Kristopher Jones

Jay Inslee from WA's 1st Congressional District

It's great, especially in the times we live in, to know that the United States Congressman who represents you... actually represents you.  I get several emails a day asking me to call to email my congressman on various issues, but Jay Inslee is consistently on the same side of those issues that I am.  Occasionally I'll send him an email on something of particular importance to me and in his response I find that he's already fighting my fight for me.  THAT'S what representational government is supposed to be about.  Here's a bit of an email I got from him today...

I wanted to share with you my recent comments from the floor of the House in opposition to HR 6304, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) legislation.  I believe that our civil liberties are undermined with the unfortunate passage of this legislation.  I assure you, in my mind the only thing this bill succeeds in compromising is our constitutional freedoms and I know of no justification for this blanket disregard of the law and the public trust. 

“Have we forgotten what our ancestors have done in the cause of liberty?  Don’t we realize there are some lines we can never cross?  Don’t we realize we should never legitimize illegal violations of America’s privacy rights, which this bill does?  This bill says if the telecommunication companies violated America’s privacy willfully, knowingly, knowing it was illegal, we are giving them immunity.  Where is the excuse for that?  Where is the excuse for turning a nation of laws into a nation that will be led by a President who knows how to manipulate our fears?  We have got to know the law is our ultimate guardian of liberty, and those on this side have accused us of having a pre-9/11 mentality. Let me remind them that July 4, 1776, was pre-9/11.  And heaven help us the day that those values are shucked aside at the service of fear.”

I want to say a few more words on the power of fear.  It’s a theme that has prevailed under the Bush Administration.  President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once used this word to inspire hope in the face of darkness, brotherhood in the face of personal uncertainty.  In contrast, this administration has used this word as a means to inspire hatred and mislead the American people.   Fear may have brought us here.  Let it be hope that lifts us out.  You can continue to count on me to demand accountability from this administration.

FISA Immunity

Hunter nails it again

"This petty, stinking issue of granting retroactive immunity to companies that violated the law, such that they need not even say how they violated the law, or when they violated the law, or how often, or against who, and the whole thing started before 9/11 so it is clear that terrorism wasn't even a prime factor for doing it -- that whole mess is now absolved, no lawsuits, no discovery, no evidence allowed to be presented?

No, that one is indefensible."

It's not a bug, it's a feature!

First of all, I want to apologize for not posting much recently.  It seems that I'm one of the lucky ones who has gotten to test drive Typepad's new compose editor interface.  Although it's "not a beta test" it sure feels like it.  I'm less than impressed and have opened several support tickets with Typepad expressing my... feedback.  I had hoped that this would be resolved sooner than later, but as regular readers can tell we passed sooner a while ago.  Again, I apologize.

There's been so much recently that I want to weigh in on... both in the news and in real life.  Hopefully, the powers-that-be at Typepad will restore the intuitive tools that made getting up and running this blog easy.  I look forward to worrying more about what I want to say rather than how I have to navigate the site and manipulate my text in order to present it to you in a meaningful way.

The funniest line of the political season...

From Atrios:

"The aesthetics of McCain's speech, just mercifully completed before a slightly energized crowd of literally dozens, was awesome in how dreadful it was."

Kool-Aid Anyone?

HRC has officially drunk too much of her own kool-aid.  She will not exit gracefully as today so clearly demonstrates.  I've said for months that the super delegates can and should end this.  They must now, clearly and emphatically. 

Turn out the lights... the party's over.

After seven-plus years of Bozo the Clown and his cast of a thousand cronies, and an interminable primary against a candidate who casts herself as a victim if you don't share her sense of entitlement, can we PLEASE, FINALLY be done with all the bat-shit crazy people trying to run this country?

The You've Got Nothing To Hide Act of 2008

A brilliant piece from Hunter at Daily Kos.

I have a bargain to strike. I would like to announce that we, the slovenly and ignorant public, would be willing to drop our unreasonable outrage over corporations in this nation being given blanket retroactive immunity for violating both federal law and our own personal privacy... for a price of our own. A quid pro quo, if you will -- and certainly, I expect you are well familiar with such arrangements. We simply want a little payback, in order to make sure that you in Congress are asked to live according to the same rules as the rest of us.

Here is my proposal. We, the public, should be allowed to spy on you, and all those you come in contact with, with similar promises of amnesty.

For each member of Congress, I propose we set up a collective internet site. This site will allow interested members of the public to, in realtime, monitor your every activity to assure ourselves that none of you are committing illegal or terrorist-enabling acts at any given moment of the day.

The You've Got Nothing To Hide Act of 2008

Central Washington Wildcat Pride!

I'm a sucker for stories like this. 

Fair warning, it's likely to get a little 'dusty' where you are reading this.  Or, maybe it's the springtime pollen.

Rupert Murdoch's Shredding of WSJ Begins

Marcus Brauchli, Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal, will submit his letter of resignation as early as tomorrow.

"Sources say that Brauchli tried to find a middle path between the paper's traditionalists and Murdoch's new vision for the paper."

Time Business News, April 21

Rupert Murdoch's millions bought the venerable masthead, but all his money can't buy the credibility that is the stock in trade of any news organization... not that Fox News and News Corp concern themselves with such quaint, old-fashioned notions.  Now the media mogul of breathless hype and distorted messages gets to play puppeteer for doe-eyed audiences in and out of the financial sector.

Americans have to wake up and stop accepting spoon-fed news and opinion as holy gospel.  These are not saints and prophets, they're hucksters and opportunists (and I say that as a nearly 30-year member of the profession).  Until the majority of Americans take upon themselves the full responsibility for vetting this information they so eagerly lap up, most will continue to buy the snake oil these con men are selling... or the stocks and bonds as the case may be.

Hillary Harakiri?

I'm no Presidential campaign manager, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I don't think it's such a good idea to insult the most enthusiastic portion of the political party you hope to represent.

She's done.  This thing is over.

Celeste Fremon at Huffington Post

ABC "Debate"

Glenn Greenwald has been my favorite media commentator for some time now.  He, in my opinion, nails ABC's horrendous performance last night and provides a bigger-picture view (as he always does) of the media's role, the reality and the reaction.

The money quote:

My favorite (unintentionally revealing) media commentary about the debate is from The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut and Dan Balz, who devoted paragraph after paragraph to describing the substance-free "issues" that consumed most of the debate -- Obama's "remarks about small-town values, questions about his patriotism and the incendiary sermons of his former pastor . . . gaffes, missteps and past statements" -- and, at the end of the article, they added:

The debate also touched on Iraq, Iran, the Middle East, taxes, the economy, guns and affirmative action.

It's just not possible to express the wretched state of our establishment press better than that sentence does.

Glenn Greenwald at Solon.com