the watch

2003-07-24T00:07:00.000-07:00

We've Moved

Permalinks bloggered
Comment server down again
Update your bookmarks

It's gotten to be about that time. The new site, Pacific Views, will undergo some changes in the next few days, but it's functional. And what more could we really ask of a site that will work (knock on wood) more often than it's broken?

2003-07-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

Death in the Family

Send Cowboy Kahlil your condolences.

2003-07-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

Nifty Botany Link & Updates

Our very thoughtful reader, Carolyn, sent in a pointer to the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in response to a post I put up last week. I did end up finding what I needed, but interesting websites about botany are always appreciated. Thank you! :)

I am, btw, done with the insanely compressed botany class. Now I've started the insanely compressed inorganic chemistry class, and we're getting put through our paces. We just got introduced to Born-Haber cycles today (Born-Haber what? yeah, that's what I said), and will be tested on them Wednesday. Next time someone asks me if I'm crazy, it's clear that the only proper response would be "Why yes, yes I am."

2003-07-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

Recommended Reading

The farmer posts an excellent set of excerpts on Italian fascism over at Eschaton.

Check out the Bush Lied - People Died memorabilia store, and pick up something special.

Billmon writes about Tony Blair's white man's burden speech to congress, and clarifies (in case anyone were still uncertain about this point) why it's still a bad idea to launch wars with impunity.

Tristero comments on Eric Alterman's analysis of The Smoking Sentence.

Wampum has the good links and commentary on the Cheney Energy Task Force story, pointing out pieces by Tom Tommorrow and a Judicial Watch interview with Bill Moyers. She will be joining the Blogathon on behalf of Cure Autism Now, so go support a good cause.

A Rational Animal on they're not liars, just incompetent. Whew. I was starting to get worried there. Also, sponsor her for the Blogathon and support Relief International.

Go to Pandagon to get the goods on the new and improved ~~tax cut~~ job creation plan. We have increased the quota of bootlaces and the rations of chocolate, ladies and gentlemen. Also, we take a look at the transcript of the exchange that led House Republicans to call the police on a 71 year old representative from California. Finally, sponsor Jesse's blogathon efforts on behalf of Amnesty International.

From PLA, Bill O'Reilly wants you to believe that our government has a Rumplestiltskin department that can spin strawmen into gold. Also, he notes what Jonah Goldberg said about presidential lies back before there was a Republican Liar-in-Chief.

If you read this via Atrios: "Still, he and other Pentagon officials said, they are studying the lessons of Iraq closely — to ensure that the next U.S. takeover of a foreign country goes more smoothly", you might have been wondering (as I was) who exactly we're practicing to invade. Sisyphus has some ideas.

From Kos, where everything is good (as usual), there's a particularly troubling story guaranteed to bring "the tinfoil hat people from the woodwork" that the suspected BBC source for the allegations of "sexed up" dossiers has been found dead. Reading down in the linked BBC article, it turns out that their conservatives have learned a few tricks of blame misdirection from watching the Bushies:

...Robert Jackson, the Conservative MP in whose constituency Dr Kelly lived, said the "responsibility of the BBC should not go unmentioned" in the case.
"The pressure was significantly increased by the fact the BBC refused to make it clear he was not the source," he said. ...

Anyway, I'm back to the books, right after I stop by my kitchen for a tinfoil hat.

2003-07-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

Why we went to war

Uggabugga has a really exceptional piece reporting on a speech from Joseph Wilson (the Ambassador who debunked the claim that Iraq recently approached Niger to purchase uranium). Wilson has one point that needs to be repeated again and again about the responsibility of the US military (emphasis quiddity's & mine).

The question really comes down to whether it is the job of American soldiers to go over and liberate Iraqi people. And the argument that I would make is that every time we've had this debate - and it happens every four years when we do the Quadrennial Review - we conclude that it is the role of the American military to defend the national security of the United States. We have other organizations. We have other tools. We won the Cold War. We liberated Eastern and Central Europe without killing Rumanians, Bulgarians, Poles, Czechs, Slavs. It takes a little more patience. It takes a little more creativity. People in the intelligence community, people in the diplomatic community, people in the economic sanctions community, people in the political community, have to work a lot harder. It doesn't show up on your television screens as "Shock and Awe," the burning of Baghdad at night. Or the firebombing of Dresden. But it yields results. But this administration could not be patient.

Please read that speech. Wilson is right to be angry. I am too! I want this administration to be held accountable for their lies, for how they have tried to undermine our constitution and our democracy, and the deaths that occurred under their regime without benefit to our safety or our ideals.

Back in March, retired Gen. Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak suggested that we require the Presidential candidates take an IQ test before declaring their candidacy. Yes. please! It would prevent the "cult of bush" syndrome we are fighting today.

2003-07-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

Questions for Blair

Yesterday, Blair came to the United States to stand proudly with George Bush in his part of conquering Iraq and to lecture the Congress that they had a duty to bring order to the world. Wonderful.

Blair says he believes this war was part of a mission and that destiny requires the US to act. And he believed that history would forgive a mistake in starting this war:

Can we be sure that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction will join together? Let us say one thing: If we are wrong, we will have destroyed a threat that at its least is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering. That is something I am confident history will forgive.

Question 1: Where are the WMD? If the threat was so imminent, then shouldn't we have found something by now? Why would the world forgive a preemptive war that was started on lies when the result was to make the entire world less safe?

Blair also said that the Niger-Iraq connection was relevant because Niger had sold nuclear material to Iraq in the 1980's.

And one interesting fact, I think, people don't generally know, in case people should think that the whole idea of a link between Iraq and Niger was some invention: In the 1980s we know for sure that Iraq purchased around about 270 tons of uranium from Niger. So I think we should just factor that into our thinking there.

Question 2: Then why isn't the fact that the US and the west also sent Iraq ingredients for MWD relevant?

U.S. Diplomatic and Commercial Relationships with Iraq, 1980 - 2 August 1990: Overview
Items sent from the U.S. during the Reagan and Bush Administrations that helped Iraq's non-conventional weapons programs and that were shipped to known military industrial facilities include:
o Computers to develop ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons;[59] machine tools and lasers to extend ballistic missile range;[60] graphics terminals to design and analyze rockets;[61] West Nile Fever virus, a known potential BW agent, sent by the U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control (CDC);[62] the agents for botulism, tetnus, and anthrax.[63]
One study lists 207 firms from 21 countries that contributed to Iraq's non-conventional weapons program during and after the Iran-Iraq war. E.g., West German (86); British (18); Austrian (17); French (16); Italian (12); Swiss (11); and American (18).[64]
Throughout the U.S. exports to Iraq, several agencies were supposed to review items relevant to national security or that could be diverted for a nuclear program. The reviewers included the SD, DOD, Energy Department, Subgroup on Nuclear Export Coordination (included representatives from Commerce Dept., Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), the intelligence community, and DOD).[65] Sometimes CD did not send items to reviewers. On other occasions, reviewers objected, and CD still approved the items. Stephen Bryen, Deputy Under Secretary of DOD for Trade Security Policy during the second Reagan Administration, claimed that the DOD objected to 40% of applications that CD actually sent to DOD for review. Compare with a 5% DOD objection rate to dual-use technology applications for export to the U.S.S.R. during that same time period.[66]

Blair also stands by the British has additional evidence that Saddam was trying to get nuclear material from Iraq.

Question 3: Then why in March, did the British tell the IAEA that the only evidence they used to back this charge was the Niger documents?

The IAEA asked the U.S. and Britain if they had any other evidence backing the claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium. The answer was no.

I know I'd like to have some answers to these questions before Blair backs our Beloved Leader for his next war to teach the world the values of peace and freedom.

2003-07-17T08:05:00.000-07:00

Economic News Review

This morning I woke to good news. The group that decides when recessions begin and end have said the recession is officially over and, by gosh, its been over for a while. They determined that the recession actually ended in November, making it one of the shortest recessions ever.

Now all we have to do is to wait for that 4% growth that the White House and Alan Greenspan tells us is just around the corner.

I know that we in Oregon are very happy to know that the economy has been growing. We expect that it will sometime make a dent in the 8.5% unemployment rate we are enjoying under President Bush's watch.

Speaking about other good economic news on the radio. The Bush White House is quite sanguine about the booming deficit. John Bolten, head of the OMB, says that is all "manageable". And you know, it is all that excessive spending on social programs that is causing the problem.

A sharply different perspective comes from Jonathan Collegio, spokesman for Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group. In his view, Big Government spending programs are the culprit. He cited bloated budgets for the Departments of Education, Transportation and Health and Human Services, increases in spending for such programs as Head Start, and a farm bill that he called a "disgrace."
Collegio said the government could save, over the course of a decade, $13 billion by eliminating food stamp "payment errors," $33 billion by eliminating similar errors in payments from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and $121 billion by stopping Medicare fraud. ("Medicare fraud is huge," he said.)

I can hardly wait for the next tax cut we'll see out of the White House for next year as they stick to their annual tax-cut strategy. Grover Norquist is probably auctioning off who will be the lucky recipients for it right now.

George Bush did promise to do for America what he did for Texas. It's just that we get to enjoy the results of his policies while he is still in the White House rather than having to wait until he moved on.

Now if you really want to learn something about what all of this means, visit MaxSpeak who says that his group measures the economic cycle by when the unemployment numbers start to change. Under their rules, the recession doesn't seem to be over yet.

2003-07-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

Odds & Ends

One of the ways the radical right is moving the country to the right is by undermining the public's trust in the institutions that serve the country. The main way they do this is by framing and focusing on wedge issues that for many people seem like common sense positions. They've created a crisis of confidence in our schools, our universities and our government. Other tactics have been to repeat over and over again a particular argument so that it finally becomes perceived as true (ie: only lazy people are on welfare, public schools are failing, government regulations are bad, etc.). They are still talking about the Liberal Media when it is pretty clear that if there is one, it is a pretty marginal part of the media system which is now dominated by big corporations and big money. One area that they have not been quite so successful in converting to the conservative world view is in the realm of the progressive religious organizations. Well, perhaps it would be good not to be too complacent about this. The Right Christians writes today about how an innocuous religious coalition with many progressives on their board is actually getting funded by Scaife, and the president of this coalition fits in very nicely with the religious right. It seems like time to find out more about what is happening with this group and who is setting its agenda.

For a bit of humor, drop in on Ruminate This and check out Bush's careful attention to detail. [BTW: Isn't it nice to have Lisa back again after her move?]

Tristero has an eloquent post about Graham Greene's The Quiet American. What does it mean to be moral? Greene has always been a writer that illuminates this question well. As Tristero says: [This book] is must reading right now.

Gee, does the WaPo even read its paper before writing its editorials? In tomorrow's paper is an incredible story by Walter Pincus about how by March 8th, every piece of evidence that the Bushies used to claim that Saddam had a nuclear program to worry about had been debunked. So what does the lead editorial say?

Wait for the facts
A COUPLE OF questions have crystallized about the Bush administration's handling of intelligence information on Iraq. First, were U.S. and allied intelligence agencies wrong when they reported that Saddam Hussein continued to possess weapons of mass destruction and the means to produce them? Second, did the Bush administration deliberately distort the intelligence reports to convince Americans that war was necessary? A yes to the first of those questions would confirm a major failure by U.S. intelligence, one that would cause serious damage to U.S. foreign policy and demand a strict accounting of what went wrong. If the second supposition proved true, those war opponents and Democratic presidential candidates who claim a major presidential scandal is unfolding might find some traction. For the moment, however, the answer to the first question is not yet known, though the failure of U.S. forces to find banned weapons is disturbing. And so far there is no hard evidence that President Bush or his top aides knowingly falsified the case for war.

My question is, how many facts do you have to wait for before we have a formal investigation?

Update: One more classic piece of humor that I couldn't resist sharing is from Josh Marshall who posted this letter from a reader:

Josh,
I would like you and your readers to keep open the possibility that the moon may in fact be made of cheese, or at least parts of it. The Apollo missions to the moon only covered a small fraction of the surface area of the moon, excluding large, unexamined areas that may in the future turn out to be made of cheese. Remember, absense of evidence doesn't mean absense of possibility.
-Paul S. [named omitted by editor]

As Josh says, "Good point..."

2003-07-14T16:43:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

Wampum wonders if Howard Dean really is electable outside the somewhat narrow slice of society constituted by liberal netizens.

Emma at Notes on the Atrocities highlights an article stating that the CIA had already pulled the Niger uranium story from a speech. One that was delivered a few months before the SOTU. Also, it seems that even amateur doomsayers have been unfortunately vindicated.

From the Left Coaster, the multiple sources story the British coughed up on pain of humiliation has begun to unravel with a wicked quickness.

There's loads of good stuff up at Kos, but here's a sampler: Tony Blair now seeks to grant a coalition of western nations the pwer to pre-emptively invade any country for their own good, because it worked so great this last time. Bush lied, they died. Fight the lies, give through ePatriot.

Talk Left indicates that the LAPD has finally started to wonder what they were gaining from behaving like an occupying army, and about time. Also, Howard Dean had a pretty poor record as governor for defendants' rights, and would probably not be a reform candidate in this area. (Note to wingnuts: A defendant is someone who has been accused of a crime, and the term is by no means to be construed as interchangeable with the word 'criminal.')

Billmon takes us on another wonderful newspeak lesson, and added his view of the recent Greider pronouncement.

Magpie on the trend of musicians to bail on the major record labels and sell directly to the listener.

A little while ago, I asked Al-Muhajabah to clarify something about the Islamic position on the study of nature and science, and she responded with a wealth of interesting references. Also, as she points out, Kucinich will be in Seattle.

The Guardian: The UK Parliament is having a blogger's summit. Jack Straw says, 'they believed us at the time'. A sixth of British homes could be wind powered by 2010. The America that idolizes immigration isn't too keen on immigrants. A columnist speaks about how war and the curtailment of civil liberties was sold to the US in an advertising fueled climate of fear, and indicates that yes, unfortunately, people outside the US do indeed read Ann Coulter's writing:

...Of course, Coulter's column does not reflect the mainstream of US opinion. But it offers a telling illustration of the way that fear can drive people to say and do things that make them feel brave and powerful while actually making them less safe by fanning the flames of intolerance and violence.
Shortly after Coulter's column appeared, it resurfaced on the website of the Mujahideen Lashkar-e-Taiba - one of the largest militant Islamist groups in Pakistan - which works closely with al-Qaida. At the time, the Lashkar-e-Taiba site was decorated with an image that depicted a hairy, monstrous hand with claws in place of fingernails, from which blood dripped on to a burning globe of planet earth. A star of David decorated the wrist of the hairy hand, and behind it stood an American flag. The reproduction of Coulter's column used bold, red letters to highlight the sentence that said to "invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity". To make the point even stronger, the webmaster added a comment: "We told you so. Is anyone listening out there? The noose is already around our necks. The preparation for genocide of ALL Muslims has begun ... The media is now doing its groundwork to create more hostility towards Islam and Muslims to the point that no one will oppose this mass murder which is about to take place. Mosques will be shut down, schools will be closed, Muslims will be arrested, and executed. There may even be special awards set up to kill Muslims. Millions and millions will be slaughtered like sheep. Remember these words because it is coming. The only safe refuge you have is Allah."...

Feel safer yet? Well, go read the rest of the article.

BTW: If you live outside the US, and are reading this, I renounce Ann Coulter and all her works. Her writing is a trick and a trap devis-ed by Satan to lead us astray. [The previous sentence is meant to be read quickly, with the word 'devised' uttered as though it had three syllables.] Our only excuse for her is that it is not, in fact, a crime to merely be a lying, vicious, hypocritical partisan hack. Because as you probably know, we have enough people in prison in this country already. Anyway, how else would Republicans find press lackeys if all the suitable candidates were enjoying the hospitality of the state?

2003-07-13T18:23:00.000-07:00

Bill Gates: Doing Good

Today's NY Times has a very interesting article about Bill Gates and his philanthropy. The transformation of yesterday's Bill Gates, the man who would conquer the world by selling software, to today's Bill Gates, the man who now spends considerable time trying to do something about the world's worst diseases has been fascinating to follow. Bill Gates has found a cause and this cause is improve the health of the world, one child at a time. Some highlights from the article:

The Gates Foundation has pledged $3.2 billion to improving health in the developing world. (This constitutes half of the grants given by the foundation and 10% of the overall assets of the foundation.)
Over 180 million vaccations have been delivered since 2000 through the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization which results in over 100,000 lives saved.
The approach the Gates Foundation uses is "innovative, ambitious, and bold".
80% of the contributions are made through public-private partnerships and are designed to bring all the players needed for success on board.

Probably the most interesting program Gates has proposed is an international contest that provides grants to underwrite research to find ways to fight malaria and scourges of mankind. Putting together an international challenge to excite the top researchers throughout the world is a great idea and should result in some very interesting results.

If you missed the NOW program on Bill Gates in May, then checkout that extraordinary interview here. I love the story about what caused Gates to realize that perhaps computers were not the answer to all the world's problems.

MOYERS: There was a trip you took to Soweto in South Africa that was decisive in your thinking. Tell me about that.
GATES: Well we took a computer and we took it to this community center in Soweto. And generally there wasn't power in that community center. But they'd rigged up this thing where the-- the cord went 200 yards to this place where there was a generator. You know powered by diesel. So this computer got turned on. And when the press was there it was all working just fine.
And it-- it-- it was ludicrous, you know. It was clear to me that the priority issues for the people who lived there in that particular community were more related to health than they were to having that computer. And so there's certainly a role for getting computers out there. But when you look at the, say, the 2 billion of the 6 billion the planet who are living on the least income. You know they deserve a chance. And that chance can only be given by improving the health conditions.

When I get down thinking about the unfairness of the world and the policies that seem to promote selfishness rather than compassion, it helps to find stories like this that restore my faith in people. Bill Gates is following the tradition of David Packard in finding ways to spend his money so that it can make a real difference to the world and we are all richer for it.

2003-07-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

BuzzFlash Headlines

Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, and Root is raking in the Iraqi reconstruction dough, and their main qualification seems to be that like a certain famous mountain, they were there.

Fishy GOP group may be fined by Florida election commission for actions taken during the 2000 recount.

Wolf Blitzer takes on Scott Ritter in a failed bid to apologize for Bush's lies to the American public.

Tom 'I am the government' DeLay used the FAA to track down a Democratic lawmaker.

The minimum wage hasn't risen in seven years, but the GOP controlled legislature thought that $1.50 over two years was a little extreme.

BuzzFlash interview on the machinations of the Carlyle Group.

20 lies about the war.

2003-07-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

While playing hooky from writing about plant adaptations to desert environments, flying squirrels that spread very important fungi, and the origin of coal, this is what I got around to reading...

Beautiful Horizons writes about Uganda and the president's visit to Africa.

Tom Tomorrow's Great Big Book of Tomorrow is out, and you should go get it immediately if you like his work, or as soon as your budget allows.

Among loads of other good stuff that you should scroll around and read, the Sideshow brings us this truly mindnumbing quote from Ari Fleischer: "I think the burden is on those people who think he didn't have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they are."

BusyBusyBusy brings us O'Reilly missing the obvious (no way, dude!) and if you scroll down a ways you can find the debunking of the administration's lies about the Iraqi 'children's jails' that turned out to be orphanages. Yes, even in Iraq, there were orphanages. Go figure.

Pandagon on British intelligence wackiness.

Oliver Willis then points out that Australian PM John Howard is also taking hits for using the same bad African uranium claims that Bush used.

Then the Talent Show gives us Fox's fair and balanced take on the administration's word parsing, an analysis that truly deserves to be called Clintonian in its ambiguity and backtracking.

TBogg tells us about the CIA scapegoating, which has become the new Republican party game. We are reminded once more of Colin Powell's former job as a flunky who tried and failed to cover up the My Lai story during the Vietnam war.

The Likely Story then takes a detour from the uranium story shenanigans and examines Powell's case to the UN, which was supposed to contain a multitude of good, solid reasons for invading Iraq. As the author says: Nope.

Wampum's Flashback Friday, good as ever. Readers are encouraged to support Wampum's blogathon on behalf of the Cure Autism Now foundation.

And, btw, if anyone knows where I can find a good anatomical diagram of a poinsettia flower, some serious gratitude would be in order.

2003-07-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

The Good and the Bad

William Greider has been a favorite journalist of mine for a very long time. I never miss his articles in the Nation and I've bought all of his books. So I was thrilled to find out from Maxspeak that Greider is starting his own web page. As Max says: All self-respecting moderates, liberals, and lefts should add this site to their blogrolls. Yes, indeedy.

One of my favorite things about Bill Greider is that he really does believe in democracy and thinks that people working together can make a positive difference. So he's just finished a new book where he talks about groups of people fighting back and creating fairer communities. Just what I needed today after burying myself too deeply in the lies and corruption of this administration. Checkout Greider's rant today.

I probably should have gone with the bad first. One of the worst things about Bush marching through Africa at a fast clip is having to listen to the conservative commentators on NPR talk about how exceptionally good and moral Bush is. This morning Armstrong Williams said that George W. Bush has done more for Africa than any other president has before him. What with that 15 billion for treating aids and providing them opportunities with more trade. Why, no one thought of doing this before, and especially not Clinton. Williams' piece implied that it was Clinton's fault that aids caused so many deaths in Africa in the 90's.

Then this afternoon, on All Things Considered, another conservative commentator, Jay Bryant, seemed ready to declare Bush's sainthood. He talked about how courageous Bush was to dream to make the world a better place. Bush, according to Bryant, started out as one who believed in a Jacksonian foreign policy, but after the epithany of 9/11, he has been reborn as a wielder of Wilsonian policies. What this means is Bush is ready to use American might to teach the world American values. And as a deeply religious man, he is a latter day missionary who is brave enough to wear his heart on his sleeve. How could we have missed these selfless qualities in Bush?

I could have puked. This was definitely one of those times when I was ready to send mail to NPR asking them not to put pornography on the airwaves.

Aside: There are times when I envy Natasha for being in school. The classes can be so challenging and stimulating. But everytime she talks about coming into exam season, I remember that there were reasons I was happy to be finally done with school. Good luck with your exams, Natasha.

Update: Remember my campaign ad about planning for the aftermath? Look at this headline: 'No real planning for postwar Iraq'.

2003-07-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

Brad DeLong brings us the news that unemployment rolls are now at their highest since 1983. I'll have to respectfully disagree with Wampum now, and suggest that Bush isn't repeating his father's presidency, he's repeating Reagan's.

Wampum talks about how all the candidates except Gephardt are falling down on the job when it comes to addressing Native American issues.

PLA has a(nother) tremendous post on economic performance under the presidents by party, which responds to a critique of his original post by a conservative blogger. Links are included to previous discussions of other economic indicators by party, and if you missed them the first time around, go read them too.

If you haven't yet, go check out Autism Watch, where Dwight Meredith of PLA has several interesting posts up on the topic of possible causes of autism. I've been meaning to put up a link to this for a while, but darn those habitual reading patterns. Yet I've been missing out.

Al-Muhajabah reminds us of Frederick Douglass' 4th of July commentary, a statement that America can only be great when it lives up to the ideals that Independence Day should be about.

Jeremy at Frog n' Blog brings us a clip on the specially declared (for Bush's visit) Senegalese free speech zone, a football stadium to which local residents were transported and kept for the duration of the visit. Also, the nightmare that US voting is scheduled to become.

Check out Salam Pax' latest Guardian column.

Late Night Thoughts on why Japan never was like the US, and also on the planned approval of stimulants for shiftworkers. Let's hope that works out better than the military's approval of stimulants for pilots which I blogged about in January after an unfortunate incident in Afghanistan.

Billmon points out that the Bush administration is all set to let the CIA take the fall. Keep going there, buckos, you're rapidly approaching the more-than-you-can-chew part of your crusade to piss off everyone in the known world.

Note: Approaching the End (of my botany class), and the Season of Testing. I now know an appalling number of things about plants, but not nearly enough yet, and I'm working on a plan to use them to take over the world. Or maybe save it. I haven't decided. A tiny local coterie of plant geeks will be getting together periodically to study the feasibility of either option, and possibly plant some stuff, or do soil analyses. That isn't clear either. But what is clear is that posting may be light for a few days, and I apologize.

2003-07-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

Excuses, excuses

For all the hype about Bush's bringing a MBA's experience to the White House, it is not hard to see a lack of attention to certain little details, like how to plan for the aftermath of the war in Iraq. Today, the Washingon Post reports that Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith disputes the charge of poor planning.

Feith said in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It's not right to assume that the major problems in Iraq are attributable to poor planning."

However, how well they planned for the aftermath is clear in the number of US soldier deaths and the increasing tension found in Iraq. Fred Kaplan calls the military plan daringly brilliant and the plan for the political aftermath obtuse.

I am not surprised. Here is the type of campaign ads I'd like to see:

Preparation for going to War: Months.
Duration of War: 6 weeks

Wall Street Journal: 'Turn Toward Iraq' Has Been Made
Dave Eberhart, NewsMax
Monday, June 17, 2002
The Bush administration has decided to attack Iraq and military preparations should be ready within six months, the Wall Street Journal reported in a page one story this weekend.

Preparation for the aftermath: Hours.
Duration of US troops in Iraq: Decades

Restoring Services to Iraq Remains a Challenge: NPR Interview with Retired Lt Col Sam Gardiner
Linda Wertheimer, Weekend Edition
May 10, 2003
Lt Col Sam Gardiner was an advisor to the Bush White House on preparing for the humanitarian issues after a successful compaign in Iraq.
Q: Could this kind of thing been anticipated?
A: Umm, let me be honest. I briefed some people in the administration before the war. One of the officials said to me (a very high official), “We’ve already had an hour with the President on the humanitarian system. We’re done talking about that.” You see, if we had been prepared to deal with the humanitarian crisis, it would have delayed the war and as I detected, nobody was interested in that.

Check out Steve Soto's request for volunteers for our Truth Squad to go after Bush if you have not done so already. Here is a backgrounder on the Truth Squad.

Let's clear some scrub this year.

2003-07-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

Migraines, Stroke Risk, The Pill, & Etc.

If you have migraines, or know someone who does, then you should be aware that this condition poses a mild to moderate risk increase in the likelihood of stroke. If the migraineur is a woman who uses oral contraceptives, that risk is marginally increased. If a migraineur smokes, that's another increased risk factor.

But something that few are aware of is that use of the Pill can actually increase the frequency of migraine headache, and this effect may become more pronounced with longterm use. Lucky us, it turns out that estrogen is a potential migraine trigger, which explains why it's more frequent in women. When I asked a doctor about this last year, I was told that it's common knowledge that women with migraine can have episodes triggered by using oral contraceptives. Yet he said that this information is rarely communicated to patients due to concerns over liability for unintended pregnancy.

Yet whether you're male or female, use the pill or don't, if your migraine lasts more than 72 continuous hours (including time spent sleeping) you should seek medical treatment. The condition, known as status migrainosus, represents a definite increase in the risk of stroke. Sufferers will likely require hydration therapy, and perhaps other attention.

Status migrainosus is often a form of rebound headache brought on by the too-frequent use of painkillers, including caffeine. Too frequent is any amount of pain treatment use that causes you to get rebound headaches. But the need for pain medication more than twice a week should prompt you to seek preventive care, if you have not done so already.

A big part of preventive care often consists of identifying any food triggers that prompt an episode. MSG, almonds, aspartame, chocolate, cheese, and red wine are some of the best known. But there are many others which are far less exotic, so read up and examine your diet, perhaps with the help of a nutritionist who has some familiarity with food allergy and intolerance.

Other important self-care methods include avoiding unusual overexertion, drinking plenty of water, and getting adequate rest. If you note that sugar consumption or heat exposure affect your condition, try taking those factors into consideration as well.

Good health!

2003-07-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

Rittenhouse on our unserious foreign policy.

Billmon has another of his great quote timelines up, this time on the subject of whether or not the US needed to get Hussein.

The Apostropher on drug policy and budget shortfalls.

See The Forest laments the lack of context into which the pathetic faux news Americans are spoonfed falls.

Kos brings us the good news that a suit against Dick Cheney will go ahead.

Common Dreams: How short term thinking can ruin even the richest countries. The media ownership battle isn't over, so stay involved. Robin Cook warns people not to be distracted by fingers pointed at the intelligence community over Iraq, it was the politicians all the way. Bush's war against evil. Also, is "Nickel and Dimed" a liberal book? Says a detractor, "She describes Wal-Mart in horrible terms," he said. "She really bashes Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart does so many good things for communities."

The Bush administration claimed that Iraq's refusal to allow government workers to be interviewed in private gravely compromised the mission of the weapons inspection team. And they would know, because here at home, they're using the same tactic to compromise the 9/11 investigations:

...The panel also said the failure of the Bush administration to allow officials to be interviewed without the presence of government colleagues could impede its investigation, with the commission's chairman suggesting today that the situation amounted to "intimidation" of the witnesses. ...

2003-07-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

Check out the WMD 404 error. Thanks, James.

Bohemian Mama writes about our CEO president, points to commentary on african journalists with more spine than the honorary invertebrates that are their US counterparts.

Different Strings posts their results for the presidential candidate selector. I didn't save mine, but the top match was Kucinich, followed by Kerry, with Dean at a close third.

CalPundit brings us the joyful news that MSNBC has fired Michael Savage. And there was much rejoicing. Just one more scumbag to go, and perhaps the station can stop toking on that collective crackpipe.

Go to PLA for a listing of presidents ranked by job growth, very interesting. Permalinks bloggered, should be the top post as of today.

Tom Tomorrow says it's time to recognize the lies or be revealed as a "pathetic partisan hack."

Notes on the Atrocities brings us the life and times of USAG John Ashcroft, and highlights again Renana Brooks' analysis of Bush's bullying language in the context of a recent speech in a way sure to make Mary happy.

Lying Media Bastards on the now near total dependence of Iraqis on food aid. What was that saying? Live free and die... na, that couldn't have been it.

Orcinus follows the traditions of the great pamphleteers and releases Rush, Newspeak, & Fascism (this permalink bloggered, top entry as of today) in PDF format, with lots of new material. Also, a lengthy (could it be otherwise?) exposition of Bush's lies and why they matter. Unlike some people we could name, he's very clear about what actually constitutes a lie in this case: "Claiming to know something when, in fact, you do not know it (even if you believe it dearly) is a lie -- regardless of how you spin it afterward."

Randi Rhodes has a page of information on the run up to 9-11 that should leave us all asking "what did they know, and when did they know it?"

Magpie on the confess or die ultimatum being offered to two Guantanamo Bay detainees. Yeesh. It's not like we expected the Spanish Inquisition. (Crash) NOObody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapons are...

Were you aware that you could get life in prison for spitting on an officer of the law?

The Eyeranian on the fragility of democracy.

As A Rational Animal says, My God. To the good people of Nasiriyah, I can only say that I'm sorry we failed to stop this.

Hesiod talks about the influence of internet liberalism.

Angry Bear suggests that we look into Government Information Awareness.

Max makes a case against Howard Dean. Not against actually voting for him should he be the nominee, but against viewing him as a progressive political force. Also, the realities of the job market are compared to the promised job market.

Letters From Exile tells us what really happened to music CD revenues, and just below that, there's a document we should mail in its entirety to our sitting president.

Asia Times: India and China to hold joint naval exercises. Bush chooses former pharmaceutical executive to be the new AIDS czar. The US is fast losing Shi'ite support. Pakistan's summer of discontent.

Information Clearinghouse: Bush's Africa tour suspected to be a troll for oil. Speculation that Iran will be next, and discussion of the poor nuclear example set by the US and Israel. This just in: Baghdad set back to Stone Age. Venezuela to be penalized for refusing to grant US immunity to ICC prosecution. Coming soon to a protest near you, weapons of mass compliance.

2003-07-06T13:42:00.000-07:00

BuzzFlash Headlines - Read 'Em & Weep

The wholesale transfer of Iraqi assets has begun. A sum of $140 million in frozen Iraqi funds have been handed over to the Federal Reserve, an institution which, as you probably know, is neither federal nor much of a reserve. It's unclear as yet whether or not they've gone into the Iraqi development fund, and even less clear whether or not actual Iraqis will have any say in how the money is spent.

Brazil's pollution nightmare.

Texas Republicans pushing through redistricting.

Carlyle chief says that W was useless as a board member.

Laid off workers not finding new jobs, moving in with parents & friends becoming increasingly 'popular.'

Seven Iraqi police recruits die in explosion at a ceremony marking the completion of their training.

Was this AP story widely edited to obscure the nature of Bush protests?

Bush's good buddy Silvio Berlusconi of Italy also appears to have foot in mouth disease, and is considered by some to be a menace to democracy. He is also slated to be the EU president for the next 6 months, in a twist of fate that will leave europeans perhaps feeling exceptionally empathetic to those of us in America who regard our president as a mark of shame on the whole country.

2003-07-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

The BBC responds to the Blair government's fury over allegations of intelligence tampering. At least the PM seems to be aware that tampering with intelligence reports is a serious charge, unlike some world leaders I could mention. Mary, posting at the Left Coaster, has more.

Daily Kos is hopefully back. With any luck, unlike yesterday, the site won't vanish while clicking an archive link. Read up on: Ann Coulter's lionization of Joe McCarthy, US troop deployment figures and the need for allies in Iraq, and the rundown on Nancy Pelosi's success as both a party leader and fundraiser.

Talk Left brings us Amnesty International's views on the military tribunals being set up for unidentified detainees, legalized coca imports from Peru, and the War on Due Process.

Billmon on Bush's failed promises to the military, and the deep cluelessness of Americans of every stripe when it comes to figuring out those mysterious foreigners.

At Eschaton, Lambert posted on the corporate loot and repeat mechanism that seems to drive our government. After you've read it, don't stop there, too many good posts to link to.

Wampum looks at the unemployment figures, brings us our flashback fix, and seeks blogathon sponsors.

Ampersand brings us some Green party strategizing that has greater than a snowball's chance in hell of making a difference.

2003-07-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

Imminent Threat?

This article in the nation talks about the formation of the costly friendship between the US and Israel, and why the US government has become so sensitive in responding to (sometimes self-serving) Israeli threat analysis. And such a piece of analysis can be found in this Ha'aretz article on the Iranian missile threat, in part:

..."The radical regime in Iran is threatening the stability not
only of the state of Israel, but the European countries also," Shalom said. "Iran is a danger to the stability of all the world." ...

However, as the article goes on to relate, in this case the general coming in to replace Gen. Tommy Franks happens to agree, emphasis mine:

...The next commander of Centcom, Gen. John Abizaid, who replaces Tommy Franks on Monday, testified last week to a Senate committee that "Iran has the largest ballistic missile inventory in the Central Command region to include long-range weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems capable of reaching deployed U.S. forces in the theater." And he
warned, "Iran's long-term ability to develop nuclear weapons remains a source of serious concern."
He told the committee that "Iran casts a shadow on security and stability in the Gulf region. Iran's military is second only to the United States. ..."

Really? Second only to the US? I guess that means they'll really put up a fight, like the Iraqi army, which was at one point legitimately the world's 4th largest. I guess that means they could take on China or India? Kick Saudi Arabia and Russia around? Not likely. This (PDF) report from a Swiss organization shows the 15 Major Spenders in 2002, and Iran isn't even in the top 5. Adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), they don't make the top 10. The following table is a compilation, with troop data taken from the Strategy Page:

PPP Rank	Country	Nukes?	Total Troops
1	USA	Y	1,400,000
2	China	Y	2,100,000
3	India	Y	1,250,000
4	Russia	Y	850,000
5	France	Y	250,000
6	UK	Y	210,000
7	Japan	N	240,000
8	Germany	N	280,000
9	S. Arabia	N	200,000
10	Italy	N	220,000
11	S. Korea	N	680,000
12	Turkey	N	510,000
13	Brazil	N	285,000
14	Iran	N	500,000
15	Pakistan	Y	610,000

Now, none of the foregoing numbers guarantees any direct comparison. Troop training, equipment quality, and the amount of homegrown weaponry, will vary and affect how much bang you get for your military buck. In Iran's case, this table lists them as having 210 air combat units. But while their ground forces are in okay shape, years worth of parts sanctions has left their air defenses with far fewer functional craft than indicated.

As you know, this space is not normally the place for military analysis, which should frighten you. How dumb or complacent do these people think the press is that they'll just buy a statement that's absurd on its face. Something idiotic like: Iran has the second most powerful military in the world. Which, of course, is what it means to be second only to the US.

So, welcome to the pack Gen. Abizaid. Not even in charge yet, and already 'getting creative with the facts' for the big boys.

PS: Big thanks to my partner in crime for the Ha'aretz article & the pointer to the IIAF forum.

2003-07-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

Natural Selection In Action

Overwhelming violence rarely solves problems in living systems. Violence can certainly change things, alter the landscape, etc. But it doesn't tend to solve the problems that it was intended to solve, instead it creates a tangential problem space. It could be argued that, of course, it could solve problems correctly given sufficient information about where to apply it. But human beings are so notoriously lacking in the 'sufficient information' department that this allegation must be relegated to the realm of fairy tale for now.

We could consider the problem of disinfecting hospitals. For many years, hospitals lead the charge in buying ever stronger antibacterial potions with which to scrub Every Available Surface. As an end result, they became home to such virulent infectious agents that a primary danger to recovering surgical patients was secondary infection acquired at the hospital. The overuse of antibiotics has followed a similar trajectory. (This article covers it pretty well, though the author is a little light on his evolutionary theory.)

Or, we could look at agricultural pesticides. The unintended result of their mass application is pesticide resistant pests. Yeah, lots of insects, fungi, etc. die. But some will live, will become the dominant strain, and will take over the space left by their recently vanquished brethren. Living things of all kinds have been engaging in this kind of temporary one-upmanship for millions of years, very rarely with any clear, long-term advantage.

But the way it works is that varied populations of living organisms usually have some number of members capable of surviving more extreme circumstances. Under normal conditions, these individuals might not be the healthiest, the most fit, or even the most favored among their species. But we're talking about survival, after all. Wipe the rest out, the few who can survive will move in and take over.

And we've been seeing this in the extreme, in the macro, over in the Middle East for well over a hundred years now. After successive waves of colonization, puppet governments, the gradual accumulation of power in the hands of the ever more ruthless, survival doesn't always accrue to the best elements. When it comes to politics, to the actions of nations as a whole, it becomes dangerous bordering on suicidal to be gentle and civil.

This was proved by Rachel Corrie. Her mother made this statement on Mother's Day, in part:

...The International Solidarity Movement, the group with which Rachel worked, "was founded to provide the Palestinian people with a resource, international protection and a voice with which to resist nonviolently, an overwhelming military occupation force. ...Friday, approximately twenty military vehicles surrounded the ISM media office, seized ISM computers and video equipment, pillaged files and photos, broke equipment and damaged office space. ...The Associated Press states, "Under Israel's new rules, foreigners entering Gaza must sign a document in which they agree not to enter military areas along the Israeli-Egyptian border and 'other areas of combat' and in which they absolve Israel of all responsibility in the case of their injury or death." While the new regulations appear aimed at the ISM, the Associated Press states, "the regulations appear also to give the military considerable discretion in keeping away other foreign nationals--journalists, aid workers, and those trying to monitor the fighting between the Israelis and Palestinians." ..."

The 2002 death of a UN aid worker, and the shootings of others who followed the ideals of nonviolent resistance effectively neutralize the voice of restraint in Palestinian society. Every bit as much as the attack of 9-11 neutralized the voice of restraint and moderation in America.

The Israelis act out of a desire to be safe. Wounded America lashes out furiously around the world to achieve a state of safety. Indeed, every group or government that enacts a reign of blood and terror does so to try and make things better, to become safer. They frequently succeed in changing the circumstances under which they operate, of getting rid of some enemies. But their original goal remains tantalizingly out of reach.

In complex living systems, harsher attacks generate more strenuous defense. In the microcosm of the individual, they push us towards the least civilized, and most cunning parts of our psyche. It happens because living things want to continue living, and will attempt to destroy what threatens them if they cannot escape it. It can be forgotten that the mirror of that desire lives in our opponents.

We live together today in a knotty web of causality and responsibility. It's too easy to underestimate the strength of the survival instinct in others, to perilously ignore the resourcefulness of the human animal under threat. Far too easy to forget the things that tie us all to each other. Today, a target can be removed. Tomorrow, a wilier one will take its place. A battle can be won, but the war...

2003-07-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

Billmon put up a 4th of July post on the price of patriotism that's worth your while.

Electrolite talks about the duties of the justice system, and points us to Sisyphus' rant on what it means to live in the home of the brave.

Magpie wants us to go read Molly Ivins' patriotic commentary.

From the Political State Report, I find that my home state of Washington has recently joined California in getting the finger from the FERC.

The Mad Prophet has two posts in succession about the latest Coulter idiocy, and then pointed out the Anarchist's Wedding Guide - 11 Reasons Not To Go Through With It. This article is one which, if you're a guy dating a girl, you shouldn't even think about sending her. Untoward things might be Read Into It. But with an opening like "Besides costing enough to feed a village in Madagascar...", how could it not be fun?

Pandagon finds some exceptionally stupid French bashing. You could be tempted to ask if there were any other kind, but I wasn't kidding about the 'exceptional' part. Also, Jesse takes us on a quick tour of tax cut rationalizations.

Dave Pollard talks about the landmine treaty, and profiles three businesses that put people before profit.

2003-07-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

Further thoughts on Leadership

After presenting an argument about why I think George W Bush is not a true leader, it seems appropriate to give some examples of what I look for in a leader. This week, Allen Brill of the Right Christians has had a wonderful series of essays discussing Harry Truman (start here and work your way back up). Going into the 1948 elections, Harry Truman made a decision to integrate the armed services when the majority of the country was against it. As Allen shows, no one believed that Truman could survive the fallout, but Truman believed it was an issue that was worth losing the election over.

Allen then asks us to consider our present slate of Democratic candidates and to say how our particular favorite measures up to Truman's example. Do take time to consider this question and add your thoughts to this conversation. Even though I haven't yet settled on my own choice (not surprising since as Stephen at the Barricades noted, I'm a Dead Dog Democrat), I thought it was well worth considering. When I think of that type of optimistic, humanistic and courageous leadership, Paul Wellstone comes to mind.

Some might ask, well, doesn't Bush also make decisions that are unpopular? Why judge him differently? The difference in my mind comes in how the decisions are made and to what purpose. Both Truman and Wellstone were very open to hearing all comers and then making up their minds on what they thought was right. Bush, on the other hand, only listens to his own cronies. The purpose of both Truman and Wellstone was to build a more inclusive, fairer society. Bush, on the other hand, supports policies that creates winners (his friends) and losers (everyone else). Instead of deciding after gathering evidence, Bush's style is to pick the policy that advances his overall goal and then search for evidence that backs the decision. His vision for our country and our world is ultimately bleak and selfish.

Another example of real leadership is seen in Aung San Suu Kyi. Today on NPR, Scott Simon used his essay to talk about her and what the world has pieced together after the generals took her into custody a little over a month ago. It's been a horrible month for her and her supporters. She has been held in Mynamar's most notorious prison until just recently, and was only moved after UN special envoy Razali Ismail expressed deep concern over her detainment. Just this week, a couple of her supporters who had escaped to Thailand, gave evidence about the attack on her convoy leading to her imprisonment. The military government encouraged the mob and then took her into custody because, they claimed, Aung San Suu Kyi was inciting unrest.

When looking for courage, I often reflect on the example of Aung San Suu Kyi. I hope she also finds solace from her words which have inspired so many to face fear and yet carry on.

Brave people are not those who don't know fear, who are afraid but who carry on in spite of their fear. They don't say that they're not afraid, they are afraid but still, they're committed enough to carry on with their work, in spite of their fear.

When Nelson Mandela was finally freed after decades of imprisonment, there were reports of how his dignity and kindness led to his guards to grow to love him and so they found ways to care for him through that period. I sincerely hope that Aung San Suu Kyi also finds guards that will be a source of human kindness while she waits. Her safety lies in the international community who will not let her be forgotten.

If you care about this issue, please visit Amnesty International to help with their efforts to keep the pressure on the Mynamar government.

2003-07-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

Letter to Emma Bovary, 4 July 2003

Dear Emma,

I hear that you're building your little house deep in the desert. You're living for nothing now, I hope you're keeping some kind of record. Yes, and Firdowsi came by with a lock of your hair. He said that you gave it to him... That night that you planned to go clear. Did you ever go clear?

Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older. Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder. Firdowsi and I sat on the roof all night long and watched the sun rise this morning over Oakland. We didn't mean to, but we found it was somehow agreeable to talk about you. It was I who wept.

Firdowsi is doing well. You didn't ask but he is. He's tanned and working on something new. I told him again and again that the story of Rustam and Sohreb needs work. He contrived a plot device that sets the work in Oakland. He loves it here, now. He says there's something so glorious and splendid about this city that he could only put his heart in a story set here. And the displays of national pride today are really stunning. You would like it, Emma. I remember when you first came here and there was the airshow. Yeah, we look really goofy but we're fun to watch. The tiles of the Mosque of Dzheri Burown are glistening arabesques of red, white, and blue, and the muezzins are reading the Declaration of Independence. What fine words!

Yes, and the Okay City opened last week. I looked through my older letters to you and discovered I didn't actually mention the Okay City. It's like the Forbidden City except the opposite. Whereas Yongle surrounded his palatial complex with double walls, the Okay City is set on a hill surrounded by escalators and waterfalls between the escalators. As one ascends one is hailed by those on the down escalators, and we reach across over the cooling mists and clasp hands, or blow kisses. The grand arches sweep outward to hail the glittering lights and the glistening copper sheet that is the San Francisco Bay. There, beneath the colossal eaves stretching a dozen meters out from high stone pillars, with brilliant red varnished dragons with forked tongues offering benediction, are Gandarese sculptures of ecstatic apsari.

Firdowsi was impressed.

It's bright and sunny and I write this to you from a PDA on a howdah. Thankfully, my elephant is unperturbed by the cackle of firecrackers and the little children of all complexions running about with magnesium sparklers. In the shadow of the high stone pavilions, there are is the astringent odor of sweet rosemary olives and the spectra from sunshine through glasses of Greek wine. I see a procession which I caught on my digital camera--here it is!

Firdowsi says hi. Sincerely, J. MacLean.

2003-07-03T23:01:00.000-07:00

Bush, the unlucky?

Gee, all the time I've complained about Bush's lucky streak* during the last few years, it turns out that as usual with a compulsive gambler, his luck is going sour.

Outside economists overwhelmingly agree that the hiring slump, which is the worst in 20 years and the longest since before World War II, is not chiefly Mr. Bush's fault.
"He was unlucky," said John H. Makin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group in Washington. "And I would say I don't think the bubble was the fault of Democrats. People got overexcited. It just started to unravel in the fall of 2000."

And here all the time, I thought we were the unlucky ones having such a dorkus in the White House during these turbulent times.

* Bush's luckiest day: having 9/11 happen on his watch. America's unluckiest day: having 9/11 happen on Bush's watch.

2003-07-03T19:03:00.000-07:00

Community Meeting with Jay Inslee
Q&A Continued - As best I could scribble down

Note: For the sake of clarity, these statements are mostly being relayed in the first person. They are not exact quotes, as the staff requested that there be no recordings, and the audience questions have been significantly shortened (everybody was far more eloquent). That noted, I've done my best to make this accurate to the spirit of what was said.

Q: What can be done about pharmaceutical advertisements?

A: We can make sure that they're accurate. I haven't supported barring generic advertising out of respect for the First Amendment. Also, when drug companies create a relationship with a doctor, offering trips, or promotional packages, and patients come in with a problem, the doctor may prescribe that company's drug even when others may be better. Patients should not be denied information about other medication.

Q: How can our security be improved?

A: Police or military action should be designed to respond to modern threats instead of Cold War issues. We need to fix transportation and port security. Our intelligence system is inadequate. We don't have enough human intelligence in the field, we're too enamoured of electronic measures.

Also, we need to reduce the desire of people to kill us. A primary concern is to bring peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Two things need to happen: 1) Palestinian moderates need to confront the minority who will not accept Hebrew people in their region & push for contiguous Palestinian state. 2) Israeli moderates need to confront the minority who want to extend the Israeli state into the West Bank.

Q: Audience member made a statement about not being able to have unprincipled aggression without respect for others, expressed opposition to the way the Iraq war had been handled.

A: Congressman Inslee stated that he had opposed the war with Iraq. [At this point, and recall that the average age in the room was approx. 60, there was one of many points of spontaneous applause. This was also the only point during the meeting when the congressman was booed, and it came from only one (very noisy) person. The significant majority pretty much just clapped harder.]

I have concerns that one of three situations existed during the debate: 1) Intelligence failed, 2) intelligence was not conveyed to the White House, or 3) the White House did not convey intelligence to the public. It's impontant to the future of democracy to have a non-partisan public investigation.

[I'm including here an 'orphaned' quote from later in the session that relates to the topic of the previous exchange. I don't seem to have written down the question that it was a response to.] ...Quite a number of intelligence services likely told the president that Hussein was not cooperating with Al Qaida. I suspect that information was withheld.

Q: I'm concerned that we need to investigate the ownership of electronic voting, as some of these companies are part owned by Saudi Arabian investors. What are we doing to implement a paper trail?

A: We're very concerned about this issue, and we're looking right now at supporting a bill with congressman Rush to require a paper trail in all electronic voting systems. Additionally, I'm also looking into another bill the congressman is sponsoring, the Apollo Energy Program which will reduce our country's emissions and create jobs.

And that's all for now. Tune in next time, for more democracy in action.

2003-07-03T01:28:00.000-07:00

Greek Mythology in Our Own Lives

Every so often someone comes along who always asks you questions you've always wanted to answer. Mary occasionally invites me to liken people to figures from Greek legend. One of the more compelling questions was, "If we at The Watch were characters from the Greek myths, whom would we be?" Let's see a show of hands for floating through Elysium nude, endowed with an exquisite body. The tricky part is that that we have to pick our works of literature carefully. Mary is like Pallas Athena in The Iliad but unlike the same goddess in The Eumenides of Aeschylus. In Homer, Athena is the sucessful and gentle partisan of the fractious Argives:

Only Achilles saw her, none of the other fighters--
Struck with wonder he spun around, he knew her at once,
Pallas Athena! The terrible blazing of those eyes...
...Why, why now?
Child of Zeus with the shield of thunder, why come now?
I tell you this, and so help me it's the truth--
He'll soon pay for his arrogance with his life!"

Well, we can hardly afford to have Achilles the Green draw his sword on Agamemnon the Democrat, now can we?

Her gray eyes clear, the goddess Athena answered,
"Down from the skies I come to check your rage...
The white armed goddess Hera sped me down: she loves you both, she cares for you both alike.
Stop this fighting, now."*

But the Athena of The Eumenides is entirely unlike Mary in every respect. There, the goddess--remember, having sprung from the head of Zeus--appears to make an embarrassing sppech for patriarchy. It's too complicated and fulsome to explain.

Natasha I would liken unto Euripedes' Clytemnestra (in Iphigenia in Aulis). There, Menaleus lies to the people and to his brother Agamemnon to get the invasion of Troy only he wants. Then Agamemnon, cognizant of the lie but unable to get out of the oaths and afraid of the army he has raised, agrees to the invasion; but another liar, Calchas, compells him to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia to the gods so he can get his ships out of Aulis Harbor. While human sacrifice was regarded as utterly barbaric to the ancient Greeks, Agamemnon's aloofness to his own household means that he isn't as mortified as we might suppose. He has to deceive his own wife so he can smuggle Iphigenia out of the estate and off to the shore for the sacrifice. Clytemnestra is told that her daughter is going to be married to Achilles; she presumably doesn't know Achilles is gay. But Clytemnestra takes the initiative and almost immediately discovers the purported marriage is a sham; the invasion is motivated by lies; her daughter is not going to be married to the supreme warrior of Greece; her daughter is going to be murdered for absurd reasons; and her brother-in-law has orchestrated the entire thing.

In the later plays of Euripides, it is usually the men whose courage is lacking and the women who must not only lay down their lives, but their pride too.

Clytemnestra:Answer what I shall ask like a man, O husband.

Agamemnon:No encouragement is necessary. I am willing to be questioned.

Clytemnestra:This child, yours and mine--are you going to kill her?

Agamemnon:Ha! What cruel words! What unjust suspicions!

Clytemnestra:Keep calm; answer me my first question.

Agamemnon:Ask reasonable questions and you will get reasonable answers.

Clytemnestra:I ask only one question. Answer me that and nothing else.

Agamemnon:Holy Heavens! My wretched fate!

Clytemnestra:And mine and hers; one wretched fate for three.

Agamemnon:Who has wronged you?

Clytemnestra:Are you asking me that? This cleverness of yours is not at all clever.**

And so Clytemnestra spills the beans about Agamemnon's glorious methods of getting a human girl for the ultimate sacrifice. The careful reader will notice that Agamemnon was earlier allegorized as a Democrat against the Achillean Green. But I was really focused on the women in these analogies; and your humble bloghead has a perverse mania for compound ironies. Clytemnestra's strenuous efforts come to nothing, but hardly because she's outsmarted by Agamemnon. Agamemnon outsmarts himself.

Now, at this point I'm supposed to think of someone from Greek mythology who reminds me of our fearless leader. Oh, my aching head. Who makes me think of a man who lies to his soldiers and his wife, sacrifices his children not only out of religious hysteria, but a sham of religious hysteria, launches a silly and immoral war against a Middle Eastern country, humiliates his colleagues in the high command, and struts around the deck of his ship holding an effigy of the god Priapus? Remember, he has to respond to direct questions by declaring that the question itself is outrageous--as a tactic to avoid lying. Sorry, Mary, I can't think of anyone.

FOOTNOTES: * Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1990
**Translated by Moses Hadas and John McLean; Bantam Classic, 1960
FUN FACT: It always occurs to me when I'm in the shower or beginning my commute home from work; but the expression "collateral damage" is not terribly new. It is a close analog to "collateral benefit," used by Jonathan Swift in his "Modest Proposal." He uses it to tout some additional reasons for harvesting Irish children and eating them.

ADDENDUM: Most readers of Greek plays aren't used to the idea of Clytemnestra as a sympathetic figure. Sophocles and Aeschylus wrote plays in which she is arrogant and conniving, when not ruthless. But in some versions each character is by turns glorious and barbaric. Euripides tends to turn stories on their heads. This is because he was exhorting his countrymen to end the insane war they were waging, a war that began confidently enough but culminated in the destruction of the democratic state itself. Euripides, at one point, actually has one of his plays feature Athena pleading with Zeus against Athens' forces.

In contrast, Homer, Aeschylus and Sophocles were usually conservative in outlook. They favored piety over the state, but the patriarchal heroes were usually protagonists, even when flawed. Euripides turnd the tide, especially as the mania of his countrymen threatened to engulf the nation he served. BTW, you knew Euripides was a a general as well as a playwright?

2003-07-03T01:11:00.000-07:00

Why Bush Is Not a Good Leader

One of the more mysterious things to me about Bush is why anyone would think he is a good leader. Why is there so much confusion about what leadership is? For the past few decades, people believe that those who exemplify success on the free market are our heros: leaders like Ken Lay or Al Dunlap. Today warriors are also shown to be leaders as witnessed by the types of movies and TV shows that become blockbusters. Who are the heroes of our days? What type of person do kids want to grow up to be? One thing is clear: more and more people want to be rich and famous. Because of this, the warrior kings, the CEOs, and those made wealthy by their fame are now what many people expect to see in a leader. They are honored for their willingness to break eggs to impose their will on their domain. Yes, many people see confident and decisive people as leaders.

So what about George W. Bush? He certainly drapes himself in the robes of the bold, risk-taking and strong leader that is glorified by today's culture. And even though he has had very little real business success himself, he affects the confidence and demeanor of a strong CEO. His facade allows him to present himself as a warrior king. So despite the fact that he shirked his responsibilities during the Vietnam war, he struts around like a bantam cock and spouts off threats like "Bring them on" to show the world what a pugulist he is. Billmon notes:

...people still seem to think he's a "strong leader" -- which politically seems more important than being a "competent leader," or even a "sentient leader."

With George W. Bush puffing himself up as the toughest man in the universe, I found myself shaking my head once again. Why would anyone think he is a leader?

Reviewing some leadership training material at work today, I was struck by the list of Derailment Inhibitors listed, because it is pretty clear that Bush would have had a very hard time being promoted at my company.

Personal inhibitors
1. Reluctant Learner
o Unable or unwilling to adapt to change; inflexible.
2. Lacking self-awareness
o Lacks self-insight and self-knowledge
o Fails to seek or respond to personal feedback, sees even constructive feedback as threatening.
o Unaware of one's impact on others; lacks empathy -- the ability to read people's reaction and see their perspective
Interpersonal inhibitors
1. Interpersonal blunders
o Abrasive, intimidating/bullying style - leaves a trail of bruised people
o Caustic, sarcastic, belittling tenor to conversation
o Overly ambitious; seen as self-promoting
2. Overdependence
o Over-reliance on the sponsorship of powerful others - not seen as independent
3. Lack of follow-through/untrustworthy
o Betrayal of trust
o Failing to keep promises/commitments
o Saying one thing and doing another

Update: Personally, my favorite leader these days is Aung San Suu Kyi. She exemplifies courage and vision and is a tremendous example to follow. What more can you ask of a leader?

2003-07-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

To The Barricades talks about the next wave of veterans with PTSD.

Back to Iraq highlights our Dear Leader taunting the Iraqis to bring it on at a press conference, and points out that our tax cuts to millionaires come at the direct cost of a dangerously underfunded public safety infrastructure.

Ampersand has a good blog roundup of his own.

Follow Me Here on libel protection for bloggers and speaking in quotes.

Brian Linse on the recents Republican bigot eruptions.

MyDD talks about Dean & payroll taxes.

CalPundit on Condoleeza Rice's praise of Clinton, Italy's prime minister passing legislation to exonerate himself, and universal healthcare.

Mark Kleiman has more on Lawrence vs. Texas.

Lisa of the no-working-permalinks plays language ~~crank~~ geek. Scroll to Sunday, June 22.

Ekr at Educated Guesswork applies economic multiple personality disorder to CD pricing, and then a ridiculous amount of math to affirmative action as the Supremes have approved it.

Electrolite talks about the insanity of California prisons, and finds that another senior Democrat has had the backbone to be publicly outraged by Bush's remarks inviting attacks on our troops in Iraq.

Making Light on vanity press publishing scams.

Wampum comments on a recent Dean faux pas, and our late lamented economy.

Pandagon mocks the Virgin Ben, and talks about the Bush administration's decision to suspend military aid to countries that signed on to the International Criminal Court. Which reminds me...

...of a godawful, but genuine, statement made by a member of way too many Republican mailing lists, and regular Fox News watcher. Thank god it was a phone conversation, so that my look of shock and horror went unseen. While talking about how horrible it was that the US was losing its sovereignty to the UN, the ICC, and any form of multilateralism in general, said of the UN general assembly, 'half of them can't read, how can they even think?' I just can't think of anything to say to that, so on that disturbing note, I'll be seeing y'all tomorrow.

2003-07-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

Community Meeting with Jay Inslee

Over the weekend, I mentioned the community meeting that my district's congressman held, and promised to write about it. Well, I took several pages of notes, and if I wait until I have time to sit down and type up the whole thing in one go, it just won't get done. So, I'll post it as a series of installments.

In the highly unlikely event that you, dear reader, were there, note that I'm not going to be putting all of the Q&A in sequence, and that there are few direct quotes. Inslee's staff asked that the session not be tape recorded, to ensure that everyone in attendance felt comfortable about speaking.

As background, for those of you who don't live in Washington state's 1st congressional district, Jay Inslee is quite progressive. Though he did not get to speak (in a shocking display of bad time management by the organizers), he attended the February 15th peace rally in downtown Seattle. He favors environmental protections, alternative energy, reproductive choice, government funded healthcare, unemployment protection and retraining, opposed the FCC media consolidation ruling, and holds a liberal position on many other issues discussed daily here, and at neighboring blogs.

At the 2002 midterm election, he re-won this district with over 70% of the vote.

To start, there were well over 100 people in attendance, and more filtered in throughout the beginning. The average age was probably 60, though that may be lowballing things a bit. And I note this not only to give you a better image of the occasion, but to challenge the idea that liberalism is something that's inevitably grown out of.

The congressman suggested that we be polite to each other if we disagreed, but stated that we were welcome to boo him, as a public servant. That only happened once (and it was only one person), and I'll get to it, but with that exception, Inslee got a very warm reception. His statements in support of progressive/liberal ideals were greeted with frequent applause and general enthusiasm.

We began the event with the pledge of allegiance, and a round of applause for all the veterans in the audience, who were encouraged to stand up. And briefly, we were offered some good news: they're very close to getting approval for 150-200 additional screeners at Sea-Tac airport, and working on better port security.

He spoke to us briefly about the national debt, and how it constituted a tax increase on every citizen. A figure that stood at approximately $4,000 per head would have covered this year's payments, and by 2008, the amount will rise to over $6,000 for each and every one of us. As he noted, this money buys no federal services.

Then he lightly touched on a topic that would come up several times, Medicare. Inslee stated that due to low funding for the program, only 50% of WA state doctors will even take it. He says they just don't get paid enough for their services.

Q&A - As best I could scribble down

Q: Why did congress pass such a tremendous tax cut if they're aware of this debt?

A: The country was just digging out of debt in 2000. Increased defense expenditures, recession, and tax cuts worsened it. Two of these conditions are temporary. But the tax cuts, which represent a transfer of taxation from me to my children, with be with us much longer. Republicans are trying to starve Medicare, Headstart, and many other federal programs which they don't believe in. Also, these are the budget projections from the president's office, and not from the Democrats.

Q: As a manager, I just had to ship off my entire team's jobs to India. Why are we giving tax breaks to corporations that are exporting jobs, even as we lose the taxes on those wages, and not making worker retraining available?

A: Well, it is a global marketplace now. But unfair tax law allows corporations to get a post office box overseas and not pay tax. The minority party is working on this. And we need to start looking at retraining as a lifetime process, to allow people to keep up with technology. It should be as easy to get an education at 48 as it is at 12.

Statement: The congressman was thanked for working with a constituent who, without additional counsel, was able to get 27 years worth of arrears from Social Security for her ailing, 90 year old mother.

Q: How can drug companies be provented from taking advantage of the prescription drug benefit?

A: The prescription drug benefit bill that passed in the House at 3am is a benefit for the drug companies. There are enormous gaps in coverage, no cost containment mechanisms, and the bill makes it illegal for the US government to negotiate a better price with drug companies. In 10 years, it would effectively do away with Medicare, replacing a guaranteed lifetime benefit with guaranteed lifetime premiums. The bill in the Senate is more reasonable, closer to simply adding a drug benefit. But I do believe that we need to maintain a profit incentive for new drug development.

Q: In the upcoming presidential election, is there a plan for elected officials and party leaders to work together to counter the president's message?

A: I get that question a lot. But I'm here as a representative today, and not as a Democrat. We'll have to talk about campaign strategies at another time.

That's all for today, folks. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the next riveting installment of your political process in action.

2003-07-02T02:46:00.000-07:00

To Wisdom, Courage and Long-Suffering Love

I've never actually gotten around to asking Natasha why this weblog is called "The Watch," although there are many plausible explanations.

NATASHA: You come most carefully upon your hour
MARY: 'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Natasha.
NATASHA: For this relief, much thanks.
Tis bitter cold and I am sick at heart.
MARY: What, has this thing appeared again tonight?
NATASHA:James says tis but our fantasy,
And will not let belief take hold of him
Touching this dreaded sight seen of us;
Therefore I have entreated him along,
With us to watch the minutes of this night
That if again this apparition come
He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
[enter Ghost]
JAMES: Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
MARY, NATASHA: Told you!

This, of course, is from a "bad quarto" of Hamlet. The Watch, of course, must bear witness to Hamlet that his father's unavenged spirit wanders the battlements by night--setting in motion the action of this supreme political thriller. Another version might be from Agamemnon*:

WATCHMAN: O ye gods! How I long for an end to all this strain:
This yearlong watch, up on the roof of the Atreidae,
Crouched on my elbows like a kennel hound,
Scanning by heart the stars at night,
That chorus of the master shiners,...
For I am watching still for one bright sign:
A beacon flash from Troy to tell me it is taken .
Yes, it's fixed on that, this woman's man-strong heart,
With all a woman's longing.

The Watch, here, waits for the sign of the news that Troy has fallen; for the Mycenaeans, this is glorious, chiefly because their husbands and sons shall be returning after ten years in Ilium. But now I shall think of the spirit of Prometheus: in Greek mythology, the creator of man, our defender and advocate before a surly Zeus, and finally, one who pays the ultimate price to save us from the arrogant Olympians. Prometheus created humans from the earth and endowed us with fire; for this he is literally crucified to the highest and remotest cliff known to the ancient Greeks, in the Greater Caucasus mountains. There he is left for three thousand years, with shafts of bronze driven through his flesh; every day a kite comes to tear out his viscera, and every night it is renewed. The earthquakes rattle the ground beneath his back and the blazing sun scorches his flesh, while the ice-cold of night clasps him in ice.

Prometheus keeps watch.

Why did Zeus feel such an animus towards Prometheus? According to some oracle, he would one day be supplanted by a new generation of gods--this was the unknown god, whose shrine the Apostle Paul mentions (Acts 17:23). Zeus had overthrown his father, Cronus, despite the latter's rather gruesome methods to prevent the rise of the Olympians. Now Prometheus, a Titan who had briefly served the Olympians, had created and empowered humans, a race Zeus assumed was the most likely successor to himself. But with the fecklessness and narcissism of absolute power, Zeus forgot his dread of the race of humans, turned them against each other, and took to raping or seducing humans--both female and male.

Why did Aeschylus write such terrible things about Zeus and present them as plays for the edification of the state? The Athenians were intensely proud of their piety. Their dilligence in creating splendid shrines to Pallas Athene and to Zeus were seen as evidence of this. But the notion of how God ought to behave was very different then:

[Thetis] broke from the cresting wave at first light
And soaring up to the broad sky and Mount Olumpus
Found the Son of Cronous gazing down on the world,
Peaks apart from the other gods and seated high
On the topmost crown of rugged ridged Olumpus.
And crouching down at his feet,
Quickly grasping his knees with her left hand,
Her right hand holding him underneath the chin,
She prayed to the lord god Zeus…

This, from Homer's Iliad, I.600ff,** is motivated by a petty outrage to her son's pride. Zeus reveals himself to be terribly fearful of his wife's outrage and offers to help his beloved Thetis surreptitiously. The ideal of a truly omnipotent, transcendent God was still very far away from the ancient Greeks. Henotheistic gods served their children and glorious members of their earthly cult. Aphrodite, personally dedicated to the person of Paris (called Alexandros throughout the Iliad) does nothing to help Ilion--she's wrecks a truce that might have saved Ilion, just to rescue her darling Alexandros.

The idea of the omnipotent God seems to have developed independently of the henotheistic cults we usually associate with ancient Greek religion. Piety lay in anticipating the rights owed to higher beings, beings whose motives were analogous to those of kings and warlords. But the gods--Zeus, Apollo, and certainly Hera--were described in ways that warned of the consequences faced of affronting their wishes.

This is the first of a series of posts on the idea of Prometheus as a direct affront to these Olympians. The Olympians, you see, were not at all affronted by the ugly depiction of their motives in the Iliad. As long as the rites were done punctually, and due respect paid to their emblems on earth, they did not care about the resentment with which they were viewed.

HEPHAESTUS (as he is forced to nail Prometheus to the cliff): Your kindness to the human race has earned you this. A god who would not bow down to [Zeus'] anger--for that you'll keep watch upon this bitter rock, standing upright, unsleeping, never bowed in rest. And many groans and cries of pain shall come from you, all useless; for the heart of Zeus is hard to appease. Power newly won is always harsh.***

If Zeus represents the sternness and arrogance of power, Prometheus represents an ideal of opposition to that power. He is always awake; he's been angry and hurt, and yet he has transcended anger:

IO: Oh, universal benefactor of mankind, why are you thus crucified?
PROMETHEUS: I was lamenting all my pains. I have ceased now.

His love and gentleness grows and he begins to inspire a growing number of questing explorers. He's interesting in part because he has to cope with the inability to do anything. We at The Watch--that goes for our beloved readers also--often do have the feeling of being unable to influence events and yet unable to look away. But I have a particularly lush, hidden vale of delight I'd like to share with you that should offer a welcome solace from our daily cup of trembling.

FOOTNOTE: * The quoted passage I typed in from my copy of Paul Roche's translation. It's similar, but not identical, to the linked D. W. Myatt translation; but the commentary linked is well worth reading.

** Translation by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1990.

*** Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus; Translation by Phillip Vellacott, Penguin Classics, 1961

ADDITIONAL SOURCES AND LINKS: Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D., has this outstanding site devoted to Prometheus. The legend of Prometheus has also inspired a great deal of science fiction literature, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,or Modern Prometheus as well as the name of an award for science fiction. As a literary figure, Ayn Rand was regarded as a romantic related in tradition to Percy B. Shelley and unsurprisingly has a character rename himself "Prometheus" in Anthem.

2003-07-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Vote With Your Wallet

In what's going to become a regular feature here, I'll be encouraging readers to support causes that advance a progressive agenda. Even if your contribution is small, it makes a difference, because it demonstrates support for issues that matter. An organization with 100,000 members is in a far better bargaining position with legislators than one with only a couple thousand.

Earth Justice is "an independent, nonprofit, public interest environmental law firm that represents hundreds of clients in more than 275 active cases around the country." Their website draws attention to an article about how the Bush administration has ignored overwhelming public comment on environmental issues.

But in a recent mailer they point out that the administration is also undermining environmental legislation passively, by simply failing to adequately defend environmental laws in court when attacked by industry. Look at the urgent cases they're fighting to enforce what's left of federal protections for our land, air, and water, and think about sending them whatever you can.

Our votes didn't count in 2000, our comments and concerns didn't count at all after that. But that doesn't mean we can't make a difference for the environment. It's down to money and the courts now, and if each of us chips in a little, we can still win this. After all, now that corporations and wealthy citizens are bailing on their financial responibilities, it's a lot of 'little people' like us who now make up the bulk of our government's budget. And that's a lot of weight to throw around.

2003-07-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

Conversation Fragment

"But I'm an engineer. I like to poke at things to find out how they work."

"Well I'm a biologist. I know that if you poke at things long enough, they'll bite you."

2003-07-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

Old News That Isn't
or, How to Have More Fun With Your Browser

Seeing the Forest pointed out a posting over at TBogg on insider trading at the American Enterprise Institute, or AEI. And after reading that, I went back and clicked on the link to Media Transparency's AEI page, and found the following headline on the sidebar:

New York Daily News
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Lay Drops Out of Think Tank
Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay has quietly stepped down from a think tank (AEI) board on which he served with Vice President Cheney, the Daily News has learned.

The link goes to a page that no longer exists, and in looking for additional information, I came across this collection of Enrongate stories. Here's a Washington Post headline and excerpt from that page, with a great story about one of the Bush 2000 campaign's finest political consultants:

Bush 2000 Adviser Ralph Reed Offered To Use Clout to Help Enron
[WP, By JOE STEPHENS, 02/17/02]
"For a $380,000 fee, the conservative political strategist proposed a broad lobbying strategy that included using major campaign contributors, conservative talk shows and nonprofits to press Congress for favorable legislation. Reed said he could place letters from community leaders in the opinion pages of major newspapers, producing clips that Reed would "blast fax" to Capitol Hill."

In other words, the standard Mighty Wurlitzer campaign. On behalf of corporate executives in the process of stealing billions of dollars from the public. The article goes on to tell us a little more about Ralph Reed, and his corporate consulting tactics, emphasis mine:

...Reed, head of the Atlanta-based consulting firm Century Strategies, is the former executive director of the Christian Coalition and current chairman of the Georgia Republican Party.
...The seven-page memo to Enron illustrates for the first time how Reed pitches his services to major corporations and how he draws on alliances he forged during ideological battles fought alongside conservative religious leaders. It also shows how political consultants have increasingly brought tactics once seen only in campaigns into the legislative arena.
...Reed asked Enron to pay his firm $25,000 to generate letters to the editors of newspapers, each signed by a prominent figure. "These op-eds and letters are then blast faxed to elected officials, opinion leaders and civic activists for use in their own letters and public statements." He said his firm had recently "placed" opinion pieces in The Washington Post and the New York Times.
A $79,500 telemarketing campaign would have cold-called citizens and offered to immediately patch them through to Congress. ..."For one recent client, we generated more calls to a U.S. Senate office than had been received since impeachment" of President Bill Clinton, he wrote. "The result was a major victory for the client."
Finally, Reed said he had enjoyed "great success" in using conservative news-talk programs to spread his clients' message to "faith-based activists."...

And Reed is in pretty tight with those faith-based activists, with this 1999 Human Life Review article discussing the possibility of a constitutional anti-abortion amendment referring to Reed as one of the Christian right's Big Three:

Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Ralph Reed say they are staring those facts in the eye. They are for Bush: who is not Reagan, granted. But several points (which the Christian right's Big Three don't make explicitly) arise here:
(1) Nobody also is Reagan, who (2) isn't running anyway, in addition to which (3) St. Ron himself never worked particularly hard to achieve a human-life amendment and further (4), on the appointment of pro-life judges, had a mixed record, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy being cases in point.
O put not your trust in princes, somebody said. Ah, what about Bush, then? Can he be trusted? The Big Three believe so....

But this Bush character of whom the article speaks so hopefully before the 2000 election, what exactly had he been up to at the time that made him so exceptionally trustworthy? (Courtesy LinkThing)

President Bush as Texas governor personally pushed Enron Corp.'s business interests with the Uzbekistan ambassador and former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, according to correspondence made public Friday.
Former Enron Chairman Ken Lay in June 1999 also asked Bush to meet with the prime minister of Romania to press Enron's business ventures there, but Bush had just launched his presidential campaign travels.
..."Enron has established an office in Tashkent and we are negotiating a $2 billion joint venture with Neftegas of Uzbekistan," Lay said. "This project can bring significant economic opportunities to Texas as well as Uzbekistan."
Bush's calendar for April 8, 1997, shows he met with the ambassador for half an hour in the governor's office in the Texas Capitol.
Enron pulled out of its proposed deal with Uzbekistan in 1998, partly because of political unrest in neighboring Afghanistan. ...

You remember Uzbekistan, right? Coalition of the Willing, known for silencing dissidents and boiling prisoners, and a recently added Middle Eastern imperial outpost.

Dizzy now. I feel a powerful urge to stand with hand on heart while listening to Lee Greenwood, and then, I think I would like to see someone get body slammed while drinking myself into oblivion. But I'll feel bad about it, so I may follow up with a chaser of the 700 Club, where another member of the Big Three and longtime Friend of Bush can cleanse my mind of all these terribly impolite thoughts about Dear Leader.

Bonus Links:

AEI 1996 roundtable discussions on political strategy, starring; Karlyn H. Bowman, Lynne V. Cheney, Irving Kristol, Michael Barone, Gary Bauer, Robert P. Casey, Michael Farris, Christopher Hitchens, Frank Luntz, and Grover Norquist.

AEI commentary on why evangelical christians support Israel.

Karl Rove's incestuous political circle.

2003-07-01T00:36:00.000-07:00

Oregon News

A while back, I attended the New Progressive Network's Saying Something event in Portland. It's taken some time to get back to this subject, but tonight I finally posted something about it at the Political State Report. This is a really exciting organization and they've got some great ideas that can be picked up by progressives in other states. Along with building up the institutional infrastructure like the Commonweal Institute and Podesta's American Majority Institute, taking our message to regular people is key. Finding ways to talk to your family, friends, neighbors and coworkers is what will allow progressives to spread their message despite the fact that our mass media is so bad.

One thing I noticed when I got on to PolState today is that Emma Goldberg of Notes on the Atrocities is also going to be an Oregon reporter for PolState. (Yes! Oregon needs more stories!) Emma has an Oregon blog as well, where she writes up her thoughts on Oregon topics. And I love her mission statement: One eye on Bill Sizemore, one eye on Salem, and one eye on my beer.

(Oh no, another blog to add to my must visit list! sigh. Someday I'll just have to figure out how to get by on 2 hours of sleep. Or read faster. Or stop working. Or ....)

2003-07-01T00:16:00.000-07:00

Movie Recommendation

I'd like to urge you all to go see Winged Migration coming to a theatre near to you soon. It is an incredible thing of beauty. I received the following via my Oregon Birders OnLine email list yesterday:

Winged Migration has garnered enthusiastic reviews since its April release, and has been showing in theaters around the country. The New York Times critic Stephen Holden praises its "breathtaking cinematography" which "transports you to an exalted realm."
The film explores the mystery of birds in flight, following many species of birds on their annual migrations-- some flying more than 10,000 miles between the Arctic and the tropics. It covers locations ranging from the Eiffel Tower and Monument Valley to the Amazon.
More than 450 people were involved in following the birds through 40 countries and seven continents. Airplanes, gliders, helicopters and balloons were used, all with specially designed cameras, to allow cinematographers to film alongside, above, below and in front of their subjects.
The main sounds come from the musical accompaniment, along with the cries of birds. The only words are brief explanations, spoken by the director.
The result is, according to New York Times critic Stephen Holden, "such an intense vicarious experience of being a flapping airborne creature with the wind in its ears that you leave the theater feeling like an honorary member of another species."

Having seen it, I can say, yes, you really do feel like you are flying with the birds. It was an awesome experience.

2003-06-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

Max speaks on the proposed prescription drug benefit.

PeaceTreeFarm on Dean's declaration and Brett Bursey's arrest.

Eschaton: start here, read down.

Al-Muhajabah highlights the growing willingness of women in Saudi Arabia to speak out for their rights.

Sisyphus points out the high school student body that doesn't want Bush to speak at their commencement, and ran through some news tidbits that you may have missed yesterday.

Ampersand marks the passing of Katherine Hepburn and shows us a t-shirt for American travelers: the international apology shirt.

Talk Left on Bill Frist's backing of a anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment, the innocence project in Alabama, and the disheartening news that Ralph Nader wants to run again. Ralph, for love of god, stay at the office, and stick to inveighing against corporate malfeasance from there.

Billmon has mixed feelings about Dean, but is impressed by his fundraising. Also, he writes about the death of one of our best and brightest, and I think he speaks for many when he says that Lance Cpl. MacDonald was "fed into the meatgrinder of a pointless, unnecessary war by men who were quite literally not fit to lick his combat boots." Read the comments, and read this.

Edit: addendum removed.

2003-06-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

Reincarnation of a Very Bad Idea

Jeanne over at Body and Soul alerts us to the fact that the Bush administration would like to see a strong international peacekeeping force trained and directed by the US government. As she goes on to point out, there are a lot of places in the world that could use some peacekeeping, or perhaps more accurately, peacerestoring.

But the US government via the auspices of the Defense Department has already tried training foreign troops to 'keep the peace' in their countries. And that effort was formerly known as the School of the Americas, since renamed as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). Here's the introduction from the School of the Americas Watch, links mine:

The US Army School of Americas (SOA), based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American soldiers in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. Graduates of the SOA are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians. ...

This is a brief sampling from their 2002 Graduates in the News page, links mine:

...SOA graduate Colonel Jorge Plazas Acevedo is being tried by the Prosecutor General of Colombia for the 1998 kidnapping and murder of Jewish business leader Benjamin Khoudari. ...SOA graduate Commander Mauricio Llorente Chavez was indicted by the Prosecutor General for complicity in a massacre that took place in Tibu, July 1999. ...SOA graduate Byron Lima Estrada is currently on trial for the brutal 1998 assassination of Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi. ...The year 2000 brought genocide cases against two former Guatemalan dictators trained at the SOA. In March, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Nobel Peace Prize winner, filed suit in a Spanish court against SOA graduate General Efrain Rios Montt, who took power through a coup and governed Guatemala at the height of a counter-insurgency campaign that wiped hundreds of Mayan villages off the map, left thousands dead and forced hundreds of thousands into refuge or exile. ...Last year the Bolivian government sold the public water system of Cochamba to a private corporation, resulting in skyrocketing water rates for the people of Bolivia. As thousands took to the streets, Bolivian president and former military dictator, SOA graduate Hugo Banzer sent out the armed forces to attack civilians. ...SOA honors graduate General Nicolas Hermoza Rios is currently serving time in a Peruvian prison, after pleading guilty to taking $14 million in arms deal gains. Hermoza is also under fire for allegedly taking protection money from Peruvian drug lords, whom the Peruvian military, along with military aid from the U.S., claimed to be fighting....

Additionally, the attempted 2002 coup in Venezuela against elected President Hugo Chavez was backed by SOA trained generals, at least one of whom was refused entry into the US in a Bush administration bid to distance themselves from the failed takeover. This 2001 Guardian article has a more general perspective, emphasis mine:

...In 1993, the United Nations truth commission on El Salvador named the army officers who had committed the worst atrocities of the civil war. Two-thirds of them had been trained at the School of the Americas. Among them were Roberto D'Aubuisson, the leader of El Salvador's death squads; the men who killed Archbishop Oscar Romero; and 19 of the 26 soldiers who murdered the Jesuit priests in 1989. In Chile, the school's graduates ran both Augusto Pinochet's secret police and his three principal concentration camps. One of them helped to murder Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffit in Washington DC in 1976.
...All this, the school's defenders insist, is ancient history. But SOA graduates are also involved in the dirty war now being waged, with US support, in Colombia. In 1999 the US State Department's report on human rights named two SOA graduates as the murderers of the peace commissioner, Alex Lopera. Last year, Human Rights Watch revealed that seven former pupils are running paramilitary groups there and have commissioned kidnappings, disappearances, murders and massacres. In February this year an SOA graduate in Colombia was convicted of complicity in the torture and killing of 30 peasants by paramilitaries. The school is now drawing more of its students from Colombia than from any other country. ...

You may also be interested in this alumni listing, and to note the BBC's brief comments on the closing, reopening, and renaming of the SOA:

A controversial US military school accused of being a training ground for dictators, torturers and assassins has closed its doors.
...But the closure is only temporary. The school will re-open next month with a new name and a new curriculum, which will include peacekeeping and disaster relief. ...

And I guess what I'm trying to say here is this: Perhaps the possibility should be considered that the US Department of Defense should not be the first choice institution for training a multinational peacekeeping force. But maybe it's just me.

2003-06-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

Holy Heck!

Dennis Kucinich (and I guess I should have noticed this earlier) actually has an opinion on water rights and privatization. Ye gods and little fishes. I have to love a candidate that even knows this is an issue, shows he's thinking ahead.

It's moderately less noteworthy (but only slightly so) that he's willing to tell the truth about the drug war. I'm interested in this topic on a personal level because while I've passed the point where I have any interest in partaking, I deeply resent the fact that we think nothing of spending money on prisons while my school has to struggle for funding. There are a lot of good general arguments to be made on the basis of erosion of civil liberties, and the sheer insanity of victimless crimes, but anything that hurts education spending is just standing on my last nerve right now.

Kucinich is even willing to be attached to that uber-elitist concern, worker's rights. He appears to know what inflation means, too. And not just because it shrinks the absolute value of your investment portfolio:

...Congress has not passed an increase in the $5.15 minimum wage even though the inflation adjusted minimum wage is 21% lower today than in 1979. ...

These are issues that in the 2000 election, only Nader was willing to touch. If these issues, or any of the others that Kucinich is talking about are important to you, and you don't feel like they're being adequately addressed elsewhere, help him get heard. Even if he doesn't win the nomination, you will have supported reintroducing 'third rail' topics to our public debate.

2003-06-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

Dwight Meredith agrees with Charles Krauthammer on energy policy. Which is disturbing and encouraging all at once, though by now, the benefits of not being dependent on OPEC must be clear to everyone. However, I'd like to note my strenuous disagreement to the idea that drilling in ANWR represents a sensible part of a long term solution.

Seeing the Forest with the goods on the concentration of wealth in America.

Shadow of the Hegemon takes people to task for being hoodwinked by the phrase "nobody in their right mind," as it applied to the belief that Hussein's Iraq indeed had no weapons.

Brooke Biggs on how intellectual consistency in politics is a loser's game, cops are getting let off with a slap for rape in San Bernardino, and why she's having a hard time feeling depressed.

Unknown News on the military attack on Qaim which occurred as US troops were firing at a convoy at the Syrian border, the $6,000 fine levied on a business for not reporting a customer question about the origin of a product, and points to stories on federal officials using the RAVE act to shut down a political fundraiser.

Over at This Modern World, our attention is drawn to some slyly titled letters to the editor and the evangelical assertion that Islam itself is a WMD, also, a link to the video of President Bush doing nothing when he first received the news of the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Skippy tells us that charges against anti-war activists in San Francisco have been dropped. Apparently, there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute them, so like, yay.

Go check out Zizka's June issue where he talks (among other things) about the ways that New Democrats weaken the Democratic party.

TBogg points out that instead of engaging in whatever sinful, prurient, or simply pointless, activity we occupied ourselves with this weekend, we could have been attending an abstinence convention. In Las Vegas. Also, in something that I was sure he was just making up, but turned out not to have been, the Bush reelection effort will be partly relying on the heinously unfunny Dennis Miller. Irony... slowly... asphyxiating...

2003-06-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Bush and the Death Penalty

When Bush was the governor of Texas, 152 people were executed under his watch. As governor, he was responsible for reviewing every case and deciding whether or not there was sufficient grounds for clemency. Throughout his six years, in only one case did he think perhaps there was sufficient cause to intervene, and in that case, there was proof that the accused had not been in the state during the time of the crime. In this month's Atlantic Monthly, an article talks about the evidence that Bush used when reviewing the cases of the prisoners the morning of their scheduled execution and what information his legal counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales presented to him.

Alan Berlow requested and obtained the memorandum that Gonzales prepared for Bush for 57 of the death-penalty cases. Berlow's review of this memorandum shows that the cases Gonzales prepared ignored critical data and extenuating information that might have led Bush to recommend clemancy. As Gonzales is considered to be one of the leading candidates for nomination to the Supreme Court should a vacancy occur while Bush is President, the way he performed this role is important to examine. It appears that rather than "bothering" Bush with information that might raise troubling questions about whether the death-penalty was appropriate, Gonzales provided material that was prosecutorial in nature and so reinforced the notion that the penalty was justified.

This past week the Supreme Court overturned a death penalty conviction for a Maryland man which has eery similarities to one of the cases Bush did not find sufficiently troubling. From the Maryland case:

The high court said two inexperienced Baltimore County public defenders failed their client, a borderline retarded man, because they didn't tell jurors that he was severely sexually abused as a child. If jurors had known of the abuse, they might not given Kevin Wiggins a life sentence instead of sending him to death row, the majority said.

In Texas, the case of Terry Washington was another where mental retardation and severe abuse were relevant factors that should have been considered:

Most important, Gonzales failed to mention that Washington's mental limitations, and the fact that he and his ten siblings were regularly beaten with whips, water hoses, extension cords, wire hangers, and fan belts, were never made known to the jury, although both the district attorney and Washington's trial lawyer knew of this potentially mitigating evidence. (Washington did not testify at his trial or his sentencing.)

So, it appears that Bush made his decisions on these cases based on faulty and/or incomplete information. Bush's decision making has been a topic I'd explored before here and here. How often is the information being given to Bush faulty? What does this say about him that his advisors feel free to not provide him a complete picture? How much of it is because Bush really doesn't want to worry about the details? He prides himself on his decisiveness, but this can be a very bad trait when the decisions are made without insight and/or thoughtfulness. For Bush, it seems to be yet one more case where a basically lazy and unreflective man relies on his gut feelings and his supreme self-confidence in his own capabilities. That and the fact that God tells him what to do.

2003-06-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

South Knox Bubba has the rundown on the prescription drug benefit. It's boring, tedious, buried in technicality, and as usual, very, very important.

Billmon is very concerned about the message that DMZ troop redeployment is sending to North Korea, and he isn't the only one.

Democratic Veteran brings us an interview with Jerry Springer on the topic of his Senate bid.

The Mighty Reason Man on why he supports Howard Dean. He makes some good points, and I very much agree with him on the gun issue. But, as Max Sawicky points out, it's too early in the game to be excessively worried about electability. I'm opting at present to support a more progressive candidate, in hopes that the party higher ups, and the eventual winner, will take the hint.

Wampum has more to say about the medicare reform package, and comments on the MoveOn primary.

Notes on the Atrocities has additional MoveOn commentary.

Beautiful Horizons talks about the evaporation of the free press in Afghanistan, the meeting between Bush and Lula, affirmative action in Brazil, and a host of other interesting topics. It's one of the few unalloyed benefits of blogger that you can just scroll all over an archive page once a post has gone past its sell-by date, without having a destination topic in mind.

Two Tears in a Bucket suggests that California Democrats need to be concerned about overreaching.

Brad DeLong on why our society is not a contract, but an estate.

Magpie had fun wandering the web, and brings us some news about the demonstrations and crackdowns in Iran. And she pointed us to Lady Sun, an Iranian blogger, who had a great deal more to say on the topic of the demonstrations.

Over at the Left Coaster, Mary (hi Mary!) posts on the free market showcase that was supposed to be Iraq, and CA Pol Junkie talks about the mess we're making of Iranian foreign policy. That country comes up a lot, yes, but it's 1) geographically pivotal, 2) resource rich, 3) has one of the world's few high performing stock markets, and 4) wields significant military and diplomatic mojo.

Talk Left indicates that there may be a sane member of the Bush administration, in the person of the deputy attorney general, and points out that Americorps funding is on the chopping block.

Brian Linse encourages readers to support True Majority, an activist group founded by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's.

George Paine supports and admires our troops but is getting very worried about things like this, and wrote a while back on the reincarnation of Total Information Awareness which is a topic that's started to drop below the radar.

How To Save The World brings us an excellent commencement address, and a review of Fareed Zakaria's take on democracy.

Note: So, this weekend I have to finish a series of essay questions for class, try to catch up on work for my client, and hopefully find time to transcribe my notes from a community coffee meeting held by Rep. Jay Inslee. He took questions, gave us answers, & promised to have his staff respond to additional questions that we were encouraged to hand in if we didn't get enough time to raise them during the meeting. (There were well over a hundred people, and we had about an hour & fifteen to ask questions. They got a lot of comment cards.) It was pretty neat, & I'm looking forward to telling you all about it.

But probably not today. In the meantime, enjoy the great bloggers linked in this post, & check up and down the sidebar over there. We add new folks now and again, and it might be the case that there are some great sites listed that you haven't visited yet. And when you get there, poke around on their blogrolls, too. The one here reflects equal portions habit and laziness on the part of the Keeper of the Roll. Make today the day that you go find one blog that's new to you, or maybe an irregular read, and stop by. There are too many good ones to keep up with & it's hard to rotate when you get into a groove, but hey, you never know what you're missing.

2003-06-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

Feeling the Pain

This is what's happening in my home state, in response to the budget crunch.

Gov. Gary Locke yesterday signed a cost-cutting bill that greatly reduces the amount of assets a married couple can keep in order for one of them to qualify for Medicaid long-term-care coverage.
Beginning Aug. 1, the healthy spouse will be permitted to keep no more than $40,000 in addition to a home, car and certain other necessities. Currently, and until Aug. 1, that figure is $90,660. The amount the ailing spouse is allowed — $2,000 — won't change.
Critics say the governor's signature on the measure — House Bill 2257 — could push some married couples into divorce in order to avoid impoverishment and still qualify the ailing spouse for Medicaid. ...

You want to think about how much it costs to live after retirement these days, and then think about how far $40,000 dollars will go. That's a cat food diet and taking your heart medication only every other day for years. That's needing to think about selling everything and moving in with your kids. And as the article mentions, that's needing to think, after several decades of marriage, about getting divorced for financial reasons.

These are our grandparents, this is how we're treating them. Thanks to Bush's compassionate conservatism, wrenching choices like this are being forced on all of our state governors. They're going to face heat from the voters, curses from the media, and every kind of opprobrium. But when it comes down to it, they're division chiefs, middle managers, and many of them are operating under mandatory balanced budget amendments.

The voting public needs to remember the people at the top who are responsible for presenting us with this problem, we can hold them accountable in the next election.

2003-06-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

Essential Reading

Kos talks about his conversation with Terry McAuliffe, and asks for feedback, Gilliard on the deteriorating situation in Iraq (I'm running out of new things to call it, and quick), and we have Kos again, who gets the distinct impression that the troops don't feel very supported.

Digby responds to Kos' commentary about the political leanings of the military, and had an interesting take on what would cause no-talent, middle aged white guys to spew bile in public.

Over at Atrios, Lambert has the lowdown on the enormous fundraising gap between Democrats and Republicans. Scroll down for more good stuff on all sorts of topics like the mismanagement of Iraq, Bush administration denial and obfuscation, what it means to live on minimum wage, as well as the final roundups from yesterday's Savage thumping.

Go to Body and Soul for some commentary on socialized medicine, and scroll down a couple posts for links that continue the theme of distributed responsibility that ultimately becomes no one's responsibility, including this great commentary from Late Night Thoughts.

I don't visit MaxSpeak nearly as often as I should, so here's some catch-up. Max brings us the prophet from Crawford, an exhortation to favor the most liberal candidate possible at this early stage of the electoral process, and makes a case for Kucinich. That last post was very influential in my MoveOn vote yesterday, though I was too pressed for time to remember to blog about it.

2003-06-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

Identify This

And now, for a word from our philosophers, emphasis mine:

"...one of the fundamental characteristics of man's attitude towards himself and to all his surroundings... [is] ...his constant 'identification' with what at a given moment has attracted his attention, his thoughts or his desires, and his imagination.... A man identifies with a small problem which confronts him and he completely forgets the great aims with which he began his work. He identifies with one thought and forgets other thoughts; he is identified with one feeling, with one mood, and forgets his own wider thoughts, emotions, and moods....
...The difficulty of struggling with identifying is still further increased by the fact that when people observe it in themselves they consider it a very good trait and call it 'enthusiasm,' 'zeal,' 'passion,' 'spontaneity,' 'inspiration,' and names of that kind, and they consider that only in a state of identifying can a man really produce good work, no matter in what spere. In reality of course this is illusion. Man cannot do anything sensible when he is in a state of identifying....
G. from "In Search of the Miraculous" - P. D. Ouspensky

A couple weeks ago, James wrote an excellent post on the need to be specific in criticism of the government, lest that criticism seem to the reader as though it were a broad indictment of every US citizen. This post will not argue with the wisdom of that suggestion, but will try and look at why it's so important.

We identify with groups, with events in our lives, with movements, with ideas, with other people. And we may do so to such an extent that our very sense of self feels attacked when this external group, idea, or object is criticized. But this is most commonly the way criticisms are made, and I would suggest that it stems directly from the critic (whoever it is) having the tendency of humans everywhere to speak of other people and groups to which they are not attached in the same way that they speak of the ones to which they are attached.

When we speak of race, a virtually fictional concept, it's almost always from the perspective of an identification with one of these mostly artificial groups. When talking of politics, we can, from moment to moment, be wholly identified with a country, a party, or even a candidate. And the list of things we can get completely wrapped up in is endless.

Religion

When I was not yet wise enough to stop being angry about the religion I was raised in, I used to question people who professed a faith about all the things that religion had done to people. Particularly Christianity, because there's almost never anyone as angry as a defector. And I'd almost always get some version of 'Well, they weren't really practicing Christianity.'

This isn't a theological discussion, though. And so the instances discussed, and a conclusion about whether or not the people in question were really Christians, will not happen here. A more interesting question is why was there enough of a concept of group identity and accountability extant in both conversational partners that the issue was a) brought up, and b) defended as though it were meaningful?

And perhaps another question. Why is it that we can always see the fallacy of group accountability (can't judge all of us by one of us) when directed at a group we identify with, but with patchier success when directed at a group we feel no kinship for?

Business

At present, the world faces highly disruptive climate change, the effects of which have been obscured by a spate of massive fires which also accelerated the process. Our global society will also need to deal with human rights abuses, pollution, weapons proliferation, water shortages, food shortages, and a host of other issues.

Most of my readers will have some familiarity with these topics, but I'm not talking directly about these issues, either. I'd rather discuss the actors, governments and corporations, in the main. Two types of fictional entity, acting together, gradually creating an environment that becomes progressively more inhospitable for non-fictional beings.

Corporations are allowed to do things that, if they were persons, would get them jailed, fined, executed, or perhaps burned at the stake by an angry mob. Except that the previous statement is bogus, because corporations can't do anything, only people can. Everything that any 'corporation' has ever done, was done by a person with a name. All the good, all the bad, all individuals.

But we've created these group identities, these associations of limited liability, to ensure that people will be held minimally accountable for collective action. We've even created life goals for these creatures of our own devising; they must profit above all alse. Elevating the sin of greed to the status of a life-affirming virtue.

On the other side of this ethical looking glass wander large and hungry beasts who must consume ever more, extract ever more, and whose very lives depend on Shareholder Value. But, say the beasts, the Profit made me do it. And the fictional entities we call governments wash their hands of judgement, largely because they have become just as faceless, unaccountable, and dependent on Profit.

Don't doubt that there are people who have committed murder in the name of a fictional entity for the goal of securing money, and not in the context of a war, who will never see a trial. Could it be because we allow each other to assume an identity with a larger entity, where the individual becomes merely an appendage? Where the responsibility for bad behavior is so diffuse as to be practically nonexistant?

Politics

Why do I get mad when someone insults liberals? I mean, I call myself a liberal, but I doubt that I mean the same thing by that as would someone who breathlessly includes or implies the word "traitor" after the word liberal every time they say it.

And why does the conviction grow every time I listen to popular conservative commentators talk about Americans, that they don't mean me, in my self-identified status as a liberal? Why is it that the more I become drawn into answering their arguments or behavior, the more likely I am to say 'America' when I mean to criticize conservative politicians or a particular government official? The more likely I am to unwittingly, and unwisely, step on someone else's sense of self.

In fact, it seems that in the game of identity politics, the aggregate of media loud-mouths representing conservatism have managed to appropriate the American identity. And somehow, when I listen to them, I know and respond to it. Maybe not consciously, but probably enough to react from it, this feeling of identity theft.

Their words have more and more made America something that doesn't include self-identified liberals. They have taken it, wrapped themselves in it, and made it something that deep in my gut, I feel reluctant to attach any sense of self to. Their words have marked their ideological territory, woe to the competition who smells the piss on the fencepost and doesn't back off.

Taking It Back

Is this the reaction that people intuit when they describe liberals as America haters? I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. Just as it was a surprising realization to come to, that this no longer feels like my country, and why I felt that way. Because, of course, this is my country, in every sense of the laws under which we've all agreed to live.

My head is full of fiction, and my instinct and emotion can't seem to tell the difference between that fiction and reality. They react to it anyway. I feel powerless to exclude the people I disagree with from my half-conscious concept of America, so I've excluded myself instead. I've allowed a fictional identity and subtext to manipulate my reactions, to make me an exile living at home.

But in a way, there is no America to be excluded from. Only a dream of a land of the free laid down a couple hundred years ago, and we aren't quite there yet. We're a work in progress. An aggregate of individuals, some pushing, some pulling, some standing to the side, participating in an experiment, a long-standing argument. All of us responsible to one extent or another for who wins the latest round.

Because in the end, there is no 'church', no 'corporation', no 'government', only us. I'm taking my identity back, and my accountability, and giving away my belief in fictional entities that are supposedly bigger and more powerful than I am. Entities that get to behave like antisocial delinquents, because they don't have bodies or proper names. They're just groups of individuals, and I'm holding them accountable, too.

"White Houses do not talk. Buildings do not speak." - Donald Rumsfeld

Exercise: To what extent do you resent or agree with the 'we' statements made above? Why?

2003-06-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

Money Where Our Mouths Are

For those of you that voted in the MoveOn primary, and for anyone else who already has a favorite candidate, please take this opportunity to support that candidate. Go to their website, make a contribution, and offer to volunteer if you can. We (and I'm not using the royal we, here) need to be involved at an early date in supporting people that we feel are getting our issues out there.

My early vote is with Kucinich so far, but my 2004 vote will be for The Democrat. So support your favorite Democrat today. Let's clear that Shrub.

2003-06-26T16:14:00.000-07:00

Around

Electrolite on the prospect that world leaders will eventually be seen to have done that which [they] did, a day that can't come too soon. And read the comments.

Making Light on the virtue of homemade liqueur.

Head to the Whiskey Bar for the war crimes update, and the full report on Bill Frist, senator, surgeon, kitten-killer, amnesiac.

Thanks to the fine folks at Eschaton, I find that they're getting ready to implement paperless voting in my own state of Washington. Very uncool. Also, Leah wants us to take a closer look about the Bush administration's failure to pay attention to terrorism threats on coming into office.

The Left Coaster has more to say about the missed opportunities to get Bin Laden, and the damaging leaks that are revealing the story to the public, also, more GOP hypocrisy.

CalPundit talks about decreasing income mobility.

A Rational Animal (permalinks bloggered) went on a grueling tour of the latest news from Iraq this last Tuesday. One awful thing after another.

Digby points up a John Edwards speech that made me want to stand up and cheer. The eventual Democratic nominee needs to take this line and run with it.

Wampum on the latest developments in the Indian Trust Fund case, wherein it's now being proposed that individual claims may be unilaterally settled by Gale Norton at the Department of the Interior. As she says, it would be "like having Ken Lay square up the Enron shareholders accounts."

At Daily Kos, you can read about the RIAA's plans to sue 57 million Americans, the Supreme Court's decision to overturn a Texas sodomy law, an update on the quagmire, and how a failure to respect local custom is getting British and American soldiers killed.

Dennis Kucinich has put forward a bill to abolish the death penalty, Talk Left has the details.

Over at Orcinus, you can read about the summer camp from hell, and then you might want to continue on down.

Finally got around to putting up this good Rittenhouse post on copyright law, with some good advice for bloggers. I consider myself warned.

Avedon tells us about America's first commie, Benjamin Franklin, who came up with the batty idea of having a publicly funded fire department.

Dennis Kucinich has a blog.

2003-06-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

Taking His Name In Vain

Michael Savage Jingleweinerschmidt,
That's my name, too.
Whenever I go out, the people always shout,
"There goes Michael Savage Jingleweinerschmidt"
TRA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!...*

As you may know, Michael Savage is apparently suing certain websites in part because they allow people to do this over the internet. Moron.

Now, normally, I'd consider it rather rude to call someone a moron. But on the other hand, some kid (right around the age where you end up in sixth grade) called into Savage's show and told Savage that he was the kid's biggest hero. And you might be wondering what this guy has done to deserve this honor, and it was this: Because of the Savage Nation radio program, this kid's dad told him that it was alright to go to school and call other kids morons if he felt they deserved it. The bellicose loudmouth then told the kid that he was one of the "cool kids" now.

Surely, this is a social legacy to be proud of. Some people inspire young artists, writers, or scientists, some people inspire a devotion to civic service, others mentor the business leaders of the future. Michael Savage is trying to inspire a nation full of put down 'artists' who trust in the kindness of sixth graders. A nation full of schoolyard bullies with the mentality of a hungry wolf pack. A savage nation indeed.

Check out the websites on the last line of our jingle for the day, learn about the lawsuit, complain to MSNBC, the whole shebang. It's time to put a full stop to this jerk.

*To the tune of John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt, if you missed that song when you were small.

2003-06-25T23:26:00.000-07:00

Quick Note

Michael Kinsley always has a gentlemanly, yet insightful voice. His column Untethered By Reality is no exception.

As someone who manufactures opinions for a living, it is my job to be sure. And my standards for the ingredients of an opinion are necessarily low. There may be a few ancient pundits such as George Will who still follow the traditional guild practices: days in the library making notes on index cards, a half-dozen lunches at the club with key sources, an hour spent alone in silence with a martini and one's thoughts -- and only then does a perfectly modulated opinion take its lovely shape. Most of us have no time for that anymore. It's a quick surf around the 'Net, a flip of the coin and out pops an opinion, ready to go except perhaps for a bit of extra last-minute coarsening. (Emphasis added)

All I could think was, oh geeze, he sussed me out. (Sometimes that quick Google search brings up an article that doesn't quite support the opinion expressed. Oh well.)

I felt the same when I read this piece by him from last year. That was before I became seriously addicted to blogs. Back then I still had time to watch TV.

2003-06-25T12:31:00.002-07:00

In the Nation:

Confronting empire, by Arundhati Roy.

...We can reinvent civil disobedience in a million different ways. In other words, we can come up with a million ways of becoming a collective pain in the ass. When George Bush says "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," we can say "No thank you." We can let him know that the people of the world do not need to choose between a Malevolent Mickey Mouse and the Mad Mullahs. ...

Let weapons inspectors in. Here.

More on the cancellation of Donahue. This bit is an excerpt from his last show:

...And when Donahue asked why anyone should take what celebrities say about war seriously, O'Donnell came back, "Nobody wants to interview the mother of the two kids in my daughter's class who feels the same way. ... I'm not speaking as a celebrity. I'm speaking as a mother and I'm speaking for the mothers who don't have the option of an hour on the Phil Donahue show." ...

The scoop on the Domestic Security Enhancement Act. Shiver.

...It provides that any citizen, even native-born, who supports even the lawful activities of an organization the executive branch deems "terrorist" is presumptively stripped of his or her citizenship. ...They would then be subject to the deportation power, which the DSEA would expand to give the Attorney General the authority to deport any noncitizen whose presence he deems a threat to our "national defense, foreign policy or economic interests." ...
A US citizen stripped of his citizenship and ordered deported would presumably have nowhere to go. But another provision authorizes the Attorney General to deport persons "to any country or region regardless of whether the country or region has a government." And failing deportation to Somalia (or a similar place), the Justice Department has issued a regulation empowering it to detain indefinitely suspected terrorists who are ordered deported but cannot be removed because they are stateless or their country of origin refuses to take them back. ...

Read all about the administration's shameless willingness to bribe and threaten other countries, and the less than polite history of US strong-arming at the UN.

Why has the media failed to report on deregulation of the media?

2003-06-25T12:31:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of Atrios, we're pointed to Body And Soul's examination of the riots in Nigeria, popularly attributed to a news editorial about the Miss World pageant. Yet another likely example of the public getting fed a lot of hooey.

2003-06-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

Julie Burchil wonders why domestic violence against women is tolerated at rates that violence against gays or minorities would not be.

2003-06-25T00:25:00.000-07:00

More Essential Members of the Left Coalition: Christians

A few weeks back I was talking about what a Democrat would need to do to get elected:

I think that the real fight will end up being over fear of the future vs hope for the future. The Republicans need to have people focused on the immediate future (we must be afraid because "they" are waiting to destroy us). The Democrats need to have people believing that there is a future and they need to vote their hopes for a better one. I think that the real battle will be on those grounds.

Today I found a wonderful new blog that expresses the same thought (but oh, so nicely):

Unless progressives can begin to employ imagery that inspires, incites, moves, unites, consoles and strengthens, we will fail. Beginning with Reagan, the Right has been very adept at exploiting the wistful longing of many people for an idealized past that never was. As progressives, our difficult assignment is to focus people on moving toward a better future. That's not easy in our culture where so many are already frightened by the pace of technological, economic and social change. It will take poetry--powerful poetry--to overcome an increasingly dominant desire on the part of many Americans to go hide in the past.

Even better, The Right Christians: answering the Christian Right also addresses the point made by Amy Sullivan. She asserted that the Democrats need to engage religion in order to combat the religious right.

Words that can lift and inspire people, words that create enough hope to go on, these are what we need in our confusing and frightening times.

Many of us feel as if we live in a time when prophecy and dreams have dried up. Our best hope is that things don't get too much worse than they are now. If that dreaming community of Third Isaiah could find the courage to dream in the face of their hardships and rejections, so can we progressives find the strength to dream again and imagine a beautiful and wonderful new heaven and earth where shalom (peace, prosperity, wholeness) and mishpat (justice, fairness) flow like rivers.

And he uses George Lakoff to illustrate the ways the Christian Right tries to create conforming families (ie: two heterosexual parents with dad in charge).

I've been thinking lately that one of the better ways to confront the Strict Father metaphor for morality is to show how Christianity as defined by the New Testament actually is a powerful example of the morality described by the Nuturant Parent metaphor. When reaching a broad cross-section of Americans, messages that resonate with the beauty and compassion that can be found in the Bible, I believe will have the ability to cut through the piety of those like Bush who forget the second basic law was to love thy neighbor as thyself.

2003-06-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

Better Bloggers & Etc.

Wampum talks about what's really starting to worry the public about our occupation of Iraq.

Frog N' Blog has finished parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, of an aesthetic manifesto that rambles engagingly about God, the Universe, and Everything. (You can start at 1 and scroll up to 3, then skip to 4 and scroll up to the rest)

Plucky Punk brings us some distressing news on the state of feminist consciousness.

Over at ReachM High, there's an entry called How to win a war, and lose our soul, but I'd have to disagree with the title. It appears to be almost entirely about how to regain soul, security, and our connections with others. And he links to this blog, A Rational Animal which is required reading for anyone seeking to motivate their humanist impulses.

Al Muhajabah updates us about her legal internship, and pointed out a post about Howard Dean's foreign policy views concerning Middle East issues.

Just when a person might think that they were up to date on the latest outright fabrications published in the mainstream media, Ampersand draws our attention to a Greg Palast article on how Cynthia McKinney was smeared (Ampersand uses a less polite term, which I can't fault him for) for something she never even said.

Late Night Thoughts wonders why the massive sense of entitlement that leads to lawsuits against affirmative action never seems to get snagged on the ethics of legacy admissions or Football Uber Alles policies.

Before heading off to move, Lisa at Ruminate this checked in to point out some good posts.

TalkLeft posts a compare and contrast, Kucinich vs. Dean, and I have to say that Kucinich comes out ahead in my book.

Jesse at Pandagon brings us Ann Coulter in all of her unvarnished glory, talks about diversity, and offers an opinion on Gebhardt's recent abuse of language.

Notes on the Atrocities has bloggered permalinks, but head over to read her comments on the affirmative action issue, pointers to good posts, and a reminder that war is, you know, dangerous.

Asia Times: Iraq to be open for business. China and India talking and trading again, but trying to avoid pushing hard on their border dispute. The peace movement lives and breathes.

The Guardian: Blair is hurting Labour in the polls. Six British soldiers die in Iraq. Syria downplays a clash near their border where their troops came under US fire during the bombing of a convoy thought to be transporting Hussein. Naomi Klein's much quoted column on the Republican establishment's war on NGO aid organizations.

Navy Times: Republicans dig in against child tax credit for combat troops. Also, more on the current wrangling over VA funding.

Government Executive: While saying that they have no plans to outsource FAA jobs, Bush has threatened to veto legislation that would block the outsourcing of FAA jobs. Ten states have received additional first responder funding; New York isn't on the list, but Florida and Texas are. Senator calls for CIA documents on Iraq to be declassified. Bush flack at OMB declares complete opposition to any efforts to block the piecemeal sale of civic responsibilities to the private sector.

And Furthermore: That's about all for today, but I'd like to leave you with this observation. There's nothing to utterly destroy a person's faith in the modern medical establishment like sitting in classes with pre-med, medical assisstant, and pharmacy students. Many are blindly obsessed with getting A's, and have zero interest in learning.

Today we went on a field trip to a local park, and seizing and opportunity to connect, our brave botany teacher took some questions about a willow tree as an opening. After mentioning that the family name for willows is Salicaceae, reminding these former chemistry class attendees of a substance called salicylic acid, and reminding them that salicylic acid is aspirin, he got this response: "They named the trees after aspirin?"

While it might not be especially common knowledge that salicylic acid is derived from white willow bark, in context this is just insanely frustrating. It is perhaps the most commonly used and known medications in the US. This type of thing should not be obscure arcana to the people who are going to be treating me and filling my prescriptions.

Plants: They're where the drugs come from. People with aspirations towards the medical field who are unaware of this basic connection are moving towards the Deserving of Undying Scorn category.

But really, should they be held wholly responsible for this? Perhaps not. For admission into medical school, the requirements are truly grueling. Punishing, even. And after all that, they do not ask that the prospective practitioner of the medical arts know anything whatever about nutrition. They instead ask for, and mostly get, hoards of people who've trained themselves to memorize tons of disconnected facts and repeat them back on tests.

We're all of us lucky that a fair number of truly dedicated folks put up with this torture and do their best to help the rest of us anyway. But I'd like to submit that we are not best served by the way medical staff are trained at university.

Update: Body and Soul has returned, go check out this post on the Congolese war, and as usual, read on down.

2003-06-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

CNN Note

In an event worthy of attention all by itself, I saw something unusual on CNN Headline News a bit ago. They were talking about a speech given by Bush today, and I'd tuned out, and then they mentioned the protests outside & I actually turned to look. They were showing pictures, but not the usual ones of the One Weirdo in every crowd. It was mentioned that most of the protestors were women, and it was a mix of anti-war and abortion rights activists. They read one of the signs, "Bombs Drop, Bush Profits."

A few minutes later, they actually showed Howard Dean speaking out against administration policies. His statements were allowed to stand without comment or rebuttal, and he was portrayed as a serious candidate.

Wonders will never cease.

2003-06-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

Asperger's Syndrome
Pt 3 - A Life of Grand Obsession

After talking about how our bodies may be cranky, and how our social lives (particularly when young) may be disappointing, readers might wonder if I'm describing a life of unrewarded misery. But happily, no. Looked at from the inside out, I've largely enjoyed my life, and managed to have a pretty good time. By my reckoning, anyway.

Much has been said about the intent, and often single-minded, interest of aspies in one to several specialized topics or interests. When occupied with these, speaking for me at least, life is good. Happily able to entertain myself for hours to days at a time without significant extraneous activity, I'm my own stereo entertainment system.

(Note: BOOK(tm) and COMPUTER(tm) plug-ins optional, not included with original packaging. Plug-in upgrades periodically necessary as Tasha v. 1.509 neural network assimilates new information.)

Which is not to say that I dislike interacting with others. But that it doesn't seem to be as entirely necessary to me as it is to other people, that I can more easily go without if the kind of contact that I prefer is unavailable. And more usually, I tend to maintain a small number of contacts at any given time, because the whole enterprise seems like loads of time-consuming work. Really, it's for the best, for everyone.

Retreating To Where?

As noted, I had a tendency while growing up to retreat into my own world. My own emotions were confusing, virtually alien. The emotions of other people, well... you people, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, really do seem like Martians much of the time. My body often felt like the most confounded and contrary of darned squeaky, wheel-grease-needing, hard-to-steer shopping carts. And when I'm physically worn out, the noise, the lights, the massive amounts of information included in someone trying to make eye contact and get me to answer even simple questions is enough to make me want to curl up and hide.

But where to go? Because walking away from other people isn't always an option, and walking away from your own body is never an option, the obvious step is to unplug. To not pay attention, to be as completely absent as possible. When I started my intermittent sabbaticals, I was a bit too young to be able to know for sure if it was intentional, accidental, or instinctual. But it was very attractive, though less so as real life has become more engaging.

The first books I remember really enjoying were about fairy tales or mythology. It didn't much matter which, and later, this played into an interest in archeology. Science fiction wasn't far off, with offworld adventure stories making regular appearances in my latter grade school reading. All of this served as backdrop to develop my own stories when I ran out of books, or ran out of adult forbearance with my incessant reading.

I designed civilizations, different races, different societies, dozens before high school. Some stories I wrote down, some just stewed. I'd incorporate things I was reading about from virtually any topic or subject, or just make it up as I went. Virtually all of it was certainly rubbish, but very entertaining at the time.

As a teenager, I'd finally settled on a favorite civilization. Before leaving home, I was working on a vocabulary, illustrations of 'important historical events' and personages, family trees, and long narratives of battles and betrayals. It was clear early on that other people weren't interested, yet it was a wonderful instant holiday from church, school, or endless lectures about an obscure and wholly fictional entity called 'Your Potential.'

Your Potential, or so I was informed, lived in the Up (wherever that was), and seemed also to solely inhabit a portion of the Up directly behind my head. At any rate, I never could seem to spot it, or perhaps was never very interested in looking. It was suggested that I hook up with it, but it sounded like a very dull playmate, with no interest whatever in dragons, dinosaurs, spaceships, ancient civilizations, interesting rocks, mythology, pretty insects, or alien royalty. Bugger that.

And so, my main interest as a young person in real world topics was to gather enough information to flesh out an engaging virtual world. I became progressively better at going on search and retrieval for fun tidbits, and along with the characteristic collections of treasured objects, my favorite collection was a mountain of semi-random trivia floating around in my head. A veritable just-add-water kit for an immediate vacation.

Some Company

The only fellow traveler in this episode of early and fantastic exploration was my younger sister. During the day, we typically got along poorly. We had some of the usual sibling problems, and some unusual ones, including my often being otherwise occupied. But sometimes when we'd both run out of things to do, or when she would be in the mood to imagine dolls instead of play with them, we'd get together and cook up somewhat outlandish improv fantasy role playing games.

When it was time for lights out, though, we'd often stay up for hours telling each other stories. The more time went by, the more it was me making things up to tell her, but she had this interest in having company and I thought it was kind of nice to have someone to try out my latest concoction on. And being no creative slouch herself, though not obsessively interested in pure fiction, her feedback made things more fun.

She 'humanized' me a great deal, just by playing my games with me. Though of course, I didn't realize it at the time. Her enjoyment of random sounds and imaginary words added an extra element of interest to imagining foreign/alien species. (She always favored softer sounding words with what I considered to be overlong strings of mushy vowels, and I tended to like jawbreaking constructions with loads of pointy consonants.) And that drew me into participating in a microcosmic sub-dialect of english with her once we got old enough to stop spending our waking hours mostly tormenting each other.

The first word in our sub-dialect, consisting mostly of compressed and acronymed words whose parents we'd utterly worn out, was p'Tike. Which is a shorthand way of saying "So, pretend like..."

But Whatever Will We Do Now?

At some point around the age of twenty or so, I realized that I'd accidentally developed a useful skill. (Good God, man, do you know what this means...!?) While having little interest in follow-through for most activities, and being very disorganized as I went about it, I could pick up new topics easily enough to put them to passable use at a job. I got around the interminable boredom aspect of actually doing any one thing for very long by skipping around a lot. Often to some occupation at least a little more rewarding than the last.

Over a period of about three years, with a bit of training at work and informal night classes, I worked my way into web authoring. All the time, feeding my jones for science trivia. And now, some years later, I find myself in college having just about the best time ever. I may even be in the process of discovering something to do that would be engaging for more than a couple of years.

My interest in collecting odd words has been quite useful, as is a measure of skill at constructing internal models, and trying to pull disconnected facts into a coherent narrative. Classmates don't care whether or not I'm popular, in fact a measure of social anonymity is quite easy to maintain. And if I study with someone else, a single-minded attention to the topic at hand is actually appreciated. Teachers aren't worried about whether I spend enough time with other kids on the playground, or if I read 'too much.'

Some Kind Of Freak

I used to wonder a lot if I was just a freak, or maybe a subtype of geek. But now that I know I am, I feel much better about the whole business. I went suspiciously into grief counseling, and came out feeling like I'd finally found my own kind. My life made more sense, and even the unpleasant parts seemed bearable.

There are those who dismiss the whole idea. Including bonafide geeks among whom there will often be significant arguments about whether or not ADD/ADHD, or even Asperger's, are real conditions which require attention, an overdiagnosed excuse, or just a continuation of society's seemingly endless efforts to demonize an uncommon personality subtype.

Indeed, a purely circumstantial observation could be made that many individuals diagnosed with these conditions seem to fall into the NT quadrant of the MBTI. (Though NTj's might be especially inclined to deny the existence of any disorder, or indeed, the personality test yet devised that could trap them.) The NT type makes up only 5-7% of the population at best, and it isn't an entirely irrational argument that certain aspects of these 'disorders' could be seen as a reaction to social alienation.* As the author of Reciprocality says, "The way a monkey's hair falls out if one pokes it with a stick for long enough came to mind." (Random Keirsey vs. Meyers-Briggs essay.)

In that vein, Tony Attwood talks about the difference between a person with Asperger's syndrome and an Aspie:

...If Asperger’s Syndrome was identified by observation of strengths and talents, it would no longer be in the DSM IV, nor would it be referred to as a syndrome. After all, a reference to someone with special strengths or talents does not use terms with negative connotations (it’s artist and poet, not Artistically Arrogant or Poetically Preoccupied), nor does it attach someone’s proper name to the word syndrome (it’s vocalist or soloist, not Sinatra’s Syndrome). Focusing on strengths requires shedding the former diagnostic term, Asperger’s Syndrome, for a new term. The authors feel that Aspie, ..., is a term that seems right at home among it’s talent-based counterparts: soloist, genius, aspie, dancer....

Hmmm, imagine that. A talent instead of a curse, what ever will they think of next? But I'll leave the last word to the Wired article that represented a significant 'coming out' milestone, The Geek Syndrome. It opens thusly:

Nick is building a universe on his computer. He's already mapped out his first planet: an anvil-shaped world called Denthaim that is home to gnomes and gods, along with a three-gendered race known as kiman. As he tells me about his universe, Nick looks up at the ceiling, humming fragments of a melody over and over. "I'm thinking of making magic a form of quantum physics, but I haven't decided yet, actually," he explains. The music of his speech is pitched high, alternately poetic and pedantic - as if the soul of an Oxford don has been awkwardly reincarnated in the body of a chubby, rosy-cheeked boy from Silicon Valley. Nick is 11 years old. ...

When Nick gets older, he'll probably end up participating in a not insignificant number of conversations just like this. And he'll probably have a good time, as he reckons it, even as certain adults despair of him. In the end, provided that we allow ourselves to enjoy it, it's good to be a geek.

Read Part 1 - Cranky Bodies

Read Part 2 - Hey, look, it's the...

* That statement should not be confused with the erroneous, and hurtful, idea once propagated that autistic spectrum syndromes were caused by a lack of maternal love.

2003-06-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Better Bloggers & Etc.

Digby is back! We were all worried, but it turns out that he was just hopped up on Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, Savage & friends, and was therefore temporarily unable to come back to the real world. Start here, read down.

PeaceTreeFarm talks about the shifting tactics of the Iraqi opposition.

Skippy reminds us about the man who was arrested for protesting Bush. Or, more specifically, for carrying a sign that said 'no blood for oil' at a location where the president was due to show up.

Neal Pollack generously explains revisionist history.

Over at the Left Coaster Steve Soto tells us all about how the 'liberal' New York Times has exonerated Bush of lying.

Making Light indicates that Team Bush may finally have found someone to blame for their failure to find any Iraqi weapons: looters. And when you're done believing that, I have a fine real estate deal to tell you about in an alley behind the local watering hole. Also, more about the missing antiquities. She's waiting for apologies from the people who were delighted at an early report that 'only 33' objects went missing, but isn't holding her breath.

Baku Today posts an editorial on microfinance in Azerbaijan.

2003-06-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

Quick hits

Sometimes you gotta laugh: Searchin' Every Which A-Way for WMD (courtesy of theologicus on dKos).

One of the more interesting commentors (also in that same comment thread) is General Wesley Clark's son, Wesley Clark, Jr. I must say I'm impressed with his posts and if his dad is as good at expressing a solid progressive message, he certainly would be worth looking at some more.

I've got some questions for Dick Morris:
Who armed all these Islamic fundamentalists? Who poured money into Pakistan in the 80's? Who cut deals with the mullahs in Iran to fund terroism in Central America? Who tried to negotiate a pipeline deal with the Taliban AFTER they blew up the buddhas and forced jews to wear stars of David? Who goes and works for Halliburton and the Carlyle Group when they leave office (or continue working for them while in office)? Who allowed the Saudis to evacuate all members of OBL's family living in the U.S. right after 9/11? Who has blocked and prevented any After Action Review as to what happened on 9/11? Who tried to block the creation of a Department of Homeland Security? Who has not fired or brought to accountability a SINGLE PERSON for the intelligence failure that led to 9/11?
But the most important question of all - WHO WAS THE PRESIDENT FOR NINE MONTHS PRIOR TO SEPTEMBER 11TH?
The entire national security apparatus knew about OBL and the danger from Islamic fundamentalism prior to the Bush takeover. When my father left NATO (while Clinton was still in office) he said that the greatest danger to our country was terror arising from Islamic fundamentalism - this was felt very much across the board except for the Pentagon which was obsessed with Iraq and Hussein throughout the 90's.
In the United States Army, a commander is responsible for everything that happens under his command from the day he takes command. Sniveling about predecessors doesn't absolve a commander for dereliction of duty.
What exactly did Bushco do to protect the American people from Islamic fundamentalist terror for the first nine months of the administration? Zero.
The intelligence failure that led to 9/11 rests squarely on the shoulders of one man - George W. Bush.
Posted by Wesley Clark Jr. at June 21, 2003 10:29 AM

Very nice.

So what would you tell the DNC if you had a chance? Emma debated one on Atrios and has an excellent suggestion. (scroll down to the June 21st entry: Emma Debates the DNC)

I've been invited to join Steve Soto and a few other contributors in making the Left Coaster a group blog. I hope to use the offer to participate in more strategizing with Steve and the others. My first entry on Think Tanks is now up. I'll be posting to both blogs. The group blog concept seems to be catching on more because it provides a ready source of content even when the blog owner is not able to post. And people can afford to take vacations, concentrate on work when necessary and even just decide not to blog at all on some days.

I know I appreciate getting to blog with Natasha and James and now I get to blog with Steve too. For someone who has always been fascinated by politics, it is great to have virtual conversations with others who are also care about these things. I think that the internet world is going to make a difference in the next election and our blogging can build a community of activists with some good ideas to contribute to the fray. And perhaps DNCdoug will take Emma's advice. :-)

2003-06-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

Roving About

Go to Orcinus, start here, read down.

Over at Kos, Steve Gilliard talks about the growing Iraqi resistance, and why it's unlikely to be the result of pro-Saddam partisans.

Liberal Oasis on why seniors aren't buying Medicare reform, among other things, and also a piece on how conservatives are being allowed to define liberalism.

Mark Morford rocks: Oh my god, it's the gay Canadians, lock up the border, Pa. Why Walmart is evil. We need a president with libido. And finally, why the rest of the world hates Bush.

Counterpunch: The paramilitary bloodbath in Colombia continues unabated. In Brazil, President Lula da Silva is walking a fine line. The Iranian revolution, reloaded. Bush family historical revisionism, past and present. Will transgenic salmon outcompete the real thing?

Asia Times: Coming full circle, the US government now hopes to support communists to fight fundamentalists as part of their tone deaf meddling in Iran, while the true popular movement has no leader. Team Bush losing the peace in Afghanistan. Indian business leaders look for their share of China's growing market. Who will be hurt by sanctions against Burma.

TomPaine: Should corporations have first amendment rights? Why we have an estate tax. Progressives need a banner.

The Guardian: China is changing, will we in the west be able to wrap their heads around it? Has an air strike in Iraq finally taken out Hussein?

BBC: Russian pollution killing the Baltic. GM crops are jumping their pens. The Y chromosome isn't going anywhere, which, you know, is pretty cool. Hard brushing damages teeth. Maternal nutrition determines stroke risk.

Information Clearinghouse: We're missing a jet, everybody panic. Invading Iran; will we or won't we? Bush team blasts NGOs for not furthering their public relations goals. Not content with ticking off most of the known world, the Bush administration is now taking aim at Libya. The US hits new record in home foreclosures.

2003-06-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

Better Bloggers, Round Two

Wampum is back! And so is flashback Friday.

In a similar vein, Blog Baby takes on a longer flashback trip to last century's progressive movement.

Billmon has been on a blue streak over at the Whiskey Bar. All not well in Baghdad, though you'd never know it from a steady diet of Rumsfeld. He also points out the social justice of executive pay, brings us a footnote that may need to be tagged onto all of Bush's speeches, brings us the end of the world as we know it, and some very dedicated folks who've set themselves the task of cataloging Bush's lies about Iraq.

Mad Prophet, also on a tear, brings us the corporate invasion of Iraq, an amusing Arianna Huffington column, and a disturbing glimpse into Israeli PR policy.

ReachM High weighs in on the Republican desire to thwart the filibuster.

The Sideshow on yet another thing that the Democratic leadership needs to noodle.

To The Barricades finds another link (practically usable in court, by Dubya standards) between Republicans and cat killing.

Martin Wisse brings us a portrait of an American Conservative, and talks about secret detentions in the US. As Jim Henley noted, the phrase the US government engages in the practice of secret detentions should create a not inconsiderable amount of alarm.

Al-Muhajabah says that the problem with most applications of Shari'a law is that they strict enough, and if you go read the post that will make every bit of sense.

Plucky Punk: Bush Lied, People Died.

Over at Kos, RonK wants us to help Mallard Filmore find the T.P., and Steve Gilliard doesn't want to hear another word about the poor, dead Shia being used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Ampersand responds to someone who has accused him of being unsympathetic towards Israelis.

And Angry Bear brings us dueling quotes on matters of government interference, as part of a political tennis match with a libertarian.

2003-06-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

Fun Facts About Water

Water is called the universal solvent because of its proclivity to dissolve all manner of things. It can do this because the oxygen in H₂O is a first-rate hog of negatively charged electrons. It keeps most of the negative charge at it's end of the molecule, leaving the hydrogen atoms at their ends with a slight positive charge. And as you probably remember from back in the mists of time, those charges will seek out opposite charges. When water meets up with other molecules or atoms that have any kind of charge, or that easily interact with oxygen, the water molecule wiggles in wherever it can. It can't dissolve fats, or any other compounds where the molecules are electrically neutral.

A small Texas town has had their water contaminated by trichloroethylene. But they probably don't believe that misery loves company.

About 70% of the planet is covered in water.

Critters that live in water are fast going extinct due to overfishing and pollution.

Only 1% of the Earth's water is available for use by humans and other land-dwelling organisms.

Glaciers which provide much of our fresh drinking water are shrinking worldwide at an alarming rate.

People really should have eight glasses of water a day for optimum health.

In some parts of the world, large numbers of people spend much of their day fetching and carrying water for basic needs.

Fresh water is regenerated through the water cycle, the process of evaporation and precipitation that creates glacial snowpack, and fills rivers, lakes, and aquifers.

Millions die every year due to conditions that could have been prevented by having access to an adequate supply of clean water and sanitation facilities.

2003-06-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

Cheaper Drugs

No, not those drugs, these drugs. Congress will allow the importation of prescription medication from Canada, a country whose safety record and manufacturing processes are virtually identical with our own. Also, loads cheaper, as many seekers of telemedicine and cross-border travelers have discovered.

In addition, legislation was passed that reduces pharmaceutical companies' options in keeping generic drugs off the market. This will definitely reduce costs to consumers, and if you're one of those people who worries about whether the generics are 'as good', stop worrying. As long as the formulation is the same, the generic drug will be just as effective, thanks to that big gummint' regulatory body, the FDA. They may not be perfect, but they have their uses. If you're concerned about privatization of Medicare, however, the article notes some worrying trends.

I'd previously linked to a post from the Bloviator describing the pharmaceutical industry's lobbying plans, and it's good to see that the fox hasn't yet been put altogether in charge of the henhouse. But keep an eye out, because just like the media companies, their dream bottom line and your welfare do not always lie along the same path.

2003-06-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

Do we have to know this for the test?

Summer quarter will start on Monday. I'll be taking 3 1/2 weeks of botany, followed by 3 1/2 weeks of inorganic chemistry. Basically, two 10 week, 6 credit science classes with lab included compressed into a little over 3 weeks each, and 4-5 hours a day, every day.

I'm not saying this to complain, because attending college has been a long-delayed goal, and I think it'll be fun to try a distilled version of these subjects. But one thing that I absolutely do not want to hear even once during this time period is one of my fellow students piping up with "Do we have to know this for the test?" Every time I hear that, I just want to scream. And maybe one of these days, I'll get up the gumption to explain my frustration to the next blockhead that attempts to ruin my learning experience with this line.

Your teacher knows that there's going to be a test. Why? Because they wrote it up themselves. They show up every day to try to help you get information from point A (book, whiteboard, notes) to point B (your noggin), in the hopes that you will be a credit to the work they've put in preparing you for whatever comes next. If they express a desire for you to learn something, please try and do so. They may even draw particular attention to certain topics, and suggest that the class really cover them. If you were listening instead of fidgeting like a bored high-schooler, you would probably already know what was going to be on the test.

You bring everybody down. I've never yet seen an instructor whose whole countenance fails to sink at the first hint of this question. I've yet to see a student look more engaged and interested when the inevitable discussion ensues about 'what you have to know.' I personally don't have to know any of this. I paid a good chunk of my own money to attend these classes to try and learn a new subject, and I already have an okay job. I actually want to know this information, because I'm looking forward to putting it to use, and I don't want that interrupted by your whinging. Also, it doesn't help me learn when my teacher feels like giving up on the lot of us because they think no one cares about the subject matter.

College is hard. It isn't impossible, unreasonably daunting, or scary, but it requires attention and commitment. Do not show up to class and be astonished when actual thought is required of you. Don't take up everyone else's time asking for a full chapter summary of the reading you were supposed to have already done, but figured you could slide on. And don't top this off by asking whether or not this 'hard' material that you haven't put any effort into studying will be on the test. Trust me, someone is beating back a desire to rub your nose in the (probably) expensive book that you haven't even cracked.

Learning is a comprehensive endeavor. Consider the possibility that in your laser focus to memorize which bits of trivia will be on the fabled test, you have overlooked something that would have helped the whole thing fall into place for you. Skipped over a concept which would have helped you build a mental framework into which these disconnected bits of trivia fit like puzzle pieces into a rational whole. When you do have to memorize things, it makes it ever so much easier when those things make some sense to you.

Therefore, if they say it, give you an assignment covering it, ask you to do a project on it, repeat it in class on at least two consecutive days, or write it down on the big, blank boards at the front of the room, just for love of god, try to learn that information and stop bothering everybody with inane questions. Indeed, if you would be so kind, ask questions about the material itself and participate in the discussion. And always assume that the answer to whether or not something will be on the test is "Yes."

PS - Yes, there are boring classes, bad teachers, and some classes are always going to be more important to you than others. But have some consideration for the rest of us, and complain to friends, who do all of us the invaluable service of volunteering to listen to their friends' complaints free of charge. Alternately, you could always blog about it, which is just as good ;)

2003-06-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

Better Bloggers

Over at Eschaton, courtesy of Leah and Freelixir, we get the good news that congress overturned the FCC deregulation, or at least the most heinous parts. Yay, elected representatives. And Atrios points out that Aznar and Blair will be duking it out over Gibraltar, and no doubt arguing about who was more 'Willing' to go along with our Boy George's last crazy scheme.

Talk Left brings us news of a potential liberal cable channel, Joe Biden's latest betrayal of liberty in the guise of fighting crime, and the Republicans sneaky plan to block filibusters.

Dave Pollard comes up with (only?) 10 things that don't make sense, and immediately below that shares a poll with us comparing the attitudes of people living on either side of the borders of the US.

Left Coaster Steve Soto brings us the three latest Bush team outrages, and tells Terry McAuliffe to get off his bum and start acting like an opposition leader, or quit. And I'm sure that we can all agree that it would be a terrible shame if a guy who encouraged his party to act like Republican wanna-bes during the last election cycle, and thinks that labor unions are elitist, were to pass his job on to someone a little more, you know... liberal.

Magpie lets us know that a filing in Texas to re-open Roe v. Wade has been dismissed.

Ruminate This has more on the FCC deregulation rollback.

The Eyeranian talks about the wisdom of leaving Iran well enough alone, the dangerous ramblings of Michael Ledeen, and the People's Mujahideen (aka: MKO, Mujahideen e-Khalq,...).

Pandagon brings us the news that outspoken anti-war MP George Galloway was smeared, with at least some of the papers alleging ties with Hussein having been proven forgeries.

Go read Late Night Thoughts on corporate morality.

Jimm at FreedomCentury rambles intriguingly about fanaticism, how the EU has been able to accomplish with sweet talk what the US couldn't with threats, and also, California Republicans. Oh, how the party of Reagan has fallen.

Seeing the Forest talks about economic disconnects in the US, and points us to a recent speech by former Senator Max Cleland.

2003-06-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Day

From the TNR article:

"What we must not do in the face of a mortal threat," Cheney instructed a Nashville gathering of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in August 2002, "is give in to wishful thinking or willful blindness." Cheney's admonition is resonant, but not for the reasons he intended. The Bush administration displayed an acute case of willful blindness in making its case for war.

Indeed.

2003-06-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

Descending into Mad Max's World

Tristero brought to my attention an article in the New Republic that is definitely required reading if you want to understand the serious misuse of the intelligence agencies and willful blindness of the Bush administration as they ignored and suppressed any information that did not allow them to justify their war.

Why it is really bad that they are allowed to get away with this is laid out in an interview that Tom Paine had with Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies.

TP.c: So we're in an era where might makes right, even if it may not be right. And it doesn't matter if it starts with a bunch of lies, because if you have the biggest military you can just bully your way through.
Bennis: Absolutely. The question is, are we going to be in a position in this country to hold our government responsible for those violations of international law as much as we hold it responsible for the violations of U.S. law? All of those things are important. If we allow our government to get away with this power grab, both domestically and internationally, we are setting the stage for a far graver loss of democracy, both in our country and around the world, than anything we have seen so far.

With the Republican-controlled Congress holding secret investigations, I suspect our ability to hold our government accountable is sadly lacking.

Yet, it will be up to us to keep this issue alive until we can find a way to stop this relentless march into lawlessness.

2003-06-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

Asperger's Syndrome
Pt. 2 - Hey, look, it's the...

People with Asperger's Syndrome, or Aspies, aren't defined by unusual physical characteristics, and though we may dress a bit on the geeky side, there's not much to catch the eye. But we open our mouths for 10 minutes... and there's sometimes no telling what will happen.

Asperger's could be called Late Bloomers Syndrome, and encapsulate much of the condition that falls into the notice of those who don't live with us every day. The most defining characteristic to the outside observer is diminished social skills, caused (as is commonly agreed) by having little to no natural ability at reading body language and social cues. As quoted from a virtually random Google result ;)

Studies done on how we communicate indicate that the overwhelming majority of all communication is in body language and tone of voice. One study said that only 7% of communication was in the words themselves, with 54% being body language and 39% in tone of voice and delivery. ...

Maybe not numbers to stake your life on (though we have a second vote), but probably pretty near the actual divisions. Every day when talking to people, the typical person gets about 90% of their information from non-verbal cues. That's a lot of data.

We get that 7% of word content, some portion of tone of voice, and very little body language. Maybe overall, we get 10-30% of the information that other people get probably 60-90% of. While this ability tends to improve with age, we may be years behind our peer group, and perhaps never fully catch up in all areas.

Turned back around the other way, the body language and tone of voice that we communicate to others may range from poorly to inappropriately expressive. The voice may be flat, unmodulated, movements and gestures stiff, the face may lack expression. Given sufficient attention, this too can be improved, but it doesn't come to us naturally.

Not Quite Shy

People with Asperger's may often be described as unsociable, shy, aloof, hermit-like even. Which doesn't entirely gel with the somewhat raucous or intent discussions, dry to arcane humor, and to some extent, easily familiar conversations that we exchange with like minded individuals.

It isn't that we don't like talking to anyone, but years of negative conditioning can teach even us that it's better to keep quiet than risk starting a commotion. When speaking in professional or academic settings on topics with which we're familiar, it might be hard to come to the conclusion that we're afraid to speak. Whether we're always good at it...

When young, Aspies may launch into long monologues covering obscure interests. (This tendency never *entirely* goes away, but usually gets moderated.) Other traits may include being blunt to the point of rudeness, so literal that it would try the patience of saints, having almost no concept of when we are being put on or lied to, inflexible in our habits and routines, hard put to understand hierarchies of authority, and stubborn beyond belief.

Even more frustrating for those in charge of me, I often refused to do anything without a reason given that sounded logical. I had declared war on "because" at a young age. Unable to pick up the signals that would indicate an adult was reaching the end of their patience, this (it's not a bug, it's a...) feature caused a lot of problems. I wasn't sure what it was, but I held a deep conviction that 'something' was seriously wrong with me.

As a young person, these traits made me the frequent target of jokes or gags, and earned the enmity of peers and adults alike. It's a little difficult to describe how it feels when your parents and teachers insult you in public, when peers whose friendship you've tried to win whisper about the 'idiot savant', when the few things you're proud of doing are a running joke.

It isn't as though every day were awful, as though no one spoke to me, or my family didn't care for me, but it was a prickly kind of life. And I became pretty prickly right back, probably pushing away some people who could have been friends to me. It took me a while as a child to figure out that the way I was sometimes treated by others was not the best type of behavior to imitate.

Retreating

Very early, Aspies tend to construct complex fantasy lives, or bury ourselves in an obscure hobby. Often both at once.

For hobbies, being the hyperlexic critter I was, I lost myself in books. They weren't as confusing as people, they did not make bizarre, nonsensical demands. The toybox that my dad built for me at a young age was often emptied of all it's toys after I learned to read at the age of three. Then the books and me would occupy the box for hours.

I would not go anywhere without a book as a small child (and still often even as a teenager), and would sit reading quietly almost no matter what was going on when I was away from home. When I was reading in the backseat of the family car by myself during trips, my mom would sometimes look back to make sure I was still there. She was a little unsettled by me even then, a toddler sitting in the car, making no noise at all.

From children's tales, to archeology, to an intent interest in ancient Egypt, and later science fiction, I could hardly be pried away.

Look Out, School

After discovering in the lower grades that socializing was NO FUN, I started bringing books to school or checking them out at the library, and spent most of my time with them. I would walk while reading, lining up my feet with lines on the playground, looking up when peripheral vision indicated a change in terrain. I sat to the side, and seldom played with others. Mostly, I would read whenever I could, in place of homework, on the playground, and if I could get away with it, during lecture. In later grades, the librarians with whom I was always on a first name basis would let me check out my own books.

The only altercation I was ever in during all my school years was in 4th grade when a girl took off running with the book I was reading. (It was a $100 tome on Tutankhamen's burial treasures, loaned to me by a teacher.) I gave chase, and ended up putting her in a headlock until she handed it over. I didn't hit her, push her to the ground, or hurt her. She was just trying to hold on to the book, which I was terrified that she would damage to get me in trouble. When I had it, I went back to my bench. I expect she just wanted to see if there was any way to get my attention.

In fifth grade, my teacher caught me reading during class one too many times. I was forbidden to read at all that year, including during recess and lunch. She thought that it would be good for me to socialize more, or maybe she just disliked me, an opinion that even my parents came to concur with. Possibly, it was the worst school year ever. I did not have the coordination for sports. I had nothing to talk about with the other children, and they didn't much want to talk to me, either. Many insults were exchanged, arguments had, etc.

Eventually, I began going to the nurse's office frequently to get my temperature taken. If it was even one degree above normal (small child, moderate exertion, what are the odds) I had to stay in the office until my mom came for me.

Sixth grade, I went to another school. I didn't finish every assignment in a given week all year. My teacher devoted an entire vocabulary test to me a few months into the second semester. We had 20 words that we were supposed to have learned; he would say the word, make up a sentence for it, and we wrote down the proper spelling. After around ten "Shipwrecked: Natasha will be shipwrecked on the rocks of life" type pronouncements, I bolted the classroom to sit on the stairs.

Circle of Protection: Words

It's a wonder that I wasn't beat up or targeted for more bullying in grade school. This is the common fate of people on the high-functioning end of the spectrum, as well as anyone else that falls into the geek/freak/nerd categories, before their peers mature and become interested in other things. I was lucky enough just to be about as thoroughly and roundly shunned as possible, though I would occasionally pick up maybe one other outcast for company.

Imagine picking for teams in PE when you were in school. Dead last, behind the sickly kid, behind the one with the weight issues, and even the one that didn't take baths, that was when I got picked. Yet I managed to fend everyone off by being, unintentionally or deliberately, strange enough that no one really wanted to bother me.

I'd been told (remember what I said about the being literal) that it was my job as a good fundy to preach the gospel to everyone I could. Judging by the moderate social success of other children in my church, I think they figured out early on just how seriously to take this recommendation. Let your imagination run wild, it was possibly as bad as that.

Also, all that time reading had done its thing. I sounded like, and was often called, a walking dictionary (among other things.) It didn't take much time to figure out the power of very long words coming out of the mouth of a very small child.

I enjoyed the words, I loved them in all their polysyllabic rambling glory. They were beautiful, rolling, mysterious, gearbox creations of interchangeable parts and subtle grandeur. I couldn't understand people's reactions to them very well, but they would get the one response that I wanted out of most of these strange folks; to make them go away.

Other times, not talking at all would work. A certain kind of tormentor would get bored after a time and wander off to find a more interesting target. Though when confronted with extremes of emotion, or angry authority figures, I was frozen. In those cases, I barely had the choice to speak or not. Mumbled and repetitive phrases, or utter silence and a gaze firmly fixed on the floor or some inanimate object, were all that was left.

Between the extremes of pedantic chatterbox and stoic mute, I managed to fend off the worst bullies, get myself in trouble with most authority, and generally have a crazy time of things.

First Friends

Not until junior high did I find some other compulsive science fiction fans and embark on a teenage life that approximated normalcy.

My academic achievement was poor, though I tested into more advanced classes. I'd been given to expect by my family that college wasn't in my future, so there was no logical reason (I figured) not to spend all my time doing what I liked. I read between three to five novels per week, but I had people to talk to them about.

After school, after leaving behind the fundamentalist christianity I was raised in, I settled in with gamers & SCA people. And finally, after trying many strange philosophies, I gave up religion for politics, with a little eclectic spirituality on the side. Because for an Aspie, there's nothing that beats growing up and finding the rest of the oddballs.

Every year has been better after high school. To this day, I don't understand people who wish they could be kids again. I just think, "And go through all that again! What, are you crazy?"

Read Part 1 - Cranky Bodies

Read Part 3 - Grand Obsession

2003-06-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

Democracy is Coming to the USA

Forget about sleep. Forget about clear thoughts. Forget about reserve. Sane men do not write essays in the dead of night about songs they really like. But today I heard this song for the first time. For eleven years this song existed and I didn't know about it. It filled me with such emotions I could not speak. What can this text--so mysterious I was initially bewildered--yet so effective I wept helplessly--what message could it bear? It was on an album of songs by Leonard Cohen that I found it. In interviews he was reluctant to elaborate what he meant by this song, and I don't blame him. For an artist, poetry and song is his voice; you can't make him clarify in another. But I think I understand what he means. I've struggled to write poems and I wouldn't really want to have to explain exactly what those meant, but poetry is not my easiest voice; and this entry will try to render some fragment of the meaning I perceived in this wonderful, disturbing song.

Democracy
It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.

This describes the anaesthetized state we've been in for quite a few years--the sensation that civic life has been wholly devoted to denying the presence of the elephant in the bedroom. Pop theories abound to explain the frustration and alienation that has become so ubiquitous; but in the meantime, the institutions we've created to serve our needs had turned on us like a drunken Golem. The great wealth we've wallowed in, the great wealth that was so new to those champions in Tiananmen Square, is not enough to hide this.

From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:

The choice of words, "War against disorder," seems prescient--we certainly seem to be fighting a war against untidiness right now--but there's been a "War against Drugs" for years and a general mania to face each new-seen problem with a new regimentation.

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.

Democracy, here, means a spirit. It's not a revision of the constitution, or a change of political parties; it's love as the primary civic emotion, love trumping fear. The Wall (a movie inspired by the music of Pink Floyd) describes our mutual fear and aggrievement like a brick wall we build around ourselves. Will this insight come to the slobbering drunk (or to the stoned?) Or will it be an inflamed channeling of religious feeling? Will it be that which makes the crack in the wall?

And what about the Sermon on the Mount ( Matthew 5-7)? Can anyone pretend to understand it at all? Well, either one lives it or one scoffs at it. Or one doesn't understand it. There must have been a compelling reason why Jesus had high apostle turnover (John 6:44-66). Modern readers will assume he scared off a crowd of followers because they foolishly assumed he was talking about cannibalism. In which case, why did he make so meager an effort to clarify what he meant? Do you rejoice, and are you glad when others persecute you? Or "utter every kind of evil against you falsely"? Does it occur to you that Michael Savage is making us blessed? It doesn't occur to me often, and yet it's true.

It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

The silence on the Dock of the Bay--could that be Otis Redding sitting in the morning sun? Could it be the harsh introspection of the unemployed? Could Leonard have just watched Roger and Me? After all, Moore's film is not so much a documentary as an emotional rant against the state of perpetual psychic anesthesia (that's why Moore juxtaposed, for example, vignettes of economic devastation with those in pursuit of thoroughly frivolous new careers). And yes, the firm pilloried in Roger and Me is General Motors.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.

The "sorrow in the street" is reinforced by "the holy places where the races meet"--something they do entirely too seldom. But what on earth can Cohen be talking about when he speaks of the democracy coming from "the homicidal bitchin' that does down in every kitchen"? It's the place that President Harry S Truman advised the heat-averse to avoid. But Truman's metaphor was a bit too bland. Certainly the legislature of my state has witnessed "homicidal bitchin'... to determine who will serve and who will eat." All pretense of fairness or balance or decency is long gone. Perhaps that's where democracy will come from--when last in the dooryard lilacs bloomed, we turned away and forgot our tyranny of parsimony.

From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Here Cohen's prescience is almost unbearable. This Isaiac vision of grace and hope amid the horror spills out from the music recorded eleven years ago into the blasted, arid parts of Iraq and Afghanistan. There's a button I've seen on pro-invasion blogs, the words "Democracy Whiskey Sexy" which one liberated Iraqi was said to declared he was eagerly anticipating in his country. A certain category of hawks there is, who thinks our vices--alright then, our unfettered appetites if you prefer--are a force of liberation from the tyranny of the mullahs. As if Nassau Senior lived for nothing, I guess.* In the event, Iraq and Afghanistan have clearly become, or remain, places where appeals to God are really the one recourse left to women.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

Cohen is not accusing us of being especially prone to these emotions, but likens them--in a delightful old metaphor--to the things that can injure democracy as an expression of civic love.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

The family Cohen speaks of is the same one he always speaks of--a family he usually believes--except in moments of profoundest despair--can be redeemed by this love, this philos and this agape** he alludes to so much. Despite the fact it incites widespread hilarity everytime I say this, here it is in print: we are a nation going mad from thirst for love. We stuff our mouths with comfort foods and wallow in the most mawkish romantic fantasies, follow leaders who caress our vanity and delude our sense,...and wonder, in print, "Why do they hate us?" Our foreign policy has become a either a vengeance on others for not loving us, or (among fools of my own persuasion!) an untapped potential to win love.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

I realize this is a family blog, but Leonard's spirituality is like the odor of moist earth in a woodland creekbed of sensuality. This is not a song for the "self-actualized," but the holler of a prophet--a prophet whose ribs are visible from an epoch of mourning, even as his sensuality oozes. And I saw the truth of the ancient conceit of true prophets, that even when they fast in the most arid of wastelands, it is we who are truly parched--not they.

Sail on, sail on ...
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A

FOOTNOTE: * There's been an extremely strong tendency among self-described "libertarians" in blogistan to favor both the invasion (which certainly was a big international scheme of income redistribution) and mysticism-purged world that a modern, consumerist society is supposed to provide. Nassau W. Senior (1790-1864) was a good representative of the Classical spirit of economics which libertarians are compelled to regard as sacrosanct. "Underconsumptionists" like the much vilified Keynes believe mature market economies don't consume everything they produce, in large measure because income is concentrated among the wealthy. Senior, inheritor of a great fortune in West Indian sugar, said that great holders of fortunes, through "abstinence from consumption," accumulated productive capital, thereby enriching society; whereas the destitute had the feckless tendency to consume what little they had. Senior wrote the Poor Laws of 1834 which remained in force for several decades. His goal, of course, was to reduce consumption.

** Philos is civil love, ties of loyalty and social affection. Your associations and friendships, the ones you honored and which defined you--these were animated by philos.

Agape is the sensation of holding something dear. It was translated in the KJV as charity, which is a horrible translation. Although awkward, "cherishing" or even "tenderness" (which, until pop love songs, meant exactly the same thing as agape) is far more accurate.

"NEITHER LEFT NOR RIGHT": Cohen (being wiser than I) shuns any sort of political label, and words shouldn't be put in his mouth--not when his own are more than good enough. But as a wonk and outed partisan, it seems to me there has to be something that wrecks our democratic credentials--something sufficient to make democracy something we thirst for, rather than have. And it seem to me that here is something the right and left can agree on: that we've relegated our choice to machine-line institutions. The right blames our state; fair enough, we at The Watch won't quarrel with that. The left blames our corporations--which certainly behave like have-a-nice-day nazis at times. But it seems to me that social critics of the two sides are arguing that the other is the partisan of the side that's the most sick. O, God, God, how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me the uses of this world! Fie on't, tis an unweeded garden that goes to seed: things rank and gross in nature possess us merely. Well, the state 'tis a tare and the corporation a nettle, and your true dull minds affect the one or t'other.

2003-06-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Finally, credit where it's due...

I've been tremendously lazy about thanking Fred of Rantavation for the very cool javascript up above that's counting down the number of days we have left to clear the Shrub. (And it was what, like a month after he so kindly sent it that I put it up?)

So please steal this script, spread the news, and send Fred a nice thank you email.*

* Unless you actually want to help Bush get elected. In which case, write your own javascript.

2003-06-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

Worthwhile Readings

How religion and politics mix in the USA is the topic of a couple of interesting reads, one by Amy Sullivan in the Washington Monthly which says Democrats need to get religion if they want to win.

The other by Tristero reviews an interview with Jeffery Sharlet about his time spent with the Fellowship, an ultra-secret, yet very powerful group that sponsors those Washington Prayer Breakfasts. Frankly, after reading Sharlet's article, I'm not sure I want religion anywhere close to our politicians.

The goal [of The Fellowship] is an "invisible" world organization led by Christ -- that's what they aspire to. They are very explicit about this if you look in their documents, and I spent a lot of time researching in their archives. Their goal is a worldwide invisible organization. That's their word, and that's important because it sounds so crazy.
What they mean when they say "a world organization led by Christ" is that literally you just sit there and let Christ tell you what to do. More often than not that leads them to a sort of paternalistic benign fascism.

Who is part of this select? I was disappointed to see that ex-Senator Mark Hatfield had been one of the group. One question I didn't see answered was whether this select group of the truly elite were only males or if females were also welcomed. If women aren't welcome, then one way to diminish the power of this group is to vote a straight female ticket the next time. I'd just as soon have the First Amendment separation of Church and State be strongly supported rather than having to worry about these guys bringing about their "new world order".

Another don't miss read can be found at Buzzflash who has an excellent interview with John Dean. Perhaps this is why Bush has been talking about revisionist historians?

DEAN: Actually, I was stunned when I went back and pulled all of his pre-war statements about WMDs. None of them is the slightest bit equivocal. To the contrary, he speaks like a man who has actually seen the weapons. These pre-war declarative statements make glaring his most recent statement where he now has become equivocal. His last public statement was that Iraq had "a weapons program." A program, of course, is only a plan, not actual possession. This is an inconsistent statement that calls into question his prior statements. While the White House has tried to spin it, the president’s latest statement effectively undercut all his prior statements.
As lawyers know, when a witness gives inconsistent statements it is said he or she has been impeached. Once a witness is impeached it takes additional evidence to rehabilitate that witness. What the White House needs to rehabilitate the president is obvious: They must find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or this president's credibility is in trouble.

Tristero had another fascinating post about spotting the Bush lies and introduced me to the writings of Dr. Renana Brooks who examines how Bush uses language to bully people into doing things his way.

As a psychologist who evaluates and treats problematic power patterns, I have learned to focus on how people use language, to watch not what people say but how they say it. Bush’s language structure has received little scrutiny and is modeled on a very powerful relationship-communication structure: the language of abuse.

She says Bush uses "personalization" where he firsts paints a very bleak and negative picture, and then sets himself up as the only person that can protect his target from the terrible boogie man that he has created. Somehow, we need to find a way to expose this abusive pattern and show the abused American public that they can find a way to break their co-dependence on this brute and to find other (more hopeful) solutions to our problems. Perhaps we should look at how people help battered women break away from their abusers and then start using the same language when talking about Bush.

2003-06-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

Better Bloggers

More comedy thanks to Easter Lemming.

Talk Left on how the RAVE act is already being used for political intimidation. And a big thank you for this travesty to Joe Biden, D-DE.

At Atrios, Lambert brings us Krugman, and Leah reminds us why outrage is appropriate regarding the FCC deregulation. Apparently the buzzards have already begun to file their merger plans.

This evening I've been catching up with The Sideshow, and while I'd comfortably recommend reading the whole thing, take particular note of Miller vs. Miller and Orrin Hatch's burning desire to destroy your computer (but only if you deserve it.)

At Kos, Steve Gilliard lays out the many troubles of Tony Blair.

Max suggest that we probably won't invade Iran. Not because someone in the White House has developed a sense of shame, but because we're already embroiled in two regional quagmires.

There are several good posts over at the Whiskey Bar, but my favorite is another collection on the record administration quotes, this time on the subject of those mysterious WMDs that we absolutely did find. Coming in pretty close are the comments of the latest Bush staffer to resign in disgust.

Road to Surfdom discusses the necessity of honesty in representative government.

Thanks to PLA, we find that Oliver Willis has kicked Bill O'Reilly right in the First amendment.

On a related note, Congressman Randy Duke Cunningham was quoted on the Daily Show last Wednesday as having said that "Some people, in my opinion, like to hide behind the First amendment."

Jon Stewart suggested that it was "Perhaps because they're being shot at by people hiding behind the Second."

2003-06-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

Neighborhood humor site at it again...

In contrast to the rest of the nation's economy, the GOP is reporting record 2nd quarter profits. Let's turn the floor over to one of their main spokesentities for the joyous news:

..."Quarters like this don't come along very often," Republican Party CFO Dick Cheney said. "In a three-month span, we inked deals with more than 1,300 corporations, signing contracts to build everything from oil pipelines to surveillance equipment to aircraft carriers. We've also aggressively expanded into some lucrative new overseas markets. I honestly haven't seen a boom like this since the go-go early '90s."...

Area man Justin Wilmot withheld 95% of his opinions during a recent family gathering. Speaking of the experience, he said in part:

..."Once you let go of the need to express your thoughts to your family, you suddenly feel much lighter," Wilmot said. "You just float along blissfully, finally liberated from the burden of having any presence at all. It's sort of like getting to return to the womb. Which is way more enjoyable than trying to explain to a tableful of Celine Dion fans why you can't stand her."

And their person-on-the-street opinion gathering lets our fellow citizens weigh in on the FCC's media deregulation decision:

"Yeah? Well, if this is such a big problem, why aren't we hearing more about it on the news?"...

2003-06-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Take Two Minutes...

...and avail yourself of the last opportunity to try and save media diversity in America.

Congress will be voting tomorrow on whether or not to overturn the FCC decision to allow further media consolidation. Please ask them to just say 'no'.

2003-06-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

Laura Ingalls Wilder was a Radical Feminist!?

So, the other day I was in the local Barnes & Noble, moving some copies of 'What Liberal Media' and 'The Clinton Wars' up to a display table to share some face time with 'Useful Idiots,' and I spotted an interesting looking book. It was called Abuse Your Illusions, and it seemed worth thumbing through.

So, while there's a number of nifty topics (as you'll see if you go to their website), I land at their essay about educational inequality. And I'm reading pretty much these same arguments, about which I should probably do some more homework. But here's the thing: after going on to describe how the US/western educational system is massively failing males, they pin it on too many female teachers and strict discipline in the classroom.

At which point, my mandatory childhood read of 'Little House on the Prarie' comes flooding back to me. If I recall correctly, though I may not, all of the frontier school teachers described in that series were female. They had rulers, and they weren't afraid to use them. There was no 'boys will be boys' in the classroom. There was no shifting around, no giggling, no talking, and no parents who would tell the teacher she was being hard on you. And there were plenty of the sort of rote tasks that are alleged to crush boys' spirits utterly.

Did those boys turn out to be uninspired problem children? Wimps? Ashamed of their masculinity? Yet by the standards of many mens' rights advocates, the sons of the Pioneers were subjected to a rabidly anti-male environment.

But we don't even have to go all that far back in our history to find an archetype of this rigid, female dominated classroom alleged to destroy the young male mind. How about the classic image of Catholic school:

"The thwack of rulers hitting knuckles. Towering, glowering faces cloaked in long black habits and skirts. Students cowering in their seats.
Despite the fact that Catholic nuns in general have undergone drastic changes over the past 30 years, those stereotypical images still come to mind for many people. ..."

While the article goes on to describe the changes that have come to these institutions, often held up as examples of quality education, there's a reason that people call the stereotypes to mind. My mother and her own two brothers went to Catholic school for a while, and I was told horror stories involving strict discipline, rulers, and rosaries used like precision ballista. (To be fair, she may have exaggerated the frequency with which these incidents occurred.) I'm not likely alone in being raised on these stories.

And yet no one of my folks' generation, to my knowledge, has accused Catholic school of ruining their sons chances of success in life. Or blamed it for destroying their own masculinity. In the 1950's, are you kidding me!?

Nothing To See Here. Move Along.

Are schools failing children of either gender? Are higher education's resources being stretched too thin, allocated to the 'wrong' people, or put out of reach of too many through discouragement? What level of discipline is optimal, and should it be uniform throughout the population of grade school children?

Well, I don't know. I won't pretend to know, or suggest that these are simple questions. In fact, each of them likely deserves a tremendous amount of attention and careful consideration.

But it seems a prima facie case can be made that disciplinarian female teachers at the primary school level are not the cause of whatever problems the author of the essay was describing. So move along, folks. We need serious answers to these questions. And pinning them on the favorite anti-feminist root cause for all that's wrong with the world won't get us much closer to figuring out what the real story is.

2003-06-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

No taste for empire?

Steve Soto remarks on this Newsweek article which questions the competence of the Neo-Cons. Evidently people are starting to examine some of the assumptions that took us into the war on Iraq.

Speaking in the sober tones now coming out of the White House, one senior administration official sums up the problem: America has the power of a true empire, like Rome or like Britain in the 19th century, but not the taste for acting like one. “Look at us in Iraq—how much difficulty we have in saying we will not anoint people to run the country. Does anyone think the Romans or the Brits would have been deterred for one second?” he says. “People keep accusing the administration of being imperialist, or neo-imperialist, or seeking an American empire. It’s just not in our nature to be imperialist.”

How nice. Now that we are there for an unforeseen length of time.

Now [Wolfowitz] indicated that Iraq looked more complicated than Bosnia. “We’ve been in Bosnia for eight years,” Sen. Joseph Biden snapped back. “That would seem to compute that we’re likely to be in Iraq for a long time—a long time.”

At least the Roman Empire had a plan when they conquered a new country. Bushco's plan was to let the market rule. And rule it does. They just hoped it would work. But as the Army saying goes: Hope is not a plan. Can we find some adults to put in charge now?

2003-06-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

Around

The Guardian: AIDS pandemic multiplies starvation woes in southern Africa, leaving many families entirely dependent on aid now that breadwinners are too sick to work. Will evidence of government lying wake Australia's disengaged electorate? Two hundred and fifty very brave Iranians have signed a letter asking the Ayatollah to step down from his position as God's representative on earth.

From the Asia Times: How the Bush administration is playing into the hands of Iranian conservatives. Will oil producing nations jump ship on the dollar?

Christian Science Monitor: The marriage of Al Qaida with Bali's homegrown terrorists. In Bangladesh, family planners and conservative clerics are working together to help women plan the size of their families. Librarians dig in to fight budget cuts as demand for services soars.

The Village Voice: (warning: slow to load) Nat Hentoff discusses the stand that leaders of the black community in the US have taken against Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Sydney Schanberg covers the news that dare not speak its name: the declining standards of US journalism, and the boardroom 'market made me do it' arguments that the press would gleefully skewer were they issued by other industries.

The Village Voice also listed the following headlines from other sources: The Boston Globe's editorial slant will now favor pro-life sensibilities when discussing abortion. Four in ten senators are millionaires. A group of French exchange students told to stay home after some families refused to house them. More comment on the prevailing belief that WMD have already been found in Iraq.

2003-06-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

Better Bloggers

Angry Bear posts the letter of a Lucky Ducky who has generously offered to allow the suffering WSJ editorial page editors to switch places with him. I bet they're all hoping for the short straw in *that* office pool. He also points us to Amy S.' post where she examines an editorial in that paper where it's claimed that anti-war politicians need to be held accountable for inflating WMD claims. Yes, you read that right. They lied, and it's our fault. Click on over, try not to splutter too much.

Body and Soul talks about corporate involvement in human rights abuses, and why the US army needs to get out of the photo-op business in Iraq and let the established humanitarian organizations take over.

Brooke Biggs talks about the amazing, expandable, plastic, extendable contract of wonder and fun that's been granted to Halliburton to clean up Iraq's oil industry like the blessing of a benign and overindulgent parent.

Beautiful Horizons writes about malnutrition and poverty in Mexico, and on the Organization of American States' recent vote to reject a US candidate for a human rights panel overseen by the commission, and immediately below that post a summary of recent wranglings with Cuba.

Electrolite talks about the idolatrous aspects of the new flag-burning amendment.

Mark Kleiman wonders if the Bush administration is having fun with the tough choice between liberalism and democracy they are presented with in Iraq.

Mad Kane has revived Dubya's Dayly Diary. Heh.

Daily Kos notes that Gen. Wesley Clark gave what would be an excellent job interview for vice president on Tim Russert's show Sunday. Leah at Atrios has more.

Late Night Thoughts is very, very angry, and it sounds like she's given the matter some thought.

And head over to the Whiskey Bar to find the particulars of what probably keeps our reserve bank chairmen in their cups, namely, the US' massive debts and reliance on imports. Though it's unclear how soon a crisis point will be reached, because as he says:

...The sheer size of the U.S. debt also means that America’s foreign creditors have a vested interest in propping the system up. Or, as Keynes once put it, if you owe your bank $10,000 and you can’t pay it back, you’ve got a problem. But if you owe your bank $10 million and can’t pay it back, then the bank has a problem. In finance, at least, size does matter.
But while crisis can be delayed, it can’t be delayed indefinitely. The numbers are simply growing too enormous, as I explain below. Either American living standards will have to be adjusted downward, imperial ambitions will have to be curbed, or America’s foreign creditors will have to agree to some kind of a workout. ...

He has graphs and everything, so go read, and don't stop when you get to the comments.

2003-06-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

Asperger's Syndrome
Pt. 1 - Cranky bodies

In response to a spate of recent interest in, and confusion about, Asperger's syndrome, I'll be writing a small series of posts on the topic. Not as a parent or caregiver, but as someone who lives with it, and remembers growing up with it.

A frequently overlooked issue in autism spectrum disorders, which include Attention Deficit Disorder on one end and profoundly affected individuals who never speak at all on the other, are physical symptoms. In part, the behavior ranging from quirky to unnerving gets all the attention. But the other side of that is an affected person who may be incapable of communicating pain or discomfort, or simply not realize that anyone should be told.

As a child, I suffered from headaches from the age of 8 or 10 on up. As a teenager, these turned into severe migraines that worsened and became more frequent with every year. I didn't really discuss them with anyone until the age of 24, when I realized that in fact, it was very odd to feel that your head was literally about to explode for hours on end. My doctor prescribed a bunch of medicine that didn't work, and some that kinda-sorta helped.

My younger sister had headaches starting about the same age, and she would tell our mother about them at once. When I was discussing what I'd found that finally stopped my migraines with my mother last year, she had been unaware that I'd ever even had them, and neither she nor my sister had ever mentioned her migraines to me. I had stopped asking for medication when in pain quite young, as it was simply ineffective. I assumed that it was simply a price I had to pay for reading a lot, which I wasn't about to give up.

My joints were often painful, I would get dizzy unaccountably, and was nauseated frequently. Extremes of heat exhausted me quickly, making summertime my most hated season. Extremes of cold were physically painful, but at least I could put on more clothes. My coordination was very poor, and not until I reached my twenties could I catch something small thrown to me across a room. I would trip a lot when young, but could right myself well enough to avoid more than usual injuries. Participation in sports was virtually out of the question.

I was starving all the time. Because I didn't have any weight or eating disorder, this seemed trivial. But when very hungry, I became indecisive, lethargic progressing to unavoidably sleepy, either very agreeable or decidedly grumpy, and could become disoriented. When also ill or worn out, I would get tremors, starting with my hands, progressing to body wide shivers. These symptoms would reverse within minutes of eating.

Insomnia has been a problem since I was a teenager, and my sleep generally poor for many years. Daytime sleepiness marked years worth of school and work, and I've had to select jobs and residences based on short commutes and non-repetitive activity out of self-preservation. Not until sometime last year was I able to sort out the cause well enough to wake in the morning after a full eight hours' sleep without still feeling completely exhausted, or to be able to feel tired enough to go to sleep at bedtime.

Course Corrections

A few years ago, before suspecting ADD, Asperger's, or anything like that, I sought medical help for these physical conditions which seemed to be growing worse every year. Taken alone, they are niggling, taken together, this collection of mounting aches, pains, and exhaustion (the above list is by no means complete) was debilitating, sometimes frightening.

My doctor at the time waved it all away. She had no interest in determining a cause, a reason, or even referring me to someone who might have a better idea. In desperation, I turned to a holistic healthcare practitioner, who told me on the first day that I should avoid milk, wheat, soy, and a number of other foods. Also, to be sure and eat a little something every two to three hours.

Within three days the migraines that had become a daily phenomenon stopped cold, recurring infrequently since. The aching joints gradually got better, and I stopped feeling like an elderly arthritis sufferer. My aversion to noisy environments was reduced, and I was a bit less sleepy.

Since then, I've gradually figured out what I can and cannot have, and what symptoms a given food causes. No wheat or gluten, no soy, no almonds, no bananas, no MSG or aspartame, rarely dairy, caffeine in extreme moderation, and sugar in even more moderation. I do well on a high protein diet with lots of fruit and vegetables. Also, and this was a hard one, I can't be exposed to forced air central heating that's become contaminated with (I'm guessing) mold.

Besides physical symptoms decreasing, I became better able to deal with stress. Less easily overwhelmed, less prone to giving up, more alert, more relaxed in the company of others.

Not Just Any Old Laundry List

I was referred at one point to grief counseling to speak about the possibility that I might simply continue to feel worse for the rest of my life. The person that I ended up speaking with also had a great deal of experience with autism spectrum, attention deficit disorders, and adults finally coming to terms with the fact that they just didn't seem to 'fit in' with people.

I was tested for attention deficit disorder, and on a scale of 0-120, I came in at 101. It probably would have been higher at a younger age, and as it is, practically falls off the scale in relation to typical behavior patterns which fall in the 0-50 range.

In a book by Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, I recognized many habits of thought and relation. Particularly vivid to me were her accounts of puzzling out the byzantine complexity of typical systems of rules. But it was in an autobiography of high-functioning autistic Donna Williams, Nobody, Nowhere that I found the first clue that physical symptoms might be related to autism spectrum conditions.

Donna spoke of feeling more composed and less easily overwhelmed when she started a better dietary regime and taking certain vitamin supplements as a young woman. Physical symptoms (an undiscussed presence in her earlier life) were now notable by their absence. Certain that I was on to something, I found a book by a mother who had brought a profoundly autistic child back from silence and disconnectedness through dietary adjustments.

Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and PDD, Karyn Seroussi's account of tracking down physical interventions that reversed what were considered purely genetic symptoms was riveting. (For me, anyway.) The program doesn't work for every person on the spectrum, but has provided dramatic results for some. The description of physical symptoms, with digestive problems as a partial or main cause, seemed to fit very well. I got some better ideas of what I should be trying/avoiding, and had more incentive to be rigorous about my nutrition.

For those of you who aren't going to rush out and buy Seroussi's book, a summary of frequently asked questions can be found on her website. They have far more extensive recommendations there for dealing with unique dietary constraints, and where to find certain hard-to-get items. (Like allergen-free children's supplements.) If you end up having a hard time figuring out what to cook, try the Gluten Free Gourmet, Bette Hagman, who has several cookbooks out, including a collection of gluten-free bread recipes.

Suggestions For the Spectrum

If you are the caretaker of a child with ADD/ADHD, Asperger's, or more severe autism, at least give dietary and nutritional intervention a try. It may not instantly improve our conversation, make us popular in school overnight, or end our fascinations with quirky and arcane topics.

But it may instigate the first sound night of sleep in years.* It may keep joints from aching, heads from feeling like a group of insane little dwarves are trying to hammer their way out,** or stomachs from being constantly upset. It may improve balance and coordination, and reduce sensitivity to noisy public places. Remember that they may not be able or know to tell you that they hurt as other children would.

If you're an adult on the spectrum, hold your nose to the 'illogic' of feeling better because you stop eating bread and pasta. Just try it. If you feel better, you'll never want to go back, and eventually all that stuff will stop looking like food.

While wheat and milk are prime movers, other irritants can include soy, nuts, food dye (especially red, for some reason, and especially for hyperactive types), high phenolic foods (including bananas), citrus, and in some cases hypoglycemic type reactions may present themselves with immoderate sugar intake. Also, you will have to become a compulsive label-reader. Casein, whey - milk derived. Modified food starch - wheat derived. Modified vegetable protein, lecithin - soy derived. But buckwheat - totally safe, and not even vaguely related to wheat. If you don't know what's in it, don't eat it.

Vitamin absorption may be a problem, with B-vitamins and magnesium being most likely deficiencies. Take only hypo-allergenic supplements.*** Unless it says on the bottle that there is no wheat/milk/soy etc., assume that those items are present. If soy is a problem, vitamin E supplements must not be taken unless they specifically say 'no soy', as it seems to be the most common source for that vitamin.

It's hard in the beginning, but luckily, as Ms. Seroussi mentions, there are more and more gluten-free products available all the time. Mainly this is due to growing awareness of celiac disease, a hereditary inability to digest gluten, the main protein in wheat. Dairy is slightly easier to avoid if you read labels carefully, and some individuals can tolerate goat milk better. But most processed, pre-made foods are out of the question. You will find that your grocery store trips will mostly cover the 'edges' of the store, where fresh ingredients are found.

Pass It On

As someone who finally found my voice on these issues, maybe this narrative can be of help to others who are struggling in silence. If you know of individuals or families who have tried everything, maybe one more thing won't sound so bad.

*For sleeping disorders of any type, from sleep apnea, to restless limbs, to insomnia, the book No More Sleepless Nights is an indispensible reference. It also covers sleep disorders of the very young and very old, as well as the problems inherent to shift work, with tips for all.

**Migraines and other chronic headaches may also be exacerbated by chronic dehydration. Six to eight glasses of water daily are a must.

***And, as a cautionary note for all, avoid supplements with iron unless you are an adult woman, and be sparing even then. Men and children do not need more than trace amounts unless they've been specifically diagnosed with anemia. Adequate iron is almost always available to those who eat dark, leafy greens on a regular basis.

Update: Footnotes added.

Read Part 2 - Hey, look, it's the...

Read Part 3 - Grand Obsession

2003-06-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

The American Dilemma

As many people warned before Bush took us into war, the problem was not the war itself. The really ugly problem would be dealing with the aftermath. Well, now we are well and truly stuck in a quagmire, with no end in sight. Today when the costs of empire are being exposed and both our soldiers and the Iraqis are dying, it looks increasingly like there are no good answers to our dilemma: how can we extract ourselves from this mess without creating greater carnage and leaving even more disaster in our wake?

One of the principle objectives of the Bush Cabal was to create the American empire. They believed that the reason America was endangered by terrorism was because it was not sufficiently assertive. Right after 9/11, the Weekly Standard published an article called The Case for American Empire stating that after dealing with Afghanistan, America should then take care of Iraq.

Once Afghanistan has been dealt with, America should turn its attention to Iraq. It will probably not be possible to remove Saddam quickly without a U.S. invasion and occupation--though it will hardly require half a million men, since Saddam's army is much diminished since the Gulf War, and we will probably have plenty of help from Iraqis, once they trust that we intend to finish the job this time. Once we have deposed Saddam, we can impose an American-led, international regency in Baghdad, to go along with the one in Kabul. With American seriousness and credibility thus restored, we will enjoy fruitful cooperation from the region's many opportunists, who will show a newfound eagerness to be helpful in our larger task of rolling up the international terror network that threatens us.

So, now we have our empire, but it is messy (or as Donald Rumsfeld put it "untidy"). And it looks like the opportunists that they were counting on to help run the country are not quite the partners we were hoping to find to help us with our war on terrorism.

Steve Gilliard has a couple of excellent posts up at Kos's place that summarize the problems (here and here).

The situation for our troops is becoming more untenable as Steve Soto reports. Now that it is increasingly evident that our troops are there for the long haul and starting to get pretty unhappy about this, what is the response from their leadership? Why, provide them a patriotic magazine that tells them what a wonderful thing they've done and why things are just peachy. (Courtesy of LesterNYC in a dKos comment thread.)

This seems so apropos of the Bushies. Remember how providing better media coverage of the US to the Arabic world was supposed to let them know that we are the good guys and we're on their side? The funny thing is, they see their propaganda working here, so they think that they just need to "massage" the message right and everyone will be happy and dumb. Why can't they understand that sometimes people want to have real substance and not just a fluffy ad that promises one thing, but never delivers. If the Bushies had really wanted to make an empire work in Iraq, they would have at least figured out how to get the hospitals, electricity and water back up and running before turning their attention to selling the oil.

2003-06-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

Better Bloggers

Head over to the Barricades to find Renaissance Woman speaking about health care. Good stuff.

Courtesy of Alas, A Blog, I found this Trish Wilson post that previews her upcoming article on the "Use of Psychological Syndromes Against Mothers In The Courtroom". Also, check out Ampersand's praise of online cartoonists. (Full disclosure, Ampersand is a cartoonist himself, and a good one. See.)

Magpie keeps an eye on Walmart, the employment situation in Australia, and the current downward spiral of Israel and Hamas as each side becomes ever more intent on wiping out the other completely.

The Eyeranian talks about the kind of regime change the people of Iran want for themselves, and the fronts being used by the (perhaps ironically named) People's Mujahideen to manipulate US public opinion into believing that violent, foreign sponsored overthrow is included in that.

I Protest takes on the Michael Savage lawsuits.

Courtesy of TBogg, South Knox Bubba tells us about kidnapping and the Underground Church. A story of fundamentalist paranoia (they do genuinely believe that the UN is planning to outlaw religion everywhere) gone bad. As if there was any other way for it to go, you ask...

Uppity Negro brings us some fun BtVS essays, and swears on the basis of a Joss Whedon quote never, ever to apologize for the title of his blog. (Aside: They've really got to bring back Firefly, and soon.)

Electrolite reminds us that when liberty dies in us, no document or court of law can save it. Also, how well rounded should a geek have to be, anyway? One commentor (and you must read the comments thread if you have any interest in geekdom) posted a great quote from Bruce Sterling, excerpt follows:

...You may be a geek, you may have geek written all over you; you should aim to be one geek they'll never forget. Don't aim to be civilized. Don't hope that straight people will keep you on as some kind of pet. To hell with them; they put you here. You should fully realize what society has made of you and take a terrible revenge. Get weird. Get way weird. Get dangerously weird. Get sophisticatedly, thoroughly weird and don't do it halfway, put every ounce of horsepower you have behind it....
I'm into technical people who attack pop culture. I'm into techies gone dingo, techies gone rogue -- not street punks
picking up any glittery junk that happens to be within their reach -- but disciplined people, intelligent people, people with some technical skills and some rational thought, who can break out of the arid prison that this society sets for its engineers. People who are, and I quote, "dismayed by nearly every aspect of the world situation and aware on some nightmare level that the solutions to our problems will not come from the breed of dimwitted ad-men that we know as politicians." ...

2003-06-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Winning the female vote

Steve Soto reports that Republicans are already rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of winning a significant percentage of female voters from the Democrats in the upcoming 2004 elections because of the Republican edge on national security.

I think the real fight for women's vote comes down to hope vs fear. When women are terrorized by fear (because of the ubiquitious terrorist evil doers we hear so much about from this administration), then they'll vote for "the strong father" who promises safety at a steep price. However, if women understand that the choices in this election are either to let fear push you to vote for the "strong guy" government that delivers less or to trust that there is a future and ask for more from our government, then women will vote for the choice that works best for them.

American women need tools and policies that empower them to create better lives for their children and their parents. They need policies that empower them to find the best balance between work obligations and homelife, ones that help support good childcare because although it would be nice to have women stay home with their kids, most women need to work, and they also need to know their children are okay while they are working. They also need good policies that can help find healthcare and other options to care for an aging relative. [For you who are not part of the sandwich generation, just try to imagine being responsible for your children, your parents and your job so that none of them are cheated and all of them believe that you contribute to their well-being. Good policies can help.]

Democrats need to articulate messages that let women know that women can build a better world for their kids and their parents, but this is not done in a vacuum. It really does take a village to raise a child, and it takes that same village to help with dad and mom when they are old. But, women will vote for the Democrats IFF (If and Only If) Democrats can provide a solid message about why it is worth their while to vote Democratic.

BTW: I look at the Republican "wooing of the female vote" somewhat like the story of the abusive lover (a la: The Collector), who tells the lovely young thing, those guys are out to get you, but, I, your protector, will take care of you: all you have to do is to trust me. Meanwhile, he, the slimy cad, is the one who is trying to trap you into a home where he will control everything you think, do or believe. Sorry to be so cynical, but so many of these guys in the Republican leadership exhibit some of the worst characteristics of the stepford wives' husbands or that of Foster's collector.

The issue is not just choice about pregnancy (who decides), it is ALL choices that women need to make that is at risk under this hyper-paternalistic regime.

2003-06-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

Caveat about the Hydogen-based Economy

There's been considerable interest in replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen. Jeremy Rifkin is one of the most outspoken advocates of this technology, while Iceland has taken steps to convert its economy to hydrogen. Here is a site dedicated to hydrogen fuel cells in transportation; it's by no means unique. Here's another site dedicated to hydrogen gas generation. For now, most commercial hydrogen is obtained from natural gas, not water, and if your reflex is to smell a rat anytime the Bush Administration embraces an idea, well, grab the traps: much DOE research undertaken in this field since the 1980's has involved atomic reactors.

I certainly like a lot of the idea of the hydrogen economy, although my tendency is to suspect that fossil fuels are an exceptionally difficult fuel to replace and it seems likely when we eventually do it'll be with a big variety of highly specialized fuel media. Hydrogen, of course, has to be obtained--perhaps by electrolysis of water--and then sent to the end user. Fuel cells, in which the reaction with oxygen would occur without combustion and create electric potential, is the most likely way hydrogen technology would be employed in moving sources. But hydrogen, in a liquid state, has several problems: it has to be kept at 20 Kelvins (-423 degrees F, -253 degrees C). At that temperature it weighs only 71Kg per cubic meter--C.f. water at 1000 Kg, and most commercial fractions of gasoline at 690-700 Kg. This means that the amount of chemical energy in a liter of liquid hydrogen (10.15 MJ) is much less than that for a liter of gasoline (30.36 MJ) even though liquid hydrogen has over three times as much energy per mass.

The NY Times published this article today about possible environmental problems associated with hydrogen gas leakage.

...In an article in this week's edition of Science magazine, researchers at the California Institute of Technology raised the possibility that if hydrogen fuel replaced fossil fuels entirely it could be expected that 10 percent to 20 percent of the hydrogen would leak from pipelines, storage facilities, processing plants and fuel cells in cars and at power plants.
Because hydrogen readily travels skyward, the researchers estimated that its increased use could lead to as much as a tripling of hydrogen molecules -- both manmade and from natural sources -- going into the stratosphere, where it would oxidize and form water.
"This would result in cooling of the lower stratosphere and the disturbance of ozone chemistry,'' the researchers wrote, resulting in bigger and longer-lasting ozone holes in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, where drops in ozone levels have been recorded over the past 20 years. They estimated that ozone depletion could be as much as 8 percent.

None of which should really discourage hydrogen enthusiasts. The effects described in the article still aren't as bad as those from fossil fuels. Hydrogen technology, as a medium for carrying energy, will continue to be refined and used to enhance the performance of power delievery systems. But I expect it will remain in a supporting role, not in top billing. There probably aren't going to be massive supercooled pipelines of LH2 (liquid hydrogen) superceding high tension power lines, since the most promising efforts will be in localizing power generation anyway. And hydrogen has to be extracted--I hope we don't see atomic fission making a comeback to support our SUV habit. Imagine future conservative politicians teaming up with automakers to tout "green" SUVs powered--in effect--by atomic power plants.

2003-06-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

Agency Cost

Deepest apologies to our readers--this posting was lost to a posting error and I neglected to keep the original draft--I normally do. So I have reconstructed the post as well as I could. There will be omissions and errors.

Most journalists in most countries tend to use shorthand for describing international events. A common one that seems to confuse not only readers, but a lot of journalists themselves, is the nationalist metonymy. This is where an arm of the national government, or a representative of a business interest (American delegates to the Basel Accords, for example) is referred to as if the nation were speaking with a single voice. It's very commonly done, so much so that often it's overlooked entirely. Normally I would grumble and grudgingly acknowledge that, compared to AIDS, it isn't such a serious matter, but here I'd like to explain some of the pitfalls.

The problem of course is that it leads to people feeling traduced. I've had this experience often, of resenting an endless succession of allegations laid against "the United States" which depended entirely on unavailable evidence. During the 1980's, mostly illegally, the CIA funded a guerrilla movement known as the Contras in the tiny country of Nicaragua. The Contras were always a tiny movement of exiles who were, in their own right, entirely defeated on the battlefield and driven from Nicaragua by 1986; they were little more than a figleaf for the Reagan administration's agenda for liquidating the Sandinista government in Nicaragua by force majeur. While, as the links point out, the Reagan cabinet and its mighty Wurlitzer were public about demonizing the Sandinista government, they relied at all times on a tidal wave of propaganda well-tailored to the mood of Americans in the mid-1980's coupled with lies and covert action. That covert action invariably including begging the governments of countries such as Saudi Arabia to furnish the Contras with money, as well as wholly illegal trafficking in weapons (TOW missiles to Iran, for example). By "illegal," incidentally, I mean, "in violation of US laws." Lt. Col. Oliver North, who violated his military oath by traducing American interests and repudiating the US Constitution, managed to avoid prosecution for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair through a plea bargain.

In other words, when we say that "the US inflicted the Contras on Nigaragua" we are being sloppy in assigning agency. The Contras were almost entirely alienated from the rest of Nicaraguan society, dependent on foreign money and sanctuary in Honduras (or Costa Rica). The same may be said of the South Lebanese Army (SLA), itself entirely dependent upon Israeli support; and a number of destructive movements in Africa. But it is misleading to say that "the US" did this: first, because the vast majority of Americans were entirely lacking in accurate facts, or recourse, on the matter; because the perpetrating agency was breaking US law both to conceal its activities as well as to carry them out; and finally, because the perpetrating agency was usually conniving with a foreign equivalent precisely to subvert American recourse and oversight. This is why North and Poindexter were reduced to begging groups such as the intelligence agencies of third world countries...or drug lords... for a secret war against a Marxist government in a country with a GDP less than that of Irvine, CA.

It will be objected that Americans "ought" to have known about the deception worked on them, they "ought" to have voted out candidates who failed to act strenuously against the Reagan Administration's foreign policy, or "ought" to have rejected the absurd version of events purveyed in the American news media. That a tiny, impoverished country like Nicaragua whose capital city was in ruins decades after a massive earthquake leveled part of it, could pose a national security threat to the USA, was so absurd it is on one level reasonable to expect that Americans "ought" to have protested that they were being sold a bill of goods. However, since there are few, if any, examples of a government being thrown out of office because of an immoral foreign policy, I humbly submit that expecting Americans to break with all precedent in doing so is probably unreasonable. And most people in most countries have almost no idea what their governments are doing abroad.* Governments (in parliamentary states such the UK's) can dissolve over a scandal, but if the scandal involves foreign policy it is one of imprudence, not immorality. The only possible exception I can think of off the top of my head was a recent resignation of the Dutch cabinet over the failure to prevent the massacre of Bosnian Muslims by Serb militia in Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1994. This was, however, "contained" within the bounds of a highly professional Dutch government and was a symbolic resignation.

It will be further objected that the American way of life is to blame for much of the atrocities done in secret by the US government. This supposes, perhaps, that Americans would--given our preferences--be sustantially worse off if our government did not undermine populist movements abroad. Fortunately, this is unlikely. On the contrary, it seems to me that American well-being would be enhanced by a dramatic change in how our interests are identified and served. For example, the USA differs from other developed nations in lacking a strong central government; we have what might be described as a "front office" state, in which decentralization of government powers has enabled business enterprise to make the 50 states their handmaids and lobbyists. While American foreign policy is unpopular among most Europeans and Northeast Asians, the financial press of those countries is usually quite supportive. It seems to me--perhaps I am wrong--that our problem is not that Americans have wishes which are dramatically at odds with those of the rest of the world, so much as that certain vested interests around the world can use our front-office state to do their bidding, and having done so, have neither the need nor the ability to get oter world powers on board.

Having touched on cases such as Nicaragua, where the covert action of American entities was mostly to blame for what happened, I would like to mention the case of situations where we were on the "wrong side." It has been said at this very blog that the "US instigated the Iran Iraq war." I think it is going much too far to say that we controlled Saddam, especially to extent of "making him" launch the largest conventional war since 1953. The US government was far from sorry to see Iraq invade Iran, and refused to condemn the invasion; on the other hand, diplomatic relations had been ruptured between Washington and Baghdad between 1967 and 1984, and during all periods of that war, Iraqi weapons purchases from other friendly countries far exceeded those from American sources. None of which excuses the atrocious behavior of the Reagan Administration after it altered Carter's policy of strict neutrality in the war.**

As a student of the social sciences, I believe that big events have big causes. The violence in Nicaragua was an atrocity mainly perpetrated by the CIA and a secretive coterie within the Reagan Administration. It was a horrible crime, probably intended by the perpetrators to intimidate potential Sandinistas in other countries. As such, I suspect it failed, although it might have motivated the Nicaraguans to vote the Sandinistas out of power in 1990 (I say "probably," because the vote occurred years after the Sandinistas were entirely liquidated and isolated; see links above for details). And for Nicaraguans, the death of perhaps 30,000 people was no doubt a big event. But the chain of causality is well established. In a much bigger crime, such as the carnage in Guatemala, our government played a comparatively smaller, but still atrocious role (link courtesy of Body & Soul). In the coup and genocide which accompanied Suharto's climb to power (30 September-November 1965), the CIA and other bodies played a still smaller, though highly damaging role.*** In all of these cases, the actions taken by the executive branch were cloaked in secrecy; mostly they violated American laws and stated policy in the region. In these cases and many more, it has become a damaging controversy among progressives as to how guilty America was, and how important our causative role was. In my humble opinion, American progressives have severely damaged their reputation with other Americans we hope to serve.

I'm tired of critics of American foreign policy being branded "anti-American" because we "blame America first." But I also believe something has to explain the puzzling failure of progressives to win the hearts and minds of the Americans with whom we share this country. If we "lefties" actually had a bigger role in making decisions, I think Americans would be better off and American ideals would have more acceptances abroad. Most resentment of the USA comes from our government or our businesses acting in a way opposite to what we would expect or desire. Domestically, Americans could enjoy many of the best social democratic institutions developed in Europe, possibly while paying lower taxes in the long run. We wouldn't need to "abolish capitalism" or even redistribute significant amounts of income. The latter two ideas aren't even popular with those of us at The Watch, so we aren't taking exotic political stands here.

But I hope my readers understand the algebra problem I've set up. Either it's the message or the messenger. I don't accept that it's the message (most of the time, although I hope it's understood disagreements arise among progressives just like everyone else). And merely insisting that it's the Wurlitzer's fault, or that Americans are ignorant, or that I am a dittohead for bringing it up, is compelling evidence that the speaker isn't really ready to contribute to the solution.
FOOTNOTE: *I included the controversial statement that "most people in most countries have almost no idea what their governments are doing abroad," which invited comparisons between the BBC and Ha'aretz (and incidentally the outstanding Dawn of Pakistan) and, say, Fox News. I think nonetheless that while the foreign media is doing a very much better job covering the Bush Administration's activities, it must be pointed out that (a), excellent newspapers exist here--our problem is that preferences have run to lurid high-tech tabloids like CNN. And I'd still maintain that while publications such as Le Monde Diplomatique do their job covering American policy shortcomings, they are spectacularly misleading about those of their own government. The Dawn has never, to my knowledge, addressed the genocide perpetrated by Gen. Yahya Khan in East Pakistan/ Bangladesh in March 1971. As for (b), the mere existence of the truth in print does not mean most citizens in a society will know about it. I assume most people have encountered the European who believes that his respective country's empire was an idyllic, beneficent affair. Likewise, there are frequent outbursts of frustration in Korea with highly sanitized treatments of the colonial period there in Japanese textbooks. And I admire many aspects of these societies, so please don't take this as a slam of Europe or Japan--this is a universal problem.

**For the most hostile plausible treatment of our government's role in this war, see this article in Zmag; be advised that the most inflammatory charges made by Shalom, while footnoted, refer to books by ideologically sympathetic writers. Shalom's version of all events is described in a way which gives massive weight to supposed motives of various actors; to make his point, he quotes low ranking, anonymous functionaries as if they stood for "America." But here again, no evidence is furnished that the role of the US government ever consisted of a distant accessory long after the fact.

***The events of 30 September 1965 are known to Indonesians and historians as Gestapu 30 Septembre, of the "Movement of the 30th of September. They began with an alleged coup attempt by the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), turned to a Pinochet-style coup by Gen. Suharto, and culminated in a mass slaughter. Because G30S was a massively complicated event, versions of events differ wildly because they cover different narrow aspects of the phenomenon. Here is one of the best accounts I've found on the Web, and addresses the role of men such as then-President Sukarno, the CIA, and M-5. This one is very good, and not terribly long, but does not appear to cover the Rwandan-style mob-genocide of East Java. Also, to my boundless frustration, there is little treatment of the violence and oppression against ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. The latter remains an ongoing problem of Indonesian society.

2003-06-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

Lies They've Told Us: "Everybody hates Hillary Clinton"

Uh-huh. And nothing says back off bee-atch like record book sales.

..."Living History" sold more copies -- 40,000 --- in its first day of release than any other nonfiction book in Barnes & Noble's history, the company said Tuesday.
On Amazon.com, Clinton's book ranked second behind pre-orders for the next Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" by J.K. Rowling, which is scheduled for release June 21. ...

2003-06-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

Israel and Palestine

After recent horrible events have brought Team Bush to the realization that peace is harder than summits, it seemed like a good opportunity to highlight recent posts on the topic:

Flagrancy to Reason brings us the map of the future Palestinian state currently on the table. Not the roadmap, mind you, but the geographical map. It doesn't exactly build confidence in the negotiation process.

Courtesy of Ampersand, we find that Pedantry has concisely explained why there can be no moral equivalence between the actions of the Israeli government and those of factions within a stateless group of people. It's good, so if you only click on one link in this post, make it this one.

And, in a depressing closer, the Mad Prophet takes on the old charge that Some People are teaching their kids to hate Other People.

Update: According to the Mad Prophet, from whom we originally picked up this hateful children story, it has been refuted by WorldNetDaily. While this is somewhat like saying that something has been refuted on the 700 Club, or that Geraldo Rivera swears it isn't true, they could in theory be correct. However, since I'm going to spend next couple days lounging, hiking, and generally pfaffing around (certainly not diligently researching stories from half a world away), it's only fair to note that there's an opposing viewpoint.

Update the Second: Ampersand points out that there are indeed some problems with the story of the hateful schoolchildren as reported, and even some good news relevant to the subject matter. Post edited to remove the reckless quoting of Beatles' songs and a quote which appears to have been partially incorrect at the source; the author apologizes for getting a bit carried away, and having been listening too much to a good local radio station.

2003-06-11T16:59:00.000-07:00

Better Bloggers Than Me...

How To Save The World has a follow up to an excellent prior post on how to establish new collaborative enterprises, a step to creating a post-consumer economy.

Ruminate This adds an important item to our activist to-do list: call your senator to oppose the nomination of William Pryor to the Federal bench. She links to Talk Left's excellent store of information on this family-leave-hating, anti-choice, civil-rights-opposing, no-environmental-protection-wanting, no-protection-needed for the (elderly/disabled/consumer/worker), and no-church-state-separation-please nominee. Tell your Senators (especially the Democratic ones) that you expect them to take this guy every bit as seriously as Miguel Estrada.

From the Agonist, Iranians have started demonstrating against their government. Again. Let's see if GWB can keep his mouth shut this time and let those people deal with their own problems, without being accused of traitorously working for America.

Cowboy Kahlil speaks persuasively on why people need to protest the deportation of 13,000 Arab and Muslim men whose only crimes appeared to have been a) waiting for the infernally slow INS to process their paperwork, and b) voluntarily appearing to register with the government when requested to do so.

PluckyPunk points out that the cowardly French have rescued Americans in Liberia, a country plunging into civil war, along with sundry other foreign nationals. But, as Flagrancy to Reason points out, no one seems interested in rescuing the Liberians.

Nathan Newman points out that if Senators voted in proportion to the population of the states they represent, filibustering Democrats would have a majority. Also, he finds that organized labor has a much better solution to dealing with graft than corporate America: make the buggers pay it back.

Sisyphus brings us the story of a bible-thumping Republican governor who's trying to reduce the tax burden on the poor of Alabama on the basis that Jesus said to take care of the least among you. Well alrightly then. If only this were the kind of thing that politicians had in mind more often when they talk about bringing morality back to politics.

Still Here goes looking for those Lucky Duckies who don't pay any tax.

Suburban Guerilla points out the elephant in journalism's living room; if you want high ethical standards and quality work, you have to budget for them. (links bloggered, scroll to The Real Story, 6/10/03)

Update (missed a couple): Ampersand brought us our Wednesday cartoon fix, wherein we are informed about the Bureau of Indian Affairs and it's endless shuffle to avoid actually doing its job. And a couple days ago, he pointed out this interesting post on the Head Heeb concerning the new Rwandan constitution.

The Sideshow quotes Joe Scarborough laughing about his dead intern, and brings us some biting commentary on empire run amok from two political insiders.

2003-06-09T08:23:00.000-07:00

Quick Hop

As mentioned previous, very light posting out of me this week. But do please go read Late Night Thoughts (links bloggered) for the Thursday, May 29th, 2003 post on eduucation. Packs a mighty punch, so if you didn't catch it before I did, it's a must.

Then, BusyBusyBusy finds that Bill O'Reilly has the final word on whether or not the media is liberal. Verdict: No.

Peacetree Farm notices that someone eminently qualified to speak on the subject of presidential scandal is wondering whether the Bush administration's lies to congress constitute an impeachable offense.

The Bloviator writes about the pharmaceutical industry's lobbying agenda to stop cheap foreign prescription imports and dismantle public health care in Canada.

Ruminate This has a great Friday roundup of must read posts, and has written herself on the unpublicized denial of any Iraq-Al Qaida connection by Al Qaida detainees questioned before the war on Iraq.

Over on It's Still The Economy, Stupid, we learn about more government statistics that have been 'disappeared', and it turns out that they're unemployment numbers. Again. And they aren't pretty.

Electrolite brings us a highlight from the Crusading army in Iraq.

And Making Light has the kitchen wish list to die for. This was my personal favorite: "Optionally, I’d like an adjustable powered sauce and custard stirring device, with heat-resistant scraper blades, that I could attach to a saucepan for those “stir constantly at low heat for half of forever” recipes."

Update ('cause you can't have just one): The Left Coaster has been waging a one person letter writing campaign with his local newspaper as the focus, trying to raise awareness of the Bush administration's lies. He wasn't sure if anyone else cared, but it turns out that they do. If you've been despairing lately, or tempted to despair, you must go read this.

2003-06-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hopeful signs of fallout from missing WMD

The missing WMD are starting to create some real heat for the White House. Everyday, there is a new story about this and now the normally tightly run ship is starting to leak like a sieve. Boy, all I can think is, it is about time!

USA Today reports Bush's war doctrine questioned Skepticism of intelligence on Iraq undercuts pre-emptive strike policy.

A failure by the Bush administration to prove its prewar allegations could undermine the pre-emption doctrine. The next time the president comes to Capitol Hill warning of an emerging threat, one that requires military action to pre-empt and defeat, some lawmakers of both parties say they will be skeptical.
''If you're going to have a doctrine of pre-emption,'' said Jay Rockefeller, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, ''then you sure as heck better have pluperfect intelligence.''
A Republican senator who spoke on condition of anonymity said that if President Bush went to Congress with another plan to strike an enemy state, ''It would have to be very clear and convincing intelligence for it not to cause a dispute.''

If so, this is really the best news our country has had for a very long time.

2003-06-06T15:53:00.000-07:00

Around

Head over to the Whiskey Bar to find out why Sharon's recent pronouncements on the viability of a Palestinian state will likely come to nothing.

Steve Gilliard over at Kos tells us about what we're finding on our WMD Snipe Hunt: a whole lot of pissed off Iraqis who would like us to depart with all possible speed.

Ampersand has a series of posts on the partial birth abortion ban, start at the link & work along the titles for a good exploration of the constitutional issues, the facts, and an analysis of a debate on the topic over at the Corner.

Talk Left brings us the good news that Ed Rosenthal is free after the judge brushed the feds aside in the sentencing portion of his trial.

Dave Pollard has a tremendous amount of good stuff up, but I especially recommend his piece on how to develop a post-consumer economy. It poses some interesting questions, ideas, and suggestions. He also has more up about the growing scarcity of water, and here he talks about a group trying to identify and disperse the ideal 2004 freedom meme.

Reader Julia sends in a link on the Mars Or Bust effort of the European Space Agency.

PS:

Also, sorry for the link-and-run posting lately. It's gotten to the point where I now post only when my need to mainline news and information will no longer be sidelined. School has started eating my time in big, gulping helpings, and with finals coming next week, well, yeesh. I'd write about what I'm doing, except that botany field trips & reports from chemistry class might not make the most exciting reading.

If you have any ideas about what you'd like to see more of on these pages, write me and let me know. Some of this, some of that, less of the other, only you can say. What is it that you come here to read? Email me at natasha_l_c(at)hotmail(dot)com and chime in. I'll mull it over when I'm taking a break from the books this coming week, though I can't guarantee prompt responses. Best wishes & thanks for stopping by :)

2003-06-06T00:36:00.000-07:00

Why the Missing WMD Matter

It is increasingly obvious that the imminent threat from Iraq due to Weapons of Mass destruction was wildly overblown or, more cynically, a ruse to justify a preemptive war. Many people in the United States of America seem to think that the result of the war, toppling Saddam Hussein and ridding the world of an evil dictator, is now sufficient justification and we shouldn't worry about how we got into the war. I think this is a very dangerous thing to believe. I believe the danger to our country and the world will increase until we have a full and accurate accounting of how we got here. And once we have a full accounting, we can find a way to begin to lessen the danger, which resulted from starting a war without sufficient justification, and to start to work with others to make the world safer.

The danger to our country is: if we are seen as unpredictable, paranoid, and bellicose bullies then other countries will never trust us. There is a serious disconnect between the way the rest of the world views this war and the way Americans see the war. We really need to understand why that is. Condi Rice talked about the lingering anger she and the administration continue to feel towards those countries that did not line up behind the United States in its pursuit of war.

"I think there was disappointment in the United States that a friend like Canada was unable to support the United States in what we considered to be an extremely important issue for our security," Ms. Rice said in an interview before joining George W. Bush at this weekend's G8 summit in Evian, France.

But, the problem is, other countries were not convinced that the United States had any such security concerns arising from Iraq. The administration declared again and again that Iraq under Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent thread against the United States. However, the evidence presented to the world about the threat was flawed and because of that, the US has squandered its reputation in the international arena on its drive to war.

Colin Powell apparently was aware of how important it was to maintain our country's reputation. U.S. News reports that he thought it was crucial to get accurate and verifiable information to present before the United Nations in February:

"Powell was acutely aware of the need to be completely accurate," says the senior official, "and that our national reputation was on the line."

Powell's problem was, although he tried to get the most accurate and most verifiable information for his presentation, it was revealed in less than 24 hours that the main dossier that he touted was a fraud, and had been cobbled together out of years-old reports and on information based on the work of a graduate student that was less than substantive.

Once that was revealed, the vote for authorization from the Security Council was effectively lost. The only thing that could have changed that outcome was solid, reliable and verifiable evidence, which the administration did not have despite its best efforts. No matter what the Intelligence agencies reported, the administration directed them to review their data again whenever a report did not support the reasons for war.

In September 2002, U.S. News has learned, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued a classified assessment of Iraq's chemical weapons. It concluded: "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons...."

The fact that Powell was unable to find legitimate evidence to take before the UN in February shows another significant danger for our country. If life and death decisions are made without enough input, but rather based on a preconceived goal which no new information can change, then we will continue to have "failures of intelligence". A major objection to the war from the very beginning was that it was clear that the decision makers were solely focused on proving the existence of a threat and so, shut out any dissenting opinions simply because their only goal was to go to war. They refused to hear any news that did not back up their preset goal.

Today our country is in greater danger than for many years because now many other countries in the world cannot trust what we say and might be less inclined to help when we really do face a legitimate threat.

If it turns out that no WMD are found amid accusations that the Bush administration and Blair governments misused intelligence information, "that will have long-term ramifications with our allies," Korb says.
Referring to a Pew poll released this week indicating that international public support for the United States has significantly slipped -- with majorities in 13 of 20 foreign nations surveyed holding an unfavorable view of the United States, and majorities in seven out of eight Muslim countries expressing the fear that the U.S. might threaten them -- Korb says the affair "feeds into the problem we already had with the rest of the world. People think we're making up the rules as we go along, and that we think that might makes right." This could have far-reaching implications on the future of American foreign policy, including our ability to wage the "war on terror."

The danger to the world arises because if there is no accounting how we got into war, the tactics that were used to take us into war once can be, and most likely will be used again. If military action is the first response to threats rather than the last, the world is much less safe. No wonder so many foreigners say they should be able to vote in our elections, because they know our military might be used anywhere and anytime based not on reality but on fantasy. There is no safety in unpredictable and arbitrary violence. Something is clearly wrong when 90% of the world thinks we stepped over the line.

If we were honest, we would look at how we would feel if another country, perhaps China, had this amount of power and decided to use it whenever it felt threatened. We either create a world where the rule of law ties us together, or we live in a world where war happens at the whim of small groups of people who hold unaccountable power. Of all the things this war did, tearing up the international framework of laws was the worst. And until we get back to shoring up that framework, no one anywhere can really be safe again.

The final point is that right now, although Saddam is gone from Iraq, because of the way this war was conducted, the Iraqis are not getting all the help they need to create a society that can manage on its own. The lack of clean water, the crime and lawlessness, the disease cropping up are all a result of an administration that is so driven by its ideology that it refuses to let the UN help.

If we had executed this war under the aegis of the UN or within a broad coalition, then we could have found sufficient peacekeepers from all over the world to help provide a space of safety for the Iraqi people while fixing the destroyed infrastructure. (As it is, Americans now have over one hundred thousand troops stationed in Iraq for the forseeable future.) Opening up the country to the expertise of the world for repairing the damage would have gone a long way in helping set things right. Today, the almighty drive for a dollar where the Bush administration picks the winners for the reconstruction contracts, keeps the real needs of the Iraqis from being addressed. No matter how you felt about the war, we absolutely owe them a chance to get back on their feet, and to do this we need to open the country to the help that can come through the UN. It is not the time to be considering how to make a buck.

Edited 8:50 am.

2003-06-05T23:58:00.000-07:00

The Irrepressible Molly Ivins

In the Bill O'Reilly, Al Frankin and Molly Ivin episode on CSpan, Molly talked about being embedded with the Texas Democrats in Ardmore, OK.

What a gal!

Audio clip of the show here (via Riba Rambles).

2003-06-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

Checking in on that other Axis of Evil nation, Iran:

Time magazine wonders if Iran is really an enemy?

The country has publicly requested that the US apologize for helping Bin Laden in the past in response to allegations that they have links with the terrorist mastermind and former CIA asset.

The Asia Times discusses the geopolitics of pipelines in Iran's neighborhood, the disputes over the division of righs to the Caspian sea, and their relations with other countries.

The G-8 summit unanimously approved Washington's proposal for a harder line with Tehran, though Bush says there are no plans for a military attack, and the Pentagon denies that they plan to use the Mujahideen e-Khalq in an attempted overthrow.

A writer for the Christian Science Monitor argues that the US should leave Iran alone following its dismal historical record there and elsewhere.

Russia will continue supplying nuclear fuel for Iran's nuclear power plants regardless of whether or not they sign on to an inspections regime favored by the US and Britain.