Fear of Clowns

Yesterday. Today.

// posted by Erik @ 5/31/2005 04:19:00 PM
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EDIT on 6/9/2005. Comments are wandering off in different directions. Please check this post on abortion in general and this one on the rationality and ethics of using third party IVF to "rescue" embryos before commenting here. Thanks.

As I wrote this, two different squirrels were scampering around trying to bang another squirrel on my windowsill. I couldn't keep straight who wanted the sex and who didn't.

These people Bush invited to a photo-op are raving mad,

As evangelical Christians, the Brinkmans, who are both 32, believe that life begins at conception and that each embryo is a person.

When the embryos were shipped by FedEx to their fertility clinic in Phoenix, Donielle Brinkman recalled, her "ultimate nightmare" occurred: The package went astray because of an erroneous Zip code. In a panic, she drove to a FedEx warehouse to retrieve it herself. "I went to the counter, and I wasn't leaving until they gave me that tank," she said. "I said: 'You have my babies there. I need you to hand them over.' "

... Over the next three years, she insisted that her doctors transfer all of the embryos into her womb, two or three at a time. She had four transfers, and three miscarriages. Tanner was the only one who survived, but "we were committed to all 11 of those babies," she said. "We were going to see it through as long as it took."

... When the Brinkmans ran into fertility problems, they first tried in vitro fertilization themselves, unsuccessfully. They also thought about a conventional adoption. But because they wanted to experience a pregnancy, Donielle Brinkman said, they turned to Nightlight Christian Adoptions of Fullerton, Calif., and its "Snowflakes" program, a name intended to emphasize that every embryo is unique.

Recap,

1. Donielle Brinkman considers a fertilized embryo a person, presumably with the same right to life as everyone else
2. Donielle knows her uterus is likely to kill any embryo that finds its way in
3. An already born unwanted child is not good enough for her to adopt, Donielle wants to experience pregnancy herself
4. Donielle opts to send eleven donor embryos to her uterus of death; one survives

I'm a big fan of adoption, but don't consider the actions Donielle Brinkman took to be immoral. What she does with her ability/inability to reproduce with or without the aid of science is none of my business. But I fail to understand how she can avoid feeling guilty about these 10 babies she thinks died so she could experience pregnancy.

UPDATE: From the Brinkman's website - Donielle expresses something akin to regret or a rethinking ... or something,

We feel so blessed that the Lord chose us for two very unique and different adoptions. The first was a Snowflake Embryo Adoption - what a joy it was to get to carry Tanner. After loosing all 10 of Tanner's siblings in first trimester miscarriages though, I did not have the heart to continue down that road.

Two questions arise: First, if her "heart" won't let Donnielle continue down a road she chose, why did her brain let her get on it in the first place? Her "pregnancy experience" fulfilled, she now thinks sending snowflake babies to likely death is all of a sudden wrong?

The second question is why is Bush posing for an "embryo adoption" press photo with a woman who has qualms about "embryo adoption" in some cases, including her own?

// posted by Erik @ 5/31/2005 05:33:00 AM
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Yesterday, the lake was glassy. Today, it was too.

// posted by Erik @ 5/30/2005 09:39:00 PM
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From the Memorial Day editorial in my home town paper,

... On Memorial Day 2005, we gather to remember all those who gave us that ultimate gift. Because they are so fresh in our minds, those who have died in Iraq make a special claim on our thoughts and our prayers.

In exchange for our uniformed young people's willingness to offer the gift of their lives, civilian Americans owe them something important: It is our duty to ensure that they never are called to make that sacrifice unless it is truly necessary for the security of the country. In the case of Iraq, the American public has failed them; we did not prevent the Bush administration from spending their blood in an unnecessary war based on contrived concerns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. President Bush and those around him lied, and the rest of us let them ...

The "smoking gun," as some call it, surfaced on May 1 in the London Times ...

At a time when the White House was saying it had "no plans" for an invasion, the British document says Dearlove reported that there had been "a perceptible shift in attitude" in Washington. "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy ..."

On the day before Bush's speech, the CIA's Berlin station chief warned that the source for some of what Bush would say was untrustworthy. Bush said it anyway. He based part of his most important annual speech to the American people on a single, dubious, unnamed source. The source was later found to have fabricated his information ...

As this bloody month of car bombs and American deaths -- the most since January -- comes to a close, as we gather in groups small and large to honor our war dead, let us all sing of their bravery and sacrifice. But let us also ask their forgiveness for sending them to a war that should never have happened. In the 1960s it was Vietnam. Today it is Iraq. Let us resolve to never, ever make this mistake again. Our young people are simply too precious.

Ouch. That brings my unscientific tally tracking appearances of the Downing Street Memo in the US media to 47,

• Week 1: 4
• Week 2: 8
• Week 3: 19
• Week 4: 13

My method is searching news.google.com for Downing Street Memo or iraq facts fixed and tallying the results which are not blogs.

Rep. John Conyers is seeking signatures for a letter he's drafted to Bush on the document, asking,

1. Do you or anyone in your administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document?
2. Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional authorization to go to war? Did you or anyone in your Administration obtain Britain's commitment to invade prior to this time?
3. Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with the justification for the war as the minutes indicate?
4. At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq?
5. Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states?

// posted by Erik @ 5/30/2005 09:26:00 AM
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Yesterday was a beautiful day. Today was too, but a lot more people came to the lake.

// posted by Erik @ 5/29/2005 09:59:00 PM
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The Washington Post reports the White House is taking a step back and scratching their collective head,

The Bush administration has launched a high-level internal review of its efforts to battle international terrorism, aimed at moving away from a policy that has stressed efforts to capture and kill al Qaeda leaders since Sept. 11, 2001, and toward what a senior official called a broader "strategy against violent extremism."

The shift is meant to recognize the transformation of al Qaeda over the past three years into a far more amorphous, diffuse and difficult-to-target organization than the group that struck the United States in 2001.

It's good to know somebody is reconsidering the cowboy and indians strategy, but the spoken of transformation's tipping point rests squarely upon the invasion of Iraq - not 9/11. 9/11 didn't gain al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden any sympathizers but the opposite - we had a few months of great sympathy; the invasion of Iraq provided the transformation ("growth") of the threat by fitting right into the Islamist propaganda and rhetoric - validating bin Laden's fatwa in the minds of many,

... If the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal Crusade occupation of the Peninsula.

- Osama bin Laden
February, 1, 1998

The Washington Post article notes that Iraq has been a proving ground for militant Islamists - so it's puzzling why "9/11" was earlier used as the date marking a transformation of the nature of the threat,

Much of the discussion has focused on how to deal with the rise of a new generation of terrorists, schooled in Iraq over the past couple years. Top government officials are increasingly turning their attention to anticipate what one called "the bleed out" of hundreds or thousands of Iraq-trained jihadists back to their home countries throughout the Middle East and Western Europe. "It's a new piece of a new equation," a former senior Bush administration official said. "If you don't know who they are in Iraq, how are you going to locate them in Istanbul or London?"

... Or New York or Los Angeles for that matter. Does anybody remember John Walker Lindh? Perhaps this signals the beginning of the end of the stupid notion represented by the "better to fight them over there than in the streets of America".

Hopefully our strategy will reshape (as I pleaded last week) itself into one focusing primarily on treating the disease instead of dealing with the symptoms,

... State Department official Paul Simons said at a congressional hearing earlier this month that the "internal deliberative process" was broadly conceived to encompass everything from further crackdowns on terrorist financing networks to policies aimed at curbing the teaching of holy war against the West and other "tools with respect to the global war on terrorism."

Build some secular schools in the countries where now most higher education is religious. Medical universities, technical colleges.

// posted by Erik @ 5/29/2005 08:50:00 PM
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On March 22, 2003, Bob Woodward reported that the invasion of Iraq was 48 Hours Old When It 'Began'.

Today, the London Times reports the US and UK had for months been trying to "goad" Iraq into war with bombing raids.

// posted by Erik @ 5/29/2005 03:09:00 PM
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Yesterday, I took pictures quickly and didn't think I got any great shots. Today, I was very satisfied with the shots despite going quickly.

// posted by Erik @ 5/28/2005 09:59:00 PM
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Last week, I observed that Bush's rhetorical goal of killing or jailing every terrorist group is not possible and cited the case of of 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who didn't stop fighting WW II until 1974.

Today, there's a report going around that two Japanese WW II soldiers have been found hanging out with Muslim rebels in the jungles of the Philippines.

// posted by Erik @ 5/27/2005 08:46:00 PM
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May 26, 2005 - Yesterday, there was that great rainbow. Today, I remembered as a toddler asking my parents if how big clouds are - if they are bigger than a car.

I also remember hearing that Oregon was above California, where we lived, and remember looking up and imagining it atop the clouds.

// posted by Erik @ 5/27/2005 07:56:00 PM
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Traditional Values Coalition chairman Louis P. Sheldon asks leaders of a different faith than his to prove they oppose terrorism.

Crooks and Liars suggests Louis P. Sheldon sign statement forgoing any life-saving treatment derived from fetal stem cell research.

// posted by Erik @ 5/27/2005 01:59:00 PM
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Yesterday, it rained. Today, it rained rain that brought a strikingly bright rainbow.

// posted by Erik @ 5/26/2005 08:11:00 PM
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May 25, 2005 - Yesterday, there vere very few, large raindrops. Today there were many, tiny raindrops.

// posted by Erik @ 5/25/2005 05:06:00 PM
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A tale of an uncomplicated, delicious meal and a miserable, broken man

One day, things didn't go very well in the Kingdom of Right Wing Fantasy. King El Rushbo, feeling furiously dreary himself, had to think of a way to entertain and console a mass of 20 million as they groaned and heaved across the Kingdom's streets and stewed in its cubicles. King El Rushbo did as well as he could with his talent, which was on loan from God. Here is the tale of how the King saved the day.

A great petulance rose over the Kingdom of Right Wing Fantasy one evening and the next day, the whole Kingdom gathered to seek guidance from their king El Rushbo. When the King first addressed th crowd, he himself was in denial, and he remarked that he just couldn't believe it,

I can't believe this. I can't believe it. The filibuster of judicial nominees is still solidly in place, the Democrats get to decide who the nominees are that are going to be filibustered.

Feeling trapped by both the petulance and the crowd, the King summoned his royal willpower and sought to think positively. While he was still thinking, he told the Kingdom of secret trap doors only he knew of - doors which could set things aright again,

There are ways around this.

Having reassured the Kingdom, he lowered expectations by catastrophizing,

President Bush is going to get up-or-down votes on three of his nominees. All the rest of it is BS, all the rest is Barbra Streisand. He gets up-or-down votes on three of his nominees and that's it, that's it. For all practical purposes, folks, that is it.

The King then anchored his Kingdom to its familiar and fantastic world-view by performing one of his favorite and familiar tricks: he sought hidden motives,

These guys all want to be president, every senator up there thinks he should be anyway.

Feeling his troops were sufficiently rallied and showing great love for his people, the King conspired with them,

You know, it may be time, folks, I'm just going to throw these things out here for you to consider, it may be time to treat McCain and Graham and Warner and all these others exactly as they would have treated their colleagues, as they would have treated these nominees like Myers and Henry Saad, throw them overboard.

Forgetting for a moment that he promised a way to relieve the doom, King El Rushbo turned pessimistic and promised to at a later date remind everybody of the tragedy. His subjects didn't notice the King's pessimism, but they were glad the King would hold a grudge.

Mr. Snerdley, make a note in your calendar there in '06 to remind me to remind them to get mad again.

Still thinking, the King again assured everybody he would get the Kingdom out of the mess,

Well, I've got a plan. I've developed some ideas.

As King El Rushbo thought some more, he humbled himself before the crowd, which was getting a bit antsy to hear the King's thoughts,

I hate being right so much, but I can't help it. I am. I wish I weren't right as much. I'd be considered a bit more human than I am. I'm right so often, people think I'm a machine, and I don't want to be thought of as a machine. I want to be thought of as a human being.

The King then tossed out a number of great magnitude to symbolize the great depth and breadth of the problem his action plan would meet,

I've looked at this a thousand ways, and I just don't see an upside.

He dazzled everybody with more magic numbers - much more interesting than standard arithmetic which in the Kingdom is "smoke and mirrors",

The minority of 45 was thwarted by a minority of the gang of 14. So a sub-minority here is actually ruled. All of this is just smoke and mirrors. You got seven Republican senators that are happy today; 45 Democrats are happy.

(In the Kingdom of Right Wing Fantasy, 45 happy Democrats plus 7 happy Republicans is less than half of 100)

The Kingdom was then primed and ready to hear the plan, and being ing lucky as only kings and queens can be lucky, at that same time, a fully hatch plan sprang into the King's head,

Now, here's what needs to happen. This is what needs to happen. The 48 Republicans who did not participate in this thing need to say, "No deal." They need to say, "Nobody consulted with us. How in the world can seven members of our party dictate what we do? No one consulted with the president, whose powers the moderates have sought to diminish here.

Pretend nothing happened! A perceptible wave of exultation flowed through the crowd as word of the plan spread across those too far back to hear. The people of the Kingdom began to chant, "Pretend nothing happened! Pretend nothing happened!"

"So simple, yet so brilliant," whispered members of the King's court while the masses chanted and cheered and roared. Even though the King spoke at the top of his lungs, only those closest heard him explain again that it would be best for the Fantasy Kingdom to just pretend nothing had happened,

What ought to happen is they ought to vote on the constitutional option and let the chips fall where they may. Let the seven moderates stand on their compromise.

To top off the plan, the King told everyone to confuse voting for cloture and voting on a confirmation,

We already have 62 senators who say they're qualified to be on the bench, 48 real Republicans and the 14 Senate moderates. Remember, this deal says there's 62 votes for these three judges.

The King let out a big kingly sigh which sounded like a sigh of relief and defeat at the same time. Then the King bellowed, which sounded decisive and glum at the same time,

It'll never happen, but if these 48 Republicans say, "You know, we're not part of this. We're simply not going along with this. We weren't consulted, the president wasn't consulted. The president's powers have been diminished here." Just vote on the constitutional option. Vote on it; bring it up. Frist, bring it up. Bring up the constitutional option.

The moral of the story is, "If you 'can't believe it', you don't have to!"

// posted by Erik @ 5/24/2005 11:26:00 PM
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Yesterday, the sky was almost completely clear. Today, there was complete cover by low clouds spitting raindrops.

// posted by Erik @ 5/24/2005 08:34:00 PM
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Think Progress (and Atrios ) thinks there is some sort of contradiction,

Some say the Senate's rules are esoteric, maybe they're a bit complicated, but the cloture rule is not hard to understand,

[One or more Senators is exercising their right to speak on a topic as long as they want, even indefinitely - or, in practice, until the matter is killed - in other words filibustering] [A]t any time a motion signed by sixteen Senators, to bring to a close the debate upon any measure, motion, other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, is presented to the Senate, [sixteen Senators move to halt a filibuster] [...] the Presiding Officer shall, without debate, submit to the Senate by a yea-and-nay vote the question:

"Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate shall be brought to a close?" And if that question shall be decided in the affirmative by three-fifths of the Senators [if 60 Senators vote to close the filibuster ("invoking cloture")] [...] except on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules, in which case the necessary affirmative vote shall be two-thirds of the Senators present and voting [unless the matter before the Senate is the Senate's own rules, in which case it takes 66] -- then said measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, shall be the unfinished business to the exclusion of all other business until disposed of.

Thereafter [if the cloture motion passes with 60 or 66 votes] no Senator shall be entitled to speak in all more than one hour on the measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate, [...]

After no more than thirty hours of consideration of the measure, motion, or other matter on which cloture has been invoked, the Senate shall proceed, without any further debate on any question, to vote on the final disposition thereof [after cloture stops a filibuster, Senators are allowed to speak for one hour each, to a maximum of 30 hours] [...]

Filling in the particulars for what will happen, according to the compromise agreement among seven Republicans and Seven Democrats,

Signatories make no commitment to vote for or against cloture on the following judicial nominees: William Myers (9th Circuit) and Henry Saad (6th Circuit).

According to Congress Daily PM, as quoted by Think Progress,

Senate Majority Leader Frist will file for cloture on President Bush's nomination of William Myers to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later this week, according to sources on and off Capitol Hill, wasting no time in testing the resolve of 14 Republican and Democratic senators who forced at least a temporary halt to the battle over Democratic filibusters of President Bush's judicial picks.

1. The Senate will be debating nomination of William Myers to the 9th Circuit
2. Democrats will be filibustering the nomination
3. Frist files for cloture
4. The seven Democrats and Seven Republicans vote as they wish on cloture
5. If at least 40 Senators vote against cloture, the matter - and nomination - are killed
6. No problem, nobody went against anything they previously agreed to or stated.

Maybe Congress Daily confused Myers with one of the three nominations the 14 agreed to vote for cloture on - in that case, the only difference is that the 14 have agreed to vote for cloture, and if they follow through with the agreement and cloture is invoked, after a maximum of thirty hours of debate, the nomination would go to a vote.

I don't see the big deal either way.

// posted by Erik @ 5/24/2005 04:46:00 PM
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From the White House,

Liar,

MR. McCLELLAN: I mean, it's -- this report has had serious consequences. It has caused damage to the image of the United States abroad. It has -- people have lost their lives. It has certainly caused damage to the credibility of the media, as well, and Newsweek, itself.

// posted by Erik @ 5/24/2005 01:26:00 PM
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A slippery, slithering non-denial denial about the substance of the Downing Street Memo,

// posted by Erik @ 5/24/2005 01:05:00 PM
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I just loaded C-SPAN 2 to hear the end of a choked up caller melt-down,

Our country died last night ... allowed the minority to rule the majority ... these seven Senators ... we're living in a virtual communist country. If they're not tried for treason ...

// posted by Erik @ 5/24/2005 09:43:00 AM
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I've changed my mind on the agreement. When I first heard it, I was still in "keep outrageous judges off the bench" mode, but now realize this is a tremendous political victory for everybody that's left of the extreme right junto that's been running the country like they were an American politburo recently.

Although the Republicans get three extremist federal judges, Owen goes to the Fifth Circuit which is already extremist beyond repair any time soon. This is the court that claimed the 10 Commandments were primarily secular in order to allow the state of TX to put the power and prestige of government behind a religious display. So an appointment of another 'winger on the Court isn't going to change much.

The score on the five appointments mentioned is 2-2-1. Even.

Here is where the Republicans lose big: Their messaging that filibustering judicial appointments is unconstitutional just got sunk. Blotto. Out of play. From the agreement,

In light of the spirit and continuing commitments made in this agreement, we commit to oppose the rules changes in the 109th Congress, which we understand to be any amendment to or interpretation of the Rules of the Senate that would force a vote on a judicial nomination by means other than unanimous consent or Rule XXII.

Even if all three that get a vote on the floor are confirmed, the mess it causes for the Frist posse is worth it.

The extreme right is going to lose of Social Security. The extreme right lost Terri Schiavo. And they lost the trigger on their "nuclear option": presidential appointments are not guaranteed an "up-or-down" vote; the Senate's tradition of protecting minority rights through the filibuster is preserved. And they know they lost and are writhing in piteous agony:

From Mullah Dobson,

This Senate agreement represents a complete bailout and betrayal by a cabal of Republicans and a great victory for united Democrats ... The unconstitutional filibuster survives in the arsenal of Senate liberals.

Mark "Man in the Dark" Levin sees it as a weak phyrric victory (and screams that passing muster from the ABA is more important than passing muster in the Senate),

As I see it, we've gained 3 judges we would have gained had the rule been changed ... the filibuster lives, only to be triggered if an "extraordinary"candidate -- i.e., an originalist -- who is nominated by the president, approved by the ABA, and is voted out of committee reaches the Senate floor.

Hindrocket moans in pain,

This is the key language. It is absolutely sickening. It promises the Democrats that the Republicans will not stop the filibuster during this Congress. It recognizes the filibuster of judges as a legitimate tool. And it blames President Bush for the Democrats' obstructionism.

Gary Bauer cringes,

Under this agreement it is now more likely that radical social change will continue to be forced on the American people by liberal courts committed to same sex marriage, abortion ... The Republicans who lent their names to this travesty have undercut their President as well as millions of their most loyal voters.

Polipundit tries to put some positive spin on it, but hopes readers have trouble with math (55 Republicans - 7 Republicans = 48 Republicans, a minority),

In short, this is the submission of the minority to the will of the majority. Democrats and wobbly Republicans can spin it as they will but you, my readers, will I hope see otherwise.

Garden-variety Right-wingers pledge to leave the GOP in droves,

What the HELL is this???????? We don't need a deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am furious. I will NOT SEND ANY MORE MONEY TO THE REPUBS. We didn't NEED a deal and we don't WANT a deal!!!

I mailed my change of registration in this morning. Welcome to the growing ranks of the unaffiliated.

This is a sad day for the Republican party, and the conservative movement in this country! The Dems will likely gain in Congress in 2006 because of this kind of cowardice.

It seems like Frist wouldn't have to votes to stop a potential filibuster on a SCOTUS nominee.

Underneath the chestnut tree; The Republicans sold you, and the GOP sold me.

Not another frigging dime or a minute of my time, I stay home in 06' or vote libertarian. Unfreakin believable.

Enter Harry Reid,

There is good news for every American in this agreement. The so-called "nuclear option" is off the table. This is a significant victory for our country, for democracy, and for all Americans. Checks and balances in our government have been preserved.

The integrity of future Supreme Courts has been protected from the undue influences of a vocal, radical faction of the right that is completely out of step with mainstream America. That was the intent of the Republican "nuclear option" from the beginning. Tonight, the Senate has worked its will on behalf of reason, responsibility and the greater good.

We have sent President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the radical arm of the Republican base an undeniable message: Abuse of power will not be tolerated, and attempts to trample the Constitution and grab absolute control are over. We are a separate and equal branch of government. That is our founding fathers' vision, and one we hold dear.

I offered Senator Frist several options similar to this compromise, and while he was not able to agree, I am pleased that some responsible Republicans and my colleagues were able to put aside there differences and work from the center. I do not support several of the judges that have been agreed to because their views and records display judicial activism that jeopardize individual rights and freedoms. But other troublesome nominees have been turned down. And, most importantly, the U.S. Senate retains the checks and balances to ensure all voices are heard in our democracy and the Supreme Court make-up cannot be decided by a simple majority.

I am grateful to my colleagues who brokered this deal. Now, we can move beyond this time-consuming process that has deteriorated the comity of this great institution. I am hopeful that we can quickly turn to work on the people's business. We need to ensure our troops have the resources they need to fight in Iraq and that Americans are free from terrorism. We need to protect retiree's pensions and long-term security. We need to expand health care opportunities for all families. We need to address rising gasoline prices and energy independence. And we need to restore fiscal responsibility and rebuild our economy so that it lifts all American workers. That is our reform agenda, the people's reform agenda. Together, we can get the job done.

Des is cautiously optimistic. Gary doesn't see that only three contentious nominations will not be filibustered, or does not place incredible value on the defeat this has seemed to hand the extreme right. Think Progress warns of a vague statement by DeWine (R-OH) which seems to contradict the text of the agreement reproduced above. Matt Yglasias is lukewarm on the deal as he's taking a purist stance the three nominations who will get a cloture vote was bullying by the Republicans, but sees "some merit" in the defeat the extreme right has been handed. Crooks and Liars has a big round-up of reactions and some video.

In "How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the 'Totally Unacceptable' Nuke Deal", the Decembrist explains part of the deal that some (like he and I) seem to have at first missed,

I think the language in the agreement about how every Senator will follow his or her "own discretion and judgment in determining whether [extraordinary] circumstances exist" in a vague way takes care of my concern. It's boilerplate language, but it makes clear that the judgment about future filibusters is independent of anything in the deal itself. In a way, it reminds me of the language in the Bush v. Gore decision where the Court declared that its use of the equal protection standard applied to this case only one a one-time basis. I see this as an agreement to confirm Brown and Owen one time only, to get this crisis behind us.

I'm having another bowl of ice cream. Public opinion has already been against the Republicans on this issue, nobody likes a loser, and anything else they can do at this point will be more ridiculously extreme - like getting two of the compromisers to turn their backs on the agreement or pushing the red nuclear button in the wee hours when they have enough vote's "present" to claim they changed the Senate rules.

// posted by Erik @ 5/23/2005 11:21:00 PM
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Yesterday, like today, I rode around Lake Harriet as well as Calhoun. Today, there were more people around the lakes than I'd yet seen this year.

It was a beautiful day.

// posted by Erik @ 5/23/2005 09:59:00 PM
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Breaking, Senate compromises.

If this compromise is anything like the ones I've heard of before, it's not a compromise but appeasement: Democrats let through a number of judges they don't think ought to be let through in exchange for nothing from Republicans.

UPDATE: Yup,

Under the deal, the Democrats agreed to accept cloture votes on three of President Bush's judicial nominees: Priscilla R. Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor.

In return, the Republicans pledged not to support the so-called "nuclear option" to end the ability of the minority to use filibusters to block nominees.

... If at least 60 of the Senate's 100 members voted for cloture, the body could then proceed to a vote on Owen. If not, Frist planned to make a point of order that debate on a judicial nominee should be limited and ask Vice President Cheney, as the presiding officer of the Senate, for a ruling. That would lead to a vote that, if Frist prevailed, would effectively set a new precedent by requiring a simple majority, instead of 60 votes, to end judicial filibusters. This would also circumvent the Senate requirement of a two-thirds vote -- 67 senators -- to change the body's rules.

Maybe Republicans did give something: they agreed not to launch a nuke at Senate Rule 22 that to change the Senate's rules, two-thirds present must vote yea,

[T]he Presiding Officer shall, without debate, submit to the Senate by a yea-and-nay vote the question:

"Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate shall be brought to a close?" And if that question shall be decided in the affirmative by three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn -- except on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules, in which case the necessary affirmative vote shall be two-thirds of the Senators present and voting -- then said measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, shall be the unfinished business to the exclusion of all other business until disposed of.

UPDATE: In the agreement, seven Republicans committed not to vote for the nuclear option during this Congress. This may be a good deal.

// posted by Erik @ 5/23/2005 04:51:00 PM
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Tomorrow, it's anticipated that Republicans will press the red button to trigger their Nuclear Option. On, May 24,

• 1844: Samuel F. B. Morse sent the first telegram, "What hath God wrought!"
• 1941: The Nazi's Bismark sank the HMS Hood, killing all but three of the 1,400 member crew
• 1943: Josef Mengele became the Chief Medical Officer at Auschwitz

// posted by Erik @ 5/23/2005 04:40:00 PM
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Man pulls car with ears while standing on eggs

Next up, Week without car bomb in Iraq?

// posted by Erik @ 5/23/2005 03:11:00 PM
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For the first time in the Gallup poll, 50% of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job. Approval of Republicans in Congress is falling too. (article).

Maybe 9/11 just put off the traditional ousting of the president's party from Congress a couple election cycles.

// posted by Erik @ 5/23/2005 02:49:00 PM
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A friend who often says, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade," sent some cookies that didn't travel too well, so I made lemonade by having milk on them instead of with them. There's not many tastes that go better together than coconut, chocolate and milk.

A 2,000 page FOIA document dump obtained by the Associated Press reveals it's pretty hard to make lemonade in Gitmo,

"I've been here for three years and the past three years, whatever I say, nobody believes me. They listen but they don't believe me," says a chicken farmer accused of torturing jailed Afghans as a high-ranking member of the Taliban.

The farmer's name is blacked out in the documents released by the government, which also redacted most other identifying information such as the names of cities, villages and countries.

... Because the U.S. government considers some information against the men to be of interest to national security, detainees were not allowed to hear all of the evidence.

... Most of the detainees proclaim their innocence, including one older prisoner who tells the tribunal he's too crippled to have been an enemy combatant.

"How could I be an enemy combatant if I was not able to stand up," he says, describing how he hasn't been able to walk in more than 15 years. A witness testifies that the man had a stroke years ago and barely left his house except to visit the doctor.

... One nomad says he was looking for his lost goats when he and his brother were captured. U.S. officials say they were captured near an explosive device. Much of Afghanistan is heavily mined.

"How do you move from place to place?" asked the tribunal member. "What do you use for transport? Do you have a vehicle?"

"A camel," the prisoner says. "I am not against America."

One detainee whose name was found on a document recovered at a former Afghan residence of Osama bin Laden argues that's "literally meaningless" because in his Saudi tribe "there are literally millions that share" his name, including two other detainees.

... One 25-year-old prisoner testifies that not only wasn't he an enemy combatant, but he was a bodyguard for Afghanistan's U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai. He says his military training came by "order of American officers."

... One prisoner accused of being a member of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistani group with alleged links to al-Qaida, points to the disputed territory of Kashmir and says the struggle was backed by Pakistan, an ally of the United States. India and Pakistan claim Kashmir.

"If you consider this organization a terrorist organization, then you should consider the Pakistan government a terrorist country," he says.

// posted by Erik @ 5/22/2005 10:39:00 PM
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May 22, 2005 - Yesterday, I had the lake pretty much to myself. Today, I shared it with many lovers.

// posted by Erik @ 5/22/2005 07:52:00 PM
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Filling in for Atrios, Avedon points to a speech by Cold War historian John Gaddis, shocked that it tells of Bush calling Gaddis in to talk about his critique of the administration's doctrine of preemptive war,

I'm unsure of where the shock lies: Gladdis does not criticize Bush policy, but the failure to successfully implement it.

Gaddis criticism does not take the form of "It was a bad idea to invade Iraq," but "the invasion of Iraq was botched." As pointed out in the comments, Gaddis drinks deeply from the lie that,

[E]very intelligence agency in the world also believed that [WMD were there, and it may be that Saddam Hussein believed that also. That they weren't, was universally unexpected."

Gaddis is a neocon through and through,

"We face a new situation in which containment and deterrence are no longer enough," Gaddis said. "The Bush strategy of pre-emption comes in. We have to anticipate where attacks will come and how to deter them."

Characterizing the war as an attempt to establish Iraq as a model of democracy, Gaddis said Iraq's example will permeate throughout the world.

"Some of our allies in that part of the world are also authoritarian -- Serbia, even Israel -- so is the Bush strategy aimed at them?," Gaddis said. "Yes, I think it is, but not all at once. If you can establish some semblance of democracy in Iraq, its ripples will spread everywhere else."

Gaddis said the war would ameliorate the quality of life for Iraqis, and is not merely a capitalist, oil-related venture.

"Oil is part of the picture, but so too is security and humanitarianism," Gaddis said. "What does this mean for the Iraqis, the Middle East, the U.S. and other parts of the world? It means a better life, not a perfect life, but one that is freer."

Is it incredible that Bush read a 160 page book promoting the Bush foreign policy and that the author played pointing out obvious failures to successfully implement it as being at odds with the White House? No.

Is is good that people are filling in for a traveling Atrios. Sure, but I will welcome his return.

// posted by Erik @ 5/21/2005 10:00:00 PM
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Yesterday, I rode right after sunset. Today, I rode a little bit later.

// posted by Erik @ 5/21/2005 09:12:00 PM
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In an in-depth commentary on the Downing Street Memo, Mark Danner makes an interesting observation in the NY Review of Boooks,

The inspectors' failure to find weapons in Iraq was taken to discredit the worth of the inspections, rather than to cast doubt on the administration's contention that Saddam possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

Oddly enough, Saddam's only effective strategy to prevent war at this point might have been to reveal and yield up some weapons, thus demonstrating to the world that the inspections were working.

The article relates an insightful birds-eye view of how the invasion was born into existence, drawing heavily from the Downing Street Memo, but also from various administration interviews from various sources.

// posted by Erik @ 5/21/2005 03:00:00 PM
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Yesterday, I had no eventful interaction on my ride. Today, a couple was sitting on a bench behind which I take one of the photographs each day and the woman was startled and jumped up with wide eyes and dilated pupils as it was darkening when I pulled in behind them, but I said I take a picture "here" each day.

Then we had a congenial conversation and I think they liked me as much as I liked them.

// posted by Erik @ 5/20/2005 09:59:00 PM
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to put up with.

// posted by Erik @ 5/20/2005 05:48:00 PM
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I've been keeping track of US articles and opinion pieces featuring the Downing Street memo appearing in the "web MSM" ... my count on the DSM in the MSM,

• Week #1: 4
• Week #2: 8
• Week #3: 16

According to the crude method I'm using, the coverage has been growing perfectly exponentially.

Considering all Bush scandals lead nowhere and that like most political scandals Watergate smoldered for some time before catching fire, this means ... absolutely nothing.

// posted by Erik @ 5/20/2005 05:18:00 PM
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This Q&A session is from Tuesday, but is daffy enough to still get some chuckles today. When asked about the Downing Street Memo, Condoleezza Rice first feigned confusion, then did not answer the question, "We know what the U.S. administration's position is in the buildup to the war on Iraq. It's been made very clear. But could you speak to these allegations in particular, Madame Secretary, and whether or not this is true?" Instead, Rice

1. noted that information from states like Iraq "comes at a premium."
2. said nothing about the 2002-2003 inspections from the ground in Iraq which she just said "comes at a premium."
3. relied on intelligence "gathered from sources from around the world," presumably everywhere but in Iraq in 2002 and 2003, which turned up nothing about WMD.
4. babbled on about about everything but an answer to the question.

QUESTION: ... And if I could then ask both of you to comment on the very well-publicized British memo that was leaked to the Times of London, or to the London Times. Madame Secretary --

SECRETARY RICE: Which one is that? Andrea, which one is that?

FOREIGN SECRETARY STRAW: Which one is that?

QUESTION: On Iraq. That came out about 10 days ago, 12 days ago. Are you not aware of this memo?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, a lot of them are, unfortunately, out. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: In particular, this memo -- and I can quote -- said that the intelligence -- and this was a memo that was leaked from the minutes of a meeting that took place in July of 2002 with Tony Blair --

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, that one. Okay. Got it. Okay.

QUESTION: -- and some of his military intelligence advisors. In particular, it quotes one British official saying the intelligence and facts that the U.S. was putting forward were being fixed around the policy. We know what the U.S. administration's position is in the buildup to the war on Iraq. It's been made very clear. But could you speak to these allegations in particular, Madame Secretary, and whether or not this is true?

... Thank you.

SECRETARY RICE: ... Look, we've gone over and over and over the issue about the intelligence and about the case against Saddam Hussein. Obviously, there were problems with the intelligence. That's now very clear. It's why the President has been very quick to react to the intelligence reform legislation, appointing John Negroponte to really more radically reform American intelligence agencies than at any time since 1947, because we need to have the very best intelligence, particularly when we are dealing with opaque, dictatorial societies like Iraq in which information comes at a premium.

But I would just remind that the information on which we were acting, in part on which we were acting, was information that was gathered from sources from around the world, including reports that UN inspectors had had when they were on the ground in 1998.

...Oil-for-Food ... bloody dictator ... invaded his neighbors ... used weapons of mass destruction ... shot at our aircraft ...

Yeah, but "In particular, [the Downing Street Memo] quotes one British official saying the intelligence and facts that the U.S. was putting forward were being fixed around the policy. We know what the U.S. administration's position is in the buildup to the war on Iraq. It's been made very clear. But could you speak to these allegations in particular, Madame Secretary, and whether or not this is true?"

// posted by Erik @ 5/20/2005 03:00:00 PM
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Earlier today on the Senate floor, Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) hatched a mind stretching analogy for his fellow senators to chew on,

"[T]he audacity of some members to stand up and say, 'How dare you break this rule.' It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 'I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city? It's mine.'"

Below is a visualization to assist those playing along at home in solving Santorum's koan.

// posted by Erik @ 5/19/2005 06:14:00 PM
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Yesterday, it rained, like today. Today, not so much though.

Tomorrow, maybe I'll ride around Lake Harriet as well as I'm now in summer shape.

// posted by Erik @ 5/19/2005 05:53:00 PM
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"[Today is] the 1,346th day since the attacks of 9/11. That is the same length of time from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the end of WWII on V-J Day. (Dec 7, 1941 to Aug 24, 1945)."

- CalculatedRisk

"We can't run ... If you live in an interdependent world where you cannot kill, jail or occupy all your enemies, you had better spend some of that money to make a world with more friends and fewer enemies."

- Bill Clinton

"Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

- George W. Bush

"On December 26, 1944 (age 23), [Japanese Army 2nd Lt.] Hiroo Onoda was sent to the small island of Lubang Island, approximately seventy-five miles southwest of Manila in the Philippines ...

Despite the efforts of the Philippine Army, letters and newspapers left for them, radio broadcasts, and even a plea from Onoda's brother, he did not belive [World War II] was over. On February 20, 1974, Onoda encountered a young Japanese university dropout named Norio Suzuki who was traveling the wold and told his friends that he was "going to look for Lieutenant Onoda, a panda, and the abominable snowman, in that order." The two became friends, but Onoda said that he was waiting for orders from one of his commanders. On March 9, 1974, Onoda went to an agreed upon place and found a note that had been left by Suzuki. Suzuki had brought along Onoda's one-time superior commander, Major Taniguchi, who delivered the oral orders for Onoda to surrender. Intelligence Officer 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onada emerged from the jungle of Lubang Island with his .25 caliber rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades. He sureendered 29 years after Japan's formal surrender, and 15 years after being declared legally dead in Japan."

- Justin Taylan

One terrorist (or more likely a small group) can wreak a lot more violence than a Japanese holdout with 500 rounds in a palm tree. As implied by CalculatedRisk and Clinton, terrorists are still being born today and they'll be born tomorrow and the next. Onada was still fighting WW II 11,780 days after it ended for the world at large.

Echoing Clinton, our long-term strategy at some point inevitably has to shift focus from destroying things, killing and jailing people to building things and educating people. Terrorist acts are a symptom of fundamentalist Islamic extremism - we have to begin nursing the cause as opposed to mitigating the symptoms.

"Want a university? Sure, we'll build a university, but it has to be secular." This shift ought to have come alongside the time the Taliban lost control of large Afghani cities and the longer we wait, the harder it will be to make up for the propaganda we hand to the Islamist's for each raid on an innocent's home and each civilian caught in the way of our bullets.

// posted by Erik @ 5/19/2005 12:57:00 PM
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You scored as Idealist. Idealism centers around the belief that we are moving towards something greater. An odd mix of evolutionist and spiritualist, you see the divine within ourselves, waiting to emerge over time. Many religious traditions express how the divine spirit lost its identity, thus creating our world of turmoil, but in time it will find itself and all things will again become one.

What is Your World View? (corrected...hopefully)
created with QuizFarm.com

(via Traumatized by Truth via Majikthise.)

More specifically, I'm an iNFj - a Counselor Idealist.

// posted by Erik @ 5/18/2005 10:13:00 PM
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Yesterday, it rained, like today. Today, I caught a rainbow in my breath.

// posted by Erik @ 5/18/2005 09:24:00 PM
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Here is a billboard in my neighborhood in which I go about all my business quicker with a bike and backpack than if I would use my car,

Although Lincoln didn't name its creation as honestly as Chevrolet christened its Suburban, at least they didn't name it after something being polluted by the fumes created by all the extra cargo space: Yukon, Forester, Tundra, Sequoia, Frontier, Mountaineer ...

PS. Yesterday, I saw an honest bumper-sticker on some huge Dodgemobile carrying a single passanger, "Suckin' gas and Haulin' ass":

// posted by Erik @ 5/18/2005 02:04:00 PM
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Josh Marshall parenthetically points out the obvious regarding Senate Republican's nuclear first strike,

(Just to be crystal clear, what the senate is about to do is not changing their rules. They are about to find that their existing rules are unconstitutional, thus getting around the established procedures by which senate rules can be changed.)

// posted by Erik @ 5/18/2005 01:39:00 PM
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Wow, a blistering video excerpt from George Galloway's refutation of charges he profited from illicit Iraqi oil sales. NY Post says, "BRIT FRIES SENATORS IN OIL."

(BBC has video the whole hearing - click "Watch highlights from George Galloway's Senate testimony" and find link to entire testimony in the new window.)

// posted by Erik @ 5/18/2005 12:58:00 PM
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Ridiculous.

Crooks and Liars has a video of Frist's nonsensical claim.

// posted by Erik @ 5/18/2005 12:02:00 PM
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Here is a good explanation of the "nuclear option" Republicans are considering using to lower the bar of the Senate's approval of judicial nominees,

If all goes as planned, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) will rise after several days of debate beginning today over one of President Bush's judicial nominees and call for an end to Democrats' delaying tactics. The presiding officer will then rule in his favor.

Democrats will protest the ruling and ask for a vote to overturn it. The Republican leader will seek to table that appeal. If Frist and the GOP majority prevail, a long tradition of filibustering will be narrowed and a new precedent will be set allowing the Republicans to force a vote on a nomination with a simple majority instead of three-fifths of the Senate.

... To get there, Republicans will have to evade a requirement that they have a two-thirds vote -- 67 of 100 senators -- to change the chamber's rules. Republicans will argue that they are attempting to set a precedent, not change the Senate rules, to disallow the use of filibusters as a delaying tactic on judicial nominations. And by doing so, they say, they are returning to a more traditional concept of majority rule.

The rule change Frist is seeking to bar the use of the filibuster for judicial nominations has been dubbed the "nuclear option" because of its potential to disrupt the Senate and shatter what little comity remains between Republicans and Democrats.

Historically, Senate rules were designed to protect the interests of the minority and to slow the deliberative process. In fashioning those rules, the Senate set a much higher threshold for changes than a simple majority vote.

It's ironic (or maybe not) that Republican Senators - who represent much less of the American population than their Democratic counterparts - claim they represent "mainstream values" at the same time as they consider a radical manipulation of long-standing rules in order to confirm a few unpopular Bush appointees. That they must change the rules for these few nominations is the best testament to the fact those nominations are "out of the mainstream". If anything, Bush's "mainstream" nominations are the vast majority that get through the process as is - not the ones that can't cross the Senate's bar without jimmying the rules.

// posted by Erik @ 5/17/2005 10:37:00 PM
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