journal

A Picture from my PCS Vision Camera

Decadence

UPDATE: This is the parking lot at work. In order, we have a Ferrari Modena 360, Corvette ZO6, Porcshe 911 and BMW M5 (another regular M5 wasn't there when I took the picture). All told, upwards (way upwards) of half a million dollars worth of cars.

My first job in Silicon Valley...

Heh. Back in '91 we developed this things Great Granddaddy. It was 5", and 4GB, and cost something like $4k, but hey, that was 13 years ago.

Gizmodo : RAID1 In Single 3.5" Drive Bay

I wonder how many patents they're infringing on? I know IBM had, oh, I don't know, maybe ONE MILLION of 'em covering this thing (I maybe off by an order of magnitude or two). I even managed to get my name on a couple of those.

Softening it up...

I just realized that this Journal has turned completely political. This is probably because politics have come to dominate much of my free 'thinking' time.

So, something completely apolitical.

This is one of the tools I use to keep from going totally apesh*t at work. XM radio rocks, for the most part. "Lucy", for example, is all excellent music, all the time, at least for a non-conforming-ish consumer like myself :)

Buying Bush's B.S.

I had a (slightly) disturbing discussion with a co-worker yesterday regarding Kerry's Iraq position. Now, this guy is intelligent, fairly well informed (if The Today Show and the Daily Show count as 'informative', that is), open minded and definitely a critical thinker. His career demands that last one.

Nevertheless, he had seemed to have bought the whole RNC "Kerry is a flipflopper on the war" story hook, line, and sinker. It's easy to see why. Television media is constantly repeating this Republican talking point. When they say "campaign sources said X and Y were further examples of Kerry flipflops", it's easy to hear the later part, and forget the partisan source. My coworker let someone else do his thinking for him.

This is as much CNNMSNBCBSFOXes fault as it is our own.

As my children grow up, I'm teaching them one of the most important skills in our modern world: Critical Thinking. Question everything. When someone tells you something, think it through. With my kids, I'm starting small, with TV ads ("hey, do you really think the Pasta Pot will solve all your pasta needs? What is a pasta need, anyway?"). They're getting it, but it is disconcerting how quickly they're willing to believe everything.

And, in case you're still thinking Kerry has flip-flopped about the Iraq war, here is a full, well researched, non-partisan Knight Ridder article:

KR Washington Bureau | 09/23/2004 | Despite accusations, Kerry's position on Iraq has been consistent

Now, depending on your ideological slant, I predict you're either going to dismiss the article, or read the title and nod your head. Don't. Read it.

Kerry is not a flipflopper. But don't take my word for it. Think. Research.

UPDATE: I've posted Pigdog's excellent response after in the extended entry.

Hey,

As the afforementioned "easily mislead" coworker, I thought I should reply to Carlos's post.

Before getting into the discussion let me make a few points:
1. I will be voting for Kerry
2. I think Dubya is a religious neocon nutbag who has seriously soured our relations with the rest of the world, and I disagree with his policies across a wide range of topics. Oh, and I think he's an idiot, too :-)
3. I often say things at work solely to make Carlos's knee jerk. My goal is to make him kick his desk so hard that he breaks his computer.

This instance was one of those times, I knew exactly what to say to most rile up the "libral idjut" that is Carlos. But, his comments on this site made me do a little "critical thinking" about the issue:

First off, I stand by my comment that Kerry is a flip-flopper. In fact, I contend that most, if not all, politicians are "flip floppers". It's often political suicide to say what you really think, especially if the public is riled up about something.

In this particular case, it seems to me:
1. Everyone had a pretty strong feeling that we were going to war when the "presidential authority" vote happened. If I had that feeling, given that my main news sources are the Daily show, the Today show, and Yahoo "oddly enough", then clearly Kerry did too.
2. When Kerry voted to give authority to Bush, and he also made certain that there were some comments on the record that he "was authorizing Bush to try for a peaceful solution". That way, whether the war (that everyone suspected was coming) failed or succeeded, he was covered. It's implied by the fact that he's a politician that he was playing both sides.
3. Look at the next vote, the vote for $87B. Kerry put his name on a Dem. bill that was doomed to fail which repealed tax cuts to provide the money, then "voted against" the $87B Rep. bill which was gauranteed to succeed. Again, he was covering his bases. It cost him nothing to do either of those actions, since the Rep. bill was going to pass either way. The real question is this: If his vote was the swing vote that would have caused the republican bill to fail, which way would he have voted? Likely, he would have voted to pass the bill.

So, in both cases, he was covering all the bases, and was likely not voting the way he really felt either time. Was he flip flopping? You can argue it either way, both ways being about equivalent in terms of demonstrable veracity. "Knee Jerk Librals" like Carlos will always shout one way from their street corner blogs, and die-hard republicans will shout the other. Neither is 100% correct or 100% incorrect. If this is true, interestingly, if certain news stations choose to represent it one way or the other without actively lying, can it really be said that they are "wrong" or "misleading"?

As a side note, Dubya is a politician too, then I'm positive he has flipped and flopped hundreds of times, on hundreds of issues. The "exhausting all options and getting full international support before going to war" issue is an easy one. Given that, the real question is: Why is Kerry constantly on the defensive? Why isn't he fighting back, taking the flip-flop fight to Bush's door?

PS. Perhaps he's trying to lose -- they ARE both Skull and Bones members, after all.........

Why are we so divided?

[I wrote this as a comment over at latinopundit, but I liked it so much I figured I should cross-post it here]

Things have gotten well out of hand, for sure. When we went from a marginally tolerant society to a completely divided one, I don't know.

I do know that I can't talk politics at parties any more (I used to, and we all had a good time), or religion (ditto on that) - we need to stick to small talk. It's a sad state of affairs.

I think it may have started during the last year or two of Clinton's term. I think it may be driven by the inflammatory rhetoric spewing from the like of Coulter, Rush, Hannity, etc. I think Bush's attitude and blatant lies may amplify the chasm.

Though Bush's economic policies have benefitted me more than most, and Kerry's proposed policies will impact me directly (negatively, in the short term), I support Kerry. Though my children will never go to war, or even join the army, I oppose sending other people's children to fight for the wrong causes. Though everything Bush has done brings me short term gain, I deplore his actions.

Why? Because I believe that the poor need my help. I believe that the welfare of my children is more important than mine. I believe if I sacrifice the future of the world for immediate personal gain, my descendants (and yours) will suffer for it.

How christians can tolerate a man who has the blood of tens of thousands of innocents on his hand, I don't know. How a people who believe in democracy can stand for an administration which supports blatant efforts to limit the voting rights of large sections of population, I don't know.

And how this will all get fixed, I definitely don't know.

Scientists and Engineers for Change

I wrote about the shafting science was getting from Junior not too long ago. Now it sounds like they're doing something about it:

The Nation :: Scientists and Engineers for Change

A Picture from my PCS Vision Camera

why were in trouble

Update: This is my first direct camphone-to-blog posting. I did it via Flickr, which, simply said, reeeeaocks. Check 'em out...

Daily Show Viewers Smarter than O'Reilly Viewers - Um, Duh.

When O'Reilly said on the Daily Show:

"You've got stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night and they can vote.""

I remember thinking "well, that's nice, I just worked 12 hours at a job which would be impossible on one beer, let alone a joint, so I'm neither stoned nor slacking".

Well, it turns out I'm not alone. Comedy Central did some research (doing Fox's job again, ya bunch a jokers?) and found some interesting tidbits:

"Viewers of Jon Stewart's show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch "The O'Reilly Factor," according to Nielsen Media Research."

And...

"Comedy Central also touted a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey, which said young viewers of "The Daily Show" were more likely to answer questions about politics correctly than those who don't."

This ties in nicely with the fact that Fox viewers tend to be completely misinformed when it comes to key issues. Furthermore, confronting the typically Foxite is usually a depressing waste of time:

ME: "You know, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, at all"

THEM: "So YOU say. All them librul media types are lying to you..."

ME (doing my best Al Gore Sigh impersonation): "Sigh. You watch Fox, dontcha?"

Heres the Librul Boston Glowb Artikul

Hard, factual, lies

Ok, this isn't an Op-Ed, it's just a straight, plain jane news article, listing only some of Bush Jr's baldfaced lies:

"[Bush] said nearly 100,000 "fully trained and equipped" Iraqi soldiers, police officers and other security personnel are already at work, and that would rise to 125,000 by the end of this year.
(...)
The documents show that of the nearly 90,000 currently in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training. Another 46,176 are listed as "untrained," and it will be July 2006 before the administration reaches its new goal of a 135,000-strong, fully trained police force. "

and...

"Bush touted preparations for national elections in January, saying Iraq's electoral commission is up and running and told Americans on Saturday that "United Nations electoral advisers are on the ground in Iraq."
(...)
So far, the United Nations has been reluctant to send staff back into the battle zone. It only has 30 to 35 people now in Baghdad, no more than eight working on the elections. "

and...

"And [Bush] promised more than $9 billion will be spent on reconstruction contracts in Iraq over the next several months.
(...)
A top Republican aide briefed by the administration said, "at best," the $9 billion would be disbursed by late 2005 or early 2006. A top Democratic aide called Bush's projections "laughable."
(...)
The status of election planning in Iraq is also in question. Of the $232 million in Iraqi funds set aside for the Iraqi electoral commission, it has received a mere $7 million, according to House Appropriations Committee staff. "

ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!

MyDD :: Holy Fucking Jim Crow

Pakistan's President says Iraq war made world more dangerous

Imagine flipping through usually vapid and insipid CNN and running across the usually vapid and insipid Paula Zahn interview interviewing a decidedly sipid Pervez Musharraf. I would have flipped on by except they were in the middle of this exchange:

ZAHN: Is the world a safer place because of the war in Iraq?
MUSHARRAF: No. It’s more dangerous. It’s not safer, certainly not.
ZAHN: How so?
MUSHARRAF: Well, because it has aroused actions of the Muslims more. It’s aroused certain sentiments of the Muslim world, and then the responses, the latest phenomena of explosives, more frequent for bombs and suicide bombings. This phenomenon is extremely dangerous.
ZAHN: Was it a mistake to have gone to war with Iraq?
MUSHARRAF: Well, I would say that it has ended up bringing more trouble to the world.

...

ZAHN: Do you think that the war in Iraq has undermined the overall war on terror?
MUSHARRAF: It has complicated it, certainly. I wouldn’t say undermined. It has further complicated it. It has made the job more difficult.

And then they conclude with:

ZAHN: Final question for you, Mr. President. You know we’re coming upon our national elections. Who do you think would be a more effective leader on the war against terror, President Bush or Senator John Kerry?
MUSHARRAF: That’s a very unfair question you’re asking me. I have — I know President Bush. I have a personal relationship with him. He’s a friend, and I like him very much because of his sincerity and straightforwardness.
I don’t know Mr. Kerry at all. I wouldn’t like to comment more than that.
ZAHN: So it may not be a fair question, but you answered it, sir.

Answered the question? Um. Hardly.

Another amazing (yet utterly unsuprising) thing is that while the interview contained the above bombshells and more, the writeup which appeared later on the CNN's website was, well, vapid and insipid. Nowhere do they mention, even eliptically, above comments. They focus on Pervez' statements that OBL is alive (duh), and that they're still looking for him (uhuh), and that they definitely haven't found him (yeah). Nothing about how badly Bush Jr. fvcked up in Iraq and elsewhere.

USA Election vulnerable to malicious monkey attack!

It turns out the piece of cr@p voting boxes most of the nation has settled on using is so completely vulnerable ANYONE can hack it. You don't need mad haxxor skillz - you just need to know how to pull down a menu, or how to click on checkboxes.

FOX news article' defends the system, pointing out that to do this, a Black Hat needs physical access to the computer, and that these computers are well protected.

That is a) dumb, and b) besides the point.

Dumb because the people *I'm* worried about are the people with access in the first place. I don't trust anyone, Republican or Democrat, at this point.

In fact, I shouldn't NEED to trust them.

And that is why it's besides the point: it would take minimum effort to make these computers secure. Minimum effort. There is no REASONABLE EXPLANATION for this oversight. It's stupid.

So Diebold can wave these objections away all they want, making excuses for their cr@ppy (at best) or malicious (at worst) code, but I ain't buyin' it.

It's like I'm living in some orwellian nightmare.

Bush Encourages Attacks on our Troops

"Every time George W. Bush, or one of his campaign surrogates, lies about John Kerry, and says that Kerry will withdraw our troops from Iraq, he encourages Iraqi insurgents to ramp up their attacks in order to drive Bush from office."

Read the rest here:

Counterspin Central: The unofficial "FIRST AMENDMENT ZONE."

If it worked for Bugs Bunny...

Remember that Bugs Bunny episode where he was getting beat up by a gorilla, and the gorilla eventually tires and collapses. Bugs then says "well, whadaya know? I wore him out!".

Here is Rummy on Iraq:

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cast it a little differently this week, at a news conference in Missouri. Iraq is making progress, he said. "At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed and we'll have enough of the Iraqi security forces that they can take over responsibility for governing that country," he said."

It's the whole 'tired of getting killed' trick. It all makes sense now.

Read the rest of this excellent USATODAY article.

More USATODAY goodness

Here's another example:

Yahoo! News - Medical costs eat at Social Security

Short...

"With a new Medicare drug benefit set to begin in 2006, Americans 65 and older can expect to spend a large and growing share of their Social Security checks on Medicare premiums and expenses, previously undisclosed federal data show."

And sweet...

"Richard Foster, Medicare's chief actuary, said the program's trustees - administration officials and appointees - replaced the chart with a graph that lacks specific numbers in an effort to show that the increased costs come with a new benefit. "

With desert saved for last:

"Foster is at the center of another dispute over missing data. He says he withheld from Congress higher cost estimates for the Medicare law last year, at the direction of a Bush appointee who headed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Congress approved the law based on a 10-year, $400 billion estimated price tag. Foster's estimate was $540 billion."

This isn't Op-Ed, or 'he said/she said'. It's just news. Why doesn't CNN give me this? MSNBC? The Local News? Hell, not even venerable 60 Minutes?

Refreshing

Until recently, I'd always considered USA Today to be a 'newspaper light', kind of the "morning show" of newspapers. I've had to revise my opinion recently though. I've observed that while the NYT and the WashPost get tangled up in deep discussions, often obfuscating what should be obvious, USA Today goes straight to the heart of the matter, and just states the facts.

Take this short article about the current healthcare rhetoric flapping out of our politicians. The article is short, sweet, and to the point, with no obvious partisanship.

I like. Gimme more.

*I* Feel Safer

For all his bluster about 'hunting down' those responsible for 9/11, for "smokin' 'em out", get Osama 'dead or alive', Junior's posse is now dedicating less resources towards hunting Bin Laden then it was on the day of the bombings.

Lemme say that again: We have less experienced agents working the OBL case TODAY than we had on the day the Bushies were caught with THEIR PANTS DOWN.

Now, dems is cojones. The sure mark of true leadership. I feel all safe and cuddly. Warm and fuzzy. Snug as a bug in a friggin rug.

Why Democrats Kick Ass

A little follow up to my last post. After the story exploded (mostly on blogs, it was ignored by 'real media'), the evil Owner offered to hire her back. She was hesitant (after all, how could you trust an employer like hers?). Then the Kerry campaign stepped in and offered to hire her (as per her boss' threat).

BTW, the lady said of Kerry:

"He was telling me how proud he was that I stood up," Gobbell told me. "He'd read the part where Phil said I could either work for him or work for John Kerry. He said, 'you let him know you're working for me as of today.' I was just so shocked."

At a loss for words...

Wow, I thought that last post had calmed me down for a bit, then I read this. For those too lazy to click through, I've put some relevant excerpts at the end of this post.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't believe a story like this. On the heels of a hateful, vitriolic convention, and fascist loyalty oaths (did anyone else think the GOP 'flip flop' handwave looked like it belonged in some martial march back in 1930's Deustchland?), I believe. And I'm outraged.

I'm also disheartened, because I suspect 50% of Americans won't see anything wrong with it, or will automatically think the victim is some weepy, whiny lefty. The truth is this woman is braver, more patriotic, and more American than any one (any one, dammit) of those chest thumpin', flag wavin' idiots.

Being american isn't hard, all you have to do is be born here, any idiot can do it, ain't no big thing. Being AMERICAN, and standing up for what you believe in, even in the face of losing you livelyhood, now thats hard. And courageous.

And patriotic, dammit.

Story excerpt:

"We were going back to work from break, and my manager told me that Phil said to remove the [Kerry 2004] sticker off my car or I was fired," she said. "I told him that Phil couldn't tell me who to vote for. He said, 'Go tell him.' "

She went to Gaddis' office, knocked on the door and entered on his orders.

"Phil and another man who works there were there," she said. "I asked him if he said to remove the sticker and he said, 'Yes, I did.' I told him he couldn't tell me who to vote for. When I told him that, he told me, 'I own this place.' I told him he still couldn't tell me who to vote for."

Gobbell said Gaddis told her to "get out of here."

"I asked him if I was fired and he told me he was thinking about it," she said. "I said, 'Well, am I fired?' He hollered and said, 'Get out of here and shut the door.' "

Turns out she was fired.

Where I've been...

Some people can claim that they're too busy to blog. I'm busy, always am, but that's not my excuse.

Some people get bored with blogging, especially once they realize they're writing for like, maybe, 5 people. I admit that is part of the reason I've slacked off here.

Mostly, though, it's that I just too angry to be very coherent. Angry doesn't even start to describe my mood. Yes, I am angry, and have, I think, ample reason to be.

Ahhh, that felt good. Maybe more posting is just what the doctor ordered :)