Javelin Blog

Brown's out

2005-09-12T22:13:00.000-05:00

Michael Brown has resigned as the director of FEMA after his miserable failure in handling the Katerina tragedy. He was surely asked to leave by someone in the administration (probably Karl Rove). I'm glad to see that he's gone. He should have never gotten the job in the first place. I'm worried however that he will be used as a scapegoat and be forced to take the fall for the rest of the administrations negligence and disregaurd for human life. People will need to remain vigilant because it's not beyond this administration to do something like that.

Wal Mart

2005-09-11T23:44:00.000-05:00

The problem of Wal Mart has been getting a lot of press recently. I hope that sooner or later we hit a critical mass of people who just refuse to shop there. I do not wish to see Wal Mart destroyed. Instead, I would rather see Wal Mart changed their business practices and become a leader in doing what is right.

Deb Rousu doesn't consider herself a rabble-rouser. But when asked recently to sign a petition pledging not to shop at Wal-Mart, she grabbed the pen without hesitation.

"Why should the American public be helping a huge corporation pay for employee health care?" asked Rousu, a nurse from Plymouth who had heard that a lot of Wal-Mart workers use state-subsidized health insurance.

The petition Rousu signed -- and the fact that she was aware of the insurance debate -- is evidence of the anti-Wal-Mart crusade that is gaining momentum in Minnesota. In recent months, the state has seen teacher protests, door-to-door canvassing, booths at neighborhood festivals and petitions at the State Fair denouncing everything from Wal-Mart's labor practices to its "destruction" of small-town Main Streets.
karen kraska won't shop at wal-mart

Meanwhile a so-called "Wal-Mart bill" that would have required Minnesota to calculate which employers have the largest numbers of workers enrolled in MinnesotaCare, the state's subsidized health insurance program for low-income workers, came close to becoming law this summer.

Wal-Mart officials call many of the actions "publicity stunts" by groups with their own political agendas. They insist that workers are offered fair wages and benefits, and that their stores' presence improves the communities they serve.

The anti-Wal-Mart swell points to the unique role that Wal-Mart has come to play, social observers say.

"Wal-Mart represents everything that we fear -- or want -- at the same time," said Hy Berman, a retired University of Minnesota history professor.

"What we want is cheap stuff, sold to us efficiently. But many people fear the encroachment of big business, the destruction of Ma and Pa businesses."

Wal-Mart belongs to a handful of American corporations that, historically, have come to symbolize transformations in the economy, Berman said. At the turn of the century, it was U.S. Steel, he said. Then it was General Motors. In our current service economy, it's Wal-Mart.

"It goes from big steel to big auto to big box," said Berman.

Battle on many fronts

The Wal-Mart debate is growing as fast as the firm itself -- and it goes far beyond the usual T-shirts, mugs and bumper stickers. Books, conferences, TV documentaries, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper series and countless media reports have examined the sweeping effects of the world's largest retailer, both good and bad. A new video documentary is slated for release this fall, and already organizers are setting up Twin Cities showings.

There are websites devoted exclusively to tracking Wal-Mart, with names like walmartwatch. com and wakeupwalmart.com. The retailer counters with walmartfacts.com.

Minnesotans have been eyeing the retailer for distinct reasons. Earlier this year, for example, about 75 members of churches around St. Paul's West Side gathered to talk about the effect that a Wal-Mart could have on shaping wage and benefit standards in their community.

"The businesses of west St. Paul have ethical standards around the way their employees are treated," said the Rev. Steve Adrian of St. Matthew's Catholic Church, which hosted the event. "Anything that could erode their benefits or lifestyle has a direct impact on this congregation.

"When it's time to negotiate contracts with Rainbow and Cub, what's to make them pay benefits that their competitor isn't paying?"

Meanwhile, members of the Sierra Club in Minnesota often show up at local government meetings where new Wal-Mart stores are being considered, said Karen Harder, who leads the club's water quality committee. The group doesn't focus exclusively on Wal-Mart, but it is very concerned about how stores like Wal-Mart affect urban sprawl, wetlands and other environmental problems, she said.

"You won't find our members chained to bulldozers," said Harder, "but if we hear about a plan [to build a store], we try to get involved as soon as possible."

Books of the Month

2005-09-11T23:12:00.000-05:00

The books I have chosen for the month of September are Less than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis and God's Politics by Jim Wails.

Less than Zero is one of my favorite novels. It's not directly political, but it deals with social issues of wealth and excess in society. The novel takes us into the lives of a a group of wealthy college students coming home for winter break. We see the moral atrophy of their lives. The book shows how unfulfilling a life of extream decadance can be.

God's Politics has made more sense than most any other book that I have read recently. The author talks about how the religious right has misappropriated the teachings of the bible. He calls for a public discourse on religion and the bible, but it should't be framed in the terms that the religious right has used. He argues that issues of war, poverty, wealth, and empire are far more deserving of attention than abortion and gay marriage.

A little early, but still interesting...

2005-09-11T02:00:00.000-05:00

Already, New Hampshire beckons the hopefuls
Brian Faler
Washington Post
Published September 11, 2005

Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was there recently. So was Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, is expected this week. The Republican governor of Massachusetts? A little later this month.

The 2008 presidential election is still a long way off, but the potential contenders have begun making their way to New Hampshire. More than a dozen lawmakers believed to be considering bids have been to the Granite State, the expected site of the first presidential primary election, since last November. Among the Democrats, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was there in June. So was retired Gen. Wesley Clark. Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh has been up. So has John Edwards -- three times, in fact. Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold is slated to make his first trip this month.

Republicans have been just as busy. Arizona Sen. John McCain visited in December. Since then, colleagues Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, George Allen of Virginia and Sam Brownback of Kansas have stopped by. Same goes for Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee has been to New Hampshire three times.

"It's way early," said state Republican Party chairman Warren Henderson, who attributed the unusually early forays to the wide-open nature of the '08 race. It is expected to be the first time in more than 50 years in which neither a sitting president nor a vice president is running.

The visiting lawmakers typically spend their time at fundraisers, picnics, potlucks and house parties -- wherever they happen to be invited. For some, such as Huckabee, who was making his first trip to New Hampshire, the visits give them an opportunity to introduce themselves to local activists. For others, it's a chance to meet old supporters.

"It's all about putting a toe in the water," Henderson said. "You might want to go see what kind of response you get. Do New Hampshire audiences react to you the same as audiences in your home state? For a lot of these folks, they may not really know how they're going to be perceived."

What interests me most are the names, especially that of Russ Feingold. I have to say, I love Feingold, but I think I like him much more as a Senator than a President. It's also nice to see that Sen. McCain is possibly in the running. That being said, however, he's a very dangerous candidate that will be hard to beat. I will say right now that I think the Democrats can do better than any of the '04 field. Kerry was the wrong candidate last time and will be again in'08. But that enough speculating for now. We need to save some to spread over the next 3 years or so.

An American Failure

2005-09-10T14:57:00.000-05:00

The fall of New Orleans is something that will have an impact on the political future of out nation. This was the worst disaster in American history, and it did not have to happen the way that it did. It was not a preventable attack in the way that 9/11 was. We were not caught off gaurd sleeping at the switch this time. We knew days in advance that the hurricane was going to hit and that it was going to be bad. People who were able to get out did so, and the rest were just left to face the hurricane on their own. The urban predominantly minority population of New Orleans was not given much assistance to get out of way of the storm. Another thing that could have led to this being far less of a tragedy in scope. The leve and pumps that were there to proected the city were not in good shape, and President Bush diverted the funds to update the system to the war in Iraq. A large portion of the LA national gaurd is also on the ground in Iraq and were unable to offer aid to their neighbors. The gaurd units that remained were ill suited for the large scale task of saving New Orleans. For the most part this were small town units that didn't possess the infastructure for a large scale rescue.

After the Hurricane hit it became clear right away that this was a major disaster. Even with that, President Bush did not end his vacation until the third day after it hit land. Vice President Dick Chenney remained on vacation for roughly a week after it hit. Lastly, secretary of state Condoliza Rice began a New York vacation the day the Hurricane hit. She went shoe shopping and attended a Broadway show while people died unnecessary deaths. This complete avoidance of the most dire natural disaster in our history ammounts to little more than Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burns. This whole scale lack of compassion is both completly unfathomable to average americans, and should not be forgotten by them.

The group primarily responsible for directing efforts in New Orleans was FEMA (Federal Emergency Managment Association) completly botched the job. Neither Mike Brown, the FEMA director, or his cheif of staff or deputy cheif of staff have had any career experience with disaster relief of any kind. These people were, however, all political friends of the Bush administration. Like the rest of our government's executive branch, FEMA that a hurricane was going to hit New Orleans, but they did nothing to be prepared to move in and help out people in it's wake. After the Hurriacne did strike, FEMA was slow to identify needs and react to them. They turned down many offers of assistance for New Orleans(far too many examples to list here but if you go through the KOS archives you'll find them spread around in there). It seems incredably unlikely that these offers were turned down from maliciousness. In all likelyhood the people organizing the relief efforts were unable to deal with such a large scale opperation that they were just swamped and couldn't effectivly do their job. FEMA director Brown has already been recused from the relief efforts and should be fired immediatly for incompotence.

The future doesn't look good for New Orleans right now. Eighty percent of the city is underwater, and this will be a long and difficult effort to bring things back to normal (or as close to it as possible). It's going to take a lot of time and a lot of money in order to fix this one. 400,000 people have lost their jobs because of this. I'm no economist, but i know that right now it'll be hard for people to find work even with the promise which some people will see, of their origional job back. This could be really bad news for our already wobbly economy.

lastly I can't write about something this big without talking about the Political implications of it. Katerina was 2 disasters, one of nature and one of the federal government. The government failed in their primary duty of protecting the citizens. There should have been an organized evacuation of New Orleans before the storm hit, but there wasn't. There should have been effective methods of flood control in New orleans, but there wern't. There should have been a well executed, organized relief effort, but again there wasn't. For these reasons, this is a failure of the Bush administration. This isn't like 9/11 where the president recieves a free pass because we were attacked by an enemy. This time it is his administration that is at fault and the gloves are off. The only rational thing for the democrats to do in a situation like this is to attack the government's failures. This is the best way to hammer home the message that they (and Bush by proxy screwed up). Bush's approval is already at 39% right now. I think as we investigate the failures of this more, that astronomically low number will get even lower.

Banning the mediahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

2005-09-07T16:18:00.000-05:00

Things like this just don't happen in the America I know.
Via Americablog

Bob Brigham has just reported - and this is why we need OUR folks on the ground, to report this stuff - the military is banning all reporters from New Orleans. Outrageous. If you kill a couple thousand people, you definitely want to keep the media and the public from finding out.

Bush is literally trying to hide the bodies. This is beyond outrageous.

They're trying to hide the bodies. Who the hell does Bush think he is? So much for the First Amendment, so much for the Constitution, so much for a democratic government.

Hey, Democrats, time to speak up LOUDLY. This is what military regimes do, what dictatorships do, it's not what democracies do. We don't hide our dead bodies in our to spare our leaders their well-due shame.

I hope the media is all over this.

As we already know, Bush is banning the media from taking any photos of the dead. So here's a thought:

Get a media helicopter, fly in, and let them shoot you down. Do you really think the Natl Guard is going to shoot down CNN? Especially if they have a few Democratic congressmen on board? Doubt it. And are they going to arrest those Democratic congressmen for taking photos of the recovery? Doubt it.

PS And Kyle is still on his way as our correspondent - we're not gonna let some petty dictator stop us.

UPDATE

It appears that the media is finally growing enough of a spine to stand up to the bush administration.

U.S. won't ban media from New Orleans searches
CNN filed suit for right to cover search for bodies of Katrina victims

Rather than fight a lawsuit by CNN, the federal government abandoned its effort Saturday to prevent the media from reporting on the recovery of the dead in New Orleans.

Joint Task Force Katrina "has no plans to bar, impede or prevent news media from their news gathering and reporting activities in connection with the deceased Hurricane Katrina victim recovery efforts," said Col. Christian E. deGraff, representing the task force.

U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order Friday against a "zero access" policy announced earlier in the day by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director.

In explaining the ban, Ebbert said, "we don't think that's proper" to let members of the media view the bodies.

The judge was to consider granting a permanent injunction Saturday when the government announced its decision not to enforce the "zero access" policy.

By the Numbers

2005-09-07T11:28:00.000-05:00

Via Kos

Iraq

Approximate number of U.S. troops currently in Iraq: 139,000

Percent of coalition forces contributed by the U.S.: 85.7

Weeks since the Pentagon developed a plan to draw down U.S. forces in Iraq to roughly 40,000 by mid-2005: 98

Approximate amount appropriated by Congress for Iraq operations so far: $218 billion

Approximate amount spent by the U.S. in World War I: $205 billion

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) found: 0

Number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq: 1,886

Number reported wounded by the Defense Department: 14,265

Approximate number of medical evacuations of U.S. military personnel performed since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom: 55,000

Number of National Guard soldiers killed in Iraq through August 27, 2005: 269

Number of National Guard soldiers killed in the entire Vietnam War: 97

Number of Iraqi military and police killed since training began (June 2003): 3,051

Estimated number of insurgents in Iraq (November 2003): 5,000

Estimated number of insurgents in Iraq (June 2005): 15-20,000

Estimated number of 107 Iraqi military and special police battalions that are capable of operating independently: 3

Amount charged to American taxpayers by Halliburton to build a movie library for its employees: $152 million

Number of movies in the library: 10,000

Total number of nations contributing troops to Iraq as part of President Bush's "coalition of the willing" at some point during the war: 37

Number of these nations that either have withdrawn or plan to withdraw their troops from the coalition: 14

Average size of troop contributions by nations with troops currently deployed to Iraq, excluding the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, and Italy: 186

Terrorism

Days since September 11, 2001 that Osama bin Laden has remained uncaptured: 1,454

Days after bombing Pearl Harbor that Japan surrendered to U.S. forces: 1,365

Number of times President Bush mentioned the "war on terror" in one month before the 2004 elections: 71

Number of times in the six months following the 2004 elections: 66

Number of terrorist suspects the Bush Administration claims have been convicted since September 11, 2001: 200

Number that have actually been convicted: 39

Recruiting

Recruits needed per month for the rest of the fiscal year, if the Army is to meet its annual goal: 12,396.5

Highest monthly total of Army recruits this year: 8,086

Number of months the Marine Corps missed its recruiting goals between January and April 2005: 4

Number of months the Marine Corps missed its recruiting goals in ten years before January 2005: 0

Prior to 2004, years since the Army National Guard last missed its annual recruiting goal: 11

Consecutive months the Army National Guard has missed its monthly recruiting goals: 9

Number of the six Reserve Components that met their recruiting goals last month: 2

Rate of loss of Army captains and lieutenants, the Army's junior officers, in 2004: 8.5

Average rate of loss of Army captains and lieutenants, 1996-2004: 7.3

Resignation requests submitted by Army Reserve Officers in 2001: 15

Resignation requests submitted by Army Reserve Officers, September 2003-September 2004: 370

Percent of Army enlisted special operations personnel leaving the force in 2004: 13

Percent of Army enlisted special operations personnel leaving in 2003: 6

Hurricane

2005-09-05T01:49:00.000-05:00

I'm not ready to make a big post dissecting the Hurricane yet. Rest assure there will be one in the near future. So much has gone on with this, and there is new info coming out all the time. The long and short of it is that the American government has failed it's citizens in their time of need. In the mean time here's some thoughts from the drummer of Anthrax i just find this interesting. These are probably the emotions that a lot of people have right now

There cannot be an American out there that feels good right now. I know my voice means Shit, in fact...the way I feel right now, nobody's voice means a thing. Is Louisiana in America?? It doesn't look like it to me. These Politicians are so concerned with making sure they pat themselves on the back and say "congressman so and so did such a great job," WHAT?? I'm sure you are watching what I have been watching, who the hell is doing A GREAT JOB? I was so Happy to see CNN's Anderson Cooper become Human and let his emotions come out and be REAL!

Our Prez does not have the capability to handle these type of things, please don't Jump all over me for saying this... I truly believe it. I just don't "feel it" with him.

What took so long? Why did the Prez on the 2nd day of this Tragedy fly to San Diego and Not to Louisiana? Why so late to act on this? WHY WHY WHY?

We will never get an answer! Think about it? Even if you are a Bush supporter... think for a second... oh, I bet you have some answer if you're a Bush supporter - never mind.

These people are taking any means necessary down there... I would do the same. If your kids, your girl, your mom were dying and needed water or food, what would you do??

We all will pay for this too. Watch how our insurance goes up and GAS will go up more. Why don't they take the tax off of the gas price? People need to get to work, how can they afford to fill their tanks? It cost $52.00 to fill my tank today, and it wasn't even filled up, hahahahaha... I gotta laugh.

Make me a Hybrid that has some style for God's sake!

I am so sorry for what has happened to you people down there my heart and my donation has gone out to you.

I am emotional and venting. Links to donate on the home page. Thanks for reading.

Embarrassed and Sad,
Charlie B

Those poor ignorant bastards

2005-08-30T13:30:00.000-05:00

Who will be remaining ignorant for the foreseeable future. The state of Florida has now hired Cheri Yecki as their new K-12 schools chancellor. She was a pawlenty pick for MN education commissioner and couldn't get confirmed to the post by the state senate. Yecki is an ID supporter and has no problem with indocrinating conservative ideology into student's education. Make no mistake, the state of Florida is dumber for having hired her.

Good For Him

2005-08-30T13:18:00.000-05:00

President Bush has finally figured out that he needs to actually do his job. He is cutting his unprecedented massive vacation short (by a whopping 2 days, but curtailing it none the less) in order to preside over the nation in the wake of the worst disaster in our History. Thankfully he has ended his streak of cutting and running away from big moments and is acting fairly presidential about something. Hopefully making good decisions will be the next step in this reform.

Hurricane

2005-08-29T00:14:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Morris with working internet for now. The situation that bears talking about is Hurricane Katrina is bearing down on New Orleans. It's looking bad for the people of that fine city. Predictions are that there will be 1 million homeless people from this event. This is a major tragedy in the making that is more or less in our own back yard. At this point all we can do is pray that things arn't as bad as people are saying. There will be plenty of charity options as to how we can help after the damage is done and we would encourage everyone reading to donate to the relief efforts. Hopefully President Bush will exercise some presidential leadership and end his vacation to take charge of the situation, but with his track record i doubt that will happen.

Reposting and Moving

2005-08-23T15:26:00.000-05:00

First off, i'm leaving for Morris tomorrow. Once I'm up there i'll be posting a lot more. This is a repost from Kos. I mostly agree with his thoughts on the necessity of war. Although I do disagree with his scoffing at the idea of world peace. I think it is definatly possible even within our lifetimes, and this is something we should not give up on.

I'm not anti-war. As I've said before, I'm a military hawk. I supported the Afghanistan War and I supported the Bosna and Kosovo interventions. I'm not one of these touchy-feely hippy types that thinks war is inherently bad. I laugh at people who think they can "visualize peace".

Unlike most people reading this, I grew up in a country at war. I've seen the effects first-hand. I also served in the Army. To me war isn't a video game or an abstract concept. It's real. Yet sometimes, many times, military force is a force for good. There are evil people in the world, doing evil things. And all the sanctions in the world, all the strongly worded denunciations, will never have the effect of a 1,000 pound bomb.

I oppose the Iraq War.

But I refuse to be labeled "anti-war". I'm not. I'm anti this war. Why? Because I'm a war pragmatist. I understand the costs of war, but I also understand the potential benefits.

And in a modern world, we need to be able to weigh the two when deciding whether it's worth engaging in combat.

I opposed Iraq because it forced the U.S. to take the eyes off the real threat -- the Al Qaida assholes that attacked the United States and many of our allies around the world. That was a rightous, honorable campaign. Yet we took the eyes off the ball to go after an impotent, contained, powerless regime that posed nary a threat to its neighbors, much less the U.S.

It's a war that never should've been fought, it's a war that's been negligently managed, and it's a war that we can't win. All the military might in the world can't convert fantastical wishful thinking into reality.

I oppose Iraq not because I'm anti-war. I'll have nothing to do with any of the anti-war rallies planned in the near term (and the crazy cast of characters that seek to inject their unrelated own pet causes into the proceedings).

I oppose the Iraq War because I'm a War Pragmatist.

Friday Song Blogging

2005-08-19T18:38:00.001-05:00

Working Class Hero - John Lennon

As soon as your born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can't really function you're so full of fear,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still fucking peasents as far as I can see,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
There's room at the top they are telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill,
A working class hero is something to be.
A working class hero is something to be.
If you want to be a hero well just follow me,
If you want to be a hero well just follow me.

Friday Song Blogging

2005-08-19T18:38:00.000-05:00

Detainers of the Purple Sage

2005-08-15T17:47:00.000-05:00

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has made an interesting move in his state. He has declared a state of emergency along his state's border with Mexico. The specific reasons that he gave were the impact of crime and drug smuggling that illegal immigration has brought to those regions. By doing this he frees up $750,000 right away and pledges another million in the near future that will be used to beef up border security.

Now the first thing that comes to my mind when learning of this is of course the presidential politics involved. Mainly, Gov. Richardson has been frequently named as a possible candidate in 2008 or almost any other race from thereafter. He's a somewhat charismatic, dynamic popular governor from a swing region. Therefore, picking an issue that is divisive all over the country but that is also regional to can safely move to the right on is a great bit of positioning on his part. Plus, this has the added bonus of having to do with foreign policy, which will be helpful when he needs some example of experience in that field, the one area most Governors are deficient in.

I must admit, however, I have mixed feelings about the move. First, I don't like what certainly looks to me to be someone changing major precedents and policy simply to run in an election 3 years away. On the other hand, something needs to be done about border security and the federal government isn't doing it. But at the same time, turning more people away unconditionally is not necessarily the answer I was looking for. I'm not even going to step into the many-faceted issue of drug smuggling and the related crime.

What I'm wondering is (and I'll admit I really am wondering because I have not had a chance to delve into the nuances of the NM state budget) by spending this money on a serious but not necessarily urgent problem now, will New Mexico have money left in the case of a much more immediate problem, a true emergency. I especially start to worry about that we're talking about New Mexico and forest fire season is by no means over yet.

Finally, as far as I'm concerned, Gov. Richardson is pretty clearly over-stepping his bounds. Basically what he's doing is using a loophole to allocate funds without any congressional approval. He is making a very bold step outside of the traditional checks and balances. While I think that sometimes those steps are necessary, and that generally speaking it is natural for the executive branch to become stronger over time as democracy becomes more stable, I really worry when constitutional balance is threatened by what appears to be a very political ploy.

Are we being Enroned?

2005-08-13T09:36:00.000-05:00

With the recent high gas prices. Blah3 sure seems to think so.

Better late than never

2005-08-12T21:30:00.000-05:00

Now that the month is more than 1/4 over, I should probably talk a little bit about my choices for the books.

"It was love at first sight..." The first time I read Catch-22 by Joeseph Heller, I fell madly in love with it. It is one of the very few books that I actually enjoy re-reading. It has a very sharp, dark sense of humor that Heller uses extremely effectively not only for the entertainment value but also to enforce the themes of insanity and ethical subjectivity in wartime. Yossarrian Lives!

As for Harry Potter (go ahead and laugh all you want, I'm used to being a geek), I really have enjoyed the series. I am part of a lucky age group that read the more childish first 2 or 3 books when we were still young and have had the the books get more and more adult practically in pace with our maturation.

I also picked it, however, because of all the books so far published in our generation, this is most likely to be studied in literature classes 50 or more years from now. The series is turning into another great example of the classic epic, with Harry being a martyr's death away from true epic hero status. Plus, if all of a sudden we see a new generation of readers emerge, we will most like have J.K. Rowling to thank for it. (U.S. News and World Report)

Finally, and most importantly, the Harry Potter books give me a chance to read something for no better reason than they are good stories written very well. For a long time now, almost everything I read has a deep hidden theme or message or moral in it. Grapes of Wrath, One Flew Over the cuckoo's Nest, Catch-22; all are excellent books, but all are similar in that one is constantly trying to analyze them while reading. Don't get me wrong, analytical reading is important and fun as well, but it is nice on occasion to be able to grab a book that is just a good imaginative enchanting story. The Harry Potter books let me go back to the reading for enjoyment I did as a kid. And that is something we all should do more of.

Bush should face the music

2005-08-12T15:54:00.000-05:00

Cindy Sheehan has been camping outside of president Bush's ranch in Crawford TX. She is waiting there to speak with the president about the death of her son in Iraq. She has a lot of questions about why we went to war, and what we are doing there now. She isn't alone in wanting to know these things; there are a lot of other americans that want to know the same things. The president has a responsibility to our nation to provide us with this information. It is incomprehensible to me that he is in the middle of a five week vacation in the middle of a war. He should be working at the white house trying to find a sollution to the Iraq mess. Cindy Sheehan won't be going anywhere in the near future, and the rest of us should speak up and demand answers as well.

Friday Song Blogging

2005-08-12T13:08:00.000-05:00

Modest Mouse- Float On

I backed my car into a cop car the other day
Well he just drove off sometimes life's ok
I ran my mouth off a bit too much oh what can i say
Well you just laughed it off it was all ok

And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on any way well

Well, a fake Jamaican took every last dime with a scam
It was worth it just to learn from sleight-of-hand
Bad news comes don't you worry even when it lands
Good news will work its way to all them plans
We both got fired on the exactly the same day
Well we'll float on good news is on the way

And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on alright
Already we'll all float on
Now don't worry we'll all float on
Alright already we'll all float on
Alright don't worry we'll all float on

And we'll all float on alright
Already we'll all float on
Aliright don't worry even if things end up a bit to heavy
we'll all float on alright
Already we'll all float on
Alright already we'll all float on
Ok don't worry we'll all float on
Even if things get heavy we'll all float on
Alright already we'll all float on
Don't you worry we'll all float on
All float on

"Highly Likely"

2005-08-11T10:47:00.000-05:00

I'm ready to start posting regurally on here again. Thanks to everyone that has expressed concern for me and my family. Now lets get cracking!

Bob Woodward is a very smart man, and he seems to think that Dick Cheney will be the republican candidate in 2008. he is basing this on the republican party's tradition of turning to the old veterans especially when times in our nation are looking rough (Nixon in 68, Reagon in 80). It's not clear if Woodward is basing this off of his own intuitions or is he has some inside information. Either way i think this is something to be aware of and consider, and I don't thin either source for this would diminish it's possibility.

Personally I would welcome the fight against Dick Chenney. I beleive it isn't just one that we could win, but one that we could really womp the sombitch in. Americans are not happy with the Bush Administration right now. The presidents approval ratings are right around 40-42% and I doubt they'll get much higher anytime soon. Things both here and in Iraq will probably get a good deal worse before they get better, and people are getting frusterated with that. The near success of Paul Hacket in the most conservative CD in Ohio is an example of that. A lot of people voted for Bush because of his charm and appeal. These are attributes that Dick Chenney does not possess. I know of plenty of Bush voters that have issues with Dick Cheney and really do not trust him. I think this would be the prime candidate for a progessive democrat, ideally Brian Schweitzer to stomp all over and bring back our nation.

the news

2005-08-06T12:18:00.000-05:00

here

Friday Song Blogging

2005-08-05T07:56:00.000-05:00

In loving memory of Dr. Alex G. Yard, loving father and husband. 1951-2005

Truckin - Grateful Dead

Truckin’ got my chips cashed in. keep truckin’, like the do-dah man
Together, more or less in line, just keep truckin’ on.

Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on main street.
Chicago, new york, detroit and it’s all on the same street.
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.

Dallas, got a soft machine; houston, too close to new orleans;
New york’s got the ways and means; but just won’t let you be, oh no.

Most of the cast that you meet on the streets speak of true love,
Most of the time they’re sittin’ and cryin’ at home.
One of these days they know they better get goin’
Out of the door and down on the streets all alone.

Truckin’, like the do-dah man. once told me "you’ve got to play your
hand"
Sometimes your cards ain’t worth a dime, if you don’t lay’em down,

Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.

What in the world ever became of sweet jane?
She lost her sparkle, you know she isn’t the same
Livin’ on reds, vitamin c, and cocaine,
All a friend can say is "ain’t it a shame? "

Truckin’, up to buffalo. been thinkin’, you got to mellow slow
Takes time, you pick a place to go, and just keep truckin’ on.

Sittin’ and starin’ out of the hotel window.
Got a tip they’re gonna kick the door in again
I’d like to get some sleep before I travel,
But if you got a warrant, I guess you’re gonna come in.

Busted, down on bourbon street, set up, like a bowlin’ pin.
Knocked down, it get’s to wearin’ thin. they just won’t let you be, oh no.

You’re sick of hangin’ around and you’d like to travel;
Get tired of travelin’ and you want to settle down.
I guess they can’t revoke your soul for tryin’,
Get out of the door and light out and look all around.

Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.

Truckin’, I’m a goin’ home. whoa whoa baby, back where I belong,
Back home, sit down and patch my bones, and get back truckin’ on.
Hey now get back truckin’ home.

the numbers

2005-08-04T10:56:00.000-05:00

This's something interesting to think about (via Kos) Remember winning the war on Terror's "hard work"

# 49 - the number of vacations that Bush has taken since he was inaugurated in 2001
# 5 - the number of weeks that Bush will spend on vacation, starting yesterday. It is the longest presidential vacation in at least 36 years.
# 319 - August 3, 2005 was the 319th day Bush has spent on vacation since his 2001 inauguration.
# 20% - the fraction of Bush's presidency that he has spent on vacation
* 23 - the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq in August alone. That's right. In three days, 23 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq.
* 1,822 - the total number of U.S. troops who have died in Bush's illegal Iraq war, as of August 3, 2005.

Sad

2005-08-03T12:26:00.000-05:00

We have lost 22 US marines in Iraq in a little over 24 hours. This is simply tragic. I have absolutly no confidence in the people that are running the war right now. I'm aware that yes this is a war, and yes in war soldiers die, but I think we need to starting winning political victories over there so that the people loose the incentive to kill us. I believe that now that we are in Iraq we have a moral obligation to work with the Iraqis' and make sure that things work.

We've got em on the run!

2005-08-02T22:13:00.000-05:00

Suburban Cincinatti is by no means liberal territory. The last time a dem had the OH-2 seat was during the Vietnam war. No dem. in the past twenty years has recieved more than 30% of the vote there. Tonight Iraq veteran paul Hacket overcame a vicous republican campain to come within 4% of beating his rep. challenger. This is a sign of great things to come. Hacket ran a liberal anti war campain and was more vicious than a rabid cougar in his attacks on President Bush. These results are phenominal for his location. This is a clear sign of good things to come. We've got the bastards on the run, lets keep the heat on them

It's August

2005-08-01T13:28:00.000-05:00

and that means it's time for new books of the month. David has selected Catch-22 and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince as his picks. He'll tell you why once he gets back from vacation.

Bolton

2005-08-01T13:13:00.000-05:00

To the surprise of next to no one President Bush has installed John Bolton as our envoy to the United Nations using a recess appointment. He will be there for little over a year, until jan. 2007. This is perfectly demonstrative of the way that this administration does business. The would rather take a partisan win instead of working with people. They would rather stick it to the other side just to prove they can instead of working with both parties to find someone more acceptable.

I do not believe that John Bolton will be a verry good envoy nor do I beleive that he will be a very successful one. First off John Bolton is a bad person. He intimidates anyone that disagrees with him, has no problem with dishonest, and treats women horribly. I don't believe that this will translae well into him having much influence or respect at the UN. Also I think that the mannor in which he was sent to the UN will keep a lot of people there from taking him very seriously. He is coming in as damaged goods, and that will make a difference in global diplomacy.

Speaking of separation of Church and State

2005-07-31T22:04:00.000-05:00

Now this is just sick...

From MSNBC

TOLEDO, Ohio - Police helped the Catholic Diocese of Toledo cover up sex abuse allegations for several decades, refusing to investigate or arrest priests suspected of molesting children, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The (Toledo) Blade, relying on interviews with former officers and a review of court and diocese records, found at least five instances since the 1950s of police covering up allegations of abuse.

Four former officers said Police Chief Anthony Bosch, a Catholic who headed the Toledo department from 1956 to 1970, established an unwritten rule that priests could not be arrested.

“You would have been fired,” said Gene Fodor, who served on the force between 1960 and 1981.

In some cases that resulted in charges, authorities blocked the release of files to the public. In others, priests were transferred to different churches or sent away for treatment.

The Rev. Robert Lamantia, who oversaw the transfer of a priest who was suspected of abusing a boy, said church officials knew police would not investigate.

‘Wasn’t part of our policy’
“It doesn’t look good today, but it wasn’t part of our policy that this was considered to be a crime against youth and it had to be handled by police,” Lamantia said.

Police told the newspaper much has changed since the sexual abuse crisis began unfolding in 2002 and insisted that priests suspected of crimes no longer receive special favors.

The diocese refused to discuss its relationship with law enforcement in the past, saying to talk about it now would only hurt abuse victims.

“Many (victims) who have responded have spoken of their anguish at each republication of previously published stories about their experiences and those of other survivors,” Bishop Leonard Blair said in a statement.

After Bosch left the Toledo department, the cover-ups continued, the Blade reported. Bosch died in 1982.

Jim Richards, who worked as the diocesan spokesman from 1971 to 1995, said church leaders knew whom to call to keep cases quiet.

A retired police detective who also worked as a private investigator for the diocese said he did not file police reports about suspected priest abuse.

‘Not this time’
“I can tell you that there was always somebody they could go to in the police department,” Sgt. John Connors said. “And I can tell you that, at one time, I was that man.”

No priest was arrested for sexual abuse until 1984, when an officer found a priest in a mall restroom, receiving oral sex from a teenager, The Blade reported.

“I was not going to follow the department policy — not this time,” said officer Bill Gray, who is now retired. After the arrest, Gray said he got harassing phone calls from his fellow officers.

After the priest was sentenced, the judge and prosecutors agreed to seal his record. Gray still maintains his own files, because he suspected the case might be hidden.

hmmm.... I wonder if this would work on "Dubya"

2005-07-31T18:58:00.000-05:00

Or would the church performing exorcisms on political figures perhaps violate the separation of church and state?

Fron CNN

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- An outspoken Catholic cardinal took his war of words with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to a new level in an interview published Sunday, calling him "a paranoid dictator" who needs "an exorcism."

Rosalio Castillo, Venezuela's only cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, also accused Chavez of rounding up more than 100 political prisoners and torturing some captives.

"There is no democracy here (in Venezuela)," Castillo told Colombia's main newspaper, El Tiempo. "This is a despotic government."

Chavez, who insists he supports democracy, is up for re-election next year, and recent polls suggest he is strongly favored to win.

Earlier this month, Castillo warned that Chavez was gaining too much power and becoming a dictator. Chavez, in turn, called Castillo "a bandit" who "has the devil inside him."

In Sunday's interview, Castillo said his comments on Chavez are not personal, and said they fall in line with the opinions of other church leaders in Venezuela.

"The difference is in the way it's said. There are those who speak diplomatically, and others like me who speak clearly so that everyone understands," the 82-year-old cardinal said.

The Roman Catholic Church has been one of the most critical voices of Chavez, a former paratroop commander and self-styled "revolutionary."

The church is also one of the most trusted institutions in the poverty-stricken South American nation. More than 90 percent of Venezuela's population is Roman Catholic, and church leaders and local priests wield tremendous influence over many of its citizens.

Asked whether he would send a blessing to Chavez, Castillo said: "More than a blessing, I'd give him an exorcism."

Swift Boating

2005-07-26T15:54:00.000-05:00

Verb: to destroy the character of an honorable indavidual by making false outlandish accusations.

Currently there is a congressional special election going on in southern Ohio. The democratic candidate, Paul Hacket, is an Iraq veteran and running strong in this conservative district. His opponent Jean Schmidt must be getting desperate. Her campain's senior advisor is now publicly questioning whether or not Hacket actually saw combat while he was in Iraq.

I understand that Hackett did not participate in combat at all. ... Let's just not act as though we led marines in combat if we did not, okay.

I think it is horrible that tactics like these are being used. In Iraq, the entire country is a war zone, if you are there, you are seeing combat and your life is at risk daily.

Kiffmeyer in trouble

2005-07-26T14:21:00.000-05:00

Mary Kiffmeyer has been a disgrace as MN secretary of state. In the past election she has picked up on the practice of trying to drive down voter turn outs in order to help your candidates. This is not the way that elections in a free society should opperate. This should give more ammunition to her Critics.

A year after Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer faced election-season questions over how she was implementing a new federal law intended to make voting simpler, a state audit has faulted her office for procedural discrepancies regarding the law.

But the office of the legislative auditor's financial audit did not address the larger issue regarding the new federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) -- whether the secretary of state's office used the new law and the accompanying money to help increase voter turnout.

Labor Split

2005-07-26T13:12:00.001-05:00

The big news yesterday was that the teamsters and the service workers unions were both leaving the AFL-CIO. I think that in the long run this will be a political benefit for union members. The main political stratagy of the AFL-CIO has been to throw money at democratic candidates and hope for the best. It's becoming clear that just throwing money at an election doesn't have the same effect that it once did in terms of success. Keep in mind, we outspent Bush in Ohio by millions and millions and look where it got us. The plan for this new union coallition is to try and emphasize new member recruitment. I believe this will prove to be a far more effective way of labor pushing their adgenda. Over the past couple decades union membership has been plummeting. Union membership has been the most likely indicator of whether someone will vote democrat or not. I think the populist approach of recruiting more and more people to be active will be the way that will prove successful with unions and other grass roots organizations. It's nice that people in power finally get this.

Labor Split

2005-07-26T13:12:00.000-05:00

Heart goes out to them

2005-07-26T13:05:00.000-05:00

I was a Boy Scout for many years, and despite the negative PR they've recieved lately, I think they're a great organization. One thing I know is that the scout leaders are completly dedicated to their troops and they would do most anything for them. When you hear about something like this it's just tragic. I really feel for everyone that was affected by this, especially their families of the 5 leaders that died.

missed the weekend

2005-07-25T13:19:00.000-05:00

Dave and I were out on vacation for part of last week and this weekend. We were out at a cabin with no internet so we didn't have access to the blog. We probably should have given y'all a heads up but some things just get missed. Here's some bonus song lyrics since we missed friday

Eastbound and Down - Jerry Reed

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin',
we're gonna do what they say can't be done.
We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.
I'm east bound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run.

Keep your foot hard on the pedal. Son, never mind them brakes.
Let it all hang out 'cause we got a run to make.
The boys are thirsty in Atlanta and there's beer in Texarcana.
And we'll bring it back no matter what it takes.

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin',
we're gonna do what they say can't be done.
We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.
I'm east bound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run.

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin',
we're gonna do what they say can't be done.
We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.
I'm east bound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run.

Ol' Smokey's got them ears on and he's hot on your trail.
He aint gonna rest 'til you're in jail.
So you got to dodge 'im and you got to duck 'im,
you got to keep that diesel truckin'.
Just put that hammer down and give it hell.

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin',
we're gonna do what they say can't be done.
We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.
I'm east bound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run.

More thoughts on Roberts

2005-07-21T14:58:00.000-05:00

The senate gang of 14 is saying that there most likely won't be a filibuster of John Roberts. So unless there are any skelatins that havn't came out yet, he will be confirmed. I think I am a lot less concerned about this than a lot of other bloggers are. It sounds like Bush could have picked someone a lot worse than John Roberts for the bench. I am somewhat troubled by his lack of experience on the bench, but i'm not sure how much that will really matter in the end. The man should (and most likely will) recieve a fair public hearing and and up or down vote at the end of it.

Bush's pick

2005-07-20T12:09:00.000-05:00

Last night President Bush announced that he was going to nominate judge John G. Roberts to the surpreme Court of the United States. Naturally my first thought on that was"who the hell is he?" Well here's the basics of what I've found out. He's only been a judge for the past 2 years, and before that he was a government and private practice lawyer. I'm inclined to agree with Americablog that this record sounds like that of little more than a party hack(and sure as hell not from out party). From what it sounds like, he would be another far right voice on the court. I certainly hope that he is not confirmed for the bench. I don't believe that he is worthy of being on the highest court in our country. Here's is employment background.

Employment/background:
2003-present: Judge, US Court of Appeals, DC Circuit;
1993-2003: Partner, Hogan & Hartson LLP;
1989-93: Principal Deputy Solicitor General, US DoJ;
1986-89: Associate, Hogan & Hartson LLP;
1982-86: Associate Counsel to the President, White House Counsel's Office;
1981-82: Special Asst to the AG in the US DoJ;
1980 -81 Supreme Court of the United States, Law Clerk to Hon. Wm. H. Rehnquist

Hip Hop

2005-07-17T13:26:00.000-05:00

One of the best things about college in my opinion is the ammount of new music that I have found out about. One specific thing that I really've started to appreciate recently has been the indie hip hop scene out of the Twin Cities. Atmosphere and Brother Ali were two that really stood out to me. About a week ago, the Star Trib had a really interesting article about Ant the producer that each one of them uses on their albums. It's really an interesting read, Check it out.

Friday Song Blogging

2005-07-15T15:11:00.000-05:00

Redemption Song - Bob Marley

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the 'and of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fullfil the book.

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fullfil the book.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
'Cause all I ever had:
Redemption songs -
All I ever had:
Redemption songs:
These songs of freedom,
Songs of freedom.

How we should spin Rove

2005-07-13T19:11:00.000-05:00

In the past 2 days the republican party has gone on the offensive to try and both discredit the invesigation of Karl Rove and destroy the reputation of Joseph Wilson.
Blah3 has a good idea of how to word things on this one.

Now that the entire Republican party has settled upon their spin to try and simultaneously smear Joe Wilson and defend Rove, there is one short sentence that is guaranteed to stop the spin, dead in its tracks.

This is a criminal investigation, undertaken by the Bush Justice Department, independent of Congressional Democrats, MoveOn, and Howard Dean.

There you have it. Use as needed, glad to help.

An Interesting Double Standard

2005-07-13T17:12:00.000-05:00

On the Star Tribune's website today was a story about the concerns of smuggling that could come with the tobacco "health-impact fee" (tax). It outlines how in recent years the smuggling of cigarettes has become an increasingly lucrative business as several other states have used tobacco taxes to gain revenue. Should Minnesota raise the "fee" 75 cents it would create the largest tobacco tax anywhere in the Midwest and a "land of opportunity for smugglers."

I can see how this would be a legitimate concern. Especially because as the article points out terrorist organizations are beginning to use tobacco smuggling as a source of income. The people that benefit from black markets are almost always criminals. However, though I'm no expert, I have a hard time seeing how tobacco smuggling would become a huge problem simply because of a tax increase. With illegal drugs, the black market prices end up high enough to earn so much profit because it is the only source for the product. However, with cigarettes the black market price would never be able to go higher than the regular commercial price. Most likely it will have to be significantly lower simply because of the danger to consumers of being caught and getting in trouble. I still see this tax as doing more good than harm, especially if it is the only possible solution to our horrible budget impasse.

All in all though, the issues itself raises another interesting question: Why is it that we worry about the effects on the black market of a cigarette tax but don't apply the same logic to the effects of have other drugs be illegal? It is becoming more and more accepted in the scientific community that cigarettes are more fatal than marijuana. And while they might not get as much press as Islamic terrorism, we can all agree that the drug cartels are also very horrible criminal organizations. In fact, the drug market is responsible for an alarming chunk of our violent crimes. Why then does this get ignored but the cigarette black market gets its own article in the trib.?

I see two answers to that question. First, "just say no" is a quick, simple sound bite that is easy to campaign with, much more so that some long spiel about the economics of a black market. Second, the drug legalization lobby is written off as a radical left-wing group of pot smoking hippies, and the tobacco lobby spends millions of dollars every year.

Long Term strategy

2005-07-13T12:25:00.000-05:00

Wesley Clark is a very smart man and has some good ideas for how we can succeed in defeating Al-Qaeda. He seems to be doing a much better job of thinking long term about what needs to be done in order for us to Win.

But al-Qaeda has evolved since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.

Relentless pressure by the CIA, Special Forces and many other national intelligence and police efforts has made the old, centralized structure of al-Qaeda unworkable.

And we need to keep up the pressure. But al-Qaeda's new threat is decentralized. Thursday's attacks in London have all the earmarks of such a "franchise" operation, locally planned and resourced with relatively modest means, emulating al-Qaeda without the vulnerabilities of centralized resourcing and direction.

I'm really glad to see that there is a national figure who realizes that we need to do more than kill bad people in order to be safe. We need to be smart and think globally in order to win this fight, but I think it is one that we must win.

But fighting terrorism at home isn't just a matter of "killing terrorists." Terrorists aren't born that way. They are created by their interaction with their surroundings. To win this war, we must defeat the ideology of terrorism, depriving angry young people of their ability to justify their hateful actions in the name of Allah.

This will require not only strong Islamic condemnation of terrorists and their acts, but also a winning dialogue within Islam to defeat Koranic interpretations seeking to justify the use of force against innocent people. We need to encourage "moderates" in Islam to debate, to proselytize and to win over potential terrorists. They are the only ones who can do it.

The die has been cast

2005-07-12T17:02:00.000-05:00

Instead of waiting around for Bush to name his pick to replace O'connor on the Bench, the democrats have put out a list of recomendations to replace her. I think this is a pragmatic approach to doing business that will allow for more public debate on the justice instead of the tight lipped secrecy that usually goes along with Bush justice nominees. I think this sort of work could help create more of an air of openness and co operation in our government. Instead of having a big divisive political fight over this.

Top Senate Democrats floated the names of potential candidates for the Supreme Court on Tuesday in a meeting with President Bush, describing them as the type of nominee who could avoid a fierce confirmation battle.

Several officials familiar with the discussion said Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Ed Prado of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, both of whom are Hispanic, were among the names mentioned as Bush met with key lawmakers from both parties to discuss the first high court vacancy in 11 years.

Probably too early...

2005-07-11T15:16:00.000-05:00

But I'll say it anyways.

Ever since November third I've been fascinated with Montana's new governor. On that day I realized that the Democratic party simply does not work well. Governor Schweitzer was one of our few pleasant surprises. He won decisively in a very Red state. Since winning, he has pretty much had his entire legislative agenda passed. There has already been a lot of talk online about him as a possible presidential candidate. I'm very interested in this possibility. I think Brian Schweiter would be a welcome relief from the recent democratic candidates that we have seen. I am adding a blog advocating his candidacy to the links here.

Rove

2005-07-11T14:27:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of questions being raised about Karl Rove's involvement in outing Valarie Plume. Now there are allegations that Rove may have committed perjury in denying that he outed Plume's idenity. Kos and Americablog have been covering the situation pretty well. Because of that I havn't been saying much about it. If or when rove is indicted on this I will definatly have a lot more to say about it.

I called it!

2005-07-10T17:09:00.000-05:00

The state shutdown is over. I predicted that it would be done by July 10th, and an agreement was made on july 9th at 2 AM. I'm glad to see that it's all over with now. People probably havn't been harmed too much by it, but at the same time it's never good for something like this to happen. Hopefully in future years our elected officials will remember this and do a better job of getting things done.

New Ads Explained

2005-07-08T19:34:00.000-05:00

You have probably noticed recently that there are more ads on the site than before. This site is now carrying ads for Barns and Noble. They work by giving us a commission of any sales made when someone Links to their site and makes a purchase (so everyone keep that in mind once textbook season rolls around). I like these adds because it allows for us to have a book of the month promotion on here. This month I chose to have my 2 personal favorites as the recommendations. On the Road by Jack Kerouac has always been an inspiration to me both as a writer and as a traveler. The Grapes of Wrath is simply one of the most incredible (and sadly relevant) books that I have ever read. In August, Dave will put up his picks for the month.

Fast and Loose Facts

2005-07-08T19:31:00.000-05:00

I have heard on several occasions recently some statements by conservatives that have desperately needed rebuttal. I know, I know- Just one? Well, more than that, but in this case I am talking about the people who try to argue that there was precedence for preemptive action in Iraq. I was going to put up a post sometime explaining why all of their arguments were based on factual figments of their imaginations, but fortunately for me, a retired judge in my town, Duane Peterson, did it for me in a guest op-ed piece he wrote for the newspaper.

"On the June 14 editorial page there appeared a column by Michael Reagan, columnist and son of Ronald Reagan. In the column he makes several comments about John Edwards, the recent Democratic candidate for vice president. He goes claims that Edwards should be aware of a few historical facts, and then proceeds to enumerate and describe such facts.

Reagan claims that Sen. Edwards had the identical information before him that the president had when the Senate voted "for the war in Iraq." That would appear to me to be factually incorrect, since the administration had been bending the facts that came to it from the CIA. The Senate had the administration's version of the information which, at best, was colored to favor military action.

He then compares the fact that there were 39 combat-related killings in Iraq in January and 35 killings in Detroit in the same month. The problem with that comparison is that there were no combat-related killings in Detroit that month, and we don't know how many civilian killings there were in Iraq in that same month. He is not comparing apples to apples.

He then states that a large segment of the Democratic Party tries to tell us that since Iraq never attacked the U.S. we had no reason to attack Iraq. He then goes on to cite instances where the U.S. went to war without being attacked. His first example is World War II, about which he states that FDR led us into war against Germany but that Germany had never attacked us.

The problem with that analysis is that after the U.S. declared war against Japan following Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the U.S. The U.S. was pulled into that war by Germany, even though it had not directly attacked the U.S. before that. (That fact, of course, implies that German U-boat attacks on American shipping were not acts of war.)

He later says that Harry Truman took us into war against North Korea even though that country had not attacked the U.S. That analysis ignores that American troops were occupying South Korea as part of the defeat of Japan (Korea had been a Japanese colony) and that North Korea invaded South Korea and attacked both American and South Korean military personnel.

He then states that John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam war in 1962 without the U.S. ever being attacked. That statement ignores the fact that the conflict in Vietnam began as an indigenous revolution against the French colonialist's who had occupied Vietnam since before World War I. It was President Eisenhower who first sent American troops (advisers) to Vietnam in the late 1950s. President Kennedy escalated the American presence there after he was elected president. Lyndon Johnson did the biggest escalation after the death of Kennedy.

In conclusion he lauds the accomplishments of President Bush as having liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, and put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot. The problem with those claims is that the Taliban is alive and well in Afghanistan (though not in power as before),

al-Qaida may or may not be crippled (we just don't know), and there are no nuclear inspectors in Iran or North Korea. I don't know about Libya.

Mr. Reagan is entitled to express his own opinions in his columns, but he is not entitled to his own facts or history."

Finally somebody has set the record straight! But here's what I don't get... Why are conservatives even bothering with alternative histories? Did we attack Iraq because we'd done similar things before and it had all worked out? Do they need to defend their actions completely on historical precedence? If so, then those are some pretty lame reasons for a conflict that has killed 1,741 Americans (CNN, 7/3/05)). If not, then why bother with the counter-argument? When liberals talk about this being the first time America has ever been the original aggressor why not point out that times have changed and we're not fighting WWII anymore. Or just follow the President's lead and blather on unintelligibly about freedom being on the march.

The only reason for conservatives to try to make up their own version of history is simply that they can't stand to let liberals say anything with out attempting to contradict them. I know this happens on both sides; I don't know whether it is the cause or an effect of our political polarization. But I do know it has to stop. We all need to grow up.

On a side note: Conservatives, you can't call liberals the "blame America first" crowd for complaining about it being too militarily aggressive when you yourselves try to argue it's even more aggressive than we say it is. I dont care which you'd rather whine about, but you can't have it both ways.

Friday Song Blogging

2005-07-08T19:20:00.000-05:00

Shadows on the Sun - Brother Ali

(We'd like to capture your minds right now)

(What you say)

(Take you a little bit higher)

(What you say) (3X)

[ VERSE 1 ]
I like the snares loud enough to make your eyes blink from it
Only male with the Holy Grail, drink from it
I keep an eye on heaven and a ear to the street
And spread a thick layer of blood, sweat and tears on the beats
My brain rest upon the hip-hop lexicon
That I acquired in the decade of work that people slept upon
I don't rap, I recite the prayers of the inner soul
Of the slave ships' human cargo
Seemingly meaningless rappers flood the market
With shit that make me pace in my room until I rip the carpet
I'm fit to start up this next millennium
Swingin the grappling hook at cackling crooks to finish em
The city dweller sendin telegrams from Neverland
The better man ( ? ) kindly join the caravan
We're like a rock band that pack contraband
And won't hesitate to stomp a man into the rocks and sand
Brother Ali, and if you haven't heard about me
I'm flyin just beneath your radar so y'all can doubt me
Stay on the sonar with crowbars to open minds
There's a ladder you're supposed to climb
Approach a Rhymesayer with a Buggsy Siegel sized ego
You gon' get yourself snatched out the sky, you know the steelo
By now, where, what, why and how
We start the revolution real time, right now

[ CHORUS ]
Yes, leave it to me to create hope where there was none
The human being shall cast shadows on the sun
Leave it to me to create hope where there was none
My inner soul shall cast shadows on the sun
Just leave it to me to create hope where there was none
The human being shall cast shadows on the sun
Leave it to me to create hope where there was none
My inner soul shall, my inner light shall..

[ VERSE 2 ]
I rhyme for cats up in the harbor lights
Prayin they don't starve tonight
And stay positive in the face of a harder life
My chorus light the torch for those on whom the sun set
Verses meant to speak for the voiceless
So let us never be dismayed or afraid
The ground we're walkin on is stained
With the blood of those before us who came
Soldiers in this freedom movement are too numerous to name
Cause the human soul yearns to be free, it's all the same
I rhyme for runaways prayin that they see another day
You gotta make it through the winter to feel some summer days
It's for my natives, it's history in the way their hair is braided
Elephants never forget, that's how they say it
Tell my man [Name] in prison keep grinnin because he's innocent
And tell him that the tests we get are heaven-sent
Listen, I rap for the ones that Johnny Cash wore, the black, for
Black and white women that were turned to crackhores
And I empty everything in the bank to give for it
I empty all the days of my life to live for it
And I empty all the blood in my veins to fight for it
So I empty all the ink in this pen to write for it

[ CHORUS ]

[ VERSE 3 ]
I glance in the sky and see the same cloud configuration
That Nat Turner saw the day they hanged him
Resisted in the face of adversity with a fist and it was raised
One finger extended, meaning Allah be praised
Spent days in Heaven's embassy
On Qu'ran pages Allah explains this legacy
Angels doubted Adam, Jacob's brothers clapped him
And ancient Pharaohs were too brutal to fathom
If all the earth's oceans were ink and the trees were pens
You could never write the knowledge of God, it never ends
And I know it feels like the whip wounds will never mend
But it's the way of makin the oppressed prevalent men
We standin with humanity at destiny's door
Chanting the war cry, it goes, "Never no more"
So if y'all tryina talk about the horrors you see
Feel free to tell your stories through me

[ CHORUS ]

There's only one God and he's not just above
There's only one man and there's only one love
Till everybody gets what I instill in my seed
For that y'all, we willin to bleed
There's only one God and he's not just above
There's only one woman and there's only one love
We doin this till all of Adam's children are freed
And for that y'all, we willin to bleed

Thoughts on London

2005-07-08T17:06:00.000-05:00

The members of javelin blog wish to express our profound sadness at yesterday’s events in London. The killing of innocent civilians is never an acceptable or moral way to either make a point or accomplish a goal. Violent measures like this will just breed more violence and pain. Vicious incidents like this help to remind us all that winning the “War on Terror” and keeping our nation and world safe from these sort of dreadful attacks should be a priority. We need to do a better job in the mid east in every way. We need an effective military strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan that involves rebuilding these nations without being perceived as an occupying power. Diplomatically, culturally, and economically we should be building relationships built on a mutual interest and peace and a brighter future for everyone. A very good case can be made that this attack happened because of England’s relationship with the United States, and the actions of these two nations in Iraq. There probably is some degree of truth to this, but liberals should not use this as either an excuse to cut and run when the job is tough nor should this be used as a way of excusing the guilty from responsibility. Fairly often it is easy to get caught up in the politics of these things and wanting to blame disliked leaders for why something happens, but we all do need to remember that people who blow up women and children on busses and trains are bad people.

Good News and Really Good News

2005-07-05T19:23:00.000-05:00

First off my new laptop finally arrived today. Those that remember me from my previous blog all remember the story, but for all the newbies here's what happened. A couple days before UMM's finals week began, I somehow managed to destroy my laptop's screen by putting a large crack down the entire length of it. This caused two major problems first, I had all essay finals, and secondly it led to a drastic reduction in what I was posting on my blog. I eventually have been able to work up to being close to the level of where I was back when I had a functional laptop by using my family's computer, but now I should be posting with even more regularity.

And now the Really good news. Ender, who is the volunteer tech. Support assistant for this site since Dave and I are fairly incompetent is now engaged. Congradts dude!

Independence day bonus

2005-07-04T12:58:00.000-05:00

Have a good fourth everyone

American Tune - Paul Simon

Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I’m alright, I’m alright
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far a-way from home, so far away from home

I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to it’s knees
Oh, but it’s alright, it’s alright
For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
Road we’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The statue of liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

We come on the ship they call the mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the a-ge’s most uncertain hours
And sing an american tune
Oh, and it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all I’m trying to get some rest

Great ideas from unlikely places

2005-07-02T13:40:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Bush's energy policy towards increasing production without giving consideration to conservation and alternative fules, the state of Wyoming has found itself possessing a much larger than expected ammount of state income (at the expense of ranchers and rural residents). Instead of using the money for tax cuts, the governor is launching a campain to use this unexpected revenue for helping out the poor of his state. I think it is great that more and more, especially on a state level, people are turning their attention to the poor. The problem is poverty is one that we are choosing to ignore. We have the ability at this time far better than any other in our plannet's history to ensure that no one goes to bed hungry or dies from completly preventable ailments. I'm going to keep watching this issue. A conservative state like Wyoming is not a place where I expected this to happen. If the governor can win on this issue, it could serve as a model to the rest of the country for how to Win.

Wyoming should take advantage of the mineral boom to enhance the lives of the state's working poor, Gov. Dave Freudenthal and first lady Nancy Freudenthal said Thursday evening during a televised town hall-style meeting.

"This state has an immense amount of working poor," the governor said, adding that the unemployment rate is low because many people are working multiple jobs - often for employers who cannot afford health insurance for those workers.

"We need to talk about the working poor, the people whose opportunity to move up is going to be dependent on changing their skills and on changing the mix of jobs that are available in the state for them."

The chief executive and his wife were part of a forum at the Riverton library shown on Wyoming Public Television.

Freudenthal said his administration is encouraging the Wyoming Business Council to attract not just any jobs but ones that pay above the average wage in each county.

Rove Is A Traitor!

2005-07-02T11:10:00.000-05:00

One result of the last SCOTUS session was that two reporters had to either give the identity of who ever outed the Idenity of undercover CIA agent Valarie Plume or face jail time. One of the reporters has decided to talk, and the name they gave was Karl Rove. In trying to take revenge agaisnt someone who tried to discredit the Iraq war perposal, Rove broke federal law and gave away the idenity of a CIA official. This man should be in jail right now.

What we're going to go to now in the next stage, when Matt Cooper's e-mails, within Time Magazine, are handed over to the grand jury, the ultimate revelation, probably within the week of who his source is.

"And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of...for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time magazine's going to do with the grand jury."

Other panelists then joined in discussing whether, if true, this would suggest a perjury rap for Rove, if he told the grand jury he did not leak to Cooper.

Friday Song Blogging

2005-07-01T13:22:00.000-05:00

Drunk Again - Reel Big Fish

If I had a dollar bill for every time I’ve been wrong
I’d be a self-made millionaire and you’d still be gone
So hand me down my best dress shoes and my best dress shirt
Cause I’m going out in style to cover the hurt
And all I wanna do all day is spend it in bed
But that’s bad for the body and even worse for my head
So I’ll try and find a place where no one will ask me a thing
It’ll help to forget and help me to sing

Cause now I’m drunk again
The means to my end
And I’m scared of myself
Cause now it’s the same the faces and names
And I’m scared of myself again

Have you ever wanted to wake up from your dreaming
Scared you so bad you couldn’t control your heart or your breathing
Well walk out the door with me on the floor
You don’t care how I’m feeling
I guess a weak and tired and frightened man is no longer appealing

Some people have a gift of reaching right into your soul
and finding the whole and making it
bigger
Baby sometimes I think I catch ya crackin’ cynical smiles
and in a short while you’ll be my
heart’s grave digger
Well there’s not much I can do
Cause I’m at the mercy of you
So baby I guess we’re through

Cause now I’m drunk again
The means to my end
And I’m scared of myself
Cause now it’s the same the faces and names
And I’m scared of myself again
Cause now it’s all the same the faces and the names
So go walk out the door you don’t believe me no more
And I’m scared of myself again

If I had a dollar bill for every time I been wrong
I’d be a self made millionaire and I wouldn’t be singing

Shut Down

2005-07-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

The MN government is shut down now. Here is the State gov page for the shut down; it contains all of the info about what is still running and what isn't. I stand my my initial prediction that this won't last more than a week. This won't make anyone look good especially the governor who has appeared the least willing to negotiate and compromise.

O'connor's out

2005-07-01T12:20:00.000-05:00

The key swing vote on the Surprime Court, Justice O'connor is retiring. I think this decision is taking a lot of people by surprise. She's been the swing vote on Roe V. Wade so most likely Bush will try and put a stealth Pro Life justice on the bench. Knowing that, the senate democrats will put up on a big fight on this one. This should be a fun one to watch.

Kos has suggestions on what you can do once Bush has a nominee

Whatever happens with the Supreme Court nomination battle that is about to ensue, it's going to happen fast. Here are some things you can do right now:

* If you have a cell phone, sign up for People at the American Way's Mass Immediate Response site. This way, you'll be able to receive text message action items instantly as events break. (If you signed up during the nuclear option fight, you'll need to re-sign up.)

* Also sign up with the Save the Court, another PFAW website devoted specifically to this issue.

* Recruit friends and family members to the cause.

* Write to the President, telling him he should choose a consensus candidate to replace O'Connor.

* Contact your Senators to tell them the same thing.

Note to the Pentagon

2005-06-29T16:05:00.000-05:00

Despite what you think we're not that stupid

PENTAGON After months of declining enlistment, the Army has more than met its recruitment goals for the month of June.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers announced the turnaround during a "town hall" meeting this afternoon at the Pentagon.

Myers did not provide numbers, nor did he indicate how far above the recruitment target the enlistment number is.

Bad Bad Bad

2005-06-29T15:02:00.000-05:00

It appears that the Minnesota state government will be shutting down after tomorrow. This is bad, it will hurt a lot of citizens in our state. The DFL abandoned it's idea for raising the highest bracket income taxes as it became clear that it would not work. This demonstrated to the citizens of minnesota that the DFL is willing to give up there goals to work for the civility of the state and not causing harm to it's citizens. The party also had the good sense to draw a line in the sand, and not compromise their core values in order to have a quick fix to the budget. The republicans are currently holding the budget hostage with forcing the Democrats to agree to a piece of radical cultural reform legisation. I doubt the shutdown will last very long because it's going to make the government look bad. Especially governor Pawlenty who is up for re-election next year. Jon has a great citizen's perspective on the issue.

After a day and a half of intense negotiations, talks among top Republican and DFL leaders broke down late this morning, with House Speaker Steve Sviggum announcing that Minnesotans should brace themselves for a partial government shutdown starting Friday.

"Citizens, like legislators, have to prepare themselves mentally," Sviggum said, after a nearly two-hour meeting with DFLers ended. "It's not the right thing to do, it's not a good thing to do, but you don't want to be just shocked by what is going to happen tomorrow night, either."

Talks ended when Gov. Tim Pawlenty insisted anew that DFlers choose from a list of "reforms" before he would agree to a budget deal.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said he and House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, were told they could select from a list that included initiative and referendum, a taxpayer's bill of rights, a ban on school-year teacher strikes, a voucher-type plan that would allow at least some children to attend private schools with taxpayer money, unicameral legislature and the racino, among others.

Johnson said he and Entenza left the meeting to discuss privately "what meaningful reform is," and to possibly come up with their own versions of reform.

Sviggum told reporters that Pawlenty's insistence on systemic change was reasonable.

"Government has to be more than just how much more you can spend and how much you can tax," he said.

DFLers made their last major concession on Tuesday, when they finally dropped their bid to increase income taxes on the state's wealthiest 40,000 residents.

In return, they had asked that Republicans withdraw their proposal for a racino _ slots at Canterbury Park racetrack _ that is anathema to DFL leaders, who prefer to reserve gaming for Indian tribes.

On Wednesday, Johnson said Republicans were still pushing racino, "but they're talking about it less."

Opinion piece

2005-06-29T00:38:00.000-05:00

I've already hit on the issue of elections, and why I feel that we need to do a better job of ensuring that everyone has a fair and equal chance to vote. Secretary of State candidate Christian Sande has a fantastic op ed piece in the Pioneer press where he discusses the issue.

Voters are quickly losing faith in our election system because of political interference with the election process.

The sources of this problem are a combination of newly minted tactics by certain groups intent on frustrating their opponents' right to vote. In addition to injuring our trust in the system, these tactics have caused a surge in postelection lawsuits and, as several judges have warned, "seasons of discontent" following our elections. But the high voter turnout in Minnesota gives us the power to stop these problems now before people's loss of faith in the system results in cynical nonparticipation.

Research conducted by Professor Richard Hasen of Loyola Law School indicates that those on the losing end of an election often have much less faith in the election system than the winners, which recently has meant that Democrats nationwide tend to trust our system less. But when the shoe was on the other foot in Washington state and Republicans lost last fall's gubernatorial election by just 133 votes, the findings were just the opposite: according to a January 2005 Elway poll, 68 percent of Washington Republicans thought the state election process was unfair, compared with 27 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of independents.

Postelection challenges filed in state courts around the nation have risen from 61 in 1996 to more than 250 in 2002.

The lesson here is that the election process must be designed and run with the voter in mind and that elections must be above the political fray. Today's beneficiary is easily tomorrow's victim when the tables are turned.

Irony

2005-06-28T15:56:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure what I think about the new eminant domain ruling. I think it's best if supreme court decisions should be as apolitical as possible. Either way this is just funny.

Weare, New Hampshire (PRWEB) Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter's land.

Justice Souter's vote in the "Kelo vs. City of New London" decision allows city governments to take land from one private owner and give it to another if the government will generate greater tax revenue or other economic benefits when the land is developed by the new owner.

On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home.

Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land.

The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."

Clements indicated that the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans.

"This is not a prank" said Clements, "The Towne of Weare has five people on the Board of Selectmen. If three of them vote to use the power of eminent domain to take this land from Mr. Souter we can begin our hotel development."

Clements' plan is to raise investment capital from wealthy pro-liberty investors and draw up architectural plans. These plans would then be used to raise investment capital for the project. Clements hopes that regular customers of the hotel might include supporters of the Institute For Justice and participants in the Free State Project among others.

Survey

2005-06-28T15:45:00.000-05:00

MIT is doing a survey of web blogging check it out.

maybe the religious right should put it up in bars

2005-06-28T13:39:00.000-05:00

A recent servey has shown us that only 10% percent of americans can name more than 4 of the 10 commandments.

WASHINGTON, DC—On the heels of a Supreme Court ruling that bars public buildings from erecting massive tributes to the stone tablets handed down to Moses by God, a new poll has found that few Americans are familiar with more than four of the Ten Commandments.

That finding comes at a time when support for the Ten Commandments is at an all time high, with an estimated 32% of Americans regularly calling into talk radio shows, writing letters to the editor or hectoring family and friends about the importance of the Ten Commandments—despite not knowing what most of them are.

Follow up

2005-06-28T13:38:00.000-05:00

Here's more info about Cheney's hospitalization.

Cool

2005-06-28T00:35:00.000-05:00

Coleen Rowley, the FBI wistle blower and time person of the year is now running for congress against John Kline. Rowley has demonstrated that she has the moral courage to be a reformer in the US House. She would be a thousand times better than another of Tom Delay's yes men.

Former Minneapolis FBI agent Coleen Rowley, whose public criticism of the bureau set off an uproar over the FBI's pre-Sept. 11 counterterrorism lapses, said Monday that she will run as a Democrat for the U.S. House.

Rowley plans to challenge second-term Republican Rep. John Kline in Minnesota's Second District, which stretches across the Twin Cities' western and southern suburbs and as far south as Le Sueur and Red Wing.

She said she will formally launch her campaign July 6 with a pancake breakfast for friends and supporters on the driveway of her Apple Valley home.

Her entry into the race, as one of Time magazine's former "Persons of the Year," pits Kline against an opponent with national name recognition and possibly, fundraising appeal.

If she wins the Democratic nomination, the race likely will feature lively exchanges about national security and the war in Iraq, which Kline has staunchly supported and Rowley vocally opposes.

Um..Why are we doing this

2005-06-27T14:42:00.000-05:00

There are plenty of proactive steps that the United States can take in order to prevent nuclear weapons.... this is not one of them.

The United States plans to produce highly radioactive plutonium 238 for the first time since the Cold War, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The newspaper quoted project managers as saying most, if not all, of the new plutonium was intended for secret missions. The officials would not disclose details, but the newspaper said the plutonium in the past powered espionage devices.

The Times said Timothy Frazier, head of radioisotope power systems at the U.S. Energy Department, vigorously denied in a recent interview any of the classified missions would involve nuclear arms, satellites or weapons in space.

"The real reason we're starting production is for national security," Frazier was quoted as saying.

Officials at the Energy Department could not be reached for comment.

Cheney Hospitalized

2005-06-25T12:52:00.000-05:00

The White House is covering up Dick Cheney's recent hospital trip.

Friday Song Blogging

2005-06-24T18:01:00.000-05:00

Boots of Spanish Leather - Bob Dylan

Oh, I'm sailin' away my own true love,
I'm sailin' away in the morning.
Is there something I can send you from across the sea,
From the place that I'll be landing?

No, there's nothin' you can send me, my own true love,
There's nothin' I wish to be ownin'.
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled,
From across that lonesome ocean.

Oh, but I just thought you might want something fine
Made of silver or of golden,
Either from the mountains of Madrid
Or from the coast of Barcelona.

Oh, but if I had the stars from the darkest night
And the diamonds from the deepest ocean,
I'd forsake them all for your sweet kiss,
For that's all I'm wishin' to be ownin'.

That I might be gone a long time
And it's only that I'm askin',
Is there something I can send you to remember me by,
To make your time more easy passin'.

Oh, how can, how can you ask me again,
It only brings me sorrow.
The same thing I want from you today,
I would want again tomorrow.

I got a letter on a lonesome day,
It was from her ship a-sailin',
Saying I don't know when I'll be comin' back again,
It depends on how I'm a-feelin'.

Well, if you, my love, must think that-a-way,
I'm sure your mind is roamin'.
I'm sure your heart is not with me,
But with the country to where you're goin'.

So take heed, take heed of the western wind,
Take heed of the stormy weather.
And yes, there's something you can send back to me,
Spanish boots of Spanish leather.

Elections

2005-06-23T16:12:00.000-05:00

Right now I think that one of the most important domestic issues that our nation faces is ensuring that we have fair and open elections for all citizens. In the past two presidential elections there have been serious issues with the legitimacy of our voting. In 2000 there was the whole controversy with African American voters being disenfranchised if they had names similar to convicted felons or shared their birthday. In the past election there were allegations out of Ohio that voters had been turned away at the poles or otherwise kept from casting votes. The number of voters that were disenfranchised were not enough to influence the election, but this is still a disturbing trend.

It has become a strategy in some parts of the republican party to keep people from voting when it is believed they won't be voting your way. The main targets of this are young voters and minorities the people least likely to vote for conservative candidates. In Minnesota the secretary of state tried to drive down voter turn outs by making it difficult for students to vote. She required students to vote where their identification says they live. Nearly all college students have their home address and not their school address on their drivers license. We were able to work around this problem in Morris because we enlisted a large number of volunteers to vouch for people at the polls. There is currently a bill in the MN state legislature to cap the number of people that someone can vouch for.

I think that politicized our elections is an incredibly dangerous idea. We will be in a far better place if our leaders can be picked by the merits of their ideas, and not just the power of their political parties to get their voters to the polls. I think that all people should be given the right to vote not because higher turn outs are traditionally beneficial to liberal candidates, but instead because everyone is effected by the government they should have a say in who runs things.

Rove should appologize

2005-06-23T14:12:00.000-05:00

The political climate's bad enough right now. Things like this are the last thing we need.

Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers"

Things like this are just absurd. The only thing this does is to create more tensions between parties, and it makes it that much harder for any thing to get done with bipartisan support.

2005-06-22T15:15:00.000-05:00

As you've noticed there are now ads on this site. The adds are the only source of revenue that David and I have from this site so we would like to encourage everyone to check them out. One thing I've noticed is that these ads at least for now are very republican. I've noticed this before with my previous blog that the same thing happened. I'd say check out the links anyways if nothing more they're a good laugh.

Tom Delay

2005-06-21T19:20:00.000-05:00

Delay had been out of the news for the past couple weeks. There were a rush of stories about his dealings and his campain's financial actions, and the bad press about him was intense for about two weeks. After that, the story seemed to die away without a conclusion, and the media was onto it's next big thing. This seemed to be how many of the things that logically could have brought down powerful republicans in the past few years. The story gets intense coverage for a short ammount of time, and is then just left to die, and everyone forgets about it. There is now another break in the Tom Delay case however. It has now been brought to light that Delay has not reported donations from casino rich Native American tribes.

ELTON, La. - A casino-rich tribe wrote checks for at least $55,000 to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political groups, but the donations were never publicly disclosed and the tribe was directed to divert the money to other groups that helped Republicans, tribal documents show.

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, now under criminal investigation, told the Coushatta Indian tribe, a client, to cancel its checks to the DeLay groups in 2001 and 2002 and route the money to more obscure groups that helped Republicans on Medicare prescription drug legislation and Christian voter outreach.

DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority and Americans for a Republican Majority never reported receiving any checks from the Louisiana tribe to federal or state regulators, their reports show. The donations, however, are recorded in memos and ledgers kept by the tribe.

"Enclosed please find a check for $10,000 to the Texans for a Republican Majority. This check needs to be reissued to America 21," Abramoff wrote the Coushattas in a May 2002 letter obtained by The Associated Press.

America 21 is a Nashville, Tenn.-based Christian group focused on voter turnout that helped Republican candidates in the pivotal 2002 elections that kept DeLay's party in control of the House.

Troop Withdrawal Resolution

2005-06-21T15:59:00.000-05:00

The House has recently proposed a resolution demanding that the president create a plan to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by October 2006. While I must say that it is nice to see yet again congressional dems making public progress with some of their bigger issues, and even better to see another republican take off his leash and go against leadership, I am worried about the problems that have historically come from playing politics with a war. America has suffered from the effects of an indecisive foreign policy for a while now. Part of the motivation for some of the 9/11 hijackers may have sprung from similar mistakes.

I opposed the war through its build-up. I was skeptical of the presence of WMDs, and I was alarmed by the President's pure arrogance in making the decision to invade. But that no longer matters. What does matter is that for better or worse we are there, and we now have a large responsibility.

Whether or not this war was a good idea will not be known to us for probably another 20 years or so, and I genuinely hope I'm proved wrong. Nothing would be greater than for Iraq to become a bastion of democracy in an unstable world. But we know that the kind of work that must be done cannot be done on any sort of strict timeline. Does that mean that we are going to lose more soldiers? Yes. But that is one of the consequences that needed to be considered before the invasion. Unfortunately I have a bad feeling that they weren't.

"It's hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and secure the surrender of Saddam's security force and his army.''
- February 27, 2003, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz

Introduction

2005-06-20T14:40:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is David Schmidt and I am the co-operator mentioned by Chris earlier. I am an incoming freshman at Carleton College in Northfield, MN and I plan to study history and political science. I am sure that this blog will have several purposes for me, but the largest two will be to get a chance to speak out when I feel it necessary and rant when I just cant take it anymore. Besides an interest in politics, I love books and am fanatical about Ultimate Frisbee. As for my politics, you'll eventually see for yourself, but I would describe myself as an idealistic liberal with a sense of pragmatism that tends to pull me towards the center.

You'll be hearing more from me soon,
David

Wow!

2005-06-15T01:29:00.000-05:00

Americablog is alleging that Bill Frist tried to block the vote on the lynching resolution, and he prevented the vote from being on the record. This is a serious issue. Was he trying to prevent embarassment to other members of his party? Do influential members of the republican party really feel that lynching of innocent people because of their color is something that there is nothing wrong with. How much more out of touch with the values of regular Americans can these people be?

A quote to Ponder

2005-06-14T14:58:00.000-05:00

This quote is a passage from the play The Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo. I think it pertains well to our times, and if anyone out there has a chance to see this play i would encourage them to do so.

People say they want real justice... so we fob them off with a slightly less unjust system of justice. Workers howl that they're being flayed like donkeys... so we arrange for the flaying to be a little less severe and slash their howling entitlement, but the exploitation goes on. The workforce would rather not have fatal accidents in the factory... so we make it a teeny bit safer and increase compensation payments to widows. They'd like to see class divisions eliminated... so we do our best to bring the classes marginally closer or, preferably, just make it seem that way.

They want a revolution... and we give them reforms. We're drowning them in reforms. Or promises of reforms, because lets face it, they're not actually going to get anything.

Lynching

2005-06-14T13:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the senate did something that very aplaudable. They past a resolution appologizing for the body's failure to enact a law to make lynching illeagle. The bill had 80 co-sponsors and it passed the senate on a voice vote last night. This does raise one interesting question however. Why didn't this bill have 100 senate co sponsors. I would think that we can all now agree that lynching is bad, and the senate should have acted back in 1948 when the issue first became prominant. Americablog has a list of the senators that did not support the bill. It is 1 democrat and 11 republicans (maybe Howard Dean was on to something with the whole white man's party comment). Voting against something like this is inexcusable for any person of either party; it is just plain wrong. Here is the list of senators that opposed it.

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Michael Crapo (R-ID)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
George Voinovich (R-OH)

Update:
Kent Conrad (D, ND) is on the list of co sponsors after all. This leaves only 27% of the senate republicans as the hold outs on this issue.

Introduction pt. 1

2005-06-13T13:27:00.000-05:00

I am Chris Yard, a sophomore political science major at the University of Minnesota Morris. I study Political Science and Sociology. I am a news junky and a citizen concerned about the current state of America. I plan on using this blog as a voice both my concerns about political issues and social justice in addition to more general writings about progressive culture and other thoughts on society. I am a member of the Episcipal church and I consider my faith to be an important part of my life as well as an influence for my opinions. My other interests are traveling, literature, music, art, and movies; most likely these will all appear here over time as well. I plan on carrying over my tradition of posting friday song lyrics here that I started with my old blog. Sometime in the near future the co operator of this blog will post his introduction.

Vision

2005-06-09T14:30:00.000-05:00

I am currently also the webmaster of BMW for Peace. This current site will be a co opperative with at least one other person. The purpose of this will most likely to discuss progessive ideas, lifestyles, and American Culture.

HI

2005-06-09T12:30:00.000-05:00

Welcome to javelin blog. There will be more about this site in the future, and be forewarned there will be little content about javelins on here.