Dennis Kucinich on PBS

Watch this. And understand why this is the only person I could possibly vote for in the primaries.



[Alternative YouTube Link]

Amen.

HP Misconstrues Technology Misquote

Intel Co-Founder, Gordon Moore, stated that the number of transistors you can inexpensively place on an integrated circuit will double about every two years. This is known as Moore's Law. This relates to processing speed, memory capacity, and computer hardware of that nature.

Unfortunately, Moore's Law is often misquoted as doubling every 18 months.

And sometimes that 18 months rule is linked to something that is completely unrelated to the original prediction. And you get an HP ad:



Along with saying the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle explains that the observer affects the nature of what is being observed, Moore's Law misquotes are up there on my list of pet peeves. Pop culture rapes again.

Betavoltaic Shmetavoltaic: Suckas!

A laptop battery that will last 30 years? The story itself lives on the blood of common sense.

Two days ago, I caught a BoingBoing Gadget post about the Betavoltaic Battery. The story originates from NextEnergy News and says:

Your next laptop could have a continuous power battery that lasts for 30 years without a single recharge thanks to work being funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. The breakthrough betavoltaic power cells are constructed from semiconductors and use radioisotopes as the energy source. As the radioactive material decays it emits beta particles that transform into electric power capable of fueling an electrical device like a laptop for years.

Amazing? You bet. BoingBoing's admonition? Horseshit!

My thoughts exactly.

As Joel Johnson noted, if the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory was seriously working on something this commercially viable, something we'd see on store shelves in 2 to 3 years, they'd probably have it on the front page of their website. A deeper search reveals the term "betavoltaic" appears nowhere on their site.

At this point, horseshit is close, but it gets soupier and nastier than that. A brief search of betavoltaic reveals how deep the poop chute goes. A shady company called Betavoltaic Industries, American Antigravity touting the technology, and a handful of other "free energy" sites. A couple voices of reason ring out: Eric Krieg and Shawn Bishop illuminate the junk science, misunderstandings, and purely theoretical basis of the technology. Crunch Gear calls it a classic pump and dump scheme.

[Side note: what good is a laptop battery that lasts 5-6 times as long as the usefulness of the laptop? When was the last time you could switch out a battery from one laptop to another, newer version? Manufacturers consolidating and standardizing, perhaps? Have you ever tried to charge your phone, maybe home for the holidays, where there are seven or eight different chargers and not one fits? Exactly like that.]

Why am I putting such effort into something so obviously untrue? Because the good people at SciFi Tech should know better. It's only a matter of time before it makes Headline News. The retraction will be aired once at 5am. And then that asshat at work who's always wrong about everything will nonchalantly sneer at you charging your cellphone and say "you know, in two years, you'll never have to do that again. The Air Force is makin' a 30 year battery." And then you can donkey punch him. Verbally, figuratively, of course.

Giuliani Choses Money Over Honor

On September 27th, PBS held a debate at the historically Black Morgan State University in Baltimore. Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson decided to wave it off, apparently because the Republican record in regards to the African American community is so damned shiny that it can withstand not only lack of concern, but four slices of snub. Seriously. This is an upswing with minority voters; the Univision GOP debate was canceled due to lack of candidate interest.

And hacks like Hannity attack Democrats for not doing enough to earn the minority vote. Showing up would be a start.

Then there is the sting of the reality of what exactly a "schedule conflict" means. Here's dirty Giuliani's version:



[Alternate YouTube Link]

Notes on the Dartmouth Democratic Debate

On September 25th, MSNBC held a Democratic debate. I know I'm running a few days (ahem, a week) late on this one, but there's something refreshing about going through the notes again, living it again, remembering the nuance so that it doesn't just fade away - although the next one is coming up in less than 3 weeks. This is pretty much blow-by-blow-by-subject, so feel free to skim for the juicy bits or skip to the end for main commentary. Let me know if I left anything (or anyone) out.

Remember, these are my notes and sometimes relate to my impressions of the response and not necessarily the content therein.

General Petraeus

• Obama: Sometimes all I can hear are the "uh"s. He's getting better, but if he's going to be a serious contender in the next couple months, he's got to straighten that out.


• Clinton: Well spoken.


• Edwards: "all of our combat troops" does not include everyone, does it?


• Richardson: Get 'em out! Yay!


• Dodd: We have the "power of the purse," so why aren't we using it?


• Biden: Mr. Biden, this is way different than Bosnia.


• Kucinich: 2007? "ready to be president today." Bad bobble. Nice catch.


• Gravel: Did he just say "scruff of the neck"? Did he just say "Fantasyland"? You have me caught between "Hell yeah!" and "what the hell?"


• (Side: Kucinich: You're just splitting up Iraq.) Exactly.

Iran & Israel

• Clinton: This is where Tim Russert gets pwned. She will answer the way she wants and there ain't no man strong enough to shut her down. Who's running this shindig? Chris Matthews talks later about Hillary's Leash. See Tim for its location.


• (Side: Kucinich: I'll answer it!) If they asked him the same amount of questions, this would be funny.


• Obama: Bluh bla blah blorg - no answer


• Edwards: [Ah-mahn-EE-di-jad] "cannot be trusted." Perhaps he needs Bush's pronunciation guides.


• Richardson: Likewise, but [Ah-mah-DEE-ni-jad]

Sanctuary Cities

• Richardson: He's Hispanic like Giuliani's 9/11: Part of them, but not campaigning on it, but always talking about it.


• Biden: Bush is the most uninformed person in foreign policy. Poignant and accusatory. Excellent. Smile. Don't have a laugh.


• Dodd: The president is wrong. Good job. Biden did one better.


• Kucinich: We are misdirected.


• Obama: Bluh bla blah blorg - no answer


• Clinton: Bluh bla blah blorg - no answer


• Gravel: Did you just say we're failing in spending our treasure? Aarrgh, matey!

Hillary, Mistakes, & Sideshoots

• Dodd: Something about Mission Accomplished.


• Hillary: (health care) "with a different plan," "what Americans want." No, Kucinich has what Americans want: not-for-profit health care.


• Biden: It's hard for Hillary. That's cute. I'm sure she appreciates it.


• Edwards: You'll lose your health care. What was he talking about? I was sipping wine.


• Obama: "Take on special interests and win!" Except for the insurance industry. They apparently have his nuts in a box somewhere near Zanesville, OH.


• Gravel: Did you just say we should stick the bill to the credit card companies?


• Kucinich: Good job getting the record straight on Cleveland; not all good, but a lot of good.


• Richardson: He's right in between Obama and Clinton: if they had a baby, it wouldn't be a mulatto, but a Hispanic! Actually, it makes sense.

Same Sex Education

• Edwards: "Nobody made me God," education's okay, but not the practice.


• Obama: Has he? No: "My wife has." And the American public will hone in on what you are "feeding them." A little New World Order speak a little too early.


• Clinton: We need to Bluh bla blah blorg - no answer

Social Security and Medicare

• Biden: Raise the 99K cap


• Clinton: Did you just say "dissing"? No, Tim, you shut the hell up.


• Obama: Lift the cap.


• Dodd: We need pensions, financial literacy. Right on.


• Richard: Fiscal discipline.


• Edwards: Blah, difference, middle class, blah, 97K - 200K shield. Huh?


• Kucinich: Wall Street privatization, lower retirement age to 65.


• Dodd: Let's bring people together.


• Clinton: We're doing that.

National Smoking Ban (note: Pat Buchanan is a douchebag)

• Clinton: Local level.


• Obama: Local level.


• Kucinich: I've been breathing in a lot of second-hand smoke.

Drop Legal Drinking Age

• Biden: No, drinking's bad, blah blah MAD


• Dodd: Alcoholism! Bad! Smoking!


• Richardson: We need to look at rehabilitation and research.


• Gravel: If they can die for our country, they can have a drink, damnit. Amen to reason.


• Kucinich: A-OK: we need to trust in America's youth. Okay, so we have two people supporting the troops. Anyone else?

Lightning Round

• (Side on "Now to the lightning round" Gravel: "We never got to the real round.") True dat.


• Obama: [turn the page] divisive politics, blah, bloorrgghhhhkkhh.


• Clinton: [Bush/Clinton Dynasty] Stand her own ground, blah, blah.


• Biden: [MoveOn.org Charge] Yes.


• Kucinich: [Gas above $3.00/gal] Hell no. Choosing a president who wants to effect change "or have a president who's tall." Brilliant.


• Gravel: [Gas] Get 'em off gas, oh, it's your 30.


• Dodd: [Temp ban on China] Hell yeah!


• Obama: [Jena 6] I was in Iraq, made a statement...wait. Is this 'cause I'm black?


• Richardson: [Boy Scouts Gay Ban] Accept that? No.


• Obama: [Back to Iraq] Who the hell's ranting?

Nuclear Power

• Edwards: No nuclear power.


• Obama: Nuclear power is okay.


• Kucinich: We have better ways - solar and wind.


• Gravel: Wind!


• Clinton: Against nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain.

Torture?

• Obama: No torture.


• Biden: Torture was possibly responsible for our faulty Iraq info.


• Clinton: No torture. (but Bill?) "He's not standing here right now." Nice.


• Dodd: It's a dreadful way to collect information.


• Richardson: Having to deal with terrorists "doesn't mean we become like terrorists."


• Clinton on Hsu (blah), Obama, donor building, Edwards was poor when he was a kid stop talking about his haircut. Not worth 3 separate points.

Fav Bible Quote?

• Obama: Sermon on the mount.


• Clinton: Golden rule.


• Gravel: That thing about love.


• Kucinich: St. Francis, instrument of peace


• Edwards: What you do the least...


• Richardson: Sermon on the mount. (Obama: Stop copying me!)


• Dodd: Good Samaritan


• Biden: Warning of the Pharisees

Red Sox or Yankees

• Obama: Sox are the wrong color. Something veiled there...


• Kucinich: Indians! Yay!

First summary note - never again
I will never do this again. I thought an answer-by-answer shot of the debate would have some merit, some posterity. I was wrong. Only 20% of the debate was noteworthy and therefore 20% of the above scratch is noteworthy. I believe an overview of my personal thoughts on the main points with some quotes is more enjoyable for me (it won't take me a week to trod through it) and more enjoyable for you to read. An experiment gone bad. A lesson learned.

Bill Tossing Confusion
For that thin slice of the population tuning in for the cavalcade of debates scheduled in order to get a better feel for the candidates, many probably don't have a full comprehension of the voting history of the candidates, specifically as it relates to voting for the war, voting to fund the war, etc. And to get the reference to H.R. 1400 (further sanctions on Iran, condemn any presence in Iraq, controversial because it did not include language forbidding the president from invading Iran without Congress's expressed approval), which was voted on (and passed) the day of the debate, you've got to be relatively well-steeped in politics. Should the topic be avoided? No. But Tim Russert should've done a better job clarifying.

I really don't have anything else. The questions were distributed on a scale related to how much money the candidate had raised for their campaign. It's like a student council election: you get the distinct feeling that some of them want it because they know they can get it and some want it to pad their resume. The one or two kids who actually want to change things for the better don't have the Prom Queen points, so they get ignored.

Sorry, a little disillusioned about the election today.

Kucinich Looks Like a Million Bucks

From the good folks at the Kucinich campaign:

We reached our goal of $300,000 for the month and our goal of $1,000,000 for the quarter.

Our numbers keep going up. Contributions have increased every quarter. This means more people are becoming aware of Strength through Peace and how these policies can improve their lives and our country.

Some of the other candidates, those with the absence of Dennis Kucinich's passion, raised more, but people are starting to peel off the numbing throng to look around and say "Hey, what's going on over there? Everyone's getting heard. I can smell change and - ooh! Corn dogs!" Or something like that.

He made it to $1,000,000. And I helped!

John McCain Are Ig'nant

Let's backtrack to Saturday with a little John McCain, as I'm falling behind on the blogging as of late (I've still got to get last week's Dem notes up, sheesh!) I know, get on the stick.

While he did later qualify his political gaffe with "I would vote for a Muslim if he or she was the candidate best able to lead the country and to defend our political values," he clearly stated that "...I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith" and that Christianity is "an important part of our qualifications to lead."

I see Obama catch flack for spending a couple years of his childhood in a Muslim country and Romney being singled out as Mormon; I understand that if a Muslim were to run for president, he'd probably be assassinated by the Religious Right, but that doesn't mean a Muslim is automatically disqualified solely by religion. And anyone who would say such is illuminating their ignorance of America, like saying it's acceptable to give up rights to preserve America when without those rights we lose the core and heart of what makes us America.

Can I get some good sense?

"That kind of attitude goes against the American tradition of religious pluralism and inclusion," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Thank you. At least someone remembers what we're supposed to be about.

But the real gem? Read it and weep:

"I admire the Islam. There's a lot of good principles in it,...."

I spent one year teaching 10th and 12th grade English. This level of linguistic acumen is representative of some of the worst case scenarios in writing and/or speech.

At least he's not running for president. Oh, shit. Wait.

Six Nuns Excommunicated

From CNN.com:

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Six Catholic nuns have been excommunicated for heresy after refusing to give up membership in a Canadian sect whose founder claims to be possessed by the Virgin Mary, the Diocese of Little Rock announced.

The Rev. J. Gaston Hebert, the diocese administrator, said he notified the nuns of the decision Tuesday night after they refused to recant the teachings of the Community of the Lady of All Nations, also known as the Army of Mary.

Let's play What's Crazier:

1. The Catholic Church is still using excommunication (i.e., God said "I'm not gonna be your friend anymore.")
2. There's a cult leader who claims to be possessed by the Virgin Mary.
3. Nuns from Arkansas believe the Canadian crackpot.
4. There is any group anywhere that goes by the name "Army of Mary."

Personally, I'd like to see the Army of Mary, the Kiss Army, the Salvation Army, and Dick Armey have at it with a fierce couple rounds of Hungry Hungry Hippos. And then the cat o' nine tails comes out. Absolute madness.

The Democratic Debate: Global Warming?

I was just outside, at the end of September, at night, smoking a cigarette without a shirt on (yeah, I'm all kinds of hot) and I was wondering why I was able to be outside at the end of September, without a shirt, smoking a cigarette.

Why did the debate I just watched not touch on the issue of global warming?

I know a hot day (or days, or weeks) does not define an issue. But, hell. Why not?

(Three pages of) notes tomorrow, but the real issues weren't necessarily hit, and some of the ones that were (today's congressional vote) weren't explained to those that aren't politiphiliacs.

Certain note: Tim Russert was pwned by Hillary. When does he get the ball gag?

Goodnight.

[PREH - zuh - dent] at the UN

From USA Today's On Deadline:

Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson reports. The draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.

Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic spellings are used to help interpreters. Asked if the president has trouble pronouncing some country's names, Perino deemed it "an offensive question."
...
Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy says he has a copy of the speech that got the White House so worked up this morning. Here are some of the phonetic guides it included, according to the magazine's blog:

• Kyrgyzstan [KEYR-geez-stan]
• Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a]
• Harare [hah-RAR-ray]
• Mugabe [moo-GAH-bee]
• Sarkozy [sar-KO-zee]
• Caracas [kah-RAH-kus]

Hahaha. Brilliant. Classic "Bush is not a smart man" fodder. And while funny, relatively "meh." So why am I writing about it? The article also offers up the link to the UN speech that it was replaced with:



My question is whether President Bush needs the "PRESIDENT BUSH:" in front of his speech to remind him not to read the top part or to remind him who he is.

Glenn Beck + Mahmoud Ahmadinejad = 4 Evar

Glenn Beck's show yesterday placed a spotlight on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speaking at Columbia.

At two different times, the font read "Iran Rhetoric" and "Propaganda Play."

Do you think Glenn Beck realizes that in blowing up the visit he is spouting the Bush administration's own rhetoric against Iran, that in calling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a propaganda hound that he is playing the Bush administration's propaganda meat whistle against Iran (and, really, towards war with them)?

Ah, my dear, sweet irony: not such the fickle mistress as the whore.

Kucinich Shut Out: AARP Debate

I didn't watch the AARP Democratic Debate on Health Care; I was most likely enjoying a cocktail and a reggae band.

However, I was appalled to find out that my man, Dennis Kucinich, was not included in the debate. More from Dennis:

On September 21st, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) sponsored a Presidential forum in Iowa focused on health care reform. I was conveniently left out of the debate. Why? Because I am the only candidate in this race proposing a national not-for-profit, single-payer health insurance plan. My plan would eliminate the obscene profit of 4.4 billion dollars AARP alone stands to gain over the next 7 years at the expense of the senior citizens they claim to represent.

AARP's strategic partnership with healthcare giants United Health Care and Aetna are embraced by Senators Clinton, Obama, and former Senator Edwards who are pushing plans to keep the for-profit private insurers in business and in control of your life!

This is an outrage and you should be outraged!

Hells yeah!

You can contact AARP on the AARP Issues Contact Page or You can "Share Your Story" about health care on the Divided We Fail page (I did both):

Here's a story: AARP held a presidential debate on health care reform but did not invite the only candidate that supports a not-for-profit system, Dennis Kucinich. AARP chose their partnerships with health care insurance providers over dissenting opinion, chose money over the well being of the American people, and denied the only voice that would truly help retired persons across the board. AARP states they "are committed to helping the most vulnerable members of society maintain or improve their quality of life." This is blatantly untrue. Health insurance companies have already divided you. And you have failed.

We're on the morning of the next debate, but it's never too late to let the powers that be know we're a little pissed.

Beckett for Babies