« March 2009 | Main | May 2009 »

April 30, 2009

1st time ever, DOJ goes to court to prove genocide

JTA comes through again with the details:

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- For the first time, the U.S. government will attempt to prove genocide in a federal court.

Lazare Kobagaya was charged last week with illegally obtaining U.S. citizenship by covering up his involvement in the Rwandan genocide. In making their case, Justice Department prosecutors will have to show that the 82-year-old Kansas man participated in the massacre of Tutsi by Hutus.

Long-time readers will recall that back in 2005 I wrote about my parent's experiences having witnessed the mind-numbingly brutal 1994 Rwandan genocide from their home on the campus of the Adventist University of Central Africa in Mudende, Rwanda.

President Clinton's turning a deliberate blind-eye to the slaughter is something that I never forgave him for and which played a central role in my voting for Bob Dole in 1996. My parents may not have lived through the horrific experience had not Belgian troops rescued them.

I am very pleased that President Obama's administration isn't afraid to buck tradition by filing this first ever attempt by the federal government to prove genocide in an American court.

Posted by Kevin at 04:59 PM |

For the Love of Jesus!

Hold onto your seat for a minute because I am about to shock you half to death (it's OK because it isn't torture):

A new Pew survey has found that the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did. ...

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians -- categorized as "mainline" Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.

I wonder, what would Jesus say?

Posted by Becky at 04:08 PM |

April 29, 2009

Darn Black People and Wimmins

Elect one black man as President and all of a sudden they feel like they have opinions and you have to pay attention to them.

The condescension inherent in the observation Barack Obama's overwhelming popularity amongst black people making him and his positions "more popular overall than they otherwise might be" is so appalling that I wonder what brain damage allows someone to actually hold this position and write about it with a straight face.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:45 PM |

They've Found The New Ronald Reagan

Turns out he's a Democrat, though. Sorry, Republicans:

Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, says these numbers suggest “someone who is wearing well” with the public at this stage of his presidency. McInturff, in fact, even compares Obama’s early likeability to Ronald Reagan’s in the 1980s.

Well, you always have Mike Huckabee. Or Teleprompter Jindal (giggle). Or Governor Hairdo (bwah-hah-hah). Or Sarah (oh, please, stop) Palin.

Sorry. A bit of wallowing in the schadenfreude there. Unseemly of me. My apologies.

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:59 PM |

You Can't Set The Bar Low Enough

If you thought the Bush team wasn't winning them over by the end of thier term in office ...

Well, they're polling even worse now. And they aren't even doing anything!

When he left office, Mr. Bush had at 31 percent approval rating.

It's now down to 26 percent. I hear that Mr. Cheney's numbers have fallen lower too.

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:41 PM |

Patient Zero

They're thinking it's a 5-year old tot in La Gloria, Veracruz, Mexico:

Edgar, who is 5, (not 4 as government officials previously reported) is the earliest known victim of the disease in Mexico. How he contracted it could be a key clue in figuring out the virus' path.

Maria del Carmen Hernandez, Edgar's mother, said her son began sniffling and feeling feverish in late March. She gave him flu medicine from the pharmacy, but the fever persisted. She put wet cloths on his forehead. She considered putting him in a tub of water.

Finally, after a week, the fever broke, and Edgar seemed fine, she said.

"We didn't isolate him," Hernandez said. "We all slept in the same bed, he'd greet his little brother with a kiss. We all lived together and no one else got sick."

Just so very strange. They think it spread so far so quick because the Easter holiday is very big in Mexico, being a staunchly Catholic country, there was a lot of interstate travel, and when combined with the lack of sanitary facilities for the poor in Mexican communities and the fact that they lived near pig farms that were known by nose for miles, well, it maybe was just a matter of time.

I would point out that this is what I understand from what I heard, and I am about as far away from being a doctor as can be.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:13 AM |

Only 183 POURS? Oh, Well, That's Alright Then

FOX News:

A U.S. official with knowledge of the interrogation program told FOX News that the much-cited figure represents the number of times water was poured onto Mohammed's face -- not the number of times the CIA applied the simulated-drowning technique on the terror suspect. According to a 2007 Red Cross report, he was subjected a total of "five sessions of ill-treatment."

"The water was poured 183 times -- there were 183 pours," the official explained, adding that "each pour was a matter of seconds."

Well, he must have been one wuss to have caved after just five sessions of "ill treatment". By the time they were done with him, he was claiming responsibility for not only greenlighting Ishtar but every movie Madonna ever made, and when told he was Barney the Purple Dinosaur, he started dancing around singing "I love you, you love me ..."

183 pours. Makes it sound like a nite at the pub, innit?

Well, if we're going to split hairs about how much waterboarding he got, let's just cut the bull and say that we tortured.

I mean, if you're going to take the position that enhanced interrogation just works, then stop continuing the conversation by equivocating.

At last check, The Talented Mr. Hannity has not yet arranged that waterboarding demo he says he was willing to do.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:06 AM |

Michele Bachmann EPIC FAIL: The Gift That Just. Won't. Quit. Giving.

It's getting so bad that I'm starting to actually feel sorry for her. The Minneapolis City Paper reports that Michele Bachmann, that Energizer Bunny of Crazy, came up with a one-to-one mapping of swine flu outbreaks and ... well, did another public face-plant, courtesy of Pantload Pajamas Media:

I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence.

Let's do just a little deconstruction:

• "Democrat Party". Still reading out of the Luntz codebook, I see – so 2002.
• Jimmy Carter was President from Jan 20, 1977. The 1976 Swine flu outbreak debuted on the 5th of Februaru 1976 ... when Gerald Ford was President. Who was, as History records, a Republican.
• "and I'm not blaming this on President Obama." I just want you to associate the words "Swine flu epidemic" with words that sound very much like "Larack Wobama".

Not interesting. Not a coincidence. Just another clumsy, ham-handed, Michele Bachmann-brand EPIC FAIL.

It's getting so I'm hurting for her whenever she lays another egg. She certainly doesn't let it bother her.

(via The Mighty POJ)

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:26 AM |

First Confirmed Swine Flu death in USA

A 23-month old toddler in Texas.

Looks like Governor Hairdo appealed for that flu medicine from the Federal government none too soon.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:50 AM |

April 28, 2009

9th Circuit rejects "state secrets" claim

This is very good news. As much as I support President Obama in general, on this issue I am as opposed to his administration's legal claims as I was to the virtually identical claims by the Bush administration before him.

The appeals court panel noted in a footnote that the executive branch in the past had misused the state-secrets argument to cloak revelations that would embarrass federal agencies, rather than to protect sensitive operations from the eyes of enemies.

To side with the government, the court ruling said, would mean that judges "should effectively cordon off all secret government actions from judicial scrutiny, immunizing the CIA and its partners from the demands and limits of the law."

Heh - exactly!

Posted by Kevin at 09:52 PM |

Tonight, We Vote In Hell!

In an echo of the Specter bombshell, Olympia Snowe admits her Republicanism goes singularly, profoundly deep:

She added that being a Republican is simply part of who she is. "It's my ethnic heritage, Spartan side, that continues to fight," she said.

SPARRRTAAAAA!!!!!!

Hey, Olympia, come over to the Blue side.

We have cookies!

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:26 PM |

Sen. Mitch McConnel: With Specter's Defection, The Republic's In Peril

(via HuffPo) If you think skeptical Democratic heads snapped at the news of the Specter Defection, you won't believe what Republican heads spewed.

Well, actually you will. It's pretty predictable.

"I think the threat to the country presented by this defection really relates to the issue of whether or not in the United States of America our people want the majority to have whatever it wants without restraint, without a check or a balance," McConnell said Tuesday.

Single party rule was okay as long as the Party of No had it. This alone should tell you something about the sincerity of any Republican position on things like choice (choose what we want to), freedom (free, but the way we want you to be) or prosperity (more for us, less for you). The damage eight years of Bush has burnished on the economy, the political arena, and the country in general is also making it very hard for me to believe that the continued existence of the Republican party bodes naught but ill for America.

But I actually do agree that single-party rule in American, if not at first, soon becomes a toxic thing.

I'd hope that the sane Republicans finally break away and, if not become Democrats, form a new, principled party that speaks their language.

The can call it the Conservative Party, and begin to take back thier sullied name. It could be a party of Eisenhower-style Republicans with the social temper of Lincoln.

I share McConnell's alarum however, in as much as, these days, it's much more difficult to tell people what to do if you're obviously a schmuck.

Posted by The Chinuk at 04:57 PM |

(BREAKING) Arlen Specter Goes Democrat

Primaily via CNN:

Veteran Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party on Tuesday, saying he has found himself increasingly "at odds with the Republican philosophy."

...

The switch puts Senate Democrats one vote shy of a filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats. They can reach the 60-seat mark if Al Franken holds his current lead in the disputed Minnesota Senate race.

"As the Republican Party has moved farther and farther to the right, I have found myself increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more in line with the philosophy of the Democratic Party," Specter said.

At the moment I'm listening to Nancy Skinner on The POJ and they're going over the implications. Specter's against things I'm for, such as card-check, and he is conservative in outlook, much more so than I am.

He still might render votes that I'd find apalling, in my view.

However, he's switching to Democratic for some very practical reasons. The fact that Republicans have become the party of extremely mean-spirited, sanctimonious, Taliban-like tools of big business I take as axiomatic. The other buzz I hear involves his chances in his next election; according to what I've heard, he faces a primary challenge from Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey, and the word is polling from not only national pollsters but Specter's own polls indicate that this is a battle he has every chance to lose.

So, Senator Spector likes staying employed. Well, with that health plan, who wouldn't?

But for the moment I'm willing to put aside my cynicism and be optimistic. When Norm Coleman finally quits being a hypocritcal crybaby and stops fighting against the outcome of the election Al Franken has won fair and square – by a razor-thin margin, to be sure, but certified fair and square – then the Democratic side of the aisle will be a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority.

Positional dynamics of the individual Senators will be the proof in the pudding, of course, and Specter may well turn out to be the kind of Democrat that Zell Miller and Joe Leiberman were/are. But since Specter isn't batsqueeze crazy like Miller and has been latterly more principled than Lieberman, this might all be to the good.

We await the moves of Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania) with bated breath. It, on the face however, seems to be a Good Thing™

Posted by The Chinuk at 04:37 PM |

April 27, 2009

Chaplain Klingenschmitt Takes Out A Contract On Lynn, Weinstein

In today's example of Christianists Behaving Badly, we find that the fatwa is Not Just For Islamists Only.

Gordon Klingenschmitt is mad. Righteously mad. And when you're righteously mad, and when you're someone who has the Ear Of God, then when you want retribution, you take out a contract. And God's the hit man:

Uber-wingnut Gordon Klingenschmitt is now praying -- in Jesus' name, of course -- for God to strike down Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State...It's basically a curse, praying to God to kill those you pray against.

The reason "Chaplain" Klingenschmitt is going all imprecatory on Lynn and Weinstein's asses is because Lynn and PFAW are against relgious liberty (and by religious liberty we of course mean the liberty of the Christianist majority to do whatever they desire and the liberty of the rest of us to shut up and like it) and Weinstein and MRFF are against religious liberty in the armed forces (and by that we mean the liberty for our uniformed services to be Christian and liberty of anyone who isn't their brand of Christian to have Fundamentalist Christianity jammed down their throats without complaint – if they know what's good for them).

Sorry, my eyes glazed over there. This religious liberty thing is a great deal more complicated than I thought.

There, I'm better now. For those unfamiliar with "Chaplain" Klingenschmitt, he's the Navy chaplain who famously assumed the mantle of victimhood, claiming that he was drummed out of the Nav for just being a Christian.

Well, maybe not, actually:

Klingenschmitt claims he was drummed out of the Navy because he wanted to pray in the name of Jesus. In fact, he got tossed out for being insubordinate. Far from being a hero and a role model, Klingenschmitt is exactly what the military does not need: an officer who would not do what was expected of him.

Naval regulations forbid service members from wearing their uniforms to political or partisan events. This directive is clear and has been in place for a long time. Nevertheless, Klingenschmitt insisted on wearing his uniform to a Religious Right-hosted protest and press conference opposing the military’s inclusive policies on religion. He showed up on the street outside the White House in the company of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, Religious Right activist Rob Schenck and Texas preacher-politician Rick Scarborough. Klingenschmitt could have attended the event in civilian clothes, but he chose not to.

Just an honest preacher who was hard-done-by, you see. And what a circle of friends he runs in ... why, I'd trust this man with my soul, yes, sir!

Trusting an intolerant, hateful fellow like this with your eternal soul is like getting a cab ride home from the bar but insisting your driver is under the influence.

Doesn't make sense to me.

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:45 AM |

$10 Prescriptions Too Good to be True

Al Norman has a very interesting post up today at the Huffington Post. Apparently, a carload of illegal immigrants was pulled over for driving at an excessive speed (nearly 100 mph) while in the process of delivering $30,000 of unsealed pharmaceuticals of unknown origin to four Wal-Mart stores. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is touting its $4 and $10 prescriptions. I am not at all certain that I would feel comfortable taking prescriptions that were handled in this manner in today's age of terrorism, even if it did save me some money.

And whether or not the low-cost prescription plans actually save people money is yet another question. Just read what my mother wrote me about her experience with them:

I never buy things like that from WalMart. I don't buy them from Costco either. I don't trust Costco's Pharmacy. Because of my prescription insurance, I can only get 30 days worth of drugs at a time. One of them had a co-pay. All of a sudden, I'm getting a 90-day supply and the co-pay goes up. "Oh," the pharmacist said, "it's cheaper for you this way." The truth was, they were billing the insurance and collecting from me both--the 90-day was cheaper, but enough so that I was paying for the entire prescription. All of a sudden, about the time I was connecting the dots on this one, none of my prescriptions were covered. When I checked with the pharmacist, I was told that I was in the donut hole, the place where your coverage runs out before the major medical takes over. I went home and got my prescription insurance papers out. No, I was not in the donut hole. Costco was collecting from both of us. I called them and raised a fuss. They gave me my money back and let me keep the prescriptions, but I never went back. I've switched to Rite-Aid. It's here in town, they automatically re-fill and call me, and when the prescription runs out, they call my doctor. I have no co-pays anymore.

Such a deal!

Posted by Becky at 11:22 AM |

The Republic of Oregon

Reader TenBears has been peppering comments with references to when Oregon was a Republic. I don't remember learning about that in school so last week I decided to dig into it and found it quite interesting.

That is a map of the territory belonging to the Republic known as the Provisional Government of Oregon which lasted from May 2, 1843 until March 3, 1849. Although the Northern border was in dispute until the Oregon Treaty of 1846 between the United States and Great Britain. Here's the official seal of that government:

The capital was Oregon City, which is still in Oregon. We had a militia called the Oregon Rangers, although it wasn't formed until 1844 and was disbanded two years later. But during that period the military established a fort (Fort Lee) and waged a war (Cayuse War). Our legal framework was statutory rather than constitutional because the whole point was to provide the cohesion, stability and benefits of government until the anticipated eventual admission into the United States. What were known as the Organic Laws of Oregon were fairly extensive and very progressive (slavery was forbidden, cruel and unusual punishment was banned, etc.) for such an early period.

By way of comparison, the Republic of Texas was formed earlier (1836) but also ceased to exist (1846) three years before the Republic of Oregon ceased to exist.

I was into coin collecting when I was a kid and was fascinated to learn that the Provisional Government of Oregon had issued it's own currency... although technically the $5 and $10 gold "Beaver Coins" were issued by a private enterprise. Here's what they looked like:

One of my first thoughts was, "I wonder how much it'd cost to buy one?" Turns out that the most recent price paid for one was $125,000, quickly pouring icewater on that particular idea. Being the over-achievers that we apparently have always been, the coins were minted containing MORE gold than the equivilent coinage minted by the United States. So most of them were bought up and melted down at a profit shortly after Oregon joined the United States.

At Oregon's 1959 Centennial some commemorative coins were minted in gilt bronze using the original tooling which still exists and is on exhibit in Salem. These "so called dollars" are easier to find and cheaper to buy, ranging as far as I can determine with Google from $100 to over $200 apiece.

Of course minting legal tender money by any entity other than the federal government is a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution. So, that particular law was struck immediately upon the new Territorial Governor's arrival in Oregon to administer this new Territory of the United States. But that was the only one of the Organic Laws of Oregon to be struck down when we officially became a territory of the United States. All of the other Organic Laws were kept and adopted as the formal legal code of the new Territory.

Posted by Kevin at 10:53 AM |

Swine Flu and Going Meta on Governor Hairdo (R-Texas)

So, as reflected by many sources and reported by the AP, Governor Rick Perry of Texas, the quondam Jefferson Davis of the land of the Caddo and the Lone Star, has decided to request federal help when it comes to the latest illegal immigrant: the outbreak of H1N1 Swine Flu, newly arrived on Union soil on holiday from Mexico.

It's tempting to join my fellow wags on the "My, how convenient" train of mockery, as justified and valid as that party may be (I hear there's a no-host bar in the diner car), but I've also been taking in the "let 'em secede" mocking and the "we'd be better off without 'em" afterparty and letting all the threads play together.

I'm going to pull back a bit on this whole thing and try to take a look at the frame.

We shouldn't, of course, be at all surprised that Governor Hairstyle of Texas is asking for over 37,000 doses of Tamiflu with a straight face. This, like his position on Texas succession and his coif, is all about looking good.

The hint about Texas secession causes a whole lot of reaction. From the WTF crowd is head-scratching. From the hard blue left is the "you see? He hates America!" From the unreconstructed Confederates is the cry of "The South Will Rise Agin!".

It's really Chaos, is the whole thing, Now, I don't know if the good Governor is aiming for Chaos – as shallow as Republican politicians are, the are equally inscrutable – but with Chaos achieved, all things are possible. He can now paint himself in any one of a dozen good-looking ways, and the compliant Media will dutifully carry the water forward.

And, at his essence, he must be a gambler. After all, he's taking a chance that soon even Texans will see him as the buffoon a good deal of the rest of the nation does. But if he plays his chances right, he will be seen as someone who stood up for Texas' rights as a state, even while I played the white knight who secured the flu shots for his citizens.

In my view, enough balls are in the air that anyone can play them just about any way.

But my point (and I do have one – this is kind of a public spitballing, I'll admit) is that he knows what poses he might have to strike in this gallimaufrey to look, if not heroic, at least as though he was doing the right thing. He doesn't have to be sincere about it; he wasn't really sincere about pushing Texas independence.

And he'll follow through on getting Tamiflu to the good citizens of Texas. These are actually not mutually-exclusive positions to hold.

Governor Perry, like every big-time Republican, knows that Message Is Reality, and Looking Good is all that counts. If good actually comes of what you do, so much the better. But it's not at all strange to him that he should repudiate the government on one hand, and eagerly petition its help with the other.

Indeed, that's the way the Republican Party rolls. Has been since the days of Nixon.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:02 AM |

April 25, 2009

Man, Now That's Cold

Send Dick Cheney back to Wyoming?

Sorry. They don't want him back either:

He could have a damaging effect on a state that is only now emerging from the 19th entury. Besides, he or his wife might run for office. If Dick Cheney were to elected governor, a huge wall would be built around the state, and all Wyomingites with liberal leanings would be thrown into re-education camps where Lynne Cheney would torture us by reading her super-patriotic children's books over and over and over again. Can you say "Ronald Reagan Is God?" I thought you could.

Well, it could be worse. She might torture you by reading her risible adult erotic fiction to you (Warning not so much about adult content but over-self-indulgent cliched writing. Lynne says it's not her best work).

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:14 AM |

A Turning Point Where Indonesia Did Not Fail To Turn

The United States of America isn't the only country in the world which worries about stepping up to the threshhold of theocracy and diving in. But Indonesia looked into the abyss as said "include us out":

In parliamentary elections this month, voters punished Islamic parties that focused narrowly on religious issues, and even the parties’ best efforts to appeal to the country’s mainstream failed to sway the public.

The largest Islamic party, the Prosperous Justice Party, ran television commercials of young women without head scarves and distributed pamphlets in the colors of the country’s major secular parties. But the party fell far short of its goal of garnering 15 percent of the vote, squeezing out a gain of less than one percentage point over its 7.2 percent showing in 2004.

That was a big letdown for a party and a movement that had grown phenomenally in recent years, even as more radical elements directed terrorist attacks against Western tourists and targets. The party had projected that it would double its share of seats in Parliament even as it stuck to its founding goal of bringing Shariah, or Islamic law, to Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, with 240 million people.

I don't have anything against religion; I have one, as a matter of fact.

I just have what you might consider a "conservative" view of religion:

The religion governs best which governs least.

Or not at all.

The only worship I want in our capitol buildings and courthouses is to democracy.

(hat-tipperoonie)

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:06 AM |

It's Not As Dangerous As The Gas She Exhales, Anyway

Headline of the day:

Michele Bachmann tells Congress carbon dioxide is a harmless gas.

Actually, I'd say it's the second most dangerous gas, behind whatever's behind Rep. Bachmann's ears.

Stupid is as stupid does, I suppose.

And who would most be appropriate to deliver the pointed rejoiner than our own Rep. Blumenauer. Bliss.

Posted by The Chinuk at 10:46 AM |

Riddle me this 2.0

I don't claim to be an economist. In fact I've only got two or three functioning brain cells and every once in a while they'll bump into each other and ponder life's deep mysteries. One such would be the Republican's incessant call for lower taxes as the alleged panacea for all that ails our economy and indeed everything about our very way of life here in these United States. And so it was that in late 2004 I wrote Riddle me this to explore the actual facts.

I have yet to have one single Republican defend their anti-tax dogma in the face of the actual facts cited in that post. But here we are over four years later having just survived a Tea-Bagging demonstration which was allegedly a "grassroots" demonstration against high taxes in the face of the worst economic implosion in a generation. So, I figured it was time to catch up on the latest economic stats relating to taxation.

The World Economic Forum publishes an annual ranking of the world's most competitive economies and here are the Top Ten 2008/09 rankings:

1. US
2. Switzerland
3. Denmark
4. Sweden
5. Singapore
6. Finland
7. Germany
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Canada

You can peruse the entire list of 134 participating countries here (pdf warning). For later comparison purposes I'm going to throw in two more here. Mexico @ #60 and Turkey @ #63.

So far, so good, right? Predictably enough we are ranked #1 and were ranked #1 last year too. In 2004 we were ranked #2. Without actually tracking down each and every year's rankings I'm going to go out on a limb and assert that our country has been ranked in the top 3 for decades.

But what about taxes, you ask? Those rankings just show which national economies are the most competitive on the global stage. They say nothing about taxes. Well, that's where it starts to get interesting.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also produces a variety of global economic rankings. One of the more interesting ones, to me at least, is an annual ranking of 30 or so nations based on various facets of taxation to each nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Here are three (pdf warning) that I've chosen and which are all on the same page. They are: Total tax revenue (as % of GDP), Taxes on income and profits (as % of GDP) and Taxes on goods and services (as % of GDP), each is charted for the time period from 1994 through 2007.

This is where it starts to get really interesting.

Denmark had the highest tax-to-GDP ratio in 2007, at 48.9%, while Sweden came in second at 48.2%. In 2006, both countries had tax-to-GDP ratios of 49.1%. In 2005, Denmark had a tax-to-GDP ratio of 50.7%, against Sweden’s 49.5%.

Looking back at the most competitive economies list we find Denmark and Sweden ranked 3rd and 4th most competitive economies on the planet.

At the other end of the scale, Turkey collected taxes equivalent to 23.7% of GDP in 2007, against 24.5% in 2006 and 24.3% in 2005, while Mexico’s tax-to-GDP ratio was estimated at 20.5%, against 20.6% in 2006 and 19.9% in 2005.

This is why I included the rankings of Mexico and Turkey up above. Turkey, the country which collects the least taxes as a percentage of GDP, is ranked 63rd on the competitiveness scale and Mexico, which collects the next least in taxes, is ranked the 60th on the competitiveness scale.

But... but... but!!! What about all that weeping and gnashing of teeth from Republicans about the horribly oppressive taxation we Americans are subjected to by our tyrannical overlords in DC???

Taxes on income and profits (as % of GDP)?

We're in the middle of the pack at 13.9% which is slightly lower than it was in 1997 when Bush 41 was President. Once again Denmark, the 3rd most competitive economy on the planet, leads the pack at 29.3%, while Mexico and Turkey, the 60th and 63rd most competitive economies respectively, again bring up the rear at 5.7% and 5.6% respectively.

Now if taxes on income and profits are the unmitigated evil that Republicans make it out to be, why aren't Turkey and Mexico at the top of the competitive economies heap???

Taxes on goods and services (as % of GDP)?

Would you believe that the United States taxes THE LEAST of anybody on the list at a mere 4.6%? Even the Swiss (2nd most competitive economy on the planet) are higher at 6.7% and the Danes (3rd most competitive economy on the planet) are at a whopping 16.3%, much higher than Turkey or Mexico (11.3% and 10.9% respectively).

That's right. We are killing small businesses by taxing their goods and services THE LEAST of any country on the list. Oh, the tyrannical inhumanity of it!! Where are my damn TEA BAGS???

"Europe is no model, socialism = poverty for all"? Let's look at the facts.

Well golly! Who has the highest rates of poverty, both for children living in it and for the total population? Our lowest taxes friends Turkey and Mexico, followed closely by the United States.

Who has the lowest rates of poverty for children and total population? Why there's our European "Socialist" friends in Denmark with THE LOWEST rates of poverty both for children and the total population. And look who is right there next to them... some of the other European "Socialist" nations ranked in the top ten most competitive economies on the planet.

Somebody has been lying to us about the corrolation between taxes and economic strength. Who do the facts point to as the culprits?

Posted by Kevin at 10:39 AM |

Another Fringe, Left-Wing Group That Says Torture Doesn't Work

That organization would be that legendary haven of left-wing moonbats, whackos, and the "Blame America First" crowd ... The C.I.A.

Might've known. Bunch of unAmerican kooks:

The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to recently declassified Justice Department memos.

That undercuts assertions by former vice president Dick Cheney and other former Bush administration officials that the use of harsh interrogation tactics including waterboarding, which is widely considered torture, was justified because it headed off terrorist attacks.

This is particularly germane because when talking of torture (which, remember, the USA doesn't do ... except when it does) those of us who are not sanugine about brutal physical and mental harm begin done in our names against those who may or may not have (we've never been sure really) had vendetta against us for our freedom/McDonalds restaurants/too much skin showing on Jessica Simpson/whatever reason that such things makes the USA – the world's number one nation – being seen as endorsing brutal, thuggish behavior against people we do not understand and are desperately frightened of, we are typically dismissed rather curtly as just not understanding, that enhanced interrogation techniques glean just so much information that it has already saved thousands of lives and America is safer, and we just don't know.

And we are expected to concede the point that it might have worked because of the lack of Americans obviously dying because of some terrorist act, even though we understand that if you electrified our baby-causers we'd admit to being Smurfette just to make it stop.

We'll, we never did.

Looks like we were right, after all.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:55 AM |

April 24, 2009

Randi Rhodes To Return To The POJ in Mid-May

Details are kind of sketchy as to the exact day, but our favorite drive-timer is coming back to The POJ sometime in the next couplea weeks:

LOS ANGELES, April 23, 2009 - Premiere Radio Networks is proud to announce that beginning May 11, The Randi Rhodes Show will join its lineup of nationally syndicated radio programs. Airing weekdays from 3 - 6 p.m. ET, Rhodes will enlighten and entertain listeners with her trademark candid, incisive opinions, as well as her biting sense of humor, as she discusses everything from news and current events, to politics and hot topics. The Randi Rhodes Show will broadcast live from Washington, D.C., and will be heard on affiliates across the nation, including KTLK-AM/Los Angeles, KKGN-AM/San Francisco and KPOJ-AM/Portland.

Read the entire press release here.

Originally tipped to the world by BradBlog.

And here's the fun part, yes? If you didn't notice who published the above press release, it's Premiere Radio Networks. Home of ... Mr. Limbaugh. And Mr. Hannity. Even if you hate her, you've got to appreciate that.

Last time Randi ran up against Limbaugh in her original home market, West Palm Beach, FL, WJNO, she kicked his wide white backside so hard she left a footprint. Lest anyone forget, when Randi debuted in Portland, she made Teh Lars's ratings cry uncle.

Well, Teh Lars can stop breathing easy (but does anyone listen to him anymore? Nobody I know does.

More information as I gather it.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:03 AM |

About "the surge"...

Blasts Kill More Than 135 in Two Days in Iraq

Posted by Kevin at 07:51 AM |

April 23, 2009

TriMet Tweaks Its Final Service Adjustments

Today I (and anyone subscribed to automatic updates from TriMet ... so much for my insider cred there, I suppose) received a small flurry of email updates announcing final tweaks to the final service cuts. Four additional lines have been spared but are on limited reach, leaving at four the number of routes to be eliminated.

This is down from the original proposal to elminiate a full 12 routes, including the 33-Fremont, which serves areas of middle-Northeast Portland which other lines dont reach very well.

See the details after the jump.

First, to the lines slated for extinction. They are:

• 41-Tacoma
• 74-Lloyd District/Southeast
• 86-Alderwood
• 153-South End Road Loop

These were actually quite logical choices for elimination. Particularly the #41, which, as many may be aware, was created to serve the Sellwood area formerly served by the #40, which went through Johns Landing from downtown and crossed into Sellwood via (all together now) the Sellwood Bridge, which is in too poor a state of repair to bear up under the pounding of a half-hourly bus route (in the Sam Adams calculus, your access to direct-line TriMet service is equivalent to the ability of some conventioneer to have a posh room right across the street from the OCC).

The rest of these routes were eliminated for the same reason – high cost-per-rider; they didn't get many riders. In the case of the #74, many alternatives do exist. #86-Alderwood may be a victim of the recession – it serves a business-park area near PDX and there are probably few businesses and, if not, there are fewer employees. What few riders there are on the #153 are going to be hurtin' for certain though ... unless the Canby Area Transit routes a bus down South End Road, those folks are out in the country, and they don't have another option.

The other routes retained with changes:

63-Washington Park (originally slated for elimination):

Weekdays: Discontinue service east of SW 18th Avenue and between Sylvan and the Zoo; retain service to MAX and Lincoln High School.
Saturday and Sunday service would be discontinued due to low ridership and the availability of alternative service nearby
Washington Park Shuttle service would operate on weekends through the end of October 2009 and would begin weekend service in May 2010. Presently the Washington Park Shuttle operates daily from Memorial Day until September with weekend-only service through September.

89-Tanasbourne

Weekdays: Run service from 5:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m., with service every 30 minutes between about 6:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and between about 2:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m Service would run every 60 minutes before 6:30 a.m. and after 6:30 p.m.. Saturday and Sunday: Run service every 60 minutes between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.

152-Milwaukie – big win here:

After careful consideration of this testimony and rider concerns about connections to jobs, schools and other services, TriMet has decided to retain service on this line with no changes in service hours or schedule. We had proposed to run service during rush hours only.

157-Happy Valley – you folks are on borrowed time until they send the Green Line up Sunnyside Road:

Line 157 will operate during a.m. and p.m. rush hours on an expanded loop that would serve SE 147th/152nd and then return to the Clackamas Town Center via Sunnyside Rd. Continuation of service would be for a six-month trial period following the scheduled September opening of Green Line MAX service to Clackamas County. At the conclusion of this six-month-trial, TriMet will evaluate ridership on the Line 157 and determine if continuation of service is warranted.

I'm still not thrilled at the service cuts – and I'm still no fan of the reduced service on the 33-Fremont line, which is still pretty much a slap in the face to the middle and lower income residents of the area between Northeast 42nd Avenue and Rocky Butte north of Sandy Boulevard – but TriMet did seem to try to respond to concerns about reduced service. And, given conditions in cities such as Saint Louis (which I referred to on my other blog here – it's a horror show there) we've got a win-win situation so far.

And the fault isn't so much TriMet's as it is a public perception that mass transit is a fashionable 'extra luxury'. Mass transit creates a favorable business environment by making it possible for everyone who has a job to get there without having to have a car, which supports business, which supports the economy. It's not a luxury we can't afford, it's a necessity we can't afford to do without. The same way bicycles reduce costs and strain on the transportation infrastructure to the benefit of all, so does mass transit.

With the economy faltering, we need more mass transit, not less ... it's just another part of our infrastructure that's getting ignored and taken for granted.

This is a perception that needs to change.

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:02 PM |

Bicycle Policy Eggheads: I Need Your Help

I find myself in non-productive conversations with people I genuinely like and agree with on just about everything else but the issue of, of course, bicycles.

It seems common sense to me that the addition of bicycles to the commuting mix is necessarily a Good Thing™. Moreover, I have the strong suspicion that the costs saved in lost commute hours and road system wear for motorists as well as in complying with Federal regulations on air quality (among other things) pays for – and more than pays for - the price of the modest improvements that bicycles as a transportation option require (lane striping and the construction of bike lanes for instance).

The end result of bicycles as a transportation option is a better environment, better conditions overall for motorists, for no real extra cost.

The trouble is, I don't have any figures for this. They would be useful in some discussions, most which go the direction of "everyone has to pay the price of admission", even, after I point out, that bicycles not only already have paid the price of admission (you know, like in places where they want to tax bicycle owners even though they own cars and have already – and continue to do so through fuel purchase – paid), but have delivered benefits that make the price of admission lower for everyone else.

Have there been any studies done or numbers run that illustrate this point? Or is my point too abstruse?

The real thing that makes me cry and die a little inside over it is whenever I explain this, the point is never conceded – the bike-hater just jumps over to some justification for charging bicyclists for using the roads, which suggests to me that there is a lot of emotion and very little brain behind many of these public positions.

I drive 100% of the time but I am unreasonably in favor of more opportunities for bicycles. I want information on my side.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:46 PM |

Rep. Hoekstra: You can't handle the truth - without a lobotomy!

Yesterday Republican Congressman Hoekstra effectively declared common cause with Imperial Japan's torturers of American heros such as Col. Chase Nielsen .

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair got it right last week when he noted how easy it is to condemn the enhanced interrogation program "on a bright sunny day in April 2009." Reactions to this former CIA program, which was used against senior al Qaeda suspects in 2002 and 2003, are demonstrating how little President Barack Obama and some Democratic members of Congress understand the dire threats to our nation.

Set aside for the moment the supreme irony of a "red state" Republican staunchly approving of and defending a series of specific torture techniques copied verbatim from a Korean War era Chinese Red Army chart.

On a bright sunny day in January 1946 Col. Nielsen testified in the International War Crimes Trials against his former captors, who were convicted of, among other things, water-boarding Nielsen and others.

then-Lt. Chase J. Nielsen, one of the 1942 Army Air Forces officers who flew in the Doolittle Raid and was captured by the Japanese, testified: “I was given several types of torture. . . . I was given what they call the water cure.” He was asked what he felt when the Japanese soldiers poured the water. “Well, I felt more or less like I was drowning,” he replied, “just gasping between life and death.”

Evan Wallach, a former JAG and adjunct professer who teaches the law of war at the Brooklyn and New York Law Schools, detailed the legal history of water-boarding back in a 2007 article in WaPo. As recently as 1983 a Texas Sheriff and three of his deputies were charged and convicted of, among other things, water-boarding prisoners. I know, I know... it's shocking that such a thing could happen in Texas.

Congressman Hoekstra (R-MI) argues,

It was not necessary to release details of the enhanced interrogation techniques, because members of Congress from both parties have been fully aware of them since the program began in 2002. We believed it was something that had to be done in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to keep our nation safe. After many long and contentious debates, Congress repeatedly approved and funded this program on a bipartisan basis in both Republican and Democratic Congresses.

IOW, as long as some members of Congress were aware of it and approved of it on a bipartisan basis then it is therefore acceptable. Which is a fine argument for bringing back slavery too. Right? What else might those "red-state" Republicans prefer to bring back? Women as property? Robber Barons enriching themselves with child labor and using private militias to murder union supporters? Oh... wait... I think some of them really would like to bring those back.

Posted by Kevin at 08:43 AM |

April 22, 2009

The Rundown In The Wake Of The Torture Memos

While Kevin relentlessly drills down in the Torture Memo issue and I crack wise and wonder where this country has gone wrong, Dade Cariaga at Sound 'n' Fury has a really nifty bam-bam-bam high-point-hitting box score going on with some very nifty links.

Do they? Are They? Will They? And made made Ari Fleischer finally shut his cookie-encrusted pie hole?

Highly suggested to get you up to speed.

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:10 PM |

Now This Is What I Call Celebrating Earth Day

Jones Soda employees mounted 10 bikes hooked up to generators and were apparently able to power the company's computers and operations all day.

Check the photo at SFGate.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:33 PM |

It's The Terror Of Knowing What This World Is About

I have long fancied I'd understood what the meaning of the aphorism "heavy lies the head what wears the crown" is.

In his home earlier today, the CFO of Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, apparently took his own life. Details are still sketchy, but reading between the lines suggests that the tension of running Freddie Mac during these troubled times may have been too much to bear. The Washington Post:

But even if his final act was unrelated to work, his last months were consumed by the mounting stresses at the center of the financial crisis. People who knew him said he was deeply committed to Freddie Mac, just about the only place he'd worked professionally, and its struggles had taken an increasingly visible toll.

"David was engaged in all parts of the company," said Moffett, who tapped Kellermann as his chief financial officer before resigning the top post last month. "The CFO of any company in today's environment is a very stressful job . . . particularly when you're in a company that's undergoing a tremendous amount of change and uncertainty."

As I read this I couldn't help but remember those legends of the great stock market crashes, where stockbrokers would throw themselves from windows, an icon so powerful that it makes its way into The New Yorker occasionally as a one-panel comic joke.

Every now and then, we proles get a look at how rare the air is up there. It usually leaves us shaken.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:05 PM |

Ditto!

The Red Electric: Life without Texas (and the Houston Rockets?)

Along the same lines, Time's Nancy Gibbs penned: Governor Perry's Tantrum: So What if Texas Secedes?

Posted by Kevin at 07:36 PM |

Dirty Deeds done... at high cost

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.

Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime.

In addition to the rest of the article detailing how Cheney and his buddy Rumsfeld pushed hard for the torture in the vain attempt to find something... ANYTHING that would validate their LIES about the alleged al Qaida/Iraq connection, McClatchy also has extensive documentation and more in a special sidebar with this piece.

It turns out that Condi Rice is the one who personally delivered the verbal authority to torture water-board Abu Zubaydah after he'd already been interrogated in Thailand and, according to the Thai, already given up everything of value that he knew.

Days after Rice gave Tenet the nod, the Justice Department approved the use of waterboarding in a top secret Aug. 1 memo. Zubaydah underwent waterboarding at least 83 times in August 2002.

Conveniently, she couldn't seem to recall any of it later.

Last fall, Rice acknowledged to the Senate Armed Services Committee only that she had attended meetings where the CIA interrogation request was discussed. She said she did not recall details. Rice omitted her direct role in approving the program in her written statement to the committee.

Of more immediate interest here is the circumstances under which torture water-boarding came to be initially approved by the Bush administration. (bold emphasis added)

But the (military) training unit warned that harsh physical techniques could backfire by making prisoners more resistant. They also cautioned about the reliability of information gleaned from the severe methods and warned that the public and political backlash could be "intolerable."

"A subject in extreme pain may provide an answer, any answer or many answers in order to get the pain to stop," the training officials said in their memo.

Less than a week later, the Justice Department issued two legal opinions that sanctioned the CIA's harsh interrogation program.

Meanwhile half a world away, Israeli army admits 'isolated' mistakes in Gaza.

If the Fox guarding the Hen House has grudgingly had to concede that 'isolated' mistakes were made, just imagine how many more actually were made.

Israeli human rights organizations disputed the findings and called on the government to cooperate with independent human rights groups seeking to investigate the war. Military commentators have reported that the Army used overwhelming firepower inside Gaza for fear that a high casualty rate among its own soldiers would sap support among the Israeli public for the offensive.

"The doctrine of using extreme armed force was a doctrine set from above," says Sarit Michaeli, the spokeswoman of the human rights watchdog B'tselem. She adds that the military inquiry "is not the correct forum to conduct this investigation" into accountability.

Anyone want to take a bet that I could find multiple conservative pro-Zionist sources online calling Ms. Michaeli a "self-hating Jew," an "anti-semite" or the like?

Posted by Kevin at 06:52 PM |

Hat tip: Mark & Brian

Posted by Kevin at 08:11 AM |

April 21, 2009

As Close To Reality As He Was Going To Get, Anyway

We hear something so very ironic, in passing: Apparently, freshly-impeached Illinois Gov Rod Blagojevich was offered a chance to compete in ... wait for it ...

A reality show.

The judge said no to Rod.

Blagojevich's hair may be able to compete though.

No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up.

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:28 PM |

You Want The Sellwood Bridge Fixed? Well, Do You Feel Lucky, Punk? Do Ya?

You can put a fork in the Sam Adams Administration. It's done.

You thought that losing Thomas Lauderdale's support was bad, well, bunky, it gets worse.

As reported by Willy Week, Mayor Adams has ransomed City support for the rebuilding of the just-a-minor-earthquake-away-from-failure Sellwood Bridge.

The price?

Support for that zombie of local government, the headquarters hotel at the convention center.

County Chair Ted Wheeler was told just today, after waiting some time for the response, whether or not the City would support the County in getting funds from the Feds to replace the bridge.

The answer was yes ... as long as the County went to bat for the City over the hotel that apparently without which the all the wheels in the city's economic wagon will violently fly off.

Oh, and after keeping you on hold six weeks, here's the figures, and take your time deciding on yes or no.

You have until Thursday. No, this Thursday.

No pressure now.

It's been a short, strange trip with Sam. From Beau Breedlove through the bizarre stadium deal and now this. I'd go so far as to say more than one City Council member needs reminding why they were elected (yes, I'm looking at you, Randy), but right now Sam Adams has pretty much burnished the City of Portland's reputation as the big kid in the room who's going to have what he wants, damn the cost.

And I'm no naive kitten here. I know you wheel and deal in local governments to get things done sometimes. But this just seems out of bounds somehow. To hold the only road link across the Willamette River between the Ross Island Bridge and Oregon City (that's a loooong way, folks) hostage to a hotel that the city government just won't quit wanting despite its worth being dubious as best (and based on what I've seen recently, probably just another trick to get millions of City dollars into some developer's pocket) is just. simply. wrong.

I'm off the Sam Adams bus too. If a successful recall campaign is staged, I'll be voting him out.

(Note: The illustration was based on a picture I ripped off from WW's Flickr stream and another picture with a gun in a hand in it. No guns were actually used and no bridges were actually drawn down on to create this picture. Owner carries no guns (or cash))

Posted by The Chinuk at 10:58 PM |

If He's Going Into Seclusion, Can He Take Drudge Report With Him?

Item via Gawker "Matt Drudge Goes Into Hiding":

Days after Matt Drudge popped up to tell New York magazine about how he doesn't enjoy having sex with men, The New Republic looks into his descent into Howard Hughes-like isolation.

As Gabriel Sherman puts it, Drudge fears the media, which for some reason want to know things about the man who basically decides what will be on cable television every night.

So, Drudge is afraid he is teh Gay/afraid of being found out he is teh Gay/has halitosis/has poor personal hygiene/wears a dorky hat/has adult acne/dresses like Marilyn Monroe in his spare time/whatever.

Okay.

I should care (other than that makes him mockable) exactly why?

What I'd really like to know is not so much why Drudge is celebrity, but why he remains celebrity. Because he does the conservative mainstream media's job for them?

Didn't some Professional Jounalist™ call him America's Assignment Editor?

Well, if he's going to be going into seclusion, would it be too hard to take his risible website with him? He's probably made enough money off his hackery to retire young and have all the sex (that is totally not gay, no matter what David Brock and that gay stripper said in Out magazine) that he wants and can loathe himself in private where nobody has to look at him.

I can think of an upside and a downside to this:

Upside: Mark Halperin will have to do his own reporting.
Downside: Mark Halperin will hve to do his own reporting.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:16 PM |

Merkley to Obama: Endorse Senate's Credit CARD Act

From a Press Release this afternoon:

Merkley: White House Should Endorse Senate Credit CARD Act

Oregon’s Senator Urges White House to Support
Sweeping Credit Card Protections for Consumers

Washington, DC – As President Barack Obama prepares to meet with executives from credit card companies later this week, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley is urging the Administration to support sweeping credit card legislation being considered in the Senate.

Millions of working Americans are struggling to get by and pay the bills, yet credit card companies are ambushing consumers with surprise interest rate hikes and hidden fees. In response to these abusive practices, Merkley today wrote to Larry Summers, Chair of the National Economic Council, urging the White House to use the Thursday meeting as an occasion to publicly endorse Senate efforts to end deceptive credit card practices.

“Misleading or abusive practices drain wealth from the middle class at the very time we need to be doing more to strengthen working families. Right now, credit card companies have the power to change the terms of agreements at any time, for any reason, trapping cardholders in high rates and a cycle of debt,” said Merkley. “The Senate Banking Committee has already taken important steps to end these unfair practices by passing the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act. I applaud President Obama for drawing attention to an area in desperate need of strong reform and hope he will join the Senate effort to pass the Credit CARD Act.”

While the Federal Reserve has issued new regulations addressing some of the worst abuses, those reforms would not go into effect until July 2010 – too late for many consumers who are already deeply in debt because of the economic crisis. The Credit CARD Act would both speed up and strengthen reforms of the industry by enacting protections including:

• A broad prohibition on “universal default,” the practice of raising interest rates on a consumer for actions unrelated to the card in question;


• A requirement that payments beyond the minimum monthly payment be applied to balances with the highest rate of interest;


• Prohibitions on fees based on the method of payment, be it telephone, mail, internet, or otherwise;


• A requirement that fees be reasonably related to the costs incurred;


• A cap on over-the-limit fees to once per billing period;


• A prohibition on charging interest on fees;


• A requirement to remove penalty rates following six months of good behavior; and


• Limits on the aggressive solicitation of young persons.

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the financial crisis, it’s that we cannot rely on voluntary compliance and the goodwill of banks to protect consumers. What is voluntarily given can be voluntarily taken away,” said Merkley. “Instead we need real reforms that are grounded in law and backed by strenuous oversight. These are common sense protections that will help keep middle class Americans out of debt.”

I agree!

Posted by Kevin at 06:07 PM |

Now You Can Go See Dick For Free

(via Saint Petersblog 2.0) At first, the Pinellas County (Florida) Republicans charged you $75 a throw (up) to see legendary shrimper Dick Morris but, faced with a real "meh" of a turnout ... well, you read:

Who wouldn't want to part with $75 to hear Dick Morris pontificate on the art of having your toes sucked? Evidently, not enough local Republicans, as the Pinellas GOP decided, rather than face a half-empty theatre, to give away tickets to Morris' speaking engagement at The Palladium.

Man, that's cold.

What? Well what kind of Dick did you think I meant?

Actually, there are some amongst the readership who'd think that I'm picking on Dick Morris just for the sake of mocking him and coming up with a prurient-sounding double entendre heading, and ... well, you'd be right actually.

Posted by The Chinuk at 02:10 AM |

The Cesar Chavez Blvd (Whether You Want It Or Not) Committee Gives You Its Choice

Northeast and Southeast Thirty-Ninth Avenue.

From the Oregonian article by Jeff Mayer:

Another panelist, Brig. Gen. Mike Caldwell, recommended that the city come up with a process of naming new streets and bridges, following a frequent suggestion from the hearings.

Well, Brigadier, that's the thing there, that's just the problem. We do have one. We have one because renaming Union Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd created so much unhappiness. It's been ignored ever since.

The result is a renaming that's simply forced on the residents of the given area regardless of actual public support. Do some object because of racism? Sure. And we do live in a society that still bears the open sore of that racism. But for there to be racism there has to be the possiblity that some object to a Cesar Chavez or a Rosa Parks because maybe they just like living along 39th Avenue or Portland Boulevard or that maybe this was foolishly and recklessly done.

Cesar Chavez will likely be honored in Portland with a street. And that makes me glad. But the process has been so abused that the honor will occur under a cloud. And that makes me sad. (hat-tip)

Posted by The Chinuk at 01:39 AM |

Mayor Adams Delays Final Vote On Memorial Coliseum Razing One Week

After hearing the outcry from the public, Portland Mayor Sam Adams has decided to spare a little more time to look at the options:

Memorial Coliseum has won a stay of execution while the city, the Trail Blazers and Portland Beavers look for a way to shoehorn a baseball stadium into the Rose Quarter while saving the coliseum's sleek glass shell from the wrecking ball.

But that doesn't mean it's been spared. Mayor Sam Adams said Monday he wants to give as much weight to the idea of "repurposing" the coliseum as he has to tearing it down.

The Portland City Council was set to vote on the site for the new ballpark Wednesday. Adams postponed the vote until April 29 to give planners time to look at the consequences of leaving the coliseum standing.

That's just about one additional week.

They better review them options plentyquick.

Ah, The Process™! There ain't nothing like it!

Posted by The Chinuk at 01:34 AM |

April 20, 2009

Torture? Or Sadism?

I am absolutely gobsmacked by the revelation that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was water-boarded 183 times by the CIA. Think about that for a minute.

The 2005 memo also says that the C.I.A. used waterboarding 183 times in March 2003 against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

183 times during a single month. That's 6 times a day, or every 4 hours 'round the clock for a solid month straight. Day in, day out... week in, week out... every 4 hours the same individual is dragged out to be water-boarded over and over for a month straight.

How the F#@% do you believe whatever he babbles after the 183rd time but not any of the 182 times before it? Heck, how the F#@% do you believe anything he babbles after the 50th time? Even setting aside the legal issues, at some point this seems to have crossed over from mere interrogation and into pure sadism.

The New York Times reported in 2007 that Mr. Mohammed had been barraged more than 100 times with harsh interrogation methods, causing C.I.A. officers to worry that they might have crossed legal limits and to halt his questioning. But the precise number and the exact nature of the interrogation method was not previously known.

Every 4 hours, around the clock, day after day, week after week, for an entire month.

A footnote to another 2005 Justice Department memo released Thursday said waterboarding was used both more frequently and with a greater volume of water than the C.I.A. rules permitted.

Again, this begs the question: When does torture become sadism?

The Times article, based on information from former intelligence officers who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Abu Zubaydah had revealed a great deal of information before harsh methods were used and after his captors stripped him of clothes, kept him in a cold cell and kept him awake at night. The article said interrogators at the secret prison in Thailand believed he had given up all the information he had, but officials at headquarters ordered them to use waterboarding.

He revealed no new information after being waterboarded, the article said, a conclusion that appears to be supported by a footnote to a 2005 Justice Department memo saying the use of the harshest methods appeared to have been “unnecessary” in his case.

The CIA memos state that Abu Zubaydah was water-boarded 83 times during the month of August 2002. That's nearly 3 times each day or once every 9 hours, day after day, week after week for an entire month. And this after he had willingly given them a LOT of information while in Thailand. AND they admit that even after water-boarding him over and over and over and over and over and over they learned nothing new. So why keep doing it after the 10th time? Why keep doing it after the 50th time?

I'm sorry but the defense of "necessity" or "national security" simply doesn't explain it. This appears to have been about nothing more urgent than sadism.

Update: Pressure is mounting on Obama and in Congress for a more thorough investigation and possible criminal prosecution against Yoo, Bybee and Bradbury, the three Bush lawyers who provided the legal rationale for torture.

Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr., who was chief counsel to the Church Committee, the Senate panel that investigated C.I.A. abuses in the 1970s, said Mr. Obama was “courageous” to rule out prosecutions for those who followed legal advice. But he said “it’s absolutely necessary” to investigate further, “not for the purpose of setting blame but to understand how it happened.”

I could live with Schwarz's suggestions as long as the investigation is thorough and the results are fully released to "we the people" who are supposed to be the f#@%ing point of this nation existing.

Also, at Time's website: Waterboarding: A Mental as Well as Physical Trauma

Posted by Kevin at 07:16 AM |

April 19, 2009

A Thought On The Sabbath: How About Talking To Dad In Private Instead?

Stumbling on TenBear's blog, I stumbled on the reason why much Christianity in America today infuriates me.

It's all about being seen. TenBears put it this way:

What was it Jesus said about puffed-up pontificating pontificaters puffed-up-edly pontificating on street corners?

Oh, right, put it in the closet.

I find it cosmically amusing that TenBears tells you to put your worship in the closet, but that's me for you.

The relevant scripture is Matthew 6:5-6, which says:

When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

Your average megachurch is all impressive and stuff (even though architecturally they're usually a fright show) but attending a fashionable church is no substitute for helping the poor, being kind and compassionate to the vulnerable, comforting the sick, and visiting those in prison.

And you want bonus points for that?

Don't let anybody know that devotion to God is why you did it (actually, this lesson is taught in Mt 6:1-3, just prior to the above). Do it because it's the right thing to do, not because you want public credit for being a Christian.

If you get that, then that's all you'll get, and that's all you deserve.

If some in this jaded world can use the Bible to justify horrid unjust treatment of gays and people they don't understand, then I can use the Bible to tell you to stop being so proud of being Christian and going to a popular church.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:45 PM |

Hey Tea-Baggers, where's the beef???

Rasmussen:
11/05-07/08, 54/41%, Approve/Disapprove
04/10-12/09, 55/44%, Approve/Disapprove
04/16-18/09, 55/44%, Approve/Disapprove

Gallup:
04/10-12/09, 63/28%, Approve/Disapprove
04/16-18/09, 62/29%, Approve/Disapprove

Posted by Kevin at 12:32 PM |

Is THAT Why You Liberals Are Giggling?

Awkward White Guys In Suits and Ties: Late to the party, as usual.

I dare anyone with a sense of humor to read Thers at FireDogLake on a man named Johnson at the PowerToolLine Blog (the most overrated blog in Minnesota) finding out just what teabagging is and not laugh.

Those with delicate constitutions be advised: it may make you blush. You know who you are.

I know, I know, I should move past the teabagging stuff, but every time I try, it just. keeps. pulling. me. back. in!

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:15 AM |

Speaking of Sci-Fi and Fantasy...

... the ALWAYS entertaining Bpaul has an entirely too convenient Geek Hierarchy flowchart to help us quantify our own geekiness. And there I am, just to the right of center on the flowchart. Although as both a Heinlein and a Piers Anthony fan I take exception to the latter being considered geekier than the former. Yet... that just confirms my own geekiness, no?

Posted by Kevin at 09:10 AM |

April 18, 2009

Mulatto? Who Talks Like That Anymore?

As revealed to the world by Crooks and Liars, and commented upon by BlueO and LoadedO (all rather excellently, I thought) there may – or may not – be a series of PSAs coming paid for by the Oregon GOP in what is, at best, an awkward attempt to polish their apple.

To be honest, I'm not at all sure that it's something that's not an elaborate practical joke. The ad scripts, always accentuating race and how grateful various races are for what the GOP claims it did for them) come off like the sort of GOP I've always seen: dismissive of minorites and poor people until they're needed for support, then they become sainted and sanctified, and going so hard to be seen as valuing "races" that it just comes off as all awkward and full of lose. It's almost as though it was designed to entertain the GOP-suspicious liberal.

But the perversity of the universe tends toward a maximum, so, for the moment, we'll accept them as real – with the stipulated reservation above.

It's been analyzed to death already by Kari and Nothstine (check the links above) so I won't go into too much more depth on the substance. The take-away from the whole thing ought to be that everything the current OrGOP is taking credit for was worked for and achieved by people the GOP would repudiate in a hot second unless they really needed an image makeover.

The use of the word "Mulatto" – which even the US Census quit using in the 1930s – seems quaint and charming, and evokes the memory of how the sophisticated classes referred to their household staffs in charming condescending terms during the gilded ages of the past. A little archaic, kind of charming. The words should be tinged in that sort of attenuated color palette you see Victorian era things in.

It paints to me the picture of a party who still just doesn't get it but wants to be desperately perceived as having done so. A while back, noting Bob "Mr T." Tiernan's enthusiasm at being part of the crew that got national GOP Chair Michael Steele into office, he said something that struck a chord with me. Jeff "Shadout" Mapes at the time wrote:

Tiernan said he was attracted to Steele by his dynanism and ability to articulate Republican values. He said Steele's ethnicity helps bust the stereotype that the GOP is a "party of old white guys who only care about business."

Wording is important. Since everything the GOP does is pretty much coded these days, it's important not only what gets said, but what words are used. Overparsing is always a danger, of course, but sometimes the coding just leaps right out at you.

In this case, ist the claim that Steele's ethnicity "busts the stereotype that the GOP is a party of old white guys that only care about business."

Busting the stereotype says to me that they only care about changing perception. If electing Steele GOP chair instead proved that the GOP isn't just a party of white guys in suits 'n' ties, that would be a different thing, a fundamental thing of substance. But all that it proves is that the GOP recognizes that they just have to look good.

Deep down inside, the GOP is still the party of old white guys who care about business. The endless addiction to message-as-reality only proves this.

So the idea of a series of OrGOP PSA that work overtime to illustrate how good they have been to minority and mixed races comes off as the usual condescending "we allowed you to" tripe that they've been selling for pretty much all my life. It distracts, it amuses, but it does not surprise

It comes off as the efforts of a party to remain relevant that still operates under the assumption that we voted for Barack Obama because he was percieved as black (he's actually, as the record shows, born of an African father and a Caucasian mother ... ahh, what's the word for that ... it escapes me ... ). It shows that, in the main, the GOP looks at the complicated issue of race on a very superficial level.

The modern GOP might have a rainbow button, any number of looped ribbons, and maybe a bit of mudcloth meant to display sensibility, but inside the suit?

It's still the same old white guy who wants to stay in control.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:27 PM |

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's Hair Threatens To Secede From Texas Gov. Rick Perry

In a surprise announcment, sources placed close to the Texas Governor's office have confirmed that, due to the embarrassing spectacle Governor Rick Perry has been making of himself with his apparent support of the idea of Texas's seceding from the United States, Governor Perry's hair, considered the amongst the most stylish coifs in American politics and second only to former Oregon Senator Gordon Smith's in terms of recognition and popularity, has threatened secession from the two-term Texas Chief Executive.

"I mean, puh-leeeze!" the hairstyle was quoted as saying. "This tea-party stuff was making him look enough of the bozo without him coming out like some latter day Jefferson Davis. You people, even the people of Texas can tune him out. I have to live with him 24/7/365!

"And I'm closer to his brain than he is! It's a void, I'm telling you, an amazing void! If I have to stay close to him much longer it'll be nothing but split ends!

"He thinks it's is public positions that get him the press ... well, it's me! I won him the election!"

The hairstyle, emitting a delicate yet manly scent of raspberries, then had a short question-and-answer period, answering "no comment" to whether or not the Governor used Paul Mitchell or TRESemme, stating emphatically that there will be no need of secession if the Governor cools down the rhetoric, then retired for a hot-oil treatment.

Rumors of talks to switch places with Louisiana Gov. Bobby "Teleprompter" Jindal's hair remain unconfirmed at press time.

-30-

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:53 AM |

Weekend Open Thread

Don't let me catch y'alls being too partisan, now. Injures the delicate constitutions of some, too, also, and we're gracious hosts, dammit! Don't make me turn this blog around!

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:48 AM |

Poor Man's Cultural Elitism

• Walking on my break (because it's the only time I can make for any sort of fitness program)
• Listening to a podcast where Bill Maher is interviewing Gore Vidal (HBO lets out its Real Time podcast for free)
• On my iPod (bought used)

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:43 AM |

What exactly does Preemptive Karma mean?

I see that somebody recently added preemptive karma, along with a definition, to the Urban Dictionary.

1. preemptive karma
When one's just desserts are dished out even before the meal's begun. Similar to the Western concept of getting beaten to the punch. Although people who experience preemptive karma feel like dolts, they are actually highly evolved beings whose true desire is to do no others harm.

Grasshopper, the time you tried to kick the cat, but slipped instead - that was preemptive karma.

by maximo hudson Jan 25, 2009

Now, although I had never heard of the term before I first coined it in late 2003, I'm not so arrogant as to think that little old me was the first person to ever connect those two words into a single term. When I first set out to create this blog in early 2004 and was trying to think of a good domain name, I Googled the term to see if it was already being used. I only found one reference, and that usage was along the same basic lines as the Urban Dictionary entry above. However, that's not what it means to me.

I've always thought of "preemptive karma" as an inherently sarcastic term. Originally I used it to mock President Bush's "preemptive war" rationalization for invading Iraq. And of course by as early as late 2003 it was abundantly obvious that Bush had lied us into a quagmire in Iraq and that the predictions of being welcomed with open arms and rose petals had proven to be nothing more than the private wet-dream of Dick Cheney and his NeoCon sycophants (for which we taxpayers are STILL footing the bill).

Eduardo Galeano put it best when he said, preemptive war "punishes the defenseless not for what they have done or are doing but for what they might have done or could do."

The billions of taxpayer dollars squandered, thousands of our soldiers dead and many tens of thousands more wounded - many disfigured for life - the loss of respect and especially the loss of trust on the international stage... all are the Karma reaped from Dubya's Preemptive war philosophy. Thus: Preemptive Karma as I mean it and use it.

Comparing what I meant by the term to the new entry quote above we can see a profound dissonance between the two.

If "karma" is defined as "a person reaping the fruits of the seeds they have sown" then I would define "preemptive karma" as "a person reaping the fruits of the self-serving seeds they have sown." Or in other words, the "karma" of a self-serving person. So I guess if I were to write an entry in the Urban Dictionary for "preemptive karma" then it would look something like this:

2. preemptive karma
When one's self-serving motives spoil the meal even before the meal's begun, leaving that one with nothing but just desserts for the meal. Similar to the western concept of considering the wisdom of leaping only after one has already leapt. People who experience preemptive karma prefer dogma over critical thinking.
Republican's preemptive karma elected many Democrats in 2006 and 2008.

Interestingly enough I found a karma-based definition on the Urban Dictionary which means nealy the same thing as preemptive karma does to me: karma fuck.

Posted by Kevin at 08:19 AM |

April 17, 2009

How To Make Pickles

Pickles – dill, sweet, relish, what have you – are made popular, of course. What you may not know is how easy they are to make, as is sauerkraut.

A few moments of Teh Google turn up about a metric buttload of pickle recipes for the edification of all, posted by homemakers of both sexes who hand them down to their kids. But the basic process of making you some pickles is brilliantly elegant and eloquent of perfection evolved through generations of doing:

1. Get some good cucumbers.
2. Prepare them, usually by soaking in cold water.
3. Soak or cook, in whatever brine (this is what brings the flavor) you've prepared according to the recipe
4. Seal in sterilized jars and store.

The DIY aspects of this should appeal to the DIY-conscious Portlander (or anyone else for that matter), and now that it's become clearer that not just brands with "The Flavor of the Northwest" but brands all over the nation are getting most if not all of their cukes from India (India? Yes, India. Maybe it was part of that trade deal that W did that got us all those mangoes in return for nuclear stuff) you'll be supporting Northwest farmers who got done-to when the company who promised to buy Northwest cukes for a decade said "see ya, wouldn't wanta be ya!" to get those cukes from India.

And if the farmers go out of business, then you'll even be able to grow your own cukes! Win-win!

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:17 PM |

It's Not UnAmerican Sabotage If They Do It

Meanwhile today, in the bubble, Pat Robertson does his ... well, you read. Crooks and Liars:

Pat Robertson, on The 700 Club yesterday, got in on the collective right-wing teeth-gnashing over that Department of Homeland Security bulletin on the threat posed by right-wing extremists in America.

You know, the controversy that's been demonstrated to be a lot of hot air -- not to mention a terribly revealing one about how mainstream right-wingers see themselves.

Not that such mere trifles would ever deter Pat Robertson. His attack on the DHS yesterday, alongside his coanchor Terry Meeuwsen, featured an unending stream of flatly false information and mischaracterizations. Plus, of course, the requisite gay-bashing and liberal bashing, all wrapped up in a neat little ball.

The whole sordid mess is here.

What a bunch of tools.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:56 PM |

Your Weekend Tonic: ShamWow Versus Bill O'Reilly

If you, like many of us, will spend another weekend at a tedious job satisfying other people's needs or generally making the wheels of commerce turn, and you need a laugh, just carry this around with you in your bean:

It's a mashup of The ShamWow guy and Bill O'Reilly in his famous Inside Edition meltdown made viral a few months back. The ShamWow Guy should, by now need no introduction, and if you haven't heard of or seen the BillO video, know that it contains adult-like sweary-words, and you shouldn't show to the kiddies.

Enjoy! Are we having fun yet?

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:26 PM |

My life-long love affair... with Sci-Fi

As far back as I can remember I have loved the Space Opera subgenre of Science Fiction. I'd never actually Googled the term until just a few minutes ago and scrolling down to the examples at the very top of the list is the first series which sucked me in and has held me hostage ever since: the Lensman Series by E.E. "Doc" Smith which I devoured as a young teenager. But even before I got sucked into his enchanting books I dabbled in a variety of the masters of the genre when I was in 4th grade. Phillip Jose Farmer, Piers Anthony, Poul Anderson, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, Jerry Pournelle and the like.

I still dabble outside of the Space Opera subgenre. I even went through a phase where I was into Sci-Fi's fraternal twin genre of Fantasy. This was mostly in the 80s and feed into a brief stint playing Dungeons and Dragons every chance I got, during the half year I spent living in the little French border village of Collonge-sous-Saleve just outside of Geneva Switzerland, with a group of American college students which included a nephew of the great American comedian and actor: Bob Newhart. But he sucked at D&D.

Those who have played D&D seriously know that the Dungeon Master's skill and creativity is central to the game, and the DM we had there in France went on to a career in Naval Intelligence last I heard. This guy had a set of personal gifts unlike anyone I've ever met in my life. He was very bright, was incredibly handsome with that stereotypically perfect blend of being tall, dark and handsome and he absolutely exuded charm and charisma the likes of which I've never encountered since, and yet was very humble. All the girls swooned when he glanced their way and all the guys wanted to be his friend. I remember being his favorite player. So much so that he made me read The Silmarillion cover to cover as prep for the game. Those who know much of anything about Tolkien will appreciate what a daunting task that was. Needless to say I have very fond memories of those days.

And while I'm on the subject of Fantasy I have to say that one of my all-time favorite book series to this day is the quasi-fantasy Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony, even though it's not Sci-Fi and I'm really not a Fantasy fan at heart. Oh sure, I enjoyed the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey, which helped pave the way for my later interest in D&D. I'm also partway through Wayne Barlowe's incredible God's Demon at the moment too. But Fantasy was never more than a passing fancy for me. Science Fiction has always been my one true love.

What I love more than anything else about Sci-Fi books is when an author dreams up a concept (particularly if it's technological) that is so utterly outside-the-box that I just have to jump in and follow along as he or she fleshes it out. Indeed, fellow Sci-Fi fans will probably note that novel concepts form a thread weaving throughout my favorites.

So, here's a short list of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi authors:

Larry Niven - Ringworld is one of the best ever written. Although Destiny's Road is also one of my favorites. And anything in his Known Space, Man-Kzin Wars and Draco Tavern universes has consistently been enjoyable.

Gregory Benford - his Galactic Center Series is my all-time favorite series bar none, particularly the later books in the series.

John C Wright - who I am presently re-reading. After Benford I'd have to say that Wright's The Golden Age trilogy is second best all-time in my opinion.

Orson Scott Card - what can I say? Brilliant really doesn't begin to do justice to Ender's Game and the various series it spawned.

There are others though. John Scalzi and William Gibson both come very close to making my all-time favs list. And perhaps in time they will or might even displace someone as they flesh out their superb talents in the future. Additionally, I've recently read books by Robert Charles Wilson (Axis), Robert Reed (The Well of Stars), Julie E. Czerneda (Regeneration), Peter F. Hamilton (The Dreaming Void), Jack McDevitt (Ancient Shores, Cauldron) and the duo of John Ringo/Travis S. Taylor (Manxome Foe) which I thoroughly enjoyed and look forward to sequels of. Ben Bova, Greg Bear and the like are also authors I pay close attention to.

What are your favorites? And why?

Posted by Kevin at 11:26 AM |

Want To Read The "Torture" Memos? The ACLU Has Your Back

While we all struggle to digest and make sense of the Obama administration's apparent disinclination to pursue investigations against the CIA operatives who performed "enhanced interrogation techniques" against "enemy combatants", you may want to see for yourself the released secret memos that everyone is talking about.

The ACLU has them for your perusal, in all their redacted glory, here.

Read them and decide for yourself, but just remember: it was done in your name, America. In our name.

Are you safer now than you were four years ago?

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:14 AM |

April 16, 2009

BlueOregon Gets The Golden Dot For Best State Political Blog

Though I write for PK now I am still a huge fan of Kari and his work and, yes, the work of his posse-of-equals:

Earlier today, the Institute for Politics, Democracy, & the Internet at George Washington University announced the 2009 winners of the Golden Dot award. The Golden Dot for Best State or Local Political Blog was awarded to BlueOregon.

That's best of the entire damn nation yo.

Discuss and give props where due over there.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:50 PM |

Time Warner Off Broadband Caps Until Customers Can Be Eptified*

As reported by PCMag.com, TimeWarner is tabling the idea of testing broadband caps for now. The customers have proved a problem:

"It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption based billing," Time Warner CEO Glen Britt said in a statement. "As a result, we will not proceed with implementation of additional tests until further consultation with our customers and other interested parties, ensuring that community needs are being met."

It's not us, it's you, yo.

The problem isn't that "we" came up with a customer-hating policy that made the bandwidth caps instituted by Comcast look like infinite largesse; the problem is that "you" don't understand what a favor we're doing for you, somehow.

While we're pleased that you've forgotten that without governmental action (read "taxpayer money") there wouldn't be an intarweb for you to download pr0n videos to begin with, we are less than pleased that you think you should have it without having to pay through the nose for download access better than what you got with your 2400 baud dialup modem back in 1993. All that's needed is a bit of bitch-slapping until you wake the hell up "customer education" and we're hoping you'll swallow this too see what a great thing this is.

* eptification is a concept that was refined in John Brunner's amazing book Stand on Zanzibar, and derives from the abbreviation for education for particular tasks. In the book, anyone can become anything on demand by being eptified. Brunner was an optimist; the concept has spread from particular tasks to particular points of view, but I don't think the word eppovify has quite the ring.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:24 PM |

The Mall World Is Flat

General Growth Properties has declared bankruptcy.

So what?

Well, General Growth Proprerties is a big company. I mean big. Based in Chicago, it seems to have properties just about everywhere; over 200 properties, shopping center and shopping malls, spread across the fruited plain that we call "This Great Land Of Ours".

As reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer and expanded on by Writes Like She Talks, GGP is the owner of the Beachwood Mall, which went through an expansion while the economy stuttered. Now they can't make refi arrangements. Therefore, the company folds.

GGP owns, as I said, properties in most (if not all) of America. Amongst those properties are the following Oregon malls: Clackamas Town Center, Gateway Mall in Springfield, Pioneer Place Mall, Salem Center, and Rogue Valley Mall in Medford.

But there's one more ironic level on this one. The company grew out of the commcercial aspirations of the Buckbaum family, a scion of which is Ann Buckbaum.

You might know her as Ann Friedman. But if you don't know her, you know her husband. He writes books.

Yep. Thomas Friedman, apostle of globalization, The Mustache of Wisdom, who is going to go down in history as advocating the petard his wife's company is being hoisted upon.

He's won amazing awards for his commentary, but how is it someone can see every forest and not one tree in it?

In the meantime, GGP malls will be open for business during economic alterations. But if you've ever wanted to buy a suburban mall, Clackamas Town Center might be on the market pretty soon.

Contact your broker.

Posted by The Chinuk at 04:54 PM |

Next Time You Wonder About Your Place On The Timeline ...

Some time ago, someone taught me a valuable lesson to get some idea of your place in history and visualize some perspective about how things go and how far down you are from important things.

I've forgotten when I've gotten this lesson, so to whomever taught me, thank you.

Consider your birthday. Then consider your current age. Now, instead of projecting forward to the present from your birthday, project backwards.

For example: I was born in the early 1960s, in the Kennedy Administration. If you take my current age ane project backwards – that is, go back into the past from my date of birth. That moves the pointer down to the runup to World War I.

That's the basic thing there. For me, as far back before my birthday as many years as I've been alive contains a great deal of modern American History - The Great War, the Other Great War, the Korean War, the rise of modern vaccines, the great scientific revolution of the 20th Century, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, and all that.

Quite a spread. I've not been alive all that long.

When it really gets adventurous is when you compare with friends birthdays and ages. Perforce, a demonstration.

A very good friend of mine was born in 1980. In 1980, Reagan was just starting his first term as President. It's stunning enough to know that there are people who don't know Presidents before The Great Communicator, but that's life for you. Now, take that singular American, Richard Nixon. Nixon resigned from office in 1974, of course. If you go back that far in relation to my own timeline, Ike was in his first term as President.

Eisenhower is to me as Nixon was to my friend born in '80, relatively speaking.

It's an interesting exercise, one which may enlighten you, make you feel older than you know you are, or deliver some ineffable insight. Either way, it'll deliver perspective on the amazing ways things can change in America modernly.

I highly suggest it if you want to get a real sense of history.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:26 AM |

April 15, 2009

We Tried To Tell You, Man, But Did You Listen?

No, no you didn't. You said that "if you're not doing anything wrong, you've got nothing to worry about". But you didn't think a Democrat would get into power did you?

I guess the foot's on the other hand now, isn't it Kramer?:

Since the Department of Homeland Security declassified an April 7 report detailing potential increases in right-wing extremism, media figures -- including CNN's Lou Dobbs, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, Fox News' Sean Hannity, Fox News national political commentator Andrea Tantaros, and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin -- have advanced the claim that the Obama administration is targeting conservatives and others simply because they disagree with administration policies and proposals.

Actually the commentary leading into that quote was a bit of sarcasm. The report (which you can read about at the Media Matters link above) pretty much just says that there are issues that right-wing extremist organizations will play on to increase membership.

No right wingers are being tracked because of what they believe, or simply because they don't agree with the politics of the Obama admistration, but if you're really scared about being such, then there's just one question you should be asking yourself:

How does it feel getting dealt the same FUD you were quite happy and content to deal out during the years of Bush?

You see, the trouble with "if you're not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about" is that the definition of "nothing wrong" can, under the right tyrant, change without notice.

And the real subtlety of this cosmic jest is that the right wing's supporters are being scared silly by right wing voices they trust, who are essentially lying to them just to get them fearful.

Hey, we tried to tell you. Now that you've tasted a bit of the FUD that we've had to swallow, will you join those of us who call for (as long as we apparently have to live with it) sensible, sane Homeland Security that works?

Nahh. Not even I'm that naive.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:19 PM |

F'n BRILLIANT!!

Courtesy of Sinfonian @ Florida Blast Off

Posted by Kevin at 08:47 PM |

When You've Lost Thomas Lauderdale, You've Lost The City

Chuck Currie notes dryly that the person who was perhaps Sam Adams's most famous supporter, Pink Martini frontman Thomas Lauderdale, has been at last been disillusioned and it took the possible demise of the old M.C. to do it, as PMerc's Matt Davis reports:

"I think it's a dog and pony show," he said. "This public process is a sham, because it's clear that he's already made his decision and nothing can sway him. Between this, the I-5 bridge, it feels like he's lost his stated principles from before the election."

"He's already decided," Lauderdale continued. "This process is fraudulent, and he is really alienating me. I was the person who stood up and supported that press conference, and you know what, I'm just appalled."

As far as I was concerned at the time, the idea that Sam would have sex with a young-but-legal man didn't concern me too much (though these May-December things leave me a little creeped). That he was gay ... well, if you didn't know that, what cave were you livin in?

What was important to me was that he cynically used the stored-up goodwill of the people of Portland who supported him to save his political skin so he could go on to be mayor, then when cornered admit that he did it after all anyway. I thought it indicated a flaw in character and judgement that may or may not get the pass in personal life but would bode naught but ill in a person in political power.

But I was still willing to give him a chance, and actually, amongst my friends (most of whom who supported Sam and had sympathy) I was a bit of a minority.

While it seems a little silly the way Thomas L. has come round, a lot of people I know who were willing to give Sam a chance have come round, precisely because of the same things that soured Thomas – the Major League Soccer deal, the potential razing of the M.C. for a minor league ballpark – that he insists on following at, apparently all costs.

Chuck Currie still says Sam should resign. And I agree.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:16 PM |

Prairie2 Has The Teabaggers' Number

"Prairie2" is the net-handle of a person who writes economic commentary and sends them in email form to the Mike Malloy radio program. It's easy to dismiss a semi-anonymous emailer to a liberal's talk radio program as a crackpot but you begin to read his stuff and you realize, pretty quick, that Prairie2 knows where of he speaks and he speaks so you can understand what's going on.

He's like Nouriel Roubini for the rest of us, and what's better is, you don't have to subscribe to him to get his good stuff. You don't even have to listen to Mike Malloy to get the latest word – Mike Malloy being the acquired taste that he is.

Prairie2 has the most succinct view of the Teabagging movement that there can be, and it deserves to be read by everyone (all typos his):

the low income tax protesters must realize how they don't pay that much tax but they have been brain washed into thinking that they are low income because the rich are being overtaxed. If corporations didn't have to pay any taxes their wages would be higher. The reality of course is that few corporations pay any taxes and some even make a net gain from the public trough.

They also believe that someday they might be rich, not grasping the reality that they have half the chance of upward mobility of somebody born in socialist Sweden. They also believe that the rich would invest more if they didn’t have to pay any taxes. The really rich only pay an average of 17% income tax and no fica taxes. These morons are paying more on every dollar than the super rich now.

They should be protesting, they have every right to be angry. The protesters just don’t have a clue who they really are. They think that they are the upper class that is being repressed by the liberals in government. If the liberals would just go away then they would have the income they deserve.

Follow Prairie2 if you're the kind who wants to know what's coming and which way you might have to jump. I recommended him on my original blog and I'm doing it here too.

Dept of Corrections: at least one of the links to Prairie2 News was miscoded and has been updated. Sorry if I led anyone astray there.

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:50 PM |

Tea-bagging in Forest Grove w/pics!

After a phone tip from Carla that there was going to be a Tea-Bagging event out here in Forest Grove I grabbed my camera and headed down to see what I could see. I've got color commentary and pics after the fold.

The small group was mostly older folks.

But there were a few kids too. Don't look like they're having fun, do they?

It was interesting to see the diversity of messages on the signs. This guy was clearly worried about the "New World Order." Funny, I haven't heard much about that particular fear since the last time there was a Democrat in the White House. Coincidence? I doubt it.

I can only assume this guy on the far left thought this was a witty play on words... It's hard to read but it says, "Stop Obama End Abomination"

Ditto for this guy.

Yeah, 'cause poor folk tend to horde their money and spent a lot of it vacationing outside of the country...

Interestingly, a bit later as I was taking pictures on a street corner a car stopped at the red light and the driver rolled down his window and asked the Tea-Baggers urging him to honk his horn, "where were you guys when Bush was running up the debt? Where were you when Reagan was?"

The assembled Tea-Baggers were utterly dumb-struck. As in, they didn't make even a peep. Silence! Then the light turned green and the guy drove off. As he did I overheard the guy he'd been directing his questions to complain to another fellow that he didn't even know what his sign said. He said he'd just been handed a sign and he'd headed for the sidewalk to join in the sign waving. At which point he was peering over the top of the sign he was holding to see what it actually said!

It was heartwarming to see the dedication sans comprehension or even curiosity. These were foot soldiers and like good foot soldiers they weren't there to ask questions but to do as they were directed.

Personally, I'd have wanted to know what the sign said BEFORE I agreed to wave it at traffic.

Furture? I wonder if this kid is home-schooled?

I saw the Forest Grove News Times Publisher-Editor John Schrag and Photo Editor Chase Allgood there. That would be Chase with the camera and John is just to his right with folded arms and holding the time-honored tools of his trade - a notepad and pen.

I spoke to Chase briefly a little bit later and he remembered me from the article which the News Times did on me a year ago. I asked him when they were going to publish their piece on the Tea-Baggers and he said to ask John, which I never got around to doing. But I see that it's up already: Tax protesters stage 'tea party' in Forest Grove.

It's a little hard to read the sign in the middle but it says, "Don't spread the wealth, spread my work ethic." The woman in front of him is holding a mass-produced sign saying the same basic thing.

Apparently the message here is that people are being laid off because they don't work hard enough rather than... oh, I dunno... the CREDIT CRUNCH and RECESSION forcing businesses to cut back their work forces.

Nice to know that the Tea-Baggers believe that it's your own damn fault, huh.




There's a story that goes with these next two but first the pics...

You can sorta make out in the first pic part of what was written on the back side of this sign these two women were holding. It appeared to be a cheat sheet for what to say if they get questioned by the media or challenged by a Democrat. (or do you suppose they'd see that as redundant?) The point being that they could hold the sign so that the message on the front is facing the media/Democrat and the person holding the sign could reference the cheat sheet on the back to help them stay on-message.

What really caught my interest was the last line at the bottom where it says that whomever is answering the questions is a Democrat.

I happened to take most of these pics while leaning against a telephone pole directly behind them. Once I realized what was on the backside of the sign I made multiple attempts to capture what it said but these were the best I could do without giving away what I was trying to document. I suppose someone with digital editing software could lift the entire thing from the second pic with a bit of work.

The backstory here is priceless! The two older women holding the sign, along with an older gentleman who may have been married to one of them, would cross the crosswalk every time there was a red light... holding the sign so that oncoming traffic could see it and of course they were doing their damndest to draw attention to the sign as they walked.

So, after a while the one woman comments to the other one that "we should sing our song." And they cross a couple more times while I'm absorbed in trying to get good pictures. Then as they came back across I heard what they were singing: This Land is Your Land by that famous bleeding-heart liberal Woody Guthrie. Well, as later pics will demonstrate, these were all died-in-the-wool conservatives and so I waited until they finished crossing and had situated themselves back on the sidewalk as the light changed and traffic drove by once again. Then I leaned over and said, "you do know that song was written by a staunch progressive, right?" ROFL - I wish I had snapped a picture of their faces. They were APPALLED!! The one woman complained under her breath that she'd been teaching that song to kids for 20 years! I don't think informing her that she had just contracted Leprosy would have been received as worse news. I just chuckled and went back to taking pictures.

I was both struck by and fascinated by how many of the signs had little or nothing to do with taxes.

This guy's only beef is apparently cap & trade systems...

Maybe someone can explain this one to me because, frankly, taken at face value it is incredibly cold-hearted. Although it's face value reading would be consistent with the "greed is good" philosophy ubiquitous among conservatives.

Apparently taxes aren't the problem, progressives are. 'Cause everyone knows that the only true patriots are conservatives. At least according to conservatives...

Naturally there were multiple Nazi references...

This one was nearly impossible to read in person. It's actually a bit easier as a photograph but still is barely legible. It says, "the only sign I can afford after (swastika) taxes!!!!"

Of course if he only had the work ethic of the previously photographed demonstrators then he'd have been able to afford a nicer sign, right?

This one speaks for itself.

'Cause, y'know... Hitler's Brown Shirts were widely known for trying to register the disenfranchised to vote.

Last but not least... the anti-socialist signs. Which, if I'd been able to get anyone to take a bet on it I would be independently wealthy right now 'cause these were exactly what I expected to see and they fully met my expectation.

I've mentioned before that I used to be a conservative Republican, right? Yeah, I know how they think...

This one is a bit hard to read. It says, "Europe is NO Model! Socialism = Poverty for All"

Isn't it sweet to see his mom there next to him as he is indoctrinated into how to demagogue? And WE are the ones without "family values"???

So that was my adventure this afternoon. I spent one hour and left.

Posted by Kevin at 07:06 PM |

Tea Parties are Grassroots? My Sweet Backside!

When we hear about the teabag parties, we are regaled almost to death about how they are grassroots and of the people.

Yeah, maybe. And then again, maybe not.

I went on a search today to find out what names tend to attach themselves to this meme. Over and over I found the organization chaired by former conservative Republican Congressman and author of the Contract on America, Dick Armey's organization "FreedomWorks".

Whenever neocons use the word "Freedom" to describe what they're doing, that sets off a red flag for me. But nevermind that now. On we go.

This from this article on TPMDC:

John Hendricks turns out to be John Hendrix, who by phone earlier today described the events as completely spontaneous. "These are independent groups, not coordinated," he says, "and most of the people, including myself, have never done anything like this." He even said that two distinct groups in Tampa emerged simultaneously--both called the "Tampa Tea Party," each unbeknown to the other.

I asked him where the idea came from. "Tom Gaithens," Hendrix said. "He's with FreedomWorks."

"Oh really?"

"He sent an email out with his network of contacts to see who could help."

Well, if they were "spontaneously organized", FreedomWorks sure didn't turn down the chance to add momentum to it.

But that's not all. FOX News, desperate get their hands on this post-Reagan era hook, were all to eager to jump on this bandwagon. Think Progress:

The network has also been pushing the movement’s talking points, saying that people are “angry,” “upset,” and “feeling disenfranchised,” which is why they’re organizing this “nationwide grassroots movement.” Promising “fair and balanced” coverage, hosts such as Glenn Beck, Neil Cavuto, and Sean Hannity are all planning to broadcast live from the events. The Fox broadcasts are in turn being used by the tea party organizers to promote their protests.

And if you go down the article ... there's FreedomWorks again:

Fox News isn’t the only right-wing organization involved in building up these so-called “grassroots” events. The tea parties have been heavily backed by corporate lobbyists. The principle organizers of many of the local events are actually the lobbyist-run think tanks Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, and Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions. The groups are heavily staffed and well funded, and are providing all the logistical and public relations work necessary for planning coast-to-coast protests.

Now, that's what I call grassroots!

Sure, few of the organizers had little experience. No experience was necessary.

But what if they're right and I'm wrong? What if there really is a searing wave of Obama-stimulus-hating sentiment out there and I'm just too liberal to see it? What if the country is full of unjust taxation without representation, as the people see it?

Come down from the rare air of punditry with me and check in with the folks at Gallup, via US News and World Report:

According to Gallup, for only the second time in more than half a century, a plurality of Americans (48-46 percent) think that they're paying the proper amount of taxes. The only other time that that has been true since 1956 was in 2003 when 50 percent of Americans felt they were paying the right amount in taxes. Drilling down a bit deeper, the slim plurality comes entirely from Democrats, who 55-40 think we're paying the right amount of taxes (up sharply from 2008 when they thought so 47-45). Independents narrowly disagree, with 48 percent saying taxes are too high and 46 percent saying they're just right--though that figure too has narrowed sharply, as it was 54-40 in 2008. And Republicans are not surprisingly opposite Democrats, with 53 percent saying taxes are too high and 43 percent saying they're about right. (Really? Forty-three percent of Republicans think taxes are correct? I thought it was an article of GOP faith that taxes are by their nature too high.)

These things are always a little complicated when reality intrudes. Bad Reality! No cookie for you!

There's a saying that two kinds of people are in the Republican Party: Millionaires and chumps.

I don't see any millionaires at the teabag parties.

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:06 PM |

Tea Baggers could care less about taxes

There's more where that came from at HuffPo.

Meanwhile, Rushbo openly admits that the tea baggers want Obama to be a failure. Taxes are nothing more than a smokescreen for these people.

Posted by Kevin at 11:18 AM |

Books and Their Covers

A 47-year-old, frumpy Scottish woman I don't even know has moved me to tears. I'm talking about Susan Boyle, who endured a good deal of disdain and disbelief on "Britain's Got Talent" last week, held her ground, and burst forth singing with a voice that one can only describe as angelic. You will be doing yourself a disservice if you don't listen to her sing.

So why did I cry? Well, I am rather susceptible to emotional responses to music, but that wasn't what really got to me. Rather, it was that I was every bit as shocked by her performance as the audience and the judges, and I was ashamed that I had been so willing to dismiss her based on her appearance. Even the people in her own village had no idea what beauty was inside the plain, worn cover of this woman who had given up her dream years ago to care for her ailing mother. But now that I've heard her sing, I want to know more about her and I suspect I am not alone in that. My shameful initial disdain became admiration for not only her talent, but her belief in it.

The hidden beauty in people is something I actually think about quite a bit. As a dinner-hour server at our restaurant, I spend a lot of time talking with a wide variety of people from all walks of life, and I am always fascinated when I get a chance to peek inside, beyond the cover, at the complexity and beauty of people. We dismiss far too many people based on their outward presentation. I wonder how many Susan Boyles are out there, having been given a tremendous gift that could lift people's souls, and yet they are left on the shelf to gather dust simply because they are bound in a plain cover. I, for one, am more committed than ever to pausing to appreciate the beauty of every human being I meet.

Posted by Becky at 09:15 AM |

Gov. Perry tosses rhetorical Tea Bags

It's interesting how, once again, we have an example here of a Republican who had no problem with the federal government dictating to the states when Republicans were in charge suddenly having a problem with it now that there are Democrats in charge.

I'm reminded of the old joke:

Q: If you separate the ego from the Texan, what's left?
A: A hat.

(hat tip: Random Thoughts)

Posted by Kevin at 07:51 AM |

GOPers committed to denying Minnesotan's Constitutional rights

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) reaffirmed the GOP Conference’s commitment to filibustering any Democratic attempt to seat Franken. Which is nothing less than another facet of their astroturfed "Tea Bagging" protest against not being represented by Republicans. Ignore the fact that Franken has benefitted from the legal process that Coleman initiated, and Bush's massive piling of debt on the backs of American taxpayers, and that the economic mess we're in was created by the same folks Bush joked were his "base". In all cases the only "justice" they perceive is when it's a Republican in office.

Posted by Kevin at 07:22 AM |

The douche bags tossing tea bags have a legit point

If you haven't done so yet you need to read Brandon Friedman's post at HuffPo: My Family's Experience in the Militia. The overlap between the tea bag crowd and the militia crowd has got to be close to one-to-one, springing from the exact same misinformed premise as they do. And as such Brandon's post is a must read.

But, as usual, along comes Pat Ryan cutting to the chase over at Blue Oregon in his typically succint and humorous fashion:

The fact that almost every one of 'em got a chunk of Obama's largest tax cut in US history, and that it was the last guys that got us into this mess, does not impress.

That's exactly what all this weeping and gnashing of teeth is all about. Have you noticed how the Astroturf... er... "grassroots" crowd only seem to ever get fired up when there is a Democrat in the White House?

But make no mistake about it, when the astroturfers complain about taxation "without representation," they mean it literally. Their beef is quite simply that they're not being represented by the Republicans. All the rest is nothing more than smoke and mirrors designed to befuddle the ignorant into thinking that all the hubub is about anything other than good ol' fashioned partisan politics. Unable to win at the ballot, they resort to throwing up roadblocks in the form of what they hope will be self-fulfilling prophecies. It's politics as usual. Except that the fallout from the astroturfers has historically incited people like Timothy McVeigh, Randy Weaver, Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon, Paul Hill and Eric Rudolph.

Posted by Kevin at 06:36 AM |

Comcast: Now Probably Officially Damned

That's the kind of thing that'll happen when you accidentally run Girls Gone Wild promos during the Good Friday service led by The Pope™:

Because of a snafu with Comcast's emergency test system, the live feed from the Vatican's Good Friday service was interrupted by commercials for the soft-core porn videos "Girls Gone Wild".

Either God or Satan's trying to tell us all something, but I'm finding the message pretty inscrutable.

Posted by The Chinuk at 04:55 AM |

Portland-Salem Commuter Rail? When Can I Ride?

Randy Stapilus at the Ridenbaugh Press lets us know that Salem's thinkin' rail these days:

So now imagine a connector linking to the south, running through communities large and small (Donald might be a stop, or at least slow-down point) on existing tracks. The significant number of people commuting or running back and forth between Portland and Salem could train it. (Especially if they start loading in wi fi throughout the system.)

It’s a big project at a time when big new projects aren’t much in fashion. House Bill 2408, which has a substantial bipartisan group of sponsors, doesn’t authorize the line, but it does create a task force on it and will wrap up a study on the idea, due out this fall.

Big new projects aren't much in fashion, maybe, but there are some we should be thinking about, and talking about. Regular rail service of any kind linking our linearly-arranged Valley population just makes so much sense.

I've long envied places that have lots of rail, places like America's NE Corridor, and Europe, where you don't have to have a car to get out of town. They always seemed to have more of a sense of community spread out over wide areas. It's as though the train is a very democratizing thing.

I think of this an imagine going down to see friends and family in Salem, and making it on a train, watching the small towns and the fields go by, and rubbing shoulders with all sorts of interesting people of all levels that I wouldn't see or hear otherwise.

Just talking about this seems full of win to me.

Posted by The Chinuk at 03:47 AM |

We Thought The Macarena Would Never Die, Too.

(via)What do you get when you mix Twitter with Travel Portland (nee POVA)

A Twisitor Center.

Will someone please, please make them stop?

Also, something sounds kind of naughty-in-the-bad-way about "twisitor". I'm sorry, it just does.

Posted by The Chinuk at 03:33 AM |

ASU Makes Up For No Obama Honorary Degree. Kinda.

I was one of the many stunned when it was announced that Arizona State University had decided not to award an honorary degree to President Barack Obama.

Well, no. Stunned is maybe overstating it, mea maxima culpa. But it did seem kind of bizarre. To explain that it required that he have a body of "lifetime achievement" seemed to be weasel words to me.

After all, if being elected the nations first African-American President doesn't suitably impress, I don't think anything will. Like I said in my other blog, it's like not giving Neil Armstrong credit for being the first man on the moon because he didn't do it twice.

Weasel words. Only they know why, and they aren't telling. But we notice that Canada's Kim Armstrong was awarded an honorary degree at an ASU commencement, just for being the first female ... Prime Minister of Canada. So maybe the President wasn't female enough, or Canadian enough.

(A list of ASU commencement speakers who received honorary degrees can be found here. Some years, several were given out. Maybe they couldn't get one back from the printer in time. These things happen)

Now, it seems, with PR mud all over the school's face, ASU has decided to try and make it up ... kind of. Sam Stein at HuffPo:

In a press release sent out by ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keeler, the university "apologized" for the "confusion" over the past few days. Its president Michael Crow, meanwhile, framed the "President Barack Obama Scholars" program as a higher honor than the honorary degree, one that would "affect the lives of thousands of students" and be "an honor befitting, not only the president's exceptional achievements, but also his values as an individual."

Well, that was well spoken. And it doesn't seem like damning with faint praise, so this contains some degree of win.

But what's this? The Politico reported that Terri Shafer, ASU's Associate VP for Marketing and Strategic Communications said the following:

We could have—and probably would have—awarded an honorary degree to the president before this controversy erupted. But after it started, we determined it would not be appropriate to offer a degree to President Obama under circumstances in which the offer might not be considered to be genuine or positive.

So, they just might have awarded the President the honorary degree that they give to a lot of other people with stellar achievements without troubling too much about long they've been doing whatever it was they were doing, if we all hadn't gotten so het-up about the fact that they weren't going to give him the award they might have given him.

That they weren't going to give to him.

Wow. My head just asploded.

Posted by The Chinuk at 02:34 AM |

April 14, 2009

The "Party of Life" is inept at actually saving life

When Columbia Professor David Bucker passed out on Beck's set as cameras rolled, Beck's people initially react like a deer staring at bright headlights:









There's a recurring theme here.

Remember back when then Senator Chic Hecht (R-NV) choked on a piece of Apple during a Republican luncheon in 1988? And the assembled Republicans reacted like a gaggle of deer staring at bright headlights? And it took Senator John Kerry (D-MA) stepping out of an elevator, immediately sizing up the situation and quickly proceeding to save Hecht's life, or at least his brain function?

Why is the Party of "life" so inept at actually saving life?

Posted by Kevin at 03:33 PM |

Tax Time and The High Price of Being Teh Gay

You (and by you I mean my fellow Oregonians) may have noticed a certain abbreviation on the tax forms alongside of spouse this year).

RDP. Registered Domestic Partner, so.

So famous local blogger Lelo and her partner filed jointly. How'd they do?

Well, just go to Lelo's blog to read it. Two things:

1. Have a hit of insulin on hand, because they make one cute couple.
2. Be sitting down. You'll get sticker shock.

Can we have a little marriage equality? Or maybe a lot?

Posted by The Chinuk at 03:23 AM |

April 13, 2009

1 Million Free Computer Course Vouchers For Washington State

Item (The Seattle Times):

Some Microsoft tech courses, exams to be free

Microsoft announced those plans Sunday, one part of a three-year job-training effort it calls Elevate America. The company says it will offer 1 million vouchers for Microsoft eLearning courses and select certification exams, such as those leading to Microsoft business certification.

Which is better than nothing, I suppose. And Free is a very good price.

Computer skills are important, but they've been pimping this stuff since I was a kid: COMPUTER SKILLS YOU'LL NEED FOR THE JOBS OF TOMORROW, only it turned out that the Jobs Of Tomorrow paid pretty much the same as the Jobs Of Today, except you sat in front of a computer screen all day.

Yah, sour grapes, I'll cop to that. But shiny computer skills will just be good for jobs in call centers unless there's a shiny, improved economy to go with them. I'm just sayin'.

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:02 PM |

Oregon: A Great Place To Be Unemployed

It must be. There are so many of 'em ...

Oregon's startling 12.1 percent unemployment rate will soar even higher,economists predict, possibly topping the nation's as financially strapped retirees and others seek jobs.

While job hunters multiplied and employment declined in March, Oregon's seasonally adjusted jobless rate tied the record set at the peak of the 1980s recession -- the worst since officials began tracking numbers in 1947.

Yay Us! At least we're #1 in something, yo!

Posted by The Chinuk at 10:35 PM |

Press Failure of First Dog's "First 100 Dog Days" Agenda Laid At Feet Of President Obama

(Mainstream Media) WASHINGTON DC, March 22nd, 2009 – Calls for resignation of the nation's First Dog – a six-month old Norwegian Water Dog named Bo – have been heard on most media outlets today over the failure of Bo to roll over on command, with the pundits proclaiming this a failure of Bo's "First 100 Dog Days" Agenda for Change.

While never actually announced by the White House, the agenda (based on 100 "dog days" derived from the statistic that the relative aging of a dog in its first year is approximatly 10.5 human years to 1 dog year) has been a tradition and a favorite of media watchers and pundits since the first First Dog to be so evaluated, President Gerald Ford's Golden Retriever Liberty, who was pledged to be a "good girl" during her First 100 Dog Days in the White House and, as most historians note, accomplished this goal with typically doglike aplomb.

Various First Pets has passed the test (except the Clinton's First Cat, the late Socks, for which pundits agreed would be pointless and just annoy the cat anyway) and in the heightened, Twitter-enhanced media environment of the day, with the nation hungry for change, high hopes were pinned on the First Pooch. For many in the media, anything less than perfection would be failure

Early on, conservative pundits were already working hard to diminish expectations, as Rush Limbaugh opined the day Bo debuted:

I have been asked to write 400 words on whether or not Bo will be able to learn a trick. I need only four: I hope he fails.

Pressed for more, Limbaugh only added "I hope he soils the carpet in the Lincoln Bedroom".

Within a day, the conservative press dogpiled on Bo. On FOX, Sean Hannity tried to make a tenuous, at best, connection:

Now, some sources have said that Bo has connections to William Ayers' pet dog. Say what you will, but we have sources which have confirmed to us that playdates were arranged.

On his syndicated radio show, Michael Savage opined:

This dog, who the Obamas got from Senator Kennedy, is a Massachusettes liberal who wants to have your kids study gay marriage in school, is probably gay married himself, and is fed by bags of IAMS bought specifically for this dog by ACORN. He's probably actually a cat.

Glenn Beck said several disconnected non-sequitur sentences, poured a bucket of water on his guest, then broke into tears for no apparent reason. Critical commentary by Ann Coulter, Jonah Goldberg, George Will and others were deemed to not be sufficiently amusing and were subsequently cut off and distributed amongst the poor.

On news that Bo failed to successfully learn the trick during his first 100 Dog Days, Lou Dobbs put the full stop on the story:

The first dog is a Portugese Water Dog. Now, there are many good American breeds that never got a chance due to this promotion of immigrants, breeds such as Schnauzers, Poodles, and Chihuahuas, but they were never considered.

When pointed out that the origins of those breeds were German, French, and Mexican respectively, Mr. Dobbs head exploded. He is reported resting comfortably at home, and should be back at his pundits desk within the week.

When reached for comment on the matter, the First Daughters, Sasha and Melia, were reported to be enjoying the dog's company and playing fetch with him.

When asked for his comment, President Obama said "How's that again?" and then returned to running the country.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:00 PM |

Teabagging: No Matter How Cynical You Get, You Can't Keep Up

(via) TBogg shares an email from Human Events that invites him to a possible display of his very own "tea bag" (if you know what we mean, and we think you do), that actually includes the words:

YOUR TEA BAG MIGHT BE ON TV APRIL 15TH

Why don't I try to mock the Teabaggers?

What would be the point?

When I started posting here I thought it would be tough to find things to post about. This stuff writes itself.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:16 PM |

3 Judge Panel Concludes Franken Wins, Coleman To Continue To Cry About It

(via the Twin Cities' Channel 5 KSTP, one of the most awesomest call signs evar) This just in: a 3-Judge panel has declared Al Franken has actually won the Minnesota US Senate election:

Over five months after the election, a three-judge panel has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race.

The judges issued their final ruling late Monday, stating "Franken received the highest number of lawfully cast ballots in the Nov. 4, 2008 general election."

They also have determined that Franken is entitled to receive the certificate of election.

But is it over? No, not by a long shot. It ain't over till Norm Coleman says it's over, man:

Outside the courtroom, Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg minimized the new margin because his side was certain to appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

"What happened today in the sphere of this election is really inconsequential," he said. "There's a much larger universe of ballots that should be opened."

Remember, people, it ain't over till the crybaby sings.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:58 PM |

Spokane Hires Carl Spackler To Eradicate Varmints

If you want any proof we're living in strange times, here you go.

Spokane has a ground squirrel problem. Spokane needs a solution, fast. Ground squirrels of Spokane, meet ... the Rodenator:

The Rodenator Pro pumps propane and oxygen into the tunnels of squirrels, then sends an electric spark that causes an explosion. The shock waves kill the squirrels and collapse their tunnels - but in a humane way, the agency said.

At least they're humane cave-ins. Oh, you guys are totally going to get it. You have until sundown.

This solution is full of win for just about everyone.

Except the ground squirrels.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:36 PM |

Gratitude amidst the flying tea bags

I hope each and every one of us pauses for a few moments on April 15, as the lunatic fringe toss tea bags, to be thankful that our having paid legalized extortion at the gas pumps last summer (remember $4 gas?!?) helped pave the way for Exxon Mobil to give CEO Rex Tillerson a 10% raise. Oh sure, myself and many thousands of others have lost our jobs. But that's no reason not to celebrate Tillerson's $23.9 million per year compensation package. By golly at least someone is getting rich at our expense...

All hail the allegedly "free market" which in it's infinite wisdom knows whom among us deserves to get a huge raise and who deserves to be laid off. Surely some of the $91,573 Tillerson is paid for his car and personal driver will... trickle down to those of us so utterly unworthy of such bounty. Right?

Kinda makes you wanna join the GOP and toss a few tea bags too, huh?

I mean, imagine how much greater the divine justice would be if in addition to losing your job you also lost key benefits like... oh, I dunno... unemployment benefits? Heck, your kids don't really NEED to eat, do they?

Posted by Kevin at 12:54 PM |

Anti-Semetic Israeli Army Rabbi says conservative's not Jews

This is one area where the neighboring Arab militaries seem more democratic than their Israeli peers. And here I've had to endure lectures about how much more democratic and tolerant Israel is compared to those narrow-minded Arabs...

Posted by Kevin at 12:38 PM |

"Anti-Christ" crucified in the philippines

I know that comedy is really little more than a form of social commentary which allows normally taboo subjects to be commented on in a socially acceptable manner. But renowned TV and radio personality in Australia John Safran takes it to a whole 'nother level where very few dare to tread. Past televised stunts have included running naked through the streets of Jerusalem calling for a priest to forgive him for masturbating in bed and a 2004 stunt for his award-winning series John Safran Vs. God where he tried to join the Ku Klux Klan in California. Clearly the bio of a guy unafraid of pushing the envelope far beyond where mere mortal comedians typically go.

Apparently Safran has decided to turn his attention to race relations. Over Easter weekend he had himself crucified in the Philippines as part of his new series called John Safran's Race Relations. Naturally he did it wearing a Monty Python-esque wig of long hair.

But he told the locals in charge of the traditional Philippine Catholic crucifixion spectacle that his name was John Michael and that he was a converted Roman Catholic, along with an elaborate apparent tale. Reportedly most foreigners chicken out at the last minute so Safran apparently won the admiration and respect of locals by actually going through with it and for not uttering a sound as the nails were driven through his hands and feet.

Having found out on Saturday that Safran is actually a Jewish comedian... well, the locals are NOT amused.

Buboy Dionisio, nailed to the cross along with Safran, who was sporting a Monty Python-style wig, said he could not understand why the comedian and his producers had falsely claimed to be making a serious TV show.

"John Safran gave us a false name. He said he was John Michael and he never told us he wanted to make a show that would say funny things about our religion and that would be anti-Christ," Mr Dionisio said.

"John Safran's producer told us he was making a National Geographic kind of show about different religious practices."

Safran, Mr Dionisio said, had suffered some bleeding to his hands and feet after the crucifixion but seemed otherwise OK.

The comedian and his crew - believed to be filming for an ABC TV series to be screened this year, John Safran's Race Relations - were threatened with deportation and forced to sign an affidavit pledging not to use footage mocking crucifixion rituals.

Mr Dionisio alerted the National Bureau of Investigation and the Manila airport security centre to hold the ABC crew if they failed to apologise.

So I'm wondering what it would take to get Safran to take on our TheoCons with his brand of comedy?

Posted by Kevin at 11:59 AM |

April 12, 2009

Looking Into The Abyss: The World Through Redstate-Tinted Glasses

Welcome to Looking Into The Abyss, our irregular series where we read something really, really dumb on a neocon blog so you don't have to, then, we mock it. Today: how to look at the world as a Redstate.com contributor.

To be a Redstater, you have to accept that there are two ways for President Obama to mess up:

1. If he does nothing
2. If he does something.

Moreover, if the situation is ascertained by the commander at the scene to be untenable and he acts according to his training, saving the life of a brave member of the American Merchant Marine recently in the news, that proves President Obama is a failure, even though he may have had nothing direct to do with the operation.

If the Government opts for negotiations, the President is a failure.
On the other hand, If the commander of the Bainbridge moves boldly when the occaision demands and succeeds, the President is a failure.

Just another mental triumph for the Hate America First crowd.

This has been Looking Into The Abyss. Remember, look too long into the abyss, and the abyss looks into you. Now I need a stiff drink and a shower.

(H/T Carla "The Unimpeachable" Axtman at BlueO, where they have a lively discussion going on)

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:29 PM |

Maybe He Had An Emergency Easter Service To Give

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church: Tough enough to do the invocation at the Obama inaugural, but not tough enough for ...

... Boy George Stephanopolous?

Instead of explaining contradictory statements over his actions regarding California's Prop 8 on same-sex marriage, Rick Warren went with Plan B today: He didn't show up for a planned interview on ABC's "This Week."

It has struck me as Alanis-level ironic that my first two posts for PK done after my debut on Easter-freakin'-Sunday had to do with Evangelical pastors.

I mean, what are the odds?

(via Jonathan Martin @ Politico)

Posted by The Chinuk at 12:02 PM |

Dobson Surrenders, or: Alert General Soros: Operation Streisand Is A Success!

Paster James "Focus on the Family" Dobson, admitting that the Godless Left has in fact drank his milkshake:

Leading evangelicals have admitted that their association with George W. Bush has not only hurt the cause of social conservatives but contributed to the failure of the key objectives of their 30-year struggle.

James Dobson, 72, who resigned recently as head of Focus on the Family - one of the largest Christian groups in the country - and once denounced the Harry Potter books as witchcraft, acknowledged the dramatic reverse for the religious Right in a farewell speech to staff.

Can we retire the term social conservative yet?

(via Radical Russ @ Pam's House Blend)

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:26 AM |

Heck yes!

US sea captain freed in swift firefight.

This is exactly the approach I have been hoping and trusting that our political and military leaders were pursuing. Against the backdrop of many nations meekly paying ransoms to Somali pirates it makes me feel distinctly proud that we've not followed suit and instead followed the French model in both refusing to pay ransoms AND instead unleashing our military on them.

F^@# with us at your own peril, pirates!

Posted by Kevin at 11:24 AM |

April 11, 2009

Lovely To See You

Wonderful day/For passing my way/Knock on the door/And even the score/With your eyes/Lovely to see you again, my friend/Walk along with me to the next bend
-Justin Hayward

When Kevin approached me about writing for Preemptive Karma, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised and flattered.

Hello to everyone. Those of you who know me know me as The Chinuk, and my launch pad is known as Real Oregon Reality, on which I billed myself lightheartedly as "The West Coast Atrios", after a man whose blog I've been following for a very long time and which I found inspiring. And I've loved reading political blogs for some time.

I didn't set out to be net.famous or net.notable, just to blow off steam and do what I love – write. Fate and Kevin, it seemed, had other ideas ...

If you want to assess the cut of my jib, a great way to do it would be to cruise by Real Oregon Reality. At the top of the sidebar are things I believe in and try to speak out for; decent values which we are told, by pollsters who don't try to satisfy the conventional mainstream wisdom, that the majority of Americans actually want.

My country is down there some where, we just have to dig it out.

I like country drives, long walks on the beach, and Republicans who lose elections. Above all, I like talking about the things that concern us with a wit and a laugh if appropriate; I think our biggest problems can be cut down to a size we can start on if we find the humor in the situation.

A lot of things contributed to my political blogging, but the catalyst was probably the decision not to be scared of things anymore. The last group of players, that's how they kept people to heel, and I didn't believe what they told me, but they had me wary. One day it sunk in that being scared is what they wanted and I was scared a little, and that gave them power. I am not afraid anymore, and that gave me power.

It was just a matter of time before I started writing, I suppose.

Now, a word about the name. I respond to the handle The Chinuk, and at this time I prefer to keep an anonymous face to the world. But I will put this card on the table: though I call myself The Chinuk, I am not actually a native American. I am, in fact, of German descent, with ancestors who lived in the Willamette Valley east of Salem since before the 1880s.

When I decided to craft a handle, though, I wanted one which made people think. When the European settlers came West, carving (as the Firesign Theatre so aptly put) a new life out of the American Indian, they displaced, wittingly or not, societies that had been in place and evolved over centuries of living, growing, dying, fighting, and trading.

They may or may not have been perfect – who amongst us is? – but they all seemed to have a common ethic: live with the land, not in spite of it. The Chinook, the peoples who inhabited the area we now call greater Portland (amongst other areas) were more fortunate than most, living in valleys with rivers, lush vegetation, and plentiful resources, which we Europeans were quite happy to help ourselves to.

Fast forward to the present. The native populations have been pushed aside and marginalized, an end product of Manifest Destiny and an ethic of use-it-all, where we lived in spite of the land rather than with it. Other results (spoiled wilderness, global climate change) are all too evident now. As the Chinook had it, though, we have it lucky – enough of the preservationist ethic survived that despite aggressively populating the land, Oregon and Washington still look pretty good and survivable in these days of debatable climate and an iffy natural future – not the least thanks to skookum tillikums Tom McCall and others like him.

I see I've gone on a bit so I'll try to bring this on home. Bestowing myself such a name is an attempt to signify a debt owed to those who were here before my kin were here, people who held the land as sacred, an attitude that more of us would do well to try to sincerely emulate, especially with natural history on the bubble as it were. We white people have messed up an awful lot. It's past time we repaid the debt and the interest. Some are working very hard to do so. More of us need to join them. Being Oregonians we have a head start, but that doesn't mean we can afford to rest on our laurels.

I'd like to think that we of today, if we gave enough of a damn, could make ourselves into people who might be worthy of being thought of the Chinook of our own time.

We have a lot of making up to do. Those of us who haven't started, need to get going.

We are up against the clock, now more than ever. And, hey, anything's possible; next thing you know, I may finally learn how to play my bass and get together that Moody Blues tribute band I keep telling people I've always wanted to be in ...

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:24 PM |

April 10, 2009

Not good

This is troubling...: Warrantless Wiretapping according to the Obama DOJ

Update: This is too - Obama to Appeal Detainee Ruling.

I disagree with Obama on both issues.

Posted by Kevin at 07:00 PM |

Why not here?

Now why can't they hold The Porn Debate in Forest Grove? It sounds like fine entertainment. I'd pony up $5 to watch an aged porn star debate the merits of porn with a preacher man. In fact I rather suspect that each has some valid points.

Ah well... that's how it goes in a sleepy little private college burg like Forest Grove.

Posted by Kevin at 06:27 PM |

April 09, 2009

The Bow

Everyone's talking about President Obama's bow to Saudi Arabian King Abdullah. It was unsettling to me at first when I saw the photos and video of the bow because a bow to a member of the royalty is a gesture that is entirely antithetical to the very foundations of this country. But actually, I was even more troubled when I read that the White House was denying it happened, claiming it was more of a stooping because the President is taller than the King. I am no fan of lying. It clearly was a bow.

I can see why the wingnuts are up in arms about this. They still think we have elected a Manchurian Candidate - a closet Muslim terrorist sympathizer. So their first thought upon seeing him bow to the Saudi King is that he was paying obiescence. Not only is that a break from protocol for a U.S. President, if it was as they see it, it would be pretty darned humiliating for the country. Kind of like the way President Bush used to greet the King:

See, I really can understand the reaction to this bow, because in the light of my preconceptions about the possibility that 9/11 wasn't what we were told it was, seeing President Bush running around kissing and holding hands with Saudi royalty was anything but comforting. Male lip-kissing in our culture has an entirely different meaning than it has in Saudi culture. Kind of like bowing.

It is enlightening, in my opinion, to see how the bow was portrayed in the Arab press:

Muhammah Diyab, a columnist for an Arabic paper called Asharq Alawsat expressed approval of President Obama's apparent gesture of deference:"Obama wished to demonstrate his respect and appreciation of the personality of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, who has made one of the most important calls in the modern era, namely the call for interfaith and intercultural dialogue to defuse the hatred, conflict and wars".

If the bow was not meant as a sign of subservience, but rather as a sign of respect and desire to build a more peaceful relationship with the Arab world, the White House should say so. Denying the bow occurred when it clearly did occur is an admission that the White House fears Americans are incapable of grasping the message. But I am not sure the bow was planned. It looks to me like someone got nervous about a slip-up in protocol and shot their mouth off to the press without thinking. Had they taken a few minutes to think it through, they could have acknowledged the bow and taken credit for the President's having issued a culturally-appropriate gesture of goodwill and gratitude for efforts to smooth relations between the Muslim world and the West.

The ultimate danger here, unfortunately, is that by taking a step toward defusing the hatred between America and the Arab world, Obama will simultaneously be fueling the hatred between Right and Left here at home. The tightrope he is walking is a very dangerous one. His handling of this situation is not helping.

Posted by Becky at 08:50 AM |

Evolution, cyber economics and political karma

... otherwise known as Thursday's linkage fest.

Modern life's pressures may be hastening human evolution. Very interesting piece. But I predict that if science and technology continue to progress at present rates that at some point in the no so distant future human evolution will be rendered moot by scientific and technological interventions.

Michael Kinsley, who along with the late, great William F. Buckley, Jr. - both master practitioners of dry wit (Buckley having been the supreme grandmaster of all time) - has long been one of my favorite political intellectuals. This past Monday he tackled the central question vexing both the mainstream media and big-time blogs - how to generate income and how that shapes the entire process - with Life After Newspapers. It may seem a boring topic but how these things pan out will play a significant role in our collective near-future.

Also at WaPo, Michael Gerson cites a recent Pew poll and ponders polarizing politics and President Obama's role in it. Interestingly, Tom Carter recently tackled the same general subject but from a different angle with The Myth of Bipartisanship. Personally, I come down somewhere inbetween the two. Partisanship serves a purpose but has been perverted by the likes of Karl Rove, Stephen Marks, Floyd Brown and Lee Atwater on the Republican side and James Carville and Rahm Emanuel (whose current role Gergon ignores) on the Democratic side into a hyper-partisanship that is predicated upon winning by destroying. Partisanship doesn't have to mean being disagreeable while disagreeing.

Posted by Kevin at 08:09 AM |

April 08, 2009

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth

The End Times Prophecy crowd has their knickers all bunched up over an alleged diabolical plan by the US Navy to release depleted uranium, red and white phospherus and other weapons over Oregon and other Western states. This is supposed to happen sometime around this coming Saturday (April 11).

All our dreams, sacrifices, savings, and advocacy for our families, NW agriculture, and communities could all be undone by the US Navy's planned weapons test for this spring, and make it impossible for us to sell our land, homes, equipment, livestock, or crops; to get the medical care needed or have health; to have civil rights and human rights; use the Internet, or to steward our wonderful land.

Please immediately get the word out to all Oregon Farm Bureau and Country Financial members, employees, and friends... Once the cancer-causing uranium, red and white phosphorus, and other weapons are released above our land and in our oceans, it will contaminate our air, water, soil, food, and vehicles, making our agricultural products unsellable anywhere in the world.

Oddly, or perhaps predictably, there is some confusion over who will get blamed for it. First there is this:

Investigators say terrorists and pro-democracy dissidents will be blamed for the government-planned disaster planned for on or after April 11-14, 2009 covering over 134, 000 nautical miles before wind-blown radiation. Additional military exercises are apparently also planned for overland and urban warfare.

But then a few paragraphs later:

Insiders, whistleblowers, foreign intelligence agencies, and financial analysts report this is planned to be blamed on Iranians, etc., as an excuse for attacking Iran and controlling their water, oil/gas, and trade routes for more military, economic, and political control of the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the weapons and surveillance and financial markets. It is to increase profits in weapons, militarized police and mercenary armies, privatized water and food, surveillance, illegal and legal drugs, transportation, insurance, prisons and concentration camp management and prison labor, construction, military food contracts, emergency shelter and migrant worker exploitation (newly displaced and homeless people of the western states, and the profitable sale of their abandoned assets.)

That's just a brief sampling. The list of alleged goals goes on and on and on.

Far be it from me to question the eschatological beliefs of another. But I have to wonder just how profitable the alleged sale of contaminated, abandoned assets could possibly be?

Posted by Kevin at 07:47 AM |

April 07, 2009

Obama and Church/State separation

JTA has an interesting piece about how Obama
s faith-based office has specific goals.

Joshua DuBois, executive director of the office, said the goal of the Bush administration's faith-based office to "level the playing field" for faith-based organizations when bidding for government grants was important, but that the new president's goal was to utilize the knowledge and expertise of religious and community organizations to achieve particular policy goals. Those priorities include addressing domestic poverty and contributing to the economic recovery, promoting responsible fatherhood, reducing unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion, and enhancing interreligious dialogue and cooperation. He also emphasized that the administration wanted a "policy-based partnership," and that the office did not have a political or advocacy-based agenda.

As a staunch supporter of Church/State separation I was uncomfortable with George W. Bush opening the office of faith-based initiatives. I remain uncomfortable with it under Barack Obama. But DuBois seems intent on alleviating such concerns.

Strengthening the "legal and constitutional footing" and drawing "appropriate legal lines" for faith groups receiving government dollars were also a priority and another way the office would differ from the Bush administration's faith-based operations, said DuBois. He did not go into specifics on legal issues but told the group he wanted to "work with you all on that process."

But I'm still uncomfortable with it due in part to as yet undecided questions that go to the heart of Church/State separation.

The most contentious legal issue is whether faith-based groups receiving federal funds should be able to take religion into account when hiring, which groups were allowed to do during the Bush administration. Opponents say it amounts to federally-funded religious discrimination, while supporters say it is essential to maintaining the religious character of the organization. When Obama established the faith-based office in February, a legal review was in put in place but no decision was made on the employment issue.

Personally, I much prefer a sharp, brightly lit line.

Posted by Kevin at 09:58 AM |

April 05, 2009

Let's end our third world mentality: enact paid family leave

The United States, Liberia, Swaziland and Papua New Guinea. Such distinguished company! 168 countries offer guaranteed leave with income to women in connection with childbirth; 66 countries ensure that fathers either receive paid paternity leave or have a right to paid parental leave; 137 countries mandate paid annual leave. The U.S. is in the company of Liberia, Swaziland and Papua New Guinea in not providing Paid Family Leave.

Oregon led the nation with the first (unpaid) maternal and medical leave laws. Now we're trying to follow in the footsteps of California and New Jersey in enacting paid family leave. But it's not limited to just maternity/paternity. SB 966 would take 2 cents an hour from a worker’s paycheck to build a fund to pay up to $300 a month to allow a worker to take maternity leave, or to care for a sick partner, sibling, child or parent. 2 cents per hour would add up to around $42 per year for a full time worker, not exactly a huge financial strain on even the tightest budget.

As a long-time single parent I like the fact that this bill is gender-neutral. My oldest is grown and on her own and my youngest just turned 16 years old. So, there's only a short window remaining in which this could benefit me personally. But it's a great concept, as evidenced by the fact that the huge majority of nations already have similar laws in the books.

You can learn more here, including a factsheet for businesses. One huge benefit for small businesses is that this would allow them to compete for talent on a more level recruiting field with big businesses which provide paid family leave as part of their benefits package.

We can do better than Liberia, Swaziland and Papua New Guinea! There's a hearing in the Oregon Senate commerce and workforce development committee this coming Wednesday (4/8). Show up if you can or let someone else know who can show up and demonstrate support for this vital legislation.

Posted by Kevin at 07:57 PM |

Wingnut gun paranoia

Dave Neiwert publically asks what the rest of us were privately thinking: Richard Poplawski: Was Pittsburgh shooter driven by right-wing gun paranoia about Obama?

Not that what extremists spew absolves the gunman of responsibility by any means. But it frequently takes two to tango...

Posted by Kevin at 02:36 PM |

Uh oh, pigs are flying...

At least they are in Germany:

A German woman has divorced her husband because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time.

German media reported the wife got through 15 years of marriage putting up with the man's penchant for doing household chores, tidying up and rearranging the furniture.

But she ran out of patience when he knocked down and rebuilt a wall at their home when it got dirty, Christian Kropp, court judge in the central town of Sondershausen, said on Thursday.

"I'd never had anyone seek a divorce for this," he said.

Posted by Kevin at 11:46 AM |

April 04, 2009

Congrats Beavers - CBI Champs!

The Oregon State Beavers won the College Basketball Invitational championship last night, finishing the season 7-11 in the PAC 10 and 18-18 overall. Last year they chalked up the worst record ever in the PAC 10 by going 0-18 in the conference and 6-25 overall. Not only has President Obama's brother-in-law improved the Beavers' record significantly but they had to take out several teams with better, winning records to win the CBI - UTEP @ 23-14 and Stanford @ 20-14.

It's amusing to read through the comments to the Oregonian piece last year announcing that OSU had landed Coach Robinson. I wonder how many of those bitching and complaining still think that OSU Athletic Director Bob De Carolis screwed up or that Craig Robinson's system won't work on the West Coast?

Posted by Kevin at 02:34 PM |

April 03, 2009

Inspired by Madoff...

...but not by Sullenberger?

While I intellectually understand the Rabbi's explanation for why he admires the Wall Street con artist but not the airline pilot who landed his stricken jet in the Hudson River, I don't share his values and can't understand or share it in any other way. And I don't see any reason to believe that Madoff's finally admitting his Ponzi Scheme to his son was motivated by anything other than the desire to orchestrate the unavoidable in a manner which allowed him to avoid the indignity of a lurid arrest in front of his high society peers.

I wonder what the good Rabbi thinks of building a Holocaust museum dedicated "tolerance" on top of a former Muslim cemetary in Jerusalem...?

Posted by Kevin at 01:41 PM |

Why?

As the American job market continues to contract and unemployment figures keep going up, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plan to pay out $210 million in retention bonuses to keep employees from quitting? Where are they going to go?

Posted by Kevin at 01:15 PM |

April 02, 2009

You go, gurrl

British Commonwealth traditionalists are indignant about an alleged etiquette faux-pax by Michelle Obama, and I couldn't be prouder of our First Lady because of it. It seems that Michelle Obama touched Queen Elizabeth II and that's apparently not allowed.

The rules are set in stone, and so the eagerly watching British media sputtered when the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, briefly put her hand on the back of Queen Elizabeth II as the two chatted at a reception. Etiquette is quite stern about this ("Whatever you do, don't touch the Queen!").

Why, you might ask, is touching the monarch not allowed?

So where does this rule about not touching the Queen come from? The sovereigns of England and France at some point in their nations' long histories claimed a divine right to rule, a right often amplified by titles bestowed by the Pope in Rome. (The Queen, in fact, still has the title Defender of the Faith, an honor given to Henry VIII before he broke with the Catholic Church and established the Church of England.) That touch of holiness once gave the occupant of the throne the supposed ability to cure certain diseases - most famously, scrofula, a terrible skin ailment that was called "the king's evil." Thus, the miraculous contact had to be conserved. And so, whether a touch or a nod or a gaze, royal favor, like that of God, is not a subject's on demand; it is dispensed by kingly prerogative.

How entirely appropriate that the wife of an American President would violate this particular British royal protocol, even if unwittingly. Although I'm skeptical that Michelle Obama didn't understand the rules of the game perfectly well. Except for when it comes to political ambitions she is every bit Barack's equal in just about every respect.

Posted by Kevin at 09:26 AM |

April 01, 2009

It's about the WATER, stupid

If you didn't already have a reason or two to be concerned about Monsanto and the rest of corporate level agribusiness - not all of which are necessarily bad - add good old fashioned water to the list.

The March special edition of Scientific American has a disturbing profile on The Ogallala Aquifer:

On America’s high plains, crops in early summer stretch to the horizon: field after verdant field of corn, sorghum, soybeans, wheat and cotton. Framed by immense skies now blue, now scarlet-streaked, this 800-mile expanse of agriculture looks like it could go on forever.

It can’t.

The Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground reservoir that gives life to these fields, is disappearing. In some places, the groundwater is already gone. This is the breadbasket of America—the region that supplies at least one fifth of the total annual U.S. agricultural harvest. If the aquifer goes dry, more than $20 billion worth of food and fiber will vanish from the world’s markets. And scientists say it will take natural processes 6,000 years to refill the reservoir.

All of which puts the Victory Gardens of Michelle Obama and many others in a whole new light.

On a related note, I get the Organic Consumers Association's weekly newsletter Organic Bytes. And this weeks issue mentions a new "sustainable water" certificate scheme unveiled at the recent World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey. It's a laudable idea but it apparently only involves processed products and even then only packaged consumer products. To really make an impact commensurate with the very real threat to just about everything we take for granted on a daily basis it would need to also include fueling station's pumping fuels containing bio-fuels derived from sustainable water sources, not to mention the produce section of your local grocery store.

I know that many on the ideological right and even in the broad middle hear about these sorts of things and think: "enviro-freaks" or something similar. But I would urge them to read the piece on the Ogallala Aquifer. This isn't just some bleeding heart liberal scheme to provide clean drinking water to 3rd World populations, although, frankly, that need materially impacts us all even if we don't think it does. Depleted and polluted aquifers and rivers right here in America are a very serious problem which WILL affect the ideological skeptics and their children if it's not dealt with now. We can't keep robbing from Peter to pay Paul. It's not sustainable.

Posted by Kevin at 08:12 PM |