Humbling Quote of the Day

"Seeing all those people out there, the enormity of it all really struck me. For the first time I realized what it really means to be President of the United States--seeing all those people out there, counting on you."

-Howard Dean, reacting to the 15,000 people who showed up to rally for his Presidential Campaign in Seattle last weekend.

You're Going To Hell

"Your" Going To Hell
I still am not completely convinced this is real, but it's certainly amusing for those of you who are not of the more fundamentalist bent. I'm actually fascinated by the fact that this person spent this much time on the site but registered an incorrectly spelled URL. At any rate, the most bizarre part of the site (other than the Hellraiser-like images) is the fact that really bad MIDI versions of popular songs such as Prodigy's "Firestarter" and Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" play while you find out how to save yourself from the fiery pit.
Be healed, my children.

Electoral College Calculator - version 2.2

College Scores
Here's a nifty little online tool that let's you calculate Presidential election results based on what states you expect your candidate to win. Let the speculation commence.....

I prefer the term "Volunteer" shops, myself
Demonstrating his commitment to cheap labor, the President has outsourced fundraising for his campaign to India.

Where to begin.....

Til Death Do Us Part
As processor speed in computers increase, silicon chips will become more and more obsolete because they'll melt under the increasing heat. So various scientists around the world are working on chips made of studier substances.

Like diamonds.

In fact, according to this Wired article, there are at least two American companies that have successfully grown synthetic 3 carat yellow diamonds in a lab for $100 a pop or less.

And the people at DeBeers are not happy. Not happy at all.

Favorite quote from the son of one of these diamond farmers: "my father's research was a good way to get a bullet in the head".

Red Meat for the Party Regulars
Since Gallup and Zogby aren't a broad enough cross section of the public to truly gage support for the California Recall, Taco Bell has decided to take polling into their own hands.

Let me repeat that: Taco Bell is conducting a poll for the California Recall, based around what kind of tacos sell the most between now and October 7th.

Is there anything I even COULD say about this?

Political Dis of the Day

"We're still focused on defeating question one on the ballot. Question two has become a sideshow with one less clown."

- a spokesman for California Governor Gray Davis, responding to the news that 2002 Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon had dropped out of the recall election.

Ain't Gettin' Any
While recently completing a course of study at Harvard (demonstrating once again why the Crimson can at best hope for a tie with Old Nassau in U.S. News & World Report), Al Franken wrote the letter, linked above, to John Ashcroft. In it, Franken asked the Attorney General to give his first hand accounts of sexual abstinence for Franken's alleged new book, entitled "Savin' It".

Priceless.

Unbecoming Conduct
The inspiration for, at least, the name of the fallen Spirit of America in Micah Wright's Stormwatch: Team Achilles, this site his a clearinghouse for vets, disgruntled soldiers, and their troubled loved ones back home as they try to mobilize in defense of their family and against the flawed plans of the Pentagon. Definitely worth a look-sie.

The Golden State's Forbidden Fruit
I've lived in California for exactly 4 years, as of next week, and I just saw my first orange grove this month. There was a time that millions of crates bearing California fruit where shipped all over the country, marked with a signature style of labels like the ones shown here, with slogans like "Don't Worry", or "Dainty Maid", or, my personal favorite, "Hustler".


Of course, our latest export, political anarchy, might be coming to a polling place near you, so get in on the new vogue. Buy some classic Ah-nold gear at the link abovee and show your support for the new regime.

Quote of the Day

"I'll probably be found dead in the woods."

-British WMD scientist David Kelley, in response to a question posed by an acquaintance in private, regarding the consequences if Iraq was invaded, even after Kelley had personally assured Iraqi officials that they would be safe as long as they complied with UN weapons inspectors.

Six months later, Kelley went missing after walking his dog, days after being fingered as the potential BBC informant who's suggested that Tony Blair's government had exaggerated the Iraq threat.

His body was eventually found with his wrists slashed, in a wooded area near his home.

Burning Bush Quote of the Day

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image...."

- The Book of Exodus, Chapter 20, Verse 4, King James Bible

One can only hope that Alabama Judge Roy Moore is as committed to the spirit of God's law as he has been to this Ten Commandment monument he had built to display in his courtroom in a blatant violation of the Constitution.

Irony abounds.

The New Republic
There are two very different experiments in direct democracy happening in this country right now.

The first, more hyped, more ill-conceived of the two is the Grand Guignol of Politics we call the California Recall Election, which came into being after paid volunteers worked day and night to get 2% percent of the population to over turn an election that was decided by 8 million voters. Now, 135 candidates have 8 weeks before they appear on a punch card ballot that could be up to 4 pages long and, on that date, even if 49% of the voters support Gov. Davis, a he can be replaced by anyone who's fortunate enough to get just one more vote than his nearest opponent. No majority needed and no run-offs in place. Our new governor could have a mandate from a whopping 5% of the electorate before trying to undo an $8 Billion dollar budget deficit in a legislature that requires a 2/3 majority to raise ANY new taxes.

Alot of numbers, I know. The short answer: a guy with very little political clout could be replaced by a guy with NO political clout or expertise in the midsts of a legislative crisis. And, if Davis is kicked out and replaced by The Terminator or, god forbid, Bill Simon, does anyone think that the Democrats will waste one second to stage their own recall?

The other exercise in direct democracy is Howard Dean's asymetrical political campaign.

As Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi describes in this interview, Meetup.com and Dean's Blog For America have created an environment where a politician can have a direct line of communication with his consituents, and where both Dean and his supporters assume responsibility for his campaign.

Case in point: one of the ideas yours truly suggested on Blog for America was a series of Dean tailgate parties. If you assume that the vast majority of the population isn't interested in the politics that effects their daily lives, then what are they interested in? Well, sports, for one. So, my idea was to make a showing at some sporting events. Don't be annoying and pester people about politics. Go there for the game, but were your Dean colors as a group. Eventually people will come talk to you.
Well, here's a recent posting on Dean's Blog:

Politics is not a Spectator Sport -- Baseball for America



Yesterday I asked Gray to find examples of Dean supporters using the Get Local website to rally at baseball games. Here are just a few:

Phillies Game, September 6, 7 PM, Veterans Stadium
Join us for one of the final baseball games at the Vet! We need 25 people or more to get the Philly4Dean.com up on the marque! If we get 40 or more people we get a deeper discount on tickets, so invite all your friends and neighbors to see the Vet one last time.

Dean Visibility at Fenway Park, Friday, Aug. 29.
Politics is not a spectator sport. Join in on a large visibility at, around, and in Fenway Park. Spread the word about Dean while greeting all the Fenway faithful (35,000 fans!) as the Red Sox face the Yankees on Friday, August 29th. Wear your Dean shirt, red socks, and bring your friends, family, and flyers.

The community impacts the candidate and each other. Can you imagine, just for a moment, what a White House Blog would be like? What kind of impact that could have?

I were my Dean button daily these days, and I generally get two responses. Most women say "I love Howard Dean! I think he's great!" and that's it. Most men say, "I love what Dean has to say, but he doesn't have a chance in Hell of winning." To which, my response is this:

If people who think he's great but can't win actually voted for Dean, he just might win.

Voting your conscience might actually elect a President this time around. Imagine that.

Now, I've spoken at length in the past about this issue of electibility, but I'd just like to consider one thing: if so many people think Dean is great, who do they think are the people who will vote for Bush? More importantly, WHY do they think these people will vote for Bush?

Anyway, keeping in line with the activism of the campaign, Dean is compiling a petition calling for a scaling back of the USA Patriot Act and opposition to it's successor, The Victory Act, which seeks to let John Ashcroft creep even further inside your business. Check the link above and sign up.

leaving the children behind.....
Princeton University's motto is "In The Nation's Service". Wendy Kopp, who graduated from my alma mater in 1989 took that idea to heart when she founded Teach for America in 1990 as a way to provide higher quality teachers in some of the most disadvantaged neigborhoods in the county. TFA would provide college scholarships to students who committed to teaching in inner city schools for 2 years after graduation. Over the last decade, TFA has helped over 9000 students through college, who then, in turn, helped educate over 1.25 million kids across the country.

A large part of why Teach for America was so successful was because it received substantial grants as a part of President Clinton's AmeriCorps initiative. Which is why many people breathed a sigh of relief last year when President Bush praised TFA as a model of the kind of civic volunteerism he envisioned for the whole country.

That is, of course, before Bush cut the funding to AmeriCorps and dropped Teach for America from the program completely. Over 3000 college students who'd been accepted into Teach for America this year are suddenly finding themselves without their scholarships just before the new school year and just as state universities across the country are increasing tuition by as much 40%. Let alone the kids who won't have the value of a young, dedicated teacher through the program.

This is the true face of Bush's fiscal policy. Don't forget it.

I'm still bigger than you, girlie-man!
Ah-nold has not made life easier for El Presidente. He can get so touchy if it's not all about him, you know.

The Truth You Can't Handle
Yours truly is an aberration. I'm one of the few men in my family who has never done military service. Partly because my father recognized that my talents lay elsewhere and pushed me as such (I think Dad is still coming to terms with the fact that he'll probably never be able to call me "Dr. Young"). And Partly because I knew I was really, really not going to do well in a place that required following orders without question. At heart, I'm a scientist. I'll ALWAYS ask questions. I'd make a much better CIA analyst than a soldier any day.

However, I've been around enough soldiers to know that this country wouldn't even exist today if it wasn't for some very, very bad MFs in BDUs. People like my cousin, an ex-drill sargeant who gets practically orgasmic at the thought of making a new recruit do push-ups until he cries.

Which is why this essay by blood-n-guts WWII & Vietnam combat vet turned correspondent David Hackworth is so riveting. Here, he details a trip to a Basic Training base to see what a decade of political correctness and a good economy did to recruitment & training, and what it means now that our fearless leader has fully embroiled us in a brand spanking new quagmire.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this. The military needs to reflect the values of the society, otherwise our values are meaningless. Therefore, we have to admit EVERYONE. And you have to train them equally, too. If the standard is 200 push-ups, and you're a woman who can't do 200 push-ups, you shouldn't be in the army. Period. On the other hand, you cannot stick a bunch of 19-year-old men and women together in close quarters in a physically intense environment and not expect them to bone like they're trying to repopulate the planet.

Government Issue
So those American soldiers that get shot at on a daily basis in Iraq are about to get a pay cut because the Pentagon says they can't afford it.

I'd like to say two things:

"Tax cuts" and "unilateralism".

That's all.

Death Rays
Those of you who know your comic book history know that The Incredible Hulk was born when scientist Bruce Banner was caught in an explosion from a gamma bomb, or a bomb that emitted gamma radiation.

Well, today, munitions scientists are within striking distance of developing the real thing, through the use of the available high energy states, or nuclear isomers, of certain heavy elements, such as hafnium.

Using the technique described in this New Scientist article, a single gram of this stuff could be more explosive than 50 kilograms of TNT. And they would not necessarily be subject to the nuclear test ban treaty.

Failing Upwards
Conan O'Brian, distinguished alum of the 3rd best undergraduate school in America (following, of course, the imminently glorious Princeton University and Deep Springs College), gave a great commencement speech on the Hah-vahd Yahd back in 2000 on the value of risk & failure.

Laugh out loud funny.

FireStorm
Well, since civilization as we know it is on the brink of collapse here in California, I've decided to take the Emperor Nero approach. Rather than lamenting that Mr. Universe is about to be handed the reigns of the 5th largest economy in the world (because, hey, how can you not like "Hercules In New York", right?), I'm just going to whistle past the Golden State's grave and give a review of a comic book.

Of course, that's not entirely true, is it?

This week's top pick is Stormwatch:Team Achilles #14, written by progressive gadfly and former Special Forces soldier Micah Wright.

So, for starters, here's a little background on the title:
In this fictional universe, superpowered beings (SPBs) are everywhere, and they think they own the place. Some think they're heroes, others just don't give a hoot, but, on the whole, they're making a mess of things. So, the United Nations created Stormwatch, an elite military force made up of a bunch of former covert ops specialists and a handful of SPBs on the UN payroll designed to police these supermen. And, considering that most superheroes just know how to hit each other really hard, they really don't stand a chance against a team with military tactical skills.

But, the story gets more interesting because the United States government views superhumans as the next arms race, and doesn't like the UN interfering. So Stormwatch has effectively found itself engaged in a secret war with the right wing reactionary forces in our government. So far, the US has tried to assassinate members of the general assembly, while Stormwatch has kidnapped a racist American senator and replaced him with a shape-shifting SPB who's using all of his floor votes to dump billions of taxpayer dollars onto HBCs and the United Negro College Fund. Crazy stuff.

This issue, the best so far in the series, introduces Citizen Soldier, a thinly veiled Captain America analogue, who is so dedicated to the American Dream that he's decided to completely destroy the country to protect it.



Check the preview of the first 6 pages, then check it out at your local comic shop, where you can also get the trade paperback that collects the 1st six issues of the series in one volume.