Posted by Norm at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Dan Abrams in his Beat the Press segment has some fun with Fox News and their new black and white coverage. Here's what's interesting John Kasich, that your 'black friends' make an ass of you and you don't seem to be sure why that is.

Posted by Norm at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

• Bush Gets Booed by Crowd of 41,000 at Baseball's Season Opener [VIDEO] | Video | AlterNet


• BBC NEWS | Health | Oregon's healthcare lottery (tip to Geoff)


• Friday Column: When Is It Okay to Read About an Author's Private Life?


• In defense of Big Ideas in fiction


• Fallacy Files Weblog Archive: Charlatan

  Human cognition has a problem―anecdotal thinking comes naturally whereas scientific thinking does not. The recent medical controversy over whether vaccinations cause autism illustrates this barrier. On the one side are scientists who have been unable to find any causal link between the symptoms of autism and the vaccine’s ingredients. On the other are parents who noticed that shortly after having their children vaccinated autistic symptoms appeared. Anecdotal associations are so powerful that they cause people to ignore contrary evidence. In the vaccination case the imagined culprit for autism’s cause is the preservative thimerosal, yet it breaks down into ethylmercury that is expelled from the body too quickly to have a damaging effect (plus autism continues to be diagnosed in children born after thimerosal was removed from vaccines). The story holds power despite the contrary facts.



• An Elephant Paints An Amazing Self Portrait(tip to Darren)


• Essay About Love and Literary Taste - Books - Review - New York Times

  Some years ago, I was awakened early one morning by a phone call from a friend. She had just broken up with a boyfriend she still loved and was desperate to justify her decision. “Can you believe it!” she shouted into the phone. “He hadn’t even heard of Pushkin!”

  We’ve all been there. Or some of us have. Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast. At least since Dante’s Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility.



• Literary Dealbreakers - Paper Cuts - Books - New York Times Blog


• An Ode To Lefty Bloggers Who Hate Hillary Clinton (Updated) » Mad Kane's Political Madness

Posted by Norm at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)

Will Hillary Clinton Listen to Anyone Adivising Her to Quit? -- New York Magazine

In the days after John Edwards’s withdrawal from the Democratic race, the political world expected his endorsement of Barack Obama would be forthcoming tout de suite. The neo-populist and the hopemonger had spent months tag-teaming Hillary Clinton, pillorying her as a creature of the status quo, not a champion of the kind of “big change” they both deem essential. So appalled was Edwards at Clinton’s gaudy corporatism—her defense of the role of lobbyists, her suckling at the teats of the pharmaceutical and defense industries—that he’d essentially called her corrupt. And then, not least, there were the sentiments of his wife. “Elizabeth hasn’t always been crazy about Mrs. Clinton” is how an Edwards insider puts it; a less delicate member of HRC’s circle says, “Elizabeth hates her guts.”

But now two months have passed since Edwards dropped out—tempus fugit!—and still no endorsement. Why? According to a Democratic strategist unaligned with any campaign but with knowledge of the situation gleaned from all three camps, the answer is simple: Obama blew it. Speaking to Edwards on the day he exited the race, Obama came across as glib and aloof. His response to Edwards’s imprecations that he make poverty a central part of his agenda was shallow, perfunctory, pat. Clinton, by contrast, engaged Edwards in a lengthy policy discussion. Her affect was solicitous and respectful. When Clinton met Edwards face-to-face in North Carolina ten days later, her approach continued to impress; she even made headway with Elizabeth. Whereas in his Edwards sit-down, Obama dug himself in deeper, getting into a fight with Elizabeth about health care, insisting that his plan is universal (a position she considers a crock), high-handedly criticizing Clinton’s plan (and by extension Edwards’s) for its insurance mandate.

Posted by Norm at 6:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

• Candidates Heavily Scrutinized on the Economy : NPR
• 'Lying for Jesus?' by Richard Dawkins - RichardDawkins.net
• McCain Stumbles on H.I.V. Prevention - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

  SOMEWHERE in NORTHERN IOWA — The unthinkable has happened. Senator John McCain met a question, while sitting with reporters on his bus as it rumbled through Iowa today, that he couldn’t – or perhaps wouldn’t – answer.

  Did he support the distribution of taxpayer-subsidized condoms in Africa to fight the transmission of H.I.V.?

  What followed was a long series of awkward pauses, glances up to the ceiling and the image of one of Mr. McCain’s aides, standing off to the back, urgently motioning his press secretary to come to Mr. McCain’s side.

  The upshot was that Mr. McCain said he did not know this subject well, did not know his position on it, and relied on the advice of Senator Tom Coburn, a physician and Republican from Oklahoma.



• Britain and America | Anglo-Saxon attitudes | Economist.com

  TO TURN over the supposed Anglo-American common ground carefully, The Economist commissioned pollsters at YouGov in Britain and Polimetrix in America—supported by additional funds from the Hoover Institution, a California think-tank—to find out what people in both places thought about a number of social, political and economic matters. A thousand people in each country were consulted between March 7th and 11th. Broadly, the differences between the two countries look more striking than the similarities.

  Like most west Europeans, Britons tend to have more left-wing views than Americans, but the first chart shows that this is often by a surprising margin. (“Left” and “right” are harder to locate than they were: here “left” implies a big-state, secular, socially liberal, internationalist and green outlook; right, the reverse.) The data are derived by subtracting left-wing answers from right-wing ones, for each country and for each main political grouping within each country. A net minus rating suggests predominantly left-wing views and a positive rating suggests a preponderance of right-wing views.

  
  The gap between Britain and America is widest on religion: even British Conservatives are a great deal more secular than American Democrats are. The two are a bit closer on social values (abortion, homosexuality and so forth), and they overlap on ideology (mainly, how active the state should be), with Britain’s Tories to the right of America’s Democrats.



• On the road looking for typos - The Boston Globe
  

  They chase the misplaced apostrophe, the disagreeing subject and verb.

  The horror (as opposed to "horor") of a courthouse sign, engraved and erected at taxpayer expense, omitting the first "o" in "meteorological." The "desserts" unjustly advertised as "deserts" on a restaurant wall.

  They seek, in short, to do for America's public signage what spell-check software has done for interoffice e-mail: smarten it up and make it easier on the eye. Their weapons: Wite-Out, markers, ink pens, tape, and nerves of steel.



• McCain Outlines His Theory of ‘Supply-Side War-a-nomics’


• Dutch Anti-Koran Video Released: Wilders Sparks Political Protest - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News


• LiveLeak.com - Fitna the Movie: Geert Wilders' film about the Quran (English)

Posted by Norm at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Obama supporters are playing the fear card. Supporting Hillary is a vote for John McCain, they say. Floor fights at a convention can me a messy thing, but we're months away from a convention and they want to end it now. I don't believe the idea that the many who say they won't support the other Democratic candidate if theirs is not chosen is true, but if you are an Obama supporter and you believe it to be true, you would be wise not to continue your condescending disrespect of those who support his opponent. If you are opposed to a candidate playing the fear card don't be hypocrite and ignore it when that is what the surrogates for your candidate are doing.
The clip is of Bill Maher's Real Time reporter Dan Savage's piece, which provides some anecdotal evidence that your fears are unfounded, and the ensuing panel discussion.

related: Barack Agrees

Posted by Norm at 3:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (80)

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• Julia Sweeney's Discussion Forum • Index page

  Julia Sweeny's Forum has been off line for a couple of months, but is now back and better than ever. A great place for atheists to engage in indepth discussions of their common interests.



• Things that only true Obamaphiles can believe « The Confluence


• Parents pick prayer over docs; girl dies Another example of the power of prayer. (tip to he whose name I've misplaced.


• McCain's senior moment

  IT WAS probably not wise for the 64-year-old Brit Hume to describe the 71-year-old John McCain as having a "senior moment." A blip would have been better. Or a gaffe. Or even a dent in the candidate's "experience" armor.

  Now that's a meme we should run with. John McCain has too many senior moments to be president. )



• 10 things white people like - Boston.com


• McCAIN'S CRED


• 10 days That Changed Capitalism | OurFuture.org


• The Philosopher's Apprentice: A Novel (tip to Chris)

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• Quantum randomness may not be random - alt.philosophy | Google Groups

  I'm one of those who has never felt comfortable with the idea of Quantum randomness and there are at least some of like mind. They, unlike me are scientists and though their ideas are unproven they are being taken seriously.

  Where does this randomness come from? Before quantum theory, physicists could believe in determinism, the idea of a world unfolding
  with precise mathematical certainty. Since then, however, the weird probabilistic behaviour of the quantum world has rudely
  intruded, and the mainstream view is that this uncertainty is a fundamental feature of everything from alpha particles to Z bosons.
  Indeed, most quantum researchers celebrate the notion that pure chance lies at the foundations of the universe.

  However, a sizeable minority of physicists have long been pushing entirely the opposite view. They remain unconvinced that quantum
  theory depends on pure chance, and they shun the philosophical contortions of quantum weirdness. The world is not inherently random,
  they say, it only appears that way. Their response has been to develop quantum models that are deterministic, and that describe a
  world that has "objective" properties, whether or not we measure them. The problem is that such models have had flaws that many
  physicists consider fatal, such as inconsistencies with established theories.

  Until now, that is. A series of recent papers show that the idea of a deterministic and objective universe is alive and kicking. At
  the very least, the notion that quantum theory put the nail in the coffin of determinism has been wildly overstated, says physicist
  Sheldon Goldstein of Rutgers University in New Jersey. He and a cadre of like-minded physicists have been pursuing an alternative
  quantum theory known as Bohmian mechanics, in which particles follow precise trajectories or paths through space and time, and the
  future is perfectly predictable from the past. "It's a reformulation of quantum theory that is not at all congenial to supposedly
  deep quantum philosophy," says Goldstein. "It's precise and objective - and deterministic."

  If these researchers can convince their peers, most of whom remain sceptical, it would be a big step towards rebuilding the universe
  as Einstein wanted, one in which "God does not play dice". It could also trigger a search for evidence of physics beyond quantum
  theory, paving the way for a better and more intuitive theory of how the universe works. Nearly a century after the discovery of
  quantum weirdness, it seems determinism may be back.



• Ode To John “Maverick” McCain » Mad Kane's Political Madness


• The Reading Experience: Stories About People
• http://www.jamiolsworld.com/ (Cartoon fun)


• Birds team up to solve food puzzle - life - 27 March 2008 - New Scientist


• Megan McArdle (March 27, 2008) - Where is Darwin when you need him?

Posted by Norm at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

While I place most of the blame for the situation with Hillary. I don't understand why Barack wouldn't allow a Michigan Vote. His hardball is certainly contributing to the polarization. He basically had nothing to lose and yet is proving himself more like Hillary than something different.

Posted by Norm at 6:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (61)

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• An interview with Ralph Nader about his presidential platform on energy and the environment | By Amanda Griscom Little | Grist | Grist Feature | 19 Mar 2008


• MathTrek: Spoil-Proofing Elections

  When Ralph Nader recently announced he was entering the 2008 presidential race, many Democrats groaned. It was his fault, they say, that George Bush defeated Al Gore in 2000. But Nader retorted that the Democratic Party has only itself to blame for the loss in 2000.

  Mathematicians offer a different perspective. The problem, they say, doesn't lie with Nader or with the Democrats. It lies with our voting system.



• Sign the McCain FEC Complaint Letter


• Mike's Weekly Skeptic Rant: The Skeptic's Circle - Every One Of You Is Expelled!


• Dickens’ Will - John Baker’s Blog


• It’s not the French; it’s US | OurFuture.org


• Britons 'cheat' on classic novels | News | guardian.co.uk Books


• Seven Deadly Words of Book Reviewing - Paper Cuts - Books - New York Times Blog


• Good Math, Bad Math : Introducing Game Theory

Posted by Norm at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Posted by Norm at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I have hundreds of feet of bookshelves, and they are always overflowing. I frequently pass books on to friends and relatives and also sell some on Amazon, but it's such a pain to list them and I'd much prefer to pass them along to someone who I know will take the time to read them. So I thought I'd periodically give away some recent reads of mine here at onegoodmove. All you have to do is request it in the comments. I'll take the first ten requests use a random number generator to determine the winner, and ship it to you at my expense.

The first book I'm offering is J. M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year

update: And the winner is, Steven. Please send me the address you'd like me to mail the book to.

Posted by Norm at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)

• 'All's well that ends well' is not always a reliable maxim. Things leave their trace.

  (p.282) Manservant and Maidservant, Ivy-Compton Burnett
  
• MyDD :: Just Embellished Words: Obama's Record of Exaggerations & Misstatements

  Claiming he's a law professor when he was only an instructor. Both candidates exaggerate, both are dishonest. So the choice is not between the honest one and the dishonest one it's between a couple of liars. Nothing new there of course, but hypocritic to point to one and not acknowledge the other.

• NewsBusters Interview: Karl Rove Slams Lefty Blogosphere, Talks Media, Praises iPhone | NewsBusters.org

  Oh, and Karl loves his iPhone and AirBook. Now isn't that nice.

• glumbert - Gay scientists isolate Christian gene
• Joho the Blog » Babbage’s difference engine
• .: NEW BUSH COINS

  I could have used some of these on my recent trip.
  

• Easter--Menstrual Poetry Style! | Menstrual Poetry (tip to Mad Kane)
• Language Log: The top and bottom of it

  Condie, it seems, prefers the top.

• LiberalOasis - John McCain

  Key quotes from Sen. John McCain's major speech on the housing crisis and the economy:

Posted by Norm at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (44)

Miller Center of Public Affairs

On Thursday, March 6 in Richmond, Virginia, the National Discussion and Debate Series examined the role of religion in the public square. Four participants debated the resolution: "Religion should have no place in politics or government." Rev. Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Jacques Berlinerblau, Associate Professor and Director of the Program for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, spoke in favor of the resolution. Chuck Colson, Founder and Chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries, and Bishop Harry Jackson, Senior Pastor of Hope Christian Church, argued against it. Evan Thomas, Editor at Large of Newsweek, moderated the debate.

(Tip to Oz.)

Posted by Norm at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

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Why do they do it? Why do celebrities endorse political candidates? They like all of us have opinions and have every right to share them with others, but is it a good idea? When I saw that Elton John is holding a fundraiser for Hillary I had to smile. You see my good friend Michael is a Elton John fan. No, I mean a real Elton John fan. When Elton is in the country Michael will travel, following him from town to town to watch him perform. Michael is also an Obama supporter and I'm curious how Elton's Hillary love will affect him. Will he like a commenter in the post article "NEVER listen to Rocket Man again!" No, I think Michael will find a way to accommodate what I'm sure he'll view as only a very slight flaw in the Music Man. I know that I've let celebrity endorsements influence my opinion of actors who I've discovered don't share my politics, but if they're willing to take the hit that making their politics public cost them, then I think they should go for it. Have you had a favorite celebrity that you have quit admiring after you learned their politics were different from yours? What do you think of celebrity endorsements? Oh and Michael, I think I can get you some tickets for Ophrah's show.

Posted by Norm at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)

Tell me again why we needed a surge? Tell me again why 4000 have died in vain. Tell me again George Bush why you continue to squander our best. Tell me again how it was that you were 'elected' president. Tell me George, why don't you Dick go fuck yourselves.

Posted by Norm at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)

• The Wind Chest (Ftrain.com)

  “Are you going to church?” asked my mother over the phone.

  “I don't believe in God,” I said.

  “That's no excuse. There are wonderful ministers in New York City.”

  That's about as ancient a desire as we get around here. The wish for the good preacher—not the youth pastor with his guitar or the nervous seminarian but the berobed man standing behind a dark pulpit, flanked by a massive unadorned crucifix and the organ pipes, fed by a wind chest, the lowest flue pipe big around as a fat boy and taller than a phone pole. The smallest the size of a baby's thumb.



• Think Progress » Blog Archive » Cheney On Two-Thirds Of The American Public Opposing The Iraq War: ‘So?’


• Flying Spaghetti Monster


• Wright and Wrong

  One of the most fascinating notions raised by the current presidential campaign is the idea that the United States can and must finally overcome the divisions of the 1960s. It's most often associated with the ascendancy of Sen. Barack Obama, who has been known to entertain it himself. Its most gauzy champion is pundit Andrew Sullivan, who argued in a cover article in the December Atlantic Monthly that, "If you are an American who yearns to finally get beyond the symbolic battles of the Boomer generation and face today's actual problems, Obama may be your man."



• YouTube - 'Biblically Correct" Tour Guides For Jesus!!


• ‘Clergy Controversies’ Inspire New Simon and Garfunkel Hit: ‘Parsley, Hagee, Jeremiah and Slime’


• Presidential Election Blues » Mad Kane's Political Madness


• Shouts & Murmurs: Y’all Torture Me Home (tip to Robert) A little ditty from George Saunders I think you'll enjoy.

  I was overjoyed that Congress refused to override President Bush’s veto of a bill outlawing the washboarding of prisoners, a technique that some have described as torture—a ridiculous notion if I’ve ever heard one. We’re involved in a war here, people, with some very nasty individuals who would like nothing better than to kill us, and the idea that washboarding—an ancient technique, used routinely in many cultures around the world—is somehow cruel and unusual shows just how infantile this discussion has become.

  People have been washboarded for centuries. It’s almost as if the urge to washboard is intrinsically human. Is it pretty? No. Does it work? It appears to. So what’s the big deal? If we’re going to be in this thing, let’s win this thing. I myself have been washboarded. It’s true. I used to live downstairs from an oldtime jug band. And, believe me, it was not torture. It was torturous, yes—especially at three in the morning, what with the banjo and the jug and the high, whiny singing and (horror of horrors) the occasional harmonica—but torture?

  Please.



• Otherwise: Sometimes we are characters from a bad novel (via John Baker's Blog )

Posted by Norm at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

In a rare Fox News moment the truth held sway. A tip of my hat to Chris Wallace. There is also a bit of discussion here from the Hardball panel about the polarization going on in the Democratic party. Some dangers we should all recognize regardless of which candidate we favor, and do our best to respect others positions no matter how foolish we find them.

And please Mr. Todd, don't say the amount of emails. We can count them, so use the number of emails.

Posted by Norm at 7:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

A couple of pictures from my recent trip. The first was taken not far from Parker, AZ A blooming cactus, there were dozens along the side of the road. It was quite a sight.

Even the Josuha Trees were blooming. This one is just a couple of blocks from Harry Reid's hometown of Searchlight, NV.

Posted by Norm at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

As some of you may have noticed I had some John McCain ads showing up on the google ads on the sidebar, and it took some time to get them removed. If I'm going to have a John McCain ad on the site I want to pick it. David Letterman is apparently of a like mind, and so John here is an ad extolling the reasons we should vote for you, and you don't even have to pay for it.

Posted by Norm at 5:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

• It's Time to Kick Jesus Out of Politics | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet


• 'Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled' by Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers - RichardDawkins.net


• The Ostroy Report: A Simple Question for Democrats


• Danish Cartoons Redux


• A Nightmare Scenario?


• MyDD :: Edwards Not Expected To Endorse


• Speaking of Faith tip to Ernesto

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'Richard Dawkins on five of his favorite books (link to audio)

Richard Dawkins joins Mariella Frostrup to reveal the part that fiction plays in his life, and chooses five of his favourite books.

• The Black Cloud: Fred Hoyle
• Dark Universe: Daniel Galouye
• Red Strangers: Elspeth Huxley
• The Lion Children: Angus, Travers and Maisie McNeice
• Sword of Honour: Evelyn Waugh

Posted by Norm at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm out of town for a few days, so if you're inclinded to share your favorite links with other onegoodmove readers this is the place. Here's one to get you started.

Posted by Norm at 1:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (106)

A McCain Gaffe in Jordan

Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear. McCain then said: "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda." The mistake threatened to undermine McCain's argument that his decades of foreign policy experience make him the natural choice to lead a country at war with terrorists. In recent days, McCain has repeatedly said his intimate knowledge of foreign policy make him the best equipped to answer a phone ringing in the White House late at night.

Posted by Norm at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)

I'm going to be out of town for a few days, my father-in-law is turning 90 and still going strong. I'll be back Monday. I have a few posts ready to go but posting will be somewhere between light and non-existent. Have fun.



• Here’s the Obama Insight We Really Wanted to Hear About Rev. Wright


• The Millions: Obama and the Faulkner Quote


• Just the Facts, Ma’Am: A Critic at Large: The New Yorker


• BAGnewsNotes: Bush's Sub-Prime Moment


• Fallacy Files Weblog Archive: March, 2008


• Hullabaloo


• MyDD :: John Murtha Endorses Hillary Clinton

Posted by Norm at 3:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Al is the Democratic candidate for the Senate from the great state of Minnesota. Won't it be nice to have him in United States Senate.

Posted by Norm at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

• The Horror...The...uh...horror..?(tip to David)


• For a Smart Man, Obama Sure Doesn't Know a Lot of Things | Corrente


• The Left Coaster: Peter Daou's Email


• The Confluence

  A new site by refugees from Daily Kos. Kos has been unkind to Hillary supporters and so they started their own site. I don't know where the OGM refugees are meeting or I'd post a link.



• Chronicle Podcasts : Kinky sex will destroy America


• Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma re...[BMJ. 2003] - PubMed Result


• Philosophy, et cetera: Philosophers' Carnival #65


• Science at Risk - New York Times


• Global Warning | The Spectator


• CJR: Op-Eds And Fact-Checking


• The token Obama link (tip to Jim)

Posted by Norm at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (67)

This from Ronni Bennett a few days ago (thanks to Frank Paynter for the tip):

Candidates can be specific in laying out their goals for the United States without producing 80-page, footnoted position papers that will be outdated by inauguration day. It’s not hard.

[Ronni] would be heartened to hear Clinton and Obama (and McCain) say:

• the Constitution has been trashed and must be restored


• the U.S. has supported and committed torture and it must end


• the economy has been wrecked by the power elite in both government and corporate America and that greed will stop, regulations will be enforced


• the Iraq War has been a disaster and we need a way out while acknowledging that we bear responsibility for bombing that country back to Ur


• universal healthcare is a human right and we’ll find a way to provide it


• our infrastructure - bridges, roads, water, sewer systems - will be fixed


• No Child Left Behind will be canceled and we’ll figure out how to improve our schools


• unwarranted searches and surveillance of citizens will stop


• there will be no more fooling around about the environment


• a fair solution will be found for immigration


• government ethics legislation will have real teeth


• separation of church and state will be restored


• every last political hack (thousands of them) appointed by the Bush administration to government agencies will be fired, replaced with non-partisan competents


• earmarks will disappear entirely from legislation – let them be properly legislated


• the wealthy elite have had it their way long enough, reaping collective trillions of dollars on the backs of the middle and lower classes and now it is their turn to pay it back

There is so much the candidates could talk about instead of giving exact dates for a pullout from Iraq, bickering over who said what about NAFTA to Canada along with declarations of who is best qualified to take a 3AM phone call… no one is.

If these issues concern you too, why not publicize them?

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Memo to the Superdelegates: No Principles, Please - Stanley Fish: “

“What is the right thing for the superdelegates to do?” — and then, more often than not, answering it by saying (as Time magazine editor Richard Stengel did in the Feb. 25th issue) that the superdelegates should follow the will of the majorities in their districts and their states, because to do otherwise would be undemocratic.

This is nonsense, but before I explain why I think so, a little background information might be in order.”

Posted by Norm at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

• Ants Have Algorithms: A Talk With Iain Couzin
• Israel approves settlement growth
  Additional evidence that Israel is serious about the peace process.
• Reject McCain (A new blog that focuses on the real enemy)
• The Ostroy Report: The True Definition of "Party Unity"
• EENR Progressive Blog(A refuge for Edwards supporters)

• Murder by numbers - Books "I'd never actually heard a product speak," says Deighton, recalling the lecture. "It was like listening to a can of Coca-Cola describe how it would like to be marketed." "James Patterson has mastered the art (if you can call it that) of writing mindless, page-turning bestsellers that sell millions of copies, then disappear as quickly as last night's fast-food meal," a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper once wrote.

• Jon Swift: Hillary Clinton Supporters at Daily Kos Go On Strike! (How some conservatives are seeing the squabble)

Posted by Norm at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Almost every morning during my shower I listen to this music. I've listened to it hundreds of times and never seem to tire of it. It is Bach's Partita No. 1 performed by Glenn Gould. The sixth partita is more popular and I adore it as well, but it is the first that continues to provide me with what I need most each morning, joy and inspiration.

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• Obama Sings: ‘Jeremiah’s Bull is My Bog’


• Leonardo da Vinci — chess master? (tip to Paul)

  Leonardo da Vinci drew everything from war machines to anatomy sketches. Now it seems he may have also been an early illustrator of the chess puzzle.

  
  


• Plaster Saints? - Paper Cuts

  What books would you nominate for most overrated?

  My friend Deanna and I were driving back from Asbury Park after seeing the New York Dolls at the Stone Pony - she’s a young rock ‘n’ roll photographer and was working that night; I, somewhat older, was having an acid flashback to 1973 - and we started coming up with nominations for the most overrated band. She chose the Ramones, and I went with the Doors (certainly not the Dolls). The conversation turned to the most overrated book, and after first saying, “Everything I read in high school,” she settled, decisively, on “The Catcher in the Rye.” I wavered between “Women in Love” (unevenly written, philosophically confused) and the Bible (unevenly written, philosophically confused).

  Of course, some famous writers have offered their own unofficial nominations. Vladimir Nabokov declared that “Don Quixote” was “cruel and crude” and that “Death in Venice” was “asinine” (compared with Kafka, he said, Mann was a “dwarf” or “plaster saint”). His onetime friend Edmund Wilson, on the basis of “The Trial” and “The Castle,” said he found it “impossible” to take Kafka seriously as a “major writer.” And then there’s Norman Mailer, who, after reading “Waiting for Godot” and seeing the 1956 Broadway production, proclaimed Beckett a “minor artist.” But Nabokov was Nabokov, Wilson was entitled to one blunder, and Mailer was always happy to make a fool of himself.



• Welcome to the Future - Climate Change vs the Rich(tip to Tony)

  It took awhile, but now awareness has reached critical mass. Ancient social commentator, Richard Neville, sums up the last 40 years in a flash and looks ahead at the likely impact of climate shock on the high priests of the shopping religion. Should the Forbes billionaires be quaking in their Lear Jets?



• Dispatches from the Culture Wars: A Brilliant Reply to Sally Kern(tip to VValdo)


• The Ostroy Report: What Else Didn't Obama Realize?


• Sad Anniversary

  Rachel Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. She died close to the border with Egypt while trying to obstruct a Caterpillar D9 armoured bulldozer, operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The circumstances and the question of responsibility for her death remain controversial.



• Rachel Corrie - Five Years Later

  Five years have passed and and still no justice, peace, or understanding has emerged in Israel regarding the brutal death of Rachel Corrie at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Posted by Norm at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

And this week's winner is?

Posted by Norm at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

• George Speaks, Badly - New York Times

  It's easy to make fun of George but there is a bit in this article that applies to John McCain. So for the record Johnny boy:

  Earmarks are one of those easy-to-attack Congressional weaknesses, and in a perfect world, they would not exist. But they cost approximately two cents in the grand budgetary scheme of things. Saying you’re going to fix the economy or balance the budget by cutting out earmarks is like saying you’re going to end global warming by banning bathroom nightlights.

• The Obama I know -- chicagotribune.com ( What could I possibly be thinking, something nice about Barack. (tip to Jim))

  Oh shit, now I'm in for it, thousands of emails from Hillary supporters decrying a lack of balance. Has anyone counted the pro-Hillary links in my daily links, and no anti-Obama is not the same as pro-Hillary, though I know it's a popular view.

• "A Cartoon" by Mr. Fish (Harper's Magazine)
• Point of Inquiry

  Norm Allen is executive director of African Americans for Humanism, an educational organization primarily concerned with fostering critical thinking, ethical conduct, church-state separation, and skepticism toward untested claims to knowledge among African Americans. He is the editor of the ground-breaking book African-American Humanism: An Anthology, AAH Examiner, and Deputy Editor of Free Inquiry magazine.

• At First They Told Us the War Would Pay for Itself... (Comics)(tip to pedantsareus)
• BBC NEWS | UK | Thousands join anti-war protests
• Too speedy for gravity?: Science News Online, March 15, 2008

Posted by Norm at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)

Article. VI. Clause 3 of the constitution of the United States states: "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." and while no religious test has any constitutional sanction we certainly do have a defacto religious test, and it's become standard operating procedure for candidates to play the faith card.

Now Barack Obama's I've got faith balloon has sprung a leak. His association with the Reverend Wright has become problematic. Will he be able to patch his balloon or will it slowly fall to the ground and with it his campaign. I don't know. I've warned that his pandering to religion could have a down side, little did I know that it might be catastrophic. John McCain has a similar problem dancing the dance between appealing to the religious and not offending the more moderate voters. Here is a clip from West Wing in 2005 that both would do well to view. Had Barack seen it before he ran for president maybe he wouldn't be in the conundrum that he is today.

Posted by Norm at 2:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (39)

A couple of Obama supporters on the latest Hillary bashing.

• The Hillary Feeding Frenzy

  . . .but for now I just want to make one comment: the current attempts to tar Hillary as a racist have gone way, way over the top. They're revolting. Back before the South Carolina primary, the Clinton campaign and its surrogates really did seem to be making a few too many racially charged comments for it to be just a coincidence (though even then some of the accusations were bogus), but after South Carolina it pretty much stopped. I can't say whether it stopped for reasons of politics or reasons of principle, but it stopped. But the accusations of racism haven't. They've just gotten more ridiculous.

• Olbermann: Nothing Special | Blogging the Collapse

The war goes on with a surge in the number of Americans killed

• Informed Comment: 15 US Troops Killed Since Sunday;
  McCain more Hawkish than Bush
• President Petro | Mark Fiore's Animated Cartoon Site
• Matt Bai - Politics - Presidential Election of 2008 - Race - Democrats - New York Times
• You’re so vain… » Listics

  Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America’s behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. (The State Department declined to comment.)

• YouTube - Obama's Pastor: "God Damn AmeriKKKa!"

  This is what to expect from the Republicans this fall. I think Obama is the likely Democratic candidate and I worry about his chances. JoAnn thinks it will be McCain in 2008 I'm more optimistic I'm betting it's John Edwards in 2012. I'd really like to be wrong about 08 but . . .

Posted by Norm at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)

• BBC NEWS | UK | Hair prayer ad judged 'offensive'


• Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes: The Genesis of the 82nd Skeptics' Circle


• The Washington Monthly


• US military study officially acknowledges for first time that Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida | World news | guardian.co.uk


• The Satirical Political Report - An Offbeat Look at the Hot-Button Issues of the Day » Forget ‘Emperor’s Escort Service,’ Why Don’t They Bust This ‘Emperor With No Clothes’


• Blog Against Theocracy: Blog Against Theocracy 2008 - Details


• No More Apples: WHAT KIND OF UNITY ARE WE LOOKING FOR?


• The Ostroy Report: Mississippi's Primary Results: A Wake-Up Call for Democrats


• Olbermann!: Keith Olbermann's Special Comment Is Currently Horrifying Wonkette


• WERE THE FOUNDING FATHERS REALLY CHRISTIANS?
• Anecdotal Evidence: `The Sentences Have Hooks in Them'


• CJR: Let's Get Rezko Right

Posted by Norm at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)

A clip from Lewis Black's new show The Root of All Evil The question, who is worse Oprah or the Catholic Church.

Posted by Norm at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Contributed by Charles Lemos

note: Contributor's words are their own, and while I may agree in general with the sentiments expressed, I reserve the right to quibble with specific details and tone.

Keith Olbermann, The opening salvo was quite enough. I didn’t watch your Special Commentary beyond the “I am not here endorsing Senator Obama’s nomination.” Then and there whatever you had to say was clearly a joke. You have some nerve to pretend that you are “fair and balanced.” Your competition is more “fair and balanced” than you are. You have been advocating for Obama for over a month. Why pretend that you are not? You made that evident weeks ago.  You are the national spokesman for Obama. Come on, admit it Obama gives you a woodie, doesn’t he? You’re the leading Obamamaniac so much that your colleagues are talking about it. It is hard to hide your emotions as you and Tweety go ga-ga over Obama. Watch the video tape. And the DailyKos column hasn’t helped. Pity you are destroying your reputation in the balance of this campaign. Your ratings were on the upswing, now they have fallen back. Here you go: http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/02/24/oreilly-vs-olbermann-through-thursday-february-21/2738Notice that they peaked just as you decided to go Obamabot on us. Enjoy the downfall. In economics, we call that sort of drop-off a cliff.

So my response as required. You’re a misogynistic ass.

Finally, as promised, a Special Comment on the presidential campaign of the Junior Senator from New York.
By way of necessary preface, President and Senator Clinton — and the Senator’s mother, and the Senator’s brother — were of immeasurable support to me at the moments when these very commentaries were the focus of the most surprise, the most uncertainty, and the most anger. My gratitude to them is abiding.

[I am sure they will send you a thank you note soon, too]

Also, I am not here endorsing Senator Obama’s nomination, nor suggesting it is inevitable . [No you do that every other night so why be repetitive?]

Thus I have fought with myself over whether or not to say anything.
Senator, as it has reached its apex in their tone-deaf, arrogant, and insensitive reaction to the remarks of Geraldine Ferraro… your own advisors are slowly killing your chances to become President. Senator, their words, and your own, are now slowly killing the chances for any Democrat to become President.

[Actually more like your desperation is because her numbers are rising, but whatever] 


In your tepid response to this Ferraro disaster, you may sincerely think you are disenthralling an enchanted media, and righting an unfair advance bestowed on Senator Obama. You may think the matter has closed with Representative Ferraro’s bitter, almost threatening resignation. But in fact, Senator, you are now campaigning, as if Barack Obama were the Democrat, and you… were the Republican.

[Barack Obama is a Democrat? News to me] 


As Shakespeare wrote, Senator — that way… madness… lies.
You have missed a critical opportunity to do… what was right.
No matter what Ms. Ferraro now claims, no one took her comments out of context. 
She had made them on at least three separate occasions, then twice more on television this morning.

[Why should she? She is right. Perhaps poorly worded but Obama wouldn’t be where he is if he weren’t “new and different.” Hardly a rational for getting elected President]

Just hours ago, on NBC Nightly News, she denied she had made the remarks in an interview — only at a paid political speech. In fact, the first time she spoke them, was ten days before the California newspaper published them… not in a speech, but in a radio interview. On February 26th, quoting… “If Barack Obama were a white man, would we be talking about this, as a potential real problem for Hillary? If he were a woman of any color, would he be in this position that he’s in? Absolutely not.” The context was inescapable.

[It escapes me so point it out. We can’t discuss race even though Obama won 91% of the African-American vote in Mississippi and even though it was the Obama campaign that first injected race into the race as more than one observer has noted. You ‘re going to dictate what topics we can and cannot discuss. How sanctimonious of you. That extra vertebrae must come in handy at times like this.]

Two minutes earlier, a member of Senator Clinton’s Finance Committee, one of her “Hill-Raisers,” had bemoaned the change in allegiance by super-delegate John Lewis from Clinton to Obama, and the endorsement of Obama by Senator Dodd. 
“I look at these guys doing it,” she had said, “and I have to tell you, it’s the guys sticking together.” A minute after the “color” remarks, she was describing herself as having been chosen for the 1984 Democratic ticket, purely as a woman politician, purely to make history. She was, in turn, making a blind accusation of sexism — and dismissing Senator Obama’s candidacy as nothing more than an Equal Opportunity stunt.

[Ramble much? What the hell are you talking about?]

The next day she repeated her comments to a reporter from the newspaper in Torrance, California. “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

[Let me tell you about a cult of personality there Keith]

And when this despicable statement — ugly in its overtones, laughable in its weak grip of facts, and moronic in the historical context — when it floats outward from the Clinton campaign like a poison cloud, what do the advisors have their candidate do?

[Is this the best you can do? Pretty pathetic]

Do they have Senator Clinton herself compare the remark to Al Campanis talking on Nightline… on Jackie Robinson Day… about how blacks lacked the necessities to become baseball executives, while she points out that Barack Obama has not gotten his 1600 delegates as part of some kind of Affirmative Action plan? 
>Do they have Senator Clinton note that her own brief period in elected office, is as irrelevant to the issue of judgment as is Senator Obama’s……while she points out that FDR had served only six years as a governor and state Senator before he became President? Or that Teddy Roosevelt had four-and-a-half years before the White House? 
Or that Woodrow Wilson had two years and six weeks? Or Richard Nixon… fourteen… and Calvin Coolidge 25?

[FDR also served 4 years as a state senator and 6 years as Secretary of then Navy, and then Governor of what was then the nation’s most populous and important state. That is experience Obama doesn’t have. Woodrow Wilson, the only historian to reach the Presidency so I am a little ticked that you pick on him but you neglect to mention that he was not the first choice for the nomination of the Democratic Party in 1912 and that the Election of 1912 saw the Republicans split in two with the TR-led Progressive Bull Moose Party running as well. And Teddy Roosevelt had military experience that Obama clearly does not have, not to mention 10 years in New York state politics. You lost me on Nixon and Coolidge. Go back to Cornell and study up. They have a damn fine History Department.]

Do these advisors have Senator Clinton invoke Samantha Power — gone by sunrise after she used the word “monster” — and have Senator Clinton say, “this is how I police my campaign and this is what I stand for,” while she fires former Congresswoman Ferraro from any role the campaign? No.

[Gone by sunrise? Where sunrise on Jupiter? Took awhile. And Power said more than just that. Ferraro didn’t attack Obama. She made an observation of a political reality.]

Somebody tells her that simply disagreeing with and rejecting the remarks is sufficient. 
>And she should then call, “regrettable”, words that should make any Democrat retch. 
And that she should then try to twist them, first into some pox-on-both-your-houses plea to ’stick to the issues,’ and then to let her campaign manager try to bend them beyond all recognition, into Senator Obama’s fault. And thus these advisers give Congresswoman Ferraro nearly a week in which to send Senator Clinton’s campaign back into the vocabulary… of David Duke.

[David Duke? Are you high?]

“Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up. “Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. “How’s that?” How’s that?
Apart from sounding exactly like Rush Limbaugh attacking the black football quarterback Donovan McNabb? Apart from sounding exactly like what Ms. Ferraro said about another campaign, nearly twenty years ago?
Quote: “President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don’t ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his “radical” views, “if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn’t be in the race.” So… apart from sounding like insidious racism that is at least two decades old?

[Truth is often timeless, Keith. PC much Keith? When Rush Limbaugh is right and you are wrong then this is a sad world. To not be able to discuss race objectively is censorship. Limbaugh is right on that.]

Apart from rendering ridiculous, Senator Clinton’s shell-game about choosing Obama as Vice President? Apart from this evening’s resignation letter? “I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign. “The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you.” Apart from all that?

[You’re rambling again.] 


Well. It sounds as if those advisors want their campaign to be associated with those words, and the cheap… ignorant… vile… racism that underlies every syllable…

And that Geraldine Ferraro has just gone free-lance. Senator Clinton:
This is not a campaign strategy. This is a suicide pact.

[Suicide Pact? Don’t drink the kool-aid Keith, it’s laced. Oops too late you did that over a month ago when you joined the Obama Party. If they ask you to go to Guyana, say no.]

This week alone, your so-called strategists have declared that Senator Obama has not yet crossed the “commander-in-chief threshold”…But — he might be your choice to be Vice President, even though a quarter of the previous sixteen Vice Presidents have become commander-in-chief during the greatest kind of crisis this nation can face: a mid-term succession. But you’d only pick him if he crosses that threshold by the time of the convention. But if he does cross that threshold by the time of the convention, he will only have done so sufficiently enough to become Vice President, not President.

[It’s called mentoring and on-the-job-training. Oh I forgot Obama already has a mentor Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. My mistake.]

Senator, if the serpentine logic of your so-called advisors were not bad enough, now, thanks to Geraldine Ferraro, and your campaign’s initial refusal to break with her, and your new relationship with her — now more disturbing still with her claim that she can now “speak for herself” about her vision of Senator Obama as some kind of embodiment of a quota…

[You should read what you are saying.]

If you were to seek Obama as a Vice President, it would be, to Ms. Ferraro, some kind of social engineering gesture, some kind of racial make-good. 
>Do you not see, Senator? 
>To Senator Clinton’s supporters, to her admirers, to her friends for whom she is first choice, and her friends for whom she is second choice, she is still letting herself be perceived as standing next to, and standing by, racial divisiveness and blindness…

And worst yet, after what President Clinton said during the South Carolina primary, comparing the Obama and Jesse Jackson campaigns — a disturbing, but only borderline remark, after what some in the black community have perceived as a racial undertone to the “3 A-M” ad… a disturbing — but only borderline interpretation…

[Racial overtones? Stretch that neck Keith that’s why the good Darwin gave you an extra vertrabrae.] 


And after that moment’s hesitation in her own answer on 60 Minutes about Obama’s religion — a disturbing, but only borderline vagueness…
After those precedents, there are those who see a pattern… false, or true.
After those precedents, there are those who see an intent… false, or true.
After those precedents, there are those who see the Clinton campaign’s anything-but-benign neglect of this Ferraro catastrophe — falsely or truly — as a desire to hear the kind of casual prejudice which still haunts this society voiced… and to not distance the campaign from it To not distance you from it, Senator! To not distance you… from that which you as a woman, and Senator Obama as an African-American, should both know and feel with the deepest of personal pain! Which you should both fight with all you have! Which you should both insure, has no place in this contest!

[Wrap it up Keith. You’re rather boring me now with your incessant chatter.]

This, Senator Clinton, is your campaign, and it is your name.
Grab the reins back from whoever has led you to this precipice, before it is too late. 
>Voluntarily or inadvertently, you are still awash in this filth.
Your only reaction has been to disagree, reject, and to call it regrettable.
Her only reaction has been to brand herself as the victim, resign from your committee, and insist she will continue to speak. Unless you say something definitive, Senator, the former Congresswoman is speaking with your approval. You must remedy this.
And you must… reject… and denounce… Geraldine Ferraro.

[You are a misogynistic ass.] 


Good night, and good luck.

[Oh finally thank you. And good luck to you as your rating plummet.]

Posted by Norm at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (82)

contributed by: inwit

From the Feb 4, 2008 issue of The California Tech [the Caltech student newspaper], a feature entitled "A Scientist's Guide to Super Tuesday", listing the various presidential candidates' positions on science policy issues Science Policy Table from 2008-Feb-04 issue of The California Tech.pdf (pdf file). Some highlights:

The ideal Presidential candidate would spend $50 billion to convert Phoenix or Los Angeles into a completely solar city, according to Caltech Chemist, and National Medal of Science Laureate, Harry Gray.

“[Sen. Hillary Clinton] is the only candidate who has put out a really complete statement about how her administration will fund science. I give her enormous credit for that.” —David Baltimore, Nobel Laureate in Biology, and former Caltech President.

Rep. Ron Paul is in favor of removing all federal departments except those of Justice and Defense; therefore, he does not support government funding of science at all.

Posted by Norm at 5:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

contributed by Charles Lemos

It is the first quarter of the year and that’s generally a bad time for retailers. Sales are softer than in the rest of the year with weather, a paucity of event-centered sales event and the hangover from the buoyant end-of-year consumption binge. While the retail data for the F108 won’t be out until mid-April, it doesn’t look good and that spells trouble for the economy overall given that demand from consumers accounts for approximately 70% of U.S. gross domestic product, consumer services as a whole produced by private industry accounted for 67.8% of U.S. gross domestic product in 2006.

Retail sales in 2008 year-to-date (YTD) have been sluggish. According to the Federal Reserve last week “Economic growth has slowed since the beginning of the year” Two-thirds of the Fed's 12 regions "cited softening or weakening in the pace of business activity, while the others referred to subdued, slow or modest growth," the Fed said. "Reports on retail spending were generally downbeat," the Fed said. The Fed said that retailers in a majority of regions described sales as "below plan, downbeat, weak or having softened." Clothing sales, for instance, were reported as soft in the regions of New York and Philadelphia and Richmond, Va. Several regions noted declines in sales of "big ticket" goods and home-related items, the Fed said. Auto sales nationwide were characterized as slow or sluggish, the Fed said.

Sagging sales means big trouble for retailers, especially for small retailers, who are unable to cut costs. And so they shutter windows and close their doors. That in turn lifts the unemployment rate furthering dampening consumption. A report by International Council of Shopping Centers released this week forecast that 2008 will see the largest closure of mall-based retail outlets since 2004. Their estimate is a loss of 5,770 stores across America’s malls. On Main Street USA, it is likely to be even more brutal.

The chains are struggling and they are generally in the best position to cut costs. Ann Taylor (DJIA: ANN), Talbots Inc. (DJIA: TLB) and Pacific Sunwear of California (Nasdaq: PSUN) have already closed hundreds of stores this year. At the end of February came news that San Francisco-based Sharper Image (Nasdaq: SHRP) is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Their proposal is shut half of their 184 stores. Wilson’s Leather Goods is going out of business and even those not closing their doors are having massive sales of up to 70% in an effort to spur sales. And 2007 was a hard year with over 4,000 mall stores closings. Home furniture & furnishings is taking the biggest hit with 1,228 store closing in. Home entertainment (consumer electronics) saw 1,087 store closings. There were 542 apparel stores that closed and 286 bookstores that shut their doors. Even drugstores were not immune with 398 store closings.

The small business share of GDP has held virtually constant from 1998 through 2004 starting at 50.5% in 1988, reaching 49.9 percent in 2000 then rising to 50.7 percent in 2004. So when it aches, we all feel the pain. On Main Street USA, I can offer only anecdotal evidence so far. A card & novelty business on Market Street here in San Francisco has seen its sales fall by over $10,000 a month. A music retailer saw its sales fall 20% in 2007 and now another 40% so far in 2008. A restaurant owner tells me his customers are trading down, ordering more tacos, fewer burritos. They cannot cut costs and so it might mean shutting their doors. No location at all.

Of course, the greatest location of all is one’s home and here the problem is growing day-by-day much more serious. A survey by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies ( HYPERLINK "http://www.transamericacenter.org/resources/TCRSConfidence.pdf" pdf here) finds that the share of workers borrowing from their 401(k) retirement funds increased from 11% in 2006 to 18% in 2007. Nearly half of those taking out such loans in 2007 cited the need to pay off debt, compared to a quarter in 2006. Moreover, USA Today found that Americans aren’t just borrowing from their 401(k) retirement savings plans, they are cashing them out. That’s brutal because the tax consequences are simply onerous. All of the cash out is taxed as income and then there is a Federal penalty of 10%.

USA Today reports that “such hardship withdrawals began rising last year and, by January 2008, had exceeded January 2007 levels.” With the economic slowdown tightened pressure and the rise in mortgage rates putting the pinch on mortgage holders, hardship withdrawals rose 23% at plans that Merrill Lynch (DJIA: MER) administers, compared with the same period in 2007, says Kevin Crain, managing director of the Merrill Lynch Retirement Group. So these folks, our neighbors, aren’t trying to pay off credit card debt, they are trying to save their homes. Stagnant wages and salaries, with most spouses already employed, rising health care and food costs, ever-higher gas and home heating oil prices, higher mortgage debt loads, and falling home values mean American households — including many middle-income ones — are financially strapped.

To help shore up the ailing economy, the Federal Reserve has been cutting a key interest rate since September. As the economic situation continued to falter, the Fed turned much more aggressive. It slashed rates by 1.25 percentage points in the span of just eight days in January — the biggest one-month rate reduction in a quarter century. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled last week that the central bank stands ready to lower rates again at its next meeting, March 18. Bush’s tax rebates are due in May. I wonder what effect they will have. It seems a marginal one. The economic policy solution is, of course, a political one. The need to recognize the severity of the problem and take action to stabilize markets and consider massive write-offs of hard assets and excess inventory.

I will note that when I write about politics I often take an over-the-top style but on this sobering piece, it is pretty cut and dry. That is because it means we are under the bottom despite not having hit bottom quite yet. Sobering news.

Posted by Norm at 8:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

• A Taste of God - Cectic


• Stagflation Making Cost of Hookers Unacceptably High, Spitzer Says


• Many Obama voters ignored other Texas primary races

  Backers of both Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton turned out with passionate support for their candidate in last week's Texas primary. But once they got in the voting booth, they did something different.

  Obama supporters were more likely to vote in the presidential race and then skip the other contests than Clinton supporters, who tended to continue voting down the ballot, a Dallas Morning News analysis finds.



• ChessProblems


• Robert Fisk: Offended by Shakespeare? Let's ban him

  Into the bin must go TS Eliot, and I guess we’ll have to chuck out Winston Churchill



• Brain Enhancement Is Wrong, Right?



• The Whores of Woody - Laugh Lines - Humor - New York Times BlogDoes life imitate Woody Allen? The Emperors Club at the center of the Spitzer prostitute scandal set its fees according to the “individual education, sophistication and and ambiance created by each of our models.” So say screen grabs of its Web site on thesmokinggun.com (italics added). Also: “Beauty: elegance, erudition and educational standing/accomplishments are preliminary decisive factors in hiring.” Sort of reminds you of Allen’s detective spoof “The Whore of Mensa,” doesn’t it?



• Bret Anthony Johnston - Letter-Inspired Fiction - Esquire

  We get a strange letter from a reader. Fiction writer Bret Anthony Johnston turns it into an original short story



• ABC News: Orderly Universe: Evidence of God?

  Since writing my book " Irreligion " and some of my recent Who's Counting columns, I've received a large number of e-mails from subscribers to creation science (who have recently christened themselves intelligent design theorists). Some of the notes have been polite, some vituperative, but almost all question "how order and complexity can arise out of nothing."



• glumbert - Ballsy Bar Mitzvah Speech Question Authority, well done. (tip to Karen & Julian)

Posted by Norm at 4:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)

George Bush, still an asshole.

Posted by Norm at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Clinton fundraiser ignites row over Obama's race

Given the similarity of Clinton's and Obama's views on the issues. It seems reasonable to attribute the high percentage of votes that Barack gets from the African American community to be a result of race. Is it fair to point it out, is anything worthwhile accomplished by stating the obvious, or is it unfair or worse?

“Former vice-presidential candidate and Hillary Clinton fundraiser Geraldine Ferraro sparked the latest storm in the Democratic presidential race today when she raised questions about Barack Obama's race, saying he has only been successful because he is a black man.

Ferraro, who ran for vice-president on Walter Mondale's ill-fated 1984 ticket, told a California newspaper, "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position". She continued, "And if he was a woman ... he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept". Ferraro implied that a woman of any racial background would face similar problems as Clinton has.

The Obama camp immediately jumped on the comments, demanding the Clinton campaign repudiate the remarks. According to CNN Obama's foreign policy adviser, Susan Rice, said: "I think if Senator Clinton is serious about putting an end to statements that have racial implications … then she ought to repudiate this comment."”

related: Exit polls: Mississippi Democrats divide on racial lines

Posted by Norm at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (68)

• NO TORTURE. NO EXCEPTIONS

  What follows is a set of 37 short essays by writers from all over the political spectrum, from Bob Barr on the right to Nancy Pelosi and Jimmy Carter on the left. You can find them all here . . .



• Consensus nears for mail-in primary in Florida - Los Angeles Times


• MIT tackles urban gridlock with foldable car idea | Science | Reuters

  
  



• DNA - India - 50 people looking for solar image of Mary lose sight
  
  Natural selection at work. (tip to Paul)

  At least 50 people in Kottayam district have reportedly lost their vision after gazing at the sun looking for an image of Virgin Mary.

  Though alarmed health authorities have installed a signboard to counter the rumour that a solar image of Virgin Mary appeared to the believers, curious onlookers, including foreign travellers, have been thronging the venue of the ‘miracle’.



• Vatican lists new sins, including pollution | Reuters(tip to Charles)

  Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.



• Obama’s False Attack Today : NO QUARTER


• denialism blog : The post in which I continue to attack the damn libertarians

  Also pissing me off this week is the continuing nonsense from Cato's anti-universal health care club which is suggesting that increasing health care coverage will lead to an increased number of deaths because of increasing medical errors.



• Goodbye Pork Pie Hat » Listics

Posted by Norm at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

A British take on John McCain as a candidate. (tip to pedantsareus)

Posted by Norm at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

contributed by Charles Lemos

Just exactly who is voting for Barack Obama in these contests? For an answer to this question came this answer from Representative Dennis Kucinich.

In Ohio's primary election in the 10th Congressional District last week, more than 10,000 registered Republicans switched their party affiliation on election day and became "Democrats for a Day." Their purpose was twofold 1) allowing them to try to unseat the one Congressman who has been a national leader on every issue and who reflects the core values of real Democrats: Representative Dennis Kucinich and 2) to sway the Democratic nomination in favour of Barack Obama, not because they support Barack Obama necessarily but because they want to derail Hillary Clinton.



10,000 Republicans in one Congressional District. If you believe that these are Republicans who have seen the light, think again. My view of open primaries is now firmly against them. Just who is electing whose nominee?

Posted by Norm at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)

A little British humor on Hillary's Comeback and Barack's Hope and Change. (tip to pedantsareus)

Posted by Norm at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

contributed by Charles Lemos

Video to Good Night Irene

Video to Oh Sinner Man

Don’t Say It Can’t Be Done, the Battle Has Just Begun. –Pete Seeger

If There’s Ever A Time to Speak Out, Now Is the Time. –Ronnie Gilbert

When I reflect on why I am a liberal, there are so many reasons I can point to but few more poignant than the power of song. This past Sunday night was I reminded of that fact with a powerful documentary on the life and song of Pete Seeger, a founding member of one my favorite groups, the folk group from the 1940s and 1950s, the Weavers.

The song that launched their short commercial career in 1949 was Good Night Irene, the old Leadbelly standard. It was the B-side to their single of Tzena, Tzena, Tzena, an Israeli folk tune. Good Night Irene was the hit single of 1950 and the Weavers became an overnight sensation and sadly a force to destroy. In the McCarthy red scares, they were blacklisted.

Lee Hays, the baritone of the group, reflected on that experience with his dry Arkansas wit: "If it wasn't for the honor, I'd just as soon not have been blacklisted." Lee Hayes was also a Baptist preacher. Not like that other Arkansas Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, but a tolerant and open-minded one. Lee Hayes could quote chapter and verse and tell tall tales with the best of them. It is hard not to enjoy homespun humour when it is authentic.

I have been fortunate in my life to catch many memorable performances: the Grateful Dead, Nina Simone, Johnny Cash, Neil Young and Joan Baez among others. As a young boy, I was taken to a concert on the banks of the Hudson River on a sloop given by Pete Seeger in his efforts to clean up the pollution. That was my introduction to the Weavers. Years later in 1980, I attended the last reunion concert of the Weavers. Oh what a night.

With all the divisiveness amongst us all, I thought it appropriate to remind us of the task at hand by pointing to an old simple and yet powerful Negro spiritual and so we might not lose sight of our true objective. The lyrics are below and the video above so sing along and remember that we are all in this together despite our differences over Clinton and Obama.

Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?

Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?

Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?

Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to all on that day?


 Run to the rock, “Rock won’t you hide me?”

Run to the moon, "Moon won't you hide me?"

Run to the sea, "Sea won't you hide me?"

Run to the sun, "Sun won't you hide me all on that day?"



Lord says, "Sinner man, the moon'll be a bleeding."

Lord says, "Sinner man, the sea'll be a sinking."

Lord says, "Sinner man, the sun'll be a freezin' all on that day!"



Run to the Lord, "Lord won't you hide me?"

Run to the Lord, "Lord won't you hide me?"

Run, run, "Lord won't you hide me all on that day?"



Lord says "Sinner man, you should've been a praying."

Lord says "Sinner man, you should've been a praying."

Lord says "Sinner man, you should've been a praying all on that day."

So George W. Bush where are you gonna run to? Lord on that day. January 20th, 2009 at high noon. Judgment day awaits.

Posted by Norm at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)

Bill Maher's guest author of Blackwater, Jeremy Scahill on Iraq. There is an interesting article in the Nation (tip to M. Chang) on the candidates positions on Blackwater.

Clinton is now co-sponsoring legislation to "ban the use of Blackwater and other private mercenary firms in Iraq," saying, "The time to show these contractors the door is long past due.". . . Her timing was interesting, to say the least. Why February 28, in the middle of a tough political campaign? Why not after last September's Nisour Square massacre, when Blackwater operatives killed seventeen Iraqi civilians? Or, better, before it? Regardless, this makes Clinton the most significant US political figure to date to issue such a call. We will be monitoring closely how much of a legislative priority this becomes for Senator Clinton.

A senior foreign policy adviser to leading Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has told The Nation that if elected Obama will not "rule out" using private security companies like Blackwater Worldwide in Iraq. The adviser also said that Obama does not plan to sign on to legislation that seeks to ban the use of these forces in US war zones by January 2009, when a new President will be sworn in

Posted by Norm at 5:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

• YouTube - Richard Dawkins - The Argument from Beauty


• How many nonbelievers? - Los Angeles Times


• Susan Polgar Chess Blog: Russian women celebrate women's day


• The Ostroy Report: The Super-Delegate Debate: The One Question No One is Asking


• Socialists Win Spanish Election, Retaining Power - New York Times Let's hear it for the socialists.


• The Satirical Political Report - An Offbeat Look at the Hot-Button Issues of the Day » While We’re ‘Re-Doing’ Florida, Why Not Also ‘2000′


• Should Scientists Date People Who Believe in Astrology? | Wired Science from Wired.com I suppose it depends on what you mean by believe.


• Bad Science » A quick fix would stop drug firms bending the truth


• Media Matters - NY Times ' Herbert misrepresented Clinton's comments about Obama's religion, asserted they were "one of the sleaziest moments of the campaign"


• What is liberty of conscience?


• SPINOZA'S LENS -Letting go of Jesus - By R. Joseph Hoffmann

Posted by Norm at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)

And this week's winner is?

Posted by Norm at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I must say that was hillarious. I was waiting for the, and I approve this message, from candidate Hillary.

Posted by Norm at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

• ThomHartmann.com - Ten Steps to Restore Democracy to America

  1. Human rights are for humans.

  Corporations are not persons. We must update the 14th Amendment to insert "natural" before the word "persons" so corporations can no longer claim the "right to lie," the "right to hide their crimes," the "right to buy politicians and influence elections," and "the right to force themselves on communities that don't want them." Corporate charter laws should be amended on a state-by-state basis to reinstate the spirit of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by again outlawing the ownership of one corporation by another, to limit the term of a corporation, to insert Corporate Code-like language requiring a corporation to place the needs of its community above its desire for profits, and, as Teddy Roosevelt so strongly urged us, to ban corporations from political activity of any sort. Similarly, corporations are not nations and shouldn't stand on an equal footing with nations. The United States should withdraw from support of treaties and agreements such as NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and its support of The World Bank.



• Flying Off the Shelves - Books - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper


• Blair plans to teach religion at Yale | Politics | The Guardian (tip to Charles)


• globeandmail.com: PMO: Officials only got briefing from Obama campaign The story continues


• Think Progress » Obama Adviser: I ‘Strongly’ Believe Telecoms ‘Should Be Granted Immunity’


• The Ostroy Report: Is the Obama Bubble Bursting? New Pew Poll Shows Democrats Would Defect to McCain


• The Left Coaster: Sen. Obama's Rhetoric of Experience


• Yeas and Nays: Obama A bud to share a Bud with - Examiner.com Oh no here we go again.

Posted by Norm at 1:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Posted by Norm at 6:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

• Time Out of Mind - New York Times

  The brain’s inclination to distort time is one reason we so often feel we have too little of it. One in three Americans feels rushed all the time, according to one survey. Even the cleverest use of time-management techniques is powerless to augment the sum of minutes in our life (some 52 million, optimistically assuming a life expectancy of 100 years), so we squeeze as much as we can into each one.

  Believing time is money to lose, we perceive our shortage of time as stressful. Thus, our fight-or-flight instinct is engaged, and the regions of the brain we use to calmly and sensibly plan our time get switched off. We become fidgety, erratic and rash.

  Tasks take longer. We make mistakes — which take still more time to iron out. Who among us has not been locked out of an apartment or lost a wallet when in a great hurry? The perceived lack of time becomes real: We are not stressed because we have no time, but rather, we have no time because we are stressed.

  Studies have shown the alarming extent of the problem: office workers are no longer able to stay focused on one specific task for more than about three minutes, which means a great loss of productivity. The misguided notion that time is money actually costs us money.

  And it costs us time. People in industrial nations lose more years from disability and premature death due to stress-related illnesses like heart disease and depression than from other ailments. In scrambling to use time to the hilt, we wind up with less of it.



• The Anxiety Election - Paul Krugman


• Prisoner of Shelves by Christopher Hitchens, City Journal Winter 2008

  In Bruce Chatwin’s novel Utz, the eponymous character becomes the captive of his porcelain collection—and eventually loses his life because he cannot move without it. From this book, I learned that a word actually exists—Porzellankrankheit—for the mania for porcelain acquisition. I also learned that the root of the word is the same as that for “pig,” because poured trays of molten porcelain looked so pink and fat and shiny.

  I’m pretty sure of my facts here. And if I could only put my hands on the book, I could be absolutely sure. But is it shelved under U for Utz, or perhaps under C for Chatwin? Or is it in that unsorted pile on top of the radiator? Or the heap of volumes that migrated from the living room to the dining room? I am certain that I didn’t lend it to anyone: I am utterly miserly about letting any of my books out of my sight. Yet my books don’t seem to reciprocate by remaining within view, let alone within easy reach.



• Hide-and-Seek With Hillary and Ann « So Many Books


• WE THE ROBOTS » Archive » Hard Times, part 1 (sad, but true for some of us) (tip to Brian)


• On Faith: Georgetown Blog

  Which presidential candidate said,

  And whenever I hear stories about Americans who feel like no one’s looking out for them, like they’ve been left behind, I’m reminded that God has a plan for his people. . . . But it’s a plan He’s left to us to fulfill.

  (tip to Brad)

Posted by Norm at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (57)

Oh Bill

Posted by Norm at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

• "A Cartoon" by Mr. Fish (Harper's Magazine) He certainly captured that well.
• Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community Two peas in a pod, yep it's not just Hillary who is beholden to the corporate crowd.
• Dem Race May Come Down To North Carolina - Horserace John Edwards' former campaign manager Joe Trippi on how he thinks the race might go.
• Hillary: “I Have Felt the Presence of the Holy Spirit” - The Brody File: David Brody Blog - CBN News And yes Hillary panders to the relgious crowd too, though it doesn't show as often in her speeches.
• MyDD :: What "Commander In Chief Threshold"? Yes I agree, quite disappointing. Can the voters be more grownup than the candidates are. Oh Hillary, I see why so many dislike you, ah if your opponent were not such a lightweight you'd have been toast long ago.
• Classical Bookworm: Sitting on History I love the picture
• Bookshelf and Self

  “It is unacceptable to display any book in a public space of your home if you have not read it.” So runs the “prime directive” for bookshelf etiquette, as issued by a blogger for Time magazine named Matt Selman. At The American Prospect a couple of weeks ago, Ezra Klein responded in terms that are no less categorical – though hardly more sensible, it seems to me.

  Oh it appears I'm a sinner, but I won't be repenting anytime soon. While I have read most of the books on my shelves there are some that I've been meaning to read for years. They count, don't they? Have you read all the books on your shelves?

• Atheist soldier says Army punished him - Yahoo! News Yes so what's new even the military has been taken over by the faith-heads.
• Lacrimae Rerum » Blog Archive » The Kalam Cosmological Argument A nice analysis of why the Kalam argument doesn't pass muster.
• Lakoff hits it out of the park (Scripting News)
• John Crace on how to write a misery memoir | News | guardian.co.uk Books

  Yet another tragic autobiography has been exposed as a fraud following rave reviews. John Crace offers tips to writers who want to wring a bestseller out of their dull life story

Posted by Norm at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Posted by Norm at 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

contributed by Charles Lemos

The link in the chain that Americans have to break is the all too cozy and financial relationship between corporatist interests and the political arena. All of the candidates have ties to corporate money and are subject to undue influence from corporations. Will that chain be unbroken once he or she is in office?

Are we this politically obtuse? Or are we just forgetful of their own past? Do I have to pretend that I am Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison who between them wrote four of the most amazing documents ever written: Common Sense, The Rights of Man, The Constitution and The Federalist Papers. How do I remind you that one of the many things that the Founding Fathers railed against were corporations?

The Founding Fathers largely feared them. They saw them as a threat to democracy and as inhibiting good governance. Guess what, they weren’t wrong then and their warning is one we should heed quickly for we have seemed to have forgotten those paternal admonishments. Did they perhaps waste their time in vain? We find ourselves in a very bitter reality again. All of the candidates are tied to someone with more money than God, and plenty of that silly notion as well on both sides. Will those two chains be unbroken? When? When do you start? In another four years perhaps? When will all these chains be unbroken? I’d like to know.

Here the experiences of Uruguay and Colombia are relevant. For much of their history, they have had the most entrenched two party systems in the world. Apart from brief periods of military rule, 15 years in Uruguay’s case and Colombia but five, they have been ruled by one or the other of their two respective parties since the 1840s . In the 1990s they both changed Constitutions and undertook electoral reform that now has led in Uruguay’s case to a Socialist President and in Colombia to an Independent, both historical firsts. Bogota has had two successive Mayors who hail from a new third party (and the one mayor prior an Independent) begun in the last ten years that is leftist including many former M-19 guerrilla members, one is a governor of a state. The two party system is now a multi-party democracy in both countries.

Chile has undertaken this both Constitutional and electoral reforms (unlike Uruguay and Colombia, Chile was never a traditional two party system, it once had the only parliamentary system in Latin America and also it has succumbed to military rule more than Uruguay and Colombia). That has led to three successive left of center governments, all a coalition of leftist interests that will serve at least a total of 18 years. Their next presidential elections is in 2012. Chilean presidents are allowed a six-year term and no re-election. One and out. That little nice law means Presidents aren’t running for re-election and that frees their hand to consider implementing more far-reaching legislative rather than worry about if it was going to cost either money or votes. Six years is a sweet time frame. Not too short, not too long. Enough to work a long-term projects, not too long to cause serious damage. And it circulates talent. One term. The diversity of opinion circulates with new ideas. Other countries have five terms. Electoral reform is what is needed here.

You can break several other links. Colombia for example requires all candidates running for office to resign from any public office they hold a year before the election. In the US, under that rule only Huckabee, Gravel and Edwards would have been eligible to run. Obama and Clinton would have had to chose between the Senate or the Presidency. This law separates those who govern the country from those who campaign. They get time to think, reflect on policy and yet neither fail to do the people’s business as they are doing now nor have to take political stands in terms of controversial votes. They can better speak their minds without having to watch their backs.

We need to try something else because it is clear that getting either of the two parties to actually act on our behalf seems futile. I like to see a run-off system to encourage third parties and one six year term.

There are runoff systems in Chile, France, Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina. Chile and Argentina have female Presidents; in Argentina, the President is the wife of the former President and she has had a political career independent from that of her husband’s, just like Mrs. Clinton. Of course, they have been unexpected outcomes under runoff scenarios. The 2002 French elections between Chirac and LePen. That LePen eked into the second round, oh well. But if we had had a runoff in 2000, Bush would have never gone near the White House. It can make a difference.

We need a few more viable political parties, ones that will commit to breaking that link between corporate money and politics and brings true electoral reform. You think it an accident that John Edwards was knocked out the race. The system is broken. And so I ask will the chain be unbroken?

Here is a good place to start looking at options: HYPERLINK

Posted by Norm at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (151)

• Obama on the Run YouTube Video (tip to Charles)
• Classical Bookworm: Dubya's Library
• Moses was stoned when he set Ten Commandments, researcher claims (tip to pedantsareus)
• Hysterical Lefty Bloggers Whine For Clinton To Leave Obama Alone » Mad Kane's Political Madness
• McCain Thanks ‘My Friends’: The Democrats!
• Dennis Kucinich Appears Headed to General Election in 10th District Congressional Race - CommonDreams.org
• Bones Are Not the Only Fossils -

  I put my foot beside the footprint. Whatever made it had feet the same size as mine. Almost exactly. I stepped to the next print. But it had longer legs; or, at least, it took longer strides than I usually do. I knelt down to take a photograph. Three toes. Like the foot of a wading bird. But big.

• Associated Press: Bush Did Not Resign After All, Sorry (The mistakes they make)
• Boring Health Update » Listics Frank makes his boring health update anything but. I wonder if the cold-water bit would work for the Obama supporters. Nah, then they'd have to take their, "My Heart Beats Faster for Obama," bumperstickers off their cars. :)

Posted by Norm at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Grape expectations - The Boston Globe

Expectations have long been a topic of psychological research, and it's well known that they affect how we react to events, or how we respond to medication. But in recent years, scientists have been intensively studying how expectations shape our direct experience of the world, what we taste, feel, and hear. The findings have been surprising - did you know that generic drugs can be less effective merely because they cost less? - and it's now becoming clear just how pervasive the effects of expectation are.

The human brain, research suggests, isn't built for objectivity. The brain doesn't passively take in perceptions. Rather, brain regions involved in developing expectations can systematically alter the activity of areas involved in sensation. The cortex is "cooking the books," adjusting its own inputs depending on what it expects.

Although much of this research has been done by scientists interested in marketing and consumer decisions, the work has broad implications. People assume that they perceive reality as it is, that our senses accurately record the outside world. Yet the science suggests that, in important ways, people experience reality not as it is, but as they expect it to be.

(Via .)

Posted by Norm at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The Left Coaster: Upside Down

The most basic fact that everyone needs get through their heads is that the superdelegates are going to decide the Democratic nomination. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will win enough pledged delegates to clinch it. The key, then, for both candidates, will be the ability to make the case that they best represent the will of the Democratic voters. Obama supporters who now obsessively point to the current pledged delegate count, insisting that Clinton cannot catch him, miss the point entirely. Obama is not going to win on pledged delegates.

Posted by Norm at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (45)

• Flag pins are for losers -- literally | Salon


• Democratic Candidates Vow To Battle For Nomination Through 2009


• A depressing survey of what high-schoolers don't know.


• How to abandon your God / Is it OK to switch religions, change denominations, even split from God entirely? Jesus says: Sure!


• LRB · Yonatan Mendel: Diary


• Big Daddy Malcontent: Does Somebody Feel Faint?


• AlterNet: Noam Chomsky: Why Isn't Iraq in the 2008 Election?


• Church and State » Listics


• "A Cartoon" by Mr. Fish (Harper's Magazine)

Posted by Norm at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

contributed by Charles Lemos

After watching the Saturday Night Live skit and appearance by Mrs. Clinton, I was filled with remorse that I had not made the case for Hillary Rodham Clinton. If she were to lose this run for the White House, I would forever regret the fact that I did not do so especially since I could have done so easily.

It is indeed odd and ironic that I find myself doing this. This is not something that I would have ever thought possible even as late as early January 2008. As I wrote Norm in my letter that has led to my blogging career, haphazard as that has been, I approached this Presidential election firmly in the ABC camp, Anybody But Clinton. No doubt, I would still prefer John Edwards. But on this journey through the primaries and caucuses across this great land of ours, I have come to travel a road that has brought me to Senator Clinton.

While I will focus on a few key policy issues in arguing for this remarkable public servant, I am going to begin with a long held philosophical belief that has long been imparted by my family. Perhaps because Colombian families are matrilineal, women more than men have always played the key role in my life, in my upbringing and in how I see the world and how to best tackle problems of global poverty and social injustice. My grandmother, Aura Bueno Jaramillo, was quite the socialist and a tireless advocate for the rights of the poor, especially poor women. She taught many women home arts and crafts so that they might earn a livelihood and better fend for their families. My mother, Frinet Lemos Bueno, continued that tradition in her work with the Colombian Red Cross.

In my work now, I focus my aid packages and my funds on the education of young girls. An uncle of mine by marriage once worked for the World Health Organization and he was one of the medical professionals responsible for starting the world’s most successful government run family planning programme, Colombia’s ProFamilia. He also advised countries from India to Kenya to Indonesia on family planning. Once he shared this with me. For every year of schooling that a girl receives the fewer children she will have as an adult. First of all, by keeping girls in school we postpone the start of their reproductive age. If we get a girl to finish high school, then we have likely pushed her first born into her mid twenties. Next, that girl now a woman makes better choices. She also is able to earn her own living and now be less dependent on their husbands. Such an ability to earn a wage means better care for the children she does have, a lower infant mortality, better childhood health care so more survive to adulthood and again more importantly an emphasis on schooling for her smaller brood. Feeding fewer mouths means more resources for a world of goods and happiness. There is less stress on the environment. The cycle of poverty is broken.

Here is a quote from some one with whom I have worked, Cynthia Lloyd, chair of the UK Population Council:

"As the world seeks to fight poverty and respect fundamental human rights, girls remain nearly invisible to those in positions of power—and yet it is only through major and sustained improvements in the conditions of girls that the world will reach its goals."  From Girls Count: A Global Investment and Action Agenda.

Girls do count. They count more than boys. Men are so often just louses, parasitic ticks that suck the blood of this world. Unfortunately the poorer a family is the greater the propensity for louses.

To change the world starts with women. It takes a woman. Hillary Rodham Clinton is that woman. She is not the one we have been waiting unlike he who thinks he is for because she has been with us for quite some time fighting our battles. She has done that her entire life. Take SCHIP, the children’s healthcare program, that is her doing. She led the fight for it in 1997 during her husband’s tenure as President. That program works. That’s her accomplishment.

I believe that the biggest grudge against Senator Clinton, apart perhaps from actually just being a Clinton, is her role in the run up to the war in Iraq. It is a big wart that I set aside because my views on the theory of international relations is this: I subscribe to liberalism except when dealing with entrenched problems. Iraq is a now an entrenched problem and it requires setting aside my liberalism and becoming a realist. Most international policy experts are realists (there are three basic schools of thought, the other is hegemonic unilateralism, I think we all know how that is working out) but many policy makers are actually a blend of two of these schools of thought. Cheney is a hegemonic unilateralist, Rice a blend of unilateralism and realism with a dash of liberalism. Biden’s approach is like mine though he being in the Senate is much more of a realist than I am. Mrs. Clinton is a realist akin to Biden. Why liberalism does not and will not work in Iraq is simple. If Iraq were a chessboard with both sides facing each other, one side can not play checkers will the other side plays chess. We have to play chess because the Iranians, the Turks, the Sunnis, the Kurds, the Shi’ites among other players are playing chess. Checkers is more fun and would give us what we want, an early exit from Iraq, as we skip across the board vacating our defenses but that is not possible. The Iranians have clearly played their pawns. The Turks have done more than that, they have played their knights. We are in trouble if they play their rooks. The Sunnis, Kurds and Shi’ites have nearly checkmated each other. Thankfully, we seem to have checkmated al-Qaeda but you never know if a pawn of theirs might yet again be queened.

I do not believe that any incoming Administration is capable of solving the imbroglio that is Iraq without first gaining the concurrence of the American foreign policy establishment based in both Washington DC and New York. Senator Clinton is clearly the best to work towards bringing a general consensus on an exit without leaving a vacuum in Iraq. A vacuum in Iraq is a non-starter. Oil interests will not allow, our allies will not allow, the GOP, moderate or otherwise, will not allow. Mrs. Clinton’s work on the Senate Armed Services committee has placed her squarely in the center of both the military policy makers and their civilian counterparts. She is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, one of the New York based power brokers. She has received the support and endorsement of numerous military leaders, former and present. She has the support of Ambassador Joe Wilson, our former ambassador in Baghdad and of course the husband of Valerie Palme Wilson. And wouldn’t Wesley Clark make a wonderful Secretary of Defense?

I believe that a President Hillary Clinton will bring the parties in Iraq with both a carrot and stick approach. I do not know what form the final outcome will take. It might include partition, something the Turks would hate and the Iranians adore. It might be the Biden Plan of an associated confederate state. Whatever the case, Clinton is by far the best prepared to tackle Iraq because she has always sought consensus when it comes to foreign policy. I do not always agree on that final consensus, witness the Land Mines Ban where she gave into the Army. But I will bet my bottom dollar that she extracted something in return. Realists always do.

Since the universal health care debate has been tirelessly waged in the media and through this campaign by all sides, I will be brief. She is a Democrat and she takes the Democratic position on the UHC. Her opponent does not. For an Edwards supporter like myself, the fact that she views it as moral imperative and that she has not thrown her principles aside for political expediency matters to me. This is a long cherished goal of Democratic Party and if you are truly a Democrat then this is the right position to hold. Anything less is a sellout of at least 15 million Americans, a number sure to grow and problem thus down the line for a future Administration. The political will is clearly there and we do have both the argument and the numbers to get it passed. Simply her plan insures everyone at a lower cost per person. $2,300 is clearly an easier number for more American families to handle than $4,200 that Obama’s plan represents. She is the Democrat in the race.

While my next issue is more of a personal one, I hope that you will see my plight and how we in the gay community perceive Mrs. Clinton. She will clearly be the first lesbian President. Her plan to combat the HIV/Aids epidemic calls for $55.2 billion dollars or 10% more than Obama’s $50 billion. And on equality I trust Senator Clinton to do the right thing. No doubt that is a roll of dice but my other option has already come up snake eyes. Having just received a letter from Senator Obama just this past week ago via the Human Rights Council, I could not help but be disappointed in how he said so much as he did before he threw us under bus. He promises equality for six paragraphs but closes his letter noting well we have to listen to the other side. What other side? James Dobson? Obama believes that it is a state’s right issue to decide domestic partnership, civil unions or full equality. Well so does Clarence Thomas. And I forget how many states already seem to think it would be better from them if I weren’t so uppity since they have already passed bans on any of the former. For you to ensure my human rights, it is actually going to take a little leadership, not sitting down and talking to James Dobson. To Senator Obama, I am an inconvenient truth. A vote to be had and then discarded on his platter of acquiescence. I deserve better. I deserve the right to marry whomever I damn well please. It is not your decision, it’s mine.

Senator Clinton also understands one crucial reality as opposed to Senator Obama who seems to think that his mere persona will simply overcome. Given that Senator Obama cannot placate the friendly confines of the Democratic left, how can he be so assured of getting the cooperation of the rabid irrational not so kind Republican right? Even if he were successful in that endeavour, I am not in the political process to compromise on key principles, I am in it to win.

Washington DC is an ugly place. A swamp of murky interests, a wasteland of corporate lobbyists. The GOP will not roll over and say ok you win. They will fight us tooth and nail. And who better to fight that fight than one of the most bruising and bruised politicians of our times. She has had everything thrown at her. She has even been accused of murder, that of Vince Foster. How Americans seem to forget that Republican campaign of utter vitriol and sheer obscenity is beyond me. She has suffered indignities in the past and even on this campaign. The latest from Bill Maher who Christopher Hitchens offered up some of the most sexist and misogynistic commentary I have ever heard away from Fox News. And yet here she stands. To withstand what she has withstood takes courage, perseverance, grace and sheer determination.

If you think such a campaign of hate will not happen to Senator Obama, think again. It has already started. Just the other day, I was forwarded an email from a “friend” of all people and encouraging me to send it out to as many people as I could. I will not because it is obscene and I now have one less friend. I do not care for Obama much as the readership is well aware but I also have never engaged in racial, religious or cultural inquests. In effect, the email is anti-Islamic bigotry. That email sits in my account in case I need for reference purposes (in case I want to write a post attacking the GOP down line), otherwise it is awaiting execution.

I will also admit that Senator Clinton has warts and more. Clearly on energy, I have serious questions but that is true of all the candidates, except for Ralph Nader. I opposed charter schools because I believe that they divert need resources from public schools which I believe are one of the cornerstones of our democracy. I would like to hear more on how she will restore the rule of law and the system of checks and balances that governs our Republic. On this score, I applaud Senator Obama for his stance. I would also like to see a harder line on Israel and a commitment that the next Administration will do what it must to secure a just and lasting peace. I would also ask her to commit to serious electoral reform, an end to First Amendment rights to corporations, to hold the Democratic Party committed to a reversal of the widening income distribution that has begun to tear the fabric of our society, to protect American jobs by enacting tariffs in key sectors. Do not trust Obama or any one for that matter when they say that what they want is fair trade, the corporate speak for I am sending your job to China and India. I am thankful that she went to New Orleans for the State of the Black Union but I would like a firm commitment that we will rebuild the Crescent City, one of the jewels of American culture. And most of all, I would like her to just be herself. She is a winner when she is.

Notions of a co-Presidency are idiotic. There has not been a co-Senatorship. Polls that predict the race in November are silly because it remains to be seen who is on the respective ticket. Both the GOP and the Democrats are having trouble mobilizing their base. The Democratic left will not vote for Obama just as many independents will not vote for Mrs. Clinton. But the Bradley Effect will come into play in many states across the country. And McCain can make inroads in the Hispanic community in the Southwest and California and he will carry the Asian-American community and with the loss of the left, California might be closer than you think. And we coined the Bradley Effect.

There are other issues I believe I could cover but perhaps those are best left for the comments. I urge my fellow Americans to change the world. To join the 21st century by electing a woman of substance, of accomplishment, with the eagerness to fight on our behalf more so than any other candidate left standing. It does take a woman, I believe, to change the world. So many other countries have so recently turned to liberal, pro-active women to fight against social injustice, to wage war on poverty, to stand for equality. I know that both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton will restore America’s place in the world as force for good and as one nation among many that will honour and respect global treaties as well as commencing the fight for the causes of two great Americans, Vice President Gore and Senator Edwards. Climate change, natural resource depletion and poverty, at home and abroad, remain the salient issues confronting us as a nation and as a planet. Would I prefer John Edwards to Senator Clinton? Absolutely but I also hear a lot more of John Edwards’ message in her stump speeches since New Hampshire.

But I am going to close not playing a gender card but by playing the human element. She is simply the best person running, the experience, the ability to get things done, the willingness to fight the good fight. She knows that some fights are worth having. It is takes a person of resolve to resolve what lies ahead of us as a nation. She is that person.

This reflects my view alone, not that of One Good Move nor Norm Jenson. If you cannot bring yourself to support Mrs. Clinton, I might then encourage you to support a non-profit that merits support, one that does amazing work by building libraries and providing education for young girls (and boys) founded by a former Microsoft executive, John Wood. He, like I, has a calling to eradicate global poverty. His epiphany came in Nepal while backpacking there on vacation. His non-profit is called Room to Read: HYPERLINK

Posted by Norm at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (69)

All the races have been called by the networks.

The latest numbers:

• Ohio 99% of vote 54-44 Clinton
• Rhode Island 98% 58-40 Clinton
• Vermont 91% 60-38 Obama
• Texas 99% 51-48 Clinton

Posted by Norm at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

TIME GOES BY | Puncturing One Stereotype to Create Another I certainly have gotten more liberal as I've gotten older. I was a Goldwater Republican. Most of you were probably not even alive back then, but his campaign slogan was "In your heart you know he's right" I even did a little caucusing for him and repeated the mantra as doors were closing in my face. That was the last time I let my heart rule my mind. It may also explain why I'm so offended by the emotional appeals of the Obama campaign and the mindless chants of change and hope.

It is a long-term article of faith that seems impossible to counter: young people are flexible, liberal and eager for the new; old people are rigid, conservative and stuck in their ways. Elders themselves know the latter is not true, but conventional wisdom says otherwise and the stereotype has negative effects every day in age discrimination in the workplace, less aggressive healthcare and a general, cultural sidelining of elders. Now, there is a new study published in the October 2007 issue of American Sociological Review that shows the reality about both age groups to be the reverse of what is believed.

Posted by Norm at 9:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

Use this for off-topic discussions. All rules of commenting still apply with the obvious exception of topic.

Posted by Norm at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (60)

Today's links are mostly non-political. I did tuck one in at the end however. I don't think you'll mind.

• This Is Just To Say (Ftrain.com) ( I love these little anecdotal tales of the human condition)
  
  I have eaten
  the plums
  that were in
  the icebox

  Etc. I'm standing in front of the fridge and I can hear the voice already, lilting up, with a frustrated shrug and frown for the question mark: you ate the plums? That she bought special at Fairway to have for breakfast, not only that but didn't you remember that you're mildly allergic to plums?

• DaRK PaRTY ReVIEW
• Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - books: A lighter shade of Updike
• Language Log: Tautology of the day
• The Foghorn

Posted by Norm at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Another reason to fear a John McCain presidency

“At a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that ‘there’s strong evidence’ that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was once in many childhood vaccines, is responsible for the increased diagnoses of autism in the U.S. — a position in stark contrast with the view of the medical establishment,” writes Tapper. “McCain was responding to a question from the mother of a boy with autism, who asked about a recent story that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program had issued a judgment in favor of an unnamed child whose family claimed regressive encephalopathy and symptoms of autism were caused by thimerosal.”

Some reading material for those who think there is a relationship between autism and vaccinations.

Misconceptions about Immunization

Still No Association Between Autism and Mercury in Vaccines

Still more evidence that vaccines don't cause autism

David Kirby’s Causation Trail

A Crisis of Faith or "Bait and Switch"?

"And, it's worthwhile to point out that even the mercury militia is backing away from the whole thimerosal thing:"

Zealots Can't Defend

thanks to Orac for the links

Posted by Norm at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Submitted by: thaddeusphoenix

Top 5 Reasons to support Hillary, a quick on the fly research project by an Obama supporter. (I would have gone for 10, but my boss is hanging around.)

1. Yahoo News, AP report - Clinton Offers Child Poverty Plan - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080228/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_children School breakfast programs would be universal in low-income neighborhoods under her proposal. She also would double the size of a summer nutrition program aimed at feeding low-income children when they aren't in school.
   
   Clinton also says she would launch an effort to get junk food out of schools. She would require schools that get federal funding through the school lunch or breakfast programs to offer only food that meets or surpasses USDA standards.

2. Hillary on the issues - progressive voting record - http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Hillary_Clinton.htm Hillary Clinton is a Hard-Core Liberal.

3. Posted on several blogs with no mention of source - a top 100 http://www.davodd.com/2008/100-reasons-to-support-hillary-clinton After being pummeled by the public for trying to pass Universal Health care while she was First Lady, she dusted herself off and in 1997, led a federal effort that provided insurance support for children whose parents were unable to provide them with health coverage.

4. Daily Kos author Wufacta top 10 - http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/3/23843/96283/265/449259 Her detail oriented nature and experience. In every debate Hillary shows that she is knowledgeable and involved in the multitude of specific policies and issues where government can help make Americans' lives better and expand opportunity. Her long involvement in public service and passion to understand the issues has given her a good grasp of the policy nuances and levers of Washington that she would have to pull to get policies enacted. She would not be playing catch-up here and I think it's critical to have a President who knows how to get things done legislatively- something sorely lacking over the past several years. We can make the most out of a Democratic Presidency by passing legislation carefully vetted by a detail-oriented, issues-knowledgeable President.

5. From the Reformer.com - by Reps. Gaye Symington, Kathie Keenan and David Deen - Why we support Hillary - http://www.reformer.com/ci_8356591?source=most_viewed We support Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee for president because she has the experience, conviction and ability to change the direction our country has been heading.

Posted by Norm at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)

It's pathetic, it really is, that a candidate for President of the United States thinks it necessary to pander to the believers. Barack is certainly no worse than most of the others that have run for president in this cycle. The Republicans in general, and Huckabee and Romney in particular are especially cringe worthy in their appeals to 'people of faith'. And I won't let Hillary off the hook either she talks the religious garbage with the best of them. John McCain may be the worst of them all becoming a Baptist just in time for a presidential run. It may be true that a certain amount of pandering is necessary, but I don't think so. I think it enough that if you really are a believer you can state that you are and refuse to provide any additional details. It is easy enough to answer the 'moral questions' without quoting a Bible verse. I condemn them all, but have less respect for those who use or have actively used their faith in an attempt to get votes.

Whatever Works: Obama Prays To Baby Jesus All The Time

St. Barack Obama is sick of you redneck losers saying he's a Secret Muslim because you got an email from your unemployed brother-in-law in Idaho -- you know, the same Coors-sodden loser who forwards you the stuff about how Bill Clinton did 9/11 and NASA faked the moon landing because they are all FREEMASONS. Really, Obama has had it with you white trash and your halfwit notions.

At a campaign stop in rural southeast Ohio -- where the "sofas" ar

Posted by Norm at 8:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)

“Barack Obama argues that he deserves the Democratic nomination and Hillary Clinton doesn't because he possesses superior "judgment," as he calls it, on the key issues we face as a nation. As definitive proof he offers one speech he made in 2002 during a reelection campaign for an Illinois senate seat in the most liberal district in the state, so liberal that no other position would have been viable. When he made that speech, Obama was not privy to the briefings by, among others, Secretary of State Colin Powell, in support of the Authorization of Use of Military Force as a diplomatic tool to push the international community to impose intrusive inspections on Saddam Hussein.”

Posted by Norm at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (35)

A note to everyone, both Clinton supporters and Obama supporters, knock off the personal attacks they are getting out of hand. Criticize ideas. Do not criticize people. If you include another commenters name in your post it had better be about an argument they made not them.

update: I said everyone and I include myself in that. How disappointing, all I get for my efforts to raise the level of discourse are more personal attacks. I don't know, perhaps I'll just quit accepting comments. In the meantime I'm deleting the comments on this thread so we can begin again. The next personal attack I see from anyone will result in their commenting privileges being revoked.

Posted by Norm at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (121)

Dan Savage is gay for Obama and he's not alone. Obamabots in Ohio explain why they looove Obama.

"Your heart tells you everything you need to know."

Posted by Norm at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)

Contributed by onegoodmove reader: entrancemountain

In Letterman fashion, here are ten (increasingly good and starting with the most fluffy) reasons to vote for Obama:

10 - He got the Mo, even wi’ da chilluns:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_oPtsX2ew

9 - America’s hottest couple could occupy the White House, and why not?:

http://www.politopics.com/uploaded_images/ebony2-760646.jpg

8 – “. . . the thing that people can’t stand is the lie”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpBzQI_7ez8&feature=related

7 – While Hillary’s throwing the red telephone at us, Bill knows in his heart what’s true:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe0BPwWAxnk

6 – Women listen up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVuMYKs8iJs

5 - Naomi Wolf said it so well:

“ . . . but this issue [rendition] requires bold language and action. Senator Clinton has not fore-grounded the issue of the subversion of the rule of law in her appearances or speeches; and I am very VERY sorry to say that she did not oppose torture until she opposed it.

. . . . Remember: when activists started to push hard to raise awareness of the dangers of torture and indefinite detention, many on the Hill were scared to join the fight because it was then politically unpopular. But to me, if you are not really against torture -- always and under every political change in climate, and let us note that former torture victim and prisoner of war John McCain shamefully dropped his fight against the torture loopholes in the law as well -- then you are not really, in my view, fit to be an American President.

Gender has nothing to do with it. Race has nothing to do with it.

Integrity has something to do with it.

That is why Barack Obama has my vote. Of all the leading candidates, he is the only one on these issues who has consistently acted like a true American.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/why-barack-obama-got-my-v_b_88956.html

4 - Andrew Sullivan, as odd a bundle of contradictions as he is, has been right about a lot of things. Here he tells why Obama’s time has come:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/obama

3 – Straight talk with Petraeus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIUej6VJzII

2 – As even certain diehards on OneGoodMove have noted, this is probably the best reason and the one that trumps any other:

“When all registered voters were asked who they favored in a head-to-head general election match up between Obama and McCain, Obama led by 12 percentage points, 50 to 38 percent. In a Clinton-McCain match up, registered voters were evenly split, with 46 percent backing each candidate.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/25/opinion/polls/main3874915.shtml

1 - . . . but this says it all . . . (drum roll . . . .wait for it . . . wait for it . . . ) and this one’s for Norm:

http://www.msnbc.com/modules/interactive.aspx?type=ss&launch=23408811,3032553&pg=5

Posted by Norm at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

• Deliverance or Diversion? - New York Times

  Now, nobody would mistake Mr. Obama for a Republican — although contrary to claims by both supporters and opponents, his voting record places him, with Senator Clinton, more or less in the center of the Democratic Party, rather than in its progressive wing. But Mr. Obama, instead of emphasizing the harm done by the other party’s rule, likes to blame both sides for our sorry political state. And in his speeches he promises not a rejection of Republicanism but an era of postpartisan unity. That — along with his adoption of conservative talking points on the crucial issue of health care — is why Mr. Obama’s rise has caused such division among progressive activists, the very people one might have expected to be unified and energized by the prospect of finally ending the long era of Republican political dominance. Some progressives are appalled by the direction their party seems to have taken: they wanted another F.D.R., yet feel that they’re getting an oratorically upgraded version of Michael Bloomberg instead

  .
• Corn is king -- and therefore a growing problem - Los Angeles Times
• So a Writer Walks Into a Bar … - Paper Cuts - Books - New York Times Blog

  I like short stories and Jim Shepard's latest Like You'd Understand Anyway: Stories is one of the best collections I've read in years.

• David Ignatius - Obama: A Thin Record For a Bridge Builder - washingtonpost.com

  Obama's argument is that he can mobilize a new coalition that will embrace his proclamation that "yes, we can" break out of the straitjacket. But for voters to feel confident that he can achieve this transformation should he become president, they would need evidence that he has fought and won similar battles. The record here, to put it mildly, is thin. What I hear from politicians who have worked with Obama, both in Illinois state politics and here in Washington, gives me pause. They describe someone with an extraordinary ability to work across racial lines but not someone who has earned any profiles in courage for standing up to special interests or divisive party activists.

• MSNBC First Read

  *** Oh, Canada: In what feels like a Perry Mason moment, the Obama campaign is going to have a hard time somehow claiming their chief domestic policy adviser was meeting with the Canadians as a University of Chicago professor and not as an Obama emissary. The only thing the Obama campaign can be happy about is that this memo of the meeting leaked today and not three days ago when the Clinton campaign could have spent days harping on this. This really does hit the Obama campaign on credibility when it comes to the press corps and may hurt them on another story down the road. The press corps gave the Obama camp the benefit of the doubt on this story; it won't next time. Of course, we have another question: Why is the conservative Canadian government leaking this memo and getting involved in a Democratic primary race?

Posted by Norm at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

"We're electing a president we're not electing a cheer-leader."

Posted by Norm at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (46)

Bill Maher and company do a little religion bashing. I think it should be noted that it wasn't Hillary who raised the question of Barack's Church but rather the moderators. It is clear that Barack doesn't hold the same view about Louis Farrakhan as his Pastor does, but as Dan Savage pointed out, it did seem during the debate that he was trying to make a political calculation on how far he should go in denouncing them. If the leader of your church supports someone who is anti-semitic, is anti-semitic, should you remain a member of that church? Is it a fair question? Does it say something about your character judgment if you retain your membership?
Related Stories: Obama's Farrakhan Test

Posted by Norm at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (30)

And this week's winner is?

Posted by Norm at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I thought you'd like to know: guests on this week's Daily Show include Hillary Clinton on Monday and Ralph Nader on Tuesday.

• McCain Channels His Inner Hillary - New York Times

  BEFORE they were sidetracked into a new war against The New York Times, the Rush Limbaugh posse had it right about John McCain. He is a double agent. Some Democrats do admire and like him. So does Jon Stewart, and so do many liberal editorial boards and card-carrying hacks in the mainstream American press. So, in fact, do many at The Times, including myself. As long as I don’t look too hard at the fine print.



• Think Progress » Poll: Majority Of Americans Support Mandates Requiring The Purchase Of Health Coverage


• Trailhead : A Number You Probably Haven't Seen

  It’s well-known that Barack Obama’s success has depended largely on independent and Republican voters. The corollary to that, however, has been less thoroughly reported: Obama is losing among Democrats.



• Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters | The Onion - America's Finest News Source(tip to Adam)


• Joho the Blog » So much for press neutrality

Posted by Norm at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

contributed by Charles Lemos

Over on the progressive blog TalkLeft, they posted a rather interesting interview of Senator Obama in the New Yorker magazine from November 2006. The interview is one good read, not to mention short. The link is here:

In the interview one comment by Obama did irk me (apologies to my new best friend JoAnn in advance). Obama noted:

”By the way,” just as an aside. You know, I’m not a historian, so— There’s a hotel, I think it’s the Capitol Hilton, in Washington; and downstairs, where there are a lot of banquet halls, there’s a whole row of all the presidents. You walk by the forty-three that have been there and you realize there are only about ten who you have any idea what they did.

La di da. You want the Presidency so please read up on it. While I am a historian, I do not work on the history of the United States. Granted I have taken many classes on American History and, of course, I am a citizen who reads. Senator Obama's comments just struck me as odd and he is, of course, a Senator who most certainly deals on issues that are leftovers or better put hangovers from previous Administrations. That 1872 Mining Law that you are so fond of for example. He should be aware of accomplishments and short-comings of past legislative agendas. He was also a Constitutional lawyer and professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago, surely he must remember some bit that caught his mind. To not understand history and to be so dismissive of it is frankly rather disconcerting. Where is Doris Kearns Goodwin when you need her. Have her give you a quick lesson or two. Frankly hire me. I work for cheap. Ask Norm.

But this is not all Barack, all the time. I now turn to unexpected heroes at unexpected times. There are, of course, many damn good forgotten Presidents and some that we could all forget, the present incumbent comes to mind. And so I am here to defend the honor, reputation and legacy of one of my personal favorite Presidents, a forgotten one. One comment on that TalkLeft thread attacked poor Chester A. Arthur, an accidental President and one of the most unpopular within his party in his own time and yet wildly popular with the American people. Could it be he accomplished something rather remarkable to earn such ignominious treatment by his party and such unfair dismissal by posterity? To be fair he accomplished several things that set him apart from the other 42 who have held that office. There is also something else that he did that stands apart from both his all of his predecessors and some of his successors.

Chester Arthur was an accidental President via being a compromise choice for the Vice Presidency, an assassin's bullet and the most serious case of Presidential medical malpractice. Technically the bullet did not kill James A. Garfield. His doctors did. The bullet lodged in his shoulder. Had they left him alone to recuperate, he would have lived. Instead, they tried for over a month to dislodge the bullet, failed to do so and in the process weakened him and the infections took his life. In hindsight, we are lucky that Garfield died for otherwise the most competent and selfless man, in my view, ever to hold that office would have never held it. Chester Arthur was a one term President because his party, the GOP, hated him and apparently they still hate him. He ended the cronyism of the GOP that run the country since "Useless" Grant. He was put on the ticket because he was reformer from New York who did battle with the political machines such as Tammany Hall. The Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 was his doing. It established a nonpartisan professional civil service. That is his legacy. Quite a legacy and one that this administration has tried to undo. Witness Heckva job Brownie. See why I keep on saying we are fighting battles from the 1870s. They want to return to “Useless” Grant, the one who gave us that Mining Law of 1872.

He also reformed the US Postal Service and gave us “special delivery.” Arthur also gave us the first comprehensive immigration reform opening the doors to increased immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe. How many of your ancestors came to America because of Chester A. Arthur? I suspect quite a few. It is true that to get that immigration reform, he was forced to accept the Chinese Exclusion Act that banned Chinese immigration for the next sixty years (to be fair Arthur fought for only a ten year ban, Congress overruled him). There were trade-offs even then. Sad but true.

But don't think him a racist. Because the other great legacy of Chester A. Arthur was that he stopped the genocide of the American Indian that had been on-going since the Pilgrims. True there were few left to kill, but he stopped it. He was the first President to visit the West, sitting down with tribal leaders and getting securing protection for them from the US Calvary. Unfortunately, Benjamin Harrison, who only ventured out of the White House to go duck hunting, reversed that. The massacre of the Lakota and the Sioux came on Harrison's watch. The unfortunate choice to admit Utah as a state came on Harrison’s watch as well. Chester Arthur also set aside Yellowstone preventing mining interests from raping it. That pesky Mining Law again. What will we do?

Chester A. Arthur, so reviled by his party, was shunned at the GOP convention. He is the last incumbent President to seek the nomination of his party and not receive it. If he had had a party to stand on, he would won the Presidency. Here is a tribute from his era:

Publisher Alexander K. McClure recalled, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired ... more generally respected."

Funny how things work out. Chester A. Arthur a great American, a damn good President and much underrated. I might add he wins my fashion award for best dressed and best groomed President ever. He wasn’t called “Elegant Arthur” for nothing. This gay boy is quite the fan.

Read the interview and offer your thoughts. On Obama, on Chester A. Arthur, on your favorite or least favorite President. Or perhaps my new favorite topic, that heinous Mining Law that some love so much. I will close with this: Obama clearly has chosen to model his candidacy and perhaps his Presidency on both Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Perhaps ask yourselves why he chose these two among the ten he professed to know anything about.

Posted by Norm at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

A skit and an appearance by the candidate.

related: ‘SNL’ Writer Narrows the Gap Between Politics and Farce

Posted by Norm at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)

Nicholson Films Make Case for Clinton

Nicholson, who is backing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, took his endorsement to the Internet on Saturday with a humorous collection of clips that put his support into the mouths of his most film famous characters

Posted by Norm at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)

• The Transformation Project | OurFuture.org

  We are hearing a lot these days about political "transformation" in politics. Aside from a desire for a change in policy, the public also indicates that they desire a change in the way our politics are conducted. But as much as everyone likes the idea of an end to partisan squabbling, it's not entirely clear yet how this transformation will take place, or what the character of the transformation will actually be. So naturally, the political establishment, anxious to have it on terms they can control, will increasingly be taking the lead in defining it for us

  .


• Postmodern Climatology | Cosmic Variance


• Idiom Shortage Leaves Nation All Sewed Up In Horse Pies | The Onion - America's Finest News Source


• The Satirical Political Report - An Offbeat Look at the Hot-Button Issues of the Day » Democrats Agree Not to Use ‘John Insane McCain’


• Articles by Sam Harris :: Sam Harris


• Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall | D'oh!

Posted by Norm at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Baseball, Barack, and a smattering of heartbreaking news make up this weeks "New Rules"

Posted by Norm at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)