Electronic Voting

The Internet Rights Forum ("Le Forum des droits sur l'internet") published recommendations about the future of electronic voting in France:

the report.

Are Police Constitutional?

ARE COPS CONSTITUTIONAL?

Police work is often lionized by jurists and scholars who claim to employ "textualist" and "originalist" methods of constitutional interpretation. Yet professional police were unknown to the United States in 1789, and first appeared in America almost a half-century after the Constitution's ratification. The Framers contemplated law enforcement as the duty of mostly private citizens, along with a few constables and sheriffs who could be called upon when necessary. This article marshals extensive historical and legal evidence to show that modern policing is in many ways inconsistent with the original intent of America's founding documents. The author argues that the growth of modern policing has substantially empowered the state in a way the Framers would regard as abhorrent to their foremost principles.

Read it.

Huh. I must admit the question never crossed my mind.

Gore Endorses Dean

Gore to Endorse Dean

Gore. The man has bloomed, really, into the role of wise elder, statesman emeritus -- who understands politics but doesn't have to bow to it anymore.

He's going to leave the kind of impact on our politics, our political morality, that will have historians writing books for 100 years.

The Blogsphere Ecosystem

Cool.

The Blogsphere Ecosystem at The Truth Laid Bear. (The scan this app performs is only on a blog's main page, btw...)

That's just...cool. I added my blog to the ecosystem and got 'sorted' -- the distribution ranges from higher being to insignificant microbe. I came up Wiggly Worm.

Pretty self-explanatory, don't you think?

And the WMDI -- Weblog MetaData Initiative seems very interesting.

Of course, I found all this because the ecosystem is what wizbang is using for categorizing awards, and I was looking at the group titles saying to myself, WTF is 'Best Ecosystem Slimy Molluscs Blog'?

Letter from an Angry Army Vet

Letter from an Army vet (Salon.com)

A disabled Vietnam-era vet visits a Minneapolis V.A. hospital and discovers that many fellow vets oppose the Bush administration's war in Iraq.

Remind Us

You know all those lists bloggers and journalists post of the reasons the Bush Administration stated for us to invade Iraq? This is visual and about 10 times more effective:

Remind Us (Shockwave, 1130K)

Out and Out Bribery

Who Tried To Bribe Rep. Smith?

On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father's vote. When he still declined, fellow Republican House members told him they would make sure Brad Smith never came to Congress. After Nick Smith voted no and the bill passed, [Rep.] Duke Cunningham of California and other Republicans taunted him that his son was dead meat.

Where is the NY Times, page 1, above the fold, banner headline: "House Threatens Members"? Where is it? Where?

*peers closely*

Did I miss it?

Jessica Lynch and Finger-Pointing

Intel Dump explains how Elaine Donnelly in National Review got it wrong blaming PFC Lynch's capture on "Clinton-era" reforms of positions open to women that had nothing to do with Lynch's presence in a battle situation.

He makes 3 salient points in response to Donnelly:

1. "PFC Lynch's supply clerk billet would have been open to women in 1990 for Gulf War I. PFC Lynch was not a front-line position, such as that in the 3rd Military Police Company or 1-227 Aviation (Attack) -- two units where women fought as MP soldiers and Apache helicopter pilots respectively. Instead, she held a supply clerk position in a rear area logistics unit where the risk of combat was thought to be low." Clinton-era reforms of 1994 had nothing to do that position being considered a valid one for women.
2. Her company, the 507th Maintenance, was in harm's way because rear-area security was ineffective.
3. Her company, the 507th Maintenance, was not prepared for combat. (Probably in direct connection to #1.)

His solution? The right one: "Make every soldier a rifleman". Train even rear-area support services for front-line fighting. Train everyone, and keep that training up. Because, amazing as this may seem to us civvies, you cannot plan for everything. Why, your rear area may be overrun, for example.

So take a tip from the Boy Scouts and be prepared.

One down, how many to go?

I finished The Sweater™ for my dad, binding off the ribbing on the second sleeve this morning while watching MTV (or was it VH-1? At 7 in the morning, they still show actual music videos, did you know that?), before heading off for some volunteer work I do every Tuesday.

It's a creamy colored gansey* worked in pretty run-of-the-mill yarn too thick for a properly traditional gansey, but I wanted to finish something complex before spending gobs of money on finer yarn and well, I started this project with only three completed sweaters under my belt, and I didn't want to risk 'wasting' money at the time when I started this one.

I have no qualms in that department now. :-) I can knit sweaters, by Jove!

Next up, finish a scarf for my brother. If I have time, throw out a hat or two, but that doesn't have to be finished by Christmas. I should have plenty of knitting time when I report next week for jury duty.


[*] A British fisherman's sweater -- not to be confused with the Aran, an Irish fisherman's sweater -- those are the ones known so well for their intricate cabling. The gansey or jersey is (generally) constructed differently and designs are frequently in horizontal panels across the body, rather than being vertically oriented work. Trust me, they're different beasts. It's OK.

Central News is Good News!

U.S. 'News': Is Anyone Watching the Iraqi Media Network?, by Cynthia Cotts.

I'm going to touch on something Cotts doesn't:

You know how when you're working somewhere and a new management team comes in and spends beacoup bucks restructuring everything they way they think it should be and all the money goes into that and production grinds to a halt because no one can actually do any work because they're stuck "transitioning" between two systems and using both at once and that takes too much time plus stuff falls through the cracks all the time and if the new mgrs had just examined the existing system and co-opted it, people could have just working and things wouldn't be in such disarray for days/weeks/months/heaven forbid, years?

Does anyone else feel like that about the U.S. and Iraq? It's like, every time you turn around, there's my government, re-inventing the wheel rather than use the perfectly good one that other organizations have ready and waiting.

'Monstrous U.S. Justice'

'Monstrous US justice' attacked by law lord

Lord Steyn, a serving law lord, said the United States was acting illegally by holding the men without trial since their transfer from Afghanistan early last year.

"By denying the prisoners the right to raise challenges in a court about their alleged status and treatment, the United States government is in breach of the minimum standards of customary international law," he said.

"...Ought our government to make plain publicly and unambiguously our condemnation of the utter lawlessness at Guantanamo Bay?"

Yes. Mine, too.

New Rant at 3rd WWWave

The 3rdWWWave of Feminism

(Said rant is from a week or so ago, I just forgot to mention it). Go look at "Replies to the News".

Dear Santa

Please bring me for Christmas (not in order):

Yarn for a Booga Bag! (click here for details)
Anything off my Amazon wishlist (linked in the nav elements to the left for your convenience, Santa!)
More spiffy 1" cone incense from Incense Galore (I'm particularly fond of moroccan tea, 'tree' scents like fir or cedar, 'spice' scents like licorice or vanilla, and sandalwood)
A small (< 6) selection of quality cigars
Money with which to buy groceries
Self-governance, peace, and liberty for Iraq and her people

Medicare

I have one remark from last nights presidential campaign debate in Iowa, and then a comment about the legislation.

1. Someone brought up the fact that Medicare had been originally intended as a safety net. My question then, is this: should it stay a safety net, or become something else (and if, so, what, exactly)?

A safety net is designed to catch someone falling from a problem elsewhere - like, say, not enough retirement income to pay for medical needs. Maybe in order to 'fix' Medicare (reduce associated costs), what is necessary is to improve citizen's retirement savings, and maybe reduce healthcare costs overall[*].

2. According to NPR's Morning Edition, this legislation was roughly 650 pages in length, and fully released (for review) less than two weeks ago.



[*] I can think of a couple things immediately that warrant attention in that case: malpractice suits and insurance, and weighty HMOs.

Three-State Solution for Iraq?

In an editiorial today, Leslie H. Gelb proposes a Three-State Solution in Iraq.

I don't know. If Iraq has been a national entity since the 1960's, is it too late? That's two generations worth who have grown up identifying themselves as Iraqi.