Fortuna Faveat... may fortune favor us

I was cleaning out an old folder on my hard drive the other day and found this piece that I wrote back on December 2, 2002, entitled “We, the People…” I don’t remember why I wrote it, but I thought it was interesting that six years to the day later, we are still fighting the exact same battles. Sure, we did elect Obama since I wrote this, but by and large, I still agree with my old self. Not sure if that is good or bad. You be the judge.

In the midst of the post-September 11 clamoring for justice, many Americans have readily accepted attacks on their civil liberties. A few individuals have addressed the aggressors, with John Ashcroft and John Poindexter drawing the bulk of the ire. The megalomaniacal fervor displayed by these two “patriots” is undeniable. However, there is little mention of a larger problem: we, the apathetic people.

The media repeatedly informs us that we are now a vigilant people. We are so vigilant that rather than demand genuine improvements in the security of our air travel, we Americans have allowed the development of futile safety standards and an increased visibility of security to satiate our need for actual security. Knitting needles, initially banned following September 11, are again in the cabins of airplanes. Likewise, scanning of checked luggage for explosives rarely occurs. Evidently, our vigilance only lasts until it is inconvenient.

Apathetic Americans are currently allowing national security concerns to trample our constitutional rights. Basic civics teaches us that the fourth amendment guarantees each American freedom from unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause. Ashcroft and Poindexter will gladly pilfer your fourth amendment rights from you in this time of terror, the former with the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act and the latter with his Total Information Awareness system.

An otherwise-intelligent American recently said to me, “I am not doing anything wrong, so why should I be afraid? Let Poindexter track my every move. Let Ashcroft try me in a secret court.” Skilled politicians easily manipulate those suffering from a myopic worldview. This is the most dangerous outlook to possess in times such as these and precisely that which we must combat if we are to preserve our freedoms. These are the attitudes that breed complacency. Complacency, once achieved within the masses, frees the authorities to alter reality. This includes dictating right and wrong.

It is critically important that we prevent Poindexter from assembling a dossier on every American by simply crying “Terrorism!” Most Americans, when informed, would not support this “experiment” with information gathering technology, budgeted for $200 million, enabling the gathering of every detail of the private and public life of every American without showing cause in open court. Likewise, there should be an outcry against Ashcroft’s prosecution of American citizens in secret tribunals. As Poindexter’s motto reads, “Scientia est Potentia,” knowledge is power. This power cannot lie in the hands of these men, while we sit accused of nothing. The apathy must stop here. It is imperative that Americans begin to engage in active citizenship.

In this tumultuous time, some are grasping for power that would be far out of reach in simpler times. Our new vigilance seemingly does not apply to protecting our inalienable rights as Americans. This unchecked ambition must not thrive. Adaptations are necessary in any time of war, but we must not sacrifice the fundamental freedoms that separate this nation from the rest of the world. It is the loss of those freedoms that will signal the victory of the terrorists.

Vice President Dick Cheney and former attorney General Alberto Gonzales were indicted on Tuesday by a grand jury in South Texas. The indictment cited “organized criminal activity” surrounding alleged abuse of inmates in private prisons and a “money trail” of Cheney’s ownership in prison-related enterprises. Cheney has an ownership stake in the Vanguard Group, which owns an interest in private prisons in south Texas. The indictment states that Cheney is “profiteering from depriving human beings of their liberty,” according to Reuters.

For his part, Gonzales allegedly chose to “stop the investigations as to the wrong doings” into assaults in county prisons.

I hope this is the first of many indictments for the crimes committed by the Bush administration over the last eight years. We lost our respect for the rule of law at the hands of Bill Clinton. We lost the reigns outright under Bush and Cheney. If Obama doesn’t make an example of Bush, Cheney and their cohorts, there is very little hope that the notion of justice will ever reign again over our amber waves of grain. Unfortunately, I think Obama and his team just aren’t going to be the new sheriff we need. It seems the best we can hope for is that they stay out of the way of justice.

Before reading on, take a moment and watch the clip above. The term in question here is “Uncle Tom”. Urban Dictionary has many user-submitted definitions that illustrate the incendiary nature of this term and the diverse viewpoints on its usage. According to Wikipedia, “Uncle Tom is a pejorative for a black person who is perceived by others as behaving in a subservient manner to White American authority figures, or as seeking ingratiation with them by way of unnecessary accommodation.”

Seeing that clip, one would think that Fox News is a bastion of decency (a well-documented falsehood) and Ralph Nader is a sad, out-of-touch racist. While his use of “Uncle Tom” is certainly impolitic, I don’t think it is racist. Shepherd Smith confronted him about his statement and gave him the chance to recant. Nader, being the crotchety old man of principle that he is, rightly refused because there was nothing inherently wrong with what he said. Take a look at exactly what Nader said.

But [Obama's] choice, basically, is whether he is going to be Uncle Sam for the people of this country, or Uncle Tom for the giant corporations.Ralph Nader
Consumer Advocate

By not recanting, Nader fell prey to a damning catch-22: forgo your principles to achieve your larger goal or ride out the media shit-storm of your own creation. As a man of principle, he loses either way. Nader is a political pariah for both wings of the corporate party. The Democrats hate him for “stealing the election” from Gore in 2000. Republicans hate him for his populist worldview. He has no port in this storm.

Every word I write in this space is chosen to convey my message and evoke a response from my audience. Words unquestionably have power and their ethereal power can certainly be wrought in the physical world. But relegating the utterance of certain words to certain groups of people is wrong. Language belongs to everyone. The mere utterance of a word should not convict the speaker of a crime against society as a whole or in part. By bricking up certain words as unusable, we only amplify the havoc they can wreak upon us.

Context is everything. Moreover, Nader’s point is essential for us to focus on. Unfortunately, his refusal to capitulate to the principals of language politics means his message is lost. I truly wish he would have forgone his rhythmic flourish and simply used the word “toady” from the start. Disagree? Let me know in the comments.

I didn’t get this up pre-election, but I think it is just as incisive in the rear-view mirror. As I said last night, Obama’s victory is a repudiation of stupid, a resounding blow against the anti-intellectual tenor of late. John Hodgman waxes on that point much more elegantly than I did and fleshes out my thought.

I am not a nerd. I am a geek. The former is a subset of the latter, but don’t be concerned if you don’t know the difference. You will learn it all when the reeducation begins.

Far more than red vs. blue, or “real America” vs. Massachusetts, geeks vs. jocks is the culture war that defines our times.

Palin’s winking attacks on intellect, science, and fruit flies represent pure jockdom: a suspicion of complexity and egg-headedness, a rejection of credentials and education in favor one’s own personal gut instinct, and the conviction that, in the last quarter, hard realities may be denied, and a come-from-behind victory may be magically conjured through inspiring cliches.

There is lots to be admired about jockdom: often the best decisions come from the gut; and some of history’s worst crimes have been founded on the impersonality of science and pseudoscience.

But I do not believe that people will reject Obama due to his geek signifiers: his gangly frame, goofball ears, and har-dee-har-har insistence that we must live in the world that EXISTS, not in the world we WISH existed (on the left or the right.)

Rather, I think after 8 years of jock-like bluster and “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” reality-denial, Obama’s pragmatism and technician’s calm seems extra attractive.

But even if Obama loses, and this may well happen, I believe jockdom, which was rightly the dominant mode of being American back when we used our hands and brawn to fight and farm and build things, is necessarily on the wane.

The world is now driven by knowledge economies. Certainly China and India and Dubai do not make “BIG BANG THEORY” sitcoms marginalizing THEIR geeks and engineers.

(Unless they actually do, in which case: awesome).John Hodgman
Raconteur, Blogger, “PC”

This is the dawning of a new era. Let’s make it is a good one!

Today, the citizens of the United States cast (and the broader world witnessed) a repudiation of stupidity and intolerance. Tonight, we heard a noble conciliatory speech from John McCain and rousing, sober oratory from President-Elect Obama. I’m left with only one word: Hope.

Damnit, Palin! I don’t want to post about you anymore, but this is too amusing. Check out Sarah Palin getting punk’d by some Québécois pranksters. Terrifyingly priceless!

Via BoingBoing

I started this blog to cast light where there is none. The msm has taken it upon themselves to pick her bones clean, so I don’t have to anymore. Lately, I got caught up in my disgust and outrage with Sarah Palin and her politics of obfuscation and stupidity. I lost track of my purpose. I’m sorry. I’ll try to do better, starting… Read more »

Let me make this clear from the beginning: I have nothing against convicted felons, per se. Some of my favorite people are convicted felons. I can also tell you that you inevitably know many people that actually are felons but never face any charges due to some horrible law and our ludicrous (in)justice system. Glad we got that out of the way. Now, back to the story at hand…

In light of Sarah Palin’s predilection to the phrase “palling around,” I think we should focus on who she likes to pal around with. She was one of three directors of Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc., a 527 organization that was tasked with raising unlimited corporate contributions for Mr. Stevens’ political aspirations. That’s right, that is the same Ted Stevens who was convicted on Monday of seven counts of making false statements, a felony corruption charge for violating the public trust and lying about hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts he received from the same “Big Oil” companies that Sarah Palin is so fond of claiming she stood up to in Alaska. Stevens could serve a max of five years per count, but isn’t expected to serve anywhere near that amount of time. Palin’s involvement with Stevens has been lightly reported in print and online news sources, but little has been said about it on TV news, save this:

Allow me to sum up Sarah Palin’s outside-the-beltway experience: She ran a political action group for the longest serving Republican Senator (Bingo! Ted Stevens!) and used some of the same contractors/political cronies to build her home (and the $12 million Wasilla Sports Complex) that Steven’s used in the crimes he was just convicted of committing. The only difference: the company that built her house (Spenard) also has ties to her husband Todd, the “shadow” Governor. Specifically, they sponsor his snow machine team. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and is convicted like a duck, it is probably a duck.

Those of you that are still laboring under the delusion that Sarah Palin is somehow “outside the beltway” or even “folksy” in any way. save accent, do yourself a favor and watch that segment above with Wayne Barrett and then read his reporting in The Village Voice.

Anyone that has flown since September 11, 2001 knows that the “security” measures implemented in response to the events of that day are at best a major hassle and at worst “security theater,” designed to give you the feeling of security since real security is unattainable. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg partnered with TSA critic and security expert Bruce Schneier, putting their freedom on the line to test the security (and stupidity) of our air travel security measures. What he found is at once shocking, obvious and disgusting. Here is an excerpt:

…because I have a fair amount of experience reporting on terrorists, and because terrorist groups produce large quantities of branded knickknacks, I’ve amassed an inspiring collection of al-Qaeda T-shirts, Islamic Jihad flags, Hezbollah videotapes, and inflatable Yasir Arafat dolls (really). All these things I’ve carried with me through airports across the country. I’ve also carried, at various times: pocketknives, matches from hotels in Beirut and Peshawar, dust masks, lengths of rope, cigarette lighters, nail clippers, eight-ounce tubes of toothpaste (in my front pocket), bottles of Fiji Water (which is foreign), and, of course, box cutters. I was selected for secondary screening four times—out of dozens of passages through security checkpoints—during this extended experiment. At one screening, I was relieved of a pair of nail clippers; during another, a can of shaving cream.Jeffrey Goldberg
The Atlantic

This hardly scratches the surface of this brilliant, brief (3 pages) article that should be required reading for all Americans. This is the kind of issue we need to seize upon, not Joe the Plumber. This is the kind of governmental waste that impacts each and every one of us that ever travels by air. Hell, the last time I flew the pilot didn’t even keep the cockpit door closed the entire time and that is one of the few measures that actually does make flying safer, according to Schneier.

I know the economy is king right now, but this is the kind of issue that the presidential contenders should be discussing. This is brass tacks. Join me in demanding answers.

I’ve written about Dave before. I’ve been a fan of his since the days of Toast on a Stick. My parents used to let me stay up late to watch him when I was in kindergarten. Perhaps that explains my warped sense of humor and poor sleeping habits, but I don’t regret it for a moment. I am truly proud after watching his show with John McCain tonight. He held McCain’s feet to the fire in a way that no mainstream journalist has ever done and certainly not since the presidential campaign began. With Keith Olberman looking on from the wings, Dave questioned his judgment in picking Sarah Palin and called him on the campaign bullshit on Bill Ayers and Palin’s hate mongering. Dave also sharply pointed out Palin’s total lack of qualification, but that isn’t in this video. I guess CBS thought it was too intense.

It is not hyperbolic to call Dave’s work tonight spectacular. It was unquestionably some of the best journalism I have seen in years. McCain faced tougher questioning than in any of the three debates this year and tougher than any interview of him I’ve seen.

McCain used to be an American hero. Tonight, there was only one hero on the screen.

Great job, Dave!