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For The Trees
Who is our economy FOR, anyway? About the Authors: Dave Johnson John Emerson Richard Reich Thomas Leavitt
Recent Posts: BEST OF STF: Dave's: Articles not at STF: The ATLA Speech on building a progressive infrastructure Lowering the Bar The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law Who's Behind the Attack on Liberal Professors On the Right and their communications infrastructure: Why Republicans Win Win or Lose The "Conventional Wisdom" Machine Some History of the Conservative Movement HOW TO FIGHT BACK An Amplifier Of Our Own Don't Blame the Democrats How They Do It 1 2 3 4 Getting Rolled Other: You're Gonna Get Drafted Scalia and Self-Government Who is Our Economy For? Voting Machine Story Link Collection What's Wrong with this Picture? (Voting Machines) Like Meat in the Supermarket Get Active Thin Line 1 2 3 Fixing Social Security Seeing the Forest I, II, III "Incredibly Positive News" The Breadth of It The Republican Crony Club Moon Bush Ralph Nader is a Scab John's Best Of: Kerry Smear Page Bandar Bush 9/11 Commission Report Damages Bush -- if you read it Florida Goon Squad Intimidated the Supreme Court The Use and Abuse of George Orwell Zizka's Archives (John's previous identity) Zizka Sampler News Sources: AlterNet BuzzFlash Common Dreams Cursor Drudge Retort Information Clearing House Smirking Chimp TruthOut What REALLY Happened Links to Other Weblogs: |
 10/31/2003 BlogStreet : Most Important 100 Blogs According to BlogStreet : Most Important 100 Blogs, Seeing the Forest is #71 in the top 100. If you're a weblogger reading this, but don't have Seeing the Forest on your blogroll, do the right thing. And if your weblog is in Seeing the Forest's blogroll but Seeing the Forest is not in yours, you're in big trouble. 
Update -- Saturday -- Number 66 today. --- Posted at 10/31/2003 12:31:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post  
Clark I saw Gen. Wesley Clark interviewed on the News Hour yesterday. He was really good. Really, really good. I'm glad to see a person like that, with his credentials, making the case against Bush. It helps Dean a lot. When Dean has the nomination it will be harder for Bush to discredit his message, because the public will know they are shared by people like Clark. I don't see Clark getting the nomination. Dean has too strong of an organization, and Clark entered the race too late. Dean is also a very, very good candidate and has built a strong, people-powered campaign. This shows why Dean will make a great president. I agree almost completely with Dean's positions - moreso than Clark's. But Clark is showing himself to be a first-class American leader. Good for him! --- Posted at 10/31/2003 08:44:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Publicizing The Effects Of Tax Cuts Interesting Times writes about the effects of the spending cuts in Alabama, then writes: "Neither Joe Average Alabaman nor Joe Average American will see these results if Democrats don't loudly highlight them. The secret of the Republicans long-term success is that the Democrats have run away from the fight instead of making it clear just what are the consequences of the 'cut taxes cut taxes cut taxes' strategy. For Democrats to win on this issue they have to make it clear to people just what it is they are giving up if they continue to hold on to their Bush tax cuts."Good point. --- Posted at 10/31/2003 08:37:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Did YOUR Economy Surge 7.2%? The economy surged last month at an annual rate of 7.2%. (But still lost jobs.) Did you feel any of it? Did your income increase by 7.2%? No? So who did feel it? Where did the 7.2% GO? Who is our economy FOR? Think about it. A most dangerous question. --- Posted at 10/31/2003 08:30:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/30/2003 Policy Hijacked From Bush? Cheney's hawks 'hijacking policy': A former Pentagon officer turned whistleblower says a group of hawks in the Bush Administration, including the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, is running a shadow foreign policy, contravening Washington's official line. --- Posted at 10/30/2003 07:20:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Light Blogging I Guess It's 'cause I can't bring coffee into the computer room anymore. I'm not allowed to. --- Posted at 10/30/2003 04:57:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Center for American Progress Have you all visited the new Center for American Progress, and signed up for their daily e-mail. the Progress Report? --- Posted at 10/30/2003 01:54:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Brad DeLong On Today's Unemployent Number Yet More Unemployment Claims Weirdness: "This week's number, of course, is not a 'decrease': it is the same as the number announced last week, which has been revised upwards. " --- Posted at 10/30/2003 07:57:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Lakoff Again Digby on Lakoff and Framing. --- Posted at 10/30/2003 07:54:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/28/2003 Bob Barr Calls for Impeachment! Excerpts from Republican Representative Bob Barr's call for impeachment: "'...I believe in several fundamental premises. First, this is a rogue administration; consciously and systematically operating outside the bounds of the laws of this land, and outside the common and historical norms of political conduct for our country. Second, this President and his Administration must be held accountable for their misdeeds. If we in the House of Representatives, as the body charged with oversight of the executive branch, do not hold him accountable, then we have no legitimate claim to governing this country. [this] President ...enjoys a relatively high approval rating because he has not yet been held accountable for his misdeeds. Fourth, this is a most serious matter for consideration which must be approached knowingly, deliberatively, with an eye toward both past and future history, with each step weighed very carefully.... --- Posted at 10/28/2003 07:58:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Computer All Fixed My laptop is all fixed again. And again want to HIGHLY recommend Bay Area ComputerMan! They are quick and very reasonably priced. They handle computers from out of the area as well. I'll start posting more tomorrow. --- Posted at 10/28/2003 07:55:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Whiskey Bar: Following the Money Billmon is Following the Money. --- Posted at 10/28/2003 07:51:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/27/2003 Thank You Guest Bloggers! I want to thank the guest bloggers for filling in while I was gone! Thank You! --- Posted at 10/27/2003 08:46:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What's Going On, Anyway? Starting Saturday everything started going wrong. I won't tell you about the drive from Manhattan to JFK, or American not giving me the upgrades that we already had. Or the incredible meal -- it's like they hire caterers who make fun of vegetarians who order special meals. But you expect to have trouble driving from Manhattan to JFK, and always, always with airlines. It's not that... Sunday I spilled coffee on my laptop, again. (I know, what a dick. Believe me -- I'm hearing it.) And then I get a wasp sting sitting on my own couch in my own living room. This morning I had a nice post for the weblog ready, and the Mac crashed. About a half hour wasted. I'll try to recreate it. It was about the weather. But here's the best one. In the mail was a notice that my car insurance is cancelled. I call the agent this morning and find out it is because my driver's license is suspended! To find out WHY my license is suspended requires a trip to the DMV. So I got that about 11, and got to talk to someone at about 2:30. Yes, waiting at the DMV from 11 until 2:30 to ask one question. THAT is what "cutting spending" means. My license was suspected because I did not appear in court in July for a number of violations received in Bakersfield in March. Except I was not IN Bakersfield in March! The DMV printout had the phone number of the traffic court in Bakersfield. Call them. And by the way, if it really isn't you it will still cost you $55 to get your license back. Don't drive home. So I call Bakersfield. naturally the phone system is designed to prevent you from talking to a human being, but there was a phone number given for something else, and i called that, explained and got through to someone who could look into this. It seems a David Thomas Johnson, with the same birthday as me, was ticketed for not having a driver's license and a number of other things. So they contacted DMV, and DMV's computer decided that David Courtney Johnson was close enough. If I send a letter to the judge with copies of my driver's license and the DMV printout and a letter explaining, then in about 3-5 weeks they'll get this off my DMV record. Except the insurance agent tells me my insurance will be terminated by then. So more calls and finally they'll try to get it straightened out with DMV in a few days... That took ALL DAY. Looking forward to tomorrrow. The Mac version of Blogger doesn't have a spelling checker. How'd I do? --- Posted at 10/27/2003 08:12:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Lakoff Atrios is recommending everyone read Lakoff. Atrios has a lot of readers. My mission on the Internet may be turning a corner, entering a new phase. More on that later. Meanwhile still no luck with the mouse button problem. It's still stuck in the "pressed" position, and without being able to use a mouse I can't boot my laptop past the "User/Password" screen. So maybe it's a repair shop tomorrow... It is difficult to use Blogger with a Mac. On top of that, this morning I had a great post ready and the Mac crashed. --- Posted at 10/27/2003 08:08:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
The Computer The computer works, except that the left "mouse button" won't come out of click position. I'm hoping this will dry out today. --- Posted at 10/27/2003 09:34:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/26/2003 No Luck So far no luck with the laptop. I'll try again tomorrow morning and then take it to the repair shop. A great way to return. On top of that, I'm sitting on my couch about a half hour ago and a wasp stings me on the wrist. WTF? --- Posted at 10/26/2003 07:12:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Looks Terrible Seeing the Forest really does look terrible on a Mac. I'll be working on the look very soon. --- Posted at 10/26/2003 05:13:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
I'm Back I'm Back. But I spilled coffee on my laptop again, so we'll see if it dries out OK. This is from the Mac. I just couldn't wait to have a Peet's. If you don't know about Peet's, you wouldn't understand. --- Posted at 10/26/2003 11:51:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/25/2003 New phenomenon: blog spam One of my blogs just got hit by this yesterday, and I've seen discussions on how to deal with this, technically, in various developer lists. Do a search for "blog spam" on Google, and you'll find plenty of discussion about it. Here's one particularly extensive thread: http://www.unix-girl.com/blog/archives/001122.html There's already a blacklist tool: MT-Blacklist http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2003/10/mtblacklist_stop_spam_now Everything old is new again? Just what we needed. Another wholesale attack on an Internet service - it seems like the entire structure of IP based communication is now under attack... my email inbox is flooded, my IM clients have lost much of their functionality (over the past few months 95% of the "people" who've added me to their lists, via ICQ, have been spammers), my email lists all need to have new members moderated to prevent spam, and now I'm going to have to fight off attempts by these bastards to flood my weblogs. Great. --- Posted at 10/25/2003 11:34:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Heritage Foundation spamming bloggers? According to Off the Kuff, in How clueless can you get?, the Heritage Foundation has be cause spamming bloggers... here's a sample: Charles, You've been discovered! Tim Rutten's Media column in today's edition of The Los Angeles Times is the latest example of the traditional media's newfound appreciation of the growing influence of bloggers on America's public policy debates. Our job at The Heritage Foundation is to provide useful resources - objective data and conservative analysis and commentary - to journalists, analysts and commentators of all stripes. But we aren't quite sure how to do this with the blogger community. So this email is an invitation for you to participate in an experiment. For the next month, we will periodically email to you short notices about significant Heritage studies, publications and events. At the end of the month, let us know if these notices were helpful. If not, tell us at any time, and you won't get any more. If you find you only want those notices regarding specific issue areas - foreign policy, welfare reform, etc. - we'll limit our future emails to you thusly. If you want to continue receiving all of the notices, let us know that, too. Regardless of your perspective on the issues of the day, we are confident you will find Heritage materials useful in your effort to provide the kind of incisive, immediate and thoughtful commentary and analysis made possible by blogging. We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Sincerely, Laura Bodwell Mark Tapscott Marketing Manager Director, Media Services The Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation ... note the title: "Marketing Manager Director, Media Services" While "spamming" (and I think this falls into a gray area - if you own a blog, and post your email address for contacts, it isn't unreasonable for someone to contact you, even using a form letter... although their "opt-out" strategy is majorly uncool) is highly un-hip, this is a pretty smart tactic on their part... a totally new way for them to "seed" a message, in a co-ordinated fashion, into the public dialogue. The Center for American Progress should take note. --- Posted at 10/25/2003 11:17:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
John Podesta answers readers questions on Center for American Progress in NYT Oliver Willis pointed to this article in the NYT, highlighting Podesta's favorable comments about blogs, excerpted below: Q. 3. As a lifelong progressive, I have been rather depressed at the ideas and strategy of the Democratic Party. Last year an incredible culture of liberal blogs developed, exploding with amazing ideas and people. Is Mr. Podesta going to tap into the blog revolution for new ideas, information and people for his think tank? -- Gary Greenblatt A. Absolutely. Two of our fellows, Eric Alterman and Ruy Teixeira, have their own blogs. We are actively monitoring a number of other blogs [maybe this one? -Thomas]. Our website is still in development but we are looking at using the blog format for some of our own content and creating a clearinghouse of progressive blogs. Q. 4. What is your organization going to do to help Democrats better market our messages? -- James Briggs A. American Progress is a nonpartisan organization – we’re interested in helping anyone with progressive ideas, not just Democrats. That said, we are conducting outreach to media to promote progressive thinkers on cable, radio and print. We are providing rapid response to conservative proposals and rhetoric. We are promoting progressive authors. Our website, www.americanprogress.org, will serve as a resource for academics, politicians, the media and the public. Pardon me for expressing some level of cynicism about the their willingness to help progressives outside the Democratic Party, given that Eric Alterman is known for his flaming assaults on the Green Party and Ruy Teixeira has chimed in as a member of the chorus blaming Nader for Al Gore's defeat... maybe I should recommend that Tom Hutchings, Green Party candidate for the 33rd Assembly District in California, contact them? That might be a good test of how "non-partisan" they actually are. :) --- Posted at 10/25/2003 06:37:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/24/2003 Stalking horse Hillary? I had the opportunity last night to attend the Jefferson-Jacson DNC fundraiser in Manchester, NH. It was a pretty good event- outside, before the event, well over a hundred of us gathered, cheering on our candidate of choice and filling the air with our placards and dueling chants. There was even a bit of surprise when I arrived with a portable projector and showed part of Dean's Boston rally on the side of a building across the street from the convention, facing the Kerry, Clark and Lieberman supporters with a twenty-foot image of the good doctor. Heh. Pity traffic kept me from arriving earlier.... Terry McAuliff gave a good speech, the most notable part being the instant, unanimous cheer when he asked that we all support whoever wins the nomination. I found the lack of hesitation on this point encouraging indeed. But the most interesting part came late in the event when I noticed a man with a large poster calling for a write-in campaign for- no, I'm not kidding- Hillary Clinton. I asked him why, and he proceeded to tear into the pack of candidates like....straight off of the RNC spin/smear sheet. The level of hostility displayed towards every one of the Dems in the race was as shocking as his conviction that NONE of them stood any chance- whatsoever- of beating Bush. Only Hillary, he said, stood any chance of motivating Democrats to vote. Only Hillary could garner the resources to oppose Bush. Only Hillary. Nothing good was true about anyone else, nothing bad or challenging to H's chances of success could even be discussed. Not the way to win converts! At this point, I had to ask him if he was a Democrat. And, while he did indicate in the affirmative, I wasn't convinced. A quick check in google revealed that the gentleman in question was none other than Bob Kunst. You may remember him from the battles with Anita Bryant and Jerry Falwell, as president of the Oral Majority. Or, as the independent candidate for Governor of Florida in 2002. To his credit, he has been active in calling attention to the theft of the election in Florida. It turns out that most of the reasoning, as far as I can tell, comes from the fact that some polls indicate only 50% of the population can name a Democratic candidate, while Hillary polled at 46 to W's 50% elect numbers. This is a matter of name recognition, not ability to conduct a winning campaign. I know this is still the primaries, and pretty much anything goes. But, please, knock the shit off once we have a nominee. We do not need another splitting of the vote in 04. State your case, but do not add to the ranks of useful Idiots. Division after the primaries is the last thing we need, or will tolerate. --- Posted at 10/24/2003 12:24:00 PM by zzyzx Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/23/2003 Media Literacy: Who is the "American Council for Capital Formation"? So, I'm reading this article on Sen. Boxer's efforts to push through a huge tax break for corporate America, Boxer Promotes One-Time Corporate Tax Break to Boost Spending, and I see that she's waving around a study by economist Allan Sinai that claims it will produce a zillion dollars in new capital spending and hundreds of thousands of new jobs, etc. At the end of the article, I see this: "Sinai is a well-known macroeconomist at Decision Economics Inc. The study was funded by the American Council for Capital Formation, a nonprofit advocacy group." A "non-profit advocacy group"? Yeah right. So, what did my buddy Dave tell me: a) go search on MediaTransparency.org for ACCF - ping: money from the Olin Foundation, and a mention in this article: The Corporate Think Tank Complex; apparently, this is one of ExxonMobil''s favorite charities. b) search in Google, both "the web", and in Google News... hmm, the Las Vegas Review Journal covers the same topic, but despite a rather sympathetic treatment to the topic (in the Business section, by a Washington Bureau reporter), described these guys as a "pro-industry group". What possessed the Chronicle to do differently? c) sometimes it helps to check out namebase.org: they don't have much on Allen Sinai, but they have a fair bit on Gerald L. Parsky, ACCF board member, and member of the Governator's transition team (he's also a UC Regent, appointed by Wilson)... and you can see why he's on the ACCF board: "From 1977 to 1992, he was affiliated with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, specializing in international corporate and tax law." Google search for Allen Sinai produces quite a few hits... including all sorts of speaker's bureau entries, one of which states his fee is between $10,000 and $20,000 per speech. Obviously, this is a very media-saavy individual with a high profile. Seems that he can be counted on to produce consistent conclusions, too: here's his testimony before Congress on the benefits of repealing the estate tax. Google produced this item from Capital Research Center... a lot of donations from corporate America and the oil industry... and guess what's on the ACCF home page? A rant about excessive subsidies to "renewable energy" research. Anyway, all this begs the question: what is one of the most progessive Senators in the Congress doing waving around a study funded by these folks? P.S. Can you guess how this little gem came to my attention? Well, the answer is two words, starting with G and P. --- Posted at 10/23/2003 03:35:00 PM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Spin, spin, spin! Recent poll results in Iraq were cited by Dick Cheney in that infamous Meet the Press interview of a little while ago. He claimed that the Iraqis were overall feeling very favourable towards the occupation. Now the pollster himself has spoken up to say that it was a load of spun crap, and the attitude is much worse. For example, while Cheney noted that when asked what kind of government they would like, Iraqis chose “the US... hands down,” in fact, the results of the poll are actually quite different. Twenty-three percent of Iraqis say that they would like to model their new government after the US; 17.5 percent would like their model to be Saudi Arabia; 12 percent say Syria, 7 percent say Egypt and 37 percent say “none of the above.” That’s hardly “winning hands down.” The administration's misuse of the numbers is really only to be expected, but it's nice to see my skepticism about this poll was rewarded. --- Posted at 10/23/2003 08:44:00 AM by Raena Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
China and India talking... I got this chat transcript off one of the innumerable lists I'm on. I thought it was worth redistributing, as an example of an exchange between citizens of two emerging world powers, representative of conversations that happen every day all over the world, and yet seem to be completely off the radar of American media. Items that struck me (aside from the dialogue being held in English): the Indian's skepticism about whether or not the U.S. ever actually landed on the moon, the Chinese woman's comments about good jobs in the U.S., the differing perspectives on Iraq, and the environmental consciousness. Regards, Thomas Leavitt Maia: so, bollywood? blackcranein: no Maia: is that famous in india Maia: ? blackcranein: thats a capitalist industry runs with black money blackcranein: i would rather do underground Maia: what kind of films do you make? blackcranein: docus blackcranein: i am working on a film on Bombay Maia: wow, i love documentaries so much blackcranein: i move around with the camera and shoot every day blackcranein: i will then make a film on the city and how it is opressive Maia: cool, Maia: mostly i watch national geographic blackcranein: thats very problematic blackcranein: its from the first world perspective blackcranein: they show wildlife as some sex and thriller blackcranein: interested in mating and violence of animals Maia: but its what truly happened in the nature blackcranein: i dont think so Maia: its natural blackcranein: they want to say survival of the fittest is natural and it should happen with humans also Maia: yes, evolution blackcranein: some people say darwinism is dangerous blackcranein: in the name of evolution first world says that they are smarter and will rule the wortld Maia: no not like that, evolution is a science Maia: you are overreacted blackcranein: animals do not accumulate, they hunt whatever they need for today and that is also natural blackcranein: but humans accumulate and thats the problem with the world, the greed of humans blackcranein: they should focus on the environment friendly ness of animals Maia: that mostly happened in the 3rd world countries, i think blackcranein: it happens all over the world Maia: you cant say america is like this, they are doing good jobs blackcranein: are u sure u are communist, they are killing innocents in iraq and afganistan Maia: communist is in the sense of a nation's political strategy, and how we should progress, to change social structures, to be stronger Maia: we china is also learning from america blackcranein: u mean imperialist in national strategy and communist in the domestic sense Maia: we hope to make good relationship with every country blackcranein: why not with iraq and help them blackcranein: and cuba Maia: its none of china's business Maia: if we do so Maia: it would just cause troubles blackcranein: i think u need to read lenin blackcranein: the workers of the world unite blackcranein: workers of the world are one against all interantionals capital Maia: rightnow what we need is to pursue economic development, but not conflicts. blackcranein: one which sees nature as resourse and exploits it Maia: tahts the most important thing china needs blackcranein: we need happiness and not goods blackcranein: are u interested in reading some interesting stuff of what i am saying Maia: i dont read those stuff, currently what we learn blackcranein: go to www.swaraj.org/shikshantar and read their vision of the world Maia: is DengXiaoping's theory blackcranein: our education is fucked up blackcranein: read mao Maia: maoism is old for china blackcranein: and sometimes communists have also taken environement badly Maia: what we are learning is a better way that suitable to china blackcranein: so lets invent new forms of humanism blackcranein: what about all the nuclear disasters and flood in china causes by playing with environment Maia: but the main spirit also came from maoism Maia: we have noticed that blackcranein: we have to evolve Maia: although its late blackcranein: the world has caused major disaster to the world in last 100 years blackcranein: polluted the soil our rivers blackcranein: and go on till we realsie that we cannot eat money blackcranein: we need to reverse it blackcranein: nature is a loan from future generations and we have to preserve for them Maia: you know a lot Maia: i should learn from you, lol blackcranein: we all know a lot , just have to see around us blackcranein: but read the site i just mentioned, i just met those people and they are really sensible Maia: ok, i will, thanks for the link blackcranein: i feel my school was the worse thing for me blackcranein: it taught me a lot of nonsense Maia: same here in china, what they taught are just vacant theoretic things Maia: but not realistic Maia: not applicable blackcranein: it was the worst form of child labour in a way blackcranein: i read maths by figures, my mother knew it by making dresss for me from a straight cloth and according to my size blackcranein: school taught me that my native language is inferior and english is good Maia: bullshit Maia: every culture is good Maia: india has very old culture blackcranein: it is doing this all over the world Maia: we should reserve it blackcranein: western education is fuck all blackcranein: it teaches us that our tradition is bad blackcranein: now they have started looking at chinese medicne and fengshui Maia: fengshui?? geeez Maia: its all bullshit blackcranein: why blackcranein: is it bad Maia: its cult blackcranein: i dont think so blackcranein: they make it a cult when the can sell it blackcranein: but i think their must be some truth Maia: nobody believes it rightnow blackcranein: in west they are going mad after it Maia: i dont know bout that, maybe they are crazy? lol blackcranein: u know their is a theory that americans didnt go to moon and it was a drama, we believe them but dont trust our traditions Maia: i dont belive those theories blackcranein: i bleieve them blackcranein: why didnt they go again Maia: why SHOULD they go again Maia: since its already successful blackcranein: no why did they go to antarctic again and again blackcranein: thats one reason why i think they are liars Maia: because they need to do so, and go to the moon second time is not needful blackcranein: coz they cant blackcranein: they would have buy now taken the minerals or whatever or sold the moon Maia: no need to waste money on unnecessary things Maia: thousands of ppl involved in the apollo, do you think its funny to make such a lie? Maia: cheating the whole world? Maia: no need!! blackcranein: thousand can go and kill innocents in iraq Maia: after all, its racism caused all the trouble Maia: and racism is human nature Maia: have to admit it blackcranein: u say this coz u are fed on national geographic Maia: prob is we have to change it Maia: to improve it Maia: but not to hate Maia: hatred just cause more troubles Maia: and disasters Maia: we need PEACE Maia: dont be involved in the hatred circle Maia: thats what we need blackcranein: now u know why the channel is dangerous blackcranein: the essentialism and darwinism blackcranein: but u cant change it if u say it si human nature as we are humans and we will do natural things blackcranein: i am not Maia: human is not flawless, racism came up when you were born in a stronger nation blackcranein: but plz for god sake dont say racism is natural Maia: IT IS, you have to admit Maia: im not saying everyone is a racist Maia: but racism blackcranein: if it is then as humans we have to do natural things only Maia: is one of human nature blackcranein: no its not Maia: im not saying everyone is a racist blackcranein: then capitalsim is also one and fascism is also one blackcranein: then its not human not nature Maia: yes of course Maia: so that's why we have to change it, nothing is born perfect, including human blackcranein: but dont call it natural Maia: being evil is a human nature? of course it is blackcranein: its not Maia: it is blackcranein: being good is natural and we have to bring it back blackcranein: its not blackcranein: its not blackcranein: its not Maia: ok blackcranein: blackcranein: sorry blackcranein: u have the right to ur opinion blackcranein: but i think its not Maia: well, dont have to argue, although argument is a nature too Maia: lol Maia: so improve it Maia: change it Maia: so, i want to be a progressivist and leftist blackcranein: we have to resolve conflict blackcranein: u are progressive and leftist blackcranein: and nice person and a beautiful human being Maia: see? that is do what i wanted to say Maia: you put it well blackcranein: we are all children of mother earth Maia: true --- Posted at 10/23/2003 08:17:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Microsoft a cult? ... I have to agree with the poster. Seriously disturbing. Ballmer obviously needs to work out more. Regards, Thomas Leavitt [email addresses deleted] From: Dave Farber Subject: Steve Ballmer Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 06:42:37 -0500 Wonder if Dave Packard or Andy Grove ever did this? djf Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 00:40:22 -0400 From: Alexandros Papadopoulos Subject: Steve Ballmer To: Dave Farber Hi Dave! Have you seen this clip of Ballmer? http://andrew.cmu.edu/~apapadop/dancemonkeyboy.mpg (3MB) I find it scary, all things considered. -A --- Posted at 10/23/2003 08:00:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Separation of what and what? Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Paschall presumes to tell jurors how they should go about their deliberations. From a story at FOX (yes really) -- The 61-page booklets promote "jury nullification" -- a concept promoted by conservative groups that say juries have the right to not only decide guilt or innocence, but also whether laws are just and adhere to God's law. Riiiiiight! And since when was it the county treasurer's job to instruct the jury anyway? There's only one person whose job it is to tell you what to do, and you call them Your Honour. --- Posted at 10/23/2003 07:22:00 AM by Raena Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/21/2003 Cheese-eating surrender monkeys!! A sample from writer Susan Sontag's Friedenspreis peace prize acceptance speech, reproduced in The Guardian: What the Americans see is almost the reverse of the Europhile cliché: they see themselves defending civilisation. The barbarian hordes are no longer outside the gates. They are within, in every prosperous city, plotting havoc. The "chocolate-producing" countries (France, Germany, Belgium) will have to stand aside, while a country with "will" - and God on its side - pursues the battle against terrorism (now conflated with barbarism). According to secretary of state Colin Powell, it is ridiculous for old Europe (sometimes it seems only France is meant) to aspire to play a role in governing or administering the territories won by the coalition of the conqueror. It has neither the military resources nor the taste for violence nor the support of its cosseted, all-too-pacific populations. And the Americans have it right. Europeans are not in an evangelical - or a bellicose - mood. Just a snippet of an excellent read: check out the rest. --- Posted at 10/21/2003 06:12:00 AM by Raena Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Stovepipe Seymour Hersh's story in the current New Yorker comes close to the complete ugly picture of the Bush administration's stupid, mendacious and finally very destructive relationship with the US intelligence community. The tiles of this mosaic are gathered from many disparate sources and stories, not previously understood in their totality. It's good Hersh. The ultimate source of the forged Niger documents may be the missing key -- the grassy knoll, the 18-minute gap -- to Bush's Iraq war deception. Maybe we'll find it. Probably we won't. --- Posted at 10/21/2003 01:36:00 AM by richard Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/20/2003 Spam I'm travelling, so when I can get on I'm using a dial-up connection. Yesterday over 24 hours I received 310 spam messages - all having to be downloaded over a slow connection. This morning it was 86, but that's just since I checked before going to bed. --- Posted at 10/20/2003 07:45:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What keeps Generation X awake at night (hint: it isn't "the bomb" or Islamic terrorists)... Two words: China But that GDP is growing at an annual rate of 8%. [...] Meanwhile, China is a country coming alive. Shoucheng Zhang, a physics professor at Stanford University who also teaches at Tsing-hua University in Beijing, can't help but notice it when he returns to his native land. "I love to see the young people changing the world, [c]hanging China," he says. India After growing just 4.3 percent last year, India's economy, the second fastest growing in the world, after China, is widely expected to grow close to 7 percent this year. ... and, actually another word: "compounding". What is America compounding? The national debt (and the amount of interest paid on it annually). Deferred maintenance on national infrastructure. The costs of healthcare and the percentage of GDP devoted to it. The cost of being the world's sole military superpower and wannabe traffic cop. We see the nation's blood and our children's inheritance being pissed away in Iraq, and we wonder what the future will hold... as the above examples make clear, even in a global econony, our well being, and the opportunities available to us and ours, is dependent on the wisdom and foresight of our leaders. ... although, in the case of India and China, in some ways, it seems as if they are succeeding despite their leaders, as much as because of them. Imagine where India and China would be right now, if they hadn't been hobbled by an authoritarian/collectivist government for the last fifty years. Being born an American, from 1946, up until now, has been a unique advantage - I'd rather be an American than anyone else, despite all the faults of my country; the level of economic opportunity... but also personal freedom available here is like no where else - not Europe, not Japan, not India or China, not Hong Kong prior to the mainland takeover, or Singapore... I'm worried about whether that will be true, looking back from 2050, whether or not our country will be seen as a bankrupt land that squandered a golden opportunity. Seeing reports like this leaves me deeply uneasy... developments like this are what George Bush and Congress should be paying attention to, not tinpot dictators like Saddamn Hussein, and the ravings of crazed Islamic fundamentalists like Osama Bin Laden. Screw the war on terror and mirror-shaded CIA spooks hanging out in third-world capitals... I want to see universities being built, scholarships being awarded, grants and prizes being handed out, infrastructure being upgraded, schools being reformed, the moon, Mars, and near earth orbit being colonized. The U.S. has leaned on immigration to supply technology innovation for the last hundred years... what happens when our comparative advantage in that area dries up, and people quit coming here to stay? 75% of Chinese who came here for an education used to stay; now 75% of them leave. That means three times fewer scientists, three times fewer companies, three times fewer economic side benefits being thrown off... But, do we see our leaders worrying about this? No - it's the war in Iraq, it's terrorism, it's Internet pornography, it's taxes... it is anything but what really matters for the future of this nation. Depressing. --- Posted at 10/20/2003 06:28:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/19/2003 Despicable treatment of American military personnel... Seems to me that we oughta treat folks injured in the line of duty better than this. --- Posted at 10/19/2003 11:16:00 PM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
"This ballot sponsored by Coca-Cola." (not a joke) The Charlotte Observer has an article on the South Carolina Democratic Party's latest initiative: corporate sponsored election materials! Apparently their ED got the idea from Iowa Democrats (who're proposing to sell advertising space on a media backdrop to help pay for their caucuses) and decided to take it a step further; they're having trouble raising the funds necessary to put on a primary election (their state, unlike others, makes the party pay for the cost of holding the elction), and this is their solution. Given that it only costs $500,000, you'd think they could dun the various candidates for the nomination for the funds necessary to put it on (or the DNC), in order to avoid embarassment of this type... I especially love the last paragraph: [State Democratic Party Executive Director] Erwin brushed off the criticism, saying it would be worse if the primary were canceled. "It somewhat changes the nature of politics, but boy, isn't it consistent with the way things are changing?" he said. No kidding. BTW, this arrived in my inbox via a Green Party mailing list... thanks the the help building the party in South Carolina, Erwin. :) --- Posted at 10/19/2003 09:42:00 PM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What first came to mind when offered this big, shiny blog Dave built, was, what could I add? In the archives and posts are a great wealth of information. This is the place I've always sent friends who are new to the web. Then, the question hits me: what are we doing with all these billions of bites of blogged bounty? We can find more information faster than ever before. What are we to do with it? How do we deprogram the propogandised hordes? First, I'm trying to understood who 'we' are. Roughly half of American households have internet access, and you can bet your booties that it's income skewed. What percentage of that frequents Weblogs? We need to widen the circle somehow...Enter Dean. More on that later... What we're up against We stand little chance of changing the tide unless we understand the nature of the monster that ate our government. The unholy alliance between the neocons, radical religious right, and big corporate money is a mighty foe indeed. How we focus our efforts will make all the difference in winning this fight. This article, 'Noble Lies and Perpetual War' gets at the real underpinnings of the current governing philosophy of the neocons-in-charge. It's an important read, because it highlights the futility of expecting any respect, or fairness, from our self-styled new ruling class. They have no shame and no guilt because they are convinced that the ends justify the means. Here for the visual. Strauss does this by putting forward the argument that there is a natural ruling class, and a natural dominated class. Leo also 'legitimizes' the sort of bull that got us into Iraq: A natural order of inequality Needless to say liberal thought is considered a weak inferior. Thus this administration's acting like it's entitled to do as it chooses, being superior and all... A second fundamental belief of Strauss's ancients has to do with their insistence on the need for secrecy and the necessity of lies. In his book Persecution and the Art of Writing, Strauss outlines why secrecy is necessary. He argues that the wise must conceal their views for two reasons - to spare the people's feelings and to protect the elite from possible reprisals. So, what kind of power are they accumulating over any potential opposition, threat or undesirables? Information Clearing House has another article up describing US efforts to data mine every person traveling into or through the US, regardless of their home country's policy on privacy. "In Europe, data protection laws allow information to be used only for the purpose for which it is collected. America has no such laws. The EU is arguing with America over how to restrict its access to the passenger records of European airlines, but from a position of extreme weakness. America says it will fine air- lines $6,000 per passenger if they fail to provide all the access demanded, and the EU's transport commissioner says he cannot afford to bring air traffic with America to a complete halt." She goes on to describe the creeping erosion of our basic protections....and describes a situation that is chilling to say the least: detentions without benefit of council or even official charges being placed; development of no-fly lists with no way to determine how a person gets placed on, let alone removed from. Interrogations based on one's political opinion: "Now ordinary people fall under suspicion for ordinary behaviour. In San Francisco, a retired phone company worker got into a fierce discussion at his gym about the failings of President Bush and the war on Iraq. He was woken several days later by federal agents calling at his apartment to interrogate him about his politics. Last February, a middle-aged defence lawyer in New Mexico was in an internet chatroom when he apparently suggested that "Bush is out of control". Within hours, he was surrounded by police, then handcuffed by Secret Service agents and questioned about whether he was a threat to the president. In North Carolina, a 19-year-old was visited by FBI agents who had been told she had "un-American material" in her apartment. It consisted of a poster opposing Bush's use of the death penalty. She was asked what she knew about the Taliban and questioned for 40 minutes. Her details have been placed on file." But for an answer for where to look to widen our circle, she continues: ...Yet it isn't these measures that have aroused most public anxiety - it is the government's new power to track, secretly, what people read, research and borrow in public libraries. For the past two years, many libraries have had wall signs warning patrons that the library cannot guarantee their privacy, and may be required to hand information on them over to the FBI. Maybe there's some use to be had of all the efforts conservatives have made demonizing our government....it would be sweet irony to turn the monster they created against them. Feed the snake it's own tail! This is also a good indication of where we need to look to start building relationships and bring more support to the fight for sane government, although one wonders how the thought of FBI oversight affects surfing habits. But here is the fertile ground where we need to educate and recruit actively to take away more of those blood red states in 2004. Time to take another look at Library Juice... --- Posted at 10/19/2003 09:30:00 PM by zzyzx Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/18/2003 A cowboy comes home US President George Bush and Prime Minister of Australia John Howard like each other, and there are reasons for that which run deeper than their conservatism and their willingness to substitute power for thought in foreign relations.
Australia is the American West writ large. Both are hydraulic civilisations where aridity dominates the economy.
Indeed, had the United States been settled from west to east rather than the other way around, the big government agencies necessitated by scarce water would have preceded the freeman tradition that took root on the well-watered eastern slopes of the Appalachians in the eighteenth century, and a mild form of hydraulic civilization -- highly centralized and authoritarian regimes, like those that built the great water and earth works in India, China, and Mexico -- might have arisen here. Australia is the driest continent on the planet, with an average rainfall of around 165mm (6.5 inches). In a certain sense we are that mild hydraulic civilisation Kaplan speaks about. Even now, all our railways and the majority of our telecommunications is governemnt-owned and operated. The 'fair go' has always been central in Australian politics and public enterprise has always been more central to our economy. The ecology ensures that.
The peculiarities of the ecology includes rivers that run intermittently, including the Darling, the second largest river in the country. Last year I found myself looking at a chunk of rusted iron near Menindee Lakes, in the far west of the State of New South Wales.
In 1871 the paddlesteamer Providence tied up at Menindee Town to take on a load of wool for shipment down the Darling, then the Murray to the Southern Ocean. The river went down and stranded the boat for a year. When they cast off, after a heavy night at the Menindee Arms, they fired up the furnace but forgot to put any water in the steam engine. The explosion, a few miles downriver, reduced the steamer to matchwood and threw the boiler tank around 100 metres up the bank. No-one survived.
Although Australians and Westerners share many common myths, the history they have forgotten is the big government agencies and big public investments in water projects without which the market economy simply would not work.
While Howard does not share Bush's cowboy style that's the image he carries in much of Asia. The weird thing about the Howard government is that Howard played much the same music as Bush long before Bush was elected president. The Howard doctrine is an example.
: "It's always a treat for a national leader to have a great policy named after him. There's the Monroe Doctrine (making the Western Hemisphere America's backyard), the Truman Doctrine (branding communism Global Enemy No. 1, to be contained at all costs), and, last month, the Howard Doctrine. As in Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Yet barely a week after the country's Bulletin newsmagazine gave his name to a policy of making Australia the regional peacekeeping deputy to 'globo-cop' United States, the PM was hastily denying parentage of the so-called Howard Doctrine. Evidently, the idea went up like a lead balloon in neighboring capitals, which are hardly leaping with glee over the prospect of battalions from Down Under deploying northward to spread peace and harmony. " In the last week, there's been a similar fuss when Bush promoted Howard (seriously or otherwise) from deputy sheriff to sheriff. Once again, the joke went over like a lead balloon in Asia. Howard has also endorsed pre-emptive antiterrorist strikes by the Australian Defence Force in Southeast Asia. His government has made a great song and dance about UN 'interference' in Australia. Howard's mobilisation of 11 September and the whole area of security politics makes Bush's use of the issue look half-hearted and amateurish.
The parliamentary library report on the Commonwealth Election 2001 reads:
There are strong grounds for supposing that the election was effectively decided at this point, some time prior to the beginning of the formal election campaign. Within a few days of the Tampa hitting the news for the first time on August 26-27, there seemed to be a marked reaction showing up in the opinion polls. In mid-August Newspoll had found an approval rating for the Government of barely 40 per cent (ALP 42 per cent) , but the figure had risen to 45 per cent in its August 31-September 2 soundings (ALP 39 per cent). This seemed inextricably linked with the Government's determined response to the asylum seeker question, with the Prime Minister's approval rating jumping 10 points to 50 per cent. The September 11 events seemed to build on this, and by late September the Government's approval rating was at 50 per cent (ALP 35 per cent), and Howard's approval rating had climbed further to 61 per cent, the highest level in five years.(20) In early October Professor Murray Goot claimed that overall the different polls were pointing to 'considerable Coalition strength' that was likely to last.(21) Essentially this relative position remained constant during the five week campaign, with the Government remaining comfortably ahead. Early in the campaign the pollster, Irving Saulwick, remarked on the electoral mood as being 'one of conservatism and battening down the hatches',(22) and this seemed not to alter. Howard is sophisticated when it comes to dog whistle politics. Just as Bush announced (in a famously wrong claim) that US foreign policy is not 'subject to the decisions of others', Howard told the electorate, at the height of the Tampa crisis:
we and we alone will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come. That is a fundamental and absolute right of any Government That was not about immigration policy, it was about blowing a large dog whistle that immigration opponents could hear but the prime minister could deny.
The Bush visit was originally planned before Bush's standing started falling. It was originally spoken of as a much more dramatic and public event, perhaps with Bush and Howard taking cheers together at the Rugby world cup. It's been trimmed back dramatically and the Australian parliament, under US Secret Service pressure, has closed its doors to the Australian people for the first time in it's centurylong existence.
Howard would almost certainly have committed troops to Iraq no matter what the circumstances. He believes in the US alliance that strongly. With hindsight, his insistence that most ADF troops be withdrawn as soon as the war ended looks like genius. His poll standings have not been battered by the constant drumbeat of casualties and his government is not seen by the electorate as responsible for the aftermath of the Iraq war. Howard's economic management has been better as well, so there are no collapsing job figures to drive his standing down. The federal opposition is simply incoherent. Howard has more going for him than (as Bush famously said) his nonexistent charisma.
They will talk in Bangkok at the APEC summit and again in Canberra during the visit itself. They agree on most issues so I'm not really sure what they will discuss. Howard would like much more access to the US market for our agricultural exports, but otherwise they're in total agreement. They don't remember the real history of heavy public investment in their economies and they certainly do not doubt that force is the key to the War on Terror. Howard is infinitely more flexible than Bush and the imbalance of power between the two leaders is dramatic so Bush will almost certainly get whatever it is he wants. Except an ADF return to Iraq.
When Clinton arrived at Sydney in 1996 most channels carried Air force One's landing to the tune of the Star Wars theme. This visit is a lot grimmer. I'm not sure they'll repeat the joke. 10/17/2003 Shocked and Awed Iraqi children's interpretations of the 'war on terror:' 
The drawings were collected over a 2-month period in May and June 2003 at the request of Carl Rosenstein and the Puffin Foundation. The task proved a difficult one due to the chaos and instability created by the war's aftermath. Schools were looted. Teachers, parents, and children became casualties of war. "Real" security was nonexistent despite numerous checkpoints and the heavy-handed crackdown by American forces. My good friend Hayder Mousa, an Iraqi filmmaker with two children of his own, was instrumental in organizing the classroom settings in which these drawings were made. It's pleasing to see that the children are supportive of Saddam's being deposed, but it's definitely interesting to note the proliferation of images depicting civilians being harmed. --- Posted at 10/17/2003 10:34:00 PM by Raena Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Boykin apologises: says he's neither an 'extremist' nor a 'zealot' Boykin insists he's not a zealot: "I am neither a zealot nor an extremist. Only a soldier who has an abiding faith," said Boykin, deputy undersecretary of Defence for intelligence and war-fighting support. (...) In one speech, Boykin recalled a Muslim fighter in Somalia who said U.S. forces would never get him because Allah would give him protection. "Well, you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol," Boykin told his audience. Well, sweetheart, maybe you should have said. --- Posted at 10/17/2003 10:16:00 PM by Raena Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
L'image du jour Welcome to Manilla, Mister Bush!  --- Posted at 10/17/2003 05:44:00 PM by richard Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
It Is ALL Astroturf! Please read Thom Hartmann's article, The Battle Hymn of the New Liberal Media: A Good Business Plan. It talks about how right-wingers came to completely dominate radio. It's not how you think. "Christian broadcasters have known this equation for decades. Many radio stations will sell 'block time' - entire hours - for a bit less than they'd normally get if they had just sold all the ads on an existing show. The purchaser gets not only all the commercial minutes, but the entire hour to do whatever they want with. Christian broadcasters use that hour to evangelize and beg for money, and if they get more cash from their donors than the hour cost, they keep their show on the air on that station and grow to the next.Richard just IM'd me: "Block time on radio, block book purchases, block form letters from soldiers in Iraq -- it is ALL astroturf." (I stole a line from my own guest blogger!) --- Posted at 10/17/2003 04:34:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10,000 jobs! Need a job? My friend David Spector has some really good news! (If you live in India or Russia.) --- Posted at 10/17/2003 04:13:00 PM by richard Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Randi Rhodes OK, where have I been? I finally decided to listen to Randi Rhodes. Wow. She's funny, smart, and prepared. Very New York (even though she broadcasts from West Palm Beach, FL). And she and a partner are self-syndicating. Meaning she needs you to ask local radio station programming directors to get her on the air. Check out her program, either live or at White Rose. --- Posted at 10/17/2003 04:02:00 PM by richard Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
John Podesta and The Center for American Progress are about to launch... Dave's been talking to me about Podesta's efforts for almost a year now, so I'm really curious to see whether they're able to make a difference. What they're attempting to do is very similar to what the Commonweal Institute has been aiming at, and talking about, for quite a while. Something, after reading through their materials, that I buy into completely: the "left" (i.e., all of us non-lunatics) has got to build the same type of ideological infrastructure that has enabled the right-wing to saturate the media with their message, and shift the framework for discussion on their core issues far to the right of where it was thirty years ago. I blogged about this briefly yesterday, on my personal site, in reaction to a NYT Magazine article on their upcoming launch (October 20th, 2003). The main thrust of the article, by my read, was that Podesta, as a member of the Democratic Party establishment, is going to be hard pressed to emulate the kind of paradigm destroying outsider recklessness that propelled the think-tanks of the right to prominence, and enabled them to recast the Republican Party in their image. I think it is a fair point... and of course, as an evil, scabbing, spoiling, vote splitting Green Party member (as Bill the Cat [am I dating myself here?] would say: "Oop! ACK! Thppt!"), my natural inclination is to point to the Green Party's total lack of inhibitions in this area, and say that its a natural to play such a role. :) But, in respect to Dave's sensibilities, I won't go into that. :) You can find out more by going to their web site. Side note: is, like, George Soros the only billionaire who is willing to put his money where his mouth is? I see that he's behind funding for this, and of course he's also dropping $10 million on a broad range of projects designed to oust Bush in 2004. --- Posted at 10/17/2003 03:09:00 PM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
"We're on a mission from God!" Saw this item on Dave Farber's Interesting People list (one of the oldest and most prominent agglomerations of "opinion leaders" on the net - I've been subscribed since the early 1990's)... Tony Norman of the Pittsburg Post-Gazette writes about Army Lt. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin's, uh, interesting opinions about current events. He's apparently writing in reaction to a recent column by William R. Arkin in the Los Angeles Times (also accompanied by a news article) that includes even more choice quotes. Here are a couple of choice quotes from the man Donald Rumsfeld just appointed to be in charge of chasing down Osama Bin Laden: "George Bush was not elected by a majority of voters in the United States," Gen. Boykin told an Oregon congregation in a moment of biblical clarity five months ago. "He was appointed by God." "It is a demonic presence in that city [Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia] that God revealed to me as the enemy," he said, indicting the devil for the murder of 18 American soldiers. I.e., Satan, whose shadow he apparently detected hovering over Somalia in photographs (and no, he wasn't speaking figuratively - he meant a literal, physical shadow). Mr. Boykin apparently believes it is his mission in life to protect this "Christian nation" from the onslaughts of Islamic fundamentalists and Satan's minions. As Mr. Norman said, is this the man we want in charge of co-ordinating the effort to hunt down Osama? If this guy sets off the average American's fruitcake detector, what the hell kind of reaction is he going to generate in those Pashtun villiages on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where we've got to win the hearts and minds of some very religiously motivated Muslim folk who are deeply suspicious of our motives?!? We're critical of Islamic fundamentalists who talk about a "jihad" against the West, but then we put a Christian fundamentalist who talks about a Chrisitan "crusade" against Islam in charge of our efforts to track down Osama? This makes sense only in the warped, completely U.S.-centric view of the neo-cons... these folks are even more insular than your old style isolationist Republicans. At least those folks didn't insist on spending America's blood and treasure abroad in pointless exercises of U.S. imperialism for political gain, while remaining devoutly ignorant of worldly reality. --- Posted at 10/17/2003 02:36:00 PM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Another Standin (or Standup) Blogedian Gday, I'm another secret member of the Blogging Proliferation Initiative. I want to have fun with an Aussie's eye view of the US presidential visit as well. I might slam their electoral system a bit too. But remember, I was not here. This conversation did not take place... --- Posted at 10/17/2003 09:00:00 AM by Alan Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Dave's Coalition of the Willing grows Hi, I'm Raena -- another guest blogger, checking in from the land down under. I don't often have the energy to publicly put the boot into the US administration, but with Dub-Dub visiting our fair shores this week, who can resist? Besides, we've been promoted from deputy sheriff to a real live genuine Sheriff of the US Peace. Lucky us. Yes, they'll be closing all the roads that he'll be using, and yes, there'll be big piles of armoured vehicles and medical facilities, and yes, there'll be Marines and Secret Service and Australian Protectives aplenty. The Parliament House will be closed to all visitors and locked down tighter than a safe. There's protests planned, but it looks like they'll be shooed away like usual. Gutless. Gutless. Gutless. It's called a democracy. Oh well, at least we're not bulldozing our slums. --- Posted at 10/17/2003 08:44:00 AM by Raena Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/16/2003 History News Network Have you been to History News Network lately? --- Posted at 10/16/2003 04:04:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Dave's a brave man. Letting his crazy friends natter about in his blog. :) But, boy, there is sure a lot to rant about... how about The U.S. Army bulldozing Iraqi farmers' orchards? Or the fact that we have to read British media to get the whole story on stuff like that, and the e-voting controversy? How about the growing backlash against the Bush Administration's political interference in the selection of scientific experts on government study panels? Or how the Bush Administration is making sure protestors are completely invisible? Or how about some lighter fare? Like how utterly pathetic and stereotypically whiny your typical 'winger is? What planet are these people on? I swear, I could write a program to automatically generate this without ever once referencing actual content. Or, some really serious stuff, like how totally and utterly screwed your average California municipality and county is, after granting unprecedented levels of retirement benefits (discount the 'winger source, the data's solid) during the late 1990's based on absurd projections of expected annual returns by CalPERS pension funds (12-14%?!? what were they thinking?!?)... 40% of base salary for public safety workers going to retirement pension benefits (alone, not counting healthcare, etc). This has our local City Council folk here in Santa Cruz muttering about how the city is going to be forced into bankruptcy. Anyway, there's a lot to talk about... you're also welcome to visit my personal blog, newly upgraded to the latest and greatest version of WordPress. And now I'll shut up until Dave's gone on vacation (hehehehe...). --- Posted at 10/16/2003 02:11:00 PM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Why The FAA? Commission on 9/11 Attacks Issues Subpoena to the F.A.A.: "The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks announced on Wednesday that it had issued its first subpoena, to the Federal Aviation Administration, after discovering that the agency had withheld a variety of tapes and documents that were 'highly material to our inquiry.'"Now what? And this: The possibility of an extension is worrying to the Bush administration, since it could mean the public release of a potentially embarrassing report in the heat of next year's presidential campaign.It's all about the campaign and The Party. None of it is about the good of the country or about our safety. --- Posted at 10/16/2003 12:31:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Guest Bloggers Practicing If you're seeing funny things on the blog, it's guest bloggers trying out the interface. Then taking things down. Or not. --- Posted at 10/16/2003 12:10:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Spam My spam volume has increased tremendously in the last week. I'm getting in the hundreds again! --- Posted at 10/16/2003 11:49:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/15/2003 Want To Be A Guest Blogger? I'm going away next week. Anyone want to be a guest blogger? Drop me a line. You have to promise to use bad words, incorrect grammar, and WRITE IN ALL CAPITALS SOMETIMES. Also lots of bold and bold italic. Rants are good. Republicans are bad. --- Posted at 10/15/2003 02:25:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Salon Voting Machines Story This Salon.com story, Bad grades for a voting-machine exam, talks about how the tests of the systems aren't sufficient and the machines are not necessarily secure, etc... But you know? None of that matters to me. I don't CARE how much testing is done of whether they tell me the machines are secure. It all boils down to this: If I can't see something on paper that shows how I voted so I can see that it is recorded correctly, and that paper goes into a secure ballot box so it can be counted separately from what the machine says, then nothing they tell me matters. There is no reason to believe or not believe what they TELL me. What I will believe is what I see with my own eyes, and I am a citizen and it is MY vote, and not someone else's place to tell me my vote is OK. I mean, I am the citizen, and I want to know my vote is OK. I want to see it for mySELF. I don't want someone ELSE telling me my vote is OK. It's not their vote, it's MY vote. And if I CAN see for myself that MY vote is recorded on paper in a separate ballot box, then I don't CARE if the machines are secure or tested. THE SEPARATE BALLOT IS THE SECURITY AND THE TEST. --- Posted at 10/15/2003 02:24:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Smoking The Secondhand Smoking Gun: "The citizens of Helena voted in June 2002 to ban smoking in all public buildings — including restaurants, bars and casinos. Soon after, doctors at the local hospital noticed that heart-attack admissions were dropping. So they, in conjunction with the University of California, San Francisco, did a study to measure the potential short-term effects of a smoking ban.How close is it to murder, to take money from pro-tobacco interests and rescind a ban on smoking in public places, leading to many deaths? How is that different from murder? --- Posted at 10/15/2003 09:34:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Surprise Iraq Will Hold Elections in 2004: "The president of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council said Wednesday his country will 'definitely' hold elections in 2004." Probably in October. Surprise! --- Posted at 10/15/2003 07:05:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/14/2003 The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law The report The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law is now available in HTML so you don't have to download a PDF. It's broken up into sections. The endnote references work. Later I'll be adding the ability to click on the endnote itself to take you back to the point where it is referenced. Here is the Table of Contents, linked into the report itself: Cover Page, Opening Quote (scroll down) and Table of Contents Introduction Section 1 -- Tort Reform Organizations and the Far Right A Network of Seemingly-Independent OrganizationsSection 2 -- Reaching the Public, Legislators and Judges Multi-Issue Think Tanks and Communications OrganizationsSection 3 -- Effectiveness of the Tort Reform Campaign The Right Sets the Public AgendaSection 4 -- Conclusion Fighting Back-------------- Appendix 1 -- Example Of Coordinated Dissemination of a Strategic Message Appendix 2 -- An Example of Interconnectedness Appendix 3 -- Examples of Ridiculing and Demeaning of Trial Lawyers Appendix 4 -- Examples of the Involvement and Funding of Right-Wing Organizations ThatAdvocate Tort Reform Appendix 5 -- Examples of the Involvement of Organizations That Advocate Tort Reform Appendix 6 -- Examples of State Tort Reform Organizations Notes & References If you are forwarding this to anyone, here's the address: HTML: http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/reports/tort/tortreport.html PDF: http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/reports/TortReport.pdf --- Posted at 10/14/2003 04:01:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
There Will Be A Test Have I told you how important I think George Lakoff's work is? There is a longer summary (than the one I posted below) in this article, Framing the Dems. Here is an excerpt: . . . there are distinct conservative and progressive worldviews. The two groups simply see the world in different ways. As a cognitive scientist, I've found in my research that these political worldviews can be understood as opposing models of an ideal family -- a strict father family and a nurturant parent family. These family models come with moral systems, which in turn provide the deep framing of all political issues.If you take anything from reading Seeing the Forest, take this. I think Lakoff's work is one key to starting to change what has been going on. We must find ways to reinforce the "nurturant parent family perspective" in the general public, and to diminish the public's acceptance of the "strick father" metaphor. (Why do you think Clear Channel pushes Dr. Laura 3 hours a day on the radio?) The nurturant parent family is a healthier family than the strict father family. And it is obvious that a nurturant parent country is healthier AND SAFER FOR THE PLANET than the far-right's strict father parent model for the country. Please read the rest of the article where he lays out ideas for promoting progressive values. This is so important! Activation of the progressive model among swing voters is done through language -- by using a consistent, conventional language of progressive values. Democrats have been subject to a major fallacy: Voters are lined up left to right according to their views on issues, the thinking goes, and Democrats can get more voters by moving to the right. But the Republicans have not been getting more voters by moving to the left. What they do is stick to their strict ideology and activate their model among swing voters who have both models. They do this by being clear and issuing consistent messages framed in terms of conservative values. The moral is this: Voters are not on a left-to-right line; there is no middle.There WILL be a test later. Post in the comments what his last line from the article is. --- Posted at 10/14/2003 02:31:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/13/2003 Why We Vote The Way We Do I have come to believe that George Lakoff's book Moral Politics holds the key to understanding progressive and conservative politics. This article, The Frame Around Arnold contains a good summary of what Lakoff is saying to us: "Our politics is organized around two opposite and idealized models of the family, the strict father and nurturant parent models.There's more . . . so much more . . . "What conservatives have learned about winning elections is that they have to activate the strict father model in more than half of the electorate – either by fear or by other means. The 9/11 attacks gave the Bush administration a perfect mechanism for winning elections. They declared an unending wear on terror. The frame of the War on Terror presupposes that the populace should be terrified, and orange alerts and other administration measures and rhetoric keep the "Terror" frame active. Fear and uncertainty then naturally activate the Strict Father frame in a majority of people, leading the electorate to see politics in conservative terms. " --- Posted at 10/13/2003 09:23:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Vothing Machines If you want to get really scared by a voting machines story, read All the President's Votes? Even if you don't want to get scared, go read it and get scared. If you have been looking for the right voting machines story to forward to all your non-political friends to let them know what it is that you have been shouting and ranting and raving about, send them to this one. --- Posted at 10/13/2003 09:07:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Duh! Study: Price matters for broadband --- Posted at 10/13/2003 03:30:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/12/2003 Billmon Is Un-Endorsing Dean Whiskey Bar: Deserting Dean --- Posted at 10/12/2003 10:06:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What Have I Been Telling You? From Notion Building in today's NY Times Magazine, about "think tanks": Weyrich was 31 when he and Edwin Feulner, then serving as disgruntled aides in a Congress dominated by Democrats, founded the Heritage Foundation in 1973 with early donations from a handful of wealthy families with names like Coors and Scaife. Determined to foster conservative scholarship and get it into the hands of like-minded policy makers, Weyrich and his compatriots were driven by a single, overarching conviction that grew out of the Goldwater campaign in 1964: government needed to be stingier at home and tougher abroad.I cover this in my recent report, The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law (PDF file). This report talks about the link between the "tort reform" movement and the Right, talks about the Right and their funding, their communications infrastructure, and how they use it. --- Posted at 10/12/2003 07:13:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Just Not Getting It At All! In this story in today's New York Times, Working to Spin Distrust of Media Into Votes there are further examples of New York/Washington media professionals just not "getting it." Writing about Howard Dean's appearance on Meet the Press: "Barbara Levin, a spokeswoman for NBC News, said Mr. Russert was only doing his job. 'When Russert asks tough questions of Democrats, they don't like it. When he asks the tough questions of Republicans, they don't like it either.' "Well, no, that's NOT what has people upset. Not at all. What absolute crap! People were upset about Tim Russert's treatment of Howard Dean on Meet the Press that day not even a little bit because Tim Russert asked tough questions. Bullshit. People were upset because Tim Russert and the rest of the mainstream media pounded Clinton through his entire term, and do not ask Bush tough questions, and make excuses for Bush's lies and distortions! Dean did fine answering the questions. When Russert implied that Dean hadn't answered questions about the military correctly, it turned out later that Dean had his numbers right. The point is that Russert would never ask Bush or any other Republican a tough question, and would never imply that they aren't serving the country with their answers. After YEARS of pounding on Clinton, "reporting" every nonsense right-wing smear story as "news" and DEMANDING investigations, and putting hoards of far-right commentators on the screen without comparable progressive voices, (and never, ever a Labor voice!), and letting The Party get away with every single nonsense right-wing crapola propaganda effort, now they have given Bush a totally free ride. I mean how obvious can it BE? To people who pay attention and have memories, the situation with the mainstream media is intolerable. THAT is what pisses us off. I'm getting angrier as I write this. I mean, Holy shit, Clinton was accused by right-wingnuts of losing some money in a real estate deal, and the press hounded him and his wife and everyone they knew, even accusing them of murder, always implying that they were lying about everything, to the point of impeachment, when even the far-right's massively funded investigations -- utilizing so much of the FBI's resources that they stopped investigating terrorists like Bin Laden -- found them COMPLETELY INNOCENT OF EVERY SINGLE ACCUSATION. Only at the end, as a byproduct of the investigations, did they learn that the President had an affair. Big deal. And meanwhile, every one of the Republicans involved in going after him for having an affair turned out to be having affairs! But Bush comes along, was involved in blatantly lying, and in illegal and unethical activities like insider trading, involvement with a company setting up offshore tax havens, stealing land to build a stadium that made him rich, involvement in his company reporting revenue from the sales of a subsidiary while hiding that the company itself PAID for the purchase... (How long could I go on with the list of Bush's illegal and unethical activities - not to mention deserting his National Guard post in a time of war?) And what do the mainstream press say about Bush? What does the public learn about this man's background? What does the public learn about this man's promise to "restore honor and integrity to the White House?" This man associated with Enron and their crimes, and given the responsibility to investigate and prosecute all the corporate crimes we are subjected to? What does the press say about him? Instead of reporting on this man's background, they spent the entire 2000 campaign calling ex-seminary-student GORE a LIAR! It is just so fucking obvious, the difference between how Clinton was treated by the press then, and how Bush is treated by the press now! But instead of REPORTING what is GOING ON, we get stories like the one in today's New York Times saying that it's just Democrats complaining when they get asked tough questions, just like Republicans complain when THEY get asked tough questions. As if the last 10 years just didn't happen. Give me a fucking break! JEEZE! Get THAT! (OK, Dave, go out for a run. Calm down.) --- Posted at 10/12/2003 01:34:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/11/2003 A Conversation An instant messaging exchange, about the Hartmann Radio Show, Friday, between me (STF) and another guy (OtherGuy): (editted to make us look better) OtherGuy: hartmann was talking to krugman, who was cool until the end when he said the usual (employed economist) bullshit about there being new jobs to replace all the exported ones. (WHY do otherwise intelligent, skeptical people believe that absolute crap?) STF: Because he's a professor and he has tenure. OtherGuy: yeah, but I assume that some equations work out to prove it too. I wish I had the time and inclination to prove why these equations are flawed. STF: other than using our own eyes? STF: Brad DeLong's site goes on about this as well. OtherGuy: usually when your own eyes contradict equations it turns out your eyes are being tricked. or the equations are based on some very subtly wrong assumption. STF: Here's how I worked out the problem once: The idea is that you take a $100,000 job, and send it to India where the worker is paid $10,000. That means you have $90,000 more in your economy to invest or buy stuff. OtherGuy: yes, but everything is more efficient! STF: So your loss of $100,000 consuming power is balanced by the purchase of $10,000 from you by the India guy, AND the $90,000 extra for investment or consumption here. BUT that doesn't work if instead some rich fuck POCKETS the $90,000 and puts it in a swiss bank - which is what IS happening. The concentration of wealth cancels out the beneficial results of that extra $90,000 AND nothing at all says that $10,000 WILL come back to the US resulting in exports STF: at least in our lifetime. OtherGuy: except for literally putting the money in the mattress, "just pocketing" is a myth. yeah, the lag time is the problem. STF: Well, if the money goes out of the US, it helps the Swiss or Caymans prosper, which is supposed to also come back to us. Eventually. But, again, not in our lifetimes. OtherGuy: and the fact that entire industries seem to be wiped out almost instantaneous. the one question NONE of these people can ever answer is : "What do I retrain FOR?" STF: Yeah, retrain, to become a different cog in the machine. Your only value in America is the extent to which you can serve as an economic unit, making some rich fuck richer. STF: Another problem is that Mexico is losing jobs to VietNam and VietNam is losing jobs to Cambodia and Cambodia is losing jobs to China. OtherGuy: Exactly. and as hartmann always points out that global capital is (now) almost completely free to move anywhere instantly, whereas labor is stuck where it's stuck. STF: On the macroeconomic scale it's a wash. But it doesn’t take into account WHO benefits. Like the room where there’s a hundred people, and Bill Gates. On average that is an extremely wealthy room full of people. Never mind that 99 of them are starving. STF: It is a downward spiral. A free market in labor in a world with too many people is necessarily a formula for worldwide poverty. OtherGuy: yup STF: If the market is completely free and "clears rapidly" the consequences NECESSARILY are that wages reach subsistence AFTER enough people have starved, leaving just enough workers for the jobs. OtherGuy: It's really very depressing to know that there is nothing I can do that will prevent me from continuing in relative poverty for the rest of my life. [Note - OtherGuy is a programmer.] STF: Until enough people have starved off, of course the wages don't NEED to be at subsistence level. You only need to pay enough that someone will take the job and starve slower than the rest. OtherGuy: eat the fucking rich! OtherGuy: and EVERYONE (except a very few rich fucks) would be better off. OtherGuy: Revolution. heads on pikes! STF: In such an economy, where the unemployed are starving off, and employers are only paying a penny or so a day until enough people have starved, leaving just enough people remaining to do the jobs, a person with extra fat on his body has the advantage over a thin person, because the thin person will die of, and the person with fat will live long enough to outlast the labor surplus OtherGuy: that's my plan! OtherGuy: (being fat) STF: You're way ahead of the game OtherGuy: heh STF: you are one of the elite few who will survive STF: survival of the ... STF: wait for it... OtherGuy: heh STF: fattest OtherGuy: yay! STF: I think I should blog this Moral of the story: Who is our economy FOR, anyway? --- Posted at 10/11/2003 11:27:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Spam Propaganda Letters Atrios found this: Google Search: "I have been serving in Iraq for over five months now" --- Posted at 10/11/2003 10:57:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Discouraged Maybe I haven't been writing as much lately because I just feel overwhelmed and discouraged, and that it's useless to keep pointing things out. For example, these two stories, about items released by the Bush administration on Friday afternoons - so that the stories are "buried" and the public never hears about them. First, U.S. May Expand Access To Endangered Species: The Bush administration is proposing far-reaching changes to conservation policies that would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries.And this, also released late Friday, Bush eases mining rules: The Bush administration announced Friday that it would start allowing companies that mine gold, silver and other precious metals as much public land as they need to help them develop their claims.I often say that one way to learn about Republicans is to listen to what they accuse others of, and then realize that their tactic is to cover their OWN motives an actions by accusing others of those very things. (Another long, convoluted sentence. Does this one get the prize?) For example, they were accusing Clinton of being corrupt and immoral -- and now look at the Bush administration, the most corrupt and immoral in history. Or how about Bill Bennett being the "morality" guy? And, of course, Mr. Judgement himself Rush Limbaugh. What I'm getting at is, they accuse everyone else of being evil... So they have this tactic of releasing news like this on Friday afternoons so the story gets "buried" in weekend WORKS. How do we get the public to understand that things like this are happening? I hope everyone reading this is doing all they can to get people reading online news sources like BuzzFlash, and weblogs like this one! --- Posted at 10/11/2003 09:25:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/10/2003 Keys Y'know, if you always know where your keys are because you always put them in the same place, and then one day you can't find them no matter where you look, it's better to remember BEFORE you call your wife demanding to know where she hid them, that you bought one of those little USB storage devices and put it on your keychain, and now it's plugged into the back of your computer. Also, this is longest sentence contest day. --- Posted at 10/10/2003 02:12:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Mapping Votes by County style.org > Mapping Votes by County. Just go look. Update - Now go look at Billmon's maps!!!! --- Posted at 10/10/2003 02:05:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Voting Machines and Working At The Polls One of the things I have learned from working at the polls on election day for the last couple of elections is the way they safeguard the ballots. There are fairly extensive procedures for making sure that all of the ballots are accounted for and only those ballots marked by actual voters are counted. In California's San Mateo County they use optical scanning equipment. The voter is given a paper ballot. The voter marks the ballot by completing a thick line next to the choice the voter is to make. For example, for the recall there are two choices, YES and NO. The voter sees something like the following: YES <<=== ===The voter uses a special pen to connect the line next to the voter's choice. Before the ballot can go into the ballot box, it passes through a scanning machine. If there are any problems with the ballot, like an overvote or an incorrectly marked choice, perhaps by circling instead of drawing the line or writing in a name as well as marking it -- problems like we heard about in Florida -- the ballot is rejected and the voter has the opportunity to try again. If the ballot is accepted it drops into a locked ballot box and can be used in a "hand count" to check whether the machine correctly tabulated the voters' choices. When the polls close there are special procedures for making sure that only the voters' choices are counted. There are several "judges" who must independently verify several things. The number of ballots received before the polls opened must match the number voted, spoiled or remaining to be voted. The number voted must match the number of signatures from voters who showed up and voted. The marked ballots are guarded using special procedures, and are taken to the central counting location in one car with another judge in ANOTHER car following to make sure that those ballots make it there with no funny business along the way. Many other procedures are in place to guard against any kind of fraud or mistake. Having experienced all of these procedures makes it all the more difficult for me to understand how any voting machine company would even THINK of trying to sell a voting machine that did not allow the voters a way to ascertain that their votes are correctly tabulated! How could they even imagine that any election official would do anything but laugh at the idea of purchasing and using such a machine? By the same token, it is inconceivable that any county election official would EVER have allowed such machines to be used! Yet, we have voting machine companies that refuse to offer -- and receive the extra revenue for -- voting machines that provide the voter with a ballot they can look at that is clearly marked with their choices. And we have election officials who accept these machines and tell the voters to "just trust us." It is my opinion that any election official that shows so little respect for the sanctity of the voting process that they would accept a machine that does not allow the voter a way to be sure that their vote is correctly counted and backed up should not be allowed to continue in that office! That official is in the wrong line of work, and needs to go be a realtor or something. Fortunately, awareness of this issue is spreading. People are learning of the dangers of these new electronic voting machines that do not have a way for the voter to double-check that their choices are correctly tabulated. Already enough people are aware of the problem that I do not expect that election results from these machines will be accepted. Soon I expect that the public will demand that their election officials respect the need for procedures that reassure the public that their votes are correctly counted. Just telling the public to trust the machines is not enough. --- Posted at 10/10/2003 11:25:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/08/2003 Views Of The Media This depressing Gallup Poll confirms what my own research has shown me. In the early 70's the Right started a well-funded campaign to push the public to the right. Telling the public that the media are liberal is just one part of the strategy. You can trace the specific funders and organizations involved. See this and this [large PDF, html coming soon] and the How They Do It series. In the Gallup story, scroll down to the chart that shows public perceptions of the media over time: "Gallup first asked Americans about their trust and confidence in the media back in the 1970s, but stopped at that point and didn't begin to use the question again until 1997.The Right's campaign really got going in the early-mid 70's, after the Heritage Foundation was started in 1973. It was well underway by the time Carter was President -- reflected in his "Malaise Speech," as I wrote about in this post. Looking back, the Right's attacks explain a lot about how Carter's presidency proceeded and is perceived now. Think about what is said about Carter, through the lens of knowing what they did to Clinton. And think about the tremendous influence they now have on the public, 45% of whom think the media is "too liberal." --- Posted at 10/08/2003 02:01:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Splitting the State I think this map shows some of the best boundaries for splitting California into two states, as has been discussed over the years. --- Posted at 10/08/2003 01:50:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What Were We Thinking? This story, Leaker May Remain Elusive, Bush Suggests: "President Bush said on Tuesday that he was not sure whether the Justice Department would determine who disclosed the identity of an undercover C.I.A. officer to journalists, but he pledged to provide investigators with "everything we know."For a few minutes last week some of us thought maybe this time would be different. Maybe this time the press would get involved. Maybe this time a Bush crime would be exposed. Maybe this time there might be an honest investigation. Maybe this time something they had done would "stick" and the public would demand answers. I mean, this was SERIOUS SHIT. The Party actually outed an undercover agent working to stop WMDs, as revenge for criticizing The Party. Serious consequences - the possibility of dead informants and agents, exposure of the network of companies and other covers the CIA used, and, of course, most importantly the WMD she was trying to stop now able to find other ways into the hands of those who would use them against us. Can't get much simpler and clearer than that. What were we thinking? The press was only waiting for The Party to feed them their new line -- there are lots of leaks, mushy liberals and the press are usually the culprits, and the President wants to stop these terrible leaks. The headline of today's story in the San Jose News, for example, presents Bush as the hero of the whole affair and the press as the bad guy: "Bush eager to find leaker": Bush said he is eager to discover the identity of those who disclosed the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame, who is married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a prominent critic on Bush's Iraq policy. . .What were we thinking? The system isn't going to stop them because they ARE the system now. The Supreme Court is the system, and the Supreme Court put The Party in total control of all of the branches of our government. The Justice Department isn't going to investigate this - the Justice Department gave them a day's warning that they are going to ask for documents. The FBI is little more than the investigative branch of The Party - they're the ones who put all their resources into investigating Clinton instead of al-Queda. The Courts are now dominated by Federalist Society drones. The Congress refuses to look into this, but the Congress is run by The Party. And the press... See the forest - these are the people who marketed tobacco to our kids. They are GOOD AT THIS. They convinced people to kill themselves and blame themselves for it, but first to hand over their money to them. It's over. It's not just over but it was OUR FAULT and THEY ARE THE HEROS. --- Posted at 10/08/2003 09:31:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/07/2003 A Long-Ass Day I just got back from working at the polls. All I can say is 6am to 9:30pm is one long-ass day. We were short-handed so I got one 20 minute break to run and get a sandwich. --- Posted at 10/07/2003 09:47:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/06/2003 Tuesday Tuesday I am working at the polls. I have to be there at 6am, and probably won't be back home until after 10pm. Don't wait up for me. --- Posted at 10/06/2003 08:32:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
DNC Voting Machines Resolution Here is the relevant section of the DNC's resolution. There are a nuber of "Whereas" clauses, and a few "Be It Resolved" clauses, and this: "BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC goes on record demanding that all electronic voting equipment used in public elections must incorporate an accessible voter-verified paper audit trail as soon as practical, but in no case any later than the November 2004 general election." --- Posted at 10/06/2003 09:28:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Make these donuts with extra grease. This batch is for the chief of police. Does anyone remember a tune from the early 80's that was a lot of guitars strumming a monotonous tonal thing for a long time, and then, just once, lyrics, shouted, "Make these donuts with extra grease. This batch is for the chief of police!" and then guitars again for a long time? --- Posted at 10/06/2003 08:51:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/04/2003 BIG Voting Machines News! I have just learned that the DNC - Democratic National Committee - has passed, unanimously, a resolution asking for voter-verified paper audit trails on all electronic voting machines before the 2004 election. This is a big victory! They also asked for full funding of HAVA, the law that helps pay for new voting equipment, passed by COngress after the Florida vote was stolen. The national Democratic Party is now on record on this issue. Will the Republicans support this or try to block it? If they try to block it - why? --- Posted at 10/04/2003 11:25:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/03/2003 More On That Report As promised. From the introduction to this report on tort reform and the Right: (This is a PDF document. I should have it up in HTML in the next few days.) ”…in addition to the expected corporate-front organizations like the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) and Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA), the “tort reform” movement is ideologically associated with a network of organizations, such as the Washington Legal Foundation, the Cato Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council, which are part of what they themselves call the “conservative movement.” This web of “movement” organizations receives general operating support, project grants, and strategic guidance from a core group of ideological far-right-wing foundations that has been working for nearly thirty years to alter public attitudes and move the national agenda to the right. --- Posted at 10/03/2003 05:12:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
"The Right Wing Media Slime Machine" Paul Krugman, in 'Slime and Defend' writes about "The right-wing media slime machine, which tries to assassinate the character of anyone who opposes the right's goals...". This writes about it, too. (Caution - big PDF file.) More later. --- Posted at 10/03/2003 06:56:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/02/2003 He Says: It's Because I Was Right My empathy goes away. Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/01/2003 | McNabb: No apology wanted: "McNabb said his biggest concern was the thoughts of families and kids who watched Limbaugh's remarks.That's right, Rush. Black people being outraged only proves that you are right. What else could it mean? And his listeners all show smug smiles and nod. --- Posted at 10/02/2003 09:21:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Chart THIS U.S. Military Deaths in the Conquest of Iraq --- Posted at 10/02/2003 09:13:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Empathy I can't help but feel some empathy for Rush after reading this. Update - And this. --- Posted at 10/02/2003 11:43:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What Have They Been Doing? This article, Mercury News | CIA leak called `serious' points out that the CIA first asked the Justice Department to investigate the "outing" of CIA agent Plame. In July. : "Senior intelligence officials said Monday that the CIA filed what they termed a ``crime report'' with the Justice Department in late July, shortly after syndicated columnist Robert Novak, citing two unnamed administration sources, identified Wilson's wife by name. The CIA report pointed to a ``possible violation of federal criminal law involving the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.''"As you read about this story, remember, the CIA first asked the Justice Department to look into this in July. So in the months since July the Bush administration did nothing, not even asking staffers to preserve documents. What kind of investigation do you think this Justice Department is conducting? --- Posted at 10/02/2003 10:28:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Hating Davis Here's an e-mail I sent to my wife, for the kid in her office who "hates Davis" because his tuition went up: For those who don't know about California, the budget requires a 2/3 vote in the legislature to pass. The Republicans have just enough votes to block any tax increases, so the budget was balanced almost entirely with spending cuts. The Democrats wanted to raise taxes on upper incomes and corporations and the Republicans refused to allow any tax increases, even to pay for education. So they cut the state college budgets, which required tuition increases. (The Republicans even tried to eliminate 100,000 kids from Kindergarten.) You can look this up, it is what happened. Repeat - Governor Davis tried to STOP the spending cuts that led to the tuition increases. The Republicans forced this to happen. Arnold says he will cut more spending if elected. He says the government spends too much. The only alternative to the government spending is raising tuition and other fees that regular people pay. Cutting spending means increasing tuition, and other fees that regular people pay. Cutting spending means cutting services that regular people use - like police and fire and health care and road repair and even having enough people at the DMV to keep the lines from getting really long. Cutting spending means laying of government workers, which means even more people looking for work. Arnold and McClintock, the Republican candidates, are calling for spending cuts. Much of the state's budget goes to education. There are limits on how much they can cut K-12 so those cuts will be from the colleges. If Republicans get in office this kid's tuition is going to skyrocket! If you support a candidate who wants to "cut spending" please find out WHAT spending they mean! --- Posted at 10/02/2003 09:58:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Hates Davis My wife was telling me about a young guy at work who is going to vote for Arnold because he "hates Davis." Why does he hate Davis? Because his tuition went up. For those who don't know about California, the budget requires a 2/3 vote to pass. The Republicans have just enough votes to block any tax increases, so the budget was balanced almost entirely with cuts. Cuts to state colleges required tuition increases. (The Republicans even tried to eliminate 100,000 kids from Kindergarten.) Also, Arnold and McClintock, the Republican candidates, are calling for budget cuts. Much of the budget is education. There are limits on how much they can cut K-12 so those cuts will be from the colleges. If Republicans get in office this kid's tuition is going to skyrocket! THIS is how our media informs our citizens. --- Posted at 10/02/2003 07:33:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Poor, Persecuted Right Wingnuts This just came in my e-mail, from Heritage Foundation's TownHall.com. (Just to show how closely linked they are -- TowhHall.org is the Republican National Committee.) To: Conservative FriendsYes, those poor, persecuted right wingnuts. "Liberals" (Jews) are killing Christ (Bush). --- Posted at 10/02/2003 06:45:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/01/2003 What I've Been Doing This is what I've been doing. More later. (Warning - big PDF file.) --- Posted at 10/01/2003 04:00:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Why Did They Wait? Two months ago the CIA agent was named by "two senior Bush administration officials." THAT was the time for administration outrage. But not a word, and certainly no action. Yesterday, only in response to press attention, the Bush administration launched an internal investigation. Brad DeLong has this to say: "The moment for an internal investigation was two months ago. The moral and ethical measure of these statesmen has already been taken. " --- Posted at 10/01/2003 03:31:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What The Right Is Saying Just to keep tabs - here's a right-wing blogger's postings about the Plame scandal. Prepare yourself - it seems that smearing Wilson (the agent's husband) as being anti-war makes everything OK. Almost the whole post is smears against the agent's husband, as if that has ANYthing to do with ANYthing. (When you read this remember that her husband was a Reagan appointee.) Note also that there's a tone of smearing the CIA. What's that all about? Somehow the CIA has become the enemy of the right, similar to how they feel about the UN? Remember - ANYone who opposes The Party is subject to the treatment. --- Posted at 10/01/2003 03:20:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Yes, I'm Back I'm back. And soon I'll be showing you what I have been doing. --- Posted at 10/01/2003 02:13:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What The Press Is Concerned About Almost all mainstream news coverage of this Valeria Plame scandal has been in terms of the POLITICS of the story! I hear that "the Democrats see a political opportunity." I hear that it "threatens Bush." Even a BBC report I heard yesterday said that Democrats are speakling up "because they smell blood." What about the danger to the country? What about right and wrong? What about the danger this woman and every contact she has had for decades was exposed to? These do not seem to be the concerns of our mainstream press. WE do not seem to be the concerns of our mainstream press. --- Posted at 10/01/2003 02:12:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Understanding The Motive This might help you understand what's behind the "Valerie Plame CIA employee" scandal - as well as why so many are afraid to go up against The Party. From Why Are These Men Laughing? by Ron Suskind, Esquire, January, 2003: "Eventually, I met with Rove. I arrived at his office a few minutes early, just in time to witness the Rove Treatment, which, like LBJ's famous browbeating style, is becoming legend but is seldom reported. Rove's assistant, Susan Ralston, said he'd be just a minute. She's very nice, witty and polite. Over her shoulder was a small back room where a few young men were toiling away. I squeezed into a chair near the open door to Rove's modest chamber, my back against his doorframe.You cross The Party, they will fuck you. Doesn't matter if it involves outing an undercover CIA agent who is working on tracking down weapons of mass destruction. It doesn't matter if it means burning every organization or individual that provided her with cover over the years, and exposing every informant she had and risking their execution, exposing the agent herself and every other undercover operative she was ever seen meeting with (not to mention anyone ELSE she was ever seen meeting with) to great danger. And never mind the weapons of mass destruction she was tracking down. This is much more important - this is about fucking you for crossing The Party. And now that The Party is threatened - for almost the first time in many years - with having to face some consequences for its actions, the hardball really starts. You think you have seen smears? You think you have seen lying? --- Posted at 10/01/2003 01:36:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
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