Redundant Announcement

Well, Jazz has let the cat out of the bag already, but I'm gonna say it anyway: I'll be on vacation starting Sunday. I'm cruising to Bermuda, for those of you who would ask. I assume that those of you who would ask are a different subset than the really-big-eyes crowd.

Anyway, I have, indeed, asked a few bloggers from around blogtopia (skippy reference!) who I think are particularly ginchy if they'd pinch hit for me. OK, I asked 2, Jazz asked the rest. Will they write? I hope so. Who will it be? Well, that's for you to find out if and when they post, right? I will say this about the guests - they're all swell lookers, and none of them is Chinese.

Ta!
Tami

Fibbus Interruptus

Hi there! For those of you who don't recognize me and were expecting to see another post from The One True Tami, I'm not her. That doesn't mean I haven't often wished to be her... but I'm not and I've come to terms with that and am at peace. No... my name is Jazz. I'm the proprietor of the blog Running Scared, and Tami has asked me, along with a few other authors, to help her out by filling in with some guest blogging while she is on vacation over the next week or so. (No, no... I'm sorry. No autograhs just now. We can try to get to that after the Q & A session following the presentation. Thank you.)

First of all, I can't even describe how overwhelmingly grateful I am for Tami's invitation. This priceless opportunity will give me the chance to have yet another place where I have to think up something to write for the edification and amusement of a group of anonymous internet strangers, as I sit in my stuffy office with broken air conditioning, while Tami ..... relaxes ....

... in the tropics.

Ok. It's possible that "overwhelmingly grateful" may have been a stretch. But let's press on, shall we? I come before you today armed with a brief diatribe, not on the social dangers of neoconservative dogma, as is my usual choice, but the social dangers posed by the Interrupting Fibber. Some of you may already be familiar with this creature, either having one currently plaguing your life, or having had a previous encounter from which you escaped. But for the benefit of those most at risk - the dangerously uninformed- I offer this cautionary tale as a warning from which you may someday benefit.

The Interrupting Fibber (I.F.) is a person who will suddenly disrupt any conversation among other people, blurting out some incredible, outrageous tale designed to top whatever incident is being discussed. This is likely an attempt to make their own shallow, dull pointless life suddenly look appealing or even enviable to their peers. What the I.F. fails to realize is that absolutely nobody is believing this incredible, steaming pile of horse dung and, rather than being fascinated and engaged in the story, are actually silently wondering what sort of traumatic, psychologically damaging incident during their childhood could have led to this sociopathic behavior.

Sadly, I have an I.F. in my life at this time. You see, along with three of my good friends - Cliff, John and Kirby - I am part of a dart team that participates in a local league held at various pubs in the area. This has led to many fine times, a lot of enjoyment, and the opportunity for all of us to meet new friends in each other's social circles. Sadly, this has also led to my recent acquisition of a new "friend".... Brett - the Interrupting Fibber.

Let's say that our team is having a practice session down at the pub, having a few cocktails, tossing some darts, and just chatting. Then Brett shows up. Inevitably the conversation will devolve into something like this:

Jazz: "Say, Cliff. Where were you last Friday night? We didn't see you all evening."

Cliff: "Last Friday? Oh, didn't I tell you? I finally got a date with Melissa, that girl who tends bar down at TGIFridays."

John: "Wow. Really? How'd that go?"

Cliff: "It was pretty good actually. She seems really nice. We went to see an early movie, and after that...."

Brett: (Interrupting rudely.) "Melissa? Ha! Are you kidding me? Didn't I tell you what happened to me last weekend? Man, you wouldn't believe it."

[ed: We already don't]

Brett: " I had a date with TWINS! Yep... twin sisters. And they were both models for Penthouse a couple years ago. Man, were they wild. Check it out... so I've got them back in my apartment, and they're in the bedroom, naked, and rubbing bacon all over each other. I come walking out of the bathroom carrying a saddle and a set of jumper cables...."

Sadly, that really isn't much of an exaggeration for the kind of stuff this guy says. And he does it all the time. What is possibly even more sad is the fact that none of us ever challenge him or question his stories. In fact, most times we don't say a damned thing. Personally, I feel unable to. It's kind of like watching a car wreck in slow motion... you just can't look away.

It gets to the point where we just stare at him blankly. Rather than the obviously hoped for response of shock or admiration, Brett watches us go completely silent and turn back to our drinks and tossing darts. Frankly, I'm afraid to even order another beverage at that point because I absolutely know that he will immediately go into a tale about how he's getting ready to take over Seagrams Corp. International in a leverage buyout next week. (An amazingly dexterous financial feat for somebody who rents a very cheap, one bedroom walkup flat.)

So have a care, gentle readers. Should you run into an I.F. in the future, now you know the warning signs. At that point, as most evolutionary anthropologists would recommend, you should drop into "fight or flight" mode. If you are not suited for confrontation, run away quickly and avoid this beast. Or, if you are more aggressive in nature, stand up to the I.F. immediately and call his/her bluff. Don't make the mistake I did and allow them to get away with it, because soon you'll be trapped in a social hell of your own making.

Later this week I'll be back with another installment of my occasional series, "What's that smell like." I know you'll want to stop by for that.

Cheers.

Is It Too Soon To Hope?

When Mahmoud Abbas was elected as the new Palestinian leader, I put forth the opinion that he would only be able to do his people any good if he was willing to actually police those Palestinians who were using terror and acts of extreme (military?) violence to make their points. Firing rockets during cease-fires, sending teenagers with explosives strapped to their bodies, I'm of the opinion that these activities don't foster peace.

Today, over on BBC News, there's a piece that depicts Abbas as doing exactly what I was looking for:

Our correspondent says he has always been very reluctant to use force, but pressure to take decisive action grew after the Israeli woman was killed by a missile fired from Gaza.

His administration has now said that it is determined to take firm measures to impose order.

...

Soon after the rocket attacks, Palestinian police, reportedly acting on orders to stop further rocket fire, clashed with Hamas members in northern Gaza.

It is my dearest wish that the Palestinian people will come to realize that killing each other is not their goal, and that this will bring them to a place where killing anyone seems like less of an option.

Whether or not it's too soon, I'm going to allow myself to hope, today.

Comment Corner

Every once in a while you get a really good discussion going in the comments section of your blog. I think that happened here, yesterday, on my "Right and Wrong" post. It's a reasonable (shocking, I know!) debate about government, choice and Iraq. It's here, and of course at the comment link from the post, and I think it's really worth a read. People voicing thoughts and opinions, and no one calling anyone else a monkey.

Right and Wrong

It has come to my attention that some people might not understand what drives my opinions - why I think that some things are right, and some things are wrong. "How do you determine which is which?", you seem to ask me with you large, round, imploring eyes. At least, that's how I picture you in my head. Very kid-on-black-velvet-painting-that-I-bought-at-a-gas-station, if you know what I mean. Anyway, like I said - you're confused.

(If you're not confused, I don't mean you. Get over it.)

What makes something right:
It allows people to live in the manner that they choose, including the condition that they do not choose to infringe on *other* people's rights. You think the only way to live is on a farm where you get up at 4:30 to milk animals? Go ahead. You think the only way to live is helping messed-up rich people with their problems until you become a messed-up rich person yourself? Go ahead. No sex without marriage? Fine. No marriage? Fine. No sex? Well, you'll die out unless you get a lot of recruits, but that's OK with me, too. Love computers? Hate zippers? All of that is all right with me. Laws that let people choose these things? Yes.

What makes something wrong:
It infringes on someone else's right to live in the manner that they choose. Any law that affects what consenting adults do (non-lethal) to each other behind closed doors? No. Taking money away from the poor to fund things that will "make our economy stronger"? No. Love illegal dumping? No. Hate biracial marriage? No. Want to impose your country's system of government on the entire world? No.

Really, no. I love the US, and I love democracy. I don't love that it's brought me to this particular point today, but not everything is bad. Sometimes you have to try new ideas out to find out if they work or not, especially when you know that problems exist that aren't being solved. True, new things often don't work, but that doesn't mean that trying them is wrong. I think our system is a great system that is growing, and evolving with the world around it, but that assuming that everyone wants to live this way is arrogant. Some people like church and state all wrapped up together. Some people find too much freedom chaotic, and need to live somewhere more ordered. Let them - as long as they, too, don't try to impose their ideals on the entire world.

What does not make something wrong: If you don't agree with someting that doesn't affect you, it is not automatically "wrong". That's why I feel the way I do about other countries choosing their own form of government. It's like people choosing to paint their den chartreuse and orange. I don't want to be in that room, but I don't have to be, now, do I.

What does not make something right: If other people have done wrong things before, and no one complained. It doesn't make those wrong things all right, and it doesn't make the new wrong things all right. Someone (possibly even me) may be a hypocrite, but that doesn't make what they're saying any less true, if it's true.

Maybe there are extenuating circumstances, and maybe I don't understand exactly how everything needs to play out. The world exists in shades of grey, I get that. But it still doesn't mean that the answer to "person 2 did something wrong" is "person one did something else wrong and you defended person 1". Whether or not I was wrong then doesn't mean I'm not right, now.

I get the feeling I may have said all this before.

So, are you less confused now? Yes? Would you mind making the big-eyed face a little longer, anyway? It's just so darned cute...

Dismissable

It's like the other people in the country don't count to the current administration. And when I say "other people", I mean the Senate and the House, too.

Jazz, posting at Middle Earth Journal, says it very well, in his post "Bolton back in the news".

I don't believe that anyone ever anticipated a sitting president acting in such a glaringly abusive fashion. This situation points out a hole in our federal legal system. Whether it's done through a constitutional amendment, or via federal legislation, checks need to be put on the Executive Branch's power of the recess appointment.

Feel free to read the whole thing, he makes good points, Jazz does.

Nothing on Earth is Funnier

...than a monkey with a cigarette. I don't know why. I don't even smoke anymore and I still think it's funny.

(Hat tip Mu at Running Scared)

'Human-brained' Monkeys

Sure, the story is frightening, and sounds like something out of a comic book, but man, the picture is funny.

Downing Street, Rove, Other People's Words

First of all, thanks to everyone who sent me good wishes. That was pretty awesome, really.

Next, I realize that I haven't said anything at all about Karl Rove, nor have I posted about the Downing Street Memo in days and days.

Third, I'm very lazy so I figured that once again I'd just steal completely from Shakespeare's sister, and today's dispatch for the BBA:

Well,
the big story today continues to be Karl Rove and his role in the Plame affair. Some people have expressed concern that this story has the potential to eclipse the Downing Street Memos, but I don'’t think we ought to be viewing them as separate issues. Instead, we need to view this as an opportunity to create a narrative that ties the two together.

My post on that issue is here: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2005/07/connect-dots.html,
and says, in part:

"[R]ather than viewing the Plame issue, and particularly Rove's role in it, as separate from the issues raised by the Downing Street Memos, it's important to see them all as part and parcel of one larger issue. Practically and factually, that issue is information manipulation and message control, and allowing ideologically-driven and designed propaganda to trump fact-based intelligence. Philosophically, that issue is a severe and appalling breech of ethics, most notably the betrayal of the trust of the American people."

One thing that's working in our favor is the media's heightened interest in the Rove part of this narrative (check out the lede on this AP report: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/11/politics/main708165.shtml). We need to work our tails off to connect these two stories, so that each time a story is filed about Rove's involvement in the Plame affair, there's a mention of its most important aspect: that the Bush administration feels politics is more important than national security- —as has already been amply demonstrated by the Downing Street Memos (among other things). It is our job to hammer away at this, never letting one be spoken without the other, to demonstrate that each is part and parcel of a pattern of behavior for which the Bush administration must be held accountable.

The media has taken interest in the Rove story (see here http://rawstory.com/news/2005/TRANSCRIPT_WHITE_HOUSE_GRILLED_0711.html
for a transcript of today'’s press briefing and here http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/07/11.html#a3868 for video- it'’s truly unbelievable the change in tone over this story), and that's half the battle. Now we must just connect the dots for them as to how this is indicative of an overarching problem.

We should be pushing this narrative as much as we did the Downing Street Memos and keep calling for accountability.

I have to say I agree 100% with this assessment. When a President lies, it hurts the country. I understand that you can't tell everyone everything, that's a security nightmare, but you can't pull this crap, either. Why are we living in a country where the administration hides its true intentions from the citizens of that country? Is it because if the true plans were revealed that no one would want to go along with them? Instead of plain dealing, we get lies and denials. The spin machine has spun too far. When will our administration level with us? When will people doing illegal or immoral (no, immoral does not always imply sex) things be fired for their activities, or even punished? When?

Sorry I've Been Gone

Sorry I've been MIA. I was under the weather on Friday, and if I'm going to be honest about it, I'm not that great today, either. I'm finding it hard to concentrate enough to read, so I don't think I'm going to try and give out my informed or uninformed opinions today. Hopefully, tomorrow.

You're Hired!

Tony Blair on terrorism today:

Mr. Blair says the attacks that rocked London's transport system are particularly barbaric since they came when world leaders are trying to focus on combating poverty in Africa and the effects of climate change.

The prime minister said he will rush back to London to assess the situation, but the summit meeting will continue.

And he vows that terrorism will be defeated.

"It is important that those engaged in terrorism realize that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world," he said.

I heard him say these words on the radio this morning, and it was a very moving statement. No childish slogans about good vs. evil, no misspoken words, no "down home charm". Just an honest expression of the will to maintain reason.

I would like to hire his speechwriter away from him, with the hopes that he could make listening to my own leader a less painful experience.

Why Now Is Different Than Then

I read an article on Raw Story pointed out to those of us in the BBA by Shakespeare's Sister today. It's about how Clinton bombed Iraq more than Bush did in the days before the war.

At first glance, this would seem to be a story that tells people that those of us decrying Bush's foreign policies are just over reacting. If Clinton bombed Iraq even *more* than Bush, doesn't that indicate that it's just business as usual? Of course now that I've said that, you know my answer is "no".

Clinton's orders were to bomb Iraq in response to planes flying over the no-fly zone. There were rules established, and Hussein was violating them knowingly. Personally, I suspect him of purposefully antagonizing the US and Great Britain, though I have no actual proof of that. There *is* proof, though, of those planes flying in airspace that was expressly forbidden to them, with the knowledge that it would bring retaliation. Well, retaliate we did.

The Bush bombings? Were they reported to us as a response to a no-fly violation? Were the bombings being executed to retaliate against Iraqis committing acts that were specifically "flying in the face" of U.N. sanctions? No. These bombings were done to clear the way for a ground war - a war based on the concept that we were going in to get the WMD that Hussein was so obviously hiding. Except, of course, that he wasn't.

I remember hearing about the bombings in the news. I remember wondering why in the world the Iraqis continued to send planes into the no-fly zone, and why they were inviting people to attack them in response. Never did I get this same sinking feeling that I have now, the feeling that the military actions of the US are keeping the country torn apart and in a state of extensive chaos. To me, that's the big difference.

Good night, Day (O'Connor)

Sandra Day O'Connor leaving Supreme Court

Well, Hell. I'd heard the rumor, and it's actually true.

Who will be the new appointee?

Possible replacements include Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and federal courts of appeals judges J. Michael Luttig, John Roberts, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Michael McConnell, Emilio Garza and James Harvie Wilkinson III. Others mentioned are former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, lawyer Miguel Estrada and former deputy attorney general Larry Thompson, but Bush's pick could be a surprise choice not well known in legal circles.

Another prospective candidate is Edith Hollan Jones, a judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who was also considered for a Supreme Court vacancy by President Bush's father.

My favorite like is the one about the "surprise choice" option. Oy.

I don't think it will be Gonzales. I do actually think it will be a woman. If I know bush - a minority woman. A minority woman willing to sell out every other person of her kind in order to grab that power, baby. That sounds about right for what we'll get. You know, based on what I've already seen these past 4 years.

Ignoring the Big Picture

I have suddenly focused on the small. I like unusual art.

This is some unusual art.

It's Been Said Already

So I'll just link to it. The post by Ron Beasley at Running Scared called "Tony Blair.....Lap Dog or Darkside General?"

I found myslef amazed at the nerve of this guy, and Ron sums it up nicely. Short, sweet, to the point.

Bloggus Interruptus

Well, I've been working on 2 posts today, one on Bush, and one on public education. You get neither, as the water main to my building has burst, and I must vacate the premises. The odds of me getting to them if I'm in my own house are VERY slim.

Sorry, folks.

Puuding, Proof, Etc.

Know how I said that I like Jon Corzine's voting record? Well Ken at Big Windbag has done me the favor of typing it all out in a nice, easy-to-read list.

My kind of stuff:

On Education
· Universal access to preschool and higher education. (Oct 2000)
· Universal right to public education, pre-school thru college. (Sep 2000)
· Federal support & tax breaks for college tuition. (Sep 2000)
· Voted YES on funding smaller classes instead of private tutors. (May 2001) Jon doesn’t like tutors… Do you here that, he’s coming for you if you are a tutor of any kind.
· Voted YES on funding student testing instead of private tutors. (May 2001) Seriously though why should funds benefit some students when they can go to all
· Voted YES on spending $448B of tax cut on education & debt reduction. (Apr 2001)
· Rated 91% by the NEA, indicating pro-public education votes. (Dec 2003)

Part Happy, Part Sad

Via Atrios:

In 1999, Bush Demanded A Timetable

(Quoting the whole thing)

In 1999, George W. Bush criticized President Clinton for not setting a timetable for exiting Kosovo, and yet he refuses to apply the same standard to his war.

George W. Bush, 4/9/99:

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is."

And on the specific need for a timetable, here'’s what Bush said then and what he says now:

George W. Bush, 6/5/99

"I think it'’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn."

[ed. note: article originally ran in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on 6/5/99]

VERSUS

George W. Bush, 6/24/05:

"It doesn't make any sense to have a timetable. You know, if you give a timetable, you'’re - you'’re conceding too much to the enemy."

Why does this make me part happy? Because it's a record that shows that he really does say whatever needs to be said to make it seem like he knows what's going on better than anyone else. Why am I sad? Because no matter how many times he gets called out on crap like this, there's still people out there who support him. I understand backing him if you're an ultra-rich crony reaping all the benefits, but why would people I know still think he's a good guy for this job?

Makes no sense, and I'm sad about it.

Should We Be Surprised?

BBA
General admits to secret air war

The American general who commanded allied air forces during the Iraq war appears to have admitted in a briefing to American and British officers that coalition aircraft waged a secret air war against Iraq from the middle of 2002, nine months before the invasion began.

Of course. Why wouldn't there be a secret air war before the actual war that our nation was supposedly trying to avoid by having the UN impose weapons inspections on Iraq? Why wouldn't we strike while the world was looking away for a moment?

But MoseleyÂ’s remarks, and figures for the amount of bombs dropped in southern Iraq during 2002, indicate that the RAF was taking as large a part in the bombing as American aircraft.

Well, at least we weren't in it alone.

About Freakin' Time

I do not know how many MoveOn.org petitions I've signed, but it's a lot. It's not all of them, sometimes they're a little too far out, even for me. But today, I've learned that something I signed a petition for actually happened:

It's a Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

Congress Votes to Restore $100 Million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Statement by Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.org

We are delighted that we were able to help restore some of the cuts made to NPR and PBS. MoveOn.org members sent in more than 1 million comments and made more than 40,000 calls to tell Congress to save Big Bird and Mr. Rogers. We are glad to have helped protect such an important service.

Now, according to RJ Eskow over at Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, PBS has named the "highly partisan" Patricia Harrison as their new president, so I guess it's one hand gives, and the other takes away. As long as Sesame Street's still there, and free, I'm at least a little happy.

Late Blogging Day

Travelling for work today (local).
Blogging will be late.
Apologies from the management.

Make a Kangaroo Happy

As you who've been with me for a while know, I'm extremely happy that Skippy The Bush Kanagroo added me to the STBK blogroll. Therefore, it's only fair when Skippy asks something of me, that I cheerfully comply.

Skippy is coming up on his 3rd blogiversary, and he'd like, as a gift, to reach a million hits. Go on over and give the blog a read. It's good reading, mostly short comments and links to stories, and I'm always glad I went there.

Skippy's 3rd anniversary post

DSM Update

In my daily update from Shakespeare's Sister regarding the BBA:

'Downing Memos' shed light on run-up to Iraq war (registration required)

Blair's own Labour Party - indeed, the world at large - still needed to be convinced as to why the threat from Saddam Hussein had suddenly become dire, why an invasion wouldn't contravene international law, and what kind of government might replace Saddam's regime.

I believe that was exactly the question I asked *after* we invaded. The exact phrase I used was "crime of aggression".

I'm frustrated to death about this. I never thought we had any business starting this war, and now that people are calling for a timetable to pull out our troops instead of specifying what conditions need to be met in order to pull them out... Well, it's maddening that we haven't already defined what those conditions should be, actually. I have no idea anymore if we need to stay the course, or getting the hell out would make it better for those people. Every time I think of it, my mind just freezes up trying to think of what might fix such a cluster f*ck.

Knowing this, and knowing that these memos are out there, it makes it all worse. If our government is planning wars that should never happen, if they're pretending to wage them to protect us, if the UN Sanctions are not obtained, and plans are pushed through against the better judgement of the rest of the world, how can we say that we're not committing gigantic acts of terrorism ourselves?

And now you read everywhere about the possibility of war with Iran, of war with Syria. With whose soldiers, I ask you, whose money? War is expensive, it costs money and lives and neither is a commodity we can afford to part with. This warhawk attitude has to stop. I was hoping we had evolved past this kind of behavior and I'm unimaginably sad that I was wrong.

The COST of Property Taxes!

Today I made it over to Blanton's and Ashton's and found me some fine, important reading about an important issue to NJ residents - property taxes, and why a governor can't lower them: (the post)

Mind you, I try to be accurate whenever I can in talking about issues. That's why I try to remember not to say, "lowering property taxes", but "lowering the cost of property taxes". The state does not levy your property taxes. In my area, the township assesses the value of the property and decides how much money to tax and the county sets the costs that have to be met with those taxes. The state can only provide rebates, which is what Senator Corzine has been saying all along, while Forrester has been pretty much making stuff up, talking about how he'll "cut your property taxes" by ten percent a year for four years. Well, he can't. The governor doesn't get to cut your taxes. The issue is property tax rebates.

That's exactly what was pointed out to me by a friend last week, and it's exactly right. Your local municipality levies the property taxes, and the state government doesn't make them up, or collect them. You can argue that by increasing local funding that state government could make the high property taxes unnecessary, but is anyone saying that they're going to increase local funding? I don't think so. Frogsdong is right, the issue has to be to rebate or not to rebate, and committing to lowering property taxes state-wide is a smoke screen at best.

All Your Baseless Are Belong to Us

BBA

Limbaugh baselessly suggested Downing Street memo "may be a fake"

I love an article that has the word "baseless" right in the title.

From the June 20 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: I purposely haven't talked about this Downing Street memo much because, frankly, a) it didn't interest me and, you know, if it doesn't interest me, I'm not going to talk about it. And the reason it didn't interest me is because it was just another one of these ginned up things by the libs, and it looks like it's got some similarities to Bill Burkett and the forged documents of CBS and Rathergate.

"Some similarities", sure. They're both documents about something unappealing done by GWB. But this one's real.

Know why I hadn't heard this sooner? Rush Limbaugh doesn't interest me.

Were They Kidding?

I am an AOL member. I know what you're thinking - "AOL? For someone as net-savvy as you? What gives, Tami?"

Well, what gives is that I've been an AOL member since 1995 or so, and I'm not changing my address just because it's unhip. I'm going to stick with it until it's cool again, dammit. And besides, there really are some useful features to the service. Like, for instance, those of my relatives who completely fear computers can figure out how to send me email.

So, this morning, I signed on to AOL to check my mail, and waded through the zillion messages. When does mail from people you know, but don't want to hear from become spam? Never. *sigh* Right, back to my point. When you sign on, you have a welcome page. I chose the "world news" welcome page, or whatever option gives me news headlines. Today, there was a story on Bolton being blocked again.

President Bush faces a politically thorny situation - and stark choices - now that Senate Democrats twice have blocked John Bolton's confirmation as U.N. ambassador.

The president could withdraw the nomination, authorize further concessions to Democrats over access to information they seek or bypass lawmakers altogether by appointing the former State Department official to the job temporarily without the Senate's OK.

There was a poll - Should the President bypass the Senate?

Are they kidding me? OK, for the record then, I answered their poll "no". The thing is, there was no comment space, so I figured I'd add mine here:

Comment:
No, the President should not bypass the Senate, making the checks and balances that are supposed to be built into our system look even more like a joke then they already do in these days of a Republican-controlled House and Senate. No.

Lots of Downing Street Links

BBA

Once again, as a member of the Big Brass Alliance, it is my sworn duty to post important stuff here. Unfortunately, I'm really feeling slow on the uptake today, so I'm glad that other people have written comprehensive stuff. The following is lifted completely from one of our fearless leaders, Shakespeare's Sister.

I'll start with a link to her post on Conyers trying to take his petition to the White House.

Next, on to an email missive sent out to the BBA today:

Hi everyone. There's been some (probably justified) concern that the Right's last ditch tactic to disavow the Downing Street Documents by calling them fakes will gain some traction in the
media. So we need to be prepared to combat such assertions. Following is a list that should help you get started:

MSNBC:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8207731

[W]ar critics have come up with seven more memos, verified by NBC News.

Editor & Publisher:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000955273

That memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith, who writes for the London Sunday Times, Pincus notes. Excerpts were made available to The Washington Post, and the material was confirmed as authentic by British sources.

Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/06/02/DI2005060201359.html

WashingtonPost.com staff writer Jefferson Morley, who questions (rather ridiculously) whether Dearlove's assessment of his meeting was "accurate," still notes:

There is no dispute about the authenticity of the Downing Street memo.

CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/11/britain.war.memo/

British officials did not dispute the document's authenticity...

NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/politics/13downing.html

officials at the British Foreign Office in London, while insisting on anonymity, said inresponse to queries from The New York Times that they would not dispute the authenticity of the document.

Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1647332,00.html

The Times notes that when directly asked about it at their joint press conference, neither Bush nor Blair disputed the original leaked memo's authenticity, and additionally points out the USA Today, who hadn't previously covered the memo because they couldn't obtain independent verification, reported on it once Bush and Blair were given the opportunity to repudiate it and did not.

And Kevin Drum's got some more here: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_06/006537.php

Please read, and understand - people aren't just making this up.

Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

House panel OK's cutting $100m of PBS budget

So what, the government doesn't want a way to send subliminal messages to the most children possible? I'm surprised!

Too Big for Its Britches

I think that New Jersey Government is too big. I think that 12 people are doing jobs that could be done by 4. I think that we have too many different levels of people doing the same things over and over, and that it's wasting our (NJ residents) money. Jon Corzine thinks this, too:

While in some cases independence is needed because of the unique mission of an agency, in too many cases the absence of adequate fiscal, legal, and management controls – and the lack of transparency and accountability – have led to wasteful, unethical, and even potentially criminal practices. Also, this “invisible government” has been used as a convenient place to dole out political patronage jobs and lucrative no-bid contracts away from public scrutiny.

My first thought was to think about the fact that eliminating jobs takes away someone's source of income. The people in these positions are real people, and they need to support themselves to survive. But Corzine's not talking about average people who are earning their way, here, he's talking specifically about people who are given jobs as favors, people who may or may not ever actually do any work for these paychecks they're receiving.

I also believe that structural reforms will be needed to make this "invisible government" more open and accountable, and if elected I plan to put these reforms in place from the very beginning of my administration. ThatÂ’s why today I am announcing the formation of a task force that will look closely at these issues and periodically report back to me with suggestions and recommendations on needed reforms. Former New Jersey Attorney General Robert J. Del Tufo has agreed to chair this task force. General Del Tufo brings to the table invaluable experience as the chief law enforcement officer of this state and as the head of a cabinet department. The other members of the task force will be announced shortly.

I really like this approach. As we all know, sitting right next to someone who is using their position as a paid vacation, sits someone who's putting their kids through college, or paying off their house. If this task force actually does their job and investigates instead of just taking a sweeping brush to an entire area, I think that real cost-saving measures can be found, and maybe the state can make its way back to the days where it was run better. Not perfect, no, nothing is perfect, but better.

Oh, Yeah - Basic Rights, Right!

US House votes to curb Patriot Act, defies Bush

"We can fight terrorism without undermining basic constitutional rights. That's what the message of today is about," said Rep. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who pushed the measure through the House with the support of 38 Republicans.

I love it when people do things that make sense. Now I can finally go out and get myself a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook without worrying about acquiring a tail.

Catch Up With the DSM

BBA

Unsure what the DSM stuff is all about? The Raw Story has an excellent roundup of docs and key points in a nice, easy-to-read table.

Even less sure about it all and want more info? Kevin Baas has a wiki.

Wondering when the Conyers meetings are? Tomorrow, 2:30 EDT, back on the hill.

Our dear leader led us to believe that we were going to war as a last resort. These memos say that war was the preferred method. Read them, and make some noise.

The Reward for Good Works?

Brilliant at Breakfast, Go ahead...justify this under the banner of "We need their cooperation right now"

Our most prominent "look the other way" policy has been towards Pakistan dictator Pervez Musharraf, whose invaluable assistance in the War on Terror led to a swift capture, trial, and execution of Osama Bin Laden.

Well, maybe after taking the hallucinogens they dish out in Outer Wingnuttia, they did. In the real world, Osama Bin Laden is out in the mountains mooning us daily, and Pervez Musharraf is behind atrocities like this one, brought to us by Ezra Klein:

(Klein quote)

Mukhtaran Bibi is under arrest. You remember her, in a world of Jackos and Rumsfelds and celebrity relationships and deified presidents, Bibi is an actual hero, a Mandela-esque story of courage and forgiveness. She's a Pakistani women whose brother committed a crime and, under the barbaric codes sometimes enforced in rural Pakistan, was condemned to public, forced gang rape to atone for him. When the four men had finished raping her, she was forced to walk home, nearly nude, while hundreds of onlookers laughed and jeered.

She was supposed to die.

If all had gone as planned, she would've grabbed a knife and slit her throat, or maybe her wrists. She would've accepted that she had been sacrificed for a male, that it was more than a fair trade, and that no one could move on until the last spark of life had vanished behind her eyes. And she would've hurried up and and finished the affair.

All did not go as planned.

The knives stayed in the drawer. Her nude body found clothes. She convinced a local Islamic leader to back her as she took her rapists to court. They were convicted. They were locked away. She got a settlement.

One could, at this point, forgive her for jetting off. For paying however many rupees it took, settling back into a plane seat, and appyling for asylum in America, hitting the lecture rout, leaving. She didn't. Instead, she built schools. Two of them, one for boys, one for girls. She took special care to enroll the children of her attackers, banishing vengeance and cutting the generational cord of ignorance. She enrolled in her own school to learn to read. She started a shelter for abused women. She decided to found an ambulance service so the rural sick could reach high-tech hospitals. She spoke out against honor killings and rapes. And she was going to visit America.

Oops.

Pervez Musharraf, our erstwhile ally in the War on Terror, couldn't have that. Mukhtaran Bibi was put under house arrest last Thursday. When she tried to walk out, police pointed guns at her. When she tried to make calls, they snipped the landline. When she moved to the cell, they took her to Islamabad and put her in prison. Then, for good measure, they released her rapists -- a warning shot.

Having Mukhtaran Bibi speak out about Pakistan's brutal side didn't fit the softer, more Western image Musharraf wanted to project. What he really didn't count on, though, was a columnist for the New York Times taking up the case and making more noise than she ever could've. And I bet he's not expecting outraged e-mails from all over the world to fly into his government's inboxes. Which is why they should be. And they should be loud, outraged, and laced with threats about how many congressmen will be informed and how much noise will be made. They should, above all, be perfectly clear on one count: if she dies, her voice will be far louder than if she lived.

(Jill again)

Nick Kristof is the columnist, and here's what he wrote about the case yesterday.

Ezra has e-mail and snail mail addresses for who to contact to express your opposition to this kind of tactic.

And for those who think this is a necessary sacrifice to make to ensure Musharraf's continued "cooperation", go tell your wife, or your daughter, that sometimes it's OK for a rape victim to be arrested in order to keep her silent, if we need the "cooperation" of those who would exonerate her attackers.

(apologies to Jill for re-posting so much of her work here, but it's *important* work)

Numbers Games

Read a piece over at the Corzine Connection spelling out the cost of Forrester's property tax plan, "30% in 3 years".

Sure, I called his plan false and hollow, but I did so not to engage in partisan fighting, but because his numbers simply don't work. I double-checked the budget numbers just to be sure, and I'm pretty sure that $9 billion is cost of the Forrester plan. I'll even show my work.

In an article in The Star Ledger, I read Forrester's take on this issue.

"Corzine is offering another warmed-over, McGreevey-Florio rebate gimmick. The only thing it guarantees is higher taxes," Forrester said. "Jon Corzine is part of the same group of people who gave us these problems. He cannot change New Jersey. I can."

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of rebates. I do not understand exactly why it is that we can charge someone $3000 for taxes and then give them a rebate check for $1200. Why not just charge them $1800 in the first place? It's all a trick of government spending. The thing is, it's a trick that actually puts more money in people's pockets. If the refunds were eliminated, it would be just another spot for money to be manipulated in new ways, and few of those new ways are ever good for the taxpayers. The state spends too much in the wrong places and too little in the right ones. Have I mentioned the city where the superintendent gets a $200k annual salary and the teachers (at the school I know about) are allocated one box of pencils for the year? How is that a good use of funds? Who makes these decisions?

Helping New Jersey's spending problems requires re-working the way we use the money, on top of trying to use less of it. Without a lot of back work, no plan will be able to offer tax relief to NJ residents.

Female Problems

Holy cow, I hate when I'm condescend to.

There was a big-ol' dust storm this weekend, about an ad on a major blog that had a scene that can be considered degrading to women. No, I'm not linking to either thing. You want to see that sort of thing, go find it on your own time. Normally, I could give a crap about sexy ads, like the Paris Hilton one, or one out of three beer ads. If your target audience is men, using visuals of sexy women is tried-and-true. Everyone's got hormones. So normally, I just ignore it, and move on, assuming that men, as a whole do not think that women are either "nice people", or "feminists".

But then, well, then I started to read the posts that this dust-up was inspiring. Holy Christ on a cracker. Seeing the line "the crowd who dares not shave their legs" pissed me off. Well at least now I know. What do I know? I've made a list:

1. I have no sense of humor


2. My personal hygiene is lacking


3. I represent all that is good and decent in the world by virtue of simply being female


4. I represent all that is wrong and twisted in this world by having an opinion of my own and not settling down with some nice man and reproducing


5. No candidate can win without people like me, we're the majority voice


6. I somehow don't deserve to make as much money as a man doing the same job because of reasons 1-5.


7. Reason 6 *proves* I don't have a sense of humor, See?

Shakespeare's Sister
Pandagon
Rox Populi
Feministe
A Quiz from After School Snack
Blondesense
Pinko Feminist Hellcat
What Do I Know?

Enjoy.

Latest on the DSM

BBA

I can't write this any better than Shakespeare's Sister did, including the part about the social life.

The first day IÂ’ve actually engaged in a social life in weeks and what do I miss? The leaking of a new British memo confirming that it was "necessary to create the conditions" for the legality of the Iraq War.

DSM Hearing

BBA

For those of you confused, "DSM" is "Downing Street Memo".

Last night an email went out to the Big Brass Alliance telling us about the following Raw Story piece:

The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings on the 2002 minutes between senior British and American officials which asserted that intelligence was "being fixed" to support the case for war in Iraq, RAW STORY has learned.

The hearings, which will be held next Thursday, will bring renewed attention to what is being called the "Downing Street memo," actually official minutes of a secret 2002 meeting.

Conyers office has revealed that they will introduce new documents that corroborate the Downing Street Memo at the hearings June 16.

"We expect to release new documents that corroborate the Downing Street memo," a Judiciary aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, told RAW STORY Thursday afternoon. "None of the documents are as earth-shattering as the Downing Street minutes but all of them corroborate the accuracy of what it says."

Congressman Conyers, on his DialyKos Diary, calls the President's response to a question about the DSM "inadequate". I'm really glad to see that in writing, because the idea that you can take a question about a memo that says "Military action was now seen as inevitable" and answer it with "And so it's -- look, both us of didn't want to use our military." just doesn't match up for me.

Pick Your Poison

Once again, traffic made me late for work - and I never get to find out what causes this traffic, by the way. Volume? Who knows. This means that I was in the car at 7:30 instead of at my desk. And that means that I switched stations at 7:30, because I still hate phone scams. They're still mean.

So I found myself listening to New Jersey 101.5 again. I expected it to be the usual, they give me facts before spouting off with an opinion I don't agree with, but this morning was different. Today, Jim Gearhart went off on some sort of (mild) cynical fit. For a few brief moments, part of his brain opened up and spilled out for all of us to hear.

He expressed the opinion that it doesn't matter if you're Democrat or Republican in NJ, because there's just very little difference. Both candidates have plans to reduce the property tax, and neither one is any good. They both talk about ending corruption in Trenton, but it's all talk. No one is going to change how government works, he said, it can't be done, not by anyone. He quoted Jesse Ventura (!) as saying that government is like a big wheel, you think you can stop it by throwing yourself in front of it, but it just runs you over and keeps on going.

It was cynical, but somehow really refreshing!

I mostly agree with him that nothing will ever completely stop the corruption, but I do feel like it can be reigned in. Life in NJ is getting so expensive that it's insane. I have a friend who makes more than $30k a year. You'd think that would be enough to live modestly on, but I assure you, it is NOT. My friend cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment near her work at Rutgers. That's crazy! I make a bit more than that, and I know that I'm going to have to do some crazy lucky investing in order to be able to afford a house of my own. I may not ever be able to do it. The price of running New Jersey in its current mode is bleeding the residents dry.

So, no, maybe we can't fix it all, but we can fix some of it. And we have to have a governor, that doesn't change. There are 2 main people running for the office this year, Forrester and Corzine. I like Corzine's Senatorial voting record. I like his plans, and his staff. I'm throwing my support behind him. I'll leave you with something that he says on his web site that I like addressing a problem in New Jersey development:

Stopping "Fast-Track" Decisions That Harm the Environment In recent years, New Jersey adopted a wrong-headed policy that 'fast-tracks' developers' permits without allowing for a smart review of environmental considerations. Jon Corzine believes this is bad for our natural environment and will only contribute to sprawl.

Jon Corzine has made clear that this 'fast-track' law can't stay the way it is. The law treats a permit for building next to a drinking water reservoir, and a permit for building in a downtown urban area, the same way.

Jon Corzine will replace this law - allowing a streamlined permitting process for urban areas, but guaranteeing discussion and fact-based review before we build on precious lands. With sprawl and pollution eroding the quality of life in our state, the environmental community and the public must have a seat at the table in these decisions about land use.

Unimportant Quiz Results

I've used my brain enough, today.

C-86 post punk kid. You are completely aware that
the Smiths are the greatest band ever, and your
wardrobe probably consists of lots of different
Smiths t shirts that you alternate ever day,
because everyone must know how much you love
the Smiths.


What type of indie elitist are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

(seen at NYC Babylon)

Down with Downing Street

BBA


Ted Kennedy - no one ever said that he didn't have nerve:

Sen. Kennedy speaks out on Downing Street Memo: 'Twisted intelligence; Distorted facts'

The following was released by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) on the Downing Street Minutes this morning. Kennedy becomes the first senator to raise the issue in the Senate, after earlier reports that Massachusetts' junior senator, John Kerry, would speak about the minutes in Washington.

Happy for Small Favors

WCBS Debate: Schundler Apologizes for Offensive Mail Piece

Schundler also doctored an earlier Forrester for Governor press release that showed that under Forrester's 30%-in-3 plan, Schundler's own property taxes would be $20,000 less than under his own plan. Schundler removed a column that showed the level of property tax projections under his own plan.

Last night, Doug Forrester won right to run for governor of NJ on the Republican ticket. I don't want him to win. I'm going to work towards the goal of Corzine winning, of course. If he does, though, at least he's not the guy who pulled this particular brand of crap.

Rousing Time

Nice speeches! I already knew that the Democratic party was trying to be about diversity, but it's kind of nice to see it represented in a non-cheesy way, as it definitely is, here.

Live Blogging

Well, I'm at the East Brunswick Hilton, and it's a very lovely affair so far. OK, the Springsteen is blasting a little loud...

(more to follow)

I SAID Violence Begets Violence!

Deadly Israeli raid, Gaza violence hit truce

GANEI TAL, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - A Palestinian rocket attack killed two workers in a Jewish settlement in Gaza on Tuesday after Israeli forces shot dead an Islamic Jihad commander in the West Bank.

I'll start out by mentioning that I kind of feel like this article leads with an anti-Israeli feeling. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, though. OK, I'll leave off that to get to my main point.

HAMMAS IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I don't doubt that. I'm not in favor of any "softening" in the U.S.'s position towards them. Heck, beyond being a terrorist group. They're not even a very bright one:

Israeli military sources identified the dead farm workers in the Ganei Tal settlement as a Palestinian and a Chinese national. A rocket struck a table where they and other workers were eating.

"Don't they know there are Arab workers here," a Palestinian laborer said, referring to Palestinian militants.

Nothing like firing rockets directly at the people you're supposed to be "defending".

You know what needs to happen? People need to stop firing rockets at other people. That would solve a lot of problems, right there. Then I wouldn't have to feel like I'm taking sides so often.

Primary Celebration

Tonight in East Brunswick there's a Primary Night Rally, sponsored by Chairman Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. The listed special guests are PA Governor Ed Rendell and Senator Jon Corzine. I'm interested to see what goes on at a rally first hand, so I'm going to head on over. After voting, of course.

Talk About the Downing Street Memo

Democracy Now! has some good discussion about the Downing Street Memo. Just like Paul the Spud at Shakespeare's Sister told me to do, I went and gave it a look. It's all very interesting (and frustrating).

...Sure, Amy. I mean the reality here is that this evidence from this Downing Street memo reveals that the President may have engaged in a conspiracy to mislead and deceive the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq....

BBA

Perhaps We Can't All Just Get Along

Hizbollah polls win bolsters defiance on arms

OK, Hizbollah (Hezbollah, however you want to spell it, it's just not English, OK?) wins polls. They obviously have the support of the Lebanese people.

Hizbollah -- which the United States labels a terrorist group -- has rejected the Security Council resolution which calls for disarming the group and has vowed to fight to the death any attempts to forcibly take away its weapons.

It says it is willing to engage other Lebanese in dialogue over its arms but that it would keep them as a defense against Israel, which occupied the south for 22 years until 2000.

"We will face any attempt to disarm the resistance," Amal leader and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told reporters. "The resistance is the natural result of Israel's aggression and its wars and massacres against Lebanon."

So they're saying that Israel is attacking them, and that the Security Council resolution is invalid. This is a group that engages in terrorist acts of violence as their form of "fighting back". No formal army maneuvers are sufficient for them, I guess. They aren't the Lebanese army, but they're enough of a threat that the UN Security council wants them to "disarm".

These are the people doing well in the Lebanese polls? Well, I guess that my answer is, "No. We can't all just get along". Violence begets violence, people. Try to remember that.

Just Wanted to Mention This

It drove a relative of my insane that Bush used "disassemble" instead of "dissemble" the other day. Me, well, it just made me frightened. I believe that whenever Dubya does something particularly monkey-like in a public statement, it's to distract us from the really bad thing that's going on elsewhere. I fear the really bad thing, and I desperately hope it's not a new really bad thing.

Winners Write History

BBA

I am today in the process of joining the Big Brass Alliance, a group of bloggers supporting After Downing Street.

I have sent out 3 emails this morning, to

(A) CBS Evening News. email: evening@cbsnews.com phone: 212-975-3247

(B) Associated Press. email: info@ap.org phone: 202-776-9400 (DC) or 212-621-1500 (National News)

(C) C-Span Washington Journal. email: journal@c-span.org
(hat tip, Running Scared)

My position is this: I've seen the memo stating that the war in Iraq was a foregone conclusion, and that all the talk of WMD was just utter crap used to make the world think that we weren't the insane aggressors that we are. Why are no charges being brought anywhere, by anyone? Why are there so few media stories mentioning it?

Why do so many bloggers ask this question without an answer?

The winners write history, and I'm doing my damnedest not to be on the losing team.

Friday Not-My-Pet Blogging Mark III

Have I been very serious lately, talking about how I support things that will take away personal earnings and lower current benefits, and how I think that's the best we can do, right now? Well cheer up, because this post is about travelling stuffed animals.

One bear went to Disney World in Orlando and another went to Disneyland in southern California. Not one but two bears attended Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville.

Nothing depressing about that! Unless you hate football, I guess.

Getting What I Want

OK, I've been reading Enlighten New Jersey. You might have guessed. It's important to me to see what people that I disagree with are saying, especially because I want to know *why* they believe what they do. Today they point to a piece on Michelle Malkin about Social Security.

I think that's the first time I've ever linked to Michelle Malkin!

BusinessWeek says Congress and the White House are inching toward a compromise on Social Security. Private accounts will not be part of the plan. Instead, the compromise would include (a) reducing the rate of growth in benefits paid to upper-income beneficiaries (as President Bush has suggested) and (b) sharply increasing taxes on upper-income taxpayers (i.e., those that earn more than $80,000 $90,000 per year).

BusinessWeek is less upset about it than Malkin is, by the way.

Anyway, this is pretty much exactly what I was hoping for. I think this will help. I think this will help, and this is what might happen. What's the catch?

Life is Inconvenient

I'm busy with work projects. If I get something up today, it will be late.

NJ Conservatives

I had no idea how upset N.J. conservaitives were with the trends we have towards paying public employees comparatively well. I had no idea people were so very angry about the way that voting tends to support public social programs rather than leaving the burden of charity to private institutions.

I've been reading a lot of conservative NJ blogs the past couple of days. I see some things that I can get behind, but mostly I see opinions that I cannot at all comprehend. Today's most amusing remarks are located in the comments section of a PoliPundit post. Examples:

the Republican party in NJ is hopeless. America starts in Pa (and seems to be moving to Ohio)

Or my favorite:

The NE is kinda like France.

Hey, cool! After visiting Paris in high school, I've always thought that France was *beautiful*! When does Trenton's makeover get started?

A Precarious Balance

Foster peace efforts without giving up strategic military defense positions. This is the issue facing Israel today.

I truly believe that the current leadership does not want the fighting. I don't' know how much they're willing to concede, though. Both sides believe that they're entitled - by god, no less - to the same pieces of land, and that's what makes this "road map" to peace so difficult to travel. This morning I've read both the Reuters' version and the Ha'aretz version of the story on Abbas' visit to the states. The Ha'aretz version is more skewed towards Israeli interests, of course. While the Reuters' version speaks of how Israeli settlements in the West Bank harm the peace effort:

"Palestinians welcome the prospect of taking over Gaza but say that if Israel keeps larger tracts of the West Bank as the trade-off, it would be impossible to set up a viable, territorially contiguous state."

The Ha'aretz story speaks of how the settlements are indispensable in that effort:

Sharon, who received enthusiastic applause from the 4,000 delegates at the AIPAC conference, said the disengagement would enable Israel to ensure that the large settlement blocs in the West bank remained an inseparable part of Israel.

Israel does not feel secure in the idea that giving up large sections of land will make them *safer*. The Palestinian Authority does not feel that non-contiguous lands serve their purpose for a united homeland. Tricky issues, to say the least, and I haven't even thought about mentioning the religious stuff.

I can't say as I have any faith in our current administration's ability to help reach a compromise. Actually, I'm not sure I have faith in anyone's ability to work this miracle.

Wake-up Call - Think For Yourself!

Ever read something and feel like you're being slapped in the face? That's how I felt yesterday when I read "Enlighten-New Jersey" for the first time. It's not just that they're spouting pretty much the opposite of what all my opinions are, it's that they're being, well, snide about it. The overall tone is just so "if you disagree with us, you're stoooopid!" that I'm having a hard time making it through all the posts. Actually, now I feel really guilty about anything I've ever written with that tone.

I try to be fair, although I don't know why, since this is, after all, just a forum for my opinions, so I'll point out the fact that this site has *really* good writing. The style has impact, and keeps you reading through the end of the post. I don't think I do that as well as they do, actually. But the opinions! Woo! Harsh! I just wasn't expecting to see things like this from something with "New Jersey" in the name.

Let's take today's post for example. It's about the Corzine suggested health plan.

How dumb does Corzine think we are? Upfront indeed.

How dumb does he think we are? That is so not helpful. I posted a comment:

Nice tone. You guys do understand that "up front" means the *first* round of money, right? And I'm sure that you get that the $19.33 figure is what it takes to get the program started, not how much it will cost to run it.

Programs cost money. Taking care of people's health is worth it.

I think that this is a good time to repeat my constant line: "Programs cost money, and someone has to pay for them". Property taxes in NJ are too high? Cut programs. Programs aren't the problem, you say? Re-work the spending. My daddy used to tell me, "Tami, you know what the difference between Democrats and Republicans is? Democrats tax and spend, and Republicans borrow and spend".

Want to see what Corzine has proposed in his own words? Go ahead, read it yourself. See if there's an idea in there that you can't agree with.

On the Republican side of the house, go ahead and read Doug Forrester's proposed reduction of property taxes. See if you can find out exactly where the 30% will come from. Which state jobs are "unnecessary"? What are the differences between Democratic programs and Republican ones that indicate the "Democrats' spending addiction"? The explanations just aren't there. How am I supposed to make an informed decision if no one is informing me?

There's a quote on the top of the page at Enlighten NJ: "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." I agree, people - arm yourselves.

So Unsavory That I May Cry

Go read this over at Shakespeare's Sister. You'll be sorry, but not that you read it. It's about Neal Horsely, and what a sick (insert swear words here) he is.

Standing Up for Himself

Someone asked me how I felt about the Galloway statement delivered to the Senate the other day (as reported in The Times Online)

I'll put up two quotes which I think capture the tenor of the statement pretty accurately:

"Now you refer at length to a company names in these documents as Aredio Petroleum. I say to you under oath here today: I have never heard of this company, I have never met anyone from this company. This company has never paid a penny to me and I'll tell you something else: I can assure you that Aredio Petroleum has never paid a single penny to the Mariam Appeal Campaign. Not a thin dime. I don't know who Aredio Petroleum are, but I daresay if you were to ask them they would confirm that they have never met me or ever paid me a penny.

"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

So how do I feel about this? I feel appalled that this man should be publicly accused of being involved in the oil-for-food scandal. I feel astonished that it seems very clear that the only reason his name was brought into the investigation was to discredit a man who so obviously disagrees with U.S. policies and U.S. actions. I also feel quite delighted that he had the nerve, the confidence to stand up for himself and declare the truth as publicly as he could, instead of cowering in fear at the behemoth that is our country. Mostly, though, I'm angry, shamed, and surprised that this kind of smear attempt got so far that his public denial was necessary. Deep down I'm so naive.

Laying Blame

Via Atrios:

Perhaps we should stop blaming Newsweek.

General Myers also told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday that the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Carl Eichenberry, disagrees with the reports that protests in the city of Jalalabad were caused by anger over the alleged Koran incident.

"It is the judgment of our commander in Afghanistan, General Eichenberry, that in fact the violence that we saw in Jalalabad was not necessarily the result of the allegations about disrespect for the Koran, but more tied up in the political process and the reconciliation process that President Karzai and his cabinet are conducting in Afghanistan. He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine," he explained.

Usually Wolcott Is So Amusing...

Normally, when I read James Wolcott, I find myself smiling, even laughing out loud. Even when dealing with very serious subjects, his wry wit finds its way into the conversation, leaving me in awe of his snarky skills. (Skillz?)

Today, though, his post on the US and the future of the UN is just so serious that I'm not smiling at all.

Hands Off, Indeed

Today, there is a rally in Trenton with the theme "Hands Off Our Benefits!" This is a rally to let NJ government officials know that state employees like teachers and policemen do not want their pension plans changed. Talk of "entitlements" is inflammatory, and people wish to make their point that they work hard, and the benefits they receive are what they were granted in contract negotiations. Teachers and police officers receiving pensions are not living off the fat of the land, they worked hard doing tough, important jobs, and a degree of security in their old age is something they earned, not something that New Jersey is providing them out of generosity.

In this article, Hopefuls call for pension reforms, William G. Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities is quoted as saying,

"In many cases, it's too late (for reform)," Dressel said. "The police and fire system is one of the richest that exists in the nation. The teachers system is one of the most generous. It's indicative of the powerful interest groups they represent."

Perhaps it is one of the richest in the nation. I don't' have that information available to me, so it's a bit hard for me to tell. But I wonder, is it second richest in the nation? Because according to the U.S. Government's Census Bureau, NJ is number 2 as far as average personal per-capita income goes. When you factor in that NJ is consistently in the top ten highest rated states for cost of living (actual rankings I found averaged out at number 5), it only makes sense that our pension plans are "rich". How much do you want to bet that the amount of money we give our state retirees is not ranked second? The biggest complaints about spending in New Jersey is about how property taxes pay for schools, so school spending obviously has to be cut to lower the taxes. You think of the fifty states we rank second in school spending? I assure you, we do NOT.

I have read what the politicians are saying about the pension reforms they wish to make, and all of them cite people who take part time government positions and "tack" together the pension plans available from these minimal-effort jobs into an amount of money that mimics what a full-time worker makes. You hear that someone worked 5 jobs that required 10 hours a week of their time put together, and that now they'll receive a pension of $60,00 a year, on *top* of any income they receive. No, I don't think that's fair. No one thinks that's fair. Surely, though, there's a way to take care of this that doesn't penalize other state workers? The talk is of eliminating the possibility of pensions for part-time positions. This sounds fair until you think about a fire fighter in a 35-hour-per-week part time position for 20 years. Or a person working as a classroom aide who is considered part time because that will never be "classified" as a full-time position. These are people's careers, and appropriate pensions should not be denied them.

We need to find another way to eliminate this problem, a way that doesn't punish the people who have been generous enough to spend their working years making the rest of our lives better and safer.

Properly Grateful

Today, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo has added me to their blogroll. Because I asked!

By the way - if you don't want to turn your brain to mush, never, ever, EVER visit Kitten War. It almost killed me.

Friday Not-My-Pet Blogging Mark II

I know that Ron and Jazz have done an admirable job of posting about the new rodent discovered in Laos, but in my opinion, they missed the most important line:

Dr. Timmins said he was not tempted to feast on a rock rat and never thought to ask what it tasted like. A trip to the market, he said, made it clear that "in Laos, pretty much everything gets eaten."

Luckily, I don't have any need to make this stuff up.

Blog I'm Watching

This guy really doesn't like being represented by Michael Ferguson.

No, not at all.

Go With the Flow

Since EVERYTHING I read today seems to be about sex, I thought I'd pose a question about the few-days-old story about Neal Horsley and his early-life mule girlfriends.

OK, so this man believes that everyone who grew up on a farm learned about sex by having it with animals. Does he mean girls, too, or do you think that girls aren't "people" to a man like that?

Performing sex acts on animals is not anything like engaging in a relationship with another consenting adult (or even another consenting teenager - there's nothing like that). Anyone who deigns to compare these two simply makes themselves look ridiculous - and kind of demented - in my mind.

My Kind of Mouthpiece

Please, if you're not the type who's read this already, head over to Dear Abby for today's date, May 11th, 2005. She has a letter from someone who calls himself "Leonard in Lynchburg". I feel terrible quoting her column, I worry that I need permission but I simply must. I'll just take from the middle of Abby's reply:

"Homosexuality is simply a variant of sexual orientation. Those who claim it is "unnatural" should direct their attention to Dr. Joan Roughgarden, a biologist at Stanford University with a Ph.D. from Harvard, who states that more than 300 vertebrate species have been found to practice homosexuality. (A visit to any zoo might confirm it.)"

Abby, whom I often think of as an example of as pure Middle American Values-Oriented as you get, apparently thinks that scientific facts and tolerance are values. I applaud her.

More Cross Posting Goodness

A post I've put up at Running Scared:

Reading Terror ties at a Middle Eastern bank?, I am struck by both sides of the issue, yet again.

Side one: you should not help terrorists.
Side two: you should deposit money in bank accounts, if the correct deposit slip is used and you're a bank.

I think that a bank should do business as usual, and shouldn't be peering in to every transaction in every one of their customer's accounts by any means. As true as this is, though, it's also important that things like terrorist watch lists are recognized, and when someone opens a new account, references like that one should be checked. If a person is affiliated with a terrorist organization, an International bank should not be issuing them an account. I don't think that's an unreasonable request.

It's funny, my first thought when reading this was "It's a bank, it's supposed to move people's money around for them". As I read, though, I came to the above conclusion. Terrorist "watch lists" and "wanted lists" exist because people are breaking laws and hurting other people, and they're in place for the greater good. (I will not get into whether or not people who are on the lists belong there).

I do not know whether or not the Arab Bank has terrorist ties, they certainly protest loudly enough that they do not. I do believe that it is wrong of them to assist in moving money for people involved in terrorist acts, and I sincerely hope that their efforts to prevent this from happening in the future are successful

Face the Truth

Newsflash: Ancient Egyptian artists - not big liars!

CT scans reveal King Tut's face
"Archaeologists discover images are strikingly similar to ancient portraits"

I'm so relieved!

Humanitarianism and Realism

Not two words that you hear put together all the time, but I think that they work here.

I don't know if you've been over to The Huffington Post yet, but it's HUGE. There's post upon post upon post to read, and I don't know how one person could ever get through it all and get anything else done. So, it was no surprise to me that The Opinion Mill had found a post that I missed yesterday, by my own state's Senator, Jon Corzine. The Senator says:

But even if you put aside the moral case for ending genocide for a moment, consider our own interests in the matter. The failed state that is being created in the wake of this horrific crime will be a hotbed for global instability. I was there, and I saw what’s happening. As I stood in the refugee camps of Eastern Chad, into which hundreds of thousands of desperate people are pouring over the border, I realized how dangerous to America the situation has become. Not only is Darfur a lawless part of an unstable state, but the conflict there is destabilizing Chad.

The refugees, even when they are receiving food and shelter, have nothing to do. Resentment is building. And Eastern Chad, which has insufficient resources for its own population, cannot accommodate the refugees for long. We must stop this genocide, and we also must bring about a long-term political solution to this crisis. With two million people in refugee camps in Chad and camps for displaced persons in Darfur, we are creating the conditions for the collapse of law and order in an entire region and, potentially, for terrorism.

There you have it. An argument that we should help our keep our fellow man from getting slaughtered, if only to protect ourselves against future terrorist attacks. The only bigger motivator in today's world seems to be people's pocketbooks, and one can certainly argue that terrorism is costing the US more and more money every day.

When we headed over to Iraq with guns blazing I posted that I wondered why it was important to liberate those people, but not the ones in the Sudan who were being killed in frightening numbers for no reason at all. I still don't know why people wouldn't think this is important.

Going for the Sleaze Factor

Rather than blog about something lofty today, I thought I'd point out a newspaper article that I had the good fortune to stumble across. It's about a prostitution bust, and I think we all know that if you can talk about sex, you really should.

Prostitution is latest Morris target
We start out with this:

Authorities in Morris County arrested 18 people this weekend in a prostitution sting in Rockaway Township, part of a campaign to root out sex crimes, gambling and drugs, the county prosecutor said yesterday.

A little further on down the line, though, we get this:

Investigators chose Rockaway Township for its proximity to major highways such as Routes 80 and 46, not because the township is a center for prostitution, the prosecutor said.

...

Rockaway Township Mayor Louis Sceusi said he is pleased that local and county authorities worked together on the sting, but he emphasized that the township is not plagued by prostitution.

So these escort services weren't located in Morris County at all? I am disappointed. I was looking forward to reading about how crime-riddled one of the more affluent NJ counties was! Oh, well. At least I can take comfort that this is brought up far enough down in the article that a lot of people will miss it. My party conversation starter remains safe!

Another thing I'd like to point out about this article - it gives the names of the female NJ residents taken in to custody. Was that out of consideration for men who'd like to look them up in the future? I hope those ladies have unlisted numbers.

Odd thing #3 - two of the women listed are mentioned as "working in child care". I wonder if prostitution business is so slow that you need a second job.

Can Someone Explain This?

I'm sure there's a reason...

Can someone explain why part of my town is in this district?

Not my whole town, mind you, just a small part. Lumped in with other towns, a lot of which don't resemble us so much.

It's vexing.

Lazy Friday

Once again, I do not feel like thinking.

Instead, I shall point you to an amusing web page about pronouncing words.

Amusing to me, at least.

Vitriol

Ooh! Jill's MAD! Spittin' Mad!

What part of "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" don't Americans understand? Or is this Administration SO vile and SO corrupt that Americans just don't care anymore?

Inappropriate

People must learn to look at a situation from someone else's point of view, they simply must.

Vandals spray swastika, Sharon slur at entrance to Yad Vashem

Unknown men Thursday sprayed swastikas and graffiti reading "Sharon is continuing Hitler's way" on the road leading into the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, minutes before the opening of the central ceremony marking Holocaust Memorial Day.

Similar graffiti was also sprayed on the facade of the Central Zionist Archives building in the capital.

Housing Minister Yitzhak Herzog, who was taking part in the March of the Living between the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps vehemently condemned the graffiti.

"Only a sick mind can compare the prime minister to the Nazi enemy on Holocaust Memorial Day," Herzog said.

So true. Persecution is a terrible thing, and I understand that many feel that the Palestinians aren't getting a fair deal. Some even believe that they're being eliminated. And some believe that they're being treated too kindly, and that giving in to them - any concession at all - is comparable with the most tragic incident of slaughter in the 20th Century. This is simply not true. Fighting and death as a result of conflict has nothing to do with the wholesale rounding up of certain types of people, detaining them, putting them to death, and dumping them in mass graves. It's not the same as using their body fat for soap or their skin for lamp shades, or performing medical experiments on them "because they're not really people", anyway.

There are many terrible moments in history, and some can indeed be compared reasonably to the Holocaust. Sadly, it is not unique in it's horror. The current situation, however - policies enacted by Sharon - they are NOT of that level, and saying that they are is a tremendous show of disrespect for the human race.

Guilty by Association

Ah, hell.
Pentagon analyst charged with disclosing secrets

Lawrence Franklin surrendered to the FBI and faces charges of disclosing classified U.S. national defense information in 2003 to two individuals who sources said worked at the time at the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Fabulous. I cannot tell you how much I dislike it when Jews do bad things. It makes me fear for fresh outbreaks of anti-semitism. I know that as prejudices go, anti-semitism in New Jersey is fairly low-key, but I still get antsy.

I'm having one of those hippie-moments where I wish that everyone would always be viewed as an individual with individual traits instead of as part of a group with stereotypical ones. Ah, well, I have reality instead.

In case anyone wonders, I'm pro-Israel and anti-PAC.

I Just Really Liked the Headline

The Future Calls, and Mom Says Call Back

It is a scenario just plausible enough for Hollywood. After all, many patches of the country are now covered with Wi-Fi. And millions of people now use voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) to make cheap or free calls on the Internet. So, like two tastes that go great together, why not join Wi-Fi and VoIP? Why not turn a hand-held computer into a phone?

It's not really an eye-opening article or anything, in fact, it feels a lot like filler. Like I said, though, I love the headline.

Three Minus Two

(cross-posted at Running Scared)

If you take away the better part of something, you only have a small part left. That's logic for you, right?
Pentagon Says Iraq Effort Limits Ability to Fight Other Conflicts

The officer, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed Congress in a classified report that major combat operations elsewhere in the world, should they be necessary, would probably be more protracted and produce higher American and foreign civilian casualties because of the commitment of Pentagon resources in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So, reading this, I understand that we have a lot of troops deployed already, and if something else should come up, we won't have as many soldiers to send to the new place. Does that mean we'd lose?

Despite the limitations, General Myers was unwavering in his assessment that American forces would win any major combat operation. The armed forces, he concluded, are "fully capable" of meeting all Washington's military objectives.

So we wouldn't lose? Even with a gazillion (approx 140,000) troops deployed in Iraq, we could still kick yet another country's ass?

Though the general wrote that the military forces "will succeed in any" major combat operation, he added that "they may be unable to meet expectations for speed or precision as detailed in our current plans."

Oh, now I get it - we can still kick their asses, but it would have to be slowly. Gotcha.

The article goes on to pretty much contradict itself and swear that we're not vulnerable. I do believe that we can defend ourselves, but let's face it, without a whole lot of gung-ho recruits, our imperialistic goals are over we won't be able to spread freedom as quickly as we'd like.

New Government, Same Old Violence

Well, they have a new government, but the violence in Iraq doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Car bombs strike Baghdad, killing eight

Iraqis had hoped to be rewarded with stability and a decline in bloodshed on their streets after risking the threat of suicide bombings to vote in the historic election on Jan. 30.

But their bickering leaders took three months to form a government, and the guerrillas show no signs of weakening.

Iraqi officials estimate that attacks have killed about 100 people and wounded more than 150 since Thursday, when the first democratically elected government in 50 years was formed.

Wish it had helped, I really do.