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September 30, 2003
48-Hour Internet Outage Plunges Nation Into ProductivityThe Onion | 48-Hour Internet Outage Plunges Nation Into Productivity BOSTON—An Internet worm that disabled networks across the U.S. Monday and Tuesday temporarily thrust the nation into its most severe maelstrom of productivity since 1992. ... "My first thought was 'My God, this has to be some kind of mistake,'" said Prudential Insurance executive vice-president Shane Mullins of San Francisco. "My e-mail wasn't working. Nerve.com wasn't working. I eventually found out that the company web site wasn't working, either. But by that time, my inbox was filling up like you wouldn't believe." "My actual physical inbox," Mullins added. "It's this gray plastic thing on my desktop—the top of the desk I sit at." ... "Our office was working at roughly 95 percent efficiency," said Steven Glover, an advertising executive and creative team leader at Rae Jaynes Houser. "It's problematic to have the rate jump like that—it sets a precedent that will be impossible to maintain once the Internet comes back." Glover said his department failed to reach 100 percent productivity only because employees stopped work every few minutes throughout the outage to see if Internet service had been restored. "This is terrible," said Miami resident Ron Lewison, an employee at Gladstone Finance and an Amazon.com Top 500 Reviewer. "For two days, I've been denied access to the vital information I need to go about my workday. In the absence of that information, I've been forced to go about my job." Read It Rating: 9 Shocking New Jacket Hits StreetShocking New Jacket Hits Street A new anti-assault device for women wards off potential assailants with an 80,000-volt electric shock. Dubbed "exo-electric armor," the No-Contact Jacket looks like an ordinary fashionable women's coat. But an inner layer of conductive fiber carries a low-amp charge that delivers a nasty but non-lethal shock to anyone who messes with its wearer. "It's kind of like sticking your finger in a wall socket," said Adam Whiton, one of its designers. "It hurts. If someone tries to grab you from behind, they get the full, hefty shock out of it. That's really painful." Designed by Whiton, an industrial designer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yolita Nugent, head designer at Advanced Research Apparel, the jacket is intended to be an alternative to handguns, pepper sprays and rape whistles. Read It Rating: 7.5 |
Do Not Call Registry not dead yet
Do Not Call Registry not dead yet
By Bob Sullivan
MSNBC
Sept 24 — Consumer groups say Tuesday’s federal court ruling that blocks the Do Not Call Registry is just a temporary legal setback, and won’t ultimately stop government agencies from preventing most dinner-time telephone interruptions. A U.S. judge has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission overstepped its authority in creating the national do-not-call list against telemarketers. The FTC asked a court to stay its decision while it appeals the ruling.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
Libertarian options in the California recall
Libertarian options in the California recall
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .3
Learning Percentage: 2%
Lieberman Begins N.H. Blitz
I saw Lieberman on C-Span at Tom Harkin's Hear it From The Heartland town hall meeting, and his performance was downright dismal. Lieberman should drop out -- the sooner the better. I don't like to make predictions, but I'll go out on a limb and say that Joe Lieberman doesn't have a chance* at winning the presidency in 2004 -- and his chances of winning the Democratic nomination are only marginally better.
* Unless Bush really, really spirals down into unpopularity (i.e., unless Bush defeats himself.)
Lieberman Begins Blitz
He reintroduces himself to state
Concord Monitor; September 15, 2003
by Anne Ruderman, Monitor staff
MANCHESTER - At his first New Hampshire town meeting, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman yesterday called the U.S. war on terrorism a "war for the hearts and minds of the Islamic world," saying it was more than just a quest to capture Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
"This is the time for a Marshall Plan for the Muslim world," said Lieberman, one of nine Democrats running for president. "With strength we'll achieve the security we want for our children and our grandchildren."
...
But if the scale of this weekend's blitz was different (even the posters were larger), the senator's message - repeal most of the Bush tax cuts, create more manufacturing jobs, provide affordable health care - was largely the same.
"There's this idea that if you're not registering in New Hampshire, all you need to do is retail politics, more intensity with hooha all around it and that's going to help you rise in the polls," said Dean Spiliotes, an analyst with the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester. "That stuff is fine if you have a message that resonates."
Spiliotes said that Lieberman, who was largely thought to be a front-runner for the 2004 campaign, has suffered from the sudden popularity of Dean and a fractured Democratic party.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 35%
MPP: Dean and Kerry improve medical marijuana positions
(Received via e-mail)
Dear Friend:
The Marijuana Policy Project's campaign to influence Democratic
presidential candidates on the medical marijuana issue in
New Hampshire enjoyed tremendous success this past weekend.
Two of the leading candidates -- former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and
U.S. Sen. John Kerry (MA) -- markedly improved their respective
positions on medical marijuana. Dean agreed to impose a moratorium on
the DEA's raids on medical marijuana patients and providers in states
that have reduced or eliminated criminal penalties for the medical use
of marijuana. And Kerry said he would stop the raids entirely.
Kerry's and Dean's evolution on this issue didn't happen in a vacuum.
This is the result of a carefully coordinated plan by MPP to influence
the candidates through a mixture of grassroots and direct activism. We
have commissioned a poll and provided the campaigns with the results,
provided them with documentation on the medical benefits of marijuana,
asked the candidates for their positions at every available
opportunity, and even protested against candidates who would rather
have patients arrested than show a little compassion.
(U.S. Sen. John Edwards from North Carolina has been the primary
target of our protests. He seems almost proud to have adopted the
position that seriously ill people should be put in prison for
following the advice of their physicians.)
All of our hard work paid a huge dividend at a town hall meeting in
Henniker on Saturday, September 20. MPP's New Hampshire project,
Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana (GSMM), asked John Kerry, "Would
you stop the raids, as president?" Kerry responded by saying simply,
"Yes." This came one day after Howard Dean, in response to a GSMM
question, pledged, "Will I do what [Attorney General] Ashcroft is
doing? No, absolutely not." GSMM then specifically asked, "You would
stop the raids?" and Dean responded, "Yeah, I'm not going to do that,
anyway." To read about these encounters in greater detail, please see
our press release.
More good news: The candidates are not the only people taking note of
our activism. We're generating a substantial amount of press as well.
Read all about our efforts.
And there will be more news coverage over the next few days. On
Friday, we expect to have an opportunity to appeal to retired
Gen. Wesley Clark -- the tenth and most recent Democratic candidate to
enter the fray. And a reporter from a major New Hampshire newspaper is
planning to do a major story about our efforts.
If you support our New Hampshire plan, I would very much appreciate
your financial support -- see http://GraniteStaters.com/donate -- so
that MPP does not run a deficit because of this campaign. Thank you in
advance for anything you can do to help.
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
September 22, 2003
Ashcroft Rips Anti-Patriot Act 'Hysteria'
The last statement quoted below is a common technique used by Justice Department folks to diffuse "hysteria" (a.k.a., legitimate concern about civil liberties): you could call it the "We don't want to search you" method. The FBI guy who spoke at the public forum I organized in March used the same line, multiple times in different forms. "You regular, law abiding folks have nothing to worry about."
Right -- because law enforcement has never investigated, searched, or surveilled an innocent person.
They don't care what you're reading -- just what the bad guys are reading. So, no worries. Carry on.
(In the preceding paragraph, Ashcroft uses another common rhetorical trick -- painting a silly, cartoonish scenario, and attributing it to the law's critics. I call him on this in the local news hour segment that I posted on my main blog recently.)
Ashcroft Rips Anti-Patriot Act 'Hysteria'
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON Sept. 15 — Attorney General John Ashcroft denounced as "hysteria" the contention by some librarians and civil liberties groups that the FBI can use a new anti-terror law to snoop into Americans' reading habits.
In a speech Monday to an American Restaurant Association conference, Ashcroft said people are being wrongly led to believe that libraries have been "surrounded by the FBI," with agents "dressed in raincoats, dark suits and sunglasses. They stop everyone and interrogate everyone like Joe Friday.
"Now, you may have thought with all this hysteria and hyperbole, something had to be wrong," Ashcroft said. "Do we at the Justice Department really care what you are reading? No."
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 5%
Dean, Driven by the Grass Roots
Dean, Driven by the Grass Roots
Bottom-Up Strategy May Turn Politics Upside Down
By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 22, 2003; Page A01
By day, Jennifer Powers is a grant-writer for a school for the deaf, a Gen X'er who in past elections was like millions of others who vote but don't pay much attention to politics -- and certainly don't lift a finger to help any particular candidate.
That changed for Powers a few months ago, when the 32-year-old Philadelphian, driven by a newfound passion, switched her voter registration from independent to Democrat and became an unpaid operative for Howard Dean's presidential campaign in Pennsylvania. Today, Powers sits on a Philly4Dean (philly4dean.com) steering committee she helped set up, overseeing grass-roots volunteers she helped recruit, and communicates online with a database of 2,000 prospective Dean supporters that she helped build.
She said she does this 30 to 40 hours a week after her day job and with only online direction from the Dean campaign -- and she is not alone.
Thousands of Dean supporters -- many of whom profess never to have been active before -- have taken to the streets on their own initiative to pass out Dean fliers at urban fairs and farmers markets, donate blood and clean up beaches in his name, and raise millions of dollars for the former Vermont governor at house parties.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 35%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
Free Market Advocates Fight Back at WTO
Free Market Advocates Fight Back at WTO
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
September 12, 2003
Cancun, Mexico (CNSNews.com) - After days of anti-free trade protests at the WTO conference, including a protest featuring nude activists and another involving a suicide, free market advocates responded in kind on Thursday.
They staged several counter demonstrations and street-theater stunts, drawing the ire of anti-globalization protestors and environmentalists.
At a mock awards ceremony sponsored by a coalition of free market groups, actors playing the grim reaper handed out "awards" to environmental groups and other organizations that they accuse of promoting "poverty, misery, disease and premature death to billions of people in developing countries."
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 35%
How Americans have fooled themselves about the war in Iraq, and why they’ve had to
Pride and Prejudices
How Americans have fooled themselves about the war in Iraq, and why they’ve had to
by Christopher Dickey
NEWSWEEK
Sept. 19 — A sturdy-looking American matron in the audience at the American University of Paris grew redder by the second. She was listening to a panel talking about the Iraq war and its effect on U.S.-French relations, and she kept nodding her head like a pump building emotional pressure.
Finally she exploded: "Surely these can't be the only reasons we invaded Iraq!" the woman thundered, half scolding, but also half pleading. "Surely not!"
...
As we went down the list, I could see the Nodding Woman’s problem was not that she didn’t believe us, it was that she did. She just desperately wanted other reasons, better reasons, some she could consider valid reasons for the price that Americans are paying in blood and treasure.
...
The problem is not really that the public was misinformed by the press before the war, or somehow denied the truth afterward. The problem is that Americans just can’t believe their eyes. They cannot fathom the combination of cynicism, naiveté, arrogance and ignorance that dragged us into this quagmire, and they’re in a deep state of denial about it.
...
Bush knows what a lot of his critics have forgotten: the Iraq war is not just about blood and treasure, or even about democracy or WMD or terror. It’s about American pride. And people—perfectly intelligent people—have always been willing to sacrifice sweet reason in order to save face, to protect pride. As George Orwell pointed out, they will refuse to see what’s right in front of their noses. He called this condition a kind of political schizophrenia, and society can live quite comfortably with it, he said, until “a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”
Well, that’s what’s happening right now. It’s not only American money and lives that are being lost, it’s pride. But people in the United States will try to deny that for as long as they possibly can.
...
...the bitterest contradiction of all may be that this war was waged—first and foremost—to save face after the humiliation and suffering of September 11. It was meant to inspire awe in the Arab and Muslim world, as former CIA operative Marc Reuel Gerecht and others insisted it should be. And in that it truly has failed. Every day we look weaker. And the worst news of all it that it’s not because of what was done to us by our enemies but because of what we’ve done to ourselves.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 30%
The late great United States of America
The late great United States of America
by Roderick T. Beaman
I've been saying for a while that this country is doomed. But I have felt that it would last until around 2020. Recent events have forced me to move that timetable up. This country will come apart by 2010. The recent case of The United States of America vs. Vernice Kuglin has caused my reassessment.
...
Hmmm...if one court case can cause Roderick to move up his U.S.A. doomsday scenario by 10 years just like that, I'm wondering a little about the stability of his new prediction.
That said, he may be right that the case he mentions will lead to some unraveling of things on the federal level. There's a huge movement in this country around the idea that there is no law that requires most Americans to pay income tax (as well as a sub-movement around the idea that the 16th Amendment was never actually ratified)...if that movement ends up proving its remarkable theory, and the courts accept it -- well, it might not make the country "come apart", as Roderick "Doomsayer" Beaman puts it, but it will surely shake things up.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 30%
Bill Moyers on Old Friends and Comrades in Arms
NOW: Commentary - Bill Moyers on Old Friends and Comrades in Arms
We were in France last week. Seven old friends. One more reunion while there's time. We had a lot of catching up to do — grandkids and all that. On our last day we drove a couple of hours out of Paris to visit some places we had heard about long ago from World War I veterans who were still around when we were growing up.
The Marne River, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Woods — it was at these places, in the summer of 1918, that young Americans fresh from the United States were thrown into battle during the German army's last great drive of the war, aimed at Paris itself. So fierce was the fighting that it took American Marines a month, at the loss of over half their men, to capture a single square mile — the crucial strongpoint at Belleau Woods, defended by seasoned German troops who were astounded at how the Americans fought.
...
High above that valley, on a hill once marked by trenches and shell holes, stands a monument of 24 mighty columns and two heroic-size figures. Their hands are clasped — a tribute, the inscription tells us, to the French and American troops who fought here, and a lasting symbol of "the friendship and cooperation" between the two countries. A short drive away we stopped at the American Protestant Church and studied the stained glass window showing General Black Jack Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in France, being greeted by General Lafayette.
It's only the artist's fancy, of course. Lafayette was from another era — the French nobleman who persuaded the French king to send 6,000 troops to the aid of George Washington and who then led the army that cornered the British at Yorktown, securing the American Revolution. Legend has it that when General Pershing set foot on French soil he had America's debt to France on his mind, and reputedly said: "Lafayette, we are here."
...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: L2
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 55%
Recall a Tossup as Successor Race Tightens
This is a pretty extensive analysis of the poll in question and the race, but it's over a week old now.
Recall a Tossup as Successor Race Tightens
September 12, 2003
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 35%
Wolfowitz Shifts Rationales on Iraq War
Wolfowitz Shifts Rationales on Iraq War
With Weapons Unfound, Talk of Threat Gives Way to Rhetoric on Hussein, Democracy
As the Bush administration's leading hawk on Iraq, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz has been a tireless proponent of the argument that Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction was a compelling enough reason for the United States to resort to war.
These days, his emphasis is different. In testimony to congressional committees and interviews with reporters, Wolfowitz prefers to stress the evil, dictatorial nature of former president Saddam Hussein's defunct government and the opportunity to turn Iraq into a beacon of hope for the rest of the Middle East. He depicts Iraq as the focus of a life-and-death struggle between the forces of democracy and the forces of intolerance.
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Marijuana laws struck down in British Columbia
Marijuana laws struck down in British Columbia
Westernmost province joins Ontario, PEI and Nova Scotia in ending prohibition
Years of protests bear fruit for freedom
On September 4, Provincial Court Judge P Chen made a landmark ruling regarding marijuana laws in British Columbia. In his decision, Judge Chen said parts of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) are "invalid" and that "there is no offense known to law at this time for simple possession of marijuana" in the province.
Judge Chen's decision was based on a series of court cases in Ontario that led a judge there to strike down marijuana possession laws in January of this year. ...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 80%
Eight Civilians Killed in U.S. Strike on Taliban
Eight Civilians Killed in U.S. Strike on Taliban
Sat September 20, 2003
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - At least eight Afghan nomads, including women and children, were killed in a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan that also killed two Taliban guerrillas, Afghan officials said on Saturday.
In a separate incident, Taliban guerrillas killed a district police chief in the southern province of Kandahar, underscoring a revival of violence recently in a country that has seen mostly strife for the past quarter-century.
The civilians died in their beds when a bomb landed on their tent in Naw Bahar district of the southern province of Zabul on Wednesday night, said deputy provincial governor Mohammad Omar.
A U.S. military spokesman said he could not immediately confirm the report.
Mohammad Gul Neyazi, a top commander of the Taliban, and another Taliban guerrilla were also killed during the attack in the remote district near the border with Pakistan, Omar said.
"The figure I have for the civilian death toll is at least eight," Omar told Reuters. "The Taliban commander and his friend were apparently using a satellite phone, the signal of which was detected by American aircraft which then carried out the attack."
...
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4.5
Learning Percentage: 75%
September 19, 2003
N.C. county's deputies relax after sheriff's arrest
N.C. county's deputies relax after sheriff's arrest
LEXINGTON, N.C.--The black paramilitary uniforms and tinted windshields on patrol cars that helped make Gerald Hege one of the most high-profile sheriffs in the nation could get the boot.
The day after the Davidson County sheriff was arrested on 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstruction of justice, his top deputies were moving to reverse some of his policies.
...
Lt. Keith Owen of the Lexington Police Department said he spoke with Hedrick on Tuesday and was optimistic about improved relations, including a greater willingness to share information.
"We've always tried, but when you don't feel welcome, that's a different story," Owen said. "We've had (sheriff's deputies) who are afraid to stop and share information, thinking that they're going to be scrutinized for why they're there."
Owen, who is regularly in the sheriff's office to exchange paperwork and information, said he saw a difference in deputies the day after Hege's arrest and suspension.
"You saw officers walking around with smiles on their faces and actually talking to you," he said. "You could just see a more relaxed atmosphere."
...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 45%
Employees Detail Work They Did For Sheriff On County Time
Employees Detail Work They Did For Sheriff On County Time
LEXINGTON, N.C. -- Employees helped promote Sheriff Gerald Hege's image, his charity or helped his family while on county time and using county equipment, according to affidavits workers gave to state investigators.
The revelations come after a nearly six-month investigation of Hege that led to his indictment this week on 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstruction of justice.
Employees said in the affidavits that Hege, who tried to style himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff," told them to work on projects unrelated to their official duties. The tasks included taking pictures for Hege's campaign posters, taping video for a charity motorcycle ride and helping his son move.
Hege is accused of taking $6,200 from a fund used for undercover drug buys to pay for re-election celebrations in 1998 and 2002 and to reimburse an employee for travel.
He is also accused of using a former county employee to repair gas logs at his home.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 40%
Controversial Sheriff Hege Indicted on 15 Counts, Suspended
Sheriff (or should I say former Sheriff?) Hege first appeared on my main blog in January of this year. It was on that entry that someone posted a comment alerting me to Hege's recent troubles.
The thing I'm wondering is if Hege is calling himself "scumbag" now (that's his pet term for criminals).
Controversial Sheriff Hege Indicted on 15 Counts, Suspended
By The Associated Press
A prosecutor's request to remove Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege from office depicts the controversial lawman as a bully and racial profiler.
Superior Court Judge Erwin Spainhour suspended Hege on Monday, pending a Sept. 29 hearing on District Attorney Garry Frank's petition to have him stripped of his office.
Frank's request came immediately after Hege was arrested and charged with 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstructing justice.
Spainhour freed Hege on $15,000 secured bond, and he was allowed to leave after being fingerprinted on the same machine used for inmates entering Hege's jail, which he has called the toughest in America.
...
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 80%
'Toughest Sheriff' accused of stealing
'Toughest Sheriff' accused of stealing
Lawman charged with embezzling from drug-enforcement fund
JAIME LEVY
Staff Writer
Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege -- the man known for dressing inmates in striped uniforms and holding them in bright pink cells -- was arrested Monday on charges of embezzling county money and trying to cover it up.
Hege was indicted Sept. 3 on 15 felony counts, but his arrest just came Monday after the charges were unsealed in Davidson County Superior Court.
Hege, the self-proclaimed "America's Toughest Sheriff," has been suspended with pay, pending the outcome of a Sept. 29 hearing about whether he may keep his position. Maj. Dallas Hedrick has temporarily taken over the department.
...
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 20%
September 18, 2003
Why the Richest Company on Earth Feels it Needs to Cheat
Stupid Microsoft Tricks
Why the Richest Company on Earth Feels it Needs to Cheat
By Robert X. Cringely
I had no idea when I wrote in last week's column about the lawsuit between Burst.com and Microsoft that there would be a public hearing on the case this week in Federal Court in Baltimore. Evidently, nobody else knew it, either, because there is no mention of the event on Google News or anywhere else I looked. This must be a relief to Microsoft, or was until you started reading this column about 20 seconds ago. You see, Microsoft did not come through the hearing very well as whole new levels of anti-competitive behavior were claimed by Burst AND ACKNOWLEDGED BY MICROSOFT -- levels that will likely haunt Redmond in many legal cases to come.
This was, to my knowledge, the first public hearing in the case. Anyone off the street could walk into the courtroom and watch the fun. That also means everything that took place in the hearing is now a part of public record and will remain so no matter what happens with the rest of the case. To even allow this hearing to take place appears to have been a terrible blunder on Microsoft's part. Or maybe it was just one in a long line of calculated risks. From the outside looking in, the risk appears to have not been worth it, but only Microsoft can know for sure.
...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 90%
September 17, 2003
Metro bills NFL for costs
Metro bills NFL for costs
Metro made it clear to the National Football League yesterday that it expects to be paid for the extra subway service provided for last week's NFL Kickoff Festival on the Mall.
"Please send a certified check in the amount of $57,000 made payable to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority," Metro Assistant General Manager for Communications Leona Agouridis wrote in a letter. "The check must reach the authority no later than 5:00 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19, 2003."
...
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 65%
Raimondo: Bush Speech: No U-Turn on the Road to Empire
Justin Raimondo: rants with links. This is another one.
Bush Speech: No U-Turn on the Road to Empire
by Justin Raimondo
The Sunday morning talk shows were teeming with administration spokesmen, prepping the public for their boss's evening pitch for support on Iraq.Here's Colin Powell on "Face the Nation":
"It's going to cost more, and there will be continued sacrifice on the part of our young men and women. Hopefully, in the very near future we'll get control of the security situation."
Such talk no doubt made General Anthony Zinni, retired Marine Centcom chief, extremely nervous. It was only last Thursday that he'd issued a warning in a speech to hundreds of Marine and Navy officers:
"My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. I ask you, is it happening again?"
The garbage and the lies: the State Department dishes out the former, while the Defense Department's civilian leaders whip up the latter. The War Party's kitchen is a busy place: they're always cooking up something, and there's a lot on the backburner: Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia are all bubbling and boiling, albeit not yet spilling over.
The neoconservative cabal that lied us into war may seem like they're on the defensive, what with some prominent Democrats calling for Rummy and Wolfie to resign, and Maureen Dowd chortling over the neocons' public humiliation. "Tonight," she predicts, "will be a stomach-churning moment for Mr. Bush, and he must be puzzling over how he got snarled in this nightmare."
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 25%
Shame on WorldNetDaily
Most of this article by Jacob Hornberger is about a feud between he and Ilana Mercer, over what Hornberger believes is an unjustified attack on his colleague Sheldon Richman. That part of the article isn't very interesting. But he makes a worthwhile (more generalized) point at the end, and I've excerpted that here. I've noticed the same tendency that he has with some "conservatives" in forums other than WorldNetDaily.
...
Think about it: What do many conservatives stand for today? They stand for nothing more than developing reforms to the socialist New Deal-Great Society programs that they now embrace and that their predecessors once called for repealing, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They also favor public (i.e., government) schooling, income taxation, the IRS, economic regulations, illegal invasions and occupations, the drug war, indefinite detentions, suppression of civil liberties, gun control, an ever-growing military-industrial complex, uncontrollable government spending, especially on America's 51st state, Iraq, and executive nullification of constitutional provisions.
But rather than admit the error of their ways and reject the socialistic and interventionist means that their predecessors once opposed -- rather than join up with us libertarians to lead America and the world to the highest reaches of freedom, peace, and prosperity ever attained by man -- all too many conservatives now remain steadfastly committed to embracing the omnipotent state, even while incessantly calling for new reforms to fix the perverse results of this morally and economically bankrupt system.
Equally tragic, in the process some conservatives seem to have added a new war to all the others that they are waging around the world -- a war against libertarianism and truth. What a shame.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 45%
Dean to Top $10 Million for Quarter
Dean to Top $10 Million for Quarter
Democratic Candidate Might Forgo Public Financing
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 27, 2003; Page A03
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who is considering becoming the first Democrat to forgo public financing for a presidential campaign, will raise at least $10.3 million this quarter, his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, said yesterday.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
Wesley Clark: a tale of two (early-primary) states
CNN.com - Wesley Clark: a tale of two (early-primary) states - Sep. 17, 2003
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Wesley Clark might be a familiar face. But as Joe Lieberman knows, front-runners need more than familiar faces.
Of course, the more pressing question Clark faces today as he joins nine fellow Dems in the presidential race is how he'll be received in the early-primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. And since we figured Clark is pretty busy these days, we made some calls yesterday to gin up some answers for him.
It turns out that Clark, who is 58 and as an Arkansan has no geographic edge in either state, enjoys far deeper support in New Hampshire -- where one of his largest draft movements is based -- than in Iowa, where Dem leaders and political minds say his military background could hurt him.
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 35%
Among the Fringers
Among the Fringers
With enemies like these, who needs friends?
By Aaron Lukas, an analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies
May 21, 2001 10:15 a.m
I recently returned from five days in Quebec City, a quaint and picturesque town on the St. Lawrence River, which will heretofore be known as "de gaz lacrymogčne du monde;" the "tear gas capital of the world." I traveled there hoping to get inside the head of the anti-globalization, anti-trade movement. Trouble is, there was no head to be found. I saw heart in great abundance — in-your-face public displays of compassion were the order of the day — but clear thinking was conspicuously scarce. If you're going to embrace ignorance, I guess you might as well do it with gusto.
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If nothing else, my time in Quebec dispelled any lingering doubts about whether the fringe groups have anything new to offer poor countries. Their issues may be new — human rights, environmental protection, and cultural diversity — but their prescription is as stale as ever: trade barriers and redistributive socialism. Never mind that those policies have failed time and again; anti-trade activists can abide anything, it seems, except choice and freedom. Their promise of government-sponsored prosperity is illusory. Countries that have heeded such advice — Cuba, North Korea, and those throughout much of Africa — have made little progress in raising living standards, while those that have embraced free markets — Taiwan, South Korea, Chile, Singapore, and others — have seen real improvements in the lives of average people.
There is no palatable alternative to free economies and free trade. A market economy isn't simply a place where people provide goods and services in the pursuit of profits — not that there's anything wrong with that. Market competition is also a discovery process; it is a way of learning things we wouldn't otherwise know. It is that knowledge that makes us more productive, wealthier, healthier, and better able to protect our world. The ability to reason and innovate is mankind's greatest gift. Yet the only way to realize that potential, to get at the knowledge that improves our lives, is through an open-market system where people are allowed to compete to satisfy the wants and needs of others.
The faces and slogans on the fringe Left may have changed, but the combination of naked self-interest and mindless idealism remains. The Quebec protesters cared deeply about many things, but sadly, not about the truth.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: R3
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 55%
September 16, 2003
Wesley Clark to enter the race
Unless my political radar is short-circuiting, this is the guy to watch out for. It'll take the right kind of campaign to get started at this point, but he sounds like a nearly perfect candidate, electability-wise. I wouldn't want to run against him. Though at least if I do, he'll have had 5 years to have built up a load of presidential mistakes. What I meant is I wouldn't want to be any of the other 2004 candidates right now.
A moderate/liberal retired four-star general with lots of international experience, and lots of TV and radio experience, who's a political outsider? The only thing he's missing is elected offical experience, but I don't think that's as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I think it's the prerequisite that isn't really one.
We'll see how it goes...but rest assured that this guy has the Bush campaign worried in a way that none of the other candidates even came close to.
Clark to enter presidential race
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Wesley Clark, the retired general with a four-star military resume but no political experience, decided Tuesday to become the 10th Democratic presidential candidate, officials close to him said.
"He's made his decision and will announce it tomorrow in Little Rock," said Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for Clark.
Fabiani did not reveal Clark's decision, but officials close to the former general said he told his fledgling campaign team that he's in the race.
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 45%
Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
USATODAY.com - Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."
As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
September 15, 2003
Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean
I disagree with the analyst who is quoted below. I think Clark could run away with the nomination and the presidency. Dean is too politically fragile, and if Clark gets in, each stumble and crack in Dean's campaign will send people Clark's way. If he can jam on the same people-powered Internet campaign thing that Dean is (and the "Draft Clark" posse is already poised to do that, I assume), I think his campaign could take off big time.
Democrats are looking for the person that can beat Bush. All other things being equal, Clark easily outshines the rest of the pack in that category -- at least given what I know so far.
Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean
Amid growing speculation that former Army Gen. Wesley Clark is considering joining the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, one military/political analyst said an alliance between the liberal former Vermont governor and the former NATO commander could have broad national appeal in 2004.
Clark, a political outsider without money, doesn't have a chance as a presidential candidate, said Robert Maginnis, a national defense analyst with Fox News who is acquainted with Clark.
But as Dean's running mate, Clark could do for Dean what Vice President Dick Cheney did for President Bush, Maginnis said.
"Cheney was the heavyweight on national affairs, and Bush wasn't," Maginnis said. A Dean-Clark alliance would reflect a similar dynamic, "and I think it could be a winner," he added.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote
FOXNews.com - Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote
SAN FRANCISCO — Leaving room for the nation's highest court to reverse its decision, a federal appeals court in California blocked the state's gubernatorial recall election scheduled for Oct. 7 and then put an immediate stay on its decision.
Three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the vote can't proceed as scheduled - because some of the votes would be cast using outdated punch-card ballot machines. Monday's decision reversed a lower court's earlier decision not to postpone the recall.
"In sum, in assessing the public interest, the balance falls heavily in favor of postponing the election for a few months," the court said.
• Raw Data: Read the Ruling (pdf)
The decision doesn't mean, however, that the recall can't go forward, but it may not happen on Oct. 7, as originally planned. It's possible that the nation's largest and most liberal federal appeals court might move the election to the next regularly scheduled primary on March 2.
The court stayed implementing its decision for a week to allow time for appeals to the Supreme Court on the recall, California's first voter-driven election to unseat Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 50%
The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
Buddy has not seen his mother in over a year. His mother misses him desperately. She is no longer quite sure what he looks like. A child changes so much at eight. She thought about him while she was locked in jail, held on half a million dollars bail. This is the second time Buddy has been kidnapped by the authorities responsible for keeping victims of violence safe.
KT Delettre, Buddy's mother is the survivor of domestic violence. Her abuser, Loren Oliver, tried to abort her son when she was eight months pregnant, battering her pregnant abdomen. He told her he would kill her, if he could get away with it.
What he did not accomplish then he is trying to do using the courts. KT nearly died in prison. Unable to raise the half million dollars her weight dropped to 82 pounds as she was slowly starved nearly to death.
...
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?
California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?
Wearing star-studded GOP elephant brooches and red, white, and blue neckties, they huddle around a polyurethane picnic table on the town green. With the gazebo draped for a campaign talk by their chosen candidate for governor - Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock - a group of inland, rural voters chats about the long decline of America's largest state and the man they say will fix it.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Bush is a neoconservative
Bush is a neoconservative
by Ilana Mercer
Posted: September 10, 2003
It's a positive sign when conservative commentators rush to defend President Bush from being defiled by the neoconservative label. The tag, thankfully, is becoming a pejorative. They will, however, have to pry Mr. Bush from the loving arms of the self- proclaimed "godfather" of neocons himself.
Irving Kristol, who emerged to "sex-up" the already flashy neoconservative "persuasion" in a Weekly Standard article, gave Mr. Bush the neocon seal of approval. The author of "Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea," credits the "current president and his administration" with reviving the faith. Under Mr. Bush it "began enjoying a second life," says Kristol.
...
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 45%
"Smokers' Candidate" Promotes His Cig Stores While Embarrassing the Party
This is another article about Ned Roscoe, the candidate for governor with the fatally foolish campaign angle. Good for his business maybe, but at a cost to the California LP, IMO. It's an embarassment that the LPC leadership endorsed him.
Libertarian gubernatorial candidate visits Y-S
Read It Rating: 2
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 1%
Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy
Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy - Sep. 3, 2003
BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Hollywood star Johnny Depp said on Wednesday the United States was a stupid, aggressive puppy and he would not live there until the political climate changed.
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"I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots," he told Stern.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 8%
Ashcroft Rips Anti-Patriot Act 'Hysteria'
The last statement quoted below is a common technique used by Justice Department folks to diffuse "hysteria" (a.k.a., legitimate concern about civil liberties): you could call it the "We don't want to search you" method. The FBI guy who spoke at the public forum I organized in March used the same line, multiple times in different forms. "You regular, law abiding folks have nothing to worry about."
Right -- because law enforcement has never investigated, searched, or surveilled an innocent person.
They don't care what you're reading -- just what the bad guys are reading. So, no worries. Carry on.
(In the preceding paragraph, Ashcroft uses another common rhetorical trick -- painting a silly, cartoonish scenario, and attributing it to the law's critics. I call him on this in the local news hour segment that I posted on my main blog recently.)
Ashcroft Rips Anti-Patriot Act 'Hysteria'
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON Sept. 15 — Attorney General John Ashcroft denounced as "hysteria" the contention by some librarians and civil liberties groups that the FBI can use a new anti-terror law to snoop into Americans' reading habits.
In a speech Monday to an American Restaurant Association conference, Ashcroft said people are being wrongly led to believe that libraries have been "surrounded by the FBI," with agents "dressed in raincoats, dark suits and sunglasses. They stop everyone and interrogate everyone like Joe Friday.
"Now, you may have thought with all this hysteria and hyperbole, something had to be wrong," Ashcroft said. "Do we at the Justice Department really care what you are reading? No."
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 5%
Dean, Driven by the Grass Roots
Dean, Driven by the Grass Roots
Bottom-Up Strategy May Turn Politics Upside Down
By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 22, 2003; Page A01
By day, Jennifer Powers is a grant-writer for a school for the deaf, a Gen X'er who in past elections was like millions of others who vote but don't pay much attention to politics -- and certainly don't lift a finger to help any particular candidate.
That changed for Powers a few months ago, when the 32-year-old Philadelphian, driven by a newfound passion, switched her voter registration from independent to Democrat and became an unpaid operative for Howard Dean's presidential campaign in Pennsylvania. Today, Powers sits on a Philly4Dean (philly4dean.com) steering committee she helped set up, overseeing grass-roots volunteers she helped recruit, and communicates online with a database of 2,000 prospective Dean supporters that she helped build.
She said she does this 30 to 40 hours a week after her day job and with only online direction from the Dean campaign -- and she is not alone.
Thousands of Dean supporters -- many of whom profess never to have been active before -- have taken to the streets on their own initiative to pass out Dean fliers at urban fairs and farmers markets, donate blood and clean up beaches in his name, and raise millions of dollars for the former Vermont governor at house parties.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 35%
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
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But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
Free Market Advocates Fight Back at WTO
Free Market Advocates Fight Back at WTO
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
September 12, 2003
Cancun, Mexico (CNSNews.com) - After days of anti-free trade protests at the WTO conference, including a protest featuring nude activists and another involving a suicide, free market advocates responded in kind on Thursday.
They staged several counter demonstrations and street-theater stunts, drawing the ire of anti-globalization protestors and environmentalists.
At a mock awards ceremony sponsored by a coalition of free market groups, actors playing the grim reaper handed out "awards" to environmental groups and other organizations that they accuse of promoting "poverty, misery, disease and premature death to billions of people in developing countries."
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 35%
How Americans have fooled themselves about the war in Iraq, and why they’ve had to
Pride and Prejudices
How Americans have fooled themselves about the war in Iraq, and why they’ve had to
by Christopher Dickey
NEWSWEEK
Sept. 19 — A sturdy-looking American matron in the audience at the American University of Paris grew redder by the second. She was listening to a panel talking about the Iraq war and its effect on U.S.-French relations, and she kept nodding her head like a pump building emotional pressure.
Finally she exploded: "Surely these can't be the only reasons we invaded Iraq!" the woman thundered, half scolding, but also half pleading. "Surely not!"
...
As we went down the list, I could see the Nodding Woman’s problem was not that she didn’t believe us, it was that she did. She just desperately wanted other reasons, better reasons, some she could consider valid reasons for the price that Americans are paying in blood and treasure.
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The problem is not really that the public was misinformed by the press before the war, or somehow denied the truth afterward. The problem is that Americans just can’t believe their eyes. They cannot fathom the combination of cynicism, naiveté, arrogance and ignorance that dragged us into this quagmire, and they’re in a deep state of denial about it.
...
Bush knows what a lot of his critics have forgotten: the Iraq war is not just about blood and treasure, or even about democracy or WMD or terror. It’s about American pride. And people—perfectly intelligent people—have always been willing to sacrifice sweet reason in order to save face, to protect pride. As George Orwell pointed out, they will refuse to see what’s right in front of their noses. He called this condition a kind of political schizophrenia, and society can live quite comfortably with it, he said, until “a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”
Well, that’s what’s happening right now. It’s not only American money and lives that are being lost, it’s pride. But people in the United States will try to deny that for as long as they possibly can.
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...the bitterest contradiction of all may be that this war was waged—first and foremost—to save face after the humiliation and suffering of September 11. It was meant to inspire awe in the Arab and Muslim world, as former CIA operative Marc Reuel Gerecht and others insisted it should be. And in that it truly has failed. Every day we look weaker. And the worst news of all it that it’s not because of what was done to us by our enemies but because of what we’ve done to ourselves.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 30%
The late great United States of America
The late great United States of America
by Roderick T. Beaman
I've been saying for a while that this country is doomed. But I have felt that it would last until around 2020. Recent events have forced me to move that timetable up. This country will come apart by 2010. The recent case of The United States of America vs. Vernice Kuglin has caused my reassessment.
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Hmmm...if one court case can cause Roderick to move up his U.S.A. doomsday scenario by 10 years just like that, I'm wondering a little about the stability of his new prediction.
That said, he may be right that the case he mentions will lead to some unraveling of things on the federal level. There's a huge movement in this country around the idea that there is no law that requires most Americans to pay income tax (as well as a sub-movement around the idea that the 16th Amendment was never actually ratified)...if that movement ends up proving its remarkable theory, and the courts accept it -- well, it might not make the country "come apart", as Roderick "Doomsayer" Beaman puts it, but it will surely shake things up.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 30%
Bill Moyers on Old Friends and Comrades in Arms
NOW: Commentary - Bill Moyers on Old Friends and Comrades in Arms
We were in France last week. Seven old friends. One more reunion while there's time. We had a lot of catching up to do — grandkids and all that. On our last day we drove a couple of hours out of Paris to visit some places we had heard about long ago from World War I veterans who were still around when we were growing up.
The Marne River, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Woods — it was at these places, in the summer of 1918, that young Americans fresh from the United States were thrown into battle during the German army's last great drive of the war, aimed at Paris itself. So fierce was the fighting that it took American Marines a month, at the loss of over half their men, to capture a single square mile — the crucial strongpoint at Belleau Woods, defended by seasoned German troops who were astounded at how the Americans fought.
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High above that valley, on a hill once marked by trenches and shell holes, stands a monument of 24 mighty columns and two heroic-size figures. Their hands are clasped — a tribute, the inscription tells us, to the French and American troops who fought here, and a lasting symbol of "the friendship and cooperation" between the two countries. A short drive away we stopped at the American Protestant Church and studied the stained glass window showing General Black Jack Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in France, being greeted by General Lafayette.
It's only the artist's fancy, of course. Lafayette was from another era — the French nobleman who persuaded the French king to send 6,000 troops to the aid of George Washington and who then led the army that cornered the British at Yorktown, securing the American Revolution. Legend has it that when General Pershing set foot on French soil he had America's debt to France on his mind, and reputedly said: "Lafayette, we are here."
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Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: L2
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 55%
Recall a Tossup as Successor Race Tightens
This is a pretty extensive analysis of the poll in question and the race, but it's over a week old now.
Recall a Tossup as Successor Race Tightens
September 12, 2003
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 35%
Wolfowitz Shifts Rationales on Iraq War
Wolfowitz Shifts Rationales on Iraq War
With Weapons Unfound, Talk of Threat Gives Way to Rhetoric on Hussein, Democracy
As the Bush administration's leading hawk on Iraq, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz has been a tireless proponent of the argument that Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction was a compelling enough reason for the United States to resort to war.
These days, his emphasis is different. In testimony to congressional committees and interviews with reporters, Wolfowitz prefers to stress the evil, dictatorial nature of former president Saddam Hussein's defunct government and the opportunity to turn Iraq into a beacon of hope for the rest of the Middle East. He depicts Iraq as the focus of a life-and-death struggle between the forces of democracy and the forces of intolerance.
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Marijuana laws struck down in British Columbia
Marijuana laws struck down in British Columbia
Westernmost province joins Ontario, PEI and Nova Scotia in ending prohibition
Years of protests bear fruit for freedom
On September 4, Provincial Court Judge P Chen made a landmark ruling regarding marijuana laws in British Columbia. In his decision, Judge Chen said parts of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) are "invalid" and that "there is no offense known to law at this time for simple possession of marijuana" in the province.
Judge Chen's decision was based on a series of court cases in Ontario that led a judge there to strike down marijuana possession laws in January of this year. ...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 80%
Eight Civilians Killed in U.S. Strike on Taliban
Eight Civilians Killed in U.S. Strike on Taliban
Sat September 20, 2003
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - At least eight Afghan nomads, including women and children, were killed in a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan that also killed two Taliban guerrillas, Afghan officials said on Saturday.
In a separate incident, Taliban guerrillas killed a district police chief in the southern province of Kandahar, underscoring a revival of violence recently in a country that has seen mostly strife for the past quarter-century.
The civilians died in their beds when a bomb landed on their tent in Naw Bahar district of the southern province of Zabul on Wednesday night, said deputy provincial governor Mohammad Omar.
A U.S. military spokesman said he could not immediately confirm the report.
Mohammad Gul Neyazi, a top commander of the Taliban, and another Taliban guerrilla were also killed during the attack in the remote district near the border with Pakistan, Omar said.
"The figure I have for the civilian death toll is at least eight," Omar told Reuters. "The Taliban commander and his friend were apparently using a satellite phone, the signal of which was detected by American aircraft which then carried out the attack."
...
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4.5
Learning Percentage: 75%
September 19, 2003
N.C. county's deputies relax after sheriff's arrest
N.C. county's deputies relax after sheriff's arrest
LEXINGTON, N.C.--The black paramilitary uniforms and tinted windshields on patrol cars that helped make Gerald Hege one of the most high-profile sheriffs in the nation could get the boot.
The day after the Davidson County sheriff was arrested on 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstruction of justice, his top deputies were moving to reverse some of his policies.
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Lt. Keith Owen of the Lexington Police Department said he spoke with Hedrick on Tuesday and was optimistic about improved relations, including a greater willingness to share information.
"We've always tried, but when you don't feel welcome, that's a different story," Owen said. "We've had (sheriff's deputies) who are afraid to stop and share information, thinking that they're going to be scrutinized for why they're there."
Owen, who is regularly in the sheriff's office to exchange paperwork and information, said he saw a difference in deputies the day after Hege's arrest and suspension.
"You saw officers walking around with smiles on their faces and actually talking to you," he said. "You could just see a more relaxed atmosphere."
...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 45%
Employees Detail Work They Did For Sheriff On County Time
Employees Detail Work They Did For Sheriff On County Time
LEXINGTON, N.C. -- Employees helped promote Sheriff Gerald Hege's image, his charity or helped his family while on county time and using county equipment, according to affidavits workers gave to state investigators.
The revelations come after a nearly six-month investigation of Hege that led to his indictment this week on 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstruction of justice.
Employees said in the affidavits that Hege, who tried to style himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff," told them to work on projects unrelated to their official duties. The tasks included taking pictures for Hege's campaign posters, taping video for a charity motorcycle ride and helping his son move.
Hege is accused of taking $6,200 from a fund used for undercover drug buys to pay for re-election celebrations in 1998 and 2002 and to reimburse an employee for travel.
He is also accused of using a former county employee to repair gas logs at his home.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 40%
Controversial Sheriff Hege Indicted on 15 Counts, Suspended
Sheriff (or should I say former Sheriff?) Hege first appeared on my main blog in January of this year. It was on that entry that someone posted a comment alerting me to Hege's recent troubles.
The thing I'm wondering is if Hege is calling himself "scumbag" now (that's his pet term for criminals).
Controversial Sheriff Hege Indicted on 15 Counts, Suspended
By The Associated Press
A prosecutor's request to remove Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege from office depicts the controversial lawman as a bully and racial profiler.
Superior Court Judge Erwin Spainhour suspended Hege on Monday, pending a Sept. 29 hearing on District Attorney Garry Frank's petition to have him stripped of his office.
Frank's request came immediately after Hege was arrested and charged with 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstructing justice.
Spainhour freed Hege on $15,000 secured bond, and he was allowed to leave after being fingerprinted on the same machine used for inmates entering Hege's jail, which he has called the toughest in America.
...
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 80%
'Toughest Sheriff' accused of stealing
'Toughest Sheriff' accused of stealing
Lawman charged with embezzling from drug-enforcement fund
JAIME LEVY
Staff Writer
Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege -- the man known for dressing inmates in striped uniforms and holding them in bright pink cells -- was arrested Monday on charges of embezzling county money and trying to cover it up.
Hege was indicted Sept. 3 on 15 felony counts, but his arrest just came Monday after the charges were unsealed in Davidson County Superior Court.
Hege, the self-proclaimed "America's Toughest Sheriff," has been suspended with pay, pending the outcome of a Sept. 29 hearing about whether he may keep his position. Maj. Dallas Hedrick has temporarily taken over the department.
...
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 20%
September 18, 2003
Why the Richest Company on Earth Feels it Needs to Cheat
Stupid Microsoft Tricks
Why the Richest Company on Earth Feels it Needs to Cheat
By Robert X. Cringely
I had no idea when I wrote in last week's column about the lawsuit between Burst.com and Microsoft that there would be a public hearing on the case this week in Federal Court in Baltimore. Evidently, nobody else knew it, either, because there is no mention of the event on Google News or anywhere else I looked. This must be a relief to Microsoft, or was until you started reading this column about 20 seconds ago. You see, Microsoft did not come through the hearing very well as whole new levels of anti-competitive behavior were claimed by Burst AND ACKNOWLEDGED BY MICROSOFT -- levels that will likely haunt Redmond in many legal cases to come.
This was, to my knowledge, the first public hearing in the case. Anyone off the street could walk into the courtroom and watch the fun. That also means everything that took place in the hearing is now a part of public record and will remain so no matter what happens with the rest of the case. To even allow this hearing to take place appears to have been a terrible blunder on Microsoft's part. Or maybe it was just one in a long line of calculated risks. From the outside looking in, the risk appears to have not been worth it, but only Microsoft can know for sure.
...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 90%
September 17, 2003
Metro bills NFL for costs
Metro bills NFL for costs
Metro made it clear to the National Football League yesterday that it expects to be paid for the extra subway service provided for last week's NFL Kickoff Festival on the Mall.
"Please send a certified check in the amount of $57,000 made payable to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority," Metro Assistant General Manager for Communications Leona Agouridis wrote in a letter. "The check must reach the authority no later than 5:00 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19, 2003."
...
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 65%
Raimondo: Bush Speech: No U-Turn on the Road to Empire
Justin Raimondo: rants with links. This is another one.
Bush Speech: No U-Turn on the Road to Empire
by Justin Raimondo
The Sunday morning talk shows were teeming with administration spokesmen, prepping the public for their boss's evening pitch for support on Iraq.Here's Colin Powell on "Face the Nation":
"It's going to cost more, and there will be continued sacrifice on the part of our young men and women. Hopefully, in the very near future we'll get control of the security situation."
Such talk no doubt made General Anthony Zinni, retired Marine Centcom chief, extremely nervous. It was only last Thursday that he'd issued a warning in a speech to hundreds of Marine and Navy officers:
"My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. I ask you, is it happening again?"
The garbage and the lies: the State Department dishes out the former, while the Defense Department's civilian leaders whip up the latter. The War Party's kitchen is a busy place: they're always cooking up something, and there's a lot on the backburner: Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia are all bubbling and boiling, albeit not yet spilling over.
The neoconservative cabal that lied us into war may seem like they're on the defensive, what with some prominent Democrats calling for Rummy and Wolfie to resign, and Maureen Dowd chortling over the neocons' public humiliation. "Tonight," she predicts, "will be a stomach-churning moment for Mr. Bush, and he must be puzzling over how he got snarled in this nightmare."
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 25%
Shame on WorldNetDaily
Most of this article by Jacob Hornberger is about a feud between he and Ilana Mercer, over what Hornberger believes is an unjustified attack on his colleague Sheldon Richman. That part of the article isn't very interesting. But he makes a worthwhile (more generalized) point at the end, and I've excerpted that here. I've noticed the same tendency that he has with some "conservatives" in forums other than WorldNetDaily.
...
Think about it: What do many conservatives stand for today? They stand for nothing more than developing reforms to the socialist New Deal-Great Society programs that they now embrace and that their predecessors once called for repealing, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They also favor public (i.e., government) schooling, income taxation, the IRS, economic regulations, illegal invasions and occupations, the drug war, indefinite detentions, suppression of civil liberties, gun control, an ever-growing military-industrial complex, uncontrollable government spending, especially on America's 51st state, Iraq, and executive nullification of constitutional provisions.
But rather than admit the error of their ways and reject the socialistic and interventionist means that their predecessors once opposed -- rather than join up with us libertarians to lead America and the world to the highest reaches of freedom, peace, and prosperity ever attained by man -- all too many conservatives now remain steadfastly committed to embracing the omnipotent state, even while incessantly calling for new reforms to fix the perverse results of this morally and economically bankrupt system.
Equally tragic, in the process some conservatives seem to have added a new war to all the others that they are waging around the world -- a war against libertarianism and truth. What a shame.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 45%
Dean to Top $10 Million for Quarter
Dean to Top $10 Million for Quarter
Democratic Candidate Might Forgo Public Financing
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 27, 2003; Page A03
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who is considering becoming the first Democrat to forgo public financing for a presidential campaign, will raise at least $10.3 million this quarter, his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, said yesterday.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
Wesley Clark: a tale of two (early-primary) states
CNN.com - Wesley Clark: a tale of two (early-primary) states - Sep. 17, 2003
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Wesley Clark might be a familiar face. But as Joe Lieberman knows, front-runners need more than familiar faces.
Of course, the more pressing question Clark faces today as he joins nine fellow Dems in the presidential race is how he'll be received in the early-primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. And since we figured Clark is pretty busy these days, we made some calls yesterday to gin up some answers for him.
It turns out that Clark, who is 58 and as an Arkansan has no geographic edge in either state, enjoys far deeper support in New Hampshire -- where one of his largest draft movements is based -- than in Iowa, where Dem leaders and political minds say his military background could hurt him.
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 35%
Among the Fringers
Among the Fringers
With enemies like these, who needs friends?
By Aaron Lukas, an analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies
May 21, 2001 10:15 a.m
I recently returned from five days in Quebec City, a quaint and picturesque town on the St. Lawrence River, which will heretofore be known as "de gaz lacrymogčne du monde;" the "tear gas capital of the world." I traveled there hoping to get inside the head of the anti-globalization, anti-trade movement. Trouble is, there was no head to be found. I saw heart in great abundance — in-your-face public displays of compassion were the order of the day — but clear thinking was conspicuously scarce. If you're going to embrace ignorance, I guess you might as well do it with gusto.
...
If nothing else, my time in Quebec dispelled any lingering doubts about whether the fringe groups have anything new to offer poor countries. Their issues may be new — human rights, environmental protection, and cultural diversity — but their prescription is as stale as ever: trade barriers and redistributive socialism. Never mind that those policies have failed time and again; anti-trade activists can abide anything, it seems, except choice and freedom. Their promise of government-sponsored prosperity is illusory. Countries that have heeded such advice — Cuba, North Korea, and those throughout much of Africa — have made little progress in raising living standards, while those that have embraced free markets — Taiwan, South Korea, Chile, Singapore, and others — have seen real improvements in the lives of average people.
There is no palatable alternative to free economies and free trade. A market economy isn't simply a place where people provide goods and services in the pursuit of profits — not that there's anything wrong with that. Market competition is also a discovery process; it is a way of learning things we wouldn't otherwise know. It is that knowledge that makes us more productive, wealthier, healthier, and better able to protect our world. The ability to reason and innovate is mankind's greatest gift. Yet the only way to realize that potential, to get at the knowledge that improves our lives, is through an open-market system where people are allowed to compete to satisfy the wants and needs of others.
The faces and slogans on the fringe Left may have changed, but the combination of naked self-interest and mindless idealism remains. The Quebec protesters cared deeply about many things, but sadly, not about the truth.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: R3
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 55%
September 16, 2003
Wesley Clark to enter the race
Unless my political radar is short-circuiting, this is the guy to watch out for. It'll take the right kind of campaign to get started at this point, but he sounds like a nearly perfect candidate, electability-wise. I wouldn't want to run against him. Though at least if I do, he'll have had 5 years to have built up a load of presidential mistakes. What I meant is I wouldn't want to be any of the other 2004 candidates right now.
A moderate/liberal retired four-star general with lots of international experience, and lots of TV and radio experience, who's a political outsider? The only thing he's missing is elected offical experience, but I don't think that's as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I think it's the prerequisite that isn't really one.
We'll see how it goes...but rest assured that this guy has the Bush campaign worried in a way that none of the other candidates even came close to.
Clark to enter presidential race
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Wesley Clark, the retired general with a four-star military resume but no political experience, decided Tuesday to become the 10th Democratic presidential candidate, officials close to him said.
"He's made his decision and will announce it tomorrow in Little Rock," said Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for Clark.
Fabiani did not reveal Clark's decision, but officials close to the former general said he told his fledgling campaign team that he's in the race.
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 45%
Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
USATODAY.com - Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."
As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
September 15, 2003
Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean
I disagree with the analyst who is quoted below. I think Clark could run away with the nomination and the presidency. Dean is too politically fragile, and if Clark gets in, each stumble and crack in Dean's campaign will send people Clark's way. If he can jam on the same people-powered Internet campaign thing that Dean is (and the "Draft Clark" posse is already poised to do that, I assume), I think his campaign could take off big time.
Democrats are looking for the person that can beat Bush. All other things being equal, Clark easily outshines the rest of the pack in that category -- at least given what I know so far.
Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean
Amid growing speculation that former Army Gen. Wesley Clark is considering joining the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, one military/political analyst said an alliance between the liberal former Vermont governor and the former NATO commander could have broad national appeal in 2004.
Clark, a political outsider without money, doesn't have a chance as a presidential candidate, said Robert Maginnis, a national defense analyst with Fox News who is acquainted with Clark.
But as Dean's running mate, Clark could do for Dean what Vice President Dick Cheney did for President Bush, Maginnis said.
"Cheney was the heavyweight on national affairs, and Bush wasn't," Maginnis said. A Dean-Clark alliance would reflect a similar dynamic, "and I think it could be a winner," he added.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote
FOXNews.com - Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote
SAN FRANCISCO — Leaving room for the nation's highest court to reverse its decision, a federal appeals court in California blocked the state's gubernatorial recall election scheduled for Oct. 7 and then put an immediate stay on its decision.
Three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the vote can't proceed as scheduled - because some of the votes would be cast using outdated punch-card ballot machines. Monday's decision reversed a lower court's earlier decision not to postpone the recall.
"In sum, in assessing the public interest, the balance falls heavily in favor of postponing the election for a few months," the court said.
• Raw Data: Read the Ruling (pdf)
The decision doesn't mean, however, that the recall can't go forward, but it may not happen on Oct. 7, as originally planned. It's possible that the nation's largest and most liberal federal appeals court might move the election to the next regularly scheduled primary on March 2.
The court stayed implementing its decision for a week to allow time for appeals to the Supreme Court on the recall, California's first voter-driven election to unseat Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 50%
The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
Buddy has not seen his mother in over a year. His mother misses him desperately. She is no longer quite sure what he looks like. A child changes so much at eight. She thought about him while she was locked in jail, held on half a million dollars bail. This is the second time Buddy has been kidnapped by the authorities responsible for keeping victims of violence safe.
KT Delettre, Buddy's mother is the survivor of domestic violence. Her abuser, Loren Oliver, tried to abort her son when she was eight months pregnant, battering her pregnant abdomen. He told her he would kill her, if he could get away with it.
What he did not accomplish then he is trying to do using the courts. KT nearly died in prison. Unable to raise the half million dollars her weight dropped to 82 pounds as she was slowly starved nearly to death.
...
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?
California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?
Wearing star-studded GOP elephant brooches and red, white, and blue neckties, they huddle around a polyurethane picnic table on the town green. With the gazebo draped for a campaign talk by their chosen candidate for governor - Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock - a group of inland, rural voters chats about the long decline of America's largest state and the man they say will fix it.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Bush is a neoconservative
Bush is a neoconservative
by Ilana Mercer
Posted: September 10, 2003
It's a positive sign when conservative commentators rush to defend President Bush from being defiled by the neoconservative label. The tag, thankfully, is becoming a pejorative. They will, however, have to pry Mr. Bush from the loving arms of the self- proclaimed "godfather" of neocons himself.
Irving Kristol, who emerged to "sex-up" the already flashy neoconservative "persuasion" in a Weekly Standard article, gave Mr. Bush the neocon seal of approval. The author of "Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea," credits the "current president and his administration" with reviving the faith. Under Mr. Bush it "began enjoying a second life," says Kristol.
...
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 45%
"Smokers' Candidate" Promotes His Cig Stores While Embarrassing the Party
This is another article about Ned Roscoe, the candidate for governor with the fatally foolish campaign angle. Good for his business maybe, but at a cost to the California LP, IMO. It's an embarassment that the LPC leadership endorsed him.
Libertarian gubernatorial candidate visits Y-S
Read It Rating: 2
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 1%
Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy
Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy - Sep. 3, 2003
BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Hollywood star Johnny Depp said on Wednesday the United States was a stupid, aggressive puppy and he would not live there until the political climate changed.
...
"I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots," he told Stern.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 8%
N.C. county's deputies relax after sheriff's arrest
N.C. county's deputies relax after sheriff's arrest
LEXINGTON, N.C.--The black paramilitary uniforms and tinted windshields on patrol cars that helped make Gerald Hege one of the most high-profile sheriffs in the nation could get the boot.
The day after the Davidson County sheriff was arrested on 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstruction of justice, his top deputies were moving to reverse some of his policies.
...
Lt. Keith Owen of the Lexington Police Department said he spoke with Hedrick on Tuesday and was optimistic about improved relations, including a greater willingness to share information.
"We've always tried, but when you don't feel welcome, that's a different story," Owen said. "We've had (sheriff's deputies) who are afraid to stop and share information, thinking that they're going to be scrutinized for why they're there."
Owen, who is regularly in the sheriff's office to exchange paperwork and information, said he saw a difference in deputies the day after Hege's arrest and suspension.
"You saw officers walking around with smiles on their faces and actually talking to you," he said. "You could just see a more relaxed atmosphere."
...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 45%
Employees Detail Work They Did For Sheriff On County Time
Employees Detail Work They Did For Sheriff On County Time
LEXINGTON, N.C. -- Employees helped promote Sheriff Gerald Hege's image, his charity or helped his family while on county time and using county equipment, according to affidavits workers gave to state investigators.
The revelations come after a nearly six-month investigation of Hege that led to his indictment this week on 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstruction of justice.
Employees said in the affidavits that Hege, who tried to style himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff," told them to work on projects unrelated to their official duties. The tasks included taking pictures for Hege's campaign posters, taping video for a charity motorcycle ride and helping his son move.
Hege is accused of taking $6,200 from a fund used for undercover drug buys to pay for re-election celebrations in 1998 and 2002 and to reimburse an employee for travel.
He is also accused of using a former county employee to repair gas logs at his home.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 40%
Controversial Sheriff Hege Indicted on 15 Counts, Suspended
Sheriff (or should I say former Sheriff?) Hege first appeared on my main blog in January of this year. It was on that entry that someone posted a comment alerting me to Hege's recent troubles.
The thing I'm wondering is if Hege is calling himself "scumbag" now (that's his pet term for criminals).
Controversial Sheriff Hege Indicted on 15 Counts, Suspended
By The Associated Press
A prosecutor's request to remove Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege from office depicts the controversial lawman as a bully and racial profiler.
Superior Court Judge Erwin Spainhour suspended Hege on Monday, pending a Sept. 29 hearing on District Attorney Garry Frank's petition to have him stripped of his office.
Frank's request came immediately after Hege was arrested and charged with 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstructing justice.
Spainhour freed Hege on $15,000 secured bond, and he was allowed to leave after being fingerprinted on the same machine used for inmates entering Hege's jail, which he has called the toughest in America.
...
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 80%
'Toughest Sheriff' accused of stealing
'Toughest Sheriff' accused of stealing
Lawman charged with embezzling from drug-enforcement fund
JAIME LEVY
Staff Writer
Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege -- the man known for dressing inmates in striped uniforms and holding them in bright pink cells -- was arrested Monday on charges of embezzling county money and trying to cover it up.
Hege was indicted Sept. 3 on 15 felony counts, but his arrest just came Monday after the charges were unsealed in Davidson County Superior Court.
Hege, the self-proclaimed "America's Toughest Sheriff," has been suspended with pay, pending the outcome of a Sept. 29 hearing about whether he may keep his position. Maj. Dallas Hedrick has temporarily taken over the department.
...
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 20%
Why the Richest Company on Earth Feels it Needs to Cheat
Stupid Microsoft Tricks
Why the Richest Company on Earth Feels it Needs to Cheat
By Robert X. Cringely
I had no idea when I wrote in last week's column about the lawsuit between Burst.com and Microsoft that there would be a public hearing on the case this week in Federal Court in Baltimore. Evidently, nobody else knew it, either, because there is no mention of the event on Google News or anywhere else I looked. This must be a relief to Microsoft, or was until you started reading this column about 20 seconds ago. You see, Microsoft did not come through the hearing very well as whole new levels of anti-competitive behavior were claimed by Burst AND ACKNOWLEDGED BY MICROSOFT -- levels that will likely haunt Redmond in many legal cases to come.
This was, to my knowledge, the first public hearing in the case. Anyone off the street could walk into the courtroom and watch the fun. That also means everything that took place in the hearing is now a part of public record and will remain so no matter what happens with the rest of the case. To even allow this hearing to take place appears to have been a terrible blunder on Microsoft's part. Or maybe it was just one in a long line of calculated risks. From the outside looking in, the risk appears to have not been worth it, but only Microsoft can know for sure.
...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 90%
September 17, 2003
Metro bills NFL for costs
Metro bills NFL for costs
Metro made it clear to the National Football League yesterday that it expects to be paid for the extra subway service provided for last week's NFL Kickoff Festival on the Mall.
"Please send a certified check in the amount of $57,000 made payable to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority," Metro Assistant General Manager for Communications Leona Agouridis wrote in a letter. "The check must reach the authority no later than 5:00 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19, 2003."
...
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 65%
Raimondo: Bush Speech: No U-Turn on the Road to Empire
Justin Raimondo: rants with links. This is another one.
Bush Speech: No U-Turn on the Road to Empire
by Justin Raimondo
The Sunday morning talk shows were teeming with administration spokesmen, prepping the public for their boss's evening pitch for support on Iraq.Here's Colin Powell on "Face the Nation":
"It's going to cost more, and there will be continued sacrifice on the part of our young men and women. Hopefully, in the very near future we'll get control of the security situation."
Such talk no doubt made General Anthony Zinni, retired Marine Centcom chief, extremely nervous. It was only last Thursday that he'd issued a warning in a speech to hundreds of Marine and Navy officers:
"My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. I ask you, is it happening again?"
The garbage and the lies: the State Department dishes out the former, while the Defense Department's civilian leaders whip up the latter. The War Party's kitchen is a busy place: they're always cooking up something, and there's a lot on the backburner: Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia are all bubbling and boiling, albeit not yet spilling over.
The neoconservative cabal that lied us into war may seem like they're on the defensive, what with some prominent Democrats calling for Rummy and Wolfie to resign, and Maureen Dowd chortling over the neocons' public humiliation. "Tonight," she predicts, "will be a stomach-churning moment for Mr. Bush, and he must be puzzling over how he got snarled in this nightmare."
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 25%
Shame on WorldNetDaily
Most of this article by Jacob Hornberger is about a feud between he and Ilana Mercer, over what Hornberger believes is an unjustified attack on his colleague Sheldon Richman. That part of the article isn't very interesting. But he makes a worthwhile (more generalized) point at the end, and I've excerpted that here. I've noticed the same tendency that he has with some "conservatives" in forums other than WorldNetDaily.
...
Think about it: What do many conservatives stand for today? They stand for nothing more than developing reforms to the socialist New Deal-Great Society programs that they now embrace and that their predecessors once called for repealing, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They also favor public (i.e., government) schooling, income taxation, the IRS, economic regulations, illegal invasions and occupations, the drug war, indefinite detentions, suppression of civil liberties, gun control, an ever-growing military-industrial complex, uncontrollable government spending, especially on America's 51st state, Iraq, and executive nullification of constitutional provisions.
But rather than admit the error of their ways and reject the socialistic and interventionist means that their predecessors once opposed -- rather than join up with us libertarians to lead America and the world to the highest reaches of freedom, peace, and prosperity ever attained by man -- all too many conservatives now remain steadfastly committed to embracing the omnipotent state, even while incessantly calling for new reforms to fix the perverse results of this morally and economically bankrupt system.
Equally tragic, in the process some conservatives seem to have added a new war to all the others that they are waging around the world -- a war against libertarianism and truth. What a shame.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 45%
Dean to Top $10 Million for Quarter
Dean to Top $10 Million for Quarter
Democratic Candidate Might Forgo Public Financing
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 27, 2003; Page A03
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who is considering becoming the first Democrat to forgo public financing for a presidential campaign, will raise at least $10.3 million this quarter, his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, said yesterday.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
Wesley Clark: a tale of two (early-primary) states
CNN.com - Wesley Clark: a tale of two (early-primary) states - Sep. 17, 2003
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Wesley Clark might be a familiar face. But as Joe Lieberman knows, front-runners need more than familiar faces.
Of course, the more pressing question Clark faces today as he joins nine fellow Dems in the presidential race is how he'll be received in the early-primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. And since we figured Clark is pretty busy these days, we made some calls yesterday to gin up some answers for him.
It turns out that Clark, who is 58 and as an Arkansan has no geographic edge in either state, enjoys far deeper support in New Hampshire -- where one of his largest draft movements is based -- than in Iowa, where Dem leaders and political minds say his military background could hurt him.
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 35%
Among the Fringers
Among the Fringers
With enemies like these, who needs friends?
By Aaron Lukas, an analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies
May 21, 2001 10:15 a.m
I recently returned from five days in Quebec City, a quaint and picturesque town on the St. Lawrence River, which will heretofore be known as "de gaz lacrymogčne du monde;" the "tear gas capital of the world." I traveled there hoping to get inside the head of the anti-globalization, anti-trade movement. Trouble is, there was no head to be found. I saw heart in great abundance — in-your-face public displays of compassion were the order of the day — but clear thinking was conspicuously scarce. If you're going to embrace ignorance, I guess you might as well do it with gusto.
...
If nothing else, my time in Quebec dispelled any lingering doubts about whether the fringe groups have anything new to offer poor countries. Their issues may be new — human rights, environmental protection, and cultural diversity — but their prescription is as stale as ever: trade barriers and redistributive socialism. Never mind that those policies have failed time and again; anti-trade activists can abide anything, it seems, except choice and freedom. Their promise of government-sponsored prosperity is illusory. Countries that have heeded such advice — Cuba, North Korea, and those throughout much of Africa — have made little progress in raising living standards, while those that have embraced free markets — Taiwan, South Korea, Chile, Singapore, and others — have seen real improvements in the lives of average people.
There is no palatable alternative to free economies and free trade. A market economy isn't simply a place where people provide goods and services in the pursuit of profits — not that there's anything wrong with that. Market competition is also a discovery process; it is a way of learning things we wouldn't otherwise know. It is that knowledge that makes us more productive, wealthier, healthier, and better able to protect our world. The ability to reason and innovate is mankind's greatest gift. Yet the only way to realize that potential, to get at the knowledge that improves our lives, is through an open-market system where people are allowed to compete to satisfy the wants and needs of others.
The faces and slogans on the fringe Left may have changed, but the combination of naked self-interest and mindless idealism remains. The Quebec protesters cared deeply about many things, but sadly, not about the truth.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: R3
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 55%
September 16, 2003
Wesley Clark to enter the race
Unless my political radar is short-circuiting, this is the guy to watch out for. It'll take the right kind of campaign to get started at this point, but he sounds like a nearly perfect candidate, electability-wise. I wouldn't want to run against him. Though at least if I do, he'll have had 5 years to have built up a load of presidential mistakes. What I meant is I wouldn't want to be any of the other 2004 candidates right now.
A moderate/liberal retired four-star general with lots of international experience, and lots of TV and radio experience, who's a political outsider? The only thing he's missing is elected offical experience, but I don't think that's as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I think it's the prerequisite that isn't really one.
We'll see how it goes...but rest assured that this guy has the Bush campaign worried in a way that none of the other candidates even came close to.
Clark to enter presidential race
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Wesley Clark, the retired general with a four-star military resume but no political experience, decided Tuesday to become the 10th Democratic presidential candidate, officials close to him said.
"He's made his decision and will announce it tomorrow in Little Rock," said Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for Clark.
Fabiani did not reveal Clark's decision, but officials close to the former general said he told his fledgling campaign team that he's in the race.
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 45%
Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
USATODAY.com - Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."
As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
September 15, 2003
Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean
I disagree with the analyst who is quoted below. I think Clark could run away with the nomination and the presidency. Dean is too politically fragile, and if Clark gets in, each stumble and crack in Dean's campaign will send people Clark's way. If he can jam on the same people-powered Internet campaign thing that Dean is (and the "Draft Clark" posse is already poised to do that, I assume), I think his campaign could take off big time.
Democrats are looking for the person that can beat Bush. All other things being equal, Clark easily outshines the rest of the pack in that category -- at least given what I know so far.
Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean
Amid growing speculation that former Army Gen. Wesley Clark is considering joining the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, one military/political analyst said an alliance between the liberal former Vermont governor and the former NATO commander could have broad national appeal in 2004.
Clark, a political outsider without money, doesn't have a chance as a presidential candidate, said Robert Maginnis, a national defense analyst with Fox News who is acquainted with Clark.
But as Dean's running mate, Clark could do for Dean what Vice President Dick Cheney did for President Bush, Maginnis said.
"Cheney was the heavyweight on national affairs, and Bush wasn't," Maginnis said. A Dean-Clark alliance would reflect a similar dynamic, "and I think it could be a winner," he added.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote
FOXNews.com - Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote
SAN FRANCISCO — Leaving room for the nation's highest court to reverse its decision, a federal appeals court in California blocked the state's gubernatorial recall election scheduled for Oct. 7 and then put an immediate stay on its decision.
Three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the vote can't proceed as scheduled - because some of the votes would be cast using outdated punch-card ballot machines. Monday's decision reversed a lower court's earlier decision not to postpone the recall.
"In sum, in assessing the public interest, the balance falls heavily in favor of postponing the election for a few months," the court said.
• Raw Data: Read the Ruling (pdf)
The decision doesn't mean, however, that the recall can't go forward, but it may not happen on Oct. 7, as originally planned. It's possible that the nation's largest and most liberal federal appeals court might move the election to the next regularly scheduled primary on March 2.
The court stayed implementing its decision for a week to allow time for appeals to the Supreme Court on the recall, California's first voter-driven election to unseat Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 50%
The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
Buddy has not seen his mother in over a year. His mother misses him desperately. She is no longer quite sure what he looks like. A child changes so much at eight. She thought about him while she was locked in jail, held on half a million dollars bail. This is the second time Buddy has been kidnapped by the authorities responsible for keeping victims of violence safe.
KT Delettre, Buddy's mother is the survivor of domestic violence. Her abuser, Loren Oliver, tried to abort her son when she was eight months pregnant, battering her pregnant abdomen. He told her he would kill her, if he could get away with it.
What he did not accomplish then he is trying to do using the courts. KT nearly died in prison. Unable to raise the half million dollars her weight dropped to 82 pounds as she was slowly starved nearly to death.
...
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?
California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?
Wearing star-studded GOP elephant brooches and red, white, and blue neckties, they huddle around a polyurethane picnic table on the town green. With the gazebo draped for a campaign talk by their chosen candidate for governor - Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock - a group of inland, rural voters chats about the long decline of America's largest state and the man they say will fix it.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Bush is a neoconservative
Bush is a neoconservative
by Ilana Mercer
Posted: September 10, 2003
It's a positive sign when conservative commentators rush to defend President Bush from being defiled by the neoconservative label. The tag, thankfully, is becoming a pejorative. They will, however, have to pry Mr. Bush from the loving arms of the self- proclaimed "godfather" of neocons himself.
Irving Kristol, who emerged to "sex-up" the already flashy neoconservative "persuasion" in a Weekly Standard article, gave Mr. Bush the neocon seal of approval. The author of "Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea," credits the "current president and his administration" with reviving the faith. Under Mr. Bush it "began enjoying a second life," says Kristol.
...
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 45%
"Smokers' Candidate" Promotes His Cig Stores While Embarrassing the Party
This is another article about Ned Roscoe, the candidate for governor with the fatally foolish campaign angle. Good for his business maybe, but at a cost to the California LP, IMO. It's an embarassment that the LPC leadership endorsed him.
Libertarian gubernatorial candidate visits Y-S
Read It Rating: 2
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 1%
Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy
Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy - Sep. 3, 2003
BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Hollywood star Johnny Depp said on Wednesday the United States was a stupid, aggressive puppy and he would not live there until the political climate changed.
...
"I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots," he told Stern.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 8%
Metro bills NFL for costs
Metro bills NFL for costs
Metro made it clear to the National Football League yesterday that it expects to be paid for the extra subway service provided for last week's NFL Kickoff Festival on the Mall.
"Please send a certified check in the amount of $57,000 made payable to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority," Metro Assistant General Manager for Communications Leona Agouridis wrote in a letter. "The check must reach the authority no later than 5:00 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19, 2003."
...
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 65%
Raimondo: Bush Speech: No U-Turn on the Road to Empire
Justin Raimondo: rants with links. This is another one.
Bush Speech: No U-Turn on the Road to Empire
by Justin Raimondo
The Sunday morning talk shows were teeming with administration spokesmen, prepping the public for their boss's evening pitch for support on Iraq.Here's Colin Powell on "Face the Nation":
"It's going to cost more, and there will be continued sacrifice on the part of our young men and women. Hopefully, in the very near future we'll get control of the security situation."
Such talk no doubt made General Anthony Zinni, retired Marine Centcom chief, extremely nervous. It was only last Thursday that he'd issued a warning in a speech to hundreds of Marine and Navy officers:
"My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. I ask you, is it happening again?"
The garbage and the lies: the State Department dishes out the former, while the Defense Department's civilian leaders whip up the latter. The War Party's kitchen is a busy place: they're always cooking up something, and there's a lot on the backburner: Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia are all bubbling and boiling, albeit not yet spilling over.
The neoconservative cabal that lied us into war may seem like they're on the defensive, what with some prominent Democrats calling for Rummy and Wolfie to resign, and Maureen Dowd chortling over the neocons' public humiliation. "Tonight," she predicts, "will be a stomach-churning moment for Mr. Bush, and he must be puzzling over how he got snarled in this nightmare."
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 25%
Shame on WorldNetDaily
Most of this article by Jacob Hornberger is about a feud between he and Ilana Mercer, over what Hornberger believes is an unjustified attack on his colleague Sheldon Richman. That part of the article isn't very interesting. But he makes a worthwhile (more generalized) point at the end, and I've excerpted that here. I've noticed the same tendency that he has with some "conservatives" in forums other than WorldNetDaily.
...
Think about it: What do many conservatives stand for today? They stand for nothing more than developing reforms to the socialist New Deal-Great Society programs that they now embrace and that their predecessors once called for repealing, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They also favor public (i.e., government) schooling, income taxation, the IRS, economic regulations, illegal invasions and occupations, the drug war, indefinite detentions, suppression of civil liberties, gun control, an ever-growing military-industrial complex, uncontrollable government spending, especially on America's 51st state, Iraq, and executive nullification of constitutional provisions.
But rather than admit the error of their ways and reject the socialistic and interventionist means that their predecessors once opposed -- rather than join up with us libertarians to lead America and the world to the highest reaches of freedom, peace, and prosperity ever attained by man -- all too many conservatives now remain steadfastly committed to embracing the omnipotent state, even while incessantly calling for new reforms to fix the perverse results of this morally and economically bankrupt system.
Equally tragic, in the process some conservatives seem to have added a new war to all the others that they are waging around the world -- a war against libertarianism and truth. What a shame.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 45%
Dean to Top $10 Million for Quarter
Dean to Top $10 Million for Quarter
Democratic Candidate Might Forgo Public Financing
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 27, 2003; Page A03
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who is considering becoming the first Democrat to forgo public financing for a presidential campaign, will raise at least $10.3 million this quarter, his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, said yesterday.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
Wesley Clark: a tale of two (early-primary) states
CNN.com - Wesley Clark: a tale of two (early-primary) states - Sep. 17, 2003
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Wesley Clark might be a familiar face. But as Joe Lieberman knows, front-runners need more than familiar faces.
Of course, the more pressing question Clark faces today as he joins nine fellow Dems in the presidential race is how he'll be received in the early-primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. And since we figured Clark is pretty busy these days, we made some calls yesterday to gin up some answers for him.
It turns out that Clark, who is 58 and as an Arkansan has no geographic edge in either state, enjoys far deeper support in New Hampshire -- where one of his largest draft movements is based -- than in Iowa, where Dem leaders and political minds say his military background could hurt him.
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 35%
Among the Fringers
Among the Fringers
With enemies like these, who needs friends?
By Aaron Lukas, an analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies
May 21, 2001 10:15 a.m
I recently returned from five days in Quebec City, a quaint and picturesque town on the St. Lawrence River, which will heretofore be known as "de gaz lacrymogčne du monde;" the "tear gas capital of the world." I traveled there hoping to get inside the head of the anti-globalization, anti-trade movement. Trouble is, there was no head to be found. I saw heart in great abundance — in-your-face public displays of compassion were the order of the day — but clear thinking was conspicuously scarce. If you're going to embrace ignorance, I guess you might as well do it with gusto.
...
If nothing else, my time in Quebec dispelled any lingering doubts about whether the fringe groups have anything new to offer poor countries. Their issues may be new — human rights, environmental protection, and cultural diversity — but their prescription is as stale as ever: trade barriers and redistributive socialism. Never mind that those policies have failed time and again; anti-trade activists can abide anything, it seems, except choice and freedom. Their promise of government-sponsored prosperity is illusory. Countries that have heeded such advice — Cuba, North Korea, and those throughout much of Africa — have made little progress in raising living standards, while those that have embraced free markets — Taiwan, South Korea, Chile, Singapore, and others — have seen real improvements in the lives of average people.
There is no palatable alternative to free economies and free trade. A market economy isn't simply a place where people provide goods and services in the pursuit of profits — not that there's anything wrong with that. Market competition is also a discovery process; it is a way of learning things we wouldn't otherwise know. It is that knowledge that makes us more productive, wealthier, healthier, and better able to protect our world. The ability to reason and innovate is mankind's greatest gift. Yet the only way to realize that potential, to get at the knowledge that improves our lives, is through an open-market system where people are allowed to compete to satisfy the wants and needs of others.
The faces and slogans on the fringe Left may have changed, but the combination of naked self-interest and mindless idealism remains. The Quebec protesters cared deeply about many things, but sadly, not about the truth.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: R3
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 55%
Wesley Clark to enter the race
Unless my political radar is short-circuiting, this is the guy to watch out for. It'll take the right kind of campaign to get started at this point, but he sounds like a nearly perfect candidate, electability-wise. I wouldn't want to run against him. Though at least if I do, he'll have had 5 years to have built up a load of presidential mistakes. What I meant is I wouldn't want to be any of the other 2004 candidates right now.
A moderate/liberal retired four-star general with lots of international experience, and lots of TV and radio experience, who's a political outsider? The only thing he's missing is elected offical experience, but I don't think that's as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I think it's the prerequisite that isn't really one.
We'll see how it goes...but rest assured that this guy has the Bush campaign worried in a way that none of the other candidates even came close to.
Clark to enter presidential race
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Wesley Clark, the retired general with a four-star military resume but no political experience, decided Tuesday to become the 10th Democratic presidential candidate, officials close to him said.
"He's made his decision and will announce it tomorrow in Little Rock," said Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for Clark.
Fabiani did not reveal Clark's decision, but officials close to the former general said he told his fledgling campaign team that he's in the race.
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 45%
Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
USATODAY.com - Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."
As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
September 15, 2003
Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean
I disagree with the analyst who is quoted below. I think Clark could run away with the nomination and the presidency. Dean is too politically fragile, and if Clark gets in, each stumble and crack in Dean's campaign will send people Clark's way. If he can jam on the same people-powered Internet campaign thing that Dean is (and the "Draft Clark" posse is already poised to do that, I assume), I think his campaign could take off big time.
Democrats are looking for the person that can beat Bush. All other things being equal, Clark easily outshines the rest of the pack in that category -- at least given what I know so far.
Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean
Amid growing speculation that former Army Gen. Wesley Clark is considering joining the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, one military/political analyst said an alliance between the liberal former Vermont governor and the former NATO commander could have broad national appeal in 2004.
Clark, a political outsider without money, doesn't have a chance as a presidential candidate, said Robert Maginnis, a national defense analyst with Fox News who is acquainted with Clark.
But as Dean's running mate, Clark could do for Dean what Vice President Dick Cheney did for President Bush, Maginnis said.
"Cheney was the heavyweight on national affairs, and Bush wasn't," Maginnis said. A Dean-Clark alliance would reflect a similar dynamic, "and I think it could be a winner," he added.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote
FOXNews.com - Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote
SAN FRANCISCO — Leaving room for the nation's highest court to reverse its decision, a federal appeals court in California blocked the state's gubernatorial recall election scheduled for Oct. 7 and then put an immediate stay on its decision.
Three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the vote can't proceed as scheduled - because some of the votes would be cast using outdated punch-card ballot machines. Monday's decision reversed a lower court's earlier decision not to postpone the recall.
"In sum, in assessing the public interest, the balance falls heavily in favor of postponing the election for a few months," the court said.
• Raw Data: Read the Ruling (pdf)
The decision doesn't mean, however, that the recall can't go forward, but it may not happen on Oct. 7, as originally planned. It's possible that the nation's largest and most liberal federal appeals court might move the election to the next regularly scheduled primary on March 2.
The court stayed implementing its decision for a week to allow time for appeals to the Supreme Court on the recall, California's first voter-driven election to unseat Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 50%
The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
Buddy has not seen his mother in over a year. His mother misses him desperately. She is no longer quite sure what he looks like. A child changes so much at eight. She thought about him while she was locked in jail, held on half a million dollars bail. This is the second time Buddy has been kidnapped by the authorities responsible for keeping victims of violence safe.
KT Delettre, Buddy's mother is the survivor of domestic violence. Her abuser, Loren Oliver, tried to abort her son when she was eight months pregnant, battering her pregnant abdomen. He told her he would kill her, if he could get away with it.
What he did not accomplish then he is trying to do using the courts. KT nearly died in prison. Unable to raise the half million dollars her weight dropped to 82 pounds as she was slowly starved nearly to death.
...
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?
California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?
Wearing star-studded GOP elephant brooches and red, white, and blue neckties, they huddle around a polyurethane picnic table on the town green. With the gazebo draped for a campaign talk by their chosen candidate for governor - Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock - a group of inland, rural voters chats about the long decline of America's largest state and the man they say will fix it.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Bush is a neoconservative
Bush is a neoconservative
by Ilana Mercer
Posted: September 10, 2003
It's a positive sign when conservative commentators rush to defend President Bush from being defiled by the neoconservative label. The tag, thankfully, is becoming a pejorative. They will, however, have to pry Mr. Bush from the loving arms of the self- proclaimed "godfather" of neocons himself.
Irving Kristol, who emerged to "sex-up" the already flashy neoconservative "persuasion" in a Weekly Standard article, gave Mr. Bush the neocon seal of approval. The author of "Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea," credits the "current president and his administration" with reviving the faith. Under Mr. Bush it "began enjoying a second life," says Kristol.
...
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 45%
"Smokers' Candidate" Promotes His Cig Stores While Embarrassing the Party
This is another article about Ned Roscoe, the candidate for governor with the fatally foolish campaign angle. Good for his business maybe, but at a cost to the California LP, IMO. It's an embarassment that the LPC leadership endorsed him.
Libertarian gubernatorial candidate visits Y-S
Read It Rating: 2
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 1%
Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy
Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy - Sep. 3, 2003
BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Hollywood star Johnny Depp said on Wednesday the United States was a stupid, aggressive puppy and he would not live there until the political climate changed.
...
"I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots," he told Stern.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 8%
Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean
I disagree with the analyst who is quoted below. I think Clark could run away with the nomination and the presidency. Dean is too politically fragile, and if Clark gets in, each stumble and crack in Dean's campaign will send people Clark's way. If he can jam on the same people-powered Internet campaign thing that Dean is (and the "Draft Clark" posse is already poised to do that, I assume), I think his campaign could take off big time.
Democrats are looking for the person that can beat Bush. All other things being equal, Clark easily outshines the rest of the pack in that category -- at least given what I know so far.
Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean
Amid growing speculation that former Army Gen. Wesley Clark is considering joining the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, one military/political analyst said an alliance between the liberal former Vermont governor and the former NATO commander could have broad national appeal in 2004.
Clark, a political outsider without money, doesn't have a chance as a presidential candidate, said Robert Maginnis, a national defense analyst with Fox News who is acquainted with Clark.
But as Dean's running mate, Clark could do for Dean what Vice President Dick Cheney did for President Bush, Maginnis said.
"Cheney was the heavyweight on national affairs, and Bush wasn't," Maginnis said. A Dean-Clark alliance would reflect a similar dynamic, "and I think it could be a winner," he added.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote
FOXNews.com - Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote
SAN FRANCISCO — Leaving room for the nation's highest court to reverse its decision, a federal appeals court in California blocked the state's gubernatorial recall election scheduled for Oct. 7 and then put an immediate stay on its decision.
Three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the vote can't proceed as scheduled - because some of the votes would be cast using outdated punch-card ballot machines. Monday's decision reversed a lower court's earlier decision not to postpone the recall.
"In sum, in assessing the public interest, the balance falls heavily in favor of postponing the election for a few months," the court said.
• Raw Data: Read the Ruling (pdf)
The decision doesn't mean, however, that the recall can't go forward, but it may not happen on Oct. 7, as originally planned. It's possible that the nation's largest and most liberal federal appeals court might move the election to the next regularly scheduled primary on March 2.
The court stayed implementing its decision for a week to allow time for appeals to the Supreme Court on the recall, California's first voter-driven election to unseat Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 50%
The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
Buddy has not seen his mother in over a year. His mother misses him desperately. She is no longer quite sure what he looks like. A child changes so much at eight. She thought about him while she was locked in jail, held on half a million dollars bail. This is the second time Buddy has been kidnapped by the authorities responsible for keeping victims of violence safe.
KT Delettre, Buddy's mother is the survivor of domestic violence. Her abuser, Loren Oliver, tried to abort her son when she was eight months pregnant, battering her pregnant abdomen. He told her he would kill her, if he could get away with it.
What he did not accomplish then he is trying to do using the courts. KT nearly died in prison. Unable to raise the half million dollars her weight dropped to 82 pounds as she was slowly starved nearly to death.
...
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?
California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?
Wearing star-studded GOP elephant brooches and red, white, and blue neckties, they huddle around a polyurethane picnic table on the town green. With the gazebo draped for a campaign talk by their chosen candidate for governor - Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock - a group of inland, rural voters chats about the long decline of America's largest state and the man they say will fix it.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Bush is a neoconservative
Bush is a neoconservative
by Ilana Mercer
Posted: September 10, 2003
It's a positive sign when conservative commentators rush to defend President Bush from being defiled by the neoconservative label. The tag, thankfully, is becoming a pejorative. They will, however, have to pry Mr. Bush from the loving arms of the self- proclaimed "godfather" of neocons himself.
Irving Kristol, who emerged to "sex-up" the already flashy neoconservative "persuasion" in a Weekly Standard article, gave Mr. Bush the neocon seal of approval. The author of "Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea," credits the "current president and his administration" with reviving the faith. Under Mr. Bush it "began enjoying a second life," says Kristol.
...
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 45%
"Smokers' Candidate" Promotes His Cig Stores While Embarrassing the Party
This is another article about Ned Roscoe, the candidate for governor with the fatally foolish campaign angle. Good for his business maybe, but at a cost to the California LP, IMO. It's an embarassment that the LPC leadership endorsed him.
Libertarian gubernatorial candidate visits Y-S
Read It Rating: 2
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 1%
Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy
Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy - Sep. 3, 2003
BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Hollywood star Johnny Depp said on Wednesday the United States was a stupid, aggressive puppy and he would not live there until the political climate changed.
...
"I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots," he told Stern.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 8%