Weekend Update - May 31st

• California, the unswerving bastion of progressive liberalthink, the frothing epicenter of just about every wild/weird/wonderful sociocultural movement and civil right in America. But boy did they ever screw up that gay marriage thing. Mark Morford apologizes.


• We love conspiracy theories more than most (Uncle Bob and I could spend hours arguing the finer points of some of them), and here's the top ten conspiracy theories of all time.


• The revelation this month in GQ Magazine that Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary embellished top-secret wartime memos with quotations from the Bible prompts a question. Why did he believe he could influence President Bush by that means? Well, maybe it has something to do with Bush's belief in Bible monsters named Gog and Magog. Better sit while you're reading this one.


• "President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, is a proud and accomplished Latina. This fact apparently drives some prominent Republicans to a state resembling incoherent, sputtering rage. " Eugene Robinson comments.


• Somebody get Mike Huckabee's cell number and tell him the election is over. Seems the Huckster is still campaigning.


• This is getting even uglier. The commander of Fort Campbell army base in Kentucky has ordered a three-day suspension of regular duties to focus on a spike in suicides among his troops amid concern over a wider trend across the armed services. What's going on?


• And for what it's worth, here's the video that Shell doesn't want you to see.

"Semper Fi," My Friend

And so, at long last, he's home to stay.

For the past several months his ashes have been in southern California with his daughter, and this past week he made one more trip north to Oregon. And we all came to see him. All of us Winslows. We placed his ashes in a beautiful little spot a few steps away from his mother and father, as he wished. Looking South, you can see Spencer's Butte where his sister's, my Birth Mother's, ashes were lovingly scattered.

It was a hard day for us. Saying goodbye our Father, Uncle, Friend, Teacher. His son Steve, normally stoic and emotionally strong, broke down during his beautiful eulogy for his father. But with the sadness there was an overriding joy. A joy born from the fact that we had witnessed this man, been so lucky to have known him, to have learned from him, to have been touched by him.

In his memoirs, Uncle Bob makes it clear that he does not consider himself a hero for what he endured as a POW, nor for the rest of his exemplary service in the Marine Corps. "There seems to be a human tendency to exaggerate the difficulties of a difficult experience, especially of doing so makes one's experience seem more heroic. And so it goes, with many of the stories told by Wake Islanders.... I was not then, nor am now, a hero."

I've argued that point with him before, and if he were here now I'd continue that argument. Those of us who knew him can say the same thing: He was MY hero.

My 10-year-old son wrote a letter to Uncle Bob and placed it next to the urn before it was covered with Oregon earth. I peeked at that note on the way to the cemetery, and while it was all personal between my son and his Uncle, he wrote something that says it all. "You were the best Uncle in the whole world. Goodbye Uncle Bob, Love, Jonathan."

Stand down, Sgt. Major. Rest In Peace.

Tech Stuff

Okay, here is what I know that you all have been waiting for, a steaming hot update on Internet technology! No? Really? You waste parts of your life on the Internet wasting your time reading Bad Hat and you don't really care what it's all about and how it all works? And that website you monitor? You know, "Steaming Hot Babes holding Cute Puppies"? And you never thought about the broader implications of what is going on?

In the meantime there are some interesting things happening in terms of the social and political impact of the Internet. Facebook. Kid's stuff? Umm, maybe, except that the most viable moderate challenger to President Ahmadinejad of Iran set up a clever and dynamic Facebook page designed to keep his fans informed about his campaign and send them details and dates of upcoming campaign rallies, some of them drawing 30,000 participants. Why did he do that? Maybe because the official media in Iran was sort of told to ignore him. The current President of Iran has to pay people to come to his rallies and send buses to pick them up, presumably because he is sooo popular. Not. The current President of Iran, who is also a hypocritical moron, was recently forced to explain that it was someone else in the government, not he, who mysteriously blocked access to Facebook to all Iranians. Think about that for a bit. Change is coming everywhere. The Genie is out of the bottle. Doubtless Ahmadinejad's minions are feverishly working on THEIR Facebook page, but it will be a matter of too little, too late. The odds are fair that Iran will soon have a new and more moderate President, in part thanks to Facebook. Since that could stop a war and help calm regional tensions in the Middle East, I for one think that's a really, really big deal. Governments try to control what their citizens know and think, but if there are independant sources of news and connections, that is significantly harder to do.

Another fun fact about Facebook? Russia just made a massive purchase of its stock. Say what? What the heck were the Russians thinking? No one really knows, though speculation is running wild.

If you have the patience, read through this fairly dry article, which tries to be breathless and hot, but you know how hot scientists are. Their hot is our luke-warm. But there are some facts in there that bear consideration. The number of possible links to the Internet is about to get really, really large. I cannot tell whether it is 340 trillion, or 340 trillion, trillion, trillion, as is written here. Either way, it's a ton. The author, no fool, suggests that every part in a car could separately report to a central communications point how well it is performing and wearing. Really? Kind of quantum leap beyond testing the compression, isn't it? But leaving aside car parts, pretty much everything else could be connected to everything else, to whatever extent that made sense.

Some years back I took two half-time sabbaticals to work in my kids' schools on their computer technology program when they were in 4th to 7th grade. Very rewarding to do so and I learned a ton about networking and computers. The Superintendant took me to lunch one day to thank me, which was sweet of her and at one point in our discussion of "networking" we came around to the role of the Internet going forward. I explained to her that there really is just one network in the world, that the issue is not so much building networks in schools as in connecting them to the one great network that binds us all. Kind of like the one great union. I vividly recall her eyes beginning to glaze over, wondering if I was about to start frothing at the mouth, but that is all it is; one big network, that binds every human being and every computer on the planet into a unified whole, capable of doing great good, capable of great abuse, very close to being able to erase the gulf of the different languages and cultures that divide us. Too nuts to qualify? Have you run a translation program on a website recently? They are fairly dreadful, but they are a start. Have you watched a sympathetic video of people in another country? The effect is amazing. My God, they are just people! Who knew? And when we can all see each other, and speak to each other, however haltingly and awkwardly, who can say what effect that will have? I can't, but I think that it will change history, not because anyone set out to change history by creating the Internet, but because a bunch of techno-geeks thought it would be cool to set up a really big network and see if they could send messages over it. And that is how history gets made.

Arthur

Weekend Update - Memorial Day Edition

• New polls say that over 50% of Americans are "Pro-Life." I got one of those calls a couple weeks ago. An automated voice asks "Do you consider yourself pro life?" I hesitated for a moment, and it barked "please answer the question yes or no!" well, heck, I'm not anti life, so I must be ... no, wait, this is a trick ... "NO" I says, and it hangs up on me. Click. Poll taken. and while we're on the subject, here's Mark Morford.


• "No matter how hard President Obama tries to turn the page on the previous administration, he can’t. Until there is true transparency and true accountability, revelations of that unresolved eight-year nightmare will keep raining down drip by drip, disrupting the new administration’s high ambitions." Another beautiful column by Frank Rich.


• Larry O'Donnell said it right: "This was as sleazy a presentation by a vice president as we've had since Spiro Agnew. This was an absolute abomination." Yep, His Dickness, Lord Cheney is at it again. Even his own people want him to shut the hell up.


• Oh and here's that Pat Boone update you've all been waiting for. Yep, he's still looney tunes. Thank gawd no one cares what he thinks.


• Elliot Cohen writing for Buzzflash: On May 13, in a Washington court filing, the Obama Justice Department eliminated the category of “unlawful enemy combatant,” which the Bush administration had built into the 2006 Military Commissions Act for purposes of detaining suspected terrorists without due process. But now President Obama wants to replace this category with a new system of “prolonged detention” that could conceivably keep detainees in prison into perpetuity in order to prevent crimes they have not yet committed. Regardless of what Arthur says, I still have a few misgivings about our new President.


• "I never thought about how warm and embraceable Dick Cheney actually is by comparison until his daughter, Liz, began elbowing and heaving her way onto the public airwaves in defense of dear old Dad." p.m. carpenter comments on Liz Cheney.


• Please honor all veterans, especially this weekend. And while you're at it, honor those who stayed home and protested the wars. Happy Memorial Day.

Step By Step

Why hasn't Obama changed the world in four months?

Was it another case of lots of promises during the campaign, but no action later? Have we been fired up and got all ready to go, only to find the roads are closed off, torn up and impassable? Is Obama just another empty suit, promising change and delivering much-the-same? I'm not as downbeat as our resident Bad Hatter and I am seeing some interesting things happening. Oh, not everything has been hunky-dory, no argument on that, but let me talk about some things I am seeing.

I think to some extent Obama is willing to let others get out ahead of certain issues, rather than him taking the lead on everything. He is to some extent a lightening rod; if he supports too many things then there will just be a shopping list of issues, all associated with him. If too many in government feel that they are cut out of the consultive process that could spawn a high level pattern of dissent, leaks and disloyalty. There will always be some of that, either through conviction or out of political motives, but things are not so bad right now. It feels as though a lot of the government is pretty okay with the pace that things are moving at. The economy is a huge problem. Some structural issues had been so neglected by the free- market dolts in the Bush administration that a vast international ponzi scheme was allowed to grow and spread, like a viral nightmare that impacted banks all over the world. Unraveling that has served to bring the economy of our country back to earth, which is a less exciting place than we are used to. We will survive, with some key adjustments. The world economy will not collapse, we are not going to all starve, but it was no small thing. So that's kind of our top priority. Obama said it best when he said that a year ago he could never have imagined that Iraq would not be our top national issue.

There are a lot of other things Obama feels strongly about: public health and universal coverage of some form, a new relationship with other nations, a more equitable tax system, appropriate use of science in the pursuit of public good. All of those take work. He can personally push a lot of those issues, but on other issues he seems content to take a centrist approach while letting others carry the battle. It seems to work fairly well in some occasions, at other times it leaves everyone feeling disappointed that he is not up there on a soapbox haranguing the public. I am inclined to wait and see how each issue plays out, rather than demanding that he throw his entire political capital at each and every one. It calls on the public to step up and engage in public discourse, instead of letting a big daddy government figure it all out for us. I am very okay with that. We all have a stake in these issues and a responsibility to stay engaged and make our voices heard. When was the last time you wrote to or e-mailed your Congressman? or someone else's? If you feel strongly about an issue, I urge you to log on to their Congressional contact site and concisely give them a goose on the subject that is bothering you. They are not psychic, for most of the year they do not live in their districts, so you need to reach out and let them know what one of their voters thinks they should be doing.

Obama also has a website where you can go and dump your cares and woes. He cannot read but a fraction of them I assume, but someone does and collates the number of letters that urge a particular course of action. If you send a message once a week you can, fractionally, help move our national debate. There are other things you can do, but I'm not going to dwell on them. It is our government, and we are not just sheep.

Arthur

Weekend Update - May 16th

• Mark Morford has a little talk with teenagers. "Let us tell you something right now: the world is packed like a sack of rusty tacks with cares, most of them horrible and dark and thick with shame. Here is what you must learn, before it's too late: Sex is not meant to be fun and titillating and happy and easy and fun and young and easy and fun. Understand?"


• Remember back in 2004 when some of us said "If Bush gets re-elected I'm moving to Canada?" Just a few months into Barack Obama's presidency, it's the conservatives who are talking about leaving. And not just in private conversations or on little-read blogs; a number of Republican state legislators have introduced "sovereignty resolutions" in an apparent attempt to re-enact the events leading up to the Civil War. 'Not Even Check Norris Can Save the GOP.'


• Condi's in Calgary, and Bill Kaufmann writes: "I would have asked Condi if she knew then what we know now -- that many of the hundreds of Guantanamo waterboardings were meant to shake out a fantasy link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. You know, sadism to cook up a rationale for an occupation that's killed thousands more Americans and untold Iraqis." Read the rest here.


• Human Rights groups have their, ahem, Irish up over President Barack Obama’s decision to revive military commissions devised by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantánamo Bay.


• To release the photos or not release the photos. That is the question. The LA Times says they should be released, in spite of the dangers involved. We tend to agree.


• Two things: Jon Stewart's hilarious report on the Pope's visit to the Holy Lands, and a report on genetically modified foods and why we shouldn't eat them. You figure out the link between the two. Click here.

George Washington On Torture: Not Here, Not Now, Not Ever

Forgetting our own noble legacy is terribly sad to see. Those half- wit pseudo-patriots like Dick Cheney and his merry band of neocons are very poor historians. By an odd coincidence two of my Scots-American ancestors fought in "that one", probably under the leadership of the ancestor of one of my good friends, the descendant of General Cadwalader of Pennsylvania. I find myself able to not salute her, but her suitability to command men, women, crowds, inanimate objects and large geological features is so pronounced that it gives me a clear sense of what her great, great, great, great, great grandfather must have been like. But the great thing about the Continental Army is that they went about their business of revolution, insurrection and military conquest while exhibiting far better moral character than their enemy, so much so that many of the mercenaries who supported the British came to change sides in the end and become useful citizens. A fluke, something that could not happen ever again? Yeah, but German prisoners of war were shipped to Nebraska and other parts of the midwest during the war and put to work on farms that were short of manpower. Did it work? You bet. They were far happier to be working than sitting in a prison and a good number formed personal bonds and... stayed on after the war, in fact to marry in some cases the farmer's daughters they had worked beside.

Decency and good conduct can be the most potent weapon of all. It has been our most potent weapon, I hope to God it can become so again. George Washington thought it was what distinguished us from our foe. I think so too.

Arthur

Weekend Update - Mother's Day Edition

• There you are, hard at work in front of the computer, and you know you want it. You are so busted. Mark Morford comments, "Are you Not Safe For Work?"


• The only thing we have to fear is the GOP itself. Watch this disgusting video featuring Sean Hannity and Oliver North and you can skip lunch. (Bet you can't watch the whole thing.)


• Is Darth Cheney confirming the cover-ups in the Reagan administration, or just whining out the side of his mouth? You decide: "I went through the Iran-Contra hearings and watched the way administration officials ran for cover and left the little guys out to dry. And I was bound and determined that wasn't going to happen this time."


• Whoops. Shouting "Death to America" and "Death to the Government", thousands of Afghan villagers hurled stones at police yesterday as they vented their fury at American air strikes that local officials claim killed 147 civilians. Apparantly U.S. forces bombed the living crap out of these villages. Winning hearts and minds?


• I gotta see this movie. Forget Spock, Transformers and the guy with the metal claws: Nothing says "Summer Movie Season" like a documentary about closeted gay Republican politicians, right? Here's a review of "Outrage."


• "The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed's genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, 'is very far down the list of things they did,' the official said. " Who's in trouble now? The British.


• Here's further proof that Alan Keyes is in great need of an extended vacation in a nice padded room.

A David Brooks Column That Surprised Me

David Brooks is a condescending troll.

He bloviates on the PBS news each night, pontificating with enormous pity for his less-enlightened listeners, taking time out of his perfect day and perfect life to favor them with his enormous wisdom. I find Brooks almost impossible to watch or listen to because he is so damn smug, so sure of his own elitist superiority. And what he says is so often an apologia for actions that I find beyond apology or explanation.

But then, damn him! every once in a while Brooks makes almost complete good sense, just to confuse me. Does Brooks have a secret twin, who occasionally writes his column for him? Is Brooks bipolar, sometimes making sense, sometimes making nonsense? I don't know. But here is an example of the "Good Brooks" making a mountain of good sense about the Republican Party. (Click HERE) It is the most succinct take-down of the GOP I ever hope to read. If you read the first 2/3 of this column you will learn what is wrong with the GOP and what they need to fix. They will not do it, but they can't claim that no one ever told them what their problems are. Then toward the end of the column "Bad Brooks" surfaces once more and he turns on Obama. I wonder if Brooks' contract specifies that he has to say something nasty about Democrats in every column or they won't pay him?

Arthur

Weekend Update - May 2nd

• In wake of Sen. Arlen Specter's defection from the Republicans to the Democratic Party, Mark Morford dives right in with this delightful column "The Right Goes Insane."


• 'Elie Wiesel called him a "God." His investors called him a "genius." But, proving correct that old adage from the country and western song, you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.' Michael Moore comments on Bernie Madoff for Time Magazine.


• At the bi-annual Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot, right outside of Louisville, Ky, gun enthusiasts of all stripes were there. Comparing the Obama Administration to Hitler's Third Reich, these nutbags are truly dangerous people. Check out these pictures.


• Well now, here it is: The more often people go to church, the more likely they are to suppost torture. Who would Jesus waterboard?


• "The inauguration of Barack Obama 100 days ago gave both progressives and conservatives a chance for a new beginning. Conservatives could have used the opportunity to open up a “big tent” and appeal to moderates. Instead, they’ve retreated into the political wilderness, failing as leaders, legislators, and even as linguists." Bernie Horn writes about the first 100 days of Conservative failure.