Gentle Reader -- You are welcome to peruse my web-based journal. I assure you that my contributions to this medium will be both infrequent and inconsequential. Read on!

THE VISION THING (a rant)

Looking around at what is happening in our country -- war, economic breakdown, stifling of dissent, etc. -- I have to wonder. The people who have taken control of our government are doing all kinds of things that I think are just crazy: bankrupting the treasury, despoiling the environment, undermining public education, etc. I believe I've written this before.

But what I have to wonder is what it's all about. Each of these things is just an item on a list, a brick in the wall. The basic question that comes back again and again is this: what are they trying to do? The Bush people are not stupid; this is a centralized movement. I firmly believe that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing here. The question is, what are they doing together? The Bush people have a vision for America, and they are implementing a plan to make that vision a reality. What is that vision?

Krugman has an article today about an article in the Financial Times (my friend Taffryn works for the FT, she explained to me that it is peach colored, not pink). They posit that the ulterior motive behind the tax cut, ulterior to allowing the rich in America to accumulate so much wealth as to literally defecate gold doubloons, is actually to bankrupt the government so that basic social programs can be dismantled in the ensuing "crisis". I recently read an article (no link) about the Texas Republican Party in which a commentator stated that the GOP simply doesn't think that government should supply services like education, welfare, housing. I've heard school vouchers criticized as the first step in eliminating public schools (students take the vouchers to private schools, the public schools wither, the government stops funding the vouchers -- no public schools.)

If I had to guess what the Bush vision of America is, it is something very much like the America of the 1920s (minus the jazz). No social services to speak of, higher education limited to a very few, social norms rigidly enforced by legal and extralegal means (paddy-rollers, anyone?), health care for the poor virtually nonexistent. The climate for the wealthy, however, would be very good indeed: low income taxes, no organized labor movement, no regulations of workplace safety or pollution of any sort. Under this scheme, business competition would actually be discouraged, favoring established companies over startups -- the fewer pieces of the pie to cut, the better. Monopoly isn't just a game, folks.

If this is the case, you can understand why Bush, et al. are being somewhat cagey about their real goals. Who would vote for this? Who DID vote for it? posted by Carlton at 6:55 PM

SMALL SPACES

Speaking of your "hole in the wall" apartments . . . posted by Carlton at 10:36 AM

SAD COW

Did you know that if you've spent a certain amount of time in the UK (as I have), they won't let you give blood? Because of Mad Cow? They didn't even ask me if I'd had sex (even once) with a man from Africa in exchange for money or drugs! They just wanted to know about my year in Swansea.

"So, when will I be able to give again?" I asked the woman at the Bloodmobile.
"When they change the rules," she said.
"I don't THINK I have Mad Cow," I said.
"Sorry."

Givng blood is something that the men in my family do. I have often gone with my dad to the clinic to give it -- he has one of those "universal" types that is quite in demand. My A neg is not such a hot commodity, but they always took it. Until now! posted by Carlton at 9:05 AM

PARTY ON

Went to a party this weekend that was broken up by the police because of noise, which was really too bad. It was no big deal, ultimately -- everyone went home. When the police arrived, someone asked me what should be done with them, since I should know 'cause I'm a lawyer, and stuff. I'm an estate planning/tax attorney, so of course I know all about the cops.

Uh, no, I don't really know. I've spoken to cops that have come to parties at a house where I was living (and I actually spoke to them briefly at this party when they were at the door), with good results, but my Fourth Amendment is a little fuzzy. My general attitude, however, is to do what they tell you -- they have the guns and the sticks. I wouldn't let them in without a warrant, of course, but if they decided to come in . . . who am I to say no? From the perspective of someone who has nothing to hide or who has everything well hidden, it seems that all the legal issues will get sorted out later. I would just try to avoid ending up handcuffed in a squad car. I wouldn't tell them I'm a lawyer for ten bucks -- cops tend not to like lawyers.

I have heard that cops hate to arrest people, since every arrest entails hours of paperwork. When the cops have come to the college and law school parties I've attended, their goal has simply been to shut it down, get it moving. Two cops at the door, minus some crazy happenstance (some partygoer deciding to pick THAT moment to display the kilo of coke and Glock that he just bought down in Chinatown -- unlikely) are not going to arrest twenty people, no matter what the place sounds or smells like.

Just some observations, no legal advice given. posted by Carlton at 11:40 PM

LONG TIME GONE

On the list of things I hate to admit: a few months ago (during the big hubbub), I went out and bought three Dixie Chicks albums in protest, to show my right-minded support for dissent in these dark days. At the time, I opened one up and listened to it, and was not overwhelmed, and the other two sat on my shelf in their plastic wrappers. Recently, however, I cracked open their latest, "Home", just to give it a spin. This is what I hate to admit: it's really good.

I'm just sayin'. posted by Carlton at 10:54 AM

SIGH

Another name mentioned [as a candidate for new head of the Environmental Protection Agency] was Josephine Cooper, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

They aren't even trying any more, are they? posted by Carlton at 3:50 PM

DUM DEE DUM

I wish there were more fab details of my personal life to treat you folks to -- but the fact is that not much is happening right now. Jennifer and Jason will be coming to stay with me (next month), Molly and I are contemplating a trip to New York (next month), my new car will come (maybe in two months).

Nationally, of course, there's the business down in Texas -- with the Plutocrats covering their mess like a cat in the litterbox. There's also all that cannibalism in Congo -- soldiers eating each others' livers, and all. That's very interesting -- but it isn't about ME ME ME.

Here's something: A couple of years ago my housemate Sherry made little Sculpi figurines of everyone who lived in our house, to be used as Christmas ornaments. I kept mine, and had it until recently hanging on a string from a doorknob in my living room. The other day, however . . . it fell and broke into a bunch of pieces. That's a little spooky -- almost an omen. Except that it isn't. posted by Carlton at 1:12 PM

POLLYANNA

I guess things could always be worse.

posted by Carlton at 11:54 AM

SOMEONE'S GOT A CRUSH

(Yes, maybe everyone knows who this guy is, but I don't get much chance to be a fanboy in this life of mine. Let me be.)

One of the few bright lights of the media at this time is Paul Krugman, economics professor and writer of a column for the New York Times. (Latest column here.) I can't wait to read his column whenever it comes out -- and I know it comes out because all my political sites immediately link to it. Here's a writer whom other writers point to and say, "THIS is what we would have said if we could have put it together this way." That is, I think, the highest compliment one can receive as a writer.

Did I mention that Krugman is not a big fan of George Bush? He has, up until now, deflected his enemies on the right simply by being on the money (har) about everything -- the best they have to use against him is that tired old apply-to-every-liberal blandishment, "shrill". (I still haven't figured out how to be shrill in print, but whatever.) He introduced me to the term "liquidity trap", a neat concept that I hope not to see in action -- and one that I understood while reading his column but don't think I could explain now without reading it again.



posted by Carlton at 4:33 PM

HEY

Like our Dear Leader, I have been AWOL for a while -- the difference being that I have been working instead of snorting coke and drinking and knocking up underage girls (and getting that taken care of, thanks). I hope to turn some attention back to this page in the coming days -- buck up, Gentle Reader!

posted by Carlton at 1:08 PM

MMMM, LUSTFUL

b>The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test posted by Carlton at 10:24 AM

WHILE WE'RE AT IT

Here's a list of questions one might ask about how we got to where we are today. Answer them as you like.

Why didn't the Bush administration take steps to break up manipulation of prices in the energy market in 2001?

Why didn't the Bush administration move more quickly and effectively to punish miscreants and restore confidence when it became clear that lots of people who worked for George W. Bush's friend "Kenny Boy" and lots of others were faking their corporate accounts?

Why did the Bush administration impose a steel tariff?

Why did the Bush administration push for a farm bill that reversed the progress toward agricultural subsidy reform that Newt Gingrich (in one of his few good deeds) and others had accomplished in the 1990s?

Why is Afghanistan such a mess today, and the Bush administration so unwilling to "do nation building" in Afghanistan?

Why were Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction not where the Bush administration believed them to be?

Why did we attack Iraq without sufficient forces to rapidly search for and secure weapons of mass destruction (if any) before they were carried off by bandits and others who might want to sell them to Al Qaeda?

Why did we attack Iraq without the forces or a plan to keep civil order in the country?

Why have we gone to such pains to annoy and alienate every single one of our allies? I mean, when the President of Mexico won't take a call from the President of the United States, something is very wrong.

Why does Ariel Sharon feel that he can blow off every U.S. request designed to make the "roadmap for peace" more than a scrap of paper?

Why do developing countries find that their access to the pharmaceuticals they need is still largely blocked? posted by Carlton at 1:09 PM

NOMINATION CONFLAGRATION or FILIBUSTER COMBUSTER

People are correct to say that the process by which federal (Article III) judges are confirmed by the Senate has become excessively political. They often say this in the context of blaming the Senate for being so obstructionist (as though it weren't when Clinton was in office!). What everyone needs to realize is that the process starts with the President -- can't he find any nominees who think that segregation is bad, that existing laws (Americans with Disabilities Act, Family Medical Leave Act, etc.) should be enforced and that competent adults should be free to have sex in their homes as they like?

It is important to remember that these judges get to serve for life, so an appointment of a bunch of fifty year-old wingnut judges may result in a generation of regressive policy made from the bench.

Senators serve their constituencies, after all -- and these nominees are so far to the right of most Americans that it would be shameful to let them go through. I include our friend Charles Pickering. NYT article here. (Links may not last.) posted by Carlton at 12:52 PM

BUILDING BRIDGES

Is it that ONLY love can build a bridge, or just that love is one of multiple bridge building powers out there? I mean, I would have thought the Army Corps of Engineers could do a pretty good job. Maybe only love can build a bridge between your heart and mine -- the ACOE probably wouldn't do so great in that capacity. Love wouldn't build a very good bridge across, say, the Rubicon (the real one, not the metaphorical one).

So I went to a party on Fri night (didn't get laid, got in a fight oh yeah . . . not really, Lita). At said party I had a drunken conversation with someone I know, but not very well, on this topic. Said person also offered to shake my hand about four times, which was fine but odd. Said person later claimed not to remember. Said person also mentioned reading this page, so this is my little shout-out. Ms. Twink and I were dancing for a while, maybe a long while -- when we were leaving, this one woman who I had met that night said this to me: "Good luck with that love thing." Enigmatic. So maybe we were a little too obviously, uh, together for everyone's taste. But it was in the air that night, sure it was. I feel like a gossip columnist, sure I do.

Sat night I actually entertained at my humble home -- I had 6 people (besides myself) for dinner. I decided it should be a pot-luck, and managed to delegate the cooking so that I didn't prepare ANYTHING. I just bought drinks. That's what I call a good thing. I can cook -- really I can. It was a fun evening. posted by Carlton at 12:19 PM

ATTENTION GREG

Under White House pressure to include at least a bare-bones version of Bush's bid to eliminate taxes on corporate dividends, Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and fellow committee Republicans broke from their no-new-taxes orthodoxy to propose tax increases on Americans living abroad, companies sheltering income overseas and others. All told, committee members approved more than 30 tax increases or other revenue raisers to help fund their tax cut in other areas, including dividends.

Americans working overseas would be hit the hardest: the bill would no longer allow them to exclude $80,000 in income from federal taxes. That provision alone would amount to a $32 billion tax increase.

From the Washington Post, which site is doen at the moment.
posted by Carlton at 11:53 AM

CARROTS, THEMSELVES

Ok, so I got a little overwrought in the last post. This should make up for it.

Transcript of an interview between Ali G. (the "young man") and James A. Baker, III.:

The young man was asking a skeptical and increasingly impatient Mr. Baker whether it was wise for Iraq and Iran to have such similar names.

YOUNG MAN: Isn't there a real danger that someone give a message over the radio to one of them fighter pilots, saying, `Bomb Ira——' and the geezer doesn't heard it properly and bombs Iran instead of Iraq?

MR. BAKER: No danger.

YOUNG MAN: How does you make countries do stuff you want?

MR. BAKER: Well, the way you deal with countries on foreign policy issues . . . is you deal with carrots and sticks.

YOUNG MAN: But what country is gonna want carrots, even if it's like a million tons of carrots that you're giving over there——

MR. BAKER: Well, carrots — I'm not using the term literally. You might send foreign aid — money, money.

YOUNG MAN: Well, money's better than carrots. Even if a country love carrots and that is, like, their favorite national food, if they get given them——

MR. BAKER: Well, don't get hung up on carrots. That's just a figure of speech.

YOUNG MAN: So would you ever send carrots? You know, is there any situation——

MR. BAKER: No, no.

YOUNG MAN: What about if there was a famine?

MR. BAKER: Carrots, themselves? No.

The interview was a hilarious classic in the seldom-seen subgenre of international relations humor.

As found here.
posted by Carlton at 6:31 PM

MANTRA

“Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report.”

Who penned these immortal words? A General Turnipseed, who was (supposed to be) our current president's commander during a year of W's service in the National Guard. We should remember them, speak them in greeting to each other on the sidewalk, murmur them to our children as we put them to bed each night, sing them to ourselves in the shower as we get ready for work. We should cling to these words as a drowning man to a tossed rope.

“Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report.”

We should print them in the newspaper on the front page, above the fold. We should have them running along the bottom of the screen on every television network, every show, even during the commercials for deoderant, fast food and tennis shoes.

“Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report.”

These words should spring to the lips of every young man or woman who is serving in Iraq, who is forced to kill Iraqi civilians who are protesting our presence there. Upon returning home, perhaps wounded, certainly changed, and asked to reflect upon the experience of war and its aftermath, there is only one response.

“Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report.”

And for those who do not come home alive, what shall we carve on their tombstones to memorialize their sacrifice?

Do you see where I am going with this? This little soapbox I have here is miniscule, puny, ineffectual. What I say doesn't matter at all. What we all say matters a great deal.


posted by Carlton at 5:09 PM

DISDAIN

I didn't watch our Glorious Leader ride in the plane to the boat and give the speech. I didn't feel that it was necessary to my life. The pictures I saw of the event showed him standing in front of a giant banner which read "Mission Accomplished". That was plenty for me.

I'm really tired of W, and I'm tired of hating what he is doing. I think he's been a terrible, illegitimate president. I can't name a single thing that he's doing that I support. I can name several that I think are potentially disastrous.

But it's hard to live under a black cloud. Out of weariness perhaps, I am prone to reflect that we have had other leaders that were stupid, insane, evil, (though perhaps not all at the same time) and that our country has survived and even prospered in their wake. How much damage can one president do? The answer, I suppose, is a lot. But I'm tired of being outraged all the time. Like I've written before, I'm voting for whomever the Democrats vomit forth to be the candidate: Kerry, Sharpton, a monkey, an ashtray. I can only hope we are on the downside of this really unpleasant, unfun period.

Does anyone else feel the same way? posted by Carlton at 6:52 PM

HOW TERRIBLE

"The kids are being told their schools are not important and we can close them, and that's how you balance the state budget," said Ike Maness, president of the Hillsboro Education Association. "People are starting to refer to Oregon as the Mississippi of the West."

Well, it IS pretty terrible. More here. posted by Carlton at 10:01 AM

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EFFICIENCY

So, we are having this weekend retreat for the lawyers in my department, right? And so it's tomorrow, and as of yesterday they had given us NO information -- no agenda, no materials, nothing. Yesterday afternoon, we get an email directing us to a certain page of our spiffy new intranet (called "NPOWER") where all this info can be had. Well, the links don't work. For anyone.

I email the woman who sent the email: Couldn't you email us the agenda, so at least we could all know when to plan to be there? [Unstated: . . . since you clearly have both the document and all our email addresses right in front of you.]
Her reply: It's on NPOWER.
Me: The links aren't working. Can you email the document?
Her: You need to adjust your settings. Call the help desk [which, by the way, is in Rochester, NY. We are in Boston.].
Me: Everyone on my floor is having this problem. Can you email us the document?
Her: The links should be working in a few minutes.

So, a couple of hours later -- they email us the document. It's not this lady's fault, really; this intranet is new and expensive, and is designed to cure all ills, and she has probably been told to do everything on it. But ya know? It's annoying.

UPDATE: Of course, there's a good reason for everything:

Long documents, photos, charts, spreadsheets and other memory-hogs will be posted on NPower and not sent through email to the group, because those types of attachments clog and clutter our email system miserably (so I am told). Our draft Business Plan, at 47 pages, is a perfect example -- sending it by email to over 60 people causes a big crunch, and that is what we are trying to avoid
posted by Carlton at 8:32 AM