Trade Deficit at Record High

The latest report from the Commerce Department says the trade deficit now stands at $195.1 billion USD.

FENGHUA, CHINA—Chen Hsien, an employee of Fenghua Ningbo Plastic Works Ltd., a plastics factory that manufactures lightweight household items for Western markets expressed his disbelief Monday over the "sheer amount of shit Americans will buy."

"Why the demand for so many kitchen gadgets?" Chen said. "I can understand having a good wok, a rice cooker, a tea kettle, a hot plate, some utensils, good china, a teapot with a strainer, and maybe a thermos. But all these extra things—where do the Americans put them? How many times will you use a taco-shell holder? 'Oh, I really need this silverware-drawer sorter or I will have fits.' Shut up, stupid American."

"Last week, I took testimony from several young female workers from Shenzhen who said they were locked in a work room for 18 straight hours making inflatable Frisbees," Gao said. "Finally, the girls joined hands on the factory floor and began to chant, 'No more insane flying toys for Western pigs!' They quickly lost their jobs and were ostracized by their families, but the incident was a testament to China's growing disillusionment with producing needless crap for fat-ass foreigners."

Feeling the Hate

"fascism [...] would not return wearing swastikas and brown shirts. Its ideological inheritors would cloak themselves in the language of the Bible; they would come carrying crosses and chanting the Pledge of Allegiance."

...

Then as now, Adams said, too many liberals failed to understand the power and allure of evil, and when the radical Christians came, these people would undoubtedly play by the old, polite rules of democracy long after those in power had begun to dismantle the democratic state.

What the reporter said

'I've had reporters say to me, I have orthodontia, I have tuition, I have mortgage, I need access, I'm not writing your story.'

Let's Talk About Iraq - New York Times

"Let them eat cake!" Marie Antoinette
"Bring em on!" George Bush
"Double the number of troops" Friedman
Gee, why stop there? Triple the troops!

Timely Tsunami warnings: part one in a series

"'We just headed out,' he said. 'The streets were packed with cars -- it was complete chaos.'"

Gore Vidal: Something Rotten in Ohio

Outside the oil and gas junta that controls two and a half branches of our government (the half soon to be whole is the judiciary), there was a good deal of envy at the late British election among those Americans who are serious about politics. Little money was spent by the three parties and none for TV advertising. Results were achieved swiftly and cheaply. Best of all, the three party leaders were quizzed sharply and intelligently by ordinary citizens known quaintly as subjects, thanks to the ubiquitous phantom crown so unlike our nuclear-taloned predatory eagle. Although news of foreign countries seldom appears in our tightly censored media (and good news, never), those of us who are addicted to C-SPAN and find it the one truly, if unconsciously, subversive media outlet in these United States are able to observe British politics in full cry.

More...

After Downing Street Dot Org :: In Support of a Resolution of Inquiry

I really really wish someone, besides me, would put together an authoritative script on how the Iraq war was and is seen, the overarching great view. (And by gum, it IS a war! amazing! and for all the crap we are taking, it's hard to believe that we started it)
Whatever the reasons, there absolutely is a complete and utterly rational view that is still being played out. We might not like the reasons, may cry fie! fie! but they are there.
A well written 1 or 2 page essay could do it. The people don't need to know.

Something deeply disturbing about this quote...

"September the 4th, 2001, I stood in the ruins of the Twin Towers. It's a day I will never forget."

--President George W. Bush
New Jersey, October 18, 2004
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/10/20041018-11.html

I mean who get's this date wrong? WHO?

Is he THAT out of touch? Was it planned on the 4th? Why did I not hear about this quote until this past weekend?

Seeing things you really didn't need to and now you know you don't want to..

from the let's see what technology brought us today dear dept...
'I'm seeing people in a whole new way,'' says Phillip Swann, president of OnHD.TV, an online magazine. ''If somebody's aging or if they've got any old acne damage, it just jumps out at you. They've got no chance.'

Memo: U.S. Lacked Full Postwar Iraq Plan

"Even your best friends won't tell you"
(Talk about really bad breath!)

Can you say "savings and loan"? I thought you could :-)

"Banking regulators have been raising red flags over the past weeks, warning the lenders they supervise that competition to win borrowers must not compromise lending standards."
oops, my bad

A vigorous stalemate

There will be no peace: Bush & Co. just do not see the world that way. No peace, not ever. Although we could just get ignored if the corporations figure out how to write us off... but, could happen.
The entire 20th century was only 100 years long.

Bill O'Reilly's Videogate

From comments at the above link

It's bad enough that O'Reilly attacked Biden and then stole his ideas. The worst offense is that O'Reilly deliberately doctored the ABC video to distort Biden's words into the exact opposite of what he actually said.

(White) Women We Love

I don't recall a black person ever gone missing.
Who likes this stuff anyway?

Around the Bloggosphere(AtB): Now is a very, very good time to be Chinese

The staggering magnificence of China

It is almost beyond belief: China is in its blossom and no sight could be more gorgeous. As you walk the streets of its capital, there is a wonderful mood of joy and optimism, even invincibility. The restaurants are crowded, and smiling, well-dressed people seem to be everywhere. Who would believe that not that many years ago this nation was suffering from seemingly insurmountable upheavals and crises, political, social and economic –all swept away by a focused, strong and determined leadership the likes of which the nation (and the world) had never seen before?

Yes, people who were here just 10 years ago and who are returning for the first time are calling it a miracle, and indeed it is. This is an engine that simply cannot be slowed, let alone stopped. And it all came about thanks to the vision of one man and one party that knew exactly where China should go and how it should get there. From an isolated and humiliated nation, China has emerged as a true superpower.

The transition hasn’t been easy nor has it always been gentle. The truth is, to keep the momentum going and achieve its high goals, the government has had to be strict. At times, protestors have been dealt with harshly, and many were imprisoned. But when you have an entire nation to watch over, it is simply impractical and impossible to allow dissent and criticism to get in the way. And the Chinese people agree. This is their day in the sun, and they have expressed a sincere love of their government, a love that is utterly without precedent. They have simply never known such success, such glory.

Some on the outside have complained about the persecution of “unfriendly” religious groups, and even acts of violence against them. That cannot be denied, but I’m sure it will improve. Many Chinese see these groups as dangeorus cults, and are only too happy to see them dealt with firmly and efficiently. But these are little things, far overshadowed by the greatness of the economy and all of the benefits it brings.

Some have also said that government spending is behind much of the prosperity. This is true to a certain extent, but other nations have dipped into the state coffers before, and as the economy grows the debts will be paid. The massive spending is worthwhile and will bear results.

As proof of just how high China’s star has soared, the country has been chosen to host the Olympics! Can you believe it, looking back at the relative chaos of 20 years ago? How fast and how explosive this growth has been! The Olympics – this gives China and its regime a patina of respectability and validation like nothing else could. It is a sign of international respect and has elevated national pride to new pinnacles.

Possibly the most extraordinary aspect of the new China is the sheer irrepressible optimism of the people. They are boisterous and proud. They can do anything, they can even help make China a master of the world! They know about the criticisms of the government, the charges of suppression, but it’s water off a duck’s back.

Now is a very, very good time to be Chinese, and they respect the rules. China is a country of laws. You understand and respect the need to not call for changes in the government or to stir up trouble. Yes, the government is everywhere and watches everything, but it’s a tiny price to pay for its pulling China up by its bootstraps. And as long as you mind your own affairs and leave the government free to do its vital busines, your prosperity will continue.

So let’s give China in the year 2003 all of the praise and recognition it deserves.

But wait a minute. There is one big lie in the tribute above: It is not about China and it has nothing to do with the year 2003.

It is all about Nazi Germany in the year 1936. Every word. Go back and see. Just substitute Germany for China and Germans for Chinese.

So what’s Richard’s point? Only to point out the irony of how something that seemed so picture-perfect in 1936 not long afterward was perceived as something very different. Some of us who are critical of right-wing regimes tend to allow the glare of China’s successes to blind us to the inequities and iniquities inherent to any police state. I was blinded about it myself for some years. I am not drawing any direct comparisons of the CCP to the Nazis, tempting though it may be. The CCP is at least showing dramatic signs of continuing reform. But there are still interesting historical parallels.

Meanwhile, I want to see China continue to grow and prosper, because I care a lot about the people there. Looking aqt all that prosperity and success, it is so easy to forget that it's a country still in the iron grip of tyranny. You wouldn't know that from the smiling faces and jubilant mood in Beijing and Shanghai. But it is.

Like a highway full of potholes

Every time I visit India, Indians always ask me to compare India with China. Lately, I have responded like this: If India and China were both highways, the Chinese highway would be a six-lane, perfectly paved road, but with a huge speed bump off in the distance labeled "Political reform: how in the world do we get from Communism to a more open society?" When 1.3 billion people going 80 miles an hour hit a speed bump, one of two things happens: Either the car flies into the air and slams down, and all the parts hold together and it keeps on moving - or the car flies into the air, slams down and all the wheels fall off. Which it will be with China, I don't know. India, by contrast, is like a highway full of potholes, with no sidewalks and half the streetlamps broken. But off in the distance, the road seems to smooth out, and if it does, this country will be a dynamo. The question is: Is that smoother road in the distance a mirage or the real thing?

What a Shocker!

[deadpan sarcasm]
I mean can you believe it? What crazy antics those guys at the Justice Department must have gone through. Now just moments from a record breaking fine due to a proven conspiracy by the big tobacco companies to hook people, primarily young people, to their addictive product, suddenly out of now where they offer a much reduced penalty. Wow, who'd have thought such a thing could happen.
[/deadpan sarcasm]

[republican spin]
Well those lawyers must have screwed something up I’m sure. Leave it to the government to screw it up.
[/republican spin]

Tobacco Escapes Huge Penalty

U.S. Seeks $10 Billion Instead of $130 Billion

By Carol D. Leonnig

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 8, 2005; Page A01

After eight months of courtroom argument, Justice Department lawyers abruptly upset a landmark civil racketeering case against the tobacco industry yesterday by asking for less than 8 percent of the expected penalty.

Google Print

I hadn't seen this before. It appears to have a LOT of titles, and you can get inside them pretty easily, as long as you have some idea what you're looking for. This helps me imagine what it would be like for libraries to be fully on the web. I have a similar service at work that allows me access to many, many technical books, but this is more fun.

Hyperweatlh

Does not the very naming assert a disease? Would not naming it be a cure?

Look for the loyalty statements. Felt is no hero: he isn't dead

Gergen calls Felt a snitch.
Anybody who has anything good to say about Felt: no place in Bush administration, that's for sure.
Presidential candiate "X" said , "Gee, I hope if I do something bad there is someone like Felt to turn me in to the authorities. Someone like that who has the true welfare of the nation in mind, not just me, the president."
No. Felt is no hero. He did the dirty work that someone had to do. Coming out before he was dead, that was a disservice and a great big mistake. Heros do NOT accept congratulations.
Real heros know that real heroes are under the stones and crosses.

Discovery of 'Momma' T-Rex

Answers to questions*
1. female
2. related to bird
3. medullary bone

*For creationists
"God" or "we really don't know"or leave blank for full credit

the 35 hour week: isn't a that where we want to go?

A good, clean, safe life full of leisure for thinking and creating... isn't that where capitalism is supposed to go? Why shouldn't one resist going backwards?
The yardstick of a persons life appears long, but used as a measure against human events much less geologic events, it is like trying to measure out a small town with a 12" ruler.
Jeffrey Sachs says that up until 200 years ago, essentially everyone was poor. Period. So wealth for semi regular people is really only 200 years old and that really is true.
The middle class: gee, that's just a post WW II phenomenon. Post Keynesian, brand new, unheard of prosperity. However, the disparaging tone directed at people accused of self indulgency for expecting what was totally expected, is way way out of line. Just a few years ago, the US was glory bound with William J Clinton and his man Robert Rubin running the economy.
When the man calls out This Way! make sure he is going forward before you follow. Running backward with great purpose: Monty Python does that.

MTV rejects Nine Inch Nails' performace image

They Hate America, They Hate Freedom, They Hate Apple Pie too.

Too funny for words except that it is so sad.

"President" Bush on Tuesday dismissed a human rights report as "absurd" for its harsh criticism of U.S. treatment of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying the allegations were made by prisoners "who hate America."

More Hussman

From this week's Hussman report:

There continues to be pressure on China to revalue the yuan. In standard Orwellian fashion, China 's maintenance of a fixed and stable exchange rate with the U.S. dollar is being criticized as “manipulation.” We should be careful what we wish for – the deep current account imbalance with China owes far more to profligate fiscal policy in the U.S. than to unfair currency policies abroad. Sure, the yuan appears undervalued, but before pushing for a revaluation, U.S. policy makers would be really, really smart to get our own fiscal policy in order so we wouldn't be so heavily dependent on foreign capital inflows to finance U.S. economic activity.

Unless that happens, a revaluation of the yuan will do more to stifle growth in U.S. gross domestic investment than any single policy move that Congress could contemplate. Thinking about this in general equilibrium is a disaster: the stuff we buy from China isn't really stuff we make at home, so we'll observe import price increases without enjoying much increased demand for domestic production, the stuff that China competes with us to import (mainly oil), being priced internationally in U.S. dollars, will become cheaper to China, thereby exacerbating energy prices, and the major source of growth in U.S. gross domestic investment in recent years (foreign capital inflows from Asian central banks) will drop off substantially. This is going to be interesting.

Don't miss the message here.

Candidates Loyal to Hariri Sweep Election and elect his son.
(Blood is way way thick. Everything else is water or worse.)

A Bane Amid The Housing Boom: Rising Foreclosures

Is "news" the reporting of something changing, or is it just a matter of convenience, accident or pile on?
"Hey, the lights good over here: lets write about this."
Dunno: does seem to say that the caution flag is out for buyers.

Trial balloon

"Meanwhile, retired Gen. Wesley Clark predicted 'a substantial pullout of American troops' from Iraq by the end of the summer. The former presidential candidate was a speaker at the senior convocation at upstate Ithaca's Cornell University"
The spin machine is reving up. As of May 28, victory is scheduled for September.

Bubbles

"About 54 percent of home buyers in the District purchased their homes using interest-only loans so far this year, according to LoanPerformance, a San Francisco-based company that tracks loan originations nationwide. About one-third of buyers in Maryland and Virginia are buying with interest-only loans. Just five years ago, only about 2 percent of home-purchase loans in the Washington area involved interest-only terms."

WW III

No other way to describe it. Bigger and better, as this is a war without borders: it's your neighbor.

Interesting

"Tell your boss you have to deal with a drinking problem and you'll be fine; say you want more time with your family and you're on the endangered species list."

Everything is OK. Go back to sleep.

This is a government that lives to make itself look good, so that people remain placid and accepting of (or better still, oblivious to) the shit going on around them.

This is a quote from a blog about China, but you no doubt first thought it was about our own government. This is why W likes China so much, his government is just like theirs.

Rates: swimming in deep waters.

"It may just be a confluence of all these. But many economists are concluding that, in a world of rising savings and cheap money, returns on Treasury bond investments may simply be the best of a bad bunch."
GMB: Which would make I-bonds an easy entry.
But the underlying reasons examined here are a cautionary tale. Basically, nobody has clue, not really.

post-digestive art

uh, thanks. no more for me.

luckily we now know that...

It's All Newsweek's Fault

The right's rage at Newsweek is all too reminiscent of the contempt it heaped on Specialist Thomas Wilson, the soldier who dared to ask Mr. Rumsfeld at a town hall meeting in Kuwait in December about the shortage of armored vehicles. Mr. Wilson was guilty of "near-insubordination," said Rush Limbaugh; the embedded reporter who helped him frame his question was reviled by bloggers as a traitor. Yet Mr. Wilson's question was legitimate, and Mr. Rumsfeld's answer (that the shortage was only "a matter of production and capability") was a lie.

The Rumsfeld Stain

Rumsfeld: presentation is everything. aka don't let them see you sweat. aka too dumb to know you're dead (eg, Bush)
As to the war, it's over: the Sunni's have joined the government.
Not only will this quell the violence in Iraq, it will ripple through all of Islam. The Islamic Reformation has reached critical mass.
Finally, ALL the media seems to be carrying the heckling of Laura... makes no sense. Heckle Laura? George hides behind a skirt?
But none of it is going to matter: it's over.
(Yeah, Bush can still screw it up... if peace in Iraq does not bring oil or even promises less,, ummm, maybe that's just not acceptable: keep fighting.)
Ah, but HOW could he screw it up ?

Why worry about yuan?

From Hussman:

Now, why would international financial market participants want to hold onto their yuan but get rid of dollar holdings (or even borrow them)? Hmm.

While I don't yet anticipate an abrupt revaluation of the Chinese yuan (a change in the currency peg that would make the yuan appreciate, or equivalently, the U.S. dollar depreciate), suddenly all of this talk about China and other central banks wanting to “diversify” their holdings away from U.S. dollars seems to be having more bite. Anticipation of that type of event would tend to create just the sort of yuan hoarding and dollar borrowing that's reflected in Eurocurrency spreads (you want to borrow dollars if they're expected to depreciate, of course, so you can pay them back with cheaper dollars later).

Though I discussed the risk that an abrupt revaluation of Asian currencies would have, I also viewed that risk as somewhat remote - an important element to watch but not any sort of imminent threat. After all, China and Japan seemed to be willing to continue with the status quo, and nobody in the Administration would possibly provoke an event that could so profoundly destabilize the U.S. economy.

Well, in a move that is simply beyond comprehension, Treasury Secretary John Snow last week tried to jawbone China and Japan into revaluing their currencies relative to the U.S. dollar (i.e. to allow their currencies to become more expensive). In the unilateralist, partial equilibrium, no-unintended-consequences world that is the Bush Administration, more expensive Asian currencies are a way of protecting U.S. manufacturers from the competition of cheap imports. In the general equilibrium world that is reality, the potential effect of this policy could be disastrous.

How to quickly eliminate our gaping current account deficit

Recall that every major expansion in the U.S. economy has begun with a current account surplus. This means that the U.S. had not only enough savings to finance its own investment, but was even sending savings overseas by purchasing foreign securities. This allowed the U.S. to finance huge investment booms, first by drawing on those excess savings, and then by quickly moving to a current account deficit and importing savings from foreigners. Needless to say, with the U.S. presently running the deepest current account deficit in history, our ability to finance much sustained growth in domestic investment (factories, housing, equipment, capital spending) is sharply limited. Even our present level of economic activity is dependent on the largest inflows of foreign capital in history, largely from China and Japan.

In effect, the factor that allows the U.S. to continue its consumption binge, finance its investment, extend its housing boom, run irresponsibly large government deficits, swap corporate debt payments into ridiculously low short-term interest rates, and maintain unusually high valuations in the equity markets - the quiet support that keeps this whole house of cards standing - is the willingness of Asian economies to accumulate an endless supply of U.S. dollar assets (largely Treasury and U.S. agency securities). That willingness is driven by one goal - to hold their currencies down in relation to the U.S. dollar.

Incomprehensibly, the Administration is now trying to pressure China and Japan to give up that goal. If this effort succeeds, and particularly if that success is abrupt, surging short-term interest rates, higher corporate defaults, and a collapse in U.S. domestic investment would likely follow. As I used to teach my students, there is a really quick way to "balance" a current account deficit (which is also the main way that it happens in practice): plunge the economy into a deep recession. This isn't our expectation yet. It is, however, an increasing risk born of misguided economic analysis.

I-Bonds are at 4.8%

You have to hold them for at least a year, and you'll pay a 3 month interest penalty if you cash them before 5 years. But compared to the best 12 month CD rate I've found at 4.2%, which required opening a new bank account and paying bank fees, 4.8% and the terms are pretty good. If rates are higher after a year, it comes to a 1.2% penalty to get out at 12 months, so the APY would then be 3.6. The move-to rate would have to be at least 6.0% for this to be a sensible move. Seems like a decent place to stick cash.

Why I'm still a liberal

Evans: Why I'm still a liberal

May 22, 2005

I am, in most things, liberal because to my mushy eyes, the American "welfare state" has been (mostly) a success. Not a big fan of government, but a believer that some things are best done together, rather than individually.

History is quite clear about what happens when the "haves" don't bother to take care of the "have nots," or even the "have somes": Rule by the rich, the few, who will, eventually, lose control, often violently.

But as diehard conservatives insist we move from America's New Deal ethic into Ayn Rand Adventure Land — minimal taxes; everyone out for themselves — I can't imagine why they think our (far from perfect) system has been so awful.

After all, since Roosevelt, the United States has won the only war that really mattered, blasted into the economic stratosphere, raised standards of living, cultivated the middle class (that powerful antidote to pluto-oligarchy), become a technological Godzilla, and built the most dominant (if excessive) military in history.

Gee, what a trainwreck.

But people like change, I guess, and these days we seem to be demanding it regardless of the likely consequences.

In Missouri, Gov. Matt Blunt piously declares that raising taxes on "hard-working families" is immoral even as he strives to eliminate Medicaid services for the poor. This Christian politician seems to have missed one of Jesus's most oft-repeated messages: Take care of the poor.

In Kansas, the state board of education proposes redefining science as "a systematic method of continuing investigation" that does not limit its inquiry to the natural world. Under such Dark Ages claptrap, the "supernatural" would be fair game in Kansas science classes.

The supernatural they are after, of course, is God. But thousands of years of inquiry have not brought "naturalistic" proof of God, and good, old-fashioned faith has had to suffice. And once you open the door to the supernatural, what's to stop a kid from writing a biology paper on werewolves, unicorns or Oz?

I keep wondering if these people even "believe" in science, and if they are willing to eschew the medicine and technology — produced by "naturalistic" science — that has granted them such cushy lives.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration is in high dudgeon over a Newsweek item about alleged "Quran abuse" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A small item, since retracted (though it's bolstered by substantial evidence), "caused" Muslim riots in Afghanistan, according to the Bush spin.

Now the White House, ignoring the undisputed abuse and murder of Muslims by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, is playing the schoolmarm, telling Newsweek it has blood of 16 Muslims on its hands.

No mention of the tens of thousands of Muslims killed in ill-advised military actions, or the 1,622 U.S. troops killed (and more than 10,000 casualties) in Iraq because of much more egregious "errors" by our elected armchair gladiators.

And if we are to believe Newsweek is to blame for these deaths, then why aren't we blaming loudmouth ideologues in Congress for the dangers faced by judges who don't rule as some think they should? Following the tragic Terri Schiavo case, for example, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) suggested that we can hardly blame wackos for going after judges when they don't like their rulings.

Chicago Judge Joan H. Lefkow, whose husband and mother were murdered by a lunatic who didn't like her dismissal of his malpractice suit, chastised the agitators last week. Such rhetoric, she said, "can only encourage those who are on the edge ... to exact revenge on a judge who displeases them."

But our outrage is now selective, directed by people drunk on their vision of an America unfettered by collective responsibility, a society ruled by belief over facts, a judiciary beholden to party politics, and a foreign policy that may make us feel like kick-ass warriors from afar, but in fact makes the world more dangerous.

Call me what you will, but what, exactly, is so appealing about that grand vision?

Contact Clay Evans at (303) 473-1352 or evansc@dailycamera.com.

Wal-Mart and America

Protecting your god given right to shop.

Hiring is Obsolete

Web startup costs = living and eating.

RealMoney on Walmart

More Downside in Store for Wal-Mart
By James Cramer
It's clear that Wal-Mart is vulnerable, and things are going to get worse before they get better for the retailer, says James J. Cramer. The competition that Wal-Mart faces from slicker, more consumer-friendly rivals is hurting Wal-Mart, even with its low prices. Wal-Mart will continue to suffer until it gets in someone who can merchandise or unless we get a nasty recession. Until then, this stock is a sell.

The Note: carnage

"We say with all the genuine apolitical and non-partisan human concern that we can muster that the death and carnage in Iraq is truly staggering.
And/but we are sort of resigned to the Notion that it simply isn't going to break through to American news organizations, or, for the most part, Americans.
Democrats are so thoroughly spooked by John Kerry's loss —- and Republicans so inspired by their stay-the-course Commander in Chief —- that what is hands down the biggest story every day in the world will get almost no coverage. No conflict at home = no coverage.

This Is Your Brain on Motherhood - New York Times

Becoming a parent... can power up the mind with uniquely motivated learning. Having a baby is 'a revolution for the brain,' Dr. Merzenich says."

Interesting

Wal-Mart as an employer.

One America Committee: Blog

This is John Edwards site: it has content, it has speeches, message and links to a podcast. Highly recommended. It is message, it is leadership: Mr Edwards is using his exposure as vice presidential candiate to do good (ala Jimmy Carter) as opposed to running for office... it's the act of a statesman.

One America Committee: Blog

This is John Edwards site: it has content, it has speeches, message and links to a podcast. Highly recommended. It is message, it is leadership: Mr Edwards is using his exposure as vice presidential candiate to do good (ala Jimmy Carter) as opposed to running for office... it's the act of a statesman.

peoplewhoshouldbeshot: Bill Frist

'The message is that the Democrats who oppose a tiny handful of President Bush's judicial nominations are conducting an assault 'against people of faith.' By that, Senator Frist and his allies do not mean people of all faiths, only those of their faith.'
Shoot that fuck.
(All except that last sentence is from the NY Times editorial.)

Language!

"Because certain trees are sprouting in the Middle East, the world will soon end. Because the European Union has grown to its current size, fiery death and plagues of locusts are about to descend on the planet. Because Israel established a homeland, non-believers will, in a short while, suffer agonizing horrors before being damned to an eternity of pain."
See what can be done!
(Do you have the gift of language? You too can speak complete crap! Put your heart into it!)

Crazy Shit Department: Sony aims to beam sights, sounds into brain

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- If you think video games are engrossing now, just wait: PlayStation maker Sony Corp. has been granted a patent for beaming sensory information directly into the brain.

The technique could one day be used to create video games in which you can smell, taste, and touch...

Economic tsunami?

"'If the world's central bankers accumulate fewer dollars, the result would be an unrelenting American need to borrow in the face of an ever weaker dollar - a recipe for higher interest rates and higher prices. The economic repercussions could unfold gradually, resulting in a long, slow decline in living standards. Or there could be a quick unraveling, with the hallmarks of an uncontrolled fiscal crisis.'
-- New York Times editorial"

From the vaults: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 Moon declares himself the Messiah before a congressional reception

Hitler and Stalin have been "reborn as new persons."

More than a dozen lawmakers attended a congressional reception this year honoring the Rev. Sun Myung Moon in which Moon declared himself the Messiah and said his teachings have helped Hitler and Stalin be "reborn as new persons."


CapHillBlue? Nope, the Washington Post.

Moon has claimed to have spoken in "the spirit world" with all deceased U.S. presidents, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed and others. At the March 23 event, he said: "The founders of five great religions and many other leaders in the spirit world, including even Communist leaders such as Marx and Lenin . . . and dictators such as Hitler and Stalin, have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons."

Details of the ceremony -- first reported by Salon.com writer John Gorenfeld -- have prompted several lawmakers to say they were misled or duped by organizers. Their complaints prompted a Moon-affiliated Web site to remove a video of the "Crown of Peace" ceremony two days ago, but other Web sites have preserved details and photos.

AtB: April 6, 2005 Tan Lucy Pez asks "Is this guy running the country? Who IS?"

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles. (Some of us are. Some of us just do the puzzle...no reading.)
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country -- if they could find the time -- and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents once ran the country and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.
10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country ... or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all for which they stand. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped-minority-feminist-atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy provided, of course, that they are not Republicans.
11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
12. None of these are read by the guy who is running the country into the ground. I'm not so sure he can read.)

Hussman: The economy is basically a big karma train

As a sidenote, the gross domestic investment - plant, equipment, capital spending, real estate, etc - in the economy is exactly equal to saving in the economy (including imported savings from foreigners). So for instance, the savings that people create through their 401K programs and so forth do finance real investments, but those savings need not increase the value of stocks and may not even be of benefit to stock-issuing corporations at all, even if the savings are invested in stocks. For instance, if Mickey (who is a construction worker) invests new savings in a stock mutual fund through his 401K, the fund goes out and buys stock from Ricky, who gets Mickey's cash and invests it in a money market fund, which buys debt securities issued by a government agency, which purchases mortgages made by Nicky's bank, which lends the cash to Nicky, who uses it to pay construction workers to build a house. Though that route was more direct than most, savings really do equal investment for the nation as a whole. The economy is basically a big karma train.

Hussman

From this week's Hussman report.

The risks of a shift in Chinese currency policy are heightened by the still-polite but increasingly palpable tension between China and the U.S. revolving around Taiwan's hints at independence. It doesn't help that the Administration is filling important international finance and diplomatic posts with judgment-impaired political hacks rather than individuals with suitable talent to address the risks.

In short, international interest rate spreads are useful to watch here. In addition, credit spreads (corporate minus Treasury or low grade corporate minus high grade corporate) are also important. At this point, a further deterioration in credit spreads would be a very strong signal to batten the hatches.

The information is always in the divergences.

AtB: March 24, 2005:The Unintended Consequences of Laws...

An interesting tidbit from Crosblog

The Law of Unintended Consequences...
Ohio passes a gay marriage ban that bars "creating or recognizing a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals."

Ohio also has a domestic violence law that makes it a felony for someone with a previous domestic violence conviction to assault a family member.

Correction - that may be "had" a domestic violence law. Since "legal status for relationships..." is now barred, a judge reduced a felony assault on a repeat abuser's live-in girlfriend to a misdemeanor, finding that the new language barred giving the unmarried couple any additional benefits.

Prosecutors are appealing. From the hip analysis from someone who's never read an Ohio statute or case - call it a longshot.

If it's said boldly and without a hint of shame then...

From the final paragraph a NYTimes story about the popular uprising in Kyrgyzstan:

"In Washington, meanwhile, a State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, said Wednesday that the United States had urged the Kyrgyz government to avoid violence and open a dialogue with the opposition. The message being sent by the United States and other nations, he said, was that 'violence is not an acceptable means for resolving differences.' "

Around the Bloggosphere(AtB): March 22, 2005

In my continuing time crunched effort to keep content flowing here at TCA I provided you with another installment of “Around the Bloggosphere”. Since being a dad is a brand new job for me I think I will continue to do these AtB posts for a little while.

Ken

Subject: Campaign finance reform.
Blog: Toehold

I have an idea.

• Individual Americans (and corporations too!) will contribute to a single fund for all campaigning.
• Legitimate political parties (with some fair definition of "legitimate") will draw equally from the fund and distribute what they draw equally to their candidate(s).
• No campaign spending except from this fund.
• All private campaign ads will be funded as if they were a political party.

Keep holding fund raisers, and keep getting those fat checks from fat cats, but share with your opponents. How do you like them apples?

Problems:

• The legitimization of the Party party leads to the public funding a campaign which enjoys itself thoroughly without doing any campaigning.
• The most popular candidates don't want to raise funds.
• J. Random Billionare has a free speech problem if the private ad fund is short. On the other hand, J. Random could contribute enough money to make up the difference and think of it as a tax on "free" speech.

My original idea was to pay for campaigns through a poll tax. Each candidate would account for all campaign spending, and there'd be a number next to the name on the ballot. That number is how much the voter will pay in taxes to fund the campaign if it wins. Slick Politician can run a huge campaign, but the voters may vote for the cheap guy instead. The collected taxes first pay for the accounting and then go to repay the campaign's donors. The result:

• Cheaper campaigns are more appealing to voters.
• Donors prefer to donate to the candidate who wins, but only because they get a refund.
• Candidates still end up with an obligation to the donors because of the risk they took, but an increase in "campaign tax" could eliminate that too (in which case, "donating" to the winner becomes an investment that produces a return).
• How does this account for independent advertising? Maybe it doesn't.

What to do if the candidate spends less than what was given for the campaign? Take the remainder of the pool and distribute it evenly among the donors. This encourages many small donors and discourages individual large donors. If one donor gives half the total pool, and that amount is spent, that donor gets back the money donated, divided by the number of donors. People who donated the least could get back more than they originally put in.

There are probably lots of odd situations I haven't thought of, so I've designed toward behavior that's bad, and it's possible that behavior I think is desirable really isn't. Ultimately I'd like a system in which politicians are "paid for" by a majority (e.g., everybody) rather than any minority. I'm tired of our elected officials being beholden to monied interests instead of the people who elected them. I want to disconnect their funding from the funders. Make all donations anonymous? Easy to defeat.

Maybe someone has solved this problem, and I just haven't seen it. Unfortunately, I suspect a real working solution would never be implemented.

permalink posted by Kyle : 7:39 AM

Around the Blogosphere

Here is an alternative perspective on the world...

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Are We Sinners In Need Of Salvation Or Not?

I am always impressed what deceived men will do for a lie. This afternoon I had two guests who are of the Jehovah's Witness persuasion. They talked and talked and (I know, we've all experienced it) and talked. Yet, if I had not forced the conversation into the direction of Paul's letter to the Romans, we would never have talked about salvation.

What are the issues in evangelization? Are Tim LaHaye's books the main way to convince people to come to Christ? How about rock'n for Jesus at a concert? How about throwing a party at church to show that men need to repent? That seems to be the method today. We could have a Super Bowl party for Jesus.

I am not saying there are not different ways to evangelize. We all use different methods to "springboard" our conversations into the Gospel message. I am simply wondering if we often compromise or miss the message altogether. Have we become like the JWs and missed how the Spirit of God commands us to proclaim God's Word faithfully? Just a thought.

Here is one of the most powerful sermons I have heard in a long time. John Piper preaches on Romans 9. How should we proclaim the Gospel? Click Here.

posted by Howard Fisher | 5:19 PM

American Jobs Blog By Greg Spotts

This is the kind of stuff that Walmart depends on... only it ain't Walmart anymore: it's coming up the food chain.
You can also find him on a report on PBS NOW.
Here's a good book, one that goes way back. You don't even have to read it, you just have to read the title: "Small is Beautiful: economics as if people mattered."
The book is written by a hardbitten, real life economist. Minister of Mines, I think, in the UK. No bleeding heart, he.

Big oil won: we're paying the price in dollars, time and lives

Plan A: end Opec
The industry-favoured plan was pushed aside by a secret plan, drafted just before the invasion in 2003, which called for the sell-off of all of Iraq's oil fields. The new plan was crafted by neo-conservatives intent on using Iraq's oil to destroy the Opec cartel through massive increases in production above Opec quotas.

Plan B; (the industry plan) keep prices high
Privatisation blocked by industry
Philip Carroll, the former CEO of Shell Oil USA who took control of Iraq's oil production for the US Government a month after the invasion, stalled the sell-off scheme.
Mr Carroll told us he made it clear to Paul Bremer, the US occupation chief who arrived in Iraq in May 2003, that: "There was to be no privatisation of Iraqi oil resources or facilities while I was involved."

Activist Judges Rule!

"Judge Richard Kramer of San Francisco County's trial-level Superior Court likened the (gay marriage) ban to laws requiring racial segregation in schools, and said there appears to be 'no rational purpose' for denying marriage to gay couples."

China is Wal-Mart to the world

In the same way Wal-Mart sends the small local retailers packing, China is putting entire countries out of business. They undervalue their currency and undercut the rest of the world. With their hundreds of millions eager and hungry for low paying factory work, they can win at this game.

Wal-Mart is not the problem here. They are just the most noticeable symptom here in the U.S. (and increasingly in other countries) of China's strategy.

China needs to play fair with international trade, or they should face restrictions.

TiVo.com | The TiVo Homepage

If you have a TV and you don't have Tivo, you are wasting your time, your money, and letting TV run your life.
NOT having Tivo is, in a word, silly. It costs $100. There is a monthly subscription fee: it is well worth it.
Oh, you can transfer Tivo recordings to your computer. You can print them to VHS or DVD, whatever.
For those who do NOT watch TV, that's fine: you'll never watch "TV" again. You will only watch Tivo: you will watch what you want when you want, and if you've found you've "caught a fish" you don't like: you throw it back. Better yet, your kids never watch TV again: they watch Tivo and you get to say what's on Tivo: end of story.
Phone rings? hit pause: the machine goes into record mode immediately. Continue watching tomorrow if you feel like it.

saddam capture: staged?

A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated.
Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh, of Lebanese descent, was quoted in the Saudi daily al-Medina Wednesday as saying Saddam was actually captured Friday, Dec. 12, 2003, and not the day after, as announced by the U.S. Army.
"I was among the 20-man unit, including eight of Arab descent, who searched for Saddam for three days in the area of Dour near Tikrit, and we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced," Abou Rabeh said.
"We captured him after fierce resistance during which a Marine of Sudanese origin was killed," he said.
Interesting. He's a US Marine. And he is of Arab descent. He's an American citizen (probably, but not necessarily) but where do his loyalties lie: with the US, with the Middle east, or maybe it's just the truth? Of course, one thing for certain: he is a volunteer: that could cut both ways.

response to query: Your Uncle Sam wants to know what you want to know.

OK: I did the search on fertilizer and diesel fuel. Just like that. No quotes.
This is what google said. (I had tried A9 .com: it said there were NO results. (When did you even do a search, without quotes, that came up with NO results???))
Google gave me the following page, saying the site violates our policy.
So, we know that the government IS looking at our queries and is most certainly recording them.
403 Forbidden

Terror Suspects Buying Firearms, Report Finds

Official comments from the world-of-reality dept:
1) so what: the shit is mostly harmless and no more than what is available to any citizen, resident, or sidewalk shopper. Fertilizer and diesel fuel? Hmmm, have to google that.
2) ummm, why are they "suspected" and by whom and for what?
3) Catch 22, in particular the character of Milo Minderbinder is a must read for economics, politics, policy, philosophy, humor, anthropology.

Derelict Plants Are Crippling Iraq's Petroleum Industry

"And with the petroleum sector crumbling, Iraqi officials must soon decide whether to invest in time-consuming repairs and upgrades, or try to extract everything they can from the creaky equipment, as Saddam Hussein did. It is a tricky decision: Because the rebuilding effort is financed from oil revenues, shutting down the system for desperately needed repairs cuts back on the money available for further repairs."
oh oh
Free at last, free at last, thank god I'm.... poor at last????
See, the good news was that President Bush was really tight in the oil business. The bad news: he (personally) utterly failed at it. His friends, of course, did not.

Brain Research Raises Boggling Issues

"Terry Harrington had served more than two decades for the 1978 murder of a Council Bluffs night watchman when the court reversed the conviction. Something called 'brain fingerprinting' convinced the court that the 'records' in Harrington's brain did not match the scene of the crime or the details of the case."
Ummm, this is something that one would like to know a little more about... it could go either way, no?

Scientist Build a 'Brain' From Rat Cells

The cells learn how to fly an F-22
"Usually, within 10 to 15 minutes, it's pretty much flying the plane," DeMarse says.
And then, after about 15 minutes, it's all over. The neurons can't remember how to fly the plane anymore, so the next time the experiment is run, the neurons have to be taught all over again."
The technology of intelligence may become mundane, which is probably as it should be.
What about consciousness... a notion of self. Maybe that is more narcisism than anything else, that we reserve to ourselves in a rather unconscious manner.

ABC News: A New Take on Human Intelligence

"Briefly put, Hawkins thinks intelligence is nothing more than memory, and the ability to predict."
This makes a lot of sense to me. And it's pretty much the path that google is taking.

Where is the intellligence?

Lewis Thomas, in Lives of a Cell, observes a colony of mindless ants that behave quite intelligently. Here, McLurkin is getting robots to behave like an any colony: when you have enough, they start working.

McLurkin, 32, a graduate student in computer science at M.I.T., the young scientist is on the forefront of developing "swarmbots"—packs of dozens of small robots that communicate with one another and work in harmony to complete an assignment. They have no centralized command system and can cover vast terrain; if one is destroyed, others fill in.
McLurkin's machines were inspired by nature. As an undergraduate at M.I.T., he became interested in ants and kept a terrarium full of them on his desk. The decentralized nature of ant colonies gave him a model for his robots. "I worked on the notion of using virtual pheromones [the biochemical scents that some animals use to communicate]," he says. "As one robot gathers knowledge, it spreads it to its neighbors, and they spread it to their neighbors."

Leninism, Trotskyism, and the American Right

Have you noticed that on the right there is a blind adherence to the party line?

Have you noticed the use of collectivist forces to steer debate (mob protests against the Florida recount for example.)

The Trotsky Hour: A consrvative talks of the Trotskyite takeover of the conservative movement.

ACHIEVING A “LENINIST” STRATEGY: From the "capitalist" CATO institute

This fits in with my philosophy that many of our leaders today do not so much fear communism, as much as they are, fundamentally in their hearts, communists. They understand and believe in Marxist-Leninist ideology (much more so than the middle or working class) and either are doing what they can to prevent it by using its means OR actively propagating it (since, in Marxism, the mature capitalist state¹ is the only state that is ready for communism. This, some argue, is the reason for the failure of the 20^th century communist revolutions, they all occurred in relatively poor nations that did not have the industrial capital to maintain a workers paradise).

1
Mature Capitalism

• In mature capitalism, there are three main classes:
1. The capitalist class: own the means of production.
2. The workers: who are exploited for the surplus value produced by their labor.
3. The petit bourgeoisie: who work providoing their own labor. EG: Shopowners and small-holding farmers who own their own land.
• Because of economies of scale, the petit bourgeoisie is eventually absorbed into the working class.
• Economy of Scale: industrialization permits reduced cost in production because of repetition for large production orders (unit costs are less).
• The close proximity of urban workers permits them to organize themselves into unions. This forms the embryonic form of class consciousness.
• The political organizations that sustain that consciousness: unions and revolutionaries.

Modern disclaimer: I am not now nor have I even been a communist, terrorist, islamist, jihadist, or anti-american.

"A fiscally profligate government cannot help but sabotage the growth prospects of the nation."

John Hussman

The one-year budget deficit will be so large in the next fiscal year that if the government stopped funding everything except defense, homeland security and entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the nation would still be $75 billion in the red.
WaPo's Talking Points

For President Bush, the budget sent to Congress last week outlines a painful path to meeting his promise to bring down the federal budget deficit by the time he leaves office in 2009. But for the senators and governors already jockeying to succeed him, the numbers released in recent days add up to a budgetary landmine that could blow up just as the next president moves into the Oval Office.
After Bush Leaves Office, His Budget's Costs Balloon

Bush to Request $82B for Military Operations

LP: Heads Roll At The Veterans Administration: Mushrooming Depleted Uranium (DU) Scandal Blamed

"a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret..."
ummm, not at all clear why this person is an "eminent scientist"... she is an activist. As to published and reviewed papers? I don't see much at all.
Deplete Uranium could be very very dangerous, but I do NOT know of any respected work in the field that says it IS dangerous. The US government has said categorically it is NOT dangerous. It has NOT been corrected by the press, academe, etc... but little has been (nothing yet on the bluge in the Bush shirt during the debate..)
The book The Tipping Point talks about the "broken window" theory of crime... well, of social behavior in general, crime in particular. People are sensitive the their environments and move into those openings. Unrepaired broken windows say that something is untended, not watch, un owned, and says there is a vacuum of public or private overship of the space, and in move the vandals, followed by... etc.
The Bush administration has broken many many "windows" of civil liberties and democratic governance, legitimate business practice, conflicts of interest, and the effect is not only widespread in the United States but abroad... who are at once attracted by the vacuum, and see too that the US would be harder put to criticize, being a bad example and making political gain into national interest and wanting support more than thoughtful laws and processes

On the ground in Iraq

Today's News!

Bush's Popularity Jumps

Nearly two-thirds of Americans satisfied with war on terrorism!

Charles, Camilla to Wed

North Korea declares it has nuclear weapons; cancels talks

FAA Was Warned of 9/11 Attacks

Previously undisclosed report by 9/11 commission revealed 52 warnings.

2004 Trade Deficit Hits All-Time High

President Explains Strengthening Social Security

In case you didn't already understand the details of his plan, the president is clarifying things very clearly with explanations like the following:

__________________________________________________________
Q -- (I want to) really understand how is it the new plan is going to fix that problem (the "notch" issue)?

THE PRESIDENT:
Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.

Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

Okay, better? I'll keep working on it. (Laughter.)
__________________________________________________________

Note: There is a video of this speech somewhere that I have not been able to find. If you have a link to it, please post to comments.

Should Tax Dollars Fund Bush's Bubble?

"Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.

"Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

"Okay, better? I'll keep working on it."

Google Maps

Will the internet become the googleNet?

On the Making of America

SLAVERY AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA is a four-part series documenting the history of American slavery from its beginnings in the British colonies to its end in the Southern states and the years of post-Civil War Reconstruction. Drawing on a wealth of recent scholarship, it looks at slavery as an integral part of a developing nation, challenging the long held notion that slavery was exclusively a Southern enterprise. At the same time, by focusing on the remarkable stories of individual slaves, it offers new perspectives on the slave experience and testifies to the active role that Africans and African Americans took in surviving their bondage and shaping their own lives.

Denver area:
KRMA Analog
CHANNEL 6
8:00pm

Other areas

More Churchill Letters

Usual suspects say usual things

The angry flailing of Ward Churchill has provoked predictable reactions from the usual suspects. Conservatives have tried to silence him, while liberals have raised the free speech issue. This paper has taken its typical position that, while we find his statements outrageous, he has the right to speak and shouldn't be fired.

Nowhere in all of this does anyone address the substance of Churchill's essay. OK, the Eichmann analogy was stupid, but what about the underlying message? Do we bear a collective responsibility for the actions of our government? As functionaries for transnational business and banking, do we endorse, even promote in some way, the foreign policies of our government — policies designed to make our businesses easier and more profitable? An interesting social question, but lost under the 500-pound red herring of the Eichmann remark.

Churchill made the point that we were attacked because of our foreign policy. He was merely stating the obvious, but his point was lost when his ramblings came close to implying we deserved it. And that is what everyone locked on to. It's unfortunate, because the lie that we were attacked because "they hate our freedom" will likely get us attacked again. Churchill is angry, as am I, that certain things about 9/11 are off limits for debate. Like why we were attacked. On Sept. 13, 2001, this paper went so far as to editorialize that there was "no reason" for the attack. Surely that meant there was no justification, because there was certainly a reason.

I have a hunch that the flap over Churchill's essay has more to do with fear of the underlying message than offense at the ridiculous way it was presented. But we won't talk about that.

DAVID DAVIS
Longmont

Local Boulder Paper: Letters to the Editor: Ward Churchill

[link requires free (other than the cost of tracking cookies) subscription]
CHURCHILL

Professor's critics should read essay

I wonder how many people out to crucify Ward Churchill have actually read the offending article. Among the clumsy analogies and over-the-top polemics — it comes across like the first draft of a man in heat — is a message which this Establishment reader finds somewhat affecting.

It taps into my own long-suppressed anxiety about the possible consequences of our increasing we're-No. 1 cultural hubris. I felt it after the gratuitous Highway of Death strafing at the end of Gulf War I. I feel it with the Crusade undertones of today's Iraq War. I often feel it when I regard a foreign policy backed by a military might that is big and powerful and often dumb as a fist.

I read Mr. Churchill's essay as an Edvard Munch scream. Read the entire article — including the unfortunate references — in context. If nothing else it provides a perspective on the part of those that we fear. That in itself counts for a lot. To suppress this point of view would also support Mr. Churchill's notion that we may be suffering from a "delusional pathology."

STEVE SMITH
Boulder

"money for war and nothing else" Bush and McCain agree

"President Bush today unveiled a $2.57 trillion budget that eliminates dozens of politically sensitive domestic programs, including funding for education, environmental protection and business development, while proposing significant increases for the military and international spending."
"With the deficits that we're now running, I'm glad the president is coming over with a very austere budget," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on ABC's "This Week." "I hope we in Congress will have the courage to support it."

Pentagon threatens to target journalists in Iraq. | Metafilter

Today on Hard Ball, the section "tell me something I didn't know" included a prediction: the news will break at 12 journalists were killed by the US"
Doing a google on "us kills journalists" brought this up: 3 were killed in 2003.
This president has changed the rule book: institutions we called sacrosanct are not. Any journalist has to know that IF you cross the US, you can get killed.
Jounalists have been reduced from professionals to salaried employees. Thus, you act nice at press conference, of you and your employer cannot come back. You talk nice to Tim Russert even when he asks bullshit questions to get the answer he wants, or you can't come back.
NPR remains free, except it is painted with a brush more broad: be "fair and balanced" or we will cut off federal and state funds. We will toss you into the public arena, where you will NOT be safe: you may be "publicly" funded, but you might be called MCI public radio, or Coors public radio... and it's over.
Assuming invoking Christ invokes the man of the kindness, the parables, redemption and courage, Bush is the anti-Christ.

The Balding President?

Say it aint so?

Blue Light Special

Fractal Dimensions 

Boulder Morning 

Great vote turnout in vietnam! 1967. Democracy!

"'United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 percent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam.'
- Peter Grose, in a page 2 New York Times article titled, 'U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote,' September 4, 1967."
I dunno, but I look through the editorial pages, the letters to the editors. See for yourself. See how much trouble, mismanagement, intrustion, noise, and objection is generated by democracy. If the least government is the best government, that's not democracy.
The European Union refuses entry to countries not up a certain standard. They are not allowed to enter to vote. No such standard applies to any person or group of persons in a democracy.
We'll have means testing for medical care. Why not some kind of means testing for the vote? There is no substitute for personal strength and power. Delieverance.

Sage Francis

... both a super ego created in the shadows of Paul Francis,
and a disembowled head on a stake as a warning to all who seek to find answers to the great abyss.

Great people
aren't born through handouts,
and don't kiss ass

to get to the top.

Real people know that
the top is the bottom...

Tri30up Triathlon Club

Learn how to make triathlon training part of your lifestyle.

Chinese Language Center

A cool site for Chinese languages, Pinyin, etc. If you can't get the character fonts to display, see here:

Here is how you can input Chinese characters in Windows XP.

Ward Churchill's Essay

This is a link to an essay that Ward Churchill, a University of Colorado professor, wrote on the evening of September 11th 2001. He is now getting a considerable amount of heat for the essay and there are mounting political pressures for him to be fired. Have a read at some point.


Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens
http://passionbomb.com/words/push_roost.htm

Tests Said to Tie Deal on Uranium to North Korea

"WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 - Scientific tests have led American intelligence agencies and government scientists to conclude with near certainty that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya, bolstering earlier indications that the reclusive state exported sensitive fuel for atomic weapons, according to officials with access to the intelligence."
1) What if a limited number of nuclear attacks could slow/stop/reverse global warming? Perhaps the limited destruction of industrialization and reduction of population very very quickly would actually save the planet (well, of a while, of course).
2) Will an asteroid hit hit us before global warming? What if preparing for asteroid defense is linked to global warming :-)
Ah, I have constructed problems I cannot possibly solve, let alone influence. Time to relax and play.

New Speak

Up is down
Left is right
Black is white

If you think otherwise, make sure to watch the "State of the Union" speech tonight and get with the program. Because you are either with us or you hate freedom.

Social Security: Out with "private accounts" in with "personal accounts".

From TPM,
The media falls in line: Chris Matthews stumbles, then tries to get right with the president's Social Security Speech Code. From last night's Hardball: "All these programs, one which will privatize this, personalize, to some extent, Social Security."

Collage Graduate 

Center for American Progress

From Talking Points Memo
The latest from the Center for American Progress ...

From the people who bring you The Progress Report – the daily electronic newsletter the National Review calls "the most aggressive, most energetic opposition research in politics" – comes Thinkprogress.org, a new blog ready to revolutionize the world of research-intensive rapid response. Debuting in tandem with the State of the Union address on Feb. 2, Thinkprogress.org will give journalists and the public real-time access to American Progress’s highly regarded rapid response operation for the first time ever. And in honor of the launch, American Progress CEO John Podesta will be a guest blogger, providing live commentary throughout the entire State of the Union address.

Under the Radar

HALLIBURTON – FLEECING THE PENTAGON: Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), the massive subsidiary of Vice President Cheney's former firm Halliburton, is estimating that costs for the basic services it provides in Iraq for U.S. troops "could exceed $10 billion." But even if it seems that President Bush is willing to hand over a blank check when it comes to the war in Iraq, the Army initially only budgeted $3.6 billion for these same services. Labeling the difference "an 'unaffordable' budget gap," Army officials have had to slash various troop services from their list, but the disparity still stands at about $4 billion, and the Army is not sure how much more can be cut "without causing significant disruptions." There was seemingly no discussion as to whether the notoriously wasteful KBR, which has yet to be fully investigated by Pentagon auditors, was just up to its old overcharging tricks once again. Whatever the compromise, hopefully this time the Army will get all that it pays for.

On The Ground In Iraq - Pre Election On the Ground From Iraq

I am priviledged to know this woman personally and do a little computer stuff once in a while. Adam, the guy that does her web site, now HE'S good!
Loran is local, and is NOT owned by anyone! She is her own person, has HER feet on the ground, writes exactly and only what SHE sees and smells and touches. She is real, she talks, can be touched, and has spend months, on the ground, sharing the life from before the invasion to now and will continue.
Here is an absolutely pristine source for world information.

"Ommar is an Iraqi American who left Iraq at the age of 20, not because of feeling threatened or disenfranchised by the Saddam regime, but to strike out on his own. A stellar student under the regime, he wanted to explore the world, to see whatever he could see and learn as much about the world as possible. He ended up in California but moved back to Baghdad in May 2003, bringing with him an American entrepreneurial attitude and a strong sense of Iraqi nationalism.

The result was the birth of the American Iraqi Chamber of commerce, which has a list of services, offered to members – both international and domestic – that is a virtual soup to nuts cornucopia of services. The fee of $250 for Iraqi nationals, and $500 for foreigners gets the 5000-plus members access to such services as ESL classes; free Internet training and usage; various trainings on how to run a business; information on how to create a website, make business cards and stationary; help with visa applications for those whose business needs might necessitate travel outside of Iraq, connections to others in their fields and/or to potential clients; and instruction on computer software programs such as Quickbooks, word processing or layout and design. There are services for the small father/son businesses as well as for major corporations."

World Reacts to Free Iraqi Elections

"The jubilant mayor of this beleaguered city called for the construction of a monument to George W. Bush. The Democratic Party's standard-bearer in the 2004 presidential election questioned the legitimacy of Sunday's elections here. From the unbridled optimism of the president of the United States to the cynicism of his political opponents, voices were heard around the world on Monday as leaders and average citizens alike registered their opinions of Sunday's elections in Iraq."
When you see what one man has to gain from victory, you can understand why his opposition, loyal or no, are willing to fight so very very desperately for his defeat.
But, still now: who is this man to whom victory has been given? What man, risen above the rest on a perceived good deed, proceeds to tunnel quickly and deeply and dismantle the pillars of society? It is hard to separate means from ends: they may be only the very same thing.
Disturb a man while he is celebrating, while he is euphoric by whatever means, and he will fight you. Take away the bottle of the alcoholic, he will attack. Stay the bladed hand of the crusader from the path to a conquered heart, save him his soul: he will not thank you, but turn on you at his first convenience.
Wait. Be careful. "For Ceasar was an honorable man"