Sandalblog

It should be noted

2004-11-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

That i am in a much more optimistic mood this morning.

That is all.

Note to Democrats

2004-11-02T23:47:00.000-08:00

drinking does not take the pain away.

just thought you should know (and i should be reminded later when i look back at this in a non-drunken state).

Voted!

2004-11-02T13:42:00.000-08:00

I never got my absentee ballot, but my polling place is located conveniently across the street, so i went and filled out a provisional ballot. And i was on the register rolls there, so im confident my vote will be counted. (But this isn't really a swing state, so its not actually going to count).

Creativity, Liberal Style

2004-11-01T20:58:00.000-08:00

A funny song, on a funny vid. The film segues are very nice. Click here to see Keep Your Jesus Off My Penis.

Only the part where he's Jesus is it offensive. And that's because the beard sucks.

BREAKING NEWS!

2004-10-31T21:36:00.000-08:00

Sportscenter has predicted that with 0% of precincts reporting, Kerry will win the white house. They have called it for Kerry.

You heard it here first.

The Draft

2004-10-31T16:23:00.000-08:00

From a Dailykos Diary:

This may come as a shock to the Pentagon chief, but most of the rumors have arisen from actions within the Bush administration, which has studied how to expand draft registration to include women, target some civilian work specialties for special attention by the draft and extend the required draft registration age from 25 years old to 34 years.

Is Bush, if re-elected, going to instate the draft? I don't know. But i do know that his policies lend towards needing a large army, and currently our armed forces are overstretched right now, and, in fact, we need more in Iraq as it is. Kerry will try (much more successfully than Bush) to include the rest of the world in this, particularly the French Army, which we need, because they are set up to fight a guerilla war (a function of their history of colonialism). This will ease the strains on our army, whereas Bush's approach of alienating the rest of the world and pre-empting whoever we determine to be a threat will likely increase them.

October, it's over

2004-10-31T14:19:00.000-08:00

And the final couple of days are at hand. An encouraging note from Josh Marshall.

We've also got Bin-Laden's "little gift", the Al Qaqaa ammo, which, of course, nobody CARES about now. This whole thing is evidence, to me, tht the media has a bias - towards SUCKINESS. Not leaning right or left, just lazy. Then, there's the great 'Battle Election 2004' going on over at Iron Blog. Both sides have been good, plenty of snark to go around, but i think (or am very biased towards) that the Iron Blogger Democrat is winning, but im already in agreance with him, which means im going to tend to ignore the points against him. Check it out and decide for yourself. An interesting post by Robert Farley of Lawyers, Guns and Money on the results of the Bush Doctrine. Farley is a smart guy, too. Teaches a mean Military Intervention 428.

What else?

Oh, yeah, Football. My Hawks are looking a little shaky, but are up at the half 14- 7, my fantasy football team is looking terrible and the Pats look like they are going to actually lose. Boston can't have TOO many wins - the Red Sox and Kerry will be enough, thank you.

Oh, and Green Bay beat the Redskins, which means, evidently, that republicans are all going to forget to vote. Or something. I'm not sure what the cause and effect of this theory is, frankly.

But good news is good news.

One more reason not to go to Wal-Mart

2004-10-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

From Yahoo News:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, is not selling comedian George Carlin's best-selling new book, "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops," in its stores because its cover makes fun of the "Last Supper," a spokesman for Carlin said on Thursday.

Just like with the FCC and it's rules on media consolidation, this is a great example of why market diversity is necessary, not only for capitalism, but for the flow of information. Plus, Carlin rocks:

[George Carlin] said he thought the title would offend everyone.

I'm now planning on buying the book.

The Red Sox ... win?!?

2004-10-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

Im going to miss America's most lovable team-that-can't-win-it-all. The curse was a part of baseball, and a part of America. Something seems fundamentally wrong now, that the curse has been broken and the ever-underdog Red Sox are now World Champions.

Perhaps it is a metaphor for America - the little country that could, that started in revolution and who, with an isolationist perspective, kept out of world affairs until recently. Now we find ourselves at the top of the game, the world champions, and we are a little unsure of how to deal with it.

Yes, the Red Sox as Champions is going to take some getting used to; the whole mentality of baseball will be different. If we can no longer can we count on them to choke at the last minute, how can we expect the sun to come up each morning or the moon to shine each night (a blood moon on the night the Red Sox win the world series is a doubly bad omen - i HOPE the sun rises tomorrow...)

At any rate, Boston deserves a championship; they've been waiting a long time. I imagine this year's postseason will be remembered for as long as baseball is played, and each player will be deified in Boston. Damon, Ortiz, Schilling, Pedro, Arroyo, Manny, and the rest will forever have a place in Boston lore as the team for which next year was now.

It's October. Surprise!

2004-10-27T02:29:00.000-07:00

Only i dont think this was something planned by the Bush Administration. From the Independent in the UK.

Secret plans for the war in Iraq were passed to British Army chiefs by US defence planners five months before the invasion was launched, a court martial heard yesterday.

The revelation strengthened suspicions that Tony Blair gave his agreement to President George Bush to go to war while the diplomatic efforts to force Saddam Hussein to comply with UN resolutions were continuing.

Now, the administration (if this gets splashed in the news) will try to put this off as mere contingency planning, but i think we all know that Bush was gonna get his war on, whether Saddam disarmed or not. The more this gets noticed, the worse Bush looks.

Lt Col Warren said US planners had passed on dates for which the invasion was planned.

that doesn't sound like a 'last resort' to me.

More Blogging

2004-10-14T18:13:00.000-07:00

Hopefully. I think i found out the reason i haven't really been blogging: im not exposed to the raw news enough. I always get it from other blogs, so i always feel like im just parroting other's opinions, which although that seems to be one of the main functions of the blogosphere, i don't like to do it. So i've installed an iframe of This in my home page. It's pretty handy to have, although i made it small so its hard to read. Anyhow, after reading this article about the counting of election, i was disappointed to discover no mention of Katherine Harris or Jeb Bush. But seriously, its good news in a place that hasn't had much. It's just a shame that Bush uses it to justify his actions. Hopefully these elections will bring a little sanity to a place where the drug trade and warlords flourish. Is the viral democracy theory legitimate? I dont think so. But if we are going to be installing them, we might as well get them right. Right?

STORM WIN!

2004-10-12T22:21:00.000-07:00

Seattle Storm: WNBA champs! It's nice for seattle to get another championship, because its been 25 years since we've had the last one. Mariners suck (dammit!), Sonics suck, Seahawks are looking good, but I can't predict we'll go all the way (i cant talk about the loss to the rams right now.... *sob*). No other major sports. And no hockey either(sorry people from Canada!) Finally, Seattle is no longer a one-win town. Sweet.

Deja Vu?

2004-10-12T19:10:00.000-07:00

Does this sound a little familiar?

Its basically the same plan that Clinton had with North Korea, the one that Bush had such a poor opinion of. But, I guess it was just Clinton he objected to.

Pre Debate Planning: Krugman

2004-10-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

Krugman has a piece out about some of the things that he thinks Bush is going to say about Kerry's economic record/plans and his own record on the economy, and he pre-emptivly calls bullshit on them. Read It.
But as Krugman writes:

Mr. Bush's statements, on the other hand, are fundamentally dishonest. He is insisting that black is white, and that failure is success. Journalists who play it safe by spending equal time exposing his lies and parsing Mr. Kerry's choice of words are betraying their readers.

The info he gives out in his column ought to be recalled in the post-debate spin, particularly because the numbers are going to be very he said/she said in the minds of the public. If the facts that Mr. Krugman exposes is accepted, then Kerry could have a very resounding victory. If Bush is allowed to obfuscate the truth, then things won't be good for Kerry.

The Mariners' Offseason

2004-10-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

It was a disappointing year, but there is some hope for the future - a committed management can resurrect this team by signing some key players in the offseason. Here's my full opinion on the matter: The Mariners need three major free-agents signings; two bats and a pitcher. The open spaces are in the OF, 1B, SS and 3B (and P) spots.OF Beltran: Great Power, Moderate Average, Good Speed, Good Arm. Long-term upside, and a definate superstar.

3B Beltre: Good Power, Good Average, Moderate Defense Could easily repeat Breakout season, at worst he is solid. Young, no decline foreseeable.

OF JD Drew: Great Power, Good Average, Good Defense - underrated and a long-term contributer. Also young.

1B Delgado: Like Beltran, but with injury/age issue. Potential risk too great.

3B Glaus: Good Power, Moderate Average, Moderate Defense. Would be good, but has had injury issue the past two years; he is 29 and may potentially fall into an injury-prone phase in his career (think griffey)

3B Corey Koskie: Moderate Power, Good Average, Good Defense. Would be okay as the second pickup, but not enough power. Also trending down in power.

1B Sexton: Good Power, Moderate Average, Moderate Defense. Currently injured. Is 29, strikes out a lot.

OF Magglio Ordonez: Good Power, Great Average, Moderate Defense. Injury-prone and getting on in years; not a good combination. Risky.

OF Dye: Moderate Power, Moderate Average, Good Defense. A second-tier acquisition, w/good defense, but not the power bat we are looking for.

3B Mike Lowell: Good Power, Good Average, Good Defense. Option for a year with the Marlins. Solid all-around player, low K rate. If hes on the market he's good.

********

RHP Pavano: Good K/BB rate, Groundball pitcher, would be very solid 2-3 guy in rotation.

RHP Radke: Solid, Steady ERA Good K/BB, WHIP, benefitted from good MIN OF defense as a moderate Flyball pitcher.

RHP Lowe: Don't do it; overated

LHP Loiza: One good season, more medicre ones.

LHP Odalis Perez: LA is a good pitcher's park, but K/BB ratio is good. Major Groundball pitcher, solid WHIP,

RHP Millwood: Best pitcher on the market- will be overpaid. But the best for a reason.

Best Case Scenario:
Sign Beltran, Beltre/Lowell, Millwood

Likely Scenario:
Sign Drew, Beltre/Glaus, Pavano/Perez

Hopefully one of these two scenarios will play out, but there are other options out there. If the management is committed to winning they will be in play in the market this offseason.

The Vice-Presidential Debate

2004-10-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

Obviously Cheney is the brains. We need a Kerry/Cheney Debate and a Bush/Edwards debate. It would make for more even matches...

So the debate, huh?

2004-10-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

Oh, i watched it - Kerry won, on account of Bush looking bad on the split-screen. And did anyone notice how the cameras zoomed in further on Bush when it was split screen. Its cause he's shrimpy and wimpy compared to Kerry.

...reminds me of a Bloom County Cartoon. But dont write-in Margaret Thatcher.

Vote for Patty Murray

2004-09-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

No not in the REAL election. (ok mebbe there too): she's my local Senator and I got an email recently about a vote on Democracy for America (Dean's organization; good to see he's staying relevant) where the winner gets a supportive email sent out to the huge Dean email list. Anyway, I voted for Patty Murray, and i think y'all should too, espcially if you are from Washington, are against the Iraq War, for Port Security, the environment and lots of other stuff of which Patty Murray is real good on. Go Here and vote for Patty! She's a little hard to find on the list; shes on the third group, second from the top. Then let your friends know about it and make them vote too. It'll help her to no end.

Hee hee

2004-09-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

Two annoyances, at one time:
Bush and Clippy

Im Back

2004-09-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

... its dusty in here. Phwoof! Wipe, wipe.

I'd like to give a shout-out... against Bush!

2004-08-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

Site here.

Actually, I ususally scream whenever he comes on the tv anyways. Not specifically "fuggedahboutit", but more some sort of expletive-filled and mostly unintelligible wailing. But its always nice to do things in tandem with a lot of other people. I wonder if we can throw the earth's orbit off if we all face east when we do it? Not that cataclysmic orbital shifting that could cause the earth to spin into the sun would affect Bush at all. Probably say something bad about focus groups...

Also, for those of you who care, (which i know nobody does, i SEE my hit count) i'm not gonna be blogging for a couple weeks. (read: vacation).

Just Disgusting

2004-08-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

But, unfortunately its really not all that surprising. From the NYT, an Op-Ed piece on efforts by florida republicans to stop "get out the vote" drives specifically aimed at black voters. This is disgusting on many levels; first, they are actively trying to prevent people from voting, which is unabashedly unamerican and a completely vile thing to do; this should absolutely never ever happen in any way EVER. People who do things like that need to be seriously punished.

And the second way that this is disgusting is the racial aspect. They could at least have the decency to target Democrats instead of blacks. Latent racism is to blame here, and the fact that blacks tend to vote democratic (after these sorts of things, you can kind of understand why). There needs to be some way to counter these dirty tricks, particularly with jail time for those involved. It jst needs to stop.

Anyhow, my outrage-o-meter is pretty high after reading this.

Kerry Ad

2004-08-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

From Blogenlust, a kerry ad/video, and it's pretty good stuff; its a clip with John McCain from the 2000 election season. Watch it.

Man Fired for Heckling Bush

2004-08-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

Its probably not as bad as it sounds, but i still don't like where this country is going. From CNN.com:

When he showed up for work at Octavo Designs of Frederick, Maryland, the following morning, he said he was told he'd embarrassed and offended a client who provided tickets to the event -- and that he was fired.

Is this legal? Can this company get away with firing someone over their political beliefs? Well, in this case i would say yeah, because he "embarassed" a client. But its uncomfortable to me when someone gets fired for speaking their minds.

Still, it's nice to know that:
A. There are some anti-bush people getting through the screening net, and
B. This guy can actually come up with a heckle good enough to get fired over; the best i can think of is "we want a president, not.. a belly resident". And that's just terrible. Somebody out there should think of some good ones and tell me, just in case Bush comes up to my neck of the woods (though why would he ever?)

Kerry vs. the SBVfT

2004-08-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

A good article in the NYT. Unfortunately, i have to leave for work, but its enlightening.

This is HUGE

2004-08-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

From Atrios; It's Cheesewhizgate

Does W like cheese whiz? Does he not? Did he lie to the good people of Philidelphia? Inquiring minds want to know!

(btw, if this were Clinton this would be big news)

The News Today

2004-08-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

Some interesting articles today;
First, A piece, on Chavez' election down in Venezuela. It seems the US has been meddling a little bit, though ineffectively. It's an endemic problem, I think, that our government feels it has the authority to mess around in other countries' elections. It has happened far too much, contributed to many problems we face today (terrorism, regional instability and oppressive regimes) in the world, and as there is no Cold War going on, no overaching justification (not that it does justify it) for doing so. If we, as the model democracy, manipulate other democracies and bend the rules etc., we don't exactly set a good example. Our foreign policy needs to get away from this mentality, because it hurts America in the long term.

Second, a more disturbing effect of the Bushies' policy of pre-emption; Iran is threatening to preempt Israel to prevent them from pre-empting Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

"We will not sit to wait for what others will do to us," he said. "Some military commanders in Iran are convinced that preventive operations which the Americans talk about are not their monopoly. Any nation, if it feels threatened, can resort to that."

This is the perfect example of an international norm beign broken. Realists don't believe in them, but it is obvious that there was some semblance of a rule against "pre-emptive" war. Now that that coda has been broken, it seems there are those who feel that if America is "allowed" to do it, then they are perfectly justified as well. This will lead only to the heightening of tensions; in the minds of two opposing countries, say India and Pakistan, each is threatening each other, and now that there is the possibility of an unprovoked attack, each will be on their toes.

Of course, the reality is a little bit different; obviously, Iran's statement is a defensive one- they aren't going to attack Israel. But it does put a bit of a damper on any Israeli notions of wiping Iran's nuclear facilities out (not that it was going to be easy).

Wes Clark

2004-08-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

I met Wesley Clark at work today - he's a bit shorter than i would have imagined. But, from what i heard before i was pulled away, he's an impassioned speaker. He'd have made a good president, certainly much better than our current one.

This is cool

2004-08-18T17:36:00.000-07:00

From the NYT. Three Kings was a great movie, and unusual for Hollywood, i.e. it was a thoughtful and complex look at a real-life situation, with enough excitement thrown in to make it appealing on a baser level. I thought it was one of the most well-rounded movies i've ever seen, and it ranks up pretty high on my fav movies list. And they're gonna re-release it, hopefully to a larger audience than the first time. Add in the documentary, and i might just go to see it when it comes out, even though i've seen the movie about four times.

The 50-50 Nation

2004-08-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

Why does the 50-50 nation exist, anyway? From my perspective, how can 50% of the US population still think that Bush is worthy of being re-elected? How come there hasn't been any shift in the last four years? They've been very polemisizing years, for sure; the 2000 election, 9/11, Afghanistan & the Iraq War, and thousands of more minor occurences have all been very galvanizing for me personally. I thought i was right on the issues, too, and that pretty soon, at least some of the other 50% would come to realize what i saw was going on. But there's been almost no change. Why is Bush still supported by half of America, after all the terrible things I've seen him do? Is it just that what i percieve to be terrible is a good thing to some people? Is it that I am, in fact wrong on the issues and it is MY 50% who should be switching? Who supports Bush still and why?

America seems to be split down the middle on this; there are blue states, and there are red states. There are liberals and there are conservatives, hippies and chickenhawks. America is divided, right down the middle.

Or is it? I feel i should point out here that the idea of a 50-50 nation, diveded into two is a myth. The US is as much a 50-50 nation as Dr. Seuss is Nietsche. There is no red-state-blue-state-one-state-two-state. Its a gross oversimplification, and although a seed of the truth is there, it is a poor analysis for any real purpose beyond CNN and FOX. Yes, there are divisions in American society, but they do not run right down the middle. They are a Vallis Marinaris of canyons, crisscrossing over the political landscape, a gash down the middle, yes, but many side canyons as well. Each side is a confederation of voting blocs, often small and hinging on the issues which congeal together to make up a rough split. But by no means is it one side or the other.

So anyway, I was curious as to who was motivated to vote for Bush, and on what issues were they supportive of Bush. I came across a few comments, responding to the question of 'why are you voting for Bush?' There were 6 responses in the thread, each with a few points. Boiling them down, there were really only four reasons; the commenters liked Bush's moral fiber, his approach to the war on terrorism, his tax cuts, and his conservative social accomplishments.

To me, there is only one legitimatly arguable point on that list; Bush's conservative social accomplishments. I accede that on this point, as loose a congregation of moral battlegrounds as it is, it is acceptable to me that there are irreconcilable differences in "social" policy. This is mostly because of religion's role in it- these social beliefs run deep and unchangable. All i would ask is that there be no impositions on me or anyone else who doesn't want them on matters such as these. Getting chocolate in my peanut butter is okay, and peanut butter in my chocolate i can deal with, but i don't want any religion in my government, thank you.

So putting social agendas aside, why does Bush still enjoy a large base of support?

So aside from Bush's conservative social agenda, why do people still support Bush? The war in Iraq, given a full grasp of the facts and some perspective becomes a negative, as does Bush's handling of the war on Terror, to a lesser extent. Tax cuts are less obvious, as they involve a lot of minute economic knowledge (Of which i do not posess, but Krugman makes sense to me), and Bush's moral character simply HAS to be self-deception on the part of quite a few people, a shrugging off of all evidence to the contrary (or perhaps it has to do with the fact tha Bush appears to be religious).

Part of me wants to blame the media; people like Rush Limbaugh and the administration sycophants on FOX, as well as the lax behavior on the part of the other major networks. As has been discussed on Kos recently, its an atmosphere of "fairness-not-truth" in the media recently. The he-said she-said national discussions solve nothing, and truth comes off as only one side of a story. And of course, the Republican party works as hard as it can to hide their true agendas, hide their mistakes, hide what they seem to really be about- see the schedule for the upcoming RNC; not exactly the heart and soul of the party.

There can't really be that big of a separation between people; theres no Berlin wall that winds its way along the fringes of big cities, where Americans are Blue Americans and Red Americans. There are no Morlocks and Eloi here. Cultural evolution can't happen seperately in the same place. But when i read comments like: "He's got the right idea for winning the War On Terrorism: 'We will make no distinctions between the terrorists and the countries that harbor them.', I can't figure out how this conclusion makes any sense at all, because not only is that obviously bad policy, but Bush himself doesn't follow it (see Saudi Arabia). `

It's quite frustrating. And now I've wasted my time wondering in this long and rambling pseudo-essay, which started with a question and never answered it. Which makes me wonder if the people who aren't voting at all are simply smarter, not lazier.

Changes made, hooray!

2004-08-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

I decided that my site was too white, so things got changed. Colors changed, fonts changed, archives added, haloscan comments added, soon the title picture will be random load instead of linked to day and there will be 2x as many. Working on a post, sort of, and more changes to come! Sweet!

This one is pretty fun

2004-08-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

go here and make bush a BALD grinning idiot!

Kerry and the War Vote

2004-08-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

And i guess i will be posting this on my blog, if only for historical reference...

I just read this article over on the NYT online. And while its another example from our not-actually-but-sclm. It weighs down pretty hard on Kerry, but it is pointing out one of the largest issues that Kerry is going to face in this election; his war vote.

Anyways, my question is how should Kerry deal with this problem. As the article notes, it's a dammed-if-you-do, dammed-if-you-dont issue. If he says he wouldn't invade on what we know today, then he's 'objectively pro-saddam' and he alienates a portion of the middle and the left. If he says he would still invade, then he risks alienating a large portion of his base. And if he says nothing, he looks like a shifty politician.

So what is the solution? Well the solution is to shift the discussion. There are three things that I think Kerry ought to do; first, his defense ought to take the position that so many Americans initially took; Kerry trusted the president to do the right thing. This will probably resonate with a significant chunk of centrist voters. Kerry ought to say that he looked at the evidence that Bush said was "solid" and under those assumptions voted for the war. Then, preferably, he should go on to explain that he now realizes his mistake was a lack of scrutiny, not of Bush but for all presidents' actions, effectively implying that he is accepting of scrutiny (something Bush is obviously not) and thus saying that he isn't going to be lying/misleading etc. This will play to a certain endemic feeling that Bush is shifty/untrustworthy, and that Kerry will be more open, playing to independents and anti-patriot-act type libertarians.

Besides, the question of what to do given what we know now is a moot one and politically devastating. Which is why....

Kerry needs to take Bush's question and turn it back against him. He ought to ask Bush whether or not HE would invade knowing what we know now, that there were no weapons of mass destruction. This would be pleasently ironic, i think, as Bush was so certain that Iraq was an immediate threat and had WMD's. Because, in reality, that Kerry should be stewing over a war that is of Bush's doing is fairly ridiculous. The buck should be stopping with Bush, not with the Senate or the House. Why was Bush misleading the other lawmakers in the first place? Ignorance? Bad intelligence? Maliscious intent? Any answer is a bad answer, and so the question needs to be asked of Bush.

Finally, when Bush & Company make fun of Kerry for being "nuanced", he needs to throw that sort of thing in his face. Iraq was NOT clear-cut, the plan was NOT a cakewalk etc. Imply that the overly simplistic way that Bush operates is at least partially responsible for the mess we are in right now; other countries are NOT either with us or against us, etc.

This election needs to be about Bush's record, not John Kerry's. Bush has been the president for the past four years, a position of significantly more power than Kerry. This question that Bush has been 'mocking' Kerry for seems to quietly imply that Kerry is the one responsible for the Iraq war, and all the other bad stuff. When the incumbent runs on a platform like that and "we're turning a corner", you know he's in trouble.

Let's just hope it's Bush that gets in trouble for it and not Kerry.

GO MARINERS!

2004-08-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

I went to the game last night and we won, 4-3. Not the finest game, but a few good plays by Boone and Winn, and as always, Ichiro is a ninja. That's the great thing about baseball and one of the reasons why it is and will always be the #1 American sport: your team can be mired in their worst season in a decade, 21.5 games out of 1st, lke 5 games ahead of the very worst team in baseball, and yet you can go to the game, sit in the sun, yell at the players and have a great time.

Oh and edgar may be retiring, but he's not done yet. HR in his 1st at bat....

Rice is nice

2004-08-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

Given my last post, This is totally ridiculous.

Iran, North Korea & Nukes

2004-08-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

There's an article in today's New York Times about Iran and North Korea's situations in regard to their development of nuclear capabilities, and to sum it up, there's nothing stopping them from developing them. It even goes to say;

...said Mr. Gates, who is now the president of Texas A&M University, "and I think they can go with a weapon whenever they want to."

This isn't exactly unexpected news, however, and a lot of the blame rests on the shoulders of President Bush and his administration. You can find it under Reason # 317 of Why the Iraq War was a Bad Idea. By going to war with Iraq, our military capability is stretched extremely thin. We're calling up the National Guard, shifting troops from around the world into Iraq and etc; basically we've got no troops who aren't either going to, coming back from or are in Iraq. So the military is currently not a diplomatic tool for America to use- which I firmly believe is the preferable use for the military in situations like these. With no military at hand to be used, we can't do a lot of things; we can't stop the Sudanese genocide, which we ought to be doing, we can't deal with Afghanistan correctly and we can't effectively deter Iran, North Korea or anyone else from trying to obtain nuclear weapons. In fact, the Iraq war essentially gives these countries a window in which to develop them- and if you are at all familiar with the nuclear deterrence theory (a country with nukes can't be attacked because of high risk of devastation of the aforesaid country) then it makes complete sense for Iran et al. to get them now, so that they aren't preemptively attacked in the future. So Bush's little excellent Iraq adventure has given Iran and North Korea the time they need to develop nukes.

And Bush's poor sense of international diplomacy (Reason #488 Why Bush Needs to Go) probably jump-started it;

While it retained raw nuclear material under a 1994 accord with the Clinton administration, that material was under close surveillance until the inspectors were thrown out on Dec. 31, 2002.

Before Bush came into office, Clinton was getting North Korea to halt their nuclear weapons development. The success of which may be debatable, but there was at least an agreement between the nations and a reasonable amount of oversight of their country. Then Bush comes in, declares North Korea a member of the Axis of EVIL and alienates them, so they throw out the inspectors and begin publicly declaring that they have nukes. Combine that with the timing of the Iraq War and it seems Bush has done nothing but encourage the North Koreans to get nukes.

Finally, one of the paragraphs from the article popped out at me:

Several of Mr. Bush's aides have said they expect little concrete progress before the presidential election. The Iranians appear to be betting that Mr. Kerry, if elected, would talk directly to their leaders. Mr. Kerry has also said he would engage in bilateral discussions with North Korea; Mr. Bush has insisted on multilateral talks.

This is interesting in terms of the elections at hand, and expectations of Kerry. The author of the article seems to paint a picture of an Iran that is a little reticent about separating themselves so far from the international community, a la North Korea, and perhaps they are waiting on actually getting nukes to see if Kerry will get elected and they can resume diplomatic relations or not. Reason #939 for Why Kerry Needs to Be Elected, I guess.

Blue angels woke me up...

2004-08-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

damn seafair!

M's 1 - 2 Tampa Bay

2004-08-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

That was a terrible call! Obstructed view?!? He broke for home at the right time! That's the '04 Mariners though, i guess. GRRRRR

Its 5 am...

2004-08-05T05:47:00.000-07:00

and i just deleted a long post. great!

To recap: Here is an article about Fahrenheit 9/11 being shown in Beirut and the reactions of the people there which are personally encouraging to me;

Many said they wanted to know more about the reaction to the movie among Americans, who have bought more than $103 million in tickets.

To me, this says that there is a positive mutual curiosity and longing for understanding between the movie-goers in Beirut (and i would extrapolate the rest of the Arab world, too) and the people of America who are interested enough to read this article. It gives me hope that there are enough sensible people around the world to stop any sort of cultural war between the US and Islam- which i never thought was likely, but is still a scary thought.

Will Ferrell

2004-08-04T20:49:00.000-07:00

whitehousewest

Go there.
Laugh.
Enjoy.

2004-07-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

Bush's New Slogan...

Oops...

2004-07-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

I guess i should post on my blog first, instead of here...

But heres my post:

"Bush's new refrain during this time will be 'we've turned a corner, and we're not turning back' said Devenish (the Bush campaign's communications director).

...This "new refrain" should be one that Democrats can exploit; like the 'running on his record' comment by Guiliani, it should be challenged because we've got the upper hand on this one. But it's got to be framed in terms of Before Bush and After Bush. Im thinking along the lines of this:

Before Bush: unemployment 4.1%
After Bush: unemployment 5.6% (3/04)
Before Bush: Est. 5.6 Trillion $ Surplus
After Bush: Est 5.2 Trillion Deficit
Before Bush: Relatively strong environmental laws
After Bush: Superfund, Clean Air, Logging restriction weakened
Before Bush: Normal relations with Europe/World
After Bush: Intense Anti-Americanism abroad
Before Bush: Education Programs funded
After Bush: Head Start, Even Start, Literacy programs, "impact aid" for military chidren and even his own No Child Left Behind programs seriously cut/underfunded.
Before Bush: Social Security is Secure
After Bush: Threats to privatize SS and potentially use the money to pay down the debt
... and much more

Bush says we've turned a corner. And were not going back.

But thankfully, help is on the way....

First Post of Actual Blogging

2004-07-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

So I watched the Kerry speech, and I was really impressed. I haven't seen him speak too much (as I am voting for him regardless), but all the rumors about his lack of passion and dry (and therefore unappealing) eloquence aren't true, at least for this speech. Kerry spoke about all the things on the huge mental list I have of what America should be doing, etc. Now I think I have a reason to vote FOR Kerry rather than against Bush; Kerry's reactions to Bush are very similar to mine. Terrorism (one flub, btw- he said we were going to finance terrorist operations around the world, then changed it to anti-terrorist, ha), Medicare, the question of patriotism, my views and Kerry's are surprisingly aligned. Tax cuts for the middle class, and money into head start, firemen/policemen, homeland security etc are all topics he hit right onto. And I think that he appealed to a certain patriotic sense that most Americans have- you could see it in the faces of the people watching the speech as the camera panned over them. Kerry may have changed a few minds in the fence-sitter group. I hope. Excellent speech.

Side note: I watched the Bush vs. Bush clip from the Daily show right after, and Bush is just ridiculous. I would LOVE to see an unscripted debate between the two right now.....

Ah well. Off to see what the rest of the blogosphere (I guess I am a part now, in a very, very small way) thinks about the speech. Including the right-wing sites. Always good to see many perspectives.

Sweet...

2004-07-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

Different title pic for each day of the week is set up! Ah well, nuff of this. i guess i'd better "get up" and get ready for my internship...

This is my Blog....

2004-07-27T04:09:00.000-07:00

its coming along, finally. Id better get used to throwing my thoughts out here, even if nobody is listening... (or reading).

Testing 1,2,3...

2004-07-23T02:23:00.000-07:00

Noone is reading this. Yet.