HUMOR - ......Well Sort Of

"Burning Flags" by Scott Adams, Dilbert Blog

I was delighted to learn that American politicians are trying to make it illegal to burn the American flag. That can only mean that my dedicated public servants have finally solved the problems of crime, drugs, war, poverty, terrorism, healthcare, immigration, and the mystery of why our children are such idiots compared to Norwegians. Evidently those issues are now under control. I was starting to worry that Congress was wasting my tax dollars doing stupid shit.

Yes, Scott is the writer of the "Dilbert" Cartoons

REALITY CHECK - Christians Don't Shoot Christians

The following comment caught my eye, time for a Reality Check.

"Town looks for answers in preacher's killing" by Ann O'Neill, CNN

"What would cause a Godly woman to do such a thing?" asked neighbor Sharon Everitt, echoing the question that has hung over the rural town since late March. "Christians don't shoot Christians."

Really?!

• Professed Christians are not shooting Christian doctors who work at "Abortion Clinics" aka Family Planing Clinics


• Professed Christians, in the past, were not shooting Christians because they were black


• In Kosovo "our" Christians were not "shooting" "their" Christians


• ..etc.

Professing being a Christian does not automatically equal acting in a Christian manner. Christianity and its actions have a bloody history.

POLITICS - The Supreme Court on Guantanamo

Of course this is the big story of the day (6/29/2006).

"High court blocks Gitmo military tribunals" by Bill Mears, CNN

"In undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the executive [Bush] is bound to comply with the rule of law that prevails in this jurisdiction," Stevens wrote.

But what Stevens and the SC do not understand is King George doesn't have to comply with law. With a stroke of a pen, or Executive Order, he decrees law. Congress and the laws it passes, and our Constitution, are just window dressing. Sarcasm-off

Not hardly! Note that if Roberts had been allowed to vote, he still would be on the loosing side.

IRAQ - Hope Offstage, Finally

"Turning to the U.N., Again" by Richard Holbrooke, Washington Post

In a little-noticed announcement in President Bush's news conference on June 14, the day he returned from Iraq, he said that he would send two personal emissaries to New York to consult with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on the political and economic future of Iraq. The next day, still with remarkably little public attention, Philip Zelikow, the counselor of the State Department, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt met with Annan and his deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, at the secretary general's Sutton Place residence. There was no one else present.

The two presidential envoys asked Annan to use his unique "convening powers" to help organize international meetings that would lead (by this fall, the Americans hope) to the unveiling of a new "Iraq Compact" -- an agreement between the Iraqi government and major international donors that would commit Baghdad to a series of political and economic reforms in return for substantially more international aid. (Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called Annan the same day to make an identical request.)

This is a good idea -- and quite similar to suggestions from many administration critics. With the battle for Baghdad raging, it remains to be seen whether an Iraq Compact will work -- or even get off the ground -- but it is certainly an important step in the right direction for Iraq and for American policy.

For Annan and the United Nations, Bush's request poses an ironic and difficult challenge. On the one hand, the administration is asking for help on the worst problem it faces, acknowledging, however belatedly and reluctantly, that once again, the United Nations is not only relevant but at times indispensable to the United States. On the other hand, the resentment among the majority of U.N. member states over the way the institution has been treated recently, especially by Washington's current U.N. ambassador, makes any effort to get the United Nations to help the United States far more difficult.

No kidding! We say we want international cooperation but the proceed to insult, ignore, and down-right slander the UN and individual member nations and are surprised that American policy does not get supported?! Our federal government seems to refuse to learn that you cannot get support and cooperation unless we give support/cooperate in return. We act as if we expect others to support our agenda but we can refuse to support any of their concerns in other areas, aka support is one-sided.

Then there's.....

How to treat the United Nations has been a particular dilemma for President Bush, since opponents of the organization form an important part of the administration's core constituency. Internal disagreements over the past five years about whether to support it or abandon it, to use it or bypass it, have both weakened the organization and led to reduced U.S. influence even as more and more intractable issues are thrown into its hands.

Our nation is paying the price for Bush arrogance = our way or no way.

POLITICS - The Core of Liberalism

"WHY DAVID BRODER AND MARSHALL WITTMAN THREATEN DEMOCRACY" by Publius, Legal Fiction

The core of liberalism is the idea that individuals (by virtue of being humans and having dignity) have a sphere of freedom that should be free from government intrusion. Logically following from this bedrock foundation are the other fundamental rights we know and love such as freedom of religion, democratic voting, rule-by-consent, rule of law, right to property, civil liberties, sexual freedom, and so on. All are rooted in the idea of individual freedom or individual consent.

Thus, one of the unifying characteristics of anti-liberalism (e.g., Marxism, religious fundamentalism, fascism) is skepticism and ultimately elimination of this sphere of freedom. To Marxists, the sphere of freedom (and the laws based upon it) facilitates inequality and gives the rich an “ideology” that allows them to protect their property. To religious fundamentalists, individual freedom runs counter to God’s will and must be subordinated to it. Fascism, by contrast, is a religious-like fundamentalism rooted not in God but the state, which essentially takes the place of God. Fascism thus subordinates individual and civil rights to the state, which is a glorified collective and deified entity superior to all other Gods before me nations, rather than a mechanism for protecting individual rights.

To be clear, I’m not accusing the entire American Right of being fundamentalist or fascist or any of the other labels that serve only to distract people from the merits of the debate. But what I am saying is that the American Right — including the Congress, the President, and its sympathetic media — is showing increasingly disturbing anti-liberal characteristics. In fact, anti-liberalism is poisoning the American Right, just as the dark side poisoned Anakin Skywalker.

So well put. Of course, as a Progressive (aka liberal) it states my own stance and ethical belief much better than I have.

Thanks Publius

POLITICS - From the Right, Dumb and Dumber

"American Exceptionalism" by Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online

I loathe the sort of commentary stories like this generate. It's all about how America contributes more greenhouse gasses than other countries. Okay, guilty as charged. It's not like these greenhouse gasses don't have a context. The American economy sustains the planet, pulls millions out of poverty, keeps the sea channels open, develops most of the medical breakthroughs, provides most of the funding for international institutions (including the finger-waggers at the UN's environmental divisions), offers the best higher education to the world's leaders, and generally provides a blanket of security for much of the planet. I could go on, but you get the point.

Hay! He's correct, greenhouse gasses do have a context. What he ignores is that global warming, where greenhouse gasses is the major contributor, will severely damage the world's economy, including America's. Dumb

He is also espousing, whether he knows it or not, that just because America is the "biggest kid on the block" (aka bully) we have a natural right to pollute our entire world. Dumber

The only "saving grace" of his post is the, "Okay, guilty as charged." Finally, someone from the right admits to a crime. The problem is, Americans and the world will have to face the judgment of Mother Nature (aka God) and the verdict may be very, very unpleasant.

REMINDER - America

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

First stanza, America the Beautiful

POLITICS - Another Day of Infamy

"6/27/06 - A Day That Will Go Down In Infamy" by davidsirota, Daily Kos

Very rarely in American history do moments come along when our Congress publicly and openly flaunts the fact that it has stopped even trying to pretend it cares about this country. Usually, the disdain lawmakers have for ordinary citizens and the nation's well being is hidden behind fake promises of altruism and idealism. But today is one of those truly rare moments - a moment that should go down in infamy for its nauseating candor.

Today, the United States Senate - supposedly the greatest deliberative body in the greatest representative democracy on the planet - spent its precious time having a heated debate over whether to amend the Constitution for the first time in a generation so as to ban flag burning. The U.S. House last year spent its precious time on the same issue. Regardless of how one feels about this issue, the admission of irresponsibility inherent in Congress spending time on this issue is truly historic. We are a nation that is in the throes of a very serious crisis - one that is costing us hundreds of lives every day. The numbers explain what I am talking about far better than prose.

Consider this - the U.S. Congress and cynical pundits and political operatives in Washington are polluting our country's political discourse with a debate over flag burning at the very same time that:

• The American Journal of Public Health reports more than 1,700 African Americans die each week because they don't have the same access to health care as other Americans.


• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 110 workers die each week in workplace fatalities - many of which could be prevented by better enforcement of basic workplace laws by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (which is being gutted by budget cuts).


• The Pentagon reports roughly 15 American soldiers die each week in Iraq.


• The Institute of Medicine reports 346 Americans die each week because they lack health insurance.


• The Environmental Working Group reports that 192 Americans die each week because of exposure to asbestos.

Mind you, these are but a few pieces of data quickly pulled from my new book, Hostile Takeover. They are tiny snippets in a blood-stained river of similar facts - facts that are similarly ignored by America's political Establishment. But quiet dismissal of life and death is one thing - openly substituting a discussion of life and death with a made-for-television spectacle about a fabricated "controversy" is altogether different.

There are truly no words for a Congress that would have the nerve to spend its time creating and then "debating" an "issue" like flag burning at a time when this is going on - especially when, last I checked, there is no plague of flag burning overtaking the country. But even if there was that plague, there still are no words to describe the irresponsibility and negligence of the cynical, soulless politicians who would allow such a debate to even take place when these life-and-death realities are unnecessarily unfolding before our eyes - realities that these politicians have the power to stop.

Our founding fathers would be ashamed. Our country's historical icons who fought to make this country great would be appalled. My own ancestors - who risked their lives to free themselves from tyranny, get to this country and help build it through public service - they would be disgusted. And the next generation will rightly look upon this day - and this era - as a humiliating cautionary tale in the history of a country that allowed the worst forms of greed and self-indulgence from the most vile political opportunists in both parties to imperil the very foundation this nation was built upon. They will wonder how we, the people, didn't all scream at Congress from the top of our lungs: "How dare you?"

I encourage readers to pass this message on to as many people as you know (email it, blog it, fax it, whatever) - because I suspect many Americans feel exactly the same way. Today, for the first time in my life, I am both embarrassed for my country, and fear for its future. Only a country that has a very serious disease within its political system could allow this to happen. And unless we stop denying the existence of that disease, unless we root out those within the system who are helping spread that disease, unless we cure ourselves of the germs in our Congress who would trumpet cynical gestures at a time when so many of our countrymen are unnecessarily dying - then, as much as it truly pains me to say it, America's days as the greatest country on Earth may indeed be numbered.

POLITICS - Are Americans Gullible

Are Americans so gullible that they believe that terrorists don’t already assume that the U.S. is spying on phone calls and bank transactions? If so, let’s just say that the terrorists aren’t as dumb as everyone who believes that the NY Times’ story gave information to the terrorists that they didn’t already have.

"GOP Threats to NY Times for Reporting on Transaction Monitoring Is Critical Threat to Free Press" BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

It is hard to imagine that a group who has been so wrong about so many things could get so upset about someone looking over their shoulders. But that is just what is happening now that the Bush Administration and leading Republicans have criticized – and even called for a criminal investigation of – The New York Times for reporting on the secret monitoring of financial transactions across the globe.

If a terrorist group was so inept as to be previously unaware that the U.S. government was trying to monitor their monetary transactions, they probably were of little risk (like the Miami “terrorist wannabes” who allegedly wanted to blow up the Sears Tower with their invisible bombs).

The monitoring itself appears to be technically, or at least possibly, legal, although it is certainly troublesome for the billions of people around the globe who aren’t terrorists and don’t want to be spied on. However, it is the threats to the NY Times for doing its job that are most disturbing

The First Amendment explicitly protects not only freedom of speech, but freedom of the press. Our founders knew firsthand how dangerous it could be to have government censorship of newspapers. It is thus critically important that we have groups like the NY Times (and, of course, BuzzFlash) to spread information.

Obviously it could be dangerous to publicize specific details on government security matters, just like it is dangerous to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. However, The Times has threatened the War on Terror by breaking the story just as much as Bush does by repeating his threats about it, which is to say not at all.

Ultimately, we live in a democracy where the people get to decide who will represent them. While it would be convenient for Bush and Republicans in Congress to act in secret to remove any accountability for their actions, informed voting would be impossible.

We should be able to know what our elected officials are doing, and if they were doing a good job they would want us to know about it. How many times can they get away with just saying “trust us” when we already know that we can’t?

WORLD - Palestinian vs Israeli Situation

First off, this is my personal outlook on this issue and I am no means an expert. But having said that......

No matter what the world's leaders say, no matter what nation, there is only two "people" who can actually solve this issue.

This issue will be solved when:

• The Palestinian people take control and stop actions against Israel. They cannot influence Israeli actions other than to inflame them.



• The Israeli people take control and stop actions against Palestine. They cannot influence Palestinian actions other than inflame them.

Until both countries take control of their own people nothing will be solved. They are the only ones who can put a stop to this.

I am not hopeful.

AMERICAN SOCIETY - Social Isolation

"Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says" by Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post

Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide, according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social ties in the United States.

A quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two.

The comprehensive new study paints a sobering picture of an increasingly fragmented America, where intimate social ties -- once seen as an integral part of daily life and associated with a host of psychological and civic benefits -- are shrinking or nonexistent. In bad times, far more people appear to suffer alone.

The question is, can this be fixed? Do we need to fix it?

VOTE CALIFORNIA - Thumbs Up for California and Its Voters

This may be old news but worth noting as an example for other states.

"California Election to Provide E-voting Paper Trail" by MARC L. SONGINI, Computerworld

June 05, 2006 -- California tomorrow will become one of the first states to require that all voting machines produce a paper audit trail that can verify the accuracy of a tally.

The audit trail is required for Tuesday's primary vote to ensure that election officials adhere to a state law passed in 2005. The statute requires that the ballots of 1% of the votes cast in each precinct be manually tallied to ensure the accuracy of e-voting systems.

The new law expands on an earlier statute that requires voters using optical scan devices to also register their votes on paper so they can be audited. Now, all machines, including touch-screen systems, must compile a paper trail of votes.

"Every voting system in California will have a paper trail in 2006," the spokeswoman said. "Voters will have the opportunity to verify their vote via a paper record, which verifies that their vote cast was indeed the vote that was recorded."

Haas (Mikel Haas, Registrar of Voters) noted that the statute doesn't require that voters receive personal paper confirmation of their vote. It only requires that a printed record be retained in the voting machine for use in audits.

This is good news on the voter protection issue. The one fault I see, if you require a printed record for audits, why not give a copy to the voter?

POLITICS - Bush's War on Terrorism Wrong, Again

"Karzai Criticizes U.S.-Led Coalition" by TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer

President Hamid Karzai criticized the U.S.-led coalition's anti-terror campaign Thursday, deploring the deaths of hundreds of Afghans and appealing for more help for his government.

Karzai's sharp assessment came as Osama bin Laden's deputy urged Afghans to revolt against coalition forces, and four more U.S. soldiers were killed.

More than four years after U.S.-led forces toppled the extremist Taliban government, Afghanistan is gripped by its deadliest spate of post-invasion violence. To try curb the bloodshed, more than 10,000 coalition forces have launched a major offensive against militants across southern Afghanistan. More than 600 people, mainly militants, have been killed since May.

But Karzai, who has previously scorned large-scale anti-militant campaigns, rejected the continued spilling of Afghan blood in military operations.

"It is not acceptable for us that in all this fighting, Afghans are dying. In the last three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans were killed. (Even) if they are Taliban, they are sons of this land," a clearly frustrated Karzai told reporters in Kabul.

Geewiz, guess what Bush, killing of a countries citizens is an unpopular idea. I doesn't win friends to our side when it goes too far in their evaluation. So staying the present course is your answer?

"Friendly nations" beware of Bush bearing gifts.

POLITICS - FTC Is Fighting Identity Theft... Well Maybe

"Government Hit by Rash of Data Breaches" by HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

The government agency charged with fighting identity theft said Thursday it had lost two government laptops containing sensitive personal data, the latest in a series of breaches encompassing millions of people.

The Federal Trade Commission said it would provide free credit monitoring for 110 people targeted for investigation whose names, addresses, Social Security numbers - and in some instances, financial account numbers - were taken from an FTC attorney's locked car.

Duh! When are agencies going to realize that our personal data should not be taken out of agency's offices? The data should not be on any portable computer (laptops, notebooks, etc.). How many times do they, and private companies, have to be hit over the head with a 2-by-4 before they get it?!

Private personal data belongs only on highly secure servers that can be accessed only from equally secure desktop workstations at the office, period. This data should never be allowed to be copied to the workstation nor portable computer.

Inconvenience is not a reason to put your personal data at risk!

POLITICS - Tort Reform and Medical Malpractice

Abstract, New England Journal of Medicine, "Claims, Errors, and Compensation Payments in Medical Malpractice Litigation"

Background In the current debate over tort reform, critics of the medical malpractice system charge that frivolous litigation — claims that lack evidence of injury, substandard care, or both — is common and costly.

Methods Trained physicians reviewed a random sample of 1452 closed malpractice claims from five liability insurers to determine whether a medical injury had occurred and, if so, whether it was due to medical error. We analyzed the prevalence, characteristics, litigation outcomes, and costs of claims that lacked evidence of error.

Results For 3 percent of the claims, there were no verifiable medical injuries, and 37 percent did not involve errors. Most of the claims that were not associated with errors (370 of 515 [72 percent]) or injuries (31 of 37 [84 percent]) did not result in compensation; most that involved injuries due to error did (653 of 889 [73 percent]). Payment of claims not involving errors occurred less frequently than did the converse form of inaccuracy — nonpayment of claims associated with errors. When claims not involving errors were compensated, payments were significantly lower on average than were payments for claims involving errors ($313,205 vs. $521,560, P=0.004). Overall, claims not involving errors accounted for 13 to 16 percent of the system's total monetary costs. For every dollar spent on compensation, 54 cents went to administrative expenses (including those involving lawyers, experts, and courts). Claims involving errors accounted for 78 percent of total administrative costs.

Conclusions Claims that lack evidence of error are not uncommon, but most are denied compensation. The vast majority of expenditures go toward litigation over errors and payment of them. The overhead costs of malpractice litigation are exorbitant.

You can read the full article from the link in the abstract, but it requires online subscription to NEJM.

POLITICS - So, Is Homeland Security Making Your Community Safe?

"U.S. feud cuts flow of data on terror" by Siobhan Gorman, Baltimore Sun

Nearly five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security continue to clash over who is in charge of coordinating and vetting information on terrorism. As a result, state and local authorities continue to get conflicting or incomplete information - sometimes none at all - on threats inside the United States.

Surprise, surprise! The behemoth Homeland inSecurity suffers from typical "Bureaucratic Disease." Bloat and turf wars. Bigger is not necessarily better.

AMERICAN COMMUNITIES - The Disappearing Middle-Class Neighborhood

"U.S. Losing Its Middle-Class Neighborhoods" by Blaine Harden,Washington Post

Middle-class neighborhoods, long regarded as incubators for the American dream, are losing ground in cities across the country, shrinking at more than twice the rate of the middle class itself.

In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income, according to a Brookings Institution study released Thursday. It found that as a share of all urban and suburban neighborhoods, middle-income neighborhoods in the nation's 100 largest metro areas have declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000.

Widening income inequality in the United States has been well documented in recent years, but the Brookings analysis of census data uncovered a much more accelerated decline in communities that house the middle class. It far outpaced the decline of seven percentage points between 1970 and 2000 in the proportion of middle-income families living in and around cities.

Middle-income neighborhoods -- where families earn 80 to 120 percent of the local median income -- have plunged by more than 20 percent as a share of all neighborhoods in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. They are down 10 percent in the Washington area.

"It means that if you are not living in one of the well-off areas, you are not going to have access to the same amenities -- good schools and safe environment -- that you could find 30 years ago," said Alan Berube, an urban demographer at Brookings.

The decline of middle-income neighborhoods may also be a consequence of increased economic opportunity and residential mobility, especially for upper-income minorities, said Joel Kotkin, an urban historian and senior fellow at the New America Foundation.

The question is, just what is the actual cause? Is this a reflection of the widening gap in income aka economic class? The article does state that the issues exposed do need more study to clarify the issue.

POLITICS - Cut-and-Run Liberals

"Cut-and-Run Liberal, and Proud of It" by Stephen Pizzo, News for Real

I want to be perfectly clear about this. We liberals really do want to cut and run.

I admit it. We are cut-and-run liberals, just as Karl Rove alleges. More than that, I am proud of it and encourage more Americans to join us.

We want to cut and run from the borrow and spend, borrow and spend economics of the GOP that have piled an additional $4 trillion in debt onto our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

We want to cut and run from the unholy alliance between the GOP and energy companies that has left us at the mercy of a bunch of medieval Islamic tribal leaders who run their own countries like feudal states and treat their own people -- especially their women -- worse than Americans treat farm animals.

We want to cut and run from a national health care system designed by and for giant health care and pharmaceutical interests, that enriches a few while leaving 45 million Americans without affordable health insurance.

We want to cut and run from a government that, over the past six years, has become not only increasingly closed to public scrutiny and accountability, but overtly hostile and suspicious of citizens who insist on either.

We want to cut and run from a style of governance that not only plays on fear and petty prejudices, but cultivates and exploits them for cheap political gain.

There is more, check it out. We want an America that we can, once again, be proud of. An America where caring for individual people is more important than caring for corporations. An America where "protecting America" includes protecting individual human and Constitutional rights.

POLITICS - GOP, the Party of Corruption

Don't believe the Republican Party, while calming higher moral values, is the supporter of corruption in the federal government? The ripping off of the American taxpayer?

"GOP Kills Bill to Police Halliburton" by Bob Geiger, AlterNet

Republicans in Congress have made it clear they're willing to fight for military contractors' right to lie, cheat and defraud taxpayers.

While Democrats have been complaining for years about the GOP-led Congress abandoning its oversight of the executive branch's wrongdoing, a vote that took place in the Senate last week shows how the Republican desire to ignore fraud and abuse extends right into killing legislation that would help stop defense contractors from ripping off the American people.

And just what were the stern rules that the GOP didn't think their buddies at Halliburton should have to live with? The text of the legislation spelled out that Bush and Cheney's defense-contractor buddies would be in trouble if they did any of the following:

• "Executes or attempts to execute a scheme or artifice to defraud the United States or the entity having jurisdiction over the area in which such activities occur."


• "Falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact."


• "Makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or representations, or makes or uses any materially false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry."


• "Materially overvalues any good or service with the specific intent to excessively profit from the war or military action."

The measure called for those found guilty of violating the law to be imprisoned for up to 20 years and be subject to a fine of up to $1,000,000 -- a drop in the bucket for these guys -- or a percentage of their ill-gotten gains.

Is there any real doubt that the GOP is deep into the pockets of Halliburton and other big government contractors? That the GOP is doing everything is can to protect their big contributers from any oversight, American taxpayers be damn? Oh, almost forgot, our illustrious VP is honest and aboveboard "trust me"..... NOT!

POLITICS - House Republican Leaders at it Again

"House delays renewal of Voting Rights Act" by Laurie Kellman, Associated Press

House Republican leaders on Wednesday postponed a vote on renewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act after GOP lawmakers complained it unfairly singles out nine Southern states for federal oversight.

"Unfairly!" Like hell. These Southern states and their actions against Black voters is the reason we had to pass this law in the first place. Now we are to just trust that they have changed their ways? Not hardly! Not in view of the ongoing racial problems, in many other areas, in these states.

If they are in fact in compliance with the law, why the complaint? Why would they fear federal oversight? Something to hide maybe?

Judge, not guilty, ignore my record, trust me. Ya, sure.