Nathan

Whatever happened to the NSA furor? - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com: ""The power of the purse is perhaps the greatest power the Founding Fathers entrusted to the legislative branch" and it "should be used now" to end the program, Fein said, unless Bush explains why he could not stay within the confines of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which bans warrantless eavesdropping in the United States. "

ESPN.com - BLACKHISTORY - Jackson: The NBA prophet: "A generation in search of a profit when what we really need is a prophet."

-THE CUNNING REALIST-: Miller Time, Dude: "We arrived with the attitude. Everyone else left with the medals."

A very interesting point that I could see myself making if I was just a bit smarter and more cunning. Honestly though I was struck by our failed showing in Italy and wondered if it might not be a symptom of a deeper problem going on for it is hard to root and work loud and proud on behalf of our corrupt, degenerating nation.

Hint: this was written a while ago.


Violence runs through our culture. From morning until night it is there in some way. During one summer of my life it was there even more starkly when I was at some sort of summer camp at a preppy private school and all the kids could talk about was who could beat who up. I suppose it is there today in more subtle, imperceptible ways as well.
But not today. Today we read of 2000 soldiers dead in Gulf War II. Yes, it seems they needed a sequel. Why do crappy stories always need to have sequels? My heart goes out to them. Tonight I am going to light a candle in our front window and think about those souls and wonder.
I will wonder if a number of them were like me. I mean in addition to the 99% plus amount of DNA we all share they must have had some other similarities too, right? Like maybe not being all that fond of violence and fighting unless really necessary and then, going all out?
Were they blinded by rage after some of the heinous acts people have visited upon our shores recently? Were they confused and thinking in black and white instead of this worldly grey we live in? Did they see just THEM, THE OTHERS, and go for it?
I did that in my past too. Scared myself in retrospect, but probably scared the other guy more. We were at a school dance, jumping around in the middle of the quad when some folks we didn’t know came out of no where to dance with us and enjoy themselves too. Then there was a bump and a shove and George Incredible Hulk Baker in the middle of the mosh pit. He shouted and yelled and got himself kicked out for no good reason. Just another crazy night full of new hormones.
But damn if it ain’t different I have to guess there between the two rivers in the Mesopotamian desert. Just like in a cooling relationship the lust, the passion must have started to wear off two years in, two thousand souls down.
My heart goes out to them and the small light down on Harwood road tonight is but a little symbol of the fire that burns in me for them.

-THE CUNNING REALIST-: A Toto Moment: "We are asking 20-year olds from Tulsa and Des Moines and Gary and Fresno to navigate hundreds of years of religious and ethnic hate and to sacrifice their feet, legs, hands, arms, eyes, and lives in the process. We asked them to remove Saddam and his regime, and they did that. We asked them to guard infrastructure, and they did that. We asked them to rebuild an entire nation's military from scratch, and they are doing it. We asked them to find WMD's, and they tried. Now, we're rebuilding mosques."

A cunning real-world realist.

TomDispatch - Tomgram: A Permanent Basis for Withdrawal?

A story that is very intriguing that one would hope our press wanted to (could?) follow up on. Not unlike that story of Anthrax attacks not so very long ago. Or that story about all those people who lost their pensions at that one company, what was it?

The Blog Laurie David: Global Warming: We Still Have the Power to Choose The Huffington Post: "On Sunday, 60 Minutes had a stunning report from the rapidly melting glaciers of Greenland. Indeed, they're melting so rapidly that minutes after filming his spot, the glacier the reporter was standing on crashed apart into the open sea. It made for a jaw-dropping piece of video. Unfortunately, the conclusion of the segment was equally jaw-dropping in the way that it, by ending on a hopeless note, missed a chance to make a vital point."

Dick Cheney sensed his soul behind him, even though the soul had made no sound in the brush. Cheney said, "So this is what it's like, to shoot a man." His soul nodded. "This is what others went in my place to do in Vietnam." His soul nodded. "This is what I have sent others to do time and again. What they're doing right now." His soul nodded. "And this is what it looks like in close-up, even without ripped up guts and arms missing and other shit, right." His soul nodded, for Cheney's soul could not speak, he could only be present, to remind Dick Cheney that even he, indeed, once had a soul.

Guess: "Scott McClellan said, 'I think you can always look back at these issues and look at how to do a better job.' "

The question is: which situation was he talking about this time?

The Australian: Record snow buries New York [February 14, 2006]

More just 'random' climate patterns that happen to set records with their ferocity.

Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter - Yahoo! News: "Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday."

Mistakes personally, mistakes professionally. It seems both professionally and personally he takes aim at the wrong targets.

WP: Ex-CIA official faults use of data on Iraq - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com: "'Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war,' Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Instead, he asserted, the administration 'went to war without requesting -- and evidently without being influenced by -- any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq.'"

BBC NEWS Science/Nature Climate 'warmest for millennium': "In the late 20th Century, the northern hemisphere experienced its most widespread warmth for 1,200 years, according to the journal Science.

The findings support evidence pointing to unprecedented recent warming of the climate linked to greenhouse emissions.

University of East Anglia researchers measured changes in fossil shells, tree rings, ice cores and other past temperature records or 'proxies'.

They also looked at people's diaries from the last 750 years."

Please, no more jokes and no more delays: Let's do something about this. Let us lock down carbon emissions, yes, but even more: Let's start using some of our marketing prowess to get the message out that Jack and Friend sing about on the new cd: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Iraq's basic services are rated worse now than before war began - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune

Hmmm... seems we destroyed the country to destroy it. Bully chaps.

Hirsh: Real Intel Scandal Is Lack of Competence - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com: "'The bottom line here is entire system has been built up incrementally over 50 years as part of what Eisenhower warned about, the military-industrial complex,' says Steele. 'The system is on automatic pilot.' Ed Giorgio agrees. 'There are sacred cows, enormously expensive endeavors costing billions year, being done in space and elsewhere,' says Giorgio. 'You're not going to find a terrorist by looking for one in space.'"

Why we fight...

Democrats too angry to win White House? - Politics - MSNBC.com

I'LL GIVE YOU ANGRY!!!!! Just kidding. What a ridiculous article. Maybe it should say, 'paid for by the RNC.'

But fuck it right, does it really matter? Like my friend and I were discussing: we either need a third populist party these days or a revolution of some sort otherwise things are going to keep on going like they have been. I mean check this out. Un-fucking-real.

ABC News: 'Do We Want to Destroy the Creation?': "'I am an optimist by nature,' Wilson said. 'But I have to admit, it's getting kind of scary.'"

EO, doing his best to preserve the Diversity of Life... may we all hopefully do our parts soon too.

A Young Bush Appointee Resigns His Post at NASA - New York Times: "'On climate, the public has been misinformed and not informed,' he said. 'The foundation of a democracy is an informed public, which obviously means an honestly informed public. That's the big issue here.'"

WSJ.com - White House Can't Sweep Aside Abramoff: "'Their refusal to release information is inexcusable,' says Tom Fitton, president of conservative legal organization Judicial Watch. As a result, the scandal 'is now in the White House.'"

U.S. eyes protecting polar bears from warming - Environment - MSNBC.com: "In a move hailed by environmentalists, the Bush administration announced it will review whether polar bears should be considered a threatened species given indicators that their icy habitats are melting away due to global warming."

Hmmmm...

Thanks for sending this. While it is a sad tale I believe blaming any of their mis-steps on unions is foolhardy and, unfortunately, expected by a publication like business week. They are an easy target. Blaming unions, to my mind, is like blaming you or big Leader for Captain Shitty’s shitty management. It is like blaming the coal shovelers on the Titanic for the captain running the boat into the iceberg.

But what are they really? In reality they are, like the consortium of shareholders and executives at the top, just a collection of individuals trying to protect their standard of living and pay standards. You know from your own experience how little power even a high ranking executive like big Leader or yourself may have against the Captain Shitty/shareholder machine – why would anyone expect worker bees to not try to figure out the most effective way for them to have their voices heard and their demands met?

While Businessweek continues to slam on the false strawman of unions to avoid blaming lazy management and corrupt executives, our country and our industries continue to get their lunches eaten.

AOL News - Lost World of New Species Found in Jungle

Amazing.

ESPN.com - NFL/PLAYOFFS05 - Montana, Bradshaw deny skipping SB XL over cash: "In a phone interview with 'Quite Frankly' host Stephen A. Smith on Monday night, Montana vehemently denied forgoing the ceremony over money and reiterated that his absence was due to his preference to see his son's basketball game.
Montana told ESPN last week that he wasn't going to attend the Super Bowl because his son had an important basketball game he wanted to attend. Bradshaw, according to the Chronicle, told league officials he wanted to be with his family."

More about this later.

2,000 homes threatened by Southern Calif. fire - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com: "'We are beginning an air attack,' Orange County Fire Authority spokesman Dennis Shell told MSNBC TV. But he described the challenge as 'very difficult' given forecasts of gusts up to 40 mph and temperatures in the high 80s."

My heart goes out to the people, animals and foliage being affected by these fires.

On a seperate note: 80+ degree temperatures in February? Wow.

Islam and Power - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com: "Give Bush his due. He has correctly and powerfully argued that blind assistance to the dictatorships of the Middle East was a policy that was producing repression and instability. But he has not yet found a way to genuinely assist in the promotion of political, economic and social reforms in the region. A large part of the problem is that the United States - and the West in general - are not seen as genuine well-wishers and allies of the peoples of these countries in their aspirations for a better life. We have stopped partnering with repressive Middle Eastern regimes, but we have not yet managed to forge a real partnership with Middle Eastern societies."

Ok, love Fareed, but let us be honest: we have not stopped partnering with repressive ME regimes. I give to you Saudi Arabia and Egypt to name two.

Overall I think the thrust of this article is good and true - he is one of the millions of voices saying: we need to find a better way... and I suppose I am nit picking, but it is Monday and I am bitter so there you have it.

I wanted to write in on this real quick to give you my perspective.

Imagine that you have a cut on your arm. It isn't bad, just a scratch really, but it is red and shows a little blood the first day. You are a little busy that first day to deal with it though. So it goes a few days and sure enough it is starting to look a little meaner. It is looking a little inflamed now, but you are still a little distracted and don't have time for it today.

Sure enough in a couple of weeks it is looking real bad and has turned a few different colors. It is now that you have to make up your mind to spend some time and effort to fix it or you can go along with your life and your cares and not worry about it right now - hope it gets better or just goes away. Think about it...

Gonzales Defends Legality of Surveillance - Yahoo! News: "Monday's hearing into the NSA program got off to a rocky start when Democrats protested that Gonzales should be given a sworn oath before testifying.

Leahy argued that Gonzales should be sworn in like any other witness. At the very least, Gonzales should be asked if he would volunteer to being sworn in, Leahy said.

'It's not up to him,' said Specter, who was upheld by a quick party-line vote by the GOP-led committee."

Yes, why demand that someone tells the truth? That is so 1950s.

Bottled Water: Nectar of the Frauds? - Yahoo! News: "''Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing--producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy,'' said Arnold. ''Although in the industrial world bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, it can cost up to 10,000 times more.''"

New Book Exposes Massive Fraud MetaFilter: "Same thing is true of your health care, your prisons, your army. It's the privatization swindle. Give a government-owned entity $100 of taxed/billed money and it will do $60 worth of actual work and distribute $40 to a raft of unnecessary public servants. Give a privatized entity the same $100 and it will do $20 worth of actual work and give $20 to its upper management and $20 to a raft of unnecessary private enterprise employees and contractors and $20 to stock-holders (essentially a random chunk of middle and upper-class citizens) and $20 will go missing."

The Blog Arianna Huffington: The Democratic Response We Should Have Heard Last Night The Huffington Post: "Redeploy. As he's said since he first went public, Murtha believes we should quickly withdraw our troops from Iraq, leaving behind a mobile, rapid response force outside the country: 'The war in Iraq is fueling terrorism, not eliminating it... A vast majority of the Iraqi people now view American troops as occupiers, not liberators.' He backs this up with polls showing that 80 percent of Iraqis want U.S. forces out of Iraq, with 50 percent favoring a withdrawal in the next six months. What's more, 60 percent of Iraqis believe violent attacks in the country will decrease when we leave."

Some days it is hard to see that sun rising ever again...

So first you see this on Yahoo today. And then you see this right below it. Connecting the dots, in this case literally, is not that difficult or that long of a line or much of a stretch.

Tale of Two Presidents - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com: "This is more than just muddled thinking. It's a sign that five years in office have left the White House straining under the weight of its own contradictions. Iraq was never meant to be a war about terrorists or democracy. It was a war launched to disarm a dictator with weapons of mass destruction. By lumping the two together out of political necessity, the White House seems to have lost focus on the single goal that voters really care about: killing off Al Qaeda. At least one side of President Bush understood that in 2001. The other side is trying to make sense of what happened since."

Murtha's Letter To The President..."Iraq Has Diverted Our Attention Away From The Fight Against Global Terrorism"... The Huffington Post: "In fact, 67% of Iraqis expect day-to-day security for Iraqi citizens will improve if U.S. forces withdraw in six months and over 60% believe violent attacks, including those that are ethnically motivated, will decrease."

Shocking stat to me.

The Real State Of The Union / How to address a bitter, war-torn but still somehow giddy and deeply horny nation: "But here's the best part: No one really knows what's next. Oh sure, we have prognosticators and pundits and professional fearmongers from the GOP and the religious right who want to tell you that the apocalypse is nigh and God hates everything you do and if the terrorists don't get your fresh innocent white babies, the gays or the pot smokers or the rappers will.

But the truth is, we really haven't the slightest clue what's going on. Hell, 20 years ago, who could have predicted the insane rise of the Internet? The success of the Toyota Prius? Five-hundred-dollar Gucci iPod cases? Polyphonic ring tones? Dark matter? The baffling success of Ashlee Simpson? Puggles? This much we know: We don't know squat. Except, of course, that there is one hell of a lot more to know."

Mark, on point as always

I am such a creature of habit. It is unbelievable to me how closely I follow the same pattern each day. 7:00AM Wake up. Shower. 8:00AM Go to work. 8:30AM Get breakfast and coffee. 10:00AM Go to the bathroom and have the first cup of water that day. It goes on and on. 5:00-5:30PM Go home and possibly go play some basketball, hang out with friends or just watch TV with Angel and the kitties. 10:00-10:30PM go to bed. Rinse, repeat.

What kind of life have we carved out for ourselves? Why is it only on the weekend that we are allowed to change up our schedule and live our lives? Is that when we are allowed to enjoy that freedom that we hear so much about?

Could we get another day of the weekend then maybe? I really don't want to spend just 2/7ths of my life enjoying freedom and a schedule that I might enjoy. 28% of my life being mine? Not the ideal. But then again, shit, who am I to complain right? It could be so much worse and so much more difficult, but it does strike me so often that this doesn't seem fucking fair at all. I did not sign up for this.