Since today is primary day in California, it’s time for some political material.

I was reading the paper today and ran into an article that detailed some of the Bush administrations actions and plans. Sort of scary stuff, including detention camps, secret trials, classification of terrorists, etc. It felt sort of weird to read it. My first thought was “Is this real?” It just seemed a little bit Orwellian, a bit of 1984 in 2008. I put the link below so you can read it:
Executive Plans

I was curious about the detention camps so I googled KBR and got another link to an article about that:
KBR Detention

The Military Commisions Act of 2006 mentioned in the sfgate.com article is discussed further in Wikipedia:
MilitaryCommissionsAct

One step away from democracy, one step closer to dictatorship.
If we take away rights of US citizens, decide to ignore the Geneva Convention, etc, we are no better than the terrorists that we fight. In additon, we lose any moral position negotiating with countries that would treat captured Americans badly.

I also found a news story about a KBR female employee who was raped by co-workers in Iraq, imprisoned by KBR, and threatened with losing her job after the rape. Nothing has been done by the Bush administration, which apparently thinks raping US women is okay as long as it does not detract from corporate profits or “the war on terror”.
Iraq Rape

Then I read today that the Bush Administration, you know, the ones who constantly tell us to “support our troops”, is arguing in federal court that veterans are not entitled to mental health care, as well as other specific types of care. They are only entitled to what the VA can give them or decides to give them. In other words, “thanks for your service, see you later”. It is just criminal what this administration had done. I think that’s one of the reasons the Dems have some excitement this year. I hope some of the administration people and corporations are prosecuted in the future.

A few weeks ago I was surfing around My Space in the music section. I like to start with checking out an artist or band, then clicking on their friends, and then sometimes on the friends of their friends. Sort of like that 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon thing. You never know where you’ll end up, and who you will find. I also find that I find stuff I never would have otherwise. Anyway, I ended up finding an instrumentalist rock guitarist named Ty Oliver. Turns out he’s from Santa Cruz, about an hour from where I live, but I had never heard of him before. I thought his music was pretty good, melodic and not just a bunch of fast notes like some of the guitarists.

So I emailed him and actually got a response, one of the nice things about musicians who are not mega stars with gads of assistants. It’s amazing the number of people out there doing music because it’s what they love, even if they are not making millions of bucks. I think it’s a tough life sometimes, and I admire them. Having the talent to create music is really something special. Althought I played violin in school way back, I was always just a decent player. I remember watching the really good musicians and being amazed at what they could do and how easy they could make it look.

Anyway, for those interested in instrumental rock guitar, the link to Ty’s My Space site is below:

Ty Oliver

Campaign is heating up in California. Only four more days left, and then thankfully we won't be subjected to any more Indian casino ads. No matter what you watch on TV or listen to on the radio, you hear pro and con casino ads. Unbelievable the amount of money being spent.

There's also a term limits bill being pushed by politicians and those who benefit from the system. They neglect to mention that there's a loophole conveniently letting current incumbents serve longer during the transition. Like many other states, we have some real winners, corrupt to the bone. The clean elections idea sounds good, and perhaps it will spread AND be effective.

I assume the presidential races become clearer in the next month or so. Seems like McCain may end up the Republican nominee, as Romney seems to polished and pretty boy, and Paul and Huckabee fall to the rear. However, you never know. McCain is someone who got a lot of good press in the past for being a maverick and standing up to special interests. However, he has flopped on several of his positions to appease the Republican right wingers in the primary, and I get the feeling he's become just another politician who has sacrificed his beliefs. There was an interesting article on salon.com about him. Link is below:

JohnMcCain

Unless Bush's war takes a dramatic turn for the better, or the Dems self destruct, I think they take the White House this year. Not necessarily a great prize, given they'll inherit huge deficits, several wars, and an economy in recession. Maybe they'll make the hard choices to improve things, but given the poor performance of the Dems in Congress this past year, I don't have my hopes up too high.

I used to think Obama would get nomination over Clinton, but I'm not sure. Still pretty close to call, and she is in the lead. She has some negatives, and I would think Obama would do better than her in a general election. We'll see.

One thing that I've noticed is that in the mainstream media there is not a whole lot of coverage of issues and in depth analysis of the candidates records and proposals. It seems that 70 or 80% of the coverage is devoted to calling a horse race. We get daily updates of how each candidate did, what they said (a little) and analysis of who's doing better or worse, and information about the controversy of the day. I don't know if this is a function of the editors and owners of the papers preventing in depth stories, or if it is a lack of time or lack of knowledge on the reporters' part. It is one of the reasons why the electorate is not always that well informed. (One of the other is that too many people are focused on Britney's latest hospital stay).

I came home at lunch today, and met my next door neighbor outside. Her English is extremely limited, but it turns out the garbage guys had missed her pickup this morning. So I told her I'd call the garbage company for her. Ironically enough, once I called and got the main greeting, it sounded like they had a choice of about 7 or 8 different languages, and I assume Mandarin or Cantonese was one of them.

Anyway, it got me to thinking. Communication is a little tough sometimes, when you're talking to a neighbor that doesn't speak your language, inlaws that speak another language, or business people in another country. It would be nice if there were some telephone based system where you and the other person could call in, be linked up, and speak in your native tongue, then have it translated and spoken to the other person in their own language. It would be pretty cool. I don't think I've heard of such a system so far, although who knows, maybe someone somewhere is working on it.

I assume that most of us have thought "Gee, it'd be nice if someone could invent this or that" at some point in our lives. I remember thinking it'd be nice to have a motor on my bike when I was a kid, then seeing mopeds show up a few years later. One of my grade school teachers used to tell us about her dream as a kid of seeing pictures in a box, then seeing TV some years later.

I find it fascinating sometime to see what is coming in the future and what inventions have come out over the years.

There was an interesting article in SF Chronicle on Sunday Jan 6 about Pakistan. The link is here:

Pakistan

Some of the ideas mentioned include:

The epicenter of terror resides inside Pakistan rather than Afghanistan or Iraq.

While we have given enormous amounts of military aid to Pakistan since the 50’s, in belief that it is a moderate, Pro-Western country with a professional military, we are mistaken. Pakistan’s military thinks of itself as the citadel of a Muslim world under seige.

Pakistan has used the military aid against other countries and against its citizens, and it is so entrenched in power that further aid will continue to do more harm than good.

I encourage people to read the entire article, as it was really worthwhile. It’s just another example of how the Bushies have ignored reality as they plunged the US into ill fated missions. With Pakistan promoting unrest in Afghanistan, Iran promoting unrest in Iraq, and the US supporting governments in both war torn countries that are not universally popular, it results in a long term hemorraging of US money, lives, and goodwill.

I remember when I was younger I used to dismiss (to some extent) the peaceniks that were against US military aid programs. However, after seeing the numerous unsuccesful results (Middle East, South America, Asia), I tend to agree with them. I think the US should be far more careful in committing troops, and should drastically reduce its military aid programs. The money saved could be used for economic aid programs (small scale wherever possible) that would have much more long term benefit.

Then again, Washington is ruled by special interests, not common sense.....