Seven Degrees from Normal

New blog

2007-08-16T16:13:00.001-05:00

I'm planning on phasing this blog out to turn my attention to a couple of other projects, including this new one.

Fame and fortune

2007-07-09T21:38:00.000-05:00

Long story short, my dad stumbled into a Mastercard commercial shoot while visiting his hometown, Chicago, and ended up in the ad. You can see it online, for now at least.

He's the defeated-looking Cubs fan at the beginning (naturally).

There'll always be an England

2007-07-01T08:15:00.001-05:00

Because they know how to summarize. We would never see something as practical as this in an American newspaper:

1. Islamic militants are almost certainly responsible.
2. The attacks are linked.
3. The bombs are amateurish.
4. No suicide bombings.
5. Plots involve British citizens or immigrants who have spent some time in the UK.
6. Too much can be made of the 'Iraq link'.
7. Bands of brothers.
8. Message to the UK.

Read the analysis for each. It's short and to the point, and does readers the courtesy of thinking they will make constructive use of actual information.

Insult to injury

2007-06-20T07:55:00.000-05:00

Another undiginified death in the news:

DUBLIN, Ireland - Pathologists inspected the thawed remains Wednesday of a missing Dublin criminal whose body was found, frozen rock solid, in the Mermaid Fish Shop.

The owner of the shop in Galway, western Ireland, last week found the body of Patrick McCormack, 52, concealed inside a plastic container. He appeared to have been badly beaten and his hands were tied behind his back.
An examination of the body has been repeatedly delayed at Dublin City Morgue because it had not defrosted.

What an absolutely brilliant idea

2007-06-19T16:00:00.000-05:00

Rebuttals to obituaries.

Indeed it will

2007-06-13T11:07:00.000-05:00

"It will be interesting to see how low President Bush's numbers can drop," Carroll said.

28% evidently isn't the bottom.

Science!

2007-05-31T08:20:00.000-05:00

You have to read all the way to the end of this NYT story on Pepsi and Coke cutting back on animal testing (Animal testing? Yes.) to find this gem:

In January, Roll International, the company that makes Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, agreed to cease tests on animals after PETA disclosed a 2005 study financed by the company that tested the juice to see if it might relieve artificially induced erectile dysfunction in rabbits.

Let me just enumerate all the ways in which this single sentence short-circuited my brain:

1) A juice company is spending good money to find out if its juice has health effects, and the effect they look for is relief of erectile dysfunction. Not looking for improved cardiovascular health, better digestion, younger-looking skin . . . . Nope. We just wanna cure erectile dysfunction.

2) In rabbits.

3) That's been artificially induced.

4) In rabbits.

5) And then they hid the study until PETA, knowing an opportunity for ridicule when they see one, smoked it out.

It leaves me wondering so many things, such as how they artificially induce erectile dysfunction in rabbits. And how they verify that they've done this.

Nazi raccoons

2007-05-26T08:36:00.000-05:00

Meanness and bald stupidity so often go hand-in-hand:

KASSEL, Germany -- In 1934, top Nazi party official Hermann Goering received a seemingly mundane request from the Reich Forestry Service. A fur farm near here was seeking permission to release a batch of exotic bushy-tailed critters into the wild to "enrich the local fauna" and give bored hunters something new to shoot at.

Goering approved the request and unwittingly uncorked an ecological disaster that is still spreading across Europe. The imported North American species, Procyon lotor, or the common raccoon, quickly took a liking to the forests of central Germany. Encountering no natural predators -- and with hunters increasingly called away by World War II -- the woodland creatures fruitfully multiplied and have stymied all attempts to prevent them from overtaking the Continent.

Sigh

2007-05-17T13:54:00.000-05:00

The situation has been complicated by the fact that few people within the Bush administration understand what the World Bank does, says another official.

Depressing to actually hear them coming out and saying it.

Long but fabulous

2007-05-15T08:32:00.000-05:00

From last year's Harper's:

It cannot truly be a surprise that a society that has steadily dismantled or diminished the most basic access to health care, relief for the poor and the aged, and decent education; a society that has allowed the gap between its richest and poorest citizens to grow to unprecedented size; a society that has paid obeisance to the ideology of globalization to the point of giving away both its jobs and its debt to foreign nations, and which has just allowed one of its poorer cities to quietly drown, should choose to largely opt out of its own defense.
. . .
Who could possibly believe in a plot to lose this war? No one cares that much about it. We have, instead, reached a crossroads where the overwhelming right-wing desire to dissolve much of the old social compact that held together the modern nation-state is irreconcilably at odds with any attempt to conduct such a grand, heroic experiment as implanting democracy in the Middle East. Without mass participation, Iraq cannot be passed off as an heroic endeavor, no matter how much Mr. Bush's rhetoric tries to make it one, and without a hero there can be no great betrayer, no skulking villain.

Via Atrios

Separated at birth?

2007-05-15T06:58:00.000-05:00

Rudy and Eustace . . .

When the cat's away

2007-05-10T07:09:00.000-05:00

Bush Told War Is Harming The GOP

"It was a very remarkable, candid conversation," Davis said. "People are always saying President Bush is in a bubble. Well, this was our chance, and we took it.

Their "chance," I assume:

President Cheney flew to Baghdad on Wednesday to urge top Iraqi officials to move as quickly as possible toward a political reconciliation between Sunni and Shiite factions, whose bitter divisions underlie much of the country's violence.

Ripple effect

2007-05-08T12:39:00.000-05:00

Study: Child abuse, troop deployment linked

Robert Davis and Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY

Sending soldiers to war puts their children left at home at higher risk of abuse and neglect, says a study out Tuesday.

The study among military families shows that reports of emotional, physical and sexual abuse and child neglect peaked during the main deployment of troops to Iraq. When deployments began, reports of abuse quickly jumped from 5 in 1,000 children to 10 in 1,000.

Happy feet

2007-05-07T09:22:00.000-05:00

Finally worked my way through two, count 'em, two knitted socks. Couldn't have done it without this tutorial, which I adapted for toddler size (use the worsted weight instructions, but with fingering weight yarn and size three needles).

I was smart enough to follow the tutorial's suggestion of noting where in the stripe pattern I started sock #1, and to start sock #2 at the same place. I was not smart enough to make sure I started from the same end of the skein. Thus, you'll notice the stripe pattern is reversed on sock #2. Live and learn.

Follow up

2007-05-05T07:32:00.000-05:00

How cool that the Wapo is staying with this:

When Carole Fisher read the news in March that Circuit City fired 3,400 employees so it could replace them with lower-paid workers, she knew one thing: She would never shop there again.

I'm with Carole--and why would the brains at Circuit City have thought anyone would do otherwise, given that CC has several competitors with very similar prices?

Now if we could only do the same thing to WalMart.

No, really?

2007-05-04T11:37:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, businesses get what they deserve:

Circuit City fired 3,400 of its highest-paid store employees in March, saying it needed to hire cheaper workers to shore up its bottom line. Now, the Richmond, Va., electronics retailer says it expects to post a first-quarter loss next month, and analysts are blaming the job cuts.

Couldn't have seen that one coming.

Hahahahaha

2007-04-25T09:29:00.000-05:00

David Ignatius:

"This is the most incompetent White House I've seen since I came to Washington," said one GOP senator. "The White House legislative liaison team is incompetent, pitiful, embarrassing. My colleagues can't even tell you who the White House Senate liaison is. There is rank incompetence throughout the government. It's the weakest Cabinet I've seen." And remember, this is a Republican talking.

Parkour

2007-04-16T11:31:00.000-05:00

So I've been hearing about this new French sport, parkour. Crazy French kids, I thought. Running up buildings. What'll they think of next.

Watch the video.

They really hate Gonzo, don't they?

2007-04-08T07:45:00.000-05:00

Alberto Gonzalez must not have many friends left in the White House if they are willing to say stuff like this to get rid of him:

Aides said they now believe they were lulled by Kerik's swaggering Sept. 11 reputation, and were too passive in accommodating the president's desire for secrecy and speed and too willing to trust Giuliani's judgment.

And then they let Alberto take over the investigation, and . . .

Words to live by

2007-04-02T11:54:00.001-05:00

From Tina Seamonster:

I am so sick of people not owning up to how amazingly weak they are. I own my weakness everyday. I see her, I know her. I accept her. And she is sick of your whining.

She's talking about weight loss, but it works for lost of things.

As if we needed another reason not to shop at Circuit City

2007-03-29T06:54:00.000-05:00

Now you can expect the staff there to be even surlier and less experienced:

Circuit City fired 3,400 employees in stores across the country yesterday, saying they were making too much money and would be replaced by new hires willing to work for less.

Well, imagine that

2007-03-22T06:51:00.000-05:00

This is a tiny-headline story today in the Wapo; don't see it at all in the NYT.

The leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case.
Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's office began micromanaging the team's strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government's claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.

Bonus: contains the phrase "rule of law," which is set to become a major headache for Republicans this year.

Oh brother

2007-03-18T10:15:00.000-05:00

NYT on Saturday's march (WP had a similar 'graph):

As they gathered before the march, the protesters met what several veterans of the antiwar movement described as an unusually large contingent of several hundred counterdemonstrators. Many were veterans in biker jackets who said they had come to protect the nearby Vietnam Memorial, citing rumors that had circulated among veterans groups that the demonstrators planned to deface it.

Yeah--those Codepink ladies are notorious.

Sad to see the Vietnam memorial turned into a fetish. As if we needed further proof that war fucks people up.

Gun-totin' ability, yes; administrative skills, not so much

2007-03-13T08:43:00.000-05:00

Couldn't have seen this one coming:

The Minuteman Project, an anti-illegal-immigrant organization that has monitored the southern border, is embroiled in a nasty legal fight over accusations of financial improprieties that has splintered the group and probably will sideline it during the busiest time of the year for border crossing.
Former leaders of the Minuteman Project accuse founder Jim Gilchrist, 58, of using $300,000 of the group's money to support his pet causes, including promoting a book he co-wrote and funding an unsuccessful run for Congress in a 2005 special election. Last month, saying they are the group's board of directors, they took over the Minuteman Project Web site and bank accounts, and fired Gilchrist as president.

People, can't we all just get along? Evidently not:

This is not the first time the group has fractured. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has operated separately from the Minuteman Project since December 2005, after a bitter internal dispute over funding.

God bless this Brazilian

2007-03-09T07:32:00.000-06:00

From a Post reporter who actually went to a protest in Sao Paulo:

The president rarely sees such scenes except perhaps on television. He arrived in Sao Paulo after dark a few hours later and headed by well-guarded motorcade to the Hilton Hotel, where he is staying. The only sign of protest he saw during the hour-long drive in from the airport was a single Brazilian standing along the road who raised his middle finger in a gesture that translates the world over.

New Link

2007-03-04T18:35:00.000-06:00

Everyone say hello to Wendi in the Links sidebar.

Wendi wrote the hilarious "Always" maxipads letter at McSweeney's.

I didn't know they'd started putting inspirational messages on maxipads. I think they should put lottery numbers on there too, like they do with fortune cookies. Or suicide hotline phone numbers.

Productivity

2007-02-27T19:46:00.000-06:00

Remember all that time I hardly blogged at all, because I was working, and kids were sick, and blah blah blah blah blah?

I did do some textile work of various kinds. And took pictures of about 20% of my output, of which this is one.

Looks impressed, doesn't she?

Google humor

2007-02-21T16:33:00.000-06:00

Thanks to my post on the President's facial surgery, the Google ads above are currently touting mole removal. Hooray for free enterprise! And remember the seven warning signs.

Aim higher

2007-02-20T11:41:00.000-06:00

Everyone should read this post on Barry's blog.

Great moments in medicine AND journalism

2007-02-17T08:42:00.000-06:00

President Has 2 Moles Removed From His Face
Associated Press
Saturday, February 17, 2007

President Bush had two moles removed from his left temple yesterday. His doctors say they expect tests on the skin growths to show that they are noncancerous.

The five-minute procedure, called a shave biopsy, was performed in the White House office of Bush's official physician, Richard J. Tubb.

How badly do you have to piss off your editor to get assigned to the President's Facial Moles desk?

Supporting the troops

2007-02-16T07:13:00.000-06:00

Pentagon Red Tape Keeps Medical Records From Doctors of the Wounded
By Al Kamen
Friday, February 16, 2007

Department of Veterans Affairs doctors are furious over a recent decision by the Pentagon to block their access to medical information needed to treat severely injured troops arriving at VA hospitals from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Scooter who?

2007-02-14T07:17:00.000-06:00

The most interesting things in D.C. are happening in California:

"Pursuant to Cunningham's request," the indictment states, "Wilkes arranged for the Congressman to get a different prostitute for the second evening."

Foreign policy as slasher flick

2007-02-12T11:34:00.000-06:00

Like the dumb kids who decide they really are tough enough to spend the night in that abandoned chainsaw factory/insane asylum/slaughterhouse, the Bush adminsitration is now planning to send a third aircraft carrier to the Gulf (reputed to be The Sign to Watch For) and giving bogus defense briefings linking Iran to IEDs in Iraq without any substantive evidence.

Naturally, the media see nothing to be alarmed about. Everyone knows that chainsaw factory isn't REALLY haunted.

Bad idea

2007-02-05T06:46:00.000-06:00

Petraeus Deploys His PhD Corps
New U.S. commander in Iraq assembles band of warrior-intellectuals to reverse downward trend.

The phrase "warrior-intellectual" can never result in good things.

Homeland Security

2007-01-31T17:12:00.000-06:00

Protecting us from the Mooninites.

Oops

2007-01-25T06:58:00.000-06:00

Grenier is one of three government officials to testify, so far, that they held conversations with Libby about Wilson's wife weeks before Libby contends he learned her name.

Three? "So far"?

It gets more interesting by the minute.

Best SOTU synopsis

2007-01-24T14:23:00.000-06:00

From William Rivers Pitt:

This was a tiny, tepid performance by a tiny man who is shrinking, even now, before our very eyes. Let all the gods that are or ever were be thanked that he only has one more speech to go before history swallows him, before this nation and the world is faced with the grueling challenge of cleaning up all the bloody messes he has made.

New Blogger?

2007-01-23T09:40:00.000-06:00

Blogger keeps asking me to switch to its newer "more reliable" incarnation. I am leery. But if things get weird for a few days, you'll know I've taken the plunge.

Cut the funding

2007-01-22T06:48:00.000-06:00

for God's sake.

Such measures would have broad initial public support: 59 percent of all Americans, including more than a quarter of Republicans, want Congress to try to block the president's plan. (Washington Post Poll)

Then and now

2007-01-15T20:21:00.000-06:00

In February 1942, The Family Circle Magazine reprinted a list of ten things its readers could do to support the war effort, originally produced by the U. S. Office of Civilian Defense:

1. Enlist in the local volunteer offices of the Civilian Defense. Register so that you can be assigned a job, can take your place quickly if disaster should come.
2. Put into practice the principles of good nutrition; begin at home with your own family; study sound food selection and preparation; spread the knowledge to others and co-operate with any group supporting and furthering good nutrition.
3. Begin now to build a new, strong America through giving every child in this country a feeling of real security through adequate housing, food, clothing, recreation. Begin with your own children, then help others.
4. Be prepared to take care of the sick and the aged in order to release nurses for care of war casualties. Keep fit yourself; learn nursing duties in a professional way.
5. Make a determined drive to prevent accidents at home and on highways. Keep calm, clearheaded.
6. Save! Salvage everything that is usable; put it to work. Buy intelligently. Learn about new and substitute materials. Conserve what you have.
7. Learn a new skill, something which contributes to defense and the welfare of others. Teach to others what you have learned.
8. Study deeply, thoroughly, into how true democracy functions. Good government begins with the individual citizen. Women must take a deeper interest in local government, must work together for the good of all.
9. Do everything you can to make the men and boys fighting for us feel that folks at home are behind them; "adopt" them en masse into your care.
10. Build morale through old-fashioned neighborliness and religion. Don't repeat gossip; talk constructively. Co-operate with others. Be strong! Be brave! Be confident!

What do we have in 2007?

We are told to
1. Prepare a kit to ensure our own personal survival in the event of disaster.
2. Plan to seal ourselves into our rooms.
3. Dwell on, and try to prepare for, 18 different types of disaster that may occur.
4. Have our kids play games where they attempt to identify "hidden treasure" objects that would "aid family communication" during a disaster, in the home of a bunch of anthropomorphic mountain lions.

I was going to do a point-by-point comparison, but it's too depressing.

Just what we needed

2007-01-09T07:42:00.000-06:00

Let's see; Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea--where else can we compromise global stability and our own national interest?

Oh yes--Somalia:

The US is hardly in a position to commit more regular forces to Somalia, given its over-stretch in Afghanistan and Iraq, but the tacit endorsement that it has given to an illegal foreign invasion of yet another Muslim country, coupled with today's direct military intervention opens the prospect of yet another bloody battlefield in an increasingly futile war.

Two birds with one noose

2007-01-05T12:53:00.000-06:00

In response to Amy's comment, "Why now?":

The tribunal also had a unique sense of timing when choosing the day for Saddam's hanging. It was a slap in the face to Sunni Arabs. This weekend marks Eid al-Adha, the Holy Day of Sacrifice, on which Muslims commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son for God. Shiites celebrate it Sunday. Sunnis celebrate it Saturday –- and Iraqi law forbids executing the condemned on a major holiday. Hanging Saddam on Saturday was perceived by Sunni Arabs as the act of a Shiite government that had accepted the Shiite ritual calendar.

From Juan Cole's excellent analysis in Salon. (You'll have to watch an ad to get to the whle thing).

All we've got

2007-01-01T08:16:00.000-06:00

Put the New Year into perspective with these NASA photos of the Earth from space.

Martyrdom

2006-12-29T22:04:00.000-06:00

Robert Pelton at the new IraqSlogger points out

As the UK and European papers point out--Why not let Saddam live out a life of poverty and ridicule? Penniless and shamed. Like Valentine Strasser, the former 25-year leader of Sierra Leone who lives with his mother in Freetown, a fallen dictator who was spared daily stonings due to the appeal to citizens by a former president. Or Pol Pot of Cambodia who died in hiding sick and unknown. His body burned to ashes. Saddam should be left to crumble like the cheap stucco of his palaces and tinny statues sold as scrap.

The most disturbing fate for Saddam would be to live as a lonely, impoverished old man who must face the wrath of the nation he once ruled. The show of theater that was his trial and the global focus on his execution has simply created a martyr for future Iraqi nationalists to embrace.

"To live as a lonely, impoverished old man who must face the wrath of the nation he once ruled." Here's hoping W lives a long, long time, in Crawford after he leaves the White House, abandoned by his party, his dad's business partners, and his dreams of triumph. And I hope every day of his life contains some evidence, however small, that America considers him a loser and a liar.

I honestly hope the fucker lives to be a hundred and one--maybe then he'll be convinced that history is never going to vindicate him.

On Saddam

2006-12-29T15:47:00.000-06:00

From Josh Marshall:

The Iraq War has been many things, but for its prime promoters and cheerleaders and now-dwindling body of defenders, the war and all its ideological and literary trappings have always been an exercise in moral-historical dress-up for a crew of folks whose times aren't grand enough to live up to their own self-regard and whose imaginations are great enough to make up the difference. This is just more play-acting.

Yes. And it's not as if there weren't real challenges that could have been addressed.

Osama who?

Slushy the Styroman

2006-12-08T13:25:00.000-06:00

More environmentally friendly daffiness:

It Won't Snow

2006-12-07T12:36:00.000-06:00

My friend Laura Freeman and her friend channel two old Jewish ladies singing about how global warming screws up the holidays.

I'd embed it, but YouTube says I'm ineligible to sign up as a member for some reason. TOo high a regard for copyright law, no doubt.

Famous relatives

2006-12-05T10:44:00.000-06:00

My cousin's book is getting some book-blog attention:

Joel Schorn, a Chicago editor and writer, thinks there is a direct connection between the humility of these men and the extravagant fruit of their ministry. His new book about them is called God’s Doorkeepers. Andre Bessette and Solanus Casey were literally doorkeepers; they were porters at the doors of their religious communities. Padre Pio’s door was the door to his confessional. Miraculous healings of the spirit and body are associated with all three of them. Writes Schorn: “God waits patiently for us, just as Solanus and Andre waited at their porter stations and Pio waited in the confessional. . . . We are all afflicted in some way. If we only turn to God, God will turn to us in a healing way.”

Not surprisingly, humble people don't get as many books written about them as self-promoters. My cousin has written the perfect antidote to At the Center of the Storm.

I'm back

2006-11-08T07:44:00.000-06:00

Did I miss anything?

WTF?

2006-10-14T08:29:00.000-05:00

What the hell is up with this? Is the election a joke to these morons?

Family math

2006-09-28T18:32:00.000-05:00

L = S/B

You can determine L, the number of lights that will be left on in broad daylight in the average house, by dividing S, the average number of ads for scary movies that appear during one hour of Nickelodeon programming, by B, the number of boys aged twelve and under in the household.

We are seeing L-values of 5 +/- 2 these days. I'll be glad when all the Halloween movies have debuted.

Kind of surprising

2006-09-19T03:27:00.000-05:00

Few Black Churches Get Funds
Small Percentage Participate in Bush's Faith-Based Initiative
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
. . . .
Black churches in the Northeast and those with self-identified progressive congregations and liberal theologies were most likely to be taking part in the program, a finding that surprised the researchers, who concluded that the White House has not used the program as a political tool as some critics have suspected.

But not really:

"The thing is that the churches that are most likely to actually do social outreach or social ministry are liberal churches, they are not conservative churches," said David A. Bositis, a senior research associate at the center who conducted the study.

R.I.P.

2006-09-06T10:24:00.000-05:00

Couldn't think what to say about Steve Irwin's death--I'd always expected something awful to happen to him, but I really thought it would be more along the lines of losing a limb here and there over the years. Hard to believe he's just gone.

Harry Hutton put it nicely:

His death is especially tragic when you consider how many people there are on TV who deserve to be attacked by stingrays.

20 million

2006-09-01T07:06:00.000-05:00

Your tax dollars at work:

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. command in Baghdad is seeking bidders for a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for monitoring the tone of Iraq news stories filed by U.S. and foreign media.

Proposals, due Sept. 6, ask companies to show how they'll "provide continuous monitoring and near-real time reporting of Iraqi, pan-Arabic, international, and U.S. media," according to the solicitation issued last week.

This could almost be a good idea, if they'd actually listen to what they're told. But somehow I don't think the Pentagon is paying $20 million to listen to a bunch of bad news.

Woot

2006-08-28T14:31:00.000-05:00

Privately, Republican congressional leaders are bracing to lose 20 to 30 House seats - more than the net 15 gain that Democrats need to take control of that chamber - and to barely hold on to their Senate majority.

--IHT

Better late than never

2006-08-23T07:19:00.000-05:00

Wow, reality is catching up:

The poll found that 51 percent of those surveyed saw no link between the war in Iraq and the broader antiterror effort, a jump of 10 percentage points since June.

Sometime before November, they are going to have to smuggle bin Laden into Baghdad, so they can "catch" him there.

Thanks, mom

2006-08-18T06:38:00.000-05:00

Of all the polling data emerging (and there's something new every thirty minutes, it seems), this strikes me as the most significant so far:

CLINTONVILLE, Ohio, Aug. 17 -- Married women with children, the "security moms" whose concerns about terrorism made them an essential part of Republican victories in 2002 and 2004, are taking flight from GOP politicians this year in ways that appear likely to provide a major boost for Democrats in the midterm elections, according to polls and interviews.

And this part is fascinating: can it be that reality is finally getting through to some people?

In its latest poll of the general public, conducted after the news from London broke, Pew found a majority voicing concerns that Democrats were too weak on terrorism, the precise charge Republicans have made over the past 10 days. Yet an even larger majority said they fear Republicans would involve the United States in too many military operations.
. . . .
Moreover, terrorism does not have the salience as a political issue it did two years ago. In the latest Pew survey, only 2 percent of respondents cited it as the top issue they want to hear candidates discuss -- and that was after the news from London. Voters are less moved by sudden scares like that episode than they might have been two years ago, Kohut said.

Llamas supplied by Halliburton

2006-08-15T12:30:00.000-05:00

Here's one small humiliation the U.S. armed forces haven't undergone in Iraq--yet:

Channel 2 in Israel disclosed that several top military commanders wrote a letter to Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the chief of staff, criticizing the war planning as chaotic and out of line with the combat training of the soldiers and officers. [Washington Post, Aug. 12, 2006]

One Israeli plan to use llamas to deliver supplies in the rugged terrain of south Lebanon turned into an embarrassment when the animals simply sat down.

The rest of this piece at Consortium News is a good blow-by-blow of what happens to international leaders who are still stupid enough to do what George Bush tells them to do.

Can we do anything at all right?

2006-08-13T08:28:00.000-05:00

Evidently not:

LONDON - NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.
A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports.

"Obtain more evidence"? Why would we want to do that? Indeed, why bother with any evidence at all?

Things stupidity has taught me

2006-08-12T19:58:00.000-05:00

I get these electronic newsletters from Lion Brand Yarn, which are sort of depressing because most of the projects they are shilling are stupid and ugly, but they also have a section where readers share tips. Some of these are pretty depressing too (take your knitting everywhere, and people will talk to you about it!), but some are useful.

In that spirit, two things I've learned, the hard way, about knitting:

1) When the pattern tells you to change needle sizes, make sure you change BOTH needles. I know, you do one at a time, but if they are both bamboo needles (same color) and similar in size, you can, like me, forget to swap out the second one and knit merrily along for a good 16 rows with one needle of each size. Oops.

2) When the pattern tells you to increase (or decrease) once each side every third row four times, and once each side every seventh row five times, they mean to do the four sets of three rows FIRST, and THEN the five sets of seven rows. They DON'T mean you should work increases in the third and seventh row, simultaneously. I can't believe I didn't figure that out the first time through. I felt like Nigel Tufnel puzzling over chord charts. Still, you'd think they could add the word "then" in the pattern, couldn't they?

The numbers

2006-08-09T07:19:00.000-05:00

Charlie Cook has had some really interesting analysis of the polling data lately. And I can't remember which pollster recently pointed out that the tepid "Bush Bounce" (up from 28-30%-range to low- or mid-30's, depending on which poll you look at) is due almost entirely to Republicans who had been inclined to disown him coming back to the fold. In other words, the Indiependents he's lost over the last year are not coming back to him. These are fascinating trends and bode well for November. I have been worried about Democratic ineptitude and entrenched privilege spoiling their chances, but with Hillary Clinton's disavowal of Lieberman and her staged grilling of Rumsfeld, I'm starting to think they are getting the message: anti-war sentiment is the mainstream, especially in the Democratic party.

That just leaves voter fraud.

Hallelujah

2006-08-05T21:54:00.000-05:00

We are back in Lloyd's district.

And Tom Delay's stuck on the ballot in Sugarland, unless the Supremes sink to the level of helping him.

And Leiberman is 10 points behind Lamont in Connecticut.

November is going to be interesting.

Are you ready?

2006-08-04T14:18:00.000-05:00

Post-vacation decompression + Blogger snittiness + single-parenting a toddler while the rest of the family vacations = not much blogging. Having the rest of the family away gave this video special poignance for me, so you get to watch it too:

YouTube Monday

2006-07-31T11:38:00.000-05:00

My boy Nick, singing his greatest hit with some nerdy guy . . .

Brooks fu

2006-07-28T13:08:00.000-05:00

Ezra Klein constructs a simile after my own heart:

Wandering through the nation's op-ed pages is like ambling through a dojo. Each writer has his own particular style, technique, finishing move. There's Tom Friedman, who rushes in with the Implausible Conversational Anecdote, links it to an Off-Topic Invocation Of World Travels, and finishes you with a Confusing Metaphor From Above. Or there's Maureen Dowd, who deploys Unfounded Personal Speculation mixed with Confusing Allegories till she's set up her killing blow: Insinuation of Character Defect. It's impressive stuff.

The deadliest op-ed columnist, however, is unquestionably David Brooks. He's the drunken boxer of the opinion page, luring you into a false sense of security with Banal Observations that comfort through Faux Bipartisanship until you're ready for the Illogical Conservative Conclusion.

The whole is a neat little piece of rhetorical analysis.

Dana rocks

2006-07-26T07:59:00.000-05:00

Scary piece in this morning's WaPo, but at least Austin comes off well:

Dana DeBeauvoir, clerk of Travis County, Tex., home to Austin, is credited with implementing one of the most comprehensive plans for Election Day. She'll do no fewer than three tests on her voting machines to ensure they are giving accurate results.

"You're always looking for the latest threat. That's not paranoid," she said. "That's good scientific method. We're dealing with voting systems that are scientific instruments."

Thank you

2006-07-25T14:05:00.000-05:00

Philip Gordon in the Washington Post:

"The issue is not whether Hezbollah is responsible for this crisis -- it is -- or whether Israel has the right to defend itself -- it does -- but whether this particular strategy will work. It will not."

Busy

2006-07-25T07:52:00.000-05:00

Quiet, aren't I? However, Toad seems to be lurching back from the dead again, and hopefully this week's Christmas in July: The Horror feature will continue at Party Meatloaf, provided Blogger gets deigns to allow photo posting.

Update

2006-07-23T17:57:00.000-05:00

Another year, another change to the masthead.

Get a load of the Ann Coulter ads in the adbar!

Sorry to neglect this blog, but I've been busy scanning stuff for Party Meatloaf. You don't need me to tell you everything's fucked up, do you? If we'd get a little rain maybe I could start gearing up for November.

WW III

2006-07-21T13:31:00.000-05:00

Boy, I leave you people alone for a week and the whole world goes to hell.

Vacation

2006-07-12T23:50:00.000-05:00

I'm off to get hit in the head for a few days. Try not to miss me too much.

Fun Monday web site

2006-07-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

For a change. I thought Germans didn't have a sense of humor?

And did he stamp his wittle foot?

2006-07-07T17:21:00.000-05:00

The AP headline writers must be feeling their Friday night oats:

Bush Expresses Frustration With Diplomacy

By TERENCE HUNT (AP White House Correspondent)

From Associated Press

Another conservative flunks freshman comp.

2006-07-05T07:07:00.000-05:00

The NY Post's Philip Recchia, via James Wolcott, by way of Rude Pundit:

Conservative scribe Ann Coulter cribbed liberally in her latest book, "Godless," according to a plagiarism expert.
John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism-recognition system, claimed he found at least three instances of what he calls "textbook plagiarism" in the leggy blond pundit's "Godless: the Church of Liberalism" after he ran the book's text through the company's digital iThenticate program.

He also says he discovered verbatim lifts in Coulter's weekly column, which is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers, including the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel and Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.

I've not heard of iThenticate, and I know rather a lot about plagiarism identification software. I know a lot less about copyright law, but I sure hope some of the folks Ann has been "borrowing" from find lawyers who know all about it.

Writing is hard, isn't it? It really bugs me when someone wants whatever status they think they get from being a writer, but they don't want to do the actual work.

Being president is hard too, I understand.

Oo, I wish I'd said that

2006-07-04T18:13:00.000-05:00

Behind-the-firewall Kristof:

In retrospect, the real victims of Fox News weren't the liberals it attacked but the conservatives who believed it.

Atrios has more.

Bear-baiting Scalia

2006-06-30T13:14:00.000-05:00

Steven Poole performs a handy little rhetorical spanking of some of the dissenting opinions in yesterday's Hamden decision:

Scalia begins the peroration of his dissent by peering into the future:

A final but powerful indication of the fact that the Court has made a mess of this statute is the nature of the consequences that ensue. [p117]

What are these consequences? Why, that habeas petitions on behalf of hundreds of Guantánamo detainees will have to be heard. This, Scalia predicts darkly, will "keep the courts busy for years to come". Decrying a judgment because it will "keep the courts busy", presumably where they should be oases of sunny idleness, does at least have the virtue of economy.

Americans, 5; scuttling roaches of jurisprudence, 3 (with one roach abstaining)

2006-06-30T08:08:00.000-05:00

These asstards can't even render a minority opinion without hurling nastiness at their fellow justices:

The Hamdan decision rejects this fast-and-loose attitude to the Separation of Powers. It endorses careful scrutiny of the precise powers delegated by Congress to the executive branch. The Court thus properly rejected Justice Thomas’s extraordinary idea that the “structural advantages attendant to the Executive Branch” in war-time—aspects of executive power that make that branch the “most dangerous” to individual liberty today—merit a hands-off approach by the courts. (Ironically, Justice Thomas refers to Justice Stevens’ “unfamiliarity with the realities of warfare”; but Stevens served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. Thomas’s official bio, by contrast, contains no experience of military service. Justice Stevens suffers another unwarranted ad hominim attack from Justice Scalia, who refers to Stevens’ sarcasm). In short, Hamdan follows the wisdom of Justice Souter’s concurrence in Hamdi: “For reasons of inescapable human nature, the branch of government asked to counter a serious threat is not the branch on which to rest the Nation’s reliance in striking the balance between the will to win and the cost in liberty on the way to victory.”

This decision means we still live in an America worth fighting for.

Does he lie awake at night thinking of ways to embarrass himself?

2006-06-27T07:33:00.000-05:00

Limbaugh held for having Viagra without prescription

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) -- Rush Limbaugh was detained for about 3 1/2 hours at Palm Beach International Airport after authorities said they found a bottle of Viagra in his possession without a prescription.

The article also helpfully tells us that Viagra is "a prescription drug that treats erectile disfunction." That's useful information.

David Byrne's journal

2006-06-27T06:57:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned that it's great?

"Tortured in a barbaric manner"

2006-06-20T12:01:00.000-05:00

As opposed to the way we do it.

Please check the overhead compartment for any civil rights you may have left behind

2006-06-15T07:28:00.001-05:00

Irish airplane cleaning staff: defenders of human rights.

Random inspections may be carried out on US aircraft, the Irish government has warned, after a handcuffed and manacled marine was discovered by cleaners on board a military charter flight at Shannon airport.

Maybe we should just outsource all our civil liberties protection; we've certainly lost the skills.

Change the course

2006-06-15T07:28:00.000-05:00

Excellent idea, even better slogan. And Yahoo is now picking up pieces from the Huffington Post?

So we'll go no more a-roving

2006-06-13T13:09:00.000-05:00

Karl's lawyer says he's not going to be indicted--which is a far cry from him being "cleared," which is the spin some media are putting on it. Firedoglake does a better job of picking this apart--there's clearly a deal being done:

If Luskin is coming out and saying publicly that they got a letter from Pat Fitzgerald which says that Rove will not be charged, there are two things that I want to see and know: (1) what does the letter actually say, word for word; and (2) does it say something along the lines of "Please thank Karl for his cooperation in this matter."

Commentor Otis says Karl will have to jump when Fitz says jump in order to stay out of trouble.

Washington Babylon

2006-06-10T09:28:00.000-05:00

Ken Silverstein has been a busy man this week. The NYT and some other major outlets are now picking up on his work in the Jerry Lewis investigation, but the stuff he's doing on Jefferson and African oil is astounding.

Hallelujah!

2006-06-09T08:15:00.000-05:00

After an alarming two month silence, Fafblog is back!

Hooray

2006-06-08T08:56:00.000-05:00

Still haven't found bin Laden, but we got his Mini-me that we helped create:

BAGHDAD, June 8 --Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the mastermind behind hundreds of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq, was killed Wednesday evening by an airstrike northwest of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday.

Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born high-school dropout whose leadership of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq made him the most wanted man in the country, was killed along with seven aides near the city of Baqubah, the officials said.

Funny--whatever bounce Bush gets in the polls from this is bound to evaporate before November. Karl Rove must be losing his touch.

The rich get richer and the stats get more unreliable

2006-06-05T08:11:00.000-05:00

Barry summarizes a good piece in the NYT about why the economy looks so good, according to government stats, and feels so awful, according to thos of us living in it. It makes a simple and convincing case; the kicker is:

In addition, aggregates generally are averages, which are of declining utility in an economy characterized by greater inequality of income and assets.

So that's why the indicators are off--they were devised for the more equitable income distribution we used to have in this country, but don't anymore.

Why books are still better

2006-06-03T22:09:00.000-05:00

Finally saw the Narnia movie tonight on pay-per-view, which was nice because we were able to pause it during the part where my daughter threw up on me. While it didn't make me as flat-out angry as the last two installments of Lord of the Rings (let's just say if I were a screen adapter I wouldn't make a story "more accessible to women" by making up a whole lot of crap about two of them fighting over the hero), it left me pretty disappointed. I don't have the problems some folks do with the Narnia series; yes, it glorifies religious violence and it's essentially a lesson in imperial wish-fulfillment, but so is the Odyssey. Welcome to literature folks--it's all fulla stuff like violence and wacky gods and people who think they've figured everything out.

So while there are parts of the series that always make me roll my eyes a bit, I usually just overlook them, because I don't demand perfect books, thus I am able to read lots of them, which I hope helps me avoid fundamentalist attitudes and general ignorance and other bad things.

I expected to not like the glorified battle scenes, but they didn't really affect me one way or the other (maybe on the big screen it would have been different). No, what got me in the end was a feeling I summed up like this to my husband: "This is fantasy produced by people who really don't have much imagination." For one thing, I don't know how explicitly it was focus-grouped toward the Christian right and how much it was just dumbed down for Hollywood, but for a bunch of mythical characters in a fantasy world, they sure as hell were white. The faun was white, the centaurs were white, the dwarves were white. Why? I'm not saying you have to have evil black dwarves like Lewis did, but come on , this is 2006, you can't have a black centaur?

And the horses. If you've read the series you know one of the biggest faux pas you can make in Narnia is to ride a talking horse. It only happens during battles and other extreme circumstances. But you can see the wheels turning in the screenplay adapters' heads: Hey, talking horses, now that's fantasy! We'll have one say "My name is Phillip!" It'll be just like Mr. Ed, people always laughed at him, it was great.

Also, I thought the centaurs were animated for shit. But you know, I got thrown up on during all this, I'm probably pissier than usual.

Hah! Looking into the animation on the film I found this quote from a Lewis scholar at William and Mary: "He believed there was death in the camera. Meaning, when you translate word to image, the imagination dies."

Why is AP buying the spin?

2006-06-02T08:53:00.000-05:00

I'm used to the administration and its hucksters spinning the lie that the economy is really a glass half full, but why does the Associated Press feel compelled to engage in this sillines?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Job growth faltered in May, with employers boosting payrolls by just 75,000. Yet the nation's unemployment rate dipped to 4.6 percent, the lowest since the summer of 2001.

Barry Ritholtz is my go-to guy for explaining why this is a bunch of crap, along with the cooking of the CPI numbers, etc. AP's economics reporters should know better. They don't even mention how far under this report is: The target consensus was +170,000 (Bloomberg) or 175,000 (Rueters). And this isn't mentioned until the tenth paragraph:

Adding to the weakness in the payroll picture: job gains for both March and April were lowered. Employers actually added 126,000 new jobs in April, instead of the 138,000 previously reported. For March, employment grew by 175,000, rather than 200,000.

And let's not even get into the "good news" of flat wage growth. That may help hold inflation in check, but it sure doesn't help the average indebted American who, like me, is seeing a 0% cost-of-living increase this year, as in the last three years. Meanwhile, the cost of living is up about 4%. The only way for a worker to interpret this data is "ouch."

West African tea

2006-05-31T07:28:00.000-05:00

If you still harbor any illusions that the oil business and the investment world have even the slightest scrap of moral sensibility, read this post and disabuse yourself.

Harper's Washington Babylon blog is a great resource, by the way.

Aw, no Saturday night massacre?

2006-05-27T07:35:00.000-05:00

This is fascinating:

A Defiant Stance In Jefferson Probe
Justice Dept. Talked of Big Resignations If White House Agreed to Return Papers

By Dan Eggen and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 27, 2006

The Justice Department signaled to the White House this week that the nation's top three law enforcement officials would resign or face firing rather than return documents seized from a Democratic congressman's office in a bribery investigation, according to administration sources familiar with the discussions.

The possibility of resignations by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales; his deputy, Paul J. McNulty; and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III was communicated to the White House by several Justice officials in tense negotiations over the fate of the materials taken from Rep. William J. Jefferson's office, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

No way will I be able to sort through this, but here are a couple of observations:

Unlike Nixon, Bush is caving in.
The small amount I've read by Fourth Amendment experts indicates there isn't a Constitutional issue here; it should be legalto raid a Congressional office if there is evidence that a crime was committed there.
Thus, it seems likely that the hysteria on the part of Hastert and the other Republicans (Cheney's office is apparently a major player in trying to get the documents returned) has more to do with skeletons in their own closets than with love of the Constitution.
I would believe Hastert's charge that someone leaked rumors about his involvement with the Abramoff scandal in an effort to intimdate him on this issue. The question is, who? The DOJ has already publicly declared the rumor false, and Cheney appears to be on his side. Perhaps there are now multiple, competing smear machines operating within the White House?
Alberto Gonzalez standing up to Bush? WTF?

Also, I read an opinion piece a couple of weeks ago (I apologize for losing the link trail) that noted Nixon's biggest mistake was trying to use the CIA to shut down the FBI's Watergate investigation. It's clear something similar is going on now, though the Bush White House appears to have far less control over things than Nixon did.

It's a good thing they don't have anything more important to do right now.

No comment

2006-05-25T06:56:00.000-05:00

Just a juxtaposition:

Editor at Conservative Magazine To Be Top Policy Adviser to Bush
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 25, 2006

President Bush appointed a longtime scholar at the American Enterprise Institute yesterday to be his top domestic policy adviser, a post that has been vacant since February, when Claude A. Allen stepped down after being charged with stealing more than $5,000 in a phony refund scheme.

Libby Told Grand Jury Cheney Spoke of Plame
Vice President May Be Called as Witness
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 25, 2006

Vice President Cheney was personally angered by a former U.S. ambassador's newspaper column attacking a key rationale for the war in Iraq and repeatedly directed I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, then his chief of staff, to "get all the facts out" related to the critique, according to excerpts from Libby's 2004 grand jury testimony released late yesterday by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

U.S. Voices Regret for Deaths of 16 Afghans
Taliban Is Blamed By Officials, Elders
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 25, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 24 -- The U.S. military expressed regret Wednesday for the deaths of a reported 16 civilian villagers Monday in U.S. airstrikes near here, but officials and elders said Taliban insurgents were responsible for the incident.

New project

2006-05-24T20:40:00.000-05:00

Because I do not have enough going on in my life, plus I just got a scanner, I give you

Party Meatloaf

Now the monstrosities that lurk on my bookshelf can haunt your dreams too.

I would say that too

2006-05-15T07:25:00.000-05:00

Now this is sad for a number of reasons, but you have to love the "I'm quoting an expert!" tone of the last line:

BELTON — University of Texas running back Ramonce Taylor was arrested early Sunday after Bell County sheriff's deputies found marijuana in a backpack in the rear of his vehicle, authorities said.

The Bell County sheriff's office said in a news release that a live .40-caliber round of ammunition also was found in the center console of the vehicle.

The sheriff first reported that deputies found more than 5 pounds of marijuana in Taylor's backpack, which would constitute a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in jail and $10,000 in fines.

If the marijuana is found to weigh more than 5 pounds, the charge will be upgraded. Law enforcement officials say 5 pounds of marijuana is much more than is commonly held for personal use.

Thank you, law enforcement officials!

Theirs=35%

2006-05-15T07:02:00.000-05:00

A double positive from one poll number: most Americans are decent human beings, and Republicans admit that's not their base.

A New York Times/CBS poll last week found that 66 percent oppose the House's measure to build hundreds of miles of fences along the southern border. Sixty-one percent said illegal immigrants who have lived and worked in the United States for at least two years should be given a chance to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status. Just 35 percent agreed with the House's position that they should be deported.
But House members say they are convinced that their voters came to a very different conclusion from the marches -- the problem of illegal immigration is even more troubling than they thought, and House Republicans must stand by their position.

The plot thickens

2006-05-14T08:27:00.000-05:00

I've been waiting for something like this ever since reading Larry Johnson's reaction to Mary McCarthy's firing.

By the way, I know we've been distracted lately, what with Cheney's being linked directly to the smearing of Joe Wilson (handwritten notes on a copy of Wilson's NYT editorial, no less!), and the promise of "shocking" new accusations from an NSA whistleblower at this week's senate hearings . . . but has anyone noticed what's going on with the stock market lately?

August 16th this year

2006-05-13T21:43:00.000-05:00

One element of our new wacky education finance system I can get behind: mandating the fourth Monday of August as the earliest school start date. Every official explanation for early starts I've ever heard has been utterly specious. The number of instructional days doesn't change.

Early start dates are just a symptom of the standardized testing disease, and as long as they are ruled out across the state, the effect will be the same for all districts.

Now if they can just keep Rick Perry from drooling on the bill while he's signing it . . .

Don't point that thing at me

2006-05-12T21:14:00.000-05:00

I guess we should have seen this coming, given that China and Russia shut down our march toward Iran:

Bush May Send Guard to Border
President Set to Speak on Immigration
By Jonathan Weisman and Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writers

Fun Friday Web site

2006-05-12T11:32:00.000-05:00

Gmaps pedometer.

Zoom in on your favorite walking, jogging, or biking route, double-click to start, and then click from point to point along your route. Tallies the exact mileage for you--and you can even count the calories you'd burn walking if you like.

Try the satellite or hybrid maps if you cut across lots of parking lots, or take trails.

The Republican Curse of Pork

2006-05-12T07:39:00.000-05:00

I keep seeing references in the ongoing CIA/Goss/Cunningham/Shirlington scandal about how Dusty Foggo (now resigned and under investigation) was brought in as a replacement nominee when Goss's first choice got shot down. Today's NYT reminds us how that happened:

The man Mr. Goss first selected to become the C.I.A.'s executive director, Michael V. Kostiw, had to turn down the job when it surfaced in the news media that he had resigned from the agency in the 1980's after being caught shoplifting bacon.

How could I have forgotten that?