Here are the results of the poll so far…
Technically, it's a poll, so that anyone who doesn't want to go blathering about how old he or she is doesn't have to. I thought it might be interesting to see what the age demographics of Shakespeare's Sister are.
For the record, if you're 31-35, to paraphrase Samantha Jones, welcome to my box. I'm 31.
Background: Benjamin Wallace-Wells writes a profile of Kos in the Washington Monthly, which, in part, bemoans a lack of blogosphere wonkery. (Kos has issued his first response to the piece.) Responding to the woe-is-wonkery angle are Garance Franke-Ruta at Tapped and Kevin Drum. Drum notes:
All political movements have both tacticians and theoreticians, so there's nothing odd that Kos is all about tactics and prefers to leave the ideology to others. But there's more to it than that. To a large extent, I think Kos is symbolic of nearly the entire political blogosphere, which tends to be far more a partisan wrecking crew than a genuine force for either progressive or conservative thought.Atrios responds by pointing out there’s a lack of space (and purpose) for wonkery in the current political climate.
I'm honestly not sure what I think of that. Maybe it's just the nature of the medium, and we should be happy to leave the serious thinking to the think tanks. At the same time, I have a feeling that it's also a reflection of something that's been obscured by the ever shriller noise machines on both sides: the death of ideology. Partisanship may be at an all-time high in Washington DC, but when you cut through the chatter, ideology may be at an all-time low.
The Dark Wraith, blogging at Big Brass Blog, writes about Jackson, Missouri high school student Nathan Warmack, who was ordered by his principal to change from his kilt into a pair of pants at a high school dance:
Dr. Ron Anderson, the superintendent of the school district, which is about 110 miles from St. Louis, defended the policy against kilts, saying, "It's mainly to protect from the possibility of a disruption or something that could be viewed as a disruption."Well, I’d like to say that Mr. Shakes is a good dancer. I’d like to say that, but it isn’t true. Ho ho. (Actually, he’s not bad.)
A member of the Scottish heritage organization Clan Gunn Society of North America has started an online petition seeking an apology from the school district regarding what appears to be an ad hoc policy prohibiting kilts.
The Dark Wraith notes that Shakespeare's Sister is married to a gentleman of undeniably Scottish heritage. To the extent that the man might have two left feet, it is perhaps a mercy that he is currently prohibited from dancing in his kilt at a Missouri high school. Nevertheless, as a matter of civil liberties the United States has historically bestowed, signing the petition advances the prospects that one day Mr. Shakes will be able to trip the light fantastic in the secondary educational system of Jackson, Missouri.
These politically correct times in which we live require us to accept many "alternative" attitudes. They are shoved down our throats daily. We have to accept Ebonics, gender-sensitive language and behavior, alternative lifestyles, and reverse discrimination to name just a few. We are EXPECTED to show tolerance for everyone who chooses "break the mold."Here’s a better question: How could a group that seeks to support free expression and pride in one’s heritage moan incessantly about the “PC expectations” of accepting others’ culture and choices? Yeesh.
…How could a person who works with kids on a daily basis not see the importance of self-esteem and the courage it takes young people to show pride in their families' heritages? We cannot fathom Mr. McClard's decision, and it angers us that while we are barraged by PC expectations from every possible single-issue group out there, that he would choose to diminish the Scottish tradition of the kilt in such a really unnecessary context; a school dance.
The most oft-repeated argument by those defending the president’s decision to trample all over the Constitution and circumvent official channels to wage his secret spy program is that such methods are necessary to protect Americans. The president himself gravely intoned that the program “is critical to saving American lives.” The same defense is invoked on behalf of the FBI program under which groups such as Greenpeace and Catholic Workers were infiltrated and spied on. And yet, while the government was busy doing large-scale, warrantless wiretapping and keeping tabs on vegans, someone managed to steal 400 pounds of high-powered plastic explosives from the bunker of a bomb expert in New Mexico.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed today they are investigating the large theft from Cherry Engineering, a company owned by Chris Cherry, a scientist at Sandia National Labs.Numerous undectable bombs, at that.
The theft was discovered Sunday night by local authorities. The thieves used blowtorches to cut through thick steel walls at the bunker, authorities told ABC News.
The missing 400 pounds of explosives includes 150 pounds of what is known as C-4 plastic, or "sheet explosive," which can be shaped and molded and is often used by terrorists and military operatives.
"It is a very dangerous material, we want to keep this off the streets," Cherry told ABC News.
Also, 2,500 detonators were missing from a storage explosive container, or magazine, in a bunker owned by Cherry Engineering.
Authorities have no leads in the theft and said there is no indication terrorism is involved.
The theft is one of the largest reported cases from a facility in the United States in the last decade ending 2004. During that time, a total of about 1,000 pounds was reported stolen from government facilities in 14 reported incidents. It is unknown whether there is any connection to terrorism.
A special agent at ATF said the incident was unusual because such high-powered material was targeted.
The missing material could potentially make numerous bombs.
I thought I was the only one who remembered He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special, but I am not. Thank you, Rich Juzwiak (and Winston, who I know is an integral part of the operation), for letting me know this timeless special, emphasizing pro-social values and behavior, is now available on DVD, and thanks even more for providing such a comprehensive synopsis for all the boys and girls who won’t be lucky enough to receive a copy in their stockings this year.
Of course, the best Christmas present ever is just knowing there are other sardonic geeks in the world who remember things like He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special just like I do.
Oh, He-Man/Prince Adam. How wise and wonderful you are. What would Orko and all the rest of us do without you?
Toast passes on a fascinating article from Foreign Affairs that discusses how primatology is questioning humans’ exceptionalism and providing answers about our tendencies toward war and peace. It’s quite a long article, but well worth your time to read in whole. I won’t even excerpt it, except to give me some useful snark fodder, which I encourage you to promptly dismiss as the uncalled-for dig at rightwing extremists that it is:
[A]ll along there has been another chimp species, one traditionally ignored because of its small numbers; its habitat in remote, impenetrable rain forests; and the fact that its early chroniclers published in Japanese. These skinny little creatures were originally called "pygmy chimps" and were thought of as uninteresting, some sort of regressed subspecies of the real thing. Now known as bonobos, they are today recognized as a separate and distinct species that taxonomically and genetically is just as closely related to humans as the standard chimp. And boy, is this ever a different ape.See, now all along I've had this theory that anti-war, pro-diplomacy, egalitarian, sexually broad-minded liberals were evidence of human evolution, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe we're just a different species. We're bonobos.
Male bonobos are not particularly aggressive and lack the massive musculature typical of species that engage in a lot of fighting (such as the standard chimp). Moreover, the bonobo social system is female dominated, food is often shared, and there are well-developed means for reconciling social tensions. And then there is the sex.
Bonobo sex is the prurient highlight of primatology conferences, and leads parents to shield their children's eyes when watching nature films. Bonobos have sex in every conceivable position and some seemingly inconceivable ones, in pairs and groups, between genders and within genders, to greet each other and to resolve conflicts, to work off steam after a predator scare, to celebrate finding food or to cajole its sharing, or just because. As the sound bite has it, chimps are from Mars and bonobos are from Venus.
All is not perfect in the bonobo commune, and they still have hierarchies and conflict (why else invent conflict resolution?)... There is even recent evidence for a genetic component to the phenomenon, in that bonobos (but not chimps) possess a version of a gene that makes affiliative behavior (behavior that promotes group cohesion) more pleasurable to males.
...and that was a gun in his pocket, and he was happy to see her!
The terrorist? Not so much. Hey, you! Quit trying to blow up the Baby Jesus!
Have a Merry Wingnut Christmas! Yes, it's real.
(Tip 'o the energy dome to Oliver. Silver and Gold... Silver and cross-posts...)
My apologies to Catholics among us (and I promise, Mannion, I’m not trying to make a pope joke!), but I swear I thought this was a picture of Emperor Palpatine in a Santa hat:
Re: below post, here’s something else. Newsweek’s Howard Fineman is predicting that 2006 will be “the angriest, most divisive season of political theater since the days of Richard Nixon” (ugh), and that we are going to be hearing much more of the “I-word.” He also notes:
For months now, I have been getting e-mails demanding that my various employers (Newsweek, NBC News and MSNBC.com) include in their poll questionnaires the issue of whether Bush should be impeached.Not so long ago, activists were having to raise money to pay pollsters to ask questions about impeachment. Now, in the middle of Fineman’s story is a link to a live vote: Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment?
FISA Judge James Robertson, who submitted his resignation on Monday, isn’t the only member of the court to take issue with the White House’s decision to circumvent them with their secret spying program.
The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush's domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources.Good questions all. I would particularly like to hear the president respond to that last bit. Why does FISA exist, if he’s going to ignore them?
Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the president's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain authorized wiretaps from their court.
"The questions are obvious," said U.S. District Judge Dee Benson of Utah. "What have you been doing, and how might it affect the reliability and credibility of the information we're getting in our court?"
[…]
"I need to know more about it to decide whether it was so distasteful," Benson said. "But I wonder: If you've got us here, why didn't you go through us? They've said it's faster [to bypass FISA], but they have emergency authority under FISA, so I don't know."
One judge, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also said members could suggest disbanding the court in light of the president’s suggestion that he has the power to bypass the court.The inimitably clever Peter Daou believes that this scandal will eventually, and inevitably, fade into so much background noise like all the others that have gone before. I don’t know that he’s wrong (especially since he’s usually right!), but I’m beginning to wonder if maybe this is the straw that has broken the camel’s back. With an entire court murmuring about quitting in protest, and every defense issued by the administration making them look worse and raising yet further questions, they may have finally wandered into a bog of political quicksand from which they will not so easily extricate themselves this time.
One government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration complained bitterly that the FISA process demanded too much: to name a target and give a reason to spy on it.Leaky leaky. The truth is, if the intelligence community has decided Bush is done, he’s done—and it won’t matter what his approval rating is, what party controls Congress, or what the American people think. If they’re poised to sell him down the river on this one, this story is nowhere near done.
"For FISA, they had to put down a written justification for the wiretap," said the official. "They couldn't dream one up."
What is your favorite holiday film?
I do have a very special place in my heart for It's a Wonderful Life, but my favorite is A Christmas Story, in no small part because it takes place in the winter wonderland that is Northwest Indiana.
Gotta give NP her props; when she plays hardball, she plays hardball. David Sirota:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is preparing to take a dramatic step that could send the GOP's draconian budget cuts down to defeat.You can read Pelosi’s entire statement here. Sirota also notes:
Pelosi's press release spells it out:
"The Senate passed its immoral budget by a narrow margin of 51 to 50, with Vice President Dick Cheney breaking the tie. Because Democrats forced several changes to the budget bill, it now must come back to the House to be voted on again. Pelosi will not allow approval by unanimous consent and will request a recorded vote."
Pelosi's statement in her release makes it clear why this is important:
"Democrats believe this Republican bill has the wrong priorities. That is why we will request a recorded vote where all Members return to Washington to make clear their values to the America people. Democrats will work with our allies to fight for a budget that represents the values and needs of all Americans."
This is basically an unprecedented move - Democrats have long just rolled over and allowed these "unanimous consent" agreements to pass, but now they are putting their foot down. Pelosi is saying enough is enough - no more budgets that takes billions out of health care and puts it into new tax cuts for the very wealthy.Because they’ve got some making up to do, since the disgusting GOP budget bill passed the House by 6 votes—and guess how many Democrats didn’t show up? Six. Including Rahm Emanuel, who’s head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and thereby tasked with leading the charge on behalf of House Democrats in 2006.
Let's hope every single Democrat shows up for this vote, and puts this bill down to defeat.
Be careful what you blog.
Bill O’Reilly admits a mistake.
Fareed Zakaria: Politician?
Gay kiss-in was a terrorist threat.
And After School Snack’s Matt would like to know if Minnesota co-branded their new Support the Troops license plate with The Colbert Report:
So I’m just sitting here at my desk—me, a Wild Cherry Pepsi, an ashtray, and Big Jim’s ashes, because when Mr. Shakes brought them home from the vet, I didn’t know where else to put them, except beside where I usually am, which is where Jim always was. All of a sudden, there’s this sound…and it’s the weird noise Jim used to make when he stretched and yawned. It totally sent a shiver up my spine. I glanced at the tin of ashes. “Oh, lord—Jimmy’s haunting me!”
It was actually just a Yahoo IM audible my friend Joe sent me—a sound I’ve heard a million times, but only through the speakers. This time it came through the headphones sitting on the floor, which Mr. Shakes left plugged in. An acoustical feat that turned an animated dog saying “Whaaaaaaddup?” into the exact sound of Jim’s yawns and raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
I’m relieved that it turns out I’m not hallucinating or immediately in need of respite at the loony hatch, but it would have been kind of cool to be haunted by my old friend.
Here.
New snazzy look, new snazzy location. Make sure you update your blogrolls—and if The Heretik isn’t on your blogroll, there’s no time like the present to add him!
Women in a Croatian village have seized power from their lazy menfolk in local elections…Good for the sisters of Lozisca on the island of Brac for doing it for themselves.
They won all seven seats on the local council after deciding they were sick of seeing the village men doing nothing for the community.
Merica Bogdan, one of the seven women who was elected to serve on the local council, told local media: "The time has come for women to rule. We were not satisfied with the work the men did for the community and we launched a campaign to take political power and do something good for Lozisca. Men will never have power here again. We have agreed to let our men be in our beds, but never in politics again."
She added that despite having a tiny budget to work with the all-female council had already arranged for a municipal cleaning service, put up and decorated a Christmas tree in the village square and begun a project to repair the spire on the village church.
Lozisca male residents have admitted the women's work has been impressive since their election.
Tonko Valerijev, whose wife Helena is the newly-elected head of the local council, said: "They are a lot more persistent in their work than their predecessors. Frankly, they're doing a great job."
Brother Kenya weighs in with some rather interesting questions about the administration’s secret spy program. He recalls a story from last March, about a secret FBI report indicating a lack of Al Qaeda cells in the US. He also recalls FBI Director Robert Mueller testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee in February that he was "concerned about what we are not seeing." So, was this program, as the president insists, an effective tool in the war on terror? Was it turning up nothing because it actually wasn’t effective, or because there was nothing to turn up? Surely, it can’t be because the NSA wasn’t sharing information with the FBI, since Condi just told us that “the program was intended to eliminate the ‘seam’ between American intelligence operations overseas and law enforcement agencies at home.”
Anyway, go read Brother Kenya’s superb post. I suspect he’s probably right that we’re just seeing the inevitable consequences of “what happens when you start looking for demons up your own asshole.”
...No matter how bad it gets for us, no matter how many lies we are caught in, no matter what dirt you dig up on us, we will always, always find a way to fuck you over.
Cheney Breaks Senate Tie on Spending Cuts
WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled Senate passed legislation to cut federal deficits by $39.7 billion on Wednesday by the narrowest of margins, 51-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the deciding vote.
The measure, the product of a year's labors by the White House and the GOP in Congress, imposes the first restraints in nearly a decade in federal benefit programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and student loans.
By themselves, the deficit cuts included in the five-year bill would amount to only 2.5 percent of projected shortfalls totaling $1.6 trillion over the same time frame. Republicans said the significance lies in more than mere numbers, adding that programs such as Medicare and Medicaid threaten to consume an unsustainable amount of federal revenue if their growth is not trimmed quickly.
Republicans signaled earlier in the week they would need the vice president to be present for the final vote on deficit cuts, and he flew back early from an overseas diplomatic mission.
"The vice president votes in the affirmative," he said, speaking only a few words as dictated by Senate custom. He wasn't the only one who made an unexpected trip back to Washington. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., flew back on Tuesday night. He has been recuperating at home from knee replacement surgery, and he made his way into the Senate with the aid of a walker.
It was the seventh time since Cheney became vice president that he used his powers to break a tie vote, according to records maintained by the Office of the Secretary of the Senate.
Matt Stoller, in response to some criticism he received for writing negatively about Senator Barack Obama, offers an explanatory post, which starts by taking issue with a key part of Obama’s stump speech:
Let me say this - I don't think that George Bush is a bad man. I think he loves his country. I don't think this administration is full of stupid people - I think there are a lot of smart folks in there. The problem isn't that their philosophy isn't working the way it's supposed to - it's that it is. It's that it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do.Stoller makes a very good case for exactly why—whether it’s Obama or any other Dem—tacitly rewarding the president is such a dreadful idea. The entire post is worth your time to read, but I was particularly struck by this:
What in the world is the difference between Tweety saying that "Everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs" and Senator Obama saying that Bush isn't a bad man and loves his country? They are both echoes of the same conventional wisdom line that those who dislike the President are bitter angry vicious crazy partisans consumed by hatred, instead of Nobel prize winning scientists and professionals fed up with the systematic looting of the country by a gang of right-wing white collar criminals.Exactly right. And it touches on something I think a lot of Democrats don’t understand about their grass- and netroots.
