Archive for the ‘government’ Category
why I can’t vote Obama
Firstly, I’m Canadian.
But if I could vote in the USA, I don’t think I could get past Gitmo — promise #1.
“I DON’T want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantánamo.” So said Barack Obama in January 2009, giving himself a year to do it.
Economist – How to close Guantánamo
… Despite promises to close Guantánamo and reverse the illegal policies of the Bush administration, President Obama has attempted to legitimize them. He has signed an executive order formalizing indefinite detentions at Guantánamo, resumed illegitimate military commissions, and refused to hold U.S. officials accountable for torture. …
Read Lakhdar Boumediene’s story and tell me YOU wouldn’t have freed him long ago, regardless of the political consequences.
I don’t care if the President didn’t have the power to close Gitmo. If you can’t deliver, don’t promise.
I’m reading Game Change, the story of what happened exactly 4yrs ago in the American election.
(via Kottke)
Airport Security Theatre
I’ve four times crossed the Pacific this Fall. Air travel is horrible in 2011.
Departing Philippines, here are the line-ups I suffered.
1. Car entering the Airport was stopped. (1min)
2. Line-up and luggage x-ray entering building (15min)
3. Check-in and collecting boarding pass (20min)
4. Immigration (10min)
5. Security check-in (15min) … removing shoes
6. Boarding pass checked before entering the gangway (4min)
At each step it was clear to me that no real security inspection was underway. It was all theatre. Laughable.
The best article I’ve read yet on Security Theatre has been getting wide circulation online.
Charles C. Mann:
… To walk through an airport with Bruce Schneier is to see how much change a trillion dollars can wreak. So much inconvenience for so little benefit at such a staggering cost. …
Terrorists will try to hit the United States again, Schneier says. One has to assume this. Terrorists can so easily switch from target to target and weapon to weapon that focusing on preventing any one type of attack is foolish. Even if the T.S.A. were somehow to make airports impregnable, this would simply divert terrorists to other, less heavily defended targets—shopping malls, movie theaters, churches, stadiums, museums. The terrorist’s goal isn’t to attack an airplane specifically; it’s to sow terror generally. “You spend billions of dollars on the airports and force the terrorists to spend an extra $30 on gas to drive to a hotel or casino and attack it,” Schneier says.
… “We’re spending billions upon billions of dollars doing this—and it is almost entirely pointless. Not only is it not done right, but even if it was done right it would be the wrong thing to do.”
read more – Smoke Screening
What can airlines do?
Distract me with circus acts like this one from Cebu Pacific in the Philippines. 
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
(via Kottke)
____ Airport Security
In Narita, Tokyo I was twice questioned by serious, skilled security officers. Both times outside the normal procedures. That was impressive — and scary.
In Vancouver, Canada I was selected for extra inspection, along with suspicious Russians and Iranians. That screening was very skilled and professional, too.
… Yet instances like that are rare, rare, rare.
(via Boing Boing)
fearmongering Iran
After almost 9yrs the USA has finally officially left Iraq. The Iraq that had nothing to do with 9/11. The Iraq that had no weapons of mass destruction.
George W. Bush was a blunderer as well as a decider. Iraq was his greatest blunder.
What’s next?
… The Republicans that started the War — Neo-cons like Dick Cheney, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — as well as the major Republican Presidential candidates — have all spoken out against the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. They have made clear that they would never have signed the Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government that set up a time-table for withdrawal, had they not intended to change it.
Obama’s Republican opponent, John McCain, has been particularly outspoken in his opposition. McCain, after all, once said that he had no objection to American troops remaining in Iraq for a hundred years. …
Republicans and FOX News will certain jump on the clear and present danger of Iran — filling the power vacuum.
Really?
The stars designate American military bases.
Iraq was a huge waste of time, resources and energy. History will confirm.
Will the USA ever be able to repay the $.8 to $3 trillion they spent on the war?
I doubt it.
President Newt? … give me a break
I’d rather see Donald Trump as President.
Occupy Capitalism
I’m naturally sympathetic to popular uprisings … the Tea Party and Occupy _______, for example.
Nothing ever improves unless people get passionate.
On the other hand, both those movements have been mostly irrational and incoherent. Especially Occupy.
Occupy what?
Here’s the first list of complaints I can understand:
• a failure to price public goods (clean air, water, etc.) effectively
• high levels of inequality
• “the provision and distribution of medical care”
• undervaluing of “the welfare of unborn generations”
• financial crises
Those are from Economist Kenneth Rogoff.
Rogoff, not surprisingly, feels that free market Capitalism is the best solution for each:
… I am often asked if the recent global financial crisis marks the beginning of the end of modern capitalism. It is a curious question, because it seems to presume that there is a viable replacement waiting in the wings. The truth of the matter is that, for now at least, the only serious alternatives to today’s dominant Anglo-American paradigm are other forms of capitalism. …
Government regulatory reform is needed, not any experiment with Communism.
Why are the USA, Iceland, Ireland, Greece and Italy — to name a few — so much worse off than their economic neighbours?
That’s the question.
(via Freakonomics)
Death to Pennies
Rick Perry is finished
He should resign from the campaign right after he fires the guy who recommended he post the most hated video in the history of YouTube.
Check the numbers … 9,576 likes, 403,251 dislikes (as I post).
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Pandering to his Christian, Family Values base, he underestimated the power of a viral meme gone wrong.
Amber Mac has a good write-up on the issue – Should Rick Perry’s YouTube ad be banned as hate speech?
… perhaps not “hate speech”. But he’s certainly got some of his ‘facts’ wrong.
I’m not happy with the job Obama’s done as President. But when the alternative is a nob like this cowboy, or — worse — the Newt — ’merica is in trouble.
carbon emissions rose 5.9% in 2010
Bad news for Mother Earth:
… Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record last year, upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession might persist through the recovery. …
Surprisingly, China is suddenly ready to commit to binding cuts.
… Speaking to reporters Monday, the country’s chief negotiator in Durban, Xie Zhenhua, said major economies including China should be legally obligated to curb greenhouse gas emissions after 2020.
“We accept a legally binding arrangement,” he said.
Mr. Xie, however, said China would agree to binding cuts only if the U.S. and other powerful nations take aggressive steps in the next decade to address climate change …
I heard the same thing in Hong Kong from a consultant to the Chinese government — they are serious.
Personally, I think, even with China on side, international treaties are not going to work. We’d be better to put the money into researching new technologies to remove Greenhouse Gases from the atmosphere (“sinks”).
In general, voluntary efforts to reduce Carbon Footprint are a good thing. Let’s encourage those efforts, too.
(via Freakonomics – Worldwide Carbon Emissions No Longer Dropping — Is Anyone Surprised?)
Rex Murphy Defending Canada’s Oil Sands
Canada’s Oil Sands could be better regulated, certainly, but using them to symbolize evil is disingenuous at best.
I agree with the outspoken Rex.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
What percentage of delegates in Durban would I call hypocrites? … More than half, I reckon.
(via CBC)
Lesbians Raised A Baby And This Is What They Got
Last February, a 19-year-old, self-described sixth-generation Iowan stood before an Iowa legislative panel to argue against a state constitutional amendment. The teenager, Zach Wahls, stood up at the podium and gave a three-minute speech about his life in a two-mothers home. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
After the video was posted to YouTube, Wahls became an Internet celebrity, praised for his eloquent and impassioned speech. …
… the Iowa senate was considering an amendment that would ban same-sex marriages in one of the six states in the United States that legally recognizes it. …
The publicity also helped kill the proposed amendment. …
