Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Our National Discourse

Tom Friedman today:

The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious — the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout.

I don't always like Friedman, (in fact, he's pretty goofy more often than not) but he hit the nail on the head there. We are currently in the middle of a dark period in our nation's history.


We appear to be past the worst of it. Back in the 2004 campaign, John Kerry had to refrain from being too critical of Bush because the majority of Americans would be shocked to the point of disbelief to be exposed to a dose of reality. The media has been so bad that there are just some things that you can't say in a public forum because the American public isn't ready to hear it.


I work in a company that is full of people who are in the 20% or so of the population that would support Bush even if he went on national TV and started clubbing kittens with a baseball bat. When politics comes up, I just keep my mouth shut. They're not even on the same planet as me. Their core beliefs are built on layers and layers and layers of Fox News propaganda. If I were to, for instance, describe the Valerie Plame/Scooter Libby scandal from start to finish, they would think I had gone mad. It would be like I told them the sky wasn't blue or that the Rangers will win 80 games.


The cause of this divorce from reality in our discourse is two-fold: First and foremost, the major players in our media are owned by an increasingly small number of corporations: GE, Viacom, Disney, Time Warner, and News Corp. That's just about it. And those companies all have infiltrated their respective news branches and actively filter content, and hire and fire employees based on corporate loyalty. Secondly, the media has been corrupted by GOP intimidation. The Republicans have managed to convince everybody that the media has a strong liberal bias -- never mind that much of the media has become little more than a fog horn for the Bush administration; they're still liberal!! Whenever the media is critical of the administration, they can expect to get angry phone calls and threats from all directions. Simply put, they're just scared of the Republicans.


As I have discussed previously, I believe talk radio is also part of the problem. Anti-intellectualism is at an all-time high. Many attempts to discuss issues intelligently are ridiculed when, obviously, an intelligent discussion of issues is exactly what we need.


I'm not sure exactly how we can pull out of this tailspin we're in, but I do know the Internets need to be heavily involved. That's why Net Neutrality is so important. I didn't pay a dime to start this blog, yet it is readily available to anybody in the entire world who wants to read it. If my blog were to take off (stick with me now) for whatever reason, and start getting 700,000 hits per day or something, my content providers are going to want to charge me for that exposure -- but I shouldn't be charged. That's precisely how we will tear television's death grip on the national dialog away.


This is also another reason I'm supporting Barack Obama. If you watch his speech to the Google campus on technology, you'll see that he plans to not only push for Net Neutrality, but also he wants to use the Internet to help make the operations of the federal government much more transparent. The more transparency there is, the less corruption is possible, and the harder it becomes for the media to spin a narrative away from reality.


Maybe some day, I will be able to walk up to my coworkers and tell them that George W. Bush is trying to usurp power away from Congress and the Supreme Court, that he is openly violating the Constitution by holding "enemy combatants" in prison indefinitely without access to a lawyer or to our legal system, that he is actively covering for Alberto Gonzalez in the U.S. Attorney scandal, and covering for somebody high up (probably Cheney) in the Plame scandal and not have them stare at me like I'm from outer space.

Radio Silence on Military Analyst Scandal

Good article by Glen Greenwald at Salon

Final Thoughts on Rev. Wright (promise)

I watched a few minutes of the Q&A session in Washington yesterday.


Rev. Wright is clearly a very intelligent man and a very good speaker. But it appears to me that he's been living in an atmosphere were conspiracy theories are engendered and that he is under the illusion that American society hasn't made significant strides to move past Jim Crow. Just as Obama said in his Philadelphia speech, Wright seems to think that American society is static.


The sad thing to me is that, watching his speeches and the vast majority of his comments, I really like the guy. 95% of what he says is good. The problem is, the remaining 5% is talking about how the U.S. government invented AIDS to keep the black man down and that we brought 9/11 on ourselves because our government conducts state sponsored terrorism.


Coming back to Bob Herbert's column, I still don't think that Wright was intentionally trying to hurt Obama. I think he believes that he is charismatic enough that he could just charm the country into liking him, given enough air time. He seemed to be legitimately unaware that claiming the U.S. government invented AIDS might not play well with, well, anybody.


Also, on Farrakhan, Rev. Wright's answer wasn't as bad as Obama made it out to be. When he called Farrakhan "great," he made it pretty clear he that he meant it in the "Time Magazine Person of the Year" sense. I don't know anything about Louis Farrakhan aside from skimming his Wikipedia page, but clearly, he's politically radioactive. Obama doesn't have the luxury to equivocate or speak in shades of gray in that area. I'm not sure if Farrakhan even deserves that consideration, but Wright's point seemed to be that Farrakhan isn't all bad, not that he was one of the greatest (as in a force for good) people of the 20th century.


Anyhoo, I it will be nice when this stuff blows over (if it ever does). It surely can't be helping Obama much in Indiana and North Carolina.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

More Reverend Wright

Updated Below -- I hadn't seen the really stupid stuff Wright said when I made this post originally. I would still stand by what I say here had he just stopped with the speech in Detroit, but evidently, he felt the need to go off the deep end on national TV the next day in Washington.


It appears that Obama will be reacting to Rev. Wright's latest by recoiling and further distancing himself.


From a political standpoint -- in our current political climate -- I can certainly understand that, but I still found Rev. Wright to be engaging, funny, and informative in his speech to the NAACP (though I haven't seen his comments to the National Press Club). It just goes to show how backwards our national discourse has become. When somebody takes on a media narrative on a level that a 5th grader might not understand, it is seen as a blunder.


Bob Herbert says that Rev. Wright was intentionally trying to hurt Obama. Having watched his speech, I thought it was pretty clear that he was trying to help Obama. His goal was to present himself to the country as a reasonable person, so he would not be seen as a caricature from a YouTube clip. I felt he accomplished that. Now, clearly, Wright is a very passionate person, and I didn't agree with everything he said, but he is not some radical hate-monger.


Rev. Wright had every right to be angry about the treatment he has received from the media. Given 30 years of sermons from any preacher in the country, you could probably come away with a handful of 15-second sound bytes that sound bad. And that is especially true of a black preacher because their speaking style is so thoroughly foreign to most of the population. So, I am sad to see that Obama is going to throw him under the bus. Politically, I understand the decision, but it makes me sad nonetheless. If our media was willing to cover a complicated and controversial issue with honesty and integrity, Obama wouldn't be in this position. But we don't, and there is virtually nothing Obama can do to prevent the media from framing Wright's words as anything but radical Black Panther hate speech.


Ugh!! We have got to fix the media in this country.


Update: Now even my Dad disagrees with me. I didn't see Wright's comments the following day in Washington. Did he set something on fire?


Update #2: I might add that I do not currently have a functioning television at home, so my views here are based on my viewing of Wright's speech, unclouded and unperverted by the flatulence that undoubtably followed from the Chris Matthewses and Wolf Blitzers of the world.


Look: the political timing of the speech was undoubtedly poor. We're knee deep in the "silly season" of politics where everything is blown out of proportion already, so long, passionate, thought-provoking speeches are probably sensory overload. And Hillary will do everything in her power to exploit it to the nth degree. But that doesn't mean it was a bad speech. It just means Hillary is a whore. (politically speaking)


Update #3: It seems that the fuss was indeed caused by the appearance at the National Press Club. I will watch that and make a new blog post if I feel it is necessary.


Update #4: Couple Wright quotes from the National Press Club meeting:

"I said to Barack Obama last year, 'If you get elected, November the 5th, I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people.' All right? It's about policy, not the American people."
"You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic, divisive principles."

OK, so it seems I spoke too soon. I certainly am not on board with those statements. If he had just given his speech and stopped, it would have been fine.


Update #5: I've been reading through some of Obama's comments today. Obviously, if I had known that Wright had been saying that he thought the U.S. government was intentionally spreading AIDS or that Farrakhan was a great voice in the 20th century, I wouldn't have made the preceding post. I don't understand how that's the same guy who gave the speech in Detroit... oh, well

Monday, April 28, 2008

More Propaganda

The Pentagon was shocked -- shocked! -- to learn that its relationship with ex-military officers, turned Pentagon lobbyists could be viewed as improper.

Reverend Wright

Update 4/30/08: I still like this speech, and there really isn't anything horribly offensive in it. There are a few things in there that raised my eyebrows, such as the assertion that black children all learn differently than whites do, but, on the whole, I thought it was an interesting and entertaining speech. However, several of his comments the day after this speech in Washington were obviously ridiculous. I still think that most commentators that are blasting Rev. Wright now probably were only exposed to sound bytes of the worst parts of his comments in Washington. Really, the vast, vast majority of what he says is good. What's bad is his timing and the 5-10% of what he says that is just bat sh*t crazy. I still recommend watching this speech. There is much more nuance to this issue than has been portrayed.


I saw a clip of Rev. Wright's speech to the NAACP on CNN.com earlier, and I went to track down the whole speech. After watching CNN's clip, they clearly tried to take the most incendiary segments to prop up their Rev. Wright story against Obama. But, listen to the speech -- the whole speech -- for yourself. I thought it was a hell of a good speech. (it's about 45 minutes long -- oh, and the Fox News commentator's reaction to the introduction is priceless)


Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Mavs Rip Fans' Hearts Out (again)

The date was June 13, 2006 in Miami, Florida. The Dallas Mavericks were up 2 games to none against the Miami Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals, looking to close out a relatively easy win in Game 3. The fourth quarter was about half finished, and the Mavs were nursing a sizable lead they had held for virtually the entire game. Neither game 1 nor 2 had been competitive, and the Mavs were toying with their prey in Game 3. At the time, the Mavericks had beaten the Heat six straight times, dating back to the 2004-2005 season and most of those wins had been blow-outs, too. Dallas mayor Laura Miller was busy back at home planning the parade route.


But then something funny happened: the Mavericks suddenly lost the ability to play competently in the playoffs. The floor dropped out from under them, and, to this date, nearly 2 years later, they haven't recovered. The same team that had beaten the two powerhouses of the Western Conference (Phoenix and San Antonio) suddenly couldn't beat anybody in the playoffs. The Heat went onto win Game 3. And then 4, 5, and 6 as well. Instead of a parade in downtown Dallas, Dwayne Wade started his own parade starring himself. To the free throw line.


At the time, I cursed Bennett Salvatore, the referee who called a bogus foul on Wade from half-way across the court at the end of Game 5 (which I attended). But, now I realize the team that I had been rooting for had already left the building. With 7 minutes remaining in Game 3, they checked out and never returned.


The following year, the Mavericks mounted a very impressive mirage during the regular season. They won a staggering 67 games, despite losing the first 4 in a row. Dirk Nowitzki was named MVP, and the city of Dallas was yet again primed for a run at the title. The playoff seeding favored Dallas in a very big way: unlike the previous year, they would only have to beat one of their rivals because Phoenix and San Antonio were on course to face each other in the second round. But the instant the ball dropped and the playoffs began, the strange, lifeless team that lost to Miami the previous year reemerged. Our first-round opponent Golden State had barely even made the playoffs and, after they had dispatched the zombie-Mavs, were hardly challenging to the Utah Jazz in the second round. But, for some inexplicable reason, the Mavericks were unable even to mount token resistance.


Fast forward to today. The Mavericks didn't bother with another 67-win mirage this year. Instead, they half-heartedly sleepwalked through the regular season, promising this time they would finally revert to the fine form they had displayed in the opening rounds of the 2006 playoffs. We Mavericks' fans turned on our televisions to cheer on our 7th-seeded team, hoping beyond hope that the real Mavericks would finally come back to us.


But if the first four games of this current series against the New Orleans Hornets -- a team that we had beaten 21 consecutive times coming into this year; and a team that hadn't won at Dallas since 1998 -- are any indication, the magical run through the 2006 playoffs is all the Mavs are going to give us. With Devin Harris traded away, Jason Kidd getting older by the second, and two first-round draft picks lost to the New Jersey Nets, the window on the Mavs' championship aspirations appears to have shut and sealed itself. Our chances to see Dirk Nowitzki hold the Larry O'Brien trophy over his head are becoming maddeningly slim.


It is truly painful to remember back to June 13, 2006 when that seemed inevitable. I much prefer the Rangers' style of losing. They show their colors early and often, so we fans know to not get our hopes up.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Rangers Hit Rock Bottom (again)

Well, your Texas Rangers hit a new low yesterday. Facing Kenny Rogers who is finally starting to show his age, the Rangers pelted out 5 runs through the second inning. And then the wheels fell off:

  • Luis Mendoza apparently was hiding a shoulder injury which cropped up in the second inning, preventing his breaking pitches from breaking. The Tigers took advantage and quickly erased the 5-run lead in the bottom of the 2nd.

  • Frank Francisco, who had been lights out in AAA, relieved Mendoza and looked less than sharp, giving up two runs in 2 1/3 innings

  • In the top of the 4th, the Rangers loaded the bases with one out. Josh Hamilton -- one of the few bright spots on the team -- walked to score a run, but then Milton Bradley grounded into a double play. The Rangers must be on pace to set a record for men left on base...

  • Jamie Wright entered the game with a 0.82 ERA. 1 1/3 innings later, he had a 4.38 ERA.

  • Wes Littleton followed. Entering the game, his ERA was 2.35. Afterwards, it was 8.64. Wright and Littleton were the masterminds behind the Tigers' 11-run 6th inning.

  • Joaquin Benoit came in and continued his season-long search for the strike zone. So far this season, Benoit is apt to either strike out the side on 10 pitches or walk the first 5 batters he faces.

  • CJ Wilson was the last Ranger pitcher and the only one to not allow a run.

Total damage: 19 runs on only 14 hits. The Rangers also issued 10 walks. 10!! Amazingly, they only committed one error, down from their season norm of 12 or whatever it is.


The Rangers are playing some seriously ugly baseball. This is bad even for a rebuilding team. At some point, somebody's got to get fired for this.


A side note: I'm much too lazy to look at my blog's template today, but, I have to say, the flower-looking bullet points really need to go. Not sure what Blogger was thinking with those...

Monday, April 21, 2008

Straight Talk Express

A conversation between George Stephanopoulos and John McCain:

GS - A lot of Senator Obama's allies and others say that you should condemn the comments of Reverend John Hagee, an evangelical pastor...


JM - Oh, I do. And I did. I said that any comments that he made about the Catholic Church I strongly condemn.


GS - Yet you solicited and accepted his endorsement.


JM - Yes, indeed I did.


GS - So, was it a mistake to solicit and accept his endorsement?


JM - Oh, probably. Sure.


GS - So you no longer want his endorsement?


JM - I'm glad to have his endorsement. I condemn remarks that are...that are..uh...that are any way viewed as anti-anything.

Hagee, incidentally, has referred to the Roman Catholic Church as "the Great Whore" and accused them of having "a Godless theology" and that it spawns a "theology of hate."


Additionally, Hagee claims that the Qur'an contains a "mandate to kill Christians and Jews." He said that Hurricane Katrina was God punishing New Orleans for "a level of sin that was offensive to God". More from Wikipedia:

Another reason for God's wrath [against New Orleans], Hagee claims, was the Bush administration's pressure on Israel to abandon settlements and the associated land. Therefore, God took American land in a "tit for tat" exchange.

Additionally, Hagee received $1.25 million in 2001 alone for his position as CEO of the non-profit corporation Global Evangelism Television. Hagee later argued: "I deserve every dime I'm getting."


Right... enough of that. Let's attack Obama some more for not wearing a flag pin.



"Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews." - Rev. John Hagee, 2007

Microsoft and OOXML

According to this Slashdot article, Microsoft Office 2007 fails badly to meet the official OOXML specification. So, after bullying their way into making OOXML the ISO standard, Microsoft's real strategy is now surfacing.


Microsoft's nefarious, strong-arm tactics in getting OOXML passed through ISO showed the company was very determined to defeat the competing ODF format. Why would Microsoft care so much about an ISO standard? They're already the de facto standard. Well, it turns out that Microsoft Office 2007, which purports to be using the OOXML file format, completely fails to conform to the official ISO specification. ZDNet ran Office 2007 through a series of tests and found 122,000 instances where it failed to conform to the standard.


So now we're about to enter an era where there is an official standard called OOXML, while the de facto standard remains Microsoft's proprietary format. Only this time, they've dressed up their proprietary format with the aura of being a public standard. Microsoft is betting that nobody will notice the difference. (or at least that nobody important notices)


It sure would be nice if our government would step in an actually regulate the Microsoft monopoly. The abuse of monopolistic advantages has become their central business strategy.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Propaganda

The New York Times has a very important article up for tomorrow's paper that confirms in detail what has long been suspected. This administration has been behind a well-organized, pervasive propaganda machine with the goal of brainwashing the American people to fall in lockstep behind their policies.


The Bush administration has already been caught paying journalists, and planting fake news stories on TV. And now, the Times has uncovered a far-reaching scheme involving retired military officers. Many of these military officials, after leaving the army, became lobbyists for defense contractors and other industries that bid for Pentagon contracts. As lobbyists, they told their clients that they could use their military connections to help them get an inner track towards lucrative defense contracts. Clearly, maintaining good favor with the Pentagon was essential to their livelihood.


Taking advantage of this situation, the Pentagon recruited many of these ex-military lobbyists to be "talking heads" on TV. They would get to meet personally with Donald Rumsfeld and other high-level Pentagon officials, -- which was good for business -- and the Pentagon would issue them pro-administration talking points. The next day, they would disperse and appear on CNN, Fox, NBC, etc..., presented to the public as objective ex-military officers, and parrot the administration's line. The public was rarely, if ever, informed of the fact that most of them were also simultaneously working as Pentagon lobbyists.


If any of them were ever caught criticizing the administration, their access to the Pentagon would be cut off. The Times uncovered emails showing that many of them privately had serious misgivings about the administration's story, but, as soon as the cameras turned on, they turned into loyal puppets.


These tactics are frighteningly reminiscent of those employed by the Nazis in their rise to power in Germany. I hope the media will resist the temptation to brush this under the rug. Obviously, they will be severely tempted, given that it speaks very poorly to their credibility. Maybe Clinton and Obama will start bringing it up in their stump speeches... That might force the spotlight on it a little.


Update: I'm excited. Kelly linked to my blog, so someone may actually read it now. :) Seriously, though, I highly recommend reading the whole New York Times article. It is quite long, I know, but the details are really damning.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Basketball

You know... from 2004-2005, there were 3 point guards taken within the top-5 picks:

  • Devin Harris

  • Deron Williams

  • Chris Paul



Nothing against Devin Harris, but, damn, sure would have been nice to have one of those other two.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Journalism

David Brooks today:
The journalist’s job is to make politicians uncomfortable...

I suppose the next debate will feature the candidates in a room at 110 degrees fahrenheit while being poked with sharp sticks.


Seriously, though, yesterday's debate was truly awful.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Rangers

The truly painful thing about the Rangers is that they take their mediocre to average talent and still manage to underperform.

The Rangers hitters have an OPS (on base percentage + slugging percentage) of .735 --right at the AL average. But, with runners in scoring position, they've managed a pathetic .644, which is second-worst ahead only of the Yankees.

And then there's the fielding. They lead the AL in errors with 14. So, over all, they have an average to slightly above average offense that suddenly goes stone cold with runners in scoring position. And they are routinely flubbing playable balls. The Rangers lead the world in unearned runs (well, except for the Phillies).

The pitching has actually been decent. Jennings has been awful, but Millwood, Padilla, and Gabbard have been good. And the bullpen (except for Kazuo "careful how you say it!" Fukumori) has been decent -- especially by Rangers standards. Maybe we need to hire a psychologist for the position players.

This recent stretch of 5 straight losses feels so much like last season where the team seemed to invent a new way to lose every day. One day, the hitters, and the relievers would be good, but the starter would suddenly have his worst game in 10 years. And the next day, the starter would go 7 strong innings, only to have the offense get totally shut down by a below average pitcher. I can't count the number of times I've heard Eric Nadel say, "Well, this guy has really struggled this year, but he really seems to be throwing well today." The Rangers consistently bring the best out of their opponents. I understand the team is rebuilding (as always), but at some point, they need to lay a solid foundation. Our talented minor leaguers shouldn't look up a the big league club and see a circus.

I keep hearing that the Rangers are pressing -- that they're trying too hard. Since the players are evidently not capable of getting out of this funk by themselves, the manager needs to do something. I think Ron Washington is trying. He called a team meeting the other day. But, if this keeps on for much longer, you gotta start wondering if he's in over his head. The Rangers need one hell of a good manager to exorcise all of their demons... I'm beginning to seriously doubt Ron Washington is up to the task.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Fast

IBM has released a new Power6 processor that they claim is the fastest in the world.  The Power6, like the IBM processors that run the XBox 360, require water cooling. IBM Chief Technology Officer, Bernard Meyerson comments:

...the faster chips run, the hotter they get, and IBM has created water-cooling systems akin to the radiators in cars to keep its processors from overheating. Not doing so, Meyerson quipped, "results in setting fire to the user, which is bad."

I think IBM has Meyerson in the wrong job. Move that guy over to the marketing department. I can see their new slogan: "IBM Processors: So fast, they can self-combust and set your pants on fire before you can get out of your chair!"

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Yahoo! Sports!


I guess both teams were just really cold in the first quarter.

Let's see how long it takes Yahoo! to catch this one.

Update:10 days later, and it's still there. :)

Glenn Beck

It's not every day that I see something on the internets that makes my head spin, but today, on CNN.com, Glenn Beck (!) of all people wrote an article that didn't completely offend my senses.


Now, this is not Pulitzer Prize material (nor remotely close) but he actually comes across as reasonable. And that's saying something, because Glenn Beck is completely insane.


Anyway, I felt the need to put this up here since I harped on him a few weeks ago. When a conservative talk radio (turned tv) host says something like this, I'll at least tip my hat:

If you want to teach our kids about Vietnam, that's fine, but you better also teach them about World War II. And if you want to talk about our wars, you better also talk about our welfare. America is one of the most charitable countries in the history of the world, yet our mistakes are always glorified far more than our generosity. That needs to be reversed.