Category: current events

I am so tempted. Unfortunately, I can’t because I work for the company that owns HBO, but man would I love it. Every time I think I understand the system, something happens to shake my faith it. This whole thing with Cheney and refusing to turn over documents about the energy taskforce is driving me nuts. I don’t want the energy policy for my country decided in secret after talking to the heads of all the major energy brokers. Everything about government that’s not related to national security should be transparent and out in the open. This wasn’t an RNC meeting. It was a meeting between the Vice President of the United States and people who spent a lot of money on his campaign (not just his, but several). The American people have a right to know what decision lead to the policies that are inflicted on us. It’s the only way we can make informed decisions about who to vote for and what to support.

My favorite part of the administration’s argument is the need for “unvarnished” advice. You’ll never get “unvarnished” advice from a CEO for a company you’re about to set a regulatory policy for. The argument is thinner than Calista Flockhart. You’ll never get completely objective advice from anyone who’s actually involved or affected by a policy. The only way to come to an semi-objective conclusion is to take all of the subjective advice, compare it to the available facts and proceed with a course of action.

I have to actually get work done now, but I’ll come back to this topic at some point, I’m sure.

I just realized today that they haven’t had Indian food in the cafeteria since September 11th. How odd.

Our government continues to classify the “detainees” in Cuba as unlawful combatants, and therefore are not covered under the Geneva Convention. While I agree that they may not be traditional POWs, I still think we should go out of our way to afford them every privelage given to POWs under the Geneva Convention. What?! Yes, I know. Just yesterday I was all for stringing them all up by their toes until they tell us everything they know. I realized that in all of the future, yet-to-happen fighting, undoubtedly some of our troops will be captured. We don’t want to give the other side any excuse to not extend the same privelages and treatment to our soldiers.

We have to be beyond reproach in this respect. We’re America – the biggest, the strongest. We can’t go gathering up the angry little guys and putting them in cages. We have to treat them like soldiers even if they’re just terrorists. Just because this is a “new kind of war”, we shouldn’t stoop any lower than we have to. Treating the captured Taliban and Al-Queda fighters as POWs is an easy and internationally visible way to start.

Crappy Segue

If I hear anyone else from the Bush administration call Al Queda “the evildoers” one more time, I’m going to lose it and start throwing things. It’s President Bush’s favorite phrase, and just yesterday on Meet the Press, I heard it from Andrew Card, the Chief of Staff. Come on. Don’t you think that over-simplifies what they are and what they’re trying to do? Al Queda is not Doctor Doom, or Boris and Natascha or Muttly. They’re fanatics who believe that America is the Great Satan. And that’s just the beginning. Calling them “evil-doers” and “the bad guys” turns this into an episode of Starsky and Hutch. It minimizes the threat into a two-dimensional comic book instead of a global ideological war, a bloody culture clash that could drag on for decades. So, stop it, you poops.

Ok, I take back most of what I said about Virginia. They’re still impossible to get a hold of, and they suck when it comes to communication. But, they took the stuff I sent them and we’re all set. I don’t owe them $5,000. Now, I need to go get some clean pants. I think I was a little too relieved.

Oh, and don’t try to call them. Their phone is always busy. Thank you, government!

Government says women have no right to drug (from Salon). Wow… and I thought we were bad.

In the words of Eve, “Corporations are bastards.“

So, El Presidente threw out the first pitch in New York the other night. He made it across the plate! I know, how hard can it be to throw a ball 60 (is that how far it is) feet? Well, he dad didn’t do it. I have burned in the back of my brain George Bush Senior throwing a ball in the dust about 15 feet short of home plate. I don’t even know why I remember it, but it made my little teenage brain wonder about how much power this guy actually had if he can’t even throw a baseball.

There you have it, my less than cool but slightly interesting tidbit of the morning.