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August 30, 2004
Doris “GrannyD” Haddock is certainly one of the more unusual Senate candidates. And isn’t it about time we had some unusual candidates?
I’ve blogged some of her remarkable political rhetoric over at Loose Democracy…
August 27, 2004
Video of the then Lt Gov of Texas saying that he pulled strings to get W into the National Guard…
A little context here.
I know y’all have probably seen this already, but I just got a link to this photo from the Yale yearbook showing W sucker-punching some unlucky rugby opponent, violating lots of rules, both official and of decency. [Thanks to Mark Dionne for the link.]
Bruce Schneier has had four security-related op-eds published. Yikes! Here they are:
In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, I write about the stupidity of our terrorist threat warnings. This is my favorite of the four, even though they didn’t use my suggested title: “A Clear and Non-Specific Danger.” http://www.schneier.com/essay-055.html
In Newsday, I write about the government’s “no fly” list. The lead: “Imagine a list of suspected terrorists so dangerous that we can’t ever let them fly, yet so innocent that we can’t arrest them.” http://www.schneier.com/essay-052.html
In the Boston Globe, I write about the government’s airline “trusted traveller” program, and how it hurts rather than helps security: http://www.schneier.com/essay-051.html
And in the Sydney Morning Herald, I write about the $1.5 billion spent on Olympic security: http://www.schneier.com/essay-053.html
W is now denouncing 527 groups (some background here, here, here, and here) so that he’ll get headlines that sound as if he’s denounced the Swiftboat Veterans for Big Lies. And, of course, it’s working.
But I find myself really confused about what to do about those 527s. On the one hand, they are the way big money is getting around campaign finance limitations. They give too much power to people and companies with money. On the other, how do you stop them from advertising (a proposal the Reform Party backs) without infringing on free speech? If I want to raise a million dollars to buy a SuperBowl ad denouncing poodle trimmers, I should be allowed to.
Should there be a limit on how much anyone can contribute to a 527? Should there be a limit on how much you can contribute to a 527 for use in media campaigns? Should there be controls on the content of ads? The Federal Election Commission is going to decide – in effect after the election – whether 527s should be regulated the way the parties are, an idea that John McCain and Public Citizen like. I myself just don’t know. My liberal money-shouldn’t-buy-influence ideals conflict with my free speech ideals. Maybe there’s a simple and obvious right answer. I’m guessing some of you will tell me what it is.
BTW, I can’t find any position on the topic at www.JohnKerry.com. But it’s pretty clear that Bush’s new position against soft-money 527s is a serious flip-flop by W who opposed soft-money limits on individuals (see here.)
Meta-Roj got comment-spammed by the Swiftboat Veterans for Big Lies and is pissed. He retaliates by posting bunches of links, info about their domain, and a link to their Form 8872 finance report that lists the group’s email address as “no@email.”
(Note: Meta-Roj lists my blog, Loose Democracy, as one that escaped the blog spam. No such luck. And, I could have done without M-R’s Vietnamese comments, apparently based on the fact that the IP address for the boasting is the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre .)
August 26, 2004
According to Editor and Publisher today:
Two days ago, in a front page news article, two New York Times reporters referred to the Swift Boat charges as “mostly unsubstantiated.” The paper went a step further this morning on the front page, when reporter Elizabeth Bumiller flatly called the charges “unsubstantied,” without a qualifier, in the first sentence of her story on the resignation of the national counsel for President Bush.
Other newspapers were not nearly as bold today…
So long as we have to choose words for sentences, objectivity is impossible.
August 24, 2004
No child left behind? How about no school left standing, as a certain ex-presidential candidate used to call it?
Psychedelic Republicans. ‘Nuff said (except thanks to RageBoy for the link).
Over at Loose Democracy I’ve blogged a memo from the Kerry pollster to the Kerry camp trying to set expectations way high for the bounce Bush needs from his convention.
August 22, 2004
Here’s the formal relationship: My wife’s cousin knows the mother of Micah Garen, the American journalist who was being held hostage in Iraq until a couple of hours ago.
Here’s the same situation, this time expressed truthfully.
My wife and her cousin are very close. They are the same age, grew up together, and live within a couple of miles. You know how it can be with cousins: they are the closest relatives we’re allowed to dislike, but they can also be a friend so close that you share DNA. This weekend we’re together here on Martha’s Vineyard along with our extended family. (The wifi is working and I have a comfortable roost on the couch, so don’t worry about my being forced to go outside.) Micah’s mother and my wife’s cousin are both members of a small craft group that is a central part of my cousin’s life.
So, although I am three or four degrees away from Micah Garen, I feel directly connected to him through two people I love, a close collegial relationship, and the the love of a mother. I have been checking the news frequently and felt a pall lift when Al Jazeera first ran the news of his release.
Some degrees are closer than others.
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