Exonerated Prisoners

Here is an important story from PBS' Religion & Ethics Weekly about innocent victims of the judicial system. Transcript and video here:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1048/cover.html

In addition to what you'll hear in the story, here are some other important insights:

(1) Because "getting tough on crime" gets votes, politicians in the US have over-criminalized behavior, especially for people who had no criminal intent. And because of mandatory sentencing laws, the lack of criminal intent isn't allowed as a factor in sentencing. This is well documented in the book Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything by Gene Healy.

(2) The U.S.(population 300 million) has more people in prison than any other country in the world, including China (pop. 1.3 Billion) and Russia. So, do we really believe that there are more real criminals in the US than a country with 4x the population? Here are the top 20:

1	United States of America	2,193,798
2	China	1,548,498
3	Russian Federation	885,666
4	Brazil	401,236
5	India	332,112
6	Mexico	213,926
7	Thailand	161,844
8	South Africa	161,674
9	Ukraine	160,046
10	Iran	150,321
11	Indonesia	116,688
12	Poland	90,714
13	Philippines	89,639
14	Pakistan	89,370
15	Vietnam	88,414
16	Rwanda	c.82,000
17	United Kingdom: England & Wales	80,803
18	Japan	79,052
19	Bangladesh	79,000
20	Germany	76,629

(source: World Prison Brief of the International Centre for Prison Studies)

Claire McCaskill Considered a 'Truman in a Skirt'

This was an interesting article about Claire McCaskill (D-MO):

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/18526.html

Worthy news

So, here are just a few things that are going on today in the world:

• Congress is voting on a pay raise for itself
  
• Bush is in a summit in the UK
  
• The FBI has raided Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) home
  
• The House is moving towards filing contempt proceedings against Miers, and calling for a Special Prosecutor to investigate Gonzales' perjury
  
• Condi Rice has announced that Iran is the U.S.'s greatest challenge in the MidEast
  
• There are new allegations of abuse of building workers in Iraq
  

Which of these worthy news stories will Fox News focus on???

OJ SIMPSON OF COURSE!

Opus

This is all sorts of awesome!!


"...Thank goodness befuddlement is so groovy these days."
http://comics.com/wash/opus/archive/opus-20070729.html

The Remember Song

The Remember Song performed by Tom Rush

Dean sent me this song, perhaps as a not so subtle reminder of how bad my memory is. Everything this guy sings, is true for me. I'm sure that I'll develop Alzheimer's by the time I'm 50. I blame the anesthetic from all the surgery I've had.

Sometimes it's really bad. Every morning Dean and I play a game: "Where did Uman put his wallet last night?" If I'm lucky I left it in the car. Or in Dean's car. Or in my pants. Or at the dentist's office.

One reason I restarted this blog was in response to an exercise from my Souljourner's residency about one's personal story, and my own frustration at how little I remember.

But having a bad memory is not all bad! For example, I almost never gossip, because I can't remember anything anybody tells me to gossip about. And I can cheerfully watch the same movie over and over again, because I almost never remember what happens.

Well, enjoy the song.

P.S. Has anybody seen my cell phone? I've been looking for it for weeks. Seriously.

P.P.S. I found the lyrics:

Looking for my wallet and my car keys,
Well they can't have gone too far;
And just as soon as I find my glasses
I'm sure I'll see just where they are.

Supposed to meet someone for lunch today,
But I can't remember where
Or who it is that I am meeting:
It's in my organiser ~ somewhere.

I might have left it on the counter;
Maybe outside in the car.
Last time I remember driving
Was to that Memory Enhancement Seminar.

What's that far-off distant ringing
and that strangely familiar tone?
Must be the person I am meeting
Calling me on my brand new cordless 'phone.

I might have left it under the covers,
Or maybe outside on the lawn;
And I've got just one more ring to go
Before my answering machine kicks on.

*Click*

"Hi, this is Tom and your call means a lot to me,
So leave a message at the tone
And I'll do my best to try to remember
To call you back when I get home."

*Beep*

"Tom, this is Gwendoline, and I am trying not to cry
But I've been waiting here for over an hour ~
I thought you loved me. This is goodbye!"

Hell, the voice sounds familiar,
And the name it rings a bell.
Let's see now, where was I?
Oh well...

Oblates of St. Benedict

Back in April I became an oblate of St. Benedict affiliated with Mount St. Scholastica monastery. The sisters just put up a picture from the oblate ceremony on their website.



Pictured above are the 2007 oblates and the oblate directors.
Front (l. to r.): Karel Ramsey, Dennie Oades-Souther, Terri Horanic, Ulysses Castillo (that's me :o) ), Michelle Hill
Back (l. to r.): Sisters Evelyn Gregory, Therese Elias, Prioress Anne Shepard, Sharon Murray, Judith Sutera, and Mary Elizabeth Schweiger

Sr. Therese is my oblate director from KC. Sr. Judy is my oblate director for the Topeka group (I go to both). Karel, Dennie, and I are all Methodist. Terri is Episcopal (I think), and Michelle is Catholic.

Sen. Roberts Supports Healthcare for Children

I never thought I'd get to say something good about Sen. Roberts. This is from Sojo, the newsletter of Sojourner's.

The Right Thing to Do

Imagine a popular program that has existed for 10 years with bipartisan support, providing health insurance to about 6 million low-income children. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is up for reauthorization this year, and Congress is debating how to extend the hope of coverage to 9 million children who are currently uninsured, while protecting coverage for the 6.6 million children who depend on SCHIP to see a doctor. But SCHIP is caught in the middle of a political battle—between a bipartisan majority in Congress and the nation’s governors on one hand, and an isolated, defiant, ideological president on the other.

A Senate bill was approved by the Senate Finance Committee last week by a 17-4 vote, with six Republicans and all 11 Democrats supporting an increase of $35 billion dollars over five years. Several leading conservatives were strong supporters. The New York Times reported Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) as saying, "I am proud to support this important bill, which will provide health insurance coverage to approximately four million more children who would otherwise be uninsured." According to the Los Angeles Times, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), one of the original authors of the program, said: "It doesn't make me comfortable to advocate for such a large increase in spending. But it's important to note that [the program] has been tremendously successful. And one of the lessons we've learned is that it's going to cost more to cover additional kids." The bill is scheduled to be on the Senate floor next week.

For its part, the House is proposing legislation that would provide an increase of $50 billion, which would cover about 5 million more children. Both versions would be at least partially funded by an increase in the federal tax on tobacco products.

Last weekend at their annual summer meeting, the National Governors Association sent a letter to the president and Congress. While not specifically supporting either bill, the governors said: "While we have not taken a position on the actual overall funding amount or the sources of revenue used as offsets, we are encouraged by the Senate Finance Committee's efforts to move a bipartisan reauthorization bill that provides increased funding."

And President Bush? He says he’ll veto either version. "It's a way to encourage people to transfer from the private sector to government health-care plans. ... I think it's wrong, and I think it's a mistake." A White House spokesman added that the president’s advisers "will certainly recommend a veto" of the Senate committee's proposal because of its size and the plan to fund it with a tax increase. The administration's plan for an additional $5 billion wouldn’t even cover all the children currently insured.

Remember, this is a president who is content with spending $12 billion a month on war, yet finds spending $7-10 billion a year on making sure that kids have health insurance "wrong" and "a mistake." I can’t imagine a more clear case of utterly distorted priorities. Compassionate conservatism has been on life support for the last several years of this administration. President Bush's threatened veto of SCHIP will officially pronounce it dead.

We have been working with the PICO National Network, one of the leading groups organizing for SCHIP, to remind policymakers that children’s health coverage is a moral issue for the faith community. Father John Baumann, executive director of PICO, had this reaction to the president’s threat: "(SCHIP) is a highly successful program that has always had bipartisan support as a pragmatic way to help states reach children who are not poor enough for Medicaid but whose parents cannot obtain coverage for their children at work. SCHIP is a popular and successful program that should not be dragged down into a partisan political fight over health-care ideology."

I agree. For far too long, Americans in poverty have been trapped in a partisan debate. Now, a strongly bipartisan program that works is trapped by a president who sees only ideology. Call your members of Congress, and urge them to support the necessary expansion of SCHIP for America’s kids. It’s the right thing to do.

Take Action

Your congressional members need to hear that as a person of faith you believe that no child should go without treatment or depend on an emergency room for care because they lack health coverage. If we are judged by how we treat the least among us, we must make sure that all our children have coverage. Call your members of Congress today at (877) 367-5235, a free number set up by our friends at PICO National Network.

Tell them that people of faith are counting on them to stand up for the millions of uninsured children in the U.S. SCHIP has successfully reduced the uninsured rate for children by one-third over the past decade. Now Congress needs to pass a strong SCHIP bill by a veto-proof majority to provide hope to the millions of children in America who still go to sleep at night without health coverage.

For more information and other ways to take action, please visit www.coverallchildren.org.

Michael Baloga Latest Casualty - Updated

Update: Meteor Blades from daily kos provides even more statistics at the end.

As many of you know, every morning, after I say my morning prayers, I write and mail 3 letters (except for Sunday and holidays when the mail doesn't run). I send one to each of my senators and one to my representative, asking them to end the war and bring the troops home. Each time I mention the number of soldiers killed so far in Iraq (using statistics at icasualties.org). So far, I have written over 150 letters.

Here are the statistics as of today:

Day # 1,591 (4 years 4 months and 10 days, give or take)
3,648 U.S. Soldiers killed
26,558 U.S. Soldiers wounded (as of the end of June)
207 U.S. Soldiers killed since I started writing letters in June.

The latest person named by the DoD as killed in action is Private Michael Baloga from Everett Washington, who died Thursday. He leaves behind an infant daughter, a sister, a father, and others I don't know:



So these are dark days. And as I wrote just a few hours earlier, unless we really enter that darkness, and take some time to really experience the tragedy of what is happening all around us, it won't end.

===
Update from Meteor Blades @ Daily Kos:
Perhaps you remember a few days ago when Lt. General Raymond Odierno said the drop in U.S. fatalities in July was an "initial positive sign" for the splurge of blood and bucks begun in February.

Try a different perspective regarding that "drop." Compare the Coalition’s fatalities for all the Julys that the U.S. has occupied Iraq via the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count Website:

July 2007: 77
July 2006: 46
July 2005: 58
July 2004: 58
July 2003: 49

Iraq by the numbers is an infuriating and ferociously saddening exercise. But let's do it anyway.

655,000: Iraqi deaths a Johns-Hopkins study attributed to the war nine months ago.

2770: Iraqi civilians killed in May 2007, according to government reports. (Actual figure unknown because the Iraqi government refuses to share its data with outside agencies that could verify totals.)

1.9 million: Estimated Iraqis displaced within the country.

2.35 million: Estimated Iraqi exiles outside the country in January 2007.

18,000: Iraqi doctors who have fled the country since March 2003.

???: Iraqis orphaned by the war – no reliable statistics.

25%: Iraqi children who are malnourished (May 2006).

130,000: U.S. troops taking part in the invasion at Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s insistence.

500,000: U.S. troops estimated to be necessary by generals who put together a prewar contingency plan.

$60-$95 billion: Total cost of Iraq war and aftermath calculated by Paul Wolfowitz in February 2003.

$600 billion: Money Congress has allocated for direct costs of the war and occupation so far.

$750 billion: Total the Cheney-Bush Administration has sought for keeping the occupation going through September 2008.

$140,000: Estimated cost per minute of the war and occupation in 2007.

$2 trillion: Total direct and indirect costs of war and occupation (through 2010) calculated by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Blimes in January 2006.

$9 billion: Taxpayer money that disappeared in Iraq.

$549.7 million: Value of unaccounted for spare parts shipped to contractors in 2004.

$1.4 billion: Overcharges by Halliburton.

6,000-10,000: Estimated number of U.S. troops whose injuries have included brain trauma.

30%: Estimated percentage of troops who develop serious mental problems within three or four months after returning from Iraq.

14: Journalists killed by U.S. forces in Iraq.

112: Total number of journalists killed in Iraq.

1-2 a day: Hours of electricity available to the average residential household in Baghdad. (Actual figure unknown since U.S. no longer reports the electricity figures for the city.)

5000: "Diehard" insurgents the Pentagon estimated to be fighting on July 28, 2003.

20-30,000: Insurgents the Pentagon estimated in October 2006.

70,000: Insurgents the Pentagon estimated in March 2007.

69%: Iraqis who say U.S. presence worsens security situation (polled in March 2007).

71%: Iraqis who want U.S. troops out within a year (polled in September 2006).

71%: Americans who want U.S. to withdraw troops by April 2008 (polled in July 2007).

52%: U.S. Senators who have voted to withdraw most troops by April 2008.

8%: Republican Senators who have voted to withdraw most troops by April 2008.

It's a Beautiful Day

"And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." -- Julian of Norwich

Michael has been preaching about the rock group U2. Today his sermon title was "It's a Beautiful Day Even When God Moves in Mysterious Ways." One of the ways that Christians deny the reality of Creation, is to search only for the positive and the happy (the "prosperity gospel"). They deny the "via negativa" (as Matthew Fox calls it), in the letting go, the pain, the suffering and silences that are a real part of the spiritual journey. All of the great mystics know about the via negativa, Meister Eckhart, John of the Cross (the Dark Night of the Soul), Madame Guyon, Julian of Norwich, just to name a few.

It is only when we enter the dark that we can perceive our true selves, and the reality of Creation. In it, we perceive what needs to change, what can change, and what will always stay the same, and must be accepted. Then when we are ready, we rise up out of the darkness into awe and hope and creativity and compassion with a new sense of direction and purpose. So, the dark is a gift--it's a beautiful day.

Beautiful Day
by U2

The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room
No space to rent in this town

You're out of luck
And the reason that you had to care
The traffic is stuck
And you're not moving anywhere

You thought you'd found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace

It's a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away

You're on the road
But you've got no destination
You're in the mud
In the maze of her imagination

You love this town
Even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over
And it's been all over you

It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
Beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
What you don't have you don't need it now
Don't need it now
Was a beautiful day

King George Choosing His Cabinet

Jennifer sent me this audio tape of our own King George choosing his cabinet members in between bites of lunch:

Take this down


This explains everything. King George is actually Lord Voldemort!

Granny's Letter

Dean just emailed this to me. I love it!

Monarch Caterpillars

Dean and I were just at Steffani's house because her kids found a monarch caterpillar sitting on some milkweed in their yard. I've been wanting some ever since Michael preached about monarch butterflies last year and brought in some for "show-and-tell".

So, we harvested some milkweed from their yard. We didn't even know what milkweed looked like. We've had some before, but I didn't recognize it, and I've been pulling it out of the garden and throwing it away. We also took the little tiny caterpillar and I just finished potting the milkweed and introducing the caterpillar to its new home. Here's a couple of pictures. The caterpillar is so tiny, you can't see it in the first picture. Right now it is about as long as my pinky finger nail, and about as thick as a toothpick.

Audible.com & Hercule Poirot

I have been on a Poirot fad lately, trying to read all the books or watch all the films. Dean introduced me to it because Agatha Christie is one of his favorite authors. When I get on kicks like this, I tend to read or watch as much as I can, as quickly as I can, before some other thing interests me and I switch.

Now, there are three problems with reading these books.
(1) There are a lot of books to read and movies to watch
(2) Many of the books have multiple titles. So, every time I find a book, I have to read the cover carefully to try to figure out if it is one I have already read. And, since Christie sometimes repeats plot elements (e.g. several plots feature the sleeping drug Verinol or suspects from South America), it can sometimes be tricky.
(3) I prefer to listen to the books on audio. There's just something to these books that makes audio the perfect format. The problem is, most audio that I find in the used bookstores are tapes instead of CD. So, I decided to sign up with Audible.com and download the books in Mp3 format to listen in my car stereo, which is also an MP3 player.

Now audible.com is about half the price of retail. The problem is the darn copy protection! Audible.com advertises that it has books in mp3 format, but actually they have a proprietary format called ".aa" format. It's designed to be listened to on an iPod, PC/iTunes, or certain portable MP3 players that work with its copy protection, and the proprietary format is not compatible with all devices.

Particularly, I want to listen to the books by burning it to a CD and listening it in my Jensen car stereo, which is an MP3 player. BUT ... my car stereo doesn't recognize the proprietary .aa format, and audible.com doesn't support Jensen car stereo MP3 players. And iTunes refuses to convert the .aa format to a standard .mp3 format because of the copy protection. So I can't listen to the books in my car.

It's very frustrating. It's like buying a DVD only to find that it doesn't work in your particular DVD player. Or buying a book and discovering that it's written in another language. Copy protection, as a concept, is not a problem to me, but when it keeps me from enjoying the things that I legitimately bought, it is a problem.

I ended up solving the problem by getting some software that circumvents the copy protection and converts the audio book from .aa to a regular .mp3 format. Normally I would frown on that sort of thing -- but since I bought these audio books legitimately, in what audible.com advertised as being an MP3 format, and since audible.com doesn't provide any legitimate way for me to listen to the books in my car's MP3 player, I don't really see any ethical problem with converting it and using it for my own personal use.

Ocean's 13 & Rain

Last night, Dean and I went to see Ocean's 13 at the AMC Theatre. It was a decent film, but not as good as the 2 previous ones. It was slow in spots, and it didn't have the feeling of suspense that the other 2 had. I never felt, at any time, that Ocean would/could be defeated or get caught. All of the "twists" seem contrived and too easily overcome.

After the movie, we came out and it was raining. It was a soft rain, not a total downpour. Our car was on the other side of the theatre, so we had to walk for quite a ways to get to it. I thought it was great. I love walking in a soft, warm rain. Dean, on the other hand, hated it, because it gets his clothes wet, and he hates having wet clothes. As soon as we got to the car, the rain started coming down a lot harder, and it rained pretty hard most of the way home.

Vespers/Compline

Just finished our monthly vespers/compline dinner and prayer group. It was very fulfilling and relaxing. Good fellowship too. Elva made a very nice fruit salad. Chicken Pot Pie turned out really good for dinner. It's so hard to build community, but this little group of 6 or 7 that we've had these last 3 months have been great. Marion Shutt joined us for the first time; I think she enjoyed it, and she's looking better now that she feels better.

Democrats wimp out on gay marriage

I'm very disappointed in how most of the Democratic Presidential candidates talked about gay marriage. Only Kucinich came right out and said, "yes, I'm for gay marriage." Dodd, Richardson, and Obama cop-out with "civil union", and Edwards did the worst, he hemmed and hawed, agreed about "equal rights" and "ending discrimination", but ultimately said, "no." Either he does not actually believe in "equal rights" and "ending discrimination", or he doesn't think that gays deserve it. Either way, Edwards went down a lot of points in my book for it.

Debate transcript here:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/23/debate.transcript/index.html

Here is the part about gay marriage, with Edwards in red.



QUESTION: And we're from Brooklyn, New York.
If you were elected president of the United States, would you allow us to be married to each other?
COOPER: Congressman Kucinich?
KUCINICH: Mary and Jen, the answer to your question is yes. And let me tell you why.
Because if our Constitution really means what it says, that all are created equal, if it really means what it says, that there should be equality of opportunity before the law, then our brothers and sisters who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender should have the same rights accorded to them as anyone else, and that includes the ability to have a civil marriage ceremony.
Yes, I support you. And welcome to a better and a new America under a President Kucinich administration.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Senator Dodd, you supported the Defense of Marriage Act. What's your position?
DODD: I've made the case, Anderson, that -- my wife and I have two young daughters, age 5 and 2.
I'd simply ask the audience to ask themselves the question that Jackie and I have asked: How would I want my two daughters treated if they grew up and had a different sexual orientation than their parents?
Good jobs, equal opportunity, to be able to retire, to visit each other, to be with each other, as other people do.
So I feel very strongly, if you ask yourself the question, "How would you like your children treated if they had a different sexual orientation than their parents?," the answer is yes. They ought to have that ability in civil unions.
I don't go so far as to call for marriage. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman.
But my state of Connecticut, the state of New Hampshire, have endorsed civil unions. I strongly support that. But I don't go so far as marriage.
COOPER: Governor Richardson?
RICHARDSON: Well, I would say to the two young women, I would level with you -- I would do what is achievable.
What I think is achievable is full civil unions with full marriage rights. I would also press for you a hate crimes act in the Congress. I would eliminate "don't ask/don't tell" in the military.
(APPLAUSE)
If we're going to have in our military men and women that die for this country, we shouldn't give them a lecture on their sexual orientation
I would push for domestic partnership laws, nondiscrimination in insurance and housing.
I would also send a very strong message that, in my administration, I will not tolerate any discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: This next question is for Senator Edwards.
QUESTION: I'm Reverend Reggie Longcrier. I'm the pastor of Exodus Mission and Outreach Church in Hickory, North Carolina.
Senator Edwards said his opposition to gay marriage is influenced by his Southern Baptist background. Most Americans agree it was wrong and unconstitutional to use religion to justify slavery, segregation, and denying women the right to vote.
So why is it still acceptable to use religion to deny gay American their full and equal rights?
(APPLAUSE)
EDWARDS: I think Reverend Longcrier asks a very important question, which is whether fundamentally -- whether it's right for any of our faith beliefs to be imposed on the American people when we're president of the United States. I do not believe that's right.
I feel enormous personal conflict about this issue. I want to end discrimination. I want to do some of the things that I just heard Bill Richardson talking about -- standing up for equal rights, substantive rights, civil unions, the thing that Chris Dodd just talked about. But I think that's something everybody on this stage will commit themselves to as president of the United States.
But I personally have been on a journey on this issue. I feel enormous conflict about it. As I think a lot of people know, Elizabeth spoke -- my wife Elizabeth spoke out a few weeks ago, and she actually supports gay marriage. I do not. But this is a very, very difficult issue for me. And I recognize and have enormous respect for people who have a different view of it.

COOPER: I should also point out that the reverend is actually in the audience tonight. Where is he? Right over here.
Reverend, do you feel he answered your question?
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: This question was just a catalyst that promoted some other things that wrapped around that particular question, especially when it comes to fair housing practices. Also...
COOPER: Do you think he answered the question, though?
QUESTION: Not like I would like to have heard it...
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: What did you not hear?
QUESTION: I didn't quite get -- some people were moving around, and I didn't quite get all of his answer. I just heard...
COOPER: All right, there's 30 seconds more. Why is it OK to quite religious beliefs when talking about why you don't support something? That's essentially what's his question.
EDWARDS: It's not. I mean, I've been asked a personal question which is, I think, what Reverend Longcrier is raising, and that personal question is, do I believe and do I personally support gay marriage?
The honest answer to that is I don't. But I think it is absolutely wrong, as president of the United States, for me to have used that faith basis as a basis for denying anybody their rights, and I will not do that when I'm president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Senator Obama, the laws banning interracial marriage in the United States were ruled unconstitutional in 1967. What is the difference between a ban on interracial marriage and a ban on gay marriage?
OBAMA: Well, I think that it is important to pick up on something that was said earlier by both Dennis and by Bill, and that is that we've got to make sure that everybody is equal under the law. And the civil unions that I proposed would be equivalent in terms of making sure that all the rights that are conferred by the state are equal for same-sex couples as well as for heterosexual couples.
Now, with respect to marriage, it's my belief that it's up to the individual denominations to make a decision as to whether they want to recognize marriage or not. But in terms of, you know, the rights of people to transfer property, to have hospital visitation, all those critical civil rights that are conferred by our government, those should be equal.
COOPER: We're going to take a quick break, but before we go we're going to show another candidate video. This one is from the Clinton campaign. And then when we come back from the break, we'll see one from the -- from Senator Edwards' campaign.
(MUSIC PLAYED FROM CLINTON CAMPAIGN VIDEO)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Go Green?

I have been on a "Go Green" kick lately. Trying to limit how much water we use, how much electricity, recycling, responsible buying, etc. I'm especially concerned about recycling lately.

But it's a real pain-in-the-butt to try to recycle in Eudora. It's not part of the city trash services, and there is no place to recycle anything in town except for cans. The nearest recycling center is at the Checkers in Lawrence, and they accept cans and clothing, but not plastic or glass. I'm told that the Walmart, on the other side of Lawrence, accepts almost anything, but then I'd be wasting gallons of gas just to haul a few recyclables there. It seems like 1 step forward and 2 steps back.

Somehow I need to find a way to team up with other folks here who want to recycle and maybe together the long drive will be worth it. (Part of me thinks it would be nice if I had a truck to make hauling this stuff easier, but then, trucks are almost all gas-guzzlers....).

Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers

This is a 2005 documentary that I just saw on cable TV (check your local listings for show times). Riveting stuff. Things I didn't know:

• The vast majority of translation services are contracted to a private U.S. company, who hire any Joe-Schmoe off the Iraqi street who can speak the littlest English--and we entrust them with sensitive intelligence without hardly knowing anything about them.
  
  
• Rather than buy a tire to fix a flat on a truck, Halliburton prefers to blow the truck up, buy a new truck, and charge the American taxpayer.
  
  
• A lot of soldiers aren't permitted to do the jobs they are trained to do. Instead the govt. has awarded contracts to Halliburton to do those jobs, and the soldiers sit around and watch them.
  
  
• the CEO of Halliburton earned $42 million in salary in 2004. I can't even fathom that.
  

Kansas gets a brief shout-out in this quote (paraphrase): "OF COURSE there are kickbacks. OF COURSE there are conflicts of interest. OF COURSE there are scams. If you don't believe that, then I've got an ocean in Kansas that I want to take you surfing in."

Is Congress interested in resolving this? Nope, because the Congressmen are getting kickbacks too. There's too much of our taxpayer money involved to stop it. War is a commercial business.

State Secrets & Executive Privilege

Man, this crap really makes my eyes cross.

First up, John Stewart interviews Robert Pallitto, author of Presidential Secrecy and the Law .



Next up, Glenn Greenwald reveals the partisan bamboozlement of John Yoo, author of much of Bush's legal theories of necessary Executive Privilege, who during the Clinton years, denounced Executive Privilege.

Glenn Greenwald: John Yoo, then and Now


And finally, Kagro X has a blog entry about the near-futility of trying to exert even a tiny bit of accountability with a Contempt of Congress charge:

Contempt Vote in the House


So ... the President can (and regularly does) declare anything a State Secret, the Supreme Court can't adjudicate a case for which the President asserts a State Secret, and Congress has to get the Executive to prosecute a Contempt of Congress charge against the Executive.

Oh! and the person who is going to WRITE the letter to Congress telling them to go to hell, Fred Fielding, is probably going to be person that Congress issues a contempt against!

It makes my head hurt.

Our system of checks and balances is in complete tatters.

St. Patrick's Breastplate

One of my favorite prayer's is the lorica called St. Patrick's breastplate. There are many translations of varying lengths. Here is one from Celtic monks of Glenstal monastery:

I bind unto myself today
the power of God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch, his might to stay,
his ear to harken to my need:
the wisdom of my God to teach,
his hand to guide, his shield to ward;
the word of God to give me speech,
his heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ deep within me,
Christ below me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right hand, Christ at my left hand,
Christ as a I lie down, Christ as I arise,
Christ as I stand,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Close-Mindedness in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Some thoughts on the new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (some spoilers may be present):

I've started to read the new Harry Potter book, and one thing that is strking to me is the effect of closed-mindedness. This is a strong motif in the book -- a pervading inability of people to see another point-of-view. And it happens throughout the good/evil, human/non-human, conservative/liberal spectrum. A few Examples:

Hermione cannot accept that "myths" might be real (like the Hallows). Even when presented with evidence, she is closed-minded and simply asserts that it can't be so. Since it can't be so, her mind goes in other, misleading directions.

On the opposite spectrum, Luna and her dad Xeno Lovegood, the consummate believers in all conspiracy theories, believe that Xeno has purchased a rare Crumple-horned snorkack horn. But when Hermione presents evidence that it is actually a very dangerous exploding Erumpent horn, Xeno refuses to believe. Even when the horn explodes, Luna is still close-minded and still insists that it was a Crumple-horned Snorkack horn. What is there to do but to shake your head and let it drop?

Umbridge, when prosecuting mudbloods, is presented with a mudblood with a wand. In Umbridge's mind, the mudblood must have stolen the wand, because in her world, mudbloods can't be wizards. It doesn't matter that she's presented with evidence that the mudblood bought the wand, that there is the well-known saying that "wands choose their owners" and that the mudblood went to Hogwarts. No, Umbridge's closed-mindedness does not permit the other point-of-view to even be considered.

The goblin Griphook is closed-minded to the idea that some wizards are good and trustworthy, and some wizards are bad and untrustworthy. For Griphook, all wizards are the same, and they cannot be trusted. They are all out to betray him or his race. By being closed-minded, he hampers the entire quest.

Dumbledore is closed-minded about trusting others, especially Harry. And it's because he can't trust Harry that he ultimately has to die, and makes Harry's quest more difficult, and causes others to lose their lives. Dumbledore simply couldn't accept an alternative point-of-view that Harry could be trusted.

And, of course, the ultimate in closed-mindedness, Voldemort is closed-minded about many, many things -- the fact that Potter might know something he doesn't, that love and self-sacrifice are powerful things, etc. By being closed-minded and denying these realities, he forces his own downfall.

Some of these characters, like Hermione, eventually overcome their closed-mindedness, but many do not, and it is interesting to ponder why people remain closed-minded even when presented with significant evidence that there is another point-of-view.

(One can't hardly read this book without thinking of the closed-mindedness present in the current Bush Administration).

Irony of War

From Glen Greenwald:

This week's issue of The Weekly Standard features a cover story by Hugh Hewitt blogger Dean Barnett. Entitled "The 9/11 Generation," it argues that America's current youthful generation is courageous and noble because it has answered the call of military service....

To begin with, while Barnett contrasts two significant groups of the Vietnam era -- those who bravely volunteered for combat and/or who were drafted (Jim Webb and John McCain and Chuck Hagel and John Kerry) and those who protested the war....

Barnett condemns those who refused to fight because they opposed to war and chose instead to work against it, but ignores completely those who favored the war but sent others to fight and die in it. Barnett has to ignore this group. He has no choice. He cannot possibly criticize such individuals because this group includes the editors and writers of the magazine in which he is writing, his blogging boss, and virtually the entire leadership of the political movement which he follows.

The Passing Wisdom of Birds

What we stand to lose when nature is debased: "We stand to lose the focus of our ideals. We stand to lose our sense of dignity, of compassion, even our sense of what we call God. The philosophy of nature we set aside 8,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, we can, I think, locate again and greatly refine in North America. the New World is a landscape still overwhelming in the vigor of its animals and plants, resonant with mystery. It encourages, still, an enlightened response toward indigenous culturese that differ from our own, whether Aztecan, Lakotan, lupine, avian, or invertebrate. By broadening our sense of the intrinsic worth of life and by cultivating respect for other ways of moving toward perfection, we may find the sense of resolution we have been looking for, I think, for centuries." -- Barry Lopez