Orange Alert

Juan Cole brings us this story on our government protecting us from "terrorists".

It is a good thing that Bob Dylan has US citizenship, otherwise he might be in the same fix as Cat Stevens (a.k.a. Yusuf Islam). The mere singing of a 1963 song, "Masters of War," at a Colorado High School brought in the Secret Police.

Now we know why Usamah Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri haven't been caught. The US security services are busy sifting through old lyrics looking for the real terrorists.

The bad news for Dylan is

The (un-)"Patriot Act II" allows the government to strip people of their US citizenship.

A spot of poetry- or a Piece of Hope. Your choice.

Dreams
-- Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

H.L.Mencken on the future of Democracy

I was just emailed this quote from H.L.Mencken, he was a real Nostradamus.

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more
and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and
glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright
moron."
H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Do you feel used?

Well maybe you are. Worm lures users into online booby trap

A computer worm that turns desktop PCs into malicious web servers has begun infecting computers around the world, experts warn.

The Bofra worm, which comes in two variations known as Bofra-A and Bofra-B, spreads by exploiting a software bug discovered in Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser on 2 November.

This bug affects the way Explorer interprets web page tags � the underlying code that defines parts of a web page - and can be used to run unauthorised code on machines using the Windows operating system.

Microsoft has not yet released a software fix for the problem, although computers running its latest software package - Service Pack 2, which includes various security enhancements - should be immune. Computers with firewalls installed and switched on may also prevent the worms from spreading by blocking their communications.

Still another good reason to go downlaod Firefox

More On Fall and other rants

While Jazz was out raking leaves and eying that ancient red maple I have been cutting down dahlias. It was a good year for dahlias, beautiful flowers and foliage for several months some almost 6 feet tall. Now it's fall and we have had the first freeze. They are black not green and slimy not crisp. Some of the stocks are 2 inches in diameter. Tomorrow they come and pick up the yard debris so they had to be cleared today. At this time every year I say I'm going to have a yard that requires less maintenance next year. I usually forget by spring.


Now for a bit on Blogs. Jazz had a great post this morning, Beginner's Guide to Bashing. I read it carefully to see how much of the mindless bashing I was guilty of, not too much I think. One of the lefty blogs he mentioned was Daily Kos. Although I still list it on MEJ's links I must admit I rarely visit there anymore. The first lefty blog I go to is The Left Coaster. Although not free of bashing there is a lot less than you find other places and the posts are better thought out. Josh Marshall was wondering this morning that since we call Islamic Fundamentalist Clerics "Radical Islamic Clerics" why don't we call Fundamentalist Christian Clerics "Radical Christian Clerics". Good question, from now on it's Radical Christian Cleric Pat Robertson.

Britney's Guide to Semiconductor Physics

OK, I need to get a life. But if I had a life I never would have found Britney Spear's Guide to Semiconductor Physics.

It is a little known fact, that Ms Spears is an expert in semiconductor physics. Not content with just singing and acting, in the following pages, she will guide you in the fundamentals of the vital laser components that have made it possible to hear her super music in a digital format.

More on Mt. Rainier

Since it's in my neighborhood I'll do a follow up on Jazz's post this morning on Mt Rainier.

Mt. Rainier is the largest of the Cascade volcanic peaks and is over 14,000 feet tall. It is covered with large ice fields and glaciers. It is also very close to the largest population center in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle and Tacoma area. Although it is an active volcano fire is not the threat, it's the ice.

Mudflows are the most constant source of danger to the river valleys and lowlands around Mount Rainier. The largest recorded mudflow from Mount Rainier, the Osceola mudflow, occurred about 5700 years ago when the northeastern section of Mount Rainier's summit broke free and began to slide down the mountainside. The resulting avalanche of rock and ice was quickly converted by frictional heat into a mass of mud with a volume of about 4 cubic kilometers. The mud traveled over 100 kilometers down the the White River valley to the shore of Puget Sound, into what is now the middle of the cities of Seattle and Tacoma. The Osceola mudflow covered about 500 square kilometers of land with a layer of mud ranging in thickness from a few meters on the coastal plains to as much as 100 meters along old river beds. While this particular event seems safely remote in time, Mount Rainier is known to have produced more than fifty major mudflows in the past 10,000 years. On average, a major mudflow travels down the White River valley every 600 years. The next major mudflow could occur without warning at any time.

More information on all of the Cascade volcanoes can be found at the Cascades Volcano Observatory

Only God Knows!!!!!!!

Attorney General John Ashcroft has resigned. Ashcroft, a real rightwing Christian wingnut, spent more time prior to 911 trying to stop abortion, medical marijuana and Oregon's Dr assisted suicide than trying to protect the nation from terrorist attack. This will be a real litmus test to see how much hold the religious right has on the Bush administration. While Rudi Giuliani has been mentioned as a replacement I can't see Ralph Reed or Jerry Falwell tolerating that nomination.

Just another rant

Someone poked me hard about why I was depressed about Bush staying in the White House and suggested I start blaming all the little things wrong on the fact that he was there. "Lose your car keys? Blame it on Bush!" Well sure, that would be good if I wanted to trivialize my feelings.

What I know is that I spent 3 of the last 4 years unemployed and now that I finally have a job, I'm making half of what I used to make. Only a 1/3 of the folks I know directly managed to maintain the same job they had for the entire 4 years. Most were laid off due to "budget cuts" or their job was moved overseas. About half of my unemployed friends have managed to find new jobs, but they are now making less than they were before.

I'm quite happy to blame that on Bush.

Our educational system is getting worse compared internationally. I do not think "no child left behind" will work- because it effectively ends up lowering our education down to the lowest common denominator, not raising it, because the funding to improve is simply not there.

I'm quite happy to blame that on Bush.

I am working now as a medical transcriptionist. I've been doing it only a few months, but if I had a dollar for every time I typed a report where a patient told the doc they could not afford their prescribed medication, I could probably vacation some place really nice for a really long time.

I'm quite happy to blame that on Bush.

And this whole blood for oil money thing in Iraq where there were no weapons of mass destruction and never were, and now we are losing weapons that are falling into the arms of folks willing to kill Americans in Iraq and in other places, and Osama bin Ladin is still out there... It frankly scares the shit out of me, because we are sowing seeds of hatred against us in the middle east and giving our enemies more reasons to hate our guts and plan more terrorist attacks.

I'm quite happy to blame that on Bush.

As far as the gay marriage issue is concerned, I believe that marriage is a sacrament and should be determined by the religion of those involved, and it's none of the state's business. There has to be a separation of Church and State on this issue and civil unions are the responsibility of the State. All of the legal language should be changed from "marriage" to "civil union" and I don't care if people want to have "civil unions" with people of the same sex or more than one person. I think someone having 2 mommies or daddies is better than only one, because being a single parent is damn hard work- and any single moms or dads out there have my deep respect.

For the mixing and confusion of Church and State, I'm quite happy to blame that on Bush.

Wingnuts in charge

Josh Marshall brings us this example of the people who have the ear of George W. Bush, Dr. James Dobson on the George Stephanopoulos show on Sunday.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Dr. Dobson, you also have a problem with the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy. I want to show something that was reported in "The Daily Oklahoman" during the campaign. In the "Daily Oklahoman," it quoted you saying, "Patrick Leahy is a God's people hater. I don't know if he hates God, but he hates God's people." Now, Dr. Dobson, that doesn't sound like a particularly Christian thing to say. Do you think you owe Senator Leahy an apology?
DR JAMES DOBSON: George, you think you ought to lecture me on what a Christian is all about? You know, I think -I think I'll stand by the things I have said. Patrick Leahy has been in opposition to most of the things that I believe. He is the one that took the reference to God out of the oath.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But Dr. Dobson, excuse me for a second. You use the word hate. You said that he's a "God's people hater." How do you back that up?

DR JAMES DOBSON: Well, there's been an awful lot of hate expressed in this election. And most of it has been aimed at those who hold to conservative Christian views. He is certainly not the only one to take a position like that. But
I think that that is -that's where he's coming from. He has certainly
opposed most of the things that conservative Christians stand for.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apology?

DR JAMES DOBSON: No apology.

Now if this doesn't scare the hell out of you go check out his organization, Focus on Family.

Armageddon (aka WWIII)

Something significant happened today and although it's significant I'm not talking about the storming of Falluja. (here and here) I'm talking about this; Saudi religious scholars support holy war.

Prominent Saudi religious scholars urged Iraqis to support militants waging holy war against the U.S.-led coalition forces as American troops prepared Saturday for a major assault on the insurgent hotbed of Fallujah.
The 26 Saudi scholars and preachers said in an open letter to the Iraqi people that their appeal was prompted by "the extraordinary situation through which the Iraqis are passing which calls for unity and exchange of views." The letter was posted on the Internet.

"At no time in history has a whole people been violated ... by propaganda that's been proved false," Sheik Awad al-Qarni, one of the scholars, told Al-Arabiya TV.

It's officially a "Holy War".

....the scholars stressed that armed attacks by militant Iraqi groups on U.S. troops and their allies in Iraq represent "legitimate" resistance.

So who are a majority of the Iraqis going to listen to? You can bet it's not Dr. Allawi. It appears that Mr. Bush has gotten his us vs them Crusade and unleashed the demon of Jihad. Well, at least the "End of Time" folks must be happy.

Holding the uninformed in contempt

Jazz has an excellent post below on Bob Herbert's op-ed today and as Jazz points out:

Attempts to educate the Bush supporters failed, and they voted based on what they thought they knew. Nothing is going to change the past at this point, and pointing out such ignorance isn't going to do anything but anger the majority who are already mad as hornets. Bob's use of words like "cluelessness" and "brain on hold" won't produce any positive results.

This ties in with the post I had here a few days ago, Angry White People which looks at the attitudes of the people in the South.

They have come to the conclusion that they are going to be screwed regardless of which party is in power, and they prefer to be screwed by a group that doesn't appear to hold them in contempt.

We will not find supporters among people we hold in contempt. There is a current of anti intellectualism in the United States that is fed by this contempt. We see the results not only at the polls but in the school curriculums as creationism is taught next to or instead of evolution. Many of us need a serious attitude calibration or the forces of darkness will prevail. I admit that I need this calibration as much as anyone. I have a very low tolerance for uninformed ignorance. When Spiro Agnew referred to "effete snobs" in the early 70's I'm sure he was talking about me. I'll look around, maybe there is a 12 step program for "effete snobs".
Note: when I refer to the "South" it is in a figurative sense, there is a lot of the "South" in the North and on the Coasts.

More on Hillary

Over at the Left Coaster they are discussing Hillary(read the comments). Those of you who are regular Running Scared readers might be surprised how little support for Hillary there is among Democrats. Last week Juan Cole suggested the Democrats need a southern "Bubba" to win the White House. While I don't really agree with that I do see Hillary as the "anti-bubba" and she would be pure poison to any attempt by the Democrats to retake the White House. It will be Rove and his friends at FAUX news who will try to keep this alive in an attempt to damage Hillary's senate race in 2006. Sleep well my friends, there will be no Hillary running for president. The Democrats don't want her.

Update
Long post on the subject from Josh Marshall here.