Daily Archives: September 19, 2003

Let’s stay awake all night long…

This entry was posted in Culture on by

Sure to be a campus hit:

Modafinil�better known as Provigil�is fast becoming America’s newest “go pill.” Made by Cephalon, a small publicly traded biotech firm in West Chester, Pa., Provigil is a central-nervous-system drug that promotes hyper-focus and alertness. Patients using Provigil in clinical tests functioned normally�for example, completing tedious computer tasks�after up to 54 hours without sleep.

Hmmmm, will this put a big dent in coffee and Mountain Dew sales?
Via Boing Boing.

campaign fundraising racket

This entry was posted in bush on by

bush is busy gathering funds into his campaign treasury. This WaPO article talks about it and Skimble summarizes one aspect of it like this::

So if you are a supplier or subcontractor of Merrill Lynch’s, you would undoubtedly be “receptive” to Merrill Lynch’s suggestion that you donate to Bush-Cheney 2004 in the same way that any supplier of Tony Soprano’s would be to a request for contributions to his pet political cause. They call it “bundling” – we call it “extortion.”
It’s only 2003, and already Merrill Lynch has loosened $265,000 from its network. Imagine what they’ll come up with next year.

This process is not unique to bush and his cronies. The whole election process seems to have devolved to an issue of who can be bought buy the most votes rather then who is most qualified to serve the citizens. Skimble also wonders why a firm that aided and abetted Enron has not met a fate closer to that of Arthur Anderson:

Merrill Lynch has cut a deal that ensures it will not meet the same fate as the scapegoat firm of Arthur Andersen, which acted not only as Enron’s auditor, but also Halliburton’s while Dick Cheney was CEO. Killing two birds with one stone, as it were. Under the politico-plutocratic logic of the Bush administration, Andersen the auditor was dispensable; Merrill Lynch the wealth manager is not

This is a good question and I wonder just how many other similar cooked deals are waiting to see the light of day.

Riverbend

This entry was posted in Iraq on by

I sense I’m slow getting connected to Riverbend. She’s a 2 month blogger with 4-12,000 uniques a day. But that is not a reason to read her. Words like this are:

No running water all day today. Horrible. Usually there are at least a few hours of running water, today there�s none. E. went out and asked if there was perhaps a pipe broken? The neighbors have no idea. Everyone is annoyed beyond reason.
A word of advice: never take water for granted. Every time you wash your hands in cold, clean, clear water- say a prayer of thanks to whatever deity you revere. Every time you drink fresh, odorless water- say the same prayer. Never throw out the clean water remaining in your glass- water a plant, give it to the cat, throw it out into the garden� whatever. Never take it for granted.

Riverbend tells stories you may not want to hear yet should listen to closely. I recommend starting at the beginning and reading forward. It will be worth your time.
I have not made much of an effort to read the first hand accounts coming out of Iraq but it is clear that we should all spend some of our time doing so be it an Iraqi citizen or a US soldier.
Via Rob Schaap and Cast-Iron Balcony.

It’s ok, we didn’t use it…

This entry was posted in ashcroft Constitution Domestic Terrorism Law Patriot Act Privacy on by

At Talkleft Jeralyn Merritt asks:

As to the library records, if none have been requested in the aftermath of 9/11, why does the Government need the power to get them?

A few points:

1) Sure, lack of use is a reason to strike this from the books. But why exempt just library records?
2) ashcroft’s statement speaks only to library records which are the most visible issue but not the only things that Section 215 subject to star chamber searches:

may make an application for an order requiring the production of any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents, and other items) for an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities

3) The no use argument obscures the more basic issue: this power should never have been enacted into law. Something is broken in a system that even allows such a proposal to see the light of day.

And Jacob Sullum gets Zero Reassurance from ashcroft’s ‘no use’ assertion. Sullum notes:

the government is making liberal use of another PATRIOT Act provision with even looser requirements. Under Section 505, the Justice Department, including FBI field offices, can issue “national security letters” demanding telephone, Internet, credit, and bank records. This power has been used enough times in the last two years to fill a five-page, blacked-out list obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act.

There is a lot more objectionable stuff in the patriot act. Let’s just scrap the whole thing except for maybe Section 600 which deals with ‘providing for victems’ which should have been handled separately anyway.