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December 31, 2007

Vista - America's secret weapon?

My oldest daughter is one of those computer help-line techies that you call when you can't figure out how to make your computer work. And it just so happens that she does contract tech-help for a Windows Vista licensee. So I've heard more than my share of the usual horror stories about the notoriously problematic Vista platform.

So, you can imagine the belly laugh that resulted from seeing the following typo (apparently missed by his semi-official wire service) on Oregon Senate candidate Steve Novick's website article on the Darfur mess:

Secretary-General Ban is asking for just 24 helicopters from the international community to make peacekeeping in Darfur a success. Yet when asked last month about whether the U.S. would lend its support, Secretary of Defense Bill Gates responded that "no such request has come to us," and added, "Our helicopter resources are pretty – are pretty pushed between Iraq and Afghanistan."

Bill Gates, of course, is the founder of Vista creator, Microsoft. Whereas Robert Gates is the Secretary of Defense. But just imagine what a wacky world this would be if Bill Gates were the Secretary of Defense!

* Well for one thing the DOT, FAA and NIST agencies would probably have been forced to use Vista. Although I'm sure that a major crash or two would have let the FAA off the hook.

* Nobody would blame DHS or particularly the DOD for failing routine audits.

* And of course bloggers would have much less reason to worry about computerized data sweeps by the Feds.

* Chinese hackers would find hacking into government computers a cakewalk. Wait... that's not funny!

* McCain's myspace page getting hacked wouldn't be an isolated problem.

* Of course on the bright side, Novick's semi-official wire service could just hack in and correct any future typos. Oh... wait... they wouldn't need to hack in, would they?

Posted by Kevin at 03:41 PM |

December 30, 2007

Chatting with Merkley - the pics

The Merkley campaign has put up a bunch of photos from the event with Senator Tester and one of them is of me having My Chat with Jeff Merkley.

Here's a photo of Senator Tester (geniality personified!) speaking to the crowd. Carla, co-founder and retired star writer of PK and current Netroots Outreach person for the Merkley campaign, is the third person to the right of Tester and I'm a little to the right of her, just behind a kneeling Pat Ryan (contributor at Blue Oregon).

Jeff and his wife Mary address the crowd. Now c'mon, guys... is she a hottie or what!?!

Last but not least... from the left, Governor Ted Kulongoski addressing the crowd, Oregon House Speaker (and soon-to-be Senator) Jeff Merkley, Montana Senator Jon Tester, unidentified person talking to Tester, unidentified person watching person talking to Tester, Carla, Pat Ryan kneeling, guy behind Pat and half of me on the far right.

Posted by Kevin at 09:32 AM |

December 27, 2007

Removing All Doubt About Mitt Romney

In case you weren't sure about those rumors of corruption surrounding Mitt Romney, the mere fact that the crooked Club for Growth is now supporting him by spending money smearing Mike Huckabee on his behalf should put all doubt to rest. I don't believe a vote for Romney is a vote for Satan, but I do think it is a vote to retain the shady big-money, elitist-controlled GOP establishment (as exemplified by the characters involved in the Club for Growth) that has alienated a good number of us former-Republicans.

Posted by Becky at 11:53 AM |

December 26, 2007

Only Suckers (Democrats) Pay Bills

Wouldn't it be fun to do a money-dance around town, throwing borrowed hundred dollar bills to passersby, while arranging to have others pay for the adventure?

That in essence has been the Republicans' two-step: Spend money you don't have, and cut taxes so you have even less -- then let future generations foot the bills. The beauty part is that the people who will eventually pay are currently more focused on their Tickle Me Ernie dolls than their future obligations as taxpayers.

Read the rest: Only Suckers Pay Bills

Posted by Kevin at 01:21 PM |

December 25, 2007

Santa: a shroom trip?

Okay this is a new one to me. Apparently some believe that many of the "Christmas" icons we see all around us actually harken back to ancient Europeans gettin' their freak on with a psychoactive and hallucinogenic mushroom known as Fly Agaric.

Posted by Kevin at 07:32 PM |

December 24, 2007

Happy Festivus!!

Posted by Kevin at 05:16 PM |

December 22, 2007

Lakota Rising

I've watched with keen interest the unfolding assertion of sovereign nation status by the Lakota Sioux. So far the response from the federal government has been pretty much nonexistant.

Injustices done, past and present to Native Americans is a theme we've hit on before here at PK.

L. Frank Baum, editor of South Dakota's Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer newspaper (later to become famous as the author of "The Wizard of Oz"), advocated the extermination of all America's Indians just one week prior to the slaughter of Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee.

The nobility of the Redskin is extinquished and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The whites by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced, better they should die than live the miserable wretches that they are.

Becky pointed out a whole series of issues where Republicans in general and Bushies in particular have opposed Native Americans. Although in fairness it needs to be pointed out that Bureau of Indian Affairs administrations of both Clinton and Bush 43 governments have been hauled in front of courts to explain why monies owed to native tribes has apparently been "lost." It's really hard to blame Native Americans for being pissed and extremely distrustful.

One multi-faceted aspect of this whole thing is the fact that wars and domination by the strong was never limited to the caucasian/native dynamic. The Chippewa were as oppressive towards the Lakota as the caucasians were. Which brings into question the exact borders of the newly declared Lakota Sioux Nation. Local blog Rocket Poetry shows one map. But other maps show a significantly larger landmass under Sioux control. Only the westernmost Lakota nation has declared independence. But the Chippewa claim to have pushed the Sioux out of the eastern half of the claimed territory shown in that last map.

What happens next? Where will this lead? I don't know. For myself, I heartily echo the sentiment expressed by AC's Brant McLaughlin, "I, personally, am looking forward to the experiment."

Update: Thomas Ten Bears writing at his blog refers to part of Spyder's excellent recent comment here as part of a post dealing with the meme that Russell Means doesn't speak for the Lakota in any way. An early commenter here cited MB Williams at Wampum who in turn cites someone else on this meme. I have no inside knowledge either way but will say that the comprehensive nature of Spyder's comment, the fact that he actually is Lakota, as well as his thoroughly established creds as bluntly honest, lends credence to it IMHO.

Posted by Kevin at 10:31 AM |

December 20, 2007

Dickheads of the Year - open thread

Apparently Bill Maher writing in Rolling Stone magazine started the ball rolling with his list of the biggest assholes of 2007. Always the contrarian, Maher's list includes 13 individuals rather than the more conventional list of 10.

Be that as it may, I stumbled across this in a very roundabout way by somehow running across Irishman Bock The Robber's First Annual “Fucking Bastards Of the Year” Awards. He in turn links to a couple other Irish bloggers, one of whom links back to Maher's bit in Rolling Stone magazine as being the original inspiration. The Irish guys' entries and explanations are actually pretty fascinating. But that's another topic for another day.

While I mull over who I would nominate... who would you like to see on the list? And of those, who would you vote to win, as Irish blogger Twenty Major put it, the supreme all-conquering Dickhead of the Year award?

Posted by Kevin at 07:25 PM |

December 19, 2007

It's so Matrix-Like

Let me step off the reality platform for a moment and squirm over something. There is something deeply unsettling to me about the new eco-boat that is set to attempt a world record speed trip around the world powered by human fat. The conspiracy theorist in me also can't help but notice that the boat has a decidedly fleur-de-lis shape. Okay, maybe that's just a stretch by a sleep-deprived imagination. In any case, the ship is named "Earthrace," and considering its human fuel, the name just sounds like a double entendre - a race around the earth powered by the human, or "earth" race. It just totally creeps me out on every level.

Posted by Becky at 10:57 AM |

Call me paranoid but I don't trust them!

Fire burns on White House grounds

Anyone wanna bet that some documents which Democrats have been trying to get from the White House were "tragically" destroyed, whether true or not, by this fire?

Maybe not, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if that's what ends up happening. It would certainly be consistent with their oft-demonstrated contempt for the rule of law.

Posted by Kevin at 07:35 AM |

December 16, 2007

Rightwing freaks on parade

Two recommendations for your consideration:

First, a prominant Oregon anti-immigrant activist and blogger is apparently cooling his heels in the Polk County jail on child sex abuse charges. CAUSA blog broke the story and has all of the details.

Second, a relatively new blog called Liberty Street has a really disturbing post that everyone should read. Saturday they wrote about rightwing freaks trying to dismiss the gang-rape of a female Halliburton/KBR contractor by male Halliburton/KBR contractors.

Posted by Kevin at 07:44 PM |

My chat with Jeff Merkley

I went to the Have a Tap with Tester event for Jeff Merkley last night as an invited blogger. That entitled me to get in for half price but I chose to pay the full $50 admission.

Once I'd paid the admission fee I headed to the bar to get something to drink so as to better fit in with the theme for the night. And who should step up to the bar next to me but Montana Senator Jon Tester!

Tester got the barkeep's attention first, Senators probably have a knack for doing that, so we exchanged small talk while he waited for his beer and I waited to order. He noted the hospitality of Portlanders and quipped about what a great country we live in where you can go to a political event and drink beer too - a theme he hit on later in the evening when he, Merkley and Governors Kulongoski and Roberts addressed the whole crowd.

He left and Jeff Merkley stepped into his spot, and once again got the barkeep's attention before I could - damn these Senators! But honestly, I didn't mind. I'd been hoping to get to talk to Jeff one-on-one and this was my golden opportunity.

Once Merkley had ordered he turned to me and thanked me for coming the the event. Of course I recognized him right away and circumvented the need for him to introduce himself by greeting him by name.

Pleasantries out of the way, I forged right in. I told him that I very much admire how he'd handled the 2003 HR2 resolution which he has taken so much flack from Novick & Co for. He asked if I meant the way he's been handling it during the campaign or how he handled it in 2003. I indicated the later and we started discussing it.

Jeff said that he'd been surprised when Steve Novick jumped on the GOP frame because he'd honestly expected Novick to defend him rather than join in the criticism. I asked how he would have handled it if the roles had been reversed and it was Novick being tarred by the GOP with hating the troops because of his assertion that he'd have voted against HR2. Without any hesitation at all Jeff passionately blurted out that he'd have defended Novick!

We talked a bit more about his background having worked in the Pentagon (as a weapons analyst) and how I've got a buddy in the Army who was sent to Iraq and how those things informed our respective views on how HR2 should have been dealt with. The point was made that solders don't have any say in where they are sent or what they have to do once they get there and ought not be held responsible for the politicians who do control where they go and what they do once they get there.

Then, spotting his wife Mary nearby, Jeff brought her over and introduced her to me. She is a very, very beautiful woman and is clearly in love with Jeff. I'm a life-long "people watcher" with a particular fondness for observing how couples interact and throughout the night I could plainly see her passion for Jeff written all over her face every time she looked at him - which was often when he was busily talking to someone else and she was just watching from a distance. To a hopeless romantic like me it was a very heartwarming thing to observe.

Then we each had things to do and people to see (I wanted to meet some other bloggers who I knew were going to be there) and we said our goodbyes went our separate ways.

I promptly ran into former Governor Barbara Roberts. Not having seen any pictures or footage of her for a number of years I was amazed at how little she appears to have aged... and told her so.

I've heard that Jeff isn't a very good public speaker, but later in the evening when he addressed the whole crowd I gotta say that I observed a very passionate speaker who had the crowd in the palm of his hand.

Posted by Kevin at 10:39 AM |

How long must you wander in the political wilderness?

"Know thy enemy" - Sun Tzu (roughly translated).

The British lost the war with the fledgling colonies not because they had an inferior military - they had the larger, better trained, better armed force - but because they arrogantly underestimated the rag-tag colonial forces time after time. In short, they failed to know their enemy and paid a high price for it.

Democrats have been regularly losing to a numerically inferior force (GOP) for years now and for the same basic reason as the British lost to our forebears. We've seen it right here on the blog on the whole "HR2" issue.

Faced with tangible evidence from a conservative website demonstrating how a particular type of political "trap" works, we've seen several individuals glibly insist that their political enemy meant something other than what the linked site unequivocably demonstrates that they meant.

That attitude is guaranteed to produce more defeats unless or until the numerical advantage is great enough to compensate for such arrogance.

Posted by Kevin at 09:08 AM |

December 15, 2007

More on AuCoin's world-class blunder

It looks like others are asking questions about former Congressman Les AuCoin's appalling mauling of the facts in his endorsement of Steve Novick.

As BDunn notes in his post, AuCoin's factual errors completely gut his stated rational for preferring Novick over Jeff Merkley. Although it should be noted that in his updated version of the post, Les AuCoin sweeps the factual errors aside and hangs his hat on the fact that Kafoury voted against HR2 and that she supports Novick. Which is an interesting tact considering that of the 5 legislative Dems who voted against the resolution Kafoury is the only one who is backing Novick - the others all back Merkley.

Even in his updated post AuCoin continues to misunderstand how the GOP trap that was HR2 worked. He insists that the only way to get caught in the trap was to vote "yes" on HR2. Not withstanding the fact that I've already debunked that notion, his implied argument makes no common sense.

How can a "trap" include a built-in escape (ie, vote "no" and you escape)?

More important than AuCoin's continued misunderstanding of how a partisan "trap" works is Novick's continued misunderstanding of the same. AuCoin's days of representing Oregonians are over and thus his miscomprehension of GOP rhetorical traps can't harm us. But Novick wants to be our next Senator.

Do you want a Senator who literally thinks his way out of grasping a simple partisan trap? I know that I don't.

Posted by Kevin at 12:37 PM |

December 14, 2007

That's a Lot of Zeros

The Mogambo Guru at The Daily Reckoning wrote a piece last week that I just found about the $1,000,000,000,000,000 black hole in the world economy and the financial world apocalypse that is on the horizon. If you want to laugh and be terrified all at the same time, check it out. And buy some extra canned food, while you're at it.

Posted by Becky at 11:06 AM |

Karmic-Dragonfly

I just added a new blog to our "Karma!" blogroll on the left sidebar. Karmic-Dragonfly is, I think, our old friend and sometimes contributor - Alan, who you can read a bit more about on the PK Bio page.

Our gay friends and probably our hetero women readers will likely appreciate his frequent "eye candy" posts of studly guys. Those are broken up with the occasional commentary on this or that. He's always an interesting and sometimes provocative read, so go give him some PK love.

Posted by Kevin at 08:34 AM |

December 13, 2007

When You Tell People There's a War on Christmas ...

...You shouldn't be surprised when casualties result.

I'll bet the hapless Jewish victim of the vicious attack by Christians intent on saving Christmas was awfully glad there was a helpful Muslim around to save him from an even worse fate. Talk about challenging stereotypes.

Posted by Becky at 11:33 AM |

AuCoin echoes GOP frame, undermines Novick's message

Recently over at his blog, Les Aucoin (the biggest endorser so far of Steve Novick’s fledgling campaign for the Dem nomination for U.S. Senate), posted his single issue list of why he’s backing Novick for the job.

AuCoin trotted out the oft-cited and more-oft-debunked saw of the 2003 Oregon House Resolution 2, a GOP-framed mess that offered support for U.S. troops laying their lives on the line for the Bush Administration’s Iraq Fiasco. Merkley voted "yes" on the nonbinding resolution and then stood up and gave a speech smacking down the Bush team’s war while refusing to shrug off the importance of backing our men and women in uniform.

Merkley and others who gave similar speeches are the only legislators who actually avoided the GOP trap. By refusing to sit down and quietly cast a vote, Merkley blew the lid off of the deal with a speech exposing its true colors.

Novick and his surrogates have railed to anyone who would listen that Merkley doesn’t deserve to run against Smith because he alledgedly wasn't smart enough to spot and avoid the GOP trap, and has thus proven in their minds his inability to stand up to the Iraq/Iran War hawks. AuCoin is unfortunately no exception. The open question is whether they know better and are banking on Joe Oregonian not being bright enough to see through it or they really don't understand how a standard GOP trap actually works. Generously assuming the later, there will be a brief Primer on how this sort of GOP trap operates, complete with examples from actual rightwing sites.

Even worse, AuCoin’s post is polluted with factual errors.

Case in point:

Steve saw through the cynical Republican resolution in the 2005 session of the Oregon Legislature that simultaneously praised "President George Bush’s courage" in launching a first strike war against Iraq and supported "our troops."

The vote in question was in 2003, not 2005. And while Steve Novick might have voted differently than Jeff Merkley, we’ll never know. Steve has never served in any elected capacity. But it’s clear from the way Novick has talked about this issue that he hasn’t seen through anything. He’s bought into the GOP frame and tried to hammer Merkley over the head with it.

More factual problems with AuCoin’s post:

Or, better, as House Minority Leader, Jeff could have out-maneuvered Republicans by engineering a Democratic Minority Report supporting the troops without glorifying Bush. Minority Reports are voted on before the bills to which they are attached; thus, it would have separated the issues, allowed Democrats to support the troops, and then oppose Bush on the war. It didn’t happen. This reveals a key difference between the Democratic candidates as we look for someone to effectively fight the neo-conservative putsch that threatens us.

Jeff Merkley wasn’t House Minority Leader in 2003. That job belonged to Deborah Kafoury. Furthermore, a Democratic Minority Report on the issue would have been sent out from the House Rules Committee and the Minority Leader didn’t serve on that committee that year. Maybe she could have pushed it through one of the members, but that’s a question for her, not Jeff Merkley.

Ironically, Kafoury has endorsed Novick. Will AuCoin be sitting Kafoury down at the next Novick holiday gathering and dressing her down for her lack of leadership on HR2? Not likely.

Novick has Kafoury listed on his site as the former House Democratic Leader. He obviously knows that she was the Minority Leader. It seems odd that Novick’s most famous backer would write something like this and be so off-message for the campaign. Or did the campaign look this piece over and decide that being factually correct just isn’t all that important?

Neither is particularly impressive. Especially given Novick’s constant talk of Gordon Smith’s "consumate politician" status, it’s difficult to see how Novick could allow his most visible statewide surrogate to be so careless.

Update: Les AuCoin indicates in comments to his post that he's going to correct the myriad factual inaccuracies in it. You can see the cached pre-correction version of his post here.

Posted by Kevin at 08:15 AM |

December 12, 2007

Dissecting a GOP frame

Those wily Republicans love to set traps for Democrats. Anyone familiar with George Lakoff knows that he has put a lot of effort into educating Progressives on how effective frames work and why they've so often fallen victim to Conservative's frames. Although many have learned, many others still struggle with grasping how it works. Taking our cue from the infamous military strategist par excellence, Sun Tzu, let's break down a classic example to illustrate how it's designed to operate.

Set up a vote combining something about the military that Republicans want approved with language expressing support for the troops. This is a classic GOP frame. We saw this here in the Oregon legislature with the 2003 HR 2 which combined expressions of support for Bush's rational for attacking Iraq with language expressing support for the troops. We also saw it in 2004 with the Congressional HR 627 which combined condeming abuses of Iraqi detainees in Coalition custody in Iraq with praise for the troops.

How it works:

Vote for the GOP frame and you get painted with supporting everything in it. Vote against the GOP frame and you get painted with rejecting everything in it. But don't just take my word for it, Republicans are more than willing to demonstrate it themselves.

The next time you see a progressive asserting or insinuating that this classic GOP frame doesn't include voting against whatever it is, you can know that that person either doesn't understand how the trap works or is lying to you. Against the backdrop of the last dozen years being littered with example after example of successful GOP frames and unsuccessful Dem frames, there really can't be any other explanations.

Posted by Kevin at 11:59 PM |

Wal-Mart Panty Scandal Just More Dehumanization

It seems lately that a lot of powerful money-grubbing people are flat-out determined to turn people into pigs by debasing us through encouragement of indecency, crudeness, disrespect for life, and rudeness. Often these efforts are targeted directly at impressionable young people. Just a few examples that immediately come to mind are the disgusting show "Drawn Together," the old reality show "Fear Factor" and its obsession with forcing people to consume the most foul items imaginable so we could all watch them try not to vomit, the media's incessant wallowing in the debasing behavior and rehab stints of the music industry's "pop tarts," and video games in which players can use drugs, pick up on hookers, and graphically, brutally murder at will.

Apparently, Wal-Mart has decided to join in on the dehumanizing fun by selling girls' panties in junior sizes that carry a message implying they don't need money because they've got something else that will get them whatever they want. The front of the panties reads "Who needs credit cards" and the back says "when you have Santa." I think they'd be funny and cute for women - after all, we're mature enough to get the joke without adopting it as a personal mantra. But little girls? Must we really feed them this message?

Humans are much more than animals driven by physical urges. I, for one, am totally fed up with elitists trying to tell our kids otherwise.

Posted by Becky at 02:13 PM |

December 10, 2007

Military families mirror general population re: Bush

Turns out that military families mirror the general population in rejecting Dubya's Folly (aka Iraq War). Nearly six in ten military families disapproving of Bush's job performance and how he's run the war in Iraq.

Head on over to Media Monarchy for more details.

The only thing I'll add is really just an observation/muse... Which is that this new poll seems to underscore how out of touch both the far right and the far left are with what the American people want. The far right babbles on about surrender and all that nonsense, while the far left has an unfortunate tendency to equate being anti-Iraq War with being anti-war or even anti-military. Aspects of some Code Pink demonstrations, for instance, strike me as knee-jerk anti-military rather than a principled, fact-driven rejection of BushCo and their Folly.

Posted by Kevin at 12:13 PM |

Cali Dems get it, when will Oregon Dems?

I caught the end of a segment on NPR the other day where a couple California strategists, one Dem and one GOPer, were being interviewed.

The Dem strategist made a very interesting assertion. He said that the hardest thing to do in politics is to get a voter to do something for the first time. The second and third times are much easier because the voter becomes used to doing whatever that thing is. He went on to discuss briefly how the California Democratic Party allows independents to vote in the Dem primary for this very reason.

"There are a lot of decline-to-state voters in this state who tend to have Democratic ideals and values,'' said Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the state party. "We're happy to have them vote in our primary.''

The Democratic Party of Washington takes it a step further.

"We don't even have a list of party members in our state, but that's never been a concern,'' said Michael King, a spokesman for the Washington Democratic Party. "The more people who can participate in our primary, the better.''

An argument that I've been making for a long time now is that it's unfair to force non-Dems to foot the bill for the primary and turn around and deny us a voice in it.

Steven Hill, director of the political reform program for the nonpartisan New America Foundation, puts it like this.

"All taxpayers have to pay for this primary election, but 20 percent of the voters can't be involved,'' he said. "Unless the parties want to pay for the elections themselves, they shouldn't be private affairs. We need to get back to the point of view of the voters, not what's good for the political parties.''

Seems to me that for all of Oregonian's pride in being progressive (bottle bill, waterways = public right-of-way, medical marijuana, death with dignity, etc.), including having come up with the primary election itself, we're behind the curve compared to our neighbors to the North and South.

The Cali Dems take a decidedly pragmatic view,

"Our goal is to increase Democratic voter registration,'' Salazar said. "If we can let independent voters know they're welcome, maybe the next time they re-register, they will check the 'D' box.''

Maybe, maybe not. But you can bet that a lot of Cali Indies feel a lot warmer and fuzzier about the Cali Dems than they do about the Cali GOPers.

Posted by Kevin at 08:54 AM |

December 08, 2007

Good Question

Hart Williams today asks a very good question: Why are we being punished for Bin Laden's crimes?

Posted by Becky at 10:30 AM |

December 07, 2007

It's About Time Someone Caught One of These Liars

I have for years been angry about lying cops. I personally have seen it happen - in court - on three different occasions. I hate liars anyway, but when they are charged with protecting people from the bad guys, it is simply apalling. So I am thrilled beyond words that an enterprising young person, using his MP3 player, has caught one of these lying SOBs in the act. It's about frigging time. I hope the lying bastard goes down hard.

Posted by Becky at 12:59 PM |

December 05, 2007

Iran & why we need Merkley

The ongoing brouhaha about the newest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions (pdf warning) underscores why America in general and Oregon in particular need to replace Senator Gordon Smith with Jeff Merkley.

Gordon Smith has dutifully rubberstamped the Bush administration's War Is Peace, Sanctions Are Diplomacy policy with respect to Iran, and before that, with respect to Iraq.

What seldom seems to get mentioned about Jeff Merkley is his "substantial background in national defense and foreign affairs" long before very successfully turning his sights to the Oregon legislature. Not only does his extensive resume include seven years as president of the World Affairs Council of Oregon, which he remains a trustee of, but the man was a weapons analyst, for jiminy's sake! First for the Department of Defense and later for Congress.

When Jeff Merkley stated in a 2003 address to the Oregon legislature just days after Bush order the invasion of Iraq that "I have not been and am not today persuaded that Iraq was a significant threat to the United States or that the war we fight today is the best strategy to fight terrorism or the wisest application of our superpower resources," that was no mere politician speaking. He was also speaking as something of an expert on these things. And while his fellow candidates in the Democratic primary race to... ahem... forcibly retire Gordon Smith are good people who undoubtedly have the best of intentions, only Jeff Merkley brings this kind of direct and indirect expertise to the proverbial table.

In a world where wars and rumors of wars are so common that we've become jaded to the prospects of any of it actually affecting us, Jeff Merkley brings the kind of gravitas on issues of war and peace that Oregonians and indeed all Americans stand to benefit greatly from.

Posted by Kevin at 01:17 PM |

December 04, 2007

New Tool for Blog Addicts

If you like reading what people are saying about current events and politics, you'll enjoy the new search tool on Blog Net News.

[Y]ou can pick any section of BNN, then slice and dice it by blog, by category, by key words, then sort the new feeds by popularity (most linked, most clicked, most commented) and then have it delivered to your cell phone, your RSS reader, your email (hourly update or daily summary) your blackberry or a custom widget on your web page.

For instance, here's the RSS feed of the most clicked posts from Iowa blogs about the current battle between Hillary and Obama.

Or a feed to track the most recent wisdom from New Hampshire bloggers on Romney's religion.

Just click on BNN Feed Central and set your parameters. Check it out!

Posted by Becky at 02:32 PM |

Bleak Future for American Tech Workers

Those who have been following the issue of off-shoring American jobs will take interest in the latest editorial by Paul Craig Roberts, entitled, “The Lies at the End or the American Dream.” According to Roberts, a concerted effort is underway to skirt US law governing work visas so that corporations can save money by hiring workers from outside the country. As part of this effort, Congress is being misled into believing the need for outsiders is a result of a lack of skilled workers within the U.S. when in reality Americans who are fully skilled are being passed over because they would cost more than the companies want to pay them. (Sounds very similar to what is going on at the bottom of the employment chain, as well – we have to virtually invite illegal immigrants to pick our crops because Americans won’t do it, they say, when in reality we would if we were paid properly for the work.)

Anyway, Roberts discusses a marketing video put out by a law firm, Cohen & Grigsby, in which the firm lays out its techniques for circumventing the law.

The video demonstrated the law firm's techniques for getting around US law governing work visas in order to enable corporate clients to replace their American employees with foreigners who work for less. The law firm's marketing manager, Lawrence Lebowitz, is upfront with interested clients: "our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested US worker."

If an American somehow survives the weeding out process, "have the manager of that specific position step in and go through the whole process to find a legal basis to disqualify them for this position--in most cases there doesn't seem to be a problem."
No problem for the employer he means, only for the expensively educated American university graduate who is displaced by a foreigner imported on a work visa justified by a nonexistent shortage of trained and qualified Americans.

The Roberts piece, which might more aptly be entitled, "The Lies Leading to the End of the American Dream," is deeply disturbing and to my mind paints a picture of a corporate elite who literally view workers as pieces of machinery on which they are seeking to get the best deal instead of fellow-citizens of the same country. The lack of appreciation for the benefits they have reaped from our society is stunning.

As the parent of a bright boy who hopes to be an engineer someday, I am very troubled by the advice of those watching the evolving situation: “American students considering majors in science and engineering [should] first investigate the career prospects of recent graduates.”

Integrity is so lacking in America that the shortage myth serves the interests of universities, funding agencies, employers, and immigration attorneys at the expense of American students who naively pursue professions in which their prospects are dim. Initially it was blue-collar factory workers who were abandoned by US corporations and politicians. Now it is white-collar employees and Americans trained in science and technology. Princeton University economist Alan Blinder estimates that there are 30 to 40 million American high end service jobs that ultimately face offshoring.

As I predict, and as BLS payroll jobs data indicate, in 20 years the US will have a third world work force engaged in domestic nontradable services.

Not a particularly bright future, is it?

Posted by Becky at 11:47 AM |

December 03, 2007

A Match Shy of a Conflagration

If you haven't heard yet about the white Texan homeowner, Joe Horn, who shot and killed two black men who had broken into his neighbor's home, you probably will soon. Reportedly, Mr. Horn, aged 61, called 911 to report the theft and told the operator he intended to confront and shoot the two men. Despite the operators pleas to stay indoors and let the police handle the situation, he followed through with his intention, confronting the two in his front yard and shooting them both dead. That it has turned into a racial firestorm is obvious if you watch this video of a rally in support of Mr. Horn yesterday, at which hundreds of angry neighbors confronted the group of Black Panthers calling for Mr. Horn's prosecution - not because the dead men were innocent, but because they say Mr. Horn acted as judge, jury and executioner.

The video is frightening to me because I've been in the middle of emotional crowds and seen how people feed off the emotions of others, building to a crescendo. It takes surprisingly little for a group of angry suburbanites to turn into a mob and riot. One wrong move or look, one punch thrown or one shove, and it can set everyone off. Angry mobs are always just a match shy of a full-blown riot, no matter how civilized they are. Fortunately, no one dropped a match at this event, but even watching it you can feel the potential.

I'm not sitting in judgment here of the neighbors of Mr. Horn, because I think a good deal of America is quite frankly tired of burglars and the instigators of other so-called "petty" crimes getting away with it. I've been the victim of burglary on several occasions. Nothing is ever done about it and I'm angry, too. So without a doubt this could be any neighborhood in the USA - it just so happens that in this neighborhood, something happened that drove those angry people into the street. Fortunately, the men who (justifiably, in my opinion) came to ask for Mr. Horn's prosecution did not trip up and spark a fire.

And that brings me to the question I have long pondered - why don't we see this sort of reaction in the streets every time we lose another freedom or witness another member of the elite getting away with a crime? Why do we seem to care more about our right to kill burglars than we do about our right to cast a meaningful vote, speak freely, have privacy in our personal papers and effects, and benefit from due process and equal treatment?

Posted by Becky at 04:20 PM |

This is Not What Jesus Would Do

Bill Keller, host of the Live Prayer TV program, is so irate about the outrage of Muslims in Khartoum at a British teacher there who allowed her student to name a teddy bear "Muhammed" (after himself) that he is tossing aside the central teachings of Christianity. He has named a stuffed pig "Muhammed" and posted a video message from the pig on YouTube. The pig calls Muhammed a “pedophile” and a “murderer,” admits he is a sinner for following Islam, converts to Christianity, and begs the viewer to join him in worshipping the real God instead of Allah. A faithful follower of Mr. Keller had this lovely reaction after viewing the video:

"Bill Keller's pink pig is a terrific tribute to Muhammad!" said WND reader Stephen Mayfield. "If only we could load B-52's with a week's take of Farmer John's swine intestines, and bombs-away them over Khartoum."

And supposedly it’s atheists who have done the most harm to the world.

People like Bill Keller really deserve a lengthy period of time in Hell to atone for the results of all that hatred and division they are inciting, because it is leading us to an explosive confrontation, in which all of us will lose. It is absolutely no different from the mindless hatred being stirred up by Islamic leaders over the teddy bear incident. Whatever happened to the Golden Rule? Whatever happened to "love your enemy"? Whatever happened to turning the other cheek? Whatever happened to giving your enemy the shirt off your back? Whatever happened to WWJD? I've been outraged at the reaction of Muslims to the teddy bear incident, too, but this tit for tat reaction from a prominent American Christian, who purports to spread a life-changing message of love, is highly unsettling and does not bode well for our future.

Keller, who earlier this year made the loving (ahem) Christian statement that a vote for Mormon Mitt Romney was "a vote for Satan," disguises his hate speech in a soft preacher voice and coats it with pleadings to turn your heart over to Jesus. American Christians might be ignorant enough to miss the pointed barbs in his little video, but the hateful message expressed through his selection of a stuffed, crucifix-wearing pig named “Muhammed” will not be overlooked by Muslims. I hope Christians won't overlook it either. It is an escalation of the hatred, which can only lead to a nightmarish conclusion, and it most certainly is not what Jesus would do.

Posted by Becky at 01:34 PM |