Do you suppose Air America will make it to any of the radio stations in the DC area? I'm trying to listen to the "O'Franken Factor" right now, but unfortunately their audio stream is experiencing technical difficulties, probably due to people like me who are overloading their internet-serving capabilities.

I admit, I'll listen to conservative talk radio once in a blue moon, but I usually can't listen to long--they tend to be over-convinced their world view is correct, and too abrasive to those who don't have exactly the same opinions as they do. Air America sounds interesting & I wish them well. If I manage to listen to the audio stream, I'll give a small review.

The GOP: losing the geek vote? Another reason to hate pop-up ads.

Could be alternatively titled: The GOP: throwing money down the drain because everyone but them has heard of pop-up blockers.

Are Dems soon to follow? The article mentions they haven't ruled the idea out.

I happened to catch a snippet of the 9/11 commission hearing today, by tuning in to the live feed that NPR was broadcasting online. I listed to a little of Secretary of State Powell's testimony before the commission. I wasn't paying very close attention, but this is what stuck out to my ears:

Commission member: Was there anything that could have been done to prevent the 9/11 attacks?
Powell: No, no there wasn't.

That is what my brain heard. Actually, that's not what was said. Here's what was actually said, text lifted from the WaPo transcript:

THOMPSON: Would more frequent principals meetings in that period or more small group meetings in that period have prevented 9/11?

POWELL: No, and I'm not quite sure I followed the rationale between more meetings and preventing 9/11. We met constantly. It wasn't always at principals level. But there was no lack of communication between the principals. There was no lack of exchange of information and data.

I was briefed every morning by my intelligence people. So were all of the other principals. The president got daily briefings from the director of Central Intelligence, and we consulted with each other about all of these issues. So I don't think it was a lack of meetings that resulted in 9/11, if that's the suggestion.

THOMPSON: In your opinion, would an invasion of Afghanistan, between February of '91, and September of '91, prevented 9/11?

POWELL: I can't answer that, but I can say that those who were perpetrators of 9/11, who were actually going to conduct the attacks of 9/11, already had their instructions, had their plans in place, and they were in the process of infiltrating themselves into the United States, or they were already here.

And invading Afghanistan and cutting off the head, if you succeeded in getting Osama bin Laden and disrupting al Qaeda at that point, I have no reason to believe that would have caused them to abort their plans.

I suppose that's a bit different than what my half-asleep brian heard. However, it will be interesting to see what the results of the commission will be. The main question the commission is trying to answer is "Why did 9/11 happen and could it have been prevented?" And stemming from that, how can we prevent further such acts? Hopefully, the answers will not be lost in a sea of defensive/partisan bickering.

On another note, a few days ago, the state department issued a new "worldwide caution" warning. Remember, there may be nothing we can do to prevent terrorism, but we can sure try to scare you with it.

So there actually is a reason why people tend to turn into idiots once they come to DC: the water. To be specific, it's the incredibly high amount of lead in the tap water. This is the latest scandal to hit the district, and it's been the talk of the town for the past month or so. Unfortunately, the elevated lead levels have been around for at least half a year or so. The government has recently started to distribute water filtration devices to district residents, and has been telling people to flush their taps for 5, 10, 15 minutes before using the tap water. Now, a study has found that DC kids' blood lead levels are at least 47 percent higher than the national average for their age group. At least.

I wonder if the president uses DC tap water?

I don't mean to make fun of the situation, but sometimes in dire circumstances, the easiest way to deal with things is to joke about them. For a run-down of all the news regarding the lead fiasco, take a look at the Washington Post Special Report: Drinking Water page.

I wanted to post this up real quick:

NY Times' "Politics Navigator"

It's basically a list of a bunch of (US) politics-related websites, including links to government pages like the white house and senate, and partisan and special-interest sites. It's by no means comprehensive, but there's a lot of good links on there. It's interesting to note that they did not include any links to political blogs, like Atrios or Andrew Sullivan.

Work Work Play Work...I'll be spending the weekend with Rushdie and Midnight's Children, and the next few days trying to iron out the kinks in my translation project. I hope I can get it going properly. I'll try and update whenever I can. Maybe E will have something to write about. In the meantime, my favorite radical has been posting like a madman these last few days. Drop him a line.

Relaxing the Rules

From Today's NYTimes:

U.S. Set to Ease Some Provisions of School Law


By SAM DILLON

Published: March 14, 2004



Education Secretary Rod Paige says the Bush administration is working to soften the impact of important provisions of its centerpiece school improvement law that local educators and state lawmakers have attacked as arbitrary and unfair.

On Monday, the Education Department will announce policies relaxing a requirement that says teachers must have a degree or otherwise certify themselves in every subject they teach, Dr. Paige said in an interview on Friday. Officials are also preparing to offer new flexibility on regulations governing required participation rates on standardized tests, he said.

There's more...but I'm not exactly sure what to make of it. In one sense, I think that some change is necessary, or at least the law needs to be fully funded. In a different sense, I don't, for a second, agree that it's okay for the people teaching our children to not have a degree or to be certified. Certification doesn't take that long (about two years), and considering the benefits that it offers in terms of career options and peace of mind, it shouldn't be that big of a deal to anyone truly serious about teaching. What this does, more or less, is open the door to the "darkside" of educators, those who want to teach but don't want to go through the process it takes to get certified. I personally wouldn't be comfortable having my hypothetical child being taught by Joe Offthestreet.

But then again, what do I know?

If you ever want to experience true bureacracy, just take a trip down to the Library of Congress (link to the right). After spending 20 minutes getting the photo identification card that one needs to even enter a reading room in the library, let alone actually look at books, I was treated to my first experience with closed stacks. The conversation went something like this:

ME: So I just fill out this form and then you'll retrieve the book for me right?

Librarian: No. Fill out the form, and then I'll fax it over to the section where someone will retrieve the book and bring it here, and I'll give it to you.

ME: But the books are right in that other room, right? So why couldn't someone just walk over there and get it?

Librarian: Many of our books are located in other buildings, and take some time to find. Just fill out the form and I'll fax it over. You should get it within the hour.

ME: Ok.

After filling out the form and handing it to the librarian

Librarian: Oh.

ME: What?

Librarian: Well, this book is actually offsite at Fort Meade. You won't be able to get it today.

ME: But you said that you'd be able to fax it over and I'd get it within the hour.

Librarian: Yes but this book is actually in storage at a separate facility. It'll take more time to get here. Can you come back tomorrow, or possibly Monday?

So, long story short, I filled out a second form for a different author after a thorough search, which was unfortunately submitted 10 minutes after the final request time. I'll be heading back there in the morning.
Your government at work!

(Although, in all fairness, it really is quite an impressive collection and anyone who can should go and visit)

So, as the 2004 presidential campaign gears up, we should be hearing more about health care. There were an estimated 43.6 million people (15.2 % of the population) in the United States without health insurance in 2002. This number does not include people without insurance for only a few months, for example if they were in between jobs for several months. So, this is a minimum number, and drawing from that, we can estimate that there are upwards of 20% of people in the US without health insurance at any one time.

So, why is this important? I mean, the majority of Americans have some sort of health coverage and are able to see a doctor if they become ill. Why should any of them care about people without health insurance? Public health, and terrorism.

Think about this: a terrorist attack using biological weapons. A couple suicide-bio-weapon-bomber guys infect themselves with something like smallpox, or SARS, or bubonic plague. They wait until they are contagious and start traveling around a large metropolis, going on subways and buses or hanging out in malls. When someone with health insurance starts coming down with "flu-like symptoms" soon afterwards, he is going to go to a doctor, and the outbreak can be identified and hopefully contained. If someone without insurance comes down with the same symptoms, that person is not going to go to a doctor, at least not right away. Meanwhile, if the disease is still in the contagious stage, he will help spread the disease to others.

I don't understand why this idea hasn't gained any traction. Maybe I don't understand something about transmission of diseases, but this seems like a plausible scenario to me. Furthermore, it doesn't need to be terrorism; it could just as easily be a SARS (or any other highly infectious disease) breakout.

My $ .02.

The Saturday Burial - Keep an eye out for it!

From Today's NY Times:

Administration Sets Forth a Limited View on Privacy

By ROBERT PEAR and ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, March 5 — In a sharp departure from its past insistence on the sanctity of medical records, the Bush administration has set forth a new, more limited view of privacy rights as it tries to force hospitals and clinics to turn over records of hundreds and perhaps thousands of abortions.

Federal law "does not recognize a physician-patient privilege," the Justice Department said last month in court papers that sought abortion records from Planned Parenthood clinics in California, Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington. Moreover, the department said in another abortion case, patients "no longer possess a reasonable expectation that their histories will remain completely confidential."

**EDIT**

The Justice Department says it needs the records to defend a new law that prohibits what opponents call partial-birth abortions. Doctors and clinics have challenged the law, saying it bars them from performing certain medically needed abortions.


Privacy advocates say the administration has rolled back some safeguards adopted by President Bill Clinton, and the Justice Department says now that the 1996 law is no obstacle to its efforts to obtain abortion records. In court papers, the Justice Department says the records are needed to show that the banned procedure is almost never medically necessary and "poses serious risks."

Dennis J. Herrera, the city attorney for San Francisco, said he was deeply troubled by Washington's stance.

"Any reasonable person has an expectation that their medical records are going to be kept private," Mr. Herrera said. "If physicians and patients are left wondering whether their records are going to be made public, that has a real chilling effect. How candid are people really going to be with their doctors?"

The abortion recipients are not directly involved in the litigation, and the government has not told them that it wants their records.

There's more, so check it out if you can. The problem here isn't just one of abortion, it's precedent over where privacy begins and ends for the individual.

A little bit about the freetime thing: We spend an awful lot of time watching anime. If anyone is interested in anime at all, here's a few series you should be on the lookout for:

Fullmetal Alchemist - story about two young brothers who travel the world using alchemy in a quest to restore their bodies to their original forms. It sounds strange, and I can't really explain more without going through a two page synopsis of the story thus far, but just trust me and seek it out.
Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex - A series of stories involving the characters from the film. The series was originally only slated to run for 26 episodes in Japan but a second season was picked up and just started.
InuYasha - This can be viewed on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, though Adult Swim hasn't gotten nearly as far in the series as they have in Japan (I believe they're on episode 141 now...AS is at episode 60 maybe?)
Chrno Crusade - In an alternate universe, a young Nun, whose life is bound to her demon and partner Chrno, searches for her missing brother, an avatar of God. Based on the content of this, I'll be HIGHLY surprised if this series ever makes it the US in a mainstream format.
Naruto - Story of a young underdog ninja from a village of ninja training with the ultimate goal of becoming the best. In terms of action and storyline, this is probably one of the most compelling series I've seen in quite some time.

That's just a basic roundup. I'll post more as they come to mind. Most information about these can be found through a basic google search of the names above. And..um..resourceful people will probably know where to look for these series...

From Reuters, via today's NYT:

Job Growth in February Is Surprisingly Weak


By REUTERS


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers added a paltry 21,000 workers to their payrolls last month, far fewer than expected, according to a government report on Friday that was likely to weigh on President Bush as he seeks re-election.

In its report, the Labor Department said private-sector employment was unchanged in February, while the government added 21,000 workers.

The report also showed job creation in November and December was weaker than previously thought, adding to the weak tone of the report. The department revised lower its count of jobs gains in December to 97,000 from 112,000 and for November to just 8,000 from 16,000.

February's unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent.

Economists at top Wall Street firms had forecast a February payrolls gain of 125,000 new jobs.

Over the last three months, employment has risen an average of just 42,000 per month, down from the 79,000 average of the prior three months and far short of the 150,000 or so jobs needed each month just to keep pace with growth in the labor force.

Employment in construction tumbled by 24,000, while the factory sector shed 3,000 workers, the 43rd consecutive monthly drop.

The service sector also proved surprisingly weak, creating only 46,000 new positions.

Democrats have hit Bush hard for presiding over the weakest period of jobs creation for any president since Herbert Hoover during the Great Depression.

I wonder how much further away from that jobs report they'll be able to backpedal...

Well the link is there...so I can only assume that they're up and running. Now in the unlikely event that someone actually reads this thing, I can get some feedback (crosses fingers in vain that it will all be constructive.

Anyways...Life carries on...Still on the hunt for a possible internship this summer, working out the thesis (some of which I may post on here at some point, if anyone still cares about poetry) and just general vagrancy. I'm "off" for a week+ for spring break (by off I mean "don't have to attend classes but will still be working on things because none of my professors wanted to take anything with them while they all went to Peru or Tahiti or wherever they go for their week vacation"), so I'll probably have more time/commentary to toss around here. Keep an eye out for it.

;-)

Just added comments...hopefully they work...

Waaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

I chipped my tooth on a frying pan.

Yeah. That's right. I chipped my freaking tooth on a freaking frying pan. Now, I feel I should mention, that I have a fear of bad things happening to teeth. Bad stuff like teeth getting knocked out, or falling out, or getting chipped. It's probably similar to the way some people have a phobia of spiders or creepy-crawlies.

So, this evening, I was trying to get a wok out to cook some dinner with. The wok was waaay in the back of the cabinet, and so I was holding a bunch of pots, pans, lids, etc. I then lose my balance, and as my butt went thunk on the floor, a frying pan I had been holding went thwack on my tooth. I sat there on the ground, then slowly came to the paralyzing realization that there was something wrong. I yelled for J to come and take the pans off of me, then I reached into my mouth and came out with a chip of enamel. I was okay for a little while, and then came the freak-out. I started crying and breathing very heavily, by which I mean mildly hyperventilating. I went to the bathroom and started spitting out the rest of the tiny bits of my tooth that had cracked off. J started to get worried at this point, and I asked him to get me a glass of water. I rinsed my mouth out a few more times, just to be sure. Sure of what, I don't exactly know. You see, the little piece of enamel that had chipped off was really not that big. And the bits I had to spit out were really tiny. Anyways, J was kind enough to call the dentist for me to find out what we should do, and now, a few hours later, I'm more or less calm. Except that I can feel the jagged edge of my top left second-from-the-front tooth. And the layers of enamel. And it feels that more can break off at any second...

*deep, cleansing breath* *deep, cleansing breath* *deep cleansing breath*

Needless to say, I'll be calling the dentist bright and early tomorrow morning.