Politics

Politically, I’m very liberal — about as far left as one can go without sliding into Libertarianism.

Two more

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Two more quick links worth browsing, then I think I’m done with politics for the evening — there’s only so much bile I can choke back in one sitting, after all.

Incidentally, both of these come from Len, who I’ve been finding a lot of good stuff through lately. I seriously considered putting him in my recommended links post the other night — the only reason I didn’t is that he’s a bit more Dean-centric (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), while the three I chose are more wide-ranging. He’s still definitely worth checking on a regular basis.

Anyway. Two stories: first up, one about what Prairie deemed the “Passing Judgement on Poor Women With Bastard Children Act“. Secondly, more of Bush’s prior supporters are realizing that, to quote some old famous dead guy, “something smells rotten in Denmark…“.

Thoughtcrime

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Be careful what you read in public:

“The FBI is here,”Mom tells me over the phone. Immediately I can see my mom with her back to a couple of Matrix-like figures in black suits and opaque sunglasses, her hand covering the mouthpiece like Grace Kelly in Dial M for Murder. This must be a joke, I think. But it’s not, because Mom isn’t that funny.

“The who?” I say.

“Two FBI agents. They say you’re not in trouble, they just want to talk. They want to come to the store.”

[…]

Trippi’s partner speaks up: “Any reading material? Papers?” I don’t think so. Then Trippi decides to level with me: “I’ll tell you what, Marc. Someone in the shop that day saw you reading something, and thought it looked suspicious enough to call us about. So that’s why we’re here, just checking it out. Like I said, there’s no problem. We’d just like to get to the bottom of this. Now if we can’t, then you may have a problem. And you don’t want that.”

You don’t want that? Have I just been threatened by the FBI? Confusion and a light dusting of panic conspire to keep me speechless. Was I reading something that morning? Something that would constitute a problem?

[…]

Special Agent Trippi didn’t return calls from CL. But Special Agent Joe Paris, Atlanta field office spokesman, stressed that specific FBI investigations are confidential. He wouldn’t confirm or deny the Schultz interview.

“In this post-911 era, it is the absolute responsibility of the FBI to follow through on any tips of potential terrorist activity,” Paris says. “Are people going to take exception and be inconvenienced by this at times? Oh, yeah. … A certain amount of convenience is going to be offset by an increase in security.”

Welcome to America, ~~2003~~ 1984.

(via Tom Tomorrow and Len)

Dean support in Washington

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Speaking of the Stranger, I just happened across an article that looks at the ever-growing support for Howard Dean (and John Kerry) here in Washington State.

Dean has also won the support of former state party chair Karen Marchioro, who says she went to the annual meeting of the Democratic National Committee in February as a Kerry supporter, but was won over to Dean after hearing his fiery speech and after meeting him personally. She sees a regional divide in the party, with Left Coast insiders more amenable to Dean’s call for a head-on confrontation with the Bush administration and its policies. She recently attended a California party convention where hordes of party insiders expressed support for Dean’s candidacy after hearing him speak, she says.

Due to my work schedule, I haven’t been able to show up at any of the local Dean meetups or gatherings, unfortunately — they’re all scheduled for Wednesday evenings when I’m at work. Dean is supposed to be here himself on Monday, August 25^th^, though, as part of the “People-Powered Howard Sleepless Summer Tour“, and I may just see if I can escape from work early that day to show up.

Internet based campaigning

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Doc Searls has started keeping an eye on Dean’s campaign lately, and he takes a good look today at some of the tech issues the campaign might face as they continue to gain momentum.

Take the matter of comments.

That last post has 117 comments. Other comment piles below other posts number 40, 76, 101, 21, 71, 136, 156, 152, 98, 132 and so on. These are near-Slashdot numbers.

They are also unmoderated. In fact, there is no way to moderate them (in a Slashdot sense) on a Moveable Type blog. Or on any type of blog, far as I know. Other than by taking them down.

This apparently happened to a post by Richard Bennett to the comment list at a Dean blog entry on Monday. I was later told by email from a friend close to the Dean Campaign that the deletion was a mistake (by a campaign worker, not Dean) and that the campaign has a no-censorship policy on the blog. (One that also applies, presumably, to Dean’s guest posts on the Lessig blog, where the largest comment pile currently numbers 183.)

Dean and his campaign have been doing an incredible job of embracing the technology available to them, and doing everything they can to use it to their advantage. The comments on their posts not only keep discussions of key topics active long beyond when the initial post goes up, but also provides excellent fodder for campaign tactics and ideas.

It’s fascinating to watch, and seeing others far more of note to the Blogosphere than I take notice of it themselves is wonderful.

Lie Clocks

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Donald Rumsfeld died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St.Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, “What are all those clocks?”

St.Peter answered, “Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock.Every time you lie the hands on your clock will move.”

“Oh,” said Rumsfeld, “whose clock is that?”

“That’s Mother Teresa’s. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie.”

“Impressive,” said Rumsfeld. “And whose clock is that one?”

St.Peter responded, “That’s Abraham Lincoln’s clock. The hands have moved twice,telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life.”

“Where’s Bush’s clock?” asked Rumsfeld.

“Bush’s clock is in Jesus’ office. He’s using it as a ceiling fan.”

(via Anders Jacobsen)

Go Dubya!

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President George W. Bush is set to break two records previously set by his father.

Number one: we’re spiralling ever-downward into a projected \$455 billion deficit.

Number two: We’ve now lost 147 soldiers in Iraq — a tie with the 1991 Gulf War. One more casualty — which, if we go by the average, should happen sometime within the next 24 hours — and we’ll be over.

Go Dubya!

(via Atrios)

What are we doing over there?

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I know that, despite Bush’s insistence that the war ended weeks ago, we’re still in a combat situation in Iraq (at least, that’s how I’m interpreting our one-soldier-killed-per-day average). I’m sure that in such a situation, not everything is going to be sunshine and roses. But even so — what the hell?

NEVER again did families in Baghdad imagine that they need fear the midnight knock at the door.

But in recent weeks there have been increasing reports of Iraqi men, women and even children being dragged from their homes at night by American patrols, or snatched off the streets and taken, hooded and manacled, to prison camps around the capital.

Children as young as 11 are claimed to be among those locked up for 24 hours a day in rooms with no light, or held in overcrowded tents in temperatures approaching 50C (122F).

[…]

Mr Akhjan, whose 58-year-old father was arrested three weeks ago for driving a truck with no doors or headlights, said: “People are so sickened by what is happening they talk of wanting Saddam to come back. How bad can the Americans be that in three months we want that monster back?”

Things are looking worse and worse over there, and we’re not helping the matter by behaving like this. If this keeps up, we’re just going to keep ticking the Iraqi people off, we’re going to continue ticking the rest of the world off, and the long-term repercussions are not going to be good.

(via Tresy)