Modulator

Tracking Bush

Need a guide to keep track of the presidential travels? Blah3 has one right here.

Casus Belli

I'm shocked. I agree 100% with Paul Wolfowitz on this point:

there have always been three fundamental concerns. One is weapons of mass destruction, the second is support for terrorism, the third is the criminal treatment of the Iraqi people. Actually I guess you could say there's a fourth overriding one which is the connection between the first two.

The third one by itself, as I think I said earlier, is a reason to help the Iraqis but it's not a reason to put American kids' lives at risk, certainly not on the scale we did it.

Let me repeat regarding Saddam's treatment of the Iraqi people: "..it's not a reason to put American kids lives at risk." So folks, lets all just stop using the Saddam is a bad guy as adequate in itself as justification.

And, I never thought I'd thank William Kristol for a pointer to anything but it was his article that led me to this quote which has been lost in discussion of another Wolfowitz statement on WMDs. Also via RealClear Politics and James Joyner who was posting on an unrelated subject.

Update: In depth on this from Tim Dunlop and another view from Jerome Badattitudes Doolittle.

Mano a Mano

Libertarians do battle. Noted 'paleolibertarian' Jim Henley decries the current state of the Iraqi war and clearly is getting angrier as he writes:

God damn the men who put our troops in this situation. God damn the men who brought our country to this pass.

Which earns this response on Samizdata, a supposedly libertarian site, from a Perry de Havilland:

So to borrow Jim Henley's tone, damn to hell all the 'cowardly' paleo-libertarians and their socialist confreres who really did not care what Saddam Hussain's regime was doing to the people in Iraq and who still feel no remorse that all the horrors of Ba'athism would still be happening in Iraq today if they had gotten their way.

Perry and Brian Doss at the new blog Catallarchy.net also argue that things aren't bad for our troops in Iraq because their death rate (one a day) is less then the US murder rate of 42/day. But that comparison doesn't work. Let's say there are 500,000 us troops in Iraq (I think the number is less now) but this makes the calculation easier. If one/day is getting killed that would be equivalent to 560/day getting killed in the US. Doesn't look like they have better odds to me.

The Saddam was evil excuse does not hold water for those whose own house is not in order (42 murders a day, Enron, 44,000 traffic deaths a year, how many homeless?, the drug war gulags, etc.) and the clearly acceptable libertarian argument of self defense does not seem to apply here.

Scriptural help for Juries?

There is an interesting story over at Silt of dilemma in the jury chamber and a discussion of appropriate reference tools for juries.

Oh, and while you are there check out this excellent precis of a current Salam Pax post.

Axis of ?

Important things to know about our friends in Uzbekistan-an important member of the coalition of the willing.

Cannabis Cafes

Talk Left reports on the upcoming ban on workplace smoking in the Netherlands and its impact on the Dutch cannabis cafes. From Reuters:

Dutch "coffee shops" famous for selling marijuana could see business go up in smoke, as it seems the drug will be included in an upcoming ban on workplace smoking.

Tim Dunlop is conflicted:' What's a good 60s-bred lefty meant to do?'

This is an interesting question even if we leave out the cannabis aspect. It seems pretty clear that both first and second hand smoke are not healthy. It also seems reasonable that at least in the US (and probably many other 'educated' countries including the Netherlands) there is no excuse for someone to claim that they do not know the potential health impacts. So long as people are informed of the dangers I can not make a case for criminalizing individual smoking (though every penny of subsidy that goes to tobacco growers should be stopped yesterday).

But what about second hand smoke? Given that it is dangerous I suggest that it is reasonable to impose some restrictions on this. For instance, smoking should not be allowed any public place where the smoke can not easily be prevented from assaulting non-smokers. Sidewalks, malls, etc., come to mind.

Should this be extended, for instance, to restaurants and bars? I think not. Except at the owners option. It is pretty easy to label an establishment as smoking or non-smoking. If your cafe is labeled as smoking allowed I can make an informed decision whether I want to enter and I can make an informed decision whether I want to work there. There does not appear to be any need for government intervention.

Businesses need to make a choice: smoking or non-smoking. Customers and employees alike can make a decision to stay or go. I suspect that most businesses (but not the cannabis cafes) will opt over time for non-smoking simply because everything becomes cleaner, medical insurance costs should be quite a bit lower and, oh yes, non-smokers will have already passed the first aspect of employment screening: demonstrated ability to assimilate information and make rational decisions. (Hmmmm, I wonder whether the time spent at the Dutch cannabis cafe counts.)

Still Looking

If you have been poking around the 'sphere at all today you should already have made it to Bilmon's WMD chronology. If you haven't then head over right now for a sobering experience at the Whiskey Bar.

Via Soundbitten who has a nice t-shirt to go along with Bilmon's chronology.

Update: Tim Dunlop has more on the 'they destroyed them before the war' version.

Update 2: The Daily Kos has three relevant posts and lots of comments. Start with this one from early this morning and then read the next 2.

Promises, Promises

In addition to the 1.4 million new jobs that we are promised by the admininistration by the end of 2004 there is another promise that we should hold his feet to the fire on. An unhappy Peace Tree Farm points us to this Seattle Times article which notes that on September 13, 2000 candidate Bush " vowed to eliminate a $4.9 billion backlog in deferred maintenance" on our national parks. The backlog is up to $6 billion now. Completing this deferred maintenance over the next 18 months would be a nice small step toward all those new jobs. Failure to do so becomes one more lie to add to the list.

Patent Ripoff

This guy Woolston has an idea for selling stuff on the internet. Then he does what any average systems analyst does everyday and comes up with a method of carrying out his idea using lots of different pre-existing tools (pcs, databases, networks, etc). And for this he gets a patent and wins a verdict in a suit against Ebay with an initial judgement of $35 million???? Hopefully this will be overturned on appeal.

You can read one of the related patents here though you might start giggling pretty quickly at the fact that our current patent policy is so broken that it issued this patent.

More background material on this type of patent is here and the noted Jefferson letter on the subject of ideas as patents is here:

I assume it is a Lemma, that it is the invention of the machine itself, which is to give a patent right, and not the application of it to any particular purpose, of which it is susceptible. If one person invents a knife convenient for pointing our pens, another cannot have a patent right for the same knife to point our pencils.

Iraqi women

Seem to have disappeared. Laura at Two Broads Blogging comments here and Jeanne D'arc has more links here.

Emporer Act

For the current administration Kim has found a really nifty feature of the Patriot Act. The rest of us should consider it a bug and squash it.

UPDATE: If you have trouble with the link go here and page down to 5/25.

Ashcroft and Federalism

Radley Balko points out that for John Ashcroft federalism can have many meanings (kind of a Straussian thing):

Why was Senator Ashcroft so sympathetic to the �states� rights� cause when it came to issues like the Confederacy and segregation, but when it comes whether or not a terminal cancer patient ought to be able to ease his pain with a marijuana cigarette, Attorney General Ashcroft can�t let the states govern themselves?

The entire piece is a good read. Did Foxnews.com really bounce this because of bad timing or because in the world of Fox it actually might border on being unpatriotic?

Republican Policy Makers

Dwight Meredith argues that the republicans rely on Ivory Tower dreamers

The next time you hear someone complain that government programs do not work, that some air head Ivory Tower resident seems to be making policy, that we need politicians with practical experience with budgeting and making things work, remind them to vote for Democrats.

Read his discussion and examples covering fiscal, social and military policy.

Truth in Advertising

From Cursor.org on 5/26 a pointer to this New Republic partial accounting of truth in advertising by Peter Beinart:

For conservatives, it seems, this administration's decency and honesty are ideological axioms that require no empirical defense. President Bush is not President Clinton. That's all they need to know.

Well, he is the Commander in Chief and to defend him would imply that he might not be infallible and to even hint at this would be unpatriotic.

PS: Too bad there are not links to each of Cursor's snippets.

Chasing Grover

Dave Johnson, Seeing the Forest, has a solution to counter the right's massive propaganda machine: stop funding specific programs. Instead:

Moderate and progressive philanthropists and foundations must step up to the plate and begin providing general operating funding to advocacy organizations...

He has a point, but he probably needs to come up with a way to double the effort given the 30 year head start that must be overcome. And, while I agree with Dave that it is not the politicians who will change public opinion they can, indeed, influence the philanthropists to make sound long term investments.

The Dems

There are a bunch of folks with their names up on the Democrats 2004 nomination dart board. I think it is too soon to pay much attention to most of them and have purposely avoided doing much research. Why go through the hassle, right? They will sort themselves out between now and primary time (or shortly after).

Then along comes the Patio Pundit who makes it too easy. Martin has a link to each candidates web page and a mini review of the site. Next thing I knew I was over reading Kucinich and Dean. And planning to go back for more.

Prescribed by Nurse Ratched.

Buying the Times

I was just over at Busy, Busy, Busy reading his Shorter Bill Safire from May 15. Clicked through to read the original NY Times article and blam: hit the $ for premium content on a ten day old op ed piece (it looks like material as recent as one week old is getting moved into the premium category).

I like the NYT well enough to to frequently read the online headlines and some articles and to buy a newstand issue several times a month: no matter which side of an issue you live the articles/op eds generally make you think (oh, and now, we can search for the truth as well). If I lived in NYC or the NE US I would have a full sub to the print edition.

I do not like it well enough to continue using it as a source for material in this blog if my readers must pay $2.95/article to read linked articles.

Don't get me wrong: the NYT certainly has every right to charge for its content. But I'm not going to pay $2.95 to read a 10 day old 700 word op ed piece and likely would not pay it for a 7000 word article. If I won't why should I lead my readers to this choice?

Some possible consequences of this policy (didn't I read discussion a month or so ago about concerns with charges for 90 day old content?):

The NYT will reduce their bandwidth costs due to reduced online access. Surely this is not what the charge is about, is it?

People that read blogs will skip over posts over a week old that refer to NYT articles

Bloggers will use the NYT less often as a source or quote much more extensively

(1st Option Corollary: The blogosphere's circulatory system will be healthier due to a huge reduction in Krugman bashing)

2nd Option Corollary: Krugman will no longer be quoted out of context.

Overall NYT readership will slowly decline

To counter the previous point a viable micropayment mechanism will be developed (There is some price between $0.00 and $2.95 at which I and many others will buy the article without second thought)

The development of a viable micropayment system would make this whole exercise worth while.

Memorial Day

On this Memorial Day Cowboy Kahlil reminds us that, well, let him speak for himself:

Let's thank the living while honoring the dead. Let's minister to their needs, bring healing where it's possible and demonstrate our gratitude in real and meaningful ways. It's those acts of reconciliation towards the living that bestow the highest honors of all and that demonstrate that the dead gave their all for a nation that was, and is still, worth it.

Do read the rest the post.

Caffeinated Marketing

Laurence Lessig calls for us all to take pictures at our local Starbucks this weekend and Mac-a-ro-nies takes up the call.

I thought they were both doing something more then caffeine until I stopped by my local Starbucks about and hour ago and asked about this strange policy. Barrista Girl had not heard anything about people not being allowed to take pictures inside a Starbucks. Barrista Dude from the back room said, oh yeah, no pictures, no still cameras, no video cameras, and he had no clue why.

A call to Starbuck's Customer Service number revealed that they close down at 3 PM on weekends. Check back tomorrow for what they have to say.

They must drink a special blend in their corporate offices to come up with a policy that seems so contrary to good marketing.

UPDATE (5/25) Customer service says: Starbucks does not allow pictures to be taken of specifically proprietary stuff like recipes, menu boards, etc., but has no global ban on pictures: it should be just fine for the three ladies in Lessig's story to take each other's picture. Folks who run into problems with this policy are encouraged to report them to Customer Service (800-235-2883) either on the spot or after the fact.

Bill Hahn

David Neiwert writes about the life of Bill Hahn. I think my life would have been enriched had I known Bill.

Bush Looks into the Mirror

Apostropher predicts a rough future for Bush:

Bush and bin Laden are both fundamentalists staring across a theological divide at one another, perfectly willing to sacrifice both their own people and each other's because their god has told them to do so. If there is a Hell, they will be roommates in their own private Sartrean eternity where they can fight each other hand-to-hand.

This is from the end. Go read the rest.

kinder, Gentler

Noho-Missives found this great set of juxtaposed headlines at Google news.

What is Human?

A different take on the recent chimp as human discussion.

Real Tort Reform

Dwight Meredith presents ways to reduce, if not eliminate, frivolous medical malpractice suits. And he suggests that the lack of focus on actually eliminating frivolous actions means the administration really wants something else:

The Bush administration uses the rhetoric of frivolous lawsuits to promote a policy that would not curb such suits. The disparity between its rhetoric and its policy proposals suggests that curbing frivolous suits is less important to the administration than protecting insurance companies from having to pay full compensation to seriously injured victims of negligence.

Alert Level Actions

Finally, a guide to the Homeland Security Alert Levels. Link via Alex.

Breaking a Reign of Terror

Here is one that each and every state ought to support:

House Republicans are pressing for legislation that would strip federal anti-drug money from local police in states that have passed medical marijuana laws.

There is probably a lot of onerous stuff in the legislation (the norm at the federal level) and I have not read it, but, from the article, there are at least 2 downsides:

1. The legislation would allow the White House Office of Drug Control Policy to advertise in opposition to medical marijuana laws.

2. And allow it to exist for 5 more years.

Well, maybe the advertising aspect isn't so bad: we might get to see an updated Reefer Madness.

It does seem a good thing, though, that this may actually be a way to stop some federal funding of terrorist activities related to the drug prohibition.

UPDATE (5/23): Talkleft has more on this.

Earth from Mars

National Geographic has up the first NASA picture of Earth from Mars.

Al-Qaeda

Alex Knapp suggests that the latest terrorist acts attributed to Al-Qaeda do not indicate a resurgence:

So not only is al-Qaeda reduced to less effective attacks, but they have to attack in unprepared nations, and we know about them in advance.

Doesn't seem like a resurgence to me.

Of course, if there are more freqent attacks forthcoming then resurgence might become the right word.

Out of the Blogosphere

I've been out of the 'sphere since late last Thursday. Activity should pick up again in the next day or so.

This is Capitalism?

Bill Gates is a bright guy but apparently no better at speaking in clear terms then most others when trying to describe the dominant socio-economic structure of the last century plus:

MOYERS: What does it say to you that half of all 15 year olds in South Africa and Zimbabwe could lose their lives to AIDS? What does it say to you that 11 million children, roughly, die every year from preventable diseases? What does it say to you that of the 4 million babies who die within their first month, 98 percent are from poor countries? What do those statistics tell you about the world?

GATES: It really is a failure of capitalism. You know capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it's really let us down.

MOYERS: But markets are supposed to deliver goods and services to people.

GATES: And when people have money it does.

Gates and Moyer are both on the right track pointing out to us the seriousness of this problem and asking why in this world some of these situations aren't improving. They are wrong in ascribing this failure to capitalism...or even anything close to it. For lack of a better term what Gates is describing is a failure of statist cronyism.

our foundation is not involved in the diseases of the rich world. Not, you know, those are very important, but the market is working there. Between the basic research that the government funds, through NIH. The bio-tech companies. The pharmaceutical companies. You know incredible things will happen with cancer and heart disease over these next 20 or 30 years. Because that's a case where capitalism is at work.

The pharms are one of the best examples of state corporatism: highly regulated and highly protected (could we extend our patent one more time, please). In spite of the statist environment the pharms exist in I am hopeful that Gates is right that incredible things will happen and I hope that it won't take a nest egg of Gatesian proportions to get access.

Gates transcript link via Charles Dodsen who adds some commentary to the lengthy debate on Gates started by Jeanne D'arc.

They Can't Bring Him Down

The gang of nine can't bring down the sky pilot (animated cartoon). Via Wendy McElroy.

Happy Birthday Barry

I don't think Barry was worrying about transfatty acids in his birthday cake today.

Star Trek Humor

Even if you are not a big Star Trek fan you will get a chuckle or two from this top 10 list.

Yikes, the post has a couple hundred comments and Technorati says it has so far generated almost 150 links for funpundit. John Hawkins could use this post as a template for a new category in his web page promotion guide.

Courtesy of Mike Silverman at Red Letter Day.

Terrorism at Home

The 19th-century novelist Feodor Dostoevski, a political prisoner in Russia for four years, wrote: "The degree to which a society is civilized can be judged by entering its prisons." No wonder we want to avert our eyes from ours.

This ends an essay on prison rape by Richard Lowry that Ampersand points out.

Lowry appears to tell us that we should take a closer look at this society that so many hold up to be the guiding light to the rest of the world. In the first part of the article he notes that there are 2,000,000 people in US jails. This number is astounding....what society puts this many in jail?

Maybe this is not so bad. Let's check and see what things are like elsewhere in the world:

In 1995 Russia had 1,017,372 inmates and jailed folks at the rate of 690 per 100,000

The US had 1,585,401 inmates and jailed folks at the rate of 600. This rate is higher then DOJ figures.

Belarus had 52,033 inmates and jailed folks at the rate of 505 per 100,000

The rate drops off dramatically after this. We are in fine company: the two great cold war opponents slugging it out to see whose gulags can be the fullest. Dostoevski would not be thrilled by either.

Yes, the problem of rape in prisons should be dealt with. Perhaps if rape dealt with effectively out here in 'free' society there will, then, be some prospect of it being dealt with inside.

But before either will be effectively dealt with the terrorism that places 2,000,000 americans in jail must be eliminated.

Political Discourse and Free Speech

Say Uncle discusses the nature (and futility?) of political debate and that:

If you wish to have a productive debate, you’ll likely have to agree and define a set of assumptions. You need to make sure that you are comparing apples to apples.

As we know this is not done very often.

After checking this out you should read his call for a boycott in the next post which brought this response from Bubba. I think Bubba should add a line of women's wear to his offerings.

Double Their Money

It looks like congress is moving ahead with the wealthy welfare tax reduction act. Lucky for us that they have reduced it from the over $700 billion requested to a more sensible $550 billion. I feel a lot better about this now. But watch out...if you start hearing calls to remove the sunset clauses. Without them expect the total to be around $1.1 trillion over 10 years.

Stand up to the Bullies

Jeane D'arc says

To me, the speech, while in many ways pessimistic, is inspiring in its honesty, intelligence, vision, genuine patriotism, and call "to stand up to the schoolyard bullies in Washington."

Go over to her place and read the entire April 28 speech by John Brady Kiesling.

Historic Bush

The Daily Howler discusses Bush's military history in some detail here, here and here. Well worth the read. Especially how the subject was treated during the 2000 campaign.

Buying the Office

Do you believe that the national elections are important, that the US President is elected by the voters? I do, but after some recent reading I am having some second thoughts and I am not happy about it. First, Craig Cheslog discusses an article in the Miami Herald. As Craig says

Our electoral system is ill-served by a process that allows fundraising to so limit the field before a single vote is cast. It wrongly leaves the determination of the party's presidential nominees to a small number of fundraisers.

Rick Dement at The Rant picks up the thread

is there anyone out there who truly believes that democracy is not being negatively impacted by the influence of big money and the constant pressure to rise funds?

Read both posts, read the article.

Understanding the Lincoln Speach

The Lincoln speech is already 4 day old news and the final judge of its import will be history. To interpret and understand Bush you must read both between and behind the lines and then you must wait and see his actions. I just ran across the best interpretation of it hidden meanings that I have yet read. Go read Tim Dunlop's fine interpretation.

UPDATE: David Corn writes a brief history of Bush's National Guard Service. Link courtesy of Estimated Prophet who has more to say on the subject.

Building the Case to Invade Canada?

Jen at Circadian Shift points us to recent comments by the bushie John Walters likening legalization of pot to chemical warfare. And she has more here.

Watching the Patriot Act

Thanks to Jim at Objectionable Content for this pointer to The Watchtower.

Aged Brains and Bodybuilding

Expect an increase in sales of the body building supplement GABA.

Science Daily reports that

Scientists may have discovered why the brain’s higher information-processing center slows down in old age, affecting everything from language, to vision, to motor skills.

Certain neurons in very old macaque monkeys lose their pickiness, researchers have found, seemingly because they don’t get enough GABA. These results appear in the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

If a lack of GABA is indeed responsible for the old neurons’ indiscriminate firing, this problem may be simple enough to treat. Existing drugs, such as Xanax, increase GABA production, according to author Audie Leventhal

So this solution gives you improved brain function while you wander around tranquilized and headed for addiction.

The body building supplement GABA apparently stimulates Human Growth Hormone production. If it works to alleviate the brain slow down described in the Science Daily story I suspect, even though it does have a slight sedative affect, that it will be much more popular than the valium and xanax type of treatment.

Eating for More

Matthew Yglesias does not want to pay more to eat and suggests that the recent tariffs imposed on imported Canadian wheat are cut from the same cloth as the the rest of the Bush wealth redistribution program. My non-scientific study of Canadian food prices during a recent weekend trip suggested that restaurant prices are comparable to or a bit less then US restaurant prices. But this is before the exchange rate kicks in.

Campaign Tricks

Kevin at Truck and Barter reminds us that Putin used the I Can Fly trick in his 2000 election campaign. I wonder what else W has learned from the Russians. Oh yes, how to maintain gulags.

NB: Bloggered permalink alert. This reference is to Kevin's May 2, 2003 post.

Looking Glass Notes

Charles Dodson was busy yesterday. He has commentary on Bush's Lincoln speach, the 2002 stats on worldwide terrorist attacks (down 30%, maybe), and yet another Iraq conspiracy theory: just why did the Republican Guard disappear? These posts appear one after the other in sequence so you get just the top link.

Healthy Work Habits

The Talking Dog thinks the country would be in better health if W put in as many hours working as he does training.

Secret Warrants

The NY Times reports today that the Justice Department used secret warrants a record 1,228 times in 2002. The good news: while this is up 30% from 2001 it seems low.

The other news: the Foreign Intelligence surveillance Act (FISA) Court did not turn down a single request for a secret warrant. This could be good or bad: the justies either carefully screened and prepared their requests or FISA is just a rubber stamp.

The more disturbing news: the Bush folk want to let the CIA and Pentagon also use FISA to process secret warrants.

You might want to go read this and then think about whether you want this FISA to even exist.

UPDATE: Liquid List's Tarek provides some more discussion on secret warrants.

New Arrivals

Along with the new month come some new folks on the blog roll to the left: Moorish Girl, Ampersand, Matthew Yglesias, Nathan Oman, Cowboy Kahlil, Orcinus, Daily Kos and Samizdata. A few, unnamed, have been removed.