Immoral Majority

A Truely American Plan to Solve the Forclosure Crisis

2009-01-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

Whenever someone can't pay their mortgage, I propose that we get two really big guys to pick that person up, hold them upside down, and shake them until enough falls out to make the bank happy.

Stupid Things That People Say

2008-12-03T06:41:00.001-08:00

"I'm not saying you're crazy, although I do think you're crazy..."

Tyra Banks, referring to black women who bleach their skin.

Shift in the "Liberal" Movement

2008-11-13T15:34:00.000-08:00

I remember a time when being a liberal meant that you were inclusive of differing points of view.

Those days are over.

I think that it started with the 2000 election, when Democrats blamed Nader supporters for Gore's loss. By the 2004 election, Greens were ridiculed and berated by Democrats to no end. Now, you don't have to be a Green. Anything you say that does not agree with the talking points of the Democratic party is just buried.

I am starting to think that liberalism really is dead. It has been replaced by liberal Fascism, where no dissent is allowed.

Fairness To Sarah Palin

2008-11-11T14:40:00.000-08:00

I am the first to criticize Sarah Palin, but most of what has really stuck seems unfair.

First, on the Daily Show recently, they said that she couldn't list the countries in North America. First of all, if you look up North America in Wikipedia, there are 41 countries listed, so it's not just the US, Canada, and Mexico. I believe the actual question was not which countries are in North America, but rather which countries are part of NAFTA, of which the correct answer would have been Canada and Mexico. I have to admit, I wouldn't have known that either. Obviously Mexico is the one that gets all the attention, but what about the smaller countries just south of Mexico like Belize or Guatemala? What about all of the Carribean countries? They are not part of NAFTA, but I would hardly consider that something any idiot would know.

Also, there was the thing about not knowing what the vice president does every day. The thing is, there aren't any official daily duties for the vice president. The VP breaks ties in the senate and if the president dies, the VP takes over. When you ask someone what the VP does every day, it's not easily defined, and it's unfair to jump all over her for her response.

Finally, it has now come out that the issue with her not knowing that Africa was a continent and not a country was just made up.

I think this is primarily the result of a partisan Democratic smear. Before she ever did anything, all of the "liberal" bloggers began attacking her for being unqualified. For the entire first week after she was nominated, every single post at Daily Kos was an attack on her. Essentially, they set the narrative in the blogosphere that Palin was unintelligent and unqualified, and eventually that was repeated so much that she was constantly put in a position where she had to defend her intelligence and qualifications.

I'm certainly not a fan of Palin at all, but I think that the things that were valid criticisms were set aside for more low-brow attacks. First of all, her abuse of power in Alaska was forgotten very early. When the story came out that she was found guilty of abuse of power, there was a little criticism, but that didn't fit the narrative of her being stupid, so it was cast aside, just like when her aides refused to comply with subpoenas. Also, there was hardly a stir when she wouldn't say that abortion clinic bombers are terrorists. The truth is that she is a far-right, fundamentalist Christian, and should be criticized as that, not as stupid or unqualified.

That's Not Change, That's More of the Same

2008-11-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

Everyone seems to like Clinton because times seemed good when he was in office, but a lot of that had nothing to do with him. The Clintons actually took us backward in a lot of ways, but given the new standard set by the Bush administration, everyone seems to give them a free pass.

With the appointment of Rham Emanuel, I have to question how committed Obama really is to the change agenda.

Big Wins, Losses, Things To Hope For

2008-11-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

With the presidential election every bit the runaway that it was expected to be, there are a few things which are still undecided, but leaning in the opposite direction that I had hoped. First of all, Al Franken is currently losing by less than 600 votes in the Minnesota senate race. I have been a big fan of him for a long time. There will be an automatic recount since it was so close, and the results aren't expected until December at least.

Also, the ban on gay marriage in California is currently winning by about 2%. If California of all places is able to ban gay marriage, I don't see any reason to hold out hope that this form of institutionalized bigotry will be overcome any time soon.

But finally, now, on to the big winner.

As I mentioned in my last post, I don't see how any non-deity could live up to the expectations that people have for Barack Obama, but there are a few things which were direct campaign promises, and it is important that we hold him to them.

1. Health Care
The most important issue to me, a person suffering from a rare, incurable disease, is health care. The Clintons also had complete control of the government in 1994, and they couldn't get it done. I was never a big fan of Obama's plan, as it relies on the fundamentally flawed health insurance industry, but I'm willing to give him a chance in the hopes that his efforts will be a stepping stone to the universal care that we are desperate for. Any functioning health care system will have several distinct features. First, a person suffering from a debilitating disease should not be also suffering from debilitating debt. When I got sick, I had health insurance, and I still came out of it more than $10,000 in debt. And that is after spending almost half my monthly income on prescriptions. Second, preventative care is a necessity. When the only medical care that a large portion of the population receives consists of an emergency room visit when their condition finally becomes out of control, that is not a functioning health care system.

2. War in Iraq
Obama campaigned on the promise of ending the war. This will not be an easy task, as it is not only important for US troops to leave, but it is important that we leave Iraq stable and functioning. It's no good to leave if six months later, the government is overthrown by militias. A big part of what is needed, I think, is a concerted effort to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure and economy. If the Iraqi people are no longer suffering from poverty, desperation, and living with constant violence as part of their life every day, I think that people will be much less likely to turn to violence themselves.

3. Africa
I don't know the statistics, but Obama must be one of only a few senators to ever visit Africa, and certainly his ties to the continent are obvious. I expect him to address the tremendous suffering that is taking place on the continent, from genocide in Darfur to the AIDS epidemic.

4. Economy
I have long said that I think politicans can do little to affect the economy. Therefore, I don't expect him to be able to single-handedly bring us out of this recession. What I do expect, however, is an end to the dominance of the Ayn Rand philosophy of objectionism. Clearly, the idea that free markets can be trusted to regulate themselves is fundamentally flawed. Deregulation of the electricity industry led to widespread blackouts, but sure made a lot of money for Enron executives. Deregulation of the financial industry caused the biggest financial crisis since the great depression. These outcomes should have been avoided.

5. Environment/Energy
Ending our dependence on fossil fuels would be the largest infrastructure project in US history. There are a few things that need to be accomplished as part of this goal. First, as the vast majority of Americans depend on vehicles which burn gasoline. More efficient vehicles like hybrids may help, but they are hardly a solution. Second is power generation. I hope that Obama lives up to his promise of expanding nuclear power. This is a viable technology that has been proven to be safe and efficient. Environmentalists fear it because of the radioactive waste, but I would suggest that a small amount of radioactive material in a contained, controlled area is far better than pumping thousands of tons of CO2 (which contains just as much radioactive material, if not more so) directly into the atmosphere.

If Obama can accomplish these things, maybe my faith in American democracy will be restored. Otherwise, I pledge to vote for the Green from now on.

If He Wins

2008-10-30T15:26:00.000-07:00

If Obama wins, I think that it will be very difficult for the Democrats to hold on to power for very long. People are always going to have problems, and likewise, people like to blame the party in power for those problems. Obama seems a lot like Homer Simpson running for Sanitation Commissioner. People expect more of him that he, or anyone else in the world, can provide.

He is running on change, and regardless of his specific campaign promises, people vote for him because they expect him to make their lives better. Even if he is able to keep 100% of his campaign promises, I doubt that he can live up to individual's expectations for the change that he has promised. In 2010 and 2012, when the vast majority of our problems remain, voters will punish the incumbents and start putting the Republicans back in power. I only hope that in the little time he has, he can put back in place the majority of the New Deal and other social welfare programs that Republicans have gradually eroded over the past 70 years, and maybe even sneak in a few new ones, and do it in a way that prevents Republicans from sabotaging them as soon as they are in control again.

Show Tonight

2008-10-23T15:17:00.000-07:00

Colin Powell Endorsment

2008-10-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

It seems that the "anti-war candidate" is now seen as acceptable by people who wave white powder around to scare everyone into letting them start a war.

Paralyze The City?

2008-10-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

The Chicago cab drivers have threatened to strike unless they get a 16% raise in fairs. They say the strike will "paralyze the city." The very idea of that is completely ridiculous. No one takes a taxi on a regular basis because it's just too expensive compared to other easily accessible forms of transportation.

I say, let them strike. Taxis are a menace. A strike would only show the city what a wonderful place Chicago can be without them. Pedestrians would be safe to cross the street without a taxi nearly running them over at every third intersection. There may be about 10,000 taxis in the city, but they produce as much traffic congestion as 30,000 regular vehicles, with their abrupt lane changes, u-turns, and left turns from the right lane.

I have sympathy for them with the price of gas, but that sympathy goes right out the window when within 30 seconds of stepping out of my office, I see a taxi force it's way through a crowd of people who are crossing the street on the walk signal, honking at them to get the hell out of his way, showing no concern when the powerless cop directing traffic yells at him.

Happy Birthday To Me

2008-09-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

I guess I have the same birthday as the guy from Daily Kos. Here is the article he linked to:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27728

McCain ads

2008-05-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else noticed how the McCain campaign is advertising on Eschaton? At first, I was thinking that it was a waste of money for them, but then I realized, there's probably quite a few conservatives who go to the site just to argue with the dirty hippies.

May Day

2008-05-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Today is the international labor holiday known as May Day. For a brief history, please see my previous post. If you are in the United States, however, Labor Day was moved to the fall, and today is actually now referred to as "Loyalty Day," a day to reaffirm one's loyalty to this country. That's because, as everyone knows, advocating a 40 hour work week demonstrates a lack of loyalty to this country.

In honor of May Day, Chicago Public Radio aired a story about a sculpture outside of the "famously free-market" economics department at the University of Chicago. According to the story, every year on May Day, the sun shines just right to cast a shadow in the shape of a hammer and sickle, like the flag of the Soviet Union. Here is the picture:

It's a little vague to me, but I think just the idea of it is brilliant. It reminds me of the time when I was in High School, and someone supposedly planted Marijuana seeds under the giant bronze elk statue in front of the police station in the town where I grew up.

Cognitive Dissonance

2008-04-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm back too! Monkey see, monkey post...

So unless I'm mistaken, this is the right wing's position on Obama:

Barack Hussein Obama is a secret Muslim who is anti-religion and has a Christian preacher who hates America.

Cue head explosion in 3...2...1...

I'm Back

2008-04-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

I've been gone for quite a while. Part of the reason was that I've been dealing with some serious health issues. Health insurance has made this situation much worse. They decided to pay for 80% of my hospital bill, but the prescription budget of $1,300 ran out months ago, so now I'm spending about $800 per month on prescriptions.

But the main reason I haven't been posting is that I've been very busy finishing up my Ph.D. in, lets say, basket weaving. In a few months, you will have to call me Dr. Jose. Hopefully I'll be around more often.

Lapel Pins

2008-04-18T10:03:00.001-07:00

Amid all of the fuss about Barak Obama's lack of lapel pins, I noticed this:

Not one American flag lapel pin. I guess John McCain just hates America.

I should leave the hospital with a chest tube in?

2007-08-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

So much has happened to me since I wrote my last post. Back then, I believed that health insurance was the most important issue in America today, but I had no way of knowing that in the coming months, I would experience the nightmare firsthand.

I have an auto-immune disease called Wegener's Granulomatosis. For some reason, my immune system started to attack my vascular system. It attacked my sinuses, lungs, and most severely, my kidneys. It all started about two months ago, when I got a bloody nose that just wouldn't go away. I saw the nurse at my school right away, and she thought I had polyps, so she prescribed Nasonex and told me to come back next week. By then, my asthma started to flair up, and I had arthritic pain in my joints. The nurse believed it was all just from allergies, and she told me to start taking Claratin. The next week, everything just kept getting worse. The nurse gave me antibiotics, assuming it must be some kind of sinus infection. By the following week, I developed a severe swore throat, and my joint pain was so bad that I could hardly get out of bed. The nurse gave me a stronger antibiotic, and finally agreed to let me see the doctor. (My school doesn't have a full time doctor on staff, but they do have a doctor that comes in for a couple of hours every week. In order to see him, though, the nurse had to arrange it) The following week, I finally got to see the doctor, and he ordered a CT scan of my sinuses and referred me to an ear, nose, and throat doctor. It was another week before I was able to see him, and upon reviewing my CT scan, he determined that I never had polyps at all. Just as a precaution, he ordered a couple of blood tests. It took nearly a full week of calling his office to get the results, and finally, on Friday afternoon, the ENT doctor reviewed my labs and found that my kidneys were failing. He told me that I was okay for the time being, but that I needed to make an appointment immediately with my primary care doctor. The earliest that I could see him was the following Tuesday, since he is only on campus one day every week. He ordered about a dozen labs. Finally, Wednesday morning, he called me twice. My kidney function was dropping rapidly, and I had to check myself into the hospital immediately. Luckily for me, he had seen another case of Wegener's about 6 months earlier in another student at my school, and he knew what to look for.

Pretty much right away when I got into the hospital they started me on a heavy dose of Prednisone (a steroid to reduce the inflammation in my body). The primary treatment of my disease is chemotherapy, with a drug called cyclophosphomide. Because it is so toxic, they needed to confirm the Wegener's diagnosis with a biopsy. First they tried a biopsy of the legion in my nose because it is minimally invasive. It was consistent with my disease, but not conclusive. My kidney function was down below 15%. If it went down to 10%, I would have needed dialysis, and possibly a kidney transplant. Therefore, they decided to start me on the cyclophosphomide without a confirmed diagnosis.

They still wanted to do a biopsy, so the remaining options were either lungs or kidneys. The kidney biopsy had a very low likelihood of proving anything, since they just extract the tissue sample with a large needle, so they decided on the lung biopsy. The first plan was a video assisted procedure with a small incision and a probe. They had a pathologist standing by to check the tissue sample, and if it was inconclusive, they would have to do a full thoracotamy, a much more invasive procedure where they make a large incision and open my lung. The tissue from the video-assisted procedure was inconclusive, but my lung was too fragile for the thoracotamy, so they were again unable to confirm the diagnosis.

I spent the night in the ICU, and the next day they moved me back to a regular hospital room. My condition at that point is significant, because that is the day that my insurance company, Aetna, decided that being in the hospital was no longer medically necessary. I had less than 20% kidney function and a large legion in my lung. As a result of the surgery, I had a tube in my chest so that my lung could drain. I couldn't even get out of bed to go to the bathroom. From being on the steroids and because of my low kidney function, I started retaining massive amounts of fluids, and my weight shot up from 180 to 220 pounds in less than one week. And yet somehow, according to Aetna, I didn't need to be in the hospital anymore?

It was a full four days after the surgery before the drainage from my lung came down to a level that they felt comfortable removing the chest tube. That was Friday afternoon. They kept me for one more night, and after a total of 10 days in the hospital, I went home on Saturday morning.

My insurance problems didn't end there. They paid for the prednisone and cyclophosphomide, two very cheap drugs that I definately need to survive. Because I just had surgery and am at high risk of getting pneumonia, because I still have a legion in my lung, and because the cyclophosphomide weakens my immune system and makes me prone to bladder infections, I need to be on antibiotics. With my kidneys in such bad shape, though, I couldn't take normal antibiotics. They only thing thing I could take costs $1,100 per bottle, and my insurance company simply refused to pay for it. They also refused to pay for medication to prevent the nausea associated with the chemotherapy. Ironically enough, though, they were happy to pay for anti-anxiety drugs. I guess that's really indicative of the state of American society. Why pay for expensive drugs which will actually prevent me from getting sick, if they can just give me a cheap drug that makes me not worry about it?

National Health Care that Doesn't Solve the Problem

2007-06-06T08:49:00.001-07:00

Obama and Edwards both have specific plans now for universal health care, but they both rely on a system that is fundamentally flawed - the health insurance industry.

The health insurance industry is different from other industries in that they achieve their maximum profitability by denying services to their customers whenever possible. Their entire business structure is based around finding ways to generate the maximum inflow of revenue while providing the least possible benefits.

The millions of uninsured are a big problem in this country, but often those who do have insurance still can't get basic health care because the insurance industry does all it can to discourage or prevent it. Forcing everyone to buy into this system only increases profits for the insurance corporations.

These plans may in some cases help protect individuals from catastrophic costs due to sudden, unexpected illness, but they will do little to help the average uninsured person have access to routine medical care.

Pity the Rich

2007-05-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

Too often we find ourselves overwhelmed with concern for the most vulnerable people in this world, be it the child in inner-city Chicago who goes without health care, or the Indian farmer eking out a living on his 10 acre plot. We sometimes forget, distracted by our empathy for the poor, that the rich too can suffer terribly. We can thank the New York Times for reminding us of their plight with their recent story, "The Tyranny of the 2nd Home." It lays out, in terrible detail, the agony of living with a weekend home. Dear readers, I must caution you that after reading this story I felt an unbearable anguish. If you are weak of heart, you may wish to confine yourself to the following excerpts rather than reading the entire, heart-wrenching work:

These second, but never secondary, houses can be exhausting, their owners admit, a litany of bills and guilt and traffic — and meals to cook for guests who arrive with only one wish: to be entertained.

Second home owners can experience an unbearable level of anxiety, knowing their scenic view might disappear at any moment:

Expecting a bucolic retreat, the Sevastopoulos soon found themselves in a pitched battle over a threatened power plant across the river in Athens. As first proposed, the water-cooled plant would have had tall stacks that would have destroyed the view from their 1930s white Colonial Revival weekend abode.

Though a lucky few of these homeowners have access to private air travel, many are forced to use antiquated and dismally slow public (!) rail transportation to get to their second homes:

But despite the tyranny of the train, another nightmare for weekend commuters who don’t have a private jet, Mr. Bricker finds his house “idyllic, bliss,” with only one thing lacking. “If only I had the kind of job where I could leave Thursday night or Friday morning. ...”

In the desperate world of weekend homes, a fierce competition for scare resources can develop:

Yet building something — anything — in the Hamptons is “a nail biter,” he said. “Especially right now, before the season begins, because someone is always willing to throw money around to get their own project finished, and then you lose your contractor.”

Though many of us find ourselves giving to food pantries during the Christmas season, we forget that having too much food can be a terrible burden too:

“The vegetable garden — the production of too many vegetables, and the guilt of not eating them,” said Susan E. Bell, a paleontologist from New York City, who with her husband, Byron, an architect, owns a house he designed in Woodstock, N.Y. “And then, of course, all the effort it takes to persuade the house guests to take the vegetables with them.“

Bravo, Times, for having the decency and sense of social responsibility to bring the often-forgotten plight of the rich into the light.

Drug Dealers

2007-05-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

The makers of OxyContin plead guilty of misleading the public about the drug's addictiveness [link]. According to US Attorney John Brownlee:

"With its OxyContin, Purdue unleashed a highly abusable, addictive, and potentially dangerous drug on an unsuspecting and unknowing public...For these misrepresentations and crimes, Purdue and its executives have been brought to justice."

According to the DEA, the drug caused or contributed to 464 deaths in 2002. The company and three of its current and former executives were ordered to pay $634.5 million in fines, which initially seems like a large number, but it should be noted that annual sales of OxyContin were over $1 billion just in the year 2000, and at it's peak, there were over 600,000 prescriptions per year [link].

In other news, in Houston, Douglas Lee King Jr. plead guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute [link]. He was caught with 3 ounces of cocaine, valued at approximately $3,000. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Old School

2007-05-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

As you have probably heard, the FBI has foiled an alleged plot
by Islamic extremists to attack Fort Dix. Provided this all turns out to be real (plenty of precedence for it not to be) what struck me about this is that it seems that law enforcement authorities worked within the law to prevent the attack. The tip off came from an individual who heard about what the suspects were planning to do, no illegal wiretapping or torture. Using informants and undercover agents, the FBI investigated and monitored their activity, collecting evidence for a (hopefully) fair trial to follow. None of this appears to be contrary to some of those nifty amendments in our constitution. One might even say they were approaching terrorism as a (gasp!) criminal matter rather than some abstract evil to crusade against.

Sue Me

2007-05-06T21:43:00.000-07:00

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

May Day

2007-05-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

I am too busy to write a new post, so I'll reuse this post that I wrote two years ago.

The international holiday, celebrated May 1st, in virtually every country around the world except the United States, ironically began here in Chicago during the worker's struggle for the eight hour day. On May 1st, 1886, the American Federation of Labor declared a national strike to demand an eight hour work day. Two days later, police in Chicago fired into a crowd of striking workers at the McCormick Harvester plant, killing several workers*. The next day in Haymarket Square, a demonstration was called in response to the killings. Although the demonstration was peaceful, the police attempted to disperse the crowd, and a bomb was thrown, killing several police officers*. Eight labor leaders were arrested, seven of which were not even present at the time of the bombing. With no evidence linking them to the crime, they were tried based on their beliefs, and some to all* were sentenced to death.

*In researching this holiday, I found tremendous discrepancies in the numbers. The number of workers killed by police during the McCormick Harvester strike ranges from 1-4, the number of police killed in Haymarket Square ranges from 2-15, and the number of individuals sentenced to death ranged from 5-8. The description of the history depends entirely on the source. Conservative sites, who still seem to still see this as a communist plot, manipulated the numbers in their favor, and also gave very detailed descriptions of the killed police officers' identities and the supposed brutality of their deaths, but described the worker's deaths as simply "a shooting and one fatality when police tangled with rioters." Left wing sites were equally biased. The disparity between accounts of the events, as well as the lack of recognition of the holiday here in the US, where it began, demonstrate that Americans are losing the struggle for workers rights. The eight hour work day is all but gone. Workers are only entitled to overtime after working more than forty hours per week, and even that is under attack by conservatives. In 2004, the Department of Labor regulations were changed, reclassifying more than eight million workers as "management" and thus not entitled to overtime pay. May 1st was officially recognized as "Loyalty Day" in the 1920's to contrast what was seen as a "communist" holiday. In this official proclaimation by George W. Bush in 2004, citizens are encouraged to "demonstrate their commitment to our country by supporting our military, serving each other, and teaching our young people about our history and values." Apparantly, by "teaching our young people about our history and values", he actually means creating a ridiculous holiday to attempt to erase aspects of history which he would rather we forget.

Roundhouse Kick to Logic Itself!

2007-04-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

Chuck Norris. The very name conjures up images of stilted acting in bad action TV shows and an entire universe of jokes. But, did you know the man (nay, legend!) is also a philosopher? Yes!

Though one can point to Cho's own psychotic behavior and our graphic slasher media as potential contributors to his deplorable murder spree, we must also hesitate to consider how we as a society are possibly contributing to the growth of these academic killing fields. I believe those who wield the baton of the secular progressive agenda bear significant responsibility for the escalation of school shootings.

(In my own defense, I haven't unsheathed my "Baton of the Secular Progressive Agenda +1" since the 2006 midterms.) I have to admit my own reflex was to point to "Cho's own psychotic behavior" in the wake of the Virgina Tech massacre, but after being touched by the wisdom of "The Norris," my silly secular progressive degenerate thought has been thoroughly crushed by his mighty fists of rhetoric! The font of wisdom continues to flow:

We teach our children they are nothing more than glorified apes, yet we don't expect them to act like monkeys. We place our value in things, yet expect our children to value people. We disrespect one another, but expect our children to respect others. We terminate children in the womb, but are surprised when children outside the womb terminate other children. We push God to the side, but expect our children to be godly. We've abandoned moral absolutes, yet expect our children to obey the universal commandment, ''Thou shalt not murder.''

Let's set aside for a moment that Chuck Norris is a glorified ape so hairy that it's a liability in a fight. Let's also set aside the fact that he has made a living making ultra-violent movies and TV, so that we may bask yet more in his magnificent thought:

If we are ever to restore civility in our land and our schools, we must turn back the clocks to a time when such shocking crimes didn't even exist – when we valued life and respected one another much more then we do today. We must use the Bible (humanity's blueprint for life and ''bluebook'' for value) to retrain our youth about theirs and others' value as children of God, made in His image.

One can hardly fault him for suggesting the Bible be used as our blueprint for a peaceful, respectful society. How far back are we going to have to turn back the clock in our country to get to the Paradisaical States of America that Chuck speaks of? The 70's? The 60's? The 40's? The 30's? The 20's? The 1890's? All the way back? Sorry to break it to you Chuck, but you're an idiot. Please don't hunt me down and kick me in the face.

Juxtaposition

2007-04-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Does the AP just let the Bush administration choose which photos they use?

While the placement of Cheney under the halo of the Capital Hill dome must certainly have been deliberate, I think it backfired. The juxtaposition of it against his pale face, bald head, and typical Cheney scowl only make him seem more sinister.

Kurt Vonnegut

2007-04-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

In the grand scheme of things, we are all pretty unimportant, but maybe he was a little less so.

Nappy-headed what now?

2007-04-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't been paying attention, Don Imus, the inexplicable talk radio host, recently made a number of racist and sexist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team, including referring to them as "nappy-headed hoes."

What I can't figure out is how a guy who looks like the love child of Andy Gibb and the Crypt Keeper thinks he's got a license to make fun of anyone's appearance.

+ =

British Soldiers Given the Guantanamo Treatment?

2007-04-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

The allegations of mistreatment of the British soldiers while in Iranian custody just proves the point that is so obvious that it probably isn't even worth posting about. By all accounts, the Iranians treated the British soldiers better than is officially allowed for suspects in US custody:

"We were blindfolded, our hands were bound and we were forced up against a wall. Throughout our ordeal we faced constant psychological pressure," Carman said. "All of us were kept in isolation. We were interrogated most nights and presented with two options. If we admitted that we'd strayed, we'd be on a plane to (Britain) pretty soon. If we didn't, we faced up to seven years in prison." [source]

Constant psychological pressure? In Guantanamo, every aspect of a prisoner's life is seen as potential leverage to be used in interrogations, such as extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation, etc.

Threats of seven years in prison? The US uses the threat of indefinite imprisonment as leverage.

This, of course, is to say nothing of the secret interrogations, where prisoners are taken (often kidnapped) by the CIA and brought to countries with little or no laws regarding torture. There's no way of even knowing what goes on in those cases.

Consistency is hardly a consideration, though, for the current administration, so I have little doubt that they will simply condemn the treatment and pretend it doesn't have anything to do with the treatment of US prisoners.

Lifelong Republican

2007-03-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

So, I was watching 60 Minutes this weekend, and there was an excellent report about coal mine safety and the lack thereof. At one point they interviewed a regulatory official and described her as a "lifelong Republican." Presumably this was to make it all the more shocking that she was in favor of better safety regulations in mines.

I'll bet you've heard that phrase before, "lifelong Republican." It is usually heard before it is explained that someone is against a certain military adventure, or when they think people shouldn't starve to death because they can't afford food. Think about it for a second. What is the implication of the phrase?

Is it that if you are a "lifelong Democrat" or simply a "lifelong non-douchebag" that your opinions carry less weight, because you only care about people being safe at work because you mindlessly subscribe to a leftist ideology. If you are a "lifelong Republican" who favors mine safety, well then maybe it really IS a reasonable position. Maybe people shouldn't be blown to pieces in preventable methane explosions! The Republican cares, it must be important!

The other possible reason for using this phrase (almost certainly not the intent of the journalist, but one which would entertain me) is that they are implying that despite the handicap of being a "lifelong Republican," the individual in question nevertheless came to the conclusion that human life is more important than maximizing profits. Bravo Lifelong Republican, you discovered a bit of humanity hiding in your middle pinkie knuckle!

Before the vast majority of Americans decided that invading Iraq was a worse idea than investing your retirement funds based on spam e-mail stock alerts, there was a similar phenomenon regarding prominent voices who had initially supported the war and later changed their mind. These people were the ones who were "level-headed." If someone had been against the invasion from the start (i.e. right 100% of the time) they were ignored, presumably because only loonie hippie liberals could have come to such a conclusion so early in the debacle. Those who were completely wrong at the start, but who later came to their senses, these were the voices of reason. They were rewarded for being wrong, because their initial wrongness meant that their later rightness was really right. If your rightness had been right all along, you must have been right for the wrong reasons. See, it makes perfect sense.

Gilmore Girls and Class Issues

2007-02-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

Gilmore Girls is based primarily on two characters, Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory. Lorelai's parents are wealthy elites, and in an act of rebellion, Lorelai left home after giving birth to Rory and moved to a small town in Connecticut. She cut off all ties with her parents and with Christopher, Rory's father, who also was born into a life of privilege. This provides an excellent framework for commentary on issues of class, however, this is rarely taken advantage of, and when it is, it is used to further a disturbingly classist ideology.

Rory grows up alongside normal, middle-class people, however, from the beginning, it is clear that she possesses some innate qualities which distinguish her. When she reunites with her grandparents, they agree to pay for her to attend a prestigious college prep school for children the rich. The essential point of this is to say that because Rory was born from the elite class, regardless of the fact that she was raised as a commoner, she retains the innate qualities of the wealthy. These qualities entitle her to a life of privilege, attending the college prep school, and eventually the Ivy League school of her choice, while the friends that she grew up with stay behind in the small town in Connecticut and are eventually forgotten by the show.

Aside from the broad thematic elements, the show is filled with small insults to every member of the lower class, commonly disguised as comic relief. For example, there is a running joke about how Emily Gilmore (Lorelai's mother) constantly harasses, yells at, and fires her maids, cooks, and housekeepers for what the show deems as incompetence, while the other characters sit idly by, sometimes laughing at it. Another example of this is how Rory can't learn the names of the countless people who serve her, so she simply refers to them by their function, such as "gas station boy" or "cafeteria worker boy," etc. This implies that members of the lower class have no real identity of their own, and they are worth nothing other than their value as servants.

I can not recall a single example of a character who was born from the lower class who is considered to be on the same level intellectually with the Gilmores.

The show even manages to insult liberal intellectualism, when a popular student at Rory's prep school tries to bully the idealistic Rory into implementing policies in student government. According to the student, "If you have a problem, tell it to Noam Chomsky. I live in the real world." The student is not a positive character, but even so, this line represents blatant anti-intellectualism. In a sense, Rory is accused of being so idealistic that she lives in the dream world of well-know liberal intellectuals. Because the character is a bully, her statements do not represent the intended ideology of the show, however what is in question is only whether or not Rory lives in the real world. There is no question that Noam Chomsky still does not.

Wal-Mart Uber Alles

2007-02-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

The captain of this blog is usually the one bashing on Wal-Mart; I thought I'd get into the action myself today. Wal-mart has gotten into (even more) trouble for selling t-shirts that appear to have the Nazi SS Totenkopf (Death's Head) insignia printed on them. They were notified of this 11 weeks ago and still have yet to fully remove the t-shirts from store shelves. For some bizarre reason, some of the t-shirts say "Since 1978". More like "Since 1935".

Touch and Squirt

2007-02-03T17:02:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the release of Microsoft's latest attempt at an operating system, Vista, I've decided to dedicate a post to the Dick Cheney of Microsoft, CEO Steve Ballmer. Well known as a champion chair thrower, Steve also has a wonderful way with words. Here are a few choice quotes from an interview he gave to Business Week back in October last year:

Business Week: Who are Microsoft's top competitors?
Ballmer: Guys who can touch us in multiple places probably matter more than guys who can touch us in any one place. And actually we don't really have our big competition from any one company. Any one company, we know how to compete with... there are cases where software gets monetized through hardware. That's what an iPod is. iPod is a software thing. You just happen to collect the money on the hardware.

BW: Does Zune fit into the hardware piece of this?
Ballmer: Sure it does. Because the value of Zune, if we're successful, is all in the software. It's in community [the ability to share music and pictures with other Zune users]. I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That's a software experience. The truth is, though, if it makes money, it will be built into the gross margin on the hardware. We'll figure out how to make money on the community perhaps later though advertising or other means.

Here's squirting at you, Steve.

Domestic Spying Issue Moot?

2007-01-25T19:16:00.000-08:00

Imagine if, for example, every day when I get home from work, I get drunk and punch my wife in the face. It's illegal, but I claim that it's not because she's my wife, and therefore my property, and so I am allowed to do it. I get arrested and I'm told that it's illegal, but I retain that it is my right as the man of the house to give my wife a beating if I feel like it. I get arrested. My defense in court is that she's my wife, and my property, so I have not only the right, but the responsibility to keep her in line. The judge can hardly wait to shut down my defense because it has no basis in law. Once that happens, I say, oh well, you win, I'll stop abusing my wife. Can I go home now?

Sound ridiculous?

Well, that's precisely what the Bush administration is trying to get away with [link]. They broke the law, and they deserve to be punished. Yet somehow, that they say they won't do it anymore means they should be off the hook?

Prodigal Son

2006-12-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

Hi all, you may not remember me, but I'm back. I wish I could say I was on a whirlwind global tour financed by a travel magazine, but the truth is I was declared an enemy combatant by the Bush administration and I've spent the last few months in a CIA detention center in an unspecified Eastern European country. I was kept awake by Toby Keith "music", had delicate parts of my body subjected to electric shock, and was forced to do things I'm not proud of with a glowstick and a shop vac. Needless to say they did not get any actionable intelligence out of me, and I was eventually released thanks to the hard work of my ACLU attorneys.

Anyway, you may have heard that the Bush administration recently signed a deal with India to assist them with their civilian nuclear facilities. Never mind the fact that India has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the deal could heighten tensions in the region, with both Pakistan and China. The most interesting part of the deal is that the act was sponsored by non other than George Felix Allen (shown here at the signing, standing right behind Condi with a stupid grin on his face). Perhaps we misjudged the man. He couldn't possibly be a racist, he trusts 1.1 billion macacas with nookular technology.

MnPass

2006-12-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

Sitting on the expressway, barely creeping forward at a speed of less than five miles per hour, I am stuck behind a rusty 1985 Chevy Impala. Every time it moves, a puff of black smoke erupts from it's low hanging tail pipe. A Mexican woman in a 1993 Geo Metro sits to the right of me, singing along to some pop song in Spanish. Suddenly, a brand new BMW SUV flies by me on the shoulder, doing at least 60 mph. Normally, that would have made me angry, but today, it got me thinking. Hey, I'm rich too, why should I have to sit in traffic like the rest of these poor slobs? This is America. Doesn't my wealth entitle me to special treatment?

Well, thank God for the MnPass! Now, for a moderate fee, I no longer have to wait my turn. I can drive ahead of all the poor people in a special lane reserved just for special people like me. All I need to do is put a transponder in my car, and a fee of between one and eight dollars will be charged to my credit card each time I drive in my special lane.

You are wondering, what is there to stop just any insignificant commoner from doing this, making the special lane just as congested as the rest? Well, obviously you need a decent credit rating to get a credit card, which keeps out a lot of the riff-raff, but the best thing is that if traffic starts to slow down in the rich-person lane, the fee goes up. That way, the worse traffic gets, the more the poor peasants will be forced to get out of my way, and move into the regular lanes, which I like to call the "back-of-the-bus" lanes, because it's just like the good old days, when they had to give up their seat in the front of the bus. The fee keeps increasing until enough of the insignificant commoners get out of my way so that I can get up to a consistent 50 mph.

God bless America!

Democratic Win in November?

2006-10-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the infrequent posting, but I've spent the last couple of months completely occupied with moving, computer viruses, and evaluating the wind power potential in Illinois.

It seems to me that there is a trend in the coverage of the upcoming election, and the way that the polls are conducted. Polls for individual races don't really show the Democrats have a clear advantage, so the focus has been on the "general ballot," asking who people would rather vote for, a Democrat or a Republican.

Is that type of poll really meaningful? If John Laesch is polling at 42% compared to Dennis Hastert's 52%, is it going to make any difference at all that 56% of Americans favor Democrats on a general Democrat/Republican ballot vs. 37% favoring Republicans? That's only a 10% difference between the candidates. Most races are not even that close.

I guess that I prefer the Democrats over the Republicans, but in all honesty, I can't say that I really prefer one over the other. If the Democrats are any less heartlessly imperialistic than the Republicans (and that is a very big IF), they more than make up for it with their spineless, self-serving partisianship. You don't see Republicans calling conservatives traitors if they vote Libertarian.

Some Day We'll Laugh About This...

2006-08-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

I got a call from my mother last night. As usually, I was immediately worried that something happend to my 6-year-old half brother Nick. As usual, I was right. When my step-father got home, he didn't pull up all the way in the driveway, so when my mother got home, she wouldn't have been able to get her car in. Therefore, little six-year-old Nicholas decided that he wanted to pull the car up himself. My step-father fell asleep, and Nick went outside, opened the door, and got behind the wheel. He didn't know how to start the car, but he did manage to shift into neutral. The car rolled backward out of the driveway, across the street, over the curb, and finally came to a rest in the middle of the neighbor's front lawn. He's fine, aside from being completely terrified.

BP Pipeline Shutdown - Neglected Factors and Incomplete Information

2006-08-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

There certainly are many factors that I couldn't consider in my previous post because the data is unavailable.

The most important is the operation cost. Profit is defined as revenue minus costs incurred. The costs that BP incurs are not available, so my post only shows how BP's gross revenue increases. I don't know what the effect will be on the operation cost. To repair the pipeline will certainly cost BP some money, but will it be more than the increased revenue?

There are other factors as well, as this is a greatly oversimplified analysis. For example, for BP's daily oil production, the only data available was the yearly production value, which I used to calculate an average daily value. The actual daily value may not be so constant due to several factors. One factor is something called demand elasticity. Essentially, as the price goes up, the amount that consumers purchase goes down. Therefore, BP's production may decrease as the price goes up. Much like the electricity market, however, gasoline is very demand inelastic in the short term, i.e. as the price goes up, consumers still purchase about the same amount, at least in the short term. Therefore, a short-term increase in oil price is not likely to have much of an effect on the global demand for oil.

A much more complete and scholarly analysis has been promised by the Dark Wraith. As of now, it's not up yet, but I'm sure it will be soon.

Who Really Gains from the BP Alaskan Pipeline Shutdown

2006-08-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting figures relating to the shutdown of the Alaskan pipeline:

Oil prices before the shutdown: $73.75 [link]
Oil prices after the shutdown: $76.98 [link]

BP's worldwide production with the pipeline in operation:
963,000,000 barrels per year, or an average of 2,638,400 barrels per day [link]

BP's gross daily revenue with the pipeline in place:
2,638,400 * 73.75 = $194,582,000

BP owns a quarter share of the oil field served by the pipeline, so they stand to loose about 100,000 barrels per day of crude production [link]. Therefore, their total daily revenue is:

(2,638,400 - 100,000) * 76.98 = $195,406,032

With the higher price, that is $824,032 per day more than when the pipeline was operational. I don't know exactly how much the increased overhead cost to BP will be with the pipeline shut down, but it will certainly be significant, so it seems possible that with the current price, BP will may still lose money. That current price, however, is only the result of the news that the pipeline will be shutdown. When it is actually shut down, prices are certain to rise significantly. If the price reaches $78 to $80 per barrel, BP will take in $3,413,200 to $8,490,000 more per day than with the pipeline operational. If the pipeline is down for 2-3 months, BP stands likely to bring in anywhere from $204,792,000 to $764,100,000 in increased gross revenue if the price of oil is between $78 to $80 per barrel.

Certainly the repairs need to be done, however, had BP not waited until there was an imminent danger of catastrophe, it is likely the line could have been repaired more gradually, with only a minimal interruption in output. I believe that BP's strategy was to wait until the necessary repairs on the line would require a complete shutdown, so that the reduced production would drive up prices, resulting in increased profit. It is a common strategy in other industries as well. Enron, for example, created the energy crisis in California by deliberately taking generating plants off-line for "maintenance." Due to the decreased capacity, there was a predictable spike in energy prices, and Enron's profits were tremendous.

A Theory about the War in Lebanon

2006-08-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

By destroying Lebanon, support for Hezbollah has, predictably, only increased in Lebanon. Therefore, the war only hurts long-term Israeli security. So that begs the question, why is Israel at war with Lebanon?

My theory is that it has at least something to do with further justification for sanctions against Iran.

Iran right now is not defenseless militarily. Of course, they don't pose a significant challenge to US hegemony, but their military is significant enough that a war would cost a significant number of American soldiers lives, and so it is not politically feasible. Bullies only pick on those who can't fight back.

Sanctions, however, offer the opportunity to gradually, over the course of several years, cripple the Iranian economy and undermine their military strength, until eventually they are defenseless enough for "regime change."

The problem is, in order to impose sanctions, Russia and China must be convinced not to veto. The presence of an alleged, but largely unsubstantiated, nuclear weapons program was not enough. Until recently, Iranian support for Hezbollah has been largely ignored. By creating such a terrible humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, the US/Israel has forced the UN to act, and therefore, they must address the issue of Iranian support of Hezbollah, possibly convincing Russia and China not to veto.

**Clarification:
The above post was merely speculation about the possible goals of the US/Israel in invading Lebanon. All along, it was my intention to imply that I do in fact disagree with these goals. I apologize if I did not make this clear.

The "Big Box Ordinance"

2006-08-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

The Chicago Sun-Times today proudly touted that a new Target store will not be built on the South Side as proof that the Big Box Ordinance is just wrong for the city [link].

Well, isn't keeping these stores out of Chicago sort of the point of the ordinance?

The Big Box Ordinance was not intended to create a living wage for service workers, it was intended to help local business owners by keeping the big chains like WalMart out of Chicago. Target deciding not to build a store in Chicago is exactly the effect of the ordinance that we should hope for. If we want to create a living wage in Chicago, we can't limit legislation to companies that can just as easily go somewhere else.

Anti-Semitism and the War in Lebanon

2006-07-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al-Maliki was recently called an anti-Semite for referring to Israel as the aggressor in the war in Lebanon. Of course, I don't know how he feels about Jews, but why is anyone who doesn't support the murder of hundreds of civilians in Lebanon by the Israelis considered and anti-Semite?

I support Israel, and I believe they have the right to defend themselves. I believe that they have the right to act militarily in support of their soverenty and security. The thing is, the destruction of Lebanon only hurts Israeli security. First of all, by destroying the Lebanese infrastructure and undermining their democracy, they are just begging for Hezbollah or another foreign supported, anti-Israeli group to seize power. Second, and more importantly, Hezbollah was created to resist the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, and in very much the same way, this latest violence will surely sway the next generation if not to Hezbollah, then to some other anti-Israeli militant group.

Israeli and Lebanese Children

2006-07-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

The following pictures of Israeli children signing shells intended for Lebanon were taken on July 17 in northern Israel.

The event was not officially organized by the IDF, but they did not "condone or condemn the incident." [link] According to the article, the messages include a Star of David and the message "From Israel with Love."

And now, Lebanese children receiving their message:

source: AP

Reagan Youth

2006-07-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

Reagan youth was a punk band from the 80's who toured with bands like Dead Kennedys and Bad Brains. The name comes from the Hitler Youth, comparing Reagan and the religious right to hate groups.

I was doing a search to find out more about Reagan Youth, as they are associated with some of my favorite bands, when I came across this article [link]. It was written in 2004 after Reagan died, and is about how he supposedly "inspired a generation of youth." From the article:

"Some of these people belong to a generation I've always called "the Reagan youth." We were the kids who fell in between the baby boomers and the Gen-X crowd. We believed in hard work; we loved our country; we were part of the Reagan Revolution. Just as John F. Kennedy had a major impact on the youth during his presidency, Reagan's leadership gave rise to a generation of young conservatives."

Apparantly she didn't realize the origin of the term.

A Republican Plan for Left-Over Embryos

2006-07-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

As you certainly already know, Bush used his first veto to block a bill to fund embryonic stem cell research on embryos that are left over from fertility clinics.

Since we can't fund research on these embryos, what should be done with them? If they really are "human life" as Republicans claim, then it is immoral to discard them. That is why the funding that would have been used for stem cell research needs to be immediately diverted to a massive federal program to grow all of these embryos into fully developed human infants. Of course, Republicans don't believe in federal programs to support these infants after they crawl out of their test tubes and inherit original sin, so at this point, they must all be immediately released onto the street. If they starve to death, well, that's just because they are too lazy to go out and get a job. Undoubtedly, many of these infants will turn to crime, and so it will certainly be necessary to lower the minimum age that a person can be executed to 10 months. If these infants can't learn to live in society without committing crimes by the age of 10 months, well, they are just bad eggs, and don't deserve to live.

"What Not To Watch"

2006-07-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

"In These Times" has a great article about fashion shows - called, cleverly, "What Not To Watch." [link].

I have been complaining for years about the show "What Not To Wear" on TLC (which used to be "The Learning Channel" until they had to change the name because they replaced all of the "learning" with shows that serve no purpose other than to advocate for materialism).

Of such materialsm promoting shows, there are none worse than "What Not To Wear." The show takes people that they consider unfashionable and ridicule them until they give up their individuality and agree to look like everyone else. The lead female "fashion expert" is very fond of telling people that they should be arrested for going out in public dressed as they do before they give in and conform.

To me, I think the central theme of the show is about destroying any individuality that people may have that is not condusive to selling products. Wearing clothes that are a little old or outdated means that you are not fulfilling the responsibility that you have as a consumer to purchase whatever crap that the companies tell you to purchase.

Entrenched Oligarchy

2006-07-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

Chicago is a city that is openly hostile to the Bush administration.

They are overwhelmingly Democrat. They passed a resolution in opposition to invading Iraq. White Sox coach Ozzie Guillen refused a meeting at the White House after they won the World Series (he said it was because of a family conflict, but I find it hard to believe that Bush's anti-Chavez rhetoric had nothing to do with it, as Guillen is from Venezuela). Bush is so despised that in running for governor, the worst thing that Blagojevich can say about his opponent is that she is a Bush supporter.

And yet, for some reason, Bush is welcomed here with open arms. Where are the massive demonstrations that have greeted Bush in European visits?

My theory is that it's for the same reason that the Democrats in congress don't really attack Bush on his great many illegal abuses of power. It's that at least on some level, they realize that they are all members of an entrenched oligarchy, deeply dependent on the survival of the status quo.* While they may disagree on many more trivial issues, they all agree that their power depends on keeping the discourse "civil," i.e. no one can call into question the legitimacy of the system as a whole. Political enemies are not real enemies because they all support the American way - global hegemony.

*The phrase "entrenched oligarchy, deeply dependent on the survival of the status quo" was paraphrased from a piece on the Daily Show a few years ago about the White House Correspondents Dinner. In that case, the entrenched oligarchy was not the Democratic and Republican parties, but rather the government and the mainstream news media as a whole.

The Dark Side

2006-06-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

The PBS program Fontline [link] has a very good program on Dick Cheney and the lead up to the war in Iraq, called "The Dark Side" [link]. As of the time that I am writing this, you can watch it online, but I'm not sure how long that will last. It mostly just confirms a lot of information that I already suspected, but it's very worth the 90 minutes.

The Doctrine of Preemption/Prevention

2006-06-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

First, I would like to point out that what today is commonly referred to as "preemption" is really "prevention." Preemption relative to foreign policy would be to, for example, attack the Japanese fleet on their way to Pearl Harbor - essentially meeting their attack before it begins. Prevention, however, would be to attack Japan itself before the fleet ever leaves. For the US to preemptively attack Iraq, Iraq would have to be in the act of attacking the US. Even the official justification for war was preventative rather than preemptive.

Prevention, as it applies to the "War on Terror" is a unique, distinctly Orwellian break from tradition. In the past, domestic laws as well as foreign policy were based on punishment as a deterrent. In domestic law, this is quite obvious. A person is punished for the acts that they commit, not for the acts that they may commit in the future. During the cold war, the US did not attack Soviet missile sites, they simply accepted the concept of mutually assured destruction - that the response to an initial nuclear strike was a sufficient deterrent to prevent nuclear war.

The traditional method of punishment as a deterrent is not effective against people who do not fear punishment. Obviously, someone who is willing to give his own life to kill Americans would not be deterred by traditional methods. Therefore, it is understandable that some preventative measures must be taken to prevent attacks, but it is clearly not a simple issue to prosecute people who may may only intend to commit a crime.

Until the technology exists to simultaneously monitor everyone for "dangerous thoughts" while at the same time, drilling hour after hour of government propaganda into us, there will be people who get away with wanting to do horrible things. We can never be 100% secure when half the world hates us.

Missile Defense Systems and Public Relations

2006-06-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

The treaty-breaking US missile defense system, now in the news again in light of the North Korean missile test, is analagous to the Bush administration's policy's in general - that they will do whatever the hell they want, and deal with opposition as a separate, completely unrelated issue. Other countries build weapons to protect their soverenty from US aggression. In response, rather than reconsider the policies that jeopardize our security, they break more laws and spend billions on a missile defense system that is almost completely ineffective, making us far less secure than we were initially.

This is one of the central themes of Bush administration policy. If the public wouldn't approve of Bush's illegal policies, don't change the policies, just do your best to make sure no one ever finds out about them. If terrorists want to attack American citizens, don't address the reason millions of people around the world hate us so much, just do your best to kill or "detain" everyone that doesn't like us or may potentially not like us in the future. If violent crime is up, don't try to figure out why, just make sure to execute all of the criminals.

Lessons from Howard Stern

2006-06-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

Lately, Ann Coulter has been all over promoting her new book. Liberal and Democratic pundits both are furious about her outrageous statements so much that they play right into her hands.

She (or at least the character she plays on TV) is a raving lunatic, completely undeserving of any attention because that negative attention by people like Al Franken is precisely what makes her so popular. The things that she writes and says are so heartless and cruel, so unacceptable by all but the most amoral conservatives, that I have to believe that the only reason that she is number one on the New York Times bestseller list is because liberals can't stop talking about her.

This will be the last time I ever mention her because to address her arguments would give them a credibility that they simply don't deserve.

The Nature of Leadership

2006-06-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

Congress refused to act when the Bush administration, without a court order, taps the phones of a still unknown number of American citizens. Then it was revealed that the NSA has also been compiling an extensive database of millions of calls made by ordinary Americans. Congress still refused to act. Then, with a warrant, federal investigators searched the office of a congressman who was caught on tape taking bribes, and was found to have a hundred thousand dollars in cash hidden in his freezer. Suddenly, there is an overwhelming bipartisan cry that the Bush administration has abused their power.

It seems to me that corruption is a fundamental aspect of leadership. Whoever is in power is necessarily corrupt to at least some degree, because that is what it takes to gain power. Noble, benevolent leaders can rarely compete with the corrupt, power-hungry individuals who will do whatever it takes to gain power. As leaders rise to higher and higher offices, the more ruthlessness they need to be to compete with their rivals.

My Summer Reading List

2006-05-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

The district where I went to high school rejected a proposal to ban nine books [link]. The books are:

"Beloved" by Toni Morrison
"Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
"The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
"Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Steven J. Dubner
"The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World" by Michael Pollan
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Steven Chbosky
"Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
"How Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

I guess I shouldn't be that surprised by this. There are a lot of conservatives in that area, but the high school district was very liberal, or at least it seemed to be ten years ago. A lot has changed in ten years. Now, conservatives feel empowered, and believe they have a mandate to take charge of society, driving out of the schools such "controversial" ideas like evolution, sex education, dinosaurs, the laws of thermodynamics, global warming, and pretty much everything else which is in conflict with either the literal interpretation of the Bible, or the ideals of consumerism and ultra-capitalism.

The only books that I have read from this list are "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "The Things They Carried" and there is certainly nothing in any of those books that is more that anyone can see on prime-time network television. The difference, I believe, is the attitude toward violence. It is perfectly acceptable to glorify state violence. On television and in movies, the "good guys" routinely get into shootouts with the "bad guys" and invariably the bad guys are shot, instantly drop to the ground without spilling a drop of blood, and are never seen or heard from again. No one ever suffers. But a book like "Slaughterhouse-Five" (one of my favorite books) is unacceptable presumably because it depicts violence in general in a negative light, and fails to depict the "good guys" as being universally good and the "bad guys" as evil incarnate.

It seems that invariably, when people try to have books banned, it is not because of violence or language. Some of the most violent, graphic books are hardly contraversial. For example, "Lord of the Flies," which I read in my sophmore year of high school, is very violent, but the ideas in that book are not anti-conservative and so they are not controversial.

This is not about violence and language, this is about ideology, plain and simple, and I applaud my high school district for making the right decision. It's a scary thought that a group of people who don't believe in dinosaurs might be able to sieze control of the public schools.

Contradictory Headlines

2006-05-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

Fox News: "Federal Trade Commission Says Oil Industry Did Not Manipulate Prices After Hurricane Katrina" [link]

ABC News: "FTC: Some Gas Price Gouging After Katrina" [link]

If you read the two headlines seperately, you would probably expect to find two very different articles. Actually, both stories were taken from the same AP story, and the content is virtually identical. Both articles mention 15 instances of price gouging, but no widespread market manipulation.

Even if there was no widespread market manipulation, I don't see how the Fox News headline is appropriate. 15 instances of price gouging hardly seems like nothing.

* * *

ABC News: "Hurricane Center Predicts Calmer Season" [link]

Washington Post: "U.S. Predicts Busy Hurricane Season" [link]

Again, the content of the articles is virtually identical. The National Hurricane Center has predicted that the coming hurricane season should not match last year's record season, but that it should still be significantly above average. This one is maybe not quite so overtly contradictory as the previous example, but I thought it was pretty strange to see both examples in a single day.

As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I do not believe in either a liberal or conservative bias in news, but rather in a bias toward profits, which often causes a bias toward sensationalism. The above two examples seem to illustrate this example well. The issues were not totally black and white, but the headlines necessarily had to choose sides. People don't want to hear the news, people want to have it boiled down, until it can hardly be said to represent the actual information.

Pfizer Tests Unapproved Drugs on African Children

2006-05-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

It has been a recurring theme in this blog that there are no lengths that pharmaceutical companies won't go to furthur their profits at the expense of human life. Most of my accusations against them deal with excessive, unnecessary advertising which drives up costs of prescription drugs, as well as a reluctance to invest in research into disease-curing drugs, as it they are not profitable compared to symptom-treating drugs.

Now, it seems that Pfizer has been testing unapproved drugs on Nigerian children during a 1996 outbreak of meningitis [link]. According to Pfizer, they only wanted to help with the crisis, but as soon as the clinical trial of the drug was complete, the Pfizer doctors left, while "the epidemic was still raging." The drug, Trovan, had never been given to children with meningitis, and five children died after being treated with it. The drug was approved for use in adults in 1997, but due to many cases of liver damage and several deaths, the FDA has severely restricted it's use, and it has been banned in Europe.

Medicine is hardly my specialty, but it seems meningitis it is treatable by traditional antibiotics [link].

It is of course possible that no one died as a direct result of taking the drug, however, even if that is the case, it is truely criminal for proven drugs to be withheld from children for the sake of testing an unapproved drug. It seems that Pfizer was able to keep this secret for years, and it is highly unlikely that anyone involved will face criminal charges.

More NSA Revelations

2006-05-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

USA Today has an article this morning about how the NSA, under an executive order signed by Bush, have been secretely collecting phone records of tens of millions of Americans with no ties to terrorism [link].

As I wrote in January [link], every article about the illegal NSA wiretapping program stated as fact that the target of all of the investigations were people who were suspected of having ties to terrorist groups. As I said then, the only evidence to support this limit is simply that the Bush administration says so. There is still no information available about the extent of the program. Now, more information is coming out showing that they were lying then. Are we to believe now that this latest revelation is the full extent of their abuse of power?

As a side note, the reaction to these revelations by the right-wing puntits is very troubling. It used to be, I believe, that conservatives feared "big government" invasions into private lives. It seems their reaction has been pretty universal. Essentially, the problem is just that these "disloyal" officials keep leaking this information.

I can't forgive the Democratic party for allowing this to happen. Members of both parties were briefed when the program began, and they did nothing. Then, they put up almost no fight at all when the Republican controlled intelligence committees refused to hold an investigation into the secret wiretapping program.

May Day

2006-05-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

Today is May 1st, and I plan to observe it by taking part in the nationwide demonstrations in favor of immigrant's rights. I originally wrote the following last year for May Day.

The international holiday, celebrated May 1st, a week from this Sunday, in virtually every country around the world except the United States, ironically began here in Chicago during the worker's struggle for the eight hour day. On May 1st, 1886, the American Federation of Labor declared a national strike to demand an eight hour work day. Two days later, police in Chicago fired into a crowd of striking workers at the McCormick Harvester plant, killing several workers*. The next day in Haymarket Square, a demonstration was called in response to the killings. Although the demonstration was peaceful, the police attempted to disperse the crowd, and a bomb was thrown, killing several police officers*. Eight labor leaders were arrested, seven of which were not even present at the time of the bombing. With no evidence linking them to the crime, they were tried based on their beliefs, and some to all* were sentenced to death. *In researching this holiday, I found tremendous discrepencies in the numbers. The number of workers killed by police during the McCormick Harvester strike ranges from 1-4, the number of police killed in Haymarket Square ranges from 2-15, and the number of individuals sentenced to death ranged from 5-8. The description of the history depends entirely on the source. Conservative sites, who still seem to still see this as a communist plot, manipulated the numbers in their favor, and also gave very detailed descriptions of the killed police officers' identitys and the supposed brutality of their deaths, but described the worker's deaths as simply "a shooting and one fatality when police tangled with rioters." Left wing sites were equally biased. The disparity between accounts of the events, as well as the lack of recognition of the holiday here in the US, where it began, demonstrate that Americans are losing the struggle for workers rights. The eight hour work day is all but gone. Workers are only entitled to overtime after working more than forty hours per week, and even that is under attack by conservatives. Just last year, the Department of Labor regulations were changed, reclassifying more than eight million workers as "management" and thus not entitled to overtime pay. May 1st was officially recognized as "Loyalty Day" in the 1920's to contrast what was seen as a "communist" holiday. In this official proclaimation by George W. Bush in 2004, citizens are encouraged to "demonstrate their commitment to our country by supporting our military, serving each other, and teaching our young people about our history and values." Apparantly, by "teaching our young people about our history and values", he actually means creating a ridiculous holiday to attempt to erase aspects of history which he would rather we forget.

London Profiling

2006-04-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

A man was arrested today in London after his taxi driver became suspicious when he sang along with The Clash's "London Calling" on his way to the airport:

Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.

The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem "London Calling," which features the lyrics "Now war is declared -- and battle come down" while other lines warn of a "meltdown expected."

Mann told British newspapers the taxi had been fitted with a music system which allowed him to plug in his MP3 player and he had been playing The Clash, Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles to the driver.

"He didn't like Led Zeppelin or The Clash but I don't think there was any need to tell the police," Mann told the Daily Mirror.

Clearly this is a case of overracting. I mean, if he was singing along with Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and sang "72 vestal virgins" instead of "16 vestal virgins" there might be cause for alarm, but there's no indication that this happened.

Man of Many Hats

2006-03-29T14:05:00.000-08:00

We all saw Jack Abramoff headed to his audition for the live action version of Rocky and Bullwinkle not too long ago. Well, Jack found himself a new look. It was his way of saying, "I don't tie damsels onto railroad tracks while I stroke my mustache and laugh maniacally. I play stickball with the gang on my street, until mommy says it's time for dinner." Well, the wardrobe adjustment didn't work, he was sentenced today to almost 6 years in prison and ordered to pay $21 million in restitution. Looks like he'll have to accessorize for "jumpsuit orange" now.

The Inevitable Consequences of Capitalism

2006-03-21T09:20:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I saw the movie Weatherman and I wasn't sure if I was watching a movie, or a two hour commercial. I can not recall a single scene which did not have at least one corporate advertisement. The ads took various forms, ranging from fast food logos everpresent in the background (but still in focus), to characters drinking from cups from a particular hot dog restaurant*. In the worst instance, the advertisements were actually worked into the plot, when the main character was repeatedly pelted with name-brand fast food items. This running joke only minimally served the plot, and although it did provide some comic relief, it seemed to exist primarily for the sake of selling ad space.

This phenomenon is hardly limited to movies. On The Office, scenes are actually written into the script which serve no purpose other than to promote other shows on the network. Advertisements have so invaded television that they are often no longer just worked into the plot, but instead actually pop up on the bottom of the screen in the middle of the programs. Lately, they have begun to incorporate sound as well.

So, what is this all leading to? Will television programs eventually have a streaming ticker of corporate logos throughout all programs? Will films eventually pay for their entire budget before they are even released simply by working covert ads into the script?

There will likely be a backlash against such intrusions eventually, but I doubt that it will be strong enough to outweigh the official American religion - Free Market Capitalism - where nothing is worth doing unless it is profitable.

*I deliberately withheld the names of the corporations in order to not further help to promote their products.

Operation False Cognate

2006-03-18T06:06:00.000-08:00

This past week the U.S. military, in joint operations with Iraqi forces, launched a massive air-based raid on Samarra, criticized by some as a large-scale photo opportunity. The attack was dubbed "Operation Swarmer." Unfortunately since the U.S. military now has no Arabic translators (all having been fired for being gay), and no one in command who has any knowledge of ethnic cuisine, it did not occur to them the possible confusion that this name might cause. The Iraqi forces misheard "Operation Swarmer" and believed they were taking part in "Operation Shawarma." As a result of this, the Iraqi troops showed up wearing grease-stained aprons and pushing vending carts. The results were tragic. The six insurgents that were discovered during the operation had no trouble dispatching the fast-food commandos, who were armed only with carving knives. The exhausted insurgents had no trouble finding lunch after the battle.

Guantanamo Bay

2006-03-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

Last week, This American Life aired an excellent show about Guantanimo Bay. It's about an hour long, and if you have the time, I can't recommend it enough. You can listen to it in Real Audio here. The episode is called "Habeas Schmabeas."

Scalia's Recipe for Stress Relief

2006-03-17T09:13:00.000-08:00

I promised myself I wouldn't work blue after the post about Dubai Ports World, but a U.S. Supreme Court justice is dragging me back down into the gutter. Via the Washington Post:

Scalia decried his own court's recent overturning of a state anti-sodomy law, joking that he personally believes "sexual orgies eliminate tension and ought to be encouraged," but said a panel of judges is not inherently qualified to determine the morality of such behavior.

Even I'm speechless after that one.

The Deep Thoughts of W: Part One

2006-03-14T11:44:00.000-08:00

Recently there has been a row in jolly old England about personal journal entries written by Prince Charles. In one he referred to senior Chinese diplomats at the Hong Kong handover ceremonies as "appalling old waxworks." This is a bit like a pot and a kettle having a conversation about the similarity of their respective coloring. Anyway, in a related development my top super double secret background contacts in the Bush administration have ferreted out some samples from G.W.'s personal journal, at great personal risk. They provide unprecedented insight into his mind. This is the first installment of an ongoing web exclusive.

May 1st, 2003:

Got to fly in a fighter jet today. Pilot told me not to touch anything. Just like old times. Gave a speech for the troops. Mission accomplished. Got to thank those banner makers. Makin' banners.

August 28, 2005 (1 day before Hurricane Katrina landfall):

Had a chat with Big Guy [Vice President Dick Cheney] today. Had some tough words for me. Had some things to say about my job purformance [sic]. Said I need to stay on message. Said I need to sell this Social Security thing. Told him it was hard work. Hard work being president. Sat me in a room with a video camera. Brownie was on TV. Said something about a turnado [sic]. Hard to listen. Got a lot on my mind. Social Security. Hard work.

October 3, 2005:

Nominated Sweetie Pie [White House Counsel Harriet Miers] for the Supreem [sic] Court today. Good woman. Thinks I'm smart. I like that. She's smart. She's nice too. Everybody's gonna like Sweetie Pie. Nothin' not to like. Smart. Nice.

Portus Interruptus

2006-03-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

In the interests of lowering the high standard of writing that has been painstakingly built up by my blogging colleague, I bring you a Friday quickie. I walked past the newsstand today and noticed this headline on the cover of the Wisconsin State Journal:

Dubai Company Pulls Out

We now return to our previously stringent standards of online journalism.

Wal-Mart is Awesome

2006-03-10T10:57:00.000-08:00

I know a lot of you probably boycott Wal-Mart because of the bad rap they have gotten about how they lock their workers inside their stores, their negative effect on small-town communities, their anti-union activities, their distribution of sweatshop-created goods despite a cynical "Made in the USA" advertising campaign, their sexist promotion policies, that annoying smiley face mascot, etc. I wanted to take a moment to point out all the good that the company has done. Have you ever thought of how many invasive foreign plant species could be flourishing in front of their stores if it wasn't for their massive sprawling concrete parking lots? Hmm? And where else can you buy a 30-pack of generic AA batteries for $0.12? Sure, they might only be good for two or three channel changes before they go dead, but what a deal! And think of how many government social workers would be out of a job if it wasn't for all the Wal-Mart employees who need government assistance due their pittance wages? God bless Wal-Mart!^*

^*Disclosure: The author of this post received financial compensation from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Yahoo Hates Walmart Watch?

2006-03-10T08:14:00.001-08:00

I subscribe to the mailing list for Walmart Watch, an anti-Walmart campaign. I received their messages in my inbox for more than six months. Then, a few months ago, they started delivering them to my bulk folder. I have designated them as "not spam" three times now. Why doesn't Yahoo recognize that I want to get these messages? I wonder if this is part of Walmart's strategy to improve their image, which includes paying some bloggers to write nice things about them on the internet.

There Will Be No Investigation

2006-03-08T13:12:00.000-08:00

The Republican-controlled House and Senate Intelligence Committees have rejected an investigation into the Bush administration's illegal, warrantless wiretapping [link], and hardly a word has been spoken about it. This administration has admitted to the illegal wiretapping, and we have only their word that the wiretaps are confined to cases where there is legitimate suspicion of terrorist activity. Their word is worth absolutely nothing, since until the wiretapping was revealed, they never publicly admitted it even existed.

This is clearly an impeachable offense. The Bush administration claims that they had the legal justification to do this based on general laws, despite the fact that there are specific laws prohibiting it. In cases where laws are in conflict with each other, legal precedent states that specific laws supersede general ones. There is specific law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which specifically makes these warrentless wiretaps illegal. This specificity gives it greater weight over the general powers given to the president to fight the war on terror.

My only hope is that the Democrats can use this as a campaign issue to try to take back the Congress this year, and therefore, order a formal investigation, if it is still possible at that time.

Because my hopes rest with the Democratic party, I can not be optimistic. There is much talk about how historically, the only time that a second term president had an approval rating as low as Bush does now was during the Nixon administration, and his party suffered a devastating defeat in the mid-term elections. I am confident that if there is a way for someone to upset historical precedent, and squander a nationwide desire for a change of leadership, the Democrats would find a way.

Elite Preschools

2006-03-03T15:18:00.000-08:00

The New York Times had a feature recently about rich New Yorkers trying to get their kids into elite preschools. Yes, you read correctly, elite preschools. As part of the selection process, the parents are required to write an essay characterizing their children. Usman Rabbani described his 18-month old twins as "a soft-hearted jock" and "a thinker and a mischievous lover." This bit of prose won his kids slots in his preschool of choice. Inspired by this, I have prepared an essay for my non-existant child, a prospective preschool student applying to the most elite of the elite toddler academies in all of the five buroughs:

Damien is a real firecracker. He just stopped drooling last month, we're all very excited about it. Though he still urinates and defecates in his pants, we feel that he is the sort of high caliber student that you are seeking. He cries when he sees ducks, and he likes to giggle and spit his food back at the person feeding him, particularly when it's spaghetti night. I think these qualities illustrate that he is sensitive, yet good-natured and assertive. His vocabulary is exemplary for his age. He knows 13 words, though admittedly he pronounces "spaghetti" as "doggy." He is excited about trying out for your varsity sports program. Impressively, he is able to walk for up to 10 feet before falling on his butt. We've had him evaluated by a top child psychologist, whom we paid a great deal of money. He assured us that our son is undoubtedly a prodigy, that rare child who shows genius potential. He doesn't just say that about every child that some over-eager parent brings into his office, I assure you. I think you would agree that Damien would make a fine addition to your academy.

Bigotry In Crystal Lake Illinois

2006-03-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

On April 5, 1999, Douglas Vitaioli walked into a Crystal Lake grocery store, and murdered Naoki Kamijima, the store's owner, simply because he was Asian [link]. He told police that he wanted to kill Asians out of a duty to God [link]. In memorial, so that the residents of Crystal Lake would not soon forget the tragic consequence of intolerance, the city renamed Edgewater Park, on the western side of the lake, as Naoki Kamijima Park [link]. The park is used by the Crystal Lake Rower's Club to store their boats, and for a starting point for rowing competitions [link].

Organizers of the 7th annual Gay Games, which are being held in Chicago in July, contacted the Crystal Lake Rower's Club about holding a rowing competition on their course on Crystal Lake, and club president Walt Gary said he was "thrilled to have the opportunity to bring such a big event to the club's home course."[link] Everything was going well, until the residents of the town found out about the proposal, and were outraged. Crystal Lake Park District Commissioner Dave Phelps said that he doesn't believe the Park District should be used as "a vehicle for promotion of their sexual agenda."[link] Another resident complained that homosexuality is "contrary and detrimental" to traditional family values, and another resident complained about the danger of HIV and AIDS [link]. The Crystal Lake Park District rejected the Gay Games' proposal to use the lake and Naoki Kamijima Park [link].

OMG Jafari so luvs Chomsky!

2006-02-27T10:35:00.000-08:00

Recently an interesting fact about the Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari was discovered:

As a television in the corner of the room conveys images of the carnage outside, Jafari admits to being partial to the works of Noam Chomsky. Why won't Chomsky come to Iraq? he asks.

I guess it makes sense, a man who is in his position as a side effect of an imperialist invasion could probably relate pretty well to Chomsky's writings. What other world figures have surprising idols?

Uzbek President Islam Karimov:

"I'm a real fangirl of Gandhi. I think his ideas about non-violence are dreamy. And by that I mean I dream that the dissidents in Uzbekistan whom I like to boil alive would follow in his example. It would be a lot easier to exterminate them if they didn't resist so much."

Chilean Ex-Dictator Augusto Pinochet:

"I really dig Michael J. Fox. I feel a bond with him because we both have suffered from health problems, in my case preventing me from being brought to trial for crimes against humanity. I mean, he didn't round up thousands into a soccer stadium and torture and kill them during a coup overthrowing the elected leader of a country like I did, but still, I relate to him, you know?"

British Prime Minister Tony Blair:

"I say dear chap, I've always had a fondness for Ed McMahon. His unwavering allegiance to Johnny Carson and his frequent utterances of "Yes!" to bolster whatever his master said without question was quite admirable. Care for a spot of tea?"

Abortion

2006-02-24T13:25:00.000-08:00

The South Dakota abortion ban passed the state legislature. The bill would ban all abortions in the state, with an exception only in the case where the mother's life is at risk. There is no exception for the mother's health, or for cases of rape.

I think this bill in it's current form is so radical that it has little chance of supreme court approval, but I guess we are about to see if Judge Roberts really meant what he said about believing in stare decisis. If the situation were not so deeply upsetting, it would almost be funny how those who complained about "activist judges" are now trying to overturn a 33 year old precedent.

In case you're interested, I compiled a list of all the SD state senators, which way they voted, and their gender, available here in Microsoft Excel format. In summary, just cuz I'm interested in these things, 10 of the 13 women in the SD House, and 1 of the 3 women in the Senate voted for the bill. Does it seem wrong to anyone besides me that a legislature with only 15% women somehow has the right to pass laws telling women what they can and can't do with their bodies?

Iraqi Death Squads

2006-02-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

In December, in my post, "Salvadoran Option" [link] I posted information about Donald Rumsfeld publicly contemplating the use of US special forces to train Iraqis as assassins and kidnappers to "take the offensive against the insurgents." The tactic was used in El Salvador in the 1980s which resulted in numerous civilian deaths, and the US-backed forces came to be known as "Death Squads."

Now, big surprise, the Iraqi interior ministry is looking into allegations that "Death Squads" are operating in Iraq [link]. There is no evidence that the Iraqi death squads are operating with support from the US, and I am not suggesting that such support necessarily exists, but if nothing else, these events should be enough to dissuade any reasonable person from enacting the "Salvadoran Option." Of course, Donald Rumsfeld is hardly a reasonable person.

The Cheney Project

2006-02-14T11:05:00.000-08:00

Dick Cheney is a robot.

I know you've heard that one before. My friends, it is no longer conjecture, but documented fact. As a result of a great deal of journalist-esque investigation, I have developed contacts deep in the bowels of the NSA archives. These brave whistleblowers have leaked to me a top secret set of documents that detail the design and construction of Dick Cheney over the period of 1967-1969. The Cheney was to be the prototype for a production run of diplomatic androids that would be dispersed to US embassies across the globe to support US military campaigns in Southeast Asia. Due to the unpredictable nature of the Cheney prototype, plans for large-scale production were cancelled, but the prototype continues to operate as the Vice President.

The design team was led by German robot scientist, Karl Von Wittengisteineneuberhausen, infamous for his wartime experiments constructing talking Nazi children's dolls (programmed to say "I love teddy bears and Hitler!" and "I want a Slavic servant for my birthday!" among other chilling phrases). The initial test runs of the Cheney were not without their difficulties. During artificial intelligence tests in September 1968, the Cheney misidentified 3 lab technicians as Soviet nuclear warheads. Tragically, it removed the unwitting scientists' heads and attempted to disarm their decapitated bodies with pliers. Though the project was nearly scrapped as a result of this incident, the Cheney was completed in April of 1969 and was released into the Nixon administration under the command of Donald Rumsfeld.

The official explanation for the Cheney's lack of public exposure in recent years is its need for frequent "medical procedures." In fact, it has become necessary for the Cheney to undergo frequent system checks and repairs. Its nuclear batteries are fading, and have led in recent years to irritability (and inappropriate utterances directed at Democratic Senators.) The Cheney has been reprogrammed in recent years to repeat GOP talking points during interviews and appearances before veteran's organizations, though he often fails even at this simple task due to data corruption in his memory core.

Perhaps no subsystem is more error-prone than his IFF (Identify Friend/Foe) circuitry. This module underwent a massive overhaul in 1983, but despite this, numerous malfunctions have been recorded, increasing in number over the last 5 years. It seems clear that this rapidly deteriorating circuitry subsystem failed critically on Saturday, which led Cheney to identify 78-year-old Harry Whittington as a quail, or possibly as a 15-year-old Guantanamo detainee. Only his muddled robot mind knows for sure. Unconfirmed are suspicions that the Cheney's increasing difficulty distinguishing the threat level of targets may have contributed significantly to the invasion of Iraq. The Cheney continues to assert that WMD's were present in Iraq before the invasion; his error-prone IFF may be to blame.

While it represents an impressive feat of engineering, it is clear that the Cheney needs to be powered down or at least confined to its underground repair bunker, for the safety of the world and any potential hunting partners.

Friedrich Engels: Coastal Liberal Elitist

2006-02-13T14:36:00.000-08:00

I'm not one to prank, but cartoonist Tom Tomorrow recently solicited his blog readers to help in a crusade against a witch-hunting Young Republican at UCLA (his original post and the call to action). The gist is that this astroturf organization, the Bruin Alumni Association, was offering cash prizes to rat out progressive instructors at UCLA, to prove that leftist professors had hijacked higher education. Tom thought it would be fun if we flooded their e-mail with faux denouncements of real or fake professors. Here is my contribution:

Hi, I'd like to report a leftist professor I had to take a class from at UCLA in the anthropology department, Professor Fred Engels. This guy is a classic hippie liberal Marxist. He was always spouting feminist garbage like, and I quote, "The modern individual family is founded upon the open or concealed domestic slavery of the wife." And don't get me started on the radical environmentalist junk he laid on us like this (and I quote again) "Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us." He also said that the idea of personal property is a consequence of class society, as if it weren't a God-given right! And of course he tried to convince us that we are all just glorified monkeys. He said, "The variety of all living things and their adaptive features is now explainable with a few principles according to the theory of evolution." Man, I barely made it through that class. Put him on your list!

Sincerely,
John White

P.S. Where can I pick up the $100?

In retrospect my correct spelling and grammar probably gave me away.

MSN = Mostly Stupid Nonsense

2006-02-10T15:16:00.000-08:00

So I'm at work the other day installing Micro$oft Windows (yeah I spelled it with a $, what are you going to do about it?) After installing, I needed to load up the web browser to download updates, you know the drill. Part of the experience for me when I do Windows installations is that it is the only time I ever see msn.com, which is of course the default homepage. I'm always quick to change it to something else. It is, without fail, the most inane web portal conceivable. One of their favorite things to do is to compile lists, such as "20 ways to shop for groceries," or "13 shoes for the shoe-conscious woman," or "25 ways to list things." Sometimes I think their target demographic is 40-something women who have suffered brain injuries. Anyway, at the top of the page was a list of the day's features. I list them here unaltered, in their original order (Google cached page):

Today on MSN:

-Teen saves woman who once saved him
-Crispy chicken nuggets
-World capitals quiz
-Congress cracks down on Medicaid program

Teen Saves Woman: This one is tabloidy, but "feel-good."

Crispy Chicken Nuggets: Ok, I like those, who doesn't?

World capitals quiz: A little "junior high," but knowledge-based, I respect that.

Last on the list: A story about Congress' denial of funds to seniors for nursing home care.

Wait a second, so you mean to tell me that ACTUAL news items are eligible for this list? Is there a rule they have to come after stories about fried food? I guess I should just be thankful that something relevant showed up on the page at all. I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with them putting the elderly after chicken nuggets, even if the latter are more tasty.

Enter the Guest Blogger

2006-02-10T10:25:00.000-08:00

Hello all! As you have been warned, the guest blogger has arrived. My alias is Kid Charles¹, I'm a good friend of Jose's, back from our old school. I had been reading his blog lately, and I told him I really liked his writing and that his posts are insightful and poignant, but that there is a noticeable lack of humor. (I like to start off all my collaborations by insulting the other party.) I offered to come on as a joker, a Flavor Flav to his Chuck D. He foolishly accepted the offer. I won't be wearing any large timepieces around my neck or signing contracts with VH1, but hopefully I can induce a chuckle or two. Or maybe I'll just end up inciting flame wars in the comments section. Only time will tell...

^1. For those of you under 40, my name is a reference to the Steely Dan song Kid Charlemagne.

New Blogger

2006-02-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine will soon be joining this blog with some more humorous content.

Israeli Double Standard

2006-02-01T15:53:00.000-08:00

It seems totally reasonable to expect Hamas to abide by the US requirement that they recognize Israel's right to exist, and renounce violence, until you try to imagine holding Israel to the same standard.

The Palestinian's right to exist, which means essentially their right to self-governance, is a subject of much debate within Israel, and Sharon's two-state disengagement plan has met stiff opposition within even his own party, and among conservatives in the US. Most conservatives will not accept any Palestinian state whatsoever. Of course, Pat Robertson, who says that Sharon's stroke was God's punishment for moving to create a Palestinian state, hardly represents Israel, but there are many in Israel who are similarly opposed to such a plan.

On the second criteria, Israel will never renounce violence against the Palastinians. Of course, they would consider their violence to be different. I really don't understand the difference between a suicide bombing that kills innocent people, and opening fire on civilians in a refugee camp.

New Look

2006-01-31T14:47:00.000-08:00

As you can see, I have been playing around with the look of my blog. I thought it was too generic before, as I was using a standard template. What do you think? I can change it back very easily, if necessary, so feel free to be critical.

New Crap Factor Blog

2006-01-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

I decided to create a new blog for my Bill O'Reilly feature: [link]

The Crap Factor - Week 1

2006-01-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

Today I received my first issue of Bill O'Reilly's weekly newsletter "The Spin Stops Here." It was actually quite difficult to find the content. After sifting through two independent commercial advertisements, ads for the O'Reilly factor television and radio shows, ads for "Premium Membership," an ad for "Bill O'Reilly for Kids," an ad for Bill O'Reilly T-Shirts, and self-congratulatory statements claiming to have single-handedly forced a judge to change his sentence for a child molester, I eventually found a link to his actual column. Here are his statements, and my responses:

1. Liberalism is not gaining traction in North America, evidenced by polls which show Americans support the nomination of Judge Alito by a "wide margin."

My response:
What does he consider to be a "wide margin?" According to the CNN/USA Today/Gallup 54% of Americans support Alito, with a +/- 3% margin of error [link]. The "wide margin" for that poll is barely larger than the margin of error. These results were identical to the Washington Post-ABC News Poll [link].
Result: 100 % Crap - His statement is simply untrue.

2. Liberalism is not gaining traction in North America, evidenced by Canada elected a conservative prime minister.

My response:
While it is true that Canada's party did gain 25 seats in this election, O'Reilly neglects to mention the corruption scandals which have plagued the liberal party, or the fact that the New Democratic Party, Canada's socialist party, gained 10 seats. He also neglects to mention that the conservative party is still far from a majority, with only 124 out of 307 seats.
Result: 40% Crap - His statement was true, although misleading.

3. The president's "terror warrior" poll numbers indicate that liberalism is not gaining traction in North America.

My Response:
What the heck are the president's "terror warrior" poll numbers? Apparently that is a phrase that he made up, but I assume he means Bush's approval rating regarding terrorism. According to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, a whopping 52% of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling terrorism, with a +/-3% margin of error [link]. Based on that, it can't even be said with any certainty that even a majority of Americans approve of the way that Bush is handling terrorism.
Result: 100% Crap - His statement was simply not true. He needs to learn what they mean by margin of error.

4. Liberalism could not be gaining traction in North America because 51% of Americans would not vote for Hillary Clinton for president.
My Response:
In that poll [link], the most popular Democratic and Republican candidates were Hillary Clinton and Condoleza Rice. 16% said they would definitely vote for Hillary Clinton, compared to 14% for Condoleza Rice, and the total number of people who would at least consider voting for Clinton was 48%, compared to 52% for Condoleza Rice, which is within the +/- 4% margin of error for the poll. Additionally, 48% said they would definitely not vote for Condoleza Rice, which is within the margin of error for Clinton's 51%.
Result: 100% Crap - His statement is untrue because the leading conservative candidate has virtually the same numbers.

5. The New York Times op-ed columnists Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert and Frank Rich published 148 "anti-Bush" op-ed pieces in the last 13 months, representing 47% of their work.

My Response:
What percentage of Bill O'Reilly's work would you guess is anti-anti-Bush? My guess would be well over 50%. Additionally, there's a reason their work is published in the Op-Ed section. It is opinion, and they don't claim for it to be anything else, unlike Mr. O'Reilly, who's "No Spin Zone," where he pretends that his opinions are spin-free news.
Result: 70% Crap - His response may be factually correct, I could not verify it, but regardless, his statement is mostly crap for pretending his opinions are news, and for saying that people who don't agree with him have no place even in the opinion section. Note: I was tempted to give him a 90% crap rating on this statement, as I believe 90% of his supposed news is really anti-anti-Bush opinion.

6. Ted Kennedy's attacks on Samuel Alito made his wife cry.

My Response:
Samuel Alito's wife did not start crying during Kennedy's questioning of him, but rather when Senator Lindsey Graham asked him if he was a closeted bigot [link], presumably in response to Kennedy's questions regarding Alito's affiliation with the organization Concerned Alumni of Princeton.
Result: 50% Crap - We don't know why she cried, but it is a fact that the tears were a direct response to the question by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

7. Americans remain uneasy about terrorism.

My Response:
I can't argue with that, although I do think that this is largely a result of Bush's policies. That's just my opinion, however, so I won't hold that against him here.
Result: 0% Crap

8. Democrats poll far below Republicans on terrorism.

My response:
This is true, but this article is about liberalism, not about Democrats, which I would hardly equate with liberalism. Additionally, according to a CBS News poll, when asked whether the Democratic party or the Republican party would do a better job of writing laws to find terrorists without violating the average person's rights, 42% chose the Democrats and only 33% chose the Republicans [link].
Result: 20% Crap - His statement is true, although again misleading.

9. Democrats don't put forward concrete solutions to vexing problems:
a. How would they respond if Iran "continues to develop nukes?"
b. How would they deal with Iraq?

My Response:
Iran can't "continue to develop nukes" because they haven't been developing nukes. They removed the seals on IAEA equipment for nuclear research which they claim is related only to energy production, and not nuclear weapons, but the point is that they just did this last month. Admittably, it is true that the Democrats often don't put forward a clear and concise agenda, but the problem with O'Reilly's arguments is that he is comparing the Bush administration, a single entity, to the entire Democratic party. Of course there is more unity among a single entity than there is among the many Democratic senators and congressmen. Each Democratic candidate had his/her own beliefs. It is only valid to compare specific Democrats with specific Republicans, or to compare the two parties as a whole. For some concrete solutions to vexing problems, I refer you to Senator Obama's statements on Iraq [link].
Result: 60% crap - He has a point about a lack of unity for the Democratic party, but he is still trying to compare apples and oranges.

10. The "left-wing media" hurts Democrats by "making celebrities of loons like Cindy Sheehan and Harry Belafonte."

My Response:
Of course I know who Cindy Sheehan is, but I had to look up Harry Belafonte. Apparently, the reason O'Reilly thinks he is a "loon" is because he is an activist who opposes Bush and supports Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez. I have great respect and admiration for Cindy Sheehan, and I refer her detractors to this Rolling Stone interview [link]. As for Harry Belafonte, the fact that he supports Chavez definitely makes me like him. On to his main point, if it were in fact true that the media made celebrities out of them, how does this hurt the Democrats? They are not Democrats. O'Reilly apparently implies that independent-thinking individuals think that Sheehan and Belafonte are loons, and that these independent-thinking people don't like the Democrats because they don't call them loons. Well, I can't speak for all independently-thinking people, but I would guess that the radical idea that they are "loons" is fairly limited outside of O'Reilly, and his followers who would rather let O'Reilly do their thinking for them.
Result: 100% Crap

Average for the week: 64%
I predicted 90%, so Letterman was much closer with his 60% guess.

Justification for Wiretaps Without Warrants?

2006-01-25T14:43:00.000-08:00

In arguing in favor of the warrantless wiretaps, the Bush administration defends its actions, for the most part, by just saying that they have the authority. Simply believing they have the authority to do something is not justification enough bypass the FISA court, which has been in place for 26 years.

The FISA court has rejected only 6 out of the Bush administration's 5,645 requests, and modified only 179. That means that 5,460 requests, or 96.7% of all requests for wiretaps were approved without any modification.

In order to get a warrant from the FISA court, it is only necessary for the Bush administration to show probable cause that the subject of the surveillance has ties to a terrorist organization. In the 22 years the FISA court existed before the Bush administration, only two out of 13,102 requests were modified. Additionally, they can seek warrants retroactively for up to 72 hours after a wiretap has begun.

So the question remains, if the subjects of the Bush administration's surveillance really do have ties to Al Qaida, why not get a warrant? The FISA court has essentially been rubber stamping 96.7 percent of all requests since the Bush administration took office.

The Bush administration has committed so many abuses of power, I have lost count. It really is time to start talking about impeachment.

A "California-Style Energy Crisis"

2006-01-23T11:21:00.000-08:00

The group Citizens Organized for Reliable Electricity [link], an organization funded almost entirely by Commonwealth Edison [link], has produced a television commercial [link], claiming that in order to avoid a "California-Style Energy Crisis" it is necessary to remove the price limits on electricity rates, and allow Illinois utilities to buy power on an open market. These statements are extremely misleading, as the reason for the California energy crisis was manipulation of energy markets by utility companies.

Electricity deregulation is an extremely complicated issue. This complexity allows electric utilities like Exelon (ComEd) and Ameren, the two largest power companies in Illinois, to deceive the public and politicians into thinking that furthur deregulation would be a good thing for everyone, when in reality, it would be a good thing only for Com Ed, etc. and their shareholders.

Before deregulation, electric utility companies were regional monopolies, meaning that one large company owned all of the electricity generation, transmission, and distribution within a geographic area. Prices were set by governmental agencies, so in order to maximize their profit, utilities had to minimize the cost to supply electricity to their customers. It was in the best interest of the company, as well as customers, for there to be a robust, reliable electricity delivery system.

Under deregulation, the large utilities are split up into separate generation, transmission, and distribution companies, and ultimately, the customer is supposed to have the freedom to choose from many different companies to purchase power. Deregulation is driven by a belief that a free market will ultimately lead to the best product, produced in the most efficient way, because such a product is the most profitable. In reality, because the the tremendous cost of starting an energy company, deregulation rarely leads to significantly increased competition, and the results are what was seen in California.

During California's energy crisis, Enron and other power companies manipulated the energy market to increase their profit. One scheme had Enron purchasing power at low, regulated prices in California, and selling it at higher rates outside of the state. As a result, there was not enough energy to supply California, and roaming blackouts resulted [link].

Ultimately, the energy crisis in California was the result of manipulation by energy companies. ComEd's claims of an impending California-style energy crisis are at best unfounded, and at worst, a threat of market manipulation by ComEd if it doesn't get it's way. Governor Blagojevich rightly opposes Com Ed's plan [link], and I encourage everyone to send him a letter, urging him to do everything in his power to stop ComEd [link].

An Un-American Plan for Election Financing: Why I Still Like Al Franken

2006-01-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

Throughout American history, the notion that financial status should be equated with political power has been pretty consistent. Originally, only property owners had the right to vote in this country [link]. Nowadays, corporations donate millions to political parties, and spend even more on lobbying. Good financing does not necessarily guarantee a candidate victory, however, a lack of financing is certainly a guarantee of failure. This is the American way. In the case of Buckley V. Valeo in 1976 [link], the Supreme Court declared mandatory limits on campaign expenditures to be contrary to the First Amendment. In essence, it is unconstitutional to stop wealthy candidates from exercising the advantages that their wealth provides.

It seems to me that publicly financing elections would be the most influential legislation since FDR's New Deal. Can you imagine candidates looking out for the actual interests of their constituents, rather than the interests of the lobbies which support them?

I am not saying that all politicians are necessarily slave to the wealthy contributors who support them (although I am sure there are many who are), but a party who's platform can not find substantial financial backing is certainly doomed to fail. In order for a candidate to be successful, he or she must be acceptable to a party, and parties can not exist without financial backing. Those with wealth will not support a party which supports candidates who don't serve their interests. The result of this is to concentrate power in the hands of only those who have been deemed acceptable by individuals and other entities with wealth, and to limit the discourse to issues which do not threaten the dominance of the wealthy supporters. These entities are for the most part corporations and other similar groups, with a few notable exceptions such as labor unions and interest groups, whose influence has faded significantly in recent decades.

Of course, Al Franken is hardly the first person to mention something like this, and it has actually been successfully enacted in some states, but what I like about him, unlike most other Democratic pundits, is that he is not content focusing only on the talking points of the party, but rather tries to work within the party to set a more progressive agenda. Another example of this is the issue of national health care, which Franken adamantly supports unlike the Democratic Party.

Wire Taps and Journalistic Responsibility

2006-01-18T12:38:00.000-08:00

Journalist bias is a very difficult thing to demonstrate, but I have repeatedly argued in the past that most bias is a very simple result of financial influences. All news media is industry, and is therefore a slave to profits, just like every other industry. That doesn't entirely explain the current trend with the Bush administration's illegal wiretapping. Take this quote from a recent article, sent to me with much thanks from the most brilliant (and hottest) reporter that I know:

"The White House has come under attack for the eavesdropping since The New York Times reported in December that Bush authorized the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance without warrants on the phone calls and e-mails of perhaps thousands of Americans following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The surveillance affected calls between the U.S. and overseas if one party had suspected ties to Al Qaeda." [link]

At what point did it become a proven fact that the surveillance took place only "if one party had suspected ties to Al Qaeda?" These wiretaps are top secret. There would still be a question of their existance, if the NY Times had not published an article about it [link], and that article always qualifies such statements as "according to officials..." etc. No one outside the NSA and the Bush administration knows the real extent of the illegal surveillance. According to NBC, the Pentagon has been spying on Anti-War groups such as the Quakers [link], and the ACLU is suing the FBI for spying on Greenpeace and other activist groups [link]. The only reason we have to think the NSA wiretaps are limited to those with actual "suspected ties to Al Qaeda" is because that is what the Bush administration will admit to. Do we have any reason to believe them to such an extent that journalists print their statements as fact, despite convincing evidence that their statements may be false?

Judicial Oversight and the Limit of Executive Power

2006-01-09T08:43:00.000-08:00

Comment from Jose Sr.
"As stated in the article first linked to your essay: "A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the NBC report about the database. However, he said: "The Department of Defense uses counterintelligence and law enforcement information properly collected by law enforcement agencies. (Note the word "Properly"...)"The use of this information is subject to strict limitations, particularly the information must be related to missions relating to protection of DoD installations, interests and personnel," he added.The Pentagon has already acknowledged the existence of a counterintelligence program known as the "Threat and Local Observation Notice" (TALON) reporting system.This system, the Pentagon said, is designed to gather "non-validated threat information and security anomalies indicative of possible terrorist pre-attack activity." Now, I ask you, Jose, is the Government spying on you, or are you spying on them? All of this while our ememy is trying to kill us in our homes, workplaces and shopping malls.
Sincerely,Jose Sr "

All of the covert activities of the Bush administration have been carried out without any independant review. The secret wiretaps, for example, have been, and are continuing to be carried out without any warrents or outside agency monitoring their activities.

The primary point is that these acts are not carried out purely in defense against terrorists, and we have only their word that they are operating "properly." There is evidence to indicate otherwise. The ACLU, for example, has obtained documents which they claim demonstrates surveillance on many peaceful groups including Greenpeace and the Quakers [link,link].

Throughout our history, new threats to this country have routinely been met by new demands for expanded power of the executive branch, and in almost all cases, they have led to abuses. Below is a brief collection of information on specific violations resulting from power left unchecked by external review:

1980's
1. Nicaragua - The Reagan administration throughout the 1980's participated in overt and covert operation to destablize the democraticlly elected government of Nicagarua, primarily by funding right-wing terrorist groups like the "Contras" to carry out attacks against the civilian population. When public support forced an end to the official support of these groups, weapons were secretely sold to Iran and the funds wen't to continue the support of terrorist activities in the "Iran-Contra" scandal [link].

1970's
1. Operation Minaret - NSA created a list of individuals who were associated with anti-war and civil rights groups, and conducted surveillance on them [link]

1960's
1. COINTELPRO - An extensive illegal counterintelligence program involving numerous state and federal agencies, including the CIA, FBI, and Army Intelligence, directed against critics of the government, including anti-war groups, the NAACP, and Martin Luther King Jr.
COINTELPRO history [link]
PBS Bill Moyers article COINTELPRO Again? [link]
Nixon's surveillance of John Kerry [link]

2. Operation Chaos - Illegal CIA intelligence gathering within the United States against groups opposed to the Vietnam war.
A History of Operation CHAOS [link]
Excerpt from Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States [link]

1950's
1. Operation Shamrock - Illegal covert effort by the National Security Agency to intercept virtually all domestic and international telegraph communications [link].

2. McCarthyism - An extensive effort carried out by Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin, as well as others, against left-wing subversives, as well as Democrats who supported the New Deal policies of FDR.
Link to numerous governemtn documents related to McCarthyism [link]

1940's
1. House Committee on Un-American Activities - Investigated subversives, made unfounded accusations against subversives, and assumed guilt based on association with groups and individuals.
History of House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) [link]
HUAC and censorship of Hollywood [link]

2. Internment of Japanese Americans - More than 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated from their homes along the west coast to camps in more isolated areas.
A History of the Japanese-American internment camps [link]
A photographic exibit about Japanese Internment at the University of Utah [link]
Link to information about a PBS documentary about children living in the camps [link]

1920's
1. The first Red Scare - after WWI, a smear campaign was carried out against social dissidents. More than 16,000 people were arrested and held without trial.
A brief history of the first Red Scare [link]
Link to photo archive of first red scare (1918-1921) [link]

Note: As a result of the covert surveillance under COINTELPRO, Operation Shamrock, Operation Minaret, and Operation CHAOS, the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance act was passed in 1978 to limit domestic surveillance. Among other things, it set up a secret court to approve warrants for wiretaps. That is the reason that Bush's current wiretapping is clearly unnecessary and illegal, since warrents obtained through the FISA court are Top Secret, and can even be obtained retroactively for 72 hours after a wiretap has begun.

Ariel Sharon

2006-01-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

I am sure that a lot of my fellow progressives would rejoice in the death of Ariel Sharon in the same way that conservatives and others rejoiced in the death of Yassir Arafat. Sharon is directly and indirectly responsible for the massacre of thousands of Arabs [link]. He seems to have had an unwavering commitment to Israeli expansion through violence. George W. Bush called him a "man of peace," which, in the long standing tradition of American conservatives, means precisely the opposite.

And yet, in recent years, he has orchestrated a plan for disengagement from the Gaza strip. I have very little doubt that the plan was nothing more than an attempt to isolate Palestine in Gaza and eventually annex the entire West Bank. Even so, his plan would eventually result in a Palestinian state, which is a huge concession for a conservative. I may not like the man, but I am concerned that there may not be others within Israel who both have the support of the people, and the same willingness to compromise on expansion. Of course, I said the same thing about Yassir Arafat when he died, and I could not have been more wrong. I just feel that both sides have suffered long enough. I do believe that it is wrong for Israel to continue to occupy the West Bank, however, Sharon's disengagement plan seems to have brought about at least a temporary peace. Admittably, it appears to have fallen apart somewhat in recent months, but with him there seems to be hope for peace.

Letterman Vs. O'Reilly

2006-01-04T07:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't watched Letterman very regurlarly since I was about 12 years old, but based on what I saw last night, I might have to start watching more often. After being dissapointed by nearly three weeks without a new episode of The Daily Show, I felt starved for political commentary, and when I saw that Bill O'Reilly was on Letterman, I decided to give it a chance. I guess part of what made it so great was that I was expecting Letterman to be like all good late-night talk show hosts are supposed to be - very polite, allowing the guest to say basically whatever he wants with no real argument.

I was unable to find a transcript of the interview, but from the show's website, you can see a clip from the interview [link]. It started with O'Reilly's comically ironic "War on Christmas" argument. He claims that political correctness has forced the media and other industries to use the phrase "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." The irony, of course, is that he is not fighting for the freedom of individuals to reference the Christian holiday, but has proposed boycotts of companies to try to force them to use Christmas themes, and therefore eliminating their freedom to be anything but Christian. Letterman rightly called O'Reilly's argument "crap."

Then they move on to the war in Iraq and Cindy Sheehan, and the interview ends with Letterman saying to O'Reilly, and I'm paraphrasing from memory, "I'm not smart enough to argue with you point to point on this... but I think 60% of what you say is crap."

Well, I think that I am smart enough to argue with O'Reilly point to point, so I have decided to subscribe to his weekly "The Spin Stops Here" newsletter and, when I have time, I would like to make exposing his lies and ironies a somewhat regular feature of this blog. Bill O'Reilly is an excelent example of conservatives who name their actions after the exact opposite of what they are. Much like Reagan's "War on Terror" actually meant using terrorist tactics to attack civilians in Nicaragua, O'Reilley's "No-Spin Zone" is actaully nothing but "spin." My guess is that Letterman's estimate of O'Reilly's crap factor is a bit low. I predict it will be somewhere in the 80-90 percent range.

"The Salvadoran Option"

2005-12-30T08:30:00.000-08:00

On December 2, 1980, three American nuns and a church worker, were abducted by the Salvadoran National Guard as they traveled from the San Salvador airport. They were raped and murdered, and their bodies were found four days later [link]. Four Salvadoran soldiers were convicted of the crime in 1984, but they claim they were following orders [link]. These killings were part of a civil war, waged by the government, and heavily supported with U.S. money by the Reagan Administration [link,link,link]. Right-wing "death squads" carried out countless atrocities against government opponents [link], including the assasination of Archbishop Oscar Romero while he performed mass [link]. An estimated 30,000 people were killed [link].

Well, why am I bringing this up now, you might ask? Well, it seems that the Salvadoran death squads were such a success in preserving a friendly right-wing dictatorship in El Salvador that last January, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld publicly comtemplated supporting a similar strategy in Iraq [link], and it is clear by the appointment of John Negroponte, former ambasador to Honduras under the Regan administration and chief architect of U.S. policy in Latin America during the 1980s that Rumsfeld has the administration's support.

Cheney's Loyalty Oaths

2005-12-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

In the hopes that my family will actually read this, here is a link to an article about the loyalty oaths that Cheney made reporters sign in order to be admitted to a press conference he had in Wyoming before the election last year. I would also encourage you to read the entry below, titled "Pentagon Spying on Anti-War Groups" from December 16th. I encourage any comments you might have.

NYC Transit Strike

2005-12-21T11:35:00.000-08:00

As a commuter who uses public transportation every day, I can't imagine what I would do to get to work every day if Chicago's transit workers went on strike. That being said, however, I fully support the union's right to strike in New York City. As I understand it, they are striking because they are unwilling to take future cuts in wages and benefits while there is a billion dollar surplus.

There are much deeper issues here. Workers in all professions are losing wages and benefits. This trend is evident in pretty much all professions, other than, of course, the profession of "rich white asshole," which has for decades enjoyed an exponential increase.

The union workers have a right to fight these losses. If it is illegal to strike, what power do they have? It seems that there is a strong correlation between the decline in the power of unions and the decline in wages and benefits. More and more unions are losing the legal right to strike, not based on the safety and health of American citizens, but based on the lost profits of businesses. That seems to be, really, the central issue here. What Mayor Bloomberg mentions over and over is the monetary cost to the city, and how businesses rely on this time of year to make money. Does the short-term profit of businesses outweigh the long-term effects of wage and benefit cuts for thousands of workers? I guess that's a really stupid question, if you know anything about American society.

Pentagon Spying on Anti-War groups

2005-12-16T12:19:00.000-08:00

This is almost unbelievable. According to NBC, the Pentagon has been collecting infomation on anti-war activists, and spying on anti-war demonstrations [link].

This, sadly, is only the latest in a long string of abuses commited by this administration:

1. They are not shy about the use of propaganda, domestically as well as internationally, such as bribing Iraqi [link] and American [link] journalists , producing video news releases that are supposed to be mistaken for real news [link], and a new $300 million dollar Department of Defense program to spread disinformation to foreign media outlets [Link], which seems to be essentially a renewal of programs under the Office of Strategic Influence [link], a comprehensive program aimed at misleading foreign media in favor of US policies.

2. They have set up a network of secret prisons throughout Europe and the Middle East in countries which have less strict laws regarding torture [link], and President Bush has threatened to use his first presidential veto against legislation sponsored by John McCain, which passed the senate by a vote of 90-9, against cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners [link]. He threatened to veto the bill unless it included a provision making the CIA exempt. Bush gave in, but only under intense public pressure.

3. They leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent in retribution against the main who exposed their justification for war as a fabrication [link].

4. They have held two US citizens for years in a military brig without access to a lawyer [link]. Yasser Hamdi was accused of fighting alongside the Taliban, and held for three years in solitary confinement, until he was released without charges, under the condition that he agree not to sue the US government over his imprisonment [link]. Jose Padilla was accused of plotting to attack the United States with a radioactive "dirty bomb," and held him in a Navy brig for three and a half years without charging him. He was transfered to the criminal justice system only recently, on charges completely unrelated to the original accusations [link].

This is getting ridiculous.

The Problem With "Progressive" Blogs

2005-11-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

Those who like to call themselves liberals commonly use the term "partisanship" as a means of attacking conservatives who simply follow the Republican party line. Partisan conservatives oppose Democrats simply because they are Democrats. They don't really follow many of the principles of conservativism, such as a balanced budget and fiscal responsibility, they just attack the opposing party with their only goal being to get their friends into office.

In recent years, this partisanship has infiltrated the progressive movement as well. Air America Radio, for example, does not stand for any really progressive issues, other than those which are designed to get Democrats elected. They remain silent on issues which do not help Democrats. In a way, they can't be faulted for this, because when Al Franken (the only person on that station that I like and respect) first started the station, he claimed to be the Democratic equivalent of Rush Limbaugh. In saying that, he admitted that he was partisan, and not really progressive. I don't listen to them very often, so it is possible that this has changed recently.

Blogs like Eschaton and Daily Kos, however, do in fact claim to be progressive, when they are really exactly the same thing as Air America Radio. Whenever possible, they link only to other partisan Democrat sites, and they never write about issues with any goal other than getting more Democrats elected. For example, Atrios did not begin writing about the secret CIA pisons until Republicans made an effort to turn it into a political issue. A network of secret CIA prisons is not in itself a partisan issue because the CIA is not a partisan elected group. Then, Republicans began an investigation into a leak in the CIA which lead to the Washington Post story about the secret prisons with the expectation that a Democrat was involved in leaking classified CIA information. As soon as that happened, Atrios could not stop writing about it.

I understand the desire to get Democrats elected, but to do so and still call yourself progressive is disingenuous. Atrios and others like him are nothing more than partisan hacks.

I should mention that I have found a lot of very good progressive blogs which are an exception to this, such as ZNet and Not The Country Club, but they are certainly rare exceptions.

Bush Denies Torture?

2005-11-07T10:28:00.000-08:00

According to Bush:

"There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again, so you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law." [link]

Under the law? I guess so, as long as torture is still legal! As I wrote in a previous post, the president has threatened to veto the law banning torture if it does not include a provision making the CIA exempt. Now, with the recent stories of a worldwide network of secret CIA prisons, it all makes sense.

I think the threats are nothing more than that. It would be political suicide for Bush to use his first veto since taking office to veto a bill banning torture. I think that he is just trying to use the threat to force the senate to ammend the bill as he wants. If the house can pass it in it's current form, preferably with more than a 2/3 majority, I don't think that Bush would have the audacity to veto.

If it passes, I doubt the secret CIA prisons would close, but at least there would be a legal means to punish those responsible.

Secret CIA Prisons

2005-11-02T10:18:00.000-08:00

A secret network of camps, used to "concentrate" those deemed enemies to the state? This, I hope, will prove to be scandalous, but who knows [link].

Preventing STDs Is Immoral?

2005-11-01T06:42:00.000-08:00

Conservatives are opposed to widespread use of a vaccine which has proven to be virtually 100% effective in preventing the Human Papalloma Virus (HPV), the primary cause of cervical cancer [link].

Are they insane?

According to the article, 3,700 women die each year from cervical cancer, but conservative groups are concerned that vaccination against a sexually transmitted disease will encourage sex.

I think the real issue here is that conservative Christians see STDs as divine punishment for immoral activity. If they get HPV, they must deserve it. It is the same with HIV and AIDS, also known as God's punishment for homosexuality.

Of course, I am certain that if hetersexual white males could be harmed by HPV, the vaccine would be mandatory for every single man, woman, and child.

Bush Administration Supports Torture

2005-10-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

The Bush Administration has threatened to veto a proposed ban on abusive treatment of militants and other suspected terrorists if a provision is not included to exempt the CIA [link]. The bill passed in the senate by a vote of 90 to 9. It is no surprise that the Bush Administration supports the use of torture. What is news here is that a great majority of Republican senators joined with Democrats to directly defy the president.

Republican Indictments

2005-10-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

This week, indictments are expected in the Valerie Plame case. I am reminded, somewhat, of Al Capone. He committed many horendous crimes, and what did he finally go to prison for? Income tax evasion.

The Bush administration lied to the American people in making their case for war. They lied specifically relating to this case. It is assumed that the reason for the leak was retribution against Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame's husband, who exposed as fraud the claims of the Bush administration that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium from Niger. Would anyone ever think of indicting anyone for lying to the American people and invading a country, killing over 100,000 Iraqi people, as well as thousands of American troops? Of course not, because that somehow isn't a crime, at least under the American justice system.

No matter who is indicted, even if it is Cheney himself (and I am keeping my fingers crossed that he will be), they still will have gotten away with the worst of their crimes. What does that say about our justice system, and our culture in general?

The End Is Near...Repent, Sinners!

2005-10-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

The world is going to end in the year 2011, according to Harold Camping, founder of the conservative Christian radio franchise "Family Radio", and he has written a book about it [link].

Oh, well. We had a good run. These last 13,024 years (which according to Mr. Camping is how long the universe has been around, despite overwhelming physical evidence to the contrary) have been a blast.

Oh, wait. He already wrote a book predicting the end in 1994 [link]. Well, I'm sure he got it right this time.

"Family Radio" in Chicago is at 91.9 FM, right next to NPR, which is 91.5 FM. The signal strength is a little better where I live, so on a few occasions I have inadvertantly tuned my analog clock radio to "Family Radio", and been roused in the morning to hateful threats and predictions of my impending damnation. Normally, I would just dismiss lunatics like this without giving them a second thought, but members of my family seem to have been persuaded by his predictions. His teachings are the reason for my father's beliefs about dinosaurs, which I incorrectly stated in a previous post. He does in fact believe that dinosaurs existed, but he believes that they existed at the same time as humans.

What I find most ironic is that there are a great many real, physical things which may lead to the demise of our civilization. They are all, for the most part, man-made, and also of little or no concern to these radical right-wing religious types. I think Kurt Vonnegut said it best here.