"No" on Bolton

Senate Committee Refuses to Endorse Bolton

Good. The man sounds like a bully. The last thing we need when America's image overseas has been so tarnished is a bully as our envoy to the UN.

Kraft Catching Heat for 2006 Gay Games -- You Can Help

Kraft Foods is a major sponsor of the 2006 Gay Games. The anti-gay "crusaders" have targeted them and are flooding their phone bank. Kraft's Gay Games Support Under Attack

You can call # 1-800-323-0768, toll free to voice your support.

It's very simple: "Hi, I'm calling to voice my support for Kraft's sponsorship of the 2006 Gay Games. Tolerance and diversity are American values, and I'm proud to see Kraft supporting those values."

You can do that, it's easy.

Fictional Politics, Political Fictions...Or Something Like That

Politics in an Age of Fiction "The nature of this presidency has clearly been pushed to inhumanly fictional extremes."

If it bleeds, it leads

John Tierney bemoans the media obsession with cramming terror attacks down our throats:

I didn't see what good I was doing for anyone except the planners of the attack. It was a horrifying story, but it was same story as every other suicide bombing, from the descriptions of the carnage and the mayhem to the quotes from eyewitnesses and the authoritie

And Bruce Schneier interprets his words as arguing "that the media is performing a public disservice by writing about all the suicide bombings in Iraq. This only serves to scare people, he claims, and serves the terrorists' ends."

True, it does. I can't put my response to that argument in any better words than Bruce's:

So why is the argument wrong? It's wrong because the danger of not reporting terrorist attacks is greater than the risk of continuing to report them. Freedom of the press is a security measure. The only tool we have to keep government honest is public disclosure. Once we start hiding pieces of reality from the public -- either through legal censorship or self-imposed "restraint" -- we end up with a government that acts based on secrets. We end up with some sort of system that decides what the public should or should not know.

Exactly. It is more important to a society that depends on the the free flow of information to keep our leaders honest to see these dramatic, terrible images, to hear of atrocities then to have them withheld, out of good intentions or bad, and never have a chance of deciding to fight against them.

Oil

Cheney’s secretive task force

These are the shortsighted power-hungry fools who want to drill in ANWR.

Who want to drill in New Mexico's sacred Otero Mesa.

Governor appeals plan for oil, gas drilling on Otero mesa

Who think destroying the natural beauty of America -- taking that precious gift away from our children -- destroying our cultural diversity -- and taking that even more precious gift away from our children -- is worth a few months, or even a couple years, of oil.

Real ID is Stupid

REAL ID A Real Bad Idea.

This "Real ID" scheme makes us less safe, costs money, and will make identity theft easier.

UnRealId.com

How the Real ID Act will affect you

One voice in the wilderness. Voting against the REAL ID Act.

HR 418 (click the little radio button that says "Enter Bill Number" and then type "HR 418" in the text field, and hit the Search button. You'll get a page that links to a couple different versions of the bill: as entered in House, as agreed to or passed by House, etc. It doesn't really matter which one you click on, you're just looking to get the gist of it.)

Look at this bill. Doesn't this bill look like something attempting to keep terrorists out of the country?

If that's its true purpose, why does it start off by documenting the hell out of every American citizen?

Wouldn't it make sense to document the hell out of prospective terrorists instead?

Buddhism stuff

So, I've gone back to reading Stephen Batchelor's Buddhism without Beliefs. I've been reading it off and on for some time. It's really good, as well as, in my opinion, very fine end-of-term-finals-reading-period reading. For two reasons:

1. Insightful, interesting, thought-provoking chapters. I am not thinking about the law when I read Stephen Batchelor.
2. Short chapters. Very short.

One of the things I find intriguing about Buddhism as a belief structure is that it isn't one, so it doesn't get in the way of others you may already have. If you're a Christian, you can follow the middle way, too. They're very compatible. What Buddhism is is a method, or it sounds like one to my delicate shell-like scientist's ears.

Fascinating stuff.

If Only

Bush S**ts on FDR

"We will not repeat the mistakes of other generations, appeasing or excusing tyranny, and sacrificing freedom in the vain pursuit of stability," the president said. "We have learned our lesson; no one's liberty is expendable. In the long run, our security and true stability depend on the freedom of others."

If only he believed it, instead of just saying it.

People v. Smeagol, People v. Baggins

(okay, I moved the Lord of the Rings law analysis stuff to the law blog, after I decided to write a few more.)

Secret Message to Welsh Cabal

Mission Accomplished!

Deceive, Inviegle, Obfuscate? Vote Them Out

"C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."

Emphasis added.

And whilst I'm adding emphases around here, let me just emphasize that nothing we have learned about the decisionmaking process for the US invasion of Iraq has countered the basic principle evidenced here: that the Bush administration decided what they wanted to do, then did their best to sculpt - that's my polite way of saying "fabricate" - information and opinion to make it happen.

And then, adding insult to injury, when things started coming out about the Administration "cooking the books", got mad at the intelligence community over the bad intel they themselves created!

I've only got three words: vote them out. Vote. Them. Out.

The Current Memo
The Smoking Gun Memo, and Proof Bush Fixed the Facts
Cooking the Books
The Price of Loyalty, by Ron Suskind
Cooking the Books

The Iraq–Al Qaeda connection. General Wesley Clark...appeared on Meet the Press. As reported by Jim Lobe in a piece he wrote last week for the Web site TomPaine.com, Clark made a startling allegation. "I got a call on 9/11," Clark told host Tim Russert. "I was on CNN, and I got a call at my home saying, 'You got to say this is connected. This is state-sponsored terrorism. This has to be connected to Saddam Hussein.' I said, 'But — I’m willing to say it — but what’s your evidence?' And I never got any evidence.")

Some administration officials expressing misgivings on Iraq

"...intelligence analysts are under intense pressure to produce reports supporting the White House's argument that Saddam poses such an immediate threat to the United States that pre-emptive military action is necessary."

Despite the April 2002 CIA assessment, the May 2002 fabrication notice and the July 2002 assessment suggesting the source may have fabricated information, the source was highlighted in the October 2002 NIE, and he was one of the four HUMINT sources specifically referred to in the part of Secretary Powell's February 2003 speech before the UN Security Council that discussed the mobile BW production units.

Senate Intelligence Bad

On Oct. 6, 2002, the DCI called the deputy national security advisor directly to outline the CIA's concerns. The DCI testified to the SSCI on July 16, 2003, that he told the deputy national security advisor that the..."reporting was weak." (page 56)

On Oct. 6, 2002, the CIA sent a second fax to the White House that said, "More on why we recommend removing the sentence [from the State of the Union address] about procuring uranium oxide from Africa: Three points (1) The evidence is weak [emphasis added]. One of the two mines cited by the source as the location of the uranium oxide is flooded. The other mine cited by the source is under the control of the French authorities. (2) The procurement is not particularly significant to Iraq's nuclear ambitions because the Iraqis already have a large stock of uranium oxide in their inventory. And (3) we have shared points one and two with Congress, telling them that the Africa story is overblown and telling them this is one of the two issues where we differed with the British." (page 56)

And, Now, Blaming the Other Guy
Report: Iraq intelligence 'dead wrong'

No National ID Cards

National ID Cards: 5 Reasons Why They Should Be Rejected, courtesy of the ACLU.

Here's the biggest reason: they won't make us any safer. Most of the security "fixes" this administration has come up with have been throwing good money after bad.

Wasting time and money restructuring and re-organizing federal agencies (to create the Department of Homeland Security) instead of pumping money and resources into existing interagency liaison and communication tools, and letting those people get on with their jobs.

Wasting time and money on airport safety regulations that verify you have pieces of paper that say you are the owner of a ticket, instead of making sure that, whoever you are, wherever you're from, you didn't bring a weapon on board.

Wasting time and money invading Iraq instead of following through in Afghanistan and fucking CAPTURING BIN LADEN, the guy who *took credit* for the Sept 11 attacks.

And now, wasting time and money creating national databases of useless information about Americans. It will always have errors, it will always be out of date, and it will rarely, if ever, provide information at the right time on the right bad guy.

You know what works when it comes to nabbing bad guys? Experienced cops with a nose for the job. The guy who makes you feel squirrelly, who sets off some subtle radar that you can't even define? That's the one to pull aside out of the queue and ask for extra ID, to see if he squirms. A database is never going to provide that ineffable clue for a human mind to pick up on.

And I thought cleanliness was next to godliness

And here it's actually "republicanism".

Democrats Kicked Out of Church by Pro-Bush Pastor

If this church is no more than an organ of the Republican Party, it should lose its tax-exempt status immediately. It's not a church, and shouldn't be allowed to hide behind the name of one.

Alert! Connecticut Dog Rescue Needs Help!

Greyhounds are such lovely dogs. I hear they're not like huskies, not that kind of working dogs who like to run for long periods of time, but are actually quite catlike and slothful.

I want one.

Rescue or foster a greyhound today! Plainfield, CT Greyhound Track to Close: Greyhounds Must Go or Be Killed.

News Flash! My Mom's Really a Man!

What Makes a Woman a Woman?

Quoth Feministe from Senate Bill 51 and House Bill 356:

"WOMAN- The term `woman’ means a female human being who is capable of becoming pregnant, whether or not she has reached the age of majority."

Wow, once I hit menopause, I'll cease to be a woman. That's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Does this mean I'll get paid a dollar on the dollar, instead of 76 cents? I have to go call my mother, I'm sure she'll be thrilled to hear she can finally be a first-class citizen in This Man's America. Golly!

Wups! Better make that "he"!

And just think, all those FTM transgendered folks can finally be themselves, once they're no longer fertile! Screw getting surgery to create a dick, all you need is to be an infertile female, and *bam* -- you're a guy! I mean, after all, what else would you be? Women are not-men, and men are not women, so a not-not-man is a man!

So, here's the question for you: if I'm on birth control pills, or menstruating, or not ovulating, I'm not capable of become pregnant. Am I not a woman, then? Should I register for the draft?

And, what if I missed my pill on a given day?

How will people tell when I am or am not a woman?

Boy, just think of all the problems that men will suddenly have an impetus to solve, now that they are equally the victims and perpetrators of domestic violence and of rape.

I look forward to the day.