In an LA Times article titled “Senate OKs Bush’s nuclear ambitions” (maybe this copy will last longer), they detailed who voted and how they voted.  What really caught my eye is that none of Senators running for president voted.

Five Democrats joined 48 Republicans in voting to table, or kill, Feinstein’s amendment. They were Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Zell Miller of Georgia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Bill Nelson of Florida and Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, whose state is a candidate for the new pit-production site.

Backing the amendment were 39 Democrats, Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and independent Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont. All four Senate Democrats who are running for president in 2004 missed the vote: Sens. Bob Graham of Florida, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina. So did Republican Sens. Gordon Smith of Oregon and Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois.

In this vote, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome, but I wonder if they (or any of the other candidates) are doing their jobs at all now, or just campaigning?  Or was this issue too hot-potato for them to make their views public?

The Washington Post has a graph comparing the $87 billion President Bush has requested for the war on terrorism to spending on other government responsibilities.  It is more than double the amount for homeland security and a lot more than planned for education.

Back in November 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on NPR, “I can’t tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn’t going to last any longer than that.”  I wonder if he still stands by that?

Three headlines this morning: “Jobless Claims Drop to 399,000 Last Week” from Reuters, “Jobless Claims at Lowest Level in 3 Weeks” from AP, and “U.S. jobless claims inch higher” from CBS Marketwatch.

The spins are sure different, but the details in the article are mostly the same.  It looks like the weekly numbers started to fall, but the moving average is still rising.  So everybody’s right, they’re just deciding which piece fits what they want to say.

Here are some of the quotes from the three articles:

New applications for U.S. jobless benefits fell to 399,000 people filed for state unemployment insurance payments in the week to Sept. 13, down 29,000 from a revised 428,000 the week before.

The widely watched four-week moving average of jobless claims rose to 410,750 in the Sept. 13 week from 408,750 the previous week. The moving average, regarded by economists as a truer reflection of the market than the more volatile weekly figure, has been rising since late August.

After rising for three straight weeks, new claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level in nearly a month…

The number of people continuing to draw benefits rose by 39,000 to 3.68 million in the Sept. 6 week, the latest week for which figures are available.

The four-week average for continuing claims gained 11,250 to 3.64 million.

The continuing claims figures do not include some 800,000 workers receiving federal benefits, which are available to workers who have exhausted their state benefits, typically after six months.

About 9 million Americans are officially classified as unemployed and 4 million more are either underemployed or discouraged.

I guess that’s why we need to get news from more than one source.

From Reuters this morning (full text):

Vice President Dick Cheney, a former CEO of Halliburton Co., has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company since taking office while asserting he has no financial interest in the company, Senate Democrats said Tuesday.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Cheney, who was Halliburton’s CEO from 1995 to 2000, said he had severed all ties with the Houston-based company.  “I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven’t had now for over three years,” he said.

Cathie Martin, a Cheney spokeswoman, confirmed that the vice president has been receiving the deferred compensation payments from Halliburton, but she disputed that his statements on “Meet the Press” had been misleading.

Cheney had already earned the salary that was now being paid, Martin said, adding that once he became a nominee for vice president, he purchased an insurance policy to guarantee that the deferred salary would be paid to him whether or not Halliburton survived as a company.  “So he has no financial interest in the company,” she said.

Okay, I can see how with the insurance policy guaranteeing an income he can say he has no direct involvement with the company.  But not that he has no financial interest of any kind.

And they wonder why we don’t believe them.

It’s seems like we’re not even making the pretence that our government works any more.  The power now lies in the courts, where most decisions are getting made.

What the Executive and Legislative branches of the government do is more and more frequently turned over to the Judicial for them to sort out what’s legal and what isn’t.  And the decisions made there depend upon which court ends up hearing the case.

As everybody has heard, the California recall is on hold.  One of the players doesn’t like that, and makes it plain he doesn’t believe in the system that he is a part of.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom McClintock, a state senator from Thousand Oaks (unfortunately for me), said on television and radio, “This is an outrageous decision by an outrageous court, and I’ve got every confidence that it will be overturned.”  He denounced the ruling as the handiwork of a liberal court, adding “This is the most reversed court in the United States, and for good reason.” and demanded an immediate appeal.

(Sidenote:  Meanwhile the other main Republican candidate, while trying to win over the female vote on the Oprah show, says, “These were the times when I was saying things like ‘a pump is better than coming'”.  Yeah, that’s the way to control your mouth.)

So off it goes to the Supreme Court, the one that appointed Bush president, to get a ruling that the Republicans will like.  Not to say that the Democrats wouldn’t do the same thing.  Of course they would because that’s how the game is played now.

Maybe we really don’t need any of the government to exist anymore if the courts end up making all the decisions.  Cut out the middle-men and recall everybody.  Don’t bother to replace them, just recall them.  Laws can be made by initiatives (just go hire people to get some signatures) and then voted on by people that don’t know what they’re voting on.  Then the results go to the courts to decide if the laws are valid.

Okay, so I went over the line a little bit there.  But is that really so different from what we’re doing now?

I was less than overjoyed when paperwork arrived saying that my home loan was being transferred to Fairbanks Capital.  Well, it wasn’t actually when the paperwork arrived; it was two days later, when I read in the LA Times about the company being a “foreclosure machine”.

They’ve certainly been nothing but trouble for me.  When additional money was included to pay down the principal, they instead used it to pay a month in advance.  And this was in spite of the fact that their payment coupon has a box for “amount of additional principal payment”, so there really shouldn’t be a question of where the money goes.

Three phone calls later, I think it’s finally cleared up.  Yes, they would make the payment apply to where it should.  And yes, they would even move it back into the month they received it, but just because I wanted them to.  I had to get off the phone when the fine employee I was dealing with said it didn’t make any difference which month the money was applied in because it doesn’t affect the loan balance.  After all, they said they would do what I wanted, so why bother to explain why?

How can a company have an employee that deals with customers (and this was even one level up the customer service ladder) not understand the basics of how a loan works?  Oh well, at least they aren’t trying to charge me late fees for making an early payment.

I’m just putting this up to say that if you can avoid Fairbanks, do it.

MoveOn.org has a petition that won’t do anything.  Why?  I’m not sure.  Here’s what they say:

I’m writing to ask you to join me in signing a “Recall No! Democracy Yes!” pledge to defeat the California recall.

If the recall succeeds, it will set a dangerous precedent for the whole country. A far-right businessman spent 1.7 million dollars to bring us the recall campaign, and has thrown California into chaos. GOP leaders who should have condemned the recall instead cheered it on, hoping they could gain from the unraveling of our democracy.

We can’t stand by and let this happen. These attacks on democracy are not a California issue or a Texas issue or a Florida issue — we all must step forward together and make it clear that elections will be honored in this country.

This pledge is a national effort to mobilize one million California voters in the recall election. Please sign the pledge no matter where you live and please ask friends and family in California to sign the pledge and to remember to vote October 7.

Since I agree that the recall is a waste of money and another effort of the Republicans to sidestep the normal democratic process, I’ll say click here to sign.

More info on current events concerning Patriot I, II & III is available in a lengthy August 27, 2003 article from the Free Expression Policy Project.

There’s no need to summarize it here, there’s enough of the basics in my earlier post.  I was mildly surprised to see that some of what was just posted is already out of date.  For instance, this is the first I’ve heard of Patriot III.

The revamped $20 bill, along with its faint tinge of peach color in the background, will make its way into bank vaults and consumers’ pockets in early October, according to the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.

The interactive bill (at the Bureau of Engraving & Printing) provides an animated tutorial on the anti-counterfeiting and other design features of the new $20 note.

Disney is going ahead with plans to begin selling disposable DVDs on Tuesday with a suggested price of $6.99. The idea is to cut out the rental stores, with the draw for consumers being not having to return the disk when they are finished.

I really don’t get it. They think that people will pay about double the rental price to not have to return the disk? And for the higher price, they have to watch it within 48 hours?

Environmentalists are outraged and planning a “phone Disney” protest. The plan offers some recycling — though not in-store — and consumers will eventually be able to get a new disc in return for six used ones, says Flexplay, which owns the technology. Customers can mail their used DVDs to GreenDisk, a company that recycles old DVDs. Flexplay will cover the cost of recycling the discs.  It’s also working to get a collection or drop-off process in place, so people could avoid the cost of mailing in their old EZ-Ds.

So what happened to the advantage of not having to return them?

Saving the silliest part for last, the company also said that by making DVDs cheaper the product would also undercut the incentive to make bootleg copies. But — it’s not cheaper than renting, and nobody in the industry is saying having rentals available helps stem piracy.

This just in from AP:

WASHINGTON – The government and the airlines reportedly will phase in a computer system next year to measure the risk of every passenger who boards a flight in the United States by using color codes.

According to the Washington Post, passengers will be assigned one of three codes, based in part on their travel plans, traveling companions and the date the ticket was purchased.  Sources say those coded “green” will easily pass through security checkpoints.  Others will be coded “yellow” and face additional screening.  An estimated 1 percent to 2 percent who get “red” coding will be barred from boarding and face police questioning.  They may be arrested.

Critics fear the new system will be far too intrusive, and that some people will be mistakenly “flagged” and even falsely arrested.

Say what?  1 to 2 percent will be barred from boarding and may be arrested?  Quick, with all the people now flying we better build more jails to keep up!  Or at least make sure you don’t own any airline stocks, because over time there will be a lot fewer passengers to keep those planes full.

I’ll counter yesterday’s long posting with something just for fun:  Cult Sirens.  It’s full of the bios of some of the women seen in just a few (or lots of low budget) movies.  I was hooked on the first page with Linda Harrison, not being able to recall her by name but definitely recalling her roll as Nova in the original Planet of the Apes. 

There are lots of names you may not remember, but women you will.  Whatever happened to all those Bond Girls?

on the same subject as below.  I thought I was done, but then I saw this clip from The Daily Show on Ashcroft’s Victory Act Tour.

Okay, now I’m done.

This is a long one, so I’ll break it up a little.

Patriot 1 – Nightline

Last week Nightline has a very good segment on the Patriot Act.  Lisa Rein’s Radar has the complete video on this page.  Here are the “closing thoughts” from the program:

The men who drafted our constitution, who framed our civil rights and protected our various freedoms under the law would, I suspect, retch at some of the bone headed, self-serving, misinterpretations of their intentions that they so often use these days to undermine the very freedoms they pretend to safeguard. The miracle of American Law is not that it protects popular speech, or the privacy of the powerful, or the homes of the priviledged, but rather, that the least among us, those with the fewest defenses those suspected of the worst crimes — the most despised in our midst, are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

That remains as revolutionary a concept now as it was in the 1780s. It makes protecting the country against terrorism excruciatingly difficult, but we cannot arbitrarily suspend the rights of one category of suspects without endangering all the others.

Patriot 1 – Action

There is a bill (“Protecting the Rights of Individuals Act”, S1552) to help correct some of the provisions of the Patriot Act.  Most of what it does is clarify the language to make it apply to terrorism and require reporting on the usage of certain surveillance activities.  The ACLU has a page where you can easily fax support for the bill to your Senator.

There is also a page to fax support for the “Domestic Surveillance Oversight Act of 2003”, (S436), although that appears to be stuck in committee.  It requires the public accounting of basic information such as the number of Americans subjected to surveillance under FISA and the number of times that FISA information has been used for law enforcement purposes.

Road Trip!

It’s old news now, but Ashcroft is on a twelve city nationwide tour in support of the Patriot Act.  See Ashcroft Patriot Road Show or CNSNEWS coverage.

This inspired candidate Howard Dean to put up a Stop Ashcroft Petition on his DeanForAmerica site.

And none to soon.  This spring, the PROTECT Act was signed into law.  While it is famous for containing the federal version of the “Amber alert,” it also included another important provision relating to federal criminal sentencing.  That provision directs the U.S. Sentencing Commission to amend the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines “to ensure that the incidence of downward departures are substantially reduced.”

On July 28, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a memorandum to all federal prosecutors outlining the Department of Justice’s policies with respect to downward departures.  When a judge imposes a departure over the prosecutor’s objections, the memo requires the prosecutor, within 14 days, to report the departure to DOJ.  The result, Sen. Edward Kennedy has argued, will be to establish a “black list” of federal judges who downwardly depart. 

The Protect Act basically forces judges to use harsh sentences, and to be reported to the Justice department if they don’t.

But why bother with a tour?  What does it have to do with the PROTECT Act?  To get support for…

Patriot 2, The Victory Act, Domestic Security Enhancement Act

Critics speculate that as a result of public criticism of the PATRIOT Act, some provisions of PATRIOT II have been introduced separately as the “Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations” or VICTORY Act.  (Ironically, or appropriately, the ‘Y’ is missing.)  The VICTORY Act continues the assault on the federal judiciary that the PROTECT Act and the Ashcroft memo embody.

The “Domestic Security Enhancement Act,” which opponents have dubbed “PATRIOT II,” is designed to further expand federal law enforcement’s powers to limit alleged terrorist suspects’ access to the protections afforded to criminal defendants.  It would allow the Justice Department to declare a person suspected of somehow being involved with international terrorism as a “foreign power,” making the individual subject to the reduced judicial oversight and lower thresholds of proof required under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).  It would also give federal law enforcers greater wire-tapping authority and would allow state and local authorities greater access to information obtained through FISA surveillance for criminal prosecutions.  The proposal would give the attorney general greater power to issue “administrative subpoenas” without approval from a judge and to revoke the U.S. citizenship of individuals who “provide material support to” or “serve in” terrorist organizations as defined by the Department of Justice. 

“If PATRIOT II passes, a substantial number of political lobbies, including Gun Owners of America, could be declared terrorist organizations by an administration that simply dislikes their methods and goals,” Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America (GOA), warned.  His group has compiled an online analysis of the potential misuses of the proposed law.

The proposal also includes what it calls a “technical correction” to the PATRIOT Act, which would eliminate some of the sunset provisions in the original law, much of which will expire on Dec. 31, 2005.

That’s a technical correction?

The War On…Everything?

It looks like it the War On Drugs is being escalate to being called terrorism.  I guess they believed their own commercial equating the two.

A draft of the Victory Act (from http://www.libertythink.com/VICTORYAct.pdf) opens with this paragraph:

A BILL
To combat narco-terrorism, to dismantle narco-terrorist criminal enterprises, to disrupt narco-terrorist financing and money laundering schemes, to enact national drug sentencing reform, to prevent drug trafficking to children, to deter drug-related violence, to provide law enforcement with the tools needed to win the war against narco-terrorists and major drug traffickers, and for other purposes.

Another excerpt says:

U.S.C. 853(a)), is amended by adding at the end the following: ��In addition to any other money judgment that may be imposed under this section, a person who does not receive any proceeds from the sale, importation, or distribution of a controlled substance because the person is arrested, or the controlled substance is seized, before the sale, importation, or distribution is complete, shall pay a money judgment equal to the amount of money that would have been paid if such sale, importation, or distribution had been completed.��

This looks like carte blanche to just add an arbitrary fine.  It doesn’t say the drugs had to exist.  Just imagine:  “We’ve decided that you were going to sell an ounce of coke, but you couldn’t because we arrested your supplier.  So you’re going to be fined the street value of the coke.  Ha ha ha ha!!!”

Welcome to the police state.

From http://www.warblogging.com/archives/000679.php:  “[Ashcroft] seeks to pass laws like the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, a law that would allow the Justice Department to detain anyone indefinitely, without the right to contact an attorney or family members. The DSEA ’03 would make it a criminal act to reveal the identity � or even existence � of such a detainee. Why? Because revealing such information may result in some amount of oversight or criticism of the government’s actions.”

Your Internet browsing records are fair game for the Department of Justice under the VICTORY Act. Your phone too. Your bank records, your credit card records — under the VICTORY Act, they all belong to the Department of Justice too.

To learn more, there is a lot of information on Patriot 2 at the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.  The Victory Act is also covered on Warblogging.com.

To do more, send a “Stop the New Patriot Act” Fax from the ACLU.

Wow, that was way too long.

Yesterday’s New York Times reported that recording industry lobbyists are shocked, shocked to find porn on popular peer-to-peer networks.  Naturally, they think P2P should be heavily regulated as a result.  Somebody should send them a copy of Michael Kinsley’s classic Slate editorial on the most dangerous of all media: paper.

Stolen from Edward Felten’s Freedom to Tinker.

According to a BBC News article:  “People who experience a sense of spirituality in church may be reacting to the extreme bass sound produced by some organ pipes.”

A CNN article on the findings of the same experiment says:  “Mysteriously snuffed out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is inaudible to humans.”

I realize that nothing has been posted here for a while; I just keep saving links and thinking that I’ll get around to it.  So it’s time for a political yet fun one.  Here’s how Rhetorica describes it:

PCR2004 explains the persuasive tactics of the candidates for President of the United States by offering rhetorical analyses of campaign speeches, and speech situations, focusing on image creation, policy definitions, propaganda, and spin.

Pick your candidate, pick your speech, pick it apart.  To help make it understandable, they have the rhetorical terms (rhetorically speaking?) linked to their definitions.

Marijuana, of all illegal drugs, has inspired by far the greatest number of street terms, according to the database.  Perhaps that’s because the laughing weed is the most commonly used recreational drug.  Or maybe it’s because regular users have impaired short-term memories and have to keep making up new terms for their drug of choice.

What were we talking about?

Between now and August, Mars will brighten until it “blazes forth against the dark background of space with a splendor that outshines Sirius and rivals the giant Jupiter himself.” Astronomer Percival Lowell, who famously mapped the canals of Mars, wrote those words to describe the planet during a similar close encounter in the 19th century.

This Wednesday it will be the closest.  Me, I’m just going to go on Friday (yeah, I’ll miss the closest by a couple of days) to 7,000 feet at The Mountain and avoid the LA area light pollution.

Surely eternal damnation deserves more thought than this, but I was more interesting in seeing what they did with it than thinking about who to put in it.