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This doesn't mean we're anti-American, redneck scum, pinko commies, militia members, or terrorist-sympathizers. It means we believe in freedom, as more than merely a cliché. We believe you have the right to live your own life as you choose, and others have the equal right to live their lives as they choose. It's not complicated. We believe freedom leads to peace, progress, and prosperity, while its opposite -- oppression -- leads to war, terrorism, poverty, and misery. We believe it's preposterously stupid to hate people because of their appearance, their race or nationality, their religion or lack of religion, how they have sex with other consenting adults, etc. There are far more apropos reasons to hate most people. We believe in questioning ourselves, our assumptions, each other -- and we especially believe in questioning authority (the more authority, the more questions). We believe obedience is a fine quality in dogs and young children, but not in adults. Like America's right-wingers, we believe in individual responsibility, hard work to get ahead, and stern punishment for serious crimes. We believe big government should not be blindly trusted. But unlike most right-wing leaders, we mean it. Like America's left-wingers, we believe in equal treatment under law, war as a last (not first) resort, and sensible stewardship of natural resources. We believe big business should not be blindly trusted. But unlike most left-wing leaders, we mean it. Like libertarians, we believe it's wrong and reprehensible to arrest people for what they think, believe, look like, wear, eat, smoke, drink, inhale, inject, or otherwise do to themselves. But unlike many libertarians, we're not obsessed with the gold standard, we don't believe incorporation is humanity's highest achievement, and we don't believe everything in life comes down to dollars and cents. We've read and enjoyed Ayn Rand's novels, but we understand that they're works of fiction. We're skeptical, and we're sick of so-called 'journalists' who aren't skeptical at all. A reader asks, what are our solutions? We propose no solutions except common sense, which is never common. We like the principles of democracy, and the ideals broadly described as 'American'. The US Constitution is a fine and workable framework for solutions, when it's actually read and thoughtfully understood by intelligent statesmen and women. So, no manifestos from us. We don't dream that big, and if there's one thing the world doesn't need it's yet another manifesto. Our suggestion is: think. A fact-based instead of faith-based approach leads to solutions for most of the recurring issues of our time, from abortion to global climate change, pollution to universal health care, careful but real regulation of industry and economy, hunger, war, terror, human rights for humans not for corporations, science not religious doctrine in public schools, equal protection and prosecution under law, etc. Approach problems without glorifying stupidity, without demonizing intelligence, and answers usually come into focus. These pages are published by Harry and Helen Highwater, happily married low-income nom de plumes and rabble-rousers from Madison, Wisconsin (with a few friends scattered around the world helping out). We try to spotlight news that hasn't gotten enough (or appropriate) attention in American media, along with our opinions and yours. We bang our keyboards against the wall, because it doesn't hurt as much as banging our heads. Helen & Harry Highwater     (from About Unknown News)

#  Helen & Harry on Thursday —

Our inbox.com email address has been unaccessible for the past day or so. Please contact us through one of our other email accounts instead: newsuneed at yahoo.com, or unknownnews at lycos.com, or unknownnews at myway.com.

#  WlGriffi on Saturday —

comment : LOL. I knew you'd find a way to iggy (as they do me in the senior citizen chat room I visit) me. Well I fully intend to retaliate.


#  Helen & Harry on Saturday —

It wasn't our intent to iggy you, and I don't know the word, but our inbox.com email seems to be working again.


#  WlGriffi on Sunday —

Just ignore me when I attempt to be witty.

#  Theo Lipschitz on Thursday —

Hating the government finally goes mainstream

Three years ago, the Republican establishment piled scorn on the presidential candidacy of Ron Paul. Today, he is in a statistical tie with President Obama in 2012 polling. [...]

It turns out that watching Goldman Sachs, the United Auto Workers, public employee unions and a raft of other vampires drain the treasury at America's weakest moment in a generation will make a person pretty hacked off.

(To say nothing of the Pentagon and zero-tax paying corporations like ExxonMobil.)

[...] His (Obama's) election has turned out to be not the result of a national lurch toward government intervention but his own skill at disguising his policies, the failures of the Republican Party and the bursting of the lending bubble. [...]

Libertarian sentiment has finally gone mainstream. A movement that said that people should do whatever they wanted as long as it didn't hurt anyone else couldn't compete during the culture wars that began in the 1960s. But after two wars, a $12 trillion debt, a financial crisis and the most politically tone-deaf president in modern history, Americans may have finally given up on big government.

===

The way the Democrats and mainstream media such as MSNBC have mocked the Tea Party movement reminds me of the way the mainstream media outlets like Fox mocked the anti-Iraq War protestors before the invasion. I went to exactly one physical, in-person, anti-war protest, the big one BEFORE the war when it wasn't totally pointless to protest. A big majority of Americans heartily supported the invasion. Now a bigger majority, including politicians in both major parties acknowledge that invading Iraq was a huge mistake. We blew through a trillion dollars and now the warmongers want to go to war with Iran...which...wait for it...was strengthened by our invasion of Iraq and is now a close ally of the Iraqi government! Doy.

There are a lot of goofy people in every party. It is easy to mock granola eating, hairy-legged hippie girls. But it isn't like these rednecks would kick these women out of bed, or complain about granola crumbs on the sheets either. The fact that the Tea Party movement is full of people who are finally aligned with Reality is something we should be happy about. It isn't their fault that Republican politicians are now claiming to be fiscal conservatives, which is an obvious lie.

Let's all stop being sheep and start thinking for ourselves about the truth of these matters and quit worrying about which party is politicking the storyline.

#  Helen & NHarry on Thursday —

Nah, sorry, I love ya but I can't agree. I've seen three "tea party" events on the city's main public lawn (it's near where I work), including their latest, the Tax Day protest. I've seen their kooky signs, heard their nonsensical lie-packed rhetoric over the loudspeakers. I've spoken with random attendees, some of whom approached me and some of whom were approached by me. I've done plenty of eavesdropping as these people walk the sidewalks, too. So take my word for it, the "goofy people" are in the majority at these events. They're generally nincompoops.

I sympathize and even share some of their concerns insofar as they're factual, but that's uncommon. For the most part they're worried about their rising taxes when their taxes aren't rising and violations of the constitution that were fine with them when the president was a Republicans and will be fine with them again next time the President is a Republican. They think Sarah Palin is smart, and that really says it all. I respect the hell out of peaceful protest, it's been a key factor in my life, but the grasp of the issues at these events is shallower than The O'Reilly Factor and much, much louder. These people aren't protesting the real world, 'cuz they've never been there. The issues they're most worked up about are nonsensically disconnected from the facts of any matter.


#  Theo Lipschitz on Friday —

I respect that. However, my favorite Tea Party sign is "Re-elect No One". And regardless of the dubious qualities of many of the protesters, as time goes by the causes their main grievances will continue to strengthen. Let me give you an example... the "47 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax" statistic...

To some extent this reflects the failure of wages to keep up with inflation, productivity gains and the money supply. It also reflects generous child tax credits that are "pro family". BUT...on the other side, the "richie" side, wage and wealth gains have become so common and massive that the upper middle and upper economic classes are totally oblivious to the disconnect between necessary expenditures and the wages of average people. People earning $200,000 a year literally do not feel rich, and to a millionaire senator the idea of requiring poor people to spend $500 a month for shitty health insurance is a no-brainer.

I think the bottom line is this: people are pissed and both the Dems and the Repubs are in full denial.


#  Helen & Harry on Friday —

On that last point especially, I hope you're right. Hope it with all my heart gut and brain. But I'm doubtful.

The tea party crowd is furious because Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have told them to be furious. A lot of money has been spent on the propaganda that's gotten these people riled, but like tea bags, these crowds are on strings being pulled. When Obama's gone, the crimes and corruption will continue and intensify, but the crowd of protesters will evaporate as soon as Fox and Limbaugh tell them to go home.

What we need is a furious crowd that's furious on principle and on fact. And I have no idea how to make that happen, when mass media and massive money presents only the opposite of principle and fact.


#  John H. Mallory on Friday —

Might I bring Steve Benen into this discussion. He states eloquently and explains why "If you were to make a Venn Diagram of the issues Tea Party members care about, and the issues Tea Party members are confused about, you'd only see one circle."

#  WlGriffi on Saturday —

Comment : The "malaise" that Jimmy Carter spoke of has come to complete fruition while we stood back and refused to believe. Where are (or rather where were) the "muckrakers" when we needed them?

#  Jason4567 on Sunday —

If the subject is the bagger bunch and anyone here takes them seriously I just want to say, Don't. The NY Times polled baggers (PDF LINK) and among the questions asked was this gem: "Do you think Barack Obama’s policies are moving the country more toward socialism, or are his policies not moving the country in that direction?" 92 percent of the bagger crowd says yes, Obama is moving America toward socialism.

These people are fools. I seriously can't imagine the stupidity levels here, not even knowing what something is (socialism) and yet being so panicked about it that they carry signs protesting something this ludicrously impossible. If Fox News told them the Kenyan Muslim Communist President was going to ban apple pie 92 percent of them would believe it. Maybe more. These people are damn close to literally mentally retarded and it's almost as retarded to take them seriously, but the news media is always there to wipe the drool off their faces and air their idiocy on national TV.

#  Siskiyousis on Friday —

Oh yeah, now that the repugs are out, it is perfectly safe to damn the Dems...


#  Scott Connors on Saturday —

There's not much tea-leaf reading you can do to glean wisdom from the tea party movement, since it's fundamentally phony. I'm sure there are many, many people who have attended their rallies out of honest (if incorrect) political beliefs, but the whole phenomenon has been orchestrated and underwritten by the same wealthy right-wing sources that fund Fox News and the army of right-wing think tanks. It's as futile as looking for meaning in TV ratings for "24" or box office returns for "Passion of the Christ". The only thing it means is that there's an audience for that kind of crap, but suckers are born every minute and it doesn't mean the suckers have a point.

#  Cassandra on Thursday —

So Constance McMillen didn't get to go to the real prom, but she'll be a grand marshal of the gay pride parade in New York.

#  Helen & Harry on Thursday —

Oh, I love that. A happy ending after all. Best news I've heard today.

#  wlgriffi on Thursday —

Misplaced priorities.

What's the Single Biggest Misuse of Water in the US?

Comment : If as much energy and expenditure was spent on the water displacement in this country as is spent on the war mongering agenda it would sink into the mental gymnastics of the power brokers both on Wall Street and Main Street.

#  Siskiyousis on Thursday —

what I am reading today:

A live-blog view at the TeaBag rally on Boston Common, by WRPitt --

LINK

...and a review of one of my favorite writers, Italo Calvino (up there with Borges) --

LINK

I find the comments to be as incisive as the essay. I guess if you don't read Calvino it is rather opaque...

#  Boots Akimbo on Wednesday —

Every time a job is outsourced, a factory shuttered and relocated in the third world, an import shipped inbound that used to be an export shipped outbound, America's day of economic doom draws closer. It won't be much longer now.

#  wlgriffi on Wednesday —

How do we rectify this injustice?

Judge Orders Man Once Labeled "Highest-Value Detainee" Released From Gitmo

After nine years in captivity, including physical and psychological torture, Mohamedou Ould Salahi has been ordered released by Federal District Judge James Robertson.

Comment : If the "tea party'ers " are so gung ho for "american values" perhaps they will demand that the Bush Cabal criminals be held accountable for the unlawful conduct used at "Gitmo". But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to do so. They are in the Kit Bond mold and have no shame for horror they prefer to ignore and look the other way.

#  Helen & Harry on Wednesday —

If America gave a damn about "American values" saying someone's "in the Kit Bond mold" would be damn strong fightin' words.


#  wlgriffi on Thursday —

In the words of a former famous POTUS "Bring EM' On".

#  Cassandra on Wednesday —

I don't know if you have any interest in this, and rather doubt it. These silly books are all about abstinence and waiting for marriage to have sex - the author is a Mormon. But they've been challenged by a Christian group because they're about paranormal characters [that seem more like angels than vampires] and sexual content that I don't think is in them. I don't think the describing morning-afters of a married couple is 'sexual content', though, so I guess I'm insufficiently moral. 'Twilight' series on list of challenged books

Then I saw this, and it made sense: 'Also cited were such perennials as J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" (sexual content, language), Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" (language, racism), Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" (sexual content, language) and Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War" (nudity, language, sexual content).' I found reading 'The Color Purple' extraordinarily upsetting as a teenager, and think that its depiction of domestic abuse might be a problem for some teens when it's taught in high schools, but that's another issue.

#  Helen & Harry on Wednesday —

We'll always have censors among us, people eager to be offended and to "protect the children" (and the society) from anything that anyone anywhere might find shocking, or challenging, or thought-provoking.

And hey, as an old person I'm supposed to disdain the young whippersnappers' culture, and I do. Near as I can tell, Meyer's Twilight books are designed to be safe for tweeners — sex-free, drug-free, and free of anything that might interest a real kid. When I was of that age I never wanted anything safe. Maybe that's why Mom inspected my bedroom once or twice a week while I was in school, never caring about the clutter, only shrieking about the books, comic books, and album covers.


#  Cassandra on Wednesday —

It never occurred to my parents to check what I was reading, which was either very trusting or very naive. I remember being shocked, as well as hurt, when a favorite aunt read my diary. Later she was horrified that I was reading someone like Judith Krantz. The folks were just thrilled I was a dedicated reader.


#  Helen & Harry on Wednesday —

I never would have forgiven what your aunt did. I tend to hold a grudge about things like that.

Years ago when I heard radio hatemonger "Dr Laura" (her PhD is in physiology) recommend that parents and concerned adults snoop through their children's rooms, backpacks, and personal effects, it was the last time I ever listened to Dr Laura.


#  Cassandra on Thursday —

I think "Dr" Laura published some books while I was working in a bookstore. She's a monster.

Forgiveness isn't my forte. I can't fix all my feelings [gotta have a goal, right?], but I can usually manage my behavior.

#  Lexy Lady on Tuesday —

I've known a couple of intelligent, principled Republicans, but one belongs to a conservative church [which seems to affect judgment] and the other isn't a Republican any more. Of course, these were mere voters, not politicians.

#  Helen & Harry on Tuesday —

My pop was an intelligent Republican, but that was a generation ago. Now there's Ron Paul, and that's it.


#  Lexy Lady on Tuesday —

Yeah, the no-longer-affiliated is my dad. He spends a lot of time responding to emails from right-wing people who believe whatever they're told with links that refute the nonsense. So far it doesn't seem to be slowing them down...

Ron Paul's son is running for office here. I don't really know anything about him.

#  WlGriffi on Saturday —

Comment LOL. On the former I'd say you're expressing bias and the latter signs of senility.


#  Helen & Harry on Tuesday —

I haven't figured out Rand Paul yet. Haven't really tried. Do you get the impression he's worth figuring out?

Debunking right-wing lies is futility. The people who need to have the lies debunked are uninterested in facts. It's a human thing and it drives me nuts, but people want to believe what they want to believe. I'm not immune to that, of course, but for people of ordinary intelligence there are limits for what lies they'll swallow whole. The right-wing's endless lies are not aimed at people of ordinary intelligence.


#  Lexy Lady on Thursday —

Probably my last note on the topic of Rand Paul for a bit, but he's described as a 'supporter of the Tea Party movement'.

#  Lon Garm on Monday —

$3,000,000 donut. Mmmm!

Chicago committee OKs $3 million to settle lawsuit by woman injured by police chase

Chicago would pay $3 million to a young woman who suffered permanent brain damage when she was the passenger in a car struck by a stolen van involved in an unauthorized police chase, under a settlement advanced Monday by a City Council committee.

#  churrero87 on Tuesday —

The interesting item in that news report is not that a tragic accident occurred, but that after the accident the cops involved in the chase lied about it, saying it basically didn't happen and they were parked just one block from the crash site when the speeding van roared by. And now you would think, maybe, that pretty much every time these cops are scheduled to testify about anything smart defense lawyers will challenge their veracity and credibility (i.e. are they "testilying"?)

===

hmmm...very fishy! why did they let the passenger go. that is definitely not normal behavior for straight cops. sounds like maybe the passenger was finking for them...which is very common these days due to the fact that victimless crimes don't have citizens claiming to have been victimized so they cops have to manufacture willing witnesses.

Detroit cop convicted of doctoring arrest report

Detroit police officer Lashaud Welcome was convicted this morning of official misconduct for doctoring an arrest report in a routine dope and gun case. [...]

Welcome faces a maximum 5-year prison sentence. Welcome’s partner, Ruffus Stewart pleaded guilty and will be sentenced May 27. He also faces a maximum 5-year prison sentence. [...]

In their arrest reports of the February 2009 incident, the officers said the found marijuana and a pistol on Megale Redd. However, gas station security tapes showed they got the drugs from a passenger and found the gun under the car hood. [...]

The officers told the passenger, Sherrod Redd, to leave without running a records check. He was wanted on an outstanding warrant for violating his probation for assaulting a police officer.


#  Helen & Harry on Tuesday —

Bad cops used to make me furious, when I thought they were an aberration. I've come to understand that the aberration is the cop who isn't corrupt, and it's terrible to confess it but bad cops rarely make me furious any more. There's so much corruption at all levels of business and government in America, the bad cop stories instead strike me as almost quaint. Just endless examples of low-level barbarism in an increasingly and unstoppably barbaric society.

It's like examining a cancer cell under a high-power microscope, seeing the sickness so closely that the cell division happens right before your eyes and you can see it in detail.

Probably the above makes no sense. If it reads as confused as I suspect it does, I'll try to straighten it out tomorrow, after the beer wears off.

#  Charisse S. on Monday —

You will LOVE this:

Brooks: Let Them Eat Work

excerpt of rudeness: [...] If he keeps this up, he’s going to make his way into the Guinness Book for having extended his tongue at least a foot and a half farther up the ass of the Times’s Upper East Side readership than any previous pundit in journalistic history. But then you come to this last line of his, in which he claims that “for the first time in history, rich people work longer hours than middle class or poor people,” and you find yourself almost speechless. [...]

Then again, maybe I’m looking at this from the wrong perspective. Would I rather clean army latrines with my tongue, or would I rather do what Brooks does for a living, working as a professional groveler and flatterer who three times a week has to come up with new ways to elucidate for his rich readers how cosmically just their lifestyles are? If sucking up to upper-crust yabos was my actual job and I had to do it to keep the electricity on in my house, then yes, I might look at that as work. But it strikes me that David Brooks actually enjoys his chosen profession. In fact, he strikes me as the kind of person who even in his spare time would pay a Leona Helmsley lookalike a thousand dollars to take a shit on his back. [...]

#  Siskiyousis on Monday —

Brooks is such a putz, that I stopped reading anything he wrote years ago.

And yes, I do LOVE Taibbi's continuing attacks on Brooks.

Matt Taibbi got it just right. I don't see any reason why he should lay off Brooks; somebody needs to be poking him with a stick on a regular basis...

He mentions miners --

Missing Lesson From the Mine Tragedy: Union-Busting = Death

That work is more dangerous than the now-off-shored steel plants. I guess their demise might be one of the results of having a really strong union. Like the automotive industry.

Here's a fine idea that is going to have a difficult time in the implementation stage, if it ever gets that far...

Rape aXe: Putting Teeth Into the Fight Against Rape

But a great take on the old myth of vaginal teeth... I kinda wonder what Joseph Campbell would have said about this one.

#  Helen & Harry on Monday —

I have occasionally read the punditry of David Brooks for its inoculating value, to protect my mind from muddled thinking by brief exposure to it. His startling in-person ability to take inside-the-beltway and up Big Money's bunghole wisdom and add a layer of sneering contempt is a primary reason I no longer watch the abysmal PBS Evening News. He is basically Neidermeyer from Animal House, with a word processor instead of a silly ROTC uniform. So it is a pleasant experience to see David Brooks dismantled by Matt Taibbi. It is a hell of a mismatch, though, as Taibbi is a journalist.

#  Ben W. on Monday —

Have I missed something or has the Obama administration done exactly Jaqck and Shit for working stiffs in this economic malstrom? I remember a mid-size "stimulus" that went almost entirely to business owners and banks, and a ten-billion "jobs program" that was so small it was basically symbolic, and I remember seeing an extension of unemployment benefits sneered at. Basically, nothing compared to what the criminal banks and more criminal bankers got.

#  Parsippany28 on Monday —

Wow, big winner today is Bruce Sterling. Items from the Now mirroring the books he wrote TEN or more years ago (Holy Fire and Distraction in particular). Hilarious side commentary too :-)

Sharing law
By Bruce Sterling

I like it that this Oakland lawyer who is into online sharing immediately thinks about sharing law services. No, notSharia law, because that’s that Moslem business, butsharing law. You know, for Favela Chic people who live off free software and stuff they snag off Craigslist. More of ‘em around all the time, so you can bet they’re gonna get hammered someday — probably by one of those dark-of-night sneak acts of Parliament like the one the British just did to deprive pirate file-sharers of any access to the Internet. That’s the major political problem you face when you’re bohemian underclass and have no attorneys. The government’s all attorneys. Pretty much solid attorneys all the way through.

Birth of sharing law

[...] Now, if only Lynne knew how to report all this to the IRS, and how to explain it to her car insurance company, the Health Department, mortgage lenders, the Secretary of State, the Department of Real Estate, the city planning and building departments, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and all of the other regulatory and bureaucratic entities that have a say over what she can and can’t do….”

(((Big problem for our sharing heroine, right? Obviously she needs a dropout lawyer! Somebody who gets it about her multiple children, her polyamorous marriage and her habit of fabbing small household objects with a MakerBot.))) [...]

===

Here comes gerontocracy
By Bruce Sterling

If you really want old people to freak out and get all productive, creative and inventive, despite their basic nature as the elderly — well then, destroying their life savings and throwing them out of their homes was likely a great start. [...]

The shock of the old: Welcome to the elderly age

===

The softwarization of stuff
By Bruce Sterling

I like to keep an eye on fabrication thinking, and you know what’s really different about fabbing and conventional manufacturing? Conventional manufacturing has stuff like specialized trade journals, while this fabbing essay is on the net, and it’s written by some guy in Spain I’ve somehow never heard of, and, furthermore, it’s the aw3some.

The softwarization of stuff

#  wlgriffi on Sunday —

Re: The Vatican Sex scandal

Comment : Why the continuing teeth grinding? Doesn't anyone understand that The Vatican is the quintessential bureaucracy. Next to Washington The Vatican is the ultimate in flim flam rhetoric.

Re "There are a handful of truly fearless reporters in Afghanistan constantly trying to break the military’s monopoly on access to the front. But far too many of our colleagues accept the spin-laden press releases churned out of the Kabul headquarters. Suicide bombers are 'cowards', NATO attacks on civilians are 'tragic accidents', intelligence is foolproof and only militants get arrested.."

Comment : Where have you been for the past twenty odd years???? Or is it that you've become brain dead from the Flim-flam Washington feed? Just teasing. The devil is in me today.

Re Update, later the same day: As we surmised, it's bullsh*t

Comment : The "bullsh*t" has become so deep now that I see no use in expecting an American brokered peace conferance. The Israelis' insistence on no "pre-conditions" while demanding the Palestinians accept continued Israeli settlement increases and continued Gaza blockades leaves me with the conclusion we may as well just whistle Dixie and let Israel twist in the wind and hang itself. Time is on the Palestinians side at least population wise. And our continued supply of war materials is not inexhaustible.

#  Helen & Harry on Sunday —

I probably grind my teeth in my sleep. It's what I do.

I'm not Catholic but my impression is that WaDC tops the Vatican for bureaucracy, but the Vatican tops WaDC in flimflammery. Pretended democracy is a hell of a sham, but pretending to be God's throne on earth is pretty much the tops in con games, especially when they're using the proceeds to run a kiddie-rape ring.

Regarding Israel's continued belligerence and America's continued support thereof: That's one of the most deeply entrenched aspects of America's international racketeering, right up there with warmaking as our leading export. Both will be among the very last to go, but as America continues its long-term self-induced spiral toward bankruptcy and irrelevance, you'll know the end is near when the bastards running America can no longer get away with underwriting Israel. That's going to be just about the last piece of American corruption to end; after that come the ruins and, with a little luck and a lot of hard work, the rebuilding of our country.

# Renegade Gargler on Sunday —

Ron Paul lost the straw poll at the SRCL (Southern Republican Leadership Conference) to Mitt Romney by just one vote! I can't find a complete transcript of his remarks, but these are the highlights:

“In the technical sense, in the economic definition, he is not a socialist,” the Texas Republican said to a smattering of applause at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

“He’s a corporatist,” Paul quickly added, meaning the president takes “care of corporations and corporations take over and run the country.”

Ron Paul chastises GOP conference

The conservatives and the liberals, they both like to spend. Conservatives spend money on different things. They like embassies, and they like occupation. They like the empire. They like to be in 135 countries and 700 bases.

Don’t you think it’s rather conservative to say, ‘Oh it’s good to follow the Constitution. Oh, except for war. Let the President go to war anytime they want.’ We can do better with peace than with war. [...]

Whenever the boos grew loud enough, Paul returned to his "humble" foreign policy stance. "It's been 60 years since we went to war in Korea," said Paul. "Why do we have to have troops there?"

After the boos, a better reception

Paul courted boos by returning, again and again, to the primacy of "humble" foreign policy. [...]

Paul hectored the crowd about how faith to the Constitution meant demanding wars be approved by Congress. Not so many cheers. Then: "Declare the war, go fight, win it, and get out of there." That finally united the halves of the room.

MEANWHILE back at the ranch...pollster/magician Nate Silver predicts 51 seat loss in House for Demopubs...and possibly many more!

How Bad Could 2010 Be for the Democratic Party?

Generic Ballot Points Toward Possible 50+ Seat Loss for Democrats

me:

The Ron Paul message is popular among the base of Republicans however much loathed by the Repugnant leadership. And the motto of the Demopubs has been this: Our Base Has Nowhere To Go.

There's a lot of rage "out there". And it is totally deserved. Look at the multiple betrayals of the Democratic base.

The Let Them Eat Cake attitude of both parties is especially disastrous for Demopubs. Clueless, Mindless, Willful Ignorance And Stupidity. I now expect leading Republicans to be butt stupid, but the idiocy of the Demopubs blows my mind, like do-nothing California Senator Barbara Boxer who is against legalizing pot because it might increase crime. How stupid do you have to be to have a career in politics? Jesus help us all.

There can be no national solutions without new crises. And when those crises occur, the most cowardly and stupid Americans will be in key political leadership roles. I hope you have your passport ready -- or at least have moved to the hearts of the bluest states in the US (you're less likely to be slaughtered by meth and Budwiser crazed rednecks in the popular uprisings to come...) Fuck.

#  Helen & Harry on Sunday —

I like and respect Ron Paul, and as I sit here pondering it I can't think of another living Republican I either like or respect, let alone both. I'd love it if he got the Republicans' nomination for President, but he can't, because if he got the nomination the campaign would be about discussing the issues. The criminals in charge can't allow that to happen, and they spend a lot of money and effort making sure it never does.

#  Bernie C. on Sunday —

I came across "Impact" by Douglas Preston (2010) at the library. Visit here for info, including pdf version of the first two chapters:

LINK

"Impact" is noteworthy primarily because the main character -- heroine -- is interesting, funny, smart and basically a good role model, in spite of (or in addition to) her love of doobies and profanity. She gets the job done :-)

"Impact" is also a good read. Good story. Well told. Sci-fi told by a non-sci-fi author. Good job, sir!

#  Montgomery Scott on Sunday —

Prepare for mind expansion: one, two ...

Does Our Universe Live Inside a Wormhole?

#  Lon Garm on Saturday —

Real interesting — the officials obviously knew very quickly that undercover cop Craig Miller was sloshing with booze -- drunk as a skunk -- at the time of the crash but they kept the smelly beaner locked up in the hoosegow for two months anyway....now Karma comes into play...

Driver jailed in deputy's death sues Harris County

crash photo

A truck driver who spent two months in jail following a crash that killed a Harris County sheriff's deputy has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the county. Jose Vieyra, a Mexican national, claims the sheriff's office violated his constitutional rights.

Investigators say Deputy Craig Miller was intoxicated when he crashed into Vieyra's truck in west Harris County in 2008.

Vierya was originally charged in the case, but it was later dropped.

13 Undercover requested court documents after that crash and found that Deputy Miller's blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit. We also found that Miller was part of the sheriff's secret intelligence squad under former sheriff Tommy Thomas. The sheriff's office said at the time that Miller was headed to do some surveillance before the crash.

That squad was later disbanded as a result of our investigation.

From Feb 2008: Officer Down: Deputy Sheriff Craig MillerAge: 43

Incident Details: Deputy Craig Miller was killed in an automobile accident on a frontage road to the Katy Freeway. He was conducting an undercover investigation and was driving a department-owned vehicle when a box truck pulled out in front of him, causing a collision.

The driver of the truck that caused the accident was charged with criminally negligent homicide.

Deputy Miller had served with the Harris County Sheriff's Department for 20 years.

End of Watch: Thursday, February 21, 2008

Sheriff Craig Miller Memorial Bracelets For Sale honoring law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty

From Feb 2008: Truck driver charged in wreck that killed deputy

A truck driver was charged with criminally negligent homicide this morning in connection with a collision that killed a Harris County sheriff's deputy.

Jose Jesus Vieyra, 56, was being booked into the County Jail and was to be held in lieu of $35,000 bail, said Capt. John Martin, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

The deputy, Craig Miller, 43, was working undercover when the crash occurred shortly before 8 p.m., Martin said. He was a 20-year veteran of the department. [...]

#  Helen & Harry on Saturday —

Wow. The dead drunk driving cop is ordinary scum, but the monumental scum here are his buddies who used the power of the law to make an innocent victim's life miserable. I do hope the innocent victim here wins the keys to City Hall in his lawsuit.

#  Jesse's Girl on Saturday —

Today's far-far-right Republicans and Tea Bag Partiers are usually described as conservatives or arch-conservatives, but from everything I've seen "Confederates" seems a more accurate word. Or maybe "Neo-Confederates". They are the South, rising again, and their bottom-line goal is restoring the traditional American right to own other Americans.

#  wlgriffi on Saturday —

Jon Stewart rips Fox for extolling Reagan on nukes while attacking Obama (and nakedly lying about it)

Jon Stewart clocked another four-bagger last night, ripping Fox for its nutso attacks on President Obama's newly announced nuclear-weapons reduction policy:

Stewart: So here's where we're at: We're at the point now that the by far No. 1-ranked news network in this country no longer feels the need to accurately report what a policy document says in black and white. And once you free yourself from the fetters of fact shackles -- or fackles -- in the present day, you'd be amazed at what you can do to the facts from the past.

He then goes on an extended riff pointing out that what Obama's trying to achieve is precisely in line with what Ronald Reagan said he hoped to achieve as well -- while the Foxheads trot out Reagan as proof of Obama's weakness.

No wonder everyone gets their news from The Daily Show. It's the only place you can find out what's really going on.

And you can laugh at it too!

Comment : Sad but true. America's news media has morphed into hyped political party rhetoric increasingly the product of re-written distorted historical facts.

#  Helen & Harry on Saturday —

Jon Stewart is widely praised and what's impressive is that it's widely deserved. Half an hour of intelligent court jester work and challenging commentary four nights a week, and it's not merely allowed, it's popular. That his program is allowed is hopeful for America, but big picture, it's a sad indictment of American corporate culture that a half-hour that occasionally pierces the propaganda bubble has no imitators.

#  Cassandra on Saturday —

FHP: Driver lacked razor-sharp focus

not news, but I laughed.

#  Emma Ibbers on Friday —

I was in the grocery store today and I was gobsmacked by the stupidity of disposable AA batteries. You're buying electricity in a container! Use once, throw away. What a waste. And I bet one billion have been thrown into waste dumps to pollute the watersheds.

As a "libertarian" I wonder if there are some products that are just too stupid to be allowed to be sold for any reason.

#  Siskiyousis on Saturday —

Dude! You do NOT want to be called a Libertarian. Not what it means nowadays, anyhow.

Disposable anything is stupid and outrageous...

Not so long ago, disposable everything was all that was available in a whole lot of categories.

Guess you never had to to provision for an infant; when my kids were babies in the 60s nothing was disposable for them, just endless washing up.

But when you were a kid, I am sure you remember what I mean about limited supply and demand. I think my tenses are scrambled there, but so is my brain, kinda...

#  Helen & Harry on Saturday —

If we put as much effort into being smart as we put into being rich, we wouldn't be facing economic and environmental meltdown from every angle. But we don't, so we do.


#  Emma Ibbers on Saturday —

There are two things...

a) if we weren't so afraid of each other we'd all be richer.

b) I never thought the Kindle sounded like a viable product: an e-book reader for a population of non-readers? Huh. But you give people an iPad which can not only read books but play TV, music and video games and that's going to be popular... The generation whose computers are faster, more powerful and cheaper than anything in history wants nothing more than to be able to watch TV when they're not home...


#  Siskiyousis on Saturday —

We are afraid because we have been taught to be afraid, of everything except the products they are ramming down our throats. I agree that the kindle is a really awkward thing in comparison to a book, but then I was reading books before tv became affordable and common. And I still spend at least three hours every night reading books before I can go to sleep. The iPad looks to be something that I might have wanted to own, before I began to be at home all the time. Not it just looks like something that might be breaking down all the time, and thus semi disposable... Richer is not even a factor here.

#  Bertha L. on Friday —

Read this one carefully because the complainant is a cop. He is accusing another cop who was working security, off-duty at a ball game. Note the way the victim of police brutality and/or misconduct is charged with "battery with the intent to cause bodily harm". This could be called "defensive policing": when an officer is worried about the consequences of either intentional or accidental misconduct, the book is thrown at the defendant with a bunch of made up shit.

For example, if the defendant is a victim of false arrest, he is charged with resisting arrest. A victim of police brutality is charged with a felony -- assault on a police officer -- and resisting arrest. Then, if the victim wants to press charges against the cop, the victim must first defend himself in criminal proceedings, typically at great expense (for the poor this means the cop is invulnerable unless a bystander videotapes the events).

Deputy sues Chicago White Sox over action by security guards

Excerpt: When security guards -- who were employed by At Your Service LLC, the company named as a partner with the White Sox -- responded, Lopez tried to say he was an off-duty deputy and that he could help identify the real trouble-maker, the lawsuit says.

The guards rebuffed him though, and one of the guards, who was named specifically in the lawsuit, shoved and grabbed him before he and another guard dragged Lopez down across rows of seats, the complaint says. The guards' actions left bruises on Lopez, the lawsuit adds.

The named guard told Lopez he was an off-duty Chicago police officer and that "he would do everything in his power to ruin Mr. Lopez' career," the complaint alleges. That guard went on to accuse Lopez of battery with the intent to cause bodily harm and told investigating officers that Lopez had pushed him over a row of chairs.

Lopez was charged criminally, and the Cook County Sheriff's Department opened an internal investigation into the matter, according to the complaint. Lopez was not allowed to carry his service weapon during the investigation.

Lopez, however, obtained a videotape of the incident and presented it to the state's attorney's office, which after reviewing it dropped the charges against him.

#  Helen & Harry on Friday —

Amusing, and I've seen enough police misconduct that I'll usually side with the victim of police abuse of power, even when the victim is another cop. Aggravated assault" is frequently the charge, when cops and prosecutors want to pile on charges against a victim of police brutality or abuse of power.

#  Bernie C. on Friday —

This guy is a helluva writer. I've read "New Bedlam" and "Evening's Empire" (the latter is his latest, published this year.) His novels take place in the universe of the communications industry and are full of quirky characters, inside information about how the businesses really work, and insight into the human condition.

books by Bill Flanagan

Bill Flanagan at Wikipedia

#  Montgomery Scott on Friday —

This has the potential to be *huge*, paving the way for mind-blowing advances in computer technology. At the same time, the cynic might question the timing of this self-hug data dump, which coincides with attacks on HP's printer ink scam by competitors (HP printer ink costs is far more expensive than gold, basically for no reason except profits.)

Memristor Memory Readied for Production
HP plans new nonvolatile memory for 2013

Excerpt: This week, in the journal Nature, Williams and colleagues reported a major step forward for memristor logic with the fabrication of circuits capable of full Boolean logic. The circuits are still digital, but Williams says his team has "shown that anything that can be calculated on silicon can be done with memristors," and in a smaller space. Demonstrating digital logic with the devices is an important first step toward more exotic computing, says Strukov.

The memristor circuits reported in Nature are also capable of both memory and logic, functions that are done in separate devices in today's computers. "Most of the energy used for computation today is used to move the data around" between the hard drive and the processor, says Williams. A future memristor-based device that provided both functions could save a lot of energy and help computers keep getting faster, even as silicon reaches its physical limits.

#  Parsippany28 on Friday —

If you missed "South Park" this week, perhaps it is available online. Hilarious. Facebook and Jim Cramer of CNBC's "Mad Money" show were both lampooned (should I say harpooned?) In addition, pitiful internetters with no friends and the sheeplike behavior of the American public were rubbished.

Stan doesn't want a Facebook page but Kenny, Kyle and Cartmann are bigtime Facebook players and they decide to create a Facebook profile for Stan anyway. Stan takes pity on a "challenged" classmate who has no friends, Facebook or otherwise and "Friends" him. This drives down Kyle's score as his "friends" see that he is a friend of Stan who is a friend of the retarded classmate who only has onefriend. Just as Kyle's Friend count drops towards zero, Cartmann goes on an internet(?) TV show called "Mad Friends" and advises everyone to de-Friend Kyle.

Speaking of Jim Cramer, I don't know how many times he has whined about Obama not "Friending" natural gas. Obama hearts oil, coal and nukes but why not natural gas, Cramer complains. Well, geez, for a free market guy like Cramer (who isn't a heinous, satanic, anus dwelling cretin like fellow CNBCer Larry Kudlow -- who never stops his GOP propagandizing on TV and has as far as I know never earned a penny for any viewer with cunning and judicious investment advice)... well anyway, back to Cramer...for a free marketer why doesn't he get it that natural gas is doing fine without more government involvement? WTF does he want? Check this out:

Are $40 Billion Pipelines From Alaska Worth It?

Two proposals could bring natural gas to the continental US, but the explosion of shale gas could undermine the economics.

Excerpt: The North Slope reserves are put at 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, while overall North American reserves, inflated by new shale gas estimates, may be as much as 3,000 trillion cubic feet.

In other words, there is a glut of natural gas in the US now. And everyone is investing heavily, including Exxon. No government subsidies are needed, at all...