Saturday, October 28, 2006
Between the thought and the action doth the tin foil hat lie.
If I were a Rot Rovian I would let a bunch of A.N.S.W.E.R.’s more colorful antiwar participants slip out of the free speech zone and into vapor zone of the Burrito in Chief, ( That’s, “email the street theater to come into a Presidential speech, heh heh, the back doors open,” for you who are new here,) to garner the, “poor guys had enough sympathy vote.”
I mean that’s what I would do. It almost works on me.
Why the Democrats Haven’t Got a Plan
This would seem to be a no brainer for Republican strategists to use, after three election cycles of seeing “No Child Left Behind,” Democratic initiatives bushwacked into “Every Kid for Themselves! The Graft Must Flow” I’m more than a little disinclined to offer anything approaching policy change. The Democrats may get a lot of trial lawyer money, but big bidness pays a lot of money to lawyers to change the meaning of words for Republicans too. Not going to happen until after the election.
I’m not a Democratic strategist either, but if I were, I would ask the Republicans, when they’re through talking around the food in their mouths about illegal immigrants, if they have a solution that works for getting the crops picked. I would presume that some educated guesser figures that with housing headed south so should the illegal aliens that built what Americans now need to protect from labor. I don’t think anyone is happy about waves of illegals swamping the retail stores and rental markets either. I don’t suppose now’s a good time to bring up NAFTA which was supposed to shift manufacturing southward toward this wave of illegals that have probably arrived since NAFTA, known now as NADA, rode the new wave to China.
I know that the MSM that Fred Barnes criticizes on the “Beltway Boys,” (when you get home Fred turn on the the TV, cable news, MSM. If you see yourself on TV, Fred, then you might just be the MSM. Otherwise see “Yellow Submarine Republican,) will rally around the vision, but as Rick Perry is so kind to point out in his advertising with the border sheriffs, Rick Perry has been doing what Fred Barnes says needs to be done.
No sir. The Republicans have borrowed one from the old saw, if you put five ( name your crop) farmers in a locked room and asked them one question on a particular policy, when they came out they would have ten positions, all firm.
Remind me of the Red Sea
Billmon’s The Enemies of Truth is a good read.
You could say: To hell with old media, they’re just a bunch of senile dinosaurs anyway, who cares who they pander to? But old media, for better or worse, still set the news agenda, and still dominate the political process. And they’re doing an energetic, if not yet totally successful, job of sucking up new media and sticking them in the same corporate straight jacket. If they decide, as matter of cold capitalist calculation, that one-party Republican rule is the smart way to bet, that could also become a self-fulfilling prophesy.
The beauty and sharpness of the reef.
All Things ScienceThe Lord God made Them All, After that It’s Turtles all the way Down
Reconstructing Inflation by Sean at Cosmic variance;
Dick and Lev were interested in what we should expect inflationary models to predict, and what data might ultimately teach us about the inflationary era. The primary observables connected with inflation are primordial perturbations — the tiny deviations from a perfectly smooth universe that were imprinted at early times. These deviations come in two forms: “scalar” perturbations, which are fluctuations in the energy density from place to place, and which eventually grow via gravitational instability into galaxies and clusters; and the “tensor” perturbations in the curvature of spacetime itself, which are just long-wavelength gravitational waves. Both arise from the zero-point vacuum fluctuations of quantum fields in the very early universe — for scalar fluctuations, the relevant field is the “inflaton” φ that actually drives inflation, while for tensor fluctuations it’s the spacetime metric itself.
is an interesting post in itself, but don’t neglect Darksyde today. Anyway this comment;
Plato on Oct 25th, 2006 at 11:06 am
Sometimes it is useful to find analogies to this process so I suggest sometimes to look at the “Chaldni plate” and then reassess your thinking to what Wayne Hu imparts as you travel to the B modes.This is part of the process to encourage model thinking in relation to WMAP. Tying Wayne Hu and WMAP “mapping” is very important in my view.
“Omega” of course
brought to mind something I learned in the only real Biblical discussion I’ve ever had with a devout Jew, and I pray that G*d’s peace be with her.
Anyway, the connotation of perfect came up in a “You must be perfect as G*d is perfect,” discussion where it was noted that perfect also connotes complete, in that we as humans will always have flaws, but that we can be complete towards G*d, much as a circle we draw by hand is complete, and our eyes cannot detect the deviations from the arc, so too, if we as spiritual persons would roll our ways on the LORD, then He would complete our training, becomes more than a Biblical scripture to quote, but also a way for the non-scientist to understand things both physically and spiritually. It doesn’t mean they intrude on each others space, nor should they.
Friday, October 27, 2006
North Korea comes in from the cold
EU establishes diplomatic ties, starts on ‘very long … and stony road’ from CNN
Read this first. Kim Jong-Il: ‘mad as cheese’
Lightning in the Air
One of the primary aspects of politics is realizing that it is a two dimensional dance of people and events, which our various news organizations try to piece together into truthful accurate accounts of what the people involved in events have said or done leading up to those events, and conclude their report in a headline, which tends to support or weaken anyone person’s positions, previous or otherwise. Some lean one way or another, which makes it imperative for novice and pro alike in political analysis to scour many sources, ( which is hardly any great feat in intelligence gathering procedures for governments and business, ) which the internet provides to one and all. The WWW provides the most visible and popular internet application, which will wane with the end of equal WWW access. For those of you not paying attention to Net Neutrality, you should brush up on ftp, telnet, and ham radios, etc.
One of the strangest conundrums of man, I think, is liking two people who can’t stand each other. It shows something of their character if they both know this as well. I don’t know about anyone else, but I miss Colonel Hackworth, and I’m glad his mission is finally getting air time.
Many high profile individuals seem to take umbrage at the anonysphere, which I suppose is understandable if you study, work hard, play by the rules and scratch your way to the top to be seen by your peers as a success in your field, and your employers compensate you profusely to use your talents to whatever means are deemed worthy at the time by the aforementioned worthy employers. All of this filed under the rubric of social networking, which requires interpersonal politics that tends to stratify talent as well as their particular fields do. The internet, until recently, was a mind to mind exchange. Going defibrillator like certain unnamed former US Reps on FOX, is a visual thing that cannot carry the impact of an internet flame war exchange because the internet requires you dear readers to use your imagination, your own mind, instead of imprinting the visual emotions presented in any visual media. It is the enduring impact of the printed word, and of freedom of speech, that you are reading this as well as watching that. The written word carries not only the writers emotions but the readers as well.
I am never as surprised to find out that public people are alcoholics, ( especially actors, ) as I am to find out that an alcoholic isn’t an actor. There’s a lot to learn in anonymity, but public alcoholics have to be teachers and shining examples for the empathetic public. One of the smartest things an old timer ever told me was that I went to AA to stop drinking. The other defects of habits could wait too. A good thing for the empathetic to learn, as well is, to seek spiritual growth and not spiritual perfection.
Finally, I suppose, I had this inscribed on a silver photo journal I gave my wife on our 25th anniversary, which seems like a long two years ago after her illness;
An inheritance is from a father, A good wife is from the LORD.
A lot of us can say that, but only you know what it means to you. There isn’t anything two dimensional about that.
Edit: Had to fix the defibrillator
Torture R US
CIA luxury on terror transfers Richard Norton-Taylor, London October 28, 2006
IN JANUARY 2004, a crew of CIA agents checked into the five-star Marriott Son Antem golfing resort in Palma for a well-deserved rest.
The agents had just flown from Rabat in Morocco to Afghanistan and back to Algeria — a gruelling 12,800-kilometre journey — and were looking forward to luxuriating in the hotel’s spa where, as the brochure put it, they could “journey to deep inner peace”.
But as they basked in comfort at US taxpayers’ expense, there was little peace for their cargo. In the hold on that day was Benyam Mohammed, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee alleged to be one of the world’s most dedicated jihadists.
In Morocco, Mohammed would later allege, he had been doused in hot liquids, subjected to incessant loud noise and had his penis slashed with a scalpel.
This is attributed to the Guardian.
South Korea Says No to Bolton
Seoul dodges the dragon but feels the heat
By Donald Kirk
SEOUL – The prospect of John Bolton, fiery US ambassador to the United Nations, careering through Seoul, making speeches denouncing North Korea, attempting to talk South Korean leaders into hard-nosed enforcement of the UN sanctions against the North, was more than South Korean officials could bear.
A day or two after getting word that Bolton would be coming to Seoul, his visit was abruptly canceled, even as underlings at the US Embassy were trying to negotiate a schedule.
Heh, imagine that.
Bloggers like beer, want to be free.
Amnesty urges release of jailed bloggers
Prior to a UN meeting on governance of the internet next week, Amnesty International is seeking signatures for a petition calling for repressive regimes to free the bloggers they have imprisoned.
They may be able to return the favor someday.
GOP Strategic Thinking
I don’t know whether others are noticing this. But in every election there’s one big disconnect between the ‘issues’ that are getting the big play in tv shows and pundit commentary and the ones getting hammered on in flyers, tv ads and radio spots. And there’s no question that this year, for the GOP, that ‘issue’ is race tinged ads about Democrats wanting to give free dollars to hordes of Mexican illegals. Scratch the surface of any competitive race out there. You’ll find it.
— Josh Marshal
Has anyone informed the GOP of the declining majority status of whites? Anyway, Josh has the Yellow Submarine Republican Report
Hint: Don’t shoot anyone in the face.
Update: I’m pretty sure I’ll have to break down and start tags, because this really needs to be filed under Pinkie and the BrainCheney endorses simulated drowning
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Thank you Michael Fox, and Katie too
Mr. Fox for presenting a rational argument for his cause, and hopefully reminding Katies three viewers, two of whom are my friends, that human disease has only two factors.
I want to thank Katie too, because she reminded me why I watched her and Matt all those years. Maybe when all this dies down I’ll challenge Matt to a game of golf, provided he lets me use a wood baseball bat on the tee shots. It won’t hurt my handicap, and ought to return some of the spice of life to the squirrels, cats, three legged dogs and one foot geese at most courses that I know of. First I’ll have to apologize to the people at the WaPo though, some of them may want to carry my bat for me between holes.
Update: Matt can have the rights to the story.
Over sixty percent of my friends are Republicans,
so two out of three ain’t bad.
I really make no pretense that 95 percent of Republicans are good people, which I suppose gets lost on the big three tomes of the right, bemoaning the coarsening of American political discourse now that they are included as well. I suppose they may wonder why I don’t say anything about the “baseball bats in the belfry” wing of the wing ding wing of the Republican Party. Well, Gentlemen, your silence on their soliloquies has spoken as eloquently as has their voices, and so in the unattributed words of Mr. Wolcott,
“How do you like it now, Gentlemen?”
The “We all live in a yellow submarine” Republican Report
I’ve always wondered , expains the title. Hint Jean Schmidt (R-OH) Josh has the scoop.
I would say 25% is steep
HT Atrios
Delusional
Bush to his media sycophants:
…”I mean, there’s – look, there’s some 25 percent or so that want us to get out, shouldn’t have been out there in the first place – and that’s fine. They’re wrong. But you can understand why they feel that way. They just don’t believe in war, and – at any cost. I believe when you get attacked and somebody declares war on you, you fight back. And that’s what we’re doing.”
One of the most overlooked aspects of the antiwar movement is its’ diversity, and I doubt that a huge chunk of the left is pacifist, in any shape or form. My faith lends itself very well to pacifism without precluding the states’ authority to respond to an attack. Each individual is responsible to their own conscience, and so the Amish, Witnesses and some Quakers all share pacifism if nothing else. Whether they vote or not is a political calculation for Presidents, but not for those individual pacifists. So far Justin’s the only one who had any idea of how big it was going to be four years ago, as far as I know. I’m sure there are and were others as well.
This antiwar movement springs from a deep sense of patriotism, and an awareness of the continuing danger of the current American foreign policy for our own lives, liberty and property, as well as to that of the world at large. I know that probably ninety nine percent of the antiwar movement are realists, but don’t worry Mr. President, I got them surrounded.
Update(OK, 85 percent. but I got two keyboards.)&YA Atrios points out that Irag didn’t attack the US.
God still Rules the Universe
Or for those who prefer,
The Universe is Unfolding as it Should
Otherwise No news, No plan.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Of course you do, dear.
US, EU sketch plans for global immigration database
Their aim is to stop criminals and other undesirable migrants at a vast, biometric border that is likely to include, at the very least, the EU countries, Australia, and Canada.
Troy Potter, biometrics programme manager for the US Department of Homeland Security’s biometric border control programme, told The Register only those countries “of like mind” would be allowed to join the scheme: “People with similar goals, aspirations, laws and ability to implement such a scheme.
“It’s about keeping out folks from countries, to have more of a global border per se,” he said. “Shouldn’t (*)like-minded countries be told when someone’s been kept out of the US? That’s a necessary next step [because] immigration has become a worldwide issue.”
* I prefer “people of our ilk,” because it puts the I first.
KYOTO has a gun
Tackle climate change or face deep recession, world’s leaders warned
Sir Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist with the World Bank, will warn that governments need to tackle the problem head-on by cutting emissions or face economic ruin. The findings, due to be released on Monday, will turn economic argument about global warming on its head by insisting that fighting global warming will save industrial nations money. The US refused to join the Kyoto protocol, the international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, because George Bush said it would harm the economy.
The contents of the Stern review into the economics of climate change – commissioned by the Treasury – have been kept secret since the nature of the work was revealed to the world’s environment ministers in Mexico this month. But Sir David King, the government’s chief scientific adviser, yesterday gave the Guardian a preview of its main findings.
Well at least the President will have deep water to flip flop on in this one.
Zeeeooo
CIA tried to silence EU on torture flights
Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday October 26, 2006
The GuardianThe CIA tried to persuade Germany to silence EU protests about the human rights record of one of America’s key allies in its clandestine torture flights programme, the Guardian can reveal.
Update: See also; German media are reporting
that the US had been torturing suspects at the Camp Eagle air base in Tuzla Bosnia since shortly after September 11th, among them a 70 year old man, and that German officials were aware of it. More here.
at War and Peace, and for a little Italian read the previous post.
Two things about Jesus we can all agree on
He was a very nice person. He challenged people, but gave freely as it was his want, and his to give, and hence he was friendly. For those who are stuggling to find a place to renew your works of Christianity, it enhanches the world around you as you listen and learn what you brother and sister need, and how to help there.
Update: Kinda like NY City, with religious trappings. I just never hear any religious people say that about Jesus.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
The War Buzzards
Who Supports The Troops? Democrats, As It Turns Out…
Via Bob Geiger, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America took a look at 324 legislative votes in the last five years which affected American troops and veterans. Legislative proposals included veterans’ benefits, healthcare, and medical research dedicated towards injured soldiers (head injuries, etc.) Based on these votes, IAVA calculated which senators and congressmen had a history of supporting the troops, and which didn’t, and graded them on a curve.
The Republicduds anchored the team. Won’t you please come home to us Bill O’reilly, Hari Bushna blarney stone?
The economy – headed for a compassionate landing?
I had hoped for a lot more time blogging going into the elections, but, alas a job where obviously work has expanded to meet the needs of changing circumstances. For those of you who have been rudely interrupted before, the sign of impending disappeareancenish is obvious from the headlines that carry all that jazz. When it comes to the political cyclotron of the web then it is inevitable that I will collide at some point with the other side of the aisle.
Policy requires a huge amount of time to decipher, as the good docs of whichever field tend to obfuscate meanings with jargon, so you have to spend years learning the jargon so as to tell who’s whoing who, or in reality comes most close to your understanding. This can be fraught with embarrassing errors if one mistakes having an opinion as equal to having knowledge of the policy details, which in sunlit American government, also carries political agendas to screw the man/the poor etc, for my pards. One must absolutely try to fool all of the people all of the time, at some time or another, or it just isn’t worth being a leech. So I count on the educated guesses with an eye towards bogosity. I think I get a pretty eclectic mix of both.
Reading a lot tends to slow down one’s writing, as does thinking about what you want to say does too. Lord forbid blogging should break into bubbles and outlines, which is good for 101 as it is bad for creativity. Creative blogging is saying what everyone is thinking, or wishes not to think, in way that irritates the least people. BFH blogging tends to move really big things real quick if you hit them in the right place, which seems to irritate most people most of the time. If you can do both then maybe you too can be like Steve Jobs, and act non chalant while waiting on the bill for the dent in the universe, it’s a big universe and can handle a lot of dents I reckon, if that’s what you aim to do. It’s in your head.
When I look at the expanding bulk of human knowledge that remains to be explored by me, then I become acutely aware that our thinking capabilities are not up to snuff as a society because it is impossible convey all the information that any individual needs to have an accurate perception of reality, much as an ant is neither hive nor forest, but they are a numerous people with a perception of the hive. Hardly a thing to emulate except in work. We don’t need all the implants, we already are the Borg.
Anyway, I’m glad Clueless in chief is optimistic about the economy, he may actually have an educated guess how much cash the fed and the war are actually sloshing into the economy before the election. Probably approaching the level of graft. I hear 2007 is going to be an interesting year.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Is Hillary Clinton the anti-sex of George W Bush?
Just wondering.
Remember #V!L H$X)RS, you too can work for the NSA.
aaand finally, This really is funny.
Eating while blohhing
An Inquiring Mind Wants to Know
What the hell is Tony Blair still doing at 10 Downing?
Mote goof news fir Tony. (Chicken fried steak, french fries)
Which one will get closer to reality?
Bill Orielly interviewing Newt Gingrich on “values”, culture or otherwise, or the History Channel’s UFO Show?
Both are on right now.
(Left the on off)
The Good Ship Neocon and the lifeboat Tut tut
Time for the neocons to admit that the Iraq war was wrong from the start
The former hawks of press and politics now scramble for the status of visionaries let down by functionaries.
HT Antiwar
(fixed the link>
Well, perhaps they’ll go back and restudy
That statement was unanimously adopted by WELS in 1959 without any dissent. It reads:
Therefore on the basis of a renewed study of the pertinent Scriptures we reaffirm the statement of the Lutheran Confessions,
I’m not even going to repeat what was said. You can go read Kos’s post.
So maybe indigestion is Cut and Run
I understand that most new business’ fail not from starvation, but indigestion. Taking on more work than the company is able to complete.
The world’s a stage
full of sound and fury
signifying nothing
And I am dumb to suck the dew of Heaven
from a sky raining fire.
Darfur
Blog notes
Sometimes I forget where we want to go, so I deleted the previous post.
I also clobbered 1 on Saturday that was a half baked work written in haste, and another yesterday, for the reason above.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Finally a No News Round Up @ TPMCafe
(That’s right, the Midterm Roundup just wrote an item, without adding anything new, about DK’s comment about Josh’s comment about how the news cycle is feeding on itself. The Roundup really believes it should get some kind of prize for this.)
If Steven C. picks this up, I’ll mirror it.
We’re in the Cheese
Housing Starts, Completions and Construction Employment
On Wednesday the Census Bureau released the September report for housing Permits, Starts and Completions. Although Starts rebounded slightly from the rate in August, from a long term perspective Starts are in free fall.
The President’s Rotten Record on Trade via PGL ought to take some of the gas out of the Presidents hummer on the economic highway. (It’s a longish read, YMMV.)
and Business Week on Halliburton and Iraq;
Swopa is correct about the role that the Iraq contracts have played in increasing Halliburton revenues, which rose from $16.3 billion in 2003 to $21.0 billion in 2005. Operating profits in 2003 were only $0.72 billion or 4.4% of revenue. In 2005, operating profits jumped to $2.66 billion representing a 12.7% operating margin.
Halliburton’s 10-K filing attributes much of the improvement in operating profits to developments with respect to its Energy Services Group (ESG):
News to Atrios
I read skippy too.
what’s the difference between iraq and vietnam?
awol had a plan to get out of vietnam…
(close to orange as I can get)
Jane thinks I’m too snotty, but
It makes me very happy that our leaders are not only discussing this problem, but that the Clintonian “let’s all just find a way to move forward together” notion of triangulating forgiveness is not taking hold. The kleptocratic zomibies just keep coming back, generation after generation, plunging us into international chaos with their fickled, puerile visions of international diplomacy that always seems to result in other people dying and them getting rich.
Buy it, show it, learn it.
When the GOP starts listening to John Cole
Quick Hits, then I’ll start listening to the GOP.
Update: Back to the “Follies” by Pat Lang is worth a read too.
Dancing madly backwards
How Iraq came home to haunt America
Does a pretty good job of summarizing the conventional wisdom. I think the one factor not having been noted, or noted enough, is that the soccer moms are tired of being frightened, by events and especially by the rhetoric.
I would hate for the GOP to fall on its’ own sword, and miss the point. I am tired of being all red or all blue all the time too. The atmospherics of the right have left the air too thin for most Americans, and like the Weather of the new Left in the sixties, sucked the air out of the Republican revolution.
Terraformed 