Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Politically, I’m very liberal — about as far left as one can go without sliding into Libertarianism.
The list of who voted which way in the just passed “Partial Birth” Abortion Ban bill is available online.
Of the two states I pay the most attention to, both (Republican) Senators from Alaska (Murkowski and Stevens) voted Yea, while both (Democratic) Senators from Washington (Cantwell and Murray) voted Nay. Add one more reason to the list of reasons I prefer living here in Washington these days…
(via Tina)
Required reading for the day: The Stovepipe, by Seymour M. Hersh in the New York Post. A mind-bogglingly astounding account of how shoddily intelligence was treated by our government in order to bolster their claims against Iraq. Lies, falsehoods, ignored warnings, emphasized inconsequentials, fabricated documents, and a fair amount of blind incompetence all contributed to moving us into the mess we’re in now.
Since midsummer, the Senate Intelligence Committee has been attempting to solve the biggest mystery of the Iraq war: the disparity between the Bush Administration’s prewar assessment of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and what has actually been discovered.
The committee is concentrating on the last ten years’ worth of reports by the C.I.A. Preliminary findings, one intelligence official told me, are disquieting. “The intelligence community made all kinds of errors and handled things sloppily,” he said. The problems range from a lack of quality control to different agencies’ reporting contradictory assessments at the same time. One finding, the official went on, was that the intelligence reports about Iraq provided by the United Nations inspection teams and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitored Iraq’s nuclear-weapons programs, were far more accurate than the C.I.A. estimates. “Some of the old-timers in the community are appalled by how bad the analysis was,” the official said. “If you look at them side by side, C.I.A. versus United Nations, the U.N. agencies come out ahead across the board.”
There were, of course, good reasons to worry about Saddam Hussein’s possession of W.M.D.s. He had manufactured and used chemical weapons in the past, and had experimented with biological weapons; before the first Gulf War, he maintained a multibillion-dollar nuclear-weapons program. In addition, there were widespread doubts about the efficacy of the U.N. inspection teams, whose operations in Iraq were repeatedly challenged and disrupted by Saddam Hussein. Iraq was thought to have manufactured at least six thousand more chemical weapons than the U.N. could account for. And yet, as some former U.N. inspectors often predicted, the tons of chemical and biological weapons that the American public was led to expect have thus far proved illusory. As long as that remains the case, one question will be asked more and more insistently: How did the American intelligence community get it so wrong?
(via Kos)
A group of students at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania has launched an “electronic civil disobedience” campaign against voting machine maker Diebold Election Systems.
The students are protesting efforts by Diebold to prevent them and other website owners from linking to some 15,000 internal company memos that reveal the company was aware of security flaws in its e-voting software for years but sold the faulty systems to states anyway. The memos were leaked to voting activists and journalists by a hacker who broke into an insecure Diebold FTP server in March.
Diebold has been sending out cease-and-desist letters to force websites and ISPs to take down the memos, which the company says were stolen from its server in violation of copyright law. It has been using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, to force ISPs to take down sites hosting the memos or sites containing links to the memos.
These memos really need to stay available — the systems that Diebold is pushing are not secure, and are ripe for exploitation and hacking. This is not what we need in our voting process, and Diebold’s repeated attempts to stifle their own shoddy practices needs to be made known.
More information on the memos and the campaign can also be found at Why War?
This is truly a masterful piece of writing — from an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Concerned about the appearance of disarray and feuding within his administration as well as growing resistance to his policies in Iraq, President Bush – living up to his recent declaration that he is in charge – told his top officials to “stop the leaks” to the media, or else.
News of Bush’s order leaked almost immediately.
Bush told his senior aides Tuesday that he “didn’t want to see any stories” quoting unnamed administration officials in the media anymore, and that if he did, there would be consequences, said a senior administration official who asked that his name not be used.
Worthy of The Onion, only from a real newspaper. I love it.
(via Mathew Gross)
Wow.
This AP photo of President Bush has me alternating between disgust and slack-jawed amazement, and I’m not sure whether to pass on kudos to the photographer or have them drawn and quartered.
For now, I’ll just admit that, whether it was staged or just a lucky shot, it’s as brilliant as it is disturbing.
(via Kos)
The love story of Trevor Hughes and his fiancee began in an elementary school in the Himalayan foothills.
They were “global nomads.” He was a diplomat’s son. She the daughter of missionaries. They lived in Asia, attended school together, fell in love and want to get married in June.
But when Hughes’ fiancee, a German national, tried to visit him on a six-month tourist visa Monday, she was detained in Atlanta, handcuffed, jailed–even stripped of her diamond engagement ring.
Then, after 20 hours without food, she was put on a plane and shipped back to Stuttgart.
“This isn’t the America I fought for,” said Hughes, who served in the Navy and U.S. diplomatic corps. “You don’t expect that from a great country like ours.”
— Land of the Free?: Turned away at the border
(via Cory Doctorow)
Our dear Pres. Bush is apparently having some difficulties with the task of narrowing down just who in his staff would have been so underhanded as to leak Valerie Plame’s name and CIA affiliation to the press. However, we can help!
President Bush told the press on Tuesday that he doesn’t “have any idea” whether the senior administration officials who blew a CIA operative’s cover will ever be found. But if he just asked his staff to sign a legally binding affidavit confirming that they weren’t involved, and referred anyone who wouldn’t to the FBI, it’s possible he could flush out the perpetrators in a day. To date, the President hasn’t even discussed this matter with his staff.
We’ve already done the President’s homework for him by writing the affidavit. Now let’s show him how easy it is for innocent people to legally declare their innocence. You can sign the affidavit and send it to the President in under a minute by filling out the form…
(via Lane)
Many years ago (well…not that many, I am only 30 after all), I was part of the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska‘s delegation to the Episcopal Youth Event, a huge gathering of kids involved in the Episcopal church. Not merely a local event, the EYE works on a three-year cycle: one year locally, with Diocese level gatherings; one year regionally; and every third year, the EYE is a national event that often becomes international, with attendees coming in from all over the globe. If I’m remembering correctly, I was about 16 at the time (I think this happened the summer after my sophomore year in high school), and the EYE that year was in Missoula, Montana.
That trip has always been one that I’ve looked back on fondly. It was a lot of fun, it affected me fairly strongly in a few ways, and there were three key events that helped both to shape me, and contributed strongly to my continuing to stay a part (if, admittedly, not a very active part in recent years) of the Episcopal Church.
The first thing that impressed me was the level of devotion that some of the attendees had. I don’t mean that to sound like they were ultra-conservative “Bible Thumpers”, either — merely that the church was a strong enough part of their life that they were willing to entirely transform their lives in order to attend this event. There were two or three people there who had come from Jordan (I believe) to this event, and because of the political climate in the world at the time, they were not going to be able to go home afterwards. Quite mind boggling to me at the time, and even still to this day.
The second impression that made a huge impact on me was how wonderfully inclusive the atmosphere was. While the Episcopal church, like all large organizations, encompasses people across all walks of the conservative/liberal spectrum (for instance, I and my family are all quite liberal “West Coast Episcopalians”, while George Bush Sr. is a far more conservative “East Cost Episcopalian”), I had always gotten the impression that the Episcopal church was very open and accepting. This was driven home during the EYE for me. One of the adult RA’s for the EYE was an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous girl who went by the name of Xena (or possibly Zena, this was years before Xena the Warrior Princess was on TV); dressed all in black; wore whiteface and impeccably applied Egyptian-style eyeliner with deep, blood red lipstick; and had her head shaved on one side and long on the other with her hair dyed an incredible iridescent emerald green. I figured if someone like that was not just a member, but was put in a position of authority for the event, than this was likely an organization that I could stick with.
I also think that my life-long attraction to Goth women is based partly on Xena, and partly on Mia Sara in the 80’s fantasy movie Legend, when she’s dressed in the black dress with the plunging neckline — but I digress. ;)
The third thing that has always stuck with me was when the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church addressed all of us in a huge gathering at the amphitheater. While most people would have an immediate preconceived notion of nearly any Bishop as a somewhat dour, stuffy man, the PB was anything but that. Striding back and forth across the stage as he talked, laughing and joking with all of us, and keeping us all involved with what he was saying. During his talk, he was speaking about how so many people tend to look down on the youth of the church, discounting them because they aren’t adults yet.
“Many people say that that all of you are the church of tomorrow,” he said, and we all applauded. After the applause died down, he strode toward the front of the stage. “Well, I say that that’s bullshit!” he yelled. Then, barely pausing while we were all processing the fact that the PB of the Episcopal Church just cursed in front of a few thousand kids, he went on to declare, “I say that the youth of today are the church of today!”
The place damn near exploded.
Here we had someone very high in the church who didn’t talk down to us. He didn’t treat us as if we were inconsequential to the church at large, only to be paid attention to because someday we’d grow into good, responsible, tithing Episcopalians. Rather, he wanted us involved, wanted us to take an interest and be a part of the church we’d all grown up in, and in many cases, had more or less taken for granted. It was a wonderful moment.
What put all this into my head was a report from a Generation Dean rally at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH that was posted on the Dean blog today.
Dean says, “People say you [young people] are the foot soldiers of the campaign. Baloney. You are driving this campaign… and you are the driving force who are going to inherit this country after this election. And the kind of country you inherit is very much up to you….”
[…]
The Governor ends by telling the more than 1,000 students and young people and people of all ages that “you have the power to change this country,” and now as the music starts up again he’s down in front, being mobbed by people who want to shake his hand, surrounded by photographers snapping pictures for the wires and the local and university press. It’s incredible.
Also, this bit from a wrapup post at the Generation Dean blog:
Dean opened his speech thanking the young people in the room for driving his campaign. UNH has received or will receive every single presidential candidate, but it was clear that Dean’s message of not using young people as campaign “footsoldiers” was a point not made before on this campus. That message clearly resonated with everyone in the room.
It is incredible. It’s always incredible when people can stop and take the time to recognize that if you can talk to today’s youth rather than at them, if you can take them seriously, and if you can tap that enthusiasm, energy, and initiative, that you can muster a force that is truly one to be reckoned with. The PB knew that at EYE, and it looks like Dean and the people at Generation Dean know it and are doing everything they can to put that boundless energy to good use, and to knock Bush on his elitist little keister in 2004.
Keep it up.
Did you know that our President is a poet? Neither did I — thankfully, CNN gives us a taste of his lyrical genius.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Oh my, lump in the bed
How I’ve missed you.
Roses are redder
Bluer am I
Seeing you kissed by that charming French guy.
The dogs and the cat, they missed you too
Barney’s still mad you dropped him, he ate your shoe
The distance, my dear, has been such a barrier
Next time you want an adventure, just land on a carrier.
(via sTaRe)
Hmmm — seems like I need to get out of the house and go to some of the local Dean meet-ups at some point. Apparently, they’re the newest hot place to meet singles!
Though Wesley Clark may emerge as the boomer favorite among the Democratic presidential candidates, the hipster choice so far is Howard Dean. It’s not just his rolled-up sleeves or down-home oratory style; over the past three months, his events have developed a reputation as de facto singles mixers for young activists on the make.
Many of the events are set up through Meetup.com, a nonpolitical site that lets users arrange events. Most Dean meet-ups (nicknamed “meat-ups” by some) are in flirt-friendly locales like bars and restaurants. There are so many swinging supporters that they’ve formed a group, Singles for Dean, and the campaign recently launched Deanlink, where users post provocative photos alongside their political interests.
[…]
Straight women, meanwhile, have been spreading the word that Dean guys are passionate and cute. “I want to meet some nice, hunky, liberal-minded boys who aren’t apathetic losers living in their parents’ basements,” says Abigail Gullo, 30, an actress and teacher who has attended two meet-ups and a recent fund-raiser at Avalon. Dean guys, she says, are attractive, if not studly—kind of like the doctor himself. “It’s the dorky-glasses, slightly-thinning-hair-but-I’m-really-not-worried-about-it look. They’re hipsters who have given up the ironic T-shirts and are now in refined primary colors and button-down guayabera shirts. But they’re there! And that immediately puts them leaps and bounds ahead of any guy I’m going to meet on Match.com.”
(via Lane)