Errata: 29Dec2007

Some things running around:

The Rocky’s Lynn Bartels put in a sob story about poor, picked on Marilyn Musgrave. It’s all the mean attack ads that were run in 2006 that led to her garnering only 46% of the vote in CO-04. Riiiight. Supporting a U.S. constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and introducing legislation to ban abortion had nothing to do with that. Funny – neither manage to crack the top 10 in voter concerns, even those of Republicans. Anyone want to guess who had more 527 ads run on them in 2006: Marilyn or Angie Paccione? If you can’t take the heat Marilyn, don’t help dish it out. She’s the same politician, folks. She’s just trying to sing a different tune now that she’s in the minority.

King George has taken the next step in changing our country’s government. Apparently, he can “pocket veto” without pocket vetoing. Or something. Congress, if you plan on letting him get away with this nonsense, please don’t go back to work in 2008. The rolling over dog act isn’t getting anything done for the people. Kagro X raises some good questions. I think his last question is a little off, however. I’d rather have it asked, “How much more can the Americans people and our brand of democracy take?”

Heh. This would be interesting.

I have a slightly different take on this situation. How about ‘If you’re willing to do it to your mother, it’s not torture’? Although starting out with yourself would be a decent beginning. Seriously, I cannot for the life of me understand why we’re debating whether it’s torture or not. When it starts happening to American soldiers and citizens, don’t act all surprised, ‘kay?

Sweeny Todd is pretty good. AVPR not so much.

The shuttle Atlantis may not fly in January. Dang it. NASA needs to get the ISS constructed before the fleet is retired. Thought I’ve thought since the 2010 retirement announcement that they’ll likely extend their lifetimes.

Empty Food Banks

I’m glad this country is wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer money on a failed occupation on the other side of the world.  I’m also glad this is a Christian nation – because I’ve been told that Christians love their neighbor like no other religion’s adherents can.  And it’s not as if the richest country in the world has working class people going hungry this holiday season or anything.

So tell me: where are the televangelists and mega-church leaders on this issue?  Why aren’t they beating down the doors of Congress, or even mine or yours to address this shameful state of affairs?  Where are the “compassionate Conservatives”?  Why isn’t this the lead talking point of the day in the media?  After all, conservatives own nearly all the large media in this country at this point.

Why are we wasting all that money in Iraq?  Does anybody know how many people the $55 Billion would have helped feed and clothe?  Articles are saying people’s ability to buy food for themselves is the worst it’s been in more than 30 years.  So tell me why exactly people in 2000 thought that re-installing the actors behind Nixon would  be successful the second time around?

Oh, that’s right: because brown people, gays, and abortionists are hard at work every day of the year trying to destroy this country.  Obviously we have more important things to worry about than our own citizens going hungry.  Silly me, I forgot.

Where will Santa live?

I hadn’t considered the ramifications of the ice extent in the Arctic Ocean declining to extend to Santa Claus before I read this comment at dKos.

Global warming Denyers have spent a great deal of time and money trying to build up science credibility to their claims. They’ve set up think tanks and journals dedicated to providing support for their cause. I guess they did this because they think that’s how scientists have done it and from their worldview think there’s no difference.

One of the leading climate Denyers in our government is Sen. Inhofe (R-Exxon). His minority post on a subcommittee released a report just prior to the Senate adjourning for the holidays. Events like this over-politicize the discussion over global warming.

But I believe my first remark may undermine their project in ways I hadn’t considered before. What does the myth surrounding Santa Claus include? A shop at the North Pole. Now, kids are sharper than most give them credit for. What will happen as they come across news stories that the ice sheets covering the Arctic are shrinking more and more every year? How is that shop supposed to exist in an ocean? At the very least, Santa and his elves would have to work on their buildings to make sure they don’t sink to the bottom.

But on a more emotional level, think of how kids would react to news that we know the ice sheets are melting due to human behavior. And not only did people like Inhofe stand in the way of changing that behavior when it could have done some good, but they worked to subvert those efforts every step along the way.

Why, Inhofe could be labeled as anti-Santa Claus. And that’s not very Christian of him and his friends, now is it? What about the War on Christmas? Who’s perpetrating that? Godless liberals or Climate Denyers?

2nd Project

I’m sure I’m going to come up with way too many of these, but a back-of-the-head project milling around for a while:

Come up with better names for bills – both in CO and the US Congress.

I’ll  admit it freely: Democrats suck at naming their legislation.  Republicans don’t.  I want to change that – through exercising options.

Project

Based on work I’ve done at SquareState and Luis’ comment, I thought about a project that might be interesting to do.  Since fundraising by presidential candidates and support both on-line and not don’t seem to be very well correlated, is there a way to quantify that?
1) a)Fundraising and on-line support scatterplot.

b)Fundraising and “real-world” support scatterplot.

Support being percentage response in polls – both official and straw.

There might be additional aspects to consider, but I wanted to get this down while I was thinking about it.

Bushies interfere with states’ rights

Republicans today again demonstrated their hypocrisy regarding states’ rights.

California and 17 other states wanted to impose stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions on cars and light trucks. The EPA, under massive pressure from the profit-riddled energy corporations, rejected that request. How did they justify this?

“…the energy bill signed into law by the president earlier that day was a “better approach” on fuel efficiency than “a confusing patchwork of state rules,” and that the Bush administration was “moving forward with a clear national solution.””

But when it comes to abortion, states’ rights have to be upheld. The difference is obvious: conservative states have enacted laws that restrict access to abortions for years while it benefits the corporations to not implement stricter emissions standards, technological capability and climate effects be damned.

I realize this is comparing Corporatecons and Theocons, and they are motivated by different things, but the end results speak for themselves. One is left wondering why Republicans are the party of states’ rights when there is ample evidence to dispute the meme.

250,000 for Wexler’s impeachment call?

Only five days after announcing the site’s existence, over 100,000 (currently 115,099) people have signed up to support impeachment of Dick Cheney – one of the least popular politicians of all time.

I firmly believe evidence exists that would support the theory that Cheney has committed high crimes and misdemeanors against the people of the United States. I think it is incumbent upon the House of Representative’s leadership to stop obstructing the Judiciary Committee from beginning investigative hearings into the conduct of the Vice President’s office.

One of the latest theories out there is that Rep. Pelosi and other officials knew to larger degree the details of the workings within the administration at a far earlier date than most (including myself) have previously believed. If that’s the case, they deserve to be investigated as well. No person or party should be immune to the enforcement of our laws. So if their supposed insight and involvement into the administration’s crimes is what’s holding them back, that should be investigated as well.

But this is really about Cheney for now. Go to Wexler’s site and sign to support impeachment hearings. This country is strong enough to learn what’s been going on. In fact, I believe the existence of our republic in the future depends largely on how much of the Bush administration’s nefarious activities are brought to light and how they’re handled.

Can we get to 250,000 before Congress reconvenes in January?

Edwards, Obama don’t go on Fox

And it’s a good thing too.  It’s not a news network, it’s a propaganda outlet.  “Fair and balanced”?  Sure, if you’re a fringe rightist.  To most everybody else, it’s junk.

Watch Fox hosts whine about Edwards and Obama refusing to go on their nonsense shows.  Comedy gold!  But beware if someone calls Bill-O or Slanthead a name, because they’re big meanies who should immediately apologize.  This from the ‘party of personal responsibility’.  Yeah, right.

Edwards and Obama: do not go on Fox!

Two good movies

I watched two movies last week that I would recommend:

I Am Legend – Will Smith is a pretty good actor. This film does an okay job of portraying what might happen if humans were to ‘disappear’. I recently finished reading “The World Without Us” by Alan Weisman. He spent some time talking to a number of experts about this very subject. Not to be too picky, but there were a few things that weren’t taken into account in the movie. Overall though, the movie was good. It moved at a decent pace: not too fast nor too slow. Having heard it was a remake of an earlier film, I’ll have to do some searching and watch the older version – with Charlton Heston!!

The Golden Compass – good fantasy flick. It followed along fairly predictable plot lines. There were elements of numerous other fantasy films, but at this point, it’s hard to come up with something new, right? Anyway, it has an impressive list of cast members. One of my favorites was Sam Elliott. His role as an old western-dressed gun-slinger fits him perfectly. He certainly added an element of levity to the film. I know there was discussion about the book pushing for atheism and the film not including that aspect. I want to read the books and watch the next two films to see how that plays out. I can’t imagine folks actually have that much faith in their own belief system if they think a movie will brainwash viewers. I just wish they’d stop telling the rest of us how to live our lives.

Both films contained CGI, of course. The Golden Compass probably included more of it, but I think it made sense. What was nice was neither movie went overboard using it. It added flavor and some dimensionality that would have been much more difficult to effect using real-world props and such.

Energy Bill and Bali News

A decent Energy bill nearly passed the Senate this week. Republicans stomped their feet and threw numerous temper tantrums at the behest of their special interest masters, the fossil fuel corporations. As a result, Mommy Reid (Capitulator-NV) let them have their way time and time again. Thus, oil and gas corporations will continue to be allowed to steal money from our Treasury; more tax dollars will be thrown at nuclear energy (don’t worry about the waste that we’ll leave behind for longer than we’ve been around as a species); a national renewable energy standard was left on the cutting room floor.

The Republicans threatened to filibuster. Tough-guy (ex-boxer) Reid didn’t force the issue. I hope he didn’t fight like this as a boxer. If your opponent feints, you don’t give up the rest of the fight and help declare him a winner. You see the feint and use it against him. Let the Republicans whine to the corporate media that they’re being forced to talk 24 hours a day about why America can’t have renewable energy; why those oil giants deserve billions more of our money; why we continue to occupy a foreign country to ensure we continue to waste a cheap resource. Because the American people get it, Sen. Reid. They know the state of affairs. They want renewable energy sources. They want to lessen our dependence on foreign energy resources. They should know who’s preventing the things they want from becoming law.

I applauded Sen. Reid’s efforts last year and early this year. But I misjudged the type of man he is. I thought we was prepared to step up and fight for the majority. Instead, I see him cowering in fear every time the evil Republicans look at him sideways. He’d rather stay in the good graces of the D.C. cocktail circuit, I guess. I read a theory that Reid and Pelosi were purposefully not letting progressive legislation get through and continuing to shaft Americans of all leanings so that our frustration will convince us to vote for Democrats again next year. Whether or not that’s true or even close, I don’t really care. Here’s where I am: if Reid, Pelosi and others continue to be so cynically manipulative, the only thing I’m going to do is support primary challengers to them. They need reminding that they’re our employees. They work for us, not the other way around. And like any other place of employment, if they can’t do the job they were hired to do, we as employers need to find someone who will.

*****

News from Bali includes an update on the U.S./E.U. disagreement of establishing goals at this conference. The U.S. was talked into adding some mention of a goal of decreasing GHG emissions, but it was added as a footnote and the goal was pretty vague. Oh well, I suppose it’s something.