel who have visited the base said the dining area is a tent-like facility with no hardened protection -- and that soldiers had specifically raised concerns that they could be targeted by insurgents at meal time.

One had told CNN it was only a matter of time before there was an attack on the mess hall.

"There is a level of vulnerability when you go in there, and you don't feel like there's a hard roof over your head," said Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, an officer at Camp Marez.

Overall the base has good protection, Hastings said, and a new dining facility is being built.

Bill Nemitz, a reporter with the Press-Herald newspaper of Portland, Maine, who was embedded at the base, said the new facility is made of concrete and was originally set to be completed by Christmas, but construction had slowed and the building is not near completion.

Nemitz said the base's chief medical officer in April expressed concern about the mess hall being targeted and was charged with drawing up a "mass casualty" plan.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of the military in general. We just don't have a lot in common. But you better believe that I respect it, and that I respect the men and women who serve in it. I also respect their opinions and their voices. When they say they need something for protection, I'll take their word for it. So how come Rummy and his boys refuse to listen to the people he sent to war? As Trent Lott said (and it pains me to quote him for my argument), "I don't think he listens enough to his uniformed officers." There was clearly concern about something like this happening, and yet, nothing was done. I'm not necessarily arguing that Rumsfeld was abreast of the mess hall situation in Mosul, or that he is personally to blame for there not being more protection there, but I do feel that he sets a bad example for the rest of the chain of command with his hands-off approach to the war.

By the way, had that new facility been completed on time, 22 people, including 19 soldiers, would still be alive today, and 66 others would not be wounded. And guess whose job it was to get that new facility finished? That's right, good old Haliburton.

New Anti-Smoking Ads?

2004-12-22T01:20:00.000-05:00

Hmmm. . . so new evidence shows that the US tortures prisoners? Well at least we're doing it in as humane a way as possible, right? Right?
From the NY Times:

The documents, released Monday in connection with a lawsuit accusing the government of being complicit in torture, also include accounts by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who said they had seen detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, being chained in uncomfortable positions for up to 24 hours and left to urinate and defecate on themselves. An agent wrote that in one case a detainee who was nearly unconscious had pulled out much of his hair during the night.

One of the memorandums released Monday was addressed to Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, and other senior bureau officials, and it provided the account of someone "who observed serious physical abuses of civilian detainees" in Iraq. The memorandum, dated June 24 this year, was an "Urgent Report," meaning that the sender regarded it as a priority. It said the witness "described that such abuses included strangulation, beatings, placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees' ear openings and unauthorized interrogations."

You know, I don't think putting a cigarette out on someone's brain is really doing wonders for the whole "winning the hearts and minds" thang.

That Karl Rove

2004-12-21T16:59:00.000-05:00

What a trickster he is. Oh boy. But seriously, his intellect/slyness never ceases to amaze me. Check this out, oddly reported by Rush & Molloy from the NY Daily News:

As Rudy begins to distance himself from the ethically challenged, briefly nominated Homeland Security chief wanna-be Bernard Kerik, some right-wing hardliners claim White House strategist Karl Rove devised the Kerik debacle to hurt Giuliani's presidential chances in '08.

"Rove used Rudy and Kerik to tout Bush as the anti-terrorism candidate," says one Republican party player. "But Rudy is too socially liberal for the true-believers. So they let him shoot himself in the foot. Rove knew about Kerik's baggage - and that he could never be confirmed. But he went along with the nomination, betting that the heat would come down on Rudy, which it has."

If this is true, I will be thoroughly impressed. And kind of happy, too. Giuliani sold out on his principles when he backed Bush (Rudy lived with a fucking gay couple at one point, I mean come on). And now he's realizing that maybe the Bushies were only using him (which they were). Giuliani deserves everything he's got coming to him. That being said, I'd rather see him in the WH in '08 than Bush and Rove's pick: Jeb Bush.

I Swear I Thought This Was Bob Dylan at First Glance. . .

2004-12-21T16:50:00.000-05:00

What a scary thought. From Reuters (via Wonkette):

Something to Relax Me

2004-12-20T09:11:00.000-05:00

I don't know, I just think this picture is really cool. Space rocks!

This was taken by the Cassini spacecraft which has now pierced the rings of Saturn. How cool!

My Brush with Fame

2004-12-20T09:03:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I spent a five hour flight sitting and talking to none other than AIDS activist and playwright/writer Larry Kramer. Very nice and interesting guy. The really funny part about the whole thing is that two days before, on Friday, he was the answer to one of the questions on my Religion final. No joke. Kramer flipped when I told him.

Anyway, here's a pretty interesting speech on the state of gay rights that he gave at Cooper Union soon after the election this year

Thousands of Bodies Simultaneously Roll Over in Their Graves

2004-12-20T08:54:00.000-05:00

Democratics have begun the process of shredding what little dignity they have left. From the Boston Glizobe:

Leading Democrats, stung by election losses, are signaling they want the party to embrace antiabortion voters and candidates, softening the image of the party from one fiercely defensive of abortion rights to one that acknowledges the moral and religious qualms some Americans have about the issue.

No prominent Democrat has suggested that the party change its long-held stance that a woman should have the right to an abortion if she chooses. But as Democrats assess what went wrong for them in November, some are urging a "big tent" approach that is more welcoming to those who oppose abortion. Democrats say that attitude might be especially useful with Hispanics, a critical constituency that tends to be Roman Catholic and whose majority support for Democrats has slipped in recent elections.

Abortion rights activists are alarmed at the potential shift in the party's approach to the issue as they look warily ahead to Supreme Court nomination fights and efforts in Congress to restrict abortion. But Democratic leaders say they can reach out to voters in the "red states," which voted Republican in November, without compromising their party platform on abortion.

"All Democrats are united around the idea that we should make abortion safe, legal, and rare," but "we also have to be open to people who are pro-life," said Simon Rosenberg, the president of the New Democratic Network who is mulling a run for the DNC chairmanship.

Former Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean, who supports abortion rights, said the Democrats should "embrace" antiabortion voters and expand the term "pro-life" to such social issues as providing for children's medical care. "I have long believed that we ought to make a home for pro-life Democrats. . . . We can have a respectful dialogue, and we have to stop demagoguing this issue," Dean, another potential candidate for DNC chairman, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" earlier this month.

UPDATE:
Ok, after thinking about this for a bit, I somewhat temper my outrage. I think Dean is right in wanting to expand the idea of "pro-life" to cover children because that's where Dems can hit the GOP hard. But I still loathe the idea of fielding candidates who are staunch abortion foes.

"I Have No Confidence in Rumsfeld"

2004-12-20T08:31:00.000-05:00

It seems to be catch phrase du jour (first time I've ever used that phrase when not talking about soup, I swear). First Democratic leaders uttered it, then McCain said it, then even Trent Lott said it, and now Chuck Hagel has dropped the "no confidence" bomb.

And they're all right. Rumsfeld is a joke. No, he's not a joke, he's a bastard. His hands-off approach to this war is misguided and appalling. How dare he lie to the men who are getting shot at everyday for his mistakes. How dare he refuse to sign the death letters to GI families and instead have an automatic printer do it for him. Even Bush, who I'm sure has a lot more things to do with his time, signs each and every one.

What pisses me off is the lack balls here. All these people question Rumsfeld's leadership, yet come short of actually calling for his head. For instance, despite McCain's choice quote of saying he has zero confidence in Rummy, when questioned if he thought he should be removed, McCain responded with a weak "Bush can have the people he wants around him." Give me a break! Stop this partisan bullshit and actually stand up for what you believe, or rather what you know. Every lawmaker in Congress knows what a mess this administration, and more specifically Donald Rumsfeld, has made in Iraq. It's time they put away their red and blue pins and start acting like real representatives of the people, not just party players.

Anyone House Hunting?

2004-12-20T08:25:00.000-05:00

Here's a great 16-room apartment, including 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, a library and a ballroom, and it's only $70 million. What a steal!

TIME's Man of the Year

2004-12-20T08:21:00.000-05:00

Personally I would've picked Karl Rove, or at least had him in the background of the cover shot with a smirk on his face.

HOWDY!

2004-12-19T09:04:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm back. School's done for now, so I will have more free time than I will know what to do with (which is good for you blogging fans). There is a chance I won't be able to update for a week while I'm out of town, but I think I should be able to get internet where I'm going. So yeah, keep coming back, it's about to get good.

HOWDY!

2004-12-19T09:04:00.000-05:00

Them's Fightin' Words

2004-12-15T14:14:00.000-05:00

Clinton, come back to us. From the NYDN:

The former President is said to have been strolling through the park with his Secret Service team recently when a man pushing a stroller taunted, "You were an embarrassment to the office of commander-in-chief."

Lakshmi Kumar, writing in Citizen Culture magazine, says she saw Clinton stop and deftly tell his heckler, "Oh, really? I think I did a helluva job.... I'll admit I misled people about my personal life. And I have even apologized for it, but I never misled the people about policy and I certainly never misled the people about going to war."

Clinton is said to have spent 45 minutes taking questions from a mostly adoring crowd, then told his detractor: "I hope your children turn out to be as perfect as you are, sir."

The group applauded and Bill walked to a nearby SUV, where, Kumar says, Sen. Hillary Clinton looked impatient.

And then he got roadhead.

Even Though I Don't Support Holiday Shopping. . .

2004-12-15T03:14:00.000-05:00

Why not make it a partisan event? Check out these two sites to see which companies support Dems and which support the GOP, and buy accordingly.

Buy Blue

Choose the Blue

When you're done doing that, read this article.

Blockbuster Drops Late Fees

2004-12-14T14:05:00.000-05:00

This can't be good for investors. Thankfully, my money's in Netflix. Booyah!

From CNN Money:

Blockbuster Inc. announced Tuesday it is abolishing late fees on all its video tapes, DVDs and video games as of Jan. 1.

The world's largest video rental company will still have due dates for their rental products -- one week for games and two days or one week for movies, depending on whether it's a new release.

But customers will be given a one-week grace period after that to return the product. After that grace period ends, the chain will automatically sell them the product, less the rental fee. If the customers don't want to purchase the movie or game, they can return the product within 30 days for a credit, less a restocking fee.

Edwards in '04!

2004-12-14T13:49:00.000-05:00

Yep, you read that right. Check out this little story that will be a footnote in your children's history textbooks. From AP:

An unknown Minnesota Democrat earned a footnote in history Monday by casting one of the state's 10 Electoral College votes for John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential running mate for John Kerry.

The Edwards vote gives Minnesota its first "faithless elector," the dubious name for Electoral College members who snub the candidate who won the state's popular vote in the general election. Kerry, who beat President Bush in Minnesota but lost overall, wound up with nine of the state's electoral votes.

That's quite a ballsy political statement. Let's find out this freedom fighter's name so we can laud him.

No one claimed credit for the Edwards vote. Several electors said they suspected that someone unconsciously mixed up the two Johns on the ticket rather than purposefully made a political statement.

"If it was meant to be a protest-type vote I would be up front and say, 'This is how I voted,' " elector Frank Simon of Chaska said. "It doesn't seem like anyone is coming forth to say that."

Added elector Michael Meuers of Bemidji: "I'm certainly glad that the Electoral College is not separated by one vote."

Accidentally voted for the wrong person? In writing? And we have an Electoral College to protect us?

So who is this rogue elector that is toying with national politics? My guess is him.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. . .

2004-12-14T13:32:00.000-05:00

Because the Parents Television Council will deem it inappropriate and write a million letters to the FCC, thus getting it banned from TV.

That's right folks, you know how when you hear about people protesting and writing letters to the FCC complaining about all the dirty stuff on television, you always wonder "Who the hell does that?" Well wonder no more, because it seems to be the same group of people every time: the PTC.

From Mediaweek:

In an appearance before Congress in February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl moment was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators.

The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, “a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes.”

What Powell did not reveal—apparently because he was unaware—was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified.

Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints—aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS— were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1. (The agency last week estimated it had received 1,068,767 complaints about broadcast indecency so far this year; the Super Bowl broadcast accounted for over 540,000, according to commissioners’ statements.)

I Can't Tell if This Guy is a True Patriot. . .

2004-12-13T17:58:00.000-05:00

Or just crazy. From The Marion Star:

Dr. John Caulfield thought it had to be a mistake when the Army asked him to return to active duty. After all, he's 70 years old and had already retired - twice. He left the Army in 1980 and private practice two years ago.

Today, Caulfield, a colonel from Satellite Beach, Fla., is an example of how the continuing demands of keeping ground troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are forcing the military to go to extraordinary measures to keep its ranks filled. He's attending to patients - U.S. troops, Afghan soldiers and civilians - at the Army's 325th Field Hospital in Bagram, Afghanistan.

He is one of about 100 over the age of 60 known to be serving. The Department of Defense couldn't provide exact figures.

Ok, so I'm coasting a little and stealing from Andrew Sullivan again. Big whoop. I'll probably doing it until Friday when exams are over. Just warning ya.

Semi-Daily Statistic

2004-12-11T05:31:00.000-05:00

From those guys at Harper's who are trying to pull the wool over our eyes (and now with color):

Percentage change between 2002 and 2003 in the number of U.S. buttock-augmentation surgeries : +533

US Soldier Gets Three Years for "Mercy Killing"

2004-12-11T04:16:00.000-05:00

From BBC News:

A US soldier has been jailed for three years in a plea bargain following the murder of a severely wounded 16-year-old Iraqi, the military says.

Staff Sgt Johnny Horne Jr had pleaded guilty to the unpremeditated murder of the civilian youth in Baghdad's Sadr City suburb on 18 August.

He also pleaded guilty to soliciting another soldier to commit murder.

His defence said the death of the injured Iraqi was a "mercy killing" in collusion with another soldier.

The seven-person panel reached a decision on Friday evening after four hours of deliberation.

Horne was also reduced to the rank of private and given a dishonourable discharge.

His was one of a dozen courts martial hearings under way relating to action in Iraq.

The charges stem from an incident in Sadr City when coalition forces were locked in fierce fighting with supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.

The court heard that members of Horne's unit fired on a rubbish truck they suspected of laying roadside bombs.

However, inside the lorry was a crew of teenage boys hoping to make some extra money on a night shift.

The soldiers, including Horne, tried to rescue one of the injured youths, according to witness testimony.

Several witnesses described the injured Iraqi as having severe abdominal wounds and burns. Some thought the casualty was beyond medical help.

Witnesses say Horne shot and killed one of the badly injured boys.

The US soldiers decided that "the best course of action was to put [the Iraqi] out of his misery", the criminal investigator told the court.

Ok, now I feel for this soldier, I really do. I understand the position he was put in. Killing the boy seemed like the humane thing to do, that he was putting him out of his misery. But you know what? That's not his decision to make. As a soldier, it is not your job to decide who is worth saving and who isn't. Yes, the boy would almost certainly have died anyway, but it doesn't matter. There is a code of conduct you must follow as a soldier, and it is drilled into you from day one. I do not think Horne is a monster, rather I think he is probably a kid who thought he was doing the right thing. But when it comes to war and politics, doing the "right thing" isn't always the "correct thing." A sad situation all around.

Lying to the Troops

2004-12-11T04:11:00.000-05:00

This is just too disheartening for me to make a joke out of it. From USA Today:

Whitcomb spoke a day after Rumsfeld, questioned by Army Spc. Thomas Wilson at a meeting with troops in Kuwait, seemed to downplay concerns about a lack of armor.

On Thursday, Rumsfeld softened his tone. "It doesn't happen instantaneously, but it has been happening pretty rapidly," he said.

A day earlier, he had called it "a matter of physics, not a matter of money ... It's a matter of production and the capability of doing it." But spokesmen for two companies making armor for vehicles said Thursday they had offered to step up the pace of production:

• Former Republican congressman Matt Salmon of Arizona, a spokesman for ArmorWorks in Tempe, Ariz., said his company will finish a $30 million contract with the Pentagon this month to make 1,500 armor kits for Humvees. "We are at 50% capacity, and we could do a lot more," he said. "They are aware of it."

• Armor Holdings of Jacksonville told the Army last month it could add armor to as many as 550 trucks a month, up from 450, said Robert Mecredy of its aerospace and defense group. "We're prepared to build 50 to 100 vehicles more per month," he said.

Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the Pentagon had no immediate response.

Kerik Pulls Out. . . Bush Angry He Stained Sheets

2004-12-11T01:35:00.000-05:00

Yo, yo, yo, what's happenin' party people? It's Friday night, and I'm writing yet another paper. So that's what's happening in my life, let's check in on the world, shall we?

Earlier tonight, Bernard Kerik, Bush's nominee to head up the barely-there Dept. of Homeland Security has decided not accept the job after all. It seems one of his old housekeepers was an illegal alien which therefore brings up a whole bunch of tax-related issues for him. From CNN:

Kerik said in a news release the immigration problem with the former housekeeper and nanny was discovered while he was completing documents required for his Senate confirmation.

He said he also learned "that for a period of time during such employment, required tax payments and related filings had not been made."

In a letter to Bush, Kerik said that while serving in the Cabinet post would have been "the honor of a lifetime, I am convinced that, for personal reasons, moving forward would not be in the best interests of your administration, the Department of Homeland Security or the American people.

"Under the present circumstances ... I cannot permit matters personal to me to distract from the focus and progress of the Department of Homeland Security and its crucial endeavors."

My question is: who in New York hasn't hired an illegal alien at some point in their life? It's practically a rite of passage.

But, perhaps all is for the better. Check out this from ABC News:

Bush's nomination of Kerik quickly proved controversial. News reports in recent days focused on revelations that Kerik had made millions of dollars a stun gun company that sold weapons to the Homeland Security Department and which wants more business. The White House had said that Kerik would avoid any conflicts of interest.

Records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Kerik made $6.2 million by exercising stock options he received from Taser International. He has been a consultant for the company and still serves on its board of directors, although the company and the White House said he planned to sever the relationship.

If you're still interested, you should read what the guys over at the Center for American Progress have got on the man.

Before We Get Back to the Regular. . .

2004-12-10T17:44:00.000-05:00

The crazy thing is that it happened on December 8th, the anniversary of Lennon's death. Don't get me wrong, I'm not equating the two (though I bet my friend Jed would argue Dimebag's importance over Lennon's), I just think coincidences like that are worth pointing out.

Well, I guess I should throw this up too.

Brief Wrap Up

2004-12-08T23:46:00.000-05:00

1) New York's state legislature finally did something and got Pataki to get off his ass and change the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Too bad the changes made are pretty insignificant. Yes, 8 to 20 is better than 15 years to life just for having a couple of ounces of drugs, but it still doesn't do anything about the real problem: mandatory minimums. Mandatory mininums should never, ever exist. They handcuff judicial discretion and jeopardize the three-branch system of government.

The changes were simply not far-reaching enough. While I do personally know some people who stand a good chance at getting out of prison now, I also know a whole bunch more guys who were sent up river for an unjust amount of time for whom these reforms will have no effect.

I'm also afraid that now that we have won a little ground, that people will walk away thinking they have won the war. We are far from reaching our goal, and I think a lot of people don't and won't realize it. I would love to talk about this more, but I don't have the time right now.

2) Everybody must read Mark Morford's column in the San Francisco Gate from last week. Yeah, I'm biting Sullivan's style by linking this, but it is a great piece of writing. Bam!

3) Read this, this,
this, and this

If you haven't figured it out yet, they're all on the same topic: troops questioning the war.

On a personal note, I just got to say that when a soldier asks Rumsfeld "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles" it really burns my britches. I mean, who does this soldier think he is? How dare he question the war! Doesn't he know that by doing so he puts our soldiers in harms way? Does he not support our troops? I liked soldiers better when they were cool and just wanted more Marlboro's, not when they actually question why their lives are placed in needless danger. You know, I'm pretty sure war is dangerous enough without our government shortchanging the troops.

GUEST BLOGGER

2004-12-07T22:50:00.000-05:00

Due to my lack of blogging time, my dear friend Jed has kindly volunteered to submit a post on lip-synching. I haven't read it yet, so tell me how it is.

In Response to Lip-Synching

The Ashlee Simpson fiasco on “Saturday Night Live” should have been enough. It wasn’t. Now Lindsay Lohan, teen goddess, was caught lip-synching on “Good Morning America.”

As an ardent music fan, I have felt the need to comment on this for some time. The New York Post makes an interesting point, saying “Today’s teen-pop queens are too young to remember the shame that befell lip-synchers Milli Vanilli in 1990.” They may be, but I am not. Milli Vanilli was the ultimate embarrassment to music; they were the butt of jokes for years afterward, and one of its members was so ashamed, so destroyed by the haranguing, that he committed suicide. What about pop culture and music has changed so significantly that these divas are let off with the wrist-slap embarrassment of a Page Six article? Are the vast majority of teenybopper Americans complacent enough (or ignorant enough) to continue to support these talentless hacks?

When Rolling Stone commented on the Ashlee Simpson snafu, one TV producer commented that only a jamband would perform completely live on television, without the aid of a backing track. Whether you like jambands or not, you cannot doubt their commitment to purity. The Strokes by all accounts sucked when they last played on TV, but at least they went out there and actually played their instruments. And I’m sure many other bands would refuse to use backing tracks as well, at the risk of singing off-key or playing a wrong note. Kim Jakwerth, a representative for Lohan’s label, said that Lohan used backing tracks so “you make the song sound exactly like the record.” That is the problem right there. When I see live music, I want what’s different from the record. I don’t want an impersonal, perfectly mixed, studio effects laden performance; I want something raw and energetic. I want the band to make mistakes; they’re only human, and it’s how the band plays off the mistakes that makes them great. I want to see the artist, on-stage, doing what he or she loves to do simply for the sake of doing it. Art for art’s sake as it were. I don’t want a derivative and formulated product; I want something slightly defective, heartfelt and true. When will the American populace wise up? On that note, I think the website youhavebadtasteinmusic.com should be required viewing for all. Did you know that Evanescence has more Grammy awards then Bob Marley, or the Who?

Those Damn Yellow Ribbons

2004-12-07T20:19:00.000-05:00

I'm sure we've all noticed the ever-increasing number of those stick-on yellow ribbons on the back of cars (especially SUVs, oh the irony). While, yes, I do support our troops, I still think these things are crass and meaningless. I've been thinking of making my own with the text running across the ribbon saying "Bring Them Home," but I'm too lazy to actually do it. Anyone want to go in 80-20?

Anyway, this post here by one Jeff McMahan pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject. And to think, I found this through a right-wing blogger who was using it as an example of what is wrong with the "looney left".

Vehicles in New Jersey are covered with decals representing little ribbons inscribed with the legend: “Support Our Troops.” I have done a lot of driving recently and have noticed geographical disparities in the distribution of these symbols. There are fewer in the Midwest and very few at all in the LA area. They are also disproportionately displayed on SUVs and vans, which isn’t surprising given that the owners are disproportionately reliant on the oil supplies that our soldiers are in Iraq to protect (among their other purposes).

What is it exactly that these decals exhort us to do? How can I, or anyone, support the troops themselves? What can we possibly do for them? It seems that the message is really an exhortation to support the war. Why then don’t we ever see bumper stickers urging us more straightforwardly to support the war? It seems dishonest, manipulative, and coercive to assert an equivalence between support for a war and support for the participants in the war. The aim of such an effort is to make it seem that to criticize the war is to criticize our young soldiers and perhaps to increase their peril by weakening the war effort.

I recall that in the late stages of the presidential campaign Bush tried – successfully, it seems – to score points by claiming that to say the war in Iraq was wrong was tantamount to saying that those of our troops who had died there had died in vain. And of course no one wanted to be accused of saying that.

But of course if the war is unjust they have died largely in vain and Bush is the person primarily responsible for that. If they have been sent to die for a misconceived political agenda, that should be a source of remorse, not something to be exploited for further advantage in political debate.

If the war is unjust, as I believe it is, Bush’s remarks exploit the sacrifices of the dead while the ribbon decals further exploit those young soldiers still stationed in Iraq by invoking their peril to stifle opposition to a war in which they will remain embroiled. The decals don’t support our troops but unnecessarily endanger them by seeking to prolong an unjust war.

The Blind Leading the Blind

2004-12-07T20:16:00.000-05:00

From the Boston Herald:

Clear Channel Communications says it has picked Fox News Radio to be the primary source of national news for most of its news and talk stations under a five-year agreement. The deal initially covers more than 100 radio stations.

Fox will provide a five-minute top-of-the-hour newscast, a nightly news broadcast, and around-the-clock dedicated national news coverage. In return, Fox News Radio will have access to news produced by Clear Channel's news network.

Fox, a unit of News Corporation, says if all options in the agreement are exercised, its radio service could have more than 500 affiliates by the middle of next year.