read between the lines

and you get the same shit: bush is power hungry to the point of being drunk with lust. from today's papers

Yesterday's Post noted President Bush's penchant for "signing statements," which give the White House interpretation of a law being, well, signed. The idea is to have challenges to a law on paper and thus give the administration a potential leg up in future court cases. The signing statements are an attempt to "address specific provisions of legislation that the White House wishes to nullify," said one presidential historian. He added that they are "also in an effort to significantly reposition and strengthen the powers of the presidency relative to the Congress."

Letter of the WeeQ

Years ago, I decided that it was important to maintain balance in my exposure to political opinion. If I read Richard Cohen and Molly Ivins, I will also read Charlie Krauthammer and Cal Thomas. I figure that it does not make me a more informed citizen to read only those with whom I agree. I do not regret the decision, although I must admit that it is tainted with a certain amount of self-righteousness.

Speaking of self-righteousness, my dedication to this practice was severely tested on Wednesday morning, Dec. 21, while I read Cal Thomas' column. There Cal is, staring dreamily off into God-knows-where (however, as Cal seems to have a direct communications pipeline to God, I am sure they have agreed on a suitable place) telling me that my "civil liberties mean nothing."

He didn't use "right to privacy" — a concept whose existence is the subject of occasional argument. He didn't use the word "privilege," as if to suggest that it is optional. He said "civil liberties" — a concept central to the founding of the country.

And he wants me to know that they have no value, although he obviously values the "civil liberties" of the Iraqi people, as evidenced by the fact that he is willing to go, uninvited, to war in their pursuit. Benjamin Franklin said "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Who do we want to speak for us — Ben or Cal?

—Ken Schumacher, Ames.

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Letter Of The Day

today's winner is from my hometown newspaper.

I am one Christian who would like to buck this year’s fundamentalist trend by wishing all of my neighbors “Happy Holidays.”

By this, I mean all the holidays: Christmas, yes, but also Thanksgiving, New Year’s and Epiphany. For six weeks, we have a number of holidays, or “holy days,” and I see wise stewardship of resources in creating advertising that lasts an entire season.

Where is the merit behind the extremists’ claims of a war against Christmas? I do not see what any truly faithless person would find meaningful in celebrating our holy day, anyway. However, I do see that Christmas can be a means of grace, a doorway by which questions of faith behind traditions come to be asked and people search for meaning which goes deeper than piles of gift-wrap.

If anything should be boycotted at Christmas, it is materialism, not gestures of hospitality and welcome. Our retail centers are not, and should not purport to be, Christian institutions.

I do not go to Kmart seeking faith, I go seeking socks. A quick review of Wal-Mart’s alleged exploitative personnel policies certainly demonstrates it is not a Christian institution. But the extremists are not boycotting Wal-Mart for its treatment of its poor.

What disturbs me most about the “inclusive greetings boycott” is the implications of anti-Semitism. Hanukkah is the most prominent non-Christian holiday celebrated at this time. Why would we want to exclude Jews from our greetings of goodwill? I would like to wish our Jewish friends “Happy Holidays” as well.

Instead of picking this fight, I wish these extremists would focus on feeding the poor, caring for the sick, visiting those in prison and working for peace. That would be a useful Christian witness any time of year.

By LE ANNE CLAUSEN, Mason City
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Letter Of The Day

I am appalled at the idea that teachers are overpaid or that education and knowledge could be considered a commodity.

First, I challenge anyone who feels teachers are overpaid to step into a classroom of 30 15-year-olds and complete a lesson, then grade those students’ work, try to find current lesson plans and information in your 15-year-old textbooks and deliver the lesson with interest and have them actually remember it and learn something.

Second, education and knowledge are not commodities in the sense that one can buy and sell them for a profit. The educational system is cumbersome, yes; however that is because learning is cumbersome.

Does everyone learn how to read the first time they pick up a book or sing the ABCs? Students learn at different rates and in different ways. It takes a flexible model to allow for those differences and still encourage progress.

Why is teacher pay based on years of service then? It takes years to hone teaching skills. It takes the summers of curriculum building, classes, nights of lesson planning along with classroom experience to gain those skills. Yet base pay is necessary because teachers are the lowest-paid professionals with four-year degrees.

Don’t forget, it is the teachers who educate the doctors, lawyers and business people of tomorrow. The most educated people, who could also make great teachers, often don’t enter the profession because it doesn’t pay enough.

Is “performance” the answer? The best teachers are often given the most difficult students. Thus, their performance may be skewed by the results of some test score versus the progress a child has made in their classroom.

No matter what the scenario may be, teachers are worth way more than the measly salaries they are paid. Education is not for sale.

--J. Powers
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thank you mr president

the news picked up on bush's response to the spying program:

SAN ANTONIO -- President Bush on Sunday strongly defended his domestic spying program, saying it's a limited initiative that tracks only incoming calls to the United States.

and in the words of a friend of mine:

The President, who decried the leak of generic information about the spying as "shameless" and causing "great harm to the nation," now singlehandedly undermined the effectiveness of his own program. Shameless indeed.

--kos

FARPOINT.FACTOID

Merriam-Webster Online's list of the top ten most looked-up words of 2005. In order of popularity: 1) integrity, 2) refugee, 3) contempt, 4) filibuster, 5) insipid, 6) tsunami, 7) pandemic, 8) conclave, 9) levee, 10) inept.

zoundryt needs to hear about this

how the focus won't stay in the title field. that popup helper 'enter post title' keeps makin the focus move back into the body field. i use zoundry too much for this to be a simple pest of a feature.

plus, the fact that you can't press OK on the post dlg box. how lame is THAT.

here's a bullseye into how American

It's sadly ironic when people in America, the wealthiest country in the world, go into debt while trying to pay for a basic need such as health care. Then that debt prevents them from securing other basic needs, such as housing and car loans. This has become, unfortunately, the American way.

--source

today's MUST READ

it's a long thread, but one worth reading and getting a jest of what North Iowa is all about.

saw on irc today

"In this season finale episode, which first aired on December 7, a local statue of the Virgin Mary bleeds from its ass. Townsfolk think it's a miracle. Emperor Palpatine Pope Benedict XVI visits to inspect the statue in person, determines that it is instead bleeding from its vagina, and declares: "A chick bleeding out her vagina is no miracle. Chicks bleed out their vaginas all the time.""

from

saw on irc today

"In this season finale episode, which first aired on December 7, a local statue of the Virgin Mary bleeds from its ass. Townsfolk think it's a miracle. Emperor Palpatine Pope Benedict XVI visits to inspect the statue in person, determines that it is instead bleeding from its vagina, and declares: "A chick bleeding out her vagina is no miracle. Chicks bleed out their vaginas all the time.""

from

does this say more than it reads?

The House has a mortgage-lobby-friendly bill pending; one of its two sponsors is Bob Ney, R-Ohio, perhaps better-known these days as the "Representative No. 1" cited in an indictment revolving around fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

i see civil war

i just can't tell what the time frame is. but there is civil war being brewed in the middle east.

and like all things bush, this will be a disaster. both for the region, and for the world. too much is at stake. and too little available.

cbs news isnt very full of good news tonite. story after story. misery everywhere. and some would have you believe that i would blame bush for it all.

and after that, i've got a bridge to sell ya.

any question on who's the president now?

A front-page article last Tuesday about foreign governments' security concerns regarding satellite photography available through Google referred imprecisely to security measures applied to some of the imagery. Although images of the White House and its environs are now clear in the Google Earth database, the view of the vice president's residence in Washington remains obscured.
(go to article)

--nytimes

i just had to reprint one last letter

because this one hits the nail on the head without even swinging.

According to the Army Times, the Army and Marine Corps are recalling more than 18,000 body-armor vests because they failed ballistic requirements when they were manufactured in 1999-2000.

Many of those vests may now be in the war zone. The Nov. 16 recall order is the second in six months for the Marines. The Corps recalled more than 5,000 vests in May. All of the vests involved were produced by the same manufacturer, Point Blank Body Armor Inc. of Pompano Beach, Fla., under contract to the Marine Corps.

The first recall, and a subsequent investigation that led to the second recall, came in response to a Marine Corps Times investigation that showed that the Corps knowingly accepted vests that failed to meet requirements in 2003 and 2004.

This is the Bush administration's version of "support the troops."

—Frank P. Belcastro, Dubuque.

Letter of the WeeQ

It is said that if we leave Iraq now, Iraq will sink into a civil war. I thought that I knew the definition of civil war, but I looked it up just to be sure. Iraq is already engaged in civil war. The politicians say that the insurgents now concentrate on Iraqi civilians. That is civil war.

—Paul Jensen, Ogden.

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Letter Of The Day

comes today from my hometown newspaper, and there were several that made the short list of contenders. you should really read them all.

By KEVIN YOUNG, Sheffield

And so we have come to the end of the long, sad, sordid story of Angela Johnson and Dustin Honken.

If there is an appropriate comment to make, it would have to be the words of wisdom we used to have on a sign that sat in our living room which said, “No one is completely worthless. They can always serve as a BAD example.”

this is a test, this is only a test

and no, there's no need to contact your local DHS snitch.

what it means

was the first header of the letters to the editor in today's des moines register:

"Substantial stability has been achieved in the north and south," Dec. 19 editorial). English translation: The Kurds and Shiites have established de facto independent states complete with secret prisons and torture chambers in the oil-rich north and south while retaining joint control of the central government.

—Ian Binnie, Des Moines.

i am amazed at the letters today

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051225/OPINION04/512250320/1035/OPINION

under the heading eavesdroppers.

and not one thought it was ok for the president to spy on Americans.

i'm sorry

i'm sorry to all the catholics out there who might be offended by my next statement:

pope benedict looks like he's saying to himself: gee, all this for me, i'm the king, i get to sit on the throne, they come for ME.

Letter Of The Day

The president says he has allowed spying on United States citizens to protect U.S. citizens. My question is who, or what, is going to protect us from the president?

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life has vindicated seymour hersh how many times now?

The WP does front a big story on U.S. air strikes in Iraq killing many civilians in the Anbar province. And inside, the WP reports that U.S. air strikes have overall increased five-fold in the past few months-which might be evidence that Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article was on target.

from today's papers

Letter Of The Day

Gay and lesbian couples are asking for equal rights granted by state-recognized marriage. Certain heterosexuals oppose granting gay couples the privilege of marriage partly because they think it would unravel their revered institution of marriage.

The reluctance to change is usually driven by the unknown. Maybe the heterosexual couples are afraid a homosexual marriage institution would have a lower divorce rate, a higher marriage percentage, less spousal-abuse cases, less child neglect and, heaven forbid, the children of homosexual marriage would grow up to be well adjusted, successful adults and possibly heterosexual.

Change is never easy, even in Iowa.

-Craig Seymour, Ames.

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the difference between us and them?

us: we take our dates to movies

them: they take their wives to opening sessions of parliament in afghanistan.

i can hear cheney now: see huney, i did all this for you.

can you tell me which one of these acts are christian?

A little after 6 a.m. yesterday, the House of Representatives approved a five-year budget plan that included almost $40 billion in cuts to programs such as Medicaid and student loans. An hour earlier, the House also passed a $453 billion military spending bill that included a provision to permit oil drilling at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The bill, which includes money for hurricane relief and preparations for an avian flu pandemic, might put lawmakers who are against ANWR in a tough spot if they do not want to be seen as voting against funding the troops. Also, some are pointing out that the legislation to help prepare the country for a possible outbreak of bird flu protects vaccine-makers from any liability, including the result of negligence.

the latest numbers

from today's papers:

The WP fronts its latest poll that shows a jump in President Bush's approval ratings to 47 percent, an increase in 8 percentage points since November. USAT, on the other hand, goes inside with its own poll, taken in almost the exact same days, that says Bush's approval rating is 41 percent. The polls agree that 52 percent of the population does not believe the Iraq war is worth fighting or that troops should have been sent in the first place. The USAT poll also reveals that 55 percent of the population sees the war in Iraq as separate from the war on terrorism.

guess us critics of this law were proven right again:

Two Des Moines children were sexually abused over the weekend by a man wanted by police since October for violation of the Iowa Sex Offender Registry law, authorities reported.

A parent contacted police Saturday accusing James Alex Conway, 35, of molesting two boys ages 7 and 10.

"He was baby-sitting at the time," Sgt. Todd Dykstra said of Conway, who had been living at the house where the alleged incident occurred.

...

Critics of the sex offender residency restriction say it does nothing to restrict where child molesters can go, and point out that most abuse occurs when an offender lives in the same home as a child.

--source

Letter of the WeeQ

President Bush wouldn't comment when asked about U.S.-run secret prisons abroad, but did say that the United States does not torture and will do everything in its legal power to protect Americans while abiding by U.S. law ("Bush: U.S. Won't Use Ransom for Captives," Dec. 7).

This president doesn't have to worry too much about U.S. law on torture (or anything else) when he's got the attorney general to write it for him as he goes along, the chief justice of the Supreme Court installed (and another justice waiting in the wings) to bless it for him, a Congress too afraid to oppose anything he does and a mainstream media that will barely raise its voice.

-Roy Applegate, Spencer.

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Letter Of The Day

The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (U.S.A. Patriot Act)is set to expire on Dec. 31.

This cleverly crafted acronym implies that anyone opposed to the provisions of the act is unpatriotic. While one may argue that they have not personally noticed any loss of freedoms during the past four years from this hastily drafted legislation, that does not make it good legislation. Many of the provisions go too far and give government too much authority, authority that is not necessary for domestic security.

Let's hope Congress, in its haste to get home by Christmas, does not simply continue the provisions in the first legislation. There is nothing patriotic about the Patriot Act.

-Rod Braun, Pella.

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today's must read

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/18/AR2005121801006.html

FARPOINT.FACTOID

we're jus FULL of 'em today. from moneycentral over at msn:

More than 500,000 bankruptcy cases were filed in the two weeks before the law took effect, compared with a normal weekly volume of 30,000 to 35,000. So far this year more than 2 million cases have been filed, 49% more than the same period last year and eclipsing all previous records.

FARPOINT.FACTOID

The NYT reports that the wealthiest Americans are not the most generous in terms of the proportion of their investment assets they give to charity. A "pioneering study of federal tax data" shows that working-age people earning $50,000 to $100,000 are two to six times more generous than those earning more than $10 million.
--FROM TODAY'S PAPERS

watching 60 minutes

and there was a segment on morgan freeman.

now he's an actor who would draw me to the movies, and i don't think i've seen 3 movies in the last 20 years.

he had a line toward the very end of the piece: how do you be good to life.

you live it. i said that very same thing years ago on christopher street when i was doing my junga jim psycho babbles under the headphones walking the streets of new york city.

you live it. as true then as it is now.

Letter Of The Day

Even I could write a better column about health care than David Yepsen offered us on Dec 11.

Yepsen erected a straw man called "socialized medicine," then began stabbing it with his ink pen. The result was merely confusing because no one is proposing socialized medicine — where all doctors work for the government — as a solution to runaway health-care expenses.

I would begin my column by typing "Google.com" into my computer. There I could quickly find the 2004 Harvard study that found we could all save money by booting the thousands of tangled health-insurance plans we now endure and adopting a single plan that covers us all. That takes government action, to be sure, but it is not socialized medicine. And it has nothing to do with Italy or FEMA or any of the other inkblots that bled from Yepsen's straw man.

—Jerry Depew, Laurens.
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what is UP with pinnacle systems?

they don't seem to support mac at all, much less for the digital video creator 80 i paid $100 for.

it's hard to imagine why someone who lends themselves to being at the pinnacle of digital video (no pun intended), is sorely lacking support for the macintosh.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Dazzle/Digital+Video+Creator+150+Support/Download+Area/Drivers+-+Updates/Pinnacle+USB+Hardware+Installer+for+Studio+8+and+Studio+8+QuickStart.htm?mode=documents

Letter Of The Day

Letter-writer Tom Quiner says, "Contrary to the multitude of letters about the greedy rich, it is the superproducers who pay our nation's bills far beyond their numbers. We owe them our thanks."

Oh, quit playing that violin already.

According to the IRS, the top 1 percent had incomes of at least $295,000 per year, while those of us in the bottom 50 percent had incomes that did not exceed $30,000 per year to spend on rent, food, transportation, etc.

Considering the rich are getting President Bush's tax-cut windfall while funding for student loans and public assistance is being slashed and kids from "the bottom half" are fighting an ill-planned pre-emptive war, the last thing the superproducers deserve is our thanks.

—Michael Nottingham, Coralville.

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a good example of the folx i live around

can be found HERE

it's the VOTING MACHINES stupid!

A top election official and computer experts say computer hackers could easily change election results, after they found numerous flaws with a state-approved voting-machine in Tallahassee.

--source

from today's papers

The NYT says inside that Democrat and Republican senators have agreed on a measure that would require the White House to give Congress regular, classified updates about the U.S.'s secret prisons abroad. The House hasn't considered similar legislation, so, of course, nothing might come of this.

nothing might come of the fact that the administration has been denying the very existence of secret prisons and yet they're gboing to be giving regular updates on them? how exactly does that work?

testing out the new mac GUI for blogger

and i think i may just be at that point where i can tell zoundry to go stuff it. they were actually getting worse, not better imho. anyway, um, this is the new mac GUI, etco. i guess you can find it anywhere. but i'll try and get a link in there.

and even the quote is a fine piece of work. WOW. i'm in heaven.

cbsnew ran a segment on pensions

and was glad to hear one of the delta pilots that is suing delta over it, that it was 'grand theft in the first degree' and somehow it didn't take much for me to believe him.

wouldn't you?

that's the way i like it, uh huh, uh huh.
that's the way i like it, alright.

Asked if they would "definitely" or "probably" vote for the Democrat or the Republican in next year's fall congressional election, 48% said the Democrat would get their support, compared to 40% who said they would vote for the Republican. While 3% said they plan on supporting a third-party candidate, 9% said they were unsure.

--source

WARNING: more incompetence ahead

from today's papers

USAT takes a brief look at the companies that have been assigned the $300 million project. One of them is named the now-often-cited Lincoln Group, which started two years ago and had "no experience in public relations, advertising or other media work." One of the group's founders is a 30-year-old guy who's been active in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, during the bidding process, one of the companies asked the Pentagon if the military will "protect them from U.S. and foreign media inquiries."

tuesday, december 13th.... sure it's not friday?

today's jus been one thing after another.

woke up at 5 to the humidifier off. and the nightlight out. strange. they're all plugged into this surge protector and it was like ... real wet down there. i immediately saw that there was a problem with the humidifier. just bought the thing and have been raving about it to almost everybody who would listen and read. anyway, um, it didnt take long before i knew ihad a problem that would require me getting shoes on and going down into the basement, amidst morw cobwwebs than the house on 1313 mockingbird lane.

so after flipping the circuit breaker, to both of the breakers for the living room (thank GOD i knew something about electricity), i realized i had to cut the mac off ... oh well. i could have had a fire. and i can't think of any reason i DIDNT have a fire. this house would have gone up in a second. shit. i really really need to take better care of these kinds of things. i'm kinda worried about all the cables i got going into this wall-socket. i thinki'm ok tho. i reallydont run taht much. tv, and the computer. and now that i have the lcd's., it should be less. anyway, um, i need to get on over the bathroom. i had to stick 3 suppositories up there and i'm starting to feel the rush. it normally will get right down to the very end, and then bug the hell outta me with this constant feeling of having to go.

like i said, its only half way thru the day. what was your morning like?

Letter of the WeeQ

Sunday, at Wal-Mart, I saw a person try to put an item in their jacket. At first I thought this person was a jerk. I was buying and they were stealing. I paid for my purchase without notifying anyone.

But after I returned home, I became convinced that it was OK to steal. Perhaps this person lost their job due to the cascading effects of the superstore's dominance of other businesses. Perhaps this person has a minimum-wage, part-time job without health care. In any case, the Walton family certainly has enough money to cover the loss.

When I compare the theft of a $15 item to the grand larceny by corporate America, which ran Enron into the ground, which reaps record oil profits, which passes out cash to God knows who in Iraq, and which occupies the seats of government and takes bribes, I now see the act of stealing a small gift for a poor child as heroic.

I dare say that the treatment by Wal-Mart and the police of this person would be harsher than for those who do not steal their millions in the bright fluorescent light of a store.

-Greg Wilcox, Des Moines.

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Letter Of The Day

Is Iowa 41st in the nation in the amount it pays the football coaches at its state universities? Why not?
-Anne Crane,
Des Moines.

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there's a problem with mac IE's interface

there are noi buttons for italic, bold, and what have you like there are in other browsers' windows. i wonder if anybody knows about it. because as it is, there's not much you can do with this

Quote of the Day

A man couldn’t start his car because a cat was in front of it. I saw that on the news. Who wants to know?”
-- Sandra Schultz

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http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2005/12/12/local/doc439d14b5d582f938523390.txt

Letter Of The Day

I am sickened that our government would kidnap, questionably interrogate, and hold an innocent German man, Khaled Masri, in a manner reminiscent of Stalinist Russia ("Pressured to Stop al-Qaida, CIA Makes Mistakes," Dec. 5). That is not consistent with our nation's ideals.

-James Blackburn, Des Moines

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