31 January 07 - 02:14
"
Market Fundamentalism is the exaggerated faith that when markets are left to operate on their own, they can solve all economic and social problems. Market Fundamentalism has dominated public policy debates in the United States since the 1980's, serving to justify huge Federal tax cuts, dramatic reductions in government regulatory activity, and continued efforts to downsize the government's civilian programs."
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29 January 07 - 00:24
Bush the Empire Slayer: The Timid Chorus and the Mad Marchers.
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28 January 07 - 12:28The cure for Gaza's woes: shellfish
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24 January 07 - 23:53
Stop the Iran War Before It Starts: another insightful article from Mr. Ritter.
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24 January 07 - 00:05Spencer's Democratic presidential candidate roundup
Biden, Dodd - Not very interesting.
Clark - Not too bad, but nothing special.
Edwards - Ehh.
Vilsack - Junk.
Clinton - Triangulating trash.
Obama - Could do worse, but could do a lot better.
Richardson - Bleh.
Kucinich - Good on issues, but has serious other problems.
Nader, save us.
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23 January 07 - 19:50
Meatlifting: Meat is the #1 shoplifted item in America.
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22 January 07 - 17:13
New York leaders warn of Wall Street decline. One of the suggestions for aiding the problem is to make the rules less onerous or not apply to small businesses. As someone who has done extensive SOX 404 compliance work from a technical perspective, I have to strongly back this one. Requirements like "separation of access to systems" when you have 1 person doing 5 jobs, or "following an in-depth change management process" when only 20 people have access to a system is unbelievable amounts of work. There should be a much simplified version for small business. SOX 404-lite or something.
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22 January 07 - 16:04
Bloggers meet The Press
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22 January 07 - 10:45
Everson And Liberty
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22 January 07 - 00:04
Protesting is not effective anymore. What makes protests really work? How do they get governments to respond?
Is it just bad publicity? Shaming? That works when governments are worried, careful. When governments don't care, aren't worried, or are reckless, they respond to protests
only if they're backed by the threat of force. Perhaps this idea is yet another elephant in the metaphorical room. How exactly did Gandhi get the Brits to leave? Were they truly affected by his creative non-violence? Did he charm them? No. They knew that if they attempted to suppress or hurt him,
they'd have millions of furious people taking violent action on his behalf. You want this government to respond to protests? Get millions of people to
start breaking stuff or at the very least, obstruct.
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21 January 07 - 22:52
Slyly Stealing Sovereignty From The People: habeas corpus under attack.
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19 January 07 - 09:50
Beyond the Believers
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19 January 07 - 09:38
Intelligent Falling: the hottest debate since ID!
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19 January 07 - 07:32
America Strikes Back: although I'm not as optimistic as the article, the observations about the people behind this administration are spot on.
"I think it's fair to say these ideologues hate the idea of America. They are not for an open society with fair rules that trusts its citizens to be fair and to police themselves. They have never believed in the American experiment."
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19 January 07 - 06:31
Hearsay, coercion part of war court manual: "At a news conference, the Pentagon's deputy general counsel, Daniel Dell'Orto, defended the use of hearsay evidence as the result of ``the unique conditions under which evidence will be obtained on the battlefield.''
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
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18 January 07 - 14:40
Handling difficult people: a brief guide.
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18 January 07 - 08:26
The Healthcare Crisis for the Rest of Us.
"It's obviously outrageous that tens of millions of citizens of the wealthiest country to have ever existed in human history are one cluster of metastasizing cells away from bankruptcy."
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18 January 07 - 07:53
Jon Wiener at The Nation explores the
dangerously simplistic view of torture depicted in Fox TV's "24"
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17 January 07 - 09:33
Virginia tries to right a past they had nothing to do with: I agree with a Republican, and it feels dirty. The problem with this possibly well-intentioned bill is that it fails to take into account the fact that
you cannot punish the current generation for the crimes of a previous generations. It's simply not ethical. It implies that just because you
live somewhere, that you are somehow
party to a crime you had nothing to do with. As soon as you go down this road, you have to start punishing Haitians for the Taino, Israelis for the Palestinians, Australians for the Indigenous Australians, and everyone in the US for the Asiatic (Native) Americans. The idea that you somehow "become" part of an area's history because you are born there is utterly detestable. We're
individual human beings, and some of us consider ourselves
global citizens first, and citizens of our state/country 2nd. So tarring us with this same brush is insulting to us individually. Conflating people with the land we live on and crimes committed on it is an insult to human individuality. Should we New Yorkers have to apologize for the crimes of William Tweed?
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16 January 07 - 15:00
Why Conservatives Can't Govern: "...like all politicians, conservatives, once in office, find themselves under constant pressure from constituents to use government to improve their lives. This puts conservatives in the awkward position of managing government agencies whose missions--indeed, whose very existence--they believe to be illegitimate. Contemporary conservatism is a walking contradiction."
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14 January 07 - 13:22
Top Pentagon Official Threatens Lawyers For Defending Guantanamo Detainees: ever hear about "innocent until proven guilty", tough guy?
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14 January 07 - 11:40
Dirty Work: What are the jobs Americans won't do?
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14 January 07 - 09:42
Not a joke: freedom of speech squashed in Morocco. '"What made you want to write this joke?" asked the examining judge. "Is nothing sacred? Do you not love your country?"' Conservatism in action.
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11 January 07 - 14:15
Free Higher Education in the US: the fact that we don't have this yet is truly lamentable.
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11 January 07 - 11:29Why does the right wing hate America?
I received an email today from the great people at the ACLU which got me thinking about how we got to the point
we are today politically.
"Each of us has a role to play in this effort. I've made my resolutions
for 2007, and am asking you and thousands of others across the
country to join me in these resolutions and make your own. Help
Move Freedom Forward and resolve that in 2007, our America will:
1. Restore habeas corpus and due process
2. End torture in secret prisons
3. Stop warrantless eavesdropping on innocent Americans
4. Fix the Patriot Act and bring it in line with the Constitution"
What is it that brought us to the point of needing to defend these things? Why are they not sacrosanct? Why are people
not out storming the streets when they're violated? Why do those who support human rights, civil liberties and secularism have such an uphill battle?
Why is it that attacking Liberalism and Secularism so easy and readily accepted? There are many reasons of course, but one that underpins them all is a simple
lack of belief in universal human rights and the principles of human liberty, civil rights, and separation of church and state which form the core of the ideas behind the United States experiment. The ideals of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, the UDHR. and the ideas from the Enlightenment are simply not something that everyone in the US accepts. Many pay lip service to it, but in practice their beliefs and actions fly in the face of everything that's contained within these documents.
The real question is, why does the right wing hate America?
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05 January 07 - 10:42
Frank Zappa on Crossfire: Zappa was truly a visionary. "The biggest threat to America today is not communism; it's moving America towards a fascist theocracy".
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04 January 07 - 12:20
The Martyrdom of Saddam Hussein: How Bush and Blair Morphed a Monster Into a Hero
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03 January 07 - 09:12
Let's Hope It's A Lasting Vogue: are there any Athorists in foxholes?
Also,
The Courtier's Reply.
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02 January 07 - 04:57
Few Iraqis gain sanctuary in the US: what the? That's the absolute least we could do. This is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world.
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01 January 07 - 20:11
This year's
dangerous ideas. Many are fascinating, and a few are just plain stupid. Very interesting overall.
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01 January 07 - 07:03An excellent case against blind multiculturalism
Doubts about Celebrating Diversity: 'A consequence of unlimited pluralism as a higher good is the demolition of shared purpose in a common world that nullifies any plausible idea of universal human rights.'.
'If a tradition of universal human rights transcends local ethnic traditions, ethnic diversity without limits or interference will have to yield.'. Exactly.
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01 January 07 - 06:42
2006 Proves Deadly For Journalists: most killed since 1994.
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01 January 07 - 06:39
Spitzer inaugurated: do-nothing Republican rule of the state ends. Hooray. I'm sure it'll be a serious improvement...except for
this.
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