My thoughts on politics, foreign policy, sports, America, and anything else I come up with.

 
I haven't had much to say, and what little I have has been on Facebook. I got this blog started when I got into political blogs in the early 2000s, and modeled the look of it from Kevin Drum's blog at the now defunct Calpundit.

The blogs I read most regularly are:

Talking Points Memo (Josh Marshall)
The Washington Monthly: Politcal Animal (Steve Benen)
Mother Jones: Kevin Drum
NY Times: Five Thirthy-Eight (Nate Silver)
Washington Post: Ezra Klein
Calculated Risk (Bill McBride)

That's all for now. Drop me a comment if anyone is out there.

Posted by Brian Adams at 19:12 | Permalink | |

 
Nothing new to add, other than Ohio to the states I've visitied map, back in November 2008.


visited 26 states (52%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Posted by Brian Adams at 13:03 | Permalink | |

 
Update to Where I've Been Map

Since I last showed such a map, I have added only one state. But it is a big one at that, Texas. I found it's true that everything is bigger in Texas. They do like building huge, extremely tall interchanges. Those Texas turnarounds are something interesting.

Generally, I found it a bit confusing driving, especially when there is no law making it illegal to park against traffic. I know if I turn onto a narrow residential street and cars line each side facing the right way or wrong way in equal portions, that I have no idea if I am on a one-way street, and if so, in which direction. Otherwise, Austin was nice, a really fun wedding.



Create your own visited states map

Posted by Brian Adams at 16:27 | Permalink | |

 
"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together."


Posted by Brian Adams at 20:05 | Permalink | |

 
FOUR Inauguration Day Protests - Show your dissent on Thursday, January 20, 2005!


Protest #1 - BUY NOTHING

http://www.notonedamndime.com/boycott/

NOT ONE DAMN DIME DAY

"Since our leaders don't have the moral courage to speak out against the war in Iraq, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money, and don't use your credit card. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Nor toll/cab/bus or train ride money exchanges. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Walmart, KMart and Target. Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).

For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down. The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way. Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan -- a way to come home.

There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed.

For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.

Please share this as an email with as many people as possible, and please express your opinion at http://www.blogger.com/app/www.NotOneDamnDime.com."

Protest #2 - FLY U.S. FLAG UPSIDE DOWN

Flying the flag upside down is not showing a lack of respect. It is a time-honored tradition of signaling a state of distress -- either aboard a ship, a fort under siege, or a nation under attack. Our nation is currently under political and social attack by the right wing of the Republican party and the religious right. It is under attack by those in government for whom the rule of law means nothing.

I have the utmost respect for our flag, but I have an even deeper respect for, and love of, our Constitution. Dissent and protest are very American and patriotic acts. The upside down flag is a perfect symbol of the distress that this country is in. What is un-American is the subversion of our Constitution, the erosion of our civil rights, and our young dying in an illegal war against the wrong enemy.

Fly your American flag upside down on Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, and urge others to do the same!

Protest #3 - WEAR BLACK ARMBAND

http://www.blackarmbandsforjustice.com/

Inauguration Day, 20 January 2005, shall be a National Day of Mourning.

On Inauguration Day, wear a black armband, call it a Black Armband For Justice. If anybody asks you about your armband, politely say the following:

"I wear this black armband as a statement that the awarding of another four years in the White House to George W. Bush is a national tragedy. Four more years means increased militarism abroad. Four more years means that here at home we'll see further attacks against working people, women, minorities, reproductive rights, the environment, our civil rights, our Constitutional rights, our standard of living and the most fundamental aspects of our democracy."

Contact everyone you know. Urge them to wear a Black Armband For Justice. Urge them to contact everyone they know.

Protest #4 - CAR HORN AT 11:00 AM CST

I've watched these inaugurations since 1985, and one thing they do well is keep things right on time. The President is to be sworn in at exactly 12:00 PM EST (11:00 AM CST, 9:00 AM PST). They hit this thing right to the second almost. Here is a site to synchronize your watch with the exact correct time:

http://www.time.gov/

Regardless, once you are in your car, you can listen to the Inauguration Day ceremonies on any number of stations (National Public Radio, near 90 MHz on the FM dial; most AM talk stations).

Ideally find yourself an upscale neighborhood or a known Republican area to cruise through, maybe with a convoy of your friends. Or do it wherever you and you car are located. At the beginning of Bush's swearing in, start laying on the horn, and don't let up until the swearing in is done, or keep it going for a little longer. Keep the horn steady, or go on/off/on/off if you like.

Imagine all those diehard Bush supporters sitting on the edge of their seats, watching their Dear Leader start his second term -- only to be interrupted by some obnoxious drive-by protest in the street outside. This is about bringing the protest to peoples' homes.

I don't know how effective this little brainchild of mine will be, especially getting it out this late. But it just might directly piss off the most Bush supporters of any of the protests, and maybe that's why I like it so much.

Please forward this idea on to as many people as possible, and urge them to do the same!

Posted by Brian Adams at 08:38 | Permalink | |

 
Project Censored 2005 - The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2003-2004

Go right to Project Censored 2005 for links to the Top 25 stories. I found this item from Media Girl by way of MyDD.com. The story that should biggest in our future planning is changing from an oil economy to a renewable resource economy. Oh wait, gay marriage has to be outlawed by a Constitutional Amendment. Silly me and my mixed-up priorities.


Here are the Top 25 Censored Stories:

#1: Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy

#2: Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Holds Corporations Accountable

#3: Bush Administration Censors Science

#4: High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops and Civilians

#5: The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources

#6: The Sale of Electoral Politics

#7: Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments

#8: Cheney's Energy Task Force and The Energy Policy

#9: Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. government for 9/11

#10: New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits

#11: The Media Can Legally Lie

#12: The Destabilization of Haiti

#13: Schwarzenegger Met with Enron's Ken Lay Years Before the California Recall

#14: New Bill Threatens Intellectual Freedom in Area Studies

#15: U.S. Develops Lethal New Viruses

#16: Law Enforcement Agencies Spy on Innocent Citizens

#17: U.S. Government Represses Labor Unions in Iraq in Quest for Business Privatization

#18: Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies

#19: Global Food Cartel Fast Becoming the World's Supermarket

#20: Extreme Weather Prompts New Warning from UN

#21: Forcing a World Market for GMOs

#22: Censoring Iraq

#23: Brazil Holds Back in FTAA Talks, But Provides Little Comfort for the Poor of South America

#24: Reinstating the Draft

#25: Wal-Mart Brings Inequality and Low Prices to the World

Posted by Brian Adams at 22:40 | Permalink | |

 
Cool Looking Mars Image



The JPL description: "Right Panoramic Camera Non-linearized Full frame EDR acquired on Sol 288 of Opportunity's mission to Meridiani Planum at approximately 12:36:18 Mars local solar time, camera commanded to use Filter 1 (436 nm). NASA/JPL/Cornell"


Posted by Brian Adams at 21:26 | Permalink | |

 
I Don't Feel Like Writing, So Here's Where I've Been

I found a little page on a friend's LiveJournal, where you can make a map of states you've visited. Kinda cool. I've covered the literal "Red States" pretty well, more so than the "Blue States."



Create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.


Posted by Brian Adams at 23:22 | Permalink | |

 
"Let America Be America Again"
by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It was never America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There never has been equality for me,
Nor freedom in the "homeland of the free.")

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In that Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every birck and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let, America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America was never America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack of ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!


Posted by Brian Adams at 03:31 | Permalink | |

 
President Bush Distracted by Pretty Ladies, Shiny Things at Debate

How many of you out there did a double take on something President George W. Bush said during Friday night's debate? Well, if you were paying close attention, you probably did that several times. Here the best Bush quote from the second presidential debate.

Senator John Kerry had just finished answering the question about promising to not raise the tax burden on the middle class.

GIBSON: Mr. President, 90 seconds.

BUSH: He's just not credible when he talks about being fiscally conservative. He's just not credible. If you look at his record in the Senate, he voted to break the caps -- the spending caps -- over 200 times.

And here he says he's going to be a fiscal conservative, all of a sudden. It's just not credible. You cannot believe it.

And of course he's going to raise your taxes. You see, he's proposed $2.2 trillion of new spending. And you say: Well, how are you going to pay for it? He says, well, he's going to raise the taxes on the rich -- that's what he said -- the top two brackets. That raises, he says $800 billion; we say $600 billion.

We've got battling green eye shades.

Somewhere in between those numbers -- and so there's a difference, what he's promised and what he can raise.

Now, either he's going to break all these wonderful promises he's told you about or he's going to raise taxes. And I suspect, given his record, he's going to raise taxes.

Is my time up yet?

GIBSON: No, you can keep going.

(LAUGHTER)

BUSH: Good. You looked at me like my clock was up.

Yes Mr. President, your clock is up. But that's not the point in question. I was just dumbfounded when I saw Bush look at a couple ladies in the left side of the crowd, and in the middle of answering a debate question, he commented on the similar eye shades of these two women in the crowd.

WTF?! Is the President that easily distracted? How can anyone who has a brain with as much damage from cocaine use as George W. Bush be president?

Idiots: I like him, he's not much smarter than me. I can relate to him. (drool)

But don't you people expect more from a president? I hate ignorance, but I despise ignorance by choice. Damn, this country is full of morons!

Posted by Brian Adams at 04:24 | Permalink | |