a "Stain on the Department of Justice"

The unfolding department Justice scandal sheds light on an ongoing pattern of placing ideological "purity" over qualifications for job hiring.

Bush appointees illegally interviewed prospective employees for the justice department to determine their beliefs on unrelated matters like abortion, gay rights and other "hot button" topics.

This pattern of "stacking the deck" with ideologues is a stated part of Karl Rove's blueprint for a "permanent Republican majority".

It's not just happening in the DOJ either. This month a gay community based non-profit I work with was initially denied IRS 501(c)3 status when an employee at the IRS wrote to us saying "though we wish to apply the law equally, why should the IRS recognize an organization that espouses immoral and possibly illegal behavior?" (we do safer-sex education) This has nothing to do with the agent's responsibility to vet weather we meet the qualifications, and everything to do with enforcing a right wing Christian worldview on the country.

Similarly - the Bush administration has stacked the immigration department with unqualified Regent law school* political hacks with little or no immigration law experience. Do you suppose that this has anything do do with the face that my sister in law, who is Taiwanese, has been waiting nearly four years for her green card?

As is standard administration practice, this is being passed off as mistakes by "senior aides", while the higher up's (Gonzalez et al.) refuse to testify; citing either "executive privilege" or first amendment rights against self incrimination.
____________________________
*Regent is Pat Robertson's law school - and a favorite source for unqualified political appointees of the Bush administration. Regent's stated mission is to bring Christian teachings to bear with the force of law in this country. For many years the graduates of this school couldn't pass the bar, presumably because they spent so much time studying the legal ramifications on parking regulations of Jesus' riding dinosaurs into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Tall ships to make a comeback for freight?

How cool is this? A 108 year old British schooner, the Kathleen & May, docked in Penzance (cue singing pirates) with a cargo of French wine. The commentators are all very quick to point out that it travels at half the rate of a modern freighter, but the bonus is simple - zero carbon output!

It is fascinating to me how many of the solutions to our carbon problem will be found in the re-invention of 19 century technologies. Sail & Rail represent a huge environmental opportunity, particularly given potential increased efficiency due to computer control.

It could also help to promote an economy that favors local consumption, as slower shipping times will increase costs for goods from far away. (This is logical, and in the long run will be good for the planet as well as local economies.)

Batman Dog

No particular reason, just a cute dog sitting in a Batman chair at the Wellfleet flea market.

- Will

A Funny thing about New Englanders...

As a lot, New Englanders are known for their pragmatic skepticism and thrift.  I notice this a lot when I return here from California, the land of wanton excess in all things, particularly in excess.

The local bird-watching shop (The Birdwatcher’s General Store, in Orleans Massachusetts) carries bulk bird seed in big barrels.   You scoop and fill your own container with the seed. 

They have two bins for thistle seed, one marked “Fancy” and one marked “Plain”, and both cost exactly the same per pound.  There is a sign calling attention to the fact that they cost the same, and are in fact identical, but for the name. 

It’s a funny thing about New Englanders;  the “plain” bin is always half empty - and the “fancy” one virtually untouched. 

Ayeh... 

Ahhhh Provincetown

Just got into Provincetown for a week.   This is the harbor as seen from the porch on the room I'm renting.    Ahhhhh.... 

- Will

Right Wing Distortion of the Week

In response to Barrack Obama's recent off the cuff comment that - 

"“...it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is ‘merci beaucoup!’” 

The right wingers went bonkers.  As is so often the case,  the nativist "English only" argument is a cover for ugly xenophobia and racism. Writing in the "Dakota Voice", a particularly cosmopolitan media oulet, Anton Kaiser (I'm not kidding!) distorts this - alleging Obama said - "We are now told that every American child should learn to speak Spanish."    Huh?   When did he say that?  *

The science is in on this - learning languages improves brain function, employability,  cognition and widens our understanding of the world around us.  This is a bad thing?  

It is embarrassing.  I am always secretly a little pleased when someone assumes that as an American I only speak English.  When I've been overseas and respond in Spanish, French or Italian they always have a double take moment when the ask if I am really American.

(In the sprit of full disclosure - I should say my French doesn't go much beyond Merci Boucoup...")

Hmmm... 

"are you really 'merican?" 

a bit like Anton  Kaiser... 

*  I notice that whenever someone says "we are now told"  this seem to be a cue that what follows is a gross distortion.  From a neuro-lingustic perspective "we are now told" implies reactivity. (I am acted upon, and thus must react aggressively.)  Along with the infamous "some say" It seem to be a favorite phrase on Fox news as a way to attribute things people never said to them. 

Moved to the Dark Side.

Just lettin' everyone know I've gone over to the dark side and bought a Mac.

My first observation is it's only intuitive if you've never, ever used any other kind of computer.

Actually, the very first was that it's gorgeous.

Hard to get used to - mousing with no right click feels like I'm computing wearing mittens.

Bailout of Bear Sterns by JP Morgan Chase - backed by the fed. (That's you and me!)

I think what is prominently missing from the media discussions of the economic meltdown is how much of the current financial crises is a direct result of the ideological darling of the right - deregulation of financial industries.

Remember back when banks and investment firms were prudently regulated? These sort of economic meltdowns didn't happen every nine months.

Enron, the California energy crisis, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, all of these are the direct result of the Republican's shredding of "burdensome" regulation in the last three decades.

Cheshire Cats - David is Fine!

Whew - the procedure went very smoothly and David is fine. It's amazing how something like this makes you reevaluate life.

We sat in the recovery room grinning like Cheshire Cats. It's an oddly beautiful thing to say all those things you know you'll regret if you leave them unspoken, and then have the urgency of loss removed so suddenly.

For the most part, I live pretty comfortably with death. I've lost a lot of friends and family, some very suddenly. Though I grieve those losses deeply, I accept them as a part of life.

All that said - I am very glad "we have some more time" as David put it.

Waiting Room - Cedars Sinai

I'm sitting in the cardiac catheter lab waiting area. They are doing an angioplasty on my friend David. Due to the variety of health issues he has, the Docs have termed this "very risky." They transferred him here from another hospital, as they didn't even want to try the procedure there.

It's been a weird few days. I am struck by how extremely differently folks react to medical situations.... Some with acceptance, others with horror or avoidance.

My favorite was when David asked our most death phobic friend to witness his advance directive /do not recusitate order. Such a kidder, that David!

Roxio Software wins the Golden Cheeseball!

Ok, so it's Roxio, they of the pre-installed, resource hogging, system crashing bloatware.

I have never had a piece of software made by these people that actually worked - or even ran without crashing my system. So why does it come pre-installed on nearly every windows computer in the world?

The most recent Roxio sponsored fiasco came using their "image transfer wizard". I had just gotten back from a trip to Mexico using a friend's borrowed digital camera. I plugged the sucker into my laptop and Roxio's "wizard" popped up, offering to transfer the files for me. I thought - "OK, I'll give it a whirl." One of the options was "delete files from source when done moving" Sounds good - since I'm giving the camera back - I'm sure he'd like to get this card back clean.

The "wizard" began it's work and I noticed it was naming all the files - "ImportedPicture0001.jpg" etc. Let's stop this process and change that to something more descriptive like PuertoVallarta0001.jpg I clicked cancel - and it stopped the import, but it STILL DELETED ALL THE PHOTOS - without moving them!

Wizardly indeed! Roxio's Image Transfer wizard succeeded in erasing 900 megs of my vacation photos in a twinkling of an eye. Not moved to the recycle bin, not in the tmp directory - just GONE! Thanks Roxio!

Who designed this piece of crap?

Not a mention of the problem on Roxio's "support" website.

The good news is that I was able to recover them using ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery) Software.

I think it is interesting that computer magazine editors and reporters routinely rate Roxio products as "excellent" while in nearly every forum related to Roxio software the users consistently rate the products from "poor" - to "mediocre" to "appallingly bad".

Must be taking a lot of reporters out to lunch, huh?

Shameless Republican Race Baiting.

Once again the Republicans stoop to race baiting to try to maintain an electoral edge in the South.

Facing questions on displays of the Confederate flag, Huckabee called it a matter of states' rights. "You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag," the former Arkansas governor said in Myrtle Beach. "In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell them what to do with the pole." - LA Times, Jan 19th 2008

While Huckabee's folksy humor is often disarming - it cannot conceal the rising desperation in the "party of old white guys."

America looks less and less like the Republican party. That simple fact is behind the Illinois laws requiring a driver's license to vote. (Now under consideration by the Supreme Court, whose right wing majority have telegraphed their contempt for overturing the clearly unconstitutional measure.)

After forty years of race baiting with the infamous "southern strategy" it is critical for the Republicans to disenfranchise Black and Latino voters. Besides simple racist yahoo-ism, this is an often overlooked factor in the anti-immigraiton drumbeat coming relentlessly from the right.

"If we let them in - they'll vote Democrat!"

As usual, Huckabee comes in firmly on the slimy side...

My Food Blog & Cookbook store.

Folks have been asking about my cookbook store and food blog -

they are at: http://www.theperfectbite.net/

Happy Eating! - Will

CNN Political - James Dobson lauds Huckabee win

This alone is reason to support anyone other than Huckabee!

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - James Dobson lauds Huckabee win « - Blogs from CNN.com

Album Release - Abstract Image - "Red Chateau"

I'm listening to my youngest brother's first album release as I write this, and I really like it.

His band is called Abstract Image and the album is "Red Chateau"

So far my favorite track is "Turquoise".

I expected to most like the one called "Magickal Island Song", for reasons that will be well known to anyone who knows us.

Check it out!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Ah, Christmas in Hollywood.

I'm used to seeing the Hootchi Mama Elves on Hollywood Blvd. (In shop windows and, ahem, working)

This one was in shop window in a mall in Glendale, CA.

Don't ya love California?

Lars and the Real Girl (withTrailer)

This is easily the warmest, most touching movie I've seen all year. Go see this movie, but be prepared - it's not the yuk yuk laff-fest the premise might lead you to expect. I'd describe it as a Capra-esque mash up of Fargo and Mr Deeds goes to Town.

This movie Lars and the Real Girl
seems to me to be a perfect post-modern take on Capra; it's sentimental, sweet, and wry. gently poking fun at peoples expectations of what "normal" is, this is a great holiday season movie. It is, as they say, "life affirming", but minus the spoon feeding of "the message" that often plagues those films.

I was often ridiculed in film school for my deep fondness for Frank Capra. He was too sentimental, too kindly, not ironic or sardonic enough for the post-modern generation.

If you really need sardonic irony, "Lars and the Real Girl" features a blow up "love" doll in nearly every scene to give it the requisite post-punk edge.

Beautifully directed by Craig Gillespie, I'll be surprised if Ryan Gosling doesn't get a best actor nom for this.

View the Lars and the Real Girl - Trailer

Boston police plan to search youths' homes for guns - The Boston Globe

Have you seen this story?

Boston police plan warrentless searches of youths' homes for guns - The Boston Globe

Police in Boston are beginning a program of warrentless searches of the homes of teenagers suspected of owning illegal guns.

Forget Reaganomics, this is the real "trickle down" theory. When those at the top violate our Constitution with reckless disregard then those further down feel justified in doing so as well.

Are you scared by what is happening in America yet?

BRRRRRRRRRRR!

I'm sitting on a train in Florida while they change the engine, we've been here about an hour.

I'm watching as an elderly man with a yellow dog walks by in the field outside. He's sweating, and he stops every fifteen yards or so to mop his brow and fan himself. It's about 95 degrees outside.

I am shivering, trapped inside, wrapped in a blanket and still freezing!

Have you noticed how often in this country public spaces are refrigerated to an absurd level?

I live in Los Angeles, and too often I have to bring sweatshirts to public places; not because it is cold out, but because it is cold in. The last few times I have checked into a hotel, the room's thermostat was set all the way down, at 60 or in one case 50 degrees.

Could we consider cooling rooms to a comfortable 76 degrees? How much electricity would we save annually if we moderated this wretched excess?

Mellencamp song about 'Jena Six' upsets mayor - CNN.com

Mellencamp song about 'Jena Six' upsets mayor - CNN.com

In response to a new video by John Mellencamp decrying the racist incidents in Jena, the town's mayor Murphy R. McMillin was recently quoted by CNN as saying -

"To put the incident in Jena in the same league as those who were murdered in the 1960s cheapens their sacrifice and insults their memory."

So how does the hanging of nooses on a tree called "The White Tree" to keep black students away not put it in the same league? It is clearly meant to invoke the horrific history of lynching, and is a terrorist act. The kids responsible for hanging the nooses should be prosecuted under federal anti - terrorism statutes.

Perhaps if the mayor spoke out against the teenage thugs who hug the nooses rather than those criticizing it we'd have reason to believe him?