YEARLYKOS Con :Ep. 2: Peace Takes Courage/remix A promo created by patriotic teen sensation Ava Lowery to support the YearlyKOS convention (las vegas riviera June 8-11 yearlykos.org).
Thats awsome, truly, fifteen! at fifteen, I was not proactive, in fact
it took many years. These are the kind of people the rest of our so
called adult population should find inspiration from.
Funny how you never hear of death threats to the wingnuts from libs.
All gave some. Some gave all. On Fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead.
Nor shall your glory be forgot While Fame her record keeps, Or Honor points the hallowed spot Where Valor proudly sleeps. People wander amongst the crosses at the Arlington West Iraq war memorial display on beach next to the Santa Monica Pier. (Stefano Paltera / AP)
if you knew anything about the morning after pill, you would know that
it doesn't cause an already implanted embryo to be aborted, rather it
prevents implantation at all if there even is an fertilized egg to
begin with. ergo, no abortion & no "murder", by your standards.
Rep. Jack Murtha speaking on the massacre in Haditha, including footage
from Iraq with an interview of a 9 year old child who was the lone
survivor of one of the murdered Iraqi families. The video then ends
with Murtha's appearance on Hardball.
Rep. Murtha touches
on many of the problems with the war, and for the troops. I think it's
also worth noting that before this war, the Marines were never used for
long-term fighting the frontlines of battle.
The chilling aspect of this story is that it happened over a period
of several hours, so some of the killing wasn't in the heat of the
moment.
It is an example ( I hope! I assume!) of aberrant behavior, but the
aberrant behavior is what people notice, not the routine stuff.
Murtha linked it to stress over extended tours and inadequate
troops. I don't know if this particular incident is related to those
factors or not. There is another pattern which, while less publicized ,
is probably worse in terms of the success of our involvement in Iraq:
the lack of routine positive contact between Americans and Iraqis. In
Assassin's Gate the writer describes the extraordinary, noble efforts
of American service people to rebuild basic services in neighborhoods
and the way that kind of interaction with Iraqis forged the kind of
links which could have contributed to the successful development of a
pro-American government in that country.
Unfortunately he also
describes how those efforts where underfunded and unsupported by the
Bush administration and how lack of troops, money, and support
eventually undercut those sorts of efforts. As time when on and the
troops got more stressed and more isolated, the routine, ordinary
interactions between troops and Iraqis became more fear based and
hostile. The policy now is to pull troops back to bases, leaving the
Iraqis to literally fight things out themselves. This policy, it seems
to me, will guarantee that further encounters between Americans and
Iraqis will be hostile and fearful and quite likely more trgedies will
occur.. It is a de facto admission of failure. We can't help in a
situation where our peple and theirs can't interact cooperatively.
I wanted to share this video with you. It was made by a woman Lisa and she posted it on the C&L's Late Night Music Club, which has a great video up by Peter Gabriel. The music in this video is also by Peter Gabriel and the title is "Here Comes the Flood."
Waiting your time, dreaming of a better life...
I wonder about the death toll in New Orleans. Will we ever know the
accurate death toll? After the great fires and earthquake of San
Francisco in 1906 the government and big business intentionally lied
about the death toll because they wanted investors and people to stay
in the city.
The
Norwegian Special forces are actually one of the absolute elite top
special forces in the world. They have a very good reputation on their
skills, knowledge and experience.
However, these on this video are not special forces. These are soliders
from the Telemark Bataljon. But they are skilled soliders. By far.
Insurgents, body armor, and even Jello. It's all included in a new rap song by two U.S. soldiers.
The songs lyrics include
"The cowboy sensation as I stifle a yawn," "We ain't got time for that, better get your gear on." "Cause out in the city, IBA's are required." "We check out our soldiers before we leave the wires."
Staff sergeants Matt Wright and
Josh Dobbs, both Indiana natives, put together the Middle East 'rap'
response to Saturday Night Live’s "Lazy Sunday."
Monday, May 22, 2006
Spying On Americans Using Statistics
If indeed "freedom" is just another word for 'nothing left to
lose'...then we're not exactly free yet. We're at the precipice of
having nothing left to lose - Losing the freedom from warrantless
searches, freedom of association, freedom to express ourselves, freedom
to demand probably cause prior to having warrants issued, freedom to
visit "questionable" websites or check out certain periodicals/books
from our public libraries, etc.
The NSA spying program raises plenty of sensitive issues, but at
least one of them hasn't received the close scrutiny it deserves: it's
fundamentally a system for identifying criminals by statistical
analysis. Americans need to come to grips with whether they approve of
this.
Take a different, but equally incendiary example. Suppose that we
could semi-reliably create a statistical portrait of child molesters:
their age, geographical location, gender, and calling and buying
patterns. Suppose they tend to rent certain kinds of videos, make phone
calls to certain kinds of chat lines, and call up other known child
molesters.
Needless to say, the FBI could track these patterns using the same
methods as the NSA and then exploit the results to create lists of
"possible child molesters." And it might work. But would we be OK with
the FBI tapping someone's phone just because they fit a statistical
profile? Or staking out their house? Or investigating their friends?
And if we can do it for suspected terrorists and child molesters,
how about tax evaders and unlicensed gun owners? Can we tap their
phones too because they're the "kind of person" who might be breaking
the law? Should a court grant a search warrant based on a statistical
pattern rather than a showing of specific fact?
And if not, why not? After all, if you're not doing anything wrong,
why would you object to being investigated? And if the statistical
patterns just happen to target lots of wealthy Republicans or rural
white gun collectors — well, that's how the cookie crumbles. If that's
what the profiling turns up, then that's what the profiling turns up.
Any problems with that?
BTW, its hardly speculation that this might be extended beyond just
"terrorism" when the Attorney General has already said this same
technique is being used to look to identify leakers of classified
information to the media, and to gather evidence for potential
prosecution of the leakers and the reporters.
Its not something that could happen, or even that will certainly happen in the future, its something that has already, openly happening.
There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. When the government starts using stats to determine who is a terrorist, criminal, or political donor, we're all in trouble. Remember, statistically the average American has one testicle and one boob.
And who decides what "patterns" are authentic indicators of criminal behavior or intent? The Decider, of course
"After all, if you're not doing anything wrong, why would you object to being investigated?"
On the other hand, why did your parents tell you not to give information about the household to strangers?
Where's the guarantee that your personal information will not be
used by/sold to child molesters, identity traffickers, thieves
(personal and corporate), kidnappers, conmen, etc. Remember that guy, 3
or 4 at the Dept of Homeland Security, who was making dates with 14 year-olds. Who is watching the
watchers?
After all, if you're not doing anything wrong, why would you object to being investigated? If I'm not doing anything wrong, then why do you want to investigate me?
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Pennsylvania Assembly:
The most common retort against privacy advocates -- by those in
favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale
surveillance measures -- is this line: "If you aren't doing anything
wrong, what do you have to hide?"
Some clever answers: "If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have
no cause to watch me." "Because the government gets to define what's
wrong, and they keep changing the definition." "Because you might do
something wrong with my information." My problem with quips like these
-- as right as they are -- is that they accept the premise that privacy
is about hiding a wrong. It's not. Privacy is an inherent human right,
and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and
respect.
Two proverbs say it best:Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? ("Who watches the watchers?") and "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he
famously said, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of
the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him
hanged." Watch someone long enough, and you'll find something to arrest
-- or just blackmail -- with. Privacy is important because without it,
surveillance information will be abused: to peep, to sell to marketers
and to spy on political enemies -- whoever they happen to be at the
time.
Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance. We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are
not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for
reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the
privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn
them. Privacy is a basic human need.
A future in which privacy would face constant assault was so alien
to the framers of the Constitution that it never occurred to them to
call out privacy as an explicit right. Privacy was inherent to the
nobility of their being and their cause. Of course being
watched in your own home was unreasonable. Watching at all was an act
so unseemly as to be inconceivable among gentlemen in their day. You
watched convicted criminals, not free citizens. You ruled your own
home. It's intrinsic to the concept of liberty. For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under
threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own
uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes,
constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future --
patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by
whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and
innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is
observable and recordable.
How many of us have paused during conversation in the past
four-and-a-half years, suddenly aware that we might be eavesdropped on?
Probably it was a phone conversation, although maybe it was an e-mail
or instant-message exchange or a conversation in a public place. Maybe
the topic was terrorism, or politics, or Islam. We stop suddenly,
momentarily afraid that our words might be taken out of context, then
we laugh at our paranoia and go on. But our demeanor has changed, and
our words are subtly altered. This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from
us. This is life in former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein's
Iraq. And it's our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our
personal, private lives.
Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus
privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether
it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant
domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires
security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police
surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why
we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.
Some broad surveillance, in limited circumstances, might be warranted
as a temporary measure. But we need to be careful that it remain
temporary, and that we do not design surveillance into our electronic
infrastructure. Thomas Jefferson once said: "Eternal vigilance is the
price of liberty." Historically, liberties have always been a casualty
of war, but a temporary casualty. This war -- a war without a clear
enemy or end condition -- has the potential to turn into a permanent
state of society. We need to design our security accordingly.
The city of Black Jack is playing with semantics in order to discriminate. 3 kids 2 adults and 5 bedrooms. I don't see a problem, even if it would be a persons per square foot issue. Black Jack can spout all the ordinances they want, but judging by the "Why didn't you marry him when you had the chance" remark smells like
someone didn't like their lifestyle, which is really no one else's
business.
When Olivia Shelltrack saw the yellow house
with green shutters, she loved it right away. It had a yard, a deck, a
finished basement and five bedrooms — plenty of space for Shelltrack,
her partner of 13 years, Fondray Loving, and their three children. It
was in their price range.
But the house is in Black Jack, Mo., where
anyone moving into a house must get a permit of occupancy. When
Shelltrack and Loving went to get theirs, the city said no.
Black Jack prohibits more than three unrelated
people from living together. City officials ruled that Shelltrack and
Loving, who are not married, and the three kids, one of them
Shelltrack's from a previous relationship, fit that description.
"This ordinance is outdated. We are a family,"
says Shelltrack, 31. "There's a mom, there's a dad, there's three
children. We are a family." Whether Shelltrack, a stay-at-home mom, and
Loving, 33, who works for a payroll-administration company, are married
"should not be anybody's business, if I pay my taxes, if I'm able to
buy the house," she says.
Now, under threat of a lawsuit from the American
Civil Liberties Union and an investigation by the federal Department of
Housing and Urban Development, the city is set to vote today to broaden
the law just enough to allow the Shelltrack-Loving household to live in
town.
"It's nothing unusual to have these particular
type of laws. Basically it's to prevent overcrowding," Mayor Norman
McCourt says. Legislating morality, he says, "was never the intention."
Nationally, definitions of "family" in zoning
laws are widespread and are generally designed to prevent fraternity
houses and boarding houses in single-family neighborhoods. Black Jack
city attorney Sheldon Stock says more than 80 of the 91 municipalities
in St. Louis County, which surrounds the city of St. Louis, have
similar restrictions.
Few enforce them, however, says Tony Rothert,
legal director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. "We're not aware of any
other city that has recently tried to deny an occupancy permit to a
family," he says. "It's been happening in Black Jack a couple times a
year."
In 1999, an unmarried couple with 3-year-old
triplets, Duane Carpenter and Doris McKinney, were denied an occupancy
permit in the town. "The easiest resolution to cure the situation would
be for them to get married," McCourt wrote to the ACLU at the time.
"Our community believes this is the appropriate way to raise a family."
In 1986, a Missouri appeals court upheld a
similar law in Ladue, an affluent St. Louis suburb, after it was
challenged by Joan Kelly Horn and partner Terrence Jones, who lived
there two years with seven children from previous marriages before the
city ordered them out.
"It was, 'Get married or move out,' " says Horn,
who later served in Congress in 1991 and 1992. "We were both pretty
appalled." The couple married in 1987 — on their own timetable, Horn
says. They divorced in 1999.
Missouri housing laws, like those of at least 18 other states, do not prohibit discrimination based on marital status.
Manassas, Va., adopted a law in December
defining family as immediate family members only — not nieces, nephews,
aunts, uncles and cousins. Enforcement was suspended after public
protest and objections from the ACLU.
The Provo, Utah, City Council is debating
whether to define a family as people related by blood, marriage,
adoption or other legal ties.
In Black Jack, the proposed new law would
include in its definition "two unrelated persons" with children
belonging to either or both.
Black Jack residents who oppose changing the law
say Shelltrack and Loving should have done their homework before buying
a house.
"They've gotten into a situation and it doesn't
fit them," longtime resident Corliss Bonner says. "So their solution
is, change the situation. That's not an adult approach."
Larry Hensley says Shelltrack and Loving should
conform or move. He says that's what he did 20 years ago when he moved
from neighboring Florissant, which barred him from keeping bees in his
backyard.
"Any law that can prevent the morality of the
towns from going down is good. You might have a house with 10 or 15
people living in it. Two or three different so-called families in one
house," he says. "I don't know what the big deal is about getting
married."
The topic of marriage has come up between
Shelltrack and Loving. About three years ago, he proposed, and she said
yes. But the couple has set no date for the wedding. Instead, they
saved for a bigger house.
"We're happy with the way our lives are,"
Shelltrack says. "We don't feel that a piece of paper is going to
change it. It's not going to make us better parents. It's not going to
make us better neighbors."
UPDATE: The town's planning and zoning commission
proposed a change in the law, but the measure was rejected Tuesday by
the city council in a 5-3 vote.
"I'm just shocked," Shelltrack said. "I really thought this would all be over, and we could go on with our lives."
The current ordinance prohibits more than three
people from living together unless they are related by "blood, marriage
or adoption." The defeated measure would have changed the definition of
a family to include unmarried couples with two or more children.
Mayor Norman McCourt declined to be interviewed
but said in a statement that those who do not meet the town's
definition of family could soon face eviction.
First, I believe that the real estate agent DID contact the city of
Black Jack and asked specifically about the occupancy requirements and
was not told about the definition of family. If you go to Black Jack's
web-site, you'll also see that there is information about occupancy
permits but not a word about their definition of family.
Secondly, I believe that the family meets Black Jack's definition of "Family" since everyone in the household is related by blood. If you
take the youngest child, you'll see that he is related to his
biological father, his biological mother, his biological sister and his
biological half-sister.
Thirdly, I believe that it's time to change these outdated
ordinances so that we can have more inclusive definitions of "family".
In the coming months, the Equal Housing Opportunity Council hopes to
draft model language for a more inclusive definition of family, and
we'll need help getting ordinances introduced into municipal
governments.
Joementum (jō-mĕn’təm) n., 1. neologism coined to indicate momentum
where none was obvious to anyone but the candidate. 2. a portmanteau
referring to the perceived lack of potential for success of a campaign
or endeavor.
Like so many men who suffer under the delusion that they are catnip
to chicks, Enrique Suave Lieberman likes to boast what a friend he is
to women. As is often the case, the ladies do not agree.
First prominent women in the Connecticut pro-choice community came together to form Connecticut Choice Voice for the express purpose of backing Lamont. Then Carollyn Treiss, current head of NARAL-CT, came out in support of Ned. And now the National Organization for Women has endorsed him, too.
How many pro-choice groups have come out and endorsed Holy Joe on
the heels of both his Alito vote and his friendly advice to rape
victims about the "short trip" they all ought to be wiling to take to get emergency contraception? Let me get my pencil out, do a bit of quick addition, that would be…none.
Bush's favorite Democrat is that dweeb at the bar who finds himself
irresistible. Which is I suppose a good thing, since it looks like the
ladies seem to be leaving him to enjoy his own company.
Midnight swinger, how can the last living Casanova be home alone. Saturday nights mean a stack of Playboys and a bottle of Ripple.
Its great that Lamont is challenging Joementum. And I hope he gets
the 15% delegate count at the convention and goes on to win the primary.
What's a shame is that there are so few primary challenges to the
DINOs and Dems without courage of conviction and Dems that are willing
to sabotage the party to be seen as "centrist" when they are really
stooges for the big money campaign donors.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Hulking Jim Thome. Rugged
Manny Ramirez. Brawny Adam Dunn. "The thought of these big macho men,
swinging pink bats to help women with breast cancer ... what a novel
idea," Louisville Slugger president John Hillerich said Tuesday.
Major League Baseball granted special permission for players to use the
colorful bats - baby pink, at that - for Mother's Day. They're part of
a weeklong program to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer
Foundation
Baseball
granted special permission for players to use the colorful bats for
Mother's Day as part of a weeklong program to raise money for the Susan
G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
(Brian Bohannon / Associated Press)
Derek Jeter, David Eckstein and Marcus Giles are among dozens of
players who intend to try them Sunday. This is the first time pink has
been approved for bats - dyed at the Louisville Slugger factory,
they're usually black, brown, reddish or white.
Kevin Mench was
among several Texas players who wanted their mother's names burned on
the bats. The Rangers slugger, who homered in seven straight games
earlier this season, also planned to have a bat for his grandmother,
who died from breast cancer.
"My mom is the glue of our family,
and I just want to do something to thank her for all that she has
done," Mench said before Tuesday night's game against Minnesota. "At
the same time, we are raising money for a great cause."
Howard
Smith, senior vice president for licensing for MLB, said the idea for
the pink bats struck a chord with commissioner Bud Selig and other
executives. The question was how many players would use the sticks.
"It takes a big man to swing a pink bat in a major league game," Smith said.
More
than 400 bats were being made for 50-plus players. David Ortiz, Jim
Edmonds, Mark Teixeira, Michael Young and Hank Blalock were also on the
list.
The Louisville Slugger factory started making the bats last
week. Players were still placing orders as of Tuesday, and bats will
probably be made and shipped overnight until Thursday or Friday.
"The response has been phenomenal," Hillerich said.
The
bats posed something of a logistical problem for Louisville Slugger.
Each player uses a different model and size, so coloring, branding and
shipping them for Sunday's game has been a challenge, company spokesman
Dan Burgess said.
Along with the pink bats, players and all
on-field personnel will wear pink wristbands and a pink ribbon for
breast cancer awareness on their uniforms. The pink ribbon logo will
appear on the bases and on commemorative home plates, and the lineups
will be written on pink cards.
The bats, along with the home
plates and lineup cards, will be autographed by the teams and will be
auctioned off later with the proceeds going to the Breast Cancer
Foundation.
As promotions go, this was (forgive the pun) a home run, not only
because of the impactful use of color, but also for the unusual
placement in the macho world of pro sports. Louisville Slugger is now selling the "Going to Bat for Breast Cancer" bats on its site, and the company and Major League Baseball are donating $15 to the cause for each bat sold.
Welcome to the Police State. I had no idea so many Americans were talking to Al Qaeda.
Remember
that little canard about making sure a terrorist was on one end of the
line, and making sure it was an international call? Not so much.
In fact, the govern
The NSA spying program raises plenty of sensitive issues, but at
least one of them hasn't received the close scrutiny it deserves: 
The most common retort against privacy advocates -- by those in
favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale
surveillance measures -- is this line: 
When Olivia Shelltrack saw the yellow house
with green shutters, she loved it right away. It had a yard, a deck, a
finished basement and five bedrooms — plenty of space for Shelltrack,
her partner of 13 years, Fondray Loving, and their three children. It
was in their price range.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Hulking Jim Thome. Rugged
Manny Ramirez. Brawny Adam Dunn. 
