riaa and mpaa poluting files with adware

There is something poetically self referencial in throwing advertising at people they want to hurt. And they are using a loophole in DRM to do it, which is even more cool, since now its clear that every DRM file could be poluted: the mechanism is built it.
To quote a fine example, Daffy Duck: "you realize, of course, that this means war"

Restless

The wages are lost. Are we in Las Vegas? I’m not sure. Have I ever left the town? Was I not born here? Or was it reborn? This town IS the future of America. The lights, the hope, the risk, the wealth working its way up the ladder of success. I want to live here. I want to make love to this town. To sink into its real reality. To BE this town. This town is the most real in America, it has fake pyramids, fake canyons, fake pirate battles, and a fake New York City, and it is the most real town in the country. You’re a sucker and everyone knows it. The town is full of them, built on their backs, and they line up for more. Begging endlessly “more, more, MORE!”

Las Vegas, surrounded by desert. Surrounded by dry, cracked, empty faces of years of hard labor and scratching in the dust. The locals, the real locals who are unseen and unwanted, the locals are natives. Natives. Natives I tell you! Natives whose European forbearers beat, slaughtered, and destroyed the previous incantation of themselves. Natives who now get by on the dole, and on the dodge. These natives are unwanted, like all of them. These natives wear their identity, in their creased faces and in their cirrhosed livers. They wend their way through the streets not existing in anyone’s American self. Their Las Vegas selves see the Dalit and in a conflict with their America adjust just so. “That one looks odd, sketchy.”

Chet Cooper

Fly-Eating Robot Powers Itself

Too good a headline not to post...

Fly-Eating Robot Powers Itself

Wednesday, December 29, 2004 Posted: 12:50 PM EST (1750 GMT)

(CNN) -- Scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE) have designed a robot that does not require batteries or electricity to power itself.

Instead, it generates energy by catching and eating houseflies.

Dr Chris Melhuish and his Bristol-based team hope the robot, called EcoBot II, will one day be sent into zones too dangerous for humans, potentially proving invaluable in military, security and industrial areas.

Melhuish, who is director of the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab at the UWE, told CNN that the EcoBot II was a result of a quest for an intelligent robot that could function without human supervision.

"That means they need energy. It is one thing to have a robot getting its energy from a household socket, or maybe from the factory floor, but it is another thing when the robot goes outside buildings," he said.

"Of course, there is solar energy outside. Little robots can use solar energy to move about. But mostly, if there is not a lot of solar energy about, you have to give robots batteries -- which eventually run out."

The EcoBot II powers itself in much the same way as animals feed themselves to get their energy, he said.

At this stage, EcoBot II is a "proof-of-concept" robot and travels only at roughly 10 centimeters per hour.

But the self-sustaining robot had the potential to be used in conditions that were not suitable for humans, said Melhuish.

"In the future, I think we are going to want robots to go to places that we don't want to go. In order to do that, it's unlikely that these robots are going to have sufficient energy to carry out their tasks," he said.

The EcoBot II uses human sewage as bait to catch the insects. It then digests the flies, before their exoskeletons are turned into electricity, which enables the robot to function.

Bacteria in the sewage eats the flies' soft tissues, which releases enzymes that break down the hardened shell.

Sugar molecules released from the broken-down shell are then absorbed and used as energy by the bacteria.

"The robot then has the energy to carry out some example tasks which in this case include moving towards light, measuring temperature. It has a temperature sensor. It could be anything, but we have chosen temperature," Melhuish said.

"Then it transmits that temperature information over a radio link to a base station a couple of meters away and it does that all using the energy from insect or plant material."

In Ads, AARP Criticizes Plan on Privatizing

Bush Unravelling on endless twaddle-speak: attempt to screw social security earns him the back of the hand from AARP

"There are places in your retirement planning for risk," the advertisements say, "but Social Security isn't one of them."

One advertisement shows a couple in their 40's looking at the reader. "If we feel like gambling, we'll play the slots," the message says.

Another advertisement shows traders in the pit of a commodities exchange. "Winners and losers are stock market terms," it says. "Do you really want them to become retirement terms?"

War on Terror: Update

This article, for which I inclue some clips, is worth reading if you want to know some news on this subject.

Other US security officials are confident that there are no more Al Qaeda secret cells in the country and Osama bin Laden cannot organise new attacks like 9/11 in New York or Washington. But they too warn that America's allies in the war against terrorism are still vulnerable to Al Qaeda attacks.

The United Kingdom will increase the number of its troops in Afghanistan under NATO cover early next year. The UK and Pakistan will increase pressure on the Taliban in southern Afghanistan through coordinated operations. US troops will increase the pressure on Al Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan.

High ranking government officials and terrorism experts in Washington agree that Al Qaeda is very active in the United Kingdom and many young British Muslims could participate in deadly attacks inside and outside Europe

"We are blind to the real danger facing us," said Marc Sageman, a former CIA officer who worked in Islamabad during the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

The danger, Sageman said, was not more September 11-style attacks but a succession of Madrids, Casablancas, Istanbuls and Jeddahs, smaller but still highly deadly, coordinated attacks.

Rohan Gunartana, the Singapore-based terrorism expert, felt that British Muslims of Pakistani origin are the more willing recruits for Al Qaeda because there is lot of resentment in young Muslims after the US invasion of Iraq.

Lawrence Wright of the New Yorker said young Muslims are "not happy with us because we always support corrupt and non-democratic regimes in the Muslim world."

Al Qaeda's real strength is not religion but American policies which are not popular in the Muslim world.

These governments are not popular among Muslim youth, and when bin Laden criticises these corrupt governments, angry young Muslims view him as their hero, Fouda added.

Bush Unraveling

from the Bush-unravels-dept.
Only 4 days after the event, Bush awakes and springs into action. Pretty much on target for his 9/11 performance. Once you have it, you never loose it.
"Spain has pledged $68 million, almost twice what the United States has contributed so far. Japan has pledged $30 million, Britain $29 million, Australia $27.6 million, Germany $27 million, France $20.5 million and Denmark $15.5 million, the United Nations reported."

Inept Beyond Belief

The Bush administration's initial promise of $15 million for tsunami-relief efforts was pathetic. It is less than half of what they are going to spend on the inauguration. Then they say $35 million. Well they've matched the inauguration. Then Bush says the "U.S. will lead the relief effort", god save those poor people for after the tsunamis and disease a third disaster is surely on the way. With an incompetent team of Bushaholics "leading" the way how could it not.

The Bush administration's handling of this crisis has been inept beyond belief.

The Hidden Cost of War

A nod to The Left Coaster blog for this.

George Bush and the Chicken Hawks are doing their best to prevent the American people from seeing these particular costs of their unprovoked war of choice.

WARNING: THESE ARE EXTREEMLY GRAPHIC IMAGES OF WAR WOUNDS AND MEDICAL OPERATIONS. (PDF)

Earth Axis Shift

Whole islands may have shifted dozens of metres in Sunday's massive earthquake off Indonesia, with the Earth's axis wobbling and even the length of the day altering by a fraction of a second, scientists say.

I've heard from some colleagues here that the axis may have shifted up to 8 centimeters. It should not affect climate.

Give

The Tsunami/Earthqauke disaster is still unfolding. The second pahse of the disaster is soon to come, the spread of disease. Please give what you can if you can.

Genetic Savings and Clone - the leading provider of pet gene banking and pet cloning services.

I expect this will be commonplace within a few years. It could impact the animal breeding industry by lowering the value of the traditionally rare blood-lines. DNA banks could have whatever animal you wanted on file. Everyone can own an actual lassie or champion racehorse. After winning best in show, get your dog's DNA copywritten and make a fortune.

Avoiding market risk at high valuations

More sage advice from the bodybuilder. No, not the govonator.

Let me say that again. Avoiding market risk at high valuations has never penalized long-term returns.

Indian Ocean Devastation

The level of devastation is incomprehensible. There is now talk of 38,000 deaths from just the tsunami/earthquake alone. The coming outbreak of disease and hunger will no doubt kill many more. I have to say that on the 26th only the WashingtonPost.com seemed to cover this event with the level of attention it deserved. The NYTimes.com had a top space for it but of equal weight with other stories. Google News continues to cover it with a lower emphasis than the election in Ukraine. The post had a huge font banner and almost exclusive coverage of the event on the front page. Even the BBC did not give as clear as indication of the gravity of the event.

As for gravity, if you wish to help out, donations are being taken by the Red Cross and others. I gave to Doctors Without Boarders this morning. As "they" say, any amount helps.

Governors Unite in Fight Against Medicaid Cuts

from the-complete-renunciation-of-everything-Bush dept.
First in a series, to be con't
"Fearful that President Bush plans to shift more Medicaid costs to the states, the nation's governors are mounting a bipartisan lobbying effort to stave off new federal limits on the program."

US leads the dirty dozen spammers

That helps keep things, like, umm, Iraq, in persepective. (We have almost 1/2 the market.)

Happy Christmas Eve Eve

A couple of songs for the season from what I think is the third in a series of pop music Christmas compilations. I think, with these albums, the powers that be are trying to set up a seasonal frenzy a la England as seen in the movie "Love Actually." I like the second one "Fariytale of New York" which might have a bit much edge for some...

Cheers to all (except maybe the press ;-) ).

The Christmas Song

Fariytale of New York

The album is available from Amazon
Maybe This Christmas Tree

FUCK THE PRESS

Fuck you guys! You assholes, fucking pussyfooted your way around the biggest asshole president of the last 100 plus years and NOW you want to hold his feet to the fire? Well fuck you. You have failed.

Why Are You Asking Me?
The president's don't-ask, don't-tell press conference.

Democrats Criticize Rumsfeld re: no armor

The opposition Democratic Party used its weekly radio address Saturday to criticize the Bush administration for failing to properly armor vehicles used by U.S. troops in Iraq. The dispute has led to calls for the removal of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. President Bush used his radio address to call for changes in the federal retirement plan.
This is nuts. Alice in Wonderland. We knew about the armor problem months ago. Nothing happened until it got said "right"? Like the torture, if you didn't see it on TV, it ain't real?

Washington Convention Center Demolition ,Video and Audio from washingtonpost.com

Interesting. Big explosion, lots of dust, people applauding.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Ex-soldiers occupy Aristide home

"A group of former soldiers who helped overthrow the Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide earlier this year have taken over his abandoned home.
One of the group's leaders, Remissainthe Ravix, said they would make the building their headquarters in the capital, Port-au-Prince."
Small tragedies hidden under Bush's Iraq policy. You gotta wonder why he even bothered (kidnapping Aristide and all)

From SF via Las Vegas

Hello everyone.

Just a quick note to say there won't be many posts from me this week. I am in San Francisco at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Day one was exhausting mostly due to the extra day of travel required. I had gotten on a plane Sunday afternoon with the intention of actually making it to San Fran the day before the meeting started but an electrical generator in our aircraft had another idea and we wound up in Los Vegas. I had never been to Los Vegas before and had long had a plan on how I was going to do my first trip there (let's just say it would involve driving for a long dark period of questionable consciousness to arrive at 2 AM) But the way I did it was almost as interesting. The emergency landing was somewhat interesting in that all of the instrumentation for the left side of the aircraft was inoperable so the flight attendant had to do visual checks on flap positions for landing. The escort of about 20 or so pieces of fire equipment with lights flashing and driving at about 70 or 80 or whatever it took to try to keep up with a landing airliner made me feel quite welcome when we landed. But, sadly, we did not get to use the exit slides. As my extensive history of emergency landings goes (2 in 25 years), this one was what I’d call a routine emergence. Nothing like diving from 35,000 feet to 10,000 feet when all instrumentation goes out to land at midnight at a small regional airport in Iowa not meant to take large aircraft. There is nothing quite like seeing a scared as shit flight attendant tell you that everything is OK as they run up and down the aisle and you watch the pilots kicking the instrumentation board. Nope, this was a routine emergency landing.

Stay tuned to find out about Ken’s adventures in Los Vegas. Watch when Ken encounters an “old casino”. Watch Ken get ill while riding a “virtual” rollercoaster. Be there when Ken is “entertained” by pirates. Laugh when Ken is awestruck by a water feature.

Don't Blame Me (washingtonpost.com)

"'As you know, you go to war with the Army you have,' Mr. Rumsfeld replied. 'They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.' A true statement, no doubt; and Mr. Rumsfeld went on to assure the soldier that the Army was sending better-protected vehicles to Iraq as quickly as it could. But the remark seemed to suggest that Mr. Rumsfeld himself bore no responsibility for how the Army had been equipped before the 2003 invasion; nor for the timing of that invasion; nor for the failure to predict the ferocious insurgency that has made the absence of armor so relevant."
Maybe somebody needs to tell the Post that Rumsfeld works for the president we just re-elected.
The president missed the intelligence, then took the county to war... and he got re-elected. Nice.
Blame Rumsfeld? He works for Bush. Still does.

National Lampoon: Ten Least Successful Holiday Specials #9

Noam Chomsky: Deconstructing Christmas (1998)

This PBS/WGBH special featured linguist and social commentator Chomsky sitting at a desk, explaining how the development of the commercial Christmas season directly relates to the loss of individual freedoms in the United States and the subjugation of indigenous people in southeast Asia.

Despite a rave review by Z magazine, musical guest Zach de la Rocha and the concession of Chomsky to wear a seasonal hat for a younger demographic appeal, this is known to be the least requested Christmas special ever made.

Browser Stats

Microsoft must be having conniptions...

Browser Usage % by Week							Past 7 days
Web Browser	06/01-06/07	08/18-08/24	01/21-01/27	09/11-09/17	11/28-12/04		Past 7 days Weekday	Past 7 days Weekend
Internet Explorer	86.10	84.80	84.82	80.45	76.51		76.92	74.16

U.S. Money Helped Opposition in Ukraine (washingtonpost.com)

"'It's not the case that Americans can get 2 million people to turn out on the streets. The people themselves decide to do that,' Craner said."

---

I wonder, where did all these people come from? Living in the streets in tents. What about kids, work, bills? How did these people do it? Has the whole country screeched to a halt? It seems unthinkable that something like that could be done by Americans in the US. Even when planned, yet alone spontaneously.
If anyone knows how 2 million Ukrainians just dropped everything and got active, that sure would be an interesting story.

This Is Funny

President Bush is moving quickly to create a new, tighter and more disciplined domestic policy team to pursue transforming the way Americans save for retirement, pay taxes and seek legal damages

To build public support and circumvent critics in Congress and the media, the president will travel the country and warn of the disastrous consequences of inaction, as he did to sell his Iraq and terrorism policies during the first term, White House officials said.

Yes, as he did to sell the Iraq war; with lies, bad data, and belligerence.

"Mr. Congressman, you are against the White House's move to privatize social security, why do you hate America?"

Gleanings: 12.10.2004

The Pacifica Network’s Democracy Now! asks “Was The 2004 Election Legitimate?” They inform us that

Next Monday, the Electoral College is scheduled to meet, despite the recount sought by third party candidates, David Cobb of the Green Party and Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party. Those efforts could begin as early as next week. On January 6, the electoral college will officially convene to certify the election results nationwide.

Also they inform us that

latest news. Florida changed the rules Thursday to make it easier for convicted felons who have done time to regain the vote and other civil rights.

The founder of my favorite mutual fund is also a bodywork guru. Which is pretty amazing to me since I am now just starting to plan my workout regime.

New in the world of blogs is one up my alley. It is a climate change blog called RealClimate (An old cohort of mine is one of the bloggers). I’ll be keeping an eye on it, that’s for sure.

Lastly, Firefox 1.0 has a feature that I just discovered last week. It is an RSS feed for your bookmarks which allows you to track blogs using bookmarks. When you go to a site that has an RSS or ATOM feed you'll see a little symbol in the lower right corner. Clicking on will produce a menu that will subscribe you to that feed and ask you where you wnat to place the bookmark. A cool feature.

BBC NEWS | Health | Key HIV-fighting genes identified

Not only are human immune responses to HIV causing rapid changes in the virus, HIV is also causing rapid evolutionary changes in humans."

The Next DNC Chair: Why You Should Care: arianna huffington

"I don’t have a candidate. But I do have a litmus test: Anyone raising the idea that the party needs to “move to the middle” should immediately be escorted out of the building. Better yet, a trap door should open beneath them, sending them plummeting down an endless chute into electoral purgatory — which is exactly where the party will be permanently headquartered if it continues to adopt such a strategy...
As cognitive psychologist George Lakoff told me: “Democrats moving to the middle is a double disaster that alienates the party’s progressive base while simultaneously sending a message to swing voters that the other side is where the good ideas are.” It unconsciously locks in the notion that the other side’s positions are worth moving toward, while your side’s positions are the ones to move away from. Plus every time you move to the center, the right just moves further to the right."
Then you listen to Howard Dean who is still fighting and hasn't folded on a 51 to 49 loss. And he's the guy the Democrats are still running away from?
Deans speech 12/8 at GW University here...

Rumsfeld Fields Criticism in Rare Rank-and-File Exchange (washingtonpost.com)

Catch this exchange:
"You go to war with the Army you have," Rumsfeld [said], "not the Army you might want or wish to have."
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., told Rumsfeld in a letter Wednesday that his response ... was "utterly unacceptable" and that it was the duty of the government to provide safety equipment."
Now, consider that against all the notions that the administration would give the commanders whatever they requested. Like, ummm, troops. And that they had enough.
I would conclude we were unprepared (the poor intelligence resided in the president) and he was unwilling to make corrections (first cut taxes, then fight the war). And y'know? It worked. He got re-elected.

"Overall, there are 19,000 armored Humvees in the Iraqi theater. Some were built with additional armor, others had it added on later. That's, 2,000 short of what commanders are asking for, Di Rita acknowledged."
With 2 people to a car, that 38,000 soliders? That's a LOT of stuff we have over there. Is any of it really working? 19 thousand humvees? And they need 2000 more? Wow. That is some big operation!

Cartoons, Puppets, and the Dems

Air America: PC Police
From Andrew Sullivan

The truth is: there is a conservative majority in this country not because the religious right is a majority but because the Republicans have also been able to corner the market on the themes of achievement, individualism, energy, action. And they have also won over those who disdain the politics of resentment, whining and permanent criticism. If James Dobson represents one wing of contemporary Republicanism, Arnold Schwarzenegger represents the other. Democrats will never win over the Dobsonites. But they can win over the blueish voters who voted red last time because the pious, do-good, elite whining of Gore and Teresa and Hillary seemd so alien to many Americans' entrepreneurial, anti-p.c. and irreverent popular culture.

Generally a very good read and I agree (except that Team America was too damn long.)

Earlier Report of Prison Abuse : details

"Jacoby told Cambone that a supervisor in a secret military unit seized photographic evidence after a civilian DIA intelligence officer watched uniformed task force members 'punch [the] prisoner in the face to the point the individual needed medical attention.' That DIA officer, and another who worked with him, reported that prisoners taken in the field arrived at the unit's headquarters with 'burn marks on their backs,' 'bruises' and other signs of violence." [yes, that is torture, not a "form" of torture. ]
"Another special agent said he had repeatedly observed detainees who had been stripped naked and placed in isolation at Abu Ghraib -- a practice the military now says is wrong -- but made no protest because it seemed no different from strip searches at prisons in the United States."

Revealing. If you haven't ever been arrested, you don't know what you're missing. Right here. When you are, you are scum, and your captors are pretty much infallible, right up there with the pope.

Values Like Theirs

Here is an interesting Combination of news stories (big nod to DailyKOS)

1) From October 6th 2004 (visit while you still can)

Bush signs Tax Relief Act

By DAVID PITT Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa

President Bush visited the swing state of Iowa on Monday to sign the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004, which he said would mean lower tax bills for 94 million Americans.

"It comes at just the right time for America. Some of the provisions were set to expire at the end of 2004 ..." he said. "That would have been a setback for hardworking families of America and a setback for our economy."

Bush introduced Mike and Sharla Hintz, a couple from Clive, whom he said benefited from his tax plan.

Last year, because of the enhanced the child tax credit, they received an extra $1,600 in their tax refund, Bush said. With other tax cuts in the bill, they saved $2,800 on their income taxes.

They used the money to buy a wood-burning stove to more efficiently heat their home, made some home improvements and went on a vacation to Minnesota, the president said.

"Next year, maybe they'll want to come to Texas," Bush quipped.

Mike Hintz, a First Assembly of God youth pastor, said the tax cuts also gave him additional money to use for health care.

He said he supports Bush's values.

"The American people are starting to see what kind of leader President Bush is. People know where he stands," he said.

"Where we are in this world, with not just the war on terror, but with the war with our culture that's going on, I think we need a man that is going to be in the White House like President Bush, that's going to stand by what he believes.

Now get this one, from an Iowa TV station:

First Assembly Of God Church Fires Reverend

POSTED: 6:49 am CST December 7, 2004
UPDATED: 11:40 am CST December 7, 2004

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Des Moines youth pastor is charged with sexual exploitation by a counselor.

KCCI learned that the married father of four recently turned himself in to Johnston police.

Rev. Mike Hintz was fired from the First Assembly of God Church, located at 2725 Merle Hay Road, on Oct. 30. Hintz was the youth pastor there for three years.

Police said he started an affair with a 17-year-old woman in the church youth group this spring.

Church officials fired Hintz immediately after hearing the allegations.

"They did acknowledge with their congregation that Mr. Hintz had made apparently some admissions to his inappropriate activity, and they took a proactive approach and immediately terminated him from his position," Johnston police Sgt. Lynn Aswegan said.

Neither Hintz nor his attorney returned KCCI's calls.

SOCIAL SECURITY IN CRISIS

Social Security IS in crisis! But not the way the juggernaut media want you to believe. The crisis is that it is at risk of being privatized.

Army Spun Tale Around Ill-Fated Mission (washingtonpost.com)

"Sen. John McCain said he would have liked to have known about officers' suspicions before he spoke publicly about Pat Tillman's death. "
Yeah. John McCain, providing cover, yet again. When you gonna learn, John? Or is this what you've learned: follow orders.

Why the Current Account Deficit Matters

Another verbatim post from John Hussman of Hussman Funds. Interesting...

Painful adjustment

The fact is that there is only one way in which the U.S. has ever resolved a significant current account deficit, and that has been for the U.S. to suffer a significant retrenchment in gross domestic investment. Even if we don't experience a deep recession, one thing is clear: U.S. gross domestic investment (some combination of housing investment and capital spending) is likely to show very disappointing growth in the years ahead.

To underscore this point, notice that there is a strong negative relationship between changes in the current account and changes in U.S. gross domestic investment. This is exactly what we would expect. Large increases in gross domestic investment are associated with large deteriorations in the current account. Large shortfalls in gross domestic investment are associated with narrowing deficits or increasing surpluses on current account.

Very simply, growing current account deficits are the way that the U.S. finances investment booms. At present, however, the current account deficit has grown so large that a further expansion in U.S. domestic investment is very unlikely, at least not one of much vigor.

At best, U.S. gross domestic investment is likely to grow slowly over the coming years, perhaps with further expansion in capital spending financed by an offsetting decline in housing investment. That way, U.S. savings would gradually grow enough to reduce our reliance on foreign capital inflows. In that sort of outcome, consumption and investment would gradually fall as a share of GDP (see the chart at top), while growth in gross domestic saving would catch up with the slowly growing amount of gross domestic investment (see middle chart).

At worst, the current account deficit will ultimately be adjusted through an investment-led downturn in the U.S. economy. That risk explodes, of course, if the flow of foreign savings into the U.S. slows abruptly. The primary sources of funding for the U.S. current account deficit are China and Japan, who have accumulated U.S. securities as a method of supporting the value of the U.S. dollar. So long as these governments remain willing to continually accumulate U.S. securities, the situation could remain stable for a while. Still, there's a lot of risk to that bet.

A final note regarding the November jobs report, Alan Abelson's comments from Barron's tidily sum up the situation: “Undaunted by having wildly overestimated the final number, the more imaginative Street soothsayers suddenly discovered that the best way to figure the real job number was to average the latest two months; October, of course, was a monster month for employment, virtually the only one this year. When December's report comes in, we've not a scintilla of doubt, they'll decide that to get a truly accurate job picture, you have to add the last two months.”

[more]

The More Things Change (II)...

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the
citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged
sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind...And when
the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate
and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the
rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded
with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly
so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
--- William Shakespeare

Tillman killed by intensely friendy fire...

Friends and family describe Pat Tillman as an American original, a maverick who burned with intensity. He was wild, exuberant, loyal, compassionate and driven, they say. He bucked convention, devoured books and debated conspiracy theories. He demanded straight talk about uncomfortable truths.
Pat Tillman's decision to trade the celebrity and luxury of pro football for a grunt's life at the bottom of the Ranger chain of command shocked many people, but not those who felt they knew him best.
"There was so much more to him than anyone will ever know," reflected Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer, a teammate at Arizona State University and on the Cardinals, speaking at a memorial service last May. Tillman was "fearless on the field, reckless, tough," yet he was also "thought-provoking. He liked to have deep conversations with a Guinness," and he would walk away from those sessions saying, "I've got to become more of a thinker."
In high school and college, a mane of flaxen hair poured from beneath his football helmet. His muscles rippled in a perfect taper from the neck down. "Dude" was his favorite pronoun; for fun he did handstands on the roof of the family house. He pedaled shirtless on a bicycle to his first pro training camp. ...
I get the feeling we killed a young god.... Can you imagine?

The first myth: Many more churchgoing voters flocked to the polls this year

An interesting analysis from the WaPo

[...]

The GOP put on a strong mobilization effort, but that's not what tipped the Ohio election. They did not turn Gore voters into Bush voters by offering a ride to the polls. Instead, it was skillful exploitation of public concern over terrorism by the Bush team -- coupled with Democrats' inability to draw clear, powerful contrasts on the economy and health care -- that pushed Bush over the finish line.

Election Update: 119,000

That's right, the election continues. Ohio is STILL counting and is STILL not official. 119,000 is what stood between a Kerry presidency and disaster. And there are PLENTY of irregularities in Ohio.

Jan 20th is more than a month away.

Narrower Bush Win Seen in Ohio

By Brian Faler
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, December 4, 2004; Page A03

President Bush's margin of victory in the all-important battleground state of Ohio appears to have been closer than previously believed.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Associated Press, which conducted separate county-by-county surveys of the final election results there, found that Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry netted more than 17,000 votes in the post-Election Day ballot count. That would shrink the president's margin there from about 136,000 to 119,000 -- or about 2 percent of the 5.5 million ballots cast.


Protesters Gather at Ohio Statehouse

By JOHN McCARTHY
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, December 4, 2004; 4:19 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- About 400 protesters gathered outside the Statehouse on Saturday to support a recount of the presidential election in Ohio and call for an investigation into Election Day irregularities.

Critics say Ohio's numbers are suspect because of several irregularities on election night. Those included disparities in the vote totals for different Democrats on the same ballot and the disqualification of more than 90,000 presidential votes on punch-card ballots because the choices could not be determined. A computer glitch on election night also recorded an extra 3,893 votes for Bush in one precinct in suburban Gahanna.

New Ohio Vote Tallies Question Legitimacy of Election

And now Daily News reporter Larry Cohler-Esses and I have uncovered some more unusual vote totals, this time in black neighborhoods of Cleveland. Those results are from the precinct-by-precinct tallies released by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, where Cleveland is located.

In the 4th Ward on Cleveland's East Side, for example, two fringe presidential candidates did surprisingly well.

In precinct 4F, located at Benedictine High School on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Kerry received 290 votes, Bush 21 and Michael Peroutka, candidate of the ultra-conservative anti-immigrant Constitutional Party, an amazing 215 votes!

That many black votes for Peroutka is about as likely as all those Jewish votes for Buchanan in Florida's Palm Beach County in 2000.

In precinct 4N, also at Benedictine High School, the tally was Kerry 318, Bush 21, and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik 163.

Back in 2000, the combined third-party votes in those two precincts - including the Nader vote - was 8. Cuyahoga, like most of Ohio's 88 counties, uses punch-card balloting.

"That's terrible, I can't believe it," said City Councilman Kenneth Johnson, who has represented the 4th Ward since 1980. "It's obviously a malfunction with the machines."

But Peroutka and Badnarik polled unusually well in a few other black precincts. In the 8th Ward's G precinct at Cory United Methodist Church, for instance, Badnarik tallied 51 votes - nearly three times better than Bush's 19. And in I precinct at the same church, Peroutka was the choice on 27 ballots, three times more than Bush's 8. In 2000, independent candidates received 9 votes from both precincts.

The same pattern showed up in 10 Cleveland precincts in which Badnarik and Peroutka received nearly 700 votes between them.

Memesphere

Memes are quite interesting. Propagandists (marketers and advertisers) have run with the idea. Some/most believe memes to be "viral" and want to tap them. I take it a step further and say our conception of reality and how we interact with that reality is based on a memome (analogous to genome), a cohesive collection of self reinforcing and replicating, interactive memes. Under this concept, conversations and other interactions (a la this forum) are a form of intercourse (instead of physical intercourse, it is psychological) where memes are shared, and are either strengthened or weakened in the process. That is why what you do, and who you do it with, shapes your reality. That is also why, in my opinion, it is “healthy” to cast your interactions widely (like with genes, too much inbreeding creates a mutant. Can you say Limbaugh and his ditto heads?). I sometimes listen to right-wing & Zealot (i.e. fundamentalist Christian) radio and read National Review and other conservative press. And I try to keep cordial relations with “healthy” members of the “other” side. In reality, I pobably don't do enough of that. It's hard here in the Boulder bubble.

Richard Dawkins' homepage at Oxford University

Interesting thinker, interviewed on NOW with Bill Moyers yesterday (Eliot Spitzer was also interviewed: a keeper).
Dawkins is a superb science writer, and came up with the notion of "memes", thoughts that behave and propogate along the principles of genetics and evolution.
Has a new book on evolution, and his previous book, the Devil's Chaplain, was well received.

Thompson fears terror attack on food

"'For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply, because it is so easy to do,' Thompson said. 'We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that.'"

Thompson also wonders why the little men that live under his bed have not ever bitten his toes, why the sky has not fallen... for the life of him he cannot understand? duh! and duh! again.

The basic story:
man 1: waving big red flag
man 2: why are you waving the big red flag
man 1: I'm keeping the elephants away
man 2: there isn't a elephant within 5000 miles!
man 1: and there won't be so long as I keep waving this flag! this thing is really effective!

Permit me to add a bit of biology to this whole mess: the reason we do NOT helter skelter kill one another, steal, main, etc, is because that would be very non productive to the species survival. Same reason our dogs do NOT bite us, etc. Has to do with homeostasis: self regulation of a system, steady state.
Any one of us could create mayhem at this moment. We do not. We are wired NOT to do that. We think about it, it scares us that we think about it, but we do NOT do it. It's the way we are designed. It's how life works.

Torture? Nah, Fraturnaty Pranks.

Ah yes, our governemnt run amuk. Is there no end to this shame?

It is both peculiar and chilling to find oneself discussing the problem of American torture. I have considered support of basic human rights and dignity so much a part of our national identity that this feels as strange as though I'd suddenly become Chinese or found Fidel Castro in the refrigerator.

[More]

Cobb Campaign Welcomes Kerry Intervention on Recount

For all the noise about Nader and the Greens in 2000, they are MAKING the difference (along with the Libertarians) in this election. Watch the third parties LEAD! Thank you third parties for fighting this fraudulent election.

COBB/LaMARCHE 2004
http://www.votecobb.org

Cobb Campaign Welcomes Kerry Intervention on Recount

Today, attorneys representing the Kerry-Edwards campaign filed papers in Delaware County, Ohio to intervene in legal proceedings in defense of Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb, Libertarian Michael Badnarik and their legal counsel, the National Voting Rights Institute, who are seeking a recount of all votes cast for president in the Ohio 2004 general election.

[more]

New Ohio Vote Tallies Question Legitimacy of Election

It's funny. Since when was the "mainstream" press so interested in what's happening overseas? But suddenly it's all about the Ukrainian election scandal. Well we was had here too (By many people including, I'm beginning to suspect, Kerry) and there is actual news about it too, but have you heard a peep from the MSPress? I sure haven't (of course I'm likely also underserved by our local paper too.)

Ohio Tally Fit for Ukraine

by Juan Gonzalez

It has been a month now and we still don't have a clear count of the votes for our own presidential race from the state of Ohio.

For those who may have forgotten, Ohio supposedly assured George W. Bush a second term in the White House - only the most important job on the planet.

The morning after the election, we were told Bush was ahead of John Kerry in that state's unofficial count by 139,000 votes, or 2.5%.

At the time there were 155,000 uncounted provisional ballots and an unknown number of overseas ballots, but Kerry concluded they would not produce enough of a margin to erase his deficit, so he promptly conceded.

At the same time, given the bitter Democratic memories of the 2000 Florida fiasco, he assured his supporters he would fight to have every vote properly counted this time.

Within a few days, other problems began to show up in Ohio's preliminary tally.

We learned, for example, that an additional 93,000 voters had gone to the polls yet machines had registered no preference of theirs for President. Only a manual recount can tell us for sure what happened to those 93,000 ballots.

Then, red-faced election officials in Franklin County admitted a computer error on Election Night had tallied 4,258 votes for Bush in a precinct where only 638 people voted. That correction alone will drop Bush's margin by 3,620.

And now Daily News reporter Larry Cohler-Esses and I have uncovered some more unusual vote totals, this time in black neighborhoods of Cleveland. Those results are from the precinct-by-precinct tallies released by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, where Cleveland is located.

[more...]

An Early Test in Social Security Privatization?

From the WaPo

Frist Political Fund Can't Cover Bank Loan
Senator's Investment in Stock Market Has Lost $460,000 in Value Since 2000

By Dan Morgan and Brian Faler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 2, 2004; Page A02

A campaign fund controlled by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has lost almost $460,000 in stock market investments since 2000 and now does not have enough to cover a sizable bank loan, according to federal election records and the manager of the Frist account.

Those Damn Liberal Winners

Yes, that's right, winners...

Here's a good article from Michael Kinsley from the Nov. 7 LA Times.

I apologize for everything I believe in. May I go now?

Michael Kinsley

COMMENTARY


The election campaign made it official. These are the Disunited States.
There is "red America": conservative, Republican, religious. And there is
"blue America": liberal, Democratic, secular. Everybody's message from the
election results is that red America won, and blue America must change or
die.

It's a terrible exaggeration, of course. People have different mixes of
values, and states have different mixes of people. More than 50 million, or
44%, of the 115 million citizens who voted for either George W. Bush or John
F. Kerry on Tuesday live in states that went for the other guy. These
misfits go out in public, mingle with others and often are treated like
normal human beings. (For the half-million that voted for Ralph Nader, it
may be a different story.)

A moment of surprising resonance in the campaign was Jon Stewart's Oct. 15
appearance on "Crossfire." Taking just a tad too seriously his recent
appointment by acclamation as the Walter Cronkite of our time, Stewart
begged the show's hosts to "stop hurting America" with their divisiveness. I
used to work on that show, and I still think the robust, even raucous, and
ideologically undisguised hammering of politicians on "Crossfire" is more
intellectually honest than more decorous shows where journalists either
pretend neutrality or pontificate as if somebody had voted them into office.

Still, recognizing that the mood has changed since 9/11, I have been
erratically and unsuccessfully pitching a different approach. CNN is not
interested. Nor are the other news networks. If anyone reading this wants
it, it's yours. Free. The idea, in a word, "Cease-Fire." You get your
politicians or your experts or your interest-group representatives, and
instead of poking them with a stick to widen their disagreement, you nudge
and bully and cajole them toward some kind of common ground. It sounds
goody-goody, I know, but the intention would be more Judge Judy than Bill
Moyers.

At the moment, though, one side of the great divide is being called on for
something closer to abjection than mere reconciliation.

So yes, OK, fine. I'm a terrible person - barely a person at all, really,
and certainly not a real American - because I voted for the losing candidate
on Tuesday. If you insist - and you do - I will rethink my fundamental
beliefs from scratch because they are shared by only 47% of the electorate.

And please let me, or any other liberal, know if there is anything else we
can do to abase ourselves. Abandon our core values? Pander to yours? Not a
problem. Happy to do it. Anything, anything at all, to stop this shower of
helpful advice.

There's just one little request I have. If it's not too much trouble, of
course. Call me profoundly misguided if you want. Call me immoral if you
must. But could you please stop calling me arrogant and elitist?

I mean, look at it this way. (If you don't mind, that is.) It's true that
people on my side of the divide want to live in a society where women are
free to choose and where gay relationships have civil equality with straight
ones. And you want to live in a society where the opposite is true. These
are some of those conflicting values everyone is talking about. But at least
my values - as deplorable as I'm sure they are - don't involve any direct
imposition on you. We don't want to force you to have an abortion or to
marry someone of the same sex, whereas you do want to close out those
possibilities for us. Which is more arrogant?

We on my side of the great divide don't, for the most part, believe that our
values are direct orders from God. We don't claim that they are immutable
and beyond argument. We are, if anything, crippled by reason and
open-mindedness, by a desire to persuade rather than insist. Which
philosophy is more elitist? Which is more contemptuous of people who
disagree?

As many conservative voices have noted, American society suffers from a cult
of grievance. To put it crudely, everyone wants some of the things blacks
got from the civil rights movement: sympathy, publicity, occasional
preferential treatment and a general ability to put everybody else on the
defensive. No doubt liberals are responsible for this deplorable situation,
and I apologize. Again. As a softheaded liberal, I even like the idea that
our competitive culture has a built-in consolation prize.

But be fair! (A liberal whine, I know. Sorry.) Conservatives shouldn't
assert the prerogatives of victory and then claim the compensations of
defeat as well. You can't oppress us and simultaneously complain that we are
oppressing you.

Well, of course you can do this, if you want. Who's to stop you? I just
kinda wish you wouldn't. If you don't mind my asking. Thanks. Sorry.

The logistics and physics of Santa's delivery service

You've seen this before, but it's fun. If you tool around the site a little, you can find other interesting tidbits, like how the Puritans made St. Nicholas and gift exchanges illegal in the 1600s.

Something's Fishy in Ohio

by Jesse Jackson

In the Ukraine, citizens are in the streets protesting what they charge is a fixed election. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expresses this nation's concern about apparent voting irregularities. The media give the dispute around-the-clock coverage. But in the United States, massive and systemic voter irregularities go unreported and unnoticed.