RelentlesslyOptimistic

More knits: The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art

Via art for housewives comes this very specialized online museum:

Best of 2005

Stuff On My Cat has several "Best of 2005" selections, including my all-time favorite.

Bush: "2 1/2 years seems like an eternity, but in the march of history it's not all that long."

....but it's three years until the inauguration, not 2 1/2.

General Hayden: Following existing law too cumbersome, but citizens protected by "shift supervisor" instead of judge

In a press conference held yesterday with President Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez to defend the recently revealed NSA domestic spying program, General Michael Hayden said that following the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) emergency process couldn't be done "as efficiently." He also said that the President's authorization provided protection to American citizens by requiring that surveillance be "signed off by a shift supervisor" instead of a FISA judge.

FISA allows immediate surveillance as long as a FISA judge is notified and a warrant application is submitted within 72 hours. The Washington Post noted that "since the law was passed in 1978...the court has rejected just five of 18,748 requests for wiretaps and search warrants." Hayden is the Principal Deputy Director for National Intelligence and was the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) when the domestic spying program began.

Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez defended not following FISA by claiming that Congress gave them the implicit authority to do whatever they damn well please conduct warrantless surveillance on citizens as long as it is related to the Global War on Terrorism. Gonzalez gave a description of the criteria used to determine who would be a subject of the NSA's eavesdropping:

"one party to the communication has to be outside the United States...[and] one of the parties is affiliated with al Qaeda or part of an organization or group that is supportive of al Qaeda"

Meanwhile on a Sunday talk show John Dean, former Watergate conspirator, said that "Bush is the first president to admit an impeachable offense." California Senator Barbara Boxer was on the same show, and called Dean "an expert on presidential abuse of power." Boxer has asked four presidential scholars for their opinions on whether Bush's actions are impeachable offenses.

The first American Revolution was against crazy King George, too

With all of the uproar over President Bush's admission that he broke the law by authorizing the NSA to spy on American citizens, it's a good thing to remember that the Declaration of Independence was a radical call for government that was subject to the law, just like its citizens. The founders objected to arbitrary acts and to laws passed without representation from the governed.

Today we have a supposedly-conservative President who believes that his office allows him to determine what's necessary, whether or not it's legal. Many conservative media outlets are claiming that FISA does allow the President’s acts, but Glenn Greenwald has pointed out that all of them are citing a dishonest mis-quote of the law.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez acknowledged that the NSA's eavesdropping is illegal under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), but claimed that FISA was outdated, saying that “we need to have the speed and agility and utilize all the tools available to this president in confronting this enemy,"

Condoleeza Rice also seems to believe that the fact that the President believes the law is obsolete is sufficient reason for the President to disobey it:

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act...which came out of 1978 at a time when the principal concern was, frankly, the activities of people on behalf of foreign governments...very different from the kind of urgency of detection and thereby protection of a country that is needed today. And so the president has drawn on additional authorities that he has under the Constitution and under other statutes. [emphasis added]

Gonzales claims that the Congressional Resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq and Afghanistan also authorized the President’s new surveillance powers. Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders denied that:

Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold (D) said..."Nobody, nobody, thought...that this was an authorization to allow a wiretapping against the law of the United States...The president has, I think, made up a law that we never passed."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he intends to hold hearings. "They talk about constitutional authority," Specter said. "There are limits as to what the president can do."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) said that If Bush is allowed to decide unilaterally who the potential terrorists are, he in essence becomes the court; he also said that “we cannot set aside the rule of law in a time of war."

Several Administration officials cited the need for a faster response to intelligence about threats, even though FISA's “emergency orders” section allows surveillance to begin immediately as long as one of the FISA judges is informed that surveillance is being initiated and an application for a warrant is submitted within 72 hours. And according to Talking Points Memo, 1,727 applications for warrants were made in 2003, of which 79 were modified before being approved, 4 were denied, and all of the rest were approved.

So Bush is claiming that he needs the power to define whether a law is relevant in order to fight terrorism, even though the existing law clearly is adequate. He also claims that the program was narrowly designed and used in a manner "consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution," and we are supposed to trust his good will and judgment. Yet in the meantime:

The Pentagon's newest counterterrorism agency...is carrying out intelligence collection, analysis and operations within the United States and abroad, including reports on peaceful civilian protests and demonstrations, and the Pentagon acknowledges that it has been violating regulations that require it to purge records from investigations that turn out to be irrelevant within three months.

Department of Homeland Security agents questioned a college student at his home after he requested a copy of Mao's Little Red Book to prepare a paper on fascism and totalitarianism.

Bush says that the Constitution is "just a goddamned piece of paper!”

James Madison said that "In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next instance oblige it to control itself."

Someone needs to tell this George that he's the President, not the King, and he should stop acting like George III, who presided over England's role in the American Revolution.

Update: The DHS agents visiting the student who sought Mao's Little Red Book story is a hoax

Reasons for optimism

While it's true that there's a long way to go, in the last few days we've seen the Senate defy White House desires by passing a ban on torture, reauthorization of parts of the Patriot Act fail, and now drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is at risk, in spite of it being included as part of  Defense bill. More indictments may be coming down the pike, and Bush's ability to declare reality seem s to be weakening.

"Now we're going to get snow penises popping up all over town"

At first I thought "Is this is just too silly and prurient even for you?" Easy answer: "Nah"

Police whack giant snow penis

Assuming the snow sculpture was more prank than nod to Christmas' pagan roots, the police knocked it down. Beat it down with shovels, actually.

Town Supervisor George Meyers acknowledged that there is no part of the town code that prohibits any snow sculpture content, lewd or otherwise.

"We probably weren't 100 percent correct in going on the property and knocking it down," [he] said. "But our intentions were pure. Some people were offended. There are school buses going by there all day."

"Now we're going to get snow penises popping up all over town"

Jessica Sherer, the builder of the giant snow penis, said that she hasn't rebuilt it yet only because the weather has made the snow too stiff, but says that she will as soon as "it gets a little warmer."

I'd like everyone to notice that I didn't bring up any of the obvious jokes that I could have just to get a rise out of you. The reporter did a pretty good job of erecting a facade of propriety, and I didn't want to lower the level of discourse on this blog. Please feel free to do so yourself in the comments, though.

Green Roofs and grey water

WaterWorks UK, a company that is selling water-related sustainability measures, is developing a rooftop system to turn grey water into green water. Grey water is the common term for water that has been used for non-sewage household tasks, such as that from the sink, shower or washing machine. 

WaterWorks has created a water garden for the roof that uses plants that filter impurities. They collect and pump grey water into the garden, and the result is what they call green water - clean enough for many uses short of drinking. They suggest using it for toilet flushing, gardening, washing the driveway, etc. It sounds like a household version of the Living Machine also seen at the bottom of this page. They hope to have a product ready for market by late next year.

Green roofs are roofs with plants installed, which provide huge environmental benefits.

Via we-make-money-not-art

Do you feel better?

Harper's Index for November 2005 (Harpers.org).

• Percentage change in the average monthly price of oil during the Carter Administration: +85
• Percentage change during the presidency of George W. Bush, before Hurricane Katrina hit this fall: +107
• Estimated number of pro-terrorism websites worldwide in 1998 and today, respectively: 12, 4,700
• Minimum number of infants impeded from boarding airplanes because their names were on the U.S. no-fly list: 14
• Number of consecutive years that the U.S. median income has failed to increase: 5
• Number of consecutive years that the percentage of Americans living in poverty has increased: 4

Kafka would be so proud!

From The Washington Monthly we learn that the Justice Department has acted on recent news reports that criticized them for overruling staff recommendations on voting rights cases. Yep. Staff recommendations are now banned from analyses of proposed voting restrictions.

Meanwhile the same Justice Department is defending itself in a lawsuit by claiming that a secret regulation requires airline passengers to show ID, but refuses to tell defense attorneys what the regulation is or what it says.

Oh yeah, and the President says we don't torture, but will veto Defense bills that restrict torture.

Pray for safety?

From we make money not art. Anyone have a better caption?

Bush: the Constitution is "just a goddamned piece of paper"

According to Capitol Hill Blue, a White House meeting last month with Republican Congressional leaders to discuss renewing the Patriot Act resulted in Bush's outburst.

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

Public advertising mostly ignored

Via we make money not art comes a Guardian story about their reporter's experience using glasses that track his eye movements to measure the impact of advertising in public spaces. The thing I like about this is that this kind of research could result in less public advertising (billboards, bus signs, in-store signs, etc.), as advertisers learn how much of the money spent is wasted. There is also plenty of similar research from many organizations, with similar finding.

"In 90 minutes, [the Guardian reporter] saw 250 adverts from more than 100 brands in 70 different formats. The number recalled without prompting was 1"

"Mark...will plunge into hell at Mach 666"

A fun meme via Joe at kansas city soil: Google "[your first name] needs" and write down the first lines from the first page of hits:

• Mark Needs A Chick LYRICS
• Mark needs Amanda Buttram
• Mark needs to change course, or he will plunge into hell at Mach 666
• Mark needs a Bra
• Mark needs to resist the temptation to move too quickly
• Mark needs meds, did not write a haiku
• Mark needs to be recognized by the relevant sector of the German public
• Mark needs to be added to your team
• Mark will tolerate poorly drained soils reasonably well

Belated Blog Against Racism Day

I blame racism for my poor math skills. From 6th through 9th grade I lived in Hawaii; at the time whites were a minority there, and my junior high school had a fairly small white population made up of children of military families from the nearby bases. My 8th grade math teacher openly ridiculed the "haole" students, and I was too intimidated to ask questions or mention for a month that I'd lost my self-paced workbook. The last day of the school year was "kill haole day," where some made a sport of beating up on the whites. I remember being chased away from a store with two white friends by the owner as he screamed racial epithets at us.

Kansas City Harmony does an exercise in one of its workshops where everyone in the group is lined up and instructed to take steps forward or back based on your family's history using non-race-based experiences and events (two steps forward if your parents went to college, etc.). In the group I was with the white males moved quickly to the front and the African American women to the back. It provided a terrific picture of the effects of living in a society where opportunity is not at all equal and the playing field is more of a mountain than it is level ground.

At the end of our school days we went back to our homes on the Air Force base, where integration was the rule (thanks Harry Truman!) and where we didn't have to experience or think about living with those daily doses of explicit hate for our entire lives.

I left Hawaii at age 14 and cannot recall ever again being subjected to openly racist comments or acts. In spite of my poor math ability I got a college degree and a "professional" job that paid enough that my inability to accurately manage my checkbook hasn't been a major problem.

Living in Hawaii didn't do anything to change my fortune as a white male; it gave me only a tiny taste of what explicit racism was like. We've done a little better in the last 40 or so years at lessening explicit expressions of racism, but we have a long way to go to change the overwhelming effects of our racist history.

I was going to skip this entry, but was inspired by Joe's much better telling of a story with a similar point at Kansas City Soil. Photo by Ernest C. Withers.