Three Wheels

George Takei is a very funny fellow

2007-02-28T06:49:00.000-05:00

"We will disrupt their workday with a mildly offensive blinking light! DEATH TO AMERICA!"

2007-02-12T20:09:00.000-05:00

College Humor has the exclusive video of the plot to terrorize Boston with Aqua Teen Hunger Force advertising.

One Laptop Per Child Program to Launch Test Machines Next Month

2007-01-29T11:14:00.000-05:00

The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child)program was founded by Nicholas Negroponte with the objective of providing laptop computers to children in the developing world at a cost of around $100 per computer. It's an ambitious goal with a number of pretty obvious challenges. What they've come up with for their test machine is pretty interesting and perhaps the most interesting thing about it is the software that was designed for it. I can imagine that educators in the developed world will be very interested in taking a look at it too.

Here's a picture of the test machine:

Link to the demo here.

The laptop runs on a linux based operating system that was designed especially for this program. It features a simple interface and some nifty features that allow students to collaborate on projects and view web sites as a group, with real time commenting and discussion. This software looks like it could be a useful tool for lots of educational environments and especially so for distance learning in situations where transportation and availability of educational facilities are limited. For more information on this interesting program, including how you can become involved as a developer or financially, check out their site.

Presidential Ticket Quiz

2007-01-13T08:41:00.000-05:00

Taking a tip from Southwest Progress, I took the Presidential Ticket Quiz over at Blue Pyramid. Here are my results:

You're Nader-Ventura!

As Ralph Nader, you are a profound and prolific standard of non-conformism. You are
utterly unafraid, strong in your convictions, and unashamed of your actions. You have been
accused of being a bit egotistical and have an utterly dull social demeanor, but this should
not detract from your strengths as a fire-starter. You like creating groups and then discarding
them, as well as being a lone voice of reason in a horrifyingly bleak atmosphere. Above all,
you have a very clean nose.

You select Jesse Ventura as your running mate, just in case the Vice Presidential
debate is replaced by a grudge match.

Take the 2008 Presidential Ticket Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Good god! Nader/Ventura? I really need to rethink my politics. :-P

2007-01-10T22:13:00.000-05:00

The subject of protest marches and rallies has come up a few times today, both on blogs and in conversation. It always brings me back to this terrific Matt Taibbi column from 2004. The whole piece is great, but this section sums the whole thing up nicely:

That's why the one thing that would have really shaken Middle America last week wasn't "creativity." It was something else: uniforms. Three hundred thousand people banging bongos and dressed like extras in an Oliver Stone movie scares no one in America. But 300,000 people in slacks and white button-down shirts, marching mute and angry in the direction of Your Town, would have instantly necessitated a new cabinet-level domestic security agency.

Why? Because 300,000 people who are capable of showing the unity and discipline to dress alike are also capable of doing more than just march. Which is important, because marching, as we have seen in the last few years, has been rendered basically useless. Before the war, Washington and New York saw the largest protests this country has seen since the '60s – and this not only did not stop the war, it didn't even motivate the opposition political party to nominate an anti-war candidate.
There was a time when mass protests were enough to cause Johnson to give up the Oval Office and cause Richard Nixon to spend his nights staring out his window in panic. No more. We have a different media now, different and more sophisticated law enforcement techniques and, most importantly, a different brand of protester.

Protests can now be ignored because our media has learned how to dismiss them, because our police know how to contain them, and because our leaders now know that once a protest is peacefully held and concluded, the protesters simply go home and sit on their asses until the next protest or the next election. They are not going to go home and bomb draft offices, take over campuses, riot in the streets. Instead, although there are many earnest, involved political activists among them, the majority will simply go back to their lives, surf the net and wait for the ballot. Which to our leaders means that, in most cases, if you allow a protest to happen... Nothing happens.

Troop Surge

2007-01-04T19:42:00.000-05:00

"Interestingly enough, one administration official admitted to us today that this surge option is more of a political decision than a military one because the American people have run out of patience and President Bush is running out of time to achieve some kind of success in Iraq. While this plan will clearly draw some stiff opposition on Capitol Hill, the president is expected to announce it a week from today," - NBC's Jim Miklaszewski, on the reasoning behind the new Iraq "strategy."

Remember this the next time you hear President Bush talk about how much he cares about the lives (and lost lives) of American troops.

(emphasis added by me)
h/t to Andrew Sullivan for the quote.

Make It Stop

2007-01-03T10:37:00.000-05:00

Transcript here...

365 Days

2007-01-01T22:41:00.000-05:00

A sidewalk chalk shrine made by neighborhhod kids decorates the steps on the front porch of the Harvey family house. (Dec. 29, 2006) ERIC DAVIS/TIMES-DISPATCH

One year ago many Richmonders had their whole world view shaken right down to the roots at the news of the murders of Bryan, Kathryn, Stella and Ruby Harvey in their home, on New Year's Day. Throughout this past year there have been a number of milestones, both beautiful and horrific, that have marked the path through these 365 days. I think the trials were hardest for me personally. As each one passed I felt myself let out a sigh of relief. A little bit of the weight comes off with each one.

I don't know if I'm the only one who saw January 1st looming ahead somewhat menacingly. Another marker in the road...but maybe the last of the really hard ones. It's been one year since that terrible day and I am so proud of Carytown for ringing this day in right. Rather than allow New Year's Day to lurk as the dark anniversary of terrible loss, the merchants chose to throw a great party (benefiting the Harvey Foundation and The Byrd Theater). Kudos to Carytown for choosing to banish the boogymen and reclaim New Year's Day for optimism, fun, and thoughts of the future. It's the right way to remember them well.

Update:
Another good article in the T.D. about the NYE festivities in Carytown.

It was as if Richmond-area residents wanted a massive dose of togetherness and harmony to end a crazy and violent year that began with the New Year's Day massacre of the Harvey family, said Todd Schall-Vess, manager of the Byrd Theatre and the man who designed and built the ball.

Kathryn Harvey operated the World Of Mirth shop in one of the blocks anchoring the street party.

"We really -- more than a lot of years past -- needed a point to say, 'This is where it starts over,'" Schall-Vess said. "This is where we start anew again."

More here...

Water, Water, Everywhere...

2007-01-01T17:41:00.001-05:00

For residents of north Richmond, a day's worth of torrential rain can only mean one thing...

..Battery Park is flooded again.

Happy friggin' New Year. :/

The 10 Most Outrageous Civil Liberties Violations of 2006.

2006-12-31T14:28:00.000-05:00

Slate has the list.

Opponents and Enemies

2006-12-30T16:47:00.000-05:00

Over the last week or so I've watched a controversy erupt within the Virginia community of political bloggers. It involved an owner of a Virginia political blogs aggregator deciding to remove a blog in order to remove an offensive image (a terrorist propaganda photo of a beheaded American man) posted on that blog from his aggregator. What followed was a drama that reflected what I consider to be a troubling trend in politics and political discourse in general over the last decade - decade and a half. People seem unable to distinguish the difference between an opponent and an enemy. In this particular case, nearly all of the people involved in that controversy are obviously Virginians who care about their state, their community, and their country. They wouldn't be bothering to blog about politics if they didn't care. They are people who all care about the same things yet disagree about how to approach political issues. Yet some participants in that controversy began to speak in terms of their political opponents as "the enemy" and using military jargon to describe their own behavior toward "the enemy".
Where did people lose the capability to distinguish between a real enemy and a political/ideological opponent?

Talk radio and trashy cable news channels, with all the hours that they have to fill, have created programming that has encouraged this way of viewing political differences, certainly. As have some columnists and web sites and, of course, blogs.

It gratified me to see that there were many observers and participants in that particular tiff that did seem to recognize that there are deeper and more important things we all have in common that transcend political, religious, or ideological differences. However, I was troubled by the few folks that didn't see that and by the tactics and pressure they applied to their ideological and political brethren to try to pressure them into taking up the same extreme position of viewing their political opponents as enemies. When it really counts, will these people be able to figure out the difference?

"It's A Wonderful Life" maligned as 'commie propaganda' by the FBI

2006-12-24T21:25:00.000-05:00

Wisebread has the details, including the original FBI memo from 1947.

'It's A Wonderful Life' has been a favorite of mine for a long time. Yes, it's sappy, yes, it's played over and over, year after year, but for me it never loses its charm. I think its message just gets more and more relevant every year. However, I'm not at all surprised to learn that it was despised by people obsessed with free market capitalism and eat up with suspicions of commies hiding under every bed. It is a film that glorifies the virtues of the working man and disdains greed and materialism.

Why?

2006-12-21T01:59:00.000-05:00

I've spent the last two weeks or so listening to the various "smart people" in Washington discussing the idea of a troop 'surge' in Iraq, ostensibly for the purpose of 'fixing' things there. What's been driving me nuts about this debate is that none of the people who are advocating this increase in troop levels will explain WHY they think it would be helpful.

Even the folks who are advocating this surge just for the purpose of intensifying training for Iraqi military and police seem to be ducking serious questions on this issue. How will more US troops working to improve the skills of the Iraqi army address what might be the most serious problem affecting the Iraqi military and police: the obviously deep infiltration of sectarian and political militia within the ranks of the Iraqi forces?

Why would 20,000-50,000 more troops make things any better there? How would such and increase in troop levels address any of the REAL problems that are undermining security and stability there?

Baghdad ER

2006-05-28T13:19:00.000-05:00

I managed to catch HBO's excellent documentary about the 86th CaSH (Combat Support Hospital) in Baghdad this past week. HBO will be airing it in prime time again on Memorial Day. I can't say enough good things about this program. I think it's important for Americans to see it, if for no other reason than to see the amazingly skilled and dedicated people (volunteers) that are keeping the number US war dead much lower than it could be (remember, nearly 18,000 US service persons have been injured). Thanks to the medical staff at the CaSH, the US has a higher survival rate for injured soldiers than in any previous war.

I think it's also important for us in the US to remind ourselves about the realities of war. It's not glorious and noble adventure. It's not nifty videos of "surgical strikes" that are released to CNN for our amusement. It's blood and guts. It's kids getting their asses blown off. And it's the shocked, blank expressions on their faces as they wonder what the hell happened to them.

Update*
Fresh Air's Terri gross interviewed Baghdad ER filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill on Monday. You can listen to it here.

Memorial Day Weekend

2006-05-28T12:22:00.000-05:00

Don't forget to take a moment to think about the men and women who will never come home, and those who will come home but will never be whole again:

2,400 killed
17,774 wounded

ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH

by Wilford Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in The hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine The holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Empty Spaces

2006-05-13T15:23:00.000-05:00

Fan District residents know that today was the Strawberry Street Festival. This event is a lot of fun for the neighborhood and the kids who attend Fox Elementary School (which benefits from much of the proceeds). This year we are missing some good people. Bryan and Kathy Harvey and their daughters aren't here this year. Kathy had organized the games at the festival for the past couple of years. Bryan used to help with the week long run-up to the event, doing his goofy Elvis impersonation act, which he would perform for the kids as they made their way to their classrooms in the morning. Obviously, Stella was a student here. She's gone too. No doubt her pals are thinking about the empty space she's left behind. Their absence is hard to miss.

This year the proceeds from the children's games and activities were donated to the Harvey Family Memorial Fund. More info on that is available here.

WTF?!

2006-04-07T16:49:00.000-05:00

So however many millions have been spent on an investigation into the Plame leak, one reporter was jailed, others were threatened with the same, a White House staffer is under indictment and Bush could have spared all of this by simply stating that he, himself, had authorized this leak of information? Do I have this right? In all of the coverage/discussion that I've seen and heard on this most recently revealed element of the Plame story I have yet to hear anyone point this out. Bush could have simply come forward with this fact from the very beginning. Instead, he apparently decided to lie and pretend that he had no idea how this information become public. Is this not a relevent aspect of the story?

Nuthin' to see here...

2006-03-03T22:17:00.000-05:00

Blogging will be very light for the next couple of weeks. We just bought a house and will be indulging in the delicious experience known as 'moving'. I'll be busy schlepping heavy things in and out of trucks and attempting to talk some poor soul into helping me remove that massive stump at the rear of my back yard.

Holy crap...

2006-02-22T19:06:00.000-05:00

This could be the spark that sets off the long threatening civil war that's been percolating for a couple of years now in Iraq:

In Iraq, bombing sparks fears of more violence

Today's bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraq, has renewed fears of an escalation in violence between the country's Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities. Protests erupted in Samarra (photo) and elsewhere around Iraq, while some Shiite leaders appealed for calm while others promised retribution. President Bush has condemned the bombing and urged Iraqis to "exercise restraint" in responding to it. Here's a roundup of the latest news:

and...

Update at 5:55 p.m.ET: Three imams were killed as Shiite gunmen attacked 27 Sunni mosques.
- Al Jazeera reports that Shiite leaders in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood "called for demonstrations against the blast." The Arab network also gives this background on the shrine that was attacked: "The shrine contains the tombs of two revered (Shiite) imams, both descendants of the prophet Mohammed. ... An attack at such an important religious shrine would constitute a grave assault" on Shiites.

And more here.

Drinking Liberally in Richmond, VA

2006-02-21T22:27:00.000-05:00

Don't forget, Drinking Liberally (hosted by Richmond's own J.C Wilmore) is this Thursday (February 23), 7-9pm at Richbrau Brewing Co. 1214 E. Cary St. Join Richmond's 'Drinking Liberally' mailing list here. More info on 'Drinking Liberally' here.

The Black Hole

2006-02-21T15:24:00.000-05:00

For nearly a year now I've been seeing a steady trickle of news articles about the tangle of political and religious grudges in Iraq that appear to be deeply infiltrated into the Iraqi police and security forces. Today I read another one in Newsweek. Here's a snippet:

No one knows how many death squads are currently operating in Iraq, but in the past year hundreds of murdered bodies have been found, many of them with their wrists bound execution style and a single bullet through the head. Some death squads are killing Shiites; others are executing Sunnis. In many cases, witnesses tell of victims being abducted by unidentified men in police uniforms. Almost unnoticed amid the country's chaos, the dirty war is beginning to rival the insurgency in its deadliness and in its damage to national stability.

The administration has avoided discussing this problem for obvious reasons, but it demands serious attention. When I read that US troops are arresting Iraqi cops/deathsquads it sends up a red flag. We seem to be getting pulled deeper into the complicated morass of Iraqi political and social conflicts. It's arguable that we are obligated to do this. Our toppling of the previous regime let this genie out of the bottle. That's fair. But where does it end? Is the American public ready to dive into the challenge of sorting out these deep grudges that exist between the various factions? I don't think we've had this discussion yet, not really, and it's pretty important that we figure out where we want to draw the line here...or if it's even possible to draw that line now. Maybe it isn't.

Cheney gets his flowers

2006-02-20T21:30:00.000-05:00

From MSNBC:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb parked at a Baghdad market killed 21 people and wounded at least 25 on Tuesday in one of the worst attacks for weeks.
An Interior Ministry official said the 25 wounded were nearly all civilians, while a hospital source said medics were treating at least 32 people injured in the explosion.

Witnesses said people in the market spotted a man park the car and make off despite efforts to apprehend him.

Iran pulls a "freedom fry"

2006-02-16T17:01:00.000-05:00

In response to public outcry over some offensive cartoons published in Danish newspapers, Iranians have renamed a favorite treat:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranians love Danish pastries, but when they look for the flaky dessert at the bakery they now have to ask for "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad.

Bakeries across the capital were covering up their ads for Danish pastries Thursday after the confectioners' union ordered the name change in retaliation for caricatures of the Muslim prophet published in a Danish newspaper.

"Given the insults by Danish newspapers against the prophet, as of now the name of Danish pastries will give way to 'Rose of Muhammad' pastries," the union said in its order.

"This is a punishment for those who started misusing freedom of expression to insult the sanctities of Islam," said Ahmad Mahmoudi, a cake shop owner in northern Tehran.

Cartoons

2006-02-16T16:56:00.000-05:00

They're getting in on the controversial cartoon action over at The Poor Man Institute

Shoe-Bomb-a-Palooza II: Sneakers of Mass Destruction

2006-02-12T10:27:00.000-05:00

Digby's got the latest on the dastardly plot via leaked Al Quaeda phone conversations hot off the NSA wiretaps!

#2: Uh, Mohammed?

#1: Yes Mohammed?

#2: Something, um, doesn't sound right. Are you quite sure...

#1: Of course I'm sure. It says right here [sounds of more paper shuffling] that we are to use high explosives to gain access to the cockpit, where we then threaten to blow up the rest of plane if they don't fly it into the Liberty...

#2: Literary...

#1: Liberty, Literary... I don't... [sighs] Look, just tell the pilot "The tall one." I'm quite sure they'll know which building you're talking about. Just tell them that if they don't immediately fly the plane into the tallest building in Los Angeles, you'll blow them up with your Sneakers of Mass Destruction. They won't want that, I can assure you.

Catch the rest of the shocking exchange over at Hullabaloo!

The electronic confessional

2006-02-12T09:57:00.000-05:00

If you haven't ever checked out the long term community art project "Post Secret", it's worth looking at. When I popped in there today I noticed that the creator of the site has compiled a book of many of the secrets that participants have mailed in, many that were posted on the site and some that were never seen. The Post Secret book will be sold in chain and indie bookstores.

Pickled NASA

2006-02-11T21:02:00.000-05:00

From the NYT:

George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.

Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé on file at the agency asserted.

Message: The world is dangerous. You are powerless and blameless

2006-02-11T20:45:00.000-05:00

Bob Harris hits the nail on the head in his quick analysis of Fox News' top of the hour news line-up (name your hour or day, it's all the same).

...In other news, not a single word about Abramoff meeting Bush a dozen times, or the trade deficit hitting an all-time high, or that the world is the warmest it has been in 1200 years.

Nope. Not one word. Instead:

Lead story: Jill Carroll. Message: The world is dangerous. You are powerless and blameless.

Second lead: Bird Flu. Message: The world is dangerous. You are powerless and blameless.

Third story: Big car crash on Mexican border. (Wow. Pretty desperate.) Message: The world is dangerous. And you are powerless and blameless...

Breaking News!!!

2006-02-11T18:27:00.000-05:00

This Modern World has gotten ahold of the super-secret transcript of the Al Quaeda, "L.A. Shoe-bomb-a-palooza" plans... hatched via Instant Messenger! Who knew?!?

You've got to be kidding

2006-02-09T16:31:00.000-05:00

Bush has revealed the details of the dastardly terrorist plot to attack LA in 2002:

In a speech at the National Guard Memorial Building, Bush said the cell planned to use shoe bombs to gain entry to the cockpit door and then fly the plane into a Los Angeles high-rise. The president called it the “Liberty Tower” but the White House later corrected that to the Library Tower, since renamed the US Bank Tower.

There are so many things wrong with this that it's really hard to know where to begin...and frankly, I doubt people with two brain cells to rub together need my help to see that. So I won't bother getting into it. What seems pretty evident to me is that this is complete bullshit. If it's not, then I think we can stop being worried about any more terrorist attacks because clearly, they're too profoundly stupid to ever pull it off.

Indictments

2006-02-08T16:22:00.000-05:00

Ricky Gray and Ray Dandridge indicted on 7 counts of capital murder today:

A multijurisdictional grand jury meeting in Richmond indicted Ricky Javon Gray, 28, for the New Year's Day beating deaths of local musician Bryan Harvey, 49, his wife Kathryn, 39, and daughters Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4, at their home in Woodland Heights.

The panel also handed up capital murder indictments against Gray's nephew, Ray Joseph Dandridge, also 28, for the Jan. 6 suffocation killings of Percyell Tucker, 57, his wife, Mary Baskerville-Tucker, 47, and her daughter, Ashley Baskerville, 21, in the Tucker home on East Broad Rock Road.

The indictments -- the product of weeks of intensive investigation by the Richmond Police Department and other law enforcement agencies -- came with both a profound sense of relief and sadness, said Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring.

He called the killings of the two families one of the city's greatest tragedies in recent memory.

Democracy, Iraqi style

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

A good post on the Iraqi elections (and Iraqi politics in general) from an Iraqi point of view over at Baghdad Burning.

Are you having trouble telling these two men apart?

2006-02-08T08:02:00.000-05:00

Nice new TV spot from Moveon.org.

"...they sometimes forget"

2006-02-07T12:35:00.000-05:00

The lynchpin of our brilliant NSA wiretapping strategy is revealed:

BIDEN: Thank you very much.

General, how has this revelation damaged the program?

I'm almost confused by it but, I mean, it seems to presuppose that these very sophisticated Al Qaida folks didn't think we were intercepting their phone calls.

I mean, I'm a little confused. How did it damage this?

GONZALES: Well, Senator, I would first refer to the experts in the Intel Committee who are making that statement, first of all. I'm just the lawyer.

And so, when the director of the CIA says this should really damage our intel capabilities, I would defer to that statement. I think, based on my experience, it is true -- you would assume that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance.

But if they're not reminded about it all the time in the newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget.

(LAUGHTER)

(The entire exchange is here)

Beautiful Dreamers

2006-02-06T08:19:00.000-05:00

My husband and I are in the process of buying an old house in one of Richmond's many older neighborhoods that are making the transition from shabby and neglected to renovated and restored. I've had old houses on the brain lately and I've been doing a LOT of reading online about caring for older homes and renovations. I stumbled accross this blog, This DecrepitVictorian House. It chronicles the ongoing renovation project of a Richmond couple's once splendid victorian house in the Fairmont neighborhood of Church Hill. I literally spent hours reading through their archives, looking at their photos, and laughing out loud several times. The best way to read it is to dig way back trough the archives and follow their 2 1/2 year adventure from the beginning. Very enjoyable and VERY educational. What I admire most about these people is their bravery at taking on such a huge project with basically zero experience and their ability to see the beautiful house underneath all of the decay, neglect, and hideous alterations that these old houses suffer.

2006-02-05T15:18:00.000-05:00

From the Washington Post:

Intelligence officers who eavesdropped on thousands of Americans in overseas calls under authority from President Bush have dismissed nearly all of them as potential suspects after hearing nothing pertinent to a terrorist threat, according to accounts from current and former government officials and private-sector sources with knowledge of the technologies in use.

Wow. Sounds like a collossal waste of time and money. I guess those pesky standards of probable cause aren't so useless after all. How much manpower and resources should our intelligence community waste on pointless wiretaps that lack enough justification to even rise to the standards demanded by FISA? What legitimate threats to national security will be lost amongst the "noise" of all the useless crap that the NSA has been chasing down under the administration's current (illegal) policy?

Liberated...

2006-02-04T16:01:00.000-05:00

From MSNBC:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The bullet-riddled bodies of 14 Sunni Arab men purportedly seized by police a week ago were found dumped in Baghdad in what appeared to be the latest bout of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence in the capital, a top Sunni group said Saturday.

For everyone of those dead men there is a family that is devastated. There are friends that will never be the same. Every one of these politically and religiously motivated killings perpetrated (apparently) by people in authority within the new Iraqi government brings that nation one more step closer to out and out civil war.... and our troops are caught right in the middle of that shit. I guess this is just more of that "messy" freedom that Rumsfeld was referring to a couple of years ago.

Grins

2006-02-01T07:48:00.000-05:00

Keith Olbermann has a little fun with professional blowhard, Bill O'reilly...again.

Craptacular Hack

2006-01-31T07:37:00.000-05:00

As I was browsing through Sunday's Richmond Times Dispatch I ran accross Mark Holmberg's column. It was a bit about a murder in Richmond that went largely unnoticed. The victim was a person who, sadly, lived his life on the edges of society, etc, etc... Toward the end of the piece Holmberg feels compelled to make this statement:

It just doesn't weigh the same as the other slayings that week, not to mention last year's death of college student Taylor Behl. Which is why few reporters contacted Roberts' family, while Behl's mother continues to bask in the media spotlight like a contestant on some kind of strange "American Idol" for grieving family members.

What an amazingly shitty thing to say.

Plug

2006-01-21T22:40:00.000-05:00

Today is my birthday so we went out for a really nice dinner at a semi-local place called Wabi Sabi. It's in the older downtown section of Petersburg, VA. Absolutely great food and a wonderful atmosphere. They have a website here. If you're in the Richmond, VA area and you're looking for a great dinner in a fun, laid back place, do check out Wabi Sabi. Richmond does a local gallery 'art walk' on the first Friday of every month. It's called "First Friday". Downtown Petersburg does a similar thing on the second Friday of the month, appropriately called "Second Friday". Head on down there and check out the art, then have a great dinner at Wabi Sabi.

Democratic Agenda: [ Political party seeking direction and vision. Apply within ]

2006-01-21T13:26:00.000-05:00

After doing some reading and emailing today (the subject of both being politics) I've reached a disheartening conclusion. The Democratic party is still really fucked up. Yeah, I know. Who didn't know that? It's really bumming me out though. This is 2006. Winning a significant number of seats in the House and Senate is just so crucial, so important, it should be the number one focus of the Democratic party right now. Hell, it should have been the number one focus since November, '04. I realize the fund raisers and consultants and image polishers are already in full swing. But something really, REALLY important is absent. It's been AWOL for at least 12 years now. Democratic politicians and leaders appear to have no clue what the hell they want to do if they actually manage to win. They still can't explain to voters why they should choose them over the Republicans. Yes, yes, they're the "Not Republican" party. We get that. But in order to win, and in order to lead, there has to be something more to being a Democrat than just being "Not Republican". That won't win an election for dog catcher, much less an election against an incumbent politician who is backed by what might be the slickest, most disciplined political machine in anyone's memory. So here's some homework for Democrats, both voters and politicians.

Answer these questions:

What is the "Democratic vision"?
Why is the Democratic vision preferable to the GOP vision?
What is the Democratic agenda and the game plan for reaching the goals of that agenda?
How can this vision and agenda be effectively articulated to voters?
What would be an effective strategy to build tough, cohesive party unity among the various Democratic and progressive political and social activists and their following?

Well, feel free to reply. I think these are the questions that Democratic voters need to be bugging the party leadership and politicians about. An optimisitic, affirmative Democratic vision for the future and an agenda to get us there are absolutely crucial to achieving the big victories that us Democrats are longing for in November.

Uncle Sam wants to ogle your Googles

2006-01-20T09:49:00.000-05:00

From AP, via Richmond Times Dispatch:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc. is rebuffing the Bush administration's demand for a peek at what millions of people have been looking up on the Internet's leading search engine - a request that underscores the potential for online databases to become tools for government surveillance.

snip...

The government wants a list all requests entered into Google's search engine during an unspecified single week - a breakdown that could conceivably span tens of millions of queries. In addition, it seeks 1 million randomly selected Web addresses from various Google databases.

In court papers that the San Jose Mercury News reported on after seeing them Wednesday, the Bush administration depicts the information as vital in its effort to restore online child protection laws that have been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The administration's position seems to be that they 'need' these records in order to determine how frequently porn comes up in various google searches. Now I'm no lawyer, but this argument seems very weak to me. Can't the government's own goons do this research for themselves? Sit a few lackeys down in front of some PC's and give them a list of several hudred terms to google and take a look at the results.

So, since any 8th grader can figure out that the feds don't need Google customers' search data in order to get ahold of the statistical info they claim they're looking for, what do they really want this information for? Are they really after this particular bit of information or are they merely using this as an opportunity to set a precedent which will allow them to supoena search engine records for other purposes in the future?

Given the recent revelations regarding the federal governments willingness to run roughshod all over laws designed to protect the privacy of Americans from government snooping, I'm hopeful that the courts will tell the Bush administration go shove it.

Friedman Gets Flattened

2006-01-19T23:37:00.000-05:00

Matt Taibbi, a favorite of mine, has reviewed the latest book from columnist Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat.
Taibbi is one of a few columnists who can make me laugh out loud and he doesn't disappoint this time around. Watching him poke fun at the self-important, overrated NYT columnist is good for some grins.

I think it was about five months ago that Press editor Alex Zaitchik whispered to me in the office hallway that Thomas Friedman had a new book coming out. All he knew about it was the title, but that was enough; he approached me with the chilled demeanor of a British spy who has just discovered that Hitler was secretly buying up the world’s manganese supply. Who knew what it meant—but one had to assume the worst.

More over at New York Press..

FreewayBlogger has a blog

2006-01-19T11:40:00.000-05:00

You may or may not be familiar with Freewayblogger. It's sort of part political speach/protest, part social experiment. Freewayblogger has started a weblog in the last few months. Go check 'em out at both sites (if you haven't already). Who knows? Maybe it will inspire you to do a bit of you own freewayblogging. Regardless, the pics are interesting so, enjoy.

World of Mirth to reopen today

2006-01-19T09:48:00.000-05:00

The story is in the Richmond Times Dispatch. Let's give WoM some support as they get up and running again. Go spend some money there.

Common Thread

2006-01-17T16:17:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine showed me a recent post on Riverbend's blog, 'Baghdad Burning'. It's called "Thank You For the Music" (which is about the sudden loss of a good friend to the daily violence in Iraq) . Riverbend lives in Iraq and blogs about her personal experiences and life in general in US occupied Iraq. Reading it, I couldn't help but be reminded of all the touching and kind tributes to Bryan Harvey and his family that I have read in the last couple of weeks. It's a great post and reading it evoked a strange mixture of emotions, but I was left with this thought: Coping with the events of the first week of January gave us here in our little part of the world just the tiniest taste of what it must be like to live in a place like Iraq, where senseless, anonymous and brutal violence take the lives of scores ordinary people on a nearly daily basis. Or Pakistan, where a recent botched CIA attempt to kill a Bin Laden crony resulted in the deaths of 17 ordinary people. Imagine the anger and bewilderment that we're feeling here...then multiply that by about a thousand.

Keeping the focus on what matters...

2006-01-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

Over the past week, like so many other Richmonders who were struggling to process the terrible events unfolding in their city, I found myself spending way too much time reading commentary on internet message sites. Some of it was interesting, some of it was disturbing, and some of it was very touching. A lot of it was pretty pointless.

What I found most curious was the tendency of some commenters to link the murders committed by Dandridge and Grey to Richmond itself, as a reflection of our city's high murder rate.

That really bugged me. The two alleged killers weren't from Richmond. They came here from somewhere else to commit their crimes. Richmonders were shocked and bewildered by these murders.

I think it's worthwhile to point out that Richmond's homicide rate was down in 2005, by nearly 10%, from the previous year. If you've lived here long enough you know that parts of our city that once seemed hopelessly troubled with crime and decay are in the process of improving. Jackson Ward, Highland Park, the section of Woodland Heights south of Semmes Ave., the Carver neighborhood, etc are all experiencing renewal. Even our once desolate downtown area seems poised for a new life.

So enough already with beating up on Richmond.

I have a better idea. Do something positive in your community to make it a better place. Organize a neighborhood clean-up. Start a 'get to know your neighbors' social group. Volunteer some time tutoring kids in public schools. Have a fundraiser to raise cash for community projects. Everything someone does, big or small, that sends out a positive vibe can really add up.

All Things Must Pass...

2006-01-11T09:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I finally took down the Christmas tree ornaments. It was January 10th. When I put everything up, back before Christmas, I had intended to leave the tree and the house decorated until January 6th. It's the "12th Day of Christmas", after all, and I'm also too lazy to get everything undone before then. This year, though, I was days later in getting this somewhat melancholy chore done. I guess it's because, for me, time sort of stopped on January 2nd.

Early morning, Monday January 2nd, I got a phone call from my mother, a long time resident of the Woodland Heights neighborhood in my city, Richmond, VA, asking me if we knew Stella Harvey.

For Richmonders, the rest of the story will seem sadly familiar. My mother related to me that 9 year old Stella, and the rest of her family (parents Bryan and Kathy and little sister Ruby) had been found murdered in their home on New Year's Day.

After that call, everything seemed to stop.

Stella was born just a few weeks before my own daughter. They attended the same elementary school. Her mom, Kathy, ran a cool store in my community called "World of Mirth" in which I loved to shop. Her dad was a well known, talented musician who had also been a fixture in my world within a world, the Fan District and greater Richmond music and arts scene. I had crossed paths with these people for years. The connections, both direct and indirect, were numerous. I did not know them well but they were a predictable part of my universe.

The days that followed that terrible news were filled with tears, phone calls, vigils and obsessive attention to the local (and national) news. Terrible details of the brutality of the crime. Terrible images in my imagination of their final moments. Endless speculation about the identity of the killer(s) and their possible motives. I struggled mightily to try to understand who could do such a ghastly thing to such lovely people. I think everyone who knew them, and many that only knew of them, were engaged in the same.

Time seemed to stop.

Despite the terrible sadness I was feeling in that week that followed, I was amazed and deeply touched by the beautiful things that were revealed around me. The love and care between the people in my community, the loyalty to the dignity and memory of the Harveys, the diligence of the local print media in covering the story with the same sense of dignity and care, and the determination of those that were suffering to push ahead and make a beautiful legacy for these people and push off from the images of the horror that Bryan, Kathy, Stella and Ruby suffered.

I attended both of the vigils. The one at the Unitarian Church was the better of the two, in my opinion. It was good medicine for people in terrible pain. Quiet, brief, dignified and poignant.

The second vigil, outside of the Harvey home, was more of a neighborhood thing with a considerable amount of the focus being on the issue of neighborhood crime. Understandable. Also, there was a noisy generator powering a giant array of police lights. That was pretty distracting.

But, something really special happened after all the talking and speeches were done. People began to surround the front yard of the house itself and place their candles, pictures, notes, flowers, etc, all around the perimeter of the front yard.

The house itself, a dark and empty thing...seemed as though it was also dead. It had been lurking throughout the week, a dark and foreboding monument to sadness and death (it seemed to me) but the neighbors and friends spread their loving trinkets and expressions of grief all around. It felt as though they were banishing the bad mojo, and allowing the home to be what it was before: a place where love and compassion lived every day.

After the vigils came the memorial, which I did not attend. I decided to stay home and make cookies with my 7 year old son instead. I needed a breather. Then the arrest came.

With the memorial over and the arrest of the alleged killers, it seems that many of us are trying to push ahead. Time really didn't stop, after all. Here it was, January 10th, and my tree sat there, covered in ornaments and the lights on my porch still twinkled.

So I put the ornaments away, took down the porch lights (most of 'em anyway). It's time to turn around now and look toward the future. It's time to take this experience and figure out what it will mean for me, in my own life. I know I want to always remember what wonderful people are all around me, all of the time. I won't forget the deep love I felt connected to as my community shared its grief. I also want to remember the terrific example that Bryan and Kathy set: to live your life well, laugh a lot, and be generous with your gifts. Remembering that and living it honors their legacy. I imagine they would be proud of it.

Reality Bites

2005-12-10T22:49:00.000-05:00

Over the last few months the Bush administration has experienced a fairly rapid unraveling of whatever support existed among the general public (other than the diehard fans) for continuing the occupation in Iraq. The debate continues, for sure, regarding how or when to pull the troop levels down, but the underlying message is pretty clear, "We're about done here".

Watching this unraveling, something occured to me. If the administration had honestly articulated their ambitious foreign policy goals for the Middle East, rather than the fear mongering and pickled intelligence, how would things be different today? I think it's rather telling that the administration decided that the public is either too stupid or the policy agenda too wacky to subject to a public debate.

Yes, of course it would have been a risky move to get into such a debate. The public might have indeed rejected the idea. However, when politicians want to sell people on something they are often pretty good at it. I believe that a convincing case could be made for the Project for New American Century's ideology for pushing American power and influence into the Middle East for the purpose of "remaking the region". But again, it's risky and scaring the shit out of people must have seemed more certain to produce the desired level of political support for invading Iraq.

The funny thing is this: The route that the administration took in selling the invasion to the public created a false agenda, toppling Hussein and preventing proliferation of his mythical WMD. Once that rationale evaporated, the public's appetite for this process began to slip away.
There was no particular sense of purpose other than trying to get a bunch of people with deep-seated grudges against eachother to get their shit together so we can get the hell out.
And the sense that we have fucked this thing up from day one of the occupation just seems to hover over the whole mess.

If the administration had actually taken the country into Iraq with the expectation of a long-term plan to change the character of that region in order to push reform and (hopefully) reduce the region's tendency toward instability and violence, I think that the public's tolerance for a long term commitment would be very different today.

Personally, I think that the PNAC ideology is terribly flawed and naive. But I also didn't think the public would buy the WMD scam either. My point is that the administration, as much as they'd like to blame lefties or the press or Hollywood for the public's loss of stomach for the occupation, they can take most of the blame for themselves. They didn't prepare the public for this type of commitment in Iraq, which naturally makes me wonder if they were even prepared for it themselves. I think the public is wondering too.

Dam libruls are trying to ruin Christmas!!

2005-12-02T22:11:00.001-05:00

The usual suspects are back again to try to get some more mileage out of this entirely media created "controversy". Tom Tommorrow, in keeping with the spirit, recycles last year's comic that pokes fun at them.

Terrorist Spotting

2005-12-02T22:11:00.000-05:00

A bit of fun from Bob Harris

Pickled News

2005-11-30T13:49:00.000-05:00

From AP via Breitbart:

The U.S. military secretly paid Iraqi newspapers to plant favorable stories about its efforts to rebuild the country, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

The newspaper quoted unidentified officials as saying many of the stories in Iraqi newspapers are written by U.S. troops and while basically factual, sometimes give readers a slanted view of what is happening in Iraq. Some expressed fears that use of such stories could hurt the credibility of the U.S. military worldwide, the newspaper said.

And further down in the same piece:

The Times said documents it obtained showed Al Mutamar was paid about $50 to run a story with the headline "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism" on Aug. 6.

Luay Baldawi, Al Mutamar's editor in chief, said the articles have come to him via the Internet and are often unsigned.

"We publish anything," he said. "The paper's policy is to publish everything, especially if it praises causes we believe in. We are pro- American. Everything that supports America we will publish."

(emphasis added by me)

Liberated...

2005-11-29T16:49:00.000-05:00

From the New York Times:

Hundreds of accounts of killings and abductions have emerged in recent weeks, most of them brought forward by Sunni civilians, who claim that their relatives have been taken away by Iraqi men in uniform without warrant or explanation.

Some Sunni men have been found dead in ditches and fields, with bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills. Many have simply vanished.

Songs To Wear Pants To

2005-11-28T23:13:00.000-05:00

Weird fun:

"I make songs in any genre, for free or for money, based on instructions people send me.You can scroll down to read what some people have requested, and listen to the songs by clicking on their titles."

Nifty.

Mercenaries...

2005-11-28T07:43:00.000-05:00

TheTelegraph has a disturbing story alleging very serious misconduct on the part of private security guards working for the US military in Iraq. I continue to find it baffling that our military subcontracts so much of the work that it should (and used to) do for itself. It's a situation that's ripe for serious abuses.

A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis.

The elephant in the middle of Baghdad, part II

2005-11-27T23:42:00.000-05:00

From The Guardian:

Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam's regime.

Allawi's bleak assessment is likely to undermine any attempt to suggest that conditions in Iraq are markedly improving.

'We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated,' he added. 'A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations. We are even witnessing Sharia courts based on Islamic law that are trying people and executing them.'

He said that immediate action was needed to dismantle militias that continue to operate with impunity. If nothing is done, 'the disease infecting [the Ministry of the Interior] will become contagious and spread to all ministries and structures of Iraq's government', he said.

(emphasis mine)

Normalizing Torture

2005-11-27T17:49:00.000-05:00

Digby has a good post about the moral price of "normalizing" torture.

Feeling Blue...

2005-11-23T11:54:00.000-05:00

(courtesy of DailyKos)

Data here.

Politics blocking the exit

2005-11-23T11:41:00.000-05:00

"And so, on the most urgent question confronting America today, we have reached an absurd and exquisite equipoise. The Republicans cannot credibly defend the war; the Democrats cannot quite bring themselves to call for its end. And the war goes on."

More here..

Timing is everything..

2005-11-23T10:05:00.000-05:00

Well this is sort of funny. Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, has arranged for heating fuel to be sent to Massachusetts so that it can be distributed, at a discount, by two non profit organizations to assist needy residents this fall and winter. Now you know that the timing on this is just too funny. Remember, just a couple of weeks ago, American big oil companies were sitting in front of congress trying to justify their massive, record-breaking profits right after Katrina hit the Gulf region. Now Chavez bypasses the middle-man and looks like a hero to the working man. Love him or hate him, the guy knows how to work the room.

Winning the battle and losing the war...

2005-11-22T10:19:00.000-05:00

From the UK's Telegraph:

Millions of Iraqis believe that suicide attacks against British troops are justified, a secret military poll commissioned by senior officers has revealed.

The poll, undertaken for the Ministry of Defence and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, shows that up to 65 per cent of Iraqi citizens support attacks and fewer than one per cent think Allied military involvement is helping to improve security in their country.

It demonstrates for the first time the true strength of anti-Western feeling in Iraq after more than two and a half years of bloody occupation.

And...

The nationwide survey also suggests that the coalition has lost the battle to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, which Tony Blair and George W Bush believed was fundamental to creating a safe and secure country.

Results?

• Forty-five per cent of Iraqis believe attacks against British and American troops are justified - rising to 65 per cent in the British-controlled Maysan province;

• 82 per cent are "strongly opposed" to the presence of coalition troops;

• less than one per cent of the population believes coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security;

• 67 per cent of Iraqis feel less secure because of the occupation;

• 43 per cent of Iraqis believe conditions for peace and stability have worsened;

• 72 per cent do not have confidence in the multi-national forces.

More here...

Another way 'round

2005-11-21T14:09:00.000-05:00

Alter has a good piece up at Newsweek about the dire need for a real debate about how best to end our occupation in Iraq. Here's a snippet:

we should be holding a big national debate about whether the presence of U.S. troops reduces the insurgency or fuels it, whether timetables for withdrawal embolden the terrorists or motivate Iraqi forces to perform better. Instead of cut-and-run versus more-of-the-same, we need a few imaginative "Third Way" alternatives. (The GOP's hastily called vote on more-timely progress reports from Iraq doesn't qualify.) Maybe they won't bear scrutiny, but why not give them a look?

I couldn't have said it better myself. This is what needs to be happening right now. Fingerpointing may be fun and politically expedient at times, but it's also a waste of time right now. We need substantive discussion and debate on how to close the deal on this thing. It's too important to fuck around with for the sake of politics:

The stakes in Iraq are higher than in Southeast Asia 40 years ago. Failure would give Al Qaeda a huge base from which to kill us. But for now it looks as if we'll keep sinking in the quicksand, with no consensus, no substantive debate and no end to the finger-pointing. It's almost enough to make you nostalgic for Vietnam.

It's time to shake off the paralysis and wake up to the fact that, Republican or Democrat, we're all screwed if this thing goes completely down the shitter.

The Man Who Sold The War

2005-11-20T11:11:00.000-05:00

Rolling Stone has an interesting article on the smokey back room shennanigans behind the PR campaign that sold the public on the Iraq invasion scheme.

Douchebags on Parade

2005-11-19T09:47:00.000-05:00

As I watched the GOP troop withdrawal resolution stunt unfolding last night, it hit me just how disfunctional and pointless congress has become in the last several years. Certainly we must be witnessing some sort of peak (god, I hope so) in the levels of partisan bullshitting that has been passing for representation. What should be happening right now, and prompted by Murtha's resolution, is a debate. The public needs for this debate to take place. We need a vigorous discussion about the merits of troop withdrawal vs. continued indefinite deployment in Iraq. But this debate can't take place because congress doesn't opperate that way anymore apparently. Our legislative branch has deteriorated into a partisan mosh pit where the two parties to try to out maneuver and out spin eachother. Politcs, not governing, is the number one priority for our Representatives and Senators. As a result, issues aren't debated and voted upon based on their merits, they're simply political 2 x 4's used to bludgeon the hell out of "the opposition".
Last night's troop withdrawal resolution introduced in the House couldn't be a better example of how lame and repugnant congress has become. Was Murtha's resolution debated on it's merits? Hell no. An alternative, cynical bullshit resolution was voted upon instead, simply for the purpose of trying to squeeze the Democrats into an uncomfortable political position. Hey, fuck the troops, fuck the public (who are doing the paying and the dying), fuck you all! We're busy politicking here.

Big government contracts+no oversight = abuse

2005-11-17T08:20:00.000-05:00

Undocumented foreign workers who were hired to assist with post-Katrina clean-up are getting screwed by KBR. Wow, it used to be you had to go to a lot of effort to become an abused, undocumented worker in the US. I guess KBR really is all about getting the job done more efficiently.

Neo-Napalm

2005-11-16T23:08:00.001-05:00

From CBC news:

A spokesman for the U.S. military has admitted that soldiers used white phosphorus as an "incendiary weapon" while trying to flush out insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Fallujah last year.

..and:

An unknown number of Iraqi women and children died of phosphorus burns during the hostilities, Italian documentary makers covering the battle for Fallujah have claimed.

..and, of course:

Venable's comments could expose the United States to allegations that it has been using chemical weapons in Iraq.

The suspicion that former president Saddam Hussein was developing chemical weapons, as well as biological and nuclear ones, was one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the 2003 invasion of the Persian Gulf country.

And they said irony was dead...

And the hits, they just keep on coming...

2005-11-16T22:20:00.000-05:00

Jebus! Is there ANY part of this Iraq adventure that doesn't just stink to high heaven?

WASHINGTON - A criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Washington on Wednesday alleges a web of corruption and bid rigging in Iraq by officials who worked with the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led agency that ran Iraq for more than a year after the 2003 invasion.

More here...

The Elephant in the Middle of Baghdad

2005-11-16T14:30:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I read this, from MSNBC:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Conditions — including the use of torture — at a secret Baghdad detention facility run by the Iraqi Interior ministry were so “horrific” that some of the scores of men held there “looked like Holocaust survivors” when they were found, NBC News has learned.

..and furthur down in the article:

Interior Ministry officials acknowledged that the abused men were mostly Sunni Arabs. They said the abusers were Shiite police officers loyal to the Badr Organization militia. Hadi al-Amery, the head of the Badr Organization, denied any involvement, the New York Times reported.

I was immediately reminded of this article that I read in the Washington Post, back in August of this year:

BASRA, Iraq -- Shiite and Kurdish militias, often operating as part of Iraqi government security forces, have carried out a wave of abductions, assassinations and other acts of intimidation, consolidating their control over territory across northern and southern Iraq and deepening the country's divide along ethnic and sectarian lines, according to political leaders, families of the victims, human rights activists and Iraqi officials.

The Post article goes on to describe what I think is the most serious problem that will undermine US and Iraqi efforts to create a stable society in Iraq. The fractious nature of the social and political situation there is what will screw the pooch. While elections and constitutions look great in headlines and make for some nice phot-ops, transparent and accountable government with protection for political and social minorities are fundamental to a free society. And it doesn't count if it's only on paper. If Iraqis can't find they have more loyalty to their nation than they do to their sect, ethnic group, and/or political party, The whole business of creating a "free society" there is DOA. What they'll end up with is a nasty civil war, possibly followed by another strongman government that emerges as the only thing that can quell the instability. Then we end up right back where we started. This is the elephant sitting in the middle of Baghdad. Why aren't we talking about this?

A Treacherous Trend

2005-11-16T08:56:00.002-05:00

Newsweek International Edition has a good piece about the decline of the middle class worldwide. I think the concluding paragraph hits the point home nicely:

Just as growth does not necessarily translate into greater equity, poverty does not always translate into impotence. If we allow the ranks of the most economically vulnerable to grow, then the pain will be felt all across the economic continuum. And we among the privileged of the world need to recognize that even if, as Deng Xiaoping once said, "to be rich is glorious," giving others the chance to simply be comfortable and offer a better future for their children is the bedrock upon which our collective futures must be built.

So many of our current problems around the world really end up boiling down to the have-nots vs. the haves. We're obviously the "haves", and the ranks of "have-nots" in the developing world are growing. Improving global security is ultimately going to depend on economic prosperity and opportunity, not how many radical fighters we manage to kill or detain. In my opinion, addressing this worldwide slide of the middle class needs to be a part of the effort to stop terrorism.

Our Nation's Finest Scientific Minds At Work

2005-11-14T23:10:00.000-05:00

The dillgent lads at MIT have been burning the midnight oil, testing the tinfoil hat's effectiveness against those pesky government mind control rays:

It has long been suspected that the government has been using satellites to read and control the minds of certain citizens. The use of aluminum helmets has been a common guerrilla tactic against the government's invasive tactics [1]. Surprisingly, these helmets can in fact help the government spy on citizens by amplifying certain key frequency ranges reserved for government use. In addition, none of the three helmets we analyzed provided significant attenuation to most frequency bands.

They share their research with us and it's pretty thorough, testing three different foil hat designs: The Fez, The Centurion, and for the purist, The Classical...

More fun here...

Big Oil's message to the consumer: Bend over, this will only hurt for a minute

2005-11-14T22:06:00.000-05:00

The big oil companies basically whistled and shuffled their feet when asked by the Senate to explain their record profits generated during a period of national disaster following Hurricane Katrina:

Oil profits "go up and down," Exxon Mobil Chairman Lee Raymond told the Senate the other day, explaining why the oil giants' huge post-Katrina profits were not profiteering.

Thus the $32.8 billion in profits that America's five biggest petroleum corporations reported for the July-September quarter were more like a natural occurrence -- that darned "invisible hand"! -- than a calculated effort to take advantage of a national emergency. Profits just "go up and down."

Oil executives want you to understand that their post-Katrina price gouging (which resulted in staggering profits) was really all for our own good:

But if prices were raised to cover additional costs, whence the record profits?

Well, Raymond had a secondary explanation: Three-dollar-a-gallon gasoline reduced demand and helped to regulate the market. That's why you didn't see those long lines at gas stations. Reducing consumption also reduces reliance on oil imports and, though he didn't say it, probably reduces hydrocarbon emissions and slows global warming -- all good stuff.

What could be more American than the unfettered capitalism demonstrated by Big Oil? Consider this, what I think is the column's best point:

There is also another way to respond to a national disaster, and lots of individuals, organizations -- even entire towns -- found it. I mean the response of sacrifice. Americans opened their hearts, their wallets and their homes to Katrina's victims. Where is the record of Big Oil's selfless largess? As Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told the oil executives: "Your sacrifice, gentlemen, appears to be nothing."

Maybe the notion of corporate sacrifice -- the very idea of the corporate citizen -- is dying, giving way to the bottom line as the only thing worthy of serious attention.

Indeed.

Veterans Day

2005-11-12T23:37:00.000-05:00

"Dulce Et Decorum Est"
(It is sweet and dignified to die for your country)
by Wilfrid Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through
sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

America and Child Poverty

2005-11-11T14:09:00.000-05:00

Among wealthy nations, the US has the highest percentage of it's children living in poverty. We also spend the least among these nations on social welfare. The nations that spend the most, have the lowest percentage of children living in poverty. Here's a look at a 2004 "Economic Snapshot" from Economic Policy Institute:

The United States stands out as the country with the lowest expenditures and the highest child poverty rate — five times as much as the Nordics.

The paucity of social expenditures addressing high poverty rates in the United States is not due to a lack of resources — high per capita income and high productivity make it possible for the United States to afford much greater social welfare spending. Moreover, other OECD countries that spend more on both poverty reduction and family-friendly policies have done so while maintaining competitive rates of productivity and income growth.

Here in the US, we've been living with the meme of "government is worthless" for so long that many of us think of it as a given. Are we ready to re-think this position? Recently we've had the misfortune of seeing, in disturbing detail, the price we pay when we trivialize the role of government in improving and protecting the lives of its citizens. And plainly, we have walked away from the notion that government has a significant role to play in the alleviation of poverty in our nation. Clearly we pay a price for this. But are we ready to grapple with an honest discussion of the role of government and the price (and I'm talking dollars here, not just intangibles) society pays when that role is reduced to what amounts to a bit part?

John Edwards Is Asking America To Make Tackling Poverty A Priority

2005-11-11T10:12:00.000-05:00

From Bob Moser's Piece in The Nation:

"In a country of our wealth, to have 37 million people living in poverty? It's a huge moral issue," he says. "There's a hunger in this country for a sense of national community, that we're not in this thing by ourselves. There's been a long period of selfish thinking. I think there's a great opportunity for us to be about a big, moral cause that's bigger than people's own self-interest."

John Edwards is now the director of the Center of Poverty, Work, and Opportunity at UNC, Chaple Hill's law school. They have a website that details their mission.

Home, Sweet Home...

2005-09-15T07:33:00.000-05:00

The Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft captured several stunning images of Earth during a gravity assist swingby of its home planet on Aug. 2, 2005. Several hundred images, taken with the wide-angle camera in MESSENGER’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), were sequenced into a movie documenting the view from MESSENGER as it departed Earth.

For some additional fun, check out Fourmilab's site, which allows you to look at views of Earth from dozens of different satellites.

Purpose

2005-09-14T21:14:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been mulling over the idea of national goals. I haven't really considered it before actually. What happens when a nation or society has no unifying goals? If you look at the US' recent history, you can see that we seemed to thrive when we had a sense of common purpose. In the 30's we were trying to get through the Depression. In the 40's, it was WWII. In the 50's and 60's it was defeating the commies and the space program. Look at the 70's though. It was a period of disillusionment and drift. In the 80's we resurected the commies again, and we were trying to pull out of a recession. Since 1990 though...it's pretty much a void as far as any sort of unifying issue or purpose for the US. What seemed to take its place was a fractious divide between the left and the right. "The War On Terror" seemed like it might fill that void for a time, but the major players overplayed their hand and ended up just further exacerbating the ideological division within the US. I think the public is generally pretty cynical about the government's efforts, both overseas and domestically. The issue has been overly politicized and the public feels manipulated (with good reason, in my opinion). I'm beginning to feel that if a leader emerges with an agenda of goals for the US to accomplish (I'm talking real goals here, with deadlines and accountability) he or she could be very successful. I think that a people yearn for good leadership and want to know what they can do to help. Americans see themselves as "can do" people. If someone clever enough to recognize this comes along in '08, they could run away with the presidential race.
So what should America set as national goals? What do we want to fix, or improve about our society? I think the time is NOW to begin this discussion.

Filling the void

2005-09-13T15:25:00.000-05:00

A dirty little secret has been thrust into the spotlight recently. There are a lot of people in the US that are living below the poverty line. Tens of millions of Americans hover in poverty in one of the richest nations in the world. Here's a quote from a Newsweek article:

But after a decade of improvement in the 1990s, poverty in America is actually getting worse. A rising tide of economic growth is no longer lifting all boats. For the first time in half a century, the third year of a recovery (2004) also saw an increase in poverty. In a nation of nearly 300 million people, the number living below the poverty line ($14,680 for a family of three) recently hit 37 million, up more than a million in a year.

What does this cost society? We all know that entrenched poverty is responsible for a litany of social ills and wasted human potential. As a society, do we feel obligated to create structures that create avenues out of entrenched poverty? As far as class goes, things are pretty fluid for people who are working class, on up. But for large numbers of Americans, living below the poverty line becomes a trap that ensnares people for generations.
Government has sought to address the problem of poverty at various points in the 20th century, to varying degrees of success. In recent decades, these efforts have been derided as "social engineering" and have been roundly criticized as failures. However, some of these efforts have brought positive results:

Following the Gatreaux model in Chicago, the Clinton administration launched a "scatter-site" housing program in four cities that found homes for the poor in mixed-income neighborhoods. While the move doesn't much benefit adults, their children—confronted with higher expectations and a less harmful peer group—do much better. "It really helped in Atlanta," says Rep. John Lewis, a hero of the civil-rights movement.

Social welfare programs, both successful and otherwise, have been reduced or eliminated in recent years as the Bush administration continues to persue the conservative "personal responsibility" agenda. So government's role in attempting to diminish poverty has been reduced considerably over the years.

For me, the question is, what fills the void? Society is pretty secular and transient today. The pressures of religious or community obligation to care for or mentor people in the community who are less fortunate have largely evaporated. So what's left?

I think that we need to take another look at the boogyman of "social engineering". What's so bad about trying to engineer society? I think the American public needs to take a look at where it is, and really set some goals. Issues of poverty, education, class, and crime need to be discussed. Openly. What are the social institutions that can be a conduit for society's efforts to deal with its' problems and "engineer" a future where more people can find their way out of poverty and be productive members of society? Public education springs to mind immediately. Another avenue is community embracing the values of social responsibility.
We Americans love our independance and individuality. Those values are important but they need to be balanced with obligation to neighbor, friend, community, and society as a whole.

Crisis = Danger + Opportunity

2005-09-13T12:13:00.000-05:00

As I continue to digest the the images and stories that have emerged from the destruction in the the gulf coast region, I find myself pulled toward the subjects of community, society, and duty. What does it mean to be an American? To be part of a society or a community? What price do we pay when we abandon the ideals of duty to one's fellow man? Do we even believe in such a thing anymore?
I will be watching to see what impact the recent destruction and massive displacement of people will have on our culture. I think it could be pretty significant. I feel oddly optimistic, actually. Katrina has shattered our ideals of who we are.
Out of that destruction, something new can grow.
Crisis = danger + opportunity