Getting in the Game

2003-07-03T17:58:00.000-04:00

Getting in the Game is no more, however, all the old posts have moved.

I have moved to a new URL: Raise Your Hands (http://www.raise-your-hands.org).

Please update your links and enjoy.

2003-05-09T01:49:00.000-04:00

Cutting off your nose to spite your face

Islamic group criticizes X2: X-Men United for anti-muslim propaganda. According to the NY Post and EurWeb Project Islam H.O.P.E. director Najee Ali claims that Singer is out to paint Muslims in a bad light.

"Within the first five minutes of 'X2,' an evil villain, 'Colonel William Stryker,' is in the White House signing a document," Ali declares. "As he signs, he is shown wearing a ring featuring the Arabic symbol for 'Allah.' Col. Stryker was never depicted as a Muslim in the comic book series. We feel this is a subtle but obvious attack on Islam . . . It is unfortunate, as we continue to live in a post-9/11 world, that Bryan Singer would engage in a subtle campaign to breed intolerance and hate."

Of course I would be offended and join them if the muslim group had WATCHED THE MOVIE. In order to make such a claim I would assume someone in their organization must have. However they seemed to have missed the end of the movie which contained a passive and an anti-extremist message. In fact I left the movie believe that the subtext of the movie was both about equality amongst races and sexual orientation and against the extreme measure that Ashcroft and other have taken.

If the groups claim is true I think it is important to realize that Singer likes to mix roles in order to maximize impact. Putting a muslim in the white House and a superior feeling character in Magneato outside the establishment. The point is obvious, no matter who is power, extremists act the same way and are destructive no matter their genetic make-up or religion.

For a religion that is trying to make sure people understand that not everyone is a terrorist this is a movie they should encourage everyone to watch. Project Islam HOPE's member organizations should blast Najee Ali and his people to wake up and watch movies they intend to gain publicity from.

2003-05-08T18:20:00.000-04:00

Local Elections

Ya know it's funny, I am trying to decide if I should work for a campiagn, another campiagn, yet another one, the party, some soft money variation or start my own marketing business and run for office locally.

In the process I do research, on the candidates and local office. I was sadden to find out only about 2,500 people vote in my city council's elections. Redlands is a Southern Califronia city about an hour east of LA next to San Bernardino. It has a college, great schools, and the only Lincoln Memorial west of the Mississippi. But for some reason only about 5% of the people vote. Sadly the city clerk reports that that is a little more that 30% of the registered voters in the city. Meaning that as the county reports my city only has about a 30% voter registration percentage.

What do all those stats mean? It means people don't care about voting and elections even in Redlands. This is depressing me, and making me want to fix it. But can I really, and is the most important thing I can do now? Or should I work on a campaign. I am torn, more phone calls to take and make, but I'd like to hear from the 100 or so people that read this blog.

Let me know, e-mail me at kmthurman@mac.com

2003-05-07T04:38:00.000-04:00

Dr. Hart or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Politics

As many of you know Gary Hart has decided not to run for President. This could have depressed me, and still might, but for now - after a nice walk down State Street in Redlands, CA - it has reminded me why I love politics.

As many of you also know the reason this blog has been dead for a month or more is because I have been spending my waking hours and some hours when I should be sleeping working on Hart's website ,blog , and planning for a potential announcement and campaign.

I wish I could write a heartfelt (sorry) reflection as Ezra did or even tell you what I am doing next, but I can't because it is too soon (Hey! Presidential contenders want a new employee?).

However, what I can do explain to you why I love politics.

When I was twelve I saw Bill Clinton and I knew that I had to do something, so while I should have been at swim practice I snuck off to stuff envelopes and wet my hair in a fountain at the school near my house to make it look like I went.

I continued to work in politics through my local club and became a leader in an amazing program called Youth and Government . When I got to college on the second day of orientation I skipped out of some required events (beginning to sense a theme) to go volunteer for the NY State Democratic Party.

Just two weeks ago I left my job in NYC and two days before I flew home to Cali in hopes of moving on to Denver sometime in June, repeating the pattern in a more dramatic way. Now here I am. I should be furious. I should be wishing that Gary would give me directions so we can put his vision into reality.

But instead ... I got it.

I got why Gary has such appeal, why we wanted him so bad, and why he might not be President but he will always be important. I got why I started my cycle of leaving what is secure for the allure of politics, again.

It is because he lets you ... nay he requires you ... to fill in the blanks. He doesn't simply stand up and explain what he is going to do and why you should support him. He asks, in his own intellectual way: "Why not?" He encourages active citizenship not only in his speeches, but in his style. This style attracts those of us that have ideas and passion. This is the fuel that ran every campaign before for him. Gary inspires the leaders among us, don't believe me look at the resumes of the people running the campaigns today, or even our own ex-president and his senator wife. In an age where we are told what to buy, drink, eat, and watch he leaves it up to us to figure out how to make his vision become reality.

In a way, this leads us to feel abandoned when he is gone, because we never got together to flush out the details. But how are we abandoned? Can we even be abandoned?

The answer is an emphatic no. Because try as the media does politics is still about ideas not candidates and citizens not consumers.

Hart came into politics because of Kennedy, as did Clinton. I have entered politics because of both of them. It is not important if I ever get elected dog catcher, what is important is that I took their ideas and melded them with my own to create a unique political outlook. At very least it will influence my vote and my children and at the most

In the end, politics only dies for you when YOU want it to. Only the followers of one leader, especially the "why not" candidates like Gary can truly end anything with an interview or statement.

The answers to the questions he has posed to the nation and the party are ours, not his. So it is up to us. Personally, I am thinking about running for office or joining a political campaign. Either way, I carry Gary, his questions, his challenges, and his vision with me and I thank him for that. The only way to repay him is by doing the same for others.

So lets take Gary's vision to the ballot box, the coffee shop, the city council, and the classroom. His exit can be seen as devastating or empowering, and that is completely up to us.

That is why I love politics: fundamentally, it is completely it is our hands. Not any single person or group, no matter what Rove may wish.

2003-03-28T04:08:00.000-05:00

Gary Hart Launches his own Blog!

You heard it here first!

Gary Hart's Blog was launched in the wee hours of this morning. So if you have been wondering what I have been doing all this time instead of blogging here or setting up Raise Your Hands ... I was setting up Senator Hart's blog.

I have to say, the past three weeks have been hectic and busy, but also amazing.

Not only have I been working on Hart's blog, but I have been working on a lot of online strategy for Senator Hart and he has been more than receptive to the teams ideas. I believe that campaigns have begun to use the internet finally, but Senator Hart seems to be the first leader I have seen that is wants to embrace it so much. He sees at one of the best tools to bring about discussion and new ideas.

I agree.

Therefore, I will begin blogging again soon. Just don't know how much and when.

My hope was that this blog was going to be about my life as a campaign worker, and now it seems it might be if Senator Hart decides to run and they decided I have done well. Keep your fingers crossed. For now, you'll have to read all about it over at the Gary Hart News Blog.

2003-03-26T11:32:00.000-05:00

Apologies and an Announcement

I know, its been a while since either of us have posted. We've both been hard at work for Gary Hart News. Kevin has been coming up with all sorts of great ideas that he can't share quite yet, and both of us have been working on getting people signed up for the meetups. (btw, Meetup.com has been great.)

The announcement is that Senator Hart will be coming to the LA Meetup. So if you live in the LA area, COME so you can listen to him talk. The meetup will be on April 3rd at 7:30, location TBA.

We promise to resume regular blogging shortly.

2003-03-21T19:38:00.000-05:00

Gary Hart Update

Gary Hart will be on NOW with Bill Moyers tonight. (Its usually on at 9pm local time, but you can check your local programming here.)

There are 207 signed up at meetup.com to organize and support Gary Hart! Come and join us, the first meeting is on April 3rd.

2003-03-21T17:04:00.000-05:00

Single best war blog post ... SO FAR

Bush's Legacy

2003-03-20T16:47:00.000-05:00

I know ... I know ... I know ...

I owe some people some links (like Wozz, Seeing the Forest, and much much more) however I was putting that off until the new site: Raise Your Hands, was launched.

Guess what? I still am, just haven't gotten around to finishing RYH.

What have I been doing? Updating one site and trying to set up another (shhh ... no it's top secret). However the due dates on that mess have passed or will be over this weekend. So .....

I promise Raise Your Hands, the links and even some stuff ... Gasp ... written by me will appear on those pages soon.

What is in store for you then: I will always be your faithful random pundit. However, the newer blog entries will contain two other really cool things: Raise Your Hands will be dedicated to trying to put words into action as much as possible, so that not only do we gripe about some things, but do soemthing about at least some of them. Secondly and just as fun I plan on blogging as a campaign worker in the coming months, which will be an interesting perspective on the Democrats search for the White House.

2003-03-19T13:18:00.000-05:00

Good reviews for Hart

Wozz has pointed everyone in the direction of some more press for Hart from the Post.

My favorites quote: "Talk about fear, that's my worst nightmare," Hart says, laughing. "To be vice president of the United States."

Anyhow it is a good piece, because even as the writer places up the biases of the Conventional Wisdom, there is no doubt that Hart, his personality and charm show through. What I wish, is that people didn't just concentrate on his grave predictions, but instead his solutions. Oh well at least the press dismiss 1987 pretty quickly these days.

2003-03-19T12:57:00.000-05:00

Gary Hart Meetup and on TV

We now have over 100 signed up over at garyhart.meetup.com and getting more every minute. My hats off to Sarah and crew for getting that e-mail out to everyone.

Also Senator Hart was on American Morning this morning talking about Homeland Security, here is the transcript

Finally he will be on Charlie Rose tomorrow, so tune inf for that I can't wait to hear that interview.

2003-03-18T21:56:00.000-05:00

To President Bush

I cannot hate you, because I have never met you. I respect your office and salut it. I would have cherished the commission that you would have granted me had I been able to complete my ROTC training.

However after watchig you these past few motnhs: I can say will full confidence you are no leader, compared to the men you now send to their deaths. You do not hold a candle to some of the men and women I served with, whom you granted their commsion.

They would tell anyone who asks leading is not just about making decisions, it is about honor, moral, setting an example and sense of purpose. Bush has not even touched the caliber of leadership my friends will display over the next few months, the men and women they lead will be well informed, have a purpose, a defined mission, and an example to follow.

Here is to my friends that fight without me, and in our name. I wish I was with you, I wish I could be following you so that I could know good leadership again.

2003-03-18T21:53:00.000-05:00

The War at Home

Random car checks have never bothered me much, random searches because of loose criminals and immenant dangers to society don't bother me much etiher. I am not saying I agree with they way they are done, but just they never really bothered me. Also, by exstension random car searches due to terrorism not only seemed to make some sense, but actually seemed right.

Of course, Bush spoke on TV last night and gave Saddam 48 hours to leave. Tonight I come home from work to do some work for my night "job" and to my right as I exited were three national gaurdsen, in a new postion essentially blocking the special entrance for strollers and the like, and then proceaded to check people who came in that way.

Then I exited the platform, slightly concerned about the new security within the new "Project Atlas" and saw three police menwaving one out of every three cars coming down broadway over to one of a couple of search stations. The police proceaded to inspect those too. As I stood there, watching in amazement, one of the police officers came over to me and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was making my way home, thanked him for doing his job and walk the block and half home. As I did two helicopters buzzed overhead. Then a jet. Not a 747, but jet, I believe an F-16. Probably out of the National Guard units in Long Island.

So now, because Bush has decided to go to war with Iraq I cannot stand on the corner of 96th and Broadway without being suspect. Nor, can I travel by subway or car without waving my 4th amendment rights.

Follwing the September 11th attacks this kind of stuff comforted me.

Today it startled me. It made me realize that this war, that so many people oppose including myself, is making a greater impact on our lives than most people realize. Due to information the government cannot even give me, we waive some rights. Even as I write this military helicopters fly oevr my city. When I was in elemntary school i never bothered me that the planes flew over my hometown on their way to Iraq. However, these helicopters aren't going anywhere, they are staying right here.

I cannot say the NYPD and the Mayors office are not doing what they should, because they are. Instead, I mourn the sense of unity that existed last time there was a need for such security. Today people tended to be more suspicious of each other both uniformed and non as we passed throught he security.

We are a country divided in this endevour that puts at such great risk our own lives and liberties. We are a country that has all but used up its sense of national pride that got us through those dark days a year and half ago.

I regret that our President does not see this as a problem, and blames me and my fellow citizens that oppose the war for not seeing the "truth" as he does.

However I must say, I do my best. Has Bush done his? Has he attempted to rally the nation or understand MY point of view? Instead he dimisses it, saying he does not govern based on protests.

Glenn Reynalds may be ready for war? But would he be ready for the sense of hopelessness that has replaced this great city's resolve. Today we resemble Tel Aviv more than Kansas City in that respect. We are a city under seige from the decisions of our leaders.

We are a city that is not even been given something to do but be searched, and wait for the war to be over. Or should I be shopping like Bush asked me to do on Sept. 11th 2001?

2003-03-18T21:51:00.000-05:00

2003-03-18T16:48:00.000-05:00

ARG!

So...I found this comment from Instapundit , which I found odd, because I remember seeing a gallup poll just yesterday that showed a HUGE gender gap in the support for a war on Iraq without UN approval. (like 70/30 instead of 60/40) Now I can't find it, of course, because they've replaced it with their newest polls. Which, predictably, show that support for Bush has shot up in reponse to the announcement that we will go to war.

I wonder what they will be like in another month.

But most of all I just hope this war will cause the least amount of damage and cost the least amount of lives as possible.

2003-03-15T13:04:00.000-05:00

War Games

The funny thing is I just watched a half hour of CNN while they talked about the possibility of a first strike by Iraq. The funniest part about that is that they didn't ever mention the Iraq war games we had once upon a time, war games which saddam, no doubt, has a report on. In these games Essentially, Gen. Paul van Riper beat the US troops TWICE and the brass just said ... ignore it ... it's not a big deal. Hopefully this is not what will happen, but this shows a pattern of hubris that the military and this adminstration has, and it will hurt the country. Even worse though ... CNN is really bad at their job ... that sucks because FOX News and MSNBC are the only alternatives ...

2003-03-13T20:25:00.000-05:00

Retaliation or Reducing Costs?

Leftcoaster points us to this article, which talks about the White House’s decision to stop producing an annual report documenting how much money is given to the States from the feds. It seems to me that this would be information that the feds would need for themselves, so why would they stop writing the report?

I don't see how the stated purpose, to cut costs, makes sense. Logic says that its cheaper for the American people if a single agency collects the information and then sends it out to everyone else. Now the states will simply have to compile their own reports, often duplicating each other’s work.

The only other reason that I can think of is the one Milbank and leftcoaster suggest: that this is retaliation by the White House for the State’s complaints about both the lack of and (deliberate?) misrepresentations regarding the size of federal aid to States.

I hope this isn’t true, but either way it sounds like a bad decision to me.

BTW…belated thanks to TalkLeft for pointing the way the ABC news article mentioned below.

2003-03-13T16:20:00.000-05:00

Go 'Yoke!

Professor Christopher Pyle, who teaches at my alma mater, was quoted by ABC news in their recent article on the Patriot Act.

"I don't think the Fourth Amendment exists anymore," said Pyle, a professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College, referring to the amendment that prohibits unreasonable search and seizure and requires probable cause for a search or arrest. "I think it's been buried by the Patriot Act and some of the court rulings that have been handed down. We need a requiem mass for the Fourth Amendment, because it's gone."

Apparently, he’s been rather prolific lately.

For more information on Patriot Acts I and II you can go here and the draft of Patriot Act II can be found here.

I never had Professor Pyle, but I certainly heard about him while I was there. He was one of the few people that actively tried to debate whether or not we should go co-ed. The students' general reaction to that (including mine) was an absolute NO! but it was good for us to have someone on campus who sparked debate and challenged our prejudices and beliefs. Most of our professors (being good at their jobs) did so, but no one did it quite the way Professor Pyle did. (And I’m assuming still does.)

2003-03-12T13:54:00.000-05:00

Black Box Voting

Just a quick note (before Kevin moves the site) to mention this.

I've seen some concerns raised about electronic voting on other sites, but this is the first time I've heard anyone making accusations that it has been used, rather than could be used, for voting fraud. (Although after looking around See the Forest a bit more, apparently it was because I was looking at the wrong trees, not because they haven't been made.)

I'm not sure how credible this story is, but it reminds me that while there are advantages to technologies such as these, there are also serious dangers if we don't use them intelligently. One of the current safeguards we have against controversies like those that happened in the Florida 2000 election is the voter's ability to double check their ballot before casting their vote. (It may not have been enough in that particular case, but it is still better than nothing.) Not only does an electronic voting machine need to have an equivalent to this, but those using the machines, the American people, need to have the ability to investigate how the machine works in order to determine if inaccuracies exists, just as they do in manual systems.

Compromises are often good and usually necessary. But the integrity of our elections, and the democratic process itself, must not be compromised. If current electronic voting systems do not permit voters to double check their ballots and if current copyright and patent laws prevent the American public from investigating how these machines work then other systems and solutions must be found.

2003-03-12T00:23:00.000-05:00

Big News

Well here it is: I am moving to a new domain and site. It will be ready and up later this week. The new site will be oriented towards me posting my opinions and concentrating on gearing people up for action and mobilizing about what the left-blogs always talk about.

It will also unveil what most would probably consider inevitable for me: A Gary Hart blog. I already have a few other contributors lined up, and hopefully it will provide people a place to get more information, connect, and discuss Gary Hart and his career.

Finally, the third piece of news is something you might guess; I have begun doing some limited work for Senator Hart's organization. Mostly web related and grassroots work that I have done before for campaigns. I am giving up my free time (read: sleep) to help out and have had a great experience over the past few days.

So I wanted to let anyone know that if they have any questions about volunteering or anything else expect media requests and rumors. Drop me an e-mail: kmthurman@mac.com.

This also means I am going to tone down my Gary hart posting a bit, I don't want to be considered "a hired poster", especially since I am not getting paid :).

Thanks to all who read! I will let you know the adress of the new site as soon as possible. This site will stay up for a while until I can archive it on the new one.

2003-03-11T13:12:00.000-05:00

Inside Politics Interview Transcript

Here is the transcript for Gary Hart's appearance on Inside Politics. He is being interviewed by Judy Woodruff.

WOODRUFF: That's the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte talking just a few minutes ago to reporters at the U.N..

On the record today, former senator and former presidential candidate Gary Hart, the Colorado Democrat is with me from Denver to talk about Iraq and his own political plans. Senator, thank you for talking with us.

GARY HART, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A great pleasure.

WOODRUFF: You say that Iraq has become President Bush's white whale. Do you just completely dismiss President Bush's argument that Saddam Hussein and Iraq can export terrorism that is an immediate threat, potentially, to the U.S.?

HART: Well, I don't disagree with some of -- the first part of the question. I think I fundamentally disagree with the last part. What the president has not done, and I think other people have made this point, is convince the American people and certainly our allies around the world, that the threat is immediate and unavoidable, which is a standard for preemption under international law. And he has not connected Iraq to the war on terrorism. It's a sideshow. It's unfinished business from 1991. There are clearly people in the administration who feel strongly about this, but it's a separate entity from defeating terrorism and protecting the homeland.

WOODRUFF: But senator, you know what they're saying among other things is that whatever Saddam Hussein has can get into the hands of terrorists. Today, they're talking about cluster bombs, the kind of cluster bomb that can disperse chemical weapons. They're talking about unmanned drones that can dispense chemical weapons. These don't scare you as something that can get into the hands of terrorists? HART: Yes, and we have obviously North Korea, which possesses nuclear weapons. We have Iran to the east, which either has or will have nuclear weapons. We have probably 20 countries with cluster bombs, some of them not very friendly to us. And in five years or so, 20 countries will be able to produce, in substantial quantities, biological weapons. Are we going to war with all of those? I don't think so.

WOODRUFF: Senator, you've been saying that you assume there will be a retaliatory strike against the U.S. If the U.S. leads a war on Iraq. What do you base that on?

HART: Testimony by George Tenet, the director of the C.I.A., statements by Mr. Mueller, the director of the FBI and others much more expert in terrorism and counter-terrorism than I am. I think, universally, anyone who has looked at the situation says, if you kick open a hornet's nest in most volatile region in the world, you can expect to get stung. And that's not necessarily from Iraq. They'll have their hands full with our army, obviously. But from radical fundamentalists throughout the Arab world who will be outraged at a massive American army invading a sovereign Arab nation.

WOODRUFF: But you're not suggesting that the rest of the world just leave Saddam Hussein where he is, are you?

HART: No. And the alternative often put forward by people in the administration is not do nothing. We're bombing regularly and patrolling in the air the north and the south of that country. We've had economic sanctions. There are inspectors there. And I and others have proposed that those inspectors be increased, that they be accompanied by armed U.N. forces, and that the international community would support almost universally a total no-fly zone in that country. That is to say, complete U.N. domination of the air over the country. Saddam is in a box. We can tight than box and we don't need to go to war.

WOODRUFF: Senator, let's turn you to this question of possibly running for president. Are you any closer to a decision today than you were a few weeks ago when you launched this speaking tour?

HART: Well, I'm closer chronologically, obviously. I said target date was March. I think because of the war and other considerations, that may slip another month or so to April. I have completed the policy speeches, as of last Tuesday in California. And I've gotten very, very positive response to those. I think most of the people who either attended the speeches or who followed them on the Web site, garyhartnews.com, have heard that I'm saying different things and saying things differently from any of the other Democratic leaders and have encouraged me to continue to speak. And I'll continue to do that.

WOODRUFF: This report that you're planning to use this part of the FEC law that allows to raise and spend a small amount of money to test the waters, so to speak, is that what you're thinking about?

HART: It is. And we'll do that in the next week or two, when we get accounts opened and so forth. One is permitted, if you're not a determined candidate, and I am not, to raise a reasonable amount of money for a reasonable period of time for the purpose of determining that candidacy. And I am going to do that in the next few days. And, obviously, hope people will respond.

WOODRUFF: Let me just quickly quote something that the former governor of Colorado, Richard Lamm, had to say about you. He said, "I don't want to write him off." He said, "I think there is definitely, though, a sense of tragedy about Gary. He was made for better things." Do you agree, there's a sense of tragedy about you?

HART: No. I don't know where Dick came up with that, but it's quite colorful and almost operatic. No, I don't feel any tragedy at all.

WOODRUFF: Well, let me just ask you quickly, does your own daughter, Andrea, says that you don't like campaigning and you don't like raising campaign money.

HART: Well, if someone does, I think that may -- at least the money may disqualify them. I think if you like raising money that's a disqualifier for the presidency. And if I run, I don't intend to compete with the tens of millions of dollars that the better-known candidates are raising. I think it's outrageous what politics cost in this country.

WOODRUFF: All right. We'll let you think about that sense of the tragic comment from Dick Lamm. Gary Hart, good to see you. Thanks very much.

HART: A pleasure, thank you.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it.

2003-03-10T13:44:00.000-05:00

Bradley offering support to Hart ... so says gossip column

The NY Daily News says:

Back in (political) action

Former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley is sending some love back to Gary Hart, who supported him in his 2000 run for President.

We hear Bradley has offered to serve as an adviser to Hart if the former Colorado senator decides to run for the White House in 2004. Considering Bradley's own feeble bid for the Oval Office, one Democratic insider says, "It's like the blind leading the blind."

Bradley, now a managing director at Allen & Co., didn't return calls. Hart's spokesman said Bradley and Hart "are longtime friends. There's no campaign right now. But he's been talking to a number of people, including Bill Bradley. He values his advice."

This is no surprise considering Hart's support for Bradley in 2000. However, it does remind everyone Hart has some powerful and impressive friends that are staying out until he decides. Gov. Shaheen of NH is one of them, and she has got nothing better to do than run Hart's NH campaign. However, my boss pointed out Bradley didn't even show up for Patrick Ewing's jersey retirement ceremony ... he has been MIA lately. Which makes me think Hart might wake up a few other dormant politicos.

2003-03-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

Barnett & Bush (another long one)

We bash bush for having his main political operative in the West wing (hasn’t been done before really, political people yes, but the campaign people? Check out Boy Genius if you want the rundown.).

I think the questions posed by Gary Hart’s OpEd in the Washington Post is a valid one:

What is our strategic objective in Iraq -- disarmament, regime change, to mount a massive democratic revolution throughout the Arab world or all of the above? Once again, the target changes, and presidential candor is missing. It is cynical in the extreme to assume the American people should not be told that we intend to conduct a political revolution among 1.1 billion people spread from Gibraltar to eastern Indonesia.

The extravagance, not to say arrogance, of this epic undertaking is sufficiently breathtaking in its hubris to make Woodrow Wilson blush.

If George Bush is no Wodrow Wilson, why has his Administration moved towards creating Democracy in the Arab World “by force of bayonet” and is determined to do it by force.
I wrote about Tom Barnett and his article in Esquire "The Pentagon’s New Map”, but it has become obvious as you look more and more into the Bush Administration’s foreign policy decisions that the Defense Department and specifically Barnett’s thinking has become the foreign policy framework for the United States.
However, the Administration does not use the sweeping terms of Barnett like: the ”Non-Intergrating Gap”, the US as the “Bodyguard of Globalism” or talking about the US’s defector Empire, of shared values. Instead it talks more narrowly while enacting almost every single on of Barnett’s suggestions.

I will review the about the four most high profile foriegn policy decisions of the Bush Administration: the war against Iraq, the War on terrorism, AIDS aid to Africa, and North Korean crisis.

On the war against Iraq, Barnett says “The real reason I support a war like this is that the resulting long-term military commitment will finally force America to deal with the entire Gap as a strategic threat environment.”

Many people will argue that my emphasis on Barnett is unfounded. However the PBS Frontline Episode about the decision to go to war makes it clear the Pentagon is calling the shots on the war with Iraq and our foreign policy in general. Tom Barnett is gaining influence in the Pentagon as the overall “guy with a plan”

Bush has stated four main reasons to go to war with Iraq: Saddam poses an immediate threat, he harbors terrorists, he has been defiant for 12 years, and the desire to bring democracy to the Middle East. The reality is these are the same reason Barnett thinks this is an example for the long-term strategy. The Administration reason converge when taken into account with Barnett analysis, they al describe Saddam as: anti-American (harbors terrorists), immediate threat (due to his anti-American stance), he has been isolated and not a part of the world economy (defiant for 12 years), and the desire to close the Gap (bring democracy to the middle east). While there is no direct link, and Barnett’s philosophy is by no means the driving force behind the Iraq invasion, that is Rumsfeld’s noe-Reganites job, it has provided the cover for the invasion, after couching Barnett’s words in more public friendly terms.

The war on terrorism, the language is so similar it is creepy. Bush’s concentration on nation-states alone, arguing you are: “with us or against us” as Barnett’ divides the world in similar halves “integrating and non-integrating” This leads right into the issue of the offense vs. defense, where Barnett argues no changes are needed at home to make us secure, but instead we need simply to shrink the Gap. Which the Administration seems to be doing by using military force and money to pull countries within the Integrating countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey and Iraq.

North Korea, which I discussed before is not being dealt with because as Laney and Shaplen pint out in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs, North Korea has “allowed the price of staples to float freely, inaugurating a special economic zone similar to those in China …agreeing to re-establish road and rail links with South Korea” This connection or movement towards a free market and the fact it lives within the Integrating sphere of countries makes the Administration believe that the countries around it can pressure North Korea into integrating. Thus Bush does no want to take the lead and believes no military action would be necessary. I know that North Korean situation is more complicated than that including: the Administration hatred for the 1994 agreement signed by Clinton. However, one cannot deny how their policy in Korea fit’s Barnett’s analysis.

Finally, Africa is the largest amount of countries that are in the “Gap,” however Barnett advocates aid be given to these countries instead of military intervention. Interestingly enough, besides military aid for the war on terrorism Bush has earmarked $15 billion over 5 years for Africa in the manner that Barnett suggested. Of all the policies this the one I agree with, it is dialog inducing not dialog forcing.

In the end, I do not believe Barnett, himself, is the person making these decisions, but his high post at the Defense Department is indicative of the Bush Administration’s overall vision for America’s foreign policy. A policy that forces nations into globalization and relations with the US at the point of bayonet if necessary. Therefore it is clear Bush and his Adminstration do have a long-term foriegn policy vision and they refuse to explain it to the American public.

2003-03-10T09:32:00.000-05:00

I have had a thought ...

In relation to my post about the direction of the Democratic Party and domestic politics I think I found another state that is the vein my Robert Putnam/Fourth Turning philosophy about history and time as a cyclical stream. Believe it or not it was on Talking Points Memo. When clarifying his position on the war he says:

We are at that point. I'm less worried about the immediate repercussions in the Middle East than in the wider world, where we are as quickly as we can trashing a world security system that decades of statesmanship have built up. That's worth more than can possibly be gained in Iraq.

One can say it took the Democrats to undo the major entitlement programs of the 20th century and I guess I am noticing that it will take the Republicans to undo the dominate worldwide system of diplomacy for the second half of the century.

There is no question in my mind that in 2004 this country will be holding one of it's most important elections ever, in which we decide what leaders will fill our domestic and foreign policy vacuums, not just with a leaning presence, but with a new paradigm. Many would argue this will not happen in four years, to them I say, if it does not, then there is no way in we can prevent the current crisis (not Iraq, the whole worldwide crisis) from boiling over. Some crises are worse than others and some do not successfully resolve problems and they linger for a century, look at the Civil War. There is no question that we cannot wait the ten years the country waited after bleeding Kansas to find out Lincoln. I just hope the people and one of our leaders is up to the task.

2003-03-09T23:14:00.000-05:00

Gary Hart meetups

Well, there is now a space for Hart at Meetup.com and I believe this is the perfect forum for showing your support for Gary Hart. Just sign up for the Meetup at hart2004.meetup.com.

This is a grassroots tool, that will allow people to: find out about Gary Hart and what he has been speaking about, meet other supporters, show our support, and most importantly - organize locally in the event of campaign.

The Dean people have had great success with it, and from the response I have gotten lately it seems as if the Hart group will have just as much if not more. I have been in touch with the staff and told them about meetup.com, but I think the good people at the site have just added it. It seems as if the will of the people is bubbling up and whether or not Hart has made his choice we have begun to support him.

To the people who have not decided anything yet, I say, sign up, encourage Hart to run, the worst that can happen is that his ideas are heard and the Democratic Primary benefits from his wisdom. The best is that you love his ideas and become involved in campaign that represents something.

Let's get together and make sure that we have a productive Primary of Ideas

2003-03-08T21:08:00.000-05:00

The media coming out party

Seems to be this weekend. Man these guys/gals plan well, my hats off to Antwaun Smith and the team of volunteers right now.

First, TalkLeft pointed us to an awesome OpEd piece by Gary Hart appearing in tomorrow's Washinton Post (if your in the DC area and can pick on up for posterity sake I'd owe ya). The OpEd is great mostly because it clarifies his position and the difference between him and every other possible Presidential candidate in the next cycle including the sitting President. He does not only lay out criticism for those he disgress with, but offers solutions, and thinks in the long term for foriegn policy. even George W. Bush has not laid out his overall plan for the United States place in the world, outside of the unversially degraded National Secuirty doctrine written by "radicals" as they are called even within people that support Bush's current positions (I'll give you the links later, right now all I got it in a hard copy of the current issues of Foriegn Affairs and The Economist, pick it up and read them you'll see what I am saying).

ALSO ...

Gary Hart will be on CNN on Monday. Here is the e-mail that the mailing list were sent:

On Monday (3/10), tune into two separate CNN programs to see former senator Gary Hart discuss the pending war with Iraq and homeland security:

* Inside Politics
4 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST
(an interview with Judy Woodruff)

* Larry King Live
9 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST
(on a panel with other former senators)

Check your local listings for the channel in your area.

Tune in ...it'll be fun.

2003-03-08T14:11:00.000-05:00

My God ...

Buzzflash's analysis of the Bush press Conference just shocks me.

Do the Republicans suck so much they can't even hold a press conference. Once again my friends working for the RNC, White House, and any Republican should bow their head in shame and compare that mess to what they want to do with their lives.

They snubbed Helen Thomas and answered prepared questions.

Why does this piss me of? We are going to war ... and the WH is pretending to have Press Conferences and messing with my prime time schedule in the process. It makes my stomach turn to see such a mockery of democracy.

Which reminds me of my co-workers comment about why she is a Republican: "I think there is too much democracy in this country"

It looks like the White House agrees with her, and wants to export ours to Iraq.

2003-03-08T13:36:00.000-05:00

It's Gary Hart week at Getting in the Game

Anthony Trumbo, has pointed out a very interesting article in the LA Times. In it Gary Hart wades into the race a bit more by saying:

Hart said that within the next week or two, he plans to begin raising money through the Internet and through a limited direct-mail appeal. He will use the money to hire a small staff and to continue traveling the country "for the next month or six weeks" as he finalizes his decision.

This means two things, it coincides with what I have heard throught the grapevine, and most important, means anyone who wants a Hart candidacy, should get that credit card ready to donate today, even $20 will make a huge difference when the time comes.

2003-03-07T19:27:00.000-05:00

On My Membership in the Democratic Party

One of my student workers asked me a question the other day that I could not answer right away. I had explained to him that in 2000 I became disillusioned with politics and the Democratic Party after working for it and the Gore campaign. He intelligently asked me why I was a Democrat and what sparked my return to politics with such a passion.

I did not give him conclusion I reach in this article, because I could not explain it to him. So I thought about it and realized why.

I am Democrat and I am back in politics because: I was born a Democrats (loyalty), I agree with them more than any other political group (common goals), but most importantly, it is the party that currently represents the more liberal voter base. That party that has the one that has shaped this nation in times of crisis and produced some of our most impressive leaders: John Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR. As our history moves through its cycles, I want to be part of that transformation, making this country a better place to live and to be a citizen.

However, yesterday, I fell back on the minor reason: the fact that Bush is destroying the country and the world with broken promises, hidden agendas, and diplomatic bull-headedness. However, not liking the other guy should never be a passion in your life. As I explained to another friend of mine years ago, your career goals in life should not be devoted to obtaining a position or attached to particular event. When either is accomplished, you will be left with nowhere to go, with all that work; you will just be lost in forest.

This is the popular rallying cry of the party right now: we are not Bush and he is the real ?evildoer?. Not only do I believe that this will not win the 2004 election, but even more importantly it will not solve the countries problems. To quote a fictional President "Bob Rumson's [most candidates' names here] problems isn't that he doesn't get. His problem is that he can't sell it ... These are serious times, and we face serious problems, and we need serious people to solve them." The Democrats cannot claim to be liberal and protecting American?s when they are following the Republican playbook of using fear as a leadership tool.

I am also firm believer in cycles. Time is not simply a straight line that moves in one direction, but it is also composed of cycles throughout history. Even our measurements of time are simply measurements of specific cycles: a year - our orbit around the sun, a day - the rotation of the earth, and even the frequency of microwaves determine the most accurate measure of a second.

Cycles measure time in politics too. It seems we have a major and nation altering crisis every 80 years or so. Each time the conservative wing of the 'political parties' are in power and the liberal party takes it, at the onset of the crisis. Examples: Revolutionary War - the Loyalists lost power to the founding fathers, Election of 1860 - Republican party created as the new liberal party takes power from the Democrats, 1929 and the Election of 1932 - The Democrats become the more liberal wing and take power from the Republicans.

Like the longer cycles of planetary movement, this is one we don?t often see, it is one that is directed by forces that are not measurable (generations, changes in technology, and the pendulum of democratic politics). However we always notice it when it is upon on us. Even the Republican are comparing the modern world to 1930s, in order to further their claims (though I don not agree with the similarities between appeasement and Iraq, I do agree on the similar times in cycles of history).

Once again we are on that same time in the cycle and once again the conservative party is in control.

As a New Yorker on September 11th, I did what I could, but they did not need more people at Ground Zero, and they had too many people giving blood; that night all I could do was donate some of my clothes to the victims.

So the next day I looked to my leaders to what I could do. I was told to shop.

One year later on September 11th, 2002 I wrote open letter to my parents generation. Asking for them to use me for something, anything, in order to make sure we respond to this threat and make sure that the world is a safer place for everyone.

There was no answer. My mom tried to send me a response and give me suggestions, and one of them hit home. Do your best, and figure out what you believe.

So I did. As I read I began to put modern events in context. I rebelled against the DLC not because it did not do a good job once, but because it has done its job. 1930's liberalism will not fly in 2003, this was proven by the Clinton Presidency and his strategy of triangulation. I have been trying to explain my theory of continuing that work in a different direction for a while now, but could not explain it in a way that would make sense.

However, when you consider the cycles of democracy it becomes clear. The Democrats took power in 1932 and have not really changed the basic direction of their policies since. The apex of this cycle was reach 30 years later with the LBJ presidency. Then came the decline, until Clinton the party only briefly controlled the White House and Congress was as George Stephanopoulos described the Congress from 1972 to 1998 by saying
our party had become a complacent feudal kingdom no longer bound by the fervent belief or fear of the king. Each member was master of a barony , each chairperson, lord of a duchy. Our Majority was more tactical alliance of autonomous factions than a political movement based on shared values and a coherent governing philosophy.

This describes the Democratic Party to this day, except we are no longer the majority, and another major difference: The Clinton Presidency.

Clinton took the Democratic Party to the right, he ended welfare as we knew it and declared the end of the era big government. Then he did something that had not been done since FDR, he won the Presidential election twice as a Democrat. In the process he dismantled much of what Democrats held dear for 60 years.
The era of big government is over, and a new era of a different type of government is just around the corner. Clinton's Presidency freed the party from its need to protect programs that have become outdated and positions that hinder us. Instead it has freed the party to engage in a new discussion about where it wants to go and what kind of programs it wants to support. Like a phoenix from the ashes of the entitlement-based system the new Democratic Party has the ability to live again and tackle the new challenges and opportunities we face with globalization, terrorism, the Internet, media control, economics, and our role as citizens.

This is my goal. To help the Democratic Party transform itself into a party that is not just one that attacks Bush, triangulates, or pushes programs of the past. Instead it can look toward the future and offer Americans real alternatives to the politics of fear and feudalism that exist today.

I thought until two months ago I stood without a candidate; without anyone who saw past Nov. of 2004.

Then I began to read Gary Hart's speeches. Then, in one sitting, because I did not have enough money to buy the book, I read Restoration of the Republic in Barnes and Noble. Then he made his policy speeches.

Gary Hart has outlined that vision. His vision shares policy and philosophical background with Jefferson, Clinton, JFK, and FDR. From IDAs to international cooperation, Gary Harts framework is consistent with the lessons of past while offering a realistic vision of the future.

Many people interrupt me and argue, "He can't win. Think about Monkey Business" etc. So that should keep him from running? If people tell you can't change the world should, that stop you from trying?

Gary Hart has handed the liberals in America (Green, Democrat, and Independent) something to work for besides hating a man that would lose to an an Unnamed Donkey 48 to 45.

I want more out of someone that I want to follow, than fear and attacks.

We have a chance to re-define the country and make re-establishment of the Democratic Party a smooth and easy process. The more we delay this discussion the harder it will become, and the last thing this country needs is the Democrats to become the Whigs and allow a mess on the scale of the Civil War to occur on a global and national scale.

I agree we need Bush out in 2004 in order to save lives, but Bush-lite, NotBush, and Unnamed Democrats will not complete this cycle. We will have the same problems if America does not have a serious discussion about its priorities.

So today I declare that I support Gary Hart as candidate for President of the United States. I will in a series of four similar articles explain the path and cycles on the four areas that Senator Hart has spoken on, and how he has developed policy that can both regenerate the Democratic Party and is realistic enough to be accomplished. Before those, I will post my analysis of the current field of candidates including George W. Bush, tomorrow afternoon. In that I will explain why the vision and that Gary Hart puts forth, is not only the right thing, but a winning strategy for the party not only in 2004 but the years beyond.

We cannot separate our decisions from the paths of history that have brought them to our feet, instead we must embrace where our problems have originated and use it as strength.

That is how to lead.

We cannot lead only those who agree with us whether they be conservative or liberal. We must reach out to strike a dialog with everyone we can, even those we do not like or respect, to understand who we are leading.

That is how to listen.

We cannot listen if we do not give people a reason or the ability to speak. We must silence the large microphone of money and deregulation and hand the power to change local communities to the people who live in them.

That is a republic.

Gary Hart is doing all three. Read a bit, you just might agree with me..

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

2003-03-06T17:53:00.000-05:00

The Reason for War Against Iraq We Rarely Hear

Many people keep asking the Bush White House questions: Why are must we invade Iraq now? Why are we confronting Iraq and not North Korea? What are we going to do in Iraq following the war?

The administration has a lot of answers, but little clue as to the motivations of their decisions. PBS's Frontline did a great job giving us a timeline and background, but still it didn't seem like enough to me.

Instead the Administration is obviously taking the advice a few thinkers that see globalization and its factors of connection as the most important thing in the world to protect and grow. This theory is based on assumptions that remind me of our hurtful Cold War Foreign Policy that while successful in preventing Nuclear Winter, it wreaked havoc around the 3rd world for 50 years, often drawing the lines of the haves and have-nots in the Post Cold War world.

I am sure an article with this title could be a book and contain hundreds of reasons, but the one I am most concerned about is contained in the analysis of the Assistant for Strategic Futures, Office of Force Transformation Tom Barnett. His job:

defining new international security environment post-9/11 and relating that vision to need for defense transformation. Current product is brief: "A Future Worth Creating: Defense Transformation and the New Security Environment," along with several published articles based on brief.

Essentially his job is to figure out what our long term goals and foreign policy framework is in regards to the military. He was featured in Esquire this month in which the editor had this to say about Mr. Barnett and the article in Esquire:

He puts the world?especially the parts of the world where terrorism and unrest are brewing?into context. He does this for the Secretary of Defense, and he draws conclusions about how best to avert or engage conflicts?and thus how to keep our country secure ... For the first time, someone with a position in the government explains what we're really undertaking when we go to war in Iraq. It's not just about disarmament. Rather, the United States is redrawing the map of the region, we are shrinking the Gap (to use Barnett's term), we are changing the course of history by adopting a good-offense-is-the-best-defense strategy.

What is the grand strategy that Barnet is presenting and explaining all over Washington, the military and the intelligence community?

He states it simply:

That is why the public debate about this war has been so important: It forces Americans to come to terms with I believe is the new security paradigm that shapes this age, namely, Disconnectedness defines danger.

I do think a lack of connection with other countries creates conflict. History almost proves this argument without much of a incident to the contrary besides Switzerland, and not every nation can be Neutral.

His basic thesis I completely agree with. However, it is where he takes this conclusion and how he uses what should be mandate for justice and partnerships into a weapon against poorer nations and oppressed peoples.

Show me where globalization is thick with network connectivity, financial transactions, liberal media flows, and collective security, and I will show you regions featuring stable governments, rising standards of living, and more deaths by suicide than murder. These parts of the world I call the Functioning Core, or Core. But show me where globalization is thinning or just plain absent, and I will show you regions plagued by politically repressive regimes, widespread poverty and disease, routine mass murder, and most important, the chronic conflicts that incubate the next generation of global terrorists. These parts of the world I call the Non-Integrating Gap, or Gap.

Once there was the 1st world and the 3rd world distinction that separated countries and was defined by their wealth and power in the 20th century where balance of power ruled the day. No Barnett has made a very well reasoned argument for new definitions, a binary set that leads us into an extremely sad us vs. them. He goes on to argue:

The reason I support going to war in Iraq is not simply that Saddam is a cutthroat Stalinist willing to kill anyone to stay in power, nor because that regime has clearly supported terrorist networks over the years. The real reason I support a war like this is that the resulting long-term military commitment will finally force America to deal with the entire Gap as a strategic threat environment.

With this statement, Barnett and I depart each other ways of thinking severely. I agree there is a gap (I don't agree in any way that you are one of us (integrating) or one of them (non-integrating)) however, what I do not agree with what so ever is the assumption that it is the citizens and even the government of a non-integrating country that is at fault for their position in globalization.

There are whole books on how globalization is not being handled well so I will cover how this theory has an entrance price that is not only biased, but also most importantly not morally neutral.

This is show of force and a message to the "gap" countries. The US will use the military to bring those that will not be integrated. Barnett talks about the American empire and more in his various articles. To be honest the fact that this man is explaining the world to our government may scare me, but also explains why Bush's foreign policy is so warped. It is not even taking in all of Barnett's analysis, at least then it would be intelligent, coherent and wrong. Bush's policy is just wrong.

In the end, we need to keep watch on this guy, his opinions, and more importantly. We need to find a viable alternative to this analysis of our security concerns. Gary Hart seems like the best chance.

Otherwise no matter who is the next president this kind of thinking will co-opt their presidency like it did Clinton's and now Bush?s.

Globalism is not wrong, but it is being done wrong, therefore how can we even expect people to join a completely unequal partnership.

Barnett and Bush have the answer: Make them by force if necessary

2003-03-04T22:52:00.000-05:00

What were they thinking?

It seems that people from Upstate New York are not even from the same century as me. According to CNN a man was arrested for wearing a Peace t-shirt in an area mall

The kid sent home from school was one thing. This is scary.

According to the criminal complaint filed Monday, Stephen Downs was wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "Give Peace A Chance" that he had just purchased from a vendor inside the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, New York, near Albany.

"I was in the food court with my son when I was confronted by two security guards and ordered to either take off the T-shirt or leave the mall," said Downs.

When Downs refused the security officers' orders, police from the town of Guilderland were called and he was arrested and taken away in handcuffs, charged with trespassing "in that he knowingly enter(ed) or remain(ed) unlawfully upon premises," the complaint read.

Downs said police tried to convince him he was wrong in his actions by refusing to remove the T-shirt because the mall "was like a private house and that I was acting poorly."

First this is not even inflammatory and the shirt was already on the premisses, so why does he have to leave EVEN if you think the mall has a right to ask him (which they don't). This is what many people say including myself said probably would not happen, but the mood in the country is getting bad, and this is evidence of it.

Second this is a symptom of our society emphasis on private over the public. Even if you think that the protecting the private sphere is more important, you have to have a public sphere in order to even have a private sphere. If economic ownership dictates where the private and public sphere begins and ends then the public sphere is not only small but shrinking. This is an alarming example of the backwardness of that thinking of protect the "private" at all costs.

Of course the most important problem in this, is that the ADA at night court should have stopped this, the judge should have stopped it, the police should have stopped this. There is no case against him, in fact they have cost the taxpayers and the patrons of the Crossroads Mall (that I have been to) money and more important some of their freedoms.

Everyone involved in this situation ought to be under review and sanctioned if not fired. Assaults on freedom must be taken seriously and police officers must be encouraged to protect our rights, not requests of mall owners that will let the shirts be sold, but not let them be worn.

I am ashamed to live in the same state with everyone but Mr. Downs. Who I thank with every bone in my body.

2003-02-27T18:35:00.000-05:00

Wow

Kevin and I rack up the phone bill talking about things like mass media, globalization, and what it means to be a citizen. Following September 11, 2001, our talks began to drift towards nation states, non-nation state actors, and what it means to be part of a democracy in a world where a significant number of commercial oligarchies have more money and political power than some countries.

Opinions and thoughts on the nature of democracy, citizenship, globalization, media, and the internet have not been hard to find in recent years. Sometimes people have even begun to connect the dots and show the relationship between, say, mass media and the decline of citizen participation in democracy. But despite the fact the economic and technological changes that we are currently obsessed with, the internet and globalization, are defined by the way that they affect intra- and inter- connections, no one seems to see the web that ties all of these hot topics to one another. Or no one really talks about it, anyway. After all, what kind of connection is there between McDonalds and terrorism?

Well, according to Gary Hart:

For there are four new realities...., four revolutions sweeping our early twenty-first-century world, four words on which our future security rests. These revolutionary realities are: globalization, information, sovereignty, and conflict. Globalization is, of course, the internationalization of commerce, finance, and markets. The second economic revolution, the information revolution, is massively altering the way we work, learn, and communicate. These two epic tides are in turn eroding the sovereignty of the nation-state and the authority of its central banks and finance ministries to regulate and stabilize national economies. And as the sovereignty of the nation-state erodes, its ability to maintain its monopoly on violence and to assure the safety of its citizens is declining. This is particularly true in an age where war is being transformed and the nature of conflict is rapidly shifting from national armies in the field to civilian-clothed terrorists targeting civilian victims.

Even if Gary Hart never makes it past the Democratic Primary, this nation needs him to run for president, if only because he will force public discussion and debate about these issues to step up to the level where that it needs to be at.

In order to find solutions to our problems, we need to see that globalization (and every other issue) is more than a yes or no question. We need views that treat economics, government, society and technology as interacting systems, not simply partnered ideologies found on a two dimensional political spectrum.

The revolution may not be televised, but it must be discussed.

2003-02-27T17:34:00.000-05:00

Corporations: first Foreign Policy, now Domestic Security

(belated "Happy Birthday" to Kevin)

So, Glenn Reynolds saw this and thought this.

Huh? Does he think that the worst that Microsoft can/will do with your information is send you spam? Maybe he should check out this. It's fiction, yes. But food for thought. Whoever said that Big Brother had to start out as a nation-state?

Its important to keep the government in check, but instead of focusing on what the US government might see while looking over Microsoft's shoulder, shouldn't we just make sure that Microsoft doesn't collect data that we don't want floating around?

2003-02-26T20:56:00.000-05:00

Returning from Costco

well it is my birthday and I have returned from completing my new costco membership. How great is Costco, America at it's best!

2003-02-26T13:49:00.000-05:00

Slowly, but surely.

Not been so easy to get back to writing in this all the time, due to a) my new schedule b) my lack of computer at home and c) my lack of my own office.

B and C will change by thursday, so everything should be fine by then. And I will go back to updating with all kinds of witty entries.

How ever you will get a small dose of FYI today, 4 hours late ;)

2003-02-24T10:35:00.000-05:00

FYI

- I am moving slow on getting back on schedule. New job and lack of computer at home forces this. Give me another day ;)

- I will be putting some stuff later today like: Project 5104.

2003-02-22T15:32:00.000-05:00

Chock this one up to: And why is war a good thing?

The NY Times is reporting that Federal agencies are warning of dangers from lone terrorists.

First, duh. More attacks in the US and abroad are done by lone terrorists.

Second, I am trying to figure out how this war will protect Americans.

I think it comes down the assumption that if some countries have weapons of mass destruction they will use them and can use them. This one sounds like the "all the communists countries are always friends and work together" assumtion from the cold war. The kind of assumptions that bring the world to the brink of destruction a few times over the past few decades.

Fun.

2003-02-22T15:19:00.000-05:00

One quick morning post ... about one really bad injustice

Talk Left has posted some disturbing news about an Illinois court decsion stating that children as young as twelve can be forced to register for sex offender status under Megan's Laws.

My question to the idiotsd to passed downt hsi decsion is: What is the point of being a minor if you don't have any time to learn from you mistakes. Twelve year old barely understand what sex is, and now we want them to pay for any sex crimes they may have committed for life?

I must confess am a firm opponent of Megan's Laws to begin with, but this is something that cannot stand. If we will not, for good reason, give children the right to vote, we have to in turn protect them. This is the bargin we make about the age of minority. I honestly believe that most people don't understand the concept. However what bothers me more is that judges who know better say this.

I am litterly enraged right now. I stood for the issues of minor's rights for years as one, and I will continue to do so until there is a fair and responsible system in dealing with both minors who break the law and those that don't. Because as a chold in this country you have no time to learn, you have to get straight A's at fourteen or pay for it the rest fo your life and if you are so disturbed at 12 that you would sexually assault someone you also pay for that for the rest of your life. I am not asking for consequences to be lifted, I am simply asking them to be instructive not shackles.

Please, give our children time to be children.

2003-02-21T18:16:00.000-05:00

getting behind

Due to some minor crisis today. I am behind. I will slowly catch up this weekend.

On the agenda:
- New Links
- Contact info
- No Child Left Behind
- Mercury pollution
- Project 5104
- The furture plans for this site

Things that won't make the cut
- My turkey article

That's all for today folks.

2003-02-21T18:05:00.000-05:00

Adding up the Numbers

Just posting to say that the question about the Florida recount was literal, not rhetorical and the answer is no, Bush was in the lead by 224 to 1,200 votes according to the Washington Post. The point still stands (it just doesn't have the same emotional punch...sigh).

2003-02-21T17:26:00.000-05:00

My Sister is even smarter than me

As this project gets out of hand I have little time to revisit topics. Instead my sister did it for me. Here is an e-mail she just sent in regards to a post about the No Child Left Behind Act and the post below this one:

Speaking of statistics....whenever you get around to complaining about the implementation of "No Child Left Behind" here's a thought about bad logic and not analyzing the numbers you are given.

From the NY Times article you mentioned:

The law says that every racial and demographic group in each school must score higher on standardized tests every year; if any group fails to advance for two consecutive years, a school is labeled "needing improvement." A school that does not shed the label by improving students' scores may have its principal and teachers replaced and face other sanctions, including closing.

Ummm...maybe there's fine print they don't mention, but, even putting aside
the impracticality of expecting each successive class to visibly improve
over the last and never reaching a plateau, there's got to a margin of error
in these scores (more kids were sick this year when they took the test,
whatever). So, how can you punish schools for scores that have decreased by
less than this margin of error, not to mention the ones whose scores stayed
the same? And even if you do, how can you not do the equivalent of a
recount in these situations and allow schools the option of retesting their
students? Am I confused, or didn't Gore win in the first Florida count?
(Or was that just the polls?)

And, don't get me started on how illogical it is to use standardized tests
to show how a school has changed but not show how schools match up against
each other, especially since the best colleges use SAT scores to rank high
schools as much (or more) than individual students.

More importantly, it is utterly useless to know how much students' scores
have gained or fallen without picking a benchmark to compare it to or a goal
that we want every school to reach. How is making sure that everyone's test
scores are improving at a steady rate "leaving no child behind" if districts
that already send a large percentage of students to good colleges are
improving at the same rate as schools with astronomical drop-out rates? If
we really want to "leave no child behind" shouldn't improving the latter be
more of a priority? Let me put it this way...if your dike is falling apart,
which do you concentrate on first, the hole your finger can barely fit into,
or the one the size of a bowling ball? And even if you work on both at
once, would use the same amount of spackle (or whatever...I'm sure dikes
need something stronger) for both?

Ok, that was longer than I meant it to be ... hey...I could guest blog. (although it prob needs much more research)

----- Sounds like enough thought to me. Research is a little thina round here anyhow.Yes Jenny you could guest blog and she will. Look forward to her occaisonal rants.

2003-02-21T11:57:00.000-05:00

Great point, Oliver.

Oliver Willis has a great post about the tax plan and Bush's deceptive rhetoric .

All I have to say is we really need to teach civics AND statistics to every High School kid. One year of each at least. No offense to the pure math lovers, but Calculous is becoming less important to every American's ability to function as a citizen.

2003-02-21T11:09:00.000-05:00

FYI

- The posts about Project 5104 and Turkey will be re-written and go up ... again.

- My handy dandy father has alerted me the Adminstration has been sitting on an enviromental report since October. Interesting time to bury a report in an election year.

- Someone please remind me to watch ED next week. I keep missing the love of my life.

- PBS has aired an amazing program on our path to war on one of America's greatest television programs: Frontline. Even better about PBS is that they have so much more on the website

- You should read Altercation and Slacker Friday later today.

- The Washington Post is reporting that the will take complete control of Iraq. So let me get this straight, President Bush and crazy man Wolfowitz, we have no imperial designs? This is only pre-emption?

- 1,700 US Troops are going to the Philipines to combat Muslim extremists and suspected terrorists, says the NY Times. I say, this is what the "War on Terror" is about, not pre-emptive attacks planned in 1992.

- My home state is a mess, Davis is so unpopular there is a re-call movement. Here is a great easy to read rundown on the re-call petition against Davis. My two cents, he deserves it, but the party can't handle it. The state has a knack for killing it's good political talent before they can get that high, so there aren't much better options. The thing that unsettles me most, the people behind it are the people who crippled our state before I was born with Prop 13: The Peoples' Advocate.

- And finally God bless the States: Seven states are suing the EPA for not enforcing the Clean Air Act

2003-02-21T10:29:00.000-05:00

Problems with blogger

I am having some problems with Blogger. It unpublished two enteries and lost another two all together. So sit tight.

2003-02-20T18:20:00.000-05:00

Chomsky ... just another set of assumptions

I am only 20 pages into reading a compilation of Chomsky interviews and I can't help but realize one huge thing: He simply supplants one set of assumptions with another. In terms of individual articles and importance to the discussion of issues in America Chomsky is invaluable. However in terms of a person to draw a political or personal philosphy, he falls short.

Like the ‘consenting media’ Chomsky opperates with a large hypothesis and never finds that evidence points to the contrary. While the consenting media's assumption is that the country works, Chomsky's assumption is that it doesn't. Simple as that. Which is why at times his words read similar to the fanatics on the right he deplores.

Instead he is a window into a perfectly vaild view of the world. However like all other views it cannot be the only view. To follow someone blindly especially someone who is so determined to prove his hypothesis right, would be a disservice to you.

Chomsky’s view of the world where people are limited by agenda setting is true. However, it is also true that the left, right, and upside parts of the political spectrum exert the same post-modern construction of consent within their systems. One force is far more powerful than the other, that is the issue, so supplanting the left with the current system would make me and Chomsky happy, but most likely make the world just as bad.

I know I did not cite examples today. I will, however, do when issues I address coincide with some of Chomsky most egregious assumptions about the country.

2003-02-20T17:50:00.000-05:00

Still to come tonight

First of two articles about Turkey ... (We are such a bad influence on them)

My impression of Chomsky ... (Let's put it this way, he is not my favorite writer)

and The DNC's Project 5104 ... (Only 51% ... 51% ... why not 60% you loons)

2003-02-20T17:17:00.000-05:00

Military and Student Lists

My sister sent me an article from Mother Jones about Military recruiters gaining access to lists of students. So I am going to comment on this issue, mostly cause I like surprises...

Truthfully, I fully support this law (not as a portion of the No Child Left Behind Act, but that is another story).

The Mother Jones article explains it violates student's privacy and there is not reason the military needs this information because they have beat recruiting levels many year in a row. However, they forget every 18-year-old male in this country is already registered for the draft and on their lists. This means the only major changes of recruiting under this law affects women students. Personally I think it is fair and equal to add their names to recruiter’s lists.

As far as privacy is concerned, the right is already waived to the school; there is no loss of privacy here. In fact local governments are likely to have less strict laws protecting privacy of students than the Military has built in by the federal government. Second, school have the option to give less information, and so therefore, if the community wants to prevent military recruiters access they can just pass a law or a rule, or even better leave it up to each student. Next, military recruiters are not exempt from Do Not Call legislation, and can be taken care of that way.

The topic of the military's performance is moot and shows that people cannot see a time when they will not be meeting goals (like when the law was written). This argument is shortsighted represents the worst of political thinking. While understand opposition to the law, I do not see how people think laws should only be passed when there is an immediate need.

Finally, the reason these concepts all connect is that the military is an organization that is part of our government and should be supported, our oung people should be encouraged to join, and finally our federal and local governments should share information of all kinds. There are no files being passed to the military here, just directories.

It is the local governments job to set the boundaries on this relationship, it is the schools job to protect their students, and it is the individual's job to dissent, not simply opt out of the system. All to often people miss that last part, they forget that dissent is constructive but painful, and opting out of a process is simply painless and silent.

2003-02-20T16:54:00.000-05:00

I miss the arts ...

Before I started talking to people for a living, I wanted to make films. I miss the arts already and it has only been 6 months.

This is why I miss it: The Lysistrata Project

Simon at "To the Point" alerted everyone. He explains:

Aristophanes, the Greek playwright, wrote the comedy the Lysistrata, wherein the women (single and married) of Athens refuse to have sex with men unless the men stop their useless war against Sparta ... thousands of years in the future, The Lysistrata Project will organize 581 readings of Lysistrata on March 3rd, in protest of the Bush administration's push for war on Iraq.

Thanks Simon, news like that is why I love the Blogosphere. That and snowball fights.

2003-02-20T15:57:00.000-05:00

Zel Miller is really a Republican

Yes we've known, the Senator from Georgia "never met a tax cut he didn't like" , but it's worse than that if you look at the entire situation.

First he decides not to run and is making the DNC prepare for the fight of their lives against Robert Reid & Co.

Then he supports President Bush's tax plan.

Finally, after the 2002 election, most of the major statewide offices are in Republican hands, and Zel Miller is the most prominant Democrat.

The Georgia Democratic Party is going to get creamed with this man as their current spokesman. The Georgia Democrats have a tough fight ahead, here's to hoping they got their act together.

Oh and next tax bill ... We cut everyone's taxes but Zel Miller's ... Why not? They have individualized tax breaks.

2003-02-20T15:38:00.000-05:00

Graham is running

Looks like the Note's views on Edwards are just in time.

Graham is throwing his hat in the ring.

Graham is a Senator from Florida, and he has a distinct advantage in being from THE swing state: Florida.

He is strong on National Security and seems to be level headed.

So he jumps to the first tier when he files this week right?

Not so fast. He is not very charismatic, rich, doesn't have name recognition, and isn't left wing.

If Hart or Clark gets into the race he isn't even the strongest on National Security.

Many people will point out Graham's geographic advantage, just as many will point out he could have had a VP nod in 2000 if it weren't for his diaries. However, as a great fundraiser, he will be contender. A contender without a compelling hook though (electoral politics is compelling only to the money men not the voters).

My guess, he will run a good race, get some name recognition, and baring unforeseen events (which always happen in politics) become the ideal running mate to John Kerry, even with the diaries.

My dream ticket: Hart/Edwards still, nothing has changed that yet.

2003-02-20T12:54:00.000-05:00

FYI

I am trying a new format, posting these "FYI" posts with my normal ones. Let's see how it goes.

- It is my first day at work at St. Peter's College. So far so good.

- There is good article about Turkey in the New York Times today. My frist of two areticles on Northern Iraq will be up tonight.

- Jeralyn at TalkLeft is awesome, understanding, and linking to my more inflamatory remarks.

- I now have: 6 different websites under development, most which will be live by next week. I need to learn from Bush's mistakes and make sure half of them have an exit strategy.

- Day 3 of the Kevin needs to update his links saga, but listen folks the site is moving soon, it is hard to get up the motivation. However recent kindness in regard to my blog has made me determined to make it ahppen today.

- ABC's The Note (my favorite column of all time) writes in detail about John Edwards having an amazing moment in NH. Looks like this guy is for real.

- My fav candidates as of now: Hart, Edwards, Dean, Graham, Clark, Kerry. Yes I know three of those guys aren't running.

- Who I think will win as of now (in order): Kerry, Edwards, Dean. According to me Lieberman and Gephardt don't exist.

- There is much buzz over the DNC's Demzilla or Project 5014. It is a huge database of 158 million voters. Awesome, now one more thing though, there are 270 million people in this country. What about the other 70 million eligible voters? More on this later.

- Reading some Chomsky. Conclusion: He likes to hear himself talk more than I do. Making more valid points AND more stupid ones in the process.

- Looks like I have found a great way to read the news while at work. Well at least it looks promising, and cross platform. Can't wait to try it out.

2003-02-19T19:16:00.000-05:00

Foreign Policy of the People

Upon reading Michael Tomasky's comments as he filled in for Eric Alterman at Altercation, I was unsettled. Not simply because he points out that the Bush Administration is off it's rocker and dangerous, but because he offer's Dean's February 13th speech as an example of quality Democratic foreign policy speeches. Dean speech was great for now, but it is not what the Democratic Party needs. It needs a direction and a coherent foreign policy.

Not because Dean or Tomasky is wrong, in fact I agree with almost everything that Howard Dean and Michael Tomasky say. What I am worried about is what is missing. As I said above, what Dean does not do is explain a foreign policy, until the final paragraphs of his speech. The hardest thing to swallow about this, is that Dean's speech one of the stronger foriegn policy speeches almost by the Presidential hopefuls so far.

The Democrats will not be seen as strong on foreign policy when we play "not me" politics. It was "not me" who invaded Iraq, It was not me who left the country open to terrorist attacks, so forth and so on. All current candidates are the same way. I don't think the Democrats can win in 2004 or stop this war by simply saying, "I am not Bush" on foreign policy.

What can the Democrats do?

Joe Klein impressively points out that "Security Moms" were the swing vote in 2002, and will be in 2004. After all we lost women by 6% according to the NCEC . In a non-electoral fashion the Democrats can also fill the vacuum that will exist if Bush loses, with a new strategy already outlined.

The only person that seems to be advocating a full fledge National Security policy and brushing aside "not me" foreign policy is Gary Hart. He outlines a specific and bold strategy in his speech he gave in San Francisco. This passage absolutely captured my attention:

Our foreign policy, our relations with the peoples of the world, is no longer the province of so-called experts. The forces of globalization, the spread of American commercial and cultural influence, the internationalization of the Internet, the immediacy of travel, the rise of a global environmental common, all now require the engagement of the American people.

While many debated the final lines of this paragraph, they never looked at the first. No matter what you think of Hart as a possible President or a person, he is handing the Democrats a sword to replace their battered soapbox. All democrats should put forth their own foreign policy, not simply a set of stands on the issues.

I am happy the left is pointing out the ridiculous foreign policy of the current administration, to try and prevent more mistakes, I just hope that have something to offer the American people besides "not me"

2003-02-19T16:58:00.000-05:00

Gotta love what we teach our children ... no wonder they don't vote

Oliver Has found a good one again. He posts that a student in Michigan was sent home for wearing a T-shirt that had a picture of Bush that said "International Terrorist under it. Here is the kicker according to CNN.com :

The student, Bretton Barber, chose to go home. He said he wore the shirt Monday to express his anti-war position and for a class assignment in which he wrote a compare-contrast essay on Bush and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

It was even for an assignment! That principal should be demoted, this is ridiculous, and unhealthy for the educational environment when a student is told to go home because he was into his assignment enough to make a statement about it?

I can only imagine if I had worn a T-shirt about my science project in 6th grade that read: "Our school water is not treated effectively. You're wasting your money" or even better in 8th grade that said "Send a man to Mars not to war"

Standardized tests, under-funding, and censorship. I fear for the new generation.

UPDATE: Even better:

Schools spokesman Dave Mustonen said students have the right to freedom of expression, but educators are sensitive to tensions caused by the conflict with Iraq.

So teacher sensitivty vs. students right to free speech in classroom work product? According to Dearborn officials I guess that damaged sensitivies are enough to teach their children that free speech is limit at the worries of the powers that be.

2003-02-19T13:05:00.000-05:00

FYI

- The new links will be up soon, the monitor absence of Feb 2003, is causing the delay.

- I am getting like 50 hits a day now (thanks to the snowball fight)

- The move to the new site is also delayed, for many reasons.

- There is a really cute girl sitting next to me at the computer lab. (if you got any suggestion IM me: SFTD7). Damn she is leavin(one minute later). Oh well, don't need another one in my life.

- I start work at St. Peter's College tomorrow

2003-02-19T12:17:00.000-05:00

Snowball Fight/Urban Sports Feedback

Okay so I have been rattling this idea around in my head and tried it yesterday. The response has been great, and I really wanna get somehting off the ground a bit. So along with my other new website, I am going to make website for urban games and sports.

Basically it would do two things: Allow people to find pick-up games all over the city and more importantly play some citywide or large games of tag, snowball fights, water gun fights etc.

So please e-mail if you interested in the idea either by helping or you'd like to partipate sometime:
kmthurman at mac dot com.

2003-02-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

The post 2004 Solution

(This post is inspired by a post by Kos so check it out)

I have heard a lot about two things since 2002:

Democrats having an impossible time competing with the Republicans on fundraising because there is no soft money and a million strategies on how to win the swing voters back into the party to win the Presidency.

I have a paradigm shift for you. Follow the natural progression of the Campaign finance laws, instead of fight it. The Candidates should concentrate on the swing voters, the party should concentrate on membership and participation. By registering tons of voters and gaining the loyalties of younger Americans (not even

Fundraising should be cooperative, but segmented so individuals effectively put their money where it is needed. The organization should be completely local, The classic pool your money the distribute it system cannot work in this election cycle.

Campaign finance laws are largely silent on one major issue. Registration and GOTV activities 120 days prior to the election. Essentially from now until August 7th of 2004. Except for primaries in the states there is a set of rather large open windows for coordinated expenditures between the DNC, a PAC, and the state committees to register voters left and right.

As someone coming back to professional politics from the business world I look at unregistered voters differently than I ever did. earlier they were voters you were never going to get and a waste of energy. Now they are the untapped markets, something, which rarely exists and is hard fought over by the businesses. The good news is most of the people that don't vote are our natural constituency, poor and live all over the country, but mostly in the impenetrable south.

The Plan

The DNC should do what business have been doing for years, move hard and fast to capture the two most important markets: the untapped markets and the emerging markets. The DNC should undergo a transformation in terms of membership, making it a major priority.

It should set up two PACs: One for younger voter recruitment and the other for dis-enfranchised voter recruitment. Then those PACs set up clubs under the local party organization all over the country with seed money. Those clubs can get unlimited donations (or as much as prescribed by state law) and can register voters quickly and according local issues. As long as the election cycle window is clear coordinated fundraising is allowed.

Certain areas will get more resources yes, but more importantly, this will happen on a large scale, so it will be hard to fight against. It will also allowed more unregulated money to flow to local organizations, decentralizing the party a bit, but the money still flows from the top, so it should decentralize too much. This is very important when trying to recruit younger voters, who are the future of the party.

This process will also require active recruitment of younger leaders to organize these groups and register voters. These people are what marketers call opinion leaders, and are vital to this operation. It will also provide a great amount of candidate recruitment for city councils, school boards, and other local offices.

Finally it will create an organization that is local but unified and easily allow the Presidential Candidate to let his message be heard.

If the DNC wants to listen to me great, but I doubt that, so let me know what you think of my ideas: kmthurman at mac dot com.

2003-02-19T09:04:00.000-05:00

Bunker Busters: Nuclear Style

The BBC is reporting that the US is developing new nuclear weapons. Yeah this doesn't make us even more aggressive as country.

And honestly stupid ... do military planners want to destroy WMDs with WMDs?

2003-02-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

The North is a Mess

No I am not talking them Yankees, but Northern Iraq is some kind of mess. Daily Kos is talking about an extremely disturbing article about Iranian-backed forces in Iraq.

I don't even know what to say. I think I am going to write a piece on Northern Iraq later today. But here are my initial thoughts:

Wow, a war within a war.

Will Turkish forces and Iranian forces fight?

Will this mean more terrorist attacks in Iraq against US forces?

Will this mean an immediate war with Iran?

These are all possibilities, do course os are none of them. No doubt this complicates an already complicated Northern Iraq situation.

2003-02-19T08:45:00.000-05:00

A hat-trick against democracy and "The New Rally Cry"

Then Oliver Willis has pointed me to an OpEd by Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress in which he states:

This is why the proposed U.S. occupation and military administration of Iraq is unworkable and unwise. Unworkable, because it is predicated on keeping Saddam's existing structures of government, administration and security in place--albeit under American officers. It would ultimately leave important decisions about the future of Iraq in the hands of either foreign occupiers or Saddam's officials. Unwise, because it will result in long-term damage to the U.S.-Iraq relationship and America's position in the region and beyond.

Then if you read the Guardian's article on Rumsfeld's war strategy that states:

He would be replaced - for the time being - with a figurehead from the existing regime who would keep the existing army and Ba'ath party in place. This would help keep order and prevent a civil war with the Kurds in the north and the marsh Arabs in the south. Democracy and human rights are not high up the list of priorities.

Finally in the anti-democracy hat-trick Independent.co.uk reports the Kurds are also upset about the lack of Democracy in the process in that article the deputy prime minister of the KDP Mr. Abdul-Rahman accuses the US of planning cosmetic changes in Iraq:

This is to give the government on a platter to the second line of Ba'athists [the ruling party]

These three articles have made me determined of one thing. I will no longer simply beat the no war drums, but we need to stick it to the administration to explain their plan for Iraq before we go to war. . It is imperative we do not sacrifice our values on the goal to simply "beat Bush" I think we need to start pushing this administration for their post war plans even harder with the center wing of the party.

The right's new talking points about the protesters are that no one wants to help the people of Iraq. The Administration needs to step up and show they do too, with action, not words. We cannot let up on them about the blanket of democracy and human rights they have wrapped this war in. We are great at fact checking, well check this guys. The liberal online blog community should start taking about this more and nullify those ridiculous talking points. Let the Administration eat their own words.

Democracy should be the center of the left's foreign policy, so stop letting Bush pretend like he is bringing it to Iraq.

2003-02-19T08:19:00.000-05:00

Now they pissing off Seoul

North Korea's staunchest defenders in this mess, the unlikely former enemy South Korea is not going to like North Korea's latest threat to pull out of the armistice agreement.

Ari Fleischer's has deemed all of these statements as bargaining tactics. However, my personal opinion is that it is more than that. If Korea was simply trying to bargain their way into a good position, they already have it. Essentially the US either has to go to War or give Korea a large sum of money. So why would they continue to pound their chest?

One theory would say they are trying to make sure only the US can bargain with them, hence, making South Korea fear war and ask the US to come in an bargain. That theory doesn't work, because South Korea was already trying to get the US involved.

Instead, what South Korea is doing is forcing the US into a terrible negotiation situation. They are making sure we have two choices, hand them tons of money or go to war. We have sign-posted that we will be at war in a couple months with another country, therefore North Korea is doing everything it can to slowly provoke us in the middle of our war with Iraq, so the US has only the option to give North Korea aid, AND China will most likely dictate the terms because we have requested it.

This situation is being extremely misread by the White House in my opinion, and I rarely have the hubris to question the career foreign service people in our White House, but this one seems all to obvious to me.

2003-02-19T07:54:00.000-05:00

Where's iChat 2 ?

Don't get me wrong I love my little iChat, but it has it's issues and really needs an update. Now Microsoft goes out and releases their own chat client called three degrees. Everything I wished for AOL IM two years ago is in Threedregrees, and it makes iChat looks like the most boring business application.

As someone who uses only one program more than iChat (Safari) I really hope Apple is not too far behind because I HATE wanting a Microsoft product that can't run on my Mac.

Steve, Please free me from my desire for the Evil Empire's software.

2003-02-19T00:56:00.000-05:00

Snowball Fight Update II

Okay, so I ran into a few snags, and the day ended up more like a normal snowball fight (thanks Caroline). Remember I sent the e-mail out at 8AM as a test so to speak. I think that is for one simple reason (besides obvious: work, short notice, etc.) --- I had no sign. I am sure as I waited some of the other people waiting were waiting for the fight, but oh well.

The bunch of us that came had fun, but that isn't the news of the day.

The news is the NYC blogging and online community is amazing and embraced the idea with open arms. Given a couple days lead time and some more thought, there is no doubt it would have been a huge success.

Therefore, I have decided to continue with my plan.

First, create a website dedicated to random large scale games in New York City (there are theories this site could help with pick-up games too, but we'll see, one thing at a time)

Second, begin floating the idea for a city-wide game of tag. Get responses and see what can be done.

Third, find five days in May that would be great for the game and go for it.

Fourth, let it grow by itself.

In the end the goal is to create a conduit for seemingly random games to pop up all over the city's parks and streets, allowing us to have tons of fun with our urban neighbors.

Granted there are issues involved in this and the system is basically designed to circumvent the NYC permit system, but the whole point is the group can work it out.

Please e-mail me with you comments: kmthurman@mac.com

2003-02-18T14:13:00.000-05:00

Colored Tape

I am putting the request to anyone who works down by Canal street up here:

Can you stop by one those little shops near broadway, they have great stashes of colored neon tape for cheap.

If you could pick up a couple red and blue rolls that would be amazing.

Just a thought.

2003-02-18T13:48:00.000-05:00

Snowball Fight Update

Thanks to local NYC bloggers like Noisebetweenstations, Forum posts here and my random e-mailings it looks like this i gonna be quite a good size. So once again here are the details:

Where: Meet at Columbus Circle Central Park Entrance, we'll move to a good spot from there.

When: 5:00 PM (if you come late just hunt us down)

What to bring: Your self, a good attitude, and if you can wear something red or blue on your sleeve (if someone works down near canal street can buy some cheap colored tape to help out that would be awesome) so we can do teams and such if people choose to.

What to do now: TELL YOUR FRIENDS. Call, blog, e-mail, text and drag your friends. Let's get a hundred people or more.

See ya there!

2003-02-18T11:09:00.001-05:00

So far so good

A few responses and TONS of good reception.

25 people would be great.

100 .... well that would awesome!

Keep forwarding that e-mail and calling your friends.

If you have any suggestions just e-mail I have a decent list of e-mail addresses that have been sent to: kmthurman@mac.com

2003-02-18T11:09:00.000-05:00

sorry for the repeat post ...

Safari is having issues. Man ... IE 5.5 is ugly ...

2003-02-18T10:31:00.000-05:00

Snoball Action Network Pt. II

So I decided to put it out there. The idea that I talked about yesterday. So I have sent e-mails to friends, former co-workers, and even perused NYC blogging sites to try and get people to have a huge snowball fight.

I think this is the kinda of thing we need, tons of random clean fun in Central Park.

I hope it works out.

I hope someone lets me know if it won't.

Alas, if these kinda urban games can get off the ground, it will be such fun .... next project: a website .... then ... a citywide game of tag

2003-02-18T09:30:00.000-05:00

"Pro-War" for democracy? Sadly it won't work ... yet

Glenn Reynolds is posting about student activism on the rise. He also links to a very interesting organization that I agree with completely at Oxford: called OxDem.

This organization does support the war in Iraq because their goal is the promotion of Democracy all over the world. I agree with everything they have said except: "we disagree with those who believe that America lacks the moral integrity necessary to bring democracy to Iraq."

While agree that the United States has the moral integrity as a nation, I do not believe that this administration does.

Why?

- They have not made Afghanistan a priority, by not even funding the money they promised them, and have yet to stabilize the nation while starting another war.

- They do not have a plan, that has been published and debated. We don't know the plan, no one has EVEN made guarantees about the democratization of Iraq.

- There is little attention paid to the Kurds and their democratic aspirations. In fact the US is going to let Turkey do their best to control the Kurdish population under their own control, and that is the very least the US is giving them.

- They do not have the intent of bringing democracy to Iraq. The intent is most important, anyone at Oxford should know enough philosophy and policy to understand how much intent modifies subsequent action.

I agree the United States and its allies can be an amazingly powerful force in bringing democracy and human rights in Iraq, what I do not believe is that this can be done without new movements made by the US. For instance, agreeing to abide by the Declaration of Human Rights that OxDem cites in that article. Or laying out a plan for a democratic Iraq. Curtailing the requests of Turkey.

I would join OxDem. I think they are on the right track. I disagree with their impression of this administration though, who seems bent on circumventing the worldwide democratic institutions that already exist. They are arrogant enough to ask to go to war and not present a plan to what would happen after regime change ... how can you expect other countries to agree to that?

2003-02-18T09:07:00.000-05:00

On School and nerdom

I can't add much to this simply amazing article by Paul Graham so I will just link to it. It is long but his analysis is amazing and should be read by everyone, including eighth graders and their teachers.

Just amazing article.

2003-02-17T21:36:00.000-05:00

Before I update my site ... Korea beat me to it

Sheesh, these guys feel like they need a new threat every day. Either way they are really starting to scare me. This is a crisis.

Is Iraq a crisis??? I don't think so. I have never heard that word attached to this war.

2003-02-17T18:15:00.000-05:00

Updates coming

Since my new site is on hold for MySQL installation ... expect some new links and ways to contact me later tonight.

How fun.

For those of you that can't wait: E-mail me

2003-02-17T18:08:00.000-05:00

"Not me"

I think I have figured out what is going on with North Korea. The I read North Korea is planning on building four reactors and are "nuculearizing the peninsula" from Christian Science Monitor (a.k.a. the newspaper that won me many speech awards in HS).

What strikes me about the article is how it details that no country wants to take responsibility for keeping North Korea from becoming even more of a nuclear power, but everyone wants it to stop.

The only thing that comes to mind at this point is when I was a kid and something was broken or stained in the living room and my parents got home and when asked who did it and who is going to clean it/fix it we all said "Not Me"

More Sandbox Foreign Policy from the Bush Administration.

2003-02-17T17:29:00.000-05:00

Not a porn site

While surfing the web today i found my new favorite Apple related site ...

PerversionTracker and no this is not what you think it is. It is actually a hilarious site that finds bad OS X software and let you know about it. Think of it as the Daily Show or The Onion for Mac Software.

It's just hilarious, for us Mac faithful (Eric that means you).

The biggest reason I love it: Because this means we have so much software for the Mac out there they have content everyday.

2003-02-17T17:23:00.000-05:00

Not where we should play games

According to the Gaurdian Unlimited reports that Rumsfeld is pulling US troops out of Germany due to their "trechery."

While I am all about playing games in the parks and streets of NYC, Rumsfeld's childish games when dealing with Germany are just that childish. Rumsfeld is the reason a lot of Powell's diplomatic efforts are being quashed.

There are long term considerations that are important here. We need allies to fight the war on terror in the long term. Remember how many arrests Germany has had in the war on terror? Remember where many of the high-jackers went to school, besides the US? Germany is needed to defeat al Queda and we are pushing them away.

Finally in the real long term, one of the DoD's favorite think tank theorists, Thomas Barnett, argues that the US must and will "Shrink the non-integration gap" however it seems that the only thing we are doing right now is possibly making it larger in the long term.

How can this be good National Security strategy?

2003-02-17T15:19:00.000-05:00

Snowball Action Network

I was walking home from the obligatory Blockbuster run during this blizzard and the snowfall started to die down.

Right then ... I wanted wanted to have a snowball fight.

I don't mean me and three friends ... I mean a large massive snowball fight in the vein of the great Nike Tagcommercial a while back.

Then I started combining that urge with my recent readings from Smart Mobs and realize that snowball fights (and in the future games of tag and more) are great venues for the application of such brilliant technology and organizational techniques.

My head is spinning and you will hear more from me about this cause I am serious.

But basically it would work like this. A largely dormant e-mail, AIM, and Text message list and a website would be created. The ground rules would be determined and then we wait. For it to snow of course. Then the list comes into action, a meeting place is determined, people are alerted with what color to wear and off we go in the middle of central park with thousands playing.

Of course there would not be a winner, per se but that would prevent wide scale cheating and beating ;). Essentially it would provide groups of friends and individuals to get involved in a largely free form snowball fight.

More to come.

But please e-mail me if your interested in the concept: kmthurman@mac.com

2003-02-17T10:52:00.000-05:00

Not the lead story anymore

In the post 9/11 world it seems that this tragedy is not getting as much attention as it would have. No breaking news stories, and most of my news nationally and locally is about the weather. I can't decide if it is a bad thing or good thing.

But it is more important than about 75% of the blizzard coverage.

2003-02-17T06:46:00.000-05:00

Republicans outsource fundraising call centers

Oliver Willis is asking: Is this how the president's party contributes to the growth of our economy?. He asks this because Bush and the Republicans are using outsourced call centers in India to help raise funds

Oliver's question is a valid one. And I heed it entirely, it reminds me of the scene in The War Room where James Carville finds out that millions of printing business for the Republican Party went to printers in Brazil. Bush II has not learned anything in the past few years but how to keep such things even more quiet. This is the kind of story the Blogosphere must keep alive to highlight the administration's lack of understanding of the problems facing this nations future.

But it also highlights another major problem that this administration refuses to address as we rush headlong into globalization. We are in the middle of the second Bush recession and the jobs that created so much prosperity in between them 1990s are leaving the US.

CC News (a magazine for Call Center professionals) reports, nearly 3.3 million white collar jobs and $136 billion in wages will be lost over the next 15 years according to Forester Research. The reports author, Joe McCarthy "McCarthy said U.S. workers can benefit if they have the training and expertise to lead or manage offshore work from their stateside bases." What about kids who graduate from college where are they supposed to work after 2015? How will they become managers if their entry level jobs are outsourced?

In the end this issue is a major problem facing America and its base of "white collar" jobs that are supposed to save us from the flood of manufacturing jobs moving overseas. Now those jobs are moving overseas. This is not a conservative or liberal problem, this is a real problem about how money invested in US companies will even create jobs.

The Administration should be looking for solutions to this problem that is even larger than it seems at first, not contributing to it!

Join me in making sure the major media outlets pick this UP.

2003-02-17T06:08:00.000-05:00

What Liberal Radio?

We've been hearing from Rush Limbaugh for years and Fox News has been doing well in the ratings for the past few years. Which is why I am excited that some rich liberals are going to try and finally go head to head with conservative talk show hosts.

The NY Times article says the benefactors of this project are California Democrats Sheldon and Anita Drobny. And from this writings on http://www.makethemaccountable.com/drobny/ we have a true liberal here, not just a DLC puppet hoping to fight Rush from the center.

I happy about this not just because I am more liberal then conservative, but because the media should have a balance in both "unbiased" and biased media.

2003-02-16T16:28:00.000-05:00

Ashcroft sticking his nose in local issues AGAIN

As if the overriding of his local prosecutors decisions was enough of indication that Ashcroft thinks that local control is an outdated concept, Kos is telling me even more disturbing news:

Ashcroft's Justice Department filed an amicus brief to uphold NYC's (wildly unsuccessful) ban on yesterday's protests.

I disagree, with Kos argument of "unsuccessful" while I went to the protests yesterday and they were successful, I wasn't able to join in because NYC confined it to a smaller area, instead of letting people march. I was stuck on 2nd Ave, and eventually came home to blog.

In the end, Ashcroft's brief on what was a local security issue, is just another incident of the Justice Department overstepping it's traditional area of operation to keep local issues from being local.

2003-02-16T16:14:00.000-05:00

Leaving Thousands of Schools Behind

So the New York Times is catching on to what my mom is dealing with. See not only has the Administration's education reform not been funded but it seems to be hurting schools that local communities hold up as a source of pride.

Why is this: The law says that every racial and demographic group in each school must score higher on standardized tests every year; if any group fails to advance for two consecutive years, a school is labeled "needing improvement."

It also doesn't distinguish between schools that miss those goals by a little and by large amount. Which does two things: hurts the schools that are doing well and have a mis-step and it hurts even more the schools that are hurting a lot and are grouped with schools that are when competing for resources.

What is most wrong with this is that the local residents have no power in this situation except to create a charter school if the a school underperforms for three years straight. There is no question This law takes the power away from local communities and gives it to state legislatures and the federal government.

There is no question that something needs to be done to fix this mess. For the sanity of our educators and for the involvement of our communities in the public school system it must be done now.

This should be the rallying cry of the Democrats. Issue 3.

2003-02-15T15:58:00.000-05:00

On Grassroots participation and Kos' Idea

I have decided to weigh in on Kos' idea to bring grassroots money to the DNC. But inorder to do so I feel I should let you know who I am first. I am a recent college graduate where I spent most of my time studying marketing and working for an internet consultant. In that time I have work on a number of e-teams and are taking the succesful entertainment marketing strategy to other areas.

I have also been involved in politics since I was 12 and have worked on a lot of campaigns despite being young. I stopped working politics after a stint as a fundraiser for Al Gore because I could not stand the role of money in politics. Recently I have come back as my sense of urgency about the country is far more important than the issues I have with money. This is one reason Kos' ideas excites me. The other is that my marketing and street team experience gives me a couple ideas.

There is much discussion about Kos' idea to influence the DNC and such with some of the good ideas that come from his site and the liberal blogosphere. His solution is trying to raise $100,000 and donate it to the DNC, elvating him and his readers to the equivalent of the GOP "Pioneer" level. This could be done with the coperations of sites like MyDD, Atrios, TalkLeft, DU, and dKos. Getting 334 of their readers to donate $300 a piece ($25 a month).

The questions have come from two major ends: organization and message.

The organization must be a PAC or you cannot demand a unified voice of influence, and it is easier legally. Secondly the PAC should act as an umbrella brand, one whoose goal is simply: to ncrease grassroots involvment in Democratic politics. Then underneath that would be a system of nodes. Each node could be the sites listed above, people would gravitate to those site to donate to the umbrella PAC, those nodes would be how the PAC was Organized. Thsi will make it easier to get more involvement because the nodes could create street teams to help promote their ideas and raise money.

The PAC could actually raise much more than the $100,000 in theory and encompass a greater range of politcal beliefs that are contained within the party.

The message could be determined in one of two ways, or even both. The first is "nodes" have controls over their money so to speak in each one of those nodes the decsions are made to where the money is donated and how their access is handled. The second, even more egalitarian is that that we use a web donation system I have been working on.

The system allows to "earmark" their money for specific uses or general concepts. Half of their money would be free to use, and the other half would have restictions or prefences attached. For instance, if people want to make sure their money goes to taking back the house, they can note that. If they want to make sure their money cannot go to the DNC they can note that too. In the end, the system deals with the money in such a way as to allow people to "vote" while donating.

I think a combination of those systems are best.

However I think the most important thing to note is that Kos is on to something.

We need a grassroots PAC for our community, especially as it grows. The PAC should be dedicated to just that. Grassroots involvement. The "nodes" would allow for more segmented ideas to get through, and the donation system would provide for individual preference. The discussion system is something we already have here in the blogosphere.

E-mail me and let me know what you think: kmthurman@mac.com

2003-02-15T14:44:00.000-05:00

What happened to the will to survive

Slashdot has a small piece about keeping the public in the dark if the world is going to end.

Okay maybe that is an exaggeration. Essentially a advisor to the government says that nothing can be done, why cause unnecessary panic?

This reminds me of the attitude put forth by certain NASA officials about what they would have done if they knew there was a problem with the wing.

This experiment that is our lives and civilization is fragile and I am really getting tired of people who are willing to give up that easy. The assumption we can never do a thing is decent scientific philosophy, but it is terrible leadership advice. Doing everything you can to survive is the job of leaders, not to conform to what people think is possible.

When did everyone get so defeatist?

2003-02-15T11:33:00.000-05:00

Losing the other war

Oliver Willis has linked to an extremely interesting piece by an American living in Australia, Forbes I know he is cool because he reads Dave Hyatt's Surfin Safari.

Forbes points out that we are losing the proganda war. This is one way to put it. It also be said we are not being good leaders in a war on terror. This is obvious by the fact that people are not only not following, but the see us as:
frighteningly big and muscular, could conquer the earth if it wanted, and has declared that you're either invading Iraq with us, or we'll add your name to the Axis of Evil and deal with you later as Forbes puts it.

Forbes and I disagree on the war, but his article it great. It points out why so many people have a hard time with us. We are not the humble gentle giant we need to be to survive in this world. Instead many see us as Amerizilla, and that is one impression I do not think is just a lack of good propoganda, or can go away with victory.

I will say it again. America does simply need a direction for itself, it needs a direction to lead the rest of the world towards, and then rally them to it.

2003-02-15T11:11:00.000-05:00

Konfabulator

I just wanted to let any Mac user know of the greatest program to come along since NetNewsWire is that of the strange name you just read Konfabulator.

Jason at O'Reilly Network has a great review of it.

But as for exactly what it is ... well it is a program that allows people to create and run other small desktop "widgets" Once you download Konfabulator it explains itself to you and you can download all kinds of great little programs that make your Mac an even better.

My favorite examples are some great clocks, news tickers, and some games.

Take it for a spin you'll enjoy.

2003-02-15T10:43:00.000-05:00

Three great notes about Intellectual Property

First, Aaron Swartz has a great explanation of the issue and why it has to change. My favorite part:

A property right is a positive right: ... A copyright is an entirely negative right: it gives you no new freedoms, merely the ability to prevent others from something they would otherwise be allowed to do.

Second, Slashdot is linking to some great new works on intellectual property. This is the more in depth and academic proof of what Swartz pointed out in his blog.

Finally, on a lighter note. It looks like Larry Lessig may not have a cartoon like Captain Planet, but like Buffy he has Fan Fiction according to Boing Boing. That has got to be some interesting stuff, he may get that cartoon or action figure yet. (side note: Jenny you should get into this stuff.)

2003-02-15T10:26:00.000-05:00

Democrats getting on the ball

New York Times is reporting that Congressional democrats are finally getting together on my issue number one: Homeland Security.

Then on another note Todd Gaedard's Political Wire is also reporting that the Democrats senior staffers have begun coordinating strategy at Weekly mondya meetings.

Granted both these pieces of news are Democrats playing catch up to the Republicans who have their number one issue (War on Iraq) and have been having weekly staff meetings for 2 years now.

However, it gives me hope, and it shows that Democrats are waking up and readying for a fight in 2004. If the Presidential Candidates can provide vision and Conrgessional democrats can weaken Bush's credibility, the the Democrats will walk away with 2004.

On a related note, Hillary Clinton is behind a lot of this (if you read between the lines) and I have to be honest, I would rather have her as Majority Leader than President.

2003-02-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

Interesting Reading

Found a great site: Internal Memos and on it some fascinating reading: a memo from Clear Channel about how to cover the War on Iraq.

2003-02-15T10:16:00.000-05:00

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

Protesters against a war with Iraq are marching in London according to BBC News. They can't decide if there is a million or 150,000 and CNN is reporting the estimate fo 500,000. So which is it?

As I get ready to join my city's protest I tend to be a bit disturbed on how protesters are covered. Makes me wonder if going to First Ave is worth much besides for my own self.

I think the protesters whould try and work with the major news outlets in their city and a third party and work together to figure out the most accurate estimate. This way there will be little confusion about the numbers. I know protests like overestimate the amount of people as much as the police like to downplay it, but I think everyone would be better off if the protesters and everyone could just estimate together.

More importantly though, we need to figure out a new kind of protest and think outside the box, cause this is not working. It is being quantified like letter campaigns and faxes, and treated about just as significant.

What can it be? I dunno, I am working on that.

2003-02-14T17:40:00.000-05:00

If Hitchcock made modern political thrillers

In my new favorite blog of the day, little green footballs, I have found my favorite analogy about the War yet. It turns out, Mark Steyn, of the National post points out that:
Sadam is the MacGuffin. Like the top-secret formula in The 39 Steps or the uranium in Notorious, he's the pretext for the movie, but he's not really what the movie's about.

While I don't agree with his analysis politically. Mark's use of the MacGuffin analogy is well put. He is the thing that drive this plot, not the real conflict in it. Of course he left out the "tragic flaw" that Hitchcock's hero's usually had that this country also displays, but alas, I can't everything.

Professor Rose would be proud.

2003-02-14T13:25:00.000-05:00

Air Force nerds, a Mac, and a plastic Telescope

According to CNN those are the materials used to to capture the now famous image of Columbia. Thank god for smart nerds and their Macs, we have some more evidence on what caused this tragedy.

(My dad has been wondering why the image from the top secret telescopes used by the Air Force were so blurry, and Boing Boing has come through for him and me.)

2003-02-14T13:08:00.000-05:00

Politics over funding

Oliver Willis has updated his site to point out that Alex Knapp states that the BBC is lying.

First I challenge him to find a single lie in that story. All of it's facts and figures came from a Senate Republican and the head of the organization that distributes much of our humanitarian aid.

See this is why it so hard to have political discussions. Everyone throws around words like lies and then doesn't look at the subtleties that the reporters are writing about.

The reality of budgets is that this omission means two things: It was not a priority for the Administration to request humanitarian funds for Afghanistan and the Bush white House is going to force Congress to ad it to THEIR budget.

The BBC story simply points out that the Republican Chairman of the House Appropriattions Subcommitie now has to figure out how to pay for it since the White House decided not to. If that is not showing a lack of priority I don't know what is.

It was not included in the budget they sweat over and treat as a statement of priorities. In fact, budgets have been known to have place holding sections, for priorities that have not been fleshed out yet. No one at State or the West Wing asked for that figure? Or even wanted to put in a place holder??

That is absolutely no Marshall Plan. It is getting less funding in the 2004 budget than Syria. Who do we have more a responsibility to?

UPDATE: I inccorectly promoted Congressman Kolbe to the Senate and the Foriegn relations comm. earlier, thank you to Jay Caruso for pointing that out.

2003-02-14T12:39:00.000-05:00

Terror Alert Based on Lies?

According to ABCNEWS.com the terror alert was partly based on lies. I read this on Blog Left: Critical Interventions, and honestly I am aghast.

The terrorists don't even have to do anything to strike fear in Americans and our officials. "Chatter" still increased the alert also, we are told, but still.

I have a question for our intelligence community: If a lie this lame can't set us off this much ... how can you know the truth?

Intelligence should be able to spot lies like this, but we know so little we can't. We still have a long way to go.

2003-02-14T12:20:00.000-05:00

No aide to Afghanistan in our budget, can we ever belive what the White House says?

Seems that Oliver Willis has pointed out another news nugget that makes me sure I am on to something. It seems that Bush has cut funding to aide Afghanistan. Good thing even his party mates have had the sense to throw it back in.

This story got me thinking. Here is what it got me thinking about:

- This is further proof that Bush Admin has a large "Credibility Gap" even with Republicans that they have to fix the mess of his budget, and claim they increased spending.

- It increases my understanding that the in the promotion of democracy (as opposed to capitalism) should be the number one tenant in our Foreign policy.

- Where is bush on the drug war? With no aide to Afghanistan opium production can only go up, and it is already high

- Finally, the good news, I think the Democrats problem will not be finding an issue to beat Bush, but that there are just too many things to say about this Administration on a policy basis it will be hard to pick which ones to point out.

2003-02-14T11:53:00.000-05:00

Seems like Hart is getting his first flack

Over at TalkLeft they are explaining and discussing a comment that my favorite non-candidate Gary Hart made in a speech in San Francisco. The comment is as follows:

"We must not let our role in the world be dictated by ideologues with their special biases and agendas, by militarists who long for the clarity of cold war confrontation, by think tank theorists who grind their academic axes, or by Americans who too often find it hard to distinguish their loyalties to their original homelands from their loyalties to America and its national interests."

A lot of people are taking this as an anti-semitic remark. Talk Left, after sitting down with Gary Hart, was able to provide a great analysis of the context of that statement and how ridiculous that analysis is.

Gary Hart stated "homelands"

Most jewish people in the US are not from Isreal. So how could this be more towards them than say the Cubans.In fact, this is a man who has written two novels about Cuba, so maybe he was refering to Cuban immigrants, or maybe mexican, or perhaps, all immigrants.

I have a feeling this kind of hunting for for issues will haunt Hart over his campaign, if he runs. Because he talks in long term and thinks broadly (like a President should) and the press doesn't make money from that.

2003-02-13T10:49:00.000-05:00

Computer issues ....

It seems as if my QPS Hard Drive is "not supported on OS X" What kind of ridiculous notion is that, it's a hard drive, not Quark!

Anyhow as you can tell I am fixing computer issues. I will resume blogging this afternoon.

2003-02-12T08:33:00.000-05:00

Gary Hart on CNN

Yesterday's speech in San Francisco made CNN's morning show. Looks like momentum is building. 3 days and counting until the "Draft Gary Hart" site goes live. Here we go ...

2003-02-12T05:40:00.000-05:00

Is there NATO-al Queda Link?

Emmanuel Goldstein at ArstripOne points out that Osama bin Laden supported NATO in Bosnia and Kosovo, because we on the muslims side.

Maybe the rest NATO is also allied with al Queda, I mean they are balking at Turkey's invocation of article 4. Of course this is paranoid and stupid, but is the the kind of logic supporting our government's actions right now.

I forgot about Bosnia a while ago. Granted since then we have rooted out those cells, but the point is, someone agreeing with you doesn't mean you are working with them. That logic is indefensible and is the kind of logic that hurt us so much while enforcing the policy of containtment.

2003-02-11T22:51:00.000-05:00

On the Iraq/al Queda link front .... Powell trips

DailyKos posted about the new Osama bin laden tape explaining that Osama bin Laden, calls for attacks against US involvement in Iraq, but also calls the Sadam and his foverment "Infidels" The point, there is no link. Just two enemies that agree that the US should not exist for completely different reasons. Read what Kos has to say for the "proof"

2003-02-11T22:47:00.000-05:00

Security Moms and Two Wars

Joe Klien has written an article I wish I had written myself. I link to a lot of articles, but I believe that Joe Klien's article is the best I have read in recent memory.

It incoporates a lot of concepts I agree with both electorally and politcally about the war in Iraq and the war on terror. While I have tried to keep my discussion of these topics to a moral and apolitcal tone, I think the world has passed that kind of debate by. Therefore, Joe Klien comes in at the right time for me to explain the situation and lay out how I disagree politcally with the Bush Adminstration and the Republicans.

His article is a great analysis and his characterization of "Security Moms" opinions are the same as the ones I hold. He argues there are two wars to fight, one at home and one abroad. The one at home is a priority and the one the swing voters of the past 3 elections will care along with me.

He points out our first responder do not have resources. He doesn't point out my main problem, the democrats don't have a plan.

Enter Gary Hart. Who does have a plan and should run if only to epxlain that to America.

Things are begining to fal into place and people are strating to p[rove my hunches right. I have to look at this as good news, that somehtign might change, because if I think it is bad news, then it could only be getting worse. Here's to the hope for the "security Moms"

2003-02-11T09:54:00.000-05:00

Updating the site and links

Just wanted to let the three family members, couple friends, and random people that read this site that it will be in transition over the next week or so. I will be moving to a new domain and adding some other great stuff.

While all along updating the links and other little improvments here.

For now though I want to point you to Salam's site.

Salam's blog is interetsing because, well, he lives in Baghdad. As you can guess, he has a lot to say these days.

Here it is ... Where is Raed?