unFocus

I’m sure that the responsible, reasonable people of the progressive movement, would rather not talk about politics, and media games, and so on during the crisis in New Orleans when there is so much real work to be done on the ground, but the right is hard at work, spinning the reasons for the lack of a response in that city, and writing the rhetoric that will frame this conversation for the next two years. The left, liberals, the progressive movement - whatever we call ourselves at the moment, need to get out in front of this, before it takes hold, and real questions of competence and accountability are quelled, before even being asked.

You can already see their chosen talking points about the crisis in New Orleans and the right’s response all over Fox News and other shock news outlets. First, they already have an enemy to focus attention on - the “looters,” drug addicts and burning helicopters. And as far as they are concerned they are the responsible for the mess in it’s entirety. Next we have the beginnings of the reasoning for why nothing was done sooner - that some laws prevented a quicker response - and have even had the nerve to suggest that everything that could have been done has been done up till now - even while Bush was on vacation for two days after the beginning of all of this.

All the while, they ignore the facts - that the people in charge (save Mayor Ray Nagin, who was out pulling old ladies from their attics) from the governor of LA to the president of the United State, George Bush, chose early on to focus their attention on the “looters,” who at the time were a minor part of the problem. They chose to redirect the public’s police to secure private economic properties from the “looters,” away from their responsibility to help and protect the sick and dying in the streets and in the homes of New Orleans. In the two days that George Bush chose to lounge in his easy chair at his ranch in Texas, and the next three days of committees and press conferences, and the continued lack of activity, the situation deteriorated to point where the violence and desperation are now the biggest threat to the people still trapped inside the city, and the Super Dome.

They are actively setting the stage for another close encounter with accountability. Please do not let them wiggle out of their negligence for the umpteenth time, through the use of information manipulation, and rhetoric.

Share This

It’s coming, so be prepared.

When asked questions about why they chose to make the looting a priority, in the hurricane zone, over providing help for the refugees in the form of food, water, shelter and security, the Bush administration will come up with some Carl Rovian slogan that will explain it all away, and then repeat it 95 times every time they talk to anyone.

Be prepared. Don’t take the bait. When they use these techniques - call them on it. It is perfectly appropriate - and necessary - to point it out when they are deliberately and obviously trying to mislead us with rhetoric and propaganda.

Update: It looks like I had it wrong. They decided to go with the find an enemy and get everyone to focus on them route. That enemy - the “looters.” It was such a priority for them that they decided to take personal away from helping the sick and dying, and had them stop the looting instead. Where do their priorities lie anyway.

Share This

I just heard that some proponents of so-called “intelligent design” believe that there are some things in nature that cannot be explained through natural selection or evolution.

So I am issuing a challenge to anyone who believes in the faith based idea encapsulated in “intelligent design” and anyone who simply wants to have a little fun, to come up with a single example of some situation in nature that cannot be explained by natural selection or evolution, and I will come up with a possible (though not researched) explanation.

Share This

“High gasoline prices also could be playing some role for people weighing lower airfares against the costs of driving.”, he said. This quote was in an article in the Albany Times Union. When I read it, a light above my conspiracy theory filled head came on. Before I get to that, though, let me give you some completely unnecessary background information on my life. While I cannot promise I will not get sidetracked, I do have a point and I can link it to this personal anecdote… maybe.

August 2001: I flew back to Florida, from New York. Visions of world travel in my head, I debated taking some time off from college, and becoming a flight attendant. Perks of the job include: great pay, free travel, and no school for a while. Flying back and forth between Florida and New York every time I got a little home sick was getting very expensive, and having no idea what to do with myself career wise, school was seeming more and more like a waste of time and money. What could be better? This was the perfect job for me. I had convinced everyone I knew that it was for the best.

September 2001: I was getting settled back into my apartment and searching the papers for training programs when three planes were hijacked and crashed in the Northeast.

You know to what I refer. After September 11, airlines suffered major losses, people were afraid to travel and invest in the market. Without travelers, especially international tourists, the airlines were going broke. Poor, poor mega million corporations, don’t you just feel for them?

After a couple of months people began to fly more and more, and airlines were back up to pre-9/11 business. Did they make up for the months when business was bad? Probably not.

This makes perfect sense. With rising gas prices, it is true, you must way your gas costs against ticket prices and ease of flying. It is no longer economically logical to make that 10 hour drive to go on vacation. I myself, make long trips in the car often, but do consider the option more now that a tank of gas hits my wallet for almost twenty-five dollars (I have a four cylinder, not a gas guzzling SUV, so this is a lot). Wow what a way to boost the business!

Ok Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts fans, get on board with me here. What do you do when business is bad? Whatever it takes to compete in the market, right? Well, what if you could influence that competition? Doesn’t our government do that everyday by regulating the market and prices. For all you eye rollers right about now, think about it. Why are we paying more for gas? Is there a shortage? For some reason that seems to be the general consensus; but check into the profit margins of the oil companies. While we are paying record high prices, aren’t they making record high profits?

So I ask again, why are we paying more? Well, usually the best way to find out why, as I learned from the movie JFK, (Does anyone else think I watch too much TV?), is to find out who benefits. Albany airport is seeing an influx of fliers, so many in fact that they are having trouble finding parking for them. Seems to me that the air travel business, is back in business. Do the math, I don’t want to. I took calculus in high school and have never looked back.

Maybe I am on to something, or maybe I am upset that my plans were foiled by 9-11. I have a college degree, a nice apartment downtown and a job that pays my bills, but have yet to go out of the country, you decide.

I wrote this in response to a April newspaper article, during Spring Break travel rush. Anyone know how air travel has been lately, with gas rising to almost $3 a gallon? Anyone have any other suggestions as to why we are paying so much, because I just don’t get it?

Share This

This is the accepted ambiguous definition for this ambiguous (but frequently used) term. In every violent conflict, one side could be labeled the freedom fighter and the other the terrorist. I say ambiguous because when is force (or threat of it) legitimate and right? When you agree with the person/group doing it?

I do not agree with the policies of the U.S. in Iraq, who is the terrorist now?

Share This

I know you have never really cared about it, even though the media keeps telling you that you should (they are actually right for once). Up until this point no one has actually stated how Globalization is going to affect anything substantial. All I knew about globalization, from what I heard on the news is that political figures throw it around to support whatever economic plan they are backing on any given day. Fortunately for all of us, it has more meaning than that (few big “political” words do), it is actually quite positive for those of us who would like to see America’s children educated.

During the industrial revolution it was not necessary to have an educated citizenry. Not only was it not necessary, doing so could possibly have halted the praised progress we now cheer and take for granted. We read in our textbooks and hear from our U.S. history teachers what an awful time it was for the workers in factories, how they were abused and put in danger and severely underpaid. This is all true.

Enter unions. They helped the “little people” and protected them from the disconnected profit-seeking corporations. Woo hoo! Years later these now mega-corporations are finding that with an expanding market it is cheaper to find work elsewhere.

So what happened? Did we ask for too much? Are we spoiled Americans that should go back to being mistreated and abused for too little pay, and working in dark factories that had no qualms about taking our limbs, fingers, and even lives?

No, of course not. (Not that some modern jobs do not suck the life right out of you. Did you ever sit in a cubicle? I have.) Reverting to an unacceptable state is not an option. Let us look at this in another more ‘forward-thinking’ manner. There is another one of those dreadful political/business phrases thrown around by people who do not know what else to say. Well, ha! I am single handedly taking the English language back and restoring its meaning. No applause necessary, but please feel free to send gifts.

I am sure you are wondering what I am getting at by this point, so here it is. It is actually in the government’s best interest to start educating its citizens! Morally, maybe this was always the case, but never before was it appealing to pockets. With the forming of a global market many entry level jobs are being shipped over seas because cheaper labor can be found, and why not exploit the poor people of third world countries? The fact that some people do not have schools, running water, or hospitals, does not pull at the humanitarian heart strings of a corporation. It sees no union, no insurance requirements (none that would actually cost them anything anyway), and starving people that will gratefully work for anything they can get. This is not the case in all situations, and I exaggerate slightly to make my point (how am I doing?).

Issues such as the state of the nations referred too, instill within me a twinge of guilt from not joining the Peace Corpse when the idea came to me, and cause me to digress into rant on occasion, but more recently have inspired great hope. As big business pulls out of United States, so do the jobs that let the decision makers disregard education. It is now coming to light that factory and other (even telemarketing positions have been relocated to India) well paying skilled labor positions are no longer the backbone of our society. Where will they stick us? There aren’t any factories to cram us into anymore. This is great!

In order to keep our economy going, we (our government) may want to (must) start improving grammar up through High School education for the general population, and begin to seriously encourage post-secondary education as well. It is no longer in the best interest of those in power to keep us ignorant. Who would have thought! Up to this point I have not been able to buy education reform or globalization as posing any real benefit, but I am an avid optimist, and I think that there is a chance that our government may finally see fit to educate the country. In several years, people may actually be able to read this piece and see that I was right.

Share This

How does the U.S. have any credibility in foreign relations after what we did, excuse me, are doing in Iraq, especially where the United Nations is concerned?

Is the U.N. only a good thing when it is in your best interest? Of course. This makes perfect sense. The rules if a baseball game include one that says three strikes and you are out. When you get up to bat and that last swing was number three on your strike list, you too will want to disregard the rules and what another try.

Can you see the similarities between U.S. foreign affairs and baseball? Let me show you. The U.S. is at bat. We want to go into Iraq, the United Nations says, alright, explain why. Answer: Hussein is linked to Al Qaeda. Swing one. No? How about: Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Swing two. No really it is true, let us have inspectors to show you. We promise we know where they are. Swing three, all misses.

Picture a child, around eight or nine years old. Now picture the Bush Administration saying, “Wait, wait, I want a redo!” That is our wonderful country in this scenario. I never would have thought I would be making that kind of comparison, but hey when the mitt fits. The U.N. however likes to play by the rules, and says no. We go into Iraq anyway. No weapons of mass destruction have been produced, by the way. Four strikes. This is going to be a long inning.

So the U.S. has a policy of treating foreign policy as a game. Faith level in my government– plummeting. Interest in baseball–on the rise, I no longer put it on when I am trying to go to sleep.

Not only are we making a game out of international affairs, but WAR as well. Now I am just as big a Risk and Axis and Allies fan as the next geek, but if it came to real people, my strategy might change. Not Bush number two though. We are crying when, after blatantly cheating (ignoring U.N. warnings not to invade Iraq), others are not playing fair. Scott McClellan was quoted as saying, “Syria has not fully complied with the Security Council resolution and the demands of the international community.” Syria is refusing to withdraw forces from Lebanon. Mr. McClellan continues, “Syria needs to comply fully with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, and that means getting all their intelligence operatives out of Lebanon.” Does anyone remember when the U.S. was not obeying U.N. resolutions? Syria is up at bat, and after several redoes and excuses on the U.S.’s part, McClellan is stomping his foot at Lebanon’s rule breaking?

Had we not completely removed ourselves from intelligent and rational international discussion in March of 2003, I would think of Mr. McClellan as standing up for poor Lebanon. Unfortunately the U.S. chooses its policies unilaterally, only backing those who can benefit it. Where was this crazy idea of playing fair when the U.S. was up to bat? Irritated, this is the point when all the other kids refuse to play with you ever again and walk away.

Didn’t your Mom ever tell you “Practice what you preach? It is so funny how those types of saying are annoying as a youngster, and yet so applicable as an adult. If we could only understand when we are children, many problems could be avoided. So the lessons today folks are play fair and listen to your mother.

Share This

This business of calling every scandal under the sun “something-gate” is a practice that ought to stop. It does nothing to help educate people about the issue, and does much to trivialize whatever issue it is trying to convey.

Watergate was the name of an important part of the case that lead to the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Take “Memogate” - in this case, I think it would be more important to remember the details of what this case is really about, rather than some slogan that refers to another time in history when a president of the US was being impeached for completely unrelated - and I’d say less serious - charges. There is no reason why we shouldn’t expect people to learn and remember the details and importance of “Downing Street Minutes” scandal.

BTW, you can find more information about the Downing Street Minutes scandal here.

Here’s an interesting summary of the original Memogate.

Share This

A friend sent me this link - it’s quite scary.

I could respond all night, but here’s a general impression of kinds of crap that these people actually go around saying:

Beverly LaHaye (Concerned Women for America) - “Yes, religion and politics do mix. America is a nation based on biblical principles. Christian values dominate our government. The test of those values is the Bible. Politicians who do not use the bible to guide their public and private lives do not belong in office.”

and from the US Constitution, Article VI- Clause 3:

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

I guess Beverly LaHaye didn’t read the US Constitution before she spoke that complete nonsense.

I stopped reading this crap less than half way down the site - I was getting nausious, so on second thought save yourself some aggrivation, and just skip reading this complete garbage.

Share This

I got permalinks working on IIS - I consider this a small accomplishment, because I was unable to find an easy way to do it on the support boards :-).

It’s actually just a simple 404 hack. I created a file called wp-404-handler.php and then set IIS to use that as the 404 handler. File contents:


< ?php
$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] = substr($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'], strpos($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'], ':80')+3);
$_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
include('index.php');
?>


That’s it! It’s not very robust, but it gets the job done. It even works with Scott Yang’s Permalink Redirect plugin.

Share This