The Antecubital Fossa

Rolling Stone :: How America Lost the War On Drugs

2007-12-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

"At the beginning of the Clinton administration ... the War on Drugs was like the War on Terror is now."

Also, Prof. Ben Attias has some interesting (If rather dated, now) notes on our government's involvement in drug trafficing.

The Memorials You Don't See

2007-11-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

'Renarf' interrupts the debate over Google's logo design with a few more relevant observations:

More than 25 percent of the homeless population in the United States are military veterans, although they represent 11 percent of the civilian adult population, according to a new report.

CNN has more about that study here. And you can hear more about how well we're 'supporting the troops' here, here, here, and on the streetcorners and sidewalks of any medium to large sized American city.

Veterans ... find themselves in a Catch-22, not able to find a job because of the lack of an apartment, and not being able to get an apartment because of not having a job...

When it was time to lay the wreath today on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the President found he had better things to do. Just as when it was time to fund veteran's and soldier's healthcare, provide them with equipment and body armor, and come up with a viable strategy and an exit plan for them in Iraq. And just as when it was time for the President to serve, himself.

Jesus wept.

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans accepts donations every day of the year. No yellow ribbons required.

Acts of Congress

2007-11-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

They can't be bothered to end the war - or in any other way defy the current administration - but when it comes to their own districts, and massive construction projects therein, then Congress gets motivated. It's a sad indicator of how terribly things are going that we greet this as a positive sign.

President Bush suffered the first veto override of his seven-year-old presidency Thursday as the Senate enacted a $23 billion water resources bill despite his protest that it was filled with unnecessary projects.

This Is What We Voted For, Folks

2007-11-08T14:50:00.000-08:00

A prescription-drug-addled puppet who doesn't even realize that the words coming out of his mouth have meanings, let alone what they might be. The President claims "You can't be the president and the head of the military at the same time.".

Jesus wept. Mind, it is very difficult for this President to be President and do anything else at the same time. It's like walking - or riding a Segway - and chewing bubblegum.

Why Does A Salad Cost More Than A Big Mac?

2007-11-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

In case you've ever wondered, the Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine provides some needed perspective:

Healthy food generally will always be less popular than unhealthy food, but it doesn't help matters that on a national and domestic policy level we have our priorities so completely bass-ackwards.

The New York Times has more about this phenomenon, and specifically the farm bill making the rounds in Washington now.

Salon :: The Dark Truth About Blackwater

2007-10-03T01:23:00.000-07:00

Following the recent revelation that - surprise - when you put 160,000 heavily-armed amoral soldier-for-hire thrill junkies into an environment bereft of oversight or consequences, sociopathic behavior emerges, Salon's P.W. Singer offers this prosecutorial screed:

When we evaluate the facts, the use of private military contractors appears to have harmed, rather than helped, the counterinsurgency efforts of the U.S. mission in Iraq, going against our best doctrine and undermining critical efforts of our troops. Even worse, the government can no longer carry out one of its most basic core missions: to fight and win the nation's wars. Instead, the massive outsourcing of military operations has created a dependency on private firms like Blackwater that has given rise to dangerous vulnerabilities.

Likely NOLA residents felt plenty vulnerable when these Keystone Soldiers arrived in their back yards - but what happens to 'those people' isn't such a concern.

The Candidates On Climate Change

2007-09-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of the New York Times, a guide to the various Presidential candidates's current positions and past actions regarding the environment and global warming.

Check the sidebar for similar guides regarding Abortion, Health Care, Immigration and Iraq.

Gitmo's First Poolboy

2007-09-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

Bush the Elder's poolboy, one Mr. James Razsa, on what his job means to him:

"What do you say? 'Thanks for School of the Americas, and Iran-Contra, and NAFTA, and shipping all those jobs overseas, and arming Saddam, and funding the Taliban?' What do you say -- 'You're a jerk?' There's nothing that can be put into a sentence that would capture the lives these people have taken, and the way of life that's been taken."

Worth quoting, especially as Mr. Razsa will soon no longer be among us.

Happy Holiday

2007-09-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight's a full moon, too! Enjoy a moon cake and consider the rabbit's tale.

"Long ago," said the rabbit, "three sages disguised as beggars set out to test the generosity of the Fox, the Monkey, and myself. They asked the Fox for some of his food, and the Fox gave grapes to each of them. They asked the Monkey for some of his food, and he gave each a piece of melon. But when they came to me purporting to be starving, I had only grass to eat, which cannot sustain beggars. Feeling pity for them, I told them to skin and dress me and have me for their meal. As reward, my spirit was made immortal."

Rolling Stone :: The Great Iraq Swindle

2007-08-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

The administration has consistantly turned any and every foreign or domestic disaster into a giveaway to his family's business partners. The result has been billions flowing unaccountably out of public coffers and into who knows what private hands.

How did this happen? The short answer is, because we have allowed it. Rolling Stone offers a little more exposition:

Operation Iraqi Freedom, it turns out, was never a war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. It was an invasion of the federal budget, and no occupying force in history has ever been this efficient. George W. Bush's war in the Mesopotamian desert was an experiment of sorts, a crude first take at his vision of a fully privatized American government. In Iraq the lines between essential government services and for-profit enterprises have been blurred to the point of absurdity -- to the point where wounded soldiers have to pay retail prices for fresh underwear, where modern-day chattel are imported from the Third World at slave wages to peel the potatoes we once assigned to grunts in KP, where private companies are guaranteed huge profits no matter how badly they fuck things up.

Of course, these are the same people who ran Vietnam - which gives the President's recent gaffes concerning that conflict a certain extra resonance. Whatever else that particular military adventure might have been, it was also the most profitable scam of the previous century. Ask any good detective, and he'll tell you: always follow the money.

Terrorist Watch Lists: 'Excessive, Inaccurate, Ineffective'

2007-08-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly, this is news to some people:

The numbers "suggest a staggeringly high rate of false positives with respect to the identification of supposed terrorists. This really confirms the long-standing fear that this list is inaccurate and ultimately ineffective as an anti-terror tool."

The administration needs to be introduced to the Base Rate Fallacy. Bruce Schneier has more to say on this subject.

Bush's Report Card Comes In

2007-08-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

And things do not look good for his 'legacy'. The I-35 bridge in Minneapolis demonstrates it is built on a rotten foundation:

Dams (D+) Since 1998, the number of unsafe dams has risen by 33% to more than 3,500. ... $10.1 billion is needed over the next 12 years to address all critical non-federal dams--dams which pose a direct risk to human life should they fail.
Drinking Water (D-) America faces a shortfall of $11 billion annually to replace aging facilities and comply with safe drinking water regulations. Federal funding for drinking water in 2005 remained level at $850 million, less than 10% of the total national requirement.
Wastewater (D-) Aging wastewater management systems discharge billions of gallons of untreated sewage into U.S. surface waters each year. The EPA estimates that the nation must invest $390 billion over the next 20 years to replace existing systems and build new ones to meet increasing demands. Yet, in 2005, Congress cut funding for wastewater management for the first time in eight years. The Bush administration has proposed a further 33% reduction, to $730 million, for FY06.

There is no excuse whatsoever for the wealthiest country in the world to be unable to educate its children or get rid of its feces. Yet this is the pass that Norquist-esque "small government" types have brought us to. We are $1.6 trillion behind in needed infrastructure repairs and improvements. The President's passed $1.35 trillion in tax cuts since 2001, and is constantly pressing for more. Meanwhile, the illegal and counter-productive war in Iraq has siphoned off another $600 billion - at least, above-board. And in every legislature and a thousand odious 'think tanks', the 'drown it in a bathtub' set continue to push for more tax cuts that lead to further neglect. From Katrina on, every collapsed bridge and every wastewater overflow is another example of their vision of America.

Edit:A Minnesota State DOT report(.XLS) indicates that this bridge was slated for repairs in 2006, but those were deferred until 2007 for reasons of 'efficiency'. The bridge was last inspected in 2001; that inspection report can be viewed here(.PDF).

In Memorium

2007-07-19T03:45:00.000-07:00

A moment of silence for the Fifth Amendment - Johnny, we hardly knew ye.

No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, NOR BE DEPRIVED OF LIFE, LIBERTY, OR PROPERTY, WITHOUT DUE PROCESS OF LAW; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. -- Outdated,'Pre-9/11' thinking.

"The instability in Iraq is all the fault of those war protestors and dissentors! I know how to fix them; I'll take their stuff!" -- What passes for thinking in the White House.

Harry Reid had better watch out now!

I Couldn't Resist

2007-07-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

And now you can say you've seen it all. I'm surprised the crowd didn't throw money.

What Magnificant Bastards They Truly Are

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

We return, naturally enough, to the Scooter Libby matter. The President's commutation of Scooter's sentance has prompted Keith Olbermann to call for the administration to step down entirely. But why, one might ask, was his sentance merely commuted? Why not pardon the man? Was it a minor concession to the reality-based community? Is the President in fact not wholly corrupt and motivated by partisan self-interest?

Of course, it was no such thing. Scooter Libby is still appealing his case. If in the meantime Congress were to call him to testify, he can therefore plead the Fifth and refuse to answer any or all questions about his role in the Plame affair.

If he were pardoned, this would of course not be an option.

We now return to your regularly scheduled despair.

(Also - the President's already said he's not ruling out pardoning Libby later - you know, when this whole Plamegate thing has blown over and the investigations have run their course. Really, they're such complete scumbags it's honestly breathtaking.)

Counterbias : : Ten Reasons to Leave Iraq Now

2007-05-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

Michael Boldin provides ten points of common sense:

We fought in Vietnam to stop the "domino effect" of communism, but when the communists took over, the world didn't come to an end. We "saved" Kuwait from an evil dictator, but it's still run by a family dynasty that has no interest in liberty for the people. We waged war on Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden. Oddly, rights violations are still rampant and Afghani opium production has soared since the invasion. And then, of course, we have all the "good" done in Iraq.

This foreign policy of aggression and intervention, which we have seen grow in preeminence over the last century, just doesn't work.

Everything You Know Is Wrong

2007-05-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

And here's why: 26 common cognitive biases summarized, with links to more in-depth discussions. See how many you can check off in the course of an average day.

Sometimes They Are As Crazy As You Think

2007-05-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

Utah County Republicans ended their convention on Saturday by debating Satan's influence on illegal immigrants.
...
Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan's minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty.

In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants "hate American people" and "are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they won't do."

Immigrants - in particular illegals - build this country. And apparently they shout "Down with America! Hail Satan!" with every swing of the hammer. Once upon a time, we took pride in taking in the world's hopeful and disadvantaged. "Give us your tired, your poor.", we said. America offered opportunity and freedom to the world.

May those days come again.

Those Fanatical Atheists

2007-05-07T18:40:00.000-07:00

Dan Gardner offers some perspective on the claims that the New Atheist movement is 'just as fanatical' as theistic fundamentalism:

Don't you know Stalin was an atheist? That's the way it goes. First you read Richard Dawkins. Then you have an abortion. Then you're putting a fresh coat of paint on the Gulag.

This frames the debate in a pleasingly symmetrical way. Over on that side are the insane religious fanatics who fly jets into skyscrapers and march around with signs saying "God Hates Fags." Over there are fanatical atheists. Between the two extremes are sensible moderates who take the Goldilocks approach to faith and reason. Not too hot. Not too cold. Lukewarm, please, keep it lukewarm.

Ashes, Ashes, Part 2

2007-04-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

The Articles of Impeachment brought by Rep. Kucinich can now be read on his website. Whether this is the most politically well-timed move or no, this act makes Kucinich the most patriotic member of Congress.

Reason And Loss

2007-04-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

A VT professor responds to Dinesh D'Souza's efforts to use the VT massacre as light artilery in his personal culture war, and demonstrates the kind of class and courage we all wish we could rely on possessing under such circumstances:

We atheists do not believe in gods, or angels, or demons, or souls that endure, or a meeting place after all is said and done where more can be said and done and the point of it all revealed. We don’t believe in the possibility of redemption after our lives, but the necessity of compassion in our lives. We believe in people, in their joys and pains, in their good ideas and their wit and wisdom. We believe in human rights and dignity, and we know what it is for those to be trampled on by brutes and vandals. We may believe that the universe is pitilessly indifferent but we know that friends and strangers alike most certainly are not. We despise atrocity, not because a god tells us that it is wrong, but because if not massacre then nothing could be wrong.

Ashes, Ashes, All Fall Down

2007-04-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

The Great Unraveling continues, as news reaches us of Rep. Kucinich's intent to file articles of impeachment - against Vice-President Cheney.

Which of course is where it makes sense to begin. As much as we admire Rep. Kucinich, at this late stage a waiting strategy has undeniable merit. With the '08 elections looming, Republicans are abandoning the administration in rafts, and the last great hope for a Republican victory would be the ironic charge that Democrats 'circumvented the 2004 election'. Left to their own devices, they will simply unravel and embarass themselves further.

Now, if it were still three years ago, this would have been a much better idea. While we can discuss the merits of 'sending a message' or taking a moral stand, we've all been shouting the message for years now. And our moral stand will count for nothing if we allow the Bush family and their business associates to continue to occupy the White House.

I'd Like To Walk Freely, Myself

2007-04-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Determined that we should 'Get the full picture' about the state of Iraq, and to prove that anyone could 'walk freely' in certain areas of the most secure city in the country, Sen. McCain took an hour-long walk through the Green Zone - just him, his bulletproof vest, 100 soldiers, 3 Blackhawks and 2 Apache attack helicopters.

Less than half an hour after he wrapped up the press conference, the area came under mortar fire.

They Supported Withdrawal Before They Opposed It

2007-04-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

Senator Russ Feingold brings up a piece of recent, but still forgotten history:

The amendment offered by Sen. John McCain on Oct. 15, 1993, would have eliminated funding for operations in Somalia immediately, except for funds for withdrawing troops or for continuing operations if any American POWs/MIAs were not accounted for.

The Senator has more to say about defunding the war.

Not a single member would ever vote for any proposal that would jeopardize the safety of our troops. Using our power of the purse to end our involvement in the war can and would be done without in any way impairing the safety of our brave servicemembers. By setting a date after which funding for the war will be terminated -- as I have proposed -- Congress can safely bring our troops out of harm's way.

Actions And Consequences

2007-04-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

As the Iranian hostage crisis continues to garner tense news coverage, the Independent fills in a gap in the popular narrative:

Early on the morning of 11 January, helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds.

Competence Is An Offense

2007-03-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

David Iglesias - who you'll recall was dismissed after accusations that he didn't investigate (non-existent Democratic) voter fraud vigorously enough (to affect the election) - was lauded by the Justice department for doing precisely that. In fact, he was twice selected to train other federal prosecutors to pursue election crimes.

David C. Iglesias, who was dismissed as U.S. attorney for New Mexico in December, was one of two chief federal prosecutors invited to teach at a "voting integrity symposium" in October 2005...

... According to Iglesias, the agency invited him back as a trainer last summer, just months before a Justice official telephoned to fire him. He said he could not attend the second time because of his obligations as an officer in the Navy Reserve.

The fact that Justice officials held out Iglesias to his colleagues as an exemplar of good work on voter fraud conflicts with an explanation offered last week by a senior aide to President Bush that eight U.S. attorneys had been removed in part because of complaints that some had been lax in pursuing election fraud.

Not Just A Bad Idea

2007-03-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

... According at least to the Times's Adam Cohen, who identifies four ways in which the firing of eight US attorneys may be worthy of a Special Prosecutor's attentions.

In law schools, it is common to give an exam called the “issue spotter,” in which students are given a set of facts and asked to identify all the legal issues and possible crimes. The facts about the purge are still emerging. But based on what is known — and with some help from Congressional staff members and Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University — it was not hard to spot that White House and Justice Department officials, and members of Congress, may have violated 18 U.S.C. §§ 1501-1520, the federal obstruction of justice statute.

And to think we had 'scandal fatigue' before..

Guess Who Just Reared His Ugly Head

2007-03-16T05:10:00.000-07:00

And who would've guessed that Bush's Brain would have his fingers in this particular pie? It seems Attorneygate was planned - by Rove, Gonzales, and then White House Counsel David Leitch - sometime before December 2004, by which time the only question remaining was how many of the 'loyal Bushies' should be retained.

Needless to say, they're already readying the infallible "Reagan Defense":

"The Attorney General has no recollection of any plan or discussion to replace U.S. Attorneys while he was still White House Counsel. The period of time referred to in the email was during the weeks he was preparing for his confirmation hearing, January 6th, 2005, and his focus was on that. Of course, discussions of changes in Presidential appointees would have been appropriate and normal White House exchanges in the days and months after the election as the White House was considering different personnel changes Administration wide."

His Presidential Medal of Freedom's doubtless being polished even now.

Mistakes Were Made

2007-03-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

Or that's the mantra we're hearing, out of the soon-to-be dismissed Attorney General's office. What those mistakes were is another matter, but Andrew Cohen at the Post has outlined most of the significant ones. In an ongoing series of essays, we see all sides of the man: crony, accomplice, and sock-puppet.

The man's 'mistakes' and deficiencies are so extensive that even the porn 'stache barely rates a mention.

Yes, 'Unprecedented'

2007-03-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

People who've been following Attorneygate have by now heard the talk radio types predictably mewling 'But Cliiiiiinton!'. And, yes, Clinton did fire all 93 US Attorneys upon taking office. So did Reagan, and Bush the Smarter. Shrub actually kept a few appointees from the previous administration. That's SOP. The crop is renewed every time a new President takes office. And, yes, these attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President, and can be fired mid-term if there is cause. It's happened twice since 1981.

While they aren't members of the judicial branch, these men and women are like Supreme Court justices - who are effectively also appointed by the President - in that they can only do their jobs effectively if they have job security - at least enough that they can reach the end of their terms without worrying about stepping on executive toes. The stated tasks set before them are enough to occupy them already; they're not there to help the President influence elections. Or to let powerful and corrupt friends off the hook. Attempts to turn them into such tools are, without resort to hyperbole, an affront to democracy and an assault on justice, even without then lying to Congress and everyone else about it, or simply and premeditatively rewriting inconvenient rules that might make your malfeasance more difficult. Subverting the mechanism of justice - faltering and rusty as it may sometimes appear to be - so brazenly, and to such venal ends, betrays a corruption without precedent in any administration.

Perhaps They're Looking In The Wrong Place

2007-02-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

An article in Sunday's Times suggests that the evangelical right is less than pleased with the Republican candidates stepping forward to represent them. As this seems to be the case every election cycle, perhaps there is some deeper reason for their frustration: cognitive dissonance.

Jesus Christ on:

Social Welfare: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." "...as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."

The War On Terror: "I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you."

The Death Penalty: "Thou shalt not kill."

Justice: "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to cast a stone at her." "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

Faith: "And when thou pray, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou pray, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret."

I Don't Know Why I Go To Extremes

2007-02-23T20:28:00.000-08:00

Early reports are that researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have managed to reconcile an intriguing theory with unpleasant reality:

The theory claims to reconcile the notion of a cyclic universe, which expands and contracts for eternity, with the second law of thermodynamics, which seems to imply that the current expansion cannot reverse.

Aum shanti padme hum, I suppose. While it's comforting to think of this old world of ours spinning on forever, and certainly some people find it preferable to a Big Rip or a great final cosmic unraveling, there's no more direct evidence for Rips, cycles, Dark Energy or any of the rest of it than there is for the Flying Spaghetti Monster. We're merely groping for explanations to fill the gaps in our knowledge.

Baum and Frampton's model universe is powered by 'phantom energy' — a hypothetical form of the dark energy that is speeding up the Universe's expansion.

For more rampant if interesting speculation, see The Ultimate Fate of the Universe.

Happy New Year!

2007-02-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

Blessings and prosperity await you in the Year of the Boar! Have some turnip cakes and celebrate!

Like A Good Neighbor

2007-02-14T22:10:00.000-08:00

... The kind who steals your paper and dumps their garbage in your yard, perhaps. State Farm has ceased to offer new homeowner's policies, not only in post-Katrina Mississippi but throughout the Gulf and East Coasts. This of course follows the inevitable class-action, which ended in a half-billion dollar settlement to Katrina-stricken policyholders the company initially tried to shaft. State Farm's both minimizing their risk and sending a message to Louisiana officials with whom they're engaged in a separate game of brinkmanship.

Now, large-scale 'events' like hurricanes can be very trying on providers of flood insurance - and so flood insurance is subsidized by the federal government for just this reason. State Farm's failure is a reflection of the larger breakdown in social safety nets.

Systems of social welfare cannot be effectively run as a for-profit business. There's an inherent conflict of interest at the heart of private insurance. Fulfilling the stated reason for their existence - to aid those stricken by disaster - inhibits their ability to gratify their stockholders. And half-funding a private system only adds cost and complication.

They Get 16 Months; We Got 4 Years

2007-01-29T22:04:00.000-08:00

In an anticlimactic coda to the 2004 election scandals, two Ohio election workers have been convicted of working to subvert the voting process in their county. Everyone's dancing around the effect this might have had on the national election, and the prosecutor in the case won't claim that they artificially swung the election for the wrong man. But what they did was cherry-pick ballots so as to avoid a recount, which indeed might well have altered the outcome of the election.

We'll never know. Thanks to these fine people. And think - these are only the ones we know about, now, years after the fact. And meanwhile, certain people are out to make voting more obsfucated, less open, and more subject to manipulation.

He's Not Unraveled Enough

2007-01-29T21:29:00.000-08:00

In the wake of recent revelations about his role in Plamgate, speculation abounds as to Cheney's eroding political capital. Given that it now is clear that he instructed Libby to leak Plame to the press, one might in a more reasonable age hope for him to be removed from office and put on trial - but even this mere political inconvenience may be enough to keep US troops out of Iran.

It may have to be.

Throwaway Email List

2007-01-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

Want to keep your inboxes spam-free? Leery of giving your real email address to every forum and news aggregator you encounter? This handy list of throwaway, temporary email services may just save your day.

Whispers In The Dark

2007-01-15T20:24:00.000-08:00

"This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
-Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Times is peddling the idea that King would be a supporter of Bush's war today. In an effort to counteract this sort of willful ignorance, we present the man speaking for himself, in his own words.

RAW Becomes Illuminated

2007-01-12T00:19:00.000-08:00

And our world becomes that much darker, or at least less strange. Robert Anton Wilson has died.

Many people have said, at one time or another, "If so-and-so wins this election I'm leaving the country!" Mr. Wilson commemorated Ronald Reagan's election by moving to Britain for 12 years.

We salute a man of principle and ideas. That those principles and ideas were so deeply weird and so invariably interesting was quite the icing on the cake.

For the curious, some essential reading can be found here. This interview, conducted in two parts in 2004 and 2005, may be of use and interest as well.

"Wavy Gravy once asked a Zen Roshi, "What happens after death?"
The Roshi replied, "I don't know."
Wavy protested, "But you're a Zen Master!"
"Yes," the Roshi admitted, "but I'm not a dead Zen Master.""
FNORD

Useful Things

2007-01-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

450 common problems solved, by discrete pieces of handy free software. Open source utilities are listed seperately.
Useful for the anti-rootkit section alone!

Why We Fight

2007-01-02T16:32:00.000-08:00

It deserves a post of its own - for those still confused by American involvement in Iraq and elsewhere, Eugene Jarecki's Why We Fight will be like the lights going on in a dark room. Of course, this being the digital age, the entire thing is available on Google video.

Choose Your Allies Carefully And You'll Die Peacefully In Your Sleep

2006-12-31T16:10:00.000-08:00

... Ally yourself with the US, on the other hand, and a short drop on a long rope may be in your future. After one of the great kangaroo courts of our time, Saddam has swung. Despite the illegality of a 'special trial' in the first place, despite the changed judges mid-trial, despite all the intimidated witnesses and assassinated lawyers, and despite the looming presence of Uncle Sam in the background every single moment, this little piece of nonsensical play-acting has reached its conclusion.

And what is that conclusion? Just what was this farce intended to accomplish? Justice? Certainly not. Revenge? He did nothing at all to us.

Tying up a loose end? Ah, now that might just be it.

Thanks for the memories, Saddam.

Felons Lose The Right To Vote, But Get To Build Voting Machines

2006-12-22T18:34:00.000-08:00

It's the time of year for Top Ten and Top Twenty lists, and here's one of the more arresting examples: 20 Facts About Voting In The United States.

12. Diebold employs 5 convicted felons as developers. These are the people who write the voting machine computer code.

13. Diebold's Senior Vice-President, Jeff Dean, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree.

14. Diebold Senior Vice-President Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

Business As Usual

2006-12-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

Now, doesn't it seem like we've heard this song before?

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz faces mounting criticism from directors of the international lending organisation who say he relies on political advisers with little expertise in development while driving away seasoned managers.

Cronyism before competence? But that's worked out so well before!

Memo to the Third World: a hurricane is coming. Yes, another one.

The More Bread You Have ...

2006-12-12T06:49:00.000-08:00

The less you have to eat, apparently. The latest example? Jeff Skilling, the disgraced former Enron CEO whose accounting shenanigans cheated thousands of their retirement savings, will not see the inside of a cell.

A U.S. appeals court will allow ex-Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling to stay out of prison while it considers granting him bail...

Or, while it considers how best to draw out the appeals process another two years, before a Presidential pardon makes all this moot.

Someone Tell This Man What Day It Is

2006-12-07T16:46:00.000-08:00

"And one of the things that has changed for American foreign policy is a threat overseas can now come home to hurt us" - Some delusional bubbleboy

Deceased crew members of the USS Arizona are said to be shocked by this revelation.

Of course, the President is merely driving home a much earlier-established synchronicity. But the message we're drawing from this 'New Pearl Harbor' is not the one certain people intended. We survived the greatest war - of arms and ideals - in the world's history. Our values and our democracy prevailed over fascism and nationalist tyranny. We shall not surrender those values or that democracy now.

Remember Pearl Harbor. Draw what lessons from it you may. Regardless, you will know one thing that the President does not.

Another Rat Flees The Ship

2006-12-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

Or the ship is sailing out from under him. Mr. Bolton could not whisker his way past the Foreign Relations Committee even before the recent mid-term election. Now that it seems the political winds are at last shifting, he's wisely set a new course for himself.

Although Bush could not give Bolton another recess appointment, the White House was believed to be exploring other ways of keeping him in the job, perhaps by giving him a title other than ambassador. But Bolton informed the White House he intended to leave when his current appointment expires, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

Even a rat knows not to linger on a sinking ship! Look to see the words 'resigns', 'leaves', 'quits' and 'indicts' frequently in the next few weeks, as more administration rats, toadies and lickspittles head over the gunwhales.

There is no such thing as John Bolton.

Convert Anything To Anything

2006-12-04T15:35:00.000-08:00

Well, almost anything. Zamzar offers quick free online file conversions without signing up for or downloading anything.

Million Dollar Math

2006-12-04T07:58:00.000-08:00

A recent feature in Discover describes a handful of great unsolved mathematical puzzles, in reference to the Clay Mathematics Institute's Millennium Prize Problems.

As with all great human endeavors, there is a wiki devoted to these problems.

Bunnyblogging Revisited

2006-12-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

Ready, set, scurry!

Gingrich Carries Fearmongering Opportunism To The Next Level

2006-11-29T00:33:00.000-08:00

The Newt's recent remarks about the need to curtail freedom of expression in the interest of somehow thereby forestalling terror have attracted a great deal of attention recently, and rightly so.

Let's take a moment to dispel the idea that 'the terrorists' are coming for you and everyone you know RIGHT NOW! Modern Americans are among the safest people in history. The USSR had nuclear weapons for decades and was quite prepared to use them. World War Two saw Western democracy under organized attack by advanced nations with the will and the very real ability to conquer the world for fascism. Having survived that, we will not - or should not - surrender that democracy or those values to a small pack of extremists with box-cutters. Or to a washed-up gin-soaked morally bankrupt former Congressman contemplating a Presidential bid ten years after his fall from relevance. But one quote did especially stand out:

"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich

Oh, really?!

Curse you, First Amendment!

Happy Birthday

2006-11-27T14:45:00.000-08:00

... to the Little Dragon.

Bruce Lee would have been 66 today.

...in 1959 a short, skinny, bespectacled 18-year-old kid from Hong Kong traveled to America and declared himself to be John Wayne, James Dean, Charles Atlas and the guy who kicked your butt in junior high.

The "I" Word

2006-11-24T22:26:00.000-08:00

Eternal Hope takes the administration to task on 14 seperate impeachable crimes, from falsifying evidence about Iraq's WMD capabilities to the use of white phosphorous in Fallujah. Real crimes that led to tens of thousands of deaths.

Criminality and unconstitutional activity must not be allowed to be set as a precident for future administrations. As amazing as the idea that everything will be okay again if the 'opposition party' takes the White House in 2008 - as if all the last six years's misdeeds could be so easily swept beneath the rug - is the idea that Americans have 'scandal fatigue'. Any talk of impeachment inevitably draws comparisons to the Clinton impeachment - which was, of course, a debacle for the then-Republican Congress, being a transparent and petty witch-hunt. Linda Milazzo draws the obvious distinctions:

America, the nation, will regain some of the moral authority diminished by Bush and Cheney. The rest of the world will know that America can distinguish between insignificant and substantial. Clinton was impeached for matters insignificant to his leadership of the nation. Bush will be impeached for matters so substantial that they caused the deaths of thousands and endangered the whole world.

Let's Impeach The President

Rummy's Week Gets Even Worse

2006-11-10T16:50:00.000-08:00

Now that he's no longer under the White House's protective wing, Rummy is finding himself vulnerable to all sorts of consequences! A lawsuit's been brought in a German civil court, by some of his former victims from Gitmo and Abu Ghraib:

As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld ... Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Of course, only riff-raff, America-haters and undesirable brown people could take such ideas seriously, right?

...former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq ... has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."

Well, I'll be. It's mostly a showboat proceeding in a foreign court, so it's not really accountability - but it is something, and perhaps it's a start.

One Quagmire At A Time

2006-11-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

One sign the 'pragmatists' are in charge now - it seems we won't be stumbling into another intractable bloodbath right next door to the one we're mired in now. Robert Gates is said - like these appeasers, terrorist-lovers, and dangerous fringe radicals - to favor talks with Tehran. The administration's Iraq debacle has done a great deal to radicalize Iran and strengthen its influence in the region, and the sane thing would be to leverage that influence. Will sanity prevail? Not if the usual suspects have their say.

Meet The New Boss

2006-11-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

The timing of Rummie's marching orders would seem to have ruffled a few feathers in the lame duck-elect's party! Especially given that it was planned for such a very long time before the election - the White House knew that their Iraq strategy was not tenable, but kept it going and Rummy in place, to the detriment to American security and at the cost of American soldiers's lives, for months after the decision was made.

Still, our new Secretary of Defense represents a real improvement - despite his past employment by e-voting lobbyists, and despite being yet another Iran-Contra figure in the administration. After all, in his long career as a CIA Soviet analyst, he did such a superlative job of understanding and pre-empting the threat from the USSR!

... oh, wait.

Mr. President, Robert Gates is a career Soviet analyst and former Deputy Director of the CIA who was wrong about what CIA analyst Harold Ford described as `the central analytic target of the past few years: the probable fortunes of the USSR and the Soviet European bloc.' And I believe that the committee report points out one possible reason why the CIA failed to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to testimony, Mr. Gates was busy pursuing hypotheses and making unsubstantiated arguments attempting to show Soviet expansion in the Third World, instead of looking for or paying attention to facts that pointed in the opposite direction. Why? Why, as Mentor Moynihan has pointed out, was the CIA able to tell Presidents everything about the Soviet Union except the fact that it was falling apart?

Well, his intelligence estimates may be flawed, but perhaps he won't be so quick to falsify them outright!

... perhaps.

According to Robert Parry, a reporter who has closely tracked this period in the CIA's history, during this time the Reagan administration was "pressing the CIA to adopt an analysis that accepted right-wing media reports pinning European terrorism on the Soviets. The CIA analysts knew that these charges were false, in part because they were based on 'black' or false propaganda that the CIA itself had been planting in the European media. But the 'politicization' tide was strong."

Another neo-con ideologue, with a proven capacity to suborn reason and endanger American interests for political and personal gain? His kung fu seems weak!

Go back there and practice, Rummy. With some luck, the rest of this corrupt pack will be joining you in 2008.

The Times, They Are A-Changing

2006-11-03T22:54:00.000-08:00

What are we to think when the Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times are all calling for your head on a stake?

What do you say, Rummy?

"I don't do quagmires."

I guess that means he's leaving, then!

Cheaters Sometimes Prosper

2006-10-31T04:32:00.000-08:00

At your fingertips - useful references and guides for everything from Ajax to XML. HTML, JavaScript, LaTeX - the list goes on. No C++ guide, though - that you can find here(.PDF). And a containers guide here.

What's The Opposite Of Enlightenment?

2006-10-29T20:37:00.000-08:00

Is there a word for the state in which you learn something, and feel lessened for your new understanding?
Perhaps it's the same as the word for discovering new hope and faith in humanity - in the act of losing it. In any case, we have Lance Mannion to thank for our new mental state. Here he presents a lucid psychological profile of Rush Limbaugh and the neo-conservative mind:

Some people say the same words over and over even as the feelings they want the words to describe change. Other people just keep changing the words, usually because they don't remember them from one day to the next. The words were just sounds they gave to the feelings.

That's why it's next to impossible to cause people like Limbaugh to feel ashamed of what they said. You can't hold them to their words. Repeat their words back to them and they don't recognize them. Their own words on paper or said by someone else or even said by themselves on tape or on video aren't attached to the feeling that was behind the words when they said them.

Some Historical Parallels

2006-10-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

1933 - First, "terrorists" destroyed the Reichstag. Then, Chancellor Hitler got his "Patriot Acts", One and Two, suspending habeus corpus and then dissolving German democracy. Mark Twain is sometimes thought to have said 'History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.'. The quote is false, but the sentiment is real - and now the final rhyming echoes have been heard.

Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

In combination with the odious Military Commissions Act signed the same day, the President now has the power to suspend habeus corpus, to detain and torture and render without oversight, and employ the military to police Americans in their own homes. Just what did you suppose those 'detention centers' were all about? Mere cronyism and waste?

Such a rosy-tinged view of the world may soon be regarded as a quaint curiosity.

... And We Aren't

2006-10-27T04:36:00.000-07:00

For a taste of surreality, there's nothing quite like Rummy complaining that 'The Terrorists' are using the media to manipulate American voters.

America's wars always have had critics, but the difference in this war is the prevalence of the media, Secretary Rumsfeld said. Terrorists recognize the influence the media has, so they use their own media committees to determine how best to manipulate the American public through the media...

After getting America to apparently swallow the idea that US troops would be greeted by cheering crowds strewing flowers at their booted feet, and the whole Iraqi 'liberation' would be over in no more than 6 months, I think anyone attempting to manipulate American media has a lot still to learn from this man.

Perhaps He's Implying That He Has No Brain?

2006-10-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

This will not be news - the administration love, love, loves it some torture. Despite having advance prior warning of 9/11 and failing to act, despite having already had all the intelligence they could have wanted and failing to capitalize on it, they're convinced they can keep us all safe if only they're allowed to beat and waterboard random Iraqis scooped up off the street for curfew violations.

Mr Cheney was responding to a conservative radio interviewer who asked whether water boarding, which involves simulated drowning, was a "no-brainer" if the information it yielded would save American lives. "It's a no-brainer for me," Mr Cheney replied.

Crashcart here puts himself at odds with the DOD, which in September released a revised Army Field Manual prohibiting US military personnel from emplying waterboarding and other 'torture lite' methods of intelligence gathering. This stricture wouldn't apply to the CIA, of course, because nothing does. However, he's also standing against the judgement of history(.PDF) - and we'll see how well that applies.

The offenses were recounted by John Henry Burton, a civilian victim: After taking me down into the hallway they laid me out on a stretcher and strapped me on. The stretcher was then stood on end with my head almost touching the floor and my feet in the air. They then began pouring water over my face and at times it was impossible for me to breathe without sucking in water. The torture continued and continued. Yukio Asano was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor. We punished people with fifteen years of hard labor when waterboarding was used against Americans in World War II.

After Pat’s Birthday

2006-10-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

Kevin Tillman observes his brother's birthday with a few fitting remarks:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that canÂt be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Cue the attacks on his courage, commitment, patriotism and intelligence in 3 ... 2 ... 1.

New Version Of Firefox Available

2006-10-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

Time for all your extensions to break again! There's a new Firefox. And it's a big release, too. Get Firefox 2.0 here.
Or, if you're tired of FireFox's harsh upgrade cycle and would like an alternative, there's a new SeaMonkey, too.

Evil Uses For Google Code Search

2006-10-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

Google CodeSearch may have been intended as a repository for public-use code of all sorts, but already people have found a host of unintended uses for it. If you need a handy list of buffer overflow points, WordPress usernames and passwords, or you're just looking for cheap amusement, this is the service for you.

Everybody Banh Chung Tonight!

2006-10-06T23:43:00.000-07:00

Enjoy the festival!

You Are What You Eat

2006-10-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

And Americans eat corn and petroleum, according to Michael Pollan's new book. However, the Independent's interview with him focuses on the most recent e. coli scare, with reference to industrialized agriculture.

These lettuce-washing operations are not so very different from hamburger grinding operations that Eric Schlosser described in Fast Food Nation--you're taking the meat from a hundred different animals, at least, and grinding and mixing it all together in one place, and then you're sending it out to a million hamburger eaters. So if there is pathogen in any one of those animals, you're going to spread it. If there are pathogens in any one spinach plant and you're washing them all in essentially the same sink, there's a very high risk that you're going to spread them much further than if you weren't mixing them all together. No question that the weakness exposed here is the weakness of a highly centralized food distribution system, and we've known that this is a risk for a long time. Post-9/11 there was a lot of talk about the risk of a having a highly centralized food distribution system, where just a handful of companies are [for example] essentially washing the nation's bag lettuce in one sink. That's a risky thing to do.

Useful Free Windows Programs

2006-10-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

49 useful Windows applications, for a variety of tasks. All free, all under 2 MB in size.

Well, Condi, That Makes Two Of Us

2006-10-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

“What I am quite certain of is that I would remember if I was told, as this account apparently says, that there was about to be an attack in the United States, and the idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible.”

After claiming to have 'no recollection' of George Tenet's desperate efforts to make her wake up and do something about bin Laden prior to 9/11 - and Sandy Berger's efforts to drive home the importance of the issue - Condi may have finally dug herself in too deep a hole for even 'her husband' to dig her out of. But let's not forget that the same people who are ready to throw her under the bus now cut the FBI's requested counterterrorism funding by two-thirds after 9/11.

Remember that the next time one of them criticizes Clinton for 'not doing enough about bin Laden'.

Interpreting Soldier's Lives

2006-09-26T02:47:00.000-07:00

A former Army Infantryman discusses the impact of torture on those called upon to fight in Iraq:

If America continues to erode the meaning of the Geneva Conventions, we will cede the ground upon which to prosecute dictators and warlords. We will also become unable to protect our troops if they are perceived as being no more bound by the rule of law than dictators and warlords themselves.

Plainly, he hates America and wants the terrorists to 'win'..

Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat

2006-09-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

This just in from our man in the field, Captain Obvious: brown people can be nationalistic, too! They are angered when they are attacked, their countries invaded, and their families killed. And just as some Americans wanted to lash out after 9/11, many of them are motivated to take up arms when attacked.

Also, the sky is blue, water is wet, and stone is hard. But don't worry, old media has a plan - blame Clinton! After all, he had three months between the USS Cole and leaving office, and he tried and failed to kill bin Laden. And, of course, Bush had three times as long between taking office and 9/11 and did nothing at all, but - hey! Look at the monkey!

We can't allow voters to be distracted by the facts, after all. There are midterm elections coming up. But there's one question I'd love to hear Chris Wallace ask. If Iraq is such a massive terror recruiting aid, and we continue to send more and more troops into Iraq - who, exactly, is helping the terrorists, now?

The Path To The Midterm Elections

2006-09-05T15:31:00.000-07:00

ABC's paving the way for the Republicans, placing the blame for the events of 9/11 squarely where it belongs:

However, reality has a nasty way of intruding on spin:

During his term President Clinton considered Osama Bin Laden to be a grave threat and top priority. He vastly increased counter-terrorism funding, refocused priorities including creation of the "Bin Laden Desk" at CIA which was headed by Michael Scheuer - but the fact is that Clinton not only had enemies in the Republican Congress, he had enemies within the goverment and military who sloughed off his requests and even dragged their feet when given direct orders to Kill Bin Laden.

Think Progress has a page devoted to this hack job.

Labor In America: 112 Years On

2006-09-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

Bradford Plumer offers a brief history lesson on this most unusual - for America - holiday. Something to talk about around the barbeque or between quarters:

...Sadly for the politicians, though, gunning down the working class has never looked good right before an election year. And 1894 was an election year. So Congress rushed to pass legislation establishing Labor Day, and Cleveland signed the bill in an attempt to look kinder and gentler to the voters. It didn't work—Cleveland lost—but now we have a holiday that both celebrates a good cause and was essentially a political gambit meant to paper over state-backed repression of organized labor.

The struggle continues, I suppose.

Dissent Is Fascism

2006-08-31T15:39:00.000-07:00

"Any kind of moral or intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong can weaken the ability of free society." -- Grand Chancellor - er, Don Rumsfeld

Check out Olbermann's rebuttal.

Priorities

2006-08-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

It seems Jon Benet is all the old media can bring themselves to talk about! Perhaps they feel some guilt after the railroading they gave her parents - or perhaps there's another reason!

Yesterday, a federal judge in Michigan issued “a sweeping rebuke of the once-secret domestic-surveillance effort the White House authorized following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.” The ruling was “a significant blow to Bush’s attempts to expand presidential powers,” but you wouldn’t know that by watching last evening’s network newscasts.

You can read the decision here. The penalties likewise seem very clear. But you didn't hear about them from CNN.

The Rude Pundit :: Katrina Plus One Year

2006-08-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Rude One has just completed his trip to New Orleans. Read his five part commentary on the continuing aftermath of the storm, and the unraveling of a great American city.

A followup to his previous visit in December of last year.

MaxSpeak : : The Cease Fire In Lebanon

2006-08-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

Max provides some basic background on the Most Complicated Situation in Politics, and discusses the recent, doubtless temporary, cessation of hostilities:

Both Bush and the Israeli leaders seem to have suffered from some delusions, more surprising for the Israelis than for idiot Bush. In particular, both have somehow believed that by attacking Lebanon, and attacking non-Shi'i areas, the non-Shi'a would unite against Hezbollah. Needless to say, Lebanese democracy has been strengthened by opposing both Israel and the US and in support of Hezbollah. Duh.

Within DAYS of a Dry Run

2006-08-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

Informed Comment offers the antithesis of old media's breathlessly fact-free reporting, in his initial summary of the recent UK terrorist arrests. The key insight is towards the end:

If this operation is as advertised, then it underlines again the importance of plain old fashioned counter-terrorism and police work. An army of 136,000 men in the field can't stop bombs from going off in Iraq every day. What stopped the liquid bomb plot was something superior, a tool fitted to the task.

Rep. Conyers Identifies 26 Laws Broken by Bush Administration

2006-08-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

From the report issued today:

Deception of Congress and the American Public
* Committing a Fraud Against the United States (18 U.S.C. § 371)
* Making False Statements Against the United States (18 U.S.C. § 1001)
* War Powers Resolution (Public Law 93-148)
* Misuse of Government Funds (31 U.S.C. § 1301)

Improper Detention, Torture, and Other Inhumane Treatment
* Anti-Torture Statute (18 U.S.C. § 2340-40A)
* The War Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. § 2441)
* The Geneva Conventions and Hague Convention: International Laws Governing the Treatment of Detainees
* United Nations Convention Against Torture, and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment: International Laws Governing the Treatment of Detainees
* Command Responsibility (for known illegal acts of subordinates in the military)
* Detainment of Material Witnesses (18 U.S.C. § 3144)

Retaliating against Witnesses and Other Individuals
* Obstructing Congress (18 U.S.C. § 1505)
* Whistleblower Protection (5 U.S.C. § 2302)
* The Lloyd-LaFollette Act, or "anti-gag rule" (5 U.S.C. § 7211)
* Retaliating against Witnesses (18 U.S.C. § 1513)

Leaking and other Misuse of Intelligence and other Government Information
* Revealing Classified Information in Contravention of Federal Regulations (Executive Order 12958/Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement)
* Statutory Prohibitions on Leaking Information (18 U.S.C. § 641, etc.)

Laws Governing Electronic Surveillance
* Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (50 U.S.C. § 1801, et seq.)
* National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. chapter 15)
* Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. § 222)
* Stored Communications Act of 1986 (18 U.S.C. § 2702)
* Pen Registers or Trap and Trace Devices (18 U.S.C. § 3121)

Laws and Guidelines Prohibiting Conflicts of Interest (28 U.S.C. § 528, etc.)

That's 26 new reasons for Bush's impeachment. Be sure to read Rep. Conyers's accompanying statement, too.

Washington Post :: Stop the Band-Aid Treatment

2006-08-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

Jimmy Carter attempts to apply 'sanity' and 'reason' to the Middle East violence:

It is inarguable that Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks on its citizens, but it is inhumane and counterproductive to punish civilian populations in the illogical hope that somehow they will blame Hamas and Hezbollah for provoking the devastating response. The result instead has been that broad Arab and worldwide support has been rallied for these groups, while condemnation of both Israel and the United States has intensified.

Time Paradox!

2006-07-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

First, from the Register:

In a meeting that will go down in internet history, the United States government last night conceded that it can no longer expect to maintain its position as the ultimate authority over the internet.

Having been the internet's instigator and, since 1998, its voluntary taskmaster, the US government finally agreed to transition its control over not-for-profit internet overseeing organisation ICANN, making the organisation a more international body.

Well, who thought we'd ever see this happen? But what's the story at the LA Times?

The federal government appeared unlikely to relinquish oversight of the system for assigning and managing website domain names after a Commerce Department hearing Wednesday raised broad concerns about giving an obscure Marina del Rey nonprofit unsupervised control.

They keywords here should be 'plausible deniability'. The US will retain true power over ICANN, holding onto root, but other countries have been given the appearance of greater control so they can't complain quite as vigorously. The US has only given up a share of the admittedly densely overgrown beaureaucracy.

Still Easier Than Arresting Actual Criminals

2006-07-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

All these showboat arrests make me wonder if there's an election coming! Especially since this Triumph in the War on Terra was kept under wraps for three months before someone called the media. And again, we find a group of 'terrorists' with no real association with one another, no resources and no demonstrable real intent to commit a crime that it now turns out wouldn't have worked anyway.

“The so-called New York tunnel plot was a result of discussions held on an open Jihadi web site. They are not professionally trained terrorists, however, and had no resources with which to carry out the operation they discussed.

“Despite press reports that they had asked Abu Musab Zarqawi for assistance, there is no information to confirm that. It is known that the members discussed the possibility of approaching Zarqawi but none of them knew him or had any access to him.

“In sum, the plot, if that is what we would call it, was not well conceived, and there was no possibility of flooding Wall Street. There was no connection to a cell in the US. Finally, professional terrorists generally do not discuss targeting on open channels. As it was being monitored from the beginning of the open discussion, there was little chance anything concrete would have developed.”

Election year or no, the blatherings of a bunch of nitwits on some web forum somewhere don't constitute a crime. Or at least, they didn't used to.

Torture Reports Ignored By Top Commanders

2006-07-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

Or, if you look at things less charitably, they simply agreed to look the other way:

When senior officials failed to respond as to whether those techniques were appropriate, the ground command in Afghanistan subsequently adopted their own techniques as policy, acting on the theory that "silence is consent."

And what would happen if that policy were applied to other areas of life? What a surprise that this time, atrocities happened.

"Silence Is Consent"

SWIFT Boated

2006-07-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

This administration will not let any opportunity pass to demonstrate their hold over a cowed domestic media, but the casual bandying about of the 'T' word should set even America's notoriously low-sensitivity bullshit detector to ringing:

The Bush administration has repeatedly bragged about its efforts and self-proclaimed success tracking terrorist financing since the September 11 attacks. The government described its quest to catch financiers in numerous public documents, reports and Capitol Hill testimonies. Even as far back as 1990, the Council on Europe called for greater cooperation between Interpol and agencies like SWIFT – a global banking hub that monitors millions of transfers worth trillions of dollars...

... “The U.S. was touting quite loudly its tracking of terrorist financing,” said Comras, an attorney and consultant on terrorism financing. “If they’re doing that, it’s only logical that they’re following the funds through the clearinghouses. How else would they do it? For us, it was an obvious no-brainer.”

These men have once again underestimated the brainless!

Stop Me If You've Heard This Before

2006-07-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

Gee, someone gave John Negroponte a billion dollar embassy and 500 CIA officers, and death squads started popping up all over. Who would have thought?

At least 40 people, apparently all Sunnis, were killed yesterday by Shia militants in a rampage in a Baghdad suburb - one of the capital's most deadly sectarian pogroms - that revived fears of civil war.

You'd almost think someone wanted a civil war, especially considering what the Iraqi police have been up to:

Brutality and corruption are rampant in Iraq's police force, with abuses including the rape of female prisoners, the release of terrorism suspects in exchange for bribes, assassinations of police officers and participation in insurgent bombings, according to confidential Iraqi government documents detailing more than 400 police corruption investigations.

Remember, folks, a stable Iraq means the money train has to stop!

The Sorcerer Of Lightning Turns 150

2006-07-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

And we're still playing catch-up to Nikola Tesla. A Blog Around The Clock has celebratory links galore. Wireless power transmission, the induction motor, radio, and he even had a death ray! The Second Industrial Revolution owes its existence to this prototypical 'mad scientist'. Zivili, Mr. Tesla.

The Man Who Has Everything

2006-07-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

Birthdays are tough to figure out. Especially 'milestones'. But this one's especially tricky. What's a good gift for someone with lots of money and no soul?

Oh, of course!

We'll ship it to you in the pen, George. Happy Birthday.

The Shrinking Bootprint

2006-07-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

If the amount of Iraq under our control is equal to the combined area beneath our soldiers's feet, than our control is slipping with each passing day:

The Army, Navy and Air Force face shortages of elite special operations forces that are playing a leading role in the war against terrorism, military records show.

And why should even the most motivated elite troops stay in uniform, when we're paying the administration's friends three times as much per 'private contractor'? It's like being a soldier, only with much better pay and absolutely zero accountability.

As for the regular troops facing a shortage, here's a suggestion:

'Dead Or Alive', Redux

2006-07-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

On a holiday weekend, the watchdog media reports that the CIA task force charged with tracking Osama bin Laden and his inner circle was disbanded - sometime last year.

Agency officials said that tracking Mr. bin Laden and his deputies remained a high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit was not a sign that the effort had slackened. Instead, the officials said, it reflects a belief that the agency can better deal with high-level threats by focusing on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals.

Translation: when efforts to capture him in Afghanistan were ineffective, the administration decided they 'weren't concerned' with him any longer, and forgot all about him.

And if those evil 9/11 widows would just be quiet and forget about him, too, everything would be fine again!

An Inconvenient Consensus

2006-07-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

The AP reports that every climatologist asked to review Al Gore's recent film gave it high marks for accuracy and agreed on its basic premises:

those who have seen it had the same general impression: Gore conveyed the science correctly; the world is getting hotter and it is a manmade catastrophe-in-the-making caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

As before, noted climate scientist Jim Inhofe disagrees. Tim Lambert takes him to task.

Start By Teaching The Math

2006-07-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

MarkCC over at Good Math, Bad Math debunks a recent anti-evolution screed:

There's a technical term for this kind of writing. We call it "bullshit".

The Long Emergency Did Not Begin On 9/11

2006-07-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

And it didn't begin on Election Day in 2000, either. But some time in between those two dates, the American Police State was founded:

The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court."

So if 9/11's 'blank check' doesn't give them the authority to behave in this way, from what does their authority derive?

And if these measures are so effective and necessary to the War On Terra, why didn't they stop 9/11?

Good thing there's a nice long holiday weekend to release this news over. The media has four days to blast vacationers with the message that anyone who questions the government is a traitor, and then the Attorney General can get up in front of the press and declare that these wiretaps are needed to combat pornography.

And then another middle-class white girl will go missing somewhere, and the entire thing will be forgotten.

Does This Remind You Of Anyone?

2006-07-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

Reading this study (.PDF) by Justin Kruger and David Dunning, one can't help but be struck by the thought that they're describing someone we know...

1. Incompetent individuals, compared with their more competent peers, will dramatically overestimate their ability and performance relative to objective criteria.

2. Incompetent individuals will suffer from deficient metacognitive skills, in that they will be less able than their more competent peers to recognize competence when they see it–be it their own or anyone else's.

3. Incompetent individuals will be less able than their more competent peers to gain insight into their true level of performance by means of social comparison information. In particular, because of their difficulty recognizing competence in others, incompetent individuals will be unable to use information about the choices and performances of others to form more accurate impressions of their own ability.

4. The incompetent can gain insight about their shortcomings, but this comes (paradoxically) by making them more competent, thus providing them the metacognitive skills necessary to be able to realize that they have performed poorly.

The Worm Turns

2006-06-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

And who knew the Court had it in them? Of course, after so many years of executive power run amok, it's debatable what difference a mere Supreme Court decision can make, but this might conceivably lead to more mild and halting criticism of the administration, before the boldest of the 'opposition party' scurry back under cover again.

There's an election coming up, after all.

Read Glenn Greenwald's analysis of the decision (.PDF) here. Digby weighs in here.

Taking Which Fight To Whom, Precisely?

2006-06-24T02:53:00.000-07:00

Another day, another bunch of show arrests. Who remembers the Brooklyn Bridge faux-terrorist, armed with his cutting torch? Beyond merely distracting us all from our continued failure to bring in Osama, I wonder what the larger point of this chicanery might be...

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stressed that there was no immediate threat in either Chicago or Miami because the group did not have explosives or other materials it was seeking.

"This group was more aspirational than operational," FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said.

Nevertheless, Gonzales said Thursday's arrests underscored the danger of "homegrown terrorists" who "view their home country as the enemy."

And there we may have a clue!

An addendum: Another Day In The Empire has more about this group and their engineered downfall, beginning with this early ABCNews report:

An outline of the indictments to be announced later today indicates the men began meeting with an unnamed FBI informant in November 2005.

... And he then spent six months grooming them for this showboat arrest. The wheels of justice grind slow, but exceedingly fine, for better or worse.

As a second addendum: mainstream sources continue to report that these men were Muslims. For whatever reason that's relevant, so is this article by Juan Cole setting them straight.

This Isn't A War - And We Aren't Liberators

2006-06-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

Thom Hartmann performs a bit of needed re-framing:

Every time the media - or a Democrat - uses the phrase "War in Iraq" they are promoting one of Karl Rove's most potent Republican Party frames.

There is no longer a war against Iraq.

It ended in May of 2003, when George W. Bush stood below a "Mission Accomplished" sign aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and correctly declared that we had "victoriously" defeated the Iraqi army and overthrown their government...

... What we have now is an occupation of Iraq.

We've accomplished what we ostensibly set out to do in Iraq. Saddam is out of power, and a new democratic government has been installed. That government is now clearing its throat, checking its watch, and glancing meaningfully at the door. There were no WMD's. The insurgency will end, and the country will be that much more stable, when the occupiers go home.

Santorum Froths

2006-06-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

"This twenty-year old, inert sample of mustard gas is why the world must invade Iraq immediately."

"Congressman Hoekstra and I are here today to say that we have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons..." -- Sen. Frothy Mix

"While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible Indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter" -- Reality

So unless he has better Iraqi intelligence than the President - and that is entirely possible - Mr. Santorum is once again talking out his ass. This has not kept the predictable Republican sources from rubber-stamping the Senator's remarks. Some points, however, remain underemphasized:

Offering the official administration response to FOX News, a senior Defense Department official pointed out that the chemical weapons were not in usable conditions...

... "This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991," the official said, adding the munitions "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war."

Also, Christmas Is Cancelled

2006-06-13T05:05:00.000-07:00

There is no joy in Mudville: Rove will not be indicted.

Additionally, we're receiving reports that there is no Easter bunny, and Santa is really your father in a silly hat.

The Coolest Picture You'll See Today

2006-06-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

A UV image of the sun on 'a quiet day', courtesy of the
Transition Region and Coronal Explorer. Temperature range in this photograph is from a few thousand degrees to one million degrees Celsius.

Background on the TRACE space telescope here, and at the official website here

Mission Accomplished! Again!

2006-06-12T02:07:00.000-07:00

David Corn, on the realities and implications of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death, and a little bit of forgotten history:

In March 2004, NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski reported that the White House had three times in 2002 turned down a Pentagon request to attack Zarqawi, who then was believed to be running a weapons lab in northern Iraq--in territory not controlled by Saddam Hussein's government. Miklaszewski wrote that "the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam." That is, the Bush White House let Zarqawi alone so it would have an easier time selling the war in Iraq.

When he was convenient to the administration's interests, he lived. And when he could provide a convenient distraction, he died. His path from a piece of anti-Saddam riffraff tucked away in our no-fly zone to a great anti-American boogeyman shows us how awry intentions can go when they're not the best.