iraq study group

The Baker commission is out today, which won't tell us much. That is my prediction, anyway. It's important to keep in mind who is in charge of this thing. Baker was the bastard who helped the supreme court appoint bush in the first place. The reason he is helping now is to protect his own legacy, first, and that of Bush I, second.

Shrub doesn't want to leave Iraq right now, and I think the Baker's group will only provide some cover and distraction for the next year or two. It's a setup to get the democrats arguing with the repug's about whether there is any point staying in Iraq.

It's all unnecessary because we could easily implement Murtha's redeployment option and still have an Iraq that is diplomatically/ politically handled.

Bottom line, don't forget that Baker is a ne0-con himself and that he has stakes in a Libertarian Iraq (which is a neo-con's dream).

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difference between capitalists and humanists

I heard this on the Thom Hartmann show, where he argued with a guest whether human labor is a commodity.

This is a very interesting question because it taps the very notion of the psychological point of view called humanistic psychology.

I know this because I teach this subject and what is interesting, I guess it's obvious now that I see it, that you can apply Carl Roger's notion of conditions of worth (People raised in an environment where they learn that their sense of self is contingent upon meeting certain conditions that have been laid down by others) to whether or not human labor is inherently valuable.

Ask anyone working for a living why they work, they will say for the money. Yet those same people, when you praise them for a job well done will work harder and take more ownership of their work than if you simply paid them.

Is it time to recognize that human labor is NOT a commodity?

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Why Webb is the new Senator from Virginia

Wow, this is the kind of editorial that we should be hearing from our mainstream media:

Webb's Op-ed in the Wall Street Journal


an excerpt includes:

The most important issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. ... Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.

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Limbaugh and the neocons

Today, I saw the rerun of the McLaughlin Group and I was partially shocked at what Tony Blankely said about the republicans, namely that the republicans deserved to be routed (I'm liberally interpreting what he said. I'll get the transcript soon and correct my interpretation).

This was from a guy who consistenly defends the undefensible. And it reminds me of the following article about rush limbaugh, who said after the election:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200611090005

"But the way I feel is this: I feel liberated, and I'm just going to tell you as plainly as I can why. I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried. "


He went on to defend this position because he believes that the republicans are better than anything. In other words, he carried water not because of any good reason other than loyalty. This should be one of those moments where anyone listening to Limbaugh should conclude, he doesn't care about reason or argument or evidence.

Watch out, because these talking heads still don't serve our needs.

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voter apathy and fear

So, I had a chance to canvass 3 precincts in the Washington State Congressional District 8.

What was interesting about this experience, at least for me, was a first hand look at how citizens handle door to door canvassing: The majority tolerate it, barely; some absolutely hate it, while even fewer welcome it.

Now, the areas where I did my door knocking was in a place called Maple Valley, and I know a little something about them, they are a rural area where they don't really like a lot of people. I grew up near there, and I know that the main reason my parents moved out there was that the housing was cheaper, but just as important was that there wasn't anyone out there to bother you.

My thoughts:
I've been trying to understand why people don't participate in politics. When so much is going wrong with the world, the ol' adage that you shouldn't discuss religion and politics seems strange. I mean, should we really be avoiding the elephant in th room? Is now the time to burry our heads in the sand?

So, why don't people discuss these things? My simple, and perhaps obvious answer is fear. Fear trumps all other reasons.

Many may justify their disinterest in politics because they don't have the time to 'study' up on the subjects. In some cases, I believe this to be true. Yet many people just would choose to do other things instead of brushing up on their politics. Why would they do this? Because you are tired and cranky, you would rather engage in something that has a high probability of making you feel happy and un-cranky. Vegie-TV, Sports, Naps, comfort food, poker, porn, drugs (espeically alcohol), you name it. Politics, for most people, has a high degree of making you feel awful. And people are afraid of that feeling. (Why, I should post something about how that comes to be; in a nutshell, because we've been raised to be frustration intolerant.

Just about any other argument against polticking develops out of this, what I call fundamental, fear.

"oh, I don't know enough to have a reasonable debate about politics."

Why the hell not?

because it takes too much work and time and that sucks (i.e., frustrating).

This leads into the gut of why I wanted to make this post. I won't be able to finish it now, but to sum it up, I think voter apathy has more to do with guilt than really not caring.

Apathy can be considered as a defense mechanism. Namely, politics are high stakes. The winners get to gloat for at least 2 years. No sports game I know of comes close to that (except maybe cricket).

Loosing is intolerable, so you can avoid the pain by just believing that it's not that important or relevant. The thing is, there is a part of everyone who believes that voting is important.

Now, you have a contradiction (that voting is important, and that it doesn't matter). So when a canvassar comes along to ask you to vote, you may get upset because that person is reminding you that you have a responsibility that you are actively trying to avoid.

guilt.

That's what I saw in many of the people I spoke to while canvassing.





More thoughts, but not coherent.....yet..



guilt that they aren't doing more for their country
guilt that they aren't doing more for their personal lives
ambivalence and/or anger about parties knowing enough about them that their doors get knocked on and their phones called.

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Congress is back

Instead of the rubber stampers, the true american people have spoken.

Now if we can just get rid of the 2 party system.

Oh, and if you think there is a good reason that Allen should win in a recount...think again:

Allen doesn't believe in recounts

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I'm back

and I'm happy to say that my absence hasn't hurt the democratic party!

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

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boycott Exxon

Today it came out that the CEO of Exxon will be getting a 398,000,000 dollar retirement package. 400 million? What the F*ck! And we gas buyers are told that the high cost of gas is b/c of the war, opec, whatever.

Punish Exxon. Never buy their gas. Again.

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Gerrymandering in Texas

Gerrymandering, the practice of drawing voting districts to favor a political party, occurred under the efforts of Tom DeLay and other conspirators. As a result, many democratic seats were lost, thus inflating (arguments exist illegally so) the number of republican seats held in the US congress from Texas.

The Supreme Court heard arguments today on the legality of this redistricting.

What I find interesting, is that the Bush Administration will share time with Texas on why the redistricting should be allowed.

What is the Bush administration doing here? This is an issue between Texas and the courts. It seems odd to me.

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Most troops want to be out of Iraq within a year

well duh!

I'm tired of the conservatives using our military to perpetuate fear mongering and staying the course. Shame on them. Shame.

http://www.nbc4.com/news/7541767/detail.html

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Security of the ports is a red herring

Security of the ports is getting press b/c of several reasons:

• Bush and members of the cabinet were unaware of it
• a cabinet member will earn about 33 million in stock if the deal goes through

But probably the most important reason it's getting press is

• that it represents a flip flop on the security issue: that Dems are more concerned about security than the republicans.

And yet, this is the wrong reason to care about the security of the port. The more important questions are:

• Why would a foreign government want to own our port?
• And Why the heck are we selling American land to foreign governments anyway?

Consider this list of U.S. industy that shows the foreign ownership I gleaned from http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0227-20.htm:


Sound recording industries - 97%
· Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage - 79%
· Motion picture and sound recording industries - 75%
· Metal ore mining - 65%
· Motion picture and video industries - 64%
· Wineries and distilleries - 64%
· Database, directory, and other publishers - 63%
· Book publishers - 63%
· Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product - 62%
· Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment - 57%
· Rubber product - 53%
· Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing - 53%
· Plastics and rubber products manufacturing - 52%
· Plastics product - 51%
· Other insurance related activities - 51%
· Boiler, tank, and shipping container - 50%
· Glass and glass product - 48%
· Coal mining - 48%
· Sugar and confectionery product - 48%
· Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying - 47%
· Advertising and related services - 41%
· Pharmaceutical and medicine - 40%
· Clay, refractory, and other nonmetallic mineral products - 40%
· Securities brokerage - 38%


Could we be facing an invasion here? Considering that corporations have more power than the common voters, and considering that we do have a very kick ass military, no country would be able to succeed in a military attack against our country and win. But they could do it through the market place.

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can we sue the media?

Since the media misrepresents the facts about this awful administration, aren't they liable for the war, for the deaths? This is a nice opinion:

American press should have done its job

When I read the words "It's alarming to learn the extent to which the Bush administration seemed willing to go..." (Feb. 14 editorial opinion) I became a little nauseated. Your editorial has the tone of a 7-year-old who's just been told there is no Santa Claus. If our supposedly free and independent press had been doing its job four, five, six years ago, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Cheney, Rumsfeld, Pearl, Wolfowitz, Libby; these were all names well associated with the concept that the ends justify the means. The press didn't see this coming?

Rather than investigate farfetched claims of weapons of mass destruction, publish the dissenting opinions of legitimate authorities and challenge proclamations of innocence in the face of clear evidence of torture, domestic spying and cherry-picking intelligence, the press acted as shills (sometimes paid shills) for the criminal gang running the White House.

The cost of this negligence has been horrific; 2,000 casualties, $400 billion in taxpayers' money and a homeland that is, if anything, less safe now.

If we are to be alarmed about anything, it is the absolute failure of the American press to do its job.

Bill Woods
Seattle

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Arrested Development should do a show about homosexuality

Oh, wait.....

Seriously though, any show that could turn the "Fonz" into a latent homosexual has got to be genius.

And this got me thinking about why they don't include lesbian comedy. Maybe they could say something about how "Lesbians aren't about talking" or something about the joke which asks, what does a lesbian take on the 2nd date? A U-haul.

I've dated a lesbian, who thought she was bi-sexual. Over all I'd say it felt like being stuck in syrup. Sweet but sufocating. can't....move...must....move on...can't breathe.........


And please, realize that I'm not trying to bash homosexuals. I just think that Arrested Development is missing some good material here. Let's just hope they get picked up again. Fox sucks.

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We are wasting too much attention on the Cheney incident

Easy summary:

He was on a double date, he was a bit tipsy, if not drunk, and he shot a friend, who was probably closer than 30 yards. Thirty yards for a small shotgun like a 28 gauge is a long distance. I'm surprised that the pellets broke through clothes, let alone skin.


While it's clear that the administration is being run amok (with all the contradictory reports and reporting), we should be more focused on:

1. Libby instructed to release classified info
2. Related, Valerie Plame was indeed covert and working on Iranian intelligence. Yes, Iranian Intel. Could we use some now?
3. Domestic spying investigation: Why hasn't the media called for an INDEPENDENT investigation?
   
4. Why isn't Alberto Gonzales, the AG, charged with perjury for lying during his confirmation hearing? Remember how he claimed that a domestic wiretap question was "hypothetical?" It wasn't, he lied.

How much time are we wasting on Cheney? Hire some investigators to keep the story alive, but otherwise, I'm a bit more concerned about my country being run into the ground more than dead-eye dick.

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Ohio reversal on evolution and crap parents teach their kids

A school board in Ohio has reversed it's position on Evolution. Before the Pennsylvania ruling that Intelligent design is anything but intelligent, Ohio had required an accompanying plan that taught included a critical analysis of Evolution.

For what it's worth, I like the idea of a "critical analysis" of evolution, not b/c it's a bad theory, but because it is an excellent theory--good theories withstand critical analysis. So, bring 'em on.

But the purpose of this post was inspired by a section in the article from the NY times (you may need to login):

"It's an outrageous slap in the face to the citizens of Ohio," said John G. West, associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the institute, referring to several polls that show public support for criticism of evolution in science classes. "The effort to try to suppress ideas that you dislike, to use the government to suppress ideas you dislike, has a failed history," Mr. West said.

And so I thought to myself, what examples exist of crap that parent teach their kids that have no basis in science or reality?

• The sky is blue b/c it reflects water (I hear this one all the time....in college classes!)
• Having sex too young 'weakens the brain' (okay, I heard this one from my cousin in Africa working for the peace Corp. Apparently, this is their sex education. Wow.)

Of course, I'm having a bit of a time coming up with others. What else could their be?

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Paul Hacket: come back

What happened to Hackett is why I don't consider myself a democrat.

You can't invite a candidate to run and then cut them loose; it's the wrong way to run a party.

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Instant Run Off voting

How do you get active with local politics? Consider campaigning for instant run off voting. See link on side bar.

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terrorist survelance?

Not so fast.

it's not to surveil terrorists, instead it's to serveil democrats and other opponents as a means to blackmail them. Interesting idea.

If there were terrorists in the U.S., why haven't they been caught? Why haven't they attacked? Katrina would have been a good time to attack inside our borders. Hmm.

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line item veto?

Are you kidding me?

This is a proposal endorsed by Clinton but found to be unconstitutional by the SCOTUS. When are the rght-wing nut jobs going to get it...Bush wants more power than the constitution grants. It's shameful, really.

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Alito nomination the end?

So, with thousands of Americans I'm disappointed with the lack of cohesion of the democrats and the senate's nomination of Judge Alito.

But does this mean that the SCOTUS is now unbalanced toward right-wing idealogues?

I kept seeing reports about the right-wing cabal of Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and now Alito. But doesn't that account for only 4 of the 9 Justices? If Ginsberg, Souter, Stevens, and Breyer represent the "liberal" members of the court (liberal in quotes b/c no one on the court is technically liberal), where does Kennedy fall?

Although I'm no legal scholar, I believe Kennedy tends to rule conservatively. But is he as conservative as the others? Could he change his rulings in the future?

If you consider the title of this blog and my last post now, our SCOTUS has just now undergone a division, a distinction, a movement towards a greater differentiation. As a result of this, there should be a re-organization and eventual integration. But what does this mean?

What could happen is that Kennedy recognizes that he now represents the coveted swing vote and become a bit more liberal a result of this new composition of Justices. Could other members of the conservative court take this role? I wouldn't expect this from Scalia or Thomas, or Alito. Roberts? Probably not. But stranger things have happened.

It happens all the time. Members of groups, recognizing extreme views of their group can pull away as a counterbalance.* While Justice O'Connor present, Kennedy never had an opportunity to play this pivotal position.

*Exceptions to this include what social psychologists call group polarization and group think, where groups create more and more extreme versions of their views. Typically this results from fear of group exclusion for countering the majority view. Of course, this doesn't apply on the SCOTUS since it's a lifetime appointment.

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what's orthogenetic?

it's a principle that attempts to explain development--specifically how systems self-organize.

One particular good quote that sums this prinicple comes from Werner in 1957:

"Developmental psychology postulates one regulative principle of development; it is an orthogenetic principle which states that wherever development occurs it proceeds from a state of relative globality and lack of differentiation to a state of increasing differentiation, articulation, and hierarchical integration."

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first post

yup, first post to the world. god this sucks.

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