Category — Uncategorized

In commenting on the OBAMA vs. CLINTON spat, Kevin Drum asks the obvious question:

…Basically, do you think the United States should, as a routine part of its foreign policy, say that it’s willing to talk to any country that’s willing to talk to us? That the mere act of talking isn’t a tacit capitulation to a rogue regime’s demands?

I sure think so, and not just for the obvious reason that talking can sometimes lead to actual results. The bigger reason is that if you talk routinely, then the mere act of talking isn’t a tacit capitulation to a rogue regime’s demands and can’t possibly be spun that way. It’s just something we do.

He’s right, this isn’t high school or a monarchy where deigning to notice someone’s existence is a boon. Nations should be talking to each other. That was the big lesson from the Cuban missile crisis and the reason the hot line was installed. Not talking is a good deal more dangerous than talking.

[Read more →]

This is what they get for being annoying enough to make me change: Symantec’s first-quarter income falls to $95.2 million.

If they had even provided a minimum of service they would have received my annual subscription fee which was almost total profit. But, no they had to be miserable CPU wasting jerks.

You should never, ever mess with your “cash cow.” They never learned the lesson of “New Coke.” Just like the DLC they assume their base will stay while they make changes to attract new customers. I would like a cite where that strategy has worked. Newspapers and television do the same thing, make changes that will supposedly draw new people, and end up losing old customers.

Jack at the Grumpy Forester has a piece about libertarians in his neck of the woods dealing with the realities of this administration. They have most of what they feared would happen under Democrats brought to reality. Many now have “buyer’s remorse” about the people they have been voting for to protect their right to be left alone.

It isn’t just in the Pacific Northwest. The mayor of New York City is at it again, with the never ending assault on individual rights. CNet’s Social blog is reporting on Photo, video freedom under fire in NYC. Apparently they want you to get a permit and register if you are planning to take pictures or videos in New York City. This isn’t about film companies, this covers two or more people, and using a tripod to take pictures. Apparently they’ve never encountered an Asian group tour. Get in their line of sight and you are apt to be washed in the light of so many xenon flashes as to alter your genetic make-up.

They did this in the Soviet Union.

CBS is offering a gallery of starlets who are not on their way, or just out of jail.

Oh, yeah, the stock market plunged a couple of hundred points as the result of the people who thought Alan Greenspan must know what he was talking about and are now in foreclosure.

And apparently a few more members of our government are having a hard time remembering what that “truth-thing” is all about.  Of course, it’s the famous Democratic “perjury trap,” i.e. asking questions while people are under oath.

Susie of Suburban Guerrilla reminds everyone of a time when members of Congress had spines.

My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total; and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.

Barbara Charline Jordan

If you are too young, or have never heard Barbara Jordan speak, go to the link and listen, because they have the recording as well as the transcripts. She was a Congresswoman from Houston, Texas, and one of the greatest American speakers ever.

From the Associated Press: Documents Contradict Gonzales Testimony

(AP) Documents indicate eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The documents, obtained by The Associated Press, come as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization.

Of course, the ever witty Ms Mad Kane condenses the all of the testimony in a limerick.

UPDATE: FBI director appears to contradict Gonzales’ testimony. Also Arlen Specter reverses himself when it looks like people might actually do something about it.

According to the cable industry only 58.8% of US households had cable in December 2006. In that number not every cable system carries CNN. Even among those that carry CNN, it is in the second tier of choices, and not everyone is willing to pay for it. Even if they wanted to watch the debate last night, having it on a cable channel meant a large number of people couldn’t. Oh, broadband Internet access is even more limited, so even people who have access to cable, don’t all have access to a fast Internet connection.

Most polls are conducted by landline telephone. Fewer and fewer people every year have a landline telephone, so the percentage of the population that can participate in polls is declining.

Obviously the group most heavily impacted by these facts are the poor, and that number has been growing. Not even the 70¢ per hour minimum wage increase that took effect today is going to help the poor get connected.

Mad Kane has come out with her first ever poll, and it’s on impeachment. Go and vote. If you’re in New York, Chicago, or Miami, vote often as is the custom.

I note it’s a WordPress plug-in so I could run polls, were I so inclined. Don’t worry, I’m not.

[Read more →]

Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway wonders: Who Is Clogging the System?

She comments on an article describing the current high gasoline prices as being driven by accidents and mechanical breakdowns at refineries and some of the reasons there are so many problems.

What isn’t addressed is why there are so few refineries. The answer is simple – greed.

After all of those oil companies mergers the resultant companies began to eliminate all facilities that they deemed were redundant, which meant anything that wasn’t required to operate 24/7/365 to cover the current market demand. There were a lot of refineries shut down. There is no slack in the system which keeps the price of gas high, but, like just-in-time inventory control, makes no provision for problems or increased demand.

When asked about the problem the oil companies will give you a song-and-dance about eco-terrorists making it too difficult to build new refineries, rather than admitting that more refinery capacity would increase competition, and they have no intention of competing.

If you look around you will probably notice fewer and fewer gas stations, the brands disappearing dependent on the area in which you live. Too many gas stations increase competition and they are corporations, they aren’t interested in risk or competition. Capitalism is for the little people, not corporations.

My favorite Mideast expert, Dr. Juan Cole of Informed Comment has just received an advanced copy of his new book. Covering the beginning of the current cycle of outsiders invading the Muslim world, Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East looks at a part of history that is little known.

As I remember covering the Napoleonic era in several different courses in high school and university, the Egyptian campaign rarely rated more than a paragraph when it was mentioned at all. Most of the information I received on the campaign was part of a discussion of the Rosetta Stone in a language class, and a discussion of compilers.

Because no one writes enough about them, and Andante of Collective Sigh has been really busy lately: Tiny Chihuahua Saves Life.

In Colorado a chihuahua took several strikes from a rattlesnake that was threatening a toddler. The child was not hurt, the dog survived, no mention of the fate of the snake.

I feel sure that my cats would have at least watched if I were being attacked.

Via Pensacola Beach Blogger I found Jon Swift’s take on the phenomenon, Harry Potter Is a Brat, explaining how the series is destroying life as it should be [if you are a supporter of the Shrubbery].

Of course, like all of the DFH bloggers, Swift eschewed breaking the embargo or revealing spoilers. Those sorts of things require professional journalists for newspapers like The New York Times and Baltimore Sun to prove they are more privileged than the children for whom the books were written. I have no idea why they thought it was important to “scoop” the Harry Potter fan sites, but these are important decisions made by professional journalists with editors. These are the people who get all of the important news, like the existence of all those WMDs in Iraq.

[If in doubt, see number 7.]

Margaret Talev of McClatchy Newspapers has a nice background piece on the current Senate: Senate tied in knots by filibusters

WASHINGTON — This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that’s rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.

The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats’ razor-thin win in last year’s election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans’ exile to the minority.

[Read more →]

The day the world [well, some of the world] has anticipated for a decade is finally here: the final Harry Potter book is available to buy and people will figure out what they have been told in the last six books.

I won’t buy the book immediately, because I never have, and don’t worry about “spoilers” because Ms Rowling has set things on a pretty straight forward path if you have been paying attention. The clues were all there. At this point the title, The Deathly Hallows, should simply confirm what you suspected.

[Read more →]