los gatos huelen mal

Swine Flu - An Emerging Pandemic?

2009-04-26T08:46:00.002-05:00

Swine Flu is spreading.

Tests show that eight students at a Queens high school are likely to have contracted the human swine flu virus that has struck Mexico and a small number of other people in the United States, health officials in New York City said yesterday. The students were among about 100 at St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows who became sick in the last few days, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City’s health commissioner.

Why has Swine Flu been classified as a potential pandemic by the CDC and WHO (World Health Organization)?

First here is some background on viral pandemic. A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through populations across a large region; E.g. a continent, or even worldwide. Here are a few infamous pandemics you might recall:

Black death (bubonic plague): killed 20-30 million in 6 years; at that time a third of the total world population.
Spansih Influenza, 1918-1919: First cases documented in March 1918. By October that fall, it had affected 20% or more of the world population. Aftermath: 50 million dead.
AIDS: 37 million dead in twenty years.
Typhus killed ~5 million in Russia from 1918 to 1922

Why is Swine Flu so potentially dangerous?
You might remember Avian flu (H5N1) a few years which caused quite a stir in Asisa. This virus was unable to achieve sustained and efficient human-to-human transmission. Most cases thus far have been transmitted from bird-to-human. A pandemic erupts once a virus evolves the ability to efficiently spread human to human via transmission by air .

Swine Flu is not new. (1) It can be found it persons who are in regular contact with pigs. Like Avian flu it is caused by strains of the Influenza virus (H1N1, H3N2, and H1N2). There was an outbreak in the US in 1976 at Fort Dix which infected several soldiers and in the end claimed the life of one soldier. By contrast, here are the startling numbers of the current Swine Flu outbreak:

1000 cases detected in Mexic with more than 80 deaths
11 laboratory confirmed cases in the southwestern US and in Kansas, with several suspected cases in NYC.
22 confirmed cases in New Zealand

Fortunately, the cases in the US have been mild and have not caused deaths unlike the cases in Mexico. In an interview on April 24, acting CDC director Richard Bessar said that it was still not known why the American cases were primarily mild disease while the Mexican cases had led to multiple deaths. Differences between the viruses or co-infection are reasons being considered.

1) Richard Besser in article More cases of swine flu reported; WHO warns of 'health emergency by Mayra Cuevas, Ann Curley, Caleb Hellerman, Elaine Quijano and Susan Candiotti dated 25 April 2009

FYI - Leading Causes of Death

2009-04-12T10:32:00.001-05:00

Leading Causes of Death in 2001

Developing Countries	Number of Deaths	Developed Countries	Number of Deaths
1. HIV/AIDS	2 678 000	1. Ischaemic heart disease	3 512 000
2. Lower respiratory infections	2 643 000	2. Cerebrovascular disease	3 346 000
3. Ischaemic heart disease	2 484 000	3. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	1 829 000
4. Diarrhoeal diseases	1 793 000	4. Lower respiratory infections	1 180 000
5. Cerebrovascular disease	1 381 000	5. Trachea/bronchus/lung cancers	938 000
6. Childhood diseases	1 217 000	6. Road traffic accidents	669 000
7. Malaria	1 103 000	7. Stomach cancer	657 000
8. Tuberculosis	1 021 000	8. Hypertensive heart disease	635 000
9. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	748 000	9. Tuberculosis	571 000
10. Measles	674 000	10. Self-inflicted	499 000

Source: WHO World Health Report 2002. Countries grouped by WHO Mortality Stratum, with Developing Countries representing regions with High and Very High Mortality, and Developed Countries representing regions with Low and Very Low Mortality.

more info here: http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/cause.php.

Darfur

2009-03-12T22:32:00.000-05:00

A Handy Guide To What the Hell Just Happened in Darfur.

GObama

2009-01-20T21:26:00.002-05:00

To celebrate our new prez, the best rendition of the national anthem of all time...

Khoda

2009-01-20T21:24:00.000-05:00

"What if you watch a film and whenever you pause it, you face a painting? This idea inspired Reza Dolatabadi to make Khoda. Over 6000 paintings were painstakingly produced during two years to create a five minutes film."

What is money?

2008-12-04T22:59:00.003-05:00

Ever wondered what gives money its value? or where your loan or mortgage money comes from?

In this 47-minute video, Paul Grignon lays out the inner workings of how banks work in simple terms and nifty animations...

Take the vid with a grain of salt however b/c there seem to be a few non-sensical moments and possible inaccuracies, especially when he hints at conspiracies by cherry-picking quotations bashing banking from Lincoln and Garfield, both cited as having been assassinated.

Although it's a cynical, biased view of the financial system, for anyone interested in trying to wrap their head around the financial system, this vid is a sure way learn some of the basics on how our money masters operate. Knowledge is power right?

Yes We Did

2008-11-05T03:04:00.000-05:00

At 14th and V Streets NW, in my hood in Washington, DC, a raucous of celebration has ensued.

Yes We Did.

At 14th & U St NW

Folks climbed up on the roof of the bus stop and started dancing

It's hard to see, but the dude on the left is wearing a Hebrew skullcap, and he was dancing with the brown-skinned, Latino guy on the right

Also hard to see, but a drum/conga line in front of the tent

Bananas for Obama?

In front of Busboys and Poets

I have to admit that I haven't been excited by the election for the last few months. Maybe my faith that Obama would win was so strong I felt no need to follow day-to-day news; or maybe I've read so much news that apathy has set in as I've become yet again bewildered by all the nuances of all the issues facing us.

Obama wins North Carolina!

As Brian Williams has been stating all night, tonights winner faces an un-enviable, daunting task of two wars and a giant, stinking, global economic mess, plus health care, social security, huge national debt, rising and competing powers in China and Russia... and the list goes on.

But I guess that's why Barack Hussein Obama will be President, and I will not.

Still, I can't help but feel that us Obama supporters are a little too hopeful, a little too naive - that we are heaping far too many expectations on this man. How much can Obama really affect change in this country over the next four years? Will he really bring our troops home, fix health care and shore up our economy? Or will his failure to live up to our perhaps unreasonable expectations make us just as disillusioned with politics as many of us were before the name Obama became a synonym for change?

What may be more important than achievements, though, is Obama's potential to not polarize folks the way Clinton and W. Bush did, and even more importantly, to get more Americans involved in politics again. The way Obama won this election is a testament to the importance of grass-roots organization, of the average man and woman feeling that they are empowered enough to have their voices heard on even the national stage, so much so that they are willing to wait 6 hours in line just to cast one vote that by itself will not tip an election either way, to post in their Facebooks and MySpaces and Xanga blogs the new facts they've learned, the latest biased slants from Fox News, or the latest Youtube exposé. This mastery of ground-up support is proof of Obama's shrewdness, his intelligence, his ability to run a campaign. Beyond that, I can only hope that it indicates more, not just smarts, not just the siezing of opportunity, but a real change - politics as our grade school teachers tell us ought to be; politics of, by, and for the people.

Bringing it home...

2008-11-03T23:26:00.003-05:00

via fivethirtyeight.com

Barack Obama. A picture is worth a thousand words.

2008-10-22T20:47:00.003-05:00

Simple, but powerful photos of Barack Obama. Callie Shell really captures the inspiration that surrounds Barack Obama and has led to the energy that is driving his campaign. Some highlights include two little kids transfixed to him, Barack napping, waiting in a stairway, and the worn soles of his shoes.

Obama is Batman!

2008-10-16T21:04:00.004-05:00

"Who is the Batman?"

"Batman's been hob-nobbing around with crooks"
"Batman rubs elbows with the worst elements of this city and is undoubtedly himself"...

sound familiar?

Wall St. Crisis Explained on NPR

2008-10-06T22:46:00.004-05:00

NPR's "This American Life" gives a very insightful, easy-to-understand program about the whole financial mess... Another Frightening Show About the Economy..

It discusses the role that credit default swaps and the commercial paper market freeze-up played in the Wall St. meltdown so well a third-grader could grasp it.

The US-China Trade Deficit

2008-09-30T18:29:00.002-05:00

"Through the quarter-century in which China has been opening to world trade, Chinese leaders have deliberately held down living standards for their own people and propped them up in the United States. This is the real meaning of the vast trade surplus—$1.4 trillion and counting, going up by about $1 billion per day—that the Chinese government has mostly parked in U.S. Treasury notes. In effect, every person in the (rich) United States has over the past 10 years or so borrowed about $4,000 from someone in the (poor) People’s Republic of China."

James Fallows discusses how the trade deficit between China and America works and its implications for the future.

Sound Familiar? Bush's Bailout Speech = Iraq Speech

2008-09-27T10:04:00.003-05:00

John Stuart points out the eerie similarities between Bush's Iraq war speech and his speech on the bailout. Again, his speech writers are using shock and awe psychology to brainwash America into believing Wall St. needs an immediate $700 bailout with no oversight.

This bailout = hyperinflation. The word on Wall St. is that "the US government intends to fire up the printing press is a desperate attempt to inflate our way out of this deflationary spiral that we have been in over the last several months." (Jerry Slusiewicz, Bailout = Inflation) US purchasing power will decline steeply over the next few years, and many top investors and economists like Jim Rogers are predicting up to 20% inflation compounded annually. America shouldn't have to pay for the trillions of dollars of debt of the few incompetent crooks of failed investment banks and Fannie and Freddie.

Wall St. Meltdown: Dems push back against Bush's bailout

2008-09-22T22:50:00.004-05:00

"We will not simply hand over a $700 billion blank check to Wall St..."
- Nancy Pelosi

Finallllllly... the Dems are showing some spine regarding Bush's $700. Let's hope they don't cave in to Bush and Paulson's "economy is in its last throes" chatter like they did to Bush's "Shock and Awe" Iraq tactics. The Washington Post reports:

Congressional Democrats considering the Bush administration's emergency plan to shore up the U.S. financial system yesterday countered with their own demands, presenting draft legislation giving the government power to cut salaries of chief executives at firms that participate in the bailout and slash severance packages for their top management...
...Democrats sought to add oversight provisions and taxpayer protections to the proposal, which amounts to the largest government intervention in the private markets since the Great Depression. "We will not simply hand over a $700 billion blank check to Wall Street," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

Under the proposal drafted by House Democrats, the Treasury would be required to force faltering firms that want to sell their troubled assets to the government to "meet appropriate standards for executive compensation." Those standards would include a ban on incentives that encourage chief executives to take "inappropriate or excessive" risks, a mechanism to rescind bonuses paid for earnings that never materialize and limits on severance pay

This fiasco developed over the last 5 years, and many people (e.g., Warren Buffett) predicted it accurately at least 5 years ago. Paulson, while he was CEO at Goldman-Sachs, successfully steered his company away from it, however when he got to Washington back in June of 2006, he DID NOT take steps to avert the financial mess we are in now. That's right, what we're seeing now could have been avoided 2-3 years ago, at the expense of the big cats at Lehman who are now being rewarded for their massive failings with a nice fat $2.5 billion bonus. I don't see how anyone in their right mind could hand this guy Paulson a blank check for $700 billion with hardly any oversight. Let's not condone the mistakes of the reckless, greedy few who brought us into this mess.

Dilbert Finds Economists Support Obama

2008-09-20T13:43:00.004-05:00

The Dilbert comic author hired a polling firm to survey 523 economists to ask which candidate they thought would be best for the economy. They found that economists support Obama over McCain slightly more than 2 to 1. Economists as a group have better insight into which candidate's policy would be better for the economy so I hope Republicans start listening to their advice. I wonder how the economists who support McCain's plan to continue Bush's failed borrow-and-spend policies can call themselves respectable economists.

Why off-shore drilling won't help.

2008-09-16T22:30:00.003-05:00

(from Achitecture 2030 ... )

According to the US Energy Information Administration, oil production from drilling offshore in the outer continental shelf wouldn't begin until around the year 2017. Once begun, it wouldn't reach peak production until about 2030 when it would produce only 200,000 barrels of oil per day (in yellow above). This would supply a meager 1.2% of total US annual oil consumption (just 0.6% of total US energy consumption). And, the offshore oil would be sold back to the US at the international rate, which today is $106 a barrel. So, the oil produced by offshore drilling would not only be a "drop in the bucket", it would be expensive, which translates to "no relief at the pump".

Uh-oh! Wall Street Meltdown for Dummies

2008-09-14T20:28:00.011-05:00

There was alotta finanical FAIL going on this weekend. Lehman Brothers is expected to file for bankruptcy tomorrow. Bank of America just bought out Merrill Lynch at $44 billion (a paltry $29.35 a share). AIG appears to be next...

"A.I.G. became one of the focuses at an emergency gathering of Wall Street executives over the weekend, and was trying to arrange a capital infusion in the face of possible credit downgrades."

What do we learn after dozens of Wall Street’s finest cram into a single room to discuss the meltdown of the financial system? With a Category 5 disaster brewing, the Masters of the Universe can still agree to act out of their own self-interest.

Two of the biggest dogs on Wall Street went down over the weekend, how'd this happen? From the blog Self-evident...

Lehman Brothers: $640 billion in assets, $613B in liabilities, counter party to $729 billion in derivatives trades.
Merrill Lynch: $996B assets, $972B liabilities, $4.2 trillion in derivative trades
AIG: $1T in assets, $972B liabilities, $447B in CDO swaps.
Bear Stearns: $339B assets, $387B liabilities, $2.7T derivative trades.

It's all in these numbers... but what do these numbers mean? In order understand this mess, we need an understanding of the sub-prime crisis and its repercussions. NPR has a great primer on what the sub-prime crisis is all about. We also need to understand the more complex topic of derivatives and that they are BAD, ... from Business 2.0's Web Guide

Derivatives is a generic term for a variety of financial instruments. Unlike financial instruments such as stocks and bonds, a derivative is usually a contract rather than an asset. Essentially, this means you buy a promise to convey ownership of the asset, rather than the asset itself. The legal terms of a contract are much more varied and flexible than the terms of property ownership. In fact, it's this flexibility that appeals to investors. "A good toolbox of derivatives allows the modern investor the full range of investment strategy" and "the sophisticated management of risk," according to the derivatives specialists at NumaWeb.

Futures and options are two commonly traded types of derivatives. An options contract gives the owner the right to buy or sell an asset at a set price on or before a given date. On the other hand, the owner of a futures contract is obligated to buy or sell the asset. The option-shunning experts at the Motley Fool pointed us to their Options FAQ, complete with warnings and reminders that 80% of all options traders lose money.

Okay, so how are derivatives bad? Understanding how derivatives are bad is too complex and boring to tackle in one post, so simply take it from the Wall Street guru who predicted this insanity SIX years ago. Way back in 2002, the man Warren Buffet warned us...

"The derivatives genie is now well out of the bottle, and these instruments will almost certainly multiply in variety and number until some event makes their toxicity clear....[They] are financial weapon of mass destruction carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal."

Despite Buffett's compelling warnings, a massive derivatives bubble arose, and in parallel with the subprime bubble helped to drive the domestic and global economies. In other words, there is boatloads of crap on everyones' books. The banks that are lending LB and ML money have lost confidence in LB and ML's balance sheet or liquidity and are no longer lending banks the money they need need to finance their toxic $hit.

Still don't get it? Well, if you're a pessimist, consider this the beginning of a complete meltdown of the financial system. If you're an optimist with a bunch of cash on hand, happy hunting :)

How Obama can reclaim his mojo.

2008-09-13T13:17:00.004-05:00

Every passing day, the Obama campaign is beginning to look more like the Gore and Kerry campaigns, both of which fell short. Obama has hit a slump and though the race is still to close to call, nay-sayers are stating that he needs to ditch his current failing campaign strategy and start fighting tooth and nail... start playing gutter politics.

I disagree. Obama rose to power because his positivity. He exemplified an optimism in our nation that many of us had lost. Obama's rise was an expression of the people's will to challenge the pervailing political dogma - that Washington is out of touch and can't be fixed. Let's not forget that...

"Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again"
--Sarah Ban Breathnach

McCain on Palin's Experience

2008-09-13T10:47:00.002-05:00

"I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time." - John McCain

Poll Trackers

2008-09-12T18:11:00.005-05:00

On May 6, expectations were high for Hillary Clinton. After all, the latest polls suggested the former First Lady had built up a 5-point cushion in Indiana and slashed Barack Obama's 20-point lead in North Carolina to 8. But over at FiveThirty Eight.com, an anonymous blogger (nom d'écran: "Poblano") wasn't convinced.

...the mysterious upstart projected that Clinton would win Indiana by 2 percent and lose North Carolina by 17—a far-less favorable outcome. When the results finally rolled in—1 in Indiana, 15 in North Carolina—Poblano had outperformed every established pollster. Clinton never recovered, but with the National Journal, the Guardian and the New York Post suddenly dissecting or demanding the secrets of his success...

Nate Silver the mysterious upstart and baseball stats prodigy, maintains www.fivethirtyeight.com, which is definitely worth a look. What makes his site different? From his FAQ page:

Firstly, we assign each poll a weighting based on that pollster's historical track record, the poll's sample size, and the recentness of the poll. More reliable polls are weighted more heavily in our averages.

Secondly, we include a regression estimate based on the demographics in each state among our 'polls', which helps to account for outlier polls and to keep the polling in its proper context.

Thirdly, we use an inferential process to compute a rolling trendline that allows us to adjust results in states that have not been polled recently and make them ‘current’.

Fourthly, we simulate the election 10,000 times for each site update in order to provide a probabilistic assessment of electoral outcomes based on a historical analysis of polling data since 1952. The simulation further accounts for the fact that similar states are likely to move together, e.g. future polling movement in states like Michigan and Ohio, or North and South Carolina, is likely to be in the same direction.

Other notable alternatives to 538 for keeping track of the running election include Pollster.com and Electoral-vote.com.

The faster they rise...

2008-09-12T17:52:00.003-05:00

Palin has re-invigorated the GOP and has many Dems flustered. In less than a week, she's definitely changed the game, however so did Geraldine Ferraro immediately after she was nominated in 1984 and whatever ended up happening to her?

Democrat Peter Hart nails it:

“Clearly, Sarah Palin has hit a gusher,” said Hart. “All of these things say that her initial introduction to American has been a very solid and positive introduction.”

But Hart cautioned that her boost could be fleeting.

He recalled a similar bounce after Walter Mondale unveiled Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate in 1984. “The faster they rise, the steeper they descend.”

So, what ended up happening to Geraldine Ferraro?

Towards the end of the race, questions were simmering about Ferraro's finances, those of her husband, and their separately-filed tax returns. Turns out that Mondale's vice-presidential selection process had not fully vetted her on this aspect. Sound familiar? Troopergate, Bookgate, and Bridgegate will eventually make more headway into MSM and erase the bounce Palin has given to McCain. Hopefully the Obama campgaign will make sure that happens before its too late.

Sarah Palin and Big Oil

2008-09-09T21:49:00.013-05:00

Alaska has seen a recent reemergence in Big Oil at great cost to the Alaskan wilderness the last two years. Apparently, Sarah Palin wanted nothing to hinder Big Oil and allowed them to do as they please to the environment without consequence. Leonard Doyle reports in a column from Anchorage that Palin has a lot of explaining to do when it comes to her record of "standing up to the oil companies."

The Palin administration has allowed Chevron to triple the amount of toxic waste that it pours into the waters of Cook Inlet. This, even though the number of beluga whales in the bay has collapsed from 1,300 to 350 - the point of extinction - because of pollution and increased ship traffic..
Many oil companies abandoned Alaska when prices fell in the 1980s but they have been rushing back to drill and prospect areas that are among the least hospitable on earth. That spirit of the Klondike is already in full swing in Prudhoe Bay the epicentre of oil production and one of the world's largest industrial complexes. It's so big that BP, UPS and FedEx operate a special fleet of jets from Anchorage just to service to the region.

The Irregular Times has also been covering Sarah Palin's special connection to Chevron...

It turns out that the amount of toxic waste that Sarah Palin agreed to allow oil company Chevron to dump into Cook Inlet is in the billions of gallons. Billions.

Sarah Palin has denied that global warming is man-made. This is unbelievable... even the Bush administration doesn't deny the reality of global warming anymore! Palin must still get her global warming news from Fox News and if McCain-Palin gets elected, we will be taking a huge step backwards. We can't afford another 4 crucial years of ignoring and white-washing the climate change warnings from scientists at NASA and the National Academy of Science.

Lipstick on a Pig

2008-09-09T19:01:00.003-05:00

The Right is jumping all over Obama's pig remark referring to McCain-Palin's talk "Change", claiming it as a sexist attack on Palin...

"You can put lipstick on a pig," Obama said. "It's still a pig."
"You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink," Obama added. "We've had enough of the same old thing."

Not surprisingly, the GOP is trying to turn this quote into a personal attack on Palin. Apparently, the old "lipstick on a pig" remark is now taboo and off-limits simply because Palin referred to herself as a "pit-bull with lipstick."

Obama obviously wasn't referring to Sarah Palin as a pig. Rather, it is Right-wingers like Matt Drudge who are really calling Palin a pig by taking the quote out of context and pasting it besides a Palin picture.

McCain-Palin. The sellout, give the rich tax-cuts, war mongering ticket.

2008-09-08T22:15:00.009-05:00

What ever happened to the 2000 McCain? As a former McCain fan, I've been utterly shocked by his metamorphosis into the next Karl Rove puppet. I'm also pissed at his vomit inducing new campaign slogan which is front and center at his webpage and easily meets the GOP noise-machine criteria of being >50% false...

After adding Simpson awesomeness and truthiness, we have some semblance of art...

As Lisa's 2nd grade teacher, Elizabeth Hoover nicely surmises Sarah Palin's role as a condescending, intelligent-looking Lenscrafters-model. For those not so familiar with Mrs. Hoover's depravity, she often berates the poor little fella below, Ralph Wiggum, for his naivety.

"Oh boy sleep! that's where i'm a viking!"

Though, aloof and mindless, Ralph would be the perfect foil for Sarah Palin in the upcoming VP debate in which Palin will attempt to trap Biden into one-upping her and coming off as an "elitist".

McCain vs Obama on Energy Policy

2008-09-06T15:08:00.003-05:00

While watching coverage of the DNC and RNC I was pleased to see that energy has emerged as a central issue. Back in 2004, even with the Iraq War as one of the main flashpoints of the campaigns, energy wasn't even on the national conscience despite the fact that the war is being fought on top of an ocean of oil. Anyways, with gas hanging around $4 per gallon Americans have finally realized that if we don't change our oil guzzling ways and go GREEN, we're in for a rude awakening once oil starts to run out. So now that energy is on the table as a critical issue in the 2008 election, let's compare we're the candidates stack up on energy policy:

	OBAMA	McCAIN
ENERGY PRICE RELIEF	• Enact a windfall profits tax on oil companies to provide a $1,000 emergency energy rebate to American families. • "Oil Swap" : Swap a limited amount swap of light oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in exchange for heavy crude oil to help bring down prices at the pump.	• Supported a temporary suspension of the 18-cents-per-gallon federal gasoline tax for the summer of '08. • Opposes use of government oil reserve.
OIL	• Proposed a 50% windfall profits tax of the five largest U.S. oil companies to pay for "rebate" to the public to help out with high energy costs. • “Use it or Lose It” Approach to Existing Oil and Gas Leases. Oil companies will be required to develop the 68 million acres of land (>40 million of which are offshore) which they have already leased and are not drilling on.	• Opposes windfall profits tax on oil companies. Believes this would ultimately result in increasing our dependence on foreign oil and hinder investment in domestic exploration.
OFFSHORE DRILLLING	• Would consider limited off-shore drilling only if needed to pass his broader energy plan which includes a windfall profits tax.	• Expand domestic oil and natural exploration. • End drilling bans on all offshore waters beyond 50 miles from shore, as long as state has say about energy development of its shores.
GLOBAL WARMING	• Mandatory reductions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050, using a market-based cap-and-trade system. • Under the cap-and-trade system, all pollution credits will be auctioned, and proceeds will go towards investments in a clean energy, habitat protections, and rebates and other transition relief for families.	• Mandatory reductions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 66 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, using market-based cap-and-trade.
CARS	• Put 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015. • Increase fuel economy standards 4% per year while providing $4 billion for domestic automakers to produce these vehicles. • $7,000 Tax Credit for Purchasing Advanced Technology Vehicles. • Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard to promote R&D into the production of low carbon non-petroleum fuels. • All new vehicles by 2012 will be FFVs. American FFV's typically run on ethanol/gasoline mixture with 85% ethanol component (E85).	• Current fuel economy standards are adequate however are not strictly enforced. Would have stiffer penalties for carmarkers who don't comply. • Supports plug-in hybrid. Offers a prize of $300 million to the inventor of a better battery. • $5,000 tax credit for customers who buys a zero carbon emission car. • Supports FFVs. His goal is to require of 50 percent of new cars be FFVs by 2012.
ALTERNATIVE FUELS	• Proposes $150 billion, 10-year clean energy development fund for biofuels, wind, solar, plug-in hybrids and clean-coal technology, and electric cars. • Require all utilities to produce at least 10 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass, or geothermal by 2012	• $2 billion per year until 2024 to develop carbon capture and other clean coal R&D. • Tax credit equal to 10% of wages spent on R&D to promote energy research. • To add "urgency to the mission", offer a prize of $300 million to the inventor of a battery package of a size, capacity, cost, and power far surpassing existing technology.
NUCLEAR POWER	• Nuclear power must play a role as they constitute "more than 70% of our carbon generated electricity". • Opposes the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump • Support federal efforts to look for another long-term approach to dealing with reactor waste. • Opposes nuclear-waste reprocessing	• Build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030, with eventual goal of having 100. • Strongly supports Yucca Mountain project. • Supports research into nuclear-waste reprocessing.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY	• Weatherize 1 million energy-inefficient homes a year via LIHEAP. • Overhaul appliance and other energy efficiency standards with goal of reducing building energy use by 25 to 50 percent. • Invest in a "smart grid" power infrastructure to increase electricity savings and accommodate 21st century energy requirements.	• Develop "smart grid" power lines to increase electricity savings. • "Greenify" federal buildings (which are the largest energy consumer on earth)

After viewing each candidate's plan, the biggest differences appear to be whether energy companies should have their windfall profits taxed and how regulated they should be. Such a tax and stiffer regulations would discourage oil exploration and development and could potentially nudge energy companies towards developing a viable alternative energy future. On the other hand, oil companies profit margins are on par for an S&P500 company, and would raising taxes on Big Oil really make gasoline more affordable for consumers? The answer is especially tricky, with stability in Middle East in question and no cheap alternative fuel source readily available.

Normally, I would be conflicted about the government stepping in and increasing taxes on an entity that's excelling at making $$$$$, except that we’ve paid Big Oil big bucks to do it in the form of tax breaks and subsidies back when gas was $1 per gallon.

Sources:
1) New Energy for America plan from http://www.BarackObama.com
2) McCain's Lexington Project from http://www.JohnMcCain.com

Sarah Palin, as described by a fellow Wasillian.

2008-09-03T23:38:00.006-05:00

Sarah Palin is made for TV... she's more compelling and beautiful than John McBush, and packed full of prime Jerry Springer drama - troopergate, babygate, babygate2, etc... etc.. The GOP is trying their darnedest to make this election about the candidates' personalities and they're banking that this November, Palin the blue collar hockey mom of an average dysfunctional American family will garner more votes than Obama the tax-raising, elitist.

While trying cut through the Sarah Palin hype, I came across this letter on a Washington Post comment board. It was written by one of Sarah Palin's old middle school classmates in Wassila, AL and is the most unbiased account of her that I've seen. I've cut-and-pasted this gem in its entirety as I found it below...

Dear friends,

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .

Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)

You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

Thanks,
Anne

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym. She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a
regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the
case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen
contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a
gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT
•“Hockey mom”: true for a few years
•“PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since
•“NRA supporter”: absolutely true
•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.
•“Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation
•“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
•political maverick: not at all
•gutsy: absolutely!
•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
•”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.
•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are
swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.

Anne Kilkenny
annekilkenny@hotmail.com
August 31, 2008

From: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/3671/the-reform-candidate

2008-06-22T22:56:00.001-05:00

"This is a strange thing to occur in what is called a civilized country.''

In 1949, the civil war in China drew to a close as Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang (KMT) forces retreated to the island of Taiwan, leaving Mao Zedong and the Communist party in control of the country that the U.N. would later officially recognize, and continues to officially recognize, as the only legitimate Chinese state.

As a child, I was taught, both through the nationalism acquired from being born and raised in America, as well as a good deal of KMT propaganda passed down to me by my parents, which was of course passed down to them by the KMT in Taiwan, that communism and Communists were evil. From that viewpoint, China was something of a quagmire; on one hand, I loved China, if for no other reason than because I was Chinese. On the other hand, China, after six thousand years of continuous civilization, after several millennia of glorious history (not the kind referred to on the backs of disposable chopsticks sleeves), was ultimately being ruled by evil. I think more than once my cousin and I enacted fantasy war scenarios where the great armies of Taiwan, who in our imaginary games flew American planes, defeated the evil Communists and made things right - China, after all, was good, and the only good form of government in the Cold War world was democracy.

I still wondered, though, how China could fall to the Communists, especially given that they were on America's side during World War II. I never had a problem accepting that China was weak for a period of time, and being American, had no problem with America being the most powerful nation in the world. But how could America allow the Communists to win in 1949 - a mere four years following the conclusion of World War II - with so much power at their fingertips?

One big reason, I read last night on Wikipedia, was our government's failure to heed the calls of our foremost experts on China at the time. Known as the "China Hands," these men saw the changes in China as they were occurring, and correctly assessed the relative popularity and strength of the Communists compared to the KMT. Given this fact, it would be in America's best interests to work with the Communists somehow, which could at least give China some incentive not to diametrically align with Stalin and the Soviet Union.

However, this view was not supported by the ambassador to China at the time, who had the diplomats espousing this view recalled from service. Furthermore, once the Communists did gain the upper hand and expel the KMT, the China Hands were simultaneously slandered as pro-Communist for having believed that the Communist Party in China was more popular and impressive than the KMT, and blamed for the "loss" of China to the Communists. It seems odd that one could acknowledge the clarity of view these men had in understanding that the Communists were the stronger party, while at the same time claiming that the Communists' subsequent victory was their fault. However, McCarthyism being the prevailing trend of the times, this logical flaw was not garner much attention.

Over twenty years later, with McCarthyism long dead, and as China re-opened its doors to foreign relations with the U.S., the China Hands were invited to testify before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, whose chairman remarked:

''It is a very strange turn of fate that you gentlemen, who reported honestly about conditions, were so persecuted because you were honest about it. This is a strange thing to occur in what is called a civilized country.''

Finally, an interesting quote from a book written by one of the China Hands, John Paton Davies, which I have not yet read:

"The truth of the matter is that China has been since the fall of the Empire a huge and seductive practical joke. The Western businessmen, missionaries and educators who had tried to modernize and Christianize it failed. The Japanese militarists who tried to conquer it failed. The American government, which tried to democratize and unify it, failed. The Soviet rulers who tried to insinuate control over it failed. Chiang failed. Mao failed.''

Maybe I'm Wrong To Be Such a Pessimist

2008-06-06T13:18:00.002-05:00

The deserts of Africa apparently receive "700 times more energy per year than all human kind is using."

Hooray for $8/gal

2008-05-31T21:10:00.004-05:00

Americans should be celebrating rather than shuddering over the arrival of $4-a-gallon gasoline. We lived on cheap gas too long, failed to innovate and now face the consequences of competing for a finite resource amid fast-expanding global demand.

Maybe expensive gas isn't so bad if it is the impetus that weans us off our dependence on oil and breaks up our infatuation with the Middle East. Chris Pummer gives an optimistic spin to rising gas prices...

Hollywood could make this movie!

2008-05-19T13:46:00.001-05:00

Came across this on angryasianman.com: a movie idea so steeped in white supremacy that Hollywood might actually make it.

It reminds me of Paul Mooney's segment on Chappelle's Show where he reviews The Last Samurai. "I mean Hollywood is crazy, The Last Samurai starring... Tom Cruise? He's the last samurai? Give me a break, that movie was offensive, I mean Hollywood is crazy. First they had The Mexican with Brad Pitt and now they have The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise. Well I've written a film, maybe they'll produce my film. The Last N*gger On Earth starring Tom Hanks, how about that."

- - - -

BAO PHI'S IDEAS FOR RACIST HOLLYWOOD 5: IMMORTAL KICKBOXER

Tagline: When you know your fate, high kick. When you don't... high kick anyway.

THE PITCH: Spencer Whidmore is just your average middle-class white Blockbuster clerk with an affinity for anime, Johnny To films, and pad thai from that greasy spoon around the block. But when a mysterious stranger returns a damaged copy of Tony Jaa's Ong Bak late and forgets to pay the $1.50 re-stocking fee, Spencer chases him down the block, tugs on his shoulder and is knocked out when the stranger (cameo by Chuck Norris) mistakes him for a mugger and spin-kicks him in the head.

Spencer wakes up to find that he has magically been transported back in time to Thailand, where a cruel warlord named Jo Jafar is oppressing the good, hardworking, pious, humble, communal, defenseless Thai peasants in the kingdom. Spencer is shocked to learn that, at this point in time in Thailand's history, kickboxing has not yet been invented--but the Thai shamans and holy men whisper of a prophecy: a savior will come deliver the good people of Thailand from their oppressors and teach them the martial arts.

Conveniently, an emasculinated Asian male buddy named Toofo befriends Spencer for no reason--and as they are cornered in the jungle by Thai ruffians, in a flurry of martial arts mayhem Spencer discovers that HE is the storied hero that the Thai people have been waiting for, that he is the great teacher who brought Thai kickboxing to the Thai people: he is no longer Spencer Whidmore, he is the IMMORTAL KICKBOXER.

At first, Spencer revels in his new and wholly un-earned skill in kickboxing, showing off for the locals and enjoying his white saviour celebrity status. But then, when his emasculinated sidekick Toofo returns home to his village without Spencer and is killed in an ambush by thugs, Spencer throws his arms to the heavens over the body of his humble brown friend and screams "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" He has paid a terrible price to learn that brown men must die so that great white men can learn responsibility.

ABOUT THE FILM: The producer of the film claims that there were no qualified Asian actors to be in this film, so they picked a random white guy with no experience for the role and asked Josh Whedon to write in the time traveling plot. When asked about whether or not people would be offended by the issue of appropriation, the producer replied, "well, my best friend is Thai and he took some kickboxing lessons, and he loved the idea and says race is not an issue, so I don't think anyone will have a problem with it."

Need Energy

2008-05-13T13:38:00.004-05:00

http://www.forbes.com/business/2005/11/01/oil-prices-1861-today-real-vs-nominal_flash.html?feed=rss_popstories

Besides education (and urban dance styles), another topic that always intrigues me is energy.

Fossil fuels - oil, coal, and natural gas to name a few - are not renewable, and it is possible that the time may have come where beyond which products based on oil may never drop again. They may go down a dollar here and there, but the overal trend may be that prices will go up, up, up and up, until there is no more.

This phenomenon, based on the current state of the world, is inevitable. Demand for oil grows everywhere as the American lifestyle spreads. Who knew fifteen years ago that kids in the heart of communist China would be collecting Air Jordans?

Along with the ability to be collecting Air Jordans would have to be an underlying economy competitive in the global market. The average Mauritanian, who right now is having trouble just getting enough to eat, has no capacity to be collecting designer shoes. But the economy of urban centers in China frees time leisure time and spending cash for those who have found success - for some, enough cash to have globally competitive purchasing power, enough to afford the same luxuries as Americans, the wealthiest people in the wealthiest nation on Earth.

The basis of these competitive nations is oil. The amount of productivity unleashed by burning oil to run our machines and our factories, our cars and trucks and airplanes... well, I don't have any figures for it, but as far as I've read, the sheer amount of energy we harvest from burning oil is unrivaled by any other source - nuclear, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, or solar. At this point, there is nothing that can replace the amount of energy we would no longer be able to get once oil is gone.

In other words, our lifestyle HAS to change. The question is not if it will change, but when it will change, and how.

Fortunately for most everyone reading this, we are Americans or are gainfully employed in America. At the top of the food chain, whatever happens will likely affect us the least out of all the world's people, and whatever transitions there are will likely be the smoothest for us.

Countries like Mauritania are already feeling the effects of highly-priced oil in ways that are not little or what I imagine anyone there would consider smooth: the price of grains, which are rising with the price of oil, is reaching a breaking point where as a nation, Mauritania cannot import enough food at low enough prices to feed its own people.

Basic supply and demand explains it. If there are two ways to buy something, people will choose the cheaper option. Something a lot of people buy - fuel - comes in several options, one based on oil, the other based on grain. Until now, biofuels have been far more expensive than the equivalent amount of oil; however, oil prices have risen to the point that more and more people are willing to spend their money on biofuels instead. More money on biofuels means more grain used to produce biofuels; more grain to produce biofuels means less grain to eat. Less grain to eat means grain gets more expensive.

Mauritania produces only 30% of its own food - the rest must be imported. But its people are poor - when you can sell grain to Europe for $5 (not a real price), why would you choose to sell it to Mauritania for $4? Maybe because you have a good heart, and many grain producers do - but what if Maritanians could only buy for $3, or $1, or for only pennies?

What's the solution to all this? I don't know. What I do know is that people much smarter than me are working on it, and I hope they come through. I also have the added security of being American, where what Mauritanians are going through is so far removed from my sphere of consciousness that I don't have to think about it if I don't want to. But it would be good to make people aware; it would make me happy to see people understanding that this is a problem, and that we don't have a ready solution. Change must happen; hopefully we do change before it's too late.

the NAFTA spat

2008-04-20T14:29:00.006-05:00

So Bill Clinton was in my hometown, Roanoke Rapids, NC, doing some politicking and trying to pander votes from a community that has been economically stagnant that last few decades. Here are some of his words:

"We can bring manufacturing back to America now," Clinton said on an outdoor stage, with the now-closed mill that was featured in the 1979 Sally Field movie "Norma Rae" looming behind him. "But we have to have a commitment."

During the event, Bill wisely did not mention his previous support of NAFTA, which he pushed through Congress during his presidency, and which along with other free trade agreements, have led to the offshore movement of blue collar manufacturing jobs from places like Roanoke Rapids to places like China and Mexico. If he had done so, he would have discovered a strong, visceral reaction to NAFTA that can be found in any region that has lost out in the globalization game. A recent poll published in the Wall Street Journal showed that Democrats in Ohio disapprove of NAFTA by a 59-13 margin.

Playing to the discontent of voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio, Hillary has repeatedly said that she would consider a renegotiation of NAFTA and claimed to have a history of opposing NAFTA when her husband was in office. Not surprisingly, White House records show that when Hillary Clinton was first lady, she attended several meetings designed to build congressional support for NAFTA. Obama is guilty of waffling on NAFTA too.

The bottom line is, despite bashing free trade in cities like Roanoke Rapids where thousands of blue-collar manufacturing jobs have been lost, neither Obama or Hillary would dare touch NAFTA once in office because free trade is good for our economy:

"... U.S. imports from Mexico have risen sharply since 1993, from $48 billion to $216 billion in 2006. But U.S. exports to Mexico have tripled in the same period, from $52 billion to $156 billion. In 2007, according to the Department of Commerce (PDF), trade with Mexico—America's second-largest trading partner—accounted for less than 10 percent of the trade deficit." ...from "Making sense of the Clinton/Obama NAFTA spat." @slate.com

Globalization and free trade has always been win-win for the US economy, so all the NAFTA bashing we've been seeing is really moot. I was expecting a more honest political discourse this election season, especially with "Straight Talk Express" heading up the GOP. However after reading the following McCain quip, I've realized were in for another "silly season" in politics.

"One of our greatest assets in Afghanistan are our Canadian friends. We need our Canadian friends, and we need their continued support in Afghanistan," McCain said. "So what do we do? The two Democratic candidates for president say they're going to unilaterally abrogate NAFTA. "How do you think the Canadian people are going to react to that?" McCain said.

So, his discombobulated logic here is that we shouldn't renegotiate NAFTA because we need Canada's support in Afghanistan - (all 5000 or so of the token force they have there.)

Living On A Prayer by an 11 year old Korean kid

2008-04-16T12:41:00.002-05:00

OK, this kid is amazing. He has more.

2008-04-11T11:26:00.001-05:00

"This approach effectively exposes the War on Drugs for what it really is, a war on poor people."

"What we hear from conservatives all the time is that criminals deserve harsh sentences, because they've committed crimes. They should not expect anything else, and if they didn't want to be in jail they shouldn't have committed the crime in the first place. But this harsh stance melts into an accommodating one as soon as the lawbreakers wear suits and carry briefcases. A simpler way to say this is that they get soft as soon as the lawbreakers start to look like them."

http://halfricanrevolution.blogspot.com/2008/04/our-two-tiered-legal-system.html

Don't Mess with White Women

2008-03-13T14:44:00.001-05:00

Two suspects have been detained by police in the Eve Carson case, Demario James Atwater and Lawrence Alvin Lovett, Jr.

Lovett was also charged with the murder of Abhijit Mahato, a Dook graduate student found dead in his apartment on January 19th.

There is an obvious disparity in the amount of press coverage and attention paid to these two murder cases that happened less than two months apart, both in the same metro area, and both were students at well-known four-year universities.

One difference comes to mind:

Simply put, one is an attractive white female, and one is a minority. Messing with the first kind is guaranteed to land you in a boatload of trouble. Messing with the second... well... it happens.

"How come they never found Biggie and Tupac's murderers, but they could arrest O.J. the next day" (Dave Chappelle)

I'm not saying Carson did not deserve the attention she got - I'm glad all the various police and government agencies mobilized so quickly and nabbed 2/2 suspects in case with no initial leads in about a week. But makes me wonder if Mahato's case received anywhere near the same level of service from government or support from the community.

Hope

2008-02-01T20:56:00.001-05:00

MoveOn.org has moved to endorse Obama.

Stephen Colbert roasts George Bush

2006-05-10T14:27:00.000-05:00

Have you guys seen this? The funny part is really the Stephen Colbert speech & stuff. Oh, man! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879&q=owner%3Acspan

What are your reactions?

oil poster

2006-05-10T14:25:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting poster about the world's consumption of oil all throughout time. http://www.oilposter.org/posterlarge-x.html

Crazy UNC Rampage

2006-03-07T23:08:00.000-05:00

You guys probably already heard about the incident at UNC on Friday at the Pit. But how do you label it?

http://www.ibiblio.org/wunc_archives/news/index.php?p=445

Power of the courts

2006-03-06T01:27:00.000-05:00

Bush's has pushed through his nominees for the Supreme Court, and with Sam Alito, the court is seen as possibly overturning the decision of Roe vs. Wade to at least some extent. What really interested me is the notion that the Supreme Court is like a "back-door" to establishing laws. It is (perhaps ?) easier to bring a case through the court system and have the SC issue its intepretation, which is binding, than having legislators pass or amend laws. Examples for this are Brown vs. Board of Education during Segregation, or Roe vs. Wade when there may not have been enough popular support for women's reproductive rights. This notion was alluded to in a way during Bush's SC nomination process such as 'restoring the court to its constitutional origins' and the SC is 'overstepping its bounds' as a 'rogue court'.

Reading this expert from To Kill a Mockingbird makes me think, though, that the Supreme Court's "power" acting as it has is nothing beyond its mandate.

"But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal - there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court. It can be the Supreme Court of the United States of the humblest J.P. court in the land, or this honorable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal."
(Finch defending Tom Robinson)

What do you think the future of the court will be? do you think there will be any chance of the SC making a ruling on same-sex marriage as has been done in Canada and Spain? And randomly, what are your thoughts on restrictions on abortion?

Occam's Razor and Bob

2006-02-28T12:04:00.000-05:00

Phil got me thinking about my agnosticism the other day. Occam's Razor & Bob's Corollary are commonly invoked in atheist arguments; I've provided short spiels on both below. I've started looking for arguments against both; if you know of any feel free to post them.

Occam's Razor is a logical principle that holds that one should should not make more assumptions than is needed. In other words, the best explanations are the simplest ones. E.g. if we were modeling a few datapoints on a graph, it would make sense to find the simplest curve that encompasses them all, rather than some convoluted curve that fits the data just as well.

Occam's Razor is often invoked by the atheist argument that we can explain everything without introducing metaphysical concepts such as God; bringing God into the picture adds unnecessary complexity.

Bob's Corollary

The more powerful the entity, the less likely it is to exist.
-Bob

Explanations that attribute 'everything' to the existance of a God are suspect because they are untestable. E.g. If I had a scientific test for the existance of God like a litmus slip that turned red to indicate that God did not exist and the slip showed red, this result could be explained away by arguing "God changed the rules so now red means God exists".

Strong theories make testable predictions that have proven true time after time. A theory that invokes an all-powerful God that can change the laws of universe at any moment escapes falsibility. So, in other words Bob's Corollary says that theories that rely on omnipotent beings are weakened by the fact they potentially can never be refuted.

Red Ink

2006-02-07T12:08:00.000-05:00

The White House has just released the budget for 2007. If approved by Congress, this budget would increase defense spending by 6.9%, cut money from healthcare, education, and the environment all while adding another $354 billion to the U.S. debt. (NPR analysis).

At the end of FY2000, the U.S. debt - the accumulation of the deficit spending of all previous 42 U.S. Presidents - was $5,674,178,209,886.86. Today it is $8,195,544,127,376.07. Bush took office with a budget surplus and a forecast of a cumulative 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion. In just 6 years, the party of tax cuts and balanced budgets, under the steady leadership of President number 43 has added 45% to the Ú.S. national debt.

(from a MetaFilter post by threeblindmice)

My take on the debt is that it is bad because it is financed mostly by foreign nations like China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, etc... As these are our potential rivals/enemies, they may find reason in the future to stop financing our debt and could wreck our economy by selling off their US bond holdings.

The debt is possibly good if our borrowed money is invested wisely. Since much of our budget is dedicated to waging war, the future economic success or failure of America in part seems to hinge on whether or wars in Iraq & Afgahnistan pay off (by giving us control of the energy resources in the Middle East I presume).

Gong Xi Fa Cai

2006-01-29T22:59:00.000-05:00

Kung Hei Fat Choy for the Cantonese speakers, and for Vietnamese, happy Tet!

Let us hail in the Year of the Dog with longevity, prosperity, peace and happiness, and hope that we have rid ourselves of all ghosts and evil spirits.

On another note, I was out partying last night in Chapel Hill until 7am, sorry I didn't have time to get in touch with most of the people here. It makes me a little sad that I haven't made any friends up in Richmond as great as you all or the other friends I hung out with this weekend, but things can always change.

Happy Lunar New Year

What's wrong with our country?

2006-01-23T14:48:00.000-05:00

The 50 Most Loathsome Americans. Amusing stuff, here's a preview:

5. Tom Delay

Charges: A politician so horrible, his prior career as an exterminator constitutes fratricide. Smiled for his mug shot like it was a campaign poster. Asked three young Katrina evacuees, “Now tell me the truth, boys, is this kind of fun?” One of an elite handful of white Americans still engaged in the time-honored tradition of screwing over Indians. Responding to a request he extinguish his cigar in a restaurant in accordance with federal regulations, Delay replied, “I AM the federal government.” Claimed that there was “no fat left to cut” from the federal budget to offset New Orleans reconstruction costs. So arrogant in abuse of power that he doesn’t even take time to construct plausible lies.

Exhibit A: Explaining his failure to enlist during Vietnam: “So many minority youths had volunteered…that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like myself.”

Sentence: Bashed to death with hammer.

censorship

2006-01-04T08:52:00.000-05:00

Microsoft is now shutting down blogs (written in Chinese) on its Microsoft Network (MSN) blogging service that are critical of the Chinese government. This isn't the first time that Microsoft's compliance to China's policies has been in the news. If this is the first time you've heard of this, here's a quick rundown: in the past few years, the complicity of Microsoft and other US companies like Google, Yahoo!, and Cisco with the Chinese Communist Party in helping them to construct the "Great Firewall of China" has made possible the censorship of Internet sites and searches related to 'freedom', 'human rights', or 'democracy' within China.

What's worrying about this latest incident is that the censorship is 'global' and not limited to within China. The sites MSN now censors are being taken down from their servers and not merely firewalled by the Chinese government. For example, had I originally created 'An Unnamed Syposium' on MSN and one of us published the words "Tibetian Independence" or "Falun Dong", our blog would shortly thereafter be deleted off MSN's server because of their compliance to China's wishes; (this is also assuming we knew and were blogging in Chinese).

It's not illegal for Microsoft or any other private company to censor a blog that they operate; however this censorship, though limited to Chinese blogs, still seems to reek of evilness... or maybe it doesn't? Do you believe that Microsoft and other American companies' complicity in China's political censorship is wrong?

What's in a name?

2006-01-02T20:30:00.000-05:00

Lisen to this story about the 1898 Race Riot in Wilmington, NC.

So it's one thing that this is the only overthrow of an elected government in US history. It's another thing that White people did it at a time and place when Blacks were prosperous and influential. What do you make of one of the words used to describe the actions of the riot instigators -- "terrorist"? Fair/unfair? Weird? Appropriate?

mass transit in the Triangle

2005-12-26T20:19:00.000-05:00

Getting to work during rush hour is unbelievably ridiculous. Everyone commutes by car, usually with a 1-person-1-car sort of deal. No one takes the bus, even though a ticket is cheaper than the cost of gas used. What is it with people? Why is their first response to the traffic to just widen the lanes? What do you think about the NC govt.'s new plan to subsidize companies whose employees telecommute from home?

The strength of a condor

2005-12-15T19:07:00.000-05:00

Now I know that the purpose of this blog is to inspire serious thought and discourse, but we're all entitled a treat everyone once in a while...if you followed college basketball this past year, then I'm sure you hear about the "wonderful poetry" of Duke's premier sharpshooter. I was wondering if it was still on the internet, and sure enough, it surprisingly is...I don't know what's funnier, the poetry, or the fact that someone actually had to type it and post it on S.I. Enjoy!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/basketball/ncaa/02/16/redick.poems/

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil?

2005-12-12T21:18:00.000-05:00

Phillip posed a few questions about the role of ignorance in ethics a few days ago. To see our thoughts on this issue, read the comments; please chew 'em up and spit 'em out (that means spit out comments, preferably criticisms). I've reworded his questions below:

1) Do we have an obligation to determine the morality of our trivial actions?
2) Does ignorance of what is right or wrong in a given situation excuse you from being held morally accountable in that situation?
3) Does ignorance matter in ethics?

I have moved my inital answers to the comments section of Phillip's original post of these questions (see 12.08.05).

inspire us... please

2005-12-12T20:41:00.000-05:00

any ideas for a title for this site?

2005-12-10T19:44:00.000-05:00

Recently, a family friend of ours has gotten engaged. People from India are pretty conservative in thinking, and as far as the ones in America, it's especially true of the older generation. They goal of most these people is practically prescribed: study well, get a good job, make money, get married, have kids, and send them through the same process. The son of my parents' friends was older than 30, and had a nontraditional job and lifestyle (organic veg. farmer in VT). The first concern for his parents was the job and lifestyle. As of late, it has been his bachelorhood.

When he announced his engagement, it almost was a surprise. And it was good news, well, to most. One of his parents has not taken well to the fact that the bride (I can't imagine what it would've been like if the spouse-to-be were a groom) is... well... White. In particular, his mom would not be happy unless she was of the same culture and of the same caste. Such an insular attitude isn't too uncommon, perhaps, for 1st generation Asian immigrants. I suppose you could call it indirect racism or something, becuase it's there, but maybe not necessarily overt or intentional.

But then I started to think about racism in general. Or discrimination, or prejudice. I think they seem to breed negativity inherently. A hypothetical example, you'd never hear a Nazi say, "Ooh, congratulations for the Jewish girl, she's marrying that German guy. Now her life will be better b/c he's there. Good for him to spread Aryan values to the heathen Jews." Instead, it'd be, "*@#$ Jewish girl, stealing for herself a German guy. And stupid German guy, for marrying her." Maybe that isn't a perfect example, but anyways, in an us-vs.-them mindset, it's too easy to see the worst in things when different kinds of people interact.

2005-12-08T21:01:00.000-05:00

Puahaha... I laughed out loud at the security guard story

Luis - at least for my sake could you provide a better definition of what is "right" - you seem to be saying that in some situations there is no "right" course of action, but there may be a "best" course of action, which according to Mill's theory would then equate to "right." I neglected to read the comments on Luis's post, I think they covered it pretty well.

I'm actually curious about what you all believe about right and wrong as they apply to trivial things - say, do I buy my groceries from Food Lion or the Harris Teeter? Is it my responsibility to find out which is the more ethical/moral choice? Or does morality only depend on what you already know - if you shopped at Food Lion, and that money was being used to nuke rainforests, does ignorance of this fact shield you from being wrong? Or does it matter at all?

Phillip

2005-12-08T17:54:00.000-05:00

a lil' story...
I had arrived late to play some basketball with some of my classmates at the gym when I started talking to a security guard by the entrance who had been watching them play.

Security Guard - "you joining those guys" (he motions to my classmates)
Me - "yep"
Security Guard - "you guys grad students?" (I guess he thought we looked dorky)
Me - "yea... we're medical students"
[short silence as he turns to watch my classmates play]
Security Guard - "I hope their doctor skills are better than their ballin' skills."
[Two other security guard regulars by the door laugh. I do too.]
[short pause]
Security Guard - "If not, there's gonna be a lotta dead motherfuckers."
[The guards laugh somemore.]
[then silence ... ]

-Dan

2005-12-08T15:58:00.000-05:00

Mill's theory of right action states "An action is right so long as, and only if, there is not better alternative."

I proposed an objection to this theory, and it is such: there are situations in which though there is a best action, it is not necessarily right. Previous wrong actions can place one into a situation where out of all the options/alternatives, even the best one is not right.

I am currently trying to think of a good example to demonstrate my objection. I welcome and encourage anyone to post a situation that would adhere with the objection.

Many thanks
-Luis

2005-12-08T15:56:00.000-05:00

So if you believe t-shirts, there is a such thing as a "naked lifeguard team" - that sounds fun, but when I asked if I could join up at the local pool, but they just looked at me funny - I think I was fooled...

ex nihilo

2005-12-07T23:53:00.000-05:00

Forthwith, this site is declared in existence!
I would like to welcome everyone to this unnamed symposium. Any topic is fair game for our exploration, so feel free to share anything that you wish.

Peace,
Dan

PS
Any suggestions for a title?