The Staton Jones Report

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May 31, 2005

Romney Eats It

As expected, the Massachusetts Legislature promptly overrode Governor Romney's veto of the Stem Cell Research bill, and it wasn't even close. The veto was about politics, not policy. Good ol' GOP; they'll stay on message even as they head over a cliff.

The Massachusetts legislature on Tuesday swiftly overturned Gov. Mitt Romney's veto and approved a bill designed to propel Massachusetts to the forefront of embryonic stem cell research.

The bill immediately became law over Romney's objections, after both chambers exceeded the two-thirds vote needed to override a veto. The vote was 112 to 42 in the House and 35 to 2 in the Senate, four days after Romney's veto.

Way to go, Massachusetts!

In 2006, vote Pro-Cure.

Posted by at 09:58 PM | Comments (1)

The Last DC Secret

Former FBI offical Mark Felt, long a prime suspect as the WaPo informant Deep Throat, has 'fessed up. One of the longest-kept secrets in Washington has been broken.

I'm somewhat pleased that he broke it himself, and that he's still alive and can (if he so wishes) answer questions about the Watergate scandal and his role (and motivations) in bringing down the Nixon Administration. It's still an incompletely documented chapter, and an important one, in American history.

I'm somewhat disappointed that DT was not, as often suspected, someone still in power in DC; because it didn't seem possible that anyone out of the loop could stay protected and anonymous. But that's just being partisan and petty.

No comment yet from the WaPo, Woodward, Bernstein, or Bradlee.

Update: Woodward has confirmed. So have Bernstein and Bradlee. Can't get more official than that.

Posted by at 01:57 PM | Comments (1)

Soldiers of Christ

I've been telling everyone I know to read this article in Harper's. Well, they posted it on their website, so tuck in! I won't bother quoting from this piece ... the whole thing is just jaw-droppingly terrifying, you'll hardly believe what comes out of these guys' mouths.

Posted by Steven at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

Nader Calls for Impeachment of Bush

Today's Boston Globe is carrying an essay by Ralph Nader that calls for the beginnings of impeachment of Bush/Cheney.

THE IMPEACHMENT of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, under Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, should be part of mainstream political discourse.

Minutes from a summer 2002 meeting involving British Prime Minister Tony Blair reveal that the Bush administration was ''fixing" the intelligence to justify invading Iraq. US intelligence used to justify the war demonstrates repeatedly the truth of the meeting minutes -- evidence was thin and needed fixing.

President Clinton was impeached for perjury about his sexual relationships. Comparing Clinton's misbehavior to a destructive and costly war occupation launched in March 2003 under false pretenses in violation of domestic and international law certainly merits introduction of an impeachment resolution.

Eighty-nine members of Congress have asked the president whether intelligence was manipulated to lead the United States to war. The letter points to British meeting minutes that raise ''troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war." Those minutes describe the case for war as ''thin" and Saddam as ''nonthreatening to his neighbors," and ''Britain and America had to create conditions to justify a war." Finally, military action was ''seen as inevitable . . . But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

The president and vice president have artfully dodged the central question: ''Did the administration mislead us into war by manipulating and misstating intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to Al Qaeda, suppressing contrary intelligence, and deliberately exaggerating the danger a contained, weakened Iraq posed to the United States and its neighbors?"

If this is answered affirmatively Bush and Cheney have committed ''high crimes and misdemeanors." It is time for Congress to investigate the illegal Iraq war as we move toward the third year of the endless quagmire that many security experts believe jeopardizes US safety by recruiting and training more terrorists. A Resolution of Impeachment would be a first step. Based on the mountains of fabrications, deceptions, and lies, it is time to debate the ''I" word.

This will never happen, of course, but the President has decieved the nation and committed exactly the same kind of crime that the GOP did use to impeach Clinton. When will the GOP learn that everything evil they do will come around to bite them on the ass?

Posted by Steven at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

May 30, 2005

Foreclosure Rates Increasing

The Washington Post reports that mortgage foreclosures are increasing dramatically in the U.S., and particularly in Texas and Florida.

Philadelphia, its suburbs and indeed much of Pennsylvania have experienced a foreclosure epidemic as low-income homeowners take on mortgage debt they cannot afford. In 2000, the Philadelphia sheriff auctioned 300 to 400 foreclosed properties a month; now he handles more than 1,000 a month. Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, had record auctions of foreclosed homes, and officials speak of a "Depression-era" problem. The foreclosures fall particularly hard on black and Latino families.

For some American homeowners, the greatest housing boom in U.S. history has delivered riches. They repeatedly tap their homes for equity and use the cash to purchase granite countertops, a BMW, even a trip to the Super Bowl. But there's a dark side -- a sharp rise in foreclosures that is destroying the single greatest generator of personal wealth for most Americans.

Foreclosure rates rose in 47 states in March, according to Foreclosure.com, an online foreclosure listing service. The rates in Florida, Texas and Colorado are more than twice the national average. Even in New York City and Boston, where real estate markets are white-hot, foreclosures are rising in working-class neighborhoods.

As the housing market bubble collapses, all this debt, backed by nothing but inflated equity, will come crashing down around us and with the new GOP bankruptcy bill in place, no one will be able to escape the wave of disaster it will spread across the economy. It won't be a recession; it's a full-court depression waiting to happen. Buying a house today is insanity.

Posted by Steven at 04:36 PM | Comments (0)

Sleeping With The Enemy

The crackpots at the Diskuverry Institoot, increasingly desperate to have their drivel gain any respect, have resorted to deception. Tsk-tsk; I find their utter lack of faith disturbing. They've rented out a lecture hall at the Smithsonian -- a space available to the public -- in order to disseminate some of their propaganda, but have decided to spin it to appear that the Smithsonian endorses such mindrot.

Fossils at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History have been used to prove the theory of evolution. Next month the museum will play host to a film intended to undercut evolution.

The Discovery Institute, a group in Seattle that supports an alternative theory, "intelligent design," is announcing on its Web site that it and the director of the museum "are happy to announce the national premiere and private evening reception" on June 23 for the movie, "The Privileged Planet: The Search for Purpose in the Universe."

...

News of the Discovery Institute's announcement appeared on a blog maintained by Denyse O'Leary, a proponent of the intelligent design theory, who called it "a stunning development." But a museum spokesman, Randall Kremer, said the event should not be taken as support for the views expressed in the film. "It is incorrect for anyone to infer that we are somehow endorsing the video or the content of the video," he said.

The museum, he said, offers its Baird Auditorium to many organizations and corporations in return for contributions - in the case of the Discovery Institute, $16,000.

When the language of the Discovery Institute's Web site was read to him, with its suggestion of support, Mr. Kremer said, "We'll have to look into that."

He added, "We're happy to receive this contribution from the Discovery Institute to further our scientific research."

You Can't Spell "Idiot" Without "ID".

Posted by at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

Rummy's Lament

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has another problem: controlling the worldwide flow of information about his sloppy, mismanaged wars.

One of the military's new wartime challenges is dealing with global media that can instantly spread around the world information that may be false or damaging to U.S. interests, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday (May 25).

The United States needs to respond to anti-American messages with greater agility and speed if it is to win the ideological struggle with Islamic extremists, Rumsfeld said in a speech to members of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia.

No mention of, perhaps, you know, running the war in an intelligent manner with a real plan of conclusion, or being open with the public (domestic and international) about progress, or just wrapping things up. No no, things are going swimmingly, if only people would stop having access to opposing points of view.

Goddammit, just resign already, you incompetent hack.

"We'll need to develop considerably more sophisticated ways of using these new means of communication that are now available to reach the many and diverse audiences," he said.

Rumsfeld didn't delve deeply into specifics in his brief talk with members of the civic group. But in the recent past, news outlets have broadcast messages from terrorist groups, or reported stories that have fueled rage against Americans in the Muslim world.

Specifics? Never! That's not the Bushist way. Rhetoric, rhetoric, rhetoric.

He said U.S. officials must also deal with "a global Internet with universal access and no inhibitions, e-mail, cell phones, digital cameras wielded by anyone and everyone" and "a seemingly casual disregard for the protection of classified information, resulting in a near continuous hemorrhage of classified documents, to the detriment of the country."

Rummy knows casual disregard. It's how he thinks of any other human being.

Posted by at 01:32 AM | Comments (0)

Still Not Getting A Clue

Republican governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney vetoed a bill that would have expanded stem cell research in his state. Despite the enormous and promising potential that SCR holds for many devastating illnesses and conditions, growing popularity for such research in national polls, and increasing success overseas (and, to be certain, this writer doesn't care who comes up with various cures or therapies, but SCR is an expanding field which, to date, has been largely abandoned to other nations by the ideological bent of the sitting powers), and even despite the Massachusetts Legislature's vote being sufficient to override his veto, Romney stomped on it. How did this doofus become governor anyway? Ah well, at least it earned him GOP brownie points.

The Texas state legislature is farting around on whether to fund SCR, and unless and until funding is approved, lots of good jobs are being held in abeyance, and researchers may go elsewhere. Stupid, stupid, stupid ideologies are impeding good (or at least progressive and popular) governance.

Posted by at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

A New High

The very highest high, actually; an unbreakable record. Two weeks ago, a Eurocopter model Ecureuil/Astar AS350 B3 landed on the summit of Mt. Everest, an altitude of 8850 m (29,035 feet). And then did it again the following day just to ensure the record was repeatable (mid-May is the annual best window for summitting Everest, traditionally by climbing; it's when the weather is mildest, "mild" being a relative state six miles up). The summit is about the size of a generous living room, maybe 20 feet by 30 feet. Amazing in both the engineering and the performance. Technology marches onward.

Posted by at 12:41 AM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2005

Retirement Is For The Wealthy

Because they don't want anyone else enjoying it. Bad enough the GOP is trying to deep-six Social Security, using a concept ("plan"? hah!) that would load a few trillion to the national debt. Now the government is letting employers off the hook for pension plans (yay, more federal debt load), starting with United Airlines. What, the post-attacks handout these bozos got wasn't enough?

A bankruptcy judge in Chicago ruled Tuesday (May 11) that a federal agency can take over United Airlines' pension plans, allowing the carrier to walk away from nearly $10 billion in unfunded liabilities, the largest pension default in U.S. history.

It helps United clear one of the biggest financial hurdles in its 29-month effort to exit bankruptcy protection. The airline's pension funds are short $9.8 billion, but the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. will pick up only $6.6 billion of that, meaning current and former employees will lose more than $3 billion in retirement benefits.

My former employer would, on occasion, impose mandatory vacation usage over a quarter or two; this helped drain the vacation bank, which from the company's point of view is a huge liability. Not a terrible approach in general, though it could be a nuisance. Pfft; amateurs. United has now unloaded a $10 billion liability. Other major employers will sit up, take notice, and figure out how they can also exploit this. Olde-style pension plans are dying anyway -- I've never been near one -- but this will simply hasten the process. And whatever team of lawyers and executives at United managed to craft this plan, and get it through the courts, probably landed some huge bonuses for themselves.

Posted by at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)

Brooks: Karl's New Manifesto

David Brooks' surprisingly honest essay on the real underpinnings of Class War in America rings true to me.

The educated class has torn away from the family its sentimental veil and reduced it to a mere factory for the production of little meritocrats. Members of the educated elites are more and more likely to marry each other, which the experts call assortative mating, but which is really a ceaseless effort to refortify class solidarity and magnify social isolation. Children are turned into workaholic knowledge workers - trained, tutored, tested and prepped to strengthen class dominance.

The educated elites are the first elites in all of history to work longer hours per year than the exploited masses, so voracious is their greed for second homes. They congregate in exclusive communities walled in by the invisible fence of real estate prices, then congratulate themselves for sending their children to public schools. They parade their enlightened racial attitudes by supporting immigration policies that guarantee inexpensive lawn care. They send their children off to Penn, Wisconsin and Berkeley, bastions of privilege for the children of the professional class, where they are given the social and other skills to extend class hegemony.

The information society is the only society in which false consciousness is at the top. For it is an iron rule of any university that the higher the tuition and more exclusive the admissions, the more loudly the denizens profess their solidarity with the oppressed. The more they objectively serve the right, the more they articulate the views of the left.

As I and Mr. Jones both live in these Information Age communes, I know for a fact the sorry truths behind Brooks' commentary on current class war. The only thing missing is how the Information class uses religion to further it's control.

Posted by Steven at 05:56 PM | Comments (0)

Right Wing Foundation Closes Doors

the John M. Olin Foundation is closing its doors, ending a nearly $20M cash river that funded many a conservative organization.

Without it, the Federalist Society might not exist, nor its network of 35,000 conservative lawyers. Economic analysis might hold less sway in American courts. The premier idea factories of the right, from the Hoover Institution to the Heritage Foundation, would have lost millions of dollars in core support. And some classics of the conservative canon would have lost their financier, including Allan Bloom's lament of academic decline and Charles Murray's attacks on welfare.

Part Medici, part venture capitalist, the John M. Olin Foundation has spent three decades financing the intellectual rise of the right and exciting the envy of the left. Now the foundation is closing its doors. In telling the organization to spend his money within a generation, John M. Olin, a Midwestern ammunition and chemical magnate, sought to maximize his fortune's influence and keep it from falling into hostile - that is, liberal - hands.

In the budget offices of the right, the loss of Olin, though long anticipated, is bringing a stab of anxiety, as total annual giving of up to $20 million disappears from policy organizations, journals and academic aeries. Yet it is a measure of the foundation's success that the anxiety has not been greater. While a generation ago just three or four major foundations operated on the right, today's conservatism has no shortage of institutions, donors or brio.

Good fucking riddance.

Posted by Steven at 05:50 PM | Comments (0)

Mortgage Madness

How do you lease a home but get to call it a "mortgage"? Get a interest only loan from your friendly neighborhood mortgage bubble bank.

More than a third of the mortgages written in the Washington area this year are a risky new kind of loan that lets borrowers pay back only the interest, delaying for years repayment of any loan principal. Economists warn that the new loans are essentially a gamble that home prices will continue to rise at a brisk pace, allowing the borrower to either sell the home at a profit or refinance before the principal payments come due.

The loans are attractive because their initial monthly payments are tantalizingly low -- about $1,367 a month for a $320,000 mortgage, compared with about $1,842 a month for a traditional 30-year, fixed-rate loan. If home prices fall, though, borrowers could lose big.

"It's a game of musical chairs," said Allen J. Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy at the Consumer Federation of America. "Somebody is going to have the chair pulled out from under them when they find prices have leveled out and they try to sell, only to find they can't sell for what they paid for it."

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Economy.com, said buyers are turning to interest-only loans because real estate has become so expensive -- but that real estate is becoming so expensive partially because of the use of these new products.

"It largely reflects the inability of families to afford a home with a plain-vanilla mortgage," Zandi said. "This is a way for people to get into what are extremely expensive homes."

He said it also reflects "increasing speculation" that is occurring in the real estate market, as investors pursue interest-only loans "because they need to devote less resources to servicing this debt."

This is such an obvious indicator of a housing price bubble, it should be a required warning on the mortgage application.

"Warning: the financial product you are using will cause irreparable harm to your credit rating and the financial stablity of our nation. Close cover before striking."

Housing is too expensive for people to afford to live near work, to the point where they have to borrow yet never make a dent in the principal of the mortgage. In effect, they are renting from Fannie Mae and other mortgage banks. That's not the business these institutions should be in, and the borrowing against these inflated values means the debt that is "paid off" from them isn't really paid off.

In other words, our pooch is screwed the minute there is a panic selloff. Expect it soon.

Posted by Steven at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

May 27, 2005

Clinton Aide Found Not Guilty

A campaign aide to Hillary Clinton was found not guilty of fraudulently reporting campaign donations today in Los Angeles.

A federal jury here on Friday found a former top campaign official for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) not guilty of charges that he intentionally covered up the lavish costs of a 2000 celebrity fundraising gala.

David F. Rosen, Clinton's national finance director during her first Senate race, had faced up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted on two charges of lying to the government when he understated the event's costs by nearly $800,000 in filings to the Federal Election Commission. Rosen claimed the event's hosts misled him about their true expenses.

Though Clinton was not charged in the matter, and prosecutors repeatedly said they did not believe she was involved, the case had been closely watched by critics of the former first lady, especially at a time of heated speculation about her possible aspirations for a 2008 presidential run.

Rosen, a 38-year-old newlywed who said his Chicago consulting firm had lost all its clients since his indictment, expressed relief when the jury returned with an acquittal after six hours of deliberation.

"It was hard for me to hold back tears," he told the Associated Press. "It was the happiest moment, next to my marriage, in my life."

The Hillary haters were licking their chops over this, on the same day that a surprising statistic came out about Hillary:

Is Hillary an inevitability? That's the question sparked by a new Gallup poll, which shows that 53 percent of Americans would vote for the junior senator from New York if she ran for the White House in 2008. The poll marks the first time Gallup has found majority support for the idea of a Hillary Clinton presidential run.

According to the poll, as reported by USA Today, "29 percent were 'very likely' to vote for Clinton for president if she runs in 2008; 24 percent were 'somewhat likely.' Seven percent were 'not very likely' and 39 percent were 'not at all likely' to vote for her."

We'd like to finish with the hilarious quote from Judicial Watch about Hillary:

But officials with Judicial Watch, an organization that has long been critical of the Clintons, pledged to pursue the Rosen case further. The group recently asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate Clinton's role in the matter.

"Obviously, the Justice Department made a political calculation and decided not to pursue the case against Rosen aggressively," the group's director of litigation Paul J. Orfanedes said in a statement.

That's right, the Bush Judicial Department "made a political calculation" and decided to go light on Hillary. Give me a fricking break.

Posted by Steven at 11:47 PM | Comments (1)

May 26, 2005

Think Blue!

We don't do this often, but the sentiment is there.

	Think BLUE is selling blue wrist bands to promote the idea of Blue States spreading across America, even to the last place to go Blue, Texas (the animated US turning blue is both thrilling and chilling, as it ends in our home state).
Aw what the hell, the graphic is too good not to share with you here. This is our fantasy, but in the meantime, go here to get your bracelet.

Posted by Steven at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)

DeLay PAC Treasurer Indicted

The Washington Post is reporting that Bill Ceverha, treasurer of TRMPAC, violated Texas election code by not reporting $600,000 in income to the Texas Ethics Committee.

State District Judge Joe Hart, in a letter outlining his ruling to attorneys in the case, said the money, much of it corporate contributions, should have been reported to the Texas Ethics Commission.

The ruling means Bill Ceverha, treasurer of the group, called the Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee, will have to pay nearly $200,000. It will be divided among those who brought the suit against Ceverha, five Democratic candidates who lost legislative races in 2002.

The Democrats who sued TRMPAC claimed Ceverha violated the state election law, designed to keep elections free from "the taint of corporate cash."

The Democrats alleged that some $600,000 in corporate money was illegally used to influence Texas House races in 2002, the year Republicans won control of the House for the first time in 130 years.

I'm getting pretty tired of the "defense" that this is revenge from the Democrats. We're out of power, so the only weapon we have left is a strange little notion called "the Law" which, clearly, the GOP doesn't respect anymore.

How long is it going to take before the noose goes around DeLay's neck?

Posted by Steven at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)

Keeping the Nightmare Alive

If the Democrats take back the majority in Congress in 2006, followed by the Whitehouse in 2008, don't be too surprised if the stench of Bush's failed Iraq adventure still clings tenaciously to our foreign policy. Remember that a sizeable number of the Democrats in the Senate voted — on their own accord — to authorize the disaster, so someone or something must have convinced them it was a good idea. Even if the Republican majority dissapates, there will still be pressure on lawmakers to continue their support of Bush's agenda.

If this pressure comes from no one else, it will certainly come from the newly formed lobbying firm, The Ashcroft Group.

The Ashcroft group opened for business last week, offering its services to clients who want to promote agendas related to "homeland security." Former attorney-general, John Ashcroft, created the new firm with two other partners, David Ayres, his former chief of staff, and Juleanna Glover Weiss who... well, who seems to have slept with the entire Legion of Evil. Her husband, Jeffrey Petruzzello, works for Black, Kelly & Scruggs, the PR firm that helped criminal, and enemy agent, Ahmed Chalabi, campaign to have his Iraqi National Congress installed as the new Iraqi government. Luckily, that didn't happen, and Chalabi has had to settle control of Iraq's sole asset as head of its Oil Ministry.

So, instead of Black, Kelly & Scruggs, the new Iraqi regime is being represented by another firm, Clark & Weinstock. The person who actually handled this task was — well, look at that! — Juleanna Glover Weiss! Although she's leaving to start the Ashcroft Group, I'm sure that Juleanna will keep in close touch with her new pal, Rend al Rahjim, the Iraqi ambassador.

You might be thinking, "Isn't Petruzzello CEO of Qorvis, the PR firm which represents the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?" That's a common mistake. The CEO of Qorvis is Michael Petruzzello, Jeffrey's brother. I'm sure her brother-in-law helped Juleanna develop her noted friendship with Adel al Jubair, a close advisor to Saudi crown prince Abdallah.

With Juleanna's connections as their "secret weapon," The Ashcroft Group promises to become the leading firm lobbying on issues of Homeland Security. I mean, when you think of Homeland Security, what are the first things that spring to mind? That's right, Iraq and Saudi Arabia! Thanks to the Ashcroft group, Iraq and Saudia Arabia will be affecting American security, not just in their countries, but in ours as well, even after the Republicans leave office.

Look, you're so happy you're crying! How touching.

Posted by Winston Smith at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

A Monument to Monumental Stupidity

You may have seen Skates' Monday posting linking to a web site full of all sorts of anti-scientific bunk. You might as well get some amusement value from these sites, because there's a pretty low barrier of entry to the web. There will always be wingnut sites as long as there are wingnuts to craft them.

Physical sites are a different story. That takes work. That takes money.

When I read that someone is building a museum full of creationist exhibits in Northern Kentucky, it demonstrated the depth of conviction that some creationists possess. These beliefs are not even the dressed-up "Intelligent Design" version of creationism, even. In fact, these guys claim that Noah's ark was not only real but all the species of dinosaur were on it along with everything else.

None of this bullshit would have surprised me if the museum was going to be in a trailer, or some guy was "converting his home." Much to the contrary, it's going to be a $25 million attraction right over the border from Cincinnati, Ohio. It's already getting attention from prominent, successful wingnuts:

"When that museum is finished, it's going to be Cincinnati's No. 1 tourist attraction," says the Rev. Jerry Falwell, nationally known Baptist evangelist and chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. "It's going to be a mini-Disney World."

Actually, Falwell makes a good point. The museum will inform visitors about the origins of life on earth that people in much the same way that "Space Mountain" informs people about space travel. The new museum will present a world where humans and dinosaurs co-existed, which people should find every bit as convincing and realistic as Disney's depiction of a world where humans and cartoon characters co-exist.

The goal of the Disney parks was to create a place where people could escape the demands and challenges of day-to-day life and immerse themselves in a fantasy world; Disney knew that this was an attractive enough scenario that people would pay him money for providing it. I'm glad to see that Falwell has finally admitted the similarity between Disney's services and his.

Posted by Winston Smith at 11:06 AM | Comments (2)

May 25, 2005

Owen Moves to 5th Circuit Court

The Senate voted 56-43 to approve Bush's selection of Pricilla Owen to the 5th Circuit Court in New Orleans.

Before calling for the vote on Owen, Frist said she "has withstood an orchestrated partisan attack on her record" that has included "continuous and sometimes vicious criticism." He described Owen as "a distinguished mainstream jurist."

Democrats denounced her as an "extremist" who has sought to use the bench to advance right-wing political views, regardless of legal precedents.

As the debate raged, critics of Owen pointed to a poll issued last week by the Houston Bar Association, which reported that its members rated Owen as the worst of the six Texas Supreme Court justices. The poll, in which attorneys rated justices on several criteria, found that 45.3 percent of the responding lawyers who had practiced before Owen considered her "poor" overall, compared to 39.5 percent who said she was "outstanding" and 15.2 percent who deemed her "acceptable."

Owen's rating was the worst (46.3 percent "poor") of the six on the question of whether her opinions were well-reasoned, clearly written and properly applied the law. She was rated second worst (48.8 percent "poor") on the question of whether she was "impartial and open-minded with respect to determining the legal issues."

I still think the 7x7 compromise will turn out to be like the "deal" offered by Darth Vader to Lando Calrissian. This woman is wildly unqualified so of course Bush nominated her twice. Why anyone thinks he chooses people based on their skill is beyond me.

Posted by Steven at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2005

The Earth Is Not Moving

Leave it to our good friend Mike W. to locate yet another fabulous example of anti-Science. He must have a nose for this stuff!

The Earth is not rotating...nor is it going around the sun.

The universe is not one ten trillionth the size we are told.

Today’s cosmology fulfills an anti-Bible religious plan disguised as "science".

The whole scheme from Copernicanism to Big Bangism is a factless lie.

Those lies have planted the Truth-killing virus of evolutionism in every aspect of man’s "knowledge" about the Universe, the Earth, and Himself.

The list of technology that these guys can't explain would go on for pages, given their model of the Universe. Warning: their site is rather hard on the rationalist's stomach.

Posted by Steven at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

Tillman's Parents: Bush Used Our Son

The Washington Post is reporting that Pat Tillman, the football player who joined the Army in Afganistan and was killed in "friendly fire", was used by the Bush Administration as a pawn in the propoganda of the war.

Former NFL player Pat Tillman's family is lashing out against the Army, saying that the military's investigations into Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan last year were a sham and that Army efforts to cover up the truth have made it harder for them to deal with their loss.

More than a year after their son was shot several times by his fellow Army Rangers on a craggy hillside near the Pakistani border, Tillman's mother and father said in interviews that they believe the military and the government created a heroic tale about how their son died to foster a patriotic response across the country. They say the Army's "lies" about what happened have made them suspicious, and that they are certain they will never get the full story.

"Pat had high ideals about the country; that's why he did what he did," Mary Tillman said in her first lengthy interview since her son's death. "The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting."

Now if only Jessica Lynch would come forward and point out how her driving accident was twisted into a tale to further the war effort, we'd start seeing more calls for inquiries into this war, instead of the head-up-the-ass stubborness that we've all suffered through so far.

Posted by Steven at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)

Fox News in "Death Spiral" Ratings Plunge

Finally some good news about Fox News. Several sources confirm that Fox News' viewership is plunging, down to under 500K from over 1M in Oct. 2004.

April '05 marks "the sixth consecutive month where FNC declined versus prior month in M-F, primetime P25-54 (every month since Nov '04)," CNN's press release says. The 25-54 demo is coveted by advertisers. One insider called it a "downward spiral." FNC still has more demo viewers than CNN, though (443k vs. 304k in April). Here are FNC's month-by-month weekday primetime averages in the 25-54 demographic:

• Oct. 04: 1,074,000
• Nov. 04: 891,000
• Dec. 04: 568,000
• Jan. 05: 564,000
• Feb. 05: 520,000
• March 05: 498,000
• April 05: 445,000

Also: In April 2005, FNC's weekday primetime demo average decreased 25% compared to the year-ago, while CNN increased 27%.

Looks like the newspeak filters are failing -- time to launch more orbital mind control satellites.

Posted by Steven at 12:44 PM | Comments (1)

May 22, 2005

At Least "Dr." Science Only Wanted To Move To His "New Science" Methodology

Granted, the seer from Duck's Breath Mystery Theater was a quack, but at least he had direction. Preznit Bush wants to do away with science and technology altogether, unless it can be used to kill heathens.

Down With Science!

President Bush has condemned stem cell research advances in South Korea and said he worried about living in a world in which human cloning was condoned. He said he would veto any legislation aimed at loosening limits on federal support in the United States.

"I'm very concerned about cloning," Bush told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. "I worry about a world in which cloning becomes acceptable."

While I fully endorse any R&D plan that doesn't inflict copies of any Bush scion on the rest of us, the entire cloning angle is pointless. SCR is aimed at curing afflictions, not some Dr. Evil nonsense. (Not that cloning wouldn't be interesting stuff as well.) Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancers, diabetes, the list of conditions that could be attacked is long indeed.

"I made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers' money to promote science which destroys life in order to save life is I'm against that. And therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it."

Exactly what has all the monies poured into Iraq achieved yet, besides endless promotion of a Culture Of Death?

Republicans in Congress are sharply divided over the stem cell issue, which could lead to the first veto of Bush's presidency. The president's comments were aimed at putting the brakes on a bill gaining momentum on Capitol Hill.

Does everyone know that this fraction of a man has never yet vetoed a bill? Hasn't yet met the spending measure he didn't like.

That bill would lift Bush's ban on using federal dollars to do research on embryonic stem cell lines developed after August 2001. The president's veto threat drew immediate reaction from sponsors of the bipartisan bill, Reps. Mike Castle, R-Del., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo.

Castle said the legislation would not allow the cloning of embryos or embryo destruction. Instead, it would let government-funded researchers work with stem cells culled from embryos left over from fertility treatments.

"The bottom line is when a couple has decided to discard their excess embryos, they are either going to be discarded as medical waste or they can be donated for research," Castle said.

DeGette protested too. "It's disappointing that the president would threaten to use his first veto on a bill that holds promise for cures to diseases that affect millions of Americans," DeGette said. "Support for expanding federal stem cell research in an ethical manner remains strong in Congress."

Even in these dark and ignorance-rising times, science can shine through. People tend to support anything that promises relief to the pains of themselves and their loved ones -- God knows there's been more than enough snake oil sold throughout the ages. SCR really does hold enormous promise for real cures and mediative therapies. But, heck, polls clearly stating that 82% of Americans were against federal interference in the Terri Schiavo case were used to support that interference, so the spinning is shameless, and will continue to be.

Talking point to throw at people: "Stem cell research could have saved Terri Schiavo." See what happens.

Bush began Friday at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast where he reaffirmation his position on sensitive issues such as abortion and stem cell research. He urged people to "pray that America uses the gift of freedom to build a culture of life." And he recalled the legacy of the late Pope John Paul II, saying "The best way to honor this great champion of human freedom is to continue to build a culture of life where the strong protect the weak."

I maintain: death is a natural and inevitable part of life (the very last part, of course). Holding any dialogue on "life issues" without including the death aspect is disingenuous, short-sighted, and stupid. It's very sad that too many of us, particularly those in power, are as yet far too immature to deal with death. (They're pretty good at dealing death, which is a different topic, one with a long and inexplicably proud history.)

Citing JP2, who roundly condemned the Iraq war, is just another cheap political move, but one that tickles the cockles of the black and stony hearts of the religious right puppetmasters.

Talking point: "Move past His death. Start living His life."

Posted by at 09:13 AM | Comments (2)

America Sunk

Yes, America is sunk. OK, it's the U.S.S. America, decommissioned since 1996, but the metaphor is blinding.

The retired aircraft carrier USS America is on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, sunk by the Navy in a series of explosive tests that upset some veterans.

The 84,000-ton, 1,048-foot warship that served the Navy for 32 years rests about 60 miles off the coast and more than 6,000 feet down, according to Pat Dolan, a spokeswoman for Naval Sea Systems Command.

Dolan said the America went down May 14, finally flooded after the series of explosions over 25 days. No announcement was made at the time.

Waitaminnit; 84 thousand tons, much of which is steel? And it was sunk? Makes me feel silly and stupid, recycling cans from soup and cat food.

Posted by at 09:06 AM | Comments (1)

May 21, 2005

Gonzales Proves He Can Lie On Camera, Too

Alberto Gonzales' famous assessment of Bush judicial nominee Owens is his political Achilles' Heel, but he went on camera this week to stump for Owens and prove he can shill with the best of them.

Gonzales weighed in on the issue yesterday, saying at a news conference that his position in the Texas case has been mischaracterized and that he strongly supports Owen. One of Gonzales's lieutenants made similar arguments in an unusual letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

"I think that there's a lot of misinformation about this," Gonzales said at the National Press Club. "I would not have recommended her to the president if I didn't fully support her."

But Gonzales's comments are unlikely to settle the issue, in part because he has offered a variety of explanations for the opinion and because the comment remains useful fodder for Democrats. Paul Rosenzweig, a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, called the quotation "a convenient debater's point. I expect you will continue to hear it used repeatedly."

'an unconscionable act of judicial activism' - Gonzales

In case you missed it the first time: he's a lying sack of shit. Oh, and the Attorney General.

Posted by Steven at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2005

Take The Test!

The Pew Research Center has an online test to determine where your political, social, and cultural stripes lie. Generally it's a blue/red (never say "red/blue"; always say "blue/red") thing, but there's more nuance and detail than that. It's a bit of fun. Go, do. Please, post your typology results in the comments.

I nailed "liberal" when I took it.

Posted by at 05:12 AM | Comments (4)

Kansas, Filled With Irony

This is a magnificent blog post about the ancient and fossil-rich chalk resources in Kansas and some of the tiny, misdirected humans who walk above it. The creationists and IDers can rant all they want; their arguments have no legs upon which to stand. Creationism is a slightly interesting story, but it's not science -- it's nowhere near science -- and it doesn't belong in any worthwhile educational curriculum outside of a theology department.

The truth will triumph.

Posted by at 04:25 AM | Comments (1)

What's In A Name?

The Social Security Administration, when not being coerced into partisan politics, compiles statistics on the top 1000 personal names for newborns filed for SS numbers by calendar year. The SSA provides a search engine, which can be good for a few minutes of amusement, actually. Note the 2004 Top 10 list; no block quote this time, as we add line-item comments on the males Top 10 list, in relation to appearing in the Bible.

1. Jacob -- in Genesis and a lot more;
2. Michael -- shows up a couple of times, including as an archangel;
3. Joshua -- entire Old Testament book;
4. Matthew -- entire New Testament book;
5. Ethan -- shows up a little bit;
6. Andrew -- all over the Matthew, Mark, Luke & John gospels;
7. Daniel -- entire Old Testament book;
8. William -- no
9. Joseph -- several times, including Genesis ("technicolor dreamcoat") and the MML&J gospels as Mary's husband;
10. Christopher -- doesn't appear anywhere, but the root is pretty obvious.

One out of the Top 10 doesn't appear anywhere in the book (well, two, but Christopher is a giveaway). And there's more Bible referents in the next 10, and so on. All of which is fine; it's still quite the popular book, some families have naming traditions, there's plenty of reasons why these names bubbled to the top in recent years. These Top 10 names may not have been so popular last year (and in preceeding years) deliberately because of the Bible, but the influence at some point in the past is clear.

So, two points to consider.

One, despite assorted caterwauling from various fronts, there's still a majority -- a significant majority -- in the US that is grounded, however deeply or tenuously, in general Christianity; at least among those who have borne a son in the past year. (I didn't review the female Top 10 list because I was certain "Madison" didn't represent in the Bible; in fact, it doesn't.)

Two, these people, at least to some degree, like Social Security, enough so to file on behalf of their children, who are at least 64 years away from gaining retirement benefits.

So, if you voted for the current in-power party based upon their projected image of faith and are in favor of Social Security, you should feel very, very deceived.

If you were voted for based upon your projected image of faith and are still trying to dismantle Social Security, you should feel very, very ashamed, enough so to resign (or take the historical Other Way Out).

Not that someone of either potential group is reading this.

Edit 5/20: added the SSA search engine link (correctly, that is).

Posted by at 03:49 AM | Comments (1)

May 19, 2005

Why Does This Woman Get To Choose Who Gets Sex Ed?

A Mormon stay-at-home mom is distorting the sex education of a Maryland school district, all to satisfy her own selfish interests in keeping her children hopelessly clueless about human sexuality, all in the name of religion.

Michelle Turner, mother of four public school students in Montgomery County, said it is her job, her responsibility, her life's purpose to shield her sons and daughters from corrupting influences. And the world, in her view, is teeming with them.

Which was why she decided long ago to be a stay-at-home mom; preserving "strong, traditional family values" and raising her children "to be good people" is a full-time undertaking, she said. It demands tireless vigilance.

The Turners' devout beliefs used to hold sway only around the dinner table, where the family gathers nightly for meals. Then Turner, 50, helped organize, and became president of, Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, one of two groups that recently succeeded in derailing, at least temporarily, the Montgomery school board's plan to revise sex education in eighth and 10th grades.

The board wants to foster discussions of homosexuality, portraying same-sex attraction as natural and involuntary for gay people, as something that is common and acceptable. But Turner and other opponents said science has not proved that homosexuality is genetic, that more likely it's a choice. They said that the curriculum ought to present their beliefs, as well, and that students should be taught that it is possible to avoid, or to get out of, the gay lifestyle.

How the revised curriculum deals with sexual identities, abstinence, condom use and other issues appears headed for months of debate by the two sides, including in court, where the sex-ed plan is the subject of a lawsuit by Turner's group and the Virginia-based Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, which has chapters nationwide. While the dispute continues, officials said, the curriculum will stay shelved at least through December.

Why do the self-righteous assholes have to make everyone else conform to their bizarre, and frankly, unhealthy, world view?

Posted by Steven at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)

Republican Spending Priorities: $1.5 Million Bus Stop

While Americans have to find creative ways to fund the purchase of proper armor for our troops in Iraq, the Republican party has found better uses for our tax dollars. No, it's not another bonus for Halliburton! It's a $1.5 million bus stop.

Disgusted yet?

Posted by Winston Smith at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2005

Widely Spotted: Frist Making an Ass of Himself

Today's GOP gaffe du jour has to be Sen. Bill Frist being confronted by Sen. Schumer over voting to fillibuster a Clinton judicial appointee back in 2000.

This morning on the floor of the Senate, Sen. Chuck Schumer asked Majority Leader Bill Frist a simple question:

SEN. SCHUMER: Isn’t it correct that on March 8, 2000, my colleague [Sen. Frist] voted to uphold the filibuster of Judge Richard Paez?

Here was Frist’s response:

The president, the um, in response, uh, the Paez nomination - we’ll come back and discuss this further. … Actually I’d like to, and it really brings to what I believe - a point - and it really brings to, oddly, a point, what is the issue. The issue is we have leadership-led partisan filibusters that have, um, obstructed, not one nominee, but two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, in a routine way.

These guys apparently don't think we're watching them at all anymore.

Posted by Steven at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)

Galloway Rips Senator a New One

Hear hear! Watch Mr. George Galloway, (MP) of the UK stick it to Sen. Coleman today. You'll never hear the whole Iraq enchilada laid out more succinctly, and less damningly, than by this superb speaker and (IMHO) fine gentleman.

(The link is a Real Audio file that streams at 128Kbps.)

Posted by Steven at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)

I Like Ike

In all the wrangling over the "nuclear option" it's important to keep in mind that power grabs have always been a part of the GOP agenda. Ironically, Ike warned us about this long ago:

Now it is true that I believe this country is following a dangerous trend when it permits too great a degree of centralization of governmental functions. I oppose this--in some instances the fight is a rather desperate one. But to attain any success it is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything--even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon "moderation" in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas.⁵ Their number is negligible and they are stupid.

Kudos to Paul C. for sharing this with us.

Posted by Steven at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

Cry For Us Argentina

What happens when the right and left wing stop arguing about the economy and agree? No one pays any attention whatsoever. Bush is driving us deeper into debt and he's doing it faster than even Reagan. This is bad.

The timing could not have been more apt. On the eve of a titanic partisan clash in the Senate, eggheads of the left and right got together yesterday to warn both parties that they are ignoring the country's most pressing problem: that the United States is turning into Argentina.

Read more here.

Posted by Winston Smith at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

Living In A Car Nation

America's love affair with the motor vehicle continues unabated. And, eventually, it will "progress" to unrequited. For all the resources put into making cars and trucks and such -- and to be certain, affordable personal transportation (powered by cheap energy) was one of the defining influences of the 20th century -- we sure do a miserable and wretched job of engineering the flow of traffic.

Sitting in traffic, an annoying part of life in many big cities, is becoming a major headache in places not usually lumped in with New York, Washington and Los Angeles.

Take Omaha, Neb. Each year, motorists in one of the country's most wide-open states spend the equivalent of nearly a full day in highway gridlock, according to the annual Urban Mobility Report released ... by the Texas Transportation Institute.

Omaha is among a growing list of metropolitan areas where drivers are delayed at least 20 hours a year. There are 51 such places now, compared to just five in 1982. Among some of the newer entries: Colorado Springs, Colo.; Virginia Beach, Va.; Charleston, S.C.; New Haven, Conn.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Salt Lake City; and Cincinnati.

"That's where the growth is," said Tim Lomax, one of the report's co-authors. "The medium cities are about 10-15 years behind the big cities."

And 10-15 years is about how long it takes to complete transportation projects that reduce congestion, Lomax said.

I've lived in Austin for 15 years, and have watched the major thoroughfares grow in a futile attempt to meet traffic demand. Where once there was only one huge, flyover-style interchange, there are now four, with a fifth on the verge of opening (the one people have waited for the longest and with the greatest anticipation). The airport has moved, the economy boomed and busted, and traffic continues to increase. By the time many huge projects are finished (if ever), they'll be outdated; the major flow vectors will have changed. Traffic is like gas; it expands to fill the space available. Now the city council is proposing toll roads, including placing tolls on existing, paid-for roads, though that concept isn't getting much happy response.

We don't just need more and bigger roads; we need a national and cultural change in attitude, and better planning and traffic engineering.

The numbers, from 2003 data, reflect a long-established trend of people moving to the suburbs for more affordable housing and space. The report concluded that urban areas aren't adding enough roads, improving traffic operations or managing demand well enough to keep pace with the societal changes.

The result is clogged highways, and the king of that road nightmare is Los Angeles, where motorists are delayed an average of 93 hours a year. San Francisco was next with 72 hours, followed by Washington (69 hours), Atlanta (67 hours) and Houston (63 hours).

In the 85 urban areas studied, rush-hour drivers spent three times as much time stuck in traffic in 2003 — 47 hours — than they did in 1982, the study found.

...

Overall in 2003, there were 3.7 billion hours of travel delay and 2.3 billion gallons of wasted fuel for a total cost of more than $63 billion. Congestion delayed travelers 79 million more hours and wasted 69 million more gallons of fuel in 2003 than in 2002.

Lomax offered a gloomy forecast for relieving congestion: lots more money or a weak economy that takes people off the roads.

Yeah, how's that national energy policy working out for everyone?

Posted by at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)

May 17, 2005

Do It Yourself Army

While the Federal Government is busy spending its money on bonuses for Haliburton, soldiers are still dying for lack of proper equipment. The state of Oklahoma has taken some positive steps to protect their National Guard troops: the Patriot Plate is a special license plate being offered to raise funds for soldiers' body armor.

Meanwhile, enterprising troops in the "Fighting 69th" Infantry Regiment have started using toy RC cars to help defend against roadside bombs:

A young private in that platoon has one of those radio-controlled toy cars. When they find unidentifiable debris in the road, E.S. sends out his little RC car and rams it. If it's light enough to be moved or knocked over, it's too light to be a bomb, so we can approach it and get rid of it. If it's heavy, we call EOD. At night, they duct tape a flashlight to the car.

The military actually has robots that it uses for such things, but they are larger, slower, higher-tech, and frightfully expensive. Only EOD units have them, and you could wait for hours and hours before they show up with their robot. If 200 units read about this idea, and 50 units actually buy a toy RC car, and it saves just one single life, it would all be worth it.

I've suggested to E.S. that he put some fancy paint and a couple of LED lights on his toy car, demonstrate it to some Army brass at the Pentagon, and sell it to them for $80,000. He won't actually try that, but it's fun to imagine. In the meantime, I've also suggested to some of his chain of command that they put him in for a commendation or a medal for his ingenuity. If he ever finds a real bomb with that toy car, they probably will.

Posted by Winston Smith at 05:45 PM | Comments (0)

Malaise Days are Here Again

And so it begins.

Inflation, on the one hand, is moving ahead, with wholesale prices lifted by more expensive energy, cars and cigarettes. But industrial activity — production at the nation's factories, mines and utilities — is faltering.

Posted by Winston Smith at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2005

Intelligent Storks

Posted by Steven at 09:09 PM | Comments (0)

President Useless

Where have I heard this before? Planes are menacing the nation's capital, and people are running through the streets for their lives and meanwhile, the President is essentially goofing off. There was a difference this time, however. This time, they didn't bother telling Chimpy what was going on so that he could sit on his ass the better part of an hour.

Once again, those of us who contend that George W. Bush is too stupid to run the country have been vindicated by the actions of his staff, which indicate that they, too, think he's too stupid to be running the country. Normally, the fact that the President completed a 47-minute bike ride, blissfully unaware that the capital was under full alert, would spur outrage and worry. In this case, however, Americans can rest assured that the important people in the government were on top of the problem.

Posted by Winston Smith at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Kevin Drum on Income Mobility

Kevin Drum summarizes the state of "moving up", and it's not good. I urge all to read The Washington Monthly's summary of upward mobility in America. Frankly, it's worse than I thought.

Ever since World War II, the United States has done a phenomenal job of sorting people by talent. Not a perfect job, but an astonishingly good one nonetheless. All four of my grandparents, for example, would almost certainly have gone to college if they had turned 18 in the 1960s, but that just wasn't in the cards for any of them a century ago. Today, though, as a matter of deliberate policy, the vast majority of people who have the talent to succeed in college get the chance to try. As a result, they moved upward into the middle and upper classes decades ago, and their children have followed them.

But there's only a moderate amount of sorting left to be done. Random chance, both in nature and nurture, will always play a role in life outcomes, but that role has gotten smaller and smaller as the sorting has progressed. The result is that life roles have become more hardened. While incomes of the well-off have skyrocketed over the past 30 years, working and middle class incomes have stagnated. At the same time, the incomes — and jobs — they do have are far more unstable than they were a few decades ago. And as recent research indicates, most of them are increasingly stuck in these grim circumstances: every decade, fewer and fewer of them — and fewer and fewer of their children — have any realistic chance of moving up the income ladder.

I fear for my kids, I really do.

Posted by Steven at 02:15 PM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2005

Hillary and ... Newt?

WTF? The New York Times is offering an article about how Hillary and Newt (yes, the Grinch himself) are getting chummier and chummier. According to the article, he even praised her as a possible Presidential candidate. I'm the first to say that she should strive for the Senate Majority Leader position and forget about the White House, but I can see that the ice floes are cracking in such a way that she might just be planning for '08 after all.

Which would be bad the for the Dems. She cannot win in the Red States.

What do Newt Gingrich and Hillary Rodham Clinton want from each other?

In the 1990's, these two rivals stood on nearly opposite ends of the political spectrum; he led the assault on the Clinton presidency and helped derail the ambitious health care plan she championed.

But oddly enough, something has changed since then, and it has people talking.

Mr. Gingrich, the former House speaker, has been working alongside the former first lady on a number of issues, and even appeared with her at a press conference on Wednesday to promote - of all things - health-care legislation.

But more puzzling than that, Mr. Gingrich has been talking up Mrs. Clinton's presidential prospects in 2008, to the chagrin of conservative loyalists who once regarded him as a heroic figure. Last month, he even suggested she might capture the presidency, saying "any Republican who thinks she's going to be easy to beat has a total amnesia about the history of the Clintons."

What gives?

For Ms. Clinton, standing side by side with her husband's onetime nemesis gives her the chance to burnish her credentials among the moderates she has been courting during her time in the Senate.

But in comments this week, she portrayed the rapprochement as one born of shared policy interests, not calculated politics.

"I know it's a bit of an odd-fellow, or odd-woman, mix," she said. "But the speaker and I have been talking about health care and national security now for several years, and I find that he and I have a lot in common in the way we see the problem."

For his part, Mr. Gingrich, who helped lead the impeachment fight against President Bill Clinton, called Mrs. Clinton "very practical" and "very smart and very hard working," adding, "I have been very struck working with her."

The Clinton-Gingrich connection comes as Mrs. Clinton has increasingly staked out moderate positions in several areas. She has recently promoted a more gradual approach to guaranteeing health care for more Americans, a departure from her efforts in the 1990's, when Republican critics like Mr. Gingrich accused her of advocating a big-government takeover of the health care system.

Posted by Steven at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)

DNS Reaching Meltdown Point?

The Domain you've reached is not in service ... Business 2.0 has an article about recent DNS service outtages and the load on the entire system.

On May 7, Google (GOOG), perhaps the most indispensable online utility, went offline. Its dependents were immediately complaining in every forum they could find about their lack of access to search tools, Gmail accounts, and Google News. When Google came back online, after a mere 15 minutes, a quick investigation proved that the culprit was the domain name system, or DNS.

DNS usually doesn't get much attention. One of the oldest technologies behind the Internet, DNS takes the easy-to-remember URL you type in and matches it to the nine-digit number assigned to the server hosting the site. Without DNS you couldn't look up Amazon.com or e-mail your mom on Mother's Day. It's as important to the Internet as Windows is to your PC. And like Windows, it's a decades-old technology that is getting stressed and abused by the demands of a new age.

Now Google says its outage problem was an internal glitch. (That's about the only explanation it would offer.) But these problems have been plaguing major companies with increasing regularity. A few weeks ago, Comcast (CMCSK) was the victim of a highly publicized DNS outage. Australian telecom giant Telstra experienced similar problems. And there are many large players that simply don't report these outages, often leaving their customers scratching their heads.

As one of the key components of the always-on infrastructure, DNS is also one of the most vulnerable. Over the years, the most commonly used software package, Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND), has fallen behind the times. It simply wasn't designed for the rigors of an always-on world, where the threat of hackers is omnipresent. DNS is essentially a database, and that database has a limited capacity. To deal with more and more users, companies simply add more servers, an expensive way to fix the problem that also adds vulnerabilities to the system.

Posted by Steven at 05:28 PM | Comments (2)

Vonovitch Chickens Out

Saying he's a poster child for what not to send to the UN does not get you off the hook. Sen. George Voinovich, R- Ohio offered a stinging rebuke of John Bolton before voting to allow him to be nominated before the full Senate for an "up-and-down" vote. So now Bush is poised to send another fucking lunatic, flake Neo-Con to represent the United States in the surprisingly relevant United Nations.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to send John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to the Senate for a vote, despite stinging criticism from a key Republican on the panel.

Members of the committee, which has a Republican majority, voted 10-8 to send the nomination to the full Senate, but without a recommendation.

According to a Senate aide, the committee could send it with a positive or negative recommendation -- or none at all, as it has done.

Committee member Sen. George Voinovich, R- Ohio, told reporters that even though he voted to send the nomination on, he would not vote for Bolton on the Senate floor.

"It is my opinion that John Bolton is the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be," Voinovich said.

The former Ohio governor appeared to suggest that Bolton's nomination would not be approved by the full Senate membership, and said he would encourage other senators not to approve it. Republicans have a 55-45 majority in the chamber.

"I have every faith in my colleagues," Voinovich said. "No one's really excited about him going to the United Nations."

No one in high position in the Bush Administration has shown the slightest competency, so Bolton will fit right in. What this will do to further erode the US before the World awaits to be seen, but I feel confident in predicting some serious diplomatic fuckups. And don't think for a moment that our European Allies will sit idly by while Bolton is there -- they'll make sure he's a fucking laughingstock before the rest of the world.

Posted by Steven at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)

Army Retooling Recruiting

Times are tough all over, ever more so with the Services. So tough, in fact, that an Army recruiter threatened a volunteer with "arrest" if he didn't show up and sign up. In a rare moment of clarity, the military brass has taken a day to "retool" the process and (presumably) reset the sensitivity of the recruiters.

Responding to reports about widespread abuses of the rules for recruitment, Army officials said yesterday that they would suspend all recruiting on May 20 and use the day to retrain its personnel in military ethics and the laws that govern what can and cannot be done to enlist an applicant.

Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the recruiting command at its headquarters in Fort Knox, Ky., said that every member of the command, including 7,500 recruiters nationwide and senior officers, was scheduled to take part in the day of instruction, called a "values stand-down."

Mr. Smith said the Army would re-introduce recruiters to legal recruiting practices and the rules that prohibit them from lying to applicants or hiding information from the military that could make them ineligible to serve. He said the focus of the day would also be on reminding recruiters to take advantage of counseling services that might alleviate stress brought on by long workdays and the repeated rejection of their appeals by prospects.

"It's ethics-under-pressure training," Mr. Smith said. "We want to emphasize that bending the rules is not the way to make mission."

In the past, the Army has used stand-downs, or time for reflection away from normal duties, to re-emphasize safety precautions after serious accidents. In 20 years, Mr. Smith said, the Army has never set aside a full day to specifically address recruitment abuses. "It's reflective of the current climate," Mr. Smith said. "Some of it is simply part of an Armywide reaffirmation of ethics. It also is directly related to the allegations that we've seen of recruiting improprieties."

The one-day suspension comes when the Army has been reporting monthly shortfalls in reaching goals for replenishing the ranks of the all-volunteer military. The Army has missed its target three months in a row. The Marines have been falling short since January.

It also comes as reports of so-called recruiting improprieties have begun to appear around the country, with recruiters, local officials and families questioning how the Army finds its new soldiers. At least one family in Ohio reported that its mentally ill son was signed up, despite rules banning such enlistments and records about his illness that were readily available.

David McSwane, a 17-year-old who lives outside Denver, also recently caught one recruiter on tape, advising him on how to create a fake diploma, and another helping him buy a product that purportedly cleansed his system of illegal-drug residue. This week, a CBS affiliate in Houston, KHOU-TV, played a voice mail message from a local recruiter that threatened a young man with arrest if he did not appear at a nearby recruiting station.

Hey, they're just following the example set by the Commander-in-Chief; lie, cheat and steal if you need to!

Posted by Steven at 09:36 AM | Comments (1)

May 09, 2005

Herbert Nails Bush on the Head

Read Bob Herbert's column today in the NY Times:

When Bob Woodward asked President Bush if he had consulted with his father about the decision to go to war in Iraq, the president famously replied, "There is a higher father that I appeal to."

It might have been better if Mr. Bush had stayed in closer touch with his earthly father. From the very beginning the war in Iraq has been an exercise in extreme madness, an absurd venture that would have been rich in comic possibilities except for the fact that many thousands of men, women and children have died, and tens of thousands have been crippled, burned or otherwise maimed.

The world now knows that the weapons of mass destruction were a convenient fiction. Less well known is that bumbling administration officials eagerly embraced the ravings of a foreign intelligence source known, believe it or not, as "Curveball." He helped promote the fantasy that Iraq had mobile laboratories for the manufacture of biological weapons.

The C.I.A. was warned that Curveball was as crazy as a Peter Sellers character, but the administration wanted this war in the way that a small child wants candy. Curveball's information was swallowed whole.

Amateurs and incompetents have run the war from the start, and fantasy has trumped reality at every turn. If a movie were to be made of the war, the appropriate director would be Mel Brooks. Even as the administration was listening to the likes of Curveball, it was showing the door to the Army's chief of staff, Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, who made the mistake of speaking the plain truth to officials fluent only in self-serving gibberish.

General Shinseki said it would take hundreds of thousands of troops to pacify Iraq. That was the end of his career.

Bush & Co. sent far fewer troops into the war, and many of them were never properly trained or equipped. The results have been nightmarish. Roadside bombs have caused 70 percent of American casualties in Iraq. The military was not prepared for this tactic and has had a miserable record providing protective armor for Humvees and other vehicles carrying soldiers and marines.

So G.I.'s from the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the history of the world have been dying because their nation wouldn't give them up-to-date combat vehicles.

As for training and preparedness, the scandal at Abu Ghraib is instructive. The problems there went far beyond the photos of Lynndie England and others humiliating the Iraqis under their control. We learned last week that Janis Karpinski, the brigadier general whose reserve military police unit was in charge of the prison, had been arrested for shoplifting at a military base in Florida in 2002. The same army that's scouring Iraq for insurgents and terrorists was apparently unaware of the arrest record of the woman assigned to such a sensitive position at Abu Ghraib.

Abu Ghraib was not an aberration. It was a symptom. This is a war in which the people in charge have had no idea what they were doing. One of the recommendations of Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who investigated the scandal at Abu Ghraib, was that a team be sent to Iraq to teach some of the soldiers how to run prisons. How's that for an innovative step?

The United States is now stuck with a war it should never have started. The violence continues to rage out of control. The latest fantasy out of Washington is that somehow, miraculously, Iraqi troops will be able to take over and win the war that we couldn't.

The American public is becoming fed up and with good reason. Support for the war is declining and the reputation of the military is in jeopardy. The Army has been unable to meet its recruitment goals and the search for new soldiers is becoming desperate.

Last week, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers, told Congress that the war in Iraq was taking a toll on the military and would make combat operations elsewhere in the world more difficult. That was hardly a comforting thought as the administration was ramping up its rhetoric about North Korea.

If President Bush had consulted with his father before launching this clownish, disastrous war, he might have gotten some advice that would have pointed him in a different direction and spared his country - and the families of the many thousands dead - a lot of grief.

Posted by Steven at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

May 08, 2005

Only In It For The Oil

In case there was any doubt. Republican Rep. Dan Lundgren sent out a letter explaining why we're really in the Iraq war.

From the "Tell Us Again Why We're Fighting in Iraq" Department, here's Republican Rep. Dan Lungren, in a letter he sent to hundreds of people who wrote to complain about his support for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: "I feel quite strongly that as long as we have our military in the Middle East fighting so that we can continue to purchase oil from that region, we have an obligation to find alternatives to foreign oil. It is difficult to justify the death of even one soldier when we are not doing everything in our power to explore options for oil within our country."

At least this guy is honest about his motives.

Posted by Steven at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2005

Do It "Ann Coulter Style"

A student at UT Austin was arrested after he asked Ann Coulter her preference in sodomy.

Incessant heckling and shouting culminated in an arrest Tuesday night during a speech by Ann Coulter, an extreme right-wing pundit, at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.

Shouts became so pervasive during the question-and-answer session that Coulter informed the organizers she would no longer take questions if the hecklers were not silenced. For a time, the shouts were considerably lessened, until the issue of gay marriage was broached.

Coulter said she supported the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman on the basis that a good woman civilizes and inspires a man to strive for something better, leading to a question that was met with a stunned silence.

"You say that you believe in the sanctity of marriage," said Ajai Raj, an English sophomore. "How do you feel about marriages where the man does nothing but fuck his wife up the ass?"

UT Police officers approached Raj to arrest him, resulting in a mass exodus of protesters chanting, "Let him go."

Posted by Steven at 04:50 PM | Comments (1)

Happy Illuminatus! Day

Fans of Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's classic The Illuminatus Trilogy will appreciate that today is the 5th day of the 5th month of the 5th year ... 05-05-05.

I wonder if Leviathan will rise from the ocean and consume Washington, D.C.?

Posted by Steven at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)

80 Years of Stupid

Lifted from The Daily Rotton

May 5, 1925

High school teacher John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution by authorities in Dayton, Tennessee, as part of a publicity stunt to make the town famous. Since Scopes admitted teaching the theory, he was found guity, and the law remained on the books in the backward state until 1967.

You'd think we'd be done with this shit by now.

Posted by Winston Smith at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)

May We See Your Four Forms of ID, Please?

The Bush Administration wants you to provide four types of ID when applying for or renewing a driver's license.

States now typically require new drivers to produce proof of age and one or two other forms of ID, usually including a photo. Less is required of those renewing licenses; Maryland and a few other states allow renewals by mail. That could change under the Real ID Act, which along with extra security at airports and workplaces could represent the most significant differences in daily lives to stem from post-9/11 security concerns.

The act is likely to be passed by the House today and the Senate next week as an attachment to an $81 million emergency spending bill for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. If states did not comply within three years, their driver's licenses could not be used as ID to board a plane or to enter certain federal buildings.

President Bush has expressed support for the act, which has created an uproar among state officials and civil liberties groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that it would cost states more than $500 million. "The number of documents is staggering," says the conference's Cheye Calvo. "You're not going to get your license in one day anymore. Over-the-counter driver's licenses will no longer exist."

The ACLU says the act threatens' Americans' privacy by creating links between databases that could be used to make licenses into de facto national ID cards that could be used to track residents' activities.

Tell me this isn't the most Orwellian thing you've heard this week.

Posted by Steven at 12:31 AM | Comments (1)

May 02, 2005

How Stupid Are They

How stupid is the religious right? Well, pretty fucking stupid, but sometimes they outdo themselves. Recently the musician Moby made comments which were clearly satirizing the anti-gay hysteria of the religious right:

I was talking to my friend, Laura, who sings on my latest record, and we are both getting to the point where we want to start families. We are convinced that if we have children, we are going to do everything in our power to make them gay. Like maybe drinking a lot of extra soy milk while she is pregnant, or anything that would work to make that happen.

Well, Moby did a really good job of aping the rabid right's twisting theories, because the Center for Reclaiming America trumpeted Moby's comments as an obvious "smoking gun" of the gay agenda.

Apparently, advocates of homosexuality only believe in the “gay gene” when it suits their purposes.

Apparently, the Center for Reclaiming America thinks Moby actually plans to "turn" his child gay by feeding soy milk to the mother.

Soy milk!

What stupid, stupid fucks.

Posted by at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)