Thursday, September 11, 2003

Know Your Rights, pt. II Bush's New Terror Proposals. Here is the text of the new terror bill President Bush is promoting. It is H.R. 3037, introduced September 9... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime] This post features an explanation from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on why administrative subpoenas, a major aspect of the new Bush Rights-Reversal bill, are a Bad Bad Thing. Good reading - I hadn't thought about just how bad they were 'til reading this.

9:21:57 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

How Long Do We Live In The Shadow of 9/11? This probably isn't going to come out very coherently. I've been reading all the notes people've been writing about 9/11 and their memories of where they were, etc...and I'm not saying those memories aren't important, but I can't help but feel that dwelling on the immense tragedy for too long plays right into Bush's hands. These are my thoughts today, about 9/11, about Bush. I may edit them as I think on it more. It's been two years now...isn't it time for us to move on? I'm not talking about the victims or their families, or the residents of New York who still don't feel comfortable walking in the old WTC area... I'm talking about the political and foreign policy implications. Whatever legitimate needs and purpose originally derived from the attacks, Bush and his politburo perverted all of it beyond any resemblance to reality. Christ, most Americans believe that we had to invade Iraq, in retaliation for 9/11. How did we let that happen? Why haven't any Democratic leaders gone to the media to respond to this Bush-serving crap? Bush has hijacked the national discourse for long enough, but it's only going to get worse - just imagine the bullshit we're going to get fed in a year, with the Republican convention coming a week before 9/11 in New York City. We'll be told again, and again, and again how Bush has fought the war on terror. He hasn't fought any damned war on terror - he's fought a war on dissent, he's fought a war on the poor, he's fought a war on our rights, he's fought a war on the international community. But we focus on this little area here, that little lie there...if we can show the country how he lied about weapons of mass destruction, then they'll realize what a monster he is! That hasn't worked yet, and I'm afraid it won't. We need to show Bush for what he is - the President under whom the most Americans have died in combat since, what, Nixon? The President under whom the great Clinton Boom collapsed. The President who took the greatest moment of international sympathy and soldiarity we've ever seen and pissed it away for a war - a war that he hasn't yet settled on one explanation for engaging in in the first place. $87 billion for Iraq - and, if I remember correctly, less than $30 billion in federal funds for public education. You know this man is evil, I know this man is evil. Get our leaders, our real leaders, to start saying so, too. No man has ever done so much harm to this country in so little time - we must do whatever is in our power to guarantee his time in office is as limited as we can make it. What I'm trying to say is this - how long do we let 9/11 keep us from saying what needs to be said? How long do we allow ourselves to be intimidated out of speaking out because of fear of being called unpatriotic? There's no time to waste. This is the time and the place to stop letting Rumsfeld get away with attacking dissent as aiding terrorists. This is the time and place to stop letting Ashcroft tear away our rights for a little false security. This is the time and place to stop letting Bush claim that drilling in ANWAR is needed because of the blackout. These bastards must be stopped, and they must be stopped now. Don't let them use 9/11 as a shield any longer.

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Christian Bale has been cast as Batman. That'll be in the next movie, co-written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who made Memento. Nice casting job - he can act, he can do action. Nice indeed!
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Joe Jones from Blog Graham will join Matt Gross (Dean For America) on the US presidential campaign weblogs Day 1 session. Had another talk with the Edwards people, left the door wide open. Still trying to contact Kerry and Kucinich. Any others with blogs? Contacted today by Clark supporters. [Scripting News] I'm very much looking forward to this panel. I think it's relatively safe to say that Clark will have declared well in advance of BloggerCon in October, so hopefully he'll be allowed to have representation there, too.

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Interesting article from ComputerWorld here on the potential security risks involved in outsourcing software development overseas...I've wondered about this.
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Decision Made? Josh Marshall at TPM has an interesting post - first alleging that the Clark-as-VP talk could be dirty tricks from the Dean campaign (quite plausible - and stupid, if it's true)... ...and then he links to a biggie, an AP story that just came out titled "Clark Set to Enter 2004 Presidential Race". Yup. Sounds like it to me. The article also says that Clark will probably announce before the Iowa speech next Friday, and that he'll do it in his hometown of Little Rock. I'm getting tingles here.

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Well, I've made MY decision... Ok, I'm committed. A well-connected Democrat politico friend of mine, whom I trust pretty thoroughly on political matters, is as infatuated with Clark as I am - and he's been into him for a while. That's the last qualification I needed - I'm in. Go Clark!
3:14:10 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Clean? Dark? I'm just getting confused! Dean trying to Veep Clark again.. And we do mean again. Here's the bullet points as to why this is nonsense:... [The Clark Sphere] Some of my fellow Clarkists (Clarkistas? Clarkonians?) over at The Clark Sphere pointing out why Clark taking the VP slot under Dean is definitely not happening now, and then following up with some reasons they like Clark better than Dean. Biased, yeah, but hey, aren't we all? =) The more I think on it, the more I think there's no chance in hell Clark takes Dean's offer now. Key word being now - if Clark enters the race (hopefully when), he clobbers most of the other candidates, leaving basically a two person field. If Dean wins the nomination over Clark, it makes perfect sense THEN for both guys for Clark to take the second spot. But if Clark beats Dean, it makes a lot of sense to flip the ticket. But it doesn't make ANY sense to decide now which one should be on top. We don't know yet how the broader public will really react to Dean, or even if Clark will get the momentum that I think he will. If the race for the nomination is Clark v. Dean, then I honestly believe that whomever wins will be the right man for the job, and whomever comes in second would be a major asset for the ticket as VP. But hey, we'll see how this all works out... Though I'm wondering now, as I think about it...did Dean make a mistake by allowing this to go public? It's giving more press to Clark, and making Dean look afraid of him. Is that really in Dean's interest at all?

1:26:19 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Lewis and Clark? Ok, yeah, that's bad. I'm sorry. Dean/Clark, Clark/Dean, ???/???. by RonK, Seattle The WaPo report of Dean/Clark negotiations has already drawn considerable comment in other threads.Democratic presidential candidate Howard... [Daily Kos] Ok, RonK is definitely nuts - he's suggesting that this is all going to somehow lead to Ann Lewis, political operative, Clinton White House communications director, and Barney Frank's sister, running, with Clark as VP. Uh...I don't get that at all. EDIT: I misattributed this to Kos - this was by RonK. And I didn't realize that the pun was deliberate, either. Wow. I'm just not smart today at all...

1:19:05 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Bands reunited. Arts: As one of indie's most influential groups announce that they are getting back together, Jon Dennis weighs the pros and cons of rock reunions. [Guardian Unlimited] Damn! Even more Pixies coverage by the Greatest Paper On The Planet...
11:46:43 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

It's not that I forgot it was 9/11, but I forgot about the coverage...I turned on CNN, after seeing that CNN.com had a "breaking news" headline about the State Dept. warning of "increased indications" of an al Qaeda attack today. Well, I got some kids reading the lists of the dead from New York - I'd forgotten when we passed 8:46am. Last year, I barely noticed 9/11, at least in terms of the attacks - my sister was going in for knee surgery, and my mom's best friend had disappeared while hiking in Colorado a couple days beforehand, so I had other things on my mind. But now...yeah. And is it wrong of me to be very, very wary about 9/11 memorials, especially in anticipation of the Republicans in New York next year? It's not that I'm disrespecting the victims...I'm just extremely afraid that the Republicans will REALLY disrespect them next year, using the victims and their families for pure political gain. That's not good...

9:11:07 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Indie legends the Pixies set to reform. Arts: Boston-based quartet who revolutionised rock music in the 1980s plans a series of live dates and a possible album next year. [Guardian Unlimited] I love the Guardian - what newspaper in the US would give the Pixies reunion this kind of coverage?
8:33:30 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Uh...this is for real? 'Horse bomb' hits Colombia town. At least eight people are killed when a bomb strapped to a horse explodes in a Colombian market. [BBC News | World | UK Edition] Ok, I'm not afraid to say it - that's pretty freakin' weird.
8:25:11 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Dean/Clark '04? washingtonpost.com: Gen. Clark Reportedly Asked to Join Dean. This is interesting, obviously Dean has a lot of confidence inviting Wesley Clark to be on HIS ticket, given the amount of speculation that it is Gen Clark who will mount the white horse to drive the evil villains out of the White House washingtonpost.co [Blog Left: Critical Interventions] Now *this* is interesting. I've been saying for a while now that I'm convinced Clark's going to end up on the ticket - either as the nominee or VP to Dean. He's the *perfect* VP for Dean for all the same reasons that I feel he'd be the best nominee on his own, so it's no shock that Dean's going after him. If Dean could get Clark to commit to being his running mate this early...well, it'd scuttle everyone else's chances at the nomination pretty thoroughly. But I don't see it happening. Clark's got a real shot at the presidency, and is not likely to lose his shot as Dean's VP even if his campaign crashes and burns - which I think unlikely. Clark's worst case at this point has to be that he declares, flops badly over the next few months, and gets blown away in the early primaries. Then he would drop out quickly, go low profile for a couple months, and be ready to re-emerge as Dean's VP at the convention. His best case is that he walks away with the nomination. That's a pretty good range of possibilities, if you ask me...

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