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Outsource Your Parenting Duties. Finally - some outsourcing that we can get behind:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/63407?utm_source=embedded_video
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[This could be important -- if you think the Internet is a good thing...]
FTC Abandons Net Neutrality
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/07/06/ftc-abandons-net-neutrality/
You still have 9 days to Save The Internet:
http://www.savetheinternet.com/=act
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Who's the Next World Superpower?
http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=1805
All great empires crumble, like Greece, Rome or the Baldwin acting dynasty. This fact-checked historical fact isn't lost on America, a modern empire that enjoys unprecedented global economic and military superiority... for now.
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Apparently, the US isn't the only country gutting the rigor from its educational curriculum in favor of feel-good, empty discussions that ultimately confuse our kids and leave them unprepared to compete in the real world.
http://www.wellingtongrey.net/articles/archive/2007-06-07--open-letter-aqa.html
Money quote:
"Debate drives science, but pupils do not learn meaningful information about the topics they debate. Scientific argument is based on quantifiable evidence. The person with the better evidence, not the better rhetoric or talking points, wins."
[This sounds a lot like the UCLA Intro to Physics class (for non-science majors) that, as a Physics major, I was hired to tutor. The problem I quickly encountered was that while the students who came to me had legitimate questions I wasn't able to use ANY equations to clearly demonstrate the relationships among the variables and resolve their uncertaintly. We could only TALK about the relationships but communication was hampered by the vagueness of words. Eventually, we’d break through the cloud of ambiguity and they’d typically say something akin to, “that’s so easy; why didn’t the teacher just say so?” The more I thought about it, I realized that they weren’t actually *doing* any physics; they were just discussing it conversationally. This is like trying to learn how to play basketball by reading books – when you step on the court you’re in for a rude awakening. The class also discussed much about who discovered what theory and when – much like a history class. They should have renamed the class The History of Physics and had the history dept. teach it. Of course, this wouldn’t have met the requirement for them to take one class in physical sciences. Imagine that, they only have to take *one* class and it’s watered-down to the point that they don’t actually *do* any physics! Hey, if we want to water down our classes, let's teach all foreign language classes in English -- that would be easier. We could also save time (and effort) in literature classes if we dump the books and instead use just the Cliff Notes.]
"New Physics" Exam -- don't worry, there are no equations:
http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/2007-06-10--the-new-physics.html
See if you can spot the real question from the fake ones.
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Where did we get the poisonous habit of blaming the victims of crime?
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/johann_hari/article2686791.ece
Case in point - Why be angrier with a man who wrote a novel than with people who tried to hack him to pieces for it?
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POLITICS
The Pentagon's new map for war and peace
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/33
[Interesting, educational AND funny -- a rarity.]
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Tell Congress to Pass the United States National Health Insurance Act
http://www.usalone.com/hr676.php
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America’s Approval Rating Takes a Hit
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070703_americas_approval_rating_takes_a_hit/
It’s America’s current expression of its own values that has tarnished them. You cannot say you want transparent and fair elections, then allow your own to be tainted with partisan manipulation of how balloting is conducted and votes are counted. You cannot say you respect the rule of law, and then create a lawless system of detainment for those you choose to hold. You cannot say you oppose torture, but inflict it upon those in your custody.
"There is a question as to whether we are living up to our own values," says former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who spoke at the presentation of the Pew report.
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In case you didn't know ... Tony Show, the White House lip mover guy, is a liar.
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/06/liar_liar_2.html
[thanks Daily Show]
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A good Bill Moyers Essay on the justifications and consequences of a presidential pardon of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06152007/profile.html
Money Quote:
"Scooter" Libby was Vice President Cheney's most trusted adviser - as you know, he's been sentenced to 30 months in jail for lying. Perjury. Not a white lie, mind you. A killer lie. Scooter Libby deliberately poured poison into the drinking water of democracy by lying to federal investigators....for the purpose of obstructing justice. Attempting to trash critics of the war, Libby and his pals in high places - including his boss Dick Cheney - outed a covert CIA agent. Libby then lied to cover their tracks. He kicked sand in the eyes of truth, to throw investigators off the trail. Said the Chief Prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald: "Libby lied about nearly everything that mattered." The jury agreed and found him guilty on four felony counts. The judge - Reggie B. Walton - a no-nonsense lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key type appointed to the bench by none other than George W. Bush - called the evidence 'overwhelming' and threw the book at Libby.
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[of course, it's hard to beat Olbermann]
Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment: You ceased to be the President of the United States
[The video is better but seeing how important this is, it's worth reproducing the text as well]
Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on what is, in everything but name, George Bush’s pardon of Scooter Libby.
“I didn’t vote for him,” an American once said, “But he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”
That — on this eve of the 4th of July — is the essence of this democracy, in seventeen words.
And that is what President Bush threw away yesterday in commuting the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
The man who said those seventeen words — improbably enough — was the actor John Wayne.
And Wayne, an ultra-conservative, said them, when he learned of the hair’s-breadth election of John F. Kennedy instead of his personal favorite, Richard Nixon in 1960
“I didn’t vote for him but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”
The sentiment was doubtlessly expressed earlier. But there is something especially appropriate about hearing it, now, in Wayne’s voice.
The crisp matter-of-fact acknowledgement that we have survived, even though for nearly two centuries now, our Commander-in-Chief has also served, simultaneously, as the head of one political party and often the scourge of all others.
We as citizens must, at some point, ignore a president’s partisanship. Not that we may “prosper” as a nation, not that we may “achieve”, not that we may “lead the world” — but merely that we may “function.”
But just as essential to the seventeen words of John Wayne is an implicit trust — a sacred trust:That the president for whom so many did not vote, can in turn suspend his political self long enough, and for matters imperative enough, to conduct himself solely for the benefit of the entire Republic.
Our generation’s willingness to state “we didn’t vote for him, but he’s our president, and we hope he does a good job,” was tested in the crucible of history, and far earlier than most. And in circumstances more tragic and threatening.
And we did that with which history tasked us.
We enveloped “our” President in 2001.
And those who did not believe he should have been elected — indeed, those who did not believe he had been elected — willingly lowered their voices and assented to the sacred oath of non-partisanship.
And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and sharpened it to a razor-sharp point, and stabbed this nation in the back with it.
Were there any remaining lingering doubt otherwise, or any remaining lingering hope, it ended yesterday when Mr. Bush commuted the prison sentence of one of his own staffers.
Did so even before the appeals process was complete…
Did so without as much as a courtesy consultation with the Department of Justice…
Did so despite what James Madison –at the Constitutional Convention — said about impeaching any president who pardoned or sheltered those who had committed crimes “advised by” that president…
Did so without the slightest concern that even the most detached of citizens must look at the chain of events and wonder:
To what degree was Mr. Libby told: break the law however you wish — the President will keep you out of prison?
In that moment, Mr. Bush, you broke that fundamental compact between yourself and the majority of this nation’s citizens — the ones who did not cast votes for you.
In that moment, Mr. Bush, you ceased to be the President of the United States.
In that moment, Mr. Bush, you became merely the President… of a rabid and irresponsible corner of the Republican Party.
And this is too important a time, sir, to have a Commander-in-Chief who puts party over nation.
This has been, of course, the gathering legacy of this Administration. Few of its decisions have escaped the stain of politics.
The extraordinary Karl Rove has spoken of “a permanent Republican majority,” as if such a thing — or a permanent Democratic majority — is not antithetical to that upon which rests: our country, our history, our revolution, our freedoms.
Yet our democracy has survived shrewder men than Karl Rove.
And it has survived the frequent stain of politics upon the fabric of government.
But this administration, with ever-increasing insistence and almost theocratic zealotry, has turned that stain… into a massive oil spill.
The protection of the environment is turned over to those of one political party, who will financially benefit from the rape of the environment.
The protections of the Constitution are turned over to those of one political party, who believe those protections unnecessary and extravagant and “quaint.”
The enforcement of the laws is turned over to those of one political party, who will swear beforehand that they will not enforce those laws.
The choice between war and peace is turned over to those of one political party, who stand to gain vast wealth by ensuring that there is never peace, but only war.
And now, when just one cooked book gets corrected by an honest auditor…
When just one trampling of the inherent and inviolable “fairness” of government is rejected by an impartial judge…
When just one wild-eyed partisan is stopped by the figure of blind justice…
This President decides that he, and not the law, must prevail.
I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war.
I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.
I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.
I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors.
I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but instead to stifle dissent.
I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought.
I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents.
I accuse you of handing part of this republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it.
And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that Vice President, carte blanche to Mr. Libby, to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to Grand Juries and Special Counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation, with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison, and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of you becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.
When President Nixon ordered the firing of the Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” on October 20th, 1973, Mr. Cox initially responded tersely, and ominously:
“Whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men, is now for Congress, and ultimately, the American people.”
President Nixon did not understand how he had crystallized the issue of Watergate for the American people.
It had been about the obscure meaning behind an attempt to break in to a rival party’s headquarters; and the labyrinthine effort to cover-up that break-in and the related crimes.
But in one night, Nixon transformed it.
Watergate — instantaneously — became a simpler issue: a President overruling the inexorable march of the law. Of insisting — in a way that resonated viscerally with millions who had not previously understood — that he was the law.
Not the Constitution.
Not the Congress.
Not the Courts.
Just him.
Just - Mr. Bush - as you did, yesterday.
The twists and turns of Plame-Gate, your precise and intricate lies that sent us into this bottomless pit of Iraq; your lies upon the lies to discredit Joe Wilson; your lies upon the lies upon the lies to throw the sand at the “referee” of Prosecutor Fitzgerald’s analogy… these are complex and often painful to follow, and too much, perhaps, for the average citizen.
But when other citizens render a verdict against your man, Mr. Bush — and then you spit in the faces of those jurors and that judge and the judges who were yet to hear the appeal — the average citizen understands that, sir.
It’s the fixed ballgame and the rigged casino and the pre-arranged lottery all rolled into one — and it stinks. And they know it.
Nixon’s mistake, the last and most fatal of them, the firing of Archibald Cox, was enough to cost him the presidency.
And in the end, even Richard Nixon could say he could not put this nation through an impeachment.
It was far too late for it to matter then, but as the decades unfold, that single final gesture of non-partisanship, of acknowledged responsibility not to self, not to party, not to “base,” but to country, echoes loudly into history.
Even Richard Nixon knew it was time to resign
Would that you could say that, Mr. Bush.
And that you could say it for Mr. Cheney.
You both crossed the Rubicon yesterday.
Which one of you chose the route, no longer matters.
Which is the ventriloquist, and which the dummy, is irrelevant.
But that you have twisted the machinery of government into nothing more than a tawdry machine of politics, is the only fact that remains relevant.
It is nearly July 4th, Mr. Bush, the commemoration of the moment we Americans decided that rather than live under a King who made up the laws, or erased them, or ignored them — or commuted the sentences of those rightly convicted under them — we would force our independence, and regain our sacred freedoms.
We of this time — and our leaders in Congress, of both parties — must now live up to those standards which echo through our history:
Pressure, negotiate, impeach — get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our Democracy, away from its helm.
And for you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task.
You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed.
Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974.
Resign.
And give us someone — anyone – about whom all of us might yet be able to quote John Wayne, and say, “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”
Good night, and good luck.
