Eclectic Views

    
I voted this morning at the firehouse.  I had to have two ballots 
to fill out, because of so many issues, races, and candidates to 
vote for.  At one point while I was marking the ballot I had 
to step aside so that a firefighter could get some gear out 
of her locker.

When I fed the completed ballots into the machine, it incremented
the counter to 23 and then to 24.  I commented to the pollworker 
in charge that I must have been the twelfth person to vote.  She 
insisted that I was the 24th.  One of the younger pollworkers was 
educating her as I left.
  

    
This should make you laugh wherever you are on the political spectrum.
Humor, that's what this country needs!

>>What, with all the excitement of an election year like no other, we 
have to kick off the week with a NATIONAL EVENT: "I'm Embarassed by 
My President Day".  Brown armbands or ribbons on April First to
symbolize the BULLSHIT  coming out of the White House... we're serious!
Sign up on DMY & commit to wear it on April Fool's day! Tell your
friends, your newspapers, everyone. Let's do this.

<http://www.democracymeansyou.com/brown> <<
  

    
> a NATIONAL EVENT: "I'm Embarassed by My President Day"

I can see going global with this one.  In how many nations with presidents
are they *not* embarrassed?
  

    
Wow. Howard Stern (no, I'm not a fan) went on air today with an audio
montage of all the speeches, sound bites, etc, of the fight over his
show and his being dumped by Clear Channel.

<http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=20860>

Further down in the same article is this impassioned speech - has it
been covered anywhere else? - check this out:

>>The opening marathon montage included audio from a speech by NY
Congressman José E. Serrano from yesterday's debate prior to the House
vote. "The big question on this bill is 'Why now?' There are enough
laws in place and regulations to deal with this issue," Serrano said.
"I feel that some of the good, well-intentioned members have been
caught up in this desire to all of a sudden clear up the airwaves. I
believe it is a distraction. It is a weapon of mass distraction to keep
us away from the real issues at hand. 

>>The fact is, that this part of my opinion of the continuing thinking
of the Patriot Act, the philosophy of the Patriot Act, that says we
will read your e-mails, we will find out what you take out from the
library. We will hold you in detention without charges or a lawyer and
we will then tell you what you can listen to on the radio. 

>>Now, let's understand something, the target here is coming from the
political and religious right and it is directed only at that which
they think is bad, anti-American, or indecent. Right-wing radio which
demonizes liberals, minorities, environmentalists, pro-choice and
animal rights activists, they are fine, they will not be touched. And
let me for the record say, I support their right to say whatever they
want about me and other liberals.

>>"The main target these days is Howard Stern," Serrano continued.
"What does Howard Stern have to do with this issue and the political
agenda? For years, he supported the administration on the war. He
supported the administration on capital punishment. He supported the
administration on just about everything. The last couple of months he
has had a change of heart and started opposing the war, opposing the
opposition to [stem cell] research, opposing the opposition to
pro-choice and all of a sudden, he's in deeper trouble than he has ever
been in before. How else can we explain that the day before his
bosses, Clear Channel, were to face a congressional committee, they
fired him from six markets throughout this country? The FCC has been
complaining about his locker humor jokes for years. Some people have
suggested that he was not in good taste for years. But now the big bang
to get him off the air? Was he okay when he was supporting the
administration? How did Clear Channel decide to knock out its number
one money maker one day before facing Congress? I wish I was the
telephone company and could have heard those phone calls coming in with
the political pressure. 

>>My friends, this is a dangerous time. This bill should be defeated.
If for no other reason to send a message that there is something larger
here at work than simply something you don't like. What I don't like,
may be something you like and vice versa. The best protection we have
is not this bill. Just turn the channel, switch the station."
  

    

> a weapon of mass distraction

Yes!  This meme must grow and spread!
  

    
MARTHA STEWART CONVICTED!
  

    
What, again? or has she gone into repeats?
  

    
Whatever works to keep your mind off other, more pertinent developments.
  

    
Watch for this one...

http://www.filmthreat.com/Reviews.asp?Id=5734

(review of the movie Bush's Brain, which is mainly about the
tactics used by Karl Rove)
  

    

> To be sure, "Bush's Brain" is full of enough legitimate red meat to incense
salivating Democrats who can't wait to tear into a pound of Bush's flesh in
November. Yet, this film should truly frighten partisans on both sides of the
aisle. For as the film points out, no one elected Karl Rove to anything, and
if he really does wield the kind of power and influence most honest people of
both political persuasions think that he does, how can that possibly be good
for our democratic system? Republicans should remember that what's good for
the goose, might be good for the gander one day. That's a philosophy Karl
Rove takes to heart.
  

    
Comparisons with Machiavelli come to mind, but that would be unfair to
Machiavelli.
  

    
It looks as though Governor Arnold will be called to answer for at
least one of the many allegations of sexual harassment - in an English
court:

<http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=507884>

It's amusing to see the article refer to "the actor", as opposed to
his more recent job description.
  

    
how 'bout those voting machines, all getting spiffed up for November
'o4?

 "Most states really won't be ready. We're ending up in '04 with the
very same problems and issues that were there before."

<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/ap/20040409/ap_on_re_us/election_reforms_2&printer=1>

or

< http://makeashorterlink.com/?F27F35BF7>
  

    
And that article doesn't go beyond just the accuracy of the
voting machinery.  It doesn't address other major problems that
we had in 2000, such as lack of an audit trail, systematic
disenfranchisement of voters that fit certain criteria, and
methodical harassment of blacks who attempted to vote.
  

    <scribbled by coiro Tue 13 Apr 04 22:59>
  

    
My, that was dreadful formatting. Let's try that again.

Environmentalists will love this. Businesses will hate it. Proposed
law to mandate "return to sender" postage on unsolicited mailed CDs.

>>'Return to Sender' Legislation Introduced by Assembly Member Loni
Hancock

Bill Addresses Proliferation of CDs and DVDs in the Trash

(Sacramento, CA)  Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley/Richmond)
will introduce legislation mandating that a postage-paid return mailer
be included with CDs mailed unsolicited to individuals by profit-making
entities.  

"Trashing high-grade plastic that can be reclaimed and
converted into useful products is NOT the message for the 21st
century," stated Hancock.  The bill also mandates a postage-paid return
mailer be included with EZ-Ds, a 48-hour self-erasing DVD, soon to be
on sale in local super
markets and video stores.  The bill reconfirms California's strong
commitment to recycle and reuse consumer goods by reducing the
resources and energy consumed in the manufacturing process and reducing
the amount of trash going to landfills.

Two El Cerrito residents, James McKenna and John Lieberman have
collected CDs from disgruntled recipients for several years.  To date,
they have nearly 300,000 AOL CDs and plan to deliver the CDs to the AOL
headquarters when they reach one million.

To illustrate the problem, on Thursday morning in El Cerrito they will
load two trucks with part of their sizable collection and drive to the
Capitol. Upon arrival their CD collection will be dumped onto the
north steps of the Capitol where Assemblywoman Hancock will discuss the
proposed legislation.

High-grade plastic can be reclaimed and converted into dashboards for
example.  But they are recycled only when large numbers can be
collected. Recycling options currently available for consumers are
inconvenient and expensive; the person with the CD/DVD must pay postage
to return the discs to AOL or a CD/DVD recycler.  This bill will cause
the CD sender to pay for its recycling.<<
  

    
Are CDs and DVDs made out of a material that is one of the normally
recyclable plastics that you just throw in in your curbside bin?
If so, the legislation is a silly idea; if not, it's sort of clever
(although I'm sure it will never pass in any case). o

And I thought the self-destructing DVD idea had been shelved? 
  

    
Since the whole idea of the self-destructing DVD is to create jobs by
increasing waste, isn't it kind of against the spirit of the thing to
recycle it?
  

    
German-born Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been elected to succeed
John Paul II as Pope.  He will be known as Benedict XVI.
  

    
I just hope the whole thing gets out of the news soon.
  

    
Mr. Benedict is the first pope to have been a member of the Hitler Jugend.
A reluctant member, say the newspapers.
  

    
Germans of a certain age will more or less certainly have been members of
the Hitlerjugend or the BDM. It was compulsory from 1936, I believe, at
least if you didn't want to be put on the shortlist for having your parents
strung up with piano wire.

I understand that Ratzinger was an extremely reluctant member. Eventually he
was drafted into the German army, from which he deserted in 1945 before
being taken prisoner by the Allies.

I don't agree with him on a large number of things, but I've been
enthusiastically telling people that no, having been a member of the HJ
doesn't necessarily mean he was a Nazi. This is mostly because 
regardless of what you think of someone, it's pretty insulting to just
assume that they were an enthusiastic Nazi because of the time in which they
grew up. That's quite a charge to level at someone, and all the evidence is
that Ratzinger was by no means a Kurt Waldheim.
  

    
I don't want to get too far into a discussion in this topic, but I have read
that many Germans resisted compulsory rules of that era; some heroically and
some in quieter non-cooperation.  What I don't know is how much opportunity
for resistance was available to the young Herr Ratzinger; and whether he
made any effort to take advantage of it, or just went along like a "good
German".

More importantly, I don't see that he took anything away from those
experiences on the role of conscience to resist unjust authority; a nickname
like "the Pope's Rottweiler" and a reputation as a harsh disciplinarian
suggest he did not. Given that the papal office has repeatedly declared
itself infallible when making rules regarding faith and doctrine, he is now
in a position to command members of his church as his government did to its
citizens in his youth.  A writer at the National Catholic Reporter said the
new pope "believes that the best antidote to political totalitarianism is
ecclesiastical totalitarianism", which doesn't give me much confidence in
him.
  

    
I think it's a matter of what you take away from the experience.

In 1969 I was living in married student's house and UC Riverside
in a duplex the other half of which was occupied by a German 
grad student and his wife.  He was just old enough to have 
been drafted into the Hitlerjugend at the end of the war, and 
still had a few photos of himself in uniform at some HJ function.

He couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 years old at the time, yet
he had an inbred hatred for Nazi-ism and all its ramifications
that he took away from his year or so in the HJ that was still
very strong 20 years after the war.

I'm not sure Herr Ratzinger learned the same lesson.
  

    
Since the Nazis failed in their quest for a thousand year Reich, the
young Rat chose something more certain.