Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:15 PM

Regarding last night's news conference, White House communications director Dan Bartlett said "In this case, we know what the questions are going to be, and those are the ones we want to answer." Puts George W. Bush's 'scripted' quip last night in a different light, doesn't it?

The Washington Post article follows up with comparative statistics for how many solo press conferences previous presidents held by this point in their tenure: Clinton, 30; Bush pere, 58; Reagan, 16; Carter, 45; Ford, 37; Nixon, 16; Johnson, 52. And our current president? Eight.

Another difference between Bush and his predecessors, they all had the courtesy to uphold the tradition of calling Helen Thomas first. Bush didn't call on her at all last night, though she was there. Even the conservative Washington Times noticed the snub. Is our brave, courageous president too scared to deal with an 82 year old woman? Or is he just petty and vindictive?

Speaking of ex-presidents, and in a lighter tone, the Washington Post profiles new pundits Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, and they get in some zingers:

• Asked whether such a high profile would be 'unseemly', Bill Clinton replies: "If I get up and tie my shoes in the morning, someone criticizes me. This will enable Rush Limbaugh to help raise another $45 million for groups I don't agree with."
• Regarding the two-minute timeslot, Dole said 45 seconds was perfect because "I don't have any ideas."
• And the article concludes: Will their feelings be bruised if their debates turn into a new "Saturday Night Live" skit? "I'd be hurt if it doesn't," Clinton said.

I think I'm looking forward to this.

Finally, today is the final day to sign MoveOn's emergency appeal to the U.N. They've gotten over a half-million signatures, so extended the deadline until today in hopes of breaking three-quarters of a million names. This will be sent to the UN Security Council, urging the UN to find peaceful ways of disarming Iraq without going to war. If that's your preferred outcome, then please add your name to the list. Thanks!

It has now been 536 days since President Bush said all we want is Osama brought to justice, dead or alive, and 335 days since American citizen Jose Padilla was placed in a military prison for an indefinite period of time without charge, trial or due process of law.
It has been 776 days since President Bush's inauguration, and we have 606 days until the next presidential election.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:35 PM

Yes, I did in fact watch Bush's entire press conference, all 48 minutes of it, all 18 questioners.

• Pretty impressive when the very first thing out of the President's mouth -- "I'm pleased to take your questions tonight" -- is an obvious lie.
• Where was Helen Thomas!? Doesn't she traditionally always get the kickoff question? He didn't call on her once. And how obvious was it that he had a pre-made list of whom to call on? I mean, he didn't look up, and in one case, he wasn't even sure if the person had a question prepared.
• Also missing was any mention of Osama bin Laden, although he did crow over the capture of "the mastermind of the September 11 attacks against our nation [who] conceived and planned the hijackings and directed the actions of the hijackers." Um, yeah. Wasn't it Osama who did all that?
  And egg all over Ann Coulter's face for this bit in her latest column: "After an arrest like that, Clinton would have held 17 press conferences to praise himself and attack Republicans. Bush has held no press conferences on the capture of this major al-Qaida leader." Didn't get the memo, Ann?
• Bush spoke in such an affected soft slow supposed-to-be-reassuring voice, that after he repeated his comments about Saddam's neighborhood, I started wondering if he was trying to subliminally remind people of Mister Rogers.
• Oh, and how about this quote: "we will act in the name of peace" Yeah War is peace.
• But the line that really stood out for me in the whole mess was "I swore to protect and defend the constitution. That's what I swore to do. I put my hand on the bible and took that oath and that's exactly what I am going to do." I've been toying with this for a while, but now that he's reminded us all what he swore to do, I want to compile a list of all the ways his administration has violated the constitution, in contrast to this quote.
• As I was listening, I was wondering what I might ask if I were allowed to question the president in such a news conference. I came up with two possibles. One would be to mention his oath and ask about specific ways he and his administration have violated the constitution (why are you calling this a war when we have no formal declaration of war? do you feel Ashcroft should be censured for proposing the elimination of habeus corpus? etc.). The other would be to ask how the Shock and Awe strategy corresponds with his repeated professions of concern for innocent Iraqis. [And I'd bring up the point that 10x the weapons with a 90% accuracy means the same number of bombs exploding where they're not supposed to.]

In conclusion, here, in my opinion, were the three best questions of the evening (in the order they were asked). [Source]

Postscript (added later): Why is North Korea considered a 'regional issue' when North Korea has already managed to hit Alaska with missiles, whereas Iraq still hasn't touched the United States directly? [Oh, and I love the weasel words Bush used to build an imaginary 9/11 link: Saddam "has trained and financed al Qaeda-type organizations before." Uh-huh. Real subtle, Mister President.]

Oh, and in all his talk tonight that all he wants is disarmament and regime change within Iraq, what about last week's explanation that this was needed to democratize the region? I guess the administration's given up on that excuse...

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:55 PM

A couple last minute tidbits before Bush's press conference tonight. If you haven't seen it already, read South Knox Bubba's Bush has a "tell". How to recognize when Bush is telling a lie -- not because he's opening his mouth, but through his unconscious tics. Read this and keep an eye out for it. Meanwhile, Atrios is taking suggestions for the drinking game.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:30 PM

First, a few thoughts about blogging in general, and how I approach blogging.

Boy, my last post was long. Probably too long. There's so much good stuff out there that I want to mention that I worry that the really important items are getting buried. So I'm going to try to cut back a bit. Besides, if I let it, blogging could be a full-time occupation for me. Unfortunately, blogging does not pay, so I have to be careful to limit my blogging so I have time for more lucrative pursuits. Because of course, the news never stops coming. Like these stories:

• Colleen Rowley, the whistleblowing FBI agent is back, and she's pissed. Jeanne D'Arc has text of a new public letter she's written to her supervisors. Must-read! When an FBI agent makes the Waco/Koresh comparison, you've got to take it seriously. [BTW, by now you have seen John Brady Kiesling's letter of resignation, right?]
• The government has confirmed a new airport screening system "that involves checking personal financial and other information and assigning a threat level to each passenger." TalkLeft has all the dirt. Why should my bank records and credit reports have anything to do with whether I can fly unimpeded? Besides, some MIT students have already worked out how to defeat the system, demonstrating it's more vulnerable than random searches.
• Well, whaddaya know. Bush is actually holding a news conference tonight. I just might watch/listen to the propaganda for a bit. Besides, Helen Thomas has probably been chomping at the bit to get her hands on him, so any question she asks should be worth hearing. Keep in mind, this is only his eighth press conference (second in prime time) in 775 days he's been President.
• If you haven't heard, Osama is still alive. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed apparently met with him only last month.
• Here's another interesting legal story from TalkLeft about a 50 year old case lawyers are trying to reopen. It was closed because the Air Force classified a key piece of evidence as military secrets. Now that it's been declassified due to age, heirs discovered no military secrets whatsoever. " In other words, the report had been suppressed to protect the Air Force from embarrassment and liability, not to protect the national security, as the government had falsely claimed to the Supreme Court." Maybe the courts should take this example of fraud as a cautionary tale for current and ongoing cases.
• Speaking of secret evidence, John Ashcroft authorized more than triple the number of emergency searches that have been authorized by other attorneys general in the last 20 years. (TalkLeft)
• Atrios has zillions of interesting stories, such as Ohio refusing to ratify the 14th amendment. But his scariest piece is the one where House Majority Leader DeLay is threatening to curb the judiciary's jurisdiction if the Supreme Court doesn't rule his way on the Pledge of Allegiance case. As one comment put it, "it's the 200th anniversary of Marbury vs. Madison this year - guess DeLay just wants to overturn 200 years of judicial precedent to mark the occasion..."
• According to Wired, the DMCA could be used to prevent mechanics from using cheaper remanufactured auto parts. Current cases involving toner cartridges and universal garage door remotes are under close scrutiny. Sigh Unintended consequences and overbroad legislation. They really need better designers and QA in Washington...
• Findlaw has a good piece about integrity. I'm not interested in the George Will-bashing, save as an example of an ongoing trend. So, if you want, skip his example to read the latter half of the piece, beginning with the subhead What the Flip-Flop Means For Will, And For All of Us
• In my last post I had intended to clarify the issue of google (verb) which I brought up last night. In short, Google doesn't mind if you speak of googling when you're actually using Google. But if you say googling to mean online searching using other tools, then they're going to get on your case. That makes sense. I just want to reassure readers (and lawyers) that when I say I google, I mean that I'm actually using Google. So, no problem.

Finally, April 1st will be the fourth annual International Edible Book Festival. Celebrations are planned around the world. Still, I don't think any of the pictures I've seen can top our wedding cake:

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:05 AM

As I said last night, I've been gradually accumulating news links the way black slacks pick up white cat hair.

• On Law:
  • As I said before, yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the CIPA which requires libraries to install (and use) filtering software on all computers in that library in order to receive federal funding. The Washington Post invited the ALA's lawyer online chat about the case; you can read the transcript here. And here are links to coverage by tech columnist Declan McCullagh, one of my favorite Supreme Court reporters Dahlia Lithwick, Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times, and Tony Mauro of American Lawyer Media. Two of my other favorite Court reporters, Joan Biskupic and Nina Totenberg, haven't weighed in yet. However, from the sounds of it, Souter seems to gets it, but the majority may rule against the ALA. Ugh.
  • In other legal news, Sam Heldman writes about the Pledge of Allegiance decision and notes "if the [Supreme] Court is inundated with briefs urging that "under God" is central to our nation's future, then it will be that much harder for the Court to say that this is mere ceremonial non-theocratic mumbling." Matthew Yglesias gets angry over the hypocritical hyperbole of those who insist on keeping "under Gd".
  • And more is coming out about the mall t-shirt case, including the actual police report. The mall has since asked the police to drop all charges against the man. [Please note that although the mall claims the men were causing a disruption, they deny anything of the sort. I suppose the truth might come out in a trial by calling witnesses, but it looks like that may not happen.]
• On Media:
  • Ooh, this could be interesting. Several places are reporting that Clinton and Dole (not the Senators, but their spouses -- Bill and Bob, the ones who ran for president in 1996) will share a regular Point/Counterpoint slot on 60 Minutes. If the two of them can go beyond the usual partisan shouting matches and actually have a dialog, this could be quite interesting.
  • A friend asked me to offer another pointer to Eric Alterman's book What Liberal Media. I'm waiting for a library copy, but it's selling well and debunks a lot of the myths about media bias. The website includes excerpts from the book (and even has the honesty to offer errata).
  • Digby asks why nobody's speaking out at the outrage that our president won't hold open televised press conferences. [Wouldn't it be nice if we had a regular Question Time as in the UK?] And he points out how stupid the President sounds when he does speak off-the-cuff.
  • Dan Kennedy notes this frightening observation: "Practically, Bush's faith means that he does not tolerate, or even recognize, ambiguity: there is an all-knowing God who decrees certain behaviors, and leaders must obey."
• On War:
  • Mark Morford writes an eloquent must-read piece. I won't quote the whole thing, but "These are the last days of peace in America as you know it. And we will never be the same."
  • Jack Balkin suggests that the president's refusal to request money upfront for his war with Iraq may be a further attempt to subvert the constitutional separation of powers. I mean, the Framers gave Congress control over the military through the powers of declaring war and through appropriations. "The Administration?s preferred strategy of pay-as-you-go short circuits this method of accountability. ... [A]ll joking aside, there is an important constitutional issue at stake."
  • Didja hear that the National Security Council fired three government Middle East experts, presumably because they "were regarded as even-handed." I can only assume that they will be replaced with more Yes-men, to the detriment of our government actually understanding what's actually happening in the world.
  • The Agonist tries to tally up the risks vs. rewards of invading vs. not invading. No conclusions, but an interesting list.
  • Susan Estrich points out how Bush's justifications for invasion keep changing as each of his previous reasons is disproven.
  • Fred Kaplan outlines (yet again) how "It is becoming increasingly and distressingly clear that, however justified the coming war with Iraq may be, the Bush administration is in no shape -- diplomatically, politically, or intellectually -- to wage it or at least to settle its aftermath."
  • Lots of New York Times readers share their comments on Shock & Awe and the rush towards war. Some very eloquent people there.
  • I can't believe that the advisability of torture is actually a subject of debate. [As Ian said yesterday, I thought we were supposed to be the good guys!] Here's some creepy news that made me shudder. And military coroners are labelling the deaths of some Afghans in US custody homicide. I don't like this at all.
    Last night, I heard lawyer and civil libertarian Harvey Silverglate on Brudnoy's radio show talking about the issue. It was noted that in survey after survey, most people say torture was justified in more personal, time-sensitive cases. However, even when torture may be understandable in certain circumstances, even in an example where he is pushed to torture someone for information, Silverglate still doesn't want it legalized. I just found his eloquent explanation in an old Boston Phoenix story:

    When a law-enforcement officer truly believes that a suspect possesses life-saving information, and commits the perfectly human act of torturing the suspect to obtain that information, the officer should be tried for the crime of violating the suspect?s constitutional rights, or for some related crime such as assault and battery or mayhem (willful bodily mutilation). If the jury, acting as the conscience of the community, decides that the officer does not deserve to be convicted and punished under the circumstances, it will acquit. Indeed, under our system of unanimous jury verdicts in federal and most state criminal trials, a single juror who refuses to vote for conviction can "hang" the jury and prevent a verdict and hence a conviction. In our legal history, there have even been instances where juries, exercising what is known as "jury nullification," have refused to convict or have acquitted obviously guilty defendants. Such verdicts are hardly unknown, as in cases of mercy killings or the medical use of marijuana.
    
    Further, even when a conviction has been handed down in a hard case, the government?s chief executive (the president of the United States or, on the state level, usually the governor) may exercise his or her constitutional authority to commute (or terminate) the sentence and free the defendant, or even pardon the defendant and thereby wipe clean his or her criminal record.

  • The MahaBlog, a new discovery (that doesn't have permalinks) talks about history and the Spanish-American war. You don't hear much about it in the history books, but just like today there were people protesting the government's policy all along. They called themselves not anti-war, but anti-imperialists (which might be a good slogan still), and included Mark Twain in their number. Here's a little-known Mark Twain quote which seems appropriate amid talk of Shock & Awe: "This is not battle, for only one side is engaged -- it has another name. It is massacre."
• Random weirdness:
  • Isn't it nice to see in these times of crisis that some things never change. A Georgia Republican slipped a provision into a spending bill that would allow "organic" chickens to be fed non-organic feed, thus gutting the "organic" label. Need I add that a chicken farm was a major contributor. Sadly, it's now law, and must be repealed.
  • Meanwhile, other House Republicans added their wish list of tax breaks $100 million each to another spending bill pending passage. At a time when schools are closing and poor are going hungry, this kind of pork is outrageous.
  • Nathan Newman has uncovered more Microsoft duplicity (of the kind which might get it in trouble with the courts). During the antitrust trial, "Microsoft senior VP Jim Alchin said under oath then that disclosing Windows code might compromise US national security" However, when China threatened to block sales of Windows, MS had no problems showing the code to Chinese officials.
  • As seen on Blogdex, Primitive Ways showcases Stone Age technology and skills, often with practical how-to instructions. Cool.
  • Canada has apologized. For many things. This is worth reading.

And, that's about all I have for now. I'm going to stop now before I find more news worth sharing. Otherwise, I could keep writing forever.

It has now been 535 days since President Bush said all we want is Osama brought to justice, dead or alive, and 334 days since American citizen Jose Padilla was placed in a military prison for an indefinite period of time without charge, trial or due process of law.
It has been 775 days since President Bush's inauguration, and we have 607 days until the next presidential election.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:30 PM

While I've got URLs for probably a dozen or so hard news stories copied down for blogging, I feel like looking to the lighter side for now. Here are a few things on my mind that don't deal with politics.

• Over on LISNews, somebody's created a bookcase that can be converted into a coffin when the owner dies. I can't imagine making grieving friends/family members denude the bookshelves, but there's something undeniably cool about being buried in a bookcase...
• A few days ago, I wondered whether King James might make the subject of a film like Elizabeth. I just saw an article that "Charles McDougall, who helmed the acclaimed TV series QUEER AS FOLK" may be filming Unnatural Murder, about how one of King James' lovers "charmed his way from rags to riches and perpetrated the biggest scandal that ever rocked the British royal family" Don't know how true the story is since the only attribution comes from Google's cache of a now-dead site (stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard') but one can hope.
• Okay, those who have been reading me for a while may know that I'm a Marlovian -- I don't think that Kit Marlowe wrote Shakespeare, but I am fascinated by the man and his writings. That's why I find it incredibly frustrating that When Love Speaks^* only has the first verse of Annie Lennox's version of The Passionate shepherd to his love available online. I wanna hear the whole song! If Napster still existed, maybe I could find it, but Googling isn't turning anything up.
  • ^*When Love Speaks is an album in which great actors recorded their renditions of Shakespeare's sonnets. The snippets on the download page sound great. I don't know why they included something by Marlowe, but I won't complain as long as (a) it's attributed to Marlowe (let him get proper credit) and (b) I can hear it. Which, currently, I can't. <grump>
  • BTW, although the object of the passionate shepherd's love sounds vague in the poem, it's pretty clear that it's intended to be another man. More specifically, it's an homage to Virgil's Eclogue II which is explicitly about a man in love with another man.
  • As long as I'm talking about Marlowe, I really want to watch Derek Jarman's 1991 film of Marlowe's Edward II. I don't need to own it, I just want to see it. But given it's an R-rated art film with serious gay themes, I doubt any of the local video stores will stock it. I've already checked all five library networks I belong to to no avail. So, if anybody happens to see a copy for rent, could you please let me know? Thanks.
  • And I've just spent five paragraphs writing about King James and Kit Marlowe, with a stack of library books on them as my pleasure reading. I am a fag hag hanging out with four hundred year old men. I'd say 'I've got to get a life' but frankly, I'm rather enjoying the one I've got.
• That last entry reminded me of something interesting from Neil Gaiman's journal [Scroll down to Tuesday, March 04]. I used google as a verb, and apparently, Google Inc. doesn't like that. As Neil Gaiman writes: "I wonder if they'll get the worms back into the can. On the one hand, if you don't protect your trademark you lose it. Aspirin and Heroin were once brand names, after all, and Coca-Cola make very sure that no-one gets to enjoy a coke and a smile in books these days." [More legal explanations have been added since I first wrote this; for more information, read Neil's journal.]
• Speaking of language, in Sunday's NYT, William Safire's language column explored the origins and history of duct tape.

And I think that's about it for now. I have plenty more hard news for tomorrow morning.

PS: If you only read my last article when the syndicated feed first went out, then you may have missed some bits. I updated that post twice with additional information, the last update at about 3:45 PM (two hours after I initially posted it). Just thought you'd like to know.

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:45 PM

It's official folks -- Shock and Awe is going to happen.

So says Thinking it through, who I simply must quote verbatim because I can't express it any better. He continues:

And if you really believe that 80% of the bombs are going to be "precision-guided," I've got some Louisiana swampland I'd like to sell you.

The military folks have to talk about how precise their weapons are in order to assuage reasonable public concerns about civilian casualities.

Never mind the fact that the civilian casualty numbers they're using from IraqWar Part I are cooked -- for more on this, go here.

Don't fool yourself folks, we're going to kill tens of thousands of civilians in Baghdad.

I think I'm going to be sick.

See here for more information and links about the Shock and Awe strategy. Today's New York Times refers to "unleashing 3,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles in the first 48 hours"

The population of Baghdad is greater than those of cities like Houston, Toronto, Atlanta, Berlin, Sydney or Seattle... [Population data courtesy of CityPopulation.de, where you can also find other cities for comparison] Can you imagine hundreds of bombs per hour being dropped on a city that size? The death and devastation?

Over lunch at the diner, Ian got into a debate about the war with the guy on the next stool. Rog was saying that the residents of Baghdad could and should evacuate so there wouldn't be many casualties. But with this kind of strategy, they're not going to be able to. Can you imagine evacuating a city that size? Rog also expressed the wish that somebody would put a bullet in the back of Saddam's head. But if we attack in this manner, Saddam will be safe in a bunker somewhere. All this will do is kill thousands of innocent civilians whose only crime is to be living in the wrong place.

We can't blame these deaths on Saddam. If America chooses to attack another country, there are many different ways we could do so. This seems guaranteed to insure the utmost safety for our troops while demonstrating utter disregard for everyone else. Paraphrasing Bill Maher, how do you define a cowardly attack? Or to quote his more recent comments, "Iraq is Waco. Saddam Hussein is David Koresh." And we've already seen how that story ended. This one just involves many more people.

Could somebody please wake me up from this nightmare? I don't want this to happen.

Added later: I feel the need to quote Jeanne D'Arc about this:

We can't forget that war is inherently violent. People are going to die. As hard as we try to limit civilian casualties, it will occur. We need to condition people that that is war. -- General Richard B. Myers

I don't want to get all Dorothy Dayish on everybody again, but the way to fight back against the madness is not always in the streets. Part of it is internal. I don't ever want to be "conditioned" to accept innocent people dying as just part of the game. I absolutely refuse.

And, since Terry Jones wrote that language is the first casualty of war, why don't we call Shock and Awe by its original name: Blitzkrieg.

Still later, but same subject:

Ian just came home and made three more points.

1. We're using ten times as many bombs as 1991, but in "good news" they're supposed to have 90% accuracy (and those are their numbers). Do the math. That still means that the same number bombs will miss their targets in the first day of this war as landed in the entire first Gulf War!
2. Regarding the idea that Baghdad residents could just evacuate the city -- to where!? They live in a fecking desert! There's no place for them to evacuate to!
3. Finally, I didn't mention the part of the conversation with Rog where he hoped that Khalid Sheik Mohammed was tortured to death. As Ian said, "Good guys don't torture. Good guys don't kill innocents. If the only choice is which Bad Guy group you sign up with, then I want to stay home. I love American because I thought that we had the potential to be the good guys."

Have I mentioned how much I love my husband? He got into the lunchtime 'debate' in response to the old lie "How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? No one knows, it's never been tried." Molly Ivins debunked that chestnut weeks ago. My hero! A true defender of truth and justice.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:35 AM

Well, I did it. As promised in my last post, I phoned my Congressman and both Senators asking them to support Bernie Sanders' Freedom to Read Protection Act (or the Senate equivalent) and to censure Ashcroft for so blatantly ignoring the constitution to even consider suspending habeus corpus.

Meanwhile, here are some other stories in the day's news that caught my attention:

• Money, money, money: The New York Times reports "Analysts for the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee have raised their estimates of this year's budget shortfall by about $30 billion, some 15 percent beyond the forecast that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued only five weeks ago."
• It's all over the blogosphere, but in case you haven't heard it, two men were actually arrested for the crime of wearing pro-peace t-shirts in a shopping mall. Warblogging provides good context.
• Roger Ebert writes about (of all things) prayer in school and the pledge of allegience. He makes a curious distinction that I hadn't heard before, but which makes perfect sense: "This is really an argument between two kinds of prayer--vertical and horizontal. ... Vertical prayer is private, directed upward toward heaven. It need not be spoken aloud, because God is a spirit and has no ears. Horizontal prayer must always be audible, because its purpose is not to be heard by God, but to be heard by fellow men standing within earshot." Excellent article, well worth reading.
• Yesterday the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments regarding gay marriage. According to today's Globe, when asked why gays can adopt but not marry, Assistant Attorney General Judith Yogman said, ''Adoption is one thing. Marriage has many other responsibilities and benefits associated with it other than child-rearing.'' So, marriage takes more responsibilities than child-rearing? As Bill Cosby might say, R-i-i-i-ght! That sounds like a losing argument to me. [I've also updated my earlier, incomplete entry with the correct quote, but thought that might get lost.]
• I haven't seen any news articles on this, but I wonder whether Monday's Supreme Court ruling on trademark dilution (Victor's Little Secret vs. Victoria's Secret) might set any precedents for some of domain-name squabbles.
• On the social informatics side of things, the New York Times has a six month progress report on Maine's project to give laptops to all seventh-graders. Some of the more ambitious plans are being scaled back due to budgetary constraints, but so far it's been good!

Say what!? As just seen on Oliver Willis, "The warhead of a long-range missile test-fired by North Korea was found in the U.S. state of Alaska, a report to the National Assembly revealed yesterday." <gibbergibbergibber> May I recommend we all read Josh Marshall's explanation of the Korean situation.

It has now been 534 days since President Bush said all we want is Osama brought to justice, dead or alive, and 333 days since American citizen Jose Padilla was placed in a military prison for an indefinite period of time without charge, trial or due process of law.
It has been 774 days since President Bush's inauguration, and we have 608 days until the next presidential election.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:40 PM

I'm still appalled that an attorney general would even consider suspending habeus corpus indefinitely. But, adopting Mister Rogers' advice, I've decided to look for ways I can help.

To start with, I'm calling my Senators and Congressman to register my outrage. Don't forget to use the Congressional toll free switchboard at 1-800-839-5276.

And, via LISNews, I discovered this news story about various municipalities around the country that have passed resolutions in defense of the Bill of Rights (and against the USA PATRIOT Act). The Bill of Rights Defense Committee is a nationwide group with information and advice on how you can pass such a resolution in your community. I'm going to look into it for our city, and I'm sharing the word for others who wish to take this step.

Continuing to look for the helpers, Congressman Bernie Sanders of VT is propsing the Freedom to Read Protection Act of 2003 to exempt libraries and booksellers from Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. [For more details regarding what's in that section, read my paper on the Act.] You know, I think I'll also mention this when I call my Congressmen and ask them to join as sponsors.

BTW, in these difficult times, it may be useful to not only reread the Constitution, but have a copy on-hand in case you're challenged or hassled. Constitution Facts offers a copy of the U.S. Constitution that's small enough to fit into a purse or (deep) pocket for only $2. I've got one and really like it. It includes the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, and makes good reading on the trains. Maybe I should pick up a few extra copies for our unelected officials in the executive branch...

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:35 PM

Steven Brill writes that in Ashcroft's original draft of the USA PATRIOT Act, the attorney general proposed that habeus corpus "just plain be eliminated during this undefined emergency that had no designated end date."

Shudder!

I first saw this on TalkLeft.

Constitutional law professor Jack Balkin explains the ramifications -- and they are chilling. You can also read an excerpt from Brill's book which includes this terrifying passage.

This administration does not represent me. I want my country back.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:15 PM

First of all, thanks to those who participated in this morning's meme. I really appreciate hearing from you. And to those of you who haven't responded yet, there's no deadline, so feel free to post your responses as well.

I stumped 20 Questions this morning: I chose a job. However, the AI disagreed with some of my choices, in ways that I found bizarre. Here are some of the AI's comments:

You were thinking of a job.
Is it hard? you said Unknown, I say Yes:  But not all jobs are hard!
Does it bring joy to people? you said Yes, I say No:  The best jobs do bring joy to those holding them, and some jobs involve bringing joy to others.
Can you find it in a church? you said Yes, I say No:  But some people have jobs in churches.
Does it grow over time? you said Yes, I say Doubtful:  Jobs grow and change over time.

The differences went on, but these were some of the most surprising. It's clear that the AI and I have very different ideas about what a job involves. The only way to change the AI's mind on this is for more people to play the game.

Speaking of games, my Progress Quest character continues his reign of terror. Ph33r Oobleck and his +19 Venomed Pronged Poleax! [Ebert of Oobag is also pretty ph33rsome, with his +3 Banded Gilded Plasma Greaves.]

In my search for money, I may be whoring out this blog. As MSNBC has reported, ProjectBlogger is looking at using weblogs to "advance marketing efforts" by giving products (and possibly cash incentives) to bloggers and letting them write about it as they write about everything else. So, I've signed up on their survey. Nobody's offered me anything yet, and I don't know that I will accept whatever they do offer, but I thought it only fair to be upfront and honest about it.

Okay, this is odd. Articles (in the NYTimes and the Guardian and attributed here) are headlined Groups Seek Probe Into Guantanamo Prison but the body of the article only talks about the number of attempted suicides in the US-run POW camp (sixteen since January) but doesn't mention any groups actually investigating the situation. Amnesty International is "alarmed" but it doesn't say they're probing any further... Oh, wait, there it is buried near the bottom: "Kateb al-Shemmari, who represents several Saudi detainees, called on the Red Cross to investigate."
Ew. Body and soul links to more disturbing news surrounding an Afghan who died in American custody.

The Political State Report (a blog devoted to local news from around the country) points out that two Washington State legislators walked out when the week's opening prayer was given by an Imam, calling it "an issue of patriotism." It's funny that as I was reading this, I also came across a Cal Thomas editorial about the pledge of allegiance, decrying those "who might be 'offended' at the favorable mention of G-d's name" and longs for "pluralism and diversity ... broad enough to embrace people who believe in G-d."

Nyarg! On the train home from school this evening, I read through somebody's left-behind Herald. ``I said after Sept. 11th that one of my hardest jobs is to remind people that we are at war,'' said Bush. (from this article by Andrew Miga) No! No! No! We are not at war until Congress declares war. Yeesh! Would somebody please get this man a copy of the Constitution and make him read the durned thing?

In closing, in brief, today the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments regarding gay marriage. On NPR, I heard a great quote from one of the lawyers when asked why gays can adopt but not marry. Added later: According to Wednesday's Globe, Assistant Attorney General Judith Yogman said, ''Adoption is one thing. Marriage has many other responsibilities and benefits associated with it other than child-rearing.'' So, marriage takes more responsibilities than child-rearing? As Bill Cosby might say, R-i-i-i-ght! I haven't seen it in print (yet) but it was such a bizarre stretch that I have to find and quote it. [Something implying that marriage involved much more responsibility than child-rearing.]
Bill Moyers eloquently explains why he's started wearing a flag pin on his lapel.
And tomorrow, the Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments on the Children's Internet Protection Act, which requires libraries to filter all Internet access or lose funding. This is Congress's third attempt at such regulation, the last two attempts overturned by the Supreme Court. The Christian Science Monitor gives a decent summary of the issues, and a more technical overview, including links to the briefs, can be found at SCOTUSBlog.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:20 AM

I know it's long, but please don't let this newsy post overwhelm my earlier, more personal post this morning. They're both important.

• I'm wondering why it's still an open question whether an admitted murderer will turn his trial into a forum about abortion when Ed Rosenthal was forbidden to even mention the entirely relevant matter of medical marijuana in his trial.
• Speaking of the courts, the Pledge of Allegiance is in the news again. I wrote my opinions on this in the summer, but Mark Kleiman makes an excellent point:

  Supt. David W. Gordon said the district was "very disappointed" and plans to ask for a stay and for review by the Supreme Court.
  He said the pledge would not be recited without the words "under God" because "we want our kids to say the pledge as it is."
  Let's think about the choice Superintendent Gordon has just made. Given the choice between having his students express their patriotism without also expressing their piety and having them not express their patriotism at all, he has chosen to have them be silent. Assuming for the moment that he thinks (as I do not) that a required daily loyalty oath is a good thing, isn't it strange that he prefers not to have it at all if he can't also make it an act of forced worship? Is his religion more important to him than his country?
  Doesn't that seem a little bit ... disloyal?

  Kleiman also links to a really good legal analysis of the case by Jack Balkin. I particularly recommend this for those in favor of the "under Gd" clause -- a victory in the Supreme Court might not mean what you think it means: "If the Supreme Court takes the Ninth Circuit case, they may very well reverse the decision on the grounds that the pledge is just ceremonial Deism, and therefore doesn't mean what religious Americans want it to mean. That would be a predictable result, and an ironic one."
• Internationally, Ian makes an excellent point about Korea, and I've had this link about Egypt bookmarked for blogging for a while now: "The United States has "serious concerns" about Egypt's extension of emergency laws which allow it to detain suspects without charge and try civilians in military courts." I wish Egypt would issue this response: "Egypt has "serious concerns" about US's new emergency laws which allow it to detain suspects without charge and try civilians in military courts."
• Speaking of which, Warblogging points this disturbing tidbit:

  The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, the only oversight offered to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, said in a November, 2002 ruling that "We think the procedures and government showings required under FISA, if they do not meet the minimum Fourth Amendment warrant standards, certainly come close." In other words, they said, the Justice Department doesn't have to operate within the Constitution — they just have to "come close".

• How much contempt does this administration have to show for the Constitution before the President will have violated his oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States"? Keep in mind, Bush has been subverting the Constitution since the campaign: the Constitution requires that the President and Vice President be from different states -- Cheney was a Texan until two weeks before Bush nominated him. In a similar vein, TAP wonders whether Bush is violating the constitution in planning war without a formal declaration. And the New York Times titles an Op-Ed: Marbury v. Madison v. Ashcroft.
• Meanwhile, sigh, rooting for the Democrats is beginning to feel like rooting for the Red Sox. One day after a NYTimes article on how Congressional Democrats are pulling together in a united front against Bush (mind the credibility gap!), today's Washington Post reports deep divisions on everything else.
• If you haven't heard about it yet in the mainstream media, there's a huge ongoing controversy about how easy it is to rig computerized voting machines, as they often have no audit trail. Think about it, many people wouldn't trust ATMs that didn't give paper receipts for confirmation (and when the ATM is out of paper, the machines often pop up a warning that it can't print a receipt and allow users to back out of the transaction). So why trust voting machines that don't offer similar paper-trails? You programmers out there can probably think of hundreds of ways to rig such a system, and there's growing evidence that some votes may have already been falsified through machines (many manufacturers have close ties to the GOP).
  Anyway, I originally posted this because I was looking for a particular quote, but I just found it here. A spokesperson from Sequoia Voting Systems, one of the companies manufacturing the machines, spoke out against providing paper confirmations, because "you'll have voters say, 'That's not how I voted,'"
  You got that? The Sequoia spokesperson complains that there shouldn't be a paper trail because voters will say "That's not how I voted"!!! This company is making it clear that they trying to stop voters from being able to verify that the machine correctly records their vote! Now there's a scandal that needs exposure!
• Remember Afghanistan? They're back to #1 in heroin production!
• On the other front, historians are pointing out that the Saddam-Hitler comparison really is "nonsense": "Saddam is not another Hitler. Where is his Mein Kampf? Where is his dream of universal conquest?"
• As usual, Bill Maher manages to be on target and thought-provoking. He was on Larry King Live last week (you can read the full transcript here). Sideshow quotes him making a more appropriate comparison:

  Iraq is Waco. Saddam Hussein is David Koresh.
  He's a real bad guy, an evil man who's got an arsenal that we don't like. And, of course, we shouldn't like it, but I think right wingers always defended David Koresh because the idea was, 'Well, he's not using it. It's just going to make matters worse if we go in there.' And that's what -- I've seen this movie. And in this case, our army is the FBI and he [Saddam] is David Koresh.
  And I know how it ends. The FBI gets decimated when they go in and the nut bar takes the whole place with him rather than give up his weapons. He uses them.
  We are forcing this guy to use his chemical and biological weapons when I don't think -- for 12 years he has not so much crossed against a red light and suddenly he has become this menace who is about to attack us.

• For a good laugh, DailyKOS is holding a contest to come up with the best campaign slogan for Bush's 2004 reelection campaign. Here are the results.

A reminder that MoveOn, the group that sponsored last week's Virtual March on Washington (which made the news, here) is now issuing an emergency appeal to the U.N.. They're compiling a petition to send to the UN Security Council on Thursday urging the UN to find peaceful ways of disarming Iraq without going to war. If that's your preferred outcome, then please add your name to the petition. Thanks!

It has now been 533 days since President Bush said all we want is Osama brought to justice, dead or alive, and 332 days since American citizen Jose Padilla was placed in a military prison for an indefinite period of time without charge, trial or due process of law.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:30 AM

Sorry I didn't have a chance to post yesterday to honor the half-a-beast (3/3/3) day. Anyway, here's one of the latest memes to wend its way around LiveJournal. It's also an invitation for y'all to comment upon me:

I ____ Lis.
Lis is ____.
If I were alone in a room with Lis, I would _______.
I think Lis should _____.
Lis needs ______.
I want to ____________ Lis.

Use the comment field or e-mail and let me know how you would complete those sentences.

I will provide one answer of my own and say: Lis needs a job. And soon. It's been 313 days since I left Lotus -- I'm just 50 days shy of a full year of unemployment, and I need to find work again. So, I'm reaching out to those who are reading this. I worked at Lotus/IBM for ten years improving user experience: designing interfaces, conducting usability evaluations, and directly supporting users. I'm one evening course away from a Master's degree in Library and Information Science, focusing on information retrieval, knowledge management, and the technical side of librarianship. I love online searching for people; one coworker called me a black belt information broker. Ideally, I'm looking for a position that combines the two fields, however, I'm also open to positions on either side of the divide. If you know of any job openings in the greater Boston area that might be up my alley, please let me know. You can also get more details about my qualifications including copies of my resume on my Job search page. Thanks in advance!

MoveOn, the group that sponsored last week's Virtual March on Washington (which made the news, here) is now issuing an emergency appeal to the U.N.. They're compiling a petition to send to the UN Security Council on Thursday urging the UN to find peaceful ways of disarming Iraq without going to war. If that's your preferred outcome, then please add your name to the petition. Thanks!

I've been working on a lengthy post on current events, but I think I'll separate that into a separate article. Meanwhile, my Progress Quest characters are doing well. I've got characters in two different realms, and both have just reached level 35 in Act III.

Another fun game I've discovered online is the AI 20 questions. A little slow, but it's quite a good guesser. And the more you play it, the better it's supposed to get. Go ahead -- try to stump it!

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:00 PM

Well, I think I may have done it. Back in December, when my close college friend announced he got the lead in You're a good man, Charlie Brown, I said "I'm sorely tempted to use my frequent flyer miles to go out to Seattle primarily to see him in the play." Well, I think I'm going to do exactly that. I should be heading out to Seattle the afternoon of Thursday, March 20th, I'll see his Friday night performance, and fly back that Saturday. Just a short trip, but it's been waaaaaay too long since I've seen Jeff (and I haven't even met his husband yet). I'm so excited (though I've got a lot of prepwork ahead of me)!

So, here are some other amusing tidbits I've found in my meanderings:

• As seen on Electrolite: Free money. No, really. Probably only about $10 or $15, but it takes five minutes to fill out the form, and if you bought a music CD between 1995 and 2000, you're eligible. Moreover, the deadline is tomorrow. Do it. See those dollar bills go swirling round your head. [PNH has also found a website summarizing the week's news in Latin. Weird reading; makes me wish I knew the language...]
• Did you know that Mr. Rogers saved the VCR? He's actually quoted by name in the 1984 Supreme Court decision. Cool!
  Also, several places have suggested that the best way to honor Fred Rogers is to "recognize the power of his example." So, WWMRD?
• Wandered into the bookstore this evening and discovered that Shatterglass, Tamora Pierce's final book in the Circle Opens series, is out. I've already put a request in for it at the Minuteman Library Network.
• My husband and friends have managed to hook me on an evil little MMORPG, Progress Quest. It's utterly horridly addictive. In the four hours since I started playing, my primary character has already advanced to level 10!
• Nyarg. I know they're a stupid pseudo-lesbian manufactured teenypop duo, but ever since the Birds of Prey finale played their song, I haven't been able to get t.A.T.u.'s "All the things she said" out of my mind. Fortunately, they've got the single on their website, but it's an annoying earworm. [PS: See here for how Jay Leno (mis)handled their appearance.]
• I've got a petty gripe. Over ten years ago, in the summer between high school and college, I worked at McDonalds (didn't most people?). My duties included making sundaes, and I was carefully taught to put one squirt of fudge (or caramel or strawberry) at the bottom of the cup, then fill it with ice cream, and then pour more topping on top. That way, customers wouldn't run out of topping so quickly. However, in the last year or so, whenever I order sundaes at McD's, they only put fudge/caramel/strawberry on the top. Are these people ignorant or did McD's change its policy for the cheaper (and less tasty)?
• BTW, if you hadn't heard, PETA's latest attention-getting stunt is to compare the conditions of food animals with the Holocaust. [I'm not even going to dignify that with a link.] In response, several people have decided to designate Saturday, March 15th, as International Eat an Animal for PETA Day. It's a harmless way to show PETA the same kind of insensitivity that they've shown others. A rather tasty protest, too!

I'm continuing to read the letters between King James and his lover, George Villiers. They're really sweet, but so mushy as to be embarrassing. I thought of quoting one, but they're just too personal. At any rate, I'm starting to wonder whether there might be some salable story in James' life. I mean, Elizabeth was a huge success as a film, could a similar tale be told about her successor? He lived quite a dramatic life; I suppose it all comes down to choosing the right stopping point to provide a happy ending.

I mean, I'd love to tell the tale of the unhappy bookish orphan boy raised in a series of foster homes, the political pawn who learns to rule like a king through the love of handsome Frenchman Esme Stewart. Unfortunately, that relationship ended tragically when James was kidnapped by an anti-Esme faction who forced the king to exile his lover, who died shortly thereafter. His relationship with Robert Carr ended in major scandal, and (no offense, but) he got kinda skeevy as he got older... I wonder if there's something surrounding his assumption of the English crown and/or the Gunpowder Plot that's usable. I like the idea of a factual historical with a gay romance at its core.

Oh, cool! I just found that the word skeevy "comes from the Italian verb schifare, which means to disgust or be disgusted by" according to Joan Houston Hall, the chief editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English. And here I thought the meaning was just somehow evoked by the sound. Learn something new all the time!

Meanwhile, the jobhunt is still ongoing. I'm at the ten month mark now, with a bunch of outstanding applications yet no prospects in sight. I hate the Bush economy. As an Austin Chronicle article asks, "If the economy was getting the kind of media attention that war now hogs, what do you think Bush's approval rating would be? Which is a prime reason why Bush won't back down from his war on Iraq."

Not a terribly happy note to conclude with, so Yaaaay! I'm gonna go to Seattle and see Jeff!

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:41 PM

Wow! An interview with Tom Lehrer: "I'm not tempted to write a song about George W.Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them." ... When Lehrer talks in his still-boyish voice about vaporising Bush, he quickly adds: "And that's not funny."

I still don't really want to write about current events. The U.S. government is spying and playing dirty tricks on our allies in the Security Council, we've arrested a major terrorist who "expected to be interrogated in an undisclosed foreign country" (and we all know what that means), we've publically sold out the Kurds' freedom for a crap-shoot. I could go on, but other blogs are already there.

I do find it hopeful that the Congressional Democrats have finally found a good and unified message they're sticking to. Pointing out Bush credibility gap (and yes, that does link to a House.gov website!) is a great idea, and I hope they stick to it -- there's a lot of good material to work with.

On the lighter side, here's a short guide to every fanfic ever written.

As those of you who read Ian's journal may know, we actually watched the WB's version of The Lone Ranger. My gd, that was campy. WB certainly knows their target audience. Lead characters are three hot-looking women and three hot-looking men. The newspaper editor is a spunky 17-year old (think Chloe from Smallville) who took off her shirt within three minutes of appearing on camera. Tonto's rival in the tribe looked like he should've been called Keanu-sabe. And even the promos showed the hot-tub scene (spoiler: it was a dream sequence). But what really got me were the passionate, soulful, slashy looks between Luke and Tonto. Quite funny. I almost wish they would pick it up as a series, it was that amusing. [I mean, remember the ancient Indian saying "Knowledge is power." I didn't know that Francis Bacon was Native American!]

That's about all I can write about coherently at the moment. There's more going on, but not much that I can get clearly into words at the moment.