Month: August 2006

Shorties’ Advocate

Follow up on last post.

Two items on Plan B: one from Time Magazine and a frankly more important one from Molly Saves the Day.

Cheneyfilter: Mr. Cheney dazzles us with logic that would have earned him a D- in high school geometry. He also completely reframes reality to suit his rhetorical whim. In other Cheney news, we bring you See Dick Run (the country) and — only tangentially about Cheney himself — Cheney Can’t Scare Me Anymore. One thing that struck me as interesting about this editorial is that the author thought this was so important, he wrote and submitted this despite being on sabbatical.

“OK, OK, we’ll give them a trial. But we won’t show the accused all the evidence.” No! Really! Never mind that pesky Constitution thingy: “Despite assuring Congress that career military lawyers are helping design new trials for accused terrorists, the Bush administration has limited their input on their key request, that any tribunals must give detainees the right to see the evidence against them, officials said.” Somehow or another, this country managed to get through the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the War on Drugs, to say nothing of Prohibition without such measures. The government didn’t need secret evidence against Al Capone.

Insane rules on asylum.

They’ve run afoul of the Patriot Act of 2001 and the REAL ID Act of 2005, which further tightened asylum laws.

The Karen are not alone. Many people trying to escape Cuba, Liberia, Colombia and other troubled countries are classified as having provided “material support” to terrorists. In reality, many were forced to aid violent soldiers who passed through their villages.

Women in Liberia who were raped by soldiers have been told that they offered aid to rebel groups, experts say. Cubans who resisted Fidel Castro’s communist regime have been denied entry here because of supposed affiliation with clandestine terrorist groups.

Many Karen refugees, who make up the largest group affected by the legislation, may have aided the Karen National Liberation Army, a militia that fights the country’s military junta.

Here is an update. Two things about this situation strike me as being even more Kafka-esque. First, under Real ID rules, none of these people will be able to get a form of identification that will allow them into any federal building, such as an immigration office or a courthouse. Hopefully you see where that might delay normalizing their status. The other thing that should make your head spin is that while we are turning away people who are the victims of horrible violence in their home countries, who already have family and support organizations here in the United States, who would otherwise live in refugee camps hoping nothing else bad happens, and who most importantly are using legal channels to try and get into the United States, the Senate wants to give just forgive and forget about several million people who came to this country illegally. Not even the Right Wing News thinks that’s a good idea.

Obligatory comments on the anniversary of Katrina: one by a Professor of Political Science who just happens to have family in New Orleans and one more general item about Katrina, Terrorists, and the DHS from Dr. B’s guest blogger, No Nym. Note the links; a good researcher cites sources. Update: just arrived in my email.

A timely item on school lunches and agriculture.

Consumer confidence numbers for the American economy were released today, and they are down. It’s the lowest level since last November, and the biggest drop — what a coincidence — since Katrina hit. Let the argument about what that means begin. While many people are talking about the fact that Americans are worried about the availability of jobs, few are openly talking about the fact that real wages are stagnant. Update: lagging consumer confidence could also have something to do with the fact that poverty remains unchanged (1 out of 8 people and 1 out of 4 black people live in poverty) and the number of people without health insurance rose for the 5th year in a row.

Elsewhere in the wild world of business and economic news: Whispers of Mergers set off Suspicious Trading (who knew??) and United States wants China to have bigger role at the IMF. I am curious about the real reasons why.

And finally, an utterly absurd situation which sums up why average people will either insist upon an overhaul of airplane security rules or stop flying: Airline loses the prosthetic leg of a disabled athlete after making her put it in checked baggage.

Mike

OK, I don’t normally write about local politics. I have readers from all over the world, and I realize that the majority of you don’t particularly care about issues local to my area unless they are particularly interesting for whatever reason. However, this is in regards to a Senate race in a state with almost 6 million residents. I honestly figured I should talk about the housing data that was such bad news yesterday, particularly when correlated to the bad durable goods numbers. Just to give you an idea, Ford is having to give 0% financing to subprime borrowers to move just about everything, including trucks. As icing on the cake, the rental market is heating up in some places.

But no, instead I bring you an overview of the 2006 race for United States Senator in Washington.

Six years ago, Maria Cantwell defeated incumbent Slade Gorton (yes, he’s related to the fish stick people). That means she’s up for re-election. Although the primary is not for another month yet, her presumed opponent is Mike McGavick.

Mr. McGavick’s ads focus on nice, fuzzy, feel-good things like how great it would be if instead of politicians, we were just people working together for the common good. No talk of issues, no stances, nothing. But it turns out he supports Lieberman. And it turns out that when you scratch the surface, he’s just another Republican, with pretty much the same slate of Republican ideas, who falls in line with the President’s ideas. He’s not an outsider, but an old political behind the scenes hack who was Chief of Staff to former Senator Gorton, and then a lobbyist who tried to weaken Superfund rules.

And now he’s trying to get his “youthful” indiscretions out in the open and out of the way. Let’s start with this:

McGavick began his letter on the Web site by asking rhetorically, “What’s wrong with politics today?” Then he excoriated the tenor of his race with incumbent Cantwell, in which he said he is being attacked.

Um, sorry. When someone holds themselves up as a political candidate you can have a friendly chat and a beer with, they have to expect someone will reply “No he’s not! And sorry, what’s that got to do with anything?”

Mr. McGavick went on to confess that he was on marriage #2 (having divorced the mother of his son many years ago), and that he was arrested for drunk driving in 1993 (at the tender youthful age of 35). Oh and yeah he dismissed 450 employees after telling everyone there would be no more layoffs.

The purpose behind these revelations is to minimize their value. Don’t let them get released a week before the elections, for example. But there’s more. Getting this information out there means that he doesn’t have to actually talk about issues for a while. And Mr. McGavick doesn’t want anyone noticing that his stance on the issues is pretty much neo-con.

I hope Ms. Cantwell is in a position to say “Yes, he’s right. We need to focus on the issues, not 13 year old DUIs. So here’s where I stand. And according to Mr. McGavick’s website, he stands for this.”

On a related note, Elisa is right on times three. And now for something completely different: Bernanke “Argues for work retraining programs and other ways to ease pain caused by economic shifts; no comments on interest rates or inflation”; a scary statistic; and finally over 1800 pictures of Hello Kitty.

Terraist Roundup!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am dangerously close to declaring that the terrorists have won.

New flight restrictions, updated just this morning, prohibit pretty much anything liquid or gel. Such restrictions promise to be enforced for the forseeable future with only minor tweaks. People are reporting that the TSA is taking away books, asthma inhalers, not letting people with certain kinds of shoe insoles fly, and generally making life difficult. Thankfully the restrictions are not as bad as in London, where electronics are also prohibited. Can you imagine taking a Trans-Atlantic flight with no reading matter and no electronics? For that matter, it makes business travel impossible. There are many people who cannot allow their computers to be checked as baggage. Period.

Nor can you bring a beverage on the plane purchased at the post-security-checkpoint convenience store. This means — to me anyway — that the authorities do not believe they have secured the post-checkpoint area. I’ll repeat that: authorities to not believe they have secured the post-checkpoint area. If that area were secure, we could assume everything and everyone in it was secure. What about cleaning supplies, you say? Those should be either in a locked storage area or in the control of the background-checked cleaning crew.

If we must assume that someone behind the security checkpoint could be a Bad Guy capable of getting banned items to other Bad Guys to take on airplanes, we must ask ourselves why these Bad Guys wouldn’t just put a bomb directly on the plane. Follow up: “Several handguns have been stolen from bags checked by police officers, military personnel and others on United Airlines flights departing O’Hare International Airport, sparking concern that the weapons are loose in what is supposed to be a secure part of the airport.”

Even with the increased scrutiny, “suspicious items” are still turning up on airplanes. And the nice folks over at BoingBoing ask whether these security measures apply to high level officials.

For that matter, am I the only person who has noticed that the last time we heard from Bin Laden and Zawahiri, Zawahiri was standing in what looked very much like a standard newscast set? For that matter, if Bin Laden is sending his tapes from a remote cave by yak courier, shouldn’t there be a great deal of reverb on those tapes? Now, since I don’t really want to go out on a limb saying such crazy talk as “those tapes aren’t real, just a government plot to keep you scared,” I am forced to assume that we haven’t really got them on the run as much as we’d like.

Bruce Schneier reminds us that “The goal of a terrorist is to cause terror…. And if you want to know what you can do to help? Don’t be terrorized.” That’s hard to do when CNN is running Terror Target Monday. Maybe it will help to put it in cartoon form.

In closing: a second helping of Chertoff. Some Star Trek Motivational Posters! A plan to reduce the costs of drug testing that would warm Dr. Mengele’s heart. Speaking of World War II atrocities, 39% of recently polled Americans think Muslims should have to carry a “special” ID. How about sewing a red crescent to their jackets? Please forgive my bigotry; I hate bigots. And when research keeps saying teens brains aren’t up at 7:30, why do school administrators still insist on having classes then? Are they trying to fail?

Fatty Fatty 2 by 4, Can’t Get Through the Cooler Door

Yes yes, I’ve said it before, but there’s yet another new study — actually a study that looked at 30 studies published over the last 40 years — that supports what I’ve been saying for a long time. Americans drink lots of sugary sodas with no nutritional value, and as a result gain weight. Did you know that an extra can of soda daily can cause you to gain 15 pounds in a year? And that’s a 12 ounce can, not the 20 ounce bottle you’ll find at most convenience stores. Maybe you weren’t aware that on average Americans get 8-9% of their total calories from sugary beverages.

Super-sized cheesy poofs and snacky cakes are part of the American obesity problem, sure. But 8% of your calories coming from sugary drinks could sure explain why your pants are a bit tight.

Oh, the USA Today version of the article includes quotes from two scientists who are paid by such “impartial” groups as the American Beverage Association that amount to “Waah! They didn’t use the two studies that say what we wanted them to say!” Nope, in the Associated Press’s words, they only used “40 years of nutrition studies that met strict standards for relevance and scientific muster.” (Emphasis mine)

Want a healthier diet? Not ready to run out and buy a copy of Diet for a Dead Planet? Start by cutting the soda. Maybe it won’t cause the pounds to melt away, but getting rid of the calories that come from sugary drinks has to be a good start.

In closing, The BBC confirms that employers don’t want to hire people who can’t use the language properly; Windows users, get that security update ASAP; “Polite Advice for Mainstream Journalists”; Maya’s Granny offers concise wisdom on why Lieberman lost; Seeing the Forest has an interesting view on the draft; and finally American Academy of Pediatrics offers more advice parents can’t follow, “warn[ing] parents against placing children in shopping carts and… advising they look for alternatives.” Alternatives? Like what? Having groceries delivered, or maybe pushing a stroller in addition to a cart? Even coverage of the study says “that child restraints in shopping carts are just part of the solution and that shopping carts need to be redesign to prevent them tipping over and the current safety standard strengthened to prevent such injuries.” Of course they don’t mention paying attention to junior while you shop. These are the same people who recommend that children under the age of two not watch any tv under any circumstances, effectively meaning no tv for the whole family if “the baby” is awake. Too bad if your pre-schooler wants to watch Sesame Street. Too bad if you want to see the news.

Caw, Caw, Bang, Bang, $#!+ I’m Dead

I missed it.

I first discussed workplace violence over two years ago, and in many ways nothing has changed. File under “sad but true.”

The latest incident was probably big news locally when it happened, but you wouldn’t know it now. In fact, I would have overlooked it completely if it hadn’t been for a commentary on it called “Death at the Supermarket.”

Now, I am not ready to blame workplace violence on the Reagan Administration. But I am willing to say that workplace violence is a big problem, and employers need to think very carefully about whether their actions and policies might be incubating a shootout. There are things every company can do to minimize their risks, and as the nice folks at Stratfor point out, physical security is only part of the puzzle.

For starters, and I can’t say this enough, screen applicants! How indepth you need to go entirely depends on your business, but there’s a lot you can learn about somebody just from following up on their resume. Call former employers; most will only verify information you already posess, but if the resume is wrong you will catch it, and you might be lucky enough to find someone who will talk. Call references — yes yes they will say Joe Average is a swell guy, but how they say it might be surprisingly insightful. Speaking of “how they say it,” pay attention to exactly what your applicant says on the phone and at his/her interview. Be careful of filtering with things you want to hear. For pity sake I don’t care how desperately you need warm bodies, if the applicant gives you the creeps, you don’t have to hire. It’s a whole lot better to not hire someone than to fire someone on every conceivable level.

After you hire people, you are responsible for the atmosphere they work in. The Alternet article makes crystal clear that when you tolerate abuse, hazing, and ridicule in your workplace, you are asking for trouble. Oh, and school administrators, are you paying attention? This means you, too. Schools are workplaces too, in their own way. And most of the “workers” have the judgement of children. Boys will be boys? Sure, until the day somebody has had enough.

Being a bad boss can put you and your company at risk. Remember that the next time you interact with employees. We may all laugh at how Lumbergh treats employees, but it’s no laughing matter when real employees light the place on fire.

But even if you are in charge of hiring, even if you are supervisory personnel, you may or may not have any control over corporate culture. What you can do and stay within “the rules” are often limited. Corporate policies that force families apart, and 3-letter types who raise their own pay while asking rank and file to take wage, benefit, and pension cuts don’t make for happy, productive employees.

Just because they aren’t shooting up the place doesn’t mean their attitude isn’t hurting business. Try treating employees like human beings.

In closing, worried about RFID passports?; follow up on the housing market; it must be real nice to get 5 weeks paid vacation, especially when your desk is still covered in unfinished work; judge swings both gavel and cluebat, declaring that a mis-matched name is not reason enough to consider someone a fraudulent voter; what investigators were told and what the tapes show about military response on September 11 are not quite the same; a new false sense of security card, but this one is virtual and (supposedly) just for kids!; and finally “But still Pharoah’s head remained hard.” Amen, brother Toles.