:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Saturday, November 13, 2004 ::

Colorado High School Talent Show Turns Political:

" A Colorado high school talent show turned into a political hot potato after some parents said a trio of students planned to use a Bob Dylan song to say they wished for the death of President Bush, officials said on Friday. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2004 08:10:00 PM [+] ::
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Police use stun gun on 6-year-old - (United Press International)

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2004 08:05:00 PM [+] ::
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The Gonzales nomination:

"There are two reasons why Bush might have nominated Gonzales to be Attorney General. The first is that he is grooming him for a further appointment to the Supreme Court. The second is that he never plans to appoint him but wants to send a strong signal that he might."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2004 07:57:00 PM [+] ::
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hehehehe....

Yahoo! News - CONFESSIONS OF A CULTURAL ELITIST:

"So our guy lost the election. Why shouldn't those of us on the coasts feel superior? We eat better, travel more, dress better, watch cooler movies, earn better salaries, meet more interesting people, listen to better music and know more about what's going on in the world. If you voted for Bush, we accept that we have to share the country with you. We're adjusting to the possibility that there may be more of you than there are of us. But don't demand our respect. You lost it on November 2. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2004 07:49:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Ads to Back Schwarzenegger for President:

"Californians will soon see advertisements urging them to help give Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other foreign-born citizens the chance to run for president. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2004 07:36:00 PM [+] ::
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One Old Dirty Bastard dies... The other one leaves the hospital

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2004 07:33:00 PM [+] ::
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MaxSpeak, You Listen!: KEEP YER COTTON-PICKIN'
HANDS OFF MY
SOCIAL SECURITY

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2004 07:21:00 PM [+] ::
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Socialized Medicine... the dirty word

An interesting take on National Health Care by Sven H. Steinmo in his article American Exceptionalism Reconsidered: Culture of Institutions? The article argued that there is an institutional explanation for the country's small welfare state rather than it being a simple question of Liberal "don't tread on me" ideologies and/or values. It was an interesting read but I just wanted to pass this one blurb on:

Early in the century national health insurance (NHI), for example, was widely defended with an argument quite similar to that used to support the extension of free public education, that is, that it supported the vaunted American value of equal opportunity. The failure of the early versions of NHI had more to do with interstate competition, the medical industry's opposition, Congressional deadlock, and financial constraints, than with public preferences or values. Only after an enormous public relations campaign financed by the American Medical Association in the 1940's and 1950's, did NHI become tagged with the un-American label "socialized medicine." This massively funded public relations campaign worked. Since the late 1940's those who have labored for NHI have, in effect, been saddled with defending an "un-American" program, albeit one which is "necessary anyway" In short, free public education succeeded and became as American as apple pie, while health care became associated with an intrusive state--but not because of fundamental differences in these two types of policies. Instead, private education did not have a wealthy and powerful organized interest group that could use the checks and balances of the American political system to veto this legislation.

So we can thank the AMA for killing National Health Care.

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2004 10:34:00 PM [+] ::
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Possible voter fraud over at The Washington Monthly

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2004 10:06:00 PM [+] ::
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Hopefully it will be better than the last one...

Yahoo! Movies: Movie News -:

"A week after President George W. Bush was reelected--despite Moore's best efforts--the firebrand filmmaker says he's forging ahead with a sequel to his controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. "

I've been thinking about why I didn't like Fahrenheit 9/11 and wondering why it got such rave reviews. And i've come to the conclusion that since I've grown up reading Chomsky, Zinn, and others in places like ZNet i've been spoiled. I've grown up reading excellent critiques of power. Most people haven't had the opportunity to see a good critque of US dominance and they are so starving for it that they'll cheer on anything they can get their hands on--9/11 being what they got their hands on this time.

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2004 10:00:00 PM [+] ::
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Dennett on freeloaders...

I've been reading Freedom Evolves by Daniel Dennett and a passage just struck me:

Physicists are forever reminding us that things break down, things get muddled, things don't tend to repair themselves unless something special--such as a living thin, a local entropy-battler--intervenes. Economists, similarly, are forever reminding us that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Evolutionists in the same spirit remind us that freeloaders will always show up eventually, and when they do they will soon enough win the local breeding contests unless something is put in place to prevent it.

Freeloaders will always show up... at the human level freeloaders are the elites; political at the top of the pyramid, and then social/cultural/religious--all of which are freeloaders one step below the political elites. He goes on to say:

Whatever the local game, and whatever the costs and benefits to the group (the locally interacting population that must share the space and resources and risks), if it is possible to share the benefits of group action without paying one's share of the costs, then those who pursue this selfish path will do better than those who don't....

...Pretty soon there is a growing tribe of freeloaders, and no matter how well or ill the group as a whole does, within the group nobody does better than the freeloaders, who gradually come to dominate the group.

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2004 03:21:00 PM [+] ::
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Election result maps

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2004 12:31:00 PM [+] ::
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This just in...
The Onion | Nation's Poor Win Election For Nation's Rich:

"The economically disadvantaged segment of the U.S. population provided the decisive factor in another presidential election last Tuesday, handing control of the government to the rich and powerful once again."

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2004 12:30:00 PM [+] ::
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Pierre Tristam: Zealots on the Mount:

"It's time to doff the veil. The United States isn't immune to the fundamentalist El Nino circling the globe. Iran has its mullahs. Afghanistan has its Taliban. Saudi Arabia has its Wahhabites. We have evangelicals, whose world view is different from those doctrinaire brigades in dress only."

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2004 12:27:00 PM [+] ::
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Go read Arundhati Roy's Acceptance speech for the Sydney Peace Prize ZNet | Vision & Strategy | Peace?...: here is an excert:

"It is becoming more than clear that violating human rights is an inherent and necessary part of the process of implementing a coercive and unjust political and economic structure on the world. Without the violation of human rights on an enormous scale, the neo-liberal project would remain in the dreamy realm of policy. But increasingly Human Rights violations are being portrayed as the unfortunate, almost accidental fallout of an otherwise acceptable political and economic system. As though they're a small problem that can be mopped up with a little extra attention from some NGOs. This is why in areas of heightened conflict - in Kashmir and in Iraq for example - Human Rights Professionals are regarded with a degree of suspicion. Many resistance movements in poor countries which are fighting huge injustice and questioning the underlying principles of what constitutes 'liberation' and 'development', view Human Rights NGOs as modern day missionaries who've come to take the ugly edge off Imperialism. To defuse political anger and to maintain the status quo."

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2004 12:22:00 PM [+] ::
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Leiter Reports: Editorials, News, Updates: Election Day in Ohio: A First-Person Account from a Lawyer Helping the Democrats:

"A factor that has not been widely discussed as an issue in the Bush victory is the totally disorganized state of the Democrats as campaigners. Will Rogers said, 'I don't belong to any organized political party -- I'm a Democrat.' But they were winning back then when he said that. Now it's not funny any more. As they used to say in Chicago, 'Votes Count But Organization Decides.' I saw little organization in Ohio."

Read the whole thing, it really gives you a good idea of the poor performance the democratic organization put on this year. I had a similar experience with a congressional race out here in Cali, after about a week I gave up.

:: Jim Nichols 11/10/2004 08:36:00 PM [+] ::
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Bush to Seek Gay-Marriage Ban in New Term -Aide:

" President Bush will renew a quest in his second term for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage as essential to a 'hopeful and decent' society, his top political aide said on Sunday. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/09/2004 05:26:00 PM [+] ::
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Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: November 07, 2004 - November 13, 2004 Archives:

"President Bush won reelection last Tuesday with 286 electoral votes (over Kerry's 252).

That is the second lowest electoral margin for the winning candidate since 1916 when
Woodrow Wilson beat Charles Evans Hughes by a margin of 277 to 254."

:: Jim Nichols 11/09/2004 05:21:00 PM [+] ::
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Say goodbye to Tower Theatre
Tower Theatre's owner loses $4 million in first nine months - 2004-11-09 - Sacramento Business Journal:

"The owner of Sacramento's Tower Theatre reported a nine-month loss of $4 million, or 19 cents a share, compared to a loss of $3 million, or 14 cents a share, during the same stretch last year. "

For the local readers (read: my dad) it looks like another nail in the coffin of Tower Theater. Personally I don't have a problem seeing a new theater do indie flicks. I don't have much sympathy for the old over the new. Progress is progress... death is death; in life and in the world of movie theaters

:: Jim Nichols 11/09/2004 05:18:00 PM [+] ::
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ProfessorBainbridge.com: CJ Thomas? You're Kidding Right? Bainbridge on a Clarence Thomas as Cheif Justice role

:: Jim Nichols 11/08/2004 06:53:00 PM [+] ::
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One of the better David brooks op-eds

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Values-Vote Myth

:: Jim Nichols 11/08/2004 06:44:00 PM [+] ::
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Election Spending Put Millions in the Pockets of Private Firms:

"With an estimated total of $1.5 billion going into the costliest presidential election, media groups and political operatives reap financial benefits."

We should have publicly funded elections.

:: Jim Nichols 11/08/2004 06:40:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Big Voter Turnout Seen Among Young People:

"Under-30 voters came through in big numbers this year, with more than 20 million casting a ballot for president, researchers found. The turnout bested their 2000 showing by more than nine percentage points and heartened activists who worked to get young voters to the polls. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/08/2004 06:37:00 PM [+] ::
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The Omnipotent State

Cafe Hayek: Ask Not What G.E. Can Do for You....:

"Suppose, though, that Orin Smith, President of Starbucks, were to proclaim theatrically in a telecast public address "Ask not what Starbucks can do for you. Ask what you can do for Starbucks."

He'd be taken for a fool. And rightly so. People do not exist to serve Starbucks; Starbucks exists to serve people. That's its only justification for existence. The same is true for every other firm and private institution.

Why do we treat government differently?"

:: Jim Nichols 11/08/2004 06:20:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Dean Ponders Bid to Become DNC Chairman:

"Former presidential candidate Howard Dean is considering a bid to become chairman of the national Democratic Party. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/08/2004 05:56:00 PM [+] ::
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Okay, so I am arrogant and elitist... but he puts this really well...
Am I Blue?:

"There's just one little request I have. If it's not too much trouble, of course. Call me profoundly misguided if you want. Call me immoral if you must. But could you please stop calling me arrogant and elitist?

I mean, look at it this way. (If you don't mind, that is.) It's true that people on my side of the divide want to live in a society where women are free to choose and where gay relationships have civil equality with straight ones. And you want to live in a society where the opposite is true. These are some of those conflicting values everyone is talking about. But at least my values as deplorable as I'm sure they are don't involve any direct imposition on you. We don't want to force you to have an abortion or to marry someone of the same sex, whereas you do want to close out those possibilities for us. Which is more arrogant?

We on my side of the great divide don't, for the most part, believe that our values are direct orders from God. We don't claim that they are immutable and beyond argument. We are, if anything, crippled by reason and open-mindedness, by a desire to persuade rather than insist. Which philosophy is more elitist? Which is more contemptuous of people who disagree?"

:: Jim Nichols 11/07/2004 09:43:00 PM [+] ::
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Moral overtones... or making meaning out of exit polls Dynamist Blog: Now, Will You Believe Me?

:: Jim Nichols 11/07/2004 08:57:00 PM [+] ::
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One thing I have to remind myself of every day--we are merely biologic algorithms programmed to reproduce and spread our genetic code.

:: Jim Nichols 11/07/2004 07:51:00 PM [+] ::
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Bush Country

Yahoo! News - Georgia Evolution Case Heads to Court:

"School officials in suburban Cobb County go to court Monday to defend themselves against a lawsuit accusing the district of promoting religion by requiring that science textbooks warn students evolution is 'a theory, not a fact.' "

:: Jim Nichols 11/07/2004 07:21:00 PM [+] ::
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