A more Serious Time Traveler

I talked about John Titor but Dan Simmons has a much more serious time travel yarn to tell

The Time Traveler shook his head. “You’ve understood nothing I’ve said. Nothing. Athens failed in Syracuse – and doomed their democracy – not because they fought in the wrong place and at the wrong time, but because they weren’t ruthless enough. They had grown soft since their slaughter of every combat-age man and boy on the island of Melos, the enslavement of every woman and girl there. The democratic Athenians, in regards to Syracuse, thought that once engaged they could win without absolute commitment to winning, claim victory without being as ruthless and merciless as their Spartan and Syracusan enemies. The Athenians, once defeat loomed, turned against their own generals and political leaders – and their official soothsayers. If General Nicias or Demosthenes had survived their captivity and returned home, the people who sent them off with parades and strewn flower petals in their path would have ripped them limb from limb. They blamed their own leaders like a sun-maddened dog ripping and chewing at its own belly.”

I thought about this. I had no idea what the hell he was saying or how it related to the future.

“You came back in time to lecture me about Thucydides?” I said. “Athens? Syracuse? Sun-Tzu? No offense, Mr. Time Traveler, but who gives a damn?”

The Time Traveler rose so quickly that I flinched back in my chair, but he only refilled his Scotch. This time he refilled my glass as well. “You probably should give a damn” he said softly. “ In 2006, you’ll be ripping and tearing at yourselves so fiercely that your nation – the only one on Earth actually fighting against resurgent caliphate Islam in this long struggle over the very future of civilization – will become so preoccupied with criticizing yourselves and trying to gain short-term political advantage, that you’ll all forget that there’s actually a war for your survival going on. Twenty-five years from now, every man or woman in America who wishes to vote will be required to read Thucydides on this matter. And others as well. And there are tests. If you don’t know some history, you don’t vote . . . much less run for office. America’s vacation from knowing history ends very soon now . . . for you, I mean. And for those few others left alive in the world who are allowed to vote.”

“You’re shitting me,” I said.

“I am shitting you not,” said the Time Traveler.

“Those few others left alive who are allowed to vote?” I said, the words just now striking me like hardthrown stones. “What the hell are you talking about? Has our government taken away all our civil liberties in this awful future of yours?”

go read it all

The I.R.S

I haven't done my buisness yet with them for this year *sighs* but Dean Esmay points me to some good logic about them from -of all places- the NYT's

You see, many people do not have a complex tax situation. They don't itemize. They get income only from simple places — like wages from their job and interest from their bank. And here's the kicker: this information is already sent directly to the Internal Revenue Service by taxpayers' employers and banks.

Indeed, for many Americans, literally every line they fill out on their tax return is information the I.R.S. already has. (If you don't believe it, try not filling out the "wages" line on your tax return next year and see what happens. You'll receive a notice that states your wages — and assesses a penalty for not reporting them.)

And yet these same people are forced to spend hundreds of millions of hours and several billion dollars each year preparing and filing their taxes.

Their solution retool the process. Have the IRS send you a form with all the information they have right on it. If we are going to keep the IRS around I think thats a good idea

Still more Olde School LJ fun

Find your Celestial Choir

Not sure what the deuce this is from

Old School LJ Action

What type of Fae are you?


Infected from my good buddy Rene

John McCain "Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory tour 2008 continues

Senator McCain, not just content with ruining his chances for the Presidency with support for Amnesty and benifits for Illegal aliens has gone forward to make himself look like a total space cadet. But before I laught at John McCain I want to take a moment to laugh at the foolishness that is the Al-Press reporters

WASHINGTON - Has the "Straight Talk Express" veered to the right?

but on to McCain being a fool.

Murmurs from the crowd turned to booing. "Pay a decent wage!" one audience member shouted. McCain curtly threatened to cut the speech short, which quieted the crowd.....
McCain got another laugh when he finished the speech and asked whether anybody had "questions, comments or insults." One audience member obliged with a pointed question on his immigration plan.

McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain's job offer.

"I'll take it!" one man shouted.

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. "You can't do it, my friends."

Some in the crowd said they didn't appreciate McCain questioning their work ethic.

"I was impressed with his comedy routine and ability to tap dance without music. But I was impressed with nothing else about him," said John Wasniewski of Milwaukee.

Lets say the season is 3 months long
lets say 10 hours a day, 6 days a week.

50 bucks and hour... sign me up.

Now pickers aren't paid by the hour -which- is part of the problem, and part of the folly of John McCain.

Until people like McCain embrace their lack of transperency in how farm workers are paid, they will make comments like 50 dollars an hour which is simply foolish.

His making a comment like that and bombing should have shown McCain that the "you wouldn't do it" crack would bomb

but McCain has a tin ear.

He was misleading the audience about how they get paid, and he was insulting the audience

Misleading and Insulting which is why we won't see a President McCain unless he has a son who gets it

End of XY, Birth of XYZ

I’ve not written an original bit in a while so I am going to start off with the first Larry random essay (of doom~!).
Also this random essay (of doom~!~!) may contain spoilers if you have not seen the most recent episode of south park. Normally I’d include spoiler space warnings but this post is long enough I don’t think that will be an issue.

In the beginning politics was one dimension, and you fit on either the political left of the political right. But that never worked and to those people who think it still does are a dying breed. When you see Ralph Nader and a Pat Buchanan embracing on political issue that shows there are not just two sides to an issue. So political scientists, and libertarians have put forward an alternative model that brings forward the proposition there are two axis we will call X and Y.

X we will call the social Axis. At the far ends of X are absolutes that could never work in society. Total control of a person’s social-political sphere as it reaches absolute zero is the same as an absolute social anarchy. We will call Y the fiscal axis. The fiscal axis relates to a persons ability to freely work, use capital, and make a profit without government interference. Again at the absolute ends we see a merger. Absolute fiscal libertarianism leads to warlordism and violence. Absolute control of the fiscal sphere leads to violence and corruption….so essentially it is the same thing.

At the two ends of the axis closer to the absolute you’ll have problems. Without some state control people have no sense that their capital will be protected, to much and they have no reason to make capital at all. Without the freedom to practice their religion people will be less happy, but without some sense of order and morality and state role in culture people don’t feel their belief matters and they end up not being happy and participatory.

So political systems exist in a range along their axis with extreme outliers but the vast majority along the parts of their respective grid points that meet some where in the middle.

But in the 21st century, such as it is today for us to view, I propose there is a Z axis that will soon be viewed (or should be) as importantly as X and Y. My proposal is the Z political axis is “Information”. Now I am not coming from the “Information wants to be free” perspective popularized in hacking culture. I believe that the politics of information, like the politics of the social self, and the politics of the financial self impact our ability to function in this society, and impacts the way we should view political choice that effect our lives.

Ok what do I mean by “Information”? By Information I mean the ability for information to go in a clear relatively unmolested format from one person or organization to the multitude of humanity. I say relatively unmolested because much like the X and Y axis the Z axis at the respective infinite ends does start to break down. People have rights to privacy (which impact into the X and Y equations). Information that is libelous or slanderous actually impedes and restricts the flow of information. If releasing information will directly lead to the death of some one (I.E revealing the name of a spy in a hostile territory, revealing troop movements, etc) it destroys the most fundamental right of all the right to live.
Now some people may feel my information libertarianism (which will be different the information Anarchism) will negate some of my points. Or that I go too far. Well I am on a fairly libertarian bent anyway on the traditional X/Y Grid so my positions won’t be all that surprising in the end.

I want to start off with some of the events which motivated my thinking or came to me and supported my thinking. I want to start off with South Park first because well…. It is South Park ;-). South Park went both guns a blazing into the Mohammed Cartoons controversy. Cartman reveals that once you open up the flood gates to ban something for one reason, then the gate opens wider and wider and then the source of the information (the show) is removed. That much like restrictions on the social and personal axis, often grow and expand with the quickness of the slippery slope, so to he has a larger point. Kyle who was concerned at the start these cartoons would lead to the loss of lives, soon realized that like in the Kenny is Terri Schiavo episode he was wrong for the right reasons. South Park has seen their show banned in Australia and The United Kingdom, and saw a show pulled out of rotation here in the US (and who knows maybe banned till Tom Cruise stops being famous). Their show has been taking hits from critics for being crass, rude, and gross (I’m talking to you Mr. Hankey) for years, but in so doing they weren’t saying as much. However when Matt and Trey built up the channels to direct their information (their fan base) they started to expand their “South Park philosophy” The same people who challenged them before now play religious and cultural cards of offense, to the show they were against when it was slightly hovering above the level of toilet humor. While the attacks of the Catholic Church and the alleged actions of Tom Cruise are not barbarism we see politically they are in the same section of the Z axis as those people who destroyed buildings and rioted. They are about using force to restrict freedom. The only difference is in more developed information driven societies is the options to use less violent modes of force, and the effectiveness of violence as a whole.

Now we cross from the world of South Park to the state of Minnesota. Students are fighting for the right to get important information (Information they pray a premium value for, and Information which impacts their lives) clearly and unambiguously. I am not going to get into arguments pro or con for their cause, but instead focusing on how the information politics angle formed on Fark.Com
A university professor's job technically is in research. It is different at small liberal arts colleges. I am just as upset as you to find this out, since I came to a top-tier graduate school with high hopes of becoming a wonderful teacher, but have been shot down because those goals are interfering with my research. As I've been told frankly, "There is no teaching track to a Ph.D."The guy in the first quote was generally correct, despite his misspellings. A professor who is a wonderful teacher but mediocre researcher will likely lose his job. A professor who is a wonderful/productive researcher but a crappy teacher will still keep his job. It's just the way of the business.
While you say “But Larry isn’t research information” it is indeed. But in saying the professor’s job is research we see here a restriction of information on two fronts. We see a restriction of the student’s right through their fiscal choices (and attending university is a vital fiscal choice) to receive information clearly and in a useable format, and then we see the professors providing research information that is often slanted and rarely accessible to those outside the discipline. At an organizational level the business model of the university is designed (and makes money) on restricting information and rationing it out when they are forced to. (some examples of this from Dean’s world) Is it any wonder then that we see Universities producing “political correctness” while preaching the dogma of diversity?

Over at Townhall.Com we see the Nail Yale campaign taking just such a tack and we see how information restriction breeds the same kind of bed fellows restrictions on the X and Y axis do. For those of you who don’t know Yale admitted the Taliban ambassador “at large” into a non-degree seeking program at Yale, while at the same time not admitting people his regime tortured to have a similar opportunity. Yale said they admitted him to increase the diversity at Yale, yet the institution went to court to remove the ROTC from Yale’s law school campus. Over the fact that they have a policy against homosexuality that Yale doesn’t support. So which is it Yale? Do you want more diversity or less diversity in the Yale community? What it is about is Yale’s desire to control the information of its community. Yale in their defenses stresses (among other things) that he is not in a degree seeking program at Yale. Yet Yale discounted the costs of his program so a scholarship fund could support him. Yale is controlling and manipulating the information which is leading to a lot of political ill will among the external community. When there is ill will there are several solutions. The one Yale is currently using could be called –combative-

Junior Roger Low, writing in the YDN: "By and large, the conservative pundit class does not care about what is really happening on our campus or on Ivy League campuses in general. They are interested only in bashing us..."
Yale Graduate student Zachariah Victor rants to Inside Higher Ed: “The outsiders are largely right-wing commentators...They have little expertise, so they deprecate expert opinion and appeal to populist sentiment. They cannot comprehend the breadth of our constitution, so they try to subject the rights of the few to the superstitions of the many ”
Junior Justin Trevino complains about John Fund in the Daily: "The moment outside influences seek to colonize even universities with the theology of gut-thinking should be a wake-up call to us all: students, teachers, administrators and the general public."
Yale Corporation member Charley Ellis likewise mentions in a phone call to an alum, “I think what we’re going to find is it was a mistake in interpretation primarily by outsiders rather than a mistake in execution...”.

But let’s talk about another possible approach. Suppose Yale when presented with this person who would clearly be controversial, and clearly professed belief’s that were violently and radically different then the values Yale claims to support choose Open information political solutions. They presented a transparent view of their process. They said he would need to as part of the Yale community address why what he did was wrong, and how he is learning to change his ways and become a better human being. Some people would (rightly so) be upset still, but the numbers would be far fewer. However Yale didn’t take that approach for a reason they stated in a letter to alumni groups "It isn't Yale's job to judge the moral character of their candidates." And I can feel for Yale’s position. Setting arbitrary rules of morality would be problematic at best. However Yale would not admit a former Death Squad leader from a South American regime that was allied to the United States… the concept is so laughable. The reason they could admit the Yale Taliban with impunity is due to the anti-war movement at Yale. Yale complained to losing similar prestige students so it is clear that Yale views him as something of value, and that value trumps their values. Instead of being open and honest to that end Yale hides, controls, and manipulates information in a way many of them in private would accuse those evil republicans of doing to their cause’s celeb.

I am also struck at people like Oliver Stone in his attempt to say reporters shouldn’t scoff at the views of celebrities. Is he trying to respect the natural flow of information? No, clearly he isn’t. Much like the Muhammad cartoons he is trying to restrict the flow of clear information. Alec Baldwin has no real credibility on political issues since his “threat” to move to Germany. But people can forget, and by saying that you must take the opinions of clearly unserious people seriously you are restricting that information and its flow. The Canadian government in restricting the Gomery commission information in Canada guaranteed it would be released covertly in the US and spelled their doom. Many people are not allowed to see the Muhammad Cartoons by organizations claiming to respect religious values of others that regularly shows information offensive to other religions. If they said the truth, we’d know them as information authoritarians. Eason Jordan should have told us all that when he revealed CNN punted stories on Iraq.

But this politics, like the X and Y axis isn’t purely limited to the politics of governance. Take a look at Macintosh. As a matter of Business Macintosh had for years restricted the Information (OS) people could use on its machines. But when the addition of Intel chips came a long, Apple had a choice to make and here is what happened. "Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows, but many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple's superior hardware now that we use Intel processors," Philip Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in a statement.
In doing so Apple allows people to have one OS at home and at work, and thus by expanding their base of potential customers apple will do better business. They also in turn expand the potential customers for Microsoft thus they make money on the deal to. But more importantly customers have a choice about the kind of information they want in their lives.

Lets also take a look at the Professor of Death Story I talked about

Something curious occurred a minute before Pianka began speaking. An official of the Academy approached a video camera operator at the front of the auditorium and engaged him in animated conversation. The camera operator did not look pleased as he pointed the lens of the big camera to the ceiling and slowly walked away

In a sense of the word this comes down to control of information. Assuming the professor’s side is right, he created the whole controversy by trying to restrict information. Under values and mores people have which are forming that seemed illicit. However if his detractors who were there are dead on right then clearly using information politics he was trying to restrict the information to hide just how completely authoritarian he was.

Why is the Birth of the Z access important? Because restrictions of information are coming and coming very soon. With the right knowledge you can fabricate a lethal pathogen for about a quarter of a million dollars, and it’s only going to get cheaper to do. Making chemical weapons is easy; the only thing that isn’t easy is access to that information. So we are going to have to make political choices. How do we restrict clearly dangerous information without stifling the flow of information and removing the creative genius from people. In a society where camera’s are going to be everywhere and are almost everywhere now, how will we protect public information from misuse and abuse? When private companies can solicit your life’s information trail from private sources how can you protect yourself from that, and how can you aid that flow of information to your advantage.

This is the Information age people, Information age politics is coming.

Blogging was light yesterday

I got my grubby little paws on a copy of Civ IV and I forgot how much that can suck you in

Does anyone else....

Really hate those new kinds of adds that don't pop up but play a stupid animation like a "folding flap" on the main screen of your page and obscure or make difficult to find the close X

is their a work around to block those yet?

South Park is on the Muhammed Cartoons

Will comedy central puss out?

Sorry Grandpa

Bill Buckley the ideological Grandfather of American Conservatism has fallen under HILDABEAST MANIA

Clinton, of New York, is ``a very consequential woman with an extraordinary background,'' he said. ``Her thought is kind of woozy left, not in my judgment threatening.''

Hillary's background

Aide to the watergate committee...ok
Went to practice in Arkansas because she couldn't pass the Bar elsewhere ( and she followed Bill along)
Her law firm career rose as Bill's political career rose.
She became a hose manager and enabler of Bill's to get him over the formative loss he had running for his first re-election as governor.
She was given many appointments by Bill as governor and president of which she did little of the work but was given all the credit
coasted to a senate seat on her husbands fame

What about this remotely qualifies as Extraordinary background?

As for her not being threatening... Bill do you forget the vast right wing conspiracy, how she convinenetly had for some reason FBI files on republicans.... I could go on she's a highly combative and suspicous person

But her being of consequence. She has gotten fame and wealth, and may get the nomination for the presidency not on her own merit but on the coin of her Husband. How does that make her a person of consequence?

Sorry Grandpa you are losing your ability to make a good vision of the future

O Rly

Who said The following

blocked numerous attempts by Republicans to hold votes Tuesday on selected amendments. "We do not need a compromise. It's in our bill," he said and later set the stage for a test vote on Thursday.

Who said this

"Our borders have overflowed with illegal immigrants placing tremendous burdens on our criminal justice system, schools and social programs," Reid said. "The Immigration and Naturalization Service needs the ability to step up enforcement.

"Our federal wallet is stretched to the limit by illegal aliens getting welfare, food stamps, medical care and other benefits often without paying any taxes.

"Safeguards like welfare and free medical care are in place to boost Americans in need of short-term assistance. These programs were not meant to entice freeloaders and scam artists from around the world. "Even worse, Americans have seen heinous crimes committed by individuals who are here illegally,"

If you guessed Harry Reid you were either paying attention in 1993 or you read the links first

I wonder what changed?

Oh Boy......

Its time for.....CRAzY IRaNiaN Government POst (H/T Spirit of Man)

An Iranian hardliner party which controls both the Islamic parliament and the government, named Abadgaran, has suggested that Iran should conduct a military exercise with Cuba, Venezuela and other anti-America countries in that region of the world to send a message to the United States of America.

Hooray~!

Soon to be in existances: Non Alligned Movement II Aka the Legion of DOOM

Singularity weirdness

So I went to Wikipedia and looked for challenges to Singularity theory (Or Nerdgasim) and found none of it on Wikipedia

what gives?

Want your own TV channel? You want TV on "your time"

Well if the head man over at AOL is right having a TV channel may be as easy as just sitting around in your Pajamas

freaky deaky

"The industry is in the middle of a truly massive change," Miller emphasised, pointing out that video consumption is exploding around the world.

"We will see video-on-demand" (VOD) becoming dominant in the next few years," he said, adding on-demand programming is clearly what viewers want. ....
The amount of different forms of media being consumed will all increase. "Prime (TV) time will morph into My Time" and everything will go portable, were Miller's predictions.

While he covers principly On-Demand content in his talk whats also clear is that once a large scale shift to On-Line and On-Demand Tv happens the economy of scale to have your own TV station will be much easier to meet. So Some day Inside Larry's Head could be a network.... Or even just a show which sells itself on Demand to the audience

The Idea of "My Time" Tv and ala carte tv will really I think transform society in a lot of ways.

People will be able to vote with their feet on what shows they can and will watch. And more importantly when they watch them.

With a "My time" world their will be no more complaints about TV not being appropriate for your children... why because you will opt into it when and if you want

I say this is great for TV, and great for the internet

Technorati has rolled out something a little different

They had a top 100 Blogs... now they have a 100 most popular blogs.

When I get home i plan to see how the lists stack up togther

First thing:

Breaking into the top 100 (right now) on popularity requires just 24 people to restier you on their favorites.

so lets see how we can move the sticks on some blogs... I think it could be an intresting way if your a smaller blogger to get some new readership levels

Science Amuses me

I made a joke once that Lesbians are trying to figure out a way to Reproduce without men....

Dean tells me that scientists and Austria have made this goal closer then ever.

Y the last man is of course relieved

Jeb Bush gets into supporting illegal immigrants

Jeb man your a good governor and all.... but -clearly- man you are pandering to the wrong kind of people in the party and in the nation.

Bush, the younger brother of President Bush, reserved some of his sharpest criticism for conservatives in his own Republican Party, calling it "just plain wrong" to charge illegal immigrants with a felony, as a provision passed by the Republican-led House would do. He also opposed "penalizing the children of illegal immigrants" by denying them U.S. citizenship, an idea backed by some conservatives but not included in the legislation.
"My wife came here legally, but it hurts her just as it hurts me when people give the perception that all immigrants are bad," the Florida governor wrote in an e-mail exchange with The Times.

Ok Jeb when you tie Legal to Illegal immigrants you try to create a "third rail" or a "when did you stop beating your wife" argument

The thing is I've not heard among immigrants from any country -but- mexico or those who are married into the families of illegals this defense.

Let people in...sure fine go ahead. But their is a legal process. It is very clear that illegal immigration is on the whole very bad and very damaging to our society. So one very logical step to do so is making the benifit of that illegal action much lower and the cost much higher.

"The cumulative effect of some politicians pounding their chests about immigration is hurtful to both of us," he wrote, referring to himself and his brother. "I fear they do so for current political gain at the expense of thoughtful policy over the long term."

Jeb Bush pointed to the political damage wrought 12 years ago by California's Proposition 187, in which the state's voters backed a plan to strip illegal immigrants of public benefits. The initiative was pushed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican. Some analysts have since blamed that campaign for a backlash among Latino voters that has made California reliably Democratic in national elections.

again note making all immigration the same. Thus making it beyond critique

And the Pete Wilson charge falls apart when you look at the realities of who voted in california for Pete Wilson and 187

Hispanics who voted republican in california also -shockingly- voted for 187
Hispanics who vote republican voted for Arnold even though he voted for 187, and attacked drivers liscenses for illegal immigrants

Punishing Illegals does not harm immigration and the parties hold on the hispanic vote. What does is the insane claim that illegal aliens are undocumented immigrants

From the Sharon Stone is Crazy file

When your movie barely makes the top ten on its opening weekend the thought of a sequal is usually far from the minds of most stars

Most being people who are not Sharon Stone.

The blonde star is keen to continue the franchise - following her return as CATHERINE TRAMELL in the recently released sequel - but wants to step behind the camera next time around. Stone, 48, says, "There's a script for the next part of the story - but I would like to direct it rather than star in it. "It will be filmed in the UK again as the setting is more intense and gritty."

Reality is not close to Sharon stone

Dear Foriegners

I love it when I hear from people (self loathing left wing types) that my theory of US envy is wrong.... and more studies come out to verify it.

But researchers such as Ann Marie Leshkowich, assistant professor of anthropology at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., also say these families understand that not everything about modern U.S. families is ideal.

"There's a vision of independence and material prosperity, but the downside is that other kinds of social connections are being lost," she says. "American families may have money but don't have time and bonds together."

Leshkowich and other panelists at Emory University talked about visions of the modern family as viewed from other countries. Since the late 1990s, she has spent months at a time in Vietnam, where she says American families are criticized for being too materialistic and too focused on the individual rather than on extended family relationships.

"There is a sense that maybe the family is a residential center and people are going off during the day into his or her world," Leshkowich says. "They see family life as emotionally empty."

Similar views were noted by other researchers, who have spent time in Barbados, Egypt and Mexico. Others are working with colleagues studying families in Argentina and Nepal.

"There's a very clear criticism of American life, at least in Mexico, as being overly individualistic, as being selfish," says Jennifer Hirsch, associate professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University. "My experience of life in rural Mexico is that it's a society that takes much more pleasure from human connection."

But she says there also are aspects of America that Mexicans seek to emulate. "People want to shop like Americans," she says. "There is a great global envy for American patterns of consumption."

So here is the thing foriegn folks

Individualism is key to the human prosperity we have in the U.S.A. Now, you want to try to get the same level of prosperity you go ahead -to date- no one has achieved it yet.

The materialism has part to do with individualism, and part to do with the fact we work darn hard instead of cultivating those human ties y'all like so much ....people need to have something to fill the void.

I agree to much of a things centered approach is a bad way to go but its how we developed the level of comfort and prosperity you envy.

So if you can find a way to do what we did without doing it the way we did good luck to you...

If you realize maybe thats to hard and to likely to make you poor for a long period... Welcome to the world of America

Matt and Trey: Freaking Prophets man

In their episode on San Fran surely they could have written a line like this (H/t California COnservative)

Supervisor Tom Ammiano said it just comes with the territory of being San Francisco. “It's kind of a national pastime to make fun of San Francisco. I think it's jealousy to a large part,” said Ammiano. He then quickly added, “Oh, does that sound smug?”

WOW

Over on Able Danger Blog

They show the solid commitment of Democrats to national security.

Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger helped host a Washington fund-raising event last week for Sestak.

Yes a felon, a man who destroyed original documents but got a slap on the wrist was a host of a fundraiser for a democratic canidate for the US house. And he takes the money.

Weldon's staff puts it into perspective

"I don’t know why this fund-raiser is so secretive–other than the fact that it is a fund-raiser hosted by a convicted felon, a man convicted of destroying information dealing with pre-9/11 intelligence," said Russ Caso, Weldon’s chief of staff.

and the perspective gets bigger if you belief in the unified Hillary clinton presidential conspiracy theory....

Last night’s soiree, held at the Connecticut Avenue law office of Harold Ickes and Janice Enright, asked for individual contributions ranging from $250 to $2,100. Ickes, a labor attorney and former top aide to President Clinton, was a strategist for Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign. Enright, a lobbyist, who works with Ickes, is the treasurer of Sen. Clinton’s 2006 re-election committee.

the Democrat of course decides he is going to sell himself as just a career Military officer

Sestak, until recently a Navy vice admiral, said: "We've got a race. The fact that a career military officer can raise in 60 days just about what a career politician did is amazing."

but the reality... is a tad different

Candidate Sestak himself is a former deputy chief of Naval operations, who served as director for defense policy on Clinton’s National Security Council.

Hmmm obfuscating to get some one who is just a simple soldier who in reality was a politically connected admiral. lies, and hiding campaign events that stink real bad

yes they sure are picking canidates to "have the back" of our soldiers in Iraq

We should trust state owned entites from Singapore

Yeah...right

So, it probably comes as no surprise that the country's leaders have chosen to remind its citizens that there shall be no regular online discussions about politics among the general citizenry. Specifically, "politically themed" blogs and podcasts will be asked to suspend operations. People will be allowed to occasionally mention the election -- but do it too often and they'll be required to register and then abide by laws that ban any kind of political advertising by the media.

this country should be rewarded with US taxpayer dollars and contracts

I'm just a friendly reminder....

While I don't agree with him on their being Jobs american's won't do at certain wages ( the statistics simply don't support a total void of Americans in many fields). Selwyn evokes the memory of Caeser Chavez and how he is being inappropriately used in today's immigration debate...

Lastly, there’s another irony here. Cesar Chavez, the head of the United Farm Workers Union during its heyday, is a hero of Americans of Mexican descent. So much so, in fact, that his name is often associated with the dual cause of promoting immigration and the re-conquest of California and the American southwest, known as La Reconquista. Conveniently forgotten, though, is a very inconvenient fact: when Chavez enjoyed the peak of his power, he was a fervid – bordering on venomous – opponent of illegal immigration. And he not only railed against it but often actually reported Mexican illegals to the INS so they could be deported. He also protested illegal immigration on the border in 1969 and had civilian border guards who were sufficiently heavy-handed to make today’s Minutemen seem milquetoasty.

What motivated him? Quite simply, he was charged with the responsibility of keeping his union members’ wages as high as possible. And he understood the law of supply and demand.

You see if Unions did more stuff like that today, I'd be Pro-Union

Words that hurt my head

Ok I was reading the NYT from a random tossed at me from Gmail story and it was about everyone's favorite cuddly and snuggly south american autocrat Hugo Chavez. But the words from a conservative thinker to the paper made my head hurt...

"He's managed to do what Fidel Castro never could," said Stephen Johnson, a scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "Castro never had an independent source of income the way Chávez does. Chávez is filling a void that Castro left for him, leading nonaligned nations."

Hmmm Castro was on the Dole of Russia when he lead the Non-Alligned block


maybe that is.....*GASP* a scam.

And maybe with Chavez's support of all the cuddly people Castro supports he should be really called leading the Anti-US movement?

Words that hurt my head continue

While the president enjoys the support of a majority of Venezuelans, polls by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Washington polling company that has worked for Venezuela's opposition movement, show that fewer than 30 percent of Venezuelans believe the country should spend its oil revenue abroad.

If the majority supports him why did the majority NOT vote....

sounds like they don't support him and polling in Venezuela is difficult

NYT making my head hurt with its silly reporting

Some Weird Blogger dude

Is running for Congress against CYnthia McKinney

Hope the Dude wins