Remember when being 'all thumbs' was a BAD thing?

(8:02 am)
Holy crap. I never thought a blank page combined with an obligation to write would present me with a problem. Anyone who knows me knows it's never stopped me from running my mouth. (BTW, there's a term for that: "logorrhea.") When writing an accepted assignment, whether for a class, or for some publication (usually political,) the subject material, and the point of it, has been obvious to me. Usually, the keyboard is my enemy just because I'm a lousy one-to-two finger typist, which is why I've always preferred speaking.

But one of the tenets of writing is "Write what you know." And I know I promised myself that I'd write, and post. So it's the act, not the content, that's the point of sitting here, between the gym and the shower, before going to work (yes, I have a regular job) and banging on this keyboard.

Let's talk about the keyboard, then. The standard terminology for this device is a 'QWERTY' keyboard, named for the six keys in the upper left half-a-row of letter keys. My mother is a past master (mistress?) of the keyboard, being a journalist. She could bang out 85+ words a minute on a mechanical Smith-Corona with hammers that swung up on arms from a central arc of hinge pins. Her earliest predecessors in the world of typing could type far faster. In fact, with a keyboard laid out in alphabetic order, in 3 or 4 rows, those early typists could go so fast that the weak metal available for the arms that hammered the type fonts onto the page would soon give up. The resulting tangle of bent metal, like undercooked spaghetti, confounded engineers. Then one came up with an idea: if we couldn't find a metal strong enough to withstand the use (and of course cheap enough to make typewriters profitable,) we could make the typists slower.

But how? Easy. Rearrange the keyboard so that, in an English-speaking population of 90% right-handed persons, the most frequently-used letters are on the rows away from 'home', under fingers that are the weakest, and usually on the left. The five most frequently-used letters in the English language are E,T,O,A and N. Look at them on your keyboard. The first two are on the upper, LEFT row, the last two are on the upper right or lower off-center. have to reach, using third or fourth fingers. And the A, the only one on the home row, is on the farthest left key, under the weakest finger.

Unfortunately, by the time this layout had become standardized across manufacturers, metallurgy had caught up with need. But it was too late. The intentional crippling of typed communication was permanent. The IBM Selectric made the arms obsolete, and the computer keyboard made the need for moving parts almost moot. (I still have a key that sticks on one of my laptops...)

iPhones and iPads rely on virtual keyboards on touchscreens, and still use this layout. Others have been invented, the Dvorak for one, that are designed to increase typing speed. All are far more functional that the QWERTY keyboard. But you've never seen any of them, have you?

Now, the keyboards on cell phones are so small that they can only be typed on with thumbs, because the rest of the hand is needed to hold the phone. An icebreaker I often use to interrupt people texting in the middle on parties or events is "Remember when being 'all thumbs' was a bad thing?" Yet even here, there are speed contests, and instead of rearranging the keyboard to be more useful, the language is instead rewritten to use fewer keystrokes, or phonic versions of words. BTW, it sux.

So, sometimes it's worth going back and re-examining the original idea, the contraints, and their results, rather than just continuing on.

An exercise for those interested: See those solid-rocket boosters on the side of the Space Shuttle's main booster? The ones that fall off about half-way to orbit. Why are they that diameter? Here's a hint: Roman chariots. I'm not kidding. Look it up.
(8:42 am)(8:49am)

9-11, Katrina, and my birthday

It's my birthday. I'm 55. Weirdly, this birthday seems to matter, while most of the others haven't mattered, at least not since 31.
No, this isn't going to be middle-aged angst, but there is a bit of reflection due on these dates, and this one happens to have a syncronicity with the news, and recent history.
See, my 50th birthday, for which my wife held a surprise, and surprisingly fun party, got upstaged somewhat by Hurricane Katrina. I suppose for the rest of my life, I'll get to hear about that event on my birthday, like folks born on 9/11 or 11/23. Folks born on 8/8 or 8/9 got off easy this year, as no major news outlet commented on that event. Look it up.
Being a political activist, I remember the flooding of New Orleans in the wake of Katrina as the beginning of the end of the Junior Bush mystique. There on television, on every channel, was the incompetence of the omnipotent, unstoppable Republican machine. Just about a year later, the 1000-year Reich of One-Party Rule that Karl Rove had trumpeted came crashing down in the Democratic sweep of majorities in both houses of Congress.
In just a couple of weeks, we'll get the 9-11 remembrances. The other main inflection point in the arch of the Junior Administration. In all the recent polling on Obama's popularity, comparing his to that of other presidents at this point in their first terms. Missing in those analyses is that Junior Bush had the lowest incoming ratings of any president since they started polling. Well below 50%. 'Course, his did start by being appointed over the wishes of a majority of Americans. His actual popularity stayed in the toilet until 9-11. Suddenly, he could do no wrong. Suddenly, even my leftiest friends thought Junior was wonderful. My wife and I were in Europe on 9-11, so we missed the "all 9-11, all the time" media black-out/white-wash. (More about that on that date.)
But the similarity of the two events, 9-11 and Katrina,  each just over eight months from Junior's two presidential inaugurations, and the effect they had on how America viewed him and his, strikes me. The first gave carte-blanche to a perceived incompetent, and the second exposed the incompetence and cronyism of an administration that had seemed capable of doing, or getting away with, anything.

One of the many lessons I draw from this is that old saw, "Success is being ready when luck comes around." The Republicans were ready, with legislation and policy initiatives, especially ones that had nothing to do with national defense or terrorism, and rode America's sympathy for the president to every one of their goals. These included the re-election of the Junior King, a dubious bet even after all this.

Four years later, constant organizing by the other political wing of America made it ready when Katrina hit. Hit not just New Orleans, but the entire Republican apparatus.  Liberals, progressives and independents who'd either never drunk the FOX Kool-Aid or who'd snapped out of it after so many other things had already gone wrong saw an opening in the poll numbers, and ran the table in 2006. If the White House had been on offer in that cycle, they'd have taken that, too.

Since it fell on my birthday, I think a lot a bout Katrina, and New Orleans. I never went there before the levees collapsed. A conference we were supposed to attend ther in Nov of '05 got moved to some other city, naturally. I've been since. Seen the French Quarter. Seen the Ninth Ward. Sent money to various efforts there. I won't make any recommendations, because if you want to, you already have made donations, and will again. But Harry Shearer has a documentary in theatres tomorrow, The Big Uneasy, about how it wasn't Katrina that destroyed New Orleans, it was the poorly designed, badly built, and rarely maintained levee system that did the damage. Go see it.

Ray LaHood: WTF?

Came in late on Sec of Trans Ray LaHood's House testimony. Lots of cordial laughter, apparently over how long he'd been there, and how many times he'd been asked the same questions. Why is it that humor for Republicans like LaHood always includes humiliation or death? What's there in Toyata's cars killing people and his party and department doing nothing about it to laugh about.

As for competence, the last questioner was Rep Jackie Speier of CA. She asked how many software engineers NHTSA has. This is a question that's been asked in several articles over that last few days. How tough would it have been for LaHood to find out before this hearing. Apparently, the over 200 computers under the hood of new every car sold these days are of no concern to mister LaHood, so he doesn't care how many people are on his staff  who are competent to analyze them.

What is it with Republicans? They want the power, but not to do anything except keep it away from the other party.

Republicanism: Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Biology shows that homosexuality is genetic, or at least biological (is there a diff here?).
It is not a lifestyle choice. There is no such thing as a 'conversion' to or from homosexuality.
There is religious conversion, such as to Islam, or to Mormonism, or Scientology. These are psychological positions, and can be changed.
Racism and sexism are psychological also, and as such, can be changed.
As is a political point of view.

So I guess we can accurately view Republicanism as an unfortunate lifestyle choice.
Unfortunate for the holder, unfortunate for America, unfortunate for the world.

Hopefully, some day, instead of homosexuals, Republicanism will be subject to 'DADT.'
Because Republicans DO have a choice. 

STUPID (sp?) Amendment

On the upside of the STUPAK amendment, against any inclusion of pro-choice services in the healthcare bill, will be the death of the 'tort reform' (read 'repeal') movement.

This amendment, if it actually makes it to law, will become the lawsuit bonanza that the Christian right will use to grind most women's services in the US to a halt, through the active civil litigation to prove a 'not-one-federal-dollar' money trail for every instance of every one of those services.

In addition, I think Regents University (look it up) will start a new degree program in 'Forensic Accounting' with a minor in Women's Health Services, the better to harass all providers.

Science is where you find it...

After Columbine, and again especially after the Virginia Tech horror show, a certain group of deep thinkers and social theoreticians posited the proposition that if everyone was trained in the use of arms, both handguns and rifles, AND if everyone was allowed to carry them, openly, then events such as Columbine and Virginia Tech wouldn't happen, or at least would be minimized in scope.

After the experiment that these scientists held yesterday in Texas, at Ft. Hood, can we pronounce that theory dead?

Tomorrow's Headlines

Today, 'bat-shit crazy congresswoman' Michele Bachman led a contingent of DeMint teabaggers from the capitol steps into the halls of Congress. Arrests were made.

Today, Sen. Barbara Boxer told the Republicans to suck eggs, and called the vote for the Climate Bill in her committee, with no Republicans present. It passed, 10-1. (Typical Dems)

Today, the Dow gained 200+ poiunts, growing over two percent.

Today, President Obama (love the sound of that still) announced the endorsement of the healthcare bill from the AARP, and the AMA.

None of that will be the headline on your website or newspaper or radio news tomorrow.

It'll be the shootings at Ft Hood.

And on the sites that love 'bat-shit crazy congresswoman' Michele Bachman, it'll be emphasized that the shooter had a foreign, muslim-sounding name. Obama will be blamed.

I'll just remark that this is one of the worst days of Army casualties since the current wars were started. Fortunately, we don't lose 12 in one day very often.

Wherever you are, donate blood.
They need it.

Looking Back, Looking Forward.

Perspective on a year without Republican Rule, and the 2010 Elections.

(This is a long one. It's the first day on the path to the next 'first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.')

One year ago, Obama became president-elect. Republicans for months have been pointing to the 2010 mid-terms and licking their chops, swearing a replay of 1994's Republican sweep of Congress. Yesterday, two states that went for Obama last year elected Republican governors to replace democratic ones. But a congressional district in upstate NY went Democratic for the first time since the Civil War.
What the hell's going on? Should Dems be worried?

Looking Back

1964 will always be remembered as the second-lowest point for Republicans in the 20th century. (The lowest, of course, was Hoover, the Great Depression, and the resulting 4 terms of FDR.) Goldwater, 'AuH2O', had built on the anger and paranoia of the McCarthyites and the John Birchers, and led them off an electoral cliff.

But by 1968, the Republicans had retaken the White hHouse. The death of the Republican Party was announced too soon. But this was the beginning of the end of the GOP as America had known it for a century. In Johnson's first term, from '64 to '68, Civil Rights, Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security expansion, Voting Rights, all brought about an uprising among the racists of the south, who'd always voted Democratic. George Wallace became the candidate of the Dixiecrats until he was shot. The GOP saw the opportunity to throw in with the racists to expand their electoral base, and the 'Southern strategy' gave Nixon the bare electoral edge he needed to take the White House. But through it all, Democrats held both houses of Congress. Coalitions often were created across the aisle to work together on particular bills or initiatives. But Dems could take credit for the agenda, and its successful enactment.

From '69 to '74, Clean Air, Clean Water, the EPA, the banning of DDT, all came from the citizens, through this Democratic Congress. Democrats still held both houses of Congress.

By '74, by acting out the new populist GOP foundation of paranoia and hatred of others, Nixon's crew had committed crimes for which they had been indicted and disgraced. Nixon himself ran from the White House rather than face the impeachment charges that even old-school Republicans were supporting in the House and Senate. His apponted beard, Ford, served two years then was rolled out, replaced by Carter. Still the Dems held both Houses of Congress. Still they set the agenda.

1980 Reagan, 1988 Bush I, 1992 Clinton. With one two-year exception, in the Senate at the beginning of Reagan's first term, Democrats still held both houses of Congress. Iran-Contra, Bork, BCCI, Thomas, all these hearing were in front of Democratic Congressional chairmen.

By the time of the the 1994 sweep of both ends of the Capitol by Newt Gingrich's New Republicans, America had seen 40 years of almost solid Democratic Congressional policies and agendas. Blacks could vote. Women couldn't be kept in the kitchen. Air was becoming more breathable, the water drinkable again. America took these things for granted again, and gave no credit to anyone, instead assuming these were manna that fell from heaven. America had also by then heard over ten years of powerless Republicans telling it how much better it would be when the Republicans took over.
America took the chance. It voted for something new, something shiny, something Republican.

In 12 years, America saw exactly what a Republican Revolution would do in Congress. In the last six of those twelve, it how disastrous a lock-step, doctrinaire Republican monolith, owning all three branches of America's government, could be. When they finally had to walk the talk, Republicans were shown to America for hat they were: bait-and-switch hucksters out for nobody but themselves and their owners. Certainly not out for America. So in 2006, America turned them out of the capitol, and two years later, turned them out of the White House.

That's the look back.
Here's the Look Forward

The 2010 midterms aren't anything like the 1994 midterms. The Dems will have had the White House less than two years, Congress less than four. the Republicans will have been successfully crying 'wolf', sure, but also evidently playing sour grapes and stopping all legislative movement, with no agenda but "NO!"

Then the math of the midterms works against the Republicans too. Most of the Senate seats up for election are Republican, which means a lot of party money will be spent defending existing seats, not as much grabbing for new ones (more at a later date,) and 37 governorships up for election, more than in '94.

And with the demented DeMint Teabaggers working the primaries in 2010, expect a lot of hardline Republicans to find themselves suddenly painted as liberals and wimps as the only active part of the GOP pushes the rest of its body politic over the same cliff Goldwater ran his lemmings off 46 years earlier.

But the 2010 elections are doubly important, especially at the state level. because the governors elected in 2010 will be signing off on the redistricting maps that their states legislatures drwa based on the 2010 census. Those governors, as well as their state legislatures, will need to be Democrats to kept the Republicans at bay for enough time for America to heal from the hurt that 30 years of Republicans put on it.

For thirty years, the Republicans had the White House since 1981 (except for Clinton) or had Republicans running the Congress (since 1994, with criminal charges brought up on any Republican who consorted with Dems), with only one brief period, from 1993 to the end of 1995, when Democrats ran both ends of Pennsylvania Ave. And of course, Clinton crashed and burned on Health Care, while the Congressional Dems thought their 40-year reign would last for ever, so they didn't stand up for him.

So now the next elections start. We have to hold the seats we have. We ought to be able to take some more in the Senate, while holding a wide margin in the House. And we have to get Dems elected to state houses across the land, a prospect made more likely in the face of last night's several rejections of spending limits and tax repeals.

If Republican rule did anything for America, it's this: it reminded America that the way of the Republican is the path to disaster, and that when all the companies fail, America is all that's left. It's We The People, using our government to create the bootstraps we pull ourselves up with. Up from the hole the Republicans dug, and which, after we get ourselves out, we should bury the Republican in.
And with any luck, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and the DeMint Teabaggers will help us do it.

Inherent Problems With Our Healthcare System

There are two obvious flaws in the current health-care system in the United States.

First, through no fault of the individual companies, there is NO incentive for preventive care. Especially with ever-fewer 'cradle-to-grave' jobs out there, almost no one stays with the same provider for their whole life. So why would a company go to the expense of helping their customers stay healthy, insuring that the next insurance company collects premiums from healthy, and therefore profitable, customers, without making any preventive care investments of its own?

The second is definitely their fault: less payout means more profit. Not just by canceling policies or refusing coverage, but by making the process of receiving coverage so cumbersome to everyone involved. Imagine being as certain you were covered as you are that the premium will be automatically deducted from your paycheck, and that the paperwork were as easy.

At a minimum, these inherent flaws mean the current system cannot last, and as a functional portion of America's economy, has run its course.

Republicans, Iran, and North Korea

Republicans are whining that Obama, already "with too much on his table", should start interfering with the Iranian elections.
And do what, exactly? "Bomb, bomb, bomb! Bomb, bomb Iran!", to quote John McCain? And that's from the guy they wanted to lead the country and the free world. Schmucks.

Iranians are in a place that North Koreans only dream of, where elections are actually held, and more than one candidate is on the ballot. Of course, Iranians were in a similar position only 30 years ago. And thirty years from now, North Korea may have learned from the ayatollahs' mistakes.

In the meantime, how will America respond if, as FOX News works to gin up the fear, N. Korea actually succeeded in exporting or, worst, detonating a nuclear bomb somewhere in the world? Some few hundred of the millions in North Korea would have been in any way responsible.

But we can be sure that the Republicans, and the 28% of Americans who still take them seriously, will be screaming for us to "Bomb, bomb, bomb! Bomb, bomb North Korea!" And kill thousands that hate their leader as much as those FOX viewers do, or perhaps don't even know anything about anything happening anywhere else in the world, and think their horror-show of day-to-day life is the norm around the world.

Open hand first, iron fist last.

Lesson 1: How NOT To Steal An Election

Amateurs!
If the Supreme Leader had waited two days after the election, and then announced that the returns gave Ahmadinijad 52%, Mousavi 43% and the rest of the contenders 5%, the losers would have grumbled and complained, but that would have been it. A plausible finish after a plausible period for the count.

The Grand Council and the Supreme leader could still have just pulled the results out of their rectitudes, but they'd have been accepted.

Instead, they got over-eager, and announced a ridiculously wide margin of victory before even Allah could have counted all the ballots.

Any good American politician could have warned them off. And there are plenty of unemployed but successful campaign consultants who'd have been happy to help in the theft of a national election, to the detriment of the nation and the world.

Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell come to mind...

The Return of the Peacock Throne

The reign of the CIA-installed Shah Reza Palahvi was one of violence-enforced adherence to the Shah's edicts, enforced by the Savak.

The Shah was overthrown by the youth of Iran rioting in the streets, overwhelming even the Iranian Army. Those students created a new, religious democracy, in their idealistic dream that religion would moderate the tendency towards dictatorship.

The Supreme Leader's actions f the past week have put the lie to those dreams, and while almost all the students in the streets this time are still Muslims, they have been taught, by the example of the dictatorship those earlier students now endorse, that this form of government doesn't work either.

Other than claiming his source of power from Allah instead of the CIA, there's little difference in the actions of the Supreme Leader, in his attempt to hold power.

The Shah's Peacock Throne, upon which the Supreme Leader now sits, may be replaced by the Green Revolt, or the Lipstick Revolution, but it will be replaced. More violence against the students will simply give more fodder to their cause, and less will be acquiescence to the revolution.

Either way, the legitimacy of the 30-year reign of rigid religious conservatism has run its course, and its lie is now seen not just outside the nation but within it as well.

Gosh. Sound like any other nation we know?

Health Insurance: The Easy Metric of Success

There's a very simple metric for the success of the Democratic Party's follow-through on the mandate of Health Care Reform from the 2006/20008 landslides.

By the 2010 mid-term elections, is there anyone in America who is uninsured?

Because if there is, America lost, and the ReagaNaziCorporation (RNC) won, and we should vote the Dems out just to remind them of their responsibility to represent us.

Iran's Supreme Leader: "Suck Eggs!"

No, he didn't say it in those words, but how else should his two hour's of "Nothing to see here. Move along" be taken?

On the one hand, he told all the marchers that marching in the streets is no way to solve anything, hoping the older Iranians won't remind the younger ones that that's how he and his pals overthrew the Shah and came to power.

Instead, his reminder was that the way to change things is by elections. Like the one they just had, where the results were announced before the ballots could be counted. By a margin that no one believes, on either side of the election.

Which leaves exactly what options for the citizens of Iran? Shut up, sit down, take what we dish out. And be glad we don't come in the night and take you away, Allah be praised.

How exactly is this different from the reign of the Shah?

How George HW Bush Almost Died...

Not in that silly tandem skydive last Friday to celebrate his umpty-umpth birthday. No, in the one on June 12, 2001. And not by accident. If Jeb hadn't stolen Florida for Dub-ya in 2001, removing Poppy would have become a preferable outcome to many of his associates to his continued breathing. See, '41', or 'HW', or 'Poppy', whatever you want to call him, knows where most of the bodies in DC are buried. From his days as the head of the CIA, to his ambassadorship to China at the beginning of our great sell-out to them, and then of course disappearing in mid-campaign in 1980, to chat it up with Iranians about arms-for-hostages (and for a Reagan Presidency) at the hotel the Ayatollah had stayed at until he and his students took American hostages for 444 days. Then, there's all the fixes he was involved in while he was 'out of the loop' on the culmination of the Iran-Contra deals he'd started back in Paris off the campign trail. No wonder he preemptively pardoned everyone in his Administration on the way out of town in January 1993. At that point, he still had clout in the GOP, and especially in the boardrooms of the companies that'd benefitted from his policies for so long. And with Coors and Bradley and Scaife money keeping Clinton pinned down defending Arkansas from Ted Olsen and the Elves, no one in the White House had a chance to look over the records from the Reagan-Bush years. After all, the real point of the Elves wasn't just to keep Clinton from moving forward, but also from looking back. But Poppy's power and influence began to fade after 8 years. But the toxicity of the secrets he knew couldn't fade. His conspirators were still in office, still in boardrooms, and of course, the chance that the truth about Reagan's election, as well as about Iran-Contra, ever sullying the Great Prevaricator's legend, could not be tolerated. So, in an act not just of holding power, but of self-preservation, Poppy maneuvered to get one of his boys (the two that don't have felony convictions)  elected president, from either Texas (Dub-ya) or preferably Jeb in Florida. Think how horribly wrong the seating of Gore would have been for Poppy, with Florida the electoral tie-breaker. Dub-ya becomes a political non-entity for at least eight years, maybe forever after his petulance at his loss makes the national papers. And the fact Jeb couldn't deliver his own state to his brother, his family, his party, would have ended his political future in the GOP right there. The presidentcy of Al Gore, despised by all Republicans, and supported by a majority of the voters, would be laid squarely at the door of the Bush family. Leaving no more favors to hand out, either from a former president or his two governor-sons. And while his sons didn't know anything about Poppy's backroom dealings, Poppy would have needed to be taken out before he let anyone in on those goings-on, as some sort of life insurance. Which is why I would have bought a ticket to that tandem jump in June 2001 if Dub-ya hadn't been coronated. And which is why the Poppy fought so hard from the back room to get his boy coronated when he didn't win. It was a matter of life and death.

Well, so much for GalaxyQuest.

Friday was the end of analog video broadcasts in the United States. And while many nay-sayers are now taking great pleasure in pointing out the millions of Americans that no longer have any television service, who will speak for the aliens?

I will.

No, not the ever-present, lurking menace of illegal aliens, always the #1 problem on right-wing radio. No, I speak of the interstellar aliens, off-worlders who will, some day in about 26 years or so, suddenly find that all those re-runs of Lucy and Star Trek and The Simpsons suddenly have stopped.

Those transmissions traveled farther, faster, than any satellite carrying gold disks of sounds or naked pictures of our species. And they are now, or some years in the future, some light-years away, turned off, with less fanfare than any dying star.

Oh, well. At least they can still get broadcast radio: baseball, NPR and Rush Limbaugh.

And we wonder why they never communicate with us...

"Start Again!"

This blog has been dormant for quite a while, as I was busy >ha!< during the last election.

Since then, I've been trying to decide whether to return here, or just leave it, another of the millions of blogs abandoned every year, for lack of diligence, for lack of something to say, or overtaken by newer technology.

So, as is evident from this post, I'm back. Here's why. The voices in my head won't shut-up.

There's the vociferous hater of Republicans, often the loudest and longest-winded(!). There's the tech geek, agog at what science discovers and engineers invent.
The comedian calls back to the humor of the past to inform the events in the news.
And then there's the analyst, always rolling problems and situations over and over, trying to find a new and better solution, or pry apart a system to find its flaw.

Eugene Volokh wrote once that a successful blog should stay focused on one subject, and that its postings should be relatively short.

I've considered having a blog for each of these voices, to prevent readers from having to wade through them to find the subjects they want.

But for simplicity's sake, I'll simply label the voices, and the reader can fallow the ones of interest to them...


But first, I am called to dinner. And 'cause my wife is a great cook, I'm never late for dinner.

Take Back America Conference: Day 2

The morning plenary was Bob Borosage hosting a panel of Julian Bond, Jesse jackson & Taylor Branch discussing the legacy of King and the Civil Rights Movement. My sister, who's sofa is my hotel this week, wanted to hear about Donna Brazile, whom she blames for both the 20000 and 2004 debacles, but Julian Bond was a sub speaker. No show, no explanation. And s much as I like Jesse Jackson

I'm writing now from a session on the Rogue Presidency, including David Cole, a regular witness at the House JudiciaryComm, and John Conyers, House Judiciary Chair (who got hung up in traffic,) and Christ Hardin Smith, who blogs on constitutional matters for FireDogLake.
Christy Hardin Smith, FireDogLake:"Giving up our rights doesn't make us more safe, it just makes us less free"
John Conyers refers back to Gingrich's "Contract ON America" (the phrase I've been using since 1994, thank you)as the start of the current attitude of the Republicans toward the presidency. (I'd think it goes back at least to Nixon.) He's now remarking on his committee's report, "What Went Wrong In Ohio" about the 2004 election, and the invitation (and threat of subpoena) issued by the Committee to former Sec. o' State Blackwell, who was responsible for that disaster.

Conyers says he isn't hopeful about the rulings of the current Supreme Court, and that the most important thing between now and November is voting integrity.

More later..I want to listen.

Finishing Conyers' session

Quick note: after spending some time trying to explain why there won't be an impeachment before the election (because "it would jeopardize the chance of a young, excellent man running for the White House") Conyers made two unusual statements. First, that there were already ample examples of crimes that Cheney ("the brains of the operation") and Bush had committed crimes they could be convicted for in both US criminal courts and in Int'l War Crimes tribunals, which could still end up with them being held responsible for their actions...
And second, that Conyers and several other members of Congress (no names mentioned) had sent Bush a letter saying that if he goes into Iran, he will be impeached.

Well, there's no hedging that statement...

The Obama Surge - a media product?

(Been a while, but it's gonna be wild from here on out. Strap in)
Last night, Hillary Clinton beat Obama in New Hampshire. And everyone, especially the progressive wing of my party, is trying to figure out why Obama had to give a great concession speech last night, five days after getting to give a great victory speech after the Iowa caucuses (caucii?) And everyone is WAY over-analyzing the 'flip.'

I usually eschew (gesundheit) simple explanations for apparently complicated situations (and simple solutions to complicated problems.) But this one seems easy.

Until two weeks ago, no Republican candidate, no FOX pundit, and barely any other media face, spoke any Democratic candidates' name but 'Hillary.' In several Republican debates, they never even said 'Bush.' This feels like marching to the tune from Grover and Karl, too coordinated to be accidental.
WHY Hillary? Because they (GOP) calculate that America won't vote for a woman, even the Virgin mary, much less Hillary. So all focus was on her.

Imagine their wet dream come true, the hope they dared not hope at the RNC, when Obama won Iowa. And now, all focus is on Obama, win or lose in the primaries. WHY? because, in the mind of the GOP, the only thing easier to beat that a white woman is a black man.
They'll never even have to mention it, to place the race or gender card, (like Coulter calling Edwards a 'faggot.')becaue every time either of these candidates is seen, their 'difference' is evident to the GOP electorate.

I hate that America is still held hostage by the misogymistic racists whose parents committed treason back in the 1860's. Can't we let them out now? Other than Coca-cola and Cape Kennedy, they can all fall into the Gulf of Mexico...

Watch for Edwards v. McCain