Another Damp Spot on the Earth

Thanksgiving 2011 - Turkey Stuffed Portrait

2011-11-24T18:02:00.000-09:00

The dinner was delicious, and the house full of family was awesome. Too bad I can't sleep in tomorrow.

The Christmas Baking - The Goodies Ready to be Delivered

2010-12-15T19:53:00.002-09:00

The Christmas Baking: Time for the Frosting

2010-12-10T20:58:00.000-09:00

Our Christmas Tree Decorating Team

2010-12-10T17:35:00.000-09:00

Jeannette, Charlie and Tyson.

The Christmas Baking: Day Four

2010-12-10T17:28:00.000-09:00

Butter cookies. We'll be frosting them tonight or tomorrow, depending on how things go..

The Christmas Baking: Day Three

2010-12-10T17:27:00.000-09:00

Peanut butter kisses.

The Christmas Baking: Day Two

2010-12-10T17:25:00.000-09:00

Pistachio toffee, chocolate cherries , peanut butter buckeye balls and home made almond joys. There wasn't room for them in the house while the rest of the baking is going on!

The Christmas Baking Begins

2010-12-07T18:22:00.000-09:00

Cherry Amaretto bread

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T09:29:00.002-09:00

Hope your holiday season is filled with happy surprises and lots of egg nog or other seasonal refresher of your choice!

The Past, Present and Future

2009-06-29T21:22:00.001-08:00

I’ve got a new computer, and this weekend my grandson Charlie had his first birthday. Of course those of you who know me and check the other blogs I have here already know that my Grandmother passed away in April at the age of 103.

I’m 55 this year and Jullee and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in August.

So much for title origins…

Arthur C. Clarke R.I.P.

2008-03-18T15:32:00.004-08:00

Arthur C. Clarke, visionary, hero, author and legend has passed away today. He was 90.
He is best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was originally a short story called 'The Sentinel', but it was Childhood's End which was my favorite. I also remember being totally captivated by the short story 'A Meeting with Medusa', which speculated on the possiblility of life in the atmosphere of Jupiter.

Thank you Mr. Clarke, and farewell.

A New Pet Peeve

2008-02-03T19:23:00.000-09:00

First, obviously I'm not dead, though the fact I haven't posted here since August might have suggested otherwise.

What I am is busy, writing mostly, that takes care of the urge to post. Also, I'm officially diagnosed as a type II diabetic, and because of this, have significantly altered my lifestyle, with a lot more physical activity and a radically altered diet. So far, the results are encouraging - I've lost almost thirty pounds and my blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels have all had the doctor, nutritionist and diabetes councilor sounding very encouraging.

On to the pet peeve!

As someone who can only be considered a part-time blogger these days, perhaps its not my place to say, but...

I HATE websites, and especially blogs, where you can't see anything but the logo or banner with a series of google ads beneath it. If I have to scroll down past the ads to get to the content, I just move on to the next website. I DO NOT BOTHER WITH BLOGGERS WHO SEE THEIR GOOGLE ADS AS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THEIR CONTENT!!!!

So, to those of you reading this for whom that might be true, just remember. That decision cost you at least one reader - ME.

Slightly less peevish, but even more sickening in some ways are the seemingly endless supply of blogs these days devoted to SEO - an acronym that I had to search to discover stood for Search Engine Optimization, as well as blogs devoted to making money with your blog. In my mind, starting a blog to make money is the same sort of failure as deciding the stock market is a place to make money rather than a place to invest in companies whose worth you value. The key word here is failure.

We now return you to the background static you normally experience here on this blog, thanks for your attention.

Living in an Age of Decline

2007-08-03T15:43:00.000-08:00

There is nothing to recommend about living in times like these. I remember the promise my parents told me that life offered, and the promise that being an American offered. I remember Independence Day in Sitka the year that Alaska became a state. (barely, but I remember it, okay. There was red white and blue bunting, and watermelon and a lot of people were very excited.)

Promise, and hope, and that dream. you know the one? The American one that politicians have been talking about since before television let them say it to more people and with less consequences than previous generations?

I was on the edge of that. I swear I could taste it, feel it brushing itself against me like the touch of cherry blossoms on the wind. And then it seemed to slip away.

Not the American dream about prosperity and success, or the one about being President. I mean the American dream about equality, and freedom and justice for all. In the mid seventies, and into the eighties, I thought it was coming. I was sure of it.

I'd seen America's young influence a war and a generation look beyond politics and status. I saw women gaining rights they should have had all along. I saw Martin Luther King Jr, and he spoke of that dream and it seemed a nation listened.

I saw marvels and miracles that had to mean great things were coming. Men walked on the Moon. The Berlin wall came down. Gilligan made it home.

Today, you have to protest our president from 'free speech zones'. Today we have massive debt and overfull prisons and rotting FEMA trailers. Today we have executive privilege and some abomination called 'the unitary executive'.

There was a dream once, I saw it bloom, and had hoped to see it flower fully before I moved on. Today I feel it slipping past, and soon it will be gone.

Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins dies - Politics - MSNBC.com

2007-01-31T18:33:00.000-09:00

There are few people I've found on the national scene who have been identifiably in my corner. Recently a lot of people in the liberal online community have been in her corner rooting, but today Molly Ivins died, and America lost a voice of reason and a champion for the average joe.

Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins dies - Politics - MSNBC.com

Year's End

2006-12-12T16:26:00.000-09:00

Christmas approaches, as does 2007. Congress has gone democratic, the war in Iraq is more insane every day and The Weasel still occupies the White House.

I am not dead, in prison, captured by aliens or any of the other rumored situations. Well, except for the one about the .. oh, never mind.

Still off somewhere writing.

P.S. I have completely turned off comment posting except for Blog Members. I was beginning to get too much blog spam.

Happy Holidays.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2006-09-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

I'm sure folks who wander by my blog semi-regularly have been wondering about the lack of activity here over the last few months.

I confess to having been busy exorcizing my creative demons someplace else on the intertubes.

I also confess to suffering from Political Feeding Frenzy burnout.

On a good note, while I've been otherwise occupied, Darth Murkowski was denied by his own party from serving another term as ~~emperor~~ governor.

The New School of Journalism

2006-07-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

Based on reports like this and this that have surfaced over the weekend, Those folks interested in careers in journalism are going to have to be taking some new classes in school. Classes on effective disguises, and creating fake identities. Classes such as "How to use an anonymous mail drop 101".

Perhaps we'll someday see the Columbia School of Broadcasting's Journalist Protection Program, where entire families are whisked away by mysterious groups of men with sunglasses and earpieces to a safe house somewhere while they wait to recieve their new names and identities.

Perhaps it wont get quite that extreme. But when the President of the United States, and those in his realm begin to call investigative journalists traitors for "exposing" information, and when extremist supporters of the administration begin making calls like these to expose the wives, husbands and children of those journalists to ...what again??? A call to hunt them down and do what???

This is not the rational response of reasoning beings to a difference of opinion, this is not a call for change, or even a call for justice. It is insanity, plain and simple.

Rabid and cruel. What good person anywhere can maintain support for people who would behave this way?

The Problem with Government

2006-06-23T11:59:00.000-08:00

Chicago Lulu over at Daily Kos posted an article recently in which she quotes extensively from the text of a speech Barak Obama gave recently at the "Take Back America" conference.

I was particularly struck by this bit:

The reason they don't believe government has a role in solving national problems is because they think government is the problem. That we're better off if we dismantle it - if we divvy it up into individual tax breaks, hand 'em out, and encourage everyone to go buy your own health care, your own retirement security, your own child care, their own schools, your own private security force, your own roads, their own levees...
It's called the Ownership Society in Washington. But in our past there has been another term for it - Social Darwinism - every man or women for him or herself.

And I thought to myself as I read it that Obama didn't quite go far enough in describing the underlying Republican belief which seems to be the fuel for their current philosophy. Its not "our Ownership Society" or "America's Ownership Society", its theirs. Their belief is that it is important to them to reduce the role of government because it is government which prevents them from being richer than they are.

Not rich, richer than they already are.

The sales pitch to all those non-rich voters who keep electing them is that "government is what stands in the way of your becoming rich". But that's not true. The effects of the changes in our government have been to push people out of the middle class into lower income brackets, and to push the low income families into poverty. These changes are not lifting up regular Americans, they are propping up Americans who are already wealthy and enabling a system which makes them rich at the expense of the rest of America.

The currently Republican-dominated government, with control of all three branches of our government, has used that control, not to solve our healthcare problems, not to preserve the futures of our children, or the security of our senior citizens, not to expand educational opportunities, or secure our borders. That control has been used to make a quick buck for themselves and those they are beholden to.

The problem with this government is that it has chosen not to govern, and instead has chosen to rule.

Revisiting Euphoria

2006-06-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

Last year about this time, I giddily posted the news that tiny little Sitka, population 8000 (approximately) had managed to overcome all the much larger schools in the State to capture the State High School Baseball championship.

Last weekend our young men once again struck gold on the field. Sitka is only the 2nd repeat champion in the State H.S. Baseball tournament history ( granted, that history covers less than a decade)

Read full articles by following the links in the snippets below:

Sitka repeats as state baseball champs

8-3: Wolves' Crow nets 12 strikeouts in a complete-game effort.
By DANNY MARTIN
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
adn.com | high school : Sitka repeats as state baseball champs -

Sitka celebrates 2nd title
The Wolves upend Chugiak 8-3 for back-to-back state baseball crowns By TIM NICHOLS JUNEAU EMPIRE 13909_200.jpg

JuneauEmpire.com: Sports: Sitka celebrates 2nd title 06/07/06

Think Progress spots one of those "Activist Generals"

2006-06-05T15:49:00.000-08:00

Follow the link below for Think Progress' excellent report.

Direct Link Between Haditha and Rumsfeld's Bad Judgment

The Law Reviewed

2006-06-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

A lot of stories popping up regarding reports that the American Bar Association has begun a review of President Bush's use of signing statements. Here's a link to one such at the Boston Globe's online edition.

Americans need to be reassured that the law is written by the legislature, and that the President, whether he believes it is right or not, cannot make or modify the law to suit his purposes.

Bush may denounce "activist judges" , as his religious-right handlers have encouraged him to do, but nothing can be compared to the incredibly naked power grab of this "activist president".

I expect, and lets hope the ABA so finds, that the use of signing statements shouldn't have, and legally cannot have, any effect on that legislation duly created by Congress which he has in turned signed into law. The President's constitutionally mandated oversight role when it comes to the laws the Congress passes is the veto, plain and simple. A president can exercise his veto power. If congress can muster the votes, they can then override that veto and it becomes law anyway. There is no language in the Constitution, nor in any law of the Amendments to the Constitution, nor in any law passed since the crafting of the Constitution which can be construed as assigning to the President the power to modify the intent of legislation at the time he signs it into law.

America deserves better from its leaders, and we certainly are expecting better from our lawyers in this instance.

No Place for Toll Gates on the Information Superhighway

2006-06-05T13:31:00.000-08:00

Do your part to keep true net neutrality alive. We do not need every Telco in the world deciding who can and cannot access "their piece" of the internet.

Here's a link to a video by Moby sponsored by MoveOn, PoliticsTV, and a slew of other organizations who have united in their efforts to oppose efforts by the current Republican Corporatocracy to once more give corporations control of something we're already paying for.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/moby

A Little Thursday Geekiness

2006-06-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

Those who know me are aware that I'm a professional computer geek. Those who've known me since childhood know that I used to be a major comic book and Science Fiction geek. As one of those frustrated non-billionaire technology geeks, I suffer constantly from my inability to buy every new gadget that comes along, though I'm always certain I"d just love it...

So, as a salute to the geeky side of me which only occasionally gets a chance to come out here, I've decided to throw together a quick and dirty little "geek post" Collection of story links for you all to enjoy along.

Our first stop is courtesy of Wil Wheaton's WWDN:In Exile - which hits my SciFi and Computer Geek switches - who pointed me to Dr. Pauly's site for something else, but when I got there I saw this:

Work in Progress Synchronicity in action here folks...

I spent Sunday and Monday watching about 10 plus hours of Band of Brothers. The History Channel showed the entire series in honor of Memorial Day and I caught most of it over two days. That's an amazing story and although I've seen it a couple of times, I still enjoy every moment of it. Major Dick Winters, one of the many soldiers chronicled in the made-for-cable series about the fighting done by the 101st Airborne during WWII, has a new book out and I've been looking for a used copy online. I'd love to read his first hand account of what went down during his time overseas.
Tao of Pauly: The Rants and Ramblings of McGrupp - mcgrupp.blogspot.com/...
This is Exactly what I did and Exactly my thoughts. I cannot state this any better, or add anything else. Pauly said it perfectly, go read it, and spend some time and enjoy the rest of his blog.

Captain Copyright
This Link comes courtesy of TechDirt who pointed me at Canadian Michael Geist's site with the following story:

Access Copyright has launched a new site that borders on parody, but is apparently serious. Captain Copyright, is a new "superhero" that educates children about the virtues of copyright, rushing to the scene in the event that someone publishes research without proper credit. While my first reaction to the site was that it is just silly, as I dug deeper, I now find it shameful. These materials, targeting kids as young as six years old, misrepresents many issues and proposes classroom activities that are offensive.Michael Geist - Captain Copyright - www.michaelgeist.ca/...

SUNSET Sun Microsystems makes the hardware and operating system that I do a lot of my work on. That they continue to struggle is definitely a concern to my computer geek side...

Computer server maker Sun Microsystems, whose revenue has declined four years in a row, said Wednesday it planned to cut 4,000 to 5,000 jobs in an effort to return to consistent profitability.

Wired News: Sun Microsystems Gets Out the Ax - www.wired.com/...

VOIP FEE

By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
Subscribers of Internet-based phone and wireless services would face higher bills this year under a federal proposal to impose or increase universal service charges on those offerings.

USATODAY.com - Bigger bills loom for users of wireless and Net phones - www.usatoday.com/...

MICROSOFT'S IRAN (Moving on from Linux, which was their Iraq..)

Investing in software as a service and advertising-supported businesses is a challenge like that which the company faced at the dawn of the open-source movement, he said.

Google is Microsofts new open source - Computer Business Review - www.cbronline.com/...

There you have it, a post full of geekiness across my geek spectrum.

Alaskan Waters

2006-05-30T11:24:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to point towards a couple of stories concerning Alaskan Politics.

First, the Anchorage Daily News has reported that former Governor Tony Knowles will run again for Governor. They are also reporting that current Lieutenant Governor Loren Leman will NOT run, either for governor, or for a 2nd term as Lieutenant Governor. Leman may be best known outside of Alaska for his loosing court battleinvolving a deceptively worded ballot initiative summary which he had written.

In other news, Think Progress reports in the trial of David Safavian, Neil Volz, former aide to Ohio Rep Bob Ney, has named Alaska Rep. Don Young as one of those from whom he had "received help".

Techdirt: Apparently, Vote Tampering Is Only Acceptable If It's Done By Americans

2006-05-30T10:34:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a pleasant, relaxing Memorial weekend, and one which did not require the use of large quantities of high-priced gasoline. Likewise, I hope your Memorial Celebration included some time spent honoring those individuals who have sacrificed their lives in defense of our country. Its not the wars, or the branches of the military, or our elected leaders who we remember after all, its is those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, regardless of the "worthiness" of the war, or the controversy of the times, whether it was the Civil War or Iraq, it is the fallen we honor without regard to political, historical or social influence.

And now, for something completely different, here's a link to a story, short as it is, that touches on an interesting aspect of the electronic voting machine "controversy".

Techdirt: Apparently, Vote Tampering Is Only Acceptable If It's Done By Americans

RIP LLoyd Bentsen

2006-05-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

Former U.S. Senator LLoyd Bentsen passed away today at the age of 85.

The Senator will always live on in my memory thanks to a single line, the utterance of which will probably ensure him a footnote in the annals of history.

During a televised debate as part of his campaign for the Vice Presidency as Michael Dukakis' running mate in 1988 - his opponent, Dan Quayle compared himself to John F. Kennedy. With all the dignity and chilling assuredness a seasoned and senior politician could ever hope for he coldly replied:

"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

A great putdown, like a great line lives forever, and that, by God was both!!

The Wooly Bully Attack

2006-05-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

Richard Cohen, a self-proclaimed "funny" columnist for the Washington Post has declared today, in his piece in the Post, in regard to Steven Colbert's performance at the White House Correspondent"s Dinner that "...Colbert was more than rude. He was a bully."

It is MY opinion, having watched the performance, and being aware of the climate which inspired it, that Richard Cohen is being a bit "wooly" in his thinking on this issue.

Wooly:
adj 1: having a fluffy character or appearance [syn: flocculent,
woolly]
2: confused and vague; used especially of thinking; "muddleheaded ideas";
"your addled little brain"; "woolly thinking"; "woolly-headed ideas"

To accuse a cable television comedian who manages to unflinchingly expose the President of the United States (remember him, the proverbial "most powerful man on the Earth"??) to a little criticism is not bullying. To be called out for actions and inactions which are opposed by the majority of Americans is something these same correspondents, as representatives of America's news agencies should be doing merely because IT'S THEIR JOB!!
That a columnist for a major newspaper like the Washington Post, rather than keeping our leaders and government under the microscope finds it more important, and more on task to defend the President's sensibilities - I did notice that Cohen did not speak to the facts of Colbert's comments, because he could not. In fact Cohen in a back door manner reaffirms the Colbert commentary by, when attacking the bogosphere's defense of it as "he spoke truth to power", failing to deny the truth of it, but rather attacked the position as "a tired phrase".
The backlash against Colbert, mostly invisible in the main stream, comes mostly from the traditional Bush defenders and from members of the news media itself, such as Cohen, who like the President, are feeling uncomfortable under the glare a little exposure from a cable TV comedian has brought to their comfortable positions. Much more of this and they may have to go back to actually being journalists, investigating and reporting on the news, rather than relaying the latest meme from their handlers in Washington.
As Glenn Greenwald notes on his blog Unclaimed Territory

The national media of which Cohen is an integral and zombified part has spent the last five years so petrified of George Bush that they have been unwilling even to investigate, let alone criticize, the claims he and his administration have made.

How sad a commentary is it on the state of today's media, when a television comedian is the loudest voice we hear, and the nation's journalists seem eager to pull him away from that platform where they used to stand.

The Deciders Dilemma

2006-05-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

These days it seems easy to begin the process of succumbing to "outrage overload", where what I am hearing and reading is so much more of the same outrageous behavior in support of the same outrageous positions that it becomes hard to react to it. Hard to re-express the continued dismay with which today's political environment seems to leave me. But some things happen which strike a cord, and the fingers begin moving across the keyboard again, and I'm once again reinvigorated. Oh to be invigorated by the winds of change....

Recently, in defense of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush told the American people that He himself was the person making the decisions - that he was the "decider", and thus Rumsfeld cannot be blamed. But when the issue of accountability is raised in talking about the decision to invade Iraq itself is mentioned, the "President" is quick to talk about how he was listening to his military advisors. This post I found today on Americablog speaks about recent comments by Colin Powell which suggest that Powell and others may have offered their ideas and recommendations as to when and how to invade, as well as even if we should invade, but that it was the President himself who made the ultimate decision.

In a sense, Bush has painted himself into a corner here. in proclaiming himself the "decider", he is depending on the continued "benefit of the doubt" that the President of the United States is generally given when it comes to his actions - what's known as the "Our President, Right or Wrong!" effect.

I apologize for using a Movie example as the stone with which to sharpen the point I'm making, but the situational result of Bush's position reminds me of the logical fork in "A Few Good Men" - a movie about the court martial of two marines stationed at Guantanamo Bay (irony abounds, no?) for the death of a fellow marine, Private Santiago. Cmdr. Jessup, the Jack Nicholson character, after initially proclaiming that his men never disobeyed orders - "they followed orders or people die" was the quote as I remember it, proclaimed with equal certitude later in the movie that the now deceased Private Santiago had to leave the base to protect him from possible retaliation by the men in his platoon. Lt. Kaffee (Tom Cruise's character) Then poses the question. If you ordered the men to leave Santiago alone, and your orders are always obeyed, why would he have been in danger? Jessup is then placed in a position where whatever argument he makes to defend one position, the argument itself will refute the other position. One statement will become a lie.

Bush now finds himself in that "fork" position (from the junior high school chess dweeb phase of my life - a fork position is one in which two pieces are in danger on the board, and any move you make to save one piece will result in the loss of the other)except that one of the pieces is himself, and the "analogy-breaker" for him has to be that "Our President, Right or Wrong!" effect. Only the inherent trust relationship a President enjoys can shield him, based on his claim that he is the "decider", from the negative results of those decisions. The question remains, after the long litany of problems the current administration finds itself dealing with, how much of that trust is left. As Josh Marshall points out on his blog, in a post Americalog linked to using a phrase from the article itself Double or Nothing is Not a Foreign Policy. (love that line!)

The great bulk of the public doesn't believe this president any more when he tries to gin up a phony crisis. They don't believe he'd have much of an idea of how to deal with a real one. Enough of the lies. Enough of the incompetence and failure.

If the American people are even just beginning to see past the curtain the major news organizations seem to have drawn over the actions of this administration, there is hope. That trust relationship cannot stand too much exposure. Benefit of the doubt only applies when there is doubt.

Womb with a Viewpoint

2006-04-21T13:36:00.000-08:00

An letter to the editor in the Juneau Empire's Online edition really got me thinking/steaming again about the current attack on the rights of women to control their own bodies.

Once again I found myself confronted with someone who presumes with their language that abortion is murder and those who have or who perform abortions are murderers. Never mind that not all of us agree with that idea. Never mind that the concept, as expressed by the most vocal and active opponents of a woman's right to choose is carried back to such an extreme that even contraception designed to prevent pregnancy is viewed as murder - because the woman in question *might* have a fertilized egg somewhere in her body. These anti-Choice activists carefully repeat the words whenever they can, substituting murder for abortion, substituting baby for fetus, even if not consciously, because of course these are the "right" words for all of us to use because these words match their beliefs. And it is their beliefs which count - only their beliefs.

Combined with the simultaneous efforts to prevent young adults from being informed about birth control, even to the point of mandating abstinence from sex as the only method of preventing pregnancy, the ultimate result - and I'm leaving the benefit of the doubt on the table as to whether this is an *intended* result - is to reduce women to mobile wombs, semi-free humans who control their lives but not their wombs.

The science fiction reader part of me envisions a disturbing future where women are once again chattel, whose wombs are so much more important than they themselves are that they become a carefully managed resource (in my humans-are-less-than-noble versions we are only speaking of white women, whose wombs are carefully tended to produce white babies for the white fathers who love them, but that's just my pessimistic, man is evil version)
I see women sprinkled in a park-like setting (the image I borrow in my head is based on the painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", by Georges Seurat), in modest garments, each with a delicate collar and leash being led along some path in a park, each attended by the womb's owner, proud to show off the provider of his progeny - or perhaps it is a daughter, blooming into womanhood being displayed, fresh and pure and pleasantly basking in the glow that her pledge of purity gives her...

I shudder at the image, and understand I'm moving beyond the predictable when I see dark, alien scenes like that, but the problem is scenes like that are one of the paths these beliefs can go. Where they are going is towards a time when women are not free beings in our society, a time when reproductive rights are predominately controlled by religious and political forces who chose to pound us again and again with the repetitious use of their words, words designed to strengthen their views and weaken ours. Words designed to take the ongoing debate over conception and contraception, the beginning and meaning of life, the place society and government has in controlling our lives, and tilts them permanently in their favor by changing the lexicon with which we build the debate itself.

I do not have a womb, but I love someone who does. It is my belief that women and men are absolutely equal in everything. While nature provides us all with limitations, regardless of gender, when it comes time to determine what rights we each have as individuals, I do not believe it serves us to make gender-based decisions. Because I am not a woman, perhaps it is not my place to speak out. But because I love a woman who is strong and independent and who is every inch my equal, I cannot ask her to make decisions about her body based on my beliefs. For this same reason, I ask why the *HELL* do you think I want anyone else making those decisions for her????

The Good Soul

2006-04-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

As America's conservative religious movement seems to hold greater and greater sway in our lives these days, I often wonder about those who we see being held up for notice in the news

such as the Georgia Tech student who is suing the school for the right to be intolerant, also of course the usual cast of Fundamentalist and other figures who are violently intolerant of those who support a woman's right to choose, and those willing to keep children and young adults ignorant and unsafe in today's world because to educate them might encourage promiscuity, even those who seem to carry this to such an extreme that they even oppose a simple vaccination which can almost completely protect against a particular kind of cervical cancer, because they fear this reduced risk will encourage unmarried women and teenage girls to greater promiscuity

I wonder what they feel they understand about the soul. If we all have souls, and God (and Jesus) love us all and can forgive us our sins, why are these Christians so unforgiving. Why would a follower of Jesus demand the right to be intolerant? Why would good Christians seem so hell-bent (so to speak) on supressing science, and insisting we substitute religious conviction for scientific theory?

I have opinions of course on these matters. You've heard some of them in the past. But the principal reason I think is found in the fact that the members of a congregation are often referred to by their priests/pastors/ministers as "flocks". People are sheep.

All I ask you, gentle reader, is when you find yourself confronted by one of those conservative Christian activists, take a breath, smile, and ask them - "If you follow Christ, shouldn't love, forgiveness and tolerance be more important to you than this? Shouldn't you be doing as He did, and making your life an example to others, and leave the rest to God? It probably won't work, but its worth a shot, and the message is so much better...

Google Mars

2006-04-11T15:14:00.000-08:00

My endless fascination with anything involving the exploration of mars, has been fed recently by the advent of Google Mars

The ability to "zoom in" on a piece of Mars, tantalizingly close, and sure to get closer as we get closer to the day an actual human lands there, appeals to a very basic part of who I am. I still hope to see a human walking there during my lifetime. And while my views of Mars and man's presence there have been colored by the childhood influences of H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ray Bradbury, there's a nice healthy gap between my Martian fantasies, and my Martian hopes and dreams.

We all find things in life we identify as things we want to see happen, the human exploration of Mars is very much one of mine.

In the Name of Security

2006-03-27T15:31:00.000-09:00

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
-- James Madison

There is a rolling tide, a shifting dune, a slippery slope of change building in our country which should scare you, as it does me. James Madison warned of it, and with his fellow founding fathers, sought to draft a constitution which would guard us against it, but it is mindlessly approaching nevertheless. Despite the clear intent of our founding fathers and the concurrence and support of the generations of legislators, judges and executives who have governed us since, our current administration appears be supporting a position which declares the President to have the power to override all other branches of government, and that this *must* be done to keep us safe from terrorists.

He recently declared in a signing statement appended on the newly reauthorized and extended Patriot act, that the oversight provisions in the bill intended to limit abuse by the FBI and other agencies was not binding, and that the requirements laid out in the act for reporting to Congress were entirely at his discretion.

'The executive branch shall construe the provisions . . . that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch . . . in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information . . . " (as sited in the Boston Globe, March 24, 2006)

A similarly worded signing statement was appended to the McCain Anti-Torture bill, quietly announcing the President's position that he could ignore these restrictions on the use of torture if he so chooses.

It is this administration's stated position that during a "time of war", the Power of the President is absolute and that Congress cannot pass a law which takes that power away, nor can the courts declare that power forfeit or limited. The President alone decides. It is a short hop from that "time of war" caveat to become meaningless in these days when we "declare war" on things like drugs and terrorism and equate it to declaring war on a foreign power.

Make no mistake about it, it appears to be the intention of this administration, and those who created the political machine behind it to bind all the powers of government into a single office. That fear - the fear of kings our founding fathers designed our constitution to prevent - is close to being horribly realized. King George indeed. Bitter irony indeed.

Our President is telling us that in order to keep us safe, in order to assure our security, He must do these things, and we should trust him. This should be causing alarm bells across the land. The press should be sounding the alarm and our congress and courts should be stepping in and asserting their control. Have they been sold on a plan for our country's future which makes them willing to shed their constitutional responsibilities and in effect, share in the creation of the first American dictator?

We still have time. We can still stand up and assert ourselves. Citizens all, it is our responsibility as well.

Burn-in, Not Burnout

2006-03-16T13:56:00.000-09:00

There are times when I start to get a little fatigued over the entire damned fiasco that is the 43rd. Presidency.
But whenever I get the slightest sense of impending burnout and a desire to just stop making the effort, I remember the things burned into my brain since January of 2001.

Iraq Invaded: No weapons of Mass Destruction found
Largest budget surplus in US history wiped out and replaced by the largest national debt ever.
The hurricane Katrina failure
The disclosure of an undercover CIA agent's identity for political purposes
The failure to arm and armor our troops as needed
The failure to capture Osama Bin Laden
Abu Ghraib prison
Torture
Extraordinary Rendition
Illegal wiretapping

Equally disheartening are little things like:

American citizen's Freedom of Speech reduced to "Free Speech Zones"
Administration sponsored Town Hall meetings that are not open to the public
Cutting funding and benefits from veterans and injured military personnel and families while claiming to support the troops
Using the phrase "giving comfort to the enemy" against anyone who speaks up in opposition to any of the above.
Cut funding for medical programs for the disabled, disadvantaged and poor.
Cut funding for education, scholarships and grants for the disabled, disadvantaged and poor.
continue cutting taxes for the richest Americans and providing breaks for corporations, even while they're reporting record profits.
Appoint industry lobbyists and spokesmen to head the government agencies intended to oversee those industries
Stifle scientists working for the government whose findings don't support your political positions.
Suppress scientific and medical reports from government agencies that conflict with your political position

These things keep me in the fight, speaking out, and demanding answers. It is the most patriotic thing I can do, ask my government to be fair and honest, and hold itself accountable when it is not. I pray for our soldiers safe return, for prosperity and success for them when they return. For prosperity and success for us all. I reject an America that favors the select few, the rich elite, or those of a certain faith.

I reject the land of opportunists that America has become and hope for a return to the land of opportunity that our founders hoped to create.
[note: sharp-eyed readers might note that I initially had referred to the 42nd president, and have changed that to the 43rd - no conspiracy involved, just failure to proof-read my own entries...]

Still Rockin' on Mars

2006-03-09T13:34:00.000-09:00

Lest you all forget I've got a major jones over exploring Mars, here's a glimpse, and a link to the latest picture released from the Mars rover Opportunity, which, along with its twin rover Spririt, is still going strong after more than a year on Mars!!

This picture is a small section of a larger panorama shot "of the "Payson" outcrop on the western edge of "Erebus" Crater during Opportunity's sol 744 (Feb. 26, 2006)."

Click the image itself to go to the Opportunity Press Release Image page.

Meanwhile the Spirit rover is also making news on mars with its examination of what's been dubbed "Home Plate".

During this examination Spririt "acquired this false-color image at 11:48 local true solar time on Mars on the rover's 746th Martian day, or sol (Feb. 26, 2006)"

Click the image itself for a link to the Spirit Press Release page

And while the twin Rovers continue to impress everyone whose paying attention, tomorrow marks the beginning of a new martian adventure, as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter slips into its initial elongated orbit, which only marks the beginning of a series of orbital maneuvers over the next six months, which if all goes well and the remote hands and minds of the NASA scientists and Newtonian physics prove true, will allow it to gradually assume its final circular orbit. Arrival time tomorrow is expected to be around 1:24 pm Pacific Time. Its been enroute to Mars since its launch on August 12 2005.

Save America and Preserve our Way of Life: Impeach Bush!

2006-03-06T12:53:00.000-09:00

Back in December I posted here with a call to Impeach Bush.

(image from Wikipedia)
In the intervening 3 months, the call to action has begun to take on some serious weight. The most recent issue of Harper's magazine offers up "The Case for Impeachment" as their cover story, and explains "Why we can no longer afford George W. Bush". Their call reinforces a similar message expressed in January in The Nation by Elizabeth Holtzman, a former Congresswoman from New York who served on the House judiciary committee during the Nixon Impeachment hearings.

The Center for Constitutional Rights has published ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT
AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH a book intended to outline the case for impeaching Bush and providing a working set of articles of impeachment that can be used in that effort.

Calls for impeachment have come from the city of San Francisco and other state and municipal bodies are beginning to draft or propose drafting similar resolutions, perhaps because they see what would be natural impeachment efforts stymied by a congress too firmly under the sway of the Bush White House. Update: Add Newfane, Vermont to the list of municipalities who have passed a resolution calling for an impeachment investigation

I say again that we need to IMPEACH, not because we oppose this President, but because we hope to preserve America and the things it once and should again be the world's highest example of - Liberty, Freedom and Justice. IMPEACH, not because we oppose George Bush and Dick Cheney, but because we oppose any administration which seeks to set aside the checks and balances so carefully and thoughtfully put in place by our founding fathers.

George W. Bush has made us a nation of Extraordinary Renditions, of Torture and Indefinite Confinement, of Domestic Wiretapping and Secret Courts. George W. Bush has made us agents for Unprovoked Aggression and Unreasonable Secrecy, he accuses those who speak out against him as comforting the enemy. Since we are speaking in defense of our own way of life, who then is the enemy he is speaking of?

Geroge W. Bush is the single greatest threat to the American Way I've known in my lifetime. He must be impeached. We must speak up and speak out, and demand this action.

Update: CSPAN2 will be airing the Harper's magazine panel on Impeachment at 9:30 pm ET tonight.
The panel is scheduled to consist of:

	Conyers, John Jr.	U.S. Representative, D-MI
	Holtzman, Elizabeth	U.S. Representative (1973-1981), D-NY
	Dean, John W.	Counsel (Fmr.), White House
	Lapham, Lewis H.	Editor in Chief, [Harper's Magazine]
	Ratner, Michael	President, Center for Constitutional Rights
	Seder, Sam	Talk Show Host, Air America Radio, The Majority Report

Tune in, it should be interesting! (and a tip of the hat to the fine folks at Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo for this info)

Obstruction, Thy Name is Frist!!

2006-03-04T22:15:00.000-09:00

In the Frist dictionary, bi-partisanship must be defined as "The state which exists when the republicans get their way".

As Glenn Greenwald has noticed, in accord with such a definition,
Bill Frist threatens to re-structure the Intelligence Committee

Why, you ask???

Because it appears likely that a majority of the committee may vote to open an investigation into the NSA Domestic Wiretapping Bush has said he authorized, and which has been running outside of all the laws governing such activity. Never mind that this actually means some Republicans must also be planning to vote in support of this.
Here's how the folks at Firedoglake describe this threat

So, when it suits Bill Frist's purpose politically to pretend to be a bi-partisan, non-political committee supporter to score points on the floor of the Senate, that's hunkydory.

But when you get down to a question of the majority of the Intelligence Committee members wanting to do their jobs and investigate what is an illegal use of the NSA for domestic surveillance by the Bush Administration...well, that just can't be allowed, and Frist's previous assertion "that the Committee's nonpartisan tradition must be carefully safeguarded" be damned.
Bill Frist: cheater and hypocrite.

Read the extensive postings at both these sites for a better understanding. And a big thanks to Glenn at Unclaimed Territory for bringing this to light!

Friday afternoon - Heading Out Music

2006-02-24T14:04:00.000-09:00

Its Friday Afternoon, The weekend looms, and the need to do some serious battery recharging is becoming apparent.

As part of those efforts, here's a no-spin, no-Bush post just to point you all at what I'm listening to right now.

John Fogerty's "The Long Road Home"

I've been a fan since the Original run Creedence Clearwater Revival had - at least as far as my music consciousness is concerned, beginning in the late 60's. Fogerty is about as distinctive a voice as there's been in American music in my lifetime, so instantly recognizable that he was once sued for stealing from himself!!! - a bad holdover from the horrendous recording contract the band had signed. They eventually signed over rights to their songs in exchange for being released from their contract.

After launching a solo career, Fogerty wrote and recorded a song called "Old Man Down the Road" which was released by Warner Brothers, his new label. Fantasy Records, who held the rights to the previous works, sued him, saying it was an illegal derivative of his earlier song "Runnin' Through the Jungle". Amazingly California's 9th circuit agreed with Fantasy and Fogerty was convicted of plagiarizing himself!!! That ruling was later overturned by successful pleading before the Supreme Court, but essentially it was not overturned based on the merits, but on a technicality. Musicians, musicologists and other experts will tell you that Fogerty should have won the original case, and that the similarities where the result of Fogerty's unique style and his essentially self-taught song-writing skills.

Either way, I've always been a fan of both CCR and Fogerty, so that's what's getting me unwound at the end of this week!

Don Young in the Marshall Islands

2006-02-22T08:49:00.000-09:00

Earlier this month I mentioned reports of a potential connection between Alaska Representative Don Young and the Jack Abramoff Scandal, and how it related to a trip to the Marshall Islands that Young took.

In the almost two weeks since I posted that report Young has denied repeatedly having any relationship, working or otherwise with Abramoff, and explicitly denied that Abramoff or "his office" had anything to do with the official "CODEL" (Congressional Delegation) trip to the Marshall Islands.

Unfortunately for Young, it appears that Abramoff's employers at the time,
The firm of Preston Gates, is suing the RMI government over unpaid fees associated with this very trip among other things. Thus court documents exists which contend that not only was Abramoff and his associates at the time involved, they claim that the entire trip was arranged and organized by Abramoff.

The folks at Talking Points Memo continue to investigate this connection. And even the Anchorage Daily News has taken notice of the issue.

Capturing the Moment

2006-02-21T15:57:00.000-09:00

Continuing with this weeks "Lets have fun with Dick" series, I'm happy to point all you fine folks to this site, which has forever captured the Cheney Hunting Quagmire in ... Legos????

Brought to you via
MyDD :: Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics
who found it via BoingBoing
and or Pootling
but ultimately thanks to Flikr!!
Ya gotta share the love people, when you're dissing Cheney, share the love!!!

And once again, remember this is all in fun!

A Note on Leaving Comments

2006-02-20T16:07:00.000-09:00

I want to mention briefly to my 2 or 3 regular visitors that I have both comment verification and comment moderation turned on for this blog, and I want you to know why.

First I really do encourage you to wade through the verification process if you have an urge to leave a comment. I love to see follow up ideas and comments regarding what I post. The verification system has been turned on to help eliminate the automated "comment spam" that tend to show up from computer systems that post advertisements on blogs as comments. The other option here is to require user registrations, which I'm reluctant to do. So far the verification system has proved to be very effective, and I have gotten absolutely zero comment spams since turning it on.

The comment moderation system has been turned on to help solve another problem entirely. I had been getting a fairly steady but not huge stream of comment entries which are of the 2 or 3 word non-enlightening type, such as "you suck" or "Liberal trash" or "You're an Idiot!"

While I don't object to being told I suck, or that I"m an idiot, etc. I don't see those as comments on my posts, so they get deleted. If someone wants to debate my position, or point out my error or explain something from a different point of view, and *then* tell me I suck, or whatever, I will be happy to post your comment. Those who leave the 2 or 3 word kind (and word count is *not* important, its intent really) will be doomed to disappointment.

Dick Cheney: Attack VP

2006-02-19T14:30:00.000-09:00

OK, this is just for fun, right??

(I'm pleased to present, from Grouchy Old Cripple and Boing Boing

Ten Ways Cheney Can Kill

Proving that Dick Cheney Death Humor doesn't require WMD's or shotguns

Season Opener

2006-02-18T12:57:00.000-09:00

The new season of HBO: Real Time with Bill Maher premiered last night, and it was a good show, good guests, I particularly was struck by the ease with which comedian/actor Eddie Griffin was able to restate things from the plain,common, ordinary point of view when other guests began drifting into "Beltway Babble", although he did jump into the comedian mode a couple of times purely for the laugh rather than to make a point. Helen Thomas shows once again why she's a living legend in the presidential press corp, and took no quarter, though I think she drifted a bit herself several times.

The segment on new "recruiting posters" had me laughing my ass off, and particularly when the Braille poster came out, I was laughing so hard I was crying.

A great start to the new season, tune in!!!

Rejecting "I don't Care"

2006-02-17T15:51:00.000-09:00

I recently received, passed along in a pseudo-chain email way that many things seem to propagate these days, a vile screed attributed to someone in Atlanta who it is said had sent it to a relative serving in Iraq.

The purported source is not accurate however, a quick look on truthorfiction.com shows that.
Here's what they have to say about it: (and where you can read the entire message I saw)

The Truth:
This was not written by Pam Foster of Atlanta. She was apparently a person who merely quoted a portion of the original commentary and it got circulated as though she had written it.

TruthOrFiction contacted the person who wrote the original article, columnist Doug Patton. His daily column of social and political commentary is seen in several newspapers and on several web sites. The comments in the Pam Foster email were from a column he wrote for publication on June 6, 2005

I will not repost this message in its entirety, but here's a sample:

...
When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college hazing incident, rest assured that I don't care.
...

I Don't Care is the basic tenor of this message, the horrors of 9/11 are combined with the events in Iraq (two events I am ever forced to remind folks had absolutely nothing to do with each other)

If you read me here, you know I could rant at length on several fronts in regard to a position like this, but instead, I'm just going to post the reply I sent off in response.

And sadly, when it comes to how we treat others across the world, "I don't care" is probably how America is now seen. There was a time when "We care" was what people thought of us.

But when we are willing to attack a country without provocation (forget the Weapons of Mass Destruction lie - they weren't there, we never found them.). When we can attack a country which not only had nothing to do with 9/11, but was actually actively anti terrorist itself, what message does that send???

This message is not great. It only reflects the kind of blind pseudo-patriotic mentality that the current administration operates under. Our Country used to be seen as a living example of how Justice, Mercy and Compassion can make a difference and still be powerful. Today all we are seen to be about by the rest of the world is Power, Revenge and Money.

This message is sad. There was a time when in the face of adversity, horror or terror, our actions were an example to the world of a better way. Now some of us, and sadly this includes our dude ranch cowboy president, who seeing the adversity, horror and terror say "here's how we must act if we want to be safe."

This message is sad, and it makes me sad. Blind anger, hatred and vengeance was never the American way.

Alaska's Abramoff Connection ??

2006-02-10T14:23:00.000-09:00

This article at Talking Points Memo discusses what appears to be a fairly heavy involvement by Alaska's Congressional Rep, Don Young with Jack Abramoff, the recently indicted lobbyist. The connection is tied to Abramoff's work for the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and at least one Congressional Delegation that visited the islands. TPM points to a Congressional Travel Record which shows Young travelling there. Other information cited at the TPM site suggests Young headed the trip.

Young has stated that he "never had any personal or professional relationship" with Abramoff, but their involvement, mutually beneficial or not, would seem to contradict that statement. More details are sure to emerge, as the Abramoff stain continues to spread.

Valentine's Day Suggestion

2006-02-10T12:38:00.000-09:00

As proof that I'm more than just an anti-bush, pro-progressive blogger, here's a small suggestion for those of you out there still scrambling to find your sweetheart the gift that tells her how you *REALLY* feel.

I bought my wife one a while back and it was *ahem* well received. There are probably other places out there to get them, but this is where I got mine and I was very pleased with their level of service.

Gold Roses - real roses dipped in 24k gold - delivered

The prices are far more reasonable than I expected, and it really does say it in a special way. - And Jullee, if you're reading this - I Love You !!!

Dignity, Death and Delusions

2006-02-09T07:46:00.000-09:00

I've held off (until now) on commenting about the Coretta Scott King funeral, and the resulting conservative spit-take that issued forth almost immediately from the wasteland that is television punditry. But I do have two thoughts, somewhat cribbed from the remarks of my betters out there in the Blogosphere.

First, Because Coretta Scott King is who she is, an icon in the Civil Rights movement, a leader in or supporter of every anti-war and peace movement in the last 50 years at least, a well-spoken and dignified soldier in the battle against poverty and inequality, Her funeral was televised. I would suspect that for pretty much all of those who spoke up so quickly against Reverend Lowry and President Carter's comments, among others, it was the first memorial service of its kind that they'd witnessed. To them I can only say "What the hell did you expect????" Because her importance to real Americans put it on television, you were exposed to a segment of America which holds views you disagree with. Get over it!!

Second, because of all the previous reasons, and because she was the wife and ardent supporter of America's greatest Civil Rights Icon, it should come as no surprise to anyone that people who eulogized her spoke of war, and poverty and equal rights. The views expresses where her views and the views of almost all of those who were in attendance. This was a southern black woman, and her views and those of her friends and supporters is as alien to you as anything that's ever impinged on your consciousness. To then attempt to speak for her and her husband's position is as ludicrous and unsympathetic and disconnected an act as I can imagine. Every person who spoke had a deep long-lasting, often life-long connection to Mrs. King, how can you even pretend to know better than they what her wishes would have been in this regard.

As someone born and raise in a small town on an island in Alaska, I certainly can't claim any kind of understanding of the social, cultural, religious and political environment Mrs. King was a part of. I can understand activism however, and that no activist I can imagine would expect their friends to stop speaking out after they're gone. I also understand that as disconnected from that life as I am, I would be foolish to attempt to speak for or against it. But then again, I'm not paid to defend conservative delusions on TV.

War Powers

2006-02-08T10:48:00.000-09:00

The Bush administration's current position with regard to its "right" to spy on Americans in America, imprison American citizens without trial or other access to our legal system, to do pretty much whatever it wants wherever it wants, is that we are currently at "war", and that the President cannot be limited by Congress or the Courts in the exercise of those powers.

The "War" we are fighting is the war on terror. The Iraq war is of course over, that nation stands occupied by our troops, its former leader in prison and under trial, and an elected government exists, now representing that nation. That war is clearly over, so the "war" we are still under, which must exist for the President to invoke "war powers" can only be the "war on terror". The oft-cited AUMF (authorization to Use Military Force) that was authorized by Congress to empower the President to combat the terrorists who were behind the 9/11 bombings cannot be seen as a blanket authorization for the President to assume the full mantle of war powers we would normally muster when a state of declared war exists. War is a conflict between nations, and use of the term in any other sense is misleading semantic shorthand.

Is it unreasonable of us as Americans to believe that the declaration of war against an idea cannot be treated in the same manner as a declaration of war against a people or a nation??? Al Qaida may be the current face of terrorism, but it is still only the current focus of an idea.

To allow the analogy to be complete, to say that we are at war as long as terrorism exists, and so the President is able to exercise his "war powers" unchecked, would also suggest that this was true during the "cold war", when we were at war with the idea of communism. Or during our "war on drugs".

Declaring war on an idea we oppose can't be seen as equivalent to declaring war on a foreign nation. To extend the ideas of Presidential war powers to those "wars" is ludicrous and flies in the face of common sense and history. We must oppose this unwarranted effort to forever change our form of government from the open system of checks and balances that our founding fathers envisioned. Those founding fathers would expect no less, and our descendants deserve at least that much.

Daily Kos: Bush Nasa Hack Resigns!

2006-02-08T08:16:00.000-09:00

The link is below, and I don't doubt that we'll be seeing this story all over the internet today, but George Deutsch, the Bush Appointee who has been in the news recently for his energetic attempts to reign in the free expression of Science and Scientists at NASA, has resigned his position. The resignation comes a day after reports surfaced that Deutsch had not actually graduated from Texas A&M as his NASA resume states.

Daily Kos: Bush Nasa Hack Resigns!

Feingold says it like it is

2006-02-08T08:10:00.000-09:00

"So let’s be clear about a basic American principle: When someone breaks the law, when someone misleads the public in an attempt to justify his actions, he needs to be held accountable. The President of the United States has broken the law. The President of the United States is trying to mislead the American people. And he needs to be held accountable."

The link below will take you to the speech in its entirety, and Raw Story doesn't make it clear, but in context as read, the speech appears to be written to be read from the floor of the Senate. Wherever this speech is given, Russ Feingold really lays out the entire "warrantless wiretap" NSA spying on Americans White House position for what it is, and clearly shows just how indefensible the Administration's position is on this.

Feingold essentially calls Alberto Gonzales a liar. Perhaps the only thing preventing him from making the same bold statement about Bush is the fact, as Gonzales has pointed out, that Bush isn't a lawyer. Well, he's not much of a President either, but that hasn't stopped him there

The Raw Story | Amidst flurry of Bush attacks, Feingold hits Congress wiretaps: 'Congress has lost its way'

Worship in the House of Your Own God

2006-02-05T10:10:00.000-09:00

While Embassies are burning, and families mourn their lost in the ferry disaster, while our young men and women continue to stand in harms way in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the Worst President Ever presides over our first Theocratic Administration

I'll be busy worshipping, by satellite, the current god of my own choosing.

It's SuperBowl Sunday, and I'm a Seattle SeaHawks fan from the original bunch.

Forgive me.

Add this to the "Good Lines" file

2006-02-03T09:29:00.000-09:00

This administration is all politics and no policy

I saw this brief article this morning on AmericaBlog, and although the article it refers to is buried behind the NY Times "Select" service, and thus unviewable to those of us mundane netizens, the line quoted was, by itself, too good to pass on. Here's to Paul Krugman!!

AMERICAblog: This administration is all politics and no policy

Wardrobe Malfunctions - Free Speech captured in SOTU

2006-02-01T13:24:00.000-09:00

Glenn Greenwald as well as a good portion of the blogosphere have really jumped on the story surrounding two individuals who were forced to leave the State of the Union speech Tuesday. Cindy Sheehan, an anti-war activist whose son was killed in Iraq was also handcuffed and arrested. At almost the same time, Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida was asked to leave and escorted out of the building. She was not arrested, but initial reasons for the Capitol police's actions were that they were "protestors". In both cases the protesting "act" was the wearing of T-shirts with slogans on them. Apparently the halls of Congress do not qualify as free speech zones.

By this writing, Capitol police spokesmen have apologized, admitting that their actions were mistakes, and that the wearing of a T-shirt to the SOTU (while some would say was not fashionable) slogan or not, was in no way illegal, or even a violation of congressional rules.

Shortly after, during the actual speech, democrats had their best moment in a while, when they stood and applauded thunderously when the president mentioned congress' failure to act on his Social Security plans the previous year.

Add to that the report that Samuel Alito, the right-wing darling appointed to the Supreme Court on the same day as the SOTU speech cast his first official vote in opposition to the other "right-wing" Justices.

And Sunday I get to watch my SeaHawks play in their first ever Superbowl. Its been a good week.

Partnering, Savings Accounts and Market Forces

2006-01-26T15:33:00.000-09:00

Now and then, from the slurry of news/information/spin that swirls madly all pooled together in that low spot in the back of my mind where things that are not quickly comprehended wind up collecting, a bubble of understanding or outrage or excitement bursts, and I start typing. Here's one.

We hear from our government now and then, about how they are "partnering" with various business groups, or industry organizations to tackle some problem faced by some large or small segment of our society. We heard that a lot when the President and his spokes-drones were discussing the Medicare Drug benefit plan, how the solution was to "partner" with the pharmaceutical industry to find an answer to the problems our senior citizens were facing.

We heard about private or individual "retirement accounts" that were proposed as a solution to the "Social Security Problem" - never mind that we all didn't see the same problem. We're hearing a little now about "health accounts" now as plans are discussed for solving the "Medicare and Medicaid Problem".

We've heard our government talk recently about the rebuilding in New Orleans, and about how it would be best to let the rebuilding happen in response to market forces as part of the overall "economic strategy".

The common thread that finally popped into my brain about all this was that in all of them, the government is not playing a protective role for us citizens, but instead is merely being a mediator between the people on one hand and those businesses and industries which are involved on the other. Think about that for a second and grasp the disconnect from the way it used to be and now.

Our government used to represent our interests in these situations, and seek solutions which maximized the benefit to "the people". Social programs were once enacted with the purpose of providing the maximum benefit to the citizens while trying to have as small a negative impact on the effected industries and businesses as possible. Now we are merely one side of the equation, and any benefit to the people must be weighed against the corporate/industrial benefit.

And in some people's minds these days, the apparent tilt to this scale has reversed. While offering placating language and reassurances, deals our government crafts today seem to be intended to maximize the corporate benefit while hoping to minimize the negative impact on us. "What's up with that!!" my back-brain keeps shouting.

Solutions to social problems, Government-sponsored programs and legislation should never be about the bottom dollar first. Profit should never outweigh the Public Good. There's the phrase we've lost sight of.

"For the Public Good"

Someone should campaign on that. Better yet, we should be electing people who believe in it!

34 - 17

2006-01-22T18:28:00.000-09:00

As so many people in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest are doing right now, I'm celebrating the Seattle Seahawks victory against the Carolina Panthers tonight, and reveling in the fact that the team that's always been #1 in my heart is going to the Superbowl for the first time.

For this evening, the political curmudgeon in me is sent to the showers. The Sports fan has been promoted.

GO SEAHAWKS!!!

Keeping your eye on the Ball

2006-01-20T15:22:00.000-09:00

"Osama bin Laden is still alive all these years later, threatening America, which means George W. Bush is a failure"

No matter what else swirls around you during these turbulent times, with the Abramoff scandal, and the whole Iraq question, FEMA, Wiretapping etc, its important to remember the point expressed above.

Its been over 4 years and Osama is still out there. We told George to do one simple thing - "Get the people responsible for this horror", and instead he invaded Iraq and left Osama free to plan his next move. Our "strong on terror" president can't do the one thing he was asked, and in the meantime, he's begun telling us we only have rights and freedoms if he decides we do.

Our Attorney General Doesn't Know the Law ??

2006-01-17T08:33:00.000-09:00

Last night on CNN's Larry King Live, Alberto Gonzales, our nation's Attorney General, our country's top lawyer, said these words as part of his rebuttal of the attack on the Bush administrations warrantless wiretapping, and particularly, former Vice president Al Gore's dynamic MLK Day speech:

it's my understanding that during the Clinton administration there was activity regarding the physical searches without warrants, Aldrich Ames as an example.

For a real breakdown of all that's wrong with this, I'll point you towards the Think Progress Analysis, but in a nutshell, the problem is that as our nation's top lawyer, Alberto Gonzales has to be aware that the entire matter of Clinton era warrantless physical searches he mentions took place before 1995. Before that time the FISA statute did not cover them. In 1995 the Clinton Administration signed into law modifications to the FISA act which extended its coverage to physical searches as well as electronic ones.

To ignore this fact, which should be absolutely familiar to anyone working on the law and national security at that level, indicates either incompetence, which certainly Bush appointees such as Michael Brown have been able to demonstrate in the past, or it demonstrates a willful disregard for the truth in an attempt to discredit the claims of others on the illegal nature of the Bush wiretapping program. Use of such a well used political cover-your-ass disclaimer as "it is my understanding" to preface the remarks is a good clue to where this statement is coming from.

Read the Think Progress article, and spread the word, our Attorney General is willing to compromise his integrity in order to support the President's activities

What's that Smell?

2006-01-03T13:29:00.000-09:00

Fat Cats frying perhaps? It looks like it, as Jack Abramoff Pleads Guilty. I've long considered the Abramoff, and other Abramoff-esque situations to be the true indicator of what's wrong with politics these days.

Or perhaps that smell is a whiff of Rhode Island Reefer ? Yet another sign of legislators starting to listen to the people again, and move out from under the unreasoning, black-and-white solutions only approach of the "war on drugs" crowd. A lot of effort has been made by the rich and influential in America to orchestrate the politics of this country in directions they favor (see above), without regard to how most Americans feel about it.

As far as that first smell goes, it certainly should be a given that we, as Americans, re-examine what is called "lobbying" on a semi-regular basis. It seems reasonable to expect that Americans, as individuals or groups, with a point of view on how our government should proceed in a situation might find someone with knowledge of our government and the officials involved and ask that person to get their message to those who are in a position to make the laws and rulings which will make those changes happen. Sadly, the days when every congressman could rely on constituents communicating through his office and staff their thoughts, and have those thoughts weighed with equal consideration are long gone. Instead we have deep pocketed corporations and trade organizations being courted by political and governmental insiders who happily peddle their ability to influence lawmakers to the highest bidder.

Selling influence is problematic enough, if only on the appropriateness meter, but when those who are peddling their influence extend the chain of compensation and consideration past that wall, to the lawmakers themselves, there is an absolute sense of wrongness associated with that, and a stink of corruption. In recent years it seems that there has been a *wink,wink,nudge,nudge* approach to this that said buying influence is ok, as long as we don't rub it in the faces of the poor and powerless who can't afford to pay for action like the rest of us.

Our Senators and Representatives are OUR employees, they work for, and are paid, by US. They aren't in Washington to sell their services to the highest bidder, and when we see them doing that, we need to find someone to send to Washington who will do it the right way. This seems simple. It seems like politics as Americans of all types can understand.

The Dim, Dark Days of Winter

2005-12-30T11:08:00.000-09:00

I'm still suffering through my annual mid-winter depression, things do seem to pile up during the holidays, everything becomes an issue - time, money, emotions, the past, the future - if others hadn't written so well of the weariness, the actual energy sapping aura of depression, I'd worry more. But then again worrying takes energy I don't seem to have these days.

Its a struggle when you hit your 50's and see yourself still doing the get-up-every-day-and-go-to-work dance, especially when you know you have to, just to make it to next week, and that it'll likely never get better, because the retirement you've slowly been building, like the good worker drone you've been, will not be sufficient in the new reality.

It doesn't matter how long you can tread water if you know you'll never get to dry land. Eventually the desire to keep afloat has to battle with the desire to just stop throwing yourself at the endlessness, close your eyes and see what happens.

Sometimes I think the only thing that keeps me going is the desire to not dissapoint those who love me. But on the truly dark days, I know its just inertia. I keep moving because I don't have the will to stop moving.

Happy Holidays indeed, feel the love, take a deep breath and keep on keeping on. I recommend it.

Impeach George W. Bush

2005-12-20T08:08:00.000-09:00

Reinstate the Rule of Law in America

George W. Bush believes himself to be above the law. He has willfully violated the law in order to spy on American citizens, even though the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a mechanism for doing this very thing, has existed for decades and could have been used without impeding or interfering with legitimate efforts to counter terrorist activities.

FISA allows the President to authorize electronic surveillance immediately, present the request to the FISA court within 72 hours and receive retroactive permission for the actions taken. There was no valid reason to bypass this process, set up in response to the revelations of the Nixon White House's activities in spying on Americans.

Of 19,000 requests for eavesdropping the FISA Court has received from the Executive Branch since 1979, only five have ever been refused. This does not suggest a legitimate need to bypass the FISA system. If a legitimate need existed, it should have been presented to congress, and authorizing legislation should have been enacted. Instead the President acted outside the law, and in defiance of the constitution. You have to wonder exactly who the President was spying on if he didn't feel he could get his request past the almost always accomodating FISA court?

George W. Bush has spied on Americans in violation of the Constitution of the United States of America and the rule of law this country is founded upon.

IMPEACH GEORGE W. BUSH

update:Zen and the Art of Outrage
(cross-posted from a comment I left at Paperdove)

There are many politicians, pundits and television talking heads who study and practice the "art" of outrage. They spin out thick wads of moral and social indignation like political bukkake over everything from pulling the plug on Terri Shaivo to the "war on Christmas".

It makes it more difficult now for us to express *our* outrage, doesn't it. I guess this is the smooth, slick, slimy underside of the long term Rovian formula. Overusing the tools of the offended, thus weakening them before the opposition can use them. And its a game plan we've allowed to be played too much in recent years.

Now is the time to be doggedly persistent without appearing strident or engaging in the histrionics typical of the O'Reilly-ish crowd. We need to keep the facts out there, and continue pointing at our outlaw president making his outlaw way into the history books as the biggest American outlaw in history. Lets let King George tell his scary stories and keep turning corners while he continues to do a "heckuva job" pretending to be President, and we can just continue to point to the law and to the facts, and work hard to keep those things clearly in front of everyone. Remember, unlike those Media Punch and Judy's - performing the tune Professor Rove has crafted, we do not need to *act* outraged, we merely need to *be* outraged.

And keep the light shining firmly on the law and on the facts.

Christmas in America

2005-12-16T12:51:00.000-09:00

"Christmas is something we should celebrate in our hearts.
I don't think we need to defend it, I think we need to practice it."

Congressman John Dingell D-Mich.

I always manage to work up to a good depression for at least part of the Christmas season. Events conspire to remind me I'm a not-rich wage earner still struggling to get by. Add to that an impending birthday in January to remind me I'm getting older, the long dark nights of winter in Alaska and the reliably lamentable weather, absent friends and higher prices - well it all adds up.

Despite this, - knowing this - I look forward to Christmas every year, because there is a message there. Not the one folks like Bill Oreilly or any of the other religio-fascist spewers who are currently up in arms espouse, claiming to "defend" Christmas from attack.

Do not rant about the commercialization, though it is excessive, or the social pressures, though they are great, or the cost, though it can seem unbearable. Christmas is above all, a time to be positive. This is the season to reach out, not to strike out.

100 Acre Wouldn't!!

2005-12-08T13:02:00.000-09:00

First, thanks to that blogging icon of the geekisphere Wil Wheaton at WWDN
for pointing me to this, and please read his thoughts on this, but according to USA Today, the "Walt's spinning in his grave" company, is planning on a new animated Whinnie the Pooh series without Christopher Robin, who will be replaced by an-as-yet-unnamed young female character.

blink. blink. cough... twitch.... WHATTTTTT!!!!!!!

With the apparently purported purpose of bringing a "breath of fresh air" to the Timeless tale, Disney proves once again that they will do anything to suck a few more $$ from whoever they can. Somewhere, the spectral hand of Walt Disney is patting the equally spectral back of A. A. Milne while sobbing "I share your pain".

Christmas Wish List

2005-12-05T12:33:00.000-09:00

No, not mine, the Republicans.

MyDD has a Great Article which shows you what the Republicans in Congress are hoping to accomplish by the end of the month.
Their list includes these "gifts" for America.

# Cut $15 billion from student loan programs.

# Increase Medicare Part B beneficiaries' monthly premiums.

# Selling off public land for mining.

# Corporate welfare for Bill Frist's family business.

# Increasing the welfare work requirement without increasing childcare assistance.

# Cut aid to needy families in the form of food stamps and school lunches.

# All of these cuts (and more), plus $70 billion in additional tax cuts for the wealthy.

As in the past, these gifts will be well liked by the very rich, and should be unwelcome to the rest of us, though there remain a great many in the middle class who still seem to think the current administration is working for them, despite the massive reductions in services, benefits, liberties and opportunities they've been gifted with in the past.
Go to MyDD to see the original article, with links to follow for each item on the list.

The Need to Succeed

2005-11-18T13:48:00.000-09:00

When they're not calling the growing number of Americans who oppose the war in Iraq traitors or describing the desire to get our soldiers home safely as "surrender to the terrorists", there seem to be a great number of folks on the right who are happy to argue that we can't pull out of Iraq because

"our job is not done"

and talk about how they haven't achieved their goals yet. Never mind that the goals always seem to be just-beyond-definition, or different than last week, or last month, or perhaps even unachievable...

This seemingly mindless desire to succeed at any cost is sometimes grudgingly admirable, as in the outmatched underdog who doggedly picks himself up and once again launches himself at his foe - this is what made Sylvester Stallone a rich man and won him an academy award after all, once he got the never-say-die Rocky onto the screen.

But it is rarely seen as admirable when applied politically, and in every case where it was, the admirable underdog winds up dead or terribly decimated. I tend to think of the charge of the light Brigade and the Spartans at Thermopylae as the classic examples - Custer's last stand would serve if anyone found Custer's actions admirable.

In Iraq we are in a situation which already threatens to be as tragic as the Light Brigade's efforts during the Crimean War, and if we're lucky still, perhaps not so bad as the Spartans total annihilation. So what mindset sees this kind of unforgiving commitment as the right path? Where has this burning need to succeed come from, and why are we allowing it to rule us in the face of fairly obvious evidence that our success is in fact highly unlikely?

In my darker moments, when I'm sitting in front of the TV, not watching whatever's in front of me, I suspect that this overriding need to be successful at something is what got us into this war. George W. had a need to not only achieve the Presidency, but to, as President, have achieved something "Presidential". Revive the Supreme Court, Reform Social Security, or Education, or the Economy.

Or win a war.

How attractive it must have been to consider going past that line in the sand where his father saw an unwinnable situation and actually topple Saddam Hussein. How could someone with such a driving need to accomplish something great resist that lure?? Even in the face of what might be the greatest threat to ever strike our shores??? Even if it means abandoning the efforts to end that threat in all but name??

Certainly, in the end, there is unlikely to be some noble survivor of the conflict, to return home and stand before the people as the Earl of Cardigan did after that ill fated Charge of the Light Brigade, and relate the splendid and awesome details to an admiring throng. Even if we had a Tennyson to make it great after the fact, no rational thinker can believe that this situation can be truly made great. Nothing started with a lie can.

One Tough Murtha

2005-11-17T13:19:00.000-09:00

This Stakeholder Article is just one of a great many news sites and blogs on the internet today recounting this call to action by Congressman John Murtha, who is described by Scott Shields in this way:

John Murtha is easily one of the most hawkish Democrats in Congress. Just two years ago, in the thick of the Iraq War, Murtha was presented with the National Distinguished Public Service Award from the conservative American Legion. Perhaps more ironically, Murtha's "support of a strong national defense" earned him the Henry M. Jackson Distinguished Service Award, named for Scoop Jackson

This guy is held in pretty high regard for his military acumen by both sides of the aisle. He was a Marine Intelligence Officer during Vietnam, and he is as Yahoo News notes,

The top Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, Murtha has earned bipartisan respect for his grasp of military issues over three decades in Congress

It'll be interesting to see if the usual "Not-sponsored-by-the-White-House" swiftboating efforts begin to crop up. Generally speaking the more respected and experienced the administration opponent is, the more quickly the character and professional assaults are begun (just ask Joe Wilson). If it does, the attackers better be prepared to mount a good defense, this guy doesn't lay down for anyone. He's already responded to Dick Cheney's attacks on critics with this line:

"I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."

This guy is a realist, a military, no-nonsense hardhead and even he thinks its time to get the heck out of Iraq. How much longer can the Bush "sad-ministration" continue to pretend their war is still a good idea, when the rest of the reality-based universe has already concluded that it most definitely is not?

When the Support Stops

2005-11-10T13:35:00.000-09:00

Think Progress amongst others is reporting on a decision announced by House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer, that veteran's service organizations will, for the first time in 55 years, not be allowed to testify before a special joint hearing of the House and Senate Veteran's Affairs Committees.

I suspect this is in no small part due to the Republican congressional leadership's belief that they will get ripped a new one by the real American heroes who come forward to testify. This congress and white house have been cutting more and more from the Veteran's Administration - failing recently to include a realistic $$ amount for the VA budget as part of their "budget reconciliation process" - finding a way to pay for things without giving back those tax cuts laid before the wealthiest Americans like burnt offerings.

Whether that speculation is true or not, to shun the earned deference owed to the men and women who have served their country with honor seems not only short-sighted and political, but just plain mean! The given explanation, that the veteran's groups, under the new plan, will be meeting with different groups earlier in the budgeting process, giving their input more value,strikes me as disingenuous. If earlier input is needed, get it, but do not abandon a 55 year old tradition, one which gives veterans a very public forum. Nobody believes that these public servants are so busy that they can't do both, not when they are able to find time to try to legislate the fate of individual citizens, as they did with Terri Shiavo, or compel testimony from steroid-laden baseball players.

The Bad Deal

2005-11-10T09:39:00.000-09:00

An Associated Press Story today in theJuneau Empire
relays Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski's pronouncement that the Fast Ferries planned and purchased by the previous administration are "a bad deal".
Low ridership of fewer than 28 passengers on the relay run from Juneau to Ketchikan is the stated proof for this failure,

"Those ships are designed for high-density runs, and we don't have high-density runs for nine months of the year,"

but the key to Murkowski's real reasoning is hinted at in this line from him Wednesday,

"You've got to face facts when you inherit a bad deal. You've got to figure out what you can possibly do with it."

The real problem, as the Governor has proven over and over again, is his dislike of the ferry system in general, as well as a dislike for any program started by Governor Tony Knowles, his predecessor. The Ferry system has been a favorite target since he took office, and with the fast ferries his maneuvering to design in failure to their system is both obvious and unpopular.

The fast ferries were designed to ease problems for a couple of specific areas, including Sitka, where I live, and the communities of Cordova, Valdez and Whittier in the Prince William Sound area. Efforts to get contracts established and recruit or reassign ferry workers to these new posts was ignored until the last minute, and then done with a dismissive attitude towards the existing ferry employee's unions. When those unions protested, they were blamed by the governor for the delay.

Both the Fairweather, which was intended to provide service to Sitka, which is outside of the normal ferry routes and reachable only by passing through the tricky Sergius Narrows and the Chenaga, which was designed to provide fast, short runs to the smaller Prince William Sound communities difficult to reach by other traditional means were pulled off their original routes. The Fairweather first, with the initial shift emphasizing trips to Haines and Skagway rather than Sitka,and then, along with the Chenaga which had only been in service for two weeks, both ferries were reassigned to make runs between Juneau, Petersburg and Ketchikan, communities already receiving high levels of service from the existing ferries.

This change in plans was announced as an "experiment" to test the use of these smaller, faster ferries along this route during the lower ridership winter season. Nobody in Alaska really thought this was a great idea, and check Senator Kim Elton's feelings if you want to get a good sense of what all that entails. Particularly check out the section entitled Ferry system experiments with chaos theory for some good background on the whole situation.

Now that the experiment has been allowed to run for a few weeks, the intended result of failure is being announced, however the failure has morphed into a blanket failure of the entire fast ferry concept. Imagine that. Oh my the surprise. The Governor who loves to build roads has discovered yet another problem with the Alaska Marine Highway. Perhaps if these ferries were built out of asphalt he'd find something about them to like. In the meantime, how long will the people of Alaska allow him to continue "tinkering" with this system? Why are the people of Alaska allowing this governor to continue riding roughshod over them when it comes to our roads, our mines, our oil and our futures?

A Tip of the Tinfoil Hat

2005-11-06T21:25:00.000-09:00

Thanks to the Daily Jive for pointing me to the LSS Collections. While not every video here is obviously of the paranoid/conspiracy theory type, they certainly aren't afraid to cross that line when they come to it. If anything, they've crossed it at a full sprint.

No, Never, No!!!!

2005-11-06T13:28:00.000-09:00

Vice President Dick Cheney recently went before Congressional Republicans to ask for a CIA exemption to the proposed torture ban legislation proposed by Senator McCain. At least there is some evidence that finally the republican's in Congress aren't buying this crap in their usual stepford-wives, lock-step fashion.

"I think the administration is making a terrible mistake in opposing John McCain's amendment on detainees and torture," Hagel, R-Neb., said on "This Week" on ABC. "Why in the world they're doing that, I don't know."

I've got to wonder myself just what the hell does the Vice President think he's doing? Does he really expect the American people are willing to support torture as official policy??

What the hell kind of country does he want this to be?? We're giving up our personal liberties in the name of "security" which nobody can seem to demonstrate as being effective. More and more of us are loosing health care coverage, pension security, buying power, environmental protections and educational opportunities in the name of "smaller government", and at the same time it appears this smaller government wants to have ever more access to our personal information, ever more control of our morals, our bodies (if we're women) and our lives. While the support and protections we receive as individuals is being reduced, corporations are being granted ever greater tax cuts, limiting their legal and financial liability, and the very richest Americans are being coddled with huge tax breaks in the face of the largest deficits in history - oh, and we support torture ...

No, Never, No, No, No!!!

Gubernatorial Grapes of Wrath

2005-11-01T14:35:00.000-09:00

Alaska's Supreme Court ruled recently that it is unconstitutional to deny benefits to same-sex partners of state employees if those benefits are offered to employee spouses in traditional marriages.

According to Governor Murkowski (as reported in the Juneau Empire)

"This is a clear example of how out of touch the state Supreme Court is with mainstream Alaskans who overwhelmingly believe that marriage is a union between a man and a woman."

Problem with this of course is that the State Supreme Court has not ruled on gay marriages or unions, only on the states obligation to offer benefits to the same-sex partners of its employees. To do otherwise, according to our constitution would be discriminatory.

This of course has some of the our legislators vowing to push through a constitutional amendment which will allow the state to discriminate in this fashion. I do not expect them to accomplish their goal. According to the story, they're planning to borrow language from Ohio's constitution, which I'm assuming has passed muster with a court somewhere -

"No provision of this constitution shall be interpreted or applied so to require the state or its political subdivisions to extend or assign the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities or effects of marriage to any other union, partnership or legal status."

- That sure seems like narrowly tailored language designed to exclude a group in a discriminatory fashion. If the legality of it can be engineered in, as the Ohio legislature seems to have done, the morality of it still seems suspect to me.

Truth to be told, Alaskans, who seem invariably embedded in the Republican machine, are actually pretty tolerant folk, and we are seldom found spending time, money or energy repressing others. We've got too much collective history churning around in our back brains from the early days of statehood when it was all too easy to discriminate against Native Alaskans. (And yes, I am one). We're too broad a mix of too many people too recently arrived from someplace else to be quick to judge others who aren't us, because "us" is a pretty undefined thing. What we know is we're proud to be Alaskans, and we're generally happy to share who and what we are with all new arrivals.

Its a sad thing indeed to be a member of a tolerant society, stuck being represented by intolerant individuals. Maybe we'll get a chance to change that soon.

Are You Spoon-Fed Your Point of View?

2005-10-31T13:08:00.000-09:00

Just as an example - stop and ask yourself what you understand about health care in America, and what it costs you. What are your feelings regarding a national health care system? How do you think it works in other countries, and do those countries have better or worse health care than we do?

I don't want to know who you listen to, where your information came from, what you think our government can or can't do about it, instead I'm just going to suggest, as a starting point, that you go look at the information you'll find here:

OECD

Its not laid out for you here, this organization doesn't exist to proselytize one way or another about health care systems, they're there to get the information from the 30 member countries, including the USA, to further assist in a program of cooperative economic development.

If you can read a spreadsheet, or make some basic comparisons of their data, it becomes amazing clear that the assumptions about both the cost and effectiveness of a national health care system which are made routinely by most of those you hear discussing the option in the news and on TV are not actually based in fact.

Go find out for yourself.

A Sense of Wrongness

2005-10-31T08:25:00.000-09:00

It strikes me that the Main Stream Media once again is playing the game of "lets pretend to not see the big picture while we focus frantically on the specific".

It seems difficult these days to make accountability stand for the broad scope of behavior as well as it appears to stand for the specifics of an act. Truth to be told, we don't even seem to hold specific acts up to any kind of accountability standard. We know as an example, that the President's stated reasons for going to war in Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, were not only untrue, but that the truth was ignored in order to justify the war. Why aren't we asking our President to take responsibilty for his lies?

Beyond that specific however, we see a seemingly unending stream of stories these days of indicted and subpoenaed officials, of fund-raising schemes and election irregularities, of tax-cuts for the rich while cutting needed programs for the poor and middle class of America. We see Billionaires getting richer while their employees loose their pensions, we see pork and cronyism and vindictive attacks against those in opposition.

Where are the stories in today's media about this large-scale sense of wrongness and corruption? Where are the stories asking the questions about why the current White House and Congressional actions, dominated by the Far-Right republicans of Bush, Delay and Frist are wrong, unfair, and unamerican? Why are we giving tax breaks to Billion-Dollar corporations who are already enjoying high profitability and at the same time reducing food stamps and school lunches as well as treating the men and women in our armed services with increasingly shabby services and support? How can a serviceman returning from the war with a missing limb be billed by the government? How can we be reducing medical and family benefits to servicemen during a time of "war"?

Why does this big blanket called "business as usual" not cause alarm bells to go off in the meeting halls, churches, stores and streets across America? What has become of the American people, what soporific substance is being funneled into the fabric of our everyday lives that the average American doesn't sense this wrongness and stand up and speak?

The Wurmser Turns

2005-10-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

Over the past couple of days, reports have started filtering through the various places I go for news that John Hannah, an aide to V.P. Dick Cheney is cooperating with The Grand Jury investigating the outing of formerly covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. Today it appears a second Cheney aide, David Wurmser is also cooperating with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. You can read more about this at The Raw Story

Where this is going to go in the end is anyone's guess ( and plenty of people across the cybersphere and beyond are guessing themselves into a frenzy right now). But this entire affair, combined with the ever-widening series of investigations and indictments against members in good standing of the political right can only cause you to wonder - where was the President? Either he is the take-charge, no-nonsense leader he campaigned as, and so must obviously be the guy in charge of these campaigns, or he is the vapid puppet many have portrayed him to be, and if THAT is so, then why the hell do we still have him in office, and where do I sign to get him the hell out??? Hell, either way, where the hell do I sign???

Lets get this reverse-Robin-Hooding, Corporate lap-dogging, Crony-promoting, lying, war-mongering mistake out of office and get someone in there who can run a country without pissing off the rest of the world. While we're at it, perhaps we can make a start at restoring our economy, our environment, our schools, and our faith in our own government. Maybe this new person can do this all without taking away our liberties, our opportunities and our hopes for achieving the American dream, or at least the hope of there being an America around in the future so that our Grandchildren might be able to reach that dream.

Oh Yeah, the Vice President. Well, as the first paragraph suggests, that little problem looks like it is busy taking care of itself.

Posting Comments

2005-10-12T11:13:00.000-08:00

I've turned on the "Word Verification" option for comment posting. This small change is due to the appeance of "comment spam" on my blog, which is comments added to posts which are actually automated advertisements put there by programs designed to do that, and which at this stage of the technology, are unable to correctly read the word images used by the verification system, preventing them from posting their ads.

Bottom line, if you're human and have a comment, there's a new step added to the commenting process. If your a software program wishing to spam, move on, go bother someone else.

Since the only person to ever leave an actual comment is my brother Ted, this is probably not that big a deal, but it was one of life's little annoyances which I could actually do something about.

Because He'll Hate Me For This

2005-10-10T15:27:00.000-08:00

I just *have* to tell you all about paperdove.org.

This site belongs to my friend and former co-worker Tony, who is smarter and younger than me, though I just barely beat him out in the looks and charm categories.

Although he is probably too busy to post on his site with any frequency, you will often find that what he has posted is insightful and clearly thought out. He will now and then burst through the PG-13 barrier, but he is more likely to break through barriers of perception than of language.

And He loves beer like I do.

Go visit http://paperdove.org/

Is Bush gagging our Weather Man??

2005-10-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

This recent article at Raw Story reveals a "new" policy memo in which the Commerce Department tells the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and by extension, the National Weather Service that all "media contacts" must be pre-approved

Read the story for the speculation, but I would imagine that farmers and fisherman across the country are going to be terribly upset if this results in any slowdown or loss of effectiveness in getting the word out about sudden weather changes. In the tiny fishing community where I live, lives can hang in the balance, and a judicious study of the weather is an absolute requirement for even the hardiest commercial fisherman. I cannot imagine it is less important even for those living in more forgiving climates than Alaska's.

For those of us who have been watching the current administration slowly but surely clamp down on the ability of government-employed scientists and researchers to make their information public, especially when it conflicts with its own policy positions, this comes as no real surprise. While some folks are trying hard to make it known that this is not a new policy, but rather just a restatement of an existing policy, the article linked to above quotes several sources inside the NWS which dispute the existence, or at least the dissemination of the policy previous to the recent memo.

The Hammer in the Slammer?

2005-09-29T11:04:00.000-08:00

All the blogoverse has been abuzz the last couple of days on the news of Rep. Tom DeLay's indictment on a charge of criminal conspiracy associated with the campaign finance dealings of a political action committee he founded in Texas. A lot of folks are saying its about danged time, and those who haven't said it are thinking it for sure.

DeLay immediately attacked the indictment, handed down by Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle, a democrat, as a "partisan attack". Folks all over the liberal blogosphere are churning the fabric of cyberspace into a frenzy refuting this claim, and rightly so. Of course the main stream media outlets like CNN and MSNBC are so far failing to mention Earle's true record, and Fox News, being the main stream propagandists that they are, will likely magnify the errors rather than expose them.

Here's a link to the best collection of information on this that I've found. Do yourself a favor if you're not already convinced of the truth of this, and go there and check out the facts on Ronnie Earle yourself.

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/28/truth-ronnie-earle/

Back from Boston

2005-09-17T09:09:00.000-08:00

Two weeks without the internet while in Boston with my wife for the Supreme Emblem Club Convention. It's good to be home, but summer definitely ended in Sitka while we were gone.

It was kind of rough being away from home without my usual access to the web and other sources with Hurricane Katrina and the devastation that followed it. We would catch brief snippets of what was happening every day between meetings and meals, with hopefully a good dose of events while getting ready for bed. It was even rougher watching the miserable failures by FEMA and others who should have been prepared to spring into action even before the hurricane hit. Sufficient warning had been given, we knew this was coming, and still we seemed unprepared and ineffective.

With the convention and the hurricane as background, we still tried to really soak in the American history lesson that is Boston. The people who live there are proud of their place in our history, and are eager to share it with every American who comes there.

My only regret? This is as close to Fenway Park as I got during our time there. A nice view from the observation floor of the Prudential Tower. They certainly love their Red Sox in Boston, and especially now that the "curse" has been reversed...

The tourist bug was pretty much satisfied though, we did do the Boston Aquarium, we toured the U.S.S. Constitution, walked through Boston Common and rode the Swan Boats, as well as taking the Trolley Tour and the famous Duck Boat tour. I saw the graves of Sam Adams and John Hancock as well as the graves of those killed in the Boston Massacre. We didn't make it to the Old North Church, but we saw it from a distance, along with a ton of other places that were textbook reading during our school years.

I can already imagine going back, there is so much history there to explore.

Keeping our eyes on the ball.

2005-08-27T10:27:00.000-08:00

A post on the Bush Watch blog made a good point which I had noticed myself recently.

Pat Robertson, who we can all agree was totally wrong in calling for the assassination of Democratically-elected president Hugo Chavez, made his outlandish call while painting Chavez as "Venezuela's iron-fisted dictator" who has "ruined Venezuela's economy."

As I highlighted above of course, The Venezuelan President was fairly elected. Twice. Institutions as prestigious as Princeton University have released studies which have countered claims of unfairness. There are plenty of places out there were you can go to get information about just how clean our own governments hands are when it comes to politics in Venezuela, especially when it comes to the efforts to oust Chavez, here's one but there are plenty of stories out there.

The second of Pat Robertson's stealth lies is the claim that Chavez is the source of economic problems in recent years. Anyone with half a brain cell already understands that any country whose economy is so dependent on exporting crude oil has had problems in recent years due to falling crude oil prices on international markets. Of course recent huge price increases will have the opposite effect in Venezuela, but I'm sure none of Chavez' detractors will mention that. Here's a link to a little info on the Venezuelan economy that will help clear that up for you perhaps.

All this being said, do I support Hugo Chavez? I don't have to, I don't vote in Venezuela, and as long as I continue to see evidence that he is in office fairly, you will have a hard time getting me to come down for or against him. I will say this. Just because he is not a friend to us, or at least this current administration does not make him bad or evil, or require us to work against him.

More Proof that this Administration Hates the Truth

2005-08-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

Profiling Report Leads to Demotion

This story from the New York Times offers still more proof that our current administration, lead by the ever-disconnected George W. Bush, is quite happy with removing or burying any facts which disagree with their beliefs. Even to the point of threatening to fire, or otherwise punish those who produce the information if they make it public. Cancelling reports, press releases and public statements by government researchers, statisticians and others whose findings might contradict their positions.

Who needs science or math when they've got faith*

*(American Conservative Christian faith)

I've Gone to Crawford in My Mind

2005-08-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

If I was young, 24 or so, like my son, I'd wonder about winding up in Iraq and what I might find.
But I'm 51, my time for guns and such is long past. All I have now to fight is a war of words. My battles now are over beliefs. My only armor is the truth of my words. If I were famous or rich or influential, my fights might play out on the airwaves or on the pages of books, magazines and newspapers.

Instead, I've gone to Crawford in my mind. Every day that vigil continues, please know I'm there. If I weren't tucked into the little corner of the world I live in, I would like to think I'd found a way to be there for real.

Instead all I can do is say loud and clear, I've gone to Crawford in my mind.

U.S. Cruise Missiles Strike Sudan and Afghan Targets Tied to Terrorist Network

2005-08-17T15:33:00.000-08:00

Not-so-current news link here

Attacking Osama and Al Qaida was the reason we were given for a lot of post-9/11 actions, and its still popular these days for Republican pundits to proclaim inaction on the part of the Clinton administration was the reason Al Qaida was able to do what they did, but as you'll see if you follow the link above, Clinton DID attack Osama and Al Qaida, and the Republican smear machine was busy then questioning activities which today they would defend if only their President had managed to do something like this instead of invading Iraq.

Good Eats

2005-08-17T14:16:00.000-08:00

This show is one of those little addictions I have, its fun, educational and I imagine myself being a bit Alton Brown-ian except for the attention to detail, dedication, focus, etc...

The Bumvertising Shiver Runs Down My Spine

2005-08-17T10:19:00.000-08:00

Bumvertising - Another sign of the Apocalypse?

This idea on its face and in its entirety leaves me feeling sad, and to be honest a little queasy. Giving the homeless and disadvantaged any edge in their struggle is never something to dismiss out of hand, but this just strikes me as so, so wrong in so, so many ways.

A Glimpse into the Future of computing?

2005-08-15T19:27:00.000-08:00

This Virtual keyboard technology could revolutionize telephone and PDA usage in the very near future.

If it proves viable, it could prove equally as revolutionary for the desktop and laptop PC market.

It's one to watch for sure.

Would you vote for this man??

2005-08-15T16:20:00.000-08:00

A hoax is what I'm hearing, but a nicely done one.

Go on with your life, Please!!!

2005-08-15T15:14:00.000-08:00

As a defense of his pointed refusal to meet with Cindy Sheehan The protesting mom of a young soldier lost in the Iraq war, our President manages to once again show us how un-presidential he is by whining about his need to get on with his life.

Mr. President, this is not about "your life" its about being President of the United States of America. Its about being Commander in Chief and having the lives of these young people in your hands. Its about you being willing to do more than spout nice sounding but meaningless and dismissive phrases about noble sacrifice. Mr. President, it is about taking a five week vacation while in the middle of a war.

When you are elected President it is not good enough to be the President, you must act like the President, and you must bear all the burdens that come with the office, not just the ones you want.

A judge who can't remember his own life.

2005-07-29T09:16:00.000-08:00

This story in the Washington Post highlights the fact that SCOTUS nominee John Roberts, after claiming to not remembering even being in the Federalist Society, not only was, but was a member of the steering committee of the Washington chapter...

Either this guy is lying through his teeth, or he's incompetent. I've heard the Federalist Society is just an organization of conservative lawyers and their supporters. I don't have an extremely negative view of them, though these days I tend to distrust "conservative organizations" in general because they tend to blindly support George W. Bush. But if this is an effort to dodge controversy in order to get confirmed to the bench, then perhaps we should be asking what else might be wrong with this guy. There's lots of information out there people, go find some and get informed!

Scotty, you gave me joy.

2005-07-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

CNN, Slashdot, and I'm sure a bunch of other sites are reporting the passing today of James Doohan, the actor who was Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer of the Enterprise.

Scotty was my favorite television character for many, many years. I'm not sure if I could name a character I liked more. That he learned quickly to embrace the spot he was lifted into by the many geneations of Star Trek fans, and to enjoy the experience was always a big plus in my mind, but no matter now. The universe's greatest engineer is gone, and I commend him to you all, in memory you are eternal James Doohan, and God bless you.

Let us Drink to Love of Country

2005-07-15T13:59:00.000-08:00

This is not what You'll typically get from me, but today it was demanding to be let out, and so here it is. Take it for what is worth.

Let us Drink to Love of Country

Let us drink, and raise our glass
to hope and promise and the golden
images of our youth.

Let us make speech and testify
to the honest labors and plain truths
which fostered the ages.

Once we were great. Once we were true
once we were admired and our hopes
were shared by the world.

Today we are asked to pretend the truth
to dance the same steps without the music
to sing the words without the tune.

Now we stand where once we danced the dance that is us
We are offered again the steps and the words
but only if we promise to call the music a lie.

LW 7/15/05

When is truth the enemy?

2005-07-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

I've been resisting the urge in recent days to chime in here with my opinions on the Karl Rove "PlameGate" debacle. Well, I'm weak-willed, we all know that, so I can't fight it any longer.

There are a lot of places these days where you can find all the details on the particulars of this story, but my personal favorite is David Corn's web site.

Bottom line it appears these days is this. Whether it was done to get back at Joseph Wilson for failure to toe the White House's line on the Uranium from Africa story back before we invaded Iraq, or a message to the intelligence community that they too had better toe the line, or even if it was totally inadvertent, Karl Rove passed on to multiple people, including Matt Cooper of Newsweek and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak information that suggested the Wilson story was flawed because he had been sent to Africa by his own wife, who was a CIA operative.

On its face, this seems startling, especially when agency officials later asked the justice department to investigate this "leak", because Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson's wife was an undercover CIA operative.

If this is true, and there is very little, if anything to suggest it is not, then Rove is guilty of a criminal act. Whether that act could also be considered treasonous remains to be seen. While republican pundits, and their media lapdogs have sprung into action throwing out Republican approved "talking points" hither and yon, it is interesting to note that the points being made seem to rely heavily on discrediting Joe Wilson and his wife, and the importance of the information surrounding that trip to Niger Joe Wilson reported on. Very little in their rhetoric speaks to the point at hand, which is did or did not Karl Rove reveal to reporters information revealing the identity of a covert CIA operative?

Meanwhile, the White House is using the crutch of not damaging the ongoing investigation to remain mute on Rove's actions, Bush's knowledge of those actions, either before or after the fact, and soon enough someone will publicly ask, What did you know, and when did you know it, and the President will have to answer.

What we should collectively be asking ourselves is, How do we justify keeping this President in office when we know he's lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, diverted resources away from the war on terrorism to invade a country which had no part in the 9/11 attack, who continues to support an extremist religious doctrine which does not represent the majority of Americans, who blatantly gives to the rich while taking from the poor.

Keep your eye on this story, it could be the beginning of the end for the worst President in US history.

What So Proudly We Hail

2005-07-01T12:54:00.000-08:00

Should you or I, being citizens of the United States of America, be concerned about flag-burning? Perhaps some concern is natural, especially if you respect the flag for what it is, a symbol of our nation. But should that concern be taken to the point of making it illegal to burn the flag? Does a symbol need protection? What reasons might someone have for burning our flag in the first place?

Having lived through the 60's and just missed being drafted during the Vietnam War, I'm pretty familiar with the concept of civil disobedience, protest and demonstrations. Living in a small town on a small island in Alaska, I really didn't have a chance to join any of those activities, even if I'd been of a mind to. If I'd had those chances, and used them, in that time and place I very well might have burned a flag in protest of the war, it was a common way to express displeasure with the war and the draft, and the decisions of our government to send our young men to die in a foreign land. I'm old enough to remember seeing the images of students at Kent State University scrambling in shocked panic as some of their fellow students lay dying on the ground, having been shot by National Guardsmen sent there to stifle their anti-war protests. I remember watching the television coverage of that war, showing our young men fighting and dying. My older brother Andy was one of those men, and I am grateful to this day that he returned safely.

Because I remember these things, because I was a young man during those days, I can see how things have changed today. We are no longer allowed to see the battles unfiltered, we cannot see the burned and shattered bodies of soldiers and innocent civilians alike on the evening news. We do not see the long rows of coffins arriving home to our shores, where the families of those fallen wait to honor them. Because seeing them, we might object to the actions which caused them. We do not hear of our President standing, even symbolically, alongside those families showing the respect of our Commander-in-Chief for those who have died serving him. Because to see him there would remind us of the events which caused that coffin to be there, and we might object. Those who wish to protest his actions when he appears in public are kept at a distance, those who are allowed to ask him questions in "town hall" meetings are carefully screened, and only supporters are allowed to attend. Others are kept away because they do object.

All these things seemingly are intended to do one thing, to minimize protest, to make demonstration ineffective and to keep Americans, collectively, uninformed and outside of the process of influencing public policy. I believe a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning is simply another step in the efforts to stifle protest in America, and it is a distraction, meant to make us forget that some of us came to the table with legitimate concerns about war, about social security, about privacy and freedom, about the health and welfare of ALL Americans as opposed to the wealthy elite. We arrived with honest concerns about the honesty of our current administration, and the effectiveness of its leadership. Those concerns remain.

Do I love our county's flag? Do I respect it? Will I guard it from harm? I love this country and it is a symbol of it. I respect the history and people of this country, my country, and it symbolizes that history and it symbolizes us as a people. Were I a soldier at war and it my banner, I would die defending it. Were I a citizen, armed in defense of my country against invaders from abroad, I would gladly die to keep it standing, but because it is merely a symbol, however beloved, which represents not only our country, but the ideal of who and what it, and we are, I must demand the freedom to burn it in protest, an act which itself is a symbol of the free expression of a free people able to disagree, even in anger, loud outraged anger, at the leaders which we have in a democratic manner raised up to represent us. Burning the flag is an act of expression, not an act of rejection.

Of course, our leaders are speaking not just of burning, but of "desecrating" the flag, which has always bothered me, because it is a phrase rooted in religion, and its bad enough to speak of revering an object, but when it becomes a holy object, I am not only reminded of the need to separate church and state, but also, thanks to Charlton Heston and Cecil B. Demille, of the whole "graven image" matter that even my Sunday School teachers back in the 60's were eager to drill into me. We are not a godless society, we are all free to worship as we will, but we should not begin the foolish practice of worshipping a symbol for its own sake, especially when to do so ignores the very meaning of the symbol itself.

This is once again a very long post, but it barely taps the subject, which could keep much deeper thinkers busy far longer than I have with these words here. The subject after all isn't really flag burning, but freedom, and how we express it.

The World is Moving Again

2005-06-30T10:25:00.000-08:00

Perhaps things can get back to normal around here now, as all is once again well in my universe.

This morning about an hour ago or so my Grandmother was released from the hospital and is back "Home" at the Pioneer's Home, in her familiar room, surrounded by familiar faces.

I can't wait to stop and see her there after work today to see how she's feeling.

Mother's Day in June

2005-06-22T16:01:00.000-08:00

If you've wondered why I've posted so little in the past two weeks, well here's the secret behind the silence.

I've mentioned in a mother's day post my Grandmother, who adopted and raised me and my brother Ted from the ages of 5 and 3.5 respectively.

A week ago today, she had exploratory surgery performed on her to try to find a problem which was causing a blockage in her intestinal tract, preventing her from digesting anything she ate or drank. After more than three weeks of treatment, all the while only receiving nutrition via an IV, the surgery found a hernia which was pressing against her upper intestines, totally pinching off all flow into it from her stomach, liver, kidney and who knows what else! The surgeon corrected the problem, and we've spent the past week waiting to see if her 99 year old system was going to kick into gear and begin once again to digest her food.
As of today, I can gleefully report that the operation has succeeded, she is once again able to eat and digest her food, and if all is well she will be out of the hospital soon, perhaps even by the 4th of July, which in addition to being Independence Day is also my Brother Ted's birthday. Now all she can do is complain a bout how bad the food she's getting tastes, at least until we happily remind her that at least now she's being allowed to eat...

Now to start the serious planning for that 100th birthday party on October 25th, but before that, a BIG thank you from me to Dr. Wein her surgeon, Dr. Zarley the attending physician who has been caring for her through this ordeal, and her regular physician and long-time caregiver Dr. Bob Carlson for taking such good care of her, and a special thank you to the nursing staff everywhere at SEARHC and at the Sitka Pioneer's Home.

I Want to Share My Blogger's Envy

2005-06-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About

The above link leads to the blog/website of someone who is wittier and more erudite than I shall ever be, but He's just so fun to read I cannot deny you the pleasure.

The Daily Kitten

2005-06-13T19:09:00.000-08:00

Yes, their cute, so sue me. But I need some lightness in my soul right now, and you get to share the medicine with me.

Party time in Sitka

2005-06-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

[note to my readers: I apolgize in advance for the excessive use of capital letters in this post. Sometimes you just gotta dip into the bucket and really splash it around]

OK, its true I live in a small town. So I can feel all the glee a small town citizen does when its kids do well. And the glee is always special when you live in a small town, because you KNOW the kids or at least you know their parents. In some cases for me its both. You can feel good knowing that the pride you are feeling must pale in comparison to what those parents feel.

51 years after the last State Sports Title (yes those words HAVE to be capitalized) won by our local high school, we can celebrate TWO state titles! Our Girls Softball team and our Boys Baseball teams BOTH won State titles this year. Let the Basking in Reflected Glory begin!

Here's the story from the Juneau Empire (Sorry, Sitka is so small that our newspaper doesn't really have an online presence)
JuneauEmpire.com: Sports: Party time in Sitka following state titles

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) [496]

2005-06-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision referred to as Griswold v. Connecticut.

The decision essentially determined that the individual did have a right to marital privacy, and that the state could not criminalize the practice of contraception by married couples, nor those who were counselling, advising or treating those married couples who sought to practice contraception.

This ruling began a series of rulings and new laws which created what today we see as a woman's right to reproductive self-control. Planned Parenthood plans to celebrate the event, which I initially saw being mentioned in the story here on Pandagon.

The issues of the ruling revolved around Connecticut statutes whose pertinent sections stated:( from This Nation, see link below)

"Any person who uses any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception shall be fined not less than fifty dollars or imprisoned not less than sixty days nor more than one year or be both fined and imprisoned."

and

"Any person who assists, abets, counsels, causes, hires or commands another to commit any offense may be prosecuted and punished as if he were the principal offender."

There is more info at the first link in this post, or also at This Nation

The scary thing to note in all this is that these hard won rights are only 40 years old, they were achieved within my lifetime, and conservative and fundamentalist activists are hard at work now under the shadow of the current administration and the eager-to-accomodate Republican-dominated congress trying to reverse these decisions and move us back to a time when women did not control their own bodies. Perhaps they will not stop there.

I fear we will let this happen, but I pray we do not. Image if YOU lived in a world where your state or federal government could tell you and your wife that it was illegal to use the safest and most reliable methods of contraception, or as in the original Connecticut law, that it was illegal to practice ANY method of contraception.

Another Sign we're Becoming a Police State

2005-06-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court of the United States certainly wields great power over our lives, and today CNN is reporting in This story, they have chosen to wield it in favor of Federal Drug Enforcement and against sick and dying citizens seeking relief.

I'm no pothead ( as they were called in my day) but I cannot see the sense in this, when doctors and state legislators have struggles so hard to provide relief to those sufferers. A cynic might suggest that the reason our congress has not stepped in and made this legal at the federal level is that their pharmaceutical sugar daddies wont allow it, since there's no profit in it for them.

It certainly is interesting that they can get speedy approval for questionable drugs that put billions into the pockets of the big Pharma crowd, but that things like this raise so many barriers.

Science Fiction Case Mod Contest: The First Winner!

2005-06-04T22:03:00.000-08:00

Add this to the list of things I want but wont get for Father's Day.

Science Fiction Case Mod Contest: The First Winner!

Whispered Words to Remember

2005-05-31T15:26:00.000-08:00

In the Dustin Hoffman/Robert Redford Movie, he was played by Hal Holbrook, representing some unnamed highly-placed Washingtonian. In reality we now appear to be able to say that the man who helped bring down Richard Nixon's White House was W. Mark Felt. A story in Vanity Fair magazine, confirmed by relatives of Felt have been indisputably confirmed by investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein along with former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. Here's a link to the Post story.
Washington Post Confirms Felt Was 'Deep Throat'
And here's a link to the Vanity Fair article itself