Inceptum - A Starting Point

Funny

2009-03-06T09:36:00.001-06:00

Create your own: http://www.signgenerator.org/books/dummies/

Balloon Juice Logo

2009-01-12T15:29:00.002-06:00

Proposed logo

Bad Mortgage rates

2008-07-31T10:31:00.003-05:00

Just felt this was an interesting chart, coming from a big subprime lenders public deals showing deliquency rates by property occupany type.

Republican Nominee: John McCain

2007-12-20T21:48:00.000-06:00

I meant to post this about a month ago, and the dynamics have definately changed considerably with Huckabee surging.

Huckabee is unacceptable to everyone except the Evangelicals. In fact, the fact that he started surging created a freak-out panic, and Romney, etc. started running negative ads against him. He's quite vulnerable on the Wayne Dummond charge(also known as severe Clinton Derangement Syndrome).

Romney sounds like a fruitcake in the debates.

Rudy has collapsed ever since it became known he was using NYPD to escort his mistress.

After this bloodbath, McCain is going to come out on top. He's been doing well in debates. I realize I've previously dissed McCain, and he does have a problem with the hard core bigots hating him because of his stance on immigration. But he's the compromise candidate.

Why are motorcycle shops so behind the times?

2007-07-17T09:37:00.000-05:00

Actually, I had a pretty good experience at Leo's South where I picked up the Aprilia. Not great, but ok.

But since then I decided to order a jacket and some side bags. I found the jacket, a Hein Gericke Timbuktu Air on closeout at www.motogearoutlet.com for $150, which is nearly half price. The bags are Nelson Rigg CL-950 deluxe saddlebags at www.cycleluggage.com.

In both cases, i placed the order almost two days ago, and have yet to receive a followup email on when it will ship.

Internet sales has been around for a long time now. The key is communication.

I wonder if the service is because they are niche, or are they niche because of the service?

Scooter Boy!

2007-07-17T09:29:00.000-05:00

New purchase. After taking the MSF rider training and getting my motorcycle endorsement, I picked up this bad boy.

2003 Aprili Scarabeo 150

It has 6500 miles on it. But was well maintained and is in good shape.

Last on Race Day

2007-05-29T17:04:00.000-05:00

WCAT 6.3 released

2007-05-25T16:27:00.000-05:00

Wow, I thought Microsoft had completely forgotten about this tool. It hadn't been updated in years.

more here

Verschaerfte Vernehmung

2007-05-25T15:39:00.000-05:00

What is it?

It's a german phrase used by the Gestapo in WWII. A nice google search, reveals it appearing in several old histories. Such as Trial of Kriminalsekretär RICHARD WILHELM HERMANN BRUNSand two others.

On 19th December, 1942, Bruns was present at the interrogation of a sick Norwegian. Leg screws were fastened to his legs and he was beaten with various implements. Later he was thrown unconscious into a cellar, where he remained for four days before receiving medical attention. Between 1942 and 1945, Bruns used the method of " verschärfte Vernehmung " on 11 Norwegian citizens. This method involved the use of various implements of torture, cold baths and blows and kicks in the face and all over the body. Most of the prisoners suffered for a considerable time from the injuries received during those interrogations.

Nice, eh?

It translates to "Aggravated Interrogation", or one could say "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"

Where have we heard that before? It's a term used by Americans in defense of torture. Just as the Nazi's used it in WWII.

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan

IOKIYAR

2007-05-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Also known as...

It's not a crime, unless you get caught.

or

The devil made me do it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18833180/

Sitting Nirvana

2007-05-17T08:22:00.000-05:00

Steelcase Leap

New chair for the home office. This replaces my Herman Miller Equa2, which was a good chair but need reupholstering and once that is done will become the province of my girlfriend's desk.

I tried the Aeron, Humanscale Freedom and several other chairs. The Leap was the only one that just felt right when I first sat on it. The Aeron tends to cut off blood flow in my legs. The Humanscale falls backwards too easily.

What is interesting about the Leap is that there are no pressure points. You sit in it, and you float. You lean forward, and the front gives way. Lean backwards, and same thing. It takes a bit of getting used to.

I bought it last night at Target Commercial Interiors for $625. They carry black in stock, other colors(of which there are hundreds) are available on special order. This store is fantastic, as they have a return policy on in stock merchandise. So if the chair does suck, I can bring it back.

Stupid LTE of the Day - Republican Spin edition

2007-04-24T11:33:00.000-05:00

You have to check this one out.

Politics first
The Democratic leadership in Washington has added $20 billion in pork spending and a troop pullout provision in the bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The purpose of the pork is to buy votes from politicians who oppose the bill. The purpose of the provision to start pulling the troops out this summer is to put President Bush in the position of vetoing the bill. If he vetoes it they can say he didn't fund the troops. Democratic Sen. Harry Reed is already saying it. Shrewd and calculated political maneuvering.

I wonder: If the Democrats had spent as much time, energy and creativity fighting the terrorists as they have President Bush since the war started, would we already be bringing some of the troops home without spending the extra $20 billion?

RICHARD O'BRIEN, BURNSVILLE

This might have had some ounce of credibility if the President had not been going around whining about how the Democratic Congress doesn't support the troops because they have not given him a funding bill without strings attached. Playing politics? Christ, the whole Iraq war was one big game of politics from the start.

One small thing

2007-01-31T22:58:00.000-06:00

I mentioned in an earlier post trying the Ripper XXL mouse pad.

Well, I am here to report that while it's a very decent desk pad and is soft and supple and comfortable to write on, etc. It makes a horrible mouse pad.

The main problem is that it offers a lot of friction with the mouse. I already found my arm hurting from moving the mouse. So I took my old Wowpad thin plastic pad and put it on top, and that's better. Since the wow pad is worn out, I ordered an Xtrac Hammer to put on top. It's bigger than the Wowpad but just as thin. That should be nice.

These new plastic pads, combined with teflon feet such as what is on the Logitech G5 mouse, and you can practically slide the mouse from one side to the other by just tapping it. It's slick. I haven't had this nice of mouse control since the DEC puck mice on the DECstations back in the early 1990s.

More ergonomic changes

2007-01-31T22:45:00.000-06:00

I decided to dump the old desk and mishmash of bookshelf and other stuff in my home office, and bought new stuff at Ikea. Galant desks and Effectiv cabinets for storage. It looks nice.

I like the fact that the Galant desks are height adjustable. The standard 29" or more for a desk, is too high for use with a computer. 27" is about right, as that is the level your elbows sit in a seated position. One thing that is awesome about the Galant desks is the cord management system. It's a little wire net which attaches to the back underside of the desk. It has plenty of places to wrap cords around to hold them in place.

I also bought their computer holders. They attach to the side of the desk in the metal support channels, and in that location they are quite sturdy and solid. Unfortunately the right desk, I didn't feel I wanted to block the hallway by placing the computer to the side, so I thought I'd try the clamp mounts and place it towards the back. That isn't near as solid, and I had to prop something underneath for to hold the computer up.

However, I have an intriguing idea of taking one of the clamps, and a L-bracket I have, mounting it to a small board and then using this all to hold a power supply up along the side of the desk.

I also built monitor stands using 48" Jarpen shelves with 4" Capita legs from the Ikea kitchen department. Pretty good for $20 and the Jarpen shelves are solid and don't flex under the weight of LCD monitors.

The storage units, I'm going with lower file drawers, with another low add on unit with a roller lid, and then the high unit with doors. They had a similar unit on display, with the Jigga handles from the kitchen area and it looked quite sharp. So that's what I'm going with... black brown with silver accents.

I'd considered wall cabinets behind the desks, but I'm still not sure if it will make the room feel cramped or what.

Subsonic Zero Code DAL

2007-01-01T22:59:00.000-06:00

I have been recently looking at ways to write a lot less code. So I was investigating this Ruby on Rails model of building classes off your data design automagically.

It's nice, it's certainly fast and a lot less code. I setup my data structure the way I thought I wanted it, and then ran the Subsonic batch generator(which is unfortunately an asp.net page, rather than a console tool). I created Controller classes to handle access through to the DAL classes.

But it dawned on me. Tables don't do inheritance, so the generated DAL don't really encourage full OO design. Although certainly I could create my own set of classes, and then write code to map those to the SubSonic genreated classes. But then I'm not really saving myself much coding.

I thought about looking at NHibernate, which is more of an ORM, or rather you create your objects and then map those to a table structure to save. Unfortunately I could not get the demo to run because of conflicting versions of log4net or something, and I just gave up.

For now I'll just use SubSonic, as it suits my purpose, and maybe the inheritance thing was overcomplicating my app.

New Mouses

2007-01-01T22:55:00.000-06:00

The other thing i discovered in my quest, was that the little laptop mice are bad for your ergonomics. I was using a Microsoft Notebook Wireless Laser Mouse 6000, and my arm was aching.

I realized this when I was working on my desktop where I had a Logitech G5 gaming mouse. Well it so happened that BestBuy had G5 mice on sale for $50, so I bought two more.

Much better.

Although now I am considering mouse pads. I kind of like the slim plastic ones, but after much consideration I'm wondering if maybe the XTrac Ripper XXL might not be a bad idea. It's a cloth pad which is 36" wide and 18" deep. Their would be plenty of room for the mouse, and I wouldn't have to worry about placing keyboard such that it'd hit the level of the mousepad. Another factor, I'm wondering about is if it'd insulate the desk slightly for my arms, as it seems like the desk itself gets cold.

Unfortunately newegg.com is out of them, so I'll wait. But at only $15.95, it's worth trying.

New Keyboard

2007-01-01T22:48:00.000-06:00

Well, the Deck small keyboard turned out to be not very good. The keys weren't very tactile, that is you didn't know at what point you'd actually connected the key other than hitting all the way down to the keyboard. Also, while I liked the size, it seemed to sit higher but didn't have the slope that I'd like. So I returned it.

I ended up getting a Keytronic Classic-U2. This is an exceptional keyboard, the only thing i don't like about it is the layout. It uses a larger enter key and as such it places the \ key below the enter, thus making the right shift smaller.

However, it is a USB keyboard and is a version of the Lifetime series. The keyboard I really do like is the Lifetime Designer, but that is available in PS/2 only. However, I did contact Keytronics tech support and apparently the E03600QUSUSBB-C is the same layout as the Designer, and uses the same keys, it just doesn't have the lifetime warranty. It's also a bit smaller, not quite as deep and just a whee bit narrower. I may have to order me a couple of those later.

Back to blogging

2006-12-26T00:40:00.000-06:00

For a time, I was trying to blog with some internet buddies at kakistocrats.com. I think I'm going to fall back to here, as most of what I want to blog about anymore is technology and not politics.(The Bush/Republican war on America seems to be losing it's acceptance with the American voter. Thank God!)

Search for the Perfect Keyboard

2006-12-25T23:42:00.000-06:00

Ever since I took typing class on a bunch of IBM Selectrics in High School(circa 1984), I've been an excellent touch typist. I do somewhere around 90-100 wpm.

The importance of a quality keyboard just cannot be stressed enough. The quality of a keyboard is not determined by the number of extra buttons that you never use, nor is it determined by the angle of the keys relative to your wrist position. Many people have become confused into thinking the Microsoft Natural keyboard is a good thing, that it somehow helps their wrists. They couldn't be more wrong. That's just gimmickery.

Aspects which are critical are more subtle. You cannot see them, you have to feel them, you have to test the keyboard. Aspects which are critical, is how crisp does the keys respond. A key should go down crisply, it should not feel mushy as if you are typing on a bunch of marshmallows. Some people thing that this mushy helps to cushion your fingers, but if you are a skilled typist you don't need this as you never hit the keys harder than you have to. Your fingers float across the keyboard.

Which brings us to the next critical aspect, just how hard is it to press the keys? The lighter the touch, the better the keyboard. When typing, you never rest your fingers on the keys. Again, they float above. The only time you need to touch the keyboard is when you are initially finding the home key, and then when you are typing a key.

One feature which is subtle, and is the difference between a quality keyboard and a cheap one... How does the key respond if you hit it off center? You ought to be able to hit a key with a sideways force and have it go down naturally. If it offers any resistance, the keyboard is a piece of crap and will reduce your typing speed and accuracy.

Why am I searching for the most perfect keyboard? Well, I strayed from the righteous path several years ago.

One of the first keyboards I bought in 1992 was a Northgate Omnikey Ultra. That keyboard cost me $100, but it was the best keyboard ever made. It had a light crisp feel, and it lasted forever. I even ran that keyboard through the dishwasher a couple of times to revitalize it.(Actually this does work, if you remember to not use soap, and make sure to dry out everything prior to use) But it had an AT plug, and as computers modernized, I ended up setting it in the closet and using PS/2 keyboards and later USB.

For a time I had a IBM Model M keyboard with a PS/2 cord. The Model M is perhaps the most accurate keyboard ever made, and the keys have a satisfying click. But I actually found I didn't like the click so much and thought it was too hard. Then I ended up with a multitude of cheap keyboards it seems. IBM value models, Microsoft models, wireless desktops from Microsoft. My last keyboard was a Logitech Media Elite which I thought was pretty good.

But that was because I had lost the righteous path. A couple of months ago I bought a Keytronics LT Designer INUSCY keyboard for my girlfriend. It's a Russian/English combo keyboard, with a PS/2 plug. I touched the keys, and it was like being in heaven. I hadn't felt something so smooth and silky in oh so long.

This set me down a path, to find a good keyboard again. These throw away models, that last maybe two years. Enough with them. I want quality, a keyboard to last a lifetime.

There's only one problem. I've been having some problems with my right wrist lately, I think mainly because of the stupid "ergonomic" design of the desks at work. As such, I do not like the width between the keyboard and the mouse to be so much.

If not for that, in a heartbeat I would buy a Keytronics LT Designer model, or possibly the LT Classic. These are by far the best keyboards on the market for the money, costing only around $35-40. I wouldn't trust any other Keytronics model, only the Designer or Classic. I had one of their other cheaper ones once, and it didn't last long. (yes, they have keyboards cheaper than $35)

But I wanted a narrow one, cutting off a few inches from the width. Also, I need USB only, as I'm plugging this into my Dell Inspiron E1505. I tried the Keytronics with a PS/2 to USB adapter, and it did not work reliably. Maybe it's just the adapter and another one would work well, but a direct connect is preferable.

Keyboards I have looked at:

Logitech Media Elite - This is what I have now. It's part of what I call a newer generation of cheap keyboards. They took the standard 'Delete/Home/End' button block and moved it vertically, mushed the arrow keys over to the left slightly. This narrows the keyboard a bit. While good for a cheap keyboard, the keys are mushy and too hard to press.

Kensington Slimtype - This is an intriguing keyboard. I like that they took out the middle keys, pushed the arrow keys even further down and to the left. It still has a numeric keypad, which while useful isn't essential. But overall it narrows the keyboard by a good two inches or so. I have not found one locally yet to test, but it uses laptop style keys. That is, low profile without a lot of travel. That may not be bad, I want to feel one first.

CVT Avant Prime - CVT bought the Northgate keyboard technology. This is probably the best keyboard on the market today. It's $150. If they made a version sans numeric keypad, I'd be on it in a second.

Happy Hacker Keyboard - This is intriguing and comes from Fujitsu. They have two models, the Happy Hacker Pro which goes for $259 and the Lite for $69. The Pro appears to have excellent key characteristics, but it's completely missing arrow keys. I can do without keypad, but I need arrows. The Lite, looks intriguing and I would like to try it at some point.

The Das Keyboard - Ok, want something weird? The Happy Hacker Pro is also available this way, but the Das Keyboard has no lettering. The idea is apparently that without letters, you'll learn to type even better because it doesn't help you to ever look at the keyboard. Frankly, that's complete bullocks, I don't look down at the keyboard anyway, except maybe to hit symbol keys or something I hardly ever use and then I want the lettering.

Mighty Mouse - Ok, apparently at one time IBM made an 84-key version of the Model M called the Space Saver. It's no longer made. But this company bought the IBM keyboard technology, and makes regular Model M's. They also have this "Mighty Mouse" which appears to be the keyboard off a Thinkpad.

Deck Keyboard - This is an interesting one. This company makes keyboards used by the onboard computers in cop cars. Meaning, they're durable resistent to water all sorts of things. They introduced a "consumer" model using the same format. However it's been modded with LED keys. They're targetting gamers, but it's only 82 keys, no numeric keypad.(they also make a 104 key model) It's got a metal plate on the bottom, appears very durable. The reviews say it has good key feel.

I ended up ordering the Deck 82-key. They have a 30 day money back guarantee, so we'll see. The idea of having it backlit is appealing. I just want it small.

One other comment. I realized that my wrist is mainly hurting because I have been using a Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000. I ended up buying a Logitech G5 gaming mouse and will be bringing it into work. I have a G5 on my desktop at home, and it's nice. The G5 allows you to adjust the weight of the mouse. It also has large teflon pads on the bottom. It allows you to adjust sensitivity with the push of a button. Plus it's incredibly comfortable.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up a Imak Smart Glove to wear, if I can find it at Compusa.(they claim it is in stock) That may help as well.

I can Hibernate now!

2006-08-18T17:37:00.000-05:00

A few months ago Hibernation stopped working on my Dell Inspiron E1505. Not sure at what point, but I suspect it was after a round of Microsoft security patches.

Hibernation would work the first time, but then after that would throw an error "Insufficient System Resources Exist to Complete the API." until the machine was rebooted.

Well, Microsoft finally released a patch. KB909095

Thinking about support = Freedom

2006-07-26T12:00:00.000-05:00

I came across this blog post by Daniel Read talking about how he was going to manage a SQL Server Integration Services task.

What's nice is that not only is he worrying about the nuts and bolts of moving the data from one point to another, he's also spending the time to think about the high level job control.

Too many times do I encounter people in the industry who just think of the nuts and bolts, and their answer to high level job control is to hand hold the process by performing the steps manually. I think they view this as job security, but what they don't realize is it's actually a ball and chain tying them to that support role and not allowing them to move on to do new things.

The Daily Political WTF

2006-07-19T13:06:00.000-05:00

There's this really cool website for us programmer types called the The Daily WTF. Each day they post a snippet of code that some reader has encountered and has to fix. Like yesterdays A Function to Quit For.

Anyway, I'm proposing we create a Daily Political WTF.

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish officials signaled Tuesday they are prepared to send the army into northern Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi forces do not take steps to combat Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there _ a move that could put Turkey on a collision course with the United States.

Turkey is facing increasing domestic pressure to act after 15 soldiers, police and guards were killed fighting the guerrillas in southeastern Turkey in the past week.

sbCommunity development starts

2006-07-16T22:42:00.000-05:00

A few years ago I started working on a website idea, which was a combination of web forum, event calendar, announcement page and so forth. The idea was kind of a combination between a community website, yahoo groups, and a calendaring system like evite.

Well, the idea started with a local communit social group imnotfromhere.com, and then I used the same software base to handle the informal Minnesota for Clark '04 campaign website. I started out trying to build my own website to handle this, and ended up resorting to using the DotNetNuke framework with a bunch of custom modules. This worked fairly well, except that DNN doesn't work very well for tasks which involve more than one page, or for modules which are connected.

Well, recently .NET 2.0 came out, and after spending some time looking at what they've done with it. The new master pages and the membership provider appear such that it ought to be fun and easy to create this.

So here we go.

Stupid Healthcare Study of the Century

2006-07-12T17:43:00.000-05:00

From David Phelps at the startribune...

It's short, so I'll quote the whole thing..

Consumers with high-deductible health coverage are more likely to regularly
visit their primary care doctor for preventitive checkups, less likely to use
the emergency room and have fewer hospital admissions than people who have
traditional health care coverage where an employer pays for most of the
coverage.
That's the finding of a three-year study of so-called consumer-driven health care plans by UnitedHealth Group released today.
The study, one of the largest since the consumer-driven model picked up steam three years ago, sampled 55,000 workers. It found that cost per member for the high deductible plans actually declined while increasing 8 to 10 percent for other
plans from 2003 to 2005. Mike Tarino, chief executive of UnitedHealth's
Definity division, said the survey's results indicate that the growing popularity of health reimbursement accounts and health savings accounts shows that consumers "can make wiser, more financially sound decisions about their health care."

One problem... The study is self selecting.

I had a choice this year between a health savings account and a traditional one. After sitting down, examining the costs pros and cons, I came to the conclusion that the traditional plan would be cheaper.

Here's the thing I discovered. A HSA is only better if you are either healthy and never have to go to the Doctor or extremely ill. If you are somewhere in the middle, you're screwed.

The main problem... the cost of drugs.

So this study is self selecting, that is the people are healthy choose the HSA. The people who are not go traditional. As such, it's no surprise HSA are cheaper. It's also no surprise that traditionals increased costs considering the "cheap" people, i.e. the healthy, moved off them.

Now I will say this, it appears to me that the cost of drugs started skyrocketing shortly after insurance plans started covering them. So having a realization of the costs goes a long way towards generating outrage towards pharma corps.

So what are we going to do about it? You're going to be hard pressed to convince people that they should pay more as part of an interesting social experiment. Seems to me like there has to be a bit of give and take.

First off, let's reverse the law that let pharma's advertise. That's gotta increase costs by 20% or more considering how much of it they do.

The Future of Mexico?

2006-07-05T09:58:00.000-05:00

The recent election in Mexico to replace Vincente Fox has turned out in confusion, with an uncertainty as to the results.

Although as an American I don't care one way or another who wins. I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't have been better for the leftist candidate to have won, at least from the American perspective.

That is. I think Vincente Fox's policies have been responsible for illegal immigration into the United States.

2006-07-03T16:19:00.000-05:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

What if you held a protest, and nobody showed up?

2006-07-03T16:08:00.000-05:00

Michelle Malkin organized a protest out front of the NY Times offices.

Looks like about a dozen people showed up, and most of those were reporters. Pretty funny.

Update: Heh, just noticed the title. 'Dissent is Patriotic'

Apparently dissenting against a Press who is reporting on what the Government is doing is the highest form of patriotism. Uhh... Right. Kind of makes you wonder if they even understand what the first amendment is about.

LOL! While I'm over at Malkin... Apparently she also hate's Superman. That's pretty funny, a movie which has quite obvious allusions to Christianity, at least in terms of the good work that humans can accomplish is hated by Malkin. Her take...

Guess I'm just one of those people who doesn't have the patience for Hollyweird
escapism that pits softened not-so-superheroes against rootless, not-so-arch
enemies.

Malkin's complaint: Kevin Spacey wasn't evil enough. Only a Republican would go to a movie expecting to root for the evil villian. LOL! Frankly, I thought the movie was good, and the Christ/Savior references were interesting. A hero who stands up for Truth, Justice and the American way. Who can hate that?

Malkin, apparently.

Guantanamo decision... Interesting side note

2006-07-02T23:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a few days since the SCOTUS decided that while the President has authority to hold prisoners of war as prisoners of war, he doesn't have the authority to setup Kangaroo courts where we convict people without letting them see the evidence against them. (Actually rather sounds un-American when you think about it)

The main decision can be summed up by the various articles on the issue, such as the San Jose Mercury which wrote Guantánamo decision reaffirms the rule of law

But a friend pointed out something to me, about the tone of the dissent written by Justice Thomas. The decision here.

As an initial matter, the plurality relies upon the date of the AUMF’s enactment to determine the beginning pointfor the "period of the war," Winthrop 836, thereby suggesting that petitioner’s commission does not have jurisdiction to try him for offenses committed prior to the AUMF’s enactment. Ante, at 34–36, 48. But this suggestion betrays the plurality’s unfamiliarity with the realities of warfare and its willful blindness to our precedents. The starting point of
the present conflict (or indeed any conflict) is not determined by congressional enactment, butrather by the initiation of hostilities.

That phrase... The plurality's unfamiliarity with the realities of warfare. Now ignoring the fact that Justice Stevens who wrote the plurality decision actually served in the Navy during WWII and was awarded the Bronze star. The main point is that this argument that Thomas makes is an appeal to emotion, rather than acknowledgement of the Rule of Law and it's importance not just in precedent but in preserving the credibility and authority of the United States Government.

Anyway, it just goes to show some of the bullshit of Republican claims with regards to judicial decisions. Similar to Justice Scalia's embrace of a Living Constitution in Hudson v. Michigan just a few weeks prior.

We cannot assume that exclusion in this context is necessary deterrence simply
because we found that it was necessary deterrence in different contexts and long
ago. That would be forcing the public today to pay for the sinsand inadequacies
of a legal regime that existed almost half a century ago.

Obviously the opposite must apply as well, right? That if something wasn't realized in the past, it may very well be realized today.

More pieces to the puzzle

2006-06-26T11:01:00.000-05:00

Recent news implicates Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist in a rather interesting money laundering scheme.

I've long maintained that many of these individuals going around prostelytizing either on religion is not so much interested in government theory, but rather on working out ways to enrich their own pocketbooks.

This definately seems the case for Norquist. Charging a 10% handling fee for his money laundering operations? It looks like he pockets several hundred thousand dollars. They would have gotten cheaper rates by going to Western Union. They only charge 3% for money transfers.

For years, they've been trying to hide this. Every since Jim Bakker got caught, but the reality is Big Religion is about big money.

Of course Grover isn't a religious nut, he's a "smaller government" nut. Actually he's not for smaller more efficient government so much as insuring the right people benefit from government largesse. That is, people like Grover. So again it's not surprising to see him take fees to launder money for the purpose of supporting a lobbyist who was trying to get the government to prevent his client from suffering against competition.

This crap has to stop.

The Iraq Plan

2006-06-19T15:12:00.000-05:00

Interesting reader comment posted to TPM by Josh Marshall

Something in your post this morning really clicked for me, and I'd like you to
put a sharper point on it from here on out. I'd like to see the main Democratic
talking point become, "Bush will be in Iraq forever. Period. The Democrats will
extricate us. Period." And let the administration convince the public otherwise.
I think if the Dems just keep saying, over and over, "Republicans want us there
forever, that's why we have no timetables, that's why THEY ARE building
permanent bases, etc.," this would be a useful evolution of the basic
description of the situation.

This is an interesting point. It kind of turns the Republican argument back on itself, and it really is the truth. Democrats don't want to cut-n-run so much as just get ourselves out of the place where we don't belong.

What I find interesting is the new notion the Republicans are placing that if we leave Iraq it will destabilize the whole region. It's an interesting argument in that their supposed purpose for invading Iraq was to destabilize the region. The pro-Democracy domino theory that they sold us. So why the sudden concern now?

That's what I don't get about this Iraq policy. What exactly is their strategy here? It's not clear that they have one... well, other than to use foreign policy blunders abroad to win domestic elections at home. That is, my theory of the Arsonist. That they're starting fires so that they can campaign on putting them out.

More Malkin stupidity

2006-06-10T14:37:00.000-05:00

I just caught this, and thought it was funny.

In reference to an image lit up on the side of the wall at the ykos conference, she implies that it's some sort of satanic symbol.

It's actually a representation of the Great Seal of the United States. It's an Eagle holding arrows in one claw, and olive branches in the other, and the words across the top say 'E. Pluribus Unum', which we all know means "From many, one".

It's curious that Malkin, someone who rails about immigrants not understanding US history, would have so little knowledge herself.

Another interesting point

2006-06-10T14:27:00.000-05:00

Alex Rossmiller at the ykos panel on foreign policy pointed out something simple.

If you ask anyone, whether they want American troops in Iraq for eternity, they'll say no. So obviously the question is not whether we stay or not, the question is how do we leave.

From yearlyKos

2006-06-09T16:25:00.000-05:00

I'm here at yearlyKos in Las Vegas. It's interesting and there's been a number of good discussions that have gone on.

But at the MetaKos panel, Hunter made an interesting comment which I want to make note of.

He noted that something which is unique about Bush is that he acts as The Republican President, as opposed to the American President. This is a fairly new phenomena in recent politics. He noted that even Reagan understood that he was President to the entire country, and addressed issues that way. Bush on the other hand, goes solely for the divisive stuff knowing and understanding the whole time that he's aiming for only a small portion of the country.

Just interesting. I actually think if you look at history, it's a return to the 19th century of politics. A terribly unfortunate thing, but it's reality and while we lament it, maybe we need to learn how to deal with it.

Stupid Incumbent Representative of the Day

2006-06-02T15:08:00.000-05:00

Mark Kennedy is going to be an Agent of Change, if we send him to Washington as our new Senator.

So, apparently he's decided to run away from his record of the past six years in the House.

I'd consider this sad, if they weren't this stupid in real life.

Boo Hoo

2006-05-17T12:26:00.000-05:00

Tobin's lawyers countered that he has suffered enough: "Mr. Tobin is a man with
high ethical standards and a deep love for his family and community. Seeing his
reputation destroyed, his family publicly humiliated and a profession [politics]
he loves made unavailable to him has caused him great pain."

That's the response from a man convicted of ruining the fairness of the 2002 Senate election in New Hampshire, according to this WashPo article.

It also notes that the Republican party has paid about $3 million for his legal defense. Apparently, they're afraid he's going to spill some beans and implicate others in the scheme.

There was something similar that occured with Democrats in Milwaukee or Detroit, if I recall correctly, where they slashed the tires of rented vehicles. But at least the Democrats had the good sense to admit they were wrong rather than fight the charges.

Stupidity Minnesotan of the Day

2006-05-17T10:21:00.000-05:00

So check out this article...

Regarding the claim by Bush that we couldn't easily deport 12 million illegals out of the country he writes:

And he will be lying, again, just as he lied when he said: "Massive
deportation of the people here is unrealistic – it's just not going to work."

Not only will it work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take.
If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews,
many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society, it
couldn't possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal
aliens, many of whom don't speak English and are not integrated into American
society.

Then he tries to defend himself over on his blog.

And one more level of Corruption

2006-05-09T16:32:00.000-05:00

HUD Secretary is awarding Government contracts on the basis of partisanship, so reports the Dallas Business Journal.

And they have no shame about it either.

"He didn't get the contract," Jackson continued. "Why should I reward someone
who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against
the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I
believe."

Graft, Corruption, crony-capitalism. What a wonderful way to run a Government.

Poor Monticello

2006-05-06T16:57:00.000-05:00

No, not Jefferson's home... the town on I-94 between Twin Cities and St. Cloud.

They had to suffer through a Republican convention today, and as proof that the Religious Moonbats control the agenda, they nominated Michelle "I hide in bushes" Bachmann for their candidate for the US House.

Bachmann is known for a single issue... try to get a Gay Bashing Amendment passed in Minnesota. She comes from the Pat Robertson wing of the moonie right.

Bachmann was selected over a fiscal conservative(Jim Knoblach), and a businessman.(Jay Esmay)

How are Republicans and Communists similar?

2006-05-06T16:43:00.000-05:00

When faced with a failed ideology and a series of policy failures, people who espouse Communism fell back on the argument "It wasn't really Communism, it was subverted by [Stalin|Mao|whoever] into something different. True Communism would have worked."

And now it appears the Republican party is offering us the same excuse. I guess they've run out of everybody else to blame for their failures. So now they are blaming their hero Bush. It turns out that Bush was actually a "liberal", that's why all those policies failed.

It never mattered that, uhh, us supposed "liberals" were questioning the policies from day one and we were innundated by wingnut whining about how we just hated Bush.

Glenn Greenwald has an interesting post up talking about some of the examples of the Distancing from Bush, mostly surrounding a debate he's having with Luciana Goldberg's spawn.

The Bullshit of the Mainstream Media

2006-05-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

Porter Goss has resigned from the CIA, effectively immediately.

What's fascinating is watching the shills in the media trying to explain this one as a shakeup at the Whitehouse. That Bolten or whatever his name is, is looking for new blood.

But for the last week, the alternative news media has been abuzz with speculation about a new twist in the Duke Cunningham scandal. Apparently Wilkes, the guy who bribed Cunningham, was childhood friends with Dusty Foggo, the guy Goss named as his #3 in charge at the CIA. Well in the past couple of weeks, it turns out the FBI has investigating allegations that Wilkes ran a brothel out of the Watergate Hotel.(Yes, that watergate) And that a number of Congress critters may have gotten sexual favors in return for monetary favors.

The whole thing is complicated, and TPM has been on top of it trying to connect the dots.

But this isn't a staff shakeup. Somehow Goss is connected to this scandal, and the Whitehouse is dumping him overboard. The fact that the Media is trying to spin this is simply pathetic. With this timing, the fact that it's effective immediately. This isn't a coincidence. This scandal is going to blow.

[UPDATE: Well, the New York Daily News has made mention of the connection. Although there's also some reporting that maybe Bush realized Goss was a horrible CIA director and fired him for trying to make the agency into a partisan hack shop. That seems rather hard to believe, the President has never shied away from political hacks before.]

Interesting...

2006-05-05T09:53:00.000-05:00

MSNBC has an article up about a new Ipsos poll.

The President is now polling at around 33%, Congress is down in the 20% range. Republicans are losing their base, the fringes, the fringes of the fringes and everybody else in between. The word, is basically bad news.

And, it seems clear the Republicans have no bloody clue as to why.

“It’s going to take some events of significance to turn this around,” GOP pollster Whit Ayres said. “I don’t think at this point you can talk your way back from those sorts of ratings.”
He said the party needs concrete progress in Iraq and action in Congress on immigration, lobbying reform and tax cuts.
“Those things would give the country a sense that Washington has heard the people and is responding in a way that will give conservatives a sense that their concerns are being addressed,” Ayres said.

And don't forget. A gay bashing Amendment, maybe a flag burning amendment, and now would be a great time maybe in invade Iran. You know, the same old bag of tricks which have gotten Congress and the President into Nixonian approval levels. Well, speak of the devil! The very next paragraph suggests this.

Conservative voters blame the White House and Congress for runaway government
spending, illegal immigration and lack of action on social issues such as a
constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage. Those concerns come on top of
public worries about Iraq, the economy and gasoline prices.

Right. The Republican strategery[sic!] over the past several election cycles has been to run this game of dividing the country, convincing people that they weren't really radicals that it was the Democrats who were. They'd get 51% of the independent vote, along with the hardcore wingnut vote and that's enough to win.

So obviously the way to respond, is to pander even further to the hardcore wingnut vote, right? This will bring back the independents, and the lapsed Democrats and everybody else.

Here's another winning strategery[sic!]:

He urged his party to start criticizing Democratic positions on the Iraq war,
immigration and the economy.
“We’ve been like a punching bag,” Mueller said.

Yes, that's right. Because you know, time has proven the Democratic positions are all wrong. We really ought to invade a couple more countries in addition to Iraq, build a wall along the Mexican border and punish those nasty [word deleted] for wanting to come here to earn some money to send back home, and you know, maybe drive more of the economy into the ground. Just to prove that the Democrats are all wrong!

The reason why the Democratic arguments are winning any strength in those areas, is because the Republicans policies have been utter disasters.

This is what happens when you follow a blind ideology. The Great Leaders, like Franklin Roosevelt, work for results. They don't care how you get there, we just get there. So if something isn't working, you change course. Lincoln fired how many Generals before coming up with Grant? Roosevelt went through several rounds on the New Deal before coming up with a combination that worked.

But then, I shouldn't complain. I want those bums out of there.

Interesting Article

2006-05-04T16:25:00.000-05:00

George Packer has an interesting article in the New Yorker, where he describes the current strategy in Iraq as:

As a strategy, this amounts to muddling through the rest of the Bush Presidency,
without being forced to admit defeat, until January of 2009, when the war will
become a new President’s problem.

This is in response to the hope that now that Iraq has a Prime Minister, violence will star to subside.

I do take issue with this thing he says in regards to a Kerry speech demanding a timetable:

Having found his voice, Kerry abruptly concluded the speech with a new war policy: immediate withdrawal if Iraq doesn’t form “an effective unity
government” by May 15th; withdrawal by the end of the year if it does. But
abandoning Iraq in an exasperated rush will leave ordinary Iraqis far more
vulnerable to the murderous conduct of the militias and the insurgents than they
are now.
...
The choice in Iraq should not be between the Administration’s failed eschatology and the growing eagerness of most politicians to be rid of the problem.

This is something of a misrepresentation of what Kerry was saying. While I would agree that Kerry is basically saying let's get rid of this problem. His discussion of a timetable for withdrawl was not to get rid of the problem in that fashion, i.e. "abandoning Iraq in an exasperated rush", but rather as a warning to Iraqis to start working on compromise and find a Prime Minister.

Kerry wasn't the only one who said that, there was also a delegation with McCain, Feingold and others who told the Iraqis they better get moving or the US would lose interest. Kerry's was more pointed, but the effect was the same.

I believe it was this demand on the part of Kerry, or similar demands of other Congress critters which is responsible for the move forward on selecting a Prime Minister.

The next step is another time table. Either do this or we leave. The Iraqis understand what Packer says, that if the US forces leave there will be a great deal of bloodshed, unless they have control of the situation themselves already. But Iraqis can't gain control if they are relying upon the US troops, and they won't try to gain control if they assume the US troops will always be there.

It's the same argument as Welfare Reform, and frankly I'm surprised that it is the Democrats who have put forward the argument and it is the Republicans who are clueless. That shows to me that Republicans don't care about what they claim to care about.

Other than that, it's a good article.

Taco Bell coming to Iraq!?

2006-05-03T22:36:00.000-05:00

We can only hope so!

The US Embassy in London is rather pathetic, frankly. When I find them, I'll post some pictures I took back in 2004.

The New Iraqi Embassy is going to be FAN-TAS-TIC!! 21 buildings, indoor swimming pool, theatre, bowling alley and my favorite... restuarants offering delicacies from favorite US food chains!

Oh how fun it must be to sit in the sweltering sun of Iraq... er, I mean the comfortable air conditioning of the US Embassy and order a Combo Meal #6 complete with Baja Beef Chalupas and a hard shell taco, with the EXTRA LARGE Mountain Dew!

Actually this thing is rather quite pathetic, a huge waste of tax dollars, and it's hard to believe the Iraqis approved of it.

I just realized something!

2006-05-03T22:21:00.000-05:00

When I get my new cell phone, I have to transfer my old data over. The four phone numbers of people I ever actually talk to(and one of them is my home answering machine). But the most important thing, the thing which cannot remain untransfered.

My Weapon of Choice cell phone ring.

I don't think my cubicle neighbors will know what to do without that sweet sweet sound lofting across those walls.

The Question

2006-05-03T22:08:00.000-05:00

Ronald Reagan asked Are you better off now then 4 years ago?

GW Bush begs, "Are you better off now than you were when things were at their absolute worst, asuming that the thing you're concerned about is not at the worst level ever?"

Or so says norbizness. :-)

New cellphone

2006-05-03T21:52:00.000-05:00

Since I got a laptop with Bluetooth, I figured I now need a new cell phone capable of Bluetooth and EDGE connectivity.

I don't like Captain Kirk flip phones. I had one of the first Star-tac's and frankly they're annoying. Since then I've only had Nokia. 5160, 6190, 8290, and my latest phone a 6610. But Nokia has recently succumbed to the dark side of the force, and thinks they need to make Captain Kirk communicators to compete with Motorola's offerings. As such, they've stopped making good phones. Or at least they phones they sell through T-Mobile and such are no good.

So I'd been looking around for quite some time for a phone which was small, made phone calls(something of a low priority these days it seems), and had bluetooth and EDGE. I had considered getting the T-Mobile SDA, but do I really need all the features it has?

Then today, I saw this:

Witness the Samsung t509.

This baby is 9mm thin, a bit taller than my 6610 and the same width. The screen on it is incredible. The buttons and navigation are the easiest I've ever seen on a phone. It's got Bluetooth, EDGE. Has a camera I'll hardly ever use. Apparently has 70 Megs of RAM internally.(based on one blurb I read) Still has reasonable battery life, and weighs hardly anything.

Best part. $50 after rebates.

We'll see how durable it is in the long run, but I'm looking forward to it when it arrives next week.

Interesting Point

2006-05-03T11:32:00.000-05:00

Apparently, Ken Mehlman got a round of booing at a Jewish Event for suggesting Israel was better off without Saddam in Iraq.

What was interesting, is that this was in response to a point made by an attendee that they wished President Bush would stop linking Iran to a threat against Israel, because it made it appear that Israel was the provoker of the disagreement. But it's not clear that Israel even cares about Iran right now. So it's a fair point.

General Motors and UI design

2006-05-02T14:50:00.000-05:00

On the back of vehicles there are red lights, amber lights, white lights.

Amber lights are turn signals.
Red lights are either running lights, brake lights, or turn signals.
White lights are for helping illuminate behind the car while reversing.

The behavior of each of the lights helps to indicate what the car is doing. If a red light is flashing on only one side, it's probably a turn signal. If all red lights on the back of the car come on, it's the brakes.

The white lights are the ones you have to be careful with, as it indicates someone is backing up, usually. Important to look for when negotiating a parking lot or driving down the street.

So what brainiac at General Motors thought it was a good idea to turn on the reverse lights when you unlock your car door?

I just don't get GM, they do strange things, and they aren't even good ideas.

Never say Never

2006-05-01T00:36:00.000-05:00

For several years now I've been putting up with ridiculous claims by Mac advocates that Mac OSX is completely invulnerable to any sort of viruses, etc. Actually this same claim also keeps coming from Linux advocates.

Well, it's not true.

It's interesting to note /. and other Mac biased tech blogs are not talking about this.

[UPDATE: /. is finally mentioning it.]

Dumbest Idea Ever

2006-04-28T16:07:00.000-05:00

Ok, I think that's a little harsh. I mean the Republican proposal to give everybody $100 rebate this summer to help buy gas is dumb, but the dumbest idea ever? LOL!

This is the problem when you govern based on ideology rather than results. Republican's answer to everything is to give money out of the treasury, thinking that this will make the voters love them. But $100 rebate won't have any effect on consumer sentiment at the gas pump. It may help them buy an iPod, but they'll still fume about gas.

I think the article, and the comments by various analysts from CATO, etc. are correct. You learn to deal with the gas prices you have, not the gas prices you want to have.

Since gas started going up in price, I've moved closer to work and I drive considerably less largely as a result. I fill up once every two weeks, rather than once every 5 days. So in a given month, I fill up twice rather than 5-6 times. Figure that out $40 * 2 = $80 versus $40 * 6 = $240. (Yes, it costs about $40 to fill up my 15 gallon tank)

Does it suck for a lot of people? Yes, obviously. But Americans have nobody to blame but themselves. Eveyrthing we've done, from urban design, to car design, to where we live, all assums low gas prices. Things are going to change.

Stupid Letter of the Day

2006-04-28T10:36:00.000-05:00

This one is a bit borderline, but it shows a lack of understanding of the complexities.

HIGH-PRICED GAS
Thanks, but no thanks
• We can't drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• We can't drill off the East Coast.
• We can't drill off the West Coast.
• We can't drill in the Gulf of Mexico (but the Cubans and Chinese can).
• No new oil refineries have been built in the United States in the last 25 years.
• We shouldn't use the oil shale in Colorado even though it potentially could make us independent of Middle East oil.
• We should raise gasoline taxes to discourage consumption.
For all of these items, I would like to thank the Democrats and their environmentalist friends. They got what they wished for -- high-priced gas. If the
environmentalists were willing to negotiate, we could lower the price of
gasoline, but they don't want prices lower. They want to force us to be more
like the Europeans, no matter the cost.
JERRY BICH, WAYZATA

Several things here. About the only thing the Democrats or Environmentalists have been against has been the drilling of oil in ANWR.

Otherwise, the drilling of oil off the coasts, or massive strip mining in Colorado, I suspect you'd find a great deal of support against this by everybody who lives there. Certainly that has been the case in the Gulf Coast where you have Republican hegemony. Jeb Bush spoke out against drilling for oil off Florida's coast, because they were afraid it would hurt tourism business.

As to gas taxes. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of raising taxes to reduce consumption. But there's some balance to be had between us and Europe. European gas taxes are part of their general tax revenue. However in the US, while gas tax is a usage tax for the roads, we subsidize transportation through our general tax revenue.

We ought to fund our roads entirely from gas tax, and remove the income tax portion of their funding. Just my opinion anyway.

Sigh...

2006-04-28T10:23:00.000-05:00

Sen. Steve Kelley came out last night floating an idea for a half cent tax increase to pay for those damn stadiums.

I see no justification for state sponsorship of sports stadiums. If the Twins and Vikings want us to pay for their stadium, they can turn over half ownership in the team. Or a contract saying they will stay here in the Twin Cities for the next 50 years, and if not they will pay back the initial cost of construction for the stadiums.

Otherwise, if they aren't loyal to us, I see no reason to be loyal to them. I don't pay blackmail.

No Sex?

2006-04-28T10:19:00.000-05:00

What fun is a scandal without sex?

Ohwell. It appears that the Mississippi Governor, Haley Barbour provided the initial funding for the telemarketing firm that's been convicted in a phone jamming scandal in New Hampshire.

Is there anybody left in the Republican Party who hasn't been indicted, arrested, or implicated? This one's an odd duck. The National Republican Party has been providing millions for legal defense to these guys, so you know there are a lot of people involved or they would have just shoved 'em over the edge of the ship.

Is The Watergate a National Landmark?

2006-04-28T10:04:00.000-05:00

If the Watergate is not a national landmark, protected as a historical building, it ought to be. It seems whenever there is something bizarre afoot in Washington, that hotel makes the paper.

And this is a twofer... The watergate and a sex scandal.

Several of Wilkes' former employees and business associates say he used the
hospitality suites over the past 15 years to curry favor with lawmakers as well
as officials with the CIA, where both Wilkes and Wade sought contracts.

How do you curry favor?

A limousine would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and take them to the ADCS hospitality suite, Wade reportedly told investigators. Federal agents are investigating whether other legislators had similar arrangements with Wilkes or Wade, a business associate of Wilkes who ran his own defense contracting company, MZM Inc.

Nice... And supposedly they've got pictures, and the FBI has been interviewing the women.

Pondering 2008...

2006-04-27T19:09:00.000-05:00

This is a rather long post, just rambling really. But, once again today, I encountered several people promoting the Wisdom of the 2008 Presidential race. A race that's well over two years away, and my God considering how long the 2004 one went on, I think we could wait until at least August of 2008 to worry about the next one.

That being said, these discussions are kind of funny and they always boil down to the CW of Hillary versus McCain.

Let's start out with my "Why Hillary Ain't Running in 2008" theory, which I've been tossing around since sometime in 2003 when she was supposedly going to run in the 2004 race. She doesn't want to run. If you have watched her over the last six years in the Senate, she's quite happy and comfortable there. In fact if you watch C-Span, you'll notice quite often her off to the side of the Senate floor with a gaggle of Senators surrounding her, with her giving the lecture. I'm convinced that she's looking for a leadership role on a committee, possibly majority leader or whip. I still can't see her running for President, she doesn't want that negative attention again.

Now what's always amazing about these CW claims is that they come from the whacky right about as often as the far left, and neither group particularly cares for the Clintons.(I'm honestly not sure who hates them worse, seriously...) Now one thing I wonder if she were to run how much hold she'd have in the nomination process. I know the far left would stay away, more likely supporting Feingold, but I'm not sure about the center core. By and large, Hillary is adored by the party center, but even then there's a general feeling amongst the people I talk to that they'd like to see someone besides a Clinton or Bush in there, just because they are sick of all the crap.

Now many point to her fundraising as evidence she's looking long term. With about $20 million on hand right now. But New York is a big state, and if she has a challenger, it requires a good deal of money to compete. Consider Mayor Bloomberg spent at least $66 million in 2005, and he didn't even have much competition, winning with a 20 point spread. So I'm not buying that argument yet. If she's still got $20 mil in the bank going into 2007, then yeah, maybe.

We'll see, but I'm still placing my money on Hillary not running.

As for John McCain. Let's get real. Anybody who thinks McCain is going to win a Republican nomination is so out of touch with the Republican base, they probably can't tell what time of day it is. Last year, John McCain garnered more support from Democrats than Republicans. He's not very well liked in the Republican party, which is why lately he's been pandering so much.

I was a Bob Dole supporter in 1988. Not very hardcore, but I went to the caucus and cast my ballot. I was rather dismayed by what I encountered, as the Pat Robertson supporters were there in force. There's two likely scenarios that play out in 2008. It's either going to be a repeat of 1988, where the psuedo-Christian right declares they are pissed off because they were responsible for Reagan's election in 1984 and they didn't get what they wanted out of it(Essentially the Enactment of Sharia law in the US). So they'll try to run Ralph Reed or some other guy as their candidate in 2008. For those who don't recall, in that Iowa caucus in 1988, Pat Robertson came in second place with 25% of the ballots a strong showing to Dole's 37%.(Oh yeah, remember Bush the Greater? He got 19%)

The other scenario, which is possible but I have little faith in it, is that a whole boatload of former Republicans get mad, show up at the caucus/primaries and try to take the party back from the fruitloops. Chance of this happening? About 10%. A lot of these guys endorsed Kerry in 2004, and some of them are running in the 2006 midterms as Democrats, having long since given up a return to sanity in the Republican party.

So where does McCain fit in all of this?

Well as we all recall in 2000, he was an ardently opposed to the psuedo-Christian right . Now as it turns out, I think he was right. The religious right has "turned good causes into businesses". They've gotten smarter since the 1980s, and have learned how to hide the money better.[Queue in Pat Robertson]

His positions killed his campaign. The reality is, since 1984 increasingly the Republican party has become owned by the psuedo-Christian right. If you don't pander to them, you're not going to win any nomination. But it's a game, you have to pander to them, but at the same time not do anything which royally pisses off the other contingents within the party, what you might call the Business Wing. The Business Wing doesn't really much care about morality, they just want to make a buck. Generally, that's not a bad thing. Where they go off to lunch is that they often think that the Government should protect them from competition, which contradicts the foundations of a Free Market Economy as laid out by Adam Smith, but that's another topic in it's entirety.

Both sides have been beating on each other in recent years, with the Janet Jackson thing, the Terri Schiavo fiasco and such. The psuedo-Christian right has overstepped the rules of the game and hurt profit margins. So there's some heat growing between the groups.

But now we throw a new loop into the fruitloop bowl. The realization by many psuedo-Christians that they've been bamboozled for years. This was best exemplified by this little quote:

"The whacko's get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees. ... Simply put, we want to bring out the whacko's to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public
lets the whole thing slip past them."

That's Michael Scanlon, a former Tom Delay aide and bagman for Jack Abramhoff, now rotting in prison having plead guilty to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress. Abramhoff and Scanlon collected millions from one Indian tribe to make sure another Indian tribe couldn't open up a Casino. They worked to accomplish this by hiring psuedo-Christian leader Ralph Reed and getting him to argue that gambling was immoral. Well, only certain kinds of gambling... Reed never told the church goers he was being paid by a Casino. [I did say the Business Wing thinks Government should exist to prevent competition, did I not?]

So where are we with McCain?

I honestly don't think his pandering to the psuedo-Christian right is going to amount to much. They're not interested in pandering any more. They want red meat, and they remember what he said in 2000. Without their support, he can't get the nomination. With their support, he loses all of the support he had in 2000 when he was trying to be honest.

Even then, the other problem for McCain is where will the mood be in 2008. Lately he's been fluffing Bush the Lesser to make up for dissing him previously. Probably one of the few people left in Congress to do so, most all the rest are running fast. What's that mean come 2008? If McCain is right, and there are a whole bunch of Bush loyalists around his strategy works. If he's wrong, and people are so sick of Bushism as a Republican message, he probably would have been better to stick to his 2000 message.

Ok, but what if I'm all wrong. What if the election is down to Hillary versus McCain? What happens then?

Now that's difficult to say. I guess in part it depends on how damaged McCain is by the nomination process.

Hillary on the other hand. I don't know. At one time you might have said her relationship to the former President was a handicap. However, the longer we put up with Bush the Lesser, the better Bill Clinton looks. If an election were held today between Bush the Lesser and Bill Clinton, it'd be Clinton by a 40% spread.

And Hillary is a sharp campaigner, and has good policy ideas. Some claim she's turned to the right in recent years, but they're out of touch. As I said, the left doesn't like the Clintons. The main reason is, they aren't ideological. Like Franklin Roosevelt, they understand that the goal is to address a problem, not to follow a blind ideology just to prove a point. (Roosevelt wasn't liked by the left either in 1932. They thought he was a flip-flopper. LOL!)

Honestly, I think if it came down to Hillary versus McCain, I think you'd see Hillary win. As people have gotten to know here, they are more impressed. She's polling at 63% right now. She won in 2000 with 55%, when Gore had 60%. You cannot say the same for McCain, as he tends to wear out over time, much like Bush the Lesser.

It's interesting to note when I was in England back in the fall of 2004, people were pondering who might win the US election. There were a lot of comments from people that in a way they kind of hoped Bush the Lesser would win, even though they couldn't stand the guy.

The reason? They figured that people would get so sick of Bush the Lesser and his bullshit that they'd turn to anybody else for a way out... in particular they hoped for a Hillary candidacy.

Obviously the first part of their prediction has turned out right. Americans are tired of Bush the Lesser and his bullshit. But does that mean Hillary will run, and garner the nomination? We'll see.

Who do I think will run in 2008?

On the Republican side you're going to see George Allen, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Bill Frist for certain. Possibly Condi Rice, but that's a long shot. There's been some rumblings that Bush should fire Cheney. The latimes suggested replacing him with Bob Dole. The London Times(via WashPost) says Bush should fire Cheney and replace him with Condoleezza Rice. If Rice was VP, she'd run for Prez. That'd be interesting, and is probably is are most likely scenario of a black female Prez. I mean can you imagine if the Democrats nominated a black female? The Republicans would get their sheets out of the closet and start burning crosses, anything to stop it.

Who else? Tom Ridge perhaps? Christie Todd Whitman? Rudi Guilliani? Not likely, the religious right isn't going to tolerate a pro-choice adulterer, and besides that people I've spoken with said he's got a lot of Mob skeletons in the closet. Not sure who the psuedo-Christians will fall behind, possibly Frist because he did diagnose Terri Schiavo on camera. Of course who could forget Alan Keyes? What better than Entitling Every American to Bread and Water for Life, and even beyond Death?

On the Democratic side. John Kerry will be back. Russ Feingold from Wisconsin is talking about running. You're going to see the return of Wesley Clark for certain and likely John Edwards. Bill Richardson possibly or Tom Vilsack.

However... There's another name that get's bandied about, and he's denied he is interested, but I feel it's a strong possibility if he can be talked into it. I'll give you a hint:

G O R E

Stupid Letter of the Day (netlet edition)

2006-04-21T09:33:00.000-05:00

This isn't the stupidest letter I've seen, but it certainly shows that the writer just doesn't "get it".

Guns in the city: They don't belong
Why isn't the outrage over the recent tragic shootings in Minneapolis directed at the weapons that did the deed? Where is the outcry against guns; what does it take for "gun rights advocates" to understand the problem? These guns aren't being used for the recreational "sport" of hunting nor are they aiding ordinary citizens in their "inalienable right" to bear arms.
Please, please wake up and smell the gunpowder; take a stance, tighten the laws -- take guns out of circulation.
ANDREA BOLGER, MINNEAPOLIS

In recent months there have been a rash of shootings in Minneapolis. One mugging in the uptown area, and then a random shooting in the downtown area which have really got people up in arms. Along with several driveby shootings, shootings at cars, a hotel robbery if I recall correctly, etc.

Several writers have complained that the downtown shooting has gotten people up in arms only because the victim was white. I disagree. I was downtown the night a few years ago when a Gopher football player was shot, and I believe I heard the shot from several blocks away. That seemed to be an early indicator of a problem, IMHO, and people were upset then. The reason why the downtown random shooting has people up in arms, is because it was so unexpected. They were outside of Block-E at 11pm, with a fairly large crowd of people walking around when some guy just randomly fired into the crowd.

People tend to expect crimes in bad neighborhoods, and they stay away from them. They're less happy about crimes happening in public areas because the unexpected scares them. Wouldn't have mattered what race the victim was. Yeah, it's not fair, but that's the way it is.

Regardless, the problem isn't the guns it is the culture of violence. I offer no solutions for it, I just know that banning guns isn't going to solve the problem.

On a similar note, it should also be noted that since passing the concealed carry bill, crime has not decrease as it's proponents anticipated. In fact it has increased. I don't think that is causual, other than the bouncer at Nye's who was gunned down by a guy with a concealed carry permit.

People need to stop shouting past one another, and actually look at the problem from a non-ideological vantage point.

Beware of crazies...

2006-04-21T09:24:00.000-05:00

Most people "with a cause" happen to be crazy. That's my claim after years of examining the evidence.

Such as Moussaoui, and now Katherine Harris.

If you've been following the Harris race down in Florida, it is doing only one thing and that is confirming that she most likely acted without the best of intentions in her role in the 2000 election.

Although, I do hope she stays in the race, despite all of the mistakes she has made. As I saw when I attended the 1988 Iowa caucuses to cast a vote for Bob Dole(when Pat Robertson nearly won), she is representative of the majority of Republicans. It'd be a shame if the whackadoodles didn't get a chance to vote for one of their own.

Minnesotans United For Minding Your Own Business

2006-04-21T09:19:00.000-05:00

That's my new group. I just founded it yesterday when I heard some doofus on MPR whining about how the gay bashing amendment was dead. He claimed to be representing a group called Minnesotans United for Protecting Marriage or some goofy name.

Our membership(Otherwise known as me) is working on a charter, mission and vision statements.

Iraq The Sequel (Death to Iran!)

2006-04-20T17:23:00.000-05:00

Kevin Drum has an interesting post up over at WashingtonMonthly.com

The jist of it is that shortly after invading Iraq, Iran actually tried to send messages to the US seeking to open a dialogue. The one quote, which is most interesting is that Iran was fully aware of what issues they would need to address, and that this discussion had the blessing of the highest officials.

In the spring of 2003, shortly before I left government, the Iranian Foreign
Ministry sent Washington a detailed proposal for comprehensive negotiations to
resolve bilateral differences. The document acknowledged that Iran would have to
address concerns about its weapons programs and support for anti-Israeli
terrorist organizations. It was presented as having support from all major
players in Iran's power structure, including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei.

Sadly, the Bush Administration not only told them to buzz off, they apparently even yelled at the Swiss Ambassador who passed on the note.

I think it's interesting that in the late 1990s we were talking about Iran in terms of their reformers, a desire by the people to change the onerous nature of their government. It was quite positive, and I think had we dangled some carrots and encouraged the voices we could have seen a move towards freedom within Iran. Now we're at the polar opposite position, all in the span of five years.

Bush and his idiots are the same morons who were mad at Reagan when he began making overtures towards Gorbachev. Fortunately Ronnie didn't listen to them, and we ended up with a pretty good result with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But imagine if instead of opening up dialogue, they'd closed the door on Gorbachev and started threatening him instead. Chances are likely, he would have been ousted from power and replaced with a hard liner and we'd still be where we were in 1980.

This is Republican foreign policy. They're arsonists. They don't solve problems, they create them and then use them to campaign on.

Is Mark Dayton the Worst Senator?

2006-04-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

So apparently says Time Magazine.

This article first starts out with the top 10 senators, which it's interesting to note with the exception of Jon Kyl is nearly all liberals(Durbin, Kennedy, Levin), moderates(Conrad, Lugar, Snowe, Specter) or those who play moderate(Cochran, Kyl, McCain).

The bottom five are Akaka, Allard, Bunning, Burns, and Dayton.

Anyway, so what's wrong about Dayton... (and why isn't Santorum on the list?)

Time notes two things... his closing of his senate offices, and claiming the Mayo Clinic was worth more than the whole of South Dakota. Kind of odd choices. The closing of his senate offices was a political point, that apparently got lost to the pundits, that being Dayton was basically pointing out the hypocrisy of the Republican Fear tactics in Washington. Granted, Dayton can't explain how to get out of a paper bag, he's that bad of a speaker.

But the Mayo Clinic comment? Wow, that's just really dumb. I mean dumb on Time's part. He's a Senator from Minnesota, and the Mayo Clinic is one of our crown jewels.

Dayton's been a pretty ineffective Senator, and the only reason I'd vote for him is that generally speaking the Republican candidates were worse(his opponent in 2000 didn't have time to campaign cause he spent most of his time chasing down his adult son wanted on kidnap charges), or our other illustrious Senator Norm "Mayor Quimby" Coleman, who event let Sideshow Bob out of prison.

Lousy senator? Sure. Worst Senator? Not even close. I know it would have generated a lot of hate mail to Time, but Bill Frist really takes that lead and he's the majority leader.

ATI X1300 has 256 Megs

2006-04-12T21:48:00.000-05:00

According to the Dell website, the X1300 option for the Dell E1505 has 64 Megs of internal RAM and 64 Megs of Shared RAM. It's called Hypermemory.

Ok, so why does my laptop say it has 256 Megs of video memory?

Just wondering...

They've always been corrupt

2006-04-08T22:42:00.000-05:00

A recent Washington Post article, talks about how the Republicans have become today what they railed against in 1994.

This belief is based on the assumption that the Republicans were not corrupt in 1994. Let's keep in mind that this was Newt Gingrich and his ilk in charge of things. Their declarations of supposed fraud were part of a political strategy, not to eliminate it, but rather to get their hands on it.

I was there, I remember the arguments, they've never made sense from a logical point of view.

Stupid Letter of the day (NetLet Edition)

2006-04-06T13:08:00.000-05:00

Whoops, I missed one.

Apparently it's important to ban gay marriage because kids deserve both a Mom and a Dad.

People forget there are many valid reasons why this law is in place. One is
to promote a family unit with a Mom and Dad. Millions of Minnesotans including
myself do not feel it's "mean spirited" to believe that kids deserve a Mom and a
Dad. That's what's best for them emotionally, socially and psychologically.
Obviously opponents will disagree with me but no one can logically argue that
fact. Men and women are different. Kids need a positive male and female role
model in their life. Are there children of gay couples who grow up emotionally
and psychologically stable? Sure there are, but that does not mean we should
purposely try to redefine the family unit.

See, if your gay and you want to get married you can. You just have to marry someone of the opposite sex. Apparently the letter writer kind of forgot that you normally want to get married to someone you'll be happy living with.

I still don't understand the point of their argument. Why should I care what someone else wants to do with their life? I got enough problems dealing with my own.

Stupid Letter of the Day

2006-04-06T12:58:00.000-05:00

Tom Delay resigning is not a stain on the Republican Party, nor is the Culture of Corruption he left behind. No sir, in fact it's a good thing, argues this writer.

The accountable GOP
Ever notice how when Republicans cross the line of ethical behavior, the party confers and the person in question steps down, aside or out of the way?
From the Watergate scandal of Richard Nixon to Trent Lott's fatal toast, the Republicans always do the right thing, the proper thing, the dignified thing. Even FEMA Director Michael Brown bowed out in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And of course even more recently, Rep. Tom DeLay announced that he would resign his seat and not seek reelection.
It doesn't matter with the Republican Party whether you are a congressman, a senator or the president -- if you cross the line, you fall on your sword.
Not so with the Democrats, however.
There's a reason the Republican Party has ruled the polls the past 12 years, and that reason is not likely to go unnoticed this election year.
BOB HUGE, EDINA

You don't get any more wingnutty than this spin. What Democrat is he thinking of? The guys in prison?

The main difference I see, is that the Republicans will defend all kinds of illegal behavior until it's too painful. Democrats tend to distance themselves right away.

Honorable Mention... John Kline claiming he was a critic of Tom Delay and he voted to reinstate the rules that barred him from serving as leader. Strange that he doesn't mention how he voted when they removed the rules. He's been kind of silent about that one.

Freedom of Religion in Afghanistan?

2006-03-25T02:03:00.000-06:00

The answer is nope.

The leadership of the U.S. Helsinki Commission expressed grave concern
about the situation facing Abdul Rahman, an Afghan citizen who converted to
Christianity and is now on trial in Kabul for rejecting Islam.

Ohwell, it's not like Bush actually cares about religion. He just likes it when religious people vote for him.

Vendetta

2006-03-25T00:57:00.000-06:00

In other news... I went and saw V for Vendetta tonight. That was good. Much better than I expected. Gotta be honest, it was clearly a political movie. It was trying to make a point, and I think it did a good job. Points are made by appealing to the positive emotions of the audience, not by complaining about how bad things are, but by showing how much better they can be.

Even though the story was clearly hyperbole, it had echoes of the present environment. It exemplified every petty dictator, and even a few petty leaders who use fear for their political gain.

There's a change brewing in the air. Hercules is rerouting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash the filth away.

Somebody call a Whaaaaaambulance!

2006-03-25T00:37:00.000-06:00

Here's the background. About a week ago, the Washington Post decided that the only way to pander to the righty whiners complaining about one of their reporters reporting the bad news coming out of the Bush Administration, was to install a hardcore Republican whine puppet, none other than one of the so-called founders of redstate.com... Augustine, aka Ben Domenech.

Ben broke onto the scene with a blog post that was craptacular. He even trashed on the movie Red Dawn, which I just happened to love when I was a teenager, even though it was kind of silly. But movies are not about the detail, they're about the entertainment value. Whatever dork.

Anyway, it turns out that old Ben has quite a record. He's written numerous articles for the National Review, Slate.com, etc. Especially movie reviews. Most all of which turned out to be plagarized from someone else. Apparently our young genius never even graduated from William & Mary college, and there is no some speculation that he may well have been thrown out for copying someone elses homework.

Regardless, Ben's response was typical Republican. It's not his fault. Someone added those words in there during editing. Any number of excuses.

Well the guys at National Review tossed him a boat anchor. They started reviewing what he'd written for them and came to realize that they had hired someone worse than Jayson Blair. Recognizing reality painted on the wall, a somewhat rare occurence for the mental midgets of the modern review, they apologized to their readers.

But don't worry. Redstate to the rescue! Not only have they posted about a half a dozen posts today trying to spin this. Anybody who dares question the paradigm is instantly banned. Not a hard feat on redstate, I was banned in less than five minutes almost a year ago.

DUDE! You're getting a Dell!

2006-03-22T02:22:00.000-06:00

Bought a Dell E1505. Supposed to ship like on 3/31, so I have to wait around for two weeks. Dell is running a deal, where you get $750 off anything over $1999.

Just for comparison purposes, and because I am evil. I spec'ed out a similar Apple MacBook Pro.

By the time I was done adding the performance features... extra RAM, fast drive, extra battery that I needed/wanted. I was up around $3,000.

I bought the Dell for around half that price.

Granted, the Apple has some better specs on some things, but it's stuff I don't need. Plus the Mac doesn't even run Windows XP. So what use is it?

Stupid Letter of the Day - Honorable Mention

2006-03-15T08:50:00.000-06:00

It's a long letter, so I quote only the last paragraph.

If it were to become known that a television evangelist was making a
half-million- dollar salary off the contributions of his viewers and was
refusing to disclose this information, would the Star Tribune jump to his
defense as you have for MPR? The televangelist should disclose such information.
This same standard should be applied to MPR. If providing this information
affects contributions, so be it. The public has a right to know how recipients
of its tax dollars spend its money.

I suspect there are very few television envagelists who are making less than half a million off contributions. These guys have redefined the meaning of capitalism and the church. Not to mention the so-called Mega-churches.

Interesting...

2006-03-14T14:08:00.000-06:00

According to this over at CNN. Claude Allen was being paid $161,000 of my tax dollars for his role as policy advisor to Bush.

And he still felt the need to steal from Target? Amazing.

Unbelievable...

2006-03-14T09:42:00.000-06:00

Why do blacks continue to support Democrats?

Remember Ronald Reagan’s story about the kid who had to shovel a huge pile
of manure? He went about it with such joy he was asked why and said, “With all
that manure, there’s got to be a pony in there somewhere.”
The pony hidden in slavery is the fact that it was the ticket to America for black people. I have long urged blacks to consider their presence here as the work of God, who wanted to bring them to this raw, new country and used slavery to achieve it.

Short version...
"We never hear about all the good things Slavery did for blacks."

Hell, I thought Bill Cosby had a good point last year, basically in saying quit whining about the past and go do something about the future. But that's a far cry from defending slavery as being a good thing because it brought all these people from Africa to America.

Whatever happened to the party of Lincoln? When the party actually had some moral fibre?

Maybe it's time...

2006-03-12T11:23:00.000-06:00

Claude Allen Arrested for Theft Scheme

Now you may have never heard of Claude Allen before, I know I had not. Turns out this guy has been bouncing around in politics for quite a few years. He was an aide to Jesse Helms, up until he was appointed 2nd in charge of Health and Human Services with President Bush.

He was later appointed to the Appeals Court, but it never came up for a vote because the Democrats filibustered it. He later was brought back in as a policy advisor for domestic affairs, and then was placed in charge of Katrina relief. He resigned February 9th in quite a hurry. Apparently, because two weeks prior he'd been arrested at a Target store.

The thing is, his time at the HHS dept was mostly spent berating doctors for giving advise on safe-sex, pushing for more federal funding of bible study classes and investigating any organization which didn't promote an abstinence-only approach. Nice, moral, upright man, I guess. Too bad about the 10 amendments, they aren't as important as accepting Christ into your life, because you know... Christ died for your sins, so it's ok to sin. (that was snark btw)

In honor of the American Taliban, maybe it's time we bring back the old custom of lopping off the hands of people who steal. Well, at least in this case. It seems rather fitting, really.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy

2006-03-11T15:27:00.000-06:00

Milosevic has died.

My general feeling is still that it's better if deposed leaders who start wars and cause problems just kind of commit suicide, be hung upside down in the Piazzale Loreto, or Exiled to Elba.

Just makes things easier, and allows people to move on with their lives rather than dwelling so much on the past.

Reality and Fate

2006-03-10T10:16:00.000-06:00

According to a AP-IPSOS Poll, people really don't much like President Bush. His approval has hit 37%. He's lost just about every demographic, as the article notes he's even down to 40% against White Males.

The most interesting was that even his ratings on likable, dependable, strong have declined.

This doesn't surprise me, because the reality is he's none of those characteristics. It's all stage props and perception managing.

This is the first Presidency which has had a Political Manager on the permanent payroll. Karl Rove. His purpose is to solely manage the perception. He started out back in 1999 by moving Bush from a condo in Houston to a ranch out in Crawford. It's not really quite a ranch. There's no cattle, no farm equipment. It's more of a dude ranch than anything else. Pictures of the ranch here.

Rove has used every psychological trick he can think of, including the really really stupid backdrops we see at Presidential press conferences.

I gotta say, I actually found it kind of silly back in 1995 when President Clinton was in Ames, they moved shelves and books out of the library out to the Colloseum where he was going to hold a "round table" discussion on Agriculture. The books were to be a backdrop on the stage, to give the impression that he was at a college.

But at least he didn't have a sign behind him saying "Agriculture is Important" or some such thing.

So it's not surprising, as the curtain begins to fall that people see the reality. That Bush is actually quite a weak President.

Upgrade Complete

2006-01-26T01:08:00.000-06:00

Well, it didn't start out as much of an upgrade. I did something to my desktop at home and short-circuited the USB ports. It's not that old of a computer, maybe two years old. Intel D865PERL board with a 3.0Ghz-E P4, but it's difficult to find replacement boards for that CPU.

I happened to find a D875PBZ at Zipzoomfly.com, which seemed like a good idea. I had wanted the D875 when I bought my motherboard in the first place, but at that time it was around $175, now it's down to $119 which isn't a deal but it works for me.

I had a few headaches. I don't have a floppy drive, but I wanted to install my OS onto an SATA RAID-0 striped set. Hard to install the drivers at install time for Windows XP without a floppy. Fortunately there is www.nliteos.com which offers a way to customize an installation CD and include those drivers. Worked like a charm.

Next problem, I have my old 80Gig IDE drive installed... so the SATA drive array comes up as drive F:\... had to shut down and pull the IDE cable.

Finally got it up and running, and I can't quite explain it... but it seems substantially faster. Granted, I don't have antivirus and all the other jazz installed. Will have to see how it feels with all that crap there.

Heh

2006-01-25T15:15:00.000-06:00

Glenn Reynolds explains why he doesn't have comments on his blog.

I've already done this in one of the other posts. Basically it boils down
to time, and my fear that comments by trolls would be attributed unfairly to me,
as has happened to others.

This is projection on Glenn's part. The right is notorious for doing this kind of shit. Glenn does it all the time, in fact. So of course he'd be afraid of it.

WashPo doesn't get it...

2006-01-25T15:08:00.000-06:00

In a recent discussion with an editor at the Washington Post, Jim Brady makes a couple of rather obtuse points.

First, he keeps trying to divert from the scandal that his paper was found pushing Rightwing talking points, apparently for the sole purpose of appearing "balanced."

The problem is that Brady has fallen into a trap, because he listened to the rightwing anti-media complaints, he tried to pander to them. In the process of pandering, he had to insert stuff into the stories which wasn't necessarily factual or relevant.

But the key is, this pandering didn't help them. The rightwing still doesn't trust them, and now they've lost the leftwing.

The question is, when are they going to come back to simply reporting the facts of the case and stop trying to balance criticism?

Smart Letter of the Day

2006-01-11T16:00:00.000-06:00

Sometimes there are stupid letters, other times there are smart letters. This is a fairly smart one:

Rep. John Kline, in a Jan. 7 news article about the Tom DeLay/Jack Abramoff
situation, said, "The climate right now is bad. It's bad for my party." He
illustrates the problem and shows that he still does not "get it."
While it
may be bad for his party, the problem is that it is very bad for our country.
Kline was not elected to represent only the Republican constituents in his
district; he was elected to represent everyone in his district.
Republicans
and Democrats alike must wake up. We need bipartisanship to solve our nation's
problems.
NEIL A. WEIKART, EDINA

Funny picture of the day

2006-01-10T20:00:00.000-06:00

http://blogs.citypages.com/canderson/images/kickbackmtn.jpg

Republican stupidity

2006-01-05T16:09:00.000-06:00

This is pretty typical of the kind of stuff you find over on this website. I'm sure the guy finds himself terribly funny, even though really he's probably just posting out of his mom's basement.

http://www.minnesotademocratsexposed.com/2006/01/new-state-senator-needs-to-learn-about.html

Links to this article: http://wcco.com/local/local_story_004200245.html

The swearing-in ceremony for DFL Senator-elect Tarryl Clark has been postponed
until noon on Friday. Clark had been scheduled to take office as state senator
representing District 15 Thursday. But she says the ceremony was delayed because
there must be 48 hours between the time the election is certified and when the
winner takes office. Clark's ceremony will be held Friday in the Senate
chambers. She won the District 15 special election on Dec. 27.

Apparently implying that since the election was Dec. 27 that it's been 48 hours.

But the Secretary of State says differently...

http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/20051227/

*Results for the Special Election for State Senator District 15 and State
Representative District 15B are unofficial until certified by the State
Canvassing Board on January 3, 2006. Recounts may also be held following canvassing. If recounts occur, the official results may be amended to reflect the recount results.

But if results were certified on January 3... then January 4 and then the 5th would be the 48 hour period... meaning... January 6 is the day!

Guess what? That's friday.

Stupid Letter of the Day

2006-01-05T09:26:00.000-06:00

Mistake or lie?

The headline in Wednesday's Star Tribune was a big, honest mistake based on what was believed common knowledge but was a faulty source.

Yet the Star Tribune splashed the headline without doing its own research or verifying multiple sources. Twelve miners did not survive.

Our president and entire military and intelligence community, along with the world's entire military and intelligence community, came to the same, honest big mistake about weapons of mass destruction. But according to the Star Tribune editorial page and leading Democrats, our president lied about WMDs.

So, did the Star Tribune lie to us about the miners?

MATT NOAH, CHANHASSEN

Sounds like a great argument, if you ignore the fact, that the strib admitted it was wrong...

Stupid letter of the day

2006-01-02T09:35:00.000-06:00

Every day I pick up the Minneapolis Star/Tribune and read the letters to the editor. Occasionally I even write in. Ever since I read the LTE which claimed the french riots were a failure of multiculturalism, I decided it was time to just start highlighting these writers.

Today's entry:

Don't yearn for Clinton
The Dec. 28 editorial "Happy talk, but a hollow recovery" cites factors such as lags in job creation, wage growth, and business investment as evidence pointing to a subpar recovery or expansion.
In fact, it says we are even lagging behind the Clinton years when we were raising taxes to reduce the deficit. Obviously, we all know what happened to that expansion as the Clinton years wound down. Perhaps we could ask some of the workers who lost everything -- including their jobs -- when this "on paper expansion" self-destructed how they feel about that period of economic bliss.
Many of them not only lost jobs and savings but found themselves paying higher taxes to boot.
TERRY A. BROWN, MAPLE GROVE

Yes. That's right. The 20% annual salary increases I saw from 1995 to 2000 were nothing but "on paper expansion". Compared to the 3% annual raises we get now, which are signs of real economic growth. And it was all because of tax increases passed in 1993 that this all ended.

ENOUGH OF THE BULLSHIT ALREADY!

Back to true environmentalism

2005-12-17T10:28:00.000-06:00

Greenspirit Home page of Patrick Moore

This guy makes some compelling arguments, in favor of expanded tree production. Trees are a renewable resource which have many uses, including construction of homes and such. His argument is that we need to log, but do so responsibly which means planting back trees so we can come back in 20-50 years.

He used to be a President of Greenpeace, but understands that group has lost it's way.

Computer Upgrades successful

2005-12-01T00:52:00.000-06:00

Well first off, with the 6600GT AGP card, I can play BF2 at 1024x768 at medium settings. That's good.

As for the cooling. The Vantec Aeroflow helped, although in a strange way. The CPU Temp while game playing is still around 63C. However Zone1 has reduced from 42C to 39C and Zone2 has gone from 56C to 47C.

It has something to do with the fan and the way it moves air... Zone 1 and Zone 2 are areas near the CPU on the motherboard. Ohwell, it works... although I probably should have just done the CPU heatsink to begin with. The case is quieter, however.

My Public Service Announcement

2005-11-29T23:14:00.000-06:00

For 10 years, I used this toothpaste, went to the dentist and never had any cavities: (Crest Tartar Protection Fresh Mint Gel)

For the past year I started using this stuff: (Crest Whitening Expressions)

I came home from the Dentist today and I had five cavities. First cavaties I've had in over ten years. Nothing else has changed in my diet, my brushing habits, nothing.

I mentioned this to a friend of mine and he said there was a guy at work who started using Oral-B Rembrandt Whitening toothpaste and had the same experience.

DO NOT USE ANY PRODUCT THAT SAYS WHITENING ON IT! Whatever they put in it damages the enamel on your teeth and causes cavities.

New Computer Upgrades

2005-11-28T23:08:00.000-06:00

My system at home has a tendency to overheat when playing games like Battlefield 2. I thought it was because my Antec Sonata case was a bit cramped, and the powersupply was too close to the top of the processor and memory.

So I bought an Antec P180 on sale at CompUSA on Black friday.
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=81800

Well, that didn't help a whole lot.

So I decided maybe the stock heatsink on my 3.0Ghz P4 wasn't enough. So I ordered a Vantec Aeroflow, the older model with the tip magnetic drive.

While I was at it, I decided to get some use out of my aging board with AGP slot, and bought a GeForce 6600GT video card, upgrading my 5900XT card. I'm hoping I can play BF2 at a bit more than 800x600 resolution with low settings.

New guitar

2005-11-28T23:07:00.000-06:00

Decided I'm going to learn to play guitar... Hopefully, maybe.

It's a Seagaull S6+ Spruce. It sounds beautiful, and looks beautiful. If nothing else I can hang it on the wall as art. :-)

What is Sony thinking?

2005-11-17T00:51:00.000-06:00

I haven't bought any new music in a couple of years now There are a number of disks out there, that I would like to buy.

But why would Sony want to give buying CDs a bad name, by installing viruses on them? Idiots.

Another Political test

2005-11-08T00:01:00.000-06:00

You are a
Social Liberal
(80% permissive)

and an...
Economic Moderate
(50% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
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What is Randy Kelly thinking?

2005-09-29T20:22:00.000-05:00

Today Randy Kelly came out and read a prepared statement asking people not to be mad, cause it wasn't his fault that Bush got is into Iraq, and oil prices were high, and the economy sucks and... Well, no, it isn't, but didn't he endorse Bush?

And his statements on this issue have been all over the board. He can't give us the real reason why he did that endorsement.

In a MPR article titled Is Randy Kelly really a Democrat?, he is quoted as saying:

Still, Kelly stands by his decision to endorse Bush.

"As a mayor, you cannot afford to be partisan," he says, "because if you are to achieve great things for your city, you need federal partners and you need state partners."

EARTH TO RANDY KELLY! ENDORSING SOMEONE IS A PARTISAN ACTIVITY.

Then he gives us this gem:

For example, Kelly says, his relationship with Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty helped the city avoid a proposed $1 million cut in local government aid from the state.

"When the special session was about to conclude, I called Gov. Pawlenty," Kelly says. "I said that we have rolled up our sleeves and that we had done everything to reduce costs, but I felt that it was appropriate to have some increase in local government aid. He said, 'well, mayor, you've done a good job. I will consider it.'"

EARTH TO RANDY KELLY! A POLITICIAN GIVING YOU SOMETHING BECAUSE OF A RELATIONSHIP, RATHER THAN FACTUAL DETAILS IS CALLED CRONYISM.

Later on...

"I come from a blue collar background, where all of my family has had to work very, very hard," Kelly says. "And such things as minimum wage, a decent workers compensation, unemployment compensation, the economic issues of government ensuring that there is a fair and level playing field for everyone is critically important. That's the reason I'm a Democrat. It's the reason I will continue to be a Democrat."

Yeah, uhh, so why did you endorse Bush?

Then in this on today's Desperation Speech, Kelly says:

"I don't agree with George Bush on a lot of things," Kelly said.

So tell us again, why did you endorse Bush?

Let's see... He doesn't agree with Bush, he claims he's a Democrat, he claims that a Mayor can't afford to be partisan... yet he endorsed Bush. He keeps talking about principal, which is pretty clear evidence that he has none.

My guess is that he thought by endorsing Bush he'd get some plum political appointee job, like maybe FEMA director. Or perhaps it was a stepping stone to a Senate career, like that unprincipaled wishy washy Norm Coleman.

"My opponents want this election to be about anger," Kelly said. "Since this election began, they have not offered … a single clear idea of how they will lead or what they believe."

Are the voters angry? Maybe. After all they've been fucked over by two mayors now who were not what they claimed to be.

But his opponent, Chris Coleman isn't driven by anger. Apparently Randy Kelly is a lot more like Bush than he admits to, he's even using his same campaign theme.

Fascinating... Another closet Republican

2005-08-23T22:58:00.000-05:00

So apparently this mayor of Spokane, Washington is really a closet pedophile who trolls for little boys on the internet.

And surprise surprise... He's a "conservative Republican".

It's some kind of weird psychological thing. The guy has problems, knows he has problems... so he advocates for aggressive laws, while all the while doing the exact act that he supposedly claims is wrong.
It's like what he's really doing is crying out for help, saying "Please Lord, don't let me sin again! You have to stop me!"

Whackjob.

Speaking of uncertainty...

2005-08-22T00:02:00.000-05:00

Senator Chuck Hagel is becoming an even stronger opposing voice against the war in Iraq, declaring that our presence there is just further destablizing the region.

But then, I think that was Bush's purpose, wasn't it? The old dominoe theory, only this time we were going to be the guys to push them down.

Sadly, Bush doesn't understand where Democracy comes from.

Gotta be honest here... (Camp Qualls stupidity)

2005-08-21T23:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, I didn't really much care for Sheehan's protest vigil, and think it's a waste of time. People grieve in different ways, and she's honestly committed in her grief.

But a counter protest, whining that she is disrespecting the deaths of soldiers? Ok, come on... Let's not be pathetic here.

This seems to me to be a clear indicator that the problem isn't Sheehan, but the President. He's done such a piss poor job explaining the mission in Iraq(if there even is one at this point, which is pretty unclear), that even those who might defend him are starting to get butterflies in the stomach.

That is... insecurity led to this counter-protest, not outrage. That's pretty pathetic. Maybe someone should buy the guy some Prozac.

Dogs barking at cars...

2005-08-16T09:41:00.000-05:00

I still can't help but wonder, exactly what would Cindy Sheehan say to Bush if she were to talk to him? It's like the question of what would a dog do if he actually caught a car he was chasing. I can't help but think it's just end up being an uneventful occurence.

More disturbing though, is the asshat who tore a pickup truck through their plot of crosses marking those lost in the war. Talk about disrespecting our soldiers.

I was in England last November when they recognized the end of the First World War. The grass outside Westminster was filled with white crosses marking the names of soldiers or event entire regiments killed in the war. The Queen came to give a prayer, and they dropped poppies from an airplane over the city.

It's amazing just how little respect we have left in America.

Hey world! We aren't as bad as North Korea!

2005-08-11T19:03:00.000-05:00

Ahh... North Korea, the benchmark for human rights!

I'll bet around the Hitler family dinner table they said "Yeah yeah, we don't like what Adolf is doing, but hey at least he's not as bad as that Stalin guy!"

To think we've come from "I regret that I have but one life to live for my country" to this. Can we sink any lower?

Stupidity of media - Atkins bankruptcy

2005-08-03T14:28:00.000-05:00

So the media has proclaimed'Bankruptcy marks rapid fall of low-carb craze'.

And while I never subscribed to the atkins diet, it doesn't take a genius to realize that the problem with Atkins, Inc. is that they aren't necessary for the success of the diet.

Ok, maybe selling some books. But food?

The main principle of the diet is "Don't eat french fries you idiot." Pretty easy to accomplish that without buying their special wrapped foods.

Besides, I think the real failure of Atkins, Inc. was that their food labels sucked. I never bought the stuff, but I saw it in the stores and it took me more than half a second to figure out what it actually was. Compare this to Raisin Bran.

Someone's got a case of the quacks

2005-07-30T23:53:00.000-05:00

100 People Who Are Screwing Up America

So here's the list... here at MyDD

I honestly don't know half the people on that list, and the other half I do know I don't agree with. Yet I've come to the conclusion over the years that I have much more in common with Democrats than Republicans.

What's most interesting is he's missing Richard Mellon-Scaife, Ted Olsen, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and especially President GW Bush, as well as others who are royally screwing up America and are proud of it.

AspNetWithoutWebProjects

2005-07-18T16:56:00.000-05:00

ASP.NET without Web Projects

I wish I'd seen this three years ago, but it appears Fritz only just started putting it up on his wiki in August of last year.

This get's around the problems VS.NET has with web projects... i.e. having to open them up from VSS through the VS.NET interface, creating spurious directories with _1 attached to them, etc. It should also make build server configuration a lot easier, etc.

Reflecting on Deep Throat

2005-07-05T01:16:00.000-05:00

It's been like a month since the identity of the Deep Throat character from Watergate has been disclosed. A lot of discussion has gone back and forth on the guys motives, etc. But it seems to me what was most meaningful of the discovery is that Woodward and Bernstein simply got lucky.

The dynamic duo became celebrities and influenced a whole generation of journalists, all of whom also wanted to uncover a big scandal with their incredible investigative reporting techniques. As a result, we have been innundated by fantastical fantasy scandals over the years. These fantasies have served only one purpose, to generate a cynicism within the American people such that they turn off the dial.

So, when the real scandals hit the wires... nobody pays attention. Has Duke Cunningham hit the mainstream press yet? If so, I haven't seen it. This bribery scandal has been brewing for a month and few know of it.

What about Karl Rove and his little political shenanigans which compromised National Security? Well, they finally hit Newsweek, but there doesn't seem to be much apology coming from the Republican party.

So now Woodward and Bernstein have fallen to earth. The mythology of hard hitting reporters popped like a child's bubble gum. When all was said and done, the only thing they did was be in the right place at the right time to print the leaks of an FBI administrator.

A signifigant story, but these journlists did nothing to uncover it.

Perhaps this will be cathargic to the whole world of journalism. Perhaps people will stop dreaming and start doing real reporting again. We can hope. Unfortunately, there is still the Barbara Walters problem to be dealt with.

Funny comment of the day

2005-06-17T14:50:00.000-05:00

Big Retailers Timid About Selling Linux Boxen

To paraphrase...

Using Linux is a lot like jumping off a bridge and falling into the sharp rocks below. Except when you jump off a bridge you get the bonus of fresh air and sunlight.