Open Thread

Posted by BooMan | Mar 4, 2006 | 62 |

What’s going on?

About The Author

BooMan

Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.

62 Comments

Street Kid on March 4, 2006 at 3:54 pm

Just sent a resume out. Not expecting to hear a thing.
- XicanoPwr on March 4, 2006 at 6:30 pm
  
  Did the same thing and I have come up with the same conclusion. And they say the job market is strong.
  - Street Kid on March 4, 2006 at 8:37 pm
    
    Gives the personnel department something to do!
    - Denim Blue on March 5, 2006 at 12:10 am
      
      Michigan’s job market is in the old fashioned two-holer. I sent out resume after resume when my job was sent to China. I was willing to take anything that wouldn’t require me to stand on my feet all day (arthritis in the knees makes that difficult). Two interviews out of over 100 resumes. I finally just gave up and waited it out until early Social Security kicked in. Now I’m officially retired.
      - Street Kid on March 5, 2006 at 12:26 am
        
        I just saw one and thought, why not? You’re right about the job market, and, as I said, I don’t expect a thing of out this one. Especially since it is for a small newspaper and I don’t have a journalism degree–heard that one repeatedly since I got my BA!
      - meagert on March 5, 2006 at 12:28 am
        
        i know quite a few small town reporters…none with degrees
      - Street Kid on March 5, 2006 at 12:36 am
        
        Believe it or not, I have heard that one from a few small town papers!
        
        Got my revenge on the last small town paper that told me that one though. The paper actually ran a story w/the headline “Sex Offenders Break Law”. (This was in reference to legislation that requires a convicted sex offender to notify the state when he/she moves.) Anyway, the notification wasn’t happenning.
        
        So, I mailed the front page of the paper to Jay Leno’s “Headlines” and they ran it!
maryb2004 on March 4, 2006 at 3:55 pm

We’re having a birthday party for Cali Scribe in the cafe — everybody come on over

and if you see cali, tell her to show up before we drink all the punch
Renee in Ohio on March 4, 2006 at 4:00 pm

Son’s aide wasn’t able to come for him today, so the kids are screaming at each other, pretty much constantly. Demetrius ran out to get a couple more things for the soup he’s making. I’ve been trying to put tags on the stuff we have at Cafe Press, so that we might have a chance of actually selling some of the stuff–i.e. so that when people search for “anti-bush”, our stuff will show up in the search.

And I just put up a silly thread over at Howard-Empowered, asking for captions for some goofy Bush pictures.
Nanette on March 4, 2006 at 4:06 pm

anti broken margins mode, is it possible to fix the front page, BooMan? I think the problem is in the Lang story, but I don’t know what the issue is.. probably a table or something.

Anyway, it might be only on my screen but there is a pretty big right side scrolling issue, very irritating.

Thanks.
Arminius on March 4, 2006 at 4:32 pm

Well, last Wednesday the Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles called on all priests and laity to actively disobey U.S. federal law. To the best of my knowledge that’s the most prominent call to civil disobedience in U.S. history. I have a recommended diary here at the moement highlighting a great editorial on the subject from yesterday’s New York Times.

I’ve been looking and looking for four days now, and aside from the little diary here, as far as I can tell this has attracted exactly ZERO attention in the left blogosphere. I’m really amazed how that could be.

I guess there are just too many issues and scandals and outrages.

This issue is of extra importance to me personally, not only because I’m individually facing possible felony charges, but also because it’s the first issue in years where my wingnut father and I see eye to eye. The rightwingers and nazi Minutemen types are all lined up attacking the church. It’s the first time in five years I’ve seen any possible opening at all in my father’s solid shell of rightwinger opinion.
- Renee in Ohio on March 4, 2006 at 4:43 pm
  
  If you can dumb it down for me, I’ll do my part in spreading the word.
  
  As I just posted upthread, my son has an aide–although we have to fight to keep that, as well as any other assistance he is now getting.
  
  Yours is one of the many diaries that I saw the headline and thought, “Oh, I really need to look into that”, but then never did.
  
  There are too many balls in the air right now (juggling act) so I really do need the situation, “in a nutshell”.
  - Arminius on March 4, 2006 at 5:26 pm
    
    Nutshell: Last December the House of Representatives passed an “immigration reform” bill that will make it a FELONY for any person to “assist” a person who is not in valid immigration status. That includes thousands of people who entered legally and have done everything possible to comply with the law and are technically out of status due to government errors and delays. The law would make it a felony for church groups, lawyers, and private citizens to help anybody who is out of status.
    
    The U.S. Senate just started debate on the bill. It is considered to be quite likely that it will become law.
    
    The Catholic Archbiship of Los Angeles just called on all Catholics, priests and lay people alike, to devote every day of Lent to opposing this legislation, and he called on them to actively obey the law if it is enacted.
    - XicanoPwr on March 4, 2006 at 6:36 pm
      
      I heard that it is very broad. If you even talk to any undocumented person, you can get busted. I know it is harsh, but that is the same thing about the Patriot Act when our gov is requesting people to turn other people in.
    - Renee in Ohio on March 4, 2006 at 7:32 pm
      
      Thanks–I’ve included this in my most recent post at Howard-Empowered, and will make sure I post something at my Religious Left Blog when I get a chance.
    - Arminius on March 4, 2006 at 8:42 pm
      
      Stupid typos!!! Of course in the nutshell post above I meant to say that Cardinal Mahoney called on all Catholics (and he means all good persons) actively NOT to obey the law if passed.
- DuctapeFatwa on March 4, 2006 at 4:43 pm
  
  cannot be said to have called for the violation of a federal law, since such law does not exist.
  
  Now if the bill were to pass, which I don’t think it will for reasons outlined in my previous post, but if it did, and the clerics repeated the call, then they might be prudent to lawyer up.
  
  And while I would not wish to discourage them, or anyone else, for calling for civil disobedience right now this minute pertinent to the numerous violations of every international law, convention, the law of common decency and the most universal and basic, rudimentary moral laws imaginable, I would be dishonest if I did not say I would be surprised, should the bill by some chance pass, to see the clerics modify the call to one for an extensive campaign of writing letters to politicians.
  - Arminius on March 4, 2006 at 5:32 pm
    
    Thanks very much for commenting. I usually agree with you, but I disagree with every point in this particular post.
    
    Yes, I know, the law hasn’t passed yet, but I’ve been predicting since last fall that it will pass, and I suspect you’ll see I’m right. Whether or not it does pass, I think I was correct in saying that a Catholic Archbishop has called for massive civil disobedience of a federal law, although I see your quibble.
    
    Why do you think it will not pass? Are you aware that Specter’s version in the Senate is even more draconian than the House version? Among other things, it calls for COMPLETE abolishment of ANY kind of appeal for ALL people put into deportation proceedings. My diary has a link at the bottom to an immigration lawyer’s article that includes some details on that from a law professor at Georgetown University.
    
    If it does pass, will clerics backslide and just sheepishly urge a letter writing campaign? Some will, no doubt, but not the major Catholic cardinals.
    
    I predict this is going to be a really big issue over the next five years or more.
    
    The fascist Minutmen types are claiming that the church is making this stand just to make money by drawing more people toward the church. Lovely, those guys.
    - DuctapeFatwa on March 4, 2006 at 5:46 pm
      
      This is good to see, though I see no need to wait for this particularly necrotic piece of Hitlerian garbage to pass before initiating massive acts of civil disobedience.
      
      There have been reasons more than ample for such acts for some time.
      
      As for Mr. Sensenbrenner’s “bill,” while I have no doubt that it will be hailed and praised with letters of commendation wrapped around generous checks from his devotees, and win him many new and ardent admirers and contributors, it will be unlikely to pass because while it offers a bounteous feast of delectable hatred into which the spoons of the voting class can dig in with hearty appetite, there is really nothing much in it for the corporations.
      
      In a sad little scrap of irony, it will be greed, the single greatest cause of all suffering on earth, that will save its intended victims – who are for the most part already victims of that greed.
      
      nerdified link
    - Duke1676 on March 4, 2006 at 9:30 pm
      
      Those provisions of HR4437 that restrict aid and services to undocumented immigrants have also been placed in Arlen Specter’s “compromise” bill that’s in the Judiciary Committee now. So even if 4437 is stopped, many of it’s more draconian proposals look like they will make it into any final Senate bill.
      
      (PS: Arminius was wondering if you could e-mail my off-line at the address in my profile… I have a question.
      Thanks,
      Duke)
      - Arminius on March 5, 2006 at 12:51 am
        
        Hi. I did email you about an hour ago. I’m quite interested to speak with you. If you don’t get my email, please ask again in a comment to my diary from today on HR 4437.
      - Duke1676 on March 5, 2006 at 2:51 am
        
        sorry, got home late, had to work. Check your box, just sent it out.
- ddjango on March 4, 2006 at 5:21 pm
  
  Thank you!
  
  I saw an article/blog post(?) recently that said something about the “resurgence of the Christian Left”. I’ve been looking for other evidence of the same, for a substantive post at my main blog P!. You’ve helped.
supersoling on March 4, 2006 at 4:38 pm

I’m trying to rehab my old Gateway computer to put in the girl’s room but not having much luck. Missing startup files make it impossible to open 80 percent of the programs. Plus the original win 98 cd is scratched so I can’t even reload wins.

Computer-1
Super-0
- Family Man on March 4, 2006 at 4:43 pm
  
  Super my old one crash before Xmas. I’ve been working on it and I know how you feel. AARRRGGGGG.
- maryb2004 on March 4, 2006 at 4:44 pm
  
  have a cupcake
  - supersoling on March 4, 2006 at 4:53 pm
    
    Your a sweetheart true.
    
    Thank you :o)
  - ddjango on March 4, 2006 at 5:23 pm
    
    dubble chocklit w/sprinkles, pleeze . . . Y U M.
- meagert on March 4, 2006 at 6:16 pm
  
  another linux nut, cause I’m not…just getting into it
  download ubuntu, or kubuntu (no difference except for gui), or mepis(mp3, etc ready) burn it to a disk. and install on the ol’ gateway…
  
  99% sure, you’ll have a working computer in 15 minutes, with games, internet access, office compatible software, and more, FREE!….
  
  nothing to lose, because it’s broke already…let me know how it works for you
  - supersoling on March 4, 2006 at 6:26 pm
    
    Thanks…
    but burn it from where exactly?
    - meagert on March 4, 2006 at 6:29 pm
      
      Pcs, cause you were giving the gateway to your girl…go next door, and borrow your neighbors for a few minutes?
      - meagert on March 4, 2006 at 6:31 pm
        
        ubuntu
      - supersoling on March 4, 2006 at 7:24 pm
        
        Who are you?
        
        Johnny Ubuntu Seed? ;o)
        
        Thanks Meagert, I’m downlosding now and will burn a dvd.
        I’ll let you know how I made out with it.
        Thanks a million…well, 3/4 of a million :o)
      - Street Kid on March 4, 2006 at 9:44 pm
        
        One of these days, I’ll check into that. Thanks.
      - meagert on March 4, 2006 at 9:50 pm
        
        here
      - Street Kid on March 4, 2006 at 10:03 pm
        
        Thanks!!! I read that one and didn’t hotlist it!! Really needed to see it again. Have been getting more and more interested in computers than I ever thought that I would.
      - meagert on March 4, 2006 at 10:16 pm
        
        I know, You Rec’d it. That was mostly for the other common taters.
        
        I was sick of computers for a long time. I’m on a sabbatical from them, probably not going back. After 15 years as lead tech, system analyst, lan services 24/7, i just had had enough. Now I just play when I want. Linux put a little joy back in…a new challenge.
      - Street Kid on March 4, 2006 at 10:30 pm
        
        You had some good links in that–it is hotlisted now! Thanks again!
      - blueneck on March 4, 2006 at 11:50 pm
        
        Try twenty years. I burned out, too, hence “mirrored drives” (haha). After eight or nine OS’es (Windoze counts as one) a half-dozen network protocols and thirty-something programming languages, I’ve taken about a three year breather now.
        
        The only stuff I’m learning these days is linux, web design, and digital image manipulation. I have loved linux because it is a “real” OS for us CLI geeks, and now I also love it because it has a reliable install and GUI, making it suitable for recommending to friends.
      - meagert on March 5, 2006 at 12:20 am
      - blueneck on March 5, 2006 at 1:19 pm
- blueneck on March 4, 2006 at 7:02 pm
  
  yo, super, I agree with the downthread suggestion to convert to linux, but if you are not up for that, I have several old (and legal) win98 cd’s. I can send you one if you like. I can also burn you a cd with linux on it. If you want a cd, reply here and I will email you for more info about how to get it to you.
  - supersoling on March 4, 2006 at 7:22 pm
    
    Thanks,
    but I’m going to try Meagert’s suggestion first.
    I’ll keep your offer in mind.
    Big Thanks
    - meagert on March 4, 2006 at 7:29 pm
      
      that was a generous offer….(just in case).
      
      I fired up my tecra laptop with ubuntu, and am typing this now on it..
      
      Three weeks ago, I burned ubuntu, put the cd in the laptop, installed, plugged the network cable into my router (linksys, connected to dsl modem), and literally began surfing.
- boran2 on March 4, 2006 at 8:52 pm
  
  Supersoling, I have an old unopened Win 98 CD (HP) and I’m right here in Westchester if you need it.
  - supersoling on March 4, 2006 at 10:15 pm
    
    Thanks Boran2
    
    Can you email me your email?
    - meagert on March 4, 2006 at 10:21 pm
      
      it’s been longer than 15 minutes…Where’s our update?
      - supersoling on March 5, 2006 at 6:59 am
        
        Looks like the old Gateway has bigger problems than I thought.
        I downloaded and burned the Ubuntu program fine, but the Gateway won’t read it.
        Back to the drawing board.
        Thanks for your help.
      - meagert on March 5, 2006 at 9:06 am
        
        might be, the bios needs to be changed to have the cd be the first to be read, instead of the hd. go into the bios (usually something like f1, on boot. change the order of drives to lead the cd…reboot, and when it says push any key to boot from cd…do so..anyways…you have lots of 98 discs being offered…ain’t the internets a beautiful thing… good luck
      - supersoling on March 5, 2006 at 9:54 am
        
        It’s got a fatal exception that I can’t find the cause of let alone repair.
        Also can’t find original Gateway restoration disk.
        Kids……
        
        The best solution I see is to manually launch thru the window :o)
        
        btw, cd is already set as first boot option.
        
        Thanks for all your help.
      - meagert on March 5, 2006 at 10:10 am
        
        should have a “Launch” Party on his roof for all the computers that have been destroyed by ms…:o)
    - boran2 on March 4, 2006 at 11:06 pm
      
      Did it.
      - meagert on March 4, 2006 at 11:08 pm
        
        sol should be writing from his new pc by now!…lol
Denim Blue on March 4, 2006 at 4:43 pm

Rep. John Conyers is having some trouble over aides claiming that he used them for personal tasks such as babysitting. It isn’t the first time that there have been questions about his staffing, but given the corruption on the Repug side of things, one wonders if this isn’t in retaliation for his continuing coverage of things like the 2004 election in Ohio.
- ddjango on March 4, 2006 at 5:24 pm
  
  Man . . . do not tell me this! He’s wunna the few heroes I got left.
- Street Kid on March 4, 2006 at 9:21 pm
  
  We know a lot of repubs have done worse, but come on! Is this the best they could come up w/re: Conyers? Definitely sounds like retaliation to me! That tells me that he is really on to something…
kfred on March 4, 2006 at 5:42 pm

Picking our Pockets

Honest Government Services? Do they Exist?

Maybe they just need to be renamed: Department of Inferior and the ever friendly-to-big-business, the EPA – Environmental Prevarication Agency

Under the loving hand of a GOP controlled Congress, these government agencies have been very careful in their failure to enforce fines, collect fees, and to obscure their bookkeeping, all during the late 90’s thru today. It’s just taken this long for the people to find out.

(Yeah, I’m pimping…it’s that good!)
Ed J on March 4, 2006 at 9:50 pm

to open a criminal investigation into the death of Pat Tillman. This from the NYT:

The new inquiry into the killing of Corporal Tillman, who the Army initially said had died as a hero in a blaze of enemy fire before attributing his death in 2004 to an accidental shooting by fellow Rangers, will be conducted by the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

It follows three other military investigations — two by his Army Ranger unit and one by its parent organization, the United States Army Special Operations Command — that the inspector general’s office has now determined were deficient.

The new inquiry would be the first criminal investigation into Corporal Tillman’s death, a move that military law experts said was unusual and significant.

“It obviously could lead to one of three things,” said Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at the Washington College of Law at American University. “Was there a negligent homicide? Was there a dereliction of duty? Was there a cover-up?”
idredit on March 4, 2006 at 11:17 pm

Thinkprogress points us to “Mutiny in the ranks” reported in U.S. News & World Report (03.13.06 edition).

Senators Trent Lott and Lindsey Graham? Is that you? Oh my.

[..]

But something else is happening: Republicans are truly miffed at a White House that they consider too secretive, too arrogant, and too interested in extending its own power. When the president threatened to veto legislation to block a Dubai company from operating six American ports, that was too much–even for some conservatives. “I think the administration has looked at the legitimate power of the executive during a time of war and taken it to extremes,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told me. “[It’s] to the point that we’d lose constitutional balance. Under their theory, there would be almost no role for the Congress or the courts.” Mississippi’s Sen. Trent Lott put it more succinctly: “Don’t put your fist in my face.”

[..]
- wilderness wench on March 5, 2006 at 12:57 am
  
  Fine, good. I’m glad the enablers are feeling comfortable about voicing opposition; now let’s see them put some meat under it — if there’s anything left for them to do.
alohaleezy on March 4, 2006 at 11:34 pm

Just saw the unbelievalby goodmovie Crash. I highly recommend everyone to see the movie. It is out on DVD. I cannot stop thinking about it. The tale was woven so beautifully. I cannot say enough good things about this deeply disturbing, thought provoking film. It speaks volumes folks.
Street Kid on March 5, 2006 at 12:19 am

Now whose fault is it that Medicare D(isater) is a total fuck-up??? Your guess is as good as mine!

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