Tyranny Of Small Minds

Somebody in or around my neighborhood has no life.

This is the notice planted in our front yard last Friday. I admit that we are not of the Genus Suburbus Lawnus Nazius, but we do try and keep it from being our own little African Grassland. Thing is, in Oklahoma, you have to be careful of over cutting your grass, unless you are willing to waste a lot of water to keep it green. Another option for the long stretches without rain is to let it grow a bit so it doesn't simply burn up.

So it got a little ragged after it finally rained, but if you read the text of that notice it sounds as if we presided over a yard choked by giant mutant weeds issuing noxious odors and sheltering post-radioactive rats. This is comical in a perverse sort of way, since our yard is a pathetic mixture of dry dirt, tenacious flowering weeds, and scraggly grass struggling to survive.

I was really fucking pissed off when my wife discovered the notice planted in the yard, for all the neighbors to see. I felt like we were bad people, blighting our entire block with our sorry little lawn. I couldn't help wondering who exactly decided to call the Lawn Police and plotted ways to retaliate. Since the notice allows ten days to remedy the situation, I figured we could erect a sign easily visible from the street, advising the informant how tall the grass was and how many more days we had before we absolutely, positively had to cut it.

Fortunately my wife's cool head prevailed, and I gave up my devious plans to inflict similar humiliation upon the nosy culprit. Instead, we got the damn grass cut.

Today I called the inspector who placed the red badge of nonconformity upon my meager lawn, to ask her to come out and inspect, lest we still be out of compliance. She asked which lawn was ours. It runs out she placed somewhere close to fifteen such signs for various alleged infractions in and around our neighborhood. I asked her if someone simply called in, and she said that was exactly the case.

"I call them the get-a-life people."

I almost fell on the floor laughing. Some time later today she'll be by to reinspect, lest we again give the UberLawnVolk reason to call down the dogs of grass on our heads.

Fold it!

Distributed computing isn't a new concept, but it is becoming more widely known and used as a means to apply massive processing power otherwise unavailable to specific scientific and mathematical problems. One such project, called Folding@Home, uses distributed computing to investigate how complex proteins are folded, or created. A small program is downloaded and installed, running in the background, working on a tiny portion of a project, which in turn is part of the larger endeavor.

While it does ratchet the computer's processor up to 100% usage, it retains such a low priority that it doesn't interfere with normal computing tasks. If you're a rabid gamer, you'll want to pause its work in order to squeeze every last ounce of performance from your machine in order to prevail in the latest death match. Points are assigned to each work unit based on how complicated it is andf how loing it will take to complete.

Folding@Home is also a friendly competition, with multiple users joining teams to combine their processors and Work Units into one score. Keeps it interesting, granting bragging rights to those who can fold the most. I've only managed to rope two people into a team, but I'm working on a few others. :)

Lenin And The Airtight Coffin

Reaganolotry now ended, we can move on to more current matters.

Well, we can, once I have my say about it.

I don't miss him. Nor do I feel an obligation to engage in compulsory "respect" for his passing. Reagan was a bastard, a liar, and a war criminal. The Republican slow motion coup still in progress was begun during his administration, which eviscerated labor unions, worker protections, and kicked the long simmering class war in this country into high gear.

The Republican leadership in Congress and the White House, most of whom served under Reagan, engineered a Soviet-style event of "national mourning" replete with the body lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda. It was sickening, just another method to enshrine Reagan as some sort of American saint.

Just ask this simple question: In the current political atmosphere, had Bill Clinton died, would his body lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

Nope. Bet your life on it.

Faux Outrage

Please spare me before I puke on my brand new shoes.

Hands in the air, expressions of surprise - "Who? Us? Couldn't be us, we don't do things like that."

I'm as disgusted as any one could and should be by the nasty pictures of grinning soldiers and tortured prisoners that have flooded television screens and the Internet. I am also not in the least surprised, and neither should you be.

Our military, government, and intelligence services have excelled at the extraction of information from unwilling subjects through the use of intimidation, humiliation, mental and physical abuse, threat of death, and just plain death. We've practiced these arts all over the world over the past 60 years in service of our expanding empire. I could list a bunch of countries where we've employed these tactics, but that is a matter of history - go read a book.

More importantly are the consequences of these acts, and the further consequences of the publicity surrounding these specific cases.

The former is something the rest of the world either knew or suspected, which is why liberating Armies sporting American flag patches are often seen not as liberators but as killers, oppressors. We the citizenry, believing every instinct we have to be a good one, fail to recognize how our military adventures are percieved by others.

In the latter case, our leaders are very disappointed - that those pictures ever came to light. "A few rogue soldiers" we are told. Those old enough to remember will recognize that phrase from the glory days of the CIA, when an operation that went horrifically wrong (as in, became public) would be blamed on "rogue agents."

Watching this play out has been highly educational, and not a little bit entertaining. We have Rush limbaugh equating the entire episode to a fraternity prank. While it is true that fraternity pranks have resulted in severe injury and death, that was not their intention.

Tonight, the Reident-In-Thief will once again appropriate the nation's airwaves to explain his policy in Iraq, as if therre is anything left to explain in the face of indiscriminate torture and murder. Remember that wedding celebration bombed by US warplanes? The one that the head of our armed forces in Iraq said was not a wedding celebration, but a terrorist conclave? That there were only weapons found, but no food or any evidence a wedding had taken place?

Now there is a videotape of the event. A video shot by a man killed in the raid. Scenes in the video, which show the celebration following a wedding ceremony, match those of the location where the bombing took place.

More importantly, faces in the video match those on the bodies in the morgue.

Indictments are in order, all the way to the top.

Repeat after me:

It's abuse, not torture.

This from Donald Rumsfeld, the man who chose to parse language over whether or not the fighting in Iraq could be considered "guerilla warfare" or not. A reporter reading from the Defense Department's own glossary called him out on that one.

Then came the word "insurgency." He denied it was appropriate until the fighting became more fierce, more like actual warfare than mere insurgency. At that moment, "insurgency" became the term of the moment.

Abuse, not torture.

Put Iraqi military uniforms on those doing the humiliating, plant American faces on those naked forms lying in heaps on the concrete floor, and ask me again whether this is mere "abuse." Remind me why the killing of four Americans and the mutilation of their bodies is any worse than the humiliation, berating and physical torutre of Iraqi prisoners, some of whom died, is any different?

From the beginning of this War On Terror and the sideline Pre-emptive War On Iraq the US government, particularly in the form of Donald Rumsfeld, has gone out of its way to repudiate international law and jurisdiction in any matter involving the United States. We could fight wars unprovoked, take prisoners and hold them for years without charge and without representation, and even brand our own citizens as "enemy combatants," and lock them up, incommunicado, indefinitely.

Rumsfeld made light of the Geneva Convention, which protects our own troops in the event of capture, and allows prosecution, for war crimes, by those who fail to follow its strict rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war. The US has established a worldwide network of extra-judicial prisons, beyond the rule of American and international law. The only comparison that comes immeidately to mind is the old Soviet gulag, where people went to disappear or be murdered.

This sums up proper handling of prisoners:

Prisoners of war must be humanely treated at all times. Any unlawful act which causes death or seriously endangers the health of a prisoner of war is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions. In particular, prisoners must not be subject to physical mutilation>, biological experiments, violence, intimidation, insults, and public curiosity. (Convention III, Art. 13).

The United States has participated in some of the most egregious tactics of interrogation and terror during our adventures in Guatemala and other places, where US officials, military and civilian not only engaged in such practices, but taught others how to emulate them.

The ugly truth in all of this is thet United States has, and is engaging in unambiguous war crimes. Donald Rumsefeld, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush are all responsible and should be indicted and prosecuted.

Good to be back.

The Seizure Jig has gotten the better of me lately.

So I've been fixing other people's computers and buying computers for other folks. Not sure how I wound up doing so, but it has been both rewarding and immensely frustrating at one and the same time. One I did for a friend of ours was well worth any trouble - they're good folks who run their own business and have two little ones. Buying a new computer was not really high on the spending priority list, so they asked me to look at it, and I told them I could make it run in stable fashion by wiping it clean and installing Win2000pro. Endless pop ups, redirects, and freezes were plaguing this thing, making it unusable.

It worked, at least at my place while undergoing testing - I don't know if they have set it up yet.

A computer at my wife's workplace needed replacing and they had gotten some quotes in the $600-$700 range, high for what they need to do. The box being replaced was an overbuilt monster IBM P-III 400mHz which weighed an even ton. I surfed on over to MWave.com, where computer parts abound, and they'll build and test it the way you like it served. I configured and bought my own machine from them, and they did an excellent job. This was a fun task - assembling a computer on someone else's dime and knowing it would be a solid, reliable box for years to come.

Also at her workplace is an HP Pavilion 6630, an all-in-one discount special, based on an Intel Celeron 500mHz processor, and everything else planted on the motherboard. Unfortunately, that old adage about getting what you paid for applies to this pathetic little wimpy ass computer. Slow, slow, slow, and now it appears the on board graphics are failing. It is alleged that using an old PCI video card will interrupt the on board graphics system, replacing it.

Uh, yeah.

I did pretty much all I could, but the PC card would freeze at the startup screen even though the computer continued to boot normally. Very weird, and likely cannot be fixed without getting down to component level on the motherboard, and paying a tech to do that would buy a nice Athlon - based box.

Guess I'll be buying another computer...

Ok, so I like watching NBA games. I have since I was a kid, enamored of the Celtics and the Knicks, and later, Dr. J, David Thompson, and a long list of amazing players and revered teams. The end of season playoffs to determine the overall professional basketball champion was a time to look forward to, and to treasure as the best battled the best for the crown.

Unfortunately, over the years, NBA officials have seen fit to include more teams in the playoff draw, watering down the competition and extending the playoff run to a mind dulling two months each year. Including teams that barely break .500 is absurd - only the National Hockey League, a tragic joke whose death draws near, held the distinction of including a majority of its teams in post season play.

An additional and cynical change was to convert the first round of series play to a best of seven format, as opposed to the earlier best of five. My memory may be fading, but I seem to recall somewhat distant past when best of three was the opening round format, but don't hold me to it.

On top of playing 82 regular season games, NBA players who make it to the championship series will have played over a hundred games,, and more if they are taken to seven games in more than one series.

Ridiculous, in my view. Sure, they make mad cash, but the point of post season play is to pit best against best to determine the king of the heap for that year. Watering it down with irrelevant early round series by adding teams who don't deserve a shot at the championship is nothing more than a ratings ploy that serves to undermine the credibility of the entire playoff system. It also serves to wear out the players, leading to sometimes uninspired play and multiple injuries.

Kinda reminds me of baseball, where teams used to have 162 regular season games to get their shit together to make it into the post season, and one step from World Series play. Now there are preliminary rounds of play, longer post seasons, and falling TV ratings. Sports are, by their very nature, an arena for competition, victory and loss. Those who excel in regular season play ought not to have to wade through a sea of also-rans just to get to one another to determine who is truly the best.

'Nuff said.

A Plague Of Stupidity


I believe stupidity is a disease, and it's spreading.

The wife and I were on a foraging expedition at Walmart. (okay, okay, I know they're evil, exploit workers worldwide, all of that. We are on the thin edge of poor, and they have too many things we need at far lower prices than anyone else). Rachel drives slowly in parking lots because other people often fail to pay attention when backing out or turning into an aisle.

Today, a different kind of inattention nearly resulted in severe injury to a child.

We were crawling down a row of parked cars to reach a space far from the store itself - we don't mind the walk and hate to cruise looking for that one car actually leaving to take that space. On our right was a railing behind which were paving stones and bags of fertilizer. At the end of that row was a bunch of shopping carts. As we approached the mass of shopping carts, a little girl came running at full tilt from behind them, chased by a boy of roughly the same age. She popped out right in front of us. Rachel slammed on the brakes, and the girl retreated, still laughing, saying "sorry!."

Her mother, loading groceries to our left, looks back over her shoulder and says, nonchalantly, "sorry," in a singsong kind of voice. I yell at the kid, "watch what you're doing! You're going to get yourself killed." We drive on to a parking space, exit the car, and start walking back

The mother has her kids in the minivan and is leaving the parking lot, As she passes us one row over, she says to us "You didn't have to yell at her. Now she's upset." We countered with, "She nearly got hit." The woman repeats herself, then drives on.

This is wrong on so many levels, I don't know where to begin. Had we been as inattentive as she was, and so many people driving in that parking lot often are, that little girl would have been struck, and likely injured, even though we were going slow. The mother didn't see it happen, she turned around at the sound of our brakes, and by then the girl had stepped back behind the shopping carts. She had no idea how close it actually was.

So, she yells at us.

Anyone with a lick of sense wouldn't let their kids run amok in a Walmart parking lot full of over sized trucks battling for parking spaces, a parking lot full of frazzled parents trying to manage a cart stuffed with groceries and a coterie of children, or just trying to get the hell out of there and go home. It is a definite recipe for injury or death. It is not surprising to me, thinking about it now, that the mother thought we were out of line, not for nearly hitting her unsupervised kid but for yelling at her out of our own terror over the sudden near miss. I chock it up to the the whole "my kid can do no wrong" attitude that too many parents seem to exhibit. I hold little doubt the woman would have sued us, our insurance company, and Walmart had we even nudged her child. The cynical side of me says "thank god" there are security cameras in those parking lots - we would have won the case.

A case that almost resulted in an unnecessary tragedy.

Noted is the death of former football player and Arizona Cardinal's safety Pat Tillman, who walked away from a multi-million dollar career in the NFL to serve with the 75th Ranger Regiment in Afghanistan. Tillman quit football in early 2002. He avoided media contact after his decision to join the Army became public, saying only that he felt he needed to give something back to his country.

Tillman's life is no more or less worthy than any other American soldier who is serving or has been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, it is his willingness to give up fame and fortune to do so that strikes me as unusual in modern America.

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Speaking of the dead, a Freedom Of Information Act request has pried loose hundreds of photographs of flag draped coffins containing American military dead being transported back home for burial. These are the pictures the Pentagon and this administration have been keeping away from the public eye, claiming a right to privacy for the families and relatives of the dead.

It was once tradition to allow pictures and video to be taken from a distance of the coffins as they arrived at Dover Air Force base and were unloaded beneath the watchful eye of a full color guard. Unfortunately, the Shrubsters have denied any access to the pictures or the air base, turning what would have been low key, respectful coverage into a contested political symbol. Shrub's true rationale was to keep this aspect of war out of the newspapers, while gladly handing out positive pictures of beaming soldiers in the desert, or video of our end of firefights.

But this cynical mindset is nothing new, not for an administration who has lied it's way into this war, and cannot seem to lie its way out, not for lack of trying. Iraq is where they wanted to go from the start of their time in office, and so they have dragged the rest of us along for the bloody ride. I think it only right and proper that every American see the stark, undeniable photographic evidence of the true cost of this war, of the lives given freely by those who serve in our armed forces, forces intentionally sent to their peril to fight an unnecessary war.

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Quoted from the Washington Post about the Republican smear campaign concerning John Kerry's military service:

The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum has a tale of two soldiers:

George Bush, fresh out of Yale, uses family connections to join the Air National Guard in order to avoid serving in Vietnam. After serving four years of a six-year term, he decides to skip his annual physical, is grounded, and heads off to Alabama, where he blows off even the minimal annoyance of monthly drills for over six months.

Conservative reaction: why are you impugning the patriotism of this brave man? He got an honorable discharge and that's as much as anyone needs to know.

John Kerry, fresh out of Yale, enlists in the Navy and subsequently requests duty in Vietnam. While there, according to the Boston Globe, he wins a Purple Heart, and then follows that up with more than two dozen missions in which he often faced enemy fire, a Silver Star for an action in which he killed an enemy soldier who carried a loaded rocket launcher that could have destroyed his six-man patrol boat, a Bronze Star for rescuing an Army lieutenant who was thrown overboard and under fire, and two more Purple Hearts.

Conservative reaction: Hmmm, that first injury wasn't very serious. This is something that deserves careful and drawn-out investigation, and it would certainly be unfair to impugn 'craven or partisan motives' to those doing the impugning.

Are these guys a piece of work, or what?

Last night the Resident was trotted out for a dog and pony show to prop up the mountain of lies threatening to crumble down on his soft little head. Soldiers are dying in the highest numbers since this ill conceived war began and Iraq is edging closer to civil warfare over the assumption of sovereignty due to take place June 30.

Given all of the noise about the September 11 commission and the Shrub's own strategy of basing his re-election on his status as a "wartime president," one would think he has some sort of reflective answer to the following question:

Toward the end of the news conference, Bush was asked what lessons he had taken away from events since the Sept. 11 attacks. He stopped, shook his head, looked quizzical and then came up empty, although it was the kind of question he must have been told to prepare for.

"I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer," he said. "But it hasn't yet."

Holy Shit.

This will serve as my last post on Rwanda.

Read this.

Hard on the heels of my outburst about the Rwandan genocide of 1994, a principle player who sat on the sidelines while the wholesale slaughter went unopposed has written an editorial for the Washington post, "reflecting back."

Much as The Post can be useful, to avoid having you register, I've quoted the entire apologia on my own page. Notice he repeats himself several times, saying only "those of us who did not do enough." There are many reasons to find Bill clinton lacking in his performance as President, but none are so revolting as this.

Enjoy!

We recently traded in our standard cable box for a DVR box, one which allows the recording of programs and movies even while watching something else. (Cannot be done on a digital cable system with a VCR). Beats VCR tapes and hassles everyday of the week.

I can record programs I've not always been able to watch, especially programs considered too nerdy by my wife, like a recent NOVA program on tornadoes that centered on the University of Oklahoma and the National Storm Prediction Center, both of which are here in Norman. She actually wound up watching that one with me - tornadoes terrify her as much as they fascinate me, and I equate her sitting transfixed by the images of natural destruction with the look in the eyes of a mouse just before the snake strikes.

So I recorded Frontline last night without really reading the description of the show. Frontline is one of those programs worth watching, regardless of topic. "Ghosts Of Rwanda" is a two hour retrospective on the genocide of 1994 that annihilated at least 800,000 people in a premeditated mass slaughter. Western nations and the UN stood by as day after day, week after week, people were murdered, shot down, beaten, and hacked apart by machete. The interviews are gut wrenching, the pictures horrifying and sickening, and the response of the US nearly incomprehensible. I say "nearly," for in the news footage included on the program are clips of the State Department spokesperson giving the US government's take on the mounds of bodies piling higher by the minute. She contorts herself around the term "genocide," avoiding its use as long as possible, and finally caving as far as the phrase "acts of genocide."

"Acts of genocide."

As opposed to just plain "genocide."

I was reminded of Secretary Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's difficulty with the term "Guerrilla Warfare" in relation to the violent resistance to the US occupation of Iraq.

The term genocide carries specific legal definitions in the context of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, of which the US is a prominent signatory. Under the Convention, combined with the UN Charter, member nations are required to act to end genocide wherever and whenever it occurs in the world. By avoiding the word, the US and European nations could abdicate their responsibility to act to intervene in a situation that fulfilled all of the definitions of the term genocide.

I quote:

Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The events that began on April 6, 1994, and continued until July of the same year could only be defined as genocide right from the start. In less than 100 days, greater than 800,000 people are destroyed, more than 8,000 every single day.

The Frontline program ends with clips of a series of visits by UN officials and US officials after the genocide was ended. It is nauseating in the extreme to watch as they expiate their own guilt by traveling to Rwanda to gaze upon the piles of bodies and scattered remains. President Clinton chose not to act, stating that the United States has no friends, only interests, and participating in international interventions will only occur in light of the extent of US interests. In 1998 Clinton traveled to Rwanda in a trip billed as an "apology" for choosing not to act. Not once in the brief speech he gave in Kigali did he use the word "apology" or the word "sorry."

I remember feeling sick at the time. Watching it all over again last night, I was very, very angry.

"Never again?"

My head feels like it might explode - I've had a four alarm banger going on all day. Seizures do this to me, casting a tight net over my brain, then drawing it close until gray matter begins squeezing out through the holes. This headache is exacerbated by the suspicion that the current anti-convulsant meds I'm eating are having little, if any effect on the frequency and severity of the seizures that routinely scramble my brain. Never mind those meds are costing me dearly, even at the deeply discounted and civilized prices available from our kinder, gentler neighbors to the north.

Following the news fuels the throbbing jackhammer. Not since Nixon has the White House used its considerable powers to savage a political opponent in the manner the Shrubbies are doing to Richard Clarke. Selectively declassifying documents to paint a very narrow, somewhat contradictory picture of Clarke is indicative of the overall desperation driving the Shrubites. This administration has consistently been one of the most secretive in US history, making classification of everyday documents into a normal procedure. To open the gates even a little speaks to their burning desire to crush this man who dare criticize policy decisions.

Most, if not all, of this blatant smear campaign has been carried out by the office of the National Security Adviser, Condoleeza Rice, herself willing to make time to appear on numerous television shows to excoriate Clarke while refusing to appear in front of the 9-11 commission to testify publicly and under oath, as Clarke has already done. In a crass political calculation Rice and the White House have tossed away their original rationale for her refusal, executive privilege, in favor of a public appearance where, by assertion alone, it is hoped she can either directly refute Clarke's testimony, or sufficiently cloud the waters. Though under oath, Rice has considerable leeway if she is careful - the commission has not had unlimited access to classified documents, not by any measure.

In other words, she can lie to her heart's content. Coupled with the selective declassification of a few documents, she ought to make short work of Clarke's testimony.

Understand I am no fan of people like Clarke, who is an old style Cold Warrior remade in the modern age (though not a Neocon, which is a completely different species), willing to use military force in secret to eliminate the enemies of the United States. In his testimony, I heard the voice of my father, a post World War II Republican and ardent Cold Warrior. Unlike my father, who saw everything in terms of the Soviet Union and the terrifying assumptions of Mutual Assured Destruction, Clarke has adapted to the more nebulous circumstances of stateless warfare. Some of his Republicanism is of the throwback variety - he made mention several times of the necessity of improved intelligence services that are restricted enough to protect civil liberties. This is in stark contrast to the Shrubites, who believe civil liberties are reserved for those who can afford to pay for them.

CSPAN is more than a little educational. Sure, those who watch it at three in the morning are often ridiculed for being nerds and policy wonks, but amazing things happen on CSPAN that are not seen or reported widely or accurately in the mainstream slap-dash corporate press. I happened to be watching the night the Medicare legislation came to the House floor for a vote, and wondered why it took three hours as opposed to the usual fifteen minutes to record all of the votes. Turns out administration officials, who have no business on the House floor during debates or votes, were twisting arms and the compliant House leadership kept the vote open far longer than is normal.

Come to find out the budgetary numbers were cooked and a Medicare actuary threatened with reprisal should he give to Congress the actual figures, as he is required to do by law. A Republican House member due to leave office after his current term was similarly threatened that his son, preparing to run for his father's seat, would face stiff opposition from his own party if he refused to change his vote so the measure would pass.

But that isn't why I laud the educational and public service functions of CSPAN. I sing its praises this night because it provides context for events later portrayed in the media stripped of same. I speak specifically about the case of Richard Clarke, formerly Counter -Terrorism Coordinator for the Shrub Ministries. Clarke held the same position for Clinton, Shrub the Elderberry, and worked in the Reagan administration as well. (A full video of his appearance can be found at CSPAN. Look for "Sept. 11 Commission Hearing, Day 2, afternoon" and click on the link.)

What transpired in open testimony and what has appeared in the news media are two very different things. In the latter, Clarke is framed as a man of questionable intent, perhaps a "disgruntled former employee" as Paul O'Neill was characterized by the Shrubbites. He is cast as a guy just trying to sell a book, to be famous, get his fifteen minutes, as it were.

The Shrubsters ran around all day Tuesday and Wednesday refuting anything and everything this man said, is alleged to have said, and might utter some day in the far flung future. To call their shrill denials desperate is to be kind. He is said to have been out of the loop, misinformed, and a liar. That last comes from the central figure who has steadfastly refused to answer in public for her role in the September 11 attacks, Condoleeza "oil tanker" Rice. She has played it safe, lobbing spitballs at Clarke every chance she gets, but only in forums where hard follow up questions cannot be asked. Unlike Clarke, she was not under oath when making her comments.

Watching the entire period of Clarke's testimony revealed to me several things. He is a serious and thoughtful man in his professional capacity, well spoken, and willing to admit not having answers to some questions due to a lack of knowledge. He strikes me as a hawkish, cold warrior type of guy, advocating the aggressive use of military and covert options in the fight against terrorism. I disagree with some of his assumptions and probably all of his methods, but I took him to be truthful and consistent in his testimony.

And in a classy move, he opened his remarks with a public apology to the families who lost people on 9-11.

Contrast his hours in front of the committee with the hatchet job being done on him by the White House in the form of Rice, Cheney, Shrub, and Scott McLellan, the press secretary who has led the charge. To listen to these people, Clarke was incompetent, lazy, uninformed, out of the loop, and disloyal. That last one stings the most for this secrecy obsessed crowd, that a former official cuts the cord and speaks his mind in public.

The Shrubministeries even went so far as to release Clarke's resignation letter, then fed the wolves at Faux News a briefing Clarke gave, on background (which means unattributed and unquotable), at the express request (order) of his higher ups. That it does not exactly jibe with what appears in his book casts a bright lie on the routine practice of trotting out officials to "put a good face" on lousy policies or mistakes. That the Resident's minions would feed this directly to Faux ought to enrage reporters everywhere, for background briefings are essential to their daily jobs, and no one is likely to perform even this off the record task if the risk of being named is so high.

It is a truism, that he who doth protest, and all that. In this case, the big guns are out in a way they have not been for anyone else who has publicly questioned the Shrubberites and their policies. A tip of the hat to Clarke for taking the heat, even though he already knew what was in store for him.

And for those who ponder such things, let us consider:

Outing Ambassador Joe Wilson's wife, a CIA operative, then refusing to reveal who committed this crime.

Bashing Paul O'Neill, formerly Secretary Of The Treasury, for noting in his book that Iraq was in the cross hairs from the earliest days of the Shrubberites.

Intimidating and threatening at least two public servants and bending the rules to the breaking point in order to score a political victory in the Medicare legislation.

Refusing to allow key officials to testify in open session about the 9-11 attacks. In truth, what they could actually testify to in public is far less important than the mere act of doing so.

Manufacturing a war by intentionally lying about the nature and severity of the threat posed by Iraq. According to Clarke, this egregious action disrupted our declared war on terrorism.

The list literally goes on and on, and I contend that the viciousness of the Shrubberites is due in large part to their underlying belief that the American system of government, as described in our Constitution, is not a legitimate constraint upon their agenda to remake America into something it is not: a corporate dictatorship.

One of my brackets is completely blown up. Yes, the one where Gonzaga and Stanford play for the national championship. Sadly, they have both been booted from the tourney, and I should have known better. Gonzaga, while very talented, is a victim of parity. Stanford, well, I really should have known better. Yes, only one loss, but their schedule, compared to say, any team in the ACC, was weak, and those sorts of teams always get spanked come tournament time.

Alas!

I may still be ahead on that blown up bracket due to other picks made in it, and the collapse of several other high profile teams.

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The Shrub & pony show is underway on Capital Hill and the CableSpews channels. Colin Powell, who traded any shred of credibility he once had in exchange for our belief during his UN presentation before the Iraq war, is talking around the truth in front of the commission. No surprise, so is everyone else from the administration. Ms. Rice won't even be testifying, sending a deputy stand in to dodge questions. All of this in light of former Terrorism Czar for Shrub (and two other Republican presidents) Mr. Richard Clarke's allegations that the Shrubberies intentionally conflated Iraq with Al Qaeada to manufacture a war they wished to prosecute from the very day they took office.

The commission, hamstrung already by the Shrubsters' refusal to cooperate in timely manner, will wind up issuing a watery report stating that all recent administrations were unprepared for terrorist attacks upon the United States, and it was all due to a "failure of intelligence," the catch-all vague blame phrase these people rely on to get away with extraordinary lies.

Makes me want to puke.

The terrorists are coming. Daddy Dick Cheney says so. Shrub says so. Colin says so. And they all reassure me that John Kerry is unable and unwilling to defeat them.

Yes, they are coming. As they came to Turkey to bomb the British. As they came to Spain to bomb the Spanish. as they will to Poland, or to Japan, or to the Red Cross, or to poor soldiers in powder blue helmets when our lying leaders turn this mess over to them.

They will come strapped in explosive laden automobiles, flak jackets, "improvised devices" by the side of the road. They may come again in airplanes loaded with fuel and pilots content to burn themselves up to make a point we cannot understand.

They are alleged to have come to Iraq already. As if those who never threw flowers and candy could not elect to throw bombs instead.

The terrorists are coming. My esteemed leaders tell me so, night after night on the evening news.

They come as they once did to Guatemala, Indonesia, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq...

"And when the band plays Hail To The Chief, ooh they're pointing the cannon at you."

(Fortunate Son
Creedence Clearwater Revival.)

I just finished my sheets for the NCAA tournament that begins on Thursday. I'd tell ya my picks, but then I'd have to claim them if they lose.

Ok ok, I took Duke on one sheet, and Stanford on the other. I'd love to see Maryland replicate their stunning success in the ACC tourney and win it all, but I think not.

And a note of television pique: During that extraordinary defeat of Duke for the ACC title, ESPN here in the southern plains chose to leave that game, just entering the overtime period, for the very start of the OK State game. I know how important OSU basketball has been in this part of the world this year in light of OU's total collapse, but I can't imagine that any other than the most die hard Okie fans wouldn't want to see the end of a stellar game. Coming on the heels of the amazing comeback Maryland pulled off against NC State just the day before, this was a matter of quality over loyalty.

At any rate, a two cheek moon to ESPN and /or Cox Cable for denying basketball fans everywhere (and especially me!) the end to a spectacular game.

Representative Barney Frank is one of the sharpest guys in Congress, a true parliamentarian. In a recent speech on the House floor, he dissects the current state of the American economy and the reasons recent growth has not, and will not translate into more jobs. The speech is a little long, but very well worth reading.

I was going to prattle on about college hoops, but I read this and thought it was a tad more important.

From a Washington Post article:

Easier Internet Wiretaps Sought
Justice Dept., FBI Want Consumers To Pay the Cost

"The Justice Department wants to significantly expand the government's ability to monitor online traffic, proposing that providers of high-speed Internet service should be forced to grant easier access for FBI wiretaps and other electronic surveillance, according to documents and government officials.

A petition filed this week with the Federal Communications Commission also suggests that consumers should be required to foot the bill.

Law enforcement agencies have been increasingly concerned that fast-growing telephone service over the Internet could be a way for terrorists and criminals to evade surveillance. But the petition also moves beyond Internet telephony, leading several technology experts and privacy advocates yesterday to warn that many types of online communication, including instant messages and visits to Web sites, could be covered."

Somebody needs to take the car keys away from these guys.

{See also a CNet article.}

Candidate John Kerry tells it like it is. A supporter urged him to take on Shrub, and Kerry replied into a still-open microphone:

"Let me tell you, we've just begun to fight. We're going to keep pounding. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen. It's scary."

This is a straightforward assessment of the Republican Party as presently constituted. Too bad the only time Kerry has said this is when he didn't realize the mic was hot.

--------------

This Washington Post article is worth reading, even with the hassle of free registration. The subject is the small but growing minority of families of service members killed in Iraq or serving there currently. The central focus of those beginning to speak out against the war is the complete lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the original and central focus of the Shrubster's campaign to invade.

An organization of military family members opposing the war can be found online. They are organizing a number of protest actions, including a " Dover to D.C. Memorial Procession: A trail of mourning and truth to honor those killed and wounded in Iraq" on March 14 & 15, which will begin where US soldiers killed come home - Dover Air Force Base.

I'll miss Spalding Gray. A guy who made a sly joke out of his own life has come to an uncertain end, pulled from a river after going missing for almost two months. If the concept of seeking the "perfect organic moment" intrigues you, rent Swimming To Cambodia and drink your fill of Gray's peculiar humor.

Thank God for the wisdom of the Supreme Court. The judges who brought you election-by-judicial-fiat have acted to further expand the rights of defendants.

Not!

Little by little, in dribs and drabs, the Supreme Court and our esteemed legislators are tightening the noose around our collective necks.

Another book well worth reading - I'm on a tear lately. This time, economist and New York Times op ed writer Paul Krugman has gathered many of his columns thematically into a book length critique of the Shrubster's administration. It is entitled "The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century." In some ways this book is especially instructive in that each column is reproduced and dated as it originally appeared in the newspaper, giving us little windows of Krugman's thinking on Shrub-o-nomics, politics, and social policy. I have to confess to being tickled by an economist describing the current crop of Neowackos as a "revolutionary power."

He isn't wrong about that, by the way. Read the book and find out why.

Joe Conason has written two books well worth reading. The earlier of the two volumes is entitled "The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton." It covers the decade long assault upon Clinton by right wingers intent upon destroying his presidency. I have a lot of trouble with Clinton, as does Conason, which makes this even more eye-opening. The events and hectics outlined in this book make even more sense given the current administrations operating procedures.

The second book is "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth." Lots of little media gems in this one, plus a straightforward and coherent defense of liberalism.

The Resident, Shrubmeister himself, is predictably and revoltingly kicking off his re-election campaign with a glossy ad extolling his virtues as Leader against a backdrop of images of destruction and death on September 11, 2001. It has been no secret that the Republicans intended to work 9/11 for all they could, scheduling their national convention in New York very late in the campaign season and appropriating the anniversary of that awful day.

From September 12, 2001, Shrub has been exploiting the gruesome deaths of nearly 3,000 people and the terror all of us experienced in order to drape himself and every single one of his regressive policies in the warm wrappings of the American flag. The war in Iraq was predicated on false assertions about weapons of mass destruction (-program related activities and so on) and an unproven link to Al Qaeda, and finally, when all else was failing, on September 11 itself. Time and again administration officials drew a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 they knew to be false, so they could pursue their war of vengeance and oil.

Sickening, no?

And if that isn't enough to condemn these ads as the basest of political propaganda, consider this: Shrub opposed the 9/11 commission charged with finding out what our intelligence services and political leaders were, or were not doing about terrorism prior to that day. Shrub, under pressure from the surviving family members, finally did allow for the creation of the panel, then stonewalled it by withholding mountains of documents, encouraging administration officials not to testify, and when the commission complained they were running out of time because of the Resident's obstructionism, opposed an extension. Further pressure and the coming campaign forced Shrub to relent, and a two months extension is in the works.

Firefighters have come out in force to condemn these ads, as have many surviving family members. A few find no problem with the ads, saying they are happy the events of that day are out in front of the public, lest we forget. I don't know about you, but I haven't forgotten. Nor am I likely to for the rest of my life. Respectfully, I find that reasoning hollow in the face of the naked political opportunism these ads represent. They are not history, they are advertising on behalf of a pathological liar seeking to remain in power.

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Ok, so I was wrong, and my house is still standing. :)

But there were spectacular storms across northern Texas and all of Oklahoma, spawning several tornadoes in both states. Lucky for me, none of them occurred in my neighborhood.

I must be prescient - Norman has its first tornado watch of the year today. Outside it feels like storm season - cloudy, strong winds, and very humid, all the ingredients necessary for some real fireworks. The National Weather Service map for Oklahoma looks like a crazy patchwork quilt done by a band of drunken grandmothers.

Ok, it's true, I'm a bit of a weather geek. :)

I'm declaring today the beginning of Oklahoma's storm season. We've had thunderstorms and very heavy rains since last night, and they are forecast to continue through tomorrow. There really isn't an official start to the storm season here - it can be anywhere from mid-February to Late March or even early April. It all depends upon the weather patterns in play any given year.

While I have experienced some fantastic, powerful storms in my three and a half years here, I have not seen a tornado. The closest was the Moore tornado of May 2003, which tore up businesses and homes just six miles or so from here, following a track close to the monstrous tornado of May 1999. I watched it live on television while the wind whipsawed outside, changing directions every minute or so, spitting rain all over the place. A few days later, I drove past the area where it crossed highway 35. On the left was a motel missing all of its top floor. On the right side of the highway a wide track of demolished houses and trees snapped off at the ground were visible. It literally looked like bombs had been dropped.

Incredible.

I have no idea what this year holds in store weather wise. I'm thinking now about the Oklahoma Home and Garden show Rachel and I went to last month (her mom was working a booth for a friend) where we saw safe rooms made of thick steel you could purchase for inside your home. The likelihood of being hit by a strong tornado is very, very small, but if you are at home when it happens, your likelihood of surviving isn't all that high without at least a basement to take cover in, much less a full fledged storm shelter. I love our house, but it isn't particularly solid, and sits on a concrete slab.

Yikes!

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council and a cogent critic of the Shrub's environmental policies. This article illustrates Shrub's willingness to create his own "science" to further his corporate agenda. Kennedy also gave a speech to the National Press Club some months back that laid out a defense of the environment that not only fits the true definition of "conservation" but also has the potential to appeal to a wide range of voters. A written version of it can be found here.

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How Shrub and his foreign policy geniuses are accommodating Haiti's slide into further chaos.

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John Kerry is the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States. In a foreshortened primary season, Kerry proved the safe choice, the "electable" Democrat to face the Shrub and his Republican character assault machine in the November general election. Next up: Eight long m months of bitter invective, sleazy ads, anonymous "leaks" to the media, and so on. The prospect makes me tired, and angry.

As Democrats, we have chosen the wrong man, a candidate who squandered his considerable political and military credentials by casting a vote authorizing Shrub to make war in Iraq when and how he saw fit to do so. That vote was the height of irresponsibility, a choice to abandon the advise and consent function of the Senate and colluding with the House to give up the Congressional power to craft a declaration of war after the president has requested it. Kerry, a would be statesman, proved all too willing to ride along with Shrub in a virtual tank across the desert, blowing up hapless Iraqis along the way. Kerry's modulated stance on the vote he cast is that it came "with conditions," among them a requirement that Shrub exhaust all manner of diplomatic solutions. By the time of the vote it was painfully clear Shrub intended to have his war, and the vote was the closer, providing political cover domestically.

As Democrats, we have taken the easier choice, a Senator with some military credentials and a record of opposing the very in which he fought. That Senate vote rendered those bona fides irrelevant, and Kerry honestly has nothing else to offer us. Many of his votes went against the little guy, so to speak, embracing runaway globalism that is tearing apart our work force and lowering environmental standards across the country. He was also a supporter of Clinton's welfare reform which has pared down welfare rolls across the country by punishing poor people for their poverty. He has yet to articulate a coherent plan for the health care crisis facing the 40+ million people lacking any health coverage at all, nor for those who will soon be priced out of insurance as costs continue to rise well ahead of inflation. He has yet to tell us how he can solve the Iraq mess, or stimulate employment. For all of the media bluster about Howard Dean's unfitness for president, he at least had a comprehensive legislative plan, and was willing to speak plainly about some ugly realities facing voters and legislators both in the coming years.

As Democrats, we wimped out this time around, as we do every time out. Frankly, Kerry is little better than our current Resident, with a single glaring exception - he isn't George W.

And that is the crux of it. and the sole reason I am casting a reluctant vote for Kerry in the November election.

So a guy in an SUV hits and kills a man on the highway, then drives more than 8 miles to his house, where he finally realizes a body is lodged in the front end of his car. Are you fucking kidding me? Never mind the guy was intoxicated - he had enough awareness to keep from driving off the road on the way home, but didn't know he'd taken on an extra passenger?

Hmmmm. Could be the start of a new SUV ad campaign.

--------------------
That grocery strike has come to an end. Workers will shoulder some of the cost of their own medical care, and no raises are written into the contract. New hires will have capped salaries, and take up to four years to reach those caps, which are lower than top pay earned by current employees. New hires will also have to pay more for their health care. The only "victory" the union can declare here is that the employees weren't locked out permanently. In the future, those new hires will become old hires, and wonder why, at their diminished salary, they are paying union dues at all.

Look for many of them to be fired or harassed off the job as Walmarts begin to open up.

A grocery worker strike in California may be headed toward settlement, after five months and a lockout. Several chain stores were trying to lay a heavier burden of their health care costs on workers in violation of the existing contract. Labor went on strike, and Albertsons, not initially involved, locked its workers out in sympathy with the other chains.

Management cited higher health care costs (no shit) and the coming of Walmart grocery stores as the impetous for breaking the contract and drasgging the strike out for five months. In the face of dropping stock prices and migration of their customer base to other chains, the companies finally decided to negotiate a settlement. Details are not available, but Wall Street is waiting with baited breath to find out what concessions the union has made.

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A serial killer may be on the loose in Oklahoma. I, of course, am properly terrified.

No kidding, law enforcement officials from several states are meeting in Oklahoma City to discuss a number of unsolved killings of women, most described as prostitutes, whose bodies have been found in Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. Four of the seven victims were from the Oklahoma City area.

Fascinating thing here is the difference between the Associated Press story carried by major news outlets, and this one, from Native American Times.

-----------------------

Seems John Ashcroft and the Justice Department have all gotten medical degrees. Motivated by his long standing opposition to abortion, Ashcroft has issued subpoenas to Planned Parenthood for the medical records of women who have received abortions, especially those performed after the first trimester. This is partially motivated by his irritation over several lawsuits filed claiming the ban on "partial birth abortion " is sometimes medically necessary. To determine whether necessity applied, Ashcroft wants to go fishing in medical records.

Intimidation?

Of course not!

It turns out the Pentagon, contrary to the rest of the Shrub administration, believes that global warming not only exists, but is a major threat to the security of the United States.

See article here.

Download report here.

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An Illinois couple has filed a lawsuit alleging that the federal government's ban on the importation of medicines from Canada is unconstitutional.

This goes hand in hand with the recent passage of the Medicare "reform" bill, which includes a prescription drug benefit of dubious value to anyone who might have to buy drugs when it comes into effect next year. That same bill also explicitly prevented Medicare, the largest single buyer of drugs in the US, from negotiating the price of drugs with the pharmaceutical industry. This segment of the legislation was an unabashed giveaway to the drug companies, since other federal agencies, like the Veteran's Administration, routinely negotiate the price of prescription drugs for sale in their own pharmacies.

Some cities and states are challenging the prohibition against reimportation of drugs from Canada. Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty has created a website specifically to provide information on Canadian pharmacies that sell into the United States. Pawlenty testified before a Congressional panel that met while the Medicare legislation was being written in secret by Republicans and their lobbyist friends from the pharmaceutical companies. Pawlenty said he'd be willing to go to jail over this issue if the Food And Drug Administration wanted to press the case. FDA has held to its position that drugs reimported from Canada are unsafe. This is false, as Canadian quality control of drugs and their pharmacy system are just as tight as those here in the US. The second claim is that some of the online pharmacies are scam operations that my not even be operating from Canada. This is likely true, which is why programs like the one in Minnesota, where individual Canadian pharmacies are checked out, then recommended by state government.

This is a very serious issue. The couple who have filed the lawsuit said they did so because they cannot keep up with their monthly costs for drug, which is over $1,000 per month. I can tell you from my own experiences that the anti-convulsives I am taking cost me almost 80% less when purchased from Canada. Americans pay the highest prices in the world for American manufactured drugs, which are sold through a very small number of national distributors. That choke point in the supply chain is one of the reasons prices remain so high.

Over the last 15 years drug prices have risen by a fairly steady rate of close to 18% per year, far outstripping the rate of inflation. Despite the many methods of socialization of the costs of research, the industry continues to trot out the tired canard of research and development costs as the source of high prices, even while they sell into price-controlled foreign markets at deeply discounted prices.

It is no accident that over the same fifteen year period, the pharmaceutical industry has been the most profitable in the world.

--------------------------


Clare Short, British Cabinet Minister in Tony Blair's government, has alleged her government bugged UN General Secretary Kofi Annan's office prior to the war in Iraq. Short claimed to have seen printed transcripts of conversations that took place in Annan's office during the heated back and forth between Britain, the US, and the UN.

Such surveillance would be illegal, and Annan is quoted as saying that if anyone wanted his opinion on any issue, they need "only have asked him directly."

Blair refused to confirm or deny her allegations, going only so far as to say that her comments are "deeply irresponsible." It remains to be seen whether Short, a Labor Party MP, will face party discipline.

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Howard Stern has been booted off several Clear Channel Communications owned radio stations for alleged indecency and insensitivity during one of his radio broadcasts. I'm not a fan of Stern's at all - I find him dull, nasty, and extraordinarily self-centered - but this sort of ploy is obviously Clear Channel's response to the recent hearings held on Capitol Hill over indecency on television and radio. Clear Channel has a lot of business that regularly comes before Congress and federal regulatory agencies, and the message from politician's during the hearings was hard to miss: clean up your act, or we will attempt to hinder your ability to reap profits at the expense of the public.

This is no different to the cravenly cave-in of CBS over the Reagan "docudrama" a number of months ago.

-------------------------

Thanks to my AZ friend for the following link.

Send a letter to Mary Cheney asking her to speak with Daddy, Vice President Cheney, about his puppet's proposed constitutional amendment to "defend marriage."

Andrew Sullivan and other gay supporters of The Shrub are experiencing a rude awakening, and it is long overdue. Only Geraldo Rivera's manic support for the illegal war in Iraq surpassed Sullivan's, who regularly excoriated those who opposed the war. The Log Cabin Republicans have acted as apologists for the anti-gay stance of the Republican party through a number of administrations, and now can only offer a mild rebuke to the Resident over the proposed amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

The pathetic thing is how surprised they all seem to be. The Shrub gets a pass from these people for lying about a war that has claimed thousands of lives, then act shocked when the same Shrub, always a willing captive of the extreme Christian Right, goes forward with his promise to "defend marriage," a phrase whose meaning no one could possibly have mistaken.

I'm not one of those people who hate to say "I told you so," so:

I told you so.

A doff of the cap for Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco for issuing gay marriage certificates and forcing California to test in court a referendum barring gays from marrying one another.

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An old friend called me last night, spluttering over Larry King Live on CNN, where Newsom and a female wing-nut from Colorado were squaring off over this marriage debate, such as it is. My friend declared Newsom fit for the presidency, which, after listening to the good mayor, I could agree with. Seems more honest a man than the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, John Kerry, still trying to have it both ways on the war in Iraq.

My friend knows a little about the extreme right, given that he called from Arizona and owns a bumper sticker that says "Don't pray in my schools and I won't think in your church," if I have it correctly. It must be very frustrating to be politically rational and live in a wing-nut state.

Then again, I live in Oklahoma. :)

Today's musical servings:

Keb' Mo' - Keb' Mo' & Just Like You

Lloyd Cole - Lloyd Cole

John Ashcroft's subpoenas, and why you should be afraid.

Very afraid.

---------------------

Ralph Nader has told us all to "relax, rejoice," at the prospect of his independent candidacy for president.

Let me make one thing crystal clear - contrary to popular and media wisdom, Nader was not the cause of Al Gore's loss in 2000. Gore's lame campaign, his refusal to employ arguably the greatest campaigner of the 20th century, Bill Clinton, to stump for him, and the criminal behavior of the state of Florida cost him the election. OK, technically, Nader drew enough votes to trigger the recount, but Gore should never have been in that position to begin with.

This time, it's different. Shrub is an illegitimate Resident of the white house, and needs to be deposed. Dividing the "left" vote, such as it is, prepares a recipe for defeat. This is going to be a close election once again, and narrowing the margin may well result in another round of disputed recounts. This cannot be left to state officials again.

To that end, Nader must step out of the race, or endorse the Democratic nominee closer to November. Likewise, Dean will have to endorse the party nominee in order to sway his supporters to come out and vote. This will be crucial, as many of Dean's backers are people who have been reluctant to vote, or are eligible for the first time this year.

Rachel and I visited the Friends Of Oklahoma County Library book sale, held annually at the Oklahoma State Fair Grounds. Thousands upon thousands of books were available in two building halls. Most were duplicates, I imagine, but the rest were donated books they couldn't use or store. I was amazed how much stuff there was to pick through, once I was able to navigate around the book dealers and their 55 gallon plastic trash bins. Watching them sweep whole tables clear reminded me that this sale was not intended for them - it was aimed at library customers, not resellers.

Ah, well, so it goes.

We came home with 40 some odd books, and spent just under $30.00.

Howard Dean has abandoned his campaign for the presidency. To my mind, it is about time. Though I think he had the best chance to bludgeon Shrub in the general election, it is more than clear that Democratic voters have chosen, yet again, to play it safe. Dean's message is closer to what Democrats have expressed as their position on various issues, but the media hatchet job done on Dean has frightened a lot of voters. The endless blather about "electability" has also clouded the debate, because, as anyone with half a brain knows, "electability" is a code word for centrist vanilla candidate. Ask yourself this: in 1998, while he was still governor of Texas, did anyone think a brainless monkey like Shrub could possibly be "electable?"

Right.

Farewell, Dr. Dean, you were fun while you lasted. The machine has got the better of you, I just hope you intend to keep biting the asses of those Republican Lite posers at the DNC & DLC.

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Cows don't get mad, they just get even.

Seems the one that caused such consternation in December wasn't a downer.

Yikes!

An editorial in the Washington Post by Don Henley, formerly of the Eagles, addressing issues of music piracy and the consolidation of the recording industry.

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I admit to a conflicted attitude about downloading copyrighted content off the Web. My impulse is always to support artists, because they produce the music I love to listen to, the books I read, the films I watch. In a society where value is placed on the formation of artistic content, those who create it expect renumeration, and to that they are entitled.

But.

But.

At what price? In simpleton economics the answer is "whatever the market will bear." Which market? The one where the recording industry promised us twenty years ago that CD prices would soon come down as mass production of releases kicked in. Lo and behold, once listeners across the globe had been weaned off vinyl and invested in the new digital format, CD prices went up, and did so year after year until retail pricing of $18.99 was commonplace. During the 1980's and into the 1990's I purchased easily 4,000 CDs or more, most of them from retail prices, though not all at full boat. I also began frequenting used CD stores for bargains, and also for out of print and hard to find stuff. The secondary market soon became my primary place of music purchases - the selection was quirky, but the prices were right.

The record industry tried to quash the secondary market by withholding advertising and promotional materials to any store that sold retail CDs and used CDs in the same store. Stand-up struggling artists like Garth Brooks backed this campaign. Further muscle was applied if used CD shops also dabbled in bootlegs. Raids were conducted and prosecutions mounted, putting a number of stores out of business and intimidating others. All probably very legal, but grotesque.

All told, I've easily spent better than $50,000 on music purchases, only to have confirmed what I've known all along - that the music distributors engaged in illegal price fixing and collusion to keep the retail price of CDs at an artificial level, long after the costs of production had plummeted. I felt I was due; owed something for the way I was taken.

But.

But.

The folks who actually make the music couldn't really be blamed for this, could they? How much power do they have over the way their music is marketed and sold? I have no answer to that question, and it is likely that the majority of musicians weren't getting that extra piece of the price pie cooked up by the record companies. They need that money to live, to feed their families, provide shelter and health care for them. Only a select few mega-selling artists are making out so well that downloading tunes will have a negligible effect on their earnings. I don't give a damn about them - they are the few who do have the power to influence industry pricing structures, and not one of them steeped up to do so during the hey-days of nearly $20 a pop for a CD.

The smaller selling folks, well, that is a tough nut.

Broadband has enabled multiple ways of spreading digital music files all over the globe, making them instantly available to millions of people. It has become basically idiot proof, encouraging the practice. Thus far the RIAA has engaged in intimidation of some select individuals, including a comic incident involving a twelve year old girl. Notable is the absence of lawsuits against Internet Service Providers, essentially the enablers of rampant downloading. I suspect the suits against individuals is intended not only to scare would-be file sharers but to set a precedent that can be exploited in court against an ISP. that action is inevitable, but it will be costly and may go against the record industry, which would close off one avenue.

The other avenue is mandating changes in the way computers actually function, essentially turning them into one way appliances. Various ways of rendering hardware incapable of copying anything are being explored, as are methods to gate keep systems to prevent them from playing improper content. The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) technically prohibits what has been considered "fair use" copying of music and software for personal use in cars and other portables, not to mention back-ups in the event a CD is scratched and unable to play. Further proposed legislation would strengthen such prohibitions until the content can only be accessed in a manner dictated by the industry.

To take the longest way possible around this, I find myself mildly disturbed by the notion that some artists may not be getting their due, but I also understand why so many people are engaging in what is illegal activity. They feel screwed, and to some extent they have been. If the industry has its way in the near term, they'll continue to be screwed. Downloading is unstoppable unless some radical changes in the way music is delivered take place, and the hardware we use is largely disabled. The industry has been forced to move into offering online music downloads for a fee, but that fee adds up to the same prices as a store bought CD, but with crappier sound quality. That, in my mind is no solution at all. This is the wild west, and the sheriff is coming.

He just ain't here yet.

Seems the woman who was the subject of the Kerry affair rumors has gone on record denying the allegation as utterly false. An additional statement by her parents cast doubt upon the comments attributed to her father characterizing Kerry as a "slimeball." The Drudge Report, intent on getting all the mileage it can out of this patently false story is still pumping it, claiming major investigations are underway by the Washington Post, NY Times, etc. These investigations are taking place nowhere beyond the confines of Drudge's sleazy, lowbrow mind.

No doubt the CableSpews programs are disappointed by the failure of this story to mature into full blown scandal.

Alas! Back to Michael Bryant, er, Kobe Jackson...whatever.

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An interesting selection of quoted presidents. Consider these quotes in the context of todays' political landscape, and try to imagine who would and would not be elected. :)

Also, read Joe Conason's piece in Salon concerning the rumors about John Kerry. By the way, the day pass, watch-the-ad to read Salon's content is a really good deal. The ads are quick and painless, and some of the stuff on the other side is actually worth reading.

Today's music gem is The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta.

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I'll spare you the link to Matt Drudge's "world exclusive" on the rumored affair John Kerry is said to have carried on with an intern. Suffice to say the air of the World Weekly News is all over the Drudge Report, specifically about this "story," which has no legs thus far. All I've been able to find beyond the Drudge sludge is a mention of a friend of the girl and her parents. The former tells a vague and possibly lurid tale, but nothing at all specific. Her parents reference a phone call said to have taken place between their daughter and Kerry about coming to work on one of his senate campaigns. The girl's father has some harsh words for Kerry, describing him as a "slime ball" without any mention at all of what he is supposed to have done to earn that moniker.

In other words, there is nothing here, not until the girl herself, said to have "fled to Africa" appears to make the accusation publicly. I honestly doubt that will come to pass. It would be highly illuminating to see who got this brushfire started - it may *not* be the Shrubites warming up for the coming campaign. Much as they fear a Kerry nomination, it is quite possible one of the other Democratic campaigns unearthed what little there is to this and aired it out, feeding Drudge, well-known for posting anything even mildly salacious about almost anyone, regardless of facts. He was one of the outlets that funneled the Arkansas Project's Clinton tales to a mainstream media hungry to scoop one another on their 24 hour-a-day shoutcasts.

Kerry does not suit me as the candidate to face off against Shrub and his Nixon/Reagan/Bushdaddy retreads, but I'll hold my nose and vote for him because this election really matters. As I have been for the last several elections, I am of two minds about the way this country is run. On the one hand, both parties are utterly compromised by the rich interests that fund their campaigns, give plum positions to spouses, sons, and daughters, and punish them when they stray by flooding their opponents in cash. Voting for either is to split hairs, choosing one wing of the Big Business Party over the other, often based on media analysis of the candidates looks or demeanor. In this scenario, voting for the radical Shrubites is different from the Democrats only by degree, not substance. Think of the Clinton years, where nasty legislation punishing poor people, blessing massive mergers, and sinking national health care were signed into law. Gore was more of the same, and so is Kerry, who knew better about the Iraq war but voted for it to retain political cover.

On the other hand, the Shrubite administration is comprised of many of the old time cold warriors and radical tax cutters from previous Republican administrations, people who have felt for a long time that there is much unfinished business from those days. In Shrub they found a dim-witted glad hander who would be the lying public face reassuring the population that he was earnest, and that all of his decisions had our best interests at heart. Those with their hands on the strings have a Republican Congress ready and willing to cede all of their powers to the Presidency, and they have done so with pleasurable ease. Thus the enormous tax cut gifts to their rich friends and business interests, sweetheart legislation for the energy and pharmaceutical industries, and the destruction of social programs through the slash and burn defunding technique made famous by Newt Gingrich and John Kasich. If you don't know who those two are, find out.

In this more terrifying picture, Wolfowitz and company will remake the Middle East into a giant oil field fit for our consumption. Note where the newest permanent military installations were built - both the Afghan disaster and the Iraq invasion are, and have always been, about oil. It is little noticed but not secret that the Shrubites are pursuing an "energy security" policy which they consider to be paramount. Fulfillment of this policy includes wars at home and abroad. Here, against the poor soaking up dollars better suited for Halliburton and Booz, Allen, Hamilton; against children in dire need of a decent education, and the sick, literally dying for lack of health care coverage. Wars abroad will alter the balance of power in key oil-bearing regions, propping up nasty regimes while our military acts as armed stewards of the great black gold treasure troves hidden beneath other people's lands.

In the latter case, defeating Bush outweighs the paid pandering Kerry has done during his Senate tenure.

Judging by the above, it is easy to see where I've come down this time around.

"Weapons of mass destruction program-related activities."

Now doesn't that sound really stupid? Who writes this shit anyway? In a desperate bid to reframe the continuing debate about the validity of the Resident's case for making war upon Iraq, Shrub and Co. have seized upon this laughable and meaningless euphemism to describe the "imminent threat" Iraq was supposed to have posed to the United States.

A year ago there were "nukular weapons" littering the desert, bioweapons of every form lurking in caves and beneath the hoods of "mobile labs." Turns out it was all a fiction, cooked up by Wolfowitz and Cheney to close some unfinished business and seize power in the Middle East in a bid to alter world oil politics.

Remember Colin Powell at the UN, with his show 'n' tell performance, complete with satellite photographs and all of those scary and very specific descriptions of the purpose of those buildings and vehicles? All a lie.

Now the story has undergone another revision. Weapons of mass destruction have gone AWOL, so now "freedom and democracy" were the reasons for going to war, and oh, don't forget the imminent danger of those

"Weapons of mass destruction program-related activities."

Sounds exactly like something Baghdad Bob would have said as bombs were raining down around him and the Iraqi Army was deserting en masse. If any other world leader dared to utter such an absurd phrase, he would have been mocked pitilessly by members of our government and press. Since the empty words fell from the lying lips of our Commander-In-Thief they are taken as gospel by a pliable and lazy media, repeated without any sense of irony at all.

The final twist in this sickening farce is the new Shrub assertion, echoed by all of his cabinet officials (cabinet criminals, say I) on the Sunday media blab fests, that he and all of his cohorts were misled by faulty intelligence and the blame lies with CIA, NSA, and the rest of the alphabet soup crowd. This runs counter to the oft repeated mantra that the blather about armageddon weapons was based on "reliable, comprehensive intelligence." It remains to be seen whether or not George Tenet will attempt a second stumble onto his sword to save the Resident from the hard truth.