WWJD?

Example # 84,948 that George Bush is a really crappy Christian. Talks to God my ass.

It been a while - Impeaching cabinet members

First off, I know its been a while since I posted. Let's just say that real life can be a bitch. But things are clearing up and one of my "things to do" is to do regular postings.

On that note, here is an interesting post on TPM about the history of impeachment and its use against wayward cabinet members. Turns out it has only been used once in the last 220 years. I am beginning to come to the realization that we need some other check on executive power in the place of impeachment. It is too prone to political machinations (see Clinton impeachment) or has such a high bar that it is almost impossible to accomplish. The fact that Bush, Gonzales, and Cheney have not been ridden off on the rails is a sad aspect of our current government.

Greatest/Worst Military in the World

This post makes a great point: if the US, allegedly, has the "greatest military in the world", why have we lost THREE (count 'em 1.2.3.) wars in a row? Here, I am thinking Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq 2. Really, can you honestly answer the question? The point is, I think, you either have to be in for amoral, wholesale slaughter or you are in for a loss.

A determined, insurgent force can fuck you up.


And our troops are paying the price for the stupidity of the ruling elite.

Unleash the Dogs of War - Bush is a dog catcher

If this is true, it is another example of the non-declared war that Bush is so fiendishly good at. Will his depravity and amorality know no bounds?

Death Toll by Katrina, err, Malfeasance

Interesting estimate of the death toll related to Katrina; that is, excess deaths, not deaths directly caused by the Hurricane. The number: 4000+ excess deaths estimated by a doctor in Now Orleans.

Some horrendous quotes:

The number of doctors has been reduced by 70% and the number of hospital beds in Orleans Parish has been reduced by 75%.

What makes this figure all the more shocking is that the population of New Orleans is about 1/2 of what it was before the storm - from 450,000 pre-Katrina to 230,000 post-Katrina. That over 2,000 excess deaths should be reported in a population that has already been reduced by 50% is amazing. Thanks to Ezra Boyd of Louisiana State University for sending me this information.

Lord help us - and everything else alive

Scandal-a-rama # 456: head of Fish and Wildlife a partisan hack who leaks private agency documents and combines specie populations to keep them off the Endangered List.

Go here for a good job at "fake news" a la Daily Show.

John McCain - Unfit to Lead

This is just disgusting. There is a special place in Dante's Inferno for John McCain (that is, other then the Republican party).

The "Jif" objection to evolution

Oh man, is this the biggest crock of nonsensical bullshit you have ever heard? No? Then you need to find a new circle of friends.

Really, because matter + energy = life and peanut butter is matter and energy (well, potential energy, but we can gloss over the obvious ambiguity), then why isn't new life springing forth from the peanut butter? And since it doesn't, evolution must be false.

As Kos says: THE STUPID! IT BURNS!

Can of whoop ass....with fish jaws

Oh man, this is disgusting.

Via the hilariously named Majikthise.

Therein lies the rub

This post by Josh Marshall asks the $64k question: why is it that all of the US Attorneys ignominiously fired for "performance reasons" (or whatever the "reason du jour" is) are in swing voting states (plus California...oh wait, that US Attorney was prosecuting the Cunningham bribery case against...wait for it: Republicans)?

Usually one wants to give someone the benefit of the doubt; there must be some other explanation that does not posit ridiculous, corrupt behavior, that is, does not assume that the USAs were fired because they were not prosecuting "voter fraud" cases?

I can post background info on anything above if anyone wants it, but since I am the only one who READS this blog, I do not have the motivation.:-)

With a heavy heart

Ralph Nader and I go way back. Well, anyway, my one-sided relationship with him does. Like long-term relationships generally, they can fall apart hideously. When that happens, I at least try to be the one who took the high ground.

The year was 1990. I was an idealistic youth who was two-fisting progressivism: in one had was "Animal Liberation" by Peter Singer. In the other was seeing Ralph Nader speak at a local community college I was attending. The subject was factory farming; it was disgusting and funny and persuasive. And it was that day that led me to become a vegetarian. Ralph will always have a special place in my heart, as does Peter Singer (though I have grown wary of his ethical reasoning).

That was then. This is now. I have repressed the memory of Ralph Nader making a ridiculous spectacle of himself during the 2000/2004 presidential elections. This article reminded me of it, as well as this post by Eric Alterman. I unofficially divorced myself of my infatuation with Ralph in 2000. Now the repressed anger has come back, as white-hot as ever. Oh, how the mighty have fallen so far...

I am still a vegetarian. Not a saintly one, but I never claimed to be a saint.

Buy why did you change, Ralph?

Treker

Another winner Engrish:

Distilling it down

I have been following the US Attorney scandal closely and have not had much to say about it, except that it is despicable. Then I came across a post from Hunter at DailyKos:

You know, I imagine somewhere it might be considered funny that the entire Department of Justice can't figure out why the hell a handful of U.S. Attorneys were fired when they themselves fired them, after spending over a year arranging for it, and that they must continually revise their statements on the matter because their past statements keep being demonstrated to be bullshit. But in that the entire premise of the Bush administration is that the entire American population is made up of morons who would actively believe that aforementioned lying bullshit, I'm not exactly sure where the joke is.

Enough said.

DMCA - someone fights back

Great article here: Law Prof posts the NFL's "legal disclaimer" saying that rebroadcast of NFL games are strictly prohibited, which is actually wrong. "Fair use" provisions allow their use for such things as "educational" use. The professor posted it on YouTube and linked to it from her blog which is used for teaching purposes. Sweet.

The money quote:

This is where the saga starts to get messy. Seltzer's counter-notification—which was forwarded to the NFL from YouTube—clearly described her use of the clip as fair use: "an educational excerpt featuring the NFL's overreaching copyright warning aired during the Super Bowl." As Seltzer outlines in her blog post, the NFL's only option in response to her counter-claim would be to force her to remove the clip via court proceedings. This obviously did not happen, and instead, the NFL chose to ignore her claims completely. After receiving her counter-notification claiming fair use, sending another takedown notice over the same content is considered a knowing misrepresentation that the clip is infringing, according to DMCA section 512(f)(1). Under the DMCA, the NFL would be liable for all legal fees incurred by the alleged infringer, along with damages.

I can see....the color of cheese rinds!

You may not know this, but mice are color-blind: they cannot see the red side of the spectrum, so things that are red are not seen as red (from what I have heard, they see shades of gray). In this article, scientists were able to change one gene present in humans and not it mice that enhances their ability to see the red side of the spectrum. From an evolutionary point of view, this is really an interesting point as it seems to suggest human vision of the color spectrum was a rather trivial mutation of this one gene.

A good quote:

Most mammals, including mice, are dichromats, possessing only S and M cone pigments. As a consequence, they can distinguish only a fraction of the wavelengths that can be distinguished by humans. John Mollon at the University of Cambridge has suggested that the evolution of trichromacy could have permitted primates to discriminate between unripe fruit, which is typically green, and ripe red- and orange-colored fruits. Reciprocally, the colors of ripened fruits may have coevolved with primate trichromacy, since animals that could recognize and eat the ripe fruit would have assisted plants by spreading their seeds.

Check out the link to the sidebar for a good illustration of red-green color blindness.

They are out there

Check out this: a hexagonal shape on the surface of Saturn gets passed by the Cassini probe. Great pictures. Cool quote:

The hexagon is nearly 25,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) across. Nearly four Earths could fit inside it.

This is great

Look: if you use someone's creative work that is offered for free but requires credit, give it. Especially if you are a candidate for the President of the United States. Like John McCain. I mean come on.

The site has been /.'d, so it may be slow.

Scandal-a-rama

I had called this years ago: the Bush administration would go down in a pool of scandal. The latest one is the US Attorney purge which will most likely lead to indictments at most and at least, the resignation of that a-hole Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

See here for the latest.

Cursor transport: Japanese guys in their underwear

From Japundit, a site I post on periodically:

Go here.


Allow the page to load.

Move your mouse around the circle that appears.

Be totally amazed.

Vote for John Edward's wife

I know the canard: you vote for the candidate, not his/her spouse. But I like Elizabeth Edwards. When she is not facing down Chris Mathews, she is sticking up for her right to be uncensored by her hubby's campaign. She makes Hilary look like a wussy.

I like Elizabeth Edwards the more I read about her. It makes me like John as president also. Let's face it: you know John respects and utilizes Elizabeth's counsel.